HGTV in Boise

Host Bob Guiney. I thought he was kinda cute:)

A few weeks ago, Levi and I were down at the East End market by our house and we saw a flyer saying that HGTV was filming a show that afternoon at Harris Ranch, which is about a half a mile from us. We thought it would be fun to check out and it was a blast! They were filming a show called 'Showhouse Showdown' which is a show that features two interior designers decorating two showhomes in a brand-new subdivision. We got there just in time to register (you have to sign something that says HGTV can use your image anytime, on any program in the future) and jump into the fray. Heather, Eliza, and I had seen the filming of a tv show before, when 'Extreme Home Makeover' did a house in Middleton. It's so funny to see all of the money, time, retakes, personnel, etc. that go into one little show. Just like with Extreme Home Makeover, they filmed multiple shots of the crowd waving up at the swooping camera and multiple shots of the host addressing the crowd. Did you know they even film both win outcomes? They film each of the designers winning and then edit it according to which one actually won the ballots. Interesting, huh?

Hadley was a good sport in the bright sun and the huge crowd. She is such an angel!

Also there was a local photographer taking free pictures. She was great and I can't believe we get to have these pics for free!

While waiting, I saw this cute home in the process of being built. I love the color, but usually the people who buy the homes in this particular subdivision usually repaint them neutral colors once they move in. Too bad...I really like it!

We saw the first home and it was fabulous. When we first walked in (they were letting groups of ten people in at a time) we had a producer grab us and ask us to pretend they weren't filming while he asked us lots of questions. We had to pretend to say our answers to each other, like, "Wow, I wouldn't have thought to use that kind of curtain, but I really like it." I felt really self-conscious and I also had a bad cold that day, so I doubt they'll use any of the footage, but it was still a neat experience.

Unfortunately, we only saw the first house for two reasons:
1. In typical Boise weather fashion, it was freezing that morning and I wore a sweater and pants, but within no time at all it was 90 degrees. I was roasting!
2. We are bad parents and didn't have a bottle for Hadley, nor did we notice that she had such a wet diaper that it leaked through to her pants. Poor little girl!

The house that we did see was amazing and I can't imagine I would have liked the second house nearly as much. I'm not sure when the episode will be airing, we were told it was the season finale. Hope to see it soon!

Old Farts

Yesterday, Levi, Hadley and I had a nice day bumming around and spending quality time together. I was feeling especially content while strolling around Hastings when the following conversation occured.

Me: (Flipping through Rolling Stone magazine) "Hey Levi! Ken Burns has a new documentary that's going to be on PBS soon. This one is about prohibition."
Levi: "I know! I was listening to something on NPR and they said it's supposed to be great."
Me: "We'll have to remember to watch it, I can't wait."

We are officially the oldest 29 and 31 year olds out there. I may have not been born to party, but I was definitely born to view and critique twelve hour PBS documentaries with my handsome husband.
Watch out!
(In our defense, it really does look awesome!)

Hadley Is Six Months Old!

Holy crap, where did the time go? Our little tiny baby is six months old! Hadley turned six months on the 19th and it's crazy to see how smart and strong she is, becoming a vibrant, independent little person. I know that it's my job as a mother to say things like, "Where did the time go?" but it's true! In just six more months she'll be a year old, walking, starting to talk, keeping us even more on our toes that she already is. I'm enjoying this ride so much, I only wish it went a little slower.
As I mentioned, Hadley has started to fight for her independence. She needs naps, but is not quite on any sort of nap schedule yet. Basically, the only guarantee is that she'll take a catnap in the morning and she'll definitely sleep if we take her for a drive. Other than that, we take what we can get from her. She usually falls asleep around 8:30-9:00pm and wakes at 2:00am and 6:00am for a bottle, and then is up for the day around 7-8:00am. Not too bad!
The phrase, "I'll do it myself!" might be one of the first things she ever says. She loves to grab her bottle from us and dump as much of it over her head as possible. She likes to hold things herself and gets mad if you try to take something away from her. It's so funny to watch and I wonder if she'll have a little redheaded temper in her!

