Finding Joy in the Journey

UCSC Arboreteum

2012-01-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

One of the closest things to us on the UCSC campus is the Arboreteum. We took a walk through it the other day. It's no Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival, but it had a special kind of beauty all of it's own. We think it will be even prettier in the summer, and some months of the year there are all kinds of hummingbirds that migrate through it which could be fun. It was a fun family outing, and we'll probably go there several more times while we're here.

My Deer Friends

2012-01-11T21:08:00.001-07:00

Our apartment backs up to the forest, so we get animal visitors. There's an occasional raccoon and bobcat sighting, but our most common visitors are squirrels and, especially lately, deer. There is a big herd of them that currently hangs out right outside all day long. We can look out the window at almost any time and see at least 2 within a few feet of our back gate. It's fun. Seeing as how deer are migratory they probably won't always be right outside our window, but right now it's fun to have so many deer friends close by. :)

Merry Thanksgivmas Part 3 - Christmas

2012-01-04T13:40:00.004-07:00

We were fortunate enough to be able to spend more than 3 weeks in Arizona for Christmas this year. That is a long trip, and we were busy almost every second of it. I'm going to attempt to resist my usual urge to be overly detailed and long winded and instead of reporting to you on every minute of it, I'm just going to post a ton of pictures with very little explanation and short tidbits here and there of things I want to remember. Here it goes.

BFFs - Lydia and Alena

Guess who got to be Santa's helper for the Richardson Cousin Gift Exchange

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus :)

Lydia wasn't very happy with the situation at first, but grew to be okay with it.

BFFs - Annie and Mary

Richardson Cousin Gift Exchange

Wilcken Christmas Story and Bunko Night

Nertz Nerd (translation: our friends) Breakfast, Gift Exchange, and Tournament

Complete with pony rides :) A first for Mary and Lydia

Wilcken Christmas Eve

It's tradition that we turn off all the lights (except the Christmas tree), and by candle and oil lamp, sing Silent Night and Were You There On That Christmas Night, read Luke 2, and eat a dinner like in Christ's time - unleavened bread, fish, grapes, etc. This year my mom had to work Christmas Eve Night, so we did this around lunch time instead. My brother Preston, AKA my partner in crime, and I put butcher paper over all of the windows so that it was still dark. It worked perfectly. I love traditions!

Christmas Day

My older brother is a UPS driver. This was his present to Mary. It has the UPS logo on the back. We love it :)

The Phoenix Zoo

Robert's mom was given a zoo membership by his dad, so we all went together one of the last days we were in town. It was super fun, especially with Lydia being really in to animals lately (compliments of Go Diego Go!)

Lydia was kind of indifferent to everything until we went on the Monkey walk. It's a big enclosed space that you can walk through while a bunch of spider monkeys roam freely around you. Lydia loved it!! At one point a monkey jumped and stood right next to her. She kept excitedly pointing and saying "Bo Bo! Bo bo!" Like the Bo Bo brothers on Go Diego Go.

In the petting zoo, Lydia wanted nothing to do with actually petting the goats. Instead she would just squat down right in front of each one and wave and say "Hi!"

Lydia rediscovered her love for Cheetos

The 3 Richardson grandchildren. Our two, and Robert's brother Terrel and Jenn's Brooklyn. They aren't all together that often, but Terrel and Jenn plan on moving to Monterey this summer, so hopefully we will be seeing a lot more of them.

Two days after the zoo we came home, and there was our trip. We had a blast, can't wait to see all of our family again, but it is so great to be home. This concludes our Merry Thanksgivmas posts until next year. I hope everyone had their own fabulous Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

2012-01-03T11:13:00.001-07:00

We interrupt these Merry Thanksgivmas posts to bring you an afternoon we had between the Thanksgiving and Christmas trips. There was a huge windstorm that hit our area for several days. I've dealt with monsoon storms and snow storms, but it was a new experience to have a just wind storm. We didn't have it too bad, but there were other areas in the county that went without power for a couple of days from the wind taking out power lines and such and roads that were blocked because of several fallen trees. At our place our biggest complaint was that the wind through the trees was keeping us up at night, which wasn't too bad, and during the day it was perfect kite flying weather. So we busted out a dust covered kite that we bought a few years ago for $2 and had never used, went to our complex's baseball field, and had a blast. I think these pictures are fun. The ocean in the background of a couple of them just adds an extra special touch. Gotta love Santa Cruz!

Merry Thanksgivmas Part 2 - Thanksgiving

2012-01-02T23:26:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving this year was AWESOME!!! There was constant fun and tons of family time. All of my siblings and their counterparts were in town in Mesa and we did all that we could to squeeze in as much time with each other as possible. For a while Robert and I thought we weren't going to be able to afford to go down for both Thanksgiving and Christmas so we were not going to make the Thanksgiving trip. It ended up working out and it made us appreciate and enjoy it that much more.

Robert and I got in to Mesa on Thanksgiving Eve night and the party was already in full force. I don't know how you cook your turkey, but it's been a long standing tradition that we cook our turkeys in a pit. It's basically the same concept as a crock pot. Dig a pit, make a huge bonfire in it and let it all burn down until you have a ton of really hot coals left, put the turkeys in and cover with a big lid of some sort (this year we used the hood of a car) and all of the dug out dirt and leave them there slow cooking for 12 hours. The most tender and moist turkey you'll ever have! This pit was one of the biggest we'd ever done. We did FOURTEEN turkeys in it this year!! And what better reason to throw an extra party than a bonfire. Am I right??

During the bonfire party, we watched a video of my brother Scott. He had gotten a wisdom tooth out earlier that day and was very loopy and out of it afterwards, so of course my other brother Preston encouraged the loopiness and video taped it. CLASSIC!

Robert got a big kick out of it.

The next morning it was time to unearth them, always a nerve wracking experience. There have been years that for what ever reason the coals don't stay hot and all of the turkeys aren't cooked all of the way, but this year... PERFECTION!! They uncovered them and there was still a ton of heat and every turkey was meat falling off the bone goodness!

My beautiful AMAZING mother! So thankful for her!!

And then we stuff! So much food, so much family, so much fun!!

Lydia collapsed on Scott, so exhausted from the excitement of the day.

That evening we blessed Mary. Robert's blessing was sweet and perfect. It was so amazing to have so many worthy priesthood holders from our family in the circle. From left to right: Robert's Uncles Randy and Rod, my brothers-in-law Ryan, Mike, Danjee, Brad, and Shay, my brothers Scott and Preston, Robert and Mary, Robert's brother in-law Jonathan, Robert's Grandpa Richardson, Robert's dad, and my dad. So many stalwart men!

Mary with her Great Grandma Richardson

Mary with her Great Grandma Hall

Four Generation Picture

Our little family. Ain't we sweet?!?

All 11 siblings from oldest to youngest

Gotta love silly pictures

I failed to get any pictures of the Richardson Thanksgiving the next day or the rest of the weekend for that matter, but it was just as fabulous. We are so blessed and thankful for all of our amazing family!!

Our Home Sweet Home & Merry Thanksgivmas Part 1 - Decorations

2012-01-02T17:34:00.003-07:00

So here is the long awaited tour of our apartment. I know you all have been waiting on the edge of your seats and losing sleep in anticipation of this. So here we go...

The Main Floor

The Living Room/Dining Area

The Quaint Kitchen

Upstairs

The Study - We got the desk and matching printer cabinet for FREE! Thank you generous Craigslist people!

The Bathroom - Complete with orange, Brady Bunch-esque sink

Kids Room - We're on the hunt for a cheap toddler bed so we can move Lydia out of and Mary into the crib. I'll work on decorating this room all cutesy once that is done.

Our Bedroom/My Craft Room

Outside

View of the ocean from our parking lot

A little better picture of it taken from the hill you see behind the stop sign in the last picture.

View of the forest from our back door shrouded in fog the way it commonly is in the morning a lot of the year. Kind of cool :)

For those of you who are curious how exactly this is all laid out, here is a video tour. I think it is boring and kind of cheesy. I even added background music ("Our House" by Madness, I thought it was fitting) to try to ease the boringness of it. It might have helped a little, but not much. And you might be able to tell from the video that I'm very excited about all the closet/storage space I have in this apartment. :)

And there you have it, our humble home. Since our Thanksgivmas decorations were featured in the video, I'll go ahead and post about those. Every year while we've been married, Thanksgiving and Christmas have kind of blurred together since we always make the 2 trips down to AZ. We barely would have time to enjoy our Christmas decorations because we would put them up just in time to go to AZ for Christmas and then take them down right after we got back. So this year we decided to embrace the situation. The first week of November we put up our fall and Christmas decorations up and declared, "Merry Thanksgivmas!!" Here's our Christmas tree calendar and Thankful Turkeys.

Our fall welcome sign surrounded by snowflakes.

Our Christmas stockings and fall colored paper chain.

And here's daddy helping Lydia decorate the Christmas tree :)

The finished product

Halloween 2011

2011-11-16T23:54:00.001-07:00

Ward Trunk-or-Treat

I'm quite pleased with how our costumes turned out this year. I got the idea off of a friend's blog, who got it off pinterest, who got it off of familyfun.com. You've got to love the internet! :) I improvised a little bit from the FamilyFun instructions so it wouldn't cost as much and everything worked great.

Our S'more Family

Lydia the Sweet Chocolate Bar

Mary the Marshmallow

Brandon, Hannah, and Naomi Seegmiller as Coraline and her other-parents

Fred and Cara Slack with their Pooh Bear John and Pumpkin Mary

Our camping themed trunk to go along with our S'more costumes. The candy was in the dutch oven. I thought it was clever ;)

The marshmallow and chocolate bar roasting in the campfire :)

Halloween Night

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Mary at Two Months Old

2011-11-16T23:10:00.001-07:00

Is she not the cutest thing you've ever seen?!?!?

Weight: 11lbs 5oz (44th percentile)

Height: 23.5 inches (74th percentile)

Head Circumference: 15.5 inches (50th percentile)

She is such a great baby. She's still rarely fussy. She smiles all of the time. She's not quite laughing yet, but she makes lots of cute noises. She's not as mobile and active as Lydia was. She's content to just sit and look around most of the time. Until recently, when we would do tummy time, she would just fall right asleep. She's finally started to not like it and squirm, so she'll probably be trying to roll over and what not soon. We couldn't have asked for a sweeter addition to our family.

Lydia loves her sister and loves to sit with and hold her.

Sometimes she loves her a little too much. :)

Can life get better?

I submit that it cannot!

First Temple and San Fran Trip

2011-11-16T22:34:00.001-07:00

We finally made it up to Oakland for our first temple trip. I ran a few errands and then waited outside with the girls while Robert did a session and next time we'll switch. I love this temple! It's beautiful and it's built at one of the highest points in Oakland, so it has a gorgeous view. I had a blast outside with my girlies, taking pictures, and teaching Lydia that this building was called a temple. Trying to teach the important things while they're young. :)

The view. I would love to see it at night sometime.

Once Robert got out, we headed across the bay to San Francisco for lunch. We ate at one of the restaurants on Pier 39, Sea Lion Cafe, and then just browsed, people watched, and took some pictures.

Golden Gate

Alcatraz

Street Performers

We were stopped by a group of Asian tourists because they wanted to take pictures of our girls in the double stroller. You know your kids are cute when... Robert and I have actually been too Pier 39 once before at the same time. It was back in high school for Chorale tour. Robert hated me at that time, so we had fun recalling our memories from that trip since they were so separate from each other. :) We hope to eventually be perfect tour guides of the Bay area as well as Santa Cruz. We both have sisters that are seniors in high school and will be coming on the same San Francisco Chorale Tour in March. We hope to have a favorite restaurant to take them to when they come. Such a fun area!

Big, Big, Big, Big Water

2011-11-16T21:17:00.001-07:00

(Darn! Now that song is going to be stuck in my head. It's from one of the zillion Land Before Time movies)

I never would have guessed how much I would LOVE living so close to the beach!! It's a little too cold now too take our little kiddos, but we squeezed in several trips before it got too cold. I can't wait until it warms back up enough that we can go all of the time again. Don't mistake that for complaining about the weather. "Cold" here is in the 60s. That's BEAUTIFUL compared to the Utah fall and winters I've gotten used to. Anyway, here's some fun pictures from a outing we had on Natural Bridges Beach, and also when we went to watch the sunset at West Cliff which overlooks Lighthouse State Beach.

Robert gets a kick out of running away from the water. He's the third kid in our house. :)

All my children ;)

We're so lucky to live in paradise :)

Mary at One Month

2011-11-02T14:00:00.002-06:00

I'll hopefully be posting Mary's Two Month post soon, so I won't say too much right now. I will say she is the PERFECT baby. Until lately, she's always been a 100% happy baby as long as she's not hungry. She is so sweet, so cute, and we are blessed to have her in our lives. Here's some pictures from her first month. Like I've said before, I've been seriously lacking in the picture department, so this is basically every picture I took of her in her first month. I'm trying to do better, I promise!

Four days old. Yay for being able to bring out old favorite outfits from when Lydia was a baby :)

Two weeks old. Our first Sunday in Santa Cruz Ward.

