Happy birthday Deborah!

To my dearest Deborah Diane,

Happy birthday, love. I am so sorry it is weeks late. Lame. I know.

Deborah, I am so glad that you were born. If you were not my life would be missing so much love, laughter, and learning. Thank you for being my friend from my first awkward moments in the SW program. I needed your friendship and you gave it so willingly. Thank you for sitting next to me, giggling with me and studying with me. Thank you for teaching me about forgiveness, compassion, and acceptance. Thank you for sharing your passion for adoption, counseling, and beauty. I know you are only like a minute younger than me, but being with you keeps me young. Younger than I would be otherwise. Thank you for celebrating my successes and for mourning my losses. Thank you for loving my family. Thank you for going on adventures with me. I may have missed Brittany's wedding if you weren't around. Thank you for giving me rides and calls and visits to VA when I so needed them. Thank you for inviting me to be with you in the temple. Thank you for sharing your spirit, passions, jokes, family, love, and snuggles with me. I love you and am so privileged to be your friend. Happy (belated) birthday, love!!

Happy Birthday mom and dad!

Although this comes weeks after the joyous celebration, it is no less sincere. Sorry for the delay, padres. Thank you Mom and Dad for giving me an outstanding foundation for a secure and successful life.

My mom continues to give me life-long unconditional love despite any mistakes I make. She gives me the best example of sacrifice for her family and friends. She loves people far more than things or selfish time alone. She has always given me a listening ear; a treasure that I can't even begin to describe in importance. Thank you, mom!

My Dad makes for a beautiful compliment to my tender, child-like mama. His greatest gifts to me include his love for the gospel of Jesus Christ and his encouragement to analyze the world closely. His passion for studying and teaching the scriptures will always be the greatest heritage he could have given me. Thank you, dad!

Together they have given me the security of their committed marriage and friendship. I couldn't have been given better parents. I love you both. Happy (belated) birthdays!!

Easter & other April adventures

Playing in the fountain

Decorating Easter eggs

National Zoo field trip - the lions were my favorite!

Up close. Stuart has been making monkey noises and signing "monkey" ever since.

We look "photoshoped"

Practicing an egg hunt in the front yard in preparation for the BIG hunt the next day. He still sometimes says "egg"  pointing to all the places they used to hide.

The BIG hunt at Brenda's house. Stu was the smallest kid there so he got a head start. Rick thought he was SO funny with this little trick.

17 eggs total!

Our Easter decorations at home. The homemade bunny basket Jared used as a kid.  His siblings all have one in their own color. 

My favorite decoration, by far! Jared's mom gave this to us to keep. His little face used to decorate their house growing up, and now it adorns ours. He was such a cute kid!! No wonder Stuart's a heart breaker. 

 Our Easter week also included watching lots of Easter movies about Jesus, listening to talks and lessons about Jesus' life, and preparing sacrament meeting talks for our new ward (aka congregation). Jared and I spoke on Easter Sunday, which also was the first Sunday we had ever attended our new church! They wasted no time in getting to know us. Although the request was unconventional, it made my Easter extra special. 

A daily occurrence.

"Just helping daddy move the dresser." My boys are such a good team!

Home ownership

My apologies for the radio static this last month. I neglected to share our other huge news, in addition to our baby-on-the-way. Of course, as our family grows we need more space. We had been looking for months for a home to buy and we finally moved 4 weeks ago! It is official. We are homeowners and, therefore, cannot avoid adulthood any longer. 

Here is the mess in our little apartment before the move. 

And below you get a preview of the house. These were taken the weekend we moved in. More to come when it is all set up! Stay tuned!

below: the living room, as seen from the second floor "draw bridge", as Jared calls it because it leads to our master suite and nothing else. It is all ours.

 Stu's room

The "draw bridge" and loft office upstairs, as seen from the living room. (Don't worry. That giant hole in the wall won't stay that hideous forever.) 

 Basement play room! Woot!

 Finally, the deck.

And there it is! A little preview with more to come as we set up house. Or at least mostly set up. We LOVE being in our own home with lots of space! However, home ownership is not all roses. We have already worked through some painful thorns. Our lessons learned is a thought for another day. Thanks for looking. 

Any advice for new home owners? 

Our family is growing

Dear friends and family,

Many of you have heard this exciting news already. In case you have not yet, Jared and I are expecting baby #2! Stuart is going to be a big brother!

