LL Cool J

Best Mother's Day Ever!

2011-05-24T15:53:00.007+10:00

The Friday before Mother's Day, my son and I boarded a plane to visit my husband in Fort Polk, Louisiana! We arrived just before his last week of training, and just a week before he would leave for his deployment to Afghanistan.

The idea of this trip was not even in my wildest dreams; I thought I had already said goodbye to him for 9 months that difficult Saturday morning, 2 1/2 months earlier. However, prayers were heard, and hearts were softened, and as my husband approached the completion of his training, we found ourselves accepting a plane ticket to visit him! We were in awe that we would actually be together one last time before he left, and were so grateful for such an amazing opportunity and those that made it possible.

We traveled all day Friday, arriving that evening. Tate did surprisingly well on both flights, and so did I. :) I tried to make everything as exciting and fun as I could, and consequently, he had a great time! We also sat next to an empty seat on the second flight, which was very nice, and were seated next to too nice women on the first, so it worked out well. When we arrive, we rented a car and drove over an hour to pick him up at his barracks at Fort Polk, then checked into our hotel room which was on the army post as well.

The whole thing was surreal for us all. At first Tate seemed to be confused or in shock that, instead of watching videos of Daddy (which we watch several times a day), he was right there in person. But he soon started laughing and playing with him just like before. For me, it seemed like we had never even been apart, probably because we had been talking on the phone, texting, skyping, and watching videos of him. I had to stop and realize that I actually hadn't seen him for 2 1/2 months, the longest we've been apart since we started dating in 2008, and that we would be saying goodbye again, for another 6 1/2 months this time. I tried not to think about that part on our first day though.

We ordered pizza & honey bbq wings that night and spent good quality family time in our room, which consisted mostly of playing with Tate, getting him ready for bed, snuggling together as a family, and lots of hugs and kisses. :)

The next day we went to the Commissary, PX, and explored Fort Polk and the area surrounding our hotel, which was amazing- forests of pine trees, fishing pond, a kids playground, and outdoor obstacle course with fun bridges. (We took most pictures the following day, so keep reading and you will see them.)

Here are my boys at the park:

I just love that picture of them- Tate's crazy, wind-blown hair, and Jeremiahs huge, exaggerated smile. :)

That night we went to the Huddle House, a restaurant next to the hotel, and then spent more family cuddle time in our room, since that was going to be our last night together.

Sunday morning, Mother's Day, we went to church with Jeremiah in Leesville, half an hour away from Fort Polk. It was amazing to finally be able to sit in church next to my husband, with my son, a real toddler now, and listen to the talks about motherhood and the sanctity of marriage. :) (Interestingly, one of the speakers in sacrament meeting was a guy from my freshman ward at BYU, who is now in the Army and stationed at Fort Polk! His wife, who recently had a baby, also spoke. It was fun to see him after...10 years! I'm so old....)

Jeremiah and I had a good laugh when Tate went right up to the family sitting in front of us and sat down next to them. They had a bunch of kids, and he just climbed up on the last empty chair, and sat facing forward, looking at the speaker, just like he was one of their kids listening to the talk. On top of that, his pants were twisted & hiked up above his belly button, and he looked like a little man, literally. We tried really hard not to laugh out loud, but it didn't work. Oh well. :)

Here are some pictures of him in his new Sunday suit (that Grandma Robbins gave to him):

After church we tried to get some pictures of us, all together as a family on Mother's Day, but Tate was so tired (and was teething) so we couldn't get his pacifier away from him, and he wouldn't cooperate at all. In fact he would turn away from the camera, like in this one:

But we got a couple anyway, although Tate doesn't look too happy:

Later that afternoon, we spent some time outside enjoying nature and the beauty around us:

(He loved the pine cones!)

(Trying to blow out a Dandilion...with his nose! He hasn't figured out how to blow it with his mouth yet.)

(There was even some sand, which he, of course, had to play in for awhile.)

I finally turned the camera on myself & grabbed Jeremiah to get a few of us.

Up to this point I had been thoroughly enjoying my Mother's Day- walking hand in hand with my husband who I love, watching my son discover the world and spend time with his dad, and feeling so grateful for such wonderful blessings in my life. However, that afternoon I started to realize we would be saying goodbye to Jeremiah in a few short hours. He needed to be back at his barracks by 8pm that night because they had to be up early the next morning and there is a curfew on nights before training. I wasn't looking forward to going back to the hotel without him our last night, but I had no choice.

We tried to enjoy our time together after that, but how do you enjoy anything when you can't stop crying? And how can you not cry when you are about to say goodbye to your husband (again) for 6 1/2 months because he's about to go fight in the war on terror?

Ok, so I wasn't crying the whole time, but the later it got, the more my eyes felt like dams holding back rivers of tears, the pressure building as we got closer to saying goodbye.

Unfortunately Tate was also having some pretty bad teething pain, and by the time we got him some Tylenol & it started working, we had arrived at Jeremiah's barracks to drop him off. So, since he was now in a good mood, they played for a little while in the car (which is actually Tate's favorite place to play lately).

:)

Jeremiah then took us on a short tour of his room and we met some of his roommates. They asked if we got to see much of Louisiana, and we said no, but we saw what we came there to see and that was Jeremiah. I would much rather spend quiet, peaceful, family time with him, than try to do as many things as possible and sight see.

That reminded me of a time on our honeymoon. I had my camera out and was filming him, when he asked me to turn the camera onto something else, anything besides him. We were, after all, on the USS Midway overlooking the ocean. I turned it for a second to the ocean, then back to him. "This is a better view," I said. Wherever we are in the world, however amazing the scenery, he will always be a "better view" to me.

I took this picture of his barracks as we were driving away. My last "view" of him.

Jeremiah- Thank you for your courage, your selflessness, and your sense of duty to defend & protect your family and your country. I will miss you to say the least, but I am grateful and honored to be married to such a man, as you are, and can't wait to continue on living our lives together when you come home.

And I will always remember the time we visited you at Fort Polk as the best Mother's Day ever!

Deployment Survival- Month 1

2011-04-05T14:42:00.008+10:00

Jeremiah has been at CST (Combat Skills Training) for a month now and Tate and I have actually survived! There was a small doubt in my mind that we wouldn't make it to this point, but we have, and everyone is ok. :) Thank goodness! It was my blog that was suffering, though, so I thought I would help it along and add some updates so that you know how we are doing over here.

On top of the adjustment of moving from our own house in Guam to a room in my family's house in California, and the adjustment of not having Jeremiah around any more, Tate was also teething when we first arrived. So there was another adjustment for me: how to manage a screaming and terribly fussy 1-year-old. I really wanted my family to meet Tate the way we knew him before- happy, cute, funny, etc. But when he started having these screaming fits in Guam the week before we came, I had a feeling that it wasn't just going to go away when we arrived. And it didn't. I'm sure all of the other adjustments just added to it, but Tate had a tough couple weeks after his Dad left. (Needless to say, so did I). But despite the difficultly and pain of teething, Tate managed to have many great times as well, getting to know his cousins Ava and Jesse, Aunt Valerie, Uncle Cody, Grandma Lachelle and Grandpa Jeff, and Great Grandma Deon and Great Grandpa Ken!

Here some pictures of him and Ava (who is just 7 months older than him):

The last week of March a huge molar finally came through and things got dramatically better. On top of that, he seemed to be feeling a lot more comfortable in our "new house," and with our extended family, which I could tell by his increased vocalization and his smiling/laughing around everyone else (although he is still more reserved and quiet around others, compared to what he is like with just me or Jeremiah, as he's always been).

However, I'm sure you've noticed that you can't go too long without some sort of trial, and sure enough, after the teething subsided, other challenges surfaced. But we are making it through each one as they come, and trying to remember that they are opportunities to learn and grow.

I have been able to talk to Jeremiah a lot more frequently after he got a cell phone, a couple weeks after he got there. We initially thought skype would be sufficient, but we have been having some issues with the internet connection in our house which has made it difficult to see/hear him clearly. But now it is working better, so we skype with Tate and after he goes to bed I can talk to him on the phone.

At the beginning I think Tate thought it was weird to talk to Jeremiah on the computer (and he probably missed him too), so whenever we would skype Tate would do something else, like look at a book, or go play with a toy. But the minute the connection was interrupted, he would run back to the computer and be anxious for it to come back on. So I could tell he was interested; he just dealt with the situation by becoming involved in something else, but he still paid attention to the fact that I was talking to his Daddy on the computer. Jeremiah and I and have been able to email & text each other too, so we have been able to communicate in one way or another almost every day.

It has been great to have my mom around to watch Tate sometimes so that I can exercise, shower, or do some errands (now that Tate is in a stage where he doen't like to be confined to a stroller or car seat it is very difficult to bring him anywhere like I used to be able to do). I'm so glad that she can be another loving adult in his life, who loves to play with him and give him attention, like Jeremiah would do if he were here (but in a "grandma" way). I only have so much energy during the day and so it really helps to have my mom and other family members spend some time with him and help him feel loved. If only Jeremiah's side of the family were closer...then it would be perfect. :)

Hope to be able to write more frequently on here. I will do my best.

More to come on Jeremiah's adventures at training in the next post!

Deployment

2011-03-06T16:29:00.001+10:00

On January 31 we found out that Jeremiah would be deploying to the middle east and that we would only have about one month left with him before he would have to leave for training. Since hearing this news, we have been so busy preparing for the deployment that I haven't even had a spare moment to sit down and write about it. And even if I did have the time, I still have no idea how to express my thoughts and feelings about this, so I have pretty much avoided this blog all together.

We decided it would be best for my son and I to spend the deployment living with my family in the states as opposed to staying in Guam by ourselves. So we all flew to California last week and my wonderful husband helped us get settled in before leaving for his training.

We flew in on Thursday, after a miserable flight with a screaming/teething baby. I won't say anything else because I would rather not think about it.

It was great to see my family and for Tate to finally meet his cousin Ava!

(Are they texting each other??)

On Friday Jeremiah and I went to the Los Angeles Temple which was probably one of the most peaceful and beautiful things we did all week.

On Monday we saw the BYU Young Ambassadors Fireside at the newly renovated LA Temple Visitor's Center (which is pretty amazing now). It was a very touching musical presentation focusing on Christ and the love that He has for each one of us and how He can lift our burdens and comfort us in times of need. I felt so strongly in my heart that He does love us and that He will help us all get through this difficult time coming up.

We walked out of the concert and saw a car for sale (we had been praying and looking for a car and the night before I even mentioned that it would be awesome to walk out of the fireside and see a car for sale right there!). It was a beautiful silver 2006 Toyota Corolla LE. We walked into the Mission office to ask about it, and after taking it for a test drive, arranged to buy it the following day! It was an answer to our prayers and just one of the many ways that we have seen Heavenly Father's hand in our lives as we have prepared for this deployment.

On Thursday Jeremiah and I walked around 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica...by ourselves! It was so nice to spend some time alone with each other.

We got frozen yogurt at Pinkberry...even though it was freezing (compared to Guam) as you can see:

On his last day we took Tate to the park

and ate at the Cheesecake Factory in Marina Del Rey:

We ate on the patio and this was our view:

Then after a week that seemed to fly by, we took him to the airport and said goodbye....

I can't believe I just said goodbye for 9 months to the man I love! I know we will stay in touch but it will still be very difficult to be apart for so long. I'm going to try to keep this experience in perspective, though, and remember that 9 months is nothing compared to eternity. And if I can keep this in my mind, then I know I will be ok:

"No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God... and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in Heaven." Orson F. Whitney, Faith Precedes the Miracle, 98.

Jeff's Pirate's Cove

2011-02-20T15:04:00.001+10:00

We ate dinner at this place right on the beach...

...then walked around & played with Tate as the sun set.

Our new housekeeper!

2011-01-30T23:39:00.004+10:00

I am already seeing Tate begin to mature into the kind of kid I hoped he would be...the kind that likes to clean!

Here he is sweeping (swiffing)

dusting

organizing (exploring) the tupperware cupboard

and last but not least, he is already practicing to become our cook!

He loves using his muscles to carry heavy pots and pans around the house, clanging them on the floor, lifting them onto chairs and low tables, putting small toys in them, taking them out again, and doing it all over again. This is his favorite toy, and once again I am grateful for the (free) toy store in our kitchen.

Here he is showing off his muscles from all that weight lifting:

(hmmm, I wonder who taught him how to flex his muscles...)

I'm so happy about Tate's new found passion for helping around the house. I really hope it continues on through his teenage years and that he becomes the kind of husband that likes to help keep his house clean. :)

Toy airplanes

2011-01-23T23:36:00.000+10:00

Playing with Dad:

New Years Day

2011-01-20T22:32:00.000+10:00

Here are some pictures I took of Tate on Andersen Air Force Base on January 1, 2011. The entire time he was trying to pick up small gravel rocks that were scattered about and put them in his mouth. I was glad that instead of getting upset when I would try to take them away, he thought it was hilarious, which worked out great for my photo shoot. :)

Happy 1st Birthday to Tate!

2011-01-15T10:09:00.000+10:00

On December 31, Tate turned 1!

The night before we decorated with streamers, a banner, Winnie the Pooh tablecloth & special helium balloon and Tate was amazed when he came out of his bedroom for the first time in the morning. :)

He got some fun presents like a rocking horse

Legos from his Uncle Matt and Aunt Marlene

Scout, a stuffed animal dog/bear that talks to him and sings songs about him (it says his name).

Jeremiah's sister Heather & her husband Chuck got to watch Tate open it on skype:

A book about animals from Great Grandma Deon & Great Grandpa Ken

He liked the wrapping so much he didn't want to open it :)

We called up Grandma Lachelle and got to talk to a bunch of other relatives that all happened to be together having a Christmas party!

They all sang Happy Birthday to him!

Then we called up Grandma Robbins who got to watch him eat his cake:

Later that day we took him to the park:

I can't believe its been a year since that New Years Eve, at Sagua Managu- Guam's First Birthing Center, when I labored hard to bring Tate into the world. He was so tiny, so precious, and so amazing. A couple hours after his birth we heard fireworks outside & turns out people we didn't even know were also celebrating his birth! (or maybe it was New Years...) ;) We had no idea what the upcoming year would bring. The intensity of both the challenges and joy has has been more than I had imagined. But I am grateful for both- without the difficulties, I wouldn't be able to appreciate the wonderful moments that fill me with pure love for this precious little angel.

Looking forward to another great year! We love you Bear, Happy Birthday!

New Blog: Lynleigh's Kitchen

2011-01-06T19:33:00.000+10:00

Announcing my new food blog: "Lynleigh's Kitchen" !

Since I have so much extra time, I thought I would add another blog to my life...j/k...no actually, it's pretty simple, I just have to copy recipes that I already use. Click on this link to go to my first post, which explains why I started this blog:
Step 1: Enter the Kitchen

Here's the actual blog website:
http://lynleighskitchen.blogspot.com

If you have a recipe that is simple, delicious, and nutritious (and with very detailed directions), let me know and I can add it to the collection, for the benefit of all.

Tate's First Christmas!

2010-12-26T21:06:00.001+10:00

Christmas morning before seeing the presents:

It was pretty fun to watch Tate open and play with his new toys....

(we got mostly video that morning so we don't have many pictures)

After presents (and Tate's nap) we packed a lunch and went for a drive down to the Asan Bay Overlook, a place we took my mom when she visited last year (right before Tate was born).

