Mike and I have a favorite weekend activity. We bought season tickets to the University of Utah gymnastics. There are 6 home meets over the course of three months and it is sooo much fun. The best part is that they are really good (ranked 2nd in the nation)!
Today I am trying to catch up a bit on my posting. There hasn't been a lot to post on lately, but we've had a few things this weekend:
Last night as I was reading blogs, I came across several posts on the merits of Valentine's. I will share mine...It all starts on December 11th (Mike's birthday). Two weeks later is Christmas. Two weeks later is my birthday. A month later is Valentine's and less than a month after that is our anniversary. So in the long parade of gift giving days, Valentine's loses!
Lest you think that we simply ignore the day, we usually exchange cards and have something nicer than usual for dinner. This year we also took Abby swimming at the Murray pool. It had been a long time since she'd been swimming so she got off to a bit of a rough start, but once she got going, she loved it! In fact, she loved playing on the toys in the kiddie pool area. The stairs on the toys start in about 12" of water and she would come down the slide and just crawl over to the toys. It didn't seem to bug her that she was crawling submerged. (It bugged mom and dad though so we discouraged that as much as possible.)
I thought I'd share a fun project my family did this weekend:
The Ronald McDonald House in Salt Lake City is a place where out of town families can stay while their children are in the hospitals (Primary and Shriner's). These are families who do not have another place to stay or the resources to stay in a hotel. Because it is a charitable organization, their resources don't allow them to do a lot of cosmetic upgrades to the building. There is an ongoing effort on their part to have volunteers to adopt and redo rooms in the house. As a service project, my family redecorated a room in the house this weekend. It was a fair amount of work but we think that it turned out nice and I thought I'd share some of the before and after pictures.
The house is located on the corner of N Street and South Temple which happened to be along the funeral procession route for President Hinckley. We enjoyed going out onto the corner and waving handkerchiefs as the procession passed. We were able to see several of the Twelve as they passed by. It was an emotional moment. (Elder Bednar waved specifically at us!)
I must write some sort of tribute to a man who has influenced millions of people and who has personally influenced me. From the moment I found out he had passed away, I thought about what kind of legacy President Hinckley had left for me. It wasn't hard for me to decide that what has always stuck out to me the most (and I think that he mentioned something along these lines pretty much every conference) is the need to reach out to others--especially outside our comfort zone--not just in an effort to spread the gospel, but to just be genuinely friendly and nice. That has been something I have tried to work on lately. President Hinckley was a master at this--reaching out and loving all, unconditionally and genuinely. I know that everyone will take varying things away from his ministry, but I just thought I'd share mine. I am so grateful that the Lord provides us with prophets for our time and for us!
My brother-in-law, Kevin, has been forwarding us links to various slide show and video tributes. I thought some of you may be interested. FYI--the first two are specific to his relationship to BYU. For those of us who are Cougars, it is a truly sentimental trip down memory lane!
BYU Slideshow 1
BYU Slideshow 2
Glenn Beck video tribute
A few days ago I was editing some old video and came across some pictures and video from last January where we had put this really cute snowman outfit on Abby when we went up to the cemetery. We didn't use the outfit much after that because she was so small that she got lost in it and we had a hard time not losing her (and, hence, not suffocating her) in it. Well, we thought that since she's still little maybe she'd fit in the 0-9 months snowsuit. So a week or so we went back to the cemetery (not that cemeteries are the only places it can be worn) and tried it again. Fits perfectly! Can't say that she loved it, but cute pictures came out of it!
Then:
Now:
It has been a few days since I have posted, but it has been a nice week or so. Sunday after church we headed up to meet my parents at my grandma's house so that the 6 of us could drive up to Idaho Falls together and go to the Rexburg Temple Open House on Monday. It was a nice, but quick little getaway. While getting ready to leave from my grandma's house, I went into the bathroom and Mike was outside putting the car seat in grandma's car. I hear my mom yell out, "She walked to me!" Then I hear my mom say, "Do it again, Abby, come to grandma...yeah, good girl, you did it!" So my child took her first steps (twice) and I didn't even see them:) That's OK though because she gave us several repeat performances. (I did give my mom a hard time about encouraging her to walk the second time while I wasn't around to watch, but she definitely had the right to gloat.) So, lest you wonder, no, Abby cannot officially walk now, but she is very good at the 2-3 step journeys. Here is a little video. It is actually only one step, but trust me that she can do it!
