Photo update

My Sister-in-law and I were talking today about how terrible we are at updating our blogs....so I decided today is the day! Pictures are the best at describing whats going on in our lives!

Harper's Baby Blessing July 1st. Such a blessing in our lives.

Jayde wouldn't put her water down...but these are our kids compared to gorrilas. Jayde has the same picture of her when she was Harper's age. it's cute!

Some floor time! I love Harper's face in this picture. "what're you doing mom?"

Such big girls. It goes so fast...

How can you resist a clean and happy baby? Nothing better.

What is this? Why am I holding it?

This is Jayde getting ready to go to her first Dentist appointment! She's so big!

Giraffes at the Zoo after said Dentist appointment. We had to make up for torturing her. :) And that concludes this edition of Photo update. So much easier than having to write a ton.

Beautiful baby Harper

I think I might be a bad mother....because I haven't posted about our new baby girl! Harper Ruth Chipman was born on April 24, 2012. She was 7 lbs 3 oz and 20.75 in long! She is absolutely beautiful! See? And She is the best baby ever. Really. Right from the start when we brought her home she was sleeping atleast 4 hours at night and now, at 8 weeks, she sleeps 8 hrs a night! She's so calm and chill all the time, its amazing how easy she has made the transition from 1 kid to 2 for me. She has the cutest little smile I can not wait to see her grow up!

Where has the time gone?

I'm alive. I swear. It just may not seem like it. I cannot believe it is almost Thanksgiving. Time flies when you're running out with your head cut off. :) As much as I like to complain about how busy I've been and how much I miss Jayde...I really have been thoroughly enjoying my student teaching. I'm continuously reminded (because I forget) how much I enjoy teaching something I love and how cool it is when someone learns because of you. I love theatre and I'm starting to remember that I loved high school, even this second time around. I'm so grateful for this experience and for the fact that I'm going to have a college degree! I'm a big person! Really! I'm so glad I had the courage and determination to finish my degree after Jayde was born. I know I won't regret it.

Speaking of Jayde, she's pretty fantastic.She's 6 months old! She just has the sweetest temperment and is just a good baby all the time! When she gets fussy it's because something is usually very wrong...which is a good indicator for me. She loves playing and can sit up mostly by herself but still topples a little when things are too exciting.

I just wanted to give a brief update, make sure no one thought I was dead. :) If anyone even reads this....lol

Some New Things

This month Jayde had a few new experiences. :)She's 4 months old now so we're introducing solid foods. We tried cereal with a spoon for the first time...and she wasn't a huge fan of the spoon. But she doesn't mind it at all when we mix it with her formula in a bottle.

Jayde also got some new clothes and just loved wearing them, as you can see from her big smile!

We started reading to Jayde at night before she goes to bed. She absolutely loves all the colors on the books and is riveted by them.

And then Jayde got a new cousin! Kipton was born Sept 17 and is so tiny! I can't believe Jayde was ever that small...she looks huge compared to him now!


We also got to go see one of my best friends, Heather, play the part of Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray! It was absolutely fantastic and Jayde loved watching all the colors on stage.

On top of all these fun experiences Jayde got sick for the first time :( She had Roseola. She'd had a stuffy nose for a little while and I thought it was because I'd had a cold. Then she had a fever for about a day and then a rash showed up all over her body! Apparently that's exactly what roseola is, just a sequence of events. I didn't even get a picture of the rash before it went away. But it didn't look fun. She's was such a trooper though, hardly fussy at all even when she had a fever. She's such a sweet baby. We just love her so much!

Animals!

We went to see the farm animals at Thanksgiving point and then to the Zoo all in the same week! I think once Jayde is old enough to really look at the animals, she'll love them!

School is Cool

So....I've officially become a teacher...kind of. Haha, I know it's confusing. This is my last semester for my undergrad in Theatre Arts Education and so I'm student teaching! I was assigned to Springville High School and will be teaching 4 classes as well as helping direct the musical. I was absolutely terrified to start. I just kept thinking it was going to be too hard and the kids wouldn't like me. I was scared they would just take advantage of me and not listen to me.
Luckily, my fears were mostly for naught. My first two days at school have been so fun. The kids in the classes are mostly there because they genuinely want to learn about theatre. Notice I said mostly. :) There will always be the kids who are just there because they assume it's an easy A. But...I can live with those. I will convert them to theatre!
After going to school these past couple days and having auditions for our musical (My Favorite Year) I've realized and remembered again why I love theatre so much and why I want to teach theatre to kids. I've remembered why I loved it in high school, why I loved 2 of the drama teachers I had (that's another story) and why I chose to do this major in the first place! Wooot! I think it's going to be a pretty awesome semester. I'll be sure to update again when I'm exhausted and don't like it anymore. :)

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Jayde can roll over. I think it's so funny that something so small...to us anyway...is such a huge accomplishment for a baby! It takes Jayde a little while to actually get over that arm...but she does it! That's why I didn't take a video...it would be a really long video. haha. But here are some progression pictures!

Jayde's a Giggler!

So...in the past couple weeks Jayde has started to laugh. It's probably the cutest noise I've ever heard and so we try to get her to do it whenever possible. For a while, she would only laugh at Chris. Who wouldn't, right? :) But then Papa Shan (my step-dad) came to visit and got her laughin up a storm! So we caught it on video! It's adorable....sorry for me laughing in the background, it's contagious!

Broken Things = New Things

The title is obviously indicative to the subject of this post. I'm not sure if it was just my terrible luck or if there was some kind of unseen force that I emanate that broke everything. Either way, it all broke at the same time. My ipod, my SD card for my camera, my Laptop and our car. Completely shot. Not good.

So, there was some obvious need for new things. Which is always good, right? Even if it's only because it's something you need and your old one stinks. So...new stuff for us!

