farmhouse baby

My dream life includes goats, chickens, horses, a huge garden complete with a giant compost pile, a greenhouse, and a kitty. We are getting closer...our backyard is a cornfield! And the gardens of our neighbors in Vineyard are breathtaking! So for now I get to pretend while I bathe the baby in the farmhouse sink.

best girl

This is one of my favorite pics to date. I think these colors are indicative of what Taytay's personality will be. Bright, bold, high energy. Ellie makes me think of white, yellow and calm. So maybe a change of colors in the nursery is going to be in order. I finally did the binding on this quilt a couple weeks ago. I started it in Texas almost 3 summers ago!

taylor 11 months

So sad we missed 10 months, I think she had about 20 less hairs, so not much different.

bridger bear

Now that I've discovered the photobucket app I think I'll be posting a lot more! It's awesome! Here is little Bridger Bear, Brittany and Brett's Baby Boy, and Brayden's Brother. I think he's quite Bumble-y, which is the only adjective that starts with a B that I can think of at 10:00 pm.

spur of the moment

A couple weeks ago I had a meltdown - sometimes marriage is hard ya know?! But at the end of the day we are best buds. We talked on the phone that night for 3 hours! I have never talked on the phone to anyone for more than an hour, maybe. I hate the phone. Justin was in ABQ marketing our new Dirty Dash race he bought and then next morning he called me and said, "Pack your bags, your plane leaves at 1:00, I'll find babysitters." That sentence will tell you a lot about how Justin works: make the decision first, then figure out how to make it happen. So after much debate on the stupidity and rashness of this decision I packed my bags, go to check in online, and realize the ticket is for May 16, not March 16. Justin fixed it and I ended up leaving the next day. Thank you too everyone who helped watch the kids on short notice. We really needed some time to reconnect, it was good.












We stayed at one of the cutest boutique hotels I've been to, Hotel Parq Central. Its an old 1920's hospital on Route 66 renovated into a hotel. They have lots of artifacts in box frames throughout the hotel. And amazing quiche every morning.


The only picture of an actual person. I found my dad's long lost twin at the Green Dress Run!

We took the tram, ran in the green dress run for St. Patrick's Day (which I cannot show pictures of if we ever want to run for office), ate out, and relaxed on the roof of the hotel. We also bought shoes from the guy that owns Heart & Soul running store, where he showed us his collection of shoes belonging to Carl Lewis, Paula Radcliff, and 20 or so other runners I don't know about. He had the first shoes from every company and has 30 patents on different shoe designs. So interesting. He brought out what he says is the first Nike ever made and let us hold it. This job is very refreshing for Justin who was really sick of selling people something they didn't want. Trying to talk people into running a mud run is much easier, and part of promoting involves giving free teams away to running stores - definitely a much different vibe.

cinemagraph

Just something I learned last week in my After Effects class. Cinemagraphs are still photographs in which a minor and repeated movement occur. Here are my favorites. I'm excited to try some new ones.

7 is going to be great!

This was my first attempt at a real birthday party at home. I think next year we'll be back to our breakfast at Magleby's tradition. It's just too much work and clean up! And this party was fairly simple too. Luckily, Jess came and helped me pull it off. Anyway, Ellie sure is special. What a fun age: friends, loosing teeth, more independence, reading chapter books, writing in secret journals, emotional breakdowns. Life is great for a seven year old I think.

Our theme was Paper. Everything was made of paper and our activities were making banners with each girls name and paper flowers.



Ellie had Charise, Brielle and Lily over from our old neighborhood, Leah, her new friend on my mom's street, and Kelty and Molly. Such cute girls. The girls came over right after school and we had an after school snack of sandwiches, juice, veggies, grapes, and mini cheesecakes.

im on a blogging roll!

blurry kids on a bed

capital reef last october

5 years old!

in the tent at capital reef last october
Cody turned 5 yesterday! I was in St. George with 10 girls (friends and family) but I think he had more fun without me anyway. He told me on the phone that being five feels "like I'm in 1st grade". Today when I got back in town he showed me how he is much bigger and looks older and is much smarter.
Cody is not self entertaining in the slightest, and sometimes that can cause some tension between us - I'm trying to be more engaging with him. He just eats up my attention. He's so cute and loves to snuggle me and suck his finger (still loves his lambie/tag!). He loves know how things work, which means transformers are his toy of choice. He also loves everything construction. I don't think there is anything cuter than when he gets his tool belt and work gloves on and helps dad build the house.
He's also very proud of the fact that he is the green smoothie drinker. Sometimes I make them so potent I have a hard time downing them, but he'll drink the whole thing happily. Which is such a relief because he doesn't want anything to do with salads or most of the other things I make.
Yesterday Grandpa Nicol took he and Ellie to breakfast and to have a little party at Great Grandma Nicols. Grandma Bagley and Lisa came to see him and gave him a jar of money and Gramdpa Miller made his birthday stop (he never misses anyone's birthday). Justin took him to buy a skateboard after working at the house. Tuesday will be his bounce-house birthday party, which he will love! Love your cute little face Cody! Happy Birthday!

