One Week Old

A friend of mine offered to take some photos of our sweet little girl. Here are some of my favorites.

Garden Party (April 14, 2012)

You can't live in the South without experiencing the joy of going to a garden party. In Wilmington, they celebarte the Azalea Festival every Spring. One of the ladies I used to visit teach was a Master Gardener and invited us to her garden party. She has a BEAUTIFUL yard (better than some public gardens I have been to) and we took the opportunity to take some photos.

(I'm about 6.5 months pregnant in these photos.)

MVP's First Professional Haircut

(April 16, 2012) We spent some time up in Raleigh so that Andy could work from the Raleigh office. While he was working, I took MVP to a salon that specializes in haircuts for kids. The place was very cute and MVP enjoyed watching a video while the lady cut his hair, but since it cost about $16 even WITH a coupon, I'm glad I am his regular barber. I did learn a couple useful tips, so I guess it was worth it. For example, did you know that the best way to handle a double cowlick is to cut it very short? That alone was worth the $16 price tag.

But for now, I think we'll go back to his regular stylist...me!

Utah

On March 5, 2012, my sweet Grandma passed away. She was 97 years old and was truly an amazing woman and a very good example to me. She was always so happy and delightful to be around. She struggled with several health problems throughout her life including allergies, loss of hearing, breast cancer, bone cancer and the general ailments that come from living a long life. When I think of the challenges she faced I think it would be easy for someone like her to withdraw and feel badly for themselves in their later years, but she was cheerful and interested in everyone, especially her family, until the very end. She loved the gospel and her pioneer heritage. She made it a point to sew quilts for her grandchildren and I treasure the ones she made for me--especially the ones she coaxed my grandpa into helping out with as they got older. She was also an accomplished musician and artist. She has painted several works of art that I would be honored to have in my home. Although I was about 5 months pregnant, I was fortunate to be able to attend her funeral in Utah (MVP and I flew out for two weeks). Perhaps the thing that struck me the most during her funeral was that each of her six children praised and honored her as an angel mother--not an easy accomplishment these days. Because of her care and joyful spirit, her family knew of her love for them. She is truly an elect lady. Here are some photos from the funeral.

Some of my cousins...

 My siblings and I (sans the youngest who was out of town on business)...

 My Grandma kept a drawer in her kitchen stocked with toys for grandchildren to play with. I'm so glad MVP got to play with them one last time.

My parents recently moved into a new home in Lehi, Utah. So some time was spent organizing and enjoying the home. It was fun to spend time with my siblings and their children. Last summer, when we met up in Yellowstone, we had a blast together, so we just picked up where we left off. Since I stayed for two weeks, I had the luxury of spending some time with some of my cousins--what a treat!! MVP also enjoyed playing with his cousins and although it's hard to share toys when you're two, he had a good time with his cousins as evidenced from the pictures below. 

 It's hard to have so many cousins together without someone having a birthday soon!

With Easter right around the corner, we took the opportunity to color and hide Easter eggs.

MVP's aunties and uncles may have gotten a little carried away with playing with Play-Doh.

MVP had a lot of fun with [Grandma] "RiRi". For weeks after the trip, he would inquire as to her whereabouts.

While we had WONDERFUL weather for Grandma's funeral, MVP did finally get a chance to play in the snow. He thought it was amusing, but didn't appreciate having cold hands, so the novelty of it all didn't last very long. We were both happy to return to the relative warmth of Wilmington.

We also went to BYU to see the Monte Bean Museum--something I remember doing for Family Home Evening activities as a child. MVP was impressed by all the animals and I was impressed that many of the displays hadn't changed since I was a child.

The Circus

A few weeks ago, I took MVP to the Circus. I had never been to a Circus before and my overall impression is that the main goal of the Circus is to make money. Elephant rides were $8 per person for about a 1-minute ride. I felt bad about not letting MVP ride an elephant (especially when he pointed at the Elephant and then at his chest and said, "Me!"). As I was admiring how huge and tame the elephants were, I couldn't help but be reminded of the incident in Honolulu when a circus elephant went nuts in the Blaisdell Arena in 2004. That may have contributed to my reluctance to allowing MVP to ride on one. I did relent, however, and let him ride a pony for $5. (They were tied up to poles and would just go in a circle.) He took it very seriously. Refreshments were also on the expensive side--everything started at $5. It all made me feel like a walking dollar bill. (Memories of China came to me for some reason.)

 As far as the show goes, I thought they did a great job. The tigers were absolutely beautiful!! MVP seemed to really enjoy the acrobats and thought it was pretty awesome the way they would spin from hanging ropes. Much to my relief, he has not started swinging from our ceiling fan at home.

They also had a metal globe that 3 motorcyclists rode around in. I was pretty impressed that they didn't crash! The elephants were also very cool. Another thing MVP really liked were the tractors that brought all the heavy equipment in and out of the arena. The kid loves tractors. In general, it was fun and we had a good time (considering MVP didn't have his regular nap that day) and I would consider going again in the future when MVP can remember a little more.

Superheroes!!!!

Today, MVP's friend, "RoRo", came over to play and was all dressed up in his mask and cape. So I got MVP's cape out and we improvised on the mask (thanks Home Depot tool set). The boys thought it was tons of fun to fly around the couch trying to catch each other.

The Birthday Boy!!

MVP turned two on Saturday. We didn't really plan very much--no birthday party. We just wanted to spend time together. It was a good thing we didn't plan a party because he came down with a cold and wanted to take a nap by about 10:30am. At least we know he's smart and understands that one of the joys of old age is getting to take a nap on your birthday.

