One of those take lots of pictures days:

Sometimes, well maybe all the time I have those days where I just can't stop taking pictures.
I mean look at her.
Well today was one of those days where I took lots of pictures in the same outfit and actually decided to post them all.
This is rare because I don't like to have too many pictures in the same outfit if you know what I mean.
I'm weird like that.
I just can't get enough of those precious facial expressions
and big blue eyes.
Love those.
Being a dark brown eyed girl I really am a fan of the blue eyes.
Oh and I love the sharing popsicles picture.
That one is below.
Especially the one where it's daddy's turn for a lick and Olivia has to wait her turn.
I'm in big trouble with my scrapbooking for her.
She's not even one and I have thousands of pictures.
No joke.
It's just fun to have something cute to take pictures of all day long.

Splash Park:

The best friend arrived from Alaska a few weeks ago.
And it's been great.
Since we both of kids (She has 2 and I have 1) we pretty much just sit outside and let them play.
Which is so fun for us because we can just relax and talk and not worry about the stresses of lugging them around.
But we decided to be brave and take them to a splash park a few minutes away.
There were fountains and then a very shallow stream with rocks in it that they could play in.
Olivia is still a bit young to enjoy it by herself but because it was so dang hot she loved sticking her little feet in the stream and splashing around a bit.
And she also got to wear her new little bikini.
Which I love.

Leslie, baby Jay, me, baby Olivia

The nose scrunch smile:

I love it.

Anniversary surprise:

Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE Jenny Oaks Baker.
For those of you who don't know, she is a well-known violinist.
As well as Elder Oak's daughter.
I began playing the violin when I was 6 years old and played up through high school.
Things got a bit crazy so I put it on hold, fully intending on picking it back up.
Well I haven't.
I still play every once in a while but not like I used to.
I still love the violin more that I can explain.
And I love listening to Jenny Oaks Baker play.
In fact I loved her music so much I used to buy her sheet music and learn to play the songs.
Sadly, I doubt I could do that anymore.
Anyway enough with all the background. It's time to get to the cute stuff.
For our anniversary, my boy surprised me with 2 tickets to her concert Wish Upon a Star.
Is that not the cutest thing ever?
I think so.
Oh my gosh, I really have the best husband ever!
I can not even explain my excitement when we walked through the doors into an auditorium where the picture below was on a screen up front.
I know that Michael isn't the biggest fan of going to these types of concerts, yet he knew how much I would love it, so he sat next to me holding my hand the entire time.
However, I do think he enjoyed it more than he will admit.

That's not all though.
For those of you who know Michael really really really well, know that he is writes exceptional poetry.
It's one of those things about Michael that you would never in a million years guess he does.
But he does and he does it beautifully.
Well he wrote me a poem.
And I thought I'd share.
It's about two of his favorite memories we've shared together the past two years.

Forever Dream
I finally found you,
two-piece puzzle,
let's build a hotel out of
dreams where we can stay
awhile with the full moon
in a tiny room over-looking
the world,
a world where the bedroom
leads to the bathroom with
a rectangle tub,
where you're a
perfect, square window through
which I see my dreams and the
rolling sea.
There are brown and green
hills to our left and we're
snaking our way out of them
toward the coast.
I put my hand above
your knee and you
smile and yell to me
in a language no one knows.
We have to yell above the
wind speeding through
your hair like a
tangle of red and brown
vines.
Venturing from line to
line,
cities gleaming here and there.
We're a speeding black bullet
sprinting under night's blanket
and toasting tinkling, neon
glasses and filling ourselves
with silver, rubies, and satin
sheets.
You disappear from view as you
wander behind the palm tree grove.
We disappear from view under the
endless sky,
chasing up the spiral stairs vanishing
between pristine prisms flooding
your eyes with light and filling my
sight with you.
You rest your head on the
pillow on the far end of
the beach,
with winter falling
warm and clear all
around you like my heart,
basking in and not
comprehending
eternity.

What we've been up to:

With just a few weeks left of summer we decided we should probably set up Olivia's new pool.
It's a cute pool.
It even has a Shamoo whale that sprays out water.
Except Olivia does not like it when it sprays.
We filled it partly with hose water and partly with hot water from the sink.
This made it the perfect temperature for her and for me.
(I enjoyed sitting in there with her.)
We ate popsicles and played with lots of toys.
I seriously got like 10 toys for 4 bucks.
Gotta love Wal-mart.
Well at least for the things that don't have to be cute.
Target is better if you are looking for cuteness.
There were of course lots and lots of smiles.
I think she's showing off her 6 teeth coming in up top.
Yep that's right 6 new top teeth. And of course she still has the 2 little sharp ones on the bottom.

We took her golfing for her very first time.
Well not golfing, we just hit balls.
I'd probably kill myself if I had to take her golfing.
I can hardly stand it with just me.
She loved sitting on the grass and playing with toys.
She didn't pay much attention to Michael swinging away.
I did though.
He's so freaking hot when he golfs.
Oh ya and she did love riding in the golf cart.
Takes after her mother in that way.

We've been blowing lots of bubbles.
She seems a bit afraid of them sometimes.
But I think it is so much fun.
So I guess our bubble blowing parties are pretty much just for me.
Her little princess onsie is size 0-3 month. Haha.
She's still tiny.

