December Update

Gosh this last month has been crazy!

Adam: started having pain in his left leg off and on earlier in the month. Then after having severe pain so bad he could barely walk, he went to the doctor. They suspected a blood clot so they ordered an ultrasound for his leg. Eli was very confused watching the screen while Daddy got his leg checked because it looked like when Mommy goes to the OB haha. He kept talking about the baby and pointing to the screen. We tried to explain to him that Daddy did not have a baby in his calf. However, it was discovered that he had a blood clot in his left calf (also known as a deep vein thrombosis). We are so grateful that we were able to catch it when we did because DVT can lead to a pulmonary emobolism (when the blood clot travels to the lungs and heart) which can be fatal. So the doctor started him on blood thinners and the waiting game began. Slowly he has improved with lots of rest, occasional walking, and tylenol. It was very hard for awhile because I wasn't fully out of the early pregnancy symptoms when this happened. Luckily, he's doing much better now. He can almost walk normally and just has occasional swelling. We have been so grateful for all of the support of our ward (local LDS church congregation) as well as his employers. He used some time off and then was able to work from home for a bit. Also, friends have willingly watched Eli so I could get a break, brought us dinner, and the scouts shoveled our driveway. Thank you!

Ashley: began the 2nd trimester this month! I am firmly in maternity jeans and I'm looking more pregnant than just fat (thank goodness). Nausea got rarer towards the end of the month but energy is still low. I know I was definitely strengthened by the Spirit during Adam's time of being incapacitated. Our marriage has worked so well because we try to be equal partners in the home when it comes to chores and taking care of Eli. So, when one of us is down, it really throws us. This time was extra hard because neither of us were at full capacity. But things are on the up and up for both of us now :)

Eli: is growing up so fast! This month has been a lot of excitement for Christmas for our little guy. From seeing Santa to singing Christmas songs (his attempt of singing Jingle Bells is the cutest), this season has been magical. He got so excited whenever we got mail so that we had to be careful to hide packages when we brought them inside or he'd beg to open them haha. He is such a goofy little guy and is very curious about everything. This month he has also started speaking more sentences and most of them consist of questions. "What are you doing?" and "where you going?" are often heard whenever we leave the room or do anything other than sit and watch him play haha.

Christmas: We spent a nice quiet Christmas at home this year. We were planning on doing a weekend in Utah to see the lights at Temple Square but the blood clot kinda derailed that plan. So we just enjoyed watching Christmas movies and making cookies on Christmas Eve. Eli LOVED making the cookies. We don't usually let him help us cook but we cleared a spot on the counter for him to sit and watch/help. He was so proud of himself every cup of flour and sugar he poured into the bowl. The morning was very exciting and he really got the idea of opening gifts. And he's been playing with his new toys ever since. Then that evening we spent with my family that live in the area which is always fun.

Anniversary: We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this year! In the morning, we went to do sealings at the Idaho Falls temple while my cousin sweetly watched Eli. The afternoon we went out to lunch with a bunch of family to celebrate my uncle retiring. Then in the evening, we went all out, got a babysitter, ate some yummy Indian food, and watched the new Star Wars movie :)

December Update

Here is how last month went for us:

Adam: finished off the semester and got a well deserved THREE WEEKS off from school! It has been glorious for all of us :) He got an A in his one class even with being sick right before finals week. So last update left us at staying in Utah for another semester and Adam teaching next semester. That would only take up 8-10 of his 25ish available hours to work. Adam checked with BYU Online to see if they had any available TA hours to spare but there were none. Then out of the blue, the Humanities professor he had worked with for the first three semesters of BYU Online emailed him with a job offer. The position would be as kind of an overseeing TA for the big on-campus Humanities GE course and would also include instructional design with making the course more blended (more online elements than just lectures) and converting the current Learning Management System (LMS) to Canvas. An LMS is the digital platform the course material is on. This is HUGE! Most of the job openings we had looked at asked for experience with LMS, particularly Canvas. All I can say is that Heavenly Father knows what he is doing. We didn't know what to do, he told me that we should stay, so we said ok, then jobs line up for Adam like THAT *virtually snaps fingers*! So beyond grateful :)

