Jonah: 4 Months

I know I’m biased, but...I think I have the most beautiful baby in the world!  He has the softest skin with so many sweet rolls and folds.  He’s my little baby angel!

Whenever he eats, he has started flirting with me.  It is seriously the cutest thing ever!  He’ll smile shyly, talk, and coo at me.  I love it!  He also makes the cutest squealing noise whenever he gets excited.  I know he is so close to laughing!  He has the cutest personality, and I love watching it develop.  He is so sweet and funny!  Jonah is also very much a morning person.  It’s rare that he’s not awake by 6:30!  He is very happy when waking up too - all smiles!

August 1 was my first day back to work.  The night before, I cuddled with Jonah all night long.  I couldn’t sleep!  I knew he would be in good hands with our new nanny, but I was still so worried about leaving him for so long.  The nanny texted me multiple times while I was at work, saying Jonah was inconsolable and crying the whole day long!  He wasn’t used to me being gone for hours on end and having to drink out of a bottle all day!  Yes, he had gotten bottles previously, and did well with them, but didn’t have to drink out of them all day.  The nanny was at her wits end.  So I wasn’t surprised when she quit the next day...leaving us in the same position, needing to find a new nanny before Jordan started school again on September 9.  Ugh.  

Physically, Jonah has been developing by leaps and bounds!  He is able to hold his torso up and does little push-ups during tummy time!  He is also constantly rolling over, and even rolls over during his sleep!  Jonah also has started trying to scoot forward. The problem is though, he can't figure out how to move his arms! It's so funny. He also eats a ton.  Once, he ate 8 ounces for Jordan when he woke up!  I was shocked!

Jordan watched Jonah the rest of the month of August.  Jonah is so lucky to have all this time to spend with Jordan.  None of our other future kids will have this much time with him!  I was also jealous, because Jonah was sleeping much better for him during the day than for me (initially, anyways)!  Towards the middle of August, Jonah started going through the dreaded “four month sleep regression!”  He had been sleeping 8 hours a night, eating, and then sleeping 3 more hours.  During the sleep regression, he would get up every 2 hours.  I just had to remind myself that this too would pass!

Wednesdays have become my least favorite day, because I’ll usually work and then I’ll have Young Women’s in the evening.  I hate being away from Jonah all day long.  

My 25th birthday was fun and pretty laid back!  We went on a long walk and then out to dinner at a restaurant a few blocks away from us called The Hill Cafe.  I got their crab cakes - they were so delicious!  Because I worked on my birthday, we continued the celebration to the weekend by going to breakfast, to see Wolverine, and going on another long walk!  

Jonah got a “command center” exersaucer on my birthday too and he loves it!  He especially loves to chew on the green leaf!  We also got Jonah a little chair in the middle of August and he loves that too.  It helps him sit upright and has a lap tray for him to play with toys!

Jonah loves all types of music, but apparently he is a boy after his mommy’s heart.  He loves 80’s music!  One night, I tried to get him to sleep for about an hour, and then Jordan tried.  He put on “Don’t Stop Believin” by Journey and Jonah fell asleep before the song was over!  Jonah also LOVES piano music, and is always entertained when Jordan and I play the piano.

We went to North Carolina again August 17 to see the Bethers and (brother) Jordan before he went back to Utah!  It was so relaxing.  We hung out, watched movies, ate yummy food, and then went to church the day after.  

We got some new neighbors on August 22.  They have big dogs who like to bark, but thankfully not at night!  

I loved this outfit he wore one day.  The bib said “Daddy’s Big Guy” and his onesie said “Daddy’s Little Guy.”  What one is it!?  Haha!

To celebrate Jonah turning 4 months, we went to Maymont!  It was so beautiful!

Christmas Vacation

This past Christmas was wonderful!  We were able to enjoy being with family and friends for an entire week (and that never happens).  We flew in on the 23, and came home on the 31.

December 23:
We flew into Utah around 6:30 PM.  While waiting for Jim to pick us up at the airport, we saw Colin's (Jordan's friend) dad waiting to be picked up too!  It was hilarious.  We went to a party at Jordan's aunts house and ate good food, got presents from Santa, and caught up with everyone.  It was so funny watching the little kids sit on Santa's lap, tell him what they wanted, and then get a present out of his giant bag.  Apparently, the guy who has played Santa has been doing it since Jordan was born!  I think that's awesome.

