Nate & I took a little tour of Utah

Nate and I just got back on a little "tour of Utah" to visit friends and family.



ORIGINAL PURPOSE FOR TRIP TO UTAH: to get together with my 3 college roommates and dear friends before Laurel Bogner gets married.

When it was obvious that just wasn't going to work out, MY NEW PURPOSE FOR GOING TO UTAH WAS:
a). Visit Laurel Walker (one of the roommates) at her parent's home in Huntsville, Utah.
b). Spend some time with my Grandma who has been begging to see Nate.
c). IKEA
an added bonus: see Ryan, Leslie & Millie!

It was by far, the most spontaneous trip I've ever taken. Nate and I flew up to Utah on Wednesday morning ~ my mom picked us up from the airport. I got lucky on my flight . . . this cute Nana ASKED if she could sit by me to help with Nate on the plane! It was fabulous. We didn't always know where we were staying or where we were going, but it all worked out.

We spent Wednesday with my grandma and then we drove to Herriman to visit our friends, The Andrus'. It was fun to see them in their new home. Thanks guys for letting us crash with you!

Millie thought Nate was hilarious! She had a great belly laugh as she'd laugh at him.


Nate is ALL boy. He finds dirt and rocks everywhere we go!


Thursday morning Nate & I drove to Huntsville, Utah to see Laurel W. and her kiddos. Her parents recently built a beautiful home there & we had a great time! Laurel lives in New York so I don't get to see her very often so it was fun to let our kids play together and to catch up. We had a little adventure that night when the power went out in Huntsville for 6+ hours! We were able to sit in the dark and chat for hours after we put the kids to bed. Thanks Laurel (and your mom) for inviting us up to play. We had a great time.

Laurel's oldest . . Avery climbing up the water slide


Laurel's little guy, Ashton. He is a few months younger than Nate.


Nate and Ashton playing with Briscuit, the dog. I think this is the only time they were awake at the same time!


Nate having fun playing on the life size sorry board in the backyard!


On Friday morning we drove back to Salt Lake. While Nate slept at my grandma's house, my mom let Sam and I get a head start at Ikea. How does Vegas not have an Ikea? We were there for a LONG time. By the time you make your way through the store and load everything on to the carts, it can take many hours! Luckily my mom was there to keep Nate busy while Sam and I did the heavy lifting and loading. I was able to get lots of fun stuff for our office/playroom/craft room! That night we drove to the cabin. Lets just say that poor Nate had just about had it by that point. I thought he would fall asleep since it was his bedtime but that was not the case. It was a looong 3.5 hours but it was nice to break up the drive!

Saturday was a relaxing day at the cabin with my mom and Sam. We watched the Olympics and lounged around. Later in the afternoon we decided to go exploring at Navajo Lake & Cedar Breaks. It's gorgeous up there!

Cedar Breaks

Navajo Lake

With all of the driving & shopping at Ikea, I had to have new treats for Nate. His favorite? Chocolate covered gummy bears.



Although the rice krispie treat was a close second.

August 9: Sam & Allan's Day

The entire weekend was filled with family and I loved it. I had 7 aunts and uncles & 15 cousins here from out of town to go to my uncle’s baptism. It just so happened that most of them could also join us at the temple as my little sis’ went through for the first time.

Saturday was quite the day in the Marz family. It started at 9:30am at the Las Vegas Temple. I have to say it was pretty neat having my entire family sitting inside the temple. I’ll confess that I hadn’t been in a while so it was great to be there again! After the session, we went to Cheesecake Factory for a yummy lunch! We picked up Nate from the babysitter and we all headed to the chapel to set up for the dinner after my uncle’s baptism.

My Uncle Allan is the one that got baptized. He’s been married to my Aunt Kara for 40+ years and he finally made the decision to be baptized. It was amazing to see him there. He couldn’t stop smiling. His son, Devin, was able to baptize him. I’m glad I could be apart of such a great day for Sam and Uncle Allan.

The other best part about the weekend was having my extended family in town. My dad’s side of the family is quite large and regardless of how much time goes by before we see everyone, it’s always fun. I was able to spend Friday and Saturday night with everyone while Wes stayed home with Naters and I had a blast. Saturday night was especially hilarious as we were all exhausted, yet still chatting at my parent’s house. I saw a side of my Uncle Gary that was so incredibly hilarious . . . Sam and I almost peed our pants. And who knew that my Uncle Robert had a tendency to kill animals? His stories, with Gary’s commentary, made me laugh harder than I’ve laughed in a long time. To sum this weekend up: GOOD TIMES.

I was TERRIBLE at taking pictures. I didn't get a single one of Sam or Allan on their big day. But I did get a few of the little ones . . .

Abbie CRACKED me up on Saturday night. At the dinner following the baptism, she sat on the floor and during the musical number she was playing the "air piano" on the floor. She was so focused on playing the imaginary keys. I'm sure she wanted to be just like her brother, Kyle.



Then, after every speaker, she'd look at the microphone and say "my turn, my turn". So finally, I let her have her turn and while it mortified her mom, I thought it was great. She was quite the performer. I think she needs a karaoke machine for her birthday.




And of course, my little man.


Congrats Sam and Uncle Allan! It was great to be a part of your day.

Nate eating cake

My favorite part of any first birthday party is watching the little one eat their cake. I knew Nate would love making a mess so I got him a little cake of his own. A cupcake wouldn't do for this little man. And since Sam did such a great job of capturing his every move, I thought I'd post a little photo story of Nate eating his first birthday cake.

Nate's First Birthday Party - Part One

We had a little party this week for Nate’s first birthday. We invited family and a few close friends over for a BBQ and swimming to celebrate Nate’s first year of life. My cousins were in town from Virginia so they got to come, too. My Uncle Allan kept telling me the party was partly for me because I survived my first year of motherhood!




We kept the party simple. Food. Swimming. Balloons. Cake & Icecream. That's all ya need to have a good time. I hope everyone had fun but I know Nate did. He loved having his friends and family there to play with him. He was a happy dude the entire night and loved the attention!

We'll start with the yummy part: The Cake! My friend Megan made Nate's little cake and the cupcakes. I love polka dots so that's what we went with. I thought they turned out really cute. Thanks Megan!






Sam was in charge of taking pictures and she did such a good job of taking pictures while Nate was eating his cake that I can tell a full story with the 100 photos she took of just that! So . . . here's a picture of Nate eating his cake. Full story to come on another post! Lets just say he LOVED it.





Here are the cute kiddos eating their cupcakes . . .


Nate's buddy, Hadley


Macie Lee



The Earl boys: Ikey & Noah


SWIMMING. I've always loved a pool party!

The birthday boy enjoying the pool with his dad. He loves these goggles! This picture cracks me up because it's totally him. Such a goofball.


Wes and my cousin, Connor.


Nate's cousin, Abbie


Braden & Connor, cousins


Nate and Abbie playing in the sprinkler toy.


Just hanging out . . .

our good friends, the McDonalds.


Uncle Jerry & my parents with Naters


Tripp & Daisy


BALLOONS. Every kid seems to love balloons.










A sand shovel for all the little ones who came to Nate's party . . .



Nate getting a head start on playing with his new toys! He's one lucky kid to have such nice friends and family.

Happy Birthday Naters!

My little man is ONE today. Happy Birthday, bud.

His little birthday party is tonight so many pictures to come!

Nate's almost ONE . . .

Nate turns one on Wednesday so I thought I'd do Part One of his 12 month post since there's quite a bit to say about him. He's quite a kid ~ his personality is getting funnier and funnier every day!

A few things about my ONE year old:

• As you can see in the photo above, he's OBSESSED with my sunglasses and will actually wear them.
  
• He went from having 2 teeth to 7 teeth in the last 2 weeks! It seems like every time I look in his mouth another tooth has cut through the gums. Poor guy. He's been rubbing his mouth a lot lately and you can tell he's in pain. There's one more on top that looks like it might cut through soon and then hopefully he'll have a break from teething. Teeth and ear infections are not a good combination for anyone involved.
• 
  The other day I let him open the fruit drawer in the fridge and he pulled out a lemon. It's been his favorite toy ever since. He somehow ended up with 2 lemons and he crawls everywhere with them. He has one in each hand and he puts his weight on the lemons as he crawls around!

• He is definitely trying to talk. His latest favorite word is "hot". He knows exactly what it means and will always say when something is hot whether it's the concrete, food, a candle, etc. He usually tries to blow on whatever it is that's hot. It's pretty funny. Maybe he'll be able to blow out his own birthday candles?

This video is of when he first started doing it. Now he does it on his own without any prompting.

• Nate loves ice! Whenever I use the ice dispenser in the fridge, I hear the pitter patter of Nate crawling really fast towards the ice dispenser. He points at the fridge and says his version of ice which sounds more like "i". He L O V E S crushed ice - I think it feels good on his poor gums. He also crawls really fast towards the vacuum when I turn it on. He follows us around the entire house as we vaccuum!

• He loves it when Wes comes home from work. He can hear the garage and then I say "who is home?" He knows it's his dad and he crawls right over to the garage door and stares at it until Wes walks in. He gets a priceless grin when he sees his dad. I love it.

Nate & Wes swimming at Grandma & Grandpa Marz's house.

the photographer is . . .

Sorry. Should have told ya who took our family photos so since many of you asked . . . her name is Becky Earl! She was easy to work & I love her stuff but she recently changed her pricing and I think it's a little too pricy to use her again but I like the photos we got! Her sitting fee isn't bad but it's a small fortune to get a CD of your photos. But don't get me started on the photography industry!