Chapter 2: The First Two Weeks

October 6, 2013; Sunday.

I was over at a friend's house watching general conference and I got a text from Matt

I knew I wanted to go, but I did NOT want to go by myself. So I asked my friend Ali to come with me. I picked her up that night and said, "So do you know Matt Halls?" She stopped dead in her tracks and said, "Um... yes, that's my [recent] ex-boyfriend's good friend." It was a recent wound and I felt terrible opening it so I told her we did NOT have to go. She assured me that she was fine, that he probably wouldn't be there. So we went.
As soon as I got there I found Matt in the back playing ping pong. He lit up when he saw me, which was the cutest. We sat in the kitchen and just talked for quite a while. (Ali was the perfect wing woman. She knew some people at the game night so she just made herself comfortable while I got my flirt on).
I remember that I was venting about my job and looking back it was like word vomit. I just KEPT TALKING ABOUT IT, but he feigned interest, which I appreciate.
By the end of the conversation we had a date set for the following Tuesday.

October 8, 2013: Tuesday
For our first date he picked me up and we went to Toby Keith's Bar and Grill. We just kept the date short, had dinner and a nice convo and then he brought me home. A few things I remember from that date was him eating fries with a fork and the fact that we were like the only people in the restaurant. Probably because we were at a bar at like 6:00.
He dropped me off that night and I knew I wanted to see him again. I also knew that I was going out of town that weekend for my nephew's baptism. I didn't want to wait until I got home to see him again.
The next day we were texting and I mentioned that I was going out of town Thursday night. So we set a date for lunch on Thursday.

October 10, 2013: Thursday
Matt was on his lunch break from work, so I met him at Spinato's Pizza for lunch. I got all excited when I saw him. At the time he was going to school for construction Management and was working as an intern for Okland Construction. He looked the part. Plaid shirt, jeans and work boots. I didn't hate it. After lunch I was thoroughly disappointed that I wouldn't see him again until the following week.

The whole time I was in Utah we were texting constantly. I flew back into Arizona on Monday night and Tuesday the 15th we had plans.

October 15, 2013: Tuesday DATE 3!

I emphasize the fact that it was date 3 because that has special meaning. In the LDS single's scene (especially for those of us in our late 20's [which I was at the time, am not anymore :(] ) a third date means that both parties are interested in seeing where this goes. If both parties are interested in pursuing this, that means that the physical barrier will likely be breached on date 3.
We were going to a movie. Going to a movie is basically saying, "I'm gonna start holding your hand now" so I had expectations.
During the movie (Captain Phillips) I could barely focus because I was thinking about holding his hand the whole time. "Should I hold his hand? Should I make my hand available to him? Is he going to do something?" Then he leaned forward. I know that this is the international sign for "scratch my back" but I got SO nervous. I sat there and stared at his back... "Should I scratch it? I'm sure he wants me to, but what if he doesn't? I don't want to make things weird..." And then he leaned back and I felt bad that I didn't accept the invitation. I decided I wanted to test him and see if that is, in fact, what he was trying to get me to do, so I leaned forward. Almost immediately he started scratching my back and I felt like an idiot.
I sat back and again, all I was thinking about was holding his hand. I feel like my thoughts were practically audible. "Just do it... just hold his hand... you know he likes you... just do it. JUST DO IT! DO IT!" And then in a rapid, totally unsmooth motion, I grabbed his hand, and he laughed. From that point on, things were super comfortable.
He brought me home that night, walked me to the door and gave me a sweet little kiss goodnight. For some reason the hand holding made me way more nervous. I do remember at that point feeling like holding hands was more of a statement than kissing. Holding hands in public mainly. Plus it was the first contact. I think once we were holding hands, we both knew that we would kiss that night. I really appreciated that the first kiss was just a peck goodnight. I feel like it was very respectful.
From that date on, we saw each other every day.
To be continued...

Chapter 1: Love at first sight???

I decided I wanted to write down our story piece by piece so I can have it printed up.

