First Snow

Two weeks earlier than last year, we had our first snow. We woke up yesterday to this...

(View out small bedroom window)

(View from front steps)

Tuesday night when it started snowing, Robert and I mixed up some hot chocolate and stood on our porch to watch and drink. The ceremony lasted a total of 2 minutes before we were too cold and wanted to go back inside, but it was fun :)

I can hardly contain my excitement for the Christmas season. I have had to force myself to not listen to Christmas music. I think it comes from 10 years of starting to rehearse holiday music in school choirs in October. Anyway, this snow has only intensified that excitement. It melted by noon yesterday, but the temperature is still what I'd be used to Arizona weather being on Christmas Day (if not colder than that). The day after Thanksgiving Carpenters Christmas Portrait will be blaring out of any music player device I can find!

Halloween Preview - Poncho "Villa" Lydia

We dressed Lydia up in her costume for our ward Trunk-or-Treat last night. We snapped a couple quick pictures before we left. We'll try to take some better ones on Saturday, along with mine and Robert's costumes, but in the mean time, enjoy!!! She was definitely a big hit at the trunk-or-treat. I think her "deer in the headlights" look just adds to the hilarity of the first picture :)


And yes that is Hannah Montana on the TV in the background and we're proud of it!

Mobility Rocks!!!

Lydia is officially mobile. It's not a full out crawl yet. It's more of a scoot and crawl hybrid: a scawl... or a croot, you pick. Anyway, she loves it, which isn't surprising. She's always been an active baby, and this just gives her the ability to be more active. Here's photo proof of the abundance of joy that this baby has moving around on the ground. Also, the best video footage we've been able to get of her scawling :)

SOLIDS...DUN Dun dun!

Well so far solids have been... Messy. As I've mentioned before, Lydia likes to spit. Putting food in her mouth just gives her more to spit, and therefore a mess. Also she's not grasping the whole eating from a spoon scenario. She likes to lick from it as if she were a dog/cat, so I have to maneuver around her licking tongue to get the spoon in her mouth in the first place, and then the spitting begins. I'm debating whether or not I should keep trying to fight it and force her to learn to eat from the spoon, or if I should buy some food bottle things and feed her that way. I hesitate to get the bottles because she needs to learn how to eat from a spoon eventually so I fear that the bottles would just be an easy temporary way out. Some people have suggested waiting and trying again in a week or two, but I don't think that's necessary because what she does eat she enjoys, I don't feel like she spits because she doesn't like the taste, she's just spitting because she likes to spit. Also it hasn't done anything crazy with her digestive system or anything. All you moms out there let me know what you think.

Anyway, here are some pictures and video from the monumental first meal. We took more than 10 minutes of video, but I'll just give you all the first 2 and a half minutes :)

The Alders Came for a Visit!!!

My oldest sister Christi, her husband Ryan, and these yay-hoots...

...came up to Utah for the last part of their October break, the 15th and 16th. Friday night we met up with them and Katie, Mike, and Alena in Salt Lake for dinner at The Pie and desert at a yogurt place. Here's a few pictures of the fun times.

Saturday they drove down to Provo. Ryan did his Master's at BYU, so they have several sentimental things they like to do when they come to Provo. First we went to BYU to buy a ton of candy from the bookstore. Chocolate covered cinnamon gummy bears and sour watermelon gummies to name a couple favorites. We then took a break in the grass on the steep hill that is between the administration building and the library. The kids rolled down the hill over and over until they were so dizzy they were falling over and everyone that could see them through the window in the library was watching and laughing hysterically. I set Lydia down and let her experience grass for the first time. She was quite intrigued by it.

This picture makes me laugh :) I think she looks like a mini monster about to eat something.

After BYU we drove up the canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. The water was freezing, but the scenery as always was AMAZING!!!

And close up :)

As always, it was so great to have family visit. I love them all and miss them already, and all of my other family and friends too! I can't wait for Thanksgiving!!! Less than a month til the Bavarian Cream Dunkin Donuts folks!!!

Our New Pet

Once upon a time Robert felt like he should reward me with something because he thought I had been working really hard and doing a marvelous job as the housekeeper/ homemaker of the family. He asked me what I wanted and I said the first thing that came to my mind, "A fish, and we'll name it Buttercup so that every time we see it we can sing 'My little Buttercup has the sweetest smile...'." His response was, "I'd be totally fine with that as long as we didn't care if it died." We decided to get a fish with the pretense that we didn't care whether it lived or died was not the greatest idea and that was that. Then a few days later Robert gave me this...

It made me smile. We keep it on our entertainment center with pride, and yes, we do sing the song fairly often.

The Deed is Done

I love it, Robert loves it, and Lydia can't eat it. It's a win-win-win! :)

Robert's First Hair Cut

At least by me :) Last night I cut Robert's hair for the first time. If I do say so myself I didn't do too bad of a job.

Before:

After:

Isn't he handsome ;) I did miss a couple of spots and around/behind his ears looks kind of funny, but overall I think it was an excellent first effort.

Speaking of hair, Lydia loves to eat/spit up/rip out/drool in mine. For this reason, I rarely ever wear my hair down any more. Also, it's been quite some time since I've gotten a hair cut so my hair has become dead, split endy, flat, and frizzy. Solution: I'm going to get my hair cut tonight, and I'm thinking I'm going to take the daring plunge and cut it significantly shorter. Like I'm thinking halfway between the chin and shoulder area. Several people have tried to talk me in and out of this in the past (including myself) so I figure I'll just do it. Maybe I'll love it, or maybe I won't and if I don't it will grow back. This will also help in getting rid of some of my dyed hair that I have been trying to grow out for over a year. For those of you who wish to bid farewell to my hair here are a couple last minute pictures...

