16 days, 21 hours, 14 minutes, 31 seconds...

...until the big day. Here's a little update on what we're up to.

Matt:
Still training for the marathon. We (My friend, his wife, and I) ran 20 miles last Saturday in just under 4 hours. The last three miles were especially choice, as we were pelted by a crazy hail storm. The marathon is 26.2 miles, but a lot of downhill. I'm also starting to fill out my applications. I'm applying to 10 schools, but feel pretty confident that we'll end up at BYU. I've been doing everything I can to establish relationships with some faculty here, which included paying $800.00 to audit a class this semester (it better be a sweet class), so hopefully that will pay off.

Lisa:
Staying out all night with the girls. . . making cookies and delivering them to every sister in the ward. She was out until 2 am the other night! She has been staying really busy and doing a great job in her calling. I've really enjoyed watching her learn and grow so much spiritually, even though that means I've been left even further behind in the spiritual dust. She amazes me! Even with all the responsibilities she has at church, she still does an awesome job running the household (especially with Vanessa).

Vanessa:
Still jabbering non-stop. Her new words include "poop" (she raises her hands in the air and says "poop" now when she fills her diaper), "meow" (it's more like "melow"), "bottle", and "belly" (sounds like be-yee, that's her word for her belly button). She has also kind of learned to eat with a fork. Most of the time we have to stick the food on the fork and she puts it in her mouth, but it keeps her entertained long enough to finish a meal. Last night we framed a picture of Jesus for her room and let her hold it for a while. She just sat there for like ten minutes talking to it and kissing it. We got it on tape, so I'm going to try and format it so I can e-mail it. We love her so much and love watching her grow and learn

Addendum to Vanessa pictures

If anyone would like any of these one-year photos let us know. We purchased the CD this time so we could produce as many copies as we want. Just let us know which one(s) by indicating a number (top one on the blog would be #1, the second down from the top would be #2, and so on) and indicate what size (we can do up to a 5x7 before we lose resolution quality). You can let us know through blog comment, e-mail, or phone.

We love you all and we hope you've enjoyed these entries!

Vanessa's one-year pictures

Here are the pictures we had taken of Vanessa before vacation. Keep scrolling to see stuff from our vacation and return home.

Catch-up post (keep scrolling...this one's (h)UGE!

Thanks everyone for a great vacation! Here are some pictures from our trip.

Vanessa is preparing early for Halloween. Here is her costume.

She has also gotten a jump start on winter.

I don't know how many of you met my cook from my mission, Rocio (she came and cooked for my wedding), but she just moved to Provo. She is working as a school bus driver and a cook. She invited us to dinner tonight. It was really fun to see her again. Vanessa couldn't get enough of her Spanish and she couldn't get enough of Vanessa.

Thanks again to everyone for all your help on our vacation. It was really great to get to see you all again and enjoy the Northwest (even though I did complain about the rain). We love you all and hope all is well.

Vanessa...In a NUTshell

WARNING: This is a lengthy(er) post...I always have a hard time choosing which pictures to use!

While we feel that our little girl is very sweet and cute, she also is a little bit of a goofball and quite mischievous. Here are a few photos that exhibit her colorful personality:


She has discovered that she can look at things upside down. Since she is so short, she can't see through her legs very well and has to look around them. Note the pieces of corn stuck to her feet. How did those get there?



Here is her new (bath) 'do. She thought it was pretty cool.



Speaking of cool...Matt and I picked these sunglasses at the dollar store to keep Vanessa entertained on the drive back from California. She stills plays with them, putting them on herself or others (with supervision, of course, since she has a tendency to put them in your eyes instead of over them). Let's hope she doesn't need glasses later (Although we know a great optometrist if she does).



Already trying to be a grown-up! While Matt was feeding Vanessa ice cream (doctor's orders, I swear), she decided she needed to feed him, though from the looks of things, I'd says she's getting the bigger bites.


So, Vanessa loves pears. I mean, loves them (almost as much as ice cream). She stood up on the table while we were trying to feed her (not a regular feeding spot), walked over, and helped herself to a pear. After she took a few bites (which aren't very big when you only have two teeth), I took it away so I could chop it up for her. So she started going for the other pear. That was when we took her off the table.





When I'm getting Vanessa ready for her bath, I let her throw the bath toys from the bucket to the tub while the water fills up. She usually is so excited about the water that she pays little attention to anything else. Yet, aside from food, Vanessa's big obsession is the toilet, which includes the paper. I have been successful the past couple of weeks in keeping her from unrolling all the toilet paper, and I guess I let down my guard. In the few moments while I was getting her nightgown and diaper, she managed to unload a whole new roll onto the floor. When I went in and caught her doing it, she jumped. She knew she was doing something she shouldn't (1st picture). Then in classic Vanessa fashion, she "defied" me by trying to eat the toilet paper still in her hand (2nd picture). I'm not quite sure but I think she was trying to get rid of the evidence.


Well, when all is said and done, this mischievous goofball is my sweet little baby, and every time I look at that precious face, I know I wouldn't trade her for the world (or all the toilet paper in it).

Good Night, Sleep Tight . . . Don't Let the Titanus Giganteous Bite!

So, the other night Lisa and I were putting Vanessa to bed. As Lisa was trying to put Vanessa in her crib, Vanessa kept squirming and trying to back-pedal out of the crib. All the sudden Lisa screamed, "Oh my gosh! There's a huge cockroach in the crib". It turns out it was a Titanus Gigatneous beetle (pretty impressive name). It was about three inches long, with antennae about that long too. I put it in a cup and took it outside. When I went to put it in the grass, it hissed at me. So I showed him who was boss and launched him into the middle of the street. No mercy.

It's a tornado! It's a hurricane! It's a. . .

. . . really crazy, windy thunderstorm. I don't know if we made national news, but we had a crazy thunderstorm yesterday that knocked over airplanes, took down 100 ft trees, and caused some flash flooding. Must be all the "moisture" everyone is always praying for (those of you who have lived in Utah will get that joke). Luckily, no one was injured, but some people will be without power for about a week. It was definitely the coolest thunderstorm I've ever seen.