Mary's 2nd Birthday

Can't believe it's been two years since I first held this special little girl.  i just love her so much.  Her first year of life was a bit of a doozy for us, but she's developed into the most deep, tender, and still a little concerned little children on the planet.  She's just got these old-soul eyes and these beautiful long eyelashes and the gurgly voice which she used to ask very serious questions- oh so many questions.  She's a little OCD and it's kinda funny.  She loves her sisters a LOT.  She's also pretty independent and likes to do her own thing and doesn't seem to need a lot of approval from us thank you very much.  She's just got her own thing going on.  

This morning I told her it was her birthday and her first response was "cake?!" and I was like, YEAH, special birthday cake! And we made gluten free pumpkin pancakes.  Dyed pink with sprinkles on top.  She thought it was pretty special and knew just what to do with the candles:)  We also refreshed our pink sparkle nail polish and made birthday crowns.  We will be celebrating more this weekend, but I think she felt special today:)

I love my kids

Ugh I just do.  They just charm my socks off without even trying.  Mary was so sweet today with Lucy and kept asking to hug her or hold her.  She went down for her naps like a little angle.  Aking to get "comfy-cozy" under her blanket and smiling off into her little cocoon excitedly as I kissed her cheek goodnight.  What a doll.  She can read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" all by herself.  She puts up with a lot from Holland who for the first time today declared that she would be Minnie while Mary would be Mickey- and so a childhood of playing the prince to Hollands princess begins:)  Oh my goodness those girls.  Lucy is just a sweetheart.  She's very tender and just has a sort of deeper way about her.  You can tell she's taking everything in.  She's just a darling.  She's also getting so big!  She's 7 months now and eating and sitting up and she broke two teeth (Mary didn't break any until she was a year old) and she's just pretty pleasant.  The older girls love her so much.  Mary will ask to have baby Lucy Rock-a-bye her before she goes down for a nap, and then we have to rock-a-bye Mary on the floor near lucy.  It's so funny.  Holland is my darling passionate child.  She is so. excited. about. everything.  Waking up, eating, playing, getting dressed, seeing friends, babysitters, daddy, and on and on.  She loves coloring and loves peanut butter like nothing else.  She's my cuddlebug and I never want her to grow up.  I would love to freeze her right as she is and cuddle with her forever.  I love dancing with them.  I love singing with them.  I love reading to them while they nonchalantly lean into me. They are just a fun bunch.  We are stuck inside for a lot of the winter here and part of me doesn't really mind because I just get to be in their little world all day.  There is something great in living in that little world scheduled around naps and story time and filled with little blocks and pretend food and just cozying up on each other and listening to music all day without a care in the wold beyond doing little people laundry.  Even their laundry is cute.  It's just true.

3 homes and 3 kids later...

Hi Blog,


It's been a long time.  I am sitting in bed while on vacation right now and Evan is sleeping, so I thought I should get back to you.  I had a tumble account for a while, but I mainly used it to collect inspiring quotes and I haven't really used it for a long time now.  I have been told by a few people that I should blog.  Who knows why exactly, but at the very least I am motivated to have a space where our family journal can be recorded and will never get lost and where I can keep all of my favorite memories of my kids in one place.  Instagram was useful for a while for recording memories until I started to have too many things I wanted to post and became self conscious of flooding everyone's feed and also realized I wanted more written content to go along with the images.  And so back to the blog.  Mini update- we have three kids now, moved from dc to Boston to Belmont to our first House in Belmont.  Also, an update on my goals at 25 which I just re-read- I don't bake pastries- in fact I very rarely even eat gluten.  darn.  Big fail on the pastries.  I have NO drapes in my home right now - pottery barn or otherwise! We are STILL trying to get our grownup house moved into and drapes have not happened yet.  I have kind of gotten around voice mil on my phone by having a message that suggests a text instead of a voicemail.  I have painted like one thing in the last year.  I do not play the guitar.  I have three kids and have not cut my hair off (which is helped by the fact that I am too busy with my three kids to get more than two haircuts in a year which rare times have not seemed to have fallen on days after I had an impulse to cut all my hair off. yet.)  All of my close girlfriends who I knew back then are now married, which is fun for us all- 4 wed that summer.  I think I am a good sister because one of mine has been willing to live with me for the past 4 months- yay! And I think I am a good wife because right now I am letting Evan sleep while I am wanting to chat.

