Melanie's 1st Birthday

Melanie is a ONE YEAR OLD!

That year went by so fast.

Spencer's Mom, Brigham, and Mikayla came to our apartment on Saturday afternoon and stayed the night to celebrate with us on Sunday. I made Melanie a tiny cake and some mini muffins and we threw her a tiny birthday party after dinner! We went to church in the morning, then came home and had some lunch and then made Melanie take a nap. I spent all of sunday school in the mother's room because she finally fell asleep in there, and I knew if I went into the bright hallway she would wake up. So I just sat there, staring at my sweet baby girl, thinking about the year.

Her birthday party was fun! We gave her a cake to smash, and she very carefully poked it once. We tried putting some in her mouth to get her excited about it and she just spit it out like we were trying to poison her or something. Then we gave her a tiny fork and she poked the cake. Then we gave her a slice of the cake and she poked it until it made enough of a mess that it looks like she smashed some cake! She loved having Happy Birthday sung to her though! All day long, that song would make her grin ear to ear. We opened her presents after cake, and she almost got it. She mostly wanted to put her things back into the bag they came out of. Haha

Mom got her some outfits and pajamas for her birthday, and we got her a big red ball. AnnaMarie got her a cute little dolly stroller that she adores and giraffe socks that I adore! Katie painted her a picture of light sabers, and Jane gave her a tiny pink elephant. Thanks to all of you and everyone who sent birthday wishes!

We are so blessed to have her. I thank God every day for trusting me to mother this sweet, smart, happy girl. I hope I am teaching her all the good things she will need to know.

Our one year old Melanie:

• She loves people, and loves to share her happiness with everyone around her. She always has a smile and/or a wave for people going by. It's amazing how someone so tiny can brighten up everything around her so much. 
• She is silly. She loves honking noses. She prefers honking her own nose. She loves playing with doors, especially if there is someone on the other side to knock to. She loves when Spencer sings songs and adds "MELANIE!" in her face.  Ex: "rock a bye MELANIE!! (uncontrollable laughter) in the tree tops. When the wind blows the MELANIE!! (uncontrollable laughter).... 
• She loves giving hugs and kisses. Usually.
• She loves baths! She holds her two rubber ducks, one in each hand, and chatters to herself while she splashes them so it looks like she's having them talk. 
• She is deciding to walk more and more each day!
• She loves broccoli, rice, sausage, lil' crunchies, goldfish crackers, and watermelon! She does like a wide variety of foods, but those are her current favorites. She does not like birthday cake. Or cookies. Unless you sneak little bits into her mouth without her knowing. 
• She likes for things to have a place. She is constantly taking things (toys, remotes, balls) and putting them in boxes, envelopes, cupboards, other toys, etc. She won't spill her balls all over the floor. She carefully takes them one at a time and stashes them. 
• She has been a TERRIBLE sleeper. Hopefully that changes very soon.
• She loves balls. She plays roll the ball, kicks balls, chases balls, fetches balls on command, collects balls into her baskets and pushes them around, kisses balls, tries to make Spencer eat her balls. 
• She is very interested in shoes, knows they go on her feet, and tries to put them on her feet, but feels uncertain about having them on her feet.
• She says: ball, momma (kind of), daddy (kind of), no (said no-no-no-no or nuuuuuuuuuuu to express any discontent, not really to say no)

Someday I'll add the pictures I took on my camera. These are all from my phone. 

Moore Family Vacation 2015!

I have to start out by giving AnnaMarie a big thanks for doing so much of the planning and organizing for our family vacation again! I'm not sure if it would happen without you. Thanks to everyone else for their help with planning, preparation, and efforts to get your family there! Spencer and I pretty much just showed up this year. In the future, hopefully we will be a little more available to help with all the work that goes into it.

This year we rented a big, old cabin in Winter, Wisconsin, near Hayward. I ended up having a surgery the monday before the vacation started, so that put a damper on the vacation fun. I couldn't swim, tube, or golf and I was still feeling a bit sore. We still had fun, though. 

Blogging about the whole vacation is really hard, especially since a lot of the days kind of blurred together. Also, Melanie's sleep schedule was different than the other kids, so I feel like we missed a lot of the action. I'm just going to add some pictures and write down a few memories about them. It was a really great week, and I loved getting a chance to see everyone! 

Hannah adored Melanie and Melanie adored her right back!

