Love is in the air. Not even just because we are headed to Paris!!! John is being sent by school to present some research. It is so nice that they are paying for all of his expenses. When I was telling my mother that he was actually going, she offered to pay for me and her to go too. I don't want to go into the specifics of our travel plans before we go, but I'll just say that my every spare minute is filled with researching things like Versailles, walking tours, trains, and hotels. It has been crazy, but so fun!
From my journal: we are probably going to go to France in April! So
exciting!!! John is presenting some of his research at a conference in Nancy,
and me and my mom are going to tag along and site see. We are planning on
leaving Ellie home (because we don’t think she would enjoy it very much) and
taking Miriam as a lap child. I am really excited about it. I am also pretty
stressed out about it too—making sure that everyone has a good time. John
because it is his first vacation out of the country, mom because she is paying
for it, Miriam because she is a baby, Ellie at home so I don’t feel guilty for
leaving her, and those watching her so they don’t hate us. Nothing is concrete
yet, but we have applied for passports. It was so fun to apply for Miriam’s and
write her ‘height’ as 2 feet 2 inches tall. So cute!!
No, the reason that love is in the air is because I am loving this springtime weather. It makes me so excited to start gardening and camping. We couldn't resist last week and went up the canyon to have a fire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows. So fun! Ellie loved it, and I am pretty sure Miriam still smells like campfire smoke. :)
These girls are growing up too quickly. Miriam at 8 months old has recently discovered gabbing and cooing, and we love it! Da-da, ga-ga, and ma-ma all regularly are heard. She now sits up by herself. Her favorite things are her saucer and stuffing any kind of cloth in her mouth.
From my journal: The biggest thing that is going on right now is that the
doctor is still concerned about Miriam’s head. We did that ultrasound and some
blood work back in November and everything looked okay, but the doctor is still
concerned because her forehead is a little too big. It curves out too much.
This is called frontal bossing and can be a sign of a bunch of different stuff
like different genetic diseases and stuff. So they did an x-ray on her skull which
didn’t show much and did a ton of blood work which ruled out the genetic stuff.
We really grateful that everything has come back normal, but tomorrow we are
going to the hospital to get a CT scan on her to check the sutures of her
skull. If they close prematurely there can be odd growth in certain areas of
the skull and can cause too much pressure on the brain. The next step if that
comes back normal is an MRI, which is crazy. I just really hope she is okay.
She is such a wonderful little baby. I just pray that she is okay and that her
head is just shaped that way.
I have
found a lot of comfort in studying the scriptures better than I ever have in my
life. The bishop challenged us to study them for 30 minutes a day (specifically
the Book of Mormon) and start and close with a prayer. It was really helped me
remain calm, and I actually have started looking forward to it every day. It
really has been a miracle in my life. Miriam received a blessing that the
doctor’s wouldn’t make any mistakes, and I really have to have faith in that.
Later: We went to the hospital for the CT scan, which was kind of
an ordeal. Miriam couldn’t nurse at all after 4 am. So we woke her up in the
middle of the night to eat. We also gave her some apple juice at around 8 am.
She took the bottle no problem. (Maybe because she was particularly hungry?) Anyway,
a couple of days later, we got the wonderful news that Miriam’s head looks
good. There isn’t anything wrong with it as far as they can see. The doctor
also said that we should cancel our appointment up at Primary Children’s
Hospital. We really did receive the best news we could have!!! What an amazing
blessing!!!
On January 31 first, we noticed that Miriam had a tooth
coming in. Crazy, because it was already in. I guess it was nice that she
wasn’t grumpy or anything, but I wish she would stay my little baby for longer.
One fun
activity we did recently was make and eat gingerbread men. Ellie loved the
decorating. She put the sprinkles on one at a time. So fun!
