Brad and Elisse

Grandma and Grandpa Weinert

2012-02-17T08:33:00.001-06:00

Brad's parents came to visit. His dad had a helicopter convention to attend for work and his mom came along to visit! We loved having them here and Amelia just soaked up the attention. On Tuesday we all went to the convention, which was pretty impressive. Amelia loves buckles, so she wanted to climb into all the helicopters and buckle up. Luckily people were pretty okay with that.

We can't wait for them to visit again!

Oh-vah-dee

2012-02-11T13:09:00.001-06:00

Amelia knows a lot of words.. she can say plenty of words, but of course she understands plenty more than she can say. The videos below (really one long video but we had to split it to upload it) are a little showcase of a few of the words she can say... "Oh-vah-dee" (or Oh-bah-dee or Doh-bah-dee) encompasses every word she doesn't know how to say or doesn't feel like saying. When she speaks, she either says a word clearly or says Ohvahdee.

She loves to have conversations like this:

In case you're wondering why it's Ohvahdee, I'll explain. It started out with her biting problem about 6 months ago. I'd constantly tell her No biting. She started to mimick me saying "Dobahdee", which was technically her first word. She'd say Dohbahdee to everything she didn't like. The cat scratching her (which hardly ever happens, only when Amelia smothers him), or when I'd do something she didn't like (scolding her, taking something away), or when she fell down or got scraped by the corner of the table or something. "Doh-bah-dee!" she'd yell in a sad voice. Well, eventually that morphed into other similar words like Oh-vah-dee and Eh-bah-dee and Ah-vah-dee, etc. It just means whatever the heck she wants it to mean. Gotta love her.

Love these locks

2012-02-01T16:00:00.001-06:00

This is how Amelia's hair looks naturally every day... Jealous? I am! I can't help bragging that my daughter has the most beautiful, to-die-for hair. The beautiful colors--gold, caramel, blonde, honey--the kind of color you couldn't get from dying and you just envy.. The way it falls smoothly in a wave and then curls perfectly at the ends, the way it bounces around when she walks. The fantastic thickness and length which you don't often see on a 19 month old. It's just perfect. I wish I could never cut her hair, because I'm afraid those curls will be gone forever when I do. And as she gets older her hair will probably darken as brad's and mine did and become . So I'll drink it up while it lasts.
Visit my sister's blog (the Wilde crew blog, at the right of this page) to see a fantastic picture of Amelia's hair.

January in Arizona Part 2

2012-02-01T11:27:00.001-06:00

Here's the rest of the pictures from our trip to Arizona last week. We loved spending lots of time with Dani's family, Mum, Grams and Gramps, Aunt Teri's family, Aunt Jodi's family, and Uncle Jon!

Arizona Children's Museum

Costco! The samples were our dinner that night. Meatballs, yogurt, vitamin muffin tops, chili and chips, and others... yes we did get seconds.. and thirds.. of everything.

Making banana bread with Grams

Hanging at Aunt Teri's

Train Park (she just shoved a whole cookie in her mouth)

Dani and Gray

Mules at the Wildes

Susan, Amelia, Gogo

Cactus attack!!!

Makeup with Aunt Dani

Gogo and grandkids

orange!!!

These cousins love each other

Aunt Jodi and Mum

Ice Cream from Gramps!!!

Jonathan and Gray

The woman who gets me to Arizona so often, and Amelia enjoying (sort of) dress-ups!

It was a fun week and we wore ourselves out with all the playing!

January in Arizona

2012-01-27T20:55:00.001-06:00

Amelia and I are in Arizona right now visiting my sister's family and aunts and grandparents (and my mum's here too!!). We're so lucky to get to come here often. Here are some pictures of our adventures! Amelia loves her cousins. More pics to come next week!

I Need Some Quiet Time, Mom.

2012-01-07T19:22:00.001-06:00

Amelia likes to close doors. As I was cooking tonight, she wandered into her bedroom and closed the door behind her. I didn't hear her cry for the next five minutes or so, so I just let her be. Finally I walked over and opened the door and there she was, sitting on the armchair, reading her Fuzzy Ducky book. She looked up at me and looked back down to her book without changing her expression... so I walked back out and (mostly) closed the door!

Pre-Christmas Activities

2012-01-04T14:36:00.001-06:00

Decorating Christmas cookies with the Kleins (old friends!)

And we decided to restart my old family tradition of going roller skating on Christmas eve! The Donners came (more old family friends) and Mia sort of loved skating.. for the first half hour. Then she was done!

And a sneak peak of Christmas morning...

The AF Weinerts

2011-12-13T15:16:00.001-06:00

Celeste, Trevor, and Kelsey came to visit on their move from Georgia to California!

Jules came too!

We went to The Gaylord Texan..

The Fort Worth Stockyards.. We told Kelsey to look sad because she's in jail. I think she did a good job.

We watched the cattle drive

Toured the museum

Went to the Water Gardens in Fort Worth

A model was there right before us so Trevor wanted to show us some of his poses.

Kelsey got along with the cousins just like we knew she would!

Amelia loved having Kelsey here to play with.

Amelia's first ponytail! It's funny how a simple thing like a ponytail can make a mom so happy.

We miss the AF Weinerts already.

Holly Colley

2011-12-05T13:39:00.001-06:00

Well it's finally cold in Texas! It's currently 41 degrees at 2 in the afternoon. Brad and I are enjoying it, but I can't say I miss the frigid cold as much as he does. We've got our Christmas tree and lights and decorations all up (which really isn't much, since this is our first year to really do the decorating thing..) And we're gettin sort of excited to have our first Christmas on our own. That's not to say that if someone didn't offer us some free plane tickets to go to Pennsylvania, Jersey, Arizona, Idaho, or Kansas to come have Christmas with them, we wouldn't jump at the chance (any takers?). But we're gonna make the best of our little family Christmas in Texas.

I got an eye infection and am forced to wear my 6 year old glasses which are warped and WAY out of date, so I can hardly see anyway, but I'm absolutely helpless without glasses or contacts.. But I can't imagine living in an age before either, I'd probably have died many years ago. So I won't complain anymore. Except to Brad.

We went to the Holly Colley Holidays festival with our cousins, which was awesome. Amelia especially loved the petting zoo and pony rides (no surprise there), calling all the animals "Hah-vee", but the cousins loved the games, rides, bounce houses, cookies (okay, I'm the one who liked the cookies... I may have grabbed 2 "for my daughter" before realizing the limit was 1 and they'd forgotten to stamp my hand the first time..)

It was a pretty great (free!) carnival. (I just noticed the creepy legs in the background of this picture above!)

Amelia was totally pooped by the end! But she was also sick.

"HI-ee!"

The kids had their piano recital this weekend and did so well. It was nice to see sort of the end product of me nagging at them to go practice over and over during the week. Will won one of 4 awards out of like 40 students.. for being the student that had the most change through the year. He went from HATING piano and not being able to sit still through it to being a great student and listening well. (I can't say that it doesn't take 5 or 6 requests to get him to go practice every day, but trust me, he has made an enormous amount of progress).

And on Sunday, Amelia wore my FAVOURITE dress to church. Brian and Tricia gave us this one (along with 75% of her wardrobe!) and I've been dying to see her wear it. It was finally cold enough!

Mia and "Na-na" in their sunday best.

I loathe glasses.

Who told you to grow up so fast?

2011-11-14T17:00:00.001-06:00

Cute things Amelia does:

Amelia calls Harvey (the cat) "Hah-bee!" When we get home she runs around the apartment calling "Hah-bee? Hah-bee!" until she finds him.
Wherever we are, no matter how upset she is, we can say "Where's Harvey?" and she happily says "Hah-bee?! Hah-bee?!" It's a lot like the dog on the movie Up with "Squirrel!"
Harvey loves Amelia, and when she wakes up and cries in her crib, if I don't go get her right away, Harvey goes go her door and starts meowing sadly until I do. This makes Amelia cry harder.

She loves the fridge... she stands in front of it and cries until we open it for her, then she stares at the food and sighs with a huge grin... until we finally shut the door.

She's loves stairs, but she always walks up to the stairs and then stops and reaches her little hand up to hold your hand for help.

When she's hungry she says "Mo!" and puts her hands together for the sign "more". She asks for "mo" ten times a day, but she only wants 2 or 3 bites of something before she wants "dow" (down) from the high chair.

She loves to walk up to you when you're sitting down and she turns around and backs up slowly into your lap.

She loves to take a bath. She starts taking off her clothes and running to the bathroom if you say the word "bath" or "shower". She won't let you take a shower alone. She will climb right into the tub with her clothes on if that water is running.

She loves to dance! She does this weird monkey dance that reminds me of my brother's high school garage band, OJ and the Brantis Orangutans. She only moves from the waist up, flailing her arms around with their elbows leading the way, while kind of bopping up and down. It's awesome. She also loves to "jump and run". She must get this from her aunt Cami.

She always wants to go "buh-bye!" She is always asking for her "show-ez" or "shhhoss" (shoes) and once she gets them on or hears the keys jingling or we get our purses ready, she will scream her heart out if you don't get to that door fast enough.

She's learning to eat from a spoon! She loves it. She has never been a fantastic eater, her issue is that she wants to choose what goes in her mouth. So this makes it a lot more enjoyable for her. And messy for me.

...We went to see a good friend in the hospital who just had her second baby, Presley. She's perfect.

Kendra and her daughter, Juliette, and Amelia giving luvs.

Ashleigh with Presley.

This was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. Little Eliza (Amelia's age) meeting her baby sister for the first time. She was elated.

I took Kendra (cousin) shopping at Charming Charlie's for some jewelry for her birthday! Kendra is such a mature 9 year old and she's so good at helping me with Amelia.

My little reader.

SPOON!

Hah-bee! On our tiny little porch, their favourite spot. Harvey's hiding in the box.

We're 6 weeks away from Nursery! (and Christmas!)

BFD, Playgroup, and Halloween

2011-11-01T14:03:00.003-05:00

While my mum was here last week, we went to the Bedford Fire Department open house. It was very kid-oriented and it was probably a blast for kids ages 3-14 or so, but even though she was a little small for it, Amelia still enjoyed it.

I really wanted to try to fit the fireman's jacket on her too, but it would have totally swallowed her...

Driving the fire truck! She LOVED this because she really likes crawling through cars and especially sitting in the driver's seat, and the fire truck had all sorts of interesting things inside it.

Gogo (my mum) who was on the phone with dad.

The kids got to spray the firehouse! How cool is that? Amelia was just a little confused.

We snuck her into nursery because we were visiting the colleyville ward that sunday... she did pretty well for a while!

We met up with a bunch of mum's old friends at Parr Park a few times. Amelia just loves the park.

We went to the Hall Johnson pumpkin patch after mum left. So so fun! Amelia loved climbing on pumpkins, seeing all the people, and riding in the wagon.

"HI!"

(Daddy's hiding behind her)

Hay house! This cute little kid was moaning that he wanted to "live in the hay house" as his parents took him to the car to go home.

Perfect photo ops for a darling little girl...

....Halloween!...

My little munchkin was a ladybug this year. (found the costume for $2 at goodwill! I think my mum or sister actually found it for us..) The cat crept into this picture.

Okay so about a month ago I decided to start a playgroup for our ward because there wasn't one! There are plenty of young moms in the ward so I figured we needed one. So for the first 3 weeks, there were like 2 or 3 of us... pretty sad. But this past friday, we had at least TEN moms!!!! I was so excited about it! It finally took off! We did trick-or-treating at the Bedford library, which was actually kind of a huge bust. They advertised it like it would be this big thing and told us to bring our kids in costumes... well, when we got there, they gave us a candy at the front desk, and a candy at the children's desk.... and that was all. 2 candies. No decorations or anything. Really. Pretty pathetic. Anyway, I was just glad so many moms came with their kids. The picture above only has like half the kids that were there. My favourite costume was the elephant in the corner! He had a big stuffed bottom, it was great!!

Kendra's babe, who was Belle. Amelia is usually poking or squeezing her like this. Poor girl.

We went to the BYU vs TCU game in the cowboys stadium... it was sort of a depressing game. But oh well, go cougars!

Yesterday we trick-or-treated with the cousins in their neighborhood. It was great, Amelia just LOVED running around the houses, meeting people at their doors, seeing their doggies ("Wff! Wff!"), and getting treats in her bucket..

She totally knew they were goodies. She would occasionally stop, look down, pull out a candy and say "Mmm!" to me, wanting me to open it.

I guess she was tired here so she decided to relax for a second while waiting for them to come to the door.

And I just like this picture I took today. It was all quiet in her room, and I went in there to check on her and she was just sittin here like this... just thinking about life I guess. Then she gave me a big smile.

She makes life so much more exciting.

Last weekend we went to a halloween party where the hostess did all of this herself... and this was only about half of the work she did. How great is this? Cute creative names for everything, All the food is halloween-y. It reminded me of the parties my friend Kate throws... Her blog is on my list on the right, Kate Anderson... and she has her own party blog linked to that one, if you want to check it out.
Oh, to be creative. Wouldn't it be great?

Harvey and a trip to AZ

2011-10-27T13:13:00.001-05:00

Hello again! I swear I haven't disappeared. I'm still here..
I have lots of pics so I'll keep my words brief so that this isn't another marathon post.

I just like this picture of Amelia and her cousin Sam, the oldest of four that I babysit every week.

We got a cat! We named him Harvey. Can you guess why? Here are two hints: BYU, and football.

One of my childhood best friends got married! Love you, Kelley.

Amelia and I went to Arizona to visit family, thanks to Aunt Teri and her buddy passes! My mum flew through Dallas from Jersey to help me on the way out!

We stayed with Dani. Amelia LOVED her dog Lilly.. but one day outside, the dog accidentally took her out and Amelia got the fattest lip I've ever seen. But she went right on playing with her!

She loves her cousin Grayson.

Hugs and Kisses constantly for her little cousin!

She loves her Gogo. I'm amazed at how much she knows and loves her, even though we don't get to live near them.

Aunt Teri showing Amelia the birdies ("buh-dees!")

Kisses with some groovy black lipstick we found... we had so much fun. I love my big sister, wish we lived closer to her.

"This little piggy" with Gogo with the aforementioned black lipstick on her cute little cheeks.

...Hey, when mommy needs to shop and the only other option is hauling a toddler and a diaper bag through the mall... desparate times..

Plane ride home, we had our own row! Amelia said "HI!" to everyone she saw who would look at her. She's very social.

Documentation, because this never ever ever happens. Asleep in mommy's arms. Of course, she didn't crash until 30 min before landing.

So happy to see daddy again.

Harvey and Amelia are best friends. They get along really well and for some reason they both have this fascination for the bathtub.. they could play in there together for hours, without water!

Ashleigh and Kendra, friends of mine, threw a baby shower for another friend of ours in our ward. This is Ashleigh with baby Juliette (Kendra's daughter). Amelia LOVES babies. She's a little too loving sometimes, she really loves to smother Juliette.

My mum came here for five days to visit us and just left yesterday. Amelia just loved having her around and we miss her so much already! We did a lot of thrift shopping and visiting with her old friends from when we lived here.
Brad and I also hit the Hall Johnson Pumpkin Patch last night with Amelia, which I will show pictures from soon.. and we came home and he made delicious Kettle Corn in the stove popper I just found at Goodwill for 2 bucks! Our friend Matt used to make it for us all the time, and Brad has always wanted his own popper so I was thrilled to find this one! I just love thrift shopping.

I promise to try harder to update more frequently! Thanks for reading!

Summer Vacation 2011

2011-08-21T12:45:00.005-05:00

This may have been my longest blogging hiatus ever. We were really busy for a few weeks--I babysat my cousins for a lot of the summer--and then we left for a MONTH long vacation. There are at least two hundred pictures to share, but as most of you know, blogger is really the least user-friendly picture-loading site I know. Which is dumb, because it's such a commonly used site, right? So I will only load a few pictures and/or videos here, but there are almost a hundred pictures of our summer vacations plus a few more summer adventures on our facebook page. I just loaded all the best ones. It's just way easier to put them on facebook really fast than it is to try to put them on here, okay? So what I'm sayin is that if you have to, join facebook to look at our pictures. Or just get left in the dark!

