Last day

This morning was my LAST day of seminary teaching (yes it only lasted two weeks)!  Yay!  I say yay, but really there's a little bitter-sweet mixed in there.  I really really liked being with the youth each morning.  I have to admit that they totally surprised me... way less attitude (not that they were terrible, just saying) in the mornings than I had seen during the days/evenings, and surprisingly awake and participative compared to many Sunday lessons.  Some of those kids just thrived in the morning situation.  I think it helps that the kids who actually come (there were a handful that couldn't come because it was too early) have a great dynamic together.  One of my favorites was a kid from the Spanish branch- he was there every single morning, even after working until 10 or 11 pm every day, and so nice and I just found out that no one in his family, including himself, is active yet he comes to seminary every morning.  You never would have known!  I also loved doing scripture mastery games every morning because it is helping me re-memorize some of the important ones.

Anyway, like I said, it's bitter-sweet that I'm done.  But for my situation right now in life, mostly just sweet. :)

Game Day

Last Saturday was the beginning of college football games.  We decided to go downtown and join in all of the Ohio State tailgating and pre-game festivities.  Ryan went to one game last year, but I had never been and it just seemed like something fun to do.  So we went.  Thank goodness for the free shuttle from the parking lot to/from the stadium, or I think I may have had this baby at the stadium!  It was so hot outside!  I heard on the radio the next day that 160 people were treated for heat stroke at the game.  Yikes!  Anyway, we didn't have tickets to go to the game, but that was okay because we went home and were able to watch the first BYU game of the season.  There was a super long rain delay and BYU ended up losing, but it was still a fun day kicking off college football.

Just testing out our new BYU cornhole set before the game started!  I let Ryan win.  And Lucy was awesome because she would run and pick up all my bags and hand them to me while I sat in a chair in between.  This is why we have kids, right? ;)

 Outside the OSU stadium.  We were there 3 hours before the game started and the place was already packed!  Crazy.  Ryan works with a guy whose brother is the kicker on the team, so we met up with him and his wife for a few minutes as well.

 Some security guy let us walk down the tunnel to the main floor where the band was.  It was really nice of him but didn't last long since Lucy was scared to death of the band.  It was pretty loud though.

 Ryan's intense-watching-the-game face.  Lucy's trying to learn.  She's also never seen him much with glasses on (he mostly just uses them at work) so she was a little confused about that. ha!

Yes, again...

Sick with a bad cold last week.  I know where she got it from and I'm not happy.  When this girl gets sick, I really truly mean that it is at least one full week (or more) of not sleeping.  And by not sleeping, I don't mean up every hour or couple of hours to put her back down.  I mean that I don't shut my eyes for more than 20 minutes the entire night.  For this purpose, I am putting her in quarantine this winter and most definitely not sending her to nursery at church on Sunday's.  I should stop now.  I get angry just thinking about her being/getting sick.  It's been a 9 month battle.

Things we do in the morning

Get really happy and excited to see all of the trucks and construction stuff going on bright and early outside her window (surprised she can see through all of that hair in her face!).

Run into the baby's room and go through all of the clothes (these are mostly all clothes I still had in Lucy's closet that were brand new that we never got around to using because she grew out of the size too quickly).

Go through mom and dad's closet and try on all of our shoes and clothes... and speedos (from Ryan's mission in Brazil).

 Put on every bangle bracelet (all belonged to Great-Grandma Harlan), crank up some tunes, and dance around shaking them all.

Yep, pretty typical mornings for us!

Failed attempt

I mentioned to Lucy that we could go to the pool, so she ran to go get her bathing suit.  I heard her messing with her diaper around the corner and cracked up when I saw this:

View from the front (nothing too unusual):

 View from the back.  haha!  She tried taking it off by just pulling it down, which obviously didn't work. :)  She just ran around in a really awkward way like this was no big deal until I fixed it. :)

Please ignore the obvious mess in our house.  This was the first week of seminary teaching, and also the first week that Lucy decided not to nap longer than 20 minutes** (PLEEEASE be a phase!?!  Oh my goodness.)  Those two things are a BAD combination.  Basically I drop dead every few feet and fall asleep on something while Lucy wreaks havoc on our house.  Half of the time I am just coherent enough to vaguely know what she's doing but just can't get myself to care enough to get up and stop her.  Like yesterday when she was in the kitchen and I heard her find a pen.  I had no clue what she was doing with it and I didn't have the energy to care. Thankfully she just drew a masterpiece on her arm (that she was very proud of) and not walls or furniture.  Or a few days ago when I brought up big boxes of baby items and clothes that were neatly organized and she started carrying piles all throughout the house and dropping them wherever.  Also, I haven't done dishes or laundry.  We've had ramen noodles, hot dogs, and mac & cheese for dinners this week (pathetic, I know).  I tried to find one clean room yesterday to go take solace in, but there wasn't one.  So needless to say, our house is DESTROYED right now.  I hate being in it.  It hasn't been this messy in a very, very long time.  So diapers are Lucy's failed attempt and seminary is mine.  Now, who wants to come clean my house for me? :)

**Even though Lucy refuses to nap this week, she did sit in her crib and practiced saying "cookie.  cookie.  cookie." for 40 minutes straight one day, which was hilarious and awesome.  Too bad she only associated that word with the cookie monster until Ryan taught her what a cookie actually was.  Several times I have been able to successfully convince her that different things were cookies, such as "carrot cookies" and "olive cookies."  So when she asks "cookie?  cookie?"  I can say "sure... here's a string cheese cookie" and avoid meltdown mode.

Go Cougars!

Just making sure everyone at our house is ready for BYU football to start this weekend. :)

My fourth 26th birthday

I can't believe how long 26 lasts! :)  Okay so we actually celebrated my 29th birthday yesterday and it was a great day!  It was gorgeous weather- sunny and in the 80's- so we went swimming at our pool with Marci and her kids... and they even made us lunch and brought pool toys that kept Lucy entertained.  Then Ryan was able to skip some afternoon meetings and come home early, so we went out to dinner at Red Robin for my free meal.  After we put Lucy to bed, we ate my current favorite ice cream (double fudge chocolate brownie) and some cookies and relaxed while watching some episodes of Suits (our latest show addiction since we're all caught up on White Collar).  Also, Lucy slept well, which I consider to be the best present of all considering she was up for every waking minute the night before! It was fun getting cards, texts, emails, fb messages, and calls from family and friends all day too!

 If you're wondering why this picture of me and Ryan is blurry, it is because I cropped my belly out, which required some major zooming.  You'd thank me for it, though, if you saw the original. :)

 Ryan still takes the cake for the best gift-giver.  He made me picture books from some of our trips to major cities we have taken in the last few years (I also informed him that he is now in charge of being our blog book maker since he did such a good job with these and since I'm still working on year 1 from 2009), and he also got me some new, comfy pajamas because let's be honest, I'll be living in them for a few months post-baby.

Ryan volunteered to make me a cake or treat of any kind that I wanted, but he's been working so late lately that I just wanted to buy some ice cream and have some time to spend with him, instead of doing my own thing while he made a cake.  It was worth it.

Overall it was a great birthday!  I have such wonderful family and friends that make it that way, so thanks everyone!!