Home is wherever I am with you.

Today Ainsley is nine months. 

For the first time, I took her ____ month photos on the actual day!

Well, they turned out terrible. That's what I get for being on the ball. I'm going back to procrastination nation, I tell you!

Ainsley was fussy. I was frustrated and exhausted from being up every two hours with her last night. Growth spurts, man! I also have four bite marks just from today. Mother abuse. Someone needs to tell her that thing about biting the hand that feeds you...

So let's talk about something happy instead. 

We went to a pumpkin patch and I'm still giddy thinking about it. Like, it's competition with Disneyland in happiness levels. Did I just say that?

Gosh, I love Halloween.

My family that I couldn't be more in love with. 

It was nothing short of adorable. Ah! 

I joke with Clint that I want to be farmers. 

I haven't decided what percentage of that statement is a joke.

We made it home with a pumpkin for each family member and a pot of marigolds (for $9, holla!). 

I can't wait to make all kinds of pumpkin deliciousness. Feel free to share your recipes with me!

You see that? This is happiness. 

I feel like I'm starting to adjust to the move better. I'm making friends, getting involved, and loving this weather. The love I have for Ainsley is insane and I love spending every day with her. I'm so happy I have her. I still feel lonely and homesick and all of that, but it's starting maybe to feel a tiny itty bit like home. Maybe. 

And now for two photos to raise your happiness ten points: 

How is something so cute related to me? That's what I wanna know. 

Team Solomon 4everrrz

I have had a lot going on lately. 

I recently took on a new job of nannying four extra kids (one only 3 weeks younger than Ainsley) AND we have some big news. 

Please. 

I am not pregnant. 

It may take me ten more years to get enough courage/strength/insanity to embark on the pregnancy journey again.

This is how I announced our big news on Instagram

With this photo oozing of cuteness: 

And this caption:  So me and Ainsley were having a talk this morning and she was all, "mom. It's hotter than hades here. We either move, or I'm moving out." And I was all, "woah girlfriend. How about Northern California?" And she was like, "well... It's not Hawaii but its aiight." Expensive taste, this one. (In other words, WE'RE MOVING!!!)

We're moving IN A WEEK. Holy crap. It was really sudden. Clint interviewed and they wanted him to start ASAP. We had already planned a trip to Monterey last week because one of my husband's best friends got married so we were able to look at places and decide on a place while we were there. The timing has been perfection! I only wish I had more time to soak up this lovely Arizona Summer....NOT. But I do wish I had more time to say good bye to all the people I love so much! The stack of boxes is getting bigger by the day and so is my anticipation!

So, about the move. My husband got an engineering job. full time. with benefits. Catch me while I faint. WE WE SO EXCITED.

The thought of not having to pinch every penny makes me giddy. 

Although, we may very well have to do that still. The amount we are paying in rent is almost QUADROUPLING. Catch me while I faint. 

BUT, it's a huge upgrade. Our place has THREE bedrooms and TWO and a HALF BATHS. what. Catch me while I faint. I'm so excited to have more space. I've been dying to get a desk and have a little creative space but in our place now we don't even have room to do jumping jacks. I am super excited about where we will be living. It's North of Monterey and South of San Jose. We even get a little backyard that I can grow stuff I can eat in. You know I'm all about the eating. Also, while we were there I saw a sign for a farmers market for SEVEN avocados for A DOLLAR!!!!!!!! Catch me while I faint.

Clint is really excited about this job and I'm so proud of him. He has worked so hard for our family and I love him because of that and a million bajillion other reasons. I love that we chose each other. Marriage is tops, my friends.

We are REALLY excited about this new adventure. We are constantly talking about what fun things we will do there, how we will decorate our house and what we will do to the (very small) backyard. We are ECSTATIC. That being said, I'm a little nervous to move. There's a good chance I will be lonely for awhile while I get my feet wet, but I'm really grateful for the opportunity. I have been in a little bit of a rut since I had my little Ainsley Pot and I think a fresh start is exactly what we need right now. 

Watch out NorCal! 

(The post in which I use the MOST capital letters is now over.)

Life is good.

So how's your life going?

We're doing pretty dang good. 

Ainsley is SIX months old and a third of me wants to shout for joy (the part that misses sleep) and two-thirds of me wants to cry because it's going way.too.fast!

Her six month stats are: 

18 pounds, 5 ounces

26 inches long

both in 90th percentile. 

That's my big girl! 

She really is so much fun to have around and I love her so much I think my heart will burst. I've started telling her five things I love about her when I'm putting her to bed. I hope to remember to do it forever with all my babies. It's such a great reminder for myself of how blessed I am and hopefully Ainsley will get a small idea of how much her momma loves her. She is so precious to me! 

So life has been crazy busy. Could you tell by my large absence of blogging? I don't know how but my days all get so filled! I thought I would have so much time on my hands staying home with a baby! I had a mental list of all these things I wanted to do (learn to sew, learn spanish, make crafty crap, etc.) but none of it has happened because I'm so darn busy. What can I say? Ainsley loves attention and I love to give it to her. 