My mom was nice enough to buy me a new SD card just this past week, so my camera is up and running. Because of my lack of SD card for my camera and a laptop...I've not been able to update much on pictures of Jayde. We're still working on getting them off of my laptop. We didn't get a new baby...but we will get some new pictures! Finally! Jayde is growing up so fast. Some NEW things that she's done are: giggle, roll over! and she's starting to be a lot more vocal! She smiles all the time now and just loves being with people. Such a social butterfly. This picture is of her with her Grandma Chipman. We absolutely love watching her develop and grow. She's just so darn cute! I'll be sure to do another post with more pictures and videos of Jayde.

Last week we bought a new car! Wooooo! Let me tell you a little about car shopping...not as fun as it would seem. If you spend over a certain amount of time at a dealership or thinking about a certain car you start getting pressured by the car salesman. And then if you leave and decide to think about it, they call you asking what you decided. So much pressure! Way too much to think about. But we did finally decide on a Nissan Rogue. It's a smaller SUV and we love it. Really. We finally have a car that is reliable and we don't have to worry about fixing every couple months. And it's PREEEEETTTTY. :)

Along with a new car, we moved! Our old apartment wasn't broken, but we decided it was time for a change. We used to live in an apartment that was a little newer and had a teeny tiny living room...just wide enough to fit our couch. And now, we've moved to a bigger apartment with an open living room, dining room and kitchen and it's cheaper! We love our new place. And so far we love our new ward. New things are good for you...they make you feel like a new person.

Visiting Grandma

After having a c-section, and then getting my gall bladder out only 3 weeks later, I had had quite the difficult summer. So, after Jayde's blessing, Jayde and I decided to go stay for the week with Grandma Judy and Papa Shan in St. George. We got to just relax and spend time with Grandma while Papa worked. My mom was nice enough to take Jayde when she woke up in the morning so I could sleep a little longer after being awake with her during the night. Jayde got some new clothes, of course, and a new mobile and binkies for 2 month olds! :) We loved getting spoiled a just taking a break from being in our little apartment for a while. Chris came and stayed the weekend after and then we came home. It was hard being away from Chris for 5 days...for the whole time we'd been married and we hadn't ever spent a night apart. I don't think I like it very much. Haha, but it was nice to have my mom there with me all the time and be able to take a break when I needed one. Maybe Grandma would like to come live closer so we could do that more often?


Jayde absolutely LOVES the mobile and Papa Shan INSISTED that she needed. Haha. All we have to do when she's crying or fussy is lay her in her crib, crank the mobile and as soon as she hears the music she's happy. She'll lay there just kicking and smiling watching the animals go round and round. It's so cute! She's getting close to rolling over now...so we'll have to watch where we put her.

She's also starting to smile a ton more now so we got a little video of it. :) Sorry there's no sound.

Musicals and Fun for Jayde!

As most of you know, I'm quite the theatre fanatic and therefore quite the theatre goer. That also means I have quite a few friends also involved in theatre and I get to go and see the productions they are a part of! This summer we've already been to quite a few musicals! :) Which makes me very happy. Jayde got to go to 2 of those musicals with us!

First we saw "Funny Girl" at the Scera outdoor theatre in Orem. It was quite the long musical...and it got a little chilly outside and Jayde was snuggled down tight in blankets but it was still fun to go see! I love the music from this musical...classic. It was also really fun to see two of my friends from school perform. Camee and Heather were both awesome! So fun!

Then we got the awesome chance (in the same week) to go see Chris's brothers Dustin and Bryson in the musical "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." I'd never seen this show, and I'll admit I was a little leary about it but I really liked it! I heard somewhere that when this musical was on Broadway it didn't do so hot...and I'm not really sure why. The production was really well done; costumes, set and dancing were fabulous! And Dustin and Bryson were pretty good too. :)

Along with the musicals this summer I have been able to see Audra McDonald perform in "110 in the Shade" and then go see "The Wedding Singer" and the West Valley Hale. Audra McDonald is a 4 time Tony Award winner and was only here in town for a 2 week period performing her original role for a fund raiser. It was absolutely amazing. And "The Wedding Singer" was so hilarious! The music is so fun and the show itself was just so well done. It's been quite the musical filled summer so far and I love it! I think Jayde likes the music too. Maybe we've got a dramatic one on our hands? :)

Jayde's Blessing Day/Weekend

We were lucky enough that my Dad and his wife Marsha were able to make it to Utah for Jayde's Blessing! It worked out that it was also on Father's day, June 20, 2010, so it was quite the eventful weekend. We went to Temple Square and saw the beautiful flowers as well as did some Geocaching around Temple Square. Then we went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Sprinville and then had Jayde's blessing on that Sunday. Christopher gave Jayde a beautiful blessing and we had lots of family come for the occasion. After the blessing in Chris's parents ward in West Jordan, we went back to his parents house for a little brunch.We felt so loved to have so many people come for Jayde. What an awesome thing!






That same weekend we were also able to go see Chris's best friend Kyle get married in the Logan Temple!We stayed at Chris's cousin's house and got to attend Kyle and Chelsea's sealing. They're an awesome couple and we loved getting to be with them on their special day. Such an eventful weekend means we obviously took lots of pictures! Sorry it took a little while to get these posted.

More Newborn Pictures

We were able to find a photographer for Jayde's newborn pictures through a friend. We went on a wednseday afternoon and spent about 3 hours trying to get some good pictures. Jayde didn't like laying on her tummy. And she was awake, unless we were cuddling her. Plus, the photographer loved having it be like 60 degrees in her studio, so Jayde was freezing! But after a little while, we figured out that if Chris layed underneath the black backdrop, and Jayde could lay on top of him, then she was ok! haha. Whatever works, right!? Either way, we got some really pretty pictures.