CH-CH-CH-Changes

Well, the first year of law school is over and we're still alive!!!!

It actually wasn't as bad as we'd thought, it wasn't easy though. Matt kept his scholarship, hooray!! He's doing an internship with an Orange County judge this summer and tutoring LSAT (law school entrance exam) students. I'm still working from home setting up a lending company owned by a friend.

Kaelyn is talking up a STORM! She has an amazing memory and will sit and "read" books to us now. She has also started singing on her own (her favorite Twinkle Twinkle Little Star).

I have started running, crazy I know, right?! Today I ran the 4th of July 5K in my stake. I did it in 34 min. I'd like to do 30 min--or faster--next 5K, not sure when .

We are moving AGAIN......I think we've moved more times than any other couple marriage about 6 years. We'll be farther from Chapman :( but it is to a large 3 bedroom and we'll be right by John and January (in fact, they'll be our apartment managers).  No, I'm not pregnant; we've had a different kind of addition to our family. My mom moved in with us. It's a hard transition for everyone, but I really think both my parents will be happier in the long-run and things are going just fine having my mom with us (the extra set of hands--when she's actually home--with a two year-old is pretty nice)

New Apartment, Christmas, Birthdays, Where Has the Time Gone?

I was looking at other people's blogs today and realized I haven't blogged since December 9th 2010! Wow, where to start?

    We moved into an apartment one week before Christmas. It's in Orange, not the best part, but not a terrible part either. It's 2.3 miles from Chapman, so it's possible for Matt to walk home (though I usually don't make him walk) especially since he's been pretty darn good about running on the track at school and doing push-ups at home and we've both started doing "8 min abs" (he's much better about keeping on top of it than I am, but I'm taking baby-steps to a healthier life style).
   So, back to December....We had a great Christmas in our own place. This is the first time ever in our married lives we've woken up and had a Christmas morning in our own place. It was great! Kaelyn was really excited to get her stocking and presents.
    We spent Christmas Eve with the Stevens clan, which was busy and fun as always. In the gift exchange I was assigned Sierra and gave her a certificate for an afternoon of activities. Just a few weeks ago our schedules finally matched up so she could redeem it. The activities she chose were making marshmallows (and s'mores of course) and pedicures. We made chocolate chip-toffee and peppermint marshmallows. They were delicious, the mint ones were really good, but not my favorite on graham crackers.
    Back to December once again.... Matt really needed some new clothes thanks to the weight he's lost :)  So, he mostly got clothes from Kaelyn and me. Kaelyn got a car mat that I made with familiar locations to drive her cars to. Matt got me a beautiful ring that is similar to the one I had when he proposed but sadly lost a few years ago.
    The new apartment is really nice inside and we are happy to have our own space, even though it means more loans (fortunately, I did a job--not as quickly as we would have liked, but I can still be with Kaelyn all the time, which was a requirement that made finding a job really difficult).
    The other big challenge of moving was a new ward. As you probably don't recall from the last post, Kaelyn was very fond of Sister Wert, her nursery leader. Moving threw off the whole nursery thing all. But....the last three Sundays she has stayed in nursery all on her own! What a big girl!
    January wasn't very eventful. February brought Kaelyn's 2nd birthday! It was Cars themed (it was her favorite movie at the time). She had a "small" family party. Although we only invited family we still had about 20 people! She was the happy recipient of many gifts.

    March was Alyx's 20th birthday so we threw her a party! That one really was small, just Mommy, Daddy, Thomas, Chelsie, Maya, Matt, Kaelyn and me. We had sushi, chicken, rice and red velvet cheese cake.
    April was Thomas' 18th birthday! He wanted Ikea meatballs, potatoes and lingdonberry jam. I made him a camping themed cake (Mommy, if you have a picture, please send it) with a s'mores filling, mountains, a lake, a tent and the van he and his friends usually take camping. April was also my birthday! Matt got me an annual pass to the Discovery Science Center (it's only about 2.5 miles from our apartment!) I've already taken Kaelyn four times. She loved the Sesame Street exhibit, and I'm sure she'll miss it now that it's gone, but there will be new things to see and learn next time we go. In April Matt also was a quarter-finalist in the Golden-Gavel competition. (It's like mock-trial, but is practice for appellate court) We are so proud of him!
    Now it's May. Kaelyn talks like crazy (no idea where she got that from) and is pretty dramatic. There are very few dull moments with her around. We adore our little (though rapidly growing) girl.
    Matt is almost done with this first year of law school! He'll be a third of the way through in a little over a week! Next up: internships...Matt has two this summer, one with a judge and one with the city of Orange. Neither is very far away but I'm sure they'll keep him busy. Luckily, Matt is really good about making sure to spend time with Kaelyn and she absolutely adores him. So, even though we're in for a long stretch of crazy schedules, I'm glad we're still making lots of good family memories.

