Day 3 of 30

Hi all, I hope you're having a great week so far!
Mine started off in a different sort of way, one that I totally didn't see coming. See, my birthday is one month from Monday (3 days ago) and see, I am super excited about it. I'm one of those people who loves their birthday; I am excited to be alive and it's fun to celebrate! Also, my birthday is on Thanksgiving day this year - how sweet is that?
So anyways, like I said, Monday, October 22nd came and BAM! Surprise! The fact that I was surprised says A LOT about my dear hubby because, bless his heart, he is horrible about keeping secrets. Usually he will drop me hints that I figure out quickly but this time his hint was cryptic enough that I was in the dark up until he decided to tell me more.
Every day for the next 30 days (starting this last Monday) I will have a mini surprise. Chris has planned it all out and knows what we're going to do each day leading up to my birthday. Woo!! Disgruntlingly though [is that a word?...it is now!], he's being really good about not letting on what each mini surprise is. The suspense is killing me!
So here we are, on day 3 of 30, and so far I've been having a blast!
Day 1: Massage. So relaxing.
Day 2: Video game tournament. I totally owned in case you were wondering. However, if we had played Halo I can assure you that this would in no way have happened.
Day 3: Learn a new skill. We decided to learn how to twirl a pen between our fingers with one smooth motion. You know those kids in high school that would sit there in class doing this and you would try, fail, and attempt to still look cool (without succeeding)? This was always my predicament. But no more!...kind of. We can both get it about 2 or 3 times out of 10 now. That's definitely nowhere near the coolness of this guy, but it's a start.


On an unrelated note, Lynlee had her 9 month appointment last week. Our little one is now in the 10th percentile for weight and the 70th for height. Tall and skinny! And squirmy! She crawls all over now to wherever her little heart desires and pulls herself up to stand anywhere she can. It's really cute: I wake up most mornings now to see a smiling Lynlee head and little waving arms peeking out over the top of her crib. Melts my heart. I love her SO much!

silly girl! wow - 9 months old already!

Lynlee and her first piece of mail! This is her reading the front to me

How Did I Miss That?!

This apparently is a game I have been playing with myself and the world around me for the last day or two. It's very frustrating actually. This is how it's played: exciting things happen and somehow I miss them. Grr...
Exciting moment missed #1: One of my best friend's little girl turned one on Thursday. Her party was on Sunday at 3pm, right? Right. I've been looking forward to this ever since I heard about it and have been planning on watching her party via webcam (they live in Oklahoma right now so her smart hubby figured out how to set it up this way so family and friends out of the state could still be involved). At 2:58 on Sunday I turn on the computer and, omitting my technical difficulties here, got the live video feed up on the screen. I could see sweet little Mia across the room, sitting in her high chair, eating something. Then I saw someone else come into view and give Erica (my friend) a hug and say goodbye to her. "Gee," I thought, "how sad - they're not going to even stay for her party and watch her do the cake or anything?" Then it hit me - 3pm in Oklahoma. That would be Central Time Zone not Mountain Time Zone. They are an hour ahead of us here in Utah. So really, the party was already over and Miss Mia was sitting across the room munching on her banana birthday cake. How did I miss that?!
*Note that the baby in the pictures is not Mia.

Exciting moment missed #2: Yesterday morning I woke up at about 6:30 like I do every morning (thanks to my alarm clock named Zoe), let the kitty out, and went back to bed. About an hour later I could hear Zoe outside our bedroom window meowing to come inside. Then I heard a rustling in the leaves. And a pounce! I opened my eyes and put on my glasses and found her attacking a praying mantis in our window well. She would bat at it and it would strike back at her (it looked something like this). I shook Chris awake and told him what was happening then raced upstairs to open the window and get Zoe inside. Right when I reached the top of the stairs he called for me to hurry back and see what was happening. When I got down there poor Zoe had the mantis attached to her whiskers and she was trying to shake it off; apparently a moment before it had somehow got on top of her head! Chris said she was trying desperately to shake it off the top of her head and it slid down the side and held fast to her whiskers. How did I miss that?! She gave up after he let go and came inside pretty quickly and we found him dead a few minutes later. Poor things, they both had a rough adventure, though I'm sure each went into it feeling a lot more 'big and bad' than they really are/were.

Exciting moment missed #3: While having Family Home Evening tonight Chris and I were sitting on the floor with Lynlee, who was rolling around and playing with her toys (and talking loudly). We looked at her and giggled while she screamed and growled one of the times, looked back at our paper, and then Chris stopped and said, "Did you put her like that?" I looked and saw our little girl sitting where she had been laying a few seconds earlier. SITTING! She hasn't sat up on her own (to our knowledge) yet. How did I - you get the point by now :)

I think I better start paying more attention!

