Easter 2012

Tyron has Spring Break this week so we decided to go visit some friends- Josh & Heidi Crosby- in Richmond, VA.  We spent all day Saturday getting laundry and packing done and then after church on Sunday we headed straight there. We headed back Thursday afternoon. Traffic was sooo bad it took 8 hours instead of 5 1/2.

It was so much fun to visit with Josh & Heidi and their family! We played games or watched Psych every night we were there (after the kids went to bed of course) and it was just like old times in Provo! We also went to the YMCA and swam, played frisbee golf at the park, made laundry soap, and visited Maymont. Richmond was so pretty- very green and lots of historical sites. It was nice to have a few days back in normal living!

Here are some pictures of Easter:

Auralia in her bunny slippers and with her sock monkey bunny; gifts courtesy of Nana Jensen!! Thanks so much Nana!

Pictures of Virginia:

My iPhone has a cool app that I discovered and played around with to create these beautiful pictures in the sunny grass!

Heidi and the kids eating in a pavilion at Maymont

There were these neat stepping stones in the lake

Auralia & Alyssa zonked out in the stroller

We dyed eggs with the Crosbys for FHE. My 1st egg

My 2nd egg

Tyron's egg- NOT a uterus... actually it's a neuron? You can tell he's a neuroscience guy!

Heidi taught me how to make my own laundry soap! It cost me about $14 and will last about a year on a high efficiency washing machine (6 months on a regular machine). If you're interested in the instructions, let me know!!

9 months today!

9 months today... wow, can't believe how fast the last few months have gone. And I can't believe how much easier it is with a 9 month old than a 1-6 month old! Those first few months were so hard, but it really has gotten much easier. She holds her own bottle, feeds herself solids, is easily entertained, sleeps in 10 hour stretches, and usually sleeps 10-12 hours a night. Oh so heavenly! 9 month stats: 17 lbs 12 oz, 27.75 inches long, and 16 3/4 inches in head circumference.

Speaking of sleep, she still sleeps like a crazy person...

Hand out of the sleeve, up through the neck, and playing with stuff around her!!

Cramped in the corner, bended akwardly. Yes, soother is in upside down.

Snuggled in the corner on all 4's! It's been in the 70's so I took her warm blanket out of the crib and added it to the pile next to the crib. She managed to reach her hand through the slats and grab a corner of it then snuggled with it and fell asleep! So cute...

She is such a great eater!! We just grind up whatever we're eating and she'll eat it. She's not picky at all and LOVES feeding herself! She'll even fuss if you try to feed her with a spoon because she wants to feed herself. It's nice to slop a pile of food in front of her and let her go at it, but clean-up time is not fun! :

Spaghetti and meatballs... lovin it.

Some other messy, easy to stain clothes food!

She is a very good crawler. No leg drag, army crawl, backwards crawl, etc. Just gets on all 4's and zips around the house. I'm still deciding if I like her new found mobility... while I'm deciding she's not stopping :)    She always works her way to whatever room I'm in. Tyron was up with her one morning while I was sleeping in and she crawled down the hall and pushed open our door and started towards the bed! There are a few new places she LOVES to be. First is under my craft table playing with the foot pedal on my sewing machine (sorry, no picture!). The second is under the side table in the living room, and the third is at the magazine rack on the floor. She likes to take out magazines and eat them:

Feasting on the Word of God!

Who me? No, I didn't eat the corner of the Ensign... Now mom will never know what month it is!

I come under here to pick my nose & play with things I find in the recycling pile :)

Ah nuts, dad found me!

"I'm Salley O'Malley and I'm 50 years old and I can KICK" -SNL Skit

Chilling in the stroller at the zoo with the shades on and the bottle in!

Swinging at the park. Cutest thing ever!

What else.... hmmmm well she is pulling herself up on things- my legs, side of the crib, couches, lamps, etc. I have to be careful she doesn't pull stuff onto herself. She still has no teeth!! I'm okay with the delay because we haven't had crazy days & nights of teething. I'm sure it's coming soon though. She can't say mama or dada yet. When I work with her on it, she just smiles big :)  So that's okay for now! She's been sick twice. Nothing major, just a little cold but she becomes really fussy and clingy. That's never a blast!  Her hair is getting so long that it's in her eyes. We still aren't sure whether it'll be brown on blond.

We are looking forward to flying to Utah (just Auralia and I, poor Tyron can't come) in May for a whole month! Time with family & friends and getting a bit of normal living back will be so nice! And it'll be great to have lots of help with Auralia!

Tyron's 29th Birthday

Thursday, March 15th was Tyron's 29th birthday! He came home early from lab and we spent the afternoon together... not really doing much. We got take-out that night and watched some of our favorite shows. On Saturday (St. Patrick's Day), we went to Buffalo Wild Wings (Tyron's a HUGE fan of wings!) with our friends and then came back to the apartment and played the game 'Bang' and ate homemade ice cream cake! In case you were wondering, the sheriff & deputies won and Tyron was an outlaw and the first to go- I may or may not have killed him...