Here's what we did:

On our vacation, we drove to Pagosa Springs, Colorado for my dad's side's reunion- the Sam Jackson clan. We go there every other year and stay in some condos right in the valley, at the bottom of Wolf Creek Pass (CW McCall anyone?) where my Grandpa used to herd sheep through the mountains. We usually go tubing down the river, lots of hiking, malt shoppe-ing, and of course visiting and relaxing in the beautiful cool weather. This summer it was a little different because 4 out of the 5 grandkids ended up in the Pagosa Springs ER at some point, and the one that didn't was vomiting through one night, so it was a rough week as far as health and injuries go. But we still had lots of fun together and loved every minute we got to spend with my grandparents and my dad, who only had this one week to spend with us this summer. We also all appreciated the presence of my dad and Brad, who hold the Melchizedek priesthood and gave

several blessings throughout the week.

From Pagosa Springs, Brad and I (and Amelia) drove to Denver, where we stayed in Castle Rock with some good friends of Brad's family, the Schraders. We've stayed with them twice now and we just love being able to visit with them and stay in their beautiful, comfortable home. I was blown away (again) by how beautiful Castle Rock and most of the south of Denver area is. Anyhow, the next day we drove up to Silverthorne to meet Brad's family in a GORGEOUS cabin in the mountains. Seriously, stunning. Two thumbs up to my mother-in-law for finding that place! This was the first entire family get-together (minus Trevor in Afghanistan-we missed you!) since our wedding two and a half years ago. So it was awesome! We enjoyed some delicious meals cooked by each family, let the nine grandchildren run wild through the huge house, went on walks and hikes, played tennis, rode the Keystone ski-lift, and went shopping at the outlets... a lot of shopping.

From the mountains, we drove to Payson, Utah, where we stayed at the Wildes' cabin with my immediate family, minus Dad. The boys played golf and we relaxed and visited some more and saw good friends like Elizabeth and Aaron and Matt and Nettina. We went to Tucanos at ten pm one night, with our big family plus my uncle's family! I spent two full days on bridesmaid duty for Laura's wedding, which was so fun and so beautiful. Amelia was a flower girl and Brad kindly went to most of the events with me and wrangled her. I was pretty sad when she showed up with my family to the reception too late to be in the pictures or walk out as the flower girl, but it was my fault for some poor communication. I still got to hold her as I was announced as a bridesmaid.

Brad drove home to TX from Payson with his brother Alec, and I went with my mum and sisters (and KJ) up to Montana and Canada. Anyone who reads my blog knows why we go there! We go to Lake Blaine in Montana, to my uncle's lakehouse, aka the most beautiful lakefront property you've ever seen.

We skied and played tennis. Then we drove up to the farm in Canada, aka paradise, aka my favourite place in the world. This is where my grandparents live, a ranch in the middle of miles of green fields just north of the breathtaking Rocky Mountains of Glacier Nat'l park. It's where we spent our summers growing up. So there we rode horses, went to the riverbottom, played tennis in Cardston, walked by the Cardston temple, bought our fix of Canadian candy bars, and enjoyed the best summer weather on earth and the most beautiful landscape on earth. If you want to see what I'm talking about, just go take a look at my aunt's pictures. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pfunder-Pfotography/131693776849478 or

http://www.pfunderpfotography.com/index2.php#/gallery_sec1/ and browse... pretty much anything green is the farm in Canada, because she lives in Arizona, but she goes to the farm in the summers.

We flew home on Wednesday. I now know what people mean when they say flying with a newborn is easy... compared to a toddler. Let's just say, I'm grateful to the kind people that sat next to us (two flights) and endured the craze.

Now we are packing up everything and moving to Bedford this Saturday--only 20 minutes away. We will miss our place and our friends in the ward and around here, but we're excited about the move! I will likely not post until we've settled in a bit, so it may be another 2 or more weeks before you hear from me!

Pictures of the Family Birthday Party

2011-06-27T10:22:00.004-05:00

This was Amelia at the end of the day, leaving her first birthday party. (These pictures are in totally random order!) This is Amelia eating her birthday cupcake after we sang to her.

Birthday dress and crown!

This party was the family party, but Katie and Jordan Klein (childhood friends of Cami and me) came too, which was awesome!

Balloons came after presents and lunch and before cupcakes. Those were a hit!

All the kids after helping open presents

I am Princess Mia, ruler of this house and this party! Bring me more hot dogs!

Opening presents

The kids REALLY wanted to help open presents. So they basically unwrapped them all for Mia and then handed them to her! She didn't mind!

It was madness but tons of present-opening fun.

Back to the hot dogs and Jordan!

Amelia had a blast. We were so grateful for Ron and Marcia for letting us use their house, Dustinn and Val for coming with the kids, and Jordan and Katie for celebrating with us! I can't believe my little girl is one (on Wednesday!)

Almost 1 year!

2011-06-10T15:41:00.005-05:00

We're gettin mighty close to one year from the birth of my little girl. Can you believe that?

Summer has hit us for sure. I'm beginning to remember Texas heat, but I think we've got a few weeks to go until it will really come back to me, the triple digit misery! Luckily we have a pool at the apartment complex so Amelia and I spend about an hour a day out cooling off under the hot sun. She loves the pool but she'd much rather I let her dive off by herself than stick her in the big yellow floaty. Of course she's too young for that just yet.

A few weeks / months ago we took a tour of the Cowboys Stadium. It's incredible!

Reading

Just some cute smiles. .. Mia learned how to climb up onto things and get herself safely off of them. Good and bad, and sort of hard to believe that she's that big and strong!

Dustinn and Val are here for the summer which is SO much fun. We love that Amelia is getting to know some of her cousins.

My nephew Grayson was born and I think he looks just like his dad!

Things Amelia does now:

-Waves and says "buh-bye" at the same time

-Laughs hysterically quite often, usually while repeatedly throwing her stuffed animals in the air

-Says all new sorts of new odd sounds, like she's trying out every single syllable she can

-Will only feed herself, and refuses to let anyone put anything in her mouth (but does a decent job of feeding herself enough)

-If you sneak up and startle her, she instantly throws whatever is in her hand like a guilty girl and runs away

-Wakes up promptly at 6:30 every single morning, bright and shiny

-Walks very quickly and falls less and less each day

-Stops and cuddles whenever she feels like it, but only for a few moments till she's off again

-Shakes her head and says "Nuh-uh" when doing something she knows is bad

-Any chance she gets, she grabs a pair of our shoes and starts licking the bottoms. If someone leaves the coat closet open, she's in heaven, pulling out every single flip flop and licking it.

-Loves the stairs--none here, but in my Uncle's house, where I often babysit

-Loves to be chased

-Still loves to sit and read by herself

-Smiles all the time

First five steps

2011-05-24T07:56:00.002-05:00

She took her first steps last Monday.

It's unfortunate that she's wearing an ugly shirt at such a camera-worthy moment..

She still prefers to crawl. Which is fine with me!

She gets this from my mother

2011-05-09T20:54:00.004-05:00

This little girl loves to read. Notice the books strewn on the floor around her. She gets quickly bored with all her toys but books she just loves to look through, turning the pages and pointing at them. I often come into the room to find her lost in her books, even with a pile of toys right next to her. Brad reads to her every night before bedtime and she's always loved that. She always has to be holding a book in her hand when he reads.

I started putting books in her crib with her at night and when she gets up, I hear just one little whine and then "buh-duh-duh-buh-buh-duh"--her happily babbling to herself--and when I go in there she's sitting with a book in her lap, turning the pages of her little board books. There is something magical about books and she's fascinated with it! I love it!

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

2011-05-04T16:30:00.003-05:00

We just love having friends in building that go on walks with us.

(Mia is on the left; her friend Nixon, same age, is holding her hand. This went on for about ten minutes of our walk today!)

And I walked into the bathroom earlier to find this..

Just a swingin'

2011-04-28T14:06:00.003-05:00

I think Mia looks very much like a Jackson in this picture. The girl loves to swing! Last night we babysat my cousins and they always have fun on the swingset out back. They sometimes fight over who gets to push Mia.

(Ziploc drawer, as mentioned in previous post.)

Baby's First Baseball Game

2011-04-26T15:56:00.003-05:00

Thanks, Ashleigh and Ryan, for taking us!

Go Rangers! (they lost, but we still had fun).

I think she looks like a Weinert in all these pictures.

How do you cure a ten-month-old's fascination with toilets?

Her other new thing is to get into the kitchen drawer with ziploc bags and pull every one out of the box. Or unwrap the plastic wrap.

She loves to be chased. She giggles hysterically!

And I find it funny that after months of falling asleep alone in her crib, she still gives me the most heart-breaking, pathetic, "Are you seriously leaving me?" cry as I walk out of her room.

I just noticed, this is our 101st post! Yay!

2011-04-19T11:32:00.002-05:00

I'm at the other end of a bad weekend, as you could probably tell from the prior post. Amelia has become more stubborn than ever in the nutrition department and I finally gave up forcing her. She has only slightly improved with solid foods over the past day BUT we have made a giant leap with fluids because after all I turned out to be more stubborn than the little stinker. She can now take bottles. Hallelujah.

You can sort of see them in the picture below: Mia has SIX teeth now! She loves to sink them into any flesh she finds. She likes to take little breaks from her mischief when crawling around. This only lasts a few seconds but it's so cute.

On Saturday we went to the air show at Lockheed / the airport out there. One of Brad's favourite things to do, watch cool planes do cool tricks. He's happy just to watch them fly, or even see them on the ground. That's why he loves his job. The weather was really really nice that day.

The only thing Mia ate for lunch was a cheetoh.. and the water all down her front is from her experience with a sippy cup. Amelia's cousin Jesse sent us Flat Stanley so we took him to the air show with us. (Blue Angels in the background) I think he almost blew away from all the wind and all the noise from those jets! We LOVE all the hand-me-downs we get from cousin Elizabeth. Check out the adorable Sunday dress she's got on. Don't let her fool you. She's not going to eat that cookie, she's just going to break off pieces and chuck them to the ground.

Mia's almost 10 months. TEN months! She's not standing by herself yet but she's very close. Her favourite thing to do is get into a drawer or a bag or a basket and start pulling out and throwing every single thing in there. She makes these cute little grunts with every throw. It's thrilling for her. But this makes feeding time even harder.

Then go ahead and STARVE!

2011-04-17T13:08:00.000-05:00

This is a little taste of how I'm feeling right now. I'm the beast and Amelia is Belle.

9 months

2011-03-30T13:35:00.003-05:00

Amelia likes to crawl into/onto anything she can reach. This isn't the first time she's gotten stuck in a chair.

Hi, dad! (Waving)

She loves to stand. She's learned how to move along things while she stands and has shown interest in climbing already.. hoping that takes her a while longer.

Last week Amelia and I flew to Boise, ID for my friend Emily's wedding. I was her Matron of Honor and Amelia was "the official wedding baby". It was so fun! I love attending sealings, especially for people I care so much about. The luncheon and reception were beautiful. I gave a toast at the luncheon--not my strongest skill, but I survived. It is nice to get a chance to publicly express your love and happiness for someone who means a lot to you.

Amelia traveled pretty well, despite not sleeping well at night, which I expected. Everyone loved her. And now we're hoping for at least a solid month of no traveling, no hospital visits, and nothing terribly exciting.

First tooth and other developments

2011-03-19T11:38:00.001-05:00

Well, it came. Her first tooth. It's poking it's sharp little edge through her gums and aggravating her to no end. Our happy little girl has been much more whiny (and snotty) than usual. and...

This little girl is standing! She's learned how to pull herself up on things. I can probably thank my mother-in-law for this because when she was in town she often helped her stand up and I never did. She usually gets stuck standing which is kind of funny. The standing scares me a little because she can fall now, but it's fun to see her learn.

She's also learned how to wave, which I just love! She does it a lot, sticks her little fist in the air and bobs it like she's signing "Yes". Sometimes she waves the fingers too. Her favourite is to put the back of her hand on her open mouth and say "ba ba ba" while she waves her fingers. Until yesterday I didn't think she connected the waving with actually communicating, but now I think she gets it! She waves back at you and she waves when the cat comes in the room or new people come in. It's adorable!

She's getting into anything and everything. It's a whole new ball game when your baby's mobile. She especially likes to charge towards the cat (Tess runs away) and to get into the cat food and water.

She loves to mimmick us and she's very vocal. She loves talking to other babies and children. She giggles more now, especially when playing with her daddy. She still protests eating but her attitude about it changes every week! She's still in the 95th percentile for height, and 75th (I think) for weight. 19 lbs 6 oz. She's wearing 12 and 18 month clothing (at 8.5 months) and she just got a new box of cousin Elizabeth's hand-me-downs in the mail! Thanks Tricia!

P.S. My bracket in the Weinert competition is currently tied for first place! Woohoo! But my other bracket--in the Jackson competition--is not doing so well. Brad's are both failing miserably. I am surprised at how much I care about the tournament just because I have a pick for each game. I even had bad dreams about my bracket last night! What's happening to me?!

Also, Lexi's crying in her soccer picture because she got hit in the stomach with the ball! She ran off the field to us crying. But she got back in the game after a few minutes!

Jimmertime, Hospitalized, and our new furniture.

2011-03-16T14:25:00.000-05:00

Recap for the past 4 weeks..

You know we love our BYU basketball. We got to attend the game at TCU a few weeks ago with my uncle Ron and his family. It says: 1 Jimmer 3:7 I will go and score. My cousins. Behind us is Jimmer talking to a reporter after the game. Marcia, Ron, and the kids.

The next Saturday we took care of the girls-- Lexi and Kendra--while their parents and the boys were out of town. We went to Lexi's first soccer game, which was kind of cool because it's the same soccer fields that my siblings and I all played soccer on.

Saturday night Brad tossed and turned in bed until I finally nudged him, at which point (4am Sunday morning) he walked into the bathroom and passed out. Scariest moment of my life. Brad was having severe pains in his abdomen. Around 7am we went to the emergency room. Brad passed out again going into a catscan. They informed us that he would need an emergency appendectomy and that he should be able to go home the next day. They said he couldn't eat or drink until he woke up from his surgery, which he was bummed about. My aunt Marcia picked up Amelia and took care of her for me. Brad was in surgery for 2 hours. They told me it would only take 45 minutes to an hour. When they brought him into his recovery room, it was not pretty.

A tube was going through his nose into his stomach. Later the doctor told me this was to keep his stomach pumped. Brad was awake and in a lot of pain. There was no doctor and the nurses said they didn't know why the doctor hadn't come to talk to me. Brad asked for ice chips and a nurse said, "Sorry, you can't eat or drink anything." That's when I freaked out a little. Something had obviously gone in a different direction from the last time anyone had talked to me. I asked when he could eat, and they said, "Maybe in a few days." I started sort of yelling at the nurses, saying that they told him he could eat when he woke up and he was supposed to go home the next day and the surgery took twice as long as they said and nobody came to talk to me and he obviously needed more medication as he was yelling in pain... the nurses had no clue what had happened in the surgery, but told me they would get the doctor in asap. I knew Brad needed me to stay relatively calm, but when someone you love is in so much pain and disoriented and you don't know what's going on, it's really hard not to get frustrated. I've never seen Brad like that or anything close to it. The man doesn't complain. On top of that, we hadn't slept all night. And I have a temper.

When the surgeon came in an hour or two later, he sat down and said, "It was horrible." This guy was a very blunt doctor with little to no sense of humor... bedside manner is not his strong suite. He goes on to tell us how ugly it was, how he thought he'd have to take out part of his colon, how he had to open him up all the way instead of doing the normal laparascopic appendectomy. "The hardest one I've done in a long time." "Appendix swollen the size of a baseball."

Long story short, Brad was in the hospital for 6 days and he had the tube in his throat for 5 days. It was a tough week. We couldn't have gotten through it without all the help from Aunt Marcia, the women in our new ward, and Brad's mom who flew down to help me out.

I also had an eye infection in both eyes that week. I hate wearing glasses! Brad's first real meal. He only ate popsicles (not even ice water!) for the first 5 days until he got his tube out. Unfortunately, he promptly got thrush from the antibiotics which made eating solids unbearable for him. (He didn't know that until he bit into this lovely meal he's about to attack.) So he had a few more days of jello and mush before eating normal again. Mia did pretty well that week, despite not sleeping much at night. And while Brad can't lift Amelia or much else for the next 3 weeks, he's mostly back to normal. He returns to work on Monday. We got some pot racks for the kitchen! And couches, finally! I love our new couches. Craigslist for $160!

