Playing Catch-Up: Kollyn Months 0 - 7

I'm terrible about blogging....Really terrible. Though I don't feel too bad about it because I've been so focused on Kollyn and her growing and budding personality. Because of this, this post is going to be really long. I plan on blogging at least once a month (I'd like to do it once a week but that's definitely not going to happen) about that month's biggest happenings.

Kollyn has grown so much in the last 7 months. She has two teeth, one (the bottom left) she cut on her 6 month birthday, and her second (bottom right) was 2 weeks later (to the day) when she was 6.5 months old. She is very much her Daddy's girl. She loves to talk, is very loud, and is getting more and more social everyday. She hates being left alone in a room and now that she is crawling all over the place, if we leave her in a room she quickly follows us where ever we are. She is such a quick learner and loves to play, smile, and pull hair. She likes laughing but her giggles are hard to come by, unless it's David. He can get her laughs from her whenever he wants and I love that they have such a special bond. She is into everything and basically has no fear. The vacuum intrigues her, she eyes the stairs with the eye of a mountain climber, and is constantly trying to see how far she can push her boundaries.

She is probably the world's best kid. We are so lucky to have her. I keep thinking that she is the perfect baby for us, especially since we weren't planning on having children this soon after we got married and we were really scared that on top of having a surprise baby we'd have a high needs baby. Our prayers there were definitely answered. She sleeps through the night, has been since 6 weeks, likes to play by herself even though she likes having someone in the room with her, and is just so happy pretty much all the time.

She is always making the funniest faces. This face was when she was two weeks old. I was so lucky to capture it on camera because she hasn't made it since. But she definitely has her wide range of emotions and crazy faces. She's a ham, but very seldom actually makes her faces for the camera. We are lucky to get them at all.

She loves her cousins. She loves spending time with them, playing with them, reading with them, and laughing with them. She loves being held by them and being shown new things. These are just a few of the many pictures I have of her with her cousins. 

This is her meeting her new cousin Owen for the first time. She was enthralled and loved watching him. It was weird to look at him and think that she use to be that size. She's grown so much!

It was very special to me that I was able to take some pictures of my first child with my grandparents. They have been so supportive of me through everything and I am glad I have pictures of her with them. Especially since at the beginning of May, my dear Nana passed away. She had suffered from many health problems for much of the time I knew her, yet most days she seemed very happy and tried to put on a brave face. I am so glad that I was able to get some pictures of her with Kollyn so I will have those memories and be able to show Kollyn that her Great-Grandma Nana loved her and was so happy she was here.

 I especially love this one of Nana and Gramps looking down at her and her looking up at them.

Kollyn loves her Daddy. I wasn't able to breastfeed, probably won't be able to with any of my kids, and thankfully David was so willing to help take care of her, feed her, get up with her in the night. He has been the most amazing father that I could ask for to Kollyn. I believe that he really needed that bonding time that comes with feeding (the unexpected pregnancy was very hard on both of us, but I believe it was harder on him because he wasn't experiencing it like I was). I believe that he was able to develop that connection that he has with her because he was able to do those middle of the night feeding sessions and getting to experience that closeness with her. 

I love how excited she gets when he comes home from work. She smiles the minute she sees him, she watches the door like a hawk (she seems to know when it's almost time for him to get home), and when I say "Who's that?" She starts crawling toward the door as fast as she can. She loves him so much. He can get her to giggle and laugh like no one else can. She's definitely a Daddy's girl. Here are some of my favorite pictures of my two loves.

During our failed attempt at co-sleeping. She's too much of a wiggler to make it happen, but they sure did love snuggling together and sleeping a lot.

The look on her face makes me so happy. She literally stared at him like that all through dinner one night. She loves having him as her Dad.

They love playing in the water together. She loves to sit and watch things going on around her from the safety of Dad's lap.

He loves feeding her, whether it's a bottle or actual food. And she loves having him feed her.

