Bathroom Renovation

On the 1st of July, we finally got around to one of the main remodeling projects we've had on our "to do" list since we moved into our house a year ago - completely renovating our main bathroom. I had all sorts of plans to take great before and after shots, but Nate got a little carried away in the demo process and started tearing things apart before I had a chance . Luckily, we did have one shot among some photos we took after we moved in, and here it is:

I have to point out the hideous wall of mirror tiles behind the tub and the not so attractive lighting and medicine cabinet. When we moved in, all of the walls and the ceiling were an extremely ugly peach color, so we painted everything white as a minor improvement until we could get around to the remodel. The sad thing this picture lacks is a view of the nasty vinyl floor tiles that had huge gaps where the sub floor was showing and they were chipping and peeling away in places.

Here are some after shots:

This was Nate's first tiling experience and he did a fabulous job on the tub surround and floor (with a little help from a couple of his coworkers). Notice the beautiful accent tiles in the tub surround. We did keep the original vanity but sanded it down and stained it a different color and replaced the vanity top and faucet. There's also a new mirror, lighting, towel bars, and toilet. The walls are now a light sage green color which we then accented again with the rugs on the floor.

We originally estimated we could do the remodel for around $1000, but the grand total ended up being closer to $1400 which is still cheap for a bathroom remodel. It's not super fancy or high end, but it's a major improvement from the eyesore that it was. The project is now complete except for a little accessorizing (something to hang on the wall over the toilet and on the opposite wall over the towel bar). The whole project took just over 2 weeks to complete since we lost a little steam at the end and it took a while to get around to finishing little things like caulking and paint touch ups. But we're done and very happy with the overall results!

Bikes and Beds

Obviously there hasn't been much to blog about in the last month since it's been about that long since I've posted anything. We just finished renovating our main bathroom and pictures of that are soon to come. In the meantime, this is just a taste of the crazy things Bridget likes to do.

A couple of weeks ago, Nate was home with Bridget and was busy doing something when he heard Bridget laughing hysterically in our bedroom. When he went to investigate, this is what he found:
Yes, she put her bike on top of our bed all by herself and was trying to ride it and obviously thought she was pretty clever for thinking of such an ingenious idea that she knew she probably shouldn't do but did anyway. Nate couldn't help but laugh (and take pictures for me to see when I got home). For the next several days she tried to do it again, but was unsuccessful. She seems to now understand that bikes do not go on beds and has given up trying.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

Today our little family and my sister Megan had the opportunity to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House in South Jordan. There certainly were a lot of people, but not nearly as many as what I was expecting. After watching a short video in a nearby tent, we headed inside for our walk through the temple. Bridget was pretty well behaved during the whole thing and loved looking at the many pictures of Jesus throughout the temple. Afterward we headed to another tent for water and cookies before leaving to get lunch at Paradise Bakery.

I always enjoy an opportunity to visit another temple because each is so beautful and reminds me of how fortunate we are to live close to so many. The only other open house I've been to was the Cardston, Alberta Temple after it was remodeled (I think I was around 10 at the time), and this was Nate's first open house. I also love the great opportunity they provide to teach children or those who would normally be unable to go inside a little bit about the purpose of temples.

Trying to get Bridget to look at the camera was nearly impossible because she was ready to run around by the time we were done.

Thanks, Megan, for coming with us!
I'm amazed Nate captured this great shot considering Bridget was ready to climb right into that fountain.

A Pool of Fun

Now that it finally feels like summer again, it was time to bust out the wading pool for Bridget. I finally got around to buying it at the end of May after we'd had some really nice weather, and then we didn't even get a chance to pull it out because the cold, rainy weather came and stayed for a while. Bridget loves to play in water of any kind, so she was in 7th heaven when she woke up from her nap yesterday and her pool was all ready to go.

Cabin Trip

This past weekend we had the opportunity to travel to West Yellowstone and visit with my family at our cabins and also have the added bonus of seeing Nate's parents now that they are in the process of moving there. It was a short trip and a little cold and wet, but we had a great time. This was Bridget's first trip there, and she especially loved it.

