Hylie's Glasses

Back in February, Hylie had a fever that lasted a few days.  Shortly after the fever passed, I noticed Hylie's right eye was crossing in towards her nose when she was looking at something up close.  Concerned, I contacted the doctor who recommended we take her to an ophthalmologist.

At Hylie's appointment we learned that she has very poor vision in her right eye and as a result, her brain has been using the left eye for all of Hylie's vision needs.  Because of this, her right eye was not functioning much at all.  To help rectify this situation and get the brain to start using both eyes again, the doctor recommended getting Hylie glasses with a strong prescription for the right eye in hopes the vision correction would enable Hylie to use both eyes again.  Thankfully, there is nothing structurally wrong with her eye, it is just weaker from little use (and the fever probably caused the muscles to fatigue a little more faster--but did not have anything to do with her vision problems).  Another thing that surprised me is that Hylie is far-sighted--which is not common for young children.

The doctor gave us Hylie's prescription and off to the frames shop we went.  Hylie had fun being the sole decision maker on what glasses she was going to get.

In preparation for her new lenses, Hylie also designed an eye-glass case:

And this is how it turned out:

We were able to pick up her new specs today, and I must say--Hylie found some super cute glasses for herself!  But, my-oh-my she looks so much older and my heart is having a hard time with that!  Ha ha!

Grandma and Grandpa were also so kind and sent a little Hello Kitty complete with her own glasses!

Here's hoping for improved vision!

Evening of Music

I decided to organize another music event this year where I invite friends to come together to participate in and listen to performances.  I love doing this to give me something to work towards on the piano and violin as well as get a chance to hear everyone's selections.

I try to keep things simple, but no matter what, there always seems to be a scramble at the very end to help make it all come together.  And as I'm scrambling, friends and family always come to the rescue.  I feel bad asking for help for something I'm choosing to do--but I was so overwhelmed with how willingly everyone helped.  This couldn't have come together without my friends and especially without Geoff.  He helped set up, tend to the kiddos while I practiced and prepared, and was a sounding board for all my silly ideas.  And the night of the event, he was busy juggling the three girls (plus a few extra kids) while trying to film and keep the kids somewhat quiet!  No easy task at all!

As busy as it gets the day of, I cherish this event and hope to hold it for years and years to come.

In preparation, I made little goody bags for all those who participated and even painted my first watercolor pieces to add a little color to the room.

But the biggest prep of all was the practicing!  I decided to work on "Adoration" by Felix Borowski on the violin and Katie Schmidt agreed to play "Fiddle Faddle" by Leroy Anderson on the piano with me.  We had a fun time bantering each other as we practiced this fun and intricate piece, ha!

The Updegraff siblings performing together.  They are extremely talented!

The performances were so wonderful.  Amazing vocalists belted out Broadway tunes and gorgeous contemporary selections, we had beautiful piano solos, string pieces, and vocal ensembles. Everything was delightful!

Here are a few clips from the evening--I hope to put complete clips on YouTube soon!

I felt so bad that I had the biggest blooper of the night when accompanying my friend, Debra:

And a clip from the violin piece I prepared, accompanied by Mary Ann Rackley:

Yes, my performance was far from perfect, but I actually felt good about how it went--especially since I felt absolutely terrified to play in front of an audience.

Hylie, Eliana, and Lillian are so supportive of my musical pursuits as well.  They NEVER complain when I'm practicing.  In fact, sometimes Eliana will go over and pat my violin case asking me to get it out, or Hylie will ask me to sing some songs while playing the piano.  I love the music in my life and I hope that our girls will enjoy making it a part of their lives as well!

ADORATION - FULL VIDEO

Library Classes

Ever since Hylie was two, we have been taking advantage of our local Public Library's classes for kids.  The teachers in the classes do an excellent job bringing books to life, teaching fun songs and dances, and letting the kids explore their creative side with crafts.  The library offers a class for Babies (0-24 months), Toddlers (2 yrs-old), and Pre-School kids (3-6 yrs).  One of the librarians pointed out that I have a kid for each of their classes!  Ha ha!  However, we're only attending the two older classes--I'll take Lillian to her class when she's 1-year-old and can interact a little more.

 Hylie and Eliana with Grandma Judith

and Miss Debbie

 and Miss Elizabeth

 Eliana dancing in Miss Elizabeth's class

We sure love our time at the Library!

Lillian Five Months

Look who just turned 5 months old!

 We never get tired of her sweet smiles and laughter!  Lillian is such an alert little girl and enjoys giggling with her sisters.

 Now that I know how quickly time flies (especially with little babies), I try to stop more often and just soak in the moments--watching her fall asleep in my arms, studying her tiny fingers rapped around my hand, observing Lillian discovering new things, and just snuggling a sleeping baby.