It was so cute- on the way there, I looked in the back seat and Tate was just "reading" his book:

Lol, he's going to be so smart. :)

After a 45 minute drive we finally arrived:

(Tate is giving a look to the Japanese tourists who briefly disrupted our peaceful, secluded Christmas picnic)

Here I am in that same place (Asan Overlook), 18 weeks pregnant:

Jeremiah and I, 2 days after my due date (Tate was born later that week):

And finally, a week before Tate's first birthday:

After our outing, we came back home and talked to my family on skype (and got to talk to Jeremiah's family the following day) which was really fun.

Then that night, we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional which was a great ending to the day.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas traditions

2010-12-25T16:00:00.007+10:00

On Jeremiah's first day off, Thursday, December 23, despite us both feeling a little sick (nasal congestion mostly), and Tate getting over a couple days with a fever, we decided to go to the light show at Micronesia Mall and get a picture of Tate with Santa. This was, after all, his very first Christmas!

This is right before his picture with Santa (that we weren't allowed to take with our own camera)

Here he is, meeting Santa for the first time:

Fortunately we did a pretty good job of keeping his attention on us so he wouldn't notice that he was on Santa's lap and start crying. :)

The light show was pretty amazing, just like before. Tate was in awe at first...

but then started to get really excited about it and kind of dance around.

On Christmas eve, we wanted to continue our tradition of having a Christmas meal with cornish hens, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and Martinelli's (like we had when my mom came to visit last year). Especially because we didn't get to make any of that for Thanksgiving (we went over to someone's house). But I felt like my head was going to explode from all the sinus pressure, I was sneezing and blowing my nose every minute, and the worst part was that my left eye was watering so bad and was so irritated, as if someone had just hit me in the eye. I couldn't see, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't really do anything, let alone enjoy Christmas with my family. So while I continued to drink lots of water, & take some medicine (that didn't help), Jeremiah, who felt a lot better than I did, cooked our meal. I was able to make the sweet potatoes, but that was it. But look how great it turned out:

It would have been nice to not be stuffed up so we could taste and smell the delicious food, but it was still good. :)

That night we read the Christmas story in the scriptures, helped Santa wrap some last minute presents, and we each opened the ornament that we received from each other (a tradition we started when we got married).

Jeremiah also gave me a blessing that night, so that i might get better and not feel so miserable (I definitely wasn't helping bring any Christmas cheer to our home, feeling the way I did). I knew that if I had enough faith, I would be healed because I was pretty sure that God wanted me to be able to enjoy my son's first Christmas with us. Since I knew that the blessing could heal me, I shouldn't have been so surprised when immediately following the words "I bless you that you will heal quickly" the intense sinus pressure headache completely left my head. By the end of the blessing, my headache was completely gone and by Christmas morning I felt fine. My very own Christmas miracle. Thanks to my husband who is able and willing to use the priesthood which he holds, to help me and our family.

Merry Christmas!

in the spirit of christmas...

2010-12-23T14:15:00.000+10:00

Usually around Christmastime I try to think about the birth, life & death of the Savior and how He has made it possible for us to overcome our weaknesses and live with God again someday. But this year, as a parent, I was struck by a different aspect of the Savior's birth. Our Heavenly Father allowed Jesus, His Only Begotten Son, to come to earth, be crucified and suffer for all mankind...why? Because we are His children and He loves us. He allowed one of His sons to experience such indescribable pain so that all mankind could return to live with Him someday...because HE LOVES US. I think after becoming a parent I am beginning to catch a glimpse of what that might mean.

This scripture pretty much sums it up: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

The love that God has for us is impossible to understand or to describe. But President Dieter F. Uchtdorf does a pretty good job of it in this quote:

"Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God's love encompasses us completely.

"He loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are important to God not because of our resume but because we are His children. He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. God's love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked.

"What this means is that, regardless of our current state, there is hope for us. No matter our distress, no matter our sorrow, no matter our mistakes, our infinitely compassionate Heavenly Father desires that we draw near to Him so that He can draw near to us." (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Love of God," pp. 22-23)

Hope we can all begin to understand and feel God's love for us this Christmas season. Merry Christmas!

rota walk 2010

2010-12-21T15:29:00.000+10:00

In case you need a refresher on what "Rota Walk" is, you can review my previous post about it:
Rota Walk: Trick or Treating for Christmas?

This year, instead of carrying my baby inside me...

...we got to carry him in our arms (and push him in the stroller)!

Here were some of my favorite displays:

A musical nativity presentation:

Surfing Santa:

The comm squadron commander's house was really cool:

Guam's slogan is: "Guam- where America's day begins" so I thought this was pretty funny:

Towards the end we took him in the "snow." He was a little too tired to really enjoy it, but I think he liked it anyway.

parties :)

2010-12-20T11:13:00.004+10:00

Jeremiah and I went out for the FIRST TIME on December 10, 2010. That's almost a year without going out! I really can't believe it. But because of Tate's sleep issues (waking up all the time, taking awhile for us to put him to sleep, etc), we didn't feel it was really possible until now (with Tate sleeping about 4 hours before waking up). So our plan was to put him to sleep, then have a friend come by and hang out in our living room while we went to Jeremiah's squadron Christmas party at a hotel downtown, hoping that he would stay asleep. However, Tate didn't want to go to sleep when we put him down (it was a little bit earlier than his normal bedtime), so we ended up leaving almost an hour later than we had planned. But we were still able to spend a couple hours at the party and enjoyed being out, alone, for the first time. :)

Here I am after the party with Tate's first night time babysitter (that he never met):

Thanks Cindy!

The following weekend we attended our ward Christmas party:

(yes, Tate is tired...its past his bedtime)

We invited my friend Elaine and her 4 kids (here she is with her 8 month old, Renee):

I had the opportunity to lead the music that the audience sang for the Christmas program that evening, as well as lead the children as they sang "Away in a Manger." Thank goodness for this opportunity, because it just doesn't feel like Christmas without participating in some type of musical performance. I sure miss the days of our family's Christmas concert at the Los Angeles Temple Visitor's Center!

Here are some pictures from the baby shower I helped organize the following morning, for my friend Carey:

That night was Rota Walk, which I'll be posting about next. As you can tell it's been a busy week! But I'm glad we are able to be involved in so many great activities with so many great people, this Christmas season.

Barrigada Guam Stake

2010-12-14T23:45:00.002+10:00

On December 12, Elder L. Tom Perry (of the 12 Apostles) came to organize our Guam district into a stake. This link here explains what that means, for those who are not familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Here is local news coverage with Baldo Besich (member of the church in our ward):

I got to shake Elder Perry's hand after the Saturday evening session of conference, which was pretty exciting. Aunt Gaye had told me that he served with Grandpa Nielsen and that I should tell him that I'm his great granddaughter and that he passed away earlier this year, at 102. So, I told him. He remembered serving with him in the church awhile back and said that he was a great leader. (I also wanted to tell him that I helped pick out place mats for his dinner, but I decided not to :) )

Here we are after our district conference:

(Tate was long overdue for his nap)

We were happy to be here during this historic moment in Guam church history and hope that someday a temple will be built here for these great members to attend!

the park in our backyard

2010-12-13T02:17:00.000+10:00

For a couple weeks now, Jeremiah has been working 12 hour shifts (7am-7pm). This means that Tate is usually in bed by the time he comes home (he goes to bed between 6-7pm). Needless to say, it isn't easy to make dinner with a kid clinging to my legs wanting to be held. Before, when Jeremiah would come home around 5, I would get a small break to finish up the cooking, and while Jeremiah would give Tate a bath, I could get the dishes done or other things that need to be done. But now that I am going non stop with Tate until he goes to bed, I'm pretty tired around 7. Unfortunately, that's just the beginning of my time alone to get things done that I haven't been able to do all day! (At least now Tate is sleeping so I CAN get things done, as tired as I may be...).

So to break things up, Tate and I have been going for walks around 5, as the sun starts to set. It gives us both a break around the time we need it most, and helps us relax and enjoy the beautiful world in which we live. Plus, there's a park directly in back of our house, so on Dec. 7, I took him there and I had fun watching him play in the sand (before he started trying to eat it) and help him go down the slide. This was basically his first experience playing at the park since he can walk now.

A couple days prior to our park outing, I took these pictures of my boys in our front yard as it started sprinkling. In person, the sky, sunlight, and rain was almost breathtaking. Unfortunately, these pictures don't do it justice.

a birthday story

2010-12-10T00:58:00.000+10:00

On December 6, 2010, I celebrated my 29th birthday. For some reason I can't bring myself to place an exclamation mark at the end of that sentence. Yes, I enjoyed my birthday, but the fact that I'm in my last year of my 20's...well, lets just say, I am reaching the point where anti-aging cream is no longer a luxury, but an essential. I mostly realized this the week of my birthday when every time I looked in the mirror, I honestly felt like I was looking at an old woman! It must be psychological because I'm pretty sure that aging is a gradual process, that doesn't happen suddenly, overnight, right before someone's birthday. Maybe my birthday opened my eyes to the changes that have been happening over time. But, it's definitely weird to suddenly feel old!

So, besides the weird aging phenomenon happening in my mirror, my actual birthday was a pretty ordinary day to start. It began with the usual morning routine: nurse Tate, change Tate, make breakfast (for me and Tate), get myself ready. Then Jeremiah came home for lunch (yes, the morning routine really takes that long) so that I could go to the gym, which was great! When I came home, he made me Eggnog French Toast (my request) and a smoothie while I showered (usually he has to go back before I get to shower, and Tate hates when I do anything not involving him, so the time he gave me to shower was amazing!).

Next Tate and I did some errands. We ended up running into Sis. Dowdle, the Guam Micronesia Mission President's wife, who mentioned to me that she was looking for place mats for a dinner for Elder L. Tom Perry (one of the 12 Apostles), who was coming to Guam for our District Conference the following weekend (to make us a Stake)! She looked at KMart and Macy's, and only found ridiculously expensive ones ($15/each!). But I couldn't really think of anywhere else that might have them besides those two stores (it's Guam- we only have 2 big stores like that). So I said goodbye and Tate and I left the store. I was planning on going home, but the thought occurred to me to go to KMart and pick up a stocking for Tate (his 1st) while I was out. I thought, "Well, despite the traffic, it sure beats going home and having a super ordinary day on my birthday!" So, I headed in that direction.

As I was driving, I realized that I did know of another store that might carry place mats- the BX (Base Exchange)! I was sure she didn't have access to base, though, so I thought I would call her and let her know that I could go check for her. The only problem was, I didn't have her cell number. So, I quickly thought of who might have it, and called my friend Anna. She gave me the number of someone who she thought had it, but no one answered.

Just then, I pulled up to KMart and two LDS missionaries walked up to the car parked next to us!

"Elders!" I exclaimed! "I'm so glad to see you. I need Sister Dowdle's cell phone number, do you have it?" I explained a little more of the situation and they promptly gave to me. One of the Elders also remarked that when he first saw me he thought I looked like I might be LDS. :)

I called her right there in the parking lot. She explained exactly what color and style place mats she was looking for, and I told her I would check the Bx and get back to her that evening (I was actually already planning on making a quick stop at the Bx after KMart, to get Tate a toothbrush).

When I got back to base, I dropped Tate off at home with Jeremiah so he could finish his nap (and Jeremiah could finish making my birthday dinner) and headed to the Bx. I was so curious as to whether they were going to have exactly what she needed. I had a feeling they were, and that everything that day had happened for a reason- feeling like I should head to KMart instead of going home after seeing Sister Dowdle, remembering about the Bx and deciding to try to get in touch with her instead of continuing on with my day, then parking right next to the Elders' car just as they came walking out and just as I was in the middle of trying to get her number (if I hadn't been, I might not have asked them for it when I saw them)...

I entered the Bx and walked straight to the kitchen aisle. Just as I had expected, there sat a large stack of dark brown, beautiful place mats (for a very reasonable price). There were only several colors/patterns, and dark brown happened to be one of them. I called her, described them, purchased them, and planned to meet her the following morning to give them to her.

This may not sound like a big deal to you...after all, they are just place mats, right? Not for me. That day, I was not only helping the Mission President's wife find place mats to complete their dinner table for a very special guest, but I was also doing it for the guest himself, an Apostle of the Lord (and there are only 12 of these, living on earth today). I wanted him to have a wonderful experience here- to eat off of the very best place mat I could find, if that's how I could help. And not only did I want to give my best effort for the Apostle, but most importantly, for the Savior, Jesus Christ, whom he represents.

I realized that day, that if the Savior Himself came to Guam, I would do anything for Him. I would go to all the stores on this island to find the perfect place mats for a table in his honor. I would work in the hot sun, putting up beautiful lights and banners to welcome Him. I would walk barefoot all around the island, knocking on every door and inviting everyone to come and meet him. And I wouldn't complain about any of it, because it was all for the Savior, and He has done so much more for me than I can ever do for Him.

I wonder how many of us would do anything for the Lord, if we knew he was coming to visit our town. I'm guessing most of us would stop in our tracks and immediately go to work, doing anything we possibly could for Him. But before He comes to visit us, why do we not do what He asks? Why do we complain when his commandments seem too difficult or we feel they are out of date? Why do we go about our days without even thinking of Him once, but instead filling our hearts and minds with gossip, immorality, and the filth of the world. Maybe we would jump at the chance to prepare a welcome feast for his arrival, but would we prepare ourselves spiritually to be in his presence?

How many of us forget that Christ has come, and will come again? That He is real? That He is our older brother? That He knows us each personally and that, despite our flaws, He loves us as our Heavenly Father does? I hope to ponder these questions myself, and to be more willing to follow Him even when I cannot see Him physically. Because I know that the day is not far away that He WILL come visit us. And in preparation for that day, I want to work on, not only finding perfect place mats for his table, but following Him, remembering Him daily, and becoming like Him, so that when He does come, I can run up to Him, unashamed, and thank Him for everything He has done for me.

When I got home from the Bx, Jeremiah had made me his amazing lasagna. I can't even describe how much I enjoyed it. Each bite was like a glimpse of heaven. And before we put Tate to bed, he brought out a Pineapple Upside Down Cake that he had also made, and Tate got a preview of what blowing out the candles will be like for his birthday in a few weeks! It was a great ending to a very interesting day. :)

Thank you for being a part of my life, Jeremiah, Tate, and all of my family and friends wherever you may be. I dedicate my birthday to you! May you have a Happy Day!

Love,
Lynleigh

10 month tidbits

2010-12-09T00:47:00.001+10:00

Tate continues to have a great sense of humor. He's always quick to laugh with me if I'm laughing at something, and also finds humor in random things (like me suddenly banging on the window when I saw a cockroach on the outside...not inside thankfully!). He helps me realize how funny certain situations can be, and not take life so seriously. :)

Sometimes I do silly things when he's eating, so he has some entertainment and doesn't get bored. This one day, he was eating dices of cooked zucchini, and I started started blowing on his feet really fast. He thought it was hilarious!

Tate is a true "walker" now! He prefers moving on his feet, to crawling these days. That is not to say he doesn't still fall down. But now when he gets on his feet, we're not counting the seconds until he falls, like we did a month ago. He can walk for quite some time now.

