July Update

Here is how this past month went!

Adam: turned 29 this month!! We celebrated by having a get together with some family in the afternoon and then that evening we went to find a spot to watch the local fireworks show (while trying to avoid parking and traffic). The day after he got a special visit from his brother Seth and his family. That was probably his favorite birthday gift because we had someone to play games with haha. He also went back to work and has been amazing at balancing his work stresses, home stresses, and lack of sleep. He is a HUGE support for me breastfeeding as well. We kinda gave up on him taking a feeding since I'd have to wake up to pump anyways but he always gets Wesley and brings him to me and also settles him down if he needs it. He is the best husband and father.

Ashley: I spent the first half of the month trying to find a new normal with Adam at work while trying to prepare for family visiting. The second half of the month, I had to find a NEW new normal because my mom had left after staying with us for a month from when Wesley was born. It was kind of intimidating being home all day with the boys by myself at first but we're getting used to it haha. I am SOOOOO grateful that my mom could come and help for such a long time. It was such a sacrifice of her energy and time but made a huge difference in how my postpartum time went.

Eli: has LOVED having family visit. He enjoyed my mom being here and was ecstatic when all of his grandparents were here along with his aunts, uncles, and cousin on my side and two uncles and aunts and a cousin on Adam's side all came to visit this month. Honestly, I was expecting a full on meltdown when everyone left after the blessing but he did so well saying goodbye. He's definitely growing up in a lot of ways! He's especially gotten more into creative pretend play recently. He will often give me cars and have conversations between them and his cars haha. I love seeing his imagination grow and process things. He loves Wesley and hasn't been too jealous of him. More often than not, he gets mad because he wants to do things like hold and feed him but he can't. It will be fun to see if they'll play well once Wesley can actually play haha.

Wesley: turned 1 month old this month! His head control is getting better but still quite wobbly. He also started smiling this month! That of course is my favorite :) He's a good eater except when my milk comes out too fast. Then he unlatches and gets sprayed in the face haha. We're still troubleshooting how to help his perpetual gassiness but we're pretty sure its my overactive letdown. He has started balding on top and looks like an old man. His favorite thing is to sit on my lap with his back leaning against my thighs as I sit with my knees up. He loves to see our faces and that is how we get the most smiles. He still wakes up quite a few times at night but occasionally will go a 3 or 4 hour stretch! He is a super sweet baby and is now over 11 lbs already so he's quickly becoming a chunk!

Special Events This Month
Fourth of July and Adam's birthday as mentioned above :)
We had Wesley's baby blessing! We were so happy that so many family were able to travel to share it with us. We definitely had a packed house that weekend! It was also the first time my whole family had been together now that Jessica is married (and of course Wesley joining us). So we had to get a family photo which was interesting with a kindergartner and a toddler to try and contain haha. It was a fun, crazy, happy weekend!

My Sister's Wedding

Earlier in July, we got to take a trip to Washington!!
We decided to have Adam work a half day so we drove part of the way on Monday the 3rd, stayed overnight in La Grande.

Sleeping at the Fort

We drove the rest of the way on Tuesday the 4th. Eli did "relatively" well with the drive. We were able to get in early enough so that we went to lunch at Burgerville and then we went down to the Fort Vancouver fireworks show which has been something I grew up going to so I was excited to show Adam. Eli took a nap on daddy's back and enjoyed playing with Grandma and Grandpa Tanner. We were a little worried about the fireworks because we had gone to a smaller thing with Adam's family and he didn't like it. But I think that was just because it was too close and too loud. He LOVED the big fireworks show and so did we :)
Then Wednesday, we got to see Jessica go through the temple for the first time! Its always so nice to go back to the Portland temple since that is where we were married and I went through the first time :)

Getting our nails did :D

Thursday, Adam sweetly took care of Eli for the majority of the day so that I could go with my sister, mom, and some of Brad's side of the family to go and get our nails done! They turned out really well and it was nice to pamper Jessica. Then, that evening we had a little bachelorette party at Beaches restaurant and then hanging out at her sister-in-law's parents' house. 

Hanging with Chelsea!

Friday, we had a family party with all of my mom's side to celebrate my grandpa's birthday and we had a little baby shower for my aunt. It was so fun to hang out with everyone and Eli enjoyed playing with his second cousin and his first cousins once removed (when your youngest aunt is only a few years older than your oldest sister, cousin lines get confusing haha).  

Cute ring bearer!

Beautiful day :)

Saturday of course was the big day!! We got to see my sister get married for time and all eternity to an amazing man in the same place that we got married as well as my sister Stephanie <3 I totally cried haha. It was a beautiful day and after pictures we went out to my favorite Thai place. Then that evening, we had the reception at Green Meadows club which was gorgeous! The catered appetizers and the cake were delicious and the decorations were super cute. I didn't get a ton of pictures because most of the time I was video chatting with Stephanie who is in Peru for her husband's internship. I am so grateful for modern technology which allowed her to see all of the big things at the reception like the ring ceremony, first dances, cake cutting, shoe game, speeches, etc. They exited in a decorated golf cart to get to their decorated car that was taking them to their honeymoon!

sleeping at the reception

Gorgeous cake!

