Birthday Bash!

I had the best birthday this year. The morning of my birthday Kirk woke me up at 5:00 because he kept squirming around, I asked him if he was ok and he said he was so I fell back asleep...only to be woken up again. He was trying to put a necklace on me so I could wake up and wonder what was on my neck! He's the best. It's a diamond journey necklace that has the word love on the side. He said it was perfect for us because "our journey is full of love". He's so my favorite.
We had a nice relaxing day just hanging out because Kirk worked hard all week and was able to take the day off.

Saturday everyone in my family (except Josh in Germany) came to a nearby park and threw me an awesome birthday party. We had a yummy lunch and everyone gave me such nice gifts (thanks everyone!). After lunch we went to the Veterans Memorial Pool here in Provo and swam the day away. It's so fun being with my family. Kirsten loved the water. She kept reaching down to grab it and put it in her mouth. She had a diving ring she was playing with and kept dropping it in the water to watch it sink. She's the cutest!!!

Kayaking

Last year Kirk and I made the best purchase of our lives. We were both working and had good jobs and had come to the conclusion that we wouldn't be having kids anytime soon. So we bought a few things for fun, nice watches, a laptop, etc. but most importantly kayaks. We had a blast with them last year, but have been really busy and haven't been able to take Kirsten out until now. And she loved it, the whole 3 minutes she was on our laps for pictures! She held onto my paddle while I paddled and just giggled, it was the best!We also had a lot of fun playing in the water. It was surprisingly warm, I guess not surprisingly because it's Utah Lake, but we were surprised. Kirk and I went out quite a ways where there were a lot of waves from the breeze. It was really fun. Until Kirk tipped and fell into the lake then right as he pulled himself into the kayak a boat drove by making big waves that knocked him back into the water. While I was busy laughing, Kirk's kayak was busy filling with water. We quickly paddled against the wind and waves to a nearby rock island. Then the lightening started and we quickly paddled ashore. (Kirsten was with Brett and Chelsey on shore). We love our kayaks and think you should all come play on the lake with us!

Camping with the Brinkerhoff's

A couple weekends ago we went camping with my family near Flaming Gorge. It was awesome and everyone but Riley and Josh were there. We had Abby's birthday party up there (with 26 people in the family its always someone's birthday). We like any excuse to party though. We got up there Thursday night and set up camp, had the party, then played the game our family is famous for, mafia. It's always best to play with my Dad because you can just ask him directly if he's the mafia and he will say something like "I cannot lie, I am the mafia." It's great.It was also our first time camping with Kirsten in a tent. She did really great and slept through the night like a charm. Above is how we kept her warm at night. She looked really cute! I think she mostly loved being outdoors all the time. This girl loves being outside. I have to admit I was really worried about coyotes (especially since Tyler would go check around camp every night for them) and would stay up half the night listening for them. The final night I was pretty sure I heard them running through our camp and didn't sleep at all. (Amanda and Brayden, who were sleeping under the stars, said they never heard them). So we got up at 6:00 and took the back roads to Stringham cabin and let Kirsten ride with me up front with me. She would not sit down and had to stand and look out the huge front windshield, she thought it was pretty awesome.Friday the family rented a boat at Flaming Gorge and went over to this cute beach area for swimming and lunch. Kirsten had to wear a life jacket as big as she was on the boat and she was not very fond of it. It was really fun to be on the boat with people we love so much.Once we got there Kirk talked everyone into going cliff jumping. And I mean everyone (except for me and mom). Camille even jumped off in a skirt.Kirsten and I missed out on the cliff jumping cause she fell asleep on my lap and was sooo tired. We had a great time camping, thanks to my family for making it so awesome!

Rice Cereal

Sunday Kirsten got a taste of her very first food. Her gourmet meal included rice cereal. I think it was a smash hit....even though she doesn't really understand swallowing yet. We love how quickly she is growing up, being a parent is more fun everyday. She is finally big enough that I can cuddle with her in our bed, I could before but now I can without freaking out that she's going to get rolled on top of. I brought her into bed with me after Kirk left this morning and it was just so fun, one of the many things I dreamed of when I thought of becoming a mother.

Kirsten is 13 pounds and 25 inches. Still on the long and skinny side but chunking out for sure. She is reaching for things like crazy. We are to the stage that eating out isn't as fun anymore...because our plates are a good 10 inches away from us. She rolls from tummy to back and back to tummy easily (as long as there is something to roll towards). She also has started to really dislike the car. She finds sitting in the backseat facing the seat really boring...and she is not afraid to vocalize it. For the first couple days we just thought she was tired or hungry, but after realizing that she she is determined to have one of us in the backseat with her, we wised up. I have seriously considered buying a blow up doll to stick in the seat next to her so she doesn't feel so alone. Until then we make car trips as short as possible and drive-thru's have become a thing of the past (we get out of the car every chance we can).

