Just do it!

I always have grand ideas for what I want to write and post about. So I think on it, and decide I should do it later when I can organize my thoughts, not have Aaron climbing on top of me, and have access to all our family photos (David usually takes most of our pictures on his phone because of his long arms and I think his camera is better). And then guess what?? Surprise, surprise it never happens!

So today I've decided to write on my phone while watching Aaron play in his nursery (and occasionally having to step in and save him from things like sticking his fingers in light sockets, squirting hand sanitizer in his mouth, and probably wanting to eat soon!) and JUST DO IT!

I love that metaphor for life JUST DO IT!  I am going to try to do more in the moment instead of putting things off. Serving others, sharing a testimony, telling someone you love them, getting something done you keep putting off. Just do it and get it done!

So with that said here is a mish mash of things happening in our life lately!!

Sweet boy always giving loves just when you need them!

A sweet little bum! Outgrowing his baby pants. And outgrowing being a baby!

We call this "Aaron's desk" and he works on it almost every morning while David is getting ready for work.  Funny.

Walks!  We love to walk as a family and our neighborhood is so so so great for walks of all kinds.

My boys.  My favorite people.

Inner Harbor in Baltimore for the light city fest.  I'll post more on this later (when I get David's pictures).  It was so so fun.

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The halfway point on one of our walks and our break during all the sessions of conference.

Aaron was in his baby bath tub up until maybe a month ago.  He HATED it the first time.  The next time I got in with him and he slowly warmed up to the idea.  I also let him play in the empty tub for a few days and let him play with some water on a cookie sheet to show him it could be fun.  Now he seriously loves it!

Hahaha!  This was too funny for me.

The first real green to start to come through after winter.   I thought these flowers were sweet and there were meadows and meadows of them. Things have since blossomed and the trees are almost all back to being a canopy of green.  Thank goodness.  Now just to enjoy it before it gets too hot and humid here!

Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.

Trying to take selfies with an active boy.  Less about the beauty shot and more about just capturing the moment at all.

My calling in our ward here is to organize the monthly RS Activities.  I'll be honest in saying that this has been hard for my shy, sensitive, and not-wanting-to-bug-and-ask-for- help self.  But, I guess that is how you grow, right?  I do miss being the primary chorister in our small Utah Primary! (Yes, it was actually small in Utah probably under 8 kids each week!) 

THIS WAS THE WEIRDEST THING EVER!!! I am pretty sure it was a baby squirrel, but I call it a little naked maulrat.  It was so tiny wriggling around on the side walk and I almost ran over it with my stroller!  Kind of sad...probably got separated from the mother.  I didn't know what to do for it.  David went looking for it, but it was gone by the time he came home.  

What a lot of my time consists of....seeing if Aaron fell asleep and then trying to keep him asleep!

Messy eater with squash (or something) in his eye.  Also, Aaron has started to do this thing where he sucks on his big toe while I am feeding him in his high chair.  So weird right?

Finally graduated to the seat at the grocery store a few months ago!  Which is really helpful because I am too short (and too nervous) to put the carseat carrier on top and the carts here are considerably smaller than they are in Utah (or at least where I shop)

Hope you enjoyed this mish mash or random things!  I love reading people's blogs that still keep them up and love having a way to share what is going on with us for far away family and friends.


Love,
Kristy Jane

and P.S. it still took me about a week to post this since I had a lot of photos to back up!

Labor Day Weekend

We had so much fun labor day weekend :)  It was  really jam packed, but it was awesome.  Here's what we were up to:

Saturday we drove over to Annapolis (it's probably just about 30 minutes away).  Annapolis has such a cute downtown area.  I don't know how to explain it other than it has a very historical feel.  There are old churches, government buildings, brick-paved streets and some city blocks still look to me like they would have in the 1700s.  I could really just let my mind wander with what would have happened there.

There are cute little restaurants and we had a fun time wandering in and out of the shops after grabbing a little brunch and in between an ice cream cone.  This was a perfect activity with Aaron; he slept soundly nearly the whole time in the stroller.  We also enjoyed watching all the sailboats from the pier.

Sunday we went to church, came home, and packed our bags for the night because we were heading to Philadelphia.  There was a temple open house and I thought the open house plus the long weekend was the perfect excuse for a little trip!  We got to Philadelphia in the early evening, checked into our hotel, ate some sandwiches for dinner, and started planning for the next day.

We visited Independence Hall, saw the liberty bell, and went to the  temple open house.  Aaron was once again almost perfect for the whole day.....what a trooper!  He even slept the whole way on our drive back home.  I hope I am not doomed for my second baby since Aaron has honestly been so easy going.

