Iris is 4 Months Old

Can you believe it? Didn't she just get out of the hospital last week? It sure feels that way, but I've already had to put away a ton of clothes that she's outgrown... so sad. Anyway, she had her 4 month check up the other day, and the biggest worry was her cradle cap. What a difference from a few months ago! I'll take the scaley head any day. She's tipping the scales at a whopping 15 pounds 1 ounce, which puts her in the 78th percentile! Our little Squasher. (It puts it in perspective when you realize that Riley, almost 4 years old, is only 31 pounds.) The doc was obviously thrilled with her progress, and gave me the green light to try some rice cereal so I might not have to continue feeding her every two hours. Keep your fingers crossed for me that this works. She sure doesn't like the bottle, and she gets angry fast if I'm not there to feed her. All errands must take under and hour and a half, as I can't take her with me. It gets old. So we'll see about the cereal. She had some shots, of course, and did really well. She only cried a little, but did give me burning, reproachful looks, as if to say, "What do you think you are doing? How could you let this happen to me?" She has so much personality, and it's fun to get to know her more each day. She's found her fingers, and spends the majority of her time with them shoved down her throat, occasionally gagging herself. We wondered if she might be worrying about her weight and feeling the social pressure to be thin just a bit early! She's a constant tooter, and she and Eric engage in competitions to see who can stink up the place the quickest. It's been a toss up so far. She still hasn't been to church, although I did hold a 9 month old throughout Relief Society last Sunday who was barely 15 pounds as well, so I felt like she was there. Iris is such a great baby, and as long as she's fed and well rested, she's not complaining. We love having her, and thank Heavenly Father each day that she's healthy. I was finally writing about her stay in the NICU in my journal the other day, and I just cried to remember it all. Seeing her hooked up to all those machines and tubes was just awful, and I pray every day that I never have to see it again. We love you, Iris!

Happy Christmas!

Christmas is over. How sad. Now I'll go back to hating winter. But we did have a great time this year! Eric got done with school the week before (earning himself a 4.0 this semester, if you can believe it!) and had a while off from work, so we were able to spend a lot of time together, which is always great. It's amazing how much better behaved Riley is when there are two authority figures around. She's been so much fun!

We had Eric's family Christmas party the Sunday before Christmas, and it was great to see everybody again. I love getting to know these people, who are really becoming like family to me. So even though we just saw them on Thanksgiving, this was really fun. We had a gift swap, and this year we acted out the Christmas story after dinner. (Iris was perfect as Baby Jesus!)

We went to visit Eric's Grandpa Bartlett on Christmas Eve, who lives in Springville. I've only ever met him at his annual birthday parties, which are widely attended. There have always been so many people there that I've never said much more than hello and goodbye to him, so this was a nice chance to talk a little. He's a really funny guy! We left there and went straight to my grandparents house up in American Fork for dinner. It's always a fun time, and this wasn't an exception. We opened up a few presents after dinner, read out the Christmas story, and just visited. Very nice. After we got home that night, Eric and I did a simplified version of the story from Luke, using Riley's little nativity set. We've talked to her about it before, but I think she liked seeing us play it out. We opened up a present each, and then went to bed.

My family came over on Christmas morning, and we all opened up presents together. I love sharing this time with family! Eric and I are so blessed to have both of ours close by. After breakfast, Eric and I and the girls headed over to Patti's for more presents. Scott & Erika and Stephanie were there as well, and we had a great time. Patti and Stephanie had made a Christmas feast, which was delicious! Unfortunately, Eric had to go to work for a few hours, so I stayed there with the girls while he was gone. I thought about going home, but Patti and Stephanie were taking such good care of us, I really couldn't!

Although we received many gifts that we are so grateful for, we have been blessed to feel the Spirit often and remember the real reason that we celebrate at this time of year. How fortunate we are so have the Lord in our lives, and to have let Him in!

Here are a few pictures- sorry I forgot to rotate some.

My dad with Iris's jammies

The girls with their matching PJs- they look like a red polka dotted blob

Riley has a big, bling "R" ornament, and here Eric is trying to get her to give him some rapper attitude.

