Delilah's Milestones & Blessing Day

I am SO bad at blogging! I should be keeping track of and posting stats about Delilah, but I am just SO busy these days! So, I'm going to try to jot down a couple of notes from her first three months of life here.

Age 0:

Pro eater! She is great at breastfeeding, and has been from her first hour of life. Thank you, little girl! And she only cries when she's really hungry or tired.
Wearing size newborn clothes
Wearing size newborn diapers, upgrade to size 1 at 2 weeks old
Loves to go into milk comas after eating
Wakes up to eat 1-2 times a night, sometimes 3, but goes right back to sleep
Toward the end of the first month, we started getting smiles and coos! Social girl!

Age 1 Month:

Wearing size newborn and 0-3 month clothes
Wakes up to eat usually 1 time a night, sometimes 2
Loves to be wrapped up tight to sleep at night
Was blessed just before 7 weeks
Such a sweet, talkative girl
Loves to play with the toys on her play mat
Starting to love her baths!
Wearing size 1 diapers
At 7 weeks, she got a fever and the doctors weren't sure what was wrong, so she got blood tests that showed she had an infection and inflammation. Afraid it might be bacterial, we were sent to the hospital in Provo for testing. She had a spinal tap, and all three tests for bacterial infection (UTI test, blood infection test, and meningitis (spine) test) came back negative after the three day waiting period. As far as we can tell, it was just some sort of virus.

Age 2 Months:

Wearing size 0-3 month clothes and some 3 month clothes.
Wearing size 1 diapers
Near the end of the month, she went through a phase where she started hating the carseat
Still a calm, sweet, happy temperament
Started sleeping through the night, waking up on the occasional night to eat once
Loves to sit on our laps and look out on the world and watch what's going on
Discovered her hands and started grabbing at toys
Had a stuffy nose nearly all month after getting her 2 month shots!

Age 3 Months:

Wearing size 3 month and some 3-6 month clothes
Wearing size 1 diapers, upgraded to size 2 about halfway through the month
Loves to nap in her swing
Finally started keeping her paci in much better, and is good at self-soothing
Sleeps through the night every night! (Wrapped up like a burrito)
Right around the time she turned 3 months, she gave her first little giggles. Charlie, of course, was the first one to make her giggle, as well as Trevor! Even Darren, my best friend's husband, made her giggle. She must like boys!

Age 4 Months:

Look at those chunky legs! :)
She has been working on turning over for a few weeks and she's almost there! She's turned from back to front once as a fluke, and from front to back once as a fluke. Any day now, she'll have it down. She's a pro at turning on her side.
Wearing size 2 diapers
Wearing size 3 months and 3-6 month clothing
Loves watching her big brother be silly
Makes a grunting noise a lot (as if she were trying to poop, or if she were growling at you)... does this more than actually talking these days
Loves the sound of kids playing or just any noise in general. She's definitely a second child, and very different from Charlie in this way. I'll take her to Zumba and the sound of the loud music lulls her to sleep!
Can sometimes put her paci back in her mouth on her own
Learning to like the jumperoo and loves to sit in the bumbo and watch us do things like cook or clean
Hand-eye coordination is getting better and better, and she's even started pulling on her little frog toy in her carseat that vibrates when you pull it and let it go.
Everything goes in her mouth - her hands, toys, blankets, my hands or neck or arm or anything she can attach to. Haha :)
Eats about every 2-2.5 hours during the day from one side at a time. This has been her pattern for at least 2 months.

Here are a couple photos from her blessing day on July 27th:

Lots of people came out to our late 3pm ward to support us! Grandpa Kayle was there, too, but somehow escaped the picture :)

I love our little family of four!

Girl's Camp

I was called as the first counselor in the Young Women's Presidency at church about a month ago. I got called less than 2 weeks before this year's girl's camp! For a while I didn't think I would be able to go at such short notice, but my wonderful husband moved his schedule around and I was able to go on Monday and Tuesday! It was SO MUCH FUN! I probably had more fun as a leader than I did as a youth!

