Our Little Lerch Family

2 months

2012-01-16T12:52:00.000-08:00

Brayden had his 2 month check up last week and he weighs 14 lbs and he is 23 inches long. He is in the 90th percentile for weight and the 50th for length. He's a chunk, but that chunk makes him all the more cuddly. The doctor was not at all concerned about his weight, so I'm not either.

When Brayden was about 1 1/2 months old, he rolled over by himself one day. I thought it was maybe just an accident, but he did it again the next day. He's a pro at it now. He rolls over the second I put him on his tummy, so now we just have to work on rolling from his back to his tummy!

I just love his cheeks in this picture!

Baby Blessing

2012-01-16T12:48:00.000-08:00

Matt's parents were only here for a few short days during the holidays, so we were able to have Brayden's baby blessing in our home on Christmas eve.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

Brayden sitting with Nana

Addy trying out her new toy and taking care of her baby.

We had a full house this Christmas! Matt's parents and brother's little family stayed with us. Addy loved playing with Nanna, Papa, Grace, Scotty and Brittney and makes sure she includes them in her prayers...especially Grace, She has also named her baby Grace.

Grace and Brayden are only a month apart, but Brayden is twice the size of Grace! Grace is older! There were pictures taken of them side by side, but not on my camera. I will have to get a copy.

Addy got her own little nursery station for her baby. Once she saw that, she couldn't be distracted by any other presents. I'm happy she likes it so much! She got lot's of fun presents from her aunts and uncles and grandparents that she has been eBnjoying these past couple of weeks as well! Brayden got a few things as well..mostly clothes, but he also got a little "play center"? I'm not sure what to call it, but he enjoys laying on it and batting at the toys hanging above him.

Our New Home

2012-01-11T14:55:00.000-08:00

In the beginning of September, Matt and I decided we wanted to buy our first home. We had been casually looking at houses for several months and then we found one that we really liked. The house is a little on the small side, but it works for us. It has four bedrooms, one bathroom and a partially finished basement. The back yard is a good size with plenty of room for a great garden and maybe a little swing set. It also has a fire pit which I love. We still have some improvements to make, but it's coming along.
Family Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Entryway (sort of)

Brayden's room (Still working on it)

Addy's room (her room is so small I had to take pictures from two angles)

Master (Still working on it)

Basement

Back Yard

First Smile

2011-12-13T13:34:00.000-08:00

Brayden is 1 month old! When he was three weeks old, he smiled at me for the first time. Three weeks is pretty young for a first smile, but it was a real one. He looked right at me and smiled in response to my smile. He is smiling more and more often now. Last night he finally smiled at Matt and it was a big one. I was fortunate enough to get a good picture of it too!

Happy Birthday Addy

2011-12-13T13:00:00.001-08:00

I can't believe my little girl is already 2 years old! She is just so much fun and I feel so blessed to be her mom! Here are a few things about Addy. She is currently obsessed with her babies and does a great job taking care of them. I will often find her wrapping her baby in a blanket and then bouncing/rocking her baby or changing it's diaper. She actually does a pretty good job of putting diapers on her baby all by herself. She also loves music and dancing. It doesn't matter where we are or what we are doing, if she hears music she likes she will stop what she is doing to dance. She loves her new baby brother and does her best to help out. The other day Brayden was crying in the car and Addy said repeatedly, "It's ok buddy, It's ok buddy". When he didn't stop crying she said " It's ok buddy....No Screamin'!" She's pretty patient with him, but apparently she has a limit. I had to laugh when she said that. She loves to read stories and her favorite books at the moment are "Alice the Fairy" and "Falling for Rupunzel". She knows each of these books word for word. The other day, I was reading to her and I was curiouse to see if she knew all the words to the story so I stopped randomly throughout the book and waited for her to continue. To my surprize, she knew every one! What a great memory! She loves to dress and undress herself and does it often throughout the day. I can't get her to keep her clothes on! What a fun phase...
We just had a little birthday party for Addy this year. I made a rainbow cake. After she blew out the candles, I planned to cut her a slice of cake, but she threw a fit when I tried to take the cake away, so I figured there wasn't any harm in letting her dig into the cake herself since I had a different cake to share with everyone else. She got lot's of fun toys, but I think her favorite was the shopping cart grandma George gave her. She is growing up so fast!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-18T15:06:00.000-08:00

Addy was an owl for halloween this year. Some people thought she was a turkey, so I thought I would clarify. On Friday night we went to our wards trunk or treat. Addy caught on to the trick or treat thing really quick. I knew she would, considering how much she loves candy. The next day she walked around the house saying "tricka treat" expecting to get a little candy. We didn't actually go trick or treating on halloween day because we were busy moving into our new house(more on that in the next post). I think one night of trick or treating was good for this year, next year will be more memorable hopefully.

Brayden Matthew Lerch

2011-11-15T21:33:00.000-08:00

Our sweet little Brayden was born Thursday, November 10th at 4:10 p.m. He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz and was 21 inches long. He's a big boy! I was induced one week early. Imagine if I had gone until my due date! I would have given birth to an almost 10 lb baby! The delivery of Brayden was a much better experience than that of Addy which I am grateful for. The recovery has been much better as well. Here we are awaiting his arrival.

Here he is!

He had some jaundice unfortunately and has been under the lights for the past five days.
Addy warmed up to him pretty quick and is constantly wanting to give him kisses and see how he is doing. She has her own little baby that she takes care of as well and it has been kind of fun to watch her follow my actions. When I change Brayden's diaper, she changes her baby. When it's time for Brayden's nap, her baby has a nap. While he was under the lights, I constantly had to keep her from putting her baby under the lights as well.
Brayden is such a little sweetheart, and we are grateful to have him in our family.

Nap Time

2011-10-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

I have been having the hardest time getting Addy to take a nap lately. I went into her room to check on her today and this is what I saw. It's hard to tell in the picture, but she is wearing 3 shirts, 1 dress, 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of panties, and two socks (both on the same foot). I even put a chair in-front of her closet. I have no idea how she got in!

I Am a Child of God

2011-10-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

Addy sings "I Am a Child of God" all day every day. She LOVES this song! It's usually a little more high pitched and enthusiastic, but as you can see, she is busy eating and singing at the same time.

35 Weeks

2011-10-19T11:07:00.001-07:00

We only have about a month left before this little guy is here! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. Here is my 35 week picture. Is it just me or did I get huge in 5 weeks? :)

I Love To Sing

2011-10-07T07:41:00.000-07:00

Addy is 22 months now and her favorite thing to do is sing. She sings pretty much all day long. She makes up her own little songs and she combines songs. I tried to tape her singing, but I could never get her at the right time. She has such a sweet little voice that I can't help but laugh when I hear her singing her little songs in the back seat of the car. She usually stops and says "laughin?" and I say "yes because you are so cute." So she will say "laughin? I cute!" Matt has done a great job teaching her manners and she will now say "excuse me" at all of the appropriate times. He also taught her the word "fart"(typical dad). The other day she said "I fart, say excuse me". It just made me laugh to hear her say that. She is still doing great with the potty. She has only had one accident since I last wrote and it was actually my fault. We were at the store and for some reason she always says she has to go potty the second we get into a store. She had already gone before we left the house, so I didn't believe her when she said she had to go, so she had a little accident. I don't think she will regress once the baby comes, but you never know. She's really into it right now. She has even been taking her baby and her lamb to use the potty as well. I don't mind that she takes her toys to use the potty, but it does result in frequent "baths" for them. She will run down the hall with them and hold them on the potty and say "Go potty? A try? Did it! A job!" (she starts most of her sentences with "a") The other day I heard her say "it's ok, got you, got you" while her baby sat on the toilet. I often say this to her because she get's a little nervous sitting on the big potty. She is at the stage where she copy's EVERYTHING I say and do, so I have to be really careful. The other day while I was putting her in her car seat I accidentally pushed the panic button on my key and muttered under my breath "stupid car" and what do you know, Addy has been repeating that phrase over and over again since then.
We took her pick out her own pumpkin the other day. She loved it! We found a perfect little pumpkin just for her. She also got to take a little walk through a hay maze.

Potty Training

2011-09-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

I have been potty training Addy for a little over two weeks. She's pretty young for potty training, but she doesn't like having a wet diaper and was pretty consistent about telling me when her diaper was wet. One day we went through half a package of diapers and I decided it was time. She went straight to underwear. From past experience potty training other children, I found that pull-ups were too much like diapers and potty training took much longer. The first day, I pretty much followed Addy around with carpet cleaner and a fresh pair of panties the whole day. I bought a package of 10 pairs of panties and she went through all of them. I will admit, it wasn't fun constantly cleaning carpet and panties, but after three days of staying home all day and putting her on the potty every hour, she got the hang of it! The key is staying home. At first, I would stay home part of the day and then put her in a diaper and run errands. She was sort of getting it, but she really caught on when we just stayed put. Like both her parents, she LOVES treats, so that has been a huge motivator (she's kissing the potty treat jar in the picture). She will try her hardest to get a few drops out so she can get a treat. The other day, she was on the potty and nothing was happening, so she tried making potty noises to trick me ha ha. Funny girl. She hasn't had an accident in about five days and goes on her own now without being reminded. I'm so proud!

30 weeks

2011-09-13T16:48:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I only have about two months left! Time went by fast! Here is my 30 week picture! Looks like maybe I'll have another big baby!

