Da, Da, Da

Just this last week Leah has picked up some more sounds. She just loves to babble and say "da, da, da". If Logan's home he will usually answer her and say "yes, Leah, what to you need?" We hope that she knows the sound she makes refers to Logan as dad. And I didn't get my feelings hurt that she made this sound before ma, ma, ma.

Here's a video of Leah playing with our poker chips we use to play Sequence. She was playing with these for a long time with Braden the other day, so Logan used them again to keep her busy.

Playing on her stomach

We thought Leah wouldn't have any interest in being on her stomach and wouldn't learn to crawl. But just recently she has been playing on her stomach, reaching for things from a sitting position, and moving around a lot better. I was so surprised. Maybe it was because we went over to Logan's cousin Natalie's house where her youngest was crawling around. I hope he learned something from Micah zooming around.

Bargain Shopper

Since we moved to Orem, I have been searching Craigslist and other online classifieds in this area to find a rocker for Leah's room. And my persistence paid off when I found this thing. I guess the family was downsizing their furniture and did not have a need for it anymore. I paid only $30 for it, and it came with the ottoman. I was so excited to find, and I love sitting in it to read or just relax. And Logan laughs at me because I keep calling it "my chair".

I'm also looking for a love seat to go with our leather couch (given to us by Logan's generous parents), but we haven't been as successful. I just have to keep checking everyday. I'm sure we'll find another fabulous bargain piece of furniture.

Exclusive new video

We've taken lots of video the last few months and haven't been adding them to the blog. I'm pretty good about posting pictures because they download really quickly. The videos have to be converted down so they aren't such big files and then uploaded to Google. So it's a longer process.

We just barely looked back at a bunch of videos of Leah when she was five or six months old, and it's so fun to see her and how far she's come. After watching some of the video, we can't believe how much she can do now and how well she controls her arms and legs. Here she is trying to walk back and forth from Logan's mom to me. Just before she gets to us, she leans forward and dives into our arms. Pretty soon she will be walking and running. I probably should be grateful that she isn't doing yet and our house is still in order.

I will try to post some more video in the next few days. So stay tuned.




The Leah-go-round
To compensate for being a late bloomer for crawling, Leah has learned to spin around in a circle where she's sitting to reach toys and other items around her. This footage was taken in our Evanston apartment on the day we moved. She was just playing happily on the floor unaware that she would be moving to another state that very day.

You can also hear her saying "ba, ba, ba" in the video, which she started doing just a couple of weeks ago. And she also started babbling the "da, da, da" sound this week. When she says it and Logan is home, he will come running and ask her "did you call me?" We wonder if she knows that's what she will call Logan. More video of the da, da, da coming up.

Hail the Graduate!

So much has happened since Logan graduated that it's hard to go back and remember that week. But I wanted to post a few fun shots from his graduation. We were so proud to be there and see him earn his diploma after all his hard work. I especially liked his purple gown and academic robes. He looked so distinguished.

Leah was the only baby around that we could see at the graduation ceremony, and she didn't fuss at all. It was probably because she just had previously napped, and during the ceremony we tried everything to keep her happy. My mom gave her snacks, Logan's mom let her play with small packs of tissues, and my dad bounced her on his knee. The family behind us thought at we gave her medicine to sedate her because she was so good and quiet.

There was also a man who came up to us afterward and said that she was the cutest and most quiet baby he'd seen. And he mentioned that he was watching her eat strawberries at the reception held after the ceremony.

After graduation, we all changed out of our nice clothes into casual ones and ate dinner at Cozy Noodles in Evanston, a place Logan and I heard was really good but had never tried before. It was a yummy way to celebrate Logan's achievements and being all together. Leah was being pretty cute at the table so we had to snap a couple of pictures.

Amidst all the hustle and bustle of packing and moving across country, I forgot to post some fun photos of graduation week (two weeks ago) with both of our parents. We had so much fun with them going downtown and seeing Chicago. And they did a lot to help us pack and get organized. Thanks both moms and dads!

Here are some fun shots of our last adventures before we left Evanston:
We took a scenic boat ride with Logan's parents down the Chicago river and along the Lake to view the skyscrapers and learn more about Chicago history. This was one thing I really wanted to do before we moved away. It was so nice to be out on Lake Michigan and feel the cool breeze. Leah wanted to explore the boat and say hi to the little children on our ride. Logan's dad took some great pictures of the skyline. It was a breathtaking view. The picture below has the Sears Tower in the background.

On Friday my parents, Logan, and I went downtown, and Logan's parents babysat Leah for us. Logan really wanted to see the Field Museum before we left the Chicago area. My parents wanted experience real Chicago life so we took the L train downtown. Here's proof that they were brave enough to ride it. Thankfully we didn't run into any suspicious or noisy people.