We met at the church at 6am on Monday morning (bright and early!!) and I drove three of the leaders up with me in my car while the girls rode the buses. We were lucky enough to get to go to Heber Valley Camp near Heber City, UT where they have nice cabins and an amazing campus for Girl's Camp. Believe it or not, the bags in the picture below are luggage, not trash!! The other ward we camped with had tons of girls. We came with our 12 or so girls and we had a small, but close-knit, group.

It was pretty warm the first day I was there, but cooler the second day where we almost felt chilly at times! Blue skies the whole time! Oh, and there were TREES up there! It was so nice :)

Here's Cassi, my new friend and awesome Mia Maid adviser:

Here are Jade (one of my Mia Maids) and Chelsey (2nd Counselor), both amazing girls! They spent a lot of time playing guitar and singing, and they are both extremely talented! Chelsey also had her birthday on Monday while we were there, so we celebrated with that cute pendant banner and ice cream!!

Cascade and Acacia, two of our Beehives, having fun with the mustache sticks that Chelsey brought for entertainment. They provided many a good laugh!

Here is sweet Nicole (my neighbor who loves to babysit Charlie, who just turned 14) writing in her camp journal:

Gathering and pondering and smiling. We spent a lot of great time in our cabin. The one night I slept there I was on the top bunk you can barely see hidden in the back. I didn't have much of a camping "pad" under my sleeping bag so it was a pretty hard surface to sleep on, but I LOVE the adventure!

Our first day there we went on a long hike over the mountain and through the woods. It was challenging, but invigorating! When we reached our destination, a clearing in a field with a fire pit to gather around, we had someone give us a devotional about the Atonement, using a story about a man and the shoes his brother gave him as an analogy. The man worked hard and every day his feet were in pain and injured from his work. His brother, who wanted to help, bought him and gave him a pair of shoes. The man was so grateful for his brother's gift, but he cherished the shoes so much that he kept them in a glass box to preserve them instead of wearing them to protect his feet. The brother was disappointed that his gift was not being used. The shoes are like Christ's Atonement, and we need to make sure to not be like the man and just be grateful for this gift. We need to make sure to use the Atonement in our lives and pray and repent of our sins, so we can reap the full benefits of protection and healing. This is what Christ wants us to do with His gift to mankind. Such a wonderful message. That night, I was in charge of leading the group for ward scripture study and I decided to learn more about the Atonement by reading about it in the scriptures. It was truly an uplifting day. I definitely feel like I was in need of a spiritual awakening and renewal, and my short two days at camp gave me that.

The second day we did the challenge course and the girls were faced with a series of mental/physical challenges that they had to solve, work through, and learn from. I was in charge of a station called Islands where there were three stumps (or islands) and three planks you can use to get from island to island, except the planks don't reach far enough. The girls had to figure out how to work together and make a cantilever system to cross from island to island without falling "into the grand canyon" below (aka the ground 6 inches down haha). It was fun to watch each girl learn about teamwork, trust, and balance as they walked across the boards. At the end, we would take a few minutes to relate what we learned to our lives. We learned we have to trust the Lord, trust our parents and leaders, and trust one another as friends to help us get through life. We also learned that having balance in our lives is very important. Too much of anything can make us feel off-balance, and often praying, reading our scriptures, and counseling with the Lord can help us find balance in our lives again. :)

We played hard, worked hard, ate hard, and learned hard, and by the end of the day, we were all so tired it wasn't hard to sleep (here's one of our young women taking an afternoon nap):

I was sad I couldn't stay for the rest of the week, but I am so happy I was able to go for two days! Being in Young Women's is turning out to be pretty fun! And I'm learning a lot about myself in the process.

Easter with my Family

Easter celebrations this year have been such fun! Back in late February, my parents had planned on flying into town right after we moved into our new house. Due to some business related reasons, they had to postpone their trip for a month and it just so happened that they re-booked their trip for this Easter weekend! It was so much fun to do all of our traditions together for the first time since 2005 (before I left for college)! We were also glad that my brother Mike and his sweet, fun girlfriend AshLynn could make it down from Rexburg for the weekend.

One tradition we have is that we all must take a picture after church in our Easter attire. Here's the whole gang:

And here's one of my family (minus AshLynn... she wanted us to make sure we'd snap one without her since she's not related).

