Videos

Azure's brain is continuing to expand. She can do about 20 signs and say about 20 words. We try to catch her cute little sayings and signs on video but, this is about all we can get.
This melts my heart especially when she says it to me in the morning with outstreched arms to get her out of her crib. Being a mommy is the greatest :)

Of course I like black beans, I'm 1/4 Cuban : )

Moonlighting as a hippie

1) This post is not about Azure.

2) This post is about a recipe for granola. And Azure likes to eat it.

3) The recipe is adapted from the Hatch family, who shared their wisdom with us when we stayed with them while interviewing at Campbell University last December.

4) I like granola because it is dirt cheap, simple enough for a caged ape to make, and will sustain life for extended periods of time, ie a busy week of school and/or work when eating becomes inconvenient.

5) Deanna will attest to the fact that I get excited about foods that fall into the above category.

6) Lists are an effective way to make information more accessible.

7) The ingredients for granola are as follows:

1. Oats/Crunchy morsels/Complex Carbohydrates-amylose
   
2. Simple Carbohydrates-glucose, fructose, sucrose, mannose, maltose
   
3. Grease-pig, sunflower, hemp, rapeseed, etc.
4. Flour/Powder
   

8) The steps for cooking the above are:

1. Mix 9 cups rolled oats, 2 cups Krispy Rice, 1 cup total of whole wheat flour and wheat germ.
2. Add 1 cup total of lipid cocktail. May or may not contain beast fats according to personal tastes.
3. Add 1 cup total of mixed sugars. I prefer 70/15/15 Honey/Molasses/Marshmallow Creme(Fluff)
4. Mix briskly
5. Put on a cookie sheet or other recepticle
6. Bake at 400 for about 10 min.
7. Remove and stir to prevent burning
8. Bake again for about 5 min.
9. See step 7
10. Do step 8 until you can't wait for sustenance any longer.
11. Consume with milk, yogurt, or vienna sausages

9) You can customize your granola to your own survival-promoting needs by adding protein powder, dessicated fruit, more or less of individual ingredients, whatever fits your fancy.

10) Making granola is truly alchemy. Take all that dusty stuff out of the cupboard and make gold. Sweet, delicious, edible gold.

11) Wear Birkenstock sandals

New developments

Azure likes to tickle her own feet while saying ticka, ticka, ticka.

Say bye in a southern accent, copying a southern toddler who said it repeatedly as she was leaving our house.

Has started to tell us when she poops by saying boop and grabbing at her diaper. Hopefully this means she'll be potty training soon :)

She's learning body parts. So far she knows eyes, nose, and mouth. Today as we watched General Conference via the internet, she pointed to her eye as Elder Bednar said, "I..." We're so glad she was being attentive during Conference :)

Other great news: Azure still fits into her Halloween costume from last year! This year it fits perfect and she looks ridiculously cute in it. That alone makes me super excited for Halloween this year!

New clothes

Getting new clothes deserves a post right? What is great about having kids (or A kid) is that I have one more person to get excited about buying clothes for. Buying new clothes for Azure FEELS like buying new clothes for ME. I can't wait to put new outfits on her. I sometimes get excited when Charles buys new clothes too but, since I don't usually dress him, it's not on the same level of excitement.

Here she is sporting bright blue corduroy pants and a hot pink onesie, a beautiful color ensemble if I do say so myself !

I LOVE this girl :)

15 months of pure delight

Azure is in a fun copy cat stage. At least I think it's cute for the time being. She is testing limits but, overall being pretty obedient. She likes following me into the kitchen when I'm cooking or doing dishes. She also has a strange fetish with the trash can upon entering the kitchen. She knows this is off limits (esp after eating scraps from the trash) so she'll look in my direction before touching it. I look at her and say, "No touching", while shaking my head. Then she'll copy me and say, "Nih, nih, nih" and shakes her head! Then I can't help but laugh b/c she'll walk off chanting this to herself while continuing to shake her head no. Even in her carseat hours after saying no about something she'll just start chanting, "nih, nih, nih" shaking her cute, little head.

It's finally cooled down a bit this week but usually we just have Azure sleep in a onesie b/c it's so hot. In the mornings after she wakes up, she plays in her crib for up to an hour before wanting to get out. One of her favorite pastimes is pulling at her diaper taking the "stuffing" out. Every morning we are greeted to this sight in her crib.

When she gets tired she starts sucking her thumb and will put her head down on us or the couch.

She even surprised me by going in her room last week and trying to crawl into her crib! And this week she signed sleep right before bedtime.