Saturday morning was sunny and just warm enough to play on the beach.

Jessica , Megan, and Lisa try to work on their tans while being eaten alive by the mosquitos.

Having lunch in town with Grandma and Grandpa. Going on a walk with Grandpa while waiting for our food.

3rd Anniversary and Il Divo

Today Nate and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. We didn't do anything super exciting to celebrate - just the usual go out to dinner and then we picked up a Marie Calendar's pie for dessert (it's hard to resist when it's their sale month). For dinner we went to Famous Dave's BBQ, and it was delicious as usual. Bridget shares my love for the cornbread muffins and kept asking for more muffin (although when she says it, it sounds more like button). We also watched our wedding DVD which I think I enjoyed more than Nate, but at least he indulged me and sat through it.Our gift to each other was splurging on concert tickets for the Il Divo concert we went to last Friday. I've loved the group since it was formed 5 years ago and introduced Nate to them not too long after we met. As we walked into the concert, it was quite obvious that at least 90% of the audience was over the age of 50, and I'm pretty sure the ladies sitting next to me were close to 70. It was an amazing concert though. I've always wanted to see them in concert and truly thought I never would because most of their tours have been outside the U.S. Here's a picture from our seats (the quality's not so great because it's off of Nate's phone):

Happy Anniversary to us!

First Dentist Visit

While Nate was at his dentist appointment today, I had him ask the hygenist about Bridget's teeth because she's had some buildup on the front of her bottom teeth that's been bugging me for a couple of months. Brushing a toddler's teeth is no easy task, and she never lets me brush them as well as I'd like to so that's the result. Her pediatrician said not to worry about taking her to the dentist until she's 2, but I thought I'd have Nate ask about it anyway. The hygenist said to go ahead and bring her in that afternoon so she could look at it and try to clean them. In my mind I was thinking there was no way my super wiggley 18-month-old is going to sit still for that, but we can try. Nate and I each tried holding her and she was not going to sit still or even open her mouth to let the hygenist take a peek. She does like to "brush" her own teeth so we tried that, and she wasn't fooled one bit. Finally, we had her lay on Nate's lap with her head in the hygenist's lap while I held her hands and reassured her. Amazingly, that worked! She was able to clean the front of her teeth, but that was about it. I was so proud of Bridget for letting her do that much and will be interested to see how this goes again in 6 months.

18 Months

I can't believe our baby is 18 months already! Where does the time go? If I blink, I feel like she might be in preschool by the time I open my eyes. Bridget certainly is becoming more and more of a little girl these days as she continues to surprise us with the things she says and comprehends. We had a quick trip to the doctor for a check-up today, and luckily there weren't any shots with this visit. She's still over the 90th percentile in everything with the following stats:

Height: 33.5 inches

Weight: 28 lbs.

Head: 19.5 inches

With her vocabulary growing so quickly these days, Nate and I started keeping a list about a month ago for two purposes: 1) so we could remember to tell each other the new words she learned while one of us was at work and 2) so we could actually see how large her vocabulary was becoming. Now that she's learning words faster than we can keep track, the list isn't up to date but my guess would be around 100 words. She makes a good effort to repeat most words you ask her to (if she's in the mood) and some are more intelligible than others. The most common words she says on a daily basis are: Mama, Dada, Bridget, Bapa (Grandpa), Jess, Matt, Jesus, baby, kitty, pasta, cracker, bottle, pee, poopy, shoe, woof, paci, up, ball, clock, kids, boss (that's what she calls the remote control), and Eh-yee (a.k.a. Ellie her stuffed elephant).

Being the social butterfly that she is, she loved the opportunity to go into the nursery at church for the first time last Sunday. Nate was debating about taking her because she wasn't quite 18 months, but as they were standing outside the closed door he told her if she wanted to go in then go in. So what did she do? She reached up and opened the door herself and went in. She didn't miss her parents one bit, and had a great time interacting with the other kids.

