5 Things x2

I find that I use "5 Things" posts to wrap up all the random. It's been so long since I did a 5 things post, though, that I have a lot of random to wrap up! So this is 5 things twice. 2 5things. 5 things x2.

five things once:

1. she's two! (very, very two! - and also not until Friday. officially.)

 

2. valentine's day present from Devin - so sweet.

3. a dinner plate-sized cinnamon roll for dessert (and breakfast the next day!) at Wallaby's - an impromptu dinner date with devin's parents last saturday.

4. for a long time, kaden was always complaining of headaches and constantly rubbing his eyes. we couldn't figure out what was wrong with him - turns out he just needed some glasses! now, he looks even more like his uncle Devin! what studs. even though kaden is blurry, i love this photo! i love devin in his ray ban's!

5. devin's dinner creation: chicken rolled around onion, bread crumbs and fresh parmesan cheese - so amazing! where did my husband learn to cook?!

>>><<<

five things twice:

1. my newest food obsession: blackberries. mmm

2. what monday looked like. tons of water. tons of orange juice. (i was very sick)

3. what tuesday looked like - hot water with honey and lemon juice to help my throat. and water. sooo much water. (i was still very sick)

4. what every night looks like -- saved by the bell, the office, or arrested development every night before we fall asleep.

5. our weekends have been SO busy this last month, but our weekdays? nada. 

sassy water

lately i seem to be turned on to the idea of learning about the foods that naturally detox and cleanse your body's important organs. probably because i seem to be getting sick very often, and very easily. and it's very frustrating! i think "re-setting" might help. after a lot of reading and pinterest-ing, i found something i want to try! 

sassy water

it's named after Cynthia Sass, who is the co-author of "The Flat Belly Diet". it's part of the diet in the book, and even if you aren't following the diet (i'm sure not!), it helps with the whole "drink 8 glasses of water a day" tradition. 

it claims to be able to calm your gastro-intestinal tract, it's a great source of fiber, and it can soothe an upset stomach among tons of other benefits. here's the recipe:

8 1/2 cups water (purified or filtered, ideally)

1 tsp grated ginger 

1 medium cucumber, sliced thin

1 medium to large lemon, sliced thin

12 spearmint leaves

mix all the ingredients together in a pitcher, and refrigerate it over night. strain the water in the morning, and drink all 8 1/2 cups before bed, throughout the day!

the ginger boosts metabolism

cucumbers are natural diuretics and also help your body release excess water it's storing

lemons are digestive aids and liver cleansers

it's recommended you drink this as a replacement of regular water for 4 days straight, and maintain a healthy diet throughout the "cleanse" for the best results. a lot of women claim to lose weight by making this switch in their water drinking alone, but it also helps get your body running the way it should, naturally!

i'm pretty sure i've never seen spearmint leaves in the grocery store, but I called Sunflower Market, which is here in Orem, and they said they carry them!

addi-tude is 2!

Addison Renee turns 2 on March 30th!

I can hardly believe it. When I met Devin, and he introduced me to his family in 2010, this girl was still small enough to cradle! She has grown up SO fast, and has the big personality to show it! 

She is the busiest 2 year old we know. Constantly on the move.

Her obsessions include phones, puppies, screaming, juice, snacking, Minnie Mouse and climbing on things.

She gets a little smarter every day. We love visiting and noticing how much more articulate she is with her words. She is forming full sentences and her pronunciation is past jibberish now, for the most part! She is so smart, and so pretty and absolutely hilarious!

We can never get enough of little Addi.

So to celebrate, we had some dessert and played outside on Sunday with the family!

the party hadn't even started and she had just finished cookie #3!

and naturally, clutching a phone, any phone.

she LOVES her cousin Kasey. she gets so, so excited when she sees him.

she was reading the card to all of us, and at the end, she said "DUN DUN DUN" - like a scary movie.

moses was cookie stalking, and getting a nibble whenever she wasn't looking!

opening all of her presents - she got spoiled!

the thing about this 2 year old is that she isn't a fan of toys, and has an especially short attention span. so what do you get a girly 2 year old that doesn't play? clothes!

more phone time.

the only "game" my lame phone has is an app called "Tumbling Dice" - you just shake it, and it rolls the dice. every time she sees me the first thing she says is "shake it?" - meaning she wants to play.

this is what happens when I ask devin to get me ice cream, and I apparently ask too much of him.

a little bit of ice cream, with marshmallow fluff and caramel.

and don't forget the whipped cream! - he gave me TONS!!