Who knows how much I'll actually let them cut once I'm sitting in the chair. Be brave Heidi! BE BRAVE!!!

The Best Music Video Ever

Okay maybe not the best, but we think it's pretty great :) Enjoy!

Guess who's 5 months old????

I can't believe it either, but sweet Lydia is 5 months old. She ways just over 17 pounds and is about 27 inches long. She still has a lot of the same quirks as her 4 month post. She isn't crawling yet, but between rolling and scooting she can get anywhere she wants to on the floor. We're starting solids either tonight or tomorrow. There will be a post to come reporting on that soon :) Here's some fun, cute pictures so you all can get your Lydia fix ;)

All bundled up to go on a walk with Mommy and Daddy.


I love how high she can hold her head up now. Whether she's in her crib or her playpen, every time she hears someone come into the room she peeks up to see who it is. I think it's adorable :)

She was a little overwhelmed by this coat if you can't tell.

Lydia and her best friend Logan DeVore. You wouldn't believe the flirting that goes on between these 2!

The BYU Infant Studies Lab called me and asked if I would bring Lydia in for a study they are doing on 5 month old babies. They put this EEG cap on her and she watched a 3 minute video. I don't know how they get valid results out of it, especially when Lydia was more interested in trying to look at the girl that was standing behind us than watching the movie. But at least we got a good picture out of it :)

She's growing up way too fast!!

I love Bean!!

My sister Breanna, more affectionately known as Bean, came for a visit. We had a dandy ol' time :) Friday night we went to Robert's intramural soccer game. Here's a picture of him displaying his mad skills.

Robert's cheer section :) Ain't we precious???

Bean looking pretty fly with her boot. She severely sprained her ankle long boarding a few days before she came up. The doctor says the sprain is so bad it probably would have been better if she had broken it.

It was Homecoming weekend. So we went to the Homecoming pancake breakfast and parade with a bunch of our friends. We almost died 50 times by the candy they were throwing at lightning speeds, but Robert's Jedi skills protected us.

That night we drove the Alpine Loop to show Breanna what fall is supposed to look like. I think we've already passed the peak of beauty, meaning that some of the leaves have already fallen so it wasn't quite as breathtaking as it was 2 weeks ago, but it still was a beautiful sight to see. And I LOVE ASPEN TREES!!

It was so fun having her here!! I miss her already!

BWAA!!

I can't believe I'm posting these, but her laugh is too adorable in these not to share. :) The things we do to entertain or get a smile and a laugh out of our kids.

Bowling Date Night

A couple date nights ago we went bowling. We bowled 2 games. Let's just say Robert won by a little bit both times.

Despite having my worst scores ever, I still had fun. And Robert set a new personal record with his 152. It was a great night all around.

Thankful Thursday - Don't Give Up

This is a day late, but that's the way life goes sometimes. I am thankful for people that are and have always been there for me, in good times and in bad.

Today I heard back from BYU. They said "we regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you admission at this time." I was kind of expecting this because like I said before my GPA is .03 short of what they consider admissible. Since I was expecting it, I had a plan set of how I was going to react. As soon as I saw it, I texted a few people the news, I went to the kitchen timer, set it for 5 minutes, and for that 5 minutes and only that 5 minutes I was allowed to cry. When the timer beeped it was time to move on. Also, right at the end of the 5 minutes several people replied to my text and I received a phone call from Kaci which all helped to brighten my mood.

So I'm determined to not give up. I'll continue to take classes online, get A's, and apply again until I get in. A couple pros to not having to start school in January is first, I get to be at home all of the time with Lydia for longer, and second, I don't have to worry about missing school when this character...

...my brother Preston who is serving an LDS mission in Kinnewick, Washington, gets home in less than 4 months.

I keep thinking of the Josh Groban song Don't Give Up where it says "Don't give up, because you are loved." That's how I feel today. My life is good. I am happy. I am loved.

Thankful Thursday

This rainy Thursday I'm thankful for chocolate milk AKA HAPPINESS!!

Chocolate milk is always my drink of choice. If I am having a rough day I go buy a whole gallon of it and it makes me feel better :) Once upon a time I was in Relief Society for the first time and the teacher asked everyone to write down how they would finish the sentence "Happiness is..." so I wrote down "Happiness is chocolate milk." Little did I know they were going to collect all of them and read them aloud. So they start to read them and they were the classic answers. "Happiness is family. Happiness is the gospel." Then they got to mine, "Happiness is... chocolate milk??" The look on her face was CLASSIC! My sister and I about died laughing. From then on, chocolate milk has been known as Happiness in my family.

It's the little things that make life worth living :)

100th Post!!!

Happy 100 posts to me!! It's been a wonderful journey!

Some of my favorite posts from the past 2 years are:

Robert's Very First Blog Post

Our First Sunday in Provo

The 2 posts from my birthday 2009 - 12 Days of My Birthday and I had a Birthday Shout HORRAY

Bulbs vs Cloves

The Tulip Festival

And last but not least, the 2 posts surrounding Lydia's birth - A Baby Story and When I Grow Up I Want to Be A Mother

I hope you have enjoyed this blog so far as much as I have!