He has also been trying out all sorts of new movements, like shaking his head, waving his hands around, etc. It's been pretty fun to watch him get older and see his personality emerge through his body language and increased verbal expression.

the ultimate feeling of joy

2010-11-28T20:23:00.012+10:00

Have you ever felt something so strongly in your heart and knew you needed to do something about it? I have. Maybe you have been reading something, or see something and you get a sudden feeling of excitement. Maybe you just feel happy, but don't know why, and want to share that happiness with others.

This feeling I'm talking about is more than superficial excitement like someone would get from buying a new pair of shoes or deciding to take a vacation. This feeling seems to penetrate, almost pierce, the very core of our being, or, in other words, it goes straight to the heart.

I think a lot of people get this feeling more frequently around Christmastime. Listening to a song such as "Silent Night," going to a Christmas concert or presentation about the birth of the Savior, or simply being around family. Even people without much religious faith seem to catch moments of this feeling while doing something seemingly unrelated to the birth of the Savior: watching a child reach up for their mother or father wanting to be held, witnessing a random person help a blind man cross the street, or seeing the effect a simple smile has on a person who's had a bad week. I have noticed that since becoming a mother, although my life has not become easier, I have felt more of these moments on a daily basis, as I watch my precious child learn and grow. Trying to explain the joy I feel is impossible. All I'll say is, it's one of those amazing "feelings."

If we look closely, I believe that no matter what the circumstance, this feeling of inner joy and peace is related to the Savior, whether we know it or not. His light is within each one of us, although some feel and radiate it more than others.

I had one of these "feelings" today as I was reading the words of a living Apostle of Jesus Christ, Elder David A. Bednar. He was describing how we can have more of these "feelings" in our lives. He identifies that these "feelings" come from the Holy Ghost, or Spirit of God, who's mission it is to testify of Jesus Christ and help us feel His light. As I read, I felt in my heart that what he was saying was true and that it was too important not to share with you. So here it is:

"Receiving the Holy Ghost starts with our sincere and constant desire for His companionship in our lives....

"Our invitations for the companionship of the Holy Ghost occur in many ways: through the making and keeping of covenants; by praying sincerely as individuals and families; by searching the scriptures diligently; through strengthening appropriate relationships with family members and friends; by seeking after virtuous thoughts, actions, and language; and by worshiping in our homes, and in the holy temple, and at church.

"Conversely, casualness about or the breaking of covenants and commitments, failing to pray and study the scriptures, and inappropriate thoughts, actions, and language cause the Spirit to withdraw from or to avoid us altogether." Elder David A. Bednar

King Benjamin taught in Mosiah 2:36:
"And now, I say unto you, my brethren, that after ye have know and have been taught all these things, if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom's paths that ye may be blessed, prospered, and preserved."

This Christmas season, I hope that we may all seek this Light, the Light of Christ, through these ways, as taught by a true Apostle of the Lord. I know that this Light is real, and that many people all over the world are feeling it at this very moment. You may be one of them. It is the ultimate source of peace, of joy, of truth, and cannot be duplicated by anything in this world. I don't know about you, but when I feel it, I just want to hold onto that feeling in my heart forever. Maybe someday we will be able to. But at least for now we can catch glimpses of it, which will help us remember to spend our time on Earth continually inviting it into our lives, so that we can feel it more often here, and eternally in the life to come.

Enjoy this Christmas season and may you feel the light of Christ every day!

first thanksgiving

2010-11-26T01:56:00.000+10:00

We had our very first Thanksgiving with Tate this year! Instead of cooking our own turkey and the whole meal just for ourselves, we were invited over to the home of an officer in Jeremiah's squadron, who also had invited the other squadron leadership and their families. Since everyone was contributing to the meal, I of course, wanted to bring dessert (my favorite part). Unfortunately, someone had already volunteered for pumpkin and pecan pies (I had my heart set on making those two, so I'm going to make them for Christmas instead), so I decided to bring Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (my classic recipe) and... Eggnog Cheesecake! This was my first time making the cheesecake and definitely not my last! Let me know if you want the recipe. :)

After our delicious meal, Tate had fun walking around and playing with Renee (who's 3 months younger) as well as with some of the older kids who were helping him play with blocks and other toys. It was great for him to be around other kids, something that doesn't happen too often unfortunately. :(

I enjoyed watching Tate interact in this new setting (always interesting to see how he will react) which he seemed surprisingly comfortable in. I also enjoyed talking with the other wives (there are actually only two because the rest of the airmen are single). I admire other military spouses so much because most of them have been through multiple deployments, with children and households to run (now I understand how much work it is to be a mother and keep an organized house). It's great to get to know and feel the sweet spirits of women who have been through some tough times but have come out the other side stronger and wiser. I hope I can be like them someday.

On this holiday, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for all my blessings, especially these three:

1- The family and friends in my life who have, at one time or another, taken the time to do something nice for me, or tell/show me that they love me. I am deeply grateful for even the smallest acts of kindness, all the way up to the big ones (like bringing me into the world, raising me, and the endless sacrifices that my parents have made for me)

2- The Church to which I belong, a church that is actually led by the Savior Himself and contains the truth and keys to happiness that so many are still searching for. I can honestly say that I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true and living church of Jesus Christ on the earth, and because I know that this is true, I am not ashamed to say it. If anyone wants to know why I believe this, you can see for yourself by visiting a "Mormon" church anywhere in the world, learning about the teachings of the Christ from missionaries or other members of the Church, reading the Book of Mormon which is another testament of Jesus Christ (along with the Bible), and asking God, with faith and a sincere heart, if it is true. www.mormon.org

3- And finally, my husband and son, who I both love so much, and who bring me so much joy. They are huge blessings to me, and I am so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord for placing them in my life.

Hope we will be with family next year and get some pictures as well!

Happy Thanksgiving!

first word & first shoes

2010-11-12T23:44:00.001+10:00

The last week of October, Tate said (and continues repeating quite often) his first word:

That's right it's: "Mama"/"Mom" :)

After he started walking on November 6, I took him to get his first pair of shoes. However, the pictures somehow got lost, except for this one:

Lol, he eventually got the hang of it!

walking!

2010-11-08T22:47:00.013+10:00

It all started on Saturday morning. Before talking to Jeremiah's family on skype, we talked to my sister, Cassie (from Barcelona!) and she randomly asked if Tate was walking. We told her that although he took his "first 2 steps" all by himself a couple weeks ago, he hasn't really been "walking." However, just that morning, he had been doing a little more practicing that usual (following our exercise ball around and taking a couple steps toward it), so it was funny she asked.

That evening we went over to Jeremiah's squadron commander's house for a BBQ with the families of some of the other leadership in the squadron. While Jeremiah was outside conversing with the men, I was inside with Tate, the other women and kids (mostly the ones that lived there- they have 4). Their youngest was born about 3 months after Tate, so it was fun to see them playing together.

He really did enjoy being around the other kids. It reminded me of what it might feel like to take Tate to a family reunion- the older kids in the den playing video games, with the babies playing nearby, and the adults in the living room, just talking and catching up. Can't wait for those good times. :)

Anyway, after dinner, a nice man gave Tate a helium balloon attached to a water bottle (two of Tate's favorite things: water bottle and "ball"--this was his first experience with a balloon). After having a great time playing with it, I held it in front of him, and he took about 8 steps towards me! I almost cried. Then he did it again and I got this:

He walked about that far a couple more times that night and I was so glad I had our camera to capture it (and I called Jeremiah to come watch too)! It was very exciting for us. :)

Since then he has been walking in short little spurts here and there, all the time it seems. Today (Monday) he was inspecting the vacuum after his nap, and, what do you know, he walked again! :)

Here he is in action:

Good job little buddy! We're so proud of you!

Baby's 1st Halloween

2010-11-02T01:01:00.013+10:00

On Saturday we went to the "Trunk-or-Treat" Halloween activity at the church.

Tate dressed up as a turtle, Jeremiah was himself (not pictured), and I was a witch (this is always a good fall back choice for me when the budget is low and there is no more room in my brain to be creative- just throw on my "Defy Gravity" ("Wicked") shirt, a black skirt and shoes, and a $2 witch hat- done!). And Tate's costume was the only one that didn't look like it was designed to keep kids bundled up in the cold. (I honestly don't know why they sell those bear and dog suits for kids in Guam.) Even so, he was still sweating, with the hat on, so he only wore it for a short time at the beginning (he would have taken it off by himself, like he did when we tried it on him at home, but he was too preoccupied with his surroundings to even notice that he was wearing a hat).

As you can imagine, Tate seemed to be in a daze the whole time. Besides being tired, it was dark outside, something he is not very used to due to his early bedtime. Add to that a never-ending stream of little people in costumes that came to our trunk asking for candy, which must have been a little confusing, as well as the fact that we were in public. And we all know that when Tate is around other people, he becomes a little observer, taking in everything around him, and not showing any emotion whatsoever.

A little too crowded, a little too hot, and a little late in the evening... but I'm glad we went. It was pretty much the only Halloween activity we did this year (see below).

On Sunday, we went to church- Jeremiah taught his weekly sunday school lesson to the 16-18 year olds, I led the primary children in "singing time" while some kind primary teachers helped with a very tired, fussy Tate who just wanted his mama to hold him. Luckily, when Jeremiah's class got out, Tate was able to fall asleep on his shoulder and get a good nap in (he doesn't fall asleep in his stroller these days).

We got home from church around 4:15 pm, ate a quick meal of leftovers, and just as we were preparing to carve our pumpkin (that had been procrastinated until Halloween), I remembered: Tate is allergic to pumpkin! At least, we think he is because he got a few hives after eating it for the second time (not sure why it didn't happen the first time he tried it...). I'm glad I remembered before we stuck his hand in the middle of the pumpkin to let him feel the gooey stuff! Can you imagine? We start the video camera to get his reaction, only to notice little red spots appearing all over his arms.... Whew. So, we decided to forgo the pumpkin carving this year (if Tate had seen us, he would have wanted to get in on the action) Oh well. I do hope he grows out of this allergy, though (if he really has one), because how will he ever be able to enjoy October without any pumpkin treats??!

Our next activity of the evening was to go for a short walk, see the trick or treaters wandering the streets, then come home and pass out candy. So we got our candy out that we had been saving since September. (Our first year in Guam, we tried to buy candy a couple days before Halloween and only found Christmas candy- you have to buy it early here or they'll run out...and you can't really hop over to another island to see if they have any). Then we looked outside only to discover that it had started raining! Both of our Halloween activities were now shot. As I mourned the loss of our first holiday traditions as a family, Jeremiah reminded me of the good news: the candy was now ours to consume! He was probably a little more excited than I was.

After Tate went to bed, Jeremiah and I watched Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo," a favorite of mine since I was old enough to watch scary movies. So the fun of Halloween was not completely gone, for me, at least. Maybe next year we can take our (almost 2 year old) Tate trick-or-treating! It will be nice to step on a crunchy fall leaf or two, wear a light jacket, and when we come home, actually have a reason to drink hot apple cider. :)

Happy Halloween and Happy 10 months to Tate!

Revisiting Tarague

2010-10-25T01:32:00.008+10:00

Tarague beach is just minutes away. We don't even have to leave base to get there. So on Saturday, when it was late enough in the day that we didn't feel like driving very far, but still wanted to do something fun, we decided that there couldn't be anything better than revisiting this too-often-taken-for-granted island splendor.

Tate had fun touching the sand.

He got really excited feeling the waves too.

And touching the sand some more.

You know it's coming...

Yes, it's true. Tate ate the sand. There was nothing we could do; it happened so fast.

"How can you bring me to the beach and expect me not to eat the sand? C'mon, guys, you should know better."

It was fun to watch Tate experience the beach, as well as take in the beautiful scenery together as a family.

Only one more year to enjoy this...

a pumpkin birthday

2010-10-24T20:33:00.009+10:00

I love pumpkins- the smell, the taste, the feeling I get when I frolic around in a pumpkin patch (or walk down the produce aisle at the commissary and see pumpkins for sale). When pumpkins start appearing at the grocery store, in the office or classroom, or on your neighbor's front porch, the holiday season has officially begun. Think about it- you probably love pumpkins too. There is something magical about them. They bring memories of trick-or-treating in Halloweens past, and family gatherings with pumpkin pie. They remind us that Christmas is near, and the Spirit of that wonderful holiday, perhaps unknowingly, begins to touch our lives and fill us with peace, hope, and love.

My favorite thing about October is probably eating pumpkin treats. That and Jeremiah's birthday of course.

So I thought it only appropriate to combine the two. After all, a week before his birthday he had just stocked our cupboards with canned pumpkin. (Being a good husband, he is very attuned to my needs- the need for pumpkin specifically- and aware that I had been searching every grocery store on island for canned pumpkin since the beginning of September. So when he noticed that the shipments had come into the commissary on base, he grabbed about 10 cans! This is a man who knows how to make his wife happy!)

Now with cans of pumpkin calling to me from the cupboards, I immediately made a couple loaves of pumpkin bread, to catch up with my pumpkin baking quota for the month. (I couldn't believe the month was already half over by the time the pumpkin came in! Come on, Guam. If you can't have fall weather, at least let us create the "feeling" of fall with pumpkin treats...maybe a little sooner next year for the folks who are still here.)

Next I baked a pumpkin spice cake for Jeremiah's birthday. My first pumpkin cake ever! Can you believe it? I personally couldn't. I mean, I've made pumpkin bread, cookies, pie, cheesecake, muffins, cupcakes, pudding, dip, pancakes...and I've never made a pumpkin cake? I was a bit embarrassed to call myself a true pumpkin baker without having ever made a pumpkin version of one of the most basic baked goods known to man. I had to do it. Jeremiah's birthday was going to be a very special, and even historical, day.

I found these cute pumpkin cake tins at the store, so instead of making one big cake, I split it into these and let him choose which one he wanted for himself. I, of course, got the other one (hehe...the benefits of having only 2 cake-eaters in a family). Needless to say, I was feeling pretty sick of pumpkin cake by the end of the week. Jeremiah, on the other hand, was in heaven- cake every night!

I think he had a pretty good birthday. Besides the amazing "first time baking a pumpkin cake" experience that I dedicated directly to him, I cooked him a big breakfast with pancakes, eggs, and sausage. While he was at work, Tate and I had fun putting up streamers, making a sign, and he was welcomed him home with 2 big hugs and kisses. :) He also got a collage of pictures of him and Tate to put in his office, and a Yankee Candle ("Macintosh" scented- Yankee Candles are, besides being the best scented candles in the world, made very close to Jeremiah's hometown of Springfield, MA). And with a steak dinner to top it all off, I would say he had a happy birthday indeed.

Happy 27th to the man I love!

just living life

2010-10-24T20:00:00.013+10:00

Jeremiah's lunch break:

(Trying to make a ham sandwich with a little munchkin at his feet.)

It's nice when he comes home for lunch because not only do I get to see him :), but he so generously watches Tate for me as I take a shower or do something of similar importance, such as go to the gym to get in a quick work out. It's amazing how getting 30-60 minutes of time to do those things can positively affect the rest of my day.

Tate's vacuum obsession:

Tate has gone from freezing up while staring intently at the vacuum, to following me around the house trying to touch it.

I think he thinks it's his new friend. When he stands up next to it, he pats it and talks to it. They are practically the same height too (with the handle lowered). Maybe we need another little kid around for him to realize the difference... (no, this isn't an announcement that we're having a baby soon!)

