Welcome

Jaxon Joel Perez

Born January 26, 2011 at 12:42 am

7 pounds, 4 ounces and 20 inches long

Congrats Irving and Kenzie! We can't wait to meet our new nephew/cousin!

New Calling

Last Sunday morning I got a call asking if I could come meet with the bishop right before church. I was a little shocked because I had only had my calling for about 6 months. And I was a little sad because I was really liking my calling.

So of course I started freaking out about what it could be. I thought of a few possibilities... some more scary than others. When we were in the car driving over I told Rog that I thought I would be the Compassionate Service Leader. I had been serving as a member of the Compassionate Service Committee and something the new Relief Society President (who I visit teach) said to me earlier in the week made me think that could be it. And as it turns out I was right.

It's pretty intimidating, but it definitely helps that I have already been on the committee. Now I'll just be in charge. Most of what the Compassionate Service Committee does in our ward is organize meals for families with new babies. Our ward has an average of 60 new babies born a year. Yeah, CRAZY! So now I really have to pay attention to who is pregnant!

The hardest part is that I still feel like we are so new in the ward even though we've almost been here a year. I feel like I don't know anyone! So here's to breaking out of my comfort zone in a major way. Wish me luck!

Stacey's Bridal Shower

My good friend Stacey is getting married on Wednesday! We met when we were roommates our freshman year at BYU in Heritage Halls and then we were roommates for our sophomore and junior years as well. We have so many fun college memories together! She was one of my bridesmaids when I got married and now I am going to be her maid of honor.

Last weekend I helped throw her a bridal shower with her sister, Natalie, and her mom.

I was in charge of the food. We had autumn soup, baked potato soup, green salad, rolls, ginger snap cookies, brownie cheesecake, and a hot chocolate bar.

They did a beautiful job decorating and taking care of all the other details.

A ton of people ended up coming. So many that we didn't really have enough food and plates, utensils, etc... Major Oops! So we were scrambling a little, but it turned out ok.

I didn't know a majority of the people there because most of our mutual friends now live far away! But it was fun to meet her family and friends and see everyone come to support her. These are some of the girls she served with on her mission. (She is the one in blue.)

We played the traditional interview game. It was fun to learn a little more about Derek (her fiance).

It was a date night theme and she got a ton of fun stuff! I see lots of fun date nights in their future!

I am so so so excited for her! And I can't wait to be a part of their big day on Wednesday!

Welcome to our {French} Kitchen

My mom's cousin, LaNae, has a fabulous Etsy shop where she sells vinyl quotes. I got this Bon Appetit quote free for referring 6 friends to her Facebook page. My kitchen has been pretty boring, but this quote inspired me to do a French theme.

I switched out the vinyl on my flour and sugar jars to be in French.

I made this menu board in French and picked up this Eiffel Tower from Rod Works.

And I put up this Julia Child quote (also from LaNae's shop - my mom won it and gave it to me for Christmas - THANKS MOM).

And voila! We have a French kitchen!

For Christmas I got some new stuff for my kitchen - new nonstick pans, a cupcake carrier, new wash cloths and towels, some pie pans, another bread pan, another muffin pan, etc... I had to reorganized everything to make room. And I also cleared out a whole shelf in our pantry for Corby's food.

Cans are so hard to keep organized and they were totally bugging me how I had them. So I ordered these two canracks and oh my goodness - I can't believe I ever lived without them! If you're a neat freak like me, I would totally recommend getting a few of these!

We've lived here almost a year and now I am finally happy with my kitchen! Now to work on finally getting curtains for our windows!

Crawling

A few months ago Jared decided he wanted this laptop for school. But because he is leaving on his mission in May, it was a little impractical for him to buy a laptop to use for only 8 months. So he convinced me to buy it from him at a discounted price when he leaves. Because Jared is the Mac expert and I know nothing about Macs, he loaned me one of his old Macs for a few months, so he could teach me how to use it while he is here. So this video of Corby crawling is my first lesson in iMovie.

The footage was taken on Sunday. It's not the traditional crawl yet, but I have a feeling he'll be there in a matter of days and then I'm really in trouble! Goodbye clean house. I'll miss you!

