school's out!

I finished my last exam on Thursday afternoon, what a relief! The last week especially was very rough, but the quarter is over now and we are in NC with our families. Yay!

Purple Banner Designs

I just love creativity! I've been doing crafts with a friend that I've made since moving to Dayton on Fridays and it's been a blast. One of these crafts is a Christmas present for Liza that I will post a picture of after I give it to her!

A friend from New Mexico, Bethany, has taken her creativity and made it into a business! I so admire that and wish I could be as ambitious! Check out her new business when you get a chance.

Purple Banner Designs

an adventure

Our time in Ohio has been quite an adventure so far. I'll hit some highlights.

I have, of course, been in school this whole time. It is occasionally hard, but even at the worst it is still easier than actually going to work every day. I have plenty of time with my wife and daughter. In comparing AFIT to USAFA with a fellow grad the other day, we concurred that while this school might be tougher academically, life here is certainly much easier.

In October we went to my Grandma's house in Ontario for Thanksgiving. Visiting so much family with Liza and Sarah was very fun.

Last weekend we went to Virginia to visit Sarah's family for apple butter, a family reunion with a spread! It was also, coincidentally, Liza's first birthday. She had a good time, and when she opened presents at dinner she tripled the number of toys she owns in about 5 minutes.

Heidi also enjoyed her time in VA. That was the first time in her life that she's been able to go outside and run around as much as she wants. It was fun for us too, because she was able to tire herself out without driving us crazy.

Liza is still adorably cute. She walks quite well, and can go absolutely wherever she pleases. She figured out recently how to climb onto our couches, endangering everything that we set up there to keep it away from her, but for the most part she is still content to stay on the ground. Today she was absolutely delighted to play with a piñata that she got for her birthday.

No words yet, but today she and her mom were working on a duet.

Sarah convinced me to buy a computer for school about a month ago, and I got it and set it up for school exactly in the nick of time to do some necessary school work on the road. Thank you Sarah.

That was quite a big purchase for us, but even bigger is our new car. Or perhaps, not a car. My sister Hannah refers to it as a "loser cruiser." Yesterday we went out and bought a minivan. It was a big deal for me to spend such a serious amount of money, but we are all satisfied with the purchase, and now our monthly road trips will be much more enjoyable. We bought a 2006 Toyota Sienna, and as minivans go, it's pretty sweet.

Today we took a little outing as a family to take advantage of our new ride. To be fair, it was nothing that we wouldn't have done in our previous cars, but we got there so much more comfortably. We went to John Bryan state park right here in Dayton, and it was beautiful.

Pictures of everything forthcoming. As promised: pictures

More Videos of Liza

Liza keeps doing all sorts of fun stuff! Here are a couple videos of what she's been up to recently.

Mowing the Carpet

More Walking!

What a difference one day makes! Liza is walking more than crawling today. I can't believe how quickly she catches on! She also figured out that she can crawl onto the ottoman today. If she can do that, she can get on the couches but shhh! don't tell!

Walking

birthday present!

Tonight Liza gave me a good birthday present. She has been taking a few steps here and there in the previous weeks, but tonight she walked halfway across the room, stopping only when she stepped on a toy frog. It was at least 10 feet, and it was wonderful.

Dayton

It's been a busy few weeks for us Firths. Making the trip from NM to OH was a piece of cake compared to all the unpacking that awaited us when we arrived!

Jordan's dad came and helped him drive our cars from NM to OH because Liza and I flew. I'm really glad we did it that way because I don't think Liza would have done very well in the car for several days in a row. I think I definitely got the easier job even though Liza was a little difficult on the plane. I got to see both of our families and had a great time visiting.

Since we've been here, the weather has been great. Sure we've had some rain but I'm loving it. Today we went to a park with some friends and threw a Frisbee. The park is green and beautiful. I have a feeling we'll be going again sometime soon.

Liza is moving around all over the place! She's not walking on her own yet but she holds on to the furniture and walks around to everything. She's gotten braver lately and transitions to other pieces of furniture that she really has to reach for. It's fun to watch her do it but a few times she's fallen and hurt her mouth. She's bled 3 times from hitting her mouth on the coffee table. It doesn't seem to stop her though! She gets right back up and does it again (after a good cry of course).

So far Jordan has been able to spend a lot of time at home. I know that'll change when classes start here pretty soon, but we've enjoyed the time together as a family. Here are a couple of pictures from the park today.

home again

We are finally in our house in Ohio. We have been in the process of moving for so long that it is a relief to get here.

