Behind the White Picket Fence

What a month

2012-02-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

We've hit the fun month of February and have so much we're looking forward to that I can't hardly remember what we did in January. . . wait, yes I do. . . next to nothing since we were sick for most of it. :)

The girls and I spent a lot of time at home and thanks to God's grace of a mild winter so far, we were able to get out for walks even during the fevers, stomach bug, ear infections, cold viruses and sinus infections. Luckily I only go the virus for a couple of weeks of it but poor Brad, he got it all right along with the girls! Seriously, it was quite a bummer of a month. We did, however, find some creative ways to keep entertained. You'll see some of the pictures below but here's a recap:

Addy and I made gingerbread cookies (this shouldn't seem like a big deal but baking is such a non-essential that it just doesn't happen in our house unless Brad does it!). . . I decided to let go of some control and let Addy make her own cookies. I figured I'd either have to sweep up a few crumbs or a bunch. So I let her go at it. :) Are you proud of me?

Addy started a gymnastics class for 2 year olds. Talk about herding cats! Addy loves it and after just 2 classes she's already doing some of the things she's learned at home. Hopefully it will help her coordination. :)

We built Addy's first snowman that unfortunately someone rolled down our grass hill not long after we made it. Addy was so bummed. :(

The biggest news on Addy is what is coming up this weekend. . . drum roll please. . . potty training! We've been doing a little of it but we're doing boot camp starting Friday morning. We're doing the Potty Training 1-2-3 method where we put emphasis on staying 'clean and dry' by using the potty. We've gotten all our supplies and in order to give Addy some sense of 'Feb 10th is the day we have our potty party,' we made a paper chain that she gets to tear a link off each day until the big day. Brad's even staying home from work to help with Elsie so I can be more focused on Addy. She is so excited (especially when she tasted the chocolate covered raisins and nutter butter cookies she gets as a treat for staying clean and dry!). She keeps wanting to put her training pants, pull ups and big girl underwear on every time she sees them. Yes, she's motivated and ready. February 10th is just the goal I set for myself to get ready for the change! :)

Elsie's been working on a lot of things: getting new teeth (she now has 4 and 2 more are just about to peek through), starting to sign "all done," trying to pull up on things(note the bruises on her forehead when she tried to pull up on the toy shelf and fell over onto it!), learning all sorts of new faces like 'shy face' where she puts her chin to her chest with a big smile on her face when someone she loves talks to her. Or, she does 'foreheads' by putting her forehead to someone else's forehead that she loves. She's started giving slobbery kisses and just last night she surprised us by picking up a little puff snack and putting it into her mouth like it was the easiest thing ever. I was sure she dropped it because she did it so fast. Just a couple of weeks ago she didn't have the coordination for that. She is changing so fast and she is just the happiest baby ever. I can't believe she is 9 1/2 months old already.

Addy continues to love on her baby sister so well. She calls her 'sweet girl' and is always ready to help feed her and give her toys. The have so much fun together.

Brad and I have spent most of our time trying to stay up with all the changes our girls bring to the table. But, we have enjoyed our weekly date nights and we even got to go see the Mission Impossible IMAX movie a few weeks ago. I will say, we spent the first few minutes feeling really old because it was too loud, too fast and way to big! :) Seriously, we could hardly follow the action. I guess it has been too many years since we've seen a movie on the big screen. IMAX might have been a bit ambitious. By the end I think our senses had adjusted and we enjoyed the flick.

I mentioned that the month of February is a big one and that's because we have birthdays and Valentine's day to celebrate, potty training to do, Grandma Bursch is coming to visit and Brad has a business trip. And that's just the out of the ordinary stuff. Plus, we've got to pack that all into just 3 weeks. I guess we're getting to make up for the very low key month of January.

We just hope we can all stay healthy to enjoy our plans. . .

Happy New Year

2012-01-16T08:37:00.000-08:00

We've been busy around here, as I'm sure you have, with celebrating Christmas and starting a new year. We spent Christmas in New Mexico and enjoyed our time with family. The girls traveled well (as we drove 10 hours down and 12 hours back) especially considering we only spent 4 days in NM.

We spent time with my Mom's sister, Zana, and my Grandpa Hulsbos a few days before Christmas and then with my Dad's family Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We stayed with Mom, Dad and Jenny at my Aunt and Uncle's house (even though they spent Christmas in VA). I think we spent most of our time opening presents and eating. :) Addy had a ball and Elsie loved getting so much attention from everyone.

Since we've been home we've tried to get back in the swing of regular life. We've welcomed the new year with vomit, strep and ear infections already so we figure we ought to be good and healthy for the rest of 2012.

Some news on the girls. . . Elsie started crawling Friday and got her first top tooth last week. She is such a happy baby and she loves playing with her sister and 'touching foreheads' with those she loves. She's learning 'no pass' to keep her on the rug or a blanket and she's learning 'inside voice.' That kid has quite a scream!

Addy is quite a little person these days. She is very helpful with Elsie and is enjoying learning to cook. She also surprised us last week by telling us she had to go to the bathroom during dinner with some friends. When I took her, not knowing what to expect, sure enough, she went to the bathroom. She's gone a few other times since then and seems to be starting to get it figured out. She's talking constantly these days so we're working on listening. :) She'll ask the same question 62 times over and over without taking a breath let alone waiting to hear the answer to the question. I'm working on not losing my cool over it. . . I think it's how Brad feels when he talks to me sometimes. :)

Brad and I are working on getting a little bit of a life back these days. We've committed to a weekly date night and we're spending Saturday mornings taking turns who watches the girls so we can each get some alone time out of the house to do something we WANT to do, not just something we have to do. So far so good. . .

Here's a video of the last month or so.
Enjoy!

Adventures. . . big and small

2011-12-20T13:40:00.000-08:00

We meant to post this before we left town for Christmas. . . oh well.

The several weeks have been full. Full of travel, full of activities, full of family and full of . . . well, everything else that goes along with raising 2 young girls.

Early November brought the death of my grandpa, Papo Bursch. He turned 90 in September and decided shortly after that he was finished with his worn out body here on earth. He was a wonderful man and it's hard to imagine we're about to celebrate Christmas in NM without him. Oh the memories of him dressing up as Santa for all the great-grandkids. I'm only sorry my girls won't remember him. I'm grateful that he's with the Lord in glory.

After spending a week in NM with family, we ended up driving straight to Gunnison to celebrate Thanksgiving with Mom, Dad, Jenny, Aunti Zana, Great Aunt Evie and Grandpa Hulsbos. We had a great time in the Colorado sunshine and while it was a long 2 weeks away from home, it was good to be with family.

(yeah. . . you can ask Brad about why the Slease family is wearing hats. . . )

The girls with their Great Grandpa Hulsbos.

The day after we returned to UT from Thanksgiving, Brad flew to Houston for a week of work. He had a great time and we had a major windstorm that knocked out the power in 1/2 our house for 2 1/2 days. :) Oh yeah, below freezing outside and everything. Several houses on our block had 1/2 power and so luckily we could run space heaters (since of course the 1/2 that was out was the fridge, freezer, furnace, and various strange lights throughout the house). What an adventure. . . or a nightmare. At any given moment it felt like one of the two.

We did get out of the house for some beginning Christmas celebration stuff. Primary Children's Hospital does a fundraiser each year where people donate decorated Christmas trees, gingerbread houses, wreathes, quilts, playhouses, etc. to be auctioned off to donate the money to the hospital. We went to see the trees this year and WOW. Here's the girls with the Snoopy tree.

After Brad returned from his week in Houston, he took off 2 days later for a week in Southern California. Yeah, rough life for him. He had lunch in Malibu, slept in a nice hotel room and went to Wood Ranch BBQ. We didn't do much while he was gone except get ready for Christmas and do 'projects' for Addy's school. It actually was a relaxing week and I had a lot of friends reach out to us to keep us company with Brad gone.

Now we're preparing to celebrate Christmas while trying to maintain the true meaning of Christmas in our mindset. We've done a lot of talking with Addy about Jesus' birth and we've also tried to explain cultural Christmas traditions (like Santa) after people asking her what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas. All she could offer people as an answer was a blank/bewildered stare so we thought we might want to explain the Santa thing. Now she wants to meet Santa. Oh well, trying to teach history to a 2 year old might be a bit deep.

Anyway, we've made yummy Grama Juice Christmas cookies, visited Christmas street to see the lights (our neighbors across the street have a better display than all of Christmas Street put together. . . oh yeah, the lights are coordinated to music!), and we've had a few Christmas gatherings. It has been a blessing to have Brad home this last week and to be together as a family again in preparation for Christmas.

We hope your family has a very Blessed Christmas as you recall the good news the angels proclaimed to the shephers "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will bring great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord." (Luke 2: 10b-11) We know this news has brought great joy to us and we pray it will bring great joy to you this Christmas.

Fall Fun!

2011-11-09T09:29:00.000-08:00

We've had a fun few weeks full of fall fun. Halloween was lots of fun with our little ladybugs and we've kept busy with crafts, baking, canning and outings. Here's a little slide show of the last few weeks.

Elsie has started sitting up pretty well now and she has her two bottom teeth peeking through her gums. She's a pretty good sport about trying new foods but she is giving me a run for my money with blowing raspberries of food at me. We're working on 'not talking with your mouth full' with both girls. :)

We hope you are enjoying fall. . . or maybe it's turned winter where you are. It's beginning to feel like winter here. Feel free to pass on any ideas about how to survive winter with 2 active little ones.

Oh the girls God has given us

2011-10-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

Sisters! We are so blessed that they really do love each other. I think Addy still doesn't realize Elsie is her own person and not just a toy I brought home for her to play with. Things could get interesting when Elsie starts to disagree with Addy. We'll start praying about that now.

Well, I think we're officially on our way to winter. We pulled out all the hats, coats and gloves and now Addy has a whole new toy basket to play with. Unlike last year she can put on her gloves and hat herself so it's dress-up time all the time!

Just in time for the cold winter I got a new bike. Hmm. Actually, Brad 'gave' me a new bike when I got my master's degree (6 years ago!) but we never actually got it. I just always felt like the bike I've had since I was 12 still worked so why get something new. Well, after a few frustrating weekends of trying to get out for a family bike ride and my bike failing to function, we upgraded me. I've ridden 3 times since we got it on Saturday and yesterday I even pulled the girls in the trailer. 50 extra pounds is a killer for someone who hasn't really exercised since being 9 months prego and swimming 2x a week (if that even counts as exercise!). It was really cold but the girls were bundled and I was sweating plenty to get up the itty bitty hill to the park. Hopefully we'll be able to bundle and ride even through the winter.

We dedicated Elsie Mae to the Lord at church on Sunday and celebrated by having Uncle Scott, Aunt Deb and Cousin Matt over for steaks after. They brought a cake and Addy really wanted to put candles on it so.

. . we did and we sang Happy Birthday to Matt & Addy. Elsie was sleeping so she didn't mind. :)

Yes, that is a big, pink bow on Elsie Mae AND she is wearing shiny shoes! I'm getting so much better with accessories. :) At least for the girls. Thank you Grandpa Hulsbos for the pretty dress for Addy!

Elsie is working on sitting up and does pretty good. She doesn't even mind face plants because usually she's trying to get to a toy out of her reach anyway.

This is a new one for us. Elsie likes to try to reach for things on the table (yes, her bouncy seat is on the table) when she's in her seat so she sticks her head through the toy bar to be able to reach further. She often gets stuck and can't get back. This was one such time. :)

Elsie had her 6 month check up today and she weighs 15lbs 3 oz (35%)and is 26.8 inches tall (90%) and her head is 16 inches around. She's growing like a week and is changing so fast!

What?!

2011-10-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

Here's an update on our super happy baby. . .

Elsie threw us a look during the last few weeks. I'm still recovering. Once you get used to a baby sleeping well, any night waking feels next to death with the dread that she might be picking up a bad habit. Well, for Elsie, it was nothing but hunger but man, she nearly killed me! Elsie started waking up several times a night and talking a while but then falling back asleep. As a mom, I spent that time awake listening intently to her noises to make sure she was ok. Brad? He slept through all of it. Then, late last week she started crying when she woke up. We did all the checks (dirty diaper? no. wedged in the corner? no. too much daytime sleep? maybe.) one thing was sure though, she was hungry. How did I figure it out?

When I picked her up to check her. . . she about sucked my face off. I'm not baby whisperer but that one was clear. So, I started feeding her at crazy hours when she woke up crying and we started making rice cereal for her. (I love that I know how to make all the baby food so that it's second nature to me! Babies really are easier the second time around.) Elsie's been reaching for food and smacking her lips when we eat so I figured she'd love starting food for herself. Well. . . Here's Elsie's first bite. . .
She wasn't so sure. But, if you remember Addy's faces. . .

Now Addy will eat anything so long as we tell her it's ok to eat. Brad likes to take this a little far. . . smoked oysters, greek olives, wasabi peas. . . just to get a reaction. She'll try anything. The only things she really doesn't like (and you do get a pretty funny reaction when she does eat it) are eggs and zucchini squash. Last night we had fried rice and spring rolls and she asked for more crabs (they were shrimp) and more dip (spicy peanut sauce) to go on her bowl. She kept telling me it was a bit spicy but she just drank more milk and kept going.
Here's Addy with her spicy asian cuisine.

Here's Addy making binoculars to watch the birds in the neighborhood that God made on the 5th day of creation (our Bible story right now for her preschool stuff).
Finished product. We did go bird watching before lunch today but I think most of birds have headed south. Oh well. We'll go visit the ducks at the park to see birds on Friday and the fish at the aquarium tomorrow to see the fish God created on Day 5. Both of which were Addy's ideas for field trips. :)

These girls are so much fun! What a blessing!

Beautiful Fall Colors

2011-10-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

Seriously, where do we live?! Last week we had our first snow of the year. Have we even had fall yet? Actually, I think this week could count as fall. It's been beautiful. But last week. . . rain, snow and bone chilling cold. So, we did some bundling and headed outdoors. We are still paying for it though. . . the girls have colds and even Brad is coming down with something now. Is that just an old wives' tale?

OK, side note about that hat Elsie is wearing. . . I had her propped up on the couch when I was helping Addy get ready to outside and she managed to twirl the hat around so that the flower over her ear ended up over her nose. I just died laughing at the poor kid with her eyes covered and a big blue flower over her nose. If only I had had a picture of that!

We recently returned from a week in Gunnison where we experienced brilliant Colorado sunshine, beautiful fall colors, fun outings and adventures and great visits with some old friends from Colorado, Brad's parents and my parents. We packed in the fun and are still recovering from it! Below is a slide show of photos. There are a few tree pictures. . . but really, it was so beautiful!

Addy is enjoying being '2' and we are having fun doing a home school preschool curriculum a friend told me about. We're doing art projects together, learning songs and Bible stories and practicing her manners and fine and gross motor skills. It is so great to have meaningful and purposeful activities to do together. I'm sure this will be a lifesaver this winter when we're stuck inside. (http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com/ for the free online curriculum for 2 - 4 year olds)

Elsie is Addy's #1 fan and loves to play with her. She's rolling over quite proficiently now and chews on everything she can get her hands on. She's a bear to nurse because she's so easily distracted and really just wants to see everything that is going on around her. Elsie is working on sitting up on her own but her favorite thing is to 'jump' up and down while you hold her under the arms. She loves music and if she's crying, she stops immediately and gets a huge grin if someone starts singing. If there are hand motions or instruments involved, even better. Elsie loves being in her exersaucer for Bible story time using the flannel board with Addy and she jumps up and down and squeals during our songs. Since she's almost 6 months old, I think we'll start rice cereal with her this weekend. I froze a batch of cereal for her this morning so more on that to come.

Brad and I have had the opportunity to get involved in a Bible study with some friends from church and we're enjoying doing that together. We're studying 1 Corinthians and we've had some great conversations so far. We're also starting to feel a little more capable of managing life with 2 small ones and so we're working on getting back in the groove of an organized life.

We hope fall is treating your family well!

North Carolina Adventure

2011-09-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

We recently returned from spending 10 days in North Carolina with Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Tom. It was a big adventure for many reasons: it was Elsie's first plane trip, the girls' first time on the beach (and in the ocean for Addy), mine and the girls' first time to NC and our last plane trip before Addy turned 2 and required her own seat.

We had a great trip eating seafood, going to the beach and the aquarium, seeing New Bern and the outer banks of NC, spending time with Lynn and Tom and getting to have a few adventures as a family. The girls traveled really well and God saw fit to spoil us a little on the way home. Our plane didn't even leave New Bern until 5pm and Addy was able to have her own seat for that 1 1/2 hour flight as well as our family had a row of 6 seats to ourselves for the 8pm flight from Atlanta to SLC! The girls were able to stretch out and sleep and Brad and I watched a movie! What a blessing after such a long trip and a long day of travel.

News Flash

2011-08-29T13:17:00.001-07:00

A big piece of news for our family is that we have welcomed a new family member and said good-bye to another. We bought a MINIVAN!!! I know, I know, we've always said we would NEVER get one but after our first 9 hour road trip to Gunnison, we jumped on the opportunity to buy Papo's van. It's amazing and we're really enjoying it. . . despite the fact that it's not an SUV. We're enjoying the good gas mileage. We did, however, sell the Civic. It was a tough decision because the civic gets 35 mpg, only had 94000 miles on it and was working great as a commuter car for Brad (and it was my first car!). But, Brad was ready for a 'big boy car' so he upgraded to the Subie and we sold the Civic. We actually got close to our asking price and for a 16 year old car, we were pretty happy with the sale. Brad is adjusting to the image wrecker of owning a minivan pretty well because Addy is so much more pleasant (and farther away from earshot!) in the van than she was crammed into the Subie.

Addy Paddy turned 2 last week and is just as busy as ever. She talks non-stop when we're at home and is fairly quiet around other people or in public until she gets comfortable. She loves being a big sister and has recently started reading books to Elsie Mae. She tells Elsie what is in all the pictures or she asks her, "Mae Mae what's dis?" to everything in the book. It is precious. Addy is really tall, most people think she is around 3 years old, and is working on getting her 2 year molars in. We found out she's in the 95% for height and she's almost 50% for weight. She gets a lot of 'owies' (she trips all the time - perhaps because she is so tall!) and likes to wear band-aids whenever possible. She's in the phase of asking what everything is, even people she sees walking past us. She points to them and says, "What's dat Mommy?" It's a little embarassing. She has a great laugh and loves to read books, take care of her stuffed animals, play in the pool and go for walks. She has also recently started praying after our family devotional time for everyone she knows.