Other fun 6 month factoids:
• Hadley will look for things now, like if we say, "Where's the kitty?" or "Where's Grandma?" she'll sometimes look around until she can find them. It's fascinating to watch.
• She has started to hate loud noises. The vacuum is especially scary, as well as loud crowds. We were purposely loud around her when she was a newborn, hoping to get her used to noise, but that didn't seem to work. This also means she's a light sleeper, so, yes, I'll be the mom whispering at everyone, "The BABY is asleep!" when they walk through the door.
• She has tried several different kinds of foods and has done well with all of them. As long as we don't let her get ahold of the spoon it's not too messy, but if she gets it in her clutches we're in trouble!

• She might have a bit of a sweet tooth, as I found out when Avery, Sevy, and I were at the mall. They were handing out free cookies and while I was holding the cookie, I bent over with Hadley in the front carrier and when I stood back up, she saw that she had shoved her face into the cookie and had devoured as much as she could. She had sprinkles and crumbs everywhere and was saying, "Mmmmmm."
• She has favorite toys like her Fisher Price Chatterphone (Thanks Aunt Barbara and Rylee!)

• Hadley loves sitting in her high chair watching Grandma cook. Those two have a special bond and we are so lucky to have her as Hadley's caregiver. I can't think of anyone better!

We are so lucky to have our little Hadley. Even now, whenever we go out, people stop us and tell us how sweet and cute she is. She is a ray of sunshine in our lives and I can't wait for the upcoming months. She's going to be a wild little girl before we know it! We love you Hadders!

Merging Blogs

I'm going to be moving all the blog entries from Hadley's blog over to this blog, since I've found it's just tricky to keep up the two separate blogs. I'll keep those entries with their original chronological date and now hopefully I can stay a bit more on top of blogging. Yay!
And who couldn't stand a little more of this in their life?!

McCall!

Every year at BN I get new vacation hours in October. What ever is leftover from the "year" before is lost if I don't use it by September 30th and I actually had enough hours left to take off a week in mid-September. I can't remember the last time I had SEVEN WHOLE DAYS off. Pretty exciting stuff. I decided that I didn't want to spend the entire time hanging around the house, but I didn't want to drive all the way to Utah, especially since Hadley barely sleeps in her own crib, let alone a different house, so we settled on a quick getaway to McCall.

Loving that empty beach!
Since it was the weekend after Labor Day, all the room rates were super cheap. We ended up staying at the Super 8 and were pleasantly surprised to find our cheap little room had everything from a TV, to a fridge and microwave. Not bad! Also, the hotel had a hot tub, which I gladly took advantage of. I forgot how much I love hot tubs and I've been thinking how awesome having one at our house would be. It would be mega awesome.
We drove up on Saturday the 10th and hit the beach almost immediately. It was empty for the most part, which was a nice change from Redfish Lake this year, where there was a huge corporate party complete with obnoxious DJ and a bounce house. Ugh.
Hadley let us stay at the beach for an hour or so and then we decided to go back into town to wander around. Hadley loves her stroller and she mostly slept while we took in the scenery. It really is a beautiful place. My only complaint is that, even on an "off" weekend, there are still too many people there. It also has cell phone service, which means I spend way too much time on my awesome new phone and not enough time staring at clouds. In that sense, Stanley, ID and Redfish Lake win those points since there is not a chance in the world you're getting cell phone service there. It's extremely refreshing.

Hadley passed out in her stroller, still clutching her beloved keys.
We were going to go back to the beach that evening, but a weird windstorm kicked up and we got some ice cream from the grocery store and went back to the hotel room. All the news channels were playing September 11th special programs for the ten year anniversary and we got sucked in watching show after show. It's amazing how much stuff I forgot, and yet how real it still is. I know some people were upset at how much time the news was spending rehashing the whole event, but I was glad to watch it and feel all those emotions again. I love hearing people's stories from that day and I hope that Hadley understands what it was like and that we all do a good job honoring those lives that were lost.

The next morning we ate at the infamous Pancake House. Sheesh, that place is great. Levi ordered what appeared to be a shiny, buttery cow pie but turned out to be the biggest, tastiest cinnamon roll.

Don't let the turd-ish color/shape/consistency turn you off. It was delicious!
We also ate at the local burger shack and Hadley got to taste her first french fry. Yummm!