The movers came last Monday, and we are about 95% unpacked and probably 45% organized. We're getting there. The only important thing that we have left to unpack is the hardware for Liza's crib. Somehow that has eluded us so far, so she is sleeping in a pack n play in the laundry room.

Yesterday Sarah pointed out to me that my post sounded kind of mean about Jason running (or not running) with me. Of course, my only response was, "I know."

My jokes often get confused with insults in real-life, thanks to my "subtle" humorous tone. It's probably closer to the truth to say that I'm just bad at it. So of course, when I write something similar with absolutely no inflection, I know that it's going to be mistaken for meanness.

So, sorry Jason, I don't mind at all that we're not running this one, and we'll pick another one in the future. Just 24.2 more before we can take our trip to Greece.

busy

This weekend Sarah and I have been working frantically--cleaning the house, visiting friends, and packing our belongings. Sarah leaves tomorrow (with Liza), and I leave on Wednesday. As it turns out, this is a lot of work.

We are also recovering from colds. Yes, all 3 of us. Heidi has so far managed to escape, but the rest of us have had sore throats and runny noses for 4 or 5 days. Being sick has really thrown our run training off schedule, which makes this as good a time as any to mention the fact that...

We decided to run the 10k at the AF Marathon in September. It's at Wright-Patterson, so we won't have to travel very far to do it, and we had just enough time to train for it together. Sarah was scared at first, but she's doing a great job, and we're having a lot of fun running together as we train for the event. I had initially been planning on running the marathon, but my friend Jason backed out on me and, well, I can't run a marathon without him.

So we're excited to move. We should be in our new home (which we have never seen) on Monday, a week from tomorrow.

How to tell your child's book is from an earlier era:

"Ha! Who are you?" cried the bear, turning around quickly in order to see better. "Who are you, if I may ask?"

"I'm Jackie Bow-Wow," was the answer, "and if you don't at once do as I say I'll shoot you with my gun!"

...

Then Jackie burst out laughing as hard as he could.

"What's the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily, in surprise.

"Ha! Ha!" laughed Jackie. "What a joke on that bear! I didn't have a real gun at all. It's only a wooden one, with which I was playing hunt Indians. But he thought it was a real one, and he was so scared that he let you go. Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!"

big girl!

Liza is still as cute as ever, and now she even does cute things! Today she was playing with a plastic ring and decided to give it to me. Five seconds later she wanted it back, but that's a start to sharing, maybe. We spent about 10 minutes handing the ring back and forth to each other.

We also decided to measure her today. She was 23.5 lb and 29 in, putting her in the 98th and 91st percentiles in weight and length. It also means that she is over the size limits for her infant car seat, so we have to buy a new one. The best one is apparently really expensive. Yikes!

Here is a message from Liza:
z vbbvvbbvvvbv

Liza stands now!

Sunday morning Sarah and I had Liza with us before church, and she pulled herself up on some stairs! We were both watching her while she did it, and it was so neat.

This is a picture of the same thing that Sarah took today.

On the move!

Liza isn't crawling yet, but this is how she gets around now. :-)

Just for you Mom

Roll Roll Roll

So apparently Liza is quite the mover now! This is what she has spent most of her time in the last few days doing:

We're having a good time during our last few weeks in NM. Jordan has been really busy at work but yesterday was a regular day off and today we've continued relaxing and just spending some time together as a family. Heidi has been having a good time too. Her friend Louie stayed with us Thursday night and Friday, and now Bentley (another doggie friend) is here until Thursday the 2nd. Heidi has been doing a lot better with another dog here. She likes being able to play more and she eats better with another dog waiting to finish her left-overs... I'm not sure what this means for us concerning a companion for Heidi...

Last weekend we went to San Antonio to visit Jordan's brother Noah and to go to Caleb's (a friend of Jordan's from the Academy) wedding. We had a really great visit. We got to spend some time with Noah, go to Sea World, see some of Jordan's USAFA friends, meet Jeff and Sara (some friends of ours from Alamogordo who moved a year ago) for lunch, and rid our car of an ant infestation. Yes, that's right. An ant infestation. It was gross. Noah (thank you SO much by the way) helped me vacuum out the car several times. It didn't work until we found the nest under the hood. After we got rid of that we didn't have anymore problems... eww.