Elsie Mae is almost 5 months old and she has been described by others as HUGE. :) She is really tall and has more chunk than Addy ever had and she's such a happy baby. At her check-up last month we found out she is 13 lbs 7 oz (50%), 25.5 inches tall (90%) and has a 15.4 inch head circumference (2%!). She just started rolling over from her back to her tummy and often sleeps on her tummy now because she can't flip back over. She squirms and scoots on her head (or face if she's on her tummy) to get around a little. She also touches everything and wants to put everything in her mouth. She loves making the music play on her mirror or the exersaucer. . .Addy was such an observer (and still is) that all this activity is so strange for me to see in such a little baby. She is super cute and loves face-time with whoever will give it to her. She's started giggling but it's hard to predict when she'll do it. She has also started sucking her thumb on her right hand while she puts her left arm over her eyes while she's sleeping.

Brad has officially welcomed his 2 new supervisors to the office and has finally has a full leadership team. He is really looking forward to getting them all trained and on their own so he can get a bit of a break! He's started mountain biking with a friend from church and he's looking forward to snowboarding with him this winter.

I have had a few breaks from the girls recently when I went to a Beth Moore conference in SLC and left the girls with Brad (Elsie decided to take a bottle after 5 hours without eating!), a girls night out and a trip to New Mexico for Papo's birthday last weekend (I took Elsie and left Addy at home). Whew! We've been busy lately!

Addy's first haircut

2011-07-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Addy got her first real (pay someone to do it!) haircut. I've trimmed her bangs in the past with mixed results and my mom has trimmed her bangs. But this time we went to Cookie Cutters. Cookie Cutters is this funny little place that has the kids sit in cars or airplanes while getting their hair cut and they can watch a movie, tv show or play a video game. They have playground equipment in the waiting area and the kids get suckers and balloons after their cut. Addy even got a fancy hairdo and princess sparkles in her hair at the end (which the gal promised would last several days. . . does she know our kid?! The hairdo was toast after one nap of hair-twirling.)

Addy did great. . . However, let it be said that she watched Curious George and perhaps didn't blink during her entire haircut. :) Hmmm. Maybe we should buy a DVD player for road trips! :)

Addy's mop before the cut. She chose to sit in a pretty pink car. Actually, I think Brad chose for her because she was overwhelmed by the place.

Addy watching Curious George.

Addy's pretty do.
After. . . my she's looking so big!

Addy playing on the playground while we waited for her 'baby's first haircut certificate' to be made.

Last night Brad and I went out on a 'date' to a concert in the park downtown. Do not picture 'Jazz in the Park' for you Denverites. This was more like a 20 something, tattoo wearing, mosh pit type concert. There were tens of thousands of people there and we took Elsie along for the adventure since she's still refusing the bottle. :) Addy stayed home with a sitter and luckily Elsie is so easy going. She hung out in the baby bjorn, ate a little, slept a little and people watched a lot. She did really well. Our next date promises to be a little more like a date. :)

Elsie is almost 3 months old and she is quite the talker. She loves playing with toys dangling in front of her and actually cried in her bouncy seat the other night until I put the toys up. Then she was happy. Good grief, my 3 month old gets bored. :) Today I took some video of her while Addy was napping and I had to take her downstairs for fear of waking Addy. Elsie has some volume to her.

July update

2011-07-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

Where to begin. . .

I feel like I take so long to do these blog posts that by the time I get to them, I'm just reporting stats and facts. So here I go.

Addy is 22 months old already. She is SO tall that most people think she's well past 2. She's fairly shy when she meets people until she sizes them up and watches them closely. Then she chats up a storm, shows them her favorite toys and wants to play with them. She's pretty funny to watch because she is so talkative and has very amusing inflection in her voice. She loves to help with her baby sister and she is starting to show strong evidence of the months of training we've been doing. She's still a toddler who can throw a serious tantrum, but she's able to display great manners, clean up after herself and be really loving and sweet. She loves to say 'bless you' when someone sneezes and has started saying 'you're welcome' back to someone who says it to her. :) She's quite a piece of work.

Elsie Mae (aka Mae Mae, Mee Mee, Mee Mee Cakes and Elsie Mae Mae) is almost 3 months old already. She's growing like a weed and she loves to be held and talked to. She has a beautiful smile and she is coo-ing and 'talking' like crazy. At about 2 1/2 mo old we went in for her 2 mo check-up and she weighed 11 lbs 15 oz (75%) and was 24.5 inch long (95%). I can't remember her head circumference but her head was in the 50%. I'm not sure why we have such tall kids but like their Mama, they have tiny heads. :)

Something else we found out last week is that both our girls are tongue-tied. They are not very severe, but they do have heart shaped tongues and are unable to lift their tongues to the roof of their mouth. Finding this out has explained so much: why, as babies. they can't drink out of bottles, why my milk supply drops so fast, why they have lip blisters on their top lip, why they can't seem to stay latched on when they nurse and why they spit up so much. I'm a little irritated that pediatricians and hospital staff don't look for this condition and give moms a heads up so they can get it fixed earlier. It's actually a type of birth defect where the little part that attaches the tongue to the bottom of the mouth doesn't recede enough in the womb. It's genetic and clusters in families. We're not exactly sure who in the family before the girls had it. There are no nerve endings in that part of the mouth and having it too tight can cause all sorts of problems. The lactation lady we met with confirmed the problem in about 10 seconds. Anyway, we got it clipped in Elsie last Friday morning. She did really well with the procedure and stopped crying as soon as I picked her back up. She started crying again when I put her in the stroller but as long as Addy held her hand, she stopped crying. Such sweet sister love!

Apparently it was a big deal for Elsie to have her tongue so tight. She has been playing with her tongue a lot more (we always wondered why Addy never really stuck her tongue out or made all those baby tongue noises babies are supposed to make) and miracle of all miracles. . . she drank 3 oz out of a bottle last night!!! This is a really big deal since Addy never did it and Elsie was well on her way to not taking a bottle either. Brad said she was sucking so hard on the bottle that it was bobbing up and down in her mouth! I'm so pleased we were able to get this fixed in Elsie and that it seems to be helping her.

Anyway, she is happy, healthy and so darn cute! And she slept 9 hours last night!!! Mama is happy too.

I've attached a couple of slide shows from the last few weeks. The girls and I spent a week in Gunnison with my parents while Brad was working in Denver and we returned to SLC in time for the 4th of July celebration in our neighborhood. In Gunnison I enjoyed having help with the girls, not having to cook and having good adult conversation. The girls enjoyed the special attention from Ba & Ma and getting to play outside a lot (once the mosquitoes died down a bit!).

A funny thing happened at our 4th of July neighborhood pancake breakfast. . . I recognized one of the fireman that was going to drive the fire truck in the parade after breakfast but I didn't know why. Brad knew right away, he was one of the guys who came to our house in the ambulance when Elsie was born. Actually, 2 of the fireman at the breakfast had been to our house but I only recognized one of them at first. I went over to talk to them and to show them Elsie Mae. They got a kick out of that! Elsie Mae continues to be the talk of the neighbors because she was born at home and it seems any time we go to a neighborhood function, the story must be told. :)

Who's who?

2011-06-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

Time to play a little who's who guessing game. :) We've been thinking all along that our two girls look nothing alike but the other day when we were looking at old pictures, we realized when Addy was Elsie's age, they look very similar. So. . .

You guess who is who and the answers are at the bottom. Have fun!

Picture #1

Picture #2

Picture #3

Picture #4
Picture #5
Picture #6

Drum roll please. . .

Addy: Pictures 2, 3, 6

Elsie: Pictures 1, 4, 5

So they're not twins, for sure, but kind of fun that they may actually look like sisters after all!

21 Months and 7 weeks!

2011-06-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

We can hardly believe it but Addy is 21 months old already! She's quite a busy bee these days picking up all sorts of words and trying new things all the time. It amazes me the things she says. (and repeats! oops!) She is saying a lot of simple sentences and getting really good at using polite manners. . . well, sometimes. :) We're up to our eyeballs trying to train her and while some days it feels like a losing battle, she is growing and learning. Whew, toddlers!

One of Addy's hairdo's complements of Daddy.

Here's Addy reading her Bible to her penguin. She loves reading and anytime she can read to someone, she's much happier. She loves to talk about the stories in her Bible and probably about 70% of what she says is English. :) Sometimes we just smile and nod.

The last few weeks have been a lot less eventful since our busy first month with Elsie. I caught a cold from Addy and was sick for 2 weeks (it's actually still holding on a little!) and then Brad caught the cold. It was a bad one and kept us from taking our road trip to NM and CO. So we've been trying to recover and trying to get some sleep!

The transition to two girls is going pretty well. For anyone who's done it, you know it's tricky, but luckily Addy loves her baby sister. She calls her Mee Mee or Elsie and always wants to give her hugs and kisses. Addy is even getting used to me having to hold Elsie but sometimes she takes advantage of my hands being full to try to get away with something she knows she shouldn't. She's a smart one. :)

This picture is of Elsie Mae this morning. She was in such a good mood after her bath and was talking up a storm, kicking her legs and smiling a lot. She's so darn cute! I'm sure her mood was the result of going 7 hours between feedings the last few nights. Way to go Elsie, keep up the good work!

Elsie Mae is One Month Old!

2011-05-27T12:49:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been a month already. I'm constantly forgetting it's May (and the end of it, at that!). I feel like I'm stuck in a time warp of newborn land. That is, until daytime hits and then it's toddler land. Here's a bit about what our last month has held. . .

Week 1:

Mom and Dad were here to help with Addy, Brad was off of work. I felt great after such a quick labor, Addy was loving having a baby sister (who she only saw periodically and who mostly spent time sleeping in the basement) and Elsie did what newborns do best: eat, sleep and poop.

At one week old, Elsie Mae headed to church!

Week 2:

Mom and Dad headed to California for business and Brad and I held down the fort alone with the two girls. Brad played with Addy a lot and was able to get a few things done around the house. Not as many as he expected. . .life with 2 littles is a bit more busy than he anticipated. :)

Our first family outing to the Red Butte Gardens.

Elsie in her bouncy seat at 2 weeks old.

Week 3:

Mom and Dad came back for the week because Brad headed back to work. We did go to Elsie's 2 week appointment and she weighed in at a whopping 8lbs 14 oz (birth weight 7 lbs 10 oz). Way to go Mae Mae!

Mom and Dad with their favorite granddaughters . . . oh, and us. :)

Week 4:

Mom and Dad went home to Gunnison, and I did my first week with the girls by myself. Everything was pretty smooth because friends from MOPS and Bible study brought us dinner. :) So, Addy and I took Elsie on some adventures (the aquarium, the children's' museum and on a walk to the park). It was good to get out of the house and to begin to get into a routine.

The girls at the aquarium.

Addy playing with the balls at the children's museum.

Week 5:

My friend, Melissa, hosted a Sip 'n See for Elsie Mae and we enjoyed munching on yummy goodies, drinking tea and having a break from the bigger kids. Jenny came to visit for the week and we got to spend a lot of time at home. Mae Mae started into an unpleasant routine of screaming unless being held each afternoon/evening and sometimes into the night. Our nerves started to get a bit raw so we did go see the Dr to check on reflux. We're not convinced that is what's going on, but we'll see. (Mae Mae weighed in at 10 lbs!) It was a blessing to have Jenny in town because Addy started to realize being a big sister means sharing Mommy with baby Mae Mae. She's not to keen on this idea. Jenny was able to help with both girls since it seemed they were always waking up at the same time, crying at the same time and needing to eat at the same time. Whew! What a week. I think Jenny was ready to head home to get a break from her vacation.

Jenny and Addy at Sugarhouse Park.

Update on Addy:

Addy's vocabulary is exploding right now! She's picking up new words by the dozens and she's starting to sing the songs I always sing to her. She's growing like a weed (thank goodness for hand-me-downs!) and she loves reading books. We're definitely seeing her try to explore her independence ("I do it" was her first sentence. We're trying to add a "please" to the end of that.) and for the most part she's learning how to accept help when it isn't appropriate for her to do it herself.

Update on Brad:

Brad's job has kept him quite busy but it looks like there's some light at the end of the tunnel. A newly hired supervisor from Phoenix starts next week and she looks like she'll be a great addition to the SLC operation. She ought to help lighten the load for Brad. Brad is definitely enjoying playing with Addy when he gets home from work and he's a pro at 'shh-ing' Elsie when she won't calm down.

Brad and Addy wrestling.

Brad reading to Elsie Mae before bed.

Update on Me:

Yesterday I realized how easy it was to just have 1 newborn in the home compared to a newborn and a 20 month old. I took Elsie to the Dr by myself while Jenny stayed at home with Addy and I felt light as a feather. I wrote thank you cards, went to Kohls to get a few new shirts, picked up a prescription and even hit Toys R Us for a few new PJ's for the growing Addy Paddy. It felt so easy! Elsie slept the whole time and I only had to stop to feed her briefly. I guess it's God's grace that babies start small. When it's your first, it feels hard to do everything. Then as they grow, your competency grows. It isn't until you start over again that you realize how much more challenging the older phase really is! Then again, maybe it's just having 2 that is more challenging. Anyway, geared up with a double stroller I've been motivated to get out even if it's a bit tricky. I still haven't figured out the grocery store yet. . . or cleaning or cooking or laundry or. . .

Praise God our competency grows and praise God for patient husbands!

Elsie Mae's Dramatic Entrance

2011-04-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

There is a lot about the birth of Elsie Mae that is leaving us unable to do anything but shake our heads in disbelief. I'm sure you'll join us in the head shaking by the end of you reading the tale of her arrival. Being the detail oriented person that I am though, this is no short story. . .

An interesting introduction to the arrival of Elsie Mae is that I have no idea how dilated/effaced I was at any point in the process. I was a 0 for each check with Addy and only a 2 after having contractions 2 minutes apart for 2 hours when they checked me in at the hospital. So for this one, I decided I didn't want to know my dilation because I didn't want to be discouraged. . . now I wonder how effective the hypnobirthing visualization of dilation really was prior to even going in to labor.

Saturday night we all went to bed as usual after attending Saturday night Easter service at church. At 1:24 am I woke up with a contraction that felt fairly strong. I practiced my deep belly breathing and rested in bed to see if another one would come. About 10 minutes later another contraction showed up and lasted about a minute bringing with it the need to go to the bathroom. In addition, the baby was doing crazy movements that felt like flip-flops in my belly. This went on about every 8 - 10 minutes for an hour before I decided I needed to wake Brad up.

At 2:20 am I decided it was real labor because I had the shakes like last time and by this point and I was having trouble getting them under control. I needed Brad's help to relax so I woke him up. After getting me settled in bed with a hypnobirthing relaxation recording, Brad hopped in the shower and poured himself some coffee (which we had luckily made the night before and put in a thermos to keep hot!). By the time he got out I had decided that laying in bed was not going to help me get my shakes under control. I was getting frustrated because I knew the shakes were the real problem with Addy's birth and I just couldn't stop them. I tried alternating between having Brad rub my back while on the birth ball, walking around trying to breathe and relax, and running to the toilet during contractions (sorry if that's TMI!). I have no idea how far about the contractions were at this point because I wasn't paying attention to the clock, just trying to get my shakes under control.

We do know that at 3:15 am Brad called my parents to let them know we were headed to the hospital. Just before that I told Brad it was time to go so he started in on my checklist getting the car packed and the appropriate phone calls made. Calling my parents was the first call. In between trying to help me relax and breathe, Brad continued down the checklist. He would come running when I would yell, "Brad" or "Baby" from the bathroom and then he'd be off trying to get us out the door.

Next, Brad called my friend Beth to let her know we were going to bring Addy over on our way to the hospital. Not long after he made that call, I told him I didn't want to spend the time with that stop and we should just call our neighbor, Connie, to come over to stay with Addy until Mom & Dad arrived. With me directing him, Brad couldn't find her phone number so he frantically called our other neighbor, Colleen, at 3:30am. She came right over.

Brad gave her some directions while I sat in on the toilet thinking, "How are we going to get to the hospital?!" I just couldn't imagine sitting in the car for 15 minutes when every contraction made me have to go to the bathroom. When Brad came back to check on me, I told him I was going to get an epidural when we got to the hospital. He asked me if I wanted him to talk me out of it and I told him no. I told him I just needed to think about it. He ran off again to put the last few things in the car and the next thing I knew my water broke like a water balloon exploding in the toilet (I know, more TMI). I hollered for Brad and told him he should call an ambulance to take us to the hospital because I wasn't going to be able to ride in the car. All the while, I'm doing this weird arm thing trying to get my breathing to slow down and trying to focus.

When I hollered for Brad, I yelled "Baby" so Colleen, who had just gotten into the guest bedroom thought I was saying the baby was coming and she started searching for the phone to call 911. Little did I know. . .

Then I told Brad I had to push and he told me, "No, let's just get in the car." He tried to pull me up and and I started pushing. The next thing I knew, he was lifting me on to the floor while yelling, "The baby's coming, the baby's coming!" and out came the baby! I think it happened all in 1 push, or maybe 2. It's kind of a blur but Brad caught the baby, put her on my belly (just like the videos!) and Colleen talked to the 911 people about what to do next. It was absolutely crazy, loud and frantic! Colleen announced that it was a girl but in the chaos, Brad didn't hear and remembered to check. :) We started trying to make sure the baby was breathing because she wasn't crying and she was doing just fine. Brad found a shoe string (that strangely enough I had noticed on the floor of Brad's closet just Saturday morning and could direct him to!) to tie off the cord and Colleen went in search of Addy's bulb syringe (which we never actually got a chance to use) and the paramedics got there as we were covering the baby girl with towels.

Once the paramedics arrived, they took the baby girl, got some stats (like our estimate that she was born at 3:40am. . . we really have no idea!) and I walked up the stairs to get on the gurney to head to the hospital. Yes, I walked up the stairs. I thought that sounded better than being bumped up the stairs on this weird chair thing. They strapped me in, took me out to the ambulance and handed me baby girl because I wanted to try to nurse her. The paramedics didn't even know babies nursed that quickly after birth. I'm pretty sure for most of the crew, this was their first unintended home birth assignment. They seemed mostly clueless, having to look up in the manual how to assign the Apgar score and what paperwork to fill out. They wanted to put me on an IV but I was still shaking with contractions (my placenta hadn't delivered so they were still really strong) and I was trying to nurse. They gave up when I ignored them. :)

Brad called my parents as he followed the ambulance to tell them what happened and we left Colleen to take care of Addy (along with her other 4 kids on Easter morning!) who luckily slept through the entire ordeal!

