short

I just wanted to post a picture or two on here of my new haircut. My aunt Denise cut it and I love it! You know those haircuts you get and you just love, well I haven't had one of those in a while but this was one of them. It feels like I've lost 5 pounds. Shorter hair is so me, long hair just doesn't work. Especially cause mine is pretty thin. I wish it did because I know so many people with beautiful long hair and I've envied it forever. But I just need to be happy with what I have. The next picture looks like Noelle is pretty out of it. I really don't know how she did it but somehow she got a hold of my slip. So I decided to tie it around her just for fun. We also decided to go the lazy route for her wardrobe today. Sometimes those days are nice. The last picture is a recent craft I worked on. Ladies in my mom's ward get together once in a while and do a craft. They pretty much cut everything out and we just put it together. It's kind of an outlet for me.

#1 Space Pirates and Ice Cream

Date 1 of 52: This week we started Project 52: Date Nights. We decided that we are going to trade off every week planning different dates and this week was mine. Michael likes stars and science stuff so I thought that it would be fun to go to this show called Attack of the Space Pirates at Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake. Online they said that it was a show for all ages and it was at the dome theater so I thought this is going to be awesome. We took trax downtown and went and got our tickets. Because we had some time before the show we walked over to the Gateway and had some ice cream. It was fun to just walk together and talk and it wasn't too cold outside either. After ice cream we walked back over to the planetarium and went into the dome theater. Well the theater was pretty awesome. But the show not so much. Graphics were okay and the acting was pretty bad. If we had some young kids interested in space then it would have been perfect. But it was still fun to be together. We laughed at everything because it was so corny. We had a good time and are grateful to Grandma and Grandpa Fullmer for babysitting. I'm excited to see what Michael has planned for this coming week!

Cuddle Bug

Just a little update on our little girl. Noelle is changing so much. Her personality is showing more and more every day. Sometimes she has such a quiet and calm personality and others it's just the opposite. She's practically running now and still sometimes on her tippy toes, it's so cute. Still a little unstable but loves to move everywhere. She would much rather play with her toothbrush than almost any other toy. I have to take it from her quite often cause I won't let her walk with it in her mouth. She doesn't like that. She LOVES Elmo. It's the word she says the most probably. She has a tickle me Elmo and it constantly makes her smile and laugh. She's laughing at everything now. She loves to cuddle with her stuffed animals. She kisses them and hugs them so tight. And when she's cuddling with them she'll cuddle with us and we love that. She figured out where our big box of fruit snacks is and took two out yesterday. She loves looking at herself in the mirror and likes to play in front of it. It's like she can't wait to take a bath every night and tries to take her clothes off when she knows it's close. She's starting to be a little less picky with the food, which I am grateful for and she loves clementine oranges. Sometimes I can't believe that she is 16 months. Time has gone by so fast and sometimes I wish I could slow it down. She is always making me smile and making me be a better mother and I love her. Noelle loves this purse. It has a little panda dangling from the zipper and she's always carrying it around. I put it around her to see what she would do and I think she actually liked it for a little bit.

Project 52: Date Nights

So last week I was watching Studio 5 and they featured the designer/creator of simplymodernmoms.com, Tiffany Bird. It's a website used to help moms simplify their lives in different ways. Anyway. On her website she started what is called Project 52: Date Nights. It's simply setting aside a time each week to have a date with your spouse. This is what she said about what inspired her and her husband to do it: "We need to get better at setting aside time to enrich our marriage...The main points are for us to be creative, cheap and spend quality time together." This is the criteria that her and her husband set:

• Every Friday night from 9 -10 p.m. is our date night. We usually have both kids in bed by 8:30 p.m.
• Majority of the time the dates will be at home so we don’t need babysitters.
• We rotate being in charge of date nights on a monthly basis.
• Can’t do the same thing twice in one month.
• Dates need to be free most of the time. If not free, then under a budget of $30. Cheaper than if we went out.
• No children allowed.
• Must create a date-like atmosphere. No frumpy clothes or pajamas. Make it a special event. Mind the details. But most of all, keep it simple.

