sup sup sup!!

2011-06-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

so, remember how we made a new blog? well, tyemarietoatree is not being discontinued. i'm using this one for anything that i want to say about life and using the new one to update what's going on with our family. the new one will probably have more pictures than this one.

many of you expressed an interest in knowing about the new blog. i contacted hopefully all of you (except erin- are you on facebook?) to let you know the blog address. but i posted on the new one about 2 weeks ago and no one has left any comments. so i'm wondering who still needs to know about the new one? please let me know so i can get you the info! :)

thank you!

changes

2011-06-03T19:17:00.000-07:00

hi. well, we are foster parents now! we started the whole process of getting certified back in january and now we are ready to go! what do you think 'bout that?! we don't have any permanent children in our home yet, but we could any time. however, we do have a temporary little angel sleeping upstairs in the extra bedroom next to our own 2 little angels' bedroom. we just have this beauty for the weekend and then she will be going back to her "permanent" foster home. every once in a while, the foster mother wants a break from her foster kids (this 4 year old girl and her 2 sisters) so they spend the night at other foster homes for a weekend. we were happy to have her.

this is going on my personal blog, because this is a major life change for me personally, along with my family. i am super excited at this point. but don't worry, i'm a very realistic person so my imagination allows for all the fears you can imagine, but overall, kyle and i feel good about this path. we are excited to face the challenges this new path brings and to extend our love to kids who need it. our children will also learn to love and understand others better and be thankful for the many blessings that come along with having a stable home.

announcement

2011-05-15T20:35:00.001-07:00

hi.
we have created a new family blog. if you want to know how to find it, please leave a comment :)

This and That

2011-03-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

We are tired. But, it's time for a blog. Tye's mom (Harriet) was here for the past two weeks. She has now left us, opting to return home in spite of our many attempts to keep her :) We really appreciated her visit, and Millie and Savannah already miss her a ton. We decided to grow a little garden this year (probably on our deck in pots). We planted tomato seeds a few weeks ago and they are doing really well, although Tye thinks the 14 tomato plants in our window seal are a little excessive. Although it pains me to say it . . . she's probably right and I'll give some of the new plants away to deserving individuals. Our girls are as cute as ever, we love to sneak into there rooms at night and see them sleeping, it's an addiction. Well, the following are some recent pictures for your viewing pleasure. Later Dudes.

Pictures . . . Pictures

2011-03-12T11:30:00.000-08:00

2011-02-14T11:29:00.000-08:00

i have children

2011-02-03T18:01:00.000-08:00

the title of this post is what i say out loud to kyle when things are going wild crazy in our home, or mainly when i feel crazy because i am a mother. "i have children." it's true, i do. they are amazing. and so much fun. the crazies come with the territory that is my life. i love it and it drives me crazy. would i trade it for some other life? no, i chose this lifepath when kyle and i decided to purposely infest our home with children and it's crazyandwonderfulandinsaneandbeautifulandhappyandsatisfyingandterrificandchallengingallthetimebringiton!

millie started preschool for the very first time this past monday. she Loves!! it!!! it is an 8 week program with the senior high school students teaching it for their early childhood education class. it's m,w,f from 9-11:00. i asked millie how she liked it when i went to pick her up. and she said, "mommy, i that school, they only play!" it was really cute. i think she was expecting them to make her sit down at a table and say and write the ABC's for 2 hours. she is happy to find that school can be educational and super fun. unfortunately, school usaully increases in boringness as a person ages. but she'll figure that out with time :) for now, she is enjoying the crafts, stories, activities,and tons of attention from the eagar to please 16-17 year old girls.

savannah is a cute cute handful (meaning she requires a lot of work but thank goodness she's cute)! she has recently become interested in the potty. she has sucessfully pooped in the contraption about 3 times in the last week and peed once. she doesn't really seem to comprehend what it's all about yet though, so i'm not super pushing it. i'm just kind of letting her be the boss of it right now (she's only 18 months old).
vanny (her new nickname from me) has now entered into "nursery." this is her first class without mommy and daddy and church. it's for kids 18mo-3 years old. she loves it! big sigh, because i teach the 5 year old class and because kyle is busy with his calling and wants to be able to enjoy his classes too (classes are enjoyable with a little one but you don't learn much).

kyle is a busy boy making all our dreams come true by working hard for me and my girls. :)

i am happy.

blast to the past

2011-02-03T17:57:00.000-08:00

i just went into my blog archive and saw some posts that i never published. so i went ahead and published them, but they can only be found on the day that i originally saved them. so, i will put some links to them so you can find them if interested.
http://tyemarietoatree.blogspot.com/2010/11/blog-post_21.html
http://tyemarietoatree.blogspot.com/2009/08/blog-post.html
http://tyemarietoatree.blogspot.com/2008/07/here-goes-nothin.html

2011-01-30T19:13:00.000-08:00

2011-01-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

Below are a couple of random pics that have nothing to do with what I am writing. I just wanted to mention a little something about Christmas that i think is of a funny note. millie asked for nothing for christmas but weights. you know, the kind you lift up and down to exercise with? crazy. People would ask her, "what do you wanted santa to bring you for christmas?" and she would just smile and say "weights". millie loves to exercise- don't worry, i have not encourage her to lift weights at all, she's just seen me lift them when i was doing my internship clear back when we lived in michigan and i taught and attended some exercise classes with her. so we decided santa would bring everyone weights. i haven't owned any for about 6 months and i've wanted some. so we found some little 1 pound ones for savannah, millie got 2 pound ones, i got 5 pound ones (i used to also have 8 and 10 pound weights but i thought i would start lighter and work my way up), and kyle got 20 pound ones (he wanted 25 but santa brought him 20!). so millie was absolutely thrilled. maybe once or twice a day, she will very importantly say something like, "mom i'll be back in a minute, i need to go lift my weights now." she will proceed to get her weights off the shelf and lift them about 2 or 3 times and then very importantly walk around proudly and talked about how strong she is. it's quite funny. savannah doesn't really use her because she just wants to throw hers but santa just couldn't resist getting them for everyone so they sit on a shelf where she can't reach them :)

i really can't remember what exactly the pictures are. the other day i was downloading pictures and planning to do a "highlights of 2010" blog post but then quit and just saved the few i'd downloaded because i realized it would take me all of 2011 to finish downloading all the pictures i would want to include. so maybe i will just put up a few random pics every once in a while in the future to fulfill my desire to highlight the past year.

later.

once upon a christmas

2010-12-26T18:50:00.000-08:00

christmas happened and it was wonderful! we stayed here in kentucky and enjoyed our time together immensely. enjoy the pictures :)

once upon a thanksgiving...

2010-12-05T18:03:00.000-08:00

we went to south carolina for thanksgiving. i have a sister, bro in law, and nephew who live there. it was a good time.

thanksgiving was yummy. that was the only day shawn had off but we made the most of it by walking to a nearby river after the turkey was in the oven that morning enjoying the yummy food we consumed that afternoon. we stayed thurs, fri, and sat, and drove home sunday after going to church with shay. we enjoyed the ymca (where shay works- shot some hoops, kids played in the jungle gym area, shay and i went to a step aerobics class,etc), the zoo, and watching movies and talking with shay and shawn after the kids were in bed at night. millie and ian had a blast together. it's nice to have a cousin close enough to drive to.

tid bits

2010-12-03T11:52:00.000-08:00

today kyle is in indiana (i think!) for work (he travels a lot and sometimes i forget where he is-crazy!). me and the girls were talking to him this morning on the phone. savannah was holding the phone saying "hi" and "hello". i was telling kyle something about puggy. the next thing i knew, savannah was following puggy around trying to put the phone to her ear so she could talk to dad too. puggy has ears that flop over, so beeb was trying to open up her ears, turning them inside out and then proceeding to put the phone to her ear. good times.

earlier this week, it snowed for the first time here in kentucky. we didn't go out to play in it because we went to the library for storytime. later that day, all the snow had melted so we (specifically millie) have been waiting for more. this morning, to our delight, we woke up and saw snow outside the window. it wasn't even an inch (cause kentucky doesn't get much snow) but it was a good dusting. so we ate breakfast and cleaned up a bit and got dressed in our snow gear and out we went! the kiddos were delighted to play outside in the snow. millie wanted to throw snowballs at me so she would gather as much snow dust as she could and throw it at me. sometimes it didn't throw very well so she would just rub it on my pants. i think savannah's snow suit is a little bit too big but millie's fits great.

we also walked to the park because it wasn't way too cold like it's been for the last week. wee ha!

2010-11-21T18:34:00.000-08:00

here are some pics i had downloaded to my blog a while back but then never gotten around to publishing. i think i didn't do i because there were a millions more pics from that day that i wanted to put up but didn't have the time. well, some may be better than none. this is from back in sept 2010 when we were about to move from utah out here to kentucky. we had a big ol' potluck dinner with all the loved ones that could attend. it was delightful! maybe sometime i will download more pics from that bittersweet day. you will just have to wait and see :)

2010-11-21T17:59:00.000-08:00

there's a bunch of pics for you. i didn't find my cord for downloading pics but kyle discovered he had a place on his new computer to put the memory card right into it and download. can't beat that!

well, some of these pics are of us a home and others are of us out and about.

horse ones: went to a horse park (seeing as kentucky is the horse capital of the world). the girls were FASCINATED by the horses. they got to pet horses and millie got to ride a pony (beeb will have to wait 'til she's 2 cause that's the rules). btw, the big chair is a random lawn ornament at the horse park that millie desired to sit on. good one.

floral couch ones: the girls LOVE to play on our floral couch (inherited from maecy who inherited it from uncle grady). the cushions come off and they jump all over them. i have made some pretty strict rules about how high millie can stack the cushions in an attempt to avoid injuries- so hopefully that takes care of precautionary measures. quite often savannah will whine at me while a make dinner or clean up instead of playing with millie, but lately she is realizing that life is much more fun when she plays with her exciting sister rather than cry at her boring mommy who is doing chores AGAIN! :) but as you can see from the crying savannah pic, she still finds plenty of reasons to cry about life when it's not working out like she wants it to. poor thing :( i promise i picked her up and loved her right after this picture, i just had to take it first because she looks cute even when she cries!

millie's awesome outfit ones: millie likes to dress fancy. fancy nancy, that is. last christmas, she was given some fancy nancy books from grandma and my friend dawn in fl. millies LOVES these books and want to be fancy like nancy all the time now. she wants to dress herself fancy every day (examples of her definition of fancy can be found in the fancy clothed millie pics). she told me today that when i try to get her to dress in something that's not fancy she will be really mad at me and tell me it's not fancy. she also informed me that i do not dress fancy and that i could borrow some of her clothes so i could be. she also informed kyle of his lack of fanciness, or as nancy would say, he is not dapper! so she said she would like to take him to the thrift store to get him fancy clothes. how sweet.

keeping my promises

2010-11-15T19:06:00.000-08:00

Hi.

I promised aunt kohleen that i would put up a blog last night, but it didn't happen. my excuse at that time was that i could't find the cord to upload pics onto the computer. i still have the same excuse tonight, plus it's past my bedtime, but i am doing this anyways, because a promise is a promise. and i've needed a reason to blog.

well, we are no longer residents of florida or utah, we are officially KENTUCKIANS! it was a bit of a culture shock to move here. we moved to a small town of 20,000 and people seem a little small townish and hickish and hill-billyish, etc. but that was what we thought when we went to the grocery store and walked down the street. now that we've been to the library and church, we have a better feel for the people, etc. we've begun to make friends and establish daily routines with out little ones. kyle's also been adjusting to work and figuring out how to use his time wisely.

millie is super excited to start a preschool program in january. she would have started in september but we didn't get here until the beginning of oct and it was already full. she packs her backpack everyday with paper and pens,etc. that she's getting ready to take with her to school.
millie is also a super good helper with savannah. can't think of any examples because i too tired :)

savannah is full of life and energy. she is very opinionated and wants to do everything herself. she also would choose for someone to tote her around 95% of the time. there seems to be an oxymoron going on here... she is not shy and is super smiley with people most of the time. as much as she is not shy, she is definitely very attached to her mama, much to her daddy's dismay (he can only get good cuddles with her if i'm not around)

i am the mom. this move has been the best one so far in the history of moves for me. when i moved to michigan, millie was 5 mo old and i was trying to finish up my degree from byu. when i moved to florida, i was done with school (thank heavens!) but i had a 3 week old baby to keep me busy and prevent me from getting much done. this time, i have no school and i don't have any newborns/very young babies. it is so awesome. i feel like i can get a few things done once in a while and it feels great to just be the mom. i am enjoying our home and have been happy thus far.

kyle is a busy man. he travels around kentucky and the states surrounding ky. he is a great husband and father and we are so blessed to have him! :)

and we must not forget to report that we adopted my parents pug dog. my parents appropriately named her puggy. we hesitated a lot about whether or not we should take on the responsibility of a dog. we are happy to report that we have no regrets. she is a part of our family now and it's fun to have a dog to greet us when we come home.

that is our family. done. i will report again sooner than you think. with pictures to come. you must cheer me on and hope i will find the cord and then take the effort to upload pictures... I CAN DO IT, YES I CAN, IF I DON'T DO IT, I'M NO ONE's FAN! that there is a weird little cheer to get me motivated :)

we are alive and well

2010-09-09T18:28:00.001-07:00

hi world out there.

we are still in existence even if our blog is no proof.

in july and august me and the girls, and then kyle made our way from florida out to utah in search of a job. after looking in florida for a job, we decided utah was the place. on tuesday the 10th of august, kyle started driving from florida to utah and arrived in utah thursday the 12th. on friday, the 13th of august, kyle interviewed for a job. saturday the 14th, kyle was offered the job. monday, the
16th, they wanted him to begin training. we were so thrilled!!! the job training is here in utah but the job will be in kentucky. we are moving there soon to start our life as kentuckians.

we are so grateful kyle gets to train here so we can be blessed to be with all the family we have here in utah. and when we move to kentucky, we will be 6 hours away from my sis shay and her clan in south carolina- yeah! and we will be very close to some friends in west virginia and some other friends in north carolina. we also have friends very close in ohio. and yet more friends about 5 hours away in indiana! hooray for friends and family!

welp, just checkin' in and now i'm checkin' out. later.

