Semester Coming to a Close

I blame the fact that I have not posted the past few months on the fact that we have been busy with school. Actually, it is because I prefer to post photos to show what is going on, and I finally got around to cleaning a few up! So much has been going on. Like I said in the previous post, we had a great time in Florida over the Christmas break. Samantha got to spend some time with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin.

Sammy and her cousin, Marcus

 She even met Santa Claus for the first time.

Samantha celebrated her first birthday in February and since she is obsessed with Super Why (a character on PBS) I made her a Super Why cake! I ran out of icing around the edges, but I think it turned out alright.

Samantha seemed to enjoy it. She had cake from her head to in between her toes before she was done.

Sam is standing up and getting into everything now. She isn't quite walking yet, but she walks around with her little car's help.

She is our little spunky girl!

This is from when we were in Florida. It was at a park that I used to play at as a kid. We have a park just outside our apartment here in Provo. On the warm days, we try to make it out there. She especially loves the slides.

I still can't get over those blue eyes! Our little recessive gene baby.

 

 She loves making a mess. This was her first experience with red pasta sauce. After her bath that night, there was a sauce ring around the tub! It was crazy.

A few months ago, we enrolled Sam in a baby swim class. It wasn't so much to teach the kids how to swim but was more to get them used to the water. She had a blast. Samantha was in there with 3 year olds that were afraid to go under the water. Not Sam! She loved it and would even open her eyes under the water. We're definitely making the community pool a regular place this summer.

John and I have been keeping pretty busy with school. The semester ends in about two weeks and I am very excited. Its not that I do not like my classes--I love them in fact. I am just ready for a change. We may both end this semester with straight A's, which would be fantastic.  GREAT NEWS too! John received an ORCA grant from BYU to do his short animated film, Bert. Its about a guy who hates his job and to make life bearable, he day dreams about Hawaii. The idea is fantastic and things are moving along on that front. John recorded the narration for the film last month and he is working with a composer now to get the music recorded next month. He also got a new animation disk for his desk so he all ready to go. So he will be busy busy busy this summer animating. I am SO proud of him. 
All in all things have been going well. I recently changed my major from English to Recreation Management and Youth Leadership. I love English, but the part I am most passionate about is creative writing and this is only a small portion of the program here at BYU. I love to read and talk about books, but writing theory papers kind of sucks the fun out of it for me. And besides my first passion is being outdoors. One day, when I grow up, I would love to be a Park Naturalist. You know, the people with the funny hats and brown uniforms at state and national parks. I will have to do an internship with this major, which I am excited about, but that won't come for another two summers. I buzzed my head again. This time for the St. Baldrick's Foundation. I may be keeping it short for a bit. We'll see.
The other BIG news for me is that I got a new mountain bike. Its a Specialized Myka Disk and I am loving it so far. I ride it to school during the week and then hope to get out on the trails on the weekends (if the snow will ever go away). Speaking of snow, it was 70 degrees yesterday, and this morning we woke up to 6 inches of snow! Hopefully it'll be gone soon. Its supposed to be up in the 50s tomorrow, but then will dip back down at the end of the week. So anyway, I went to a Ladies Night Out event at Mad Dog Cycles two weeks ago to see if I could meet any other girl mountain bikers and they actually have a Ladies ride every month. So I am looking forward to that. I also managed to win a $200 cycling outfit in a raffle while at the event!

In other news, I have been asked to teach the 4-year-old Primary (Sunday school) class at my church. There are six kids and they are all a hoot. It should definitely be a fun adventure! Yesterday and today was General Conference (a televised broadcast from the leaders of my church) where we got to hear some amazing sermons. They spoke a lot about strengthening families and helping one another. I always feel so uplifted after conference. It was truly inspiring.

New Year, New Goals, New Challenges!

The holidays are over. They always go by too quickly for my liking, but it makes me appreciate that time of year even more. John finished up the semester strongly and is very excited to be done with his art history class. Too bad he still has one more to go. We had the opportunity to fly to Florida for the Christmas break and visit with family and friends. Samantha was an angel on all four flights. She kept everyone around us amused with her grins and her waves. It was so nice to spend time with family and just relax some. Samantha learned a lot on our trip-how to do "SO big!" say "uh oh" and give noggin (bump heads with another person). She is still very adventuresome and happy. She will be a year old in less than a month!

Christmas was wonderful. It is always a wonderful time and I am grateful for the day that Christ was born. Someone at my church explained that perhaps the reason we all make New Years Resolutions is because of the Spirit that we feel through the holidays. We reflect on our many blessings at and are a little more Christ-like through this time. These feelings and acts of goodwill and service fill us with the desire to continually do better and improve. Hence our New Years Resolutions. At least I like to think about it that way.

School has started in full swing and both John and I are loving our classes. John is taking a few GEs and some cinematography courses. He is so unbelievingly talented. I am looking forward to seeing his work through the semester. I am taking 5 courses including a British Literary History course (which is amazing thus far) and a Astronomy course (which I love as well). Samantha is doing really well with the schedule change and loving the time she gets to spend with her Daddy.

A few new developments: Starting this month I will be an author on a parenting blog called Notes on Parenting. It is a really great resource for parents that talks about many topics. Also, I will be starting a Photo365 project here in the next few days and will be posting the photos here. John will soon be finding out whether or not he will receive the ORCA Grant to work on his amazing animated project, Bert. Samantha starts a tots swim class next Saturday as well. We are definitely staying busy! 

The Holiday Season

Well, the past few months seemed to have flown by. Samantha had her first Halloween and helped carve her first pumpkin as can be seen here and here. She loved the gooey mess, and especially liked trying to eat the seeds and the newspaper the pumpkins were sitting on! She went trick or treating as a lamb this year and enjoyed all the colorful little pieces of wrapped candy she got every time someone opened the door.

