Thursday, July 24, 2008

Surprise!

This may come as a shock to some of you - just like it did for us!
Five years ago our friend's daughter correctly predicted that our first baby would be a girl and Sydney came along a few years later. Anyone have any thoughts on this time?
The first picture is at 9 1/2 weeks and the second one was at 12 weeks. I'm now at almost 14 weeks and am due at the end of January! Surprise!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Tag

Ok I liked this one, so here it is:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't have a blog, still leave a comment for me so I know you were here!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

200 Have and Have Nots

This is long, so skip it if you want, but too interesting to not do. (BOLD the haves if you want to do it too!)
1. Touched an iceberg
2. Slept under the stars
3. Been a part of a hockey fight
4. Changed a baby's diaper
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Swam with wild dolphins
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a tarantula
10. Said "I love you" and meant it
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (I slept through one though!)
14. Stayed up all night long and watched the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the Statue of Liberty (I don't know why we didn't. I think the line was like 5 hours long just to get to the stairs & with 4 kids my parents were not game for it)
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
20. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Bet on a winning horse
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill (only if you don't count mental health days)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Taken an ice cold bath
28. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Ridden a roller coaster (I HATE them!)
31. Hit a home run (yeah right)
32. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
33. Adopted an accent for fun (Kristi, remember our 10pm Albertsons runs?)
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Felt very happy about your life, even for just a moment
36. Loved your job 90% of the time (Ah, Soc & SW Dept).
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Watched wild whales
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Gone on a midnight walk on the beach
41. Gone sky diving
42. Visited Ireland
43. Ever bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited India
45. Bench-pressed your own weight
46. Milked a cow
47. Alphabetized your personal files (Is anyone surprised at this?)
48. Ever worn a superhero costume ( I was totally a Ninja turtle for Halloween once)
49. Sung karaoke
50. Lounged around in bed all day
51. Gone scuba diving
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Done something you should regret, but don't (I have a pretty over-active conscience)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Been in a movie (It was one that we made, but that counts!)
60. Gone without food for 3 days
61. Made cookies from scratch
62. Won first prize in a costume contest
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Been in a combat zone
65. Spoken more than one language fluently
66. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
67. Bounced a check
68. Read - and understood - your credit report
69. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy (My sit n' spin!)
70. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
71. Called or written your Congress person
72. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
73. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
74. Helped an animal give birth
75. Been fired or laid off from a job (I even asked!)
76. Won money
77. Broken a bone
78. Ridden a motorcycle
79. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
80. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
81. Slept through an entire flight
82. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
83. Eaten sushi
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read The Bible cover to cover (I am counting this since I only have a few chapters left!)
86. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
87. Gotten someone fired for their actions
88. Gone back to school
89. Changed your name (last name only)
90. Caught a fly in the air with your bare hands
91. Eaten fried green tomatoes
92. Read The Iliad
93. Taught yourself an art from scratch
94. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
95. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
96. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language (not very well, they thought I was homeless)
97. Been elected to public office
98. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
99. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
100. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
101. Had a booth at a street fair
102. Dyed your hair
103. Been a DJ
104. Rocked a baby to sleep
105. Ever dropped a cat from a high place to see if it really lands on all fours
106. Raked your carpet
107. Brought out the best in people
108. Brought out the worst in people
109. Worn a mood ring ( I wore a mood necklace)
110. Ridden a horse
111. Carved an animal from a piece of wood or bar of soap
112. Cooked a dish where four people asked for the recipe
113. Buried a child
114. Gone to a Broadway play
115. Been inside the pyramids
116. Shot a basketball into a basket (shocker, I know)
117. Danced at a disco
118. Played in a band
119. Shot a bird
120. Gone to an arboretum
121. Tutored someone
122. Ridden a train
123. Brought an old fad back into style
124. Eaten caviar
125. Let a salesman talk you into something you didn’t need (Aaron saved me)
126. Ridden a giraffe or elephant
127. Published a book
128. Pieced a quilt
129. Lived in an historic place
130. Acted in a play or performed on a stage
131. Asked for a raise
132. Made a hole-in-one
133. Gone deep sea fishing
134. Gone roller skating
135. Run a marathon
136. Learned to surf
137. Invented something
138. Flown first class
139. Spent the night in a 5-star luxury suite
140. Flown in a helicopter
141. Visited Africa
142. Sang a solo
143. Gone spelunking
144. Learned how to take a compliment
145. Written a love-story
146. Seen Michelangelo’s David
147. Had your portrait painted
148. Written a fan letter
149. Spent the night in something haunted
150. Owned a St. Bernard or Great Dane
151. Ran away (I tried, but I never made it off the property. I'm a wuss)
152. Learned to juggle
153. Been a boss (Funnest time ever!)
154. Sat on a jury
155. Lied about your weight
156. Gone on a diet
157. Found an arrowhead or a gold nugget
158. Written a poem
159. Carried your lunch in a lunchbox
160. Gotten food poisoning
161. Gone on a service, humanitarian or religious mission
162. Hiked the Grand Canyon
163. Sat on a park bench and fed the ducks
164. Gone to the opera (No, but I watched it frequently in Italian when I was 4 years old)
165. Gotten a letter from someone famous
166. Worn knickers
167. Ridden in a limousine
168. Attended the Olympics
169. Can hula or waltz
170. Read a half dozen Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books
171. Been stuck in an elevator
172. Had a revelatory dream
173. Thought you might crash in an airplane
174. Had a song dedicated to you on the radio or at a concert
175. Saved someone’s life
176. Eaten raw whale
177. Know how to tat, smock or do needlepoint
178. Laughed till your side hurt
179. Straddled the equator
180. Taken a photograph of something other than people that is worth framing
181. Gone to a Shakespeare Festival (The Renaissance Festival was almost as good!)
182. Sent a message in a bottle
183. Spent the night in a hostel
184. Been a cashier
185. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
186. Joined a union
187. Donated blood or plasma
188. Built a campfire
189. Kept a blog
190. Had hives
191. Worn custom made shoes or boots
192. Made a PowerPoint presentation
193. Taken a Hunter’s Safety Course
194. Served at a soup kitchen
195. Conquered the Rubik’s cube
196. Know CPR
197. Ridden in or owned a convertible
198. Found a long lost friend
199. Helped solve a crime
200. Responded to a NJP newsletter

