Just before Christmas, Ryan went to the doctor for his 15-month appointment.  He was 31 inches long (42 percentile), 22 pounds and 10 ounces (11 percentile) and his head circumference was 18.5 inches (42 percentile). I was pretty amazed that he had grown 3 inches in the last three months. The doctor also said his molars might be coming in. Ryan had 6 teeth forever (4 on top and 2 on the bottom). He just recently got 2 more on the bottom, so I thought that it might be a while before his molars actually came in. But much to my surprise, it was about a week later when I notice 4 molars breaking through. Adam and I are still enjoying Ryan more then words can express. He isn’t really saying much, but he does babble frequently. Every once in a while he does say something very clear and in context and then Adam and I stare at each other and wonder if it was just coincidence or if he really knows what he is talking about. He loves to be quizzed by Adam on his body parts and animal noises. Adam and Ryan are getting to be the best of friends, and when Adam is at work, Ryan will frequently roam the house calling for “Dada”.

Christmas vacation was especially fun since my whole family was there. Meg came out a little early, so that we had some relaxing time together. When she wasn’t working, we were going to the museum and hanging out with Trent and Shannon. It wasn’t long before we all were congregating down at Dad’s house for the festivities. Since Christmas was on Sunday, we decided to move the present opening till after church. We did get to read Luke, sing some Christmas carols, and drink egg nog that morning which made it feel more like Christmas. Present opening was quite an event since it was many people in a small area. Despite the chaos that ensued, we sure enjoyed spending time with each other. The day after Christmas, Adam caught a very early flight to Texas for his brother’s wedding. He had a great time and enjoyed getting to see his family. Just after dropping Adam off at the airport, I went on a girl’s day out. Sierra, Shannon, Meg, Heather and I got pedicures and went out to lunch. I know for me that this was especially relaxing since the pedicure included a back massage that was just what I needed. I sure like my sister and sister-in-laws; they are so much fun to be with.

Meg soon left to go on a short business trip in the middle of her vacation, so the rest of us meanwhile braved the aquarium. Adam had returned from the wedding, and with Trent and Blaine back at work and Chad being sick, he was the only guy in the group. When we got back from the aquarium, us girls headed to the Gap outlet for some shopping. Adam was gracious enough to watch the kids. It was our last day to have Heather around, and she will be missed; she is such a fun addition to the family.

Meg got back from her business trip in time to drive with us to Blaine and Sierra’s house for a New Year’s Eve party. Sierra expertly planned a night of games, food, movies and more. We celebrated the new year before promptly going to bed.

On Meg’s last day, we decided to hang out with Trent and Shannon one more time and play some games. Meg soundly beat all of us in the card game of monopoly more then once. For dinner we ordered pizza, and Trent offered to pick it up. He left, but it had started to snow and he wasn’t back with the pizza before we had to leave. As we got on the road, we could see the traffic in the opposite direction was completely stopped. Poor Trent. We kept driving and all of a sudden Trent pulled up next to us with a pizza. We rolled down our window to accept the pizza and ate the pizza on the way to the airport. Yum!

We feel so blessed that we were able to celebrate the holidays with people that we love and enjoy so much.

Adam mentioned he would like some one-on-one time with Ryan, so I headed to the Louisville temple while Ryan and Adam went to the Cincinnati museum. Adam hadn’t been to the museum for a while, so it was new and exciting for both of them. My couple hours at the temple were amazing, and I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to go. It was definitely great experience and can’t wait to get back.

Ryan turned 13 months a few days after Adam’s birthday. The updates on Ryan are that he is constantly eating more then we  think is physically possible. He is full of smiles and curiosity.  He can now say “hi” while waving and is almost too much fun to have around. We love him so much.

On Ryan’s birthday, we flew in to Sacramento. My aunt was gracious enough to let us stay at her place for the wedding. Before the festivities started on Friday, we went to Sutter’s fort and Old Sacramento. My favorite part of the fort was the blacksmith shop since we were able to watch a blacksmith at work. It was absolutely amazing to see the metal being shaped into something useful. We got a quick bite to eat at Old Sacramento before heading to the reception.
The reception was really nice and the food delicious. Heather is a gem, and we are so happy to have her in our family.

The next day was the groom’s luncheon and the wedding ceremony. Lunch was fantastic (especially since we practically got the bride all to ourselves), and the wedding ceremony was really tender and beautiful.
That evening, my wonderful Aunt Lorene pulled out the cookies and made us hot chocolate from scratch. Did I mention how much I like her?

