Springtime Love

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 9^th (I think) and Kayla is due Sept 9^th (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!

My big three year old

I can't believe my little Eliza is already three. In conjunction with the big day we also finally moved her to the big girl bed. The transition has it's pros and cons, but we're hoping this will encourage her to get up during her nap or at night and go to the bathroom. *fingers crossed* She still struggles with pooping her diaper at least once a day, despite having been potty trained while she is awake for almost a year. 

All Ellie wanted to do for her birthday was open presents and blow out candles. She really wouldn't say anything else that she wanted to do. So we made sure that happened. We had a 'pop' themed birthday with soda, popcorn, bubbles, cake pops, and bubble wrap. Ellie loves all of those things, so we thought it would be a good fit for her. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the actual party, but I have a few pictures of the night before.

So here's is a little about Ellie. I couldn’t ask for a sweeter little girl.
She loves being read to.
She thinks she doesn’t like brown chocolate (but yesterday she loved M&Ms), but loves white chocolate and eats healthy things pretty well for us.
She loves babies and all things baby doll.
She has started to be interested in puzzles and games.
Ellie now goes to the bathroom all by herself (which presents some complications, but is still awesome).
I love her high voice when she talks to Miriam.

She also loves all things girly—nail polish, tutus, hair bows, hearts, chapstick, jewels, dresses, crowns etc. She has a remarkable memory for seemingly inconsequential things.
She has started to say prayers completely by herself. Although she does mix up the “We thank thee” and the “We ask thee” parts. She always says thanks for things that she would like to have happen.
She loves, LOVES her baby sister and plays with her as much as possible.
She is a bit obsessed with clothes and changes her clothes quite a few times a day (5+).
She is also obsessed with matching, and will tell me things like “Your pajamas don’t match.” J
She loves painting, coloring, and playing with play-dough.
She also really likes to help me cook and likes to sit on the counter and help me shake spices into things. She still likes noodles, cooked veggies, oranges, lemon curd, pancakes, waffles, and whipped cream. She loves to eat cold cereal as a snack.
One of her favorite games is to say, “I wanna eat…” flowers, clothes, Miriam, or whatever else she can see.
She still loves to sing the tune, “ABCs.”
One of my favorite things that she does is that she say what she is doing and then kind of sing to herself, “Do-ta-do.” For example, “Going on a picnic, do-ta-do.”

A couple of days ago, she got some army men as a valentine and she put them on the counter and said they were dancing.

She loves to help and loves to be asked to do something to help, whether it is cleaning, laundry, getting something for me, or throwing something away. I hope she is always so enthused about household chores.  She is such a sweetheart.

Today she was talking about how we have gone to the temple. Here is the part of our little exchange: "You guys got married in the temple. I am going to get married in the temple. Do you want to come?" "I would love to come with you." "I am going to get married in the Salt Lake Temple." "Okay, you need to find a nice boy first." "I want to find a nice boy in the living room." "Daddy is in the living room, but he is already married to me." "Okay." This is so funny to me. From day one she has said that she is going to get married in the Salt Lake Temple, even though she knows that we got married in the Bountiful Temple.

I am constantly amazed by all of the things she says and does. I really feel like she is sponge, just soaking everything that is around her.

Happy Valentines Day

We have reached a new level of girlishness around here. That's right: matching tutus!! I love my little valentines!

For Valentine’s Day this year, I made John breakfast and sent him off to school. I put handprint hearts all over the apartment and dipped strawberries as a surprise. I made a scavenger hunt for him to get his present (some chocolates). It was a lot of fun. Julie came over and we decorated cookies together. John gave me a beautiful card, flowers, and a gift card to go to Great Harvest. We had a great night! Later this month we went up to Ogden for a birthday dinner and Suzette’s blessing (both got cancelled), and we took the opportunity to go out to dinner for Valentine’s. We went to ABC Mandarin and had a really good time being together. We also made cinnamon rolls. Yummy! 

I also wanted to include other recent photos of our sweet little girls that we took mostly at home. Miriam is such an adorable baby (those big brown eyes! And those cheeks!!), and Eliza is such a sweet little girl and big sister!

Kayla threw the cutest princess party at her house! Ellie really rocked the old-fashioned dress my mom kept from when I was a child. Kayla really went all out. Twenty-four little girls all dressed up and using her fine china. It was super cute!