Ok, I've done 94! I have some stuff to do before I die! What have YOU done?

Happy Birthday to Me...

OK so I just had a birthday and I had to post my cute pics on here for all to see. I'm pretty sure I have the most darling baby girl on the planet, which is actually what inspired me to take these pictures, not the fact that I am now 26, which my sister-in-law has so kindly informed me is "middle-aged." Ha ha! I think not, but one thing I determined to do a little while ago was to age gracefully. I don't mean physically, because it's sort of hard to control that sort of thing. I mean attitude-wise. I know so many people who freak out when they turn 30 or 40 or whatever, and I really hope to just be able to take each year in stride. So guess what? I'm 26, and I wouldn't care if that number was 36! I hope to be able to proudly state my age each year, so that when I'm 65, I can grin and tell people that I've lived 65 good years. That's my goal anyway! :)
Sydney and Aaron surprised me with singing and a few presents. I got the movie Eragon (very good, as are the books), a pen picked out specifically by Sydney while at Best Buy, and.... a BB/Pellet Gun also known as a varmint shooter. Hooray! I think Sydney was mostly confused about the whole thing, but excited that I was excited. She also repeatedly tried to eat my presents. I don't know how they tasted since I took more of a looking approach.
She is still not very helpful in the present unwrapping arena. She mostly just wanted me to tear pieces of paper off for her to eat. Yum.
For those of you out there wondering (and I know you are!), I really did want the BB Gun - we've got a serious rabbit problem in Colorado. It's so fancy it even has a little scope! It's probably not a great one (and let's face it, I really don't need one) but it's sort of exciting that it has one anyway, I'm not gonna lie.
Also tonight a whole bunch of girls from our ward went out to Chili's to celebrate mine as well as 2 other girls birthdays. This means I am extra full but had tons of fun having a girls night and enjoyed a little time away. As I got there a family arrived with 3 kids, lugging in the kids, diaper bags, and other paraphernalia that kids attract. I had a weird moment where for a split second I wondered where my diaper bag was. Hadn't I brought it? Then I relaxed and enjoyed the fact that Sydney was spending the evening with her daddy and I was getting a milkshake. The end.

