For Christmas we went up to Idaho to spend time with my family. We had a wonderful time. Luke especially loved all the attention by his grandparents. We played the first couple of days and had a beautiful dinner on Christmas Eve. Luke loved dinner. He is very fond of mashed potatoes and vegies. At one point he lost a mouthful and it stuck to his chin for the rest of the meal. We thought it was so funny we had to take a picture. He was confused at what we were laughing at. But he was so good. That night we read the Christmas story and open our family gifts Luke got this rocker form his grandparents. But we also added something new this Christmas. Grandma and Kim bought Luke a very cute Santa suit we had a lot of fun with that on Christmas Eve. It was so funny. I have probably 50 or 60 pictures of him in his little suit. Fun Fun Fun. Then we had a lovely Christmas morning, luke got mad crazy fun presents, I got my apron and Andrew and I got snow tires. That was a blessing because we had a rather terrifying ride home the next day with really bad roads:-) But we are home safe! And excited to enjoy the rest of the holidays here in Provo. Andrew is officially graduated. We are still looking for a job so if anyone hears of any openings in PR let us know.
Special Thank You to Kevin who provided the Peruvian hats
Yea for Luke!!!He is pretty much my Little Super Hero! Friday Luke had both of his Peep (Provo Early education Program) appointments. Both his OT and PT came and worked with him and it was really great. Luke had been staying about two months behind developmentally until a couple of months ago when he started to fall farther behind, at one point his gross motor skills were almost 4 months behind. That was really discouraging, crawling just didn't come naturally to our little guy and he had some sensory issues that we were working on. It's been interesting to watch his progress and how discouraging and sad it had been for me at the beginning. I am so grateful that those feelings begin to go away and over time you see it how it really is. That we are so Lucky to have him, every child is different, and he is amazing and doing amazing things. Like I said, He is pretty much My Super Hero:-)
But while I had my surgery my little man did almost a whole month of catching up both in sensory and in gross and fine motor skills. He is crawling, waving, pulling up to kneeling and eating mashed table food. All of which he had not been doing at our last apt. But he seems to do most things this way. Take it easy for a while and then learn a whole bunch of things all at once. It was a really great day, they told me that they didn't think they needed his OT anymore and she would just come on a need basis. So the PT will still come to work with us on his low muscle tone and gave me some great new exercises to help him learn to stand ad increase his sensory. Yea!! Oh he also got his first little battle wound. He was trying to pull himself from crawling to kneeling and caught the edge of his eye on the table. This is when it was red but it turned into a great bruise later!
I am now tonsil and adenoid-less. It has been a little over a week and all is going well. I have to admit it has been a little bumpier road than I anticipated but I think it has all gone really well. My mom came into town on the 3rd and we went out that evening with my brother Kevin for (what the nurse later joked as) "my final meal" and I went in to surgery at 7 on Thursday.
We had only planned on taking my tonsils out but when they got into my surgery my adenoid tissue was also badly infected so they decided to take that out too. We went to an outpatient surgical center owned by a group of doctors, that way we were able to avoid the overhead costs of a hospital. I really liked it there. It was very low-key but very efficient. In and out and very informative. But it was my first time going under all the way and I had some very interesting reactions after. We couldn't talk about it because it would make me laugh and trying to laugh hurt so much. But apparently I woke up crying, very hard and saying "Thank You" to everyone I saw. I kept trying to get out of bed and thank every random person that passed my door. I believe my exact quote to my nurse was "Thank you, Thank you so much for being nice. And mean people aren't nice and you are nice. I bet your children are nice" This was followed by many other humorous quotes which I won't go into now but I am sure my mother will share with you if you would like to hear about it. It was really funny:-) I had heard all these horror stories about how much it hurt and how miserable the recovery was suppose to be. I think I was very blessed my pain didn't seem that bad (thanks to my wonderful narcotic) and I was so lucky to have so much help. But I understand what they mean by 4-7 days after is the worst part of the recovery. The scabs begin to fall off and you start getting some really powerful inner ear pain. But the worst part for me was the nausea that accompanied this. I had had the stomach flu the day before I went into surgery and I already have a week stomach so I think I was just set up for it. It also didn't help that both medications cause nausea. It was Ok for the first 3 or 4 days, I through up only a few times. But from Sunday afternoon on I was unable to keep anything down, even water. It was wretched. I was starting to get dehydrated and it was a blessed hour when we were finally able to get the anti-nausea medication on Monday morning. So from then on its been looking up.
