Can I Have a Tookie?

We've Moved... to Wordpress

2010-10-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

So I've decided I'm done with Blogger. The photos never load in the right order, and when they do load, they're still a pain to deal with.

Plus I just like Wordpress a lot because they have a way better dashboard with more useful stats and info about your blog, better looking templates, more features, and more creative control.

And did you know that it's really easy to import all of your posts and comments from your blogger blog over to a wordpress blog?

So that's what I've done. You can now find "Can I Have a Tookie" over at canihaveatookie.wordpress.com. Go ahead and make the change in your feeds. I hope you enjoy the new format. I'll work on getting a family picture up on the header soon.

Goodbye, blogger.

Grumpy at the Park

2010-10-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

Pepper seemed kind of unhappy last weekend (I think it's a combination of bowel problems and teething) so we took her to the park to try to cheer her up and get some fresh air.

She got to wear shoes for the first time too. She has some cute sneakers, but they're still too big for her so she had to wear her black sandals.

We tried swinging first, which she usually loves, and I think she liked it but she didn't show it much. I just think she looks adorable in this hat. (Thanks Misti!)

Also, wow, I didn't think she'd grown that much, but I guess she has! (Compare to these swing pictures from 3 months ago.)

Finally a couple of smiles!

But that was all we got for the rest of the time.

We went down the slide a few times too but we got no reaction from her at all. She preferred to watch the older kids who were playing on the slide next to us.

There wasn't really anything else for a 7-month old to do on the playground so we just chilled out on the sidewalk for the rest of the time.

She found a leaf.

Trying to eat the leaf.

Eventually it was clear that she was done.

My poor baby. She's also had so many poop blowouts the past couple of days, which she usually never has. I soaked all of her laundry in Oxi-Clean overnight and the stains still didn't come out. I will try again with a more concentrated formula.

Feel better soon, Pepper.

Welcome to the World, Ezton

2010-10-23T16:22:00.000-07:00

Last week we went on an unplanned trip to Oak City because Aaron and Amanda's baby was born Saturday morning! He was exactly 6 pounds and 21 inches long. Everything went well with no complications whatsoever and they were able to go home with the baby the next morning.

It's been nearly 8 months since I held a newborn, preemie-sized baby that I was shocked at how much it felt like I was holding... nothing.

Amanda looking great after giving birth as always.

Pepper being smothered by her loving cousins.

Ethany and Cambrie playing dress-up.

For anyone who didn't know, Aaron and Amanda recently purchased a two story super old house out in Lynndyl (near Delta.) It still needs a ton of work but hopefully things will work out and they will be homeowners for a while.

Cambrie, the proud older sister. I am constantly amazed at how smart this girl is.

And here are a bunch of pictures of Nate and Anna's really beautiful kids.

Oh yeah! So the Henderson Bros. were going through the old shed in the back of Aaron's house, which is packed full of old and vintage stuff. I ventured back there to see what they were up to and saw this:

Awesome, right? I had to join in the fun:

I wonder what else they'll find in there. They already uncovered some cool looking dishes and stuff. It's like a treasure trove.

This is back in Oak City. Josh gave Jamin full reign over his bike while he's in Oak City. Here he is practicing tricks.

32 and 33 Weeks Old

2010-10-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to catch up. Here's cute little Pepper's photos from the past 2 weeks.

Some notes:

She is going through a really needy phase. She always has to be clinging to some part of me. When I'm in the kitchen she climbs up my leg, then if I have to move (like from the stove to the sink) she cries and whines until she crawls two steps over and climbs up my leg again.
She is so good at clapping. It's definitely legit now. I'll clap, and she'll copy me.
I've caught her standing by herself a few more times.
When we hold her she likes to pat us on the back.
Her default mood is serious, but when she's happy, she makes this really cute scrunched-face smile and shows all her gums (no teeth yet.) I'll try to get a picture of it sometime.
She thinks Josh's phone is her phone.
We moved her up to size 2 diapers, even though she hasn't really grown. I figure you never know when she'll hit a growth spurt.
She is great at hanging on the pull-up bar. We're constantly amazed at how strong she is.
She has gotten cuddly again. So I guess we can forgive her for being so needy.

A few more pictures:

She would NOT let me get a diaper on her this day. She kept squirming and trying to crawl away so I finally gave in and let her run around naked for a while. She loved it.

Serious face. On the verge of glaring, I think.

Our big-eyed cutie.

Dad's Sweatshirt

2010-10-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

So basically we put Josh's hoodie on Pepper and it was really cute so we took a bunch of pictures.

Here are some other random ones we've taken recently:

Lying in a big, warm pile of laundry:

Blurry but cute:

Amazed by her hands:

Bryce Canyon

2010-10-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry I took so long to post stuff. I was waiting for Josh to fix some of our photos because he always likes for me to wait until he's fixed the photos before I post them, but he kept never getting to them and finally I decided I'm getting too far behind so I've attempted to fix them myself.

The Saturday before last Pepper and I joined Josh on his Geology field trip to the beautiful Bryce Canyon. His teacher was really nice and let me and Pepper ride on the tour bus with the class.

Pepper's first time on a bus.

It was really beautiful.

After the official field trip part, our friend Michael (a professional photographer) and Josh stuck around to take more photos for art purposes. Michael's friend Anthony accompanied us as well.

Here's a group picture:

It started to get chilly later in the evening.

Pepper fell asleep in Anthony's arms.

Some views of Bryce Canyon (completely unedited photos. Josh will make them look better later.)

31 Weeks Old

2010-10-11T16:45:00.000-07:00

I cheated and took her 31 week pictures today instead of last Thursday. I don't think it makes a huge difference because she really doesn't grow very much. She still fits into clothes she was wearing 5 months ago just fine.

Josh wasn't here to help me with the camera and it was on some weird setting I didn't understand, so I just put everything on auto mode and was forced to use the flash for these pictures because I didn't know what else to do. Despite my lack of camera know-how though, Pepper was being so cute that there were way too many pictures to choose from and I just didn't feel like sorting through and picking out my favorites this time. So you're just gonna have to endure the scroll-down of a million Pepper pictures today.

Although she's not growing much in size, she's definitely growing in ability. She shocked us last Thursday by letting go of whatever she was holding on to and standing by herself for a few seconds!

She is great with her hands and can pick up even the smallest of objects from the ground (and promptly put it in her mouth.)

She is so wiggly during diaper changes that the only way you have a chance of getting a diaper on her is to distract her by letting her play with another diaper so she doesn't twist around and try to crawl away.

She loves to clap her hands-- it doesn't make a sound, but she's definitely got the motion down.

She has an obsession with looking up. Every time we pass under the pull-up bar, she stares at it intently. I don't understand why.

Michiru gave me these really cute magnets for my birthday and Pepper loves to play with them while I'm in the kitchen.

