It's a boy!

So before this baby is even born we can already see a difference between him and Lily. When we had Lily's ultrasound she was super modest, crossed her legs and wouldn't let us see if she was a boy or girl. This little guy was spread eagle for all of us to see.

The Not So Terrible Twos

To be cliche I can't believe it's been another year already. I just reminiced and watched Lily's birthday video from last year and I am amazed how much she can change in one year. It's hard to narrow down all the things she's learned in the last year, but here are a few of my favorite things.

1. How to count to ten.
2. How to sing a lot of songs like Popcorn Popping, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Once There Was a Snowman.
3. Most of the ABC's.
4. How to use her imagination.
5. How to go down stairs.
6. How to have a full conversation on the phone.
7. How to buckle, zip and take off her diaper.
8. How to draw a circle.
9. How to put on a movie.
10. How to say anything on her mind.

Unfortunately go potty in the toilet is not on the list, but it is in the works come January.

We had a little party compared to last year. We don't have nearly as much family that lives around. We were also excited to have some old friends from our old ward in Japan (the Carsons) and Germany (the Jeos) come. Isn't it strange how we all end up in the same places?



Lily loves snowmen. So this time of year is a perfect time to do a snowman birthday party. I wanted to keep this low key, so I didn't go to nearly as much work as last year. I did most of it today. Last year I think I was preparing two weeks in advance!


My first birthday cake. I'm still not brave enough to attempt decorating with frosting.



White hot chocolate.


You can't see it real well, but I thought making a fake snowfall was a cute idea I found online. Just fishing line and cotton balls!


I'm so glad so many of my siblings were able to come and of course Grandma Honey and Papa (that's what Lily calls my parents-cute huh?)

This week Richmond got it's first snow. Lily loved it and just stood at the window watching it fall. We didn't get more than two inches, but my brothers' school was canceled for two days and when driving a half mile to the store we passed four wrecks. We definitely aren't in Utah anymore.

Hangin' with Mr. Cooper

No not this Cooper...


This Cooper. My adorable little nephew.


My sister is visiting my parents for a few weeks, Eric has finals, so Lily and I have been occupying ourselves with Cooper lately. He's easy to entertain and laughs at pretty much anything we do so we're having a lot of fun getting to know him.

I'm also getting a good peek into our future of what Lily might be like with #2. She is super sweet with him and wants to rock him or give him his binky. Lots of times she'll want to share her food with him. But every time I hold Cooper Lily goes up to Melissa and says "Missa hold Cooper?"

I tried to get a picture of Lily and Cooper on Sunday, but it is very hard to get a two year old and a four month year old to cooperate at the same exact time. So all I have are outtakes:

Who needs an ultrasound?

So I was on justmommies.com determining how far I am (15 weeks exactly today) and it said I was far enough along I could take a gender prediction quiz. What? I have never heard of this. Why isn't this universally known?

It asked me about 10 or 15 questions, things like 'Are you carrying high or low'(low) and 'Are you craving fruits and veggies or meat and cheese' (fruit and cheese so I just clicked the former). Very technical. Here is what it concluded:


I mean 50% that's a pretty high percentage. I'm so glad we don't have to wait a whole month to find out from the ultrasound. We're going out to buy boys clothes tonight!

Best Buddies

Now that Eric is gone a lot more than he used to be Lily kind of just clings to him when he is around. It is so cute how she just follows him around like a little puppy and continually says "no, Daddy do it" whenever it comes to a diaper change, bath time, making a meal... and nice for me because I get a little break—even if it is only for a couple hours.

Regression Already?

So I heard that sometimes when you have a new baby in the house your older children regress a little in order to get back some of the attention they feel they've lost. The other day I was getting some stuff out of Lily's closet and she spotted her old baby table. She had me get it out, put her in it and then she just played in it for like fifteen minutes! I was able to get in the shower worry free. It was pretty nice. But hello, she was spilling out of it. I thought she looked so funny I had to take some pictures.







This isn't good. The real new baby regression isn't due for six more months. Oh, did I mention I am pregnant?

um...an Afghan Princess?

