Motherhood

This year was my first official Mother's Day. I was pregnant last Mother's Day, but it didn't quite seem real yet. This year, I felt like a real mom. I even got the corsage they pass out to all the mothers at church. I always knew I wanted to be a mother, but I was always a little scared. I knew that once I became a mom, it'd be a calling that I'd have forever. I also knew it would be the hardest thing I'd do. Now I've been a mom for almost 7 months... not very long at all. Of course, I'd like to be the "perfect" mom, but when I think about it in the eternal scheme of things, I know I have forever to work on that. For now, a great day is when I keep Hazel happy, get semi-ready, do a load of laundry, and fix dinner. And I think I'm learning to accept that. I'm so grateful I'm able to stay home with Hazel. Life sure is different as a stay at home mom, but I can say that it's the best part of my life yet.
I was watching the Food Network the other day (surprise surprise), and Giada (first name basis) was talking about the most surprising thing about motherhood. Her answer was "the laughter." I can relate! I think everything Hazel does is hilarious... and I expect my family to think the same as I send them daily photos/videos. I'm just really trying to enjoy this time when I think Hazel's the cutest, smartest, funniest thing, and when she thinks I'M the greatest too. Gotta enjoy it now, right?! Now at almost 7 months, I wish I could stop time with my baby. It's my favorite time with her so far. She babbles all the time, sits up well but doesn't crawl, grabs my face and tries to eat me, eats anything I give her, and just hangs out with me all day! As I was thinking about what I thought was the most surprising thing about motherhood, I thought about how attached I am to my little girl. I knew I'd love her a ton, but I didn't know I'd feel such a tight bond with her. A few weeks ago, I went to a movie with James, and I told him I was having separation anxiety. I thought that was only for the kids! We were only gone for a few hours, but I was sad to not have her with us! I know I'll get more used to it, but I just didn't expect that about being a mom. The other surprising thing about motherhood is how easily I feel guilty for even simple things. I remember that as a teacher, I'd feel guilty if I ever sat down and had the kids work on something independently. Well, I feel the same way about being a mom at home. That doesn't mean I DO play with her constantly, but I kind of feel guilty if I don't. Silly! Oh, how life is going to change if Hazel ever has a sibling.
So for my first Mother's Day, I got lots of love from my husband and baby! James even made me dinner and bathed Hazel, which is kind of a big deal around here. Here are my pretty flowers, beautiful baby, and handsome husband:

I'm especially grateful for my mom, who is the perfect mother for me. Now I have a tiny glimpse of what it's like to be a mother, and no Mother's Day card will ever be enough thanks to a mother who gives her whole life to her kids.
Happy Mother's Day to all of the other wonderful moms and future moms I know!

Happy Easter and Birthday!

Well, Easter morning didn't exactly pan out as we planned... I think Hazel was teething. Waking her up only to wipe her face, put on tights, bloomers, a big poofy dress, shoes, and a bow didn't go over so well with her. I can't blame her though. We knew she wasn't feeling well because she usually is happy to have us hold her at church, but standing up with her didn't even keep her happy. Poor thing. We just ended up having to bring her home, give her Tylenol, and put her to bed. At least we were at church long enough to hear the 2 great talks about the meaning of Easter. That's the most important part anyway! Pictures had to be done later in the week. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Pay attention to the cute Easter bunny bow Aunt Natalie made!

Then a couple days later was my 27th birthday! Turning 26 was okay, but 27 seems OLD! I'm pretty much 30. Too bad I still look 18. Anyway, I had a wonderful week and day thanks to many family members and friends. On Good Friday, James had the day off, so we were able to celebrate part of my birthday a little bit early. We went to a movie at the real theater thanks to Grandma Palmer who babysat Hazel, and we went out to eat at one of my favorite spots Pappasitos. On my actual birthday, I got to talk with all of my family, and each person sang a different birthday song to me! I had a wonderful lunch with friends from church who got me Paradise Bakery - my favorite lunch spot (mainly because of the chocolate chip cookie that comes with your meal)! And Shayla was so sweet to get cupcakes from Sprinkles Bakery! Yum! Then I got to visit with my cousin Ashna and her cute girls. Then we headed to Cheesecake Factory for a delicious steak and salmon dinner and lemon raspberry cheesecake. I think I had enough food and sugar to last me a week! For a food lover like me, my birthday has got to be all about the good eats. James even got me a cookbook that I've been wanting. Here are a couple pictures from my fun day:

Hazel and her 2nd cousins!

