Summer 2011 in Review

Oh my goodness, this Summer has been so crazy. We have been bombarded with so many things this Summer we haven't had much time to actually sit down and enjoy this Summer. We've had a good Summer that was mixed in with a lot of disappointments..

The lady I babysat for no longer needed me and let me go, right after we got a HUGE bill from Weber saying my tuition had been sent back.. still am not sure what happened there?

We went to Vegas again for a week.. It was a nice, much needed break. We got Sums little ears pierced there.. she loves them & they look so cute on her.

We found out my mother-in-law has breast cancer. She's doing well.. but I think it has shook us all up pretty good.

I went on our girls trip to St. George. We saw The Little Mermaid.. so good.

We have been potty training. What a nightmare. Summer is good now, but boy, it was a rocky road getting there.

Thanks to my parents I was able to take a phlebotomy class and got my certificate.. I got the #2 best exam score in my class. (Sorry, just had to brag a little!)

Because of a lot of prayers, a few days later I got a call from a plasma center and they wanted me to work for them. Wheww..

Anyways, hopefully life will slow down a little now that Summer has come to an end. I hope your Summer was good!

Dancing at Shelbys Wedding

We had so much fun at my sisters wedding. It was so amazing to have our family and closest friends all together. All my parents (and Jordans, of course!) hard work paid off, it was so beautiful. Our favorite place was the dance floor.. especially for Summer! Sum loved watching everyone dance and then try to dance how everyone else was dancing.. like the macarena! Haha It was too dang cute! The bouquet she is holding is the one Shelby threw. My cute little friend Allie caught it & gave it to Sum.. Sum held it and took care of it all night long.. seriously, she loved it. Allie is the cute girl dancing with Sum in this video. Here is a little clip of Summer dancing.. sorry, the first couple seconds of it I was holding the camera the wrong way! Oops!

"Tankful"

I made it! I made it a whole week without my 2 most favorite people in the world. I had so much fun at Lake Powell with my family & friends. I haven't been to LP for 4 years and even better, I hadn't really seen or hung out with one of my oldest friends since we were 12ish.. so I had a lot of catching up to do! It was so relaxing. I got to catch up on some good books while getting my tan on, have some deep convos with the people I love and got to know my future bro-in-law better than I thought I did!

BUT. I missed Scott & Sum more than I have ever missed them in my entire life. I was totally fine until the end of the week came & I then got way too home sick for my own good.

As I pulled up, I ran through the door and leaped up the stairs to give my baby girl a big kiss and hug. I'm pretty sure nothing has gotten me out of a car door faster. Geeze, there really is nothing better than being a mom & having an amazing husband.

OK.. so here's my "Tankful" story. (yes, tankful, not tHankful.) Sum won't pray with us.. EVER! She won't fold her arms. And when we tell her that we're about to say prayers she will run circles around us and yell at the top of her lungs.. haha typical Summer, right?

ANYWAYS, that night as we knelt down to say family prayer. Scott asked me to say it and as I started saying it Sum folded her arms and started praying. She said "Foter, I tankful for toys, I tankful for my pretty dress and I tankful for house!" I turned to Scott when she was done and said "SCOTT! Oh my gosh, did you just hear that?! I can't believe she just did that! I am so happy!" He turned to me and just said "I know, I taught her while you were gone!"

Scott was able to talk to our baby and teach her to pray, finally it's gotten through to her. Watching and listening to my little sweetie say one of her first prayers has been probably one of my most proud and memorable moments in my life. She listened to her daddy and knew that he was telling her something important. I'm almost in tears as I write this, but family is just so important and I don't know what I would do without mine. I feel that Heavenly Father knew just what we needed in our lives, so he sent us Summer. He knew, He knew that children would make us complete and make us so incredibly happy. Summer brings more joy into our lives than anything in the whole world. I have such an incredible testimony of the family & I'm so greatful for my church for teaching me about it at such an early age. I am about to post this blog post on FB so I don't know who's going ro read this post. But to all my friends that are not LDS, and LDS friends that haven't read it in a long time, that are reading this you can read our Family Proclamation here.

Small Update

1. I am leaving for Lake Powell on Saturday (YAYYY!) I will be gone a week and I'm pretty much freaking out. I have never left Summer for an entire week.. (I think since we've been married I've never even left Scott for a week! He can't go..) I will be in the middle of a lake with no cell phone service and I will most likely only get to a pay phone a couple times during that week. And even when I call on the payphone who's to say my mother in law will be able to get to her phone at the exact same time I'm calling.

OH. MY. GOSH.

