One man's trash is another man's treasure

Today we had a yard sale. We made $68. It feels so good to get rid of junk. Some of the things we sold was not "junk" but just things we do not have room for or a need for. We are excited to move into our new place a week from today. We spent an afternoon and looked at several places. We put a deposit and are all set up to move into Santa Fe Apartments off of Fort Union in Salt Lake. We have enjoyed living in McKay and Jodie's house and are grateful for them allowing us to stay here, but we are also very excited to be in our own place with our things. Also, on another note... Taylor and I have been kicked out of our room! Sage has been our lil monster almost every night this week. We don't know what her deal is. She has been going to bed around 8 p.m and waking up at 5 a.m and will eat and go back to sleep until about 7 since she was 2 months, but this past week she has been waking up every few hours. The other night when I went to get her at 3 a.m and change her diaper she just smiled and laughed at me. Is she just happy to see me or maybe she knows I am super grumpy and wants to make me happy? We all took a nap this afternoon about 5:00 and it is now 10:00 p.m and she is still sound asleep on our bed. Taylor and I have already made our back up plan. I called the top bunk and he called the bottom. We might be sleeping in Kenzie and Emmie's bunk beds while Sage gets a queen size bed all to herself. There is something wrong with this picture.

Me and my girl!

I remember when I first had Sage and she slept all day and I didn't know what to do with myself nor did I know what to do with her when she was awake. I love those memories of just cuddling with her and giving her a bottle and rocking her back to sleep. I loved just watching her sleep. But I am also loving my time with her now as she becomes more and more interactive. I love the time we spend. We have so much fun together. I dance around and sing and she laughs at me. She thinks I'm pretty fun. I hope she always feels that way about me. Now when she naps I find plenty of things to do. I coupon, blog, clean, talk to friends on the phone who also have sleeping babies, read, and recently I have started making Sage's baby food. It is so easy, but just takes a little time. Yesterday I made her carrots and pears. She was a little grumpy after her nap. I thought having her try and new food would make her happy. It would make me happy. But not her. She spit most of it out. We'll try again when she is in a better mood. Today I am feeling pretty grateful that I get to stay home with her. We gathered a bunch of fun textured things from around the house to play with like a sponge, sandpaper, silky ribbon, a wicker basket, grass, feathers, a washcloth, tissue paper and a make-up brush. She had fun touching and playing with each item. She loved the tissue paper and the make-up brush. She wasn't too sure what to think about some of the other items. I kept throwing the feathers up in the air and she loved watching them fall down. It is so much fun to watch her learn and grow. I know I have said this before, and I know every mom probably thinks this, but I am the luckiest mom in the whole entire world!

Our pear lovin girl!

Our girl is growing up! She has such a fun personality and is always making us laugh and smile with her facial expressions.

Family Photos by Lexi Rae Photography

Once again Lexi has taken amazing pictures for us. She captured some precious pictures of our girl and also took some awesome pictures of the "three of us". I still love how that sounds. Yesterday we went looking for an apartment and all the places we went to asked, "Is it just the three of you?" Yep, just the three of us! I ordered a canvas on a groupon a while back and am excited to have a good family picture. Now to choose which one... so many cute ones to choose from. Thanks Lexi! You are so talented!

We are so blessed!

We steamed and pureed pears for Sage today. She really liked them. In fact I made such a little bit because I wasn't sure if she would and I had to quickly puree some more. Afterwards she drank 4 oz and then her daddy gave her a bath and got her ready for bed. The three of us read "Mama Loves Me", "Where is Peter Rabbit?" and also read about how Nephi was commanded to build a ship. She drank 2 more oz, we said a prayer, was swaddled tight, binkie put in her mouth, given kisses and put in her crib for the night. She cried for about 5 minutes and now is sound asleep. She is such a good girl. Like Taylor mentioned tonight, "we are so blessed."

What we have been up to...

Well, we are still on the hunt for a place to live. Stillwater is still an option, but we are a little nervous about it after the reviews we read. Some of the complaints included: the fact that they do not have a smoking policy which several people complained about being able to smell smoke in their apartment due to their neighbor smoking right outside, lots of maintenance problems that do not get taken care of, police coming out to he complex a lot, disturbance from dogs barking since up to two pets are allowed per apartment, etc. After addressing some of the concerns in the reviews with the management, we feel a little better, but we also found out about several fees that we were not told about up front. We'll see. Grandma Fenton took everyone to Little America for dinner to celebrate Taylor's dad's birthday. We need to plan a trip to Paradise soon so we can spend some time with him and Jeanne too. We miss them when they are up in Paradise.Lexi took pictures of Sage and our family the other night. She does such a good job. We can't wait to see them. My good friend Michelle Lurvey from Arizona is in town for the weekend. Last week Taylor had a date with Sage while I got to spend some time with Michelle. We went to the Draper Temple because she had never been. Today she went with us and our friends Jeff and Amanda to the Farmer's Market up in Salt Lake. I think it is so much fun to walk around. I love the atmopshphere. It sure was hot though. And tonight Dan, Jill and Lacie came over for dinner and to hang out. We made BBQ chicken/cilantro pizza. Dan unfortunately had a call and had to leave, but Jill and Lacie stayed and hung out and watched a movie. Taylor is meeting Dan half way to drop them off now. We enjoy spending time with them. And for other exciting news our good friends Donny and Donna had their baby girl! Kailee (pronounced Kylee- not Kaylee) Jane Sand was born Friday, July 22 and 11:59 am. She was 7 lbs 1 oz and 19 1/4 inches long. She has lots and lots of black hair.We are so happy for their new addition. What a blessing a baby can be! We feel so blessed to have Sage in our lives. She brings us so much joy and happiness. It is so fun to watch her grow. I really feel like she is growing before my very eyes. I love watching her personality blossom. We hope Kailee and Sage will have lots of opportunities to play and become good friends. We can't wait to meet her!