December 24:
We went to out to breakfast with Wendy at Kneaders (yummm) and then headed down to Provo to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie with my family.  It was so good and we both highly recommend it :)

Jared having fun in outside the theater ;)

After the movie, we had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with Jordan's family.  Afterwards, we had a Christmas Program where every family did something.  Jordan and I did Christmas song duets on the piano, and it was epic.  We enjoyed watching the little boys dance, heard a story from Josie and Micah, and learned to shuffle from Matt and Lindsey!  Then we opened pajamas and took pictures.

December 25:

The morning of Christmas, we went to Allie's ward.  The ward put on a HUGE production.  It was a nice production, but over the top.  We went back to the Henderson's for waffles.  This year for the boys, I embroidered their names and framed them so they could put them in their rooms.  It was so fun watching them open their presents.  

Then we drove to Mapleton and were able to talk to Jordan on the phone, all the way in Argentina!  He sounded SO good and had a slight Argentine accent :)  He is a rockin' missionary and has had so many amazing experiences.  If you want to read along with his adventures, go to his blog here.  He and I were able to talk in Spanish (amazingly) even though I haven't spoken in Spanish for about 2 years.  He loves the mission and loves this Gospel so much.  We then went to Grandma and Grandpa Cuthbert's to have Cafe Rio style dinner and enjoy catching up.  Then we went to my parents.  

December 26:

We decided to go tubing in Soldier Hollow with my family that day.  It was so fun!  After tubing we got lunch at a cute little hamburger place.  

We were able to see the movie "We Bought a Zoo" with Jordan's family.  HIGHLY recommended!  So good, that I cried twice!  

December 27:

We got up early in the morning to go skiing at Brighton with Des, my friend from nursing school.  We had the best time!  The snow was not icy like I expected, and got much more powdery after people skied on it all day.  I wasn't feeling so hot, so we only stayed half a day, but it was still fun. 

After skiing, we all went to lunch at The Soup Kitchen, one of my and Des' favorite places.  It was great!  We then headed down to my parent's for some panini and soup, puzzle making, and a Harry Potter marathon! ;) I love HP.  

December 28:

We spent the morning playing with the little boys.  Creighton got a Wii game for Christmas and Jordan obligingly taught him and all the others how to play a video game ;)  It was so cute.  He is such a good teacher!  

Apparently they like to stick their tongues out.  After playing Wii, we built a gingerbread house.  I don't know why, but this was one of the things I HAD to do while in Utah.  The boys had a blast licking the frosting off and biting little chunks of gingerbread off the roof.  

We then got ready for TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA!!!  Woo!  It was an incredible concert, and I would love to make it a yearly tradition.  Light shows, fire, fireworks, over 5 tons of electrical equipment - wow.  All I can say is that you've got to be an amazing musician to be able to literally run while playing the violin.  These people are SO talented.  I knew there was a good reason I liked them!

The Y shaped piece in the top right corner is a stage the lifts up and down.  So cool.  

December 29:

We visited Great Grandma Wood, Grandpa Larry, and Omi and Buppi in the morning.  It was so good to see them all and visit with them!  In the afternoon, we had a massage up in Layton and then went to the Beer's family Christmas Party.  There, we had another Cafe Rio style dinner, talked, and played games with the White Elephants.  All I have to say about that is some people give some interesting white elephants.  Risque!

December 30:

We spent the morning and afternoon in Park City with my family shopping all the holiday sales.  Jordan won shopper of the day with a pair of jeans from Gap for only $15!  We had a yummy lunch at Cafe Trang as well.  We then had dinner at Chili's with Jordan's family.  That evening, we had Big Jim's New Year's Eve party (I can never remember what it's called now - I always want to call it Big Fat Jim's Party, haha)!!  Yummy food, good company, and NERTS.  This year, we performed miserably and I was not a happy camper.  I apologize to everyone for my behavior!  We still got some good prizes and learned a super strategy for next year.  

December 31:

We departed early in the morning!  It was a fabulous vacation and we are SO glad we were able to see almost everyone!  Thank you all!

I Love to Play the Piano!!

Oh my goodness.  I just watched the most amazing movie!  It's called "They Came to Play" and is a documentary about the International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs.  So, so, so inspiring!  It made me realize what I want to do - I'm totally going to apply to perform in some Amateur Competitions.  There are SO many throughout the country, let alone the world, and even though there are prizes involved if you win, that's not why I would want to perform.  I would perform for the love of piano.  But hey, $2,000 cash prizes for winning first place is a little motivating too :)  In researching these competitions, most of them have age limits.  The only one I would be able to perform in is in Colorado, for people above 21.  Almost all the others have age limits for people above 35.  Ahh!  I'm so excited!

