I miss you.

Hope you're having fun in Virginia, this is what i listened to all day at work today.

and this...

Squash

Yes, ANOTHER eating video. But I wish everyone did this face when they'd had enough.

Mushy Green Beans

CAN'T BLAME HER

She ate them ok yesterday, but maybe its because we had pizza for dinner and she preferred that.

Dave's First Snowbarding Flip

This video was taken a few years ago I think .

hahaha. I don't know how much effort he put into that one but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Happy Day

Here is Dave jumping a car - yes, the Canyons have a car to jump now. We missed opening week because we were in TX so this was his first day and I believe he had a great time. When Don brought him home, Don told me, "Your man is bleeding everywhere." Not really though - he survived the day with only a few scraped knuckles, and had a wonderful time.
Riley and I took advantage of the day by going Christmas shopping with our friend, Allison. I won! I felt like I did anyways: got Dave a gift he will love and for me I got two pairs of jeans I love already. I'm not a shopaholic the way I used to be, but finding bargains is the best feeling - I paid a third of the original cost and they fit like a dream. See - I win.
Back at the ranch, Riley entertained us the rest of the afternoon...


... and Dave cut his hair, because it can do this:


Isn't he a STUD?

Yes, and not just because he got me these ->

On a scale of one to ten, today was an eleven. Did you just read that in Jafar's voice? Cause that's how my mind said it.

A few things to get off my chest

Ever since our roadtrip last week I've had this commercial on my mind and how well this business would do in New Mexico, both because of their honest advertising and their product:


Other things/confessions that have been on my mind:

• Christmas SECRETS!!! Ah! I'm so bad with secrets but I will keep these if it kills me, and it might. When I was little Dad got Mom a ring for Christmas and I stoically held back, telling her, "I can't tell you but it's round and shiny and fits on your finger." So bad with secrets.
• I am lazy about decorating: I didn't do a thing for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and so far, our Christmas decoration box has made it from the closet to the rocking chair but no further.
• I am struggling with a weird inner battle of wanting to watch the new Twilight and avoiding it out of principle. I know its not quality entertainment - duh. And yet, that part of me that used to go see midnight showings of Twilight, Harry Potter, and High School Musical, is disappointed that I missed the hype.
  
• I have had a grilled cheese sandwich and chocolate milk for lunch every day this week. And its Friday.

Note: Maybe these confessions are my subconscious's way of venting all that pressure build up from keeping secrets. I feel better.

Further Note: STOP, TWILIGHT FANS - before you delete me from your lives, please let me just say that I quite enjoyed the first Twilight book, but for me the vampire train derailed by the last book. And also I read this very persuasive article from NPR.

Road Trippin'

For Thanksgiving this year we went to visit our Texas family. It was Riley's first road trip but turns out she is an excellent traveler. And when she wasn't she could generally be cheered up by a little head-banging - her new favorite game. I kinda have whip lash now. Anyways, this is what we left UT to:

Is this not the cutest co-pilot you've ever seen? (Ok, so this is staged - you get arrested if the baby is in the front seat.)

Its a GORGEOUS drive. I especially enjoy southern Utah's scenery - that red sandstone has my heart. New Mexico is also very interesting thanks to the literal billboards. More on that later.

Riley actually made the trip go faster. There is no getting bored when there is a baby to photo shoot or play baby games with. PS: she will probably have her own glasses some day since her daddy and I are both practically blind. Good thing she rocks em like a model.

We arrived at Kyle and Megan's house on Sunday night. They were super fun hosts (obviously - see below!). It was great to see Dave with his brothers. They all have the same poker faces that break into great smiles when something ridiculous is going on. And with those guys, I think that's a common occurance. I saw a great video they made years ago of an ole' hillbilly at a poetry reading that they dubbed over so he was singing 'Gangster's Paradise'. I'll try and get it from Kyle - you all got to see it!

From the right: Brian, Robert, Kyle, Loverboy, I mean Dave, and Mark

Thanksgiving day Megan and Kyle and we drove 3 hours to Sweetwater to spend it with Grandma Anderson. She is fabulous. Luckily she is a 'go with the flow' kinda gal too - no one wanted to cook so we decided to go to the truck stop. It was surprisingly delicious and was packed with extremely friendly Texans so it felt rather like a big family reunion.