I had a hard time at the beginning of her life and suffered from pretty intense postpartum depression. I'm not afraid to admit it (at least not now), and I'm glad that David had the courage to go above me and talk to my doctor. I needed a lot of help and wasn't willing to admit it. I've been on medication for it and it has really helped a ton, like a total night and day difference. I was feeling very upset because I didn't feel that immediate connection and bond that you hear about when I first saw Kollyn. It took me a couple months to get that warm fuzzy "glow" that you expect when you have a baby. Now, I love doing things with her and we are best buddies. :)

A little blurry but we had the same face in this picture

Kollyn has had a lot of fun experiencing new things. She gets to one milestone and can't wait to get to the next. She hits them all right on time, or early, and is growing so fast and I love it. I'm one of those strange moms I guess, the ones that can't wait for their kids to grow up. I am loving each new stage. Sometimes I think back to the baby she was and wish for those snuggles, but I love watching her grow, develop, and show her personality more and more everyday.

Kollyn's first Christmas!

She use to love being snuggled and would fall asleep almost instantly. Now she doesn't care for it so much unless it's David doing it.

She loves to be outside and go on walks in her stroller. She is a total outdoor girl and would play outside all day if we let her.

She does really well in the car. She use to hate it but seems to have learned that car seats aren't so bad and that car rides can be fun.

She loves to smile and laugh. These smiles are kind of illusive, I only have a few pictures of them, but I love how big she smiles and how her face crinkles up sometimes when she does.

She loves to move. She has been bouncing from birth basically, and the arms of anyone would held her for a while would get really sore, so my sister Melissa let us borrow their Jumperoo. It has been a lifesaver! She could bounce in there for hours. A few times she's even bounced herself to sleep in there!

The day she learned to sit up for longer than a minute without falling over, May 17 2014. She was 5.5 months old. 

We went to the zoo on Memorial Day with some new friends of ours (they have a little girl not much older than Kollyn) and Kollyn seemed to really enjoy it. She liked looking at the animals, meeting another baby friend, and chewing on the fan they gave us.

Kollyn's first selfie! ;)

Sharing David's shoelace with her baby friend. One of David's friends from Texas (where we are for the summer because of David's internship) had a baby about 2 months ago. When Kollyn first met her, she was so excited and tried to crawl over to her and share the shoelace with the baby. It was really cute.

Once we found out which toys she liked, we used them to motivate her to sit up. She didn't like to sit up because she wasn't moving around. So we enticed her with toys and she has become a regular pro.

June 15 2014, exactly 6.5 months old, Kollyn learned to crawl. All she needed was incentive and that came in the form of David's shiny, red, Xbox controller. She would  crawl after it when we put it just out of her reach. Once she learned how, it only took a couple days to get to the point where she wasn't falling on her stomach every 2 feet. She is going all over the place now.

And it isn't just David's controller that entices her. She loves following mine across the room too.

She wanted to work out with Dad.

Another controller picture.

We love our little family, and we've had some pretty fun adventures together. When Kollyn was about 4 months old, David's grandfather (Grandpa Cunningham) passed away. It wasn't long after David had hurt his knee (at the airport he fell on the escalator trying to get back to my nephew who, totally out of character, didn't want to go down once we had gotten on) and he had needed to drop out of the semester so he could focus on physical therapy and healing, and because he couldn't actually sit for that long with his knee bent. We decided it was best for us to the go to Arizona for the funeral and left the day we found out when the funeral was, since it was the next day. We stayed with a friend of mine in Las Vegas (thanks to Sara, Jacob, and Vince for letting us crash at your house!) and finished the trip up. We made it to the church just in time for the funeral. Kollyn did amazing in the car. She slept a lot, played with her toys, and was overall a happy baby.

On the way back up from the funeral, we went to the Hoover Dam (to celebrate Kollyn's 4 month birthday) and had a lot of fun walking around with her in the Ergo baby carrier (thanks for the recommendation Carlee!). We didn't stay for long, but we did have a good time there.