This is me freaking out. I am so excited to go. I am so excited to be away for a whole week. But still, I will still worry about Summer. What's the longest you've ever left your little ones for?

2. I tried to make my blog private, I'm not quite sure if it worked or not. If not, oh freaking well. I don't really care anymore. It's too much hassel.

3. I can't believe how good Sum is talking these days. She's putting together sentences and hardly ever gets frusterated anymore because I can't tell what she's saying. She's getting so big! Oh she's opening doors now too. Yep, had to go buy those annoying child door locks. I swear it takes me 10 seconds longer to open the door now.. oh well, I guess they're doing their job!

4. One of my very best friends from high school is out here staying with my family for the Summer. It is so much fun to be with old friends again.

Testing, Testing..

..1 2 3.

Ok everyone. Before I make my blog private I want to know if it's actually worth it to keep this blog up. I hardley get any comments on my posts, which makes me wonder if anyone actually looks at this blog. SO, if you want to keep reading my family blog, please post a comment on here if you read my blog and keep up with it. If there are no/hardley any comments on this post I will most likely delete my blog.. no sense of wasting time with it!


Thanks guys!

Mama's Day

Happy Mothers Day to my mama. Growing up in Virginia, it's hard to not notice that everyone calls their mom something other than mom.. mama, mommy. Just to be funny I started calling my mom "mama". The name has kind of stuck and now she's my mama. She'll try to embarass me by asking her to call her mama in front of other people.. it IS kind of embarassing! Anyways, happy mothers day to my beautiful mother, she is my best friend!

I love Mothers Day. And I honestly didn't appreciate it until I became a mother. Isn't this honestly the best holiday ever? I think so..

So I was at nursery today dropping Summer off. She was having a hard time going in today & just wanted me to hold her. I was sitting on the floor holding her and trying to her her to play with some toys and this little boy just came up and WACKED her on the head.. okayyyyyy. He made my little baby girl turn into me and just start sobbing. (I wanted to turn to him and go "RAWRRRR!" like a big, bad mama bear would, but of course I didn't.) Summer calmed down and was just fine. As much as I hate it when my girl gets hurt, I love the moments where I can love on her and tell her that everything can be just fine. I love being a mother. It is the best gift that I could ever ever have.

It's Time To...

...Go private.

I have been having the feeling for a while that I want to go private. I just have a weird feeling that people I don't want knowing my business are getting the 411 on my life. A lot of my posts are my thoughts and feelings and family updates that I really only want my friends and family knowing. My facebook is 100% private.. time for the blog.

Message or email (sydneygarton@GMAIL.com) or comment or facebook me your email address so I can add you as a reader to my blog. Thanks guys!

Easter 2011

Ohhh, how I love my baby. Look at that cute face! Honestly, she's the cutest little person in this whole planet.

I love Easter, I love going to church on easter, spending time with family, Easter egg hunts, Easter dresses & Easter baskets. But, I love my Savior more, so much more than all this stuff put together times 100. I am so grateful for the atonement & that Jesus suffered for my sins. No matter what I go through, I know that he has been there and knows exactly what I'm going through. I love my Savior and and I am so grateful for our faith.

How Do You Know?

I'm not stressing. I'm not worring. And I'm not thinking too hard about this.. but I am thinking too MUCH about it! How do you know, I mean 110% know for sure that you are ready for a second child? Especially all my friends out there with 2 or more kids?! Where Sum was a surprise baby there was obviously no plan that we had made up yet. We knew that we wanted kids, just not for a while. Raising Summer has been the most rewarding and best thing I've ever done in my life.. I would love to have more. Just not right now. Everyone keeps telling me "Summer needs a sister", "Summer needs a brother", "Summer needs a little sibling", blahh, blahh, blahhh.. YES she does! But I am so not ready. Not even remotely close. I was telling my friend the other day that I just don't feel like we've had enough "Summer time" yet. I'm not worried that I won't love the next as much as Summer like some of my friends have told me they were worried about. I'm not worried about the financial aspect. I'm not worried about how I'd work. I'm just kinda.. blah about the whole aspect of having another one. I don't want my kids to be 5 years apart. And I don't want Summer to be a only child. And I DO, I SO do want to expand my family. But I don't feel like I will be ready for another couple years! What to do.. Anyways, how did YOU know?

Two

My baby is turning two. Oh my goodness. I can't even believe it. Sum & her on again off again (they like to fight) BFF are having a double birthday party, they chose Elmo. Elmo? What the heck, I was thinking Minnie Mouse, Princess.. Whatev.. you only turn 2 once. Sum loves Elmo so it should be fun-tastic.