September 30, 2013: Monday
My single's stake had a talent show. I was singing a song I had written (Just Friends) and had a guy in my ward playing the guitar for me (I don't do so well at singing and playing at the same time, so I taught it to him).

Matt was there with his ward band, he played the drums for them. I remember being in a room to practice and he came in with another girl to practice also, but left when they saw us. No words exchanged.

The talent show was so fun, but I pretty much was there alone, so once it was over my plan was to just bee-line it out of there. I am a total introvert and I get anxiety and the thought of talking to people after I sing, so I just wanted out of there.

As everyone was standing to get refreshments I looked over across the aisle and saw Matt sitting there, looking at me, with a little smile on his face. Honestly, I can still see it when I think about it and it STILL gives me butterflies. I definitely thought he was cute, but because of my introvertness I knew I wouldn't talk to him, and would probably never see him again. He assumed I was dating the guy that played the guitar for me, so he wasn't going to talk to me either. So, what's the harm in a little eye flirtation? We locked eyes for a good 3 seconds. That is a LONG time to make eye contact with a stranger, if you think about it. It was totally intentional, you could cut the tension with a knife. Then I got up and left.

October 4, 201: Friday
My friend Ashley had invited me to meet up with her and a group of people for dinner and a movie. She had become a really good friend of mine over the summer so of course I went. At dinner she was telling me about these guys that were going to be meeting us at the movie. I remember her talking about Matt and saying, "You guys might actually hit it off...". I was interested in a guy in Utah at the time, so I wasn't really "looking" but hey, it never hurts to have options (especially options in the same state).

After dinner we went to the movie and the two guys came and sat down. I was sitting in between Matt and Ashley (at this point I did not recognize him from the talent show). As soon as he sat down Ashley started asking him about all the girls in his life. Again, I was sitting right between them so I kind of leaned back to get out of their way. I remember Matt was giving her one word answers and a lot of "oh... yeah... not interested in her anymore." or "Oh, that's not happening...". Honestly, my first impression was, "Oh he's one of those guys... Always dating a different girl. Probably cocky. No thanks." Once the movie started, and throughout, he and I would just kind of make jokes (we were seeing Austenland which was really silly so there was a lot to make fun of) He was fun to flirt with, but I still had my reservations about him.

When the movie ended and we were all walking out he said to me, "What stake are you in?" I said, "Tempe" he said, "Were you in the talent show on Monday?"
This is when I realized who he was and I was MORTIFIED!!! You guys... I STARED at him for multiple seconds. As mentioned before, it was flirtatious and it was intentional and I thought I would never see him again! I was bright red in the face, but thankfully it was night time.
I kept my cool, outwardly, and just said, "Oh yeah... I was there."
Little did I know, as soon as he saw me in the theater he knew who I was. He sat down next to me on purpose, and when Ashley was talking to him about all the women in his life, he was trying to SHUT THAT DOWN!

At this point there was about 5 of us standing outside the theater talking. It was getting to the point for him to ask for my number and I thought that would be SUPER awkward in front of everyone. I figured if he really wanted it he could get it from Ashley, so quite abruptly I said, "K, bye!" and went home.

The next day I got a text from Ashley that said, "So... I know you have that guy in Utah so I didn't want to do anything without talking to you first, but Matt was asking about you." I said, "Did he want to know my story?" She said, "Yes, that's exactly what he said." I said, "Well nothing is happening with the guy in Utah, so I'm fine with you giving him my number."

October 6, 2013: Sunday

To Be Continued...

4 Month Update

I cannot believe our little Sawyer Mae is 4 months old (as of Feb 8). Time is just flying by.

This last month we had a lot of changes. I started working part time, which has been so nice. When Matt and I made that decision my mind raced at all that I would be able to get done at home. I made a chore chart for each day, I had a menu for each day, I had a workout...

Turns out, I have time to accomplish one of those things each day OR I can shower and get ready. I usually do pretty well with keeping the house tidy, and keeping the laundry done, but as far as deep cleaning goes, I'm not able to get to as much as I'd like.

I also have done pretty well at making our dinners a few nights a week. Matt has been working late this week so I haven't been doing anything special for dinner.