My mom left to return to Idaho yesterday and Luke and I are kickin' it here by ourselves. I am doing good. My face is still really swollen, and I still can't talk. But I am pretty much up and about and doing most things. I still get really tired and have to take it easy and sleep lots. I can't tell if that is because of the medication or because I just don't have the energy. Eating is the worst. Nothing sounds good and everything hurts. I eat a frozen Ensure in the mornings, lots of water and I suck on saltines for most of the rest of the day. But hey, at least I am not even tempted to eat all the Christmas sweets in my kitchen.
Thanks for all the help and phone calls. We really appreciate it. Andrew is done!!! Yea!!! he takes his last test on Monday and it is so good to see so much of the stress off his shoulders. Well for now we are staying in Provo and continuing the job hunt. Andrew is working at Red Robin in the mean time and we hope to be moving to our new job sometime in January.
Ho ho ho everyone. Tis the season and all that... Alright, so Kristi does most of the posting around here, but I felt it was time I contributed a little and shared the seasons greetings with you all. (A special thanks to Amy Shreeve, whose blog gave me the idea in the first place.)
So, without further ado, please allow your friends the Hills to be the first to wish you a Merry Christmas this year.
For Thanksgiving we drove up to Andrew's parents to celebrate. But while were finishing things up, we set Luke in the middle of the floor with his very favorite book, "Mirror Me Baby Einstein". He was dressed all cute so we thought a book was the best option for the moment. But before we left I wanted to take a few pictures. Alas, Luke did not take kindly to having his book taken away. He decided that he did not want to have his picture taken. So in the end we got a little smile when we held up the book in front of him. But the little stinker closed his eyes.
We're doing great, applying for jobs and getting ready to graduate in two weeks!!! Yea! We are also excited for my Mom to come up this week. I am getting my tonsils out of Thursday, so she will be staying for a week or so to help me with Luke.
Luke shared his birthday with a couple of other special events, his cousin Seth's Birthday and the BYU-UTAH game. We went to our friends, Ali and Brads house to watch the game and celebrate. Luke however, does not do well with football game so he spent the majority of his party sleeping. So when he got up to open presents he was little groggy and didn't want to play with Morgan and Addie very much. But he had lots of fun sitting on Daddy's lap and playing with him. He loved his Cheetos and his Elmo plush. But we didn't end up giving him his cake until we got home and that is why he looks so tired in the first picture. We are cutting the video so you can see it all. We gave him his big present a couple days before, it was a sing along stage and he loves it!
So we were playing at home a little before going to the BYU/Utah game-Birthday Party and Luke made a new discovery. He can Wave!!!!! oh and he did a little crawling too!
Yea I love them so much and one is 26 and the other is ONE!!!!!!!!!
My cute boys are both having their birthday this week and since this is my only day with the computer I wanted to do a little post for both of them. Luke's birthday is tomorrow and Andrew's was on Tuesday. So I thought this would be an appropriate time to talk about my cute boys.
First My husband... Well what can I say about Andrew. Those of you who know him already know he is the nicest guy in the world. But I am so lucky that my husbands main goal in life is to make me happy. I have no idea how I was so lucky to get him for my husband. What can I say? I love him. He also is an incredibly hard worker and is always happy to take out the garbage. He is pretty much my super hero. But lets talk about the important things that make him so wonderful. -1) He will always finish my plate. -2) He can talk to anyone anywhere -3) He has great hair -4) He makes the best Grits in the world (right after my Grandma Bates) -5) He tells the best bedtime stories ever!
