Paisley Dawn Young

It's been a little while since we've posted anything on here. Most things get posted on Facebook and our blog gets neglected. A recent major event, however, has prompted us to post an update.

Paisley Dawn Young was born on March 25th, 2010 at 7:54pm. She was known as [TBD] for a week as we agonized over what we were going to call her until we were forced to make a decision by our insurance company. We're happy with our choice. We chose Paisley just because it's cool, but we named her Dawn after Cindy's father, Don.

While at the hospital, we took advantage of a free photo sitting. After the photographer finished, she showed us the photos on the computer and gave us some options to purchase a package. Not only were the photos pretty bad, but the prices were astronomical. Dave decided to take matters into his own hands. With a lot of help from Cindy and her mother, Nina, we got the following...

For you Facebook users, more photos are available on Dave's account if you are friends with either Dave or Cindy.

We were blessed to have Cindy's mom here almost a week. She cooked, cleaned, babysat, and kept Aydn happy after we got back from the hospital. We honestly don't know what we would have done without her.

Big News

So we haven't posted anything in quite a while - we've been super busy. For starters, we moved to a new house, still in our ward. It's just a little 2 bedroom, 1 bath, but we're on more than 2 acres with TONS of trees, including peach, grapefruit, lemon, orange, fig, pecan, plum, and apple. We're hoping to be able to buy it once our landlord decides he's finally ready to sell, but he's waiting for the market to pick up a little. In the meantime, I need to learn to can. Apparently we get quite the crop from the grapefruit, fig, and apple trees in particular, though we hear the peach trees have gone wild and don't produce anymore. Bummer.

We still haven't completely unpacked, even though we've been here for almost a month. I'm almost 9 weeks pregnant and have been struggling with morning sickness. We're really excited (especially now that I've been to the doctor and got that first ultrasound - love seeing the heartbeat and little wriggles) and I'm finally at peace with having a house full of boxes and a sink full of dishes. I just keep telling myself that I'm pregnant, not lazy. =) I got a new prescription for the nausea at my appointment yesterday, so hopefully I'll be able to do more than... well... nothing.

I'll get Dave to post the ultrasound pictures when he gets home this evening, although it doesn't look like anything more than, as Dr McNeal put it, a snowman. =)

Aydn is still growing. He's 20 months and super busy and too smart for his own good. He can say his own prayers, though he sometimes goes right from "Heavenly" to "please bless us." He can count to ten if we help him remember four and seven, and yesterday he started saying his ABC's by himself. Of course it went something like, A B C E F H J K L P S T, but even with skipped letters, they were at least in the right order. WE thought it was cute, anyway. He climbs on everything, including the dog kennel (not a small one, mind you - the top is countertop height), his dressers, and anything else that has a foothold. He's happy to go to nursery and to friends houses (I'm so glad he doesn't scream anymore, even if it was only for 30 seconds), and is more ready to potty train than I am. (I just don't feel up to focusing on it yet - maybe with the new meds I'll have more energy to do nothing else for a few days, but as of yet I'm not excited about having to clean up accidents while feeling so sick.) It's fun to watch him pretend, mostly with cars - if he sees a car or truck, he'll all of a sudden get a very focused look on his face and use his hands to drive while making awesome car sounds, including screeching the tires whenever he "stops." He's such a joy - even as he enters his "terrible two's," complete with temper tantrums and stubborn refusals. He's always polite - asking "Mom, [whatever he wants, usually juice or grapes], pease" EVERY TIME! And always followed by "ace ooo" (thank you). (The Dr was impressed at his last checkup that he's saying 3 word sentences already. I know, I'm bragging, but as a proud mom, I'm allowed.)

Our camera hasn't been used enough lately, but we'll get some pics up soon. I hope! =o)

New Hobby

Dave and I have been hired to do the photography for our niece's wedding next week. Our payment consists of a big chunk of the funds needed to buy the equipment needed for such an undertaking (otherwise there is NO WAY we could afford it) so we have some new toys! =)

We did some preliminary photos of Brittany in her dress last weekend and are having a lot of fun. We hope to be able to eventually start making a little money with this fun investment, which means we need a lot of practice - so let us know if you'd like to be our guinea pigs. =)

Gotta plug my aunt's new cookbook!


