Baby Shower for 2 [Nameless] Baby Girls

Last week my friends threw me a baby shower.  It was awesome for several reasons:

1. A night out without kids?  Sign me up!!
2. It was at a Thai restaurant that I've been wanting to try, and the food was as delicious as I'd hoped.  Hyrum and I need to go back soon.  
3. SO many people came!  I was surprised at how many people wanted to come out and celebrate with us on a week night.  I didn't get pictures of everyone, but there was a lot of love. 
4. Lastly, they gave me some really cute baby girl clothes.  Some matching, some coordinating.  It's amazing how tiny baby clothes are, and holding the little clothes is getting me more excited to have two newborns.  And there were plenty of diapers, which are equally appreciated, but don't get me quite as excited to have two newborns. ha.  There will be plenty of diaper changes going on in our house in the coming months.  

And as a bonus, I got to come home and show all the fun stuff to Hyrum.  When I had a baby shower for Tiago, Hyrum was already in Afghanistan so I tried to show him stuff via Skype (with, undoubtedly, a bad internet connection.)  It's just not the same.  So doing it in person was fun.  When it comes to baby gear, I already have all the essential stuff... it's just blue.  (Bibs, socks, pacifier clips, etc.)  Now I feel more prepared with girly things so people in public won't think I have two baby boys.  Lucky them!

Tiago's two loves [16 months]

There are two things that pretty much sum up Tiago's life right now:

Mary Poppins & Goldfish.  He's a simple kid with simple joys, I suppose.

He first saw Mary Poppins a few months ago.  I found it on Netflix, because he loves music so much and that movie has music playing the entire time.  It had the effect of a tranquilizer pill: he literally will just sit and watch for long periods of time without getting distracted.  When it comes time to cook dinner, or do some cleaning (ha, on the rare chance that happens), Mary Poppins is my lifesaver.
I literally have 75% of the movie memorized, and fall asleep/wake-up with song lyrics running through my head.  A few favorite quotes:

Mrs. Banks:  We're clearly soldiers in petticoats, and dauntless crusaders for womens' votes.  Though we adore men individually, we agree that as a group they're rather stupid.

Mary Poppins: Enough is as good as a feast.

George Banks: Kindly do not attempt to cloud the issue with facts.

Mary Poppins: Practically perfect people never permit sentiment to muddle their thinking.

His second love is goldfish.  I usually keep a big box on-hand, and when he wants to eat he'll walk around the house to find it, and either carry it to me, or yell and point if it's out of his reach.  Since he can't talk yet, it's a simple way to keep him happy and let him have some autonomy over what/when he eats.

In the last few weeks he's gotten two more teeth on top, which curbed his appetite quite a bit, and I felt like he was literally surviving solely on goldfish.  [Mother-of-the-year award: a goldfish eating kid that watches the same movie daily!]  Luckily in the last few days he's started eating more 'normal' food, like yogurt (the more expensive the better, in his taste), scrambled eggs, and pears.

Speaking of food, this kid is like a chipmunk!  Last week I was feeding him mandarin oranges (his favorite) and ground beef.  I made him take a bite of meat in between orange slices, and after about 2 minutes, all of the oranges were swallowed and he spit out a big pile of meat that he'd been storing in his cheeks.  He'll do the same thing if he gets excited about a food (rare)--he eats it so fast that his whole mouth fills up before he can even swallow.

One last thing to mention about Tiago at this age: he still doesn't talk!  I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but the doctor showed some concern at his last appointment, and recommended we have him checked out.  So a developmental specialist came.  (As I type this, I feel like I've already written about it.)  In short, he is behind the learning curve with speaking, but that's not all that surprising to me since he hears two different languages at home; I think it will come eventually.  But here he is, at 16 months, and doesn't even say "mama" or "hi".

Maybe I won't be surprised if his first word is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

I was looking through pictures from last May, and came across these, and the picture below.  Cute baby!  He's so much bigger now, and I'm sure he'll look even bigger when compared to two tiny little sisters.  

Sad faces.

Utah: Part III & Thanksgiving

As the trip progressed, taking pictures of everything must have lost its appeal, because I have significantly fewer pictures of the last two weeks.

On Friday Hyrum spent the day (and night) in Ogden with his family.  He was able to go to the temple with his parents and sister, which was a neat experience for him.  The Ogden temple is recently re-opened, too, so he was able to see the changes they made.  That night he watched his nephew play soccer, and then had a sleepover with them.  (Every time he talks to Elliot on the phone he is asked when Hyrum can come visit and sleepover... so it was a few years overdue.)  The next morning he went to Provo to visit friends.  Originally he was going to play soccer with a bunch of guy, but it was pouring outside, so they ended up just hanging out.  Meanwhile, I didn't do much.  In fact, I was probably bored out of my mind just hanging around watching Tiago for two days.