She really is growing like a weed and is active as ever. Samantha's been crawling for awhile and now can walk along the furniture. Nothing is safe anymore from our little goat (she tries to eat everything!!) She is so bright and is a people person. Whenever we go to the store, she always talks to the other customers. I cannot believe that her first birthday is just around the corner.

We took Sammy's 9 month photos as well as a family photo last month in the leaves. I am happy we did it when we did because it got cold and rainy/snowy the very next day! Trying to keep the leaves out of her mouth was a challenge, but we all had fun.

Thanksgiving was great. This was the first time that I had to cook all of the meal, and I think it turned out pretty good for the first time around. We have so much to be grateful for and it was wonderful talking about it. We started a new tradition this year as well--the Thanksgiving Jar. The week preceding Thanksgiving, we each wrote something down on a slip of paper that we were grateful for and then after dinner on the big day, we opened and took turns reading the papers. I loved the opportunity each day to think about the thing that I am grateful for. This is definitely something that we want to continue with our kids each year.

Now we are into December! The year has just flown by. John is finishing up his last finals before the break. We are both extremely excited because on Saturday we are flying home to FLORIDA!! It will be so great to spend time with our families. I love this time of year and the warm fuzzies I get thinking about the blessings we receive because of Christ. I really am grateful for my wonderful husband and and beautiful daughter. I don't know what I would do without them.

The Coming of Autumn

Fall is finally here! The leaves really starting to change colors now. I always forget how much I enjoy Autumn until I am in a place that actually has all four seasons. Mount Timpanogos has some snow on its peak now. I really want to hike the mountain before it gets too cold, but I don't think that thats a hike I could take Sammy on. Its at least a 6 hour hike, maybe more.

We did get to hike The Timp caves a few weeks ago though. It was National Public Lands day so there were no fees. the hike was a bit strenuous, but we made it to the top and the view was fantastic. The caves were gorgeous. It gave me some ideas for some short stories. John was sick last week and Sam is getting over being sick now. I am fighting off getting sick too so we haven't been hiking the past few weekends. I'd still love to do Rock Canyon and the Y before it gets too much colder. We are also planning a trip down to Vegas over Thanksgiving break. John has never gone and his Great Grandfather did a lot of the neon lights on the old strip. They say John gets his artistic ability from him so I think it'll be great for John to go down and see it all. And you can't beat a deep fried twinkie or oreo now and then. On the way back up, we're planning a short camping trip at one of the National Parks. I am UBER excited.

School is in full swing for John. He is doing well in all of his classes and is especially enjoying his 2D animation class. He is also in the process of applying for an ORCA Research Grant to be able to research and create a modern cartoon-style short animated film. I really hope that he gets it because I believe his proposal is very solid and strong and his short film idea is great! I am still working away at my creative writing class and loving it. I also got back into BYU so I will start taking classes on campus next semester. John and I have already sat down and mapped out our schedules for next semester and one of will always be with Samantha so we won't have to have anyone else watch her.

Samantha is eight months old now. Her top two teeth have come through so now she look a little like Spongebob! She is still doing her inch worm crawl and she loves playing with her daddy. I still cannot believe how quickly she is growing. Right now we're reading Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. We get through a few poems a day. I am looking forward to when Weird Al's new picture book comes out, When I Grow Up. I think picture books are great! This story, by The New York Times really burned me up. I think it is so sad kids are being taught that picture books are "baby books". Some of my favorite books from childhood were picture books. I have fond memories of my mom reading to my sister and me before bed time. Pictures books are what started my love for reading. I just hate how much pressure kids are under to perform perform perform. How are kids supposed to learn to love learning? At least I'll be able as a parent to choose to read picture books with my kids.

Settling into the Groove

Well, We've been here well over a month now. Strange how it feels shorter and longer at the same time. Last weekend we hiked up to Stewart Falls with Bekka. It was the first time we got to try out our Sherpani Rumba Superlight backpack carrier. I have to say it was fantastic. The pack does a great job of transferring the weight to your hips and legs. This is great for me because I get backaches/headaches easily if there's a lot of weight on by shoulders. Samantha LOVED it. She even fell asleep at the end! The falls were beautiful, but very cold. I learned that it is important to pack an extra layer of clothes, especially for the baby. Fortunately we had a warm blanket for her. The leaves were beginning to change, making the valley begin to light up. We were exhausted by the end of it all. I am hoping to hike up Rock Canyon this weekend, but we shall see.

John started school a few weeks ago. He is adjusting well and loving his classes. After his art classes his favorite class is Geology! He's been getting in lots of drawing and I am getting to see some of his real life art. He's fantastic! How did I end up with such a wonderful, amazingly talented guy?

I am taking a BYU creative writing course online right now. It is so great. I remember now why I love to write so much. Next semester I hope to starting going back full time. I am really excited for that. The goal is to graduate December 2012. Its so crazy. I graduated high school in 2004 and started college. That'll be eight years ago once I have my degree. Its kind of disheartening. But then I have to remind myself that I went on a mission to Brazil for a year and a half. And I took a year and a half off to start a family. So it'll just be like me getting my degree in 5 years. Ha ha. I guess I just need to continue pushing along.

Wymount is great. We love where we are located. The church here is great too. I really like the people at church. And there are quite a few kids around Sammy's age so she'll have friends as she gets older. Sammy loves going outside and playing in the grass. Real grass! None of that icky stuff that grows in Florida. I really want her to like the outdoors and not be a TV veggie. We try to go out as often as possible. Although she does like Super Why. I think she has a baby crush on the main cartoon character. :)