Welcome to our World

Here's one of the 2 holidays this brother & sister get to share the same number of. I hope they & Kaelah are the best of friends someday! Of course tiny Michelle didn't get much out of the day except sleeping, eating, & diaper changes, but the rest of us had a great, symbolic, lunch due to Grandma & an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Now that I look back on it, the best part may have been able to capture our 3 children in the matching Easter outfits Grandma bought them. The 2 babies are growing up so fast!

This time of year always seems special. It's not just that spring is finally in full swing, even though that's wonderful indeed. Here's just a glimpse of some of the things I've been thinking about concerning this time of year: 10 years ago I was finishing my freshman year of college. I was so jealous that my guy friends were all filling out mission papers or getting their mission calls already. 9 years ago I was turning in my own papers & ah hum, meeting my future husband. 8 years ago I was on my mission in Taiwan. It certainly was the right place for me to be. 7 years ago Dan proposed at the tennis courts we had played on when we first hung out. 6 years ago we moved to Colorado so Dan could begin is dream job. It's such a strange thought to me because the longest I've ever lived in the same town was in Iowa City for 6 years as well. I found myself mentally preparing to move & thought about what we should pack & what we should leave behind...

Every year my work has a special day where children are allowed to come to work and visit. For the first time this year, Kaelah was able to come with me to work. Kaelah really enjoyed being able to get ready in the morning to "Go to Daddy's work." She had been looking forward to it, and has been talking about being able to go again next year. All the kids get the benefit of visiting a science demonstration put on the by the company. They set up booths for the older kids to explore all of the projects our company is currently working on. They also had a liquid nitrogen demonstration which Kaelah really enjoyed. It turns out it is really fun to see objects get frozen instantaneously and then shattered. Of course she didn't mind the chocolate chip cookies they gave out to the kids either. Her favorite part of seeing Dad's office was the giant white board with markers. Those can provide hours of entertainment. After seeing Daddy's office Kaelah was able...

Some notes I jotted on the calendar since Michelle was born: On March 28th Kaelah created an imaginary big white dog named "Silly" who had a yellow collar & leash. On March 29th Danny waved good-bye to Daddy for the first time & uses the sign for "drink." On March 31st Danny used the sign for "bird" when he saw geese at the zoo with Grandma & Shannon. On April 1st Danny clapped his hands & made the sign for "baby" as I sang Baby Beluga to him & Kaelah in the bath tub. On April 2nd Kaelah went upstairs & brought me her pillow Grandma Wilcox made her so Michelle could eat on it. On April 4th Danny crawled up the big stairs AND stood up all by himself. On April 6th Danny began clicking his tongue. On April 10th Danny crawled over to Michelle & gave her a toy & Kaelah, upon being put to bed on Saturday night, told me, "Nursery is fun. Church is fun. I love going to church." She's also pretty excited...

It was a Saturday morning & at 7:30am I woke up feeling funny. About half an hour later I figured out I was having contractions & began timing them using the app Dan put on his iPhone. Kaelah & Danny woke up so we ate breakfast. I couldn't finish eating very well & when it was 9am I decided to wake up Dan & show him his iPhone. He was pretty surprised. It was still a week until my due date & that day had been slated to get ready for the baby. At 10:30am we decided it was time to take Kaelah & Danny to the babysitter & call the doula & the OB. Here's a picture I took of my happy family b/c I thought I would miss my cute children while I was in the hospital. Turns out they were even cuter when I got home a few days later. (; When I talked to my doctor he wasn't concerned a bit since I was a first time mom. He was on call so told me to come in whenever. After talking to my doula she decided to drive up from her house about half an ...

One of the reasons why I love where we live is because of people like this: Without them, there wouldn't have been a great Chinese New Year party for us to go to in February (or pictures of it). We had a wonderful potluck. I wish I could tell you I make great Chinese food, but I do supply information such as how to say "Happy New Year" in Mandarin. (; It's amazing to me the things that entertain small children the most. Thanks for making Danny laugh so much! We all had a wonderful time. 好吃! Happy year of the Tiger, everyone! If you'd like to know more about 2010 or what Michelle's personality is supposed to be like, visit here: http://www.yearofthetiger.net/

My mother & I really wanted Danny J. to have some professional pictures taken before he became a big brother. Valerie, you saved the day! And just in time because 2 days later his little sister was born. Whew.

With Michelle being the youngest of 3, I didn't expect a baby shower. And besides, I didn't want to jinx the one pregnancy that seemed to be going well for Dan & I. But after I was 37 weeks along, I suddenly wanted a chance to play all those silly baby shower games, but not make people feel like they had to bring presents. Hence, the "pregnancy party" began to take shape. We had guests bring brunch food instead of presents and had a grand old time. So this is how big my belly was at 38 weeks! Good thing we had the party when we did, because the next Saturday Michelle was born! Danny & Ryan were the only boys/children around. Turns out Danny J. loves balloons and parties just like his big sister. (But she wasn't feeling well, so hung out with Dad all morning instead.) Thanks to my beautiful models, here's a picture of the wonderful diaper cake & refreshments. Thank you, Shannon, for throwing me my pregnancy party!