Hope When Hope Is Gone

I taught James' 14-15 yr old Sunday School Class yesterday so that he could have more time during the week to prepare for finals. This was the video that I made to show at the end of the lesson "Look to God & Live" on Moses and the Brass Serpent Staff. My old roommate, MaryAnn and I originally made this as a powerpoint to music, but I made it now conveniently into a video. I hope you enjoy it. The song is called He Is by Hillary Weeks and has the most beautiful message of hope. My hope is that during the week you feel and see the love of the Savior all around you.

Splishing & Splashing at Six Months

MaryKate is officially 6 months and at her doctors appointment weighed in at 19 lb 1 oz and 27 1/2 inches long. This puts her in the 95 percent for height and 90 percent for weight... The good news is her head is back on the charts! Her cranium is now only 97%. Hurray for 3 other kids out of 100 having bigger noggins than MK!

She is eating solid foods! She and I both don't love it yet, but everyone tells us it takes time. (Its been 4 days) So far this week she's had rice cereal twice and oatmeal cereal many times. I put it in and she spits it out... repeated over and over and over :)

MaryKate loves her bath time. She has graduated to the big tub and thinks its the greatest thing in the world! She loves to splash, splash, splash! For modesty purposes, I put her in her bathing suit and had James video her so that Cambria, her cousin, could see "Her Baby MaryKate" in the bath tub. Here you go Cambria! Enjoy and sing along!

Last week we got to spend an afternoon with Carrie and Adam doing fun things in Salt Lake together. MaryKate & I took them on a fun free tour of Sweets Candy Factory. They give you fresh yummy candy right off the line & these awesome hair nets!

While James was taking a final & studying his brains out, we also took them to Mars!

And to the Moon! (or maybe just the planitarium... you decide)

If you know us well, you know we live above a dry cleaners and Sally the Seamstress, who has been MaryKate's pseudo-grandma, retired this month. So we made her a cake and had a little party down stairs at the cleaners. We're sad to see her go. She gives great baby tips!

Almost six months...

First our family's progress in one sentence a piece.

James has two and a half weeks of school left this semester and is taking wedding photos this weekend.

Kathy is getting published for her help on research aimed at curbing childhood obesity and is looking for new things to do.

MaryKate is writing her thesis on the reason objects that are heavy tend to be pulled down more by gravity (a.k.a. why her head makes it hard for her to sit up).

The rest are just pictures James took with his new camera.

And yes they are all of MaryKate, except the last one which was the view off of our porch this morning.

p.s. in these two pics, Kathy's arm is photoshopped out. MK is almost sitting up but is not quite there yet.

Spring Break in the Sunshine!

James had Spring Break and we decided to flee from the snowy mountains and head for the sunny skies of Arizona and California. First we stopped in Flagstaff and stayed with Kaylyn & Darren for a night and then went to Phoenix for 2 days to stay with Phillip, Alicia, & Lila. It was so fun!

This is a fun little pic of Cousins: Emmett (Phillip's son) and MaryKate. He is 10 days older and is the only baby we've seen that can make her look average size... He's actually bigger! What beautiful eyes he has!

They took us out to eat at one of my old high school favorite restaurants near my house called "Chino Bandido". It is a mixture of Chinese and Mexican and has amazing snickerdoodles and lava cookies. James and I haven't recommended a cheap local restaruant in ages... so we decided we have to recommend this one if you are ever in Arizona. We devoured the food before we could get a picture of it, but I converted James. He LOVED it! Here's the website link for it if you're interested: www.chinobandido.com

We also visited James' sisters, Bonnie & Dawn's families in Lavine and then drove down to Tucson to hang out with my parents, brother David, & sister Becky. This is a pic of Becky's son Malachi with his awesome paper airplanes that he made with me at the park.

After Arizona, we drove to San Diego, CA to stay with my Aunt Jen & cousin Laura's family. She got us in for free to the San Diego Zoo. It was our first time there and we had a blast!

MaryKate loved looking at all the animals and plants. She was looking at a baby gorilla here.

It was so niceto relax as a family! James didn't even bring his books. We had him all to ourselves!

James and MaryKate at the beach.

It was too windy to put her bathing suit on and the wind made her gasp for air every 3 seconds. Maybe she's still a little young to be a beach bum, but maybe next year she'll love it more!