Once we got to the hospital, they checked us into Labor & Delivery, we waited for my midwife to arrive to deliver the placenta and then they started checking out baby girl. (still no name at this point. . . ) Her temp was low and since I was group B strep positive and was supposed to have antibiotics at least 4 hours before delivery to keep me from passing anything to her, they took her to get warmed up and checked out. They did a blood sugar test, which came back low, and some blood work, which came back with a high white blood cell count. With all these things, they decided to give her a bottle to try to raise her blood sugar and they decided to start her on antibiotics in case the white blood cell count was indication of an oncoming infection.

All the while, I was getting stitched up (very little tearing though which is amazing for how fast all of it happened!) and moved to the postpartum room. By this point, our story had circulated on the floor and we were getting all kinds of jokes and teasing.

It took a while but after being admitted as a NICU baby, they brought baby girl to us because she seemed to be doing fine. They decided they would just come get her to check her blood sugar level, white blood cell count and give her meds. That was great and we nursed again and she went to town no problem. She's a very strong eater which gave them good indication that she really was fine even some of her numbers were not that great. We found out that she weighed 7 lbs 10 oz, was 20.5 inches tall and had a head circumference of 12.8 inches. She is so tiny (and yet a little bigger than Addy was. . . wow!).

At that point forward it is all a blur of feedings, baby girl getting whisked away to the NICU for checks and meds, Mom, Dad & Addy coming to visit and not sleeping very much. All I know is that I can't believe how much better I feel having delivered quickly this time compared to how hard my recovery was from 17 hours of hard labor with Addy. I was walking all over the floor, showering and getting around by myself just hours after getting to the hospital.

As far as baby girl's name goes, about a month ago we were on a date and decided to deliberate once more about names when Brad asked about my grandmothers' names. When I said my mom's mom was named Elsie, he said, "That's what we're naming the baby if it's a girl." Needing some time to think about it, we really didn't talk about it again other than to say that Elsie Mae (spelled May in my mind at the time) was cute. I didn't want to decide on a name at the hospital until we got a chance to spend some time with her to see if it fit. That was when Brad sprung the Mae spelling on me again so I had to process that. . . decision delayed. In that time, we did call my parents back and the first thing my mom told me was that my Grandma, Elsie, was born on Easter. :) We figured that was confirmation enough that we ought to go with Elsie Mae. Since then we've been reminded by family members that Mae is a family name too! So, Elsie Mae Slease it is. Actually, we're calling her Elsie Mae instead of just Elsie. We're loving it.

We came home yesterday after we were discharged and have settled into life at home nicely. Addy's struggling a bit with all the change but loves her baby sister and wants to pray for her, kiss her and share her toys with her. We had Elsie Mae's newborn check up this morning (good grief trying to get out the door with 2 kids!) and she weighs 7 lbs 7 oz so she seems to be gaining just fine despite her spitting up quite a bit. The Doctor said she looked great.

So. . . that's the story. It wasn't what we had in mind but what a blessing that everything went well and that it was FAST! That was a huge answer to prayer even if it looked a little different than we thought. :)

We've attached a slide show of photos of the past several days. Enjoy!

Fun Week!

2011-04-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

***This blog never got posted as I was waiting to finish it on Sunday afternoon. . . with Elsie Mae's big adventure, we didn't get that far. Enjoy!

This week Addy and I had extra time with no Bible study or MOPS so we did a bit of exploring (at least during the few brief hours it wasn't raining this week!).

We headed to Historic Wheeler Farm where Addy got to see all her favorite barnyard friends. It did rain on us a but but we got to see everything and be outside for a while. Addy did decide that she didn't really like the horses or cows because they are big. She was 'all done' with those pretty fast. She was very into the 'hop hops' (bunnies) and the chickens.

We had quite a bit of company this week too. We had 2 supervisor candidates (for Brad's work) over for dinner on Tuesday night (we ordered Thai!) and then had all the supervisors/acting supervisors (and their wives), and candidates over for burgers Friday night. 'We' did cook for that one but since it was only planned as of Thursday afternoon, Brad did all the cooking and I just cleaned up. We've had fun entertaining this week and it's looking hopeful that Brad might be able to get some supervisors hired and in place in the next few weeks.

We also had our 39 week appointment with our midwife only to find out that she's going to be out of town next Thur - Sunday. Bummer. There are other midwives in the practice who can deliver Baby Slease if we go into labor while she's gone but we're still hoping Baby comes before she leaves!

Addy and I also made it to the zoo Friday morning because it was supposed to be sunny all day. It turned out only to be 40 degrees so while we were a bit chilly, a lot of the animals were really active because it was so cool. Addy decided the elephant, baby elephant, gorillas and rhinoceros were too 'big' so she didn't really like them. However, she was very friendly with the big cats like the leopards and tigers who were very actively pacing their pens. Addy kept meowing to them and saying hi. She was not afraid of them one bit. . . I was a bit uncomfortable by their pacing though.

With no real plans for Easter (other than hoping to be having a baby!) we found ourselves quite busy for the Easter weekend. We decided on a whim to go to our church's Eggstravaganza Saturday morning where the kids heard a gospel presentation and meaning behind Easter and then headed off to do an Easter egg 'hunt' (for Addy's age group that meant girls walking around the grass tossing eggs on the ground in front of the little kids. . . it was a zoo! Addy did get an egg though and she was very excited to find a sticker and a bouncy ball inside!), and then there was craziness in the biggest bounce houses I've ever seen.

Here's Addy with her Easter purse from Gramma Juice (thanks!) and her prize Easter egg. She was saying 'two' when I took the picture because I was counting 1, 2, 3 and she's gotten into the number 'two' lately. Oh well. We'll have to teach her to say 'cheese' for pictures.

We started off with Addy in the preschool bounce house, which she loved. She was in one about 2 months ago and didn't last 30 seconds but this time she played in there longer than any of the other kids! She loved it!

Then Addy and Daddy moved on to the big kids bounce house. Brad carried her through this air filled maze thing and then up a ladder to go down a really big slide. She loved it. . . Brad was a bit winded by the end. :)

Saturday night we went to Easter service at church. Here's our family photo, the very last photo of me pregnant and Addy after church.

Happy Easter!

Food & Fun

2011-04-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks have been busy. We've had dinner guests, lots of baby prep, we've started a hypnobirthing class (oh yeah, it finishes after our due date!) and gotten together with other 'SLC Pioneer Class of 2010' members.

The hypnobirthing class is interesting. There's a bit that's a little out there for me but I am practicing my relaxation every day in prep for our go at another natural birth. Hopefully I'll do it more gracefully this time. Relaxing isn't really in my personality profile so I'm really trying to figure that out.

Addy and I have been spending our time singing songs (she loves to do hand motions), going for walks when it's not raining, visiting various baby stores to take care of last minute purchases and continuing on with Bible study, MOPS, book babies, visiting the aquarium and taking a lot of naps.

Brad, on the other hand, has been spending a lot of time trying to get everything at work situated for him to be out of the office for 2 weeks when the baby comes. Poor guy. . . this is not really good timing for a new baby. He has a lot going on at work! We'd appreciate your prayers for him!

I've posted some pictures of recent events like when we loaded up on seafood (yeah for gift cards) from Market Street Grill Fish Market and made clam chowder and sourdough bread (actually these were pre-made), scallops, crab legs and lobster meat. We topped it off with blueberry shortcake (we ran out of strawberries from our dinner party the night before). Addy tried the lobster, clam chowder, sourdough bread and shortcake but we were unwilling to spare any of the crab or scallops. We're so mean. She loved all of it but we got the most 'mo's' out of the blueberry shortcake.

We also have pictures of a gathering we had with 5 other couples who moved to SLC last April - June from TX (2 couples), CO (3 couples from Denver!), and NV . We decided to do an anniversary party to celebrate the year. We had great food and the kids had tons of fun together.

Lastly on the video is a short clip of Addy's new behavior (no, not her recently acquired interest in hitting! Any ideas how to stop this one?!). This one is cute. She's imitating me by grunting and groaning when she picks stuff up. I had no idea I was doing it that much but apparently she noticed. With just 1 week to go until my due date I think I'm entitled to groaning but I just hope she stops when I do. :) Enjoy!

Hopefully the next post will introduce Baby Slease!

1 year, 18 1/2 mo, 37 weeks

2011-04-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

These are all our milestones this week. . . we've officially been in Salt Lake for 1 year, Addy is 18 1/2 months old and we are 37 weeks pregnant. (It's also been over a month since I last updated this blog. oops!) Wow. Time flies.

So I suppose, officially, Baby Slease can come anytime. I'm trying to get my mind around that and get organized for the big event. It's hard to be motivated though because Addy was a week late and I can't even imagine this baby coming early. Everywhere I go people tell me my belly is 'ripe' or that the baby has dropped. I guess it's possible the baby could come early. We'll see. . .

Besides chasing after Addy, I've been enjoying doing a Kay Arthur Bible study on Covenant with some ladies at church, I've been swimming a mile few times a week, and I've been napping. . . a lot! Every time I try to sit down to read or practice relaxation techniques during Addy's naptime, I just fall asleep. I rationalize that it's ok because soon enough I won't be getting nearly enough sleep.

We did have a fun surprise this last weekend. . . my college roommate, Raguel, who I haven't seen in several years drove through SLC with her family (3 kids!) and ended up spending the night at our place on Friday. Luckily I had the guest room ready for my parents to come when the baby arrives because I didn't have to do a thing to prepare for their unexpected visit! :) We really enjoyed seeing Raguel and her family and getting to catch up. Even though it was a short visit, it was so much fun!

Brad has been busy with crazy work and getting ready for the new baby but he also started meeting with a personal trainer at 24 hour fitness. While it seems like a bad time to start such a time commitment as that, it's really great because he needs that outlet and time to himself. In addition to that, he's still been meeting with Daniel, the Chinese grad student at the U, each Saturday morning for coffee and discipleship. That relationship has been so neat and Brad has really enjoyed teaching Daniel how to study the Word of God himself to direct his decision making.

Addy has been quite busy lately. She's learning things so quickly and she's really growing in her social skills. She's noticing other kids now and is actually playing with them. However, she does NOT like it when other kids who are bigger than her grab her hands and try to make her do something or go somewhere. We're working on an appropriate response to that scenario instead of pushing them away and saying 'no.' I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at her social Independence. . . she does take after me.

Addy and I have been enjoying the aquarium, playdates, reading books and just spending time together. We laugh a lot and sing a lot of songs together. Addy is a hand motion pro when it comes to her favorite songs. She's also a riot when she's requesting songs or books or her favorite toys. She has her own little way of communicating what she wants that is very clear to me but even Brad needs a translator a lot of times.

It seems like we're not getting the camera out enough lately but I'll post some pictures of life lately and a video of Addy and Brad sledding this last Sunday at the park near our house. Enjoy!

Catch up. . . again

2011-03-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

I feel like I'm starting each new blog post with 'it's been a while.' Oh well. It has. I seem to be spending my Addy nap time either napping, cleaning or cooking. Nothing else seems to get done.

We have had a fairly eventful couple of weeks, though, since our last post. We had house guests. . . Grandma and Grandpa Bursch, celebrated valentine's (with a real date!), celebrated my 31st birthday, survived Brad being out of town for a week, and have had dinner guests, play dates, outings and lots of naps.

I'm 32 weeks along in my pregnancy and sometimes it seems like we have no time left (like when I think about the life change, lack of sleep, and needing to get prepped for Baby) and sometimes it seems like forever (like when I look down and see my ever growing belly!). Things are still going smoothly and while I've got plenty of the typical pregnancy woes, in the scheme of things, everything is great.

I mentioned a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Bursch. . . their visit was timed right around my birthday and valentine's so Brad and I did get to go out on a nice date night (we forgot the camera!). We enjoyed good food and great conversation while Addy and Mom and Dad visited with my Aunt Deb and Uncle Scott for dinner. Apparently they all had a great time and Addy loved seeing Duncan dog (and getting to eat ice cream!). During their visit we got to go snow shoeing (whoa, it's getting a bit tough to do that!), out to eat a few times, we took lots of naps and enjoyed great conversation. Addy loved the extra attention and I loved the extra help! My back got a bit of a recovery just in time for Brad to leave town.

Here's a video of G &G's visit.

Brad spent almost a week in Oklahoma City for work (leaving the same day my parents left!). He enjoyed the experience and got to make some good connections with people who support his work out here. His job continues to be stressful but he's doing a great job!

Brad has also been meeting with a grad student from the U named Daniel. Daniel is from Beijing and since they share a love for coffee, they meet each Saturday morning over a cup of joe. They're exploring as many coffee shops around town as they can find while talking about Daniel's walk and how to live with Christ. Brad has really enjoyed these meetings and it's been neat to see how teachable Daniel is.

I just started a new Bible study (that I probably won't be able to finish because of Baby Slease) by Kay Arthur on God's Covenant. A bunch of women from our church meet each Tuesday to talk about the homework and what we've learned (and to get a break from our kiddos). Kay's studies are pretty work intensive but it is neat to learn straight from God's Word instead of being led to certain truths by books or questions. Addy loves playing with the big kids during that time (since all the kids are together in one room) and she is always up for a big nap afterward.

Addy has recently started running (and pumping her arms as hard as she can), playing kitchen and tea party (thanks Grandma Bursch!), and she continues to add 'friends' to her essential collection. She now has Colorado Bear (Roaaar), Boomer the horse (Phh), Elephant (Brrr), Lamby (Baa Baa), Tiger (Meow) and Wocket. The only one she can't call by name is Wocket because we don't know what sound a wocket makes. Any ideas? All the others she asks for by the sound they make. It's so cute. She wants them in her bed when he sleeps, in the living room or playpen when she plays and on her tray when she waits for a meal. She dresses them, has tea parties with them and reads them stories. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. . . I recall having quite a collection of stuffed animals myself.

Anyway, we're all doing well here as we start to see signs of spring in the air and on the ground. We're enjoying a few more hours of sunshine, walks without all the snow gear and being able to see puppies and kitties out for walks when we go. Yeah! Hope you all are doing well!

17 Months!

2011-02-14T13:59:00.000-08:00

Addy is 17 months old now and is changing so fast. She's now into playing with play dough, coloring (or just arranging the crayons in the box), 'running,' dressing up her 'friends,' creating her own sign language and words and of course, cleaning up. She loves to wipe her nose, her tray, her shirt and anything else that looks dirty. She has also discovered how fun it is to wash her hands. :) She likes things to be neat and orderly just like her Mama.

(Yes, that is a knife in Addy's hand but it's a butter knife!)

This is Addy dressing up her 'friend' Colorado Bear. It's been handy to have a basket of winter clothes available at all times for her to dress up her stuffed animals in.

This is me at 29 weeks with Addy at 17 months.

Grandma Lynn gave Addy some really neat inner tube sleds for Christmas and we finally got out to use them. Really, we just used one because oh yeah, I'm pregnant. :) Addy wasn't so sure about the sledding thing at first but then she caught on and kept saying 'mo.' We headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon and got to go sledding just 20 minutes from our house. Don't worry, we stuck to the bunny slope.
Here's Addy stuffed in her tube. She didn't look very comfy like this. . .

She liked riding with Daddy best.

Here's Addy going sledding and making her first snow angel.

Addy's first snow angel made with a little help from Dad.

Ok, this pregnancy has been so weird. Some friends and my midwife have told me it's because my 2 pregnancies are so close together but my stomach muscles and uterus are really thin. What that means is that I feel everything that I didn't feel with Addy's pregnancy and you can really see the baby through from the outside. So. . . here's a weird video of the baby moving in my belly. This happens constantly and sometimes it makes me feel kind of sick to my stomach. This baby is taking full advantage of my flexible middle and getting lots of moves in. If watching a big prego belly jump around weirds you out, skip this one. :) Otherwise, welcome to my life.

Addy gets really goofy and laughs a lot. Here's a video of her goofing with Dad (she loves this game) and of her after she woke up from her nap last week. Lately she goofs around in her crib for several minutes once I go in to get her. She's pretty entertaining.

In case you're wondering what Brad and I are doing outside of just being entertained by Addy, here it goes. . .

Brad's work has gotten tricky in the last few weeks and he's had to work a bit more hours that he was previously. We started hosting a parenting class at our house last week as Addy's heading into the crazy toddler life-stage. We've had great discussions about our parenting beliefs and why we're doing what we're doing with Addy. I feel so blessed to be able to spend time and energy really thinking about this stuff now before #2 arrives and it gets more complicated.

We've also started some more routines in our house as we try to make better use of our time together. The winter has necessitated being a little better planned as we've been stuck inside a lot. We've started 'couch time' where Addy plays by herself in the living room after dinner while we spend 15-20 minutes talking. It's funny because she gets over the fact that we're ignoring her but she often deposits various toys on our laps while we try to stay focused on our conversation.

We've also started family devotions where we read a bit of the Bible (and insert animal noises where appropriate for Addy's benefit!), pray for others and sing praise songs. Addy likes playing her instruments (or ours) and often requests itsy-bitsy spider. We figure that counts as a joyful noise to the Lord. :)

I've been swimming a few times a week (I'm almost up to a mile!) to try to relieve my back pain. It really makes a difference and I enjoy the time to myself. I've been enjoying MOPS and Bible study at church and getting to know other moms (mostly recent transplants to UT as well) during playdates. It sure is easier to get to know people when you're not working! (however, sometimes hard to have conversations with toddlers running around!!)

We've started to see signs of springtime in SLC. While the rest of the country was freezing, we were enjoying smog-free skies, mild temps and sunshine. It has been really refreshing. We've gotten to go for walks and go kitty cat/puppy dog 'hunting' in our neighborhood. Don't worry, our weapon is just Addy. She's really into looking for our neighbors animals on walks.

Anyway, I'm a bit long winded so I'll stop. . . off to finish Valentine's dinner for tonight.

Addy 16 mo, Baby #2 26 weeks

2011-01-20T14:25:00.000-08:00

I haven't done a post in a while to update on what Addy Paddy's been up to so here it goes. . .

I'd always heard that parents like to watch their kids sleep. I thought that was pretty lame until Addy came along. Seriously, how cute is it to watch your little one being so peaceful (and still!) with her butt up in the air?! I know, I know, I'm lame. Addy really is a great sleeper (until about 5am where she'll wake up at the slightest noise!). She takes great naps and goes down around 7 after family devotions and bath time with Daa.

This is Addy helping to undecorate for Christmas. She is really a strong little stringbean and knows everything has it's proper place. She loves to help clean up and often puts things away that I didn't see. It's really nice that she likes clean-up time!

