Six months already?!?!

Thomas and Luke are now six months old. Good grief! Time is flying by so quickly. The nurse from the Health Department came by yesterday and weighed them: Luke now weighs 15 lbs 11 and Thomas weighs 16 lbs 10. Thomas is such a solid little guy. Luke is my little bean sprout! She was a little surprised when I told her they aren't rolling yet - something I'm kind of grateful for, but she says it is something I should work on with them. They do love to stand and Thomas will bounce up and down. Luke, on the other hand, locks his little knees. She then noticed that he hyper-extends his knees, just like I do. She says they're doing really well though.

Luke in the snow

Yesterday we woke up to a couple inches of snow on the ground. I can't believe winter is already here. Fortunately by the afternoon it had all melted. It is nice to think that we'll be out of UT for a whole month and miss the snow (especially while we are in South Africa for three weeks). I took the boys out to take a few pictures of them in the snow. After taking a couple pictures of Luke, I put him back in the stroller and reached for Thomas. As I set him down in the Bumbo chair, my wedding and engagement rings went flying and landed somewhere in the snow. I immediately saw my wedding ring and put it back on my finger. No wonder it fell off - it was way too big for my finger! I hadn't really noticed that before. I began searching in the snow for my engagement ring but I couldn't find it. Both of the boys began to cry and so I decided to quickly take them home and put them in the crib (they were really tired and crying for a nap!) and then search again. As I left my apartment, I knocked on my neighbor's door (April Jacob) and asked her if she could help. She and I said a prayer and returned to the spot where it fell. Within two minutes she found my ring - it fell quite far away from where I was and I hadn't really been looking in the right spot. I was SO grateful, but realized I can't wear my rings if I don't want to lose them as my fingers are too skinny at the moment.

Later when the boys had had their nap (and all the snow had melted) we went outside again and I photographed them in the leaves. It was so cold that they didn't really feel like smiling.

Thomas

Thomas

Thomas

Thomas

Thomas

Thomas

Thomas, my little pixie!

Luke: "I'm talking to you!"

Luke: "Brrrrr!!!"

Luke

Luke sucking his thumb

Luke

Luke - I love that little smile!

Anyway, Thomas was sick on Monday. Yesterday I woke up sick and feel more sick today. Just common colds, but not fun! Luke had a runny nose on Monday but that was it. I suppose 'tis the season of colds and flu!

Trip to Baltimore

Last Thursday Rob and I flew to Baltimore for five days to see family.

It really was a lot of fun! We spent the first while at Greg and Kristin. It was great seeing them and Seth again. Since we arrived in the middle of the night we first saw Seth when he woke up Friday morning. We gave him his presents but he was much more interested in giving me presents! These presents consisted of random toys he had. We also read books together and he and Rob had a sword fight. He really is fond of Rob!

The funniest thing happened though. The whole time Seth was stinking up the place and I repeatedly asked him if he needed to use the bathroom. He kept saying no. At one point while we were sitting reading a few of his books, he jumped up and yelled, "I need the potty!" He ran downstairs, where his potty is usually kept, but it had been moved because that is where Rob and I were staying. He ran back upstairs and screamed, "Where's my potty?" I told him it's in the bathroom and once he went into the bathroom we didn't hear a sound for a while. After about 2 minutes we hear, "Rob, can you come wipe me?" I started to laugh so hard. Rob didn't mind at all though. But, as soon as Seth was clean, he ran out the bathroom. Rob was dying from the smell and so asked Seth what was to be done with the potty deposits. Seth shrugged and ran off. So, Rob tried to figure out how to remove the bottom part but in his attempt spilled poo and wee all over his arm. So funny!!!

Around 4pm Rob's paternal grandmother, known as Mawmaw, came to pick us up. We had the most delicious pot roast for dinner - it was incredible! That night it began to snow. Usually Baltimore doesn't get too much snow. Well, the next morning there was about a foot of snow on the ground. Jesse's family Christmas party was planned for Saturday but it got moved to Sunday afternoon. The blizzard continued and so we just hung out with Mawmaw - everyone was encouraged to stay at home and off the roads. By the evening there was 2,5 feet of snow on the ground. Rob went out in the middle of the afternoon and began shoveling the snow around his grandmother's car.