She challenged her readers to do the same. She even created a pledge for both to fill out and post somewhere that you see often. The pledge includes some of the above criteria and spaces where you can put your own. This was something I knew me and Michael needed to work on. When we go out we usually just go to a movie or dinner and even though we love spending the time together we feel that we need to branch out a little bit more. I'm in charge of choosing our dates for this month and then Michael the next and so on. I'm excited and I think we're going to have so much fun!! Here's the link: simplymodernmom.com On the right hand side click on the Project 52: Date Nights link. For the pledge and info about the project scroll almost all the way down to the bottom. If anyone decides to do it I totally want to know. I think it would be fun to share ideas. Have Fun!!

Fortune Cookies for Valentines Day

I made homemade fortune cookies! Sometimes I see these new recipes or new craft projects and decide I want to try it. Then I get way in over my head. That's what happened with the fortune cookies. After I was finished I'm glad I did them but they were a longer process than I thought and not good to do on a Thursday night, wanting to have them ALL ready Friday morning. The pictures didn't turn out the greatest but you can get the idea. One day I'll put pictures up of each step, because I think that's useful when making these for the first time. I even put little fortunes in each of them, dipped them in chocolate, and put different sprinkles on them. They're not your average fortune cookies. They are sweeter and taste pretty good. They were fun though and Michael took them to work with him on Friday (to celebrate Valentines day since it was on a Sunday). They were a big hit there and I'm glad everyone enjoyed them. Click here for the recipe and here for a video on how to make them.

Before being dipped into chocolateIn the refrigerator cooling

Milk Chocolate, White chocolate, red sugar sprinkles and valentine sprinkles

walking, walking, and more walking

Today Noelle has been walking everywhere. She didn't even want to crawl. She's been improving really fast but seriously she went from walking here and there on Monday and then on Tuesday getting everywhere by walking. In fact it looks like she wants to run. It's so cute I can't get enough of it. And she just smiles wherever she goes. It was like she was on some sort of sugar high today. I guess she's just really excited to be walking. So are we but I think we've created a monster, a very cute and happy monster :).

The day before the super bowl my parents bought this huge bag of peanut m&ms and Noelle was fascinated. Grandpa Fullmer gives her m&ms everytime she's there. I can't control it. On super bowl Sunday she was on a sugar high. At the end of the day you could tell she was extremely tired but she was going, going, going.

Our walking girl with her cute, new dress. I love the spring colors.

Another walking picture. Love it.Noelle and me. She's not so into the picture taking this time.

I just love this close up of her showing her big smile and pretty blue eyes

my best friend

I just have the best husband ever. Even though it's really late right now I had to write down my feelings. I've been having a hard time with my "self-image" lately and I've just been too hard on myself. Some of you know that when I get feeling that way sometimes I can be a wreck and get discouraged really easily. There are other issues behind that but I won't go into it. My working out has been going great but my dieting hasn't. Getting over this hill I call food addiction is soooooooooo hard. I don't know how I let it get to this point. Sometimes I feel like I'm on the Biggest Loser and sometimes I wish I was. Anyway this is what has been getting me discouraged. Throughout the day I'm on this constant rollercoaster and instead of seeing my strengths I see my weaknesses and how I'm not as far along as I think I could be. Well when I get this way Michael usually straightens me out. But tonight he just held me and talked to me and cared about me. I'm not going to write down what was said because it's very personal to me but just know that what he said meant everything and changed how I look at things. He's always been this way and is the most patient and loving person I have ever known. He helps me to breathe and I can be my whole self around him and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for blessing me with this eternal companion and best friend. Michael I love you and you are my everything.

15 Months

Tuesday we went in for Noelle's 15 month checkup. Here are her numbers:

Weight: 22lbs - 45%
Height: 31 1/2 in. - 90%
Head circum: 17 in. - 50%

She's doing so well. She gained like 1 lb since last check up but grew 1 1/2 inches. She had to get three shots and wasn't happy about that at all. At least she had a sucker. She looked at the nurse like she was the most evil person in the world for doing that to her. It went so good. Afterward we did a little shopping (which I really needed) and then went to visit Grandma Fullmer. It was her birthday. Anyway. No pictures for this post.