Then Sunday, we made the long trek home! During the day while we were there was often spent visiting with old friends of mine and just driving around Vancouver (sometimes just so Eli could get a nap haha). So now all of Adam's siblings and all of mine are married!

Heading off!

July Update

So here is what happened this month!

Adam: He started off the month with his 27th birthday (which you can read about below)! He also finished his prospectus!!! For those who may not know what that means, it is a 35 page researched project proposal for his Master's thesis project. His next step is to defend it in front of his project committee and hopefully they will accept it. If they don't, he has to find something else to do which would be very tough since he's already had to do a lot for the project. With the nature of how his prospectus turned out, it looks like he may not graduate until April. The reason for this is that the online class he designed for the project will have its first semester this coming fall so he may just need time to actually assess how it did. However, graduating in April won't necessarily mean that we will be sticking around until then. He will finish his last course this fall and will only need to take thesis credit during winter semester. So we are planning for him to look for a full-time job no matter what starting the end of December. If the job happens to be out of state, he will just fly back for a few days to defend his thesis. Sooo...the end is in sight!!

Ashley: I am still at home taking care of Eli and finding ways to fill my time. I have decided to read through all the fiction books we own alphabetically (by author). We have 100+ books so it will take me awhile to get through them haha. I also finished my skills assessment to become a babywearing educator. I had to record videos of me teaching how to use all the different style of carriers (wraps, slings, mei tai, buckle soft-structured carriers, etc). I think I did well so all that is left is to wait to see if I passed. Some people may wonder why I would want to become an educator. Well, I want to be able to share my love of babywearing to others and teach them how they can do it safely and comfortably. I am involved at my local chapter of Babywearing International and once I get certified as a Volunteer Babywearing Educator, I can be more involved with leadership-type roles :)

Eli: is now 11 months old!! It is crazy that he is nearly one year old. He is still not walking but he is getting better and better at walking while holding one of our hands. He mostly just gets super excited about it which makes him lose his balance. He got his third haircut earlier this month and one of his top teeth has just barely broken through! He's been working on that for over a month which has not been fun for baby or parents. He loves to play with other babies/toddlers at church, he knows how to play peek-a-boo, and his favorite thing to say is "yah". Adam and I entertain ourselves by asking him crazy yes or no questions which he always answers with a confident "Yah!" hahaha. We are starting to introduce to him more table food and he is getting better at learning how to chew. He also learned how to use a straw! Its fun to see how he learns these simple skills that we take for granted :)

Adam's Birthday/Fourth of July Weekend
We were lucky to have some of Adam's family here! First, Seth and his wife came through for a short visit on their way up to see Sabrina's family. This was exciting because he was the last sibling to meet Eli! Then Adam's parents came to visit. They very much enjoyed their time with Eli and we were able to play lots of games (key part of any Lloyd gathering). We also were able to go through the Provo City Center temple with them (thanks to my sister for babysitting)! It was very busy being a holiday weekend and a Saturday but a very cool experience. It was especially special for them because they knew it so well as a tabernacle. We had a low key birthday for Adam with cheesecake and dinner with some of Adam's family and mine. I got him a new soccer ball and the two latest Star Trek movies. We didn't end up going to see any fireworks due to a crabby teething baby but hopefully next year we will :)

Summer update

Hi everyone!

I decided that I shouldn't wait too long to update everyone so that this post can stay relatively short :)

Things are going great for us! We just celebrated Fourth of July and along with that, Adam's 26th birthday :) I really wanted to make it special for him so most of it we (me and our friends Steven and Kayla) kept it a secret from him. It made it fun to have him try and guess what we were planning on doing. I was excited and only hoped being pregnant wouldn't get in the way too much. So the night of the 3rd we went camping up Hobble Creek canyon with our friends as well as Kayla's brother and his wife. It was fun staying up playing games and just talking. And miraculously I slept well! I was worried about sleeping on an air mattress but I slept great :) After we woke up, we went back home to make a proper gigantic breakfast with waffles, hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, etc. It was delicious :) Then we played the new Ticket To Ride Europe game I got Adam as a present for a bit before heading over to Kayla's brother's apartment complex to go swimming.

Boy did that feel nice! It was amazing to have my big belly feel weightless and it was great to cool off. I DEFINITELY want to go swimming more often for the rest of the pregnancy :) Then we went to dinner at Red Robin so Adam could get his free birthday burger before we headed to Stadium of Fire!

