Things That Are New

I think this post will catch us up as far as pictures go! Here are some new things we've been experiencing in our house.

Sydney has been able to drink from a straw for awhile now, but she thinks Capri Suns are the best ever. She hasn't figure out how to get the straw in the little hole yet, for which we are grateful.

Not really new, but funny. Sydney stuffing as much biscuit as possible in her mouth at once.
The new frequent state of our house. Toys are constantly strewn everywhere as Hurricane Sydney leaves chaos in her wake.
Her first Nintendo game. Pretty soon she'll be able to whup us both. Can you see the little competitive gleam in her eye?
Sydney entertaining herself while I get ready means I have messes to clean up afterward.
The cupboards are really super exciting I think. She likes to eat soap. Gross.

She can now pull herself up to standing even in the tub!

We have pretty colors in our garden!

We will post soon and let you all know what else is new in our little family! We know you're all waiting anxiously! ;)

Creepy Quarantine House

I promised Katie a post last week and never got it up. Sorry Katie, but here it is now. Remember on ET when they come in and put plastic up all over the house to quarantine it? That's what my house looked like last week and the week before. I've told a few people that and they didn't believe me, so here's my pictorial proof. In this first you can see our refrigerator in our living room. This was our only major appliance we got to use while they replaced our kitchen floor.

Our kitchen. I discovered I couldn't live without my microwave so I had Aaron cut open the plastic and we made ourselves a little door.
The living room from above. Notice the plastic ceiling that can be seen slightly in the top right corner. They literally sealed the house off so they didn't get dust everywhere while they were working.
A decent view of the doors we had around the house. They are plastic and zip shut. It was very interesting unzipping them and re-zipping them while holding Sydney. Bending up and down like that gave me some seriously sore thighs for awhile.
We're extremely grateful to have our house and all our appliances back! Although it was fun not having to cook and going out to eat all the time, it was awful not being able to cook anything. We like our modern way of living. Hooray for having our house to ourselves again.

A Real Nightmare

The other night I dreamed that Halloween had come and gone and I missed the Halloween clearance sales. It was a very sad day. But then I woke up and it was so crisp and cold outside I couldn't figure out if it were true or not! My brain is more than a little screwed up right now. Ultrasound is on Thursday though, so that's exciting!

Idaho Pics 3 - aka The Wedding

OK, here's the official reason we went out that specific weekend. Aaron's little brother Garth got married and Kiery officially joined the family! Hooray! The ceremony was beautiful, the weather was hot hot hot (have I mentioned that I struggle now with the heat?), the dinner was uber-yummy (I don't think Sydney had a single complaint until they put the food away) and gorgeous since it had cooled off a bit, and the reception was fantastic, relaxed, and fun. Kiery and Garth both seemed pretty relaxed about things and weren't stressing all day, which will make their memories even better! Here's the happy couple outside the temple (which is behind me)

I really love this picture. Kiery's face is so classic.

Almost everyone has a goofy look in this one too. Keep in mind that the real photographer was to my left, so who knows what Garth & Kiery were looking at!
The ring ceremony - I really liked her sparkly dress
Aaron and Sydney at the ring ceremony goofing off. They were brilliant and chose to give fans as their wedding favors. Smart move guys!

The cake. Such a candid shot. I love it. Thanks Adi.
Another stolen pic. Where was I and where was my camera? Good thing my sisters and sister-in-laws were prepared during this trip!
Sydney trying to catch the bouquet. While watching this and the garter throw I had a flashback to my own wedding where little Garth caught the garter on his head and my sister Haylee (now married and 36 weeks prego) caught the bouquet. Ah, good times.
The next morning we headed home. We went through Wyoming, so it was far less beautiful than the Grand Junction drive (sorry Justin, it's scrubby!), but there was WAY less construction and far fewer abrupt changes in altitude. The result was that Sydney slept a lot more (sing praises), I discovered that sea-bands do not work on me (drat), and riding in the car for long distances in my personal condition is way more than uncomfortable, it's downright painful! But we made it home, we are all safe and sound, and Sydney is tearing up the house and keeping us on our toes! Whew! Now I'll try to post all our pics from the last 2 weeks!

Idaho Pics 2 - aka We Have a Really Cute Kid

Sydney is making lots of silly faces lately

Most of these were captured by my sister Jessica. I mean all of them. Thanks Jess.
Especially for this one. It's the best! She makes this face and blows air in and out her nose like a bull. The best part - she's not mad. Just a ham.
Uncle JC gave her 2 demo phones (like you see in cell phone stores). He has all the hook ups. Maybe this is one reason she loves him so much. He gave her her first phone.

A pinecone! Amazing. She tried to eat it. Big surprise.
With cousin Kayden. This big boy is a tank, and only 4 months older than her! I think it's funny how much smaller than him she is, and she's not a skinny little baby! Notice her head is like the same size as his though. My big brained baby. :)

Idaho Trip Part 1

Yeah, so it's been awhile now since we got back and I'm slow. Dang it. It was great seeing everyone, but I was particularly stoked to see my sister Jessica who skipped work and drove from Boise just to come see us (since she had been there only a few weeks before for another wedding). We got to have a great girl's day (no pictures) and talk about Breaking Dawn and just hang out. It was so good to see her and everyone else! Here are our pics from Idaho. Sydney loves her Uncle JC. Here they are having a bonking contest to see who can push their head the hardest. Syd usually wins these.