Really the only negatives about the trip were two things:
1. Hadley sleeps HORRIBLY in a pack-and-play crib and we ended up letting her sleep with us in the hotel bed, which wasn't that great either, considering she was waking up about every 30 minutes. My eyes BURNED from tiredness the next day.
2. We had amorous neighbors on both sides of our room and those walls were paper thin. On the one side was an older couple that had much more vitality than they let on when we met them in the hallway earlier that day, and the other side hosted a couple of drunk girls who brought home a guy from the bar. Classy. The best part was one girl yelling at the other girl to go sleep in the car, which the girl actually did. I'd consider that a friendship deal-breaker myself, if you ask me, but these girls were pretty hammered. Sigh. I truly love my nice, boring life with my nice, boring husband :) No drama, whatsoever!

Overall, it was a great weekend and we cannot wait to go again. We're hoping to be able to squeeze a trip to Redfish as well as McCall next year and maybe even a daytrip or two. It was a nice end to a beautiful summer. Can't wait for all the upcoming summers with our little family!

September 12, 2011

Since becoming pregnant with Hadley, I have made some wonderful friends and I'm so excited to have Hadley grow up with these wonderful women and their darling babies. In January, we started our birthing classes at St. Lukes and that's where I met Laci. Laci and her husband Jason were expecting a boy at the end of March. We ended up hitting it off and now Laci and her adorable boy Axel are Hadley's and my favorite friends :)

Laci is beyond fit and she and Jason recently did the Bogus Basin hill climb on their bikes (it's insanely hard) and took little Axel with them. They are so awesome!

I love how his legs are as chunky as Hadley's!

After I had Hadley, I got a flyer in the mail offering a new moms group at St. Lukes. I went that next Thursday and had such a great time talking with a bunch of other women who had had babies within weeks of Hadley. After a couple of months, we figured we had got everything out of the class and decided to form our own group and meet up on the occasional weekend. I love these women. We are all working moms, we enjoy lots of the same things and we all have adorable, sweet babies.

This was our first meet-up in June. All the babies were right around three months.

This meet up was in July and we didn't have as many moms at this one, but still had lots of fun!

This meet up in August was lots of fun with nearly all the moms and babies. They are all around five months here. Can't wait for the next one!

Hadley was surprised at little Hazel sucking on her arm!

Hadley and Anna are NOT happy. (Within a minute they were both fine!)

Soon it will be too chilly to meet a parks, so we'll have to come up with an indoor idea. I still think Boise needs to create some indoor parks. Winter can be so boring!
I am so lucky to have all these wonderful women in my life and Hadley is going to love all her little friends as they all grow up together. How cute they'll all be!

Raising a Hermione.

Ever since I found out that we were having a baby girl, I've been paying attention to the female role models in the media that may have an impact on Hadley. I have to say I'm very disappointed. Walking through the Hastings by our house, I saw a ton of dvd covers for shows featuring skinny, overtly sexy teenage girls starring in shows that spend very little time promoting postive messages at their young crowd. (I'm not saying I want those shows to be sweet and preachy, but it couldn't hurt to feature a real looking girl who weighs more than 100 pounds, isn't decked out in designer clothes, and has important thoughts and opinions that aren't all about makeup and/or sex.) After seeing this, I looked for the shows that featured a strong female character, one that is supposed to be a "tough cookie" and here are some of the covers I found:

Seriously? Heels? C'mon. She HAD to look like a sex kitten?

How about this one with our "strong, independent" female character pressed against the guy, while wearing something I would be embarrased to wear to bed.

...and don't even get me STARTED on these creatures:

Ugh! Where are all my strong ladies at? Comedy has been very kind to women, with people like Mary Tyler Moore, Lucille Ball, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, etc. showing that you can be confident and funny and not have to cave to advertiser's idea of the perfect woman, but where are these woman outside of comedy? I know one place: Harry Potter.
Thank the heavens above for J.K. Rowling. She wrote her female characters with as much strength, intelligence and wit as any of the males. Hermione Granger is one of my top female characters. Loves her family? Check. Wants to do well in school? Check. Can keep up with boys? Check. She's willing to fight evil to the end, but is still human enough to have crushes and have her moments of insecurity and doesn't act hysterical and irrational when faced with heartbreak (ahem, Bella Swan, I'm looking at you.)

Why is it that female characters written nearly 200 years ago, like Elizabeth Bennet, have more backbone and better priorities than most characters of 2011.

Don't let the flowing dresses fool you, these girls knew how to handle their shiz.