Ashley: I've spent most of the last month preparing for Christmas and being a mom to Eli. Within that I've also worked on some of my favorite hobbies. I've explored and tried new nail art, hosted traveling baby carriers, and cooked lots of new made up recipes. Actually this month has been pretty great :) I am glad that I do monthly updates even if no one but me reads them. After Christmas, I got in a bit of post-holiday doldrums and within that I looked back at each day with gray glasses. I sometimes feel that because I don't have tangible evidence of substantial things accomplished or progress towards a greater goal, that means I am doing nothing (a very common thought for stay-at-home moms). But Eli is growing and developing (maybe a little too fast for me to catch up haha), I get to spend time with my wonderful husband, dear friends, and my older sister who lives close by. I have a handful of hobbies that I enjoy continually expanding. And I have loads of evidence this month to help grow my testimony that God loves me and directs my little family. Life is good :)

Eli: is 16 months old! He cut his first molar this month which was difficult at times but surprisingly nowhere as bad as when his two front teeth came in. This brings his total to 9 teeth! The only words he says are "mama", "dada", "yah", and "tickle" haha but he does understand a lot and occasionally signs "more". Now when we say things like "go get the ball" or "do you want more water" or "its prayer time", he will respond correctly (except for "don't touch that" which we're still working on...) He has officially transitioned to one nap (mom is still adjusting to that). He experienced his first time playing in the snow as well as a Christmas that he could get semi-excited for. He has also learned that he can climb on more things than the couch, like the coffee table or the rocking chair. That sure has been an adventure haha. As for play time, he has enjoyed all his new presents and is deep within the organizing and sorting stage of toddlerhood. He loves blocks the most and putting things inside other things or putting things in piles. Our laps are usually filled with an assortment of toys as well as random magpie-like places around the house. We are so grateful for our smart, healthy, loving little boy :)

Christmas and our Anniversary

Enjoying a beautiful white Christmas

Christmas Eve we spent with my sister Stephanie and her family going into Salt Lake City. This year wasn't quite as fun because it started raining a ton. But we went back to Steph's house, ate dinner, and watched a The Snowman. Then, we came back home and excitedly put Eli to bed. Nothing brings back the magic of Christmas from your own childhood like creating the magic for your child. I was SO excited to see Eli come out Christmas morning and after being distracted by 3-4 random things, he finally noticed the tree. Then he promptly took off as many bows as he could haha. He showed joy with every gift that he opened, spending a bit of time playing with everything. One of his favorite new gifts however was not given by Adam or me. His fellow toddler cousin gave him a little remote control car that he is obsessed with and he can actually make it move! That I was surprised about haha. We got a fresh blanket of snow overnight and Eli did not want to stop playing in it. Then we had dinner with Steph's family that night. We also celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on the 29th going to do sealings at the Provo City Center Temple and then going to eat at Station 22. We hope that maybe after Adam graduates we can do additional celebrating by going on a night away somewhere. New Year's Eve we spent playing all of our new games from Christmas with our friends the Shepherd's. We stayed up as late as we could now all of us are parents haha which is much earlier than past years.

Eli and his best bud, Elliot Shepherd, just chilling with their sippies on New Year's Eve

We can't wait to see what 2017 has to bring us :)

Our December

Quick updates!

Adam: finished off his semester with a 4.0!

Ashley: officially quit work the first week of December to become a stay-at-home mom

Eli: turned 4 months, rolls from tummy to back easily, became more vocal, and learned to stick his tongue out

Christmas: I got sick, then Adam got sick but overall we had a fun Christmas. We stayed in town and spent the time with my sister Stephanie and her family going to temple square and having a yummy Christmas dinner :)

Anniversary: We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary by going on various dates throughout the day. We first went to the Norman Rockwell exhibit at BYU and then we went to a matinee of Star Wars. In the evening, we went to dinner and then shopped using our Christmas gift cards. I know, we are so exciting haha ;)

New Years Eve: We spent the evening eating dinner and playing games with friends. This day was bittersweet because my maternal grandmother passed away.

Our exciting news!

For those of you who don't check Facebook, we've announced that we are expecting our first baby this August!

We are both very excited and nervous about this next stage in our lives but we are looking forward to it. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father blessing us with this little angel that we get to look after. And I know that because of this we will additionally be blessed with guidance every step of this journey. 

I have been feeling pretty good, or as good as the first trimester can feel haha. I have been feeling quite a bit of nausea which has made eating hard. Although I know of many other women that have had it much worse than I do, so I try to count my blessings. I am looking forward to the days when I won't sleep until 11 am or fall asleep on the couch at 8 pm haha. I've heard more energy will come in the second trimester and I'm nearly there!

