September

A lot has happened since I last posted. Too much to list, so I'll summarize. We sold the house, moved into a storage unit, drove across the country, accepted a job offer, turned down another, drove across the country in a different direction (Logan alone, Carli and I get to fly), and will soon be moving out of the storage unit into a new place where Logan will begin his new job on Monday. Whew! When I put it like that it seems even more whirlwind than it felt, and it was pretty whirlwind. We are excited about the new adventure in front of us, even if it is a complete surprise to us. Here are a few pictures from the past month.

We had a great time in Nauvoo with family. Somehow my camera rarely makes it from my bag to the sites - I wish I had A LOT more pictures than this.




We made it to Grammie's house where Carli had her hair braided for the first time (and possibly the last. She was not happy about it.) We bought her a toddler air mattress with a sleeping bag for our trip and she absolutely loves it. So much so it's bye-bye to her crib and hello to a big girl bed once we move. Isn't she an angel?



Grammie and Papa Tommy (or Tommy, as Carli refers to him) were great to keep Carli for a night so Logan and I could go to the coast and stay at the beach house where we honeymooned. It was perfect weather and beautiful, as you can see.

We stopped at a cape with a lighthouse (nope, didn't get a picture of the lighthouse for some reason) that had this cool looking tree called the Octopus Tree. The sign said it was this way either from natural causes or Native Americans. Looks like someone's version of bonsai to me.

While we were here we were able to go to Baby Bristol's blessing. It was really nice to see family and friends. Hard to believe that only four years ago Lanie and I were roommates. Look at us now!
Hopefully I'll have some fun things to update as we get settled into our new home and routine. I am so looking forward to life regaining some normalcy after these months of chaos. We are definitely blessed and feel grateful for the way things have turned out, even with the struggles. Sometimes you just have to let go and rely on the fact that the Lord's plan is MUCH better than anything you could come up with.

August/Girls' Sleepover Party

Here's a summary of August so far:
* 2 trips to the ER (one when Carli split her head open after dancing and twirling right into the corner of the TV stand)
* Adding more hours and another kid to my job teaching Autistic children
* Carli's eye patch going very smoothly (what a blessing)
* Accepted an offer on our house after a whopping 16 days on the market (another GREAT blessing)
* Interviewing, interviewing, and more interviewing
* Swimming
* Looking cute
*Dancing in the rain
*Cousin sleepover where we played and did our own hair* Waiting and hoping to find out what's next for us.

4 Years!

Man, we were happy that day! Couldn't wipe those silly grins off our faces. I guess some things never change.

Summer Vacation

We're back after a fun vacation. The pictures will be better than my descriptions, so I'll use more pictures than words.

My grandmother passed away two weeks ago and we were able to fly out a day early in order to be at the funeral. She was an amazing person who accomplished more in her lifetime than most people could do in two (or more). She loved to be good at everything she did, and that was a lot. You may remember a video I posted of her when my grandfather died last year. The two of them certainly left behind a tremendous legacy for their posterity and everyone else they knew.

After the funeral and spending time with my family, we went to spend time with Logan's family at the cabin. It was nice to relax and be with the whole family, although we missed Logan's sister who is serving a mission right now. We went swimming in the lake - we had to drag Carli out of it, she loved it so much - but I forgot my camera for that.

Carli and Dad just hanging out at the cabin.

Carli and Haven (and Uncle ?'s foot).

Grammie reading to Carli, and vice-versa.

We took a day trip to Bryce Canyon. It was beautiful (and hot). For anyone who's been there, if you can believe it, we took two strollers down the hike - and back up. And yes, we got some strange looks, encouraging comments, and stronger muscles from it.
Then, we went to visit my family. We had fun playing with the cousins and going to Mesa Verde. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures there. Hopefully my family will send some. Here is the one we got at Mesa Verde.Let's just say we're not exactly thrilled to be back from vacation, but all good things must come to an end. In more ways than one. We'll update soon.

Picture Update

The week with my sister and her boys was great! Here are some pics of what we did.