This was a popular game. 

Melanie held her own pretty well. And the kids were really good with her. 

Crossing Mighty Mac!

She did pretty well with the drive. 

The only thing we were catching was clams. 

And seaweed. I don't think anyone saw a fish all week!

Pulling the canoe in with the Pontoon boat. I thought they were going to tip for sure, but they didn't.

I helped these two make some fairies. 

Two of my favorite girls!

AnnaMarie got Melanie some birthday presents a couple of days early. A little pink dolly stroller, a painting by Katie, and some cute little giraffe socks!

Those are all from my phone. Real camera pictures will be added someday. Maybe next year. :) Just being realistic. 

Patrick and Ashley's Wedding

Well, I missed Melanie's 11 month post, and I'm really behind on the blog. Pretty typical. I'm hoping to get a post up on the wedding, our Moore Family Vacation, and Melanie's birthday sometime this week, and then just go from there. I'm sorry about all the stuff I missed in between. All the pictures are at the bottom.

Patrick and Ashley got married in Payson, UT on August 1st! Congratulations to them!!

We flew out Thursday afternoon after my lab was over and had a quick, but nice visit. Melanie was a champ on the flights there and back, only crying a little because she just really wanted to do her thing, and we couldn't let her. Thank goodness we had direct flights though! Flying with kids is at least 10x as stressful as flying alone. She gave her best cheesy grins to all the flight attendants and passengers walking by, and absolutely loved the cookies that the flight attendants gave her. :)

We got in late Thursday night, so we just chatted with people a little bit and went to bed. On Friday, Melanie and I got to hang out with my friend Alison and her daughter Lily, who shares a birthday with Melanie! It was so fun to have those little girls together! They were pretty funny. Melanie was a little bit of a punk, greedily stuffing Lily's snacks into her mouth. Spencer and the gang went to the temple for Ashley's endowment session. I also watched Ashley's sister's baby so that they could go without worrying about finding a baby sitter.

On Friday afternoon we went up to Provo. We stopped by the brand spanking new Life Sciences building to see the new version of the office Spencer used to work in and the new DNA Sequencing Center to see Dr. Wilcox. We got to chat with Gale in the office, one of the advisors who Spencer worked for, and that was really nice. And, of course, we got to show off Melanie! We went to the bookstore after that to get BYU game day shirts and some ice cream. Then we tried finding some dinner for Melanie, and I learned that Taco Bell is the very worst. Everything had awful "cheese" sauce on it that was too spicy for Melanie and after three attempted orders, Melanie and I were both pretty much in tears. I went up to the counter yet again and said, "I just need something that my 11 month old daughter can eat that doesn't have weird spicy stuff on it!" I'm pretty sure the poor cashier thought I was crazy. She ended up nibbling and making faces at some tortilla and eating a bunch of gold fish or something. I don't remember. We did a little bit of shopping together and headed back down to Payson to put Melanie to bed and help with some wedding prep!

Saturday was the wedding, and it was beautiful! The house was just a block and a half away from the Temple, and Brigham was brave enough to watch Melanie for us during the sealing ceremony. After the sealing we had a luncheon at Magleby's, which had good food, but was too classy of a joint to have a diaper changing station in their restrooms, so I had to change Melanie's diaper in the back of the car. They are lucky it was nice outside, or I would have changed it in a booth in their dining room. Melanie really enjoyed their breadsticks and noodles, though!

We went back to the house after the luncheon and Shirley and Dave were nice enough to come for a little visit! It was so lovely to see them!

Once everyone else came back, we said our goodbyes to Shirley and Dave so we could help get everything ready for the reception, which was being held in the back yard. We set up tables, lights, decorations, candles -- lots and lots of candles, and prepared the food. There was cheesecake and a chocolate fountain with fruit and things to dip. The reception was just beautiful, and it was so fun to watch Patrick and Ashley. In all the time I've known Patrick, I've never seen him smile so much! They are so sweet together. I hope we have a chance to live closer to them one of these years so I can get to know them both better. I think Ashley and I will be great friends once we get a chance to get know each other a little more.

We flew out again on Sunday morning, and it was back to reality (also known as anatomy) for me. It was so nice to get to see all of Spencer's family and especially to get the chance for Melanie to meet her great-grandparents and other family members. Melanie was just thrilled to see Carrina and Collin, too!