Bath time in the sink :)

Traditional monthly photo shoot. My Aunt Pam gave us the outfit she's wearing. It says "I love you cherry much." So cute.

Being Bashful :)

4th Annual Hall Family Reunion

2011-11-02T11:51:00.002-06:00

Thursday night September 15th, 8 days after we had just finished the big move drive, I turned to Robert and said, "Robert, I want to go to my family reunion this weekend." As if our lives hadn't been crazy enough, right?? After a couple minutes of discussion and clarifying that I was being serious, Robert said we could go and 12 hours later we started the 12 hour drive to Mesa, AZ.

A few hours into the drive, Robert woke me up and said, "Heidi, it feels like the car is throwing up!" Confused and still half asleep, I said, "What do you mean 'throwing up?'" Robert clarified, "Like it's heaving." I asked, "How much gas do we have?" Right after I asked, the engine choked and we coasted to a stop, completely out of gas, surrounded by nothing but peach farms.

Robert started to walk to the closest gas station, but when he got enough service on his phone to look up how far away the closest gas station was he called and said the closest one was 1 and 1/2 hours walking distance away. I said, "Well, I saw someone drive by on a tractor on that peach farm right there. Maybe they'll help." So Robert hopped the fence and found a worker that knew at least a handful of words of English. They ended up letting us use some gas from their motorcycle, gave us a fresh bag of peaches off the farm, and we were on our way. The whole adventure took just over an hour. I'm glad we weren't stranded for too long. Now, it's a funny memory to look back on instead of a horrible experience :)

Finally, we got to my parents' house that evening. We only told 2 of my sisters we were coming, so it was a complete surprise to everyone else. Here's my dad holding Mary for the first time, and baby Bryson. His 25th and 23rd grandchildren.

Lydia and Alena were so excited to see and play with each other. You'd think it had been ages since they saw each other instead of just over a week and a half

After a fun night of surprising both of our families, the next day we headed up to Camp LoMia for the Hall Reunion. It was a fabulous time, as always. Aunt Pam and family did a wonderful job in charge this year. Here's the mommies and 3 new Wilcken grandbabies - Katie with Bryson, Becky with Annie, and me with Mary. They were all born within 3 weeks and 2 days of each other.

Aubrie and Cami loving Mary while Sasha loves Bryson.

It's no secret that Lydia loves being the center of attention. During the Sunday program she kept going up to the stage and trying to lead a song or say a prayer. It was too cute if I say so myself.

Me snuggling my baby. She's too precious!

We got a couple more days of visiting in, then headed back to Santa Cruz before Robert started school. It was a whirlwind of a trip, but totally worth it! If for nothing else, my parents got to meet Mary while she was still in her newborn stage. I love my family!!

The Big Move

2011-10-24T19:16:00.000-06:00

Welp, Tuesday September 6th was the big day. Aaron, Robert, Devin Curry, and Mom all loaded up the truck and car while Aly entertained Lydia and I got together everything from inside the house. It really is nothing short of a miracle that we got everything to fit in that 10 foot truck and the back of our Blazer. I wish I had gotten a picture of how full it was. There really wasn't an inch to spare. Side note: "I wish I had gotten a picture of..." that's a phrase you'll probably be hearing a lot of in the next few posts. I've been severely slacking in the picture taking department. Before I knew it we were on our way. Here's the 2 kiddos ready for the big drive ahead. They were both troopers the whole time!

We drove from Utah to Reno the first day and the rest of the way the next day. About an hour and a half before we got to Santa Cruz we drove through Danville. We're Phineas and Ferb (a cartoon on Disney Channel) fans so we had to take a picture by a Danville sign. :)

After months of anticipation and preparation, and a very long drive we finally arrived at our new home!

But boy did we still have our work cut out for us!

Aly, Mom, and Robert worked like machines! Before going to bed that night they moved all of the boxes into their corresponding rooms and got the kitchen unpacked enough that it could function, the whole while I was barking orders from a chair feeling lazy. They wouldn't let me work. Some nonsense about how I had just had a baby 10 days before or something. ;)

Aly and Mom's flight left the next afternoon, so after getting a little bit more work done Thursday morning we took a well needed break and decided to explore Santa Cruz a little bit before they had to leave and headed down to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

Aly and I played in the water.

Mom eventually couldn't resist joining in on the fun.

I love these next 2 pictures. I feel like they could be posters advertising for a movie. Like this one "A woman, a sailor, and a love that spans the ocean." Am I right or am I right??

Then this one, "A baby, an ocean, and the diaper that would last through it all!" I think we have the makings of a blockbuster phenomenon ;)

Lydia loves the wet sand, and she loves it more and more every time we go to the beach.

After the beach it was time to say goodbye to Aly and Mom. They were SOOOOOOOO much help! They did in a few hours what it would have taken me days to do. We were so grateful. I have the best inlaws!

The Catch Up Begins!!

2011-10-24T15:51:00.000-06:00

Hello world!!! Did you miss me? I missed you! I'll slowly be catching up on all of our past 2 months of adventures in the next few days. Already posted:

Out of the Box! Out of the Box! - Packing adventures
A Baby Story - Mary's labor and delivery story
3 Minutes - The scare Mary gave us in her first few minutes of life
Welcome Mary Eliza! - Pictures from Mary's first few days
A Week in Limbo - Our time between Mary being born and moving to California
Farewell to Provo - A shout out to our Provo experience and a few things we'll miss about it

Still to come: The Big Move, Hall Reunion, Mary at 1 Month, Our New Home, Santa Cruz Adventures, and more!

STAY TUNED!!! ;)

Farewell to Provo

2011-10-24T15:46:00.000-06:00

I never thought when I moved to Utah after Robert and I got married that I would love Provo as much as I did and still do. There are so many stories I could tell about the people, places, friends, and family we love there. It's where Robert and I started life as a married couple. It's where we started raising our family. It's where I learned to appreciate, and even somewhat look forward to snow in the winter ;) I could go on and on and on about what we loved and what we miss, but instead I will just touch on a couple things that I don't feel like have been touched on enough yet.

Provo Peak 4th Ward

PP4th was our second ward in Provo. PP11th Ward was our first, and it was wonderful too and we made many friends in that ward that we are still in touch with. But PP4th holds a special place in my heart. We moved in to this ward less than 2 weeks before Lydia was born. Before we left church the first Sunday we were there we were asked to speak the next Sunday and the Relief Society President had given me a "Daddy's Hospital Survival Kit" for Robert which contained (along with snacks and other things) a card that had the number of who we needed to call once the baby was born to get meals organized for us. It's hard to describe how wonderful this ward was. I think the story that best illustrates this happened last summer 2010. We were struggling to make ends meet financially. We didn't know how we were going to make it to the start of school when Robert would start working for BYU again. Then one morning there was an envelope on our doorstep with our name on it. Inside there was $100. I told Robert that I had a few guesses who would have left this for us. Robert said he did too. We both listed 2 or 3 different couples/families. They were all from our ward, and neither of us guessed the same people. That's how AMAZING the people of this ward were. I'm so honored and grateful to have been a part of it.

Trent and Natalie DeVore

Trent and Natalie are great people and irreplaceable friends. They are the kind of people that will give you the shirt of their backs if you need it. They are there for you at a moment's notice and were for us several times. Their son, Logan, was Lydia's best friend. We will miss the late game nights and conversations we got to have with them on a regular basis and look forward to future ones even though they might be years apart. I'm crossing my fingers that our paths through life lead us to living in the same area again someday.

Robert's Professors

You might think this is random for me to love and miss, but I love Robert's BYU professors. They have given Robert work experience, recommendations, and put him in contact with people that will help with Robert's future education and career for the rest of our lives. One professor in particular holds a special place in my heart. I never met him in person, but I'm so thankful for and indebted to this man. During the same summer 2010 that I just talked about, he randomly asked Robert how Lydia and I were doing. Robert said, "Well, we're your typical starving student family, living off of mac and cheese, but we're doing alright." A few days later he gave Robert a personal check for $300. The professor said, "Consider this your 'Mac and Cheese' check." He continued to give us "Mac and Cheese" checks once a month for the rest of our time in Provo. There were several times that we would not have made it without his generosity. And I personally think that we have not yet seen the end of the blessings we will receive from the experience Robert gained from working for and with this man.

Provo was a wonderful chapter of our lives. I look forward to growing a similar love for Santa Cruz, which I'm sure we will. We were where we were supposed to be when we were in Provo, and now we are supposed to be in Santa Cruz. I can't wait to see what adventures and experiences Heavenly Father has in store for us here.

A Week in Limbo

2011-10-24T15:45:00.001-06:00

We brought Mary home to our apartment Tuesday, August 30th. We had to be out of the apartment by 10:00am the next morning. So we packed up the remaining odds and ends, I finished cleaning the fridge :), and we moved in with our good friends, Aaron and Kaci Cardon, for a week while I recovered a bit before making the big move to California. We were so blessed to be surrounded by many friends and some family. Several people were willing and offered to let us live with them during this time that we were homeless (ward members, the DeVores, Aunt Mary-Jack, and others) and we are so grateful for all of them. The Cardons just ended up being the best, most convenient option.

Life at Casa de la Cardon

Kaci is one of my best friends. We've been close friends since high school. She was my Maid of Honor at my wedding. Basically she's like a sister to me. Since I moved to Utah after I got married we haven't seen each other as much. However she and her husband Aaron moved to Provo at the beginning of this summer so Aaron could start flight school at UVU. It was so great to spend so much time with them this summer, in a way rejuvenating our friendship post both of us getting married. We capped it off by taking advantage of their friendship and moving in ;) That's a joke. They very generously offered, and we humbly accepted. In my opinion, it couldn't have worked out better. They were wonderful hosts, and a huge help in so many ways. Lydia absolutely loved them, especially playing with Aaron. I think Lydia got used to how great it was to have 2 mommies and daddies and went through withdrawals after we left. It was a great time.

As part of our "thank you for letting us live with you," we took them out to The Mayan Adventure Restaurant in Sandy, Utah. Robert and I had never been there, but Kaci and Aaron had and we'd talked about going there with them all summer, so we killed two birds with one stone and treated them to dinner :)

Mary enjoyed her first public restaurant experience

It is a cool place! Pretty good Mexican food (by Utah standards) but the coolest part was the atmosphere of the place. Basically, if you were to make a restaurant out of the line to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland it would be this restaurant, complete with the flickering lights. To top it off, all the tables surround a 50ish foot tall waterfall and pool that performers do a diving/acrobatic show off of every 30 minutes. Super cool! I recommend it. Kind of pricey, but the entrees are big enough that you can split a meal and still be satisfied. Anyway, it was a fun night.

Robert's Family Visit

Robert's parents and 3 youngest sisters came the weekend after Mary was born to meet the new addition to the family.

Grandma with the calm one

Grandpa with the not so calm one

Aunt Crystal

Aunt Kylee

Aunt Aly

It was a fun filled visit - Swimming at the hotel, frisbee at the duck pond, Los Hermanos, Pictionary Man, Buzz Word, Shaved Ice, and more!

Mary's First Sunday

I have to stick this picture in here, because I think it is just darling! My mom made the baby afghan Mary's laying on. If you look closely you can see that it says "I Am A Child of God" on it. Also, at one week old Mary was already cracking little smiles for pictures :)

Sunday night, while Robert's family went to have dinner with the parents of one of the sister missionaries that are currently living with them, we went up to Salt Lake to have dinner with and say our goodbyes to Katie, Mike, and Alena. I surprisingly kept my composure until we got to the car. Then I bawled like a baby for half the drive back to Provo. I miss living so close to them, but we look forward to seeing them over the holidays!

Farewell BBQ at the Park

Monday morning Robert's Dad, Crystal, and Kylee headed home. Mom and Aly stayed to drive over to California with us the next day, but headed up to Tooele to visit with Robert's Aunt Velma and stayed with her Monday night. So that night Kaci and Aaron invited us to BBQ with them at the park as kind of our last hurrah. Devin and Autumn Curry came too. After eating, Lydia, Mary, and I chilled on the sidelines while everyone else played frisbee.

Then we headed back to Kaci and Aaron's to visit and play games. It was great to squeeze in one last game night and a wonderful relaxing end to the Provo chapter of our lives. :)

Welcome Mary Eliza!

2011-10-24T15:45:00.000-06:00

And now for a flood of pictures of Mary's first couple days of life. A few of them I already posted in the quick post I did a week after she was born, but no harm in seeing them again :)

7 lbs 13oz - 19 1/2 inches long

Finally holding my baby after the first little scare

Happy parents!

My wonderful support team!

Proud Daddy :)

Aunt Katie and Baby Mary

Getting all cleaned up

Proud Momma

Natalie was so wonderful to watch Lydia for us, and bring her to the hospital to meet her sister

First family picture

Ready to leave the hospital

Happy to be home :)

3 Minutes

2011-10-24T15:44:00.001-06:00

(continued from last post)

"Now if we could just get her to breathe..."