The girls both passed out on me

Christmas morning, Riley showing everyone her presents all spread out

Iris's yammika. My grandma made her this hat, which is unfortunately a wee bit small

Christmas morning

Eric and Riley coloring princesses

Iris loved being a gift

Grandma Pat and Stephanie in their matching ear muffs

Snow, Snow, Snow!

I heard the back door shut this morning, and looked on our deck to find Riley in my boots. I guess she couldn't resist the call of the snow.

Still doesn't like to have her picture taken, though.

So Fancy...

I walked into Riley's bathroom the other day to find this. She's so meticulous.

Finally Got The Family Picture!

We finally got around to getting our family picture taken. About time, wouldn't you say, since that's all Grandma Pat wants for Christmas? I made Eric promise that we'd do it yesterday, since he's been putting me off for weeks, and of course yesterday was the day that it snowed about a foot. We didn't want to drive up in the mountains, as I'd planned, so we compromised for our back yard. (Everything is so covered in snow that it doesn't make a difference.)

Poor Iris was miserable and finally fell asleep to escape. Eric had to photoshop in this head of Riley, because it was the best of he and I, but Riley was making a goofy face. You'd never be able to tell, would you? Handy having a photoshop master in the fam.

Right after we took the last one, and Riley was about to lose it.

Managed to get a cute/ non glarey one

Ignoring Eric with the camera

Husband Tag

1. Where did you meet your husband? Playing basketball in front of Drew Champion's house when I was in 7th grade and he was in 8th. I don't think I actually played.

2. How long did you date before you were married? Kind of a trick question... we dated for a while my senior year, but then he left on his mission and I Dear John'd him. Bummer. A few years later when we started dating again, I kind of dumped him a few times throughout the course of about five months. Bummer again. He was amazingly persistent. So, the last time we "started" dating after the last time I ditched him, we dated for about three months before we were engaged, and then were engaged for four more. Hurrah for me- I finally got it right!

3. How long have you been married? Two years this March

4. What does he do that surprises you? He's such a hard worker and not a whiner at all. I'm often surprised when I remember just how full his plate always is, because he never complains.

5. What is his best feature? He's got a cute dimple he could store ketchup in, according to some random crazy lady. It's adorable. I also quite like his forearms.

6. What is his best quality? As previously mentioned, his amazing work ethic. He's also got heaps of brains and is a real smartie pants. Also, he never stops trying to make me laugh, even when I'm stubbornly unresponsive.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? Baby Face, Sweet Cheeks, Sugar Sweet... you get the idea. Anything random and cheesy.

8. What is his favorite food? Anything unhealthy. Burgers and fries probably top it all.

9. What is his favorite sport? Baseball. I just don't see the appeal.

10. When and where was your first kiss? Which one? Um, the very first one was just before Christmas in 2002 in my bedroom doorway. (I love that story.) The first one when we started dating again was on my livingroom couch, in March 2006.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Hard to say... we don't get much practice at being together. I'd say just relaxing. We're always going somewhere or doing something, so it's a real treat to just lay together and talk and talk. At least I like it.

12. Do you have any children? Riley, who will be 4 in February, and Iris, 4 months

13. Does he have any hidden talents? Tons! I think some people know that he takes great photograghs, but I bet most don't realize that he's an all around artist. He draws and paints and sculpts and all sorts of things. He also plays quite a few instruments; he'll say that he can't play any of them well. But when he picked up my sisters penny whistle and blew out a tune on his first try that had taken her a while to master, she was sure irritated.

14. How old is he? He'll be 25 on December 30- a quarter dead!

15. Who said I love you first? I did. I had him so terrified that I'd dump him if he scared me by moving too fast that I knew he'd never be the first to say it.

16. What is his favorite music? He's got a wide range, but I'd say that Wilco is probably his favorite band. Their concert this past August was awesome!

17. What do you admire most about him? What a great father he is. Our two girls each take a very different kind of parenting, and he's so confident and capable with both. I couldn't have picked a better man to help me raise our kids.