Brad is really excited about March Madness. I would be more excited if it weren't for the way our conference season ended... I really thought we'd be able to go deep into the NCAA tournament, but I'm afraid it'll be much tougher now. After Brad begged me to no end, I filled out my very first bracket. I just don't see the point of filling out a bracket when you only know 10% of the teams. But I did some research and some guessing and I entered my bracket into the Weinert family contest. We'll see how it goes. Go Cougs!

Valentines day and our new apartment

2011-02-15T16:20:00.000-06:00

Our first week of church in our new ward in Fort Worth.

Brad picked out that dress at Target for her.

We've been in our new apartment for a week now. It's still a mess and there are still boxes everywhere. Soon I'll have pictures. It's nice to be in our own place, although we miss being with Ron's family. The weather has returned to perfect, so we're excited to get out this week and enjoy it. We couldn't exactly do that yesterday because I got the flu or some sort of stomach bug and was confined to my bed. Brad was sweet enough to come home after his lunch and take care of Amelia for me because I could barely lift her. On the one hand it was a horrible way to spend Valentines day, but on the other hand, I felt so grateful all day that my husband is so sweet and such a good dad to take care of Mia all day. I love seeing them together. Mia loves her daddy so much and is always very excited when he gets home from work. Brad also surprised me with flowers and a note on the counter when I woke up, which made me smile even though I'd just thrown up.

We were planning to babysit my uncle's kids so that he and Marcia could go out for Valentines, since they don't get to go out much. I felt bad that their plans were ruined and I was sad that we couldn't see the kids but we plan to make it up to them. My cousin Lexi (6 years old) called me crying from her mom's cell phone after we left their house last week and said "I miss Tessa". Tessa's our cat. It was really sweet but also pretty funny that she missed the cat more than Mia or Brad or myself.

Mia's scootin really well now, but she has yet to figure out crawling. She also started protesting the solid foods again--it seems to happen whenever we go to a new place--but we're getting enough into her to sleep well at night. She's learned to actually push the food away with her hands now. On Sunday I watched her interact with another baby her age for the first time--hilarious. They sat facing each other, trying to eat each other's hair bows, occasionally poking each other in the eyes, exchanging or playing tug-of-war with toys.. so comical. Of course it ended in tears but it was fun while it lasted.

Scootin'

2011-02-06T13:35:00.000-06:00

Ignore the commentary in the one below, it's all of us talking to my little sister on the phone for her birthday.

Texans at last

2011-02-04T11:58:00.000-06:00

TEXAS We're here. When we arrived, we had about a week of 50-70 degree weather. It was fantastic. But this week has been a winter storm like I have never seen in all the 14 years I lived in Texas. We're staying with my Uncle Ron and his family in Colleyville, the town I grew up in. They have four kids from age 6-10 and they LOVE having us here, so it's a lot of fun. They're mostly excited about Baby Mia and Tessa (the cat). We're having a blast here, but we did expect to be into our apartment by last Saturday at the latest. Didn't happen. Though our moving van left almost three weeks ago from Pennsylvania, it has not managed to arrive at our apartment in Fort Worth, Texas. Don't ask me why. I'm sure the weather has held it up this week, but seriously, this is a bit ridiculous. The worst part about it is that they won't communicate with us. We have no idea where our stuff is or when it will get here. So although our lease has been signed in our new apartment in Fort Worth, we're paying not to live there. We are really excited about our apartment, though. I think it'll be perfect for us. I'll post pictures soon. We've also gotten together with a lot of my childhood friends which is wonderful because it feels like we're not starting out here completely alone.

This weather is pretty nuts for Texas. The kids have been home for four days straight, which never happened to us. We only ever had a day off of school maybe once a year when it snowed a half inch, except for 2003 when we had 2 days off and 1 half day in a row, and that was a pretty big storm for Texas, but this one takes the cake.

BRAD Brad loves his job and loves Texas. Well I think he loves Texas. It might take him a little while to get those precise words out. Hopefully he decides he loves Texas before the summer heat rolls in. It's great to know he really loves what he gets up for every day. MIA Mia is 7 months old now. She has changed a lot in the past few weeks. The move was a little rough on her and she was sick for a few days and didn't sleep well. But now she's adjusted, just in time to be uprooted again to a new apartment. I know that she'll miss having all these kids around to entertain her. She'll be quite bored with just me around. For two or three months, Amelia was a miserable eater. She HATED being spoon-fed. Hated, hated, hated. It was rough. She didn't sleep as long when she didn't eat enough cereal, so it stressed me out when she'd scream and spit and clamp her lips shut. This girl constantly has her mouth wide open and she sticks anything and everything into her mouth, but as SOON as the cereal spoon came out, those lips became watertight. Very frustrating. And yes, we tried everything under the sun, short of mixing in sugary sweetness to persuade her. But one day, I pulled out that cereal, strapped on the bib, and settled in for the fight. I put the spoon up to her and her mouth magically opened up and ATE the cereal! Ever since then, she has been a cereal-eating champ. Well, she still dribbles it back out quite frequently, but hey, we made a major step in the right direction. I for one am grateful. So now she eats vegetables and yogurt, too, and we're starting on some other fun treats. And I look forward to the day that she can feed herself. Mia is still a very happy girl. She loves to sit upright and look around at everyone, smiling, laughing, and babbling. She'd much rather play than eat or sleep, of course. She loves tummy time and she has started to SCOOT forward. It's like an army crawl, but I can tell she'll be crawling in no time. And then I'll learn the art of babyproofing in our new apartment! Mia loves to hear me sing and loves when her daddy reads to her. She gets very excited when daddy comes home. Her favourite sound is still "da-da-da-da", which makes Brad proud. Still don't think she knows what it means, but we can let him think she does. Amelia misses her Grandmas very much. But my aunt Marcia is doing a pretty good job of filling in (though she's still too young to be a Grandma!) I can tell that she's getting more attached to me, so it's the perfect time for her to be around lots of other people. Mia rarely whines (unless she's sick or traveling) or cries without cause, which is a huge blessing. She's such a happy, fun little girl.

Love this face

2011-01-11T11:33:00.000-06:00

Skiing in our backyard

2011-01-10T13:09:00.000-06:00

We had quite a bit of snow this past weekend. We took some skiis we found around the house and had some fun outside, taking shifts to stay inside with the baby. Alec is staying with us while his parents are out of town.

^Alec's attempt at skiing without poles.

It's not a very impressive hill, but it was good enough.

We sure are gonna miss the snow...

but not so much the cold.

Big Changes...

2011-01-03T13:18:00.000-06:00

With our new year comes some big changes for us. We want to share the news with you..

A few months ago, Lockheed Martin contacted Brad about a job. This was unexpected, but Brad had really wanted to work for them when he was applying for jobs last year. So Brad decided he should see what Lockheed had to offer... and now he's going to be working on the F-35 jet for LM in Fort Worth, Texas, starting on January 24th. This is pretty much a dream job for Brad, so he's very excited... and as most of you know, I grew up in the Dallas/Forth Worth area before moving to PA so Texas is very special to me. I can't wait to see old friends again, as well as some family. Needless to say, we are going to miss PA and our families very very much. We have a pretty sweet life here so it was a tough decision to make but we know this is the right choice for our family and a wonderful opportunity for Brad.

Bring on the questions! And for those of you who want to hear (& see) about Christmas / Anniversary / Brad's Birthday /6-month update, scroll down.

Christmas morning at the Weinerts! Mmmm, tasty presents! It was so fun to see Kelsey (5) enjoy Christmas morning and all that Santa brought her. Love my cuddler. Tuckered out from Christmas morning. We went to Jersey on the afternoon of Christmas day to be with my family. We're so lucky to be close enough to have seen both of our families for the holidays. We'll really miss that.

Our anniversary was December 27th, and we've been married for 2 years. All day I thought about how lucky I am to be married to such a wonderful person, a temple-worthy priesthood holder, an involved and loving father, my best friend. Why it took me so long to realize he was the perfect one for me, I don't even know. I'm just lucky I figured it out before he gave up on me.

Brad's birthday, December 31st, was a really good one. That morning we went to Shady Maple (free on your bday!) as we always do on Dec. 31st. Both of our families joined us. But I had a little surprise in store for him... about 8 of our friends showed up as well to celebrate. It was awesome! And I can't believe I pulled it off!

Kelsey likes to pose! Then the families came to our house for cake and presents. And Mia got her first taste of chocolate... The beginning of a long and lovely relationship, I'm sure. Notice the cake..

And Brad got his second birthday surprise from me.

Alec took too long with the picture. Trevor and Alec got Brad a snuggie, and Kelsey asked, "Uncle Brad, can I wear your dress?"

Amelia went to the doctor today for her 6 month check-up and shots. She is 27.5 inches long (95th percentile), 16 lbs 11 oz (70th percentile).

She sits up and rolls both front to back and back to front. She no longer hates tummy time, now that she's figured those out, which is a big relief.

She loves to yell! It's kind of a distraction during Sacrament meeting.

Good smiler.

Chews anything in sight, and is starting to get her hands on things that I thought were out of reach.

No teeth yet, thank goodness!

She's about ready for 9-12 month clothing!

Arizona, Glens Falls, and the AF Weinerts

2010-12-23T10:35:00.000-06:00

Here's pictures from the past month. My trip to Arizona for the Bradshaw reunion, our trip to Glens Falls, NY for a BYU basketball game, and having Celeste and Kelsey come visit us here in PA. All in that order.

Gramps (Dean Bradshaw) Mia devoured the cookie monster the whole time we were at Aunt Teri's house. Uncle Kevan and Tessa. Mum, Aunt Swan, Dani. Aunt Teri Jack and a neighbor Gramps, Tina Grams, Jodi (snapping pictures as always), Uncle Ken (cooked the best turkey I've ever tasted), Aunt Teri. They worked so hard to make a delicious second Thanksgiving meal for us. Aunt Jan, Grams, Gramps Spicy... this pup thought she was Mia's mommy during our stay at Teri's house. A very concerned, motherly dog. Subway in Glens Falls, NY! A very cold night. Alec, Dad Out! Even with all that loud noise at the game! Jackson Emery, starter for BYU. One of our favourite players. Everyone loved Amelia during the game--several rows behind us were aw-ing at her while she danced for them--watch the video at the bottom of the post. Watching mommy make cinnamon ornaments. Grandpa and Kelsey! This is Brad's neice (Trevor and Celeste's daughter). She's five and she's a very smart, well-behaved girl. She loves Celeste's iphone.. Ward Christmas party. Celeste and Kelsey holding Mia Watching the clown (I know, right? A clown, at a christmas party? Well, the activity was a family talent show, and this was one family's talent. She was a very good clown.) Mia has started this cuddling thing, which I love, of course. She likes to put her head on my shoulder. It doesn't last very long but I enjoy every minute. This is a rare occurrence.. she fell asleep while sitting straight up in Celeste's lap, without being swaddled or anything, and in the middle of our conversation! It was great!

I have loved having Celeste here. While Brad, Steve, and LaRae are gone to work, and Alec's gone at school, Celeste and Kelsey have been coming over to hang out with me every day! I haven't seen them since our wedding, so this week has been a great time for me to get to know them. We did Christmas shopping, went to Shady Maple, hosted playgroup for the ward mothers, and just hung out. I have had so much fun with them! Trevor got here last night, so we're spending the day with them today since Brad's off of work.

We're so excited for this Christmas break and all the time we get to spend with family! And I cannot wait to give Brad all his gifts for Christmas, our anniversary (the 27th), and his birthday (the 31st)! That crazy week tends to be a bit stressful for me, but this year I figured out the perfect presents and I can't wait!

Mia sits up by herself now! She sort of needs a spotter, but she's getting really good at it.

She loves to hear herself talk/yell/grunt

She still hates tummy time, but she's getting more and more tolerant each day

She has this adorable giggle that seems to be reserved for her daddy

She's almost 6 months!

Almost 5 months

2010-11-22T08:53:00.000-06:00

Me and Mia staying home sick 2 weeks ago.

Our trip to Jersey 1 week ago

We're in the process of decorating the nursery. We painted the walls green and Brad's grandma made those pillowcases for us.

Cuddling with Grandma. We're so lucky to have a willing babysitter for date night each week.

Mia is going to be 5 months old next week. I never posted a 4 month update but I'll catch you up on what she's been learning

-She grunts like a gremlin

-Her favourite noises are "Wo-wo-wo-wo-wo" and "Da-da-da-da-da"

-Hasn't learned to roll over yet, but she can if you put her on her side. She hates tummy time but we do it as much as we can.

-She's found her toes and loves to play with them and tries to put them in her mouth.

-She loves to watch her mom and dad and always finds us when we're in the room.

-She grabs her toys (all 3 of them) and blankets--and they go straight to her mouth, of course. She loves chewing on her blankets, on our hands (right now she's got mine in her mouth), on whatever side of the binky she can find, on toys.. but she rarely sucks her thumb.

-She hasn't lost her thick hair except for this tiny little bald spot on the back of her head from always being on her back.

-At her 4 month appt, she was in the 95th percentile for height (I think it was 25.5 inches?), 75th for weight (14 lbs 9 oz), and I don't remember head circumference.

-She tries her darndest to sit up when she's laying down. She hasn't been able to sit upright by herself yet.

-She HATES the car. Mostly I think she hates being alone back there in her rear-facing seat. It doesn't help that everywhere we go is a half hour away from our house.

-She eats solid food! Well, semi-solid. We started her on baby rice cereal last week--check out the video above. She thinks it's great fun. Of course, it's a huge mess, but it does help her sleep better at night.

Shady Maple with Great Grandma Weinert

2010-10-23T10:21:00.000-05:00

Two posts in one week! Go me! Pictures of our trip to the Amish Smorgasbord for breakfast this morning. ^Showing off Amelia's Jordan socks (gift from Brad's friend who's a big basketball fan) We love having Grandma Weinert here to visit! There were quite a few other BYU fans / alumni at Shady Maple this morning. And right next to us was a University of Utah fan from our stake... boo... Pennsylvania looks like a painting right now. I have missed this kind of fall beauty for the past five years. As we drive around the farmland all around our home I think of my Aunt Jodi and how much she would love to capture the views we get here around this time! Too bad I can't do it justice with my skills and wimpy camera!

Great Grandma Weinert and Tummy time

2010-10-20T10:17:00.000-05:00

Brad's grandmother (Steve's mother) is here visiting, so everyone came over last night for dinner.

It was great to meet Grandma Weinert and I'm so excited that she's here. She's going to help us do a little decorating--after she redecorates Steve and LaRae's family room. Everyone's been telling me that she is a very gifted interior decorator.

Mia suddenly decided like two days ago that she's over laying down. She wants to sit up! She can't do it on her own yet, but she really tries to sit up anytime she's laying down. She gets mad after a while if she's still on her back. So we tried out this jumper thing. She's not quite ready for it--she still cant balance very well--but she's close!

Occasionally she enjoys some tummy time.

She's still very chatty. She sometimes wakes up like this, smiling and cooing.

Most of the time, this is how she feels about tummy time.

Amelia has moved into a phase where she fights sleep fiercely. Anytime she gets tired she just starts screaming. And there's nothing we can do about it. So we let her scream, sometimes we rock her, or sing to her, or other soothing techniques. But inevitably she cries for a while before falling asleep. Pretty typical for babies, right?

For those of you who are wondering, Brad really likes his job. He's really excited about a new project that he was put in charge of. He's officially been there for 3 months, which means our health insurance is effective tomorrow!!! Amelia can finally get her shots! He also got his first eval and raise (is that weird to share via blog?) and I'm not surprised because he has always had this uncanny ability to impress his employers--beyond impress them. More like become the teacher's pet (or boss's pet). I think his last boss is having withdrawals without him. And he just does it by being himself, hardworking, creative, and eager to learn and help. Okay, I'll stop bragging about him. I'm sure I'll embarrass him. But I am grateful to be married to a good provider.

Chatty

2010-10-06T11:22:00.000-05:00

Supposed to be sleeping..