I looked down at my baby. Mary was still in the doctor's hands. She was calmly, slowly looking around, but not crying, not breathing. She was still the dead looking purple-white color that babies are until they breathe. My baby wouldn't start breathing.

The doctor coolly said, "I'll massage the umbilical cord (it hadn't been cut yet). Sometimes that gives them the jump start they need."

No change.

Dr. Jacob, "Don't worry. I'll hand her over to the nurses now. They'll get her going."

Mary was taken over to the baby table. I was holding Robert's hand. Both of us were frozen with worry. Thank heaven Katie was there. I think she could sense I was on the verge of panicking. She remained completely calm and kept saying, "It's okay. They're taking care of her. She'll be okay. They'll get her to cry."

One minute had passed. They gave Mary her first APGAR score - 1 out of 10. I could hear them call out what her heart rate was, down to 40 beats per minute and dropping. They called in the respiratory team. Dr. Jacob reassured me that they always have the respiratory team standing by just in case this very situation happened. He said again everything was under control and Mary would be just fine. They came in, put an oxygen pump mask on Mary's face and continued massaging/stimulating different points on her little body.

I felt like there were 2 dimensions of reality in the room. One was the actual one, filled with medical personnel, Katie, and us. Then the other one was the one I felt more a part of. Everything else blurred away and there was just Mary fighting for her first breath and Robert and I holding hands worried for our baby's life.

My thoughts turned to my Heavenly Father. I plead to him, "Please! Please don't take her back. Please don't take her away from me." over and over. Within moments after my pleading began, I felt a calming comfort come over me and a phrase entered my mind. "Whether I take her now or decades later, she is yours forever." My testimony was reaffirmed once again in God's Plan of Happiness. I know that since Robert and I were married in the temple and sealed for eternity that as long as we live faithful to the covenants we made in the temple, our family is forever.

Then at 8:10pm, Mary gasped and let out her first cry.

Just after they got her going

She turned pink right away. Her APGAR score at 5 minutes was 9 - practically perfect and she's been that way ever since. Dr. Jacob joked that sometimes it just takes a couple extra minutes for babies to learn how to breathe. Dr. Holmes/Uncle Rick, our pediatrician explained to us later that sometimes when the pushing goes as fast as mine did (again, I was only pushing for 5 minutes) it makes the baby go into shock when they first come out. It's not super common, but it does happen.

I will never forget those 3 minutes. They've given me a whole new appreciation and gratitude for the opportunity and blessing I have to be a mother to my 2 beautiful daughters of God. It is the most wonderful calling in the eternities.

I love being a Mom!

A Baby Story

2011-10-24T15:44:00.000-06:00

Well this labor was A LOT different than Lydia's. With Lydia, I never had consistent contractions or dilated or effaced at all until I was already in labor and then the actual labor lasted 42 hours. With Mary, I started having regular contractions a couple months before I was due and at my 36 week check I had dilated and effaced more than I was the day I went into labor with Lydia. This was very encouraging because the earlier I had Mary, the less time we would have to live with/impose on friends before we made the big move to California. My doctors' office knew of our time constraints and agreed that as long as I had progressed enough they would induce me a week early. My mom had come in town for the induction date, but unfortunately even after getting my membranes stripped twice, I had barely not progressed enough. The day my mom left I bawled like a baby. I wanted so badly for her to be here when I had Mary, but it wasn't meant to be. Friday, August 26th, I had another doctor's appointment and they decided I had finally progressed enough and scheduled my induction for Monday, August 29th - my birthday. As happy as I was that the end was officially in sight, I still wished that I could go into labor on my own since there's less risks that way. I also felt bad that Mary would have to share her birthday with her mom. I would rather she have her own special day.

Saturday was crunch time for packing and moving our stuff. Friends were over all day long helping us, and by the end of the day there was just a little work and packing left. I figured I would save it for Monday so that I would have something to do other than twiddling my thumbs while we waited for the call to come to the hospital for the induction.

Sunday we got ready for church like normal. Robert had Elder's quorum presidency meeting so I took him early went back home and got Lydia ready then started loading her in the car to go when I felt a gush of liquid (10:45am). I assumed I had just wet myself a little bit, and it was enough to need to change my clothes. I'm pretty sure my exact thoughts were "SERIOUSLY!! I just went to the bathroom before I came out! Being pregnant is so lame sometimes!!" I ran in, changed real fast, and then left to church. When I got out of the car there was another little gush. Again I thought, "Come on! Enough already!!" I went inside and sat down with Lydia and waited for Robert to get there so that I could go empty my bladder AGAIN so I could hopefully avoid any more accidents. While I waited several people in the ward came up to me and made comments along the lines of "No baby yet?" I answered that she'd for sure be coming the next day if not sooner. Robert got there and I let him know that I needed to go to the restroom. I got up to go and, you guessed it, another gush. Finally, (yes, maybe I am a little slow) it occurred to me that maybe my water had broken. As sacrament meeting started so did my contractions. By the time the congregation stood for the intermediate hymn they were 7 minutes apart and hurt too much for me to stand and join in the singing. When the meeting was over I told Robert I needed to go to the car to lie down and would text him if I decided we should go home. Within a half hour, I texted him and we went home.

We got home, called my mom to tell her what was going on, she agreed that my water had probably broken and I was in labor. So I hung up and did what any lady in labor would do... I started cleaning out my fridge :) It needed to be done before we moved, and I needed a distraction. I wanted to attempt delivering without an epidural, and I knew once I was at the hospital I would be extra tempted to get one. So I wanted to labor at home as long as possible. I called my sister Katie and let her know what was going on. As I was talking to her my contractions were coming about 4 minutes apart. She rightfully scolded me for not being at the hospital already, reminded me that I was Group B Strep positive so I needed to have the time to get the 2 rounds of antibiotics, and so on. I stubbornly assured her that I was fine, and would go when I thought I was ready. In the mean time I had a fridge and freezer to clean. We hung up and I continued to clean the fridge. This is when things started getting really fun. The contractions picked up and were coming every 2 minutes or so. Robert started freaking out (he'll deny it, but he was). At about 2:30pm, Mom called again. Katie called her worried and may have told her important details, like how often I was contracting, that I may have "accidentally" left out when I had talked to Mom. Robert answered it and said, "Her contractions aren't stopping!!" He handed the phone to me. My mom said, "Heidi! I didn't realize your contractions had started already. Once the hard contractions started after my water broke with Logan, he was born within 4 hours. You need to go to the hospital!" You can't argue with Mom, so we got ready to go, but not before I had Robert take one last baby bump picture. (If I may say, I think I look pretty good for someone who had already been in labor for almost 4 hours)

Trent and Natalie DeVore were going to watch Lydia while I was in the hospital but they were in church right then, so Robert called Kaci. His panicked conversation went something like this:

Kaci: Hello
Robert: (Talking kind of fast) Kaci... uh... Hi. This is Robert. Um, Heidi's in labor. She's contracting A LOT. We need to go to the hospital. Uh, Natalie's going to watch Lydia but they can't come right away. Um Heidi's contracting again. Uh, Lydia's napping...
Kaci cuts him off: Robert! What are you needing me to do? Do you need me to come over?
Robert: Yes, that way Lydia can finish napping.
Kaci: I'm on my way.

Kaci got there, we left, and arrived at the hospital at 3:00pm. The nurse at the front desk couldn't find my paperwork, and asked if I was supposed to be induced because then my paperwork would be in a different file. I said I had been scheduled for one the next morning. She laughed and said, "I guess the baby just didn't want to wait." After they made sure that my water had for sure broken, they hooked me straight up to my antibiotics for the GBS. They checked me and I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. The nurse then asked if I wanted an epidural and I said, "No... Actually, yes I do." That's how fast I changed my mind. A million thoughts went through my mind in the 2 seconds it took me to change my mind, but the one that won the debate was that an epidural would help to slow the labor a little bit so that I could get my 2 full rounds of antibiotics (they have to be given 4 hours apart from each other). So by 4:00pm, I had my epidural. I really think epidurals are WONDERFUL!! I would just love to do it completely natural sometime to experience both sides.

Back tracking a little bit to tell a story of how Robert doesn't think things through sometimes. As we were waiting for the epidural my contractions were pretty intense, and I it felt like I was only having a 30 to 60 second break in between them. I was really needing Robert to help keep me relaxed through them, and for the most part he was doing awesome. Then, right after one contraction Robert says, "Heidi, I'm going to call my home teaching companion real quick and let him know that I'm not going to make it to our appointments." I gave him a "you better be joking" look, and said "Um, okay." Sure enough he wasn't joking and he called his companion. Just as they started talking, the next contraction started coming and I yelled for Robert. He came and held my hand but still continued talking on the phone. For those of you who have labored before can imagine how NOT okay I was with this. So at the peak of my contraction I screamed at him, "JUST HANG UP, NOW!!!!!!!" He obeyed ;)

Continuing with the story, Katie got to the hospital at about 5:00pm. When they checked me just after 5:00pm I was dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced. I warned the nurse that with Lydia I went from a 4 to complete in less than an hour. She got everything ready just in case. At 6:00pm they checked me again and I was 4 and 100% then just after 7:00pm I was complete. Here's my "Yay for being complete!" picture.

Yes, that is a barf bag. I was super cold, thirsty, and nauseous the last couple of hours of labor and through the delivery

Since I had the epidural I was still comfortable enough to wait so they said as long as I wasn't in unbearable pain I should try to wait until 8:00pm to push so that they could do the second round of antibiotics at 7:30pm and it would have time to get into my system. So we sat and visited for another hour. Just before 8:00pm Dr. Scott Jacob came in, set up, and I started pushing. Less than 5 minutes later, our beautiful Mary Eliza came into the world at 8:07pm. Yes you heard that right. I pushed for less than 5 minutes. It happened really fast!

Our happy tear-filled faces seconds after Mary was born

She was finally here!! The moment was indescribably joyous. Then Dr. Jacob said something that made Robert and I freeze, time stop, and my heart sink.

"Now if we could just get her to breathe..."

Out of the box! Out of the box!

2011-10-20T14:06:00.001-06:00

(Does anyone remember that show?)

In an effort to be prepared for the unexpected as far as when Mary would arrive, I slowly started packing a month and a half before we had to move and planned on being completely packed 2 weeks before her due date/our apartment contract expiration date. Needless to say, having a toddler slowed me down a ton, so we still had to rush packing and cleaning at the end. Finding different ways to entertain Lydia while I tried to pack was... fun... Things that I thought would entertain her for at least a half hour would last 30 seconds, and vice versa, but we managed.

Fun with boxes

Tape on the face - This is one I thought would entertain her for a few seconds, but she kept that tape on her face for almost 45 minutes. She kept looking at herself in the mirror and laughing.

Playing pretend for example, the crib frame became a jail :) She didn't fall for this one for long.

And singing the Blue's Clues Mail Song over and over because Lydia loves it

There were lots of sentimental things that I wanted to do before we left this second home of ours. Take pictures of the outside and inside and the surrounding neighborhood etc. but life got too crazy. Suffice it to say that mine and Robert's second home, the home we brought both of our first 2 kids home to, will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Special thanks to Aaron and Kaci Cardon, Devin and Autumn Curry, and Trent and Natalie DeVore, for all of the help they gave us cleaning and moving and for all others who were willing to help but couldn't because of time constraints and what not. We are blessed with wonderful friends!

Mary Eliza Has Arrived!!

2011-09-04T15:19:00.004-06:00

She's here!!!! Born August 28, 2011 at 8:07pm. 7lbs 13oz 19.5 inches long. She's already a week old, and we LOVE her. She's just the sweetest, most relaxed baby you'll ever see! We're in transition right now. Our apartment contract expired on Wednesday, so we were able to bring Mary home to our place on Tuesday, moved in with friends on Wednesday, and we'll be moving to California this Tuesday. It's been a whirlwind of a week to say the least, and this next week will be pretty much just as crazy. Mary and Lydia have both been troopers thus far. I have much that I want to post about the birth story, moving, and other nonsense, but I probably won't have time for a while. So for now you get a couple of pictures to hold you over :) Hasta luego!

Welcome Baby Anabelle!!!

2011-08-17T15:11:00.000-06:00

Congrats to Scott and Becky Wilcken!!!! Baby Anabelle was born last night at 9:31pm - 9lbs 7oz 22 inches long. Scott has nicknamed her Ginorma Baby seeing as how that's about how much the twins weighed COMBINED when they were born. Becky went 2 days overdue, what a trooper!!! The whole fam is doing well :)

(Pic sent from Breanna's phone. Hoping to get better ones soon)

Does everyone know what that means??? Now, IT'S MY TURN!! Come soon Mary!!

Welcome Baby Bryson!!!

2011-08-09T00:14:00.004-06:00

My sister Katie had her baby!!!!! Bryson Michael McAllister was born 8/5/2011 at 2:25pm. 7lbs 1 ounce 21 inches long. The whole fam is doing great! I got to be there for most of the fun and to witness the miracle. Katie did AWESOME and now she has a beautiful baby boy who is basically the most handsome baby boy you'll ever see.