She does great in public places and anywhere where there are a lot of new things to look at.

Asian Party at Mich and Brody's

2010-10-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

Josh and I, along with Kiko and Eric, drove up to West Jordan to hang out with Michiru and Brody and enjoy some Asian food. I brought a bunch of chocolate mochi I made that was left over from my mission reunion. I didn't know how much food Michiru was preparing, but it turned out to be a lot! We were all running a little late Friday night so when I got there I still got to help make stuff.

(Good job on the food photography, Josh!)

We had california rolls (with some vegetarian rolls for Kiko)...

TONS of gyoza that Yukiko, Eric, and Josh helped make...

(That's V8 Splash in those cups :)

Michiru made super yummy tonkatsu with sauce...

And Yukiko made her yummy Asian style fluffy strawberry cake. (This photo is blurry because I took it.)

There was more than enough food for everyone and it was so yummy. We just ate until we couldn't anymore.

Here's Brody playing with Pepper. She was having fun, but every time she saw me with the camera she would make a really serious face. (I took these photos too... so the focus is not really "on.")

Classic Seino style, for some reason we took way more pictures of the food than of the people. I'll try to work on that.

Hiroshima Mission Reunion

2010-10-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

I was excited to be able to attend this year's mission reunion. I got to see a lot of people I love and catch up with them a little bit. The Hiroshima mission reunion is never as well attended as other mission reunions because half of the returned missionaries live in Japan, but we still had fun. I thought there would be more people with babies there this year because I know of at least a couple of babies who were born at the same time as Pepper, but none of them came this time. Maybe next year.

It was a really long drive up, and we ended up being an hour late because the rush hour traffic in the Provo/Orem area was sooo bad.

Here I am with my friend Ma-chan (Masae) from the Yasufuruichi ward who helped us out a ton. She is currently attending UVU. I'm also with Sister Matsumoto, who is one of my favorite people ever, and even though we were never companions, she might as well have been because we worked alongside each other so much and did a lot of musical numbers together.

The obligatory silly face picture, of course. It's a Japan thing.

With the amazing sister Yeh. Sister Yeh just barely got back from her second mission in Taiwan. She would keep serving missions forever if she had the money.

The lovely Sister Takeshima (now Sister Tueller.) I was never companions with her either but we were practically sisters in the field. She took over Yasufuruichi after me and saw tons of baptisms there.

She's pregnant with a baby due in April. She gets morning sickness so badly that she has to have an IV in her hand. I definitely feel for her.

Here's the group photo that I hastily got everyone together for because I was in a hurry to get to Michiru and Brody's for dinner. Not badly attended for the third year I think. Josh isn't in this because he took the photo.

Thanks to the Montgomery's for always organizing this event.

30 Weeks Old

2010-10-06T11:31:00.000-07:00

Josh accidentally started deleting Pepper's 30 Week photos, so we don't have the lying down ones anymore. So the only ones that survived were these of her getting up and eating her sign.

She absolutely loves paper. If she is ever being super fussy and is bored of all her toys, we just give her a piece of paper to play with and shred. The mess is worth a few minutes of quiet.

30 weeks feels pretty big. She can crawl around a lot faster, confidently stay standing with only one hand on something, and has better motor skills.

She finally figured out how to play the electric piano-- she used to just try to grab the red lights but now she bangs her hands on the keys.

She might be teething because she cries quite a bit, but it sounds like she's saying "mmmmm! mmmmmm!" When she's really upset, she'll sound like she's rolling her "r"s a lot, a skill that I still haven't learned how to do.

She can not take a bottle anymore, not even at all, which worries me because it might make weaning her more difficult, and I can't leave her with anyone else for too long because she doesn't have a way to get milk. Hopefully when the time comes she'll figure out the sippy cup pretty easily.

She loves to bang her hands on everything. She will get excited and slap the table over and over while I'm feeding her, which makes things a little difficult and messy, but it's really cute.

We had a super busy weekend last weekend... so there are tons of pictures to come, hopefully today, if Pepper will let me! Hope everyone enjoyed conference. We didn't catch all of it so we will have to catch up on it later.

Also, Happy Birthday Poppy!

29 Weeks Old

2010-09-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

I really don't think a baby can get any cuter than this. Sorry to be one of those parents. But seriously, if you don't think your own kid is the cutest in the world, there's something wrong.

Some extra photos:
Pepper's new chair. We don't have enough room in our apartment for a high chair, and I've been wanting a hook-on baby chair because it reminds me of when we were kids. This one's great because it folds flat for easy portability.

She loves to eat dad's wallet.

Trying some of my zucchini bread which I've been addicted to lately. Too bad I used the last of our zucchini yesterday. Anyone want to give us some more?

OK so she likes to eat pretty much anything. Now that she can crawl she's been getting into the shoes a lot.

And the car keys, of course.

She's getting a lot stronger and faster at crawling. But she still likes to grab our hands to try and stand. She can give cute, soft high fives. I need to get her more books because she loves it when I read to her, and so far all we have is the Bright and Early Board Books version of Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Seuss. Basically I just want all the Dr. Seuss books because they're the best. Thankfully, she's getting a lot better at keeping herself entertained for longer periods of time. She's a great baby.

Yay We Have a Nice Camera Again!

2010-09-21T17:43:00.000-07:00

Snotty nose.

I ask Josh to watch Pepper and somehow she ends up with my toothbrush and a styled mohawk.

We had a ward social last week that was fun and yummy. Pepper was a big hit.

Pepper's first Cheeto.

Little tiny snot bubble.

28 Weeks Old

2010-09-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

It's so hard not to fall behind. Just a few quick notes on 28 Weeks.

She is getting a little more serious... not as easily amused as before. But she still laughs really cute.
She can crawl around the room now... it's still a little awkward, but she's getting places.
She likes to pull stuff up over her head.
She likes to drum.
She can pull herself up to standing using anything, even a flat wall. Sometimes I will go to get her from her room and she'll be standing up in the crib.
She likes to eat anything.
Her "talking" sounds a lot more like talking. We're thinking about introducing a select few baby signs to communicate with.
She is still cuter than words can express.

Pepper Randomness

2010-09-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

These are just a bunch of pictures and videos of Pepper we've collected over the past month. I wanted to get them up here before they got too outdated.

Mac Baby.

I think this outfit is funny because it makes her look like a purple grape.

Dancing with dad.

This is around when she first started pulling herself up to standing position.

One of her favorite games. She can be more accurate than this but she got a little too excited in this video.

Eating her toes. She's getting really into it.

Bouldering With the Blacks

2010-09-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago our friends the Black's came to visit from Las Vegas to do some bouldering with us (we ate dinner with them when Josh picked me up at the airport the previous week.) They have a little 10-month old named Isabelle so it was fun for Pepper too, to have someone close to her age to play with.