Grandma is wearing enormous sun glasses these days because she recently recovered from eye cancer. Didn't know you could get eye cancer. Take care of your eyes, people!









Also note the long horns on the one wall and the elk pelt on the other wall. It was a cultural experience as well as a completely memorable and happy day.

Riley is not a fan of pumpkin pie but she LOVES spoons.I was glad we could finally introduce Riley to her Great-grandma. I am not a huge fan of TX heat but I do wish we lived closer - she is such a sweet lady. She is loving and kind and funny. Every time we go she has to load us up with presents - last time she gave me the book "Heidi", which she ordered when she first learned my name. This time she gave us an angel she bought when Riley was born to commemorate "our Angel."

Here are a couple of samples of New Mexico's thought provoking billboards. You can't really read the one on the right but It says, "We need Rezball. We don't need meth." Apparently basketball is the main tool to combat meth use on the reservations. I was boggled at first, but then I thought, what PE teacher had this genius idea? I bet Lifetime makes a movie about them someday.


The below sign is just awesome.

Maybe if every parking lot had a sign like this we could drive all the perverts and thieves to Canada - they can't stay if they can't park. This sign I think might just be a passive-aggressive slur on the store next to them, "The Erotic Boutique." Oh well.

And to wrap it up, here is Megan's cute Turkey pumpkin to bring us back to the subject of Thanksgiving. I love this holiday that reminds us to recognize all the good things in our lives. (Just now I'm reminded of my friend Mr. Jolly in England in his nineties who everyday wakes up and says to his dog, Star, "Well, Star, God's given us another day. God is good, Star, God is good.") God is good. I am grateful for this beautiful world and the freedom to enjoy it. For Dave who delights me everyday and says things like, "We are crossing the continental divide which means if I peed that way it would go to the Atlantic and the other way would go to the Pacific," as well as sends texts of "I love you" or "Have you seen the sunset?" from work. I am grateful for Riley. She brings light and laughter to our lives. For friends and family who make me a better person. For rain, books, play, health...the list is endless.
Hope you likewise are feeling the good this holiday season! Love you all.

Rollerblades for Christmas Please!

Look out Bruce Willis. What an unexpected delight, Bollywood having the most amazing action sequence I have ever seen. Dave is so good at finding delightful and unexpected things. Like me :)

And on that note, we are off to TX - hopefully our journey is car chase free and filled with normal road trip stuff. Hopefully Riley finds our trip mixes and games entertaining (I've tried to think of how to adapt the license plate game for a 5-month-old and came up with nothing).

Happy Thanksgiving!

She Likes to Move It Move It

Today was kind of a splurge day that involved napping and Cafe Rio and buying Riley a new toy! We are trying not to fill our house with baby toys we don't need, but bouncy swings are practically baby musts, right? Right. Sorry the video is sideways - I am too tired/lazy to figure out how to correct that tonight.

"Mmm, delicious."

I love watching her have such a good time - this splurge was totally worth it. The first time she laughed was like magic. Reminded me of that bit on Peter Pan:

"When the first baby laughed for the first time the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all want skipping about and that was the beginning of fairies."

Its still miraculous how one giggle from her will brighten a room.
Even over the phone! You need a pick-me-up, you call us. If you know how to rotate the videos upright on Blogger, also call us. "Good night, Neverland!"

Tubby Time: The Very Best Time of the Whole Day

Tubby as in bathtub, not Teletubby. Its from a Bert and Ernie song. Youtube it if you want - THIS post is for baby's bath time! She loves it so much I thought it was post-worthy. Enjoy:

What can I say - kid loves to splash! Its a good way to burn some extra energy before bedtime.

Here she is fresh from the bath. She maintains her cheerful attitude till...

She has to get dressed again.

But once that crisis is over we read one or two of her 6 cardboard books. I don't thinks she minds but for us the same rhyming story gets old, so sometimes we get creative; Dr. Seuss makes it almost too easy.

What captions could you think up for pages like these?

How bout, "After Mr. Brown popped the cork, Mr. Brown became a dork."

"...And then got struck by lightning."

The End

FOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!! Nom nom nom.