So my brain is overloading with birthday ideas. I already bought her this baby minnie mouse with a wrap around blanket. It's usually sold out so I was pretty stoked when I saw that they actually had it in stock.

And then I want to get her..

1. this adorable trike

2. this coloring desk

And I'm pretttty sure she might be getting her very first American Doll baby.. Her cousin got one for Christmas, when my mother-in-law saw how bad Summer wanted to play with it that Christmas morning I am pretty sure I heard promises of an American Doll "bitty baby" for Summer. Now i'm going to feel like a dummy if she doesn't end up getting one. : )

Who's excitedddd? Me!

Bitter-Sweet

Why are vacations so bitter-sweet to come home from.. well, we all know why they're bitter. Coming home to this wintery wet madness is one thing. Sweet, why would it be sweet to come home from vacation?

1. The memories.
2. Remembering the precious time spent with family.
3. Being able to go eat at The Sweet Tooth Fairy!

Those are my favorite reasons. Especially #1 & 2.
I have been thinking the past couple days about all the fun we had and the memories we made. I had a real problem on the ship the first 2 days. Summer was SO DIFFICULT. She was always tired, unhappy unless she was doing what she wanted to do and running laps around the ship. I was stressed.. SERIOUSLY STRESSED. I thought she was going to run right off the ship or that we were going to get kicked out of the dining room or that she was going to run right into some strangers arms in Cabo and I'd never see her again. I realize that she was out of her zone and super tired from the trip.. and my family was a super big help with her. But still..

It was bad.

So Monday, after we left Cabo. I went on to the top deck to relax (mostly to get away) and read my book. Little did I know, I sat down by the most talkative couple I'd ever meet. (They were not LDS, just so you know before I go on..) So they proceed to tell me about them, and I told them about me. Blah, blah, blah. The husband was telling me about his 4 year old girl they left at home, she's a big, bigggg daddys girl.

And he tells me:

"how much he misses his girl.

He tried to get her on the ship at the last minute, but couldn't afford it.

He misses her a ton.."

..did I mention that he told me he really missed her?

I'm sitting there thinking.. 'Are you freakin crazy? I would love for my daughter to be at home with my mother in law right now. The only time Sums happy is when she's not with me. I wish Summer was home..' Basically complaining to myself! I told him that my almost 2 year old was on the ship and that she wasn't being very good, and that I basically wished she was home.

And then he tells me "Family is the only thing that really matters, you know? It's all that is important in life and all that you need."

I instantly wanted to slap myself in the face. Of course I knew that! Our church is based around family. I know how important family is. How many times do I need to be reminded? And here is a random 30 year old man from Minnesota, who knows nothing about our religion reminding me! How often do I get to spend this much time with all my family, and here I am, throwing our precious time away. What's the saying, "When mamas unhappy, no one's happy".. ?

I kept running what he told me in my head over and over again throughout the week. And when I had images of throwing Summer overboard (just kidding) I just remembered what he said. I instantly changed my attitude. Became a less stressed mommy. And ultimately had more fun the rest of the week. I am so grateful for this reminder, I felt like Heavenly Father prompted this man to remind me to relax, have fun, and to remember to put my family, not myself and my attitude, first.

As much as it is bitter-sweet to come home, memories last

a lifetime, and this is definately one that I want to keep.

15 Cruise Memories

We got back from a crusie to the Mexican Riviera this past Saturday. What a big bummer to come home to freezing cold/wet/snowy/windy weather.. boo! I couldn't believe how much bigger our townhome seemed. I felt like I walk walking into a huge mansion compared to the tiny room we had been staying in for a week! : )

Here's my top 15 favorite memories of our trip:

15. My little sister got engaged on Lovers Beach in Cabo (her fiance came with us on the cruise.)

14. Summer heard everyone calling me by my name, so she decided that my new name was "Sinny" instead of "mommy".

13. I had my most embarassing moment of my life on the ship, if you ask, I won't tell! : )

12. Summer spilled ketchup all over my new white sweater at dinner the 1st night at dinner, I was already stressed to the max, which resulted in a full on balling melt down.. embarassing.

11. My mom forcing Scott to get a henna tattoo.

10. Sum was deathly afraid of the waves coming in on the shore.. poor girl would freak out if she even looked at them.

9. Sum falling asleep in her high chair at dinner.. It was one of those wodden ones that you use at a restaurant, so it has no support!

8. Summer said her name at dinner for the 1st time. She says her name is "Suh-muh" : )

7. I learned that zip lining is NOT on my to do list ever again.. everyone else liked it. I was fighting back the tears. SCARY!