Chatting with Mommy

3 Months

2010-09-29T15:25:00.000-05:00

Mia is 3 months old today! She's pretty much the center of our life. We have been able to go on a few dates while Brad's mom watches her. The last time, though, she screamed the entire time (not common for her) so I felt pretty bad. Last weekend we had some friends from Utah come stay with us--they live in Philly now--and we showed them around Amish land. That was pretty fun, and Mia really enjoyed the extra attention and time in the stroller. She's been sleeping 7 or 8 hours at a time at night, usually. Two or three nights a week, she'll wake up much earlier. But I'm grateful for the progress. Brad brought home a cold this week, so Amelia and I are at the beginnings of it. She's only coughing and sneezing a little, but I still hate it. This weekend some of my closest friends from Texas are coming to visit. Ashley Alaniz and Lauren Majkowski from high school. Ashley lived in my neighborhood and Lauren was in marching band with me. I'm super excited! They're not coming just to visit me.. Ashley is coming because her boyfriend's family lives in Pottstown (30 min from here) and Lauren lives in NYC so she doesn't have to come too far to visit. I can't WAIT to see some of my good friends. I really miss all my friends, I haven't made much progress in that department here. Hope this video shows up. If not, it's on my facebook so go there.

So excited for General Conference!

Why we love living here

2010-09-09T10:58:00.000-05:00

This is a long picture post of the last 6 weeks or so. Our first Sunday here. About 3 weeks?

A weekend in New Jersey with my family.

Aunt Cami and Go-go.

We watched the first BYU football game of the season over at the Weinerts while my family was here for Labor Day Weekend. Mia got all jazzed up in her BYU gear. She's not wearing her BYU hair ribbon in these shots.

Blessing day!!! It was such a wonderful occasion and a beautiful day. We were so happy. Amelia is a ragdoll here, totally passed out.

Grandparents and Mia on her blessing day.

This is what the boys did ALL weekend (and I joined in some, too).

Grandmas are sitting this one out.

Amelia is such a good smiler. She has been from day 1 but she just gets better.

We love love love living so close to our parents and little brothers. We are so blessed to be able to have them with us so often. We're also very blessed to have plenty of room for them to come visit us. We are starting to feel like this is our home again.

I'm keeping this brief tonight. But some updates on Mia:

She holds her head up really well, until it gets tired.

She smiles and coos (or rather, goos) and performs for everyone.

She is very content 99% of the time and rarely cries for more than minute or two.

She's getting better at sleeping through the night... though we're not quite there yet.

She was 24 in long, 11 lbs 5 oz at her last dr's appt a week and a half ago, which means she's in the 90th height percentile (big surprise) and I think 60 or 70 for weight.

She loves her daddy and stares at him intently.

She spits bubbles.

She sucks on her fists.

She loves to hear me sing and tries to sing along.

She loves to be read to.

She loves to kick and flail her arms when she's excited.

She's still as beautiful and perfect as ever!

Mia's First Summer Vacation

2010-08-14T13:45:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, Mia and I flew across to Kalispell, Montana for the Jacksons' family reunion. Mia got to meet her maternal grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins for the first time. It was so exciting! I really wish I'd remembered to bring the camera's battery charger with me, because as soon as I turned it on, it died. So all my pictures were taken with my cell phone, and needless to say those never turn out so well. But here's what I got. Cousin Olivia was SO excited about Amelia. She loved to kiss her and play with her. Her version of playing was slapping and clapping excitedly, so we had to be careful about her getting too close, but it was so cute to see how much she loved Amelia already. I think she was just thrilled to have someone smaller than her to play with. They will be the best of friends in a few short years. (In the picture above, Mum was trying to let Olivia kiss Mia, and I think it's a hilarious shot of Mia.)

Jackson also adored Amelia, as did Bradshaw. Do all kids love babies? It was really special to see Dani (and my other siblings) hold my daughter.

I can't remember if Grams or my mother gave her this giraffe when I was pregnant with her. Doesn't she look so big?? I didn't realize how much she had grown until I looked at my last post. Her hair is lighter and her skin is less wrinkly. I just love this little girl so much.

Here's a little preview of my aunt Jodi's photo shoot with Mia. The pictures I've seen so far are AMAZING. But that's no surprise, because Jodi's pictures are always amazing, and Mia is always beautiful.

She's a month and a half old now. She smiles and coos whenever she's awake and happy. The first time she said "Goo" my heart just about melted. She's definitely fussing more than she did the first few weeks, but I think that's pretty normal for a baby. I accidentally hurt her for the first time and I felt like the scum of the earth. I was buckling her into her carseat in a hurry and I must have pinched her leg with the buckle pretty bad. She started screaming this terrible cry I've never heard before, barely able to breathe between screams because she was so scared. It was awful. Now I'm determined to keep her from pain for the rest of her life. Okay, so that might be a little bit impossible, but I can try.

I love that she knows me now. It's so cool that when she hears my voice, she turns her head towards me. I love being a mom. I often worry that I'm doing things wrong, and I have to remind myself that I'll probably do a lot of things wrong but all I can do is my best. I guess I have to do what feels right for us, and not necessarily what every other mom or book or website says to do. I'm trying to learn flexibility and the ability to relax. My biggest downfall is stressing out over things that don't matter a whole lot, or even things that do matter, but wouldn't be helped by me stressing about it.

I think my blog posts ramble on a bit, and I don't know if anyone cares to read the things I write, but I know that my Gramps wants me to keep writing my blogs the way I do. So the rest of you will just have to deal with it or skip over the words and enjoy the pictures!

We're Pennsylvanians

2010-07-21T13:06:00.000-05:00

We made it to Pennsylvania in one piece. The trip was... difficult.. and long.. but we made it. Amelia was pretty uncomfortable in the carseat, but I was more comfortable than I expected to be--I seemed to recover fairly quickly from labor. Tess (the cat) was pretty restless by day 3, but she did very well, all things considered. Brad drove 90% of the way and didn't complain at all. We stayed with Brad's parents the night we got here and they showed us our new home that night.

We are renting a home from some family friends who are leaving the state for 5 years and then retiring back here. They gave us a great deal on rent and it's a beautiful, incredible home that we are very grateful for. Amelia will be very spoiled by the time she's 5.. then she will think we're poor when we move into a much smaller place. I may post pictures of it for you guys. What's really great is that they left all of their furniture (along with lots of other things) so we didn't need to do much to move in.

We are so glad to be back here in PA! I love the trees and the winding roads and the cornfields and the old stone houses. Brad is not loving the humidity, but I don't think it's all that bad. Brad started his big boy job this week and he's enjoying it. Monday I started my new life as a stay-at-home mother, which honestly scared me a little as the day came closer. But so far I have loved being at home with Mia. I'm working on the whole being productive part of it, because so far all I get done during the day, other than taking care of Mia, is like one load of laundry and emptying the dishwasher. And blogging, today. I can cross that off my list for the week.

Below are some pictures that Nettina took of Amelia before we left Utah, so she was one week old at the time. She's now three weeks!

You can barely see it in this picture above, but she has her daddy's dimples!! I'm learning more about her every day and I'm getting better at understanding her sounds and knowing what she needs. I love being a mom. I have the cutest, most interesting, most perfect little girl in the world, and I'm definitely not exaggerating about that.

Announcing...

2010-07-03T11:55:00.000-05:00

Amelia Rae Weinert arrived on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 at 1:33 pm. She weighed 7lbs 10 oz and measured 19 in long. Her head measured 36 cm. She has a full head of brown hair with slightly golden roots.

Here's the labor story for those of you who are interested.

Monday I had some irregular, random contractions that were more painful than the braxton-hicks contractions I'd been having all through the third trimester. I went on a walk in the afternoon with Nettina and her baby Jared at the SFH (it was way too hot to walk outside) for about 40 minutes. After that the contractions came a little more frequently, but still irregular. That night we were getting into bed at about 10 and the contractions were suddenly very painful and coming about 5-7 minutes apart. We waited about an hour to leave, terrified that we'd be sent home if we left to early or it if was false labor (which really stinks when you're 25-30 min from the hospital). Finally I decided I was very ready to go, and we made the drive.

So we got to the hospital around midnight or 12:30. I had progressed since the day before (when I'd gone in for fetal monitoring), but not by much. They monitored me for an hour in Triage, saying they would admit me if I progressed in that hour. Well... I didn't progress. But the nurse and my OB didn't want to send me home, seeing the pain I was in, and knowing I was five days overdue, and that I lived a half hour away. So we stayed a few more hours, walking around the hospital and laying around in Triage, gritting my teeth through the contractions that were getting worse. FINALLY I had progressed a very small amount, but enough for them to justify admitting me. That meant I could finally get my epidural!

(Warning: this is the unpleasant part). I got into the labor and delivery room around 4 and it took one hour to do the epidural. That's because we had some unusual issues. After the anesthesiologist threaded the first epidural, he did a test dose and saw that he had threaded it into a blood vessel, which is apparently very hard to do, and also very very dangerous. So thankfully he caught his mistake and took out the needle. Then he did it a second time and the same thing happened. Finally with the third epidural he was certain it was not in a blood vessel, and felt confident starting me on the drugs. At that point I had been sitting up, through contractions, shaking like crazy from nerves, for so long (plus I hadn't slept all night) that I zonked out a little. My blood pressure dropped a lot and I threw up a few times and passed out. That freaked me out a lot because I was terrified that the first epidural was putting me into a coma or something.

Hey, if you heard the way that guy was talking about how horrible it would be for the needle to be in my blood vessel, you would have been pretty freaked out, too. He kept saying, "You don't wanna know what could happen if we didn't catch that.." But he went ahead and told me after I'd gotten comfortable again and couldn't feel my legs. If the medicine goes through you that way, it's going way too fast basically, and it will cause bad things like seizures, can stop your heart, kill you..

(these above were taken before she was born, of course)

So the doctor came in around 6 and broke my water. They started me on pitocin because the epidural had made my contractions ease off a bit. The next 6 hours were pretty wonderful and low-key. Brad was feeling really awful from not sleeping and from watching all the madness I was going through and from nerves, so he spread out on the couch and tried to sleep for a while. I had a hard time sleeping because I was so excited about the baby coming, but I rested and read a little. I progressed pretty quickly (for a first-time mother) and by a little after noon we were ready to start pushing. At 1:33pm our precious daughter was born. I will never forget that moment. When the nursery team and doctors were finally done (the nursery team had to be there because there had been a tiny bit of meconium in the amniotic fluid, meaning the baby was a little bit stressed, but she was just fine) we got to spend some time just the three of us, which was awesome. Brad went with Amelia to do her bath and the tests they do. Waiting for them drove me crazy! All I wanted to do was hold my baby girl and be with my husband.

Our nurses and doctors were wonderful. Brad was absolutely incredible through the whole thing. And Amelia is a little angel. I can't believe how much you can love someone in such a short time.

We call her Mia sometimes for short, which Brad likes because it means "mine" in Spanish. She sleeps wonderfully for a newborn (so far) and doesn't cry much (so far). We're very excited today that her Bilirubin levels have gotten under control after being a little high for a few days, so we won't ever have to put her under the jaundice uv lights.

As for me, I'm feeling much better every day. Aside from being tired and sore, I feel almost back to normal.

Now all we have to do is move to Pennsylvania and then we can settle in. We plan to start the drive on Wednesday next week. Brad's new start date will be the following Monday or Tuesday. On our drive we'll stop in Denver to stay with some friends of the Weinerts. Then we'll go through Kansas, stop and see Joe and Jemma Beach (who are expecting their baby in the next week or so, I think). We'll stay in Kansas City at Brian and Tricia's house (Brad's brother). Next we'll head to Louisville, KY and see an old roommate of mine and her husband and brand new little baby. Then eventually we'll make it to PA and relax for a day or two before Brad starts his new job. My next blog post probably won't be for several weeks, with the trip ahead of us and since it will take a bit to get internet set up in our new house.

We love you all and thank you for your support and love! We are so happy and feel so blessed. Now I'm going to go enjoy a walk with my husband and my beautiful daughter.

Overdue

2010-06-25T15:27:00.000-05:00

I stole this from Val's blog (see the link on my blog list to the right). 40 weeks.

Well, here I am, one day past my due date. I really didn't think it would come to this. Neither did my doctors. All the contractions, starting at 30 weeks and never letting up, made us all think I'd be having her early. But now I'm pretty sure my body just can't figure out how to go into labor by itself. I'm convinced that I won't go into labor and I'll have to be induced. Which sucks. I really don't want to be induced.

My induction date is Thursday, July 1st. Six days from now.

I know what you're thinking. "I thought you needed to start driving across the country by no later than June 30th?" Well, you're right. We do. Brad's start date at his new job in PA is July 6th, and with a newborn (and a cat), it will take us probably five days to get out there. That means we needed to have the baby by yesterday for me to have any decent amount of time to recover from labor so that we could leave here in time. We had such high hopes that I would have the baby before my due date that we set our move-out date for June 30th and we're supposed to be out of the apartment.

So when yesterday came and there were still no signs of labor, we had to rethink things. We alerted Brad's company that we will NOT be able to get out there in time for his start date, and we are hoping beyond hope that they are understanding. We let our landlord and the soon-to-be tenants know that things didn't go as we planned, and asked them if we could stay in the apartment for a few more days. Luckily, the tenants aren't getting married until August, so they really don't need to be in here right away, and they were very understanding. We let our new landlord (slash the homeowner that is having us house-sit/rent his awesome, enormous house in PA for the next five years) know that we won't get out there in time to see him before he and his wife move out of the house. So as long as Brad's employer can be understanding, everything should work out.

EXCEPT... my mother (and father and brother) will be flying from the east coast to Utah for their summer vacation on July 10th. That means that if I don't have the baby by Monday, we can't leave here in time to see them before they come out here. That means my mum can't see the baby until I fly back out west (to Montana) in August for my summer vacation. And that sucks.

And now you see why I so desperately wanted the baby to come by June 24th. It seemed like everything depended on it. And now that the day has come and gone, I'm trying to accept that it will all just have to work out differently than we planned. Either way, we will have a baby in our arms by this time next week and eventually we'll be out in PA and ready to start our new life.

Brad's working full-time now until the baby gets here. He's getting pretty impatient, too, and tells me I need to just hurry up and have her so that he doesn't have to work anymore.

I go on my walks every day and I've gone on several hikes (see Val's blog). We love having Dustinn and Val here because we get to go up to the cabin and hike around there in the beautiful, cool mountain air. Plus Bradshaw gets so excited to see Brad and loves to entertain us, and Olivia is so delightful to be around. She just smiles and giggles pretty much constantly.

We've both been reading a little of the Babywise book and I think we're already sold on it. We can't wait to be parents and have our little girl in our arms. Brad doesn't get nearly as much quality time with her as I do right now, and he's definitely ready to hold her.

I probably won't post again until the baby gets here. But I warn you, it probably won't be until next Thursday that she's here, so don't be getting too anxious yet. Plus it just makes me more anxious when all of you are anxious. Wish me luck!

June has come!

