Love

Love.  What an incredible feeling!  There are so many ways and levels to love that I often stand amazed at it.  Tonight J has an overnight shift so I am parenting alone, which is fine.  (J was able to at least come home and have a Chipotle indoor-picnic for an hour with us)  But I sit here alone at almost 1:00 AM and I'm looking down at my baby, who is lying on the floor beside me) and I am overwhelmed with how much I love him.  I didn't know it was possible to love someone so much.  I am completely in love with my husband and the person that he is (he amazes me constantly with his kindness, thoughtfulness, and patience) but the love I have for my son is completely different.  I created this little person who is just laying here looking up at me.  I look down at him and smile, then he smiles and my heart melts.  He is completely dependent on me and I feel so responsible for him-not in an obligatory way but in a complete love and devotion sort of way. 

I don't know what I'm really trying to say here except that I love Baby B so completely.  I am so thankful that he has joined our family.  I am so thankful for J and all the hard work he puts in to provide for our family and allows me to stay at home with our little boy.  I truly have the best job in the world!!! (That's not to say that I'm not tired or that we don't have hard moments) but I love being a mother.  I know I haven't been a mom very long (just 8 weeks) but it's incredible.  It also makes me all the more thankful for my mother who willingly went through labor, delivery, sleepless nights, and all the aches and pains of motherhood for me and my siblings.  Thanks Mom for setting such a wonderful example of devotion, love, patience, kindness, and selflessness.

I'm rambling (it is one in the morning after all) but I hope I'm able to convey just a little bit my feelings of awe at the love of being a mother of the sweetest little boy.  Baby B, I love you! 

Movie Time

So I don't have time to write lots right now, so here are some videos to appease the masses...or the three of you that read this :)

Here is Baby B right after he was born :

(It's so weird to me how small he is)

This video was taken when he was nine days old.  When he was really hungry he thought he could get food from any source including Daddy's sleeve or the burp cloth.

And this video was taken yesterday.  Tried to get some smiles out of him (because they are so dang cute!) It amazes me how much he's grown since the day he was born- I mean just go back to the first video and compare. Unreal! Love Baby B more than I ever thought possible!

Almost A Year Later....

It's funny how quickly life can change in a year. Here's how mine did:

Oh look! We're having a baby (pretty sure I used three of these to be sure)

Bradley Jared Fixmer made it here on January 21 at 8 lbs. 5 oz. and 21 inches.

He is so darling (I'm not biased at all) and such a blessing in our lives.

Now to sum up everything in between the first picture and the last picture....well....my baby is still pretty new, so give me some time to come up with another post :)  I'll try to fill you in and post more pictures of this cute guy.

Haircuts and Birthdays

So once again I failed to keep up with the blog. I tried so hard to post yesterday so I would have at least one post in March. Oh well, April is here so I'm just moving forward.  March was a great month for us.  We were so happy to not have the crazy schedule that had taken hold of us in January and February.  We filled March with dinners with friends, dates, Stake conference, and celebrations!

I have decided there must be something about winter and the grayness of it all that constantly creates this desire in me for change.  I can't change the cold, the snow, the gray (okay we occasionally get awesome sunny days here in the winter so I can't complain too much), and I start to think about what I can change.  Without fail, almost every winter I have decided my hair is the one thing I can control and change usually without regret.  Some winters it's just a trim or a few inches to clean up the ends. (I know I should be getting trims more often than this but I don't.), but this winter I decided to go with a bigger change. So without boring you with the details of a very long talk with the hairdresser and bringing in a picture to show what I wanted, here it is:

Straight

And Curly

I wish I had taken a before picture because it was pretty long without any style to it.  But if you've met me at all then you know the haircut because I have had variations of it for like 10 years. Hence, the great need for change :)  I also wish I had taken a picture of the pile of hair swept up when all was said and done.  But I absolutely LOVE it and though it's taken a little bit of time getting used to doing bangs I'm getting the hang of it.  And that's the news for me for now.

March also held a much more significant event for us than my haircut.  We got to celebrate Jared and his birthday!!

Now Jared isn't big on celebrating his birthday. He's just an overall prettylow-key guy.  But because I think he is incredibly awesome and I love him so much I had to celebrate him.  Fortunately his birthday was on a Saturday and he kinda had the day off.  (He was on backup call-which means if someone else had an emergency or was ill he would get called in to cover them)  But he never got called and we got to spend a glorious day together!!