Sunday strolls:

On Sundays after church, we like to stroll around outside...with the stroller.... I don't get to enjoy the outdoors too much during the week because of the heat and strong sun, so these early evening walks on Sundays are really nice.

This is Jeremiah and Tate's new thing:

I was carrying Tate over to the couch one day when I stubbed my toe, said "Ow that hurt!", apparently made a funny face, and Tate just started laughing. His laughing did help get my mind off the pain, but I wonder why he thought it was funny in the first place. Luckily I had the camera right there so I turned it on.

(did you notice towards the end how he liked the noise he made and kept repeating it? haha...)

have you ever cried through a photo shoot?

2010-10-13T22:48:00.008+10:00

Last week we had Tate's 9 month photo shoot with the professional photographer on base. Judging by our experience last time we went to a photographer, at 6 months, I knew he would need at least 10-15 minutes to warm up to the new situation before we could get a smile out of him. I also knew that those first 10 minutes would be crucial to how the entire session went.

But first a little background for those who only know Tate through this blog (or on skype). When we go out, Tate becomes very serious and quiet. He switches from the happy, playful, funny little fellow he is at home, to a curious, and very suspicious inspector, who is very cautious of his new surroundings and the people he finds therein.

If you happened to see Tate in the grocery store, you would notice him sitting in the front of my cart, looking around at everything very intently, without even moving a muscle in his face. Although not trying to attract attention, this little man seems to impress the other customers who consistently comment on his cuteness and feel the need to approach him, perhaps to get a better look. But as you can imagine, he does not smile easily when strangers suddenly invade his personal space with big grins, loud voices, and ugly faces (I can only assume that they look like monsters to him from his reaction...). The result is usually the same: the bottom corners of his mouth start to drop, a look of horror enters his eyes, and if the well intended passerbys don't retreat immediately, they could witness a fearful little cry (which usually ends as soon as it begins, unless the person is stupid enough to keep patting his head and talking to him. This really happened once, and I think everyone in the store heard the cry of terror he let out, even though I told the person that he is very shy around strangers and needs his space. I thought she would get it, but I guess I should have been more direct and said "Back off lady!" as I rammed my cart over her toe. That'll show her!)

Back to the photo shoot. Although the photographer was a very nice young woman, Tate did not do well with her approach to immediately begin interacting and playing with him. I think he might have done better if he were able to be in the studio by himself for a little bit first, or instead of the photographer approaching him, waiting for him to approach her. Obviously she did not have the time that might have been required for Tate to warm up fully, and we may never know if that would have even been possible.

So after about an hour of Daddy and I, very awkwardly, trying to get him to smile and nothing working, I felt my energy start to decrease. At that point I looked over at my beloved husband, and saw him doing the hand motions to one of Tate's favorite songs, "Popcorn popping"...completely silently. I don't think he appreciated my request that he actually SING the song (can you really imagine Jeremiah singing in front of anyone?), so despite feeling like a total failure for not being able to make Tate at least appear to be happy for his pictures, I took it upon myself to do the motions and sing to Tate. (And just fyi, it didn't work.)

Looking back, perhaps the most comical situation of the entire session was when the photographer gave Tate blocks to play with, as props for a few shots. As you may know, he still puts everything in his mouth, so of course that was the first thing he did when he saw the blocks. Each time he tried to put one in his mouth, the photographer would snatch it away from him, and continue taking pictures. So then, he reached for another, and she took it away again. This went on for a couple more minutes, and of course, he didn't like it, and started crying. I wasn't sure exactly what her plan was: put baby with blocks, baby puts blocks in mouth, take them away from baby, get a picture of baby smiling...?

I left feeling like I had just wasted my money and that since we would never get any good professional pictures of Tate smiling, maybe I should become a professional photographer myself, so I can catch him in his element- the true, cheerful Tate that I know so well.

Well, we just got the link with the proofs and I was surprised that she did actually capture some good shots of him smiling! The weird part is, I don't have any recollection of him smiling in that studio; it must have been so fast that I missed it.

You can preview the pictures on this website:
http://ivi.smugmug.com/Babies

Click on Tate, password "robbins".

I think you can make comments too, so let us know which are your favorites! (We have to pick one photo that we like best and buy a package...we can't get all of the images on a CD or anything. Just fyi.)

Maybe we will do this again...if we can get a good picture out of this experience, then anything is possible. :)

video update

2010-10-09T14:26:00.008+10:00

I have been too tired and busy lately to keep up with my posts, so here is a quick update with some videos:

As most of you know we don't watch TV, but when we get the chance (when is the key word here) we like to watch movies (this usually only happens when Tate is sleeping- and since he doesn't sleep well without us lying next to him, it typically takes us several days to finish movies). Anyway, Tate hasn't really had the chance to discover what our TV screen is actually used for...until last week when I decided to put on a movie for him during the day and see his reaction. I chose the holiday classic "Mr. Kruger's Christmas" because 1- it has a lot of music in it (from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) which I thought he would like, 2- he should be exposed to great actors at an early age (who better to start off than Jimmy Stewart?), and 3- because Christmas is right around the corner and I wanted to start getting into the Christmas spirit (ok, that's a selfish reason, but a good one, admit it).

If I moved him away from the screen, he just crawled back over to it, and excitedly banged his hands on the entertainment center. He was interested for about 10-15 minutes. After that, he crawled away and started finding toys to put in his mouth....

Enjoying a bowl:

We give Tate all sorts of toys, but his favorites seem to be big bowls, cardboard boxes, and condiment containers (such as BBQ sauce, mustard, etc). What do all these items have in common? They are all great for chewing on, chomping on, sucking, licking, and basically just putting his mouth all over them. Despite having all sorts of germs in his mouth from the floor (which I try to keep clean for this very reason), he has stayed pretty healthy so far. However, I hope he grows out of this soon... it would be nice to someday give him a coloring book and not have to worry about him eating the pages.

Have you ever wondered what the bristles of a brush feel like in your mouth? Tate has! I let him try it out one night before bed and he thought it was pretty funny:

talking and walking...almost

2010-09-22T20:34:00.009+10:00

These days it seems that Tate is always chattering away. Sometimes he gets really excited and sees how loud he can raise his voice. Other times it's just content little chatter, like when he's in his car seat. He makes the cutest noises and seems to be having a great time by himself back there, looking out at the multitude of coconut trees that we pass whenever we go out. He loves being the center of our attention too and showing off his new vocabulary...of baby noises. Here is a quick sample of Tate just being Tate on a Sunday afternoon:

He has been practicing his balance standing up a lot lately. Although he can't yet stand by himself for very long, he can do one new thing.

We got this walker for him when he was 6 months because he was so interested in walking. However, when we stood him up holding onto it, his weight just pushed it over and he fell down on his face.

But yesterday, I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and Tate was playing in the living room. I heard him start to come around the corner, and glanced quickly at him then back at what I was doing on the stove. Then I took a double take- Tate was walking with his walker! I have no idea how he managed to get up without it toppling over on him like it usually does, but it was pretty amazing.

So when Jeremiah got home, I tried to recreate what I had seen earlier (without telling him what he was about to witness).

Go Tate!

Here are some pictures from our latest beach trip:

tate and the mysterious vacuum

2010-09-22T20:20:00.008+10:00

Lately Tate has had a fascination with the vacuum, as I'm sure most babies do at some point. When I vacuum, he doesn't cry or run away to hide. He is very interested, and just stares at it (in an "I'm too scared to move, or cry, or do anything" kind of way)

I brought it out to vacuum one day and didn't get around to vacuuming for awhile. While it was sitting out in the open, Tate was so intrigued. He couldn't be in the same room with it and not look at it. He ended up crawling over to it and circling around it, with a couple feet of space between him and the vacuum. It was so funny, I grabbed my camera and got this:

8 months old!

2010-08-31T20:22:00.010+10:00

Tate turned 8 months old today!

Just a quick review of this past week.

He is crawling a lot more, as you can see here in this video (he was trying to get to the camera which was on the floor):

We finally rearranged our bookcase so that the bottom shelf belongs to Tate now. When he started crawling, this bookcase became his favorite thing to crawl to. In fact, this is what motivated his first crawl! And since Jeremiah's Garfield books were on the bottom shelf, and Tate loves to put things in his mouth, and there are only a few other books more valuable to Jeremiah than his Garfield...well, you can probably understand our need for a rearrangement. So we took off the Garfield, removed a whole shelf, and put some of Tate's toys and books on the bottom. Now Jeremiah is happy, and Tate is happy...as you can see. :)

Tate and I after church one Sunday:

On Friday Tate started getting these red spots all over his body, and was really irritated by them, so I called his pediatrician to see if it was part of his eczema or something different. (If you click on the picture, you can see some of the ones on his forehead- they didn't turn out too well in the picture due to the flash)

Turns out, he had hives (I have never had them so I didn't know what they look like)! The pediatrician said they could last up to a week, so she gave us some medicine for him. When we got home, he fell asleep before I could give it to him, and to my relief, when he woke up, they were gone! We didn't even need the medicine after all, however, if it happens again, now we are prepared!

You can kind of see his little tooth in this picture, if you click on it and zoom in (yes, it's a tiny little thing):

And my personal favorite...
I think this is the first time I've seen Tate laugh this hard:

We love our baby!

little mover

2010-08-23T00:12:00.014+10:00

This past Wednesday Tate started crawling! He had been stuck at "crawling position" for a good 3 weeks now, so we were expecting this soon.

He has also been testing his balance standing too. He'll let go of the coffee table or couch or my hands while he's standing and see how long he can stand by himself. He surprised Jeremiah and I by getting to about 6 seconds the other day. It was amazing. But he hasn't done that again since. Sometimes it's pretty funny to see him when he starts to fall, but catches himself. Sometimes it's pretty funny to see him just fall. With all the padding of his diaper and baby fat, it doesn't phase him much, and he just gets right back up and tries again.

"Almost"

This video gets funnier each time I watch it!

One of his favorite things to do, besides crawling and testing his balance, is "cruising" (walking around holding onto furniture).

I also saw him try to stand up from the ground a couple times. I think he is anxious to stand up by himself and walk around like the rest of his family members.

Although I should probably be feeling more stressed out because he can get into more trouble now, I am amazingly a lot happier. I think the reason is that, now that Tate has more to do on his own, he does not need me to hold him or play directly with him as much (which has been pretty much constantly up until recently). We have been working on baby proofing a lot lately, so there's not too much he can get into. And he doesn't crawl all the time, so I can set him down with some toys and he will play with them contently, crawling around to get to others, but still within eye sight.

Not only am I happier because I can get more done around the house, but Tate is a lot happier too. He just loves being able to do new things on his own, and pushes himself to try other, more challenging things. Its fun to see the little person that Tate is becoming, and his excitement of learning and discovering the world around him every day.

Also, the teething pains and fussiness that went along with that, has subsided dramatically, and that has also added to the happy feeling in our home lately. :)

So you think you can play the piano?

2010-08-22T23:49:00.003+10:00

I thought I would try to cheer Tate up, one day-- he wasn't in the greatest mood. I don't know why because "toys + mommy" should always equal "happy baby," but that wasn't the case this particular day. So, I sat down at our keyboard, and began to play I song I wrote. I thought he would like it; it was very calm and peaceful. I was really getting into it, and it sounded like he was enjoying it too because he wasn't making any noise. I casually looked over at him, expecting to see a smile on his face, but instead, he was covering his ears with a look of concern! Haha! Wish I had a picture. I just started laughing. I guess my little guy doesn't like my piano playing, or maybe he didn't like my song. Oh well. :)

So, a couple days later, I thought I would see if he could do any better. This is what I got.

Ok, Tate, you win. That was definitely better than I could do.

The "T" word...

2010-08-10T16:19:00.011+10:00

This past week Tate has been having problems sleeping. I have been having problems with my ears...they are ringing from his incredibly high-pitched ugly screeching noises he makes when I try to put him down for his naps.

Tate has gotten into a nice routine of taking about 3 naps during the day. I know when they will occur, and he usually falls asleep after I nurse him, so it's pretty easy for me. However, lately he does NOT fall asleep as he normally has. Not only that, he let's me know he is finished eating by screeching in my ears. No "Thank you mom, you're the best," or "I really appreciate how you take care of me all day long and don't have time to do anything for yourself, so I'm going to reward you with a nice long nap"...no, those have not been the words out of his mouth. Not even "I know you're so tired, because I still wake you up every 2 hours at night to feed me, so here you go, I will go to sleep now...". Oh Tate, little man. Why couldn't you say that to me? I know it's because you can't talk. I'm sure those would be your exact words if you could. So anyway, I ask him, "What is wrong little one? Why aren't you going to sleep? And for heaven's sake, why are you screaming in my ears?"

Introducing...the "T" word. I thought I knew what it was before, but now I realize how ignorant I was.

My baby is TEETHING!

His first tooth has made its way through his gums and we discovered it on Monday as I was giving him a teething tablet (ironic, huh?). During one of his screaming post-nursing incidents, I put the little tablet under his tongue so it could dissolve, and when he started to munch on my finger, I felt a very sharp tooth that had barely cut through the surface. It was nice to have proof that our suspicions were true--teething really could be the reason, or one of the reasons, for his irritability and inability to fall asleep. Poor little thing.

He finally does go to sleep for his naps, but they are considerably shorter than they used to be. And nights...oh, we thought his 9pm bedtime was late (and were trying to move it up), but now it's moving to 10, 11pm because he won't go to sleep after his normal bedtime routine, like he used to do so well. So we spend the next couple hours trying everything we can think of to get him to sleep (besides relieving his teething symptoms).

He also has a bit of a runny nose, and his eczema is flaring up. Is teething the culprit for all of this?

Oh wait, let me go get my "Motherhood Handbook: Everything you need to know about raising your child in the perfect way." Gee, wish I had one of those...

the toy store in our kitchen

2010-08-10T16:05:00.004+10:00

I guess somewhere around this time it's common for babies to forget that they are babies. This has just happened to Tate.

Instead of playing with his toys, he reaches for (and tries to put in his mouth) grown up things, like pencils, books, computers, eye glasses, paper, the Wheat Thins box, the Whip Cream bottle (every time I open the fridge with him in my arms), feet (his parents'), and pretty much everything in sight that is NOT a baby toy. I don't get it. I was thinking about buying him some new toys, because maybe he is bored of the ones he has, but my husband had a better idea.

He looked in the kitchen.

Tate already plays with a few household items, such as a cheap cake pan (he likes to chomp on the edges), an empty Clinique lotion bottle, and a water bottle (one of his favs), but Jeremiah knew he could find something else for him. And he did. He came out of the kitchen with three new toys for Tate: a big plastic serving spoon, a funnel, and the top of a small saucepan. This satisfied Tate for a good half hour. And the best part is, we didn't spend a cent. Truly amazing. :)

7 months

2010-08-04T11:12:00.012+10:00

Despite the fact that I got a pretty bad sore throat last week and stayed inside pretty much every day, Tate has been having a great time discovering new things he can do and new places to explore.

Such as my dresser drawer that he can open, pull himself up on, and proceed to take all of the clothes out:

We put him in the pack n play sometimes because he likes to stand up holding onto the rail, and slowly make his way from one end to the other:

He has mastered getting into a crawling position. He can even move his hand forward, as if he's about to crawl. But usually stops there, and goes back to his safe sitting position that he knows so well.

