June Roses

Stacie lives at our same apartment complex, we do a lot together and Lenna (age 4, in the yellow) and Bev (in 'Baby Chandler's stroller') love Chandler. We swap babysitting so we can go on jogs, we swap baby sitting for doctors appointments, or I'll watch Lenna and Bev while Stacie gets caught up with her sewing business. They are moving next month, just 20 minutes north, so we can still hang out, but it is SO convenient to have them just next door. We will definitely miss having them close by. 

Chandler is getting long! I made this dress for her and she will probably get to wear it two times.

Trever asked if she HAD to wear a headband... I told him ALL little girls deserve a hair do.. and well, Chandler doesn't have hair to do... so thus we will be wearing headbands!

This is too priceless not to share... I am assembling a good bye memory book for Sis. Carter and Sis. Frame who have served 18 month missions here in our ward. So I took a quick picture of the primary and YM and YW... we are few in number and it's just funny to see little wild kids running about :)

Sis. Carter and Sis. Frame recently taught and were able to commit Teresa to be baptized! Teresa was baptized last week, I got to attend and it was neat to be there and support a new member. We are definitely going to miss these great missionaries.

Schedule?

So I hear moms often say, 'Oh I can come over at 2pm because baby Johnny will be awake from his nap'... I tend to get really jealous because that means they know exactly when baby Johnny needs to sleep and exactly when he will wake up. Miss Chandler is not quite there, actually she is different every day. But what I can count on is she will eat, smile, play, then sleep.. usually in that order. We have tried to make a morning routine, nap routine, and bedtime routine

Morning routine:

     Around 4 am or 5 am Chandler will wake up to eat, that is a bit too early for my liking so I just bring her in bed and nurse lying down. We snuggle and fall asleep together til 7 or 8 if I am lucky :) She starts squirming around and smilng and will say 'wooo' and 'gooo', which traslate into "Good morning mom, I love you!" :) We get up, change the diaper, get dressed for the day, I put Chandler on the boppy for tummy time while I cook breakfast. I flip her over and prop her up on her back on the boppy while I eat, read my scriptures, put away dishes etc. By this time she has been awake for about an hour and is ready for a nap.

(She can hold her little toy and suck her fist! This girl is advanced!)

Happy girl!

Nap Routine:

    I darken the room, swaddle her up, give her the binkie, and let her fall asleep. One day she refused to settle down, I knew she was tired, but she just couldnt fall asleep. After trying for a long time I just decided to go ahead and keep getting ready, so I blow dried my hair... I looked back and Chandler, she was fast asleep. Magical blow dryer! She loves the white noise. They have fancy white noise machines, but they aren't loud enough... and why buy a white noise machine when I already have a blow dryer?! I turn on the blow dryer for nap time and she zonks out.

(Trever was afraid that the blow dryer would cause the carpet to catch fire... what a protective dad! So I decided to prop up the blow dryer... idk if it is fire proof, but I'm pretty sure it isn't hot enough to cause a fire  #firsttimeparents )

She's so cute when she sleeps! After she is fast asleep the binkie just falls out of her mouth.

Bedtime routine:

   The routine kinda goes like feed, bath, lotion, jammies, swaddle, feed, binkie, blow dryer.... the bath really settles her down. She loves the water and I will sing to her as we play in the bath, she will kinda sing back and say 'oooo' and smile. I love that girl! 

Play Time!

Chandler is smiling more and more and it makes play time really fun! As I look at these videos I realize she doesn't ways smile that big or respond to everything... But to we have moved from Chandler ignoring us, to finally recognizing her mom and dad! Trever and I joke that "our daughter is advanced!" anything she does we will say "that's advanced!"... even a large poopy diaper has been labeled as "advanced" :)

Grandpa Eric picked out this pink track suit, it is 6 mo size but Chandler is growing so fast I figured I'd have her start wearing it now despite the fact that it is a bit big on her.

HA! Those pants kill me! 

Can't forget the sparkly tennie runners :)

We try to do a bit of tummy time each day, Chandler will stay on her belly longer if someone is there to entertain her. She loves looking at her daddy!