My mom playing with my nephew Kayden. The Wheels on the Bus is a funny song. Obviously.
Sydney got into her diaper bag and found this banana. It got really quiet. Then we found out she was eating it - peel and all. Gross. We helped her out, but she totally would have gotten through it.
Kayden playing with my parent's dog Winston. Winston would take off running and Kayden would go flying. It was the funniest thing ever.
A new trick. Sit on something semi-hi...
Then fall while daddy catches me! Sooooo fun!
Getting clean

She finally figured out crawling - 2 days before she turned 11 months! We didn't exactly push her though, we just let her figure it out at her own pace. We know now that we were smart. When she first started crawling, the one thing she would do it for every time was a raspberry from Grandma's garden. Yum. I miss those.

I got to go to a baby shower for my friend Amber while I was over there! Neither of us live there and we both happened to be in town! It was kismet! So fun to see her!

We also did family pictures for my family and they were very pleasant, particularly since it is usually Christmas when we try to do this!

Our little family picture. Sydney smiled in many pics, but not the ones where she was looking at the camera. With only a little food and not much sleep that day, we should mostly just be happy she wasn't screaming.

My brother and his cute family. They need a blog. sigh.

Salt Lake Trip Part 2 - Temple Square

On Sunday we got to go to Temple Square. It was wonderful since we have not been there in many years. We got to see the new(ish?) Joseph Smith movie (wonderful - thanks Adi for taking our poopy cranky kid out so we could watch it), walk around the grounds, and enjoy everything as much as the 100 degree heat would allow! Here we are at the statue of the Christus. On our way down the spiral walkway Sydney kept pointing back at it. It was really cute.

She has never wanted to do this with her other stroller or with shopping carts, etc. but she really wanted to push her new umbrella stroller like she was superbaby. It kept her entertained for awhile!
I should have expected this - you can't go to Temple Square without running into someone you know. This time it was our caseworker from Arizona! It was very random, but the story is worth recording, so here we go. We sat down so that I could slather Sydney up with sunscreen before we exited the nicely air conditioned visitor's center. As I was finishing up she threw up all over her clothes. I started stripping her down (sooo grateful I had an additional onesie - thus the outfit change) and heard behind me "I know you - Devony!" I was shocked when I turned around to discover that although the woman looked vaguely familiar, I had no hope of figuring out who she was while trying to stop Sydney from rubbing her puked on clothes all over the furniture. I asked who she was and found out she was our caseworker's wife! She called him over and we had a nice little catch up session. Sydney seemed embarrassed by her lack of attire, so I finally got around to putting a shirt on the naked kid. I was so surprised that she recognized me, but very glad she did! Good thing Sydney barfed and held us up!
So beautiful.

I love all the flowers. Anyone who has not been to Temple Square should go. It's gorgeous and so peaceful.


She looks like a giant in this picture!

It was a beautiful day and we were glad we got to spend it with Adrianne and Michael! We're so glad we got to visit Salt Lake again. I forget how beautiful of a city it is until we go back. Also I really like the layout. Numbered streets are SO much easier than named! Thank you Brigham Young for your insight there!

Salt Lake Trip Part 1

We're finally back from our trip and I'm now going to get all caught up in a hurry. I hope. I'll go chronologically, which will end up backward on the blog, but it's easier for me!

I must say, the drive there was fairly miserable for me. It was beautiful (we took a new route through the mountains) but the altitude bothered poor Sydney's ears, I ended up being nauseated almost the entire way, and we hit construction about 12 times. Add to that the fact that Sydney only slept for about 2.5 hours the whole trip, my new need for frequent stops, and ligament pains, and we had a fairly rough 10 hour trip (which was only supposed to take 8-9).
On Saturday we got to see/meet a couple that Aaron knew on his mission who are now serving a Church History Mission on Temple Square. They get to work in the archives all day. My dream job. sigh

Later that night we got to celebrate Michael's college graduation! Yay Michael! Here is Aaron feeding his brother Garth a diabetic coma comprised of hot fudge and a tiny bit of ice cream. Gag.
Shawn, Brittany, and Britt's twin sisters came to visit us later that night. Hooray! I was so glad to see her! Also it was the first time I have seen her prego! She looks so great and is ready to go any day now!
We got to hang out with Kiery and Garth. Garth had a bit of an accident.
And got to stay with Adi & Michael. Thanks so much again guys for your hospitality and fantastico apartment!
Sydney also got in a few crawling lessons with her Auntie Adi and had oodles of fun with Uncle Michael's balloons!

For all the Churches...

Just thought I'd post proof that she's a serious member of the family! (There's a strong basketball gene in my mom's family that completely skipped me, but not Sydney!) She loves this thing!