The Eagle Summit has reached its last days. Right now it isn't even running (something with the alternator) and we've been driving my brother Eric's car, which emits horrible fumes through the vents. Anyway, it finally came time to find a new car, so on Saturday we got a silver 2007 chevy malibu. We really like it and it's by far the nicest car I've ever had. [Pictures to follow]
In other news, Adelle turned 3 months on the 19th! We also retired the bassinet and have been working on her sleeping in the crib. She's actually been doing really well, taking a few short naps during the day, then sleeping from 11ish until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. We have been really fortunate. She has been a really good sleeper since the first few weeks.
Saturday was the monthly craft day at Chelsea's house. Let me just say that she is a fantastic hostess! I didn't get a ton done because I was having too much fun talking to all the girls I haven't seen much since we switched wards, but I did start Adelle's album and made a few cards. It was so much fun and will definitely be a regular event. Thanks, Chelsea, for a great day!
22 February 2009
19 February 2009
cute little girl...
I still haven't found the cord to connect my camera to my computer, so here's a shot of Adelle from about a week ago that Luke took on his phone. She's just chilling in the bouncy seat my sister Lori has been loaning us.
17 February 2009
Dear Adelle,
Please stop growing. You are doing it much too quickly and I just can't keep up with you. I would like it if you would please stop that now and stay little forever. Thanks.
Love,
Mom
(Adelle has started wearing 3-6 mo. sized clothing)
Love,
Mom
(Adelle has started wearing 3-6 mo. sized clothing)
11 February 2009
In response to my last post, Ali wrote "other than this, how's life?" so I will attempt to respond before I forget entirely about it and move on to something else completely (story of my life, more and more and more as time goes on).
Life is good! It's hard to say how life is outside of the job because wow does it take up a lot of my life. However, there are actually other aspects. For example:
Adelle is fantastic. She is trying so hard to laugh that she constantly throws her arms and legs down and makes this heart-melting expression that I'm pretty sure is imitating my "let's be excited when we say hi" face. It usually consists of opening my mouth really big (you know, like the big-mouthed surprise gasp) and then saying "hi!" a few times... and her version is so cute. She just smiles and opens her mouth really big while crinkling her nose. I made. the cutest baby. ever. It's as simple as that. Of course, it does make me wonder just exactly how goofy I look to her when I make said face. I'm pretty sure she'll love me either way, so I'm okay with it. One sad things is that I think she is already being affected by the allergens in the air. The last couple of days she's been sneezing a ton and randomly has the red puffy eyes to go with it. I don't like seeing her having to feel yucky like that :( We're washing everything and trying to pinpoint what exactly is causing it.
Church is great too! I really enjoy being in a family ward and I LOVE that I got called as a Primary Teacher. It's for CTR 6 (the kids who will turn 6 during the year) and completely exhausting and rewarding. I pretty much have every extreme of personalities/energy levels in that class and it cracks me up constantly. And wow, you really can tell which kids get taught at home and which don't.
Now that we're getting a little more situated into the new place, I've been getting more motivated to do some crafting, etc. I bought a couple of scrapbook albums, one for Adelle (black with small white polka-dots) and one for Luke for mission pictures (per his request). I also started working more on a quilt that I started before Adelle was born and the top is almost done now (I do not sew quickly. Not at all.). Thanks to Lori for letting me stay very late to get some of it done last weekend. She has been teaching me a ton along the way (and managing the machine because I still can't figure out how to thread the thing) (I apparently like using parentheses a lot).
Life is good! It's hard to say how life is outside of the job because wow does it take up a lot of my life. However, there are actually other aspects. For example:
Adelle is fantastic. She is trying so hard to laugh that she constantly throws her arms and legs down and makes this heart-melting expression that I'm pretty sure is imitating my "let's be excited when we say hi" face. It usually consists of opening my mouth really big (you know, like the big-mouthed surprise gasp) and then saying "hi!" a few times... and her version is so cute. She just smiles and opens her mouth really big while crinkling her nose. I made. the cutest baby. ever. It's as simple as that. Of course, it does make me wonder just exactly how goofy I look to her when I make said face. I'm pretty sure she'll love me either way, so I'm okay with it. One sad things is that I think she is already being affected by the allergens in the air. The last couple of days she's been sneezing a ton and randomly has the red puffy eyes to go with it. I don't like seeing her having to feel yucky like that :( We're washing everything and trying to pinpoint what exactly is causing it.
Church is great too! I really enjoy being in a family ward and I LOVE that I got called as a Primary Teacher. It's for CTR 6 (the kids who will turn 6 during the year) and completely exhausting and rewarding. I pretty much have every extreme of personalities/energy levels in that class and it cracks me up constantly. And wow, you really can tell which kids get taught at home and which don't.