One down, two to go. Our sister-in-law Becky is due this Sunday, so as soon as she has hers it's my turn! August is a great month to have a birthday! ;)

32 to 36 Weeks

2011-08-08T23:37:00.004-06:00

Weight @ 36 weeks: 199.8 lbs (+29.8 to pre-pregnancy weight) - At my 36 week appointment I actually measured 201.5, but today I had a WIC appointment and they measured me at 199.8, so I'm going to count that just so I don't have to say good-bye to the 100s yet ;)

Contractions: I'm having them more often, harder, and consistent than I did with Lydia at this point. I'll go several hours, a couple times it's been a whole day, where I'll have one that lasts for about a minute every 10 minutes, but they never progress. I'm hoping this means that Mary will come on her own a couple weeks early like I want her to. I've been telling her that whether she comes or not her birthday is the 17th. So either she comes then and we celebrate, or she misses it and has to wait a whole year to celebrate. It's that simple. If I don't have her on my own before I'm 39 weeks I'll most likely be induced on the 25th, but only time will tell.

I'm getting pretty antsy though. I WANT MY BABY! At the same time, this pregnancy has flown by. I can't believe we're already to the last few strides of the home stretch. Other than the horrible sickness and stress of school at the same time during my first trimester, it's been a relatively smooth sailing pregnancy. For that I feel truly blessed.

Come soon baby! Mommy, Daddy, and Lydia are waiting!

We Got A Place!!!

2011-08-08T21:33:00.006-06:00

WE GOT INTO THE FAMILY STUDENT HOUSING!!!! We were on the waitlist, but were told that it didn't look very promising, but we found out a couple weeks ago that we were up and could choose basically whatever floor plan and move in date we wanted! That saves us a ton of money and stress in so many ways including that we didn't have to take a trip to Santa Cruz that week! So many prayers answered!! For full detailed story (I'm writing it down for journal purposes) continue reading, otherwise skip down to the pictures.

Once upon a time we had planned on taking a trip to Santa Cruz the last week of July (the 24th through 27th) to see if we could find an apartment. We were trying to be positive about this trip, but there were several reasons why we were not looking forward to it. Some of those reasons were that I would have been 35 weeks pregnant, and two 14 hour car rides in 4 days would have been miserably uncomfortable, Robert wasn't looking forward to driving all that way, it would have been hard on Lydia to have that quick of a trip that would not only be long rides there and back but would also mostly consist of a lot of driving around to different apartments while we were there. The 2 biggest reasons we didn't want to go were that my sister Katie was ready to have her baby any day and the thought of missing that was stressing me out, and we just didn't know how we were going to pay for the trip. Gas for the drive, hotel stays, plus most of the places we wanted 1st month rent which mostly ranged from $1300-1500 and a security deposit that ranged from $1300-2000 to sign for the place equals more money than we had. Needless to say, we were praying hard for some divine intervention.

Several months ago we got on the wait list for the family student housing that is right on UCSC campus. We were told when we got on it that it was highly unlikely that we'd be able to get into it in September, the soonest would maybe be January if that. Well, 2 days before we planned on taking the trip to Santa Cruz, we're sitting sorting through all of the apartment ads I had printed off of Craigslist and Robert says, "I think I'm going to call the student housing office and see if they can give us any idea on how soon we'll get in." After talking to one person who had no clue what was going on, he was transferred to the lady in charge. (Her name is Cheryl. I've become quite fond of her.) The first thing she says when Robert says his name is, "What a coincidence you called me right now. I was just getting ready to email you. You are next in line for an apartment and we have several available any time in September. All you need to do is pick your move in date and floor plan, and I'll draw up the paperwork." HURRAY!!! With how many utilities that were included in the rent (everything except gas and electric, including internet/cable and parking which is unheard of anywhere else), plus a security deposit of only $500, plus the money we save commute wise living right on campus ($50 a month for bus fare or $900 a year for a parking permit), it was by far our cheapest option. Not to mention that it saved us the trip out there. It was the answer to so many prayers!! And an answer once again that this is where we are supposed to go right now. Heavenly Father's hand has been guiding and helping us along through this whole process.

Without further ado, here are some pictures of the complex that I copied from the "Welcome Handbook" Cheryl sent us. There's also a picture of our floor plan. We ended up going with the one that is the smaller out of the choices we had (936 sq. ft. versus 1026 sq. ft.), but I felt that this one suited us much better and was more efficiently laid out. We're excited!!!

No pictures of the interior yet. You can see a virtual tour of one here to get an idea but it's not the same floor plan as ours. I'll be sure to post a bunch of pictures of the inside once we are settled in ONLY A MONTH!!! It's coming so fast, and I'm HAVING A BABY sometime between now and then. Crazy times ahead!!

Lydia Lately

2011-07-29T15:50:00.006-06:00

Lydia is quickly changing from baby to toddler. Her personality gets bigger and develops more sides to it everyday. She's a hoot! :) She loves to play, which makes for some fun/cute times, but also some frustrated times when we can't give her the attention or play time she demands. She's going to love having a playmate around. Let's just hope she can patiently wait while her baby sister grows up to the point where she can play with her.

Sundays are her hardest day! Church used to be a game to her. Sometimes we'd win, sometimes she'd win. Now it's a game she just doesn't want to play. She starts being ornery the second we walk into the chapel. She's just not one who likes to stay in one place for too long. Then she'll usually fall asleep for the last half hour of church (we've tried to prevent this, but if she's decided she wants to fall asleep there's no stopping her) which gives her enough of a nap that she won't take her normal nap once we get home. Occasionally this leads to her crashing at some point that evening, as seen here :)

She went through a phase where her absolute favorite thing was toothbrushes, and you wouldn't dare take them away unless you wanted to suffer through her wrath.

She fell and got a pretty good shiner. This is a couple of days after it happened and had started fading. The day it happened it was super swollen and made me think of Rocky or Quasimodo every time I looked at it.

She's gotten more into books lately. She loves to just look through them. We've gotten really fast at reading them to her to try and fit in all the words before she's decided it's time to turn to the next page.

Playing with Daddy and the squeaky bird. Her laugh is so infectious :)

Having fun with the Harry Potter glasses. (Can you tell that Robert put this PJ outfit together?)

She loves being an entertainer. She's cracking us up all of the time.

She's been doing better with walking, but it's still just a game to her. Crawling is faster for her still so she prefers it. Most of the time when we are trying to get her to walk she bends over into this position, thinks it is hilarious, and then will continue to do it for 10 minutes or more at a time.

She still loves playing with the piano. She'll bang on it until the demo song ("Just the Way You Are") comes on, and then will dance to the music with her arms, legs, bum, or head. Some of her arm dancing is featured in this video.

Other than that, she's been cutting molars which has not been as fun as all these entertaining pics and videos, but manageable. We love our little girl and can't wait to add another to the mix.

All About Heidi Day

2011-07-29T14:37:00.010-06:00

Completely unknown to me, Robert declared last Wednesday, July 20th, All About Heidi Day. At 9:30am he woke me up and was dressed in his suit and handed me a clipboard and said, "Will you sign this please?" On the clipboard was a waiver that read as follows:

All About Heidi Day 2011 - No Choices Necessary
Information and permission sheet

Today is not your birthday. It is not Christmas. It is not any special anniversary of some sort. It is just a day that, if you wish, could be yours. A day where you can do many fun things and not have to worry about watching the baby much, cleaning the house, or anything but having fun.
The way it works is that an itinerary will be given to you which has all the activities planned out for the day. You will never have to choose what fun activity you may want to do next because it is already planned out. Any time Lydia is fussy or cranky, I will take care of it, except for tonight when the Nixons will take care of it. If you aren’t having fun in a particular activity just notify Robert, the director, and he can modify the activity based on special needs.
This can be any ordinary day, but it could be your day. The only choice you will need to make is if you want to do it. If you would like to participate in this otherwise ordinary but will be spectacular day, just sign and date below. Otherwise hand the sheet back to the director and he will make sure your day is still ordinary.
Thank you for considering have an All About Heidi Day.

Signature _________________ Date________

(Sidenote: The "No Choices Necessary" is a plus to me because I hate having to make decisions about what activities we do) I of course signed it and in return was given this schedule complete with pictures.

9:00 - Wake Up (He let me sleep in a little later because we had had a late night the night before)
9:10 - Light Breakfast
9:20 - Donkey Kong Country (The SNES version. Robert purchased it just for the occasion. It was the last game we needed on our SNES game wishlist. It's a classic :)
12:00 - Picnic at the Park
1:00 - Head to Nickel City
3:00 - Crafts/Games - Lydia Naps
6:30 - Dinner at Chuck-O-Rama
8:20 - Harry Potter 7 Part 2 Movie

So I headed in for my light breakfast and it was waiting for me on the table with some flowers.

After breakfast, I relaxed and played Donkey Kong Country, then got all ready to head to the Duck Pond to have the picnic lunch Robert had prepared.

Lydia loves roaming around at the duck pond.

Aaron and Kaci then joined us to go to Nickel City. This is the only picture I got of them, shame on me. Anyway, Kaci had the most amazing luck with every machine she touched. She got the huge jackpot on a couple of games, one machine even gave her 100 tickets when she was only supposed to get 5. It was awesome. They used some of their tickets to get us a set of glasses to wear that night to Harry Potter which you will see in pics later on in this post.

We weren't quite as successful this time around, but we did win enough tickets to get quite a bit of candy. Check out our winnings!

Random cute picture of Mommy and Lydia :)

Then it was time for the "3:00 - Crafts/Games - Lydia Naps" portion of the day. Kaci and Aaron stuck around for this activity and we all finger-painted. I did the lighthouse/beach scene in the middle. Robert did the Nertz and baseball paintings. Kaci did the flower and boat/beach scene, and Aaron did the river and the dragon named Dragon paintings. Pretty much we all are AMAZING!! ;)

Kaci had to go to work so they left, and after Lydia woke up from her nap we dropped her off at the Nixons (one of our hometeachers and his wife), and for the first time since before Lydia was born, had a date night with just the 2 of us. It was LONG overdue. We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Chuck-A-Rama. Mmmm rolls and honey butter!

Then it was off to Harry Potter 7 - Part 2. We had a little fun with the glasses before the movie started. :)

And one picture of the 2 of us without the goofy glasses.

It was a GREAT, SUPER FUN, WONDERFUL day. And a complete surprise, which is hard to do. I'm a snoop, so I usually know when something is up. Robert even reorganized his work schedule so that he could do it on a Wednesday instead of the usual Friday date night or free Saturday to catch me extra off guard. He scored major points for this one! ;) I'm so lucky to have him.

Slab Pizza

2011-07-29T13:21:00.003-06:00

There are several places that during our whole stay in Provo we've driven by and said, "We should eat there sometime." Now we're running out of time. We're going to try and hit a few before we leave, but procrastination and money will prevent us from going everywhere.

A couple of weeks ago we checked Slab Pizza off of our list. It had been recommended to me by several different people. It was really good, but I think people talked it up a little too much, so it didn't quite reach my expectations especially for how much it cost. Still really good nonetheless.

I got BBQ Chicken and Robert got New Mexican Green Chile

And STUFF!!

Happy Birthday to Robert!!

2011-07-28T13:35:00.015-06:00

Around the time of Robert's past 2 birthdays (July 10th) we've been... what's the best way to put this... broke! Robert's always been a super awesome sport about this, and grateful for the little no-money-spent celebrations we've pulled off for him. Then it would seem like we not only would be financially stable by the time my birthday would come around (August 29th) but we would have extra money so Robert would go all out on my special day. (Ex. My Birthday 2009 Post 1 and 2) This year we have been blessed in that several of Robert's professors hired him on for the summer, so we are doing better financially than we have our whole marriage. (Although we call it fake rich because most if not all that we have managed to save will be going to moving expenses. So goes life.) So this year I decided we were going all out for Robert's birthday! His birthday was on a Sunday, so the festivities began Friday evening. I cleaned up the house, wrapped his presents, and had these decorations up for him when he got home from work.

When he got home, I told him that he could open his presents whenever he wanted to that weekend. So of course he chose right away :) This first present is a new battery for his laptop since the old one wouldn't hold a charge anymore. I laugh because this picture is totally staged. He had already opened the new one and put it in the laptop to charge before I remembered to get the camera out, so I had him do a reenactment of when he opened it so I could take a picture. That's not even the new battery in the picture, it's the old one because the new one was already in the lap top. We're so sneaky ;)

Lydia helped Robert open his presents.

A set of ping pong paddles and balls since the ones in the complex rec room are always broken or lost. (This was the one thing he asked for)

An electronic dart board. Robert has had a little too much fun with this since he got it. Let's just say that there is too much a statistics/numbers man can do with a dart board ;)

Before it goes unmentioned he also got a portable DVD player and car power adapter from his parents along with some money for us to go out someplace nice for his birthday dinner and to buy Lydia a couple of new outfits. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

I let Robert know that we'd be going to Tucano's the following night, and then listed our favorite cheaper food places and a bunch of different activities we could do that night. Robert chose J Dawgs and then wanted to go to the church house to play piano and hit baseballs in the cultural hall. He's a simple man with simple pleasures :) Lydia looks puzzled at how much stuff is on Daddy's J Dawg.