20 Months

2011-08-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

Look at that cute little girl! She is growing up so fast! She LOVES shoes as you can see in this picture. Her favorites are her "sparkles" jelly shoes. She has been talking up a storm and can pretty much repeat anything you say. Some of my favorite things that she has been saying lately are "Oh man!" when she drops something and "all beyure" (all better) after she gets a kiss on an owie. She has already started the terrible two tantrums. I often tell her it's not nice to scream, so now she will scream and say "I screamin" and then she will get a really serious look on her face and shake her head and say "no no". She also loves making messes so she can clean them up. She proudly announces "mase a mess!" and then grabs a wash cloth out of her special drawer and cleans it up. She loves to help me with cooking or cleaning and I think it's great! I hope it lasts!
She has recently developed a love for her sunglasses and wants to wear them all of the time! Pretty cute!

19 months

2011-07-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late getting this post out! Addy is nearly 20 months now, but here is a list of some of the funny little things she's been doing this month.
* Addy has become quite a little nurturer. We try to encourage her to take notice when someone is sad or hurt, but I think it comes naturally for the most part. The other day she had a little friend over and he was sad when his mom left for her doctors appointment. Addy took notice right away and pulled a book off of the bookshelf and offered it to him and said "read book...car?" and patted his little head. I was so proud of her and it was such a sweet thing to see! She is going to be such a good big sister and helper...maybe a little too helpful ha ha. I have had to stop her a couple of times from trying to offer babies her sippy cup or food. She means well! She also like to pretend to feed her doll or stuffed animals.
* A couple of weeks ago we decided to put her in a big girl bed. The first night was a little sad, and I had to move her from her little spot on the floor in front of the door, to the bed a few times, but she is doing great now. She never really cared for her crib, so I'm assuming that is why she transitioned so well.
* Addy is talking more and more every day and I am always a little surprised at how much she understands and how much she can say. She was talking to Matt on the phone the other day while we were at the store and she said "Hi, what's up? A store." I guess I didn't expect her to think to share that information with him.
* She is really into putting clothes on by herself. Here is a little picture of her efforts.
* She can count to 6...sort of. She tends to skip 4. She knows the star shape and circle.
* One of my favorite things that she has started doing lately is "whistling" to my moms dog Grizz. She says "heehooo Gizz" and pats her leg. It just cracks me up.
* Addy has been in nursery for nearly two months now and hasn't enjoyed it much until last week. They learned the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and she LOVED it. I wasn't aware of this until we got home from church and she plopped herself down on the floor and started singing. I haven't really taught her the song, so I was really surprised and thrilled to hear her singing it in that sweet little voice. She sang it all day long for two or three days straight!

5 1/2 months

2011-07-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

I posted my first pregnancy belly pic when I was this far along with Addy, so I thought I would do the same with little Brayden. I don't have any good pics of him because he was so wiggly during the ultrasound! No picture of his profile! I was disappointed, but what can you do? So here we are!

Sensory Table

2011-07-01T10:01:00.001-07:00

This is Addy's new favorite toy and it only cost about $20 to make! You can put so many different things in the table to play with and experiment with. In this picture, the table has just a little water, colored with a couple of drops of blue food coloring. I added some water toys and put a towel underneath the table to prevent and huge mess. I also had a little apron for her to wear to keep her clothes dry. She stayed entertained for a long time! If you make one yourself, be sure to get a lid with your container so you can cover it when it's not being used. Here is just a small list of some of the things I plan to put in the sensory table in the future: sand, play dough, and shaving cream. Not all together of course! It's going to be so much fun!

Materials needed for table:
28 qt container (23" x 16 1/4" x 6")
20 ft 3/4" PVC pipe (you may not use all of the pipe, but it's good to have just a little extra)
8 corner fittings
PVC pipe saw

Most containers have a little ridge half way up and that is where you want the top of your PVC frame to rest. You will need to measure around that ridge and cut the pipe according to those measurements. Use the rest of the pipe to cut 4 legs. I made mine about 16" tall. You may want to make them taller or shorter depending on how tall your child is. After you cut the pipe, just hook it all together with the corner fittings, to make a box. Set your container in the top and make sure it's a little snug, and you have a sensory table!

18 Months

2011-06-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Addy is now 18 months old. Yahoo! That means nursery! I have been looking forward to her being able to go to nursery for a couple of months now. It's not that I'm desperate to have time away from her. That couldn't be further from the truth. I love my time with her. I'm just happy that she has a place to play. It's hard for a little toddler to get through one meeting, let alone three! She get's so cranky and we spend pretty much all of our time in the hall. She had her first day in nursery a couple of weeks ago and she did pretty well. She got pretty attached to one of the nursery leaders and had a fit when she left the room for a minute, but calmed down when she got back. Addy has a tendency to get attached to certain people really quickly. She isn't like this with everyone, she just knows when she really likes a person I guess. She was sick last week and we had stake conference this week, so we will see how she does the second time around!
For some time now, Addy has been in-love with the phone. She loves so talk to daddy while he's at work. I thought I would put up a little clip of her talking on the phone.

Addy has also started "reading" to herself. It's so funny to watch her jibber-jabber and flip through the pages. Every now and then I'll hear something recognizable like an animal sound or name. She knows most of her farm animals and is currently obsessed with the song "Old McDonald Had A Farm". Matt found a little clip on youtube with cartoons and animal pictures that go along with the song. She loves it! She gets the biggest smile on her face and chimes in when she knows the words. She could probably watch it all day if I let her! As I have mentioned in previous entries, Addy LOVES to dance! She used to move her hips a lot, but now it's evolved into hand movements, twirling and wiggling. I tried to upload a little clip of her dancing and watching Old McDonald, but for some reason it isn't working! I'll have to try again in another post.

It's a Boy!

2011-06-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

We just went in for our prenatal visit earlier this week and we were able to find out the sex of the baby. Matt and Kiera were right, it's a boy! While the doctor was doing the ultrasound he said "This kid is not shy! We are getting plenty of views in between the legs, but not many of the face!" He said he has never had such a clear view. That's good I guess, but I was hoping to see his little face! We have the official ultrasound in a couple of weeks, so hopefully we will get some good pictures then! I have had different symptoms this time around, so I figured it would be a boy as well. I know it's just an old wives tale that you have different symptoms with each sex, but I had to wonder. For example, with Addy, I craved frozen fruit and strawberry milk. With this little guy, I have been craving chips, french fries and fried chicken. Also, my morning sickness went away at about 12 or 13 weeks with Addy and this time around I was still feeling sick at 17 weeks. I am now 18 weeks and starting to feel better...knock on wood. Matt and I went out and bought his first little outfit and cuddly toy. I'm excited to get started on some projects for my little boy. Maybe I will try to make a quilt. Too ambitious? I have never made one before, so I'm a little nervous about it!

San Diego

2011-06-02T08:01:00.001-07:00

Last week we took a little family vacation to San Diego. We decided to take on the twelve hour drive and Addy was so so good. We did stop about half way through both ways, but she still had to sit in the car for 6 hours at a time. She was really good about entertaining herself and as long as we had music playing, she was pretty happy. Every once in a while when a song came on that she really liked, she would squeal "dance!" "dance!" until we joined in and danced with her. She LOVES to dance and asks for "dance" only minutes after she wakes up every morning.

We spent one day at the San Diego zoo. The zoo is huge and there was a lot to see. Unfortunately, for most of the day, Addy wasn't interested in much more than getting out of her stroller and running. She did like the monkeys though. I loved monkeys when I was little as well. I think I asked for a monkey for Christmas every year until I was 8.
She also liked touching the animal statues and pointing out the ears and nose etc.
I think her favorite part of the day was when we went to the children's petting zoo. It had rabbits, sheep and goats. The goats were her favorite. She ran from one goat to another, touching their noses and ears and squatting down to talk to them every once in a while. There was one that she particularly liked that was about the same color as my moms dog Grizz. She called it Izz and tried to talk to it and hug it a couple of times. Here is a cute little picture of her squatting down to talk to it.

Later that night we went to a restaurant my uncle suggested called Hash House A-go go. We ordered their Fried Chicken and Waffles. It was so interesting I had to take a picture. The chicken was seasoned with fresh rosemary and sage and each waffle had a thick slice of bacon running right through the middle. I think there were two different sauces drizzled over all of it. One was maple syrup of course, but the other was some sort of Asian sauce or something. Very interesting. I liked it, but I could really only eat about 1/4 of it, if that.

The next day we spent some time at the beach. Addy loved it! She loves the water and was not the least bit afraid of the waves. I of course felt differently and had to rush up and grab her before she got pulled into the ocean.

Because of her fearless nature, we decided it would be best to take her to an area where the water was more calm. We saw another family playing in some water that sort of pooled in one spot. We figured that would be a good place for Addy.

Well, the other family left after a few minutes and then a guy that worked at the beach pulled up in his jeep and told us the water was dirty and he wouldn't touch that water let alone let his kids play in it. We felt like the worst parents in the world! We left after that and I worried for the rest of the day that Addy was going to get sick from the water. She didn't. When we got to the car, we noticed a huge puddle underneath the car. Great. We spent two hours wandering the city while our car got fixed. In the past two days, we had probably walked 10 miles. My legs were so sore and my feet were swollen, so I was pretty happy when the car was fixed and we were able to get on our way. Vacations are great, but so is coming home from them!

16 months and news

2011-04-19T18:35:00.000-07:00

Here is a little list of what Addy and the rest of us have been up to this month:
-Nanna came to visit for a little over a week and we had lot's of fun with her. Addy especially loved playing with Nanna and spent every second she could with her.
-Addy discovered bubbles and is now obsessed. She asks for them all day long. She can even blow bubbles herself!
-Addy FINALLY started calling me Mama a couple of weeks ago. For a while I was wondering if I was just going to be Dada forever. It was a happy day for me!
-Addy can say over 20 words now and learns a new one almost every day. She always was a talker!

