Peru

Josh spent two years in Bolivia for his LDS mission and he's been dying to get back to South America ever since then. He finally got his chance when a project came up at Dartmouth that involved a team of students travelling to Peru. He and a few other students have spent the last few months researching and preparing for this trip and it finally happened last week during Dartmouth's semester break. Josh had the time of his life and is now trying to convince me that South America would make a reeeeally great vacation spot someday :) 

I love that Josh had someone take a picture of one of his business meetings! I guess he knows me well enough to know I would want a cute, little picture of that :)

One of Josh's old friends from his mission lives in Lima, so they got together a few times.

Maybe the thing Josh was most excited about was the food. :)

The project went even better than they had hoped, so the trip was a total success. And Josh got to do and see some really cool things....most of which are not pictured. 

The girls and I missed Josh a lot while he was gone for a week, but I'm glad he had such a fun time. And he scored some major dad points with Bryn for bringing her back a wooden ring, Peruvian treats, and some "real Peru money"(!!!)

Since being home, Josh has been reading Harry Potter in Spanish and listening to Shakira and Juanes, so I think he's definitely still in "Peru mode"!

Color

Things get pretty colorful when I let Bryn dress herself. 

I usually have her tone it down before she leaves the house, but sometimes you just gotta let her live, you know? Five different shades of pink and orange?....You go girl!

I think her bright get-up stuck out just a little bit against the background of our colorless neighborhood right now :)

9 Months

How can Mya be nine months already?

I feel like she's "grown up" a lot this past month. She's gotten way more curious and a little more active. She still isn't crawling, but she's figured out how to scoot around and she's especially speedy at scooting herself backwards. That usually ends in Mya jamming herself under furniture and getting stuck, so it's a bit comical for the rest of us. She loves to stand up and play with toys set out on the couch or ottoman, but she isn't pulling herself up on her own yet.

 She nurses at 7 am, noon, 4 pm, and 7 pm and does solid foods with the first three feedings. We're giving her more table foods lately and she loves it! Her favorites are probably graham crackers, pancakes, pasta and peas. She sleeps for 11 hours at night and then naps for about 2 hours in the morning and 2-3 hours in the afternoon. 

She's teething big time right now and is always gnawing on her fingers or anything she can grab. She's been a bit of a grump this week with teething and getting over a cold, but usually she is a very sweet, happy little babe. We couldn't love her more!

The Bryn and Mya comparison at 9 months.

Bryn was totally standing on her own at 9 months and taking her first steps. Ha ha. 

What Mya lacks in skills she makes up for in style :)

Big Week

It's been quite a week for Mya, full of lots of very important "firsts".

First time actually getting out of the stroller/bjorn at the library and taking advantage of the baskets of board books. It was a big deal.

Also, I'm embarrassed to admit that this is the first time Mya has actually worn shoes. Yes. Really. 

When my mom saw a picture of Mya on the swing last week in a fleece snow suit and just socks she finally called and sweetly asked if she could buy Mya a pair of shoes. Ha ha!....Mya is almost nine months, so I'm not sure how I didn't realize she was probably old enough for shoes! Long story short, today was a momentous occasion for Mya to show off her footwear.

(What would I do without my Mom? Mya might have been 7 years old before I realized socks weren't going to cut it anymore).

First time wearing jeans. Chubby legs in skinny jeans is just the best.

Other "firsts" this week that aren't pictured: 

-First time feeding herself a graham cracker without any help. Of course, she devoured it.

-First time crawling backwards and scooting around the perimeter of the room (backwards) grabbing anything in sight. (Still not crawling forwards, but maybe we'll get there by her first birthday. Baby steps).

-Most importantly, first time saying the "Ma-ma" sound. Atta girl, Mya.

Big week, right? So many new years resolutions that Mya can now cross off her list. 

Three cheers for Mya!!

Dreaming of Tonga....

Josh is in Peru right now and has had such an awesome week being down in South America, meeting up with old mission friends, eating lots of yummy Peruvian meals, playing with little kids in orphanages, going on beautiful hikes, .....oh ya, and giving presentations to businessmen in Lima - I guess that's the real reason he is there. 

His fun experiences have totally got me daydreaming about my past travels abroad, especially my month in Tonga. Maybe it's because it is snowy and cold in New Hampshire right now and I'm dreaming of the hot, humid days of eating coconut on the beach! I could go for that right now :)

I keep trying to think of what excuse I could possibly find to get back to Tonga with Josh sometime, but I think it's going to be a long time before a second trip there would happen. Maybe someday! 

P.S. I think I've probably complained about the NH winters in all my blog posts lately. I guess there are more important things than the weather :) 
P.P.S. Jane, I'm sure you took half of these pictures! All my Tonga pictures are mixed together!