Here is a picture of us at the temple. In addition to my mom, dad and grandma, Mike's sister Lara came with us.
Here is a cute little anecdote from the temple tour: Our tour guide told us at one point that the next room we'd be seeing would be the Celestial Room. He told us a little about the decor in the room (8,000 crystals in the chandelier) and then said that because it is such a special room, he wouldn't be talking to us in the room to allow us to feel the special Spirit and reverence of the temple and to look around quietly. Well, the moment we walked into the room, Abby saw the big chandelier and starts out with "la-la-la-la, etc." She learned how to say "lights" during Christmas (la-la) and now loves to say it whenever she sees more than your typical fluorescent bulb. We tried to quiet her down with her pacifier, but, no use, she let everyone in the Celestial Room know that she could see the lights! It was a bit noisy for the Celestial Room, but no one minded it coming from a baby--and I suppose it is a good reminder that the temple and the gospel bring Light in the truest sense into our lives. (John 8:12)
We spent New Year's at my parents' cabin with my sister and her family and my brother. My parents and my other two sisters were supposed to come down, but snow storms got in their way. We still had a nice and relaxing time. It is always one of my favorite places to be.
Here is Mike (being the favorite uncle) with Abby and our niece and nephews peeking out of the mini tent.
We went sledding down the driveway. Abby didn't respond a ton to it either way, but I was surprised that any time we were outside (that didn't happen a lot since New Year's Eve at about 10PM was -11˚) she never seemed to complain about the cold. We bundled her up pretty well!
We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas this week!!! We had a very enjoyable (and memorable) Christmas. Having a little person around to enjoy the sights and sounds made it fabulous!
Here are some pictures. On Christmas Eve we spent the evening with my family. We actually had to head back to their place at 10:30 that night to spend the night because of some police activity that would not allow us onto our street (that is part of the memorable part:). We ate Christmas Day breakfast at my Grandma Nielsen's house and then exchanged gifts with my family. We had dinner with many from Mike's family that night. It was a great and very busy day! With all the comings and goings, we (Mike, Abby and I) didn't get to exchanging our gifts until the morning of the 26th. That actually turned out very nice because it was so calm and laid back!
Christmas is about Christ and family and I am so happy that we were able to enjoy the spirit of both!
I belong to two book clubs and in January we will be planning the reading schedule for both. Any great suggestions? Here are a few of my favorites that we read this year. Any genre is fine...
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
These Is My Words by Nancy Turner
Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
We are doing our best to help Abby enjoy the Spirit of Christmas this year. We have talked about baby Jesus, listened to lot of Christmas music and loved the lights. It's such a magical time of year. Here is some of Abigail's magic:
Candy Canes
We have a few candy canes on the Christmas tree. As far as I know Abby has (had) never had a candy cane, but I did have to move the candy canes to higher branches on the tree when she had taken off the lower ones, broken them and was caught with bits of candy in her mouth--managing to avoid the wrapper. (Smart kid!)
Music
We seem to have a rather musical child. You know that song that starts with Pachebel's canon, then sings "This night, on this very Christmas night..." The other morning as the Pachebel's canon part was playing Abby was singing, "Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh, ahhh." I couldn't quite tell if she was precisely on key, but she was making a very valiant effort!
"Deck the Halls" seems to be the winner though. (Stay tuned for a great video!)
Snow
I'm not convinced that the snow thing has really grabbed her attention, but, admittedly, I haven't done a lot to foster that relationship! She looks great in the snowsuit! (Thanks, Samantha...) We'll keep working on it.
Santa
Has sat on his lap twice--liked him--no tears. (Bummer--no pictures either.)
Books
One of her twin bruises on her forehead was from tumbling while standing on her tippy toes trying to reach her favorite pop-up books that are really mommy's favorite pop-up books:)
In honor of Mike's 29th birthday, I'd like to post ten things I love about him. In case you may wonder, there are many, many more things than just 10 that I love about him--but tradition dictates "10".
10. I love that Mike is so friendly. I suppose that if he wasn't we may not have met as he did take the chance in coming and asking me (a stranger:) to dance 4 1/2 years ago. But, really, he is friendly with everyone. He has very little inhibitions about talking to people and always tries to make them feel noticed and included.
9. I love that Mike is so committed to the gospel. He has a strong testimony and works daily to strengthen it.
8. I love that Mike is a missionary. (This fits in well with both #10 and #9.) He hands out pass along cards on vacations and is an awesome home teacher.