Help! The Vegetarians are Coming to Dinner!

That’s the name of a new cookbook from Janice Morgan. It’s a vegetarian cookbook with a twist—it was written specifically for non-vegetarians. This book was published as a fundraiser to pay adoption fees for three Ukrainian siblings so they can stay together. This book not only supports a worthy cause that anyone can get behind, but it’s also a cookbook that offers something a little different.

That “something different” is a collection of vegetarian recipes geared toward people for whom a typical dinner is a quick casserole with a salad on the side. “You can’t generally feed your family tuna noodle casserole one night and baked tofu on a bed of arugula the next, or you’re going to be putting a lot of leftover tofu in the fridge while somebody else is calling out for pizza. These recipes are for the tuna noodle casserole people. I even made a particular point of including a lot of recipes made with good old cream of mushroom soup” Morgan says.

The inspiration to finally publish her cookbook was the pending adoption of three children from Ukraine. The Morgans started out looking for one child, but found a pair of sisters that spoke to their hearts, and they couldn’t consider separating them. After getting underway with the process, they discovered that the girls had a brother as well, and they couldn’t leave him behind. They will be traveling to pick up the children in the summer of 2009.

Janice Morgan lives in Arizona with her husband and one son (so far!) Her book can be found at
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/help-the-vegetarians-are-coming-to-dinner/6283459 and on Amazon.com

Things to Remember

Tonight Aydn starting getting into something he shouldn't and when I told him not to, he pointed his finger at me and said, "No, no, no, no." I'm proud of myself for not smiling at the cuteness - instead I told him that he was not allowed to tell Mom "no," that Mom told HIM "no." He turned his tiny little finger around and pointed it at his belly, looked up at me and said, "No, no, no, no." I couldn't help but smile that time!

A little later, Aydn was climbing on me and Dave pointed the camera at us. I told him I didn't want a picture taken of me because I didn't feel my hair was up to scratch. He asked why and I said because I hadn't done anything special to it since I had slept on it. Scoffing, Dave said sleeping on it hadn't made it look bad. The conversation continued something like this...

Cindy: Did, too.
Dave: Did not.
Cindy: Did, too.
Dave: Didn't.
Cindy: Did.
Dave: Didn't.
Aydn: DID!

Aydn put his tiny foot down, effectively ending the debate. :-)

Girls Camp

I'm home from Girls Camp. It was so much fun and much more spiritual than I expected. Every activity focused more on how it could be applied to the gospel than how it applied to camping. It was great to be able to listen to the girls reflect on what they learned and how it helped their testimonies grow.

The down side is that they released me as soon we got back, but I'm grateful for the time I had with these amazing young women. (For more details, see my facebook picture album.) It is so good to be back with my family (thank you, Dave, for taking care of Aydn while I was away!) and to have indoor plumbing again! How good that first shower felt after I got home! =)

Almost Time!

I'm packing for Girls Camp!! I am so excited to leave Wednesday morning! We'll come home Saturday, so Dave will have Aydn all to himself for a few days - really only 3 that he has to worry about - Saturday morning our friends are going through the temple and getting sealed and we have friends watching Aydn during that and soon after I'll be home. I think he's going to head down to St. David to get a little help from his family for a few days. Plus, if he does that, he can work with my sister's hubby and make a little dough rather than just watch Aydn all day, which pays heavily in eternal dividends, but doesn't really keep the electricity on. I don't really care what he does - I'm going to Girls Camp!!!! Yay!!!!

Just for fun:

Since when do kids ever use toys for their intended purpose?

Aydn and his best friend, Klinton, or Tin-tin, as he calls him, driving the... basketball hoop. I watch Klinton and his siblings twice a week. Aydn loves having friends over and will stand at the window looking for "Tin-tin" on days when they don't come. So cute.