The Labor of Love, Part 2

2010-08-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, i am back to finish what i started...

i went to the hospital feeling peace and assurance that things would work out well for me and the baby and that my body and mind would be able to handle the labor. i know at the hospital they wouldn't want me to eat while in labor, so i ate a protein bar on the way to give me energy for the work of labor. we called the back up doula, deb, and told her my water had broken and that we were going to the hospital. she said she would start coming when i was dilated to a 4. they checked me as soon as i got to the hospital and i was already dilated to a 4 so deb came. in the meantime, kyle and i started to set up the labor room with all the stuff we'd brought from home.
when deb got to the hospital, she looked at my birth plan (i hadn't bothered showing it to her the day before because i didn't think i'd ever see her again since she was only on call for the weekend and it would be too good to be true if i had the baby a week early). we discussed the way i wanted the labor to go. one of the most important to me was to not be hooked up to machines the whole time so i opted for monitoring the baby's heart rate and my contractions every 1/2 hour instead of all the time. when monitoring was not happening, i walked the halls of the hospital. i would talk with kyle and with deb as a walked in between contractions. when i had contractions, i would stop talking and hold onto the railing in the hall. i would stand there and breathe deeply until the contractions passed. then i would continue walking and talking, going back to the hospital room on the 1/2 hour to be monitored. when i walked the halls, i would have very regular contractions about every 3-4 minutes, but as soon as i got back to the hospital room and had to sit on the bed to be monitored, the contractions would almost completely disappear. it would usually take about 10-15 minutes for a contraction to come when i sat down. i couldn't wait to get up and get moving again so the contractions would come again (because i could sense that the labor would take so much longer if i didn't keep moving). after about 4 hours of walking the halls and coming back for monitoring, my contractions started getting much more intense and i didn't feel like i could walk the halls anymore. i felt like i needed to do something different.
this is when kyle and i started to do the "labor dance." let me explain :)... when we first got to the hospital, deb was trying to give us pointers for kyle to help me when the labor pain got intense. she talked about massage techniques and other more basic things that i had heard before. she then told us about the "labor dance," which is both the husband and wife standing up with their arms around each other, swaying back and forth in one place. kyle and i immediately said we did not think this would be possible for us. deb was a little confused, so we explain that kyle was very afraid to help me when the labor pain got bad because of my tendancy to refuse help when in pain and even to get angry if people tried to help me when i was in pain. kyle's biggest worry before the labor was that i would be in pain and that he would not be able to be of any help because i would refuse his he p and even get angry at him. well deb said that said something to the effect that it would be great if i would let know help me through the pain if it seemed alright when the severe pain came. so she asked if she could remind us later about the "labor dance" to see if i would try it and i agreed that she could ask but told her i wasn't sure if i would try it. so, when the intense pain came, she asked if we wanted to try it and i agreed to. well, i can testify that the "labor dance" works and that it is magical and miraculous, at least in my case. it was amazing because as we swayed back and forth and i held onto kyle and rested my head on his shoulder, when the contractions came, there was almost no detectable pain whatsoever. i don't know how that is possible when the pain was more intense than ever up to this point, but i suppose that that's why people do the "labor dance." from that point onward throughout the rest of the labor, i was much more open to kyle's help even though i was in pain. i was not upset with him for helping me or touching me but welcomed the comfort he provided. this was a huge relief for him!
as good as the labor dance was, it couldn't last forever (maybe about an hour). the contractions continued to get stronger and stronger after this. i asked to try a yoga/exercise ball that the midwives had available at the hospital. i sat on the ball for about an hour or two (time does not exist when in labor zone). even though i was sitting on the ball, i was not sitting still. i was rotating my hips in circles and moving my hips back and forth, etc. as i did this, i couldn't help but imagine making room for my baby to drop further down. i tried to imagine relaxing my whole body during contractions and just letting her drop. kyle also massage my aching back with a tennis back while i did this. i think by this time, i was making soft groaning sounds. i didn't plan to do this, it just happened as a way to deal with the pain.
after being on the ball, i decided i wanted to get up and walk the halls again. this was not successful because my labor was very intense by this time. i couldn't even make it to the next room without feeling like i was going to double over in pain. but somehow i made it back to my room. kyle was starting to get worried about the pain i was in and was trying to think of a way to relieve it. i had wanted to have a room with a tub so i could have to option of delivering the baby in water, but there were no more tub rooms available when i got to the hospital, so at this point, kyle thought that a warm shower might help me deal with the pain. i was feeling indecisive about what i wanted so he said he was going to get the shower ready for me. while he did this, i told the deb that i wanted to get down on my hands and knees on my yoga mat. this made me feel pretty tired, so i stayed on my knees and supported the rest of my body with the exercise ball under my arms and chest. by this time i was probably rhythmically groaning and humming during the basically continuous contractions. i got up to go throw up when the pain made me feel sick. by this time, kyle had given up on having me take a shower because i was where i wanted to be. then i went back to the ball and continued what i was doing. after a while, i threw up again but this time i think it was in a cup. then i went into child's pose (with my bum back on my heels, my forehead to the floor in front of me and my arms extended in front of me). within minutes after assuming this position, i felt the urge to push. i told deb and she said she wanted me to resist the urge to push because she needed to find the midwife so she could come look at me. besides having the first check for my dilation, i had opted on my birthplan to only be checked for dilation when it was medically necessary. because of this, the midwife was very suprised that i was already feeling the urge to push and doubted that i was ready to push a baby out. my labor had started at 2:00 am and it was then about 9:00 am. 7 hours is on average a short labor. but she came to check. she wanted to see how ditated i was since it hadn't been checked since i got to the hospital but she wanted to have me on the bed to check it. because of the pain i was in and the extremely strong urge i had to push, it was completely impossible for me to get up off the ground. so kyle and deb had to literally pick me up off the ground to get me to the standing position and walk me over to the bed. as i was walking with their assistance it was very difficult and pretty much impossible to hold back the urge to push but i did the best i could (although i'm pretty sure i did push a little). finally i was on the bed and the midwife checked to see how dilated i was. i don't remember the medical lingo she used, but she informed us all that i was pushing the baby out and that she could see her head. well i could have told her that! so at this point, i'm trying my best not to continue pushing until i get the go ahead. then the midwife asks me if i want to deliver on the bed or if i want to get back on the floor to push out the baby. well, at this point i was in too much pain and just wanted to push the baby out. my mind was not working well enough to determine where to push but just to push. in my birth plan, i said i wanted to push the baby out in whatever position seemed right to me at the time i felt the need to push. anyone reading this would probably gather that it seemed like a good idea to my body to push the baby out while i was on the floor but that i was forced to get on the bed. in hindsight, i don't know why that midwife didn't let me stay on the floor and check my dilation there. on the bed, i kept on pushing. the midwife wanted my legs to me bent so my knees would be way up by my chest and my feet up by my butt. but by the time she positioned me to check my dilation, my legs were straight out and the pain prevented me from being able to bend them back the way the nurses and widwife wanted me to do. by this time i had pushed out the baby's head but the her shoulders were stuck. they tried a couple different maneuvers to get the shoulders unstuck, but nothing worked until their third attempt. it was at this time that they were able to get my legs bent where they wanted them and i was able to push the baby out, shoulders and all. after she was out, the pediatric spedialists needed to check to make sure she hadn't aspirated the maconium she had passed soon after the labor started, so the umbilical cord was cut. i was worried that baby wasn't okay because i didn't hear her crying. kyle was over by the peds and i didn't know what was going on. deb, my fabulous doula could sense that i was worried so she assured me that everything was okay with the baby. as soon as they were sure baby was okay, they handed her over to the mama (yours truly) for some bonding time skin to skin. savannah was nursing within 5 minutes and she has been a joy to be around since those first moments we had together.
the labor was awesome. i am so glad that a natural labor was possible for me and my baby and sweet husband. it believe it was 100% miraculous! i moved more that 7.5 hours during labor than i had been able to for weeks, due to a pinched nerve. i had absolutely no siatic nerve pain while in labor. i only had labor pain, which seems like enough :) this experience brought our whole family closer together. it even gave me more appreciation for my sweet millie, who was born by means of an epidural and inducement. going through the pain and stages of labor increased my appreciation for the body and the miracle it is and the miracles it is capable of bringing to pass.

the labor of love

2010-07-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

here is the long awaited labor story you've all been anticipating. i promised in my last post that i would write it on the wee one's day of birth, but it didn't happen. so here goes nothin'...

so, i had a doula that i met with before the labor for a couple weeks. she helped to answer any questions i might have before the labor, gave me foot massages, tried to help me with my pinched nerve pain, listened to me talk about my birth art, etc. her name was lara and she was great! the baby was due july 26 and the weekend before that, lara was going out of town for a family reunion so she wasn't going to be able to come to my labor if i had the baby that weekend. so a back-up doula was arranged so that if the baby came, i would have one. i met the back-up doula, deb, saturady, july 17 for a quick visit at the park behind my apartment. she was kind enough to come and meet me even though there was a big possibility that she would not be at my labor and that i would never see her again. i wanted to meet her just in case, but i was pretty sure i wasn't going to have a baby that weekend. i thought it would be nice to see her and meet her before she was "in my face" and right next to my side during an entire labor, in the event that i did go into labor that weekend.

well, that whole day, i felt so uncomfortable and like my belly was contracted tight all day. i couldn't get comfortable anywhere. it didn't matter whether i was sitting or standing. i went to sleep in my recliner and at 2:00 in the morning, i woke up wet. i got up and thought i must be going pee in my sleep and started to walk towards the bathroom. that's when a big gush came- my water BROKE! it was quite the gushing sound. i woke up kyle and told him my water had broken. so then we woke up my mama and told her. we called the hospital and they told us to come in. we had all our hospital bags together so i changed into dry clothes. we were about to leave when my mom suggested that i get a priesthood blessing from kyle. this was a great idea because i got a lot of comfort and assurance from the blessing. most of all kyle and i felt completely assured that a natural childbirth would be a challenge but that i would be able to do it. (before this blessing, i had my doubts that i would be able to stand the pain because i had a severely pinhced siatic nerve that made it very difficult for me to move and walk. i thought that this, combined with the pain of labor would not be a good combination. and, in order to have a successful natural childbirth, the ability to freely move around the halls of the hospital and the hospital room is very important- as opposed to being stuck to a hospital bed).

the sequel to this labor story will have to be finished another day. i am tired and need some sleep. it is only 10:00, but i am trying my darndest to get to bed early whenever it is humanly possible :) adeaiu.

one year ago...

2010-07-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

savannah was within the comfort of my womb, preparing for the work of labor and anticipating entrance into the world :) i was large and uncomfortable, planning to have a natural birth but wondering if i would go through with it in a hospital setting when an epidural is just a request away.

on that note, on the eve of savannah's first birthday (which is tomorrow), i want to finally record her birth story. i had good intentions of writing it down in my journal or typing it up on this blog, but alas, i have not done it yet. when she was a newborn, i needed sleep anytime i had a break. as she's grown, other things filled my time. and now, i am "moving" in 3 days and certainly don't have the time. but life is filled with all sorts of things to fill time and we only accomplish what we choose to spend our time doing. so, here goes nothing...

the background:
having a natural birth was very important to me with this birth (no drugs for pain or induction or epidural). to explain why, it requires that i tell millie's birth story. i have to confess that i never recorded this story either, so it would be great to get both recorded. millie's labor was induced (which means pitocin= acceleration of labor and an epidural). i didn't love this experience because i didn't feel like i was part of the labor. i did absolutely no labor preparation. i always thought that natural birth sounded good because it's natural, and isn't anything "natural" better than the alternative? i didn't know, but natural sounded more impressive. but i was surrounded on every side by women who chose to opt out of natural birth because of the fear of pain. having a natural birth seems to be looked at by many women as an unnecessary evil that should be avoided. so i went into the experience knowing no coping strategies or anything about the stages of labor or anything else to expect, feeling assured that i could asked for an epidural at any time if the going got rough. i told myself that if it was easy, the baby would be born naturally, but if it was hard, i would be open to having an epidural. so, on march 4, 2006, kyle and i suspected that my water was leaking. we went to the hospital to get it checked out and it was determined that amniotic fluid was leaking. the nurses at the hospital declared that my baby needed to be induced before an infection developed and the baby be exposed. they made it sound like a medical emergency. they then proceeded to leave me in a room for over 4 hours before admitting me to a room to be induced. by the time i was admitted to the room, i believe i was in natural labor because i felt like i was having regular contractions and they were somewhat painful but i wasn't educated enough about childbirth to know if i was in labor (i now know i was probably in the first stage of labor). because of my lack of education, i still believed i needed to be induced so i sat on the hospital bed and let them pump me with pitocin and got ready to wait out the rest of the labor. at first the labor wasn't progressing as fast as the doctor and nurses would have liked, but after they popped my water, it sped up fast. the pain started getting more intense. i felt like i could handle the pain if it didn't get any worse, but i was afraid of the unknown and i didn't want to know how much worse/more intense it might get, so i asked for an epidural. before the epidural, i was grouchy during contractions and asked the loved ones who attended the birth to "shut-up!" because i couldn't deal with their noise and the pains of the contractions at the same time (i had invited basically any woman who wanted to come to witness the labor and birth and this ended up including my sisters, my mother, my mother in law, my grandma in law, and my cousin in law). after the epidural, i could no longer feel the pains of the contractions and didn't even know i was having them unless i looked at the monitor to see when they were happening. with the epidural, i was able to be at my best socially and be in labor at the same time. i was laughing with loved ones and having a great time. but, at the end of the labor, i felt like i had missed out on the experience of labor and bringing my child into the world. i was so numbed up that i couldn't even feel myself pushing her out. i felt disconnected from my body. like something really cool happended 3,000 miles away. then after the baby was born, the umbilical cord was immediately cut, the baby was cleaned, weighed, stabbed in the foot, dressed and put into a little hat, and then viewed by everyone in the room. i could hear everyone admiring the little dear, commenting on her eyes, nose, cry, etc, and how beautiful she was. i sat there wondering what she looked like. then my sister maecy handed me the bundle. i expected to find her beautiful, but all i saw was a smashed nose. people stayed and admired her for a while. i held her crying for 15-20 minutes as the social gathering of loved ones cleared out of the room. then i got moved to a recovery room to making way for the next labor to happen in that room. it wasn't until i got to the recovery room that i tried for the first time to nurse my baby. everything was conducted by a nurse telling me it was time to feed my baby. she came in and without any warning proceeded to grab my breast and squeeze hard until she forced colostrum out. then she proceeded to to thrust my baby at my breast to see if she would latch on. i was so surprised by the feeling of a strong suck (it hurt!) that i immediately pulled away in pain. she proceeded to repeat the same process. is it any wonder that learning to nurse this little dear was such a struggle when it started out the way it did?

anyways, this is the story of millie's birth in a nutshell and the background of the beginnings of my want for a natural birth with my second child.

the pregnancy:
difficult! pinched nerve, depression, hugeness, finishing an internship, moving!!!

when i found out i was pregnant, i cried on and off for 2 weeks. i was so close to finishing my bachelor's degree from byu and i was afraid the pregnancy would be difficult and would keep me from finishing. i knew that if i wanted to graduate before the baby was born, it would require that i finish all the rest of my course work and internship while pregnant (yes, this is obvious, i know). but this seemed so daunting! i knew i would probably feel sick for a large chunk of the pregnancy and then too large for the rest of it. i didn't know that i would also have an extremely pinched nerve and that i would develop intense depression. but i decided to give it everything i had and attempt to finish everything before the arrival of a new baby. but i also wanted a natural birth. i was soooo blessed to be able to have so much help from friends and family throughout the entire pregnancy. i am afraid to name individual people for fear that i would forget to mention others. but i am going to thank faylyn for helping me with my internship and feeding me so much food when i was feeling too sick to cook and for cleaning my house,etc. candace and candy for being great friends and helping me with housework. amy b for taking care of me before and after the birth and for throwing me a graduation party and a baby shower. all the friends who attended the graduation party and baby shower and showed me their love. all the ladies who participated in my internship wellness program at church. maecy and abby for coming to michigan to help me, millie, kyle to cope with life. my mom for coming to michigan to help me in more ways than i could ever name and then coming to florida to help me get settled. the doulas who helped me before and after the labor. my in-laws for having kurt drive the moving truck to florida with kyle and for helping kyle de-stress after the birth of a baby, a move, and studying for and taking the bar exam by taking him to disneyworld and for helping us move into our new place. i also want to thank anyone who ever prayed for us or hoped for our success.