-This is just a funny picture of Addy wearing one of my shirts as a dress. She pulled it out of the laundry basket about two seconds after I folded it (this is something she does often) and tried to put it on. She finally got her head through one of the sleeves and then pulled it down around her waist. She wore my shirt like this for half the day. When I tried to take it off, she threw a huge fit!
-We have been working really hard to get Addy involved in prayers for meals and bedtime and she has been pretty good about folding her arms. Tonight, she decided to say the prayer too. She closed her little eyes about half way and started jibber jabbering. It was so sweet and funny at the same time.
-Our most exciting news is that we are going to have new little member of our family in November! Addy LOVES babies and I know she will be a wonderful little helper and big sister!

15 Months

2011-03-22T18:19:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy month and the time has just flown by! We just got back from a week long visit to Georgia last week. Matt's sister Crystal was married and we were able to be there for the reception, but unfortunately not the wedding. She was married the week before and Matt wasn't out for Spring break yet. Anyway, Crystal and her husband Alex had a fun Luau reception and of course I didn't take any pictures! I am terrible about that! There was great food and decorations and I didn't get pictures of any of it. I'm so mad at myself! She had a fun "candy bar" with lot's of different kinds of candy in a variety of pretty glass containers. Addy looooved that! I spent most of my time trying to distract her from it. She kept walking up to it and saying "pwe?" (please)in her sweet little voice. It was hard not to give in. Her little cousin Brennan, who is just two months older than her was there and he was so excited to see her that he ran up to her and gave her such a big hug they both fell right over. He is such a sweet little boy. I don't think I have ever seen a child his age be so attentive and considerate! Here is just a cute little example of what I mean. He has this stuffed animal named Scout that he takes everywhere. He LOVES scout. Anyway, he saw Addy admiring his little Scout, so he picked him up and handed him to Addy, and then turned and walked away crying. It was quite a sacrifice for him to let her play with his toy for a minute, but he was willing to do it. I just wish we had gotten it on camera! Though he was constantly trying to share with Addy, she didn't quite know what to do. She's not really used to kids her age bringing her things and sharing with her, so she would just look at him kind of confused. She's actually pretty good at sharing most of the time as well. I hope it lasts. We took Addy to the park a few times while we were there and she loved the slides. I actually remembered to bring my camera to the park, so I got a few really cute pictures. Though the visit to Georgia was wonderful, getting there and back was horrible! Matt absolutely hates to fly. More than anyone I have ever known. While we were waiting to get on the plane, he seriously considered driving to Georgia instead of flying. This happened both ways. It takes about 34 hours to drive from Utah to Georgia! Fortunately, he faced his fears and got on the plane. On the way to Georgia, we had to fly from Salt Lake to Phoenix and then Phoenix to Atlanta. On the flight to Phoenix I sat between Matt and a sort of heavy set woman who seemed to be a little nervous or something. Addy was being very squirmy of course and a little fussy, but I was doing my best to keep her happy and calm. Just as I had accomplished this, the woman next to me asked the flight attendant for a coke. She had taken maybe two sips from it when somehow she knocked her entire cup of coke right into my lap. I was wearing light gray pants, so I kind of looked like I peed my pants for the rest of the day. The poor woman was so embarrassed! They really shouldn't put those seats so close together! So I was cold and very wet, but I was dealing with it. About 20 minutes before we were about to land, I felt Addy's diaper leak all over my leg. I had given her so much water and juice to keep her quiet that her diaper leaked! This was only the first hour of our travels! I still had 3 hours to go! On our flight from Phoenix to Atlanta, Addy cried for about 30 minutes and then fell asleep sucking on a lolly pop. I will admit it, she had quite a bit of sugar. Desperate times call for desperate measures. On the way back from Georgia, Addy would have nothing to do with any of the toys or snacks that I packed. She screamed her little lungs out for at least an hour. I felt sorry for the people on the plane, I felt sorry for her, but mostly, I felt sorry for myself. It was terrible! It was so bad I told Matt I would drive the 30 something hours next time! It was so bad that during our layover, a woman from our flight offered to buy me a margarita for the next flight. I also heard several other people comment on how Addy had behaved on the plane. I will never fly with a 15 month old again!
So here is a little update on what Addy has been doing this month.
* She can now say please, thank you, dog, eyes, teeth, water, light, baby, Jesus and her favorite "where is it". She puts her little hands out when she says it and looks at me inquisitively. It's so cute!
* She has learned to kick a ball, but is still working on throwing
* She still loves to dance
* She thinks the snow is lot's of fun and she loves her little hat. She likes to put it on and wear it around the house.

Dancing Queen

2011-02-11T12:04:00.000-08:00

Addy is now 14 months old and she has accomplished some big things this past month! About one week before she turned 14 months, she decided it was time to start walking. She has been able to since she was almost 12 months old, but she just wasn't confident enough to do it without holding on to someones finger. Then, one Sunday night when we were at my mom's she just started walking around all by herself and now she can't get enough opportunities to do it! Of course with walking comes more curiosity. She is into everything! I try to direct her to a cupboard or drawer that is OK to pull everything out of and it works pretty well....most of the time. She has also discovered toilet paper and loves to tear it up into little tiny pieces after she has blown her nose. Yes she really does blow her nose! I couldn't do that until I was practically a teenager! She has learned a couple more words like "up" and "eat", but her favorite form of communication is to nod her head yes when she sees something she likes or wants. Usually it's food and along with the nodding she says "num! num!" enthusiastically. I don't give her dessert very often, but for some reason, even if she has never had it, she knows it's good. For example, the other day I was watching this show on food network called "The Best Thing I Ever Ate". I don't let her watch tv very often either, but I like to watch a cooking show every once in a while. Anyway, there were several different dishes featured on the show and most of them were pastas or meat or something, but one was a 24 layer chocolate cake. Addy didn't pay attention to the show until that giant slice of chocolate cake came on the screen. Her eyes got really wide and she said "num!num!" and pretended to take a little nibble from the screen. She's never even had chocolate cake!
Addy loves her stuffed animals and her doll. Over the past month, I have noticed her patting their backs, kissing them and rocking them. It is such a sweet and cute thing to see. I can tell that one day when she has a little brother or sister, she will be a great little helper. We used to have to ask for kisses, but I have noticed her voluntarily giving them out more often. It's usually to her toys, but every once in a while Matt and I get one. She has a little book that she likes to look at and there is a little boy in it dressed like super man and she gives him kisses over and over again when we read it. He has dark hair like Matt, so maybe that is why?
My favorite thing that she has started doing recently is dancing. It is just about the funniest thing I have ever seen. She will dance to most music, even commercial music which happens to be what she is dancing to in this little clip.

Girl with Opinions

2011-01-09T16:24:00.000-08:00

I didn't post what Addy was doing at twelve months, so here is quick review of the month. She started saying "wow". She loves Christmas trees and whenever she saw one she would say "wow!". She did pretty good with leaving the Christmas tree alone, but there was one ornament she just couldn't resist. We went to Georgia for Christmas and she had lots of fun playing with her cousins, aunts and uncles, Nana and Papa. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures. I just never had my camera with me. Christmas was fun, but she did not like unwrapping presents. Tearing paper still scares her. She refused to walk for about two weeks, and then finally she started trying again. She's back to refusing to walk. I think the problem is that she doesn't like to fall down.
So here is the update for 13 months. Addy has always been an opinionated child. I think it's a good thing. She knows what she likes. The other day we went to target to get her some shoes. I held up two different styles of shoes and asked her to pick the one she liked. One had cute little flowers on it and the other had sparkly stripes. She immediately grabbed for the sparkly ones and said "wow!". Every time I put those shoes on her she says "wow" and points her toes so she can see them sparkle. It just makes me laugh. She takes after me in that respect, I like sparkles too. She also knows what kind of music she likes. She has recently started dancing to music. I play music a lot, but the only tunes she likes to dance to are the oldies! She likes books, but her favorite is "Alice the Fairy". It's on a shelf in her room and she makes a point to look at it every time we go in there. Her favorite fruit is blueberries. She likes all other fruits, but she will kind of whine for them if she sees them in the grocery store. She is finally starting to like milk, but it has to be warm or it has to have bananas in it.
Addy's newest words are "mo" (more)and "uh oh" (if that's even a word). She is also nodding yes. At the moment she's not really walking consistently, but maybe next month?

Addy's favorite ornament. My guess is because it's sparkly.

Looking distressed while opening a present.

Being silly with daddy.

Tickle fight with daddy

Addison

2010-12-05T09:48:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how babies change from month to month! I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of Addy from birth to now.
1 day old

1 week old

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months

Addy's First Birthday!

2010-12-05T09:06:00.000-08:00

I can't believe a year has already passed! It seems like just yesterday that I had her! It has been such a joy to watch her grow into the little person that she is. Celebrating her first birthday was a little bitter-sweet. I'm sad that she is no longer a baby, but I look forward to the milestones ahead. We love her so much and we are grateful that she is a part of our family! So here are some pictures of the cutest little girl in the whole world on her birthday.

She LOVES blueberries, so of course she picked those off first!

I was surprised at how timid she was about digging into her cake considering that's what she wanted to do when she saw it sitting on the counter earlier. With some help from her daddy, she got the hang of it!

The spoon made it even more fun! When it was time to take the cake away and open presents, she was not happy!

She didn't like the sound of paper tearing, so unwrapping presents was a little scary for her, but she had lots of fun afterwards!

11 months

2010-11-15T19:51:00.000-08:00

Addy's 11 month list.
1. Addy can stand by herself for several seconds....if she doesn't realize she's doing it. I think it freaks her out a little!
2. She took her first steps two days ago! She was grinning from ear to ear when we cheered for her.
3. She can turn light switches on and off.
4. She is a great hugger!
5. Pulling bows and headbands out of her hair used to be one of her favorite things to do. Today I noticed that after pulling her bow out of her hair, she tried to put it back in!
6. Addy insists on using her spoon herself! She is very independent!