I've tried to explain it to Stu, but it will make more sense as it gets closer, I'm sure. I also keep trying to explain it to Jared, but....

just kidding. :)

Baby #2 is expected at the VERY end of September. Maybe even the beginning of October. That makes me 13 weeks pregnant. I am hopefully coming out of that weak and sickly time. The last few weeks have been rough at times. I've found that as I stay hydrated, eat whole foods and satisfying natural fats I feel healthy and strong.

However. just a few days ago we had a delicious dinner of pinto bean tacos on hard shells with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa and avocado. I really liked it. Even after smelling the beans cook in seasonings all afternoon. A rarity these days. As we finished up, Stu wanted a sip from Jared's glass. Jared said, "Stu, are you going to add floaties to my water?" That was it. That was all it took for me to lose it. And my dinner was gone. Never to come back. I returned from the bathroom and was so mad I lost my precious dinner. When I told my mom, she laughed for 5 minutes straight about the simplicity of Jared's comment. She was laughing so hard I though SHE might lose her last meal. :) What a volatile world to live in. When a comment about backwash wastes a perfectly good meal.

It is all worth it. This little one joining our family is well worth it. Bring it on: morning sickness, weight gain, clothing discomfort, not sleeping on my belly, more sitting down, smelling EVERYTHING, middle-of-the-night bathroom breaks, tears, vomit, kicks in the ribs, huge belly. BRING IT.

As long at it comes with naps, TLC from my mister, fluttering and amniotic somersaults, encouraging compliments, Hypnobabies, midwives, and a baby that's ours, then BRING IT ON. I'm ready and looking forward to a second beautiful birth. Thank you God for our growing family.

Remember

19 months. Was it really that long ago that Stuart was born? Such a beautiful experience.

There's so much to remember about his growth and his amazing personality:

He has 4 molars, one in each corner of his giant smile. Four front teeth and one very asymmetrical incisor. He can communicate mostly with me because his pronunciation needs practice, and because we have our own language. Part of that language is sign language. He can sign more, please, thank you, eat, drink, apple, peach, help, bird, cow, horse, airplane, book, pain, bubbles, all done, and up. He does more when we show him too. He asks to go outside and for a banana almost immediately in the morning. He loves cheese. Mostly because it is a treat in our house, along with bread. His current obsessions are ducks (or any bird), bees, books, racing matchbox cars, regular cars, trucks or buses, toes, belly buttons, his blanket (still), lights, and airplanes. He likes to sing the ABC's as we brush his teeth and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" especially the heads and toes.

We spend lots of time on our balcony: eating, reading, unofficial tanning, painting (pictured above), anything. It overlooks a path and a busy road. He constantly waves to the passing cars and joggers. He especially loves the travelers with dogs. Some of them hear him say "hi" and are so kind in return. We are working on going down stairs standing up. He enjoys having his shoes on. His newest invented game is pushing our knees together when Jared and I sit with our legs open. He giggles like a mad man. When racing his matchbox cars he mimics, "on your mark, get set, go!' although the word "go" is the only clear one.

He sleeps 12-13 hours a night with no interruptions. But it's been that way for over a year. He still sucks his thumbs as he snuggles into bed. He gives hugs and kisses willingly, more so to Daddy. Maybe because he knows Mommy will steal them anyway. He knows all the parts of the face, including teeth, tongue, and cheek. He painted with liquid watercolors for the first time last week. He loves helping with meals, watching anything "HOT!" on the stove or in the oven, and doing the laundry. Especially putting the dirty clothes in the running washer water. He goes to nursery at church now. No separation anxiety.

He can drink out of a regular cup, but spills sometimes. He says "Ah-bee" for Amen at the end of prayers as well as The End at the end of books. He loves being tickled, wrestling, and hiding under blanket forts. He loves balloons, and we love that they are free at the grocery store we go to. He can play on the playground equipment all by himself and loves the slide. He climbs up, sits down at the top and pushes himself onto the slide, shimmies off the end, laughs and runs around to do it all over again.

The little girl that I babysit is such a good friend for him. She is 8 months younger and so laid back. They both have learned which set of bars on the balcony are far enough apart to put their head through. There is only one opening wide enough. So they like to battle for that spot on the balcony. :)

I'm impressed. If you read all that "word vomit" - if you will - then good on ya! I just wanted to write everything that came to mind that I want to remember about him right now.

Pi Day

Yesterday was Pi Day.

