a much needed update...

So, I've been a terrible blogger this year. There is so much that I could have/wanted to blog about, but life gets crazy and blogging always seems to fall by the wayside. So instead of elaborate posts about everything we've been up to the last 4+ months, you're just going to get a top 10 list.

What's been going on with the Mootes (in no particular order)

1. Brian graduated! He survived a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science and finished with his best semester GPA ever, a 3.8!

2.  We have taken 3 trips to St. George so far this year and loved them all. We especially love swimming in the pool/hot tub and 4 wheelings in the Teryx.

3. Brian was also accepted into the dual MBA/MSE program at the University of Utah and received a fellowship with a 50% tuition reduction and a small stipend. So we will be in SLC for 2/2.5 more years.

4. Oliver will be 1 year old in exactly 1 week! What a crazy, fun, tiring, exciting, exhausting, heart-warming year it has been. This topic will definitely get its own post soon...hopefully.

5. We are going to Europe for 2.5 weeks at the end of the month. We will be in southern Germany/northern Austria for a week and then move on to Rome and Tuscany for the last week and a half. We are SO EXCITED. Much of my potential blogging time has gone to planning this trip.

6. We are going to Georgia for the summer again! Yep, we will be teaching swim lessons to help pay for our Europe trip and Brian's masters program. We are excited to swim and be with my family for a bit, especially with our new niece arriving any day now.

7. We moved out of student housing! We hate moving and are hoping to find a place where we can stay for the full 2 years we have left as starving students, but we are glad to be out of our old place. Bottom line - moving is hard! We are glad to finally breathe and relax again, for now.

8. I have had the opportunity to take Italian lessons once a week from an Italian living in our complex. It has been a fun get away for me, and I definitely could use the brush up on my Italian for our big Europe trip. Giving up my Thursday nights was one of the few sad moments of moving for me.

9. We got a King mattress! For those of you who know Brian, you know how big a deal this is! He is planning on making an awesome frame to go with it. We can't wait to use it once we get back from GA.

10. Oh and by the way, I'm 12 weeks pregnant...surprise! We were pretty surprised ourselves but are so excited to meet our new addition this Thanksgiving. More on this one later!

My Dream Home

Way back in February, while we were in St. George for President's Day weekend, we did the Parade of Homes. Here are some pics from my favorite house on the parade. So in love. :)

Oliver is 9 months!

 

9 months in, 9 months out! Our Hot ThomOllie (get it?!?! haha) is cuter than ever. He totally has us wrapped around his tiny, little fingers. At 9 months:

 

Wears size 3 diapers and 6 to 9 month clothes

Can stand up and sit back down without falling

Cruises around all the furniture

Loves to crawl after balls and chase us around the ottoman

Thinks knocking down block towers in the best thing ever

Puts his own face in the water while swimming or in the bath tub

Smiles and flirts with everybody

Can say Daddy, Dada, Yay, Hi

Claps when excited, especially when food is involved

Gives open mouth kisses

Eats purees and finger food like a champ...still loves yogurt :)

Loves to watch "Let it Go" on youtube

Sleeps through the night and takes 2/3 naps during the day

Enjoys the swings but doesn't care about slides

Still enjoys the moby wrap/ergo

Gets into everything

Can sip through straws and has mastered the sippy cup

Still doesn't have any teeth (I jumped the gun on this one, he is SO close though)

Is finally ticklish

Melts our hearts with his big open smiles

 

 

And...proof that it's not always rainbows and butterflies

Teething is rough stuff!