7. I love that Mike always likes to try new things. He is always up for visiting new places and eating new foods (that is one he's a bit--more than a bit--more daring than me on).
6. I love that Mike is so handy. He has done so much around the house and does it himself! He knows how to learn if he doesn't already know how to do it. On top of that, he takes pride in his work and the stuff looks good.
5. Speaking of learning, I love that Mike is so smart. He did well in school and is now using lots of his smarts as a valued employee.
4. I love that Mike is completely devoted to family--his parents and siblings, my family, me, Abby and Hope!
3. I love his personality in general. We have so much fun together! He is a lot more level-headed than I and knows how to talk sense into me when I need it:)
2. Mike is a great dad! He loves to play with Abby and make her laugh. She loves it in the evenings when she hears the door open and just knows that her daddy is home!
1. I love how Mike treats me. He is kind, thoughtful, fun, loyal and complimentary. He is very patient with me (and rarely lets me know when he is needing to exercise that patience). I love him very much and am thrilled that I've got him forever!
Other than the recently mentioned illnesses, we are happy and enjoying the Christmas season. Here are some recent pictures:
The Wessman Family has been sick this week. It actually started last weekend when I had a 24 hour flu. Abby was just a couple hours behind me.
(The flu bug hit us the day after we had taken her to the doctor's because there was a chance she'd swallowed part of a Christmas ornament--oh, the drama! By the way, they did an x-ray and checked her out and she appeared to be ornament-free! These cute little ornaments used to be a set of 3, but...Abby did her magic on one of them and DIDN'T swallow any pieces, thank goodness!)
We thought she was OK until she threw up ALL OVER (me, Mike, the bench, the floor) during Sacrament Meeting. I had to teach Relief Society so we all went home so Abby and I could bathe. Mike put on his street clothes and went back after the meeting was over to disinfect the bench. As soon as he returned, I headed back to teach R.S. Abby has been steadily improving since then--just took her a couple days to get back to her usual self!
Mike is (still) sick, too, the poor guy! He only went in to work one day this week (must be pretty bad) but did work a bit from home. His symptoms change everyday so sometimes it is hard to tell which direction he's headed, but we think he's on his way out of it. He went to the doctor's yesterday and said the meds appeared to help. I sure hope he feels back to his self soon!
Mike suggested that I put a link to our little girl, Hope's, website on the blog. Most of you know that our first daughter passed away shortly after her birth due to the effects of Trisomy 18, a chromosomal disorder. Her story is found at www.hopewessman.net. We love and miss her and are so grateful that she is part of our eternal family!
Uh oh--It's been two weeks since I have updated!
We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We traveled to Idaho Falls and stayed with Mike's family from Wednesday through Sunday. All of his siblings were in town so it was fun to see them. Thursday's dinner was great. We (6 of us) went to the IF Temple Friday morning and Mike, Kaye and I saw Enchanted on Saturday afternoon. I recommend it--cute movie. (OK--so I really liked it--it appealed to my romantic-sentimental-cheesy-and-a-bit-corny side.)
One of my favorite things about our little trip up to Idaho was Abby riding the little token rides at Leo's Pizza Place. They really don't look too exciting from an adult's perspective, but for a 13-month-old--wow! These were a hit!!
Abby also enjoyed Lara's (Mike's sister) dog. I'll have to post the "dictionary according to Abigail" some time with some of her favorite words, but suffice it to say that whenever she hears a dog bark, it is "d-d-d-d-d" or "diggy".
A couple other things. A Friday or two ago (the 16th) one of my best friends, Haley, got married! It was fun to spend a good part of the day with her. She was sealed to Jason in the Salt Lake Temple with her dad (isn't that great) officiating and we were able to go to a nice luncheon and a very fun reception. It was great to see friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. I am very happy for them!
me, Amy, Summer, Haley, Holli, Shana
We took a little trip down to Zion Thursday through Saturday. Here are a few thoughts:
So Lichelle "tagged" me. She posted 7 things about herself in her blog and now I have to post 7 things about myself. Here it goes:
1. I love family history. A year or two ago I came across a couple hundred names that extended what had been a real dead end. It was/is pretty exciting and has provided me with plenty of research and temple work for us to do!
2. My all time favorite vacation was to Tahiti for our honeymoon. It is an amazing place with the clearest, bluest beaches anywhere and the snorkeling was fabulous. (And what better person to spend it with than Mike!)