Of course, another Easter tradition is that the Easter Bunny comes and leaves us baskets full of candy and eggs (and a little hopping bunny toy for Charlie!):

As with years past, we also continued the tradition of making the bunny cake:

Here's an excellent depiction of my concentration face. It takes a lot of focus to ice a very soft cake without getting crumbs mixed all in the frosting:

AshLynn tried her hand at frosting the bow tie!

Mike even got involved with decorating the cake. He added spots to the bow tie using a frosting bag. He looked so natural in the kitchen, we all agreed we could see him on Cupcake Wars as one of those hipster cupcake bakers. :)

Mike's handywork:

Master Baker Mike and his signature frosting "M":

And now a look at the finished cake!
Another tradition we started this year was letting Charlie hunt for Easter eggs.

I accidentally spaced the neighborhood egg hunt on the Thursday before Easter, so to make up for it, we let Charlie practice finding and picking up eggs in my front yard. He had a blast! Until he discovered the mulch... then he got distracted and wasn't too interested in the eggs anymore. (Boys WILL be boys!)

We ran out of time to dye eggs, although we did hard boil the eggs and had a dyeing kit ready. Maybe we'll do it tomorrow... just a day late, right?

We also had a traditional Easter lunch/dinner of ham, sweet potatoes, rolls, and asparagus (instead of green beans). It was absolutely delicious. Holiday comfort food at its finest! :)

Finally, we all had the opportunity this morning of going to church together as a family. Our Bishop gave a two-hour lesson for the last two hours of church that walked us through the scriptures leading up to the Savior's crucifixion and then his death and resurrection. The Bishop provided maps and wonderful videos to help immerse us in the story and the spirit of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for all mankind. More-so than candy, eggs, bunnies, and cakes, I am grateful for the TRUE meaning of Easter. I am so humbled and so grateful that Jesus Christ suffered for all of our sins and infirmities, and then died so I may live again with Him someday. I am in awe that he rose again on the third day so that I, too, may be resurrected. I am so grateful that, because of all of His sacrifices, I can repent of my sins and shortcomings and strive daily to become more like He wants me to be. I know HE LIVES. I know he loves me and my family and every other person on this earth. How grateful I am for the knowledge of His gospel and for the peace it brings to my life each day.

Happy Easter <3

Trent's Mission Call

Last Friday, March 22nd, we got news that Trev's youngest brother Trent got his mission call in the mail and was wanting the whole family there to open it that night! We were SO excited for him, so we traveled south to Elk Ridge that evening.

Here are my boys before the big reveal! You can see Charlie's new handsome haircut and also get a glimpse of my husband's amazing smile. Just one of the many reasons why I married him :)

Here's Trent, finally getting to open his mission call after waiting all day!

Reading that he has been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to the Mexico, Veracruz mission (Spanish speaking)! He is so excited and told us that he had wanted to speak another language and go foreign! We are so proud of him! He reports to the MTC on August 7th, 2013! Congratulations, Trent!

Click here to see the full YouTube video of him opening his call! And click here to find out more about what Trent will be up to for the next couple years as a missionary spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

A Beautiful Easter Sunday

I don't think we could have asked for a more beautiful Easter Sunday this year! It was sunny and a pleasant 72 degrees outside! I was so excited to celebrate Charlie's first Easter, so we made sure that it was a day of spending time with family and having fun!

We enjoyed a wonderful Stake Conference meeting from 10am-12pm, with lovely messages about the Resurrection and Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was a great reminder of the importance and true message of Easter: that He Lives! And because He lives, we can too!

On our way home from church, we had a neighbor snap a family picture in our Easter Sunday best:

Later, after Charlie took his early afternoon nap, we headed down to the duck pond south of BYU. Charlie had a lot of fun looking at the turtles, ducks, and fish! I just love how he is happy to sit there and just soak it all in. I can't wait until he gets excited and wants to throw bread at the ducks too!