Kollyn's blessing was on December 29, 2013. She was almost a month old. We did it at my parent's ward in Midway, Utah. We did it then because that was when David's parents were in town for the holidays and we wanted them to be a part of it. It was a really special experience. She wore a dress and booties my parents had brought home with them from Estonia just for her. It was very special hearing David bless our little girl with the things every parent hopes their children will have: health, happiness, and a good life. Then we had friends and family over to my parent's house for lunch.

When Kollyn was 4.5 months old, we decided to try starting her on solid foods. Her first experience was oatmeal and she seemed to really like it. She had already had a small amount of mashed potatoes (from dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house, they're David's grandparents) and really enjoyed them. She did really well and learned how to use the spoon quit quickly. We didn't get heavy into feeding her solids until after we moved to Texas when she was 5 months old. As of now she's had squash, peas, carrots, pears, peaches, apples, mangos, baby yogurt, bread, mashed potatoes, bananas, and chicken. She's liked all of them except the squash and bananas. She likes bananas but definitely not as much as the other stuff. Mangos are her absolute favorite.

Her face after trying squash....She wasn't a huge fan.

She loves to swim. She loves the water and bathtime. She cries when we take her out of the pool or the bath. She's a natural water baby and I definitely plan on getting her into swimming lessons as soon as possible. :) And I may or may not push her towards playing water polo (but I definitely will).

This last week, June 29 - July 6, we went up to Lake Powell for my family reunion. It was a long drive (about 22 hours) but we had a lot of fun. It was our way of celebrating our 2 year anniversary (June 29) and Kollyn's 7 month mark (June 30). She had a lot of fun. She got to play with her cousins, go swimming in the lake, and ride on a boat for the first time.

Riding on the houseboat to get to the spot we were going to dock. Another rare Kollyn smile.

She loved swimming, once she got use to the water since it was a little colder than bath water and the swimming pool we go to in Katy.

She had a lot of fun riding on the boat. She would be crying, then instantly quiet down when the boat started going. She loved to watch the people behind the boat either wakeboard or tube and seemed afraid for them because after the first few tubing runs, she would grab our arm and not let go until the end of the run.

She loved playing in the sand. The waves scared her at first, then made her laugh. She had a lot of fun playing with Dad and watching the sand slid out from under her with each wave.

The last 7 months have been eventful, from moving 2 times (once to Orem and once to Texas, and another move back to Orem in about a month) and watching Kollyn grow to watching her get shots and learning how to be parents. It's definitely a learning experience, but we are so lucky to have this little lady in our lives and I promise to do better about blogging our adventures. She is the cutest kid and I'm excited to share her with everyone. :)

If you made it to the end, good for you! Thanks for reading all that! I promise I'll do better!

Kollyn Marie

I feel like I'm a person who really only blogs when there is something exciting to blog about, and maybe now I'll be more of a blogger because I'm now going to have a lot of things to blog about.

On Saturday November 30, at 3:24 AM, we welcomed Kollyn Marie to our family after about 12 hours of being in the hospital and almost 24 hours of actual labor.

On Friday November 29, I woke up around 6 with intense cramping and realized I was bleeding. I woke David up and, since we were at my parents house because we celebrate Thanksgiving the day after to allow all my siblings to come, we packed up and drove back down to the hospital in American Fork. I was checked (only dilated to 1 cm which I had been for the past three weeks), given some medication for the contraction pains, and then sent home. The nurse told me to monitor the contractions, since I'd finally started feeling them and being able to time them, and come back when they got more intense.

We called my parents, told them about it, and told them that we weren't going to be coming up to dinner because we wanted to stay close to the hospital, just in case anything happened. My mom then called my sister Melissa who lives in Lehi and asked if we could do dinner at their house so David and I could join them and still be close to the hospital. We're lucky to have such supportive family members!