On the way home we stopped at Hokulia. It's our favorite shaved ice place in Provo. We have to give credit to our friends, the Clovers, for finding it during their "Quest for the Best" last year. We usually get a small and share it which is plenty and they'll put as many flavors as you want at no extra charge so I choose a flavor and Robert chooses a flavor. It's wonderful. Basically heaven in a thing of shaved ice. Since it was Robert's birthday he wanted a medium. His wish was my command. It's about half gone in this picture, so if you can imagine it was GINORMOUS!!

Saturday we relaxed, played darts, and relaxed some more. You have to rest up before going to Tucano's Brazilian Grill! :) Robert was so excited. What man wouldn't be - it's all you can eat! He was like a little boy on Christmas morning.

Lydia and I love it too. My mouth is starting to water as I think about their grilled pineapple and their buffalo wings. YUM!!

In all the times that we've been to Tucano's we haven't ever really explored what other shops are there at The Riverwoods so we went exploring. They just put in a new place called Provo Beach Resort. We probably would have passed right by it except that we saw a carousel in the window and thought it would be fun for Lydia to go on it. So we went in and loaded $5 on one of the re-loadable cards they use instead of tokens and tickets (very convenient) and used $1 of it for Lydia to ride the carousel. She HATED it. At first she didn't want to hold on to the pole. Maybe she thought she'd fly away or something. Once she finally grabbed on to it, she held on for dear life and wouldn't stop screaming. We'll try again in a year or 2 when she can understand it a little better.

After the carousel we browsed around to see what else this beach resort had to offer. Miniature croquet caught our eye. It was a little overpriced in my opinion ($6 a person) but it was Robert's birthday so it was worth it :) Robert kicked my trash!! Every section had an optional Bonus challenge where you could get anywhere from 5-10 or more bonus points and Robert got almost every one.

My one shining although partially spiteful and evil moment was when I became poison by hitting the poison stick. Once poison, you can hit the other players ball and throw them in the poison pot so that they don't get to finish that section.

I got Robert and straight to the poison pot he went. I'm so evil!

But I can be a cute little croquet player too :)

Robert found his surfboard.

We're a cute couple of croquet masters :)

Lydia enjoyed giving the ball a couple of whacks too :)

After the exciting round of croquet, we still had $4 left on our card so we hit up the arcade games. We played a couple rounds of Hot Shot Basketball, each winning a few tickets, then went to the Wheel of Fortune. We had enough money left to play it twice. You would spin to see how many tickets you would get per letter you guessed and then if you were able to solve the puzzle you got an extra 5 tickets. Our first game we spun a 5 and solved the puzzle making our total ticket win including the Hot Shot tickets about 50 tickets, which we thought with how few games we played was pretty impressive. Then it was my turn to spin for our last game. As you can see in the picture there are 4 little silver slivers on the wheel that are sandwiched by "1" slots. 2 of the silver slots are 20 points, 1 is 50 points, and 1 is 200 points. Lo and behold, I spun the 200 point slot! We then guessed 5 letters and solved the puzzle, winning more than 1000 tickets in our last game! It was AWESOME!!! This is us holding our prize loot - A squeaky duck puppet for Lydia which she loves, a blow up super bat, 6 giant foam dice, a dart ball, and a bunch of candy. We were pretty pleased with ourselves. Lydia was about to fall asleep at this point if you can't tell :)

The next morning was Robert's actual birthday. As is tradition in his family, he received breakfast in bed. One of Robert's favorite breakfasts is One-Eyed Jacks (Toast with eggs cooked into the middle of them) topped with Spam.

Robert has this unexplainable love of Spam. I think it's absolutely disgusting. You know your wife loves you if she's willing to prepare Spam for you just because it's your favorite ;)

After a full day of church meetings we had Robert's birthday dinner. Crockpot Chicken Cordon Bleu, mashed potatoes, and salad.

Then it was time for cake and to sing and blow out candles. Lydia was thoroughly mesmerized by all the fire. We were one candle short, note the reason why there are only 23 in the picture. If you watch the video (to be posted later) closely you can see that I sneakily light a match and stick it in the cake just in time for him to blow it out. We made it work :)

Happy 24th Birthday Robert!!! I hope you enjoyed your special weekend. Thank you for everything you do for us!!

4th of July Celebrations

2011-07-28T12:28:00.000-06:00

As is common in the Provo area, the city celebrations went on all weekend long. We didn't participate in as many this year as we had planned (Freedom Festival on Center Street, watching the hot air balloons take off), but we still had a marvelous weekend.

It started off Saturday night with watching the Stadium of Fire fireworks show. We parked on top of a parking garage in our old neighborhood and watched them from the back of our Blazer. Lydia had a blast being able to crawl around in the back of the car. It was like a whole new world for her that she never knew existed.

This young man got more anxious for the fireworks to start then I think anyone else that was there on the garage. I found myself saying the same things that I could overhear people saying to their 5-year-olds. "It'll just be a few more minutes. You just need to be a little more patient." Etc.

Monday morning, the actual 4th, we walked down the street and watched the parade. I felt like there weren't quite as many floats this year, but the ones that they had were great.

Cute Daddy and Lydia. She was a little more into the parade this year than last year.

And our traditional red, white, and blue pancakes. Usually I do the colors separate, but this year I decided to attempt to swirl them. I think they turned out great, except next year I'll use less blue dough cuz that sort of overpowered the others, and I'll make the red dough darker cuz it turned out too pink :)

Lydia loves pancakes.

And so does Daddy.

This pic is to show off Lydia's shirt. I got it at Kohl's for cheap. It says "Red, White, and Cute" which I think is rather fitting ;)

That evening we went up to Katie and Mike's for grilled homemade pizzas, swimming, and fireworks. It was a blast. Here's Mommy and Lydia watching the fireworks. I would have cropped it down to make it a little more centered, but I love Katie's face in the background ;)

This was the finale of our homemade show. Not too spectacular, but it was hilarious watching Mike almost catch himself on fire when he and Robert were trying to get all 3 lit at the same time.

After our homemade show we watched all of the firework shows that were happening across the Salt Lake Valley. Mike and Katie's apartment is up higher on a hill so we just picked a patch of grass and had a view of all the professional shows but also some pretty spectacular at home shows people were doing. They legalized the purchase of aerial fireworks here this year, so some of the home made shows were pretty great.

So that was our 4th. It will be fun to start new traditions in Santa Cruz next year, or with Robert's school schedule it might work out that we'll celebrate the 4th with our family in Mesa. We'll see.

I am so thankful for this country and the freedoms that I am blessed with because I am a part of it. I am forever indebted to all those who have fought and continue to fight to give us all the freedoms we take for granted so often. God Bless the USA!!!

My Life Is But A Weaving

2011-07-06T14:26:00.006-06:00

My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.

Ofttimes He weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride,
Forget that He seeth the upper,
And I the under side.

Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver’s skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.

-Anonymous
(In Sourcebook of Poetry, comp. Al Bryant, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1968, p. 664.)

I just came across this poem and it really touched me. I felt I needed to share it.

Camping at Strawberry Reservoir

2011-07-01T12:27:00.012-06:00

Last week some friends invited us to go camping. It was perfect timing because I had been thinking that it was high time we attempted camping with a kid. We only went one of the 2 nights that the rest of the group went because I had no idea how Lydia would respond. It was WONDERFUL!! The weather was great, the surroundings were gorgeous, the company was pleasant, and Lydia did AMAZING!!! I could not have been happier with her mood through the whole trip. Here's some pictures of our adventures.

The late snows and all the spring rain might be ruining all the farming crop here this year, but it has made everything greener than I've ever seen it. These pictures are from our drive up the canyon to the camp

Our camping buddies, Ashley & Ben Campbell and Kaci & Aaron Cardon. As we pulled in they were gutting and cleaning their morning haul. They caught 11 fish in just a few hours that morning WITHOUT BAIT!! We were trolling/troll fishing (whatever is the grammatically correct way to say that) with lead lines and only a lure and a hook. Ashley's dad is a master at it and had told Ben all of his tricks and pointers.

Lydia after 5 minutes at the campsite with dirt and ash already all over her face. Getting dirty is part of the experience right? :)

She actually ended up spending most of the time either in the stroller or the play pen to avoid further messiness. I thought that that would never work because she likes to be free to roam wherever she pleases, but she was as happy as a clam just watching us do whatever we were doing. Just being outside and near us she must have felt like she was enough a part of what was going on.

On the fishing boat out on the Reservoir. We didn't have a life jacket small enough for Lydia so we resourcefully strapped her to the outside of a bigger one. I actually felt like she was more secure in it that way than wearing one the normal way.

Lydia obviously found the rocking of the boat and the sound or the water very soothing because she fell right asleep and took a good nap for the first hour and a half we were out.

Aaron and Ben thought it would be cool to torpedo behind the boat for a little bit. The water was ICE COLD! They both tried it once and then were too cold to want to try again.

I caught a fish!!! I was skeptical about the whole trolling thing, but my line was out for only a minute if that before I hooked this beauty! I was so pleased :) We didn't have quite as much success as the group had had that morning. Who knows why - time of day, choppier waters, Robert's stench scaring away the fish ;), etc. But both Robert and I successfully caught one and had a great time.

Kaci and Aaron entertained Lydia while Robert and I took our turn fishing.

Look what cute master Anglers we are ;)

Lydia helped drive us back into the dock :)

How Lydia would do sleeping through the night in a tent was what I was most concerned about. Needless to say I was very pleasantly surprised. She fell asleep when she was sitting with me around the campfire while we ate S'mores, monkey bread, and visited and she stayed asleep til we were ready to go to bed and just brought her in with us. It still gets chilly at night, especially in the mountains so we had her sleep between us so that we were sure she'd stay warm enough. The next thing we knew it was morning and she was waking us up with a pat in the face and a happy "Hi!" just being as cute as can be.

Our campsite the next morning. BEAUTIFUL!! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE ASPEN TREES!!!!

I owe a lot of the successful-ness of the trip to this man of mine. He loaded and unloaded, set up and took down, and did everything he could to make sure that I wouldn't over work my pregnant self and could have an enjoyable time. :) He's pretty much the bomb.

We probably won't be doing another camping trip until Mary's a few months old or so, but with how well this one went, and how many great camping spots there are around the Santa Cruz area, I'm hoping next year and the years after will be filled with them!

28 weeks - Start of 3rd Trimester

2011-06-30T11:00:00.000-06:00

I feel like I've been seriously lacking in the "updating on my pregnancy" department. Hopefully Mary won't get jealous of how many more pregnancy posts there were for Lydia. Anyway, this post is almost 3 and a half weeks late, and I hope to take another pic this Wednesday and do a 32 week update, so this will be short and sweet.

Baby Bump Pic:

Weight: 191lbs (+21 to my pre-pregnancy weight of 170lbs (No fun that my pre-pregnancy weight worked out timing wise that it was also my post-holiday weight. Boo! I had been doing so much better weight wise)) I made a goal at the beginning of this pregnancy to stay under 200 lbs. My thought process was that I could have easily done that with Lydia had I stayed a little more active and not gone on my Salt and Vinegar chip binge right at the end that made me gain so much in the last month. My pre-pregnancy weight with her was 184. That's 14 more than it was with Mary, but my end of 1st trimester weight was the same for both - 162 lbs. I topped out at 212 lbs with Lydia (15 of those pounds were gained in the last 6 weeks). However, this pregnancy even with me doing my best to eat healthier, stay more active, give in to unhealthy cravings only when it is making me nauseous not to and even then only eating them in strict moderation my weight just keeps creeping up there. Obviously I'm not going to do some crazy diet or weight loss program while I am pregnant cause that's not safe for me or Mary. Instead I just shrug and say "Oh well." Honestly, I still feel like I look a lot better at this point than I did with Lydia, so don't worry that I am getting down on myself about this at all. I'll just keep trying to be healthy and active, and then after Mary comes I'll worry about losing the weight, whatever it ends up being, in the most efficient nursing-friendly way possible :)

Cravings: Nothing huge. There was one night that Robert went at 11:30pm to get me a Sonic breakfast burrito. Other than that it's more of moods I get into, like "I want something (sweet/salty/fruity/spicy/fill-in-the-blank) right now." which is nice because then I can make healthier choices to satisfy the craving.

I guess that's enough of an update for now since I'll be doing another one so soon. More details in a week about how we are doing at 32 weeks! :)

Lydia's New Face

2011-06-08T22:39:00.002-06:00

This is Lydia's new face. We think she might do it simply to make us laugh or to watch us do it in return. She does it all the time but never on command unless she is already in a spurt of doing it. I was very lucky to get a picture of it. We think it's hilarious :)

P.S. As of today I'm officially in my 3rd trimester!!! Mary will be here before we know it, along with all of our other exciting life changes. It'll be a fun 3 months!