The location we chose was Moes Valley.

It was really pretty but hot.

Pepper fell asleep while playing with a shoelace. Pictured are my new climbing shoes. They have monkeys on them. I got them in kids' size 3.

Ann, who is 7 months pregnant, was a trooper, hanging out on the bouldering pad the whole time. I don't think I could have been that tolerant.

Back at our apartment, the babies learning to play together.

Sunday after church.

We went to the park on Sunday. This is Josh trying to teach Pepper what cold, rushing water is like. She didn't want anything to do with it.

She was absolutely fascinated with the mulch.

"To be, or not to be..."

Our little climber.

Still a little too young to be gentle...

...Pepper was holding her own though.

Kiko and Eric

2010-09-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

Last week Yukiko and Eric drove through Cedar City on their way to Las Vegas for their anniversary trip, so they stopped by for dinner and just to hang out. It's always good to see some family :)

27 Weeks Old

2010-09-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

Please excuse the skiwampus writing on this week's sign. I was trying to write it with one hand while holding a squirming baby in my other arm.

Our girl is officially 6 months old and super energetic. She loves to pull herself up to standing and trying to figure out the mechanics of crawling. She can roll over efficiently in any direction and sit up by herself. I haven't measured her recently but I know she's grown a bit because she's starting to grow out of clothes again. She's much better at playing with her toys now, can play "inai inai baa" (peek-a-boo), sit up really well in a shopping cart or a chair, and is really good at evading food she doesn't want to eat. When she gets really excited, which is frequent, she pumps her arms up and down really fast. She sticks her tongue out all the time. It is long and pointy like Josh's. She hates being left alone in a room.

Nakey Nakey

2010-09-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

We don't have a bathtub in our current apartment so we bathe Pepper in the kitchen sink. Since I used the tub while Pepper and I were in Ohio, I decided to take the opportunity to take some embarrassing bath time pictures to show Pepper's friends when she's sixteen. Also I just couldn't resist how cute she is.

"Duck mouth." Haha.

Food in Ohio

2010-09-08T22:32:00.001-07:00

Anyone who knows our family knows that we love food. A lot. We're that family who always takes pictures at restaurants, and takes pictures of the food. Weird? Maybe. But following in that tradition, here are some pictures of the food I ate on my Ohio trip:

Sweet potato steamed bread made by my mom.

Futomaki and miso soup.

Homemade tsukemono.

Strawberry babaloa (or bavarois as we learned from Kiko's blog :)

Sukiyaki.

Upon my request, squid! With spinach and black sesame. Sooo good.

The spread.

A close-up of the yummy squid. Heaven!

Eggplant strips wrapped in shiso leaves.

At Hatsuho's house in Cleveland.

Butter mochi.

Coconut cookies.

Salad with cheese, apple, and cranberries.

Homemade pizza. This one has chicken, fresh tomatoes, and artichoke hearts. There was another one with fresh tomatoes and fresh basil. Yum.

Chopped up shiso leaves for our tsuyu (for somen and tempura.) That is yuzu salt in the background. Sooo good with tempura.

I know I'm weird for taking this photo, but I love daikon oroshi. I grated it myself, just like old times :)

Tempura.

My place setting.

Somen.

Some Yokohama Harbor cakes from Hisaeko... filled with chestnut cream, it was sooo sooo divinely yummy.

Takoyaki.

Haha I didn't know Hatsuho took a close-up of her portion too (see her blog.) We must be sisters.

Sushi at Akai Hana restaurant.

Japanese food pretty much rocks.

Ohio Trip Part 3 (Columbus Again)

2010-09-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

So basically I was the most spoiled person in the world last week during my trip. I had meals made for me, I had to do hardly any cleaning, there were a ton of people willing to watch Pepper at all times, and I got to do a lot of shopping for myself. I feel so blessed to have such a loving family. Thanks so much guys! Here are the last pictures in my three part series. Enjoy!

Pepper being a dinosaur eater.

The Kasai sisters enjoying cooking together... something that all three of them are excellent at.

Hisaeko artistically arranging everyone's tempura plates.

Eating yummy somen and tempura.

My favorite store, H&M, opening at Easton soon!

Clara dancing in the Gap. At the end, she is saying something like, "where's the feet?"

Clara had fun running through the fountain. It was adorable.

Pepper in a high chair at Akai Hana restaurant.

Clara and Pepper in matching jinbeis that Mommy made. Clara didn't know her own strength sometimes... she definitely loved Pepper.

Baikinman!

This is Hatsuho's hand taking the picture. I think the picture off of her camera made it onto the Cook Family Blog.

Cute cousins.

James and Pepper.

Making takoyaki.

Clara on the plane back to Vegas. She was so good and cute, everyone around us was in love with her. They all told me at the end what a good baby she is. (I thought Yukiko would like the "Mystere" ad in the man's magazine."

Pepper being funny on the plane. I was so lucky to have an empty seat next to me on both flights.

The happy reunion with dad at the Las Vegas airport. They missed each other so much.

After Josh picked us up, we went out to dinner at the Olive Garden with Curtis (Josh's friend from his mission) and his family, who live in Las Vegas.

Another way I was so spoiled last week... so we finally got back to our apartment in Cedar City, and the entire place was super clean (which was NOT the way I left it)! Not only had Josh cleaned everything, he'd done absolutely everything that had been on my mental chore list... fixing things, moving things, rearranging things, getting us a computer desk, etc. I have the best, most thoughtful husband ever! I feel so bad that not only did he get left out of the Ohio fun, he spent his time doing a ton of chores.

I love you Josh!

Ohio Trip Part 2 (Cleveland)

2010-09-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

While Mommy, Poppy, Sato, and Hisaeko spent a couple of days at Niagara Falls, I spent some time with Hatsuho's family in Cleveland. Pepper loved Hatsuho from the start and I think it was a good experience to hang out with "big sister" Clara too. And I completely fell in love with baby James.

This video is of Hatsuho playing with Pepper. Pepper has the most hilarious laugh.

Clara loves to help her mom bake.

Clara and Crickey bff forever.

Pepper and Clara.

Double cuteness in a stroller.

Playing.

Pepper loves Hatsuho.

Ohio Trip Part 1 (Columbus)

2010-09-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

On August 28 I traveled with Pepper on the plane for the first time. We were really lucky and got non-stop flights. It was sad to have to leave Josh for a whole week, but I was also really excited to see my family. Particularly my aunts Sato and Hisaeko from Japan, and Hatsuho's kids Clara and James in Cleveland.

Here we are being picked up at the Columbus airport by my parents. They haven't seen Pepper since March so as you can imagine they were really excited to play with her.

I ate so much yummy food in Ohio, half of my pictures are of food. So I'm going to do a separate post later of just food we ate. Here are some pictures of the yummy sukiyaki we had though.