She can hold that little rattle ball thing for like 2.5 seconds... like I said, our daughter is advanced! ha!

A nice lady in our ward gave us this cute dress, it has little pink bicycles on it. It's a 6 mo size and is a little baggy but this way she can wear it more than two times.

Chandler has figured out how to suck on her hands... lots of slobber from this girl. And her swaddles are slobbery because she will try to suck her hands through the swaddle.

Happy girl!

Who wouldn't love that face!!

Proud to be and American!

Our first family vacation!

Washington DC

May 29 - June 3 

THURSDAY

2:00pm departure from Seattle to Chicago, 50 minute layover then connecting to Dulles Airport in Washington DC. All went well until we landed in Chicago, it was a bumpy landing which woke up Chandler and she  definitely let us know that she was hungry. So.... I started nursing. The passengers were deplaning, so I had about 5 minutes before we deplaned. I decided to just nurse and walk because we had to catch our connecting flight. Walking and nursing poses all sorts of challenges, but we made it to the gate a a slow waddle pace. We had a happy baby that enjoyed her flight. Below is a picture of Mt. Rainier as we flew out of Seattle. 

FRIDAY

MAY 30

Woke up. Continental breakfast. Notre Dame. National Archives Museum. Museum of Natural History. Traffic. Meghan Harrison. Thrush baby. 

We left early in the morning so Trever could meet up for an interview for Notre Dame MBA, the recruiter had good advice and so far we are really interested in going there. 

National Archives

We drove down town to DC, paid $20 to park! Then walked to the National Archives. I really enjoyed seeing  the Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. What a blessing it is to live in a free country. 

This is how Chandler likes to sight see :)

The Museum of Natural History was fascinating!! I really enjoyed the skeletons and animal exhibits. 

Giant elephant at the Natural History Museum.

We  spent the evening with Meghan Harrison (girls state friend) and her family, it was so great to be able to catch up and eat dinner together. We headed back to the hotel because Chandler was fussy, I had remembered talking to our friend about thrush in babies and I had noticed an infection on in the inside of Chandler's cheeks. The ride home Chandler was crying so hard we couldn't stand it! It was a painful cry that we hadn't ever heard before, we started worrying and contacted our pediatrician and also looked going to an urgent care, they were all closed so we would have had to go to the ER. We decided to stick out the evening and not go to the ER, luckily Chandler calmed down when we got to the hotel. She slept well and was the happiest baby the next day! 

SATURDAY

DC Temple. Sealing. Cafe Rio.  Great Falls National Park. Dinner.

We went to the DC temple visitors center, the grounds are stunning and it felt so good to be on holy ground. I nursed Chandler while Trever attended the sealing.

Trevor Sperry, Troy Sheppley, and  Trever all roomed together at the Colony, so it was kinda like a roommate reunion. I roomed with Bekah my Junior year so it was fun to know both the bride and the groom.

After pictures we headed to lunch with Troy and his wife Hannah, too bad they don't live closer because we really enjoyed them. There is not a Cafe Rio in Washington state so since we left Provo we have craved Cafe Rio! Lo and behold there was one 30 minutes away... I'll make that drive any day! After a really awesome lunch we went to Great Falls National Park. They are natural falls that are on the Potomac River, as you look across you can see the state of Virginia- stunning view!

The wedding dinner was held a Bekah's house, it was a beautiful colonial home that is HUGE and sits on a lovely wooded property (I really fell in love with colonial homes on this trip). They had a nice catered meal and seating outdoors with a live band. They even put a platform over their pool and had seating there. It was great to be there and support this beautiful couple!

SUNDAY

Arlington. Church. Dinner. Lincoln.

We decided that Arlington National Cemetery would be a reverent Sunday activity. I really have a deep respect of the soldiers that have died in the name of freedom. I feel proud to be an American! Arlington is a sacred place with a lot of history, I had visited before but it took on a whole new meaning on this trip.

