Gardening, Preston's News, and (of course) Chloe!

This picture really has nothing to with the rest of my post but I thought it was too cute to be missed!

Me and my blackened thumb have once again tried our hand at gardening... So far success! I planted tomatoes, bell peppers, and spaghetti squash. The tomatoes and squash have come up and I'm still waiting for the bell peppers to sprout. I'm starting to wonder if I'm gonna need to go buy seeds or if the seeds I pulled out of the pepper I ate are even gonna grow. I used seeds from a tomato I ate and the same with the squash. It's been fun! I used some old butter tubs I saved as tupperware and drilled some holes in the bottom of them and used their lids as excess water catchers. If the bell peppers don't sprout soon I think I will try planting some strawberries next. They are lined up on my kitchen window seal for now until they are strong enough to survive outside (maybe) and while I attempt to teach Claire that my planter outside is not an appropriate place to dig. We're gonna try chicken wire first. Any other anti-digging-doggie tips? Please? This is my outdoor planter that Meredith and I tilled and pulled weeds out of one day last week: 

(there are holes all over in it again courtesy of my anti-plant pup Claire):

Here's my tomatoes as of this morning:

And these little beauties are my little spaghetti squashes!:

Chloe loves being outside, though I haven't ever let her out to play on the ground. I bring out her highchair and some toys so she doesn't eat the dirt. I don't quite trust her with that yet but I can tell she can't wait to run around outdoors! We'll try a park now that she can walk!

And now......... The big news you've been waiting for!!!

Preston got a promotion!!! (Cheering and applause loudly with much exuberance!) He was promoted to Head Technician/Manager! He also got a raise with the promotion and hints at another raise if he does well in his new position! We are so excited and proud! I know he will do well and continue to grow in his work. He loves his job and all of the new (and sometimes VERY interesting) people he gets to meet everyday! We are so grateful for our blessings and we can't wait to see where life takes us!

Chloe picked up walking like a fish learning to swim. She had the balance thing down perfect before we made her go for it. After a solid week she's walking like a pro! She doesn't even fall down! When she does, she's careful about it and makes sure she put her butt to the floor before she goes face first! She's been picking up speed too and now when she's after something (like dog food) and we're hot on her tail she does this funny little laugh and tries to go faster. Here's a video of her perfected walking and that little laugh she does (try to ignore the mess, my face and gross hair, the laundry in the background and of course the mess): 

Chloe can WALK!!!

Last night before we all went to bed (it was kinda late) we were practicing with her by passing her back and forth between us because we knew she could do it if she actually tried. All of a sudden she took off while I was filming her! I couldn't believe it when she abruptly turned around and went the other way!!! That was the moment it became official. Between me and Preston was practice but striking out on her own was for real! The noise at the end is me crying and wouldn't you? I just watched my baby girl grow! My baby just became a toddler!!!

Catching up... Part 2

On the 2nd... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! I turned 24! One more year and I'll be a quarter of a century! Eww... The night before we had a little party with Preston's parents. It was mostly cake... mmmm, carrot cake.... But between Christmas and my birthday they gave me about half the money I needed to get a new camera. (More about the camera later) The day of we just kinda hung out and relaxed. It was oddly nice. Sometime in the mid afternoon we went over to my Aunt Therese's house for a game day she was having. We played Quelf. If you haven't played this game before you have to! And when you do don't be a bum and whimp out on following the instructions given. Just do it! I have never had so much fun playing a board game before! By the end of it my hair was a wreck and my muscles were sore from laughing so hard. Needless to say it's now my FAVORITE game! I need my own now!

