Down on the Farm

One Year Old...

2009-09-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, so my futile attempts at keeping a current blog have failed miserably, resulting in a HUGE re-cap posting. So for those of you who want the short version of what's been going on in our lives, here is the abridged version:

We moved, Laney has two teeth #O, and #P, Laney has taken her first step, is walking like crazy, says pop, mama, dada and uh-oh. Chet is still studying, we've moved, been on a few trips and have been crazy busy but loving life.

San Diego! So much fun. Kara, thanks for your hospitality and the fun times we had together. It was so fun to see your cute house, and see how much your family is growing. Olivia is so sweet. Ty is so handsome and Rissy is adorable. Hopefully we'll get Chet over to play with us once his test is over. Tell Josh thanks for all of the late night drives back and forth and uprooting your kids to come and hang out. Let's get together soon so we can play with our cool new floaties!
This is Cabrillo National Monument and the adjacent tide pools. It was incredible being by the ocean, feeling that salty breeze, and my hair was so voluminous. There is just something so refreshing and invigorating about the sea. I loved it and want to learn to surf more than ever...Tim and Emily if you're reading this, let's plan a trip!

Sea World was SO amazing, to see all of the animals so close! Laney loved it, especially Shamu and the penguins. I'm not sure, but I think she might have confused them with my mom and dad's dog, Sirius Black, who also happens to share the same coloring. What do you think? Laney makes the same excited oooh, oooh's for each of the three below:

I had been practicing my whale so I didn't sound a little "orca-ish" to talk to the whales, which is why this guy swam right up behind us while we snapped this pic.

This next picture of Laney cracks me up, I can just imagine her thinking "he's right behind me, isn't he? Laney also had fun playing with the funhouse mirror and grandpa. We saw Elmo's 3-D movie. The glasses lasted on Laney for about as long as it took to snap this picture, but it reminds me of a casino boss, with the black horn-rimmed glasses, and Laney's "what...you gotta problem?" face.

This whale came up and gave Laney a little kiss at the glass...doesn't count as her first one, since the glass is 1/2" thick.
That is one sunburned walrus.

Laney looks incredibly concerned about Jaws behind us.

The San Diego Zoo was incredible...unlike Phoenix, most of the animals weren't suffering from heat stroke and were actually quite interactive. Our favorite for the day was Funami the hippo, who is only two years younger than myself, but already has clinched her position as one of the most influential hippos in underwater ballet.

Isn't this peacock so pretty? He kind of startled me when I came around the corner and poof, there he was. Laney looks like she's headed for elephant toe jam. She wasn't too worried about it and liked playing peek-a-boo around the feet.

Oh, Laney Baby, I can't believe a year has passed already. You are more and more beautiful each day and bring so much joy to everyone you come in contact with. You have a way of brightening everyone's day just by looking at them. A few things about you right now:

You LOVE tomatoes, peaches and corn on the cob.
You have this adorable "stink face" that cracks me up every time.
You give the best loves to everybody and it just melts their hearts.
You jabber all of the time and look at us like we should know what you're saying.
You're so independent about walking, you don't want to be pushed or carried.
Your favorite part of shopping is pushing the grocery cart.
You love music and dancing. The Eensy Weensy Spider is one of your favorites, you
do all the actions.
You LOVE to be outside and moving all of the time.
Your eyes are so expressive, I just love to look at you and see what's going on in
that mind of yours.
You make people feel so important, young, old, boys or girls, you have a magnetic
personality.
You already have so many traits that I wish I possessed and hope I can be the mommy
you deserve.

Here's Laney helping dad make her birthday cake.

Here's Laney playing with the old typewriter on her birthday, in her birthday suit.

So, for those of you who I have been terrible at keeping in contact with and don't already know this...we've moved. Chet and I got the chance to move back to Show Low. I got a job offer from my favorite dentist on the mountain and we just felt like it was a good move to help us reach the goals we have set. We will miss our friends and family that we left behind to swelter, but they will be the ones laughing soon when I am having to scrape my windshield to get to church. Shout out to Dr. DeBaker and staff. Hope you crazy kids are doing well. So, below you see a picture of our new back yard. It is so beautiful here and I feel so lucky to be where I am at right now. I have a lot more time to spend with Laney and even Chet too, though he is still studying away.