little trouble maker

This is the stage that is soooo cute...and so exhausting.

taylor 9 months

18ish lbs.

rain jackets and driving loafers

This rain jacket and these blue leather driving loafers are probably my favorite things Taylor owns. I made the jacket in Knoxville and the shoes were given to me by my friend Liz Collings. I've been waiting for Tay to finally sit up (she crawled before she sat up) so I could get some pictures of her. Luckily this winter has been more like Spring so we got these shots just down the road from where we are building in January!





Excuse the photo-shopped depth of field, still trying to talk Justin in to a SLR.

a new me point tracker

My friend Monica is facilitating a wellness challenge for her friends. I am having a hard time keeping track of my points so I created this chart for anyone to print off to use. I think it would be nice to keep these in a stack to see progress as well.

Point Tracker 2

taylor 8 months

18 lbs.

give thanks

I had fun this year decorating my moms house (as we are living here temporarily while we build) for Thanksgiving. My mom is usually too busy to decorate for anything but Christmas. I gave myself a budget of $0 and used scrap fabric, the kids drawings, free pumpkins and Indian corn from Vineyard Gardens, and artwork by my uncle worth thousands. Ah the irony. I love how it turned out.

Also included is Tay with her feathers and a photo from my favorite book, "A Time to Keep"

taylor 7 months

15.5 lbs.

moving day

hope the new buyers like bare blub lights - cause were taking the chandelier! muahh haha)

We like to keep things real, ya know. So to do that we try to think of ways to make our life more complicated every couple months. Like moving every summer, going to school, having babies during tornadoes, real estate projects (more fun -and complicated!- than actually just burning your money). So about month ago we decided to put up our house that we put our blood, sweat and tears into up for sale just to see what happened. It sold 9 days later. So next week we must be out and thankfully my parents offered to let us overtake their home live with them while we build a new home. Should be fun! This home is going to be ultra budget so I'll have to show you the creative ways we come up with to save money. Ba-bye orange wall!

taylor 6 months

Well, she looks a lot like her 2, 3, 4, and 5 month pics. She's gaining a pound a month but still easily fitting in that same white onesie!

15 lbs.

capital reef

Vacations at Capital Reef are one of my favorite memories. We started going when I was 13 or so with the entire Bagley family. Our vacations included riding bikes to Boulder, mnt. biking on top of Boulder Mnt., hiking, picking fruit, jumping into Upper Calf Creek, jumping off Freemont Falls, and swimming with cousins. I took Justin and the kids there about four years ago and we loved it. I wanted to make sure we went this year. It will be fun to do more things as the kids get older. Justin's parents have a RZR so we added that to the mix.

Cody has been nicknamed "the finder" since this trip. He found our awesome campsite, found Justin's lost wallet, the lost rzr keys, and a couple other things I can't remember. We've made a big deal about it and now he finds everything for us and he's really proud of his new role as "finder".

We were told a good place to take the RZR was Thousand Lakes Mountain. I was more than I had bargained for with the baby in tow. But I had her snuggled up in a sling for the ride up. We went up stuff no jeep could ever make, and she slept the whole time.
After about 7 miles we came to a dead end with some really crazy rock formations. We played around for a while and then went back to camp.

My parents came the next day and rented a cute cabin about five minuted from where we were camping. The nights were COLD! Tay did great the first night, not great the second night and I slept in my mom and dad's cabin the third night with TayTay. I am really surprised that it was actually my idea to take the family camping!


My dad has this 20 mile bike ride he loved down here but I had never done it. We drove up the scenic route towards Boulder, pulled over and he pointed out our route. My parents and the kids followed us on the RZR for the first 5 miles where we pulled over and explored a slot canyon.

In years past the water is low enough to jump in a swim. Not this year.

It was a fun date! I love getting really far away from everything. And the scenery was amazing. We started on Boulder Mountain and ended up in Capital Reef.

On Sunday we did a little sightseeing. Freemont Falls is now closed to the public but we hiked to it anyway. We used to love jumping off here.

Capital Reef was settled by Mormon pioneers. There are many original buildings still there, as well as historic fruit orchards. This is one of my favorite places. One of the homes has been turned into a store and museum where we get pie and ice cream. The kids loved riding bikes through the leaves while we lounged in the sun.


It was fun to have my parents there too, though it may have been a little stressful for my mom with the danger factor. Next trip with them will be to Hawaii ok?