Next my son... Well its hard to say things about someone so dynamic. He never grew out of cuddles and is always willing to snuggle mommy and give his daddy a hug. And is pretty much the greatest Baby ever!!! But on top of all that I really have to say how proud of him I am. He is learning so many things and is trying so hard with everything we are working on. He never gives up. He teaches me to be a better more patient person. Lets talk about what make him so great.
-1) As a baby, he has always had a very clear personality. For an example, he will always tell you when he doesn't want to be in a picture:-) I took this on Sunday , I just wanted to take a picture but he wanted to play- not sit on Mommy's lap. I love his face. -2) He has the best hair ever!!! -3) He can locate anyone's food and get into it. Note Morgan's fruit loops he discovered while we were in the bathroom. -4) He can say DAD -5) He has mad crazy piano playing skills.
I won't post quite as much because his birthday party is tomorrow. And we will post many more pictures!
Andrew schedule has been beyond crazy this past week. He has been trying to finish his independent study class before Tuesday. It has been a series of crazy sleepless nights but we are going to meet the deadline which means that without any unforeseen tragedies we will be graduating in December for sure. Yea, Andrew is so excited for or Thanksgiving break... ah sleep.
Andrew had heard this rumor that there was this castle in Provo (some of you from Provo may know what I am talking about). But on Saturday we went on our weekly sample date to Costco and as we were coming back we decided to see if we could find the "Castle." All we knew was that it was at the end of Center Street on the Mt and supposedly looked like a real castle. Well we drove around for a while. Found it and hiked up to it. To make a long story short. It was and amphitheater built in the 1930's by labors for the WPA (new deal programs). There is apparently quite a few like it. It is now owned by the state. It is a wonderful space and we were so disappointed to hear Sweeney Todd had closed the night before. It would be way fun to see it done on this stage. It was a really great space the stage was nice and there was quite a bit of seating. But the best part was the view . This is Andrew and Luke on the stage. The place had a couple of photographers taking engagement and bridal pictures. It was so beautiful especially with the leaves.
Andrew was sad he hadn't heard about this place earlier, it would have been fun to take me on a date here as a surprise. It was really pretty! So if you are looking for something to do in Provo think about it. The rest are just some fun pictures we took that day. Enjoy~
On Halloween Luke and I went with our friends to trick-or-treat at the Provo Town Center. Rosie and Brian dressed their daughter, Allison up as purple monster. Pretty much the cutest purple monster ever! And it was very entertaining. I think they were most interested in seeing all the other kids dressed up. It was neat to watch Allison figure out that if she said "treat" or held out her bucket people put stuff in it. She then discovered a sucker in her bucket and preceded to eat through the wrapper without mommy's help. It was so messy-fun I had to post a picture.
Then we went back to their house and made yummy pizza's, apple cobbler and played CSI the board game. (its a very long board game) It was really fun and so low key. But the best part of the whole night is that Luke fell asleep at 6:30 and slept in the pack-n-play until we went home at 11:30. Happy Halloween all!
This is not my usual blog. Usually I try to reserve the blog for things I think people will want to see, like Luke or family outings. I also usually try to blog stuff that applies to both Andrew and I. This blog is neither. But today I woke up and felt so inspired, actually this morning I got up to go running with my friend and through-up right before she got here, but that is beside the point. (I am feeling much better now thank you) But after all that I felt better, Ilooked outside and took some time to relax. I was overwhelmed with all of the simple little things in my life that make me so happy. This is just a post about some of the simple things in my life that make me so happy. We will call it a voyage into Kristi's mind :-)
Fall-I love the fall. I love that it is cool enough that I can take Luke out in the middle of the day but it isn't cold. I love to go on long walks each afternoon. I really like the wooden smell that seems to permeate in each direction. And I really really love the leaves and the colours. I find myself constantly wishing I have a camera. It's just one of those things that makes days better.
Nap-time Oh it is a blessed thing. I really think part of the reason babies need naps is because with out them mothers would not be able to function. The Lord new this when creating us and inbedded a need within babies to sleep for small periods of time so that Mommies can rest and be better Mommies. I just really am so happy that Luke naps. He is getting so good about it to. I am so proud of him.