Life in Show Low has been really good for us, especially Laney. She plays hard every day and there is so much to do and such beautiful weather. It's nice to see she's becoming a proper Mountain Princess who isn't afraid to touch a frog or get dirty once in a while. It makes me happy to see so many parallels with my own childhood in all of the activities Laney gets to take part in: getting wood, putting up produce, shipping cows, cutting hay, tilling the garden....the list goes on and on. It is definately a lot of work, but it is also so rewarding.

We got some boxes of Utah peaches and canned like crazy. Laney likes the fresh ones, but she doesn't turn her nose up at bottled peaches on a cold winter's morning. Maybe I was destined to move to Show Low so I would get over the intimidation I feel at canning on my own. I'm just terrified of giving my family botulism...which is sure to happen if I'm the one running the steamer.

Harvest time means putting up corn at the Adams house. I can't complain because you can eat as much as you want during the process. The corn tasted even better than it looked, and it is always interesting what kind of stories and topics you hear over shucking corn.

You won't hear Laney complaining about too much fresh produce. She has LOVED the corn on the cob and eating tomatoes like they were apples straight from the garden with "papa" (grandpa Chet) Adams. Are you seeing a recurring theme here? Whenever there is work, there you'll find Laney eating. She works hard at quality control.

A few weeks ago, we tore off the shingles from my grandma's house in Snowflake. She replaced them with a metal roof. It's amazing to me how different the house looks, definately more streamlined (Don't worry grandma, the red does match your bricks, it looks great). It was kind of sad for me though, because it tweaks the memory that I have had of that house since I was old enough to remember anything. Of course a leaky roof wins over my nostalgia any day, but I'm going to pretend those wooden shingles are still up there. We did have a pretty good time while we were doing it. Pasta, you are an animal with that staple gun. I'm sure that roofer will hire if you change your mind about dental.

It is so nice to have the distinct four seasons. I love when you can feel that first chill of fall creeping in and that smell of dried leaves and woodburning stoves. Another fall favorite is getting wood. Although, sad news to report, the BEAST is dead. For those of you who aren't lucky enough to know it, the BEAST was Chet's high school vehicular unit (see left picture in background). This ford could go anywhere, but while we were out in the middle of the forest, the engine seized and the BEAST is no more. If you listen quietly, you can still hear the wailings and moanings of policemen in Show Low, who used to count on Chet and Tyson driving the beast to fill their monthly quotas for tickets.

This is my adorable little woodchuck-before the woodchucking started. Don't laugh at the hat, another hand-me-down from when I was a baby. I think it's kinda cute.

Life on the farm also has its perks, and Laney is enjoying plenty of them. Does your sandbox look like this?

We camped the first week in August for the annual Larson reunion, which is always a good time, but a little bittersweet without Travicus Rex this year, keeping it real in Africa. "Miss you bud!" Laney has fallen madly in love the the Little Buddy push car. The B.O.B. has definately taking a hit in the ranks. Here Laney is cruisin in her cart with Great Grandma Ruby in hers. Watch out, I think they may be starting a gang!

What is camping unless you get a little dirty? Here are Laney's tootsies after a day of playing hard with all of the cousins. But where there's dirt......

There's bathwater. I know it looks like we're cooking Laney up for the Friday night potluck, but cannibalism is rude (as I've said before), and Laney might taste a little gamey.

Here's Laney with all of her Gibson cousins with the exception of miss Hailee Mae who had about two weeks before she made her first appearance in the world.

We did plenty of rides this summer all over Arizona, but my two favorites would have to be Los Burros (Gorgeous, but kind of long if you're taking beginners I'd recommend the second half over the first), and the Bike the Bluffs race that Chet and I did together. (We're the two dots in the background below). Chet, thanks for letting me draft you, in the race and in life, you are such an amazing guy.

4th of July is one of our favorite Holidays and we had so much fun this year. I love this pic of Laney, Red White and Blue, Baseball, and Little Girls? God Bless America.

We went fishing and swimming at Black River and had the best day. Laney got in on the fishing with dad. I'm not sure if they were just floating or just fishing, but they were lovin' it.

What is 4th of July without the firing of the anvil...oh, right, it just isn't. Bright and early we were up and in the middle of it. We lit off an honorary anvil for Gordon and Nancy at the Taylor cemetary. I'm sure they loved it, smiling down from above on all of those people rolling over in their graves from the sonic boom.

Afterward, we headed to Show Low for the parade and had fun watching all of the floats. I also fell into deep lust for a certain non-descript green wagon. I NEED one of these!

