Pssst....

Want to hear a secret?

You see that white stuffed bunny with the pink ears sitting in the corner of the crib? That's the one- behind the mushroom mobile.

I'm pretty sure that when I put Savannah down for a nap and then walk out of the room that it comes alive and entertains her. I haven't actually caught the bunny in its "live" form because every time I walk back into the room, it hurries and goes back to sitting in the same form that it was when in when I walked out of the room.

But I can't think of many other reasons why Savannah would be so content to just lay down awake in her crib (like she is as I type this) for long periods of time in the afternoon trying to take a nap as I hear happy baby squeels/ talking/ singing comming from her room.

Yeah, pretty sure it comes alive ;)

Baby's First 5K

One of the goals that I have for our little family (besides taking lots of pictures) is to live a really active lifestyle. I'm not really a big runner nor did I run cross country in high school or college or anything, but its the one thing that everyone can do as a family and is a low maintenance sport. Back when we were picking out our stroller before Savannah was born, we went for the one (and only) jogging stroller travel system that we could find (by the way- are you listening stroller makers? your missing the mark here - we need more options of jogging stroller travel systems please!)

Last Saturday we woke up early and headed up to North Atlanta to participate in the annual Clydes Run. This was a special 5K because it is held yearly on Clyde May's birthday - someone I've never met, but who died from complications of Prader-Willi Syndrome. If you aren't familiar with Prader-Willi Syndrome (which you most likely aren't because it's not common) go here.

Matthew, our one year old nephew (born six months before Savannah) has PWS and we all ran to show our support.


Matthew's fan club at the start line- minus a few that didn't make it in the photo (like me who was the photographer)

The course was set up to run a 5K, but was also set up with a shorter course for folks that wanted to complete the 1 mile walk. I really enjoy these kind of 5Ks because everyone is running with a purpose- or for someone. It's not a competive run and you see lots of folks along the course who are just trying to support the cause and make it to the finish line. We especially noticed the 60-something old man who was running with his dog, wheezing the whole way, but determined to finish.

I let Brant have the opportunity to be in all the pictures this time! A funny side note - at the end of the run Deahl thanked us for comming to support Matthew and Brant automaticaly replied "Yeah- no sweat!" Then he thought about it for a second and realized that was kind of a lie - there was a lot of sweat!

And this sweet litte guy is Matthew! With his dad (my brother Adam and his wife Deahl - we all wore those buttons with Matthew's picture on them.)

A group picture after the run of about half of all the participants. When we were running I noticed a girl that couldn't have been more than 6 years old (running a 5k!) with her mom. She was sweating, determined, and oh so cute with her determination (and her adorable skirt running outfit). I hope Savannah and I will be running like that one day! But in the meantime we'll look forward to pushing her in the joggling stroller and look forward to running again in it next year!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

And since it fell on a Sunday this year, we got to celebrate both the Saturday before and on Sunday. It's July 5th now, but we're still celebrating at the Harrison House - Savannah is now in her third 4th of July outfit.

Plus, we're celebrating with the extra pretzel sparklers that I made to share for the Independance Day bbq's that were going on.

Not to be a downer on other holidays, but I think I heard it said perfectly at church yesterday - that Independance Day is such a great holiday because you don't worry about presents or crowded shopping malls. Just lots of food and good times with family& friends.

I won! I won!

To see what I'm talking about, go here.

Yes, it was bold of me.

Yes, you can laugh.

YES - a fair warning that it might make you blush!!

And YES - it's all worth it for what I get!!

But you better hurry before Brant sees this post and wants me to take it down.

I mean, it's already online for the world to see, so I might as well share the good news on my blog, right?!?

(And yes, I need a tan!)

UPDATE: All right, the gig's up (a few hours after I posted this Brant saw it). I took out the hyperlink above, so you'll have to leave me your email so I can send you the link individually if you want to see.

P.S. I got my free photo luggage tags in the mail and they are super cute.

If you haven't already gotten yours, there is still over 20,000 left before the promotion ends!

Wasatch Back 2010!