18. What is his favorite color? Green

19. Will he read this? Eventually

Business in the Front, Party in the Back

Ironically enough, it was while I was drafting that last post that Riley decided to turn my mom's family room into a barber shop. She took to her head with a pair of scissors, and had given herself a mighty fine mullet by the time she was found out. I wish I'd had my camera that day-- there was SO much hair on the floor. Just chunks and chunks of it. I didn't want Riley to think this was OK to do, so I didn't want to laugh, but it was hard not to! She looked so goofy! The lady who cuts our hair wasn't available to fix it till the end of the next day, so she had to go around with a mullet. Like she cared.

Here's her mug shot-- it doesn't show just how short it is above her ear.

This, also, doesn't quite do it justice; it was all I could get.

At "Rabacky's" (Becky's) for the fix

Ta Da! Of course, this was after Becky blow dried and curled it, which I certainly won't have time to do. So it looks a little more, uh, masculine now.

She's already been mistaken for a boy twice-- considering we don't get out much, that's practically 100%. The guy at Little Caesars called her Little Buddy. Oh well, what can you do? It was pretty funny.

This was taken the morning of the Big Cut- isn't that a cute hair cut? Oh well.

Iris's Blessing

We've had such a busy week, and it's taken me a while to get around to posting about it. Last Wednesday, I made pies for the first time! My mom and I got together do do it, and had about a dozen pies at the end of the day (literally... the last one finished baking just before midnight). Eric had to work on Thanksgiving, so I took the girls up to Sandy to Eric's aunt and uncles house myself. It was really good to see all the family, and I was so glad that Eric got off early enough to come up that evening. He works so hard and misses out on so much. Dinner was, of course, delicious, and I managed two helpings of almost everything, and a third of the potatoes and gravy. I think the younger cousins Garrett and Spencer were impressed.

We had Iris's blessing the next day to avoid the germs of church and so that the family in town for Thanksgiving could also attend. We had so many people coming that we actually ended up holding it in the church house because our house wouldn't accommodate. It was supposed to start at 2:00, so about 15 minutes to, I started to feed Iris so she would be happy during the blessing. As I was feeding her, she let out a big ol' explosion (which happens frequently), and I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if that blew through her diaper?" That used to happen a lot, but not much recently, so I didn't think too much about it. A few minutes till 2:00, we finished up and I made to pick up Iris to take her back. Yuck, yuck, yuck- of course it HAD exploded through her diaper, and was now all the way up her back, covriing the back og her dress and all over my skirt... and hand. Riley was with me, so I told her to be quick and go get Eric and the diaper bag. I thought I'd been urgent enough and put the fear into her. Apparently not. Eric said she ran into the room, alright, but sat primly down and said not a word. Meanwhile, I've got a hand and lap covered in excrement, and I'm unable to grip Iris with my one clean hand without touching her back, which is also covered. Quite a pickle. So I sat and waited for Eric... and waited. After more than 10 minutes, I manned up and carried Iris in to get the diaper bag myself. Eric came after me and made the mistake of laughing. I'm sorry to say that I got quite snippy with him. Luckily we live really close to the church house- obviously- so Eric ran home to get me another skirt and another white dress we happened to have in Iris's size. We were in such a rush to get her cleaned up and changed that I didn't even look at how my new skirt looked. We finally got things started, and Eric gave her a beautiful blessing. The bishop then surprised me by asking me to bear my testimony. A double surprise, because when I got up in front of the big group, I noticed that my slip was now showing about 3 inches below my shirt. The pooped on skirt was much longer, and I hadn't even noticed. Why, oh why can't I be the kind of person that things so smoothly for?

Well, we got through it all, and the most important thing is that Iris is blessed. I guess it will make a funny story for later. I seem to have a lot of stories like this. I didn't have the heart to take pictures after the blessing, which I of course now regret, soI'm going to put the blessing dress back on her and take pictures later.

"White, White, White, White..."

I was getting Riley dressed the other morning and noticed we were putting Snow White panties on her. So I started singing, "I'm wishing (echo: I'm wishing)... for the one I love (for the one I love)... to find me (to find me)... today (today). " Then she started singing the first line and I echoed. But she soon stopped me and said that instead of echoing with a Snow White song, I should be singing about my panties. So she told me to sing, "White, white, white, white, white." So now we sing, "I'm wishing (white, white, white)... for the one I love (white, white, white)...". Love it.