MDB 2011

2011-05-31T17:24:00.006-06:00

Well I'm happy to say I finally managed to take some pictures at this years Memorial Day Weekend and Breakfast in Oak City, UT. It probably wasn't nearly as many as I should have taken, and they are almost all of Lydia, but at least I took some. First, here is the lovely line of all the pregnant women (minus one that we know of) that were in attendance this year. Ain't we purdy? It's amazing how fast our family just keeps growing and growing. This is the only picture I managed to take of the Saturday fun.

Sunday we have the traditional program, red velvet cake, and sourdough stirring. One of the favorite performances of the program is "Si and I." It used to be done by my Uncle LaVelle ("uncle" in this case meaning 1st cousin once removed in-law). Now it's done by his son Eli. He does an awesome job with it in my opinion.

Here are a couple clips of the traditional family songs we sing - "I Saw the Light" and "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder"

After the program, the little chitlins take turns stirring the sourdough pancake batter for the breakfast we host for the whole town the next morning, and we all eat red velvet cake.

Lydia's first red velvet cake experience.

I think she likes it.

Here we are sporting our reunion shirts. I am the 90th great-grandchild of Willis and Angie Lyman (my shirt was too tight around my pregnant belly, so Robert was gracious enough to let me wear his), Lydia is the 212th great-great-grandchild.

As cute as she is, this is the only picture I took of the actual breakfast Monday morning. Shame on me! Anyway, this was the 40th annual Edward Partridge Memorial Breakfast our family has hosted on Memorial Day in Oak City. We fry eggs, ham, and make pancakes for any and all in the Millard County that want to attend. This year almost 1,000 people came. I think our record is 1,400.

After the breakfast there are some Memorial services done in the cemetery. A good portion of my ancestry on my paternal grandma's side is buried in this cemetery including my aunt, my grandma, great grandparents, great great grandparents, and several of their descendants. Lydia is sitting in front of the headstone of my grandma in this picture.

It was a FABULOUS weekend. It wasn't an actual reunion year, so it was a smaller group. But it made it easier to get to know better the people that were there. We don't know when we'll be able to make it again. UC Santa Cruz is on a quarter schedule instead of a semester schedule which puts Memorial Day right in the middle of the 3rd quarter. Hopefully it'll work out that we'll be able to go at least 1 year out of the next 4. In the mean time, I'm thankful that we've lived so close so that we've been able to attend easily the past 3 years.

Now we are in Vacation Recovery Mode. Lydia zonked out during her late morning bottle today, and stayed that way most of the day. Pretty sure if we didn't have anything else to do, Robert and I would have done the same.

Here's to getting motivation to get back to the grindstone!

P.S. For those of you Lymanites that might be interested, Jordan Balmforth made a slideshow of videos and photos from the past 40 years of MDB. It's on youtube, so go to this link http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLB3F77DE678DD69B8 or just search on youtube for "MDB 40 Year Retrospective." There are 11 parts to it, for a total of almost 2 hours of footage.

Lydia at One-Year-Old!!

2011-05-31T15:49:00.004-06:00

Weight: 21.5 pounds (54th percentile)

Height: 30.75 inches (90th percentile)

Mobility: She can stand on her own from a sitting position and sit very slowly back down, but almost never when we are trying to get her to stand, it has to be of her own accord. She will walk along things or if we hold both of her hands, sometimes we can get away with just holding one hand, but other than that she has no interest in walking yet. She LOVES to crawl, so I think she just doesn't see how walking is any better. I keep expecting it any day though.

Personality - Ms. Independent: She is happiest when she is left alone to do as she pleases - play with whatever she wants, explore, eat what she wants all by herself when she wants to, etc. She rarely enjoys to be held for extended periods of time, sometimes not even short periods of time. She'd rather be on the floor playing, which is nice for the increasingly pregnant me, but I miss my little baby that loved to snuggle. Also it's not so nice when trying to get her to sit still during a 3 hour block of church every Sunday. Only 6 more months til nursery! Sometimes she doesn't even need toys to keep herself entertained. Just room to roam, and her voice. (As seen in the video below) She's a LOUD child, and the more excited she is the louder she gets, which too often frightens other small children ;)

Food: This is still a battle, but thanks to Robert making it his personal goal to make her eat again, she's doing a lot better. We just have to feed her on her time, not ours. She also will snack off of anything we are eating, as if it's cooler to eat our food than her food. We're currently transitioning from formula to whole milk, and are looking forward to the money that will save us :)

Words she says: "Hi" = Hi - This is her favorite. She'll say it over and over to every person she sees until she gets a reply, and then normally a few more times after that. This also makes church very fun.
"Eoh" = Hello - She says this when she's holding a cell phone up to her ear. So cute!
She has lots more syllables "Ma ma" "Da da" "Yeah yeah" etc. but hasn't put them to use in any particular context yet.

Words/phrases she recognizes and will respond to: "Where's Lydia?" - She covers her eyes and plays peek-a-boo.
"Patty-cake" and "Toss it way high" - She claps all the way through the patty-cake rhyme and then throws her arms in the air at the end.
"Popcorn Popping" - This one takes her a few times, but eventually she'll open and close her fingers and move her arms along with me at the "popcorn popping on the apricot tree" parts
"Love, love, love" - She'll give hugs and snuggle us or her dolls/toys
"Mouth" and "Tongue" - She'll point to them.
"Bye Bye" - She'll wave, and it's a cute pageant style wave too :)
"YAY!" - She'll clap her hands
There are others, but those are the main most consistent ones.

I still can't believe she's a year old already, and soon we'll have 2 of these crazy kids around. It's been a fun journey so far. I hope it just gets to be even more fun :)

Swing Swing!!

2011-05-31T15:24:00.005-06:00

Lydia has found a new love -- Swinging. We took her to the park a couple weeks ago and had a blast. I think it's more of an exhilarating thrill ride for her than anything. She clenches on so tight to the sides that her knuckles turn white, but she smiles and laughs the whole time. The video is too dark to see much of what's going on, but you can hear her excitedly bouncing around, laughing, and making all sorts of happy noises.

There were a couple of homeless guys there that Lydia wouldn't stop saying Hi to, and there was a young couple kissing the whole time. She chose not to talk to them. It was a fun adventure. We've been to a couple more parks since and she's enjoyed it just as much.

AZ Trip Part 3 - Other Fun

2011-05-23T11:58:00.004-06:00

After Lydia's party, we went out to dinner with all of my married siblings. We had WAY too much fun to the point where we were laughing so much they wanted us to leave. We shared all of our 1st kiss with our spouse stories. They're all hilarious! Everything from black cats to bad breath to golden snitches. I'm telling you if we wrote a book, it would be a bestseller.
This is my sister Katie, me, and my sister-in-law Becky (Scott's wife) outside of the restaurant after the workers gave us enough hints that they wanted us to leave. We're all preggars and due in August. I also realized I haven't done any "baby bump" pictures yet, so this is me at 24 and a half weeks.

And for kicks and giggles, a Charlie's Angels pose. If you ask me, Katie and Becky are way too cheery to be Charlie's Angels. ;)

We tried out Lydia's swim gear since it was plenty warm enough weather down there. Lydia absolutely loved it at first, but then Robert accidentally splashed her a little in her face. She wanted nothing to do with it after that. We'll try again when it gets warmer here in Utah.

The night before we came home was Mountain View's Rock-and-Roll Review. Robert's sister Aly and my sister Aubrie are in the same choir and they did a Queen Medley. Aubrie told us she had a solo. Usually the solos at these things are short maybe 5 second things. She failed to mention that her solo was HUGE. Basically the whole song of "Somebody to Love," and it was, in my opinion, one of the best of the night. I videoed it, but she would kill me if I posted it, so I'll just post this photo snapshot of the video so you can all see her rock star cuteness.

Then it was time to journey home. Lydia loved being front facing so much more. This picture is also taken in our new used 2002 Chevy Blazer. We couldn't really fit 2 car seats in our Prizm so we needed something a little bigger, and we got a sweet deal on it. It has a few quirks that we will maybe need to fix sometime in the near future, but I think it will end up being a great car for our growing little family for the next few years. An additional plus is that it's red so I have an extra excuse to bug Robert about not speeding (you know, since red cars tend to get pulled over more often).

It was a wonderful trip. We aren't sure when we are going to make it down again, and we miss our family already. But as always, it's good to be home too.

AZ Trip Part 2 - LYDIA'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

2011-05-23T11:06:00.013-06:00

Our baby turned 1-year-old!!! I cannot believe how fast the past year has gone! Here she is being cute that morning.

After a fabulous baby shower for my sister Katie, we went right into Lydia's birthday party. Here are the cakes I made for it.

Robert was insisting that I make a whole 9x13 cake just for Lydia. We finally compromised that I would give her just an 8-inch round, so hers is the one with a candle in it. It's a good thing too, as you'll see later.
On to opening presents. She got a big ball from the Alder's

An umbrella stroller from Great Grandma and Grandpa Richardson, which she LOVES. The outfit she's wearing is from them too.

Among other things (swim suit, swimming towel suit, swim diapers, electronic learning phone) a front facing car seat from Robert's family.

This is one of our presents to her. We got her a pool floaty, a dress, and a learn-your-shapes toy.

A push and go alligator toy from the Tyler family.

A musical butterfly and lotion from Great Grandma Hall.

She wasn't a fan of me taking the toys away to open the next ones. She was very confused and frustrated by it.

The final present, from Aunt Christi, got one of the best reactions from Lydia. It was a doll. Lydia's face just lit up and she started snuggling it right away.

Great Grandma Johnston had to take a picture of Lydia and the doll with the gift giver, Aunt Christi.

Then it was time for singing "Happy Birthday" and eating cake. Lydia was very concerned and overwhelmed with the over 50 people singing to her. If the song was much longer she probably would have burst into tears.

The eating (or lack of is more like it)

Once I put some homemade strawberry ice cream on the plate, she got a little more interested, but not for long.

Shortly after the following picture, Lydia decided she was done and flipped the whole cake off of the high chair. Robert was close by and caught it, but not without it breaking apart .

So happy to make such a mess :)

The aftermath. I'm glad she flipped it off the high chair. It made it look like she dug into it a little more.

So tired after a full day of partying! :)

The next night we visited with some friends at the Garners' and Natalie, when remembering that Lydia's birthday was the day before, whipped together a quick birthday cake, pulled out party hats, and even had a small present she gave her. Lydia thanked her by pooping on her carpet (nice, I know) I don't know who makes me smile more in this picture, Lydia or Holly? ;)

Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!!! I'll post more about her stats and what not after her doctor's appointment this Thursday.

AZ Trip Part 1 - Aly's Harp Concert and Dad R's 50th

2011-05-23T10:41:00.005-06:00

We just took a week and a half trip down to Mesa. We killed lots of birds with one stone while we were down - Palmer May Day gathering, Mother's Day, Aly's Harp Concert, buying a car, Katie's Baby Shower, Lydia's Birthday, Mountain View High School's final choir concert, and more. It was oodles of fun!

Aly's harp concert. She's AMAZING!!!!

Dad R's party was a surprise. His birthday is actually not for another couple of weeks, but we were there and saying it was a Friday the 13th party was the perfect cover up, so we seized the opportunity.

Granddaughters Brooklyn and Lydia with the old man. He got several "getting old" presents - Prune Juice, Depends Diapers, Denture Cream, and a Walker. The funniest present of the night was this...

And yes, it's for exactly what you think it's for ;)
Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Lydia's One-Year Photoshoot

2011-05-04T20:31:00.008-06:00

A couple weeks ago we had a little photoshoot for Lydia that we're counting as her 1-year-old pictures. Thank you to our friend Autumn Curry for taking the time to be our photographer and editing most of these for us. These are just a few of my favorites. There were so many to choose from!

Two of my favorite things in the world!

These are for you Lizzy! Squid with her squid :)

Squid eating her squid :)

I think this picture is so fun!

HAHA! I think her face in this one is saying, "When will these crazy people stop taking pictures of me?!?"

Thanks again Autumn!!!

Little Eliza Kate

2011-05-04T19:55:00.003-06:00

This angel I'm holding is Eliza Kate DeVore. She was blessed this past Sunday. The DeVores have been amazing friends to us since we've been here in Utah (Natalie DeVore and I go back a lot further than that). We are so glad we were able to be in attendance on this beautiful day.

Finals are Done

2011-05-04T14:44:00.003-06:00

We had a week of Robert's finals, and then a week of my finals. It was a bit stressful, but we made it!!! I finished with an A- average in all my classes and Robert got A's in all of his. We feel pretty satisfied with how well we did considering we had Lydia, I was in my first trimester almost the whole time, and other things we had on our plate. We feel both our grades are a family accomplishment that we would not have been able to achieve without the Savior's help. We made it. To celebrate we went to Chili's for dinner after my last final.
Lydia was asleep in her car seat for most of the time, so it felt like we were by ourselves on a date for the first time in a long time. I got a little sentimental. Chili's is where we went for dinner on our first date after Robert got home from his mission, and feeling like we were just the 2 of us again we started talking about that night. The night before that date, Robert had taken 45 minutes of hemming and hawing and driving around in circles to tell me he liked me and we held hands for the first time (Keep in mind we had more than 5 years of great and not so great history behind us, so this was a long time coming). At Chili's on our first date I ended up asking Robert, "So what exactly are we now?" After a cheesy comment of "You mean if you were to introduce me to somebody and say, 'This is Robert. He is my _____' what would you put in that blank?" And me saying yes that was what I meant, Robert said and I will never forget, "I would love to be the guy that is lucky enough to have the privilege of calling Heidi Wilcken my girlfriend." With that, I knew this was my guy - a guy who would treat me like one in a million, that would be just as crazy about me as I was for him, and the rest is history. I have yet to be disappointed :)

Happy finals being done to everyone! Looking forward to a great spring/summer!

