My Baby Shower

My sister and mom threw me SUCH a cute baby shower! They kept me in the dark so everything was a huge surprise to me.

Everything was done so perfectly! My sister and mom did sooooo much to prep for the shower, seriously! 

We first just gathered together, did some quick intros and ate. On the menu were chicken salad sandwiches on crescent rolls, fruit kabobs (courtesy of my friend Brittany), bran muffins (my addiction that my mother-in-law makes), a strawberry spinach salad, & Nothing Bundt Mini Cakes for dessert. Delish!!

After eating waaaaay too much, we moved back into the family room to do a couple of games.

This game was hilarious.. Everyone put a paper plate on their heads and tried to draw what they thought Lincoln would look like. The concentration on people's faces killed me! Some drawings were surprisingly good and others (like mine) looked like a cup of raman noodles haha!

The second game was to feel around inside my *new* diaper bag and guess what the items were inside and write them down. It was way hard because we couldn't start writing anything down till the very last person had put their hand in the bag! Kill me. I only got like 3 things and there were 10 or something. I have a terrible memory apparently. 

After games I opened gifts and heard some great advice as I did. One of my favorite tidbits that stood out to me was to let the house get messy.. To essentially focus on the most important part, which is my family and meeting their needs. Screw vacuuming or laundry when the babes are awake and needing mommy.. My most important job is to be there for them and show my love to them. 

We were incredibly blessed with some amazingly darling gifts and outfits.. I seriously cannot wait to meet Mr. Linc and dress him up!

I meant to take a picture all together but completely spaced it (again, my memory is just amazing!) but did grab this gem with some of my friends from high school. 

Love these girls!

xoxo

Mandi

Potty Training Liv -- attempt #1

Lately Olive has been telling me when she's pooping. Smart little thing. So I figured I'd give potty training a try.. Not an intense program with steps or anything, just an easy intro. My sister-in-law Kelly gave us a potty that they no longer need because their boys are potty trained now so I brought it up from the basement and went at it. 

I don't have a set game plan or anything that I'm set on following, just a gut feeling of how I think she will do & what she will respond to. 

Day 1

In the morning I changed her diaper & took off her pj's so she was just hanging out in her diaper. I fed her breakfast as usual but pushed her sippy towards her a lot more than usual. Once she was done eating I tried to put her on the potty every 20 minutes or so. Because I wanted it to be a positive experience, I brought the potty out into my family room so that she could watch Finding Nemo (her newest obsession) while she tested out the potty. 

Once she was on the potty I praised her & tried to have her stay there for at least 1 minute and said key words like poop & pee & potty while she was there. I asked her if she was all done once she started to get annoyed from sitting there and slipped her diaper back on her. 

Happy naked little thing ;)

She didn't go pee or poop while we were watching Nemo, so I popped her in the tub for her bath, bringing the potty & wipes with me. 

Immediately after her bath, I put her on the potty, asking if she needed to go or not. Since she was naked and a little wet, I just wrapped her towel around her. I also downloaded a new game on my iPad and had her playing that while I was saying potty, poop, & pee. 

After about 5-10 minutes I heard her pee!!! I freaked out, soooo excited! I praised her like crazy, clapped, pointed to where she was peeing & gave her a fruit snack as a reward. She wasn't too aware I don't think that she had done what I asked her to do, but hey, she at least peed in the potty, I don't really care about the specifics!  I kept her on the potty for another 5 min or so, asking her to poop but didn't have any luck. I wanted to end the potty experience on a good note too and also not just have her sitting on the potty all day so I got her dressed and brought the potty back out into the family room. 

Liv takes a sippy of milk in the morning and at night, so I gave her the milk & hung out close by, watching her to see if she mentioned pooping at all. 

I put Liv on it again as I was getting ready as a last ditch effort for her to poop before her nap. 

I wrapped her up in a towel since she was naked except for her shirt. 

