Trevor and Emily

So far

2012-02-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

Well, it's still a work in progress, but I thought I would (finally) share pictures of our house, with a little commentary, too.

The finished product:

Come on in!

Presenting our new couch! (Next on our list of things to buy: a big, shaggy rug)

Also on our list: a photo of the temple to go above the fireplace. I asked my super talented and artistic sister-in-law, Becky, to take a picture of the Salt Lake or Bountiful temple for us (something a little artsy, you know?). I'm excited to have a unique, meaningful piece of artwork.

Aaaand a new entertainment center. I'd love to re-purpose an old dresser, if I can find one at a garage sale or D.I. this summer. Bring on the DIY projects!

Eventually, I want to replace the dining room light, as well...the pewter looks a little out of place with the rest of our decor.

And the kitchen. Oh, how I love my kitchen. I'm not sure if there's enough space above the cabinets to decorate. Any thoughts?

This is the hallway that leads to the garage. The open door is the half bath, and the doors on the right are the stairs to the basement and a coat closet.

The half bath:

And now, heading upstairs:

Here's a view of the hallway from the top of the stairs. This picture only shows the laundry room and bathroom doors, but the first door on the right is Benson's room.

Okay...it's pretty sparse. Like I said, it's a work in progress.

He has a nice walk-in closet. You know, for his expansive wardrobe.

Next on the tour: Cassie's room!

Obviously, in here we're in need of a twin bed frame and headboard.

Cassie arranged her stuffed animals on the bookshelf. Very nice, eh?

The kids' bathroom:

The laundry room: (As you can see, we bought a washer and dryer. We got them at a little family business where the husband fixes up used appliances.)

Our very bare master bedroom: (So many possibilities!)

Master bath and closet:

From the closet, looking back into the bedroom, so you can get the lay of the land.

The fourth bedroom/office/play room/guest room:

We love, love, love it here! I had such high expectations before moving in that I was worried they were too high and I would be disappointed. Ha! I love the thick carpet, I love the pull-out sprayer faucet in the kitchen, I love that Cassie can jump all she wants, I love bringing my groceries in from the garage, I love that Trevor gets home from work earlier, I love it all.

I want to add some personal thoughts here, too. I have hesitated to share my personal religious beliefs online. I usually only share my testimony in church settings or with family or close friends. I feel like it is important to share my beliefs in an appropriate setting, where the Holy Ghost can confirm truths to the heart of the listener. I worry that sharing my beliefs online will take what is sacred and make it common or profane. However, prophets of God have encouraged us to testify of truths in this setting, so I want to share some of my thoughts as of late. For the past several months, I have felt overwhelmingly blessed. We have so much to be thankful for, and I know that God is the source of our blessings. I have noticed His hand blessing our little family in big and tiny ways, and it makes me feel so, so grateful. When we were building our house, Trevor posted a picture of it on facebook. He felt a little embarrassed when some friends from his mission in Brazil commented on the photo, amazed that we would be living in such a nice, big house. "No one from my mission lives in a house as nice as this," he told me. It was another reminder to me of how blessed we are. Then, last week on my way home from the temple, I gazed at several huge, gorgeous, expensive homes as I drove past. I started feeling slightly envious and began thinking of the simple, puny starter home I was returning to. Moments later, I snapped out of my jealous haze and realized how eager Satan is to make us unhappy with our lot. Comparison certainly can be a tool of the devil, and can replace our gratitude with greed. I have so much to be thankful for, and the most wonderful things in my life will never be taken from me: my family and my knowledge of the Gospel. May I never forget to be grateful.

Busy, busy, busy

2011-12-04T19:49:00.001-08:00

Two weeks from today, we will be living in a brand-spankin'-new house! No more scraping car windows on frosty mornings! No more children waking each other up at unearthly hours because they share a bedroom! No more complaints from downstairs neighbors because of the exuberant, jumping 3-year-old in our family! Yes, we are excited.
And a little overwhelmed. December is always a busy time of year, but I think we've outdone ourselves this time. Last week, for example, was filled with:

Trying to buy Cassie her Christmas present (a kitchen) on KSL classifieds. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Play kitchens are a hot commodity this time of year. I'm happy to say I finally snagged a nice one a few hours after it had been posted. Let me also mention here that I was totally on top of the Christmas shopping ahead of time, and had actually already bought Cassie a bike (also on KSL...for some reason we're on a tight budget this year...something about buying something really expensive in the next few weeks?). But she kept saying that she wanted a kitchen and play food for Christmas, so we decided to buy a kitchen and sell the bike (which we also did this week).
Preparing for our Relief Society Christmas program, which was today. Technically, I was released from my calling in Relief Society two weeks ago, but you've gotta finish what you start, right? I was in charge of the program, but I really only had to finish up the last few details this week. I spent a few of my evenings preparing musical numbers as well.
Passing the "baton" to the new 1st Counselor, finishing up my responsibilities, and attending some final presidency visits and a presidency meeting. We tend to chat a lot, so this actually took a good chunk of time...
Practicing with my amazing friend Katie's choirs. Katie teaches choir at a local high school and I am accompanying for her Christmas performances. I'm accompanying for a junior high school this year as well, and I love getting the chance to practice piano and be involved with choirs. Please note that high school choir music is WAY harder to play than junior high school choir music. So I've also been practicing a lot. As busy as this keeps me, I am so glad I'm doing it. I'm a total choir nerd at heart, and I honestly get a thrill while I'm accompanying the final, polished product.
Packing boxes! We are trying to pack a few boxes everyday so we aren't too stressed when our actual moving day arrives. So far so good! We started with aesthetic things, so our poor little apartment is looking awfully bare. I'm especially missing the Christmas decorations and lights this year.
Trevor working late. We hardly saw each other this week because one of us was gone every week night.
Searching for a washer and dryer. We'll need one of each.
Dealing with the logistics of moving to a new place, like arranging for homeowners insurance, planning for our closing, giving our 30-day-notice, setting up utilities, etc.
Regular life. You know, Joy School, hair cuts, playing hide-and-seek, teaching piano lessons, making meals, grocery shopping, cleaning bathrooms, library visits, making forts, vacuuming...

I may have presented this too drearily. Don't worry, we are very happy around here! Just busy. And the next few weeks aren't going to slow down at all. But obviously we have some wonderful things to look forward to when all is said and done. Like a garage. And separate bedrooms for the kids. And Christmas!

Now, would I leave you without some pictures? Of course not!

Here are some pictures of the inside of the house the last time we saw it, which was about two weeks ago. Our final walk-through is this week!

The dusty floor and the fireplace

The kitchen! Ahh! So excited.

Drumroll, please...I sewed! I made a nursing cover for my sister-in law who is pregnant with twin boys, who will probably be arriving the day after Christmas! I also made these matching car seat covers for the boys. Everything actually turned out quite nicely, and although they aren't perfect (don't zoom in...) and they're very simple, they looked good enough that I was willing to give them away.

Thanksgiving with cousins! We had a super fun, relaxing Thanksgiving with Trevor's family this year. Cassie loved playing with her cousins and Benson took a liking to Savanah.

House update

2011-11-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

And now, for a house update (because I can't resist). The changes are more subtle this time, but here's what's happened with our house in the last month:

And now, for a peek inside: The entry:

Looking into the dining room: (the half wall is the kitchen island)

Standing in the dining room and looking into the great room: (the doorway on the right leads to the entry)

And the view from one of our master bedroom windows: (please ignore the scaffolding)

And some deets on upgrades:
The company we are building with was offering huge incentives when we decided to buy, so we were able to get several upgrades, many that we might not have otherwise splurged for. Here are some that I am excited about:

Fireplace!
Maple cabinets!
Granite countertops in the kitchen!
Beadbord doors!(Okay, enough with the exclamation points. Just know that I'm excited about everything.)
Upgraded carpet
Laminate (fake hardwood) on the main floor
Loft converted into a fourth bedroom
Maple banister
Banks of drawers in the bathrooms (instead of just cabinets)
2-tone paint

Advice for anyone who plans to build a house in the future: When builders list their base price ("starting at $199,900!"), just know that you need to plan on spending several thousand more on upgrades, unless you want a very basic house. As in, a house with no blinds, no appliances, no garage-door opener, cheap carpet, one paint color...you get the idea. I think the average homebuilder spends about 15% of the base cost of the home in upgrades. It's frustrating, but I guess all builders do it to be competitive with each other. Our experience really has been good, but we knew in advance that we would need to plan on several thousand dollars in upgrades.

The Chicken and the Butterfly

2011-11-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there was a chicken and a butterfly.

They went door to door, and people gave them candy!

And they were happy.

The end.

P.S. Do those wings look familiar?

Oh boy, I've got Joy!

2011-10-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

Cassie started Joy School in September with a few of the children from our playgroup last year and one new friend. The other moms and I take turns teaching the group. I really like that the curriculum is focused on discovering "joys," or learning about the amazing characteristics of our bodies and the earth, and learning good values. The lessons are tailored very well to the kids' level, and are very easy to teach as a mother. I don't stress about how I'm going to fill the time or how destructive the kids will be while they play. The lesson plans are very organized and varied. Cassie loves going to Joy School, and I know she is learning because she frequently asks me questions about the topics that are covered. I adore listening to Cassie sing all of the songs they learn. After the first week of lessons, I played the CD that corresponded with those lessons and was totally thrilled and surprised to watch Cassie sing along and do the actions. I admit, I got teary-eyed. Besides being totally adorable, it made me realize that my baby is growing up: she can remember a tune, lyrics and actions after only a few repetitions. That's my girl. :)

Our family's first ever "First day of school" photo!

All four kiddos

Painting! They were all so excited about their watercolors.

When I ask what her favorite part of Joy School is, Cassie always replies "free play time!" Folks, I'm going to have a kid whose favorite part of school is recess. :)

Stringing Cheerio necklaces. They were very focused.

The sad part is that we'll have to say goodbye in December! Even if we can find a new group of Joy School-ers when we move, we will be so sad to leave Cassie's little friends. She really has grown attached to them, and I love that she has made friends with such good kids.

Growing...and growing...

2011-10-02T20:16:00.000-07:00

In the last month, our house has gone from this:

to this:

to this!

We get an itchin' about once a week to go see what's happening with the construction. It is so exciting to see things progressing quickly! They keep telling us we'll be in before Christmas, but we're trying not to hold our breath.
More great news: we met our next-door neighbors and there really couldn't be a friendlier family. They saw us stalking our house a few weeks ago and came outside to meet us. They will be great neighbors, and Cassie and Benson will love playing with their two children that are about the same age! Stephanie, the wife, offered to call me whenever something exciting was happening with the construction so we would know when to drive out to see the progress. Nice, right? Hooray for great neighbors.
Details to come about the upgrades we chose...

Mawwiage

2011-09-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

Trevor's little sister got married on the Friday before Labor Day, so we spent the weekend in Idaho enjoying the festivities. We arrived on Wednesday night and spent the next day helping with reception preparations. It was nice to be there a day early and help with last-minute items, and Trevor was able to attend the temple with his parents and Taja on Thursday evening. The wedding day was beautiful- you couldn't order better weather!

Waiting for the bride and groom...

Benson with Great Uncle Wade

Cassie LOVES her Aunt Kimmie and Uncle Rialey

Grandpa H and his girls

The favorite Uncle :)

The happy couple! (Really, they were ridiculously happy.)

All 6 siblings!

Cassie was pretty disappointed that Tom didn't choose her as his best man:

Trevor's parents worked hard on their yard all summer in preparation for an outdoor reception, and it looked so beautiful! Plus, the decorations for the reception were amazing. I was too busy rushing around to get everything ready so I didn't take any pictures of the reception. I seriously regret it now. It was so charming! Here are some fun pictures Trevor's sister-in-law Becky took.

Cousins! It's so fun to watch these girls play together.

Part of me was sad to see Taja get married: she's the last sibling on Trevor's side, and only Robert is left on my side. I think weddings are so fun and joyful. It was also exhausting, so I'll try to remember that part whenever I feel sad that we only have one wedding left. :)

Stickers

2011-09-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

Cassie was playing with a book of stickers, and Benson happened to be lying right there, so naturally...

It's a good thing he is such a good sport. He didn't complain while she pushed him around to get the stickers where she wanted them, or when we peeled them all off. I'm so glad they adore each other!

July with Cassie and Benson

2011-09-15T14:52:00.000-07:00

Here's what Cassie and Benson did this July:

snuggled with daddy

dipped oreos in milk- yum!

read books together

ate watermelon

fed/ate

played with cousins

Going on a house hunt...

2011-09-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

September 2010: We sign an 11 month lease at our apartment complex hoping to buy a house the following summer. Saving our money!

January 2011: Start going to model homes to get an idea of the cost of homes in our area.
We talk with mortgage lenders to get pre-qualified for financing.

February 2011: We visit a LOT of model homes and see at least 10 different builders. We now have a good idea of what we want and what we can afford, but we are pretty sure we want to buy an existing home instead of a new one.

March 2011: Baby Benson arrives! We pause our house-hunt.

April 2011: House hunting resumes. We write a detailed list of what we want in a house and prioritize it. We start working with a real estate agent and look at a few existing homes.