This was very cool because in both of our time at BYU, neither of us had been inside BYU's football stadium. Journey was headlining which made us even more excited because we knew quite a few of their songs. The fireworks were fun and the baby kicked to the beat of the music (maybe he'll be a drummer? haha). Walking to and from the stadium wasn't fun but I survived :) We ended the night with yummy ice cream cake!

Overall a great day and Adam thoroughly enjoyed his birthday :)

In other updates!
Adam has been working lots this summer which will be great for when the baby comes. Boy does he have A LOT on his plate. He has been helping his boss at BYU Online with a research paper she is working on, working on creating a new Humanities of Asia online course for his master's project, working on his prospectus for his project, and he just started co-teaching a BYU class about technology for education majors! All of this he does while taking excellent care of me running to the store to get certain foods I'm craving, helping me clean the house, and practicing our Hypnobirthing relaxation exercises. He is so amazing :) And as if I don't have enough to gloat about, he just found out that he just got chosen for a panel at an educational conference in Seattle next year!!! He will be presenting the work that he has been doing for his master's project :) This is a huge honor and will be an awesome resume builder. The professor that he is working with also said that she wants to turn this project into a paper to be published! For those who don't know, presenting at a conference and co-authoring a published paper are big things in academia :)

As for me (and baby boy as well), we're doing well. I am just continuing to work part time and prepare for baby's arrival. Third trimester is in full swing and it's hard to believe he could come in as little as a month! I'm adjusting to the changes in my body as much as I can which involves lots of putting my feet up and baths. We've been practicing the techniques we learned in our Hypnobirthing class a lot which has really helped with my anxiety as well as Braxton Hicks contractions. I can tell that my body is being trained and its easier every time to fully relax and get in that "zone" :) Baby is healthy and loves to kick and move. It's amazing how much he's grown!

We've now gotten to the point where we're going to prenatal appointments every other week. At our last appointment, I actually scheduled the rest of my appointments up to the due date! We've also got some of the big things like a car seat, stroller, pack and play, and a swing, which are all haphazard in our second bedroom. All of this is a bit surreal :)

We are enjoying our summer and so looking forward to meeting our son :)

<3 Ashley

Independence Day and Birthday

So Ashley and I have quite a few posts to catch up on and we will try to work through all the fun before school starts again in one week! Aaah!

The start of July is always a fun time for us since not only do we get to celebrate Independence Day but also my birthday!  As we noted in our last blog, we had moved the first day of July.  We had already planned on inviting family and friends over for a barbeque on July 4th so that was motivation enough to unpack everything quickly.  We made it and my birthday was a great success!

To start off the day, I woke up early while Ashley slept in so that I could continue my tradition of watching 1776.  Ashley doesn't like it too much so we didn't watch it at all last year.  However, while Ashley slept, I was joined by my friend Steven, who watched it with me for the first time while we played Axis and Allies.  Steven and I spent my birthday last year playing Axis and Allies as well and it is beginning to be somewhat of a tradition for us.

Later on, Steven and Kayla played some games with us for a while before we had our barbeque.  We had quite a few friends and family join us and afterward, we watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks.  It was a lot of fun and we closed the night doing sparklers with Steven and Kayla.  Unfortunately, we forgot to take any pictures on my birthday, but we did take pictures the next day when we did some more sparklers.

And here is a picture of the smore cake that Ashley made.  It was quite yummy!

Adam's Birthday

Hello everyone!  This year, my birthday happened to fall on Independence Day!  Ashley and I enjoyed the chance to celebrate without going to work.  Earlier in the week, we had been helping our close friends move into a new apartment.  Since they had been unpacking the night before and unable to get everything ready, we had them sleep over at our house.  It was a fun morning hanging out with them.  We decided to go out to a restaurant  where they were offering all you can eat french toast and pancakes.  It was quite delicious and very filling!  Afterwards, my friend and I played a little bit of Axis & Allies. We didn't end up finishing but we had a good time nonetheless.  After hanging out a while, we decided to have our own little barbeque with our friends and we left to get ready.  As we were waiting, my friend and I decided to play a little foosball. (He was kind enough to let me win.)

We had a lot of fun with our barbeque which could be considered a feast with bratwurst, hot dogs (which I did not consume), pasta salad, chips, corn, soda and (later on) cake!  We then started playing a board game while waiting for it to get dark.  We had a bit of fun with the camera as well...

Finally, it got dark enough to head out.   For the first time ever, we went high on the foothills to a spot where we could look out at all the fireworks going up in Utah Valley.  What a sight it was!  The only problem was that none of them seemed really large or booming.  When we decided to head back, we passed by the stadium where they started to set off a few fireworks so we got our big booms and show but we wanted to avoid the traffic so we went back home after a few minutes to have cake.

We ended our evening with a few sparklers, where we got some good pictures.  As soon as we ran out of supplies, we said goodbye to our friends and went to bed.  It was a very fun, if a little low-key day.  I really had a great time though!

Love, Adam

(and Ashley)