Texas Thus Far

Last week, Matt and I dyed my hair purple and then packed our bags to head down to Texas with Baby.

It was Tiny's 2nd flight and she was great.

This time she had fun looking out the window.

I spent the whole time looking out it too as we past over the plains.

There were some pretty amazing clouds from the recent tornadoes.

They were huge! So big that we had to weave around them for most of our flight.

When we landed my grandparents were waiting for us. 

I was excited. I always like visiting this state.

After all I was born here...and even though I only lived here for 5 years, I still have some Texan pride.

(Not so much so that my house is decorated with the state and state flag everywhere.)

We passed through San Antonio and drove a while before we got to the ranch my grandparent's live on.

It has always been a fun place to visit, and I was excited for Matt to come here with me.

There are also a TON of animals at this ranch. Madeleine got to experience this first hand when Chewy the deer came up to the porch to check her out.

Then he licked her foot.

Baby with Pop

 On Monday, we drove up to Austin to visit our friends, Natashya and Andy.

We had so much fun.

Baby went swimming for the first time.

Baby's first time at the pool

We talked a lot, made pizza, went to Stein Mart (so jealous they live so close to one), tried on shoes, played video games, and probably other stuff that I can't remember. 

We also made this Hot Fudge Pie recipe.

The original blog post is really fun to read (you can read or look at pictures of it here)

Things you need

2 mixing bowls (one needs to go in the microwave)

1 stick of butter

1.5 oz of unsweetened chocolate

1 c of sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp of vanilla

1/4 c of flour

2 Tbs of milk

A tub of vanilla ice cream

(handful of nuts if you want)

What to do

Preheat oven to 350*

Spray a glass or ceramic pie or cake pan

In mixing bowl #1, melt chocolate and butter in the microwave

(I do it for 30 sec intervals so the chocolate doesn't burn...it took like 1 minute)

In mixing bowl #2, beat sugar and eggs together.

Then add the stuff from mixing bowl #1.

Stir them together well.

Add vanilla and milk.

Then mix in flour until everything is brown.

(Apparently don't over beat).

The mix should taste like tootsie rolls.

Then stick in the oven for 25 minutes.

When the top looks done, pull it out. 

(The middle will still be gooey)

Then serve with lots of ice cream.

It was really good and a bit lighter than brownies.

It only takes about 5 minutes to mix up and 25 minutes to cook.

Or as the lady said, "Should be done just as you finish dinner."

.....

While we were there, at one point I talked to Andy about how I need a new computer since Flo, my tiny computer, isn't doing too hot.

I told him I just wanted one that lasted.

He said "Oh!" and like the engineer he is rattled a long list of things I should look for.

I heard it as "lots of numbers memory...more numbers RAM...quad core processor...and a lot of other things."

The next day, Matt went to buy us a "pet" mouse. 

(keyboard mouse, if it was a real mouse, I told him I was buying a kitten or a snake)

While he was debating what he wanted, I went around the corner. 

The next thing he heard was "I found it!"

Thinking that I found a mouse, he came over, only for me to point to a computer.

"I want it," I said.

"But Michele, you don't even know what it looks like."

"Nope."

"Then why do you want it?"

"The price is right and it has the quad thing that Andy said to get."

When we got home, we told my dad about it, who was impressed by my savvy computer picking.

He couldn't believe I was the one to pick it out.

So the next day we bought it!

Presenting Matilda!

Isn't she great?

:)

(Matt is amused that Michele hasn't removed the protective plastic yet.)

5 months

Our tiny is getting less tiny. 

Weighing in at 13 lb. 7 oz., she is chubbing up. 

It seems like every time I look at her I find a new baby dimple. 

She's just over 25 inches. So much bigger than our 18 inch baby that we brought home.

A few things this month.

She still loves her fingers.

When she is done eating, she sits there and chews on her bottle.

Whenever I try to take it from her, she'll give it another suck just to let me know she's still "working" on it.

