Teeth & Crawling

Finner-Finner-Chicken-Dinner is 7 months old! Which is really messed up, I'm so not ready for my little man to grow up. It's bitter-sweet because each day he is changing so much and I just love him more and more as he grows, but at the same time I'm dreading the day when I'll look back and miss all these perfect moments with him - maybe I never will because I'll just be so wrapped up in loving him at whatever stage he's at? Anyway, he is the sweetest, cutest, silliest, most wonderful little boy in the world and Chase and I cannot get enough of him.

So three new things: He has two teeth (as of yesterday), is crawling all over the place and (also as of yesterday) is pulling himself up to furniture to stand! Seriously kid, you can just stop now and give your parents a breather. So many changes means he it is a lot more difficult to keep him from getting into trouble, but also means he has that many more ways to show off his adorableness.

So he started crawling about a week and a half ago. He had been rocking on his hands and knees for what seemed like a month and then finally figured out how to move. Here's a video of the first day he started officially crawling. He's a lot faster now... unfortunately. :)



So now that he crawls, he is SO not interested in any toys unless they are RVCA's. If he sees her bone he'll lunge after it and I have to race to him before he sticks it in his mouth. The only other thing he's interested in - other than crawling anywhere he can, pulling up on furniture and bumping his head on things - is our phones and our computers. We're trying to be very strict about not ever letting him play with our phones at this point, but he wants them sooo bad. He'll do just about anything to get his hands on them or our laptops. This morning I had my computer out on the floor and it was like some kind of crazy-mad-baby switch went off in his brain. His eyes got big, his mouth opened into a manic grin, and he propelled himself at it faster than I've ever seen him move. So for the next 10 minutes I slid my laptop around me in a circle on the carpet and Finn just chased after it relentlessly while I laughed my head off. He does this cute thing when he crawls where he pops his little baby bum up between each "step" and it just melts me. I finally was laughing too hard and he was too quick and smeared all his lovely drool on the keyboard so I thought it was time to stop, or else I think he'd have kept going all day!

I almost forgot - he also loves door stoppers. You know the boingy ones that are like a springs sticking out from the wall? He just sits there on his tummy and pulls them back and forth so they boing really loud. Also, my computer is telling me boing is not actually a word, but I refuse to believe it.

RVCA loves the new-and-improved crawling Finn more than anyone. For some reason he's a lot more fun when he is right at her level. They get a hoot out of each other, as you can see:

They are basically best buds. :)

As for teeth, here's the first one (you can see it better if you click to view the full-size photo):

Also for an update on us, life is so good! Chase got a raise at work and I've been keeping busy with my web design job. Casey and Aubrey - some of our best friends from our BYU days - are moving down here and we are so excited to get to hang out with them again! And I'm finally getting around to decorating - I'm almost done with our bedroom, I just need to paint the lamps we got from a thrift store. Finn's room is almost done too. Next on the list is refinishing a sweet mid-century desk that our good friends Adam and Amanda were too kind to give us because they couldn't take it with them to law school.

Chase is almost done writing a new song. He's trying to play and record his music more, which makes me so happy. He is so ridiculously talented with music. Hopefully Finn takes after him.

We're pretty boring, so I'll talk more about Finn:

• He loves yogurt melts. He starts grunting and shaking his arms when he sees me opening the bag.
• He thinks RVCA sneezing is the funniest thing in the world.
• He loves to eat our noses:
  
  
  
  
• He is so happy all the time. He's such a good sport about everything and just loves to laugh and grin and be tickled, it seems.
• He's had 4 haircuts so far, and a BIG bald patch on the back of his head that is mostly covered by the hair above it (read: comb-over). It's growing back in, but for now he's rockin the bowl-cut look.
• He's started making more advanced sounds, like babababa. Except he only does them when he's crawling, haha.
• He has a big stuffed soccer ball from Ikea that he LOVES. Which is good, because I'm gonna raise him to be a soccer star! Well, only if he doesn't have my bad knees.
  
• He goes down for naps and bedtime wide awake most of the time and falls asleep quickly, but he's still waking up once a night. I still don't know why he does it considering up until 4 months he was sleeping 11 hours every night, but I don't have the heart to do anything CIO-related. I'm just cherishing the extra cuddles!

Annnd I can't think of anything else to write about. So I'll post pictures instead!

Just Things.

