Gramse

A year in pictures. (almost)

2012-01-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

Okay so we haven't blogged in a while, but this is what we've been doing.

Lake Powell, contrary to how she looks in this picture, Sadie had a ton of fun.

Love this picture.

We went camping a few times, Sadie loves her cousins, and getting dirty.

We may have found Sadie's future sport. Her two favorite things are soccer balls and running. She's getting pretty good at kicking too!

More cousin fun at a surprise party for Grandma Reese. So many little girls on this side of the family, these four will all be the same year of school, and we just got two new little girls, one born in November(Shelton and Katie's little girl Eliza) and one in January (Jason and Lisa's little girl Saige.)

We bought this backpack for Sadie when we were in New York, she couldn't take it off for weeks.

We had such a fun time at Black Island Farms this year for Halloween. Sadie loved the big slides, riding the tractor, all the animals and choosing her own pumpkin.

Sadie has become such a little poser for pictures. It's okay though, I love taking pictures of her. Seems like everyday she does something funnier than the day before.

If you have an iPhone you should get InstaGram, just look how cool these next two pictures are! (you will also need a cute subject to take pictures of.)

I grew a mustache again, what do ya know! Heather detests the mustache, but sometimes a man just needs to grow one.

It went well with my Halloween costume though. Sadie had such a fun time trick'or'treating this year. We stayed out for two hours! She tried to take two pieces of candy from each house, but always remembered to say thank you.

Heather and Sadie looked so cute together this year!

We always have so much fun on Halloween, more so now with Sadie.
Can't believe Sadie is already two! She had such a fun party, thanks to everyone who came to see her. Who'd have thought we could fit so many people in our house?

Opening presents in one of her favorite things.
Also playing with friends and family.

Christmas cutting for 2011! Sadie and Sophie are inseparable, yet fight so much when they are with each other! Such a funny relationship they have.

Hibler family grandkids

Sadie loved getting things ready for Christmas, helping decorate the tree, laughing at her dad when he got stuck on the roof putting up lights(that was mostly Heather actually), helping her mom bake treats for neighbors and friends and going to the Temple Square Christmas lights.

Sadie couldn't believe her eyes when she saw all the presents "Ho Ho" left for her. She was a little overwhelmed and didn't know what to play with first.

Her kitchen set was probably her favorite. She did not like all the new clothes she got. Toys are so much more fun!

2011 was such a fun year! Maybe this year we'll post more than every six months...

That's Everything...

2011-07-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I have come to the realization that I am a horrible blogger. I love to look at my friends and family's blogs, but have such a hard time keeping mine updated. So here I am, about ready to write the longest post of my life. Sorry!

We have been doing so many fun things lately. Sadie is at such a fun age where she loves everything and can verbalize that she is having fun and knows what is going on. We took her to the zoo a couple of months ago and she absolutely loved it. We have already been back two more times. I think her favorite animals were the giraffe and baby elephant. She also loved the carousel of course.

*Such a Daddy's girl...she definitely loves her Daddy!

Sadie also did gymnastics through the winter and absolutely loved it. Her teacher was so good with her and was so patient. Its not easy teaching a 18 month old how to take turns. She had a show at the end of May and did so well. She learned how to do somersaults, hot dog rolls, climb on ladders, jump, etc. She loved showing her Daddy what she could do. I loved doing it with her and can't wait to get back to it after the summer's over.

*Sadie's favorite thing to do at gymnastics, hands-down, was the parachute. She loved it!

We also had a very fun 4th of July weekend. We were able to go up to my brother-in-law's sister's cabin up near Heber. We had a blast....Sadie saw her first Daddy, Mommy, and Baby Moose, as well as countless deer. The first deer she saw was walking across the road near the cabin and she got so excited and very promptly said 'Momma'. She then repeatedly would point to the spot she saw it and say 'Momma deer'. She then wanted to see a Daddy deer and Baby deer. She's very into Dadda, Momma, and Baby's - its so cute. We had so much fun with my parents and Mindy and her family. Such a great time...thanks Steve and Mindy!

*Sadie loved riding the four-wheeler and playing in the dirt. We also went to Caden's baseball games down in Heber, hence the dress! She had so much fun!

*There was also the riding of motorcycles, my mom and Mindy got hooked on riding Caden's dirt bike.*And then poor Sophie fell in some Stinging Nettle. She is such a trooper!

Then on the actual 4th of July we slept in Mindy's backyard and woke up to swim and spend all day with the family. Craig was able to go on a nice motorcycle ride (did I mention he got a motorcycle? See more about that below) with Steve, Chris, and my parents (their all crazy!). We then spent the day swimming, laying out, and just having fun. We then went to my parents for the fireworks show at Davis High. Sadie loved the fireworks and loved running around my parent's front yard with Sophie. Overall it was a very fun 4th of July - no wonder its my favorite holiday - family, fireworks, swimming, red, white, and blue! Love it!

*Um, this is what Sadie's hair looks like when I don't do it. Poor girl needs a haircut!

Now, on to the motorcycle - Craig got one. He rides it everywhere - work, Yogurt Stop, grocery store, etc. He loves it - I think almost as much as he loves Sadie and I. He has ridden to Antelope Island, up Immigration Canyon and over to Morgan, and countless other smaller rides. I do have to admit he looks pretty good on his motorcycle!

*Craig at Antelope Island on his new ride...

Lastly, just a few words about Sadie. She is so much fun. She talks and talks and talks. She understands when we ask her to do things and she bargains. She loves to be with people, ride in her bike trailer, play in the dirt, and draw, draw, draw. She loves to draw with crayons, pens, magna doodles, sidewalk chalk, everything! She especially loves when her Dad draws her Dadda, Momma, and Baby fishes. She's loves popsicles, Pixar, slides, and reading. She is such a hoot! We just love her so much!

Spring is Here! (Finally!)

2011-05-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

We have had a very fun Spring, despite all the cold weather. We have gone down to St. George a couple of times, Craig finished up the semester, we've played outside non-stop (at least when the weather's good), gone to parks, went to baby animal days, etc., etc., etc.

It was Craig's birthday on April 7th and we celebrated it in St. George with my family. We went to a nice dinner and just hung out. I had ordered him some presents from nordstrom.com and they got stolen mid-transit. So half the day of his birthday he was dealing with that. What a mess! I am happy to say that everything worked out and he got his presents, 2 weeks after his birthday! What a joke!

Craig celebrated by growing a mustache the whole month of March. It was a nice surprise when he shaved it off come the first part of April.

We were also able to take Sadie to Baby Animal Days at the This is the Place Heritage Park the Friday before Easter. Sadie loved loved loved the baby chicks, rabbits, and pigs. She didn't want to touch the baby chicks, she just loved watching them eat and chirp. It was so much fun; they had baby lambs, goats, cows, chicks, ducks, rabbits, and pigs. Sadie even got to ride a pony. She was a little nervous but in the end had a fun time. They also had a little train ride that took you around the whole park; by that time Sadie was starving to death so we left and went to Zupas on our way home. It was a fun day!

The Saturday before Easter we had an Easter dinner and egg hunt at my sister, Mindy's house. Sadie had an Easter egg hunt at gymnastics the Friday before so she knew exactly what to do. Although the first egg she found at Mindy's was right by the dog's bone, so she tried to put it in her basket and was a little confused why the Easter bunny would bring her Nellie's dog bone. Grandma and Grandpa also gave her a book for Easter, which she loves, of course. The Easter bunny gave her a Cozy Coupe car (she was so excited about it when she came down the stairs, she let out a little squeal of delight), some sidewalk chalk, bubbles, gardening tools, and of course, candy. Holidays are so much more fun with kids!

*This is the only picture I got of her in her Easter dress - she looks like an orphan child!

Now, just a quick synopsis about Sadie:

She is now almost 18 months and has such a personality. She throws tantrums one minute and gives kisses the next. She has now started knowing the meaning of time-outs and has to take a time out more and more these days. She loves gymnastics, being outside, animals, Toy Story 1,2, and 3 and Tangled, Daddy's iPhone, wrestling, and playing with Sophie. She must do everything by herself, including holding a big cup, eating, putting her pants and shoes on, etc. She is saying more and more words every day. Some of my favorites are Wo Wo (Sophie), snack, tickle, please, bye bye, Halle, grandpa, baby, uh-oh and Sadie. She is still not saying the dreaded 'No!' but maybe it's because her parents can't say 'no' to her because she's so cute!

She's been teething a lot lately, so her sleeping habits are all askew. She went 2 1/2 weeks not sleeping through the night, so we started letting her cry it out. Well the first night we let her cry it out she literally jumped out of her crib! All of a sudden we heard a thud and after we ran up to her room out she comes sobbing. The next night she does the same thing - jumps out of her crib after crying for 5 minutes. Therefore, I'm sad to say that my baby is no longer in a crib. We converted it to a toddler bed so she wouldn't break her neck. She is doing so good in her little bed and sleeping so much better. I can't believe my baby is so big!

Sadie has now discovered the camera and loves to make a silly face when we say 'Cheese'. However, she is following in my mom's footsteps and seems to close her eyes every time we take a picture. It better not be a lifelong habit!

Life is going so fast, but we are having so much fun. Craig just finished the school semester and his internship and is continuing to work at the internship and take a class or two this summer. I am enjoying working, but would rather stay home with my baby. Maybe someday! Sadie loves to go to Grandpa and Tina's to play and I am grateful she is able to have good babysitters. We are looking forward to nicer weather, swimming, Lake Powell, and summer evenings.

Let's Go Private...

2011-03-23T21:09:00.001-07:00

Well, since my sister decided to go private, I decided to follow in her footsteps and also go private. No longer will I stand for "anonymous" comments from who knows who. So, please leave me your information and I will make sure to give you access. I'd love to give you access if you visit my blog...if I know you!

Hope everybody is doing well!

Sadie's First Meetup with Concrete

2011-03-10T22:04:00.000-08:00

This is Sadie's first scuff, happened a few days ago but she handled it great, doesn't even know it's there anymore. She tripped on the driveway, only a few moments after I dropped her off at one of her day time sitters, I imagine her running after me yelling "Dad don't go!!!" Then eating it in her desperation. In reality she was probably running over to see the dog.

Still likes to make scrunch faces. Not as much as she used to, which makes us love them more.

We also got to watch Caden, Halle, Carson and Sophie over the weekend, we went to Antelope Island, saw some buffalo, walked around, had a fun time outside. It's been a long winter!
We have a new found respect for mothers of 4 or more kids, I don't know how they can manage them all day everyday! We had 5 kids for a day and half and was so exhausted. Still, we love hanging with them and Sadie just loves playing with other kids.

Valentine's day and other fun things

2011-02-20T20:32:00.000-08:00

Sorry its late but, Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's this year was pretty uneventful, but just what I wanted. I had a big meeting the day of Valentine's at work and was kind of stressed about it. I was able to meet Craig and Sadie for lunch in Salt Lake but had to go back to work after. It was all right though, because when I got home from work we had a heart-shaped pizza, put Sadie to bed, and watched a chick-flick. It was just what I wanted. I love just being with Craig and Sadie at home!

Other than Disneyland and Valentine's Day we have pretty much been hanging out at home. Here are a few random pics of what we've been up to the past couple of weeks...

We watched Sophie the other night so that Mindy and Steve and the older kids could go skiing up at Nordic Valley. Sophie is such a great baby, always so happy and smiley. Her and Sadie are starting to become good friends. Good enough friends, even, that Sadie doesn't try to drown her in the tub!

Yesterday, we were able to go up to Logan for a family party. Craig's nephew came home from Iraq on a two-week leave and we were able to get together to see him while he's here. We had a pizza party at the school that Craig's Mom teaches at. Sadie and her little cousins loved running around the gym and playing with the toys and balls. It was so fun to see everybody. Thanks, Grandma Reese, for putting together such a great party!

Sadie eating cheesecake. What a mess!
Riding Baylee's fire engine. She has such attitude, poor Baylee couldn't even play with her own toys!
Sadie's such a cuddler though, and wanted to give Baylee kisses..

Today Craig, Sadie and I played outside in the snow. Sadie has been getting such bad cabin fever that I've been trying to take her outside as much as I can. Actually, I think we are both getting cabin fever. She loves to be outside, doesn't matter what kind of weather, and I am so glad. We built a snowman, shoveled the walk, and just played.

Sadie is growing and doing new things every day. She turned 15 months on February 11th. Here are her stats:
Height: 31.5 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 22.8 pounds (50th percentile)
Head: 18 inches (40th percentile)

I just want to list a few of the new things she is doing, since I've been such a blog slacker!

She can say the following words: Mama, Dad, Papa, Cat, Up, Here, Tickle, Hey, Mmmm, Hot
She loves baby dolls. Loves to rock them, feed them, put diapers on them, hug them and kiss them. Its so cute!
She loves bath time. As always!
She is now running. She loves to run around stores, the mall, everywhere.
She's down to one nap a day, but makes it a long one.
She can give high fives and the rock - that's her new trick.
She loves to read and will sit down by herself and look at books. She loves to sit on your lap and be read to. Her favorite books are: Pinkalicous, Purplicious, How do dinosaurs love their cats, and Jack and Jill.
She loves Gob and tries to sit by him every moment she can get.
She is such a cuddler - she always gives kisses and hugs and loves to sit on your lap.
Her favorite foods are: pizza, spaghetti, milk, macaroni and cheese, blueberries, apples, and toast. She's now in a booster seat and hasn't sat in her high chair for a good month.
She watches morning cartoons, her favorites are Dinosaur Train, Cat in the Hat, Curious George, and Super Why. She still gets somewhat bored of them and can only watch a few snippets here and there.
She has got quite a personality on her. She is very independent and stubborn but also so sweet and cuddly. She gets a little timid in big crowds but warms up eventually and then thinks she owns the place. She knows what she wants and doesn't give up until she gets it. This includes many toys and those poor kids that she grabs them from!

We are so in love with Sadie and love every stage that she goes through. We are so blessed to have her in our lives!