6. My grandparents were able to come from Virginia. We hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving!

5. Abbey ordering 5 pina coladas, 2 strawbery daqaris and who knows what else.. all on my parents expense! haha

4. "The people that sell their junk on the beach in Cabo are like Seagulls, once you show interest in what they are buying they all flock to you.."

3. NOTE: if you go on a cruise during Spring Break, you WILL end up going with a ship full of disgusting drunk college kids that pee in your hallway, knock on your door at 2 a.m. and hit on you with you husband right next to you.

2. Summer got her picture done professionally, her hair had a gallon of sunblock in it and her little boobies were hanging out in the pics.. nice!

1. I think I gained 5 LBS. off souffle, made to order omletts and waffles, and chocolate crossiants.

0. I had to add one more.. Scott bought me my first really nice watch! Thanks hun!

Cupcakes & Snow

So I went to The Sweet Tooth Fairy to pick a treat up for a friend because she's helped me by watching Summer lately. Anyways.. remember my post (2 posts ago) about how Sum will do anything for a treat? So we go into the bakery and Summer just freaks out: "Ohhhh mommyyy, yummmm, I want a cupcake, mmmmm! Mama pleaseeee? Cupcake? Yummmmm! Pleaseee mommy?" I probably would've ended up buying her one just because she was being so cute. But there was a lady in front of us, she turned to Summer and told her that if Summer was with her she would buy her anything she wanted. The lady turned to me and said "You daughter is so adorable can I please buy her a cupcake?" : ) I thought it was so sweet and cute of this little lady to buy my pleading daughter what her heart desiered. So 10 seconds later a fetti-ferry cupcake was in Summer's happy hands. Here's a pic of her on the way home..

She IS adorable, isn't she?! : )

Later that night it was a flippin blizzard outside. Summer loves snow.. so what did we end up doing? Playing in the snow! Summer doesn't have snow clothes so she ended up playing in her raincoat, zip up jammies and suede boots.. nice.

4 x 4

Kendra tagged me.. here it goes..

1. Four Places I Go:
-Gym
-North Ogden
-Church
-Target

2. Four Favorite Smells:
-Summer after a bath
-Springtime
-Muffins in the oven
-Carmelized Pear candle

3. Four Favorite Movies/Shows
-Glee
-Vampire Diaries
-Off the Map
-Dirty Dancing

4. Four Recommendations:
- Don't pray for patience
- Always be working on a book
- Have "ME" time every day (mine is at the gym or in a book)
- Don't complain, it just gets everyone down and is plain annoying!

21 Things About Summer

Summer is 21 Months old this February. I can't believe that she will be 2 in only 3 months! (I'm already throwing around party plans around in my head!) I'm copying my cute friend Kendra.. but here is 21 fun facts about Summer Lin.

1. She LOVES ketchup. On everything, on hot dogs, strawberries, you name it.

2. She loves it when her daddy makes her laugh. And when he makes her laugh, she doesn't stop.

3. Summer will do almost anything for candy.

4. Summer loves her friend Luke (the boy I babysit). She asks for him probably once a day.

5. She loves to read books.

6. Summer loves to color. She colors around 3 times a day.

7. She loves Belle off "Beauty and the Beast". She has a little Belle doll and plays with her all day. She calls her "Beh".

8. She's kind of a bully. She hits everyone (which we are working on). But she can also be super sweet.

9. Summer loves babies and has been asking for a baby. : )

10. Her new favorite TV characters are Elmo, Buzz and Woody.. hopefully that's a good bye to "Yo Gabba Gabba".

11. She loves her Grandmas lots.

12. When we walk past our neighbor/friends door she says everytime that she wants to "knock" and play with Addalyn.

13. We have mommy/daughter dates to Yogotogo and cupcake bakeries. Summer loves treats.

14. When we're watching sports games she will yell at the TV "Go! Go! Go!" while shaking her fist in the air.

15. She has had one too many falls, so Summer is constantly afraid of falling. She can hardly sit in a chair without saying she's going to fall. : (

16. Summer loves bubbles.. she is bubble crazy.

17. She still loves her pretties. (Jewelrey)

18. Summer is a mommys girl. (Which I love)

19. She loves to play with her cousin Kamryn.

20. When she wants something Summer will tilt her head to the side, smile real big and say "pleaseeee" in the sweetest voice ever. She knows how to work it.

21. Summer loves to have her hair done. Shes such a girl. : )

We love our baby Summer and are so blessed to have her in our lives. Love you sweetie!