He's now pretty good at taking steps around the house, while we hold his hands. Here he is taking steps towards me holding onto the couch:

He's also been babbling a whole lot more this week, making "Mama, Dada, BlahBlah" and all sorts of noises with his mouth to try to communicate with us (he's not really calling us Mama and Dada yet, just exploring the sounds with his mouth). One of my least favorites now (but at first it was cute) is this:

He does this noise when he's mad or upset about something. This noise is definitely a lot easier to handle than screaming, so I'm not complaining.

And now, a couple of our favorite pictures:

Trying on a new shirt- what a great face:

In our backyard, enjoying some fresh air:

This is one of Tate's mellow, chill expressions.

I put him in the laundry basket when I was doing the laundry, so I wouldn't have to carry him and the basket back to the bedroom, just push it with him in it. Then I thought it would be such a cute picture.

I don't think he was as excited about it as I was.

Sorry for the randomness, but this is the best I can do with the lack of sleep and little time I have. Thanks for understanding!

Who is this new baby?

2010-07-14T13:21:00.012+10:00

Tate has become a different person these past two weeks. It's amazing how many new things he can do. He surprises us almost every day with something new. Here are some of his new tricks:

He can now take off his bib:

I wonder if he will be getting himself dressed soon... :)

He can now play on his own for about 5 minutes without calling for me! So, that means I can put him down with some toys, and then make a mad dash to try to get some laundry done, or make myself lunch. Then when he starts to get fussy, I pop my head around the corner, he sees that I haven't abandoned him, and he's good for another couple minutes to play on his own! And I just keep repeating this process: frantically try to do stuff around the house, pop my head in when he gets fussy, and then go back to what I was doing. However, it doesn't take long before he wants me to pick him up (he lets me know by making very ugly crying noises that I can't really ignore), so I usually end up leaving my half made lunch on the counter, come get him, and attempt to finish with a 20 lb baby in my arms (no need to lift weights anymore, by the way). It's so much easier just to play with him all day, but if I do that (and I have) then at the end of the day I realize that the house is a disaster and I haven't eaten or showered. So I guess playing with him here and there, and then doing the head-popping-around-the-corner thing will have to do for now.

He can also reach pretty far, and is even starting to get up on his knees at times when one of his toys is out of his reach. I'm hoping this will lead to crawling, however, he has definitely shown a preference for standing. So who knows- maybe he will go straight to walking. :)

Here he is playing- notice how good he is at reaching and picking up his toys. He's also starting to realize the he can make sounds with his toys by banging them together. What a smart baby he is becoming. :)

One of his biggest accomplishments (and special thanks to his dad for helping him practice this at night) is being able to hold onto his crib standing up by himself:

You can tell how much he loves to do this! (And just a side note: if he is ever fussing, we just stand him up wherever he is, and he gets happy again...most of the time. He loves it so much he forgets what he was fussing about!)

A couple days later I put him (sitting) in his crib, and left the room for a minute. When I came back, this is what I saw:

So he can pull himself up now! Here he is in action:

(he was fine at the end- just bumped his lip a little)

So there you have it. Tate is becoming a new man...I mean, baby. :)

With a promotion comes a deployment...

2010-07-14T13:19:00.017+10:00

On Friday, July 9, 2010, Jeremiah was promoted to 1st Lieutenant!

Tate and I attended his ceremony.

After the Colonel (his squadron commander) gave an short introduction of interesting facts about Jeremiah (where he grew up, where he went to college, mission, marriage, etc), Jeremiah had me come up to help pin on his new rank.

Then he reaffirmed his oath of office.

I am so proud of my husband for all the work he has done so far in the Air Force, and his willingness to continue to serve, even give his life, to defend our country's freedom.

Which leads me to my next item.

Having complete control over my life and being able to decide what trials I experience and when, is not a luxury I, or anyone else for that matter, have. I think if I was able to pick and choose my trials, my life would not be a very good training ground to become the kind of person that I hope to become. I know that the only way to continue to grow and progress, is through difficult, challenging situations and circumstances that are not necessarily wanted, but which have the potential to strengthen us, if we endure them well.

We found out on Monday, June 28, that Jeremiah has been tasked to deploy. He will be gone for six months beginning in October.

Before I met my husband, I hoped I would never face such a trial. When I married him, however, I knew he would be deployed at some point, so I accepted the fact, and hoped it wouldn't be quite so soon. I thought that because I had lived on my own for so long, I was pretty independent, and would be able to handle it well. What I didn't know then was what it feels like to love someone and then be apart for so long. His 6 week TDY (Temporary Duty) assignment back in January 2009 was almost unbearable. I'm in a bit of denial right now that he will be gone for 6 MONTHS. I think denial is the only way I can handle the thought of a trial so huge.

Will he miss all of our birthdays (including Tate's 1st)? Yes. Will he miss Tate's first holidays? Yes. Does knowing that there is purpose in this trial make it any easier? No. It will still be a huge challenge for me to live without him and take care of Tate on my own for 6 months. But I hope that knowing there is purpose in this will help me face each day with the reassurance that Heavenly Father has not forgotten me- He has given me the ability to pray, receive comfort, support, and strength to help me when it seems too difficult to continue on. Thankfully my challenge is not to go through this on my own, but to draw closer to the Lord and exercise greater faith in Him and His plan for me.

"It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form character of the hero." Abigail Adams

I understand, mentally, the benefits of trials. But will I remember all of this in 3 months, when Jeremiah stops coming home from work each night? It will break my heart to see the effect this will have on little Tate, who's face lights up every day around 5 o clock when his Dad walks through the door and picks him up, throwing him up in the air, as he squeals with delight. Jeremiah isn't just another person in the house. He's the highlight of Tate's day...and mine. He will be missed more than he knows. I hope we can get through it....

4th of July weekend at the beach

2010-07-10T09:32:00.005+10:00

Since Jeremiah got Monday and Tuesday off of work, we had a nice long "4th of July weekend" and on Tuesday went to Gab Gab beach for a picnic dinner. We were anxious to take Tate in the water for his first ocean swim. :)

It took him a couple minutes to get used to it. I think he was trying to figure out why his feet were sinking into the floor.

But then he started to enjoy it. What a perfect beach for babies- no big waves, nice, soft sand, luke warm water, and lots of shade.

I couldn't believe how photogenic Tate was being in these pictures! I captured some great smiles (of both of them)!

Freedom Fest

2010-07-10T09:27:00.015+10:00

This 4th of July weekend we went to the Freedom Fest on base. It was like a carnival, with fun activities for kids like a waterslide, bouncy castle, obstacle course, face painting, none of which Tate is old enough to enjoy, but it was still fun to be there and see all the fun that the kids were having. There were some giveaways (like a trip to Hong Kong) which we entered, but didn't win. That's ok. It would be difficult to travel to Hong Kong right now. There was also free food, a live band, and lots of people. Not what Tate is used to, but I think he enjoyed it. :)

We met up with some of our friends and their kids. Actually, one of them, Tracy, and I went to the Freedom Fest last year together and we were both pregnant. Our babies are now 6 and 7 months old. Here they are saying hi to each other:

Over the weekend we used our new grill a lot, making BBQ chicken sandwiches, pork chops, and steak. We also watched "The Patriot," which is one of my favorite war movies and a great one to get into the patriotic spirit of the 4th of July. We didn't have big family gatherings with hotdogs, hamburgers and root beer floats, or watch the fireworks. But, I'm beginning to realize that many of my childhood traditions might not be traditions that Jeremiah and I will be able to do with our own children. As a military family, we won't be able to spend as many holidays with our extended families due to a limited income and being told by the military where we will live. But I hope that we can create our own traditions wherever we may be, and that our children can understand that a certain place or activity is not always what is important, or even that we are all together as a family (because sometimes we will not have even that luxury). But, I hope they understand, especially on the 4th of July, that those things we may be asked to sacrifice are a part of the reason why we live in a free country. It is because of the many sacrifices of the military servicemen and women, and their families, that our nation's Constitution has been preserved. I have always been a patriotic person, but recently I have come to understand this in a deeper way, as a military spouse and mother.

Happy 4th of July!

Feeding video

2010-07-07T20:49:00.003+10:00

I wanted to post this, but couldn't figure out how to fit it into my recent posts. So here's a random feeding video. Notice how Tate is distracted with his shadow. I didn't notice what he was doing with his hands until I watched the video afterwards:

Father's Day

2010-07-01T23:53:00.014+10:00

Jeremiah is a great father. I'm sure he doesn't want me broadcasting this fact, but on my Father's Day post I thought I could get away with it.

I am a very lucky lady to have married someone who would turn out to be such a great father. You don't really get to see that part of your future spouse until you have children; you just hope that through all the late nights and exhausting days he will be the kind of father you want for your children, while still being the kind of husband you want for yourself. Well, he has exceeded my expectations in both of those ways and I am so thankful to Heavenly Father for leading me to such a perfect person to marry.

On Father's day, for dinner we had steak, of course. Jeremiah tried to feed it to Tate, but luckily he was too distracted with the camera to notice. :) lol.

Sitting next to Daddy... I'm trying to imagine what that would look like in 20 years...

I got him a grill...something we had been saving up for and had talked about for awhile, but it was still a little bit of a surprise. I gave him some little presents first, and then pretended that was it. Then I brought him out to the car where the grill was (I couldn't carry it in on my own anyway). Here we are enjoying it a couple days later.

Hamburgers and Root Beer...definitely not an everyday meal for us, but a good one. :)

Fortunately I was also able to talk to my own father on Father's Day (in the states). Of course skype is not the same as seeing him in person, but I'm glad we were able to talk. He is such an amazing person who, despite his own trials, continues to be a guide, support, and inspiration in my life. When I think of my childhood, I have such great memories, most of which included my Dad. He always put his family first. I never felt like he had more important things to do than to help me with my homework, or teach me how to drive a stick. I'm sorry Obama, but quantity time is just as important as quality time. It doesn't just "take a few minutes of your time" to be a good dad (fatherhood.gov)- it takes many long, sometimes very difficult years of raising, teaching, supporting, and providing for the spiritual, emotional, and temporal welfare of all your children. I know because my dad did that. To look back and see the sacrifices he has made, and continues to make, for his family, I am able to catch a glimpse into what parenthood is all about, and realize how clueless I was as a child and teenager. Sorry Dad, for not realizing this until I was an adult. I hope you forgive me for that, and know I love you and appreciate your sacrifices in my behalf. At this time, as I begin my own journey as a parent, I look to your example for direction, and most of all, thank Heaven that you are my Dad.

First Swim

2010-06-24T22:38:00.006+10:00

Last week we went over to our friend's house and Tate got to go swimming for the first time! Yes, we live on Guam and he is just now getting into the water...and it's not even the ocean! That's because I have been extremely paranoid about burning his sensitive skin especially with us being so close to the equator. I burn just by walking from the car into the store and back, so you can imagine why I am so careful with him.

He was not so happy at first. Even though I was shading him with an umbrella, AND he had sunscreen on, the light reflecting off the water made it difficult for him to even open his eyes (those with light colored eyes know what I'm talking about). It wasn't until the sun hid behind some clouds and shaded part of the pool, that he started to enjoy it a little more. :)

You know how happy he is when he is standing, right? Well, he actually was trying to stand on my stomach while I was holding him, which wasn't really working. So I leaned back a little and let him stand on me. That's when the real smiles started.

(lol- his shorts are a little long...)

We are planning on going to the beach this weekend...at sunset. Sorry Jeremiah, I hope you weren't planning on getting tan while here in Guam because it won't happen if you hang out with us redheads. :)

But it's worth it- look at that smile!

Feed me!

2010-06-24T16:07:00.008+10:00

Tate is almost 6 months old! It's amazing how quickly time passes.

Here are some shots of him from this past month to fill you in:

an interview with him right after his 5 month appointment:

This month we have been introducing Tate to the world of solid food (solid food that is actually mushy...I don't know why they call it solid...)

We started with rice cereal. Here he is right before his very first feeding:

And here he is after:

Haha! It was quite an exciting experience for him. I think he was happy to finally be able to do what he has seen us do for so long. And he was a natural at it too. I felt like he had been eating for years (well, maybe more like months...I don't think they eat in heaven, but I could be wrong). He opened up wide the first time, and swallowed perfectly. He actually gobbled it up and I was a little worried he would eat too much, but they say you let the baby tell you when he's full, so I let him eat what he wanted. Which could have led to the lack of poopy diapers in the following days. Whatever the reason, we decided to back off the rice cereal and try some fruits and vegetables next.

Rice cereal wasn't too messy, thankfully (you can barely see it on his face in the "after" shot), but the foods that followed sure were. In the past couple weeks, he has tried sweet potato, banana, applesauce, pear, and avocado. He liked the banana and avocado the best, with sweet potato coming in next. Pear was an acquired taste, and he didn't like the applesauce at all (I did sneak it into his avocado once though and he didn't seem to notice).

Here he is eating sweet potato and banana:

I've been making most of his food with our food processor, which I have been enjoying. It is not hard at all, and I figure, I make food for myself and my husband, why not for my baby too? He deserves the very best. However, for some foods that were high on the pesticide contamination list and that I couldn't get organic, I bought the organic baby food version from the commissary. Yes, it's a little more expensive, but up until now he's been getting the perfect food (from me), and I want to do my best to continue giving him the most healthy food out there.

One more thing. Tate loves to practice standing, and he is now able to stand up with his back against the couch, like this:

That was almost a month ago, so now you can imagine he is a lot better at it now. :)

Mother's Day and some new tricks :)

2010-05-20T14:02:00.008+10:00

To start off, this Mother's Day was great--definitely better than last year (I was nauseous all day due to my pregnancy). It was a pretty relaxing day. We went to church, watched "Yours, Mine, and Ours" to remind ourselves not to have any more kids soon (just kidding), and I enjoyed my first mother's day as an actual mother. :) Jeremiah got me a crock pot and I have been enjoying using it to make delicious meals. Instead of cooking around 4pm, now I just throw everything into the Crock Pot during Tate's morning nap, and it's usually done by dinner time. Plus it makes the house smell wonderful all day long (which is a lot better than smelling dirty diapers).

I don't have time to write much else, so I'll let the videos speak for themselves.

The day before Mother's Day we got Tate a "jumperoo" because my arms were getting tired of jumping with him, and we thought it would be fun for him. In this video, he had just taken a break to stare out the window, and then continued to jump. So cute!

A couple days after Mother's Day, he rolled over for the first time...and I got it on video (amazing, I know)! This is the very first time he ever rolled over:

(don't worry, he was ok there at the end...just a little spit up)

He loves holding his feet and eating his toes (I had to sneak up on him to catch it on video though)

On Monday, May 17th, he sat up without any help for the first time while Jeremiah was home on his lunch break. Here is a picture:

Here he is again practicing in his crib:

Playing with mom:

Isn't he so precious?

Adventures of new parents...

2010-05-12T14:20:00.011+10:00

There's so much to write about, I don't even know where to start, and I really hate trying to catch up. If I had the time, I would write a long post every day. However, right now as I write this, there is a baby calling to me from his crib (he is on strike from naps today...yesterday it was food...). So, I guess I will just have to do my best and write what I can, when I can. "I'm coming Tate...".