Disneyland - February

2011-02-20T19:41:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to Disneyland with my sister, Mindy and her family. As well as my parents and little brother. It was SO MUCH FUN! We flew into LAX and took a shuttle down to Anaheim. We stayed in a hotel (Tropicana Inn) that was just across the street from the park. We were able to walk there everyday. It was great! The weather was great, mid to high 70s, we went with great people, and the park was hardly crowded (since we went during the week). We were able to go to California Adventure and Disneyland for four days. Craig had never been to Disneyland and Sadie was at a good age to go. The other kids (Caden, Halle, Carson, and Sophie) were so much fun and were so good. It was really such a good vacation!

And the pics...
Mindy and Steve and their family drove their Suburban to the airport, while we drove with my parents to the airport. Mindy had not told the kids that we were going to Disneyland, not even when we got to the airport. They thought we were picking Craig up at the airport and going to Cabela's. So when we got to the airport, Mindy got the video camera out and told the kids we were going to Disneyland! They were so excited but shocked. Halle immediately started jumping up and down, Caden kept saying, "Really? Are you serious?" and Carson was speechless! Actually, Carson was a little stressed because he only wore slippers to the airport! Thankfully, Mindy had packed an extra pair of shoes. She's always on top of it! Their faces were priceless!
Sadie's first plane ride was uneventful. She fell asleep as soon as we got on the plane and woke up
when we had about 20 minutes left. It was so nice! It was also so nice to have my parents, Chris and the older kids with us. They were a big help! The two red-heads below...
Our Disneyland passes let us go to California Adventure and Disneyland for four days. The first day we went to Disneyland and hit up all the kids rides (Fantasyland) and moved our way through Disneyland. Sadie was not a fan of even the kiddie rides, granted half of them are in the dark and quite scary (Snow White ride was scary even for me!) She was even a little wary of Dumbo and the Merry Go Round! Poor little thing, her parents practically forced her on the rides! Eventually she got more familiar with the rides and enjoyed the Rocket ride with Grandma and Mickey's house (even though that's not a ride)!

I can say that her favorite ride was "It's a Small World". Of course, she loved all the dolls and the music. And of course, Sophie was so happy and such a good baby the whole time!

The characters were another story. Sadie hated hated hated ALL the characters, even the princesses! She was not a fan, Halle on the other hand had to get their autographs and Sophie just wanted to touch their faces...

Sadie did love to just walk around the park, with one of us always trailing her!

Or sleeping in her stroller. She was such a trooper, one night she practically fell asleep while eating her dinner. It was hilarious and I wish I got it on camera. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe and she was exhausted. She was hurriedly shoving chicken into her mouth with eyes drooping. She eventually figured she was full enough, climbed on my lap and promptly fell asleep. It was hilarious!

California Adventure was also a big hit. The bigger kids liked the roller coaster and Tower of Terror while Sadie and Sophie loved "Bug's Land", which had rides just their size. They also had this water thing that Sophie and Sadie loved. Sadie started out with her clothes on but once they got soaked we stripped her down...until we got in trouble for letting our kids run around naked without shoes. Oh well, they had fun!

Yet another Merry Go Round in California Adventure. Sadie and Soph rode this one about 10 times! Poor Grandma, trying to corral the babies while the big kids rode the roller coaster!

All the grandkids in "Bug's Land". Such cute kids!

Craig and I also had a great time! The hotel had a very nice pool and hot tub. And the parks were so much fun! Craig went thinking he wouldn't go on any roller coasters or big rides...he's not a fan of rides. But with enough coaxing and begging he went on all the roller coasters and big rides AND he loved them! Space Mountain was his favorite, and of course its mine. He also loved Tower of Terror and California Screamin'. The Matterhorn was also fun, but Space Mountain ruled them all. I think we went on all the roller coasters about five times or more. It was a blast!

Outside our hotel

California Screamin'

Tower of Terror

The big pirate ship

Overall, it was a great trip! Thank you, Mindy and Steve, and Mom and Dad for helping with Sadie. We had so much fun and always have a blast with my parents, Chris, Mindy, Steve and the kids!

Christmas 2010

2011-02-20T19:18:00.001-08:00

I know that I am very behind in posting about Christmas...but January and February got away from me! I'm trying to make up for my lack of posts, so here goes with Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas at home with Craig, Sadie, and I. We spent Christmas morning at home and then went to my parents house that night. We also went down to Mindy and Steve's to see their Christmas loot for breakfast. We went to Craig's mom's in Logan the day after Christmas. It is always so fun to see everybody around the holidays. It was such a good Christmas and Sadie and so much fun this year. Last year she was only 6 weeks old and had no idea what was going on. This year she was 13 months and able to open her own presents and get excited about what she got. Granted she was most excited for her sippy cup and Pez dispenser, but nonetheless she was excited. It's so fun to have kids!

It was also nice to go to church for the Christmas program. Sadie actually did well in church, so

we were able to listen to a lot of the program. It's such a great holiday!

And the pics...

Christmas Eve: Sadie in her new jammies...

Christmas Morning: Sadie opening her presents. She was excited about her new socks!

Sadie got many books for Christmas...reading is her favorite thing to do.

She also got a little Cabbage Patch Doll. I think I was more excited to give it to her than she was to get it! It was so cute and she loves it still.

Sadie on the piano. She's becoming a great pianist!

Craig and I also had a very nice Christmas. We each got some clothes, books, CDs, It was just great seeing Sadie getting so excited about her presents. Overall, it was a great Christmas with the three of us.

2011-02-17T15:22:00.000-08:00

We're in serious need of a blog update. We had a great Christmas and wintertime and even snuck a Disneyland trip in we'd like to post about, but until then, here is Sadie's awesome little laugh.

I wish I could get her to laugh like that! I guess Dads aren't as funny as cousins though.

2010 Christmas Tree Cutting and SANTA!!

2010-12-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

This year we did the annual cutting down of the Christmas trees with a 1 year old. Sadie was such a trooper in the cold weather and snow. And there was a lot of snow. It was very difficult walking through the heavy snow with a 25 pounder. Good thing we had Chris and the four-wheeler. Sadie did very well, except she wasn't a fan of her snowsuit but loved her little mittens and all the dogs that were running around. She had fun on the four-wheeler and with all the kids. It was a nice time hiking through the snow, cutting down our tree, sledding, sitting by the fire, and hanging out with family. It was hilarious when Craig was being pulled on the sled behind the four-wheeler with our tree in tow, and almost got cut in half by a fence post! Good times!

We also celebrated the season at our ward Christmas breakfast. Instead of a Christmas dinner we had a Christmas breakfast at 8am. It was very fun, actually, and a good turn out. Our ward has a lot of children and Sadie loved running around with all of them. The little 4 and 5 year old girls loved playing with her and the little boys she tried to befriend were a little scared of her. Everybody thought she was adorable and so outgoing.

Santa also came to our ward Christmas party. Contrary to what Craig and I thought, Sadie had a minor breakdown when we put her on Santa's lap. She was having so much fun running around with the kids, but as soon as she was put on Santa's lap she fell apart! Maybe next year Santa!

Winter Wonderland!

2010-11-28T16:32:00.000-08:00

Sadie experienced snow for the first time today! It was too cold to play outside for long, but just long enough for her to eat the snow! We thought she looked cute in her borrowed snow outfit and new boots, mittens, and hat!

Sadie's First Birthday!!!

2010-11-20T20:37:00.000-08:00

Well, my little girl is 1 year old! I can't believe it. This year has gone by so fast. Sadie turned 1 year old on November 11th. She is such a great baby and already moving into being a toddler.

Her birthday was on a Thursday, so I of course had to work. My sweet sister, Tina, took Sadie to Kangaroo Zoo for her birthday, she had fun jumping in the Bounce Houses. Once Craig and I got off work, we took her to her favorite place to eat - Chik-Fil-A. She really doesn't have a favorite place to eat...she just likes chicken nuggets right now. We then came home and opened a few of her presents. Here she is modeling her new coat...
And opening a few presents...

For her official birthday party we went up to my parents condo for the weekend. Sadie had a little party by the pool, where her friends and cousins could swim. She did a little swimming herself, but was actually quite tired.

She did have fun blowing out her candles and eating her cake...

At first, she tentatively put her finger in her cake and slowly licked it.
But then she realized what she had in front of her and dug in, especially after Grandpa smashed her face in her cake!
Sadie had a good time opening all her presents - although I think she was a little overwhelmed.
Thank you, everybody, for coming to her birthday party and for all the wonderful gifts. She is having a blast playing with all her new toys and loves all her new clothes. She loved seeing all her cousins and friends!

Now, a few things about Sadie at 1 year old!
We went to the doctor the day after her birthday and here are her Stats...
Weight: 22.5 pounds (75th percentile)
Height: 30 inches (90th percentile)
Head: 17.8 inches (50th percentile)

A few things that Sadie is doing right now...

She's walking all over the place. She started walking at about 11 months and now she solely walks. She never crawls anymore and whenever we are at the store, outside, etc. she demands to get down so that she can walk. She can pull herself up to a standing position without anything to pull her up. I love seeing her walk because she's so little and cute.
She has quite a few words in her vocabulary...other than Mama, Dada, Bobba, she can say "Here" (when she's handing you something), "Yeah" (when you ask her something), "Hot" and "Yucky". She knows when I'm frustrated too because I'll make a sighing sound and she makes the sound after I do.
She loves to make animal sounds, including RRRRRH for dragon, MOOOO for cow, and smacks her lips for fishy. She knows what a doggy and kitty are but can't quite make the sound. We're trying to teach her what a turkey says for Thanksgiving.
She is the master of pointing. She'll point to things she wants, items in her books - just today she was pointing to the kitty's in her dinosaur book. She also holds out her hands when she wants you to give her something.
She is very observant and loves to do the same things you are doing. She talks on her cell phone, brushes her hair, brushes her teeth, puts on chap stick. She tries to put her shoes on and MUST feed herself. She thinks she's a big girl and uses her spoon and fork to feed herself. She's pretty good at it, but sometimes needs help.
When she is drinking her bottle or sucking her binky, she has to pull on her hair and play with it. She can't go to sleep if she isn't playing with her hair.

Here are a few things Sadie loves...

Playing the piano.
Her baby doll.
Her books - Pinkalicious, Purplicious, Baby Llama Red Pajama, Paper Bag Princess, her Rainforest and Ocean book. She demands that you read them to her and will sit quietly on your lap to listen.
Brushing her teeth.
Pulling her pony and pig tails out.
Gob - her kitty.
Playing on the stairs - She's had a few tumbles.
Bath time.
To fake laugh - she knows when you're trying to be funny, so she has a fake laugh she pulls on you.
The 5 little monkeys song, 5 little ducks song, 5 speckled frogs song, as well as itsy bitsy spider and the little piggies.

There's so much about Sadie that we love. She is such a good baby and growing so fast it makes me so sad! She has such a cute personality and she does new things everyday. We think she is wonderful!

Halloween for 3.

2010-11-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our first Halloween with a family of 3. Amazing how much more fun Holidays are with kids. We tried to remember what we used to do without Sadie, seems so boring now.
The Friday before Halloween night we carved pumpkins while Sadie played with the guts and seeds, then chewed on the eyes and teeth we cut from our pumpkins.
A few days earlier Sadie got to finger-paint her own pumpkin.
Halloween sort of snuck up on us. We had bought Sadie's costume a while ago, for fear that the good baby costumes would be sold out. In true Gramse family fashion, Heather and I threw our costumes together like an hour before we needed them. I had to wear an already been used costume I had from a few years ago. It was Luke Skywalker so I didn't mind. Sadie was a little cow, Heather was her farmer.
Sadie liked getting candy, she also loves to share. She gets mad if you don't take what she is trying to share, even if it's covered in slobber. Heather is too nice to say no.
Sadie got to hang out with her cute cousin Sofie. Sofie doesn't know that Sadie is getting ready tackle her...
Halle and Carson have embraced Star Wars and both decided to dress up in Star Wars costumes. Yay for Star Wars!
Sadie is walking like crazy now, I haven't seen her crawl in weeks. She is even able to pick herself up to her feet without using the couch or chairs or anything. This video is at the Mall, we went to visit Grandpa Jim, they were having a Mall trick or treat, there were millions of kids there, which is like heaven for Sadie. In this video Sadie spots a piece of garbage on the floor....

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!

Black Island Farms - PUMPKINS!

2010-10-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

In celebration of Halloween, we went to Black Island Farms to pick pumpkins. They take you on a tractor ride out to a pumpkin patch, let you pick your own pumpkin, and take it home. Sadie loved the tractor ride (especially because Caden, Halle, Carson, Sophie, and Grandpa and Grandma were there!) and loved turning around to see the pumpkins, horses, and goats.

Sadie picked a huge pumpkin to take home, well really Craig picked it out. Sadie was more interested in touching it and trying to get the dirt off of it.

After the tractor ride, we went over to an area that has farm animals, slides, little train rides, bounce houses, and a sandbox that is filled with corn kernals instead of sand. Sadie loved it! They also have corn mazes, but I hate corn mazes so we didn't go in. Sadie liked the slides, but was not ecstatic about them. I think she's not going to be a ride person, like Craig. Craig didn't even want to go on the slides. He's not a fan of rides, slides, etc.

Sadie really liked the little train ride. She went on it about 4 or 5 times. Caden, Halle, and Carson each had to take a turn holding her. They also each had to take a turn holding Sophie. I didn't get a picture of Soph -but she was so stinking cute!

Lastly, and on a different subject, Sadie has totally started walking. She'll pull herself up with something (the ottoman, couch, etc.) and then take off. If she gets going to fast, she'll fall but most of the time she can make it wherever she's trying to go. If she wants to go somewhere fast, she plops down and crawls at light speed. She has also started pulling people around to things she wants to show us. She'll hold our hand and pull us around to the kitty, her toys, grandpa and grandma's dogs, etc. She's so fun!

We are having so much fun with Sadie. She's growing so fast, getting a mind of her own, and learning new things every day. We're excited for Halloween and will post pictures of her costume soon!