when i became pregnant with savannah, i was only slightly more educated about natural births by this point than i was when millie was born (thanks to the video "the business of being born"). however, i didn't know how i was going to find the time to become educated on natural birth and prepare mentally for it. but i was blessed to meet a wonderful friend who is into natural birth (thank you katie f) who gave me moral support when i doubted whether to have a natural birth. the due date was 2 days before kyle had to leave michigan to go take the bar exam in florida. so i was feeling some amount of pressure to be induced the week before so that kyle would be able to be there for the labor and so that i would be able to move to florida when family was scheduled to help move us to florida. but katie reminded me that i had a choice and that i didn't have to be induced if i didn't want to be induced. so i stuck up for myself (of course my husband and in laws were ready to support me also, but i had to be brave enough to speak my mind and let them know). katie also recommended that i read a book called "birthing from within" to prepare for the birth. this book was absolutely amazing!!!!! it didn't illustrate any particular labor method (such as lamaze or the bradley method,etc) but rather focused on preparing yourself mentally for the labor. the premise of the book is that as a woman, our bodies already know how to labor, but our minds need to prepare for the experience. the book also addressed how to love your labor even if it doesn't end up being natural in the end, after all the preparation. at the end of reading the book, i still didn't feel 100% confident that i would be able to accomplish the natural labor i was hoping for but i felt as mentally prepared as possible. kyle and i also attended a birthing prep class that was very beneficial and educational. because i didn't know if kyle would be able to be present at the labor, i decided to have a doula present at the labor so i would have someone there every step of the way for moral support. well, savannah ended up coming into the world a week earlier than her due date and i was blessed to be able to have both my husband AND a doula during the entire labor and afterwards. it was such a huge blessing! the labor was all natural and after the sweetie was born, she was given to me in all her naked glory, with no stabbed foot, so i could put her skin to skin with me for some sweet bonding time. within 5 minutes, she began to root around for milk. i put her to my breast and she figured out how to suck milk on her own. she nursed on and off for about an hour.

i want to record the particulars of the labor and i will record them tomorrow, on savannah's birthday because i need some rest tonight so i can be ready to pack, pack, pack hard core tomorrow!!!

the labor:
awesome!

the child:
full of joy! a wonderful addition to our family :)

millie's miracles

2010-07-04T19:50:00.000-07:00

lately millie notices all the simple things in life and declares "what a blessing," or "that's a miracle!" quite often.

she left something outside for like 2 minutes while we went inside to get something we needed for a walk. when we came back, it was still there. she declared this a miracle because no one stole it while she was gone (a bike of ours was stolen a while back and now she is thankful anytime we still have possessions when they aren't locked up).

a caterpillar made a cocoon in her little bug cage and stayed in it for about 4 weeks. kyle and i had started to wonder if anything would ever come out of it. when millie heard us questioning, she always assured us that it would turn into a butterfly soon. well, the other day, we found a moth in the cage and realized the cocoon was empty. "it's a miacle!!" millie declared :0 it wasn't the butterfly she had been hoping for but she was satisfied with a moth.

we went swimming at a friends home recently. there were small frogs in their yard. millie was so excited because she loves to catch things (like frogs, dragonflies, butterflies, etc). she proceeded to catch one. she wanted to swim with the frog but we told her to put it back in the grass. i had already gotten in the pool with savannah while millie was playing with said frog and had neglected to put on millie's life jacket yet. my friend was still out of the pool with her kids too. i turned my back for just a moment, and the next thing i know, millie has fallen into the pool. i think she thought there were stairs where she tried to walk in she has never swam before (she usually wears a life jacket) but with no effort at all, she swam to the side of the pool and grabbed onto it. the first thing she did after that was hold up her right hand and excitedly yelled out "the frog saved my life and taught me how to swim!" despite all our urgings for her to put the frog back in the grass, she was still holding the frog and even swam with it. she declared this a miracle also. after we recovered from the shock of millie jumping in the water, we had a great laugh about the frog teaching millie how to swim. we put her life jacket on after that :)

she has declared many other miracles the last couple of weeks, but these are the ones i can remember at the moment.

I love to see the temple

2010-06-24T18:56:00.001-07:00

a week ago wednesday, we went to the temple in orlando with some friends of ours. it was great. they have a 4 year old daughter who millie adores. her parents went in the temple for a couple hours while we watched the kids and then we went in for a couple hours while they watched the kids. we hung out at the temple for more than 4 hours! it was awesome. there is a peace and calm that only the temple can bring and i love having my children there walking around those sacred grounds with me. millie and her playmate had fun trying to catch lizards and when this got old (because lizards are quite fast), they found a worm! the worm was very entertaining and they played with it for over an hour. millie's friend's parents were surprised that their little girl touched the worm because she is usually a little too squirmish to do this. i've got pictures to prove it! i didn't want to show the little dear's face in any pics because i didn't ask her mama and daddy but here are some pics i felt would be okay to display to the world without permission from them. enjoy!

the proposal :)

2010-06-23T20:17:00.000-07:00

last night millie asked me why i wanted to marry dad when we got married. i proceeded to tell her about all the things i like about the guy (his eyes, his smile, his personality, his kindness towards me and others, etc.). she seemed content to know these things. then tonight she caught me off-guard when she asked me if i wanted a different husband someday. i told her no and i wanted to be married to her daddy forever and ever. surprisingly, she look a little disappointed. so a little later, i asked her why she asked me if i wanted a new husband. she then told me that she was hoping that when she grew up and became a man someday, that she was hoping to be able to marry me. yes, i was able to keep from laughing, but it was hard! we then had a discussion about how she will become a woman someday and that she can be a wife to a husband and that boy grow into men and that girls grow into women, etc. she then said, "is that because God made us that way?" and i answered "yes, that is why." it was a fun conversation :)

savannah is so proud to be walking now and is feeling quite independent at times. it's fun to see my little ones grow.

the promised dragon fly picture!

2010-06-20T18:28:00.000-07:00

Here is the picture of Millie with the dragonfly she caught with her own two hands.

8 years ago...

2010-06-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

In a land far far away...

We were wed!

We made it passed the national average of 7 years! Way to go us!

Story from today... Some lovely relations sent a lovely bouquet of flowers our way today. i was reading to millie in her room when kyle brought them in to show us. millie immediately asked where the flowers came from. kyle read the card and proceeded to tell her that they were sent to mom and dad because it's our anniversary. neither one of us looked at her face when she saw the flowers or after she found out who they were for, but we were both surprised when she broke down in tears saying, "I'm so sad, I thought they were for me." She would not allow me to comfort her and got off my lap and went over to the other side of her room away from us and then proceeded to tell us "I'm so jealous, I wanted those flowers." Kyle didn't have school today, so we woke up this morning ready to celebrate our anniversary with our family. We told millie and savannah that today was going to be like a holiday and we would have fun together all day because we were celebrating our family. by the time we received the flowers, we had shown millie lots of special attention and tried to stress the importance of this special day to her, so we were a little surprised when she admitted to being jealous. She had never used this word in a real life situation before. i think the act of being "jealous" is mentioned in at least 3 books that we own (joseph's brothers being jealous of him because his father gave him a beautiful coat, and men being jealous of daniel because the king like him, and the wicked lady who was jealous of snow white's beauty). But millie has only ever used the word in her imagination play with her dolls (usually on her own time when she in her own little world playing by herself and i overhear her playing with them). Anyways, we let millie keep the flowers in her room and told her that we were also celebrating her because we would never have been blessed to have her in our lives unless we had been married first.

today millie caught a dragonfly with her bare hands and i have a picture i will not be downloading tonight because i need to go to sleep and i am just not going to make myself do that right now :)- sleep is always my excuse for getting out of anything!

by the way, savannah is officially walking now! it's so cute! she can walk across the room but still seems a little unsure about walking all the time. she still wants to hold my finger to walk about 70% of the time (she doesn't ask me whether it's convenient for me to do this whenever she wants, but i try to oblige her as much as i can because i know this phase of her wanting me to help her walk will pass sooner than i know it).

life is good. we love florida. we love our children. we still love each other after 8 years... and counting :)

millie moments

2010-06-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

millie is awesome and that's why i'm taking a minute to talk about the girl.

millie wants to be our little helper quite often and wants to help us "choose the right" because as much as we should be perfect examples to her all the time, we truthfully are not. we are imperfect parents (what did you expect?) and she is starting to realize that we need just as much guidance and direction as she does. when i say this, i mean in terms of our emotions,etc. anyways, if anyone knows me well, they will know that i get stressed often despite my best efforts to not. millie recently gave me one of her stuffed animals and told me it was my new pet and that it would comfort me when i needed it to. so now, anytime she can see that i am starting to get stressed about something, she talks me through it by reminding me "mommy, remember you have a new pet." this means, "calm down, if you would just remember that you have a pet to comfort you, then you could avoid all these stressful feelings and settle down." i love when she tells me this because it seems so funny that a stuffed animal would be the answer to all my problems and it always makes me smile and appreciate millie's outlook on life. i am also able to calm down and get ahold of myself better when she simply remind i have a new pet.

another story: when kyle got home from school today, i was telling him that i had felt stressed because of a list of reasons. among these reasons was that my computer was not working today so i wasn't able to write an email i wanted to write. about an hour after complaining about my day to kyle (no, i don't complain every night and i'm not always stressed- sometimes i'm a pleasant person to live with), millie came up to me and asked me if daddy's computer was broken or if it was just mine. i told her that daddy's computer still worked. she then asked me if i wanted to use his computer to write an email. i told her i would probably need to since mine wasn't working. i didn't start using his computer right then because i think i was occupied with the babe or something. the next thing i know, she is asking her daddy if i can use his computer to write an email to someone. i like this story because it shows me that she was trying to make my life easier and help solve a problem she was able to recognize would make me happy.

now i am off to bed :)

feast on this!!!

2010-06-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

So, here I am. The last post was pics of my sis Shay and her hus Shawn when they came to visit with their kiddo Ian. As you can tell from the pics, it was a super good time. They live in SC and we were happy they took the time to come. We drove up to visit them last Thanksgiving (pics from that on facebook). Anyways, I was so tired after down loading the pics that i didn't bother writing any kind of explanation with it.
So today, i'm going to start with words, and hopefully end with pics. some people are awesome enough that they put words with corresponding pics. Kudos to them but i am just proud when i complete a blog with any amount of pics or words to go with them.

Well, our family is happy and healthy. Silly goat is 4 and Banana is 10 months. Silly went to the dentist yesterday with no cavities and Bana has 8 teeth to be proud of. bana is not walking yet, although some thought from the last pics posted that she was. she can stand very well and for quite a long time, but walking is not on her lists of mastered tasks.

silly frequently yells "bridge!" when we drive in the car because there are two entrances into the condos where we live and of course she wants to go in the entrance with the bridge even though it's not closest to our place.
silly is into getting dressed these days and wants to be "fancy nancy" every day. She got a book about a girl who dresses fancy and has accessories, etc. and she wants to follow suit.
silly wants desperately to be a teenager. she thinks it's fascinating that someone can still be kind of like a kid, but big enough to do almost everything by themselves. she's had a couple of teenagers watch her in the past and she thinks that is a blast. tonight she enjoyed being a teenager older sister and taking care of bana. it was great because i was able to get a lot done cause she was entertaining her so well.
silly wants pets desperately!!! here is a list of pets she has owned in the last 6 months or so: spider, mosquito, potato bug, caterpillar, frog, and dragon fly. she caught almost all of these herself. the spider and mosquito we found inside and i put it in a container for a couple days for her. she found the caterpillar and play with it like crazy for a couple of days and felt so sad when she found it dead because she wanted it to turn into a butterfly (we told her to leave it alone and then maybe it would a cocoon,etc.). She caught the frog with her bare hands and we kept it for only a day. the dad read up on the care of frogs and realized we did not have the proper home for a frog and that it would probably die. silly was so sad to let it go. the most recent catch was the dragonfly. sill had told our neighbor that she wanted to have a pet and to catch bugs. the next thing we know, the sweet neighbor buys her a net and a cute little bug cage. so the dad caught her a dragonfly that she kept for 2 days- please take a moment to laugh while you picture said daddy hopping and sneaking around trying to catch a dragonfly with no luck for about 45 minutes (she had caught one by herself with her bare hands before she had a net, but it quickly escaped out of her grasp). we convinced her to let it go and she agreed when we told her that dragonflies eat mosquitoes. the area outside out front door many mosquitoes congregate. i shake them off before i put the kids in the stroller. this make silly worried there might be some lingering close by still. so after letting the dragonfly go this morning, she is convinced that she will be protected from mosquitoes because she said her dragonfly pet is living by our house and is protecting us from mosquitoes by eating them all. hooray!
this last sunday, we had a different neighbor over for dinner who is learning about our church from the missionaries. he wanted to show his appreciation for the meal so her brought some battery operated hamsters for silly and bana. they're the kind that have a ball you can put them in and the run around in the ball around the room. the girls LOVE them. they can also run without the ball. silly wanted to bring hers to the grocery store yesterday. we got a good laugh because silly dropped it on the floor and it started speeding away from us down the aisle. customers at publix were in for a laugh too.
some day when we are settled somewhere, we have promised silly a dog. she loves cats too but her mama is allergic to them so a dog it will be.

bana is a friendly little thing. she loves going to church because there's so many people to smile at and be silly for. she likes to wave and wave and wave. she also enjoys waving when we go on walks and runs in the mornings. silly also waves at people. it's usually about the time when people are headed to work in the mornings, and i encourage the girls to wave at people so they have something to smile about on their way to work.
behind savannah's booster seat high chair thingy, i keep a bag of flash cards with words on one side and pictures on the other side. at mealtimes, i will often get out these cards to show to the girls. we'll read the word on one side and then i'll flip it over and show them the picture. they both love doing this and sometimes silly will come and play a game where she steals the cards and hides them under the table after i read the word (after she's done with her meal, of course). bana gets super excited for all of these shananagans and will squeal and clap her hands during the excitement. the last couple days when i put her in her chair, she tries to turn around and grab the flashcard bag and it sounds like she says "caa" which sounds to me like she asking to play cards. so we get them out and the excitement begins!

me and the girls will be arriving in happy valley at the end of july to stay for a while whilst the dad looks for a job (unless he has already found one by that time, God willing). so from now until then, i am going to be busy sorting and dejunking to get ready to move out of this place. we will be getting rid of almost everything so the cost of storing our stuff will be low.

last week one some of our really good friends from ave maria school of law in michigan (which school has since moved to naples, fl), mark and pat, drove down to orlando from NC for a vacation. we drove to see them and went to disney world on tuesday and played at their hotel poo on wednesday. it was a blast. they enjoyed meeting bana and reuniting with sillykins. kins was really excited to see them. she went on the ride soarin' at epcot with them and had a blast. she also really enjoyed looking at a caterpillar at the pool with mark.

a very random pic you will view will be of a potato with a dove on it. wilst cleaning potatoes for dinner, i discovered this one with a dove growth. before removing the little beauty, i snapped a little picture of it so i would never forget to feel peace while cooking dinner (making dinner is sometimes a stressful thing for me)

another event of note late week was my birthday. it was so wonderful. i had originally planned to go to the temple in orlando and asked kyle to watch the kids while a went in but i decided the day before that i really just didn't want to go to the temple on my birthday (it's a 2 hour drive there and then it takes at least 2 hours in the temple and then 2 hours back). a friend of mine invited me to come visit her in st. petes which is a couple hours away and is close to the beach. this sounded so fun, but i didn't really feel like driving anywhere on my birthday- it just didn't sound like a relaxing day. so i came to the conclusion the i would wake up in the morning and do whatever i thought would make me happy all day. kyle likes to make plans, so he had to be patient all day because he didn't know what i was going to want to do from minute to hour. but we all had a great day: nature walk in the morning, botanical gardens after, naps for everyone (except silly who played quietly in her room), and letting the kids play at the mall playground in the evening. I also requested that no money be spent on my birthday on me or anyone else. so we ate meals at home, and i was happy to have no presents (our new camera last month was my mother's day present, birthday present, kyle's father's day present, and our anniversary present). in the end, it was a very calm and relaxing day with my family- what could be better than that? :)

alright, now i will download some pictures. if you read all the above, you have too much time on your hands- go fold some laundry or do your dishes, or clean out a closet, etc. j/k (that's what i've neglected while writing this).