Knitting/Herbal Tea- I love herbal tea!!! Love it! I love the way it is light and warm and calming. I love the way I get to use a tea cup. I love that each evening when I sit down with my teapot, cup, saucer, 1/2 tsp of sugar and "Pomegranate Pizzazz" I can be anything from Anne of green gables to Elizabeth Bennet. I love to pretend. Yes its true and it might be ridiculous for a 25 year old woman. But I love it. I love to close my eyes and imagine I am someone somewhere else in a different time. Some read, I simply daydream. I am sure this will not come as a shock to most of you who know me well. All I ever wanted to do was play pretend and wear a big dress. Thus, I majored in theater, played a princess, and became a drama teacher. I love that feeling of a calmer more gentile time...
And along this vein. I have taken up knitting, I tried crocheting and well wasn't very good. So I switched to knitting which I like much better. Plus, there are so many more role playing opportunities with knitting needles than a crochet hook. You don't see a lot of crochet hooks in classic old movies. :-) Silly, but true.
Harry Potter, Audio Books I never actually read the Harry Potter's until I started commuting to and from Playmill my first year. Now I love them all. But they are all on my computer now and they have been such a wonderful thing for me these past 11 months. Why you may ask? I love the vivid language and the wonderful fantasy. I can get lost in them while doing the dishes, nebulizing the baby, or folding laundry. I love that I don't have to watch or keep my eyes on anything, I can just listen in and tune out. I use to listen to them non-stop the first few months here, while I was still pumping. I have also listened to the Chronicles of Narnia and a couple other series but this one is my favorite. It takes a little more than a week to finish all seven books. And my hands are still free to be productive. I have listened the the series on the upside of 20 now so I am getting quite proficient on the details. It's amazing that in almost every dream I have, perform at least one spell. But it is so nice to have a little something going on in the back ground while I am home with Luke.
Happy Shows Old movies, musicals, Halmark mini-series, most movies made before 1960. I love it. I love the classic Walt Disney Films Swiss family Robinson, Family Band, 2,000 Leagues, Bednobs and Broomsticks, Parent Trap, Tobey Tyler, Mary Poppins, Darby O'Gill. Yep love 'um all and Pollyanna is my favorite.
Memories Last night Andrew and I were up late talking about childhood Halloween Traditions and watching old 80's Haloween specials (The Worst Whitch) But I am so grateful for memories and that I have so many good ones. Little things. The monster at the end of this book, perms, old halloween costumes, old toys. This is one of those subjects Andrew and I never run short on, we love to reminis. In fact I think it might be one of my favorite pass times in the whole world. So I thought just as a little add on I would post my favorite childhood cartoon. I loved Ponies, Strawberry shortcake , Rainbow brite and strawberry shortcake to... But Rose petal was my favorite. You don't have to watch it, just thought I would add it in.
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For Christmas we went up to Idaho to spend time with my family. We had a wonderful time. Luke especially loved all the attention by his grandparents. We played the first couple of days and had a beautiful dinner on Christmas Eve. Luke loved dinner. He is very fond of mashed potatoes and vegies. At one point he lost a mouthful and it stuck to his chin for the rest of the meal. We thought it was so funny we had to take a picture. He was confused at what we were laughing at. But he was so good. That night we read the Christmas story and open our 
family gifts Luke got this rocker form his grandparents. But we also added something new this Christmas. Grandma and Kim bought Luke a very cute Santa suit we had a lot of fun with that on Christmas Eve. It was so funny. I have probably 50 or 60 pictures of him in his little suit. Fun Fun Fun. Then we had a lovely Christmas morning, luke got mad crazy fun presents, I got my apron and Andrew and I got snow tires. That was a blessing because we had a rather terrifying ride home the next day with really bad roads:-) But we are home safe! And excited to enjoy the rest of the holidays here in Provo. Andrew is officially graduated. We are still looking for a job so if anyone hears of any openings in PR let us know.