We had a BBQ that night where I got to show off Laney's very patriotic tutu...That girl is too cute. Laney and Jess got some quality crawl time in.

Aren't these shorts the cutest? I would totally rock them...if they made them in my size...although the stars would appear much bigger on my derriere.

Even Kailey Britt got in on a little bit of tutu action. So sassy, and I think they should be mandatory for all croquet players.

Summer was busy but full of swimming, swimming and more swimming. Kailey and Abigail did swim team. It was so fun to watch them and here is Abigail looking so sassy in her goggles.

Addison and Mattie came over for a swim one day and we all cruised the goggles. I know you are jealous. Notice that Addison's goggles still have the stickers on them. You swim faster that way.

This pic is of Chet trying to get the bird poop Laney had just put in her mouth...what can I say, the girl will try anything.

Laney has been growing and learning so much. Her favorite past time at one point was climbing in and out of the dishwasher. Most of the time we'd catch her with the sharp knives BEFORE she put them in her mouth. :)

In May we spent a weekend in Sedona and Flagstaff for Tim and Emily Cooley's wedding. They definately brought the beach to Flagstaff. Best of luck to both of you. While we were in town, played in the water in Sedona and went to Buffalo Park in Flagstaff. Ah, Flagstaff, I will always love you.

What the hotdog say when he ran by the hamburger? It's KETCHUP time....

2009-03-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I will fully admit to the inappropriate length between my postings, but it's hard for me to write about Laney when I enjoy playing with her so much instead. That, and the computer is in her room, so when Laney goes to bed, so does my compy. April finds us with life just whirring by. Laney is already six months old which is hard to believe. She is learning and growing so much each day, and watching her learn new things kind of renews my own perception of amazing things that I take for granted: like how those fingers on the end of my hand move so well, how exciting it is just to be outside and feel the breeze in my face, what amazing texture and crunching sound dry leaves make when you close your fist around them (or put them in your mouth). Recent milestones include sitting up, crinkling her nose and beginning solid foods, and growling...yes, I said growling, it's pretty cute, especially when you get a full-body growl with shaking fists too. Laney is amazing in her ability to make anyone's day, just by smiling at them. It's hard to hold back a smile when she gives you one of hers. Lots of busy times at our home right now. Laney unleashed her full power as a maneater tonight in the literal sense of the word. Hopefully she'll grow out of that habit.

This weekend was full of bike races. Here I am at mine. "I don't like to brag, but, I'm kind of a big deal" Of course, it isn't hard when your competition is 8 years old (or as big as an 8 year old in Austin's case :) j/k pasta, you know I love you.

Oh yeah, and then Chet also had a little bike race this weekend called El Tour de Phoenix. Not quite as cool as mine, only 74 miles. I love a good bike race, but it is even better that Chet can share the good times with his fam. Pictured below are Chet, Josh B, Dad, and Jeremy. Props to Jeremy who gave in to peer pressure and did the race even though he had less than a week to train. Jer is used to the one wheeled unicycle variety of bike but made an exception for this weekend.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support our biker boys, especially Austin and Stacie who sacrificed one of their few days to sleep in to come and see Chet and the boys off. You guys are great, and Stacie doesn't show it, but there's a little girl in that tummy that we can't wait to get here in August.

Chet did amazing! He qualified for the gold class and completed the race in 3 hours and 31 minutes. Laney got a hold of dad's medal and checked it for authenticity.

As you can see, she was in a great mood after the race. This is her new crinkle nose trick and it is a-dor-able. I love this little sun hat we found at Old Navy.

Chet finally found a bike that he likes, so now he'll be racing a lot more. He keeps trying to talk me into riding a tandem race, but I don't want to be hauling that boy up all of the steep hills! JK :) That, and I LOVE my mountain biking! It is always fun to be at the race and feel the excitement and energy.

Last weekend we traveled up to Show Low. It was the coldest weather Laney had seen since Christmas, and we decided she has the best of both worlds: bundled up one weekend...swimming the next. Meanwhile, summer keeps creeping closer, so I'm sure our trips to the cold country will become more frequent.

This is Laney show off her sitting up skills and her maestro skills at the piano. I thought the tu-tu was a nice touch.

Laney's other favorite thing right now is her toes. I wish I was still flexible enough to suck on my big toe!