Clint still hasn't found a job. He graduated in May. Since I stopped working at the end of October, we've been making less than we need so we've relied on our savings. Well, that's getting smaller and smaller and I'm starting to freak out a little bit. Every day that passes with no job opportunities makes my heart sink a little deeper. Since we've been married, money has always been tight but we've always had enough. Now that we don't really, it's been a very humbling experience. Given the choice, I would opt out, but I'm grateful for this. We've cut down and cut down and cut down the budget more. It's been a good learning experience. Somehow not having money also reminds you how important the non-material things in life are.

 Example: I have the sweetest little girl and a husband that totally loves me. Basically, I have it all. 

I'm a lucky girl, I tell ya!

Also, you should probably all see the best love note ever written. 

And they call marriage the 'ol ball and chain....ha! 

Two

Two is a small number. 

It's only one more than one, afterall. 

It sounds so small, but it seems so big to me, in some cases.

I can't remember when two used to be zero. 

Two is really 365+365, when talking about years. 

365 is a big number, right?

Clint and I have been married for two years (as of last month). 

That's 731 days, since last year was a leap year. 

It's been such an adventure, a learning adventure. 

Things have been difficult lately, but there's no one I'd rather spend my life with. Clint isn't perfect. He's human. He has flaws just like Joe Shmoe over there, but he's perfect for me. I love what a solid partnership we have. We act as a team. We're each others' biggest cheerleader. We pick each other up. We love. We care. We are goobers. We support each other. We admit when we're wrong (eventually). We get frustrated. We get hurt. We forgive. We kiss. We share experiences. We are parents together. We wipe each others' tears. We laugh. 

But mostly, we're totally in love with each other. 

I love the twenty-first of May

My Dreams Came True

This last weekend Clint, Ainsley and I packed up and left for California. 

It was a trip well deserved. 

We were celebrating Clint's graduation, my graduation, our anniversary, Mother's Day, and overall just still being alive after this past year or so. 

Spending all day with my two favorite people was a dream come true! 

We stayed with my sister and her family which was awesome since we miss the heck out of them since they moved a year and a half ago.

We ate lots of good food, played on the beach, played at the park, had a bonfire on the beach, and my sister and I even got to go shopping without any kids for the first time (that I can remember) in over five years! 

We only took some photos at the beach, so feast yer eyes!

(we also watched Brave)

 Clint and Josh suiting up for surfing....and an adorable little girl...and boy!

 Jenna and Josh making eyes at each other

 Max wanted to surf with the big boys!

 Poor little guy

 This picture makes me laugh. He's so cute!

 My hottie sister and Ainsley

 The waves weren't great but the boys did good!

 Me and Ainsley just chilled on the beach and mostly tried not to get sunburned! We were successful! I love my little beach baby. It was so fun to have her along on this trip.

 Just the coolest family ever. If you don't have red hair in your family I feel bad for you.

 Just the cutest baby ever mad chillin on the beach!

 CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT FACE?!???

 My sister watched Ainsley for a few hours so Clint and I could walk along the beach together and browse some shops. I can't believe how lucky I am so have such a kick butt husband! He's also easy on the eyes, eh?

My cute family! I finally broke down and bought some pants that fit (as my Mother's Day gift to myself!) and as you can see by the big stain on them, motherhood has already taken their toll on them. But man, I wish I would have done this sooner. Even though I don't love how I look in them, it feels SO nice to have pants that fit! I finally feel like I have an outfit that I don't look frumpy in. It was a good investment!

We had such a great time. I'm a big believer that vacations and doing fun, quality things together is an investment into the family relationships. After such a hard year, it was so nice to get to spend time enjoying my family and doing fun things together. I'm so blessed to be a wife and mother to these two. I wouldn't have it any other way! 

Family Time

Remember how I was saying Clint and I haven't been able to spend much (read: any) time together?

We decided to go to Tempe Town Lake after church on Sunday and take a family walk. It was glorious. 

 It was an overcast day which is somehow magical to me

 Sometimes she has a bad attitude. After a time out she came around.

 The sunset was glorious. If only I knew how to capture it

 Clint placed these lights when he worked at an electrical engineering firm. It was cool for him to get to see them :)

 Extremely unflattering angle, but I love this whole mom thing. I love this picture because you can tell she's looking at me.

Here's to being creative with family time :)

For the record, we're in love with Ainsley. I hope she likes us back!

How I know my husband loves me

 Is that not the most perfect picture ever? I love when he looks at me like that. I'm so glad I chose to marry such a sweet boy and I'm even more grateful he chose me too! 

When I dated I always kept in my mind "is this who I want to be the father of my children?"I think I have done exceptionally well choosing a dad for Ainsley as well as our other kiddos. I'm so happy to be married to him. I cannot wait to see him fill the father role. I know he will do so well.

Had to sneak in just one more ;)

How my husband saved my life.

When I quit my job I didn't know what that would mean for my blog, considering the only time I blogged was during downtime at work. 

The answer so far: I never blog, ha!

Hopefully I'll get into a routine and be able to keep it up. Is there anything you want to hear about? 

