Playing in the Dirt

Time for a Random Post...

2012-01-14T11:43:00.002-06:00

A friend of mine pointed this book on Amazon out to me. Sure it's pricey, but check out the reviews!

2 1/2 Years

2011-12-12T21:10:00.003-06:00

Kayla is officially 2 1/2 years old! We have loved watching her grow and learn. These past several months she has figured out how to express herself a lot better. She uses complete sentences and can articulate her emotions. Grammar is a bit of an issue, but we'll work on that later. (example: "I want a please sucker pink.")

Kayla has a very tender heart and always makes sure that people around her are "ok". When we cough she always asks, "Are you ok?" and we have to respond promptly otherwise she will just keep asking. Tonight one of her friends who is already gone for the holidays called. Her friend had to get stitches on her chin from an accident she had and was telling Kayla about it. Kayla asked her, "You have an owie? Are you ok? I'll kiss it better." and attempted to kiss the phone. Pretty cute.

She also loves going to nursery on Sundays. Almost every day Kayla asks if she gets to go to nursery. Today she loaded up some little dolls in her toys car and said they were headed to nursery.

Logan loves smiling at Kayla and she gets very excited when he does. She shouts, "Baby's smiling!" She holds his hand and gives him kisses. One day I saw her reading stories to him. When he is crying she tries to give him his binky. She sings to him and rocks him in his little bed. Kayla is a great big sister.

As far as size goes, Kayla is still fairly little. She is only 29 lbs. and still wears pajamas she got for Christmas last year. Being little is helpful for her because one of her favorite activities is being tossed around by Daddy when he comes home from school. She lays down on the ground and sticks her hands and feet in the air for Braden to hold on to so he can swing her above his head. When he stops she shouts "HIGHER!" and giggles with joy. I love watching them play together.

Kayla is a handful at times and is too smart for her own good. She loves to get on the computer and open up her movies to watch. Since we don't encourage constant movie-watching, we removed the itunes icon from the computer. Kayla, however, figured out how to go into the applications folder, find itunes, open it, and get her movies. She also knows she can pull a chair over to the refrigerator so she can reach the freezer where her frozen go-gurts are. It's good to know she won't starve if I can't get her a snack right away.

We love our little girl and are so happy she is part of our family.

On My Own

2011-12-09T21:32:00.008-06:00

With Braden gone to Illinois for career stuff this weekend, I'm on my own with the kids. I decided to be brave and go to the ward Christmas party tonight. Everything was going well until someone started sawing wood on the other side of the room. Kayla doesn't particularly like the sound of an electric saw (I think it was a chop saw??). For the rest of the evening she plugged her ears, which made eating dinner interesting...

Last weekend there was a holiday party with our apartment complex. It was a lot of fun, but we found out the hard way that Kayla does NOT like Santa. Knowing that Santa was coming tonight to the party, all week long I had her watch some Christmas shows with Santa in them. Today we talked about how nice Santa is and that we don't need to be afraid of him. She was excited to see him when we left home, but when Santa finally arrived it was a different story. Maybe next year she'll enjoy taking pictures with him. Logan woke up just as we were about to leave so I decided to plop him on Santa's lap. At least one kid cooperated!

Santa tried to make Kayla happy by letting her ring the bell. It was a nice gesture.

On a side note, Kayla woke up from her nap this afternoon to a creepy little friend crawling in her bed. One would think with all the "Charlotte's Web" she's been watching lately she wouldn't be terrified of spiders. Normally when she wakes up she just comes out of her room. When I heard her screaming in there I ran in and saw our terrified little girl sitting paralyzed on her bed. I saw the spider and swiped it away. When I found it again I smashed it and showed Kayla that it was dead and wouldn't get her anymore. It took another 10 minutes before she would get off my lap. Maybe two traumatizing experiences in one day was just too much for her, which is why she wouldn't stay in bed tonight until after 10:00. Hopefully she'll forget all about scary spiders and Santa for tomorrow night and go to bed at a decent hour.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-01T20:13:00.005-06:00

Thanksgiving this year was spent amongst friends here in Cambridge. Braden started the day with a "Turkey Bowl" while I started making cranberry bars and my mom's delicious rolls. Braden also made a ham and scrumptious mustard sauce to go with it, but we don't have pictures of that unfortunately.

Kayla organized my nail polish and picked out some colors to wear (pink on her toes and green on one hand).

Braden showed Kayla how awesome the Wii is. They played tennis and she was able to hit a few of the balls!

I put Kayla's hair in braids the night before so it would be wavy on Thanksgiving (which is why she has cornrows in most of the pictures). Here she is giving loves to her little brother.

We hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-26T19:36:00.005-06:00

For Halloween we decorated sugar cookies with friends,

picked out pumpkins,

carved pumpkins,

(attempted to carve a pumpkin),

and colored the pumpkin instead.

The finished product!

We went to Spooky Sloan again this year and had a lot of fun!

Cinderella and Bedtime Bear visited us this year. Cinderella didn't want to wear her gloves and crown though...

Kayla went trick-or-treating around the apartment complex and met up with some of her friends.

Kayla got quite a haul! (Although most of it is gone already thanks to help from Daddy!)

One Month Young

2011-11-10T11:11:00.004-06:00

Logan recently achieved the one-month status. He is growing, eating, pooping, and sleeping well. Here are his stats:

Weight: 10lbs. 6oz. (58%ile)

Length: 21 5/8 in. (45%ile)

Head Circumference: 39.3 cm. (69%ile)

He consistently sleeps for a 6-hour stretch at night, which has been a HUGE blessing. It is amazing how much difference getting good sleep can make for me.

Kayla loves her little brother. She holds his hand or foot and tries to give him his binkie when he is crying. When we first brought him home from the hospital and he started crying, Kayla ran to get him a blanky and binkie because she knows that those things help her when she is crying (although they didn't really work for Logan). She is very sweet with him. We do, however, need to get some bumper-pads for the crib since she likes to poke things through the bars. His eyes have only been poked at once or twice. Mostly she leaves him alone, but there was one time that Kayla "helped" by bringing him to me when he was fussing and I was on the phone. I heard her say, "Here Mom!" and I turned around to see her holding Logan. Such a helper!

A note about labor: going natural hurts. A lot. The contractions were getting progressively more painful while we were at home. We had to stop walking from the car to the labor unit at the hospital four or five times because I couldn't move during the contractions. The nurses started asking me questions and I couldn't answer them. Luckily Braden was very calm and was able to help me with different ideas for breathing. He answered all the questions the nurses asked and helped get us checked in. After my water broke it was a whole new level of pain during contractions. We had a very good nurse who reminded me that "the bed rails aren't going anywhere", so I just held on for dear life to those. Would I deliver sans-epidural again? Yes. The recovery is much faster. I was able to be much more alert after he was born and feel like I could enjoy the whole after-delivery experience more because of it. Is going natural for everyone? No. You never know how a labor is going to go. But now I know that since I did it once, I'll probably be able to do it again. For me, the idea of the big needle going into my back scares me much more than natural childbirth. I loved not having an IV. I hate those.

Baby Logan!

2011-10-06T18:12:00.001-05:00

Early morning. Very early morning, and Tiffany was going into labor. Realizing there was some regularity to her contractions, we began to wonder if baby Logan was going to arrive before class, and I opened up the stopwatch app on my phone. Like clockwork, every two minutes or so she had a one-minute contraction, about 60 of which were dutifully timed by a husband unable to think of anything else helpful to do. Being a man of action, watching Tiffany do all of the work through labor and delivery makes me feel incredibly pathetic. To try to be useful I gave her encouragement and whatever emotional support I’m capable of giving (not what I would consider my greatest strength, but Tiffany says she loves me anyway), and did the only measurable thing I could think of to help – timed contractions with my stopwatch.

After much anticipation and thinking we would need to head to the hospital at any second, they stopped. Saying it was discouraging to go back to bed at 5 am to get some rest is an understatement, but I had to go to class if we weren’t at the hospital, and soon-to-be big sister would wake up around 7 wanting to play.

As the day progressed, Tiffany continued having irregular contractions, and I anxiously went to class with my phone on silent, expecting any second that my phone would vibrate and I would have to run the mile between the business school campus and our apartment in record time. I made it through Business Law without a phone call, though only partly able to concentrate on how people get sued for stealing trade secrets when they leave a company and start up a new business. Key lesson learned: stealing the Coca-Cola recipe = a very large lawsuit. It lacks the nuances of the actual basis of law, but I think it will work in a pinch. After class I ran back to our place to check up on the family – still no baby. However, our apartment was scheduled to get the heating repaired that day, so Tiffany was hanging out at a friend’s place while the workers finished up. Luckily I had a long enough break to get our place put back together after the workers left, and then it was back to campus for a trading-room simulation for Finance with my phone at the ready. During the exercise, we traded imaginary stocks to see how the market behaves to determine stock prices. Key lesson learned – there’s a lot more to making money in the stock market than guessing when a stock will go up or down, and the market (everyone that buys and sells stock) is really smart.

Still no baby.

Back home, we were hoping that our lost sleep in the morning wasn’t all for naught, and waiting for Tiffany’s mom to arrive from California, and it started. I pulled out my phone, opened the stopwatch app, and began anew my contribution to the process. Tiffany bent over the couch and began her concentrated breathing. These contractions were stronger than those in the morning but didn’t come quite as quickly. She wanted to labor at home as much as she could (the hospital really isn’t that comfortable), but we called the hospital to let them know that we would probably be arriving that evening. Realizing I was measuring and recording something, and no longer groggy from the early morning, my primal instincts to track, monitor, and improve a process kicked in. A control chart seemed appropriate, so I switched from jotting down times on a notecard to recording them in Excel. Giving the urgency of the adrenalin-fueled situation, identifying proper upper and lower bounds for contraction times wasn’t very realistic, but I was at least able to track the labor process in real-time, and visually see any changes or patterns. The chart below is what Tiffany was going through. Plotted are contraction duration, the break after each contraction, and the total of the two. The y-axis is the time in seconds, and the x-axis represents each sequential contraction. For some people labor is most vivid when seen and lived through in person, but for others, the following chart will be even more enlightening.