I should also mention that we're getting very close to being completely rid of the pacifier. About a month ago we started restricting it only to naps and bedtime which she didn't like at first but has since adjusted. And now she'll even go without it if she's tired enough. Now we just need to work on getting rid of the bottle. She still refuses to drink milk out of anything else, but drinks water from a sippy cup all the time. Ugh!

Now that the weather's warm she loves being outside exploring the yard, collecting rocks, playing with her ball, and destroying my flowers. I'm just loving that she's so great at keeping herself entertained while I work in the yard.

We love our little girl, and even though she has her difficult moments, we're grateful she's happy and healthy and can't imagine life without her.

P.S. Obviously no picture with this post - that was one of her "difficult moments" today where she wouldn't cooperate and hold still.

My Name is ...

Bridget learned to say her name today! When she said it the first time, it was actually without any prompting, and I was so surprised I had her say it over and over again just to make sure that's what she was really saying.

Resourceful Climbing

Oh no...we're to that stage that I've been hoping would never come. This afternoon I was doing some dishes while Bridget was playing with some toys nearby, and all of a sudden I look out of the corner of my eye and see this. Somehow she decided it would be a great idea to use her drum as a stepstool and brought it right over next to me so she could see what I was doing. She was so proud of herself, and I actually couldn't help but laugh. Up to this point, she's used her drum for a chair, so I guess it shouldn't be such a surprise to see her standing on it too. I can't wait to see what she climbs on next.

Mother's Day Weekend Tradition

This year was my fourth year participating in Race for the Cure, and it was so much fun to have my sisters Megan and Jessica and brother-in-law Matt join me. I love how this race always falls on the day before Mother's Day and the opportunity it provides to reflect upon my own mother. It's hard to describe to anyone who's never seen it or participated in it what this event is like. Every year there's more participants and this year was no exception - 18,000 people compared to 16,000 in 2008. It's amazing to see so many families and friends walking or running together to support breast cancer survivors or remember those who've lost their lives to it.

Megan and I don't love running as much as some of our other siblings, so we chose to walk the 5k, but Jessica and Matt forced their way through the crowd and ran it.

Afterward we hung out at Megan's new apartment and Nate and Bridget came down to join us so we could also celebrate Megan's birthday a little late.

Megan and I also played a little Dr. Mario on her Wii, and she creamed me. I have many memories of my mom coaxing me into playing this game with her on our old school Nintendo. She was so addicted to it and would not be proud of how poorly I played on Saturday.

My First Wedding Cake

Yesterday two of my very good friends (Corey and Desaray) got married, and I had the opportunity to make my very first wedding cake for them. I was very pleased with how it turned out in appearance as well as taste, so it made all the labor and stress worth it. Making this cake was a definite learning experience and should I attempt to make any more in the future, hopefully it will be a little easier. One of the big things I learned is that attempting a time-consuming project like this with a toddler who constantly wants my attention is not an easy task. For this reason, I may have to postpone doing this as a possible side job/hobby until we're done having children and they're all a little older. I also now understand why wedding cakes are so expensive because they are extremely labor intensive in addition to the cost of the ingredients and decorations.

The bottom and top tiers were white cake with a strawberry mousse filling, and the middle tier was a white/chocolate marble cake with a chocolate mousse filling. The cake is frosted with a white buttercream and topped with chocolate ganache.

So, congratulations Corey and Desaray! And thanks for allowing me this opportunity to challenge myself and advance my cake decorating skills. I also have to thank Nate for being so patient with me the last few days when I was more than a little stressed. He pitched right in and helped me as much as he could, and I wouldn't have survived the last couple of days without him.

April Visit

Life has been a little crazy lately, so once again I'm a little slow to blog.

The weekend of April 18th was probably one of the busiest I've had in a while. On Saturday morning, I hosted a bridal shower for a good friend and former roommate. Then that afternoon, my sister Jill came to visit from Arizona with her two kids and good friend Susan. Nate was helping another one of my sisters move that day. Later that night my two sisters Megan and Jessica and brother-in-law Matt arrived to also stay the night. Bridget had a great time playing with her cousins, and sadly, we didn't take many pictures.

