A little bit of cRaZy!

Here's what we've been up to lately:

-Dec. 23rd through the 26th we were with my family at my parent's house celebrating Christmas.
-We moved from our apt. in Provo to my parent's basement the 27th (and let me tell you we have A LOT of stuff!!!).
-The night of the 27th we drove up to Star Valley to visit Justin's parents and we will be here until this Friday or so.
-We took a few pics on Christmas, but now that I have time to post them while we're here in Star Valley, I have realized that we forgot our little device that transfers our pictures onto the computer, nice huh?

Needless to say, things have been a little bit of a blur, but so great at the same time. We had a wonderful Christmas and we've enjoyed being with so much family lately. I'll post the few pics we have soon!

*If anyone is a master organizer with time on their hands (I know, this has now disqualified everyone!!) we could definitely use your help in getting things straight in our new residence!

More Pink!

A few pics I took of Molly today.

It wouldn't be Christmas without

Yep, peppermint ice cream! You know Christmas is coming when you see the peppermint ice cream at the grocery store! I admit I have an obsession with anything mint (desserts specifically) and so I always have to have some peppermint ice cream when Christmas rolls around each year. And yes, there is some in my freezer at this very moment :) Yum-o!!

Take 2--

2 months old

We've made it two months! Yeah! So I'm thinking that maybe for Christmas we should ask Santa for a camera that can focus better than ours! I seriously don't know what the deal is. I tried like every different option on the camera and there wasn't too much success. The pictures look better small because of the focus issue, so here's a few I took today of our happy little Molly! I love this one!

Hmm, I wonder if it could be the card in the camera...? Although I really think it's the camera. If any of you are good with cameras, I'd take any troubleshooting help!!

A couple thoughts...

Yesterday I went back in to work for about 5 hours. It was a little weird, I'll be honest! I have been gone for 8 weeks and went in to work on a transcription for my boss (I am an assistant). It was actually really nice to be there and to feel like I accomplished something when I left! This isn't to say that I haven't accomplished anything in the past 8 weeks, but you know what I mean! ;) I also went in today for 4 hours and I will go back in tomorrow again from 10 am to 2 pm (what a nice schedule huh?!). After I finish that project I'm not sure if I will be going in or not. My boss has some new responsibilities, but I'm not sure that he knows exactly what he can have me help with. I told him if there aren't any concrete projects I'm not coming in because I don't want to waste my time hanging out at the office when I can be home with Molly! So we'll see. But for now it's nice going in for a few hours and working, even if it is something so tedious as transcribing!!

On a totally different note, what is up with me being a little flaky these days? You'd think with all of the time I spend at home I could keep things straight!! Here is what I'm talking about. Two Saturdays ago (so we're still in Nov.) I started thinking, am I supposed to be teaching in YW tomorrow? I had left my phone at my mom's the night before (again, how flaky is that?) and so I couldn't call the YW president (I'm the laurels advisor so she's obviously the other teacher). So after Sacrament meeting I walk over and ask if I'm supposed to be teaching. She said she had planned to teach since I said I would be ready to teach starting in December (after having the baby I told her by Dec. I could commit to teaching again). Lucky for me! So she saved me there. Then today I was reading through my emails and I read a reminder from the same lady reminding us about our meeting and then the YW activity afterward. Okay, I'm so dumb! I let Justin take the car to work (his shift is 2:30 to 11 pm today). So I have no way to get to the meeting and activity! How could I forget that Wednesdays are activities? I've been in the YW now for 4 months!! But not to worry, I just talked to the girl in beehives and she's going to give me a ride :) Luckily other people are responsible if I'm not!!

Hope I haven't totally bored anyone here!!

Blessing Day

We blessed Molly yesterday and it was a very special experience. Both Justin's and my immediate families were there (minus Justin's two youngest brothers who are on missions), plus Justin's grandparents and my two grandfathers. Justin gave a beautiful blessing and Molly never even spit up on her beautiful dress! Therefore it was a success!! Afterwards we had a big family dinner at my parent's house. Justin and I are so blessed to have such a beautiful daughter who brings us so much joy and happiness!

Molly is Justin's grandparent's first great-granddaughter. I believe she is my Grandpa Galbraith's 11th great-grandchild and she is my Grandpa Watkin's 75th great-grandchild!!!

We like Music

Look how intent she is on watching!!

Sorry about the fan in the background...it makes it kind of hard to see the mobile, but you can tell that she's totally watching it closely!!

Lately we've had a lot of fun with Molly and music. Currently she is in a bassinet in our room next to our bed. But she does have a crib that's in our 2nd bedroom. We have a Winnie the Pooh mobile hung over the crib and we recently put her in her crib while she's been fussy and played the music on the mobile. She loves it! It calms her right down and she loves to watch it rotate around! She is at the point where she can track things with her eyes, and it's obvious in this situation!