Since we were driving back from San Antonio on Sunday we decided to postpone our Father's Day until yesterday. Jordan had the day off so he had a nice time relaxing and catching up on some sleep from going into work VERY early this last week. Liza and I made him a painting. It was a mess. It was supposed to be her feet and hand prints, but Liza didn't want to cooperate at all! I guess she had her own ideas of what she wanted her painting to be. We made a mess but it turned out well and I think Jordan really enjoyed his Father's Day. We also went to the new Transformers movie which a nice chance for just the two of us to get out on our own.

Here are some recent pictures of Liza:

Liza and Heidi's friend Louie

On our way back from San Antonio, I was feeding Liza and she sneezed with a big mouthful of Squash...

After Sea World Liza was hot and exhausted. I put some wipes on her to cool her down

These next few pictures are from the mess we made with Jordan's Father's Day present.

busy 2 months

Well, it has been a very busy several months. Here's a recap, since I have been noticeably absent here for a long time.

Our house was on the market for 3½ weeks before we had an offer on it. During those 3½ weeks we had a fair amount of interest, but no bites. So we both left town for 2 weeks, and while we were gone somebody came and looked, liked our house, and decided to make an offer on it. I was in classes all day, so Sarah had to take care of the whole process by herself from about 1500 miles away. She did a great job. After about 15 seconds of negotiating, we settled on a price that both of us were happy with, and we soon enjoyed the thought of selling our home soon. Tip: if you are selling your house--and especially if you are selling it without a realtor--I would recommend not leaving town for an extended period of time.

The next 6 weeks (before closing) were very busy. I was in California for some classes, and when I came back I had to go to the Air Force Academy for a presentation, and then we had to get busy. There were a few things to do around the house in preparation for the sale (not very many) and then actually take care of moving out.

As we found out, moving is a little bit stressful. And we're wimps--we didn't even have to do anything. The Air Force provided movers came in, packed up all of our stuff, and loaded it onto a truck in 2 days as we sat around sipping lemon water. If we had a pool we probably would have been sitting by it. It was still a bit stressful though.

The buyers of our house were moving in very shortly (2 weeks before closing), but before they did we had time for one last gathering, so we had a housecooling party. It was--naturally--BYOC, and we ate ice cream and we gave away presents instead of accepting them. The presents were not that desirable though, so don't feel bad if you missed our party.

A week after we moved out the buyers called us and said that the air conditioning wasn't working. I went over to troubleshoot, and after seeing that it was still plugged in I realized that it could not possibly be worth my time and money. We called a friend who is a contractor, and he brought an electician over after work the next day and fixed our house-wide electrical problem for a completely reasonable amount of money.

We spent a great Memorial Day weekend in Phoenix with the Gertisers, and when we came back I took Tuesday off for our 2nd anniversary! We got to go out to a very nice restaurant for dinner and then went to see Star Trek. Sarah's present had not arrived in the mail yet, and in fact it still hasn't, so she is anxiously waiting without even an expected delivery date.

Two days before closing the buyers called and said that there inspection had revealed an undersized pressure relief line on the water cooler and they wanted us to fix it so that it wouldn't explode. After much angst, we had that fixed in a day by the same friend. Thanks Troy!

Closing went remarkably smoothly, and even with the angst over the water heater it turned out the easiest week I have ever had in my life. I worked for two days and between my actual job and the house sale, I made over $10,000. Not bad....

So now we are houseless. We are staying in the house of some people on base who are gone all summer. It is a nicer house than the one we used to own, and it is furnished with nicer furniture than we have. Also, our whole family is here together, so despite being houseless, we are in no way homeless.

While all of this has been going on, work has been kind of crazy too. We typically work 9 days every 2 weeks, and for the very first time I had to go in on my off Friday to get some work done. I don't mind one bit though, and it is still a completely stress-free but rewarding job. I will probably be busy until I leave now, which is fine with me.

That's our house. In the meantime Liza has continued to grow and learn. She is currently squirmy during 95% of her waking hours, and the other 5% is probably when she is eating (although sometimes she squirms while she eats too). When we put her on the floor she will roll and twist all around the room, making her way over to whatever catches her fancy and trying to put it in her mouth. I expect her to start crawling any day now. She is done with her pacifier, which makes naptime and bedtime a little more harrowing, but only for the 3 minutes that it takes for her to fall asleep. And she is of course very cute.

Phew! We're finished!

This past week was a very busy week for me! Last Saturday we started really organizing our things and packing what we need for our move to OH. We started by going through everything to be sure that the movers wouldn't pack things that we need or didn't want and then we loaded our cars up with as much heavy stuff as we could fit. (We get paid for the stuff we take in our cars to OH by weight) Even though we're not actually going until August we had to make sure that it would all fit when we do leave! We finally finished all of our packing on Sunday after a great Mother's Day.