Ok, I'm back.

So, a couple weeks ago Tate stopped "sleeping through the night." He was doing great, waking up once, and then going back to sleep. But then he started waking up every 2 hours to eat (which is actually worse than right when he was born when he would go 3, sometimes 4 hours without waking up). He started doing this the week of the ORE (Operational Readiness Exercise) on base, when Jeremiah had to work the 11pm-11am shift. That was an extremely difficult week because I hardly saw Jeremiah and was pretty much alone with Tate all day and all night without a break. This was also a time when I couldn't put Tate down for one second without him starting to cry to be held or played with. Not that I don't like holding and playing with my cute little baby! But when that interferes with my ability to eat, shower, do ANYTHING else, then it can be a bit difficult....

The following week, Tate started waking up even more frequently- now every 1 1/2 hours at night, and sometimes, after I fed him and put him down, he would wake back up 15 minutes later just when I had started to doze off into dreamland.

I think I made it through those weeks just thinking about the weekend when Jeremiah would help me out during the day (and night too if needed). I don't know how single mom's do it- I really can't survive without my husband's help when he comes home from work and on the weekends. He is so good about helping- I mean, he pretty much offers to change every single diaper when he's home, because he knows I do it all week long. Not to mention everything else, like sometimes making dinner AND watching Tate after work, so I can get a chance to run to the gym, etc, etc, etc.

On Friday, the last day of April, I went to a baby shower, during which Tate was held by many different people, mostly from my old branch, who couldn't believe how big and cute he is getting! We do not get out too much, so to be the center of attention with so many people was quite an experience for him.

I don't know if this had anything to do with all that close contact, but on Sunday he got a runny nose and that night he came down with a fever. His very first. And he didn't like it one bit. Neither did his parents. :( Now, not only was he waking up every 1-2 hours, but he was waking up screaming his head off. Poor little guy. Poor mommy and daddy's ears. Thank goodness for ear plugs! (Don't worry, I wasn't sleeping in my bed ignoring his cries...I was holding him all night long, as he screamed in my ear...ear plugs can sure come in handy in times like that.) I think he had croup too, because that night he started this cough that sounded like a barking seal, which soon turned into a horse voice. That was one plus to the whole situation- now his screams had turned into whispers! I think he was a little confused as to why he used to be able to make a loud sound when he screamed, and now nothing came out. :)

Well, after a week of being sick, he finally seemed to be doing better, so we decided to go out to eat and celebrate Jeremiah's great scores on his PT test earlier that week (he ran 1.5 miles in 9 minutes and 21 seconds, which also happens to be the fastest running time in his squadron!)

This was our third attempt at going out to dinner. When Tate was only 6 weeks old, we went to Chili's and he slept through the whole thing. It was wonderful.

Then in April we tried to go to Outback Steakhouse in Tumon which, despite careful planning, didn't turn out so good. Tate was asleep until we got seated. He was fine as we ordered- Jeremiah ordered steak, which he was very excited about, and I got a grilled chicken sandwich. When our food finally came, Tate started getting fussy, so we thought we would take turns eating. Jeremiah let me start eating first, and he took Tate. Well Tate obviously missed the memo of our genius plan and started crying right there in the restaurant, even though Jeremiah was giving him 100% of his attention. Well, to make a long story short, we ended up leaving the restaurant with our food in boxes, and ate in the car. :( Not the best way to eat a steak....

Needless to say, I didn't have very high hopes for this trip out to dinner. We decided to go somewhere close this time- Bamboo Willies, down at Tarague Beach on base. Tate was awake when we arrived, so we walked down to the water to take in the beautiful scenery.

Tate enjoyed feeling the sand on his feet.

The restaurant is right on the beach, so we sat outside facing the water. I thought it would be nice and quiet, but it happened to be Jolly Jump day (random, I know), and so the sound of the waves was unfortunately overtaken by the sound of a Jolly Jump plugged in right next to us. About half way through our meal Tate started to get fussy, so we took turns walking him around, but eventually had to box up our food and leave. Hmmm...I wonder if this will get any easier in the next couple years...

Well, this is just to give you an idea of some of our adventures with Tate. Of course, his cuteness melts away any frustration I might have and the times we spend playing, cuddling, and laughing with him makes it all worth it. So, here are some fun videos of our little boy:

I told you I would get a video of him jumping:

He hasn't quite figured out how to keep from falling over:

Cute little squeals of delight:

How could I have a bad day waking up to a precious little angel, like this?
(don't mind the spit up...)

Daddy's funny laughs...if you don't start laughing from Jeremiah's laughs, then you will from Tate:

Mid-April

2010-05-03T16:10:00.011+10:00

Hi everyone. This is going to be a random catch up post for the middle of April. I'll be creating another post shortly for the end of April.

I finally found a photographer for Tate's 3 month photo shoot that was within our budget and will let us keep all the digital images and not make us choose just one pose to print out in a package. That's right...me! I'm really happy with how they turned out. Here are some samples:

You can see the rest of the pictures here (you'll have to copy and paste this link into your browser):
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=LynleighC&target=ALBUM&id=5460596510142133489&authkey=Gv1sRgCN6vv4-WgY3KzQE&feat=email

Look how big he's getting:

(above: 1 day old)

(above: 3 1/2 months)

Besides his fingers, Tate's favorite thing to munch on is cloth of any kind:

He has also been experimenting with his voice, making all kinds of sounds and is starting to really enjoy not just standing (with help), but jumping too. I'll have to get a video of that soon.

He also likes to go hunting with his stuffed animals :)

I was trying to fold the laundry the other day and discovered that he loves to be buried in clothes. I guess it makes sense...it's a whole smorgasbord of cloths for him to suck on:

And of course, playing with daddy is the highlight of his day (he's wearing a new onesie his uncle Andy got him too):

One of the highlights of April for me was watching General Conference. It was amazing to hear the words of the Prophet and living apostles, and to know once again, for myself, that they are true messengers of our Heavenly Father. I know that as we follow them, we will become closer to our Father in Heaven and his son Jesus Christ, and find peace and comfort amidst our earthly challenges. I love the hope that I feel knowing that I am a child of God and that He has a plan for me to return to live with Him. That simple truth makes all the difference in my life when I'm experiencing trials. It's so interesting though, that I need to be reminded of that over and over again to really let it change my heart and my life. If I'm not making an effort to read the scriptures or pray sincerely, I start to forget that the Savior is so close, just waiting for me to reach out and take his hand.

If you have not yet watched this year's conference, I invite you to go to this website and see for yourself the messages of hope that have been shared with the world this April:
https://beta.lds.org/general-conference?locale=eng

Have a great week everyone!

Baby's 1st Easter

2010-04-16T15:21:00.008+10:00

This was Tate's first Easter and I wanted him to do everything that I remember doing as a kid: dying hard boiled eggs, having an Easter egg hunt, waking up Easter morning to find a basket of presents from the Easter Bunny. As I excitedly told my husband of my plans for making this the best Easter ever for little Tate, he looked at me strangely and reminded me that Tate is not really at the age where he can enjoy any of that.

Ok, so maybe he can't search for Easter eggs on his own two feet, and maybe he can't understand the concept of the Easter Bunny, but I still thought we could do something fun for him. Well, maybe more for me than for him, but still. After discussing the matter together, Jeremiah decided to humor me, but I could tell he wasn't entirely sold on the idea.

So, we went to the Bx to pick up a couple things for Tate (bigger pajamas and onesies- he now wears size 6-9 months!) and some Easter candy (for us) with the intent that even if we couldn't do a whole lot with him, we could at least give him a small Easter present. I went to sleep that night a little disappointed that we couldn't do the fun things that I had envisioned, and especially that we were so far away from our families and wouldn't be able to see them on Easter.

Well Easter morning came and, to my surprise, the Easter Bunny had visited our house! Jeremiah, the Easter bunny's "helper," told me that there were 6 eggs hidden around the house for Tate and I to find. And in the process of finding the eggs, I also found an Easter basket for Tate!

Now tell me this kid is not excited about his Easter basket:

An Easter egg hunt AND Easter basket for Tate...wow. I can always count on my husband to make holidays fun and memorable. :)

3 months!

2010-04-01T19:32:00.014+10:00

Tate is 3 months old!

A lot has happened in the past couple weeks. Jeremiah joined his squadron's inter-mural flag football team and has had several games a week. Tate and I have gone to most of them which has been a lot of fun because it's really the only time we can go outside and not have to worry about getting sunburn (or die of heat). :) It's also a great opportunity to get some exercise since there is a track around the field. So on the days I don't make it to the gym, I can walk Tate around the track as the "Comm Hawks" practice before the game starts.

Jeremiah is number 14, "LT":

He has been playing defense and has been doing a great job...I know because I hear his teammates yelling "Good play LT!" "Yeah LT!" etc. (after all these years I still don't completely get the game, so I'm glad his teammates can clue me in). Also I'm a bit distracted with little Tate (when he's awake) so I don't always catch everything. Here's a glimpse of both of them at one of his first games (it was quite windy that night):

Here's a closer view of my man:

Besides Jeremiah's games, one of the most exciting things for me lately is being able to wear some of my old clothes. Lame, I know, but I have to admit, wearing maternity clothes when you're not pregnant isn't exactly the most self-esteem building thing, even though I know it's impossible to go right back to your pre-pregnancy clothes after the birth. So it's a great feeling to wear clothes you haven't worn in a year (I can't believe it's been that long!). It makes me feel more like my old self again (although I'm a very different person in many ways, now that I'm a mother).
Wearing my favorite "old" shirt, in our front yard:

We took some pictures on April 1st to celebrate Tate being 3 months old. He was smiling right before this, but once he sees the camera he gets this wide-eyed, open-mouth look and just stares at the it (unless we are really sneaky about it)

If it's not obvious by now, we're pretty much in love with our baby. :)

A healthy baby and a trip to the beach

2010-03-24T15:54:00.014+10:00

Tate had his well-baby check up at 2 1/2 months (10 1/2 weeks to be exact) and he weighed 13 lbs 13 oz! According to one book, he weighs about as much as a 17 week old...so he is definitely growing well! He was 24 inches long too! During the appointment he was happy and even showed off his new trick for the doctor- standing up (while we hold him). He gets so excited when he stands up, and now that he can hold his head up by himself pretty well, he likes to do it a lot. Like this:

Shortly after his appointment when we found out he almost weighed 14 lbs (the weight limit on his bassinet), we started putting him in his crib in his own room at night. It works out pretty well since now he only wakes up one time at night to eat, and then goes back to sleep for another couple hours. I'm finally getting about 9 hours of sleep a night (broken up be a feeding, of course).

Here are some pics of him on the day we took him to his appointment:

This is funny. We put him in his swing when he was fussy/tired once, and after he feel asleep, he still had a pouty face, it was so cute:

Our second trip to the beach! And like before, it ended up raining soon after we got there...

It was a Saturday and I desperately needed to get out. Even though we had laundry, cleaning our house, and mowing the lawn still to do, after a whole week of me being indoors taking care of Tate, the decision to drop everything and leave was pretty easy. So, we splurged- we took Tate to Gab Gab beach on the Naval base. About a 45 minute drive, so not as close as many other beaches we could have gone to, but by far (in our opinion) the nicest, and most peaceful beach on Guam.

Because Tate and I can't go outside in the middle of the day due to our red hair and fair skin (well, and the fact that he's under 6 months old), we packed a picnic dinner and headed to the beach around 5pm. After the long drive Tate was pretty sleepy when we got there, so I don't think he fully appreciated the beauty around him and we unfortunately didn't get too many good pictures of him (most of the pictures we took of him, he looks like a grumpy old man, with a double chin like this:

And I guess I should also mention that he was in the process of dirtying his diaper, so we caught a lot of funny grimaces like this):

And the sudden rain cut our trip short (we ended up eating our food in the car, watching the sunset, which was still very nice).

But it was definitely worth the trip.

Little happy squeals, then getting mad:

In this video, Tate was so excited with all the hanging toys he couldn't stop moving his arms and legs:

Happy Baby :)

2010-03-08T23:28:00.012+10:00

Up until Tate smiled we weren't sure if he liked us or not... but now we have no doubt. Not only does he like us but he thinks we're pretty funny sometimes too. :) Check out some of our favorite pictures from the past couple weeks and see how hard it is not to love this baby (he was about 9 weeks old in most of these pictures):

Haha...I love catching funny faces like this one:

Look- he's already practicing to ride the ponies at Griffith Park (a place my parents took us when we were little), lol :)

He's really starting to enjoy bath time, and we're enjoying wrapping him up in his cute robe and slippers when he's done:

And of course, some videos:

Talking:

Smiling for Daddy:

Post-bath cuteness:

Note: I am making this post when I should be sleeping. Lately my life has been filled to the brim with taking care of Tate, myself, my husband and our home, and being the Young Women's president at church. But I am making this post because I know how much our families wants to be here to see him grow up, and how that will not be possible until we move back to the states (it may still be difficult then too, depending on where we live). So, if I have to go without sleep in order to find time to put this together, I guess it is worth it...hope you think so too. We miss you all and Tate can't wait to meet you in person!

7 weeks old

2010-02-20T19:53:00.007+10:00

Some pictures from this week:

Cute headshots :)

He was tired here, but he had the cutest face, all snuggled against his dad:

Jeremiah and I were chaperones at the youth Valentine's Day dance at our church (Those pants on Tate used to come down to his ankles...you can see how much he has grown!):

On our way to my 6 week postpartum appointment:

This is the midwife that was there for Tate's birth on New Year's Eve:

Jeremiah was burping him and he fell asleep:

Tate looked so cute with his hand up by his head asleep in my lap:

And last but not least, a little video of him after his bath watching the mobile in his crib (he has the hiccups, as he sometimes gets when he gets excited):

6 weeks old!

2010-02-12T01:27:00.000+10:00

Tate is 6 weeks old today!! Doesn't he look so handsome with his cute little smile? Time is flying by, although I still feel like I just had him. Here's a little recap of the past 2 weeks:

Still wiggly, and still spending a lot of time on the changing table:

As you can see, he is already training to become the next Rocky...

This picture just reminds me of country dancing for some reason...

Wiggly Squiggly making cute faces:

Sometimes he makes litle noises in his sleep, like this:

He fell asleep after I changed him (he's exactly 5 weeks old here):

All dressed up for his blessing, given by his dad:

Jeremiah was burping him here. He gets a little startled when he burps and his eyes get really big (you can see how blue they are getting):

Here I am getting a little exercise...the weather has been so nice lately! I actually feel like I'm in the states at times. In the evenings there has been cool wind, almost enough to give me goose bumps (but not quite)! So we decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood right before dinner:

He is already a big thinker...probably will become the next Einstein...

Tate at 4 weeks

2010-01-27T17:01:00.014+10:00

Our little guy is getting cuter (and chubbier) every day! He sleeps most of the day in between feedings, which means he's awake for a lot of the night. This has been a challenge because this week Jeremiah has been working 12 hour shifts for an ORE (Operational Readiness Exercise) they are doing on base. He's been gone from 10am to 10 pm, sometimes later, so when he gets home we have to decide who is the most tired to see who will take a nap first and who will watch Tate first. Unfortunately, we're usually both pretty tired, but Jeremiah usually wins because I at least got to sleep a bit during the day. So besides the exhausting nights, things are going pretty well.