I first heard of the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay last summer and thought it sounded really neat! If your not familiar with it, it can be thought of as an 188-mile running party (Logan to Park City UT) with 12 best friends. You start running early Friday morning, then all day and all night and through the next morning until you finish. Teams of 12 runners each run three legs of the relay while rocking out to live bands, enjoy wacky participant costumes, and make life-long friends with teammates and competitors. My explanation really doesn't do it justice, but this link will give you more of an idea of it.

So about the time that I was writing this October post last year (and was six months pregnant), my good friend Linsey in Salt Lake City was also putting together a team to enter the 180 mile relay that would take place that summer. When she invited me to join her team I eagerly accepted!

It may have been a little ambitious of me to be so eagar to want to run in this relay, but I can now say that I've done it! In reality, it wasn't the running that was the tough part (I ran three legs of four miles each in about a 26 hour time frame) it was the logistics of flying out to Utah and taking care of/ trying to figure out who to watch her while I ran- 5 month old that nearly killed me! Good thing she's so cute and made it worth it. I'll spare the details, suffice it to say that I think my dear husband is more of a saint now that ever before with how he endlessly supported me completing this and working out the never ending details. And a million thanks to my sister Shannon, my friend Linsey, and Brant's brother and brother's wife Kyle & Amanda for helping me with details and hosting us!

My first four mile leg - your team leap frogs you in the team van while you run to support and give you water.

With part of the team just after finishing my second four mile leg. This was my favorite leg. I had the baton passed to me and started at 9pm and ran for an hour while it got dark. All that was on the road was me, darkess, and the headlamp and reflective vest I was wearing. When I would look behind me, all I could see were the quiet floating lights of the headlamps of the other runners behind me.

On to leg three for me - 9am the next morning to finish my last four mile leg. So maybe I'm not really a natural runner and was a little tired and walking by this point...

But kept on chugging to finish my last leg!

Some of the awesome scenary (notice all the team vans).


And more scenary along the relay (that was our team vehicle - we were team "Huffin and Puffin")

And finished at last! I'll have to photoshop myself into this team photo (duty called as a mother at the time this was taken).

Since Linsey was the only one I knew on the team to begin with, I got to meet some great new friends during the relay. Awesome job ladies - Wasatch Back 2010 was a success!!

Annual Garden Post

Meet Brant's gardening Bible.

Brant loves to garden. In fact, I think he secretly wishes he could be a full time gardener. He's at it again this year and his garden is bigger than ever (If you've missed it in years past, see here and here.)

When we first bought our house nine months ago, Brant spent a good deal of time sketching out and plotting our property lines, making a diagram of where his garden would go (similar to what he did with the moving truck in this post). I think he asked me twice a day back then what I thought he should grow. Since then, he has spent hours (and hours) reading his square foot gardening book.

He sketched some more, bought some wood, built some boxes, made some fencing (so the deer don't get it), constructed netting for the tomatoes, planted some seeds, and..... ta-da!

These three boxes above are planted with tomatos, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, cayanne peppers, chives, more tomatos, banana peppers, red potatoes, pineapple sage, onions, head lettuce, leaf lettuce, radish, carrots, chives, squash, cucumber, watermelon, more onions, spicy basil, and celantro.

And here he has string beans, more onions, broccoli, more raddish, more carrots, parsley, more head lettuce, more leaf lettuce, more onions, more carrots, more raddish, sweet basil, and corn.

And then not pictured, but in other spots in the backyard he has rosemary, sweet mint, sage, blueberrys, wild raspberries- and then what I'm excited about for next Halloween - our home grown pumpkins!

It's fun for me to watch him take Savannah out back and show her everything he's growing and teach her all he knows about gardening. We hope she likes it, because I'll be making it into her baby food once it's grown!

Now if we can figure out what is eating all our sweet potatoes...he started with 9 sweet potato plants and now he mysteriously only has one left...

