2 Years Old!

I'm more than a little late posting, this but didn't want this special day to go by without writing things down about our Peytie-Emma (as she calls herself). She turned 2 at the end of October. All she wanted to celebrate was a cake (pink of course), a sammwich from the orange restaurant (Whataburger) and to go down slides. We were happy to oblige all of her requests and had some family come over for a special lunch to celebrate her. She loved being the center of attention and opening presents and had a great day. She was only sad when she had to wait to blow out her candles for us to sing to her haha.

Here's an update on the ways she's grown recently... She:
-- loves, loves, loves books. We go to the library probably every other week and come home with 10-15 books for us to read over and over until we get to go back.
-- is speaking in pretty much full sentences. Almost everyone is surprised to hear how old she is because she's talking SO much.
-- has gotten very strong opinions about when she doesn't want to do things and has no problem telling us no... we're working on that one.
-- likes to pick out her own clothes. That's turned in a battle more than a few mornings, but for the most part we just let her pick. It's fun to see what she likes and what she thinks matches
-- likes to match outfits with Allie or with mom and will go around the rest of the day telling us and anyone else that we're matching
-- loves anything to do with cars, princesses, buses, airplanes, and pink
-- got reallllly into trick-or-treating. It was so fun to have her help with her costume and to practice trick-or-treating around the house
-- loves candy (this really isn't a surprise, but has been funny to watch develop). I think this helped with the trick-or-treating. She caught on pretty quick when she realized she had to just say a phrase or two to get some candy and was asking us to practice by the time Halloween got here.
-- has gotten very independent about getting in and out of the car and doing her own buckles.
-- is brave enough to go up into play-places at restaurants and down the slides by herself
-- loves slides anywhere we go. I think the big slides were her favorite part of the corn maze/fall festival we went to. She asked us to go again and again.
-- has learned to jump a little better. Her feet leave the ground now most of the times she tries. She regularly asks us to watch her while she jumps
-- figured out what places look like on the way there. Depending on where we're going she gets excited to tell us where we are as we get close based on what she can see out of her window (this one is hard to explain... I hope it makes sense)
-- loves to sing. Her favorite songs are the popcorn song, wheels on the bus, the snowman song, 5 little monkeys, and head, shoulders, knees and toes.
-- still loves church. We've had a couple stake/regional meetings recently and she's always so sad when she doesn't get to go to nursery because we're not on our normal schedule
-- is getting better at sharing on her own. Hopefully this one keeps progressing.
-- pretends to call family members on mom and dad's phones alllll the time. It's fun to watch her get so excited about it
-- is very particular about her bedtime routine. She likes to be wrapped up, then have 2 extra blankets put on top of her and her favorite stuffed animals, while she holds the corners of one of them and then we have to get her piggies and sing her songs. It's pretty funny, but sometimes we just want to be able to put her down and have her sleep...
-- has started saying her own prayers. It's kind of funny, but a good reminder for us to be grateful for all the little things she thinks to pray for
-- still LOVES when dad comes home or stays home. I get questions about when he's coming, or if he has to go to school almost all day
-- loves to play with her friends, but is shy about making new friends
-- is an amazing big sister to Allie and is constantly watching out for her needs. She likes to help feed her bottles, make sure she's put to bed ok, makes sure her carseat buckles are on, and plays games with her. It makes up for the times she's less than gentle with her...
-- loves to be outside. Our family walks are probably one of her favorite activities, especially because she gets to choose between the stroller, her bike or her dragon (wagon)
-- is a big fan of the zoo and sea world, and is SO brave on the roller coaster rides. We're so excited for her to get big enough to do some bigger rides - we have a daredevil on our hands
-- is growing faster than we know what to do with, but is so much fun to be around. We love her!!

July

So... It's been a while.

Life has been so, so great I haven't been able to think about blogging about it all. So sorry!