We just had to take pictures in front of the museum. It was huge! And there were tons of globes on the museum grounds painted with different themes. Here's one with pinwheels.

Inside we saw tons of animals including lions and tigers and bears, oh my! I was a little scared so my dad was trying to protect me from the bear. Thanks Dad!










We also got pictures in front of the famous T.rex named Sue. If you look through the legs you can see my scared face. On the steps of the Museum you can see the skyline and the lake front.
It was so pretty and so nice to relax and enjoy the scenery before we moved and didn't know when we would be back.

Moving is not fun

Sorry I've been letting down my viewers lately. We just went through a tremendous move across the country back to the comfort of Utah Valley. After searching for a place to live all week, we found an apartment in the top half of a house in south Orem. We live just a block north of Logan's brother Braden and his wife Haley. So we will be going to church with them and will enlist their help for babysitting along with Logan's sister Kelcy while she's at BYU.

Moving is not fun, especially after doing it a year ago and picking one of the hottest days of the year. We did have a lot of helpers, and I just wanted to say thank you to all of them. But as everyone left and it was just the three of us surrounded by boxes, we just had to take a big sigh and say "We'll work on it later."

Leah has been adjusting pretty well throughout the whole ordeal, but she has her fussy times. I'm sure she knew something was going on when both grandparents came for graduation (Yea! Horray for Logan! No more school!) and we were frantically packing and cleaning. Now that we finally brought our own things back into an apartment and set up her room and crib, I thought she would be okay sleeping. But she woke up two hours later after I laid her down, and took awhile to go back to sleep.

Some day we get settled back into a routine but for now, she'll just have to adjust. And so will Logan and I. We have only a few more days before he starts his full-time job, so we need to get most of the house unpacked. I wish I could snap my fingers and it will all be put away.

Saturday at the Rose Garden

Last Saturday Logan and I took Leah to the Merrick Rose Garden in Evanston to have lunch and show her the flowers. We wanted to enjoy the weekend because Logan had just finished his final project and his college career. I also thought it would be a great place to take more pictures of Leah. We stumbled upon this garden when we first moved to Evanston and were looking for places to live. We thought it would be appropriate to visit just before we move away.

First picture: I have been searching my entire life to photograph this species of insect and my dreams finally came true. Here is the yellowis black dotis bug native to the north Chicago area. I've learned about this species from a National Geographic piece when I was a child and knew that someday I would see a live one. Okay, okay, I wanted to take close-ups of the roses and just happened to find this amazing specimen of the yellowis black dotis bug.

Second and third pictures:
Leah loved looking at the roses, mainly so she could rip off the petals. I don't know if you can tell in the big picture, but she's opening her mouth wide. And in the smaller one she is trying to put a petal in her mouth.







Fourth picture: Our lives have been so busy lately trying to make big life decisions and pack our house. So I finally decided to stop and smell the roses. We actually spent time here at the garden deciding if Logan should take the job offer in Provo. It's such a beautiful spot to enjoy nature and contemplate life decisions.

The last pictures: Leah is so interested in flowers that now when she sees them outside, she wants to walk right over to them and feel the petals. At the back of the garden is a water fountain, and we had to get a picture of Leah trying to touch the water. Every time she put her hand in the water, it would spray her in the face so it was fun to watch her figure it out.

EXTRA, EXTRA, Read All About It: Hardworking Student Receives Provo Offer

After lots of prayer, agony, and stress, Logan was offered a job this past Friday at his former employer, the Provo Daily Herald. His former editor contacted him with a full time position writing in the features section and writing enterprise stories for the metro section. He was also interviewed by two papers in Texas.

We spent the entire weekend contemplating this job offer and possibilities at other newspapers so he can let The Herald know first thing on Monday. They offered him the position before contacting anyone else and would need him to start in two weeks. They basically put together this position with Logan in mind. It was very overwhelming and flattering. We did not expect to receive such a great position and a higher salary. So we feel blessed and are excited to move closer to his family. We will leave next week.

This means we will be frantically packing the rest of our apartment and getting ready to make the trek out west. We're grateful for all of the support of our family and friends. And for those of you that don't live in Utah, if you're ever vacationing there, please don't hesitate to contact us. You can comment on our blog or send me an email.

Graduation Barbecue

We attended a barbecue planned by Logan's classmates last week. They were celebrating the end of their coursework at Northwestern, including the end of their media management project. They gave their final presentation on Thursday and impressed the client so much that the ideas they recommended will be used to launch products this fall. I'm very proud of them. They worked so well together, and even considering all the long hours spent working on their project, they still wanted to get together and hang out. And now I'm so glad to have my husband home so we can plan our future and pack our house.