Winter Days

Yesterday was in the low 30's, but there was just enough sunshine to take a wagon ride around the neighborhood and let Bryn run around and burn off some energy. We didn't last very long because Mya's little face was getting frozen, but it was fun for half an hour or so. I love that there is so much open space in our neighborhood for Bryn to just run, run, run.

It's good we took advantage of the clear day yesterday because today we woke up to this....

It's been snowing all day and Bryn was bummed that her gymnastics class was cancelled. New Hampshire is really quick to cancel classes and schools for "snow days"...even when it's just a few inches of snow.

 I'm crossing my fingers this is our last snow of the season and that spring will come soon. But in the meantime we'll just snuggle up and have another cozy day inside. 

P.S. Josh is in Peru right now, wearing shorts and t-shirts with weather in the 80's. Bryn and I are trying really hard not to be jealous :)

St. Patrick's Day

We had a fun St. Patrick's Day today, mainly focusing on eating as many yummy "green" things as we could...

Green milk on our cereal for breakfast

Spinach smoothies for our breakfast #2

Spinach salad for lunch

Shamrock Pizza for dinner

Green fruit cups for dessert

Holidays at our house always seem to revolve around food :)

Pi(e) Day

  

We love celebrating holidays and Pi day (3/14) is no exception! We celebrated Pi Day with a fun Pi(e) Party tonight at the church. Lots of delicious home-baked pies and fun science activities.

Several of our friends (science PhD students at Dartmouth) did fun demonstrations and science experiments for the kids and it was really fun to see the wide eyes in the audience of cute kids. Maybe the best part of the night was when a cute 11-year-old boy recited over THREE HUNDRED decimal points in Pi!! It took him so long that it almost seemed like he had to be making it up, but his mom said he's been working on memorizing it for months. What kind of little kid memorizes the Pi decimals in their spare time!? I was impressed!! 

This is a funny picture of me, but I had to document Mya's first bite of pie! I needed someone to taste test my apple crumble pie and Mya was an eager volunteer. She gave it two chubby thumbs up and then spent the rest of the night lunging at any slice of pie in sight. (Like mother, like daughter). Mya snuck a few fists full of pie from plates at our table and got herself almost as messy as Bryn, who had one sleeve smeared with chocolate mouse and the other sleeve covered in whipped cream. We ended the night one last science experiment....watching Oxi-Clean dissolve the pie stains from our clothes :)

Spring Break

Josh's winter semester ended last week and now he has a two week break before spring term begins. Hooray! We were going to go to Boston or New York, but then Josh got approved to go to Peru during spring break with two other Tuck students for a Dartmouth project. Before he takes off we are trying to fit in some fun family time, so yesterday we went wild and crazy, drove all the way to Vermont (only about a 10 minute drive), and went bowling!!!

Bowling at the Upper Valley Lanes is truly a unique experience. First and foremost, it's connected to Shenanigans, "The Upper Valley's hottest nightclub". Upper Valley Lanes is kind of your all-in-one entertainment venue: you've got bowling, arcade games, billiards, and then if you walk through the curtained doorway you've got your ticket to all sorts of shenanigans. (Not that I would know firsthand). Normally I wouldn't take my children to a bowling alley adjoined to a "night club", but our options are scarce up here! Josh and I also laughed that the bowling alley blasted Eminem music during Family Hour and that the manager's dog ran freely through the building, even across the wooden lanes and around the chairs. Anything goes, I guess! You'd think a place like this would be packed, but we were the only ones there :)

This picture is classic. Josh caught Mya in the act of yanking Bryn's hair and Mya looked pretty proud of herself. 

 The benefit of not getting out much is that when we do get out it is lots of fun and Bryn thinks it's Christmas or something! Thank you for a good time, Upper Valley Lanes. And three cheers for spring break because we love having Josh home all day!

Sunday Afternoon

I really love having two little girls....Is there anything better than sisters? 

I love the sweet relationship Bryn and Mya have, even at this age.

Mya's squishy arms are the best! And her chubby legs in shorts will probably be even cuter, so I'm counting down the days til it's shorts season!

Sunny Saturday

It's been a cold, gray winter up here in the North East, but we finally got some sun this weekend and it was wonderful! It was in the high 30's on Saturday morning (and reached the 40's that afternoon!), so we headed out for a wagon ride around the neighborhood. Poor Mya is so used to being indoors that she couldn't even open her eyes outside in the sun! Ha ha....she squinted the entire time and it was so sad/cute. 

 She was in heaven with the wagon ride and giggled and rocked back and forth....all with her eyes shut!

 Enjoying the swing (or taking a nap??)

 I love these two!

 Bryn was so thrilled to be OUTSIDE!!! We have been cooped up for far too long and she was so excited to have some park time. We came home, had lunch, and then walked right back over to the park for another hour of park time. And she would have stayed even longer if we would have let her.

 Hopefully we'll have more sunny days like this as springtime get closer!