Within like 30 seconds she peed!! I freaked out again, cheered for her and had her help me this time as I dumped it into the toilet. She flushed it and closed the lid, totally proud of herself. 

I plopped her back on the potty while I finished my hair and when I was done (about 30 min) she had peed again! Unfortunately I wasn't aware of when she did so I didn't make as big of a deal about it, but still had her flush the pee down again. 

Nap time!

She slept for a solid 2.5 hours so I knew she'd have a wet diaper when she got up. While she was out, I had Micah stay with her while I ran to Target for some pull ups. 

They're so cute!!

Once she woke up from her nap (big wet diaper, no poop) I put her on the potty for like 15 minutes but no luck in the pee or poop department. 

I turned on Frozen & pushed fluids for the next hour, putting her on the potty every 20 minutes again. I missed her pee's every time unfortunately, just barely asking her to pee and checking the pull ups and seeing they were wet.  :(

Deep in thought. 

The rest of the night she didn't pee on the potty (all in her pull ups) but didn't poop. Hopefully I'll catch that elusive #2 tomorrow and make her more comfortable on the potty. 

Day 2

Liv woke up with a super full diaper and had soaked her jammies thru. I think she's not as comfortable peeing out in the open (like while watching tv) and she held it until she was sleeping. Poor kiddo. So today I'm going to leave the potty in the bathroom and bring her to it regularly. 

I started out the day missing her first pee opportunity but still tried her on the potty after. 

Happy girl but no luck. 

Tried again and still no luck but she's looking oh-so proper, hahaha!

Unfortunately today I was way busy with cleaning my house & doing baby prep.. Only 5 weeks left! So I was vacuuming when she pooped! Argggg! Missed that sucker. All day I missed her wet diapers by just a few minutes. But I at least put her on the potty afterwards and asked her to poop & pee so I feel like the day wasn't totally wasted. 

Day 3

Today started out with another super full diaper, soaking thru her jammies. More laundry!  I had to mentally reminded myself today that I'm not expecting her to be without accidents and that she wouldn't be fully potty trained in 3 days. I'm not pushing hard enough, nor do I want to since I'll be very distracted and probably inconsistent once my little man makes his debut. And plus, my mom/mother in law (depending on whose schedule works best) will be staying with Liv while we're in the hospital with our newborn, and I'm not expecting them to be all over the potty training regime as I am. 

So today I took a much more laid back approach (as if my approach could be anymore laid back haha!) and just focused on having her be aware of the potty and sitting on the regularly. 

We still played lots of games. 

The next few days...

I changed up my plan and decided to put Liv back to regular diapers. I'm having our little guy very soon and my mom/mother in law will be babysitting for us while we're in the hospital and I realized that it didn't make a whole lot of sense to push the potty training when it would be disrupted and she'd have lots of accidents I'm sure.. Plus I didn't want to put the added pressure on my mom or mother in law to try and bring her to the potty or do crazy lots of laundry while they're watching her. 

So the potty training has been temporarily suspended, with the exception of me putting a mini potty attachment on our regular toilet so that if she tells me she's pooping then I can pop her onto the toilet for that kind of training. I think using a toilet attachment instead of an all together separate potty will be easier.. Especially if we go on a trip or out shopping.. She'll be more accustomed to big kid toilets than her special little one. 

If you have any potty training tips, let me know! I'm all ears. :)

xoxo

Mandi

Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day was so fun! Micah planned it out and started the morning with a way yummy breakfast.. Bacon, Costco muffins, & waffles. Mmmmm all those calories makes for a happy Mandi. 

We exchanged our little gifts for each other after breakfast too. Since Valentine's Day is sandwiched between some pretty expensive months (Christmas in December & my birthday and our anniversary in April) Valentine's Day has always been more of a focus of hanging out just the two of us and having fun rather than big elaborate gifts. This year was no different and it was totally perfect. I went off of a Pinterest suggestion of doing the 5 senses types of gifts.. Sight, smell, taste, hear, touch.. And he loved it, so fun. He got me some beautiful roses and a package from Lush.. With my favorite scents of bath bomb, shower gel, & bubble bath. Bring on the pampering! Heaven knows my baby bump and I need it!