     A few days later Preston's friend Matt came to town for a wedding. We had talked to him and worked out that we were going to buy his old SLR camera from him. My current plan is to go into photography. I've been practicing a lot with my little Kodak but it can only do so much. This thing is AWESOME! I've been working with Photoshop a lot too (mostly teaching myself how to use it). I can't wait to get started! Let me know if you want me to practice on you and you'll probably come out of it with some free pictures. I hoping that by the end of the year I'll feel confident enough with my work to start a business. The camera is a digital SLR Rebel XT. I LOVE it!
     This year we finally got a later time for church. It was at 8AM when we moved in when I was pregnant, and they kept the 8AM over through the next year. In December they announced that we were moving to 1PM church. I would have preferred like 10 or 11 but hey sleeping in is good too! Yay! On our second Sunday the whole stake had a great big meeting in the evening. Dun-da-dun! They tell us that they are rearranging all of the ward boundaries and adding a new ward to the stake! So we went and ... THEY CHOPPED OUR WARD IN HALF!!! They added a little of another ward to ours and gave us a new name. We were the Lindsay Ward in the Hermosa Vista Stake before and now we are the Lehi Crossing Ward. I like it. It feels right, ya know? It was sad to know I won't be seeing so many of the people I had finally gotten to know every Sunday, but now I get to meet a bunch of new ones! The 3rd Sunday of the year we attended our new ward for the first time and finally got to really see who we knew and didn't know. Guess what time it started? Nope, 8:30! We moved a whole half an hour later.... woo.... woo.... Here's the strange and magical part: Preston only needed an extra half an hour to sleep and then get ready for church so we were actually on time! Amazing! (Let the rolling of the eyes commence.)
     And my final topic in my whole catch up series... Drumroll please.... I'm on a new diet! *cricket, cricket*......... Yeah, yeah I know. Hear me out, k? I started this thing on the 12th. Today is 27th. That's 15 days. I have lost 18 pounds!!! Oh. Yeah. Don't freak out, it's safe, I checked. It's called the hCG Diet. The original protocol was developed in the 50's by a Dr. Simeons. He wrote a pamphlet/small book called Pounds and Inches (click for the original protocol) that explains in detail what it is and how it works. The terminology and science are outdated but the method is sound and works very well. It has sort of evolved since then too making it a lot easier for an average person to use it. HCG is the hormone that at home pregnancy tests read. I've been taking drops of the hormone and have adjusted my diet to fake out my body to think I am pregnant. In a pregnant woman hCG makes her stored fat available as nutrients for the baby. This is why a baby can survive the first three months of pregnancy when many women can barely keep anything in their stomachs. I have been eating a very strict and semi-complicated diet of 500 calories a day. I feel great! The hormone acts as a appetite suppressant so I haven't felt as hungry as I thought I might. I've been living off my own stored fat instead. One of the big differences between this and other diets is on a regular diet your structural fat generally goes first and people tend to look drawn and haggard. With hCG your structural fat is untouched. One of the really cool parts of it is that it's self restricting. You cannot lose more than what your DNA predetermined you should weigh. Everyone keeps asking about it so I've added a link for the original protocol. If you want more let me know and I can send you an e-mail with everything.

This is the picture hanging on my fridge giving me inspiration to not eat what I can't have. I'm like 13-14 in this picture. I'm aiming to have that waistline again!
     Wow I didn't mean for that to turn into some kind of sales pitch, it's just that when you tell someone hey I'm taking a hormone, eating only 500 calories, and losing weight ridiculously fast they tend to worry about your mental health. Soon there will be a before and after picture on here to show you my progress. Not right away because while I'm doing good, I still have a lot to go! But 18 pounds!?!? It's just falling off of me! Everyone can already see a difference and I am loving it! My plan is to do two 6 week rounds of the diet with the required 6 week maintenance phase in between and then... we will try for our second baby! This time I won't be a fat blob who through the first 6 months people wonder "Is she pregnant or fat?" Nope, I'm gonna be one of those cute ones with a baby bump! Oh yeah!
     Oh my goodness!!! Preston just called me (seriously just NOW) with the most fantastic news!!! It makes the 2 pounds I lost this morning sound like having chocolate ice cram compared to taking a vacation in Hawaii. I'm not allowed to announce it yet as it needs a lid on it for now in case certain people read my blog. But it's sooooo exciting!!! Don't worry I will tell you as soon as I'm allowed! How's that for a little suspense?