We took time for a little photo op. It didn't go quite as well as I had hoped, but I did get a cute picture of Laney sneezing.

Our other adventure is starting Laney on solids. Rice cereal was a definate no, oatmeal wasn't met with much enthusiasm, but grandma Gibson's home-grown green beans have been a hit. As you can see, rice cereal only ends up outside of the mouth, since Laney blows raspberries instead of eating it.

In March, Laney finally got to meet Grandma Lila. It was one of those fuzzy heart moments to show her my baby. Laney went right for first base, giving Grandma a slobbery open mouth kiss on the nose. Lucky for you, I sensor my pictures and you get this one instead...

February was fun, hanging out with my two favorite Valentines. They are a pretty good lookin' crew, when they are all cleaned up. Chet, thanks for being the love of my life and the best daddy ever. You will always be my bestest friend. I wish I could be half of what you are to me.

Laney's first February brought lots of Valentines, unfortunately, this is as close as she got to the candy...wrapper on. But she loved the crinkle.

More fun pics of Laney, my little hippie baby (Thanks for those boots, britt), Laney wearing her elephant hat-don't worry we don't believe in poaching...it's rude. Laney warmed my heart the day she tried to brush her teeth with the hairbrush-that's dedication to your oral hygiene.

In January we took a weekend trip to Cali and stopped in Quartzsite. An interesting place (because town is a totally unfitting description), where from November to April harbors snowbird squatters and their R.V. tent cities. If you have never seen quartzsite in it's glory you have got to check it out-it is unbelievable. The whole valley fills up with R.V.'s and there are million of swap-meets at each cluster. We stopped to feed Laney and couldn't curb our curiosity. Their are all sorts of treasures that would make any senior citizen salivate (unless they had medication induced xerostomia- a little dental hygiene humor for all my girls). Lots of gem and mineral shops, booths as far as the eye can see, brimming with "As Seen on T.V." items. Check out the wrench that Chet's dad found and tried out with Caroline. The interesting thing is we had Laney in the stroller and people would stop us and exlaim..."look, a real baby!". I was beginning to think maybe it was because the general population was just too old to remember that we all start out that way, until I saw my first Canine Caddy. The picture below is not a fair representation, but a good percentage of the population had some cart or stroller of some sort with a dog or cat in it. Half of these people needed a walker or wheelchair themselves, but there they were pushing pookie up and down the isles, because well, dogs like to shop too. Besides it's quirky population, I would stop in quartzsite any day of the week if I could have another taste of the amazing barbeque we had for lunch.

My favorite part of January was cashing in on my birthday tickets for LION KING on broadway. Taking pictures is kind of illegal, which is a shame because it was incredible. There is a reason the show has won so many awards. The imagination of the costumes and choreography was so entertaining for any age. Wicked is coming in April, so now I've got a bit of broadway fever.
And, just to recap Christmas, Chet and I decided we got Christmas a little early this year, so we spent the day playing with our real present Laney.

Kristin and I had a good time with Jessica and Laney with all of the leftover ribbon and wrapping paper. They on the other hand were not so sure of the practicality of dressing up in paper products.

Christmas was wonderful, being home and enjoying the snow. Chet suprised me with a B.O.B. jogging stroller that I love, love, love! I have used it almost everyday since. Thanks bud!

Playing Catch Up...so I make it off of the NAUGHTY list!

2008-12-21T19:23:00.000-08:00

Alright, sorry this is such a long one, but I have got some major catch up to do because life has just been a little nuts lately. Thanks to everyone for all of the love and friendship we have been shown this year. We find ourselves overwhelmed with the blessings in our life. Having little Laney gives me a whole new perspective on what Mary must have felt like, holding Jesus in her arms. Sometimes while she sleeps I just stare at her, amazed by the potential I see in her and her tender spirit, so maybe it is just a few lingering prego hormones, but the song "Silent Night" makes me just a little choked up.
I loved President Monson's quote about Christmas:

President David O. McKay (1873–1970) declared: “True happiness comes only by making others happy—the practical application of the Savior’s doctrine of losing one’s life to gain it. In short, the Christmas spirit is the Christ spirit, that makes our hearts glow in brotherly love and friendship and prompts us to kind deeds of service.

“It is the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ, obedience to which will bring ‘peace on earth,’ because it means—good will toward all men.”