How cute is this picture with the handsome dads and their beautiful girls?!

I love it!

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Hazel is the big 6 MONTHS old! I've just been trying to enjoy this cute stage because I'm realizing time is flying by! I make sure to give her 758,000 kisses a day, and I take 489,000 pictures a day and send most of them to my family because they're obsessed too, right?! I just really can't get enough of her. She gets cuter and cuter everyday. Her sweet face, giggles, smiles, curiosity, playfulness, hair wave, chunky thighs, tiny feet, pterodactyl noise, hilarious spitting, etc. are all things I'm obsessed with. But I'll be honest... not EVERY moment is enjoyable (ie. middle of the night wakings, short naps, 2 blowouts a day, constant drool, etc.), but MOST are! =) This little girl has stolen our hearts. I absolutely love seeing James get excited to see her when he comes home from work. He just loves that little girl. He does prefer if she hasn't just sucked on a banana, however. So here are a couple of highlights from the last month or so. I feel like she's grown up so much!

She cheered on the Cougars for as long as they let us-

She learned what it was like to be a triplet for a day-

She learned to play the piano-

(The first minute is pretty much nothing, but then she gets into it.)


She learned to roll over (although she wasn't thrilled about it)-

She learned to sit up on her own-

She spent time with her cousins-



She tried new foods like celery, mango, and...

...banana!!


...because we've got to keep this figure up!

She got ready for swim season with a floatie and sunglasses!
(She's not sleeping in this picture.. she just knew that if she were going to wear sunglasses, she had to have a "cool" look to go with them)-

She got ready for her 1st ballet class (3 years early) by wearing her leg warmers and by listening to classical music-

She got plenty of love from her friend Jones-


And here she is laughing at her crazy mom-



These last 2 pictures are just my recent favorites-


How can you not love her?!?!

Don Got Hitched!

Another childhood friend of James's got married last weekend! Don met a wonderful girl named Zara Zamenski (all of her siblings have Z names too!) when she was investigating the LDS church over a year ago. They didn't start dating until later, but things moved quickly and they got married in March! We're so happy for them. Don finally gets it now. He understands why his friends would ditch the guys and hang out with their fiances, etc. However, Zara is also realizing how important the guys are to each other. They must get together at least once every couple of weeks to hang out and play Smash Brothers. I still wonder how long this tradition will continue... but if it makes James happy, I'm fine with it. It's a pretty small thing to endure.

Here's cute Zara with a funny hat and boa that we didn't make her wear in the restaurant. A couple of us took her out to eat the night before the wedding while the boys played games for Don's bachelor party -- Whirlyball, basketball, and laser tag. Couple that with some meat and IBCs, and the boys were set.

I was in a rush to get out the door for the wedding, so I forgot my camera. Luckily John just got Courtney a new camera, so she got a few good shots!

Hazel was sleeping until James dropped some chocolate cake on her face. haha

The boys sang a beautiful song ("My Girl") to the couple... or a song to the beautiful couple... however you want to look at it. =)

I caught Zara off guard on this one, but it's so cute of her. She's so happy!

Here are the boys... and Courtney. It was her camera after all!

Here's the whole crew!

Congrats, Walkers!

Time with the Fam

Hazel's just been growing and growing! She's almost 5 months old. Wow. She's still in the 90 + percentile for weight and 80 + percentile for height. We'll see if she keeps this up! She couldn't get any cuter. Being a baby is the life.

She found her thumb--fortunately or unfortunately--however you want to look at it. I think it's so cute, so it's hard for me to tell her to stop. Uh oh! What does this mean for the future?? But look at her... and you try to tell her, "NO."