2010-05-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

2010-05-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

2010-05-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we lost our camera :(. But, we now have a new one. It's not quite as nice as out old one but it will do. These past few weeks have been hectic. I had finals and Tye is of course always under pressure as a mom. However, Savannah did have her first Publix cookie and we went to Disney World after my third final. Savannah and Millie are so fun to be around. We could not imagine life without them and the laughs they allow us to enjoy.

Millie loves to sing to Savannah before bedtime. A couple of days ago she said that she was going to make up a special song for Savannah. She proceeded to belt out a song. When she was done she looked at me very seriously and told me I needed to write down the words. Here they are:

I'm a big sister
I'm a big sister
I have books
My baby has books
I love my family
My family has books
I'm a big sister
And I have a big sister shirt!

I wish I could have recorded the song and got the melody she sang with it. What a hoot.

Well here are some pictures from last week.

Millie, Savannah, and two cookies.

Boarding the Monorail at Epcot.

Flying high with Dumbo.

While Savannah and I went on Pirates of the Caribbean together, Millie got this little doohickey in her hair. She told Tye that she wanted it to be a surprise for Dad. How sweet.

Savannah deep in thought.

Loves to all!!

Feels like Flordia...

2010-05-02T19:25:00.001-07:00

A couple weekends ago, we drove down to Naples, Fl to attend a Law Review banquet Kyle was invited to at Ave Maria School of Law. This was the law school he attended in Michigan that moved to Florida this past year (kind of crazy, but it really happened). We have many friends who are still attending the school and we got the opportunity to visit them. We stayed with our friends the Clarks, met up with the Hendersons, Millers, Hepworths, Nielsens, Hamischs, Kyle's friend Sarah Murphy, our friend Masha, and many others at church and at a JRCLS dinner. It was so much fun. Millie really missed her friends from Michigan and had a great time reuniting with some of them. She also enjoyed meeting Candace's and FayLyn's new babies Tessa and Eliza. We went to the beach and enjoyed our time there too- as you can see from the picture :)

Kyle is almost done with finals- one more week to go! And then he'll be starting a new term that will end in July. After that, he will be done with school forever! Now we just need to get him a job and we'll be set. Anyone know of any tax attorney jobs you think Kyle should apply for? Just let us know...

I am enjoying my time with my beautiful children. We have been going on wonderful bike rides for my exercise (kids in tow in the awesome bike trailer thingy that I love). Besides being with my kids, I enjoy spending time with other mommies while our children play. One of my best friends is named Hiba. She is Muslim and practices the Islam religion. We enjoy discussing our religions and learning about them from each other. It's great because we both respect each others' beliefs but have so many questions about the religion we are not a part of. She thinks it would be fun to get babysitters for out kids and go on a couples date with our husbands to discuss religion. Sounds fun to me :)

Millie enjoys life and is always full of questions. She loves to have us read books to her and it's hard to get through a sentence or two without her asking all sorts of questions. It's good that she's curious :) She also really into trying to write letters right now. But she definitely doesn't want any help. She gets really frustrated when she can't write them just right. Millie continues to enjoy having Savannah around and always seems to want to be near her, although she does enjoy the time when Savannah naps in the morning because she knows she'll get more one on one time with me.

Savannah took her first two steps this week. We were at the playgroup at the church and she was after a toy. She moved very quickly and I'm not sure if she even knew she walked, but it did happen. Savannah learned to say "mama" this week also. Over the last couple of weeks, she's started calling me "nah nah" but once in a while she also says "mama." She's been calling Kyle "dada" for months (I think she started this a 7 months) and she continues to do this. I'm usually up with the girls before Kyle gets out of bed, and we usually go in his room to read scriptures with him before he gets out of bed. We have to go down a little hallway to get the our bedroom and as soon as we start to walk down the hall, Savannah starts to clap her hands and say "da da" over and over again. Millie enjoys hearing Savannah talk, even when it isn't real words but is just jibberish.

Later. time for some sweet sleep for the mama of this family.

randomness

2010-04-11T17:33:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of our trip to the UF Musuem of Natural History with Kyle's cousin Dani and her husband JR. They came to visit us about a week and a half ago and it was a lot of fun to spend some time with them.

Please note the pictures of Millie with a glass display of beads in the background and with American Indians in the back. She was really excited about these displays because she has recently been very interested in beads. We checked out a book at the library about beads and how they've been worn throughout history and still today. The book showed Native Americans wearing beads on clothing and as necklaces. The displays had really old beads and showed the native americans wearing them on their clothes.

I had to include the picture of Savannah by the keyboard because she has grown tall enough to reach up and play the keyboard. She wants to do it all the time, but I think she has the potential to pull it over on herself. Millie heard me talking about this and how I didn't want it to fall on the babe (as we often refer to her as- or as baby bana) and the next thing I knew, she was dragging the keyboard into the middle of the room. I couldn't understand why she would think this was okay, so I asked her why. She proceeded to tell me that if she dragged the keyboard over to Savannah's crib, that Savannah would be able to play it standing up in her crib without pulling it over onto herself. What a smartie pance (spelled this way intentionally)!! It worked and the two of them had so much fun. Millie climbed into the crib with her and they had an awesome jam-session. I was able to go get some cleaning and whatnot done around the house without either of them missing me at all :) I took some pictures of this fun, but I haven't downloaded them quite yet, so hopefully you will enjoy them soon.

Well, What Pictures Are you Doing?

2010-04-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

I asked Tye what I should title this post, and she said "Well, what photos are you doing?" . . . so that's the title (I am not in a creative mood at the moment). In respect to the title of the post . . . here are the pictures I'm "doing".

Lucky for us Savannah has started to climb all obstacles.

Savannah is probably the happiest baby I have ever known, she is always smiling.

Here she is again.

Here is Tye at the botanical gardens in Gainesville. It has a beautiful Bamboo Garden.

Later!

Another One

2010-03-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Yesterday our family went to the Orlando Temple in the morning and then met our friends at Disney World in the afternoon. It was a long but very nice day. We are posting more pictures from Kyle's parents' trip here a couple of weeks ago. The first set of pictures are at a walking trail in south Gainesville where you can go and see alligators, very exciting. The second set is of Millie's birthday party. Loves to all.

Here are pictures from Millie's birthday party.

millie's 4th birthday at the beach

2010-03-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

Back on March 5, Millie had her 4th birthday. She is so proud of herself for growing up to be a big 4 year old. She is so much fun.

General update on Millie:
* She has been going to speech therapy for a couple of months and her teachers are very impressed with her improvements- and Millie is getting more and more confident with herself and her talking abilities :) She really looks forward to going to "school" (this is what we call speech therapy) and working hard.
* she is happy to be able to pick up Savannah all by herself and tote her around safely (the rule still stands that mom or dad need to be right there in case there's a problem)
* She frequently pretends she is a rabbit and enjoy eating carrots and lettuce while in the act
* LOVES going to the library and making friends with the librarians and storytellers there (she is shy so usually makes friends vicariously through her mother and smiley sister)
* She's really into the Statue of Liberty after her interest was sparked by seeing a small version of it and asking questions about it. We have an encyclopedia, you see, so she can ask questions about many things and we can consult the books.
* She is awesome!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Reeder came to visit us at the time of Millie's birthday and we decided to go to the beach on March 5 for Millie's birthday. Here are some pictures of the fun that was had that day. I hope you enjoy :)

Soon to come... pictures from Millie's friend birthday party, disney world, alligator sightings, etc.

photo shoot of cuteness

2010-02-17T18:06:00.000-08:00

So my girls are cute. That is a fact :) They like to play with each other. Savannah is always up for playing with Millie because she adores her every move, but she only gets the privilege when Millie is up for it too. And tonight, Savannah's dreams came true and Millie played with her rather intensely for at least a half an hour. Lucky baby!!! They both had many laughs and enjoyed themselves immensely.

part 3- organization

2010-02-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

Hi! So, for the first time in my life, I feel like I am able to organize things by myself. I think it took Dawn helping me with a few things, and now, there's no stopping me. Well, except for the fact that I still have 2 little distractions that interrupt me sometimes. But I feel like once I start something, I finish it. I think it's because I don't tell myself, "today I have to organize the whole kitchen." Rather, I say, "today, I will organize this one cupboard." Sometimes that's all I get to, and then I've met my goal, but other days, I start some other simple thing. And I certainly don't organize every day. I just do it when I can. And when I do it, I certainly don't have time to report what I did on here like originally planned- because I'm too busy organizing to have time for that. So, unless I really feel the need, I think I will abandon reporting to myself here on that subject. And besides, I'm sure any readers out there would much rather look at pictures of my sweeties than hear about my little projects.
There. Done. Good-bye. Onto new things...

haiti

2010-01-28T18:57:00.000-08:00

hi ya'll

there are many things you can do to help the relief effort in haiti. if you want to have a yummy something while helping haiti, go to my friends blog to find out about a bake sale this saturday in provo to benefit haiti... http://gregandjesswilson.blogspot.com/

"as i have loved you, love one another"

am i lucky or just blessed?!

2010-01-26T17:35:00.000-08:00

here's the update on my organization goals:

saturday night came around and i didn't finish savannah's closet and room. sunday is a day of rest from stuff like this. so i decided when monday came around that i would definitely get it done.

but...
i didn't get to it. it's hard enough for me to keep up on dishes and laundry. which, by the way, i have been doing really well at (so i should take a moment to pat myself on the back for that rather than worrying about not getting organization done). then today came around and i wondered how i would get it done, or get to the rest of my goals.

then i get a text from my friend dawn, wondering if i would like her to come down and organize savannah's room and closet for me. i had mentioned a couple days ago that i wanted to get it done but that it would be a challenge for me. she said that she loves to organize and would love to come and do it sometime.

so, i let her! i was a little embarrassed and hesitant to show her the mess and let her have at it, but i humbled myself and let her do it. i helped her move stuff around and she directed me on how to organize it all. she seemed to enjoy herself and i am sooooo pleased with the outcome! now i'm not tripping over all sorts of stuff when i go in there. and i know where to find anything i want :)

she's ready to come back tomorrow to help me with my bedroom closet and anything else we can get done. i am soooo lucky and sooooo blessed to have a friend like this.

the funny thing is that no matter where i live, there is always someone (or several someones) that come to the rescue and help me clean up and get organized. anyone who really knows me knows that organization definitely does not come naturally to me and i am convinced that god sends me angels! i am truly grateful for the angels in my life! Thanks to you, you know who you are! (basically anyone can consider themselves an angel if they've helped me in any way ever- go ahead and give yourselves a pat on the back- and let me know if i can do something for you)

laziness and organization do not mix

2010-01-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

well, i have neglected my blog long enough. but, today i will not be posting pictures or talking about my adorable little girls or my much loved husband...

i am venting my frustrations with lack of organization in my home and lack of getting much done besides playing with kids. now, don't get me wrong, playing with kids is super super important, but i'd like to get a few things done now and then too. so, i've decided that rather than looking at facebook or blogs every time i get a break from my much loved family, i will try to get one organization project done a week. seems reasonable, i think. i should still have time for bummin' around too.

here is a list of stuff i can think of right off the bat that need to be done:
- finish organizing savannah's closet and room
- organize millie's closet and room
- organize my front entry closet
- reorganize my 72 hour kit
- organize high school pictures
- organize my bedroom closet
- organize my desk drawers
- organize my family home evening stuff
- clean out my kitchen cupboards
- catch up on the family "scrapbook"
- start a baby book for savannah, like unto millie's
- organize my filing cabinet

that ought to be a good enough list for now. a bit overwhelming, but if i take it one at a time, i should be able to get a lot done.

is there anyone out there who enjoys organizing stuff and getting stuff done who has any advice for someone like me who doesn't know how to get stuff done?

here's my ideas:
- have kyle take the kids once a week so i can have some time without interruption to get started on each task
- "scrapbook"/ baby book/ filing cabinet/ family home evening organization could be done while watching a movie at night
- i have a hard time deciding what i should do when there's so much that needs to be done, so i'm thinking of putting these tasks on papers in a hat and randomly pulling one out every week to find out what i need to get done that week.

i've decided i will keep track of my organizational goals on this here blog and report to myself that they are completed each week. sound good?

goal #1 (to be completed by the end of tomorrow/saturday night)...
organize savannah's closet and room!
i started on this already and i will post a picture of it when it's all done. then i will have proof that i accomplished something.

sometimes i am hesitant to make goals, because i feel like i am setting myself up for failure. i almost always expect more than is humanly possible of myself! but, i think it's realistic to give each of my goals a good try each week and then be happy with what i am able to accomplish.

favorite quote about goals...

"GoAlS aRe StArS tO rEaCh FoR, nOt StIcKs To BeAt OuRsElVeS wItH"

sisterly love

2009-12-05T17:36:00.000-08:00

millie is in love with savannah and savannah basically adores millie. it's great, it really is.

Here are some pictures of the two of them during our family snuggle time that we do most mornings as part of our morning routine to get daddy to wake up and go to school.

This is our life...

2009-11-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

Grandma Miles wrote us a couple weeks ago with a few inquiries... So I thought I'd take a few minutes to touch the topics she's been wondering about, along with photos of the girls on halloween and other stuff.

Grandma's words...
We are eager to hear more of your Florida adventures and see more photos. Has Millie learned that she has friends in Florida too? We heard that she didn't want to go to Primary after the first time because her friends were not there. How are you all adjusting to a new life in a new place?

My answers...
We have had many adventures in Florida.
* One of which goes like this: We went with some friends to snorkel at Alexander Springs a couple weeks ago. We saw our first alligator IN THE SPRINGS!!! We didn't discover it until we were already in the water. The alligator was way far away and the springs were perfectly clear so we could tell that there was no alligator close to us. They had the "safe" part of the springs sectioned off so that swimmers would know where the alligators don't go- should we really believe they won't come where we are?! This alligator was following the "rules" and was outside "our" swimming area, but I don't think I could do that again now that I know there are alligators anywhere near where I might be!
P.S. snorkeling is AWESOME! This was my first time and it was so fun to see the fish and the springs under the water.
* trick or treating was NOT cold at all. It's weird to Kyle and me that the rest of the "normal" world is getting cold or is already cold and that we are still in a beautiful paradise of wonderful weather. The thought makes me want to giggle!