Giving, not getting, brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit. Enemies are forgiven, friends remembered, and God obeyed. The spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than things. To catch the real meaning of the “spirit of Christmas,” we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the “Spirit of Christ.”

Even with our hectic schedule, we still find time for the important things...like making Laney the next Guitar Hero prodigy. I have some pretty high expectations.

The holidays got busy so quickly for us. Sorry, no cards made it out this year...at least we got a picture with all three of us looking halfway presentable...The sunset was amazing the night our pics were taken.

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A night at the temple made it really feel like Christmas. The music was beautiful and the lights were amazing. The second picture is a little funky but is a better representation of the lights.

With Thanksgiving over with, we began cookin' up christmas. Even Laney got in on the decorating.

Our Sweet Little Punkin'

Regardless of our joking about Laney being the main course, Thanksgiving brought a few moments of reflection on all that we have gained this year, mostly the blessing it has been to have Laney join our family. That little girl just makes my heart melt everytime.
The weekend after Travis left, we headed to Tucson for Chet to ride in the Tour de Tucson. It was amazing to see all of those helmets lined up at the starting line at 5:30 in the morning. The whole event benefits numerous charities. There were even a few unicycle riders who attempted the 109 mile ride. The participation and support for the riders was really inspiring. Chet loved riding with his dad, Josh and Steve.

Chet did so well (I was expecting him to be a lot more exhausted than he was at the finish line-must've been the endorphins!) Laney was overcome with emotion (as you can see) that her dad is such a Superman.

Chet got done, but was so energetic, it made me tired. I thought maybe this race would get the biking bug out of his system, but now I sense it is just the beginning. I don't mind, because it was really fun watching them and so exciting to see them finish together.

We had one last weekend together before Travis left for his mission. So of course we went shooting. It was so much fun having everyone together, and this was our first chance to see what kind of a shot Stacie was...the girl definately held her own-which is appropriate considering Austin's love of firepower.

While we were out, Chet and I decided to immortalize our love for eachother in ultimate redneck style: spraypaint. Don't be too jealous...my man is a romantic.
Travis flew out early on November 19th, straight to the Ghana MTC. It was kind of teary for all of us...Travis mostly for his cell phone and beloved texting. My dad inherited Travis' phone, though I don't think those buttons will see near the heat. Travis has always been my little bud. I found this pic from his last year of wrestling this weekend, and missed him just a little bit, but I'm sure that kid will tear it up in the mission.

Hot Diggity Dog...

2008-11-03T01:42:00.000-08:00

Holidays are so much more fun with kids...and ours is not even two months yet. So I felt a little enthusiastic about Halloween this year because:

a) I had a little Laney to dress up.
b) We had no huge responsibilities (i.e. NAU's Halloween Extravaganza)

So yes, it is a little corny, but we did a family-themed costume. Chet and I went as Hot Diggity Dog Hotdog vendors and Laney was a hot doggie with all the fixins.Don't be alarmed, no Laney Dogs were harmed in the making of this photo. After hanging out at the ward Trunk or Treat, we met up with the Hogles, the Welchs and the Gibsons to check out everyone's costumes and drink a little home-brewed root beer.Even Austin and Stacie dressed up...well, as Abigail put it, "He's dressed up as handsome and she's pretty".

A HARVEST WEEK IN SHOW LOW
We found more fall fun in Show Low digging potatoes......celebrating Chet's birthday...
...and dressing Laney up (Don't be jealous, but the skeleton onesie above glows in the dark).So lately, I've been experiencing a little bit of Decoupage disco fever. Thanks to Brittaney's inspiration, I finally finished my Halloween and was so impressed by it, that I made my friend a housewarming gift. Between making bows for Laney and decoupage, I've been craftin' it up like crazy.

You Will Be Blessed...

2008-10-12T23:17:00.001-07:00

Today was Laney’s blessing day. We blessed her along with cousins Kate and Jessica. This made for kind of a crazy day, but also a very sweet one. The best part of the day was a combined luncheon with all of our families and having the three girls together. It is fun to imagine them being the best of friends and all of the fun times they will share together. Having Laney in our lives definitely redefines our version of the family picture.