This day three years ago

Three years = 4 different apartments, a move across the country, buying a home, having a baby, travels to Sunny Isles Beach FL, Texas, Georgia, Payson AZ, Sacramento, San Fransisco, St. George UT, Bozeman MT, Denver CO, Hawaii, Long Beach CA, Disneyland twice, DisneyWorld twice, Hollywood, Alaska, Washington DC, Idaho Falls, Rexburg ID and Phoeniz AZ . Here's to many more memories!

10 years...

6/4/00- In Georgia graduated from high school one week ago/getting ready to leave for Ricks in one week
6/4/01- In Orlando working at Walt Disney World
6/4/02- In Rexburg taking summer classes to get ahead
6/4/03- In San Antonio working at Del Sol across the street from the Alamo
6/4/04- In Provo on my mission
6/4/05- In Georgia working for the summer and probably at a Braves game
6/4/06- In Rexburg getting ready to graudate college
6/4/07- In Utah working at KLAS/ getting married in 5 days
6/4/08- In Utah working at KLAS
6/4/09- In Utah working at One on One Marketing
6/4/10- Back in Georgia sitting on my living room couch with a sweet sleeping baby girl remembering the past 10 years!

Fam Stick Figures

You know those stick figure decals people put on the back window of their cars (usually minivans or SUVs)?

I never decided if I liked them or if I thought they were too gimicky and cutsey cutesy. But I'm pretty sure that since recently comming across these, that I've decided they're awesome.

Would it be weird to put a stick family on the back of my Honda Accord since we don't drive anything bigger? (I converted Brant to be a Braves fan when we were first married. I even bought him a Braves hat in the Atlanta airport on our way to our honeymoon.

Do you remember

back when you were a lot younger and the books you read/ had read to you?

Brant especially is looking forward to reading bedtime stories and I'm (slowly) starting our collection of small classic children's books. I would love for Savannah to hear the same stories that I/we did when we were younger -something about the nostalgia of reading the same books that I did from over 20 years ago is so appealing to me. It would be fun to find these in an old thrift store- but if I'm going to be realistic, I'll just end up ordering them from online. Off the top of my head, the ones I remember most are-

The Velveteen Rabbit

Corderoy

The Little Red Hen

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Help me out - what am I missing?

Renaissance Festival & Texas Trip

Last Saturday we got together with a few couples in the neighborhood (all first time parents and all parents to babies born within 2 months of each other) and went to the Georgia Renaissance Festival.

Clint and Brant in as much costume as it gets. We had apparently picked to go on a weekend when they were having their big Renaissance Costume contests. A lot of the costumes we saw were, uh- creative (to say the least!).


I didn't get a ton of pictures, but we walked around and looked at the different booths and things vendors were selling, watched an acrobat show, ate some fish & chips, and- while we were waiting for the jousting match to start- Brant took a picture of this Renaissance time period ride where people sit in the octagon shaped box and it gets wound up the pole. He thought it was pretty cool and wants to build one in the backyard now (see me in this photo?)

There's nothing hotter than a guy pushing a stroller (right, Jill??)

That evening (and since Brant had a six day break from work) we caught a flight to Texas to visit Ma &Pa Harrison for a few days.

Some cliff notes (since this trip was really just for visiting and down time):

We are pretty big gym goers, but when we moved to Georgia we decided to forego our gym memberships and invest in a WiiFit instead. On the agenda of things to do in Texas was to test out their WiiFit to make sure we still wanted to make the investment (we totally do!!)


Brant snowboarding on the WiiFit

While there we also were able to catch up with Dustinn and Val (and their two super cute kids)

"Hello Oliva and Bradshaw - nice to meet you. My name is Savannah."

Oliva was born about four months before Savannah, and look - already good friends (promise Val didn't stage this pose with Oliva's arm around Savannah!)

I didn't get a ton of pictures on this trip (and we missed getting one with Aunt Shannon), but Savannah is a great traveler and slept the entire flight both to Texas and back.

(and a thank you to Delta for giving us all of row 10 at the front of the plane with all that leg room for both flights. we'd like to do that again!)

Because I'm still laughing

1. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How in the world are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page paper I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this - ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dang it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of any importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people' s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

19. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

20. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

21. Somestimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

22. Even when opportunity knocks, you still have to get up off your seat and open the door.

23. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understnad a word they said?

24. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

25. Shirts need washing. Underwear needs washing. Pants? Pants never need washing, and you can wear them forever.

26. Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber & dumber every year?

27. There's no worse feeling that that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

28. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

29. Even under idea condition, people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I bet that everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.

Thanks Linsey - I forget how funny those office emails can be sometimes.
*By the way, I'm still laughing...

Chick-fil-a is cool

(From google images. I have no clue who that guy is)

Chick-fil-a is such a neat, family oriented company. One of my visiting teachers works at the Chick-fil-a headquarters and invited us to come for lunch and a tour of the corporate office yesterday.

Wow. It was almost like going to DisneyWorld.

After arriving on the beautiful Chick-fil-a campus (surrounded by waterfalls, walking trails, and colorful flowers) we were first lead downstairs to eat lunch in the classy cafeteria (we felt a little out of place in our jeans and t shirts) where every day Chick-fil-a provides free (breakfast and) lunch for their almost 600 employees of their headquarters.

Talk about taking care of their employees! Not only do they feed their employees delicious meals, but they let their employees invite their family and friends in to eat for free as well. After lunch Heloisa took us to tour the (really nice) employee wellness center that included workout facilities, a racquetball court, lockers, and showers, the test kitchen where new menu items are thought up, the antique cars around every corner (they even have one of the original 3 batmobiles that was used in Batman Begins!) and even Truett Cathy's office! (He was out of town, so we didn't get to meet him personally). They've also got a neat DayCare in the building so that working parents can visit their children at any time of the day.

Everyone was also super nice to us and welcoming as we walked around in awe. If I were looking for a job, I'd definately start looking here first!

Truett Cathy's office. You can't see it in this photo, but there's an adjoining room that acts as kind of his living room with a TV and couch (among other things). Heloisa says its where Truett takes naps since he's gotten to be a little old man - he's 89 and still comes to work. So cute!

The tour was complete with Chick-fil-a signature shakes waiting for us on the wayout!

Thanks so much Heloisa!! (oops- we caught this shot with someone's eyes closed!)

Attn: Everyone who is traveling this Summer

Head over here to design your own free luggage tags, courtesy of KLM Airlines. They may add you to their e-newsletter list, but you can always unsubscribe from it later.

Upload a photo of your own, or choose from their selection. They are giving these out (with free shippping, even) until they are gone and there are still over 37,000 left. Order as a gift for someone else, and they'll deliver it to their doorstep too.

I've never flown KLM (and probably never will), but I once saw one of their crews that had just arrived from overseas that were walking through the Atlanta airport. I may have been in a little awe of how polished and sharp looking the entire (huge) flight crew were in their teal blue uniforms. They practically walk in formation too.

Happy traveling!

Winner, Winner!!

At 12:30pm (ET) today Random.org picked the following two winners of these sweet reusable totes:

Commenter #16

and

Commenter #7

Congratulations Joyce and Kristen for being the newest owners of these stylish totes! I'll e-mail you the details!

If you didn't win, stay tuned - I've got another fun post comming up on Monday. One where everyone is a winner :)

P.S. FYI - That would be a former co-worker also named Kristen. Come on now - did you really think I'd enter my own giveaway??

The good stuff

Remember when I did this giveaway back in 2008?

Well guess what...

It's time for another one :)

The reusable totes that I gaveaway last time were cute, but they were a bit on the big and bulky side. And after awhile, the majority of the time I would forget to grab mine on the way out the door to the grocery store (which isn't super encouraging when your trying to do your part to save the earth...by the way, Earth week starts next week)

I've since found these sweet reusable totes from Bath & Body Works - I love the material because it rolls up with a snap and fits right in my purse. So even if I find myself on an improptu shopping trip, I've still got my reusable tote with me.

Plus, these bright colors and patterns are fun for spring and summer. The checkers usually get a kick out of it when I hand them my rolled up bag to use for my groceries.

