Happy Easter

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We most certainly did. It was our first year doing it just by ourselves and it was really nice. At Church the ward choir did practically the entire sacrament program with a few testimonies in between numbers. It was really beautiful and reminded me once again how powerfully music brings the spirit. I love singing, and I am so glad Arek convinced me to get back in the habit by joining our ward choir. I know my voice is much rustier than it used to be, but there is almost nothing that makes me feel so good as when I get to sing.

After church I kept myself busy in the kitchen trying to prepare our first real Easter dinner together. It suprisingly turned out to be really yummy... got to love ham and funeral potatoes and homemade rolls. Mmm... mmm... good!

And lastly, my mom found a great deal on Easter dresses and bought one for Julie (which was super nice because she needed a new dress anyway... she keeps growing out of hers!) So here is my little sweetheart (with her typical hands blocking her face) in her new dress. LOVE her!

Happy Birthday Arek!

So, I'm a few days late in posting, but Sunday was Arek's birthday. Hooray! He is now 26 years old... wowzers, time goes by fast. He was only 22 when we met and that seems like it was just yesterday! His birthday was a busy day (both of us started new callings: him as 2nd counsellor/scout master in young mens, and me as primary chorister. We are both super excited but will miss teaching our sunbeams, which we taught for about 20 months! Then, I also had visit teaching appointments and choir practice) but he seemed to enjoy it. I gave him a handbook about reloading bullets, which is something he really wants to learn about. So he read that most of the afternoon. In the evening Tiffer and Jared came over and had dinner (homemade focaccia bread and chicken cordon bleu sandwiches) and cake and ice cream. It is always a lot of fun when they come visit... the boys never tire of reminiscing about their funny childhood. So all in all it wasn't the most exciting birthday for Arek but it was good. I am so grateful to be married to such a great man. Love you, Arek and Happy Birthday!

My family came up on Saturday to give Arek his gifts (a new hoodie and a movie) and snapped this family photo

Hurray for Squash!

So far (at 6 1/2 months) we have tried rice cereal, oatmeal, avacados, sweet potatoes, and bananas. She tolerated most of them, but it wasn't until yesterday that I found something she loved: butternut squash. I made it Tuesday night and gave some to her on Wednesday, and Julie could not get enough of it! She actually opened her mouth and leaned TOWARDS the spoon, which is something she has never done before... usually she sucks on her fingers to keep me from putting the spoon in her mouth. So, thanks to Jaime (Arek's cousin) for suggesting it and telling me how to make it! *the picture is my messy girl after a feeding of sweet potatoes... she loves playing with her food!*

Big Girl

No, she’s not crawling yet, but Julie got onto her hands and knees last night (usually she can’t get past her hands and toes… she gets in the position from sitting). We were so excited, I’m sure she thought we were crazy. But she stayed on all fours for a few minutes and wiggled, trying to figure out how to move around in that position. I’m sure in the next few weeks none of our things from knee-height down will be safe! Even so… Way to Go, Julie! We are so proud of you!

This is usually how far she gets before sliding onto her tummy.

We Really Did Watch Conference (and it was AWESOME)... But Here's What Else We Did

Conference weekend was great! Since we don’t get normal tv channels, we travelled down south for the weekend to watch conference at our parents’ houses. Friday afternoon and all day Saturday Arek and his brothers and brother-in-law worked on replacing a transmission, which incuded removing the old transmission, travelling to the junk yard to find a “new” transmission, and installing said “new” transmission. I am told they had a blast. Replacing a transmission doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to me, but, hey, to each his own. They all still liked each other when it was over, which is the most important part… and the car now runs great, which is fabulous for Jenny and Todd because while the car was out of commission they were having to squeeze their baby’s carseat into the TINY back seat of a two door car. Now Lilly (and Jenny, whose seat was having to be almost pressed into the front dashboard) can ride MUCH more comfortably.

On Saturday I got my hair cut. Hurray! I’ve been wanting a change for quite some time and finally got around to it. I got about 8 inches cut off (from bottom of my shoulder blades to just below my chin… although it looks longer than that in the picture cuz of the angle, I guess) and it feels great! I absolutely love the feel of freshly cut hair. Arek has never seen me with such short hair but he seems to like it a lot. And Julie hasn’t freaked out that her mom looks different, so that is also great.

While the boys were gone to the Priesthood session of conference my mom helped me make a dress for Julie. I’ve never made one before but we got easy fabric and we did a simple design and… voila!

What a cutie she is! I think it came out pretty good. We even put two botton holes so we can lengthen the straps as she grows.

Oh, and Julie is now six months old! She had her checkup and shots on Thursday, and my little chunk is still staying consistent in the 88% for both height and weight: She is now 27 inches long and 18 lbs 3 oz. She is now a champion sitter-upper and she is trying to figure out how to become mobile and starting to try to pull up on things from sitting to standing. She is also getting more used to eating food… although she still doesn’t like me to feed her much: she preferes to get it all over her hands and then suck on her fingers. Well, at least she’s getting used to the taste and she cries less and less each time we try.

Julie is also starting to go through some separation anxiety, I think. She was having a really hard time this weekend when she wasn’t with me… but it also could have just been because her shots were really hard on her this time around. Let’s hope it was just the shots and it’s not already coming to the point of fear of “strangers” (meaning anyone she doesn’t see everyday… so pretty much anyone besides Arek and me). Here’s a funny shot I got of her unhappiness with my mom: I promise, Mom, it’s not you… it’s just a phase my little girl is going through