Four Things on Friday (But one is REALLY long.)

This week has been fabulous. Not as fabulous as last week when David took the whole week off work and we played ALL week. But that is another blog post. (Be excited.) As I was coming up with things to post about - I only had four things - but I decided that was okay because one is REALLY long and it makes up for the missing 5th thing.

*Note: Sorry for the picture overload on #1, just scroll through to get to #2,3, and 4.*

1- We had a fantastic Memorial Day. My awesome little sister Jenna came to see our new house on Sunday and then played with us on Monday.

She left in the afternoon to head back to Idaho Falls and then we headed over to the Rencher Home for a Memorial Day Barbecue. We had a great time eating delicious food, laughing as Lydia explored the blanket while making sure not to touch the grass, playing pingpong/watching Sam and David dominate at pingpong, chatting and enjoying each others company.

 

Bruce introduced Lydia to the magic of M&M's. She loved them! I gave him a limit of 5, and he was so cute about cutting them into pieces to make them last longer. She loved it! (I don't know whether to be happy because it was so cute or worried that Lydia seems to have as big of a sweet tooth as I did when I was pregnant with her.) Bruce is going to be moving to New York in a couple of months and we are so sad to see him go. Lydia is certainly going to miss her Uncle Bruce. 

 

We are so grateful to Wendy and Sam for inviting everyone over to their house. We had a great time and love living so close. 

2-Lydia got a new Carseat! We knew that it was about time to buy Lydia a bigger carseat, but we had some pretty specific things that we wanted. We wanted Lydia to be able to stay rear facing for as long as possible (hoping to keep her that way until she is two - as per the new AAP Car Seat Safety Guidelines). We also wanted to be able to use the same carseat forward facing for many many years. We wanted it to be a girl color because this will be HER seat for a long time. (Her infant seat was green because we will be using it for our next baby and green=gender neutral.) We needed it to be small enough that it would be able to fit both forward and rear facing in the back of our car while an infant seat is strapped into the center spot. (We don't want to have to buy a van as soon as we have another baby.) There were obviously other considerations such as price, safety standards, and reviews. We ended up buying a carseat at Target to test out the size. We got it home and it seemed SO big! So we kept looking. On Monday there were three different times that we were set on a carseat (three different carseats) and were determined that it was "the one". Each time after we got it into our cart and were checking out we started having second thoughts. After about two hours of reading reviews, comparing measurements, analyzing details, and talking it out - we discovered that the carseat that we bought at Target had gone on sale and was now $16 less than what we had paid for it. (Bringing the total down to $85 for a very nice seat.) The more we looked, the more we liked the one that we already had (It has great reviews, awesome safety, is the perfect color, and is actually on the smaller side) - so when we saw that it was on sale that clinched it for us! We took the receipt into Target, they credited our account the $16 and we had finally settled on the perfect seat. (Which is just so silly that it ended up being the one that we bought on a whim to test out.) However, we LOVE it! Lydia loves it too. We put it in our kitchen for a couple of days to let her get used to it and just installed it in the car last night. She loved climbing all over it and I'm confident that she will love riding in it in the car as well. (She is ready to sit up a little more while riding in the car.) Isn't it darling? 

3-We also got to look at Wendy and Sam's new lawnmower when we were at their house on Monday and then convinced ourselves that it was the exact one that we needed to get. (Wendy and Sam are awesome like that.) They even volunteered to help us pick it up in their truck on Wednesday so that we could qualify for the extra year of warranty. We ended up buying it online (yay, free shipping!) but we are super excited for it to arrive. Hooray for a lawn - we can't wait!  

4- We cleaned my car. I realize this doesn't seem like a big deal - but it was a disaster and I am so happy it is all clean. Like, it was really a disaster. I was embarrassed to even let anyone ride with us and when we finally cleaned it I found things that had been stuck under the seat for a full two years. Yikes!  (Some of the more *ahem* interesting items included David's "lost" credit card, a dried-up/petrified clementine, two rolls of serger thread that must have fallen out of a bag of things I got for free when I was teaching, and like 7 million cheerios.)

Happy Friday Everyone!

Jenna's Graduation from BYU-I

My sweet little sister Jenna graduated from BYU Idaho last month and I'm so happy for her! (Can you tell I'm making a massive attempt to blog about all of the big events in our life that I've been slacking about?) David and I were really excited and had planned to make a big weekend of it. David was going to take off work on Friday and we were going to head up Thursday night. Then we were going to stay until Sunday and just hang out with Jenna and Kevin and let them show us all the cool places around Rexburg. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. Spencer's funeral ended up being on Saturday, the day after Jenna's graduation so we couldn't stay as long as planned. And then, David ended up basically being asked to forgo his vacation day and stay at work that Friday. (They were just finishing up busy season and David was REALLY busy.) It all worked out okay in the end - but I'm still a little sad that David wasn't able to come and that we weren't able to spend more time with Jenna and Kevin. However, aside from that, it did work out awesomely that Lydia and I were able to ride up with my mom and dad.

