Growing Girl

Lucy's six month check up was yesterday. She was 27 1/2 inches long (95th%) and 19 lb 7 oz (90th%). Lately, I felt like she had been eating a lot less, but apparently she must just be pretty efficient or else she wouldn't be such a big little thing! Her shots went great as usual. I mean who doesn't love shots? I was surprised they still gave them to her because she came down with a little runny nose the day before, but I guess they just power through the shots and figure they might as well feel completely terrible all at once. This is Lucy's first sickness. Although, it really isn't too bad of a sickness, I am really sad for her. I thought we had made it through the sick season untouched. Just when you let your guard down...oh well.

I hope I haven't been spoiling her too much while she is sick. I have been letting her nap on our bed while I read next to her. I think this is partly do to the fact that I came down with a little cold too and would rather just cuddle and read than do anything else. Hopefully we aren't starting too bad of a habit. For now I am enjoying it, but sometimes you start something that seems great and then a month later when they have to have it, you wonder what on earth you were thinking! This is how the whole finger thing started. One day months ago, I didn't have the pacifier so I let her suck on my finger. It worked great. Slowly I did it a little more often until Lucy completely gave up her pacifier and now grabs my fingers to put them in her mouth every chance she gets. It's good bonding time, but there are times I really just don't want to sit there with my finger in her mouth, especially in the middle of the night. Well, she will only be a baby once, so I will just enjoy all her delightful smiles and giggles, along with the less than desired habits that are completely my fault. End Post.

Times are Changing

Lucy and I came home on Thursday, so excited to see David. Although we have spent many weekends apart (almost every weekend during track season) we realized that this week was the longest we were ever apart. Something I learned: don't always listen to advice. I was advised to nurse your baby during take-off to help her ears pop and so I have every time. I have been on 2 round trip airplane trips with Lucy, the second trip included layovers both ways which means 6 take offs. This wouldn't be so bad if Lucy took a bottle, but she is a little stubborn in the area of plastic (she doesn't believe babies should take binkies or bottles). By the 6th take off I just couldn't take trying to hide her under the blanket while she kicked and tried to pull it off, attracting way too much attention. So I decided we just weren't doing it and she was completely fine! She didn't cry one bit! She loved looking out the window and seemed to actually enjoy the take off. She cried less without nursing, than all the fuss she gives me trying to go under a blanket in a new and exciting place. Anyway, I couldn't believe I went to all that trouble before! You learn something new every day and I think double that for moms!
I Finally did it! For the last 2 weeks I have been mentally prepping for a dreaded moment in my life. After telling David we would move Lucy out of our room when she turned 3 months, 4 months, 5 months and 6 months, determined to keep my word this time, I reluctantly said my goodbyes and sent her down the long, dark hallway, into her own crib. My family all jokes that I have worse separation anxiety than Lucy, which is not really too much of an exaggeration. I really missed sleeping with her right next to me in her pack n' play, but I did it! Even when she woke up (after 6 sweet hours!) I resisted the temptation to bring her to our room and put her back to sleep in her own room!
I wish this happy story ended here and Lucy continued to love her new bed, but much to my dismay, Friday night, after an hour and a half, she awoke crying. I contemplated how long I should let her cry before rushing in and decided I couldn't wait much longer and went to check on her. She was completely drenched in Spit Ups. Her face, her ears, her entire outfit, the sheets. I really couldn't believe she had even eaten as much as was all over the place. When I picked her up she spit up more all over me. We took a quick bath and just as I redressed her for bed she spit up all over again. (When I say spit up, it was really much more than just spit up, I just hate using other gross words) So, I wimped out and couldn't let her sleep in her own bedroom, worried she would be spitting up all over the place. Luckily she hasn't spit up since. I can't tell if she was a little sick or if maybe she just ate too much (which could be possible seeing how I fed her every moment I could, hoping it would help her go all night and she ate more rice cereal than ever, while gulping down water, her favorite hobby, right before bedtime).
Last night, back to her own room she goes, but I only made it 'til 5:00 a.m. when she had already woken up about six times and I finally just put her in bed next to me! End of story...? Not quite, we are just getting to the best part!
I drag my sleepy head out of bed at 8:45 a.m. (our church starts at 9:00 a.m.) and amazingly we make it to church by 9:10 a.m. For those of you who are calculating, yes that means I got ready extraordinarily fast (okay, okay David got Lucy ready, but still...). I am really happy because I hear the Sacrament hymn playing. Yes! We haven't missed the Sacrament! We quickly find some seats and look at the board for the hymn number we are singing in the book. We open it to the number on the board and it is wrong. We just hum along, too lazy to look up the hymn in the index. Then a sister gets up to give the prayer. What about the Sacrament? I start wondering what is going on. Did church really start ten minutes late? No wonder the hymn number was wrong. After the prayer everyone starts standing up. David and I look at each other in awe, sure we must be dreaming. Finally, we figure out that the time changed. Yeah, this time we were the lame people that somehow never caught the big news. It was a really weird feeling because it wasn't as if we just forgot to set our clocks. Neither of us had even heard that the time change was coming up remotely soon. I guess we must live a pretty sheltered life! Well the joke's on us! Wish us luck for "Lucy and her own room" take 4!