Now that we're getting a little more situated into the new place, I've been getting more motivated to do some crafting, etc. I bought a couple of scrapbook albums, one for Adelle (black with small white polka-dots) and one for Luke for mission pictures (per his request). I also started working more on a quilt that I started before Adelle was born and the top is almost done now (I do not sew quickly. Not at all.). Thanks to Lori for letting me stay very late to get some of it done last weekend. She has been teaching me a ton along the way (and managing the machine because I still can't figure out how to thread the thing) (I apparently like using parentheses a lot).
06 February 2009
choice, accountability, parenting: worries & woes... and how to learn from them
i really love my job. it can be exhausting and extremely frustrating (especially when hearing "4:00 4:00 4:00 4:00 4:00 snack snack 4:00 get a snack" over and over and over and over and over again), but at the end of the day, i can't help but smile and learn from the people i serve every day. at the end of the day they are grateful for our effort to maintain a positive and fulfilling daily environment and every day is a clean slate no matter how difficult the previous day was for them. i really am grateful for that and am trying to follow suit. i can get really frustrated when someone refuses to make a good choice (like simply climbing up into a chair instead of waiting for someone to pick you up off the floor) and it's easy to continue reminding that person that s/he didn't make a good choice, but i can say with confidence that if i messed up, they wouldn't even think to rub my face in it for the rest of the day, so i'm striving to be more like them in that way. life is full of too many good choices to just focus on the few not so great ones (and they're hardly even "bad").
that brings me to something else i've been thinking about a lot lately. as a teacher, as a parent, as an authority figure, your limits will always be tested unless you put a stop to it from the beginning. my sister-in-law Gaia and i were talking about this last weekend, specifically the example that if your child is screaming and crying for candy or something like that in a store, it means nothing to threaten leaving unless you actually do it. that may mean leaving a full cart of groceries and having to make another trip to the store, but otherwise, the battle will never end. it may be really challenging in the beginning, but it is so worth it in the end. in my field of work, that may mean waiting over an hour for a man to decide he's going to pull himself up into a chair after going limp expecting his staff to carry his weight while he's walking (he is fully capable of carrying his own weight) and consequently dropping to the floor. he was so convinced that someone was going to come rescue him and pick him up off the ground and ultimately he was right. we were prepared to leave him where he was with a staff and take the rest of the group home, when 2 other staff members (who don't work in the home, but are therapists, etc, in the community center) came and pulled him up off the ground. any possibility for progress was immediately lost (as well as about an hour of our time which was now for nothing) and well, he was right. it not only impeded progress, but further engrained in his mind that if he decides to drop to the ground, he just has to wait long enough and someone will come rescue him. frustrating. he is very seizure-prone, so he has to be assisted when walking, but that doesn't mean doing the work for him. it means supporting him enough that if he has a seizure he can't fall forward and crack his head open on the ground. in the past few years he has decided more and more to let staff do the physical work for him that his actual abilities are diminishing as a result. really, it comes back to the fundamental principle of choices and then being made accountable for the choices you have decided to make.
it may be easier at the time to just give the screaming child the candy so s'he'll shut up and let you finish your shopping, but do you really want to deal with that over and over again? then all of a sudden you have a spoiled rotten kid who is so convinced that they can anything they want out of you and your credibility as an authority figure is obsolete.
anyway, just something i've been thinking about a lot lately because of some of the things that i encounter at work along with my overwhelming desire to try to not be a horrible parent.
that brings me to something else i've been thinking about a lot lately. as a teacher, as a parent, as an authority figure, your limits will always be tested unless you put a stop to it from the beginning. my sister-in-law Gaia and i were talking about this last weekend, specifically the example that if your child is screaming and crying for candy or something like that in a store, it means nothing to threaten leaving unless you actually do it. that may mean leaving a full cart of groceries and having to make another trip to the store, but otherwise, the battle will never end. it may be really challenging in the beginning, but it is so worth it in the end. in my field of work, that may mean waiting over an hour for a man to decide he's going to pull himself up into a chair after going limp expecting his staff to carry his weight while he's walking (he is fully capable of carrying his own weight) and consequently dropping to the floor. he was so convinced that someone was going to come rescue him and pick him up off the ground and ultimately he was right. we were prepared to leave him where he was with a staff and take the rest of the group home, when 2 other staff members (who don't work in the home, but are therapists, etc, in the community center) came and pulled him up off the ground. any possibility for progress was immediately lost (as well as about an hour of our time which was now for nothing) and well, he was right. it not only impeded progress, but further engrained in his mind that if he decides to drop to the ground, he just has to wait long enough and someone will come rescue him. frustrating. he is very seizure-prone, so he has to be assisted when walking, but that doesn't mean doing the work for him. it means supporting him enough that if he has a seizure he can't fall forward and crack his head open on the ground. in the past few years he has decided more and more to let staff do the physical work for him that his actual abilities are diminishing as a result. really, it comes back to the fundamental principle of choices and then being made accountable for the choices you have decided to make.
it may be easier at the time to just give the screaming child the candy so s'he'll shut up and let you finish your shopping, but do you really want to deal with that over and over again? then all of a sudden you have a spoiled rotten kid who is so convinced that they can anything they want out of you and your credibility as an authority figure is obsolete.
anyway, just something i've been thinking about a lot lately because of some of the things that i encounter at work along with my overwhelming desire to try to not be a horrible parent.