On a different subject, school is growing great for Chris and me! We are loving our classes, Chris with his Ordinary Differential Equations and Astrophysics (don't worry, my eyebrows raise up too. Someone's gotta know the smart stuff though, right?!) and me with Trigon...well, Trig is going ok, but what I really love is my Criminal Investigations class. My teacher worked for the FBI for 25 years and his last name is Crook. How legit can you get? :) He's really a good teacher.
Ok, I've gotta have a quick moment of proud wifey time here. Chris is in his first astrophysics class this semester. In his class there are a lot of physics students that are close to graduating and pretty much just took this class as an elective to get remaining credits they need. Well they took their first test last week and got the results back today. The average on the test was 15; Chris got 30!!! He doubled the average on the test! I am very proud of him!
Lynlee is doing really well with her babysitters, which makes us happy. We have a hard time leaving her but she seems to have lots of fun and it's getting her around different people (and kids, she loves kids!). Today she was with Dana and Camryn. When we picked her up the three of them were just chilling on the front lawn and it was the cutest thing to see the little girls sitting there, patting each other and trying to steal the other girl's binkie. They are just 4 days apart in age so they are on the same learning levels and such. Chris couldn't resist snapping a picture of these sweet little girls when we got up to them.

they were both smiling up until the camera came out. this is still cute though - look at their cheeks! :)

A couple of weeks ago Lynlee and I were playing with my Galaxy Tab (I love that it has a front facing camera!) and we got a couple fun videos and pictures.

blurrry. my bad!

 I got the hiccups while we were playing and every time I would hiccup she would laugh hysterically! It was so funny!

 

 

Have a great week everyone!

Dating Myself

I had a jaw-dropping grownup moment today. I demonstrated to a teenager my advanced age.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "22 years of age is still so young, you crazy lady!" Some of you may even be thinking "Uh, Marie, you know your husband is 6 years your senior, right?" because that is usually along the lines of what I think of if I even stop to contemplate for a second that I am "old." But just hear me out.
I was walking with a lovely young lady (age 15) today at Seven Peaks water park in Provo. We had just gotten off the "toilet bowl" water slide (it's really named the Vortex, but everybody who's anybody calls it the toilet bowl) and I really liked it so I wanted to jump up in the air with a fist pump to show my enjoyment (please tell me someone remembers this from Roller Coaster Tycoon!). Anyways, the whole point is she had no idea what Roller Coaster Tycoon is. What?!
Ok older person moment #2: something reminded me of the movie Space Jam and come to find out she doesn't know of the movie Space Jam.
How did this happen?? WHEN did this happen??
Oi.

On a happier note and speaking of getting older, Lynlee will be 7 months old on Monday! Wow.
On a sadder note, she has her first cold. It is miserable for her and for us to see her feel so icky. What a trooper though - she's been in a great mood all day anyways, smiling and talking still. Mostly she just has a lot of congestion that's making it hard for her to breathe (she's been snoring some the last night or two) and is really low on energy. This makes her extra cuddly and I can't say I don't hate this part, though I do hope she gets feeling better super soon!

almost everything a sick little girl could ask for

Aaand just because it's been awhile here are a few other pictures we've taken recently.

Daddy caught her talking, not too hard to do these days :)

Lynlee LOVES the kitties. She always chats it up to them

She wasn't too sure about it when Auntie M first came home from NYC, but they are quickly becoming best buds

showing Jim her other toy and very loudly explaining how it works

more talking. literally almost every recent picture we have of her she's in the middle of a sentence

haha ok so she has a huge frown in this picture but she's actually EXTREMELY happy - she's very focused on the opening song to The Lion King, which she is so in love with

it's lay on Jim time yay! (sorry for the creepy red-eye)

i love this candid shot Daddy got

Oh P.S!