On to the next question...
Has Millie learned that she has friends in Florida too? We heard that she didn't want to go to Primary (nursery) after the first time because her friends were not there.
- Millie actually did fine for the first 4 or so times of going to nursery, even though we could tell she had more anxiety than usual. But one day she did NOT want to go alone and our family had a stressful day (because we've always had the policy that we will not go to class with her and she cannot go to class with us and she's NEVER had a problem with us leaving until this one random Sunday- so we felt like we didn't know what to do). She may not have liked it because there aren't very many kids her age- they're all a lot younger than her and in Ann Arbor, there were many children her age. But, things are going much better now, and she will get to go to the Sunbeam class starting in January and she'll be with kids more her age.

How are you all adjusting to a new life in a new place?
* Life here is great. I always feel like I am not at home somewhere until I have a few really good friends. Once I have good friends, I'm happy and feel like I can survive. I am happy to report that we have started to develop many good friends now and that life is going well. Kyle has made friends with fellow school mates and I've made friends with moms and kids at the library. We've also made some good friends at church. One of the nice things about our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) is that the meeting time and place of every congregation (ward) throughout the world is determined by a person's geographic location. So when you move, there's one less thing to think about- you already know where to go and you don't have to search for a minister (or bishop in our case) or congregation (ward) that you like because you already know where to go and then you just show up and get busy making friends with everyone that's there.
* Kyle and I have started to sing in our church's choir and we are enjoying that (maybe it's because they have volunteers who watch the children for those that come to the practices!)
* Millie enjoys church playgroups, the library, riding her tricycle, going to the park, playing with her many friends here, having family home evenings, picking up acorns,dancing, singing, jumping, learning to sew (we are making a pillow together with REAL needles- suggested by aunt Maecy), playing dress up, cooking her own meals, pretending she's a baby, etc.
* Savannah is generally a very happy baby. She smiles a lot, coos a lot, sleeps a lot, and has begun to giggle a lot (she started giggling about a month ago but it didn't become a regular thing until recently). She likes sucking on her hand, but especially her middle finger and ring finger. When she sucks on these fingers, it looks like she's signing "love." I took a picture of her sleeping this way for your viewing pleasure. She is also trying desperately to get her toes in her mouth. I guess her fingers are not satisfying enough. She gets a hold of her foot and bring it towards her mouth and then just as her toes are about in her mouth, she accidentally lets go and gets her hand instead- how frustrating!
She also enjoys going on rides with her sister Millie. Millie is usually wearing a dress. One day Millie wanted to hold Savannah, so I put her on Millie's lap on the floor. She ended up in between Millie's legs. Millie started scooting backwards on her bum and Savannah got to rides around in between Millie's legs on the dress. They both seemed to enjoy this.
* Kyle is surviving another year of school and enjoying his little family. He loves the times when Millie decides to give him a hug (she doesn't always want to do this). He likes watching Florida football games with our neighbors and playing church basketball with the guys at church. He helps me a lot around the house and with dinners. He is not missing the cold weather in Utah or Michigan- he loves it here and is planning to fix his bike soon so he can ride it to school. Kyle has also enjoyed reading the most recent "Wheel of Time" book that he got for his birthday in October. Lastly, he is the Elder's Quorum secretary (the guy that helps the men's organization at church be organized) at church. This keeps him busy but he enjoys it a lot. He likes having the opportunity to help out because him and the other leaders make time to do service together and to d play tennis and play guitar hero, etc. (and of course have meetings).
* I have been enjoying playing with my girls and spending time with Kyle when he's home from school. I have found a free yoga class at the library that is enjoyable to go to (and as much as I love them, it's great to get a break from my precious girls). I have been called (asked) to be a Relief Society instructor in our ward (a teacher of the women's class at church) and I teach for the first time this coming Sunday. I have to admit that I LOVE THIS WEATHER too! How liberating to live is such a place :)

Sorry that she looks upside down- I was too lazy to fix it. This is Savannah sucking on her middle and ring fingers- so cute!

Here's the story: Millie does not nap anymore but she does "quiet time" where she plays quietly in her room for a couple hours every day. Some how she got a hold of a pair of scissors and took them into quiet time with her. When she came out of quiet time, her dress look like this. Kyle was home and asked her why she cut her dress. She said simply "I needed another cape, so I made one." She knows she shouldn't cut clothes, but we couldn't help but laugh a little. I have now decided to teach her how to sew (or let her watch me, even though I DON'T REALLY KNOW HOW TO SEW!- but don't let her know that). We're making a pillow together and sewing on buttons and random pieces of material that she cuts out, etc.

Millie as tinkerbell- she wore this costume 2 times- once at the church's party (and she didn't paint her face that night) and once on the actual Halloween night (when she decided she wanted to paint her face with finger paints)

Savannah was flower for Halloween. We went to the ward Halloween party at the church with our upstairs neighbors. We also went trick or treating with them, which was a lot of fun :)

Sweet Savannah!

Kyle and Savannah asleep in the living room. So sweet :)

Well, this was much more than a little note. If you were patient enough to read all my blabber, I congratulate you. If not, thanks for stopping by anyways! :)

our girls

2009-10-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

i'm not posting pics right now because i need to get to bed, but here's a few pieces of info ya'll might be interested in knowin'

Millie:
- we got a tinkerbell outfit in the mail from her grandma miles today. She was soooo happy! i found her in my room after we put it on kneeling on the floor saying a prayer out loud saying thank you to Heavenly Father for her grandma sending the tinkerbell outfit to her. this was fun to hear because she is rarely interested in praying when we say prayers together.
- she has been TERRIFIED of the water at the ocean the 2 times we've gone and hasn't wanted to get in it at all. She told me today that she is not scared of the ocean anymore because she prayed to Heavenly Father and he helped her to not be afraid anymore.
- we have an activity book that she enjoys doing stuff in. There's some very simple mazes. She asked to try one so I explained how to do it. There was a space ship trying to get to a planet. After I explained the concept of it (not going over the lines, etc) she simply said "Why doesn't he just fly over the lines?" Good point. Why do we need to go through the maze at all if we're flying? But I just told her that he really is flying, but he needs to go around all the lines while get there.

Savannah:
- The latest news about this little sweetie is that she has learned to roll over. She's been doing it for about 3 days now. She can roll from her back to her tummy, but then she gets frustrated because she doesn't know how to get back onto her back. So then she scoots around the room on her face (by this time, she's crying and I rescue her from her misery). She was only 3 months old on the 19th. Isn't 3 months kind of early to roll over? It seems like babies usually do it later.
- She is a great baby and Millie adores her.
- When she was first born, Millie was excited about it, but after about a week, the excitement faded. She wasn't mean to Savannah and she didn't act jealous, but she didn't really show much interest in her. But a couple weeks ago, we went to Utah to visit family and after seeing the other kids interact with her, one day she started to show interest in her and hasn't turned back since. Every morning she wants to "hold" Savannah and talk to her, dance for her, smile at her, etc. It's fun to see them together.

We are S-M-R-T !

2009-09-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

Good news...

Kyle PASSED the Florida bar exam!!!

And by the way, I finally GRADUATED from Brigham Young University in August (I finished all the work for graduation about 2 weeks before Savannah was born!) I will post pics of the celebration sometime soon.

Happiness is....

2009-09-21T11:03:00.000-07:00

Disney World!!!

Kyle and Millie love to go to Disney World. The last time they went was on Labor Day when I stayed home and relaxed with Savannah. If people could see how happy Disney World makes these two people, they would use their life savings to get there!

my walkin' girls

2009-09-21T10:55:00.001-07:00

lizards, etc

2009-09-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to update my blog with a ton of pictures and feel like I actually have time to, but I can't get this blog to upload my pics! Oh well, I'll just say this...

I have a neighbor that I've become really good friends with. Her name is Dawn. She's a funny mother of 3 outrageously cute boys- ages 6, 3, and 2. I think Millie is in heaven because she LOVES boys (we'll worry about that later, but for now, we're just glad she has friends so close). We've had their family for dinner, and they've had us for dinner and we've watched each others kids, etc. Kyle is going to watch the Gators football games with her husband Shaun tomorrow- he's excited to hang out with a guy and do a guy thing like that.

Here's a funny story about Dawn:
She grew up in Florida, so when we were on our way to the pool and I was excited to see a bright green lizard and insisted she come look at it, she laughed and told me it wasn't that exciting to her because she's seen them all her life. Then she told me that in high school, the kids would wear baby lizards on their ears as "earings" (alive lizards!) They were teeny tiny and they were so small they could not walk off your ear. She said people would wear them all day, and then take them off when it was time to go home from school.

Am I super gullible, or can this really be true? I don't know...

Anyways, in case you haven't gathered, Florida is crawling with lizards! At first I was not too happy about this because I've never been a reptile person. But, I am not at all worried about them anymore- they run away the second someone approaches. But somehow one got in my apartment- I took a pic of that that I'll have to post sometime.
There are also plenty of spiders here. The biggest kind is about the size of a hand- seriously!- if it's legs were stretched out. I don't remember what they're called, but I was afraid to go outside for a while after I saw the first one. Now I've realized that during the day, they just stay in their webs. I've never seen one outside of its web (which is HUGE!) and their webs are pretty high up in trees. Millie and I like to go on a spider walk every day so we can see these spiders (there's about 5 webs around our apartment complex). Last week, we were sad because two of the spiders were missing (I'm guessing someone was freaked out by them and got rid of them instead of leaving them for our viewing pleasure).
Last night I was driving home from watching my VTee's kids and a very large frog jumped on my car- that made me smile- I was very excited to discover another creature here.
I've only seen one snake since I moved here- I black one that looked about 4 feet long and was about an inch thick. Millie was disappointed that she didn't get to see it.
We haven't seen any crocodiles yet, but we hope to see them eventually. There's this lake called Lake Alice that we've heard has a lot, so we need to go walk around it (there's a walking path around it so people can check out the bad boys- or girls as the case may be).
The End.
Now you know about some of the wild life here in the sunny state that we are starting to call home. We LOVE it here!

We went to some botanical gardens and got to see a huge collection of bamboo last week. Kyle is in LOVE with bamboo (because he served a mission in Jamaica and misses seeing it around) and I certainly don't mind it either. Someday we want to have hard wood floors made out of bamboo.

Right now, Kyle and Millie are hanging out with another daddy and daughter from church. This guy from church called Kyle up yesterday and asked if he wanted to get together with their girls and go to the museum on campus. Kyle was soooo excited.

Savannah is napping and I just made a grocery list. What could be more fun than grocery shopping on a Saturday night? Nothing that I know of :)

Savannah is napping and I will now bid you all a fond farewell so I can empty the dishwasher wilst listening to The Counting Crows, or maybe the Dixie Chicks...

TMR

My hot model man...

2009-09-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

We went to the beach yesterday and I am proud of my great shot of Kyle. ha ha! He looks like a model carrying Savannah around on the beach with the ocean and horizon in the background!

And here's Millie having fun covering my legs with sand.

Me and Savannah :)

building a sand castle- this was Millie's biggest interest since she was afraid of the water. She also enjoyed collecting sea shells.

Millie in the water with Kyle. She was TERRIFIED of the water because she thought there were sharks. We weren't able to convince her that they are only in the deep water. I guess we need to expose her to the beach more often- it's about a 1 1/2 hour drive so hopefully we'll be able to go every once in a while.

And here's me and Millie having fun at a cute little Mexican restaurant in St. Augustine- a way cute town!

Here's Savannah and me a couple days ago at home.

We were all so tired today after such a long day yesterday, that we all took naps after church. And luckily they were all at the same time! Yeah! This never happens anymore, but it did today :) above are pics of the girls napping today. Savannah still prefers sleeping in her carseat so we put it in the crib most of the time. After naps, our neighbors upstairs had us for dinner. It's been a great day :)

Our little family...

2009-08-30T18:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I need to go to bed, but I thought I'd put a bunch of photos on here. Here's the update on the members of our family:
Kyle: Got through his first week of school and survived, barely.
Tye: Has made a new friend- the neighbor upstairs, who has KIDS! YEAH!
Millie: Is OBSESSED with princesses and we can't get her to wear anything but dresses all day every day! She also LOVES butterflies- at the Museum of Natural History at UF, they have a live butterfly exhibit in a miniature rain forest setting- she LOVES going there. Kyle took both the girls there yesterday to give me a break (that was AWESOME).
Savannah: Is growing like crazy and loves to smile at us. She's started to make a few cute little cooing sounds too.

Thanksgiving!!!

2009-08-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

"Fly away cobwebs
Dust go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby
'cause babies don't keep"

Shortly after Millie was born, Kyle's mom (aka Grandma Reeder)shared this poem with me. It is really important to me right now because when I take care of my kiddos, I usually have to let everything go (laundry, dishes, clutter pick up, etc) so I can give them the attention they need. Eventually other household things get done, or don't, but at least my girls are taken care of when I take the time to love them and attend to their needs. And usually there are moments in between taking care of them for me to do other things and find moments to relax once in a while.

Thanks to you, Grandma Reeder! I love you!
Tye

New Sister and Baby Pictures

2009-08-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we made the excursion to a portrait studio and had pictures taken of Millie and Savannah. We thought they turned out very well. Hope you enjoy:)

Thankful for my family!

2009-08-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

some pics and words i wrote in aug. 2009 that i never ended up publishing. so now i will.

I am thankful for these 3 wonderful people! (this picture was taken when Savannah was about 6 days old).
Kyle: This guy has always been a great husband and father and I love him so much. He takes good care of us. He has been a trooper this past year or so, dealing with me and Millie- he's held our family together in a miraculous way :)
Millie: This sweet girl has been as patient as a child can be :) She is so excited to be a big sister and is very proud of her cute little sister, Sabanna (as she says it).

Full of Thanksgiving

2009-08-20T18:04:00.000-07:00

Our family is soo grateful for the many people who helped us before and after Savannah's birth. I struggled throughout the pregnancy for various reasons... pretty bad morning sickness for 3 months, completing a 200 hour internship, having a pinched siatic nerve for the last 5 months of my pregnancy, and pretty bad depression for the last 5 months of pregnancy. Update: the morning sickness is obviously gone, the siatic nerve is feeling much, much better, and there hasn't been much depression since Savannah was born (hopefully that continues after Kyle goes to school and I have to figure out how to handle 2 all by myself- but I'm sure the good Lord will look after our family and help us all).

We have most recently been very blessed by the help my sweet mother who arrived on June 10 in Ann Arbor to help me make it through the remainder of my pregnancy (I was due July 26 and Savannah graced us with her presence July 19- thank goodness for early babies!), and helped with our new baby and her sister Millie, came with us to Florida and a Disney World vacation, and helped us get settled in our new place in Gainesville. She just went home to Utah yesterday (gone over 2 months!) to the delight of all the Utahans who have missed her while she's been with us.

Tomorrow I will post more info about people I am thankful for and more pictures, but tonight, I want to dedicate to my mommy, Grandma Guymon :)

Savannah Marie Reeder!!!

2009-07-19T18:21:00.001-07:00

Savannah Marie was born 9:29am July 19, 2009. She was 8lbs 13oz (almost 2lbs heavier than Millie) and 22 inches long. Baby and Mom are doing fantastic and expect to be home Monday night.

