It's that time of year

Fall is here!
It's that fabulous time of year when freckles have begun to fade (hallelujah) and cardigans and jackets are out in full force. Life has been really good here at the Biddulph household!

Blake has started Law School at BYU and he is really liking it. It's a lot of work, but he says it's been a lot more interesting than he thought it would be, so I think that's a good sign.

Claire and I have been staying busy at home. I'm doing some secretarial work from home for the company that Blake did summer sales for, I've really liked having something small on the side to do while being a mom. I feel busy, but its' a really good, manageable busy. I'm really blessed.

Claire is 15 months. She is at such a fun age right now and is understanding so much more and saying a few words that we can comprehend. Her favorite thing to say is "uh-oh". She will say "uh-oh" and then drop something on purpose... it's pretty cute...most of the time. She is just a jabber mouth lately, and you can tell she's really trying to communicate. She loves suckers (which have become a life saver for us in times of need aka: the grocery store, church, etc) and brushing her teeth (which is good for the sucker eating).We just love her.

Favorite Pictures from the last while, get ready for an overload:

 

1st day of Law School... not high school

 

 

2 Year Anniversary- He's a keeper, and luckily he thinks I am too.

 

 

Sucker after a rough visit at the Doctor

 

 

Skinny jeans and pigtails

 

Hugs from cousin Jack

 

 

Meeting my beautiful new niece

 

 

Swinging with Suze

 

A peaceful meditation

 

Feeding the ducks

 

Bathtime is the best

 

Shopping with these 2 is a HOOT

 

 

 

1st haircut, the mullet is gone and her bangs are no longer clouding her vision, thanks to my friend Stacey! How she cut her hair so well with Claire bobbing her head back and forth I will never know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!





Catching Up

So I'm gonna do a little catch up post about our last days in Delaware. We had so much fun in Delaware and got to see and experience a lot of awesome things, but boy are we glad to be home in the West! Here are some of our last adventures in Delaware (it will probly be a picture overload so no pressure to read further) :

We spent a weekend with my brother and sister-in-law who live in Dover and went to Rehobath beach. It was a cooler day so we didn't come prepared with swimsuits, but ended up getting pretty wet anyways. It was so much fun! Claire LOVES the water and the sand... she got really dirty and wet and I'm sure people were thinking we were crazy parents, but what else is new!

 



We went to an Orioles game! Blake's parents came to Delware for a weekend and we enjoyed a game in Baltimore. It was so fun to have them and show them around Delaware a little bit.

 

 

 

 

Blake's work sent everyone on the sales team to Williamsburg, Virgina to go to Busch Gardens and Water Country USA! It was such an awesome drive to Virgina. Claire kind of put a damper on us going on rides and water slides, we did go on a few, but it definitely isn't as fun to go on rides by yourself... but we had really fun anyways!

 

My sister-in-law Kelsey and I went to Lancaster, PA for a day and visited the Amish Country! It really was SO fascinating and we had so much fun visiting all the little shops with amazing handmade quilts. It was my first time seeing a horse and buggy.... loved it! It was blistering hot outside and when we saw a sign for 'Ice Cold Homemade Rootbeer' we just couldn 't resist. It was this sweet little Amish girl who sells it right out of their barn/house, so we got to be right there and really got a feel for how they live. The father was out plowing the fields with a horse-drawn plow. And the little boys were on horses helping their dad. It was really neat and it really made me think how I don't need a lot of the things I have. It was kind of refreshing to me to see a family all working together and just living a really simple, good life. I keep telling Blake I want to run away and join the Amish... perhaps someday.  

We went to NYC! It was definitely one of my favorite things we did. Blake and I were both NYC virgins so we really enjoyed seeing everything!

 

We drove to Staten Island and took the ferry over to Manhattan. We got a great  view of the city as well as the Statue of Liberty coming in on the ferry and Claire liked it too.

 

 We of course went to Times Square... it was mesmerizing

 

 

Claire got to meet the all too friendly Dora the Explora.... Dora came up to us all friendly wanting to hold Claire (no thank you) and get a picture taken... As I was taking their picture sneaky little Mickey Mouse snaked his way into a photo as well, at first I was thinking "wow, really nice characters they've got here" until we were done and they both started patting their bags asking for money haha we should have known... but after all we were rookies.

 

Stopped by the Plaza Hotel, mostly because I LOVE Home Alone.

 

 

Some took a snooze in Central Park,

 

While others did some modeling

 

And other nonsense

 

It was a great summer and we made lots of memories. We have now started the next chapter of our lives: Law School.

 

 

But right now, I'm missing these cutie little boys!

 

 

 

 

She's One!

My baby girl turned 1! ... I really can't get over it! It's been fun thinking about her birth and how much our lives have changed (for the better) since the day she was born.

Being a mom is so great! I have learned A LOT in the last year, I realize now how much my mom did for me as a child. Sometimes I wonder how anyone ever takes care of more than one kid... let alone 6... I won't worry about that until the time comes though... for the sake of my stress levels.
I have always dreamed of being a mother, it's always been what I 'wanted to be when I grow up', and now I'm grown up (kind of) and I am a mom.. anyways, I know this is getting a little gushy... but I've just been looking back on the past year and feeling really blessed.

No hands!

We had a small celebration for Claire's birthday, consisting of Claire, myself, and Blake... we had balloons and sang and ate cupcakes and ice cream... and when I say we I mean Blake and I because Claire didn't think my cupcakes were anything special. What kind of child do you have to force feed a cupcake? I'll never understand.