Lucy is 6 Months!

I can't believe that Lucy turned 6 months yesterday! Where has the time gone? When she was first born I wanted to freeze time and keep her so precious and new (as well as freeze the time while I was asleep. The story of "Rip Van Winkle" must have been thought up by a new mother!) I remember thinking "I can't believe she is going to grow up." Now, with half a year down and an adorable personality blossoming, I absolutely love it more than I could have imagined. I hope her whole life goes on like this, wanting her to stay the way she is, but then loving her new changes. This week I have been looking at baby pictures of me with my mom, while she told me cute stories about them.

This image keeps running across my mind that someday Lucy will have a baby and I will be sitting there with her looking at her baby pictures together and she will want to hear the stories of what she is like right now. It is hard to believe that time really does go by that fast. Let's take a moment to truly enjoy where we are at right now.
Here are all the moments we took time to enjoy on her 1/2 birthday. Everything from posing on the table with a cute hat, sleeping in a big girl bed, and even scrapbooking at the church. I couldn't resist taking this picture of Lucy with Grandma Jen when I saw them playing on the gym floor, laughing away with Lucy's little head thing (we call them nuggie guarders in my family. If you don't get it don't worry about it.)

Then we had a little half birthday party for Lucy and my little sister Heidi (her birthday is 2 days before Lucy's). She made this outstanding cake. I think it is adorable and for only being in eighth grade, she is on a roll.

We put 14 candles on the cake because Heidi was turning 13 1/2 + 1/2 for Lucy = 14. I thought that was a cute idea Heidi came up with. Sierra (one of my other sister's who actually shares a birthday with me) mentioned that exactly 15 years from now Lucy would be old enough to get a driver's permit. What a funny thing to think of! Anyway, what a fun day full of memories!

Sweet Photo Shoot

I was just mentioning how I was a photoholic in the last post and well there is really nothing else to be said about this photo shoot. My sister had these sunglasses that were too small for her and once I tried them on Lucy, it was all over. I knew there would be another photo shoot soon! So Monday we went down to the beach again, this time prepared with props. I think taking pictures of Lucy is my new hobby. I am so ridiculous, but of course, I had to share them!And you think you are cool...

What a little poser! We have got a little disco fever going on!
What's the rush...

How's my suntan mom?

Don't look at me like you think I'm cute.
Life just couldn't get any better...
I'm just tickled pink.
Peekaboo! Here I am!
Sun...Sand....you gotta love it!
Come on in the water is fine.I really can't think of any more cute sayings... so here is the rest of the shoot just playing down at the water.
Thank you for indulging me!

Keep smiling!

Love,

Me and Lucy

More new experiences for Lucy

Although it doesn't really compare to the beach...Lucy had her first trip to costco yesterday! It was also her first ride in the basket, which she really loved. One of Lucy's favorite things is kicking her feet and she really seemed to love riding while being able to kick her feet as much as she wanted to. Here is a great moment we caught on camera because lets face it I am pretty much a photoholic, if there is such a thing! You can see a little bit of the cute rug we bought for Lucy's room. I think I might be nearing completion of decorating her room (and I guess now that she is almost 6 months it is about time).
These are some sample ladies who were just googling over Lucy, so I decided to document it (you know you are a photoholic when you take pictures of sample ladies!). The ladies were thrilled when I told them it was Lucy's first time there and I wanted a picture with them. They told her maybe she could come be a sample lady here some day. Maybe...you never know!
And here we are blogging away. Lucy hates it when we do this because she wants to touch the keyboard in the worst way! I let her play with it once, but she started opening up files I didn't even know we had, so I decided there would be no more of that!