25

I am the worst blogger. mainly because I don't think anyone would be interested in reading it and face book is easier to post pictures on. But, I am a big enjoy-er of my friends and family's blogs so I am going to try and change my ways and post more regularly.

Last month, I turned 25. Let's see what I thought life would be like when I first entered college at 17:

By now I was supposed to "have 5 children, married to my High School Crush,  and have a masters in PoliSci."

That was the life plan that did not go as planned. Oh well:)

Instead I am newly married to Evan Fitzpatrick and have friends who have fancy graduate degrees and actually none of my friends have five kids. So I guess it's a mixed bag.

I can say that at 25 I do get to travel and do fun things with a cool guy and that is fun. And here in DC, i get to ride my bike and play tennis and go sailing and stuff like that. And I got 3 skirts on final clearance from Anne Taylor the other day which made me very happy.

So far 25 is great. I still like making plans for the future that may or may not some true. Drives Evan crazy sometimes cause he is in the habit of actually achieving any goal he makes and thinks i will be disappointed. I just like to plan and then get surprised. But I will try to be more realistic:)

So, by 30:

I hope to have some kids
Make a mean chocolate pastry
Have drapes from Pottery Barn (or similar)
Be good at painting
Play at least 5 cool songs on the guitar
Convince Evan to let me paint my walls my favorite color of army green.
Help with/ Attend many weddings (you know who you are!)
Resist all impulses to cut my hair short
Figure out a way to not have a voicemail option on my phone
Be a good sister and friend and wife


We shall see! I am going to work on the Pastries this week, so i will update with details of that adventure!

Since my last post:

Things we have done:

I started a new job at Onsite Health. I am in the finance department at the corporate headquarters. Who knew one day I'd be doing accountant stuff? It's just three blocks away from our apartment which I love.

Evan started his job at BCG. Only two business trips so far, so it's been nice having him around most of the time.

Lots of double dating with Torrey and Justin. Annapolis, Kind street, backyard BBQs etc. Love them.

Trip to Philly with David Trichler to watch the US soccer team play Turkey in their last game before the world cup. They won 2-1. We sat in the crazy fan section with the drums and horns and beer splashing. Very interesting experience.

Trip to PA with BCG for three days. Very fancy hotel, good food. 70's dance party with 200 of Evan's coworkers. Very cool costumes. And bunch of bigwigs in green polyester. Nice.

Lot's of walks in Arlington cemetery. It's nearby so on Sundays we bike over and walk for an hour or two. Beautiful, nice, peaceful place to be.

I started reading Eat, Pray, Love and Evan has read a lot more than me but the last one he finished was Romney's "No Apology"

Evan surprised me with a subscription to "O" magazine. I love him and I love Oprah.

Bike rides into the district. Last one was to the American History Museum. I love DC.

Our pool opened on our rooftop. Lots of laying out and reading up there. I love the sun and have my Thailand tan back.

Lots of great restaurants. My fave dinner place was on U street. I forgot the name but it's right across from Ben's Chili Bowl. Another fav is biking to the corner bakery for breakfast and having the cinnamon rolls. Yummy.

Went to Eastern Market for the first time with Nikki.

Spent a Saturday with my cousin Steph who recently moved out here at the Library of Congress.

We got called to be nursery leaders. Gives church a whole new meaning.

I (recently) started running every day. Have usually hated running and avoided it at all costs, but running on a treadmill in an air conditioned room while listening to Jack Johnson makes it a lot more bearable.

Started a little garden with David in Torrey's backyard.

Got a wonderful assistant at work. He is a BYU sophomore working here for the summer. Nice kid.

We purchased a Gliding Bench (or whatever it's called) for our balcony. Enjoy spending a lot of time on that reading, eating, and watching sunsets.