I love this picture of the three girls together…nice that Brittaney’s Kate is the only conscious one. It looks like Jessica and Laney were our partying a little too late last night. We were so worried that Laney would scream throughout the blessing, but she did so well…and by well I mean slept through the entire thing. It had to have been the overwhelming spirituality and peace of Chet’s blessing. Actually, it was a beautiful blessing, but I think her serene slumber was due more to a full tummy and a clean diaper. Chet didn’t even drop her (which is impressive because there was so much dress, it was hard to tell if it was Laney you were holding on to), though there was an audible gasp when he went to do the Simba-show off and her head dipped forward.

Chet’s blessing was so sweet. Listening to him today made me so grateful that Laney has such an amazing daddy. It was also tender to realize the love and support that we have from our family. Thanks to everyone who made an effort to share this special day with us. And now the saga of the dress. I found "the" dress on onesmallchild.com and loved it almost instantly. I went to order the dress and the only size they had was 3 months. The dress came on the Thursday before the blessing. Chet was gone quail hunting, so I tried it on, hoping we could make it work. It looked pretty hopeless, with Laney drowning in a sea of white. I decided to look around Mesa for another dress, but trying to time it so that Laney would be as pleasant as possible was a little tricky. Laney was to her limit when I decided to just make the original dress work. I made one last stop at Ribbons and Lace (a super fun store) to pick up something to make a headband with since the dress was not a true white. Laney was kind of fussy, so I took her out of her car seat and was carrying her in my arms. As I leaned over the counter to pay for my things Laney lets out this giant belch and projectile vomit, all over the counter. Needless to say, the entire experience was a bit overwhelming and very stressful (Everything seems much more dramatic when you're surviving on two or three hours of sleep). I finally ended up altering the dress to fit a little better and it worked out great, but it was a little traumatizing.

After our previous spit-up incident, I didn’t want to put Laney in her blessing dress until we absolutely had to. My mom had given me the dress that I wore when I was blessed, so Laney went to the other two blessings wearing that dress. It was so amazing to hold her and realize that I was the same size at one time. It was proof of how life perpetually cycles. Sometimes it feels like we're the only one's to have ever had a baby or been up with her all night, then you stop and realize how many people before you have been in the exact place where you are, and it is kind of comforting.

Laney has definitely changed life as we previously knew it, and although the nights can sometimes seem way too long and sleep deprived, I am so wrapped around her little fingers. Everything she does is adorable, like passing out with daddy after screaming most of the night. I LOVE the picture of my purple little princess. Chet’s hand on her head makes you appreciate how tiny she is…and if that doesn’t do it, the picture of Lindsay’s doll with Laney laying next to it will. (Please excuse her grandpa style pants-they are still a wee bit big)

Laney has had a lot of firsts, one of which being her first bath. At first she was a little alarmed, but she is starting to love bath time as long as the water is warm.

Tyson married Necia Moffat on September 26th. Besides being absolutely gorgeous, Necia is so sweet and fun and is a perfect fit for Tyson. Tyson is the last of the Adams children to get married. It is so crazy to think that the circle of spouses is now complete. At least now Tyson won't be "stag" whenever we're all together.

Laney was a little hard to outfit only being two weeks old. She looks like a little fairy in her dress...it might have something to do with the flower that is as big as her head. It wasn't hard to convince my mom and dad to volunteer their babysitting skills while we went to the wedding.

Being in Show Low was so fun and curbed my cravings for a Flagstaff Fall. We went and cut a load of wood while we were home. It's not Fall unless you're out in the woods with a few chainsaws. It was a beautiful day complete with an amazing picnic provided by Granna Adams. I swear, the lady can pull food out of thin air...you never go hungry with Granna around.

Our working crew consisted of Josh Beeler, Grandpa and Granna Adams, Chet, his dad and even mom split a few pieces. Kara and I were the supervision crew along with Laney, Ty and Marissa

Thank Heaven For Little Girls

2008-09-16T22:09:00.000-07:00

Laney Nance Adams

9.13.08

11:10 a.m.

6 lbs. 12 oz., 20 in.

She's finally here! Laney Nance made her debut last Saturday and is doing well. Labor and delivery went really well for both mom and baby. We are so thankful for all of the thoughts and prayers on behalf of our little family. It is definitely busy around our house, but I wanted to take a few minutes to post some pictures of this sweet little girl. It is amazing how much joy and love she has brought into our little family already.
Chet has fearlessly tackled changing diapers and burpings with an enthusiasm that most men cannot claim. He has a special touch for calming Laney down in the middle of the night and it is so sweet to see him as a daddy.