Why We Love Summer

Eating outside (some of us just in our nuddy pants obviously!)
Water balloon fights (these created a fair amount of confusion!)
Going to the zoo (we got to see a baby zebra that was only like 17 hours old! He was cute.)
Swimming in the pool. The floatie is Syd's favorite. She kicks her little legs and swims around the 6ft x 8ft kiddie pool.
Summer foods! She was going nuts for the cantelope!

Friday, July 04, 2008

Happy Independence Day!

Today was Sydney's first Independence Day! We started off with our ward's traditional pancake breakfast. I think Sydney ate an entire pancake! She was so happy about it. (Food makes her that way). We came home, took naps, ate some burgers, and got ready to go to the fireworks.
We have this fantastic mall right next to our house and they had live bands and fireworks. We drove the 1 1/2 miles and parked our truck in a fantastic spot. We walked around for awhile and enjoyed the band and the festive air. I also got a snow cone (what moron decided not to sell them regularly in Colorado?) and the lady gave us Sydney's snazzy glow stick necklace. Confession: I have always wanted one of these and have actually never had one. I was way more interested in it than Sydney was!

When it was time for the fireworks we went back to the truck. We opened the back window and let Sydney sit in her seat for a bit while we waited for them to start. (This picture was taken in the back of the truck looking in).
After a bit she came out to join us
Here's our sweet set up
Sydney's initial reaction to the fireworks

She soon cheered up though (after a bunch of Cheerios) and was pretty calm the rest of the time. Although apparently last year the show was pretty poor, it was really great this year! We're used to the fireworks in Idaho (which is actually one of the best shows West of the Mississippi), and we've seen some pretty poor ones in other places we've lived. We were very impressed with this show and really pleased with it! We had some serious issues getting out when the super smart people over there decided to control traffic in the most ridiculous way possible. We finally got home though, so all in all it was a great day!

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Simple Toys are Best

Everyone knows simple toys are best. The other day we gave Sydney a box. We used it as a train/car, and it also proved very useful for keeping her in one place for a little while!
Such as when I needed to clean the garage
It worked pretty well! She has lots of fun with it and is perfectly capable of tipping it over so she can wiggle out when she wants to!

Fun in the Sun

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. Sorry! Here are some pictures of what we've been doing. We've gone to the pool since it's been pretty warm! On this particular day Sydney waved at the camera every time she saw it.
Then she got tired and we relaxed for a bit.Silly girl.
Afterward we had popsicles. Sydney sort of liked them.
She did not however, like it being taken away! You know she loves her food, but this particularly ticked her off!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Funny Moments

Sleepy Head
Mmmmm. Kiwi tastes soooo good.
Eating the Ravenclaw bracelet I got with the last Harry Potter book. I got Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw. This is the only one she really loves. At least Potter is a part of her daily diet!
Eating hot taco rice. Um, yeah she's excited about food.

