Four Years Ago Today....

Four years ago today, we were sealed in the Albuquerque New Mexico Temple! In fact, by this time we had been sealed, taken some pictures, and were in route to our ring ceremony. The day couldn't have gone more smoothly from my point of view, and we had numerous family and friends there to support us and celebrate our marriage. Those people are still a huge part of our lives and we are very grateful for their love!

So many things have happened since that day!
1460 days of marriage
2 degrees in veterinary medicine
7 days on a cruise ship to Mexico with 2 good friends
54 weeks of Julie being on-call
80 hour weeks during Chadwick's internship
Several trips to New Mexico
2 new animals - Cleo and Darwin
1 new house
9 months of pregnancy
And the cutest baby girl ever!!

We are grateful to be at this place in our lives - together and starting a new little family!

And yes, I made the cookie bouquet. It says "Happy 4th Anniv" on Oreo cookies. The sticks I placed in a head of lettuce (thanks, Mandy for the idea) and covered with tissue paper and red rose petals from when we were dating. Nifty, huh?

Happy Father's Day!

This photograph about says it all! I am so blessed to have an amazing husband and father to Morgan. He does so much for us both daily and doesn't always receive the credit he deserves for the routine tasks. We love you, Chadwick!

Darwin

Because life wasn't challenging enough with a baby, new house, new jobs, and daily living, Chadwick and I adopted a dog. Darwin, as we have chosen to call him, came to us a month ago through the clinic where Chadwick was working. In October, Darwin ate a rock and needed surgery to remove it from his intestines. He thought the ordeal was so much fun he did it again, and as before required surgery. His owners were unable to afford a second (third? fourth?) surgery and reluctantly gave him up to the clinic. Saturday after his presentation, the two of us did surgery to remove the rock from his intestines....and then took him home a week later.

Aside from the fact that he is a skinny 60 pound, tall, big-pawed, goofy, energetic lab cross living in our 950-sq-foot home, he's great. He doesn't chase the cat, he's potty trained, knows a few tricks, licks Morgan, and adores Chadwick. Life with him is getting easier, and even the cat has moved back into the house from the garage where she spent the first several days after he came home. In fact, she now drinks from the same water dish, growls any time he walks by and then tries to get his tail, and stalks him from the couch. I think she actually likes him, but is too much of a feline to let anyone know. She's still the princess of the house!

Note: we named him Darwin because according to Darwin's law of survival of the fittest, this dog would not still be in the gene pool. He's a sweet boy.....

Where to Start?

It's been so long since my last post and so much has happened, I don't even know where to start!

Today, our little Morgan is 3 months old - weighing in at 12.8 pounds, smiling, cooing, starting to grab at things, holding her head up by herself, staring at her fingers, chewing on her fists, enjoying sitting up, still spitting up. It's been amazing to watch her grow and change and I woke up one morning, looked into those blue eyes, and saw a little person instead of the "blob" that I brought home from the hospital! The bridge of her nose wrinkles when she gives a huge smile, her mouth makes an "O" shape when she wants her binky, she loves to have her legs moved in a fast running motion, and she hates her bottle.

We moved into our new house about a month ago and we like it! We even found renters for the other side of the duplex, which is great. We've learned several lessons since becoming home owners: 1) No deal is done until the money is in the bank, 2) The project list never seems to shrink nor is there sufficient funding for all the projects, and 3) Accounts for water, electricity, and gas must be placed in our name or service will end. We learned lesson #3 the hard way - our gas was turned off on 5/14 and I called out the furnace service man to fix the furnace....turns out you need gas for the furnace to work! We spend the weekend in front of space heaters but made it through!

And we got a dog. Not officially, but he's been here for almost 2 weeks. Do-do, as I have been calling him, is a 9-month yellow lab cross who came to Chadwick's clinic a sick pup. In October, he ate a rock and needed surgery. In late April, he ate a rock and again needed surgery. His owners couldn't afford to keep putting the dog through surgeries to remove rocks and gave him up to the clinic. We did surgery and took him home. He is a big dog for our little house, but he does well with the cat, loves Chadwick, and is a pretty good boy. So far, no rocks have been consumed. We'll wait and see what happens. He stresses me out, I'm not gonna lie, but it's getting better.