I looked out the window and what did I see??

2011-05-04T14:21:00.003-06:00

Popcorn popping!!

Spring is here! Minus the occasional lingering snows, spring is here and it's BEAUTIFUL!!! Our apartment building is surrounded by these trees. I love when they bloom. The flowers don't last long, they've already started to fall off and get tracked into my front room. But for 2-3 weeks they are GORGEOUS!!

It's a Girl!!!

2011-05-04T14:04:00.005-06:00

We found out April 20th that we're having another GIRL!!!! Her name will be Mary Eliza. We are so excited!! I really thought it was going to be a boy, but didn't think I cared either way until the start of the ultrasound I all of the sudden kept thinking "I want another girl! I really REALLY want another girl! Don't be disappointed when you find out it's a boy (that's how sure I was it was a boy)" Then when we found out it was a girl I immediately started crying and was SOOOOO happy :)

Mary is doing great. She moves A LOT LESS than Lydia did at this point. That's not hard to do Lydia at this point was constantly flipping around to the point that I could never sleep at night, so I'm crossing my fingers that Mary will be a more mellow baby to balance out Lydia's spaziness :)

P.S. I just realized I never said on here, but we are staying here in Provo for the summer until after the baby comes. It just was meant to be that way, and although I had initial disappointment that I wouldn't be spending the whole summer in Mesa, AZ with the majority of both mine and Robert's families, I am happy that we are staying. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to our home in Provo quite yet. This has really become our home. There is so much I love about being in this area. We in no way hope to end up settling any where but with our family in Mesa, but Provo, UT will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Easter Happy Times

2011-04-25T19:48:00.005-06:00

We had a fabulous Easter! Among the festivities were the usual egg dyeing, Robert getting me beautiful tulips, and Lydia looking cute as could be in her new Easter dress (Thanks Mom/Grandma Richardson!)

First, the egg dyeing supplies

Lydia thoroughly enjoyed being able to scribble on her name egg until she tried to eat the crayon and I wouldn't let her. She didn't think it was fun after that.

And the finished eggs - The Name Eggs

And the others. We had several eggs crack while boiling so we ended up with hardly any to dye, but it was sufficient for our needs. The bottom right egg is Robert's annual equation egg. I forget what the complicated equation was, but the answer was "(Eggs'Eggs)^-1" Which in real math terms I guess means X transpose X inverse... whatever that means. My husband is a nerd and I love him for it :)
And my Easter tulips :) Robert snagged a BEAUTIFUL bunch this year, but I guess they're always beautiful every year.

And Lydia's Easter outfit. She was a hit at church.

Our little ham.

And our family on Easter. Lydia's new favorite thing is to point at people. At first we attempted to take this picture by me putting the camera on timer and running to get in the picture, but a merciful angel of a woman was driving by and saw our troubles, pulled over, and offered to take our picture. Thank goodness for charitable people!
I feel like I should or am supposed to take a moment to talk about Christ's atonement and the real meaning behind Easter, but I feel inadequate to do it justice. So I will just say I have a testimony that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He suffered for our sins, died for us, and rose again. Because of this we all can return to live forever with him after this life. I know He lives! (For more on Christ, the atonement, and more go here)

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Everything Is Always Changing...

2011-04-25T17:57:00.004-06:00

But some things stay the same...
Lydia, 2 and a half months old, watching Robert play the Wii.
Lydia, a week ago, watching Robert play the Wii
It's nice to know there are some things that remain constant in my life ;)

Celebrating April 15th

2011-04-24T15:26:00.008-06:00

You might be thinking, "What holiday is on April 15th?" Well, I'll tell you, but first a little back story (skip to the next paragraph if you don't care for a back story). A few years ago I worked at a little teaching supply store. At this store we had a little calendar that had random but real holidays for everyday on it, and there was a chalkboard that we would update with what that day was. They were super random holidays like Limerick Day and Popcorn Day. I always thought how fun it was and would think of random things I could do to celebrate that obscure holiday. Anyway, life went on until this past April 3rd I saw that Google changed their logo for that day as they sometimes do to commemorate something that had happened that day. This time they were recognizing the 119th anniversary of the first documented ice cream sundae. So that night we were sure to eat some ice cream to celebrate that monumental occasion. This reminded me of all the fun random holidays I had been made aware of at my old job. Then I had a thought. I thought I would love to make myself some sort of calendar that had several of the random holidays and anniversaries on it, and think of creative ways to celebrate them either with Robert on date nights, with our little family, or with my kids when they get old enough to do random things like that. Long story short (too late, I know) a blog is in the works, and I'm very excited about it. Hopefully in the near future I will think it's ready enough that I can share it with you lovely people and get your input on it. I'll save more boring details about my thought process behind it til then.

So back to the original question, What holiday is on April 15th? Well among other things, (Rubber Eraser Day, First McDonald's Opens in 1955, Tax Day, Titanic Remembrance Day) I'll have you know that it is Art History Day and Leonardo Da Vinci's Birthday. To celebrate Art History we went to BYU's Museum of Art. They have an amazing Carl Bloch exhibit there right now that we've been meaning to go see, so this gave us an excuse to do just that.
Lydia was all excitement and smiles on our way in but...
After only 10-15 minutes of waiting in the standby line she had already had enough! So we looked at another one of the exhibits for a couple minutes, but then just had to cut our losses and leave. (Sidenote: We were able to successfully go to the Carl Bloch exhibit this past Thursday and it was wonderful. I would highly recommend people attend. It's only here til the 7th.)
We went back home to start the next part of our celebration. In honor of Leonardo Da Vinci's birthday we watched Ever After since he is one of the characters in it.
While watching the movie we explored our own painting talents - finger painting to be exact. For an added fun twist, we each made random scribbles on a piece of paper and then exchanged them and the other person had to paint a picture using the scribbles. I drew these scribbles for Robert.
And he turned them into a funnel thing that you drop marbles down that hit a switch to turn on a light bulb (the way his mind works truly baffles me sometimes)
Robert gave me these scribbles...
And I turned them into a mountain/desert landscape and a snake.
I'm sure you are all truly jealous of our mad finger painting skills ;)
And that was our April 15th. If nothing else, we think this holiday blog idea of mine will lead to many fun dates and family activities in the future and we look forward to them all.

Ms. Independent

2011-04-23T22:29:00.002-06:00

So here's a small update on Lydia since I haven't done one in a while.
Ever since the first attempt at meat incident, Lydia has not had any interest in us feeding her. After many a failed meal and several different plans of attack, we finally decided to just let her eat on her own.
As you can see, she thoroughly enjoys it :) This does mean that we have a huge mess to clean up 2 or 3 times a day, but at least she's eating.
Just having fun with Daddy.
A few weeks ago she was constantly doing this cheesy grin. I'm glad we got a picture of it before she stopped.
This picture was a few weeks ago and shows her teeth really well. Her top 2 teeth have come in even further since then, and with one that just started cutting through tonight, she now has 6 teeth (4 on top, 2 on bottom).
I can't believe she is just 3 weeks away from turning a whole year old! It's been a great first year!!

Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point

2011-04-23T22:19:00.004-06:00

I had to go to a museum of paleontology or something of that nature for an outside assignment for my Geology class. So for family night back on April 4th, we loaded up the baby and went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. We started out the tour of the museum with Robert helping out the excavators. They were most appreciative.

I got nerdily excited when I saw this. It's a fossil marking called ripple marks that I learned about in my geology class. I did a mini presentation for Robert on how it's formed. I just felt so cool that I actually knew what it was and its significance.

We built this fabulous looking dinosaur and named it a Totemsaur. The question is, is it eating Robert or is Robert eating it?

Lydia was quiet most of the time and just amazed and intrigued at all the huge dinosaur bone structures that were standing over her.

However, she did eventually get a little restless in her stroller so we let her out to play with a smaller dinosaur.

We ended the trip with Lydia taking the world in her hand. So much responsibility for such a little girl.

Bettering Talents

2011-04-23T21:48:00.001-06:00

We lowered the keyboard so Lydia could start working on her piano skills. It's one of her favorite toys.

Robert finally beat all of Super Mario World. It was a proud moment in our home ;)

My Trip to Santa Cruz

2011-03-24T16:42:00.014-06:00

This is Robert, and I was asked by Santa Cruz if I could go out to their open house for potential graduate students. That way I could check out the city and the campus as well as meet professors and other students that would be in the program. They also said they would pay, so of course I went. Here are some annotated pictures of my trip. It was great, though it definitely wasn't Provo.

San Lorenzo Park, right outside of my hotel.

Small river that runs through the center of town and feeds into the ocean.

Just in case people got lost.

The beaches were somewhat deserted. The water here isn't very warm at any point of the year, so the beaches are usually busy, but there was more walkers and volleyball players than swimmers.

The wharf was more than half a mile long with restaurants and shops and fishers all along it.

From the wharf looking back at the city. That ridge there is actually a really nice walking path that follows the beach for 4 miles.

Wharf restaurants and shops.

Santa Cruz is home to a small amusement park. This is the view from the wharf.

It turns out that sea lions and Spaniards have one thing in common. The afternoon siesta.

Fisher.

Some more shots at the beach.

I got a little too close to the ocean.

There are a lot of pictures of the amusement park, but I can't really decide which ones are worth seeing, so here is the entrance and I will let your imagination decide what is inside.

The park is connected to the beach so you can come and go when you'd like. I am standing in the park taking this picture.

I will be spending a good part of my time in this building over the next 4 years. This is on campus. The buildings are secluded by the forest from any other part of campus. Most of the buildings are.

A banana slug. The school mascot.

Is this a school campus or the forest? The answer is both. Most of the rest of these are just my tour of the campus.

This was one of the coolest things. You're walking through forest and school buildings and then everything opens up to a huge athletic field which overlooks the ocean. It's pretty cool.

It will definitely be a different experience. I made a few new friends who invited me out to drink. The faculty are super cool and are working on very interesting things. Silicon Valley, one of the scientific hotbeds of the world, is very close so at times I may work with some of those companies. It should be a great experience and really good training.

Lydia Attempting Meat

2011-03-17T22:55:00.003-06:00

Last night we tried Lydia's first meat baby food. Chicken to be exact.

As you can see, she wasn't a huge fan. We'll try mixing it with various combinations next, or just buying the jars that are already combined with something we know she likes - i.e. Apples & Chicken, Sweet Potato & Turkey, etc. We just thought we would get lucky and she would like it right off since she hasn't hated anything we've given her so far. It made for some great video footage though :)

I'm In LOVE!!

2011-03-17T21:15:00.007-06:00

First, a little backstory. I'm constantly checking Craigslist apartment listings in the Santa Cruz area so we can get a feel for what's out there and what a good price is for a place. About 3 weeks ago I found the little house pictured below. I immediately thought it was the cutest little cottage I've seen. I have always loved blue houses with white trim (probably because that's what I grew up in). And it's a house! Not just an apartment, but it was in the same price range of most of the good apartments we'd seen. However, the price was at the very upper end of the price range so it was a little more expensive than what we're hoping to get (we're hoping for $1100 a month, it was posted for $1400). So I moved on. While Robert was on his trip last weekend it was reposted for $1050 a month! Perfect!!! So I looked at it more closely. It's in Ben Lomond. Where's that? I looked it up and it's about 10 miles north of Santa Cruz near Scotts Valley. I then planned to ask Robert if he'd heard anything about that area that night when he called. One of Robert's assignments was to talk to the professors, current grad students, and people in the city about where would be the best place for a young small starving student family to live. The first thing he said on the phone that night before I had said anything was that the common consensus was that Scotts Valley/Felton/Ben Lomond area would be best. I got so excited!

I'm in love!!! It's silly, I know. I don't even know what the bedrooms look like or how big the living room is if there is a living room, but in my mind it's all perfect! So I am hoping for one of three things to happen. One - it miraculously stays available til we need it in September, Two - someone rents it just for the summer so it's available again when we would need it, or Three - another place exactly like this becomes available at the right time. That's my hope and prayer right now.

Sorry if this is just a lot of boring rambling. I just needed to get it off my chest :)

P.S. This is how ridiculous I am. I've even thought of a new blog title if we were to live here. "Little House in the Redwoods" Get it? It's like Little House on the Prairie, because that's what I think of when I look at it :)

Play 'Til You Drop

2011-03-06T15:23:00.005-07:00

Once upon a time - yesterday - Robert was working on homework, I was cleaning, and Lydia was playing very enthusiastically for quite some time in her bouncer. I kept giggling to myself as I could hear her bounce as much as she could while making as much noise with all of the surrounding toys as possible. Then all of the sudden it got quiet and Robert told me to look at her, and this is what I saw. :)
When I first looked she would still move her legs a little bit as if she was having a dream where she was still bouncing and playing, so I wanted to try to catch that on video. She woke up when she heard me turn on the camera, then woke up even more when Robert laughed, but there was nothing that would keep this tuckered out baby awake :)

Poor tired baby, but oh so cute!!