Skiing with The Hancocks

Our good friends Josh and Amy are on their way out of Utah soon, so Josh can go to school to become a P.A. and they made a "Utah Bucket List" to finish before they left. We are big fans of the beehive state, so we enlisted ourselves to help them complete their list. First on the agenda: skiing!

We went up to Sundance on Saturday for our last trip of the season. It was so warm, we didn't even use gloves, and Devin and Amy both got sunburns! The snow got pretty slushy after 12:00, so we only got a good 4 hour day in, but it was so worth it! Devin finally tried the famous nachos from The Bear Claw, and I never even fell! I was also proud when I successfully helped Amy re-learn her ski techniques. It was an awesome day! Devin spent a good amount of time on the black diamonds, totally rocking them, and I only joined him for 1 of them, but it was a great afternoon!

I'm glad the Hancocks still have several months before they move, because we are sure going to miss them! Once it gets warmer, the next thing on the list is to hike Timp!

Hunger Games

we went to a showing of The Hunger Games on Friday with a bunch of family and friends at Thanksgiving Point. We watched it on the Mammoth Screen -- that thing is TOO HUGE! We left a little nauseous but it was worth it! I thought the movie was so well done. It followed the book pretty much exactly. Down to tiny details, and even some of the script. It was very impressive. The cast? Incredible.

The thing about the book though, is that it is so well written, and already set up to be an amazing movie, so as I read it, it was so easy to picture it in my head. And although the cast they actually used was incredible, I had my own in mind:

When I picture people in books, it just happens by default and I don't seem to have much say in it, and it just stays that way forever.

HAYMITCH: Kevin Costner circa 1990 (like in "Dances with Wolves" except drunk.)

PEETA MELLARK: Taylor Wach (my younger sister's ex-boyfriend - weird, i know. but like i said. it happened without my consent.)

KATNISS EVERDEEN: Me... even weirder, but again, default. 

PRESIDENT SNOW: Christopher Lee - except more white hair.

EFFIE: a very petite redhead....

I know I had ideas for other people, but I can't think of them right now. I think the cast I had could have done a great job, too...

Bayli Grey Jones

it's friday night, about 1:00 a.m.

we just got home from seeing the hunger games (more later) and are trying to fall asleep.

devin is on facebook on his phone and sees that Val has said "it's baby time!"

she's at the hospital!

my phone wasn't in the room but the next morning, around 7:45, we wake up and i have a bunch of texts from val and stef.

i text back and val is responding, so i decided to just call.

i thought they would probably just be waiting around waiting for doctors to get things going.

which was sort of the case...

garrison answers, sounding like it's any other day, and hands the phone to val.

who is in labor. she's already had an epidural. 

and we're just talking on the phone like it's no big deal.

she even has a contraction!

true best friends, haha!

after a few minutes, i told her i better get going, because it sounded like she was pretty busy (haha)

devin and i had plans to go skiing with josh and amy, so we headed off to those plans (more later)

and around 2:00 when we were finished, we headed back home.

i had gotten next to no sleep, because of the late movie, plus my cold, plus my best friend was having her baby girl, so I took a short nap.

i had a text from stef around 10am saying that baby bayli was here and healthy, and val was doing good, too!

valeri and bayli were both resting, so we decided to wait a little bit. obviously, they'd had a pretty big day! 

we headed to the hospital around 4:30, and holy cow.

the most beautiful, tiny little baby girl was there in her nursery cart coo-ing and squirming.

i can't get over how beautiful she is.

and Valeri! she just had a baby, and she's gorgeous and happy, and already proving to be an amazing mother!

the first thing i noticed is that she looks a lot like her daddy!

she is a jones baby for sure.

we were all so sure she would be bald and look more like val!

i can't get over how tiny she is, but she's totally healthy. val only gained 17 pounds during the entire pregnancy!

