This New Life

In the past two months we have moved from Rexburg to Reno, had a baby and started medical school. Needless to say in the past two months my life has done a complete 180 and it took me a while to adjust, but I feel like we finally have some consistency and a routine down in this new life of ours!

And this is what we have been up to:

We spent a considerable amount of time preparing the nursery for our new addition. My friend Tiffany painted the wood plank art for my baby shower gift, inspired by RH Baby & Child. I am obsessed with it! She did such a good job.  

Before little Calvin joined our family Robert was "nesting" and he painted the USS Constitution on wood plank for Calvin's bathroom.

While he was busy painting, so was I! It took us about three weeks, but we found a dresser for Calvin's room. There were some nicks on it, and I didn't want a pure white dresser for his room. I was inspired by a two tone dresser on Censtational Girl, and decided to go for it. We painted the drawers blue, and then mixed it with white for the rest of the dresser. I still don't have a picture of the finished dresser because I am still trying to find descent knobs to replace the battered ones with. 

Before: (still no after picture :)

In the last few weeks as I have adjusted to only having 45 minutes of Robert's time a day, I have made a goal to do one home/ crafty project a week. Sadly, it is a lot harder to accomplish with a 6 week old than one would expect. 

My paint dipped kitchen jars:

 Calvin's car seat canopy:

 Along with my projects and Robert's studying, we have this little ham to keep us me busy.
Robert is good enough to get Clavin ready for bed each night. We have the same routine: bath, lotion massage, PJ's, bottle, swaddle and song. While Robert draws Calvin's bath he will stick Calvin's feet in the running water and Calvin loves it! (Even if his face says otherwise). Lately Robert has been teaching Calvin all about Embryology while they do their night time routine. (Med school really is on Robert's mind, all the time)

And…he is officially in his 0-3 month clothing! Which also means he can finally rock his Toms…cue the happy dance.

Hanes Baby Shower

I have definitely hit a new phase in life; first it was bridal shower and weddings galore, now all of the sudden my life has shifted gears and it's baby showering time! Really though, I have 1-2 baby showers every week beginning last week until the first week of May. I la la la love it! Maybe I love it so much more now because I am also expecting.

On Saturday I helped throw a baby shower for my friend Holly. She is welcoming her sweet baby girl in just 4 weeks, and we are all just so excited for her. We held it at my apartment, so it was a bit of a tight squeeze, but it was overall it was just so much fun having close friends there to celebrate Holly and her new stage in life!

A Valentine's Craft

First, let me begin with a little honesty. I grew up in Vegas and always longed to live in a four season climate. Now that I live in a four season climate (truth be told, it's more of a three season climate) I realize that snow and cold at Christmas time are magical and rather lovely, but come the middle of January it becomes more of a hazard to those of us who are clumsy. It's cold and dark, and not really much to look forward in January and February. This year my sister Natalie and I set out to be more festive, so we made Valentine's bunting! I was inspired by this bunting that I found one day while I was blog perusing.

I think it turned out quite lovely; although if I were to do it again I think I would have made it slightly smaller, and used smaller hearts. All in all, I am pleased with the outcome. Thank you Elmer's fabric spray glue- you made our project a million times easier.

Link of the day: Robert and I have been in a jazzy mood as of late and we discovered Nina Simone. A lot of her stuff is hit or miss, but she sings Feelin' Good and it is- hands down- the best version of the song. So if you are in a jazzy mood, or just want something to put you in a good mood, Nina is your girl.

Medical School Update: Robert has now been accepted to two MD schools and will hear back from the third school he interviewed at on Wednesday. It is his top pick school (of the three he has interviewed at) and we are both pretty anxious to hear the news. Good or bad, we are both feeling blessed that he actually has to make a choice between medical schools. Not getting into a medical school last year was pretty devastating for him, and now he absolutely knows this is the road he is supposed to take. But don't worry, a final decision doesn't have to be made until May 15th. We will share our decision once it's been made! (It's a big one to make....so we will probably take our sweet time.) 

Summa Summa

Surprise! The Summer is slowly coming to a close (even if all the pins on Pinterest are of Halloween and Fall outfits) however- it is still very much Summer. If it is still 90+ degrees in Idaho it is most surely not even close to Fall. Now that I am off my soapbox, I can tell you how terrible I have been at blogging. This has been for a number of reasons. First, my computer is really slow and there isn't an Apple store here, so that has to wait until our next Utah/Vegas trip. Second, I really don't like my camera and all my pictures are not the best quality and I don't love putting semi quality pictures up.

As a quick Summer recap:

I sewed. A lot. My two favorite projects were:

  a knockoff Baby Zara dress

and a color block throw pillow

I said a few things about my internship a few posts back. I finished with this about a month ago. I came to love teaching geriatrics, which is something I never thought I would say. I quickly learned early on in my health and fitness career path that personal training and teaching younger crowds usually turns into a vanity competition; these people loved to exercise because they simply got stronger! It was so much more important to them to be strong and fit than to have a "nice bod". This is a whole other tangent I can go on, but I will spare you all. Simply stated, CrossFit is the best thing ever. Exercise for practicality and strength, not vanity. 

