Mini Post

I used to write lots of mini posts. They're kind of what started my blogging a couple of years ago. I would just write up quick posts on my phone, add some pictures from my phone and call it good. I think for now I'm going to go back to doing those because that's what works for me right now. 

So here's mini post number one. 

Holland and I are down in AZ visiting family. We are loving getting to see cousins and grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles but we sure are missing Race! Here are a few Instagram/phone pictures of our adventures! 

Flagstaff with Aunt Helena!

Visiting Kylie (my old roommate) and her adorable boy Jake (just a day younger than Holland)!

Hanging out with cousins!

Getting to know Granddad Ashby 

Napping in her stroller. 

And of course lots of FaceTiming with Race! 

We'll be heading back to Idaho on Sunday and while we're sad to leave we sure do miss that face up there!! 

On Being Brave. {& Haircuts--kinda}

I am really shy. Because of that I am always really impressed with people who can start {and carry on} a conversation with just anyone they meet.

For the past few weeks I was trying to figure out where to get my hair cut {I got a pixie cut and those are a little scary--especially when you don't have a hair dresser you know you love}. I was constantly on the lookout for people with cute pixies so that I could ask them who cuts their hair. None of my Idaho friends have short hair and my ward here is pretty  heavy on the elderly population {we have FOUR retirement communities in our ward boundaries} so I didn't really know where to start. I wanted something really cute and chic {what does chic really mean?}--not a "mom" or "grandma" haircut.

I started to keep my eyes peeled whenever I left the house. I didn't see much when I went out but I can honestly say I didn't look that hard because I knew I wouldn't be brave enough to actually walk up to some random stranger and first, compliment them on their cute hair and second, ask them who cuts it. So I set up an appointment with a recommendation from a friend of a friend and hoped for the best.

The night before the appointment Holland and I were wandering around Target when I saw a really cute, stylish girl {for some reason the stylish part was pretty important to me} with a really cute pixie cut. I just knew that I had to get up the nerve to ask her about it. I walked by her a few times and was about to walk away without asking when suddenly she was walking right towards me! I HAD to ask her.

So I did. I stopped her, complimented her on her cute hair, and asked her who did it. She told me how she had gotten it done at a nearby beauty school and hated it so she cut it herself and then enrolled herself in beauty school!

Ever since this happened I have been thinking about it a lot. I loved learning about this random girl's life. I know I just learned this one little thing but if I hadn't complimented her on her hair and talked to her for a whole one minute I wouldn't even know that. In fact, I probably wouldn't think about the cute girl with the pixie haircut again.

People are so much more real and memorable when you know something about them. I want the people I'm around to be real to me. I want to know more about the people I come in contact with throughout my life. I have my close friends and family that I know so much about but I think I often I forget to interact with all of the other real people around me.

Even though it was something so small I am grateful I was brave and I really feel like I was rewarded with a piece of that girl's story. I think I need to always be on the lookout for something to ask strangers about. I need more random conversations in my life! What about you? When was the last time you had a conversation with a stranger? Did you start it or did they? Did you think about it much afterwards or am I just weird like that? 

Some Other Random Notes:
-In about six months I will be going to that cute girl to get my hair cut!! I got her information and I am so excited to have her start doing my regular trims!
-Now that I have a pixie cut I see girls with pixies ALL. THE. TIME. {go figure} and I feel a special kinship with them. I'm not sure if it's reciprocated but that's okay! :]
-And a couple questions for any hairdressers out there--Do you like to carry on a conversation while you are cutting a client's hair? And do you usually initiate the conversation or does the client?

Here is my hair for those of you who haven't seen it on Instagram yet.

9 & 10 Months.

First off, I am a couple of months behind on Holland's monthly updates. She is already TEN months old! So we're just going to combine the two months! And then I'll still do the Instagram posts separately! I still haven't done her Eight Month in Instagrams yet! I'll get there! We had a trip to AZ in May for my sister's wedding and then we went camping the week after we got back. Other than that we've just been soaking in the beautiful weather and spending lots of time in the sun! But back to the update on Holland's ninth and tenth months!

I have officially failed to do a photo of Holland in a laundry basket every month. Oh well! I take hoards of other pictures of Holland so they will just have to suffice for this post!

Dearest Holland,

We are still loving each stage you reach more and more! It is so fun watching you explore and learn new things!