Here is my little girl who looks even less little than before. We picked up her glasses this morning and thankfully she loves them. I was expecting a fight from the beginning, but she looked in the mirror and said, "Cute!". What a blessing! Amidst some chaos going on in our lives right now, this is one tender mercy for which we are so grateful.

Eye Update

Carli had her appointment this morning. It actually went pretty well as far as her behavior. She is a stubborn little one though. Once she knew they kept trying to look at her left eye, she put her hand over it the whole time. The doctors were all really great with her and you can tell they love kids. It was a fun clinic with tons of great toys, things to do in the waiting room, great ways to get a little one to do what they want her to do, and plenty of kids with glasses on - of which Carli will now be one.

So, after several tests and eye drops, the ophthamologist determined that Carli's left eye is extremely far-sighted while her right eye is perfectly normal. He believes this has caused her left eye to become lazy as well as crossed. So, we are getting her glasses immediately. In a few months we will begin patching her right eye (the good one) to force her left eye to work (fixing the laziness) and to focus (fixing the cross). Hopefully, it will also improve the vision in that eye. We will now be at the ophthamologist around once a month where he will determine how the patch is improving the left eye and if it is affecting the right eye negatively and we will adjust from there. Down the road, if the glasses and patch have not cured the crossed-eye, we will consider surgery.

Now, this is all pretty much what I anticipated. But, I hadn't taken the time to really think about what it means. First, I have to figure out ways to get my 18-month-old to keep her glasses on. ??? How am I going to do that? Then I have to make her keep a patch on all day everyday for who knows how long - could be years. And she'll have to wear glasses/contacts for the rest of her life. I realize that's the way it is for anyone who wears glasses, but I didn't think about it starting now for my 18-month-old daughter. :( It just makes me kind of sad.

So, any words of advice? I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about this over the coming months.

Do Re Mi

Here's Carli singing her new favorite. OK, it's mostly me singing her new favorite, but try to ignore that part and focus on her. Also, please excuse the poor camera work, it's tough to keep up with an 18-month old.

In many ways we're looking forward to Carli's eye appointment this week. We're really hoping the ophthalmologist will be able to find out what's wrong and find a solution. We are nervous about the appointment itself - it's two hours long and Carli's not fond of being poked and prodded - who is? We're also nervous about what the solution might be. We'll update once we know what's going on.

I'm looking forward to my week with Callie and her family. It will be so much fun to get together and for Carli to have playmates.

Also, I am in the process of trying to become a piano and cello teacher. I have printed off some flyers which I have already sent to the local school music teachers and which I plan on passing out in our neighborhood, putting up at the library and giving to other friends. I was feeling like this is a great time for me to do this (partly since my other job is no longer convenient) and so I got on Craigslist to look for beginner piano books to use in my teaching. Wouldn't you know it that someone who works at Logan's company was selling the entire Alfred's library for $20. Coincidence? I think not. Anyway, anyone have any suggestions how to build clientele? I'd love your advice if you have it.

Well, I hope you're all enjoying summer!

Lovin' Life

You know, I never thought summer would be nearly as exciting once I was no longer a student or a teacher. I was wrong. We've been having fun the last couple of weeks and are looking forward to quite a few fun things over the next few months.

Here is our first swimming excursion of the year in our friend's backyard. Carli was in heaven. And I have never seen a cuter girl in a swimsuit! I meant to get a picture of her in her swimsuit, but I guess we'll just have to go again.

We got together with Ben and Rachel and the girls and had fun hanging out outside and playing at the park. Our neighbors gave us their "old" porch swing, so the girls had fun swinging together. Haven loved getting Carli to mimic her. My new favorites of Carli's words are "I love you too", "up, up and away" and "bless you". She is getting so good at singing and sings all the words of "Happy Birthday", - we're not really sure where she picked it up, but I guess it's a pretty easy one to remember - "Hello, Hello" and a song called "Bouncy Ball", to which she even adds the "whoa's".