About her:
She has 5 teeth
She still prefers baby food over normal human food...
She hates bread or anything bread-like
She loves popsicles
She doesn't walk yet... getting close though!
She says mama, dada, da (for done) and many other sounds that I haven't found a meaning to yet.
Paper is one of her favorite foods.
I could keep going but I'll stop there:)

I have been thinking a lot lately about how I need to live in the moment and be happy with what is going on in my life RIGHT NOW. I find myself thinking too often - I can't wait til we move back to the west, I can't wait til Blake starts law school, I can't wait til law school is over, I can't wait til we can buy a house, or I can't wait til I have 10 children (...not).

Always thinking about what's coming up next that I can be excited about instead of just living the fun times that are happening right now! I know someday I will look back on these times in my life when we were just starting out and miss them... at least that's what I'm told.

At the fourth of July fireworks in D.C. Blake and I were talking about how people (us included) could hardly sit back and enjoy the fireworks because everyone was so worried about being the first one on the metro and getting back home. Like halfway through the fireworks people were running to get home... it was funny really, we had been waiting all day in 105 degree weather for the fireworks and then when they were finally there we couldn't wait for them to be over and get home.

Anyways... you've heard enough of my jumbled thoughts by now...

That one time...

 So I'm a bit behind... I'm blogging about the time it was 105 degrees on the 4th of July and blake had a fever of 102... and we went to Washington D.C.

Blake and I made some fun plans for the fourth of July with the time he had off from work and thought what better way to spend the nation's independence day than in the nation's capitol?  The trip included a 2 night stay in Washington, D.C.  Neither of us had been before, and we were pretty stoked! We missed out on a few family vacations back home and so we decided to have our own little vacay with the time Blake had off. 

It was definitely a very VERY memorable trip... for several reasons.

*  Blake ended up getting strep throat a day before we were supposed to go... we had paid for the hotel and everything ahead of time so there was no backing out.

*  The hotel ran out of cribs and so Claire got/had to sleep right in the middle of us... it was a rough couple of nights and I had no idea she was such a wild sleeper.

*  It was a 105 degrees and felt like a 157 with the humidity. And there were about a bajillion people there on the 4th of July

 Going down to the metro! It was my first time ever riding on a metro and I thought it was so cool! Brilliant idea that metro... You would have thought it was a roller coaster or something with how excited I was to be riding on that thing... Let's just say I'm an Idaho girl and I had noooo idea the metro was underground (I thought it was a train)... yeah I'm an idiot sometimes... Blake was quite amused with me.

This was at the beginning of the trek... pre-sweatiness. The metro popped us up right into the middle of the national mall. Speaking of national mall... for some reason I was under the impression that the national mall, was in fact a mall.... oh how I was very wrong... and a little disappointed too haha.

                                      We decided that since we were in town we would stop by our friend Barack Obama's house.

                                     Sometimes we like to be immature and pose in front of cool paintings.

 Being grumpy in front of the capitol. NOTE: Do not try to wear pants when it is 105 degrees... even if you do think your blue pants are cool and festive.

sweaty, tired, binky faced girl

                                     The Washington Monument was THE place to be... 

                                     Claire was all tuckered out about midway through the day...... and so were we.

 The fireworks really were awesome! There was something special about being in D.C. and seeing them over the Washington Monument. And I must say they give Idaho Falls fireworks a run for their money... but by no means are they way better.

So all in all it was a really good little trip! There were times when Blake and I would just look at each other and laugh at how miserable we were... (mostly him) he was a trooper battling such a hot day with a fever. We tried to stay inside as much as we could and just go into the museums to cool off. We were SO ready to go back to the hotel when the day was over, all three of us were completely exhausted, not to mention disgustingly sweaty, you'd a thought we'd just run a marathon. But we got to see some really cool stuff and made a great memory!

Summer

Favorite happenings from the last while:

1. Phillies Game!

Blake eating a Philly Cheesesteak, in Philadelphia, at a Phillies game. Does it get more authentic than that? I don't think so.

It was Claire and I's first ever MLB game. It was really fun! We even got ourselves some Phillies T-shirts so that we could feel like we were locals. I swear Claire was the only baby in the entire stadium and people were definitely giving her a lot of attention (probably thinking she has some crazy young parents). Let's just say it was quite different from being at a BYU game where there are babies galore! I've come to the conclusion that baseball games attract a certain type of person... and usually I find that person very entertaining to watch. I love people watching, and I have found that baseball games provide an ideal environment for my hobby.

2. I went to the Longwood Gardens with my fabulous sister-in-law Kelsey.

It was beautiful! Just acres and acres of amazingness. It was here at the gardens that I saw Amish people for the first time. They scattered when we got our cameras out.. I am very much intrigued by the Amish.

3. Syrup Incident

 I looked away for about 30 seconds,  and I come to find this little girl happily swimming in syrup, licking her fingers with delight. Somehow she managed to unscrew the lid and dump it all out. I got a kick out of it... but not a kick out of cleaning it up.

4. My Mom and sister came to visit!

It was a treat for me, and I'm so glad they came! We did a lot of fun stuff, well as much fun things as you can with 5 children. We went to the beach, to the pool, did some shopping, played with babies, played games, ate delicious food, and laughed a lot. I wish I had pictures other than at the beach..

5. Atlantic City

We had a nice day at the beach in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It's kind of a wanna-be Las Vegas... not my favorite city, but the beach was nice! Claire is FEARLESS when it comes to water. She was so fun to watch play in the sand and the water, she didn't even mind how cold it was and let the waves crash up on her like it was nothing.


It probably looks like all we do is play, play, play.  (Which is mostly true for me) But Blake has just been working his little tail off with his sales job. He is getting some pretty impressive tan lines being outside all day. He (we) will definitely be happy when it's over, knocking doors is not exactly the kind of job you want to have long term. But we really do enjoy our weekends together here.
Claire is keeping me busy, and we think she'll be walking before the summer is over.

Ta ta for now!