--- (sidebar) Jordan and Liza made me a picture frame with Liza's hand prints on one side!

Also, Jordan gave me roses and they both brought me breakfast in bed! Here are some

pictures from Mother's Day:

On Monday, the packers came to begin the process of packing all of our stuff into boxes. They worked most of the day and finished up on Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon the movers came and packed everything on the truck!

Also, Bill was in town and came over for lunch Tuesday. We had a great time visiting and Liza decided that she found a good place to sleep.

Wednesday I got a chance to organize our stuff where we're staying now and Thursday I hung out at our house while the cleaners came and cleaned everything! (Even the oven and the refrigerator! It was great!) Friday was the rehearsal for my friend's wedding. We had to decorate before and after and Saturday was the wedding! Today we went to church and then to lunch with our friends Caleb and Manda. Finally, this afternoon we've had a chance to relax. It's been great to put my feet up and not worry about anything for a couple of hours.

Liza has been great through all of the busyness but she's starting to get into everything! She surprised me twice on Thursday when she managed to squirm out of a few places where she previously could not. Let me show you what I mean:

When I was paying the cleaning lady and getting my stuff ready, I left Liza in her car seat (unbuckled) for 5 minutes tops. When I came back, this is what I found:



Later the same day you would think that I had learned my lesson but I had not. I put Liza in her bouncer while I did some dishes. When I heard Liza grunting I thought she was just trying to grab the hanging toys like normal so I didn't turn around to look. When I finally did check on her I found her trying to reach Heidi's ball:

She sure is a cutie! She loves to roll around everywhere and get into whatever she can get her hands on. She especially loves to pull on the curtains.

6 months

Things are busy for the Firth Family this week! The movers are coming on Monday so we're working on getting everything ready and organized. Liza doesn't care if we're busy or not she still has growing to do and she's good at it! Here are some recent pictures of little Liza who isn't so little anymore. Today, our precious baby girl is 6 months old!

This one is from a Seder Dinner that I went to just before Easter

Hey I'm awake in here! Let me out!

Leave her alone for one second and she starts eating the flowers...

This one is for the Firths:

Still hates tummy time but it's getting better

Liza is VERY good at sitting up now. It won't be long before she's doing it all the time on her own.

First Cold

Liza has been sick since Tuesday. She woke up with her first cold and has been fighting it ever since, but I think she's feeling a lot better:

Also new for Liza this week is her second tooth! I just noticed it today. It's her bottom right front tooth this time and again, she doesn't seem too fussy about it. We've got plenty of drool of course but I think that other than that it's not bothering her too much.

Together again but not for long...

So we finally all made it back to New Mexico on Saturday! We took a family day on Sunday because this morning (Monday), Jordan left us again! :-( He's only gone for 2 days this time though so I think Liza and I will make it. We're definitely looking forward to some time together at home with no one going anywhere!

That is until our home becomes someone else's home! Currently the plan is to move everything out on May 11th and 12th and have the new owners move in on the 15th! After that, we'll be moving on base to stay at our friends' house. They are out of town until August so it works out perfectly! Liza and I will be leaving at the end of July to find a place to live, and Jordan will follow shortly after at the beginning of August. I know that this time is going to go by so quickly. I hope that we'll be able to spend lots of time with our friends before we go.

Liza is changing so much! She has her bottom left front tooth coming in and she's chewing on everything she can get her hands on. She's much heavier (though I'm not sure just how heavy) and so alert and grabby. Yes, she likes to grab everything. When we sit at the table, we have to be sure to leave a good 12" radius cleared of things not suitable for babies. She's so much fun and such a blessing to have. I can't imagine our lives without her at this point. She's got the cutest little laugh and is so easy to please. I've told this to several people already, but she sure is good for my ego! Apparently I'm the best looking and funniest person she knows! (Good girl Liza, I've trained you well!)

Opposite Sides of the Country

Jordan is in LA and Liza and I are in NC. We've been apart since Easter, but I think Jordan is having a good time in CA and Liza and I are enjoying our visit with family. We definitely miss being together though and can't wait to get home.

The good news is that our home won't be home for very much longer! We got a buyer for our house! Our tentative closing date is 15 May so that's less than a month away! We'll have a place to stay (our friends are going away for 3 months so we'll stay at their place) and the Air Force will store our stuff until we get to a new house in OH. It's such a blessing that the Lord has provided for us in so many ways. Jordan and I look at our lives together up until now and are in awe of how good He has been.