David and I went home from the hospital and decided to try and take a nap, since we'd woken up earlier than we'd originally planned. I didn't really nap, mostly just closed my eyes and timed the contractions. They weren't very regular and didn't seem to be increasing in intensity but I wasn't sure if that was because of the pain medication they'd given me, or if they weren't getting more intense. I had times all over the place, from 2 minutes apart to 11 minutes apart so I was thinking, I might be in labor, but it's just early labor and the nurse said that could last for days so I wasn't very concerned.

At around 1 we headed up to my sister's house. The contractions felt like they were getting more intense but I wasn't sure if that was because the pain medicine was wearing off or if they actually were getting more intense. Each time I had one hit, I'd grab David's hand and squeeze through the pain. Doing that made the pain a lot more bearable, and it gave me hope that I'd be able to go unmedicated through the labor and delivery. My doctor and I had discussed it because I have scoliosis and the way my back was curved, he wasn't sure the epidural would really be as effective in reducing the pain as it would be if my back was straight.

All through dinner the contractions kept coming and each time I would reach over and grab David's hand, my sisters would watch me, ask if it was a contraction, and then ask me if they were getting more intense, how long it had been, and seem to get more and more excited as they seemed to get more painful. I was feeling really hot, really achy, and really tired by the end of dinner so I laid down on the couch, not able to sleep but glad to close my eyes. We left around 5 to go back home because the pain was getting more intense and I was feeling really hot. On our way home David asked if I wanted to go back to the hospital and see if they could give me some more medication so I could sleep through the night. I wasn't sure but as the exit neared another contraction hit that was really painful, so I decided we could give it a try.

We went back to the hospital at 5:30 and the nurse checked me. I was dilated to 3 cm so she decided to ask the doctor who was on call for my OB's office, Dr. Cloward, what she wanted to do. She decided to admit me at 6:30 pm. The contractions were close together and more intense, but having a warm bath helped me deal with the pain for a little while. Dr. Cloward came in at 8:30 to break my water and after that, the contraction pain became exponentially worse. My parents came and helped by bringing things up from our apartment and being there when the pain got really bad. David was so supportive, constantly telling me that I could do it, that I was doing so great, he held my hand while I went through the contractions, and put pressure on my back and pushed on my knees to help relieve the pain and pressure from my lower back as the contractions came and went.

At about 9:30 I was in so much pain I knew I needed the epidural because I knew I needed to sleep but the contraction pain was going to keep me from doing that. After David and I talked about it, I decided I wanted the epidural and David, after double checking to make sure that it was really what I wanted, went to find the anesthesiologist. Almost immediately the nurse and anesthesiologist came in and started getting set up. They told me it would take them 10 minutes to set up, 10 minutes to put the epidural in, and 10 minutes for it to kick in. I was excited about having only a half hour of the pain to deal with. Unfortunately, because of how my back is curved, it took an hour and a half for him to get the epidural in. The pain in my lower back during the contractions was almost unbearable, and at about 10:30 I passed out from how much pain I was in, only to wake up a half hour later when he said that he was done.

The relief was almost instantaneous. The tears that had been tears of pain were now tears of relief. I had made it about 5 hours in the hospital without the epidural and that made me feel pretty good, but I was so happy to have a relief from the pain. I was finally able to sleep and I did, until about 2 am on November 30. At that point I woke up, threw up for about two minutes, and then was getting ready to go back to sleep when the nurse said that usually when you throw up it means you're ready to push so they checked me again, and sure enough, I was at 10 cm.

They had paged Dr. Lind, my doctor, and he had said he was on his way, even though he wasn't on call that night. He got there at about 2 am, just as I was getting ready to push. The nurse told me what to do and had David on one side holding my knee up to my chest and my mom on the other side.

Then, after a little more than an hour, she said that I was really close and went to get the doctor. He came in with a few more nurses, from the nursery, and a respiratory specialist, since when they broke my water they found meconium in it. Luckily there were no problems from that.

And so, at 3:24 am, after a little over an hour of pushing, we caught the first glimpse of our little girl. It's amazing that feeling right after having a baby. It's an intense relief from the pressure, but it's so surreal. It's hard to think that the reason for all the little flutterings and flips is right there now, you can see them and hold them now. It's also crazy to think that this little person is half you, half someone else, and that they depend on you for absolutely everything.

