Hee Haw Farm in the rain

There are many things to update and many posts waiting for me to finish them and many bits of Life waiting to be documented, so I'm starting from today and working my way back. Stay tuned...

My mom treated her grandbabies (and their parents) to a trip to Hee Haw Farm today. Yes, it was cold, windy, and rainy and yes, we didn't stay for very long, but yes, Georgie (and Rosie) were completely enthralled. Thank you again, Mom! Let's definitely go back!

Nana also babysat for us while we went on a much-needed temple trip; hence Tim's white shirt at a muddy farm.

Petting a baby bunny! Georgie: "Daddy's being so soft!"

My beautiful sister and her darling Eleanor. Doesn't motherhood look good on Rachel?

I remembered to get a picture of me! Rosie: "Point!"

The best part of the experience was going inside the pen with all the goats and sheep. It was so funny (and slightly overwhelming) to watch and listen to them all looking for treats. After a little initial hesitation, Georgie was beyond thrilled to be there. I was so proud of her for being brave enough to get down and close to the animals.

Georgie was having such a good time running back and forth between all the animals that she wouldn't look at the camera for more than two seconds. This was the best I could do with the goats/sheep.

Waving to the pony

Finally a smile (and some ducks)!

Rosie enjoyed everything but her favorite part was the corn pit and she wasted zero time getting the corn kernels into her mouth. 

Sisters!

Right before we left, we checked on the baby pigs. They were sleeping when we first got there, but they'd woken up and Jase bravely chased one down so Georgie could pet it. She talked about it the rest of the night: "Piggies sleeping but then they wake up!"

Christmas-ing

This year, we turned Christmas into a verb. Whenever we got to borrow Tim from his homework/studying/class time to do traditional Christmas activities, we'd say, "Look at us! We're Christmasing!" I was pretty proud of the Christmasing we managed to do before my annual"There's too much to do!" stress-out Christmas-meltdown (the one the causes us to scale back all our elaborate plans), and I am especially proud that I remembered to take pictures of our excursions.

We decided to hit up Provo's Christmas market and inadvertently got there exactly in time for the lighting ceremony. Like, we found an incredibly good parking space, walked over to the huge crowd and they started the ceremony. We could not have possibly timed it better. There was a little skit and then they turned on the lights along Center Street and did fireworks. Georgie was pretty enthralled and it really just delighted us that we were there for it. As a bonus, we found some cool wrapped metal ornaments from one of the vendors.

Then of course, we had to go get pictures taken with Santa, as per Maryon family tradition. (As a side note: This tradition goes back twenty-eight years. My parents took me to see Santa when I was just a few months old, and there is a photo of the kids in my family with Santa every single year since then. Every. Single. Year. This means that there is a photo of me, Tim, Rachel, Jase, and Ethan - as grown ups - visiting Santa at the mall. Ridiculous. But tradition. Luckily, now there are grandchildren to take the fall.) We met up at the Riverwoods with Rachel and Jase and their adorable Eleanor to get a picture of all three girls with Santa. Georgie actually talked to Santa and told him she wanted "Baby Eleanor" for Christmas. And she was absolutely in love with the lights. It was, by far, her favorite part of Christmas in general.

And then for actual Christmas, we stayed home and had my mom sleep over on Christmas Eve. This is the first year that Tim and I have been at our own home for Christmas and we loved it! We also loved getting to play Santa for Georgie. So thrilling (and a little stressful!). 

The girls in their new jammies from my mom.

Christmas morning - Santa brought more Christmas lights that magically appeared in the living room and hall. Santa also brought Georgie a baby doll (which she named Eleanor) and brought both girls a little table and a set of chairs. The table has a dry erase marker top so Georgie can color directly on it. It's been a hit so far!

The rest of the day was busy. We went to my grandparents' house for lunch and presents, then to my mom's for my family's gift exchange and Christmas dinner. It was strange not to get together in the morning, but it worked. And I think it was different enough that it made my dad's absence less glaring. We still shed some tears and wished with all our hearts that he'd been there to take pictures and turn on the music (we never did find the Peggy Lee CD), but it was a new way for us to celebrate together that worked. Overall, it was a really wonderful, long day.

The next day was spent getting ready for Herrick Christmas. Tim's parents rented a townhouse in Cottonwood Heights and we all gathered for a weekend of more celebrating. I didn't take nearly enough photos, but here are all the cousins (minus the babies) lined up and waiting to open their presents:

Doing Christmas for this number of people is a challenge but Tim's parents pull it off spectacularly every year. Here are all the "stockings":

Before the mess. We had the kids open their gifts first, which ended up being a really good idea because it would have been utter chaos to try to hand out and open everything at once. Plus, then the kids had new toys to entertain them the rest of the day. Win!