Eating

Rog took these pictures the other night while he was feeding Corby. He's so stinking cute!

It's hard to stay mad at that face for long even when he doesn't eat like we want him to.

He is getting much better. We just have to feed him right after he wakes up from a nap. Thank goodnes we figured that out!

Ririe Family Photos

While Diana and Jason were up for Christmas, we took some pictures of the whole Ririe family. This was most likely the last time we will all be together until Jared gets home from his mission!

Other than Corby we all have graduated or are currently attending BYU, so we took some in our Cougar Blue!

The original 5.

Our little bear.

And finally the whole gang in our "peasant brown" outfits. (Ha ha, don't ask.)

7 Months

Corby had his 7 month birthday on Monday!

The Corb at 7 months:

*Gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth, but doesn't full on crawl yet. He's getting so close.

*After a few really bad sleep nights we decided to train him to sleep through the night. It only took about 3 nights and now he sleeps from about 8:30 pm to 7:00 am. Then I feed him and he goes back to sleep for another hour or two! It's totally awesome!

*Still working on this whole solid food thing. He'll gobble down a banana chunk if I put it in a fresh food feeder and he does pretty good with banana baby food, but we're still working on everything else. It's been a frustrating month.

*Hates to have his face wiped.

*Loves his toothbrush - no, he doesn't have teeth to brush, but he loves to suck on it.

*Likes to turn the pages of his books.

*Can get from his stomach to sitting.

*Loves people. He will always smile for people even if he is super tired or hungry.

*Has started to cry when we take stuff away from him.

*Is still entertained by all the toys he got for Christmas.

*Grabs at everything in sight and will work to get to things out of his reach.

He's a total stud in this new church outfit, so we decided to take his pictures in that. He was grumpy and running a low fever from getting a cold, but I needed Rog to help with the pictures, so we did them anyway. (I used to take them by myself during the day when he was happy, but now it's a two person job!) We didn't get as many cute shots as usual, but we did manage to get a few good ones.

Another First

We took Corby to his first BYU basketball game as a part of Rog's birthday week celebration. It was a sold out game and we got there a little late, so they said we could sit anywhere we could find a seat. The student section was FULL! So we got to sit in chairs with backs - super nice! When we first walked in Corby seemed a little nervous. He was holding onto my fingers really tight. But after a few minutes he relaxed a bit.

He had fun until everyone started booing at the refs. Such a sad face!

Rog's Birthday Week

Rog turned 26 on January 5th. The night before his birthday I was thinking about all the things I wanted to do for his birthday and I knew that I would NEVER be able to get it all done in time for his actual birthday... So I decided we would celebrate his Birthday Week!

This is what he found on the counter when he came downstairs on his birthday.

Corby and I spent the week showing Rog how much we love him with 26 presents.

1. Took him Zupas at work for lunch.

2. Balloons in his car.

3. Dinner at 5 Guys.

4. The Owl City Ocean Eyes CD.

5. A desktop calendar of Corby.

6. Sweet and sour chicken dinner (one of his favorite dinners I make - I think).

7. Birthday cake.

8. Queso (his favorite treat that we never get because it is so gosh darn expensive).

9. New socks.

10. Cinnamon rolls.

11. BYU basketball game (Corby's first - more on this later).

12. Cold Stone for his free birthday ice cream.

13. Shopping for a brown hat.

14. "I love my dad" bib.

15. Ice cream cone cake pops.

16. Plaque with his favorite quote from conference.

17. Picture frame for work.

18. Gift certificate for a bookcase.

19. Gift certificate for a clock.

20. Gift certificate for 2 hours uninterrupted video game time.

20. Peanut M&Ms hidden in his car.

21. Tucanos to use his free meal.

23. Baskin Robins for his free birthday ice cream.

24. $10 in PS3 points.

25. The Hunger Games series for our electronic reader we got for Christmas.

26. Gift certificate for one Corby and Chief day.

It was so fun celebrating his birthday this way - and also a lot of work! I won't be doing this every year, but it was fun to spoil him this year!