Final Finals

We finally both finished our finals on Friday evening.  This semester has definitely been a stressful one, Lauren has been such a trooper though. It's been weird for me to not even be worried about getting super good grades but just trying to pass my classes. At least my grades will be able to spell words though, words like BAD, ADD or ACE (hopefully no E's though...). We've now got two weeks of blessed Christmas break.Wahoo!!
Here's some pictures of getting ready for Christmas...Lauren is a great helper...

The Christmas Spirit

Check out this clip if you haven't seen it anywhere else yet. . .

The Christmas Spirit

To Sleep or Not to Sleep?...I wish it weren't a question

So after two months of Lauren sleeping through the night and then out of no where three weeks of her waking up every hour or two I was starting to go a little crazy.  It was still another month until her 6 month check up and I didn't want to wait that long to get her to start sleeping again.  So I went to the library and got a bunch of books  about getting babies to sleep.  Turns out she just needed to go to bed way earlier, so we've started a little bedtime routine and put her down at about 7pm every night.  She's been doing it for about two weeks now and it has made a world of difference.  It took a few nights of letting her cry herself to sleep, sometimes for nearly an hour, but she goes down pretty quickly now and she sleeps about 7pm to 6 am.  The sleep schedule works out pretty sweet for all involved, I'm getting way more homework done, just in time to save my grades this semester (hopefully).
  We are now in the process of attacking Lauren's nap schedule, which until this point has been pretty much non-existent.  She has never really been one to take naps, even when she was just a few weeks old we'd be lucky if she went down for an hour or two.  It's coming along pretty slow but I think she is starting to realize that she needs naps.

So when she doesn't take naps she goes a little crazy.  She will laugh her head off at everything for a while and then start screaming.  This is the state I found her in about a week ago when I got home from class.  It was around 5pm and she had decided to continue her nap strike that day... she usually doesn't even think this game is very funny...

A Beautiful Piece of Music

So Ryan found this piece of music yesterday and I just thought I'd share.  It's really pretty, sorry I don't know what the words mean but hopefully one of you can figure it out; I'm sure they're really pretty too.  It's by a minimalist composer named Arvo Part, it's called Fur Alina.  Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQJGi9ZLpHE

Mozart Shmozart

So Ryan discovered this morning that our little Lauren is a child prodigy. You think composing at age 5 is cool? how bout 5 months. We're expecting her first symphony next week...

Trick or Treat

We had a great day on Halloween spending it in West Jordan with family. In the morning we were able to go through the temple with Ryan's brother and then just chilled and did homework the rest of the afternoon. That evening we dressed Lauren up and took her trick- or-treating to a couple of the neighbors. Ryan and I didn't dress up cause we're lame but I couldn't pass up this cute costume for Lauren. I must say she made off pretty good for only going to a couple houses, too bad Ryan charged a candy tax on everything she got...well almost everything. She got a bunch of baby food from Grandma Woolsey, which Ryan didn't want and we also let her try a dum-dum sucker from Grandma Merkley. She was cute as a bug though. :)





Costume Preview

St. George Marathon

Over the weekend we headed down to St. George so Ryan could run in the marathon. It was a fun trip and nice to get away for a few days. It was also pretty nice to stay in a hotel this year instead of a rainy campground. Lauren even participated in her first "race," actually it was the Mayor's Walk so I'm not sure that really qualifies as a race. She did great though, just slept in her stroller the whole time while I pushed. When we made back to the finish line to watch for Ryan we were worried that we had missed him so we went down to the end to go find him. We looked for about 45 minutes and couldn't find him anywhere. I could have kicked myself for not arranging a place to meet before hand. Ryan's dad and I even checked the injury list and first aid tent because we were so sure that he had to have come in already. Luckily we saw him just as he was coming through the shoot. He ran out of steam early and had to walk a lot of the last few miles, but he finished! It was way slower than his previous time but that's okay. I was so excited that we found him that I didn't get any pictures; but we got some of Lauren in her race day shirt :)


Ryan got pretty tired on the way home, so we decided to let Lauren take the wheel.

New Tricks, a Best Friend and Bear Lake

Lots has been going these past couple weeks. Lauren is now about two and a half months old and getting big so fast. Some days it seems as though she gets bigger between the time Ryan leaves for work and the time he gets home. She has even been learning some new tricks, my personal favorite is sleeping from 10pm to 5am every night. :) She has started grabbing and hanging on to things better; she is a big fan of her rattle and any other toys that make noise. Lauren is also getting better at holding her head up and every now and then she'll roll over. Even though these tricks kind of make her sound like a dog, she has definitely got a personality of her own. Speaking of pets, Lauren has new little best friend. His name is George, George the Giraffe. As Ryan puts it he is a cross between a giraffe and a flying squirrel. Lauren loves to cuddle up with him during naps and chew on his face. This is the closest she will be getting to a pet for quite a while.

Last week we got to go to Bear Lake with my family. Which was Lauren's first experience with camping. She did quite well. The forecast said that it was pretty much supposed to rain the whole time but the weather stayed good until the morning that we left. We were able to rent a canoe and a paddle boat and make a pretty sweet sand castle. Jacqui got quite a kick out of just about everything. It was a lot of fun.

Summer term for me is finally over. It was only 7 weeks but it seemed like so much longer because we were all trying to adjust to so many things. I think Lauren handled me being in school quite well, I was only gone for two hours a night though and in the fall it will be a lot crazier. We have two weeks until fall semester starts, but until then Lauren is enjoying the extra attention and not having to eat every meal at the computer or having a book propped up behind her (I must say though, I am getting a lot better at typing one handed).

4th of July Weekend

Here in Provo they have what's called Freedom Days, it runs pretty much all summer with all sort of activities. On July 3rd at 6:30am they launch hot air balloons from a field. People come from all over the country with their hot air balloons to participate. We decied to go check it out...

Laundry Day

Deep in the heart of the Provo jungle, along the trenches of University Avenue, dwells a creature few have witnessed. Neither the man nor women, whom she holds captive, have been able to resist her powers, especially at feeding time! Her most powerful weapons include projectile venom from both ends, earth-shaking hiccups, and the most deadly pouty face followed by a chin-quivering, paralyzing cry to which none have been able to resist succumbing. The creature is covered with brown and blonde fuzz, has large blue eyes and a monstrous mouth, containing a long tongue. Her covering changes daily so it is often difficult to identify her; however only today, laundry day, were we able to discover her true identity……The SOCK MONSTER!!!!! Our photographer barely escaped with her life and these were the only photos that could be salvaged. The only hope for humanity is to calm her into a state of happiness or to lull her to sleep. Signs of this state include a smile, non-threatening noises or a larger than life yawn. Be cautioned though, that in this state she can easily be startled and then all hope may be lost.

Tulips!

So for our anniversary back in the beginning of May we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. It was pretty sweet, I highly recommend it.