7. Her favorite snack is cheerios.
8. If she hears someone laughing, she likes to join in.
9. She loves to cuddle with her platypus.

10. She likes to "talk" on her play phone. The other day she was holding her little phone up to her ear and attempting to say "hello", it sounded more like "ahho". So cute!
11. She recently cut her first top front tooth.

Halloween

2010-11-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

Addy is a little young for trick or treating, but I thought it would be fun to make her a costume any way. My mom got her these little butterfly/fairy wings a few months ago, so I just worked around those and made her a butterfly costume. A friend told me how to make the tutu. It was so easy and only cost me about $2. I found her cute little polka dot stockings at target and then I just made her antennas out of pipe cleaner, foam balls and glitter. Oh and of course I made her little shoes. I think it turned out pretty cute! My mom got some cute pictures of her standing all by herself in her little costume, so I will have to post those later.
We also celebrated my birthday on Saturday and Matt spoiled me as usual. That guy just goes crazy! I have to say that his most thoughtful and impressive gift was a whole quart of pistachio gelato from a place we went to all the way in Park City. Oh my goodness it was soooooo good! I should have taken a picture, but I ate it already...with the help of others of course. Ok! I ate most of it myself!

10 Months

2010-10-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

This little girl is such a character! Read about what she's been up to this month and you will know what I mean!
- We took Addy to the pool a couple weeks ago and she still thinks it's great. She likes to lay on her back in the water, which I think is pretty brave! I didn't get a picture of her laying on her back, but I think these ones are cute!
- She has this funny little laugh that she's been doing lately when she's really excited. It's hard to describe, but it sounds kind of like a belly laugh, where you force all the air out of your lungs. She usually does it when she's around other kids. In Relief Society last Sunday, we were sitting by a little boy and Addy was doing her little laugh very loudly and I could see several sisters with shoulders shaking as they tried to hold in their laughter. Anyway, that laugh of hers cracks me up every time. It never gets old! I captured it in this little clip, but it's just a short burst. She usually goes on longer, but she tends to get distracted by the camera.

- It is never safe to leave a laundry basket full of folded clothes within Addy's reach. She will have all of those neatly folded clothes strewn across the floor in no time!
- She has recently discovered that she can squish her bananas in her hands and she quite enjoys doing it.
- If I'm laying on the floor, she likes to crawl up behind me and squeal. She thinks it's so funny to try to scare me.
- I'm pretty sure she is saying "hi" now. It doesn't sound exactly like "hi" it's more like "ha", but she says it every time she sees little kids at the store. She looooves little kids. She also says it when Matt comes home from work.
- Despite her inability to walk, Addy is already trying to climb onto things! The other day she used me as a stepping stool to climb onto the couch!
- She can drink out of a cup by herself...sort of. She dribbles and spills quite a bit, but she sure loves to try!

I love that crazy morning hair!

9 Months

2010-09-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

Addy is 9 months old already! I can't believe it! I took her in for her 9 month check up last week and she is doing great! She currently weighs 18.5 lbs and she is 27 inches long. Addy is such a little character and she definitely keeps us laughing. Here's what she has been up to this month:
- She spends most of her time getting into things. Her favorites are: DVD's, laundry and paper.
- She has recently discovered that she can get a lot of attention with the faces she makes at people. This is the one that gets the most laughs.

- Addy LOVES bread! She loves it so much that she will say "mmmmm!!" with a sort of intense, almost growling voice. It's pretty funny.
- Addy absolutely loves to look at herself in the mirror or in pictures. She also loves to look at pictures of family members.
- For a while she would say "ba ba" if we waved goodbye to her, but for some reason she won't do it anymore. Somehow I think it may be because we want her to.
- She still thinks peek a boo is the greatest game ever!
- She can stand by herself for a few seconds.
- When she gets excited she does this funny little dance. Mom calls it the hula dance.
- She used to love to be held and bounced. Not any more...sniff, sniff. She is constantly moving and wants to be on the floor exploring. I know that's a good thing because she's learning, but I do miss the cuddling.
-Addy loves to give kisses.
-She loves to swing and is always very sad when we have to leave.

-She has always been facinated with flowers

New Business

2010-09-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have taken over my aunts vinyl lettering business. I have a website www.quips-quotes.com, so if you need vinyl lettering, you can order there or you can call me. Also, I really need to update the look of my site, so if anyone knows anything about how to do that or where to look for some examples, please let me know!

Funny Faces

2010-08-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

Addy is constantly making silly faces. She loves to get a laugh out of you!

SAME silly face!!!
I miss him so much! He would have had so much fun with her!

8 months

2010-08-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

Addy is eight months old and changing and growing so much! Here are a few of the things she's been up to lately.
1. She is now crawling. She started doing the army crawl about a week and a half before she turned 8 months. Today, she has been consistently crawling on her hands and knees. She would do it occasionally before, but always reverted back to the army crawl. I guess it got her where she wanted to go faster!
2. For the last few mornings, I have walked in her room to see her standing in her crib. She is also pulling up on pretty much anything else she can find that is tall enough.

3. She has figured out how to turn the pages on her peek-a-boo books without any help from me. Those books are kind of tricky, so I'm proud.
4. She is about to cut her second tooth.
5. She has recently started to fake laugh.
6. She makes this hilarious face when she gets food up her nose.

7. She's starting to notice the reactions she gets when she does something funny, so now she will get really close to your face after she does something funny so she can see if you laugh.
8. She is really interested in adult food. She wants to try it so badly that today while I was eating a cinnamon roll, she reached up and tried to eat it right out of my mouth.
9. She loves to walk with the help of anyone whose willing. She loves walking so much that if she has to stop for any reason, she throws a complete fit.
10. Dancing is her new thing. She likes to dance and bounce.
11. Addy is now sleeping from 7:30pm to 7:00am without waking up! She's had a few nights where she woke up around 10:30, but for the most part she's been pretty consistent!
12. This last one IS NOT A GOOD THING! She has recently started biting my shoulder! If anyone has advice on how to stop this, I would appreciate it.

Sweets Candy Company

2010-07-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Addy and I went to Sweets Candy Company with a play group that I joined a few months ago. We got to tour the factory and it was so much fun! We all had to wear hair nets, even the babies. Addy was sooo cute with her little hair net on (her hair net was actually a beard net! ha). She was really good about wearing it too. She didn't even try to pull it off. It was fun and interesting to see how they make salt water taffy, cinnamon bears, jelly beans, sour stars, and chocolate covered candies. Addy was great through most of the tour and very vocal. She jabbered the WHOLE time! Maybe to the point where it was a little distracting. She just has so much personality. I am constantly laughing about the little things she does, and I just can't get over how darn cute she is! I know I'm biased! She has been very sensitive to sudden loud noises lately so she did cry big crocodile tears when a crate or something was dropped. Oh, and when a cute little boy from play group squealed happily. The thing I don't get is that she makes those noises ALL OF THE TIME! She can dish it out, but I guess she can't take it. Anyway, we sampled some of the candy while we were on the tour and then at the end they have a shop where you can buy candy. Of course I bought a big bag of taffy and some chocolate covered cinnamon bears for mom. They have some great new flavors like Moose Munch(chocolate, caramel and popcorn flavors), chocolate chip cookie dough and huckleberry. If you are ever in Salt Lake, Sweets Candy is a fun place to visit!

Addy and I in front of a window display of sweets candy.

Addy wearing her little hair net.

Addy at 7 1/2 months

2010-07-19T15:07:00.000-07:00

Addy is 7 1/2 months old now and changing every day. She seams to learn something new each day and she really zeros in on her new discovery and practices over and over again until she finds something else to do that's even more interesting. Here is a little list of things that you may or may not know about Addy:
* Addy loves to smack her lips(her most recent trick).
* I don't know how or where she learned this, but she thinks it pretty cool to let her drool go all the way to her chin (sometimes further!) and then suck it up really fast!
* She likes to stick her tongue out.
* She LOVES to go to the pool and take baths (I sill need to get a picture of her at the pool).

* I often catch her fake coughing.
* The remote is her favorite toy.
* She can eat a handful of those little puff cereal things in like two minutes and she is now an expert at picking them up with her pointer and thumb finger.
* She thinks peek-a-boo is the greatest game. Last night she pulled the burp cloth off her face so excitedly that she scratched her face!

* Her first tooth just broke through today!
* Every now and then I get a big, slobbery kiss on the cheek (she's actually been doing this for a little while)
*Last of all, she LOVES to stand with the help of mom or dad. If your hands are within reach, she will use them to pull herself up!

Three years!

2010-06-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Matt and I celebrated our anniversary. We have been married three years! Time just seems to fly by! It feels like we JUST got married despite the fact that we have experienced some pretty major things over the past few years. The other day we were talking about how amazing it is that we found each other considering we lived across the country from one another. We often laugh about how incredibly bold Matt was (pretty out of character for him) and how, oddly enough, I wasn't freaked out by it! I'm so glad that he was bold, because I was pretty clueless back then and had he not been bold, nothing would have come of it and we wouldn't be where we are today. He won me over pretty quickly with his thoughtfulness, his sense of humor, and his adorable, quirky personality. I am so blessed to be married to such a special man!

Sleeping....