Our little angel was 7 pounds 8 ounces, 19.5 inches long, and just gorgeous. I said she looked more like David but I keep hearing people say she looks like me. I don't really see that.

It's a weird feeling, being a parent, especially since the timing wasn't what we had originally planned on, but it's been rewarding so far.

I'm lucky that my parents live close because we were able to spend the first week there. The extra help was awesome! It made it a little bit easier to adjust to the new responsibilities, and it was nice since David had a huge project due that next week that he needed to work on every day. Having the help from my mom and dad was invaluable. 

Also the help from my sisters. Their advice was great. Laura told us her method to helping babies sleep through the night and since we started trying it, Kollyn wakes up once in the night instead of the five that she woke up the first time that had me on the phone to my mom in tears because I didn't know what to do. Since then, nights have been easier, and it's been nice having David around. He doesn't wake me up at night though...not sure how I feel about that.

And now, just some overload of cuteness for those of you who actually made it through all those words. :)

Grammy and Kollyn. Kollyn loved spending time with Grammy last week.

And Kollyn with her Poppa. Yet another one of Poppa's sugar-pies.

She got spoiled with cuddles and love all week.

The stocking that Grammy and Poppa bought her for Christmas. We tried to get her inside it to take an adorable picture, but she's a little bit too big for it. :) That's ok. It kind of looks like she's in it, right?

We are loving having her here. Yeah, it's been a bit of an adjustment, but it's been fun too. We're learning new things everyday, how to get her to sleep in her own bed instead of in bed with us, how to help calm her down when she she's just crying, and all kinds of other things. We're excited to keep learning about this little lady!

New Year

So I'm doing really bad at updating this thing, but hopefully I get better at is once I get back into a routine.

School starts next week and we're ready for it I think. I don't think we're ready for the school work load part, but the getting back and doing things will be nice.

Update on my knee. As most of you know already, it was a couple of tears in my meniscus, one from a while ago, and one when I slipped last month. I had to quit my job in Heber beginning of December because my doctor told me that I needed to take it easy, and rest my knee which meant no lifting heavy boxes, not pivoting, and icing it regularly. At the job I was lifting heavy boxes all the time, constantly pivoting, and always running around and doing things. They tried really hard to let me just sit and do things, but it ended up with me doing exactly the same things that I was doing before so I had to quit, which made me sad because it was good pay, I liked most of the people there, and it was a really great and flexible environment. So once I had to quit, David picked up my spot. He would work at mail services in the morning, go to class, then go to work at ToC group up here. It was really wearing on him. He was gone from 6 am until 8 pm most days and he was really getting frazzled out, even after school ended, so a couple weeks ago he told them he needed to quit because he needed to focus on getting everything ready for school and just relax before he had to jump back into the frying pan. This semester is going to be a lot more stressful for him I think because four of his five classes he has to get A's in because they're classes he needs to get into the Accounting program, so they're really important and he needs to be in a good mindset going in, and luckily he's been getting there.
I had surgery this last Monday, December 31, to repair the tears and it went really well. I'm up and walking now with very little of a limp walking around the house. Going elsewhere I'll need to use the crutches for a few more days but as for around the house things are great. I get the stitches out in a week and a half or so and that's going to be good. The pain from before is completely gone too! Which makes me really happy. I'm hoping I'll be able to run again soon, once it's healed. I would like to run a 5K with David sometime soon. He's wanting to prepare for a marathon next year and so I would like to run a little bit with him once this is healed up since it will be feeling so much better.