 Nothing more romantic than seeing your man cooking up bacon. 

If you don't know about Lush, you need to get your life in order and buy this crap. It's amazing. 

After gifts & being lazy, we got ready for the day & dropped Livi off to my parent's house. They were babysitting for us as well as my sister so it was going to be a cousin valentine date too. ;) Micah and I were puppy sitting our friend's dog Kota (Zoey's boyfriend) so we left the two of them to romp around our house. We have a camera for Olive's room that we moved to the family room to spy on the pups while we were out. 

Both of them were on high alert for murderers haha!

After dropping off miss Liv, we headed up to Deer Valley, a little higher than Park City, up to the Montage resort. It was freakin beautiful. 

Everyday at 4:30pm they have a s'mores bar... Seriously. It's outside, a few different tables set up with 2 massive fire pits to roast your mallows around. 

There were all different kinds of marshmallows too.. Caramel, peppermint, vanilla, classic.. Amazingly yum. They also had hot chocolate with even more marshmallows to toss in your cup. It was a mallowy date all around. 

We snapped a few pics (or rather someone else did for us) and then explored the Montage. 

Soooooo pretty! Totally doesn't do it justice. 

The Montage was a really freakin cool resort.. I think The Beast owns it.. Seriously. Billiard tables, live music, couch alcoves everywhere to sit around a coffee table & eat/hang out, legit board games & a few really cool libraries where I'm pretty sure Belle lives. 

And yes, those were Disney movie references. Grow up!  :P

Literally the coolest Clue game board I've ever seen. In my life. It was 3D, super intricate & just amazing. I loved it.. Kinda wanted to take it home with me. And anyone who knows me, knows I love Clue.. The game, the movie.. Everything. So I insisted that we play a game, even though it was just the two of us. 

But just as we were setting things up, a pool table opened up so we bailed on the game for pool. 

When we started our game, no one was around so we took our time & were just messing around. Our dinner reservations (at the Montage) weren't for another hour so we had plenty of time. Which was probably a good thing, seeing as Micah and I are HORRIBLE at pool. 

Although something happened (total luck) and I got 3 balls in in a row.. Then a family showed up to wait to play after us.. And Micah and I started sucking soooo bad. Not intentionally ps, just like horribly horrible at pool. 

For every one ball I got in a pocket I then accidentally would scratch and have to pull another one out. Ugh. And so did Micah! The poor family waiting.. They weren't very happy with us. But whatev, that's what ya get! 

I finally ended up winning because Micah scratched on the 8 ball & sunk the Q ball right after it haha! Poor guy. 

We headed to our dinner reservations at Yama Sushi. Micah knows how much I loooove sushi so it was a perfect little surprise. 

Except..

Their menu is tiny & I had 3 options of food I could eat: California roll (wrapped in seaweed on the outside, bleh I can't do that), a shrimp roll (I hate shrimp), and one called the spider (had crab & cucumber in there).

Soooo I went with the spider but unfortunately it was like 80% cucumber. And yuck. So haha my dinner was little bit of a bust but the ambiance was rad & they gave out free edamame as you're waiting. Super yummy. 

You know you've got an amazing husband when your dinner isn't ruined & you make these faces.. Even when your dinner is pretty ruined. 

After dinner we wandered around the resort and strolled out to our car. The trees are all lit up during the winter months and it was absolutely beautiful, even if you can't really see much. 

We headed home afterwards & on the way my parents sent me this pic. 

Livi with my mom & cousin Capri. 