On Sunday morning, we attended church with Nate's extended family to hear his cousin speak about his mission to Chile. After we got home, I had to leave again to go to our church to fulfil my responsibilities there and then rush home to get ready for the dinner I was hosting for my extended family that night.

Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted after the weekend, but it was also fun to have a house full of guests. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see them again.

Easter

Easter Sunday this year was definitely more fun for us now that Bridget can participate a little more in some of the activities. After church, we headed over to Nate's Aunt Linda's house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. Bridget was a lot slower than the older kids at getting the eggs, but she didn't care and neither did we since we don't let her eat candy anyway. Luckily, she did acquire a few things she could eat and Nate and I get to enjoy the rest. She seemed to enjoy playing with the plastic eggs more than anything, and emptying and refilling her basket kept her very entertained. At one point, she was carrying around a small chocolate egg in her warm little hand, and when she squished it the chocolate gushed out of the wrapper onto her hand. It's a good thing she doesn't like her hands to be messy, so Nate was able to wisk her into the kitchen and get her cleaned up before she made a big mess or ate any of it. The Easter Bunny was also kind enough to only bring her crayons and Elmo bubbles instead of candy.

And in all of the time I have for my own hobbies (yeah right), I did manage to make the dress she is wearing.

Aquarium Adventure

Okay, so the title of this post is a little misleading which I'll explain in a second. On Saturday, we decided to go on a family outing with thought Bridget would enjoy so we headed to The Living Planet Aquarium. Until recently, I didn't even know there was an aquarium in Utah, and that should have been a clue right there as to how it would be. Nate's coworker had warned us that it wasn't amazing, but we decided to give it a try anyway.

My sister, Megan, joined us, and I'm sad to say that we went through the entire thing in about 30-45 minutes. Most of the windows were tiny so you had to wait for the person in front of you to move so you could see what was in it. The touch pool didn't have much in it, and even the shark tank was pretty lame. On a positive note, the jelly fish were pretty cool and there was a big aquarium that had some little crocodiles and good sized turtles in it. Even though I had my camera, the lighting was so dim that it wasn't even worth trying to get any pictures of anything hence the lack of pictures in this post.

At least we tried something new, hung out with Megan, and went lunch at Kneaders so the day wasn't a total bust.

Latest Obsessions

It never ceases to amaze me that toddlers can be fascinated by the simplest of things. Recently, Bridget has become absolutely obsessed with clocks. It doesn't matter where we are, if it's big or small, or if it's digital or a face clock - if there's a clock in the room she'll find it and tell you until you acknowledge what she's saying. Yesterday we went to a couple of home decor stores, and she had to point out and say "ca" for each of the hundreds we saw. And she made me acknowledge every single one. Her other recent obsession is light switches. About a month or so ago she learned to turn them on and off and has loved to point them out everywhere since then. She can't say anything close to light or switch, so she just has to point and make some other noise to get attention. In fact, every time we get out of car when we get home, she has to point out both light switches in the garage before coming inside.

Jessica's Birthday Celebration

On Saturday, we went to SLC to spend the day with my sisters (Megan and Jessica) and my brother-in-law (Matt) to celebrate Jessica's birthday. It was a gorgeous day outside (70 degrees) and very windy, so we went to the park to fly some kites. Nate and Uncle Matt did a great job teaching Bridget how to fly the kite.

In fact, they did such a good job she was doing it by herself before too long. It was just too bad her attention span was so short that she would just drop it and walk away after a minute or two.
Can you believe she's not even 16-months-old yet?
She loves to steal my sunglasses.

Can you blame her? She looks so cute in them.

And here's the birthday girl with the Barbie birthday cake she requested I make for her. Apparently 21 is not too old for such a cake.

The rest of the festivities included making and eating homemade personal size pizzas (sorry no pics of that) and eating cake with homemade ice cream. Yum!

