Happy Thanksgiving!

We love you and are grateful for all that you do for us. Hope you are having a great Thanksgiving.

Split Loyalties

This is what you get when one parent is a BYU fan and the other is a U fan! Who knows where her loyalties will lie. She'll grow up knowing the U song...as tradition in Tom's family, she was sung it right after being born. The bear also plays the music and we keep it in her crib and push the song when she starts to cry. But I will have to do my best to ensure she likes BYU more:)

Can't wait for the game today!

P.S. Happy Birthday Grandma Reese and Aunt Annie!!! We love you!

5 Year Anniversary

Today is our 5 year anniversary!!! We were married on November 21, 2003 in the Salt Lake Temple. Originally, we thought we would get married on November 22 which is Tom's mom and sister's birthday. We asked if it was ok to get married on their birthday and we even booked the temple. But then my dad thought it was a good idea to look at the football schedule, even though it was months away. We found out that our wedding was during the rival BYU vs. Utah game. That just wouldn't do...especially because my family is BYU fans and Tom's is U fans. We didn't want any rough feelings going on that day so we switched the wedding to Friday, Nov. 21. This year is just the same, today is our anniversary tomorrow, the 22nd is the BYU vs. U game. Just like our wedding day...it brings back memories:

I remember waking up early and having my friend McKayla do my hair and make-up. I was so nervous and excited. It was snowing and Tom drove up to Bountiful in his parents truck to pick me up. He gave me a dozen roses and we drove to the Salt Lake Temple. My mom was worried that we would be late. When we got to the temple, it was still snowing and we quickly stopped to take this picture.

We filled out all the paperwork before separating to go get dressed. We met in the hallway and went up to the Celestial room to wait. Our sealer, Ned Winder came and gave us some "interesting advice" before we went into the sealing rooms. It was a wonderful ceremony and we were blessed to have so many family there. Afterward we went outside to take pictures. I remember it was freezing, but it had stopped snowing. I was in a short sleeved dress, but was so blissfully happy that I didn't notice the cold while we took a million pictures.



After pictures, Tom and I checked into our hotel downtown to change. We were starving at this point, so we headed back to the crossroads mall. We ate at the Sbarro at the ZCMI foodcourt.(Crazy, I know) I remember being a little embarrassed because my hair was done up and it was kinda obvious I was a bride. It was Tom's mom and sister's birthday the next day and we hadn't gotten them presents yet. We quickly shopped for them and bought a new memory card for the digital camera I gave Tom for a wedding present. Tom had given me a new snowboard. (I had taught Tom how to snowboard on one of our first dates and always complained that I needed a new board because mine was so scratched. I loved it!!!)

After shopping, we headed to our reception which was held in the rotunda of the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake. My mother had decorated it beautifully! My colors were red, yellow, and orange to go with the fall season. It was gorgeous! We took more pictures before the reception started. It was a very packed reception and we spent most of our time in the line greeting and thanking people for coming. We heard that our food was amazing. There was mini cordon bleus, meatballs, pasta, sandwiches, salad, and tons of great desserts. Unfortunately, Tom and I didn't get to eat any of it because we were so busy. In fact, the only bite of our wedding cake we got was the bite we fed to each other. But it was a great reception and we had a wonderful time.Doesn't he look young?

We had a 10 day honeymoon. It was amazing. We drove to Tom's grandpa's condo in St. George and spent a couple of days there. Then we drove on to Monterey, California. Our favorite things were the Monterey Bay aquarium, the 17 mile drive, Pebble Beach, "Honeymoon Beach," and Yosemite. We drove back to St. George on Thanksgiving Day. When we hit Las Vegas, we were starving so decided to stop at the Mirage Casino and had our first Thanksgiving dinner together at their buffet. We always laugh about that today. It was so fun.



A lot has happened in the past five years. Here are some of the highlights:

We have lived in 4 places: Mapleton (3 weeks while we waited to get into our apartment), Wymount in Provo (18 months), Pleasant Grove (3 years), and now Bloomington, IN.

While still at BYU, Tom worked as a teller for Zionsbank and Beth worked as a lab assistant for a professor. We both graduated from BYU in 2005. Beth in Elementary Education in April and Tom in English and minor in Business in August. After graduating, Beth worked as an elementary teacher for 4 years-2 years teaching 2nd grade and 2 years teaching 3rd grade. Tom worked for Zionsbank in their Human Resources department. Now Tom is an MBA student at IU and Beth is a stay at home mom.

