6 months

How did this scrumptious little dessert get to be 6 months old?

I can't believe it.

At her appointment she weighed in at 13 lbs 15 oz.

She is a small fry.

Quincy Tate, we love you so!

She can sit up

 roll from front to back

 roll back to front

she reaches

recognizes her name

LOVES food

talks all day long

has no teeth

smiles so big

has the cutest dimples

giggles

LOVES her brother and sister

and is trying to crawl.

sister wives

Tyson went to Chicago a month ago. I was bored at home by myself, so I watched Sister Wives on Netflix. 

I realized that the reason I loved HB, besides the beach being less than a mile away, the sun shining all day every day, the weather absolutely ga-gorgeous, and family being really close, I LOVED where we lived.

We lived in an apartment, where all of my neighbors were (mostly) mormon and in our ward.

I would run in the morning (by myself) while my neighbor would watch my kids, and then I would watch hers while she ran.

Tyson and I would have date night next door with our friends and never spent money except to rent a movie or buy stuff for root beer floats... but if we wanted to go out, we would ask our neighbors to "watch our monitor" while we were gone. It was like our kids were just in another room of their house we lived so close. 

We always had community dinners downstairs with all our neighbors. 

As I watched Sister Wives, I realized that I HAVE sister wives (without sharing the husband)...

I had my friends that lived so close to me that we could share food, fun, and time off from our kids.

So, moving to Salem was hard, because I left my sister wives, family, and the best weather ever.

Well, just yesterday, I found a package on my doorstep.

I got excited when I saw this...

I got really excited when I saw this...

I about peed my pants when I saw this...

And I passed out when I unwrapped all these...

And I cried when I read this...

Only my sister wives would know how LONG and how MUCH I have wanted these berry baskets.

Thanks SWs.

I love you guys!

It was a perfect surprise.

impromptu movie theater

So it all started at dinner.

I was feeding Quincy, and she was DONE, but there were still two good sized spoonfuls left. I didn't want to waste the baby food, so I told Merrick and Berkleigh, "If you eat these spoonfuls of baby food, I will buy you a candy bar."

And they did it... squash and rice cereal.
yum.

So we headed to the store to get some candy bars.
(We shared.)

On our way home, the clouds moved in, the thunder roared and the lightning flashed, and my brain started coming up with a plan...

We set up the air mattress, turned on our movie, and enjoyed a family movie night, all cozy on the air mattress with the rain pouring down outside.

Perfect night.

exploring

We have been doing a lot of exploring the past couple of weeks with the weather so nice. 

(BTW, it is raining again...)

We had a really fun evening walking around downtown Salem. 

So many cute little boutiques, fun restaurants, and I love that downtown has all the old building that have been remodeled and now house new unique little stores.

We had fun walking around in the sunshine and peeking in the different stores.

The city has all these purple squares in the sidewalks. Tyson asked a patient who is a Salem historian, and found out there are tunnels under Salem. The purple stones let the light into the underground tunnels. Who knew?

Cute little cupcakery that reminded us of Southern California, and when talking to the owner, found out she was from Southern California. 

So many unique alley ways...

 The cute buildings turned shops and restaurants...

Yummy gelato.

Old Vacuum shop, with this random HUGE grasshopper sculpture on the side of the building.

Learning to love our special little town.

dimples

really?

3/5th of our family have them.

And I can't get enough of them on these "slightly" chubby cheeks!

And can Berkleigh be any cuter with Quincy.

I love the look on Quincy's face...Utter excitement that her sister is giving her so much attention.

And now I can cross blogging off my to do list for the day, and get back to the next CRAZY time consuming project I started...

Why do I do this to myself? :)

Birthday week

So I have a couple of friends that do "birthday weeks" and a couple of friends that do "birthday months"... I think Tyson would KILL me if I did "birthday months"... but anyways,

I decided to try "birthday week" for my upcoming birthday.

It started last SATURDAY with a Mother's Day GNO with my girlies in Oregon, but they surprised me and turned it into a PAR-TAY!

We went to downtown Salem and went in all the cute little boutiques we never go in when we are carting around... get this...13 kids between the 4 of us. yikes!

I got myself a ring and I got myself, I mean Quincy, this DARLING Pride and Prejudice Counting Board Book.
How cute is this?

Some of my favorite pages...

We had lots of fun. It was gorgeous outside, so we chose to eat at Napoleon's, and get some savory crepes. We ate outside and enjoyed the sunshine.

Thanks girls.

(It looks kinda gross, but it was chicken and brie and yumminess!)

SUNDAY:

Then who can be made that Mother's Day is right by your birthday?

That is just another day of pampering to add to birthday week.

Tyson made breakfast, lunch, and most of dinner.

He induldged me by helping me with a "photo shoot" for Quincy and the kids...

and I got to pick the park to go to for our walk. hehe.

MONDAY:

Jamba Juice and some sunning in the front yard...

TUESDAY:

We dropped the kids off at preschool, and Quincy and I went to TARGET for one of my birthday/mother's day presents...
I had them in HB with my friend Kristy, and I needed them again. They were on super sale at Target.
Perfect! 2 please!

And then I found these cute sandals... I wanted them last year and never bought them, surprise surprise...
so then I found them this year, cheaper and in coral.
Yes please!

(Please don't look at my toes... I so desperately need a birthday pedicure.)

WEDNESDAY:

Some cupcakes at this cute cupcakery downtown, Sugar Sugar.
Which cupcake do you think I chose?

FRIDAY:

We went out of town a little to this cute little Cafe 22.
We had GINORMOUS hamburgers and fries, and walked around the "American Pickers Paradise".
Merrick kept saying, "Oh, they would love this gas pump!" and "This sign is REALLY old!"

(Look at her STARE that hamburger)

SATURDAY:
Tyson's family has a tradition of doing a birthday breakfast!
Well, Tyson knew my friends wanted me for breakfast, but you can't break tradition..
So he made a crumb cake so that I could blow out the candle and open presents with the him and the kids before he headed off to work.

(He did the red Happy BDay sign all by himself! :) )

Got lots of fun things!

2 Anthro gift cards, a book, a skirt, a cardigan...

and.. chocolate covered gummy bears!

Breakfast with my friends: crepes with nutella, crepes with cookie butter, crepes with lemon curd, sausage and fruit. YUM!
How cute are they?
(Decorations were also for my friends little boy who I share a birthday with.)

A trip to Portland.
Tyson was somewhat unavailable on Saturday due to work things, so we are still going to celebrate today when he gets home!
To spend some of the money on my gift cards!

Happy Birthday to me!
(And it is totally fun to celebrate ALL week for your birthday! And buy yourself small presents everyday...
really there is nothing better!)