It started with sleeping in (like every great Saturday should) and then even though it was Jared's birthday, he made us brunch.  He's just so good at it and enjoys being in the kitchen that I decided not to argue the fact I should be making him brunch.  He made delicious Apple German pancakes (one of my favorite hot breakfast foods) and we had a great time lounging around the apartment for a while.  We've been meaning to see the Voyage of the Dawn Treader forever and we found it in a budget theater nearby playing in the afternoon.  So we headed to our movie.



We really enjoyed the movie.  It may not have been done with the grandness as the first one but we still really liked it.  Reepicheep definitely had us laughing, I love that brave little mouse warrior!  Afterwards we ran a few errands and then went out to get Jared's birthday present- a new Kitchen Aid mixer!

I guess I should back up a little bit.  We had a Kitchen Aid that Jared's mom generously gave him years ago.  So back in January Jared was mixing up some dough for bread bowls in our mixer and then suddenly the top just detached itself from the bottom half!  How does this happen?!!? I don't know but it did.  We could do nothing but laugh because it was just so random.  We then looked on the bottom and realized it had once been serviced in 1972...so we're not quite sure how old it was but definitely at least 39 years.  We called Jared's mom and learned she had gotten it from her mother.  So this mixer has been well loved and well used and we loved everything we were able to make with it. 

However, Jared and I really like to pretend that we're awesome chefs, (Now I will say that we actually are decent bakers and cooks but by no means the best chefs in the world) so we decided the Kitchen Aid should probably be replaced.  So that was our present to Jared for his birthday.  With a 20% coupon, some gift cards, and some rebate cards we were able to get it for $0.  We like that price!!!  I let Jared pick it out since it was his birthday present and I am thrilled with his pick.

Empire Red! It's a little bit deeper red then the picture shows.  Jared calls it bold and I call it cheery, but either way we are thrilled with our new Kitchen Aid and can't wait to begin making delicious goodness.

So after we found Jared's present we went to dinner at Olive Garden.  Yummy as usual.  And then we were boring and married and totally went to the grocery store.  Happy Birthday Jared :)  By the time we got home we were pretty tired and it was pretty late so we opted to skip making dessert and quickly opened presents.  Due to our lack of making dessert, we pulled out Kopp's custard from the freezer and I put in a few candles and I sang my heart out to him.

I love his smile!  I love everything about him and this is why I had to celebrate him.  I truly am the luckiest girl in the whole world and I'm so blessed to be married to this wonderfully kind, faithful, tender man.  Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

We've been blessed with glimpses of spring and hopefully this will bring some more adventures for us.  I'll try to keep ya'll up to date.  Much love!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

So I still have tons to catch up on…but I thought I would post something fairly recent and work my way backwards J  So yesterday was Valentine’s Day.  Jared and I looked at our calendars and realized we probably wouldn’t be able to celebrate till this coming Friday when he finally gets a day off and we have nothing planned in the evening.  Last night I had my second cake decorating class (yep, I’m taking a class offered by Wilton at JoAnn Fabrics.  I’m loving it and definitely glad I’m taking it because I have lots to learnJ) Anyways…my class is from 6:30-8:30 so I knew I wouldn’t be home till around nine.  I just figured with our plans for Friday, that I would come home, we’d have a quick low-key dinner and things would be great.  But instead, my sweet husband raced home from work and cooked us a delicious meal (one of our favorites: Herb Crusted Chicken, mashed potatoes, and salad).  He even fished out our tablecloth and candles. (Okay, maybe I helped him find those when I got home).  But it was the sweetest surprise in the world to find my sweet husband in the kitchen with a big grin, great food ready to be served, and roses on the table.  Thanks so much Hon for a fabulous Valentine’s surprise!!! I’m the luckiest girl in the world J

Oh and p.s. my cake class is going okay.  Due to a power outage yesterday, my cake went into the oven very late in the afternoon, which left little time for cooling, torting, frosting, and getting ready for class.  I was near tears as I drove late to my class because my cake did not look how I wanted it to AT ALL.  But I was glad once I got to class. I had a great time learning and practicing with my new icing tips and practicing on my cake.  Though my cake isn’t fabulous, I chalk it up to power-outages, being late to class,  and heck, it is my first time J Here’s my cake, it’s nothing spectacular, but it’s my first and I can only improve from here, right? 

Oh and they made me make this cupcake on the top.  It was a pattern we all had to follow.  So…I’m excited to decorate a cake as I want to J