Traveling is one of our favorite things to do. We also like to camp and hike. Here are some of our favorite vacations:
Tom's family cabin at Yellowston Ranch in the Uintas (many trips)
Monterey and Carmel, CA
St. George (several times, I forget how many)
Jackson Hole, WY
Grand Teton National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Arches National Park
Capital Reef National Park (2 times)
Canyonlands National Park
Capital Reef National Park
Zions National Park (5 times)
Yosemite National Park (2 times)
Grand Canyon National Park
Moab, Utah
Sun Valley, ID
Reno and Lake Tahoe, NV
Las Vegas, NV
Irvine, California
New York City, NY
Orlando, Florida
Paris, France
Venice, Bologne, Florence, and Rome; Italy
Here are some pics from some of our favorite trips:

San Rafael Swell, UT 2004
New York, October 2004
Little Wildhorse Canyon, UT 2005

Delicate Arch, Arches National Park 2005
East Rim Trail, Zions National Park 2005

Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, July 2005
Paris, France June 2006

Venice, Italy June 2006
Hiking the Narrows, Zions National Park , May 2007
Cocoa Beach, Florida June 2007
Hiking the Subway, Zions National Park, August 2007
Grand Canyon, June 2008

Other Fun Pics of Holidays and Friends:

Now we have a daughter and we've moved cross country. It is amazing all that has happened in just five years. There has been so many fun memories. Thank you so much for being such a wonderful husband Tom, I love you so much! You are a wonderful father, husband, and friend. I miss you on our anniversary....hope you are having fun in Cincinatti. I can't wait to see you tonight!

Horse Shoe

Ever since Ainsley was born, she has become our source of entertainment. We are so grateful to have her as part of our family and we (as any new parents would be) are fasicnated by everything she does. Well today after church, I was making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and I had left Ainsley on the floor. We usually put her boppy behind her so if she loses her balance she won't bang her head when she tips over. To put the boppy around her, Tom decided to try to throw it like a horse shoe. Well, this started a game. We took turns tossing it (gently of course, we're not bad parents) at Ainsley to see who could get it around her. Every once it awhile, it would bump her but it wouldn't even phase her or break her concentration as she played with her toy lion. It was pretty hilarious.


This will probably be the only time in her life that she will be willing to dress like me

6 Months Already?

I am so bad at keeping a journal. I have only written in it once since Ainsley was born and she is six months now. During her six month appointment on Tuesday, I decided I better go home and record all of her progress up till now so I won't forget or regret it later. So here is what I remember. Family-if I have anything wrong or am missing anything, let me know. I was in the ICU for her two month appointment, so I don't know how much she weighed then.

Born: May 7, 2008 at 5:51 a.m.
9 lb. 3 oz
21 inches long
2 Week appointment: 9 lb. 15 oz.
23 inches long
Began Smiling: 4 weeks
Baby Blessing: June 15, 2008
First Laugh: 3 months
4 month appointment: 25 1/4 inches long (90 percentile)
15 lbs. 7 oz.(90 percentile)
Head-16 1/2 cm (75 percentile)
Rolled from tummy to back: Sept. 11, 2008
Rolled from back to tummy: Oct. 28, 2008
First Solid Food (Rice Cereal): Oct. 19, 2008
Sit Up By Herself: 5 months
6 month appointment: 26 7/8 inches long ( 90 percentile)
17 lbs. 4 oz. (75-90 percentile)
Head-43 1/2 cm (75-90 percentile)

These are some of the milestones (taken from my What to Expect in their First Year book) that Ainsley is able to do at 6 months:
*Keep head level with body when pulled to sitting
*Babble and Say vowel sounds-sounds like singing
*Stand up while holding on to something
* Sit without support
*Turn in the direction of voice
*Make a "razz" sound
Object if you try to take a toy away
*Work to get a toy that's out of reach
*Pass a cube or other object from one hand to the other
*Look for dropped object
*Rake with fingers to pick up object with fist
*Put objects in mouth
*Roll from tummy to back (everytime)
*Roll from back to tummy (has done it twice)
*Stare and examine her hands (we call it "the claw") and feet