2010-06-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

Lately I have noticed that Addy has been sleeping in this position and I think it is so cute! Also, she is FINALLY sleeping through the night. It has been such a challenge to get her to go to sleep at all. I felt terrible letting her just scream her guts out for hours so I opted not to take that rout until she insisted on screaming whether I was in the room or not. I'm glad we decided to let her figure out how to get herself to sleep, because she sleeps sooooo much better! I honestly don't know if she would have been ready before now or not. She is very, very stubborn and it wasn't easy those first couple of days!Addy is also sitting now...she has been for over a month but I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of her sitting until now!These are just some pictures of her chewing on things (it's what she loves to do best!)And here she is giving her monkey a kiss!

This girl loves to eat!

2010-05-18T16:54:00.001-07:00

We started Addy on solids a little over a month ago. I could tell she was ready because she would watch me longingly as I ate my dinner or whatever I was eating. We started with sweet potatoes and of course I forgot to take a picture. She loved them and gobbled that first bite down without any problem! I did get a picture of her eating spinach (which she also liked). She loves to eat (just like her mommy) and she eagerly grabs the spoon to help me get the food in her mouth faster. She's such a funny, sweet little girl!

She's eating rice cereal here.
I'm thinking she likes it! I don't think she will be a picky eater...hopefully.

I'm also posting some pictures from our trip to Georgia. Matt's brother Mike just graduated from Optometry school, so we were there for his graduation. I am terrible about remembering to bring my camera to events like this or even remembering to take a picture when I do have my camera, so we don't have many pictures. These are just a few pictures of Addy with her cute cousins. They were so sweet with her and excited to see her and play with her! We had such a nice time with everyone!

Here is Addy with cute little Easton. She really likes him (despite the serious look on her face). Whenever he came over to play with her, her face would just light up.

Mike, Malia, Matt, Addy, and Easton.

Here is Matt with Easton and Brennan. Brennan is about two months older than Addy.

Projects

2010-04-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

Just before Addy was born, I really got into crafts....mostly for Addy's room. Here are a few of the little projects I have been working on.

My first project was recovering and painting an old toy box that Kiera and I shared when we were little. My dad actually carved the legs himself. I wish I had a "before" picture. It was a very nice toy box when Kiera and I were little, but it was looking pretty dingy when I got it. The cushy top that was once pink, had turned brown/pink and there were crayon scribbles all over the front and sides of the toy box, not to mention a few gouges here and there. Anyway, I recovered the top with minkie (I don't even know how to spell it!), repainted the wood and then hand painted some little flowers on the sides. I think it turned out pretty good!

My second little project was the butterfly mobile. I found the kit at Ben Franklins and then I just covered the butterfly pattern with some cute scrapbook paper. I saw the paisley design on a little butterfly on some scrapbook paper and thought it was cute so I sort of copied it and added some flowers. Addy loves to look at her butterfly's!

I found this idea at Ben Franklins as well. All you do is cut out a piece of paper to fit the clock, take the face of the clock off as well as the hands, and then mod podge the paper on. I used flowers instead of numbers, but you can use the number stickers. Then you just put everything back together and you have a cute little clock. I got my clock at wal mart for like, $5.

I found the wooden letters for Addy's name at JoAnns, painted the wood pink and the mod podged scrapbooking paper on the letters. Then I stapled the ribbon on the back of each letter and tied a bow at the top. I did the same thing with these picture frames! So easy and cute!

I still have to put pictures of Matt's family members in the the empty frames.

My most recent project has been making these cute little shoes. I'm sort of obsessed. I LOVE fabric! It is so fun/dangerous for me to go into a fabric store and look at all the patterns. I'm the same way with paper!

I only have one little pair of boy shoes for my nephew, but I am planning to make more. I made some for a girl that Matt works with. She has a little boy. They were so cute and I wish I would have taken a picture. They were red and dark blue. The blue fabric was kind of a cowboy bandanna pattern. Anyway, it has been really fun learning how to sew. HARD, but fun!

Baby Blessing

2010-03-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

This post is just a bit late, but Addy was bless at the beginning of this month. We decided to wait until March because we were worried about RSV. Anyway, it went really well. She didn't make a peep during the blessing which I was grateful for. Matt did a nice job as well. She also handled all of the company that came over afterwords very well. She got passed from person to person and she was pretty content for the most part. I think she may prefer the little kids. Don't get me wrong, she is fine with adults for the most part, but she was perfectly happy to sit on cute little Maren's lap while Maren gently rubbed her head (she likes to have her head rubbed). Anyway, she did really good. Here are some pictures of her in her blessing dress! I don't have many pictures because unfortunately, we didn't have a new camera yet when she was blessed and the one we did have would only work for a couple of shots.
This a cute little picture of Maren rubbing Addy's head. he he

Hawaii

2010-03-18T18:40:00.001-07:00

Like I said in the previous blog, we didn't get many pictures before our camera broke, so I drew some pictures of our whale watching experience (these drawings are so good, there is no need for real pictures!). I forgot to mention that we also got gourmet snacks that consisted of celery sticks, carrots, olives, zucchini, tomatoes and potato chips! Ha ha, I was thinking we were going to have the chance to taste some Hawaiian food! Oh, and the "boat" wouldn't start up again after they turned it off to get the whales to come closer to us. They kept saying "oh, don't worry, this happens from time to time. We will have it started any time now. " It took them at least 30 minutes to get it started and it was clear from the look on their faces that they were pretty worried it wasn't going to start. Despite all of that, it was still an amazing experience! My mom emailed me some of the pictures she took of the trip, so I'm putting those up along with the few that we got with our camera. Keira actually a picture of the little boat we were in, so you can see how truly dinky it was! Oh, and my mom, Kiera, and Sam were kind enough to watch little Addy while we went on our little adventure.
Matt was very brave and jumped off this cliff with Sam!We got shave ice almost every day!

Amazing Experience And No Pictures To Show For It!!

2010-03-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

Matt and Addy and I spent the last week in Kauai with my family. Some friends of my mom had a time share there that they offered to let us use, so we took advantage of the opportunity. One of my favorite things we did there was go whale watching. I was feeling pretty excited about the idea of whale watching until I saw the boat we were going to be in! I thought it was going to be MUCH bigger that the dinky little inflatable speed boat thing that I saw out the window of our little rental van. I panicked because I am afraid of the ocean (sharks to be specific), and that boat looked like something a whale could just tip over! Anyway, I decided to face my fears and go on the trip. I am so glad I did! It was AMAZING!! First of all we saw two schools of dolphins! There were hundreds of them. I'm not exaggerating! They were so close to the boat that I could have reached out and touched them! Our captain happened to be a marine biologist and she said that for every dolphin you see on the surface, there are four more below. It was so exciting! We came prepared with our camera so we whipped it out to take some pictures and the dang thing was broken! It was so frustrating. The marine biologist kept saying "This never happens! You never see so many dolphins together at this time of day!" She may have been lying about that, but personally I believe her because she was hanging over the boat taking her own pictures and she seemed genuinely excited. Right after that we saw two whales breach off in the distance. I mean they came all the way out of the water and flipped! The marine biologist (Tina) said that they were males showing off for a female. So we start heading towards the whales and all of the sudden another school of dolphins come swimming by our boat! Off in the other direction we saw some whale spouts so we start heading in that direction. Apparently it was the perfect situation because there were about four whales trying to show off for the female and they were very focused on that so it was possible that they would come close to us. By law you are not allowed to come closer that 100 feet from a whale but if the whale comes close to you there is nothing you can do about it. So we get up there as close to the whales as we are allowed and they come closer. One went right under our boat. I didn't see that, Matt did. It's a good thing I didn't because I probably would have freaked out. The reason I didn't see it was because I was distracted by another whale like, I don't know 50 feet away or less coming out of the water! It was so amazing and I am so mad our camera broke! I have no pictures of Kauai! I am going to have to get some from my mom, and I will post more later!

Looks So Nasty, But Tastes Sooo Good!

2010-02-19T13:54:00.000-08:00

I know this drink looks soooo nasty, but it's really so good! I look forward to this little drink every day! Several weeks ago we found out that Addy is sensitive to milk, so sadly, I have had to cut milk out of my diet. No cheese, no ice cream, no yogurt, no cream! These are some of my very favorite foods, and although this drink doesn't quite measure up, it's pretty close. The reason it looks so nasty is because it has spinach in it. Spinach is actually a pretty good source of calcium and I wanted to get it into my diet somehow. The problem is that I don't like spinach much. BUT, Kiera told me about this little drink and you really can't taste the spinach at all. I put 1/2 C. to 1 C. of spinach in along with 1/2 banana, a handful of whole, non-sweetened frozen strawberries (like 6 or 7) and about 1/2 C. of Simply Apple, apple juice (my favorite juice ever!). Then you just blend it all up and enjoy. Oh, Kiera also adds ground flax seeds, but I keep forgetting to pick some up. Anyway, I recommend it to anyone who wants to eat a little healthier.

Two Months Old!

2010-02-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Addy is already two months old! We got some cute pictures of her today and I also got some clips of her rolling and talking to daddy. I thought Matt's side of the family would especially like to see this. It's just so cute!

This first video is of Matt and Addy "talking" to each other.

This video is of Addy rolling over. She's pretty good at it!

Snow and Smiles

2010-02-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Addy I went Dan and Shelly's cabin with my mom, Kiera, Ian and Sam. Matt had to work. Anyway, Addy had her first experience with snow. I got her all dressed up in her cute little teddy bear outfit and as you can see, she wasn't loving the snow like I had hoped. Maybe when she's a little older the feeling of snowflakes landing on her face won't bother her so much. She spent a lot of time being held. Dan called her the human baton which is true. She just gets passed around. Everyone loves to hold her (when she's not crying) and she definitely doesn't mind! She did really good at night, sleeping for six hour stretches. Then we came home and for some reason she stopped doing that and wakes up every four hours. Darn. When she got home it was clear she missed her daddy. She just kind of gazed at him for a while and then she "talked" to him for a while. She only does this with Matt. I have tried to capture it on tape but I always think of it too late. Anyway she will just sit and babble to him when he comes home and it is so cute and funny. It's like she's trying to tell him about her day. She has been smiling for about a month now and I have been trying so hard to get a picture of her smiling! The problem is that every time I pull the camera out she focuses on that instead of smiling. I did manage to get a few pictures finally! Oh, and she's rolling over one way. She can roll from her stomach to her back. I haven't been able to record that but I will!