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up

Lately, Bridget has decided that she likes to sit on her toy drum because it is just the right height for her. When she was playing with it on Saturday, she decided to take the lid off and sit on it, and this picture is the result. It was so funny that I could hardly stop laughing and had to take advantage of the photo opportunity. Too bad she didn't find it as funny as I did. And her crazy hair in this picture is from the nap she'd just taken. I promise I would not allow her to go out with it like that in public.

15 Month Stats

Yesterday Bridget had her 15 month checkup, and all is well. She's now 32" tall (90th percentile) which means she's grown an inch in the last 3 months. I'm not surprised because most of her pants have started to look a little short lately which means spring needs to come so I can buy her a new warm weather wardrobe. She's slimmed down to 25.5 lbs. (80-85th percentile), so she only gained half a pound in the last 3 months. If I ran around as much as she does, I'd probably slim down too. And for the first time in her life she's below the 90th percentile in something. Her head measurement only changed a tiny bit, and she's still off the charts in that area. She only got one shot this visit and handled it very well. I was a little concerned she might have pink eye because one of her eyes was looking like it yesterday (minus the goop), but it seems to be better today.

Our Little Helper

We decided it was time for Bridget to start earning her keep around here, and laundry is one of those tasks where she's actually more of a help than a hindrance. Once she empties the clothes from the dryer into the basket, I carry it upstairs so she can immediately start emptying it onto the floor while I try to fold and put away as fast as I can. Once she's emptied all of the contents onto the floor, she puts them all back in the basket and decides she's done. It cracks me up how she does the exact same thing every time without fail, and I do appreciate her help.

Have No Fear, Her Hair is Here

For months, people have commented on Bridget's lack of hair, and I've been wondering if it would ever fill in and be long enough to do anything with it. Although it still isn't long enough for a ponytail of any sort (due to the fact that the hair on top is still really short), it doesn't bother me anymore because she has the cutest curls now! She definitely is her mother's daughter, and someday she'll probably hate me for giving her curly hair just like I've always hated mine. And I have to give Nate props because he's in charge of styling her hair during the week and does a very good job.

A Few More Milestones

So I haven't been blogging lately not because I'm lazy. Our lives have been fairly mundane, so it's a good thing we have Bridget to keep it somewhat interesting. Here's just a few of her recent accomplishments:

• She's finally mastered going down the stairs, and is so good at it that she goes up and down whenever she feels like it, carting all sorts of toys or random objects with her. In fact, we hardly ever shut the baby gate anymore. And one of her favorite things to do is go down one or two steps, sit, and flip through her books. Nate and I are both loving not having to carry her anymore!


• Another one of her new skills I'm loving is her ability to clean up after herself - somewhat. If I tell her to clean something up she usually does especially if I get her started. Our house is nowhere near as tidy as I'd like, but it's a little better.


• Her vocabulary is increasing and she's recently added "baby" and "cougar" or as she says it "ca-ga." I know it's a weird word to pick up on, but she loves the cougar on my BYU sweatshirt and loves trying to repeat it when I say it. Her favorite words are by far "Dada" and "yuck," and both are said more times a day than I can count.


• Currently, she's learning to climb up onto the couch but is only successful part of the time.


• Teething seems to be an almost constant event with her. She just got her 3rd molar and from the way she's been acting today I wouldn't be surprised if the 4th is on its way soon.


• She's also learned how to show people that she's one. If you ask her "how old are you?" she holds up her pointer finger (if she's up to performing and isn't holding something in her hand).

Christmas in Portland

Once again, I'm slow to post, but it's better late than never. We were fortunate to be able to fly to Portland, OR to spend Christmas with my family this year. Even though this is our 3rd Christmas since we've been married, it's the first we've spent with my side of the family. The group included Mark and Mark, Jill, Rob, Elaine, Charlotte, Megan, and us. Unfortunately the weather in Portland was really bad for several days before we were scheduled to leave, and we were very nervous that we might not be able to get there. As luck would have it, the weather was great leaving home early Christmas Eve morning and only snowing slightly when we got to Portland.

