Tradition

For our anniversary every year we like to go to the temple to do sealings.  It's a great way to help others get the work done that they can no longer do for themselves, and to remember the promises and covenants we made to each other and our Father in Heaven when we were sealed.  I'm so glad we started that tradition from the beginning.  It's something I always look forward to.

We didn't get any pictures of us at the temple when we went to do sealings, but we did get a picture of ourselves in front of the restaurant we ate at to celebrate our anniversary.  It's a nice, local restaurant, with a great atmosphere and yummy food!

Our traditional picture of ourselves is a must :)

On Sunday, we took Aurora to the temple so she knows where we go when we take her to play with her cousins (thank you, family!! You know who you are!).  I've been wanting to get a picture of her in front of the temple to hang in her room.  I think we got at least a couple of winners :)

 

 

 Beautiful Provo Temple

 Our little family

 Cool shot Dar took.  He's been putting his father's day present (a tripod) to really good use :)

 She wanted to be in the water SO badly!

 I promise I didn't let her put her feet in it . . .

 . . . just her hands :)

 Silly little girl picked a pretty flower, so I made her wear it

 Me :)

 Love you, handsome man!!

We had a pretty laid back anniversary this year, but it was so nice to celebrate the way we did.  Yay for anniversaries!

Seven

It's always fun when our anniversary rolls around to reflect on our years together.  It's amazing how much has happened and how much we've changed in the last seven years, but our love for each other has only grown stronger.  We've certainly had some challenges (especially in the last couple of years with certain trials and things) as any couple does, but we've also had a ton of really amazing experiences and indescribable times together.  That's what life and marriage is all about, isn't it?  Learning and growing TOGETHER.  Becoming stronger and supporting each other TOGETHER.  Going through the hard times and the good times TOGETHER.  What's great about it all is that I get to experience all of that TOGETHER-ness with my Darwin.  And the best part of it all is that we've been married in the temple, and we can make that TOGETHER last FOREVER!!

Love you, Bunches!
Happy Anniversary!!

xoxoxo

Just for kicks

We haven't had a whole lot going on around here to thrill anyone enough to post anything :)  Darwin was gone all last week (6 days!) on a camp-out with the scouts in our ward, so Aurora and I just hung out and anxiously waited for Daddy to come home, but we enjoyed it being just us girls too.  We were SO glad to have him back for so many reasons!  We love having our Daddy around!  Things just are definitely not the same around here without him.

When there's nothing super exciting to post about (or even when there is) I always post about our princess.  Can't help it.  Here are some pictures of the Babs from July. 

 She loves to look at her "boops" (She says it like "book" but with a "p" at the end)

She definitely has her fav's that are frequently pulled off the shelf and loving looked through

 

 One of the many times of playing in the window.  She was being super goofy and making her face funky with the string from the blinds (don't worry, we're always right there next to her when she's in the window playing with the blinds strings).

 Aunt Shannon gave her these fun alphabet and letter toys for the tub for her birthday.  We've found that they're also great as earrings and nose plugs :)

 Playing dress-up in our closet, a frequent occurrence :)

Hopefully we'll have more to post about in the next little while.  Until then, happy reading!

July Fun

A couple weeks ago we had planned to go camping with some friends, but ended up staying home so we could get some much needed items checked off our "To-Do" list.  We got a lot of it done, if not all of it, and got to have some fun over the weekend just as our little family of three.

Blowing bubbles on the play ground - a huge hit!

 For only being 18 months, Aurora is really pretty good at blowing bubbles

 Probably way too many bubble-blowing pictures, but I can't resist that adorable face!!

 She was sad because we wouldn't let her hold the bubble bottle

 But she got over it pretty fast :)

 

 

 

 We're working on weaning off the binky.  She only gets it for nap and bed time now.  We count to 3 and she throws the binky in the crib where it stays all the time, and then she gets a treat for throwing it in the crib willingly.  Skittles are the treat of choice right now and we had to catch a shot of her blue tongue :)

 We attempted the SF splash pad again, but with the occasional afternoon storms we've been getting it was SUPER windy, so we ended up not playing around in the water

 

 The water blowing sideways--it was pretty chilly too!!

 So we played on the cool playground instead

 

 

 

 They have these cool seats that spin and spin and spin, just using gravity.  Pretty cool!

 The bumpy slide :)

 We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine.

That song kept running through my head when she'd play in the bubble window.