As you can see, the contractions (blue line) were fairly consistent up until about number 16, where things began to get more intense. Once the lines for “Duration” and “Break” crossed, I knew it was time for action. This was an obvious visual cue that it was time to get to the hospital, and data collection has never been so exciting in the history of man. As well, it was fortunate that we had the charts so that I knew what to do, because at this point Tiffany was too focused on breathing and not having a baby in the living room to be able to answer me when I asked, “is it time to go to the hospital?”

Tiffany’s mom had arrived a while earlier, and was returning from the playground with Kayla as we passed her on the stairs and told her we were on our way to increase the size of our family by 33%. It took one contraction on the stairs and one on the sidewalk to get to the car, but we were on our way.

Once on the road, we began to navigate the tricky Cambridge traffic. As you may know, Cambridge existed during the time of the revolution; in fact George Washington’s troops were camped out at the battle of Boston in what is essentially our modern-day backyard. This is only relevant because it means that roads were set up to handle things like horses and pedestrians, so with the proliferation of the automobile during the 1900’s, the only option for traffic in Cambridge and Boston was to become terrible. The hospital was only 2 miles away, but traffic levels could be the difference between a leisurely hospital delivery and a historic delivery on the banks of the Charles River. Luckily we planned the best route before hand, snuck through traffic with Tiffany realizing just how uncomfortable a seatbelt can be during active labor, and arrived at the Hospital a little after 8 pm.

After getting Tiffany set in the room, I ran down to move the car and grab the camera. The doctor and nurse said we probably had about 20 minutes before they would break her water, and the baby would arrive in under an hour. When I got back to Labor and Delivery the nurse said, “Okay Dad, her water just broke and the baby’s coming!”

Me - “Wait, you broke her water without me?!?”

Nurse - “No, it broke on its own!”

In the ensuing minutes, Tiffany demonstrated her heart of a champion, endured a few excruciating contractions, and then pushed baby Logan out in 2 pushes! No epidural, no pain medication whatsoever. The baby was born at 8:40 pm, and Tiffany was happy to no longer be pregnant. And to no longer be pushing. And to have our new baby! She’s amazing!

Logan’s Stats:

Weight – 7 lbs. 5 oz.

Length – 21 inches

Both Tiffany and Logan are doing fantastic recovering from the ordeal. We should be able to go home tomorrow and begin our lives as a family of four!

Names

2011-10-02T19:58:00.000-05:00

We were looking at baby names for our little bundle of masculinity and we came across this list of most popular names in the 2000's.

# 171 on the list for boys: Braden
# 171 on the list for girls: Tiffany

Interpret it however you want, but the only logical conclusion I can think of is that if your name ranking doesn't match that of your spouse on the list of most popular names 2 decades after your birth, then you might have made a mistake...

Also, any suggestions for awesome middle names are welcome, but be aware that "Eriberto" has already been shot down numerous times, as has almost anything with only one syllable.

***5-minute update***
We just checked again and verified my previous assertion - our friends Audrey and Steve also both showed up on the list at #79. My suggestion for everyone else? Find some esoteric connection between your name and that of your spouse, or else you're hosed.

First stop: Idaho

2011-08-16T18:32:00.009-05:00

We took off from Seattle on Friday at 6:30 pm. Braden plowed through the night (we took a break just outside of Bliss, ID at a rest stop for a 2-hour nap) and got to Grandma Balls's house at 9:30 am. There we enjoyed picking raspberries from Grandma's raspberry patch, followed by a long afternoon nap, and finally we headed up to the hills for some huckleberry-ing. Although everyone seemed to be convinced that there would be no huckleberries, we were able to find a good patch and within a half-hour of picking we were able to get a surprisingly good haul! Kayla loved picking and eating berries all day. It was wonderful to spend some time with Grandma Balls.

Kayla tried to figure out which berries were ripe. Sometimes she got ones that weren't quite ready...

The spiders liked the raspberries too!

Daddy showing Kayla what to do in a raspberry patch.

Picking a huckleberry.

A sample of the huckleberry patch.

YUM!

Berry pickin' with Grandma!

Reaching for the perfect berry.

Grandma, grandson, and great-gradaughter.

All in 9 Days

2011-08-07T13:46:00.002-05:00

It's been a while. A lot has been happening though - we've been finishing up our time in Seattle, my internship with Amazon has been winding down (meaning things have been getting busier and busier up until last week), Tiffany's been incubating our unborn son, we provided fruit for over a thousand people, and we packed up all out stuff for our summertime highway inspection back to Cambridge. So here are the highlights, in no particular order:

Our Garden

Gardening out of an apartment isn't the easiest thing to pull off. At least for us. Really I don't know if our single tomato plant in a biodegradable pot can be called a "garden" in the classical sense - but it's what we could pull off on a 2nd floor apartment. I'm not sure if it was the people smoking on their patio below us, the lack of natural sunlight available in the Seattle area, or the lack of any type of attention during our 4th of July vacation in Tahoe... but we didn't have what would be considered a "bumper crop" - 4 tiny tomatoes on a dead vine. But hey, it's a start.

New Tenant

As soon as we cleared off things from our balcony, this little guy decided to move in.

The intricacies of the web built over night was incredible. A veritable wonder of natural engineering, a suspension bridge built of spider sputum. Unfortunately for our creepy little eight-legged friend - not a lot of bugs on our balcony. After 24 hours he was still in the same spot, his web had started to fray, and only a few tiny gnats had been captured in the web. Not quite the all-you-can-eat buffet I'm sure he was imagining as he poured all of his efforts into creating his web. Not at all unlike some people with a tomato plant I know...

Fruit
The reason the neighborhood arachnid probably thought our balcony would be a great place to stuff his face was that all of this was in our living room up until the night he built his web:

As a result, there were about a billion fruit flies in and around our apartment. We were partly in charge of getting all of the fruit for the summertime Hawaiian Luau/Picnic for the church. This was about 1/4 of the total fruit outlay, as we fed 1000 people or so kalua pork, rice, fruit, cupcakes, and snow-cones. Cutting it all up so it was fresh for everyone worked like an assembly line, with all of the people that volunteered to help working like a fine-tuned assembly line of knives, cutting boards, watermelon rinds, and pineapple juice. It was a successful operation, with no reportable injuries, everyone getting plenty of food, and only 2 watermelons and a few bananas left over after it was all said and done.

Moving

The day prior to this event, we packed all our stuff into a moving container for our move back to Cambridge. Luckily my brother Randy came over to help so we could get everything in - it was like a real life game of Tetris. All of those hours playing video games as a kid finally paid off, as we got everything into the container with everything stable and room to spare. Kayla was the task-master with here favorite big stick, and then had a seat in the mud.

And she loved playing in all of the newfound playspace... inside the cupboards.

Since we've moved out of our apartment, but are still in Seattle, we're vagabonding it for two weeks. Thanks Randy and Mel and Gavin and Amanda for letting us crash in your homes while we're homeless!

Canada
Finally, this weekend we had one final adventure in the Pacific Northwest and went to Canada with our friends the Ripps. We put the little girls in the back seat of the pilot, and it was surprisingly comfortable for the four adults. Honda Pilot = Awesome Vehicle. Seating for eight, four-wheel drive, and a comfortable drive. What more could you want?

We went to the Granville Island Market, saw a totem-pole workshop, visited the famous Stanley Park and took a walk along the sea-wall and checked out the totem poles, and got awesome Canadian Slurpees. My Canadian friends at BYU always claimed that their Slurpees were better than ours - I always dismissed them as crazy and figured that all of the flannel somehow affected their logical reasoning. It turns out I was wrong - Canadian Slurpees are awesome!!! Why you ask - a whole lot thicker, and somehow they stay frozen longer. After an hour my Slurpee was still mushy and delicious. The only problem was that the spout of Slurpee-dispensing goodness was too big, so you couldn't fill the Slurpee with the lid in-place. As a result you had to mound the frozen goodness above the top of the rim and then place the cap, but that was a small price to pay. Canada - you have awesome Slurpees. Unfortunately I was so busy enjoying mine that I forgot to take a photo, but I think you can imagine the goodness.

Soon to be a Totem-Pole

Actual Totem poles

Little Friends

Big Friends

The Fam

The Float-Plane

Tiffany has a deep-seated love for ice-cream

Walking on the Seawall

A Sea lion and her pup in the harbor

And we'll soon be on to our next adventure - Cross-country road trip with a recently potty-trained toddler and a pregnant Tifferoo!

4th of July 2011

2011-08-04T23:39:00.003-05:00

We spent the 4th of July at beautiful Lake Tahoe with my family. I'm so glad everyone was able to be there. It's been a while since we were all together and it isn't going to happen again until December.

Braden, Kayla and I flew into Reno on Thursday, where my parents and sister Ashley picked us up at the airport. The rest of the family trickled in via car a little later. Some of the great activities included playing on the beach, the boat, paddle boards, and rafts. Braden wake-boarded on Friday morning but Kayla was NOT a fan of her daddy being out on the water and kept telling him he needed to be "right here!" (pointing to the seat next to her). We tried to get her on a tube with us, but that was a big failure. Maybe next summer she'll be happier on inflatable things in the water. She loved "driving" the boat and was often caught stealing Grandpa's captain's seat so she could steer the boat.

With lots of people willing to watch Kayla for us (thank you Mom and Ashley!), Braden and I were able to spend some time for just the 2 (1/2!) of us. We went for a walk, played tennis, and saw the latest Transformers movie with my elder siblings. It was great to go on fun dates.

Unfortunately most of the good pictures are in the wrong format for blogger, so I need to go through and switch how they are saved. I'll try to post some more pictures in the next post. There are a LOT of pictures to go through!

Kayla is telling the duck that wandered up on "our" beach to go away. She loved spending time on the beach and with extended family!