21 January 2009
thank you!!! (two months pt. 2)
i need to say thank you first to Lori for taking these adorable pictures, then to Chelsea for making the adorable tutu!
here are some 2 month pictures of our Adelle!
Enjoy!
12 January 2009
wow.
it feels good to finally take some time to sit down in front of the computer--something i haven't really done in a while. first of all, saturday, january 3rd, we moved. we are now in a 3 bedroom duplex and we really like it. we have cleaned the old place, turned in the keys, etc, so we are free of it (it really was a great place, so it's kind of bittersweet). of course, don't try to go into the back 2 bedrooms as they are still completely filled with boxes. we hope for that to change at some point. so, that's the first big event.
The next day, sunday the 4th, Adelle was given her baby blessing in sacrament meeting at the student ward. Luke gave the blessing and the people in the circle included Luke (duh), my dad, my brother Eric (Kevin was in bed very ill and Craig and his family moved to St. Louis, so sadly they couldn't participate), my brother-in-law Chris, and Luke's friends Matt, Sam, and Nick. i'm really glad luke and i talked about the blessing after church because as i was trying to focus and remember every little word, i somehow missed about half of it. I am so grateful to be married to a worthy priesthood holder who could use his priesthood keys to bless our little girl. It was a very sweet experience. After church, the family came over for some delicious shepherd's pie (made with roast instead of hamburger... so good). It was fun to have (almost) everyone in our home and for them to actually fit. Luke and I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep (we stayed up literally all night packing the friday night before that), so I guess after eating and everything it sunk in. Let's just say we woke up after almost everyone had left because they felt bad that we were both asleep.
All this past week we had some more training for our new job along with attempted unpacking. Then yesterday (Saturday), we decided to celebrate Luke's birthday, which was on our moving day the 3rd. We went to see Seven Pounds, which was a very interesting and well-made movie, though I don't know how I feel about the ending.. that's all I'll say about that. Then we ate at Longhorn Steakhouse, which was honestly a little disappointing (except the mashed potatoes were excellent) and did a little shopping. Thanks to our friends Matt and Ali for babysitting!!!
Finally, today we attended a new ward. We decided that along with our move across town that it was time to move to a family ward, especially because the church building isn't even 2 minutes away from our house now. It's the ward that Luke went to when he was a youth, so he knows a lot more people than I do, but Iwas surprised at how quickly it felt familiar and comfortable. It will take a while getting used to a family ward, but I really look forward to it. One thing I think is really great is that the Bishop decided to use Preach My Gospel for the majority of Sacrament Meeting talks throughout the year. It is just focusing on pure simple truths and the things that the gospel is built upon. I really look forward to learning from Preach My Gospel this year.
Anyway, that is the very lengthy update. We're doing well, Adelle is changing so quickly, and we're getting a little less tired as each week goes by. To me, that's success. Eventually we'll unpack the cord for uploading pictures from the camera so I can post them, but until then, imagine a really cute little girl whose cute little chubby cheeks are getting chubbier and a cute little girl who now knows how to smile at her mom and daddy when they do something she likes (ya know, when she feels like it). We love heer so much and it is so fun thinking about who she is already trying to become.
More to come... you know, as time is constantly passing.
The next day, sunday the 4th, Adelle was given her baby blessing in sacrament meeting at the student ward. Luke gave the blessing and the people in the circle included Luke (duh), my dad, my brother Eric (Kevin was in bed very ill and Craig and his family moved to St. Louis, so sadly they couldn't participate), my brother-in-law Chris, and Luke's friends Matt, Sam, and Nick. i'm really glad luke and i talked about the blessing after church because as i was trying to focus and remember every little word, i somehow missed about half of it. I am so grateful to be married to a worthy priesthood holder who could use his priesthood keys to bless our little girl. It was a very sweet experience. After church, the family came over for some delicious shepherd's pie (made with roast instead of hamburger... so good). It was fun to have (almost) everyone in our home and for them to actually fit. Luke and I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep (we stayed up literally all night packing the friday night before that), so I guess after eating and everything it sunk in. Let's just say we woke up after almost everyone had left because they felt bad that we were both asleep.