Two weeks ago the Dr. told us that we could start Riley on baby food. And finally, Halloween night, we got around to it (Riley had a cold so we didn't go out to party. We stayed in to party). I naively thought we would just add water to the rice cereal but it calls for breast milk or formula, so we thawed out some previously-pumped breast milk and stirred 5 Tbs. into 1 Tbs. of cereal. It was practically the consistency of cream - now I understand how some parents figure they can just put it in the bottle. But don't do that - Dr. said that can cause baby obesity and/or constipation and is only done for babies with severe acid reflux.
Riley took to it with the intensity she takes to almost everything. Wo be unto fellow pie-eaters if she ever decides to compete.

NOTE: I hope talking about breast milk and pumping doesn't make anyone puke. Or that this note makes you further uncomfortable. Since having a baby these things seem natural and un-embarrassing but I don't know if I always felt that way.

Would you dare?

I like to think I would fight! I would also like to have this happen some time in Pleasant Grove, UT. That's probably a long shot, but one can always dream.

We Are the Champions!

Or rather, Dave and his teammates are the champions, but they do have such a devoted following, and I think we fans deserve some of credit too. We all have such a good time and I am sad to see the season end. But what an end! Dave and the rest of the Cruddlers (or Sons of Pitches? I was never quite sure which one they settled on) beat out every other team in the league and tonight, the final game, the grand finale, they pretty much spanked the other team, Doug's Auto, winning by a mere twelve points. I was so impressed. Especially since our boys are the "nice" guys. The guys who aren't overly competitive, to say the least - they often are too relaxed and goofy to focus on something so trivial as winning, at least not for the entire game. In fact, I think they only won about half the time during the regular season. But they had fun 100% of the time, so they were winners before the tournament even started, in my opinion. But its always nice to get a big, shiny trophy along with the fun. It says, "we know how to have a good time AND get results."
Here is to a season of fun and friendship! A few baseball hi-lights:

• When our 60 year old pitcher caught a fast ball right off the bat and fell over backwards, but did not drop it!
• When Dave hit two home-runs the night before our wedding, duly impressing the future in-laws in town
• When we lost the game because our guy running to third badly miscalculated and started sliding into third...half way between second and third. We laughed all the way home.
  
• Dave's nicknames: Legs, Dave the wave, Superman
• Other guys' nicknames: Toddy Potty, Cackler
• Riley sitting bolt up-right and "ooo'ing" when her daddy walked up to bat
• Riley laughing at us when we cheered
• Riley zipped up in Grandpa's jacket on a cold night
• Crazy player from other team challenging one of our louder fans, "let's go!" before realizing she was a woman...awkward...
• Jerry telling the umpire he was grounded multiple times

And to think I used to hate baseball. Now there is nowhere else I'd rather be on a Wed. night than out at that windy field, with our baseball buddies, cheering on my MVP and and the rest of our lovable crew.

Just some more baby play

I'll try not to post to many more of these boring videos, but have been specifically asked by family to do so, so here is another glimps of our party animal.

yum....also: Please help!

A friend asked me recently what my "go to" recipe was. What an excellent topic - thank you, Megan! I wrote it out and forgot to give it to her so I'm going to share it (sorry to immediate family - you already know it because its Mom's recipe) and hope that it will inspire someone or ones to reciprocate. Please if you have a recipe that is delicious, healthy, easy or can be frozen (or all these things!) I would love to have it - we need some fresh ideas.
PS: Megan, if you're reading this, we tried your salsa/brown sugar chicken recipe and it was delish - thank you!

White Chicken Chili

• 4 cans of white beans, drained
• 4 cups cooked, shredded chicken
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 cans of corn, drained
• 2 small cans of green chillies
• 1 red pepper
  
• 2 Tbs garlic powder
• 1 Tbs oregano
• 2-2.5 Tbs cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1-24oz sour cream
• 4 cups grated cheese to sprinkle on top once served

Combine all ingredients except sour cream and cheese. If you like it hotter, add more pepper - all seasonings consider "to taste". Heat on med-high, let simmer about 30 minutes, adding sour cream 10 minutes before serving. Good with tortilla chips, and freezes well. This makes five meals for Dave and I - I freeze four 24oz containers (that is, I use the containers sour cream/yogurt etc come in), and when I don't feel like cooking, I thaw out one and boom, dinner.