28 Weeks and Counting

2011-07-20T23:00:00.005-05:00

One week ago I officially hit the "28-week" mark in this pregnancy. Overall I have been feeling pretty good this time around, just bigger and more tired. The doctor at the 20-week ultrasound told us our baby is measuring in the 54%ile and will probably be 8+ pounds when he is born. Quite different from little Kayla at 6 lbs. 11.5 oz.! And yes, we're having a "he"! We are very excited. Just yesterday Kayla patted my belly and said, "baby brother". So sweet! (She really isn't going to know what hit her when this little guy arrives the first week in October, but I'm sure she'll adjust eventually!) One more fun thing the doctor said at the ultrasound was, "I can tell you with 99.9% certainty that this baby won't have any birth defects and 100% certainty that he is loved."

At my appointment yesterday, we found out I do NOT have gestational diabetes (thank goodness!) but that I am slightly anemic, which helps explain why I have been completely exhausted every day. So now I take an iron supplement which has already helped with my energy level. We even went for two walks today! The nicer weather also encouraged getting outside more today.

Here's the 28-week shot:

(Don't mind our boring tannish-white wall.)

And just for kicks, here's one of around the same week when I was preggo with Kayla. (This is the only one I have and it's not a very good comparison since it's slightly out of focus and I'm not standing at the correct angle. Also, it's on our anniversary and you can tell how excited we are about it!)

With the Recent Nice Weather...

2011-06-13T13:24:00.005-05:00

We've been able to do some fun things lately when the sun decides to show its face. For Memorial Day we had a little BBQ with Braden's brother Randy. Braden, Kayla, and Randy enjoyed hanging out in the hot-tub. After dinner we all enjoyed ice cream cones. Kayla loved it!

The following Saturday was beautiful! It was in the 70's and we took advantage of the nice temperature and hiked the first 1.3 miles up Mount Si. (Kayla was getting whiny and my belly was getting achy so we didn't climb to the top.) You can tell we aren't used to the "heat" anymore by the glisten on our skin. Whenever we had boulders/steps to climb, Kayla would make grunting sounds as if she was the one doing all the work. Funny girl!

We spent that afternoon enjoying Slurpees and playing at a park. Kayla chased after a giant frisbee up and down a soccer field. We sure had a fun day!

Kayla's birthday weekend (cont.)

2011-06-06T15:08:00.004-05:00

Here are a few more pictures from the weekend with my family. We loved being able to spend time playing at parks (when it wasn't raining), blowing bubbles, reading stories, and viewing some great Seattle attractions.

My dad took us to a German shop near Pike's Market and the nice German lady working asked us "Would the little girl like a wiener?" (spoken in a German accent of course.) Sure! Kayla loved eating that German hot dog! The weather was very nice when we went into Seattle on Saturday so we were able to enjoy great views from the Space Needle. We also walked around the grounds where there was a fair going on. It was huge and there were all sorts of interesting people there. We saw people dumpster-diving in the compost bins, and others asking people to sign petitions to legalize various drugs. Some people were dressed in Medieval attire, others wore top hats made of leather. We felt like we were back in Cambridge! I guess there are fun people-watching opportunities in most of big cities.

A Little Birthday Girl

2011-06-01T17:45:00.003-05:00

Kayla celebrated her second birthday last week. She is growing up so fast! Kayla knows many of her letters and numbers, colors, shapes, animals (and their sounds), and can recognize songs from "Cinderella" and "Beauty and the Beast" on the car CD player. She is a very sweet girl who loves to laugh and is usually very good a sharing. Some of her favorite outdoor activities are playing at the playground (especially if there is a slide!), bubbles, and chalk. "Beauty and the Beast", "Cinderella", and "Shrek" are the top three movies Kayla asks to watch. She loves to help around the house. One day she spilled her yogurt everywhere while I was cleaning the bathrooms and I found her using some paper towels to clean it all up. We love this little girl who makes everyone around her happy!

My mom and little sister flew up from California to join us for Kayla's birthday celebration. On Wednesday morning Kayla had peach pancakes and OJ for breakfast. Then we all headed to the mall for her 2-year-old pictures. Then we got "moothies" (smoothies) from Jamba Juice for lunch so Kayla could go down for a quick nap before her well-baby check-up. She weighs 26 lbs. 2 oz. (50th percentile) and is 34 in. tall (50-75th percentile). She is developing very well and has almost all of the 2-year molars. After her appointment we went back home where my dad and Braden joined us after their days at work. We had some of Kayla's favorite foods for dinner: grilled chicken, broccoli, artichokes, grapes, garlic bread, and root beer. Kayla's Aunt Melanie brought her three boys over for cake/ice cream and presents. Kayla LOVED being sung to and blowing out candles (we had to re-light the candles several times to get one of these pictures, which our Little Miss thoroughly enjoyed). Now on to some pictures...

Easter 2011

2011-05-19T17:56:00.006-05:00

We had a great Easter this year. Last year we were traveling back from Boston after attending MIT's open house for incoming LGOs. This year, though, we were able to enjoy a very sunny Saturday by going for a hike and grilling hot dogs for dinner. On Sunday Kayla had tons of fun finding plastic eggs with candy surprises inside, eating a delicious breakfast, going to Church, and having a yummy Easter dinner with family and friends, along with another Easter egg hunt. Kayla devoured all the candy she could find. Luckily several pounds of candy doesn't make her sick! Here are some pictures from the weekend...

Kayla with her Easter basket. She ripped into the Cadbury egg right away. Great breakfast!

Some of the eggs Braden and I decorated on Saturday night after Kayla went to bed. Notice the four top eggs? One for each member of our family :)

Do you like these little guys? They are bunnies and chicks! The kiddos loved eating them too!

Looking for and finding more eggs. She was determined to get more of that candy goodness!

Oh Kayla!

2011-04-23T09:58:00.004-05:00

Kayla has been very busy lately. We moved her to a "big girl" bed last weekend. She's been doing great at falling asleep quickly and staying in bed rather than constantly climbing out (except one horrible naptime). She also really wants to be potty-trained, but we're waiting until we come back from Utah next weekend to get serious about that. Here's a few other things she's been doing...

decorating cookies for Spring (but her favorite part was eating the frosting!),

reading stories with Daddy,

picking out shoes to wear for a walk around the apartment complex (notice the 3-pound weight in the background? Kayla likes to workout to the Jillian videos with me!),

getting into Mommy's mascara and putting it on (by the way, black, waterproof mascara does NOT come off with baby wipes),

bear-walking on the way home from the playground,

and asking insistently to watch "Cinderella". This is Kayla right after she woke up this morning pleading to watch it. Luckily I already have that movie memorized so I don't mind having it on in the background all day. I wonder what her birthday cake will look like next month...

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival - More Dirt

2011-04-17T22:59:00.001-05:00

Well, mud actually. Luckily the rain broke long enough for us to check out the tulips, daffodils, and all manner of bulbs at "RoozenGaarde". However, Tiff and Kayla decided to live by the motto of PITD and get covered in mud - see below.

The coolest part was seeing the swaths of bright red and yellow in the middle of the gloomy gray that is the Pacific Northwest this time of year

And this lady painting tulips in the rain - she loved her tulips

The rest was just enjoying springtime, and letting Kayla out to roam to her little heart's content!

A Late April Fool's Joke

2011-04-07T11:32:00.003-05:00

Today we woke up to this:

I think that's a pretty mean trick; especially since when I checked the weather before Braden left for work and it showed sunny skies all day. I was thinking, "Woohoo! We'll go to the park. Perfect!" Not so sunny and not so warm.

We've already had a rough week. Sunday night Kayla was having difficulty breathing and was up every few hours coughing and wheezing. I took her to the doctor on Monday and she has ear infections in both ears and RSV. So now she's on antibiotics for the ears and albuterol for the wheezing. And now it's too cold to play outside, too bad she doesn't understand that (she keeps standing at the door trying to get out). Time to break out the finger paints!

A very tired and sick girl on the 500-yard drive home from the pharmacy.

Luckily she is feeling much better now.

Moment of Glory

2011-04-01T11:26:00.000-05:00

The Dread Pirate Roberts won the voting, but as I contemplated shaving my 'stache to match, I realized that my mustache is much thicker than his. As such, if I shaved it up from the edge of my lip I'm afraid I'd look a little too much like Hitler...

...so I went with a progression. Here are the highlights, pick your favorite!

Mud.

2011-03-26T17:18:00.000-05:00

The sun has been out lately, which is a really nice change of pace - a little less dreary. To celebrate, our little girl discovered one enduring truths of springtime: childhood + mud = happiness!

Also, she LOVES root beer. We might have a problem...

Mustache March!

2011-03-20T23:53:00.000-05:00

March is a time to celebrate! It brings the end of winter, leprechauns, and most importantly - Tiffany's birthday. To mark the magnanimity of this wonderful month, I am growing a mustache. I've started out with a full-grown beard, as Tiffany won't allow me to grow the soup-strainer unaccompanied by the rest of my facial hair (I think she's afraid it would get lonely as an island on my upper-lip - she's always so considerate). But now I have a dilemma: come March 31st what should my mustache look like? The possibilities are endless!! In order to decide, I need the help of YOU, the PID reader. In the sidebar, you will see a survey, of the mustache that I should try to emulate when it comes time to carve a beautiful specimen onto my face. Here are the possibilities (feel free to provide any other suggestions in the comments):

Ned Flanders

Hulk Hogan

The Dread Pirate Roberts

Bandit

Ambrose Burnside

The poll closes at 11:59 pm on 3/30, so get in your votes! Thanks for your input, and remember - every vote counts!

21 Months

2011-02-25T19:32:00.004-06:00

Today is Kayla's 21-month birthday. She is such a big girl! These are some of her favorite things right now:

Reading stories and watching movies
Mooching food from others
Goldfish crackers and pretzels
Ice cream and other sweets (we had Hersey's kisses out for Valentine's Day, I don't know how many she ate before she got caught...but she sure was happy!)
Sitting on the counter watching and "helping" prepare food
Trying to use the potty
Getting her picture taken and looking at her beauteous self
Swinging like an acrobat (sign this girl up for Cirque Du Soleil!)
Saying "peeeese!" (ie. "please") to get something she really wants
Singing, dancing, and jumping
Cleaning (really, she just spilled some water then got out the paper towels to clean up!)