Where Does The Time Go?

2010-01-13T22:06:00.000-08:00

Well Addy is almost 6 weeks old and I have finally found some time to post some pictures. It's amazing how one little person can take up so much of your time! Matt and I would love to get her into some sort of routine, but she's pretty resistent to it at this point. She can be pretty stubborn!
Addy smiled for the first time on Matt's birthday. She's still pretty stingy with her smiles, but when she does smile, it's the cutest thing ever. I'm hoping to be able to get a picture of her smiling soon. Christmas was a bit uneventful this year. Quiet, and honestly, a little sad. Christmas will just never be the same without my dad, so I decided that next year Christmas will just need to be sort of reinvented. All new traditions. Anyway, I have a cute picture of Addy in her "First Christmas" outfit. A few days after Christmas, Addy started to develop baby acne. Who knew there was such a thing! Her sweet little face has just been covered with little pimples. Now that it is finally starting to clear up, she has developed another lovely baby skin condition. She has a nasty little rash all over her face and ears. It's even in her eyebrows. Her skin has been so bad that I haven't taken many pictures of her over the past few weeks. I did get some pictures of her holding her head up for tummy time. She is very good at this! She actually looks a lot like Matt in her tummy time picture!

Christmas Baby

2009-12-12T16:35:00.000-08:00

My incredibly talented mom knitted this stocking and hat! We thought it would be cute to take some pictures of Addy in her hat and stocking!

Addison Lynn

2009-12-08T19:08:00.000-08:00

She's here! Our beautiful baby girl was born Friday, December 4, around 7:00 (6:49 to be exact). She weighed 8 lbs, 9 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. She's just so adorable that I can't stop taking pictures of her!

One week left.....I hope

2009-11-28T13:01:00.000-08:00

I have one week left and I couldn't be more ready to have this baby here! Well, I'm not going to lie, I'm a little scared, but I think I am more tired of waddling around with an achy back, swollen feet and serious heart burn. Sometimes I feel like I might breath fire it's so bad. I heard that if you eat pickles that's supposed to help....it did sort of. I've also tried the tums. I'm looking pretty pathetic and huge in this picture. I thought about taking a different one, but this is the reality of it...I'm huge and uncomfortable and I think that's pretty much what you see on my face. Kiera was really hoping Addy would come on Thanksgiving. Didn't happen. Yesterday I got a pedicure in hopes that maybe they would hit one of those pressure points that puts you into labor. No contractions what so ever. My toes look pretty though. I can't say my feet look pretty. I look like I have elephantitis. I think my ankle might be a little more swollen than normal because a few weeks ago I was trying to hang some butterfly's from the ceiling and I fell off the chair, scraped my shin really bad and twisted my ankle. I pretty much sacrificed my leg for the baby. I know it was totally stupid. I think I was going through a little nesting phase. I just felt like I HAD to get that room finished. I should have waited for Matt I know. I'm much more cautious now and stick to keeping my feet on the ground. I'm really hoping she will be here before the 5th, but who am I kidding. She will probably come a week late!

Catching Up

2009-10-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

It's time to catch up on everything again! First of all, Sam is home! He got back last Wednesday! He looks a little different and acts a little different, but mostly he's the same Sam I remember. He gave his homecoming talk on Sunday and he did a great job. We had a lot of family here to support him and it was so nice to see everyone. I feel blessed that we have such a supportive, close extended family! Interestingly enough, Matt and I had to speak in our ward on the same day as Sam's homecoming talk. Matt has been a mess for the past month, fretting over having to speak. This was his first time speaking in church EVER! He did a great job (I knew he would). He didn't even look or sound nervous. He said he thought he might puke before he had to get up, but you would never know it! I on the other hand, was obviously nervous and stumbled over my words quite a bit. Oh well, life goes on. There were a lot of people who were very impressed with Matt's talk and made a point to tell him. I thought that was great! So he lived and realized it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be! Matt said nobody would ever believe he gave a talk, so he took pictures of the proof!

My mom and Kiera insisted I take more pictures of my pregnant belly, so the first one is when I'm about 30 weeks along. It's just taken me a while to actually post it. The second one I took today. I'm 35 weeks at this point. Matt gave me a new camera for my birthday (early of course. He was so excited about it he couldn't wait until Saturday), so I thought I would experiment with the color a little. I look kind of off in this picture. I'm going to blame it on the fact that I attempted to use the little timer on the camera and didn't have much time to pose for the picture. This camera is awesome though! Oh and it's official, I have a big butt. Two different children in my class were kind enough to point that out to me recently. The first little girl told me my butt was big a month or two ago and I was depressed, but I got over it. She was so innocent about it. Just when I was starting to feel better, another little girl said "Your bumb is really big.....but I like your shirt and I like your hair, and I like your shoes". Also very innocent, but depressing. I am amazed at how facinated these kids are with my baby and being pregnant. I've had a few of them say things like "that hurts my baby" if they don't want to do something, or someone is playing too rough. Oh and they ask me some interesting questions like "Did your babies daddy put seeds in you?" and "How does your baby eat? Do you eat the food and then it pours into the babies mouth?" One little boy was very concerned that my baby would get cold if I drank water. I couldn't really figure out why until I thought about how they assumed the baby got food. He thought cold water was just going to pour on top of the baby. I had to laugh when one little girl said, "My mommy says I can't have a baby in my tummy EVER!" They all tell me that they love my baby and that they can't wait for her to come out! They are so funny and sweet sometimes.

Here I Am!

2009-08-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

So a few people have requested pictures of my pregnant belly, so here I am! I'm about 5 1/2 months pregnant here. I'm getting to the point where it's difficult to bend over to pick things up and move around like I used to, but I'm OK with it. I know it's only going to get worse! I don't know if I mentioned that we have decided to name the baby Addison Lynn. I have loved the name Addison for at least 10 years and I was lucky enough to marry someone that likes the name too. Oh and the middle name Lynn is after my dad. His middle name was Lynn. We haven't decided if we will spell her name Addison or Adyson. What do you think?

This and That

2009-07-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

Matt and I celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary on the 23rd of June. It's amazing how much can happen in 2 years! A lot of life changing things! I'm so grateful I have had Matt to help me through the hard times as well as be a part of the happy and exciting times! He is a wonderful husband and I feel very blessed. Since our Anniversary was in the middle of the week, we decided to do most of our celebrating on the weekend and we went to Park City. We just kind of explored and shopped around a little. We had the best Pistachio gelato! It was every bit as good as the pistachio gelato I had in Italy. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Matt's face when he ate it! He was skeptical until he had a bite of mine and then he ate all of his plus some of mine and he just kept saying "This is so GOOD!" It's not often that Matt gets that excited about food. I tend to be the food lover in this relationship! I actually did bring my camera, but it's hard for me to remember to pull it out and take some pictures. I'm working on improving that! Anyway, I did get a picture of Matt with this moose statue that I thought was pretty hilarious! Isn't she beautiful?! You can't really see in the picture, but she has long eyelashes and sequins on her eyelids. Oh and she's wearing jeans!

This past weekend, I spent the 4th of July in Idaho at my grandparents. Matt wasn't able to go because he wasn't feeling well. I helped out with a barbecue my grandma was in charge of. The town has a little parade, and then food and fireworks afterword. All I did really, was make sure people didn't take more than one cookie. That was a tough job though! It's hard to be stingy like that! The fireworks were great! We sat right under them and they were big and loud and beautiful! The next day we celebrated my grandma's birthday and I got a funny little picture of her blowing out the candles on her cake. There were so many that some of my cousins decided to roast some marshmallows! She turned 79!

The next day I spent some time with my other side of the family and celebrated my other grandma's birthday! It's always easy to remember both of my grandma's birthdays, because they are within a day of each other! It was so nice to be able to spend some time with extended family! I have so much fun just chatting and listening to their stories! I'm related to some pretty hilarious people!

Today Matt and I went in for our official ultrasound. You have to go to the appointment with a full bladder and it's completely miserable! I'm so glad they gave us a CD of everything because all I could concentrate on was NOT PEEING! I think that would be the humiliation of my life! We got some good pictures of her face, arms, hands and legs. I felt her move for the first time last night and she has just been kicking away for the past hour or so. It's such a weird feeling! Kind of like fluttering or twitching. My due date changed to November 29th. We'll see if she decides to come on that day or not!

Home

2009-06-15T18:14:00.000-07:00

I have a little catching up to do since my last post. We moved into the house in Bountiful a few weeks ago and have been busy making minor improvements. We painted the walls a nice green color and the kitchen yellow. The walls used to be kind of a mustard color. Matt fixed the door, which is great! The other door didn't close very well and had a hole in it! Matt did a great job! A few days after we moved in, we decided to figure out how to get the swamp cooler working. Matt has never dealt with a swamp cooler, so my uncle was kind enough to help us get it working. About a week after hooking up the swamp cooler, I came home on my lunch break to find water bubbling up behind the paint in the hallway! It was such an ordeal figuring out how to turn the water off! I had to get down into the crawl space and figure out where to turn the water off. Anyway, with Matt patiently helping me over the phone, I was able to get the water off. Later we found that there was a little tiny hole in the pipe. So now the hallway looks like this!