Sato was absolutely in love with Pepper. The two of them were inseparable. It helped immensely to have so many people willing to watch Pepper all the time.

Three of the five Kasai sisters.

Hisaeko and Sato being cute at Jo-Ann Fabrics. They liked the crafty Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations.

My mom, Sato, and Hisaeko all had a blast at Burlington Coat Factory where they all got clothes for really cheap.

Sato could work some magic... she always got Pepper to fall asleep.

Pepper meeting Crickey for the first time.

Pepper being doted on by her great-aunts.

Since we wanted to have Hisaeko to have the full American experience, we ordered pizza from Papa Johns. They were impressed at how much pizza we could get for a low price. I was impressed with Papa Johns' website for online ordering, it is one of the best I've seen for pizza places.

Cute Pepper in the high chair.

Pepper liked sucking on this plastic drumstick. It looked really funny.

Crickey being really good in the car on the way to Cleveland.

The Videos

2010-08-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

These videos caused me so much grief, I can't even begin to count how many times I tried to upload them. Ugh what a pain.

On another note, I'm flying to Ohio tomorrow morning and I'm very excited, although sad to leave Josh. I'm going to read Mockingjay (Yukiko got me the 2nd and 3rd Hunger Games books for my birthday; thanks Kiko!) on the plane, which I'm also very excited about. I hope Pepper behaves. So this is probably my last post for the month. I can't believe by the time I come back to Cedar City Pepper will be 6 months old!

OK I tried to upload the second video over and over for like 48 hours and for some reason it WILL NOT upload so I've given up on it. So sad. It was of Pepper doing her crazy spitting thing. Hopefully you all will be able to see her soon and just see her doing it in person.

Sad Pepper

2010-08-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

I realized I don't have a lot of photos of Pepper's precious little sad face so I shot a few today. The way she pulls down the corners of her mouth and makes her bottom lip quiver is just so cute. She can be a bit of a drama queen. I think she gets it from her mama.

"Mom, why aren't you doing anything???" OK, OK.

These are really random, but last week I let her play with the little piece of paper that said "24 Weeks." When I turned around to check on her, this is what she looked like:

Haha. I guess that's what happens when you let a baby play with something you wrote on with black washable marker. It went straight into her mouth. She's completely oblivious, of course.

My 26th Birthday

2010-08-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

I really can't believe I'm 26. Up until 25 I still felt like I didn't have to be too grown up yet, that I was still allowed to be trying to figure things out.

Now I'm kinda like, ugh, where are all those books I was gonna write, the businesses I was gonna start, the marathons I was supposed to have run?

But I know I still have all the opportunities in the world. I falsely believed that I was trying to become something, and I'm coming to realization that I'm always just going to be me. Past, present, and future.

Anyway, I think about my life with Josh, and having given birth to Pepper, and my mission, and all the books I've read, and all the things I know how to do, and really, 26 years is what it takes to accomplish all those things. So happy birthday to me :)

My birthday was on Monday, which unfortunately was also the first day of school for Josh. It was also my parents 30th anniversary, which is much more important than my 26th birthday. So I really didn't want anything extravagant. I can say that I didn't do any dishes or laundry all day long. Woohoo!

Despite going to classes and getting organized for the semester, Josh was able to take some time out to go climbing at the gym with me. Here are some pictures of Pepper having a go on the climbing wall. She has quite a grip for a 5 month old!

There were a bunch of other people there so we started a game of add-on with them.

For dinner we went to Costa Vida, one of our favorite places. We had a tres leches cake for dessert. Pepper was really eyeing the cake, so we gave her a tiny taste. She's definitely going to have a sweet tooth like her daddy.

I haven't thought of goals and stuff yet, but off the top of my head...

I want to get in really good shape before my next pregnancy and hopefully beat gestational diabetes. I will try to achieve this via P90X and running.
I'm thinking about going back to school and finishing my degree.
I need to finally get this story that's been in my head forever down on paper.
Try to start contributing to our income, which will probably involve going back into the resume writing business with my old boss, or teaching piano lessons.
Be better about recording things, i.e. have a scripture reading chart.

Thanks for all of your love!

25 Weeks Old

2010-08-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

So I don't know if any of you remember how I got myself a sewing machine with some of our tax return money back in January, but I finally got it out and started sewing stuff. I tried making onesies out of some old shirts I don't wear anymore, and I think it was a success! The onesie Pepper is wearing below is my first prototype. I even made the bias tape out of an old pink shirt, it was such a pain in the butt. It's a little bit too big for her still, but I am pretty excited about it.

Pepper's new thing this week is she loves to do this spitting thing. Hence the drool marks down the front of her outfit. She thinks it's so funny.

She also loves when Josh makes popping noises with his mouth. She freaks out every time.

She is getting really good at using objects to pull herself up to standing position. She likes big toys for this reason.

Basically she is super high-energy, always wanting to walk all over us (literally and figuratively) and always kicking and moving.

Dangit, I had some really cute videos to add to this post but for some reason Blogger and YouTube keep failing to upload them today, and I've been trying all day long. So I'll have to post them later. Grr.

Some Videos

2010-08-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

Pepper Lately

2010-08-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

This is Pepper's new favorite toy... a Smart Water bottle.

Pepper sleeping in her crib. Like mother like daughter, I think.

A cute sitting up picture at 22 weeks.

One of her new tricks: the peace sign.

24 Weeks Old

2010-08-20T10:24:00.001-07:00

Pepper seems to be trying to learn everything at once so every day is pretty exciting.

We actually have some official stats on her this week: she is 12 lbs 5 oz. and 23.5 inches long. So she's gotten a lot bigger since she was born! But she is still a little under the 5th percentile for height and weight. But apparently her height, weight, and head size are perfectly proportional, according to whoever it is that decides what normal is.

Her favorite thing to do is practice walking, which is really cute but back-breaking for us. She usually gets really upset if we put her down to practice crawling. If we try to sit her down, she will keep her legs straight because she wants to stand up so badly. She is always trying to grab your hand or finger to pull herself up to standing.

She is getting so good with her hands. She can now grab and hold things like phones. If she doesn't want to eat anymore of something she will push the spoon away with her hands.

She is a great eater and will eat anything, although you can tell how much she likes it by how widely and frequently she opens her mouth. She likes all fruits and vegetables, even the nasty ones like peas. She especially loves carrots and sweet potatoes. She's really good about opening her mouth for the nasty meats too, although she makes a face as she chews and swallows. She especially hates chicken.

She sleeps through the night pretty consistently now! I can't believe this day has finally come. She will frequently sleep from 10pm to 8am.

She fell off our big bed yesterday... oops. You'd think I'd learn by now not to put her on the bed by herself. But it's so tempting because she takes such long naps on our bed. Don't worry, she's just fine. I need to be more careful though.