It was such a lovely day & evening with my better half. Time together, just the two of us.. without work, babies, house crap, & daily stresses bogging us down is so so SO important and I love getting away with him, no matter how small the getaway is. 

xoxo

Mandi

St. Geezy Birthday Trip

Hello again St. George, long time no see!  ;)  my great friend Sheridan was born this month, as was Austin so we decided to make it a birthday palooza in St. Geezy! Sheridan's parents have a condo so we all piled in for the weekend. 

Thursday 

Micah had work visits to make so he left pretty early Thursday morning & I drove down with Sheridan & Brian that night with Livi. I packed Liv & myself up and dropped Zoey off to our friends Jeff & Natalie before heading to Sheridan's. 

Liv was super excited to help pack

The ride down went really well. We stopped & grabbed some dinner on the way (drive thru) and pulled into the condo & met up with Micah just in time to put Liv down for the night & crash. 

Friday

Today was SO fun! We woke up early (totally not fun) and hung out for a while.. Aka took a while to wake up.  ;)  Livi thought it would be a good idea to wake up at 6am.. After we go to sleep at 1am. Awesome. 

Micah had a few Home Depot stores to visit during the morning so he took off while we were all lingering/getting ready for the day. 

Liv was totally loving watching Jack play on the iPad. 

 

Once everyone was ready to go, we piled in the car and went to Breakfast at Tifiny's (genuinely spelled like that, probably to avoid copyright laws haha). It's a gourmet brunch place, pretty fancy waffles & crepes & salads. I totally ordered the wrong thing.. It looks amazing but was SO dry! Total bummer.  :( 

The eggs and bacon were pretty delish though so it made up for it. Although spoiler, the waffle (which was 1 single waffle ps) was $10. Ouch!

After breakfast we headed back to the condo to put Liv down for a nap. But things were a little more exciting than anticipated...

Right when we pulled up, a neighbor down the street was shouting for help and we noticed a car had crashed into the house. Brian took off and ran over to help, Sheridan trailing behind. I stayed with the kids for a moment then thought if there were any need for medical help, I'm probably the only one that has any training to help, so I had Kate stay with Olive & Jack. 

As I was jogging over to the house I heard the engine of the car start up & then everyone started freaking out. Brian shouted "don't be an idiot, do you see what you already did?!" And got the engine to turn off. I thought it was an elderly guy with dementia or something and he wasn't supposed to be driving.. So when a middle aged man stepped out of the drivers seat I was way surprised. A neighbor was on the phone with police and the tone of her voice kinda set me on edge, coupled with the crazy look on the guy's face. Once out of the car he walked like a freakin zombie away from everyone, past me, and half jogged between the houses. We heard a crash of something metal and he was gone. Brian ran around the other side of the houses to see if he could see he man but he lost him. 

I didn't get a good shot of the car in the house, totally forgot to grab one. 

The story unfolded a bit more as the police, fire department, & a few ambulances arrived. Apparently he lived with his girlfriend in the condo neighborhood & physically abused her several times, has substance issues & is a pretty sketchy guy. I took the kids inside to be safe (no idea where the guy was still). While we were inside Brian and Sheridan stayed outside, talking with neighbors and a gun went off. This neighborhood by the way, is full of rental condos and retired people. Not anything high crime or gang related at all sooo this was way freaky. Kate & Jack really wanted to see what was going on so we stepped outside again just in time to see the paramedics wheeling the guy out from between the homes.. Blood was all over his face and he looked awful. Brian had to give a report and write an official statement for the police but the rest of us went inside. Crazy!!

Once things were a bit more mellow haha I put Livi down for a nap. 

Brian babysat for me so he & Jack hung out at the condo while Sher & Kate & I went down into St. George for pedicures. Apparently Friday at 2pm is the time to get pedis.. Because everywhere we called said they'd be like an hour wait! Laaaame. We finally found Sky Nails & something.. I can't remember exactly but they were awesome. Hot stone massage on your legs = win! 

Birthday pedis!

I found this pic on Pinterest 

and the one they did was awesome! My toes aren't as cute as the one on Pinterest but focus on the nail art. Love it!