We had a great Christmas. Had a family party for my mom's side of the family on December 23 and that was a lot of fun even though we weren't there for very long. Spent part of Christmas Eve with Karin and David and David's family which was a lot of fun. We really liked the journey to Bethlehem and will probably incorporate something like that into our own Christmas traditions. I especially loved the meal inspired by Middle Eastern things that we had. It was delicious. We also loved their tradition of buying books for each other and putting a hint about what the book is in the From: line. So we'll probably add that into our lives too. It was a lot of fun. :) We watched White Christmas, which I had never seen before, and just had a lot of fun playing games and talking.
We stayed there Christmas Eve night and part of Christmas morning, opened our presents, and then went over to Melissa and Burke's house to spend some time with the girls. KB was there and we had fun playing the Wii with him. I got David some games for the GameCube that play on the Wii and some controllers for it. We have had a lot of fun with them. We then played Just Dance that the girls got for their Wii. David was doing really good but Aleah and Kayla both beat him, and Shaylee almost did a couple times. Carli spent most of the time carrying around her doll and snuggling with people, which was a lot of fun.

The rest of that week was pretty fun. I had three weddings in two days to go to. My friend JJ - a guy I've been friends with for a while - Hayley Norris - a girl I was good friends with in high school and who I've hung out with since then a few times - and Hailee Yarrington - my cousin. JJ and Hayley both were married in the Oquirrh Mountain temple on December 28 at 11, almost exactly six months after David and I were married there. Lucky temple. Lucky time. :) I went to JJ's ceremony and it was really great. And, since Hayley's was out at the same time, I hung around after and saw her and her husband Kyle come out. It was really great to be able to see them. So excited for all of them.
Saturday, December 29, exactly six months after us, my cousin Hailee married Warren Benson in the Salt Lake temple. I was so happy for her. I totally was fine until she started crying when I hugged her. That just unleashed it all, but they were happy tears. :) She couldn't have picked a more perfect guy. You guys really are perfect for each other and we love you!
We were so happy for all of them.

We got together with my siblings - Laura and Tyler and their kids, Melissa and Burke and their kids, Beany, and KB - on the 29 between Hailee's wedding and reception to exchange gifts, go to lunch, and hang out. We went to lunch at the Pizza Pie Cafe in Highland, a pizza buffet, and it was pretty good. I didn't know that potatoes went on pizza but it worked out really well. I was a fan. Then everyone went sledding except me and David. We weren't feeling well so we decided to go back to Melissa's house and nap before everyone left. He went home, after he wanted to stop and see his parents who had come in that week to see his grandparents, and slept because he was feeling really sick. They all got back from sledding and we sat around, relaxing, eating snacks and then exchanged gifts. We were so happy with ours. Laura and Tyler gave us a set of red dishes!!! We have this weird love of red and Laura nailed it on the head since we needed another set of dishes. We are lucky to have them!

And we celebrated New Year's Eve with me under the influence of the drugs from the surgery still so it wasn't that great of a day but I made sure that we kissed just after midnight, since that's when our first kiss was. Last year when I dropped him off after a party, he just snaked on in there after the hug and kissed, and now we see where that kiss lead and I couldn't be happier he had. I had wanted him to kiss me, or me to kiss him, but I was too afraid of him not being interested that I didn't do it. I'm glad he had the guts to get in there and take care of business. :) I love him and am so glad that he took that first step!

We are wishing everyone a safe and happy new year and looking forward to all the awesome adventures and everything that's in store for us!
Love y'all!

New Additions!

So, sorry about how long it's been, been pretty busy.
Over the last couple months, we've added a couple new additions to our family.
First, a couple months ago, we obtained what will be the pride and joy of my kitchen for years to come, thank you Bed Bath and Beyond, in the color of my choice -- RED -- and I'm SO excited about it!

Welcome, our little Kitchenaid mixer!!! (We also go the shredding attachment!)

And with it, I made bread for what was probably the first time in my life. And it actually tasted good! I know! Score!

It was good! I think the only thing that wasn't the best about it was that it didn't look as pretty as I wish, but that doesn't matter because it tasted good!

