What's UP

Alongside finding out the unfavorable news of our baby boy, we've been up to a lot of "up" (happy, day-to-day) things the last few months. In my opinion, the experience with our son in and of itself has been way more "up" than down, and I still have SO much to share, but this post will simply be pictures and some commentary on our day-to-day, just to give ourselves a break from the "serious" tones from the last few posts. I also want these kinds of memories recorded for my own sake! :)

Be prepared. There are a lot of pictures. But don't worry, only minimal comments so you can scroll on through without much thought! Ok, just the first 2 pictures have longer comments (and the pizza one below- and for good reason! :).

What's UP

*First off, one of my favorite things is this new picture of Isaac we got at our last ultrasound appointment. I EVEN more in love with him simply because I can see him in this picture as he probably looks. It is hanging on our fridge and is on the background of both of our lockscreens on our phones, and I kiss him almost every time I see the picture. I love this picture so much.

“Skyping with Isaac”

About once a week, we'll go into "the office" as a family and "Skype" with baby Isaac, through the ultrasound machine.

Last week, Sydney came into the office wearing 2 different boots of mine, one on each leg and needed help zipping up the taller boot, which pretty much went past her hips. She looked at me and asked, “Baby Isaac wanna see?” I said sure, and turned the computer chair I was sitting in back toward her so my belly was facing her and could “see.” But this wasn’t what she wanted, she pointed to the ultrasound machine and said “on the computer!”.

This was clearly not the day she wore the boots and we
"Skyped" with Isaac- Just a random time I walked back
and caught her pretending to "Skype" with baby
Isaac. Her shoes of choice in this picture are
TAP SHOES :)

I had been jotting down my shopping list and we were to be headed out the door. I didn’t want to plug in the machine and get all situated and smear aloe vera goop all over me, but I looked at Syd’s sincere desire to show her baby brother her “cute boots” that she tried on just for him, and I couldn’t deny her the opportunity to “show” him, given his circumstance and this being “her time” with him.

During the little “Skype” session with Isaac, Sdyney showed off her boots and her newfound talent of singing “Patty Cake, Patty Cake.” When we finished, she waved at the ultrasound screen and said “Thanks for seeing me baby; I’ll see you later! Come out soon!”

UTMB threw dinners for the students and their families at random a lot toward the end of his 1st year and at one of the last ones Scott won the prestigious title of "Hula Hoop Champ 2013."

We were so proud. Now we know where Sydney gets her built-in "booty shakin'" skills from!

We whip this sucker out sparingly as it becomes the last possible peice of furniture we can

fit into our apartment and still manage to find some walking space- even if sparingly means once or twice a week :)

Finally, pictures from all the Easter festivities...2013!

Playgroup Easter egg hunt

Easter morning

Easter Sunday at cousin Dean and cousin Bonnies

<--Days after Easter, Syd found last year's Halloween costume and did an Egg "hunt" for her 

babies. Basically, she dumped out all of her easter eggs on the living room floor and put one of them on a candle holder where I'd hid one.

It was a challenging hunt!

She wanted to -->

show off all of her painted nails, which happen to be microscopic in this picture 

My newest addition to our 

Extreme Multipurpose 

(office, storage, guest, craft, "garage" and now "workout")

 Room. 

I keep weights on the shelf above Syds head and pump those as I cycle.

Best home pregnancy workout ever!!

LOVE IT!

Oh, and I forgot "play" room too. 

Our play group friends keep us busy almost every week.

Here we are at a fun place called Jump n' Jungle.

Sydney's awesome gangsta face and pretty princess castle creation.

LIFE LONG DISCOVERY!!

Considering Scott and I have dedicated 2 days of the week to 2 specific food items, I think it's safe to say these are two of our favorite foods. We use Fridays as an excuse for "Pizza Night" and we usually try and make a nice, warm, delicious batch of chocolate chip cookies every Sunday evening.

I enjoy discovering already amazing recipes and perfecting them.

We've accomplished this with he chocolate chip cookies, but had

yet to make the PERFECT PIZZA. Mission accomplished, and it's much 

thanks to a random video on allrecipes.com which I had to decipher and make up 1/2 the ingredients for, and my old pizza stone, which doesn't exist anymore...keep reading. 

Funny story about this pizza making discovery/achievement...

Scott came home from school and I had his science goggles on and was loudly telling Sydney to stay back as I struggled to delicately manhandle the floppy pizza and slide it into the smouldering hot oven. It was the scariest thing ever..especially when by the 4th mini pizza, it wasn't sliding as well and I was soo hot and sweating and then it took Scott and i both, sweating and with science goggles to get the pizza onto the hot stone. 

Clearly, we are not professionals...yet. Especially since we broke our stone..

Once this guy cooled down, I picked it up to

remove it and clean it and it litterally did this as

I picked it up. Uhhh..really?

Then I educated myself on pizza stones and got this beauty for mother's day. I wasn't about to let my pizza making dream die after one surprisingly successful, yet bad-ending attempt. I am VERY excited about it! Now all I need is a peel instead of a wooden cutting board to slide the pie with.


I promised somewhere that I'd post the recipe to this most amazing pizza ever which quite literally tasted just like an Italian restaurant. Props all to the recipe and the ingredients, and the stone, not myself. I've been striving (slowly over 4 years of marriage) for a homemade pizza that is half as good as this and so I'm way excited that it exceeded my greatest expectations for a homemade pizza! Can you tell I'm so excited about it? Just so you know, the two main tricks are using all fresh ingredients, no canned or ultra preserved stuff, and a pizza stone...and also I guess the recipe I used was just amazing. I'll post it if anyone actually asks for it or until I open a "Food Page" on my blog. Someday I will. *Update: Posted here, it's #1


More Syd pics..she loves reading. This was at her friend Liza's house...

...and then celebrating Liza's 2nd birthday.

I'm the nursery leader in my ward at church, so for 2 hours every Sunday, just after sacrament meeting, I get to hang out with Syd and these kiddos so their parents can actually get something out of church! 

Bubbles after clean up time is our end of the day tradition.

We are always at a park, somewhere on the island. 

Thought Syd would be surprised one day to know that she actually used to BEG to

help with the dishes. :)

On Earth Day (who even knew?) daddy brought home free seeds they gave out on campus and planted them in our pot with Syd. We ended up watching The Lorax that day too..quite appropriate, but not intentional! Glad we could educate her young about the Earth :)

She waters her flowers every day. :)

Syd playing doctor with her cute little friend Melinda. 

She learns from #1- Daddy! -who is still learning himself.

Birthday party for Syd's friend Miyah at the beach.

Walk after church by the bay. 

For the longest time I wouldn't even brows the baby section at stores because it made me feel kind of sad, but finally one day I felt ultra comfortable and not sad at all and came home with these.

I have these little baby boy outfits ung up on doorknobs and dresser handles around

our room so I can look at them all the time and think of Isaac. He may not have as many days of life as there are pieces here to wear but somehow, I just think that he will get to wear them all.

I sure have hope that it will be so! 

PS: Another post coming much sooner than this one did...as my sister and her fam. just came for a visit just this past weekend. And then, I will finally continue on with Isaac's Story. I've many more amazing things to share. 

Click Here for Part II to this post.