We are in the last season of West Wing. Life as we know it will soon be over. What will happen next?




Five things I want to do in June:

Go to a Bikram Yoga class together (right now Evan does yoga with me every Sunday, but I think Bikram would be more intense)

Learn to cook one more kind of meal to add to our regular menu.

Get some more plants for our house.

Have Torrey and Justin over.

Play more tennis.

us in San Fransisco

we are really lucky to have a tennis court right by our apartment.

Madeleine Albright

On Monday, Evan and I had the wonderful opportunity to hear from Mrs. Albright. It was fantastic. what happened was that we were thinking that, while we are still on vacation (Evan doesn't start work for another two weeks), we should take advantage of some of the cool things about DC. One of the things we decided to do was try to get into some cool university lectures. Both Evan and I loved attending these at BYU, and I miss university life sometimes- all those great minds surrounding you etc. So we asked our friend David (who is in the Georgetown Masters of Foreign Service program) if he knew of any cool lectures going on and if we could get in to any of them.

Turned out David's boss Madeleine Albright happened to be speaking this week and he got us awesome front row seats. With our names on them and everything. I mention this part because I am always the one NOT sitting in the special seats.

I. LOVED. IT. We metro-ed over to Roslyn on the blue line (which is just one block from us) and then took the free shuttle bus to campus. The event was held here in Gaston Hall. Which was so pretty. I LOVE old buildings. I secretly wish I had grown up as one of the student characters from Dead Poet's Society.


The speech she gave was mostly about her new book titled "Read My Pins" containing her personal antidotes of her experiences as Secretary of State. Really great 20 minute talk. Then a 40 minute question/answer session that was equally enjoyable. I really love her. She makes me want to be more informed about international relations. To that end, we purchased one of her books called "Memo to the President Elect" which I am learning a lot from. I love the way she writes- at least in this book, she is very conversational. I am not the best reader, but this book, while very informative, is easy to follow. Great Day!

I want this whole thing. Except the dogs.

When I saw this picture in some online home design magazine somewhere I fell in LOVE. I want to be them. I don't really want dogs right now. But maybe I will change my mind. I LOVE the movie Marley and Me. Except it made me want an actual dog even less than I already did. But anyway- I love this picture.

Evan's Hair

I love Evan's hair. It's got this cute little wave thing going on. Pictures of him from when he's a little kid are funny because he didn't like his curly hair, so he would like PASTE is down to his head (PASTED DOWN BOWLCUT) to straiten it. He had a fro thing in High School. When we started dating, I started cutting his hair for him. This is something I like to do. In fact I had aspirations for hair school but my dad wouldn't let me. so I just cut my friends' and families' hair. Anyway- I learned to cut hair by going to the salon down the street when we lived in Holland and just watching. With his hair, I cut it on a sharp angle. This allows him to have a wavy longer hair cut instead of a supper curly one or a buzz. Another nice thing about his hair is that, since it's wavy, everything blends pretty well which means he never looks like he has a choppy haircut (unlike me at the moment who has to curl it everyday to hide the haircut-sad). I cut his hair two days before we got married. And took pictures.

Before

During

After

I love both of these things

This past month has been crazy. I:
Celebrated Christmas in NM
Visited Evan Hometown of Philly
Hung out with Rachel While I was there
Got to see BEN FRANKLIN'S grave (I love him)
Went back to DC to sign a lease on an apartment
FOUND an awesome apartment
It's brand new one block away from Pentagon City metro stop
I love it and can't wait to decorate it
Stayed with my favorite girl Nikki
Did Bikrem (steam room) Yoga with her for the week
Fell in love with it and now need Evan to be rich so I can afford it one day
Saw "It's Complicated" with Nikki and loved it
Had lunch at the lovely Nordstrom bistro in Arlington with the lovely Torrey
Got my wedding dress from JCrew that I like lots (my fav color to wear- light gray!)
Got Evan's suit and had it fitted- looks fab
Cut Evan's hair twice
Did a ton of chemical peeling stuff to my face- I think I suffer from a placebo effect
Wedding Planning
Survived Ev being gone in SanFran for a week for Kiva (his work)
Saw my mission President and his lovely Wife (they visited me in NM today)

And then today I found this exciting cover. I love Architectural Digest and I love Jennifer Aniston. I am going to buy it because Evan won't let me read the rag mags anymore and plus I feel more classy having people see me reading this magazine. I will let you know how it goes...