3.14

Also known as PIE day. My college roommate (who studied math education) always enjoyed a pie party every March 14th. And I happened to marry the Pi King. After Jared memorized 100 digits of the number Pi for a high school talent show [EDIT (Jared): I memorized approximately 180 digits for Pi Day for Mr. Whitehead's 9th grade Algebra II class which was an excuse to have a holiday more than anything at the time.  Since no one else tried to memorize pi for our class competition, I won!  And the part about them parading me around the school to random English, Biology, and Gym classes is completely accurate.  All 4 years of high school.  Oddly enough, no one ever made fun of me for it, and to this day I get emails/Facebook posts around this time of year about how they remember that.], his peers paraded him from class to class to recite it for the students every March 14th. LOVE Jared and his amazing mind. Just brilliant.

Well, I made a blackberry pie yesterday. Not because I remembered it was Pi day. But because I wanted this pie my friend shared on her food blog. Thank you Adrienne. It WAS pie nirvana. Not to mention I baked with and learned about vanilla beans for the first time. I love learning. Did you know that the vanilla bean is the second most expensive spice (below saffron) because the vanilla pod takes 10 years to fully mature? Wow.

When a friend came over in the evening she pointed out that it was Pi day. What a delightfulcoincidence! Thanks for reminding me, Lisa.

Come on over if you want a piece. Come quickly. It won't last long. :)

Mom O's birthday and quilt

Yesterday was Mom O's birthday. She would have been 52. Too young to be gone. I missed her a lot this week. Luckily she's not too far away.

I have been thinking of her a lot in the last 2 months due to a new textile exhibit at the DC Temple Visitors' Center. I got an email in January about the exhibit accepting original textile creations, like embroidery, tapestry work, hand weaving, needle point and quilting. The theme is Family Ties. Now, of course I thought of the 3 little quilts Mom O helped me create, but more dominating was the thought that I should enter one of her quilts instead. She made an incredible quilt for me and Jared when we got married. A December wedding of course called for red and green. And of course I entered it into the exhibit.

I also entered this quilt that I made, but when decision-making time came it didn't make the cut. Although I am disappointed about that, I can't complain. After all, I did tell the judges I would prefer that if there was not enough room for both quilts that they make sure there is room for hers. I really wanted this exhibit to be a tribute to her. She never would have tried to sell or seek praise for her work; she just wanted to give them away to someone she loved. I decided she deserves some praise for at least this one piece.

So, if you live close to DC and want to see the exhibit and her quilt, come on down! Check out the above link for the Visitors' Center. You will find the hours and address. The exhibit opens TODAY (the day after her birthday) and runs until April 29. See you there!

Happy Birthday, Joe!

Happy birthday to my brother-in-law, Joseph. He's the best pilot I know and I am so proud to have a military man in my family. I recently gained a greater appreciation for all the work and sacrifice all service men and women give, including what my sister and her family may sacrifice. I read a biography, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. This book was incredible and brought to life the trials of war, the rigors of training, and the uncertainty of military service. I know - Joe - that you are not fighting in WWII. But, you still are a resilient survivor and I am grateful for your service, sacrifice, and love for my sister. Happy birthday, bro. I love you!

February pictures

We have had a full month of traveling, visits from family, visits to family, and snuggles at home. Here are some highlights.

Our weekend getaway to the timeshare with my sister and nephew. Stuart and his cousin Camilo mesmerized by the off and on of the electric fireplace. Jared thinks he's so funny. And he is. Stu didn't ever figure out it was his daddy doing it. Not magic.

Lunch at Jungle Jim's. We all enjoyed the kid's menu masks a bit too much. :)

Jungle Camilo and his fair lady Jungle Krista

Jungle Stuart and his Jungle Mama

Anniversary party to celebrate my Aunt and Uncle's 40 years of marriage. Live music (my other Uncle's band!), family, dancing, food, balloons! So fun. Stuart fell asleep in the car and slept on the floor while we danced the night away. Amazing to have him as a kid!

Smiling. Imagining 40 years together.

"Worker guys" outside our house. Stuart watched them on their equipment for 30 minutes repeating "ooo" and "hot" as the steam rose from the pavement. Watching him was the highlight of my day. Usually is.

Our art project. Can you tell which one I painted and the one he drew? :)

Play dough/ dino time.

Jared's "french fries" for Scout night's cake contest. They were served with strawberry "ketchup" in a cupcake foil. So clever and yummy - That's my mister!

You know your smoke alarm goes off too often when your one-year-old takes the trash can lid and pretends to waft at the ceiling. Sad. He's seen us do it so many times to stop the noise. In defense of my cooking, our alarm is really sensitive and our oven smokes even a little bit when preheated. I think we spilled olive oil and it has a low smoke temperature. So glad Stuart knows what the smoke alarm it, though. :)

PS. He doesn't NEED that bib. He just likes the cat.

Thanks for looking.