Addy is really into her stuffed animals. She likes to cuddle them, hug them, give them kisses and sleep with them. She also likes to 'talk on the phone.' While she's not allowed to play with real phones, she makes anything (puzzle pieces, blocks, eatible goldfish. . . ) into phones and will walk around talking on them. She's really entertaining.

So. . . I thought I would post a few videos of some of the cute things she's doing these days.

In this video, she inspects Boomer's (OU's mascot) teeth and talks up a storm. Right off the bat she says her really cute version of 'noo' and I think she's wondering why Boomer doesn't have top teeth or a tongue.

Here's Addy talking on the phone. :)

Here's Addy showing off some of the words/signs she knows. She also was quite talkative in her playpen and I tried to catch some of that but she saw me when she turned around. :) Besides eating, diaper changes and outings, this pretty much sums up our days together.

As far as Baby #2 goes, we're 26 weeks and doing well. This baby has a lot more wiggle room since my stomach is so pliable and he/she really takes advantage of it! It's weird to watch my belly bouncing all over the place. Seriously alien. I've been swimming a few times a week and that has really eased my lower back pain so really, as long as Addy gets a good nap in the afternoon so I can rest a bit, everything is great. I still can't imagine managing 2 kids under 20 months but I guess it's a bit late for that now. :)

Christmas in Texas

2011-01-07T13:23:00.001-08:00

This year we spent 12 days in Texas for Christmas with Brad's family. For most of them, this was their first time meeting Addy and she was quite the attraction!

We flew to Dallas early Wednesday morning via Denver and Addy did really well. She read books, flirted with the people around us on the plane and kept us busy trying to contain her squirming. It was an exhausting trip and she was great! I can't imagine traveling with a grumpy kid (or two!). Anyway, we spent one night in Dallas with Brad's Dad & 'Bonus' Mother before driving to Houston to meet up with the whole family.

While on the way we did stop at the famous 'Woody's' for some TX BBQ. I'm telling you, it was the first time I had real Texas BBQ and it was good but Woody's is a gas station! And it was packed out! Addy got her first taste (and loved it) and then we headed down the road.

We had a blast in Houston with all the family and Brad and I hardly saw Addy (except to change diapers and put her to sleep). She was totally entertained by all the cousins and they did a great job of feeding her and keeping her out of trouble. She had a great time but by about Christmas Eve, she started showing signs of being super tired and started this 'Mama Mama' thing where the only thing that was ok was for me to hold her. Whew.

On Christmas Eve we visited Don & Susie's church and we chose the 'kid friendly' service given that there were so many little ones. Good thing, Addy enjoyed getting to go down front to hear the Christmas story and eating Cheerios and singing. We had our annual Tamale contest and while we did win the 'story' category, our tamales did not win the overall prize again this year. We bought our tamales at Victor's Tires (an auto shop on the West side of SLC that sells the best tamales in town) and now I know why the Texans voted for our story. . . they are used to eating out of auto places. :)

Anyway, Christmas morning started early for us (thanks Addy) and we actually had to wake the big kids up this year to get them moving. That was a first. Addy didn't open her presents until the chaos of all the other kids opening presents was over and they were all sent up stairs. In fact, she only lasted for about 1/2 the chaotic time and then she had her alone time reading books in her playpen. I think that saved our day from major over stimulation! When that was over, she opened presents with the adults and got lots of puzzles, books and monogrammed items. :) She had so much fun and then, it was nap time.

We enjoyed the sunshine in Houston and relaxing with family for a few days and then Monday, we headed back to Dallas. On the way, we stopped at yet another gas station turned eating joint called Buckey's. Again, there were tons of people eager to pay for food from a gas station. :)

Back in Dallas Brad and I did a trip down memory lane and drove around all his old stomping grounds in Lewisville. We saw the places he lived, played and went to school. We even drove past the barber who cut his hair as a kid on main street in Lewisville. Much of it had changed but it was neat to see anyway.

We also had the opportunity to go to a Dallas Stars game when they played the Red Wings. We got to sit in a box (thanks Cowans) and rotate one period into the seats on the ice! The period Brad and I sat there the Stars scored a bunch and we were even on TV when a fight broke out between players right in front of us. I had a horrible expression on my face. . . so much for my 5 seconds of fame.

After some down time in Dallas we headed to Oklahoma to Brad's sister's ranch house for New Years. We got to shoot bow/arrows, go for ATV rides (not me, of course) and walk the property. It was nice to be outside. However, there were quite a few of us and 2 dogs and when the wind/storm showed up, we bailed. We all ended up leaving on New Years Eve to head back to Dallas.

We flew home on Sunday and Addy was so tired that she fell asleep at the end of our leg to Denver. She also slept on Brad's chest during almost our entire layover. So much for getting out our wiggles. But, it was nice to have a break from trying to entertain her.

We got home to a lot more snow and really cold temps again and we have successfully made it through the laundry and putting the Christmas decorations away. Whew, almost back to normal. Actually, I got a bug to 'nest' this week and started re-arranging furniture and cleaning out closets to make room for the new baby. Now that I'm almost 25 weeks I really do look/feel pregnant and the baby is moving around like crazy so this baby's arrival has been on my mind a lot lately. I think we're almost ready for baby Slease to come. It is SO much easier to get ready the second time.

Anyway, Happy New Year. I hope you enjoyed your Christmas season and didn't gain as much weight as I did! :) Pool, here I come!

All characters mentioned in the song are fictitious. Any resemblance to our family members, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Christmas Party!

2010-12-19T17:37:00.000-08:00

We decided at the last minute to host a Christmas party at our house this year. We had a going away/Christmas/birthday party in Denver before we moved and we really had fun. Having just moved here, we were a little hesitant (would anyone really come? we don't know that many people. it's really last minute. etc.) We decided 2 weeks ago to send out an evite to our neighbors and new friends from church.

We got the house cleaned, asked people to bring desserts and appetizers and set the time for 4-6 (after Addy's nap and before Addy's bedtime).

Little did we know that so many people would be able to come! We had 30 adults and 26 kids, lots of desserts and lots of chaos! Our new house isn't that big, and of those 26 kids, all but 1 were under 10! Oh boy. The kids found every toy Addy owns, every sweet treat available and made themselves right at home while their parents attempted conversation while keeping an eye on the sugar loaded kids.

A PhD student Brad has been meeting with weekly from Beijing named Daniel, was able to come and he likened the scene to the Beijing subway. Have you ever seen those UTube videos?! Well, he wasn't far off. It was hot, crowded and loud!

We we really did have a great time and it was nice to briefly connect to each person that came. What an answer to prayer that we already have made friends with so many neighbors and couples from church. Addy had a ball with all the 'big kids' and she did a great job sharing all her toys. Of course, it was so busy that I forgot to take pictures so use your imagination. . .

This was the living room before the party. Now fit 50+ people here, in our little kitchen and (luckily!) in our basement!

Most people stayed the whole time and when 6 rolled around, they all cleared out for other parties, concerts or dinner. Our house looked like a bomb of cake, brownies, sweets and treats had gone off! (thankfully most of the toys got picked up by the kids/parents!) Brad took Daniel home (and took Addy with him) and I got to work cleaning. After a good floor scrubbing, everything looked ship shape.

After putting Addy to bed, Brad and I sat down with hot chocolate and opened some Christmas presents. We opened all our gifts and realized that most of the presents weren't for us but for Addy Paddy. We saved those for her to open today.

Today after church, Addy got to open her presents. The first one she spent a long time playing with and after the 2nd or 3rd present she just started going back for more. It didn't take long for her to figure out there was something cool in each of those pretty packages. Hopefully she'll figure out that not every pretty package is for her. :) Thank you to all of you who sent gifts! Addy loves them!

Addy with her rainbow glockenspiel from Great Grandpa Hulsbos. She loves music and the instruments he sent were a big hit!

Addy opening her new puzzles. Thanks Aunt Bev & Uncle Tom!

Merry Christmas to everyone and thanks to those of you who came to our Christmas party! We'll be back at at it next year!

2010-12-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

When we returned from Gunnison for Thanksgiving, we found our house quite covered in snow. Fortunately a neighbor used his snow blower on our driveway to clear a way to the garage, but it was a lot of snow. When we were gone SLC had record cold temperatures along with a few crazy snow storms.

The day after we arrived home, it snowed all day and night and these photos are from that storm. Addy did get to go out and play again but it was much colder and the snow was a bit wetter. She didn't last very long before she just looked cold and on the verge of miserable. Brad wondered if it was worth bundling up for 20 minutes to stay outside for 10. :)

20 week ultrasound. . . it's a

2010-12-11T06:27:00.000-08:00

Baby! :) The Dr. assured Addy that it isn't a puppy. I think she was a bit disappointed. Baby Slease looked great on the ultrasound and is growing right on track with the expected due date (April 26). I've been feeling the baby move for over a month now (over a month earlier than with Addy) and Brad has also been able to feel our little gymnast lately too. This little one is quite a mover, just like Addy was. Addy likes 'baby in the tummy' and she really likes poking my bellybutton back in. It's really sticking out already. Strange. I did go back and look, though, and I'm about the same measurements with this baby as I was with Addy. I feel so much more comfortable with this pregnancy though. I think my stomach muscles aren't protesting the stretch quite as much. :)

I've been more sporadic doing postings because I'm busy chasing a toddler around these days. We've been battling colds since September (every time I take Addy to the Kids Club at 24HourFitness, she gets a cold and passes it to us) and so going outside has not really been an option. That's been annoying to say the least. I've learned my lesson though and I'm cancelling our Kids Club membership. I'm not paying $15 a month anymore to get colds.

Addy and her favorite past time.

Addy has changed quite a bit since Thanksgiving. When we got home, she started playing with her 2 teddy bears like they were babies. She puts them to bed, tucks them in with a little pink blanket she has and she rocks, hugs, cuddles and kisses them. It is so cute! She has also gotten a lot more outgoing and she waves to everyone and wants to explore anyplace she can get her feet on the ground. She loves books and wants to read them all the time, even during diaper changes. She also developed a fear recently. . . the printer! She freaks out when it prints something and even when we show it to her, she's really upset about it. Weired

Here is Addy with 'Colorado Bear.' Thanks Anneliese, she loves this bear!

Addy still doesn't really have any words yet, but she has mutated some signs for things like milk, please, all done, up, banana, water and food. We recognize what she's trying to tell us but they're Addy speak so no one else would. She doesn't seem to mind that they're not right because she knows we understand her. I guess she figures that's the point. :)

We did decorate for Christmas when we got home from Gunnison after Thanksgiving (although something got messed up with our photos!) and we're really enjoying the lights and decorations. So far Addy is doing really well with 'no touch, just look' at the Christmas tree and decorations. She has a few she can play with but mostly she just points to the angel on top and waves. :) I'm hoping she maintains her manners at Aunt Susu's house at Christmas time!

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and safe travels to where ever you are celebrating!

Thanksgiving Trip

2010-11-30T20:14:00.000-08:00

Here's our slideshow of our Thanksgiving trip to Gunnison.

We left UT the Saturday before Thanksgiving (just as it was starting to storm) at 4am only to find out that in Addy's new snazzy forward facing carseat the oncoming traffic makes it nearly impossible for her to fall back asleep in the dark. As soon as it got light she did fall back asleep for a short nap. It was a long 8 hours. :)

Gunnison was beautiful but COLD! It was much colder (mostly negative temps!) than usual at this time of year and it snowed at least 3/4 of the time we were there so the sun wasn't out to help warm things up a bit. (We did, however miss a crazy cold snap in SLC and nearly a foot of snow!)

Our pictures show our time with family (Grandma & Grandpa Bursch, Auntie Jenny, Great Grandpa Hulsbos, Great, Great Aunt Evie, Great Uncle David & Great Aunt Mary, and cousins Danny & Kaitlin), a few glorious sunny days in Crested Butte and Gunni, and of course, Addy. You might also notice a herd of elk. We saw this 100+ herd just across the street from my parents' place.

Addy had fun playing with everyone and she learned to play the keyboard and guitar, to twirl and worked on her singing. She loves music and attention.

The drive home was more smooth as we rigged up a headlight shield for Addy between the front seats. Our car was so loaded up with stuff that Brad wouldn't have been able to see out the back window anyway. :) A much more enjoyable 8 hours.

We had a great time. Enjoy.

Catching up

2010-11-30T15:58:00.000-08:00

Looking at our blog, I see it's been a while since I last updated. I thought I'd catch you up a bit. It seems like It's been a busy month but without looking at my calendar, I have no idea what we did except for last week.

Early in November, we had an overnight visitor. Our friends were having their 10 year anniversary and having recently moved to UT, they were really only able to pull off an overnight in Park City (funny how at this point, even one night away sounds great!). Their 4 year old, Morgan, spent the night with us and while we were really tired after her visit, it was really fun.

Brad did all sorts of cooking projects with Morgan, we went to the park to run around, and of course, Morgan played constantly with Addy. Morgan adores Addy and did a great job teaching her how to share and how to play WITH someone. It was so cute! It was daylight savings weekend so sleep (for Addy!) was a little weird but Morgan went with the flow and did really great even though Addy woke her up REALLY early Sunday morning.

Below is a short slideshow of the visit.

After Morgan's visit, Addy caught a cold at one of her childcare situations (gym, MOPS, Bible study, church) and decided to share with with all of us. Usually Brad doesn't get colds but so far this season it was all of our 2nd. Brad got it the worst and even had to work from home for 3 days! He never does that. He and Addy are still working on getting over the cough part of the cold and it stinks dealing with respiratory stuff when it's so cold out. We've been a bit cooped up! Ahh!

That's all I can really figure we did in November besides our fun Thanksgiving outing. More to come. . .

Halloween

2010-11-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

In Utah, if a holiday (besides Christmas) falls on a Sunday, it is celebrated on Saturday. So, Halloween was Saturday night here and the streets were full of trick-or-treaters! Unlike past years where we turned off the lights on the house and went to bed early with no candy in the house, this year we were stocked with candy and a costume for Addy and we were ready for the masses. (We did get one batch of trick-or-treaters on Sunday night who criticized me for having my porch light on without any candy to give out but apparently they didn't read the newspaper that said Halloween was on SATURDAY!)

Anyway, some neighbors and their kids came by in costumes while we were eating dinner and Addy saw them in their costumes and went and got her costume and bucket out of the basket by the door and started grunting at me to put it on her. Hmm. Different than last year when she screamed bloody murder when we put the costume on her. I guess 6 weeks old was a little young. :)

Getting her into her costume turned out to be a little tricky because Addy has a long torso and short legs so her costume was a bit tight getting over her head. Forget zipping it up all the way. :)

She was ready to rock and roll even before we were!

She loved her giraffe costume and wanted to wear it all evening even when we were stalling because it started raining.

Finally, because it was getting late, we decided to brave the rain anyway. Addy doesn't mind rain and she was ready!

We stopped at the Clark's next door first and Addy scored a full size Snicker's bar! She thought that was so fun to put in and take out of her bucket. She didn't notice that it disappeared later either!

We visited a few other houses and Addy just loved all the treasures in her bucket. She had no idea they were edible. . . and she still doesn't.

She played around the house for a while in her costume, not wanting to take it off or go to bed. Wow. She loved her costume!

Sunday at church they had a fall fest thing where the different kids rooms were themes and the kids were supposed to dress up. Luckily the nursery was the zoo. Whew! Addy looked like the baby giraffe in the nursery and she wore the costume the whole church service and for another 45 minutes after while she hugged and played with everyone in the cafe. I think she liked everyone telling her how cute she looked.

Halloween was really fun this year. We enjoyed seeing Addy having so much fun with her costume. I guess it's always been about the kids and we're just starting to get to enjoy that.

Apple Butter!

2010-10-31T18:55:00.000-07:00

Well, we did it again! We made our family apple butter last Saturday. This year we decided to scale down though and we only made 3 dozen instead of 6 dozen jars. :) It felt fairly manageable but it was still a crazy day trying to juggle Addy and apple butter.

Luckily part of the time we were making the apple butter, it was lunch time so Addy was confined to her high-chair and she could see all the activity in the kitchen. She seemed to like the front row seat.

Really, Brad does most of the work in the process. :) I get it ready, make sure all the parts are moving smoothly and he cooks, purees, stirs and fills jars. I just do the boiling water bath and peel all the apples ahead of time. This year it was great to only do 16lbs of apples.

Addy takes after her Daddy so all day long she wanted to go outside. She has really gotten into walks and just sitting on the sidewalk playing with leaves and sticks. Seriously, she can do this for a LONG time! During apple butter making, Addy pounded on the storm door, pointed to outside and played with her ball. She was a good sport and we made up for it by trick-or-treating with her Saturday night (more on that later).

Here's the end of our first batch. I actually forgot to take a picture of the finished project because Addy was napping and we ended up crashing on the couch as soon as the kitchen was clean!

Then it was time for the big Halloween event (after Brad got a wild hair to make chicken and dumplings from a cook's illustrated recipe. . . ).

Where did fall go?

2010-10-27T09:22:00.001-07:00

We've had lots of rainy/gray days lately and it's actually been pretty cold (Brad will wear flip flops at any temperature so his attire is not a good gauge!). Addy has gotten some good practice getting bundled and going for walks in the cold and rain. She likes her new boots and her coat is pretty snazzy too. The gloves are pretty worthless though. . .

This morning we woke up to a few inches of snow covering our yard and luckily not on our driveway or sidewalk. :) No shoveling yet. Addy and I decided to venture outside to play. It was Addy's first time to play in the snow and I think she liked it. She didn't seem to mind the funny snow suit either! Again, the gloves. . . worthless!

Sand toys worked great in the snow!

What a mug! She loves the cold!
This was Addy's first shot at eating snow. She watched me do it and then. .

Hmm. I don't think she liked it! What a fun little change in the weather. I prefer snow over rain any day!

Moab!

2010-10-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

Last week Brad took the entire week off from work and we took our first Utah roadtrip adventure to Moab. True to form, we did all kinds of research about where to stay in Moab and then 1 hour before we left (when I was not home!) Brad changed our reservation so we could stay at a super cool lodge on the Colorado River. I have to say it beat staying right off the highway hands down! We were 14 miles outside of Moab in a quiet canyon and the lodge had horses, a winery and great brownie sundaes. :) We did get one each night we were there as a treat for having to be 'lights out' at 7pm for Addy to go to sleep.

We arrived in Moab Wednesday night and headed out after breakfast Thursday for Arches National Park. We 'hiked' to several arches from the famous Delicate arch to the more obscure ones that I can't remember the names of already. Addy got to do her first hike to Landscape arch and we got more oohs and aahs out of people than you've ever heard on a hike! I'm pretty sure she's the youngest hiker I've ever seen! She loved it and did really well!