I swear Ellie gets smarter every day. It shows up in little things like when I ask her to wash her hands, she'll ask me what she touched that was dirty. Also, the other day she saw that Miriam was leaning towards the bookshelf and said, "That baby is trying to get those Harry Potter books." John and I have never showed/told her about Harry Potter books at all; she just picked up on it. This kind of thing has been happening a lot. I am just amazed by what she picks up on. This can also be not so great as we struggle with her saying "Oh my gosh." I never thought it sounds vulgar before, but coming out of my three year old's mouth it sounds so vile.
John and I are doing great! When he is not working, we are normally found cooking or reading
The Wheel of Time books. We have been experimenting with making our own Indian and Chinese food, which has been pretty delicious over all. We are enjoying The Wheel of Time series thus far (we are in book 4). These are the kinds of books that set the definition of epic fantasy. Yep, we're nerds.
We have been doing a weekly 'date,' which we have been loving. This doesn't very often mean going out, cause we're poor, but we take turns planning a special activity for one night during the week (like doing a puzzle and having a treat).
. It has been really greats: madlibs with orange
Julius, super bowl food with a football movie, etc. Really fun. It is really fun, and we highly recommend it!
So love is in the air around our place. We love our little family so much.
From my journal:Last week I also spent a ton of time canning chicken. Super
good sale and before you know it my mom and I canned nearly 170 lbs of chicken.
Ten batches and 122 jars I think. Wowee. That was a ton of work. It took nearly
four days and I was exhausted.
Suzette’s
blessing was also this month. It was beautiful. Kayla and Miriam announced that
they were both pregnant. Kayla had kind of a scare though. Her baby had a
pocket of fluid on its neck that showed up on the ultrasound. This meant that
there was a one in three chance the baby would have a chromosome defect (like
down’s syndrome). We had a family fast and her test results came back normal,
which was no small miracle. They also found out that they are having a boy,
which seems so weird after two girls. There is still a pretty big chance that
there is something wrong with his heart, but hopefully that can be corrected
after birth.
Miriam is
due Oct 9th (I think) and Kayla is due Sept 9th (I
think). I know that they exactly one month apart.
I had a great experience listening to General Conference. It
is always so uplifting and makes me want to be a better person. The main things
I got from it was that I need to be more patient and be a better mother. There
were lots of things though.
We love seeing the Pearson and Deru families often! The Pearson family has an occasional big gathering, and of course Ellie loves seeing her cousins for the Deru Easter Egg Hunt.
We did have a fun Easter! We dyed eggs with the Guinns and
had a hunt there, which was nice. We went up to Ogden and had a humongous
Easter egg hunt there. Seriously so much stuff. Delicious dinner plus a ton of candy and junk plus strawberry pie
for dessert.
I took John
on a Sherlock Holmes date, which was fun. We checked out a book of short
Sherlock Holmes stories from the library along with an I Spy book. John read
the story aloud to me while I made a key lime trifle for dessert (the idea was
to do an English themed dessert). We spent some time doing the I Spy book
(being detectives, cheesy I know :) ). Then we had the trifle and watched the
first Sherlock Holmes, which we borrowed. We thought this was fun, free, stay
at home date.
One thing
that was awful is that recently we cleaned out our freezer and forgot to turn
it back on afterwards! I can’t believe we were so stupid. Anyway, it was a full
week before we noticed (things stayed surprisingly frozen during that time). We didn’t really lose any food, but we easily
could and it was a humongous mess and hassle.
I got
called to be the Relief Society chorister. It really isn’t a big deal, but of
course the first time that I led the music I completely slaughtered the song. It was so embarrassing. J
Well, the next time I write in my journal, hopefully I will be in/have been in
France!!!
We also did a fun Easter egg hunt with the Guinn family.
Last week John took me to the BYU Traditions Ball. It was so
fun! We put the girls to bed and got all dressed up. There were hors d’ourves
(?) rootbeer floats, dancing lessons, live big band music, live entertainment.
It was great. We spent a lot of time learning new dance moves. It was a blast!