She LOVES trees. She loves to be outside and spends most of the time looking up at the leaves. She also likes being in the grass.

Oh yeah, last week her newest trick was pushing against the back of the couch from sitting-down position and standing up by herself. She was very excited to discover this. Basically she is the best little girl ever.

22 Weeks Old

2010-08-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some of Pepper's 22 week pictures from two weeks ago. Sorry I haven't posted in a while... we've been taking care of moving in to our new place and other business that goes along with that, and we just barely got the internet connected yesterday.

I missed her 23 week mark, but I'm working on getting her 24 week pictures up right now so bear with me while I try to catch up!!!

Random Reunion Photos

2010-07-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some random photos I took with my camera while everyone was here this weekend. I tend to capture weird moments, but those are my favorites.

I was asking Cai to show me his super saian powers (Dragon Ball Z, anyone?) but he got distracted by the TV in this one.

This is Misti chopping up the pineapple with her tomahawk.

A lot of the kids got super sunburned. Here is Eli being treated with some kind of home remedy that Anna concocted. Apparently it worked really well.

Lia holding Pepper.

The pineapple went fast. Here is Veronica licking up the juice from the cutting board.

Ian playing with his tractor.

The Henderson brothers having a jam session. In the video they are just singing random words they're making up on the spot at the end of a Jack Johnson song.

Pepper had fun playing the congas.

Summer helping Pepper kick Josh's butt.

Heather making cute little notebooks with the girls.

Random shot of Pepper.

Here Cai is demonstrating his super saian powers. My favorite part of the video is Ian trying to join in.

Cute sisters Heather and Ivy showing me their notebooks.

I love Ivy's face in this picture.

Ian again.

More notebook making

Cambrie climbing the steps.

Dishing up some rice and stew that Anna made.

Pepper on the dining room table.

She loves to suck on hard surfaces.

Henderson Family Reunion!

2010-07-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

As most of you already know, Caleb and Cassandra got to come back to the states for a visit in the middle of their Peace Corps service in Uganda, so everyone took this opportunity to get together and hang out with them. This was pretty much our last chance to see them before they come home around November of 2011. Even Heather and Majed and their kids drove up from Arizona to see them (despite a lot of adversity on the trip.)

This was the first time the entire Henderson clan has been together in the same place since Aaron and Amanda's wed
ding (I think... I wasn't even in the picture yet then.) So of course we had to take some pictures.

The chaos of having so many people in the same living room...

Starting to get situated for the group picture...

Almost there...

Success! This is the complete family, minus Mike, Billy, Kiysa, and Bubba. Pretty good.

And for fun, here's one of just Marti and her eight kids.

Lots more pictures to come, when I have time!!!

21 Weeks Old

2010-07-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

I can't believe our baby is 21 already! (nyuk nyuk nyuk.)

She's been a little bit more fussy this week, I'm not really sure what's going on. I think she's just frustrated because she wants to crawl so badly but still hasn't figured it out.

Pepper and Tako-chan are good friends by now. She loves it when I make Tako-chan sing and dance for her.

(I've been wondering... do you think those two dots on Tako-chan are eyes or nostrils? I can't decide.)

She is a champion eater of baby food. She is so good at opening her mouth wide, chomping down, and swallowing. We're so proud of her.

We've almost completely switched her from 0-3 month clothes to 3-6 month clothes. It's really fun to dress her up in new outfits.

One of her favorite games is sticking her hand in one of our mouths and watching us make a fool of ourselves chomping on it. She does it over and over and watches in fascination.

She loves people-watching and does really well in a noisy room full of people... which is pretty much how it was all weekend! She especially likes to watch people's mouths as they talk. Also loves watching other little kids.

She is such an angel when she's sleeping. Aww.

She always grabs the spoon with her hand when I'm feeding her, so I usually let her hold it and suck on it for a while after each feeding. She's really good at putting it in her mouth.

Josh loves Pepper.

20 Weeks Old

2010-07-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry about the lack of video in the previous post. I tried uploading it at least 6 times, which took like 6 hours each time, and Google wouldn't let me upload it. I have no idea why. But I'm trying a different approach now (uploading to YouTube first, then embedding it on the blog) so check back on the "rolling over" post later because I haven't given up on that video. It's really cute.

Update: video has been posted!

Pepper is definitely not an "infant" anymore. She's a "baby." She has really good control of her head and hands and legs. She'll grab anything and stick it into her mouth. I think she likes to see how many fingers she can fit in her mouth at one time.

These pictures are from when I went to the park with Amanda and Cambrie and Ian. It was Pepper's second time on this swing. The last time she was on it she could hardly see over the rim. She's gotten a lot bigger. She gets really calm when she swings. But you can tell she likes it because every once in a while you'll see a little smile.

One of the bigger events to report this week is that she's started eating baby food. She didn't really like the mashed food very much, but Misti gave us some boxes of Gerber baby cereal and Pepper loves that stuff. She's gotten really good at opening her mouth and sucking everything off of the spoon. It is so cute. I've realized that we don't have enough bibs. Like, at all.

Her rolling over and scooting around is another milestone, I think. She's been rolling over randomly for a while now but now you can tell she does it deliberately. And she's gotten a lot faster at it. I think she'll be crawling really soon because she can get up into crawling position, on her hands and knees. She just needs to work out some kinks in her coordination.

Everything she does is so adorable. She has huge eyes, a huge mouth (especially when she smiles), a double chin, big fat rolls on her thighs, and a mohawk. I've never seen a cuter baby in my life.

Rolling Over

2010-07-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

Finally got it on video.

She is progressing so quickly I can't even keep up with her. Minutes after this video was taken she got tired of rolling over and decided to start scooting around the bed instead. She kept going for a while and we had to keep repositioning her so she wouldn't fall off. I think she'll be crawling really soon... she knows how to get up on her hands and knees and everything.

That was yesterday. Just barely, as I was working on this blog post, she was on the bed next to me under the blanket. I thought she was sleeping because she was quiet but nope... she was slowly scooting toward the edge of the bed under the blanket and she fell down the crack between the bed and the wall. I didn't even know she fell until she started screaming. Luckily our bed is not that high and she didn't get any scratches or bruises.

I'm kinda sad that she's growing up so fast.

Vegetables and Other Stuff

2010-07-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

We've started feeding Pepper a little bit of food. Here are some of our first attempts on video.

Carrots:

Potatoes:

So the lighting in our room isn't the greatest and neither is my 4-year-old point-and-shoot camera so it's always a bit of challenge figuring out the settings for the best photo.

This picture was taken with the "food" setting, haha.

This is probably the best setting, if Pepper stays really still. In my dreams.

Such a cutie!