Happy Halloween!

New York! New York!

2010-10-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, my mom, sisters, and nieces went to New York City for my Mom's and niece, Ellen's birthdays. We left on Thursday and flew into LaGuardia and made our way to Manhattan. We had so much fun!!! We woke up on Friday and went to the Today Show...
Shopped on 5th Avenue - H&M, Juicy Couture, my 7 year old niece had to go to the American Girl Store. We ate breakfast by Rockefeller Center and shopped, shopped, shopped...
On Friday, we also went down to Chinatown (for purses and scarves of course!), Soho, and Greenwich Village. We got lost in Greenwich, couldn't find a place to eat, Halle and my mom had to find a restroom in a meat shop! Good times!

On Saturday, we went on a Harbor Cruise down to the Statue of Liberty, under the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan bridge and back down. So much fun!!

The Brooklyn Bridge

We also went to the show Wicked at the Gerswhin Theatre. So good!!! I loved it!!
We hung out at Times Square after the show. There were so many people! Crazy people, all different kinds of people. It was crazy!
On Sunday we went to Central Park. It was amazing. It was huge and so many people there. It was a nice day, little windy. We had fun riding on a Pedicab and seeing all the different parts of the park, including the dancing guy that turns in circles!
The boathouse in the park...
We then split up and I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art while my sister and niece went to the Central Park Zoo and my mom did some more shopping. It was so awesome to see paintings from Van Gogh, Monet, Rembrandt, etc. I couldn't believe how big it was. It was amazing...
On Sunday evening, we took the subway down to Little Italy and ate at a nice Italian restaurant. The pizza was so good.

It was such a fun time. Thank you, Mindy, for everything! I loved all of it!

I also want to say a few things about SADIE...
She is growing fast. She has started to take a few steps, but is still a little unsure on her feet. We went to her cousins birthday party a couple weeks ago (the twins - Danika and Airika). She had so much fun playing, but wanted to tackle all the little girls! I think we have a bully on our hands! She just wants to play so bad but doesn't know how to except to crawl on top of them and hit them. What am I going to do with her?!
The other day we went to a little farm near our house. You can pick as many veggies as you want and fill up a huge box for only $10. I took Sadie with me to help and she just sat in the dirt and ate a green pepper! I couldn't believe she ate it. It was so funny!

Sadie is almost 11 months old and has learned Patty Cake, to give whatever she has to other people and says 'Here'. She knows who Daddy, Mommy, Grandpa, Grandma, and kitty are. She is right now on her first dose of antibiotics - she has a sinus infection. She is sleeping good, eating good. She loves the duck song (Three little ducks went out to play...). She is so much fun!

Summer's Over and Sadie is Too Big!

2010-09-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

It's September 12th and summer is over! I am back to school, Heather has been traveling at least once a month for work, and will be traveling through the end of the year. She's gone to Milwaukee, Detroit, she's headed for D.C. next, then New York with her Mom and sisters, Chicago a little bit later, then Miami in January. This has left Sadie and me some quality daddy/daughter time.
She is crawling like a maniac now. She stands up and walks around everything she can. She has even stood up by her self and took her first step on her own. She definitely prefers crawling, but we'll have her walking before Halloween for sure. We've had a lot of fun, end of summer activities, that we would like to remember. First we were invited up to a college roommates party at Meghan & Brandon's house in Park City. It was fun to see everyone and let the kids play with each other. Everyone's kids thought Sadie was a little bully, but she really was just so excited to play with the other kids. All of Sadie's cousins are older than her so she is used to playing rough with kids. Sorry everyone, below are some pictures of Sadie terrorizing her friends.
Slapping Nora on the head....
Trying to pull Beck's hair out....When trying to take the group shot of all the babies, no one wanted to sit by little Sadie. It was fun to see everyone and let the kids play.
A little later we went to the Davis Country Fair in Farmington. Sadie loved seeing all the animals, and having an excuse to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa Hibler and Aunt Mindy and co. Sadie was kind of scared of the cows, especially when Grandpa got a little too close and one cow tried to lick her face. She loved the pigs, chickens and bunnies though.
Sadie also finally has enough hair to put some of it up. She now wears her hair in one little pony tail sticking straight up. We think it is so cute! She doesn't even mind daddy pulling her sparse little red/blond hair while trying to get it up in the elastic.
Sade has also graduated to a big girl car seat. Her little newborn car seat straps were being stretched to the limit. We literally could not loosen the belts any more and they were so tight on Sadie she couldn't move! She seems to really like her new car seat, although it's not as comfortable to sleep in, she seems excited to be able look at us while we drive. She loves putting things in the cup holder and taking them out again.

Other fun Sadie things we'd like to remember. She can now say Da Da!! I am so happy she finally decided to say Da Da, there's nothing cooler than when she's yelling for me to come play with her. She drinks out of a sippy cup now, she surprisingly doesn't like juice that much, she'd prefer water. She is constantly snacking on anything and everything she can. She is really, really loud. She yells at the top of her lungs at her toys, the cat, her food, the TV. She yells while wrestling with us, she's just really vocal. She also tries to talk to us in a weird coughing sound that sounds like the Velociraptors on Jurassic Park. She's really ticklish and loves to give out the kisses to anybody who's willing to accept her slobbery face.
Sadie has four teeth with four more on the way, which explains all the drool in that last picture and the little red drool rash on her chin. She's handling the teething process like a champ. We are so proud of our little girl! She is getting way too big way too fast, but she is the funnest little baby we could ever ask for.

Sadie is 9 months old already?!

2010-08-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

Sadie turned 9 months old yesterday and I can't believe it! When did she get so big? Sometimes I just look at her and can't believe she is my little baby girl. She is getting way more opinionated, mobile, and is so smart! I love her so much and can't believe she is mine! At 9 months old she:
Weighs - 20 pounds, 2 ounces (75th percentile)
Measures - 28.2 inches (90th percentile)
Has a head that is 17.2 inches (40th percentile)

Here are a few things about her...

She can now crawl. She learned how to crawl in Lake Powell (at 8 months old) and now she is a crawling machine. She loves to be chased and to chase you - she thinks she's so funny. She loves to chase Grandpa Jim. She also loves to chase the cat, which I am continually trying to distract her from that.
She has four teeth. Two bottom teeth and two top teeth. She got her first tooth at 6 1/2 months and the other three came in by 8 months. She was not a whiner at all and just sailed right through teething.
She can pull herself up on things and stand holding on to something. Often times I go to get her out of her crib after her nap and she's standing there waiting for me. She loves to pull herself up on the ottoman, gate, chairs, Daddy, etc.
She is saying a few words including - bobba (bottle) and Momma. I think she really knows what they are too because she says Momma over and over again when she wants me or is tired. What a cutie! I can't help to love it when she says Momma...
She can wave bye-bye and dance to music. I am so lucky to have Sadie be babysat by my older sister, Tina. She has learned so much by just going there for one day. Tina and her kids helped her to learn how to dance and now she loves it. She can also give kisses and "loves". "Loves" includes attacking you with slobbery kisses, nuzzling into your neck, and pulling your hair! She can also drink out of straw - so smart!

Everyday she learns something new. She loves to read books, imitate anybody, stick out her tongue, spit out her food, and wrestle with Daddy. She is such a little cutie!!!

I also wanted to post some more pictures of Lake Powell. It was such a fun trip that I have to post them. I thought the picture below was so cute of Janna and Elle and Sadie and Soph. And of course I had to document Craig wakeboarding!

Summertime Fun!

2010-07-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

We have been having such a great summer and doing so many fun things with Sadie. For my birthday last month we went up to Park City and stayed at my parent's condo, went shopping, and then went to the zoo on the way home. Sadie enjoyed the animals, but I think she enjoyed the people more!!
We also had such a great 4th of July weekend. Every 4th of July we sleep at my parent's house in the backyard (this year Sadie and I slept on my parent's bed, while Craig slept in the tent all by himself), then we go to the Kaysville Parade, swim at my sister's house, have a BBQ, and then finally watch the Kaysville fireworks from my parent's front yard. I love the tradition and 4th of July is my favorite holiday (along with Christmas). We had so much fun and Sadie did so good the whole day.

Sadie and Sophie in their matching jammies...
Sadie asleep for the parade. I don't blame her, the Kaysville Parade is so long!
Swimming at Mindy's house. Sadie loves the water...
Watching fireworks at my parents. She lasted through about 10 minutes of them and then fell asleep. I love the fireworks. This is Craig and mine's 6th 4th of July together...one year we spent on the San Diego beach and last year we spent the 4th on the Oregon beach. I just love 4th of July!
Most recently we went to Lake Powell with my parents, my sister Tina's family, and my sister Mindy's family. Steve and Mindy have a houseboat so we go down each summer. It is so much fun relaxing, surfing, wakeboarding, swimming, etc. We had such a fun time - the water was a perfect temperature, both babies did great (Sophie and Sadie), Craig and I both surfed, Craig wakeboarded and got up on his second try, a dead frog went down Mindy's swimsuit, Rick had a "near-drowning" experience, Halle water-skiied, Sadie swam, played in the sand, and went boating. Overall it was a great trip! Thanks, Mindy and Steve, for a wonderful vacation!

I was terrified of Sadie getting in the water but she loved it and everybody watched her and made sure she either had her life jacket on or was in her floatie. The kids were awesome and followed the rule that they couldn't hold her unless they were inside the houseboat. It was a lot different going to Lake Powell with an 8 month old, but she did awesome.

*More pictures of Craig wake-boarding to come....

The summer has been great and I'm sad it has gone so fast. Craig will be back in school before we know it. Time goes by so fast!!!

Flaming Gorge, Birthday, and the Saders!

2010-06-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Flaming Gorge. My brother works up there at the Green River. We decided to take the tent and see how Sadie did. She was awesome! She slept both nights all the way through the night! It was so much fun! Here's Sadie at the beginning of the camping trip - looking all cute and clean!

The family at Flaming Gorge. We took up Mindy's kids, always so much fun.
Caden and I decided that it was too hot at the lake and that we needed to jump in. The water was SO cold! Caden is so awesome and didn't even need that much coaxing to jump in. I'm excited to go to Lake Powell and to jump in warm water!
Caden always does the spread eagle when he jumps off a cliff into water - Flaming Gorge, Lake Powell. I swear we have multiple pictures of him jumping in the water in the same pose!

A family picture. This was the last day as we were getting ready to go. Sadie is not the clean cute little baby. She's the sunburned, dirty, tired little baby girl!
It was my birthday on June 23rd and I decided to leave work early and we all went to Cherry Hill. Sadie loves the water and had so much fun going around the Lazy River, loved Pirates Cove, and enjoyed the warm swimming pool. We didn't go on any waterslides - maybe next year.

Doesn't Craig and Sadie look identical? They are even sitting in the same pose!
Sadie doesn't look to happy in the water here, but she really does love it!
It was a great birthday! Thanks, Mom and Dad, for lunch and Craig for a wonderful day!

On to SADIE...
Sadie is 7 months old now and getting more and more mobile. She wants to crawl so bad and has even started pulling herself up on things. She has started to do this 'Bitter Beer' face, where she scrunches up her face and does a cheesy smile. Its so funny! She has got two new little teeth on the bottom. She was such trooper, didn't get all grouchy. She did get a little runny nose and cough, but I should be thankful as that is the first time she has ever gotten sick. Her hair is coming in thicker now, still no chance of even putting it in a clip. She's eating babyfood and rice twice a day now - her thighs are still as big as ever. Such a cutie!

6 months

2010-06-03T11:55:00.001-07:00

Here is little Sadie's 6 month photo-shoot.

We really liked our photographer, professional, cheap and very easy to work with, we will probably work with him again.

Congratulations are in order!

2010-05-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

Well, a lot has been going on. Not only is Sadie getting bigger and bigger, but we've had a wedding, work's been crazy, a new little niece has been born, we had an anniversary, etc., etc., etc....

I'll start first with what's been going on with Craig. He finished up the semester at Weber State at the end of April. He is such a good student and got all A's and one A-! His GPA is a 3.8! He's so smart! He was excited to find out that he had been accepted to the University of Utah. Starting in the Fall he will be a Ute! It will be a long commute, but the half off tuition is worth it! He works so hard and I would never be able to do anything without him. He takes care of Sadie while I am at work, goes to work himself, goes to school, cleans the house, does yardwork, etc, etc, etc. He's such a hard worker.

On to Sadie, she is getting bigger and bigger! She just had her 6-month appointment and everything is well. Here are her stats -
Height: She is 26.2 inches long. 80th percentile.
Weight: She is 16.9 pounds. 75th percentile.
Head: 16.6 inches. 40th percentile.

I can't believe she is so tall. Hopefully she gets Craig's long and lean body! Sadie is so much fun and continues to be such a good baby. She is happy, active, sleeps well, eats well, and overall so much fun! She is so inquisitive and must see everything! Here are a few things about her at 6 months.

Sadie loves to chew on paper. Let me re-phrase that, she loves to EAT paper. It's her favorite thing. Sometimes I have to fish a wad of paper out of her mouth before she swallows it!
Sadie loves to be outside. She just looks around and studies everything. She doesn't mind the grass, but wasn't happy when we laid her on her bare belly in the grass.

She is now sitting up all by herself. She has been for a while now, but its all that she wants to do now. If we lay her on her back or belly, she screams because she wants to sit up.

She does the steam roll to get anywhere she wants to go. If she wants a toy that is on the other side of the blanket, she just roll and roll until she gets there!

She is very inquisitive. If we try to feed her a bottle while people are around or if she's in a new place, she won't have anything to do with it and just want to sit up and look around. It can get so frustrating!
She is starting to recognize people and gets so happy when she sees Grandpa Jim, Grandma Lois, Mindy, Tina, Grandma Reese, Daddy, Halle, Caden, etc. She is starting to reach for people and definitely knows who Mommy and Daddy are.
She is smiling all the time, she doesn't laugh much, but is always smiling.

We love her to pieces and couldn't ask for a better baby!