Friday we headed out for Canyonlands National Park only to discover that it was raining and socked in with fog. We couldn't see anything but we drove all over the park looking for any break in the fog we could find. There was maybe one spot but Brad didn't' see it because he stayed in the car while Addy slept. :) Oh well. We did stop by Dead Horse Point State Park (only a few miles from Canyonlands) and there was a break in the fog there so we got to see the Colorado River below. Addy thought the rain was fun and she didn't mind getting a little wet. She wasn't too happy about falling into a red mud puddle right outside our hotel door though. :)

We packed up Saturday morning and decided to try Canyonlands one more time. Saturday morning was beautiful! We did get to see the canyon, the river and all the neat vistas. It was a pretty quick visit though because we knew we'd be on the road for 4 hours home.

What a great vacation!

Zoo & Walking

2010-10-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

This week, Addy and I got to visit the SLC Hogle Zoo. We were able to meet some other young moms with kids just a little older than Addy to see the animals and spend time together. Addy was pretty excited to go to the zoo for the first time (am I a bad mom that she's 1+ and she's never been to the zoo?!). We looked at her animal book before going and talked about the animals she might see. She was jazzed as you can see.

This picture is near the end of our adventure with some kind of cat in the background. After the elephants Addy seemed to lose focus and just get really tired. Boy am I glad we got in free! Her stamina was short-lived! She seemed to like watching the monkeys, rhinos, elephants and gorillas though.

Can you believe how much she is changing? She hardly looks like a baby anymore! sniff, sniff!

Addy is 13 months old now and has about 1 1/2 months of walking practice. While she falls down a lot (she big time chipped her front tooth this week falling face first onto the concrete sidewalk!!!), she is getting better. She plays by herself in the living room like this video shows all the time. Her 88 cent ball is the best toy she has. This video is right after I put a ponytail in her hair and it was so funny to see her playing with it while sucking her thumb. It was like there was a magnet drawing her hand to her hair. :) This video shows her current walking skills. Enjoy!

Addy's Baby Dedication

2010-10-19T18:41:00.001-07:00

Addy is 13 months old now and finally were able to dedicate her to the Lord at church last Sunday. Thanks to Grandpa Hulsbos (my grandpa), Addy had a beautiful dress to wear for the service! She looked like a princess if you ask me. And although her tights only lasted until the car ride home before they got a huge hole in the foot, she did tolerate them very well. I was impressed. Maybe it was because they were a bit baggy on her skinny little legs. :)

Here's us before church.

During the dedication Addy spent most of the time sucking her thumb and playing with her hair. She was very good though!

Here's Addy Paddy in her beautiful dress!

After church we headed over to some friends house who moved to SLC about the same time as us from Texas. They are a great family and we had a wonderful lunch with them. Addy got to play with their 4 year old, Morgan, and she loved that!

While Addy and McKinley (their little girl who was dedicated as well) were napping, we enjoyed their dedication cake for them. :)

While the Dads watched the Cowboys game, the girls played very well together and even cuddled on the pillows together. How cute!

Here's Addy and Morgan checking out the fall pumpkins.

What a great day with friends and a great opportunity to hand Addy over to the Lord in front of our church community who also committed to pouring into our little one. Community is a blessing.

A picture is worth a thousand words!

2010-10-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

Nope, that's not Addy. :) Meet Baby Slease #2. We are almost 12 weeks along and we just went to the midwife today for the first check-up. (Good grief has having Addy changed my organization and level of productivity?!) Baby Slease was showing off little fingers and giving us all sorts of angles to see. My midwife said it must be a boy because the little one was showing off! :)

I had a hard time choosing a practitioner to see, being new to SLC, but I finally decided, last week, on a midwife that delivers at the hospital our insurance covers. She is really nice and I think I will have a good experience delivering with her. She will act as a labor coach the whole time I'm at the hospital and I'll aim to do it naturally again, and she has a great bed-side manner.

Anyway, we're due around April 26. . . we'd appreciate your prayers as many of you know what it's like to have a little one and be carrying a little one. Ever since my stomach bug, I've felt a lot better (I was feeling nauseous and not liking food very much before that) and my energy is starting to come back.

Also, we'd appreciate your prayers about us adopting as well. Our thought is that we can begin the process of paperwork, etc, while pregnant, and then get on a waiting list while #2 is really little. We thought that might be a good timeline for us. Please pray that we'll be motivated and excited to figure out adopting in Utah and that we can find a Christian adoption community to get to know.

Thanks!

2010-10-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

Just for starters. . . Bill, this is for you. These fat little guys have been pooping under our patio furniture for weeks. Ok, I rest my case. :)

It's been a few weeks of busyness again. Should I be surprised? It all started with a visit from Audrey (who I've been friends with since we were 6!) for a weekend (I'm pretty sure she was coming to see Addy!). We enjoyed mostly laying low, catching up and heading off for a day with just the two of us to explore the Temple Square and enjoy a yummy lunch. We had a great time.

When I took Audrey to the airport, I took Brad as well. Brad went to CA for 6 days for manager training school. As it turned out, the night he left, I spent throwing up all night. I figured it was food poisoning and that I'd never be able to have our yummy Minestrone soup recipe again. Not sure how I was going to take care of Addy, I called our neighbor, Sandy, to see if she could help. She had a busy day preparing for her a birthday party for her twin granddaughters, but she agreed to help as much as she could. As it turned out, her daughter's family had had the chucks earlier in the week (hmm. . . starting to think it wasn't food poisoning) and so she knew how awful I felt. She got me some gatorade and took Addy to her house between each of her naps and entertained her while baking cupcakes and making food for the granddaughters. It was amazing! I got to stay in bed only having to get up to put Addy down for naps. Sandy was a lifesaver! By the end of the day, my friend, Melissa had brought me soup, jello and more gatorade and I was starting to be able to stand up straight.

Right after I called Sandy, I called Brad to let him know what happened and as it turned out, he spent his first day of training school (in a suit!) running to the bathroom to throw up all day! (Pretty sure it wasn't food poisoning!) He had a rough week because he couldn't recover from it and he only got about 5 hours of sleep each night. Who knew I would end up with the better deal.

The bummer was that the day after Sandy watched Addy for me, she got the bug! She really made the sacrifice for me! Thank you Sandy! You know what's weird? Addy never got the bug. . . how strange is that!

Anyway, enough with that. . . the rest of the week with Brad gone was slow for me and crazy for him. He really enjoyed networking and picking the brains of Farmers' leadership. He was really glad to come home though so he could rest!

Before Brad got home, his mom, Lynn came to visit. We had a great time with her and Addy loved spending time with Grandma Lynn. She got a pretty pink pony from Lynn for her birthday and she loves the songs it plays. She's still trying to figure out how to ride it though.

While Lynn was here, she treated us to a southern feast of sweet potatoes, onion rings, collard greens, chicken friend steak and banana cream pudding. Brad loves to cook new things so Lynn passed on a lot of her secrets to him.

These were seriously the best onion rings ever!
I had never had any of these dishes so I enjoyed the new flavors. Addy also enjoyed the sweet potatoes and banana pudding! She pegged Lynn as the giver of sweets! :)

During the week when Brad was at work, we spent time at the park. Addy is learning how to play on the playground and is really funny to watch.

She loves the swings!

Since Lynn's visit, we've started some exciting things at church. I started MOPS and a women's Bible study. Brad started a men's group and we are going to do a short married class. We'll see how this schedule holds up. Addy seems to come down with a cold each time I take her to the kids club at 24 hour fitness so it's hard to stick to a routine. Grr.

We're enjoying SLC and now that we're getting into fall, we should enjoy some pretty fall colors in our neighborhood and much cooler temperatures!

Happy fall!

Wow!

2010-09-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm embarrassed. . . it's been over a month since my last post. Clearly there's been a lot going on so I'll try to catch you up.

Since Addy started walking, she's had lot of bonks and bruises as she figures out how to get around. But really, she's getting pretty good at it and she has figured out how to change directions, and sometimes even tries to 'run.' It's been fun.

Gosh, almost a month ago, we had our friend Grace, from Denver, stop by on her month long road trip through the west. We enjoyed hearing about her travels and visited the farmer's market here with her.

A few days after that, we left for Gunnison to spend Labor Day and the following week with my parents and some old neighbors from da hood back in Denver. You'll see some cute families (Pat, Kesa, Olivea and Conor Sullivan and Scott, Brooke and Levi Kleski) as well as our cute Addy Paddy and Mom & Dad. Most of the pictures in our slide show (get some popcorn, this is almost a month's worth!) are from our time in Gunnison. Brad and Dad got to do a float trip down the river and they fished other streams, rivers and ponds as well. We saw lots of wildlife and we did a beautiful hike about 10 minutes from their house. (Just like her dad, Addy liked to soak her feet in a stream after a long hike like that.) Addy liked playing with our old toddler toys (from when I was little!) and she loved seeing Tig Kitty and helping in the garden. We also celebrated her first birthday with some cake and good company. She had some bites of cake off the spoon but wasn't too keen on picking it up with her fingers. The darn stuff just crumbled apart so she kept trying to give it to me. :) She opened presents (over a series of several days!) from family and friends and was pretty overwhelmed by all the new toys and books. She's a hoot.

Once we got back in town, we all came down with colds. . . you know, Addy's at that age where she's going to get it and if she does, we're doomed. Oh well. So much for getting into a routine. There's a lot you can't do when your kid is sick!

We started MOPS at church so I can continue to get to know other moms at our church, and we officially switched to regular milk in a sippy cup. I don't think Addy's tummy is too keen on milk so we've got quite a road ahead trying to figure it out.

Addy had her 12 month appointment at the Dr. and low and behold, still a string bean. :) She's 12% for weight and 85% for height. She's still only 18.5 lbs so we have a ways to go before she'll be facing forward in the carseat. Oh well. At least she doesn't seem to mind but we'd like some more leg room in the front seat!

We really are enjoying Salt Lake and our new neighborhood. Just Sunday night, I came down with a stomach bug and was up all night sick (with Brad out of town for the week, of course) and I was able to call a neighbor (who also happens to be the mother in law of our pastor) to watch Addy for me off and on all day Monday. It was a life saver and it was a neat demonstration of the way the Lord has provided for us here. What a life saver! I stayed in bed all day and recovered. (Brad wasn't so lucky. . . he came down with it Monday at his leadership training seminar in a suit and tie! He's having a hard time recovering because it's such a busy week for him and he can't rest! Not to mention he didn't start off on a great foot throwing up throughout the day at his conference! Ok, TMI Brad would say!)

Anyway, it's been busy but we're doing well. Sorry this is so long in coming. Enjoy the pictures!

FIRST STEPS!!!

2010-08-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight Addy took her first steps without holding on to anything! She was playing with her toys and crawling all over us on the floor and then she stood up and stomped her foot on the ground. Then, a little later she did it again. Then she took a few steps and landed on my face. We got smart and pulled out the camera. This is the 3rd attempt at walking. We'll let you know when she gets better at it!

Camping!

2010-08-17T15:51:00.001-07:00

Saturday we headed up to the mountains for Addy's first camping trip. We spent the morning packing up the gear and getting ready for the big adventure. Granted, we were only going for one night and our campsite was only about an hour away, but we had the car packed to the max!

Addy prepared for the trip by eating a piece of bark in her stroller right before we left the house. By the time we were in the car though, she was happy as a clam.

Our campsite was a 'walk-in-only' campsite (oops, read the fine print before you pay online!) so we had to haul our gear about 1/4 of a mile to our campsite. It wasn't a big deal, but we were glad to know that ahead of time so I could pack right. We set up camp and tried to put Addy down for a nap. The nap was a flop because there was a huge Hispanic party going on at the day-use site just down the way and they were rockin' out to amplified music.

We eventually gave up on Addy's nap and headed to Park City where it was a little cooler and we could drive around while Addy slept in the car.
By the time we got back to camp for dinner, the party was over and it was much quieter. :) We had dinner and got Addy ready for bed. She was not, however, ready for bed. She cried off and on for a while (sorry neighbors!) before falling asleep for a few hours.

Late in the evening she woke back up and was panicked. I had to sit in the tent 'shh-ing' her until she fell asleep. Good grief. By the time she fell asleep, Brad was already out and there I was thinking about my 'new' life as a mom. It made me smile that I didn't mind it too much. :)

Addy slept like a rock until about 6am and then a bit more 'shh-ing' kept her quiet until 6:30. Yeah for sleeping in. :) We had breakfast and got Addy ready for the day and then she conked out again in the stroller. Apparently she didn't get enough sleep the night before.

We decided to pack up camp while she was sleeping so we'd be ready to head out exploring when she woke up. We decided to drive to the part on the map that showed all the 13000+ ft mountains to see if there were more pine trees and if it was cooler. We found the area (while Addy slept more) but it didn't seem like you could actually drive into the mountain range. Hmm. We plan to head back there, just to be sure.

We stopped for lunch at Provo Falls and got Addy into the stream. It was super cold but she really enjoyed it and ended up dipping her bottom in the water as well!

It took us no time and all to get home from the falls and we decided that is what we like most about SLC. You can get into the mountains really fast!

We had a great time camping and plan to go again. We are optimistic about Addy learning to fall asleep on her own in the tent. . . we'll see.

Here's a little slide show of our trip.

SLC County Fair

2010-08-17T14:35:00.001-07:00

On Friday night we had a spontaneous outing to the SLC County Fair. It was pretty far from our house and we had to fight suburban traffic to get there but once we did, we got our fill of carnies, flies and good ol' fashion white trash company. :) It reminded me of going to the fair growing up but my memories of the fair were slightly more classy than what we experienced Friday night.

Addy visited her first petting zoo and it was the craziest petting zoo I've ever seen! There were dozens of little goats running around trying to find food and then there were ponies, bunnies, camels and who knows what else just milling around all the little kids with handfuls of carrots. Did I mention there were lots of flies?! Addy thought it was great!

After the petting zoo we visited the 4H animals and Addy got to get up close and personal with cows, flies, pigs, flies, goats, flies, birds, flies, bunnies and more flies. Did I mention there were a lot of flies?

After the 4H animals, we watched the Racing Pigs. It was pretty funny to see fat little pigs running around a race track to get to their prize of a cookies and creme frozen yogurt at the end. Addy's eyes were as big as saucers seeing that!

This outing made me realize how much of a city kid Addy is. Her cousin Natalyn (who is just about 6 months older than her) lives out in Kansas and sees farm animals all the time. We need to get Addy out more. . .

11 months old!

2010-08-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Addy turned 11 months old last Friday! I can't believe so much time has passed so quickly. And while we've had some major changes in the last 11 months, I still have the feeling that I haven't DONE anything all year. Welcome to motherhood? :)

Well, Addy's been busy, as usual, working on new teeth and new very cute behaviors. Her newest one is cuddling, hugging or kissing everything: her stuffed toys, the couch, blankets, or whoever's knee is close. :) She'll even give a hug or a quick cuddle to us but it usually lasts about 1/2 a second. She's just too busy to cuddle very long. It's darn cute though!

This is Addy cuddling with the couch pillow that I was trying to get her to climb over. She lets out a little 'hmmm' when she cuddles something. Isn't she cute?!

We've been getting to know SLC by swimming various pools and getting together with new friends. There are actually some really cool things about SLC. . . more to come. :)

P.S. Our realtor gave us some veggie plants/seeds when we closed on our house back in May and since we didn't move in until the end of June, let's just say most of those plants didn't make it. But, ironically we have a little 6 inch tall Roma tomato plant that produced these little beauties. It's ironic because we don't like tomatoes. :) There is also a volunteer tomato plant behind the garage that has 2 tomatoes on it and it isn't even getting any water. I guess our yard likes to grow tomatoes. I will say though, I ate these in a salad (with a LOT of ranch dressing!) and they were pretty good. :)

A bit behind. . .

2010-08-09T14:09:00.001-07:00

We had a great visit (over a week ago!) with Bill and Judy Slease. We visited Temple Square, Park City, a few fun places to eat and finished Addy's swim lessons. Brad and Bill even got to go fly fishing 45 minutes away from our house. We really enjoyed their company and Addy liked getting to know her SOPA and Gramma Juice. Here's a slide show of their visit.

Addy has changed so much even in the last 2 weeks and she's recognizing toys by name, cruising around on the furniture, walking holding onto only one hand and doing LOTS of babbling and funny faces. She has also started a strange fake laugh. You wonder what's so funny. . .

I've been a little slow getting back in the groove since that visit because I've been in a funk. You know how it is when the next exciting thing on the horizon is not that great?! Yeah, like Brad having to go out of town for 5 days soon. :( Bummer.

But, we're getting back into it slowly. After egg blowing up in my face and all over the kitchen yesterday (don't ask!) and a good cry, I'm feeling better. Funny how little things (the egg thing was not little though!) can send you over the edge when you're in a funk. I'm praying that God would work on my emotions because they're all over the map these days.

Anyway, something else we'd like prayer for. . . Some of you know that we'd like to adopt. We planned on starting the process early this year and then we moved. We've been a little stumped trying to start over getting to know the process and agencies here in SLC. We spent several years in Denver getting to know the adoption community, volunteering at adoption events, traveling overseas to orphanages and learning from other people's experiences about adoption. Well, we were hoping to be well into the process by now but. . . we're just barely starting here. We'd appreciate your prayers about how to proceed, how to select an agency and what type of adoption to do.
Thanks!

Happy 24th of July?!

2010-07-26T18:35:00.001-07:00

Did you know that the 24th of July is a major holiday? Here in Utah it's as big of a deal as the 4th. It is a celebration of when the Mormon pioneers first came to the Utah valley. There are lots of festivities during the weekend and lots of businesses take the holiday off. We decided to join in the fun and we headed to Liberty Park for the Days of '47 parade. Unlike many of the other locals who slept in tents at the park overnight, we showed up about 5 minutes before the parade passed by the park. It was hot and pretty exciting. People were really into it and cheering and clapping for the bands, floats and VIP's. We saw senators, congressmen, the president of the LDS church and even royalty from Tonga. Addy loved the horses and the music and she was clapping right along with everyone else. It was interesting to learn a bit more about the mormon culture and the things they value. Here's a slideshow of the day.