May 2011: We narrow the geographical area we are searching in (to within about 5 miles of our apartment), decide that we are going to buy an existing home instead of building a new one, look at a LOT of houses, and make our first offer on a home! Someone else offers more. Bother.

June 2011: We see more houses and make more offers. Someone else always offers more. Double bother.

July 2011: More houses, more offers, no luck. We are getting sick of this.

August 2011: We are waiting to hear about 3 different short sales that we have made offers on (it can take months to hear back about an offer on a short sale). Our apartment complex sends us a cheery "It's time to renew your lease!" letter. Should we sign a new lease? If so, for how many months? Or should we pay $200 extra to go month-to-month? I tell Trevor that part of me wants to stop looking for a home because I'm so tired of the time and effort it is taking. We agree that maybe we should take a break. We still need to decide about our lease before the end of the month.
Our real estate agent emails us about a builder that has dropped the price of homes they are building in a certain neighborhood, and that they are also offering huge incentives to buyers this month. He knows the community is about 15 miles from where we live now, and that we weren't planning on building a new home, but he thinks we should check it out anyway. We tour a model home and are smitten. We can afford to build this home and even have lots of wiggle room for upgrades! We visit the neighborhood and everything just feels right (and really, that's what I was waiting for). Things come together quickly, and a few days later we are signing papers so they can get started on our new home! We sign a four month lease, knowing our new home will be built by January. Hooray!

Our house as of Tuesday:

An addendum: "Why Emily is So Happy About Building This Home"
It is so nice to know exactly what is happening for the next year of our lives (and more!). I had a hard time not knowing if or when our offers would be accepted, and that if an offer was accepted, we would have about 30 days to pack and move into our new home. That's too much uncertainty and spontaneity for me. I love that we have the next four months to prepare, pack, and say our goodbyes. Trevor's commute will be exactly the same length, but it will take him a little less time. So we'll get to see him an extra 6 minutes every day. :) So many of the houses that we saw were foreclosures or short sales that were in bad shape. It is so nice to know that everything in our house will be new and will have a warranty (don't worry, we're not naive- we know it won't be perfect). It is thousands and thousands of dollars less expensive to build our home where we are building it than it would have been to build near our current apartment. And property taxes are much lower where we are building. Our lot backs up to a church, so we already have a back fence and we won't have to worry about back-door neighbors! Um, did I mention that we got to choose everything about our new house? And we got tons of free upgrades? I'm smiling as I write this. Really, those details deserve their own post. Don't worry, I'll post lots of pictures as the building process unfolds.

All About Benson

2011-06-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

Photo Courtesy of the amazing Michelle Wade

Since day 1, Benson has slept at night. Of course, he wakes up to eat, but he has only been fussy once in the middle of the night. And that was only for 30 minutes. (Please don't throw anything at me out of anger or jealousy.)
Benson is a spitter. I do laundry every other day (or more often) because he goes through so many burp cloths. And we have a lot of burp cloths. The good news: 1. He doesn't get upset when he spits up, so it's not causing him any pain. 2. He's gaining plenty of weight, so he must not be spitting up everything he eats. 3. Whenever any of our clothes get dirty, I know I won't have to wait long until they're clean again, since I do laundry so often.
When Benson poops, it is almost always epic. (Read: blowout) It's like he saves it all up until it's just enough to leak out of a diaper. Little stinker.
Benson smiles and laughs a lot. If he is in the right mood, all it takes is eye contact and a smile to make him happy. He has a contagious little giggle that we get to hear several times a day. It is so rewarding to have a happy baby!
He loves his pacifier. And his fist. And basically anything else he can get in his mouth.
When he is awake, Benson loves to be up and looking around. He's not a big fan of lying on his back or stomach, although we're working on it. When he's tired, a good swaddle will put him right to sleep. We're going to have to find some really light-weight blankets for the summer so he doesn't roast every night!

(I have a great video of Benson smiling and giggling, but I can't get blogger to post it. I'll put it here when I figure it out. Any suggestions?)

Happy Birthdays! Part Two: Cassie

2011-06-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

On to Cassie's big day! We celebrated with a few of her friends and their families by going to the rec center again. Cassie got a little life jacket for her birthday and it made swimming so much more fun for her!

The following are the best pictures I could get while holding a baby:

Cake, ice cream, and a little gift opening afterwards:

We celebrated both of our birthdays with a Sunday dinner at my parents' house. Here we are blowing out our candles:

Cassie loved opening presents, and was so excited about all her gifts this year. I want to record her gifts:

Life jacket and "Tangled" from Mom and Dad. (We've already watched it at least 4 times.)

Bathroom furniture for her dollhouse and a laminated book of family pictures from Gma and Gpa Kinghorn. The bathroom furniture was a brilliant idea. Cassie loves 'bathing' her dolls.

A balloon, stickers, and $5 from Gma and Gpa Hawkes. She spent the $5 at the dollar section of Target and bought a "Toy Story" white board with marker, a Lightning McQueen bowl, a Hello Kitty purse, and some candy.

Memory game from Uncle Vaughn and Aunt Christie. This came in the mail and she was so excited! She loves making matches.

A thermos with her name on it from her friend Caden. She insisted on drinking everything from it for a few days.

A "Color Wonder" book and markers from her friend Andrew. Hooray for markers that only work on the magic paper!

I also want to record a little about Cassie's personality:

Cassie is a very sweet, thoughtful, smart, and funny girl. She is almost always willing to share. She offers to share her birthday candy with Trevor and me every day, for example. She is empathetic when she see another child crying, and I have often seen her offer a toy or put her arm around a sad friend. She will play on her own, but she really loves to play with another person. If there are no other children at the park or playground, she would often rather sit with me on a bench than play alone on the equipment. However, if a child her age is around, she often befriends them, then runs and climbs and squeals and giggles while they play together. She still has a shy streak, though, mostly with adults or in large crowds. We get a lot of comments about how well Cassie talks. She has been speaking in full sentences for over a year now, and her speech is very clear and fairly easy to understand. She has a good sized vocabulary, too. The other day she asked, "Mom, what does automatically mean?" Sometimes I laugh because it's funny to hear long, complicated words in her little voice. She knows all of her letters and most of the sounds they make, and she can count to 30 on her own. She can make us genuinely laugh with some of the funny ideas she comes up with or the silly words and noises she makes. She is sometimes a little drama queen and cries over little things or whines when she wants something. We are working on asking nicely and calmly instead of freaking out. Cassie has a bad habit of putting non-food items in her mouth (especially paper/books and hair elastics). I remind her several times a day, "If it's not food, don't put it in your mouth." It makes me so sad to look at all of her books; she has ruined many of them by chewing on them. I really hope she kicks this habit soon! Of course, despite the frustrating things she does, we still love her so much. She brings a lot of joy and energy to our home.

Happy Birthdays! Part One: Emily

2011-06-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

Cassie and I both had great birthdays this year that weren't overshadowed by an upcoming move (last year- It's crazy to think we've lived here for a year!) or by the fact the Trevor was on the other side of the globe (two years ago- Trevor was on a study abroad in China).

No pictures of my birthday, but let me tell you how awesome it was. Wait...first, let me tell you how lame I am. Because we are house hunting and I am VERY anxious to get into a house, and because we've had some large, unexpected expenses come up, I really didn't want Trevor to spend money buying me a gift. Actually, all I wanted was a clean, tidy house. (It's hard when your stuff won't reasonably fit into a two-bedroom apartment. Did I mention I'm house hungry?) I had arranged to have my friend Shea babysit our kids so that Trevor and I could spend 3 hours tidying and cleaning our apartment when he came home from work. Awesome birthday plans, right? Well, on the morning of my birthday, I woke up a little later than usual and realized I needed to shower right away if I wanted to be out before Trevor left for work. I rushed into the bathroom and immediately noticed two things: 1. Trevor hadn't showered yet (the shower wasn't wet), and 2. It smelled like breakfast was cooking. My sweet husband was making me breakfast and it was going to make him late for work! Or so I thought. I was right about the breakfast part- I found Trev in the kitchen making muffins and eggs. Yum! But the late-for-work part? Trevor gave me the best birthday present ever: he stayed home! Basically, he gave me an extra Saturday for my birthday. :) The kids even slept in while we ate breakfast. It was a glorious day. We got all the cleaning and tidying done early and went out to eat in the evening while the kids were at Shea's. After the kids were in bed, I watched a chick flick and sent Trevor off to play basketball with his Elder's Quorum buddies. Because really, I'm happier when Trevor is happy, and he's definitely happier after a good game of basketball than he is after a good rom-com. Besides that, sometimes you want to just give into the silly romantic-ness of a chick flick without having your husband roll his eyes at you. :) It was an awesome birthday.

Benson's Blessing

2011-06-12T19:10:00.000-07:00

Benson was blessed on May 1st. Trevor did a beautiful job, and listening to the words of the blessing got me excited about Benson's future and the great boy and man he will become. I was so happy to have both of our families together for the day, although we missed our siblings who are far away. We fit 14 adults and 4 kids into our little apartment for a delicious lunch after church. We actually had fun and didn't feel too squashed! At the end of the day Trevor and I felt so grateful that we come from wonderful families and that we all get along so well.

Trevor's younger brother Rialey and his wife Kim. Aren't they a cute couple?

Trevor with my "little" brother, Robert. Happy Birthday, Bubba! We had cake and sang to him.

My mom and my brother Vaughn with his wife Christie and their adorable little girl, Lexi.

Trevor's older brother Glayd and his wife Maggie with their new little guy, Quincy

Let's eat!

Grandpa and Grandma Hawkes with the guest of honor. Watch out, G-pa knows how to use that binky.

Cassie with her cousin Aubrey. They have so much fun together! Cassie is devastated whenever she and Aubrey have to part. She asks me sometimes if we can go to Aubrey's house. Too bad they live 4 hours away.

"In Grandma Heaven!" as my mom would say.

Blondies! Cassie adores her Aunt Kim and Aunt Taja. Really.

Benson and the Gramps (another of Cassie's one-syllable alterations)

Mostly pics

2011-05-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

Life is busy with two! Hence the lack of posting. Enjoy some pictures of the last few months:

Cassie chose Benson's outfit and was so proud! Then she wanted to lie down on a blanket like him.

Her hair is getting longer! This day we did pigtails with braids.

Cassie earned a trip to our awesome new rec center by filling out a potty chart. She got a sticker every time she used the bathroom in a timely manner. Basically, she was dawdling in the bathroom and we were trying to get her in the habit of getting in and out without wasting time. Recently she has learned that if she wets her underwear on purpose, she gets to change clothes (how exciting! 2 [or 3! or 4!] outfits in one day!). Grrrr. Any suggestions?

They didn't quite make it all the way down the slide and ended up walking off. Pretty funny. :)

This was cute- Benson was riveted on this picture of Christ in our front room. No matter where Trevor moved him, his eyes stayed on the picture.

Benson's blessing day. More pictures coming in a future post.

Smiling pictures! The last two are just so accurate. He spits up a lot, so his shirt is always wet, and we always keep a burp cloth underneath him. He also usually smiles with a big, wide-open mouth while he waves his arms and kicks his legs. He's such a happy little guy!

Silly Cassie

2011-04-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Cassie likes to shorten her words to one syllable. Too bad I can only remember a few examples right now:

strawberries=strawbs

blankets=blanks

buttons=butts (tee hee)

Benson=Bence (we often call him this, too)

She also struggles saying "spaghetti." (Don't we all at some point?) Right now she calls it "baskehbadee" and I think it's adorable. I got mad at Trevor when he played "speech therapist" the other day and got her to say it correctly. She's only two, for crying out loud! Let her have some cute speech problems. Luckily, his therapy didn't last too long- she's saying it wrong again. :)

Lately Cassie has been talking about what she will be like when she's a mommy. She mostly focuses on how she will be bigger: "my eyes will be SO big!" and "my teeth will be SO big!" My personal favorite: "When I'm a mom, I will make you dinner!" Deal.

One evening this week when Trevor was putting her to bed, Cassie wanted to whisper a story in Trevor's ear. She started, "One day, there was a beautiful girl named Cassie..." and proceeded to tell him about her day.

Cassie is very sweet with Benson and a very willing helper. She is a pro at putting his pacifier back in his mouth, at grabbing a clean burp cloth (she does this on her own sometimes when she notices that I need one. So thoughtful!), and she likes to pat his back when I'm burping him. She pays attention to the way we talk to him, and sometimes I hear her saying things like, "It's okay, bud" in a little high-pitched voice. How sweet.

We love our Cassie!

Baby Benson

2011-03-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

Finally, here's post 102! I've been waiting around for Trevor to write this one, since he wrote the post when Cassie was born. Well, it's been two weeks (I can't believe it's been that long!) and he's not showing any interest in blogging, so I guess I better do it.

Here's the birth story first. It's not too graphic, but it's certainly not interesting to everyone out there. So feel free to skip to the pictures.