I taught three different classes in Idaho Falls, Milo, and Rexburg. I already miss their smiling faces terribly. I la la la loved their care free attitudes. 

Robert has been working for a concrete company over the Summer; he works from about 5:30 am- 3-4 pm (on a good day). He has gotten incredibly tan, and lets be honest. I am a tad bit jealous. Even though the poor guy can't feel the nerves in his hands half the time, it has been a blessing that he found this Summer job. He also took the MCAT for the 3rd time (he finds out results in about a week!) and applied to Medical Schools (again). 

We have found time to play even with our  his crazy schedule. We have done quite a bit, but sadly, below are the only adventures I actually documented. 

We went camping with some of our good friends in the Tetons.

We accidentally took the managers camping spot (whoops) but it had an incredible view of the lake!

 I promise Kaylin & Tyler aren't the only ones who like each other.

Hidden Falls at Jenny's Lake

If any of you are going up to the Grand Teton area I HIGHLY recommend going on the short little jaunt up the mountain by Jenny's Lake to Hidden Falls. It is beautiful and it is the perfect place to pick Huckleberries! 

Speaking of, our next adventure was picking Huckleberry's in Kelly Canyon. I love Idaho's little gem berry.

We picked about a quart, which may not seem like much but for Huckleberries, that is about $25 worth of berries. Mmmmm. Delicious.

Lastly, back at the beginning of July we went to Palisades to go camping with our ward. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love our ward, and all of the wonderful friends we've made. It's such a unique and wonderful experience to be in a ward when everyone is pretty much in the exact same stage as you are. It is a once in a life time opportunity and I am very grateful that we have this chance, and that we got so lucky. I don't have any pictures from the campout, but the next morning a few of our friends went to hike Palisades with us. It is one of our favorite hikes in Eastern Idaho, and reminds me why I love this part of the country so much. We didn't get any pictures with our friends because Robert and I got carried away and decided to hike the extra 6 miles to the other lake while our friends were fishing. 

Phew. And that's a wrap. Definitely was a very brief overview of our Summer thus far but there is still enough Summer left to make up for my lack of blogging our many other adventures.

peachy keen

A week and a half ago I thought it would be a good idea to order a 20 lb box of peaches in my our Boutiful Baskets. A week and a half later, I can see now it wasn't the most brilliant idea this brain of mine has come up with. The pro of all of this? I would be okay considering myself an experienced canner.

In this lovely process I found my most favorite peach recipes of all time; I knew some good would come out of all this. Some of them are canning recipes, and some are not (because I am fully aware that not everyone cans peaches in their spare time).  

peach and creme fraiche pie (via smitten kitchen)

peach butter (via smitten kitchen)

spicy peach bar-b-que sauce (via ball)

If you are not one for spicy foods, that lovely condiment is probably not for you. Robert and I are both lovers of a little spice for the palate and it is perfect for the both of us. You know, the kind of spice that livens up your food while still letting you enjoy the flavor. Yesterday we went camping with our friends Sarah & Chase and had it with our little campfire bratwurst. It was to die for.

mango salsa (recipe via & picture via)

I know you are all thinking "claire, mango's and peaches are not created equal". Alas, BB gave me five mangos as well, and I was getting carried away. But the recipe is to die for. The website, all though not the most aesthetically pleasing is a great little resource for all things canning, growing, and picking. 

Of course, I had to make jam as well. I think it's just an unspoken rule that if you are canning, and canning with fruit you are obviously going to make jam. I found a sugar-free spiced peach jam recipe in the holy bible of canning "The Blue Book", and added some huckleberries from our adventure. It was pretty good- if I say so myself. 

Lesson: being bored can be beneficial, but also detrimental. Lucky for me, it turned out to be okay. We will see if that still holds true after I conquer painting our nightstands tomorrow.

double, double

in june I was able to go down to vegas (thank you, ride board!) for my sister's double baby shower. It was epic.

The food was delicious (which always seems to be what I post about. but really, it was good)- thanks to all the wixom girls, and cousins (minus me). I did the labels and signage. melissa did the banner (which I didn't get a descent picture of. it was adorable.). co & nat made the babies. we like parties, and it was a pretty good party. 

if you did't notice. we (wixom girls) heart bunting. and birds. and food-good food.

 the future mothers, and their awesome byu-idaho onesies. 

 And.... a not-very-good-quality-picture-of the Wixom girls.

ps- I love it when family get's together. It always is a party that ends with good stories. ashlee (an adopted sister), aunt julie, jill & gina all came down to support co & nat and we even got to go up to bonnie springs for a little outdoor play. 

pss- one day i will get a descent camera that produces descent quality pictures.