I'm able to take short trips out of the house now too, which has been good. Last Saturday Jeremiah, Tate, and I went for our 2nd outing (besides doctor's appointments). Jeremiah made dinner (quiche) and we drove to a pretty lookout point on base, and had a picnic in the car as it started sprinkling.

As usual, Tate slept through it. He is pretty funny--he seems to fall asleep whenever we take him outside. Maybe the light, humidity, and rain (it has always been sprinkling a little when we go out) is too much for him and he retreats into sleep. It's funny because it's an immediate thing- he could be wide awake, but the minute we step outside he's out like a light.

On Monday while Jeremiah mowed the lawn, Tate and I went for a walk outside in his sling (he fell asleep of course):

We also went to church on Sunday, and then I had the Young Women presidency meeting at my house on Tuesday (did I mention that a couple weeks before Tate was born I was called as the Young Women's President in our branch at church??). So I'm slowly getting back into things and finally feeling like my recovery is starting (key word) to come to an end.

This week in pictures:

We spend much of our time here (on the changing table):

So cute :)

He does this a lot:

Our precious little angel after a bath:

Here are some videos for your viewing pleasure:

This is Fussy Tate (he also probably felt pretty ridiculous in the over-sized sweat pants I dressed him in...but I had to see them on him!)

Angelic Tate:

Wiggly Tate:

3 weeks old already!

2010-01-21T15:37:00.017+10:00

Tate is 3 weeks old today! I can't believe it's already been 21 days since his birth. To me, it has been one long day since I pushed him into the world.

I didn't consider myself a very high maintenance person. However, I'm starting to realize how much time I used to spend on myself just for basic personal hygiene. Maybe it's TMI, but I hardly have time to put on deodorant these days (don't worry, I still do--I think I only missed one day)...not because I don't have the energy, but because I don't have the time with all the feeding, diaper changing, rocking/singing/bouncing the baby to sleep, and doing it all over again. You can't really put down a crying baby when he's starving, just so you can go take a shower. I mean, how cruel can a person be? Put yourself before a tiny little helpless baby? I for one can't bring myself to do it. Fortunate for little Tate, unfortunate for my husband or anyone who I happen to come into contact with (I now will not judge those mothers I see in the store who look like they just got out of bed). Thank goodness for a husband who pretends I smell/look fine. Sometimes I actually believe it--until I look in the mirror. And sometimes I think, hey, I actually put on some mascara today, I can't be that bad. Then I look at my feet and remember that I've been walking around for 5 days with one foot of overgrown toenails...the baby woke up 5 minutes too early that day and I haven't yet had time to do the other foot.

But onto the reasons I'm still here, alive, and, well enough to even write on this blog...

There are two reasons for my survival (besides my mom who helped immensely for the first 2 weeks!)

That's right. My husband and my son.

Tate may be taking up all of my time, but he is also taking up a pretty good sized portion of my heart. (Cheesy, but true.)

Oh Tate. Little precious soul who lived inside me for 41 weeks, took 20 intensely painful hours to enter the world, and has been living in our home for the past 3 weeks. A soul I must have known before this life, yet seems so new, so unknown to me still.

For some reason your presence gives me such joy, more than I imagined could come from a baby I only just met. Watching you look around at your new world, the funny noises you make as you sleep, your precious little fingers and toes, the curious look on your face when your daddy talks to you, your mouth dripping with milk and a face of drunken bliss after each feeding...

Little Tate. I hardly know you, yet every minute of every day I give to you.

And Jeremiah, my husband.

Who's sense of humor makes life, for lack of a better word, fun. :)

And after accompanying me through the most difficult experience of my life (labor), he is constantly helping in whatever way he can--taking Tate in the middle of the night when I'm too tired, bringing me food and water, taking over all household chores (and in "all" I really do mean ALL), and basically always willing to do anything for me or Tate. I couldn't have asked for a better husband and father of my child. I have been greatly blessed.

Now, to conclude Tate's 3 week birthday post...

This is what happens when I try to force our little guy to take a picture when he doesn't want to:

Sorry Tate! I learned my lesson...never do I want to see that sad little crying face because of something I did to you. :( I hope you forgive me.

For the record:

I don't pretend nothing. She does look great and she doesn't smell.
Tate's diapers, on the other hand..... DO (in the which we have obtained photographic evidence of such).

--Jeremiah

Tate's first 2 weeks of life

2010-01-15T16:44:00.017+10:00

Tate just had his 2 week appointment with the pediatrician and she said he is doing perfectly (we already knew this). He now weighs 8 lbs 9 oz (he gained back his birth weight plus 9 oz!) and grew an inch (he's now 21 inches long). It took him a couple days but he is now a pro at nursing and eats about every 2 hours for 30 minutes, a schedule we are all starting to get used to. The sleep deprivation isn't as bad as I had anticipated though, mostly because I enjoy waking up to see his cute little face and he is happy to see me (aka food source) too (hopefully soon he will start to enjoy me for being mom and not just food source...). We are very grateful to be blessed with such a good, relatively easy baby!

Here's a recap of his first 2 weeks of life:
Short little video of Tate at the birthing center a couple hours after being born:

Grandma Lachelle came from California and stayed for about 2 weeks after his birth to help us out. She just left and we really miss her already! I don't know what we would have done without her here. Thank you mom!

First day at home (January 1), cuddling with mommy:

With daddy after he got back from turning in his paternity leave papers Monday morning:

Tate is such a calm, mellow baby. He was quiet and alert as we gave him his first bath. Once he started to get a little cold, he started to cry a little, but was back to being calm after we wrapped him in a nice hooded towel and dried him off.

After his bath:

Precious little angel:

Swimming in one of his gowns, asleep on the couch:

Caught smiling in his sleep:

First outing! The day before mom left (Tuesday, Jan.12) , we took a short trip to Tarague beach (on base). It was about a 10 minute drive there and when we got there, it started sprinkling, so we hurried down to the sand to take a picture, then got right back in the car and drove back home. Tate seemed to fall asleep as soon as we took him out of the car. I couldn't believe it because it was so humid and windy and his face was getting wet from the sprinkles. But he completely fell asleep. (click on any picture to enlarge)

Here we are outside our house after the outing:

On his way to his 2 week appointment.

Some more videos:

Hiccups:

Yawn that turned into a cute little crying face:

Exercising on his tummy in the little baby gym that Great Uncle Berk and Aunt Erica gave him:

Hope you feel like you were here by looking at the pictures and videos! We will post more soon...

Jeremiah Tate Robbins has arrived!

2010-01-03T19:51:00.007+10:00

Tate was born on December 31, 2009 at 7:04 PM local time, at Sagua Managu Birthing Center in Tamuning, Guam, weighing 8 pounds and measuring 20 inches.

We are so happy to finally have him here with us!!!

Pictures with mom here on Guam!

2009-12-27T22:46:00.010+10:00

Mom arrived Friday night, and the next day we took her around the island and got me walking, trying to start my labor. Here we are at Asan Beach Overlook:

Although it was a beautiful day, we were unable to do all that we wanted to outside because of the heat. When I started overheating, we went down to the water and dipped our feet in.

We had a nice Christmas dinner with Cornish hens, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce with Martinelli's. :) It was delicious and the best part was, she and Jeremiah helped make most of it!

We opened presents around the Christmas tree and got some cool things that mom brought us from her & Dad, Cas & Quinn, and Grandma Deon and Grandpa Ken! Thank you all!

We watched a Christmas movie that night and got a good night's sleep after a long day.

Sunday morning we went to church, relaxed, watched another new movie that we got, and went for a long walk in the evening.

Monday after my appointment, we went to Gab Gab beach:

Hmmm...everyone says that walking is supposed to help labor start, but it doesn't seem to be working for me. I've been walking every day this past week and I feel like I've been having fewer Braxton Hicks contractions that I did before.... Oh well, I guess it is just not his time yet. At least we can spend some time with mom and she can actually have a little "vacation" while she's here!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-26T10:30:00.006+10:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas wherever you are! Here is a brief update on how we spent the holiday:

Last week we went to Rota Walk and took a picture in front of Jeremiah's commander's house (39wks 2 days pregnant):

Here I am, 40 weeks pregnant, on my original due date of December 24:

We made and decorated sugar cookies as we waited for the baby to arrive:

He never came...but his room is all ready to go!

On Christmas Day we opened our presents from each other & from Santa :)

And planned to go out to eat for the last time as just the two of us before picking up my mom from the airport. However, the restaurant that we planned to go to (and called ahead of time just to make sure they were going to be open on Christmas Day) was closed! So, after driving around and seeing a lot of empty parking lots, we found one that was open...Pizza Hut! Here is Jeremiah enjoying some nice Christmas pizza:

After that we went straight to pick up my mom from the airport. She arrived safely and we are so excited to finally have a visitor in our house! We will update you with more soon!

Christmas parties

2009-12-17T13:47:00.009+10:00

Last week was Jeremiah's squadron Christmas party at one of the hotels downtown. It was a lot of fun. We even won a door prize...a juicer (we already have one, but this one is better). There were a lot of games and prizes, and food, and it was all really well organized.

We took this when we got home:

Then we had our church Christmas party on Wednesday, a potluck, which is always interesting here on Guam. I made...you guessed it, pumpkin spice muffins. All I did was combine a package of Spice Cake mix, 1/2 cup water, and 1 1/2 cups pumpkin...the easiest recipe ever! Earlier in the week I made other healthier pumpkin muffins without using a cake mix...and I think I actually like them better. They're not as cake-like, they are more breakfast muffin type, and good for you too.

(Here we are at our church party- I was one day away from my 39 week mark)

The party was a lot of fun, with Christmas carols performed by various groups. The Relief Society (aka all the women 18 and over) performed Jingle Bells which none of us knew about until they announced it. And the Elder's Quorum (men) sang Joy to the World, which apparently they had no clue they would be doing either. Jeremiah wasn't exactly excited, but he got up there anyway (and hid most of the time to my dismay). :( Oh well, I'm sure he is glad that I didn't get a picture of him singing, or else I would probably post it on here. :) We are getting to know a lot more families that are in the military which helps us (me) feel a lot less alone out here. :)

And on Friday I went to a party for the Comm Squadron ladies...both active duty and spouses. I made mint chocolate chip brownies and cut them into Christmas trees. Mmm...so good. And little did anyone know that they were completely low fat! I substituted applesauce for most of the oil! And they tasted just the same, if not better because I knew I wasn't eating completely unhealthy. And the mint chocolate chips that I put in them just made them amazing:

It was also a gift exchange, in which I received a really pretty Christmas decoration for our house and some candles. I also received some good tips on getting labor started, most of which I already knew, but it was a good reminder. I tried to eat as much pineapple and spicy salsa as I could, but that ended up leading to more acid reflux, so I figured it wasn't worth it. Mostly I was inspired to get walking more, so when I got home, Jeremiah and I went for a long walk (the only time of day when it is not unbearably hot outside). And we got a preview of...Rota Walk!

"Rota Walk" is tonight - each year all the houses on Rota Drive put up Christmas lights and the street gets blocked off so that people can walk up and down the street, collecting Christmas treats and little toys from each house, kind of like trick or treating for Christmas! It ends up feeling like a big carnival- there was even a pinata last year, a carabou for kids to sit on a take pictures and a band up at the top of the street in front of the General's house (that was my favorite part). I'm hoping that walking around all night will get my labor going! :) We shall see.

And by the way, Jeremiah has been really busy lately with work, especially with Honor Guard (he is the OIC- Officer In Charge). They just did a 21-gun salute for the Linebacker II Ceremony. (I'm hoping he will write a little bit about that when he has time). And he has another big thing coming up on Monday, that I'll try to have him write about.

Merry Christmas everyone!

My first birthday as a pregnant lady...

2009-12-10T21:01:00.009+10:00

My birthday was last Sunday, and it couldn't have been better.

The night before, Jeremiah and I went out to eat at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) in the downtown/hotel area (Tumon). Surprisingly we had not been to CPK since we've been on Guam, however it proved to be an excellent choice. Unlike most restaurants we've been to, it was relatively quiet (no huge, loud parties or a high noise level), the lights were not annoyingly bright, and the service was amazing (probably because they were not very busy at the time). Those who know me know that these are all very important elements to how I feel (mostly the first two), so I was able to have a great time and enjoy some nice BBQ chicken pizza with my favorite person. :) ...All I can say is, "Perfect."

After our server took this picture, I told him it was my birthday (I saw someone else get an ice cream sunday with a candle in it and I suspected it was free...). Without saying anything, he came back with a free sunday! It was a perfect ending to our meal. I'm definitely going back there...maybe for next year's birthday too!

On Sunday, we went to church, came home, ate leftover pizza from CPK, and just relaxed around the house finishing some projects and packing for the birthing center. :)

Oh and this bear and card were sitting on our entry way bench in the morning (from Jeremiah):

I also got to talk to my mom on skype which was fun. I'm so excited for her to come visit us in 2 weeks to help out with our transition to parenthood. :) I wish I could take her around the island...we will have to at least go for drives when the baby is sleeping....

Anyway, that night, Jeremiah made me a delicious dinner- lasagna with spinach (even though he doesn't really like spinach) and ground beef in it. Oh, it was amazing...best lasagna ever!

Here he is putting the last minute touches on the table...he did such a good job of making a really nice atmosphere for our dinner...he even put up Christmas lights in the dining room.

And for dessert, he made me Pineapple Upside Down Cake from scratch! I had been wanting this for a long time, so, once again, it was perfect. :) As we ate our cake and ice cream, we watched a new Christmas movie we just got ("Stalking Santa").

Thank you for making it such a great birthday Jeremiah! And for everyone who sent me an email/card/facebook message. :)

And to conclude this post, I just wanted to show you our house:

This is our front yard:

And this bird was perched on our street sign every time I drove past it today, so I took a picture (you can see the golf course in the background):

Yeah, it's beautiful weather in December. The only way you can tell it's Christmastime is all the decorations in the stores and the Christmas songs played on the radio. Our baby is going to be so spoiled here, not having to deal with freezing winters...I hope he adjusts ok when we move somewhere like DC!

Hopefully I will get at least one more post in before the baby comes, but who knows!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T21:08:00.018+10:00

The week began on Monday with a Thanksgiving luncheon for Jeremiah's squadron. We brought stuffing, cranberry sauce, and Jeremiah cooked his first ham!
(Here he is getting it ready in between work and the luncheon):

It turned out great and was quickly gobbled up at the luncheon. :)

Besides being one of the organizers for Youth Conference (which would begin that weekend), and both of us being asked to speak in sacrament meeting on Sunday, Jeremiah also undertook the great task of painting our dining room red.

However, the paint turned out to be brighter than we expected, and after two coats, a whole gallon of paint, and lots of time spent, it was still not very even.

This was a bit frustrating for Jeremiah, as he was very busy and had little time to fix the walls. As for me, I was trying to inhale as little paint fumes as possible to keep the baby safe, so he was basically doing this on his own. And with his evening meetings, and Thanksgiving only a few days away, he ended up spending most of his lunches painting...
...as I made pies and cheesecakes and tried to keep the house ventilated (when my feet started to hurt I had to either sit or kneel on a chair):

Out of paint, and with uneven walls, we decided to paint two of the walls back to white (we can get the white paint for free at the Self-Help Center on base) and get a darker color to paint over the uneven bright red on one of the walls.