I shot one of Cambrie too, since we were babysitting her and she was being really good and cute.

This video is to show her crawling progress. She kinda got nervous in front of the camera though.

19 Weeks Old

2010-07-16T11:25:00.000-07:00

We finally measured Pepper again... she's at 22 inches now! That's four inches more than at birth. I'm sure she weighs a lot more too now but the scale here is currently running out of batteries or something... the other day it told me I was about 60 pounds, haha.

She seems very determined to start crawling. She works really hard to move her limbs around and can get her legs under her and everything but she doesn't quite have the coordination yet. You can tell that she knows exactly what she's trying to do because she'll watch the other kids crawling for a while, then try to copy what they're doing.

As I'm typing this it seems like she's made even more progress already. I set her down on the bed and she's trying really hard to crawl again, and she has successfully scooted forward a couple of feet already! I think she's just barely realized how to push herself forward with her legs. Go Pepper!

We haven't started the baby food yet but we do give her tiny bites of random food and she seems to enjoy it a lot.

She can't sit super solidly yet, but she can sit well enough that I can put her on the counter or the table within close distance while I do paperwork or something.

More good news: she's started sleeping 8 hours straight some nights. Yay! This is the first time in 4 months I've been able to sleep that long all at once. It feels so good.

She is so happy and talkative and funny. We couldn't have a more perfect baby.

I don't know what it is about putting multi-legged sea creatures on your head that creates so much joy, but it always does. (*Hatsuho and Chris ;)

I Like Feet

2010-07-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some videos of Pepper and her foot-grabbing, toe-sucking, talkative madness.

18 Weeks Old

2010-07-09T13:52:00.001-07:00

Pepper has grown a ton from last week to this week. Her hand-eye coordination and strength is incredible. She can sit by herself for much longer periods of time now and can get her legs under her in crawling position. When we assist-walk her, she takes deliberate steps.

She loves to make sucking motions with her mouth all the time. She sucks on her upper lip, lower lip, and tongue. This is why she looks like she's making funny faces in some of the pictures.

She can play more and more games and her smile and laugh are as cute as ever.

She is learning the misery of having a stuffy nose. She hates it when I use the sucker thing to suck out her boogers.

She has these super mischievous looks and it makes me wonder what her personality will be like.

4th of July Stuff (On the 3rd)

2010-07-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

We participated in the Delta city 4th of July celebrations which started out with a parade down Main Street. We watched with our friends the Melville's and saw tons of people we knew (well, mostly that Josh knew.)

Pepper had a fun time playing with her dad.

Amanda, me, and Jentry with our babies.

After the parade we went to a concert in the park. Almost all of the musical numbers were really terrible, but again we met up with a lot of people we knew so it was fun to visit.

These kids were actually really talented. They're called "Dyer (?) Highway" and they're siblings. The oldest kid (in the middle) was the oldest at 17. I didn't catch their best moment but trust me, they were great.

Afterward we visited the Hahn residence and Daniel & Ashley and Lars & Alyssha came with their kids and we had fun hanging out. Then I got super hungry cuz I hadn't eaten all day so we went to the Jenson's residence and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in their backyard. (More pictures from that here :))

Daniel and his son, Atreyu.

Ashley getting her roast on.

Baby Rion.

Josh and Pepper having a moment.

Alyssha with a yummy s'more.

Lars getting his roast on.

Kollette playing in the dirt pile that kept her entertained all evening.

Daniel's hot-dog-with-string-cheese-in-the-middle creation.

Alyssha and her baby.

Ash and her baby. (Both boys are 8 months old.)

Josh and his baby :)

Chatting with Lars' dad.

Happy 4th everyone, and happy birthday to Neeko!

17 Weeks Old

2010-07-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

Time flies for sure when you have a baby. I think this week's biggest development is her strength. She seems pretty determined to start crawling soon and can hold herself up in different positions for increasingly longer lengths of time.

She is also getting really good with her hands and can grab any object in front of her and put it in her mouth. Some of her new favorite toys are diapers and spoons, and she loves to stare at herself in the mirror.

She is pretty needy... she starts fussing every time we leave her alone but as soon as we come back she gets these huge grins on her face.

She really likes music. She likes listening to Josh play the guitar and stays calm when I sing to her. Her favorite songs are the ABC song and "Zou-san."

As you can see from the unsnapped buttons in some of these photos, she is starting to grow out of her 0-3 month old onesies. She is really starting to pork out :)

If you look closely, she also has little scabs on her nose and forehead. She just won't stop scratching her face. The good thing is, I can now get through trimming about 7 of her 10 fingers before she starts getting upset with me. Huge improvement.

Standing with her cousin, Ryann.

Per Yukiko's request, here are some videos of Pepper I took throughout the day.

She is so cute whenever she wakes up, but I can never get the full cuteness on camera because as soon as she sees the camera she gets really serious and stops smiling.

This is me playing one of her favorite games. Finally, I got her laughing in a video because her cousin Jamin took the video for me!

Bassinet and Guitar

2010-06-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

This is Pepper holding herself up by chomping on the side of the bassinet.

Josh playing the guitar with Pepper.

He accidentally got his finger hammered at work.

More From Marti's Camera

2010-06-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

I saw that Marti had these pictures on her camera so I had to steal them. These are from a random fun night we had last week with tons of family.

The dads with their babies.

Pizza and root beer floats.

Playing Twister, one of Cai's birthday presents.

Looks pretty tame at first...

Ian helping me spin.

Battle of the twins.

And this is unrelated, but this is what Marti's house is looking like on the outside these days. The outside has been redone and repainted. Finally, the original house and the add-on are the same color. It's making progress!

(here's what it used to look like:)

Extras

2010-06-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures that Ethany took last week while I wasn't looking. I think some of them are pretty good.

We're living in an unfinished basement room at Josh's mom's place in Oak City for the summer so Josh can work for his brother Nate.

This is Josh's latest painting

She's a pretty good photographer for a 6-year-old, don't you think?

The Octopus

2010-06-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post these videos with the last post. Here Pepper is demonstrating her mad upper-lip-sucking skills.

16 Weeks Old

2010-06-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the following pictures, Pepper is continuing to develop her cute and funny personality, as well as her appetite.

This one just might be my new favorite photo.

She is pooping in this picture.

I think she is starting to learn how to manipulate us. She fake-cries a lot and stops as soon as we give her attention. She is getting so strong and I can no longer count on her staying in one spot. Her favorite games are when Josh lifts her up and throws her on the bed, and when he flips her repeatedly from her face to her back and says "hi!" each time. She laughs hysterically. Seems like she's got some true Henderson blood in her. She sleeps face down. She likes to stare at herself in the mirror, blow bubbles, and suck on things, most recently her top lip. She's very talkative and loves to have "conversations." We love her a ton.