Cute Randomness

I realized I should keep track of all the really funny things Kaelyn has done lately, I'm sure I'll forget a few, but here's what I could think of right now:

She was asleep and I was going to leave her (Pat & Virla were home) while I picked Matt up from school, but when I went in to get my shoes she sat up & I told her to go back to sleep. She said "Daddy go." Seems like she knew where I was headed and was not about to be left behind.

When Kaelyn is sad/hurt Matt says, let's get the screwdriver and fix it, he takes his index finger and "fixes" her elbow, knee, etc. We've been talking about weening her...one day she wanted to nurse and Matt told her "it's broken, you can't nurse." She pulled out her screwdriver and "fixed" my boob. (Yeah, she's still nursing).

Recently when she's come across disabled signs she says "Grandma".

We were visiting Daddy at school and our friend, (and Matt's study-buddy) Nicole, let Kaelyn have an apple. When we got in the car Kaelyn said, "Nicole, apple." The next day I told her we were going to see Daddy and she asked, "Nicole, apple?"

Whenever she sees a nativity she says, "baby Jesus" (which sounds a lot like baby cheeses).

Kaelyn has been learning animal sounds, she knows: cow, duck, horse, sheep, cat, dog and Matt taught her the professor says, "blah, blah, blah."

When the nursery kids sang "Popcorn" on Sunday she covered her eyes (in the "look out the window" motion, but left them there the whole time).

The nursery leader Sister Wert got up to bear her testimony and Kaelyn said, :Wert! Wert!"

Halloween!

We reused Kaelyn's parrot costume from lat year (it fit way better this time see?)....and Matt & I were zoo keepers!

 It was tons of fun; especilally since we actually went trick-or-treating this year and Kaelyn totally got in to it. She can't say "trick-or-treat" but she did say "thank you" (sounds more like kak ooo, but we know what it means). I think the cutest part of the night (I wish I had a picture of it) was when she walked a step ahead of us and was dragging her bag on the ground, she carried it the whole time we were out (not very long, but in toddler time I'm sure it was super long). She just seemed like a such a kid, rather than a baby!

Condos & Crowns

Our condo in Orem, UT is no longer our condo! It's closed and funded and we no longer have to worry about it :) Thank you Chad & Mandy for buying it; good luck Justin with your roommates.

In other news, we've discovered that 12 year-old crowns may pop off when introduced to taffy. Fortunately, my in-laws have gone to the same dentist for a very long time and are friends with him....So, a phone call to his home later, I have my crown firmly back in place! Happily, the original workmanship (thank you Drs. Bowles and Griner) was fabulous and very little was required to get things back to where they belong.

Cute-ified My Site

I'm excited about the make-over I gave my custom digital creations site (http://printablepdfs.weebly.com/) It's still a work in progress; but I have been taking and filling orders for a few months now and it is really fun!

Not Sure What to Write

It's been a while and I feel like I should blog, but I also am not sure what to write about. My friend Brandie had a really cute post on her blog about all the things she'd talk to you on the phone about (given the time). I posted a comment saying I'd like to do that....So, here it goes:

I've just finished reading a book called The Purity Myth; it has some really interesting points and good insights, I don't agree with the whole thing and I think some the writing is a bit whiny/immature, but it certainly provides some food for thought.

I love the blog (http://newdressaday.wordpress.com/) I stumbled across recently and want to do something similar (but on a much smaller scale) when I don't have a toddler running around. This lady takes yard-sale clothes (usually dresses) and alters them to much cuter-modern items.

I still love cooking, weekly menu planing not so much, and even day-to-day cooking can be boring at times. But, it's awesome when a new recipe turns out just right or I finally alter one to perfection that I've used before. Desserts are still my favorite, but ourbestbites.com has lots of great savory recipes too.

Kaelyn is at a fun stage of life (seems like she always is). Right now she is learning new words like crazy--although it's often tricky to distinguish which words she's trying to use. She is also super busy running around and playing, but still enjoys sitting with Mommy and Daddy to color a picture or read a book (sometimes). It's really cute to see how excited she gets when people come home; she's still working on pronouncing names, but she's getting pretty close.

I wish the sale of the condo would just finish up already, there have been so many fun road-blocks along the way....but I think there's light at the end of the tunnel! (Hopefully.)

I think Medi-cal (called Medicaid in the rest of the US) is painfully slow and poorly administrated, yet I'm grateful it exists since we can't afford medical insurance right now (but I really wish we'd get approved already, I mean we've got 0 income, how hard is it to determine that a family of three during school qualifies?)

I'm happy to be back in California, but actually miss a few things about Utah (mostly people--you know who you are :)

Well, I guess I'll leave it at that for now; I should really start on dinner for tonight. If you actually want to talk about any of my "What I'd talk to you about" topics, send me an email, or shoot me a call, or leave a comment, or use smoke signals, or okay, I guess I really should go. Hope things are going well for you and yours.