Because of the bad weather there, we mostly stayed in the house relaxing, visiting, eating, playing with the kids, watching TV and playing video games. Bridget thought playing with her cousins Charlotte and Elaine was pretty great and also enjoyed the new toys all of them got for Christmas.

As far as Christmas festivities, we had our usual big dinner on Christmas Eve followed by the traditional rice pudding game which my sister, Jill, won.

Before the kids went to bed, they each opened a new pair of PJs from Aunt Megan. Bridget loves to open presents after all the practice she got from her birthday and didn't want to stop at just one.

This is Bridget admiring the Wonder Pets that Elaine got from Santa on Christmas morning. Bridget wasn't enjoying the present opening as much because she was ready for a nap at this point due to the fact that she'd been up since 5 am.

One of her favorite toys was this telephone from Jill and Rob, and she was constantly dragging it around.

While we were there we discovered that Bridget and Charlotte had matching PJs so we just had to get a picture. Jill and I tried our best to get the 3 kiddies to pose for a picture, and this was the best we could do.

This video shows a bit of everyone enjoying Christmas morning. Bridget had great fun for days playing with an empty wrapping paper roll as evidenced here, and the rest of us are enjoying the yummy Crème Brûlée French Toast and bacon in our PJs.

Family Christmas Party

Saturday night we attended a Christmas party with Nate's extended family. It was just the usual stuff - lots of delicious food and a visit from Santa for the kids. Bridget loved the opportunity to run around and play with other kids and took a special liking to her 2nd cousin Caleb who's about 6 months older than she is. When she saw him, she went right up to him and was trying to hug and kiss him. She got a hug out of him the first time, and then we she tried to do it again a few minutes later, she gave him a big open mouth kiss right on his mouth! It was hysterical to watch, and luckily we got it on video. I don't know why she decided she needed to kiss him because she doesn't usually give kisses away so freely.

Being the friendly, outgoing girl that she is, she had no qualms about sitting on Santa's lap.

Daily Rituals

A couple of Bridget's daily activities include emptying the kitchen drawer containing all the dishtowels and bibs and the drawer with all of the plastic food containers. As soon as she sees me putting anything away, she quickly tries to get them back out. I can't wait until she understands the concept of cleaning up after herself...that day can't come quickly enough for me. It's daily rituals like this that make me wonder why I bought her toys for Christmas when it's the simple things that entertain her.

Bridget's 1 Year Stats

Today Nate and I took Bridget to the pediatrician for her 1-year checkup. Developmentally she's doing everything she's supposed to be doing, and she's still very healthy and growing well. She weighs 25 lbs. (98th percentile), is 31 inches tall (95th percentile) and her head is 19.25 inches (above 98th percentile). I keep thinking that one of these days her growth will slow down a little bit and she might actually be below the 90th percentile in something, but not yet. She runs around a lot, so maybe that will start to slow her weight down. Amazingly, she handled her 5 shots very well too. She screamed and shed a few tears, but only for about a minute. And her hemoglobin was tested to make sure her iron levels were good, and they were (thanks to parents who only feed her healthy food). As a treat afterward, we did take her to Coldstone to get her free birthday kiddie cup, but she was only interested in a few bites. She's been drinking whole milk for a few days now, and she doesn't seem to mind the taste at all, but she won't drink it cold. We have to warm it up just a little or she won't take more than a sip. Hopefully she'll stop being so picky soon.

Bridget's First Birthday

On Thanksgiving Day we celebrated Bridget's 1st Birthday. After we spent the early afternoon eating dinner with Nate's immediate and extended family (I think there were 50-60 people), we came back to our house to have Bridget's party. She had a hard time staying away from the presents while we were waiting for family to arrive. She got some fun toys, books, and clothes. She is a true girl because she was just as excited about the clothes as she was the toys.

I finished making/decorating her birthday cake just before midnight the night before.

It was hard to keep her away from the presents while we were waiting for family to arrive.

Here's a video of her opening some of her presents. I didn't include all of them because I didn't want the video to get too long, but it hits a few of the highlights.

