Happy Sabbath

Love, David

Two years-ago today . . .

Little Lucy Kay joined our worldand things have NEVER been the same!

What a wonderful journey it has been.
Happy 2nd Birthday Goose!

David's 1st Solids

David was about 1 1/2 months younger than Lucy was when he had his first taste of solid food (he just seemed ready). With Lucy we had to ease into this idea, but David instantly thought it was great! He ate all I had fixed and then ate some more!

He would hold my hand in order to help get the food in there faster!

One satisfied boy . . .

Post-baby brain

When I was pregnant with Lucy I can remember (frequently) not being able to recall something. Often my absence of thought would be followed by laughter and some other seasoned Mom saying something like, "Get used to it," with a chuckle in their voice. I knew that "memory loss" was a part of pregnancy, but it really hasn't seemed to go away. It is so frustrating!

I used to learn all my students' names on the first night of class, since having children-I can still draw a blank on a name at any moment. I used to wonder why people made lists for the grocery store-now I would not survive without one. Just the other night I went to buy three things at the store and I had to call Marc because I couldn't remember what the third thing was! I have been known to leave the burner on the stove on well after dinner is over. I space appointments and even fun outings with friends. In meetings, if I don't write down exactly what I am supposed to do later-it will never happen. These are all things I used to be very good at.

This all came to a pinnacle last week when I showed up for a Primary Program I was supposed to watch as a representative from the stake. The meeting began and there was no program scheduled for that day! I asked the Primary President what was going on and she said that it had been changed to two weeks later. I walked home almost in tears wondering if I would ever have control of my life again. In this case, it turned out that they had rescheduled it without letting us know so it wasn't my brain's fault after all. At any rate, it is still very symbolic of how things seem to be going these days.

My husband (who also happens to be a Dr. of the brain) informs me that it probably has a lot more to do with how much more I have to juggle now then actual brain loss. Either way, I had no idea when everyone told me what a sacrifice I would be making to be a mother that it meant a big piece of my brain would no longer work.

Halloween 2009

We're off to see The Wizard . . .

What is Dorothy doing with that axe???

The cutest Tin-man I have ever seen . . .

Lucy kept saying all night, "Daddy, Lion. Mommy, Scarecrow. David, Tin-man. Lucy, Dorothy".

It was so fun to see Lucy actually "get" Halloween this year. She had a great time at our neighborhood carnival, showing off her costume to her grandparents and of course, she LOVED getting candy whenever she would say, "Trick-or-treat".

Pumpkin Carving

Getting started, Lucy was fascinated!

David getting in on the action . . .

Lucy helping Daddy to get all the "corns" out . . .

Lucy "mixing it" . . .

We're all done!

Meet our pumpkin, "Eliza". . .

*The ONLY pumpkin our garden produced this year!

Pumpkinland

This little gem of a place is turning into quite the fun tradition for us . . .








We had so much, we had Grandma and Grandpa come and join us again a few days later . . .

FALL

Can you please stick around a little longer? We don't really need winter just yet.

Who is it?

Marc brought a Santa mug home that he had won from some activity at work that day (I know, random). He handed the mug to Lucy and she loved it. I asked her, "Who is it?" (wondering if she had picked up on who Santa was through various books we have read). She looked up, smiled and very confidently said, "NOAH!"

We laughed and laughed and laughed. She has a couple of books about Noah's ark that we read frequently. So apparently an old man with a white beard fit the mold perfectly.

BYU Homecoming 2009

We were True Blue this year and did our best to support as many Homecoming activities as we could. We started with my family cheering me on for the 5k race. Then The McKay School held a reunion for all the alumni that included dinner, games, door prizes and even a professional photographer (where were you guys?)!
The kids enjoyed getting their faces painted . . .
OK, we held David still long enough to get his painted, but Lucy LOVED it. She kept saying, "Y" and "BYU Cougars".
Then we were crazy enough to attempt watching the game as a family! Here we go!
Our seats were amazing. 10th row back in the north end zone. At first the kids did not like all the yelling, but they acclimated to it quite quickly. Lucy was actually in heaven.
And life only got better when she got to eat fist fulls of popcorn! She was so funny to watch. I found myself watching her way more than the game (of course the game was nothing to write home about).
We made it to half-time and actually had a very enjoyable time as a family. Marc walked us back to our car and stayed to watch the end of the game with his Mom. On our way out, we ran into the band so Marc asked them if they'd play something for Lucy. I told them she loved the fight song. They happily obliged and Lucy was in awe. She really enjoyed the "rah, rah, rah, rah, rah" part at the end.
On the way home Lucy was so excited. I just laughed listening to her in her car seat saying ,"BYU Cougars football" and "B-Y-U!" and "Goooo Cougars" and "Daddy Football!" over and over again.