What is YOUR go-to dinner recipe?

Thursday Adventures 8.13.2011

Another lovely day with my little family. This time, Riley didn't poop on Dave AND we remembered to bring the carrier - progress! The hike is in Pleasant Grove and has not one but TWO waterfalls. The second one is kind of an awkward distance from the trail over a very steep slope of slippy slate, so you have to look at it from afar: not as impressive as Stewart Falls. Though it gave us a better workout, especially with the extra detours we accidentally took (made by boyscouts and mountain goats I think) which I can appreciate as I am still very much post-pregnant. If you want to know where it is exactly you will have to ask Dave as he is the one that finds our random adventures.
One of the detours from the trail we were meant to be on. It had some nice views though. And some signal fires - good to know I guess.
"You go ahead...gasp...I'll catch up...huff huff...or text you my last will and testament..."

When the princess was awake, she was thrilled. But she mostly napped away the hike.
Doesn't this trail look sketch? Like we could slip right down the mountain in an avalanche? Dave didn't mind - I bet you at this moment he was daydreaming about snowboarding on that mountain yonder. Yes I just said yonder. I liked it.

Its nice living in Utah - I love the Rockies and there are tons of scenic places to explore. If only we had more family here! We miss our family and friends elsewhere. Love to you all!

Love Baby Laughter

Here is Aunty Em making Riley giggle. She has such a good giggle too, and uses it often. Like when she is looking at herself in the mirror - yeah, she went wild at the sight of her reflection laughing back at her. I love being this girl's mom!

Conference Weekend

We had just a lovely weekend, truly. Friday was the reunion for Dave's mission, the Japan, Hiroshima Mission. It was fun to see Pres. and Sis. Banks and our friends James and Megan - and that's about it for people we knew. Lots of stories were shared - some were pretty funny, some were "guess you had to be there" stories. But I think good times were had by all. And we finally got a picture with the Banks!
Saturday we headed to Salt Lake and met up with my sister Em and some friends for General Conference and also hoped to run into my missionary sister, Andrea, whose Salt Lake Mission would be attending conference also. We even brought Riley with us to meet her Aunty. Babies aren't allowed into conference but it is played over loudspeakers all over Temple Square so Riley and I found a nice shady spot on the grass and she snoozed while I listened to the talks. I think I prefer it to going inside - you're less likely to fall asleep outside than in the quiet conference center and it was fun to be with all the other young families that were also on the grass - all of us listening to the words of God while watching the children play (or nap, in Riley's case).
(you can barely see Conference Center behind her)

After conference we did actually run into Andrea, excuse me, "SIS. McClure" :) and I'm happy to report that she looked healthy, happy, and full of missionary zeal. We got to meet her companion and SISTER McClure got to hold a very cute baby. (Emphasis on "sister" because she had to keep reminding us to call her that).
It was wonderful to see our happy missionary sister. And our outfits couldn't have been more coordinated if we'd tried, eh? :)

After we said goodby to Ander, Dave stayed to go to the priesthood session with Pres. Banks and Em and I went and got lost in the wrong parking garage. After a parking attendant rescued us with his truck and drove us to the right garage, we went to Cafe Rio, then home to watch old Parks and Rec episodes. It was nice to get some sister bonding time in.

Sunday Em left us to go to the final session of Conference and we went to Spanish Fork to spend time with our family there. All in all it was a heavenly weekend.

If I Ever Have an Accident...

I just hope I'm wearing a hat like this guy's:


And that my interview gets put into song:

PS: It is 4:10 am. Good thing Riley wants to party all night so I am up sharing youtubes with you This is what comes of her going to sleep at 7 o'clock. She was up at midnight then up at three and is still up. Now she is in her swing, in hopes that the rocking will conk her out, and every time I look at her she gets wound up and wants to play (aka kicks her legs like a maniac and squeaks and smiles at me. Hm...maybe she has RLS). So I'm trying not to engage, hoping she will go to sleep. Oh no she's got the hicups now! Every time she starts to look drowsy a hicup jolts her back awake. NOOOOOO!!!!!!! I give up - guess I'll go play with my baby now and take a long nap tomorrow. She is so cute! (go down two posts to see kinda what I'm seeing now) :)

Tummy time

Considering her head makes up about a quarter of her body weight I think she is doing quite well.

