Five a Day

Lish has been getting after me for not posting on the blog. When Lish starts getting after me, that's when I know it's been a long time.

I haven't posted because we haven't had too much going on around here. We've just been enjoying our quiet life down here in SG since we got home from our busy Christmas break. I feel like we've finally gotten into a routine. Yale and I are starting to go out more and have more play dates. Lish is in a good flow with his work. Plus, the house stays clean for the most part. So really, life is pretty good.

Let's see. A couple weeks ago, Maggie invited me and Lish, along with some other family members and friends, to participate in a fitness challenge with her. We started last Monday. The rules are: eat 5 fruits and veggies a day, drink 64 oz of water, take a vitamin daily, exercise for at least 30 minutes a day (except one rest day), no eating after 8pm, and no sweets (except for one free day). Last week Lish and I both did really well. We'll see about this week. It'll be good challenge though. My sweet tooth was getting a little out of hand. And I used to think eating five fruits and veggies a day would be really hard. Guess what? It's not.

We've also been out hiking again. We're all set up to go camping at Zion's over spring break, so we're practicing with Lish carrying Yale and Yale staying in the backpack. Maybe I've already mentioned that. I don't remember.

Yale continues to be a hoot. (Yes, I said "hoot.") It's so fun to see things click with him, to see him begin to understand things. I just wish he understood that we don't want him playing in Jazz's food or water.

Anyway, happy Valentine's Day everybody!
And enjoy some pictures we have taken during our blogging absence.

We are a Hiking People

For Christmas last year (so about 3 weeks ago), Lish and I got some stuff. Crazy, right? A couple of the things we got included a hiking backpack for carrying Yale, and a Camelbak backpack. Lish and I have wanted to take more advantage of the beauty that surrounds us, so we are trying to go out about once a week. We also decided that for Spring break this year, we'll go camping at Zion's, so we need to go on "practice hikes" and get Yale used to the new backpack.

Anyway, last week we decided to go out, but as soon as we left, it was windy and gross. At Snow Canyon it was raining, but it only lasted about 15 minutes. However, it also dropped about 10 degrees, so it was cold. We decided to forego the longer hike and go on a mini one. We had Yale walk the whole time. It was so fun. He didn't care about the cold at all. He just had this huge smile on his face the whole time.

We went out again yesterday and it was beautiful. See for yourself.

Settled and Living It

Man, I am awful with this blogging stuff now. I'm going to stop apologizing for not blogging, because it seems to be a habit of mine now. Maybe I've already said that too, but maybe saying that is another habit of mine. I don't know. Where am I going with this? No where. That's where.

Anywho, since our crazy summer, life has settled. And it's lovely. Well, it was a weird struggle for me, but now it's lovely. It's been nice to stay at our home for longer than a two week period. And to figure things out, such as paint colors, what nick-knacks should go where, our leaky toilet that we had to replace, and our roof that was also leaking that we had to get fixed. Ah, the joys of home ownership!

The weird struggle I mentioned earlier went like this: We had been gone so much over the summer, and had so many visitors, and Lish's schedule was such that he got to be around more often than usual. But when we got home from all those trips and the new semester started, I felt alone. And I was stressed. I'm not even "alone" for that long. Lish's schedule is still awesome in the fact that he can be home to help out a lot. And he is home helping out a lot. But I just had to transition back to that stay-at-home mode.

Also, I miss having friends. Lish made me promise him a couple weeks ago that I would ask someone out for a lunch date. So today, I asked out two different girls to lunch. Through facebook. We'll see what happens. I miss having a social life. I'm working on it. I felt myself going into a bit of a depression a month or two ago. But as I was sitting in church this past Sunday, I was looking around and thought, "This is my home ward. This is my ward." For some reason, it lifted me out of my funk. I had a renewed aspiration to make friends. And to get out and do stuff. And it felt good. I feel good. And that's happy.

In other news, Lish's semester is going well. He's teaching five classes, which is keeping him busy. But he has no classes on Fridays, which is great for us. Lots of time with our favorite man! There was a meeting last Friday with the Utah State Board of Regents, and they approved the Bachelor's degree that Lish wrote and worked on last semester. It's the first degree offered in the state of Utah that is a Criminal Justice degree with an emphasis in Criminology. I'm so proud of him!

Yale is adorable. He is getting his two upper teeth right now, so his nose is so stuffy. It's sad. He's crawling like crazy. He crawls away from us (because he can't run yet). His balance is getting so much better. He can stand for a few seconds at a time. And he's walking around tables and other furniture. He's growing up fast. We love him and love being able to spend so much time with him.

Here is an adorable picture from when we went to the park last week. It's always the perfect way to end a post.

