The best recipe for happiness? A little chatter box.

Tessa is doing this new thing where she'll carry on a conversation with anyone who will listen. And it's awesome. She loves chatting it up with mom and dad but most especially she loves talking to her very special friend Tessa K. who happens to live inside our hallway mirror. They're the best of friends and mom sometimes gets jealous because Tessa saves her biggest smiles and longest conversations for Tessa K.

Pretty darn cute, right?

A quick this and that via my phone.

^Brady trying to explain to me what he does at work through pictures on the side of our fridge. 

Luckily it came off with some bleach! I'm not too sure the landlord would have been thrilled with our drawing of the synapse and patch clamping but we sure liked it! ^

^Apparently, Brady isn't as concerned with Tessa's attire as I am. Green striped shirt with red striped pants and a pair of purple socks to top off the look.

 Still, I'm so lucky to have a husband willing and eager to help!^

^Brady's ingenious solution to keeping Tessa occupied for a good 15 to 20 minutes. She kicks the pole and everything makes noise. Definitely pinterest worthy!^

^We had our first blowout that required a bath the other day. I consider myself very lucky! Tessa was smiles and giggles the entire time. She thought the whole thing was pretty hilarious.^

Love my life!!

Fluffy white stuff.

Doesn't this picture make you want to curl up under a heated blanket and hibernate the rest of the winter? So glad we don't have to trudge through any of this cold, wet stuff this weekend. Hey Utah, sometimes you can be just plain gross. Speaking of gross, Tessa just had a massive blow out. Was planning on writing a longer post today but "doodoo" calls.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Just in case.

I decided to post this just in case some of you haven't seen it. I had been trying for weeks to catch a smile from Tessa on camera and, lucky me, I actually got it on film. For those of you who have seen it, go ahead and watch it again and again. I know I have. Enjoy!

Where's the baby?

A while back I bought Tessa what I thought was an adorable, cozy jacket. I'm not quite sure she agrees with me. What do ya think?

Hopefully you find yourself in better spirits than this today :)

This and that via instagram.

For Christmas Brady and my in-laws got me a new phone. Here's a glimpse of recent events... and in some cases not so recent. Enjoy!

Matilda Kate.

Well everyone today is my niece Matilda's 1st birthday. I can hardly believe it's been a year! It's amazing how fast they grow up. One of the things I think is so cute about Matilda, aside from having my name in hers, is how she ALWAYS has something in her mouth. Brady and I noticed that all of the pictures we took of Matilda at our family's thanksgiving she had something stuffed in there. We thought it was just the funniest thing. Here are just a few of them:

I wish I lived closer to them so I could be around this little beam of light all the time. Her smile will melt your heart. Other than Tessa, Brady just thinks she's the cutest thing in the whole world.

Happy 1st birthday baby Tilda... who sadly isn't so much of a baby anymore. 

Family Trees

I've been thinking a lot about families lately. It's really cool how they just grow and grow. Sometimes I think family trees should be called family weeds instead because they grow so fast but that doesn't sound as nice, does it? 

It's amazing how you can go from two people like this:

To a group like this:

Which eventually turns to this: 

And it's just going to keep getting bigger! Isn't that awesome? Family is such a wonderful thing. I just love this particular family to pieces and they sure love us "newer" members just as much. 

Especially this little one :)

Tessa and the big bad bath.

Hey all! I'm pretty excited for this new year and I've got some great new ideas for the blog. I'm still trying to decide whether I want to share Tessa's birth story or not. Would anyone even be interested in hearing it? Maybe.

I feel like I'm a pretty good mom but yesterday was definitely a mommy fail day or at least for awhile I felt like it was. Luckily, Tessa has forgiven me and we're the best of friends again. Tessa's sleeping schedule has always been a little off. Instead of going down for the night at 10 and sleeping until 5 or 6 she wants to go down at 7:30 on the dot and sleep until 2 or 3. This isn't good for mommy because although mommy would love getting seven to eight hours of sleep during the night, she isn't willing to hit the hay at 7. Our plan is to every couple of days keep her up a little later until eventually we get to our desired bed time.

Last night Tessa was super cranky because she hadn't had a nap all day, thanks one o'clock church, and was ready for bed by 6:30. How in the heck was I supposed to keep that lil' cranky pants up for another hour! I had the brilliant idea to give her a nice warm bath. The water would help relax her AND, bounus!, take up some time. We got her undressed, snapped a couple of naked bum pictures and headed for the tub. Tessa loves baths in the morning so she's sure to love them at night, right? WRONG! Screamed the whole time in the water, the whole time getting dressed, the whole time daddy read to her, and could hardly nurse because she was too mad at mom and her crazy ideas.

The whole thing really upset me. For some silly reason that fiasco made me feel like the worst mom ever. If I was a good mom I would have known that she would hate the bath that night and shame on me for thinking it'd be fun and cute to watch her splash in the water while smiling up at Daddy and I. Isn't it silly how we moms do that to ourselves? I've got to learn not to define my ability as a mother by whether something went perfect with Tessa or not. Odds are I'm going to mess up sometimes and things aren't always going to work out like they do in my head buuut Brady still loves me and so does Tessa. But from now on, baths in the morning in this house.

^^^You think I would have guessed what was to come because of this face.^^^

Sheesh :)