First time swimming

Kirsten went swimming for the very first time on Saturday night. After getting home from camping we were playing mariokart. I kept falling into the clear blue cold water...which looked more and more inviting each time I drove off the bridge into the water. So we called up Amanda and asked her if we could come swimming in her pool. She of course thought it was a great idea and encouraged us by saying there weren't any college kids swimming in it.
So we get to the pool and Kirsten, being the beach bum she is, spent the first 45 minutes sleeping.
But after enough shouting from us (ok it really was mostly me) she woke up. She wanted to show off her new swimming suit (courtesy of Old Navy) and the cute cover up Liz bought her
She then got in the pool with mom. She thought it was a little cold...
So then we let her ride on the blow up lounge chair with Dad. I think she thinks that she's sailing across the ocean, captain of her ship.Then she got into the water and totally loved it. She stayed a good 15 minutes before her bottom lip turned blue and was pulled out of the water. We are thrilled she loves the water and look forward to many "pool days" in the future.

Fourth of July

This year we got to spend the 4th with the Howcroft's. We went up to the cabin at Wolf Creek. The cabin isn't actually done yet...so Tom rented us campers to stay in. We had so much fun even in the campers, imagine how fun it will be when the cabin's done!
We got there before everyone else and were able to chill on the deck. We got out our camping chairs and looked out over the pond and cows and beautiful mountains. It was so peaceful...until Kirsten decided that peaceful isn't as much fun as standing or chewing her fits.
Kirsten is growing up so fast and turned 4 months on the 4th of July. We spent the day fishing at the pond, four wheeling, playing card games, and just chillin. It was so nice and relaxing. Kirk even caught a fish 2/3 the size of his fishing pole! Ok, so it was a kid fishing pole but he was still very proud.
Liz took Kirsten on her first 4 wheel ride and of course she loved it. If I wasn't so scared Kirsten would have sunburned she would've stayed there all day.Derik and Liz were the only other ones to make it up for the holiday, so Kirsten had lots of fun with Ben and Brixton. Kirk was playing with Kirsten and said "Your my little Kirsten" and Brixton piped up and said "and I'm your little Brixton" They are too cute!
We came down the mountain around 7 for some dinner. We went to this cute restaurant in Kamas with outside dinning, it was so fun. Kirsten got to sit her own hight chair and thought she was the coolest!

Afterwards we went to fireworks in Oakley. They were goregous. Unfortunately Kirsten slept through them all. I guess we'll wait until next year for her to be scared at the bright lights and loud noises.Happy 4th of July!

Joys, Fears, Goals, Obsessions

My brother Josh graciously tagged us to name our 3 joys, fears, goals, and obsessions. Since this is our family blog we each took one. So enjoy. And I'm supposed to tag someone else to do the same but I'm just going to say that I would love to read anyone's who would like to do it.

Joys
Kirk absolutely loves when Kirsten and I come and see him at school. He loves showing off where he goes to school (it also helps us visualize the "Tanner" and "Snell" building that he talks about all the time)
I love to see Kirk and Kirsten together. He always puts his head right next to her and talks and laughs, she see's it as an opportunity to grab as much of him as she can shirt, nose, hair it doesn't matter but she loves holding onto him. I love it!
Kirsten loves standing, sitting and anything that is not "baby" related. She loves her lips being tickled and babbling at anything she wants (pacifier or bottle mostly)

Fears
Kirk's biggest fear is intruders at night. This kinda surprised me because I thought the "Knight Owl" wasn't afraid of anything.
My biggest fear is loosing someone else I love. After Izzi died I realized how precious every life is. If 14 month old Izzi can have that much of an affect on so many people imagine what a 12 year old, 24 year old, 58 year old person can have each day. I want to be affected by a lot of people and don't want to loose anyone else.
Kirsten's biggest fear is starving. Don't feed her on time and you'll know exactly what we are talking about.

Goals
Kirk's major goal is to find a professional career. He's so excited for fall semester he can hardly stand it. He's really anxious to start interviewing and find a job that isn't property management.
My ultimate goal is to become an eternal family. There are experiences in life (marriage, a birth of a child) that help you see the eternal perspective and realize how much you want to be together forever. But a shorter goal would be to get in shape, it's gonna happen.
Kirsten's goal is to roll over for the camera. She refuses to roll over from tummy or back on camera therefore we can't post a video on this blog, she things it's funny!

Obsessions
Kirk is absolutely obsessed with his major (Facility and Property Management) and Mariokart (thanks to Brett staying with us, tonight they unlocked the giant princess)
I am obsessed with checking my e-mail, facebook, and blogs. I really need to get this computer out of our living room. Kirk is thinking about installing a program that will only allow you to look at certain websites at certain times of the day (i.e. facebook from 7 am-8am).

Kirsten is obsessed with sucking on her fingers. There is nothing better for our little princess. We call her the finger sucker.

Don't believe my parents, I am a perfect angel.

FHE

For FHE this week we decided to go on a bikeride with Amanda and Brett. It was the first time we have tried out the bike trailer Riley and Crystal let us borrow. Kirsten's carseat fits perfectly. She totally loved it and cried everytime we stopped. We rode on the nice bike trail by our house to one of the cute parks nearby. We then broke out the skipbo cards and watched Amanda kick our trash. It was a lot of fun and we stayed until the misquotes decided to overrule the area we were in. I think we got really lucky and Kirsten didn't get one misquote bite (I was really paranoid cause I just knew that the one that bit her would have the west nile virus.) We had a lot of fun so I thought we'd share the pictures.