Family, Family and a Wedding

Life continued to be crazy when we got home from Maine. There is a lot to catch up on, so I'll just go in order.

The day after we got home we had a friend that Lish grew up with (Ryan Arp) come over with his family for dinner. The house was a little crazy, but it was so fun to meet them and have them over.

The day after that, we drove into Vegas, again, to pick up Maggie and Alyse again. It was so fun to have them come back out and to spend some more time with them. Karen and Scott drove down the day after that, so our house was hustlin' and bustlin' with family!

On their way back home, Karen and Scott dropped Yale and I off at my dad's house. We spent the next week traveling back and forth between my dad's and my mom's Lish-less. It was sad. But we still had a good time with everyone! We were busy getting things ready for my little sister's wedding. The reception was held in my mom's backyard, so there was lots of work to do. We got plenty of playing in though, so no worries. I wish I had taken more pictures. Ah, well.

And then there was a wedding! My littler sister was the most beautiful bride I've ever seen. And I'm so glad Alex is part of our family now. The ceremony was wonderful. The reception was set up so well. And then as we were taking pictures before the reception was supposed to start, it started getting really windy. Then, right at 7, which was when the reception was scheduled to start, it started raining. Not just raining, but pouring rain. Thankfully it lasted for just about 20 minutes. And we had so many hands to pull everything inside, wipe it off when the rain stopped, and set it back up. I was impressed. Then there was a beautiful rainbow right about our house. And the rest of the evening was perfect.

Two Months and Such

I'm playing a little game of catch up...again. I seem to do this quite often, but at least that means I'm probably being productive with the rest of my life. Right? Yeah, we'll use that excuse...

First:

Yale went in for his 2 month check up last Thursday. I can't believe he's already 2 months old! He's not a newbie anymore. And he's a Lil' Chubbo. Yes, that nickname still works well for him. He measured at 23 inches long (50th percentile), his head was in the 60th percentile, and his weight? 13 lb, 3 1/2 oz. (90th percentile). So, we know he's eating well, gaining 5 pounds already and all. We love our little chunky man cub! He's getting much stronger and he's awake more during the day. I enjoy his awake time. It's fun to play with him. He's generally a pretty good sleeper too. Except for last night. And the night before. I think he's still getting over the shock that his mom would let some stranger poke him with a big needle, not once, but twice. Yes, I'm a mean mom, letting someone do that to him.

Second:

Boo to the Steelers not winning the Superbowl. I'm not a huge Steelers fan, but Lish is, and I'm a huge Lish fan, so I support the Steelers. We had some prop bets going, and I did not bet well. I got 10 points for guessing that the color of the Gatorade that would be dumped was orange, and getting that one right doubled my points. Yeah...
But Lish won with double what I had. How's that for a math problem for ya?  
(Spoiler: He had 40 points.)

Third:

Being at home and such gives me time to think about stuff I haven't thought much about. This has led to many random thoughts and questions. I'll work on this as a post for some time later, because really, the things I think are pretty intriguing. You wouldn't be reading this post otherwise.

Fourth:

I'm not sure how many of you got the chance to watch the documentary on Brooke Wilberger they did on Dateline this past Friday, but her story took up the full two hours of the show. We sat down to watch it and didn't expect it to be that long. They did a good job with it though. I was happy to have known her and to have had her in my life. She was amazing and her family continues to be such a great example to me of never giving up hope and being able to forgive. Her family is so wonderful.

Fifth and Last:

Lish has been working like crazy on his dissertation. He's in the final home stretch. You know, the one where you can barely see the light at the end of the tunnel but you're racing to get there so the light gets brighter and bigger every day? Then you have to take some steps back to fix some stuff, but then when it's fixed you're running even faster? Yeah, that final home stretch. He has been working so hard and has been so diligent. I'm really proud of all the things he's accomplished.

Well, that's about it for now. Someday I'll be good about blogging again...someday.

First Day of School

Lish's first day of his new career was today, his first day of school as an offical professor! I am so proud of him! Of course I had to do the classic first day of school picture, even though this time around he isn't the student.

And today was my first official stay-at-home-mom day. I say that because Lish wasn't working full-time before and since Yale came along, he has only had to leave to go to work twice. And it was lovely. I love this little guy. Here are some pictures from when I was playing with him today and then from the walk we went on. It was really more for me, because he just slept the whole time. But how cute and chunky is he?! Seriously. Makes my heart melt!

 

So this all means that we have moved and are finally settling into our new place! We love it here. We really enjoy our condo and the area it's in. Plus, we live close to some of my extended family, and we have other family that stays here quite often so we will get to see them often. I think this place will really work out nicely.

PS. Yale giggled for the first time this morning. He started shaking and making a weird noise and it scared me before I realized what it was. And then I about died from an overdose of cuteness.