Visit from the Parents

My parents came to visit a week and a half ago and we did lots of fun things. First we took a trip to the zoo.
Sydney got pretty tuckered out by the end! We ended up with a zoo pass though, so we're totally excited to go back a lot!
Sydney decided she was in a snuggly mood that night
Believe me - it's unusual! This girl is pretty independant and mostly pushes away and cries if you try to snuggle her. I think she was too exhausted to fight it!
We also went on a few short little hikes at a state park not far from here. It was fun, and Syd's first time hiking, although it was really interesting doing it with the front carrier on! I kept feeling like I was going to trip over something! Thank heavens I didn't!
It was lots of fun to have them here and we're glad they were able to make the trip out!

One of My Weirdest

I don't dream hardly ever. I know most people that say this actually do dream and just can't remember them, but for the most part, I don't think that's me. I've had more dreams in the past year than in the 8-10 years combined, and I think I've still only had about 5 that I can remember. Anyway, I had a weird one last night and I thought I'd share before I forgot it.
It was raining like crazy here at my house and my parents were visiting (they actually did just leave, I'll post pictures soon). They came in my back door and informed me there was a raccoon in my backyard. I went to look and saw a giant prickly porcupine walking away on my patio. I couldn't see the raccoon though, so I opened the door (My dream self is brilliant) and spotted another prickly guy in the back of my yard, 4 lion cubs cuddling under one of our back bushes, and a badger making his way for the house! I quickly shut the door and half-squished a mouse in it. Not until seeing the mouse did I scream. I reopened the door, kicked the mouse out, and noticed that 2 of the lion cubs were sitting inside my back door. We had to grab them by the napes of their necks and toss them out the back door. At that point I realized that my scream had woken Sydney up and was really ticked (not about the ridiculous animals in my yard, just about my baby being awake. Then I woke up to Sydney actually waking up for real this morning. Weird.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day!

I know it's the end of Father's Day, but I wanted to say Happy First Father's Day to Aaron!
He is such a great daddy and Sydney loves playing with him so much. She loves that he throws her in the air and feeds her his pancakes in the morning. She's got him all wrapped up and he loves it, and so do I! Thanks for being such a great dad Aaron! We love you!

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

First Swim!

Today Sydney went swimming for the first time ever! We went to our friend's pool which was so great. The shallow end goes down to about 1 inch of water since the edge of the pool is level with the sidewalk right at first. This meant I got to set Sydney down and let her sit in the water and figure it out. She started out confused.
Then she realized it was pretty cool.
There were these great little fountains that only shot up about 1 foot. Eli and Sydney both enjoyed them.
They were her favorite part


We did go out a bit deeper too (see, it goes to my ankles!)Doing some real "swimming." She actually paddled her arms a tiny bit even!
She was really excited to get wrapped in a towel afterward. She loves to be snuggly and was a tad cold at that point.

We got semi-dressed to eat some snacks.

She left these on just long enough to get a picture.

All in all we had tons of fun! We'll go back to the pool soon!

Monday, June 02, 2008

Going Places

This kid is going places, seriously. She uses lots of ways to get to where she wants to go, but still doesn't seem to get too far from home! Sometimes she goes by sea,
Sometimes she rides a zebra (our great neighbors gave us this. She can't use it on her own yet but really likes it anyway)
Sometimes she's biker baby (again, not on her own - her feet aren't on the floor!)
Slinking was a favorite mode of transportation for awhile. She started out sitting up completely in this picture. This is where she ended up. She grew out of that phase pretty quickly though.
Jumping is her current favorite. Our great neighbors also gave us their Jumperoo and Sydney thinks it's the greatest ever. Her poor little leg muscles would just about give out after a couple minutes when she first figured it out though, and she would just lay down because she was all tuckered out! FYI, she still doesn't get the Johnny Jump-up. She sits and stares at us like, "um, this is boring. Can I go back to the one with toys?"
Crawling - yeah not so much. She just looks cute in the pose. Which we put her in.
She's pretty convinced balloons can get her off the farm

But in the end,she's not too unhappy to stay where she is. Especially when daddy shares his toast and jam with her!