Papa's Funeral

The first weekend of October, I had the privilege of attending my grandfather's funeral in Salt Lake City. He was my last surviving grandparent. I will miss him, but I am glad he no longer has to deal with physical suffering.

The funeral service was filled with beautiful music and speakers. It was wonderful to see so many of my family members all at once.

My oldest brother with 2 of his kids


Two more brothers and some nieces.


More brothers and a sister-in-law (okay, 1 is the same as the picture above, but I really do have 6 brothers)


Another brother and sister-in-law


My one and only sister


Some more sister-in-laws and nieces


My 2 best cousins growning up


The graveside service was beautiful as well. My Papa was a WWII Veteran so he had a flag over his coffin that was folded and presented to the oldest grandson bearing his last name. There were also some gun shots and a bagpipe player playing Taps.



My immediate family members that were able to attend.


Following the services, we were grateful to be able to return to the church for a luncheon provided by Papa's ward. I know it took a lot of time out of their Saturday to prepare the food and serve us. It was greatly appreciated.

Here is my mom and dad at the luncheon.

It was a very quick trip, but I am so glad I did it. We were able to spend some more time as a family together on Sunday (while attempting to watch General Conference). We are grateful to the Claytons, who let us stay at their house.

Oceanside September 2010

In September we decided to do a long weekend getaway at the beach. We spent hours searching for something and finally came up with this great place in Oceanside. It was a little one bedroom condo right on the beach. Since we went in late September, we got off season rates. We were also lucky enough to have Troy's sister come along too.

This was such an awesome trip. I would love to make it an annual tradition.

Right outside our door was a beautiful view of the ocean and a sand pit that Erica played in for hours. Guess we better get a sandbox now.



A short ways down the boardwalk were 2 different parks. We spent hours swinging and playing on the playground. Even Sadie liked to swing. I didn't mind pushing this time either because I had a beautiful view in the background.


The water was a little cool for me, but I did get in once. Apparently, a huge swell came in the day we got there. The waves were about 10 feet high. Even Troy wouldn't go all the way out, so I know they were big.


Sadie loved the sand too and came away with minimal ingestion of sand.

Family Pic

We are making more of an effort to get pictures of the two of us together.

Troy pondering how he can quit his job and move to the beach.

Molly was a huge help. We are so glad she came along. Can't wait to meet her new baby in December.

Another family pic

Make-shift high chair. Didn't work out so well.

Sadie slept in the closet of the one-bedroom condo (about 350 square feet) and Erica slept in the kitchen on some couch cushions. Comfy!!

Troy's 31st Birthday

Troy celebrated his 31st birthday in September. I attempted to use my creativity in making him a cake. That's always a risky business. It's supposed to be an ipod with his balloon maker app. Can you tell? Didn't think so.


He celebrated by going to work. We did at least make it to dinner on the weekend. Sorry it wasn't your best birthday. At least you got some wakeboard bindings.

Happy Birthday Troy!!! I love you.

Sadie at 6-8 months

So I started this post when Sadie was 6 months. Then, I decided to wait until she got her stats. Normally, you get those at 6 months, but my parenting skills are losing in Round 2 and we didn't get in until 7 months. Then life happened and suddenly she is almost 8 months. Ooops. So, anyway, here is a post about our sweet Sadie.

As of today, here are some things she can do - sit for quite awhile without help. I still put pillows behind her 'cause she falls every now and then. She can rock on her hands and knees. She scoots around by pushing forward on her legs. She hasn't figured out the alternating motion for crawling yet, but it is close.

She eats all sorts of solids. She is not a big fan of veggies or meats. She loves fruits and grains. She is definitely more picky about foods than Erica. She still has about 4-5 bottles/day (6oz each).

She sleeps typically from about 7:30 -5:30. Not bad, but I wish she would make it until at least 6am more often.

She is very happy still and we are so grateful for that. She is starting to notice when we leave the room and is getting a little fussy about that sometimes. Let's hope she does not have as much separation anxiety as her older sister. Don't want to do that again.

She really likes to be outside - just sitting in the grass or going for walks in the stroller. She seems to be pretty content wherever she is.

She is very interested in the textures of things. She is entertained for hours each day by checking out new objects. She loves to touch and feel things. Sand is one of her favorite. She doesn't put too many things in her mouth though.