We love our baby girl who has turned into a toddler right before our eyes.

Spot the Difference!

2011-02-20T11:25:00.004-06:00

10 points to the first person that can spot the 10 differences in these 2 photos:

The sun was shining yesterday, so we took advantage of the momentous occasion and headed to the sound, and checked out the Chittenden/Ballard Locks. It's where the water from lake Washington meets the Puget Sound, with the locks at the point of juncture. As well, they have a fish ladder where you can see migrating Salmon traveling upstream from the ocean to the fresh water of the lake to spawn.... unfortunately migration season is during the summer. They have a glass wall set up, kind of like an aquarium, but we only saw one little fish that was having a hard time making any progress.

and so begins our "playing in the dirt" - or rather, mud - in Seattle!

On a side note, have any other bloggers out there ever checked your blog stats and noticed the random search keywords that bring people to your sight? Some of my favorites here: "incredible edibley", "dirty little girl", "black swans zoo", "find kayla dirt", and "kayla - sweet little chocolate". Google is incredible.

Oh, and before I forget, those boats at the top are in the locks. The lake and the ocean are at very different levels, so the locks enable boats to pass through - just like the Panama Canal! We watched them stack the lock full of 6 boats or so, drop the water level, then open the gate and away they went. This set of locks was built about a hundred years ago - a true Modern Marvel! Oh and I have no idea if there are actually 10 differences between the two pictures. So if you can find 10 differences, I just bumped the reward to 20 points, count 'em - 20!

Later we went and checked out the Fremont Troll under a bridge in Seattle (in the header and below)

For those of you that haven't seen/heard about this, it was pretty awesome. Not every day you get to see the troll under the bridge! They're usually so sneaky-hidey...

Correction

2011-02-17T00:23:00.001-06:00

Here at Playing in the Dirt we aren't afraid to admit our mistakes, and correct them when necessary. After reading some of the comments - and we love your comments, it gives us great satisfaction knowing that yes, someone actually reads our blog - apparently our last post gave the impression that we drove 3000 miles across the country in 4 days with our 20-month-old toddler strapped in the back seat. We apologize for this misconception, Tiffany's Mom actually watched Kayla-bear in California while we made the drive, and then flew up to Seattle to reunite us as a family. While that would have demonstrated our awesomeness as parents, we need to give credit where credit is due, so thank you, Grandma Wolf for helping us out.

We never intended to overblow our awesomeness as parents, and for that we apologize. That trip with a toddler would have been a nightmare. However, our awesomeness at wall-climbing can never be question.

And that, my friends, was truly awesome.

Coast to Coast!

2011-02-13T11:32:00.000-06:00

We began in Cambridge, then onward!

Conneticut!

Illinois welcomed us to Chicago with a toll... we felt somewhat unwelcome in our former state.

Wisconsin welcomed us twice...

...and began the fridgidocity! -5 degrees!

-10 degrees!

-22 degrees!

Montana was all ablurr... a frozen, frozen sub-zero blurr

A 737 following us to Seattle!

The West! - Northern Idaho is beautiful.

Um, that sign says "Welcome to Washington!"

We made it to Sammamish!

Time for a rest in the pre-couch apartment.

And we're done! West Coast Baby!

The trip was mostly uneventful, >3000 miles, 3 audio books, no flat tires, no gas-outages, and we only got pulled over once! About an hour from Sammamish an officer noticed a headlight had gone out, but was nice enough to let us off with a warning. Phew!!!

28 Years Young

2011-02-11T17:36:00.003-06:00

We're so lucky to have you in our life. Thanks for all you do!

Happy birthday!

Love, Kayla and Tiffany

We made it!

2011-02-09T12:56:00.003-06:00

After four long days in the car, Braden and I finally made it across the United States. We got here a week ago and are starting to feel less crazy. I even made it to the grocery store without using the GPS yesterday (it took me over a month to accomplish that in Boston!). Our internet gets set up on Friday, so hopefully we'll be better at posting then!

Worth 2 in the Bush

2011-01-10T06:36:00.000-06:00

For the finale to our awesome ThanksgivingChristmasNewYear’s celebration, we headed up to Tahoe with Tiffany’s parents to have some fun in the snow. We broke out the snowshoes and headed to a viewpoint not far from the cabin. As we trekked through the snow we met a local gentleman that informed us we were on “Chickadee Ridge”, and that the chickadees would eat from your outstretched hand. I tried it and sure enough, one of the little birds flew down from the trees and alighted on my hand – disgusted I’m sure because I didn’t have anything in my hand to offer. Luckily our local friend had brought some seed with him and shared with us, and so I was able to redeem myself. As per usual, Kayla fell asleep in the backpack, which is just as well I’m sure because while we planned on going out for only an hour or so, we had such a good time we stayed out for close to 3!

The next day we hit the sledding hill – Kayla is yet to be enamored with sledding. I don’t think she likes the cold snow that kicking up in her face. Tiffany, however, is completely in love with sledding (as evidenced by the picture below), so I’m sure its just a matter of time until Kayla-bear comes around.

Now the vacation has come to a close and we’re back to reality (sort-of). I’ll be flying around the country touring manufacturing facilities for the next two weeks, and Tiff and Kayla get to hang out in California until it we move to Seattle at the end of January.

So consider this your warning 2011: You’re about to be seized!

HappyThanksgivingMerryChristmasHappyNewYear!

2011-01-04T20:21:00.001-06:00

Admittedly, our blog has taken a back seat to the holiday season. But now, with the "Big Three" holidays behind us, we can once again rededicate ourselves to the things that are most important, like the blog. Tiff thinks it will be a good idea to make a bunch of posts and then post-date them to the time they happened, so keep a weather eye. Until then I figured our loyal readership would want something other to look at than Kayla's Halloween costume.

Over the past few months, Kayla's been learning to practice the piano, Tiffany made some fancy cupcakes, Kayla fell in love with her bows all over again, I finished up my second semester at MIT (only 2 more and an internship to go!), we had a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus and we've spent some much needed time with family. Now, we're starting to get ready to start my internship - for those of you who didn't know we'll be heading to Seattle from February to August as I will be doing an internship with Amazon - and have been loving playing in dirt from Boston to Utah to California. The adventure continues!!!

Our Little Monster

2010-10-31T15:53:00.001-05:00

Kayla is currently in a stage that everywhere she goes ends up looking like Godzilla just ravaged Tokyo, but without the subtitles. As a result, we thought it would be fitting to dress her up as a little monster for Halloween. Tiffany made her the suit - from scratch - and Kayla was the belle, er, monster, of the ball! We went to the "Spooky Sloan" Halloween party at the business school, and after a few stops she had trick-or-treating down pat: show up at a door and take as much candy as you can out of the bucket while the person is distracted by your costume. The performance was repeated at the church Halloween party later that night.

Perfecting the Technique - notice the lady's eyes, she has no idea how much candy is leaving the bag!

Look - I'm Little-White-Polka-Dot-Bigfoot!

That's quite the haul... you gonna share?

Happy Halloween!!

Leaf-Peeping!

2010-10-24T08:21:00.000-05:00

I always called it "going to see the leaves" or "heading up the canyon". But we don't really have any canyons around here, and they must have wanted a more whimsical name for the activity, so "Leaf-Peeping" was born in New England. We went with our friends the Cutlers and checked out the fall colors in Concord (home of "The shot heard round the world"), enjoyed the sites and the history (that's the Old Manse in the heading of our blog) took a few family pictures. We also found a pumpkin patch where the pumpkins mysteriously grew in perfectly straight rows, and the best pumpkins were at the front of the patch - somehow they knew to grow this patch specifically for families with strollers. Tiff right away found the perfect pumpkin, and K-bear took a break on a pumpkin before finding one of her own.

Earlier we went and checked out the Head of the Charles Regatta, because, well, we live on the Charles. We live by the starting line, so we didn't see too much action, but there were a ton of rowing crews, and we were kept plenty busy keeping Kayla from jumping in the River - she's very adventurous.

My Other Blog

2010-10-22T12:08:00.000-05:00

I just started another blog about my experience at MIT. It's a little more formal as it is supposed to help prospective applicants get an idea of what my program is all about. Many of you might not be interested, but in case you are wondering what exactly I'm up to here at MIT, here's the link:

http://lgobradenball.blogspot.com/

The Franklin Park Zoo Experience

2010-10-18T15:24:00.004-05:00

We were fortunate this afternoon to have Braden home with us! We decided to take advantage of our time together as a family and head downtown to the zoo. I have a library card, which allows us to get a zoo pass for the day. This means that rather than paying $14/person we only paid $2/person. AWESOME!

We got to see a lot of the "regular" zoo animals: zebras, a lion, tigers, snakes, gorillas, fish, lots of weird birds, and the typical "barnyard" animals. We also saw kangaroos and camels. Kayla enjoyed looking at the animals and waving to them from her stroller.

This guy came right up to Kayla. I don't know what he wanted, but as soon as we turned to go, he left too! I guess Kayla is just so cute that even the animals have to say hi!

There was a safari car "driven" into the lion exhibit. Braden looks like he would be an excellent guide on an African safari!

Kayla was pointing at the camels. Those are some huge animals!

When we first walked into the zoo we saw this baby zebra. He was born September 6! Cute little mohawk!

Saying hi to the black swans.

Hanging out in the African Jungle exhibit.

Kayla loved playing in the Aussie area. (She's sitting on a platypus.)

Did you know a kangaroo can jump 20 feet? Braden tried out his jumping skills.

I think he did pretty well. Almost 10 feet! Not quite as far as a kangaroo, but not too bad!

(Also, did you notice Kayla's new haircut? A chunk of hair kept falling in her eyes and so one day I just chopped it off!)