Nikki's ABC post

2009-07-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Nikki tagged me forever ago and I'm finally responding to the tag. In addition to this post, I also want to post pics of Millie's first haircut, my baby shower for Savannah, and the fourth of July, along with cute pictures of my mom who is with us for a while, oh- and pics of swimming. So, hopefully you'll be seeing those soon if the baby isn't born in the meantime (I'm due in 3 weeks!)

A- Attached or single: Attached. I'm attached to Kyle and Millie, and Savannah is attached to me.
B- Best Friend: Kyle, my mom- can't top those two
C- Cake or Pie: I LOVE pumpkin pie and berry pies with ice cream. I'm not always a cake person, but sometimes I like a good cake.
D- Day of choice: hmmm... they're all the same to me. I get to see more of Kyle of Saturdays and Sundays though.
E- Essential Item: My cute maternity swim suit
F- Favorite Color: I like shades of green a lot
G- Gummi Bears or Gummi Worms: I hate Gummi-anything
H- Hometown: Provo, Utah
I- Indulgence(s): Kyle's homemade cinnamon rolls- BETTER than Cinnabon!
J- January or July: After we're in Florida, I will probably choose January, but here in Michigan, I'm liking July.
K- Kids: Who knows? We take it one at a time.
L- Life is Incomplete Without: My whole family, sleep, chewy foods, short hair, etc.
M- Marriage Date: June 14, 2002- perfect day.
N- Number of Siblings: 4. 3 sisters, 1 brother.
O- Oranges or Apples: Don't make me choose, they're both great, depending on the day.
P- Phobias or Fears: Giving birth naturally, having an epidural, loosing my sweet Kyle or children, loosing my mother or any other member of my family for that matter
Q- Quotes: "Your mom goes to college" - Napolean Dynamite
R- Reason To Smile: "The sun is up, I'm so happy I could scream, and there's no where else in the world I'd rather be. Than here with you it's perfect. It's all I ever wanted. I almost can't believe that it's for real. Birds sing. We swing. Clouds past by and everything is like a dream." The Cure
T- Tag Three: Candy, Candace, and Jenny... if you want to :)
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I threw up today. Sometimes I STILL have morning sickness- shouldn't that be over by now?!
V- Vegetarian or Meat Eater: You might consider me a flexitarian (look it up) except for when I'm pregnant, and then I eat more meat than usual (which still isn't a whole lot)
W- Worst Habit: I chew on the side of my mouth- gross, huh?
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: ultrasounds are fun when there's a little one inside.
Y- Your Favorite Food: I like Oatmeal Squares by Quaker Oats
Z- Zodiac: Gemini- I have no knowledge of Zodiac signs and whether they have any applicability to life...

There you go Nikki, hope you enjoy!

Kyle's Graduation and Other Stuff

2009-06-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

Kyle's graduated from Law School a couple of weeks ago. Kyle's Mom and Dad flew in for the graduation which made the week feel special. Below is a picture of Kyle and his friends Greg and Chris.

And another picture of all of us and Kyle's parents.

In front of Kyle's school, there is (was) a statue of Mary and a young Jesus. Millie loved the statue and always would go up and talk to Mary and Jesus. It is really sweet how much Millie likes Mary. She still will put blankets over her head and pretend she is Mary. Her liking of Mary probably stems from both her playing the part of Mary at Kyle's grandparents house at Christmas, and from being around a Catholic school.

Here is Millie reading with Grandpa Reeder.

And cooking Grandpa some "dinner" at the park

Millie and her first smore.

While Grandma Reeder was here, Millie and her bought some flowers at the farmer's market and planted them together in front of our apartment.

The weekend of Kyle's graduation and the week after with Kyle's mom was a lot of fun. That's all for now.

Maecy and Abby visit us!

2009-05-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

Maecy and Abby, my sister and her daughter, just flew back to Utah yesterday after a wonderful visit here. Maecy was kind enough to ask for THREE WEEKS off of work to come hang out with Millie and I while Kyle got through the last stretch of school and was gone a lot. She helped me to FINISH MY INTERNSHIP!!!! YEAH! (if you want to see a sample of some of my internship work, you can visit my other blog, annarborwellnessgroup.blogspot.com), Maecy also helped me organize and de-junk A LOT! She helped me with grocery shopping and every day house cleaning and was a reinforcement to me when I was feeling too tired to enforce the rules of the house with my sweet Millie. This pregnancy has been a rough one, that's for sure, and it was so so so wonderful to have Maecy and Abby come and be with our family for a while to help us through some difficult weeks.
It was fun to have Millie and Abby play together and get to know each other better. By the time Maecy and Abby went home, it felt like our two little stinkers were sisters- they did everything together, from taking baths, playing play-dough, to laughing about everything imaginable, kicking each other under the table, fighting over stickers, harassing each other during quiet time, hugging each other after disagreements, reading together (Abby would read to Millie in the morning when nobody else wanted to get up with her at 6:30 am and Millie felt quite special about this), building forts inside with blankets (it eventually became a rule that they could not build forts together because Millie would always destroy them and Abby would be devastated that Millie would destroy something she put so much work into and she'd get emotional about it), learning to share with each other, the one particular night when Millie refused to go to sleep until really late when Maecy was kind enough to put her to bed (I was teaching yoga) and instead of sleeping she resorted to throwing books at Abby's head while Abby was sleeping, playing hide and go seek, pretending to be mommy's to Millie's 2 babies, Leo and Bitty (something that is not common for Abby to do), and finally Millie crying and missing Abby so much when she went home. When we dropped Maecy and Abby off at the airport, Abby gave Millie a hug and kiss and Millie immediately started crying- she completely lost it! She was just as much of a basket-case as I was! We decided to go to Greenfield Village on the way back from the airport so Millie and I could get our minds off of how sad we were that Maecy and Abby had gone home. The whole way to Greenfield Village, Millie and I could not stop crying and Millie kept on saying "I need Maecy and Abby, Abby, Abby, Abby, Abby...." Once we got there, Millie and I had red eyes, but we cheered up as we did fun things with Kyle. Millie took a really long nap when we got home and when she woke up, she was playing was her toys. I wanted to talk to her about something, so I yelled "Millie, where are you?" She responded, "I'm in Abby's room." This was funny- She was in her closet, but the whole time Maecy and Abby were here, they slept in Millie's closet, so Millie thought of it as their room. It may sound very un-hospitable of us to stick them in the closet, but it was Maecy's idea, and Millie's walk in closet is big enough to fit a futon mattress, so they claimed they were comfortable and had plenty of room. We definitely miss Maecy and Abby, but we are glad they can be with their husband and daddy Kenneth again- I'm sure he wanted them back, so we had to surrender them.
I hope you enjoy the many pictures below. I was sad that we never got a picture of Abby reading to Millie- that would have been cute. And we also don't have pictures of when we went to Greenfield Village with them (we went with my friend and she took a bunch of pics but we needs to get them from her).

Millie and Abby enjoyed having their bodies traced and then coloring these papers.

recipe for laundry detergent

2009-03-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

A while back, several people wanted us to share the recipe for homemade laundry detergent. We just got the recipe from this website: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm
...Hope you make it too- it cleans our clothes and it might as well clean yours!

Flash Back

2009-03-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hello family and friends,

We never had the chance to post a blog about Millie's B-Day party so . . . we thought we would do it now.

Here is Millie and Elle munching on some pizza at the Party. Got to love the hats:)

Millie and her friend Haru

Here is Tye missing a picture of Millie blowing out her candles, but getting a lovely profile shot of Kyle.

Millie loved the cupcakes we made for her birthday (well . . . at least she liked the frosting on the cupcakes).

Here is Millie with her good friend Lannie being silly as always.

Here is Millie looking at all the cards she received on her birthday. She was quite pleased.

The next two pictures are of Millie doing crafts and eating lunch with Tye at the U of Michigan Botanical Gardens.

As always, thanks for reading the blog and catching up on our lives. Life's a roller coaster, but it's always so much fun with Millie.

Love,

The Reeders

Funny Millie

2009-03-23T20:25:00.001-07:00

Well, the days pass and Millie is a funny 3 year old and I pretty much don't ever record the funny things she says. So here's a few funnies...

So, we are having a baby girl around July 26ish and we are think about naming the baby Savannah (but don't start calling it that yet- we're not quite sure). We've told Millie about the idea of this name and she's seemed excited about it and has started calling my tummy "Bannah." Today she was talking to Bannah and I wanted to see if she could say the full name so I said, "Millie, can you say 'Sa-Vannah'"? So she repeated "Sa-Bannah" and I told her good job. After this, she looked at me and asked, "Mommy, why Sa?" I told her that "Sa" sounds pretty as the beginning of the name Savannah. After this she commented by saying, "Momma, I Sa-Millie." She looked very happy about this so I played along with her and said "Yes, Sa-Millie does sound pretty too!"

Also today, Millie was on the toilet taking care of some business. I was sitting on the stool next to her waiting for her to finish. She was close enough that she could easily touch me. She reached over and very gently put her hand under my chin and oh-so-carefully lifted it up. Then she proceeded to gaze into my eyes and caress my face. After doing this for probably 30 seconds, she said very seriously, "Momma, you very special to me." This was a cute and it's nice to hear that she loves me :)

A week or so ago, Millie was sitting at the table eating lunch. She looked at me very seriously and said, "Momma, do you love me?" She seemed to really need to know this so I talked to her about how much I love her so she would be sure of it.

Well, there's a few Millie moments for you. I hope to post them more often so we don't forget what our sweet girl is doing and saying from day to day.

Disney world

2009-03-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

Hi friends and fam-

We went to Florida March 4-6 and made a stop at Disney World. Here's some pics of the trip. We also drove almost 2 hours to Gainesville so Kyle could talk to a professor there and see the law school that he'll be attending in August for an LLM in Tax program. The Florida trip was a lot of fun but it was hard to come home to cold Michigan. But this week is supposed to be a nice one, so
I'm looking forward to that. Here are some pictures from our vacation.

Millie loved eating breakfast out on the balcony.

As we crossed the lake on the ferry to Disney World, Millie was so excited to see the Castle. She said that she wanted to wake-up Sleeping Beauty, which (as you see in the next picture) she did.

Millie's favorite ride was Dumbo! She had a blast!

We thought Millie would be afraid of a big Winnie the Pooh, but she wasn't. She ran right up to him and gave him a hug.

Millie also loved the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House and Tom Sawyer Island.

Millie was so pooped by the end of the day that she fell asleep on Dad's shoulder.

We really liked the resort we were able to stay at. It had a very nice pool area where Millie, Mom, and Dad had a ton of fun (you can see Tye's pregnant belly from this wonderful side shot, yes its a girl).

Millie was really excited to take pictures by Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty at Downtown Disney.

Millie made some really great friends while she was there:)!

These are Good Times

2009-02-22T18:00:00.000-08:00

We did not know Millie's mouth could open so wide either. We let Millie listen to "Were'd All the Good People Go" by Jack Johnson and she liked it, but she thought it said "where all the weird people go." She couldn't stop signing about it:)! Anyways . . . for your viewing pleasure we present Millie on the Ukulele.

2009-02-14T18:40:00.000-08:00

Hi friends! My friend Nicole did the following on her blog and now I'm doing it too. Want to know what it is? Read on quick so you can be one of the first 5 to comment!

First Five.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something handmade by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. But I promise that I will take time to think of something that seems right for me to send you! :)
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

LATER DUDES!

Here we go!

2009-02-08T16:57:00.000-08:00

25 things you might want to know (people have been doing this on facebook, but my blog needs to be updated more than facebook, so the list will be here)

1- I am 17 weeks pregnant
2- I am feeling much better
3- My 2 year old wants to hold her new baby desperately
4- I am due July 26
5- Kyle WILL be in Florida taking the bar exam on July 28-29, good one
6- I am re-introducing beans and vegetables into my diet
7- I am in need of a maid to clean my house
8- My husband is making brownies
9- My husband understands I would rather have a potted plant than cut flowers
10- I feel better about myself when I recycle
11- I just declared my love to my husband after he requested that I do so
12- Fair trade is cool, but what exactly does it mean?
13- Kyle and I make our own homemade laundry detergent
14- Actually, Kyle makes it
15- Millie sleeps in a toddler bed now
16- Drinking water out of aluminum bottles tastes better than plastic
17- I like Millie's funny noises
18- Walt Disney World? What's the big deal?
19- I like root beer flavored with cane juice
20- Should I keep the futons when we move?
21- I think Nikki should post a new blog even though she's married now
22- Shay should post a new blog after the in-laws leave
23- At the end of my yoga classes, I massage heads with essential oils
24- I love the clothes that still fit me, despite my growing size
25- I am married to a bearded man

Here's the scoop

2009-01-18T18:28:00.000-08:00

Hi. I'm pregnant. Therefore, I don't really know when I'll post anything too exciting again. I'm just trying to survive from day to day and often moment to moment. It's funny because when I'm not pregnant, I have depression, but when I'm pregnant, I feel so sick but the depression is basically gone. Sometimes I would choose being pregnant over being depressed, but sometimes I would choose the other way around. At least when I'm depressed, I can control it to a degree and there are things that I know will help me feel better. But when I'm pregnant, there's not much that makes me feel better. And I feel bad because my loving husband already has enough to worry about but now he worries about me all the time and feels like he needs to be this man who does everything for everyone while going to school and working and taking care of the little one we already have. He's trying to keep the house clean, make every meal he can for us, etc. etc. I love him very much and hope I feel better soon so I can step up the plate again and play this game of life.
Well, I didn't mean for this to be a blog complaining about being pregnant. It was intended to announce that I'm pregnant to those who don't know. I am actually very thankful that I am blessed to be able to be pregnant- LIFE is such a great miracle!

winter fun

2008-11-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

I took Millie and her friend Haru to the park the other day. They played at the park for about 5 minutes and then decided it would be more fun to wander off into the woods and climb over tree trunks, chase squirrels, and crawl around on the forest floor. They had a great time and had a lot of good laughs together.

Below are some pics of two different days when Millie wanted to eat avacados. She loved them when she was a baby, but hasn't been too interested in them for a while. But recently, she's decided they're good again.

Life if good for us. It's pretty cold here now, but the snow is beautiful and it's actually staying rather than melting and looking like slush.

Kyle took Millie to get her blood drawn on Saturday because the doc's office called and wanted us to bring her in because she's never been tested for lead poisoning and they want all children to be. Anyways, Kyle was a bit nervous to be the "mean guy" rather than the nice daddy (usually on Sat mornings he takes her on fun dates, but never to do something brutal like having her blood drawn). But after all the worries, Millie did great and Kyle survived too. Kyle help lay Millie down on a table and held one arm down. Then so she wouldn't watch them stick the needle in, he put his hand on the other side of her face and turned it towards him and talked to her while the nurse did the shot. He said she didn't even notice it. She got a big bandage with gauze wrapped around her arm. She LOVED it and didn't want us to take it off. So we let her wear it for the rest of the day and through the night, but the next morning we took it off.

We are excited to visit family for Christmas in just a couple weeks. It will be fun to see the mountains again and to see everyone.