Also, I have to share this story because I think it is just to funny!  I needed to feed Aaron and was looking for a comfortable, private spot.  We went into the visitor's center and were trying to find an empty bench so I wandered upstairs where I saw it was mostly deserted.  Lo and behold I stumbled upon a (semi) private balcony complete with a rocking chair overlooking Independence Hall!  What a great place to nurse a baby while on vacation; I honestly still cannot believe my luck!  This has to be the best place I've fed Aaron in with the worst being the back seat of a very crowded air plane next to a line of travelers all needing to use the restroom.  What are your best and worst places for feeding your babies??  Leave a comment or send me a message--I would love to know!

And....I don't have a place for this picture but it's just freaking cute, okay?

Love,
Kristy Jane

Grimm Family Adventures

We've been here about a month so far and it is nice to finally start to feel a little settled.  The end of my pregnancy and the newborn stage with Aaron was all so stressful for the last few months since everything was chaotic with moving and making big decisions and traveling around.  It is so nice to finally have things calm down a bit and be able to get in a routine with Aaron.

The area that we live in seems to be really nice.  Maryland is so much different than any place I have ever been.  It is absolutely filled with trees and so so green.  It is beautiful!  However, it does take some getting used to.It's hard for me to find my way around and get a sense of direction here because to me it all looks relatively the same and you cannot really see landmarks on the highways (and sometimes even the roads) because it is all so wooded.  There are lots of walking paths near us that run through different neighborhoods and I have really been enjoying doing that with Aaron most mornings.  There are also at least two small lakes that I know of near us that are fun to walk around as well.  

This is a really nice walking trail in one of the neighboring neighborhoods (about 7 minutes away from our place probably).  It feels like you are in the mountains or somewhere in the country even though you are so close.

At a little lake near us.  Behind us is the more downtown area of Columbia (the city we live in).  They have a lot of restaraunts near this lakefront, paddleboats on the weekends, concerts, dancing, etc.

We've seen so much wildlife near us in the city.  I always see bunnies and squirrels on my walks and often I see deer.

Another one of the nearby lakes.  This one is more like a park with a nice playground, fields, walking paths, bike trails, fishing, etc.

We live probably about 30 minutes to an hour away from Washington DC (depending on traffic) so we've been able to have some fun Saturdays so far as well.  There is so much to explore in Washington DC so even though we've been there a few times we still have so much more to see.  It's nice that we don't feel like we have to see it all in a day.  That way when it's hot or Aaron needs a break we can just go home and come back another day!

The National Monument.

I can't remember now exactly, but I think this was at the Jefferson Memorial.  We didn't want to climb all those steps with the stroller so this is as close as we got.  Definitely need to remember to bring the baby carrier for that next time.

At the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.  We only did the first floor this time and are excited to go back.

The Smithsonian Castle

So funny story....the first time we went to DC David wanted to go to "The Smithsonian".  We were walking around looking for "it" until we realized it was a collection of a BUNCH of different museums.  Haha, so funny.  Good thing we didn't ask for directions.  So far we've been to the American History Museum and the Natural History Museum.  Next on my list is the Holocaust Museum and the Art Museums/Sculpture Gardens.  I love museums and I am the type of person that will look at and read almost everything in the exhibitions so it takes us quite a bit of time to stroll through even one wing.  The best part of DC is that it's all (mostly) free!  

We also live about 20-30 minutes from downtown Baltimore.  Last weekend we went to Baltimore's "Inner Habor".  Baltimore was so much different than I expected it to be.  I thought it would be dirty, dangerous, slummy looking, etc.--but it isn't at all (at least not where we were anyway).  It was so clean and beautiful and felt so nice to walk by the water.  It actually reminded me a lot of San Diego's harbor area and it was nice to be in a place that felt a little bit like home.  There are paddle boats, water taxis, maritime museums, old ships, shops, restaurants, a large aquarium and a few museums down here too.  We are excited to go back and do some of those things in the coming weekends.

It is so much cooler to walk down by the water with that nice breeze!

The old ships really remind me of SD.  I like Baltimore because it felt a little more like something I am used to.

As I am proofreading this I am realizing that I have the same outfit on in all of these pictures.  Haha!  I guess I only have a few outfits I like to wear right now.  #momlife #postpartum #nursing

And for good measure here are some pictures of my cute baby because what's a blog post without that?

He spits up a lot--hence the burp cloth tucked like a bib.  We've always got to make sure we've got clean burp cloths handy.

This kissy face cracks me up!