Ainsley has no interest in moving yet. She rolls over from tummy to back only because she hates being on her stomach. She will reach for toys that are near, but if they are out of reach, she quickly loses interest rather than work for them. She can sit or lay perfectly content for long periods of time by entertaining herself by singing, playing with her hands, or flapping her arms. Her new phenomenon is her feet. She loves to pull off her socks and stick her foot in her mouth. She uses her pants as leverage and has stretched out the bottom half of many pairs of pants. She sticks everything in her mouth. She doesn't suck on her fingers as much anymore, but loves to suck on her thumb. I hope it doesn't become a permanent habit. She also likes to take the binky out of her mouth, examine it and then put it back in. Her favorite toys are her baby doll; Jangles the Giraffe with limbs of rattles, teething rings, etc; the rubber ducky, and our old cell phone. She also loves the remote control and will try to take it out of our hand while we are watching t.v. together. Almost everything can make her laugh-but one thing in particular is sneezing. If you fake sneeze it will get a giggle or smile everytime. She also likes it when you stick out your tongue. It also always gets a smile. Hopefully it won't teach her bad manners though:) On average, she sleeps about 10 hours with maybe only waking once or twice for a binky. She goes to bed at 9:00 and we wake her at 7:00 so Tom can see her before school. She loves the bathtub and will kick her feet and making "oo0" noises (kinda like a monkey) while she gets washed. She has only had rice cereal so far. She didn't like it at first, but has done much better. We are going to start her on yellow vegetables this week.

Here is a video of her laughing while she was eating:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Costco Date

One thing we really miss about Utah is Costco. When it first opened there, my dad used to take my mom there every Saturday and called it their "Costco Date" because he would treat my mom to the polish hot dog and drink for a $1.50. (Big spender) But it became a joke in our family, and Tom and I continued it when we got married. We would go to Costco almost every Saturday. We always had a routine-we would enter, Tom would ogle the cameras and tell me all about the latest upgrades. Then we would look at the clothing-maybe pick out a new dress shirt for Tom, and then cut over to the books. I would peruse the children's books and Tom would look at the photography, cookbooks, and other books that interested him. Sometimes we would walk over to the bakery where we would pick out our favorite baguettes before heading to browse the frozen food section for any new items we hadn't tried yet. We usually escaped Costcos in Utah with only one to three purchases. Then we would eat at the food court. It was always pepperoni pizza, coke, and a churro. We loved it.

Now that we are in Indiana, there aren't any Costcos close by. There are only two in the state and they are both about 70 miles away. Tom was needing new contacts and Ainsley was out of diapers, so we decided to make the day of it and make the long trek to our beloved Costco. Our membership expires in December so we decided to stalk up on all necessary items that we might need in the next year because we are not planning on renewing our membership. We were nostalgic as we shopped at the giant superstore, aware that it might be the last time we are there for awhile. And we left the store with the biggest bill we've ever had as well as the largest cartload ever. It was a good day. Sniff, sniff...Costco we'll miss you.

Ainsley is finally big enough to sit in the shopping cart without her heavy carseat. I dressed her in the cutest jean skirt today, but it didn't work well in the cart. We had to hike the skirt up so her legs could fit through the bars, but it created such a pooch around her belly that she couldn't sit up straight, so she sat in this pathetic slump the entire time. Occasionally she would fall to one side, and we would have to tip her upright again. She looked kinda miserable, but she was very well behaved and got tons of compliments. Unfortunately, some woman called her a boy... I knew she needed a hair bow today.

After our trip to Costco, we went to Japan Night hosted by the Asian Club at Kelley. Ainsley posed as a sumo, we had our names written in Japanese, and ate traditional cuisine. We had three kinds of sushi, shrimp, dumplings, rice, etc. It was delicious. There was a program afterwards, but Ainsley was tired and starting to cry so we decided to head home.

Tom is hoping to go to Japan in March for Spring Break. Each year, second year MBA students put together a trip to tour companies internationally. They will visit companies like Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Toyota, Honda, etc. I am allowed to go with him, but I don't think I will because it would be a long time to be away from Ainsley. Hopefully, if everything works out though, Tom will be able to go. It would be the trip of a lifetime and I don't want him to miss out on that opportunity.