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Mar 27, 2013

a little bit different from utah

me and my little man are here in southern california.
we have been here less than 48 hours now and we have already had 

-the 5th person think carter is a girl "because he just has such a pretty face" 
-people guess that he was 8 months old then 2 months old 
-and (my personal favorite) a guy at the verizon store ask if i was babysitting today ...


i walk around with my mom and carter and
you can tell people are trying to decide who the baby belongs to.
we can see them thinking,
"it can't be the older lady's... 
but that girl cannot be old enough to have it be hers either ..."
then they realize that the baby is mine
and it's very evident that they are
dying
to ask how old i am.

2 things i am re-learning about this state:
babies are novelties
and
there are not very many 23 year old moms

Mar 18, 2013

heyyy ME!

the moment carter 

discovered

carter...


if i saw that everytime i looked in the mirror,
i'd be pretty happy too!

Mar 14, 2013

SURPRISE visitors!

on saturday, daron and i took our little one to the city creek mall. the sun was shining making it a beautiful day. we actually made purchases (!!!) -him, new sunglasses- her, a new lipstick- we left city creek happy little campers. we had decided earlier that we would grab hector's on the way home. daron had raved about this place for a while and so i couldn't wait to try it. 

on our way home, i got a call from my mom.

"hey dani bree, i have a huge favor."
-me, in my head, "oh no..."
"okay. what is it?"

"well, it's your aunt's birthday and i want to get this shirt for her, it matches with these other shoes and earrings, you know how i like to do that. anyway, there is only one in utah and it's at the nordstroms off the 215 and you have to get it tonight"

-i'm grumbling. carter is fussing, he barely has enough steam left to make it to hector's let alone the mall-

"mom, i have to get it tonight?"
"yes, you do. i wouldn't say that if you didn't. are you going to do it or not?"
my mom knows i'm annoyed. i'm trying not to be but the impatient part of me is winning. 

my mom- "oh yeah! and the mall closes at 6. so you have to get there before then."
-it's 5:45-
-me, in the most annoyed tone ever- "what? are you serious? no it doesn't...it can't. that is so early. mom, are you sure? i highly doubt that."

"fine, i will check for you just to be 100% sure."
"good, call me back."

she calls back. she tells me it is actually 7 (all the wile i am thinking in my head, don't malls close at 9 on saturdays?) daron and i race over to hector's and race even faster to the mall. carter is screaming his head off at this point. he is hungry and tired. i am running through the mall to find "sarah" to get this shirt that my mom has to have, huffing and puffing, and saying a few choice words in my head while i'm at it.

as i'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off for sarah i turn around and i see them. 

i see my mom 
and i see my dad. 
with.
HUGE 
grins. 

my eyes refused to blink. i kept thinking if i blinked they would disappear. i thought my im-so-hungry-and-annoyed-self was possibly hallucinating them. 

they ran towards me. 
 SURPRISE!
they were here. 
in utah. 
it was all a lie. 
my mom didn't need a shirt, sarah doesn't even exist, the mall does not close at 7...
(how did she get me on that one!?)
they were just trying to surprise us and eat dinner at my favorite place
-Nordstrom's Cafe-
{papa and sweetheart playing with carter the next day, before they had to go} 
mom and dad
we love you!
we only have one small request...
stay for more than 24 hours next time??? ;)

Mar 12, 2013

4 months

Carter,

your mama loves:

the way your whole face lights up when you smile

that wide-eyed look you've had from the moment you were born

those little lips you got from your dad

that soft, fuzzy hair on your head
the way your cheeks hang from your face
the double chin you get when you laugh
when your whole body shimmies from the shivers 
your short legs you got from your mama (i'm so so sorry)
the way you kick your legs when you can't contain your excitement
the way you babble
and that contagious, gummy grin.

i love your guts Carter. happy 4 months!