She rolls back and forth now, but she's not super mobile yet.

She loves being on her belly, and for the most part just hangs out on it.

She usually only rolls back on her back if it brings her closer to her precious binky. 

Early this month she really started reaching for things.

I love it.

It's the best thing since the eye rubbing to let me know she's tired.

Matt and I crack up when it's time to feed her.

We filmed it so you could see it too.

She can sit pretty well if we sit her up.
We can always tell when she wants to be sitting.
She'll do a half crunch and then starts whining until we help her up.
She rewards us with a happy squeal and a big smile.

It's okay if she falls over though.
She thinks it is the coolest thing ever and squeals even more.

She can sleep through the night and we moved her into her crib this month.
She goes to sleep around 7 and sleeps almost 12 hours, with only 1 night feeding.
There is one exception though.
She can move backwards pretty well, and sometimes will get her head stuck in a weird angle in the crib.
She starts screaming and fussing.
It's so pathetic, so we don't really mind getting up for that. :)

No teeth yet, but we are pretty sure that will change soon,
but for now we are sure enjoying that toothless grin.

Candids and Outtakes

This kit kat was just solid chocolate! No crunch. :(

Matt's Birthday! (Yesterday)

Matt's birthday was yesterday! Even though he wouldn't have minded if we didn't do anything for his birthday, I would, so I tried to go all out for his birthday. I even had bought Baby a new dress for the occasion!

It was such a disaster. It was kind of like a pinterest fail. I had one beautiful image in my brain how the day should go, but the real result was laughable.

First, since Tiny Offspring is teething, neither of us has slept much this week. I tried really hard not to wake Matt up when I got up to comfort her. I figured that he deserved a decent night sleep and even could sleep in! Around 5am, Baby finally went to sleep, and I curled up to sleep next to Matt. Mission accomplished.

No. Next thing I know...

"Knock, knock, knock."

It took a minute for my brain to register that someone was at the door, and when my brain had computed it, I was horrified! No one really knows we live here, and it was only 8!!! Who could be knocking on the door?

I poked Matt awake, because clearly whoever was up this early had evil intentions, and there was no way that I was going to answer it.

He went up stairs and came back. It was the postman, dropping off our BYU diplomas since they didn't fit in the mailbox and it was raining.

(So maybe not quite as evil as I imagined)

We couldn't go back to sleep after all that adrenaline had been pumped through our bodies (and the fact our teething monster was awake and looking all cute too.)

Therefore, we got up. My plan of letting Matt sleep in didn't happen, but to make up for it I let him open his presents. Only I hadn't wrapped them yet, so he just pulled them out of a paper bag.

(more like what I had imagined)

By now it was 8:15...I hadn't planned to be up this early or the rain...so we did nothing.

After sitting there semi-awkwardly, Matt was kind of bored so he called his family, but no one picked up.

And then we still weren't really sure what to do...

So then he taught me organic chemistry, because we aren't super creative and I had been wanting to learn a bit more about it for a while.

But really...that's not the most exciting thing to do for your birthday.

Birthday Man with baby in new dress 

(Somewhere in the mix, I found out my camera charger broke...so less photos than I had wanted.)

The day ticked by, and finally it was late enough for dinner. Redemption!!

I had bought Matt some real pepperoni (the kind you can slice) for one of his presents, and there was just no way we could mess up pizza. Thank goodness this part worked, because the "cake" was just sad.

Matt had pick out brownie mix box and chocolate ice cream, how could I mess this up??

Well, right when the brownies were about done, our Tiny woke up, so Matt volunteered to run downstairs and calm her down. I took the brownies out and put the candles in, before waiting for Matt...thinking nothing of the wax candles melting in the very hot fresh brownies. I was too excited to have hot brownies and ice cream.

After 5 minutes, I noticed the candles were getting droopy. Thinking that was slightly weird, I picked out up, only to find that any part of the candle that had been in the cake had lost all of its wax.