Today we put the little singing animals that light up onto Molly's bouncer since she seemed to like the mobile so much. She liked the animals too!

Sleeping style

How can she hold her arm up like this while sleeping?

Meet Frankenstein! Her arms are straight out.

It's been pretty funny watching the different positions Molly sleeps in. Her usual is to have her arms up by her head with her hands in little fists. But we've also seen her put her arms in other funny places or holding her hands with her fingers all stretched out in the air. So here is what she has been sleeping like in her bouncer while I've been posting tonight. Sorry the pics are a little blurry...I must've had the camera on a weird setting.

Smile!

Molly has started to smile in the past week and a half or so and it is so cute! She loves to smile for her mom and dad and both grandmas have been successful as well. It is so fun to start to see a little personality in her! She has dimples too. The one on her right cheek is more prominent, but once in a while we see the other one on her left cheek. I love the dimples!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2007 Justin, me, Brooke, and Scott
Yum-o! Dessert was fabulous! I only wish my stomach was bigger at that point! :)

Sunny, Kyle, Val and Shelley

Switchback restaurant where we ate our yummy Thanksgiving feast!

Well for Thanksgiving we were in St. George and we had reservations at the Switchback restaurant near Zion's National Park. I've never not had a homemade Thanksgiving, so I was a little unsure about the idea, but it turned out great! They had a big buffet with all of your regular Thanksgiving menu items, plus some extra things like shrimp, ham, prime rib, spring rolls, and a few other things that aren't always on the menu for Thanksgiving. And dessert was fabulous! They had a big pot of dipping chocolate with little rammekins to get your own chocolate with strawberries. They also had a peach cobbler that was to die for! Then of course pumpkin, pecan, apple, and a few other pies with ice cream if you wanted. They also had a chef making bananas foster for those who wanted it. (I would've tried it but I was way too full by then!) It was nice not to do any preparation and not to have to clean anything up! I don't know if I'd want to go out every year, but I was pretty impressed with this place and would suggest it to anyone who is in southern Utah around Thanksgiving and isn't planning on cooking the meal yourself!

St. George

This past week we went with the Pendleton's to St. George (Justin's parents, his sister and her husband, his brother and his wife and us). Justin's parents got their time share there and we stayed in the "penthouse" which consisted of 3 bedrooms each with a bathroom, a kitchen and living room, washer and dryer, and a deck with our own hot tub! The accomodations were great.

Justin and I were so glad to have a vacation! It came at the perfect time. We had such a great time. The boys went golfing two days while the girls shopped (the usual vacation agenda for the Pendleton family :) ), we ate out, went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory one too many times :), played games, sat in the hot tub, watched some movies and just relaxed. Molly loved it because she was held practically every second! I hope she doesn't want to make it a habit! Anyway, I have wonderful in-laws and had a great week!

Nice open kitchen. We didn't really take many pictures. I'm not quite sure why I took this one and not one with people in it...

Going for a Walk

Today we decided to get our Baby Bjorn out and put it to use. It's a beautiful day here in Provo today...blue skies and about 50 degrees. First I got Molly dressed in a little fleece sweatsuit. I was surprised it fit. It's a newborn size but everything that says it's NB has usually been too big!

Next Justin got Molly in the Baby Bjorn.

Here they are, all ready to go!

We just took a short little walk over to the place where you hike the Y. You'll notice something white at the top of this picture...that's the Y!

Here's the view: BYU campus and Utah lake.

Lots to Share!

Here are some pics that I've taken over the past week or so.

Molly's quilt! My mom made this beautiful quilt for Molly. We both love it!

Here's a closer picture of the quilt in the crib.

This is another project sewn by my mother. I haven't been able to master nursing Molly in public with a blanket. I have a few friends who have these nursing covers and also I've seen them online. They sell for like 30 bucks and I thought you know what? I bet you could make one for cheaper than that. I sent my mom a couple of links to check out these covers and asked if we could make one. She said it would be easy. Well I have inherited a sewing machine from my mother-in-law but it's at my mom's house. My mom and I bought the fabric together and then she pretty much did the rest! I think it turned out really cute and it works great! My mom finished both the quilt and nursing cover this week! Thanks mom, you're amazing and so talented!!!

One happy family! Here are all of the grandkids on my side of the family taken yesterday when all of us kind of ended up being at my parent's house for one reason or another. (*Emily and Todd were actually both here as well, but we didn't all fit on the couch so it's just kids with parents...or parent in my case since Justin was at work)

Justin wanted to take this picture today after church. I couldn't believe he suggested it! He never wants to take/be in pictures...it's amazing the effect a cute little baby can have on a person :)

This is also a picture Justin wanted taken. She was lying on her little hand which is kind of hard to see. This is Justin's favorite little outfit of Molly's right now.