 



Valentines Day & 3rd Anniversary Adventures

Yep. I'm combining all the cheesy, ooey, gooey, love stuff into one post this year! I get why so many people hate "love" holidays; they can totally come off as superficial and forced and are sometimes just one more thing to add to the checklist. I, myself, have fallen victim to this mentality more than once before. [Fact: I don't need big love gestures to know that Brian loves me. He tells me everyday...literally, as in he says the words...but he also shows me in a million different ways. Like yesterday, Brian volunteered to watch Oliver so that I could go the temple with Amy. Such a small thing, but it was just what I needed. And not only did I come home to a freshly bathed, happy smiling baby, but Brian had also cleaned the house and completely rearranged and baby proofed our furniture while I was gone. (Amy - I think it's "London Ready" now.) True love is changing poopy diapers, jimmy rigging a hook on the bookshelf so that I have a place to hang my diaper bag, cleaning my car on a cold, sunny day, taking Oliver to church alone so that I can puke in solitude. That my friends is how I know Brian loves me! And I sincerely hope I do enough for him each day so that I he knows how much I love him back. I'm making a mental note right now to start stepping up my game.] Still, I've decided that I'm grateful for specific days that allow us to take a step back and outwardly celebrate our love for each other.

We spent Valentines Day in St. George this year. My sweet hubbie got up before the Sun to buy me flowers and make me breakfast in bed (bacon, orange rolls, toaster strudels, and simply orange with pulp!) He also surprised me to with everything I would need for a relaxing bubble bath (this man knows my heart,) chocolate, and a puzzle for us to work on together. My card, Reese's, and lottery love coupons for him paled in comparison. The other leading man in my life was as cute and as happy as could be, making for a wonderful first day of our vacation together.

And even though it was three months ago, I absolutely have to share about our adventures at the ATL Ritz Carlton for our 3rd anniversary! It was definitely our most memorable anniversary to date. Usually, we have kept our anniversary celebrations pretty low key as it is always around finals and just before Christmas, but this year to decided to spend our first night away from Oliver while my parents watched him and go all out with a special package at the Ritz Carlton.

 We don't really do hotels. And we don't ever do fancy hotels. Does anyone else ever feel like an impostor in these situations? We totally did, but playing pretend was a lot of fun. After valet parking, we checked in and entered our upper level, city view room only to find out that the previous tenants hadn't completely checked out and were still in the adjacent room! The other people complained; the head of housing keeping came to offer us a better room (we declined. It really wasn't a big deal. We liked the view.) and kept asking over and over what they could do for us (um...there is no toilet paper in the bathroom? I had no idea what to ask for. We screamed newbie, impostor alert! haha.) In the end, we were offered free champagne, which then became free desert room service (creme brulee, cheesecake, and chocolate ice cream) after we politely declined because we don't drink.

Our package came with hot chocolate and tickets to the new ferris wheel and to the ice skating rink in Centennial Olympic Park, so after settling in, we headed out to downtown. We really enjoyed the ferris wheel and were impressed with how long we were able to ride. I thought for sure it would be total rip off and we would get one, maybe two revolutions max. Ice skating was a different story. It was crowed, choppy, half melted, and Brian was really grossed out by the used skates. We didn't last very long before deciding just to go ahead and leave for dinner.

The Ritz loved us so much, they weren't ready to let us leave when our check out time rolled around at 12. So they made sure we got stuck in the elevator on the way down. That's right. We were almost at the lobby when we felt a bit of a jolt and the doors didn't open. After about 45 minutes, the firemen came to the rescue and caught us and our luggage as we shimmied through about a foot and a half clearance at the bottom of the elevator/ceiling of the lobby. I so, so wish I had taken pictures or video of the rescue! It was so surreal. And once again we were bombarded with staff asking what they could do for us. I hate that question. How are you supposed to answer that? We didn't really, but they assured us that our bill was comped and that they would be sending us a letter for an additional nights stay at there hotel. Best deal ever! Definitely worth getting stuck in an elevator. 

And to finish off our anniversary adventure, we went on saw Saving Mr. Banks at Phipps AMC in Lenox mall. I had been wanting to check out the theater since my family had posted pictures of them there seeing Catching Fire, and we barely made it to our showing thanks to the whole elevator debacle. It didn't disappoint. I have never been so comfortable watching a movie in my life. Hooray for three years of marriage down and infinity more to go!