The next day we went to church and headed out to start our adventure. We spent the night a couple hours from Humboldt Redwoods State Park and spent the whole next day hiking through the redwoods; they are spectacular! We hiked 3 trails along the Avenue of the Giants and it was beyond anything that I can even describe. The trees are so tall and there are so many of them you can hardly see very far at all. We got to see some famous redwoods like the Dyerville Giant which fell in 1991, but was 370 feet tall and 52 feet in circumference. We also got to drive through the Shrine Tree, and Ryan played in a house carved from a redwood. We definitely plan on visiting the redwoods again in a future vacation.

After the redwoods, we drove down the coast into Mendocino County. We got there just in time to eat dinner on a bluff overlooking the ocean as the sun set. The next morning we got up early while the tide was low to explore the many tide pools at pudding creek beach. We got to see and touch tons of little animals including starfish and anemones. After breakfast, we went to glass beach and a lookout point in Mendocino. The fog had set in and so we decided to wait for it to burn off so we could see the views. We toured the town of Mendocino, but it turned out to be a really pricey town with a large community of dirty hippies (clothing optional). We took our pictures on the bluffs and headed down the coast for equally good views without the undesirable company. We pulled off on the Navarro Trail, which was remote and had breathtaking views. After an hour or two, we reluctantly left the gorgeous views and headed for Calistoga.
Calistoga is in the Napa Valley area. We started off the day in the petrified forest, which was actually pretty cool to see. The forest was petrified when a volcano erupted and the silica from the ash replaced the cells of the trees over hundreds of years. The trail didn’t take as long as we thought it would, so we improvised. What do Mormons do in wine country?We go grape tasting. We took a tour of a winery and got to taste a bunch of different grapes that go into the various wines they make there.  We tasted Cab Franc grapes, Merlot grapes, Malbec grapes, Chardonnay grapes and a few others. I was partial to the Merlot and Chardonnay grapes. After the grape tasting, we stopped to see the Old Faithful Geyser of California. It wasn’t the coolest thing ever, but they did have a four horned sheep and fainting goats to feed.

The next leg of our trip was San Francisco. We stayed on the east side of the bay and took the ferry over to the city. We checked out Pier 39 with the sea lions before heading to Alcatraz. It was really interesting to see the cells and hear the stories of what had happened there. After a late lunch we headed to Fisherman’s Warf and went through the Maritime Museum. After that it was time to catch the ferry back to the hotel.

For the next two days we had a “hop-on, hop-off” tour bus that took us to all the famous sites of San Francisco. We could get off at any site and catch any later bus to continue on. We started the day going to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful day and we had amazing views of the city as we walked the bridge. We rode the rest of the tour bus route through Golden Gate Park, Haight-Ashbury, Alamo square, and other sites. Afterwards we went to Chinatown and had a great lunch at House of Nanking. We toured the fortune cookie factory and went to the Kong Chow temple, but after living in China, the temple was not impressive. It was fun to see the shops with dried everything (shark fin, sea urchin, sea cucumber, sea horse, abalone, etc.) and barter.

The following morning, we decided to take the subway under the bay and took the bus to North Beach/Little Italy. We toured the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral before hiking up the hill to the twisty section of Lombard street. We then walked through Ghirardelli Square to Hyde Street Pier and saw the old ships docked there. After lunch we went to Golden Gate Park. We walked through the prehistoric plant area where they filmed part of the ewok scenes in Star Wars and went to the Conservatory of Flowers. We weren’t really planning on going, but it was a cold, windy day and Ryan was done with being outside. The conservatory was having a special exhibit on “wicked” plants with poisonous and dangerous plants on display. The signs said it was a fragile environment in the conservatory so we needed to not touch the plants and even be quiet while in there. Ryan apparently didn’t read the sign because he either wanted to tear the leaves off of everything or scream when we wouldn’t let him. We took turns having one of us walk him around while the other stopped to read. Our subway trip back to the hotel ended our stay in San Francisco. We stayed the night at my Aunt’s house before heading back to the airport the next day. Ryan, exhausted from lack of naps during the trip, slept amazingly well on the flights home.
It was a great trip and we saw some amazing things, but it is nice to be back home again.

The following weekend, we headed to a hiking trail 20 minutes from our house. It actually turned out to be an awesome little hike that only took us about 2 hours to do. There was a pretty stream that ran by the trail (which we let Ryan dip his feet into at the end of the hike) and everything was so pretty and green. The whole hike was just really pleasant, and it was nice to get lost in nature for a couple hours.