2010-06-03T09:57:00.000-05:00

It's JUNE! Today I am three weeks away from my due date. Can you believe it?? I can. I am so ready to have our baby. I want the next three weeks to pass so quickly. We have gotten everything ready that we can possibly think of. Carseat is installed, ALL her 0-3 month clothes are washed and organized, all her blankets, etc are washed, the hospital bag is packed, her moses basket is washed out and sitting next to my bed, and we boobytrapped it so that the cat won't want to go anywhere near it. Balloons and tape do the trick. It looks pretty outrageous. The basket is filled with big balloons and it's sitting on our coffee table next to the bed, and the table has little rolled up pieces of tape ALL over it. Tess has stayed clear of it, which is amazing because before we washed out the basket, she thought for sure it was her bed and climbed in it to sleep any chance she got. But she really hates balloons so I guess we win. Speaking of Tess, she is now an outdoor cat. I would say indoor/outdoor, but she really has no interest in being inside. We bring her in when we leave and when it gets dark, but she would gladly stay outside in our yard all day. She LOVES it. I'm shocked that she really hasn't left the perimeter of our yard for very long, but I guess she's got enough to explore right around here. She eats plenty of grass and when she goes outside she brings all the boys to the yard. (There are like 4 other cats that wander around here). Of course, she scares them off when she darts towards them (out of pure curiousity) but she's learning how to be more friendly. The neighbors upstairs have a tiny three-month-old kitten named Dorian, and the two of them are now best friends. They go outside together and chase each other back and forth and it's the cutest thing I've ever seen. It's really nice to see Tess playing nicely with someone and not just hissing and biting. And what's really nice is that when we step outside and call her name, she comes running up to us, all happy to see us, and rubs against our legs, then runs away again to play. She really does love us! The best part of having her outside all day is that when she comes inside, she has no agression whatsoever. She just plops down on the floor and passes out. Brad has been making a lot of cool birdhouses for work and for a class project--he and his group have to create a business. So brad makes awesome birdhouses and his groupmates go to the farmer's market on saturdays and sell them. He's extremely creative and everyone loves his artwork. He uses the old barnwood scraps from work and decorates with old rusy tin, barbed wire, nails, and other various junk that's been rusting in a barn for years. You utah residents should go check out his birdhouses at the farmer's market next saturday. You can buy a 2 dollar raffle ticket to win the biggest and best birdhouse there. A week ago we took a trip to Reno and that was pretty fun. At the last minute we decided to take a delivery of furniture for Brad's work. Elizabeth lives out there with her family so we got to see her and stay with her, which was AWESOME! She made my birthday very special. I was more impressed with Reno than I expected to be. The drive was obviously uncomfortable, but I always enjoy taking road trips with Brad. It's exciting to just take off for the weekend. We knew this was about our last chance to have that kind of freedom. When we got back from Reno, Cami had just gotten down here from BYUI. It was fun to have her stay with us for a few days. On Sunday Nettina took some great maternity pictures for me, which I'm stoked for, and I made Rhubarb Crisp for the first time without Grams. On Monday we had a mexican barbeque with Matt, Nettina, Jared, Kent and Michelle. Cami left before she could participate in the delicious carne asada tacos. Brad finishes school in two weeks and then the baby comes (or maybe before) and then we're outta here!

35 weeks

2010-05-24T10:55:00.000-05:00

This is from the other day--35 weeks 2 days. From my 33 week appt to my 35 week appt, I lost 1 pound. How does that work? Please don't think I am dieting or something. Brad will be my witness--I eat a LOT. For some reason, my body doesn't care to hold onto it. Hopefully my body isn't depriving the baby of the weight-gain she needs. Actually, I have a feeling she's gaining all the weight that I'm not gaining. We're getting a little closer to picking a name, but she still doesn't have one. We're getting excited about meeting her! I'm feeling the pressure from her sitting lower. I didn't think it was possible to have to pee more often than I did, but it is. But I really can't complain much. Other than loss of sleep, normal discomfort and contractions.. and tailbone pain and nausea, I'm feeling pretty good. No swelling in my feet or legs, no overheating, no major pains. I'm tired but not too tired to do my normal routines. I'm lucky enough to not have to get up and going very early, so I just relax in bed with Tess until I feel like I am ready to take on the day. We had a garage sale on Saturday and made more than we expected. We have more furniture and such to get rid of, so we'll probably do another garage sale in a few weeks. Yesterday, Tess ate a ribbon. I thought she was just chewing on it, but then I realized it was going further and further into her mouth... before I realized I should stop her, she had completely swallowed a foot-long purple polkadot ribbon. ?! Why? I don't know. I guess I have to keep a closer eye on my kids than that, though. Hopefully it won't mess up the cat too much. I've been checking out library books about cat behaviour, and I've worked on training her to calm down and be less agressive. We're definitely making progress. I'm not gonna lie, I am really excited about The Bachelorette starting tonight. I have a lot of down-time where I'm too tired to get up and do something, but I'm sick of reading about cats and about labor. So having a decent show to watch online is really wonderful. I'm even more excited that in a few weeks, Dani, Jackson, Dustinn, Val, Bradshaw, Olivia, and probably Cami will all be here to hang out with me. A few days ago we almost ran over someone. We were on our way to Laura's birthday dinner and we were towing a trailer behind our Durango (Brad was running an errand for work at the same time). We're going down Freedom blvd at about 35 mph, and the light in front of us turns orange. Brad keeps going, because there's no way he can stop in time. I mean, we were towing a trailer. You can't just stop. To our right up ahead, there's this girl bouncing up and down with her ipod in and her running gear on, getting ready to take off across the street. I said, "She's going to run in front of us..." Brad says, "I can't stop..." Sure enough, without ever looking at us and before our light even turns red, she bolts out on the crosswalk. Brad honks and slams the breaks, but of course her ipod blocks out the shreaking sound, and we can't come to a stop fast enough. When she looks over and sees she's about to die, she bolts faster. We barely missed her. I screamed. The truck screamed. I'm sure she screamed. And I wanted to go back and kill her once we established that she had made it across the road without getting clipped. LOOK BEFORE YOU CROSS THE STREET, PEOPLE. WAIT FOR THE DANG WALK-LIGHT.

Graduation, Baby shower, and Hospital Visits

2010-05-12T12:32:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks have been pretty wonderful. First, our parents and younger siblings came in town for our graduation!! I wish I had pictures to post of it, but I can't seem to save the pictures my dad sent. But it's official, I am no longer a student. Brad still has spring semester, but he was able to walk in the April graduation in my school with me. It was a lot of fun to have our families here and we loved being able to celebrate the ending of our college careers. Only took me five years... but I'm very proud of us for graduating from BYU. Sometimes I thought it would never happen. So here's my advice for those of you college students who feel like graduation is out of reach: pick a major you love. The time will fly by once you get into the classes you really enjoy. The next weekend was my baby shower! Here are some pictures from the wonderful party that Emily, Heather, and Melinda threw for me and my little girl. Emily did a candy buffet for party favors. Cute, eh?

Above is Elaine and Laura examining diapers filled with melted chocolate. They're trying to guess what candy bar is mashed up in there. I used the same game for Dani's baby shower 3 years ago.

Gabby, Elaine, Laura, me, and Sam (the girls on the outsides are in my ward, and you all know who Laura and Elaine are).

Laura got me a chocolate costco cake that said "Sugar and Spice and everything nice". We took it home with us afterwards and ate cake for a week! It went bad before we could finish it all.

Amber made me this quilt! I love it! I think it's so impressive and thoughtful when someone goes to the effort to MAKE something for you. Maybe that's because I really suck at it. But I was so touched! Another friend made me a car seat cover, which I don't have a picture of, but it's adorable.

This (above) counts as my 32 week belly picture. 32 w 2 d. This game was for people to guess how big my belly was, and most people guessed WAY too big. Darcee won--she was right on. In this picture, the girl measuring my belly is Melissa, and the funny thing is that here she's 19 weeks pregnant with identical twin boys... and you can hardly tell! The girl in the green shirt in the background was 25 weeks pregnant, and you can barely see that either.

Here's the whole group. Thanks girls so much for coming and making it a wonderful day!

This is the awesome diaper cake that Emily made for me. The back of it is covered in little goodies--hair clips, booties, mittens, etc. I have the greatest friends!

As for other updates... I'll be 34 weeks tomorrow. So far I have been into Labor and Delivery twice because of regular contractions lasting several hours--up to three minutes apart sometimes. I went in at 30 weeks and at 32 weeks. I had to go in because you're not supposed to have regular contractions that early, especially if they don't go away with rest & hydration. It was a bit nerve-wracking, being in that room that early. I realized as soon as I got into the gown and into the hospital bed that I was not ready to have the baby. I definitely didn't want to have to leave my baby in the NICU. Thankfully, they were able to stop the contractions both times and I wasn't in any real labor yet. The tributeline (sp?) shot really sucked, the one they used to stop the contractions. It makes your heart race and makes you feel nauseous and dizzy. I preferred the contractions to the shot. But of course, it was good that they stopped the contractions. The doctor says that after 34 weeks they won't try to stop the contractions, because it isn't worth the risk of giving me that shot. (That didn't make me feel very good about getting that shot twice...) So after today, I won't have to go into the hospital again until the contractions are really strong or my water breaks or something else tells me it's time, and I don't ever have to get that darn shot again. They'll just let me contract until it turns into labor, I guess.

So apparently my body is just a little ahead of itself. I guess that's better than not having any contractions until after I've passed the 40 week mark, right? That would be depressing.

No name yet! It's probably time to hit the baby name books.

Updates

2010-04-13T14:43:00.000-05:00

Below is... I think 26 and a half weeks. This one is 29 weeks 3 days--yesterday.

I've been feeling pretty good lately. The back pain went away around week 24 when I learned how to sleep with pillows in the right places and sit with better posture. I'm sure it will creep up again as I get bigger, but that's okay. Overall I'm pretty comfortable, considering. It's a little embarassing to get up every half hour to go to the bathroom. But I love being this far along. I'm almost 30 weeks! I feel like she is getting so big, but I'm not really growing much (i pretty much look the same size in both of those pictures..) so the bigger she gets, the more squished she is, and the more I can feel her wriggling around.

Still haven't picked a name, still not telling any of the potential names.

The best news... today was my very last day of classes!!! I have 3 finals to take, a huge stack of papers to grade, and then I will graduate. We're both walking in the April graduation ceremony next weekend. We're really excited for our parents and brothers to come out here. And that's all for now..

Want to invite us over for a Conference session?

2010-03-14T12:56:00.001-05:00

We don't have a tv, and our internet goes out at least twice a day, so it's not dependable enough to watch four sessions of General Conference. So we're brainstorming how to watch it in 3 weeks. All I can think of so far is to go up to campus. That doesn't sound very fun, or comfortable. In October Dustinn and Val were in town so we watched it with them, and Dani and Seth were in town last April. I guess we could go to the church like normal people do. But I've been spoiled my whole life and never had to leave the comfort of my couch for a single session of Conference, except for the one time I actually had tickets. So I'm crossing my fingers for a better solution.

24 weeks 3 days

2010-03-08T13:05:00.000-06:00

She's growing! Back pain is worse than ever and all I hear is that it's going to get worse. It takes me an hour to get home from school because I have to stop and rest so many times, and wait until the shooting pain subsides. I take my heat pack everywhere with me. It's frustrating, because I feel pretty useless, but it's also nice to hear "Don't do any dishes! You're not allowed! Go lay down!"

I wonder if the school will let me park in handicap parking for the next six weeks...

Becoming a Better Shopper

2010-03-02T13:41:00.000-06:00

A few updates: Last weekend we went to Idaho for Brad's cousin's wedding. Brad's mom and older brother flew in for it, too, so we got to spend some time with lots of family. It was the first time I've been to a sealing other than my own, and it was so special to sit through one again. We loved seeing our nieces and we can't wait to see them again. I've had an extraordinary amount of back pain the past 5 or 6 days, which puts a bit of a damper on things. I'll find out today if I have a kidney infection, but I doubt that's it because I haven't had a fever or anything. Meanwhile I've been trying to relax and lie down a lot. The only thing that seems to help is a hot rice pack. I'm too cautious to use a heating pad, because I've read that those can be dangerous for the baby, but the hot rice pack is wonderful. (Thank you, Elizabeth, for making it for me!) Any suggestions from you veteran mothers? The fetus is getting more and more active, which is so much fun. She doesn't like when my jeans are too tight, which is most of the time now, and she kicks and pushes at them when they squeeze her. Tess ran off with my makeup yesterday. This morning I was frantically looking for my eyeliner and mascara, which are all that I ever put on, and I found the eyeliner on the ground in one of her favourite spots. Didn't find the mascara, but it looks like Brad did because now it's sitting on my dresser. The darn cat steals pens and receipts and mittens and anything she feels like playing with. So, I've had a few concerned friends ask why I'm spending so much on my new cooking habit, buying wine and all sorts of crazy ingredients, when we're clearly scraping by as it is. Well, I'll tell you. I'm not spending anymore than I did in the first place! Trust me, I know, because we track every penny and stick to a strict budget. I wrote a few posts back about my new four-week cycle menu. That thing really saves us money. I plan for each week with my handy menu, I write out my list, and I don't end up spending any money on things that we don't need or won't absolutely eat. On top of that, these are the things I'm doing to save us grocery money, and it's all done without coupons:

grocery shop at walmart
look through all of the ads from Macey's, Smith's, A-fresh, Rancho Markets, Buy Low, etc. Find and circle the best price for each thing THAT WE ACTUALLY NEED or will need during the month. take all the ads and the grocery list with me to walmart, and they price-match everything -- EXCEPT for meat at Buy Low. Found that out yesterday. It sounds time consuming, but it is SO worth it. Macey's is almost always cheapest, but Walmart always beats their prices for the things that aren't on sale in the ads.
when I do get a hold of coupons, I make sure that the walmart brand isn't cheaper, because it usually is.
when I buy new ingredients for new recipes, I always buy things that I can use again--like sun-dried tomatoes, for example. I get a jar of them for a few recipes that I normally do, and then I look for more recipes in my Test Kitchen Cookbook that uses them. When we had excess cream cheese recently, I looked at the cream cheese dips in the cookbook and found a recipe that we had all the ingredients for.
I don't buy snacks, or any impulse buys. We do always have granola bars in the cupboard, because it's not smart for me to leave the house without some food on me, but we only get them on sale and we plan for it.
The wine: it's cooking wine! I don't go buy a bottle of wine. That would break the budget, for sure. The last time I got cooking wine was at Macey's and it was on sale for $2 for a bottle! That's so cheap! And it lasts a while.
I'm in a cooking class, and we have an ongoing project where we go to the same grocery store once a week to write down the prices of the same 15 items. Now I am an expert at what's a good price for those items. It's a good feeling!

I know I'm not as savvy of a shopper as the professional bloggers that are always blogging about the amazing deals they find with their piles of coupons, but for now, I think I'm doing pretty good. See, I have this thing against coupons. I don't want to buy the Sunday paper every month for coupons, first of all. My friend showed me a sight where you can print out coupons for free, but we don't have a printer right now. Second of all, I think that when you have coupons, you end up buying things you normally wouldn't, so you're not actually saving money. With the way I do things, we have common foods & ingredients that we use, and I am always on the lookout for the best sale on them. And third, the lengths I am going to right now to save are about all I can handle at the moment. Some day, I will hopefully master the coupon world, but not now. Oh, and fourth, I really think that coupons are usually not a great deal, compared to walmart brand or other brands. They're often deceptive. You first have to be a smart shopper who knows prices well to succeed with coupons.

Here's what I'm proud of:

I never buy chicken for more than $2/lb, and I can usually get it for around $1.59/lb. Last month I got it for $1.29/lb.

I have bought porkchops for less than $2/lb every time for the past few months.

My favourite buy yesterday was asparagus for $.99/lb--that is CHEAP for asparagus. For example, it was $3.99/lb at Smith's.

I have learned never to just accept the prices on the shelf. It takes a little more effort, but when you actually look for the best sales, you can easily end up spending half as much as what you would have on your weekkly grocery trip. Or, if you really don't want have the time or energy to look around, just shop at Walmart and buy their brands. That will save you at least 10% every time. I know that many of you have probably already figured all of this out. I'm just so excited that I'm saving more than I ever did before.

Belly Pictures for the past month

2010-02-19T13:42:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm regretting not keeping track of the pictures of my belly. Now I have to go back through my camera and try to identify which pictures are from which week. I think I've got them down to the right week, approximately. This one above was around 16 weeks--I think. I ate A LOT that night, and I was amazed at how big I was.

I really hate having Brad take pictures of my belly, because they always end up being so awkward, and I also HATE our camera, so I began to just take random ones on my cell phone. I believe I was around 19 weeks here.

Still sometime around 19 weeks, I think. Sorry about the horrible lighting / colors.

Same night--19 weeks, approximately.

So many things wrong with this picture (above). This is why I have mostly given up on our camera. Honestly, pictures rarely come out any better than this. This was around 20 weeks.

Okay, this one was 21 weeks and 2 days. We're at Rite-Aid buying my 4 mg (yes, that's miligrams, not micrograms) of Folic Acid. I take 10 times the amount of Folate that pregnant women usually take, because of an inability to properly digest it. I should probably just get a prescription, but instead I take 5 little 8-microgram pills (the highest amount that comes as a supplement) every night because I suspect the prescription is more expensive. My baby will be fortified chalk-full of folic acid!