Lydia and I woke up super early Friday morning Like, I was up at 5:30, got ready, then got her up at 6:00, fed her and popped her in her carseat- pjs and all. We headed to Morgan to meet up with my parents. Things were going great until we hit Centerville (just about halfway between Lehi and Morgan) and Lydia started throwing up in the back seat. Luckily we were just coming up on the Centerville exit so I got off the freeway and pulled into a hotel parking lot. I pulled her out and snuggled her up to me while she happily waved at all the cars going by. She didn't seem to be sad, or upset, or feeling sick at all. I wonder if she was just feeling a little carsick. (I did get her up earlier than usual, fed her for longer than usual, then put her in a car where she is starting to look out the window more.) She was a happy little camper. I pulled off her pjs, changed her outfit, then put her back into her carseat (after I cleaned it up with some diaper wipes). Then I worried the whole way to Morgan about whether we should attempt the Rexburg trip or if it was just asking for trouble. Here is the thing: I really really really really really wanted to go and support Jenna. I wanted to be there with her and for her, and I did NOT want to have to stay home and have Lydia be fine all day. But I also wanted to be a good mom and make sure that I was putting Lydia's needs before my own wants. I was really worked up over it. I called David and talked to him on the phone and we decided that I would finish driving to Morgan and then just play it by ear after I saw how Lydia was feeling.

We pulled into Morgan a little later than planned due to the unexpected pit-stop on the side of the road but it wasn't too bad. I was glad that we were going to be taking my parents car instead of mine because it smelled a tiny bit like baby throw-up. I pulled Lydia out and we headed inside to see if my parents were ready to go. After ooh-ing and ahh-ing over Lydia my mom told me that she thought that Lydia was smelly and maybe needed a diaper change. I explained to her that I had just changed her in Centerville and she was probably just smelling the throw-up. I then told them the whole story and we all decided that she was acting happy and she would probably be fine to continue on our little road trip. Seconds later, I went to set Lydia down (I was holding her on my hip) and realized that I had poop all over my shirt. Apparently, after her little throw-up incident she had a massive blowout and it was now leaking out through her pants all over onto my clothes (which I was going to change anyway after the situation earlier). My mom was vindicated and after a brief "I told you so" (haha) she helped me change Lydia's outfit again! Lydia was still acting happy and excited to see her grandparents so we decided to forge ahead (after a phone call to David requesting that he bring some more outfits for Lydia when we drove up to Morgan that night).

Did I forget to mention that I was planning to drop off some wedding announcements to Jenna's sister-in-law Shannon in Brigham City on our way to Rexburg? Well, yeah - that was the plan. We were running a little late, but Shannon was a good sport to wait. We met up at the gas station right off I-15 and delivered her announcements/envelopes. Apparently, in all the rush of the morning I had forgotten that my parents know Shannon. I just kept saying "a girl", as in "I have to deliver these to a girl in Brigham City." When they realized it was her - they got out of the car to chat with her and then teased me for the rest of the day for not telling them who it was. In all honesty, I thought that I had. Or maybe I really forgot that they knew her. )How many of my RLD clients do they know? Not many.)

The rest of the trip was comparatively uneventful. (Thank goodness!) Lydia was a great road-tripper and only needed one pit stop on the way up to Rexburg and my dad needed to get gas anyway. We pulled into Jenna's apartment around noonish - miraculously almost right on time. We had a great time hanging out with Jenna at her apartment.

While Lydia spent her time exploring the apartment, we played Rummikub. (Note the OCD tendencies in the last photo - it couldn't be helped.)  

Jenna and Kevin made us a BYU-I delicacy. Thai-peanut, rice, chicken, wraps with a fancy name that I can't remember. As part of one of Jenna's classes she participated/worked in a real-life restaurant on campus and this was her favorite dish that they served. It was fantastic.

Some pictures of the Grad: 

 

 

 

I'm really glad that we were able to attend the commencement - but I must say... the person who decided to start the main commencement at 6 and then the second commencement for each school/program at 8 wasn't taking into consideration that people with small children would be in attendance. It was just really long and really late. But I wouldn't have missed it for the world. We got there early and Lydia loved climbing up the stairs. Over and over and over again. Luckily the stairs were short and wide enough that I wasn't super worried about her falling so I just watched her and then walked up the stairs and got her as she reached the top. We played this game seriously like 30 times. 

Something else cool... my dad went to college at Ricks. This is one of his roommates who now is a professor at BYU-I. When they were at college they bought a car together. A camero or a cadillac or something. A very neat car. It was cool. Anyway - it was fun to get a picture of them together. 

It must also be noted that i'd had a little bit of a rough start to my day and with Lydia missing her second nap I wasn't in the clearest of mindsets. I had brought a dress - but didn't remember to change into it until my family was like "Okay, we are leaving." It was either make them wait for me while I changed or just go as I was. I wasn't too worried about it because I was thinking back to my own graduation that was held in the Spectrum and 50% of the people were in jeans. Turns out, commencement was held in a mini-Conference Center. And by mini, mostly I mean an exact full-size replica. Every single person was in Sunday dress. And why shouldn't they be? They were practically attending General Conference. It's obvious that I should have realized this, being BYU-I and everything, but I honestly didn't know. I felt so lame. As soon as I realized it I should have walked right back to Jenna's apartment and changed Lydia and I into the dressed that I had packed. But I just kept telling myself that it would be okay. It wasn't. I was the only one in jeans and I felt so dumb. I swear I am a good and respectful person. I just didn't know! Sigh. Finally the commencement began.

 

The speakers were fabulous, however - my mom and I alternated spending the entire time out in the hallway. There was no way Lydia was sitting in a seat for that long. She finally fell asleep in my mom's arms and it was really sweet. The speakers were all amazing. I felt like it was seriously an education based General Conference. (Much better than the pseudo-talk that Danny Glover gave at my commencement. I don't think a single person understood what he was trying to say.) 

 

 So proud of this girl. Congratulations Jenna!