Apples!!!

2010-10-09T08:07:00.006-05:00

Knowing that things will soon be frozen and wet, we took full advantage of the changing of the seasons and went apple picking at the "Honey Pot Hill Orchard" just outside of Boston. Where they came up with the name I don't know - I saw no honey pots - but there were plenty of apples. Many varieties I'd never heard of - Cortland, Mutsu, Milton, Macoun - I didn't know what to do! I asked a worker what was different about Macouns, and I quote "Well, they're red, hard as a baseball, white in the center, sweet but a little tart, and they only come around once a year". I don't know about you, but I think he just described about every apple I've ever met. This whole "variety" thing must be either a clever marketing ploy or some kind of government cover-up, I'm not yet sure which. Anyway, we had a lot of fun, Kayla LOVED the apples, and Tiff loved climbing the ladder - I think her pics could be in Real Simple or something.

"How many apples do you want? I'll get them for you!"

Tell me this picture doesn't make you want to go apple-picking.

Notice how Kayla has an apple in every picture. We found that giving her an apple was best, otherwise she ended up trying to eat the old squishy ones on the ground - blechh!

Also, blog traffic jumped about 12000% on my last post, I guess people really love shoes!

Ruthie Davis

2010-10-07T06:46:00.007-05:00

No this isn't Tiffany, this is Braden, and yes I recognize that is a photo of high-heels. However, these aren't just any heels, they're Ruthie Davis heels - way higher fashion than anything I've ever had any desire to get this close to in my life: each pair retails for around $1000 or more. They are mostly worn by celebrities and people that either have too much money to burn or really love shoes.

I met Ruthie yesterday. She came to talk to us in a leadership seminar I'm taking at MIT as part of the MBA/Engineering program I'm in. For those of you who don't know, the program is highly focused on operations management, manufacturing, and supply chains (think GM, Boeing, Caterpillar, Amazon, 3M). So why did an entrepreneurial fashion designer from New York City come to talk to us? Her late father, Don Davis (a former CEO of Stanley Works), had strong ties to our program and actually founded this leadership seminar over 20 years ago, so I figured she just came because of her dad. I really didn't think I would get much out of the session, but I was really surprised at what I learned.

For example, the shoes in the picture: one gets attention of the market, and the other pays the bills. But, they're both pretty much the same pair of shoes. From an operational standpoint she's able to serve both purposes with one product. As well, in industry you have to listen to the market to make sure you provide what they want, but it's also important to stay true to your strategy to avoid becoming just like everyone else and losing ground (Dell could have used this lesson when they were contemplating selling computers at Wal-Mart). And yes, those are spikes - awesome!

Catchupcatchupcatchup

2010-10-03T08:59:00.012-05:00

So I've been slacking. You probably noticed the improved quality of the blog since about June 1 -my beautiful wife has pretty much taken over since I started school again. But since I had a few minutes I figured I'd sully up the blog a bit with my presence. To start, about a month and a half ago Tiffany's family came out to visit. We had a lot of fun, saw the many historic sites of Boston, Plymouth, and Salem, went to the beach, and really just had a good time with family. Pictured below we're on the Old North Bridge, site of the famous "shot heard round the world", where colonists were first ordered to fire upon the British troops.

One of the highlights was this guy cruising down the highway - we tried to let him know that he'd dropped his skier about a mile back, but we couldn't get his attention.

As well, we checked out this old estate that we thought might make a good starter home, but the hedge maze wasn't yet finished - that was a dealbreaker.

In some of our beachgoing adventures, kayla took up both hermit crab-hunting and flying - both were phenomenal successes.

To round out our summer, we finally made it to a Red Sox game at Fenway! It was the first MLB game for both Tiffany and I, so we were pretty excited to take it all in. We got pretty good tickets through the business school, and even a (semi) personalized welcome to the game!!

Sadly, this is not a good year to be a Red Sox fan, but even though the game wasn't that exciting it was still a lot of fun. Tiff loved her hot-dog, and got a pink tongue from cotton candy - she was in heaven.

Now that fall has begun, we got out for another hike. Destination? PANTHER CAVE!!! I know, we're hardcore. Kayla didn't find the cave especially scary at first...

But then Tiffany told her where we were!!!! She seemed a little more uneasy.

But no worries, we saw no panthers, and had a fun time together. Kayla LOVES being outside (although that isn't obvious below, but trust me, she was playing in the dirt and trying to eat acorns whenever she wasn't strapped in)

And finally, my new favorite picture of Kayla to sum up this catchup.

Bed Head

2010-09-28T12:09:00.003-05:00

Kayla woke up from an unusually long (3+ hours!) nap today and had some sweet hair. I thought I'd share the hair awesomeness with you.

Two angles for double the experience.

Shoes for Little Feet

2010-09-28T11:48:00.003-05:00

During the summer I took Kayla shoe shopping a lot. Of course we didn't buy any of these shoes, but Kayla had fun trying them on and showing off her beautiful feet!

Kayla also enjoys trying on hats...

Camping!

2010-09-01T08:42:00.004-05:00

The weekend after Pleasure Bay Beach we went camping with some friends. It was so much fun! Harold Parker State Park is only about 30 minutes away and there are tons of trees so even though it's pretty close to the city, it feels like you're in the real woods!

We headed out after Braden finished class for the week. Knowing we only had a few hours of daylight left, we quickly set up the tents and started the fire to get the dutch oven dinner started. What a dinner we had! Spare ribs, corn on the cob, baked beans, and cherry-peach cobbler and peanut butter cup s'mores for dessert. Delicious! (We don't have any pictures of dinner, unfortunately. We were hungry enough by the time it was ready that we just wanted to get that goodness in us!)

After getting a stern talking-to by the rangers for being too noisy we decided it was probably time to go to bed. The kiddos had been sleeping until that point, but I think all the zippers woke them up. Kayla thought it was awesome that Mom and Dad were there to play with her. I thought otherwise. I don't think anyone got a ton of sleep that night...

For breakfast we made breakfast burritos with eggs, peppers, bacon, and cheese. We also had delicious hot chocolate. Katie and I took the kids for a stroll around the campgrounds while Braden and Brad took down camp.

Then we headed off to find a good hiking place. The hike we found led to a beautiful pond completely covered in lily pads and frogs. There were thousands of lily pads! We took some family pictures and had a simple lunch of pb&j at our little resting stop then headed back to the cars. We had so much fun (in spite of the lack of sleep) that we're going camping again this weekend!

Time to Catch Up

2010-08-28T08:22:00.003-05:00

We've been having so much fun in Boston that we've neglected our blog a bit. Our apologies. So now it's time to catch up on all those exciting adventures we've been having!

Several weeks ago we headed to Pleasure Bay Beach. It's only about 20 minutes away and is free! We played on the beach for a while then walked around to the old fort.

We saw this awesome sail boat taking off.

Kayla found some apples on the beach and thought eating the sea foam would be a good idea. We, however, did not and promptly discouraged this (after a quick picture of course).

Daddy and daughter testing out the water.

The Fells

2010-07-29T22:46:00.003-05:00

father: [fah-ther]

-noun

1. a male parent

2. any male ancestor, esp. the parent of a race, family, or line; progenitor

3. Informal - valued as a work animal, having strong muscles, a body shaped like a horse, donkey-like long ears, small feet, and surefootedness. Compare "mule"

School has been incredibly busy of late, but we've still managed to get in some quality family time on the weekends. This last week we went on a hike in the Middlesex Fells Reservation. It was a little odd - it's a patch of forest in the middle of a major interstate corridor, so while everything looks very "nature-y" you can hear traffic until you get 1/2 mile or so in. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, we'll likely go back, and we're enjoying the adventure of getting to know New England!

Kayla loves being outside and getting dirty (daddy's little girl!!), so on our hike we let her free to roam for a while - she promptly got in touch with her inner squirrel and tried to hoard some acorns in her cheeks. It took some doing, but we finally convinced her that a cracker would be more her style, at least until she gets her molars in.

Just like Kayla, Tiffany also loves being outside and getting dirty, so when we came across this downed tree (I bet it made a sound) she first posed for a picture, and then simply insisted on getting the full experience of clambering.

What a gal! That's 10 points for sure!

Revere Beach

2010-07-18T17:38:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we enjoyed one of the country's biggest sand-sculpting contests, just a 20-minute drive away! It was very cool to see what people can create out of a big pile of sand.

(Kayla thought the sculptures were really exciting...)

After viewing the sand art, we headed down to the water for play time!

After so much fun in the sun, time for a nap!

The beach was a success and we will definitely be coming back!

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-06T15:16:00.004-05:00

For our 4th of July weekend this year, we walked into Boston and saw the Shell where the Boston Pops play (along with all the other famous singers; this year was Toby Keith) and experienced the celebratory atmosphere. We saw the General on his horse in the Garden.

Near Faneuil Hall we found a not-so-elusive star...

We got all dressed up to go to church then headed to a BBQ with some friends.

Music was playing and patriotic crowds were everywhere as we walked along the Charles River to await the fireworks. Kayla thought the firework display that accompanied the end of the 1812 Overture was pretty awesome and we probably should have headed home after that, but we waited it out until 10:30 when the real fireworks began. New fireworks were on display this year, which were all very impressive. We could only stay for about 5 minutes of the fireworks because our Little Miss was much too tired to stay up for so much excitement. As we walked home we saw the lights reflecting on the MIT buildings. Of course we stopped to watch the finale...AMAZING!

Although we miss being able to spend every holiday with Kayla's Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles, we are very happy to be in Boston this year to celebrate the birth of our country.

So much excitement for such a little girl!

We hope everyone had a happy 4th of July!

Look Who's Walking Now!

2010-06-28T18:52:00.004-05:00

Kayla is officially walking and here's the video to prove it:

Don't you love how she couldn't care less about falling. Our little girl gets up every time!

(Sorry about the video being of her back...getting a video of her walking towards the camera is nearly impossible!)