Next...
My sweet sister, Mindy, had her little baby - Sophie Diane. Sophie is here to be Sadie's best friend. She is so small! So hopefully Sadie doesn't beat up on her. Sadie's quite a bruiser compared to little baby Sophie!

Craig's brother, Shelton, got married on May 21st. It was so fun to see him come out of the Salt Lake Temple and to see how happy he is. We are excited that Katie is in our family. She is so much fun! Congratulations, Shelton!

Grandma Reese was nice enough to get us all a hotel room at Little America. We had a pool party the night before the wedding with Craig's family and then my parents had a sleepover with Sadie on Friday night so that Craig and I could have a night to ourselves. I swear, all we talked about was Sadie but it was fun to just be with Craig! Thanks, Mom and Dad and thanks Carol for such a fun weekend!

Lastly, Craig and I had our 3-year anniversary on May 18th. I cannot believe we've been married for 3 years! We have accomplished so much and have many more things to do together. Craig amazes me everyday on what a wonderful Dad and husband he is. I am so happy with him and continue to get happier and happier as the months go by! He is the best father and Sadie is so lucky to have him. He is so smart and works so hard in school. I really could not have asked for a better husband! I love you Craig. Happy Anniversary!

St. George Weekend

2010-04-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

I would like to forewarn you now that this post is going to be long and very random. We have been doing a lot of different and fun things lately and I want to blog about them all. So, sorry if there are too many stories and too many pictures!

So, to start, it was Craig's birthday on April 7th. We decided to go to Boondock's in Kaysville so that we could go bowling, play Laser Tag, etc. It was pretty fun and hopefully Craig had a good time. Then, that night we opened presents just the three of us. Sadie tried to help unwrap the presents, but in the end she just liked the tissue paper!

We then went down to St. George with my family. Halle had a dance competition so the whole family went. The boys wanted to go dirt bike riding and the girls wanted to go shopping. My aunt Sharon was nice enough to let us stay at her house and we had a great time. We went out in the desert and rode dirt bikes and four-wheelers, we went swimming, shopping, and to Halle's dance competition. It was Sadie's first swim experience - she was indifferent to it. Not super excited, but she didn't hate it either. I think she was ready for a nap and as soon as I took her out of the pool, she fell asleep sucking her thumb. It was so nice to be in the nice weather and get some sun for once. There was a park near my aunt's house that we went to and let the kids play on. I did have to keep Sadie out of the sun as much as possible and keep her sun hat on, but she was such a good baby.

Halle's a crazy person...swinging like a maniac!

All of us in front of my aunt's house. It really was a fun time. St. George is so nice in April.

So I had to go to San Antonio, TX for work this past week, it was so hard to leave Sadie - I swear I cried all the way to the airport. When I got home, Sadie was waiting for me and we were able to spend the whole day together, since it was Friday I didn't have to go to work. Then on Saturday we went to the Bees game with some friends from Craig's work. It was so much fun! Sadie loved all the lights and the cheering. It was such a good time.

Lastly, Sadie turned 5 months old on April 11th and I wanted to document some of things she has been doing and some of the things I want to remember...

She has learned how to roll from her belly to back, and back to belly. She did this at 4 1/2 months! Such a big girl! She now rolls on to her belly in the night. When she starts to whine I have to go turn her over, because she forgets that she can roll back over.
Her eyes have turned hazel. They are big and round and always open so wide. She loves to look all around her and notices everything!
She is now eating a little bit of baby food. We started giving her rice cereal at about 4 months and started her on 1/2 a jar of baby food each night about a week ago - she loves pears and applesauce! So funny to see her get so excited about eating!
She loves to lay on her belly and push her legs up and puts her bum in the air - I swear she'll be crawling soon!
She can sit up by herself, but somebody always has to be nearby as I'm afraid she's going to do a face plant! She always wants to be moving and looking around and wants to see everybody. I hope I can keep up with her once she becomes mobile!
Her favorite toys are: Sarah (her doll), Bill (her Sock Monkey), Johnny (an apple chew toy), Beatrice and Bugsy (her squeaky toys off her mobile), and Ribbit (her frog rattle).
She loves Gob - our cat. She just watches him walk around, lay down, anything he does, she is interested in.
She is sleeping good. She can soothe her self to sleep at night and for her naps. I get kind of sad because I don't rock her as much and I love to rock her - she is getting to be such a big girl!

Sorry for such a long post - I had a lot to say and I wanted to document what Sadie has been doing. We are having a lot of fun and excited that it is Spring and gearing up for the summer!

Easter Holiday

2010-04-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

We kicked off our Easter holidays by going to Logan to spend the weekend before Easter with Craig's family. It was fun to see Grandma Reese, Shelton and Katie, and Jason and Lisa and Baylee. I was also able to meet up with my good friends Meg and Mindy and their kids. It was fun to see everybody and just hang out - we went to Firehouse with Meg and Mindy, Iron Gate Grill with Grandma Reese, Shelton, and Katie, and were able to go to Shelton's student ward for church. Oh, the memories of going to a student ward up in Logan. Shelton goes to the same church I went to my sophomore year of college - the year I was a Sunday school teacher! That was a fun year! Anyway, it was fun to go with Sadie - she wore her little Easter dress and did remarkably well. I was nervous, as she was the only baby in the whole congregation! She barely made a peep!

We also got to spend some time with little baby Baylee. She is so cute and small. Sadie is a monster compared to her!
The next weekend was Easter weekend and we decided to stay at home. Sadie woke up to her very own Easter basket and was very excited about her new stuffed sheep and the plastic Easter egg. Such a cute girl! She also got an adorable popsicle shirt for the summer, some baby legs, a picture book, some binkis, and of course, candy for her parents!
We also went over to my sister's house for the annual Easter egg hunt. My family pressured me into letting Sadie try some Cherrios - she loved them of course!
She also participated in the Easter Egg hunt outside. Cute Ellen took her around to find her eggs. She was oblivious to the whole thing! Notice Craig's Star Wars eggs - he wouldn't hide those and refused to give them to any of the kids. He's so talented!
We also celebrated Craig's birthday with my family. We had carrot cake with candles and ice cream. You're never too old for cake and ice cream, right?
Cute little Sadie girl - such a good baby!

4 months and counting...

2010-03-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Sadie had her 4-month doctor's visit the other day. The doctor said she is growing great and everything looks good! I'm sure doctor's get bombarded by new mother's questions. On this visit my worried question was, "Sadie drools an obscene amount, is this normal?" He assured me it was and that she might be getting teeth soon! I can't believe it! Here are her stats...

Height: 24.1 inches; 60th percentile
Weight: 13 lbs, 13 oz; 70th percentile
Head: 15.6 inches; 15th percentile

Sadie has been so much fun recently. She remains a great sleeper, at night at least. She tends to take a few cat naps during the days and then sleeps through the whole night! She loves to put anything and everything in her mouth. She can now grasp things and they go straight into her mouth. She loves to talk and in the morning we can hear her squealing and talking to her mobile. She is now on rice cereal and downs quite a bit every night. About a fourth of the bowl lands on her face and in her neck rolls! She loves to watch TV while laying naked on her blanket. She has discovered a new love of lampshades! It looks like her eyes are turning hazel, we'll have to see if they change. Her hair is getting thicker, I still can't put any clips in it though. She lets me put headbands on , but most of the time she just has a fuzzhead. She likes to lay on her stomach and can lift her head up really good. She loves to stand up on her legs and gets frustrated when I lay her in her bouncer. She loves to sit in her Bumbo because she can see everybody and everything! No rolling over yet but she rolls to her side - she's almost there! She's getting so big!

Here are a few pictures of the past month...

Today we went for a ride and when we came home Sadie was asleep in her carseat. She has a hard time sleeping in her crib or on our bed during the day because its so light, so we decided to leave her in the carseat and put her in our bathroom, that has no windows. My sister did this at her house when she was watching her and she slept for 2 1/2 hours! Well, today she slept for a good 2 hours in the bathroom! When we went up to check on her she was wide awake and just looking around! Oh, what you wouldn't do for a baby to nap!

Sade's watching TV...

The other day, Craig was watching her and I had sent him a video of the cougars that are roaming around our parking terrace at work (I know, SCARY!), anyway he had put Sadie in her swing and was watching the video on the computer. When he looked over at her she had fallen out of the swing (its hardly off the ground, so don't fret!) and the headrest had landed on top of her head and she was laughing. He promptly sent me the picture below to my work email...I couldn't stop laughing!
Cute little Sadie!

Flaming Gorge

2010-03-05T10:20:00.000-08:00

We decided to go on a little overnighter last weekend with my family. I was in desperate need of a little weekend trip to get away from the smog and the city. We decided to go up to Flaming Gorge and stay in some cabins. It was such a great time and Sadie did so good! Granted, she did get her own bed, but she slept through the night and had a great time. It was a good trip also because we saw so many animals...we saw deer, elk, a moose, antelope, and lastly a mountain lion! Granted, the mountain lion wasn't living, but it was still cool to see! If any of you know my little brother, you know what a fanatical outdoorsmen he is. Well, for the past couple of months he has been hunting mountain lions. Last weekend he finally got one! It was huge and not a nice little kitty! It's muscles were so hard and strong. Good Job Chris!

The cabins we stayed in where nice and perfect for the 10 of us. Sadie got her own bed to sleep in, we had a nice fire, and just hung out. It was a lot of fun!

Sadie's Blessing

2010-02-14T15:10:00.000-08:00

Sadie got blessed on February 7th by her uncle Shelton. Many of our family and friends were able to come and see the blessed event. We sure did miss Grandma Reese, though. We hope she feels better! Sadie looked so adorable in her blessing dress and Shelton did a wonderful blessing. He blessed that she would be healthy and strong, intelligent, joyful, and keep the spirit close to her, at least those are things I can remember! We had a little brunch at our house afterward and of course the Hibler side was crazy! Uncle Rick and Aunt Tina gave Sadie a cute little silver bracelet. While Grandpa and Grandma Hibler gave Sadie a tiny gold ring, that belonged to me as a baby. I put it on her finger for a minute, until she put her hand in her mouth. We'll put it on a little chain or something and wait till she's a little older! Thanks, Mom!

Sadie and Uncle Shelton!

Sadie turned 3 months old on February 11th. She has gotten so big and is growing like a weed! I pulled out her 3 to 6 month clothes and they fit her perfectly, some are even a little small! She continues to be such a good baby, sleeps wonderfully, and is happy most of the time. My two sisters babysit her during the week and say she is an Angel Baby! She is squealing more and my dad swears he's made her laugh and she has made a few giggles today. She loves to be read to and loves when Craig plays the piano. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful little baby.

Sadie's first Valentine's Day was pretty uneventful, but I did make a new tradition - we made Valentine's cookies for Craig. Granted, Sadie just sat in her bouncer chair and watched me, but next year she'll be able to help me frost them! We did go to church and she wore the cutest little pink dress, although I didn't get a picture. Craig got us a bouquet of white flowers, which I post a picture of soon. Isn't it great to spend holidays with your own little family? Happy Valentine's Day!

Back to Work...

2010-02-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

This week I had to go back to work, it was a sad, sad day. I had to leave my sweet baby girl and go back to the office. It was heart-wrenching to leave her for the first time. Let me just say it was a very emotional week. I try to look at the bright side - I only have to work 4 days (I get Friday's off!), I have good benefits, I work with good people, and I'm lucky even to have a job. BUT, how could I not be sad to leave this little bundle of joy....

Sadie has decided that she wants to suck her middle two fingers. One morning I went to get her out of her crib and she was busy sucking her fingers and her eyes were closed - she was trying to put herself back to sleep. It was so funny!

Craig has a new calling in church. A couple of weeks ago the bishop called Craig to be the Primary pianist. He is getting so good at the piano and practicing all the primary songs. Sadie likes to listen to the piano.

Sadie has a umbilical hernia (that the doctor assured me would go away on its own) but when she flexes her stomach, cries, screams, etc. it gets huge. The other night I had her jammies on and she was making noise and flexing her stomach and her little hernia popped out of her jammies (see the picture below). It's barely noticeable, but I thought it was funny that it 'popped' out of her jammies!

Can you tell that we love our little Sadie Muse Ella!

Sadie's Two Months!

2010-01-16T15:53:00.000-08:00

Well, Sadie turned two months old on January 11th. I can't believe how the time has flown by! I have loved staying home with her and am dreading the day I have to go back to work - which, sadly, is in two weeks! I am thankful that she will be babysat by family and it makes me going back to work a lot easier.

Sadie has grown so much since we brought her home from the hospital. Here are a few of her stats-

Weight: 11.1 lb. - 65th percentile.
Height: 22.1 in. - 50th percentile.
Head: 14.8 in. - 30th percentile.

Sadie is such a good baby. Granted, she loves to be held and snuggled, but she also loves her vibrating chair, and will even fall asleep in it on her own. She loves to sit in her Bumbo and attempt to hold her head up. She is now sleeping in her crib for most of the night. I do have to admit that when she wakes up around 6am, I bring her in to snuggle with me. I know I need to stop, but I just love to snuggle with her (until she starts grunting to tell me that she's ready to get up)! She is a good sleeper, once she's asleep. It takes a while for her to finally fall asleep, but once she does she usually only wakes up once a night! Such a good baby!

Sadie's hair is getting redder, longer, and fuzzier every day. She loves her bath time and to get her diaper changed. I know she is waiting for the day when she can run around the house naked. She is cooing all over the place and loves to smile at anybody who will smile at her. She is obsessed with her tongue and when Craig or I stick our tongue out at her she immediately sticks her tongue out or smiles and stares at our tongues. She's quite the silly girl!

We love our little Sadie!

Sadie's First Christmas

2009-12-27T13:08:00.000-08:00

I always love the Christmas season and this year was especially wonderful because we had little baby Sadie to help us celebrate. This post has a lot of pictures, so I apologize in advance...