I was scheduled to be induced on Friday, March 11th. My doctor told me to call Labor and Delivery first thing in the morning, and they would tell me what time to come in. We had planned to get some shopping and cleaning done that morning since we knew I wouldn't be their first priority as an elective induction. My mom was ready to come babysit Cassie as soon as the hospital was ready for us. When I called, the nurse asked me to call back in a few hours, and they would tell me when to come in. Perfect! We got ready for the day and started some cleaning and laundry. When I called again, they told me they were too busy right then but would call me back within the next hour. Awesome. More cleaning, folded the laundry, and Trevor ran out to do some last-minute shopping. It had been almost two hours, so I decided to call the hospital. (Does anyone else see where this is going?) Fast forward to 1 pm, when our apartment was immaculate (I had even spot-cleaned the carpet!), everything was organized and ready for the baby, and we were starting to get bored. The charge nurse in Labor and Delivery called: "How do you feel about Sunday?" There was no way to fit us in that day, and my doctor wasn't available on Saturday. Talk about a let-down. I was so frustrated. I guess the good news is that my frustration centered around the fact that I had nothing to do for the next day-and-a-half of my life, and not that I was incredibly uncomfortable or worried about the health of my baby. I just hate feeling lazy and unproductive, and of course we had cleared our schedules for the weekend. And there's nothing worse than getting your hopes up and making exciting plans, only to have them cancelled! (Well, postponed. Let's not get too dramatic.) Anyway, I called my Mom and she calmed me down (aren't mothers wonderful?) and helped us figure out what to do next. So, on to plan B: Trevor, Cassie, and I spent Saturday morning at our place (it was actually kind of nice to just relax), then we headed to my parents' house in the afternoon. We helped with some yard work, listened to the BYU basketball game, ate dinner, then left Cassie at my parents' for a sleepover and went to my high school's production of The Scarlet Pimpernel before heading home. (A sidenote: I have always wanted to see The Scarlet Pimpernel. I think finding out that it was playing at my high school and that I would be able to go see it was the main factor in pulling me out of my slump on Friday afternoon.) We got home late and went straight to bed, then woke up super early (it felt earlier because it was daylight savings) and got to the hospital at 7:30. After all the admitting procedures, my nurse was about to get my IV in and start the pitocin, when another nurse ran in and told my nurse that she was needed right away. 45 minutes later, my nurse came back: a woman had just given birth in her car right outside the hospital. Her husband had run inside to grab a wheelchair, and when he came back, she was holding the baby. And their other three children were in the backseat while all this happened. So I was grateful to be in my situation. Anyway, my doctor came in and broke my water just before 9:00, and they started my pitocin just after 9:00. I wanted to go for as long as I could stand the pain before getting an epidural, in the hopes that I would progress a little more quickly than I did with Cassie (with her, as soon as I got the epidural, my body slowed WAY down). I just read some books until about 2:00 pm, when the contractions were too painful and too frequent for my taste. I was at a 4 when I got the epidural. My doctor came in less than two hours later and I was at a 10! I guess this time, the epidural helped my body relax. Baby Benson was born at 4:45 after pushing through 3 or 4 contractions. Birth is such a miracle! I just cried and cried for joy when I first saw him and held him. There is nothing like being a mother.

Benson Trevor

Born March 13, 2011 at 4:45 pm

8 lbs 10 oz

20.5 inches

Proud parents

Big sister waving hello! She had a bad cold with a cough, so she got to wear a mask.

Family of four! Cassie got a "big sister" present at the hospital- a backpack with some toys, a book, and a big sister shirt, which she is wearing.

What a nice daddy.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Aw. Notice, he has hair! This is exciting for us.

Benson is a great sleeper and eater, and that's pretty much all he's done for the last two weeks, which has made my life so much easier! He is just starting to be awake more often and cry a little more. So far, having a second baby has been much easier than having a first, mostly because I knew what to expect and how to prepare. I also think Benson cries less and sleeps more than Cassie did. He is, however, a champion spitter-upper. I've done a load of laundry almost every day since we came home from the hospital. Even so, I am so happy that I get to hold him in my arms now instead of having him kick my ribs from the inside! We're so happy to have him in our family.

Drumroll, please....

2011-03-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the 101st post on our blog. And I have officially caught up with everything that has happened in the last 6 months (or at least everything we took pictures of). And what good timing, since tomorrow at this time, it is very likely that we will be holding a brand new baby boy in our arms! We will call the hospital first thing in the morning to find out what time to arrive for my induction. Post #102 will be much more momentous than this one, I assure you!

Birthday Party!

2011-03-10T16:11:00.000-08:00

Anyone remember Cassie's best friend from Provo? Well, even though we don't see her very often any more, Cassie still talks about Lily (if you ask her who her friends are, her first answer is always Lily, then she starts naming her friends from playgroup). So when Lily's mom called to invite us to a little birthday celebration, Cassie was pretty ecstatic. I had fun catching up with a few of the moms from our old ward, and Cassie loved playing with Lily and seeing the presents. Then Lily was nice enough to share her tricycle with Cassie and she even let Cassie go for a ride on her new birthday present- a bike!

Can you guess what Cassie wants for her birthday now?

Snow!

2011-03-10T11:09:00.000-08:00

All right, so we've had snow all winter. But we hadn't taken Cassie out to play in it yet this winter, and we were feeling like bad parents. So after a nice snow storm near the end of February, Cassie and Trevor got all bundled up and ventured out by the playground outside our apartment. They built an awesome snowman (look at the pictures and take a wild guess on who did all the work) that was knocked over hours later by some teenage hoodlum, no doubt. When we have our own lawn we won't have to worry about our snowmen getting attacked, right? (Can you tell I'm getting house hungry?) They had lots of fun and I got to take a hot shower while they played. :) That's my kind of Saturday.

Toy shelves

2011-03-10T08:43:00.001-08:00

After Christmas, I decided it was definitely time to re-think Cassie's toy storage system (read: too many toys to fit in the two bins we had been using, resulting in a constant mess). Trevor used his manly shelf-building skills and made these awesome shelves for some new toy bins (bought at Ikea), and now the mess is all organized in her closet! Hooray! (Does anyone else love a clean, organized house?)

OxiClean works

2011-03-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

And our carpet is super dingy. See those light spots? They were dark spots, and I decided to try getting them out with OxiClean. And it worked! A little too well. So then I had to clean the whole area (sigh), and it's looking better. When we buy a house, remind me to get high-quality carpet. That doesn't show dirt.

Go Cougars!

2011-03-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

We're pretty happy to be BYU basketball fans this year. I'm proud to say that we were faithfully following their games from the beginning of the season, before any Jimmermania happened. So yeah, no fair weather fans here. (Especially Trevor. He loves basketball.) I got tickets to the UNLV game for all three of us as a Christmas gift to Trevor. We decided to make a day of it, so we headed to Provo in the morning. Trevor and Cassie explored the Bean Museum while I got my hair cut (I sent the camera with him, but I guess it's pretty obvious from the lack of pictures of me that I take all the pictures around here...), then we ate at Pizza Pie Cafe. Oh boy, I really need better self-control when it comes to their dessert pizzas.

Then to the game! Go Cougs! (We won. Did I really need to mention that?)

After the game, we visited my "little" brother Robert at his apartment. And luckily for Cassie, his roommate has a drum set. She's a natural!

P.S. Cassie loves doing the end of the fight song: "Rah rah, rah rah rah! Goooo Cougars!"

Road Trips

2011-03-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

We headed to Idaho Falls for a weekend in January to visit Trevor's brother and his wife, who had a baby boy in December. We stopped in Logan and spent Friday night with Trevor's youngest brother and his wife, then we all hopped in the car and headed to IF together on Saturday morning. On the way back to Logan that evening to drop Rialey and Kim off at their apartment, it started to snow. A lot. We were planning on driving all the way home, but it was getting late and we were worried about making it through Sardine Canyon alive. So Rialey and Kim were uber generous and let us stay with them another night. They were such good hosts!

We drove down again on the first Sunday in February when our new nephew was blessed, and even though we were all sick that day, I was so glad we made the drive- we got to see Trevor's oldest brother Kallan and his family. They live in Montana and we missed seeing them at Christmas. While Trevor and Kallan were in school, we lived in the same apartment building for two years, so we got to spend a lot of time together and we have really missed them since they moved. Cassie loved playing with so many of her cousins, and I wish I took some pictures of them all together. Anyway, some of these pictures are from our first visit in January, and some are from the blessing day in February.

Cassie has a talent for wearing people out.

cuddling cousins

The baby. Aw. Check out that hair!

Whoa! Watch out.

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed

Playgroup!

2011-03-07T14:19:00.000-08:00

I am so glad that a friend in our ward decided to organize a playgroup for 2-3 year olds this fall! Cassie and her little friends have had so much fun playing together, doing crafts, and learning a little each week. It has really helped Cassie overcome her shy/clingy phase and make some great new friends. I think the organized lesson portion of it has helped all of the kids learn some basic concepts and learn how to sit and focus for a while. I think I speak for all the other moms when I say that the 2-hour break each week has been pretty nice for us, too!

One week they all insisted on wearing hats. I really had to document it.

This was the same week that the girls spent the whole time "shopping" with their "purses" and the boys spent the whole time pushing a car back and forth. :)

One week we had our short lesson on daytime and nighttime, so we had a pajama party, made a fort, and had a 30-second sleepover in the fort. Then I woke them up from their "sleep" and they ate cereal for "breakfast" at snack time. They had a lot of fun that day playing in the fort.

Cassie decided to have playgroup with her dolls and stuffed animals one day, so she got out all of their playgroup mats (aka kitchen towels and hot pads) and set things up in the hallway.

Instead of keeping all of Cassie's little art projects from playgroup, we decided to take pictures of them:

Happy Holidays

2011-03-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

"Happy Holidays" really is an accurate phrase for me- I look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. I get excited about spending time with family and relaxing and eating yummy food and making memories. For me, they wouldn't feel like the holidays if we stayed home- I feel like I can only fully relax and get away from the daily grind at our parents' houses. (When does that change? Eventually we'll stay at our house on holidays, and hopefully they will still feel like holidays to me...) Nothing super eventful happened this year, but I want to document it anyway in pictures.

We spent Thanksgiving with my family. Basically, I took no good pictures. So this is what you get.

[Classy tourist shirt courtesy of Wells Fargo, modeled by my brother Vaughn. It was a freebie my dad got at work. He couldn't pass it up. Obviously.]

Adorable Lexi, who is getting so big SO fast!

And a better-documented Christmas trip spent with Trevor's family:

Cassie and cousin Eliza were super helpful (ha!) and kept getting out the brooms to sweep the floor.

She looks innocent enough, but every time someone sat down to play the piano, Cassie sat next to them and eventually pushed them out of the way- "I want to play the whole piano!" (P.S. Another reason I love the holidays is the music. I love love love Christmas music!)

Happy Birthday to Trevor! He is such a good sport about having his birthday on Christmas Eve.

Cassie and her adorable cousin Paul on Christmas morning

Cassie's gifts: a doll house and a set of blocks (both were big hits- Eliza and Cassie sat and played with the doll house and wouldn't open presents for about 15 minutes. And I can't decide who likes playing with the blocks more- Cassie or Trevor.)

I obviously did a horrible job of taking pictures of any other members of Trevor's family. I'm grateful his mom is so good about taking lots of pictures of everyone!

After Christmas, we had a little celebration with my family. We drew names and filled up stockings for each other. New camera! Can you tell?

Career-oriented

2011-03-01T18:47:00.000-08:00

We have a budding fashion designer/model on our hands.

Here are her "exercise clothes."

She knows it's really the shoes and accessories that make any ensemble work.

And when it comes to poses, form like this just can't be taught.

(Belly shot! One of very few since I'm always the one behind the camera. This is the beginning of December, so about 27 weeks)

And if the fashion industry doesn't work out, she might go the author/librarian route.

Either way, she certainly has a bright future.

Halloween

2011-02-27T20:48:00.000-08:00

Before Cassie was born, friends and family threw me baby showers, and we received so many useful and thoughtful gifts, we were basically set for her first year of life. One gift stood out to me as a little different, however. It was a set of pink fairy wings with a matching tutu and hair tie/wrist band (?). I loved it and thought it was adorable, I just wasn't sure that it would really get used, at least not for several years. Ha! I was wrong. Observe:

Halloween 2008: "Fairy"

Halloween 2009: "Butterfly Princess"

Halloween 2010: "Butterfly"

(It was COLD this year!)

Halloween 2011:

Well, no picture yet. But I'm pretty sure we can get at least one more year out of them.

Fall

2011-02-22T19:20:00.000-08:00

One challenge of backtracking to catch up on the blog is that I have to remember things that happened 5 months ago. And if anyone is familiar with how my brain functions (or fails to function) during pregnancy, you're aware that this is a problem. I haven't been diligent with my journal writing, but fortunately, I kept my planner from last year, so that gives me lots of hints about what was happening.

Without further ado, the first installment of Fall 2010:

When September rolled around, I was feeling more energetic (I spent a lot of the summer sleeping on the couch, super exhausted from pregnancy), and I decided to involve Cassie in a co-op playgroup and a weekly music activity in our ward. It's funny to look back and remember how hesitant and shy she was at first. She definitely became more reserved and attached to Trevor and me when we moved, and even though she is much more comfortable now, she has retained a little bit of that clingy-ness and caution, which I don't remember ever noticing when we lived in Provo. Anyway, she loves playgroup and "music makers," and I immediately felt busier when we started those activities.