But something exciting happened and there is no way for me to put into words how incredibly happy I am about all of it. He couldn't have surprised me more or done it more perfectly. I love Chase more than anything and am so so excited to share my life with him.

Quickly after we got engaged I was lucky enough to coach the BYU lacrosse camp. I had such a blast getting to work with the girls that came out. Lacrosse is easily one of my favorite things to do, and I got to hang out with great teammates and a bunch of girls that love lacrosse too!

The 4th of July was during this week so we celebrated that night by watching my cousin play in a pick up game called Lax of July then got to watch Stadium of Fire fireworks from the lacrosse field. It was so much fun to play with cousins and to just hang out after playing lacrosse and being outside all week.

Pretty soon after that we left for my family's annual trip to Lake Powell. I've said this before but Powell for me is heaven on earth. I couldn't love it more. I had so much fun showing Chase something that I've loved for so long and trying new things with him like cliff jumping and double skiing. It couldn't have been a better week in my opinion.

Driving the kids on the tube and Beckham fell asleep on my arm haha

The one time I jumped off the cliff

That's Chase in the middle doing a backflip

Cutest cousin award goes to...

Skiing together

Rainbow bridge!

Love him to death

Sidenote: Julia managed to get more ugly pictures of me this week than I've ever had taken in my life. I think it's hysterical, but in all honestly didn't know I could make my face look like that.

Right after we got back my whole family went to Airborne (the trampoline place). It was a lot of fun, but most exciting was that I finally learned how to do a backflip. It took being talked into quite a bit and getting over my nervousness, but I was so glad I did it!

The very next day my whole family and I went wedding dress shopping. It was so great to have all of them there. I loved getting my brothers' and dad's opinion about the different dresses I tried on and to have my mom and Julia help me in and out of them. I actually decided on the very first dress I tried on in less than two hours. Way easier than I had anticipated and I LOVE it. Here's a picture from the dress shop (with me in my dress)

The next week it was Chase's birthday. I had struggled for a while trying to figure out what to get him when I finally decided to take him skydiving. He had never been, but had always wanted to go really bad and I loved seeing the look on his face when I finally told him the surprise I had been keeping. We had so much fun and it was great to celebrate with him doing something I knew he had wanted to do.

Add to the list of the reasons why Chase is the best ever: on his actual birthday he let me go to a concert with Julia instead of staying and celebrating with him. Julia is now one of his biggest fans ever, because it wasn't just any concert he let me go to. Julia and I had tickets to go see One Direction. Not normally the music I listen to, but Julia might actually be the biggest fan they have that I've ever met. I seriously had such a blast. Julia cried and that was so fun(ny). There was more teenage girls screaming in a room than I ever thought I would experience, but they're actually really entertaining and it was so awesome to see Julia so, so happy. (I have no idea where my pictures from this went. Maybe they're actually on Julia's phone and not mine, but they were good haha)

Before we knew it, it was time for us to leave for Mexico with Chase's family. Before we got all the way to Mexico we stopped in Arizona to meet and spend time with some of his extended family that wasn't going to Mexico with us. I also met most of his siblings for the first time (after a very long 11 hour drive - and I'm pretty sure I was half asleep, oops). I don't think that I have ever met that many people in such a short period of time, but everyone was so welcoming and nice and made me feel so comfortable.

Mexico was a dream vacation. We played volleyball, skim boarded, body surfed, played on the beach, buried Chase's siblings in the sand, rode four wheelers through sand dunes, and played all sorts of board games (I even got roped into singing a song for karaoke). I seriously couldn't have asked for a better vacation to get to know his family. I'm so excited to be a part of it in less than 2 months!!

I can't believe how fast this summer has gone, but oh my gosh it's flown. I feel so blessed and seriously feel like I've been living in a dream. In fact, here's something I wrote in my journal the other day that I think sums up how I'm feeling pretty well:

Essentially this has by far been the craziest and probably the best month of my life thus far. I've tried a lot of new things, met a lot of new people, gone to a couple new places, spent time with the people I love most, been to some of my favorite places, done some of my favorite things, and fallen further in love every day. What more could I ask for?