Living it up at the Beach

Kind of last minute, Lucy and I decided to take a visit to San Diego, while David traveled to Colorado with the Track team to help film Mountain West Conference (I definitely got the better end of the deal!). We arrived yesterday evening and headed straight for the beach today!

Lucy loved it! She got so excited when I took her to the water and don't even get me started about scaring the seagulls!

Here's Lucy just chilling! She may have been born in Utah, but this girl comes from a long line of California girls and I think she will fit right in!

We watched Grandma Jen play volleyball. She is really good! I think Lucy (or her parents) already started dreaming of becoming a volleyball star while watching, especially if she stays in the 95 percentile for height. Okay...give me a break...you can't help, but dream of a full ride some day!

In this picture Lucy hasn't decided to taste the sand yet. Just as we were saying "Wow, I can't believe she has gone this long with her hands in the sand and not tried any," that she decided it looked yummy!

It was sunny and probably about 70 degrees. It felt soooooo good... almost like falling in love all over again! This was the day I have been craving for at least two months. It is times like this that make me want to shout "I love this world!"

Running a Little Late...

Taking off for the airport yesterday was crazy! First of all, I hate packing with a passion and I always leave it off until the last minute, but sometimes with a baby, your baby needs you last minute and then what? Mad dash to the airport! I had some stuff together, but the last hour before we had to leave Lucy got very cranky and wanted to be held the whole time. My flight was at 2:50 p.m. and we were planning on leaving at 12:50 p.m. (as soon as David's class was over) so we weren't leaving any breathing room. I took the picture above at about 1:15 p.m. at our house (which tells you how late we were). I just couldn't resist a perfect photo moment even in the midst of maddness (what a dumb idea, but the picture is cute)! We left at 1:30 p.m. I forgot tons of things and hadn't eaten anything since one bowl of cereal in the morning. I grabbed our loaf of bread (that had only 2 pieces left) and we skidadled!

We arrived at the airport at 2:20 p.m. David dropped me off with the luggage to be checked and went to go park and bring me Lucy. There was a line and surprisingly, I had a great attitude and talked to the Lady next to me who looked stressed, trying to cheer her up. She thought she was pushing time, but I definitely had her beat by a half hour! After checking my luggage at 2:30 p.m. Dave met me on the way to security with Lucy. Security is crazy enough with a baby in your arms, trying to fold up the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt without being rushed, but we now had about 12 minutes until departure. My gate is B-18 which is the furthest gate, of course! I jammed Lucy back in the stoller, tied my sweatshirt around my waste, wore the baby front pack without a baby, threw the diaper bag over one shoulder, grabbed my little rolly suitcase in one hand, the stroller in the other and started sprinting. Sprinting while pushing a stroller with one hand is difficult, but while your sweatshirt is hanging down your legs, it is hilarious! People saw me coming and started moving over! When I got to the gate at 2:45 p.m. I was breathing so hard, I could hardly speak, but this crazy Mom did it!

While entering the plane, I asked a flight attendant if there was any room in any of the hatches for my suitcase. He looked at me strangely and then said "what are you talking about? Oh, the overhead bins...did you just go on a cruise or something?" I responded, "No, but I do feel like I just got off the boat."

While looking for a seat I could feel the whole airplane staring at me, and thinking "are we really still boarding? You have got to be kidding me." There were only about 4 open seats, all middle seats, which looked absolutely miserable, especially considering Lucy was hungry and I would have to nurse her on the plane. I could just imagine Lucy resting her head on my neighbors elbow while I tried to hide under a blanket that Lucy was desperately trying to pull off! And then the miracle of miracles, I see an aisle seat! "Thank Heavens," I think as I walk toward it just in time to watch a lady who had only gotten up to look for her sunglasses sit back down in it! Feeling ready to cry...so grateful to be on the flight, but still feeling like life is hard, the man behind her said "Oh, would you be more comfortable in an aisle seat? I can move." Then he asked me if he could hold my daughter while I got situated. I put my things away and just started to cry because he had been so nice to me. I couldn't even tell him why I was crying. I was overcome with such joy just to be on the flight and deep gratitude to have met such a nice and helpful man. He was wonderful to Lucy the entire flight. He didn't care when she drooled on him or pinched his face and he even helped distract her on the way down when her ears were popping. He seemed like he was actually just loving sitting next to a baby and helping her stressed out mom!

You would think I would be used to such stress after doing this just about everytime I went to the airport with my family growing up (including the time we missed our flight from London to Switzerland and slept in the airport), but you don't ever get used to it. And don't even get me started about why I almost missed the next flight after my layover in Phoenix!