3. So before I decided to be a teacher, I planned to get a degree in Human Biology with the hopes of moving on to med school. I loved my science classes at BYU and looked forward to more, but I am glad I switched to teaching. It was wonderful and developed into something I passionately enjoyed. (On a pretty distant stretch of a tangent, I just read a really interesting article on Yahoo about how the medical care in Afghanistan has improved since the war began. It was really interesting! It is pretty amazing (a miracle) to see the changes that have been made but still sad to see how far they have to go...
4. I love to travel!!! It is kind of hard to get enough of it--except in the month of July when it seems like we are never home and I kind of ache for my own bed. But anyway, I do love to travel. And so does Mike so I'm happy we're compatible in that regard. I like hotels and tents alike--a bit of each is always nice.
5. One of the qualities that I admire in other people is to see (and look for) the best in others. It is something I'd like to/I try to emulate.
6. I think that gardening is fun. I will admit that I am a pretty good gardener about March through June, but a dismal one during July and August (way too hot). I worked at a nursery throughout high school and college (Wasatch Shadows) and I have a difficult time visiting without picking up a few flowers.
7. Being a mom is the greatest! I think that Abby is fabulous and beautiful and I love raising her. I love my girl, Hope, and look forward to being with her (and all my children) someday!
So there are my seven things. I think that now I am supposed to tag some other people. How about Monica, Anne-Marie and Shana? Now it is your turn...
OK--so I will admit that Abby and I did spend ~15 minutes in the Costco parking lot watching the ambulances bringing patients from LDS Hospital and helicopters bringing the tiny ICU babies to the new hospital. It is pretty exciting and monumental! I've lived here (0.87 miles away) for nearly 7 years and Mike has been here for almost 4 years so we've watched it from the ground up! We toured the hospital last month and it will be a great addition to our neighborhood. We are so blessed to live in a time and a land where the medical care is so advanced! Modern medicine is nothing short of a miracle!
What a great day! I can hardly believe that Abby is a year old. After experiencing our loss of Hope and Abby's illnesses when she was born, it was hard to believe that Mike and I would ever celebrate the first birthday of one of our children, but, of course we would have the opportunity! (Sometimes it just seemed a bit distant.) Anyway, perhaps I am partial, but I truly feel that Abby is the smartest, cutest and funnest child I know. She has a spunky personality. She is social and happy. I love her dearly and love being her mom. I couldn't have "created" a better dad for her than Mike. He is extraordinary. Our family has been so blessed and today was one of those fun paydays!
We started the day with a trip to the Living Planet Aquarium. Abby enjoyed it and I am excited to use our passes to return. After that we had a lunch with lots of family. It was wonderful to get together and see so many people (grandparents - Pat and Adele, Dave and Kaye, Leola, Ray and Ellen, Marva and Tom, David and Nancy; aunts and uncles - Tami and Kevin, Tim and Katie, Brian, Kaley, Steph and Ben a bit later in the day; cousins - Brooklyn, Isaac and Jack). Here is an album of birthday party pictures.
Abby is going to be an octopus for Halloween. I doubt you'll see many of those among your little ghosts and goblins this year:) She really loves the outfit--both when it is on and off. When it is off, she'll sit and snuggle up to it and when it is on, well, she just does her normal thing. (I was afraid she'd be bothered by the extra appendages.)
So I have made two trips to Gardner Village this fall to see their fun witches. The first time I went with friends from the neighborhood (Monica and Alicia) and Shana. The following week Shana and I decided to take Abby and Cooper (aka the cow) back in their costumes. Gardner Village is set up with perfect little picture backdrops. We had a nice time and Abby did a pretty good job hamming it up for the camera!
It has been a quiet afternoon--not terribly productive, but relaxing, nonetheless. Here are some assorted pictures. Click on the picture to go to Picasa and to see the picture with a caption. Then, click on "View Album" (will be to the left of the picture) to see the full album.
It has been an enjoyable weekend. Yesterday I woke up at 4:45 and drove to meet my mom and then sister just off the freeway in Sandy and Spanish Fork and we drove to St. George to surprise Brian, who was running in the marathon. We arrived about 20-30 minutes before he crossed the finish line, in just enough time for Tami to walk up the course a bit to meet him with ~1.5 miles to go and run in with him and for mom and I to get along the last bit of the course to cheer him in. I think he was pleased to see us and we enjoyed being there with him. We did a bit of shopping at the outlets and then ate lunch in Cedar with Brian and his traveling/running friend then headed home. (I rode from Cedar to Utah County with Brian.) We were back on the road by 2:30 and after a couple stops I was home by 7:30. Getting in and out of the car so much in one day was rather strange because I felt about 17 lbs. lighter than I usually do when I am loading and unloading the car:) I missed Abby quite a bit--it's the longest I've been away from her I think, but she and Mike handled themselves jut great for the day! (She even got to go to the Priesthood session of conference!)