Sending Birthday Wishes...

to one of the best people I have ever known.
to the woman who taught me the value of an education.

to the one who taught me to love reading.
to the most well-traveled person I have ever met.
to the best traveling buddy I've ever had.
to the lady who wasn't embarrassed to slide down the red rocks with me when I was afraid to go by myself.

to the one who taught me I'm only allowed to pick one wildflower for every six I see - to appreciate the beauty of nature around me and how important it is to make sure it can stay that way.

to the one who would have tea parties with me at the kid's table during Thanksgiving dinner.
to the woman who helped begin my love of the beach.
to the best person I've ever shared a birthday party with.
to the lady who taught us to just jump in the water and worry about being cold later - because she knew we'd have fun anyway.

to the one who always said, "You be the good one."
to the best bedtime story teller ever.
to the woman I still look up to almost daily.

I love you grandma and miss you every day. Thanks for watching over all of us. Wish you could be here to celebrate with me this year again!  

Birthdays, Triathlons, and ER/Urgent Care Visits

Yesterday, I turned 20 years old. I can't believe how fast time flies. To celebrate I thought I'd try to cross something off my bucket list - doing a triathlon. Luckily, one of my teammates and best friends told me about one that was the morning of my birthday that her husband was doing and she said I could borrow everything from her that I would need. Couldn't be more perfect right?


So... at 6:45 I left my apartment and met Shelby and Andrew at their house and we set on our way. The triathlon was being run backwards so we started with a 5k run (followed by a 12 mile bike and a 500 meeter swim). I felt great and actually ran pretty fast. The biking part was what I was most nervous for... I haven't ever been in a bike race and couldn't tell you the last time I tried to bike faster than a leisurely pace. After about a mile in I found a rhythm. 


At mile 2 there was a big dip in the road right before a decent sized intersection. As I came out of the dip and looked up I saw a car out of my peripheral vision. I realized 3 things all in a split second:

      1. I couldn't brake fast enough to get out of the way

      2. I couldn't speed up enough to get out of the way either

      3. I was going to get hit by a car

I can honestly say I've never been that scared in my life.

The car was slowing down and was going about 20-25 MPH as it hit me. The bike slid out from under me and I hit the ground - don't worry... I was wearing a helmet. I took most of the impact on my hip and shoulder. After being loaded into the ambulance (check that off the bucket list too) getting checked out, and turning down some morphine, I was urged to go to the ER to make sure I didn't have any broken bones, cracked ribs or other serious injuries.

The neck brace was just a precaution, I promise...

We got to the ER and were taken to the back right away, where the doctor checked everything out. Diagnosis: no broken bones or back/neck injuries, lots of road rash and bruising that will feel worse over the next couple days.

Sorry for showing so much skin... But here are the scrapes up to my shoulder

The hospital found out it was my birthday and gave me a basket full of candy

As we were eating after I got discharged from the hospital my roommate Shawna called saying she needed a ride to the doctor's office because she felt like crap. We ended up spending two hours there for her to get diagnosed with strep and get the antibiotics that she needed. 

We've spent the weekend in the apartment trying to let our bodies heal themselves and being taken care of by our awesome friends.

There are a couple things I'm extremely grateful for after this weekend:

• Awesome friends who are actually more like family
• A miraculous body that will heal itself
• Memorable birthdays
• Neighbors who stop by and bring me some of my favorite things
• People who love and worry about me
• The fact that I didn't get seriously injured (still trying to figure out how that happened)
• The Priesthood and the comfort it has given me
• Family members that are worthy Priesthood holders and are willing to give me blessings
• Neosporin, Advil, and medicine in general
• Otter pops

Here's to starting my 20's off with a bang...