I am truly grateful for wonderful strangers who don't care why you are flaky and late, they just want to help. I am sure the Lord put that wonderful man in my path to help my day go a million times better.

I just hope I can keep my eyes open for others who may need help and be the Lord's hands where I am needed.

That man will never know how much he helped me and we will never know how much we touch the lives of others. Thank you, wherever you are.

Spring is almost here...

I can't believe how addicted to blogging I am! Sunday we had a power outage (which was funny because we always use our hand crank, no batteries required flashlights for day to day use, but the first time we really could have used them we couldn't find them!) right when I was in the middle of a post. Then Monday our internet was down (which was probably good because then the house didn't go to pot). It was still down this morning until the internet man came and now I feel like I was having a serious craving because it was the first thing I wanted to do and I wanted to post millions of things .

Saturday was Sunny! I loved it so much that I insisted we go for a walk and take pictures of the sun! Here is Lucy with her Daddy enjoying this sunny day!

Spring is almost here! The snow has completely melted in my front yard!

We took this picture here because our favorite house is in the background. There is a funny story that goes along with it, but it is kind of embarrassing and some things are just better told in person, so if you remember ask me about it sometime.

Friday night we splurged and went to Pizza Doc's. It was nice to be out of the house and not making dinner, but I just wanted to let those people living in Provo know that is it under new management and there is no Karaoke on Friday nights anymore. Bummer! I was so looking forward to it!


Lucy is getting close to being mobile! Look out Mom and Dad here I come! This morning she held this position for about 20-30 seconds. Usually she only goes for 3 or 4 seconds at the most. This is exciting, but really kind of scary at the same time. Anyone have any great baby-proofing advice?

Daddy's Little Girl

Lucy Loves her Daddy! Here are a few of their favorite moments together caught on video

They love to chat it up! Check out Lucy's first phone call:


Do you think Lucy will be a little social Bee?

Daddy just knows how to do it! Watch this video for tips on how to make your day to day life with your baby more fun for both of you:


It cracked me up when I walked out ready to head out the door and saw David in action with his little girl. Getting a free Massage, what a funny pair! I thought to myself "He was definitely meant to be a Dad!"

Daddy just really knows how to make his little girl laugh:


I put this one up just 'cuz who can resist smiling when they hear a baby laughing!

Anyway this was just a short look into our day to day life with Lucy!

Exclusive Interview: My Weight Loss Secret

Weight is one of my least favorite topics to talk about! It isn't fun if you have lost weight because you feel like people are analyzing you and what new diet you went on. It isn't fun if you have gained weight because ... well...this one needs no elaboration. It is especially miserable if it is some ridiculous new diet someone is trying to convince you to try! If someone starts telling you about a diet, are you supposed to assume that they think you need to go on one? And really what do you say to your friend that has lost weight? You know that they want you to notice, but if you say "wow, you look great!" you are pretty much saying "you looked lousy before," but if you don't say anything they think all their hard work is for nothing! Because of this very predicament, I made a conscious decision a few years ago never to comment on people losing weight because I want them to know I value them regardless of what is happening with their weight.

Sometimes I think people are especially drawn to talk about weight with me because I majored in Fitness & Wellness. They want me to evaluate their diet or tell me about a new exercise program they are on which will somehow make them a good person in my mind because I obviously care about fitness.

I'm actually more of a Wellness than Fitness person. Really my passion lies with helping women to realize their true potential and love themselves for who they are, completely separating their divine potential from how much they weigh. There is nothing more heartbreaking to me than seeing absolutely amazing women obsessing over how they look and feeling bad about themselves. Right now this is how everything in our society tells us we should feel. In fact, if you act happy about how you look, it is so rare that people will probably isolate you because they don't know how to react. This topic means even more to me, now that I have a daughter who I know is absolutely perfect to me and to our Heavenly Father. I never want her to worry if she is good enough for anyone or anything. It is especially important for parents to stop obsessing about weight because those perfect children will model your behavior and be worried about their weight and looks if that is what they see.

I understand how incredibly hard it is to not care about how you look. I used to really hate myself and always be on some ridiculous diet and extreme exercise program, but after a lot of prayer, reading books, help from David, attending a great class at BYU (Hlth 403 R by Dr. Hawks "Body Image, Self Esteem & Weight Loss"), oh and I can't forget going off Birth Control (that stuff can really mess you up), I actually really love who I am, like how I look and try to exercise just for the fun of it! If I'm not feeling it that day, I don't do it and I don't give myself a guilt trip about it. This is one of the biggest accomplishments in my life and it is very hard to explain to people who ask me questions about exercise really wanting to lose weight because I don't want them to obsess about it. I always just want to tell them "Just try your best, but don't try so hard it makes you miserable" but that is not the answer people want to hear.