Fortunately, Jenna came by for part of Saturday which was at least something.  And I went to visit with friends on Friday night, which was fun.  And I probably went to a few stores.  So in reality, I didn't do nothing.

Sunday was an adventure.  Hyrum's friend Manuel invited us over to dinner.  (That's the friend he met up with in Brazil for the World Cup.)  They live in Lehi, and we had the address, but our GPS didn't recognize the address.  We ended up driving around and around trying to find their house, and had to stop at a convenience store and ask someone if they had a smart phone we could use.  (We were getting by during the 3 weeks without even cell phones-- very old school of us.)  Eventually we made it, and it was fun to catch up with them.  There were a bunch of kids around for Tiago to play with, and they had Colombian and Mexican food... best of both worlds.  

On Monday I took Hyrum to see Amie's house, which he hadn't seen before even though she's lived there for a few years already.  After that we went to Hyrum's parents' house.  During the time we were staying with my parents they were in the middle of getting their basement finished, so there was a lot of sanding and painting to be done.  I wasn't very much help, but Hyrum spent some time down there with my mom working.  I don't know how their arms didn't fall off.  With the little helping I did, I got kind of sore.  Maybe that's why they all liked to get in the hot tub so much...

The next day Tiago woke up at 5 am, which is never a good start to a day.  It really took almost the entire vacation for him to get adjusted to the time change.  Fortunately, Hyrum usually was the one who woke up with him while I continued to sleep.  The only noteworthy things that day involve food.  First we had spicey Italians at Subway.  I miss $5 sandwiches because here in Germany they're at least $6.50 (on-post).  That night we all went to Maddox, a steakhouse that my parents like.  And with good reason.  It was delicious!  We had a bit of a wait, which is when Tiago entertained us by 'walking' up and down a long ramp and falling over.  But the steak was to die for.  Hyrum got his practically raw, as usual.  I didn't get a picture of the other side of the table, but also there were my parents and a family friend, Del Joy.  While we were up in Brigham City we drove by the temple so Hyrum could see it.  (It's been built since the last time he was there.)

At some point (or multiple points) this happened... Tiago ended up on the floor of the pantry eating whatever food he could reach.  (That just happens to be where the candy bars were.)

On Wednesday Hyrum and I got to go to the temple together, then we went shopping.  That night some of my siblings came over in anticipation of Thanksgiving.  I'm sure they all went in the hot tub while I stayed inside.

Thursday was Thanksgiving.  We tried to figure out a way to spend time with both of our families, so we did breakfast with the Suarez side and then dinner with the Hatch side.  It was a lot of eating, but worth it.

Emma's birthday is the week of Thanksgiving, so in addition to breakfast we got to eat cake.

Clearly Tiago was enjoying being handed over to his cousins for a picture.

Tiago got spoiled by his Abuela, who spent most of the meal feeding him jello on the couch.

It's not very often that the entire family is together, so we took advantage to snap some pictures.  Here's Hyrum with his siblings.

Oscar, Stella, and all their grandkids.  [Unfortunately, Oscarito is missing.  He and Bertha were arriving from Colombia only a few days after Hyrum and I flew back to Germany.  Bad timing!]

And finally... everyone together.  [Just missing Oscarito, Bertha, and Edna's husband Mike, who didn't have the week off from work.]

Back: Lindsay, Sariah, Helaman, Hunter, Edna, Sofia, Tiago, Hyrum, Heather
Middle: Kaylee, Elliot, Stella, Oscar; Front: Lily, Emma

We weren't exactly hungry for a Thanksgiving feast when we left back to Farmington, but there was turkey to be eaten, and we were up for the challenge.

It's surprising, because in the past, when my family celebrated Thanksgiving in Kentucky, there was such a mix of people--friends, neighbors, family.  And yet this year (with family only) we still had way more people than ever.  It's nice that everyone lives in the same area for the most part, and there are also more 'significant others' than ever before.  I think we had 19 people for dinner, and no shortage of food.  [The credit for that goes mostly to my Mom...]

We didn't get a group picture, but here are a few people sitting around visiting before we ate.

And a glimpse of all the food...

We probably prayed, then devoured everything and fell into food comas.  Several hours later, we put out the desserts, which included derby pie (my favorite) a delicious cheesecake, and several other types of pie.

 Tiago was very entertained by his cousin, Andrew.  The dining room table was moved out for dinner, so instead, the dining room was full of legos and other fun toys.

The rest of the day was spent talking and eating, on constant repeat.  At one point a bunch of people went to the hot tub, then we decided to go early-black-Friday-shopping at Station Park.  There were some good deals to be had.  Hyrum got a new pair of jeans--when he tried them on, he came out of the dressing room practically dancing, so Matt and I decided they were his dancing pants.  We also may have bought a few baby girl clothes... hard to resist!