Discovery Museum

2010-06-14T21:21:00.006-05:00

Today Kayla and I joined one of our new friends and her little boy on an outing to the Children's Discovery Museum, just a few minutes from our home. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the water, hanging out in the honeycomb, and playing with the toys. Kayla figured out the Ball'n'Tube toy right away and got the biggest kick out of it!

Happy 1st Birthday Kayla!

2010-06-08T18:28:00.004-05:00

We were able to celebrate Kayla's first birthday by moving into our new apartment. Woohoo! Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa Wolf had come along for the long ride out from Chicago with us, so Kayla had more than just her boring parents to party with. She opened her presents all throughout May. (We have a really hard time waiting to open presents around here. :) ) Some presents were opened in the car during the drive and the rest Kayla got to open in the midst of piles of boxes here in Cambridge. The next day we were unpacked enough for me to make her a little chocolate cake. Although she made a huge mess, she didn't eat any of it! Apparently the girl doesn't like chocolate cake. We love her anyway! I guess next year we'll have an ice cream cake for her; she loves her ice cream!

Uncertain about this chocolate cake business...

"Haven't I been cute long enough? Let me outta here!"

Her first official birthday cake mess. Although she refused to eat it, messiness was accomplished.

Memorial Day 2010

2010-05-31T19:36:00.010-05:00

We have officially moved to Boston. I'll post more on that later, but for now I'll stick to our Memorial Day. Last year we spent Memorial Day in the Labor & Delivery room, waiting for our little girl to be born. Now she's here and we've enjoyed this past year and six days of being her parents (more on her birthday later, too).

This year was quite different. We were moved into our new home enough to be able to take the day off from unpacking to walk along the Freedom Trail. It took much of the day, but it was a fitting was to spend this holiday. There were many historic sites that we took in today: Boston Common, King's Chapel, Paul Revere House, Old North Church, Boston Massacre site, Bunker Hill Monument, and all the rest along the trail. It was great to be able to just follow the red brick trail through the city...no getting lost! I think we walked about 7 miles today, and we got our first light Boston sunbu-hns . It was a fun day and a great way to spend our last day before Braden starts the LGO program.

John Hancock's grave marker.

Paul Revere's grave marker.

Kayla hung out with the notorious "Mother Goose" (well, her grave stone).

I rode on and fought against the "Democratic Donkey".

The balcony where the Declaration of Independence was read in July 1776 and the site of the Boston Massacre in 1770.

12 Month Appointment

2010-05-20T21:21:00.004-05:00

Our Little Miss had her well-baby check-up today. Everyone at the doctor's office couldn't get over how happy she was the whole time. Kayla is just our sweet little girl who makes everyone around her happy.

Here's her newest stats:

Length: 29.5 in. (60th percentile)

Weight: 19 lbs. 3.5 oz. (23rd percentile)

Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-20T19:33:00.007-05:00

This was my first Mother's Day as a Mom. It was wonderful! Braden let me sleep in while he took care of Kayla and made breakfast -- waffles topped with strawberries, sausage links, hash browns, and pineapple-mango juice. Delicious! I got a new pair of running shoes from my sweet hubster and a little herb garden from my adorable daughter (the cilantro has already sprouted!).

We took Mother's Day to try brushing Kayla's teeth for the first time. You can tell how much she enjoyed it. I guess we'll keep trying...

I hope all the mothers out there had a great Mother's Day!

A Day at the Park

2010-04-27T20:40:00.003-05:00

We are lucky enough to have a park just walking distance from our apartment. We like to meet up with friends there when the weather is nice (which it was a couple of weeks ago). Here's what Kayla likes to do at the park...

She'll swing all day long if I let her!

Enjoying the flowers, or "pulling weeds", as Braden says.

And after all that activity, a nice long nap during the walk home. What a life!

The Supper Club Experience

2010-04-12T10:57:00.003-05:00

Braden's work group from last year got together for a little reunion over dinner this weekend. We went to Gil's Supper Club in a tiny town in the middle of corn fields. We had never been to a Supper Club before so we were very excited (I was particularly excited because I had been hearing ads on the radio for this place and was thoroughly enticed!). Turns out, though, a Supper Club is just like any other small-town eateries. Nonetheless, it was fun to meet some of Braden's past co-workers and their SO's and try some new food. Gil's is known for their fried chicken and fried catfish. I was going to get the chicken, but I had never had catfish so I thought I'd be adventurous. It was pretty tasty! (A very mild fish. Even Braden thought it was pretty good, and he does NOT like fish.)

Considering how late it was and all the new, strange people looking at her, Kayla did very well. (Notice one of her bows is missing? She and I fight all the time over those!)

We had to get a picture in front of the Gil's sign! One more Mid-West experience to check off our list!

Hello New Friend! Tiffany is 24! We've been married for 2 whole years (and a month)!

2010-04-06T19:44:00.011-05:00

Well, Tiffany sure knows how to pull at your heart-strings huh? I must say, I'll miss ol' Gus quite a bit myself, but as they say south of the border "Asi es la vida". And so, without further ado - I introduce you to our new ride:

So far all we can figure is to call him The Captain, but we're still ironing out the name. Any suggestions? He's a 2004 Honda Pilot, and one nice thing is that he has a third row seat (see it back there, three rows!!) which means seating for 8! Well, seating for 8 people that are the size of Tiff and I or smaller, but still - 8 seatbelts! Quite frankly I still can't believe it. We'll keep the third row folded flat until we fill it up with a soccer team or two, but it's always available if any of you want to come and visit!

Kayla-Bear's car seat fits nicely in the back seat, she's easy to get in and out, grocery shopping is now much easier, and the Pilot is great for road trips. Here's Kayla giving it the once-over before we made the purchase. It passed her thorough inspection.

As well, there's plenty of room to grow (which Tiff keeps reminding me).

Next up - Tiffany had a birthday, shout Hooray!!! My eternal 24-year-old companion* celebrated another year, and I must say she was radiant. She's an awesome mom and an even awesomer wife, and I still can't figure how a goofball like me ended up with her, but I'm not complaining! I love you babe! To demonstrate my love, I made her cupcakes, which we devoured.

Also - Anniversary!!! 2 whole years! I can't believe how fast they've flown! Last year I thought we'd had a full plate, but this year I think it's even fuller, because this year we've HAD A BABY! And I think we've both grown up about 20 years or so as a result. I changed my first diaper, and my second, and my third, and so on. Tiffany has changed about a billion more than that. We've watched Kayla roll over, crawl, fall off the bed, eat an m&m, stand, pop some teeth, giggle, become ticklish, cuddle occasionally, and learn to clap! It never ceases to amaze me how amazing it is to watch her grow, and how tiring (yet rewarding)it can be to be a parent. We took a road-trip to the South Carolina where we saw real live gators in a swamp, and camped in the Great Smoky Mountains where we saw some real live black bears. We ate hot dogs whenever we could in the summer time, and caught fireflies and tried to take pictures of them in a jar (it didn't work too well). We avoided frostbite in the Illinois winter, and sang about springtime to avoid seasonal depression. As well, this past year Tiffany made her first cheesecake, and I ate that cheesecake (it was delicious). We moved from one side of the apartment complex to another because of mold (thanks to some help from our friends Ben and Katie), and we didn't get everything unpacked before it was time to start packing things up again. I studied for and took the GMAT, and applied to business school. Tiff put up with me being busy applying, and then put up with me as I was nervous with anticipation waiting to hear back. Then she says she knew I had nothing to worry about when I got in. It's been a pretty good year, and the future looks bright! I love you again Tiffany Louise!

Here is the aforementioned deliciosity made by the love of my life!

Look at that! Just look! It's edibley incredible!

And here's the little girl that's changed our lives

In closing, those of you that didn't know already probably noticed from the spiel that I'm going back to school. I've been accepted to the LGO program at MIT in Boston, which is a joint MBA/Master's in Engineering. It's a two-year program with a 6 month internship, likely in yet another different part of the country, so needless to say it's going to be an adventure these next two years! Class starts June 1 so we're starting the preparations to move the rest of the way across the country, to the land of patriots and the long forgotten "R". We're really excited (among other things, read: stressed-out beyond belief), but thus far we've taken life by the horns, so we figure we better not mess with a good thing!

*Yes I am aware that my wife was born in 1984.

Goodbye Old Friend

2010-03-31T10:38:00.003-05:00

After seven years of friendship, loyalty, and love it was time to say goodbye. Gus and I met after my freshman year of college. I've been back and forth between Utah and California with him many times. He came with Braden and I on our honeymoon as we drove off into the sunset together. He brought our baby girl home. Bravely he withstood snow, ice, deer, and crazy drivers for us. Tirelessly he hauled all our possessions to Illinois. From the Pacific to the Atlantic, he never failed us.

As much as we didn't want to ever part with him, it was time. Yesterday we made our final parting and bade a fond farewell to my first car. Goodbye Gus. Thanks for the good memories. We won't forget you!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T21:18:00.003-05:00

We hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day today. After the fog in Peoria lifted this afternoon Kayla and I went for a long walk to enjoy the sunshine. It is so nice to be able to go outside without a coat on again! Kayla enjoys going for walks for the first 20 minutes then she sleeps for the remainder of it.

Kayla doing her "scrunch-nose". Her favorite new face to make.

Enjoying her peas, green beans, and avocado for dinner...had to be a green dinner tonight!

We ended the day with some green rice crispy treats. Last year I drizzled green and milk chocolate on the top and so it looked really awesome. I was going to do that again tonight, but after taking care of a sick husband for two days (while trying to NOT get sick myself) as well as running after a very active 9 1/2 month old, I'm exhausted so no fancy stuff here. Maybe next year...

Happy March!

2010-03-03T20:47:00.003-06:00

March welcomed us with sunshine, blue skies, and temperatures above freezing. Bliss! We've already been on several walks and a trip to the Peoria zoo. It gives us hope that Spring will be here eventually.

Happy March cookies:
Enjoying a stroll:

A lovely domestic horse saying "hi!"

Short-sleeves at last!