A little while ago . . .

I looked like this . . .

all for this little piece of heaven to come join our family . . .

then 4 1/2 months later I ran this . . .

I am going to take a moment to feel really good about all of that!

Outakes

We all take these amazing family pictures of our families dressed just right, our hair and makeup done perfectly all in the name of keeping up some sort of appearance for others to see our "picture perfect" family. For a change, I thought it might be fun to post some of the "not so perfect" moments as well:

BYU Video

Check out what great things we're doing:

http://education.byu.edu/cpse/
(my former students will be particularly interested)

Waiting

trying hard to see . . .

a stool sure helps . . .

Finally! Grandma and Grandpa have arrived!

Fall Photo Shoot 2009

Such a fun time and such CUTE kids! So which should make the cut for the wall?

#1

#2

#3

And these were just so cute, I had to include them:

A Family in Need

This is our friend's brother-in-law:

Naki Family Donation Fund

Naki Maile passed away unexpectedly on Friday, October 16, 2009, leaving behind his beloved wife Abby and daughters Line, Malia, Lose, Eli, Eva and Ane

Naki was a tremendous husband and father. Taken from her blog, Abby tells in her blog the type of person Naki was and what kind of life they lived together.

"Who knew back in 1995 when Naki and I met that we’d find ourselves living in Happy Valley, Utah, with our 6 crazy, loud, and beautiful girls. More often than not you’ll find Naki coming from or going to work, at church, playing with the girls, helping mom with the girls, or falling asleep sitting up."

Naki was very active in services activities, church duties, family life and sports. He played football for the BYU Cougars and developed many life-long friendships there. The site below was put together by some of those friends to help raise money for those precious 7 girls he's leaving behind.

DONATE BY GOING HERE (no amount is too small)

See this cute girl . . .

This cute girl is turning into such a good big sister. On Sunday while I was trying to get ready for church while Marc was at meetings, I put David in the swing. I was still getting ready when he got upset. I told Lucy to go tell David to be happy. She went running out there and to my surprise, the crying stopped. As I peeked to see what was going on I saw the cutest sight I have ever seen. Lucy was rocking David's swing and telling him, "Happy David, Be happy David." David was happily complying with her request and my 2 sweet children just sat and "chatted" with one another as I finished getting ready. It really warmed my heart.

I remember . . .

sitting in my 7th grade Spanish class listening to my teacher. While she was lecturing she reached down and to her surprise she felt something on the pocket of her blazer. She looked down and smiled at the random stickers she had found decorating her jacket. She then said, "I guess my son wanted to give me something before I left this morning." At hat moment, I knew I wanted to be her when I grew up. No, I didn't want to be a Spanish Teacher, I wanted to be a Mom.

A few nights ago Lucy was playing with some stickers and stuck one on my hand. I didn't think much of it until I was getting ready for bed. I looked down at the sticker on my hand and I couldn't take it off. Sure, it could easily be removed, but my heart wouldn't let me take it off.

I realized in that moment while looking at that little golden star sticker, I was living the beautiful life I had always wanted. I was the Mom receiving little acts of love from her children. I was the wife to a wonderfully supportive husband whom I loved deeply. My days were being spent filled with storybooks, coloring pages, nursery rhymes and oh yes; stickers! My life was a dream and I went to bed that night very content with a golden sticker on my hand.

Sneak Peek . . .

at what our harvest baby's 2nd birthday will be like . . .

David's 4 month stats:

Weight: 17 lbs 13 oz . . . 93rd percentile
Height: 26 inches . . . 83rd percentile
Head: 84th percentile

Still our big adorable boy who is always smiling and happy!