And of course the favorite thing to do is to take naps.
Oh it's just so peaceful when both of these cuties are asleep.

Our little Olivia is just getting smarter and cuter by the second.
I can hardly stand it.
She's smiling and laughing all the time.
(She has been known for her seriousness in the past.)
She is crawling around everywhere.
Pulling her self up on everything.
Dancing.
Talking. Well trying to.
Giving kisses with her tongue.
Waving hi and bye to everything and everyone she sees.
Making lots of messes.
Her favorite is crawling over to the book shelf and pulling off every single book.
I know I say this every post but we love her so much.
I wouldn't trade being her mom for anything else in the world.
It truly is the best!

Oh ya check out Winston's new mission blog I am doing for him.
winstonfarr.blogspot.com.

Two years later and still madly in love:

Two years ago today, I married the best man I know.
I have absolutely no idea where I would be without him.
It's amazing to look back on the last 2 years and see everything we have been through together.
The good and the bad.
Cause there has been bad.
But we have grown so much closer together because of it.
So I guess you could say that the bad has in fact been good.
Marriage isn't always lollipops and sparkles
or princess fairytales
But knowing that I have my boy forever and ever is the best happily ever after I could ever dream of.
I love you Michael.

Thanks for being my everything.
Here's to a never ending number of years together.
I can't wait!

Temple:

This little Winston went through the temple on Wednesday for his very first time.
Michael and I were so grateful to have been there.
He is one special boy and will be such a blessing to those he serves in Atlanta.
I am so proud of him and the choices he has made that helped prepare him for this beautiful experience.

The Zoo:

On Saturday we decided to take our little girl to the zoo.
This has been something I have wanted to do all summer.
My cousin Jason, his wife Adriana, and their precious baby girl Samantha came with us.
We like them a lot.
Cutest family ever.
The zoo was extremely crowded and they were moving the bears to a different area.
So we didn't see any.
But of course the main animal I cared about seeing was an elephant.
And we saw 3!! One of them being a very cute baby.
Olivia seemed very interested and just stared at them eating.
She even started waving hi to them!
They have these huge dinosaurs and some of them sprayed a heavy mist of water out every once in a while.
I did not know this and so Olivia and I got misted.
She burst out bawling.
So sad.
Adriana and I noticed how Michael and Jason kept taking our little girls over to see the dinosaurs even though they didn't seem to like them.
Dads. They must think it is funny to scare their baby girls!
We walked around the zoo for about 1 1/2 hours.
It was so dang hot.
Olivia's favorite part I think was waving hi and bye to all the animals.
We had so much fun and will have to take her back soon.
On a cooler and less crowded day.

Here are a few pictures:

Daddys and baby girls!

By my favorite animal. Elephants.

The little monkey!

The giraffe.

Michael was fascinated with this bald eagle and just had to get a picture.
He got left behind because no offense to any bird lovers out there but personally I don't think it is that cool to see a bird. Unless it is a little hummingbird. Those are really cute.

Cute little friends playing.

The group.
Thanks for going with us guys!

I'm 22!!

One of the wonderful things about my birthday is that it is not just a birthday it is a birthweek.
Seriously.
It started out Tuesday night with a late night movie.
Harry Potter.
That is right, my boy and I went to a late night movie.
It was definitely spontaneous to say the least.
On my actual birthday I spent most of the day with my baby girl.
Which was the best.
After we got her to bed the celebrations began.
(She has to be in bed by no later than 7:00 or she's pretty much out of control!)
My dad grilled some steak and ribs.
Amazing.
We opened presents.
My parents were so sweet.
They gave me a DS and 3 games (haha) but seriously my boy and I love it. We do plan on sharing with Olivia when she gets older. They also gave me a pastry decorator (so excited about this), a scrapbooking program I've wanted for a long time, and little friendship charm bracelets for Olivia and me. Sophia gave me a cute shirt as well. The Mickelson family sent me a birthday card and some money which was so sweet.
We then played volleyball.
Which definitely gets a little interesting with my family.
But it was still fun.
After volleyball we had cheesecake.
I love the Costco cheesecake more than words can say.
I really think I could eat the whole thing.
I blew out all 22 candles in one blow.
Yay me! Looks like my wish will be coming true:)
And that pretty much wrapped up my actual birthday.
But that's not all of the celebrations.
We are just getting to the cutest one.
My boy took me out on a special date Friday night.
He gave me daisies. My favorite.
And then we went to the mall to shop for my birthday present.
I really shouldn't have gotten one since the new headboard I bought in May was supposed to count as my b-day present.
But he's the really the best so he let me pick myself out a new outfit.
I love Forever 21.
We walked around the River bottoms for a while.
We found a chocolate factory and bought some really good chocolate.
I had a chocolate covered strawberry and Michael had some sort of nut things.
Which is disgusting. I hate nuts in chocolate.
We then went to dinner at Macaroni Grill.
I hadn't been there for so long but it is so so good.
It was an amazing birthweek.
Mostly because it was spent with the people I love the most.
(Minus my family up in Washington.)
I loved being able to use the excuse "It's my birthday this week, or it was my birthday yesterday" to get whatever I wanted from my boy.
He was such a good sport about it.
But mostly I am just excited to be 22.
It's going to be a good year!