So hear is how my conversation went a few weeks ago with a friend at church:

Friend: "Wow, Wendy! How did you lose all your baby weight so quickly?"

Me: "Oh, well it's my first baby. You have three kids. I am sure it just gets harder with each one"

Friend: "Oh no, it still took me quite a while with my first and I really never fully got it off. Really what is your secret? How did you do it?"

Me: "Well, I guess I should tell you my secret. I just dance with Lucy."

Friend: "You just dance with her? How do you do it? Do you have a videotape or something?"

Me: "No. I just turn the music on and go to town. She absolutely loves it and starts dancing along. I get so caught up trying to make her laugh and dance that I end up going for an hour. It is really the best part of my day!"

And now you know the truth about weight loss. If you stop worrying about it and just have fun, I promise it is way easier to lose weight! Stressing is the worst thing you can do for your weight and your family. Trying to eat healthy, while definitely allowing yourself to have treats and finding a fun way to exercise is the best thing you can do for yourself and your children!

And now you are thinking "Oh man! I read this whole article for that! I thought there would be some awesome secret!"

If you don't believe me,
ask Lucy what she thinks about life:

It's True. We Really Just Dance!

(Here we are rocking out to our favorite music from "Hairspray." She gets really into it and after the whole CD I have to play Mozart for at least 20 minutes to help her calm down.)

Watching Lucy Dance reminds me of this truth and scripture "... and men are that they might have joy!" (2 Nephi 2:25).

As David always says "A Happy Wife is a Happy Life!" words of infinite wisdom!

I know this is so much easier to say than believe, but really each of you is an incredible creation of our Heavenly Father and if you don't like the way that you are, that is Satan talking. I think this is one of his best tactics against great faithful people. If you can get someone to wallow in self pity you can sure stop a lot of awesome things they could be doing to move the work along.

In conclusion to this ever so long blog I would like to leave you with one of my favorite quotations:

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."

So get out there and start enjoying life!

Dance like nobody is watching, because really God is the only one watching who matters and I am sure he loves watching his children when their joy is at its fullest.

Tagged

I'm still not exactly sure how this Tag thing works or if I like it. I am the type of person that never forwards anything, but I'll give it a shot:

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the game the player tags 5 people, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Where were you 10 years ago:
Just finishing the eighth grade, spending most of my time as a level 8 gymnast and playing the part of the March Hare in "Alice in Wonderland."

Five things on my to-do list today:
1. Do this blog tag
2. Fold Lucy's Laundry
3. Figure out something to make for dinner without going grocery shopping
4. Do the Dishes
5. Go to my step-aerobics class

Five snacks I enjoy:
1. Cereal w/ bananas
2. Zucchini w/ cheese
3. Applesauce w/ cinnamon
4. Toast w/ margarine
5. whole wheat choc. chip cookies ( they are whole wheat and so I think they are healthy and eat a million!)

What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire:
Buy a house just big enough for my future size family on the beach in San Diego. Go on a sweet cruise to Tahiti with David and of course bring and pay for all of our extended family to come along. Visit Korea and fly there first class. Always fly first class. Probably travel Europe for a year. Help any family members pay off bills and get out of debt. Take care of people in need everywhere we go (since we will always be traveling). Finally donate to all the charities that send you address labels. Buy a storage unit and keep all the stuff we have that we can't get rid of, but I really don't ever want to see in my house! Oh yeah, and we would have a nanny who cooks and cleans for us, so I could just play with Lucy without feeling like I have a million other things to do.

Four of my bad habits:
1. Acting super apathetic for about 4 hours in the morning when I don't get any sleep
2. Getting in bed before brushing my teeth and then David has to drag me to the bathroom
3. I forget to turn the shower back to bath when I get out (ours isn't automatic and then it always sprays David when he gets in)
4. Sometimes I forget to flush the toilet (this just started happening after becoming a Mom. I think it is because I always get interrupted when I am doing things and have one-hundred things on my mind. How else can I justify this ridiculous habit?)

