a wedding and a baby blessing

this weekend was crazy busy! as it sometimes happens, two important events came up on the same weekend: my good friend's wedding and the blessing of paul's brother's baby. so we decided i should fly by myself to southern ca for the wedding on friday while penny and paul drove with paul's parents to northern ca. then after the wedding on saturday night i flew to sacramento for the blessing on sunday, and we drove home to utah on monday. whew!

i'm so glad i got to attend jessica's wedding. we've known each other since middle school and she looked so beautiful and happy on her big day. look at that dress, gorgeous!

hi jess!

after the ceremony, so happy!

troy high school reunion! love these girls! (L to R: allison, paige, me and rubi)

the next day was the blessing of trace larsen, our new nephew.


it was so fun to hold little trace, he was such a sweet baby, not fussy at all. and penny loved hanging out with her cousins. evan looks a little grumpy in this pic haha, but he was so cute and kept bringing penny toys to play with all weekend.

it was kind of a hectic weekend, but so fun!

welcome baby scarlett!

my brother jordan and his wife kjersti had their second baby this weekend and she is such a doll!

scarlett elisabeth balmforth
born oct 1st, 2011
7 lbs 6 oz

hi elsa!

meeting their new cousin.

aren't newborns the best?

we're so glad that scarlett made it here safely and that mom and baby are doing well.
she is such a beautiful baby girl!

circus circus!

i swear we didn't plan this, but a couple weeks after penny's circus party we indeed went to the actual circus last saturday. it was so fun! paul gets free tickets through his work to local events now and then and we always try to go to them. i loved it! and i think penny did, too.


the elephants were definitely her favorite part. she had this little grin on her face whenever they came out.
afterwards i asked her "did you like the circus?"
penny: "yeah!"
me: "what did you like about it?"
penny (pausing for a minute to think): "the el-weh-phants! they're biiig."


the human torch! that is one brave guy.

tigers! this guy was by himself in a cage with a dozen tigers and it was kinda scary to watch. but you could tell he was the boss. a tiger swatted at him once and he just cracked his whip and yelled "LIE DOWN!" and the tiger just meekly lay down. crazy!

but what scared me even more were these guys below. they called this act the turbines of terror and i seriously had an anxiety attack just watching them.

the turbines would go around and around and these guys performed tricks inside and on top of the circles, like jump roping. somtimes they couldn't keep a hand or foot on the turbine because they were keeping up with the turning motion, and they would end up free falling for a couple seconds. scary! they were so amazing to watch, by far my favorite part of the show.

finale!


i love going to stuff like this with my lil' family, and it didn't cost us a dime! awesome!

little miss preschool

(silly face!)

penny started a little preschool class a couple weeks ago, and today i think she is finally starting to like it. she was a little tearful the first few times, but today when i picked her up she had cookie smeared all over her face (which i wiped off before the picture) and couldn't be happier. she was a little chatterbox on the way home talking about how she loved her birthday sticker and toys and books.

it's only a baby preschool class for kids who just barely turned three and i think it's perfect for her. it's twice a week, for an hour and a half each time and there's only a few kids in the class right now, but throughout the school year more kids will be added once they turn three.

at first i was worried about her getting around the classroom, as she is walking but we're still working on other things, like getting into a chair by herself, getting up off the floor by herself and learning to pick up her knees more so that she can step over objects on the floor. or in other words, we're still fine tuning the things that require shifting her weight, coordination and balance. walking across a smooth solid surface - check. walking across an uneven surface - not so bueno.

but i decided she needs all the advantages she can get so even though she needs a little assistance getting around the classroom, it's so worth it in exchange for the academic things she'll learn and the social interaction she'll get. and the two teachers in the classroom are so nice and supportive so i'd be crazy not to have her enrolled.

all that aside, it's so weird to have my baby in school! but i'm so excited for her.

penny's circus party!

so my baby was turning three and therefore we had to have a...THREE-ring circus party! yep, i'm pretty clever. penny got very interested in princesses about a month before the party, but too late, mom already bought a bunch of circus junk. maybe next year!



