T.J.’s parents sent this cute dress to Eva. I have to hide it sometimes because she loves it so much and wants to wear it nonstop. Adorable.
Doc McEva gave me an eye exam and put lots of bandages on my fingers.
Treat. Yo. Self. The line is gone from Carlo’s Bakery now that everyone is back in school and there aren’t as many tourists. It made this week much better.
Last week, my friend Ashley and I went to the city and walked around Rockefeller Center.
I saw Kathy Lee Gifford right outside of Rock Center walking to her ride… that was kind of cool.
Eva and I watched Brooks while Ashley went to the gym, then I got to go to the gym while they watched Eva. I’m still sore, two days later!
I was trying to teach Eva about 9/11 showing her the new WTC building when I realized she’s not old enough for that quite yet.
My cute husband in the new couch!
Eva is quite the painter! Isn’t that such a cool paint set though? Perfect for little munchkins like Eva.
Early this year, a friend of mine posted on her blog of an adorable mobile she made out of an old book. Last night I finally made it! For the tutorial on The Thimble Life, click here.
https://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.png00Katiehttps://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.pngKatie2013-09-14 14:32:372013-09-13 14:39:56Book Mobile
This week I decided I was ready to ween Eva off of bottles. There were a couple reasons why:
Eva was using it to soothe herself, like a pacifier.
She was drinking way too much milk.
Because of how much milk she was drinking, she never wanted to eat much food since it was filling her up.
Monday, first thing when Eva woke up, she asked for her “ba-ba.” I told her the bottle was all gone, there was no more bottle! She went and found an empty one somewhere I forgot to put away and looked at me like, “No… here it is!” So, first tip of bottle weening, put all the bottles away 🙂 !
The first day was really rough. Especially for the first couple hours. She constantly was asking for the bottle and would throw huge tantrums when I told her it was gone and broken. I tried to give her milk in the sippy, but she wouldn’t take it (which I wasn’t surprised about, she never has like it from a sippy). I lined up all the cups and sippies out for her to choose one, thinking that would make it fun. She hated it. But distracting her worked (thanks for all the tips on Facebook!) and good ol’ fashion-bribing-her-with-candy worked too… ya gotta do what ya gotta do! It was a miracle she took a good nap that day and fell asleep at night after just 15 minutes of crying. I then cried in T.J.’s arms for a solid half an hour because I was so sad my sweet baby was growing up.
Day 2 Eva already had a bigger appetite, but was still asking for her bottle occasionally.
Day 3 was a big improvement… she woke up and asked for a sippy! I also got her to finally drink milk out of a cup using her Mickey Mouse straw!
Day 4, I really wanted her to drink milk at meals (the Mickey Mouse straw trick didn’t work), so I actually tried something similar to when we weened her from formula. When I got her off of formula, I used milk with the formula (instead of water) and then I slowly decreased the amount of formula until it was straight up milk. Instead of formula, I used chocolate Nesquik and told Eva it was a chocolate shake (to which she’d shake the sippy cup!). Of course she loved it, everyone loves chocolate milk! But now, a day later (Day 5), I barely put any Nesquik in the milk, so we are getting there!
So, here we are! It only took 5 days. Eva rarely asks for her bottle anymore, is drinking much more water, eating much more at meals, and is finally drinking milk at meals out of her sippy cup! I’m so glad we did it because I was getting so sick of bringing bottles of milk with us everywhere!
https://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.png00Katiehttps://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.pngKatie2013-09-13 15:10:582013-09-13 15:26:43No More Bottles!
Well, I’m finally letting you have a tour of our apartment. It’s a humble size, but for the greater NYC area… quite a find, I have to say! My favorite parts of the apartment are the wooden floors, our view of the city with the Empire State Building lit up at night, and the new countertops. We still have decorating we want to do, but we can’t do it all at once.
The little hallway to Eva’s bedroom.
Our kitchen. To get to our cabinets, I usually have to get on a chair.
The kitchenette area
Our view of the city… the picture doesn’t do it justice because I cropped it so much (you can still see the Empire State Building). I don’t want any crazy stalker to find my blog, figure out where we live from the photo, and then come murder us.
Our bed is in the living room. Oh… to have a bedroom… how nice that would be.