Morgan, Chadwick, and I flew home to Albuquerque to be with my family for Mother's Day. It was really special to be able to spend my first of these days with my own mother and grandmother. Morgan and I were there a total of 10 days and it was wonderful to spend time with family, see old friends, and have everyone fall in love with my baby girl. I'll post more pictures later, but here are 4 generations!

Easter and Conference

Easter weekend has come and gone....Morgan's first! In typical Morgan fashion, she slept through some of it, ate for part of it, and hung out in her bouncy chair or with her parents for the rest. No, we didn't dye eggs or go on a hunt, but we have plans to do both of those things next Easter when our little one is more able to appreciate such efforts. She is spending more and more time awake, especially after her feedings during the day! And anytime between 10-12 pm when her daddy is trying to put her to sleep. =) She's holding her head up on her own more and has the biggest blue eyes when awake!


This last weekend was also the semi-annual General Conference for the LDS church. There are multiple sessions both Saturday and Sunday where church leaders teach and the amazing Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings. An archive of the talks can be found on the website www.lds.org. There were some good lessons - Chadwick says of the sessions, "I personally enjoyed Gregory Schwitzer's talk in the last Sunday session on judging others. Dieter F. Uchdorf's talk in Priesthood on patience. I put the allegory of patience compared to the diamond. Jeffery R. Holland's talk on Saturday evening on controlling temptation. I especially enjoyed his quotes, "the only control in life is self control" "A journey of 1000 miles begins with one step, So, watch your step!", and "Let will be your reason". Lastly I enjoyed Bednar's talk on Saturday, President Monson's talk on Sunday and Hale's talk on Sunday all of which referred to spontaneously bearing testimony in the home."

As for me, I got quite a bit out of Julie B. Beck's talk on personal revelation, M. Russell Ballard's discussion of attributes of being a mother - it's a great responsibility I have to nurture and care for this little bundle we've been blessed to have!! I also enjoyed James B. Martino's talk on how our happiness and success is determined by how we respond to our trials and adversities.

We are looking forward to a visit from my mom and step-dad this weekend - Mom and I have shopping plans and of course they came to cuddle and spoil their granddaughter.....seeing us is just a perk of the visit. =)

Five Weeks and a Blessing

March sure passed us by quickly! And now it's April....and still Mother Nature is throwing snow flurries on Boise. It's not sticking in town, but the skiers are likely pleased to have new snow in the mountains. Great spring skiing!

Things are moving along for us with our duplex we purchased in February - we have a tentative start date to moving in, which is mid-April. Our goal is to paint, clean the carpet, and then move in our stuff. Luckily for us, my dad is coming to town about the time that we need to start painting. He did such a marvelous job in November with our nursery that we're going to put him to work again! Poor guy. Good thing he doesn't mind projects. =) We're excited to be in our own place, though we're not sure how all of our stuff is going to fit.....

Morgan turned 5 weeks old yesterday! I can't believe it's been over a month already. She's so sweet and is really a good little trooper. The last few nights she has been sleeping a good 5-6 hours after her evening feeding, which is spoiling me rotten! The shock will come soon when she reverts back to every 2-3 hours.



On March 28, Chadwick gave Morgan her baby blessing. It was beautiful! We had Steve, Chadwick's dad, as well as his Grandpa Fife in the circle with him. It's not too often that 4 generations are able to be present at one time!






Morgan, of course, was adorable in her blessing dress!

My "Throne"

This is a picture of the glider chair we placed in the corner of the nursery so I can have a place to sit while nursing. We call it my throne because I seem to spend a lot of time there. Sitting, rocking, sometimes sleeping (and waking with a kink in my neck), thinking, singing, reading, eating, and laughing at the cat when she consents to grace us with her feline presence. My throne is covered in blankets to try and minimize damage to the fabric from the wayward spray of....anything really. There are occasions I'll be nursing when Chadwick leaves and I'll be back in the chair at the time he returns. At times I think he thinks I spend all my days there, especially when I don't get in a shower before 2 pm, the dishes are still piled by the sink, and the laundry never made it into the dryer from the washer. And at times I feel like I never leave the chair or nursery....

Here is the reason for my never leaving the chair: