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Tuesday Tid Bits 07.29.14

The pieces of our life I choose to include on our family's blog are nothing out of the ordinary but I wake up each day excited to see what will happen next as a mamma and wife. Our lives are filled with ordinary blessings that when put all together, make up one pretty extraordinary life. :)

Little Jude Michael is doing lots of big boy things!

We officially have too much hair to do this hair-do. haha

- Jude has started to try to say “Jesus” when we show him a picture of Christ. When he is a monkey in Sunday School (which he consistently is) we walk around the halls and look at all the paintings of Christ. Not positive how to do this whole 3 hours with a 10-month-old thing. He doesn’t care for toys; they just don’t keep his attention. All he wants to do is explore. I don’t know, I am trying to figure that one out. 

- He will “share” whatever he is playing with by holding it up to my mouth like, “Do you want to slobber on this too mom?”

- He does this face where he will roll his eyes back in his head and tilt it forward until his forehead is touching yours. It’s his way of playing and making mom laugh without fail every time. When we talk to grandma or daddy on the phone he will do it to the phone like he knows they are in there and he is acknowledging them.

- When Jude wants you to pick him up and love him he will crawl to you then pat your feet while looking up with those beautiful brown eyes. Let me tell you that it works like a charm. 

Little sickie Jude, smiling despite. 

We've got two big stuffed animal monkeys in Jude's room that each have their own chair and it often looks like some sad accident happened because Jude will pull them down so they are limply strewn across the floor. 

- You know when you love someone so much that they can't be physically close enough to you? Well this Mobby Wrap is as good as it gets! Best feeling in the world to have your baby snuggled so close. And happily, Jude LOVES it too. He is as happy as a clam for as long as he is in it. 

I work with the young women as my church calling and Jude consistently gets kidnapped anytime we do activities with them. :) To be adored by beautiful girls on a regular basis is really doing lots for his little baby ego. :)

- We went to BYU-Idaho’s Dance Alliance performance with two of my dance girlfriends. There is something different about dance friends then other friends. I think that I am more uninhibited around them, which probably has to do with the gobs of hours spent at one time with each other, lack of personal space (dancers don’t have much of a bubble, OK they have NO bubble) and the fact that we are all artsy. We just get weird. That’s what it comes down to. I miss them.

- Jude watched the hour and a half-long dance performance the entire time and danced with his arms flailing and legs a-bouncin. I guess he was destined to love dancing being that I danced for the majority of my pregnancy and we have dance parties at our house most every single day. He LOVES dancing and watching others dance. I showed him some Michael Jackson music videos the other day and he was glued and kept giggling happy giggles. Michael and I think that we will put him in hip hop someday.

- Jude loves birds and just like his Great Grandpa Jones (avid bird watcher) he is really good at spotting them. Even the smallest bird sitting stationary on a fence will be spotted by baby Jude.  So I took him to the aviary and he really loved that.

- Michael is doing AWESOME with his health goals. He is looking FINE. I have some of my own goals that I have been able to keep up with as well and am feeling really good about my bod and overall health. Woohoo! I have had to learn to like exercise because my whole life I have been spoiled with dance and I don’t get to do it 6 days a week a few hours each day like I used to (for obvious reasons:). However I have been teaching contemporary again and have started taking a Zumba class (lots of fun!).

Jude has become impossible to put a diaper on and change! This is what Michael resorted to, to get this baby to hold still long enough for a diaper change. haha

- Michael got a new calling in our family ward in the Elder’s Quorum presidency. He is going to miss teaching those 11 year-old boys. They LOVE him. And for 11 year-old boys to openly show that they love anything, let alone anyONE, is a pretty big deal.

At one of my favorite nurseries, Cactus and Tropicals, collecting little things for my kitchen window garden. This place brings me inner peace. 

I was watching a class I am going to be taking over in fall and my friend's son was making Jude laugh hysterically. Jude wanted to climb the stairs like he was. It is so funny to see how he already identifies with and looks up to older boys. 

Just being a busy boy. 

This is what Jude looks like when he has to go shopping with mamma and her friend Kamille. :)

Tuesday Tid Bits 07.14.14

Mamma Abuelita

- Jude got to meet our Mamma Abuelita and Tio Hugo for the first time. Hugo brought her over the border to see us. She is the sweetest little Mexican lady and despite having lived a HARD life, she has those shiny, twinkly eyes that very few people have; the kind where there is so much good in the person’s soul that it seems to just leak right out of their eyes. She doesn’t speak a stitch of English but even though we don’t share the same language, she communicates very clearly the love she has for her family. Every time we see her we get smothered in besos (kisses) and are hugged repeatedly while she says sweet things about how much she loves us. I love seeing that woman. I have only been able to spend time with her a handful of times but I know she loves me and I love her! What a gift she is.