Pepperoni Pizza

2010-06-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

Josh's First Father's Day

2010-06-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

As you can see from these pictures, Josh and Pepper are best buds. He makes her laugh all the time, it is so cute to watch. For some reason I can't get her to laugh yet, but she laughs for him every time.

For father's day I made a breakfast of French toast, bacon, and strawberries. His present was a new white shirt for church and some Twix bars. They handed out bags of cookies to all the fathers at church.

I always knew Josh would be an excellent father. He's so great with kids; all of the nieces and nephews love the crap out of him. He's so good at loving them unconditionally and helping them find confidence in themselves and is always willing to sacrifice time to help them learn new things and feel needed.

He is always so excited to see Pepper when he comes home from work, and she'll immediately light up when she sees him, even if she was just fussing for me moments before. Someday she'll see me as more than her food. Someday.

I am so grateful for Josh. He's an incredible example to me and I feel so lucky that we get to be such a happy family.

ALSO... Happy Father's Day to my dad, who is one of the most incredible people I know! I love you Poppy!

15 Weeks Old

2010-06-17T18:51:00.001-07:00

I borrowed Marti's camera for Pepper's 15 week pictures today. I have to remember my camera battery charger the next time we go back to Cedar City!

Also, I apologize to anyone who's been trying to reach us for the past couple of days. Both Josh and I forgot our phone chargers up north and our phones are both dead.

Hectic!

Here's our big girl! She is still pretty little though, I think. Since she was being so cute for me today, here are a bunch of bonus pictures:

She is obsessed with chomping on her hands and makes huge slurping sounds. She's also gotten into grabbing her feet all the time. Her hands get in the way of feeding, changing her diaper, everything. She's started doing this thing where when she's eating, she'll suck for a few seconds, then unlatch and look up at me to make sure I'm looking, then suck for a few more seconds, then look up at me again, over and over for as long as I'll let her. It would be really annoying if she wasn't so cute about it. Her appetite has increased a ton the past couple of days... I've gone back to feeding her every 2 hours while she's awake. So basically I have no other life. I am a milk factory. Maybe she'll have a growth spurt soon.

Just for Fun

2010-06-15T16:46:00.000-07:00

Having sold our good camera and our little camera being out of batteries makes it hard to update my blogs.

Luckily we have a Mac, which means: Photo Booth!

14 Weeks Old

2010-06-13T14:09:00.000-07:00

We went up north this week so Josh could get laser eye surgery. It went really well and he's really happy with the results. While we were there, we went to the Hogle Zoo with a bunch of our friends and their babies (pictures coming soon, hopefully) and saw Michiru & Brody and Yukiko. My camera was out of batteries so Yukiko took Pepper's 14 week pictures for me. Here are some of the cute ones:

Walking with auntie Kiko.

This face is amazing.

Chomping on dad's foot.

She loves to grab hair.

14 Week Old Pepper:

I think she's a very visual learner. She loves to stare at screens, pictures, and any surroundings with bright colors or bold shapes or lights. She loves to watch TV for this reason... we're gonna have to be careful not to let her get addicted to TV. I like to show her the Sesame Street characters on her diapers before I put them on her and she seems to like Big Bird the most.
She gets fussy around bedtime almost every night. She seems to like fighting sleep.
Other than that she is really happy and cute all the time.
She is always really good for bathtime.
She likes to practice standing.
She loves to grab hair and her clothes.

Thanks Kiko for the pictures!

Lia's 8th Grade Graduation

2010-06-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

We had fun hanging out with Heather, Majed, Lia, and Eli while we were in Phoenix a few weeks ago. Here are some pictures Josh took of Lia's 8th Grade Graduation (or "high school promotion" I think they called it) at their high school football field. It was fun to cheer for her and reminisce on what middle school was like.

Can you spot Lia above?

This was a really dark picture so I fixed it up on Photoshop... you can tell I did it because it looks terrible. Heh heh.

Yay Lia! We're proud of you.

We love the Alamoudi family.

Kids' Gymnastics

2010-06-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we got to go watch Nate and Anna's kids do their tumbling performance at their gym. Here are some photos we took.

Cale B getting ready... and Cai goofing off.

Roundoff...

Back tuck. My big head got in the way of this shot. Sorry.

Isaac's back tuck.

Cai's turn!

Roundoff...

another roundoff...

one-handed cartwheel.

Ethany.

Roundoff...

back handspring.

Getting ready for the jumps.

Cale's front tuck.

Isaac gets some height.

Little Cai :)

Cai wanting to join in with the girls.

Trampoline time... Cai's pike jump.

Belly flop thing?

Ian and Nate looking like Jesus.

Ethany's pike jump.

Cale B's back tuck.

Isaac's back tuck.

More Tummy Time

2010-06-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

There's not much more to say really, except she's really cute.

13 Weeks Old

2010-06-03T12:28:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow she'll be exactly 3 months old. She's getting so big!

She smiles and laughs all the time, but as soon as I get the camera out she gets really serious. So it's hard to catch her super cute faces.

We sold our Nikon D3000 (so sad) because Josh wants to upgrade to a Nikon D90. But who knows when we'll be able to do that. So in the meantime I have to use my little Casio Exilim I bought on my mission.

Here's a bonus video of Pepper this week. I never know what to say to narrate these things so don't make fun of me.

Pretty in Pink

2010-05-31T12:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos I shot of Pepper being pretty.

11 and 12 Weeks

2010-05-31T12:17:00.001-07:00

She was not happy during her 11 week photo shoot...

She was crying during her 12 week one too, but this one turned out OK:

Sorry about the lack of posts. We've been to Arizona and back to visit Heather and her family, and to help out an elderly lady named Violetta Koszeghy who is trapped in an assisted living home that she hates... also we've been toying with a lot of different options for Josh's schooling... I think we've finally decided that we will still live in Cedar City for now though.

Pepper is doing really well. Her appetite is increasing as well as her size... she's almost 11 pounds and I don't know how long she is now but she is steadily growing out of her clothes.

She is mesmerized by her hands and spends a lot of time staring at them and using one hand to grab the other. She is getting pretty good at grabbing things we put in front of her face. She still loves to eat her hands and scratch her face.

She smiles really consistently now and Josh can make her laugh.

She's getting really strong and will probably be sitting up on her own soon. She can also stand pretty well if we hold her hands.

She has handled long car rides really well.

A Record

2010-05-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Our daughter has been asleep in the swing since approximately 3:00 this afternoon.

It is now 9:41.

Which I believe marks the longest period of time she has ever slept, nighttime or daytime.

And she's still going strong.

I took this opportunity to practice my photography skills. I tried the technique where you follow the moving subject with your camera, so that the subject is in focus and the surroundings are blurred.

She is so cute.

p.s. Don't worry, I just checked to make sure she's breathing. Everything looks good.