Ooooohhhhh!
She also loves to go through mommy's legs especially when I'm in the kitchen.

Notice the smearage of blackberries on her head.

She is gaining some weight but it goes straight to her little pot-belly. She has a pair of 3-6 month jeans that she hasn't been able to wear b/c the waist is too big. Since it was somewhat cooler weather this wkend I thought I'd put pants on her and decided to try the jeans, thinking they'd for surely fit now. Nope!

Probably the most precious thing she's done so far is folding her arms for prayer! If we even say the word prayer, she bows her head and folds her arms. I love it!

Help Protect Marriage!

There are a few things I feel EXTREMELY passionate about, one of them is to support the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. We, as citizens of the USA, are free to believe in whatever we want, but we are not free to do whatever we want- obviously. Those who favor gay marriage say it is their right to be married. To me, this is in the same vein as saying an angry man has a right to kill if he is provoked! We have NO rights if our actions take away the rights of others.

The following are examples of how allowing gay marriage is taking rights away from these people.

Adoption services: Because the Catholic Church in Massachusetts refuses to place children with same-sex couples as required by MA gay marriage law, Catholic Charities has been forced to close its adoption program.

Housing: As a Jewish institution, Yeshiva University in NYC banned same-sex couples from its married dormitory on religious principle. New York's highest court invalidated the schools regulations as a form of unlawful discrimination.
*This example is particulary important to our privately owned church school, BYU.

Medical services: A gynecologist in California refused to give a lesbian patient in vitro fertilization treatment on the basis of his religious beliefs. (The doctor referred the patient to another physician.) The doctor has been sued and is likely to lose.



Also, what about the rights of children?

Changing the definition of marriage to include people of the same sex is being disguised as a rights issue, distracting from the social and moral consequences associated with such a step. Even if you are not religious, this is a moral issue because of the effects on children raised in homes without the support of a father and a mother. Studies cited in this article support the fact that kids need the dynamic that is between a man and a woman who love each other and love them. So if we are going to talk about rights, let's talk about the rights of children: The Family: A Proclamation to the World states, "Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother..." The right to undermine a social foundation that has successfully perpetuated our existence for millennia seems to be a flavor-of-the-month(s) (and unfortunately years) political agenda and should be treated with skeptical caution.

My unsolicited opinion about Proposition 8 is as follows: To Latter-day Saints-The First Presidency issued a statement asking our "best efforts" to support the passage of the Proposition. It therefore behooves us to gain our own spiritual confirmation that this is indeed inspired council and to act accordingly. To everyone-the passage/non-passage of this Proposition will have profound effects on California and subsequently on other states and conceivably on other nations. It therefore deserves an objective, serious examination of the pros and cons.

We urge you to find out more about proposition 8 and to donate to Protect Marriage!

Also we invite you to blog about this to help spread the word.
*This was written by both Deanna and Charles

Good things come to those who almost die

We haven't had the internet for a week, which explains the lack of posts (and comments on your blog). Though usually not having the internet drives me crazy, it's actually been somewhat nice to not have it this past week. Charles and I got a lot more done around the house and spent more quality time together. It is unfortunate that a blessing can be a curse sometimes- that is how I feel about the internet.


And speaking of curses and blessings- our accident has been both. Had we not almost died and got our car totalled we wouldn't have gotten a new car for free*. It is still a headache as we are not yet done dealing with insurance companies but at least we have a car now.

I've had my cast off for 10 days! The first few days I could hardly move it at all and was sloughing dead skin cells off like a snake- pretty gross. Everyday I'm able to move it more and I am currently typing this post with BOTH hands! Hooray!

Yea, a new scar

7 wks worth of dead skin cells

Another blessing is that we were able to go to the Columbia, South Carolina Temple last Saturday, which is our new temple. Oh, how I've missed the temple! It's so sad to be 2 1/2 hrs away but, we are glad that I'm healed enough to go now.

We met TaMara and her family for lunch since she just moved to Columbia. It's so great to have so many friends here in the South!Azure and Zack enjoyed each other's company and even shared a few hugs :)

And yet even another blessing is that since Charles and I both have callings that keep us busy the 3rd hour of church, Azure has been accepted into the nursery, 4 months early. She loves it! As soon as we open the door to let her in she shrieks with delight and doesn't even look back at us. No separation anxiety for her!

I'm all ready for nursery, see ya!

Watching Baby Signing Time with daddy (and learning how to sign hat).

Trials are ultimately for us to learn new things and to become more Christlike, I hope we have.