Bedtime has been a little crazy lately. I blame it on summer since Carli doesn't seem to want to sleep when it's still light, even though she's really tired. So, most nights she lays in her crib singing and wiggling until she finally falls asleep. The picture doesn't really capture it all that well, but she's upside down on top of her blankets. Yes, she still needs to be in a fuzzy sleeper with blankets. We still have to heat our house at night, if you can believe it. But, you can't ask for better weather during the day - highs of low 70s and sunny. I love this time of year!Here are the flowers in my front yard. We didn't plant any of these, but we've been happy to see them come up the last couple of years. According to our friend the squiggly looking plant is called a contorted ficus (I think) and could be worth money. It's actually dead, that's a vine growing around it, so I'm pretty sure we couldn't get anything for it. Anyway, I'd love to get into gardening, so give me your suggestions!
Next week Carli has a 2-hour appointment with a pediatric opthamologist. You may have noticed in some of her pictures that her left eye has a "tracking issue". According to the pediatrician it is probably also accompanied by a vision problem. Hopefully they can figure everything out next week and hopefully the solution does not involve a patch because I don't see that working very well.

The next week I'm off to visit my sister and her family for a week. I'm excited for that, especially for Carli to get to play with her cousins. I am sad to leave Logan though - a week is a long time without him.

The week after that is our Stake Youth Conference (for which I finally got the service figured out). So, June is pretty full, and I'm happy about that. After winters full of not much but cold and snow, it's great to fill up the summers with lots of fun activities.

Summer might actually be on its way!

Well, we're finally warm enough to wear shorts! Woohoo! We haven't been up to too much, just the usual. So, here are a few pics.

This is how I usually find Carli playing in her room. She likes to be one with her toys.


This is a pretty normal picture in our house. Carli is always bringing us books and saying "Read, read!" At the end she says "The end", then gives it back to us and says "Read, read!" again. Logan and I have many of her books memorized by now, we'd be happy to perform an interpretive reading of "Moo, Baa, La La La", or the Nativity Story, among many others.


Nope, she's not sleeping, she's one with the piano too. She likes to listen to the recorded songs on it this way.

Logan built me a cool grow box for a vegetable garden. I am really excited to have our own produce this year. Hopefully we will have tomatoes, strawberries, broccoli and eggplant.

The following video is evidence of maternal cruelty. I made the mistake of letting Carli see me put her binkys in the dishwasher. Not only did I think her sad reaction was funny, but I reminded her about it so that I could get it on video.

Happy Mother's Day!

We love you, Nana!
We love you Grammie!

We are so grateful for all you guys do/have done for us. We hope you know how much we love you and depend on you for your wisdom, love, and care, even if we are technically adults. We couldn't do it without you. Wish we could pamper you today, but we hope you know we're thinking of you.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Things are pretty happy here, by the looks of things. I guess Logan and I got our celebrating in when Ben and Rachel kept Carli so we could go out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Thanks, guys!

Carli got to play with her cousins Saturday, and loved it. She's been a little sick the last few days (no, not swine flu), but she seems to be getting over it. The bruise is from a nose dive she took on the deck. Her Easter bucket seems to help her feel better as a hat, silly girl. Carli went to nursery for the first time last week as a trial run, and didn't want me to get her when church was over. I guess that means it was a success. She's been getting more into our trips to the library to go to story time, but she refers to it as "kitchen" because she spends most of the time there playing in the play kitchen, and sometimes bullying the other kids who try to play with it too.

We have been enjoying pretty good weather by going on walks and blowing bubbles outside. We are happy to work on our yard finally. Carli likes the "flowers" in the lawn, but it's time for the dandelions to go. Logan and I are preparing for the youth talent show tomorrow, where we will be playing "The Final Countdown" in a string quartet with a couple of my Beehives. Logan will also be attempting to make some of the youth disappear in the Aztec Tomb (for any of you Arrested Development fans out there). We are also continuing the planning of the Stake Youth Conference in June. Work keeps us both busy, but not too busy usually, which we love. Logan finally got to go golfing Saturday with his brother, which he's been aching to do for awhile now. And, I am working on reorganizing my laundry room and sewing area. I am also hoping to get a playgroup started for Carli sometime soon.

Life is good right now, and we're grateful for that!