First Visitors

2010-07-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

Addy was very excited to wake up from her nap 1 1/2 weeks ago to find Grandma & Grandpa Bursch in her room. She had so much to show them, tell them, and do with them. Mom and Dad stayed for a week and we were able to go on walks, hikes in the mountains, to swim lessons, church and out to eat a few times. It was great to share our new home with visitors. :) While it's still not 'decorated' it does feel more like home now. Here is a slideshow of their visit. (The random scenery shot in the middle is a moose! See if you can find the rack. Meghann would say our day was blessed, and it was. )

While Mom & Dad were here, Addy stood up by herself for the first time! It was the night before Mom & Dad left and she just all of a sudden pushed herself up on her toy basket and stood there looking around. We all saw it (except Brad!). By the next day, Addy had figured out how to stand up in her playpen but not yet how to get down. That was not a fun playpen time so we spent the rest of that afternoon practicing sitting back down. Now Addy is up and down all the time on whatever she can get her hands on. It's amazing how fast she changes.

Here is a fun video that shows a bit of Addy's personality. She's so much fun. Watch for her fabulous giggle in the second half (right before she's had enough!).

Big day for Addy!

2010-07-06T16:11:00.000-07:00

Addy has had a big couple of days! Yesterday morning during breakfast she said 'hi' while waving her hand. Wow! This was not just accidental syllables together sounding like a word (like Mama was!). This was for real!

Then this morning she said 'hi dad' while eating breakfast! Brad and I just looked at each other in shock! She really did say it! Here is Addy saying 'hi' to her reflection in the storm door. I only caught the tail end of it.

During lunch outside today she decided she could use her 4 point stance to do a silly scoot toward her toys. I got some of it on video.

I think my life is about to change. . .

5 year anniversary!

2010-07-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was our 5 year anniversary. Since it was a holiday weekend, we decided to celebrate on Monday when Brad would have the day off and we didn't have any plans. We decided to start a new tradition for ourselves to celebrate our anniversaries with. We decided to choose several new recipes (from Cook's Illustrated, of course!) to create a fancy dinner and dessert. We love to cook together and we really love to eat so we figured we could do this for our anniversaries for years to come.

Brad started early, though and made us a fancy breakfast to start off the day! He made Cook's Illustrated French Toast and Denver Omelets! Whoa! It was so good and I didn't have to do a thing but eat! :)

When Addy took her morning nap, we got started on the cooking. If you've never done a Cook's Illustrated recipe, they are complicated and they take forever but they taste amazing! I never make them by myself because I can't follow such long and involved directions! I lose focus and get overwhelmed. Brad, on the other hand, does great and he loves the chaos!

We decided to go with Thai food because I love it and we hate spending so much money eating out whenever I get a Thai craving. :) We made pot stickers, Thai Chicken Soup and Thai Green Curry. We also made chocolate mousse for dessert and that was actually pretty easy but it was as good as any restaurant mousse! Wow! Mostly I just was the sou chef and helped to organize the ingredients (while trying to clean up after the master chef as he went!). It took all day! We took a break in the middle of the day when Addy woke up but we cooked until 7pm when we finally got to eat!

Here's a slide show of the process!

Happy 3rd of July!

2010-07-06T09:55:00.001-07:00

Here in Utah, if a holiday falls on a Sunday, it gets rescheduled. This was the case with the 4th of July this year. And let me tell you, the 4th of July is a big deal here but we all celebrated on the 3rd!

We woke up early (as Addy has been waking up early lately!) and got decked out in our patriotic gear. At 8am we headed down the street to the local Ward (Mormon church) for a neighborhood pancake breakfast for all of Highland Park (about a 20 blocks). We had breakfast with our next door neighbors and their 4 kids and we enjoyed getting to know them a little better.

After breakfast we plopped down on the grass along one of the streets and prepared for the neighborhood parade. Starting with a gun fire, kids on bikes and in strollers, horses and riders, a man with a handcart, a fire truck, an old John Dear tractor, funny cars & lots of dogs strolled down the street throwing candy and waving at everyone. It was so cute and it seemed straight out of the 50's! (Have you seen the Sandlot?) After the parade we headed down to Alden St. (it goes Alden, Beverly, Chadwick, Dearborn. . . A, B, C, D. . .) for the carnival. We got to pet the horses, go on the fire truck and partake in cotton candy, ring toss, bubble blowing contests, snow cones and everything else you could think of for FREE! It was really fun and Addy loved it!

We took a little siesta through the middle of the day in preparation for the big night ahead. Around dinner time we headed down to a neighbor's house (who happen to be the parents-in-law of the pastor of the church we have been attending) for a 4th (3rd!) of July celebration. We ate fabulous food, got to know some couples from our church and Addy got to see lots of little kids running around.

After all the food, we put Addy to bed in their house and headed for their front lawn to watch the fireworks display being set off at the park nearby. The fireworks were fabulous and it was so neat to live so close to the greatest display in Salt Lake! We got to meet more of our neighbors as they ventured out to see the display. It was quite a celebration even if it was a day early!

Busy 3 weeks!

2010-06-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

W ell, we've had our hands full the last 3 weeks. We had some craziness with getting the house ready to move in (I spent just about every wake time of Addy's driving from our apartment in the suburbs to our house in the city to meet with some contractor or another. We were having the floors torn up and hardwoods installed or I would have just stayed at the house all day!) Once all the projects were done, we had the house painted. It was supposed to be done the Friday before Father's Day so we could move out of our apartment on Saturday and relax at our house on Father's Day. Instead, the painters still weren't done on Sunday night (but we moved out of our apartment on Sunday anyway!)! We spent Brad's first Father's Day moving boxes. Bummer. We had to put them all into the garage too since the painters weren't done. We slept on the floor in the basement so we'd be here when the movers arrived at 8am on Monday morning with all our stuff that had been in storage for almost 3 months. Yeah!

Addy Paddy is pack to her smiling self now. . . it was a rough couple of weeks. She was really clingy, whiny and just not happy. Turns out, she's now doubled the amount of food she eats at each meal, she cut a molar (?!) and the poor kid noticed that her entire world was uprooted to a new place. :) We're glad to be settled back into our routine.

My college friend, Desiree, and her mom spent a week at Snowbird (a ski resort 30 minutes from our house!) so she was able to spend a day with me unpacking the house. Then I took a break from unpacking to explore a bit of the mountains with her. This picture is from their balcony overlooking the ski resort.

The movers did a great job and were able to get all our furniture into the house! They even got our huge bedroom furniture and king size bed into the basement into our bedroom. Once the boxes were in the house, we realized the painters weren't going to be able to finish until we got everything unpacked. They were supposed to come today and they didn't show up. . . we busted our butts to get finished by today. Grr. Even though they're not quite finished, the house looks great! Check out the before/after slide show below. The house isn't totally finished, obviously, but it's getting there!

(Although it's not a 'brick house,' we were told that under the siding is the original cinder block. Does that count?)

We're loving our house and our neighborhood. We had 2 sets of neighbors bring us dinner last week and we've enjoyed being 10 minutes away from everything! I even walked to the greatest park in SLC in 15 minutes today! (95 degrees is a little too hot for a walk though!)

After our walk, Addy learned how to do the splits. :) She got herself on all fours so I thought she might crawl but she obviously didn't like it so she tried to sit back down and her leg got away from her. She did figure out how to get back to a sitting position. I thought it was really funny. . . she wasn't so sure. :)

It feels really good to finally start to get settled in Salt Lake. I can't believe it's been 3 months since we left Denver. Living in transition is for the birds. We're looking forward to getting involved in a church so we can make some friends!

Enjoy your 4th of July (we'll be celebrating the 3rd of July here. . . more on that later!)!

9 months old already!

2010-06-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well, Addy turned 9 months old last weekend. Wow. She's mastered the rollover and now is really into standing and walking around. . . with our help, of course! She hasn't figured out crawling (whew!) but she's mastered the 4-point forward lean. She has a serious issue with towers of things so it's always a great motivator for her to work on her motor skills.

Addy is jabbering up a storm and often looks at us after a string of babble with a look like 'well, what do you think about that?' She's a crack up.

Here favorite time of day is when her daddy comes home from work and she's quite content to do whatever he wants to do right along side him.

We've been enjoying the sunny weather lately and we even got to visit the heated pool at our apartment. Addy had a great time but I have to say that I'm glad we'll be able to take her to an indoor pool. Sunscreen is a pain! Here's Addy Paddy in her movie star get-up.

Jenny came to visit this week and Addy enjoyed having another person to laugh, play and talk to. While she's starting to act differently with different people, she took to Jenny like she knew 'she's one of us.' Super cute.

We had Addy's 9 month appointment today and the new Dr. said that Addy will probably be one of those rare kids who actually outgrows her infant car seat at the right time to match with the car seat laws. She's 28 3/4 inches and 17lb 6oz. She's still looking like a string bean being 85% in height and 25% in weight so her 12-18 month clothes are fitting her nicely right now. How great that the girls' clothes we were given from friends are perfectly in season right now! She has a bunch of super cute summer stuff that I thought would be too big but is just right because she's tall. Anyone notice she's wearing PINK! :)

Brad's job is going well and he's enjoying getting to know his employees. He's learning a lot and he is pleasantly surprised how much he learned in Denver that was perfect for here! Yeah!

We move into our house this weekend once the projects are all finished. The hardwood floors are done and we have painters working this week before some other minor projects Friday/Saturday. More pictures to come on that. . .

What a day!

2010-05-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Well, we're homeowners again. . . barely! Yesterday was quite a day! It started out all fine and dandy with Brad working from home. Then, at 10:30 we headed to the title company downtown to close on our new house. As soon as we got there, we got started on our paperwork which, of course, started with verifying our identities with our picture IDs. As Marylou was writing down my info, she stopped and said, "Did you know your license has been expired since February?!" Oh crap, are you kidding?!

We decided to go ahead and finish the paperwork and that we would go back to our apartment afterwords and bring my passport back to verify my ID. (All the while I'm praying that my passport isn't expired!!!) While we were signing the paperwork, Addy was happily playing on her blanket with her stacking cups. All of a sudden, I feel (and hear!) a loud thump on the floor! Addy had fallen face first onto her green stacking cup and landed on it with her cheek! There was a 2 second delay and then she let out a monster cry! She immediately got a bruise on her cheek! Needless to say, the rest of my signatures didn't look quite right because I had to hold her the rest of the time! Here's her war wound!

After that, we headed back to the apartment (30 minutes away) to get my passport. . . again, all the while praying it wasn't expired!). Thankfully, it is still valid for 2 years. We headed back to the title company (with Brad driving, of course!) and submitted my valid ID.

On our way back to the apartment, Addy was way overdue for her nap so we decided Brad would stay home with Addy while I headed to the DMV on my own with an expired license (provided we would come up with enough of the paperwork required to get a new license). We had to make several phone calls to get what we needed because you need 2 pieces of mail (statements, bills, or contracts) that state your Utah address. Well, since we had just closed on our house, we didn't have that! We were able to get our insurance company to provide evidence that we had a homeowners policy on the new house, and we had our closing documents on our new house so I decided to brave the DMV at 1:30pm. Who does that?!

Well, after waiting for over an hour and a half, I was called to the counter to show my proof of residency, expired license, passport, and social security card. She informed me that I'd have to take a written exam (crap!) and that she needed my marriage license also! What?! That was not on the document list as something I needed! I almost cried right there. The lady must have felt bad for me (I had already told her the story of our day so far!) and so she told me to go home, get my marriage license and make sure to be back within the hour (when DMV closed!) and she would let me hop to the front of her line.

Luckily, while I was on my way to the apartment, I got ahold of Brad and he was able to wake Addy up, chuck her in the carseat (thankfully I left that for him!), grab the marriage license and head to the DMV. He made it in time for me to submit my marriage license, take my test (and pass!) and get my new driver's license. Whew! I braved the traffic of all the suburbanites heading home after work only to find out that while I was gone, Addy had rolled herself right off the middle of the bed onto the floor when Brad ducked into the other room to get something! Luckily she didn't get hurt (that would have looked great to head to the ER. . . 'No we don't beat our kid even though she has a broken arm and a bruise on her face!') She's officially changed our definition of a 'safe' place to leave her. Rolling is a form of transportation for her now.

In fact, here's a video of her going after those darn stacking cups again. This topple forward is what she usually does now. I still can't believe she landed on her face doing this yesterday!

So, when all is said and done, we own a home and I have a legal drivers license. :) What a day!

More to come on our house soon. We get the keys today and we are having some work done on the house starting Tuesday. That will take a few weeks and so it will be nearly the end of June before we move in. Grr. I'll post some before/after pictures of our house when the work is done.

Enjoy your long weekend!

Big Day following a Big Week!

2010-05-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

Last week was a big one for Addy. She turned 8 months old, showed us why she had so much snot (4 new teeth coming in on top!!), had Grandma & Grandpa Bursch for a visit, had her first guitar lesson, and said her first word! It was nice to have company although Brad missed most of it since he worked all week. His job is going well but he still has a lot of work ahead of him. Please pray for wisdom for him. Here's a slideshow of our week with my parents.

You can determine for yourself what Addy's first word is! :)

Last weekend, we went for our second hike with Addy. We went to Wasatch Mountain State Park and as it turned out, it was more of a set of mountain biking trails. We hiked them anyway and enjoyed the view and a bit of exercise.

Today was a big day for Addy Paddy. She's now finally decided she hates tummy time so much that she's just not going to spend more than a half a second on her tummy. She officially rolled over from her tummy to her back and then I was able to get her to roll from her back to her tummy (staying on her tummy just long enough to grab what she wanted!). All her previous roll over attempts (or ours) were really just accidents where she mostly just fell over or where she only made it 3/4 of the way. Today was for real!

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

I've been looking back at some pictures of Addy when she was smaller (in honor of my first Mother's Day) and I can't believe how much she has changed. I made a slide show of some pictures my cousin Danny took of her at Thanksgiving in Gunnison when she was 2 1/2 months old. The change is so gradual that you don't realize it when you're with her each day. For one, check out how little hair she had!

Last weekend we went to the rec pool near our new house and got an annual membership for all of us. Addy really loved the pool and actually splashed and kicked around. We think we have a fish on our hands. :)

We also discovered last night that Addy is afraid of dogs. . . go figure. She was just 3 months old when Brody died and she hasn't really been around dogs since. We had dinner with my aunt and uncle last night and Addy cried and freaked out because of their dog, Duncan. (For anyone who has spent time with Addy, you know she doesn't cry and isn't really scared of anything!) So, if anyone has a dog they want to lend us. . . let us know. We don't really see a dog fitting into our new budget so we're going to be on the lookout for other people's dogs Addy can get used to!

Anyway, off to bed. We hope all the moms out there enjoyed their Mother's Day. . . I did with my first.

Sugar House Park

2010-04-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

Well, so far so good on our house inspection. It was actually really encouraging because all the inspectors said over and over, "How old is this house? It is in such good shape!" That made us feel really good and we're excited to close in late May.

Since we're all done with the house hunting/paperwork stuff, we spent Saturday wandering around the University of Utah campus and around Sugar House Park. At the university we spent quite a bit of time in the library where we got to see different art exhibits and the largest collection of usable type and printing presses in the country. We enjoyed learning a few new things and seeing all that is going on on campus.

After spending time on campus, we went down to Sugar House Park which is the park 3/4 of a mile from our new house. Brad made a slide show of the pictures he took to give an idea of what a neat park it was. It was really busy with lots of dogs, kids and BBQ's. We're excited to live so close to such a neat park!

Brad's job is going well. He's really excited that all he learned in Denver is so helpful in what he needs to do here. He's still in the beginning stages of getting to know his staff and making sure the people are being used in the most effective ways, but he's already had a lot of opportunities for training and coaching. He loves that. He has quite a long commute (especially compared to his 3 minute commute in Denver!) but he's enjoying listening to sermons and podcasts while he's in his car.

Addy Paddy tried bananas for the first time this week. Besides avocado, it was her first fruit. I had to laugh because we've been holding off on fruit so as not to develop a 'sweet tooth' in her. She made the worst gag faces yet with the bananas! She actually even emptied the contents of her mouth (repeatedly!) into her bib! She's never done that before! Go figure! Well, we eat a lot of bananas around here, so she'll just have to get used to them! :)

We're off to try to find a church home. . . not an easy task in Salt Lake. We'd appreciate your prayers for a church.

We hope you are enjoying spring! Take care!

Antelope Island

2010-04-18T08:24:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we packed our backpacks and headed off to Antelope Island. Antelope Island is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake. You can drive over a causeway to get to hit and there are hiking trails, picnic spots and even an old ranch from the 19th century. We went for a two hour hike up a little hill that overlooked the ranch and the lake. We could see Salt Lake City from just a little ways up the hill. We ran across buffalo, antelope and lots of lizards. Addy wasn't so sure about the backpack at first, but after about 25 minutes she stopped fussing about it. She ended up really liking it and getting really giggly. Thanks Logsteds for the backpack! What a great gift! Here's a little video of pictures of our first adventure in Salt Lake City.

Addy's already starting to do her share of the chores around here. Here she was 'helping' me with the laundry. She's so much fun!

We've had quite a few days 'off' her schedule and even though she's been a trooper, she's slept really hard lately. I was trying to wake her up in this picture and she just refused! :)

Brad's been busy with work but when he's with us, he's fully engaged! This is Addy's outfit compliments of Brad. :) He says it really did match. . . hmm. Either way, Addy adores her Daddy and stops whatever she's doing to focus on him.

We have our home inspections this week and Brad continues to have meetings with his new supervisor team. Thanks for your prayers and enjoy your week!

Under contract & Addy's 7 mo birthday!

2010-04-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well, we've received some mixed reactions about the house we've purchased, but here it is. I don't have interior pictures yet because I forgot to take any pictures when we were there and it's no longer on the MLS. It is just south of I-80 and the great park called Sugar House Park. I walked there today with Addy and she enjoyed watching the geese and seagulls. Anyway, the house is 3 bed, 1.75 bath with a HUGE 3 car garage. It's probably bigger than the house. :) It is owned by Mr. & Mrs. Crabtree and they apparently have great pride in their home because it's in amazing condition for a 1937 bungalow. The yard is bigger than our last yard by about 4 times (so not too much weeding to do but room for a garden and a compost pile. . . Brad's excited!). It doesn't have a white picket fence but the porch has that white banister thing so I think the Blog will survive as being 'behind the white picket fence.' Whew! I have no idea how to change a blog to a new name. It's a cute little house with some strange 'old' house features like you feel like you're in Alice in Wonderland's shrinking room when you go into the laundry room in the basement, but Brad thinks that will disqualify him from doing laundry so he's fine with it. And for any guests who come to visit, the guest bedroom will be on the main level with plenty of ceiling height so no one will worry about bonking heads on low duct work. :) Oh, old homes. How did people live in 850 sq. ft. with 4 kids back in 1937?! We're glad we have a basement!