Last night--22 weeks exactly.

Pregnancy updates:

The babe is moving around SO much now. It's awesome!!! My favourite thing to do is just sit and watch my stomach move when she bumps into it. The other day she was doing flips and I kept seeing her head or something roll along my stomach. It's incredible. I always alert Brad when she's moving but he only gets to see or feel it once or twice a day, because he has a hard time just sitting and waiting for something to happen, and she's not very predictable. When we're in public, I'm hesistant to say anything because I don't want anyone else to try to feel my stomach. Not looking forward to future stranger-stomach encounters.

I think she's a big baby. At my ultrasound, I was 20w5d, but measuring a bit past that. According to the books, she was supposed to be about 10 or 11 ounces, but she was 14 oz. Not a big surprise, since Brad and I are big people.

The biggest bother has to be the sore tailbone. Ever since I was about 12 weeks, my tailbone has been generally sore. After sitting for a short time, I can really feel it. So church is really fun.

The nausea is about the same as it's been throughout this trimester--pretty bad in the mornings, but not too bad the rest of the day.

I have only gained maybe 2 or 3 pounds, which is sort of abnormal, but I swear I eat enough for two grown women. Same for my dessert servings. The doctors aren't worried, so I guess I shouldn't be either.

I can easily sleep 10 hours a night. Any less than 8 hours results in vomiting.

Since mornings are so difficult, Brad is sweet enough to bring me breakfast in bed on mornings that he's around. But I've noticed this trend... every single time I get breakfast in bed, I throw it up. How is that fair? I'm not sure what it is, because I'm always starving when I wake up, but I guess my body needs to get up and move around before I eat anything.

Apple juice tastes like it's fermenting in my mouth.

Oreos are my best friend.

I'm really needing some maternity pants, but I'm not optimistic about finding them long enough. Meanwhile I'm trying to get away with wearing the looser and low-sitting jeans I own with a rubber band over the buttons. They fit fine when I'm walking around, but as soon as I sit my belly pushes out and I have to undo more buttons / zipper.

Tess doesn't like being kicked by the baby.

Ziti Surprise

2010-02-18T20:36:00.000-06:00

This was our conversation when I picked Brad up from school yesterday: Brad- "Mmm, you smell like you've been cooking. What did you make? Something with garlic?" Me- "Yes. I made skillet ziti with chicken and broccoli. Minus the broccoli, and with sun-dried tomatos instead of roasted red peppers. I set some aside for you." Brad- "Sounds delicious." Me- "It's really good. There's just one thing wrong with it." Brad- "What's that?" Me- "It might have a fingernail in it." Brad- "Ohhhh" (Gagging sound / moan) Me- "I was chopping the onions and I chopped my fingernail right off into the pile." (Displaying my finger) "I tried to find it, but minced onions look just like fingernails." Brad- (more gagging sounds) Me- "But aren't you just glad I'm okay and I didn't cut my finger off?" Brad- "Yes, I'm very glad." Me- "...You don't have to eat it." Regardless of the hidden fingernail, it was one of my favourite dishes out of the Test Kitchen cookbook so far. Brad loved it, too, after he got over his nausea. First all-out failure from the Test Kitchen cookbook: Creamy Stove-top mac n' cheese. Disgusting. Really awful. Way too much creamy cheese, the mustard and hot sauce made it so gross, who knows if the eggs in it ever cooked, and it's smelling up the kitchen. I'm not happy that I wasted 2.5 cups of precious shredded cheese on it.

What's so great about Glee?

2010-02-17T11:57:00.001-06:00

Glee. There's a big hype about it, or at least it seems like it from the facebook statuses (stati?) I see on the newsfeed all the time. It's a show on ABC, I believe. We got all caught up with LOST, so we figured we'd find a new show to watch when LOST isn't on. Our upstairs neighbors have a Media Tank (coolest thing ever) that is on the network, and there's hundreds of movies, hundreds of tv shows, etc, etc... and we can access it, so we basically have blockbuster on our computer. It's awesome. Well, we thought we'd try out Glee, since it's a big deal... Yeah, not impressed. It's a little much for us. It's not that I don't like musicals, but this show is just a little over-the-top for us. Okay, it's creepy. We only watched the first 3 episodes, but I'm convinced that this show is 90% about sex (mostly awful references to it), and creepy people with creepy habits. Why would I want to watch that? Maybe I've become super sensitive because of my lack of exposure to tv for the past few years (not having a tv is really not so bad, apparently..) but I'm a little disgusted at how much tv shows are obsessed with sex these days. We tried one or two other shows recently, and I felt the same way about them. I feel sickened after watching an episode of anything other than LOST. Why do networks and producers think that there has to be a substantial element of sex to make a great show? I'm beginning to think that men who pretty much only watch sports and the history channel (like my husband) have the right idea. I hope I have not offended any Glee-watchers. Lots of other shows are lots worse. And I'm sure Glee gets better after episode 3... but I'm giving up on it. Got any suggestions for clean shows we can start watching? (Mum, the media tank doesn't have The Middle, or we would definitely try that out)

Elisse's Test Kitchen

2010-02-15T17:06:00.000-06:00

I've had a little extra time on my hands this semester, because I only have 9 credits of classes and around 10 hours of work every week. In my spare time, I have explored my passion for cooking. I'm pretty proud of myself for branching out as much as I have, since I tend to be a bit of a wimp when it comes to trying new things. My biggest leap was cooking with wine. It's scary to me, but I've done it, and succeeded! What has really allowed my cooking experience to take off is the cookbook my Aunt Teri recently gave me-- "The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook". I love it!!! It has SO many recipes, most of which are a little fancier than what I usually do. I'm so glad she got it for me, because I never would have bought myself a cookbook (I'm cheap, so I generally search online. But online recipes are less reliable and I don't like having the laptop in the kitchen). I do have a Weinert family cookbook and 2 ward cookbooks, but those can only take you so far. What I love about this new cookbook is that it has pictures, substitute lists, meat charts (information I desparately need), and LOTS of explanations on how to do things like bread and fry chicken, form rolls, pick out cornmeal, and on and on. Sometimes I just sit and read my cookbook for hours... Here's some of the things I've made recently. I would have loaded pictures but blogger is really difficult sometimes.

Chicken Piccata (lemon, shallots, capers)
Fancy Pot Roast (cooked with red wine, with some carrots, onions, and spices)
Crispy Chicken Strips
Pan-seared Chicken with White Wine sauce and Basil (supposed to be Vermouth sauce and Tarragon, but I substituted because I have neither)
Frittata with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Basil
Buttermilk Pancakes
Pork Chops (cream of chicken sauce with onions)
Chocolate Mousse / Cream Pie (not exactly that, but the real name of it is not very descriptive... this was our Valentines dessert, with oreo cookie crust and a sort of chocolate mousse filling)
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (not as great as I wanted them to be, but I've never been much of a cookie maker)
Dinner rolls and Freezer Jam
Tomato Chicken Risotto
Sweet and Cakey Northern Cornbread

..and more. I also created a four-week cycle menu for lunch and dinner, which has been wonderful. I've got all our favourite meals on there plus a few spots for a "New Recipe". Brad likes being told what we're having for dinner rather than me saying, "What do you want to eat?" Sound familiar, LaRae? So it's worked out. It's really nice, also, to look at the menu for the week and figure out what ingredients we need before I go shopping, so we always have what we need. It's also a lot easier to have balanced, nutritious meals, to use all of my perishable foods, and to have variety. In summary, I love to cook. Also, one of my secret goals is for Brad to one day tell me that I am just such a wonderful, impressive cook, nigh unto a five-star chef, and that I'm better at cooking than he is. I think it might be ten or fifteen years before that happens, so I'm working on it. Thanks, Teri!

Tess Speaks!

2010-02-10T22:39:00.000-06:00

Tess finally found a way to communicate in our language (rather than hissing or meowing). This is what she typed next to our list of possible baby names as she walked across the keyboard... and I quote directly....

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Keep scrolling down to find out the big news with our baby!

The Gender of our baby!

2010-02-09T21:10:00.000-06:00

We're going to play a little game... see if you can figure out what's being shown in the picture below, and the next picture will have the answers. These are snapshots that we took from the dvd, and it's a lot harder to tell what you're looking at from the snapshot than from the moving picture.

This is the one that shows the gender.

The little white cursor is where the doctor is showing us what ISN'T there. It's a GIRL!!! The part I labeled "head" is probably more like placenta.

This above picture is one of the coolest shots because it's got all the major body parts.

Below are other snapshots

vertebrae a girl! hand grabbing umbilical cord (you're looking at a cross-section of the midsection and legs) face! The head is right there in the middle. She's laying on her back, looking up and towards the screen a little. Tilt your head to the right... that white line in the middle of the head is the bridge of her nose. Right above that is her right eye, and below the white line is the other eye. So along the top of that head in the middle, you can almost see the profile of her face--under her eye is her cheekbone, and her chin sitting right on her body..

We're so excited that we're having a girl. She'll have 3 girl cousins her age (within a year, at least). There's Olivia, Elizabeth, and Ana. I never had any cousins my age, let alone girl cousins my age (closest to me is Amy, who's two years older than me, which makes her closer to Dani) so I'm SO glad she'll have that on both sides of the family! I'm hopeful that she and Olivia will be the best of friends, and that she and Elizabeth and Ana will be, too. (Olivia is Dustinn and Val's daughter, and Elizabeth and Ana are on Brad's side.)

The doctor said that of the nine gender ultrasounds he did that day, we were the ONLY girl! I love being different. In the ultrasound she moved around for us, but most of the time she was curled up in a little ball. She waved at us, which was really fun, and she even pointed to the placenta for us (the trigger finger picture is hilarious--she's waving her pointer finger around, showing us what to look at). It was crazy to feel her moving around and watch it happen at the same time.

I'll let you know right now, we're not going to be announcing the name until she's born. We want that to be a surprise. So don't bother asking, because we aren't even telling our mothers! (Plus, we still have no idea what it will be. We had perfect boy names picked out, but nothing for girls, so we're brainstorming now.) If you want, you are welcome to submit ideas! We like unique names... but not as unique as "Pear" or "Sunday Rose" or something like that.

If I can figure out how to post the dvd, I'll do that. Below is a list of the things we saw on the dvd, mostly for our own reference when we're looking for things, but I don't know where else to put them.

Big Weinert head at 0:45 Vertebrae at 1:39 Brain at 2:40 A wave at 3:13 Trigger finger at 3:27 Foot at 3:45 Heart at 4:35 Holding umbilical cord and femur at 6:08 Head, Arm, and legs at 6:57 Bingo at 7:45 Umbilical cord at 8:15

The fetus kicks! And a big move coming up

2010-01-26T16:21:00.000-06:00

I'm at 18 weeks and 5 days and the babe is finally strong enough for me to feel it kicking. I thought I might have felt it one or two times over the past week, but last night and this morning there was definitely quite a bit of kicking. It's awesome! It's a pretty weird feeling to have something moving around inside of you, but it's really cool. We're getting really excited to find out the gender, which will be two weeks from today. I don't even care what it is, I just want to know! I don't have any pictures for you guys, because I haven't been taking many. My camera sucks, and I just feel really ugly in any pictures we try to take. And my stomach doesn't look all that different from a few weeks ago, though it is probably a little bigger. Other than baby stuff, we've got big news. Brad accepted a job offer! We will be employed when we graduate!!! We'll be moving back to Pennsylvania, very close to where we lived in high school, and he starts work on the 6th of July. We're VERY excited. Here's some of what we're excited for:

living right next to the Weinerts (probably about ten minutes away)
living only 2 hours from my parents and KJ
living 11 hours from Dustinn and Val, 12 hours from Trevor and Celeste, and 17 hours from Brian and Tricia... closer than we've been to any of them so far! Okay, so we won't see them all that often, but I plan on making some TRIPS!
living in an area that we know and love
the humidity (Brad's not so thrilled about this one, but I am)
visiting all our old special spots, like the rocks, the twin tunnels, emeryville hospital (for some reason, brad doesn't care to go back and visit the old mental hospital that we had church in for 6 months, but i don't know why! i think it would be awesome!)
having a SALARY!
being close to church history sites (the Sacred Grove is one of my favourite places to visit ever!)
grocery shopping in my parents' food storage mound in the basement
having babysitters nearby! (two grandmas close by!)
Shady Maple
seeing all our old friends when they come back to town for summer/winter vacations (even though we'll be sad to leave them since they're all out here!)
throwing out and selling as much as possible before we move
no homework!
RITA'S!!!!!
Pennsylvania's beautiful fall colors
not having to buy plane tickets to the east coast anymore!

The list never ends. Of course, there are lots of things we will miss about Utah. But I'll leave that list for another time. Our plan is to sell and throw out most of what we own over the next 5 months. We don't want to pay for a moving truck, so we're going to try to fit everything into the pick-up.... which will be a TIGHT squeeze no matter what, but we're optimistic. About a week after the baby is born, we'll pack up and spend the next 4-6 days driving out to the east coast. I realize driving with a newborn will take longer than we're used to. So we plan on making it a fun trip and stopping a lot. The only definite stop we have on our list is Kansas City to stay with Brian and Tricia. (We'll get to meet their baby girl!) We may stop through Chicago to see family, especially if Dustinn and Val are there already. Other than that, we'll have some planning to do. Any suggestions for places to see along the way? The next few paragraphs are all about the kitten, just to warn you. Tess... where do I start. Well, our 3 month old kitten is officially a terror. While she can be lovely and cuddly and really adorable, she can also be horrible. She's a feisty little critter. She hasn't learned yet that our hands and feet are not toys or prey to be attacked. I really wish she would. We're trying all sorts of cat training techniques (mostly internet suggestions) but nothing seems to be making a real difference. The sad thing is, she mostly attacks me. It's a daily struggle. My hands and forearms are covered in bright red stinging scars. But I am determined to break her of her terrible behaviour. Tess loves my mittens and my fuzzy slippers that Teri got me (Teri, do you ever read this?). She attacks them and drags them through the house like a dead mouse. I tend to find mittens where they shouldn't be, like the middle of the kitchen floor, or the bathroom, and I don't remember putting them somewhere that she can access them. Tess loves balled up kleenex.... so one of her favourite things to do is pick out of the trash cans and drag used kleenex through the house, batting them around, tearing them to shreds, and then abandoning them. She likes to knock over the trash cans, to, and pick out the best-looking toys to take with her. She also loves to tear apart plastic grocery bags, so we hang one from the end of a broom pole sticking out of the armchair and she goes to town. Within 24 hours the bag is completely shredded. Tess loves human food--anything and everything. We usually have to lock her out of the room while we eat, or she'll be in our laps with her nose in the food. She also LOVES the space heater in our bedroom. It's on a stool at the end of our bed, pointing at us, so she sits at the very end of the middle of the bed and sprawls out to get as warm as she can. It's pretty funny, because she'll hang a paw or two over the edge to get maximum heating, and she gets into the funniest positions trying to warm up her body. It's wonderful at night because instead of sleeping by our faces or ON our faces, she now sleeps down by the heater. She loves jumping out and scaring us in the hallways. When one of us goes into the bathroom, she goes and sits right outside the door until we come out. Who knows why. When we come home she runs to the front room, stretches and yawns for a few minutes, and then meows happily. When we watch LOST (oh yeah, we're going through the entire series--we're on the beginning of the fourth season, and we are addicted) she sits on Brad's chest (sometimes mine, if I look comfortable to her) and stares at the screen with us. She probably has dreams about Lost all night, just like me.

