9 months!

My baby is 9 months! She is the cutest little baby (yes I'm biased.) she's also SOOO dang big it's kinda sad. She is already in 12 month clothes. One outfit is actually a bit snug on her. She's so much different than Bella clothes wise. Bella could wear one outfit all day long and it still wouldn't be very dirty. she also wore each size of clothes for a long time so she was able to really wear her clothes multiple times, but charlie is so messy she needs to change 2-3 times a day and some of her clothes she hasn't even worn because she grows out of everything so quickly. 

Anyway a little about her this last month. The only new and exciting thing is she is standing on her own! I get so excited when I see her stand up for a few seconds on her own. I can't believe it! The first time I saw her do it was at my sisters house and I shrieked with excitement! She stood there for about 7 seconds which I know isn't very long but I'm her mom and it's amazing to me! She walks (when she wants to) with her walker pretty well. She's so cute! And as cute as it is I feel like she's way to little to be standing or walking with a walker on her own...

Slow down sweet baby. 

 

 Here's another 9 month picture. I think these pictures have been my favorite with the pumpkins, the chalkboard and charlies little fall outfit. Today actually felt like fall. It was a bit chilly outside and it was so fun and cute bundling charlie and Bella on our way to and from the bus stop. 

Charlie usually rips hats off the second they are on her head so I'm surprise she kept this on the entire time. I think she liked being bundled up too. 

Paint and Sip, The Fall show, Pumpkin Carving and the Primary Program!

I had one of the best weekends! Friday was Blanca's birthday and we celebrated by going to paint and sip. It was something new and so much fun!

The finished product. It was fun to see how different everyone's turned out. I'm glad I was able to do this with my sisters and mom. I think it would be super fun as a date night too! 

Saturday came and I made French toast and bacon for breakfast. Everyone loved it and I loved having breakfast with my family. We got ready and went to the fall show in Boise. It was suppose to be crafts and help give you ideas on how to decorate your home but it was really just a bunch of vendors. I was kinda disappointed. I only saw two crafters. I say kinda disappointed because I did expect for it to be 50% vendors but it was still a fun family event. 

After we went home, carved/drilled pumpkins & cooked the seeds. They were alright. Doug loved drilling the pumpkin. He hates carving them because he gets impatient and he said that's his new job every year! 

Bella surprised me with how helpful she actually was at carving and how long she actually helped. Usually it's for 5 minutes and then she's done. She stayed the entire time!

Charlie loved it because we put her in the high chair and gave her baby snacks the entire time. You want to win my babies heart? Give her food. 

Our two pumpkins! I think they turned out pretty good. I'll admit they look better without the flash. 

 

After pumpkin carving we went to our stake's Harvest Fest. They had face painting, a punk in contest, food, dancing and a hay ride somewhere. We did it all besides the hay ride and it was actually a lot of fun! I didn't know a lot of people there and the people I did know had already seen my dance moves so when Bella wanted to dance we danced! It was so fun! 

They had the party outside,  it was pretty dark and Bella randomly asked us to run into the field and look at the stars and we were having such a good time I decided "why not?" We ran out there giggling and laid down on the grass and stared at the stars. Doug and charlie joined us and Bella said she saw a shooting star so she closed her eyes for a minute and then said she made a wish. Then she whispered in my ear that she had wished

She could be a princess, that she could eat cotton candy every day, that candy was healthy, and that she could get her drivers license without having to take lessons. It was so incredibly melt your heart precious! One of those moments you day dream about when your pregnant with your little baby. One of those moments that I will hold onto and treasure forever! In other words, yes I cried. 

Anyway we went back to the party and danced some more. It was SUCH a fun family day. 

Our weekend ended on Sunday which was also great! Our ward had its primary program and the kids are too cute! They asked our class what made their family special and Bella said "my mom and dad made a very cute baby, I love my baby sister." And she does. They ended it with my favorite hymn " I stand all amazed." And again I got teary eyed. 

I loved my weekend and I was sad it went by so quickly. They always seem to. 

My 1st Ipsy Bag review and October Favorites!