We hardly have to do any work to the house because it was completely remodeled in the mid 90's. So with a little paint (and possible refinishing/replacing the original hardwoods that are under the carpet on the main level) we'll be ready to move in in early June. Hopefully the inspection process goes smoothly. We'd appreciate your prayers for that because Mrs. Crabtree is a bit hesitant to have us remove the basement toilet to have the sewer line scoped. Hmm. . .
Addy is doing very well in our little furnished apartment. She's so 'go with the flow' she puts me to shame! :) She's sleeping great (13 hours at night and 4 hours in the day!) and is really showing signs of wanting to crawl. She's mastered the nose-dive from her sitting position to being on her tummy when she loses the ability to hold herself up anymore reaching for something. She still pretty much lands on her face but she doesn't cry about it anymore. She's so darn cute!

This is her new 'avocado face' for any of you who saw her reaction to avocados before. They are her favorite green food now followed by peas. She'd skip green beans altogether if she could but I think once I figure out how to make them a little more smooth she'll be fine with them. She's still doing well learning her table manners (keeping her hands in her lap when I feed her and not spitting out her food in my face) and she likes it when I sing to her during her meals. She hasn't quite learned 'all done' sign language but she politely turns her head to the side and clamps her mouth shut pretty good (most of the time)! She's almost totally given up the whining to let me know she's done! Thank goodness she understands 'Mama said no whine!' That was driving me crazy!

Addy enjoys books and now she's starting to like the ones she can play with by herself. This is a castle book she got from her Great Aunt Zana. She thinks it's a great chew toy and luckily it has such bright colors that the sweet potato spit up blends right in!

This is a video of Addy 'chewing.' She started doing it the other day after watching me eat my lunch. Hmm.

We'd appreciate your prayers for Brad's job and our search for a church. 'It's on' now at work and Brad's starting to feel the weight of the task ahead of him. He didn't sleep too well last night and he literally jumped out of bed at 3:45am this morning to start his day. Also, there aren't very many options for a church near where we live. Please pray we'll find a community of believers we can grow with. Thanks!

We hope you all are doing well and enjoying spring. We'd love to hear from you!

The Big Move!

2010-04-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

Well, We're in Salt Lake City. We had a great drive from Denver to Gunnison Wednesday night and then a really long but pretty drive from Gunnison to Salt Lake on Friday. We enjoyed a day in between the drives to relax and nap. It was really nice to have the help of my parents (and to have Dad drive the whole way from Gunnison to SLC!).

The apartment we're renting is furnished nicely and they have a weekly cleaning service! Yay! I still have a bit of organizing to do to figure out how to make it home but it's going to be a nice place to spend a few months while we look for a house.

This morning was Addy's first Easter and we visited a local Christian church. Addy had her first experience in the nursery and she did great (after only about a 30 min morning nap!). She played with the toys and watched the other toddlers run around.

After church we had lunch with my Aunt Deb and Uncle Scott at the Garden Cafe at the Grand America Hotel in downtown. Wow! There were even chandeliers in the bathroom stalls! The food was amazing and Addy joined us with some avocado and squash. She didn't make it all the way through lunch though, she sacked out on my shoulder. I know I'm partial but she is darn cute!

Mom and Dad just left so we're working on getting settled. Brad is gearing up for starting his new job tomorrow and I'm gearing up for a good lonely cry. :) We're having a hard time believing that we live here . . . It's going to be quite an adventure and we have a lot to learn about the local culture and way of life.

Thanks for your prayers. Please pray that we'd find a church home and a house soon. Also, please pray for wisdom for Brad in his new role and for a surge of extroversion for me! :)

Enjoy our video of our move.

Beyond the White Picket Fence. . .

2010-04-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official, we're no longer Denver residents living behind the white picket fence. We left Denver yesterday on our way to Salt Lake City. The movers packed up all our stuff to put in storage and we're checking into a furnished apartment in Salt Lake Friday night.

Addy has done well with the transitions and upsets and she has reached another major milestone! She is going 12 hours between feedings at night! She eats at 7pm and not again until 7am! It has been perfect timing for that because I'm so tired and busy that this allows me to go to bed a little earlier. She's continuing to eat new foods (squash, avocado, green beans, and peas) and she's doing really well. She's enjoying playing with her grandparents in Gunnison on our way to SLC.

Addy has her own highchair at home that she loves but she wasn't too sure about the one at the Brown Burro in Fairplay! It was a little big.

This isn't quite the right face but Addy has this new grin that she makes by sticking her chin in the air and smiling. She's imitating her daddy smiling at her. :) She loves her daddy!

Thanks for your prayers. Brad starts his new job Monday and he's got his work cut out for him. All this while we work on the details of moving and finding a place to live. Please continue to pray that we would find a church and a community of friends in SLC. We miss our Denver friends already.

Avacado!

2010-03-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

So, food #2 was less successful for the Addy Paddy. Check out this funny video of Addy's first taste of Avacados! She's not a fan yet but we're determined! Oh, and by the way, Addy finally rolled over!

BIG Week!

2010-03-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

Last week was a big week! Addy had her 6 month check up and she weighed 16lb 6 oz (45%) and was 27 inches long (95%). The Dr. gave the all clear to start real solid foods (besides just rice cereal) and Addy only cried for about 1/2 second when she got her shot. The nurses were really entertaining her so she didn't even really notice when they stuck her.

Saturday we had our going away/birthday party. We had over 30 people show up with tons of food and we had a great time catching up and saying goodbye. It was such a whirlwind that I forgot to get the camera out to take any pictures. :( We're really going to miss our Denver friends! Thanks to everyone for coming!

Sunday we went under contract on our Denver house (yay!) and gave Addy Paddy pureed acorn squash. She LOVED it! Below is a video of her eating it.

We have a week left in Denver before we head to Salt Lake City. We'd appreciate your prayers for. . . everything!

6 months old!

2010-03-17T13:46:00.001-07:00

Addy turned 6 months old this last weekend! Wow! It's hard to believe so much time has passed since she joined our family. She is such a blessing! Her favorite song is Patty Cake (although we sing it Paddy Cake since we call her Addy Paddy!) and she laughs all the way through it! She's practically jumping out of her skin trying to get at our food and she continues to grow like a weed! And yes, her hair looks like that all the time, it's not static.

Addy is experimenting with new faces and sounds. She's discovered what we're calling the 'fit face.' I thought I would share it with you because not only is it very unique, you can see her little bottom teeth! She makes this face when she gets really tired. Unfortunately that has been happening a lot lately with all that's going on and with us trying to cut her back from 3 naps to 2 so she'll sleep past 4am! It is working but the only way to get through the evening without the fit face or whining is to get out for a walk. Thank the Lord for warm sunny weather!

We've been busy! We have our house on the market, we've been back to Salt Lake City house hunting, we have a going away party planned for Saturday and we move to SLC for good on April 1st!

Although we didn't find a house during our trip to SLC, it was a success because we had a good time, Addy did great (even being tired, teething, constipated and having fluid behind her eardrums!), the weather was fabulous and we think we know where in the city we want to live. We're 99% sure we're giving up our white picket fence though. :(

Brad continues to have fun being Addy Paddy's Daddy. We crack up that she is so easy going (she must have gotten that from Brad!) because it doesn't matter what you do to her, she just goes with the flow! This is Brad's favorite thing to do with Addy and he's been doing it for months but he's added a new element lately where he lets her free fall into a cradle position. She loves it! Cheap entertainment that travels well.

We stayed in a hotel all week and Addy had the loft all to herself! She even had her own bathroom and she really did enjoy every bit of it!

Thankfully after a week of house hunting (and a full day of it before flying home Friday!) Addy had her own seat on the plane and she was much happier being able to wiggle and sit up on her own.

We'd appreciate your prayers for all the upcoming logistics: Brad starting his new job, finding a house to buy, selling our house, finding temporary housing in SLC, starting real food with Addy and all the logistics with the move. Thank you!

Teeth!

2010-02-25T07:29:00.000-08:00

I have no pictures to prove it, but this morning Addy gave me a great big smile after breakfast and I noticed 2 little white bumpy teeth just starting to peek through her gums! I can only hope that is why she decideds not sleep between 4-6am. :)

Addy has been very busy lately (besides getting teeth!) because she decided she wants to sit up (for a few minutes at a time) all by herself. She can't roll over yet but she really likes to play with her toys with both hands. I tried getting a picture of her teeth this morning but I just got her sitting up instead.

This was the first day she did it, she was very proud of herself!

Last week Mom was here to spend time with us and we were able to celebrate her birthday and my birthday together. Brad and I were also able to go out on Date #2 without Addy while Mom watched her. We went to the super cool Sushi Den for dinner and then out to Stella's coffee house for a warm cup of tea after dinner. We had some strange dishes like tempura soft shelled crab (you eat the whole thing shell and all - not so great. . . Brad said it tasted like the ocean smells. That was about right) But we also had a tempura lobster roll, seared scallops, seared tuna (shown below) and that crazy yellowtail/something else with jalepenos on it (shown below). All that was really good!

It was really nice to go out alone together so we could talk about the move and all the upcoming events. Thanks Mom!

Addy also started eating rice cereal last week. She really likes it for about 5 minutes and then she just tests my aim. Mom gave me some pointers but it still is very 'hit or miss!'

We had a really big snow (right when Mom was supposed to leave, so she didn't. . . oh darn) so Addy got to wear a super crazy snow suit when we went for a walk in the neighborhood! She spent the whole time sucking on the neck warmer part. . . gross!

Brad's mom sent us fabulous chocolate covered strawberries for my birthday that really looked just like the above picture! They were so good and very healthy since they were made of fruit and milk! :)

So far it looks like we'll be putting our house on the market in the next few weeks and heading out to Utah to house hunt in early March. It's all going so fast! We really only have a month left in Denver! :(

We're Moving!

2010-02-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

I'm having a hard time being motivated to update the blog. Our computer 'update' has turned out to be less than user friendly in the movie making department and blogger has decided to make annoying changes to postings as well. It's losing the fun factor. . .

Anyway, it's been a busy month. It's offical, we're moving to Salt Lake City so Brad can start a new job April 1st. We didn't look for this opportunity, it just came knocking. But, it's a promotion and it will give Brad a chance to learn more in the management arena. So, he's going from being an auto claims supervisor to being the state manager for auto claims for Utah. Wow! Now that all the formalities are over, we know we have about a month and a half to get there.

So, we decided to celebrate Brad's promotion las weekend by eating at The Fort in Morrison. It is a famous restaurant that serves wild game. It's very Colorado. We had rattlesnake cakes (like a crab cake but with rattlesnake meat!), quail, buffalo and elk. It was really good and the atmosphere was fun as well.

It was also our first time to go out without Addy. She spent the time with our neighbors, Pat, Kesa and Olivia. She did really well and enjoyed seeing all of Olivia's toys! Pat and Kesa are expecting Baby #2 at the end of April so they were excited to practice an evening with two kids. Luckily it went well!

Here was the inside of the courtyard at The Fort. It is an adobe style complex patterned after an old fort. It was really neat and beautiful tucked up against the red rocks of Morrison.

Here's us inside the restaurant before we got our food.

In addition to all that's been going on with us moving to SLC, Addy turned 5 months old. She is getting so big and she is so much fun. She isn't crying as much when she goes down for naps because she's discovered she rather likes sucking her thumb and playing with her hair in her crib. She doesn't do it at any other time but it is sooo cute in her crib.

We'd appreciate your prayers as we prepare for this big change. We'll have a lot to do and it will be a HUGE change in a lot of ways. Please pray for wisdom, peace and God's provision of a place to live there.

Thank you!

Adventures. . .

2010-01-24T16:16:00.001-08:00

We've been having a bit of computer trouble so here's a post from 2 weeks ago. . . This last week was a busy one for us! Addy just turned 4 months old and is growing like crazy! We had her check-up yesterday and she weighs 14lb 11oz and is in the 70th% (11lb 14oz at 2 mo = 75%). She is 25.5 in long and is in the 90th% for height (23.5 in at 2 mo = 90th%). Her head circumference is 16 in and is in the 40th% (15.25 in at 2 mo = 50th%). She continues to take after me with a bit of a pin head! :) I think she remembered the Dr's office (is that even possible?!) because when I laid her down on the table to get her shot, she started crying! She didn't even wait for the poke! I guess she takes after me for that too!

We also ventured to the Museum of Nature and Science on Saturday to see the Genghis Khan exhibit. We weren't sure how this would go with Addy in the stroller but she really enjoyed it. And, when she'd had enough of swords, armor and artifacts, she fell asleep. Yay! We had a great time learning about the Mongolian culture. There was even a contortionist (a senior at our neighborhood high school) who performed. She was amazing!

Sunday, after visiting Denver's first church (150 years old!) with our neighbors, we headed to an indor rec pool to take Addy swimming for the first time. The night before, I started getting pretty nervous. . . what if she drowns, what if something happens? So Brad and I did what we do best, we did a little research on teaching infants to swim. Google 'baby swimming survival video' and watch it sometime! It's crazy! There were also some cruel looking ones where parents push their kids under water and watch them kick themselves back to the surface! Needless to say, this research only made me more freaked out. We decided that Brad should introduce Addy to the swimming pool so she wouldn't sense my nervousness. :) Actually, Addy didn't mind the pool at all! She wasn't super happy, but she was very content in the water and didn't mind being in the pool for quite some time! That was just another reminder for me of not to be fearful about new things! It was really fun and I can't wait to take Addy back to the pool!

Well. . . I don't know if it was swimming or what but Addy just spent the last week with a cold. Poor little one! She's actually been in pretty good spirits but I did take her to the Dr. after she coughed so hard she threw up all over me! Yuck! I think she's on the mend.

Christmas #2. . . finally

2010-01-18T14:59:00.001-08:00

On Christmas Eve, Addy wore her first dress! :) She had hot pink tights to go with it (an essential, says Raguel!) but she cried and cried with the tights on. As soon as we took those off, she was as happy as can be. I suppose she takes after her mom because I don't know the last time I wore nylons! Anyway, so Addy was unlady-like all evening but she did have a great Christmas Eve.

On Christmas day, Addy slept through opening presents. We weren't about to skip nap time on such a busy day! Later, she took part in her first Davis Family White Elephant Gift Exchange. When Papo opened a blow up Pooh bear, Addy was in heaven! She laughed and giggled at that thing until mean ol' Grandpa turned it off. She was passed around from relative to relative and she really enjoyed the attention!

Later we went for a walk down by the Rio Grande. Here is Addy at her first glipse of the Rio. It was an interesting walk given it was a single track trail with cactus on either side! Luckily, Brad drove the stroller!

Here's Addy with Cousins Tiffany, Joy and James and Auntie Jenny the day after Christmas at yet another family/food get together!

After church on Sunday, Addy couldn't even keep her eyes open at lunch! She never falls asleep in anyone's arms so we knew she was REALLY tired!

Auntie Jenny got Addy some great Bible story books. Addy really likes books (and pens for some reason!) so Jenny had a captive audience for the stories! Thanks Auntie Jenny!

On our way home from Albuquerque we stopped at my Aunt Zana's house to see more family. While opening presents, my cousin Megan decided to decorate Addy's huge bald spot with a bow. Too bad she can't go around like that all the time, her bald spot is HUGE!

We really did have a great Christmas in NM. I have so much wonderful family there and we enjoyed catching up with everyone and showing off our little bundle! :)

Christmas. . . sort of

2010-01-10T13:34:00.000-08:00

It's amazing, we're having a heck of a time getting any pictures posted from Christmas because our memory card erased (of Addy's first Christmas!!!) and the disk of photos from my parents was defective. So, I'll post this video of Addy on Christmas day at Grandpa Hulsbos' house because it's really cute of Addy laughing. I'll post some more later. . .

I started this Tick Tock game with Addy in Salt Lake City because I was trying to find some way to keep her awake and playing with very few toys around. She really loves it!

We drove to Albuquerque the day after we put Brody to sleep and stayed at Aunt Bev and Uncle Tom's about a week. We had a great time seeing TONS of family and Addy did great! She is turning into a travel pro! She stayed on her flexible schedule and slept great on whatever floor/bed she was put down on! She really enjoyed being held by whoever snatched her up and she loved all the new faces.

On our way home, we stopped in Santa Fe to see my Aunt Zana and cousins. In this photo is Jenny, me and Addy, Grandpa Hulsbos, Stella and Aunt Zana.

Dad is still totally GaGa over Addy! :)

When we got home from NM, Addy was showing a preference to be straight up in a chair, not reclining anymore so we bought her a high chair. She loves it!! She gets to sit up like a big girl and play with her toys!

When I was sitting here typing, Addy was on the floor, having just eaten (note the spit up spot on the blanket!) and I looked down and she had flipped herself over on her side. She hates tummy time so I'm not surprised that she's turning over from her back to her side before tummy to back.

Salt Lake City

2009-12-21T19:42:00.001-08:00

Addy had her first airplane trip this last week. We took a 1 hour flight to Salt Lake City and Addy did great! It was interesting to stay in a hotel for the week but luckily we got to stay with my Aunt Deb and Uncle Scott during the weekends. Addy enjoyed meeting their dog, Duncan, and waking up at 4am each morning. :)

She is getting so big and has started to be really entertaining. She started making rasberries with her lips today and enjoys to be tossed, fake dropped and bounced around on the bed. Is she too young for those things? I don't know but she giggles and squeals when I do them. She also started to 'get' peek-a-boo. Below is a video of her laughing at this game in our hotel in SLC.

One last walk. . .

2009-12-21T19:17:00.000-08:00

Brody went for her last walk today. She was just one week shy of her 12th birthday. We hoped she would make it to Christmas but when we returned from 8 days in Salt Lake City, it was clear that she was in a lot of pain and her medicine wasn't helping. She was really struggling to walk but we knew she would want to go for one last walk before she died. She was really excited to go but had to be carried back to the house. Her legs just couldn't carry her anymore. We took her to the vet and sat with her while she died. Addy even seemed to know something was wrong because she sat very quietly watching Brody while she died. What a horrible way to head into Christmas. We're going to miss Brody's snooring, barking after C-A-T's, running to the kitchen when she hears the cheese bag open or a yogurt container or spoons scraping the bowl of ice cream. I'm going to miss her following me around the house and sitting in Addy's room while I feed her. Brad's going to miss wrestling with her, teasing her and hiking with her. Once Brody led Brad to the summit of Mt. Harvard and back to the base in the middle of the night. She kept to the trail and kept Brad out of trouble (even if he shouldn't have been hiking a 14er in the middle of the night by himself anyway!!!). What a great dog. We'll miss her.

It's been 7 months since Brody started really struggling to walk. We're grateful we got to enjoy her those few extra months. The video below is of her last walk.