Soulmates

2010-01-11T14:27:00.000-06:00

I know some people don't like what I said about soulmates. Most people like to feel that they're meant to be with their spouse. Saying that we could be happily married to just anyone sorta takes some of the romance out of it, I know. So let me explain a little more about what I mean and what I understand about soulmates. Hopefully you'll like this a little better. The way one of my favourite professors puts it is something like this: I could have been happily married to several other people, but I chose my wife. As soon as I knelt down and was sealed to her, she became my soulmate. So do I believe I'm married to my soulmate? Yes. But do I believe you have to find one person that you're meant to be with in order to be happy? No. That's sort of how I think of it. When I decided that I did love Brad and that I only wanted him and nothing else for the rest of my life, I felt like it had always been that way. I said to him one night, "You're it. You're all there ever was for me." I felt like I had always been meant for him and he for me, and that I'd just looked right past that reality for so long. I had NEVER felt that way with any other guy I dated! Even when I was semi-engaged at 18. I knew I should marry Brad and that that was all I would ever want again, and there was no changing my mind. There was this certainty there that I'd never felt before with anyone. Now, that sounds a lot like a soulmate mentality, doesn't it? Well, here's where it's different. The thing is, when I made the decision to marry him, and when I was sealed to him in the temple, it became eternal. Eternal means no end and no beginning. When this life is over, and when we live together in heaven forever, time will not be as it is here, as you know. Our marriage is eternal, so it will be like it always existed. That's what eternal means! There will never be a time that I am sealed to someone else--I will always be (and in a special way, I always have been) sealed to Brad. This is why, when I realized I would marry him, I looked at him and saw my eternal spouse--someone who had always been and who always would be my husband. So, is Brad my soulmate? Absolutely. But you see, it's because I chose him. He was always meant to be mine because the Lord always knew that ultimately I would choose him. Yes, I do believe that he was placed in my life for me and at a specific time in a certain way that would be right for us--a way that could actually lead to marriage for us. But it was only so that I could have that choice there for me. I dated lots of other guys, and some of them were also placed in my life for certain reasons and they each had a profound effect on me. But I would not have chosen them to be my husband--and I know that because I didn't! The Lord always knew that I would marry Brad, because he knows me perfectly and he knows Brad perfectly. But the Lord would never have told me that Brad is my soulmate before I made that choice, because then it wouldn't have been my choice--it would have been His! So the Lord opened up the pathway for me and helped me to get what I wanted because He knew it was a righteous desire and he knew that it would make me so happy (and Brad). I truly believe that the Lord lets us make our own choices and lets us follow our own path, and as long as we are living righteously we will be as happy as is possible for us. Marrying Brad has made me happier than marrying any other guy could ever have done. But that is because I was making the right choices, and I made the choice to marry him in a righteous way, so the Lord opened up a way for me and Brad to be so happy together. Sometimes the Lord has a different plan for us than what we thought we wanted. And that certainly happened with me quite a few times. But he does that for us when he knows the path we're going down won't lead us to as much happiness as another path could. So he nudges us in the right direction (sometimes by allowing us to experience great trials and enormous pain), and we get redirected down a better path if we're living right. That's not to say he's taking away our agency, but it's when we submit to His will and accept what he has planned for us sometimes that we can realize he has something better in store for us. And we still have to make the choice to accept that. You don't have to go through your dating life thinking that you have to find that one person you're meant to be with or you'll be miserable in your married life. Why would the Lord set it up that way? He wants us to be happy! Instead, think of it this way. The Lord knows who you will marry, but he's not going to tell you who it is because then it wouldn't be your choice. He knows who you'll choose, but he won't make you choose it or make you think you have to do it simply because they are your soulmate. If you're in tune with the Spirit, he won't let you marry someone you wouldn't be very happy with. There IS a BEST path for you, and it's that path that you would choose if you were living righteously. That's the way the Lord sets it up--if you're being obedient, you're living the best, happiest life you possibly could. So don't worry whether you're going to find it or not! Because if you're living right, you WILL choose your soulmate! Because it's YOUR choice, and He wants you to be happy. Also, sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes good marriages go wrong because of one spouse that starts making bad choices. I don't really know how to factor that into this, except to say that the Lord knows what we can handle, and as long as we stay obedient, we can still be as happy as humanly possible (after we get through the pain of the trial). What do you guys think? Does my understanding of soulmates make sense to you? Do I still sound terribly unromantic? Do you have a different idea? Should I stop posting about gushy soulmate stuff?

Happiness in Married Life

2010-01-07T17:30:00.000-06:00

A lot of my friends seem to think that Brad and I had a fairy tale courtship and have a fairy tale marriage. Well, maybe they're right. I did get to marry my best friend who waited for me to fall in love with him for several years. But when my friends tell me that, what that seems to translate into is that we have this charmed life, and it's so blissful and easy all of the time--and furthermore, that it's that way because we were just meant for each other. Well, maybe it's because I study this stuff all day (dating / courtship / family relationships), but it bugs me that people play into the soulmate idea. As we know, and as President Kimball told us, soulmates are fiction. It's not as though we have to find the right person for us, and if we don't, we're doomed to marriage failure. And it's not as though we can use the excuse that if we have marital problems, we must not have married our soulmate, so maybe we should run off with our secretaries because who can help who they fall in love with? No! That's bogus! We can have an eternal, succesful marriage with any good LDS person (of the opposite sex)-- as long as we're willing to work at it. And yes, as cliche as it is, that's what marriage is--work. Hard work. It's not a fairy tale. You don't run off into the sunset and have babies and stare at each other lovingly for the rest of your life. And furthermore, love is a CHOICE. The excuse "I just fell out of love with her/him" is the lamest excuse I've ever heard. "We grew apart" "He changed".. Look, people change. Hopefully YOU will change from the person you were when you got married in your early twenties to the time you're 35. Part of marriage is changing with each other. Marriage is choosing over and over to love your spouse. When life doesn't go as you planned, you can choose to work through it and love your spouse, or you can choose to give up and lose the opportunity to become more in love and stronger in your relationship. When I speak of choice and soulmates, I'm not saying that I might as well have married any guy I dated. I had plenty of guidance from the Lord when I decided to be with Brad. I did a LOT of dating and a lot of searching for a good person to marry. And yeah, I probably could have made it work with a few of the guys I dated. I cringe to think about it, but I could have. But I wasn't ready for marriage for a long time. And I chose otherwise. In October of last year, I made a choice to tell Brad I loved him after 6 months of barely even seeing or talking to him. Why did I do that, you ask? I did it because I realized that love is a choice. I'd been waiting so long to just fall in love with Brad, to just realize one day that I felt that way about him. 6 months after I'd given up trying, I realized how stupid that train of thought was. We choose who we love! If I wanted to be with Brad and marry him (which I had wanted since shortly after he got home from his mission, because logically he was everything I wanted, including my best friend) then all I had to do was decide I loved him. I already knew that I missed him more than I'd ever missed anyone in my life. So I marched over to his apartment, pulled him outside, looked up at him and said "I love you." For the next three weeks that we dated, every time I looked at him I felt this fire I'd never felt before. I really felt it, because I'd chosen it. It was incredible. He was transformed in my eyes, though he was my same Brad-lee that he'd always been. All I wanted to do was stare at him. Okay, TMI, I know, but I'm making a point here. Then we decided to get married (which I'd already decided pretty much as soon as I said "I love you") and everything just got better. Yes the Lord helped me realize all this, and I was so lucky to have that help. The Lord wasn't going to let me think I should marry someone I would have had a really hard life with. He blessed me by stepping in when I was far too close to what would have been an unhappy life and He helped me realize how I could have what I really wanted--Brad. But I chose it! The Lord didn't say, "Elisse, yes, Brad is your soulmate, so go marry him now." He knew I'd prayed for a long time for a way to be with Brad and just as I had given up hope of that and was about to marry someone else, He showed me the way to have what I knew would make me happy. That sounded like a jumbled mess, and if it doesn't make sense to you, just ignore it all. My point is that it was my choice--and Brad's, of course. He just made his choice a lot earlier than me. Okay, if it still sounds like a fairy tale to you, just hold on. I promise you, we still have to work at it. Yes, it helps tremendously that we are best friends and we've known each other so long. But I can be moody and bratty and Brad has had to put up with that sometimes. It's not always easy. It's not like I always think of my life as a fairy tale. I don't sit around staring at him like I did when we were dating. And I understand that maybe it is easier for us than for some other newlyweds. But you know why? I'll tell you a main reason. It's a big secret. In fact, I would say it's the most powerful secret weapon a married couple can have for success in their relationship. Ready for it? Here it is: Couple Prayer. You want to be happy with your spouse? Pray together every day. You want it to be easier to look at each other with the kind of love Heavenly Father has for you? Pray together every day. You want help, guidance, comfort, knowledge of how to be happier in your marriage? Pray together. EVERY DAY. You don't have to take my word for it. Listen to President Hinckley's words. "I know of no single practice that will have a more salutary effect upon your lives than the practice of kneeling together as you begin and close each day. Somehow the little storms that seem to afflict every marriage are dissipated when, kneeling before the Lord you thank him for one another in the presence of one another, and then invoke his blessings upon your lives, your home, your loved ones, and your dreams. "God then will be your partner, and your daily conversations with him will bring peace into your hearts and a joy into your lives that can come from no other source. Your companionship will sweeten through the years; your love will strengthen. Your appreciation for one another will grow. "Your children will know the security of a home where dwells the Spirit of the Lord . . .They will know parents who respect one another . . . They will experience the security of the kind word softly spoken . . . "The destroying angel of domestic bitterness will pass by and you will know peace and love throughout your lives which may be extended into all eternity. I could wish for you no greater blessing." The entire quote is even better. It was actually President Monson's one piece of advice to Brad and me when we got married: have couple prayer every night, and never miss a night. (No, we don't know him personally. We got a letter from him during our engagement, but I won't tell you why.) That's powerful, if it's the one thing the prophet takes time to tell you to do when you get married. Don't tell me your marriage is hard if you aren't taking the time to pray together. Unmarried friends, don't marry someone who won't pray with you. If you want to have a good marriage, do what the prophet tells us. Couple prayer is one of those things you can be perfect in--like tithing. Promise each other to do it every day and then do it and watch what happens. I'm no marriage expert, I've only studied it for 2 years and I've only been married for 1 year. But for those of you who tell me I've got a charmed life and a fairy tale marriage with the most perfect man (that last part is pretty close to the truth), take my secret weapon and try it out. On a less offensive note, our anniversary was a week or two ago and Brad's birthday was New Year's Eve, so my next post will be all about my wonderful husband.

The last two weeks

2009-12-23T22:08:00.000-06:00

. This was about 12 and a half weeks along.

Tess loves the laptop because it's so warm.

Right now, since we're in Pennsylvania, she's staying with the Hunts in Salt Lake. We miss her so much already but we know those kids are taking good care of her and loving having her around.

She loves to cuddle... but she also loves to play. The scratches on my hands are proof.

This is at 13 weeks exactly. I don't wake up looking like this (before this week, whenever I woke up my tummy was as flat as ever), but by the end of the day, and especially after dinner, the baby moves out to the front of my stomach and my stomach sticks out so far!

She's struggling to get away from me here. She isn't in the cuddling mood. She just wants to play.

It looks like I'm terrorizing her... but I promise she's attacking me more than I am her.

On Friday we went up to the Pace cabin for Dustinn's birthday dinner. It was small, and only Val's youngest siblings were up there, but we wanted to see them before we left for PA. So we met up with Cami in Salt Lake and drove up to the cabin. Bradshaw was pretty excited about blowing out the candles on the cake. And I think he was pretty certain that it was his cake.

Dustinn asked me a few years ago for a pink sweatsuit for his Christmas present. I never got him one, though I really wanted to. I was convinced that he actually wanted one. So I was determined to eventually fulfill his greatest Christmas wish. Well, we found some pink thermals--top and bottom. I decided that was a little less embarrassing than a pink sweatsuit becasue you wear it on the outside. Of course, they are women's thermals, since nothing in the men's section is pink...

This would be at 13w1d. Right after dinner. Bonnie made some delicious tilapia and potatoes. I look forward to dinner every night because of how much my stomach grows.

You know, I really don't like "modest tees" because they aren't that modest. At least, not on me. The neckline / sleeves don't cover what they're supposed to. But the ones I own are long, which is great for my growing stomach, so I wear them underneath things. And it seems like my stomach shows up a lot more in them.

Now we're in Pennsylvania at the Weinert home and we're enjoying our vacation. When we flew to Cincinnati on Sunday our connecting flight was cancelled, and of course, all of the east-bound flights were cancelled, delayed, overbooked, etc., so we had to stay overnight in Kentucky. It wasn't so bad. So we got here Monday night. Since we got to the Salt Lake airport on Sunday morning I've graded 50 of the 60 papers for the class I TA. I have to have them done by the 30th so that the students can have their grades. So all I've done so far this vacation is grade papers. I'm looking forward to relaxing with my book.

Gingerbread Houses

2009-12-17T17:08:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, we went on a double date with our friends from our ward, Samantha and Jordan. We love hanging out with them. They like doing fun things and they have lots of good ideas, which is sort of rare for married couples. They invited us on a Christmas date... we went to see the Nativity program at the Provo Tabernacle (we got to pet a camel, a goat, and a sheep!) and then ordered pizza. Then we made gingerbread houses! How fun is that?! I haven't done that since I was in primary and we had our annual Christmas activity with gingerbread houses. Can you guess what our house is? It's not too hard to figure out. Especially if you can figure out who that chocolate man is on top of the house... (Sorry, Brad's smile is a little cheesy here. The last picture is better.)

That's right, it's the White House! That's Obama on top... although it ended up a little weird because he looks like a sniper or something, hangin out on the roof by himself. That's a sattellite dish over on the right side of the roof, and in the other picture above you can see the flag we made. This was all Brad's idea. He's the creative one.

I'm pointing to Obama here.

We're both just about done with finals and finished with the semester! Brad is currently taking his very last final, and I'm just running over my 8 page paper that I just finished, trying to clean it up. It's about Mum, and her crazy conservation efforts and thriftiness. Can you believe I wrote 8 pages about Mum reusing ziploc bags?

And yes, you guessed right, we're PREGNANT! I'm 13 weeks along today. I'll be posting a 13 week picture of my ENORMOUS stomach (just kidding, it's really not that big, only after I eat). Stay posted to see all of our pregnancy updates!

Tonight we get to see Dustinn, Val, Bradshaw, and Olivia briefly and then tomorrow we'll go up to the Pace cabin with Cami to celebrate Dustinn's birthday. Then we'll ship Cami over to Jersey, and we'll fly to PA for our TWO WEEK vacation!!!!!

Notice Anything Different About Me?

2009-12-11T23:11:00.000-06:00

Sweet Victory

2009-11-29T18:40:00.000-06:00

Elisse and I had the satisfying opportunity to attend the Utah v. BYU game last night. It was kind of an ugly game, but it was a hard-hitting, raging-temper, wonderfully suspenseful match-up between two of the most bitter rivals in college football. Here are some pictures (albeit a little blurry...sorry, it was craaaazy!): The beginning of the madness. You can see the strip of red-clad Utah fans in the middle. Suddenly they were very quiet. Elisse and I in the 'fan'demonium. Notice the scoreboard. 26-23 in OT. McKay Jacobsen coming through. Jan Jorgensen doing an interview Elisse with Jan Jorgensen and Matt Reynolds in the background. Manase Tonga. What a night. I'm glad the Cougars were able to finish off the Utes in the end... And how 'bout them throwback uni's? I think they should stick with them. Also, I've never heard Elisse scream so loud and so much. It was kind of shocking to see that kind of excitement out of her over football. But she hates the Utes like Max Hall.

Back from CA

2009-11-28T11:35:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess I got a bit behind on the thankfuls. We drove to Palm Springs for Thanksgiving week, my whole family met up there, and it was a blast. I'm gonna do what Val did and write a whole list of thankfuls to make up for the past 12 days. (Before thanksgiving week, our computer broke. so we have a legitimate reason for slacking.)

Tess had no accidents in my Grandma's house, thank goodness
The car made it all the way there and back with no problems
Bradshaw ("MINE!" while pointing to the kitty)
Jackson ("Aww, look at the kitty-uh! She's so nice! Ouch, it got my awm!")
Cami taking care of the cat in the back seat for the whole drive there and the whole drive back
Grandma's amazing and extravagant breakfasts
Beautiful Palm Springs weather
Time with Mum and Dad
That my brothers and sisters cherrish our time together as much as I do and therefore make time for us
Baby Olivia. Poor thing had allergies to something at Grandma's house--quite possibly our cat, though we tried to keep them away from each other. Could also have been Grandpa's dog, of course. But hopefully she doesn't have any allergies to animals because that would be sad.
Croquet with Grandpa
Grandma's (and Aunt Valery's and Aunt Michelle's) DELICIOUS Thanksgiving dinner. One of the best in the world.
Grandma for being so wonderful to me
Tess is transitioning to solid food! One of these days we won't have to bottle feed her every few hours.
Tess being such a good sport in the car. She loved it, actually.
When Bradshaw held my hand to take a walk with me out to the car for a treat, and every time he held my hand to take me somewhere.
When Jackson came on a drive with Brad and me to pick up Grandma's pies.
That the second week of December is fast approaching.
For the BYU-Utah game today!! Can't wait!