Five jobs that I have had:
1. Skyroom Restaurant Supervisor (I started as the dishwasher and grill cook...yuck!)
2. Four Seasons Pool Attendant (spritzed people and gave them cold cucumbers for their eyes)
3. Teaching Assistant for Careers & Explorations Class at BYU
4. Diving Instructor at BYU summer camps
5. My Dad's office Secretary for a summer

Five things people don't know about me:
1. When David and I were first married, the week we got home from our Honeymoon neither of us had jobs and school didn't start for a week so we stayed up to 'til 4 a.m. every morning playing "banjo & tooie" on our Nintendo 64 that we were planning on selling and never got around to.
2. I am king of a freak about washing my hands. I wash them about 5 times every hour and my knuckles are cracked and bleeding. I am just paranoid about getting me or Lucy sick.
3. I either like to really dress up or wear pajamas. I hate dressing casually!
4. I love the water, but I absolutely hate getting out and being wet and cold! Because of this it is a good week if I shower every other day.
5. I never watch TV. We red box a movie about once a month and watch General Conference on our little 12 inch screen that we got for free.

Now I must tag 5 people! I tag....
Monica
Emily
Miranda
Jenny
Jackie

Embarassing Mothering Moments

All the parents out there probably have a story like this, but it is still absolutely hilarious when it happens! So, we have been pretty late to church the last few weeks. We usually make it just as the water is being brought out to the foyer. Yesterday, I went into turbo mode, determined to take the sacrament and decided we would be on time no matter what! We walked in during the opening hymn and I was really excited! During the sacrament right when it was perfectly quiet, Lucy loaded up her diaper with a big thud, as loud as possible. I don't think I had ever heard one louder! A few heads turned and David and I just started cracking up! We thought it would be forgotten pretty quickly, but no! Here is the difference between Priesthood and Relief Society: In Relief Society: "Oh Wendy, Lucy is practically the Gerber Baby!" In Priesthood: one guy sitting somewhat near us during sacrament meeting commented to David, " Your daughter farts like a man," to which David replied "that was no fart. She filled her drawers!" I can't believe the things some guys talk about!Boys will be boys! Anyway, I'm pretty sure at least half the people in the chapel knew that that noise came from our daughter! We would like to give a shout out at this time to our friend Justing McCoy who we think will enjoy this post the most!

Other than that here are some cute pictures of Lucy and her Daddy, showing off Lucy's First Mohawk!I realized I had no pictures of David up so I made him do a photo shoot with her!

Lucy's First Meal

My first meal was kind of fun...

...messy...

...and totally gross if you ask me!

love,

Lucy


Watch Some Clips of My First Meal Here!

Lucy's First Valentine's Day

So this was Lucy's first Valentine's Day and what do you know? Mom decided to celebrate with a photo shoot!

Welcome to my homemade studio with a red blanket draped over the couch! How many of you have tried this at home?

We ate heart shaped pizza for lunch, a tradition we started last year. I used to expect an overdose of creativity from Dave on Valentine's Day, but now I have realized we both have a way better time if we keep it low key. I found out that boys actually dread Valentine's Day because they are so worried about what to do for their wife. This tradition is our first step to helping David love Valentine's Day just as much as I do!

I absolutely love getting flowers, but boys kind of think they are ridiculous because you spend money on them, they sit on your table for a week, and then die. I told David he didn't have to get me flowers because I would rather save money this year. He compromised and got me these wonderful live roses we can plant outside in a few months. He doesn't think they are a waste and I got my flowers! What a genius! Now my centerpiece will last for months!

We topped off the evening with a wonderful dinner at Touch of Seoul. We practically had the restaurant to ourselves and I am starting to absolutely love Korean food! This was our first date without Lucy! My three sisters babysat her and said they had a wonderful time with her crying most of the time (her new found stranger anxiety is delightful!). I was very impressed that amidst the crying, Lani somehow got her to go to sleep just as we pulled up. It was really sweet to find her laying by Lucy with lullabies playing and then whispering "shhh, the baby is sleeping" when I walked in the room. It was nice to have someone else saying that for a change!

Happy Month of Love to all of you!

My Valentine

Wendy,

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
I love and adore you, because...
You are your own person, but you care for all. You are the kindest mother I have ever watched. You are passionate about music and have a beautiful voice. You support me to the end. You've created one cool blog. You're beautiful and you don't let it get to your head. You run a very orderly house. You are willing to put up with my wild ideas for our future. You love to dream with me. You make some very scrumptious meals. Most of all, you truly are an angel, you bring so much joy to all! Thanks for choosing and loving me...

~David