So that's what's new on this end. Liza is getting a load of attention from everyone. She's the star now that she's here and that's fine with me! Jordan and I both get back to the southwest on Saturday and I can't wait for our family to be reunited!

I never want to wash dishes in the bathtub again

We showed our house again today and were encouraged to hear that the person was "very interested." She didn't agree to buy it yet because she's still looking (she just started), but it's still exciting.

Cleaning was a little more stressful than it could have been because we currently have a plumbing disaster. Our sink got clogged last night, and the application of Drano crystals didn't work. So this morning I tried some liquid stuff (twice) which also didn't work. We still had a kitchen full of dirty dishes from 2 meals, and we were running out of time before the showing. I tried the crystals again, but they take some time to work so I had to wash most of the dishes in the tub. Finally, about 5 minutes before the woman arrived, the green toxic nastiness drained from the sink and it appeared that all was well- I ran some water down and it drained thoroughly.

Obviously the showing went well, but halfway through I heard the sink bubbling, and when I walked over to check it out there were some vapors coming out of the drain and the kitchen was starting to smell of caustic chemicals. I quickly opened several windows and I don't think anybody noticed, but it could have been disastrous.

So our sink is still clogged, and I'm still dumping chemicals down it. I suppose if that doesn't work I'll have to pull apart some plumbing under the sink, and I really don't want to do that.

Well, it has been a while, so here's an update.

We're still trying to sell our house. There seem to be a reasonable number of people interested, but no offers yet. The house looks great though.

One interesting effect of trying to sell a house is that we pay a lot more attention to people in the street. We are on the lookout for people who are taking our flyers, but we notice nearly everyone who drives by, and we have realized that there are a lot of strange cars that drive by. Several times every day people will drive up and down the street, slowing down or stopping in front of houses and then leaving without doing anything. Some of them look more suspicious than strange, and if a certain white Volkswagen Westphalia drives by again I am running outside to look at the license plate and call the police.

Liza is doing well.

Heidi is also doing well. We started some obedience lessons with her, and I realized that the problem is nearly entirely with me. I'm working on it.

Solid food isn't solid at all

Liza started eating "solid" foods a couple of weeks ago. I was going to put it off because she seemed content with what she was getting from me, but it seemed more and more like she was still hungry. So we started rice cereal, and she loves it! I bought some Oat cereal to try tomorrow and after a few days of that we're going to try sweet potatoes! Here is a video of Liza eating her second day:

(It's not easy to feed a baby and take a video at the same time...)

We were stood up for the house showing on Sunday afternoon. We were all ready at 2 and just sat around for a good hour just waiting to see if they'd show. They didn't but that's okay. If they weren't really interested then we don't want to waste our time... oh wait... we did.

Tonight, Buck, Bethany, Mayce, and Ansley came over for dinner. We had tacos and lots of laughs at the two babies. I had to scold Liza and tell her that just because she's bigger than all the babies doesn't mean she has to be a bully. I think in her heart she just wanted to explore. Sorry Ansley! Don't be afraid to come back and play with Liza!

(Sorry Bethany... looking back at this it looks like she got her right in the eye! No wonder Ansley was so unhappy!)

rolling

Well, Liza rolled over more today. Previously she has only been able to roll from her front to her back. Today she was laying on the floor and neither of her parents were paying particularly close attention to her. When she started to grumble a little bit I looked and she was on her stomach. Sarah confirmed that she had been on her back earlier, and then we watched her roll back to her back.

Also, we have the first showing of our house tomorrow morning!

FSBO

whew

As it turns out, preparing a house for sale is a lot of work. I planned to spend the morning planting petunias in our front yard. As it turns out, I spent the entire day planting pansies. Apparently Sarah and I can't tell the difference between the two types of flowers, even when they are very clearly labeled. At least I got them in the front yard... It looks great out there, but I cannot share a picture because it was dark by the time I finished.

Liza started eating "solid food" this week. She is not really good at it yet, but we know she'll get better. Sarah tried some of the rice powder and said that it tasted like absolutely nothing.

Too long...

So I know that it has been too long since I've updated my blog when I have to catch up on 6 of my friend's blog posts!

Things are going well. We just had a visit with my parents and we all had a great time. Liza got tons of Grandma and Grandaddy kisses, smiles, and playtime. We didn't do anything too exciting but it was fun to relax, do a couple things around town, and spend time together. We played a lot of Bridge which Jordan and I both enjoyed very much.

Bethany, you asked for pictures so here they are!