The adults got to open gifts and play a White Elephant gift game that night while the kiddos watched a movie. It was almost perfect! Tim and I also squeezed in a mission homecoming (my cousin Lizzy) which we sang at and a girls' night (for me) on the Sunday following Christmas. It was a crazy, busy, wild weekend filled with all the best parts of Christmas!

P.S. The painful part of the weekend: Tim and I bravely (stupidly?) decided to try and stay the night at the townhouse. It was our first attempt at sleeping anywhere other than home since the previous Christmas, and the first time as a family of four. Long, sleepless story short, it was a disaster. I mean, we knew it'd be bad, but it was exceptionally bad. The girls normally sleep in separate rooms for a reason. In fact, the only reason they went to bed at all is because we were able to initially put Georgie down in a different room. None of us got anywhere close to a full night's sleep, and I spent most of my time "sleeping" on the floor with Georgie before she woke us all up at 6 am. Awful. The only upside is that it made Rosie extra snuggly the next day and Georgie took a great nap (after fighting me tooth and nail to keep playing, mind you). But between the missed naps, the late nights, and constant stimulation, it took us a solid week or more to recover from the whole Christmas weekend. All I could think was, let's not do that for another year, yeah?

Life lately - all the haps'

See, the problem is I am busy with a lot of things, so I don't blog. But then I realize that I am not keeping up with all the changes in our lives and I really need to write them down somewhere. So then I write these huge long blog posts that no one but me needs to read, and then I try to condense it all down, and then I never post it. So. In an effort to avoid the vortex of doom I work myself into, here's a start.

August was CRAZY. It felt like we were going going gone all month long. It was our last month before Tim started up with school again, so I/we wanted to pack in as much fun as possible. We did a bunch of fun family things like going to the Bean Museum (Georgie LOVES the "a-mals"), going to the aquarium with my family (Georgie loves fishies), going to the Springville splash pad one last time (Georgie loves the water), and going to the MOA to see the movie costumes exhibit (I completely swooned over the clothes; Georgie tolerated it). We also started the month off with a two-day Herrick family vacation (no naps for two days=torture for babies and mamas), and then sadly ended the month with the passing of Tim's Grammy and a trip to California (for Tim) for the funeral. Plus we squeezed in my 28th birthday, a girls' night, a date night for Tim and me before school started, our niece's birthday party, and my cousin Jacob's wedding. Oh, and the girls and I got super sick the week before school started. Whew! We were racing summer to its finish.

And then school started on the 25th, and we haven't seen Tim since. I kid, I kid...but seriously. School and that whole situation gets its own post but suffice it to say that he is working (probably down to 20 hours a week once the homework ramps up) and taking 5 classes (15 credits) this semester, all in the evenings, so our face time with him is pretty much limited to weekends. Twice a week he comes home in time for bedtime and twice a week he misses bedtime altogether, and he is generally gone all the day so...yeah...we don't see much of him during the week. But this is just how it goes, right? At least we have the weekends at all?

[On a related note, I've been racking my brain to come up with activities Georgie and I can do together and activities Georgie can do on her own that will keep her entertained while I make dinner. I'd love any feedback or suggestions - I have some ideas but I don't think there's such a thing as too many at this point! So far we have a day where I do a lot of music-related stuff (we pull out my keyboard, turn on music and dance, sing songs, etc.) and a day for artsy stuff (coloring with markers and paint in addition to the usual crayons and pencils), but I still need things she can do that don't require constant monitoring on my part.]

In all my "spare" time, I am working a little. I recently acquired three freelance writing/editing jobs , and though they are all extremely part-time , it's really nice (and also necessary) to be bringing in a little money again. The story of getting those jobs is actually part of the other post, but it's been a huge blessing while keeping me very busy.

And then all day, every day, are my girls. Georgie is almost 2 and talking. She amazes me every other day with what she is internalizing, remembering, noticing, and expressing. She also uses her resourcefulness to take all the patience I am able muster on a daily basis and do a Mexican hat dance on it. So, in other words, she's almost 2. I just wrote about Rosie but she's just wonderfully happy and growing and hitting milestones left and right. I forgot how much fun 5 months old can be!

And now for the photo dump in no particular order:

Finally got a picture of both them looking at the camera AND smiling! It's a dream come true for me!

From our Herrick Family Vacation - Tim's mom with all the cousins (except Baby Charlotte who was born three weeks later).

Georgie at the aquarium

The aquarium completely wore her out. She doesn't normally sleep in the car but it happened three or four times this month with all the busyness we packed in.

Splash pad time!

Even Rosie enjoyed getting in the water (for the most part).

At our girls' night, we finally got a picture of our three babes, all born within six weeks of each other.

My cousin Anna, who was in town for her brother Jacob's wedding. I miss her! I am crossing my fingers she and her husband get to move to Utah once he's done with med school next year.