Here are a few pictures from the next day.  This first one looks like when Tiago just woke up from a nap.  There was no shortage of toys around for him to play with.  We spent the day trying to fit in some last minute-things.  We met up with Jenna for lunch at a sushi restaurant, which I was afraid we weren't going to squeeze in.  It was everything I hoped it would be.  (There aren't really sushi options in the area where we live in Germany.)

That night we enjoyed a beautiful sunset from my parents' porch, then went with Courtney and her friend to Temple Square to see the lights.  Fortunately, it wasn't very cold.  Unfortunately, that meant it was VERY crowded.

Tiago got left behind at home to play with everyone there.  Since Thanksgiving, these two have gotten engaged, which isn't too surprising, but still exciting.

Saturday morning we spent packing, returning a few things last-minute, and boxing up what we couldn't fit in our luggage to be mailed home.  We miraculously didn't leave anything behind, and took off on our long flight home at 5 pm.

I don't remember much from our flight--I probably have mentally blocked it all out.  On our long flight across the ocean, Tiago spent a lot of time in the kitchen/galley in the back of the plane walking around.  I was glad to have that space!  He also liked to walk up and down the aisle picking up trash and bringing it to me.  We had a short layover in Paris, then on to Munich.  It is always a good feeling to make it back to the car (luggage in-hand), have the car start (thankful the battery didn't die!), and be on familiar roads home.  And it's an even better feeling to sleep in your own bed after three weeks and know all the traveling is over.  It was Sunday evening before we were back home.

Jetlag was a killer with Tiago.  He routinely woke up around midnight for several nights, but after about a week was adjusted.  That, plus a few loads of laundry, and any evidence of our trip was gone.  ...Until our boxes showed up and we got to look back through all the fun stuff we bought.

It's crazy to know that next Thanksgiving/Christmas we'll probably be living back in the States and thinking about how we'll celebrate in 2015.

Random Pictures to wrap up 2014

It's time to get caught up, which means posting a bunch of random, finishing writing about our trip to Utah, and covering the fun of the last week or so.  

I dug through our pictures to see what had fallen through the cracks, and here are a few things from the last 3.5 months.  

Halloween feels like a lifetime ago.  In addition to our ward Trunk-or-treat that I wrote about, Hyrum's squadron also hosted a family event that we went to during the day.  Beforehand, I wondered if anyone would dress up besides the kids, but Hyrum is always looking for an excuse to wear his Superman costume so we went all out.  In the end, only a few soldiers dressed up, but Hyrum still loved telling people he'd been doing extra PT (exercise) lately to build up his muscles.  

Speaking of exercise, I think this was one morning when Hyrum was doing a PT test.  (Two minutes of sit-ups, 2 minutes of push-ups, and a 2-mile run.)  That's him doing sit-ups, his best 'event'.

During the holidays, we found some lebkuchen on sale at the grocery store and brought it home to try.  It's a german dessert that's supposed to resemble gingerbread in taste, but to me, it didn't taste enough like gingerbread and was kind of disgusting.  Tiago and Hyrum liked it though!

Tiago still has a lot of funny habits, which I'll have to write about in more detail some day.  But occasionally he'll disappear from the family room, and when I go look for him I find him chilling in the baby bouncer in his room.  He's proficient at getting in and out, despite his size.  He also discovered where we're storing the seats to our new stroller (they detatch) and will just go sit in them.  

I think I already posted this picture, but we found out we were having twin girls (at the beginning of November.)  Still no idea if they're identical or not, and we won't know until after they're born.  I had no hopes or expectations for their gender, so I'm perfectly happy with two girls.  My impression is that girl twins tend to be better life-long friends, boy twins would have had so much boy fun with Tiago, and one of each would have been great too (I wouldn't have had to buy double the girl stuff...)  Pretty soon the boys in our family will be outnumbered.

Our ward had a "Night in Bethlehem" Christmas party.  It was something else, and I still can't believe all the work that went into it.  It was only a few days after we got back from our trip to the States, so I wasn't involved with any of the planning or setting up, but hats off to those that did all the work.  There were food stalls built to distribute old world food like stew, figs, and challah bread; Roman soldiers enforcing certain rules; costumes; Hebrew lessons; and super impressive decorations.  

I did an excessive amount of baking in December.  Tis the season, right?  Probably my favorite was this cranberry bread covered in cream cheese frosting and white chocolate.  I'm no food photographer, but it sure tasted good.

Our New Years Eve celebrations were nothing too exciting.  We started watching a movie that got way too boring, so we turned it off.  In our bedroom we have big double doors leading to a balcony; with the curtains open we could see fireworks going off periodically throughout the night.  I fell asleep at some point, and Hyrum stayed up to watch the craziness at midnight.  The noise definitely woke me up, since Germans do fireworks for a loooong time.

And finally, the last week of the year we were in charge of cleaning the church.  Tiago found a vacuum in the nursery and had fun helping.