Deseret Chamber Singers also began in September (yup. I'm a choir nerd, through and through), and I was especially excited because we have a "guest" conductor (Tim Workman) this year who had taught a few of my undergrad music courses at BYU while he was a masters student. But I wasn't just excited because I know who he is. His sense of humor was a highlight of my music education experience. Let's just say that on more than one occasion, he had me laughing so hard that tears flowed. A few of my music ed friends and I kept a little notebook where we wrote funny quotes and experiences, and I think his quotes fill up at least 1/4th of that book. I should probably mention that he is also an excellent choir conductor.

I finally started teaching piano lessons again in October. I think I was a little afraid to get started again; I'm always worried that I won't know what I'm doing. I always love it and feel confident again once I get started, though. It incorporates a lot of the things I loved most about teaching choir, especially the challenge of finding creative ways to teach new concepts and keep the students motivated. I just took on 4 students, but with that and the new activities for Cassie, I was feeling like my schedule was full, especially because I was still feeling a little tired with my pregnancy.

So, starting to feel a little busier than I was comfortable with, I was pretty overwhelmed when I received a new calling that completely blindsided me: first counselor in the Relief Society Presidency in our ward. I felt completely inadequate and cried a little and took lots of deep breaths, and felt embarrassed when I stood to be sustained (her?!), but of course it has been a wonderful experience. I love the sisters in the presidency, I love the Relief Society teachers, and I love meeting and getting to know all the sisters. I still feel inadequate and wish I was better at my calling, but I feel like I'm in the right place doing the right things right now (isn't that a good feeling?).

Another exciting October event: we bought a second car! I bet you're impressed that we had been surviving on only one car. Well, Trevor has a co-worker that lives about a mile away, so they were carpooling, which meant that I got the car every other day. That worked out great when the weather was nice and Cassie and I could walk everywhere on our carless days. But with the weather getting colder, I knew I would have to mooch rides occasionally, and I felt uncomfortable with that, knowing that we really could afford to buy a car. We did lots of research and decided on a 2005 Nissan Altima, and found a great deal on KSL. Woot woot!

sigh where to begin?

2011-02-21T13:58:00.000-08:00

All of my friends and family out there who read this blog are very clever. I'm proud of you for figuring out my cryptic baby announcement (you know, 6 months ago).
And I'm really sorry that I left you hanging after that. I haven't been very good about Facebooking either, so I've basically neglected to share anything, especially pregnancy news with many of the people I love. So here's the dealio on baby #2:

boy!
due March 15th (yup, 3 weeks!)
I'm tired. I was really tired in the first trimester, then a little tired in the second trimester, and now I'm really tired again. But no nausea! Thank heavens for that.
I think we're ready! Well, as ready as you can really be for a newborn. :)
I have worked out regularly during this pregnancy, and it really has helped me feel more comfortable and strong and flexible. I think I've avoided some of the discomfort that usually comes with pregnancy, and the workout really helps me to focus and relax every day. I am so glad I did it.
No definite name yet. Any ideas? Seriously. We need some help.

Because this blog is kind of our family journal, I would really like to make a blog book (or books). So I set a goal to catch up on blogging before this baby boy comes. Which means I have three weeks to document October - February. Totally doable, right?
I apologize that this post isn't too newsy. It's because I'd like to document things in order so everything works out nicely in a printed book. Forgive me. (Hmm...assuming there are still a few out there who will read this blog. I hope you haven't all given up on me.)
I love keeping up with friends and family through blogs! Thanks for being more diligent than I have in posting.

The Last Hurrah of Summer

2010-09-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

The last week of August was bliss! It felt like a vacation to me, even though the furthest we traveled was to my parents' house (40 minutes away). My brother Thom and his family arrived late on a Wednesday evening and stayed the night at my parents' house. I gave them Thursday to recover, then went over to my parents' house on Friday morning, feeling really anxious to see everyone again/for the first time. The last time Thom and Sarah were here during Thanksgiving of 2008, Sarah was pregnant with their youngest (we'll call him J), so I hadn't met him yet. Things have definitely changed since 2008. Cassie and L (the oldest- turning 6 this week) just adored each other and loved playing together- I guess girls just have a connection. A is probably the sweetest little boy in the universe. He called me a princess, always wanted to hold my hand and kept requesting to sit by Aunt Emily during meals. He wasn't as impressed with Trevor, or as he called him, "Uncle Man."

Thanksgiving 2008:
August 2010:

I think my parents were in heaven.

Although, Dad got a little tired when they babysat while Thom and Sarah went on an overnight date.
On Friday evening, we had a birthday party for L and A, complete with horse pinata (for A), princess cake (for L), and presents! My mom even got a small gift for Cassie so she wouldn't feel left out of the festivities.
Saturday was the main event: adorable baby Lexi was sealed to her adoptive parents, my brother Vaughn and his wife Christie. I really can't describe how joyous I felt to be there. I just kept thinking about how precious our children are to us and what a blessing and joy and privilege it is to be a mother, especially knowing my children are sealed to me. (I can say "children" now, right? Because I've felt the one in my tummy, and he/she is definitely alive. So "children" it is.)
Then on Sunday, Vaughn blessed Lexi (again, a very sweet experience) and we had a big family picnic afterward. We got a picture of everyone together, minus Lexi, who was taking a much-needed nap. And the picture is horrible, but we're all together! And don't worry, we had a professional take pictures of us later in the week.
On Monday we went to downtown Salt Lake and took the kids to a children's exhibit at the Church History Museum. It was fun and FREE. The highlight for A was riding on the "train" (Trax). Can I mention again how sweet he is? He got a stuffed horse for his birthday and named it "Baby Lexi."

On Tuesday we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point and had a little picnic outside. And there were big rocks near our picnic table, so of course the kids had fun climbing and jumping.

Tuesday night was our family photos, and the genius photographer bribed the kids into cooperating with the promise of candy at the end. It worked!

L and Cassie, the best of friends.

Cassie rode in J's car seat with L and A wherever we went, so J always rode in Cassie's car seat in our car. He didn't seem to mind, and L, A, and Cassie always insisted they be together. Cassie adored playing with her cousins and still talks about them.

Summer Adventures

2010-09-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

Lots of pictures and not too many words. I had to get caught up somehow!
We spent the 4th of July in Centerville with my parents. We went all out and participated in most of the festivities this year: a magic show, jazz concert and fireworks in the park (Cassie's favorite part was the chocolate-covered frozen banana we bought her), then breakfast in the park the next morning (during a fiddling show by my mom's violin students) and the parade. It was cold in the morning!
But not in the afternoon...

We took advantage of the Monday work-holiday (since the 4th was a Sunday) and went to the zoo. Cassie liked the giraffes. (Giraffe is the word that lost me the 6th grade spelling bee. Never again.)
On Pioneer Day (you know, the 24th of July), we went to Oakley to be with Trev's family (I think this will be a yearly family reunion). We always have fun when Trevor's family is together, especially on the 24th.
Trevor talked me out of going camping in August and instead we stayed in a hotel and went to Arches National Park (a.k.a. HOT). The weekend we chose was perfect- all national parks were free! But like I said, it was pretty toasty. Good thing we brought lots of water.

We wore Cassie out.

We met our parents in Provo at the end of August to celebrate Trevor's graduation. We were a week late for the actual graduation ceremonies, so we made up our own: dinner at Carrabba's. (Cap and gown courtesy of my mom, who had to buy hers when she finished her degree a few years ago. Who knew it would come in handy again?)
Ah, classic.
I had been waiting for the end of August all summer! My brother Thom and his family flew in from Pennsylvania to be here for a very special occasion. My brother Vaughn and his wife Christie were sealed to their adopted baby girl, Alexis. This deserves it's own post, so you'll just have to wait!

My parents were feeling grandchild-withdrawals after Thom's family left, so we were happy to oblige them by joining them on a Labor Day picnic and hike.
Other items of note:
New table and chairs! $160 on Craiglist. As Cassie would say, "Oh yeah, baby."

Cassie is potty trained! It was quick and almost entirely painless. She was definitely ready. No more diapers! At least, not for the next 6 months.

Cassie's new bed

2010-08-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

Less than a week before we left Provo, Cassie figured out how to climb out of her pack-n-play. (Yes, she slept in a pack-n-play. We were poor college students.) Oh, the joys of trying to keep her in her room. We inherited a toddler bed from my cousin and decided to set it up right after we moved, since Cassie was going to be wandering around her bedroom anyway. (Luckily, our new apartment has locks on all the doors. And when she figured out how to unlock the door, we bought a doorknob cover. And when she figured out how to pull the cover off, we super-glued it together. But I digress.) We decided check on her during her first night in the new bed, and it's become a nightly ritual. Why? Because she's hilarious:

We don't put her to bed with shoes and socks. Really.

I guess the floor is comfortable. (?)
That's an alphabet puzzle by her head. And those are the pieces, scattered all over the bed.
Who doesn't sleep with all their books piled on the bed?
And if not books, at least some toys.
Yup. Very comfortable.
This one's just sweet. She loves her Mother Goose book.
Well, she loves all her books.

Roommate Reunion

2010-08-09T13:31:00.000-07:00

I think I am probably one of the luckiest people in the world when it comes to getting good roommates. Of course, my current roommate is my favorite, but I had some amazing roommates in college that have become some of my best friends. We were thrown together in the dorms our freshman year, and it's really miraculous how well we all got along. Our apartment number was 2010, so we joked about having a reunion during the corresponding year, hopefully in Paris. Unfortunately, Paris wasn't in our budgets this year, but a cabin in Kamas, Utah was! Our husbands/families were all very helpful and watched our children, and we had way too much fun.

Of our original six roommates, four were able to come, and we invited an honorary roommate as well (we're all friends with her and she lived in our same building freshman year, I lived with her at one point and most of us worked with her too).

Janelle (pregnant with twins! her fourth and fifth children. she is superwoman.) and Lisa (photographer extroirdinaire, and thanks to her detailed scrapbooks from our freshman year, we relived a lot of great moments)

Kristy (we've been friends since 9th grade! What would I do without her?) and Alicia (honorary roomie and we spent our entire college experience together- same major, same job)

And of course, what 2010 reunion would be complete without Utard hair?

I love these girls!

Family Reunion

2010-08-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

Here I am again, playing more catch-up. Hopefully I can be more punctual...

In June we had a reunion with my mom's side of the family. We went "camping" in Heber Valley and had a lot of fun with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. (Okay, so we were staying in cabins with wooden bunks, we had flushing toilets about 50 yards away, and running water in our pavilion. So maybe camping isn't the best word to describe it.) I really wanted to document this so I could remember what a fun time we had.

First, let me describe my mom's family. She is the youngest of six kids (3 boys, 3 girls), and all of her siblings married and had lots of kids. :) There are 36 of us total, and all but 7 of us are married (1 engaged. Go Derek!). Between us cousins, we have 73 children. So, if everyone in our family showed up to a reunion, we would have 144 people. Of course, not everyone comes (we have them every other year), but we get a little different turnout each time, so I've seen nearly all of my cousins in the last 6 years.

This reunion was a lot of fun for me because I was able to stay the whole time, so I got to see everyone who made an appearance. Trevor and I had a lot of fun on the challenge courses (climbing tall things, going down zip lines, team-building activities, etc.) and playing games at night in the pavilion. Cassie loved putting on the helmets for the challenge courses and sleeping in a cabin (what fun!). I really loved hanging out with my cousins and their children that I rarely see.

Favorite moments:

Giving Cassie a turn on a giant swing ("I bet she'll love this") and having her cling to me and urgently announce, "I'm all done!" before swinging at all.
Getting 13 of us from a "sinking ship" to a tiny platform via rope swing. Including Cassie- Trevor held her while he swung. (Actually, that moment scared me, but it was really cool when it finally worked and no one was injured.)
Playing "Who's got the button?" (or ring, in this case) and seeing it dangling from the string right next to Alysse's hands while her sisters try to get her to hide it.
Watching everyone waddle with oranges between their knees and pie tins on their heads.
Hearing everyone's memories of Grandma and Grandpa, especially Robert's memory of Grandma making him chew 24 times before swallowing. Classic.

The move

2010-07-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

This post will probably be more interesting to me than to you- it's more for journaling/recording purposes.