At nine months you:

-Love putting your fingers in other people's mouths and feeling their teeth as well as in your own mouth.
-You went on a trip to AZ to be a part of Aunt Helena and Uncle Cory's wedding and did great on the flight to AZ but threw up the last ten minutes on the flight back to Idaho. That was not fun but shockingly NO ONE on the plane noticed! I have no idea how since you threw up ALL over Dad. We were grateful no one noticed though and everyone on the plane loved you!
-You can wave and it's adorable!
-You learned how to get up from your back. You still haven't really every rolled from your back to your stomach but you learned how to sit up from lying on your back and let me tell you, you can see just how hard your abs are working to get you up!
-You can stand up on furniture and walk around it and you figured out that sometimes you can let go and stand up on your own for a few seconds.
-You eat any finger foods that I put in front of you but you especially love anything green- avocados, peas, green beans, etc.

We just can't believe how fast you are growing up!

At ten months you:

-Let me feed you from a spoon for the first time ever! That lasted about a week before you decided you were ready to feed yourself with a spoon. So I load the spoon up and hand it to you and then you do an amazing job at getting it to your mouth. That lasted for about a day before you decided you should also be getting the food onto the spoon. You are turning into a toddler much too fast! You are pretty good at getting food for yourself but I have to monitor by holding the bowl otherwise you just dump everything out and don't eat much of it. You are loving meal times and I have noticed that if you hadn't had enough big girl food throughout the day you can get really crabby. We have yet to come across a food that you don't like. There were a couple of things you didn't like the first time around but by the second time we gave you them you decided they were delicious {strawberries, bananas, pineapple}.You do really seem to like veggies more than fruits which is helping me to be better about eating veggies! You're just such a good example! You still nurse quite a bit which I'm totally okay with because I love to snuggle with you. I think I will be pretty sad when you decide that nursing isn't your thing anymore.
-I shouldn't write anything good about your sleeping schedule because I know the second I say anything about it it will change. You have ALWAYS gone to bed really late but we had a wonderful week where you went to bed at 11 every night. I LOVED it. But then I bragged to my mom and the next night you didn't go to bed until 1:30 am. I did not love that so much. So your sleeping schedule is still a little crazy but when you do get to bed you don't usually wake up at all during the night and that is really nice! And you take two pretty regular naps during the day unless your schedule gets messed up from church or visiting family.
-You started taking steps! You had taken one or two steps towards me but the first time you took steps with real purpose you were walking towards your Aunt Tyne and you walked about five steps. It was impressive! You do love your Aunt Tyne and she is also the first person that you crawled to! Since those first few steps you have started to walk more and more! The most you have taken is probably right around ten but you've gotten so good at keeping your balance and deciding when you're ready to sit down vs. falling down.
-Also related to walking we have been taking your walker to the mailbox every day. It makes for a much longer trip than me carrying you there but you love to stop and wave at the cars passing by, watch the kids running around, eat the grass and rocks, etc. so we take 20 minutes to make our way to the mailboxes and then let you play at the mailboxes/park for a while before we make our way home. It's a nice way to get out of the house and enjoy the pretty weather.
-You learned how to open up cupboards and our house looks like a tornado tore it apart every day. Every cupboard in the kitchen and living room is open and everything is dumped out. It is a full time job to follow you around and clean up your messes. So sometimes they just stay that way for a while...oh well! You also love to dump out all of your books and blocks and other toys and then you'll just sit in the middle of the mess and pull your blocks apart, read yourself a book, kiss your stuffed lion, etc. for a while. I do love that you are starting to get a little more independent during your play time but you definitely still prefer to have me on the floor playing with you or reading to you or just around to climb all over. You make sure that I don't leave you alone for too long!
-You are finally starting to get over your stranger anxiety and have started smiling at EVERYONE again! You had a couple of months where people really had to coax a smile out of you and you did not want anyone other than mom holding you. Now you go to other people a LITTLE bit more and you have started grinning at everyone. We love to see your smile more!
-You have also started laughing out loud super randomly. It's like you just thought of the funniest joke and couldn't help laughing but we don't know what it was. I love to hear you laugh so I don't mind not knowing the joke!

As you can tell I remember a lot more about your tenth month than your ninth month! I guess that's why I need to actually write these posts as they are happening!

I do love you sweet girl and I will never get tired of watching you, teaching you, cuddling with you, loving you, etc. You are my sweet, perfect baby and I am beyond grateful that I get to be your mom! Your dad and I love you so much!

Love,
Mom & Dad

Nine Months.

