February Happenings 2014

February was a big month for us and here are a few of the reasons why.

1) Found out we were preggo with baby #2 on Wednesday, February 2.

2) I went to the RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake for 2 days.  More about that later.

3) Celebrated our 5th Valentine's day together.  Burke made me a huge box of chocolate dipped strawberries, while I finally honored his request to not get him a single thing (so incredibly hard for me to do, especially since I had already been working on something secretly for a few months!).  We also went to dinner at Rusty's up Cedar Canyon with Mike, LeeAnn, Jake and Sandy Hulet that night.  No one knew I was preggo yet, so I couldn't adequately explain why I wasn't up for eating my steak when it came.

4) Took Daphne to her first orchestra concert to hear Grandma Marie play.  While the orchestra played, they projected silent films above the stage that went along perfectly with the songs.  It was fascinating and fun!  We then enjoyed all the awesome booths where the kids could play instruments, learn about science, make pinwheels, etc.

5) Went ice skating on President's Day with the Ridings for Lydia's "FigureEIGHT" and "IceskEIGHT" birthday.  Poor Emmett and Millie didn't love the ice, but the birthday girl was confident on her skates.  Daphne also told the Ridings there was a baby in her Mommy's tummy, but thankfully covered up for us by saying there was a baby in her tummy too, so they didn't actually suspect anything!

6) Closed on our first home on Thursday, February 20.  Went over that night to clean the carpets and Daphne made herself a little beddie on the kitchen floor with my old soccer blanket and pretended to be asleep.

7) Deep cleaned and moved out of the DePoe home on Friday, February 21 and into our new home all in that same day.  We were so grateful for the help of family and Kenly Holt who made it possible.  Oh yeah, and no one knew I was dying of nausea the whole time- that was fun to try and cover up.

8) The very next day we rummaged through boxes to find our church clothes and drove to St. George for Lydia's baptism on Saturday, February 22.  Kaleo gave a super creative talk about baptism using a laminated picture of Lydia in her baptism dress, chocolate pudding and kleenex to demonstrate how baptism washes all our sins away and how Christ's atonement and the sacrament allow us to be clean again each week after baptism.  I was honored to give a talk on the Holy Ghost and was so touched that Lydia would ask me to speak.  Daphne has really been influenced by that experience.  Now, whenever she sees a picture of baptism she talks about Lydia getting baptized and how she will be baptized some day.  It's very sweet to hear her talk about her baptism with such excitement.

Beautiful Lydia at the St. George Temple in her baptism dress - she said all on her own that this picture represented her first step towards entering the temple.

9) Shortly after the baptism, we drove like the wind up to Parowan to catch the tail end of Grandma Elaine Adams's 95th Birthday Party.  The party was held in the church cultural hall and there was quite an impressive gathering of her numerous descendants there to show her love and support on this big birthday.  Burke played the song he wrote for Grandma on her 90th birthday and left a good portion of the audience in a puddle of tears.  It is my favorite song he has written.

Grandma Elaine's 95th Birthday Party - she is still so incredibly sharp, independent, fun and happy!

10) Daphne and I were doing lessons on fishes for Tot School, learning about gills and fins, when she became obsessed with buying a fish.  So we did!  We bought a red beta and when I asked Daphne what she wanted to name him, she insisted on naming him Kelby...because that is the name of Grandma Marie's goldfish!  I told her that might get confusing, but she wouldn't call him anything else.  So now he is Kelby 2, but Burke calls him Fishwilliam Darcy (because I was reading Pride and Prejudice at the time and he couldn't get over the fact that Mr. Darcy's first name was Fitzwilliam).

Daphne with Kelby 2 (aka: Fishwilliam Darcy)

This is what I get lately whenever I try to get a picture of Daphne.  

It's SO hard to get her to do a normal face anymore.