Almost a year ago, I started thinking about our upcoming move (I knew it would happen sometime during summer 2010) and started to collect boxes and deep clean our apartment a little. I really dug in with the cleaning in April when I knew we were getting closer (no definite plans yet). I wanted to spread out the packing process, so from the time we knew we were moving (May 19) to the day we moved (June 12), I packed a few boxes every day. It was really nice to take it slowly- the only days I felt a little overwhelmed were the day before the move and the day of the move. (That's to be expected, right?) But we had planned ahead far enough and had so many things done early that we were able to go to the ward camp-out for dinner the night before we moved. It was awesome to relax a little and see our friends from the ward before we left.
June 12, our moving day, was super rainy. The trees outside our apartment had dropped crumbly little seedling (?) things and because of the rain they were sticking to everyone's shoes and tracking all over the apartment and the truck. I swept the sidewalk from our stairwell to the truck and I think it helped a little. We had SO many people from our ward help us with the move and cleaning! I don't know how we would have done it without help. Someone even babysat Cassie all morning. I am so glad that we moved on a Saturday when people were available to help, and I'm so glad our ward got so involved in helping people move.
After the truck was loaded, Trevor drove it to our new apartment, where he had arranged with the Elder's Quorum president there to have some people help with unloading. 12 guys showed up! They finished so fast, my brother and dad (who were on the way to help) got there after everything was already in the apartment. They stayed around, set up our bed, and unpacked a whole bunch of boxes for us while Trevor came back to Provo to return the truck and help me with last minute cleaning things. I had been cleaning with sisters from our ward who came to help. They were amazing. Really, it makes me wonder how anyone can move without having help. So many people helped us with our move, and I hope they all know how much we appreciate the things they did.
Anyway, thanks to all the amazing help we had, we were out of our apartment by 5 pm. And thanks to my dad and brother, we had a bed to sleep in when we got to our new place! We've been here for a little over a month now, and it feels and looks like home. Still on our to-do list: hang pictures in the master bedroom, buy a real kitchen table and chairs (still rockin' the card table), and buy matching nightstands and a dresser.
Things we love about our new place: More space! (twice the square footage, an actual dining area, two bathrooms, bigger bedrooms), dishwasher, washer and dryer, sliding glass door to balcony- lets in lots of light, we're right next to a playground, feels rural but we're close to shopping areas.
Here's a little photo-tour of the apartment:

Catch up: Memorial Day Weekend

2010-07-12T14:23:00.001-07:00

We spent Memorial Day Weekend in Oakley with Trevor's family (minus Blaine, Becky, and Eliza, who live far, far away) and had a great time. I am forever grateful for a mother-in-law who takes lots of pictures and makes me CDs because I always seem to forget my camera. Please ignore all the zits. My face has decided, without my consent, that I am 15 years old and therefore must go through the pimply stage that I fortunately missed out on when I was actually a teenager. So annoying.

We spent Saturday morning at the elementary school playing on the playground and hitting softballs. It was fun and a tad chilly.
We flew kites in the afternoon.
Cassie fed the goats with her Aunt Kim and cousin Savanah.
The ever-popular Aunt Taja entertained the kids on the tramp.
And when the boys left to play basketball...

We got busy. Let me 'splain. Trevor finished the classes for his Masters degree in April, and was spending the summer finishing a project required for his degree while working for an engineering company and looking for a full-time job. He found a great job and started working on May 24th. I had been looking forward to him participating in the whole graduation ceremony at BYU in August (he didn't walk when he got his bachelors), but I realized with his new job that he wouldn't yet be eligible to take time off for graduation...and also, Trev really didn't want to walk. I had also been looking into a big graduation gift for him, since we didn't do anything when he finished his undergrad. A few days before we went to Oakley for the weekend, I called Trevor's mom and asked what she thought about having a surprise graduation party for Trevor that weekend. (Then I wouldn't make him walk in August, and I could really surprise him with an awesome graduation gift.) On Friday, a few hours before we left for the weekend, I bought Trevor a Droid (he has always wanted a fancy-schmancy phone and often mentioned that someday, when we had lots of money, he really really wanted one). By the way, the store where I bought the phone almost ruined the surprise- they canceled service to Trevor's old phone even though I had specifically asked several times to make sure they didn't. When I figured out what they had done, I had to solve the problem and make up a cover story so Trevor wouldn't suspect anything. It was stressful. Anyway, I got the phone to Oakley successfully without Trevor noticing, and we prepared an awesome little surprise while the boys were out basketballing. We turned all the lights off and yelled "surprise" and everything!

Sweaty man. "Wait, who is this surprise for?"
And yes, I wrapped Trevor's Droid in multiple boxes to disorient him.

Okay, this was my first ever attempt at cake decorating. Good enough.
Drooling over the new toy.
On Monday morning, Trevor's dad saw a little yellow finch fly right into a window, so he picked up the bird and let the grandkids pet it for a while. It must have been too dazed to fly away, because it sat in his hand for a long time while we all admired it before it finally took off. He walked right through the house with it, we were all calling the kids to come see Grandpa's bird, and we took some pictures. Afterwords, I went inside and mentioned something about it to Trevor, who was playing with his new phone. I'm sure you already know the outcome of this story. "What bird?" Trev completely missed the entire thing, even with his dad walking right past him and all of us making a fuss. Yup. That's how much he loves his Droid. He's had it for over a month now and I've definitely considered hiding it from him on more than one occasion. However, it has been a lifesaver. The last post would be picture-less if it weren't for Trev's fancy phone (again, my camera forgetfulness), and many of our summer activities would be undocumented without it as well. It also saved us when we were internet-less for a few days after moving in, and when we had some problems with viruses.

Sunday before church

Cassie and cousin Aubrey. "Cheese!"
Just chillin'. Sunday evening.
The infamous finch
S'mores 'round the "campfire."
Grandma curled Cassie's hair on Monday. Bee-ootiful!
Just a cute picture of Cassie and Aunt Taja
Jumping
And I'm done. Whew. We've still got a lot of catching up to do, so stay tuned.

Catch up: Birthdays

2010-07-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

I've been a little too busy to blog with our move and summer festivities (more about these soon!) and virus problems (grrrrrrr) but I'm ready to catch up now. Let's start from the very beginning, a very good place to start.

Cassie and I celebrated our birthdays at the beginning of June. We had a picnic with my family on Cassie's birthday, complete with an Elmo cake. You know me, I'm a big Elmo fan. Actually, if anyone leaves a comment about why an Elmo cake really would be appropriate for me, I'll give you bonus points! (I think only those who knew me in Jr. High will know that.) But honestly, the Elmo cake was for the real Elmo fan in our house- Cassie. She still talks about it, even though it was a pretty badly done first-attempt on my part.

Cassie was pretty anxious to put her new presents to use right away. Observe:

The weather was perfect and it was nice to just be with family and enjoy good food. And I got some pretty awesome gifts, too. :) Honestly, I was pretty preoccupied with Cassie's birthday and didn't really think about mine as much. I can probably count on that happening for the rest of my life.

For those of you wondering, Cassie did not receive a dinosaur or a frog for her birthday...but she did get some water. We had some friends from the ward over for a little pool party a few days after her birthday, and the kids had a lot of fun. There are a lot of 2-year-old girls around Cassie's age in that ward- I sure miss that.

We moms had fun, too. :) I sure miss the quad 1 camp-chair mom posse.
Also, I just wanted to record some feelings that I had on my birthday. I taught some piano lessons, packed boxes, did the usual daily chores, and no one really knew it was my birthday. At first I thought it would make me sad to go without attention or a celebration, but it made me think about what really makes me happy. In the past I've wanted to be selfish and lazy and eat lots of junk food on my birthday (aka attention on me, let me relax, cake and ice cream), but of course those things don't make me happy. While I was driving home from teaching piano lessons with Cassie in the back seat, I had a really peaceful moment where I realized that the things I was doing bring me real happiness and satisfaction. That was a good birthday gift.

Ch-ch-changes

2010-05-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Exciting things are happening in our neck of the woods! Trevor just got a full-time job with an engineering company in Sandy and we found a new place to live. Trev started yesterday, and he'll be commuting for a few weeks before we move. I'm trying to pack and clean a few things every day so I'm not overwhelmed in the days before we move. So far so good.
Is it okay to brag about one's husband? I'm just so proud of him. Let's just say that the company he works for didn't have any job openings until they saw his resume. They basically created a job so they could have him. Mmmmmm-hmm.
Also, I am giddy with the thought of having a new space to decorate and maybe even *gasp* money to spend on decorating. Any favorite design blogs/stores/ideas? Do share.

P.S.

2010-05-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

Last month I had the brilliant idea of teaching Cassie when her birthday is: "Dune Fif." It may have been a little early, though. I think I've created a monster. She likes to talk about her birthday, what kind of "pehsents" she wants, and she has worked very hard at holding two fingers up and saying "two!" Last week, Cassie announced to the cashier at the grocery store, "my birsday is coming up!" I can hardly get her to say "hello" when we see someone we know, but she happily announced her birthday to a stranger and immediately set to work holding her pinky and ring finger down (it takes her a minute) to show her age. A few days later, we had this conversation:
"I wanna dinosoh fo my birsday!"
"A dinosaur?"
nodding "An' a fog."
"A dinosaur and a frog?"
Where does she come up with these things? She also requested water for her birthday, and I told her I thought we could make that happen. :)

Oh, Cassie

2010-05-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

As I may have mentioned before on this blog, Cassie is hilarious. Not intentionally, although I think she's starting to realize since we laugh at the things she does all the time.

Like any toddler, Cassie likes to go pants-free sometimes (not diaper-free, mind you. too risky). When she wants to take her pants off, she tells me "I wanna weaw my wegs" or "I wanna weaw my knees." And when she takes her socks of, she's says "I'm weawing my feet!" It's cute.

Cassie currently says yes to any question you ask her. She doesn't think about it, she just immediately responds with a "yeah." As a test, Grandma Hawkes asked her a few weeks ago if she would scrub all the toilets, and Cassie said, "yeah!" As of last night, there is now one question that she will answer "no" to: "Do we color on the walls?" I bet you can guess what prompted us to teach her that the answer to that question is no. Luckily for us, her artwork was on a non-porous wall surface (those silly pillars that stick out of the bedroom walls, for those of you familiar with the apartments where we live) and scrubbed off fairly easily.

I had another big mess to clean up this morning (too soon after the crayon-on-wall incident last night). I opened the fridge for Cassie to get her sippy cup of milk, and she said she wanted juice instead. I explained that her juice sippy was empty, so she decided to take matters into her own hands and lift the entire pitcher of juice out of the fridge (right when I turned around, of course). And of course, because it was completely full, she dropped it immediately. Juice everywhere. Argh.

Mostly though, she makes us laugh.

Fun Times

2010-04-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

Stuff that happened this week:

Trevor's parents and sister Taja came to town on Saturday for a surprise party for his mom's sister, Ruth.

We all went to our place after the party and watched a few hours of 24 (yup, still hooked) before going to bed.

Trev's parents left in the morning and Taja stayed because she just can't get enough of us. We all went on a walk on Sunday afternoon and Cassie made a new best friend.

Trevor had his last college class on Monday! (Can I get a *woot woot?*)

Cassie discovered a new favorite activity:

For Family Home Evening on Monday, we played the "couch-camera game." (Shout out to my freshman roomies!) This game is ridiculously fun and you must play it sometime. Let me 'splain. We each had an object to hide in a certain room of the apartment. For instance, I had an apple to hide in the kitchen and Trevor had a magnet to hide in the bathroom. Once we had hidden our objects, we met in the family room where we had the camera set up facing the couch. We set the camera to timer mode then hurried to find the object that someone else had hidden (I was looking for the magnet Trevor hid in the bathroom). Our goal was to find the object and get back onto the couch before the camera went off. Here's a sampling of pictures:

P.S. We keep Cassie's toys under the couch. On purpose. We are not slobs.

After eating giant hamburgers for lunch and pizza for dinner on Monday, Emily woke up feeling pretty yucky on Tuesday. Thank heavens Taja was here! She took care of Cassie all day.

Trevor's parents drove back into town on Tuesday evening for the championship game of Trevor's intramural basketball tournament, which, by the way, they won. That's right. Out of 164 teams. As Cassie would say, "Oh yeah, baby."

Finished season 2 of 24.

Emily got in touch with her crafty/artistic side and made invitations to a baby shower for her sister-in-law.

Emily's brother came home from an internship in Peru. A nicely timed internship, I might add: he is nicely browned from the southern-hemisphere summer, and is looking forward to the upcoming northern-hemisphere summer.

Trevor and Emily went on a date! They ate at Carrabba's, which they highly recommend. Especially the Rigatoni Martino. Mmmm.

Best Friends

2010-03-31T10:15:00.000-07:00

Cassie has a best friend. She enjoys playing with pretty much anyone, but there's something special about this friendship. They get easily excited when they see each other and usually squeal, giggle, and scream each others' name. (Which can be kind of a problem in church. Someone in our ward is nodding and laughing right now.) They play really well together and request play-dates with each other. I'm really surprised that friendship can blossom at such a young age. They sincerely have a connection with each other. FYI, this is what best friendship looks like when you're 2:

Kids say the darndest things...

2010-03-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

These stories seem a lot less funny now that I've written them out...maybe I need to work on my comedic writing style. Oh well. Mostly I just want you to know that we laugh at the things Cassie says on a daily basis. She's hilarious.

Cassie is in the habit of asking me to "kiss it better" when she gets hurt. The other day she accidentally sat down hard on the edge of her toy bin and started crying. She immediately cried, "Mommy kiss my bottom!" I wasn't too amused, but Trevor laughed really hard.

Cassie had a friend over a few days ago, and they got a little overexcited playing with Cassie's bedroom door. Her friend, Lily, accidentally hit Cassie's head while closing the door. As Cassie was calming down, she looked at me with a thoughtful face and said, "I neen a hit Wily now," as though getting even was certainly the most logical action. I quickly convinced her otherwise.

About once a month we volunteer at the Missionary Training Center. All the volunteers meet together before meeting with the missionaries. A few months ago, while we were meeting with the other volunteers, Cassie pointed to a teenage boy and yelled, "a baby!" Poor kid. I think she was confused about the meaning of that word for a while. About 2 minutes later during a quiet moment, she stuck her finger in her nose and announced, "a boogah!" I had unwittingly taught her that word a few days earlier, and I knew it would come back to haunt me...

