When the film was debuted at the conference, Geoff was also awarded "Best Dancer with a Hat"! Congrats, Geoff!
Thursday, January 29, 2015
"Techie"
Geoff's company has an annual gathering each January where they sometimes include a "Film Festival". Geoff was invited to participate in a music video set to Pharrell Williams "Happy". Geoff started the show, so you only have to watch the first 20 seconds to see the best part of the video!
When the film was debuted at the conference, Geoff was also awarded "Best Dancer with a Hat"! Congrats, Geoff!
When the film was debuted at the conference, Geoff was also awarded "Best Dancer with a Hat"! Congrats, Geoff!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Crafting with Smiles
Hylie loves making things--especially if it also includes making a mess! She really enjoys coloring, painting, cutting with her scissors, and drawing smiley faces.
If you look closely, you can see that Hylie drew smiley faces on each of the balloons
Hylie doesn't limit her crafting to just crayons and paper. One day as Hylie was wrapping up her lunch I heard her exclaim, "A smiley face!" and I came over to find this...
And where's Eliana during Hylie's busy time? She's usually hanging out with Mom or chillin' on her blankets just as adorable as ever!
Playing in the Snow
Earlier this month we got quite a bit of snow which brought quite a bit of excitement to Hylie. Unfortunately, the temperatures stayed well below freezing, so playing outside was not an option for this Mom. Finally, about a week after the first snow fall, we had temps in the upper 20's so I took Hylie out while Eliana slept in her warm bed. Hylie was thrilled and the first thing she said when we stepped foot in all the white stuff was, "Let's build a snowman!". I bent down and gathered a huge ball of snow in my hands only to find, it was super powdery--but how do you explain to a toddler that it's not 'snowman snow'? I was able to distract her by digging out our little sled and pulled her around our yard and then we climbed 'North Mountain' (which was the pile of snow that accumulated from shoveling our driveway). I was running out of ideas of what to do in powdery snow, but Hylie wanted to stay outside, so finally I brought out our sand toys and let her have at it.
Later that week, the temps rose above freezing which changed the consistency of the snow, so Geoff took Hylie out for the time of her life--they made all sorts of snowmen! It was cute, because depending on the heights, Hylie would refer to the snowman as the 'Dad' snowman or the 'Eliana' snowman. Fun times!
On top of "North Mountain"
Later that week, the temps rose above freezing which changed the consistency of the snow, so Geoff took Hylie out for the time of her life--they made all sorts of snowmen! It was cute, because depending on the heights, Hylie would refer to the snowman as the 'Dad' snowman or the 'Eliana' snowman. Fun times!
Hylie working on the "Eliana" snowman
Putting together the "Daddy" snowman
Friday, January 2, 2015
One Month
Eliana's reached her one month birthday! She weighed in at 10 lbs. 10 oz. and is growing like a weed: she now measures at 22.5 inches tall--two inches taller than her birth measurement!
She continues to be a calm and sweet baby. Every once in a while she'll have a sleepless night, but she also has nights where she'll sleep for a 4 hour period--woo hoo! During the day, she likes being in on the action, so much so that she rarely naps in her crib. She'll fall asleep in my arms and I'll transfer her to her crib, only to hear her awake minutes later. So typically, this little thing naps in the moby wrap so Mom can try to keep up with her big sister.
Her little neck is getting stronger and she's starting to track our movement, and every once in a while she'll give us one of her sweet smiles.
She continues to be a calm and sweet baby. Every once in a while she'll have a sleepless night, but she also has nights where she'll sleep for a 4 hour period--woo hoo! During the day, she likes being in on the action, so much so that she rarely naps in her crib. She'll fall asleep in my arms and I'll transfer her to her crib, only to hear her awake minutes later. So typically, this little thing naps in the moby wrap so Mom can try to keep up with her big sister.
Her little neck is getting stronger and she's starting to track our movement, and every once in a while she'll give us one of her sweet smiles.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Happy 2015!
2014 has flown by--when I think back on all we did and experienced, I can't believe all of that happened in just one year!
This year was full of home improvement projects. Off the top of my head, the things we did for our home include:
Painting the living room, dining room, hallway, and two bedrooms walls and ceilings, redoing the mud room (thanks, Dad!), re-doing the two hallway closets, putting up new drywall in the pantry, ripping out the huge bushes in front of our home, and of course, the kitchen renovation project. I'm tired just thinking about all the work! But we love how our home is coming to life and enjoy every square inch of the improvements.
Hylie's grown so much--it's crazy to think she started walking just a week before we entered 2014, she's just a constant ball of energy: playing, talking, and exploring during all waking hours!
I also can't believe that I was pregnant for the majority of 2014! Again, I am so grateful for how smoothly everything went with bringing Eliana into our family.