Spoiled

For those who've seen Molly's selection of clothing you know she is SPOILED!!! Thanks to many friends and family, we were very prepared with just about everything we needed for her. She will be 4 weeks on Sunday (crazy) and I continue to receive gifts for her! Today I got two very cute additions to her wardrobe and I thought I'd share. Thanks everyone for the gifts! Here is the back of the sweater shown in the picture two below.

My friend Sara went to NY last weekend and brought this home for Molly!

Okay, how stinking cute is this little outfit?! This is an adorable little Ralph Lauren combo bought by a lady in my mom's ward (the ward I grew up in). I love it!!

And here's Molly today. Just hanging out. You feel so bad when they can't support their little head! But you also don't want to wake them by trying to move it :)

Pumpkin Bread

This is a recipe I got from Allrecipes.com and made the other day. I'm a big fan of allrecipes.com as well as kraftfoods.com.

Pumpkin Bread
Submitted by Shirley Sober
Prep time: 15 min.
Cook time: 1 hour
Yields: 32 servings

Ingredients:

1 c. butter or margarine, softened

3 c. sugar
3 eggs
3 c. flour
1 T. baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 t. ground cloves
1 1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1 16 oz. can solid pack pumpkin

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs; mix well. Combine dry ingredients; stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Stir in pumpkin. Pour into two greased 9 in. x 5 in. x 3 in. loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until bread tests done.

*I didn't have two loaf pans so I bought these 3 smaller aluminum ones at the store and they worked out perfectly. I gave away two loafs and kept one for us. I wish I would've kept them all because the bread is so yummy! I also added chocolate chips. Very moist!

Halloween Project

I thought I'd share a project I've been working on lately. For those who don't know, I really like to cross-stitch. I enjoy having a project like this while I'm watching TV or a movie at home. I usually have most of my projects custom framed, but that gets so expensive! I decided with this stitchery to try to frame it myself. My mom has done a few things this way, so I figured I'd take a stab at it myself. I plan on ironing the stitchery, then taping it tightly onto a piece of cardboard. Then taping the back of the stitchery to the back of the frame. At least that was the impression I got when talking to my mom. I'll post the finished product when I'm done! Hopefully it will work out as planned!An idea of what it will look like finished. It will be a little bit tight, but it was hard to find a frame that would work. This was the best I could find!

This is a simple wooden frame I bought on sale at Roberts for about $6. I am going to sand this and paint it black.

Close up of the EEK! stitchery

Friday

Since being home with a baby, each night I go to bed and usually think to myself, what did I accomplish today? When you're used to a full time, 8-5 job, you are used to getting projects and assignments completed every day. So it has been a little interesting for me for the three weeks now that I have been home each day being a mom. Although I don't feel like I am "accomplishing" a whole lot of things, I have taken care of a newborn baby for another day. And that is no small accomplishment if you ask me (although other moms may differ...?).

So here's a recap of a few things we've done today. Molly unfortunately won't be big enough really to fit a Halloween costume, so today I was trying on the cute little pumpkin hat that a friend bought for her. She has matching socks, but I didn't try those on her today. I was just curious if there was going to be a chance that the hat would fit on Halloween and it looks like we might!

Next we have an oh so content Molly in her bouncer! We just put in a D battery for it to vibrate and so today we tried it out. She loved it! She sat in it the whole time I made pumpkin bread today (will post that separately if the bread turned out! I'm letting it cool as we speak). I think she really liked the vibrations.

And finally we have tummy time. The doctor says to do tummy time three times a day for five minutes. At first she's okay with tummy time but usually by the end of the five minutes she's balling and wondering why in the world we put her in that position! Notice I put a happy picture of her...must be the first minute or two :)

How's that for an exciting Friday?!!

Cool template!

While I was wandering around on some people's blogs, I found a cool link for blog templates, so I decided to give this one a whirl! How fun! Here is the link to where I found this template: http://shabbytulips.blogspot.com/ You may already know about this, but I'm still a little new at the whole personalizing part of blogging!! Halloween really is coming up soon, so I think I might leave this template up for the next little while.

Our Baby Girl!

Meet Molly Nicole Pendleton! She joined our family on October 7th at 11:07 am. She was 7 lbs. 6 oz. and 20 1/2 in. long. Justin and I are enjoying the new experience of parenthood and each day gets a little better as we learn what she needs and wants. We are so thrilled to have her as part of our family! Getting ready for bed...the hat sometimes helps speed up sleep and dad thinks I look like a little thug in it!

Check out her little hands...just posing!

Sleeping as usual

Why we LOVE her!! Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?!

Molly's first day at church