So my dad did a tour in Afghanistan a year and a half ago. He worked with plenty of natives while being there and of course made friends with them. So as one prepared to move to the U.S. of course my dad helped him out. As a thank you this man's mom hand made this gorgeous traditional Afghan outfit for my dad's only grand-daughter: Lily. When my dad returned Lily was about five months old and I thought it would be years and years before she could ever fit into it. By her second Halloween, we figured she was close enough. Where could she ever wear this ornate outfit? Luckily we had three different events she could get a little mileage out of it. Unfortunately taking pictures seemed to be an after thought for us so we didn't get anything really good. The best one I got was on my phone, but my phone is not savvy enough to figure out how to get it to my blog. Anyway, here are a few pictures we got at our ward party.





Do kids ever look so cute it makes you laugh? I couldn't stop laughing every time I caught a glimpse of her. The only trouble with this costume is whenever someone asked what she was going to be for Halloween there was no short answer. The worst was when we went to a kids Halloween party and they went around in a circle and sang a short song about each kid ("Johnny is wearing his super suit...") So when it came around to Lily I had to think of a two-word answer really quickly so I just blurted out "Afghan Princess". Needless to say that was a wordy limerick for the rest of the two-year olds to sing.

Domesticated

Since I haven't been working I have had to find some other creative/time filling outlets. I have gone a little nuts with making stuff. Here are a few of the things I have been working on.

I finally finished Lily's quilt


Started another for my nephew Cooper


A light(sorry for the crappy picture—taking a picture of a light is hard!)


A gazillion bows for Lily


A Lily's First Year Book


A tutu


Stenciled a cover for some shelves in our kitchen

How to make a Marv' n Joe or How to Feel Five Years Younger

When I was in college at Utah State at least once a week I would stop by the Hub after class, grab a nice hot Marv n' Joe and a chocolate milk for lunch. I totally forgot about that until the other day I was about to have lunch and nothing sounded good. I was craving something cheesy and tomatoey and toasty and garlicky. Then I traced back five years and thought, "You know what would be perfect? A Marv n' Joe from Hazels. Yeah, that would hit the spot."

So today I finally got around to making one. The trick is you have to have home-made wheat bread, so that is why it took me a week to get around to satisfying this craving. I had to get around to making home-made wheat bread. After that it was easy. I spread on some garlic butter, topped it with some slices of tomatoes, provolone, and sprinkled on some Parmesan cheese. After that I just toasted it in the oven until the cheese was golden brown and then Yum! I was back in the hub with my Marv n' Joe and glass of chocolate milk.

Probably the only person this would be too big* for...

So Lily was playing in my drawer this morning.

So of course I had to get a picture. Plus I hate getting on my blog and seeing google reader screen shots. But I'm sure I'll really get sick of seeing my bra even sooner.

Then I took this one the other day. I just thought it was cute. She was just sitting there and didn't know I took it. That's what makes it even cuter.


*Thanks Cara for that pointing out! Yeah I totally meant big. Small. Ha.

Google Reader-- My New Best Friend

Okay, so maybe you all have known about this for awhile now and you're thinking, "Where has she been? I've had Google Reader bookmarked for like two years". Well I may have been clueless about it before, but that gives me no reason to hide my feelings now. I L-O-V-E Google Reader. I have finally found a way to condense all my blog reading into one little website and it has saved me hours! Just kidding, like I would spend more than ten minutes reading blogs. That would be really lame....

So to anyone who is in the dark ages like me, here is how it works. It is just one of the top buttons on your google account.


Then you go to add a subscription.


Copy and paste or type your website you want to follow.


Then when you log in all your newest posts are in one little spot and you can read away!

First Day of School

This is a long awaited post (on my part) since Eric actually started school two weeks ago. I just haven't been up early enough to get the traditional front porch picture yet. Doesn't he look cute with his big ol' backpack and lunch box?

Since Eric has started we haven't seen a whole lot of him. He studies from about 7 am - 11 pm with a few hours break for dinner and playing with Lily. We miss him, but we want him to do well so we'll put up with it.

Lily's Playlist

We have taken plenty of long car rides lately and Lily has been a great sport. Most of the credit goes to a playlist we created.