After the duck pond, we traveled further south to Springville to have dinner with T's sister, Meghan. I had previously purchased everything we needed to make a nice Easter dinner, and when we got the invite the day before to join them, I offered to bring my food and cook it there! :) I'm not going to lie, it was fun to cook with Meghan in her large, gorgeous kitchen... complete with granite counter tops! Every time she went to set a hot pot down on the counter, I almost freaked out, but then remembered you could DO that with granite. Can't wait until I have that luxury one day! :D

We enjoyed a feast of honey glazed ham, sweet potato casserole, green beans, and Meghan's heavenly homemade rolls!

For dessert, we had the Cadbury Mini Egg cookies that I made (see recipe here) as well as my beautiful masterpiece bunny cake (I really think it's my best one so far!) :D... Here's a picture of this year's edition:

Oh! Of course, no Easter would be truly complete without a trip from the Easter Bunny! And happily, he did drop off a little something for our sweet Charlie, even though he can't eat any of it yet! We were all excited when we woke up to see what he left!

What a fun day! I can tell that holidays are just going to be so much more fun now that I have a little one to share them with. It gives me the desire to go above and beyond what I've done in the past... to make the day meaningful and memorable.

Happy Easter!!

Trip to NC! (Mike Returns Home)

Wow, I can't believe how much of a blog slacker I've been this month! It's definitely not because I have nothing to write about. I think it's more because we went on a two week vacation to NC, and now I have so much to blog about that I'm feeling overwhelmed! Whew. Well, I guess I'll just start at the beginning of the trip.

Trevor and I flew out on Wednesday, July 13th. The very next day, at 7pm, my brother Mike (Elder Hopkins) was getting off a plane from Atlanta, returning home from his two year mission to Boise, ID! We were all VERY excited to see him! But we were all gathered at home, preparing to leave, when my Dad looked up his plane on flight tracker and realized that it was going to be 30 minutes EARLY!?!? How does a plane coming from Atlanta arrive 30 minutes ahead of time? That never happens. But it did this time. So we frantically got in our cars and rushed to the airport. We definitely didn't want Elder Hopkins to get off the plane and have no one there to welcome him!!

The good news is we made it in time! And actually we were there for about 15 minutes before he walked down the exit toward where we were all congregated. And it really was wonderful!!

Below are some pictures of the big moment. I tried to upload the video, but after waiting 2 hours for it to upload, I had to go to bed. And in the morning it was just gone. I guess it didn't work :( Sorry! So frustrating. But anyway...

Elder Hopkins being, well, himself. With a nice lei of candy!
My youngest cousin on my dad's side, Lauryn, and her homemade poster:
One of Mike's best friends, Tim. He almost knocked Mike over with his running start of a hug!
Another one of Mike's best friends, Geoff:
More of the welcoming committee. Or, erm, paparazzi? Haha. Poor guy was probably thinking "wow... so many cameras!!". Anyway, there's Trevor in the picture. It's proof that we were there :)
After the in-airport celebrations died down, we walked out to the car. He was REALLY home. It still seems surreal.
Also, I had to get a picture of how worn his shoes were. I believe these were one pair of the original shoes he left with:And just to prove how worn they really were, he gave me the pleasure of showing me his insoles. With holes!
It really was awesome to get to see him again! And then we all went on to our next adventure... the beach! That will be for next time! :)

In's and Out's

Life has been changing a lot lately. There are lots of new things happening and it's been really fun. I wanted to show you some of these changes in terms of things that go "out" and things that come "in".

Things that go OUT:

1. My belly, of course!! :) Yesterday I was officially 23 weeks along! And boy is that belly popping OUT fast now! Along with my belly, my belly button is making it's way OUT. It hasn't popped yet, but over the last couple weeks I've watched (to my dismay) as my once very deep "innie" belly button has sneaked closer and closer to the surface. It's only a matter of time at this point until it becomes an "outie"...

2. My brother-in-law, Troy, who was OUT like a light during our family vacation to Las Vegas this month. Sadly, this is the only picture I snapped while we were there, but it definitely deserved a spotlight on my blog, don't you think? He was so out that we were able to decorate him with a pretty little bow :) .... Blackmail much!?
But anyway, Trevor and I made a quick trip to Las Vegas on June 18 & 19 for my nephew, Caden's, baptism. He is the second oldest of Mical's kids and it has been fun, so far, to make a tradition of attending their baptisms when they turn 8 years old. For more pictures of the baptism day, you can see some pictures that Mical put on Facebook here. We had a lot of fun just eating, talking, sleeping (as you can see), and just being with family. Trevor got to go to a local baseball game with all the guys and I had a chance to lay out by the pool for a little while. It really was a fun weekend! But way too short!!

