More Utah Pictures

Justin is so much better at capturing our daily life, yet I rarely get a hold of his phone. Here are some more great pictures from our trip to Utah over Thanksgiving.

On the plane. Both girls did really well on the way there. 

Natalie was excited to be on an airplane.

 The Princesses had to make a debut. Lined up on the snack tray.

Justin's mom recently bought these miniature horses for her grandchildren. 

Natalie has been talking to her on Facetime about them for a while.

It was good to finally make both of their dreams come true. 

Natalie loved riding and kept spurring the horse telling it to "Getty- up."

 Another achievement for our little girl. She road on a sleigh behind a motorized vehicle.

Justin pulled her out in the pasture for an hour behind the Ranger. She usually hates anything to do with noisy motors, but she loved this!

 Visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa Blazzard. 

Surprisingly both girls did really well with them.

Yummy leftover pie!

 This is playing dress-up with Natalie's first cousins once removed. 

They had all sorts of princess dresses and they had a blast pretending. 

Unfortunately it was late when we went over so Natalie was exhausted and cried so hard when she had to take her Elsa dress off. 

These girls were so sweet with her!

Visiting a family friend. This little guy love J-bird. 

He wanted to hold her and put her pacifier in her mouth.

They were so kind and welcoming to share their Root Beer

Floats with us. 

Justin and Ruth Blazzard

Lately

 Been hard at work making some Christmas gifts for people. Here is my brownie in a mix jar! So glad I was able to put my vacuum pack sealer from a yard sale to work. :)

 This girl got her first tooth! Crazy, right? Natalie didn't get her first one until she was 8 or 9 months. You can see her in some of these pictures running her tongue over it. She loves this exersaucer and is so happy these days.

Natalie is loving the Christmas season. She is catching on quickly to the concept of Santa Clause and dreams of toys. When we go to Fred Meyer she loves to go look and admire all of the toys on display. Surprisingly she just looks. It is fun to see her eyes light up and imagine as she carefully studies the toys and runs her hand over them. I am excited to see her Christmas morning!

Today, while I was busy working on various tasks trying to get caught up in life, I noticed that she was in my kitchen drawers. I did not think much of it as this is a common occurrence. I looked up to find her with this towel on her head and a baby doll. She was asking where her blanket was. I ran upstairs and grabbed her baby blanket then wrapped her baby in it. I handed it too her and she excitedly exclaimed, "I'm Mary."

I was surprised, touched, and humbled. It amazes me what this little girl picks up on and am so grateful she is getting this message, as Santa has been a pretty popular word in her vocabulary as well. Seeing Christmas through a child's eyes is magical and such a blessing. I love my family and love getting to celebrate this sacred season with them.

Justin and Ruth Blazzard

Thanksgiving

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we flew to Utah to spend the holiday with Justin's family. We had a great flight out. and did many fun things while being there. I will have to add the pictures from Justin's phone later, but here are a few of the highlights.

These two girls were born 3 weeks apart. Hazel on the right was premature by about 5 weeks and Jenna is on the very high end of growth for her stats. Jenna was a lot larger. They enjoyed looking at each other every once in a while. I know they will have fun in the future at family get togethers. We are so grateful Hazel is doing well. She had a rough start at first.

 Poor J's skin was sooo dry being in that Utah desert climate. Her baby eczema was pretty bad. I wasn't completely sure it was eczema as it kept getting worse and worse as we were there. She weighed in at a whopping 18 lbs. 2 oz! I eventually took her to the doctor after 5 days of it and they said to keep putting Aquaphor on it and less baths. J only gets to bath about twice a week now. To bad for her because she really  loves it.

 Natalie chilling with her cousins Abbie and Brooke. They are quite a bit older than her, but are so patient and kind with her. They played and watched a lot of princess movies. Justin's mom braided all of their hair that morning.

 It was frigid temperatures and lots of snow. Thank goodness I had this adorable snow suit for J. It seemed to keep her nice and toasty.

 We took all of the girls swimming. Natalie had a blast and really wanted to go down the really big slide by herself. We were sad to inform her that was not happening. She was still content to go with Justin.

 Natalie has an obsession love of her princess dolls. She packed them all in a black fanny pack we found and took them as her carry on for the airplane. This is her preparing to take them back home with us on the airplane. She is just too cute and funny for words some days.

Our plane ride home was not quite such a delight. After going through a s-l-o-w moving security line, being patted down with a baby in my arms for apparently having explosive residue on my hands, having a baby scream basically the whole flight except for the 15 minutes she fell asleep, trying to maneuver too many carry on bags through the airport, and having Natalie cry for the last 15 minutes of the flight because she needed to go potty, we were ready to be home. It was an experience to say the least and now I just laugh about it.

We were grateful we were able to go see our family in Utah. We miss being closer and are grateful for all they teach us and the fun we get to have together. Until next time!

Justin and Ruth Blazzard

This girl is bad  Cute to the Bone!

 She rolled for the first time on November 14th. Amazingly enough both Justin and I were sitting with her on the floor and she was in her onesie. So, neither of us missed it! She slowly rolled over from tummy to back and did it 3 more times.  She has only done it a handful of times since then though. She is definitely better these days about being on her tummy and can scoot herself around a little bit with her wiggling all of the time. She has definitely gotten to be a happier baby the older she gets.

Justin and Ruth Blazzard

 

Finally hit me after a conversation with my sister a couple days ago that it was time to start saying "No" to a couple of my engagements during the week. 

I have been feeling like a strung out mother who run's around a lot, but wonders what I really do accomplish.

I am saying No to a few things so I can say yes to reading stories with this girl. Yes to going on walks with both my girls, and yes to a movie on the weekends with my husband. 

 

Justin and Ruth Blazzard

Not Your's

I bought this exersaucer for J last week. Natalie was pretty jealous the first day and repeatedly trys to climb in it. Once she gets in it she gets stuck, bored and just wants out. Yet, she continues over and over to get in it. I repeatedly tell her, "That is not your's why are you playing with it?" Then it struck me one day, I am often like this silly toddler.

A bit of a motherhood metaphor.

This toy is actually a little advanced for Jenna. Something she can handle right now, but will need to grow into over time. Natalie had many toys, suited for her and ones that encourage her development. Yet all she can do is look at this toy, see that it must be cool because it is what J is doing, maybe get a little jealous, and is sure that she would enjoy it as well. Yet when she gets into it she soon discovers that it is not what she wants at all.

How often do I do that as a grown human being? I know that this life I have with all of its ups and downs, twists and turns, and stages is designed perfectly for me and for my growth.

Yet, so many times I get disgruntled, bored, or think others have a more perfect fit or cooler things than I do. I get jealous and sometimes even distracted from getting the most joy out of my life because I compare my situations to others and where they are at and think I need to be doing what they are doing.

When in reality our Heavenly Father probably looks at me like I did Natalie and thinks, Why? Why would you want that, when I have given you exactly what you need to be happy and grow.

The only thing I get by comparing, envying and trying to be like others is less joy, contentment, and peace. I will try to remember this as I continue to move forward in life to not compare or envy. I have what I need and I need to love it now, because I won't ever be in this same stage of life again.



Justin and Ruth Blazzard