So why can't more characters be like Hermione or Elizabeth, and more importantly, how can I raise Hadley to know her self worth isn't based on how she looks in a tight dress or how many boys like her. How can I ensure she's happy being sweet, smart girl without the added pressures of magazine and movie covers?
I guess the answer is that I can never rely on pop culture. I have to show her that the best, strongest females are all around her. Her amazing aunts, her beautiful, smart cousins, her fabulous grandmas. These incredible women are the ones who will show her what it is to be a smart, strong woman. Them, and JK Rowling.
"I’ve got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don’t want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I’d rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny - a thousand things, before ‘thin’. And frankly, I’d rather they didn’t give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls." – J.K. Rowling

Busy, busy.

Since Hadley was born, I've been keeping a separate blog for her, thinking that it would be easier to have printed into a book down the road. Now I realize that by separating the blogs, I get overwhelmed easily and don't blog on either of them for weeks at a time. So, I'm eventually going to stop doing hers and just post everything on this one. In the meantime, be sure to check out hadleyscorner.blogspot.com to see what's happening with the little munchkin! (She's so freakin' awesome, by the way.)

Life in this house has been good, just crazy. I've been busy at work (not because retail business is picking up, it's not, but because we have so few people working now so I spend most of my shift running my butt off.) Next time anyone is at any retail place and the line is a little long, please understand it's because most companies cannot afford lots of employees and long lines are becoming a normal thing. Yucky, but not the end of the world.
Levi has been insanely busy at his job and it's taking a toll on him physically (probably emotionally too, but he's too sweet to let me see him down.) We signed up for some small business classes through the community class program. I'm excited to see if we learn anything. Eventually we would LOVE to have our own business, but the current economy makes that dream a little scary since things open and close so quickly now. We're going to hope for the best and we're going to plan on Hadley being able to come visit us at work and be proud of something her parents made from the ground up.
My mom is going to Utah for the weekend with Heather and her kids. I would have liked to go to, but I learned that traveling with a baby can be hard and I'd rather wait until she's a little bit older. Also, we're going down for Kate and Sydney's baptism in October, so I figured we could wait a few extra weeks, although Laurie and her girls have been dying to see Hadders.
Yesterday Heather watched Hadley while my mom and I got our haircut (at different places.) My mom has a great stylist that only charges $25 a haircut, but she's way out in Meridian and I hate making that drive if I don't have to. So, what do I do? I pay $45 to go to my stylist downtown and I basically walk out with a trim. I HATE paying for haircuts that aren't really cut. Seriously, she trimmed two inches and that's about it. So frustrating. I know you're wondering why I don't go back and either get a refund or get a better cut and the answer is simple: I get embarrassed doing things like that. I don't want to make someone feel bad and I feel like they're going to get in trouble. One day I'll get over that, but in the meantime I'll just pout about my expensive trim. Grrrrrrr.
Hadley has been such a blast these last couple of months. She's got a very funny personality and she is developing a list of likes and dislikes. Too freaking cute.
Well, Hadley is getting bored in her Johnny Jump Up, so hopefully I can update her blog later today or tomorrow.

August 20, 2011

Hadley turned five months old yesterday! She is becoming such a big girl and even sleeps in her big girl crib now!

I swear she actually sleeps in there...sometimes.
The first night that we were going to put Hadley in her crib with the monitor on didn't exactly pan out. We watched a scary movie earlier that night that had a lady listening to her baby monitor and she could hear voices on it...so it spooked us enough that we decided that one more night in the cradle in our room couldn't hurt. This turned out to be a good thing since our monitor is on the same frequency as other monitors in our neighborhood and it's not uncommon to hear voices, doors shutting, etc. on it. It's pretty dang freaky but last night took the cake. We woke up around 2:30am to cries so Levi went her her room and I heard him on the monitor say, "Carly, she's dead asleep." It was so creepy! The baby's cries kept going and we realized that it was probably our neighbor's little boy, who is the same age as Hadley. Even though we solved that mystery, hearing a crying baby in the middle of the night, who is not YOUR baby is unsettling to say the least.
On a lighter note....Hadley is eating "real" food! She can handle a few bites of baby food a day and has actually started to make "Mmmmm" noises when she eats them. Hurray! The price of the food is a little high for my taste, so we're going to make our own food and then start trading food with the other new moms from my St. Lukes group. Hopefully it pans out because I don't want to pay nearly $1 per jar of organic baby food. Sheesh!