Thanksgiving/DC Trip

The last two weeks have been so jam packed! Thanksgiving was great! We:

-Spent it with my family who all came out to Pleasant grove at Eric and Nat's house

-Ate a lot of food

-tried on Mom's wedding dress and Oma's head piece(for me to wear when we get married)- loved it all!

-Had our announcement shots taken at Sundance by my awesome photographer uncle, Brian Mealey (http://www.brianmealeyphotography.com/). I get the prints this weekend! YAY

-Went Rock Climbing at the Quarry with the whole family- very fun!

-Watched the BYU/U game- very exciting/nerve racking

-Went to a performance of Handel's Messiah at Abravenel Hall in SLC

Dad and Me

I belayed Evan

Evan on the Wall

Then, last weekend, we were in DC where we:

-Met his Mom and Sister (very nice, smarter than I am types)

-Stayed with our friends Torrey and David who conveniently live four doors down from one another

-Hung out in his awesome hotel suit at the Hotel Monaco in DC (very neat hotel- kinda funky/lux- loved it http://www.monaco-dc.com/index.html )

-Forgot the memory card to my camera so we got zero pictures

-Went to a Wizards/Raptors game in his company's box and met some very interesting/cool people

-Went apartment hunting in Bethesda and found some great places right near BCG and the metro and several yoga studios (yay!)

-Went to dinner with BCGers at Zengo- a cool Asian fusion food place

-Went to lunch with nikki at a French bistro on the hill and got a tour from her (ie we had chatty time on the house floor)

-Went to delightful dessert place called Buzz ( http://www.buzzonslaters.com/ ) with David and ate little pies (one chocolate orange and one lemon cream)

-Went to lunch with Nikki and David at this great Belgian bakery on Capitol hill called Le Pain Quotidien ( http://www.lepainquotidien.com/ ) which was my favorite part of the trip

-Got snowed on terribly by a freak snow storm on Saturday

-Went to church with Torrey and David and Evan's mom Mary-Louise

-Flew back to SLC just in time (ie we arrived after the opening prayer) for the LDS Christmas devotional

-Cried during President Monson's airport story (just me, not Evan)

-Saw the lights on Temple square. And froze (just me, not Evan)

Denver!

Last week Evan and I took a trip to Denver. I had always dreamed of moving there and so I am really glad we got to make a trip out. We stayed at Becca and Justin's place. I got to play with his adorable nephews Riley and Jace, go to Riley's 1st grade Thanksgiving play, take little Jacey to the park, go to Main street in downtown Fort Collins, the REI flagship store (where I bought a camelpak/backpack for only $25!), the museum of natural history, explore downtown Denver, and eat a lot of food. A lot. Evan got to watch Little Women for the first time and he was very distraught over the whole Lauri/Joe/Professor Behr saga. It was so nice of Justin and Becca to let us crash at their place! I love his family.

YAY! We're Legit! (Sorta)

So Last night Evan proposed. It was up at Sundance where we met and it was lovely. Later that night we came back to my place and watched 'The Proposal' with Sandra Bullock. We really liked it. Go rent it from yoour local redbox. Then we took this picture and I went to bed.

zions

A month ago I went on this amazing weekend camping trip with Evan. We drvoe down to zions on friday morning, set up camp at tis sweet trailer park and hiked both angels landing and the narrows. While we were there we cooked grilled cheese, sauseges, oatmeal and smores. It was fun. Then saturday we drove back.

Driving Down:

View from top of Angels Landing:

At the awesome trailer park filling up:

At the top of Angels Landing:

"Camp Site"

Cool bus tour:

Hiking the Narrows- cold!

Dry land!

GO SOMETIME

Interiors I love