Chet gave me this necklace on Laney's birthday. It has sapphires for her September birthstone. Someday I'll give it to her and explain what a sentimental and romantic daddy she has.

It is amazing how tiny this little sweet pea is. We've been joking about her "tiny hiny", especially when you compare her to her cousins Kate and Jessica. This is her pouty face. She is so entertaining and already has a hilarious personality. I melt every time I look at her.

Yet another funny picture of Laney showing us her likeness to a human pretzel. She curls into so many positions that I would never consider comfy. If she keeps this up, she's going to be a world-famous Yogi. Downward facing dog is for amateurs!

Coming home from the hospital, Laney shows us her pensive face.

She is so stinkin' cute! She has us hook line and sinker!

Summer Fun

2008-08-13T18:38:00.001-07:00

Summer has flown by, and has been filled with all sorts of fun. We missed 4th of July fireworks but made it back in town just in time for Pioneer Day fireworks in Taylor. I love fireworks!

We had a wet weekend camping at the Larson reunion...and everyone knows camping is not camping without s'mores....and flaming golf balls. He's a pyro, but I love him.

Second Hand Golf Clubs....$20.00

Golf Ball.....$1.00

Lighting Fluid....$4.95

The ease with which boys can entertain themselves....

PRICELESS

Travis proves that he knows how to "rough it" in style. It was sad to think Travis won't be there to entertain us for the next two years, I'm going to miss the kid so much, he always keeps us laughing.

BELLA BELLIES.....although it was unplanned, it has been fun being prego with Kristin. Our best experience yet was when we were shopping together in Costco. It was 5 minutes to closing and Kristin found a bench she wanted. There were no associates around, so Kristin and I started to lift it onto our cart. All of a sudden the floor manager sees Kristin and comes running down the aisle (from behind me) saying "NO! NO! NO! You can't do that...not in YOUR condition!" She didn't look up as she helped me lift it onto the cart and all I kept thinking was "Please don't look up and see me..." When she looked up and saw me, she double-takes Krstin then me, and just shakes her head. That has pretty much been the general reaction when we're together. Kristin is due any day and I have four weeks left!

La Vida Loca

2008-07-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well, my former excuse for not doing a blog is that Chet and I are kind of boring and don't have much worth posting. Now our lives seem busier than ever...so I have given into the blogging frenzy. Here's a little catch up on what is going on for us:
We spent the last two weeks touring the ruins of Mexico, and although it was an amazing trip, it is so nice to be home. I LOVE America! We were in Belize over the 4th of July and felt so homesick. Chet kept saying all he wanted was to eat a hamburger and drink soda until he was going to burst...he had fish instead. A lot of the ruins we saw are not as popular or well-known as Chichen-Itza and Tulum, but they were our favorites.
This picture is atop a pyramid at Palenque. It is amazing how these cities miraculously rise up from the jungle. Even more amazing is how little has been excavated. It was humbling to see the workmanship and dedication that went into these buildings. One of our favorite ruins was a place called Yaxichlan. We felt a little like Indiana Jones as we rode the river between Guatemala and Mexico through crocodile infested waters to the hidden ruins. It is amazing how well-preserved they are. We even found a little time to play Tarzan.
When we weren't tromping through the jungle, we still found plenty to do, especially in the pristine waters of the carribean. We went to a water park called Xel-Ha were we saw dolphins and swam with manatees-they are such funny creatures...I wish our underwater camera pictures would have turned out. :(
One of the last ruins we went to was Tulum, it was beautiful. We weathered a tropical rainstorm and played in the ocean. I entered my third trimester while we were on the trip. Suprisingly, I fared pretty well, thanks to my trusty umbrella and my hand held fan (Don't laugh, it really helped). I don't think there are many pictures of me where I don't have one or the other.
While we were in Mexico, Travis (who graduated this May) opened his mission call and found out he is going to (don't blame me if I say this wrong) the Ghana Africa, Accra mission. He is English speaking and reports just before Thanksgiving. Travis is such a good guy and is going to do so well. He is definately ready to get out and just go.

The week after we got back, Austin married the beautiful Stacie Swenson in the Mount Timpanogas temple. Stacie will have her hands full with Austin, but she could never find someone who would treat her better than Austin.

And through all of the craziness, we just keep getting closer and closer to becoming a little family of three. It is hard to believe that in just 6 weeks, she will be here. We are getting very excited. I just can't wait to see her...and lose a little bit of the belly too.