Heidi's 1st Birthday

I can't believe how fast kids grow up.  I have a love hate relationship with it.  I love watching Heidi learn new things and I love watching her little personality shine more and more each day.  On the other hand it makes me sad because of how much I've already forgotten.  Heidi I have loved being your mom and I am so glad that we got to celebrate you on a such a special day.  You made your dad and I parents and even though it's had it's challenges like everything else in this life the joy highly outweighs any hard days.  Thank you for choosing us and trusting us to teach you all that you need to know.  We love you dearly and have loved having you in our family!
Now for the fun stuff.  We got to celebrate two times, once in Utah and once at home.  We could've called your party in Utah good but I wanted to celebrate at home too because of everyone that loves you.

T's birthday is only 10 days before yours, so that makes him your birthday buddy :)

The morning you turned 1! :)

You weren't too excited about eating another cake ;)

My goodness Miss Heidi we sure love you! Here's some things that I wrote down on your birthday about what we love about you.
We love her smiles, her growls, how she laughs when she's tickled, the way she points at things and says eh, how she likes to pick, the way she loves Kody and all other dogs, her cuddles, the way she talks and makes the motorboat noise, how she loves to walk, her big blue eyes, her square toes, the way she enjoys watching people and finally the way she loves us.
Love you cute girl!

Memorial weekend 2015 at Mackinac Island

Ok this is obviously really old, but I couldn't help but making a post because it was a fun two days.  Jordan, Jamie and Logan were living in Michigan for the summer so we decided to join them and head up to Mackinac Island for the weekend-ish.  Adam had just started living with us at the time so we invited him to come along as well.  All 7 of us squished into the Traverse that Jordan was borrowing from GM.  To say the least it was very squishy haha.  It was a 4 hour drive and we got to our hotel at 11pm, yuck.  The kids did pretty darn good but Heidi was so ready to sleep in her bed instead of the carseat.  The next day we got up to catch the first ferry ride over which takes a short detour for no extra cost just so we could go under Mackinaw Bridge.  It was awesome, but very windy and we were sitting on the wrong side of the boat for the overspray.  Chase ended up getting super wet because he didn't try to run away like the rest of us. Once on the Island we just walked around and enjoyed ourselves.  After lunch the Clines rented bikes and we decided to just keep exploring on our feet.  We couldn't really do any hiking of sorts because we had the stroller but luckily there are enough roads that we were able to explore.  Mackinac Island doesn't allow any vehicles so if you want to get around you have to walk, ride a bike, or ride in a horse drawn carriage.  It's pretty awesome.  Once we all met back up we had to find the perfect fudge shop before we could catch our ferry back to the mainland.  Unfortunately on the ferry ride Jamie realized that they had left their fudge on the grass and they only had two delicious bites.  We gave them some of ours the following Day at church because we just couldn't let them go without.  Anyway once we got back to the car we headed for home.  It again was a long drive and day and by the end Logan had had enough which made Heidi cry as well.  Good thing we all survived :) and had a fun day exploring.

Heidi's blessing dress

When Heidi was born we had planned on blessing her while we were in Utah for Christmas.  Which gave me time to make her blessing dress.  I had looked all over online for the perfect dress but kept coming up short mainly because I didn't want to spend the money for the type of dress that I wanted.  I finally decided that instead of buying one I would make her dress.  It was a very big challenge to take on especially since I hadn't really sewn much more than baby blankets.  In high school I took a sewing class and made a hoodie which is what gave me the courage to take on the blessing dress.  It was kind of daunting though because I didn't have a sewing expert standing by to watch over my progress and to answer my questions.  Which is why I decided to make a practice dress first.  I am so glad I did that because I made plenty of mistakes on that dress, which helped me avoid them on Heidi's dress.  The downfall was that the practice dress took forever!  I asked a lot of questions and had to get reassurance on a lot of things.  I also made it harder on myself because I had decided to piece two patterns together and then alter those a little bit to get the dress that I wanted.  I asked many questions to many different people (including questions on which lace to buy because I couldn't make up my mind), but in the end had to just trust myself.  I'm also so grateful that I was able to make a new friend in the ward because she let me borrow her serger!  Yes I am that person who uses other peoples things.  At least I got a great new friend out of it.  Too bad she has moved so the next time I want to make a blessing outfit I'll have to find someone new or buy my own serger.
Before I forget I want to add a neat experience I had while making the dress.
While I was making her dress I came to a crossroads on how to do her sleeves.  I was very unsure of myself and of my skills and became overwhelmed.  Which is when I had a comforting feeling come over me and I felt like I was told what to do.  I immediately relaxed and knew that was exactly how I needed to do her sleeves and that I would be able to do it.  I know for a fact that it was Heavenly Father helping me because he wants us to achieve at our goals.  It might have seemed like an overwhelming thing to me but as soon as he helped me it became accomplishable.  Heavenly Father cares about us and he cares about our needs, even if it's just figuring out how to sew a blessing dress.  I love that I got to have this experience because to me it made making this dress even more meaningful to me.  I love how it turned out and I wish I would've gotten more pictures of Heidi wearing it on her blessing day.  Oh well life is life.  I'm grateful that I can give Heidi her dress and that she can know that yes even though it's not finished beautifully that her mom made it just for her.

The practice dress

Trying on the top before I attached it to the bottom

Sleeping Bear Dunes, Lake Michigan & Traverse City 9/2015

Jay and Emily invited us to go up to Sleeping Bear Dunes and Traverse City with them over Labor Day.  We left Sunday morning and got home Monday evening, so it was a fast trip, but so fun.  It's a 4 hour drive and Heidi did not sleep well at all which meant Chase and I were trying everything to make her happy.  Lets just say that girl ate a lot of candy and is now very addicted.

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, but heres a run down of what we did.  Day one: We ran down a large sandhill, spent the rest of the day at the beach playing in Lake Michigan, roasted hotdogs, corn and marshmallows,  got brick oven pizza in Traverse city and ate it while the sun was setting at a different beach. Day two: Chase, Heidi and I hung around the hotel in the morning while Jay and Emily went for a bike ride.  It was nice to let Heidi get in a nap before we set off on another fun day.  We stopped at a little cheese factory, walked around a cute little city, went to a vineyard and had a delicious lunch, and then we set off on our adventure of going home.  Which let me tell you was an adventure we'll never forget.
It was the perfect little vacation at just the right time and Jay and Emily still like us and say that they want to go on more adventures with us :)

Now time for picture overload!