Ryan has grown up so much recently. He couldn’t do much at all last time I posted, but during Christmas break (four months), he perfected turning in a circle and sitting up, at six months he was “crawling” (meaning he is very mobile, but he only uses his hands and feet; no knees) and at 8 months he can go from “crawling” to sitting position and he can also pull himself to standing position. This kid is just amazing. At around five months we dropped some feedings, so that I only feed him 4 times a day and he goes to sleep at 6:30 pm and wakes up at 7:30 am. He also moved to two one-hour naps around this time. We started him on rice cereal just before 5 months; the first try didn’t go so well and I thought we might have a picky eater, but the second try he scarfed it down and since then he will eat just about everything we put in front of him. Within the last month, we have started giving him cheerios and he loves them. He only has two teeth (which he got at about 7 months), but he sure enjoys gumming food and feeding himself. Even though he has tons of toys, his favorite activity during the day is following me wherever I go. Together, we do laundry, make beds, cook dinner, dust, vacuum- you name it. We also go on walks together, which we both really like. The nicer weather has made it very enjoyable. He likes to babble, and when he is upset it is especially funny because sounds very distressed and heartfelt, but it is still just nonsense words. He still loves blowing raspberries, but his new favorite thing is to scrunch his nose and sniff really loud- it is so funny. He still has gorgeous blue eyes and very little hair. I can hardly believe he is nine months now, and we are so happy to have him around.

My sister Meg came out to see Les Miserables in Louisville. So we had a girls night out (till 3 am actually) and it was full of adventure. Meg was such fun to see for the weekend, and she really got Ryan to crawl.

We skipped my birthday this year since there was so much going on, and I wasn’t expecting much for Mother’s Day (I knew I was getting breakfast since I saw him bring in some groceries), but Adam really did some amazingly sweet things. He MADE me a breakfast quiche (I love quiche), and it was spectacular. We also had fresh fruit for breakfast, and he had put together an awesome book for me. I am so lucky to have my boys!

My mom passed away early March 3, 2011. Her passing has been a very bittersweet experience. While the heartache and grief has been paramount at times, I feel that this whole experience has been packed with blessings, which I am very grateful for. These blessings have been both colossal and acute, but if nothing else about her passing, I want to remember these blessings.

I was blessed to see the throngs of people that visited, wrote letters, cooked meals and offered other service as my mom struggled with stomach pain, a stroke, a seizure, and aggressive colon cancer that had spread. So many people shared with me their fondest memories of my mom and all the amazing things she had done for them at one time or another. It was inspiring to see how much of a difference she has made in the lives of others.

I am so grateful that I was able to visit my mom frequently during the last few months. Although I was finishing my MBA, taking care of a new baby, and holding a calling at church, none of this inhibited me from staying at my parent’s house for weeks at a time. I hardly remember having difficult school assignments during this time, my baby was amazing and would fall asleep easily in the middle of the hospital, and my calling at church didn’t require my attendance. In addition, I have a wonderful husband who would come and visit me on weekends. The time I spent with her before she died is full of memories that I will cherish forever. Even as I watched her peacefully pass away and in the days and weeks that followed, I felt immense comfort and calm.

While these are only a handful of the blessings that I saw and felt, all these blessings individually and collectively increased my faith and testimony in Jesus Christ and His gospel. I am so grateful for my eternal family; I know I will get to see my mom again someday. I am grateful for her example, and I am grateful for all the memories we had and for everything she taught me. She was a very special lady, and I am so grateful I got to be her daughter.

We also went to a Chili Cook-off/ Halloween Party at the church. We dressed Ryan up as a little pinto horse and I entered my three-bean turkey chili into the contest. Much to my surprise, I won third place! There were also jars of candy on each table and you had to guess how many pieces were inside. Adam’s guess beat at least 12 other guesses, much to the disappointment of some of the little kids at our table. He got to take home the jar of candy.

In other news, Ryan went in for his two month check up. He weighs 13 ½ pounds (75-90 percentile), and he is 24 inches long (75-90 percentile). He is tons of fun, and he is starting to grab at things, to make lots more noises, and to laugh. He loves to roll over from his stomach as I try to take pictures of him. He is sleeping well at night; he wakes up once during the night (9:30 to 7:30), but he likes to mix it up. Sometimes he eats at 2:30 and sometimes it is 5:00, or any other time in between. We sure like him!