5 lbs 3.8 oz

18 inches long

full head of dark brown hair

3 weeks early

born at 9:56 a.m.

on March 24, 2012

Bayli Grey Jones

my first ever surrogate niece, haha! val is the first of all of my close friends (excluding the ones I have met through Devin) to have a baby, so it's a very big deal!

i didn't take very many pictures, because I was holding her, but Devin snapped a few.

i wore a doctor's mask because of my cough. i didn't want to get that baby girl sick! - I also realize I look slightly crazy in the pictures, but I couldn't contain my happiness!!!

she has the cutest little cry, and big, big dark blue eyes.

she has big lips, just like her mama!

i held her for a good 20 minutes, and she just stared at me. she is gorgeous!

i miss her already!

they will probably come home from the hospital today or tomorrow, depending on how well valeri is feeling (which is good, for the most part!)

the funny thing is, though, Bayli wasn't just a surprise when we found out Val was pregnant, she was also a surprise when she came!

Valeri had just come to the hospital to turn in some labs she had done. They told her she had preclampsia. They admitted her then and induced her, because the only cure for preclampsia is to have the baby! Surprise!

The other interesting thing is that I was talking to my mom the day before about Val, and said "I hope she has this baby tomorrow!" - looks like my wish came true!!!

I am so excited for Valeri and Garrison. They will be great parents. It was already obvious in the hospital! Bayli is too small for even the premature diapers, and all the hats and headbands we put on her were way too big too! She is so small and so beautiful, and I am so happy. Part of me was so sure that seeing Bayli would put me into full-blown baby hunger (even more so than before!), but I actually left feeling like the opposite! Man, am I excited to have my own little baby some day, but I can definitely wait!!! I realized I wouldn't be thinking that if the timing was right, so we are going to happily move forward with our crazy life as it is, and continue to travel and work and learn! And obviously, play with everybody else's babies as often as possible! ha!

less than 1 day old!!!

I'm sure I will get more photos later, and I know Val and probably Stef will post some soon, too, so I may steal some of those! I just can't get over this little girl!!!

BPW: sharing + where you'll find us this weekend

anxiously waiting to start the weekend. at 7:30, you could find us at paradise bakery, one of our favorites, with tons of our friends, eating some delicious food. 

we'll probably be there for awhile.

and at about 9:30, you'll find us sitting, way too anxiously, in front of the mammoth screen, tapping our feet while we wait for The Hunger Games to start. 

and then, almost immediately after, we will most likely turn into zombies and go directly to bed.

where you can find us until noon, is my guess.

the afternoon, we can be found on the mountains of sundance, skiing our hearts out for one last time this season. 

we'll be with some other great friends. and i mean, really great. it's the hancocks, you know! they are awesome. i can't wait! 

and then, we'll probably immediately turn to zombies again, except for more sore, and with runny noses, and maybe even a sunburn or 2. and we'll be in bed until we convince ourselves to get up for church. if we can be convincing enough. 

and sunday night? we'll be found with our family, celebrating the birthday of the 2 year old with the loudest most adorable personality ever. that's right, little addison renee herself is TWO. are you kidding?!?! she is growing up way too fast. it just means we need to get some more babies in this family!!! (you know who you are...!!!)

and we will spend a few minutes dreading this awesome weekend coming to a close. and we'll fall asleep slowly, and then monday will come, and it won't be so bad. and the week will go by so fast, that it will all be okay. because it will be time for another weekend.

as for what i love about blogging this week?

sharing. i love linking up to other blogs or old posts or other websites and things. i like to give credit where credit is due, when i can remember to do so. did i mention yet that i love that my blog is like a google, but for my life? i use it all the time to look up old dates for jobs and other events that happened, to find pictures, and all other kinds of things.

i also like to share what i learn and do. i don't have very many original ideas, but i like them enough to want to share the wealth. because it's worth sharing. plus, i learn so many great things from other blogs, that it wouldn't be fair if i wasn't contributing to the huge idea pool that has been created in the blogging world.