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 :)

2 years of marriage and a happy new year!

Hi everyone!

It's Ashley again, just updating you about post-Christmas festivities!

First of all, Adam and I celebrated our second anniversary on the 29th! We decided to celebrate it on the 28th because our anniversary landed on a Sunday this year. We had the whole day planned out and...everything went wrong! We wanted to go to the Mt. Timpanogas temple (the Provo temple is closed for renovations) but it was SUPER busy! There were brides everywhere and they said that they were only doing certain ordinances and those that they were doing were really full. So we decided that we would have to delay our temple trip. We also had planned to go up to Salt Lake City to go around downtown and then eat at the Melting Pot. When we got there, traffic and parking were terrible but we finally found a spot. Then we walked four blocks to the restaurant but they said that the next table they could get us was at 9:30 pm!! So we tried another restaurant nearby and it had a line out the door. So we gave up and went back to Provo. We called Olive Garden but they were pretty busy, so we decided to go to Brick Oven which actually turned out well! Too bad we had to waste the gas to travel to SLC but at least we were able to have dinner together at a place a bit nicer than Taco Bell haha :) On our actual anniversary, we spent the evening looking at videos and slideshows from our wedding and then skyping with Adam's sister Sharon and her family which was great :) Although our anniversary had a very rough start, at least it ended well :)

So for New Year's, we had a sleepover and Harry Potter marathon with our friends Steven and Kayla. It has been awesome living right by them which allows for more fun stuff like this. We got lots of junk food and played games and watched Harry Potter all night! A few of us dropped off to sleep (I was the first...) but then we continued watching the rest during New Year's Day :) We made it through all but Deathly Hallows Part 2 which we watched last night. So close! But we just got too tired. It was fun though :)

Yesterday we decided to take some pictures with Steven and Kayla at a park just for fun :) Here are some of the results:

Also, today was Adam's last day working as a teaching assistant for BYU Online :( It is too bad that he won't be able to stay on but hopefully he'll be able to find another job soon. He has already applied to quite a few places and plans to apply to more until he finds something. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers so that he may find a job soon! I will be starting school next week and taking only two classes. I will be taking Clinical Psychology and Stress Psychobiology. Then, I graduate! Hooray!!!

We love you all and hope you all have a wonderful beginning to 2014!

<3 Ashley

One Year

Last post was about the first half of our Christmas break.  This post is about the main event of the second half, our anniversary celebration.  On the twenty-seventh, Ashley, my family and I all went down to the Denver Temple to do a session.  It happened to be the one year anniversary of when Ashley went through the temple for her own endowments.  It was a wonderful experience and it brought back a lot of memories.  It also happened to be the first time that Ashley had been in the Denver Temple.

Ashley and I outside the Denver Temple

The rest of our festivities took place on the 28th and the 29th.  We booked a hotel in downtown Denver for the night of the 28th since we had decided that staying over into Sunday morning would be challenging to get to church.  Because of that, we decided to do more of our celebrations on Friday, even though it was not the actual day of our anniversary.

We went into downtown Denver in the early afternoon and immediately visited the Molly Brown House.  We had already taken the tour, but Ashley really likes visiting the house and I wanted to go again in preparation for a paper I am planning to write (more on the paper in a later blog post, probably in a few months).  It was another wonderful experience and I learned a lot more than I did the first time. 

Us at the Molly Brown House

 Ashley in front of the Molly Brown House

Afterwards, we decided to drop off our stuff at the hotel before going exploring the 16th Street Mall, a outdoor mall (that spans the length of the street).  We had selected a hotel that was right on 16th Street and in an older building that had been turned into the hotel.

 

 We got into the hotel and checked in and got our keys.  When we entered our room, we were surprised at how nice it looked.  Later on, we were looking at the website, when we realized that the hotel had upgraded us to their Presidential Suite (the best room in the hotel) for free!  We were so excited.  It was spacious, on the top floor, and had a balcony where we were able to enjoy the mountains, the skyline, and the buildings lit up for Christmas.

We had a great night.  It was quite cold out that day, so we didn't explore as much as we originally had planned, but we still had fun wandering down 16th Street, eating at the Hard Rock Cafe, getting hot chocolate together.  It was a wonderful night!

The next morning, we went out again to have breakfast at a bakery, which was really delicious, then packed up and left our hotel.  Instead of heading home, though, we went back to the Denver Temple to do sealings as a way to commemorate our own sealing exactly one year before.  It was a wonderful experience.

We are so grateful for our marriage.  I know that for myself, it has been the best year in my life.  I have grown so much and had so much joy in my life.

Ashley's notes: Incredible weekend!! This anniversary celebration was more amazing than I could have imagined. The hotel was so cool and Denver was so beautiful. The best part was being in the temple (albeit different temple) and remembering looking at Adam and promising forever (I know this sounds cheesy but I'm just being honest). This past year, and almost two years has been amazing because of Adam. He is seriously a better husband than I could've imagined existed outside of romantic comedies. I am looking forward to many more years :)

Love,

Us