Cassie also currently calls pine cones "ice keem cones" and rubber bands "ban-aids."

Past Present Future

2010-03-12T19:14:00.000-08:00

All right, so I'm a lazy blogger. No guarantees about the frequency of future posts. But for now, here's what we've done, what we're doing, and what we're going to do soon:

Past

We were sick for the entire month of February. Yuck. So glad it's over.
Just got new carpet! Even though it's basically the same flat stuff, it's cleeeeeeean!
Emily sang with Deseret Chamber Singers (check out the videos if you want to know what we sound like) in their first recording session. We're recording a CD of the music of David Zabriskie of Savior of the World fame. So cool. (Three links in one bullet! Yowza.)

Present

Trev is playing a lot of basketball- intramurals and a Stake tourney
Reading some good books: Three Cups of Tea by Mortenson and Relin, and Fire by Kristin Cashore.
Enjoying sunny weather/wondering where winter went. We haven't any any snow stick since January! Weird. I never thought I'd say that I miss the snow.
Watching season 1 of 24. I can't imagine waiting a week between episodes.

Future

Graduation! Sometime this summer when Trev finishes his thesis.
Moving! Hopefully to a place with a bathroom counter, a dishwasher, and walls made of sheetrock.
A job! (fingers crossed)

Our incredible (well, sort of) January

2010-01-31T19:57:00.000-08:00

A few things about our January:

Everyone in our family is healthy right now! (Knock on wood.) I don't mind the cold weather so much, but I really hate all the sickness that floats around in the winter months. We feel like we've had our fair share this winter. On to happier and more incredible things:

My husband is a superhero and snapped his toothbrush in half while brushing his teeth. You have to be careful with that superhuman strength, you know? You forget how powerful you are and pretty soon toothbrushes are crumbling in your hands.

(This moment was not recreated- actual photo immediately following the incident)

Cassie loves (loves!) having friends over to play. We've had a lot of playdates in the last few weeks- I think everyone is getting antsy stuck all alone in their own homes. I hear more squealing and giggling in an hour of playing with friends than a week of being with mom and dad. Not only that, but I get a lot more done around the house when she has friends over. That's right, I like babysitting other people's children and would like it if you sent your kids to my place. Just give me a call first, okay?

We went to the BYU-Utah basketball game last night (Gooooooooo Cougars! We won.) with two of Trevor's brothers and their families. Here's the gang ready to go.
Aunt Maggie keeping the kiddos happy
Celebrating Rialey's birthday in style
And that's about it for January.

Catch up

2010-01-22T19:18:00.000-08:00

Oh, boy. It's been too long since I posted any news on this blog, and now it's a huge, intimidating project. You remember how it felt when you put off that end-of-semester research paper, and the closer the deadline came, the less you wanted to write it because you knew it would be a ton of work, but the longer you waited the more work it would be? Yeah, it's time for me to bite the bullet and catch up. Prepare yourself for the condensed version of the last three months.

October: Cassie had fun playing in the fall leaves, dressed up as a fairy princess/butterfly for Halloween (just like every other 2-5 year old girl out there), and went trick-or-treating for the first time.
November: Cassie made cheesy faces for the camera and I forgot to take the camera to Oakley for Thanksgiving. Fortunately, Trev's mom took plenty of pictures and will make us a CD (or already has? better look)

December: Christmas! Cassie loved all the Christmas decorations and got excited every time she saw Santa. We put up our first Christmas tree! It felt so Christmas-y leaving on only the white lights on the tree and drinking hot chocolate at night. Cassie loved looking at her reflection in the shiny ornaments, and was pretty good about leaving them on the tree.
Trevor's brother Rialey got married! It was a great day, and so fun to be with the whole family. Cassie loved playing with her cousins and dancing with with Kim's (Rialey's wife) niece.

Trevor and our niece Eliza fell asleep cuddling on the couch. Cute!

We celebrated an early Christmas with Trev's family and Christmas day with mine. Lots of fun for everyone.

We visited with a few friends while they were in town- the Robinsons and the Crocketts. Cassie has very cute potential future boyfriends. :)

We hosted my brother Robert a few times while he finished up business before leaving for an internship in Lima, Peru. Cassie loved playing with uncle "ahpaht."

January: Cassie loves watching videos of Elmo online and was pretty thrilled about her new hat and mittens.

Books 2009

2010-01-05T14:04:00.001-08:00

When I went on a TV fast in June of last year, I started reading more. I read a lot of good books from June to December, and most of what I read came from recommendations from friends' blogs, so I thought I would pass on my own recommendations. I didn't hate any of the books I read, so I included them all here with some short reviews. Please excuse any crazy formatting- sometimes I just can't get Blogger to work with me. Happy reading!

Joel Ben Izzy, The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness: Biography, lots of fun stories, but not super memorable.

Hester Brown, The Little Lady Agency: I know a lot of people love these books, but I wasn't crazy about it. I just didn't identify with the main character.

Kristin Cashore, Graceling: I really liked this one. Medieval fantasy-type book. Compelling and creative, and likeable/admirable characters.

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games; Catching Fire: This series is awesome. Amazing plot, hard to put down. A little violent, but not hard to read- might be hard to watch if it was a movie.

Paulo Cohelo, The Alchemist: Interesting parable, lots of symbolism. Lots to think about, one I will re-read.

Sarah Dessen, Keeping the Moon; Dreamland; Lock and Key; The Truth About Forever; That Summer; Just Listen; Along for the Ride; Someone Like You: I really like Sarah Dessen's writing because the main character always learns something about herself and/or grows in some way, and she always involves family and not just friends, like most YA novelists. Not entirely clean- all of her books have a little language, and Just Listen and Dreamland deal with some rough issues, but they all have good morals. My favorites were The Truth About Forever and Lock and Key.

Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters; North and South: Great Jane Austen/Bronte Sisters-style writer. Be warned: she died while writing Wives and Daughters so it is unfinished. I liked North and South best, but maybe it's because I was mad about the lack of ending to Wives and Daughters (it would have been nice to know ahead of time). Hefty books, a little long, but great stories.

Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: Non-fiction, lots of interesting statistics about successful people.

Anna Godbersen, The Luxe; Envy; Rumors; Splendor: These four make up a series. Hard to put down, but actually rather depressing sometimes. None of the characters are very good, so harder to sympathize with, but very compelling story. Technically the books are clean since the author never describes in detail when the characters do something unsavory (which is rather often).

Shannon Hale, Austenland; Book of a Thousand Days: I love Shannon Hale. These are two of my favorites.

Eva Ibbotson, A Countess Below Stairs; A Company of Swans; A Song for Summer: Great writing. I truly love her style: in addition to creative plots, the way she writes is so tangible and witty. I especially loved A Countess Below Stairs.

Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon: A classic. Very thought-provoking. For mature readers- some adult moments.

Sophie Kinsella, Confessions of a Shopaholic: Cute story, frustrating main character. Not totally clean.

Gail Carson Levine, Fairest: Very creative take on Snow White.

Stephenie Meyer, The Host: Way better than Twilight. Better writing, I think, and super-interesting plot.

Janette Rallison, All’s Fair in Love, War, and High School; Revenge of the Cheerleaders; My Fair Godmother; Dakota’s Revenge; Fame, Glory, and Other Things on my To-Do List; How to Take the Ex out of Ex-boyfriend; It’s a Mall World After All: Cute and totally clean YA novels. Not thought-provoking, but fun reads. My Fair Godmother was my favorite: Rallison takes a break from teen high-school drama and mixes in some fairy-tales.

Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Great historical fiction, well written, one of my favorite books overall.

Sherri L. Smith, Lucy the Giant; Sparrow: Pretty good coming-of-age novels. Lucy the Giant had a much more interesting plot.

Sherwood Smith, Crown Duel/Court Duel: These are published separately and together. So good. The first book is more action-packed and the second has more intrigue and social tension. I loved the story.

Cynthia Voigt, Izzy, Willy Nilly: Interesting to think about although not an attention-grabber.

Sara Zarr, Sweethearts; Story of a Girl: Pretty good YA novels that go deeper than silly romances. Both books deal with some rough material.

Christmas Letter

2009-12-17T12:08:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends and family! Here’s a recap of the Hawkes family, 2009.

Cassie made a lot of progress this year. We set some goals for Cassie at the beginning of the year, and she reached all of them! She learned to crawl, walk, run, talk, and understand what we’re saying to her. Cassie loves to talk. She labels everything she recognizes (“Daddy’s chair!” “Santa!”), often gives us commands (“Mommy sit”), and asks to do things by herself (“Cassie help” or “self”). Her first week in nursery was earlier this month, and she already loves it. We love being able to pay attention in our classes!

Trevor started his Masters degree in structural engineering in January and will be finishing this coming summer. He took a class during the summer called China Megastructures, and he got to travel throughout China for two weeks as part of the class. He recently was hired by Acute Engineering, a local firm that engineers residential and commercial buildings. He really enjoys his job and the people he works with. He is making progress on his Masters thesis and is excited to only have one class left before he graduates!

I’ve really enjoyed staying at home with Cassie this year and finding ways to fill my time as Cassie grows more independent. I spent some time this year decorating Cassie’s room and some other areas in our apartment, and I read a lot of good books. I also started singing with a choir called Deseret Chamber Singers. I love singing in good choirs, so it has been a very fun and rewarding experience.

Thank you for your love and support! We feel very blessed to have wonderful friends and family. We are thankful for the Christmas season to focus our thoughts on our Savior, and we know that our Heavenly Father is watching over our family and yours. Merry Christmas!

Love,

Trevor, Emily, and Cassidy Hawkes

Cockadoodledoo

2009-11-22T17:52:00.000-08:00

Our little helper

2009-10-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

I'm so smart. At least, that's what I decided the other day after I discovered a way to keep Cassie occupied while I made dinner. I asked her to be my "helper." I stood her on a chair, gave her a measuring spoon, filled the sink with a few inches of water, and asked her to stir. Brilliant. It kept her occupied for nearly an hour (!) while I worked. Definitely an improvement over having her under my feet, tugging on my pants while I cook. The only con was that she splashed a little, leaving herself and the floor quite wet. Oh, and the other con, that now all she wants to do is be my "hapah!" She's constantly dragging chairs over to the sink and reaching for whatever dishes she can grab, dipping her hands in dirty water and declaring "dah!" (stir). Maybe I'm not so smart after all.

Here's our little helper at work.

On the bright side, I'm much better at staying on top of the dishes these days. :)

Our Tree

2009-10-11T20:50:00.001-07:00

Well, I wish it was ours, but for now we're just renting the shady spot next to it. I love watching the progression of the tree outside our giant picture-window through the seasons.

Winter

Spring
I took a picture of the same bud every day. It really did change this fast.
This year the buds survived a spring snowstorm

Summer

We just enjoy the shade and privacy all summer long- no need to close the blinds.

Stay tuned for fall! (At least as exciting as spring.)

What we've been doing...

2009-10-04T19:26:00.000-07:00

Emily:

Being a terrible blogger. Sorry.
Singing! In a choir! A good choir! Called Deseret Chamber Singers. I'm a little excited about it. (I'm a total choir nerd.) Our first concert is October 27th at 7:30 pm at The Waterford School, which is at 1480 E 9400 S in Salt Lake. (hint, hint)
Joining Facebook. I know, I'm totally behind the times.

Trevor:

Giving Emily flowers because "I thought you deserved them." Aw.

Being super busy with school, work, and research, while still being a great husband and father, and therefore being the real person who deserves flowers. (or at least the male equivalent of flowers...oreos?)

Cassie

Eating bananas ("manas"). At about 39 seconds you'll see how she usually eats them. "Mah" means more. We hope you enjoy the clandestine camera work:

Having a cold (Trev too). It sure didn't take any energy out of her, though.
Making changes: going off the pacifier and taking only one nap a day instead of two.
Really getting into General Conference: saying "Amah" after each talk and prayer.

The Whole Fam:

Finding deer right outside our apartment yesterday morning!

Watching BYU football from our comfortable couch. Go Cougars!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

2009-09-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

We all love you around here, especially little Cassie.

funny baby, smart husband (aren't I lucky?)

2009-09-08T09:05:00.000-07:00

We were leaving town for the Labor Day weekend, Trevor driving, me in the passenger seat, Cassie in her car seat. While we waited at a stop light, Trevor asked me, "Do you know the people behind us?" I looked in the mirror to see a young couple in a minivan, smiling and waving at us. I smiled, thinking they must be friends or family...but I didn't recognize either of them. Weird. I contemplated waving back. They obviously thought they knew us. Then I heard an "Eye!" (Hi!) and glanced back at Cassie. She had a perfect view of the couple from her rear-facing car seat, and she was grinning and waving at them. We just laughed while Cassie kept them entertained for the next few stop lights.

In other news, I have an amazing husband. I have so many reasons to be glad that we're married, and I could write a post about how much I appreciate him and how well-suited to each other we are. But I just want to say that I'm proud of him for his recent accomplishments. He just got hired by a structural engineering company doing real (!) engineering for 20 hours a week. This is potentially a full-time job when he finishes his Masters next year, but even if that doesn't work out, it's great real-world experience. On top of that, after holding our breath for several months, unsure of whether there would be any money available for graduate scholarships, Trevor received a full-tuition scholarship for this semester! *sigh of relief* He's awesome.