We thought we could get away with only buying a quart of dark red paint this time, instead of a gallon, because we were only doing one wall. But Jeremiah finished the paint and it still wasn't enough. :(

At least the white went on evenly and we had plenty of it:

So I went back to Home Depot to get more dark red paint so he could finish the last wall.

It was a miracle, but we were ready for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday:

We were so excited to have our first homemade Thanksgiving meal! Last year we went to the church for a thanksgiving potluck, but we really missed our traditional family favorites. So this year we decided to celebrate at home and make everything we wanted. We had turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, rolls, creamed corn, and green bean casserole.

Jeremiah invited two single officer's that he works with to share our dinner (one of them brought the green bean casserole):

I should have gotten a picture of the turkey before it was cut, but here is a good sized piece of it in Jeremiah's hand (look at his eye...lol)

After dinner, we all relaxed in our living room and watched the movie "Willow." :)

Jeremiah and I both especially enjoyed the dessert portion of the night (I made pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and apple pie, with ice cream and whip cream of course!):
(I had to get a picture of the pies before they were gone)

That smile makes all my cooking/baking worth it :)

I would say that it was a success- thanks to Jeremiah for all his hard work with the walls, turkey, mowing the lawn, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, washing the dishes...basically taking over the chores that are becoming increasingly more difficult for me to do and adding them to his already busy schedule. I am very grateful for him!!

In case you were wondering...
Youth Conference went well, and so did our talks in church on Sunday. :)

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!!! We are grateful for all of our friends and family wherever you are!

P.S. In case you forgot I was pregnant, here is a photo of me on Thanksgiving at 36 weeks

35 1/2 weeks

2009-11-24T11:13:00.004+10:00

It was a lovely day on base last Saturday as Jeremiah and I did some errands. Here is a sample of what we see everyday:

And here are some pictures of my belly that were taken at 35 1/2 weeks:

Everything has been going well with the pregnancy and the baby's growth seems to be right on track. We're looking forward to having the baby at the birthing center here on island, as naturally as possible.

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! We wish we could spend it with family, but we will have a nice quiet dinner with the two of us and maybe one or two other people...and lots of food for leftovers!!!

Moving, baby shower, and belly

2009-11-12T18:18:00.018+10:00

We've been in our new house for almost 3 weeks now & have pretty much settled in.

Moving:
After a long week of packing up our entire house, we were very thankful to get lots of help loading/unloading from some of Jeremiah coworkers and the missionaries in our branch. The following day, the Young Women, Young Women leaders, and others from church came to our old house to help us clean it for our final inspection. Thanks to them, instead of breathing in chemicals and straining my back, I was able to unpack at our new house and wait for the internet people to come set our internet up. I'm so grateful for the kindness of people at church and in the Air Force. We wouldn't have been able to move without them. :)

Belly pictures:
Here I am at 32 weeks (right before we moved):

34 weeks (taken last Sunday):

Last week some people from church threw me a baby shower!

We played some fun games...

got lots of great baby stuff...

(I don't think I'm going to be as excited to see a package of diapers after the baby is born...lol)

...got some chocolates for me... :)

...& some good motherhood advice as well!

Some friends who came:

(Above: Tracy's mom is visiting because Tracy's about to have a baby too, any day now!)

Here I am with the people that helped put it together:

(L to R: Kim, Stephanie, Me, Grace, Lota)

The decorations that Kim put up were great (she is in our new branch at church and also works with Jeremiah on base)! As were the games (provided by Lota- she was in our old branch), the invitations (Grace- also in our old branch), and the emceeing/organizing the whole shower (Stephanie- also in our old branch)! I felt so grateful for all that they did to put on this shower for me and for all the gifts that people so generously gave. We are truly blessed and our baby boy will be well taken care of.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins...I know, not another recipe...

2009-11-12T16:28:00.007+10:00

Hello everyone. I promise to update you with pictures and news of the growing belly, new house, etc, but I just made these and I don't know if it's because I'm pregnant, but they seriously tasted AMAZING to me. It just hit the spot...I guess I had been craving baked goods lately and since I refuse to buy packaged baked goods at the store (for obvious reasons- the preservatives, transfat, and other junk they put in them), and I am really trying to eat healthy, I knew it was time to bake something yummy yet nutritious. I have struggled lately with that combination- making good tasting treats that are also healthy. Unfortunately, many of my "desserts" end up tasting more like snacks from the health food store (although Jeremiah always eats them and tells me they are good! These are the benefits of being married to a man in the military who could happily live off MRE's, versus a professional food critic.)

But anyway, I felt proud of myself today for experimenting with some healthier ingredients and coming up with a great tasting final product! You'll have to try it out and tell me if they are as good as I think they are. :)

So without further ado...

Lynleigh’s Healthy-But-Just-As-Tasty Apple Cinnamon Muffins:

• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup honey
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed (optional- adds omega-3s and additional fiber)
• 1/6 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/6 cup vegetable oil (or, to take out all fat, just use 1/3 c. applesauce and no oil)
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup fat free milk (or other if that's all you have)
• 2 large green granny smith apples- peeled, cored and chopped

Topping:
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/6 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter, cubed ("Smart Balance" butter blend is a good choice)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. Stir together flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and flaxseed. In separate bowl mix together oil, applesauce, eggs, milk, and honey. Combine dry and wet ingredients. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling 2/3 full.
3. In a small bowl, stir together ingredients for topping. Mix together with fork and sprinkle (or spread) over unbaked muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

I think I'll go have my fifth muffin now that the rest have settled in. I guess I should remind you not to make these right before dinner. (It's ok, I'm pregnant so I'll still be hungry...)

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

2009-10-31T14:52:00.004+10:00

Just in time for Halloween!

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine dry ingredients:
2 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
a shake or two of pumpkin pie spice (optional)

In another bowl, beat wet ingredients together:
1 cup pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Combine dry and wet ingredients.

Add chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.

Tip: Flatten & shape cookie dough by pressing down on it with the back of a greased spoon. This helps the cookies cook more evenly, and gives them a more appealing look.

Bake at 350 for 13-15 minutes.

Best served warm right from the oven, or chilled right from the fridge! :)

Refrigerate leftover cookies- they will keep for at least a week.

Happy Halloween!

enjoying october...

2009-10-26T09:12:00.007+10:00

Hey everyone! I hope you have been enjoying this October, and the beginning of the holiday season which will usher in our new baby in about 8 1/2 weeks (give or take a few)!

Just a few highlights of the past couple weeks:

I had the Young Women and leaders over for a sleepover at our house! It was a lot of fun. We played games, ate pizza, enjoyed some popcorn while watching a movie, and the next morning they helped me make pumpkin pancakes (which they had never had before) and cut up fresh fruit for breakfast. I would say it was a success!

Here are the girls- aren't they so cute? :)

Here's a "morning after" shot...I wasn't expecting a picture that morning, but thankfully it didn't turn out too great so you can't really see me. :)

This was a picture we took in Young Womens at church last Sunday, as it was my last Sunday in our branch (we'll be in another one after we move on base this weekend):

It will be sad to leave, but I know we will get to know everyone and become involved in our new branch. I hear there are a lot of church members who live on base (the Relief Society president will live down the street from us) which will be nice too.

Another thing we did last weekend was go to a Halloween picnic for Jeremiah's squadron at work on Saturday. I brought some of my famous pumpkin chocolate chip cookies :) and we enjoyed sitting by the beach at Gab Gab (our favorite beach on island) and getting to know some of the other airmen and their spouses. Besides the heat/humidity and the incredible amount of flies that wouldn't stay away from our food, and the sticky traps that kept getting stuck to my dress instead of the flies, it was pretty fun. :)

(This is my 31 week photo too)

Here's a close up of my cookies:

These are so good and have really become a tradition for me, that I started when I was in college. I would make them at least once sometime in October-December and people always fell in love with them (I think Jeremiah is already hooked). So, let me know if you want the recipe and I might consider posting it, or at least emailing it to you so you can enjoy them this fall season as well. This is like the only thing that makes me feel like it's fall here...because the weather never changes!

We will be moving on Friday/Saturday, so I probably won't post anything until we get internet set up in our new house and get settled in. So, Happy Halloween & see you in November!

Jeremiah's birthday!

2009-10-16T14:25:00.006+10:00

Jeremiah's birthday was on Wednesday. We were planning on celebrating that night, however, he had a church meeting at 6pm (way too early for a meeting if you ask me...he gets home at 5:15/5:30, and then has to leave again at 5:45 with only 15 minutes for dinner!). So, we decided to celebrate his birthday with a birthday dinner (of steak) & cake & ice cream the following night, Thursday, so he could actually enjoy it. He knew I might plan to have some people over too, but I didn't tell him any details.

So on Wednesday, we had lunch on base together, then I hurried to the store and then home to prepare for his Surprise Party that night! He had no idea. He thought he was just going to his meeting and then come home to watch a movie or something.

I invited some of our friends, and told them to be there at 7pm, because he would likely come home from his meeting around 7:15pm.

It worked out perfectly! We all hid, and one of our friends even got a picture of him when he first walked into a dark house and saw the streamers, & someone's head poking up, obviously a little confused:

After a few moments, we all jumped out and yelled "Surprise!" It was pretty fun. Especially for the 2 kids that were there. A little bit later, they did an "instant replay" of it over and over again while the "adults" were talking.

I made him a funfetti cake with funfetti frosting, just as he requested (except he thought we were going to do it the next day). I originally wanted to make a cake by scratch, you know, put some work into it and make it really yummy. But he said all he wanted was a regular box mix cake...with sprinkles (Jeremiah loves his sprinkles...) :) We also had Cake Batter ice cream and punch- the kind with rainbow sherbet mixed with Sprite. That was definitely my sugar intake for the week.

Here he is with some of his friends:

And here I am with their wives (my friends):

He got gift cards to Blockbuster and Coldstone, popcorn, & candy...there couldn't be a more perfect gift (that I can also enjoy!) for him. :) Movies and ice cream are probably two of his favorite things in life. Besides me. :)

Happy Birthday Jeremiah! (again)

Life in the 3rd trimester

2009-10-16T13:54:00.014+10:00

(30 week photo, with Tracy, who is 34 weeks)

I haven't really posted anything about what we have been doing since we got back from our trip in September. Mostly, I have been working on projects that I want to get done before we move (Oct.30) and before the baby comes (sometime around Christmas), such as scrapbooks, photo albums (of our wedding), editing videos for relatives, organizing our storage stuff (that is currently taking up 1 of our 3 bedrooms...and our next house will only have 2 bdrooms- one for us, and one for the baby...hence the need for organization), exercising, cooking healthy meals and keeping track of what I eat to make sure I get enough protein and have a balance diet for the baby, reading about labor/birth and practicing relaxation techniques to prepare for a natural birth, and my calling as Young Women's Advisor in church.

Jeremiah has been busy with work, church (Youth Conference is coming up and he is one of the district Young Men leaders, as well as finishing up his calling as YM Pres in our branch, until we move at the end of the month), also practicing relaxation with me, as he will be my "coach" during labor, as well as working on his share of things to do around the house.

With my long to do list and constant involvement in projects, time has really been passing pretty quickly for me. Weeks go by at an alarmingly fast rate, and now, being in the third trimester and steadily nearing the birth of our son, I have become more aware of how precious my time is. I find myself always trying to do something productive with my time, either to prepare for the birth, or to get the things done now that I know I won't have time for later. And now that I never watch TV (not that I did very often before), we have realized what a waste of money our cable is, so we're getting rid of it when we move to our new house. Instead, we got a Netflix subscription, so we will be able to watch movies, which we both love a lot more than TV anyway. Plus it's a lot cheaper too. :)

On to the more interesting things we have been doing...

A couple weeks ago the Young Women had a "Baby Shower" for me, as their Tuesday night activity. Obviously it wasn't with presents, but we had a lot of fun with some games and lots of desserts...right after my lesson on Sunday about good nutrition! :(

One of the leaders, Grace, did a race to see who could drink the most fruit juice from a baby bottle:

The YW President, Kitaela, did a game to see who could guess how many inches my waste was, so I modeled for them (I was 36.5", around the biggest part of my belly)

I was in charge of doing the diaper game that Val did with our family (have to smell the diaper to see what kind of kitchen sauce is inside). They really liked it:

Here are the Young Women's leaders smelling the diapers. :)

Heather did a game where you eat different baby foods and guess what the flavor is (I was so bad at that one!). It was all a lot of fun!

And last week there was an Air Show on base, where the Thunderbirds (a team of F-16's) came and did an air demonstration. I'm glad I brought earplugs because it was so loud- they flew down so low to the ground, and so fast! I know our baby could hear it because he was kicking me pretty hard!

Here we are waiting for them to start:

More to come about Jeremiah's birthday soon!

California Trip Part 2

2009-10-08T19:22:00.023+10:00

On Friday (August 28) we went to Griffith Park, a place our family used to go when we were younger. It seemed a lot smaller this time...especially the train, which we all rode:

We saw the ponies, but we were too old to go on them this time. :(

Then we had dinner at Phillipes in Hollywood where we met up with Quinn who came after his tests to hang out for the weekend:

On Saturday, we had some relatives drive to Grandma Deon's house from their various homes in California- Layne & Anita's family, Bonni & Kit's family, Berk & Erica, and Kent & Kevin were already in town from Utah so they dropped by as well (we missed the rest of their family, though!). We all had a BBQ by the pool and swam.

Ava is wearing the bathing suit we got her:

And then we all went inside for...a baby shower for me (& partly for Val too)!

We got some cute clothes, which we had to try out on Jeremiah first:

Val's diaper game was hilarious! She put a different kind of sauce from the kitchen inside each diaper, and we had to smell it to guess what it was. Sometimes it looked pretty gross...like a real dirty diaper!

This was my favorite picture of all:

Thanks for all you did to organize the shower Val, and everyone else who helped, and to everyone who gave us something for our little boy! We are looking forward to using the stuff we got!

At the end of the night, we took a family picture:

That night we drove to San Diego to spend a couple days hanging out at Val & Cody's place and then going to the temple.

We walked around Seaport Village:

Played with Ava:

And got a feel for what life is going to be like in a couple more months. :)

And a huge highlight of our trip was being able to go to the place where we got married a year ago- the San Diego Temple:

While we were there we were able to do some work for some of Jeremiah's family which was really cool. :)

We also got to see the almost-final version of my dad's movie, "The Mine," that he just directed, wrote, and produced. It was so good! Very scary...I was on the edge of my seat for most of it. Good job Dad! He also invited us to visit the studio where they are working on the final sound mix, and it was cool to see it on a big screen as they edited the sound.

Our next stop was Santa Ynez to visit mom on our way back to Travis AFB where we would be catching a plane to Guam. We got there pretty late at night, and in the morning she made us a nice breakfast & we watched Rivals (the movie that my parents met doing--they were actors) because Jeremiah hadn't seen it yet, and I went through some of my scrapbook boxes. Here we are right outside her front door:

On the drive up the coast, we saw a beautiful sunset and couldn't resist taking some pictures.

Classic Jeremiah pose:

And then we spent a week stuck in Hawaii (see previous posts from September)!

That's about it. Hope you enjoyed reading about our trip!