Adam is also feeling good and taking very good care of me. He has been keeping up on the housework better than I have and still finds time to be a graduate student. He also feels thoroughly successful when I come home from work saying whatever he made for dinner smells good :) As I'm sure with all new dads, it took him awhile to have the reality sink in (it still fully hasn't for both of us I think), but going to our first appointment did help immensely. There we got to see our little one for the first time and hear the heartbeat!

The midwife ended up doing the ultrasound a second time to get a better measurement of the baby and that time we saw it way better! We could see the full profile with baby's head and little feet! Sadly, that came so unexpectedly that we didn't think to take out our phones for a second picture. Oh well, we will see the baby again :) We also took a video to record the sound of the heartbeat. When I played it later for Adam, he said it sounded like a washing machine. And as I type this, our neighbors' machine is going and he is totally right haha. We are very excited for our next appointment to see how our little one has grown since I have noticed a bit of outward belly growth (probably only noticeable to me but I'm still excited!).

In other news, Adam finished up his first semester in graduate school VERY strongly with a 4.0! I'm so proud of him! Especially since finals week landed right when we found out I was pregnant haha but he stayed focused :) We had a wonderful white Christmas which was made wonderful by my sister Jessica coming to stay with us!

 I hadn't spent a Christmas with her since Adam and I got married 3 years ago so it was quite exciting. We had a great time with her although I wish the early pregnancy symptoms hadn't landed right during her visit. Plus our car was having troubles too xP But we made the most of it by traveling to Salt Lake City a few times, going to visit Manti, playing in the snow, and doing a few fun things around Provo :) I am so glad that she was able to come join us and make Christmas even more special.

Well that is all for now! I know we'll have plenty of more updates coming soon ;) and I will try harder at staying on top of them!

<3
Ashley

Finally Christmas

Hello everyone! It is Adam this time here to give you an update about our crazy lives.  Well, to be fair, it was crazy.  Thanks to the holidays, we are now able to enjoy some spare time, even enough time to get a little bored!

Finals

As always, reporting on finals week is always so much easier after it is over with.  Overall, it was not too bad, but still stressful as always.  Ashley had five finals, plus two take home finals to complete.  She managed to get about one final done a day so that her workload was pretty balanced.  She did pretty well on all her finals and is expecting to get 3 As and 2 A-s which would be tied for her best full semester grade-wise.  She was also kept busy working in the secretary job and in the testing lab.

I also spent a lot of time in the testing lab, but I did not do too much with my other job as I was kept very busy with my own finals.  Overall my finals load was not too bad, I only had two finals and one final presentation, but what kept me really busy was trying to finish my final project in my programming class.  After spending nearly all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I still could not get it completely finished by the time it was due.  Unfortunately, that meant I ended up getting a B in that class when I know it could have easily been an A if I had more time to give.  However, I am okay with that as I really did not have much more time to give.  After finishing my last final the morning of Friday, December 20, I was officially done with undergraduate classes!  I am thinking I will be getting 2 As and 2 Bs this semester which will be enough to keep my GPA at a 3.8.

 Finishing Up

Although Ashley will be continuing to attend BYU, she will only be taking two classes so she will be working on campus and she hopes to be able to also work at a residential treatment center as well.  This means that right now she is enjoying her Christmas Break without worrying too much about other matters.

I, on the other hand, am still working on finalizing my ORCA project.  I have to write a final report by New Year's Eve and will need to submit my paper to the journal I would like it published in.  I am also finishing up with my graduate school applications.  Most of what I have left to do is wait for my letters of recommendation to go through but I still need to finish up my University of Utah application.  It, along with continuing to work on the transition for the new BYU Online class, will be keeping me busy this upcoming week.  Of course, I am also looking for a job for the next few months while I am out of school.  I am not terribly picky, but I am hoping to get good pay and maybe have something related to teaching.

Christmas

Christmas this year was a fairly quiet affair for Ashley and I since we decided to remain in Utah over the break.  I wanted to finish up working and training my replacement and I also needed to wrap up my project as expressed above.  We did still get to spend time with Ashley's sister and her family both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  The whole week was a lot of fun as Ashley got to spend her first official day of break making Christmas goodies with her close friends Kayla and Casey.

The fruits of the day: Caramel, Chex Mix, Scotchies, and Peppermint Oreo Truffles

 I was at work at the time, but there were plenty of treats when I got home.  My favorites were Ashley's Peppermint Oreo Truffles.  They were delicious!  On Christmas Eve, we took it kind of slow during the day until we left with Stephanie, Matt and Anders to visit the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  It was a little cold but a lot of fun and we got some fun pictures as well.