Droopy candles

Panicked, I ran downstairs and pulled Matt upstairs. He helped me search the kitchen for something to light them with, before I sang him a rushed happy birthday, so he could blow out the candles while there was still something left of them!!

The small remains of the candles

After he blew them out, he went back downstairs to comfort our now crying baby, while I tried to pick out the wax on his cake.

As you can tell it went completely according to plan. ;)

Anyway, I'm so glad that I'm married to someone that can laugh about days like this with me and doesn't mind teaching organic chemistry to his wife on his birthday. I'm so happy that he was crazy enough to marry me.

Happy Birthday (yesterday) Sweetheart! 

I love you!

Living in a farm town

We are living in a farm town. 

It's really weird and when it is windy it does smell like cows.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are "town days" when we get to drive 10 miles to Logan.  

(Our town days are so much fun. I'll have to do a blog post about those soon.)

When I go running, I run 4 houses down and back. Running there and back is over 1.25 miles.

My goal is to be able to do that without stopping. So far I can go run to the edge of the neighbors house before I need a break.

(That's some of the neighbor's land.)

On not town days, we stay around the house.

We have plenty to do.

We've been reading tons of books, playing with duplos (so Offspring can play Godzilla), cooking., etc.

Matt has been working on bookshelves.

He built them with his uncle for me! Aren't they great?

We're hoping to paint them tomorrow.

Our very favorite thing has been the piano.

Matt and I both play and we are loving having one in this home.

Our tiny has been loving it too. She dives for the keys whenever we have her on our laps.

The coolest thing about this piano is that it is a player piano that Matt's dad restored.

He has collected over a hundred rolls of music, and I really enjoying them.

It is like have personal concerts by famous pianist in the 20's.

My favorite rolls are the "Rhapsody in Blue" played by George Gershwin!!!

(I love that piece. My mom used to play piano after we went to bed and sometimes she would play it.

Oh and after playing clarinet for a number of years, the run at the beginning always makes my heart happy.)

We also like dancing to some of the old music like "Sweetheart of Sigma Chi".

A lot of the rolls tell you what dance you are supposed to do to the song.

All I can say is...that's a lot of fun.

The view is beautiful too.

Matt and I were watching the sunset the other night.

He helped me get the camera settings just right so I could capture how beautiful the sunset was.

After like 20 tries, we got this photo. 

(That's from the balcony!)

And I took this one today.

I'm not sure if I could live here forever, but we are loving our time here.

We get to spend so much time together, and it's very different from our life in Provo.

(We are still strangely busy though)

I'm so glad that we have this small adventure that allows us time to spend time do things we love and visiting a lot of Matt's extended family.

It's been a nice break before our big move to Princeton.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was pretty awesome. 

Matt made me breakfast.

I got chocolate and a temple envelope with the Oquirrh Mt. temple on it.

(That's where we were married.)

I was thrilled!

Then we drove down to Alpine.

To see my mom, but more importantly my siblings!!!

They are on missions. So we only get to talk to them twice a year.

We skyped with Mollie.

She looked so happy.

She thought baby was cute and looked just like the photos.

Talking to Riley was funny.

I really loved it.

Matt took pictures of baby and me outside.

She wasn't so sure about the pine cones or the dumb chickens my parents own.

But we got some good ones.

And lastly...here is a random picture of her and one of her great-grandmas.

Granny is one of my favorite people to visit.

She always has something snarky to say.

Lately the last few times we have visited she has said,

"No wonder why she can't roll over.

She can hardly move in those damn jeans."

Wise words. Don't you think?

(By the way just for the record, Madeleine can roll over (even in jeans), just not command. She's not as well trained as a dog.)

A Farewell to Cambridge

On April 29th, Matt and I said goodbye to our first apartment almost 2 weeks ago.

It was really hard for me.

After almost 2 years living there that apartment had gone through a lot with us.