 Lillian is starting to play more and is grabbing on to things, every once in a while objects will find their way to her mouth.

Often Lillian will be in the middle of playing and then all of a sudden conk out!

 I should have known from those sleepy eyes that it wasn't going to be long before she'd end up like this:

She's getting stronger and stronger, doesn't fuss as much during tummy time, will bounce up and down with her knees when you stand her on your lap, she'll rotate around the floor and still just rolls to her side so far.  Lillian is such a pleasant little girl who doesn't fuss much and just enjoys being held and soaking in all the action around her.

We sure love our little cutie!

Eliana - Speech Therapy

For the past 5 months, Eliana has been taking speech therapy.  Just before she turned two, her doctor recommended some intervention since Eliana was pretty delayed in using her words to communicate.  The first few months, Eliana showed that her comprehension skills were spot on, but she just didn't want to use words much at all.  But these past 4 weeks, Eliana's vocabulary has exploded and she is doing an amazing job using her words to communicate with everyone.  I had to chuckle when I picked Eliana up from nursery about three weeks ago, the leaders greeted me with eyes as wide as saucers and proclaimed, "Eliana can talk!"  Ha ha!

Eliana loves working with Amanda, her speech therapist.

When Eliana first started using some words she kept saying "Ya-Ya", and no one knew what she was referring to.  We finally realized that's how she was saying "Hylie"!  At first, Hylie was not pleased she kept saying, "My name is not Ya-Ya, it's HYLIEEEEE!"  But after a little while, Hylie realized how cute it was that Eliana was just trying to say her name.  I'm not sure if this nickname will stick, every once in a while we'll hear Eliana say "HY-EE"--but "Ya-Ya" is still the main name we hear.  She calls herself "Na-Na" and Lillian "EE".

Infinity

What you see here is a picture of a statuette "infinity" by Kim Lawrence. During the four years I attended BYU, I would walk through the bookstore and see this statue on display. I loved this statue, it's grace, beauty,and meaning tugged at my heartstrings every time I saw it. But my lack of extra funds (as well as lack of a man in my life) during all those years kept me from ever purchasing this piece of art. Then, after I graduated and had a job and some paychecks under my belt, I decided to finally splurge and get this for me in hopes someday I would have someone to spend infinity with. To my dismay, this piece had been discontinued. Now fast forward over fifteen years later, this statue is now sitting on my shelf because my sweet (and unpredictable) husband overheard me randomly talking about this statue to my mom and how silly I was sometimes and cut through the bookstore on campus just to look at it and how I cried when I could finally afford it and it was gone. Well apparently it was still available in cyber somewhere and Geoff put it in the corner of our kitchen counter behind the mixer on a Thursday night and I didn't notice it until Sunday night! 

Geoff was dying during the three days the statue was sitting in the corner of the kitchen, just waiting to be discovered.  He kept taking pictures of me working with the statue hiding in plain sight!  I was clueless the ENTIRE time!

And yes, I bawled when I saw it. (But not as much as I did when I happily said yes to this amazing man when he asked me to be with him for infinity.) Thank you, Geoff Woodhouse. You are beyond wonderful!

New Furniture!

This year we finally decided it was time to replace our hand-me-down sofa, and we are loving the new additions!

I'm realizing that "Before" pictures are getting pretty sparse.  The second I realize I have time to tackle a project, I have to jump on the opportunity before a sleeping baby awakes or little kids aren't content playing on their own anymore.  So here are a few pics to show what we had before:

 The white leather sofa was pretty beat up--some seams were burst, it was so low to the ground I couldn't sit it in when I was pregnant, and it definitely had seen better days.

 This bookcase started collecting more than just books, mementos, and dust--so it was getting pretty cluttered and the toy bins weren't quite cutting it anymore.

I decided to change the layout of the living room to better accommodate our needs and uses at this time.  The piano was moved to a different wall, we got new toy storage bins to put under our nice, large windows, and the sofas (with tall backs to accommodate Geoff's 6'-3" frame!) were put against the walls instead of the windows.  And I must say, I love how it is working!

The upstairs wasn't the only area that needed a little attention and de-cluttering.  Here is a before pic of the basement:

We had a bookcase that was getting a little over-loaded and the large toy bins were getting a tad out of control.

IKEA's shelves and storage bins came to the rescue.  We sorted (and purged) the toys, 

labeled the bins,

 and are enjoying the results!

While I was working on the basement, I decided to also tackle the craft closet, a much-more involved task than I realized!  I do not have a before picture to show its state before I sorted, purged, and organized...but I am sure loving the finished product!