Catching up... Part 1

     I know it's nearly February but I haven't gotten the chance to tell you all about Christmas! It was a unique Christmas compared to all the others Preston and I have had since we got married.
     The weekend before Christmas itself, Preston, Chloe, the puppies and I all went to Heber to visit. It was one of the off years when not everyone can make it there to visit so we thought it would be fun to go by ourselves. It was nice to just take the dogs too instead of leaving them here with Preston's parents. For once I knew they wouldn't bug anyone (cept my dad and their evil cat Satan Savannah) and I knew they wouldn't get eaten by Moose (my brother Louis's monster sized dog aka: a mastiff). I got some long tie downs for the dogs to play outside without me having to worry about them. Course I did anyways cause it was so stinkin' cold up there. We really enjoyed ourselves relaxing and enjoying dad's cooking..... Mmmm.... Homemade Pizza!
     On our way back home from Heber we stopped in Payson for the Pitterle Family Christmas Party. There was lots of yummy mexican food (as is our usual tradition) and we played that white elephant gift exchange game everyone always plays (another tradition).

     (My uncle Brian and his son Mason-->)
We ended up with 2 games: Disney Scene It, and Banana Gram??? I guess it's like Scrabble, whatever. This time I knew to avoid the rum cake. (One year I had it thinking it was just my Grandma Mum's wonderful (edible) fruit cake, but was told afterwards that it was also soaked in rum, oops! Guess who had a low tolerance and got tipsy?)  
     Christmas started Christmas Eve for us (kinda on accident?). We decided to hang out with Preston's family that night because we were going to start our day at my mom's house two streets over. My mom called us and told us to come open presents because Selena and Josh couldn't wait any longer (spoiled brats goofballs). So we headed on over and opened presents till about 3AM. Chloe was STILL AWAKE! She loved all the toys Grandma Gaye got for her!

     The next morning afternoon we had our own little Christmas under our own tree. We dilly dallied around for a bit then got dressed, and went over to Preston's family. Once again, Chloe was showered in presents! A few hours later we went back to my mom's house for the Cheney Family Christmas Party. That was a lot of fun too. We played 20 questions with my cousins and ate yummy mashed potatoes and gravy! There was other food too but the highlight for me is always the spuds, so everything else is forgotten!

     The next day, we went to my sister Lori's house to have yet another Christmas party (The Pitterle/Hinchey Christmas Party)! There were more potatoes and gravy and Patty burned the green beans. No one was sad to see them go but she scraped off the burnt part and saved them. We exchanged presents and I got a cute new purse! It was so nice to see all my siblings again (I see them about once a year).
     Ok, this is getting long so I'm gonna stop here and start on another post. Hope you don't mind but we've had a lot going on!

Meet Claire!

To start off, this had nothing to do with the title yet, so dont get confused. I know it's been a while since Chloe's birthday but I never posted on here about it. The party was a success and Chloe loved her cake and presents! Thank you to everyone that came and everyone that wasn't able to come we missed you! She had a princess cake that I baked and my mom decorated. She did an excellent job on it considering it's been years since she's decorated a cake! Chloe got some clothes that are SUPER cute and warm for winter, a doll that can take a bath with her and a singing purse with all the accessories! We had lots of yummy food and some of Chloe's friends even came! Miles, October, and Breena!

Last week Chloe and I went Christmas shopping with my mom and Selena. While we were at the mall we got Chloe's ears pierced! I meant to do it when she was only a couple months old but never got to it and figured she would mess with them too much now. I had kinda decided that we would just wait until she was older and she wanted it done. While we were at the mall we went into a Claire's (still nothing to do with the title) and got into a conversation with another lady there about when is a good time to pierce a baby's ears. After a little while my mom offered to pay for it, and well.... why turn that down??? To my surprise she's done VERY well with them and has hardly even noticed them. She's so cute!!! She was beyond cute before but the earrings just add to the cuteness! They are little pink daisies, here's a picture:

Last night was Preston's work Christmas party. We had a lot of fun! They had valet parking, casino tables, an open bar, hors devours and a dance floor. I wore a little black dress I bought for it and did my hair like a 1930's pin-up. Woo!!! I was hot stuff! Well my hair turned out really good anyways, but I'm fat so it ruined the hot stuff effect. Oh well, I felt cute so, it was enough. There was a $20 buy in for the casino and that got one person $500 in chips. There was no return on the chips and the three people with the highest amount in chips won a cash prize of around $100. We played Black Jack all night and had a blast losing! Well I lost all mine and Preston did pretty decent considering he had never played before. Neither of us won but, it didn't matter. The open bar (free drinks all night) didn't have many non-alcoholic options, so we ended up drinking a half and half mix of Red Bull and cranberry juice. It was surprisingly tasty. As we left we discovered that the music they had blaring until 11:30 had prompted the neighbors to call the police. One of the business owners was out front but too drunk to really have a serious conversation. We couldn't stop laughing once we got in our car! I've never been to a party that got crashed by the police before. It turned out that they forgot to notify the neighbors that there was going to be a party with loud music. They throw the BEST parties!