Mixed Feelings

2009-08-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

With school starting again, I feel excited and disappointed at the same time. Here's my list of pros and cons.

Pros:

More people! This college town will be bustling again soon. There's a palpable energy that arrives every fall.
Cool weather! And mostly, the yellows and oranges and reds that come with it.
The beginning of Trevor's last year of school. *sigh of relief*
A less crowded library! Right now we're year-round library people. But when we have kids in public school, we'll probably end up being summer library people like everyone else. I was overwhelmed by the amount of people at the library the week after school let out this summer. And shocked at how few books were left on the shelves. And how l o n g the waiting lists became.
Good TV! Reruns get old. Mostly, I've missed The Office.
Events! I'm really excited for choir concerts, football games, musicals, art exhibits, intramural sports, comedy shows, dances, and all the other activities that are available during the school year.

Cons:

More people. At the grocery store, at restaurants, at Walmart and Blockbuster and Target and the mall, walking and biking and driving. More lines and crowds and traffic.
Cool weather. We'll be spending more time inside and less time playing ultimate frisbee and taking walks to campus and chatting with neighbors while the kids play. I'm truly worried about keeping wild little Cassie cooped up in our apartment on cold winter days.
Seeing less of Trevor. I've loved having Trevor home every day after work this summer. With all the homework he has during the school year, it never feels like he's really home when he's home.

It's crazy how much school affects me when I'm not even a student. Or a teacher. Here's hoping I'll discover even more pros this fall!

Our Camera-less Adventures

2009-08-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

We've been having a great time this summer. I promise! I just don't have many pictures to prove it. Our camera's working fine, I just keep forgetting to take pictures, or forgetting to take the camera altogether.

The last weekend in July was the much-anticipated 24th of July celebration in Oakley, and our last chance to be with Trevor's entire family before two of his brothers moved far, far away. I took four pictures. Two of them feature Trevor sleeping face-down in the front room. I know, awesome. Here's the only one worth showing: Cassie enjoying Grandma and Grandpa's new little pool.
The boys played in the annual 3-on-3 basketball tournament and had fun, but wish they had done better. Good thing there's next year. I went to my first rodeo. Yee-haw! Let's be honest. My first reaction was, "this is a tad inhumane...." Calf-roping was the first event, and the first contestant flipped the calf pretty high in the air when he roped him around the neck. Ow. It got much less violent after that, and was really fun to watch. I was seriously impressed at the control they all had over their horses. The horses obviously trusted their owners and were so well trained. And the highlight of the evening? Driving home in traffic (5 mph?) RIGHT next to a drunk cowboy who was staggering home. Very entertaining. We were glad he was walking home.

We were in charge of a ward camp out last weekend, and I remembered everything we were supposed to take...except the camera. But there were lots of happy people eating Dutch Oven chicken and vegetables, and then lots of scattering people when it started to rain during dinner, and then lots of wet people huddled around a campfire making s'mores after the rain let up. The real adventure for Cassie was in our tent, though. Cassie was acting tired around the campfire, but as soon as she got in the tent and realized it was completely padded with sleeping bags and blankets, she got excited and started throwing herself around. With all that excitement, it took a while for her to fall asleep. But when she did, she was OUT. She slept in the same position the entire night. What do you think of that, mom and dad? (They went on a camping trip when my oldest brother was Cassie's age, and apparently no one got any sleep, since Vaughn was crawling all over them all night.)

Fortunately for you, Trevor remembered the camera on the backpacking trip he took with his brothers and dad. They had to come home a day early (Hooray! For Cassie and me, at least) because of the weather. They all had a good time roughin' it in the wilderness, even though they came home exhausted.

We've also been having fun at home. My parents and Trevor's parents have visited us a few times in the last two months. Those visits have definitely become more frequent since Cassie was born. I guess I can see why they like her so much. Here are some videos to give you an idea of how great she is.

China!

2009-08-03T21:45:00.000-07:00

During spring term I (Trevor) took a class called 'China Megastructures.' After studying and preparing presentations about many of China's huge buildings and bridges, our class of 20 students and 2 professors traveled to China, where we spent 2 weeks visiting the sites we'd been learning about. To be honest, it was mostly just a really awesome vacation that happened to also be a good experience for a sprouting civil engineer. The only bad part about this vacation is that I had to leave Emily and Cassie behind. I also, um, missed both of their birthdays...*cough*. There are two reasons why I am just now posting about my trip:

The guilt caused by procrastination has finally caught up with me.
Ceaseless pinpricking (see Item #4 at this link).

Because I don't like writing very much, I've chosen some of my favorite pictures and videos. Hopefully my captions will tell the story well enough.

This building is a center for the performing arts in Beijing known as the "Bird's Egg." It was meant to be a companion to the Olympic "Bird's Nest" stadium, but didn't get near as popular. After a layover in Seoul, Beijing was the first city we visited in Asia. It gave me my first taste for China's love of BIG structures. To give you an idea of the size of the "Bird's Egg," here's a picture I took from inside looking out:

The next few pictures are from Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. To be honest, the whole time we were there, I swear our tour guide kept telling us as we walked through some huge gates that we were entering the Forbidden City. Then a few minutes later we would walk through another set of huge gates and he would again explain that we were entering the Forbidden City. I'm really not sure where it begins, but we eventually got to the middle where the old Chinese emperors used to live. (It's not forbidden anymore.)

Here's a pretty recognizable view from Tienanmen Square looking towards the Forbidden City (that's one of those huge gates I mentioned).

All of China's important historical buildings include this type of extremely ornate roof design. They repainted everything before the Olympics, so it's all pretty bright still.

We stayed in pretty nice hotels the whole time. Breakfast was provided and included a mixture of traditional Chinese food and American food for tourists like us. That was a lifesaver. About half of our other meals were in nice-ish Chinise restaurants. For the most part I liked the food. I wasn't extremely brave (I didn't eat any strange animal body parts), but I could have. I got pretty good with chopsticks. I'll just post these two pictures of the food:

We visited a lot of buildings and other structures in Beijing. I'll just post pictures of a few of my favorites.

"The Pants" (CCTV Building)

"The Water Cube" (Olympic swimming facilities)

"The Bird's Nest" (Olympic stadium)

Some senior citizens were playing this aerobics-looking game inside the Bird's Nest. They showed us how and let us try, but they schooled us with their Asian skills.

Finally, I can't leave Beijing without mentioning the Great Wall. It's one of those things that you have to see to appreciate. I wasn't especially excited to go to the Great Wall, but it ended up being one of my favorite sites. I also got ripped off and spent most of my souvenir money there.

It's really steep in some places.

They have funny signs all over China that seem to be the product of an online translator or something. I ought to appreciate that they're at least trying to communicate with us Americans.

The next city we went to was Yichang. The big attraction there is the Three Gorges Dam. It's especially exciting for civil engineers. Actually, it rained a lot of the time we were there, and we didn't stay very long anyway, so I'll just give you one picture of the dam:

Next stop: Shanghai.

I can't remember the name of this building

Jin Mao Tower (left) and Shanghai World Financial Center (we went up above the slot in the top and I took the picture below)

Jin Mao Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower (one of the spheres houses a 2-story rotating restaurant)

We spent about a day and a half in Guangzhou. The building I was assigned to study is here. It's called the Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower. It's 618 meters high and was then (may still be) the 2nd tallest man-made structure in the world. I seriously became attached to this building.

One of our professors contacted a head engineer in charge of construction and arranged an awesome site-tour that would take us up to the top and then even higher up a radio tower that you can't quite see in the picture (it adds 160 meters to the height). For some reason, construction was extra busy that day, and the tour was cancelled. We only got to go up to a height of 50 meters. That was the biggest disappointment of the whole trip.

See the little buildings surrounding the tower? We would consider those to be skyscrapers if they were in Utah.

For those of you still reading this long post, I'll finish by posting a bunch of pictures from Hong Kong--the last city on our tour of China. There's a bonus video at the end.

"The Arch" (I was told that the Church Office Building would fit nicely under there.)

We took a ski lift-type ride up into a mountainous area to visit this Buddhist temple.

I can't remember the name of this building, but they say it looks like koala bears hugging a tree. I don't see it.

Bank of China

Hong Kong is PACKED.
Hong Kong LDS Temple (It was closed for cleaning while we were there.)

Stonecutter's Bridge (We got to tour the construction site.)

I can't remember where I was when I recorded this touching little video. This is how Chinese karaoke sounds. It's what old people do for fun there.

Cassie update

2009-07-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you've just got to reserve an entire post for your favorite little one, you know what I mean? Highlights from the past few months:

Saying "up!" Her first 'command' word.
Squealing when she sees any animal and quacking at ducks
Running away in stores or outside- no fear
Finding her belly button (and searching up her shorts when she can't remember where she found it last)
Understanding most of what we say (walking to her changing table when we announce a diaper change, walking to the fridge when we mention milk, etc.)
Loving Elmo. What is it about him? She'll even drink plain water from her Elmo cup.
Hating having her teeth brushed. Any suggestions here?

Just making a mess- it's what she does best.

Time sure flies. She's already driving.

She loves being outside, even if it's only on our balcony.

Cassie's birthday gift from Aunt Becky was a container of these amazing bubbles that don't pop easily. Here's a fun video of her with some neighbors.

Cassie pulled this drawer out, removed the contents, and climbed inside. As you can see, she was very pleased with herself.

Wearing some authentic Chinese garb: made in China and bought in China.

Who knew a 13-month-old could make us so happy?

Crafts: done!

2009-07-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

In March I wrote this post about giving away free handmade items to some lucky winners. Here they are! I liked how they turned out, so I made one for me, too.

They belong to: Leslee Sitton, me, Katie Houston, Amy Rosenvall, and Janelle Dudley. Sorry to Leslee that yours is a little more rustic than the others. "S" is a popular letter and I couldn't find one like the others at any craft store- all sold out. Leslee, Amy, and Janelle, I need your addresses so I can deliver/mail these to you. If you have my email address, send it to me there. Otherwise, write a comment here letting me know that you don't have my email and we'll figure something out. (I don't want to publish my email online and I'm sure you don't want to publish your address!)

Bad Parents

2009-07-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

Trevor had Friday, July 3rd off of work, and because I'm really attached to holiday festivities and traditions (especially summer ones), we decided we would cram a hike into our already barbeque/parade/outdoor breakfast/ultimate frisbee/water-balloon launch/festival at the park/fireworks- filled weekend. Trevor's parents let us borrow a baby backpack for little Cassie to ride in, and we set off up Rock Canyon.

But let me back up. Moments before this picture was taken, Cassie had insisted on taking a walk in the parking lot, which was entirely too steep for her, and tumbled head-first onto the pavement. Trev was right behind her and snatched her up right after she fell. She was upset for about two minutes, then was back to her curious, busy self. We didn't notice until later that she had really scratched and bruised one spot on her head. She still has a few scabs.

Cassie was itching to get out of the backpack during most of the hike (I kept popping snacks into her mouth to keep her happy and distracted) so we stopped a few times to let her explore.

We were so careful when we let her walk around, and she was getting impatient with us not letting her walk on her own. We decided to hurry back down the trail and get her home to flat terrain and her nap. When we were in sight of the parking lot and Cassie was clearly upset about being stuck in a backpack, we decided to let her out. The trail was a fairly flat gravel road by then. I lifted Cassie out of the backpack and set her down on the gravel to walk around. Unfortunately, instead of standing when I let go (I thought her feet were firmly planted), she bent forward to examine the gravel and ended up examining it too closely. She hit the ground pretty hard, head first, and her nose started bleeding. I felt so terrible! We cleaned her up with the wet wipes we had, and in about three minutes she was happy and squirmy again, wanting to walk on her own. This time we made her hold Daddy's hands.
If you zoom in, you'll see a little blood right under her nose and on her shirt. You'll also see her mischevious tongue-smile.

So even though Cassie had forgotten about her falls moments after they happened, and someone said to me, "she's at that age where she always has bumps and scrapes," I still feel like a pretty bad parent.

Going without

2009-06-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago I started feeling sick about watching television. I didn't like how I flipped it on when I was bored, or how I intended to watch one show and ended up watching three, and I especially didn't like how desensitized I was to the muck I saw. Certain shows that used to make me wince no longer even phased me. I felt really disgusted with myself for letting my standards slip. I started brainstorming ways to change my TV habits.

My sister-in-law, Sarah inspired me with her goal to go media-free for 21 days. Trevor and I decided to go without TV and movies for that amount of time. And we decided it was time to change our TV-watching habits, so when we start watching again, we don't slip back into the same routines. We made a list of shows that we're allowed to watch. We can add to the list, but we can't just turn on the TV to "see if anything's on." I guess we're active viewers now: when we turn on the TV, we'll know what we're going to watch, and we'll watch only that. We also decided on a three-strikes-and-you're-out rule: three offensive moments and we turn off the show; three offensive episodes and it's off the list.

I thought my reward for going without TV for three weeks would be loads of free time. I imagined getting big projects done, reading two books a week, writing in my journal every day, making dinner each night, and still having time to spend with Cassie and Trevor. Not so. I've had a little extra time, but I've still been busy every day and I'm not getting a lot of extra things done. (I guess that's a good sign- maybe I wasn't watching as much TV as I thought.)