We had our three year anniversary a week ago. We went to a nice steak house. It was great to just relax and talk and eat yummy steaks. For our anniversary the same thing that happens every year happened: we decided not to do gifts but then we both get each other something anyway. Chase got me the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox which is probably one of my most favorite movies ever! And he also got me... a Kindle!! WOOH! I love it. I just finished The Help today as a matter of fact - it's such a perfect way to read when you have a scoundrel of a baby getting into trouble all the time. You can set it down and come right back to it, all using just one hand. Good job honey bug. :)

I got Chase a new stripe-tastic shirt from Urban Outfitters and surprised him by finally... FINALLY decorating our room that has been so boring and bare for almost 2 years. I will post photos as soon as we find some side table lamps for it! I've also been working on some nursery decor, so I'll post pics of that too.

Anyway, here are some of the things I made to decorate our room. They are simple and don't take much talent to make, but are meaningful to us.

Okay, I actually didn't make the shark one for our room. I made it for my very shark-tastic friend Nikki because she loves shark week more than anybody ever ever.
And I love her.

Chase and I both had the Ticket watch from Nixon. It's how we met, on a Ticket Tuesday (hence the name of our blog). Anyway, here's our sweet little watches. When Chase proposed he gave me a watch first, and then a ring. He said the watch was for time, and the ring was for all eternity. He's so sweet and sappy. :)

This is a quote from one of our favorite songs by Fun. Our favorite line is, "We should live until we die." And we should.

This is hanging above our bed in a huge 11x30 inch frame. Our faces are the O's in Goodnight. It's how we first kissed.

My roommates had one of those cliche signs above our apartment door that said "Always Kiss Me Goodnight." When Chase dropped me off one night at the door, we stood there talking. A friend of his walked out of the apartment across the hall and teasingly said, "Heyyyy you better do what that signs says Chase!!" So then we stood there and I finally said, "Sooo, are you going to kiss me?" And he said, "Is that okay?" I said yes. Then we kissed. Then he said, "Thaaaaank you."

And this is just a creepy awesome picture I made a while ago but never posted. Don't worry. It's not in our room.
It's in the guest bathroom.
Just kidding!

Snakes' Weddin'!

For Independence Day we went up to Idaho to see Chase's gorgeous sister Christina get married to her man Kol-dog in the Logan, Utah Temple! It was such a fun trip! We were beyond excited to bring Finn to see his grandma and grandpa Child and all the rest of Chase's family.

We had a blast going boating, hanging out, and of course watching Snakes get sealed to her hubby for time and all eternity. Chase and I were married in the Logan temple too and it was such a beautiful reminder, sitting their in the sealing room, remembering what we were promised in there - that we would be together forever and that our family would be eternal. I love being reminded that we are sons and daughters of God who have so much potential to do wonderful things and create and progress - forever. It really was like reliving our own ceremony being in there. I'm so so happy for Christina - I've never seen her smile so big and cry so much. She was breathtakingly beautiful.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip.

This last one is my favorite. I love my little family! They are my whole world.

The Zoo & The Biosphere

We went to the Zoo and the Biosphere a couple of months ago, but I never posted about them so I'm playing catch up.

The Biosphere is in Tucson about 2 hours away from us. We decided last minute to take a trip there with Mama and Papa Payne on Labor Day. It was very cool - it's a huge glass dome with a rainforest, desert, and ocean all in one. A bunch of scientists lived inside for two years doing experiments. Let's all take a little moment to thank Blogger for their backwards, unorganized, and inefficient image uploading method.

It was Finn's first time in the Ergo and he fell right asleep. :)

He has a fantastic pout.

Doesn't it totally look like the Emerald City?

Love my mom & dad!

We also went to the World Wildlife Zoo & Aquarium. I love zoos! It was fun - we went on what was probably the last nice day before this unbearable summer heat came. Finn didn't really know what was going on but my mom, Kennedy and I had fun!

This may be my most favorite picture ever of myself.

So sweet and thoughtful.

Alligators are behind us! But you can't tell because Finn's hair is in the way.

This little lizard was telling Finn and funny joke about a duck.

Two striped little babies, just saying hello.

Annnnd this is the best photo ever of Finn. I can't wait to show it to his girlfriends.

But then they'll see this one and forget all about the one above it. :)

Inspiration

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.

I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.

I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.

I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.

I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.

I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Love this so much. I hope someday I can say I've lived like she did. :)