Baby Care 101

Macie shared some tips with me about how to take care of her baby. First of all, babies need a blanket so they stay warm. (Macie demonstrates putting on the blankey.)


Then you carry the baby around on one side with your hand behind its back for proper support, like so.


Finally, when your baby goes to bed on the floor in the middle of the room, it's important to lay down with baby. And there you have it.

Food Craze

With a couple new popular food places opening up in town I find myself drawn into the "food craze." What is it about these places that attracts so many people who want to keep coming back non-stop? I believe it to be some sort of addictive compound added to the food. There's no other explanation. The 2 places I'm referencing here are Golden Spoon and Cafe Rio.

Let's start with Golden Spoon. The non-fat frozen yogurt is pretty good. I like the variety of flavors and the toppings are all your standard crushed candies, nuts, etc. When I am in the mood for Golden Spoon I have to go because nothing else will satisfy the craving. (And no, I'm not pregnant.) However, when I'm eating my frozen yogurt I always seem a little disappointed, like I remember it tasting better before or something. Not that it tastes bad; it just tastes like any other frozen yogurt to me. So this is why it doesn't make sense to me. I always have to go back! A week later I decide I need it again. Why is that???

Ok, now on to Cafe Rio. I know there are many devout Cafe Rio fans out there. I have always liked Cafe Rio, but find several other places to be pretty similar. Bajios, Durango Grill...what's the difference? But now that there is a Cafe Rio in town I want to go there every so often. My food tastes good, but once again nothing so special that I just can't believe it. What's the deal??? Why am I drawn to things that I find "not bad" again and again?

Utah Trip Recap

Macie and I had a great time on our trip to Utah. It was so nice to be with my mom when she isn't in the hospital. My stress level is a lot lower when life is more normal. We stayed in an apartment my dad is renting in downtown Salt Lake, just a couple minutes from LDS Hospital. She has to be close in case of an emergency and goes to the hospital weekly to see her doctors. My mom is doing excellent in her recovery so far. She has about 15 pills to take every day and also has to have an IV put in every afternoon to keep extra fluids in her body. We have all thesupplies and do it ourselves. She has a small backpack to carry the IV around in so it's pretty convenient. Because her immune system is adjusting and coming back, she can't be in crowded places and has a mask to wear when she goes out. She does get tired pretty easily too. We mostly spent time hanging around the apartment having a good time. Macie loved the attention, of course.

Every time we left the apartment we had to take Macie's "pack-pack", as she calls it, with her favorite toys.

We stopped by Liberty Park one afternoon to feed the geese. It was Macie's first time! She was pretty excited to see them upclose, but wanted me right with her. At first she wanted to eat the bread herself, but after she finally threw a piece and saw how quickly one of the geese snatched it up she got excited and yelled "BITE!"

Mami Annie bought Macie a fun toy that involved matching animals. Macie loved it and played all the time.

It is so great and such a relief to all of us that my mom is having a great recovery. This whole process has been so draining and it's finally feeling like we're coming up. My mom just can't wait to get back to real life and feel "normal" again, as can I. I know I'm a grown woman now, but I still want my mom back!

Baby Shower

Before I went out of town we had a baby shower for my sister Melanie. Her baby girl is due on August 16th and we are so excited! The shower was a lot of fun; we stuffed ourselves with food and she opened a ton of presents. I took pictures of some of the food that I made. (I'm trying to be creative folks, bear with me.)

This cake looks really cool close up and is delicious. It is layered with brownie pieces, cheesecake mousse, cool whip, and crushed heath candy bars.


These turkey wrap rolls were made with a cream cheese spread and tasted excellent!


Here is Mel with her cute baby bump. We were playing a game where people had 30 secs. to draw a baby on a paper plate on their head without looking. I really like this game because it's easy to do, quick, and hilarious to see how all the drawings turn out!

Back to Utah

I thought I should update my blog since Macie and I are leaving tomorrow for the week to go back to Salt Lake. (Not that I'm that great at updating my blog in the first place, but I'm trying to get better at it.) My mom is out of the hospital but staying in an apartment close by for her recovery. She isn't allowed to go too far until next month at the earliest. There are still many precautions that she needs to take and someone always has to be there with her. My dad was there the first two weeks after she was released, then my sister, and now me! My grandparents have also been filling in as needed. It is much less stressful that she is now out of the hospital, but now we have to make sure she takes all of her medications, give her an IV when needed, take her temperature, and anything else as needed by the doctors. They continue to say that she is doing well and having a good recovery. So far there hasn't been many signs of graft vs host disease, which puts her back into the hospital, so that has been good. We are all just moving right along and praying that her recovery will continue to run smoothly and that she will be in remission when they test her in September. That is the one thing I always worry about. At this point we just don't know. However, her good recovery is definitely a good sign and we have faith that she can make a complete recovery. I look forward to seeing her tomorrow!


In the meantime, my little Macie is starting to really talk like crazy. It is hilarious. I love the sound of her sweet little voice when she tries so hard to say words. It is such a fun stage right now! Here are some of my favorite words she says: "pees" for please, "taynt" for thank-you, "annie" for my mom who the grandkids call Mami Annie, "side" for outside, "sauce" for applesauce, and "owie" for ow or ouch. This cute photo captures Macie enjoying her favorite pasttime, trying on shoes.

Not So Happy 4th of July

Let me first start off with the good stuff. Macie and I got up early to go sit outside in the miserable heat for the Summerlin July 4th parade. Josh had to work, what a bummer, so I met up with my brother's family and ended up seeing Josh's grandma there too. We were fortunate enough to get a spot in the shade. The kids didn't mind at all; Macie loved the big balloons, floats, and especially the horses. She is her mama's girl! Afterwards we walked to IHOP across the street to have brunch. We then went home to go swimmimg and had some friends over too. We had a BBQ in the evening and then were planning to go to the fireworks show at the Hills Park, but Macie and I were really wiped out from all the heat so we went to bed instead.

This is Macie with her great-grandma at the parade.

Here's my brother Ben with his youngest, baby Gus.

This is where the "not so fun" part comes in. I woke up a few hours after I went to sleep with bad stomach pain. I spent the entire night with the most violent stomach flu I've ever had. By morning Josh had it, then Macie (though hers was extremely mild, thank goodness) and my sister. It was so miserable! I was so weak that I couldn't pick Macie up. I easily lost 5 pounds when all was said and done. We are all better now, except for my little brother who got sick today. I know of several other people who have had the same thing within the last week. So watch out...something nasty is going around!