Thanksgiving Road Trip

2009-12-01T11:54:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving we drove to Gunnison to my parents' house. It was Addy's first road trip and she really did well. We stopped halfway to and from to feed her and she cried a little but she slept most of the time. Here is Addy as we took off from our house on Wednesday night.

We enjoyed being on vacation, eating good food, and seeing lots of family. Even though Gunnison is generally the coldest spot in the country, we were able to get out for walks because the sunshine made 13 degrees feel like a heat wave! Addy was so cozy n her snow suit that she fell asleep on our walk.

Here is some of the family who joined us for Thanksgiving: (L to R and F then B) Dad, Grandpa Hulsbos, Me, Addy, Jenny, Papo Bursch, Brad, Auntie Zana, and Mom. My cousins Stella, Danny and Kaitlyn and my uncle David were also there. It was a good time and it was neat that Addy got to meet both her great Grandpas. Addy sure was the center of attention though. . . good grief! We need to have another kid quick or she'll think the world revolves around her! Wait, actually right now it does! :)

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Two Months Old!

2009-11-15T07:52:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, Addy turned 2 months old. Just in time for her birthday, she started sleeping through the night. . . well, most nights. A few times this last week she woke up early in the morning super hungry. We wanted you to enjoy the early morning entertainment we have when she gets up that early. After I feed her, change her diaper and put her back down, she tends to 'sing' herself back to sleep. Push play below and listen to what that sounds like.

Here are just a few photos of the last week or so. . . Addy is getting so big! Push play to see the photos.

8 Weeks Old!

2009-11-08T07:50:00.000-08:00

We have had a busy couple of weeks as Addy is changing so much! We also had our first BIG snow storm of the season. We had at least a foot of snow at our house the week before Halloween. It was the 4th storm of the season. I enjoyed staying in my PJ's all day and Brad enjoyed working from home for a couple of days. It was wet, heavy snow and we still have some in the backyard despite temperatures in the high 70's since then!

Right after the snow storm, Bill and Judy Slease came to visit their new granddaughter. It was a big weekend because Addy went to church for the first time (she woke up crying during the sermon and we headed of to the cry room with 12 other babies in the church!). After church we even managed to go out to lunch at a restraunt and Addy slept the whole time! Apparently church was exhausting for her!

For Halloween, Addy had a fleece costume all lined up from my cousin Michelle. We're not actually sure what animal it was (paws, round tail, long ears, round belly . . . bunny?) but it was really cute. Addy pretty much hated it though. Maybe she was just hot but she only wore it for about 15 minutes while our neighbors, the Sullivans, came over. The look on Addy's face pretty much sums it up. She ended up screaming her head off not long after this picture was taken!

Here is Olivia Sullivan as a giraffe, and Addy as a . . . ?

Addy has been busy growing and changing. She held a rattle for the first time, she squeals on a regular basis now, and she even SLEPT 8 HOURS LAST NIGHT!!! I didn't sleep that long since my super sonic mom ears hear every blasted peep that kid (or the dog, or Brad!) lets out! And let me tell you, Addy is not a peaceful sleeper! She peeps, squeaks, grunts, cries and squeals all night long in her sleep! Good grief. But, she did sleep all night long and woke up happy and very hungry! Yeah!

We're off to church again today and we'll see if we can do a better job of paying attention to the sermon today! HA HA!

Big Weekend for Addy!

2009-10-26T15:52:00.000-07:00

This weekend Addy turned 6 weeks old and according to the official hospital paperwork, we could venture into crowds with her! Her first official outing besides our brief trip to a few stores last week (that was an adventure with me carting that huge car seat around!) was to our friend Lyle's wedding. Brad and I even got dressed up (contacts and make-up!) and tried to pretend like it was a date. The fact that we don't even have a picture of ourselves shows how well that worked! Addy did great for most of it but we were pretty focused on her instead of our date. Oh well. Congratulations Lyle and Bethany DeVries!

This weekend we also made our annual monster batch of apple butter. We started with 24 lbs. of apples peeled, cut and cored. . .

While the weather outside turned snowy we steamed up our kitchen with our production line. . .

Addy did what Addy does best. She napped. . .

and she played with us. Brody barked at the door every time a seal on a jar popped!

Brad slaved away over steaming apples processing them in the food processor to make the applesauce.

I was in charge of the canning pot and processing the jars to seal them.

By the end of the day we had a major mess in the kitchen and 51 jars of apple butter! What a great day and all that with a 6 week old!

Proud Mama of a One Month Old!

2009-10-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, Addy turned 1 month old! She has changed so much even in the last week! She has started smiling, not just in her milk coma, but also when she notices things and people.

This was the first time Addy really noticed the toys on her floor gym. She discovered that she could bat at the animals with her hands and she just giggled up a storm!

Addy sleeps most of the time but we've discovered that when she sleeps in pants instead of a sleep sack, she walks her way sideways in the crib. When her feet reach the side she tends to wake up pretty mad!

Goofy milk coma strikes again!

After waking up with dried spit up all over her head, Brad offered to wash her hair before he went to work. He'd never done it before but he was a pro! What a great dad!

Addy is practicing holding her head up. She's been able to do it since she was born (she has crazy strong muscles!) but now it's for longer periods of time. She really likes being on her belly on the boppy because she can scoot herself with her feet and look around.

After a week of round 2 of Brody not being able to walk again (we doubled her steroid dose and the pain and lameness in her back legs went away), she's back following me around and coming to hang out during each feeding. She really likes to lay on whatever is on the floor. So much for clean laundry!

Addy continues to gain weight and she's officially out of newborn clothes and into 0-3 month clothes already. This shirt was pathetically small on her and after she ate she had a serious pot belly problem!

Brad's mom, Grandma Lynn, is visiting right now. She's been sharing her wisdom and experience about Addy's gas fits that I couldn't figure out. I'm learning a lot and Addy is enjoying her time with Grandma!

3 weeks old!

2009-10-03T15:16:00.001-07:00

Adalyn is heading into her 3rd Week birthday tomorrow and she's pretty excited about it! We went to the pediatrician this week and she weighed 8 lbs 6 oz. already. She was 7 lbs at birth and 7lbs 3 oz. 4 when she was 4 days old. The Dr. said she looks healthy and strong and is gaining weight like a pro. She ought to be, she is a serious eater!

Brad went back to work last Monday and so my mom came into town to help with that transition. She kept us fed and got to spend some time with Addy in her very brief awake times. My dad flew back to Denver on Thursday night to make sure he got some face time with Addy as well. They are loving being grandparents!

Last week we ventured outside for a walk with Addy. This time she didn't cry at all (we tried before and she melted down before we reached the end of the driveway!) and we even made it down the trail a ways. It felt really good to be outside and our stroller is awesome on the trail!

Most days this is what you would see if you came by to visit. Addy is only awake about 45 minutes each time she eats and then she's off to dreamland. And dream she does! Addy peeps and squeaks all through her naps and if you watch her she has quite the array of facial expressions. She's starting to get the difference between night and day and occasionally going 4-5 hours between feedings at night. Those are great nights!

I'm feeling almost normal (except there is nothing normal about getting up in the middle of the night!) and falling into the milk lady role for Adalyn. I haven't taken Adalyn anywhere by myself yet (yikes!) except I did try out the Baby Bjorn today to walk around the neighborhood. I'm going to need some practice gettting her in and out of that thing. . . I jostled her enough to cause her to lose her lunch all over my sweater once I finally got her in! Oops! Oh the learning curve of motherhood. :)

Push play

2009-09-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

2009-09-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

Look for the Elvis at about 1:20.

Here's Addy!

2009-09-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

This is a slideshow, push play!

Coming home with Adalyn

2009-09-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

So, its been quite a week to say the least. Kim went into labor Saturday night around 9:30 pm. We were watching a movie and she said the contractions were starting to hurt. I said we should start timing them which was a bit of a joke since I'd been saying that for a couple of weeks and Kim would tell me that the contractions weren't the right kind. She didn't say that this time. We started timing them and they were 3-5 minutes apart lasting about 45 seconds. She hadn't really had any up to this point. Well we went into freak-out mode (all of our "you can have the baby-at-home training went out the window), called the doctor who told us to come to the hospital. We got there at 11:30 and Kim couldn't walk because the contractions were hurting too bad and she was getting the shakes. I have to say Kim did an amazing job. Several times during the night I thought, "No way I could do this" along with a few, "Thank you, God I don't have to do this". At about 5:00 am, she was exhausted and I was as well. With the contractions getting harder and Kim unable to really relax due to the shaking we were getting nervous about how the delivery would go. Luckily, we had a great nurse named Katie who kind of took over and helped coach Kim with her breathing and positions so that she could deliver naturally. When the pushing started everything went really fast. I didn't really want to watch the actual birth cause I thought I'd pass out but there I was right in the middle of it. I saw the whole thing and even cut the cord. I also took pictures of the placenta. which is the strangest looking thing. We spent a couple of days in the hospital while Kim healed and we learned how to swaddle (still working on that, spatial relations was never my thing). Kim and Adalyn are bonding through breast-feeding and she's bonding with me cause I'm the diaper man. She's definitely more excited with Kim at this point but someday she'll want to know how to spit a loogie or skip a rock my time will have come.

"Final" week!

2009-09-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

Our official due date is this Sunday! The time has flown by and now we're really settling into waiting for the arrival of Baby Slease. We're actually prepared with everything we think we'll need (but what do we know?!) and we only have one more parenting class left.

Brad is ready for Baby Slease to come so he can 'take a break.' He means from work for 2 weeks but I've never heard anyone say bringing a newborn home is a break. :) Work has been going well for him (really busy with all the crazy weather we've had in Denver this summer!) but I think the anticipation of having a baby along with all the prep work we've been doing has him pretty worn out. He's yelling out weird things in the night (a sure sign of stress for him!) and he's ready for bed at 8pm.

I've been spending my time enjoying the fact that school started a week and a half ago and I'm not there! :) I'm sleeping in, taking naps and taking my time getting anything done. I'm guessing this will be the last time for a few decades I'll be able to do that. It's great!

Baby Slease really is getting big and moving around a lot! However, it appears that my body is taking it's time getting anything going toward getting this baby out! Baby Slease is going to be well done and probably late. Oh well. . . I'm still feeling good and enjoying these last days/weeks of pregnancy. What an amazing ordeal!

Brody is also enjoying me being home from work. She naps constantly and even though she is still on steroids and pain meds is keeping up her sass. She's enjoying short walks with me every day and her daily wrestling matches with Brad (these are pretty lightweight these days though!).

We'd appreciate your prayers over the next few weeks for all the adjustments and newness. We'll keep you updated!

Baby Shower

2009-09-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

On August 16th, Becky Johnson, Amy Howie and Anneliese Begnfort threw me a baby shower.

We had a great time eating yummy goodies,

opening lots of presents (thank you again to those of you who sent gifts from out of town!),
seeing Amy's new baby, Brooklyn,

playing games and chatting!

It was great fun to see everyone!

1 Month Left!

2009-08-07T15:12:00.001-07:00

Technically, we're 1 month from our due date. . . however, I'm beginning to re-train myself in how ho I think about this due date thing. It really means nothing and being a planner, I'm trying to let go of the expectation that the baby will be here in a month. Really, we could be looking at more like 6 weeks! Nevertheless, here's the belly at 35 weeks.

This morning we had an ultrasound. Last week my Dr. thought that even though I was measuring fine, the baby felt small to her. So we scheduled an ultrsound to make sure everything is fine. It is. . .

Here's baby Slease at almost 36 weeks. The two dark spots are the eye sockets and just below that is the nose and mouth. I think it looks kind of piggy but the ultrasound technician assured me they're cuter when they come out. :) Although we don't know whether it's a boy or girl (the technician said she couldn't have told us if we wanted to know today because the baby was wound pretty tight inside me), she did point out that the baby has chubby cheeks, hair!, a small head and long limbs. Brad says the baby takes after me. :) Size-wise, the technician said the baby is well within normal ranges. She estimated 5 lb 10 oz and about 19 inches long. It doesn't look like we have anything to worry about. Praise God!

Family Reunion in Gunnison

2009-07-31T08:59:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we headed to Gunnison for the Hulsbos family reunion. 18 of us spent time at my parents house eating, telling stories and taking advantage of all Eagle Ridge Ranch has to offer. Mom even threw us a baby shower for Baby Slease!

On Saturday everyone (except for me (prego), Stella (4), and Grandpa (89)) went for a horseback ride around the lower ranch. Here is Brad on Layla. As much as he really doesn't like horses, he actually enjoyed riding her. :)

Gearing up to go. . . Brad, Jenny, Carol, Ellen and Zana.

This was round 2 of the riders. Only 8 could go at a time. Dad ended up going twice so his horse didn't have to be left behind.

What summer at the ranch would be complete without going for a canoe ride around the pond? Brad and I ended up fighting the wind the whole time but it was fun.

Brad fished the pond as well and while he 'caught' 3, he only landed one of them. Those are feisty fish in that pond! He lost 2 flies in the process.

This is a crummy picture, I know, but on our way home we took Kebler Pass from Crested Butte to get to I-70 and on our way we saw a Momma Bear with 2 cubs! They were off in the forest a ways away from the road. It was so neat. However, we were driving past lots of campgrounds and it was 2 in the afternoon. I was thinking I might not want to camp around there.

We had a great time with the family and it was nice to get out of town. With only about 5 weeks left until Baby Slease gets here, it wasn't the most comfortable car-ride (especially because it took us 7 hours to get home because I-70 was closed and traffic was moving 1 mile an hour for about 15 miles! Luckily we did find a dirt road to take around the accident, but it still took a while!). I think I'm not interested in any more road trips until after this baby comes out!

Baby Slease at 34 Weeks!

2009-07-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

The Dr. says the baby has turned head down and will probably stay that way. Regardless, the movement has not slowed a bit! The baby is constantly shifting butt to the right and then butt to the left. I've also felt parts sticking out that feel like the shoulders, the foot or maybe even a little knee! How cool!

We started another series of birthing classes. This time they are actual natural childbirth classes. It is the Bradley Method of birthing, also known as Husband Coached Childbirth. It has been really practical. We are, however, squeezing a 12 week class into a 5 week series. We've enjoyed the private classes to ask whatever questions come to mind and we are feeling a little more confident to do this without drugs.

I also bought a small load of cloth diapers yesterday. If you are picturing big white pieces of fluffy fabric magically wrapped around a baby with a huge safety pin, check out www.modernmommygear.com and click on modern diapering. The new cloth diapers are really amazing! They basically function like disposables but you wash them and use them again. When I was wrapping up choosing the styles I wanted, I realized I was buying diapers for OUR baby and I kind of freaked out. :) Is it possible to be so close to delivery and yet have no real sense that we are actually about to have a baby?! YES!

Neighborhood BBQ

2009-07-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

On July 11th, our neighbors, Pat and Kesa, organized a neighborhood BBQ in the greenspace behind our house. We had a really good turnout and TONS of food! The weather also cooperated and we didn't have any rain ruin the party.

Here are some pictures of the event. . .

We really enjoyed getting to meet new neighbors and the food was great! We love our neighborhood!

Crazy Fourth of July

2009-07-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

Friday morning at 10am, I noticed I had a phone message from mom. Basically, mom was letting me know that she really thought we should drive down to Albuquerque for the Fourth of July to spend time with my grandpa (Papo). She gave the 'no pressure' plea. :) So, by 11am, we were on the road on our way to Albuquerque.

We considered going a few weeks ago but Brody has been so weird lately, and kennels are so expensive, that we decided it would be better if we stayed home. So much for that. We took Brody's kennel along and planned to banish her to the kennel as soon as all the other dogs, kids and food showed up.

Unfortunately, I-25 was closed at Walsenburg for construction (of which there was no evidence of except for the orange cones blocking the highway!) and all 10,000 cars heading south were routed through town. What normally takes us under 7 hours took us 9!! What a day!

Saturday morning we had breakfast with Papo at the restaurant in his new assisted living place. We got to see his apartment and all the neat activities and people there. After breakfast, we headed back to his house to go through all the stuff he wants to get rid of now that he won't be living at home anymore.

Papo has such amazing historic treasures tucked away here and there in his house. If they were related to cars/trucks, he remembered the stories behind them. But everthing else. . . we're left to guess where they came from. :) After the major sorting, we took naps to gear up for the big event!

This is everyone (minus Brody - who was locked in the bathroom! and Pixie - Papo's pug that seems to be MIA) who came over for dinner and fireworks. As always, there was way too much food and the fireworks put on by Rio Rancho were fantastic. (That's not to mention the firework display grade fireworks being set off by all the neighbors! They are totally illegal but . . . it's New Mexico!) We did have a crazy thunderstorm right before the fireworks started but luckily the downpour stopped in time for the show. We had a great time with the family and really enjoyed seeing and talking to Papo.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed north. We did make it home in 7 hours (having to stop every couple of hours for Brody and me to go to the bathroom makes road trips LONG!). As soon as we got home we flopped on the bed and took a 3 hour nap! So much for our planned relaxing 3-day weekend at home! :)

4th Anniversary Dinner at the Brown Palace

2009-07-06T07:43:00.001-07:00

Thursday, July 2nd, we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. Brad was in charge of picking the place for dinner and when he got home from work, we were off. As is Brad's style, I didn't know where we were going, but as he headed for downtown, I began to wonder. . .

As it turned out, Brad made reservations at the Brown Palace Hotel for dinner! The Brown Palace is a really fancy place (as well as historic) in downtown Denver. Neither of us had ever been there before for dinner so we were in for quite a treat!

This is the room we had dinner in. The food was AMAZING! It's always hard to eat at fancy restaurants like this because you are reminded that you are not a very good cook and that really good food really is hard to come by.

The funny thing was that we ordered the Chef's taster menu so we just got samples of an appetizer, soup, main course and desert. When the waiter brought out each course, I was disappointed at how little food was on the plate - even though it was beautiful. I got 1 crab cake (Brad got a sample of an artistic beef wellington), we both got about 1/2 cup of cauliflower soup, Brad got a Caesar salad (actually a full portion!), then I got 2 scallops (Brad got a 3in x 4in Bison steak), and for dessert, I got a 'sundae' that was the craziest looking dessert I've ever had and Brad got banana's foster. Even though the portions were so small, by the end of my first scallop, I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish! I guess because the food was so rich or something, but it was more than enough food! Weird! It was the best food I've tasted in a long time. The 2am heartburn that showed up is another story! Grr . . . pregnancy!

We had plans to spend Friday at the recreation pool down the street to finish off our anniversary celebration but Friday morning, everything changed!