All this past week we had some more training for our new job along with attempted unpacking. Then yesterday (Saturday), we decided to celebrate Luke's birthday, which was on our moving day the 3rd. We went to see Seven Pounds, which was a very interesting and well-made movie, though I don't know how I feel about the ending.. that's all I'll say about that. Then we ate at Longhorn Steakhouse, which was honestly a little disappointing (except the mashed potatoes were excellent) and did a little shopping. Thanks to our friends Matt and Ali for babysitting!!!
Finally, today we attended a new ward. We decided that along with our move across town that it was time to move to a family ward, especially because the church building isn't even 2 minutes away from our house now. It's the ward that Luke went to when he was a youth, so he knows a lot more people than I do, but Iwas surprised at how quickly it felt familiar and comfortable. It will take a while getting used to a family ward, but I really look forward to it. One thing I think is really great is that the Bishop decided to use Preach My Gospel for the majority of Sacrament Meeting talks throughout the year. It is just focusing on pure simple truths and the things that the gospel is built upon. I really look forward to learning from Preach My Gospel this year.
Anyway, that is the very lengthy update. We're doing well, Adelle is changing so quickly, and we're getting a little less tired as each week goes by. To me, that's success. Eventually we'll unpack the cord for uploading pictures from the camera so I can post them, but until then, imagine a really cute little girl whose cute little chubby cheeks are getting chubbier and a cute little girl who now knows how to smile at her mom and daddy when they do something she likes (ya know, when she feels like it). We love heer so much and it is so fun thinking about who she is already trying to become.
More to come... you know, as time is constantly passing.
21 December 2008
one month
my daughter turned a month old on friday. time is going by so fast and even looking at pictures, i'm having a hard time realizing how her looks and expressions have changed so gradually into what they are today. i'm sure it's impossible to really catch every moment and even if you do, you're constantly playing catch-up and missing the present worrying so much about capturing what will automatically become the past. anyway, i've decided to just try and enjoy it as i go, write things down when i get the chance, and not worry so much about capturing every moment. that's what memories are for, right? though they're far from perfect, they have a way of reminding us of the best things in life. the pictures and writings just fill in the gaps (though i am very grateful for both).
so, in spirit of remembering... practically since birth, adelle has made this little noise that sounds like a mix between laughing and clearing her throat. i'm pretty sure it started when she needed to burp, but now she does it pretty much all the time and it just cracks me up. i think i'll be a little sad when she grows out of it. also, she's starting to respond more to things i do besides just getting quiet. for example, i've been singing christmas carols to her (she gets extremely calm when i sing silent night) and today jingle bells came on the tv so i started singing it to her. every time it came to the "hey!" part, i would lower her chin whenever i said it and she'd make a big grin. it was the first time she smiled in response to something rather than just smiling randomly or in her sleep. and now, for the past couple of days, when i look at her and smile, sometimes she'll give me just a little smirk. i just love watching her working so hard to slowly become the woman that she will eventually be. i feel blessed to be so connected to her life and am constantly going to try my best not to mess that up. this is the easy part, right? i definitely CAN wait for when she starts having her own opinions and realizing that i'm not perfect :P
yay for being a mom.
so, in spirit of remembering... practically since birth, adelle has made this little noise that sounds like a mix between laughing and clearing her throat. i'm pretty sure it started when she needed to burp, but now she does it pretty much all the time and it just cracks me up. i think i'll be a little sad when she grows out of it. also, she's starting to respond more to things i do besides just getting quiet. for example, i've been singing christmas carols to her (she gets extremely calm when i sing silent night) and today jingle bells came on the tv so i started singing it to her. every time it came to the "hey!" part, i would lower her chin whenever i said it and she'd make a big grin. it was the first time she smiled in response to something rather than just smiling randomly or in her sleep. and now, for the past couple of days, when i look at her and smile, sometimes she'll give me just a little smirk. i just love watching her working so hard to slowly become the woman that she will eventually be. i feel blessed to be so connected to her life and am constantly going to try my best not to mess that up. this is the easy part, right? i definitely CAN wait for when she starts having her own opinions and realizing that i'm not perfect :P
yay for being a mom.
20 December 2008
07 December 2008
someday you'll see us again..
i'm sure it's completely normal, but i am a little bit afraid to take Adelle out to any public places. even church seems like too much of a risk for my little one's immune system (especially at this time of year), so since she was born, we've been at home for a great majority of the time. yesterday, she and i did venture out to my sister Lori's, where we took advantage of her nice camera and artistic eye to get a few cute pics of Adelle before she's too grown up and we forget how cute and little she is now. here are a few favorites (thanks, Lori!):
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