Answer to Prayers

In high school I had major problems with my knees. Unfortunately, my left knee has started bothering me again. This wouldn't be too big a deal if we didn't live on the third floor. I can go down fine, but up causes pain and a loud popping sound. Carrying Taelyn up adds to the stress and some days is nearly unbearable.

About a month ago we started looking at moving. Our motto: progression. Our requirements: 2 bedroom, ground level, washing machine & dryer and a step up from what we are now living in (this is where the progression comes in). Every time we found something (and some of them were very cute and in our price range) , it didn't feel right. After viewing 5+ places, we both felt very frustrated.

After much prayer, we had our answer...we are supposed to stay in our ward. Blast! Don't get me wrong, I love our ward...but I'm a little bit of a snob. There is only 1 apartment complex in our ward that I would live in--and that is where we are all ready at. The rest of them are downright scary!

Anyway, we agreed that we needed to quit looking outside of ward boundaries and trust in the Lord. If he wanted us to stay, he would provide an opportunity for us. Less than a week later, the answer came. One of our friends in the ward called. He and his wife bought a house in Sandy and the house that they are renting from his mom is going to be empty. As he and his wife were getting ready for bed one night, she asked if he thought we might be interested in renting it.

Results: by November 1st we will be in a 2 bedroom house on ground level with a washer and dryer and the rent is low enough that it will still allow us to save. I'm grateful that God hears and answers prayers. I'm grateful for people who listen to promptings of the Spirit. On a less spiritual note, I'm also grateful that we are only going to have to make ~6 more trips to the laundromat!

Taelyn's New Stylist

Two weeks ago Truck and Mom were at our apartment. He asked if he could do Taelyn's hair. I had to document the process and the result. She didn't seem to mind.

Later that evening, while Jon was changing her diaper, she was super talkative and active. I took a few more pictures. This one is my favorite.

Reunions!!

I'm slow on getting these posted, but we have had 2 reunions in the last 2 weeks. Labor Day weekend was my dad's family reunion and the weekend before was Jon's family reunion.

This year Jon, Kathy and Kirstine hosted their reunion (which meant Kathy, Kirstine and I!). I had a blast helping plan. We held it at my Uncle Deloy's place in Hanna. I wish I would have taken more pictures while there... If anyone reading this has some pictures, please email them to me. I would greatly appreciate it! Anyway, here are some pictures that I did take.

This one has to be done big so that it can be seen. This is Jon and his siblings. They are kind of in age order! Working from the inside out (according to age): Renae, Tami and Jodi (middle 3 females), then Joe, Paul and Russ (middle 3 males), then the twins, Kirstine and Kathy (females on the outside), then Jake and Jon (males on the outside). Now keep in mind this is after everyone had been camping 2-3 nights! They sure are a great group.

There were many activities. We played cards a lot. They made mini-marshmallow shooters (which the kids discovered also worked as snorkels-they spent A TON of time in the river), crafts, teather ball, etc. I wish I would have gotten some pictures of the mini-marshmallow wars (I was too busy hiding-blast Danille for taking Taelyn-it left me with nothing to use to claim I was exempt!) The kids sure played hard (as evidenced by the picture of Ethan asleep in the chair). I love having so many nieces and nephews. They are all so adorable!

Taelyn spent most of the time taking it easy in the bean bag...well, kind of. I would put her on one of the tables in the bean bag. When I would check on her, 90% of the time she was missing. Everyone sure enjoyed holding her. I found out that if we wet one of her thin blankets, it can be used to keep her cool. It works perfectly. Her and Jon like playing with the wet blanket.Here is a picture of her in daddy's hat. I know I have a biased opinion, but dang she is cute!

Now for my fam's Reunion. It was at Deloy's place, too. I think Taelyn was getting sick of camping by the end. She sure was a good sport though. The first night was nice weather. Sunday evening it rained. And rained. And rained. You can tell which pictures were taken Saturday with great weather and Sunday/Monday when the crappy weather set in.

Most of the weekend was just my parents, Jon, Taelyn, Taryn and I. Truck graced us with his presence for one meal on Saturday. I don't think he would have come by at all if mom hadn't bought a new car and had Truck drive the truck out from SLC (I'll have to post a picture of it later-too cute!) Colton was at work (last week before going back to Cedar) and Shay had already moved back to Cedar.

My parents sure enjoyed spending time with Taelyn.

When my dad wasn't busy sticking out his tongue at Taelyn or teaching her to blow raspberries, they spent a lot of time together taking cat naps!
When grandma and grandpa didn't have her, Uncle Duane/Aunt Anne or Taryn had her. A couple months ago, Taryn said she couldn't wait until Taelyn could walk and talk because then she would be fun. She has admitted that its not so bad now that she doesn't feel like she is going to break Taelyn when she plays with her.Here are a few more pictures I took. These first two are of my cousins' kids. They sure are all growing up so fast! They enjoyed holding Taelyn too.Here are some of those present. At various times there were different people in the group under the pavilion. We had two big meals over the weekend, lunch Saturday and lunch Sunday. The last "official" number of those in attendance was 98. Here is my wonderful Grandpa Dye. I'm not sure how old grandpa is. When Jon asked him after Grandpa's b-day a few months ago, grandpa said 34. I think he is 92. Anyone know for sure?
Taelyn was sure grumpy when we got home on Monday. We promised her that we wouldn't go camping any more this summer. I think the 6 nights in 11 days was too much. Unfortunately it really threw off her sleeping groove. She has been waking up hungry in the middle of the night for 3 nights in a row now. Considering she hasn't done that at all since she was born, I'm a little worried. Hopefully we can break the pattern tonight.