To celebrate the season we first went up to Logan to visit Craig's family and go to church with baby Sadie. Craig's mom sings in the choir and I wanted to see the Christmas program so we buckled Sadie up in her car seat and ventured to church. Of course, the first thing Sadie does is start crying, so of course I had to get her out of her car seat. As soon as I held her she fell back asleep and we were able to enjoy the Christmas program. There wasn't a lot of people there so I wasn't too worried about the germs, just a little worried. Doesn't she look so adorable in her Christmas dress?

Next, our friends stopped by our house for a little Christmas visit. It's always fun to see little Nash and Beck...they're getting so big! It's hard to imagine that Sadie will be that big before I know it!

The day before Christmas Eve we went to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. I was a little weary about taking Sadie, and for good reason. She did okay for about half the time and then she insisted on being held. I was worried she was too cold and there was so many people (and kids) there! Needless to say, Craig and I didn't get to see much of the lights!

The next day was Christmas Eve. Since Craig and I have been married we have spent Christmas Eve with each other. I make dinner, we do Christmas Eve gifts (which are always pajamas, of course), and we basically spend the day with just our little family. As you can see, Sadie has learned how to smile. Therefore, we spent a good majority of Christmas Eve night trying to get Sadie to smile.

The next day was Christmas. We spent Christmas morning together, opening presents. I had to hold Sadie while we opened presents, until she fell asleep. Sadie got a new swing, while Craig got new sunglasses, and I got a new bathroom floor! Sadie loves her new swing...

To top off the holiday, we spent Christmas night at my parents house. There are about 25 of us and we all pile into the living room to open presents and be with each other. Its kind of crazy. And, of course, I didn't hold Sadie the entire night, as everybody was loving her to death! She was so cute in her Christmas outfit. It's so fun to dress a girl!

Our Christmas was so good. We are so blessed to have little Sadie in our lives and to have each other. I am so thankful for friends and family, especially at this time of season. We are very blessed!

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving and Christmas Trees

2009-12-07T15:21:00.000-08:00

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thankgiving. Craig and I were lucky enough to go to my sister's for Thanksgiving dinner and Craig's mom's for Thanksgiving pie. Sadie slept right through dinner which was nice for Craig and I to be able to eat turkey. It was fun to have little Sadie here and to join in the festivities. Both our family's absolutely love her!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we drove up to Bear River Station and cut down our Christmas trees! Sadie is so good in her car seat and slept the entire time. She actually slept the entire day, I think she was nice and warm in her snow outfit that I got her...I know, its way too big but it kept her nice and warm. My parents held Sadie while Craig and I trekked through the forest on a mission to fine the perfect Christmas tree, think Griswold family Christmas tree. We found it deep in the forest and had quite the time cutting it down. It has turned out to be one good-looking tree.

Our little family - Sadie is buried in the white snow outfit!

Tina and Rick's Christmas 'bush'. I had to post this picture, because when Rick came tromping up with this Christmas 'bush' everybody starting laughing and Tina was outraged. I don't know how its going to fit in their house!

Halle, Carson, and Joseph being pulled on the sled behind the four-wheeler.

Lastly I just wanted to list a few things that we have learned about Sadie these last couple of weeks. She is now almost a month old (this Friday) and we get to know her more each day. It seems like she has been in our life forever!
Some tidbits about Sadie:
1. She looks like a mandrake from Harry Potter when she cries, hence her new nickname.
2. She loves her carseat, baths, being snuggled, and to lay right next to you.
3. She likes looking outside and at the Christmas tree lights.
4. We've determined she's ticklish, but hasn't learned how to laugh yet.
5. Her hair is getting redder and redder every day. Thanks, Mom!
6. She looks like Craig (so cute), but has my feet and hands.

We love her so much and are enjoying every day we get with her!

Sadie's First Photo Shoot

2009-11-30T16:05:00.000-08:00

I got Fresh Focus Photography (photographer: Michelle Beach Luekenga) to take some pictures of little Sadie and they turned out great. Thanks, Mindy, for recommending them on your blog! I am just in love with this baby girl! Isn't she adorable? She does have a little bit of an attitude already - she did not want to cooperate too much on the photo shoot, but I think the pictures turned out great!

Sadie - 1 Week Old

2009-11-19T08:59:00.001-08:00

Sadie turned one week old yesterday and we cannot get enough of her! She is such a good baby and the cutest thing I have ever seen! Sometimes I just sit and stare at her because she is so cute! I just wanted to post a few pictures of her first week of life.

Sadie's first sponge bath at home. She didn't enjoy it much!

Naptime!

A slew of cousins! They all love her so much!

This is Sadie's first bath at home. She just sat in the warm water and relaxed. She actually liked it! It was so cute.

After her bath. When we wash her hair she has a total fuzzhead. It's so cute!

Sadie!

2009-11-13T15:15:00.000-08:00

Our little baby has arrived! She took her time and came on her own schedule, but we are so glad she's here and healthy and everything went well. Here are some pictures of our beautiful new baby girl.

Her name is Sadie Muse Ella Gramse (we had a hard time agreeing on a middle name so we compromised) She was born at 6:29 pm on November 11th, she was 7.38 lbs and 20 and 1 half inches long. Her hair is a light reddish-brown, she has a very good set of lungs, she loves to sleep all day and party all night so far. I think now is a good time to thank everyone who has given us so many gifts for little Sadie and has helped us out getting things ready. We are so lucky to have such generous friends and family. Sadie is very excited to meet all of you!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween! Here a few images of our night!

Pumpkin Carving.....
The top one is throwing up his own guts!

Kitty Heather......

Craig is Dwight.......

Heather's costume came with a bow-tie, and since the vet told us Gob's coloring was technically called "tuxedo" we naturally made him wear it. He wasn't amused.

We are counting our costumes as matching, if you remember one of the Halloween episodes of The Office, every girl dressed up as a cat. Also Dwight never smiles if he can help it, showing one's teeth is a submission signal in primates, so to be true to character I never smiled.

Halloween is an awesome holiday for us, not only do we love dressing up, but this particular Halloween marks our 5th year together as a couple! We've been together half a decade and life keeps getting better! We are very much looking forward to next Halloween when we can can dress up and take little @#$%$ Gramse out trick or treating. I hope everyone's Halloween was as fun as ours!

Just a few fun things....

2009-10-19T19:29:00.001-07:00

So, this past weekend we had quite a whirlwind of fun. Craig's mom, brother Shelton, brother Jason, and his wife Lisa came down to first go to a Star Wars Concert on Friday night and then we went to the Hogle Zoo on Saturday. It was very fun!

The Star Wars Concert was amazing. They had a whole symphony orchestra that played Star Wars songs and then a big screen was in the background playing scenes from the movies. I couldn't believe how good the orchestra was. It's amazing how so many different instruments can make such amazing songs! Craig, his brothers, and his mom couldn't stop raving about it. They are very musically talented so I know that they absolutely loved it!

Shelton and C-3PO. Shelton has a broken arm...

Craig, Derek, and Darth Vader...

StormTrooper, Shelton, Boba Fett, Craig, and StormTrooper...

The next day, we all went to the Hogle Zoo to see all the baby animals. The Hogle Zoo has a baby elephant, baby giraffe, baby crocodile, baby tigers, and baby snow leopard! We saw all of them except for the baby snow leopard. It was a perfect day to go to the zoo!

Shelton, Craig, and the daddy elephant...

Mommy and Baby Elephant....

Mommy Tiger and 3 boy tigers. This mom tiger was hissing at us like a gigantic kitty cat. It didn't like us being so close...
Craig and I with the baby giraffe. I loved this little giraffe. It reminds me of Craig...

What a fun day at the zoo!!!!
We topped off our weekend with a little housework. Since Baby Girl Gramse will be here shortly we have been scrambling to get everything done before she arrives. Even though Craig was tired from the busy weekend he still built shelves in the baby's closet. I think we're both getting a little stressed (and excited!) that the baby will be here so soon! It's crazy!

Check out Craig's handy work...
Next up...
More baby showers, staining of the baby dresser, and more!!!

It's Fall!!!

2009-10-13T17:04:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Craig and I went up to Park City to take some pregnancy pictures and to do a little Christmas shopping (yes, I am already Christmas shopping! But, I'm going to have a newborn and I am not planning on taking her out of the house that first month. Hello, H1N1!!!). We were going to go the zoo but we didn't quite make it...I hear they have a baby giraffe and baby tiger cubs! So, anyway, I posted my favorite pregnancy pictures. Thanks, Craig, for taking the pictures!

The trail that we went on in Park City had all these scarecrows that people had made and put up along the trail. Of course, Craig's favorite one was the storm trooper (Or is it clone trooper? I can never tell!)

I just like this picture of the two of us (Well, actually the three of us, if you count Baby Girl Gramse!).

Hope everybody is enjoying the Fall Season!

Baby Showers Galore!!!

2009-10-04T18:30:00.000-07:00

So the last couple of weeks have been full of baby showers! It has been so much fun to be with family and friends! Thank you to all who participated in the baby shower mayhem! Craig and I are so thankful to have such great family and friends.

Meghan, Mindy, and Andria gave me a shower a couple of weeks ago. It was so fun to see everybody and play games. It was so fun and we got such cute outfits and bath stuff, etc. I am so lucky to have such great friends. We've all stayed good friends since sophomore-junior year of college! Thanks, Meg, Mindy, and Andria! And thank you to all that came to the shower.

My next shower was a complete surprise. I had a work meeting up in Park City at the Lodges at Deer Valley last week. It was a very busy week and I had a lot of meetings and stuff going on, therefore I was a little bit stressed. So we got to the condos on Tuesday at about 3pm and I rushed to a meeting and then I had a break for an hour or so until I had to go to another meeting...needless to say, the 'other' meeting was a baby shower! My coworkers had thrown me a surprise baby shower! Craig had come up to stay with me and we were both so surprised! They got us some very cute clothes, a HIGH CHAIR, and we drew on onesies! It was so much fun. I'm so thankful to have a job that I really enjoy and work with such great people!

My most recent baby shower was this past weekend. Craig and I decided to go to Logan for the weekend to see Craig's family. When we got there on Saturday afternoon we rushed to the park for a combined baby shower for Lisa and I. It was fun to get together with Craig's family and see Sherman and Gretchen's new little twin girls and play some games that Wendy supervised. Thank you to all that planned and participated! It was so great to see everybody!

Carol with baby Airika - one of Gretchen and Sherman's twins...

This is a game we played to see who could drink the fastest out of bottles. It is harder than it looks! Lisa won!

Baby Mayhem!

2009-09-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well, first things first. We finally got the crib for our little baby! We ordered it about 8 weeks ago (my parents bought it for us, THANK YOU Mom and Dad!) so when it finally arrived we were super excited and set it up as soon as we got home! Well, I should say Craig did most of the building of the crib. He's a good handyman! I can't wait to put our little baby in there!

That same day my high school friends threw me my first shower. It was so nice to get together and be able to hang out with them all. We never get to spend time with each other, so it was awesome to catch up! My cute little niece Halle was desperate to come, so I took her along. She loves being part of the big girls.

Thanks, Em, Bryndie, Jamie, and Kristy for all the cute clothes, blankets, paintings, etc. I love you guys!

Lastly, I wanted to post my most current belly picture. Yes, I still have 2 months to go! I just get bigger and bigger every day! It's worth it though, I love to feel her moving around inside and we're just waiting for her to join our little family! It's going to be a long 2 months!

Also, I wanted to show you our new piano! My sister-in-law's friend was giving it away, so my sister-in-law grabbed it up for us. We absolutely love it! Craig has been playing every night and to his heart's content. I seriously feel the baby move around more when he plays! Thanks, Jennifer, for thinking of us!

Hope everybody's enjoying the Fall season!

New Car

2009-08-17T09:27:00.001-07:00

As the title suggests, we got a new car!
With the little one on the way we needed something with a bit more room in the backseat than the Audi can provide. We needed something we could take up in the mountains every now and then. It also needed to have great crash test ratings, good gas mileage and look awesome. We found all that at a reasonable price in the form of our Subaru Forester.Week took it up camping this weekend and it performed like a dream, especially while off-roading a bit, looking for our camping party in the dark. I took some pictures while camping, it's a bit dirty from the drive up, not to mention it rained, hailed and snowed one whole morning. We folded the seats down and blew up a small air mattress and actually slept in the back of the Forester. It was surprisingly comfortable and roomy. With our heads right under the sunroof, and no city lights around we could see so many stars. It felt like we were sleeping outside.So far we love our new car.

Pioneer Day Celebration

2009-07-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone - I wanted to post a few pictures in memory of our pioneers! Just kidding, they are only of Craig and I camping up in the Uintas (Soapstone Basin) with my family. That's how we celebrated Pioneer Day. How did you?

4th of July in Oregon

2009-07-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

Hi all -
Well, our trip to Oregon has come and gone. We spent the last 7 days on the Oregon coast with my parents, sister and her family, and my little brother. We rented a beach house and spent 4th of July on the beach. We had a lot of fun just hanging out on the beach, going to the Tillamook Cheese Factory (where Carson, my 3 year old nephew, kept asking where the cows were), deep-sea fishing (which I opted out of, I don't think our little baby would have liked it all that much), and seeing seals in the wild! It was a great trip, despite the fact that we drove there! Yes, we drove 850 miles with three small children! They were great though, and we had a lot of fun watching movies in the car, playing the Nintendo DS, and enjoying the scenery.

I have to admit that I did miss the Kaysville Parade and Davis High fireworks. I have only missed them, maybe, 3 times my whole life. One year I was in Maine, another year Craig and I were in San Diego, and this year we were on the Oregon coast. In order to cheer myself up, I bought our little baby an obscene amount of clothes in Oregon, including a couple 4th of July outfits for next year. I know its early, but I can't help myself! I did enjoy the fireworks on the beach, there were so many people doing fireworks it was like a war zone! But, next year I'll be sitting on my parents front lawn watching the fireworks from there! I hope everybody had a wonderful 4th of July!