We also added another new addition this last week, a Cocoa-Latte, which is awesome! Pour in milk/water, chocolate powder and sugar (or just simple hot chocolate mix), and turn it on. It mixes everything and heats it up to "the perfect temperature" -- which we think is just a little too hot so we just turn it off a little bit before it gets to that point -- then, it has a froth button on it and as it dispenses it out the dispenser, it froths it into the cup. Pretty great. We've used it every day since we bought it. :)

We also saw Skyfall with Tom and Rachel last week, on the 9. It was pretty good. Having not seen the other James Bond movies -- until yesterday when I saw Goldfinger for the first time, one with Sean Connery who I love -- I didn't really know what was going on, but it wasn't bad. I liked it, which was weird because I'm not a huge action-y movie fan, but I did enjoy it, so if you've been wondering about it, I'd say go see it. Warning, it is like 3 hours long if you count the previews, but that's ok.

We stayed at Missy and Burke's house that night, since the showing was so late the night before, and when we were driving back over to see Rachel again, we thought it looked really pretty with the clouds down on the mountains behind the temple, so I had to snap a couple pictures.

There was scaffolding there because they had to redo the caulk around the windows. I've never seen that before so it was pretty exciting.

Just couldn't help myself. I love how pretty nature is up here during the winter. Especially when it's in that odd phase between snowing and the sun again, like this one. I have some other ones I took during the fall, but they didn't turn out the way I wanted. One day we'll get a fancy camera and then I'll be a nature picture taking fiend! 

Anyway, I also wanted to brag about how awesome my husband is at cooking. Yeah. That's right. He's better than me, which isn't saying much, but still, it's pretty awesome. He can throw things together in a pot or baking dish or whatever, not knowing if it's going to work out, and it turns out awesome! I try that, and I'm eating something out of a box because what I decided to do tasted like.......something nasty.

So the other night, Friday, we were super tired and didn't really want to cook but we've been eating frozen/packaged dinners all week so it was time to actually cook. We'd gotten some boxes of Annie's Mac and Cheese (Thanks Marie!) and decided to make baked Mac and Cheese, but all the recipes we found online were for from scratch, and since we were being quasi-lazy that day, we didn't want to do that, so we decided to just make up our own.

And because he's awesome at this part of cooking, the making up part, I just kind of left it up to him and did whatever he said. 

It turned out great!

We made it again today for lunch. Was great.

Also, Tuesday, I slipped on some ice and twisted my knee, apparently I have an acute tear in my lateral collateral ligament -- there are three and one heals itself but the other two do not -- so we went into the doctor on Wednesday and he has me going to physical therapy for the next couple weeks to see if it heals itself. If it does, and that's what we're hoping for, then we won't have to do anything else. If it still is hurting in a couple weeks, we'll have to do an MRI and possibly surgery, which would be a downer since I've already had surgery on this knee once.
So I've been to physical therapy twice so far. It's the same place I went when my knees were giving me lots of problems in high school from running cross country, and I love the physical therapist there. He's hilarious and doesn't push you harder than your body can take, which is more than I can say for the physical therapist I had after my surgery 3 years ago, and he is really great about payments too, which is a huge bonus right now. When I am there, I have to do electrical stimulation on my knee, after having it massaged -- I have such a hard life ;) --, and they put an ice pack on top of the stimulation pads so it doesn't shock me too much. Well, the first day, it had just come out of the freezer and I couldn't resist doing a little doodle. Thought I'd share.

Such a happy little ice pack!

Anyway, that's pretty much all that's been happening. I switched my major for the last time to History Education with a minor and teaching endorsement in Math, which I'm really excited about because I've loved history since I was so small I can't even remember it. All I know is that when I'm in a history class, I don't feel like I'm dragging through it so that's probably a good sign.
David is looking at going for the accounting program because he can do the accelerated Master's/Bachelor's degree in just a year longer, which would make him able to get his CPA license in just three or four years after graduating, which is what he wants to do he's pretty sure. Just a couple of extra classes so he should be able to apply for next Winter semester. We're really excited about that and hoping that it happens according to plan. :) It would be really great.

So, we love you all and are grateful for all your love and support!