 Have you herd of ipsy? It's a $10 Monthly Beauty bag subscription. My friend Janae told me about it and the more I looked it up and YouTubed it the more I wanted in! I signed up and thought I'd try it out. There is a wait list but if you subscribe, follow, and like a couple things your off of it that same day.

So the bag for October (did I mention you get a new bag every month?) was a super cute teal bag. I love it! 

This month I got 

A Doll 10 beauty highlighter 

Figs & Rouge hand cream

Indie lee brightening cleanser

Skone cosmetics Tattooed waterproof eyeliner 

And Starlooks lip gloss. 

My favorite items were definitely the eyeliner and the highlighter. I was so excited to try both! It really is just so fun to get a little treat just for me. I feel like everything I do is surrounded by my family especially my girls which is great but it's nice to remember myself. I also asked my friend Megan, my mom and my sisters if they wanted to sign up and do it with me because duh the more the merrier and they did and they all loved their ipsy bag too!

 

I thought I'd also add some of my October favorites too since I'm being selfish and talking about myself so much ;) 

 

 

 The first and second go hand in hand. My Naked 2 Pallet that my wonderful husband got me for our anniversary and Too faced shadow insurance. Shocker the primer really truly makes a difference and my new eye shadow pallet is soooooooooo pretty! If I didn't have two girls I would play with it all day, and my eyes would probably be bright red lol.

 

 

#3 My mom and I went to Ulta together and they had a buy 2 get 1 polish free and we decided we needed to take advantage of this awesome deal! Out of the three these two are probably my ultimate favorite polish colors ever. Especially and surprisingly the real one "ski teal we drop." The other one is "in the cable carpool lane." 

 

#4 Too faced better than sex mascara. I've herd a lot of people rave about it and I decided I'd try it out for myself. It didn't disappoint people.

 

 

#5 An oldie but a goodie! I've had this lipstick for probably 2 years. I haven't been very brave with lippies ever. I feel self conscious when I wear them but recently I wore a bright and bold lipstick and Doug complimented me like 3 times and apparently that was all I needed. Now this Blissful berry is my favorite and I'm finally brave enough to wear it and enjoy it :)

 

 

#6 Always a favorite for this lady. January thru December. I have such thick hair that I hate blow-drying and taking the time to do it every day. a few sprays of this and you wont even know I didn't wash my hair that day...or the day before...or the day before that. seriously I go 3-4 days without washing my hair. Yes I still shower every day though.

 

#7 another anniversary gift and I am loving it! The Anastasia Brow wiz. Can I just say I have always always been skeptical about filling in my brows because I might be one too many swipes away from looking a little "lean like a chola" but this nifty tool made me brave enough to fill them in and my brows look great! they have shape now, my eyes look more awake and overall I just feel prettier.

 

#8 last but definitely not least the bath and body works pumpkin apple candle. I just discovered how amazing the bath and body works candles are and I am loving them! I love how one candle will make my entire home smell delicious. this particular scent is amazing on a cool brisk day reminding me that yes Christmas will be here soon!

I hope everyone enjoyed this post. its not a post I would normally write about but I'm feeling more like myself these days. I'm remembering that doing something, anything for myself is so refreshing! I'm lucky to have such a great husband who encourages me to take time to myself and treat myself when we can.

Also if you want to try the ipsy bag for a month or two (you can cancel whenever you want) I will post a link right HERE!

My sweet Bella.

I have been so proud of my sweet Bella the two weeks. Unfortunately  about 2 weeks ago two people I know lost their babies. One I'm close to and the other even though I'm not close to my heart broke for her. In those moments I wish I could fix the situation or do something, anything for them. There wasn't much physically I could do so I prayed for them all day long. At night Bella and I always pray together before bed and that night was no different except I told her we needed to pray for these 4 parents. She asked why and I told her that their babies passed away. Her face immediately became serious. She asked a few more questions, I answered some and then she prayed for all 4 parents. The amazing part is for the last two weeks without reminding her at all she has been praying for them by name. My little 5 year old amazes me sometimes. I don't think I have ever been so proud of her. At five years old she already has such a strong testimony of prayer.

We recently added my moms friend to our list. And tonight she asked if anyone else needed our prayers. So if you know anyone who needs an extra prayer let us know. We will gladly pray for them. It's the least we can do. 