10 Weeks Old

2010-05-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't know yet, we have moved to Oak City for the summer. So between moving and other temporary changes in lifestyle, I've let myself fall really really far behind on my blogs. I'm sorry. I'm also sorry that I missed Pepper's 9 week mark.

So here are her 10 week photos. Our little girl has been increasingly fussy this past week, I don't know if it's just a phase or because we're in a new location or what but every time she's not eating, she's screaming and crying. So as you can see, she's not too enthralled about her 10 week photo shoot.

Sometimes, if you catch her in the right moment between screams, it actually looks like she's smiling. Don't let it fool you.

There's not a lot of new things to report about her, other than all the crying. She's definitely more aware... every time I walk into a new room with her, she's immediately looking around and checking everything out. I really really wish we'd had room for her swing in our car to bring to Oak City, but we didn't. I definitely have to grab it next time we're in Cedar. She also getting really good with her hands. She can grab the pacifier out of her mouth and sometimes even put it back in. She's also getting a lot better at sitting up.

She loves being held and bounced and since Josh and I are such pushovers, this means she is getting pretty spoiled. Plus all of her cousins LOVE holding her and kissing her and giving her attention. I figure it's better to be too loved than not loved enough :)

Drue's Birthday Party

2010-05-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

Drue turned one on May 7. The weather was perfect so the party was moved outside. There were so many cute pictures I had a hard time narrowing them down.

I think Hayden made this sign...

I helped Jentry and her mom Julie make this apple-shaped cake. One of Drue's new favorite words is "aaaaaapple!"

Drue with her grandma (and our good friend) Kim.

Happy girl.

Uncle Hayden.

Pepper.

I spent most of the time... yup, breastfeeding.

Jentry is pretty.

Drue was really getting the hang of the paper-ripping thing.

She didn't really know what she was supposed to do with the cake at first.

She figured it out when they gave her a spoon.

Cambrie Turns One

2010-05-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

Cambrie's first birthday was on April 28. We headed over to Aaron and Amanda's for a mini celebration.

Cambrie insisted on wearing her dad's black tank top for the occasion. (It's tied around her neck.)

Cambrie and Pepper.

The cake... Snickers flavor.

She knew exactly what to do with the cake.

Cute little monster. I think she liked it.

8 Weeks Old

2010-04-30T16:22:00.001-07:00

Pepper turned 8 weeks old yesterday. She is so stinkin' cute we can hardly stand it.

She is starting to smile and laugh a lot and definitely seems more aware of what's going on around her.

We have to be pretty creative in getting her to sleep at night... no matter how soundly she seems to be sleeping, as soon as we put her in the crib she's wide awake again.

She loves getting her diaper changed. In fact the changing station seems to be her new favorite location. If only we could leave her to sleep in there... but she's starting to move around way too much to have that be a safe idea.

She doesn't mind baths now.

It's kind of a chore to wipe all the crud out of her chin folds constantly.

She seems to have poop blowouts only when Josh is holding her. Heh heh.

In other news:

Josh finished the semester with good grades, yay!
Josh is doing Japanese lessons with Rosetta Stone and has completely mastered the first lesson. His pronunciation is way good!
We got P90X... our goal this summer is to complete it (both workouts and nutritional plan) so hopefully we will be pretty ripped in a few months.

Happy

2010-04-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

This is an attempt to catch Pepper smiling, which she's been doing a lot of lately.

Random Videos

2010-04-26T15:04:00.001-07:00

These aren't anything too exciting but the first one is of tummy time and the second one is of Pepper in her swing.

She is already pretty tired in this tummy time clip so she's not going to show you anything spectacular here. But aren't the spectacular moments always the ones that are hardest to catch on camera?

This is Pepper in her swing, which is one of the most awesome gifts I've gotten. As soon as I put her in it she calms down every time. Most of the time she'll even fall asleep for a few hours. She loves to look at the lights changing above her and the rotating sea creatures. Thanks Anna!

7 Weeks Old

2010-04-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

I decided to actually dress Pepper up like a little girl for her 7 week photo shoot. Enjoy!

(More pictures if you click the link below)

Pepper

Dress is from Katie Huber, pants are from Felicia Christensen.

7 Week Notes:

Her fingernails grow like crazy and I have to trim them all the time because she keeps scratching her face (you can see some scabs in the pictures.) She hates getting her nails trimmed. Her toenails don't grow at all though.
She loves to look at the light and is always staring at windows.
She loves to be outside. Wind and sunlight don't seem to faze her.

(It's been mentioned to me that Blogger won't let some people post comments on this blog. I fiddled around with the comment moderation, so it might work now. Let me know if it's still problematic.)

Extra Pepper

2010-04-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

Pepper had a few things to say today.

Holy cow, videos take forever to upload!

6 Weeks Old

2010-04-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

(this is Sayaka posting under Josh's account.)

Pepper turned 6 weeks old last Thursday, April 15. She has gained 3 pounds since birth but we and probably a couple of inches but we still need to measure her again.

She loves to kick with her legs against anything, so I frequently find her several feet away from where I originally placed her.

Her smiling is getting more consistent and it's very cute.

She loves to be outside. The wind and sun don't seem to faze her at all.

Her acne has gotten a lot better. Now it's all coming off in a million dry flakes that I wipe off every day.

She loves being held by anybody.

We've moved her up to the next size up of diapers, even though they're still a little too big for her. We just fold them over to make them work.

5 Weeks Old

2010-04-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

Pepper has been growing out of her clothes like crazy. She no longer fits into any of her preemie clothes and most of her newborn clothes. I'm excited because her 0-3 month clothes are so cute. I've been waiting for her to grow into this strangely creepy but cute bunny outfit for a while, so I went on a crazy photo shoot with it. I took about a million of them and narrowed it down to, uh, these 25. Sorry, I know that's still kind of a lot to scroll through. Enjoy!

Pepper has had a bad bout of baby acne this past week, it's kind of sad :( But it's starting to scab over and fall off, so hopefully she'll have clear skin soon.

5 week notes:

she sleeps in her crib in her own room at night now.
she gets bathed once a week and she hates it.
she likes to be in sitting-up position.
she gets happy when Josh plays with her. She's working on her smile.

Some Friends

2010-04-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of some of my friends I met up with while we were up north last week.

This is Steph, my MTC companion, and her 3 month old son, Zachary.

Me and Josh with Steph and her husband Matt. We all watched the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference together at Matt's parents' house. His mom made us pigs in a blanket and chocolate chip cookies.

My old roommates from BYU, Kelsey and Ashley and Ashley's one year old daughter Brooklynn, came to visit me while I was staying at Yukiko and Eric's. Kelsey just got married on the 20th of March.

Here are some random pictures of Pepper being cute sitting on Yukiko and Eric's love sack.