9 Months!

2010-02-25T22:45:00.004-06:00

Kayla, today you turned 9 months old. You've grown so much! You giggle all the time at the silliest things. Last week you got your first two teeth. This week you learned to put small pieces of food in your mouth (finally!). You love playing and being tossed around. We love watching you explore your world and try new things. You are a sweet, happy little girl and we are so blessed to be your parents. We love you, Kayla!

Standing with help from...

2010-02-13T18:44:00.005-06:00

a chair,

her bookshelf,

a container,

her carseat,

stairs,

the TV stand,

her crib rails,

and nothing!

Kayla, you're getting so big!

Happy Birthday!

2010-02-12T13:09:00.005-06:00

A birthday poem:

Cake, ice cream, and gifts.

Twenty-seven bright candles.

I love you, Braden!

We hope you had an excellent birthday yesterday and

we are excited to celebrate many more birthdays together in the future.

We love you and appreciate all you do for us!

Love from Tiffany and Kayla

Snow Day!

2010-01-07T15:55:00.004-06:00

We had some snow in Peoria last night and today (and more scheduled to come). So Kayla and I bundled up and "played" in the snow - for about 3 minutes.

We enjoyed watching the Cat skid-steer plowing the snow in our parking lot.

Kayla is all ready to play outside!

"What's the big deal about snow?"

Enjoying making a snow-angel...

After all that fun, it's time for a nap!

Kayla is (over) 6 months!

2010-01-05T21:36:00.006-06:00

This is really, really late, but here are her 6-month stats:

Weight: 14 lbs. 11 oz.

Length: 25 3/4 in.

At the time of her appointment, which was two days before she turned six months old (and the day before we headed to California for Thanksgiving), she was "in the 24th percentile on just about everything" according to the doctor. Yes, she's still little. But with all the food she is eating, she's getting bigger every day!

We love you, Kayla!

On a side note, this is a picture my mom sent me a while back of me when I was a baby. Although I don't think I was six months old yet in this one, I think there may be a slight resemblance...

Return of the mold...

2009-12-14T14:17:00.005-06:00

On January 6, 2009 Braden took a picture of the mold on the wall of the spare room:

On December 1, 2009 he took the following picture:

We had been assured that the "little" problem had been fixed. Obviously that was false.

Thus began an emergency move to a new apartment.

Here's a few shots of the move:

Apt. 3108 was a mess because all of the stuff in the baby/spare/computer room had to be moved to the front room. Kayla was a BIG help.

The guys are doing a great job moving the desk into the loft of Apt. 1303!

So now we have the opportunity to reorganize our things. The new place is bigger and (hopefully) mold-free!

Cooking Adventures

2009-12-09T19:21:00.008-06:00

Since it is very cold here in Peoria, yesterday I decided to make some delicious chili that would warm Braden and I up. I put all the ingredients in the crock-pot with one little substitution and let it cook the required 4-6 hours. Braden came home and exclaimed how delicious dinner was smelling and wondered when it would be done. I had to finish up making the french bread (or attempting to make french bread) and then we sat down to eat.

Looks yummy, huh?

(I didn't think so, but Braden said it looks delicious, which is what really matters.)

Unfortunately this "Simple Chili" as the recipe book titles it doesn't taste as "simple" as the name implies. It actually TASTES LIKE BURNING!!!

Turns out ground red pepper is NOT a substitution for chili powder. Oops. Braden's new title for this recipe is "Texas Barbed Wire Chili". He's a good sport and ate his whole bowl. He said, "Once you get past the burning, it has really good flavor." Thanks Babe!

I, however, was less certain.

Also, although the french bread had good flavor, it didn't rise very well because our kitchen was too cold. I tried to make it again today and it turned out the same. Darn. Luckily my hubby puts up with my kitchen experiments and we can laugh about it together!

Starved Rock State Park: The 7th Wonder of Illinois!

2009-11-01T16:56:00.005-06:00

Yesterday Tiff thought to herself, "Self, what would be a good thing to do on this fall day, I know! Let's drive an hour and a half up to Starved Rock State Park!" It's the only place in a loooooong ways that you can pseudo-hike, so we loaded up the truck and headed north, with aspirations of a peaceful walk in the woods. We arrived, followed the signs to the "hiking trails" and this is what we found:

Looks like we've had some rain! No this is not a boat ramp, and yes those are trash cans out in the water. It kind of reminded me of our trip to the swamp in South Carolina-without the gators. Luckily, we found another trailhead, and all was not for naught! We hit the trail, put our Chariot through it's paces (it worked great, by the way), and had a good time taking in the Autumn scenery.

Hiking was different, it was mostly on boardwalks and there were a LOT of stairs. They have a pretty bad erosion problem with all of the rain, so they try to keep you off the ground and on the trail.

My beautiful wife next to the Illinois River.

And one sad little bear.

I bet we can make it to the falls...

Our Little Sea Monster

2009-10-31T09:07:00.003-05:00

Happy Halloween Everybody!!

Watch out for the Kraken!

Celebrating Fall

2009-10-25T21:56:00.004-05:00

Well, summer has come and gone, the leaves are just waiting to fall, and we're celebrating the harvest season before the long, cold, bleak, icy Illinois winter.

These are our Jack-o-Lanterns - Tiff came up with the theme: Eet Yer Peas!!! They won 2nd place at the ward Halloween party, hurray!

This is the apple pie that Tiff made, from scratch!

And finally, Tiff found this little guy climbing on her earring when we were driving home from a bonfire with friends. She screeched, I thought I was going to hit another deer, and she tossed it into my lap in the dark car for the rest of the ride home. Luckily he made it to the floor, and even more luckily he didn't get skooshed under the brake pedal. Happy Fall everyone!

Dinnertime!!!

2009-10-17T14:45:00.002-05:00

No we did not have lil' Kayla for dinner, but the kitchen table is making due for her high chair, and she's starting on real food!! (As far as rice cereal can be classified as "real food")
At first she didn't know what to think when Tiff put the spoon to her mouth, but after one bite, she couldn't get enough!!!

What? Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face... ?

4 Months!

2009-10-03T20:23:00.005-05:00

I can't believe our little Kayla has been with us for (over) four months already. It seems like we brought her home from the hospital just last week. She has truly blessed out lives. Kayla is the absolute sweetest baby in the world and we love her more than words can express.

Well, here's her newest stats and some pictures to go along!

Weight: 12 lbs. 9 oz. (25%)
Length: 25 in. (75%)
Head circumference: 16in. (50%)

Kayla LOVES to take off her socks and munch on her toes!
We love you baby girl!

Hello September!

2009-09-08T17:53:00.009-05:00

Yeah, it's been a while since we posted, but September is turning out to be an awesome month. My plant shut down again for a week, so we took the chance to go to South Carolina last week. There jubilation ensued as we visited Chad & Carole, camped in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the way down, and saw baseball bats being born in Kentucky. Here's a bunch of pictures.

At the Louisville Slugger Baseball Museum & Bat Factory. Kayla loved her little bat, & we thoroughly enjoyed this little piece of Americana. I did however, notice multiple opportunities for improvement in their factory(no pictures allowed inside), but I didn't ask too many questions so they wouldn't think I was a corporate spy. Oh, and that's "The Great Bambino" looking over Tiff's left shoulder, in case you were wondering.
This bear was just about 52 feet off the trail we hiked - straight up. He was enjoying a meal up the tree, we got our picture and moved on before he became too interested in US!
Kayla's home for the total of 30+ hours of driving on the trip. She did really well, especially when we drove straight back to Illinois. We have the perfect baby - No kidding.
There were little streams and waterfalls all over in the park, and it was so green it made Peoria look like the desert.
About 150 years ago or so some people began to settle a little area in the park called "Roaring Fork" When the park was created, they were relocated, and the remnants of their settlement still remain. This was Tiff's Favorite cabin, it belonged to the town entrepreneur (he had a gristmill, general store, blacksmith shop, & woodworking shop) and was painted with all three colors in the Sears Roebuck Catalogue!

I, however, preferred this authentic hillbilly cabin, all it needs to be complete are a shotgun, some overalls, a hound dog & a rocking chair.

Our little family at the highest point in the park, not quite the Rockies, but still impressive.

Kayla LOVED camping...
...And she may decide to be a dentist like her uncle Randy.

I paddled us through a swamp in South Carolina, there were turtles a-plenty and Gators galore!

Oh, and there was this duck that had a thing for Tiff, but she wasn't interested, & he eventually took the hint.
Southern Food!!! Those little things that look like tater-tots are actually fried okra, which is disgusting, and there is an onion fried in sweet dough under the cornbread. It was actually pretty good to everyone's amazement.
Um, this is a pineapple fountain. And we love each other.
"Why the alligator tear?" you ask...
Because she's too young to try the fried alligator tail!!! Delicious!
These caramel truffles from the Charleston candy factory were even MORE delicious!
And our niece Emily got a lollipop the size of her face.

Our nephew Tyler - he loves the camera, and the camera loves him baby, the camera loves him!
The whole gang! This was taken in Charleston in front of a full scale replica of the Hunley - the first successful combat submarine! It was used in the Civil War (by the confederates), and had a spear with a charge on the front that it used to damage enemy ships (the union). It sunk it's target, but the Hunley never made it back to port. There's your history lesson for the day, its actually a pretty interesting story I think!

Thanks again Chad & Carol for letting us stay, we had a blast!!!

Airplanes, Towboats, and Fresh Mountain Air

2009-08-09T20:27:00.005-05:00

This past month we've been all over the place. As Tiff previously posted, we headed out to Utah and California during a plant shutdown, and marvelous times ensued. I was able to go backpacking in the mighty Wasatch, we blessed little Kayla, went camping with the whole family up American Fork Canyon, and it was pretty much awesome. Kayla did great except for a 5-minute spurt at 2 in the morning when she was screaming bloody murder while asleep (haven't yet figured that one out). We then hopped on a jet-plane to California where we wake-boarded, kayaked, got sunburnt, and had a fantastic time hanging out with family. Kayla did amazingly well with the flights, so we weren't too much of a problem to our fellow passengers. Here are a few pics from the trip:

UTAH!