Even though I don't have as much time as I thought I would, I am LOVING spending this time with my baby girl. Every time I go to pick her up from the sitter, she gets a big smile on her face. I love that she knows who I am.

It's so fun to watch her learn and grow. It's fun to listen to her experiment with her voice. Lately, when she's crying for attention, it's a lot deeper. She's so funny, she'll learn how to do something with her voice, and then that is how she'll cry for a couple of days.

She started rolling from her back to her tummy on her 3 month mark and now if we put her on her back she won't last longer than 5 minutes. That makes diaper changes SUPER fun. The problem is, once she rolls to her tummy she can't see as much as she did before so she gets frustrated. If she's on her tummy, it's best to have her on our bed or on the couch so she can see what's going on. We have to keep a good eye on her though because she rolls all over the place.

We are still waiting to hear her little giggle. I thought she was right on the cusp of laughing like 2 months ago, but she is just dragging her little feet. She gets so excited that her whole body will tense up and her smile gets so big she can barely contain herself, but she does NOT laugh.

She sleeps like a rock star! She typically goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 and she'll sleep for about 12 hours. She'll take one good 2.5-3 hour nap at some point during the day, and a few 30 minuters throughout the day. If she's tired and we lay her down, she doesn't cry at all, she just finds her little thumb and falls asleep pretty quick. She only sucks her thumb when she's tired and ready to sleep, but I'm sure that will increase over time. I haven't been used to her sleeping through the night, so I'm still not getting very good sleep. I do think that is starting to change though.

Last little note. I have been singing to Sawyer a lot. It's so fun to watch her watch me sing. Her eyes go from my mouth to my eyes, back to my mouth, over and over. She smiles so big and coo's along with me. Sunday night we were at Matt's brother's house to watch the 2nd half of the Super Bowl. We left at about 8:15, which was way past her bedtime and she was MAD. She was just screaming in her car seat, so I climbed back there and started singing to her. She stopped crying almost immediately and just watched me as I sang to her for the rest of the drive, probably at least 10 minutes. I wrote about this in my journal that night. It was definitely in my top 3 life moments.

Yesterday was her 4 month wellness check. She is 14.5 pounds (52nd percentile, up from 32nd) She is 25 inches long (93rd percentile up from 67... this just blows my mind. The doc thinks she probably just had a growth spurt recently. I'm sure that percentage will go back down. Matt and I are not tall people) and her head is in the 87th percentile, which hasn't ever really changed.
Dr Milius said she was just perfect. When I told him she rolled from her back to her tummy at 3 months he looked at her and said, "That is NOT normal. You, little girl, are advanced!" Course she is... she's a genius. He gave us the go ahead to start her on solids. We are so excited to try that. Once Matt isn't working late we'll do it. I think it's something we should do together for the first time.
She also had to get 4 immunizations yesterday. I'm so glad they are so fast with those. She cried, of course, as they pricked her, but it was over so fast and I picked her right up and she calmed down pretty quickly then slept on the way home.
All day yesterday she was so happy. Even when she got tired she just had such a big smile on her face. The only way I knew she was tired is she kept yawning and going for her thumb so I put her to bed.

It's crazy how much she has changed our lives and what a BIG part of our lives she is now. Last night I waited up for Matt and we chit chatted when he got home. This is the second night that Sawyer was asleep when he got home and we ended up spending a good chunk of time looking at pictures and videos of her... that cracked me up.

We sure love our little one.

She always holds our fingers when she's eating her bottle

 Thumb sucker

 Holding her own bottle, like a boss.

 Sunday Best

This has got to be one of my favorite pictures of us.

 That smile just cracks me up

 She had a few days where she wouldn't nap longer than 30 minutes, so she was tired all the time. She fell asleep on us a lot in those days, and we kind of loved it

 Nother Sunday best shot.

 Getting better at sitting up.

Holding her own bottle again, and looking like she just got caught.

 4 months old

 about to get her shots

if she's not sucking her thumb, shes' sucking her whole hand.