While "vacation church" works for some, we decided when ever possible we'd like to attend all three hours of church and we are really glad we did. The Arlington 2nd Ward made us feel right at home! We felt the spirit and were thankful for the consistency of the gospel. All sorts of people introduced themselves, one kind man even invited us over for dinner. Barry and Virginia Wood hosted us for the evening and it turns out we have all sorts of connections: their daughter-in-law is Joann who works with mom and also employs Maddy as her nanny, Barry knows Rex Lee (Trever's uncle) and Barry knows where Eagar, AZ is... And Virginia grew up in our ward in Provo and her home in still there across from the Marriott center, and her sister still lives in the ward! It was a fun evening with them. 

After chatting we went to the Iwo Jimia Memorial, it represents all the battles that have been faught and specifically highlights the soldiers raising a flag to represent the USA success at Iwo Jima.

We the headed over to the Lincoln Memorial and read the speeches of Lincoln and got to see the city at night. I realized after reading the Ghettysburg Address that the men that died did so for us today...it is through us that their vision lives on. 

Our trip wouldn't be successful without a couple selfie!

MONDAY

Monday: metro. I have to get through. Capitol tour. Library of congress. Lunch a- burger. Sushi. Dinner. Jefferson memorial night time.

We took the metro into the city and despite being from small towns,I would say that we are proficient metro users. One thing I learned about the DC metro is the doors close FAST! We were ready to exit the metro and waited for a few people in front of us. Trever exited, I was behind him (carrying Chandler in the frontpack). The speaker announced the doors closing, I tried to push them and figured they would be like elevator doors and open back up... Well... This was not an elevator! Half of my body was stuck in the door, and I didn't want to be separated from Trever, I shouted, "I have to get through!" I felt like Nephi getting strength to break the cords that bound him... But really a nice gentleman was pushing the door slightly open enough for me to squeeze through. Thank heavens for the kindness of strangers! 

After we got off the horrifying metro, we got in line to tour the Capitol building. While in line we realized that we could not have food or drink inside, so we were bummed that we packed PB&J and we would have to throw it away. I just wasn't going to stand for that, my mom often taught me to hide clothes in store rather than putting them on hold. So I figured I'd do the same...rather than throwing away our lunch I decided to hide it I the bushes so we could eat when we got out. I wasn't too descrete when I hid our food because before they sent me through the metal detector the officer said, "mam, did you out something in the bushes".... Yes.... "You can't do that". .... Ug.... So I marched over to the bushes and took our lunches and threw it away! Meanwhile the security gard made Trever take Chandler out of the stroller, which woke her up and they had to make us unpack and pat down, we felt like we were at a concentration camp! Once we were in it was well worth it. We really enjoyed the tour and learning about the beautiful architecture. 

The Library of Congress was amazing! Wow! I was really impressed with the emphasis on education that the founding fathers had, they were well-versed in all subjects and I realized I need to be better educated and comit to always learning... So I guess my Divergent books aren't really that well-versed so I will need to read some Shakespeare after this! 

We had some great burgers and rosemary fries at Good Stuff Eatery! Definitely would go back there. We went home for a quick nap...mostly for Trever but Chandler needed it too... Heck I always need a nap! 

We called Alan Manwaring for restaurant recommendations and he sent us to a Japanese places that was delicious!! We got sushi, edemame, and ginger chicken - BEST DINNER THE WHOLE TRIP! 

We concluded the evening by going to the Jefferson memorial at night. It is an amazing view being in the river at night and seeing the monuments all lit up.

TUESDAY

Mt. Vernon. Flight home.

We took a 30 minute drive south from DC to go see where George Washington lived. I loved the tour of his home, he had a great taste in decor and bought the nicest things of his day. His property is well kept and displays his hobby of farming and agriculture. 

Mt. Vernon overlooks the Potomac, it is a beautiful scene!

Her pink sun hat is more like a sombrero!

Chandler is a pretty experienced flyer!

On the plane we changed Chandler's diaper using the tray in the airplane seat. Of course she decides to pee and has the stinkiest diaper ever! lol. Besides that she flew well and was happy to be back home.