So, I'm giving away at random two of these cute bags - one for each winner. That means there will be two winners!

All you have to do for a chance to win one of these fashionable totes is leave a comment so I know you want it.

That's all.

None of that "Leave a comment to enter, leave two comments if your a follwer of my blog, leave 3 comments if you follow me on facebook, leave 4 comments if you tweet about this giveaway, blah, blah, blah "- because those kind of giveaways are annoying.

This is just a dinky little blog (its not like Bath & Body Works sent me these to give away as a sponsor. I just like them and want someone else to have them too), so you've got a good shot at winning. Well, at least better than those giveaways where there are hundres, if not thousands, of comments.

And since Savannah's 3 month birthday is this Friday - and I like giving things away on birthdays - you have until this Friday April 16 at 12:23 pm to enter (Well, she was born at 12:23 am but I'm not planning on being awake at that time).

Check back then and see if you've won :)

And I'll even mail it all the way to Alaska if you win.

Why yes, Dale Murphy

I'll come meet you at Turner Stadium on August 2 for MORMON NIGHT!!

Which happens to be on a Monday evening - how appropriate.

Let me give you the details (if your blessed to live in the Atlanta area) just in case you can't see this flier that Brant received from the BYU alumni association:

Braves vs. Mets

Mon Aug 2nd at 7pm

-Bring your family to Mormon Night

-Brief meet-and-greet with Dale Murphy in the RF pation at 5pm

-Join the pre-game parade around the field at 6pm

-Dale Murphy scheduled to throw out the first pitch

Contact Anthony McClendon for ticket at 404.614.1401 or email anthony.mcclendon@braves.com

Are you as excited as I am?

My Blogging Comeback

My blogging comeback has begun! I betcha thought I'd forgotten - I don't blame you. People used to tell me that they liked my blog.

Then after a dry spell of posting, people asked when I was going to update my blog.

Then after even more time passed, people stopped asking at all.

:(

So it's back to business - with the first order of business being Our Little One :) What that means is (even though her name is in the header above) that you won't find many more pictures or updates of baby Savannah on this blog - you'll have to head over here.

But not so fast.

Because it's a private blog (insert groan here). Private blogs wouldn't be nearly so annoying if blogger would pick up the feed and tell us when people have updated their private blogs. That way you don't go scrolling down to click on the link of a private blog, only to enter your email and password - only to find out that they haven't updated their blog.

Because of that, this blog will still continue and I'll still be posting to it - but Our Little One will generally just be baby photos, updates, and milestones about Savannah for those that are interested. And its a way for me to post pictures and videos for Brant to see his little girl while he's on trips without me draining the battery in my phone sending the same pictures and videos to him via cell.

Anyways - you know the routine. Leave a comment/email/Facebook/text your deets (as in your email address) and you'll get the all exclusive access to the Our Little One blog (which includes never before seen photos and cool things) about our baby Savannah. Yes, that means when you send me your email address that you'll be in the cool club too.

See ya over there!

Patience is a virtue...

Yes, I realize it's been over a month since the last post - so uncharacteristic of me, I know!

Hang tite folks - because I'm working on a big blog comeback!

A few of the things

That I've learned over the past 3 weeks:

(1) Pampers newborn diapers with the yellow that turn blue stripe when wet makes life a lot simpler. Especially for first time parents.

(2) Velcro swaddle wraps are the best invention. Ever.

(3) Changing pads are not to protect your baby from the surface you change their diaper on. It's vice versa.

(4) And it's never a smart idea to change a diaper on a bed with freshly washed sheets. Especially without a changing pad. No matter how fast you think you are.

(5) Blow up excercise balls are excellent for sitting on while bouncing an upset baby.

(6) It's a good idea to have more than 1 diaper on hand when leaving home. Even if your already running late and you think you wont be gone for long. Because your always gone longer than you think you will be.

(7) It takes over a half hour longer than you think it will to get ready before leaving home to go somewhere.

(8) It's always a good idea to have a burp cloth close by. Using your bed sheet as a substitute in the middle of the night just constitutes more laundry in the morning.