Life as we know it

Updates:

Alyson is now 16.5 months old (and still adorable) (and still - for all intents and purposes - bald)

Cara had her wisdom teeth out (yep, at 27 - can't believe I waited that long)

We're adapting our lives to fit with Financial Peace University and loving it! (I'll do a special post on it after we complete it in a couple weeks).

We're not participating in the recession (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to start listening to Dave Ramsey)

We've sold the truck - poor Erik is still in mourning over that but in order to make good changes for our lives and embrace financial peace, changes needed to be made.

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Technology Goon

Yep.

My daughter is a technology goon.

Here she is using my computer.

And here wearing a cute warm suit Grammy got for her.

We're in a lot of trouble too - because Daddy thought it'd be a good idea to show her how... no wait, show is not strong enough of a word. Daddy taught her how to use upside down buckets and other things as stools to reach what she wants. Thanks a lot Daddy! Now I have to be worried about the baby gate and drawers I thought were safe and so on and so forth.

We can't help (nor would we want to) that she is a wonderfully excited little girl likes to explore. She's adorable and we do adore her.

:)

Life

Not much happening here. Now that I'm done reading the Twilight series, I'm paying more attention to the house. Yep - I'd been neglecting it - big surprise. Erik was great though, he helped a lot a few days ago so it was only several hours of work rather than all day. I'm constantly surprised at how much laundry accumulates with only 3 people in the house.

I'm the new Primary Secretary in my ward. It's been good so far. We had our Blue and Gold banquet last night. My first Cub Scouts experience - it was fun. We were in charge of the food - All American theme. I brought the battered deli wedge potatoes that Erik gets from Lamb Weston. We were in a little bit of trouble because we didn't give ourselve enough time to get everything ready so we ended up rushing. It was all good though.

Twilight

Yes, I've fallen victim to the phenomenon that is Twilight. Yep - I've always been a sucker for a good read. These are.

Why I like them in no specific order:

1. Hmm, I've always been a sucker for fantasy - that's rampant here, but you don't have to like fantasy to enjoy these.

2. They're fast reads - they keep you interested until you're done reading them (at 5:30 the next morning because you have no self control and can't put it down. Oh wait. That's me. Nevermind.).

3. You come to love the characters. It's one of the only books I've read from a first person standpoint - it's much easier to write from 3rd person. Stephenie Meyer did a great job keeping the additional information coming so that you cared about the other characters since you were really only listening to Bella - the main character.

4. The "monsters" that are the main characters are all good hearted people. You come to care about them and realize that not all monsters are monsters.

The main characters of the books are:

Bella Swan - the main character. A 17 year old girl that falls in love with...

Edward Cullen - a perpetually 17 year old vampire that lives with his family of "Vegetarian" vampires...

Dr. Carlisle Cullen

Esme Cullen (Carlisle's wife)

Alice Cullen

Jasper Hale (Alice's Soul Mate)

Rosalie Hale

Emmett Cullen (Rosalie's Soul Mate)

The books in the series are:
Twilight

New Moon

Eclipse

Breaking Dawn

and heartbreakingly there was supposed to be another book called Midnight Sun (follows exactly the same story line as Twilight, but it is told from Edward's perspective) which was unfortunately leaked to the internet. Stephenie Meyer addresses her feelings on the situation and posts the unfinished manuscript on her website if you want to really break your heart. She has it on hold indefinitely while she works on other projects.

More Vacation

Some favorite parts of Christmas vacation in Kansas:

1. Getting there - wow, we were totally blessed. We almost didn't make it to the airport in Spokane because of the weather, almost didn't get to the plane because of the lines, and then almost didn't make our connection because we were waiting for and then being de-iced for 50 minutes.

2. Introducing Alyson to the rest of her immediate family.

3. Great-Grandpa's fabulously brave flavor combinations (1 example of the many fabulous: Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal with water (not milk), a generous serving of apple pie, and about 1/2 of a cheddar bacon cheese ball all mixed together in one big bowl...)

4. Buying a van - for so long I was totally set on a Toyota Sienna but while there, Erik and I realized that we could get almost 2 1/2 Dodge Grand Caravans for the same price for similar models. Hmmmm, halfway through if it dies or we want another one, we can get a newer model than we would with the Sienna and we'd have paid it off? Good trade. :) Mom, Rachel, Great-Grandpa and Jeremy are driving it out for us this weekend!

5. Spending time with family and friends and thinking about work maybe one time in 2 weeks!

6. Celebrating my birthday with the family - Rachel made some insanely delicious individual molten chocolate cakes - mmmm.

7. The great Christmas Bow Adherer Battle. Mom used some very fancy eye manipulating movements to try to stay uninvolved, but we got her eventually and then she and I waited to ambush Rachel outside the bathroom. Poor girl, no privacy even when she had a book in there. She's gonna kill me for putting that in there. :) Love you!

Vacation is the best. Please sir, may I have some more?

Vacation

We're having a great vacation in Kansas. I can't believe it's been 2 years since I've been back. I know this isn't a new thought, but the world really is so much smaller now than it was 100 years ago. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to see family and friends and for the fun we're having. To update, we're playing lots, relaxing more and seeing lots of people.

I'll be doing another post when we get home with our favorite highlights, but for now, here are some pictures to hold you over.

:)

Love you!

Whew! 12 months

Well, we made it through the first year. It's been an amazing ride and we are enjoying every minute of it. Alyson is such an amazing addition to our life - we're so blessed. Here are the stats - November, 14 - Alyson turned 12 months, so yes, that makes this post about a month late, but nonetheless it's here. That's the only apology I'll make. :)

Height - 28.5 inches

Weight 20 pounds

Age - 12.5 months

Walking for the past month and a half

Darn cutest baby (oops, I mean big girl) in the world

I'm so proud to be her mommy - I think Erik and I are doing a great job, but really we can't take credit for how much of an angel she is.

On the me front, work is still going really well - we're restructuring the department a little bit so that I'll spend less time at the front door so that I can have more time to do special projects for my director. I'll be going exempt (salary) so I'll have to be better at time management since it's up to me to say I'm done for the day. Right now, I have the built in excuse that - oh, it's 40 hours, I have to go. I'm happy about the move - I'll still do a lot of the same things I am right now but have the flexibility to make them happen since I currently have constant distractions throughout the day with phone calls and visitors. (regularly more than 1 hour of solid phone calls - many not more than 1 minute each) and at least 30 visitors per day.

We'll be heading back to Kansas for the holidays to see our families - we can't wait to see them and celebrate. It'll be our first time traveling a long distance with Alyson, so we have the plane rides to look forward to. Yeah, I'll let you know how that goes. I plan on keeping up nursing until at least we get back so that Alyson's sleep schedule doesn't go haywire. A little continuity never hurt anyone. Once we're back, I'll probably eliminate her lunchtime nursing because she'll also be moving up to the toddler room and they nap during my lunches. We'll see about the nighttime nursing later.

This is becoming long and disjointed, so I'll wrap it up with more fabulous pictures that one of Erik's good friends took for us. Thanks Rusty!!!