I'm ashamed to admit, but our little family did not stay up until midnight to welcome in the New Year. We haven't been getting much sleep with a new little infant and a toddler who thinks it's completely normal to rise and shine at 5:30 AM as well as have random wake-up calls in the wee hours of the night...so to celebrate the New Year, Hylie slept ALL night long and didn't wake up until 7 AM and Eliana let me sleep for a 3 hour period. Woo Hoo!
But for the record, we did set some goals before we said good-bye to 2014.
Dad: Read the Entire New Testament
Eliana: Eat, Sleep, and Poop (we know she'll do more, we're just keeping it real)
Hylie: Get Potty Trained
Mom: Beautify the Front Yard
For kicks and giggles, here are some Hylie "out-takes":
We're looking forward to all the adventures that await in 2015!
This year was full of home improvement projects. Off the top of my head, the things we did for our home include:
Painting the living room, dining room, hallway, and two bedrooms walls and ceilings, redoing the mud room (thanks, Dad!), re-doing the two hallway closets, putting up new drywall in the pantry, ripping out the huge bushes in front of our home, and of course, the kitchen renovation project. I'm tired just thinking about all the work! But we love how our home is coming to life and enjoy every square inch of the improvements.
Hylie's grown so much--it's crazy to think she started walking just a week before we entered 2014, she's just a constant ball of energy: playing, talking, and exploring during all waking hours!
I also can't believe that I was pregnant for the majority of 2014! Again, I am so grateful for how smoothly everything went with bringing Eliana into our family.
I'm ashamed to admit, but our little family did not stay up until midnight to welcome in the New Year. We haven't been getting much sleep with a new little infant and a toddler who thinks it's completely normal to rise and shine at 5:30 AM as well as have random wake-up calls in the wee hours of the night...so to celebrate the New Year, Hylie slept ALL night long and didn't wake up until 7 AM and Eliana let me sleep for a 3 hour period. Woo Hoo!
But for the record, we did set some goals before we said good-bye to 2014.
Dad: Read the Entire New Testament
Eliana: Eat, Sleep, and Poop (we know she'll do more, we're just keeping it real)
Hylie: Get Potty Trained
Mom: Beautify the Front Yard
For kicks and giggles, here are some Hylie "out-takes":
We're looking forward to all the adventures that await in 2015!
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Merry Christmas 2014
Our little family stayed in Chicago this year as we continue to adjust to two children. We missed being with our loved ones, but we are grateful for the reason we celebrate this occasion.
Christmas morning began at 4:30 when Hylie fell out of bed! Poor kid. Geoff was able to comfort Hylie, but she was up again at 5:30 when I was able to rock her to sleep with Eliana. The festivities officially began when she woke again at 7:00 AM and Hylie was quite thrilled to see that Santa came. She enjoyed opening and exploring each and every gift.
Eliana was pretty low-key about everything, but hopefully she'll eventually get into her new things, ha ha!
Our ward held a musical service that morning which we were grateful to attend. Each musical number was beautiful and the video presentation was quite touching and reminded us of the significance of the Gift our Savior is to all mankind. We are grateful for our Lord, Jesus Christ and celebrate His life and love.
Merry Christmas to all!
"So, This is Christmas"
Before Christmas Day arrived, we were able to squeeze in a few other activities--some that will be repeated, some that will not! We'll let you guess which one of these two adventures was the hit and which one was the absolute bomb...
Hylie was a great helper when it came to making Christmas cookies. She helped Mom roll out the dough, use the cookie cutters, and finally--decorate with sprinkles!
I think it's safe to say, cookies are a hit with this girl!
The Monday before Christmas, Geoff and I decided to check out a light show that was highly rated and recommended. It was located 30 minutes north of us, so it was a bit of a haul, but the admission was only $5 and the reviews said if you go on a weeknight, you miss the crowds.
Lies. All lies.
We had hopes of arriving to the light display at 6:00, but we're finding that when you have a toddler and a nursing infant--you can throw any and all schedules out the window. We got to the place at 7:30 but didn't figure out where the END of the line was until 8:00. There were SO many cars, it was crazy. Geoff and I looked at each other, both wanting to just call it a night, but the entire car ride, we were building up Hylie with what a great trip this was going to be and how fun it would be to see the light show. When we got in line she kept asking where the show was. We told her we had to wait a long time to take our turn...so then the next 20 minutes she kept asking if it was our turn yet. Once we were in line, we realized it would be pretty tricky to pull out of line--so we were pretty committed.
Being that it was past bedtime, Hylie started fading, so we did what any desperate parent would do: fed her candy. We had two small packets of Sixlets that we gave her. The car was getting really stuffy from sitting there with the heater on and we were bundled up in our coats. We decided to peel off our layers and let Hylie out of her car seat. (We were creeping along so slowly and infrequently, we figured we might as well make Hylie as comfortable as possible.) Needless to say, she was THRILLED to be sitting on Mom's lap instead of buckled up.