After that, we headed home for a late dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup and to skype with Ashley's parents for a while.

For Christmas, we started the day early as Ashley and I were both too excited to sleep.  Unlike times as a kid when I was so excited to see what I got, I was so excited to see Ashley open the presents I got her!

Us in front of our little Christmas tree on Christmas Eve

My family has a tradition of always taking a picture of each person with their presents they got at Christmas.  It has been very helpful to remember when I have gotten what gifts and to remind me of every Christmas.  I wanted to keep the tradition going, so we also took pictures of us with our gifts.

We then had an enjoyable evening Skyping family and then hosting Christmas Dinner with Stephanie, Matt, Anders, and Ashley's friend Casey.  It was a delicious meal and we enjoyed watching movies together.

Our Christmas fare

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season!

A Colorado Christmas Again

It's a Colorado Christmas again,

Going to share it with my family and friends...

Anyways, as you guessed Ashley and I spent our Christmas in Colorado with my parents and brother.  I was delighted to be back in Colorado for Christmas but, for Ashley, this was her first Christmas away from home.  It was a bit bittersweet for her that way, but we have really enjoyed our time.

As cliche as it may seem, our favorite thing about Christmas is giving gifts and this year was extra special.  Ever since October, Ashley has spearheaded a project for a gift for my parents.  My parents are notoriously hard to get anything for.  More things equals more stuff to find a place for in their house and food gifts often imply something unhealthy which they are not exactly looking for either.  So this year, Ashley found on Pinterest an idea for a gift. (Ashley's insert: the original idea came from this blog http://mymixofsix.blogspot.com/2010/01/thompson-sign.html)  The concept is to spell out the family name using different children and their families.  She then realized that my family has five children and five letters in my last name.  It was a perfect fit, made much better by the fact that my family has not been all together for a picture often and it has been years since we have had a picture together without a wedding involved.  So we got them a picture frame with a picture of each of my siblings and their respective families holding one of the letters.  It was a wonderful surprise that made my mother cry, she was so touched. :-)

For another surprise gift, I have been working on a project since October.  I was doing dishes one day while listening to music from a mix cd that Ashley gave me early in our courtship.  I then thought of the idea of putting pictures of us and places we know to some of the music.  It was a long and challenging project, especially with all of the demands of school and two jobs, and a grant proposal.  I originally was hoping to make videos for all 20 tracks but that was impossible.  I then aimed for 5 tracks, but I was running out of time the week before we left for Colorado and had to cut it down to 3 tracks.  I had it set up in time for Christmas and when Ashley opened the gift, she saw a jump drive in the package.  I told her to connect it to the computer and open up the folder.  She then watched three videos to three of the songs she gave me.  By the end of them all she was in tears of delight.  So I guess this will be the first Christmas where I can say I was happy to make two girls cry.

The holiday time has been great for us, even though it has been rather low-key.  Outside of running to different stores for last minute shopping, we have mostly spent our time inside, playing games with my family.

Christmas, however, was a great treat.  As much as I enjoyed giving, we also received some wonderful presents.  Among the top gifts given to us include a Kodak all-in-one type printer that can print photos, scan materials, and copy papers on top of normal printing, and the related photo paper and ink from my parents.  We also got some movies and television shows that we were hoping for.  Ashley got me a few gifts, but some of my favorites included a music book that contains songs from older movies, such as Singing in the Rain and Make 'Em Laugh, and a card game called Five Crowns.  We had first played the game at Ashley's aunt's house and I really enjoyed it.  We have since played it a couple of times with my brother and one memorable game with my parents as well as my brother where I came in a distant last place.  I was doing so bad it was laughable.

My family has a tradition of taking pictures with all of the gifts we got on Christmas (My mom also writes down who came from which person).  I really like it because I look back over the years and remember the fun presents I have received.

Me with my presents

Ashley with her gifts

Ashley also had some really good gifts given to her, but since I am writing this, I get to mention the ones I feel were the best (aka mine).  Ashley got a Harry Potter Film Wizardry book from me which is all about the making of the Harry Potter films.  She has already found it very interesting and has liked it very much.  I also got her a recipe box so that we can put in some of our family recipes in one convenient location.  Staying with the cupcake theme our kitchen has, it is decorated on the outside with cupcakes.  She also got some gloves from my mother that are touch-screen friendly (if that is the right term).  She really likes the fact she can keep her fingers warm and still use her iPod.  

It has been a wonderful holiday filled with fun, games, and rest.  We hope each of you had a very wonderful Christmas holiday!