Here are a few pics from our vacation. It was so great, despite the stormy weather a couple of days. We rented a beach house that was super nice. The showers and kitchen were amazing AND nobody had to sleep on the floor. We each got our own bedrooms and the kids all slept in the bunk bed bedroom, with Uncle Chris, of course. It was a great family vacation. WARNING: Picture overload! I just couldn't help myself while trying to decide on what pictures to post.

Craig at our beach. He loves the ocean, yet he didn't ever swim in it! It was way too cold!
Our beach. This is the view we got when we walked out of our beach house. It was so pretty!
4th of July morning. Our beach house was decorated so cute. The town of Seaside is so patriotic.
Craig and his beloved boomerang. The wind on the beach is great for boomerangs and kites!
Carson playing in the sand. He's totally pulling a pedofile, creepy face with his eyes and mexi-stache!
Cute Caden doing fireworks on the beach. There was so many people it was unbelievable! Everybody had fires and were doing fireworks. It was seriously like a war zone! Our little baby was moving like crazy during the fireworks show.
Before the fireworks started. The sky was so clear. By the time the fireworks show was over it was a smoke-fest!
On Sunday, we went down to Cannon Beach. This is where the famous Haystack Rock is located. It was so pretty but very, very windy. We didn't stay long, but long enough to bring back memories for Craig and I...Cannon Beach is where we went on our honeymoon.
Monday my Mom, Dad, Steve, Chris, Caden, and Craig went deep-sea fishing. Mindy and I stayed back with Halle and Carson and went shopping! It was a good thing to because this trip was a doozy! Everybody was puking the entire time, except for my mom and Chris! Craig called me when they had reached land again and told me they all puked, except Chris and my mom. I couldn't stop laughing! Although I did feel bad for little Caden. They did come home with 12 huge salmon that we cooked up. I asked Craig if it was worth it...he said yes. I wish I could have been there, but I would have been puking up for days.
The sickies...they don't look too happy! These are the four that puked the whole time!
The reward! These salmon taste so good! The fishing trip was worth it, for me at least!
Once they got back from fishing, we had a major feast. We went to a local market and bought fresh crab and then cooked them, along with the freshly-caught salmon for a delicious meal! Caden he even tried crab, although he said he didn't like it. It was such a good meal. Mmmm, Oregon crab is so good!
On Tuesday, we traveled down to Tillamook to see the cheese factory. The highway down to Tillamook is beautiful, and we had to stop along the way to get some good pictures. I think this is called Neah-kie-nie Mountain (I could be wrong??), but its beautiful! Look how big my belly is...she's a growing!

Once we got to the cheese factory, Carson repeatedly asked where the cows where. We had to keep telling him they were somewhere outside in the back. He didn't understand that the factory only showed how they packaged and shipped the cheese, not how they got it out of the cow. Craig thought he was really funny to get this picture of Carson milking the plastic cow.
On our way back from Tillamook, we stopped at a little boating harbor that had tons of boats and people were crabbing. This is where we saw the harbor seals in the wild, but we weren't able to get a very good picture of them.
The last day, Wednesday, we just hung around the beach, around Seaside, and around the house. Steve bought a surf skate, but Craig was basically the only one who could do it. Steve got pretty good by the end of the trip...
We also spent a lot of time looking for sand dollars and other things on the beach. We found so many sand dollars it was unbelievable! They are so pretty.
Sorry to bombard you with pictures from our trip, but we had such a good time, despite the weather not cooperating a couple of days. It was nice to get away from work and the heat of Utah. And the drive wasn't even that bad either, thank goodness for the abundance of hotels in Boise!

Birthday

2009-06-23T20:07:00.001-07:00

Today was my birthday and I just wanted to post a few pictures to show you how great Craig is....
First of all, I had a big meeting at work today (on my birthday, I know) so Craig had flowers delivered to my office because he knows how stressed I was and how much I love flowers!
My mom also gave me that cute pink blanket for our little baby girl....It's only the beginning! As you can see, my sister's went a little crazy when I told them we were having a girl! Craig insists a girl can still wear a Star Wars shirt....
Here is my first belly picture. Can you believe I'm only 18 weeks! I know, its going to be a long pregnancy!
We also got a brand new camera, a Nikon D60 SLR, for my birthday and for Father's Day. We had to try out the action pictures...
And the close-up features....
I also wanted to point out what a great garden I am growing. Craig built me a garden box in the spring and my squash, pumpkin, and peas are already coming out! Hopefully my peppers will start sprouting.

Lastly, here's a cute picture of the two of us. Craig always makes my birthday a good one...I love him so much!

It's official - We're Having a Baby

2009-06-17T20:43:00.001-07:00

Well, it's official, so I guess its time to announce it on the 'ol blog! Craig and I are going to have a baby! AND it's a GIRL! I've been waiting to announce it until I went to my doctor's appointment. But we went this morning and my doctor said everything looks great and that I'm having a little baby girl! We're so excited! I am 17 weeks and due on Thanksgiving Day. I've been super sick, but starting to feel better. We're just excited and feel very blessed! Here are a couple ultrasound pictures. I think she's taking after her parents and being a little shy....

Sorry these pictures aren't the greatest. I'll have better ones when I go to the doctor next! We're so excited!

Lake Powell 2009

2009-06-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

So, our latest trip was to Lake Powell. My sister and her husband have a houseboat and ski boat, etc. and they are nice enough to take the whole family down for a Memorial Day weekend trip on the houseboat. It was great to get away from work and spend some quality time in the sun! Craig and I (of course) did not take one picture, so these pictures are courtesy of my sister. Thanks, Mindy and Steve, for the awesome time in Lake Powell. We had so much fun!

This is my 8 year old nephew, Caden, cliff-jumping! He's a maniac! I wish I could've done it!

My beautiful niece, Janna, summed up all her courage and jumped off this rock. We're so proud of her!

The nieces and nephews...how cute! And, of course, Chris. He had to get in on the action!

Due to Halle finding a dead lizard and wanting to keep it, even though its eye was bulging out, we told her if she threw the dead lizard away Craig would help her catch one. So, Craig and Halle went on a trek up the rocks...an hour later they came back with a lizard! Halle caught it all by herself (she's holding it by its tail in the picture above). Good job, Halle!

Craig and I waking up from a nap. It rained this day, so we we're cuddled up inside.

Gramps and Baby Carson.

Denver, The Mile High City

2009-04-20T20:19:00.001-07:00

As you can tell from the picture, Craig and I just returned from a weekend trip in Colorado. We left on Friday morning because I needed to take a test for work in downtown Denver. We went up through Wyoming and hit a storm on our way into Colorado. It was snowing pretty bad but we finally made it to our hotel. My test was Saturday morning but after it we were able to go to the Denver Aquarium, to a movie, and shopping a little bit. If you're ever in Denver I suggest going to the downtown aquarium. Since Craig and I got married we've made it a tradition that everywhere we travel together, if it has an aquarium we go to it. We've been to Seaworld, the Newport Oregon aquarium, San Francisco aquarium, and now the Denver aquarium. This aquarium was a really good one, it even had sharks, jellyfish, river otters, and a couple of tigers, weird I know.
It was pretty wet and stormy all day Saturday, so we went to a movie at a theater close to our hotel. We then did a little shopping at the 16th St. Mall, which is similar to Gateway mall, in that it contains a bunch of stores and restaurants along a couple blocks of 16th street. We went to a great little restaurant called Cafe Colore and then went back to our hotel to hang out. I was very impressed with Denver. It was very clean and friendly. Overall, it was a great trip. Now, we'll just have to see how I did on my test!

Beaver Mountain Skiing

2009-03-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally went skiing this year. It seems like there is just never any time to go skiing in the winter. Either we're working, doing stuff on the house, whatever! I always have good intentions at the beginning of the year, saying we're going to buy season passes or at least go skiing 5 times. But, like always, March comes along and we haven't even gone once! Well, we finally made it up to Beaver Mountain up Logan Canyon. We had so much fun and the weather was so nice! Just a couple of pictures to post....I was tagged by my sister Mindy to post the 6th picture in my 6th picture folder. Here it is....
The Golden Gate Bridge, we were able to go to San Francisco last April. The bridge is crazy pretty and the sunsets were unbelievable! I tag Mindy, Meghan, and Nicole! Love ya, guys!

Catch Up Post

2009-03-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

It's been since February 1st since I have posted anything new...I just can't seem to keep up on my blogging. We've done a lot these last few weeks, but surprise, surprise, we didn't take any pictures! I am the worst at taking pictures or even remembering to bring my camera! So I thought that I would post a description of everything that we have done and then post some of my favorite pictures that are totally unrelated. From this point forward I will take more pictures...

To start with, for Valentine's Day, Craig picked me up from work and we went to dinner and to Hotel Monaco in Salt Lake for the night before Valentine's. Hotel Monaco is where Craig and I went for the night of our wedding, it was fun to go back and hang out in Salt Lake. The next day, Valentine's Day, we met up with our good friends Meghan and Brandon and Mindy and their babies. It was so good to see them and be able to see their adorable little babies.

A couple weekends later, we were able to go down to Richfield to attend Craig's dad's 75th birthday party. It was so good to see him and be able to spend time with him. Craig's little brother Jason and his wife, Lisa, came down to so we were able to go to dinner and swimming in the pool at the hotel. It's always fun to hang out with them and to see Craig's dad, since we aren't able to see them often. I also met Craig's two older half-brothers on his dad's side, which I have never met. It's so fun to see Richfield, where Craig grew up. He's like a different person when he goes back home, he gets so excited and always wants to show me everything he remembers about his childhood. I love it.

Finally, last week, I went to Philadelphia, PA for a work meeting. I was there for three days and we had meetings all day so I wasn't able to go around the city for much. We went to some good restaurants, courtesy of the University of Utah/PECARN network. A couple of girls from work and I were able to go to the Reading Terminal Market, which is basically an indoor farmer's market. It had all these booths full of fresh cheese, baked goods, seafood, meat, chocolates, flowers, etc. There was also a couple of booths that were run by Amish people..they were selling their baked goods and homemade butter. It was so fun to see so many people and fresh food. I wish that Salt Lake had something similar...similar to the Farmer's Market in Pioneer Park but indoor and year-round. Philadelphia was also very pretty, but cold. It was a very clean city and the City Hall was so pretty. I wasn't able to see the Liberty Bell or the stairs 'Rocky' climbed, it was a quick trip, but nice nonetheless. I was happy to come home to Craig.

Other than that, Craig and I are happily waiting for Spring. Every sign of good weather I start to think that the snow will not return, but alas it does. We have some fun trips planned for the Spring and Summer. We're continually working on our house...yardwork will begin soon, much to my dismay!

In future posts, I will be better at posting up-to-date pictures, but for now, the pictures posted below are some of my favorites! Have a good week!

Happy New Year!

2009-02-01T18:27:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, my posts have been few and lacking in exciting pictures. We haven't been very busy now that the holidays are over so I decided to post a few pictures of mine and Craig's second Christmas together as a married couple. Well, I'll first start with our decorating of the Christmas tree. The Hibler family tradition is to each year trek through the great outdoors to find the perfect Christmas tree (see my previous post about this subject). Well after the cutting of the Christmas tree, Craig and I usually decorate it ourselves. This year we had a couple of crazy kids to help us. Little Carson took the last picture, its actually quite cute....

On to our trip to Washington, DC... I had to go to DC for a business trip the second week of December, so Craig decided to join me. It was a busy trip for me, but Craig was able to visit a few museums by himself and check out the cool things at the Smithsonian museums. I wasn't able to actually hang out with him until Thursday night but it was fun to go shopping in Georgetown, go to a few museums together, and see the monuments. When we came home, my cute little nephew asked if we had seen President Obama. He couldn't understand that he wasn't President yet and that even if we were in Washington DC, it is unlikely that we would see him. He kept asking "But didn't you go to the White House? That's where he lives!"
You should have seen us trying to get a picture of both of us with the National Christmas tree. We have about five pictures of our heads covering the tree. For some reason we couldn't position ourselves right. I was laughing so hard, everybody around us probably thought we were insane. It was okay we didn't get a cute picture though. The National Christmas tree was pathetic compared to the lights at Temple Square.
We've become pro's at taking pictures of ourselves. It's always just the two of us so we've had to learn how to hold the camera in just the right way (so that we don't get a up-the-nose shot!).
It was so much fun in DC, cold but fun. It's always fun to go on trips with Craig. Next up was Christmas. It was a fun Christmas where we went to Logan the weekend before and then had some of my family over for to our house for Christmas Eve dinner. Craig and I spent Christmas morning just the two of us and then went to my parents that night. It was a nice Christmas...I got a new bed and Craig got an iPhone.

New Year's was quiet...dinner and movie. I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day, as Craig has a surprise that he refuses to tell me. My next business trip is to Philadelphia. Now that Craig's in school he won't get to go with me. Craig's been really enjoying school and finds the little freshman that he has to take classes with very annoying. I've been having fun helping him with homework, until I get so frustrated that I have to leave the room.

Well, my next post will hopefully contain exciting pictures...we'll try to do something fun so we'll have something to blog about! Happy February!

Overdue Tag

2009-01-19T18:54:00.000-08:00

8 TV shows on my DVR.

1. The Office
2. 30 Rock
3. Saturday Night Live
4. Desperate Housewives
5. 24
6. Star Wars The Clones Wars (Craig's a nerd)

That's pretty much it, we're waiting for Lost, and wished we had HBO for Flight of the Conchords.