It's great to be 8...months old!

I've been awful at keeping up with charlies monthly updates which bums me out because I know i forget all these first of hers!

But hopefully I won't procrastinate any more :)

Charlie is 8 months (and 2 weeks old) now. Her first tooth FINALLY broke thru yesterday! Her two bottom teeth have been coming and her gums have been swollen for a while but they took their sweet time actually breaking the skin. Charlie has been a champ though. It doesn't seem to faze her much. 

She is now fully crawling and had been for about a month and a half. She was a late roller but as soon as she started rolling she started rolling all over the house and then just full on crawling. For the past two weeks she's been mastering pulling her self up and walking along the furniture. I still can't believe how mobile she is! She loves opening and getting into anything she's not suppose to. Her nick name right now is "trouble." Infact we might change her name to charlie trouble maker Simpson. 

She also LOVES eating anything but baby food. She wants what we're eating and sometimes refuses baby food. And for about a week now is only drinking formula. I wanted to breastfeed for a year and around 7 months I started to get worn out. She was still waking up twice a night and I knew it was because she wanted to nurse for comfort not because she was hungry and being the selfish mom I am just wanted to sleep thru the night. It took her a while to get her to drink formula but once I did (and by i I mean my sister) she had no problem taking a bottle except at night which I expected. I slowly weaned her off her night time bottle and sure enough she decided waking up for a bottle wasn't worth it. So we are both now happy and well rested! 

Here are her monthly pictures. It's not as easy as it looks....

But in the end we end up with a decent picture :) 

My baby started kindergarten

I CANT believe Bella is in kindergarten. We had her meet the teacher day last Tuesday and her teacher is so nice. Bella really likes her. She learned where her chair at school was and where her cubby was. Then today came and she was so excited! I was too:) she said "I can't believe I get to wear my new outfit today!" We went back to school shopping 2 weeks ago and I made her wait to wear her new outfit. I wish she needed more clothes but Bella seriously has WAY too much so I couldn't justify buying her more than one outfit. 

Doug and I drove her to school and we were the second people to arrive. Bella was a little shy at first but I could tell how excited she was.

Watching her walk inside with her class was so sad for me. She waved at me and I just wanted to follow her so bad! I wanted to see what she was going to do that day. I wanted to watch her interact with her classmates, her teacher. In a weird way I was jealous of her teacher. My baby is growing up. 

When I picked up Bella from school I was so excited to hear about her day and I'm happy to say she LOVED it! She told me all day everything she did today. She told me they colored, they played, they spun, Her teacher read her books. I really am so happy gang she loved it. It really was such a relief to me. I would have been so sad to send her back everyday if she hated it but she is so ready for school!

Tomorrow Bella wants to ride the bus....wish us luck. I'm scared about that too and was perfectly happy taking her to school everyday but she wants to ride the bus dang it...

I made a cute little video of Bella's first day right here. I know I'll love watching it when she's older:)

 

 

The pick me up I've been praying for.

I'm not sure why but for the past few weeks, months I'm not sure anymore I have been in such a spiritual rut. It takes everything in me to get dressed and ready for church on Sunday. I have to remember to pray in the mornings, and reading my scriptures feels like such a burden. I don't like it. I keep going thru the motions but that's about it. If you know me, really know me you'd know I pray almost constantly. In my head it's like a never ending prayer keeping an open conversation with my Heavenly Father. So this last few weeks I've been praying and asking what can I do to get out of this? Today I got a little answer. 

http://youtu.be/2w49_1a9X0Q

I watched this video and my heart was full again. I'm human and this isn't my first spiritual rut but it's the first time it's lasted so long. Watching this mans testimony and story reminded of when I felt at my most darkness. How I felt with my first act of faith which was a simple prayer. I remember how I felt after. It's so comforting knowing that my answers are always a prayer away. 

"I realized it was part as our condition as mortals to sometimes feel as if we are surrounded by darkness. And even though we feel lost, that god promises go uliuminate the way before us. No matter how long it takes. 

Spiritual light rarely comes to those who merely sit in darkness waiting for someone to flip a switch. It takes an act of faith to open our eyes to the light of Christ."