Halloween and other fun times

2008-11-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

We went trick or treating in the neighborhood by our house where our friends Amy and Don live. Our friends Katie and Scott and their daughter Lannie joined us along with Katie's mom. We have really enjoyed our friendship with this family and we had a great time with them. As you can see, Millie was a unicorn and Lannie was Snow White. We stopped at Amy's house to trickortreat and she invited us in. It was nice to have a pit-stop for the little ones to go potty and rest a bit and visit with the doggies and whatnot.

Kyle with the two trick or treaters

Daddies and their girls

Millie after the church's Halloween party. Even though she's changed out of her costume, she still has the remnants of a smiley face she had painted on her cheek at the party. Millie enjoyed walking around the church trick or treating on Wednesday night and doing the other activities.

Millie as a unicorn with a double chin

The picture below is funny and has a funny story. This is Millie in her unicorn costume throwing a tantrum about something. Sometimes when she's upset about something, she'll throw herself onto the couch and scream and cry. You can't tell that she's doing this in the picture and that makes it even funnier.

Millie feeding her baby.

Millie likes to put her baby/babies into her shirt or pajamas. While they're in there, she either says they're eating or sleeping. In the following pictures, she has both of her baby dolls inside her pajamas. She kept them in there for at least half an hour and then fed them with a bottle afterwards. While they were in her PJ's, if she tried to pick something up or bend over, she wouldn't be able to get back up again without my help because the babies limited her ability to move. It was very funny and reminded me of how it feels to be pregnant. Quite often when Millie takes her babies out of her shirt/sweater/or pajamas, she says the baby is being born and then that it needs her to feed it. I guess she's learning about these things from someone even though we don't have a baby around our house...

FIGHT CANCER!!!

2008-10-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

My friend and neighbor Angie started a way cool not for profit cancer project called Nana's Box. Please tell anyone you know about it. Read her story at http://nanasboxnonprofit.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-side-of-things.html or enter her monthly giveaways at nanasboxnonprofit.blogspot.com

We will be posting pictures of Halloween soon... so stay tuned!

Tye

You mission, should you choose to accept it, IS TO VOTE!

2008-10-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

So, I have always voted Republican since I started voting about 10 years ago. My parents are good people and they told me who I was voting for and I always decided to do the same. I've never been very into politics and I've never been very informed about the issues in the world, so I took their word for it and let them (mostly my dad) study it all out.

Everyone knows that this election is tough. Nobody I know seems to be 100% for either candidate (or maybe that's how it always is but now I'm finally starting to pay attention to it).

I decided that this year, I wanted to start learning about the difference between Republicans and Democrats and about the issues that are out there so I would know who to vote for. I decided that reading the news and listening to the debates wouldn't really be helpful unless I learned some of this basic information first. So, I decided that I should talk to some people who are very democrat and some people who are very repulican and ask them why they are what they are. I've had some very insightful conversations and found out about people's passions and interests.

I am not going to summarize what people have told me about what a democrat or a republican is or what the issues are. Republicans and democrats and everyone in between are people- and they all seem to want peace in the world and happiness for their families and a safe environment to live in. It is hard to choose sides because there is much good on both sides.

Through my conversations with various awesome people, I have come to a conclusion of who to vote for. I care about all the issues that are out there- it's impossible for me to say that I only care about the issues of one or the other (dem.s or rep.s). I care about world peace, finding alternative fuel sources, animal rights, energy conservation, etc, etc. But there are some issues that take precedence over all the others. These issues are the family unit and life.

The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (yep, that's my church) places particularly strong emphasis on the family.

Here are some links to some of the Church's most recent statements about marriage and the family... (If you read the article "The Divine Institution of Marriage," you will start to understand how much change could potentially happen in society if marriage between a man and a woman is changed to any other arrangement)

Letter from the First Presidency to California Latter-day Saints

This letter, regarding Proposition 8, was sent from the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Church leaders in California to be read to all congregations on 29 June 2008.

The Divine Institution of Marriage

This in-depth article explains the importance of protecting the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.

ProtectMarriage.com

This is the official Web site of ProtectMarriage, a coalition supporting Proposition 8.

PreservingMarriage.org

This Web site provides multimedia resources to help Latter-day Saints and others better understand the Church’s position on Proposition 8.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

This proclamation, released by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1995, emphasizes the importance of the family.

Video: Discussion With Elder David A. Bednar

Elder David A. Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, discusses Proposition 8 and same-sex marriage with a group of young adults.

Video: Broadcast to Church Members in California

Elders M. Russell Ballard, Quentin L. Cook and L. Whitney Clayton talk to Californian Church members about becoming involved in supporting Proposition 8.

Video: “I Support Proposition 8”

Young adults from California discuss their involvement in preserving traditional marriage.

Video Resources: PreservingMarriage.org

Additional videos explaining the Church’s stance on this issue are available on PreservingMarriage.org

Okay it's me again. I just have one more link. Melanie sent this to me and I thought it was great. Before I saw it, I'd come to the conclusion that protecting marriage and the family was the most important issue because the fundamental unit of society is the thread that holds the people of this nation together.

The link I'm going to share with you is to a video intended for Catholic voters. Although my church places particularly strong emphasis on the family, the church does not endorse any particular candidate or any political party. My church encourages its members to study and learn about the candidates and the issues and then to make a personal choice of who to vote for.

http://www.catholicvote.com/

Reeder Happenings!

2008-09-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here is our little Millie-kins making birthday cards for Grandpa Guymon and Reeder at the beginning of September. She enjoyed this a whole lot. She started singing "happy birthday to you" for the first time that day. She sings it "aaaahhhh dur- day- oooooo." After we made cards that day, I think she might have thought it was her birthday because when we sat down to eat dinner a couple hours later, she cried because we weren't having any birthday cake.

Millie really enjoyed sitting on Rosa Park's bus at the Henry Ford Museum. We let her wander around the museum by herself (with us walking behind her) and she felt like such a big girl. The Henry Ford museum is huge, and we only saw a litte bit of it this day. We plan on going back soon.

Millie is in front of Greenfield Village here. She really enjoyed giving the card to the lady at the gate. This day we went with the Ashcrafts (the Husband, Chris, goes to school with Kyle). Jenn and Chris have 2 kids, Reagan (about 6) and Spenser (14), Millie likes them both. Spenser watches Millie sometimes. Millie likes hangin around an older girl.

I believe that this is the first picture that Millie has actually posed for, aside from stuidios with Grandma Reeder. We asked her if she wanted her picture taken, she said yes steped back and gave us a nice cheesy smile.

As we are taking Amtrak back to Utah for Christmas, we are trying to get Millie excited for the train ride. Kyle and Millie like watching train videos on Youtube, and Millie especially likes riding the steam train at Greenfield Village, as you can see here. She'll have fun watching train videos with Grandpa Reeder at Christmas time (because he is a train fanatic!).

Mille loves this duck at the park behind our apartment. When we go to the park she always smiles, points, and says "duck!" As of a few weeks ago she likes to get on by herself and will have no part in Mom or Dad helping her get up or down. She hasn't fallen yet, but we're waiting.

Mille has become a very good ladder climber, much like her Grandpa Guymon (electricain extraordinaire!). Maybe she'll give Grandpa some pointers when she sees him next:)! Hopefully she sticks to small ladders for the time being.

We love you all and hope you have enjoyed the pictures. Until next time.....bye.

Love the Reeders!

Chicago

2008-08-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

My awesome friend Amy treated Millie and I to a trip to Chicago a couple weekends ago. It was so much fun. We stayed with her good friend Harriet- who happens to live within walking distance of everything anyone would want to see in Chicago. We also got to spend some time with Amy's friend Lorette- she attended school with Kyle and Amy the first year of law school, but then transferred to Chicago after that. It was good to see her.

We had a great time...
- Dinner at Harriet's- very yummy...
- beach of Lake Michigan- Amy and I used the sand on the beach to naturally ex-foliate dead skin on our feet- it was very therapeutic
- American Girl doll store (see picture with Millie pushing dolls in stroller). Thank you Amy and Lorette for the Bitty Baby- Millie absolutely adores it!
- Cheese Cake Factory- yum!
- So many good places to eat, I couldn't even begin to name them all
- Navy Pier- Millie, Amy, and I went on the ferris wheel and carousel. Millie didn't want to go on the ferris wheel at first when she was asked, but then she said yes, and put her hands into fists and said "tight," meaning "yes, I do want to go, and I'll be okay because I'll hold on tight."
- Architechural tour of all the beautiful sky-scrapers on the Chicago river
-LDS church in Chicago- We made the time to go before we headed back home on Sunday

We had a great time and Millie did great sleeping at Harriet's and travelling in the car there and back.

Do NOT distract me!

2008-08-23T17:42:00.001-07:00

I wanted to write something here, but I don't want to be too distracted from my present goal: reorganization and fung-shwae (somebody tell me how to spell that please) of my abode. We are moving from this place in 9 months, and by the time we go, I want to only possess what is really necessary. I don't want to move across the country with a whole bunch of junk that we don't really need (that's what we did when we moved from Utah to here). When we moved here, I kept way too much stuff that was not needed, and I don't want to repeat that mistake. As I've been parting with things that I thought I needed but really didn't, I've felt an imaginary weight being lifted from me. It feels so could to be free of stuff and not to value it so much. There really is very little that I actually need to keep and the more I part with stuff, the easier it is to part with more stuff. Don't get me wrong, I'm not getting rid of all I possess, I'm just realizing that my posessions aren't as needed as I percieved them to be.
The plan is not to add more stuff to our stuff either. Hopefully when we move, we will be happy with what we've got and choose not to accumulate more unnecessary stuff.
Check out thestoryofstuff.com to learn about stuff and why we truly don't need to accumulate so much of it, etc.
Have a good one. now I must continue on my quest for less.

Thank you for visiting Ann Arbor

2008-08-03T19:14:00.001-07:00

We have been enjoying beautiful weather and it couldn't have come at a better time. Kyle's family came to stay with us this last week and it was nice that they got to enjoy Ann Arbor at its finest. We spent time with them doing various things around town. Kyle's bros Kurt and Kasey were the first ones to arrive here. They stayed from Friday to Thursday. Then Kyle's parents Lanell and Kerry and his sister Kohleen came from Tuesday to Saturday. So, the whole family was together for about 2 days.

With Kyle's bros, we...

- went to see the movie Hancock
- went to Gallop park (a beautiful park by the Huron river with lots of walking trails, etc)
- went to the Firefly Jazz club to listen to jazz
- Kyle, Kasey, and Kurt a driving range to hone-up their golf skills
- went to the farmer's market downtown wednesday
- ate Indian food downtown
- sat around relaxing and watching silly Millie

With Kyle's family, we...

- had a boys and girls night the first night we were together (Tuesday)
- the boys went to Connor O'Neils- an Irish eatery
- the boys (Kyle, Kurt, Kasey, and Kerry) went golfing
- the boys went to see the new Batman movie together
- the girls went to the Olive Garden to eat
- the girls went to the store to buy new nail polish- Millie chose a beautiful shade of pink and a royal red for us
- the girls painted nails- we were too tired to paint anyone's nails but Millie's
- Millie read books with Grandma Reeder
- the girls watched a movie- Lanell and I were sent to bed by Kohleen because we looked like zombies

We also...

- went to the farmer's market saturday
- walked on main street downtown- visited our favorite store, Ten Thousand Villages (we love it because it's 100% fair trade and everything is purchased from and hand made by villagers in underdeveloped countries)
- ate Greek food
- went swimming in our apartment complexes pool and got to witness Kurt, Kasey, and Kyle do amazing cannon-balls
- took Kurt and Kasey back to the airport
- visited the Detroit Institute of Arts (which is known as one of the best art museums in the nation). Millie got to touch a bronze donkey at the museum. She loved the donkey and aunt Kohleen purchased her a coin with a donkey on it at the gift shop- she loves the coin too because she already loved coin a lot.
- went to Plymouth Township Park- a park with fountains for kids to run through and fun sandboxes
- went to Greenfield Village (Greenfield Village is considered the first and largest outdoor museum in America. Nearly one hundred historical buildings were moved to the property from their original locations and arranged in a "village" setting. The museum's intent is to show how Americans lived and worked since the founding of the country. The Village includes buildings from the 17th century to the present, many of which are staffed by costumed interpreters who conduct period tasks like farming, sewing and cooking. A collection of craft buildings such as pottery, glass-blowing, and tin shops provide demonstrations while producing materials used in the Village and for sale. Greenfield Village has 240 acres (970,000 m²) of land of which only 90 acres (360,000 m²) are used for the attraction, the rest being forest, river and extra pasture for the sheep and horses.--- This is much for info than you wanted, but you got it anyways)
- Played at the park with Millie
- Visited Kyle at the library on Saturday where he was working so Lanell, Kerry, and Kohleen could hug him goodbye

Well, there you have it, we had a fun week!

Thank you for visiting Ann Arbor!

2008-08-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

Here you go, Nikki!

2008-07-05T12:21:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th (yesterday) to you all! Nikki convinced me to put some pictures on my blog. Are you all in shock? We went to the Ann Arbor parade with my friend Becky, her husband Andres and her bro Kyle. Millie was afraid of most everything but she had fun.
We went to see fireworks at Whitmore Lake (about 20 min away). Millie was very tired, but she enjoyed herself.
This morning, we went on the bus to the farmer's market downtown. Millie really enjoyed that. We like to buy her a cup of fresh blueberries there, and she always looks forward to that.
That will do for today...

Here goes nothin'

2008-07-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

I was very impressed that you all took the time to say hello and acknowledge my recent blogging. I feel important now. Nikki requested that I actually put some photos on my blog and that's what I'm going to attempt. We'll see how it goes.

This picture to the left (I hope it ends up being to the left) is of Millie in the bounce house at Relay For Life. Our family was on a team for this event in Ann Arbor last weekend. It was a lot of fun. It's a 24 hour event to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Scott Dewey, a member of our team, was able to get a company to let us borrow this bounce house so we could charge people at the events money to use it and then donate it. If you haven't participated in Relay before, I strongly encourage you to do so.

Hi. I am going through previous posts that i never published. i don't remember why i didn't publish them but i thought it would be fun to put them up, especially because i am not able to download new pics are this time. this is from 7-5-08

greetings on a windy day

2008-06-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

Hello all you readers of my blog. If you read this, I don't require any comments except simply that you sign your name in the "comments" box so that I know you're still around. Can you do that for me? Also, I've lost track of a few friends blogs, and this will help me get back to them.

I have started to dry my clothes on a clothes lines and on drying racks outside. It's kind of fun to do this. I've also started to wash my dishes by hand quite often and it's quite therapeutic to put my hands in the water and wash stuff.

Millie laughs like a mad woman when I pretend to run into the wall and then I laugh at her like one because it's so funny.

Millie and I love to take rides around town- I ride the bike and she is toted around in the bike trailer on the back. She smiles and says "weeee" frequently.

Kyle and I went kayaking for our 6 year aniversary on Saturday. I'd never been before and it was so very fun.

That will do.

Blank blank blank...