*hot dogs, chips, watermelon and bottled sodas...my kind of party.

*grandma making balloon animals for the kiddos. she has many skillz.

*balmforth ladies.

*hi paul!


*my dad helping penny, she was being pretty shy.


*candy swarm! (i'm feeling a sense of deja vu from last year's party...)

*taking a big breath to blow out those candles! (no, i'm not jabbing my baby in the ear, just holding her hair back so her little curls don't catch on fire.)

"all right, well if you're not paying attention, grandpa, i'll go ahead and eat your cupcake."

*the frosting turned out sooo yummy...but i think my piping efforts need some work ha.

*new toys! every present was either princess or tinkerbell stuff and penny was sooo excited! she especially loves little doll houses so i got her that princess castle above that comes with some furniture and a cinderella doll. (of course, on the packaging it had like 5 princesses and 20 pieces of furniture...not the case once you opened the box...you win again, disney!)

(L to R: grace and emerie, me and some college buddies, julie and leigh).
*photo booth! haha not really, but i found this at hobby lobby and had to get it. i'm sure we can use it next year at her princess birthday party...

it was such a fun party!

happy birthday penny!

today my baby turns three! i can't believe it.


*one week old.

*8 months.

*18 months.

*2 1/2 years.

here's what penny's up to:

- she LOVES princesses. bascially any girl in a dress is a princess. when i get ready for church on sundays, she sees me in a dress and goes "ooooh! princess mommy!" it totally kills me.
- also obsessed with tinkerbell. she's constantly requesting to "watch teen-kuh-bell" and she can't do it without making me set up her little collapsible disney fairy house so she can sit in it while she watches the movie. the girl knows what she likes.
- still really loving. she'll randomly come up and say "kisses mommy!" and pucker up her lips. i love it.
- sometimes she'll come up to me with this little smile on her face and go "tickle! tickle!" while she pokes her little fingers in my ribs and just thinks it's the funniest thing ever when i wriggle around when she does it.
- she also thinks anyone falling down, or getting hurt is suuuuper funny. (i swear she's just like her dad, aka #1 fan of american's funniest home videos.) when she sees it in a cartoon or if i drop something on accident, she just belly laughs and says "again!"
- starting to go some days without a nap (nooooo!) but i may or may not put her down for a late afternoon nap whether she wants one or not...because sometimes mom needs a nap.
- she's walking a lot better, but if it's not a flat surface (i.e. grass) it's definitely harder for her and she is more apprehensive to walk. but she's improving all the time and it's exciting to see her "catch up".
- she's talking sooo much more, i love it. she's constantly saying new words and sentences and singing new songs that i didn't know she knew, and it's fun to communicate more with her. she's still a shy little bug and might not talk a lot with less familiar people, but me and my little buddy chat all day long.
- getting slightly bossy. she loves ordering me around (see tinkerbell reference above) and it's always "sit down!" "stop it!" "don't do that!" but i never do anything she says unless i make her say please first because i'm tough like that.
- still so funny and cute and makes me laugh every day.

i love this little butternut and i'm so happy she's in our lives. love you pen!

*birthday party pics to come!

happy birthday paul!

yep, this lumberjack turned 31 on sunday and i'm such a terrible wife that i didn't take one picture to commemorate this glorious event. but i did make a pot roast dinner with all the fixens and baked him a funfetti cake. he specifically requested funfetti cake. we blew off the roof with a crazy party that consisted of me, penny, paul, and his parents.

it was very low-key, and that seems to always be the case for paul's birthday. each year i ask him what he wants to do for his birthday, and he just shrugs and says "just dinner or something." so that's what we did. also not helping the low-key situation, penny's birthday is exactly one week after his and i always get way more caught up in planning her birthday party than paul's...thanks for being a good sport, husband!

paul would also like me to note that he has more gray hairs than last year. this is true.