4 Months

Ahhhhhhh!!!!! Our baby is 4 months old today!!! Time flies when you're having fun! : )

Easter 2012

My talented friend, Leslie, made this beautiful outfit for Hazel. They dropped by the day before Easter to visit and meet Hazel and brought the gift. It was perfect and I just love it! I hadn't bought a dress for Hazel, and was just going to dress her in something she already had. I just added some ribbon around the waist to gather it since she's pretty small still. Then for a splash of color I made the yellow flower clip. Thank you, Leslie!!!

After Church we went to my mom's for Easter dinner and the egg hunt. All the kids have an egg with their initial on it. Hazel found her purple egg--with a little help. ; )

She has on jelly shoes and I think they're cute. Still a little big, but they matched nicely.

Mikell loves holding Hazel.

The kids failed to find two of the eggs, so I confiscated one of them and kept the money inside! : )

So You Think You Can Bake?!

I used to think I was a decent baker. Last weekend pretty much dissolved that pretty little idea out of my head. Good thing I wasn't the only person bringing a dessert to Easter dinner!

Halfway through I checked on the cake and realized it was overflowing. At least I had the sense to place some foil beneath it to catch the batter.
Such a lovely smell filled the house with burning cake. Afterwards came the cleaning. It really made my day!!!

Then this sweet little lady pooped her pants. At least I put the diaper on tight this time. One less mess to clean up!

I told her I burned the cake. Hazel thought it was funny. It did make me laugh.

Charred remains from the bottom of the oven I scraped off.

The edible bits of cake that landed on foil and hanging from racks.

And the cake after I tried to piece it together. It was so ugly it went on a Dixie plate!!!

I made an almond pound cake. Thank goodness for all the butter--made removal in the oven much easier!!! What was left of the cake did taste good. Ironically this is a recipe I discovered in Houston and it turned out beautifully there. It would raise up an inch or two above the pan, but held its ground, making a nice, tall cake. All of recipes that were my "tried and true" failed there. Go figure! I'll give it another go, just not add all the batter to the bundt pan next time. : )

Monkey Girl

Hazel is a content baby. She seems to be able to keep herself entertained and stay happy. Since she's started learning to grasp objects it will occupy her time for quite a while, unless she drops them. Four simple ring toys do the trick quite nicely!

Love this shot!

When she starts dating we'll show this to her suitors. : )

She always seems to make a bracelet with the rings. Easier not to lose them!

Conference Weekend

Well, our little camping trip ran into General Conference. We decided to come home late Saturday. We were exhausted! Kinda nice we could just wake up and hang out in our comfy's all day. I really enjoyed Sunday's talks. But it looks like others of us enjoyed Conference in our own way. . . . lol.

Brenna, Otto and Maddy were also here visiting so it was great to see them before they drove back to Colorado.

Aunt Brenna and Hazel Saturday night.

Uncle Otto, Maddy, & Hazel Sunday morning. 

Working on San Rafael pics between sessions. Conor was trying out some new things with exposure and editing.

He claims he was listening to Conference . . . it's okay, we don't judge.

These were take the first week of April. I thought we looked cute. All dressed up to somewhere--but I don't remember where. : ) Probably the grocery store . . . lol

Hazel's taken quite a liking to her bottom lip. She sucks on it and I constantly try to pull it out. Constant battle I think she's winning.

The Swell

Conor's been planning and waiting to go camping with Hazel since she was born. Maybe before. This is one of the reasons we moved back here--to enjoy nature, camp, hike, etc. We took a trip the end of September to Moab and have been dying to get back out. We went to San Rafael Swell the last weekend in March.

Yes, we camped. In a tent. With Hazel.

It was awesome!!! The weather was beautiful and we all enjoyed it. Hazel loves to be outside. The area we went to was 5 or 6 miles from Goblin Valley. It's BLM ground so it's free--yeah. You also take your own water. With a baby now taking up a portion of the backseat of our car, we were worried about space and hauling everything, including all our water. Conor built a trailer and it worked perfectly! He still has plans to pimp out his trailer, but it was finished just in time to get on the road. Hazel was a real trooper for the entire trip. She went 7 1/2 hours without being fed the first day, and also slept a lot. She did wake up in the middle of the night (or at least it seemed like it) to eat.

We arrived at dusk so I fed Hazel and then she hung out in the car while we set up camp.

Here's the trailer Conor built.

Good thing she's not mobile yet! Easy to set her in the  chair.
It was around 40 the first night--got a little chilly. But we all had warm clothes.

Conor thought this was cute since he put Hazel in his bag after he got up.

Hazel is smiling so much now. Since she was less than a week old I have said the word "smile" and then smile at her. Looks like she's catching on. At least she's happy for the little camera! : ) And, yes, the Bumbo made the trip with us!!!

DAY 1: Hiked from Bell Canyon down into Little Wildhorse Canyon. Fun and easy slot canyons to hike. Total of 8 miles.

On the road between the two canyons.

Our nephew, Ryker, taught him how to smile like this a few years back.

Horrible pic, but the bright white spots are stars and a planet.

DAY 2: Hiked Crack Canyon from the top and went down and back up. Definitely a little trickier, but fun. We had to take Hazel out of the pack and pass her back and forth. I didn't love some of the spots. We enjoyed this area more than the other. Unsure how far we hiked, but we both got blisters from our hikes. Time to get the callouses back!!!

Isn't she cute?! Haha! This is where we stopped for lunch.