I realized that I forgot to update ya'll about Lynlee's last appointment. We took her in last Wednesday for the six month-er (I'm still convinced we only brought her home a week or two ago).
She was all smiles until the doctor came in, then once she realized that he wanted to talk to her and be around her she began talking to him and smiling all big again, showing off her two bottom teeth (she's such a little ham! Totally her mommy's girl hehe).
She sat up for her entire checkup (except the part where he had to make her lie down to feel her tummy). This seemed pretty normal to us since she's been sitting up really well since the beginning of this month but I guess her doc was impressed. He said that he's usually satisfied if a baby comes in for their six month checkup and can sit for a few seconds before wobbling and toppling over. Woohoo, go girl!
Lynlee has broken 13 lbs (she just barely has doubled her birth weight - finally!) and that puts her in the 9th percentile instead of the 3rd, which is where she was when we last took her in with our concerns about her lack of weight gain. She's 25 inches long, so tall and skinny. No chub rolls for her! Kind of a bummer because I think those baby chub rolls are so adorable but there's hope that a future kiddo of ours will have plenty of 'em. And in the meantime, she's so incredibly adorable anyways that I'm really not too worried about it.
She was so good with her shots! Daddy danced around and distracted her for the most part. It was kind of sad because she was in the middle of the biggest smile when they poked her the first time. There were 3 total that she got and she only started crying after the second one went in. Daddy scooped her up after the third and within seconds the tears had stopped and the smiles returned a bit. When we were getting her into the car a few minutes after that she was very intently looking at the band-aids on her legs and trying to pick them up. It always amazes me to see her do something new.
Lynlee really is such a good little girl! We sure love her. Although she's growing up waaaayy too fast for my liking, it's so fun to get in giggle fits with her now and see her own personality start to show.

Not as smiley here - this is after we got home and she was ready for a nap.

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Lynlee's First Half-Birthday!

 Lynlee is already 6 months old! Our little girl is so wonderful - she just amazes us with something new everyday! Last time I blogged about our little family I mentioned a few new things she had been doing and then just two days after that she decided it was time to sit up all on her own. Such a big girl!

  The other day when we went to the grocery store I decided to have her try out "the big kid seat" of the grocery cart. She wasn't sure about it at first and actually seemed a bit bored, so I gave her a friend to keep her company.

She's becoming quite the little busy-body - wanting to explore EVERYTHING and stuff it all into her mouth. We have fun playing smell the spice rack and discovering nature. Lynlee loves to touch trees and Daddy recently introduced her to dirt.

We love taking walks! I usually last longer than she does though :)

A Quick Catch-up in a Short Amount of Time

This is going to be a super fast entry because I've got approximately 4.5 oz. of bottle left to write this!
I just thought I'd give a little update on what's happening in the Bross household because we've been so busy the last little while that I haven't had a chance to write!

• Proud and impressed wifey moment here: Chris was asked by some members of the stake he grew up in to give a presentation at their ward youth conference. He gave an incredible presentation about stars, planets, and the worth of each and everyone of us as our Heavenly Father's children. It was very informative and exciting and left the youth wanting more. They asked him lots of questions about everything ranging from dark matter to gospel topics. I am always impressed by the amount of knowledge my husband is able to retain, his intense passion for the things he spoke to the youth about [who am I kidding? His intense passion for pretty much everything!], and his incredible way of teaching without making a person feel like they've asked a stupid question, even if what was asked is a little off-color. After his presentation they all got to look through his Orion 10" Atlas EQ telescope, named O'Ryan (we're so clever). He showed them Saturn, a globular cluster of stars, another galaxy or two, and several constellations, among other things (I wasn't down at the telescope the whole time however, when I was, I spotted the International Space Station!). Go Chris! Those kids sure love and respect you :)

Looking through the big telescope

And just because she's so cute, here's Lynlee napping at the cabin while they were down at the 'scope :)

• I'm going back to school this fall! We knew I was going to be going back eventually, but we were moreso planning for me to go back in January. However, both Chris and I have prayed earnestly about this decision, trying to decide what would be best for our little family (seeing as I'm the stay-at-home mommy and therefore spend all day with our little girl) and we feel that now is the time, rather than later. Can I just say how incredibly ecstatic I am about this!?!

• Speaking of college, Chris passed Calc 2! (AGAIN) For those of you who don't know the history behind this darn class, let me fill you in real quick: Chris first took Calc 2 about 1 1/2 years ago and passed with a C-. He went on to Calc 3 and was doing great until in the middle of the semester the math dept. informed him that since Calc 2 is a core class he had to pass with a C or better (the really annoying part is that he only got that grade because of not handing in homework - he was getting in the 90s on all of his tests!), so they made him drop Calc 3 and due to a lenghy series of annoying, unreasonable, and unfortunate events he has been unable to get back into Calc 2 and complete the course again until now. I'm so proud of him for sticking through it though! It's been so difficult to keep going with it when he kept getting put out in the cold for so many absurd reasons but he didn't give up! And now he can finally move on with school (did I mention that Calc 2 is the per-requisite for all the rest of his math and physics classes? That means he hasn't been able to even take on any productive classes counting towards his degree for that amount of time.)