About 45 minutes into our wait, we all of a sudden heard a pretty big 'crunch' and looked over to see a huge SUV had rammed the tail-end of the mini-van in front of it. Yikes. We thought we had it rough waiting in line, we at least didn't have to call our insurance company to report an accident that happened at less than 2 miles an hour and probably caused at least $1,000 in damage--yep, it was pretty bad.
Finally, an hour and a half later after we got into line, we finally entered the park. Of course being we are almost ready to turn in to the park, Hylie has an epic meltdown and kicked the car into neutral. For more evidence that Hylie was pretty delirious she was pointing to trees and asking if it was a cat or a donkey. Great! The entrance to the display had every cartoon character under the sun, so Hylie did enjoy pointing out the ones she new. However, when we were about halfway through, Hylie started gagging. I knew what was coming next and frantically tried to open the door, but it was locked. Geoff pulled over and I finally got the door open...a little too late. Both Hylie and I were covered in pickles and chocolate vomit. Luckily, it wasn't the flu or anything, it was just a one-time incident (thanks, Sixlets!). For the rest of the 15 minute show we had the windows rolled down in a vain attempted to air the car out. It did nothing! We pulled over again and cleaned up as best as we could, got Hylie back in her car-seat and headed home. We were a pretty pathetic bunch: we were tired, we smelled horribly, I had a headache, the car was all fogged up, Hylie was miserable. So it was quite comical to hear the song "So This is Christmas" by John Lennon pipe through the radio as we finally headed home. Geoff started laughing hysterically as we both agreed that we will NEVER do this again!
But hey, we have a pretty classic Christmas adventure to tell now, right?
Hylie was a great helper when it came to making Christmas cookies. She helped Mom roll out the dough, use the cookie cutters, and finally--decorate with sprinkles!
I think it's safe to say, cookies are a hit with this girl!
The Monday before Christmas, Geoff and I decided to check out a light show that was highly rated and recommended. It was located 30 minutes north of us, so it was a bit of a haul, but the admission was only $5 and the reviews said if you go on a weeknight, you miss the crowds.
Lies. All lies.
We had hopes of arriving to the light display at 6:00, but we're finding that when you have a toddler and a nursing infant--you can throw any and all schedules out the window. We got to the place at 7:30 but didn't figure out where the END of the line was until 8:00. There were SO many cars, it was crazy. Geoff and I looked at each other, both wanting to just call it a night, but the entire car ride, we were building up Hylie with what a great trip this was going to be and how fun it would be to see the light show. When we got in line she kept asking where the show was. We told her we had to wait a long time to take our turn...so then the next 20 minutes she kept asking if it was our turn yet. Once we were in line, we realized it would be pretty tricky to pull out of line--so we were pretty committed.
Being that it was past bedtime, Hylie started fading, so we did what any desperate parent would do: fed her candy. We had two small packets of Sixlets that we gave her. The car was getting really stuffy from sitting there with the heater on and we were bundled up in our coats. We decided to peel off our layers and let Hylie out of her car seat. (We were creeping along so slowly and infrequently, we figured we might as well make Hylie as comfortable as possible.) Needless to say, she was THRILLED to be sitting on Mom's lap instead of buckled up.
About 45 minutes into our wait, we all of a sudden heard a pretty big 'crunch' and looked over to see a huge SUV had rammed the tail-end of the mini-van in front of it. Yikes. We thought we had it rough waiting in line, we at least didn't have to call our insurance company to report an accident that happened at less than 2 miles an hour and probably caused at least $1,000 in damage--yep, it was pretty bad.
Finally, an hour and a half later after we got into line, we finally entered the park. Of course being we are almost ready to turn in to the park, Hylie has an epic meltdown and kicked the car into neutral. For more evidence that Hylie was pretty delirious she was pointing to trees and asking if it was a cat or a donkey. Great! The entrance to the display had every cartoon character under the sun, so Hylie did enjoy pointing out the ones she new. However, when we were about halfway through, Hylie started gagging. I knew what was coming next and frantically tried to open the door, but it was locked. Geoff pulled over and I finally got the door open...a little too late. Both Hylie and I were covered in pickles and chocolate vomit. Luckily, it wasn't the flu or anything, it was just a one-time incident (thanks, Sixlets!). For the rest of the 15 minute show we had the windows rolled down in a vain attempted to air the car out. It did nothing! We pulled over again and cleaned up as best as we could, got Hylie back in her car-seat and headed home. We were a pretty pathetic bunch: we were tired, we smelled horribly, I had a headache, the car was all fogged up, Hylie was miserable. So it was quite comical to hear the song "So This is Christmas" by John Lennon pipe through the radio as we finally headed home. Geoff started laughing hysterically as we both agreed that we will NEVER do this again!
But hey, we have a pretty classic Christmas adventure to tell now, right?
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