Around Christmas we got one of these backpack carriers from Jordan's aunts and uncles so that we can take Liza hiking. We're not really supposed to put her in it until she can sit up, but Jordan was just so excited he couldn't help himself. She did pretty well in it for several minutes but I don't think she's ready for any hikes yet. Sorry Jordan.

"Mom, help!"

Mom seemed to have a lot of fun with Liza. She got her to laugh several times which I know she was excited about.

We do not support underage drinking. Mom and Dad like wine and Liza likes putting things in her mouth!

Mom, I spared you from humiliation by not posting the other mirror picture. :-)

Dad thought that the Bumbo was so cool. The flowers in the background are ones that Jordan brought to my mom on Tuesday afternoon after work. Our family dog Charlie died that day and Jordan wanted to cheer her up. He's such a nice guy.

So it's been a good week. Now it's back to house stuff so that we can start the "adventure" of selling our house! We'll see how it works out!

Busy Busy Busy

It has been quite a while since we've had an update! Things have been going well here but we've been really busy. I spent all of last week trying to reorganize and clean as much of our house as I could so that we can put it on the market soon! I hope it goes well and that we can sell it for a good price.

My parents are here this week and we're really enjoying the time that we're getting to spend with them. Mom is having a great time with Liza. I was informed yesterday that she came to see Liza and that seeing me is a bonus... wow when did that happen? :-)

I'm at the library right now so I can't share any pictures, but we'll be sure to post some soon. We also have a few new videos of Liza that are quite cute.

For now I want to thank Holly for telling me about e-mealz.com! It's the best thing ever. I've always had a hard time with planning what to cook for the week and just making one stop at the grocery store. I get so stressed about trying to cook things that aren't too expensive so that we can stay in our budget and eat well! e-mealz.com is so great because it gives you a menu for the week and a shopping list to get everything that you need. It's $5 a month but so worth it. For the meals that it plans for Jordan and me, I only spend $35-45 a week for dinners. Yay! Anyway I just wanted to share that! Take a look and see if it'll be worthwhile for you!

lip sucker

Liza has started sucking on her bottom lip. It's quite hilarious.

"Liza is HUGE"

I was inspired by my brother's comment to my Facebook picture to share with you just how much Liza has grown in these last 3 1/2 months. It is truly amazing to me how big she has gotten. We go to the doctor on 9 March to find out how much she weighs and all that but to give you an idea, she is now wearing 6-9 month clothing.

This is a picture of Liza from November:

and this is a picture of Liza from tonight:

Isn't it just unbelievable? It is all just going by so quickly. She is such a joy and I can't tell you how absolutely honored I am that the Lord has granted us this blessing of parenthood. It is a responsibility that we cherish everyday.

Tonight we went to a roof stomp for a new member of the 586th. We're not part of that squadron anymore, but Bernadette invited us to go and we were so excited! We just love hanging out with those guys.

I have been a little disappointed with the sling that I bought for Liza because it was a little too small. At the recommendation of Bethany, I tried putting her in it a different way and it worked! She really liked sitting in it like this. She's basically folded in half this way but she really liked it! Here is a picture from the roof stomp tonight:

Here is another picture of Liza from tonight. She's our little thug baby.

Valentine's Day

Jordan was very sweet and gave both Liza and me presents for Valentine's Day. I got a watch and a framed picture of us from Christmas and Liza got...





(Ignore the terrible picture of me... I don't have time to crop myself out.) It's a clock for her room! She was so excited!

Here are some more pictures of Liza. I just have to share because she's so darn cute!

We still love Heidi. Here is a recent picture of her.

a week

Our family went to Albuquerque last week so that I could attend a conference. We had a really good time during the week, and then when the conference was over we took a few days to see some sights in New Mexico.

First we went to Santa Fe (the capital). On Thursday night we crashed early at a hotel, before going out to look for a place to eat dinner. When the owner of a small eclectic cafe learned that we were from out of town she said that it was good we had chosen to eat there because "This is Santa Fe." I think she was right.

On Friday we saw the Capitol, and walked around the downtown area of the city. If you have heard that Santa Fe is a very culturally rich city, you have heard correctly. Look at this sign for a grocery store that we saw:

We also saw some slightly more traditional artsy things, such as this fountain which had created a lot of frozen water. I thought it was neat, so I am going to make you look at it.

Also, I thought this was really cute.

We spent Friday night and Saturday morning at Jarred and Andrea's house. Tripp and Carly were also there, and we all had a great time together. Liza was the star of the show.