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

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

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

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

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

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??

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!!!

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.