I wanted to take some videos of my little man for posterity's sake, so I recorded the following interview with a 2 year old. He is such a silly guy. He's still not interested in talking very much, but he understands quite a bit.

MVP is really into cars right now, so we got him a GeoTrax remote-control Cars set. I'm very pleased that he can maneuver the controls all by himself. Instead of cake, we opted for birthday banana splits. MVP got a kick out of blowing out the candles and of course he loved the ice cream and kept asking for more!

After having a little ice cream, things got crazy and this is what happened...

On Monday, we let the birthday celebration continue and we all went to the NC Aquarium (which is free on Veteran's Day and MLK Jr. Day). We had fun and MVP practically ran from one tank to the next.

My Silly Kid

MVP has always been a very good-natured, happy guy. He is generally well behaved in church (as long as I have ample stickers/cars/books to entertain him with). He joins in on funny conversations by laughing when others laugh--he also does this in church when the speaker makes a joke. He has learned how to "funny walk" on command by moving his hips and shoulders from side to side as he walks. He will tell me jokes that I don't comprehend--this involves him walking up to me, jabbering, laughing and then walking away. He laughs when he sneezes and he thinks it is HILARIOUS when you smell his stinky toes/socks/shoes/diaper. He loves interacting with other kids--especially in church. He has taken to nursery like a fish to water. He craves attention and I'm a little concerned that he may want to grow up to be a comedian. 
The other day, I captured what I consider to be an excellent example of his good-natured personality as he was playing basketball.

Christmas in TN

We spent Christmas in Nashville with cousins and MVP had a blast!! His cousins adore him and there were tons of kisses and hugs for everyone. We spent about a week there and I suspect that MVP will be walking around the house asking for his cousins real soon. Here is a summary of some of the fun things we did while we were there...
1. We played at a pretty awesome park that had lots of slides and swings and looked like a fort.

2. We went to the Adventure Science Center in Nashville and had a blast exploring all kinds of things like the workings of the human body and going down the three-story slide.

3. When we came home from the Nashville Adventure Science Center, I was presented with a "clue". After going on a bit of a treasure hunt, I discovered that I was being whisked away on an overnight stay with Andy. I gathered up my things and we left. In about two years, we have not been away from MVP overnight, so it was a little unnerving and I had to fight the urge to point out tractors to the empty child seat behind me as we drove.

We ended up at a Bed and Breakfast in Murfreesburo, TN. The home is a recently restored, plantation-style home that was relocated to an old farm. The owners did a terrific job in restoring it and the finishes were beautiful. We went to dinner downtown and enjoyed 1.5-hour massages in our room. That was really nice because the week before we left was particularly stressful for me because of work responsibilities and it was very nice to climb right into bed after the masseuse left. It was especially nice to be able to get an uninterrupted night's rest. It was nice that the rooms didn't come equipped with toddlers. Special thanks to my niece Bri who offered to take care of MVP while we were gone. She slept in his room and held him a couple times during the night when he woke up.

Andy is a sneaky guy and loves to surprise me with adventures like this. I love it!!!

4. We went bowling. MVP helped me bowl and everyone had a great time. I was a little alarmed that MVP had no problem picking up the bowling balls. Sometimes it's amazing to me that just a year ago, he couldn't even walk!!

5. Fondue Night. We had cheese and chocolate fondue one night. There are no pictures to share because there was a risk that the camera would end up dipped in chocolate. Needless to say it was a lot of fun and having fondue is becoming a tradition when we get together.

6. We watched the BYU football game. Fortunately BYU beat Tulsa in the final minutes of the game. MVP has been trained to throw his arms in the air and say "FOOTBALL" when a game is on.

7. We had Family Home Evening and sang Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree as an opening song. We also played a Wii dancing game in which we made fools out of ourselves.

8. MVP also played with the Fisher Price manger scene quite a bit. Every time he would press the angel to start the music he would say "Ooooooohhh!"

9. We spent Christmas day together as a family. It was so nice that Christmas was on a Sunday this year. We did the typical Santa thing then went to church. The music was beautiful and it was so nice to be together and be reminded of our many blessings. We are so fortunate to have the standards we do that keep us safe and away from so many of the problems there are in the world. The example of our Savior is a constant reminder of what we can strive for and how we should treat others.

10. We celebrated the New Year with some fireworks and pizza. I was also introduced to exploding boba balls. There was a local frozen yogurt place that has exploding boba balls as a topping and I went pretty crazy. They are filled with mango/passion fruit etc juice and they are delicious. (Exploding boba balls are a variation of tapioca balls that are typically added to drinks or served on toppings. I was introduced to boba balls on my mission and have loved them ever since.) Mmmmm. Unfortunately, Wilmington is just not ethnic enough to have such things. :-(

11. My nieces and nephews love it when Uncle Andy comes to visit because they always go exploring in the woods surrounding my brother's house. This time, they had fun exploring a small cave and making plans to build a fort. Andy also put my nephew's Christmas gifts to good use. He got a few spy toys so Andy set up a spy-themed treasure hunt in which he had to accomplish various missions in order to rescue the princess. It was a lot of fun.

12. We ended up driving to and from Tennessee, but we stayed in Hickory, NC each way. On our way home, we stopped in Raleigh so we can go to the Asian food store and so we could take MVP to Monkey Joe's. Monkey Joe's is an indoor play facility full of giant inflatable slides and bounce houses. At first, I thought he would be too small to really enjoy it, but there were a couple bounce houses and slides that he could handle on his own. Andy and I also took turns helping him with the bigger ones. We were there for nearly 2 hours because he had so much fun. The genius was that he fell asleep immediately in the car an slept for the remaining two-hour drive home.

Needless to say, we had a blast and wish we lived a lot closer to all of our cousins.