It all began when we were listening to the The Beatles and after In My Life finished she said "Again?" and this happened a third and a fourth time and continued until we reached our destination. We figured out later that all the songs she has wanted us to play to are from home movie soundtracks. So do you want the master list?

1. The Beatles My Life
2. The Beatles Here Comes the Sun
3. Sufjan Stevens No Man's Land
4. Paul Simon Father & Daughter
5. Bow Wow Wow I Want Candy
6. The Proclaimers I'm On My Way (Because it's on Shrek–one of Lily's favorites)

Yeah, there are some pretty good songs. Unfortunately I think listening to them over and over so often might just ruin them for us. At least one of us is cruising happy.

Cooper's Here! —Already?

I finally have pictures of my new little nephew so I can now dedicate a proper post just to him.

Cooper Jay Oakey came in to this world a pretty early, but I think it just shows the go-getting attitude he has. He's almost two weeks old and his due date isn't for about three more, so he's pretty tiny and still in the hospital. He's progressing and gaining weight, so he should be coming home soon.

I can't wait to see this little guy in person! Isn't he a doll?



I'm sure he doesn't feel too good, but look how happy he is! What a sweet heart.



I'm so happy for Melissa and Jay. I LOVE being a mom and I'm so glad my lil' sis can have the same joy the I have with Lily.

Pura Vida

Eric and I went for one last hurrah before he slips into the dark hole known as the Nurse Anestheia program. My mom took Lily for the weekend so we could celebrate six years of marriage properly.

After six years we still are pushing each other out of their comfort zone. I had to zip line 200 feet into the air over a rainforest. Eric who can't ever sit still had to learn how to relax and lay out on a beach. It doesn't sound too hard, but he only lasted about 10 minutes before running back into the ocean or playing in the sand. He just couldn't grasp the concept of laying out. Here is a summary of my lesson that day.

A LESSON ON LAYING OUT


Me: Eric get over here and lay out with me. I went on the zip line with you, now you have to lay out with me.

Eric stops jumping around in the ocean and comes over to me.

Me: Where is the towel I told you to bring?

Eric: In the car.

Me: How are you going to lay out on the beach without a towel?

Eric: I'll just lay out on the sand.

Eric then lays down on the sand.

Two minutes pass.

Eric: Now what do you do?

Me: Just lay down. Read a book or something.

Eric: For how long? This is boring.

---

And so on. Needless to say, he didn't last. I on the other hand successfully went down all 12 zip lines. It was not easy for me to get up there.

It actually really stressed me out for the five days leading up to it. The night before I couldn't sleep. We got there at 8 am and I had to pee like three times before we went—anyone who knows me too well knows I never pee. Having a 10 year old girl go before me helped a little. If she can do it I could, right? So I just tried not to look down and then I just jumped off and whoo hoo! It was awesome! I was so glad I did it. Until we went rafting, it was my favorite thing we did. I think I would do it again. I don't know if I could get Eric to lay out again so at least one attempt was successful.


As I mentioned rafting was my favorite. We went with Tico's River guide and they were the best. The river we went down is ranked the 5th river rafting river in the world. And had several class 3 and 4 rapids maybe 5 according to Fabio our guide. I'm just grinning right now thinking about it, it was so much fun!


Other things we did was: view an active volcano, tour a coffee/sugar farm, swim under a waterfall, swim in natural hot springs, go on a nature tour, see lots of spiders and animals, and of course eat great food, and get completely soaked to the bone--did I mention we went during the rainy season?



The worst part of going on vacation used to be coming home, but this time we had this little gal waiting at home:



(Lily showing off the one item we bought in Costa Rica)

So we were just as excited to go home as we were to leave!

We're Here!

Lily and I flew to Virginia a few days ago and Eric just drove in today so once our stuff gets here Tuesday we can finally get this moving thing wrapped up. We sold our house back in March and we've been in limbo ever since. I promise I will start blogging more since I now have 8 more hours free each day but that probably won't start until our 19 feet of boxes are all settled happily into our tiny little house. Lily and I did get to test drive the pool in our complex and that will be our savior here—I haven't felt dry since I first walked out of the airport.