Mar 11, 2013

the spring teaser is here and we are falling for it


 wait wait, what's this?
we are outside
and my baby doesn't have his snowsuit on?
i am in a short sleeve?
no jackets?
no scarves?
no hats?
not even a sweater!?

yup, utah's "march spring teaser" is here in full force. we will soak up these days like the snow is far behind us...
until we get dumped on. 

dear sun:
we love you.
know that you are more than welcome to stay...
foreverrr (!!!)

p.s.- did you see my awesome braid? my cool husband did that.

Mar 8, 2013

how i thought it would be


for 9 months i wondered what life would be like with the sweet baby that was inside me.
i kept trying to prepare myself for the hard parts of motherhood. 
i didn't want to be caught off guard. harder things in life are so much easier to handle when you know they are coming. 
maybe you could tell or maybe you couldn't, but the first month of Carter's life rocked my world.

these days, the curve balls still come, but because our life has a rhythm, they're much more manageable.
Carter has been patient in helping me learn about him. 
i am so grateful.

last night, as i held Carter in one hand and fixed dinner with the other,
the thought came to me-
"this is what i pictured life being like with our precious baby."
this is what i was imagining all along. 
now-
we dance in the kitchen, play airplane, sing songs, make faces
basically do anything if it will make Carter laugh.
daron and i fight like siblings fighting over shotgun over
who gets to wake Carter up from his evening nap. 
now when Carter cries, amazingly enough, 
{i doubted this could ever happen}
i know what he needs.
-most of the time :)-

it took a little while, but we made it.
we survived the very disorienting first months of parenthood.
some may be bewildered at how the beginning is hard.
others will know exactly what i am talking about.

what i am saying is, if you find the first 1 or 2 or 3...
months of motherhoood rock your world-
just know you are not alone.

Mar 6, 2013

bars, normons, and sugar highs

last friday night, i had my first girls night since Carter was born. i sort of felt 16 again. and i'll be honest, i sort of was in heaven. it was that night where your face hurts from smiling so big. i am so grateful for my friends. we love each other. like really love each other. there is no jealousy, envy or cattiness. none. just love. 
{credit to @linzham's instagram :)}
we ate dinner at *the dodo* in sugarhouse. when we got there, they told us it was an hour wait. we decided if we were going to wait, we definitely needed water because we were really thirsty. the host said to go to the bar and the waitress there would help us out. 

i turned to my friend Mary, "the bar!? oh man, i feel so old." she immediately made fun of me, "dani bree, you have a child and being told to go to the bar makes you feel old??"

it's true. i have a tiny human but being told to go to the bar made me think twice, "wait, oh yeah, i am old enough to do that." i am certain it caught me off guard because for the first time in my life someone assumed i was over 21 instead of 16 {big deal for me ya know?} and definitely because i'm a normon (see for yourself what a normon is HERE) and haven't had a drop of alcohol in my life and consequently, have never sat a bar.

that night we chatted over declicious food and even better dessert. i told my friends i would be dreaming about this dessert it was so good. and dream i did. on monday, i splurged and drove back to sugarhouse and got a piece for me and daron to eat that night. 

at the time, it was a brilliant/spontaneous/ingenious idea. it soon became, a-not-so-good-idea. daron didn't love the dessert (he doesn't like peanut butter in his desserts. i knew that and got it anyway). i mean, it just meant more for me, right? how could that be bad?

it was bad. daron hardly had any. maybe 3 bites? i ate the rest. after, i thought "wow i feel a lot better than i thought i would." then, less than 24 hours later i was going a little bezerk. my head hurt, my eyes kept twitching, i felt gross. i was experiencing a sugar high. i'm sure of it. i called daron and told him my symptoms, with very little sympathy in his voice he asked me, "sooo, have you learned your lesson?"

yes daron. i learned my lesson to not eat what is most likely a 1,500 calorie dessert by myself. yes sweetheart, thank you. lesson learned.

Mar 4, 2013

Carter flyin'


do you have a favorite pastime these days? 
ours is watching our baby "fly." 
he is obsessed. 
daron keeps saying if Carter could talk he would be saying,

"again! again! again!"

and so this is what we do. over and over again. 

happy monday!