June 28, 2011 My parents' basement flooded, which had all of our things in it. We showed up to the office and asked them if we could move in the next day. They said sure, but your apartment isn't ready yet but there is another one. After discussing it for a few minutes, we decided that #150 was going to work just fine for us.

July 4, 2011 Matt and I spent hours on the floor of our apartment talking and putting on tiny tiny jewels all over our wedding invitations.

August 11, 2011 Matt came over and ironed all of our temple clothes in preparation to our wedding day. I remember looking at him and thinking how lucky I was going to marry him.

August 12, 2011 I woke up at 4:30 AM, I got ready for my wedding. As I did my hair, Matt came in and made breakfast for me. It seemed so natural that morning for us to share that space together. A few hours later as we got sealed in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, my heart was completely at peace as I thought back to that morning.

August 23, 2011 We finally got home from our honeymoon and reception. While Matt and I both loved traveling, we were so so excited to get back to our home. I called it my "house of dreams" later looking back.

October 2, 2011 We listened to conference while painting all the doors in our home. I was mid-stroke when Elder Neil Andersen's talk came on about children, and we both knew it was the answer to my question about what the heck to do with my life.

May 1, 2012 I cried against the bathroom door as I held a positive pregnancy test. Then I proceeded to rip apart the house trying to find my cell phone to call Matt. (I didn't find it for another week)

December 25, 2012 I cuddled with Matt lamenting that our baby would never come while enjoying the last Christmas of just the two of us.

December 26, 2012 I poked Matt awake at 6 am telling him I thought there might be a small chance that I might be in labor.

December 28, 2012 We brought our baby home.

March 25, 2012 Matt decided we were moving to Princeton, and I danced around the living room with Baby.

 And those are just the major days of that time. That apartment also served as a backdrop to our fights, DIY projects that didn't quite turn out as planned, dancing in the kitchen, quietly doing homework together on the bed. So many sweet memories happened.

The day we moved out, different friends stopped by. Our sweet next door neighbor Marco stayed with us, until we shut the door.

I had such a hard time saying good-bye. Even though I am excited to move on to our next adventure, leaving our home was so bittersweet.

Daddy post

Lately Michele and baby have been listening to classic hits such as "I'll make a man out of you." I don't actually intend to make a man out of baby. After all she is a girl, but I hope that she picks up some of my unique skills:

1) The ability to electrocute oneself! This skill comes in real handy. One of my professors was so good at it, they made him head of the physics department. Seriously! Michele used to come to class with me just to see if he'd survive.

2) The ability to sleep anytime, anywhere. This is particularly important for things such as Sunday school, any sort of graduation ceremony, etc.

 3) The ability to make weird faces! It's a defense mechanism, like eye spots on butterfly wings. It's really just an ordinary goober, but you'd think you were dealing with a T-rex!

Graduation

We did it!!!

We are done!

So how was graduation?

Really, really boring.

The graduation ceremony wasn't that big of a deal.

They just read off a lot of names.

The Phd part lasted for-ev-er.

One guy had every single paper he published and what they were about, read.

The Masters part was nice and short.

Then the Bachelors were read.

Chemistry was the 1st major to walk,

(I walked with Matt), so we didn't have to wait too long. 

This is what I was thinking about while waiting in line to walk.

*sigh* 

We could have only wished the speakers were that short.

After it was over, we got to celebrate with the Chemistry department!

Here is us with Tyson. Madeleine is quite taken with him.

(He's going to be a Doctor.)

We took a few pictures. Baby really loved my nails.

BYU colors. :)

After that we went to lunch, said good-bye to our families, and went home and napped.

Then packed.

It was pretty uneventful for such a big day,

but I'm really proud of us for graduating.

I'm really grateful for the chance I had to go to college.

I'm happy I ran into Matt again, and we got married and had a cute kid.

I'm excited about moving to Princeton in a few months.

I just really can't believe it's over.