It was a pretty fantastic evening!

The handsome birthday boy wearing his St. Patrick's Day shirt!

We made sure she wore green so she didn't get pinched :)

Amanda! You can't see, but she wore some awesome green pants!!!

Carlie, Dustin, and baby Scarlett! Scarlett & Auralia are only 6 weeks apart. Nice to have a friend!

Lejdja & Lance!

Oh Missionaries!

Really shortly after moving here, Tyron was called to be the Ward Mission Leader. It has been so wonderful having the missionaries in our home every week! They work so incredibly hard (especially in a ward like this!!). They also know how to be total goofballs :) 

This last transfer, Elder Barfuss was going home and all but 2 of the others were getting transferred. Sister Coleman is a chef and offered to make everyone dinner! So the 4 elders, 2 sisters, Amanda, and us got together for a feast- and a feast it was! Pork tenderloin, homemade mac & cheese, and green beans were so tasty! It was hard to stop eating :)  Here's some fun pics we took afterwards. The ones on the couch were so fun- we set the camera to take 5 automatic pics, so our poses had to change really quick!  If any of you missionaries want copies, just let me know and I'll send them to you!

(left to right) Sister Coleman, Elder Casalino, Elder Matthews, Elder Goode, Elder Barfuss, Sister Maldarizzi

President's Day

I know President's Day was a while ago, but better late than never! Tyron had the day off (Auralia & I did too! LOL) as well as our good friend Lejdja! So we decided to check out a beach in Connecticut because we plan on hitting up a beach as often as possible in the summer and want to check them out. For middle of February, it was sunny and 50 degrees so of course that means packing a picnic. We were way too optimistic about how warm it would be! The wind was crazy and we were freezing!! It got better after lunch when we were able to walk around and warm up! Here's some pictures:

Next time we're on the beach, I better be in a bathing suit and sun bathing!

Check out how many shells there were!! Tons & tons & TONS!

You know what's hard? Pushing a sleeping baby in a stroller through the sand.

Tyron was awesome and went seashell hunting in the rocks to find a big one! It paid off because he found a beautiful, huge, and unbroken shell that I was so proud of! Tyron loves seashell hunting. By the end of the summer I imagine we'll have a lot. I need to get on pinterest & find a cool project to do something with them all!

There were these 2 beautiful swans in the water!

8 months!

So we have an 8 month old... still weird to hear. But we are loving this stage! We're getting sleep and she's hitting some fun milestones! She is so much fun to be around.

 She's crawling!! For a few weeks, she was getting up on her knees, but didn't know what to do from there. She would rock, get up on her tiptoes and make a pyramid (which she still likes to do), or face plant but last week she actually got the hang of moving her hands in coordination with her knees! She doesn't crawl fast, but she gets around and into everything that's on the floor! Her favorite is crawling to the corner of the living room with the cables & cords. She loves playing with them and hates when we constantly take them away. Time to baby proof the apartment!

She has finally gotten the hang of how a sippy cup works. For the longest time she would just chomp on the spout, not realizing she could suck & get water. She also has started feeding herself rice puffs because she can use her finger and thumb to pick them up. It's cute when the puff gets caught in her palm because she has a hard time getting it to her mouth.  We recently got a high chair. We found a used one on campus for a really great price and we're loving it. She can make her mess in her own space instead of on the table, it's safer than the bumbo on the table, and it reclines so she can hold her own bottle.

She still sleeps in the craziest ways:

We discovered a few 6-9 month outfits that my mom sent months ago and we're loving them!! They are our favorite outfits of hers thus far.

Her hippie outfit (Tyron's fav!); can tell dad put her bow on!

We usually give Auralia a bath in her baby chair, but Tyron wanted her to get more wet and used to being in water. So he put on his trunks and they played in the bath! It was cute watching them play with rubber duckies and splash around. She seemed to love it, besides when she felt like her face was getting a little too close to water and then she'd make this panicked, heavy panting noise.

 

Life is good! We have finally adjusted to living in the Bronx. We're used to the constant sound of sirens & honking as well as trash, homeless people, being a minority, and getting around. A few weeks ago, we used our tax return and bought a car!! It has made a world of difference! We can get to so many more places than we could before and we can get to places a lot faster. Driving here is NUTS! People double park here all the time so you'll be driving in the right lane and a car will be parked there so you have to slam on your brakes and get over. And the taxi's and buses are fearless; so are most of the native new yorkers. People have no problem cutting you off (and when you don't let them honking & screaming at you), using an oncoming traffic lane to pass someone they don't think is going fast enough, or coming up to your window and banging on it to scream at you. So, that's been real fun. But I'm still so grateful for a car!

Carmen the Camry!