We knew he could do it!

Taylor made his goal yesterday of 40 property/casualty policies and 4 life policies! He finished faster than anyone ever has in his office! We are so grateful for the prayers and support of family and friends. He is going to put his notice in at New Haven and will start working full-time for Farmers by mid-August. In the mean time he will continue working up in Salt Lake just twice a week. We also found a place to live in Salt Lake. We are exited for the upcoming changes!

I've seen better days!

I'm in really bad shape. I'm writing this strictly for comical purposes, although at the moment I do not think it is very funny, but I know some day I will. Yesterday at church they were looking for volunteers to help a sister who was recently in a horseback riding accident and broke her elbow. She asked for help folding laundry so I volunteered. I wish I hadn't. I went over there today and she was happy to see me. She told me she already folded several loads of laundry and her elbow was throbbing. For just a very brief moment I was happy to be there. Happy to help. I put Sage down on her blanket to play as she got a load of laundry from the dryer. A load of undergarments. A huge load of stained, nasty undergarments. I gave a polite smile as I quickly tried to think of a way out of it. I quickly folded and tried not to gag and hide my disgust. My disgust for the undergarments and my disgust that she had 4 kids home (the oldest who is going into the 10th grade). Why in the world was I folding their parents underwear as they sat around? Really? She asked the oldest to hold Sage while I carried the laundry basket upstairs and was instructed to where her and her husbands underwear belonged. She said she had another load that would be done in a few minutes so we could sit and chat. That was my cue. I told her I had to get the baby home to feed her. Then tonight I was weeding in the backyard as I waited for Taylor so we could lay in the hammock. That never happened. Taylor came out and joined me weeding for just a few minutes. Moments later my body started burning and itching. We went inside and counted 18 bites! 18! I was attacked! Those little bugs (and I call them that in a very less endearing way than I call my Sage-maybe I should rethink her nickname!) got my legs, arms, my face and five of them managed to get my bum! Don't ask me how! Like I said, I am in really bad shape.

Sage loves bath time!

Salt Lake

We had a very uneventful weekend, which was very nice. We didn't do too much, which was perfect. We did go up to Salt Lake on Saturday to see Grandma Sargent and played a few games. She is so much fun and such a good sport. She is everyones cheerleader and wants everyone to play well. We love playing games with grandma. We look forward to playing a lot more games with her once we move up to Salt Lake. We also stopped by and visited with Jill, Dan and Lacie. It will be so nice to live closer to them too! We just found out that Jodie and the girls come home on the 8th of August. So, we have three more weeks here. We are happy to have them home sooner. We miss them! We are loving it here, but are also excited to be in our own place again soon. We think we have found a place. We'll go see it on Tuesday. Tuesday is also the deadline for Taylor to have his policies completed. He is so close! On average it takes people about 3 months, but he has been working hard to finish in 1 month. He has 6 property/casualty left and we are keeping our fingers crossed/saying lots of prayers that his fourth life policy goes through by then as well. And a post is not a post without pictures of our little bug! So here she is!

relaxing with 2 of my favorite people

After dinner the 3 of us went and relaxed on the hammock. It was perfect. I love these 2 people and love the time we have to spend as a family. I hope we make many moments like this together and hope that I may always remember these quiet, still moments when life gets crazy and busy.

Standing & Playing

6 to 3

The "Fenton Party of 3" is so excited to have a new NEPHEW coming in December! As you can clearly see Sage has lots of cute little girl cousins and only 2 boy cousins. It's about time we add another boy into the picture! Congrats Dan, Jill and Lacie! We are so excited for you guys!

Sage loves her Uncle and Auntie. The last day they spent with us was the parade Sage got to be in for winning the baby contest and afterwards we took them up to Paradise.We had a nice time relaxing, visiting with Taylor's parents, eating yummy food, and going to Porcupine Dam. We wish we could spend more time in Paradise. We were sad to see Michael and Melissa leave on Sunday, but enjoyed the time we had with them. We are also very glad to get back to a routine. With all the fun we were having Sage did not get many naps, which probably contributed to her falling asleep in the parade on Saturday. By Sunday she was exhausted and took a 4 hour nap.

Fun with Michael and Melissa

The twins came to visit for the week and we have been having lots of fun visiting with them. Sage loves the extra attention and I love the extra company during the day. We have watched lots of movies, played lots of games, made strawberry frozen yogurt, got snow cones, made delicious dessert crepes, entered Sage into her Baby Contest and went to the Hogle Zoo. We have also had lots of fun with Taylor in the evenings. We have gone on a hike, made Melissa break her 5 month vegetarian nonsense with yummy In-N-Out (she admitted that she "hearts meat"), gone ice-skating, and dressed up as cows for "Cow Appreciation Day" and all got free meals at Chik-fil-A, got frozen hot chocolate from Smart Cookie and have been enjoying playing games. We only have them for a couple more days and will be sad to see them go.