What I have noticed, though? I don't miss it. My life is full and happy without television. ( I did miss the occasional weekend movie with Trev...) And I'm ready to change the way I watch TV now that I've realized how little it enriches my life.

Freezer Paper Stenciling

2009-06-25T13:03:00.001-07:00

While we all anxiously await Trevor's post about China (he loves blogging), let me share with you about a super easy and satisfying craft.

Here's what you need:
freezer paper
x-acto knife
cardboard or cutting mat
a t-shirt (or bag or pillowcase or tablecloth...)
fabric paint
foam paint brush
a design
iron

Cut off a portion of freezer paper and place your design underneath it, so you can see your design through the freezer paper. The freezer paper should be wax-side down. Trace your design onto the freezer paper.
Use an x-acto knife to cut out your design in the freezer paper. Iron your freezer paper-stencil onto your t-shirt, again wax-side down, making sure every piece is securely stuck to the shirt.

Use fabric paint and a foam brush to fill in your stencil. Follow the instructions on the fabric paint for drying time.
Ta-da!
Now, I've never taken a class in technical writing, so those were probably the worst step-by-step instructions you've ever read. Good news, though! My good friend Kristy (who deserves all the credit for finding this craft) just blogged about it too, step-by-step instructions and all. I didn't read her post before writing this one, so it's pretty funny that there are some word-for-word similarities and the exact same pictures. :)

I highly recommend this craft. So fun and easy, and looks just like screen-printing!

Catch Up: Post 2

2009-06-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

Oakley!

After staying in Denver for a week, I flew back to Salt Lake where my wonderful brother and sister-in-law let us spend the night. The next day, we drove to Trevor's parents' house in Oakley, Idaho to spend the week.

You know all those horrifying stories about in-laws and how hard it can be to get along with them? Well, the only horrifying thing about Trevor's family is that you might laugh so hard you forget to breathe.

My pictures from Oakley don't accurately capture the awesomeness of the week. Here are a few anyway.

My birthday: Yep, there are 25 candles on that cake. (See that red necklace? It was a surprise from Trev. He had hidden it in the trunk of the car so I could find it on my birthday. Very clever. And sweet. )
Highlights of my birthday: talking with Trev via webcam, talking with Taja on the drive to and from Twin Falls, finding pants that are long enough for me for only $20 (!), the surprise from Trev, schhhhhhhhhh! (that one's for you, Taja), the "drinking" game, a scrumptious cake, cute new earrings and a shirt from my in-laws.

We celebrated Cassie's birthday there too, and as you can see, she liked it. Especially the ribbon.
P.S. She's walking! She really got the hang of it while we were in Oakley.

Here are some goodies of Cassie with her aunt, uncle, and grandma. She was really comfortable with them.It was an awesome week. I watched at least 4 movies, made Cassie a skirt, went on a bike ride, picked flowers, jumped on the trampoline, played the piano and sang with Taja, ate delicious food, played some hilarious games with the family, and never felt like Cassie was neglected. Everyone was so helpful. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Hawkes!

Catch Up: Post 1

2009-06-15T12:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of posts on this blog. Trevor and I were traveling for a few weeks. I'll be catching you up in increments. Here's Post 1: Denver!

Background: Trevor decided to go to China as part of a Mega Structures course (Once in a lifetime opportunity, and only gone for two weeks! We decided we could handle two weeks apart.) I figured Cassie and I would just spend time with my parents, until they announced they would be on a cruise for the same two weeks. I didn't want to stay at home, and I had enough frequent flyer miles for a free round-trip ticket, so we flew to Denver for the first week to spend time with two of my closest friends, Kristy and Alicia. They were SO generous and took care of us very well.

We swamand playedand crafted
and playedand barbequedand playedand ateand played.
AND best of all (in my opinion), we jammed. Which I didn't get a picture of. But imagine three music-obsessed women belting out their favorite songs from musicals and playing the piano as loud as they want. Oh, it was good.

So a big thanks to Kristy and Alicia and their beautiful families for making me feel less like a single parent and for making it fun fun fun!

Good Times

2009-05-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

It's Friday night and Trevor is on a flight to China. For two weeks. Without me. So instead of moping, I thought I'd blog. (And don't worry, I've got some fun plans for myself...look out, Kristy and Alicia!)

We spent last weekend with Trevor's family because his brother Rialey got home from his mission on Friday. The family's all together again!

Oh, the anticipation...

Still has the missionary glowSiblings

Rialey was greeted by an army of munchkins at the airport-
4 new nieces in the last 2 years!

Had to post this one- the two newest nieces showing the results of two very different diets. :)

Highlights of the trip:

Staying up WAY too late talking
Cassie's first taste of popsicle (BIG hit)
Rialey wearing a fanny pack
Family pictures (with 4 kids under the age of 2...yeah)
The boys going shooting
Holding my own in a game of lightning with the boys
Taja's senior piano recital

Did you know...

2009-04-29T12:31:00.001-07:00

Trevor was valedictorian of his graduating class...of 24 people.
Emily was 5'9" in 9th grade and Trevor was 5'8" at the beginning of his senior year. Good thing we didn't know each other back then.
In the last two months, Emily broke her pinky toe and Trevor sprained both of his ankles.
Emily played competition soccer until she was 15.
Trevor played basketball in high school and still loves to play.
All of Trevor's brother's were Homecoming King. Trevor was the Quiz Bowl Captain.
Emily took private violin, piano, and voice lessons growing up, and was the Music Sterling Scholar at her high school. (It's a Utah thing.)
Both Trevor and Emily graduated Magna Cum Laude from BYU.
Emily threw up in Susan Easton Black's Church history class at BYU. Sister Black's response was, "Whoa! Projectile!"
While opening a package of ground beef from Trevor's parents, Emily asked, "Did your dad hunt this?"
Trevor has glasses, allergies to most farm animals and many plants, and had braces growing up- twice. Emily has perfect eyesight, no allergies, and never had braces. I guess someone got all the good genes.
Trevor was an officer in his student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers at BYU.
Trevor served an LDS mission in Recife, Brazil.
Emily loves musicals. Her top favorites are Wicked, Ragtime, and Aida.
Emily sang in Women's Chorus and Concert Choir at BYU.
After hanging out at Emily's apartment one night, months before we started dating, Trevor commented to his roommate, "How is someone like Emily not married?"

Lil' Cass

2009-04-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some tidbits about the wee one that brings so much excitement to our lives:

Name: CassidyOccupation: ExplorerTalents: Pulling all the DVDs and books off the shelf, composing original music on the piano, recognizing words my parents say (ear, pictures, outside, Daddy, etc.), putting foreign objects in my mouth before anyone can stop me, standing up all by myself, taking a few steps to my parents' arms, saying "Dada" (and knowing what it means!), waving bye-bye, and turning the pages in my books.
Favorites:

Book: Animal Sounds (when Daddy reads it)
Place: Outside. No matter the weather.
Food: Banana
Person: Mommy
Friend: Carson
Toy: Dad's watch
Activity: Dancing to groovy tunes

P.S. I found this nifty wind-up toy at Grandma's.

Hey! What's up?

2009-04-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

I spent last Thursday in my old bedroom at my parents house cleaning out the closet. I found some gems (pictures, stuffed animals, books I wrote in 3rd grade, etc.) that I'm pretty glad I kept. Most notably, I found a shoe box stuffed full of notes written to me in junior high school. I just finished reading them and discovered a lot in the process:

"Hey! What's up?" is the right way to greet people.

I'm still friends with some of those people! We're all a lot more mature now, but some of the good qualities that were obvious in those notes are still obvious today. Andrea and Camille, most of the notes were from you. Okay, most of the notes were from Steve.... My favorite notes were from Kristy (must have been written sophomore year of high school, since we didn't attend the same junior high). She was so mature and level-headed.

We liked a different boy every other week, and usually liked more than one at a time. How confusing. Who, by the way, is "Adam?" Can't remember him for the life of me.

None of us were quite sure what we wanted. It was exciting to have the boy you liked like you back...but was it wrong to "go out?" And holding hands seemed like a good thing to do if you were "going out," except when you felt embarrassed because a teacher saw you or ashamed because you weren't sure what you were doing was right. From what I can tell in the notes, we all waffled back and forth a lot.

Note folding is an art.

I want my children to understand what truly brings us happiness: living righteously and selflessly.

Even after teaching middle school for two years, I don't know if texting has replaced note-writing. My students left their backpacks on the side of the room during choir, so there was no opportunity for writing notes. Plenty of opportunity for texting, though...

I wish I had kept a better journal back then. I want to remember what my thoughts and feelings were. Ten years from now, I'll probably feel the same way, so I need to be a more consistent journal writer. Any advice from you journal-keeping experts? (Kristy?)

And the winner is...

2009-03-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

posted on the sidebar. Look right!

Crafts

2009-03-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

Oh boy. I'm not incredibly crafty, but when I saw this on Leslee's blog, I really wanted to try it. I saw something cute and crafty that I'm going to try to make for each person who's brave enough to get involved.

Making handcrafted items is a dying art, but they are so fun to make and get! So here's a little game to encourage the handcrafting to live and thrive! The first {5} people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a super-duper handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well- before you leave your comment here, write up (or copy & paste as I did!) a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Then come back, let me know you're going to play, and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! Remember that only the first FIVE comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations: 1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! 2. It will be done this year (hopefully sooner than later.) 3. You will have no clue what it is going to be.

splish splash

2009-03-10T15:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is a typical bath for Cassie. And yes, my right side is usually soaked by the end.

P.S. We've had some good laughs with the caption contest (see previous post). We're choosing a winner on Friday (March 13).

Create Your Own Caption

2009-03-01T20:22:00.001-08:00

This is definitely not Emily's favorite picture of Cassie. I had to work pretty hard to convince her that I could make a decent blog post out of it. Here's the plan:

Leave a comment in which you submit a caption for the above picture.
Whoever submits the caption we think is the best wins...something...maybe we'll give you some advertising space on our blog.
We promise that no caption will hurt our feelings unless it includes profanity.

For anyone who is concerned for the welfare of our child, please know that this photo does not represent our typically charming daughter. The camera caught her at just the wrong moment.

Bright red for Valentine's Day

2009-02-18T09:03:00.000-08:00

Our ward threw an amazing Valentine's party- dinner at Ruby River Steakhouse with dancing and a contest for the most romantic proposal story. Anyone who thought their proposal story fit for the competition submitted it in writing ahead of time. Trevor thought it would be funny to submit a made-up proposal story (an obviously made-up proposal story) and I thought it would be funny to submit the truth (and make it sound pretty pitiful). We were both thoroughly embarrassed when they read both of ours out loud. (No, we didn't win.) I thought I would share the love:

Trevor: Here's my version--if Emily's version is different (more boring), believe mine.
On Valentine's Day, which happened to fall on June 1st (Emily's birthday), I took her to the Cinderella Castle at Disneyland. She was totally unsuspecting, and I swooped her off her feet and up the spiral staircase to the highest spire, where I had hidden her 7 carat diamond ring at the top. I had hired Whitney Houston to be up there, and she was singing "I Will Always Love You" with choreographed fireworks. It was pretty much the best. She said yes.

Emily: Walmart ring in the driveway.

Despite the embarrassment, we had a really good Valentine's Day.

It's a tough life

2009-02-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

...but somebody's got to be the mother of this baby.

{It was one of those click pens. She's very clever.}

Quick update: Cassie now has 5 1/2 teeth (two on bottom, three on top, and one more about to break through) and is sitting up like a champ. She doesn't see the point in crawling, so she just rolls around when she wants to get somewhere. That and she's not coordinated enough to crawl. You can't really tell from these pictures, but she does have more hair. Boy, we love her.

Feelin' Crafty

2009-02-06T15:17:00.000-08:00

My friend Katie inspired me to replace Cassie's old "curtains." (see below) She found great deals on curtains in the clearance section at Bed Bath and Beyond, so I decided to try my luck there. I discovered that the standard length of a curtain is 84", more than double the length of the window I needed to cover. I realized if I bought two curtains, cut them in half, and hemmed them up, I could use both ends for curtains: one set for Cassie's room and one for ours. I found some thick cotton tab-top curtains, just the right color green for Cassie's room. I'm quite pleased with the deal I got. They were originally $20 each, and I bought them for $7 each. It definitely would have cost me more if I had bought the fabric alone and done all the sewing myself...and they would probably have looked horrendous (sewing is not my forte).

I borrowed a sewing machine from a friend in the ward, bought thread (forgot to take the curtains with me...not quite the right color...oops), and had both sets finished in about 2 hours. The thread ended up looking fine and the curtains were easy to hang up on the plain white tension rods I bought.This picture makes the color look like it clashes with our quilt, but it looks fine in person. My only dilemma now is what to do with the curtains. They look a little squashed behind our headboard, but tying them to the side looks a little silly because they're quite stiff. Any ideas?

I also made a fabric/ribbon bulletin board for Cassie's room. It cost more than I expected and actually took a lot of time to finish. And even though it isn't perfect, I think it will last a long time and will be fun for Cassie to have in her room as she grows up.