8 Favorite Restaurants

1. Pei Wei
2. Costa Vida/Cafe Rio
3. Firehouse Pizzeria
4. Ruth's Diner
5. Subway
6. California Pizza Kitchen
7. In N Out Burger
8. Cosi (in DC)

8 Favorite Bands/Singers

1. The Decemberists
2. Glen Hansaard & Marketa Irglova
3. Damien Rice
4. Paul McCartney
5. Tony Bennett
6. Muse/Radiohead
7. Weezer
8. Cyndi Lauper

8 Books I've Read

1. Gone With The Wind
2. Atlas Shrugged
3. To Kill A Mockingbird
4. Anna Karenina
5. Twilight Series
6. The Road
7. Pride & Prejudice
8. Ender's Game

8 Things That Happened Yesterday

1. Carson said the "D" word in front of strangers after falling on butt in the snow
2. Saw a baby Orangutan at the zoo
3. Ordered Pizza
4. Gave 3 children under the age of 7 a bath!
5. Watched Arrested Development
6. Played trucks with Carson and DS with Caden
7. Made a birds nest out of Play Doh
8. Did some laundry

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To

1. Oregon in July
2. New York in May
3. Presidents Day (No Work!)
4. Valentines Day
5. Lost Premiere
6. The Oscars
7. Spring time/Warmer weather
8. Halle's dance recital in St. George

8 Things I wish for

1. To travel more
2. To get a fence (so I can have a puppy)
3. Hardwood floors
4. Money in my savings account
5. New car
6. My families health and happiness
7. Craig's happiness
8. World peace

8 people I'm tagging

I don't know 8 people, so I'm tagging Meghan C, Mindy W. and Nicole.

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, I'll be posting pictures etc. soon.

Christmas is Coming!!!

2008-11-24T19:48:00.000-08:00

Well, you can always tell when the holidays are coming because there is an abundance of movie-going, parties, and family time. This past week was a very busy one for the Gramse family, as we were getting ready for a weekend of fun! It first started out with the Twilight premiere that I attended at MIDNIGHT on Thursday night with my sisters, mom, and niece. Let me tell you how big of a Diet Coke I had to drink just to stay up late enough for the movie to start! You know you're getting old when you are nodding off in a movie theater at 10:30! It was so fun to hang out with my family and to get to see a movie that we are so interested in. Despite the ratings, I personally loved 'Twilight' and am making Craig read the book so I can take him to it. I made it a point not to get my hopes up and to not expect too much, and maybe that's why I liked it so much. But I came out of the theater at 3:00 in the morning and could not stop thinking about Edward Cullen! Sorry, Jacob lovers! Granted some parts of the show were cheesy, but come on, how else are you supposed to show vampires crazy speed and sparkling skin? And I loved that it was a low budget movie. The only disappointing part was the lack of chemistry between Edward and Bella. But I hate Bella anyway. Here's a few pictures of us in the movie theater. Wow, were there some crazies there! You should have seen the lady threatening my 16 year old niece, "You better get to the back of the line or you'll be sorry!" Seriously, that's what she said. Come on people, its just a movie!!!

Well, after getting home at 3:30am and going to work at 8:00am, you can expect that I was exhausted come Friday night....yet, I had an exhilrating sleepover with my sister's kids and then it was baby shower time for Mindy Beach Wilson. She is due in January and the roommates and I threw her a little baby shower at my house. It has been so much fun seeing her little belly grow and knowing there's a little baby in there! She has been so accomodating and lets me rub her belly everytime I see her! Thanks, Mindy!
Next up it was "Christmas Tree Cutting Day"! It has been a tradition in the Hibler family for many years now and I am happy to say that it is one of Craig's favorite traditions in our family (possibly the only one!). We're exactly like the Griswold's in Christmas Vacation...when Craig sees the tree a beacon of light shines on it and music starts playing. And, seriously, the tree we cut this year is huge, and might possibly shatter all the windows when we open the boughs! Craig found the perfect tree pretty fast and didn't make me hike all over the mountains (and, might I say, BEAR country!) endlessly!

Of course, we had to get a picture of the whole family, plus the dogs, and the trees...could we fit any more in this picture!

Happy Holidays!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-11-06T20:32:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody!
Since we have no kids to take around trick or treating and both Craig and I love Halloween we decided to have a Halloween party/costume contest. It was so much fun because we got to hang around at our house and hand out candy to a multitude of children in our neighborhood! And we also got to have our friends come over for a good old fashioned night of pumpkin carving, chili, costumes, Beetlejuice, and the celebrity game! We hope everybody had as much fun as we did. By the way, I rule at the celebrity game! Here are just a few pictures of our guests costumes.

Nate and Becca - Nate won the costume contest....he was a firemen, while Becca was his dalmatian dog. So cute!

Mindy and JD were a white trash, polygamist couple? Mindy, correct me if I'm wrong. I think JD looks like his normal self!!! I loved Mindy's hair.

And, of course, Craig and I were Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. You got to love Craig's passion for Star Wars!!! He even made his own light saber! He's so talented.

After our Halloween party bash we went to my parent's condo in Park City. We had 22 people in a 3 bedroom condo at the Canyon's....it was quite a night. We had fun hanging out with the kids, shopping, riding the bus in a rainstorm, and watching movies while all the kids around us were running around. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for letting us come up for the week.

Carson wanted a mustache....so, of course, Craig drew one on him with Crayola markers.

All the kids in their costumes...from left to right...Halle - Cinderella, Ben - doctor, Caden - well, he didn't want to dress up, Joseph - skeleton, Lexie - Hannah Montana, and cute Emma - bumblebee!
It was a great Halloween!!!! Next up the annual ceremony of the Christmas tree cutting!!

Pumpkin Carving 2008!!!!

2008-10-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought that I would hurry and post our annual pumpkin carving extravaganza before Halloween actually comes. Every Halloween since Craig and I met we have carved pumpkins. Craig is very artistic and always carves the coolest pumpkin. I, on the other hand, always do the traditional jack o' lantern - triangle eyes, toothy grin...what can I say...I'm a traditionalist! This year Caden, my nephew, was nice enough to invite us over to carve pumpkins with them. So here are a few pictures for your enjoyment. Next post - our Halloween party, including a costume contest!!!

Gob, our kitty, has CRAZY eyes!!!

It's been too long.....

2008-10-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!!! I know, I know, I am the most horrible blogger. I just always forget that I should be updating my blog when we do fun things. Plus, work has been so busy these last couple of months that I have been trying to catch up on housework and other things when I get off work. My New Year's Resolution will be to be a better blogger.

Anyway, here a few pictures to update you on what we've been doing... back in the summer (before it was a white winterland outside!) we went up to Bloomington Lake for a nice hike.
We also painted our bedroom with grey stripes, you have no idea how hard and time-consuming this paint job was!! Our plan is to go through every room and paint, redecorate, remodel, etc. We've done the family room and we are working on our bedroom. I do have to say that I've found some more stuff that I would like to do to the family room...its never-ending!
Craig's little brother also got married in September, so we made the great trek up to Logan. Craig was his best man...it was really fun to see Craig's brothers and sisters and all the niece's and nephews. Meg and Brandon let us stay at their house - thank you, Meg! We had so much fun!
It's been a nice couple of months, in between weddings and remodeling I went to Dallas, Texas for a business trip, Craig and I went on a shopping spree weekend in Park City, and everything in between! You can all look forward to future posts about our Halloween party, Thanksgiving, the Hibler family tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree, and our December trip to Washington DC. I promise I will be better at my posts!!!

Thanks!

Camping and Scootin'

2008-08-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! I just wanted to post a few pictures from our latest camping trip. We went up to Soapstone Basin, which is in the Uinta's behind Kamas. Craig and I slept in our little tent, we rode the four wheelers, and went on a few hikes with the little girls. Oh, and shot the boy's guns. Even little Carson learned how to shoot his BB gun, and did not shoot his eye out!! It was a lot of fun.
These two are best friends!!! Carson loves Craig.

My little neices out on a hike. They held hands everywhere!

Craig and I amidst the flowers. I look pregnant here because of my shirt but I am not pregnant, I repeat, I am not pregnant!!
Oh, and by the way, Craig got a new scooter!! He loves it and drives it to work everyday. I must admit it is pretty fun.

Summer O' Fun

2008-07-13T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!!!

I'm sorry that I have been such a slacker with posting. This summer has gotten so busy and I just don't seem to find the time to post as much as I would like. We have been trying to have a nice and relaxing summer but also trying to go fun places and keep our yard work in check so it seems to be more hectic than relaxing.

I was able to go to lunch with some of my good friends: Mindy, Meg, and Nicole (and baby Adeline). We were able to meet up and go to lunch at Cafe Trio in SLC. It was fun catching up and finally being able to meet little Adeline. Meg is so cute with her little baby bump! I love you guys.

A couple of weeks ago we were also able to go to Lake Powell with my family. It was so fun to be able to spend time with them and just relax for five days. We had fun swimming in the lake, kneeboarding, tubing, and sleeping under the stars. Thanks, Mindy and Steve, for inviting us to stay on your houseboat and enjoy Lake Powell!

Little Carson was so good at keeping his life jacket on. He was a little weary of the water but eventually got in and had a good time.

My mom hadn't been to Lake Powell for over twenty years so she was excited to soak up the sun and she refused to get in the water without her life jacket!! So typical.

Here I am washing my hair in the lake. Halle was such a good girl and wore her life jacket all the time. She even jumped off the top of the houseboat like the big kids!! She's so brave!!!

Steve and Chris with their fishing. They can't get enough of it.

Enjoying the water weiney (how do you spell that?!). My dad had a blast on it with all his grandkids. He's such a good sport.

Craig and I on the back of the houseboat. I really love him!

Craig being silly!! My mom had bought those foam stickers so the kids could decorate their own visors. Craig decided to make himself a beard instead of a visor. I MUST really love him because I think he is hilarious.

We also had a great 4th of July but my camera broke so have no pictures of it. My family all went up to my sister's condo to swim and then we came back for an awesome bbq at my parents with the Davis fireworks show afterwards. We then slept at my parents house in the backyard where we were attacked by mosquitos. It was a very fun weekend spent with the family.

The summer has been a good one, despite the recent events that happened in my family. I just want my family, Craig's family, and our friends to know how much we love them all and we are so thankful for the prayers and support that you have given us this past week. I am so grateful for family and the strong bonds that hold us together. I know that my brother and my parents appreciate all the love and support that has been shown to us. Thank you and we love you!

The Latest......

2008-06-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

Well, hello! It's been a while since my last post and a few fun things have gone on. Besides enjoying the house and trying to think of new ways to decorate we just celebrated our 1 year anniversary!!! I can't believe that we've been married for 1 whole year. It's been great. We've done a lot of fun things and been busy opening a new restaurant and starting a new job. We went to Oregon, San Francisco, and a lot of little places in between. We opened the Firehouse Pizzeria in Centerville and I started a new job at the University of Utah. We bought a new house, got a little kitty, and killed a lot of plants along the way. I am so glad that I married Craig and we are so happy together. I can't imagine my life without him. I love you Craig!!

Here's a picture from Park City. We stayed at my parent's condo for the weekend of our anniversary. We went on a shopping spree, layed by the pool, and just relaxed. It was so fun being together.

I also got the chance to be a bridesmaid for one of my good friends, Chris Sadler. She got married up at the Homestead Resort in Midway. She's off to do her medical residency with her new husband, Wyatt, in Massachusetts so it was nice to be able to share her special day before she moved back East. Here are a few pictures:

Lastly, Craig's father came up from Richfield to see our new house and to give us some nice gardening tools. We're still getting the hang of this gardening thing but we do have some nice flowers and a whole strawberry and raspberry patch. I also planted some peas, pumpkins, cucumber, and squash and they are actually growing!!! I can't believe it. Inside I planted in little pots - oregano, cilantro, and basil. They are also growing...I am really turning out to have a green thumb!! Craig's two brothers also came to visit and it was nice to have the brothers and Craig's dad come to visit. They are a lot of fun!

Well, that's what's been happening in our life. It's been such a nice spring and the summer feels like its going to be a good one, despite all my allergies!!!

Don't forget to check out Craig's blog, CRAIGSEP.BLOGSPOT.COM!

New House

2008-05-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well, we decided to buy a house at the beginning of the year and what do you know we found one we really liked in less than 5 months!! We moved in a couple of weeks ago and love it so far. Everything's still kind of a mess and there's some work to do but its so nice being in a house with our own yard and garage! I love it. It's in West Layton so the drive to work is a little long but it hasn't been bad yet. It has four bedrooms and two baths. I want to thank everybody who helped us move in....my sisters and brother in law, my parents, and my brother. Thanks everybody!!!

San Francisco

2008-04-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been back from San Francisco for a day now and I'm already posting our pictures. My sister will be proud of me. We had so much fun that I wanted to hurry and post so that everybody could see our fun pictures. Last week I had to go to San Francisco for a meeting so Craig came along because we both had never been to S.F. It was so much fun...after my meetings were over. We stayed at Fisherman's Wharf which is a little ghetto and touristy but the sunsets were gorgeous and it was within walking distance of the piers and restaurants. We rode the trolley into Union Square to get a little shopping in. Union Square has the largest Macy's I have ever seen. There was an art fair in the square and it was fun to walk around and look at the paintings and art. In Union Square there are such stores as Tiffany's, Saks, and Bloomingdale's. I wanted to go to Bloomingdale's to look at their shoes. I found some salmon skin Jimmy Choo's that were $700! Out of control! I think the best part of San Francisco was the Golden Gate Bridge. We didn't go over it because I'm a chicken. I hate bridges so bad and the Golden Gate Bridge is very high and long. I couldn't handle it! It was a fun trip, however, I wish we would've gone to Napa or Monterey or Carmel but we can always do that another time. It was fun just to get away and enjoy the nice weather and to just be together with Craig.

*This is a picture from the top of Lombard Street. It was so pretty at sunset!
*Craig and I on the boat...along with Bubba Gump!
*The Golden Gate Bridge and I. It was my favorite part.
*Craig and I on the boat ride. He got a little sick from the motion.
*Us at the park. It was overlooking the bay and sometimes swimmers would be out there swimming! BRRRRR!
*Craig on the trolley. It was so crowded one time I had to hang off the edge with my Nordstrom's bag. I thought I was going to fall off! Or be smashed by another trolley coming up alongside.
*The bridge at sunset. Craig's hair was awesome this night.
*Ghiradelli Square at sunset. We had so much fun!
*Craig and the seals on Pier 39.

St. George, Here We Come!

