Playing with Grandma

Happy Birthday

We were in Utah for Richard's birthday, so we sent him this picture.

1

Drumstick

Enjoying the end of grandma's drumstick.

11 Months

At 11 months:

-In the process of moving up to 9-12/12 month clothes (but still wears some 6-9)

-Still loves to eat, but is on a veggie strike

-Got his first ear infection :(

-Starting to let go of furniture and trying to stand on his own

-Took his first step (hasn't done it since)

-Learned his second word, "hi" -- sometimes he will wave and say hi at the same time

-Waves

-Claps

-Likes to yell at people in the checkout line until they pay attention to him and then he gives them a nice big smile

-Enjoys playing with toys more

-Loves to skype with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Jordan

-Sent his Uncle Justin off to Brazil for the next 2 years

-Finally got his 3rd tooth

-Diaper changes are still torture

-Dances when music starts

-Thinks his puppy is hilarious

I can't believe that my next monthly Soren update will be his BIRTHDAY!!!

Try Not to be Jealous

I hate to tell you this, but I have the best brothers in the whole world.  I love them so much.  They are both such wonderful people and I love seeing them grow up and make such good decisions.  

I am 5 and 7 years older than them, so I am sure that they feel I was a little (okay...A LOT) too bossy and motherly at times.  But I really do love them and they are 2 of my best friends in the whole world.  I want the best for both of them and I can't wait to see what the future holds for them.

Farewell, See Ya in Two!

So, as you now know from the last post, I am a horrible person, and I left my husband on his birthday.  But I really had a valid reason.  My brother (who is now Elder Beary) was leaving on his mission.  Soren and I went to Utah for 15 days to spend time with my family before he left.  This post may be long and random.  But I decided it was just easier to document the whole trip in one post in chronological order than to do a bunch of different posts.

Soren loves being at grandma and grandpa's house.  He gets spoiled, getting new toys, clothes and getting to try lots of delicious treats.

I was able to go with my brother when he went through the temple.  Jordan was a fabulous uncle and had a wonderful time babysitting my little man.

Spending time with Uncle Justin

 Jordan also had his Eagle Scout Court of Honor while we were there.

My dad is seriously the Soren Sleep Master

Cuddling with Great Grandma

We went to the splash pad.  The water was too cold for me, I'm a Texan now!  Uncle Jordan was the only one brave enough to get in and play with Soren.

This picture had to be documented because we have a picture of
Justin sitting in the fridge when he was little.

Grandma gave him the end of her drumstick,
he was quite pleased.

 Monday night Justin got set apart as a full time missionary for The Church of 

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Then we had to take him to the airport.  That wasn't so fun.  :(  He was so excited to go, but the nervousness set in as soon as we got the airport.  But I think his excitement was still stronger than the nerves.  We are so proud of him and the decision that he has made to serve the Lord and the people of Brazil for the next 2 years.  We miss him like crazy, but we know he is where he should be and where he wants to be.  We got our first email from him on Wednesday.  He is happy and working hard to learn the language and he loves his companion.

Last picture with Uncle Justin until 2014!

We did a lot of other things that I don't have pictures of:
-Went to the BYU duck pond with some friends
-Went to dinner with friends
-Went to lunch with grandma...a lot!
-Went swimming with my aunt and her cute girls

We had such an amazing trip and I am soooooo grateful to Richard for letting us be gone for so long and understanding how important it was to me to be there for his farewell talk and to take him to the airport.  

Tulsa...Sure Why Not??

Richard's birthday was while Soren and I were in Utah :( so we celebrated the weekend before.  Birthdays are a big deal to me (not just my birthday, of course I love mine the most, but I love everybody's birthday) and I love surprises.  So I rarely tell Richard what the plans are for his birthday, it drives him a little bit crazy, but he is a good sport.

This year I was having a hard time figuring out what we were going to do.  I was doing my daily Groupon perusing when I came across a two night stay in Tulsa, OK.  So, I googled how far of a drive it is from Dallas to Tulsa and discovered it was just over 4 hours...we can do that, I thought and I proceeded to purchase the groupon.

On Friday, I told Richard that I was going to take him to work (he usually rides his bike) because I needed to pick him up so we could begin his birthday festivities.  He had NO idea what was going on.  So we started driving and he was very confused as to where we were going.  There was a cooler and the stroller in the back seat so he thought maybe we were going to a park or something.  Earlier in the day he had texted me, "if we are going to be outside bring me some shorts and a hat."  So as we were driving he asked if I had brought shorts and I said yes.  After about 30 minutes of driving I decided I was ready to spill the beans.  It was about 5:30 and I told him that Sam (our GPS) said that our estimated time of arrival would be 9:30.

"FOUR HOURS???  Where are we going, what is 4 hours north of Dallas?  Are we going to Oklahoma?"

"Yep.  We are going to Tulsa."

"Haha, why?

"Why not?"

"Sounds fun to me, I'm excited."

And there you have it, I pride myself in my ability to surprise people.  :)

Needless to say, there isn't much to do in Tulsa, but I had scoped out a few things (mostly places to eat).

Saturday morning we found a little diner for breakfast then we swam at the hotel.

For lunch I had scoped out a delicious looking taco truck, but we were disappointed to learn that it was closed on Saturdays (we soon found out most of Tulsa is closed on Saturday...weird).  So we drove around, me very disappointed, trying to figure out where to eat, when we stumbled upon another taco truck.  It was delicious!  And you can't beat $7 to feed two people!

After lunch we went and walked around University of Tulsa.  Richard loves walking around different campuses.  It was very pretty.  In the chapel on campus they were setting up for a wedding so that was cool to see.

After walking around campus we went back to the hotel so that Soren could take a nap.  Then we headed downtown to walk around...again, Richard loves to walk around downtowns.  He must be a civil engineer or something...
As we were walking around we quickly discovered something strange about this town.  It is seriously SHUT DOWN on Saturdays.  We were downtown, in the heart of the city, and no restaurants were open...not even Quiznos...weird...most of them were breakfast and lunch only M-F.  It was weird.

Luckily the place I had scouted out on the internet for dinner was open...one of the few places that was...I was very close to being 0 for 2.  We had dinner at Joe Momma's pizza.  We waited for over an hour for our table (I guess that is what happens when you are the only restaurant open...), but it was well worth the wait.  It was SO GOOD!!!

Sunday morning we found a 9:00am sacrament meeting to go to before starting our drive back to Dallas.  But on our way out we had to go find Bixby High School.  I know you are all saying, "Bixby, OK...what is so great about that...never heard of it."  I know, but you should have heard about it.  If you haven't heard of Bixby then you need to read the Midnighters trilogy by Scott Westerfeld.  We have both read them and thoroughly enjoyed them.