Here are some pictures from the barbecue. Leah was a hit at the party, so much in fact that one of Logan's classmates wanted to keep her but asked Logan in the most awkward way. Make sure you read this story here. Back to the pictures. Leah let some of the girls hold her and even walk around with her. Logan's friends were impressed at how well behaved she is, and it's because she takes manner lessons at home.

She loved playing with this small rubber basketball at the party. One girl would bounce it to her, and I would help her catch it. She thought that was the funniest thing. I think Leah will be a future basketball star, so I better start teaching her the three-point shot. You can never start too early.

Nine months old

Leah turned nine months old on Monday of this week, and I've been meaning to put some cute pictures on the blog. Doesn't she look like she's striking a pose for the camera? I bet she is now used to all my picture taking.

Her nine month doctor's appointment is not until next week so I will update you on her stats later. She is as busy as ever and rarely wants to sit down anymore. She loves to hold on to my hands or Logan's to walk in each room and in every corner. Our apartment is not very big, so this makes for running around in circles all day and bending over until my back aches.

But the past two days we have made it to parks, so we can both get outside and enjoy the fresh air. She loves to watch kids playing, and I know that she wants to run after them. Some day she will be able to, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet. Someone in Logan's class the other day said that Leah is really looking more like a toddler. And it kind of made me sad because I want her to stay an infant, but at the same time, I'm so proud at the way she has grown and developed.




Here is a picture of her pulling out all of her books from the box. She kept leaning over towards the books just before bedtime, so I sat her down and let her go to town. It was nice that she pulled them out because it gave me a good excuse to actually put them back into the box neatly.










She loves to stand next to our coffee table and then hit it with her hand. So here she is in motion. She will side step up and down the coffee table like she is doing defensive slides in basketball. I told Logan that I'm starting her early (except she doesn't have a basketball yet, we're working on it). She will stand as long as I'm close by and if she sees me walk out of the room, she protests. I swear some days she thinks that we are joined at the hip. Okay, so we are.









The last picture has a funny story. I was putting her down for a nap and she had rolled over to reach something in her crib almost all the way on to her stomach. So I said goodnight to her and walked out of the room. She fussed a little bit after that, but it was usually a normal thing. After awhile I didn't hear her any more, which usually means that she has gone to sleep. So I open the door for a peek and found her laying completely on her stomach and looking asleep. She never sleeps this way so I went to grab my camera. Bad idea. As soon as she heard the creak on the hardwood floor, she popped up and tried to look back to see me. So this is her not really asleep and cranky because I came back into her room. And she wanted to be picked up.


P.S. Notice the time on this post. Yes, I was up this early this morning and most every morning these days. She wakes up bright and early when the sun fills her room and when she fills her diaper with a special present for her parents.

Chillin' at the park

Logan's school friend Christina took lots of pictures of me and Leah at a park during playgroup about two weeks ago. She was working on a school project about the use of technology and documenting our lives. She was so nice to put the pictures on to a CD and give them to us. I might have already posted other similar shots of Leah, but I think hers turned out a lot better than mine. She asked me how many picture albums I had put together with pics of Leah, and if I was going to continue doing that much for future children. And I hope I can be that diligent documenting my other children's lives even though raising more will mean less time for myself.

And I'll have to mention that the park we were at is called Leahy Park. Logan and I drove by this park when we first moved here and were still trying to decide what to name our baby. We were thinking of calling her Leah and when we drove by the park, I thought it was a sign that we should name her Leah. Though she will most likely have no memory of living here in the city where she was born, she will at least be able to see the pictures of what it's like.

Thanks again, Christina.

I will miss the scenery

And after a lot of complaining we've done about the limited parking, cold winters, narrow streets crowded with cars, and crazy driving, I will say that I'm going to miss it here. The temperature has been relatively nice the past week, with the humidity just over 50 percent. It gets pretty hot after you have been walking around for awhile, BUT there are beautiful tall, shady trees everywhere to block the sun. And that's one thing that I will really miss besides my friends in at church.

I've never lived somewhere with this many trees, and especially in such a urban community. My favorite times of the year have been the spring (which doesn't really start until part way through May) and the fall. And it's because of the trees and the cool weather. The fall brought an assortment of different colored leaves, and we would take drives up along Sheridan Road to see the trees and the million dollar homes. Trees and flowers have blossomed in the spring now, and I just love walking by everyone's yards here. Some of them are pretty elaborate. Hiring landscaping crews to plant tons of plants and flowers make some houses look like cottages in the woods.

I know where we hope to live in the future won't be as green as here, but I'm sure most other places aren't as windy and cold either and that's a big factor. Oh, I can't forget that I will miss living by Lake Michigan, but I don't need to ramble on about that one. Just check out this photo and the picture of Chicago's Shoreline to know why.