 Giving her daddy some smoochies

 Dar attempted the extremely difficult climbing wall thing.  It was a good attempt :)

 They did the rope course together

 And the rings :)

 

 By the time we got home the wind had died down and the sun came out, but we weren't going to drive back to SF, and since we were already in our swim attire we went to our clubhouse pool.

 Just chillaxin' :)

 A favorite pasttime

Notice how she can hold onto her tube all by herself?  We don't even need to hold onto her so much anymore--although we're always close by :)

 

 1...2...3!

 

The weekend was SO nice and much needed, although we were still very bummed about not going camping with our awesome friends...you know who you are, and we love you!  We're glad you still had a good time without us :)

44% increase

Last Monday we had a new cabinet installed in our kitchen.  Ever since we bought and moved into our condo (which we love. . . most of the time) we've talked about needing more cabinet space because every time we move our kitchen gets smaller.  (Note to self: bigger kitchen with the next move.)  So, we finally took the plunge and got a new cabinet.  We didn't want just any old cabinet.  We wanted one that would match as close as possible and look like it was there all along.  We're hoping it will help us sell our condo when the time comes (which is not any time soon, by the way).  We signed on with Sears, and we're pretty pleased with the result.  I'll be even happier when it's paid off in a few months :)

Before

 After

Being the scientific guy he is, Dar took measurements of all our cabinets and found we have 44% more cabinet space than we had before.  Suh-weet!  I've finally been able to take all my dishes out of our pantry so I can actually use my pantry for food like it was meant for!  Yay!

 Another perk is that they gave us new crown molding for all of our cabinets, which is nicer than the stuff we had before.  I'm totally okay with that.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it.

Nursery!

Since Aurora turned a year and a half last week, she gets to go to nursery at church now.  I was so excited!  I really wasn't worried at all about leaving her for two hours at church while Darwin and I go to our meetings.  She's such a friendly girl and loves to be with other kids, especially when there are toys involved.  I thought she might cry for a minute or two and then be just fine--I was mostly right :)

She went right into nursery and immediately started playing with a puzzle.  I was hoping she'd just keep playing even if I said goodbye and that I'd pick her up later.  She started crying and didn't want me to leave so I stayed and played the puzzle with her until she got distracted with something else and I quickly sneaked out.  I checked on her several times through the window and she was doing great every time I peaked.

When I went to pick her up from nursery after church she didn't want to leave!  Her nursery leaders were blowing bubbles for her and she cried when I tried to take her out. Silly girl.  Her leaders said she didn't cry at all after I left though.  Yay!  I'm glad she enjoyed it, and I hope we can pick right back up with it next time.  Good job, Aurora!  I can't believe how fast you're growing up!

7.11.12 - 18 months!

Believe it or not, our baby is a year and half!  Wow!  I feel like I can't really call her a baby anymore, but she'll always be our baby.

Rori's 18 month stats:

Weight: 19 lbs 13.5 oz (15%)

Length: 31.5 in (41%)

Head: 44 cm (5%)

At 18 months:
-Aurora is the friendliest little thing you'll ever meet.  She loves to shake hands with anyone and everyone who'll shake hands with her.
-She loves to wave "hi" and "bye" to pretty much everyone.
-She says over 50 words!
-She knows over 20 words in sign language!
-She loves water and loves to stick her face in it and blow bubbles.
-She's very tender-hearted and pretend cries when she hears another baby crying to let us know she's concerned about them.
-She's a little whipper-snapper and extremely smart.  It helps that she is very curious and extremely observant.
-She's a thinker like her daddy and I love when I can see the wheels turning in her cute little head.
-She loves other babies and likes to give them loves and smoochies.  She's going to be such a great big sister, whenever that happens :)
-She loves her "Bampa" and knows she always gets a cookie when we go to his house.
-She is still very much a snuggler.  She loves her comfort things: blankey, binky, bottle and Mommy :)
-She's been calling Dar "Momma" also for the last few months but is finally starting to call him "Daddy" again.
-She can go up and down stairs on her own by holding onto the wall or our hand.  She's really good at going up, but still working on coming down.
-Her favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and she can say all the names of the characters except for Pete and Professor Von Drake.
-She's a blast and at a super fun age.  We're loving this stage (minus the temper tantrums starting to come out) and can't wait to see what's in store for us next!

Happy 18 months, sweet girl.

Thanks for being our princess!