Our new couch!
Our walk-in closet stuffed to the brim. Seriously, the storage on the sides go up to the ceiling. I also put in an extra tension rod below T.J.’s clothes for Eva’s clothes.
Changing station
The futon in Eva’s room.
Reading corner
Eva’s crib
Not shown: Our bathroom( which currently needs a good cleaning so I’m not going to show it to you) and our entryway closet (filled entirely with storage).
So, there you have it. Our little Jersey City apartment. T.J. and I always talk about how when we move out of here, it’s going to feel like a mansion. But until then, we’re trying to make the most of this little Jersey life of ours!
This summer, T.J. and I have had our eye on this furniture set at JCPenney-specifically the couch. In our dreams, we’d buy the whole set. The couch, the chair, rug, coffee table, side tables, lamps, the pillows even. We love every bit of that set! But we’d have to have an apartment double the size we have now.
The couch has gone on sale a couple times, except it never to a price we could afford or justify spending. But this past Wednesday, I was walking through JCPenney and noticed that the actual sample on the floor was on sale for an incredible price. 75% off of what it is originally if you bought it new! I called T.J. immediately and let him know. He said we should do it! The floor sample had nothing wrong with it and barely looked like anyone had sat in it! We also had a coupon for 25% off the sale price. So, we bought the beautiful couch that had been $1600 for about $300. I know it’s tacky give prices. But guys… we got the couch (which was in great condition) for a ridiculous steal and I’m so happy about it!
I can’t believe that summer is coming to an end. Part of me feels like we didn’t do a thing, but I think that’s because it wasn’t our typical summer at Seven Peaks and going on hikes in the mountains. But as much as I have obviously missed my Utah summer and a visit to Kentucky, we actually did do a lot and I feel like I’m okay with moving on to Fall.
We spent May going to BBQs, saying bye to friends, hanging out with the little kiddos, and just soaking up those last few days all together as an extended family.
End of May, we moved out to NYC, had our first night in the city on our anniversary, and spent the first couple weeks in a hotel. We depleted our savings while we desperately searched for a place to live, but finally found a nice apartment in Jersey City, NJ.
In June, we started to explore the city, went to Coney Island, had dinners on the Hudson, spent our days at the park and splash pad, and went to DC to visit my sister and her family.
July we went on vacation with my family to Chincoteague Island, had my parents stay with us for a couple of days, did more exploring, and grew together as a little family.
Finally, August. The weather cooled down, so we spent the days at Hamilton Park and splash pad again, made a step towards adulthood by buying a used TV, explored more fun sights in NYC, had visits from Hannah and Kendra, watched the Bachelorette finale with friends, and went to a couple ward activities.
When I map it all out like that… holy cow, we really did have a great summer. But most of all, we made NJ our home. I don’t know if you remember, but the day before we moved out here, I had a quote from The Office:
“No matter how you get there or where you end up, human beings have this miraculous gift to make that place home.”
This summer, we made this crazy place our home and boy, does it feel good!
Oh yea, one last thing I did this summer was watch the finale of The Office and I’m still crying over it.
I was reading some old posts of mine this morning, but I felt that I should repost this again. I think I mostly just need to remember my own words and I hope they might help someone out there. Recently I’ve been thinking about why bad things happen to good people and why we have to have difficult struggles in our life. Nothing is going on in our life you should be concerned about, it’s just the world we live in and some people around us that has gotten me thinking. So, here’s a post from February 6, 2012.
——-
I’ve had a lot on my mind this weekend. Kind of heavy stuff.
It all started Saturday night when I received a call from my best friend back home, Blair, informing me that her sister’s boyfriend had been in a accident Friday night. He was riding his bike and a drunk driver hit him–he passed away on Saturday.
I don’t know the boy very well, but my heart instantly ached for his family (I went to school with his older brother) and for his girlfriend. Little Blair (my friend’s sister), as we’ve always called her, is one of the sweetest girls I know and as soon as I heard the news I thought, this just isn’t fair.
Then yesterday, we heard the news that Josh Powell blew up his house–killing himself and his two little boys. I’ve been following the story of Susan Powell since it happened, and even though I don’t know the family personally, it just broke my heart to hear that Josh killed his sons.