• Lynlee is cutting not one, but two front teeth! Poor girl, she's been more fussy than usual the past couple of days but all things considered she's been in a fairly good mood collectively. She's growing up so fast! Lynlee loves blowing raspberries into the air and creates an impressive amount of spite bubbles when she does. She is also now a pro-roller-over, both ways. I lay her on the floor and within minutes she's on the other side of the room - seconds if there's a kitty over there. She's as talkative as ever and oh so smiley at the silliest things. Lovin' those solid foods, too!

•  The kitties have made some new friends...kind of. Our landlady upstairs has a bunch of her family visiting for the summer and they brought their two dogs: Teddy and Kitsu. Teddy is a sweetheart who loves cats (he followed Zoë into our house the last time he visited and just sat and watched her, tail wagging in new found friend bliss) and Kitsu...well...she's cute. She's a puppy (only 5 months, same as Lynlee) and so she NEVER stops barking (it seems). When they first arrived Zack and Zoë were terrified of them. Zoë would get her little "shark fin" going that she only busts out when she's spooked (see picture below). Now the cats have gotten used to them enough to sit at the top of the stairs and stare as Kitsu barks her little head at them off from across the yard.

• Chris is currently job hunting again. Our lives just keep getting turned upside down every time we blink!

 Well, I'm now hearing the sounds of the last drops being emptied from the bottle and with that follows a distressed baby because growing teeth was never anyone's favorite past time, right? Have a great day!
P.S. Upon previewing this blog entry before posting it I've discovered that my text and spacing is a little out of whack and I have no idea why...But, "no time for that now, the computer's starting!"...I mean, just ignore it, I don't have the time to investigate why this is at the moment.

She prefers to sleep on her tummy now-days. I found her like this one nap time after I left her alone to play in her crib for a few minutes

Daddy and Lynlee

An attempt at a picture of all 3 of us. We had a lot of attempts. Let's just say this was the best we could get.

HAHAHA her face is priceless!

Something Creative

My friend Dana has created/is creating a series of passion pursuing dares that she posts on her blog and I have decided to try them out along with her (although I'm a little slower on the uptake when it comes to completing them). I really think this is neat because I've [depressingly] discovered that other than my cute family, the gospel, and a couple choice other things I have no idea what I really am passionate about. "Ew. Marie, how could this have happened?!" I have thought to myself a lot recently. Being Chris' wife it seems near impossible for this to be the case when that man is so wonderfully passionate about so many things (for those of you who know Chris even a tiny bit you will know exactly what I'm talking about and are probably smiling to yourself about just how incredibly passionate he is). He has been expressing his concern for my lack of intense passion for some time now I just have had no idea where to even start (keeping up with the baby is a full+ time job I feel) until now.

So thanks Dana! Getting started is always the hardest part.

"First dare:  I dare you to do something creative this week.  Anything at all.  Paint it, sew it, write it, bake it--whatever.  Just get your creative juices flowing, make a big mess, and create something.  Go!"

About a month and a half ago we took a trip over to Blickenstaff's - the coolest toy store ever! Lynlee found a toy there that she absolutely loved but it was $16 and although we really really wanted to get it for her Chris and I made a [responsible] decision not to get it at that time. However, I was determined to do something for our little girl (even though she really had no idea what was going on I still hated telling her no). So I went hunting around our house and found some material, ribbons, plastic bags (for the crinkly feeling and sound on the inside), some beans in an old prescription bottle (for the rattling noise), and a bunch of other little knick knacks to attach to it for her to touch and explore. After putting it all together she wasn't too excited about it (FAIL I thought) but after completing today's creative task I pulled it out again and she LOVES it! Success!

 The two sides of the tube toy.

She hasn't let go of it all day!

The things I'm really excited about that I finished making today are these: little bean bags of every basic color. They're perfect for Lynlee to hold onto with her tiny hands and feel the different textures of the materials, she can suck on them as she pleases, and best of all, I think it'll help her learn her colors as she begins to understand more of what we say to her and teach her. She'll like playing with them (already does!) and every time I hand her one I can say "this is the color pink, do you like the bumps on the pink bean bag?" or "the blue beanbag is made out of corduroy material."

I'm excited :) Also, I really like to make things like this. I like to search the house for things we don't ever use that just take up space, imagining what they could become, and then watching it all come together. That could be considered a passion, right? I'm counting it.

You can't tell in the picture, but almost every one of them has a different texture: the white one feels like a towel, the red one is velvet, etc.