3. My poor old car, Ethel, has made her way OUT of our family. I was hit by another driver while driving to work on June 9th, and I'm pretty sure that the insurance adjuster is going to call me any day to let me know that the damage exceeds the value of the car (Blue Book estimates probably around $1,500 with the current condition and mileage of my car). So, here's my old friend sitting in a little junk yard, waiting to be taken to... umm... car heaven? The dump? Where do old cars go? I have no idea.
Anyway, you can see where the other car ran right into my front driver's side wheel area. Tilted the wheel (probably bent the axle) and caused pretty good damage to the area all around the wheel well. My driver side door wasn't able to open after I was hit because of all that "crunchage" either. Here's a closer look:
While I am a little sad to see Ethel go (I mean, she did tote me around for 4.5 years... even if she was the least reliable car I've ever driven), her absence means there is room for a new car to come in... and that brings us to our IN list. :)

Things that come IN:

1. We have recently welcomed (as of Monday) a new car INto our family, to replace Ethel. This car is a pretty little 2007 Honda CR-V with about 57,500 miles on it. It may not have all the bells and whistles, but it drives beautifully and we got it for a great deal! Here's a picture I found online of one that looks exactly like the one we purchased. I haven't had a chance to take pictures of our actual car yet, but they probably wouldn't be much different than this one:
Anyway, we haven't named this little beauty yet, but I am so glad to have finally gotten through the car buying stage and now I have a nice, smooth, safe, reliable car to drive - extra important for when baby boy gets here!

2. Baby boy is IN my belly. And he will be coming INto our family in just about 4 months! I can't believe how quickly time is flying! I can't wait for him to arrive, but I'm glad I have time to get some things together.

3. We will be flying IN to North Carolina two weeks from today for our big summer vacation! Oh, and did I mention that my brother, who has been on a mission for two years, will be flying IN to the RDU airport the day after we get there!? I'm so excited to see him and welcome him back!

4. About a month ago, the company I work for went through a split, and we recently moved IN to a new office just down the road. I once again have my own office (instead of just a cubicle yay!) and I love the change of scenery. I can even see the bank of the Provo river outside my window. Nice :)

5. There are lots of other things that we are expecting to see come IN throughout the coming months (i.e. baby furniture, Trevor's diploma, income from Trevor's businesses as he has a chance to really work on them, etc.). I'll be sure to keep you all updated!

Happy Easter 2011

Easter this year really was just wonderful. Although we didn't participate in tons of Easter season activities (like dyeing eggs and hunting for them), we really enjoyed the time we got to spend with family.

Playing it low-key, Trevor and I each got an Easter "basket" with a chocolate bunny:
So, it's not the most extravagant basket you've ever seen, but I'm telling you, that solid, dark chocolate bunny is the best I've ever purchased!! Yummm! Dove chocolate really is delicious!

I also continued with tradition and made my bunny cake this year:
No, it's not the best one I've ever done, but I still did it nonetheless :) For past bunny cake pictures, see here and here. After quickly icing the cake after church, Trevor and I stopped by Meg and Steve's house for dinner and to see the family for a couple hours, and then we traveled down to Elk Ridge to see Trev's parents for a couple more hours. We came home with only half of the bunny's round head left. I'd say we did pretty good! :)

Oh, and, another tradition, you've got to wear an Easter dress on Sunday, so here was the one I chose this year:
I'm guessing this is probably one of the last times I'll be able to wear this dress on Easter. I guess it just depends on how my body changes during pregnancy. ;)

Anyway, I really am so grateful for Easter and for the ability we have to remember that Christ was able to overcome the grave and rise again! He suffered and died for us, so that we might repent and live with Him again, and then he rose the third day. What a wonderful message for us all to remember throughout the year.

Also, I'd love for you to read the Easter message written by my wonderful missionary brother. It's on his blog, HERE.

Happy Easter!! I hope yours was wonderful as well :)