My favorite part of the party was watching her eat her cake. She loved it, especially since we're very strict about what she eats and don't let her eat junk food. She ate the whole piece and was quite a mess by the end.

Happy Birthday to our beautiful girl!

What are the Chances?

Today Bridget and I headed to the mall after I got off work, and as we were getting ready to leave the mall a horrible thing happened. Maybe I'll win a nomination for the bad mom award, but here's the story.

I had just put Bridget in her carseat, and she was crabby because it was lunchtime and naptime. She grabbed the keys which I had in my hand, and when I tried to take them back she screamed. So I decided to let her hold them for a minute while I put the stroller and bags in the car. I shut her door to open the door in front of it, and then put my purse and bag on the front seat. I shut that door and was about to open her door again to get the keys to open the trunk when I heard that dreadful "click" of the locks. In the 2 seconds that all the doors were shut, she just happened to hit the lock button on the remote. I immediately started to panic and hoped that she would miraculously hit the unlock button. When I realized that that wasn't going to happen and my cell phone was also locked in the car, I started looking around for strangers that might be able to help me.

A nice woman let me use her phone to call 911. The dispatcher I spoke to told me that "they don't do that" even though I told him my baby was locked in the car. He said I'd have to call a tow truck. I was shocked. Here I am in an emergency situation and the dispatcher won't even help me. What does he want me to do, whip out the yellow pages as I'm standing there in the mall parking lot? He seriously wouldn't help me at all, so I just hung up. The woman who was trying to help me went in the mall to try and get some help from mall security.

In the meantime, I'm standing at the car trying to keep Bridget happy and trying not to cry myself. There weren't a lot of people around, and luckily some more people came to my aid as I was standing at my car crying. Another woman let me use her phone so I could call Nate and have him start heading home to get our spare set of keys. Then a man who was a tool salesman and had his big truck full of tools was able to use something to get into the car and unlock the doors. By this time, Bridget had been locked in for about 30 minutes and there were about 6 strangers gathered around my car trying to help. The mall security guy informed me that the 911 dispatcher should have called a locksmith who would have opened the car for free because a baby was inside. He was very surprised when I told him what the dispatcher didn't offer to do anything like that.

So here's what I've learned from this experience. Don't plan on 911 helping you in emergency situations. Don't let babies play with car keys unless there is at least one door open at all times. And there are a lot of nice strangers out there who will help you when you need it.

Nate's Birthday

I'm such a lazy blogger these days. Nate's birthday was almost 2 weeks ago, and I'm finally getting around to posting about it. You can tell how excited he was to be another year older from the expression on his face (well that and the fact that he hates having his picture taken).

We didn't do anything too exciting. The three of us went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, and then Nate opened his super exciting present (a Shop Vac) when we got home. We ate cake after Bridget went to bed since she couldn't have any. I didn't want to make a big birthday cake for just the two of us to eat, so I bought a little one at Coldstone. I think Nate thought I was a little cheesy because I put a candle in it and made him blow it out after I sang to him, but it's the official birthday thing to do so I just had to do it.

Halloween

As usual, I'm a little slow to post, but here are some pictures of Bridget in her 2 costumes. We borrowed both of the costumes, and since she looked so cute in both she wore the bumble bee costume to our ward trunk-or-treat on the 29th and the pumpkin costume on Halloween. She never sits still anymore, so trying to get a good picture was almost impossible. As of the 29th, she's officially walking all over the place. If she falls, she crawls just long enough to get to something where she can pull up to stand, and then she's on her way again. On Halloween, Bridget got to show her cute pumpkin costume off at my school and then at Nate's office. That night we tried to visit as many family members as possible, but she's not a night owl so we didn't get to see everyone. Sorry to those of you we missed. Being the strict mother that I am, she didn't get any candy this year, but I'm sure she'll love it next year.