By the time we got back to the condo, Micah was done with work and Maegan & Austin had arrived. So we split up again, the boys went for to take the RZR off-roading and the girls headed to the Sand Hollow Aquatics Center.

To say Liv had a good time would be the understatement of the century.. This girl + water = a never ending love affair. 

Before the trip I realized I didn't have any swimsuits that fit her anymore, so I ran to Target & found an adorable coral bikini with white print on it & ruffles! It's seriously adorbs. Meanwhile, I'm 30 weeks pregnant.. And totally refuse to buy a maternity swim suit so just picked one of my bikinis and rocked it, belly out and all. 

Kate was a total doll with Olive the whole weekend and was so cute playing with her and including her. She took Livi down the kiddie slide several times and Olive couldn't have been more stoked out! 

Poor Lily wasn't feeling very awesome so she wasn't loving the pool. 

Once Liv realized the slide existed she didn't want to do anything else so while Kate went down the big kid slide & tube, I helped Liv by holding her hand as she went down. 

The smiles and excited giggles were seriously heart melting. 

Kate came back over after a bit & Livi loved the train slide again. 

My cute little water baby got way cold when she wasn't running around or going down the slide -- her lips turned purple! Poor thing. But she was still stoked out of her mind haha. 

That face!

Lily actually fell asleep in Maegan's arms after this pic.. Sick baby = no fun. 

Very deceiving.. But I promise I'm actually pregnant.  :P

We ended things on a little bit of a sad note.. Livi was going down the slide alone as I would take her hand and help her down.. Well, she was trying to go from kneeling to sitting so she could go down the slide and I was reaching for her hand (the slide was covered a little so I had to really reach in with my belly in the way) and I was just a few inches away from her when she toppled backwards, total heart sinking slow motion, and fell down the 3 stairs backwards, landing on her back at the bottom of the stairs, arms spread out and way crying her face off. 

I cuddled her a bunch, made sure she was ok, and distracted her with the water fountain things. Before we finished at the pool I made sure she went down the slide (with Kate) and had a semi positive end to the whole experience. Hopefully next time she isn't too scared of the slides!

Once we got back to the condo, we fed the babes and put them down for the night. Kate and Jack were champs & stayed at the condo with Livi & Lily while the adults went to dinner at Ribs Chop & Steakhouse with a few of Sheridan's friends that live in St. George for her birthday dinner. 

I had the "famous filet" -- amaaaazing steak ps (not to the epic level of Ruth's Chris by any means though) and baby & mommy were super happy hahaha. 

Micah and Austin were super serious about checking the "capable-ness" of Micah's new waterproof phone. 

Satisfied scientists. 

After dinner we went back to the condo & got comfy (at least I needed to jump into my pj's haha) and played a fun card game, something Beans? It got a little intense but in the end Maegan won and Sheridan & I tied for second place. We all crashed after that. 

Saturday

We slept in to the normal 8:30 with Livi and headed out all together for breakfast at the Bear Paw in St. George just off Main Street. 

Liv was intensely reading. 

After eating waaay too much, we headed over to Sand Hollow for some RZR fun. 

The kiddos wanted to ride in the RZR and I did too, but being "with child" it kinda limits everything. So Micah took myself, Livi, Maegan & Lily, and Sheridan & Kate on a fun little ride around the sand dunes. 

Liv wanted to drive haha

Livi was giggling and saying "weeeeee" the entire time! I was SO happy that it was a positive experience.. We love doing outdoorsy stuff and definitely want our kids to do them & enjoy them with us so our first little baby steps into that works went really well!

The guys + Kate all piled in after us for their long ride 

Sheridan, Maegan & I (plus the babes) headed back to St. George to go shopping. 

One of my fave stores in St. George is Urban Renewal, right on 100 south & Main Street (I think). It's got a huge variety of antique and newly antiqued things for your home & such. 

