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

Dryer Explosion

Before I became a Mom I thought staying at home all day with one baby would be boring. Boring.. oh how I long to be bored again, just once! It is definitely far from boring! I always manage to find some sort of exciting adventure... like how a pen got in the dryer with the white baby clothes I don't know (they don't even have pockets), but Saturday night when I went to get the laundry out of the dryer I let out one of those screamy gasps (that David hates because he thinks something really terrible and serious has just happened and finds out it is just silly). Well, I hope you think this is funny because then at least this experience did a little good besides ruining my night. After calling my mom for advice (of course!), I have spent a good 3 or 4 hours scrubbing the dryer with nail polish remover to get the ink off (and it is still only half way off), spraying hairspray on the clothes, rinsing, using spray & wash, washing with bleach, and then hanging to dry because there is still tons of pen in the dryer! Yesterday, Lucy had no onesies to wear and the rest of her clothes were wet in the washer, she just got to be naked baby most of the afternoon. Ah ha! Lucy, must have somehow put the pen in the dryer! She is always trying to devise some plan to keep her clothes off whether it is a mass diaper explosion or ink everywhere! Well, life is good and sometimes you just have to laugh! At least they were Lucy's clothes and she is allowed to go around naked!

Lucy Sitting Up

Lucy has been working on her sitting skills for the past few weeks. She held it this time for about four minutes! Yeah Lucy! So, of course, we had to do a photo shoot! This week Lucy loves the color yellow, playing with diapers (the ones we are about to put on and the ones she can take off all by herself! Good thing she hasn't figured out onesies yet!) and having parties all night long!

So my perfect child who started sleeping through the night at one month (and the first time was on my Birthday to put icing on the cake) now likes to party at night. She slept through the night for 3 months straight without any problems. After our Christmas travels she started waking up about once a night and then last week she uped it to two or three times a night and the last two nights were about every 45 minutes! Okay, I exaggerated...she did sleep one two hour stretch, but still! Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be happening and how to break this habit? I am not ready to let her cry it out, but David definitely is. It absolutely kills me to let her go more than a minute. He wants me to put her to sleep and then go spend the night at a friends while he lets her cry it out. Please help! For Lucy's sake! A rested mommy is a happy mommy!

Life as a Mom

So...sometimes you just have to be a Mom. Sometimes it is absolutely joyous, for example, when people are stopping you where ever you go and doting on your little dumpling. Other times you are just late everywhere, wonder if you will ever hear a whole lesson at church again, and pretty much just feel like this picture!
Wednesday was a day like this picture. I had been looking forward to this evening for a long time. We had free basketball tickets to watch BYU play TCU because they were honoring David as an All-American High Jumper at half time. I had asked my sister Lani to watch Lucy and was really excited to go on a date and of course just beam as David graced the gym floor. I left my 5:30-6:30 p.m. aerobics class early because the game started at 7:00. David went ahead to the game because he really wanted to see the tip off and I proceeded to feed Lucy and put her to sleep. An hour later she was still crying and didn't want to go to sleep and I couldn't just leave her crying with my sister.
Finally, i snuck out at 7:40 and started sprinting to the basketball game. I called David on the way and he said he was already in line to walk out and couldn't come give me my ticket. No ticket? I wouldn't let that stop me. I continued at a full sprint to the Marriot Center. I told the ticket collector "Please let me in. My husband has my ticket and he is in the halftime show and can't give it to me. I promise I will come back with my ticket. " He let me in without a hassle (probably because I was huffing and pufffing and he realized he had the power to crush my world right there). I ran up to the nearest door and there was my wonderful husband walking off the gym floor. I was sad. Really Sad.
David, of course, is able to lighten any mood. We skipped the rest of the game and went for a romantic walk home in the cold. Sometimes you just have to be a Mom. I am really learning what it is like to be selfless. She doesn't always want to eat at the most convenient time and I don't remember the last time I had a good nights sleep, but looking into her eyes , watching her explore the world and lighting up when i smile makes all the hard work for this little angel worth it! God couldn't have had a better plan than children to teach people to love others more than themselves!

LET IT SNOW!!!

I have never seen so much snow in my life! You might think that is not saying much (me being from San Diego), but it has snowed practically every day for a month! Yesterday, on the way home from church, David was trying to scare me in the church parking lot. I used to love skidding on the snow, but now with Lucy in the car I freak out. He faked like he was losing control of the car and pushed it a little too close. We ran into a snow covered bush and a bunch of Deacons had to come give us a push. What would I do without such a fun, adventurous and loveable husband?

Our Little Strawberry

Here is our little strawberry who is now fascinated by this bouncy ball! She is 5 months today!

I can't believe how fast she is growing! I held her and weighed us and then subtracted my weight and it said she was 19 lbs! Okay, so we cheated a little. She had her clothes on and a completely full diaper, but still ...that is 2 and 1/2 pounds in 3 weeks!

Funny Face

Here is a shot of funny little Lucy making a classic Lucy face. She loves her high chair now. I put her in, start making dinner and sing at the top of my lungs. She loves rocking out and giggles the whole time! Then she drops all of the toys I give her on the ground and waits for me to pick them up. Making dinner has really never been more fun. I always wanted to be some sort of entertainer and now I have the best audience ever!

Coordination Troubles

This is a hilarious video of Lucy that you can't go without seeing. Watch her learning to use those cute little hands and laugh! Too bad Lucy's New Year's Resolution was never to take her binky again. We sure miss being able to calm her so easily. This video was taken December 15, 2007.

A sample of Lucy Today

Here is Lucy jabbering away. Just a little sample of what she is like these days. Somebody likes the spotlight!

Lucy's First Roll 11-25-07

So, Lucy did her first roll back on November 25, 2007. I couldn't believe she did it again right after for the video camera! I meant to put it up earlier, but didn't know how to put movies on the video. Now, she rolls all the time, but you can still enjoy this moment in history!