Welcome 2011!

It's been a great year already! I've made my new year's resolutions and I'm excited. I love setting goals and seeing what it's possible to achieve. My inspiration for setting goals and making them are here and here and here!!

We've been going to Gold's Gym a lot - and I did the yoga class today and it was so good. I LOVE yoga! Jordan's been doing a lot of running, something he hasn't really been able to do since we moved because of the humidity and then the cold. I love going to the cardio cinema and watching a bit of some great movies.

I've set up a plan to learn new pieces in the piano AND to learn the organ. I plan on learning a new piece in each instrument every two months. I'm also going strong again in the Richmond Mormon Chorale, and we have a performance in three weeks!

That's just a couple of my goals. Jordan says he didn't make any new goals, but I know that he wants to get honors in his classes. He's begun embryology, physiology, and histology!

I'm going to start browsing for new jobs and applying only to jobs I REALLY want. Like psych or oncology jobs. So far, none are really available. There was this sweet promotion put on by Bon Secours that if you applied between January and March and got hired, you would get sent on a vacation of your dreams or given $3,000. I was so excited...and then found out that you have to have two years experience! Boo!

Oh, and I just finished reading "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. It is SO good! I loved it - it's the same kind of genre as "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen, one of my other favorites. So if you're looking for a good book, read it :) I'm now reading "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, an American classic.

That's all for now folks!

New Calling...Again!

Well I've got another calling...Relief Society Pianist! YAYYYYYYY!! I'm so excited to have something to do. I've been so bored, and now they are going to give me a key to the church to practice hymns (among other things.) They hadn't had a pianist in the RS for over a month, and when we moved into the ward, they were very glad to hear I played. I'm glad too!

New Calling!

It's official, I have another calling! We met with the Bishop tonight and chit-chatted a while. Then he verified that I play the piano. I was totally thinking that I was going to get choir pianist - our previous choir pianist had a stroke a few months ago. Then he said, "Have you ever played the organ?" What? Yes, I have played the organ, but not publicly, and not well I might add. But then he went on to say that we needed an additional organist for sacrament meeting. One organist is already the relief society president and another just had a baby. He asked, "Would you be willing to be another organist for our ward?" It took me a minute to respond...I was pretty shocked! And worried...for the reasons stated above. But I agreed and he said he would give me a key to practice in the chapel. So, I have two callings: relief society pianist and ward organist!

Done.

We seriously never imagined this day would come! WE ARE DONE WITH SCHOOL!!! Getting our bachelors degrees has been such a rush and time has flown by so quickly. I makes me a little sad, but mostly happy. Jordan is SO happy he is done with Physical Chemistry and that he NEVER has to take another one of those exams again. We really have had so much free time since school got out yesterday that we don't know what to do! Yesterday I had my last final early in the morning. Jordan spent the morning playing games and watching movies. I came home and we got ready for the day, ate lunch, cleaned up the house a little, went to the temple grounds and walked around, played the piano, read books, took a nap, talked about stuff besides school, went to dinner, took another walk, and watched another movie!! :) It was so great!

I now know what I'm going to be doing with my free time. I'm going to be playing the piano again! I haven't seriously played since my freshman year of college, simply because of the time my classes took away from it. But I'm going to be learning a new piece called Wedding Day at Troldlhaugen by Edvard Grieg that is simply amazing! I'm really excited to get back into playing again - not just church hymns. There are only so many times you can play through the hymn book. After Grieg, I'm going to get a book of Chopin pieces and learn some of those because Chopin is such a master! I'm so so so excited.

I am going to officially be an Nurse Apprentice on May 7th and will be making almost double what I am now. Plus, I'm not going to be limited to 12 hours each week of working. I can pick up empty shifts whenever! So I'm going to be working about 16-24 hours each week. May is going to be amazing. My dear friend Amy Sampson is getting married on May 8th at St. Marks Cathedral and then she and her husband are moving to Connecticut. I sincerely hope that the weather in May is warmer/better than it was in April! Funny story - so on Jordan's phone, he has the weather for both Salt Lake City and Richmond. He got so excited one night after it snowed because it said the weather the next day was going to be about 80 degrees and sunny. Well the next day, it snowed again. He looked at his phone and realized that he was looking at Richmond's weather the previous night. We want to live in Richmond - mainly because of the weather! The rainy weather here in Salt Lake City has been beautiful though. It has made everything so lush and gorgeous. It looks a little like Oregon on Westminster's campus because of all the greenery!

Here is to a great May!! :)