RELOCATED

Baby girl of mine 💕 Time is just flying by! I was looking at some videos from last December the other day, and I realized how much you really have learned and grown since then! My little baby is growing up! You are no longer barely moving and barely making expressions like back in December -- instead, you are moving ALL. THE. TIME. and smiling or growling all the time, too :) Heaven help me when you're finally crawling -- you'll be into everything! Thanks for being my little bestie. I love spending my days with you, even when I don't get enough done, even when you're making messes, and even when you take crappy naps and drive me nuts. I want to be home with you, so I wouldn't have it any other way. You are so sweet and so funny and I'm just grateful that you're mine, sweet girl. Stats You weigh 17 pounds (40%) and are 27 inches long (48%).  8 months old and I dressed you in the onesie we brought you home from the hospital in YESTERDAY. The

We have friends that live in St. George and friends that live in Cedar City, both of whom have offered to let people stay at their houses, so I had been trying to find a good time to go down there, and #ashleysfun25 was the perfect excuse! I was a little bit worried about taking Ada on a trip because I knew it would mess with her schedule that was juuuuust barely seeming fully established, but she actually did GREAT! It wasn't perfect, and the times when naps got messy were a struggle, but all in all, she did great sleeping on the trip (as in perfect night sleep and a perfect first nap; only the second nap was ever wonky, and that's because we were either driving or hiking during that nap on all three days!) and got right back to her good habits the day we returned home. **sidenote** Man, in writing this post, I realized I'm  very  long-winded. So the short version is that on Friday we saw Russ's grandparents on our way down to St. George, and then we met up wit

It would be great if we could all be like people in movies who say and do just the right things at just the right time. (Although I guess people in movies also say and do just the wrong things sometimes, too, so maybe movies are more like real life than I think!) However, people are all just different, with different strengths and different weaknesses. As much as I love Russ, last year I realized that celebrating birthdays and special events is not one of his strengths. So rather than expect him to completely change and be someone else who  is  inherently super great at those types of celebrations, this year I sort of laid out exactly what I wanted and needed for my birthday and Mother's Day, and it went much better. A few days before, I sent him an email detailing my expectations regarding both my birthday and Mother's Day, this year and in future years. Sure, that takes out some of the fun and excitement that the surprise element would bring, but that's okay; this will