I planted a little garden in the back and it's growing! I'm so excited! In a month or two, we will have beans, peas, corn, eggplant, squash, and tons of tomatoes! It has been raining non-stop for the past weeks and so my poor tomato plants were literally uprooted. Hopefully they will recover. I also planted some flowers and herbs in the front of the house. Of course I did all of this with the help of my mom! She's the queen of gardening. I didn't take pictures of the inside of the house because we still have some work to do.

Today I had another visit with the doctor. He did an ultrasound and guess what?! We are having a girl! Matt's super excited. He was always convinced it was a girl! I'm excited too of course! She was so cute with her little legs and arms moving! It was so fun to see her!

Will we have a boy or girl?

2009-05-12T18:25:00.000-07:00

It has been way too long since I last posted, but I'm pretty sure I have a good excuse. Matt and I have been here in Utah for about a month and a half. Packing was crazy! We only had a one bedroom apartment, but it's rediculouse how much stuff we accumulated over the past year and a half. We had some challenges with the moving company we chose to move our things across the country. We ended up paying twice the amount of the original estimate. That was shocking and frustrating, not to mention completely unfair. It took them over a month to deliver our stuff and they broke one of our chairs. I wouldn't recommend Mega Movers to anyone! Stay far, far away from that company! After a VERY long 30 something hour drive, we made it to Utah. The next day we had a wonderful little surprise! So do you think it will be a boy or a girl? Matt's convinced it will be a girl. I have had a few episodes of morning sickness, and some nausea, but it really hasn't been terrible. I am amazed at how completely exhausted I have been! I didn't think it was possible to be so tired! I had my first doctors visit a little less than a month ago and we were able to see the baby and it's little heart beating. The Doctor said the baby has a strong heart beat, which is great. The baby is due December 5th.

Blizzads in Georgia?!

2009-03-04T18:44:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Matt, Matt's mom Cindy and I made a trip to Tennessee to visit Matt's brother Mike and his cute little family. We had a nice time just hanging around with Easton and Malia and Mike and Wendy, but we didn't get out much because it was SNOWING! It wasn't just a little snow either, it snowed all day! Apparently it snows a couple of times each year. Who knew? I was amazed at how many accidents there were...to the point where the police were asking that people not call in if they just got into a fender bender. Crazy. On the way home we hit a blizzard in Atlanta. This was Matt's first experience driving in a real snow storm and he did a good job. There were so many cars that had slid off the side of the road. It was clear that people were not used to these kinds of weather conditions. Anyway, I'm hoping we won't hit any bad weather when we make our move out to Utah. We only have about two and a half weeks left! I can't believe it! I don't have a clue what I am doing! It's tough trying to get everything organized and packed, not to mention figuring out what to use to transport all of our stuff! I'm sad to leave Georgia. It just started feeling like home and I will miss being so close to Matt's family. They are such good and loving people! I'm excited to be near my family, I just wish I could have the best of both worlds!

A Day for Firsts

2009-02-21T15:43:00.000-08:00

So I am terrible about updating my blog. I'm usually feeling pretty good about myself if I update it like once a month, BUT I am changing my ways and I am determined to update my blog at least once a week. So today I tried sushi for the first time ever! I ordered California rolls because I thought that would be a safe choice...WRONG! It had crab in it. I have made efforts to like crab, but I have come to the conclusion that crab is just disgusting no matter how you eat it, whether it be crab cakes, crab legs, crab dip....crab is just a nasty little creature to eat! I ate the sushi with the icky crab in it and tried to mask the taste with some soy sauce. I focused on the flavor of the cucumber and avocado. I almost threw up. I chewed as fast as I could and gagged a couple of times, but I got it down and I was proud. We also ordered some fried cream cheese and that was so good. How could it not be? It had CREAM CHEESE in it AND it was FRIED. What could be more unhealthy and therefore delicious?
I also tried Frisbee golf for the first time today. I had a great time despite my many trips into the woods to search for my Frisbee. I can't say I'm the best aim, but I got some good tips from my patient and encouraging husband and by the end, I saw some improvement. There were a lot of people out there that were really serious about the game...speaking in code and making strange movements before tossing the Frisbee. No smiling, no laughing... just serious. What's that all about? That's no fun at all! Anyway, Matt and I had fun and we didn't bother keeping score. Thank goodness or I might have looked just as unhappy as the people around us!

The Best Way to Feel Heaven in Your Home is to Have Someone You Love in Heaven

2008-12-30T18:55:00.000-08:00

My mom received a plaque with the words "The Best Way To Feel Heaven in Your Home is To Have Someone You Love in Heaven". I thought those words to be fitting for the title of this blog. My dad passed away recently, and though this blog is difficult for me to write, I feel it is important to pay tribute to him. Over the past couple of weeks, I have heard story after story of the service and love my dad gave to the people around him. I knew my dad to be a generous man who followed promptings without hesitation, but he almost always did his acts of service in a very quiet and private way, so it wasn't until after his passing that I was able to hear of the impact he had on so many people. His acts of service ranged from playing his bagpipes for those that were sick or grieving, to offering a perfect stranger money, a hotel room and a bus pass to get home. He showed love and acceptance in such a way that so many of the people he knew thought that he was THEIR best friend. Not only was he a good friend to nearly everyone he came in contact with, he was a good son who took care of his mother after his father passed. He was a good brother who always had his siblings best interests in mind. He was a loving and devoted husband who continually searched for ways to make his wife happy. Most importantly to me, he was a good father. Not only did he take time to play with us and laugh with us, he always took advantage of opportunities to teach us valuable lessons. I am sure Kiera, Ian and Sam learned similar lessons from my dad, but these are lessons I personally learned from him. He taught me to be an honest and hard worker. He taught me to think of others before myself. I learned many lessons from him just by observing him. I remember after a serious work accident he was in about eight years ago, he was laying in the hospital covered in dirt, with bruises and broken bones and he asked a nurse how she was doing when she came into the room to take care of him. It wasn't a casual "how are you doing" either, I knew he sincerely wanted to know. That really impressed me. He taught me to have a better understanding and love for my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as he lead us in family prayer and scripture study and talked to me often about different areas of the gospel. I will miss his council and comforting words. I will miss his constant support of the decisions I make. I will miss those rough and worn, but gentle hands that would playfully tug on my hair and pat my shoulder as he walked by or squeeze my hand in times of discouragement and reassure me that everything would be ok. Although I won't be able to feel those hands any more or see his face, I know that heaven isn't far way and he will often be near. Whenever I hear his name mentioned or think of the life he lived, my heart will swell with pride to know that he was my dad.

Adventures in Primary Teaching

2008-10-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

So Matt and I have been teaching the nine-year-old's in primary for several months now and it can be such a challenge sometimes! The boys are constantly trying to be silly and make each other laugh. We often hear comments like " um..uhh...if Samuel the Lamanite was being shot at by arrows, would the arrows hit his bed? he he ha ha" What the heck does that even mean?! There is one child in particular that just...exasperates me. I know she has some learning disabilities, and I try to take that into account, but sometimes, I'm just not sure how to handle her. A couple of weeks ago we were practicing for our primary program and the poor girl was in a terrible mood! I was offending her left and right with my attempts at keeping her from breaking a chair or disrupting the practice. At one point she said, "That's the last straw!!" and angrily grabbed a piece of paper and started EATING it! I practically had to beg her not to eat the paper with her part in the program on it. This has become a new habit of hers. She's always eating paper! Should I let her eat paper? Should I just ignore this behavior? How do I distract her? I've tried talking about her pretty dress etc. Doesn't work. Thankfully, she really likes Matt and she listens to him most of the time. He has been sick these past couple of weeks, so I was on my own. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas for keeping nine-year-old's interested in primary, I would LOVE to hear them. I think I'm better off with two-year-old's.

Ahhhhhh!!!

2008-10-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

When Matt and I got engaged, the thought of handwriting names and addresses for around 150 to 200 people sounded awful, and I truly thought it was when I actually had to to it. I was such a wimp! I had only experienced a fraction of the monotony, aches and pain that I have come to know over the past two weeks. Matt and I decided we wanted to make a little extra money so we could pay off our new car quickly, so we resorted to THIS!! It may not look like much, but that's 1100 envelopes and 8 hours of work. The processes involves signing and folding each paper, followed by hand writing each name and address and stuffing the envelope. We haven't even gotten around to the other 400 or so envelopes still waiting for us. We also have to seal and stamp each envelope. That part really isn't so bad, it just makes my back hurt. Though the piles of envelopes seam never ending, Matt and I work well together and I usually get a good back rub out of it. We get 12 cents for each envelope, so it's a pretty decent deal. This car better be worth it!

Yellowstone

2008-09-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

Matt and I took a trip to Wyoming, Idaho and Utah about a week ago and it was so nice to be able to spend time with family. After a very long, but relatively smooth plane ride, we arrived safely in Utah much to Matt's relief. Flying is not something Matt enjoys in the least bit, and often dreads months or weeks before the actual event. About two hours after our arrival, we headed straight to Idaho to visit my cousins. The next day we headed to Yellowstone. On our way there we stopped in Jackson Hole and got a picture of the famous antler arch. We also got a great picture of the Teton Mountains. They have such a Dr. Seuss look about them!

Yellowstone was fun and just as stinky as I remember it. We went to Yellowstone when I was a kid and the terrible sulfur smell is the one thing that stands out it my mind. One of my favorite places we visited was painters point....or maybe it was painters pallet. Anyway, I thought it was beautiful. Here is a picture of Matt and I in front of the perfect view.