Ready for the num nums!
Hadley has also started to recognize people and had her first instance of crying at a stranger. It was so funny! We were downtown and ran into Levi's cousin Jared and his wife Anna. Jared bent down to where I was sitting holding Hadley and said, "Hey there, little cutie!" and Hadley BURST into tears. It was hilarious because there is nobody nicer than Jared, but she just fell apart. I assume it will only get more dramatic as she grows.

Here are Hadley's likes at five months:
• She loves sitting outside in the backyard. If she's ever fussy, we just take her out in the sunshine and she calms right down. She'll probably be like me and crave sunlight and dry heat. She especially looks cute in her little sunhat and sunglasses. I also love the smell of baby Coppertone sunblock on her sweet skin. So far we've been successful in preventing sunburn. Wahoo!
• Hadley loves when we sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider"and do the hand motions with her. Her eyes get big when we sing the "Down came the rain and WASHED the spider out" part. Super cute stuff.
• She is now tracking things, like when the cats walk by her. One of the cats will walk by and you see her realize what she just saw about two seconds after they walk by and she'll do her best to turn her head in that direction to see where they went. I think in about a month she'll be grabbing for their tails, which could be very interesting.
• Hadley still loves going for car and stroller rides. If she's tired or grumpy, we can just throw her in the car and she'll be asleep before we get to the next block. Sometimes she gets so tired she actually keeps herself awake fussing. I know the too-tired-to-sleep feeling and it's nice to know we have an easy fix for her.
• She loves getting up about half an hour before Levi or I are supposed to get up. It's like she knows what time our alarm is set for and she'll wake up just before it, which is crazy and and a habit I hope will change with time.
• She loves all of her aunts and uncles and grandparents. Hadley is so blessed with family who loves her and she'll never know what it's like not to be completely adored.

Hadley's dislikes at month five:
• Being put down. Period.
• Getting out of the bathtub. She'll probably stay in there until she's wrinkled when she's older. My sister's daughter Sydney is the same way.
• Being away from home when it's her bedtime. She is now used to having a bath at the same time every night, followed by pajamas and a big bottle, so being away from home during this time can really mess with her.

Other than that our little angel hardly has any complaints. Hadley is more and more fun with each passing month. I can't believe that in a couple of months she'll be crawling! I don't think I'm ready for that, and our house certainly isn't ready. We need to do some serious childproofing!
Here's a little montage of Hadders at five months old. Enjoy!

August 17, 2011

Hadley has become such a funny little girl! She's enjoying life so much and has found favorite things like her teething toys (she's not teething yet, but she still loves them), her Johnny-Jump-Up and, shockingly, laying on her stomach.
On my mom's birthday, July 28th, Hadley rolled over from her tummy to her back and she has refused to do it since. That's fine with me, it makes me worried to think about her rolling all over the place. Even though she's not rolling she loves to lay on her tummy and look around and kick her legs behind her. It's the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Hadley in her Johnny-Jump-Up. She loves to sit in this, although she hasn't quite figured out how to "jump" yet.

Here are some more things we adore about Hadley:

Her tight-lipped smile...

...and her good smile.

The way she plays with her toys. If the toy has a hard part on it, she'll find a way to slam it against her forehead, stunning her for a minute and then making her really mad.

The way she grabs her feet. She started doing that regularly on August 11th. She can now get her foot to her mouth, which is about the cutest thing ever.

Her bald spots. She has rubbed the hair on the sides of her head off, creating an interesting hair pattern.

THESE THIGHS! Don't you just want to eat them?!

Grandma Katie was in New York with Laurie, Justin, Ryan and Carlie for this past week and Hadley missed her so much. When Grandma came home Hadley just smiled and smiled at her. It was great to have her home. While Grandma Katie was gone, Hadley got to spend some time with Abuelita Maria and the two of them had lots of fun together.

Earlier this month, Hadley also got to take her first trip to Redfish Lake. She was a hit there, with all sorts of people approaching Levi and me and telling us how adorable she was. We had to agree!

I still can't believe little Hadley Finola is almost five months old! Pretty soon she'll be crawling and keeping us on our toes even more! Love that little baby.