{At Gram and Granddad Ashby's house}

10 Months. 

{Showing off her four teeth and the fact that she loves to be 

upside down--she also loves to be thrown in the air, flipped over, etc.}

We Love Summer.

We are loving summer. Holland and I walk around our apartment complex every day. We bring Holland's walker and she takes her time exploring as we make our way to the mailbox. She loves to watch all the kids playing outside and always wants to stop and eat the rocks and grass {Mostly the grass. She has a thing for all things green--avocados, peas, cucumber, green beans, etc.} We went to the pool in our complex for the first time today and even though the water was a little bit chilly it was so nice to cool off. Holland loves the water as long as I am holding her close.

A couple of weeks ago we went to a splash pad with Holland's Aunt Tyne and cousin Madison. Holland wasn't really a fan of the water there but loved to watch all of the other kids playing. She looked adorable in her swimsuit so of course I had to get a few pictures!

In other news Holland has started taking steps and feeding herself! She can take about 5-10 steps when she's feeling like it and is getting really good at staying balanced. Holland has been finger feeding herself for a while now but a couple of days ago she decided she should also be spoon feeding herself. So she would have me hand her the spoon so she could put it in her mouth and then this morning she decided that she should also get her food out of the bowl on her own. My baby is turning into a toddler!

I need to play catch up and write her 9 and 10 month posts! She has grown up so much these last two months! And in less than two more months she is going to be a year old! I just can't wrap my head around that! I am already really excited for her birthday party though! :] I'm just trying to convince my family to come visit from AZ so they can all be here for it!

Holland has Hair!

It never crossed my mind that I might have a baby with practically no hair. I had LOTS of dark hair as a baby so I always imagined that I would have a baby girl with lots of dark hair. I'm not going to lie, I was a little surprised when Holland came out with almost no hair. And then she lost the little bit of hair that she did have. So, while I have been loving her adorable bald head for the past nine and a half months I am happy to report that she finally has a tiny bit of hair! It was looking absolutely adorable sticking straight up today so I had to grab the camera and snag some pictures. I always want to remember how excited I was to see some hair on my sweet baby girl!

8 months.

You guys, I didn't write down much about Holland's eighth month. I usually keep a little running list on my phone of things I want to remember and now that she's almost nine months I'm getting everything confused! So this eight month post is going to be quick and a bit scattered.

Dear Holland girl,

We are just loving you at this stage. You are so funny and we love finding things to make you laugh. You have four teeth now but still are pretty anti-baby food. You are eating more finger foods. Lots of the little Gerber snacks but also bits and pieces of mom and dad's meals. You really like eating peas from mom's salads and you LOVE grated cheese. For the past few months you have been really clingy to me {mom} which makes some days really hard. Even though you still won't go to Dad for more than a couple of minutes if I'm in the room you have started to get SO excited when he gets home. You grin and grin when he walks in and just love when he comes to say hi to you. It is adorable! We're also grateful to live near your Aunt Tyne, Uncle Patrick and cousin Madison. You LOVE your Aunt Tyne. She is one of the only people you will go to over me. You also love your cousin and just want to be big like her. You follow her around while she runs throughout the house and laugh at everything she does. You also clap for her. Your clapping is one of my favorite things. You learned to clap just before your half birthday but then stopped doing it for a while and now that you've started it up again I just love it. It cracks me up when you clap for Madison or for yourself. Sometimes you'll crawl to a toy and then sit down and clap for yourself for making it there. It is just so cute! I am just loving everything about you these days! Thank you for bringing so much joy to our home! I love you Holland!

One Month.

Two Months.

Three Months.

Four Months.

Five Months.

Six Months.

Seven Months.

Eight Months!

Love you sweet girl!
Love, Mom & Dad

Self-Timer Fails I Love.

I don't know how people use the self-timers on their cameras. Maybe it would help if I had a remote or something but just figuring out how to focus the camera and stuff completely eludes me. Despite that, I have ended up with quite a few "messed up" self-timer shots that I am in love with simply because they are of Holland and I. So, you all get to see a few of those today! As well as some mirror pics of the two of us!

I am so glad that even blurry images can capture just how much love I have for my sweet Holland girl. We sure do have a lot of fun together!

Happy Wednesday! And holy heck can you believe it's May?!

P.S. If anyone has some awesome self time tips and tricks I would LOVE to hear them!

{These photos were all taken the same day as my "A Day in the Life" post.}