7 months

Jake turned 7 months old... two weeks ago. (I'm clearly a bit behind.) It was a happy month!

Jakey loves his monkey!

Well, happy for the most part. In the midst of his 7-month pictures, Jake decided he wanted my camera and scooted/crawled in circles around the entire bed trying to get it. It was so frustrating for the poor guy! Mommies are so mean when they don't let you eat their expensive cameras, you know. All that smiling and no reward.

I finally gave in and let him chew on the neckstrap for a few minutes, which was apparently satisfactory.

I feel like Jake grew up so much in the past month. On the left is a picture of him at the beginning of 6 months, and on the right is a similar picture of him on his 7-month birthday. I know it's probably just because I'm his mom, but he looks so much older to me.

Jake is acting like a pretty grown-up baby, too. He is constantly up on all fours and can do a 1-2 crawl, but then he decides he wants to get places faster so he usually ends up scooting/army crawling across the room instead. That boy covers a whole lot of ground in no time at all. Hello, baby proofing!

When he's not working on crawling, he likes to be standing. (And "walk" his legs forward.) Nothing new, but very cute nonetheless.

He spent the past month exploring all sorts of new foods. More on his eating habits in another post, but here's a little glimpse at Matt and my new favorite game called "Count the Carrots." Jake always wants our food during dinner, so we give him baby carrots (or apple slices, etc.) to keep him occupied until his dinner of pureed goodness. He loves to suck on them, but those silly things get rather slippery with all that baby drool. And, unfortunately, our high chair was tray-less for an entire month thanks to my continued bad luck with IKEA's stock. (But really, who sells high chairs separately from the trays anyway? And how could you have 100 chairs in stock and be sold out of trays? I'm still baffled, Burbank IKEA.) All this is to say, at the end of dinnertime, our floor is covered in carrots. We count them up at the end just for kicks and giggles, and it usually ends up being somewhere around 17. (I'm happy to report that we have recently acquired a tray and the carrot waste has decreased dramatically.)

We spend our days playing and playing and playing. Jake is such a happy, fun, interactive baby full of so much personality. It's a nonstop party with him around.

Jake enjoys his daily walks very much. And when it got to be a freezing 60-degrees, he still bundled up and braved the weather for a jaunt around the park.

Over the past month, Jakey did a lot of hanging out, too. At the beach, at Disneyland, with his friends, and with his mom and dad.

And sometimes, babies just need a break from all that fun.

Downtown

My brother is really into architecture and was therefore very interested in the demolition of Salt Lake City's downtown and the subsequent building of the new City Creek Center. As he kept me posted over the past few years, I would think, "Good for Salt Lake, getting on the map." And now that we're leaving the LA area for Salt Lake, I'm thinking, "Good for me!" This City Creek business is a welcome addition for sure.

On my last day in Utah, we went on a little "big kid" outing to check out the new downtown SLC. The design of City Creek is so pretty and refreshing, and the store directory isn't too shabby either. (Bless you, Utah, for having H&M. Now can we get some Zara? Please and thank you.) Since City Creek is just across the street from Temple Square, we headed over there to check out the pretty tulips in bloom, too.

It was a lot of fun just hanging out with my mom and siblings. But man, all that window shopping sure wears a baby out!

Snippets from Utah

Jake and I had a fun-packed stay in Utah last week, but we were both so happy to fly home to Matt last Saturday. Unfortunately, about 12 hours after landing in LA, my baby and I came down with an awful cold. Poor Jake and I were wiped out for days and are just now finally getting back on track. Thank goodness, too, because we so don't have time for this sick business. Spending the past five days under the weather -- and taking care of a sweet baby who wakes up every hour because he's sick -- has so not helped my productivity. (Many apologies for all the missed calls, posts, e-mails, etc. over the past couple weeks!)

Anyway. I thought I'd pop in quick to share a few pictures from our most recent visit to Utah. (It's still so crazy to think that soon, that will all just be our normal life and California will be our "visit" ...) Jake always gets so spoiled when we're around family because he goes from being the center of just two people's universes to being in the spotlight for about 10-times that many people.

We parted ways with Matt in Cedar City on Easter; he drove home to California while Jake and I carpooled up North with my family. Jake kept himself entertained via the Mac's photobooth while the freeway was temporarily closed. He then had plenty of uncles to keep him entertained all week. I had a hard time sharing him so much!

April 11th is the twins' birthday AND Nicole's fiance Jordan's birthday. It was fun to celebrate with all of them in person and over Skype. The first few days of our trip had given us lovely Spring weather, but that day was cold and dreary, so I brightened it up with a ridiculously colorful outfit. It was a bit shocking to Heidi, who woke up and groggily opened the bathroom door to find me getting ready. "Wow," was all she could say. Followed a few minutes later by, "You look like Skittles." I've always liked Skittles.

Jake and I accompanied Heidi to one of her treatments and then fell in love with a little used bookstore in Midway afterward. We also made time to visit Alicia and go out to lunch with Aimee, who is marrying Matt's best friend Mike next month. And, happily, I also stopped by my old work -- the BYU Football office -- to brainwash my child visit old coworker friends. I really had a charmed college life and it's always fun to relive it a bit by stepping into the SAB.

The main reason for our extended trip was Nicole's bridal shower. My aunt Sydna hosted and did a fantastic job, as usual. Coley's wedding is coming up so fast! It was so great to spend a night sharing the excitement with the ladies in our families. And Jake, of course. He enjoyed it, too -- especially the shiny bags and presents and attention. I wonder what he'll think of all the wedding festivities. Here's to finding out next(!) month!!!

Hiking in Kolob

I'm convinced that a pretty little Graf hike is the best way to kick off Spring. Luckily for me, our Easter egg rolling extraordinaire always comes hand-in-hand with a Grandpa Graf-led hike. My Grandpa actually used to take tourists on hiking tours through Southern Utah. This guy knows his stuff! Plus, he climbed the hardest face of the Grand Tetons in his 70's with my dad and uncles. Hiking is in our blood.

This was Jake's first hike, so it was only appropriate that it was with his Great-Grandpa Graf. Matt strapped Jake into the Bjorn and we were off! We explored Kolob Canyon and were rewarded with a fun little slot canyon and gorgeous views. Southern Utah is so beautiful.

Doesn't Matt make such a cute Daddy? Also, that would be my Grandpa and brother Matthew scaling the rock behind my boys.

The Bjorn proved quite useful when Jakey decided to take a nap about ten minutes into the hike.

Party in the slot!

Grandpa doing his thing.

Graf men risk their lives on a fairly regular basis.