And now..... Claire!

Yesterday afternoon (before the party, yes, it was a very busy but fun day) we went to Pet Smart to show Chloe the dogs up for adoption and accidentally fell in love! I have been considering getting a little playmate for Charlie for a couple months but figured we would start looking sometime in the middle next year. She was curled up in the middle of her cage just like Charlie was when we found him. She's about the same size as Charlie and has the same puppy eyes he does. Her name was Leah but we changed it because I had decided that our second dog would be a little girl named Claire a while ago. If you've seen Lost, you know why. Charlie and Claire are my favorite couple on that show! He's already fallen in love with her. I don't think he's caught on that she's here to stay yet but they are going to be very close friends! She's about 8 months old and Charlie finally has someone with his energy level that can wear him out! They even look a lot alike except she has a few brown markings, and they both weigh 10 1/2 pounds.  Our family of 4 has grown to 5!

My In-Laws New Neighbor!

Hi-ho!

We've had a busy week around here! We helped my mom move from Prescott to Mesa. Fun, fun fun! First, on Friday the 30th after Preston got off work we headed up to Prescott with the least amount of stuff we could stand to travel with! So basically it consisted of a play pen, a high chair, bunches of toys, baby food, baby clothes, diapers and single changes of clothes for ourselves and like... our toothbrushes.

Halloween morning, my mom and Preston went to the U-haul place to get the truck. They rented the biggest one they have available. We spent ALL day loading it and Grandad (my mom's dad) worked the jigsaw puzzle of stacking crap on top of all the other crap. He had to actually take off the sliding glass door, both pieces, to get my mom's ginormous couches out! By the end of the day we had filled the truck completely full and my mom's Ford Escape loaded to the brim (including the fish)! The trunk of my Malibu was full of pantry food and the Volvo Josh borrowed from my dad had a few things and Winston their dog in it. It still wasn't everything! (Monday night they went back for the rest and came back on Tuesday morning.)

That night we left Prescott at like 7:30, and I drove all by myself in the dark from Prescott to Mesa for the first time ever and didn't get lost!!!! Yay me! That was the point I was working up to. The rest is all blah blah blah about unpacking and unloading and nothing really interesting happened other than that... so... Yay my mom lives in Mesa now!!! In the same neighborhood that Preston grew up in! Christmas is going to be so convenient! It takes 15 minutes instead of an hour and 45 minutes to drive to see her.

Oh and my little baby, my little newborn baby that I just brought home from the hospital a few weeks ago, my sweet baby I JUST gave birth to... is turning ONE in 11 days!!! ELEVEN DAYS!!! WHAT the...??? Who hit fast forward??? She is up down and all around these days! She hasn't started walking but I know she could if she wanted to. We put her in the walker and she stands up in it and goes without leaning on it more than it takes to push it forward to move with her. We hold her hands to let her walk while holding onto us and while she is holding on with the death grip she almost never pulls or starts to fall. She's just unsure of herself. It's ok though, my stuff can live that much longer!

We are having her birthday party at my mom's new house. I plan to dress her all up ballerina/princess style! I made a pink and white tutu with the pink as the bottom layer and the while on top with little flowerettes and ribbons. I made a matching bow to clip onto her headband and I'm gonna put her in a white long sleeved onesie. Now I just need little sparkly necklaces and bracelets and maybe some little pink shoes! I'm so excited! My mom is making the cake too, and she makes beautiful cakes!

I know it's not much of an update but I'm scraping my brain for something so that everyone can see my new header I made. I made each turkey with our hands and then scanned them into the computer individually. I'm stoked it turned out so cute! In case you're wondering what the words are on the smallest one it's "Chloe Turkey". I know it's kinda small.

Anyways... I'm done! Bye!