Just some photos

Nothing too exciting, just some cute pics of what we've been up to lately:

Grandma Great (my mom's mom) and Georgie at Grandma's 86th birthday celebration. Their matching expressions in the first photo just kill me!

Naptime!

Sister love! These two pictures pretty much sum up the relationship at this point. Georgie loves Rosie and Rosie tolerates Georgie's hugs and prods pretty well. I can't wait for them to be friends!

Georgie really really really loves her special blanket, or "bee-lah." She was delighted to wear it for a few minutes.

Georgie is very into coloring right now and lives for when I let her use markers.

And that's life lately!

This is where we are

I made only one real "resolution" for the new year (I use the term loosely) and that was to write more, so catching up on the blog seems like a good place to start. I feel like my life has been all chaos for weeks now (and while it may all have been internal chaos, it's hard not to let that spill out sometimes) so let's get our bearings, shall we? Hint: Skim to the bolded parts and down to the photos, which are mostly of Georgie, if you're in a hurry.

In case you missed it, we moved from my parents' house in Draper to a lovely little apartment in south Provo at the beginning of November. While moving was a pain and the process of finding/applying/planning to move was a hassle, we had a ton of help and we love our little place. It's just right for us - 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and just five minutes from Novell so Tim doesn't have a long commute (booyah!). (Oh yeah, and Tim is still working for Novell's eLearning training department.) We really like our ward and we just starting teaching one of the classes of 5-year-olds in Primary. There's a lot of grass and a little playground at our complex so once winter's gone, we will be outside a lot. I keep waiting for the whole apartment to be clean enough to post pictures, but that may never happen. So pictures to come. Promise.

I didn't do a good job of announcing this but we are having another girl, due March 14th, which is in 8 weeks if anyone's counting (!!!). We are not really ready for another baby emotionally or mentally, but my nesting instinct kicked in high gear last weekend so I at least have a list of what needs to be done around the house to get ready. I feel like this little girl's got a strong personality already and we're 99.9% sure her name is going to be Rosalind - we already call her Rosie, so hopefully that sticks once she's here! Still thinking about middle names if you have any suggestions. We're really hoping she comes a little early so that the midwife who delivered Georgie can be there before going out of town for 3 weeks, and so that it will coincide with UVU's spring break and Tim can miss a minimal number of classes this semester. 

Speaking of school, Tim's still plugging along at UVU with one or two classes per semester. He totally rocked his advanced writing class and computer-something class last semester with two A's! And all on his own - I proofread his papers and offered moral support but he made it through that English class like a pro. We dream of the day when he will be done but that's still quite a ways off.

I'm still working for Northridge Publishing but I'm down to just 15 hours per week, mostly so we can qualify for Medicaid and partially because I just can't find more time in the week with Georgie being so, you know, energetic and active. Work is work; some days I love it, other days I wonder if I'm crazy to keep at it. I've been trying to get caught up and ahead so I can actually take a little time off once I have this baby. I'm planning on continuing to work after baby girl #2 comes along, so let's all start hoping now that I find a way to make that happen!

Speaking of Georgie, she could be her own post, so just the highlights: she's 15 months old, 30 inches tall, and almost up to 20 lbs. The last two months have brought tons of language development and it's SO FUN to actually communicate with her! She has about a dozen words she says and her own version of five signs. She's silly and crazy and loves to climb on and into everything. Her favorite toys are her books, bubbles, and anything she can dump out. She won't let me put anything on her head or in her hair (unless she doesn't notice when I clip a bow in) but she will wear all of her headbands as necklaces at the same time. She has super erratic eating preferences so some days, all she does is ask for food and on others, I am lucky to sneak in a few bites here and there. All her good sleeping habits went away when we moved and with the holidays and bouts of illnesses in the last few weeks, haven't returned, but she sometimes sleeps through the night and she generally takes at least one nap a day. I really really really miss that second nap. She basically adorable and hilarious and absolutely maddening about once a week.

Other than that, we're...well, we're okay. Some days are fine, some days are rough. It's been two months since my dad passed away and while "normal" has gotten more normal, we still have a lot of grieving and processing to do. Having a 15-month-old who needs to be fed, put to sleep, played with, and generally paid attention to all the time makes it hard to find time or space for mourning; getting ready for another baby makes it even harder. We'll get through it eventually but it's just going to take a lot of time.

And that's where we are right now. 

 

Blessing Day

Today was a beautiful Blessing day for us and for Georgie. Thank you so much to everyone who came to support and love us. We are so grateful to have so many wonderful people to be a part of Georgie's life. The little one did so well up until about two hours after the meeting got over, then she decided she'd had enough attention from strange people and called it quits for the day. But really, can you blame her? At least she held up through the blessing part!

The little one herself

Maryon family

Our family

Most of our Herrick family (we missed you, Paul and Bekah, but we're awfully glad you had your little Lillian home with you instead!)