Play time!

Our girl is easily pleased. This crinkly toy from Zizi and Grandpa can keep her attention for ages. And mine, indirectly, since I think most everything she does is adorable.

SWAT team has visited our neighborhood twice since we moved in...

Who new PG could be so sketch? Should have been tipped off by the dents in our door when we moved in from when the police battered it down to arrest one of the former occupants for robbery. Dave and I are going to grow pony tails for self defense.

Thursday Adventures

Dave has Thursdays off and so we kind of have two weekends - its pretty sweet. Anyways, our first weekend this week we had a pretty perfect day. Baby slept till nine (!) and then we went for a hike up at Sundance to Stewart Falls. The weather stayed beautiful till be got back to the parking lot when it started to rain. Then we had exactly what we wanted for lunch. We had to go to Betos, Zupas, and Maverick to get it but it was that satisfying. After that Riley left us for some quality grandparent time and we went to the temple. Temple, always a pleasure. We finished off the day hanging out with the family. On a scale of one to 10, yesterday was an 11. If life were a box of chocolates, yesterday was a caramel. If days were songs, yesterday would have been "New Shoes," by Paolo Nutini (my current fav).

I forgot the baby carrier so this is how Riley spent most of the four-mile hike. Also - like Dave's shirt? He made it himself.
I'm the person in bright blue shorts - luckily, so you can see me. The falls were ginormous.

We didn't wade in because the water is ice cold but we all got pretty wet anyways from the waterfall mist.
Day with these guys = a great day :)

My Big Baby

How we got such an excited morning person I cannot say...but it definitely makes the "wee hours" more fun.

And now: Girth Control

I heard the term from a friend the other day and how applicable it is. After-birth girth is no joke! Riley is 10 weeks and I have yet to get rid of the paunch - tighten up the saggy parts and get some stamina back for heaven's sake. I'm a PE teacher, the least I can do is practice what I preach. So I've set myself a schedule, complete with goals: let me tell you about them and then I really have to stick to it:
1-30 minutes weight training/resistance exercises 3 days a week
2- 30 minutes brisk walk 3 days a week
3- 30 minutes running - heart rate at 65-80% 2-3 times a week
I've been working this schedule sort of for a few weeks and its been good. Finding exercises I can do with baby is a fun challenge. Observe:

Her tummy time is also mine - I think counting my pushups/plank time will have her learning her numbers in no time. Win, win!

Also she loves crunches, when she lays on my shins and gets to drool on me while I work it. I don't mind the drool - gotta keep those crunches slow and CONTROLLED though. Otherwise you don't get a proper workout and will probably get puked on in the face.

Once you work out you putcha hair-bow on and go for a walk. I didn't get a picture of that part, but I did get one of the end result. Shew - rest well earned, baby.

I'm shooting to run a 5K in October with the Run For Innocence team. I believe having such a worth-while cause to help will actually help me stay on track with my plan. I highly recommend supporting the cause, FYI - if you're interested, check out their website! Peace!

I don't know why everyone is complaining about the changes made to the bluray edition of starwars?

Halloween Costume Spoiler Alert

We figure, Riley already has the lion costume, and Dave already has the moves so, why not? I love Halloween!

"Has sent me to an earthly home..."

With parents kind and dear. That's us now! haha, well, we are parents anyways. I've been thinking of this song a lot this past week, probably because Dave gave Riley her blessing at church Saturday and it makes you think. About the future, about God giving us this child, about her being with God only a few months ago. Nice thoughts.
We were just surrounded by love the whole time. Joseph and Patti Smith from Texas flew in on Saturday for the occasion and we went to dinner after which they insisted we go out for a date while they babysat. No, they didn't want to relax after a long day of travel, they wanted to give us a break. Did I mention they are saints? Sunday morning our family and friends joined us to attend the blessing of Riley by her Daddy. We were kind of an emotional bunch apparently. It was a lovely blessing. Church was so packed that day there was literally no extra seats in Sunday school so we took it as a sign and went to eat instead at Don and Suzette Harreld's with the Smiths and our friends Pohai and Emily, and had a good ole time. Then there were a few more tears when we said good bye. I'm so glad Riley has all this love in her life. Another song comes to mind: "You are His child, His love now surrounds you." Though that's true for everyone, eh?
Was it Plato that said something like, "love makes a poet out of everyone"? I think I have sufficiently expressed my full heart and that's enough seriousness for now.

And we're off!

...like a herd of turtles...
I started our family blog a few weeks ago and so far we have one awesome Youtube. Gotta start somewhere right? I hope this venture will help us stay connected to family and friends as well as kind of a scrapbook for Riley, since so far I have been unsuccessful at scrapbooking. Here's a good story for the purpose, previously posted on my VA family's blog.

Riley Kay Munion: June 20, 2011

Baby post by special request: (Emmy, this is for you)
For those of you who still read the blog (Emmy), here is the story of sweetums birth.
As Riley was four days late and I didn't want her to miss her grandma's visit, Mom having flown out for the occasion, I decided to be induced on Monday morning. Birthing wings are pretty busy here so we were relieved when the hospital called and told us we could come in at six am. I yelled upstairs to wake Mom and Dave and then went and jumped on Dave for good measure. I was so excited!

In the hospital:
Once there and hooked up to the monitors, we saw that what I thought was just baby stretching out were actually contractions about five to seven minutes apart. Yeah! Once they started me on pitocin they picked up pretty quick and I could definitely recognize them. About ten thirty I was ready for the epidural. As much as needles freak me out the contractions were worse. And what bliss! After the epidural was in I slept for the better part of five hours. Dave and Mom bonded I guess.

At five thirty ish I was dilated to seven cm and they let the epidural wear off some so that I could feel when I needed to push. Mom and Dave were there holding my hand and getting me ice chips (did you know hospitals provide FLAVOR for their ice chips? 7-11 style, fantastic). Dad and Tim arrived after driving all day from Nebraska. My progress had been real slow and steady so I convinced Mom to let Dad and Tim take her back to our house so she could shower and get her stuff and check into the hotel with Dad and Tim. They got lost on the way and Dave was on the phone giving directions when the nurse checked me and said, "You are at a ten, the baby is right there - are you ready to push? Oh - and she has hair - I can feel it." Ok. Dave told Mom and Dad did a U-turn and the nurse said I could wait till Mom arrived push. Waiting when you have the urge is HARD. But its also a strategy, called "rest and descend", apparently. Shortens pushing time.

Mom got there and I started pushing at six thirty. It took two contractions for the baby to crown but then she was stuck behind my pelvis for a long time. Too much info? haha. After 45 ish minutes the doctor says, "Baby's not happy anymore, we need to get her out!" She was out in two contractions, thankfully, but when they put her on my chest she wasn't breathing or moving and and her heart rate was 4. eek! The NICU team came in and started to CPR and gave her a shot and got her to cry after five minutes. That cry seemed like the most beautiful noise I'd ever heard and I started to cry too. Oh by the way, she was 7 lbs 1 oz, 19 inches long, and born at 7:22 PM.


They let me breastfeed her and then she and Dave went to the nursery where they cleaned her up. I got dinner brought into the labor room - chicken alfredo, zucchini, milk, roll, and cookies - it all tasted fantastic after a food-less day.


Then we all took ourselves to a recovery room with a pull-
out bed for Dave and said goodnight to everyone at ten o'clock.


We slept in the hospital for two nights. The first night I didn't sleep very well mostly because I was processing the past 24 hours, and partly because I'd slept a lot in the day. Dave I don't think slept well either night - he was on the alert for if I or baby needed help. The second night we let the nurses take Riley to the nursery when we went to bed so we could get some more rest, but I woke up at three missing her and went to get her. She was in the middle of being tested but I got a nurse to promise to bring her back to us as soon as she was done. I guess after being with someone constantly for over ten months, you get separation anxiety when they are gone? I don't know - the hormones were interesting too. I might have had some mild baby blues for a few days, tearing up for no reason, but now I feel good. Recovery has been relatively quick and I'm enjoying doing things I couldn't while pregnant - painting my toenails, eating after seven pm, buttoning my pants...Riley must be the sweetest baby in the world - I'm besotted, as is Dave. People from the ward have brought us dinner the past three nights, and we have gotten lots of visits and calls from family and friends who we are happy to have share this occasion with. Life is grand :)