I found a feather banner that was randomly laying on a table.. It's literally exactly what I'm looking for to add to the gallery wall in Livi's room. And added bonus, it was only $7! 

It's 5 or 6 feet long & made of a way thick paper, like cardboard ish but even tougher. Sooooo excited!!

After Urban Renewal, Maegan headed back with Lily to put her down for a nap while Sheridan & I went over to a few more antique shops. We didn't find anything really worth purchasing & headed back to the car to call our hubbies to see where they were at timing-wise. Turns out they had just loaded everything up and were heading to meet us for lunch.. Perfect timing!  

We all met up at Freddy's -- super yummy steak-burger restaurant. It's kinda like an Artic Circle diner setup, with burgers & fries & shakes. Their fries (which I totally forgot to take a pic of) were way yum & super thin. Like 2-3 of Freddy's fries would equal a regular fry. 

After lunch we headed back to the condo to put Liv down for a nap. Micah slept while Livi did too and Sheridan, Kate, & I all played a pirate game together. 

Once Liv woke up we all headed out to Don Pedro's Mexican restaurant for Austin's birthday choice. 

Livi was more interested in eating ice than actual food.. Sooo that's normal. 

Total concentration. 

Dinner was alright.. I think I ordered wrongly but it was ok. I got an appetizer as my meal (it was a sampler) and kinda regret it. Oh well. 

We headed home after dinner & put our babe to bed. Sheridan's sister & their fam were stopping thru the condo on their way to San Diego so they arrived around 9:30 and we stayed up chatting with them. Sheridan and I passed out on our husband's chests while they all talked sports foreeeever. I eventually slunked off to bed (totally using the word "slunk" from The Grinch hahah) and Micah joined me later. 

Sunday

Sheridan & co woke up early & headed to church with Sheridan's friend that we grabbed dinner with on her birthday while Micah and I woke up slowly & got ready for the day. We forgot church stuff  :(  Sher's sister & her fam headed out before I was even out of the shower. 

Once I was finished getting ready Sheridan and everyone were back from church & changed, ready to go. Our plan was to check out the Glitter Pit, just outside of St. George. 

We all piled into the cars & made our way to what Google Maps told us was the right way.. Several U-turns and double and triple checks of the map later, we finally found the right pathway.. Which was a super bumpy dirt road. Awesome for pregnant people in case you're wondering. Another 30 minutes of bumping and bouncing around, we finally pulled up to the glittering mound. 

It's naturally occurring glass, the mineral is something either called Micah (no joke) or something else. Pretty sure it's now called the Micah pit. 

One minor crappy factor about our timing or whatever getting to the pit -- a few super special idiots decided to set up a shooting range. No joke, pointed parallel with the pit & angled towards where we would be walking around. With kids. Bullets were actually richocheting around the little pit so Brian went and "kindly" spoke to them about how retarded they were being. Once he came back, the firing stopped thankfully so we were able to actually enjoy the place, not flinching when the guns went off. And just as a side note, I totally love guns. I will have all of my kids, girls included, be familiar with them for when zombies hit and they can actually survive. But these freakin idiots were firing big caliber rifles & handguns within a really unsafe range. So so so dumb. 

The glitter pit was so weird, and yet also pretty cool. Not worth the super long trek to get there (at least not for me) but it was cool. 

We snagged a few pics, had Livi grab a piece of glass from the wall, & headed back. 

We headed back & grabbed lunch at Freddy's again haha and went back to the condo. 

Sheridan & Brian packed up their stuff and headed out to go home while Maegan & Austin & Micah went out on a RZR ride. I hung back with the babies so they could have a real RZR ride & not be worried about shaken baby syndrome. ;)

Once they were back, we finished cleaning up the condo & packed up and headed out. 

Such a fun weekend with friends and a great excuse to get away for a few days. Awesome memories made, can't wait for the next adventure!

xoxo 

Mandi