Nov 16th: 3 Things

2009-11-16T22:14:00.001-06:00

Meet Tess. Tess eats from a bottle. Puss in Boot. Tess wet after her bath the first night. Farm cats are kinda dirty. Elizabeth actually got a kitten the same day that we did, which we thought was awesome. So next semester when she's back here maybe we'll have kitty play-dates... I'm grateful.. 1. that Thanksgiving break is coming up in a few days. 2. for Brad for cooking for us today. 3. to have Tess to cuddle with when I need a mid-day nap.

Nov 15th: 3 things

2009-11-16T09:57:00.000-06:00

*warning: this post is mostly about a kitten. if you hate cats or if it will bore you to death, you may not want to read this post. or get over it.* We decided to name her Tess. We think it fits her. Yesterday I was grateful for... 1. Tess used the litter box! She'd never seen a litter box in her life before two nights ago, so we're starting from scratch on this, and she's really young, too. So we put her in there about ten minutes after she eats, and she's totally catching on! It's very exciting. She gets a little nervous in there by herself. She really doesn't like to be alone. But we're definitely making progress. I think Tess will be potty trained before Jackson. I win! 2. Tess is eating lots. She has about an ounce every 3 hours or so, still from the bottle. She figured out how to get the milk comin out of it, so she's able to eat a lot more. It's really cute to watch her drink from a bottle. And we can tell that she's getting stronger and healthier already--I don't think she ate very much at the farm. She started playing with us yesterday, acting like a normal hyperactive kitten. So much fun. 3. The break from school yesterday. So sick of writing! I'll be adding pictures of the kitten soon.

Nov 14th: 3 Things

2009-11-14T19:00:00.001-06:00

I'm grateful for.. 1. the snow today. The first snow is always fun, even if it is bitter cold. It gets you in the wintery mood. 2. Brad, and surprises! Just like Dani! Brad gave me a little surprise last night. I walked in the door after a long night of writing and studying, took off my jackets, wandered into my bedroom to put things away (all while singing something I can't remember now) and I hear this tiny squeak coming from somewhere in the room. I stop singing immediately. My thought was... there's a mouse in here. I hear it again, and again and again, and I look over and there is a.... 3. TINY KITTY!!! Oh, I was so happy. She's only four weeks old, which is really really young. We're still bottle-feeding her, trying to get her to start drinking out of a tiny bowl. I feel like I've got a newborn, because I'm constantly so worried about her, whether she's scared, whether she's eating enough (she can't really fit the nipple of the tiny bottle into her mouth ), whether she's cold, whether I should keep her awake in the evening so that she won't be up all night mewing... but it's SO WORTH IT! I'm sure she'll be in my next fifty posts so you'll hear all about how wonderful she is. We haven't decided on a name yet. We kinda want to give her a human name. So far the names at the top of the list are: Tess Coon (she has a tail that looks just like a raccoon tail) Renegade, Rene for short (dani's suggestion) Crookshanks (harry potter's suggestion) Alice (kevan's suggestion) Henrita (not really. kevan's suggestion. "it's the girl version of henry!") Vote for your favourite name! To help you envision her, she's a calico. Mostly white with a few orange and black patches on her face and on her back, and a tail that looks exactly like a raccoon's tail. She is pretty wobbly right now and just looks like a little furball.

Nov 13th: 3 Things

2009-11-13T23:27:00.000-06:00

I apologize that I'm not very creative with my blog titles this month. I like organization. I get that from Dad. I'm grateful for 1. the time I had today to write 2 papers. Now I just have 2 more to write tomorrow. 2. Thanksgiving to look forward to. I CAN'T WAIT! 3. that the Nuggets are beating the Lakers. Booya Kobe. Also, that BYU won the basketball game tonight. I LOVE cougar basketball. It is just so much better than football... though that's great, too.

Nov 12th: 3 Things

2009-11-12T22:54:00.001-06:00

Today I am grateful.. 1. For the great lecture we had in class today by Jeff Hill on blended families. It really doesn't have much to do with my life or my situation, but it was fascinating and it was nice to hear from a family life professor that I haven't taken a class from. 2. For Brad for making dinner for us so that I could get more homework done. 3. That I don't have to go to my 10am class tomorrow. More time to write my 4 papers due Monday!

Nov 11th: 3 Things

2009-11-11T23:09:00.000-06:00

Today was a crazy day and a little emotional. Right now I'm feeling very grateful and very blessed. Tonight I'm grateful: 1. That all is still well. 2. For modern technology. 3. That Gabriel smiled and giggled delightedly when I walked in the door today, then jumped out of his dad's arms to run over to me. His current favourite activity is to stand in front of me, while I squat down, and slap his hands on my legs repeatedly. I think it's the slapping noise that he finds so exciting. He whined when I had to leave today. That is such a good feeling. 4. That Brad will drop anything to be there for me when I need him.

Nov 10th: 3 Things

2009-11-10T23:06:00.000-06:00

Gratefuls for today: 1. I'm grateful that Gabriel is getting more attached to me. Even when his parents are around now, he reaches for me sometimes. When I'm walking around with him, often he'll turn towards me and lift his arms up and whine for me to pick him up. It makes me feel like a mom. 2. Avocado. Soooo good on sandwiches. 3. Sleep. I'm hopeless without it.

Nov 8th and 9th: 3 Things

2009-11-09T22:16:00.000-06:00

Yesterday's thankfuls: 1. Our ward. We're starting to get to know a few couples, which is nice. It's a good ward. 2. MoTab Christmas music. 3. The kitty that came up to me and cuddled in my lap on Shane and Darcee's doorstep. It was just some random cat and he was so friendly, which seems rare for outdoor cats...Most of you know that I just love cats. I don't think that makes me a crazy cat lady, because I probably wouldn't ever have more than one cat at a time, and I'm married, which seems like it disqualifies me for that label... I just wish we were allowed to have a cat in our little basement. Today's thankfuls: 1. Brian and Tricia in advance. They are assigned to us for our Christmas present this year, so I'm trying to score some points. (So unlike Trevor said, you don't actually have to send a present early to get a thankful on the blog...) 2. Trevor for making fun of me for blogging. At least I know someone has read our blog in the past week. 3. Delicious sandwiches. We had a turkey avocado masterpiece for lunch in the Tanner building today and my mouth was still watering several hours later.... so we went to Walmart tonight and bought a bunch of scrumptious ingredients (including some slightly expensive deli meat). We came home and made our own creations. The avocados weren't ripe yet so we had turkey, spinach, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, muenster cheese, and sprouts on Parmesan Garlic Foccacia bread. (Mum, I know you're squirming about how much we must have spent on all that good stuff.. but we only bought stuff that was on sale. I think you'd be proud.)

Nov 7th: 3Things

2009-11-07T19:21:00.000-06:00

Today I'm grateful for... 1. Marriage. It's just better than dating in so many ways. 2. White chili. It's one of my favourite recipes. Packed with protein and dairy... my favourite food groups. 3. Dorothy Lee. Fantastic author. I've read a lot of her work this semester for a class. I'll be sending out one of her essays to Val, Dani, Mum, and Cami... it's about mothers. That is, if I can find a soft copy. If anyone else wants it, let me know!

Nov 6th: 3 Things

2009-11-07T12:05:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful.. 1. for sleep. 2. for how nice the weather has been this week. 3. that the time is flying by.

Nov 5th: 3 Things

2009-11-05T22:40:00.000-06:00

Today I'm grateful for.. 1. Cougar basketball. The first (exhibition) game was tonight. It was a lot of fun! I got a little frustrated at the fans, because they always get so mad when our boys miss shots. So they groan and they moan, but they don't realize how much worse the team gets when the fans are yelling "You suck!" I need to stop turning thankfuls into gripes. Anyhow, we love BYU basketball, and we're so excited that the season is just about here. 2. Getting to hang out with Emily today. She came to see me while I babysat on campus. She even changed a diaper for me. 3. Vegetables. Assorted vegetables with ranch. Good stuff.

Nov 4th: 3 Things

2009-11-04T23:30:00.000-06:00

Today I'm grateful for... 1. Gabriel's good attitude. He was great today! Today was sort of monumental because I took him for 3 hours instead of the normal 2, and his dad wasn't ever there to check up on us. But he behaved beautifully. He only cries right when his mum walks away, and then he's fine. And his diaper wasn't as bad today. That's probably TMI. 2. Christmas music. Yes, I'm already listening to christmas music. It's unlike me, but this year I'm super excited for the holiday season. 3. Elizabeth. She has remarkable strength and she is a great example to me. To those of you that know and love her: please pray for her this week.

Nov 3rd: 3 Things

2009-11-03T21:07:00.000-06:00

Today I'm grateful for: 1. My jobs. They keep me busy and I enjoy them. Plus, we couldn't survive without them. 2. Our space-heater. Basements are cold! And baseboard heaters are really ineffective. Our space-heater keeps us toasty warm at night and semi-warm when we're around the house. 3. Gabriel's laugh. He's the 10 month old that I babysit. Today he was in a laughing mood, and it always cracks me up. So I start laughing at him, and it makes him laugh more. His dimples show and he pushes out a very fake-sounding chuckle. However, I am not grateful for his very messy diapers...

Nov. 2nd: 3 Things

2009-11-02T22:21:00.000-06:00

3 Things I'm grateful for today... Today's a bit of a hard one because I'm not feeling so good, so I've been in a bit of a bad mood... I didn't get much sleep. It's hard to be cheerful when you're feeling like you need to crash. I guess this is my chance to adjust my attitude. 1. I'm grateful that I'm feeling sick... there are good things about it, right? For instance, it makes you appreciate good health. 2. I'm grateful we finally decided that we CAN go to California for Thanksgiving instead of staying here to work. I can't wait for Grandma's cooking... and Michelle's desserts... and Grandpa's stories... and seeing everyone... but I should save these for the things I'm grateful during Thanksgiving week. 3. I'm grateful that we live in Utah. This is one that I wouldn't ever have been able to say until recently, when I realized how sad it'll be to leave next year. It's so nice to be around all of my close friends (excluding Bethy, who is home in Reno this semester, and family members.) It's a great place to be... for college, at least.

Halloween

2009-11-01T23:29:00.000-06:00

Halloween was pretty laid back for us this year. We went to the ward trunk-or-treat and soup dinner. Elisse made some lip-smackin good creamy spinach soup. Seriously good. Best soup there, easy. And this is how we were dressed. The pictures don't quite do it justice, but let's see if you can guess what we are... The flight suit is real, its my older brother's that he gave to me. And apparently its not cool for Air Force pilots to dress up as Air Force pilots for Halloween. And that was your clue... what are we?

3 Things I'm Thankful for

2009-11-01T18:21:00.000-06:00

Dani challenged the Jackson girls to write a daily post this month about three things we're grateful for. I'm not sure how faithful I'll be about a daily post, but I am going to do my best. Today's theme is... Brad. 1- I'm grateful that Brad waited all those years for me to come around. 2- I'm grateful for Brad's handyman skills and his creativity and ingenuity. 3- I'm grateful for Brad's blue eyes.

Little Olivia

2009-10-16T20:44:00.000-05:00

A few weekends ago, when Dustinn and Val were still in town, we spent the weekend with them. We loved spending the time with them and especially with Olivia, their new baby. We got to go to Olivia's Baby Shower / Open House at Stefanie's home on Friday. We loved meeting Stefanie's family and friends and celebrating Olivia with everyone. I'll describe the rest of the weekend after some pictures from the baby shower: Boys at a Baby Shower. Olivia the beautiful Bradshaw was so excited about opening the presents. I like this one of Stef and Val. Love this one because of Bradshaw's chin. Val and Bonnie, her mother. Cami came down on Friday night while we were at the football game. It was really fun to see her for the weekend. On Saturday morning we drove up to Salt Lake to watch General Conference with Dustinn and Val at Val's grandmother's home. We were so grateful to be invited to spend that time with them before they had to go back to DC. We each got to hold Olivia quite a bit. I could have held her all week and not had enough of her. She's tiny and perfect. One of the greatest things to see was the way Bradshaw loved his sister. He loves to hold her, feed her, help burp her, and coo at her. We got to watch all 4 sessions with Dustinn and Val. Now they're back in DC but we're excited to see them in California for Thanksgiving.

Office Safety

2009-10-15T11:41:00.000-05:00

Brad here. I'm taking a technical writing class, and for the semester project I'm writing an employee safety manual for Timber Designs, the place I work. Well, part of the project is to write a proposal to the professor, pitching our idea. And part of that proposal is writing an annotated bibliography in which we find a few sources that either give examples of what we're doing or pointers on how to create an employee handbook. I'm about half-way through the bibliography part and I've found some good ideas to use in my handbook. Well, here's the point. I'm looking at a safety handbook for the state of North Caroline public employees and I come upon a section entitled "Office Safety." Here are a few of my favorites: -Running in offices is not permitted. -When walking in a passageway, keep to the right. -Accidents can result when persons stand in front of doors, so stand away from the path of the door swing. -Proper attention should be given to the act of ascending or descending stairs. -Don't propel a chair across the floor while seated. -Never fasten envelopes with pins or staples. Exercise care to avoid paper cuts. -Do not indulge in any form of horseplay, such as propelling paper clips, rubber bands, etc. Horseplay is strictly prohibited. -Wear shoes at all times. Seriously, this is all on there. If you care to look, you can see the complete version here, about two-thirds of the way down the page. I hope this is helpful to all of you who may encounter the dangers of office work. And remember, no running!

Sick Bed

2009-09-26T13:22:00.000-05:00

Last week I was very sick, so I laid in bed for a few days and cursed the world. Hey, a great weight loss idea is to contract some infection that closes off your throat for three days and all you can get down is liquids. Dustinn and Val got here a week ago! When I started to feel considerably better we went up to see them. Tuesday night we stayed at the cabin. Bradshaw was so much fun. I wore a mask so that I wouldn't spread any germs, and he wanted so bad to have a mask.He had so much fun playing with Brad. I love his laugh. Apparently Brad snatched this picture of me yesterday, so here's a sneak peak at my new haircut. By the way, I wrote FIVE blog posts today, so scroll down to see what we've been doing for the past month.

Labor Day PA Party

2009-09-26T13:06:00.000-05:00

On Labor Day we held a party at our house for the Downingtown crew. It was a mexican bbq and we had Carne Asada tacos. I made beans, which turned out really well, and everyone brought something.Just about everyone was there! The weather was gorgeous, so it was perfect for sitting on the quilts outside. We're still workin on getting them all washed. Matt and Brad did the grilling, of course. Mostly Matt. Kate and her husband came. Kimball and his girlfriend, Claire. The original Claire. The boys were watching some football game on the computer.Kate's babe, Helena. And Elizabeth came for a few minutes!

Cami Goes to College

2009-09-26T12:56:00.000-05:00

Cami made her way up to BYU Idaho a few weeks ago. Dad flew out here with her and they stayed in Provo with us for a night.We went to Bajio, of course. I was sad to say goodbye to Cami. We watched the Oklahoma game at Mattina's. It was awesome. This is the last couple of minutes when all the boys were getting so excited that we might win... We won't talk about last Saturday.

Trip to Billings and Back

2009-09-26T12:42:00.000-05:00

The weekend before school started, Brad and I took a delivery of furniture up to Billings, Montana. It was a quick trip. This truck was not very fun to travel in. I like chocolate. It melted in the car.. so I drank it.We loved the drive through the edge of Yellowstone. We thought it was gorgeous and unique. Stopped through Idaho Falls on the way back. There were tons of Asian tourists at the Falls taking pictures. A few weeks ago we went to an Orem Owls game with Mattina, Kent, and McAnnie (Mckay and Annie). We had coupons to get in for a dollar and hot dogs for a dollar and drinks for a dollar... it was pretty fun.