So yesterday Brian crossed the finish line at about 10:08 so after visiting with him and what not, we didn't hear more than one talk from the morning session of conference. In the afternoon we heard most, but not all after leaving lunch so I look forward to watching some re-runs. Today we had a very nice time watching conference and I think I was most inspired by President Eyring's talk this morning. I think that we could avoid a lot of life's heartaches by remembering--avoiding sin by remembering how sin has felt in the past, overcoming trials by remembering the Lord's promises, treating others well by remembering how much we love them, doing the right things because we remember the promptings of the Spirit. Life will always be tough, but I think that remembering is a key to lightening our heavy loads and reminding us that there is so much more of the good than the bad. I loved his idea of recording God's kindnesses. That is something I'd like to do--and a legacy I'd like to leave my kids. Conference was all good and I feel uplifted.
Abby loves to pull herself up on anything and she has recently begun to climb! She will stand alone for a few seconds out on the grass.
The other day she was looking at herself in the mirror on our closet door and trying to touch the baby in front of her. It was especially cute when she crawled to the other side of the door to try and find her mysterious (and exceptionally cute) friend.
This is what I call the "poofy hair meets poofy dress (complete with tags)" look. We were going through a box of the next size up in clothes and I couldn't resist putting her in this dress for a few minutes (still a bit big but should be great around the holidays). The skirt has so many layers that she kept picking at them and trying to figure it all out.
It has been a great weekend! I need to get better at posting things here (or at least writing in my journal). I read an article in the Deseret News this week (and I'm mildly frustrated that their website is being silly and not letting me bring it up) about a speech that David McCullough, the renowned author and historian, gave here in SLC recently. He talked about the value of history along with the importance of learning our country's history. (I would have to add the importance also of learning the church's and our family's histories as well. And while I'm at it, aren't the scriptures full of history?) Mr. McCullough also emphasized the value of writing and said that "To write well is to think clearly. To write very well is to think very clearly," (finally got the website to cooperate) and I am not opposed to being able to think more clearly so here is some writing...
So the weekend--On Friday we attended a baptism and a birthday party. On Saturday we attended a baptism and a birthday party. (Do we see a trend here?)
Friday's was a convert baptism (that I played for) of Howard Kelly. He and his wife, Joyce, have been attending church for a while and to be honest, we didn’t realize he wasn’t a member. It was a nice service and the ordinance of baptism was miraculous as ever.
My side of the family is full of September birthdays. Steph's is the 8th, Grandma Marva's is the 14th, Brian's is the 15th and Ben's is the 16th. Next Sunday we'll have a dinner for Steph and Ben. Friday we celebrated Grandma Marva's 80th birthday with a dinner at Marie Callendar's with all of my parents' family along with Grandma's siblings and their spouses (Dixie and Ray and Curtis and Susan) and my other grandparents whom she considers dear friends (Ray and Ellen and Leola). It was fun to have all of my surviving grandparents at the dinner! Here is a picture of all three of my cute grandmas.
Yesterday we celebrated Brian's birthday at the Tucano's in Provo. It was an excellent meal. A few years back I ate at Rodizio's here in SLC (both are Brazilian barbecues) and I wasn't impressed. I didn't know what to expect with Tucano's but it was great. The prices weren't too bad and they give you a free meal for your birthday. Can't beat that!
Abby has been really doing a lot lately! She has gotten her first two teeth over the last week and a half. I have started putting her hair in little pig tails. She has begun to crawl - at least her own little combination of a crawl, scoot and bear crawl, and she is pulling herself up onto furniture!
Our trip ended nicely. We drove from Glacier to Missoula and stayed the night there. Sunday morning we drove a bit off the beaten path to church in Hamilton, Montana. (Mike was curious about a pharma facility he had been contacted by a head hunter about there. Small town Montana seemed like an interesting place for a high tech facility...nice town, nice ward.) Sunday afternoon we arrived in Idaho Falls where Lara barbecued for us. Mmmm. Monday morning we went, along with Lara, to the IF zoo. It was a fun getaway. I liked their zoo...
Lara, Abby, the tiger and I