Tonight, though, I want to tell you a story of how my husband saved my life. I don't want to forget it! 

In one of my classes, we were to interview someone in a specific dietetic practice group and present on what we learned. The DPG I chose was Nutrition Education for the Public. It's pretty small. Our teacher told us we should have no problem finding someone, so I wasn't that worried about it. The assignment was due 3 weeks after it was given. I started right away e-mailing people. I would send a batch of about 3 emails out, wait a few days, then send 3 or so more. Basically I had e-mailed a bunch of people with no response. A week before the assignment was due, I got a response from someone saying they were willing to answer my questions. I sent them my questions and didn't hear anything back for several days. I sent out several more e-mails just in case. I wasn't too worried thought because I thought I had found someone. The day before my assignment was due, I e-mailed her to confirm she received my questions and she responded right away saying that she had and then she asked me some questions. I answered then never heard anything back. I even e-mailed again. I knew I wasn't going to get a response from her in time, so I sent out a few more e-mails and asked everyone I knew! No luck! I sent my teacher an e-mail explaining the situation and she responded saying that I would have to take a zero for the assignment. Since the class is out of so little points and this is our biggest project, it put me in serious danger of failing. I called Clint, full on ugly crying, to tell him what had happened. I had a presidency meeting to go to that night so I was unable to try and work more solutions. I didn't see Clint until fairly late and we went to bed pretty soon after I got home. 

 Clint woke me up at 6am the next morning telling me he had someone for me to interview. Wait, what?! He had e-mailed a random person the night before on a whim. Whaddya know, she was part of this DPG and was willing to be interviewed. She sent her phone number and I called right away! With several hours before my class, I was able to finish most of my assignment!!!!!!!

I know Heavenly Father certainly had a role to play in this simple miracle for which I am grateful, but I'm so thankful for a husband who is willing to do what he can as well. It might be simple to some people, but it meant so much to me. Clint knows how important school is to me and is so supportive of me accomplishing this dream. All cheese aside, I can honestly say my husband is my hero. 

Single ladies, find your hero and don't let them go. Married ladies, believe in your husbands to be your hero. And that's probably the best advice I could give. 

So in love with this goofy boy!

p.s. thanks for letting me share my cheese ;)

top ten

Top ten things I'm thankful for.

1) Heavenly Father must be blessing me with patience. Seriously, it's a wonder I haven't screamed from all the people telling me my stomach is too big. Right now the new thing is something like "There's no WAY you're making it to your due date. Look how big your stomach is."

2) Halloween is like, really really really soon. Which is just wondaful! You can scroll down for my post on how great Halloween is. Would you like a hint on my costume this year? No one got it with my hints last year. Riddle me this bloggers:

You know how everyone does pictures by signs like this to announce they're pregnant? It's something like that.

3) I just recently discovered the wonder of the Backstreet Boys Pandora station. My life is forever changed. Also, how in the flippin world did it take me so long to add that station?!

4) I am LOVING the weather right now. Driving to work today it was 69. Arizona is wonderful. I would say everyone should move here, but I'm not a fan of traffic.

5) Tomorrow I am THIRTY weeks. This is great, because 30 sounds so much further than 29, and heaven knows I'm ready for this bun to be out of the oven.

6) I went to my first blog meet up last night! It was so fun and much less awkward than I anticipated. I'm really grateful for blogging. It's been great for me! I seriously feel so close to some of my friends I've made through it!

7) EIGHT WEEKS TIL GRADUATION!!!!!!! I'm so so so so so so soooooo excited!

8) Today is my last day of work. It was a hard decision for me to make, but I know it was the right one. I'll miss the great people I've developed relationships here (I've been here 2.5 years), but I'm grateful to be making times for the more important things in life and hopefully not always run around like a chicken with my head cut off.

9) So grateful for my sweet little girl. She already brings so much joy into our lives. It's so crazy having to wait so long for her. I just discovered what it's like! It's like having the anticipation of Christmas Eve every day. I'm JUST SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!

10) Obviously I would be ungrateful if I didn't mention my rockstar husband. He is such a hard worker and so sweet to me. Now I believe in happy, wonderful, full-of-love marriages that last forever. I still feel just as lucky as I did on our wedding day. Plus, he's super hot. Check it out.

The end! What are you grateful for? If you do a post, leave me the URL so I can check it out (someday).

That's for being so great!!!

Can I interest you in some awkward photos?

If you haven't read the story about how Clint and I found out our two would soon turn to a THREE, you should read the story here first. I promise, you haven't heard this one before. 

The other day I came across the pictures we took the night I found out. 

It was pretty much like....so....if this is for reals maybe we should take a picture or something?

And so we did. 

And now you can see our shocked/awkward/deer in the headlights faces. 

Lucky you :)

Warning #1: they are awful. Feel free to laugh if you desire

Warning #2: You WILL see a pee stick. If that's not your thing, you've been warned. 

The last one kills me. Oh, Clint. I love you so. 

Despite what you may believe after seeing these pictures, we're really excited to be parents!!