Kayla loved camping...

Tiana loved Banana-Boats...

Gavin loved Otter-pops...

Heidi got in the way of the picture of the tents (just kidding Heid, this was intended to be a picture of you and it's beautiful)...

And Luke loved the fire!

If it's cooked on a stick you know it's good.

Noblest of Labradors: Jax.

CALIFORNIA!

Try this, I dare you.

I literally got like foot of air on this one. Next up: 720 baby!

Tiff was unhappy because I had to push her off the boat. She thought the water was cold or something.

She quickly got over it and waved to her fans.

The whole family!

When we got back, a co-worker tipped me off to an open-house at the local municipal airport, and even though we only caught the tail-end (pun intended), it was pretty sweet. Apparently some dude in Peoria owns a circa WWII dive-bomber (correct me if I'm wrong) and he was buzzing the airport and stuff, which was pretty sweet. I almost thought he was going to crash on one of his approaches, and I was wishing I was filming it so I could send it in to one of those "Most Extreme" shows and be famous. But then he didn't crash, which was good really, but I'm still not famous.

Then this last week the largest towboat in the U.S. came up the Peoria River and docked on the riverfront. Naturally, we couldn't let this occasion pass us by, so we went down and did a self-guided tour. It's five stories high, 241 feet long, and named the "Motor Vessel Mississippi". Did you know it's the 5th vessel to hold the title Mississippi? I know I didn't, until I did the tour that is. FYI, don't worry if you have no idea what a towboat is, if you don't live by a big river you would have no reason to. And don't confuse it with a tugboat, because it's totally different.

Oh, so you want to know what a tow-boat is then? Well I'll tell you. When they dredge the big rivers to keep the waterways clear for the barges and ships that go up and down them, the dirt they pull up has to go somewhere. Enter the towboat. The dredges fill flat barges with dirt, and then the towboat takes them away. Kind of like a dump-truck on the water. This one can tow up to 16 barges full of dirt, which is a lot more than your standard dump-truck in case you were wondering. You can see two of the barges lashed together in one of the pics for a frame of reference, you'll notice the people look like ants except they're bipedal and don't have six legs or an exoskeleton. The Captain's name was Pete. He seemed like a good captain and did an interview with the local news station and everything (you can see the interview in the picture). We also learned to not confuse the Captain with the Pilot. We saw the Pilot up in the wheel-house, and when asked what his job was he said "I steer the boat, except when the Captain wants to 'cause he steers it sometimes too". Also, if you were wondering, the boat is powered by 3 CAT diesels and power is generated by 3 more. Which of course gave me a little yellow-pride. All in all it was pretty cool, and if the Motor Vessel Mississippi ever comes to a river near you, I suggest you take the tour.

See the ant-people?

The beautiful Peoria Skyline behind us, we're on the top deck.

Kayla realized she loved sucking daddy's thumb. When the bink falls on the deck of a ship, you don't just throw it back in her mouth.

Especially when you're on the Peoria River. The sign reads: "Caution: Combined sewer overflow. diluted sewage may flow into the river here during and after storms..."

Blessings

2009-08-03T09:33:00.007-05:00

We had the opportunity to head out West for almost two weeks in July. During our time in Utah, Kayla was able to receive her name and a blessing by Braden. I am very grateful to have a husband who worthily holds the priesthood and can perform that blessing. He is a wonderful father and husband and he did a great job.

Our little family!

I'm thankful that my parents and siblings were able to fly out from California for the blessing.

Many people in Braden's family were able to be there too to participate in the blessing. It was so nice to be able to spend time with everyone.

My amazing friends and their husbands came from all over the place to share this day with us.

A huge thanks to Pam and Reed for hosting everyone. We had quite the group at their home. It was a wonderful day and I am so grateful to everyone who came and supported us.

This gospel is amazing and I know that we have eternal families. My life is filled with so much joy and I thank my Father in Heaven every day for the many blessings He has given me.

WARNING!

2009-07-30T13:35:00.002-05:00

Never, never leave your child unbuckled in a bouncy chair...even if she is napping. You never know what can happen, especially if you've got a squirmer!

Sorry baby girl!

Happy 4th!!

2009-07-05T17:28:00.003-05:00

Kayla wanted to wish everyone a happy Independence Day!

She spent the morning with us at the ward 4th of July celebration breakfast. The rest of the day was spent inside as the weather was very un-patriotic...it rained all day. Oh well. We hope everyone was able to celebrate our country's liberties with family, friends, delicious food, and fireworks!

One Month! Fireflies! Winnings! Oh my!

2009-06-28T21:48:00.004-05:00

We have been parents for over a month! Can you believe it? Kayla hardly can, check out that furrowed brow! Changing dirty diapers has become old-hat, and on occasion (like last night) she sleeps completely through the night. We're lovin' it!

Also, the fireflies have come out here in the "Land of Lincoln". First we caught a bunch of them, then I taught them to march in single file, and finally we tried to take a picture with a slow shutter speed to capture the magic. As is evidenced by the bottom picture, the magic is hard to capture. I need to instill a little more discipline in my troops. We did get a few glimmers though, so I guess we get an "E" for effort.
And finally, we won!!!! Can you believe it, I participated in this contest and won! Coupons! Valued at over $10! Wish we could've gotten the salad dressing as well, but I can see how it's hard to fit that in a #10 envelope. Thanks Matt & Brittany!!

A few more pics

2009-06-21T21:19:00.002-05:00

Here's some more pics of our baby girl! She's starting to fill out a little, although that's relative, as she's roughly the size of a cabbage patch kid. She's also working on getting through her first break-out of baby acne, but a sense of vanity is yet to develop, so it's not really a problem.

2009-06-05T15:27:00.003-05:00

Wow that was fast! It didn't even take 2 hours, and A-town - you win 10 points to cherish forever, and we saved the umbilical stump for you to pick up at you leisure. Just kidding, that's disgusting.

Can YOU guess what this is?

2009-06-04T21:59:00.002-05:00

10 points to the first non-parent to correctly identify this picture, starting NOW!

Kayla - Post II

2009-06-01T20:34:00.002-05:00

Here are a few more pics of our beautiful little nocturnal child!

Her first bath at home - she is yet to enjoy the bath, but we're hoping that if we do it before bedtime, it'll get her worn out enough that she sleeps a little longer. We'll let you know how it works...
This is what she looks like at about 4'oclock in the afternoon
Little feet!
My happy girls!Our family! - if you look close, you can see I'm wearing our little daughter. She loves to go on walks, and she really likes it when we take her outside. We were going to go out again tonight, but it was hailing, which she might not have liked so much...

Ta-Da!

2009-05-27T18:53:00.003-05:00

Memorial Day proved quite memorable, as you can see! After 16 hours of labor (more if you count what was lovingly endured at home), our beautiful daughter Kayla Marie was born into the world at 10:45 pm, weighing in at 6 lbs, 11 ounces and 19 1/4 inches long. She started out looking like a little slimy raisin, but with the help of the wonderful hospital staff was quickly transformed to the bright-eyed, cutest little girl in the world that you see before you! Her hobbies include sleeping and furrowing her little brow and then sleeping some more, with an occasional yawn in between. She loves to be held and prefers sprint-crying to marathoning, which is okay with Mom & Dad, but we'll see if she picks up the latter in the days to come. Tiff endured like a champ, and I was beside myself when she was born (I'm convinced that becoming a Dad is the quickest paradigm-shift that can physically be endured). Enough of my rambling, here's some pics!

Proud Daddy
Proud Mommy
Proud Granny

We gave birth to a robot! Actually, its the hearing Test- She passed!

Strapping her in...
She's Home!!!

2009-05-22T19:09:00.010-05:00

Well, our little girl continues to be unwilling to step out of her comfort zone, so while we had hope to have a baby in our arms by now, we don't. As a result, today's edition of the blog will just feature some of the things we've been doing while waiting.

First up:

Tiffany has become a world-class swaddler! Because we don't yet have a baby, she does this to the stuffed Sheep her mom got the baby for Christmas. I'll spare the details, but suffice it to say we've got about 30 different pics like this. No way this baby'll get out of that swaddle!!!

A little-known fact of apartment living is that, in a pinch, a front porch can be a surprisingly effective garage (as long as the complex doesn't find out).

Item C:

We went to Chicago a little while back to celebrate the anniversary. We had a pretty good time wandering around the "Magnificent Mile" and Navy Pier, and enjoyed the beautiful views. While there, we also stocked up on the essentials from Costco: diapers, wipes, and trail mix. Also, if you read the plaque you'll notice that Chicago is named after smelly food, which actually makes sense considering the odors that abound in the city (sorry A-town, but it's true).

Fourth:

Tiff made awesome rice crispy treats. They were amazing. I'm positive that 10 years from now our house will be flooded with kids at about 4:00 pm because we'll have the best after-school snacks on the block.

The following is the Rock Island Trail. Spring has finally arrived to Peoria and it is beautiful! I'm trying to get a better picture of a cardinal, this one's kind of out of focus, but it'll have to do for now

And finally:

Tiff is still pregnant, and our love cactus bloomed!!! We thought it might have died over the winter but low and behold it grew a flower! Maybe we'll be able to handle this parenting thing yet! (That funny looking sash is actually not a sash at all, it's a baby sling Tiff made with her OWN TWO HANDS! Although it could be a sash, and if it were, it would be the winners sash for the "Most Beautiful Pregnant Woman in Peoria County"!)

Quick Update

2009-05-20T12:32:00.002-05:00

It seems we have a stubborn little girl on our hands here. Tomorrow is the official due date, and so far very little progress has been made towards delivery. I am still pregnant. We are getting impatient. Our doctor told me that there is a 90% chance I'll deliver sometime this weekend. But we made another appointment for Tuesday "just in case" I fall in that dreaded 10%. Ergh. I promise we'll let everyone know when something exciting happens.