THREE!!! Three Teeth!! Ah...ah...ah!

2011-03-06T15:05:00.003-07:00

Basically it's taken FOREVER for all of these teeth to cut. I've felt like they were going to come any day for months now, but they have finally arrived. I can also feel the corner of the 2nd tooth on top, so that one should also be completely through within a couple days. It's so great to finally see the fruits of our labors. Let me also say THANK GOODNESS FOR CHILDREN'S MOTRIN!! You save mothers with teething babies everywhere!

What else have we been up to? Another BIG Announcement

2011-03-03T19:18:00.007-07:00

Good question. Well, I'm a Wolverine.
I'm currently taking 3 classes - Sociology, Astronomy, and Geology - at Utah Valley University. It's been an adventure being back in school after so long while being so pregnant sick. But it's been fun and I'm so happy to finally get more of my generals done and get closer to getting a degree.

And the BIG Announcement has to do with what Robert has been up to. Well Robert is going to be a Banana Slug!
(Yes that is really their mascot) So here's the story. Once upon a time when we would discuss what schools Robert would apply to next year to do his PhD we would keep coming back to 3 North Carolina colleges (UNC, Duke, and NC State). So we were considering those our plans A, B, and C. Then it was looking like Robert's brother Terrel was going to be getting a job in North Carolina and so his little family was planning on moving there. We took this as another sign that that was where we were supposed to go because now we would even have family there. Long story short, right before Thanksgiving Terrel found out he would not be getting the job. Although we were sad that Terrel's job hunt had to continue, we both felt a little relief that Terrel, Jenn, and Brooklyn would not be moving so far away. Then we realized that if we had these feelings about them moving away, maybe we felt more anxiety and sadness about being so far away from family than we were letting ourselves realize. So Robert started looking at the statistics PhD programs that were at Top 25 statistics colleges that were within a 1 day driving distance from our family in Mesa, AZ. The more he looked at UC Santa Cruz's program the more he felt it was perfect for him. So at the beginning of December he talked to a couple of his professors at BYU about it. They both said that it was a top notch program and it would be a great fit for Robert. THEN they said, "If you're sure this is what you want to do, you don't need to finish your Master's to start your PhD and their applications aren't due for another couple of weeks." So we decided to go ahead and apply a year sooner than we had planned and see what happened.
Well we got word a couple of weeks ago that Robert was accepted and would be fully funded plus a living stipend. So come September, and I never in a million years thought I would ever say this following sentence, we will be Banana Slugs living in the Santa Cruz area. (Side note: if anyone knows or at least knows someone who knows that area really well as far as where is good or not good for a young family to live we would like some input cuz we have no idea where to even start looking.) We are super excited to be starting this next chapter in our lives.

Additionally, with this new development we are hoping to be able to move to Mesa and live with my parents for the summer. Robert was already considering doing an internship there instead of here in Utah. Now we're thinking that that would be our best plan so that we could save some money before we move to one of the highest cost of living areas in the country. So our time frame would be move to Arizona end of April/beginning of May. Robert's semester doesn't start til September 17th. So I would have the baby in Mesa, a couple weeks later Robert would head to school, and a few weeks after that I would move there with the 2 babies. We're hoping it all plays out that way, but really it all depends on where Robert can get a job/internship so for now our plans for the next several months are kind of up in the air. Whatever is supposed to happen will happen.

With that you all are basically caught up. Robert will be heading to Santa Cruz next weekend for a Graduate Student Open House. I have instructed him to take lots of pictures of the campus and the area for me. If he follows orders, I'll be sure to post those as soon as he gets back. :)

Toodles!

2nd February Trip to Mesa

2011-03-03T18:50:00.003-07:00

Yes, we went down to welcome Preston home from the 8th to the 13th of February. Then we went down again the following weekend, the 18th to the 21st, for the Wilcken Reunion and family pictures. Yes, we are insane, but we are so glad we made the trip. We justified it by saying we could count it as our anniversary trip since our 2nd anniversary was the 21st.

The reunion was FABULOUS. I got to see many of my cousins that I have not seen in a very long time, and many people got to meet Robert and Lydia for the first time. Thank you to all those who made the weekend great. Unfortunately, I didn't take a single picture the whole weekend. So the only pictures i have for you are some that I stole from my sister Tiffany that she took while we were doing our family pictures (Tiff I hope you never get annoyed that I do that)

Mom and Dad with all the grandkids. Lydia makes me laugh in this picture because she's not actually smiling. That's actually the beginning of a scream. One of those right at the right second camera shots.
My four younger siblings. Such a good looking bunch. They're going to make great husbands and wives to some lucky people someday.

The 11 siblings from oldest to youngest with Mom and Dad in the middle. I am so blessed to have grown up in this amazing family. I love each and every one of these people dearly.

He Has Returned!!!

2011-03-03T18:06:00.007-07:00

This a picture of me and my little brother Preston Halloween 1998. He was a Lego, and I was a slice of pizza. We both made our own costumes. We are a creative duo. We've been close buds for forever basically. Anyway, he has spent the past 2 years serving a mission for the LDS church in Kinnewick, Washington. February 8th we got to welcome him home :)
Here we are waiting at the airport for his arrival.
And waiting...
And waiting. Our sign rocked! We are a big family. So our crowd of 50 people was a sight to see. Everyone was stopping and asking what the occasion was.
Mom waited on tip toes so anxious to hug her son again.
And then there he was!!!!!! We are all bawl babies so there was quite a bit of blubbering coming from all of us.
Such a sweet moment!
Hugging Dad
Hugging me!!!! I missed him so much!
Hugging most of the nieces and nephews.
Meeting Lydia for the first time. Please ignore the crazed face I am making.
First thing when we got to my parents' was to get his mark on the measuring wall. We measured Preston, all of the grandkids, and the siblings younger than Preston the day before he left, the halfway mark, and when he got home so we could track how much each of them grew. My youngest sibling Logan grew the most. Preston and a few others didn't grow at all.
Then he went straight out to the trampoline of course :)
It's so great to have him home!! He was a great missionary, and such a great example, but it's so nice to have him home!

Rub A Dub Dub

2011-03-03T17:16:00.004-07:00

Lydia and bath time have had quite the journey together. If you remember, the beginning wasn't pretty.
After a week we learned that as long as she had her pacifier and we kept the bathroom warm enough it could be a relaxing experience.
Well, look at her now!! Splashing, having fun, and enjoying every bit of it. She loves her head being scrubbed, the bubbles, and to be squirt with the water toys we got her. The whole thing is just a riot. (Until we get her out and have to dress her. She still hates to be cold.) Bath Time = Play Time!
When did she get so big?!?!? I'll never know. But we love our little girl!

The BIG Announcement

2011-03-03T15:02:00.005-07:00

On January 2nd we saw this...
Which means this little person...
Is due to join our family August 31st. We are very excited!!! How did Lydia take the news?? Well, here she is just after we told her.
I think she likes the idea of being a big sister. Actually I think she's completely oblivious and will just adjust to the change when the time comes. :)

As of yesterday I am 14 weeks along. It's been a VERY nauseous pregnancy until about a week or 2 ago I gradually started to feel better. Now I'm normal for most of the day but still tire easily. I've already started to have a little pooch, but it doesn't look like a baby bump yet, just fat. So I will wait a few more weeks to post any pictures of it.

"On the road again..."

Video Pictures

2011-03-03T14:45:00.002-07:00

So our friend Tyson thinks it's funny to take a video when you think it's a picture. Robert thought it would be funny to do this a couple times during our trip. I also did it a couple of times, but mine were on accident. Here they are all put together.

Snowing in Mesa and New Years

2011-03-03T14:36:00.005-07:00

It snowed for maybe 5-10 minutes, and it was bright and sunshiny the whole time. As I was sitting in the parking lot I heard someone walk past and say "this rain is weird." That's how rare of an occurrence this is.

For New Year's Eve we went to Robert's parents' and partied with them, Uncle Dan and Aunt Monica, Grandma and Grandpa, and a few others. We played Buzz Word, Pit, and ate Panda Express until we all had to loosen our belts. Lydia and Haeley, Dan and Monica's baby, kept each other company. They traded and played with each others' toys. They're already such good sharers.
She randomly did this and wouldn't stop on New Year's Eve, did a variation of it a couple times the next day and then never did it again. Silly baby!

At midnight we got to set off a bunch of fireworks because they finally legalized them in Mesa. It was a great night.

Happy New Year!!!

CHRISTMAS!!!!

2011-03-03T12:41:00.008-07:00

First we had Christmas morning and present opening at my parents'. We're waiting in Mom and Dad's bed to go open presents :) Super flattering picture of all of us, I know.
This is just after we woke Lydia up for her first Christmas. She wasn't quite sure what was going on.
The married siblings all went in on getting Mom a really nice new set of pots and pans. It was long overdue. She was very excited.
Lydia's first present. New things, no matter what they are, are always very exciting for her.
She liked how it looked, then was taken a little by surprise that it did something, then didn't understand that it was time to open the next one.

Notice that it's still dark outside. We started at about 5AM, like usual :)
Then off to Robert's parents' to wake up everyone to open presents at about 7AM (Robert's family has always appreciated their sleep on Christmas morning. It works out for us :) Here we are waiting on the stairs in our Christmas Pjs to go up to open presents.
We walked into the front room to see this...
...A Brooklyn Shrine. It was a funny thing in reminiscence of the Terrel Shrine that is at Grandma and Grandpa Richardson's house, as seen below. It was just for kicks and giggles, and was taken down shortly after. They don't really love Brooklyn more... I think... ;)
Opening presents. You can see my new Cricut to my left :D!!
Although she is still a little too small for it, Lydia loves this rocking Pooh Bear she got.
Lydia playing with Aunt Jamie.
Then back to my parents' for Christmas breakfast. Yay waffles!! Only got a couple pictures.
My brother Scott chilling with the babies.
Then off to visit Grandpa Coy Johnston. Here's a 4 generation pic x 2
The next day we have another Christmas present opening session at Grandma and Grandpa Richardson's house.
There's a lot of us. It gets kind of crazy.
Lydia was very fascinated by Cousin Bailey's new laser pointer. It kept her entertained for quite some time.

It was a wonderful Christmas!! I'm already excited for next year :)

Meeting Brooklyn, Christmas Parties, and Christmas Eve

2011-03-02T22:24:00.010-07:00

This is me meeting my first Richardson niece for the first time. She is so sweet, so beautiful, and she and Lydia are going to be the best of friends.
Richardson Family Cousin Gift Exchange
Pictures in Christmas PJs from Grandma Peggy Richardson
Santa always comes to the cousin gift exchange, so Lydia got to meet Santa twice this year. LUCKY!!!
The Nertz Nerds 3rd Annual Christmas Gift Exchange and Nertz Tournament.
We get together at the King's and have a gift exchange and then play Nertz. We had a great turn out with 9 teams, but we missed those who couldn't make it and hope to see them next year. Robert received a Stats Model action figure from Jeff Ouzts.
I got a great candle from Natalie Garner.
Team Richardson. We are too cute :)
Kaci and Natalie adopted Lydia into Team Indian Princess. She fit right in.
Team Babysitters. Hunter and Aaron watched the babies so that we could play. Don't worry, as far as I know they didn't use the guns around the babies.
Aaron got Lydia to go right to sleep. Masterful babysitting skills Aaron!!
Wilcken Christmas Book Reading and Bunko Night
Wilcken Christmas Eve (We were also able to go to the Johnston (Robert's Mom's family) Christmas Eve dinner for a little bit but unfortunately no pictures)
Me and Robert with the youngest 3 Wilcken grandkids
We eat a dinner like they would in Christ's time - fish, unleavened bread, etc. It used to be by just oil lamp, but as our family has expanded our lights have had to increase to include candles and the Christmas tree. The spirit of the night is still there.

Cute Christmas Outfit, Full Bowl of Baby Food, and Sleeping Mishap

2011-03-02T21:40:00.006-07:00

Aunt Kaci bought Lydia one of the cutest Christmas outfits. You got a sneak peek of it in the Merry Christmas post but here she is posing for a few pictures in it. Thanks Kaci!! We had several cute Christmas outfits given to us. I barely found time for her to wear all of them. I hope we have another baby that is this size at Christmas so we can use the outfits again.

On December 19th 2010, Lydia decided that solid foods were good. She finished her first full bowl of baby food/cereal. Since then she has done overwhelmingly better and has loved every type of fruit or veggie food we've given her thus far except pears (random right?)

Happy fed baby :)

Lydia pulled her headband over her eyes while she was sleeping and woke up with a raccoon-like red mark across her eyes. We thought it was pretty funny and she got a kick out of us laughing at her.