Memories

I got this off of Deb's blog. I had seen it on several others, but didn't feel inclined to participate. Guess I changed my mind.

Here are the directions-

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together (OK-you can share memories of Jon too). It can be any memory that you can think of, doesn't matter.

2. Re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. 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 want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. Or if you don't feel like commenting you can email me if you have my email address.

Politics

"Only 78 days left until election day."

Jon and I have spent many late nights discussing politics, particularly the presidential election. Our thoughts on the matter are pretty much summed up here (Jon watched it so many times that he has the song memorized...):

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/HujcrDCepyvu0ohO

We both just keep asking, "Are these really the two best candidates that the U.S. has to offer?"

Extra Pics

So I go through phases where I haven't been posting, but I've still been taking too many pictures. None of them are related, but I'd like to get them posted so that I feel caught up...for one day at least!

When Taelyn sleeps, she gets carried away with her arms. They flail and wake her up. For that reason, whenever we put her down at night or for a nap, she has to be swaddled. I just thought this picture looked sweet. This is the first (and only) bottle I have fed her. We were at the ward BBQ and the other option wasn't convenient. I had to get a picture because she is actually holding the bottle up on her own. Her knuckles were turning white, but it is pretty good for a girl who is still working on getting those hands to do what she wants them to.
2 weekends ago we went down to Kirstine and Dan's (Jon's sister and husband). Ella sure likes Taelyn. She had to get her blanket and duck (because Taelyn had her bear) and lay down too. It was pretty cute!
Taelyn loves her bear. [Shhh...we have temporarily misplaced it and are trying to keep her from noticing!]. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but she is eating his ear. Poor bear. The top of his head gets pretty soggy. I like this pic because you can get a feel for how long her hair is. The pink spot isn't a bald spot, her hair is just swept to the side right there...for now anyway. Before she was born, I decided I would cut her hair before I allowed her to get a bald spot. Now I just frown when I notice the hair getting rubbed off a little more. I don't think I could bring myself to cut it.
She loves to play on our bed. That is where she first rolled over. It is the funniest thing to watch. She puts both legs straight up in the air then allows them to fall to the side, causing her whole body to rotate. Once on her side, she buries her face in the blanket until she can get her body to roll to her stomach. Funny thing is that she hates being on her stomach. Once she gets to this point, she gets really upset. We usually roll her back onto her back. She just repeats the process. Only once has she gotten back onto her back without our help.
This is her talking face. She sure is vocal. We love it...even when her cooing wakes us up in the middle of the night.She is so smiley. I absolutely love it. Everyone comments on how good natured she is. She is very alert and happy. But watch out, when she gets hungry she only gives me 3 minutes to start feeding her before she tries to let all the neighbors know that she is being abused!

Day Care at my Work

SO IT FINALLY HAPPENED!!

That's right, I finally got the call to let me know that they were going to get an opening. Actually, I got the call on July 21st. They let me know that they could get Taelyn in on August 11th. I'm glad they could get me in so soon. The lady that was watching Taelyn for July agreed to watch her the first week of August. Unfortunately, or fortunately-depending on how you look at it, she had her baby on the 4th (5 weeks early-both mother and baby are doing fine). Jon took the 4th off to watch Taelyn, and I took the 5th-8th off. If we hadn't heard from the day care yet, I don't know what we would have done. Knowing that we only had to make it through 1 week made it manageable.

Anyway, yesterday was our first day. It was SO nice! I was able to go down on both my breaks to feed her. During lunch I brought her up to my office, fed her and played with her for the full hour. Before I was driving to the Jacobson's during lunch, but only had 1/2 an hour that I was actually able to spend with Taelyn.

It was funny. The first break yesterday, I went to go feed her. When I walked in, it took me a few minutes to get her attention. She was too busy staring at another baby that was sitting near where she was laying on a mat. It was her first real encounter with other babies.

She is the youngest down there. There are two other little girls that were born in April. Its funny to compare size to the other babies. They all seem so short! [I measured the other day. She was 25 1/2 inches. That's 4 inches in 3 months!] And comparatively, she doesn't have much chub on her...yet.

Lizard Baby

Taelyn loves her tongue. In fact, I think it is her favorite body part. Jon says it is because she is half lizard. Here are a few pictures of her and her tongue that we have taken over the last 3 months. Some of them have poor lighting, bad angle, etc...but it gets the point across.

CAST Event

Yesterday was the 2008 Cast Event. CAST stands for "Catch a Special Thrill", and yearly volunteers and sponsors provide an opportunity for handicapped children to go out on boats and fish. They get to keep the pole and tackle box, as well as what ever they catch. After the fishing, a lunch is provided, and all of the children are awarded medals and individual plaques.

This is the 3rd year we have volunteered. It is something that we look forward to each summer. I must admit, the day before we wish we didn't have to leave the apartment between 5 and 5:30 the next morning...but once it is over, we both agree it is well worth it.

We first got involved as a service opportunity through the UofU ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Student Chapter. Now that I have graduated, we participate through the ASCE YMF (Younger Member Forum). Thanks Jenni, for first getting us involved!! (And thanks to Jon for allowing me to volunteer us for various events on a more-than-you-would-like-it-to-be basis!)

Photo Shoot

We decided to do our own photo shoot of little Tae. Just going to post a few of our favorites. These were taken at 2 months, and she refused to smile. Now that she is responding more to us, we may have to try it again.