We didn't see the variety of wild life we would have liked to, but we did see buffalo, buffalo and more buffalo. We saw a baby wolf which was fun...no bears unfortunately. Of course when you go to Yellowstone, you have to get a picture of Old Faithful. I had my camera ready and I waited and waited for Old Faithful to go off and just when that moment came...what do you know, the battery dies. So I'm settling for a family picture in front of some random mud pot.

Our little vacation was fun, but a little too short. I wish we could have spent more time with the extended family, but we did enjoy the short time that we had with them. Hopefully we will be back soon!

I Love Food!

2008-09-07T18:48:00.001-07:00

I LOVE food. I love making it and seeing the satisfaction on someones face when they taste something really delicious. My current TV obsession is the food network. I could probably watch it all day if I let myself. It is so entertaining for me to watch someone make something different and interesting. I love experimenting with different flavors, spices, and textures. Over the past couple weeks, I have been experimenting with homemade ravioli. I found a ravioli maker at Williams Sonoma and it makes perfect little ravioli shapes. I don't have a pasta maker, so I have to roll out the dough myself. It works for now and I'm actually developing some muscle from all that rolling. After the dough is rolled you place it on the ravioli shaper and press the dough down with this press that looks kind of like an egg carton. Then you fill each little pocket, place another layer of dough on the top and roll over it with a rolling pin. It's so easy and fun. My biggest challenge has been the pasta dough. I tried one last week that called for eggs, flour and olive oil and it was just terrible. All we could taste was the egg. I know it's silly, but I seriously get so upset when food doesn't turn out the way I expect it to. Anyway, this week I tried a different dough recipe without eggs and it was much better. I made sweet potato ravioli with a brown butter and sage sauce, topped with fried shallots and toasted pine nuts. It was sooo good that I even took a picture. I would recommend the recipe to anyone who has the time for it. It's well worth the work!

Ravioli dough
2 C. all-purpose flour
1 t. salt
2 T. unsalted butter
1/2 cup boiling water

In a food processor, place the flour and salt. Add the butter and pulse until the flour has the texture of rough cornmeal. With the machine running, slowly add the water. Gather the dough into a ball and place on a floured surface. Knead lightly until the dough is smooth. Cover in plastic wrap and let rest for 10 minutes. Divide dough in half and keep one half covered while you work with the other. Roll out dough to a 19x4" rectangle 1/8 inch thickness. Place 1 teaspoon of filling about one inch apart on rectangle. Fold over and press around the edges (use egg wash to seal around the edges). Cut into squares. Ravioli freezes well for 2-3 months. Cook fresh ravioli in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes or frozen ravioli for 9-10 minutes. You can also use wonton wrappers. Cook until ravioli floats to the top.

Sweet Potato Ravioli
Filling:
2 1-lb sweet potatoes (yams)
2 T. golden brown sugar
2 T. butter, room temperature

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Oil rimmed baking sheet. Cut sweet potatoes in half lengthwise; place cut side down on baking sheet. Roast until tender, about 35 minutes; cool. Scoop potato pulp out of skins onto small bowl. Spoon 1 1/3 cups pulp into medium bowl. Add sugar and butter. Mash well. Season filling with salt and pepper.

Fried Shallots and Sauce:
1 C. vegetable oil
4 large shallots, cut crosswise into thin rounds, separated into rings
6 tablespoons butter
8 large fresh sage leaves, thinly sliced
1/4 - 1/2 t. crushed red pepper
1/3 C. pine nuts toasted

Heat vegetable oil in heavy small saucepan over medium-high heat. Working in 2 batches, fry shallots until crisp and dark brown, about 2 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer shallots to paper-towel-lined plate to drain. Cook butter in large pot over medium heat until beginning to brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add sage and red pepper. Add cooked ravioli to pot with butter sauce; toss to coat. Transfer to plates, drizzling any sauce from pot over ravioli. Top with fried shallots and pine nuts.

Kid's Say the Darndest Things

2008-08-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

I teach two-year-old's at a school called Oak Brook. Yes, it is actually considered a school. I know, I know..... it doesn't seem like two-year-old's are quite ready for pre-school, but they actually learn a lot and I am always surprised at the growth I see in them within just a few months. This job is not easy, in fact it is exhausting. I have just spent the past week preparing for a new class of two-year-old's.....17 of them! I don't know what I'm going to do, besides loose my mind. The only thing that really keeps me happy and sane is to hear some of their comments. A few of which I probably shouldn't share. A couple of days ago one of my little girls said to me with her sweet little voice, "You got spots on your face." I smiled and said, "I do! What are those spots called?". She said, "They come when you get old". Hmmmmm. It's also fun to hear their little southern accents. One little girl calls toilet paper "toolet paper" haha. Occasionally I will hear them repeat things that I have said, such as, "We don't run in the classroom" or "We use our loud voices outside." I was a little bothered the other day though, when I asked a little boy where he was supposed to be sitting and he automatically said, "Outside!" I pointed to his chair and told him to sit in it. After everyone was seated I asked "Where do we need to put our hands?" (I always have them put their hands infront of them before I pass out paper for art), the same little boy shouted "Outside!". Huh? Somewhere along the way, this little boy got the impression that the answer to every question is "OUTSIDE".
Most of my kids are moving on to the next classroom and I am getting at least 13 new children in my class in addition to the four that will be staying. It's going to be intersting and I won't deny I'm a little nervous. But, as long as they keep their innocent little comments coming, I'll survive.

Hilton Head

2008-07-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

Matt and I took a trip to Hilton Head, which is a small Island in South Carolina. We were only there for a couple of days, but we had a great time. We stayed with some friends in a condo next to the beach. The night we got there it was raining and the waves were pretty big, so we decided we would go swimming. I even tried a little body surfing! I had so much fun. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures while we were on the beach.

The next day, we went to the outlet malls (that was for Matt!) and then we rented bikes. There are over 25 miles of trails on the Island apparently. Matt and I rode around by ourselves for a couple of hours and we even saw a long black snake. I don't know what kind it was, but it was just hanging out in the middle of the bike trail. We tried to get a picture, but it slid away too fast.
I haven't ridden a bike since I was like 10 years old, so I was a little scared at first, but I got the hang of it. I kind of felt like a little kid again, riding that bike. I have that classic "look mom! I'm doing it!!" picture. You know, the one where your proudly looking over your shoulder at the person behind you. Honestly, I'm lucky I didn't run into a tree trying to pull a stunt like that. Anyway, it was fun and Matt and I have decided we will eventually invest in some bikes!

Blueberry Pickin'

2008-07-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

I have decided that I need to take more opportunities to experience the South, and I had the perfect opportunity over the weekend. There is a town called Thomsan (about thirty minutes away from Augusta) where a little old woman by the name of Bernice, owns a blueberry patch. I think Bernice is such an appropriate name for a little lady with a blueberry patch. My friends (Troy and Kristina) and I made our trip out to the patch only to find a sign that said "Closed, due to heat index". We were so disappointed! Just as we were about to leave, we saw a van pull up on the far side of the blueberry patch. We weren't about to give up on picking blueberries after driving a half hour to get there, so we pulled up next to the van and Troy convinced a sweet little woman to let us pick the berries. She was a good friend of the owner. It was insanely hot and humid! I have never sweat that much in my life! I wore sandals (I don't know what I was thinking) and about five minutes into picking, my toes started to sting. I looked down to find fire ants crawling all over my toes. I moved from bush to bush, trying to escape those darn ants, but they always found me. There was an older man picking berries while sitting in his wheel chair and the poor man was practically eaten alive by those awful things! He had welts everywhere. I felt so bad for him! Fire ants have to be one of the worst features of the South....along with the roaches. I don't know which are worse. I got about 5 lbs. of blueberries for only $1.50/lb. We made blueberry jam when we got home and the next day I made my own blueberry syrup to put on my favorite pancakes. I'm not a pancake lover, but I love this recipe!

Ricotta pancakes
2 cups ricotta
4 large eggs, separated
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
Dash of salt

Combine the ricotta, egg yolks, buttermilk, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl. Sift the dry ingredients: flour sugar, baking powder, and salt together into the ricotta mixture and stir until fully combined. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form and then gently fold into the batter. Heat a large nonstick pan over medium heat and add a little butter. Cook 2 to 3 pancakes at a time using a 6-ounce ladle or measuring cup to pour the batter into the pan. Cook the pancakes on 1 side until they set. When small bubbles appear on the uncooked surface, flip the pancakes and cook until golden on both sides, about 6 minutes.

Blueberry Syrup
1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
3 tablespoons sugar
juice of half a lemon
1/2 teaspoon corn starch
Combing ingredients in a saucepan. Crush some of the berries to release juices. Simmer until sauce thickens. Serve warm.

I like to spread a little lemon curd over the top of the pancakes and then pour blueberry syrup over that. It's soooo good!

2008-07-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

So I decided that it was time for me to join the blogger world. Being as Matt and I live across the country from most of my family and friends, I thought this might be a good way to let everyone know what we are up to. We have been in Augusta for just over a year and we are unsure at this point, when we will be returning back to Utah. Matt is in the process of applying for jobs in Augusta as well as Utah. I miss my family and friends, but we both feel that we need to be out here just a little longer. We will see what happens.
Matt and I were just called to be primary teachers for the 9-year-old's. We have taught the class twice and it has been a good experience so far. I love watching Matt interact with the kids. We have one little girl in the class that has been a challenge for teachers in the past. We were told that she didn't like men, but apparently she feels differently about Matt! She warmed up to him very quickly and was eager to be near him. As we made our way down the isle of the primary room she said, "I gonna split you guys up!". Although she sat between us, she insisted we hold hands across her lap. She's a character! I have no doubt that this calling will provide many learning experiences for both of us!