2008-05-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

So I always imagine what I would write in a blog post when I'm not at my computer. I can always think of really amusing things, but as soon as I sit down at my computer, nothing ever comes to mind- at all. But here I am writing anyways.
I like the blossoms in the spring. There is this tree by Kyle's school with purple blossoms on it. It that wasn't cool enough, I noticed yesterday that it also has blossoms all over the trunk and the branches, not just on the stems. It's a beautiful site.
Today I walked back from a BBQ at Ave Maria (Kyle's law school) and noticed that the lilacs are soon going to bloom. Lilacs are a favorite flower of mine- they're beautiful and they smell wonderful.
Today is Kyle's last day of classes, so he'll be getting super busy studying for finals starting...now. Tonight I will walk to the school to bring him dinner with a friend whose husband also goes to the school.
Okay, that will do it. Ta ta for now.

2008-03-06T10:14:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday Nikki! I hope you have a great day and a rockin party or something. You could always fly out here to Mich tomorrow for Millie's party and we could do a double party. We're playing a fishing game with the kids that you could come and enjoy (where you fish for prizes and whatnot). I think you would enjoy it. Okay, I love you to pieces!
Tye mARIE

A life in the day of Tye

2008-02-18T17:48:00.000-08:00

(note the title of this blog and how I messed it up- good times...)
Here is a brief synopsis of my day today, being Monday...

7:30- wakes up to the sounds of Millie
get Millie out of her diaper and into panties
sit on the potty so that Millie will sit on her little potty
listen to the sounds of Millie on the pot
Breakfast
8:15- time for Millie to go potty again
9:00- potty again
9:30- take Kyle to school
go to grocery store
- Millie potty at grocery store
10:00- put away groceries
- Millie potty
10:45- arrive at the Hands-On Museum in down town Ann Arbor (a way fun place for kiddos)
- Millie potty
11:45- Millie potty
- leave museum
12:00- feed Millie a PB & J on whole wheat bread with milk
12:30- Millie potty
1:00- Millie's nap (yeah! we use a diaper for nap time- otherwise, I don't think she'd have time to fall asleep before she needed to go pee again)
2:45- Arrival of Ben (3) and Lydia (1) Duckworth for me to babysit for an hour
3:00- Millie wakes up
Millie back in panties and potty again
3:45- Millie potty
4:30- Millie potty
say goodbye to Ben and Lydia
start making dinner which was stir-fry--- Millie loves stir-fry and we have a good time cutting up the veggies- I give her a butter knife and the scraps from the veggies and she has a good time stabbing them while I do the real cutting)
5:15- Millie potty
5:30- eat dinner (without Kyle because he had a late class tonight)
6:15- Millie potty- this time it was something real messy and real stinky so she went into the bath afterwards
6:30- bath
found out Kyle will be staying at school until late tonight to finish an assignment- this way he can come home early tomorrow and spend a couple hours with Millie and I- this will be great because Millie misses her busy daddy)
7:00- to bed (diaper on for night-time)
7:00-8:00- made phone calls to people about random things, sent emails for primary and my Thursday playgroup, and to my friend about doing yoga this week, etc.
8:00-8:15- read the Book of Mormon- I'm glad that Nephi listened to the Lord instead of his brothers even though they were so brutal sometimes.
8:15-9:00- cleaned (dishes, laundrey, pick up toys, etc)
9:07- writing this line in this blog
Rest of the night... Do yoga with videotape of Rodney Yee and then go to bed...

Now do you feel like potty training a child? That's what I thought... The hardest part is how sore my back is from bending over to help her 50 times a day. But I suppose it will be worth it. I've heard that most children this young cannot hold it any longer than Millie so I guess this is to be expected.

Wee ha!

Something new

2008-01-30T11:57:00.000-08:00

I don't quite know what to say except that I need to change my blog. I'm sure you've all been warned about The Golden Compass movie and would like to move onto new things now. I am living my life in Michigan. January is the hardest month of the year for me. Winter is always so old by this time. Kyle reminds me that I'm always down in the dumps in January and that it will pass soon. I'm glad he knows it will. But the good news is that I've started up doing yoga again and fun aerobics videos. I'm cooking with vegetables and Millie even likes them (she always has). I'm enjoying sips on my ginseng peppermint tea here and there. And i just finished a great book (The Black Moth, if you must know). I will read 3 pages of the Book of Mormon today because Erin Beck, who was inspired by her bishop, has inspired me to do it too. And I am recording my feelings of gratitude in my journal regularly. And even though my living space is not-so-clean, I will have a good attitude about it and do what I can to improve the conditions of my surroundings. Life is good. Life is great. Yes? ................... Yes.

Keep your kids away from "The Golden Compass" movie!!

2007-11-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

If you are a Christian, believe in a loving God and in spiritual things, you should be concerned about the upcoming movie "The Golden Compass." I would go into greater detail about why you shouldn't support this movie; however, http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp has already done the work for me. Please view this link! To say just a little, this movie is based on a trilogy for children that has won many awards. The author is an athiest and wants to turn children against God. As you will read, in the end of the third book in the trilogy, a young Adam and Eve actually kill God. If you watch the trailer to the movie http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp you will see how this looks like it would be a good movie. But please read the snopes link above to see why it surely isn't good in any sense of the word. As you will read, the author hopes that after children watch this movie (which is based on the first book- the most innocent of the three books in the series) they will want the all the books in the trilogy as a Christmas gift. Scary! Children are the future and if they turn against God and against spiritual things I am scared.
Let us trust in God and remember that He is loving and that He has a plan for the happiness of His children!
Proverbs 3:5-6
"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths."
President Gorden B. Hinckley, Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (often known as "Mormons") said,
"I believe without equivocation or reservation in God, the Eternal Father. He is my Father, the Father of my spirit, and the Father of the spirits of all men. He is the great Creator, the Ruler of the Universe. He directed the creation of this earth on which we live. In His image man was created. He is personal. He is real. He is individual. He has "a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's." (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22- scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
--- I also believe in God. I know that He loves me and knows me. I feel His love when I pray. I know that Jesus is the Christ and my Savior and Redeemer. I have hope in this life because of His loving sacrifice on my behalf. I want to live worthy to return to live with my Father in Heaven and my Savior Jesus Christ after this life. I know God and Jesus Christ live and love me (and you)!

Melanie's belated Birthday wishes

2007-10-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hey smelly! I do regret to inform you that your birthday was 2 days ago and I neglected to wish you a happy one that day on my blog. If it helps you feel better, you can at least know that I thought about you that day and then next. I hope you had a good one. I love you!
-Tye Marie

Birthday wishes!

2007-10-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have an announcement to make:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIN E. BECK!!!!!
I hope your day is as delightful as you are!
much love,
Tye Marie

I am Emma Woodhouse

2007-10-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

Hi. I don't understand how to copy and paste the picture, but I took a fun jane austin character quiz which revealed I am a modern "Emma Woodhouse." She is awesome so I hope I can begin to live up to her awesome-ness. If you, the reader (although I don't know who reads my blogs because there seems to be a lack of comments from many), would like to know which character you are, you may visit http://www.strangegirl.com/austenquiz/

Tag this!

2007-09-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

Jobs I've Held:
1. Guymon Electric (my dad paid me to do random things here and there)
2. Rags
3. Sensuous Sandwich
4. RC Willey, otherwise known as "the Willey"

Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
1. The Count of Monte Cristo
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. National Treasurer
4. Legally Blond
5. The Sound of Music

Places I Have Lived:
1. Wyoming (don't remember the city)
2. Provo, Utah
3. Ann Arbor, Michigan

Shows I enjoy:
1. Ellen
2. AFV
3. The Great Race
4. American Idol

Places I Have Been on Vacation:
1. San Diego, CA
2. Various National Parks in Utah
3. Yellowstone National Park
4. Does camping count? backpacking in the Uintahs National Forest
5. Nauvoo
6. Lake Michigan

Favorite Foods:
1. Guacamole
2. oatmeal cookies
3. Indian food
4. roast beef and potatoes
5. Cafe Rio (I can't wait until I can experience this pleasure again!)
6. parmesean chicken
7. twice-baked potatoes
8. I could go on and on but will stop now

Websites I Visit (almost) Daily:
1. gmail
2. webmail
3. elearn.byu.edu
4. google
5. blogs (not daily but sometimes)
6. noaa.org
7. aadl.org

Body Parts I Have Injured:
1. right ankle- broke it in 4th grade
2. right ankel- sprained it over 50 times
3. my whole body was injured during pregnancy and childbirth but is slowly recovering from it (this is supposed to be humorous, not sad or depressing- pregnancy does a doozy on the body but gives you a baby, so it's worth the cost)

Nicknames I Have Been Called:
1. tatron
2. twi-tatron-co-ann
3. tron
4. tae
5. detmer

I'm tagging (to blog this):
1. erin e. beck
2. becca l. s. meeks

Birthday wishes!

2007-09-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to Rebecca Lark Smith Meeks!!
You are loved by someone in Michigan very much.
Have a good one.
You have been briefed.
Love,
Tye Marie

What time is it?

2007-05-10T00:57:00.000-07:00

It's 2:00 am. Why am I awake? Well, I just don't know. I watched a movie tonight with Quinn, Maecy, Mom, and Dad (A Knight's Tale) and afterwards went to go to sleep (11:00) and haven't been able to get any of it (sleep). I do not feel tired, that's for sure. I'm just annoyed that I can't sleep because I want to and there's nothing else that sounds as wonderful as sleep. I just hope I'm not awake all night- it's definitely a possibility that I would be because it's happened before. Luckily I probably won't be tired until Friday because I'm not usually too tired the day after a really bad night's sleep. I think this is because the body naturally releases hormones that make you super awake when you're sleep deprived, but this only happens for so long. Eventually you get very tired and maybe even a little cranky and have to make up some of the lost sleep. I've tried reading, singing hymns, relaxing (not very effective at 2:00 am), eating cereal, just sitting, making myself lay in bed, turning on a fan, etc. and here I am feeling just as awake and wired as ever. I haven't had a night like this in a long time so I guess I had it coming to me.
Now I will talk about school. I am enjoying my classes thus far. My substance abuse and addictions class is quite interesting. Now that I have learned more about addictions and what happens in the brain when someone becomes addicted to something, I will be more understanding of those that have addictions. Drugs literally do alter the chemical processes of the brain and make it almost impossible for someone addicted to drugs to stop- this is why professional help is there for these people. My other class is intro to epidemiology. I wasn't very excited to take this class because I thought it would be boring- but I was wrong, it is very interesting to me.
Hmmm... what should I say at 2:15 am. I'm so excited to see Kyle this Friday. He will be getting here at almost midnight. On Saturday night, he is going to go with me to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting- I have to go to one for my drug addictions class and don't want to go alone. I'm glad that he agreed to come. I think it will be fun and interesting to go to it.
Welp, now I will turn off the computer and sit on my bum for a while.

on the radio

2007-04-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

i just barely finished posting but remembered i wanted to write another sumpin.

first of all, i want to thank nikki again for providing me with a new mix of music recently. on the mix was "on the radio" by Regina Spektor. I hadn't heard her music before but kyle and i both like her now. here are some of the words to that particular song:
This is how it works
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath

No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again

There is a deeply powerful message in this song. You can interpret it however you like. I think it's saying that life is mundane and happiness will be absent unless we change our attitudes about things and try to help others along the way. "and walking arm in arm, you hope it don't get harmed, but even if it does you'll just do it all again and again." when we make friendships and extend ourselves in service and love to others, it is challenging because we step out of our comfort zones. but how else are we to find happiness? we need people and people need us. it's as simple as that. there may be someone who will not be loved when they need to be unless we extend ourselves and look beyond our own sadness and self pity.

it's not long now

2007-04-19T16:16:00.000-07:00

welp, millie has been a sick one and now it's kyle's turn. it's totally the wrong time for kyle to be sick- i feel bad for that guy. his finals are coming up in a week and he really needs this time to study but instead he's spending a lot of time on the pot- as i'm sure he'd want you all to know. millie's feeling a little better and eating a little more now and that's good. when you have these little ones, you worry about what they eat and don't eat and i certainly hope she wants to eat more and more soon- she's always been a great eater and so it's wierd for her not to eat whatever i make for dinner.
today the weather was actually decent so we went for a walk. by sunday, it's actually supposed to get over 70, which is so amazing to me. the last couple of weeks, it's been under 40 most of the time.
so i'm going to utah next week to attend byu for spring semester. i'm excited to be with family and friends but i'm not too excited for the school part of the plan. i think i will also miss being with millie every second of every day- sounds funny, but as much as i'd like to have a break from her sometimes, when i do have one, i miss the little cutsie.
i want you all the know how awesome georgette heyer is. maybe you already know about her but i just discovered her recently. she is an author that wrote a lot of books very similar to the jane austin type. i just finished reading "sylvester" and i must say i have not enjoyed a book that much in so long- not that i've read a lot of books lately, but i must say that i love it love it love it. maecy wants to collect all the books georgette has written (over 60). maecy told me georgette also wrote some mystery novels- they ought to be fun too.
when i come to utah i want to do lots with lots of people. but i need to be organized with my time if i want to see a lot of people because when i went there for christmas, i assumed that because i was going to be there for a month that i would magically be everywhere i wanted to be and see everyone i wanted to see before i came back to michigan. but when i left, i realized there were things i would have liked to do and people i would have liked spend more time with.

i hope everyone enjoys their day.

monday

2007-04-02T16:38:00.000-07:00

i don't know how to post pictures on this blog (actually on this computer), otherwise, i would post one and then no one would have to read about the boring things i might say.

yesterday was april fools day and i played no silly tricks on anyone

millie likes to climb the stairs at the park and laughs when she does

kyle's easter break is this weekend

i'm thirsty

goodbye

nikki-
i just commented on your blog but it says you have zero comments- maybe it's because i use my google account to blog with so i have to go to a whole seperate page to comment on blogs. so sorry. if you click on "0 comments," it will take you to the comment i made.

today

2007-04-01T17:03:00.000-07:00

today i saw water
ripples
moss
today i saw trees
blowing
high
today i heard birds
swings
laughter
today i felt wind
rain
happy
now i feel peace
renewed
strong
and tomorrow i will be okay

I hope so

2007-03-29T05:57:00.000-07:00

The sun is shining so very brightly today- what a dang blessing. yesterday i decided it was time to buy some sunblock for my silliest and i was shocked to see how blasted expensive it is- $10- what the heck! It's one of those things i always took for granted because my mom always had plenty in the closet but now i know that it costs money- poop. it's probably silly to some that i would find this to be such a shock, but there you have it, it was.
i have my weekly playgroup soon so i guess i better getoffmyduffandgetoutofmysillypajamasnow:). okay bye

just another monday

2007-03-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

tonight i went on a fantastic bike ride. the wind was blowing through my hair and that is quite the feeling. biking has always been one of my very favorite things to do- i used to go on what i called "high speed bike rides" along the Provo River trail back home. i had the same route i'd always take that was about 4.5 miles. the reason they were called "high speed bike rides" is because from the moment i got on the bike, i would ride as fast as a could the whole time and it was magnificent.
tonight after millie went to sleep, i finally got up the gumption to clean up my apartment a little bit- i think i'm the only one who really understands the significance of that accomplishment because i have lacked the motivation to do this thing for quite some time. i go through cycles where i want to be really clean for a while and then i don't want to be clean at all and everything piles up. usually the unclean spells last much longer than the clean ones. hopefully i can stay in the clean mode longer than tonight.
welp, got to go

2007-03-24T07:26:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd add a picture to begin with!!! I know, I know Millie looks like a durf(?) but she doesn't care:)!