I was up at my in-laws last night and we started to talk about my mother-in-law’s mom who passed away when she was 44. Kelly (T.J.’s mom) was pregnant with T.J. at the same time her mom (Nancy) was pregnant. The day of the baby blessing for Nancy’s new son, she came home and told her husband she wasn’t feeling too well. She died just a couple hours later from blood clots. The day of the funeral, Kelly delivered T.J.
And one last story, just in case I haven’t depressed you enough. I read a blog post last night that Kelly told me about. It was of a photographer’s experience shooting a delivery of a still-born baby. The post was beautifully written, but made me feel so sad for this young couple who decided to naturally deliver this little baby who hadn’t made it.
Needless to say, in my prayers last night, I broke down in tears thinking about these four stories. All the people who have had such hard struggles, and how, in contrast, my life is abundant with blessings.
The biggest question on my mind about these different stories is, “Why?” Why did Little Blair’s boyfriend have to tragically die? Why did Josh have to take his two sons with him? Why did Kelly’s mother have to pass so early, leaving her newborn son without a mother? Why did that young couple have to lose their beautifully baby?
After contemplating this and discussing these questions with family, I’ve learned and remembered a couple of things.
Sometimes accidents just happen. It’s sad, but true. God doesn’t always intervene. We have our free agency, He let’s things happen and although it’s hard, it’s a part of life.
There are lessons to learn. Sometimes death brings a family closer, makes them think about their personal spiritual beliefs, and gives them a stronger testimony of the Plan of Salvation, and even forgiveness. It also teaches lessons to people outside of who it personally affected… such as me in all of these cases.
God sees the larger picture. It is hard for us to see past the here and now and so when something tragic happens, we don’t understand why. We must have faith in our Heavenly Father that he knows what He is doing and can see the grand scheme of things.
It teaches us of the Savior’s sacrifice for us and is a reminder of the Atonement and how Christ suffered the same things for all of us. What that means in correlation to all of this? When we feel like we’re alone and no one understands what we are going through, we can turn to our Savior and our Father in Heaven and they will be there to comfort us.
One of my favorite scriptures is D&C 122: 7-8. It says,
“Know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?”
Anyway, those are my thoughts. My prayers are with those families lost loved ones this weekend. And I want all of you to know that I know families can be together forever through the blessings of the temple. I know that our Savior loves us and that the Holy Ghost can be here to give us peace and comfort if we ask for it.
https://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.png00Katiehttps://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.pngKatie2013-09-06 08:09:392013-09-06 09:04:17On My Mind
One day, I got out tupperware and we used them as building blocks.
This is one of my favorite places to walk because of the trees… can’t wait to see the leaves change!
More tupperware fun
Late last winter, these kicks were on sale for less than $10 so I bought them in a bigger size for Eva and they finally fit her! I just need to buy those shoe laces that are curly so we can have her slip the shoes on instead of tying them every time.
Eva’s all about wearing my clothes. She put this little number on one day and, with her pigtails, she looked like Boo from Monsters Inc.
I went to a Relief Society Activity where we made fall wreaths out of foam noodles.
Some NYC sights.
The three things on the right here are some of the most glorious foods I have ever eaten. Milk chocolate bacon toffee, legit tacos with pineapple on top, and cookie butter from Trader Joe’s.
I try to do music time with Eva every day where we sing and dance to music. My mom has given me a lot of CDs since she’s an elementary school music teacher, and sometimes we just turn on Pandora toddler radio. Side note: When you start listening to these toddler songs everyday, they get stuck in your head! I’m always singing phrases like, “Walking along on our tippy-tip toes… nobody knows where a tippy-toer goes.”
Anyway, I thought I’d share this idea of music time with you because, if you’re like Eva and I, some days are very long as we have until 7 pm until TJ gets home! So, adding a bit of structure to our days really helps.
We love the Music Together series most of all. Now that I have my own toddler, I realize how much kids like these songs and how important it is to expose them to music. Plus, the Music Together songs teach kids how to sing well and stay on rhythm.
https://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.png00Katiehttps://katiederrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/logo.pngKatie2013-09-04 13:05:452013-09-03 13:17:42Hello Song