A couple weekends ago, my cousin Sabrina and her little family came to Plano to hang out with us. I miss having her around all the time! Houston isn't close enough, so we're trying to convince them to go to law school around here. Her little girl Sydney is so darn cute. Sydney was sweet with Hazel, and Hazel was just fascinated by her. This picture's kind of blurry but all we have. James and I had a great time staying up with Sabrina and Dustin chatting about nothing. We also made some delicious homemade waffles and syrup that we were very proud of. Yum. I hope we get to see them again soon.

The next weekend, my side of the family came in town and we had a great time as usual! I had never been to the museums in downtown Dallas, so it was great to go with all the kids. Hazel couldn't exactly enjoy it yet, but she still had a great time observing her cousins! They're always great for entertainment.

Hazel didn't mind being surrounded by roaring dinosaurs. Now is a good age to go see them I decided.

The older cousins were a little more scared. =)

Hazel and Faith were good sports to hang out in their car seats almost all day.

Here's sweet, handsome Ty.

In the Math building, we made signs for our guys. It reminded me of teaching about tessellations in sixth grade.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out with the family and going to Waco for a day to spend time with the Dunnings. Isaac showed Hazel all of his dinosaurs and cars at his house, so he must really like her. Bitner is really cute with her too. Hazel loves her cousins!

Hazel also loves her rice cereal! At first, she wasn't too interested, but after a few spoonfuls she was really leaning toward the spoon and getting it down. She likes to eat like her Mama! Unfortunately, that night and the next day were rough for her because her tummy wasn't normal. Poor girl. I'll probably wait another few weeks before trying the cereal again. I don't know what I'm saying at the beginning of the video, but it's cute of Hazel eating! James did a great job although I tried to tell him how to do it every 5 seconds. =)

Mom was the last one to leave. It's always sad to say goodbye to family, even if they do only live a drive away. Mom makes all of our trips extra special with her coolers overflowing with food and love. Hazel couldn't get enough of Grandma and her polka dots!

B - Y - U

I miss hearing the B - Y - U chant at athletic events. Luckily, they played TCU in Dallas this past weekend, so went to support our Cougars! I was mainly excited to see Jimmer play live because he's so much fun to watch. It's funny because I think he doesn't really look like a basketball player... more like a wrestler or or something. But I think he found the right sport for him! I loved looking all around the stadium and seeing tons of BYU fans. We have quite the following in Texas! Most of my family got matching BYU basketball t-shirts, and even though we were at the very top of the stadium, it didn't stop us from having a great time! It was actually nice to be on the top row because we could stand up with Hazel and not bother anyone. Hazel was a little angel during the loud cheering and band songs. It was her first time to wear her BYU cheerleading outfit, and she looked adorable. Nat thought it was funny that I dressed her "competition style" (white long sleeves under her uniform).

She's going to be such a good flyer!

Here's our little BYU fam.

Lovers' Day!

I always loved that my Grandpa Paxton would call his grandkids "Lover." It was cute. When James and I got married, I jokingly started calling him "Lover," but now I genuinely like it. So on to Lovers' Day. I forced James to go with me to get a pedicure (haha... okay, so he loves getting the leg/foot massage), and we just had a nice dinner at home. I made roasted asparagus, steak in a cast iron skillet, mushrooms and onions, and Ina's fried onion rings. It was the first time I fried something, and it worked out pretty well! I don't think I'd do it very much though because I don't like having hot oil around very much. Anyway, my lover loved it, and that's all that matters! Here it is half-eaten. Not nice presentation, I know. James likes all of his food separate unlike me.

Here's the cutest little lover ever!

Here is her first valentine to you.


Dad deserved to have his own special valentine.

... but that's the best we could get. She's plotting something!!

Hazel wasn't lacking in handsome dates for the Valentine weekend.

Jones and Hazel swinging at the park.

Hazel and the Rudd boys -- Caleb and Zachary. Love it!