She does not have any teeth yet. I've been thinking that they were coming for about 4 months, but still nothing.

Her hair is lightening up, but it does not look like she will be as blonde as her sister.

She takes 3-4 catnaps/day. I am trying to transition her to 2 longer naps/day, but that doesn't always work with our schedule.

Sadie's stats
26 inches (40%)

15 lb 11 oz (28%)

42 cm (23 %)

Erica's stats (had her 3 year appointment at the same time)

35.8 in (20%)

30 lb (43%)

At their appointment, Erica got one shot and cried for the next 45 minutes. Sadie got two shots and cried for about 45 seconds.

Papa: December 23, 1923 - September 29, 2010

Goodbye Papa. We love you and will miss you. We are so glad you get to be with Nana again.

Great Aunts

My girls are blessed with many great aunts and great-aunts. We were lucky enough to have Aunt Molly (Troy's sister) come visit us for the week. We are so excited for her little girl to arrive at Christmas. Yay for girl cousins.

Molly smothered the girls with attention and helped me out a ton at home. We miss her tons and wish she lived closer. She even made little stuffed bunnies for each girl.


Thanks to Molly, we were all able to get away last weekend to visit the beach. I'll do a separate post about those adventures. We miss you Molly!!!

3 Three III

I have about 4 million blog posts in my head. I will attempt to get 4 of them done in the next week or so.

First up - Erica just turned three. Yeah!!! We had the obligatory professional cake decorated by TegTap Company (aka Dada). If you can't tell, it is a pink princess.


An elaborate serenade by family and neighbors. She still doesn't know about birthday parties with friends. We are trying to keep her in the dark as long as we can about that.


She was lavished with riches...


...and jewels.


In all seriousness, it was a great day and we had been talking about it for over a month. She loved celebrating and is already looking forward to next year. She even scored a few presents from her awesome baby sitter.

Here are a few highlights about Erica right now for those who want a more in depth coverage. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so I will get stats then.

• She threw her pacifier in the garbage. This was also talked about for at least a month. She does better when she has time to prepare for things. She did fine the first night and I thought we were home free. The next couple of days, she cried and said she missed her pacifier. We didn't cave and she seems to be doing better now. She did ask if she could have it back when she turns two. I assured her she could.
• She attends preschool 2 days a week and absolutely loves it. So do I. She loves learning, loves the friends and I think especially loves the snacks and play time. She is the youngest in the class, but seems to be doing ok as far as I can tell.
• She is about to finish up her first ballet class. She thinks it is the greatest thing ever. Her first dance recital is on Saturday, I will post some pictures of it later.
• She is OBSESSED with princesses and princes. She requests multiple "Erica/Ariel stories" everyday. This essentially involves Erica taking the place of Ariel, Ursula tying her up with seaweed and Prince Eric saving her. I'm getting a little concerned about such stories. She never seems to remember the part where Ariel saved Prince Eric. Hmmm.
• She finally walks into nursery and doesn't look back. I never thought this day would come and now that it is here, it doesn't seem like all the separation anxiety was as big of a deal.
• She is about 95% potty trained. We still have an accident every now and then, but she does pretty good.
• She loves Barbie/princess toys, books and movies. She likes to do art projects. She loves to jump on the trampoline, swing, swim, dance and do gymnastics.
• She is getting a lot better about playing on her own and not needing mom for every little thing.
• She says a lot of funny things since she has started preschool. The other day she said, "I just can't resist" without any understanding of what that means.
• She repeats herself a million times. It is really trying my patience and I'm not dealing with it very well.
• She does great with Sadie. If Sadie is playing with something Erica wants, Erica will take it away and give Sadie something else to play with. She loves to make faces at Sadie to get her to laugh. She is getting better about using a quiet voice when Sadie is asleep. She loves to do things with Sadie like take a bath and eat. Now, if only we could get her to nap with Sadie.

Overall, this has been a great year for Erica. We didn't have a "terrible" age two. I hear three can be worse. She is by no means the perfect child and we have our typical struggles, but she is a good kid and we love her. We are grateful for the spirit she brings into our home. She is a little joke-ster and a sweetheart. I am looking forward to watching her grow more this next year.