Pre-Halloween Fun

Last Friday, Megan, Jessica, and Matt came to hang out with us and stay the night. We're so much fun I can't believe they don't come and stay every weekend. We started off the night by eating some of my homemade BBQ chicken pizza and then baked some halloween sugar cookies. We had so much fun that I even stayed up way past my bedtime. The next morning when Bridget woke us up at 6:30, Nate took her and went to Einstein Bagels to get us some delicious breakfast including my favorite pumpkin bagels with pumpkin shmear. Once everybody was finally awake we ate, played with Bridget, and then decorated our sugar cookies. It was a fun-filled weekend, and I'm pretty sure I ate way too many cookies.

11 Months

I seriously can't believe October is almost over, and Bridget is now 11 months. Her 1st birthday will be here before I know it. Nate and I love watching all the new things she's learning to do, and can't help but laugh at some of them. Here's a quick run-down of the last month and a video highlighting some of them:

• She's getting so good at walking, but still resorts to crawling at least half of the time. I love how she walks like a zombie with her arms straight out in front of her to help her get her balance.


• Her ability to understand amazes me. If we're in our living room and we ask her where Jesus is, she gets a big smile on her face and looks at the picture hanging on our fireplace and then at the statue on the piano. I know I'm a little biased, but it's so cute!


• Any time you say to her "no pooping," she smiles and pretends to grunt like she does when she is pooping. Sorry if that's TMI, but it really is funny.


• She got 2 more of her top teeth.


• She loves to play "Where's Bridget?" aka peek-a-boo if there's a blanket or dishtowel nearby.


• Bath time is still one of her favorite activities, and she's not afraid of the water one bit. If we lay her down to wet her hair, she doesn't get scared or cry at all.


• The stranger phobia still hasn't set in, and at this point I don't know that it will. She's a very friendly baby, and will smile or go to most people if Mom or Dad is nearby.


• She finally wore shoes for the first time, and is getting better at walking in them.

A Few Steps

Bridget is getting closer and closer to walking by herself, and a couple of days ago she made some good progress. She will sometimes let go of things (couch, people, etc.) on her own now and take a few steps. She does really well if she goes slow and gets her balance with each step, but sometimes she gets a little too excited and then falls. Anyway, this is a short video of one of her practice sessions. I'll be surprised if she's not walking on her own by her birthday which is only about 5 weeks away!

Recent Changes

We've been in our house now for about 2 months, and in that short time we've already gone through some major changes at church. About a month ago Nate got called to teach Elders Quorum one Sunday a month, and lucky for him he probably now holds some sort of record for serving in a calling for the shortest amount of time and never having to actually do anything with it. Within 2 weeks of receiving that calling, our stake made major boundary changes to every ward and dissolved two of the nine wards (ours being one of them). Obviously everybody from our ward was released from their callings, and on Sunday we attended our new ward for the first time.

On Saturday a member of the bishopric randomly showed up at our door (for some reason they didn't have a phone number for us so he couldn't call first). I happened to still be in my pajamas because I'd been so busy cleaning and taking care of Bridget that I hadn't had a chance to get ready for the day yet, so it was just a little embarrassing. Anyway, I got called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Primary of our new ward. When he told me the name of the president, I didn't have a clue who she was (not surprising since we've only lived in our house a couple of months). When we were all sustained during sacrament meeting, I didn't even recognize her as somebody I'd ever seen before. She even admitted to me later that she couldn't even remember my name, but when she was praying about who her counselors should be, she knew it was supposed to be me (the woman who spoke in sacrament meeting just a few weeks before and bought the Riggs' home). I'm really excited about this calling since it's something I haven't done before, and I love Primary. I also look forward to getting to know the other women in the presidency, the teachers, and the kids.

First Snow Fall of 2008

We all awoke this morning to the great white stuff falling from the sky. Bridget loved to just sit by the window and watch it fall.

By the time we got done with church (4:00 PM) the snow had stopped and it was looking much nicer. Now Nate just has to clean up the mess from the two branches that broke off our tree in the front yard.

Waving

A little over a week ago Bridget learned to wave, and since I'm slow to blog these days, I'm finally get around to posting a short video. She still hasn't figured out to turn her hand the other direction, but she'll get it eventually.