- We found a flight out of Provo, UT to LAX. There could not be a bigger difference between the two airports. The Provo airport was surrounded by a field of cows and the “terminal”, if you could even call it that, was more like a waiting room at the dentist. Haha I was worried briefly that we were going to die. But luckily a big, nice plane pulled up and not a tiny little thing that might have been fairly unsurprising. Michael and I had to laugh the whole time we were in that little Provo airport. So funny. 

From LAX to . . .

West Provo :)

- Mikey always says the sweetest things to me in his sleep. Haha He doesn’t sleep talk often, maybe a couple times a month, but no matter how asleep I am myself when he does, I can’t help but to smile. Here is what he said last night:

“You are a good girl. Everything is OK. Just think happy, happy things OK? Everything is happy."(Touches his finger admiringly to my nose)

Haha! Cutest husband award goes to Michael Mevs! 

The Mevs Backyard

Samantha in the backyard, I just thought she looked pretty so had to snap a quick picture while she wasn't looking. :) If anyone knows any stud muffins at BYU-Idaho I am taking applications. ;) 

Snuggling Uncle Daniel

- Jude caught a bug right before we left San Diego, which fiddled with his sinuses and made his ears hurt him on our flight back. Everyone was very understanding as we held our screaming baby. That’s a hard moment as a parent. A moment that I tried my best to avoid with a bag full of binkies, bottles, treats, and essential oils but some things are just beyond our control. Eventually he calmed down enough to nurse and fall asleep. He has had a low-grade fever and come-and-go rashes for the past couple of days.

On a walk around a lake in San Diego.

I love this scene. No matter how early we leave for home, everyone ALWAYS wakes up to give hugs and kisses and wave us goodbye as we pull out drive down the street. :)

We were only gone for a week but it about killed Grandpa and Grandma Fender. haha Jude is watching the ducks with Grandpa Fender at one of our favorite parks. 

- The following clip is what it looks like when mamma is trying to exercise. Let me just say, Jude rarely makes it easy. haha

- Michael has started the Paleo diet. Yesterday for breakfast he baked an egg in an avocado and for dinner made Thai Beef over coconut cauliflower, which is apparently a rice substitute. I wish I was as cool as he is. I think I would be ornery all the time if I couldn’t eat carbs. 

This is what we call Jude's "Happy Spot". He is perfectly content on top of daddy's shoulders. He just slumps over his head and hangs out there. He even falls asleep up there sometimes. 

Mikey's new workout shirt my dad bought him; "I'd flex but I like this shirt." haha It's true, this guy has some huge biceps and a real nice chest. Some seriously hot stuff! :) 

- Maybe I am jumping the gun a little but we’ve got some curls going on! Ever since I knew I was going to marry Michael I hoped our children would get his curly hair. If he grows it out enough it will ringlet. Jude’s hair has started to on the bottom, hopefully it isn’t just a fluke!

My little sickie. He wants to be snuggled up to mamma ALL THE TIME. Nothing on the to-do list is getting done but that's OK because there is nothing I love more then snuggling this monkey!!!

Tuesday Tid Bits 07.08.14

-       We were looking through the Mevs old photo albums and I found some treasures. Here are a few for your enjoyment: 

And then there is this . . . Haha!

-       The Mevs girls and I went to a quaint little tearoom on Grand Street in Escondido. It was so fun! Of coarse a tearoom experience would not be complete without a big, fun hat to go with it! These ladies are my favorite and while yes, I do stick out like a sore thumb when I walk down the street with them, I feel 100% a part of them and as a sister to each of them. They are all beautiful examples to me.

-       Of coarse I spotted an antique mall as we drove to the tearoom so all the girls humored me in exploring it after tea. One of the gentlemen that worked there had to say, “Can I take those things to the front counter for you?” too many times. Haha Opps. Shopping is never dangerous for me unless it involves home décor (especially beautiful antiques that I can talk down the price on) and baby clothes when Carters is having a sale. Haha It was so fun to explore. I hope I can fit these things safely in my suitcase!

Finding treasures at the antique mall. 

-       Jude is quite literally getting at least 8 teeth in all at the same time so he is a bit of a grump. Luckily he is already a very mild baby so it is very doable. His abuelita and papa are super sweet to him and I am getting spoiled with lots of little breaks throughout the day as they give him loves.

-       We will likely both weigh 15 more pounds when we get back to Utah because these people are feeding us so well. I’ve got Mexican food coming out of my ears and I don’t mind it one bit!

At a Mexican market with LOTS of yummy pastries. Yes, we took a couple home. :) 

At the fair a couple of weeks ago.

Making a bad decision to ride a carnival ride.