Finally on Sunday morning it had stopped snowing. Church throughout Maryland had been cancelled. So we went to Jesse's house to help out prepare for her Christmas party. I also looked after Anthony (Jesse's 3 month old baby) Between 1 and 2pm everyone started arriving. We had a delicious lunch (pork loin and stuffing) and then everyone handed out gifts. I continued to play with Anthony. What a good baby!! He didn't cry once.

That evening (Sunday night) we drove to Shrewsbury, PA

to stay the night with Mommom, Rob's maternal grandmother. That was fun. I was really quite tired though! The next day (Monday) we drove back to Maryland and visited with the mother of one of Rob's high school friends. His friend didn't make it from Connecticut because of the snow. We then went to Greg and Kristin's house. We chatted to Kristin and played with Seth. Greg came home from work around 6pm and we then went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - I'd been wanting to go there for forever and finally we got to go. It was yummy! That night Mary (Kristin's mom) came over and brought us a gift for the baby, which was very kind of her.

Then on Tuesday morning we just hung out at the house, playing with Seth and chatting to Kristin. We did scripture study together. We waited for Rob to get out of the shower. When he came through to the living room Kristin said to Seth, who was sitting next to me: "Why don't you let Rob sit next to Nicky?" He said no. So Rob jokingly said, "That's ok, in a couple hours when we leave she'll be all mine." Seth then said, "No, she's mine!" Rob then replied, "She's mine!" Seth continued to say, "No! She is mine!" This went back and forth for a while which was amusing to all - even Seth thought it was funny. He then looked at Rob and said, "I'm going to keep her!!" We all started laughing. He is such a cute little boy! After scripture study he pretended to read and made up various verses in the scriptures which was really cute.

We then left and arrived back in Utah around 8pm. It was snowing....AGAIN! Rob hadn't shaved since we left Utah last week and was growing a beard. But, this morning he felt it was too irritating so he shaved it off.

Crazy amounts of snow...

I woke up this morning and it was snowing...I haven't see this much snow on the ground before!!! It looks like the world is covered in whipped cream.

This is the view from my bedroom window...I'm about to walk to school, so I'll take some more photos. :) (Compare this photo to the one taken on Wednesday Nov 5th.)

Colorado - Thanksgiving 2008

So, on Wednesday I drove to Grand Junction, Colorado with Stephanie and Elton Young (Aaron's brother and sister). The drive took about 4,5 hours but I slept almost the whole way there so it seemed to pass really quickly.

The mountains in Colorado are different to those in Utah - their tops are all quite flat, plus there are hardly any trees in parts (but lots of trees in other parts). Grand Junction is a small-ish town. It seems to be similar in size to Provo, but I'm not sure exactly. I think Provo has a higher population density. The only trees in Grand Junction are those planted by people - if you look outside the city, there aren't any.

There are some mountains called the Bookcliffs that fascinated me. They didn't seem natural and so I couldn't take my eyes off them as we drove by today. There is no plant life on them at all and the erosion on them is interesting. See the two photos above, which show Mount Garfield (part of the Bookcliff Mountains).

The city of Grand Junction is located on the north side of the Colorado river. In these parts the river isn't very deep nor are there wild rapids. But, in the South, near the Grand Canyon, the river is great for white water rafting - I'd love to do that on this river one day.

Today we went for a drive on Grand Mesa, the largest flat-topped mountain (mesa) in the world (1300 square km). There was SO much snow up there...and it was even snowing while we were up there. When I got out of the car I just froze. I have not felt such cold ever. It was biting! We took some photos, threw snowballs and made a small snowman. I didn't have the patience to build a large one even though the snow was so soft and perfect for such a thing.

It is snowing...

I woke up this morning to find it was snowing. I always think it is so pretty. It hasn't snowed too much...I guess as we head deeper into winter, we will have a couple feet of snow, but right now this is good because I have to walk to class in a moment.

This is the view from my bedroom window.

Seasons at BYU

So, I experienced the end of Summer...and now it is the Fall. Each season I am going to take a photo in the same spot outside the McKay building so you can observe the changes as the the seasons change.

Summer

Fall

Winter