2008-03-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well, this past weekend we took a trip to St. George to get some sun. And in "we" I mean my mom, my two sisters, and my three nieces. It was a girl's weekend all the way...we shopped, layed by the pool, and went to the restaurants we wanted to go to. We even got to go to my 16 year old nieces dance competition, go to a girly movie, and got pedicures. It was a blast! The weather was so nice, I, of course, got burnt. It was so much fun to be with the girls and in the sun. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

This is us getting pedicures. Halle and Ellie got flowers on their toes. I wanted some too!

This is us at dinner...aren't my nieces so cute!

Here's my niece, Halle showing off for the camera! She's a riot! She wouldn't get in the pool because she was afraid her toenail polish would come off. What a girl!

Mesquite O' Fun

2008-03-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

Well hello! I am seriously the most horrible blogger. I never seem to update my blog and never do the tags that people make me do. I'm so sorry. Now that Daylight Savings has hit and I feel like I have more to the day I will try to be a better blogger.

Well since my last entry Craig and I have been pretty busy. I got really sick of being in the house that I decided it was time to take a winter hike. We went up Mueller Park Canyon in Bountiful and just took a walk (until the park ranger got mad at us and ALMOST made us pay...we didn't pay of course. It is winter and we walked in and nobody was even up there!! If it was the summer I would be more than willing to pay, but we were only there for an hour or so... and he was rude to us). It was a great hike.

I fell in the snow - big time! Up to my waist, I swear!

We also went to Mesquite over President's Day weekend for a little break from work. My aunt and uncle live down there and so we decided to go down with my parents and go to Las Vegas. Well, then my sister Tina and her fam wanted to come so we made it a big party. It was so nice down there with the sun and warm weather! Also, Craig and I took a day trip to Vegas and saw Phantom of the Opera! Ever since Meg and Brandon went with her family I wanted to go see it and it was totally worth it to see it again. I loved it! The trip to Vegas was so fun. We went to In 'n' Out Burger and went shopping. It was a blast!

This is Craig and I at the pool before we made the trek to Vegas!! Look how warm it is!

Here we are in Vegas. We almost missed the show because we were shopping too much. We were at the Bellagio and the Phantom was at the Venetian and I swear the casinos go on forever and basically we got lost in the Bellagio casino.

The following are pictures of us hiking at the "Valley of Fire" Its a little place in between Las Vegas and Mesquite. It was fun to go hiking among the red rock instead of in the snow!

Here's my sister Tina and her cute kids!! They were so much fun!!

My cute parents. My dad and his Indiana Jones hat!! He's a riot.

There you go Mindy!! I finally blogged my Mesquite pictures. I'll try to be better.

Have a great March everybody!!!

Husband Tag

2008-02-10T17:04:00.000-08:00

So I was randomly looking at everybody's blog today and noticed that everybody had these husband tag things. Then I noticed that Mindy Beach Wilson tagged me and I am just going to do whatever everybody else did and answer questions about my lovely husband!

What is his name?

Craig Linder Gramse

How long have you been together?
We've been married for 8 months! I can't believe it.

How long did you date?

2 1/2 years. I think...Meg and Brandon started dating around the same time but they got married first... Well it was a long time.

How old is he?
Craig is 22. He is turning 23 on April 7th.

Who said I love you first?
He did! If I can remember right!

Who's taller?
Craig definitely! He's over 6 feet.

Who can sing better?
Craig of course! I can't even sing Happy Birthday! Craig always make fun of me when I let my guard down and sing in the car. After I belt out one verse as loud as I can the look on Craig's face tells me to stop. Immediately.

Who is smarter?
I like to think we are equally smart. I definitely have my fair share of stupid comments but miraculously Craig never has anything stupid to say...he's very quick.

Who does the laundry?
I do. Craig can't even put his dirty clothes in the laundry basket...let alone sort them and put them in washer.

Who pays the bills?
I do. Craig's in charge of the cell phone bill and he, usually, pays that on time.

Who sleeps on the right side?
Craig

Who mows the lawn?
We don't have a lawn so we haven't come to that hurdle!

Who cooks dinner?
Both of us. When I'm too tired after work he will make stir-fry or steak. He usually takes care of the meat portion and I do the side dishes. He makes a very good spaghetti!

Who drives?
Craig. The only problem with Craig driving is he makes me pick the CD we're going to listen to and I usually don't pick the one he wants to listen to... so then I just have to change it after a couple of songs.

Who is more stubborn?
I would say Craig but he would probably argue with that.

Who kissed who first?
Craig kissed me. I had to give him the signs to make him do it..but he finally did!

Who asked who out first?
We started hanging out with a bunch of friends from Firehouse, going to movies, dinner, etc. for a long time and then a couple of months of hanging out he asked me to the Green Day concert in SLC just the two of us. It was the best date I have ever been on...Ever!

Who proposed?
Craig did. We were at Temple Square walking through the Christmas lights. He got on one knee on a bridge that we both like and popped the question. We were both so nervous and I couldn't stop smiling that whole night. I didn't know at all that he even had the ring. It was a big surprise.

Who has more friends?
I do. I definitely have more close friends. He has friends, he just doesn't hang out with them much.

Who is more sensitive?
I am. I can cry at the drop of a hat.

Who has more siblings?
Craig, just by one. He has 1 sister and 5 brothers. Lots of boys in the family.

Who wears the pants?
I hate to admit it but definitely Craig. He's very proud of that.

I love you!

I tag Mindy Harris and Kristy Perkins.

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

Well, the holidays are here and sadly, pratically over. We have been busy for the holiday season. I had to get surgery to get my gallbladder out 3 days before Thanksgiving. Needless to say, it was not my best Thanksgiving ever. I woke up from the anesthesia and felt like a thousand horses had kicked me in the stomach. I was not doing so good those first few days. Poor Craig had to pull me up off the couch and do everything for me. Anyway, we spent Thanksgiving at my sister's house with my parents and her family. It was fun playing with Caden, Halle, and Carson. Carson absolutely loves Craig. He's 2 and can say Craig's name clearly. And of course, he can't say mine at all.

After the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving weekend Craig and I participated in the Hibler family tradition of cutting down our own Christmas trees. It was so fun to go as a married couple and pick the perfect Christmas tree for our little apartment. Of course, Craig picked the very best one.

Craig's a pro at picking out Christmas trees. Here it is all decorated in our apartment. It takes up most of the living room.

So far its been a great holiday season. It's mine and Craig's first Christmas as a married couple and I'm excited to be together this Christmas. We've done some fun things this month from cutting down our own Christmas trees and going to Christmas parties to going to my sister's cabin and staying a night at Sherwood Hills. Anyway, here's some pictures of some good times! Happy Holidays!!

Halloween & Such

2007-11-18T11:17:00.000-08:00

Hello internet users.

Well I know Halloween is long gone but we finally got around to putting some more pictures onto our computer. Halloween this year was a fun one. We just went to dinner at... Firehouse, I wanted to see everyones costumes, and then we took little nephew Caden, Trick or Treating around his neighborhood, I forgot how much Trick or Treating rules. We both dressed up this year. I dressed up as Willy Wonka, as close to him as I could. You can't imagine how hard it is to find a top hat. Heather dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She made her own costume even! it looked great!

We also carved some pumpkins a bit earlier. Can anyone tell what mine is? I didn't use a stencil, I think they turned out great. Heather's is that wicked bat.

If you guys haven't heard yet, Heather has to bet her gol bladder out. Youch! She get's it out on the 19th, with some sweet laproscopic surgery. She's really excited, jk. She is excited for it to be out, not too psyched for the surgery though. Well Happy Holidays everyone! Eat Drink and Be Merry!

An update

2007-09-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

Well hello to the blogging world. It has been a couple of weeks since we contributed to our blog so I thought I would write a little something for everybody to look at. Our lives have been pretty low key lately. We've just been hanging out with each other, occasionally hanging out with old friends and working. I just got back from Atlanta GA, where I attended a meeting for work. We were lucky enough to be there during a Bjork concert and thus got to see all her crazy fans in Atlanta. Too bad Craig wasn't there to see all the crazy people. Wowee!
Work has been good for both of us but it is still nice to come home to each other and of course to Gob. Oh and coming home to Shelton is nice too. Shelton, Craig's brother, has been living with us for the past couple of weeks because he got a job in Salt Lake. We've been a big happy family. We are planning a little getaway to Logan this weekend to see the pretty Fall leaves and I am very excited. Still trying to decided what to be for Halloween. Will keep you updated. Happy Halloween!!

Muse

2007-09-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Me and Heather have been really busy with work still. We haven't had very much time to spend together. She wakes up and leaves before I wake up to go to work, then if I have to work in the evenings she's asleep before I get home. Well on Tuesdsay I got to thinking we should do something cool and I remembered Muse was coming on Wednesday night. I had to do some quick trading to get my Wednesday night shift off, but my friend and Firehouse head cook Derek agreed to work a double for me, bless his little heart. So I was clear to go. I raced to Smiths hoping it wasn't sold out, it was only the day before the show. Me and Nate got to Smith tix and luckily there was plenty of tickets left.

Heather has had huge meetings all week at the U. Investigators from all over the country came to check up on her studies. She's been really stressed and very very busy, Wednesday was her last day of meetings so the concert would be a nice way to chill out, at least it would be for me.

So Wednesday Night, Me, Heather, Nate and Nates little brother Darren all jumped in my car and headed down to the Mckay Event center in Orem.

The opening band was already going when we got here due to the massive line that was backed up cause everyone had to be patted down, which is Heathers favorite part of the concert, being patted down by a big manly girl. Anyways, first band was Immigrant, which weren't bad at all for being an opening band, usually they suck big time. This is the kind of band that makes me miss my own, I might just be a little biased but with these kinds of bands I start to thinking, if they can be there touring with Muse, Me and my band could have, because I think we were a lot better, but again I might be a little biased. Next band to come on was Juliette and the Licks or something like that. Heather was certain that Juliette, the leader singer of this band, was in fact an actor, the only movie she said she was in that I recognized was Old School, she was Luke Wilsons wife whom he left after she did some crazy stuff. But anyways her band sucked and she was a wierdo, at the end of her set I believed Heather that she was that actress but have yet to research it. She sucked whether she was an actress or not, after her first song me and Heather went and got some bitchin' merch. Heather got a cool bag and I got a rad shirt.

So after that idiot girls band got over we waited for like twenty minutes before any sign of Muse. But then the lights went out some fog started billowing out all over the stage and the band comes out and starts the show with Knights of Cydonia. Matt Bellamy was dead on key, playing his guitar and singing at the same time. The light show behind the band was showing the lyrics to the chorus and the whole crowd yelled at the top of their lungs. This show was by far one of the best live shows i've been to. Bellamy has more talent by himself than most bands have combined. He shredded his guitar all over the stage, hitting every note plus more thrown in like I love at live shows. Their bassist was right on in his spots, the drummer was amazing. Recently I had made a Muse best of CD and they almost played everysong on it. Heather was really hoping they'd play Endlessly, but no luck. The songs they did play were all right on, they even played Butterflies and Hurricances, which if you know your muse songs has about a 30 second piano solo, which he sat down and played even better than it is on his CD. This is the type of band that makes you almost cry because you know you could never make anything even halfway as cool as what you're listening too. At the first of the show I was really hoping they'd play Micro-Cuts and Stockholm Syndrome and at the end of their set niether of the two had been played. They left the stage and said thank you Utah, but then the encore cheering and stomping started up which was the loudest part of the whole concert, after like ten minutes of deafening loudness in which half the people in the audience left, a quote by JFK flashed on the huge monitors, warning about corrupted governments and how the people of the world need to stick together and then Muse came back out and started the encore with Take a Bow, and then freaking Micro Cuts and then Stockholm Syndrome! I was so happy. The only songs I had wanted to hear but didn't was Endlessly and Citizen Erased, but still it is definatly in my top three best concerts I've ever been too, even Heather puts it in her top three. Her top three being Green Day Weezer then Muse, Mine being Muse, Greenday, Weezer, then Chili Peppers/Foo Fighters, I guess that's five. Anyways that was our Wednesday night. If anyone ever gets a chance to see Muse, don't hesitate. What are your favorite concerts?

New to the Blogging World

2007-09-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

Well, Mindy B. got us to finally start in the blogging world. We all went to dinner - J.D. and Mindy, Meg and Brandon, and Craig and I and she demanded that we start a blog because she is obsessed with it. So here I am. This is me and Craig, We Rule!

Well, let's start with an overview of this year:

Craig and I finally decided to take the plunge and get married!!!

It's been a wild ride since May 18th, the date that we got married. We moved down from Logan to Bountiful so that we could help open up the new Firehouse Pizzeria in Centerville. That was quite an adventure. Opening up a restaurant is one of the hardest things to do. Our summer consisted of working 14 hour days six days a week! Which was, needless to say, tiring. We interviewed well over a hundred applicants, we hired, trained and beat into shape all of our noob employees. But our hard work has payed off, the restaurant is getting constantly busier, our employees and getting smarter and faster, plus it kicks Logan Firehouse's behind! We are hoping it does well.

I helped out a ton with the hiring and planning phases of the restaurant, and at the same time I was still looking for another job. I reapplied for teaching jobs around the valley as well as applying for several jobs at the University, with us being married and unisured it was very important to find something to help us out. Well, because this is how my life goes I got offered a position at the University of Utah and a day later got offered a teaching position at Woods Cross High. It was a very hard decision but I chose to work for the University of Utah. I've been there for about a month and I am very happy with my decision.

Everything is going really well in our new marriage. We are happy and excited to be together. We have a nice little apartment with one problem. I spotted a mouse a couple of weeks ago and I immediately sent Craig to Logan to get a kitty. We have adopted a little black and white kitty and named him Gob (as in "Arrested Development"). He is quite a handful, running around wild and eating a ton. We have not seen our little furry friend, the MOUSE, so he worth the scratches.

We are excited to enter the blogging world and keep our friends and family up to date on all the going-ons and shenanigans in our lives. We will keep you posted!!!