Beth had her baby!!

Welcome Jackson West Stroud, we are so excited to have you in the family!

Way to go, Bethany!

Sophie's Health Update

Sophie has practically snored since birth. And out of her ten months alive so far, I think she has been congested for 8 of them. I took her to the ENT Doctor and he said that her tonsils (and likely adenoids) are a size 3 on a scale of 1 to 4, 1 being normal size. So he says to plan on further action when she gets a little older. In the mean time I should watch for Sleep Apnea. That is when, while she is sleeping, she holds her breath for 5 seconds or more. I have only noticed her doing it for 2-3 seconds so far. And I think it is allergy related...which brings me to the allergy update.

I weaned her last week. I felt that she needed to be on a stricter diet so as to more reliably avoid any milk products weezling their way into her body from mine. She loves the soy formula. You should see how excited she gets to watch me prepare it. She loooves when I warm the water first in the microwave. She always wants to peer through the glass at the rotating cup of water. She holds the bottle like a champ, too. She doesn't even miss me. Crazy. Anyway. We went and saw the allergist today. He said she may have a more serious condition than the average milk allergy which is outgrown within 2-3 years. They will run some tests next week. I'll keep you posted.

pics of our family

Here are some random pictures of us.
Sorry I don't have one of me; I don't have any recent shots.

Update on Sophie: As you can see, Sophie's face has slimmed out a lot. I don't think she has gained any weight for over 3 months. She has just grown a little longer. She is a little doll. Right now she is constantly holding her little finger up to her eyelashes and feeling them open...and close, open...and close. She crawled today, two feet. While I was out running she crawled to Danny. Then he showed me when I walked in. It was great. Also this week, Sophie learned to scoot along the couch a few steps.

Update on Melia: She talks, talks, talks. It is fun. And she is still very much a princess--she plays dress ups day in, day out. Melia is 100% girl! She is also potty training--it is going okay. She still hasn't figured out how to poop in the potty (which is really wearing on me, I am trying to stay positive but oh it really makes me crazy when she goes and hides and tries to clean it up herself and it ends up all over her legs and dried to her bum, on the floor, in the carpet! yuk!).

Update on Danny: His broken foot has healed a little. The pain has lessened enough that it is tolerable. He hates taking medication, so he is glad he is able to suffer through the remaining pain on his own. He works a lot. He is busy with the marketing end of his job and then China keeps him working into the night (you know, because that is when the Chinese are awake). When he isn't working he is listening to his Chinese-pod or sports radio, and of course he watches nearly every Lakers game on TV.

Update on Annie: I am working on Melia's potty training. For Sophie, I am always on the lookout with my diet to be sure I have ZERO traces of milk products in my diet (she is very allergic to the milk protein, casein). I am pretty used to it now, but it is tricky to eat at others' houses or go to a restaurant. I will need to watch my diet for another 4 or 5 months, probably, until she is "weened." Then I guess we'll feed her goat milk for the next year or two! Also, I am planning on running a half marathon in a month and have made a goal to have Anne's tree mural completed by April.

Extra Update: My dad proposed last month to Gretchen Richards of Morgan, UT, and she said 'yes'! We really like her a lot. We are just waiting to hear when the big day will take place.

Get me on the road---fast!

Wow, I am so anxious lately. I don't know what my deal is...I think I need to get out. I have this crazy urge to pack us all up and drive to, well, anywhere!!! -as long as it is vacation! Since it is totally impractical and ridiculous to actually do this, I keep trying to satisfy this craziness by a date or a trip to the store, but the feeling is only growing stronger! I gotta get out of here!

Is it just me? Am being ungrateful? Is it the weather? Hormones? WhAt?

Newsmap- Link of the month

If you have not seen this website- I would highly recommend it.  I don't know if the blogger nation that happens upon this blog is really into the molecular structure of the bilingual sequence of this algorithm ... but a simple glance at it and I think everyone can appreciate the simplicity and art of this news site.  - http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm 

by the way, individual results may vary.... 

my handy bed heater

I heat my bed nearly every night with my blow dryer.
It is sooooo nice.
Danny asked me if it is a weird girl trick that all women do. I told him I wasn't sure.... But I've wondered about it since! So here is the question, oh blogosphere women, do you do this too?

pics of me

Kim requested that I put more pics of me on here

artwork

Hey here are some things i have worked on this year in the art department of my life...

This project was for a bulletin board at church (primary)...

I dressed up as 'Andre the Artist.' The kids found it to be very exciting, as they don't usually see guest artists coming in to do sharing time. They especially loved making fun of my terrible accent (i am NOT an actor!!) and laughing when my hairy mustache would shed in my mouth (and eventually fell completely off). I am trying to do something like this every couple of months for the primary now. It is fun. When the kids answer gospel questions correctly, they get to come up and help paint. For this one they painted most of the sky.

I went home and finished it up during the week.

Now it is the year theme bulletin and has lettering in the bottom area that reads
"I am a Child of God!"

Sorry about the blurry picture--this is a painting hanging in my living room. It was inspired by the trip Danny and I took to Spain the summer we graduated. It is not finished...but I don't know how to finish it and don't expect to soon, so it hangs on our wall anyway. It used to bug me and make me feel bad that I hadn't finished it, but now I like to imagine the different possibilities for what would give it the ring it needs.

This is a work-in-progress mural at my in-laws house. It is a part of a cute little room made for the kids. I've basically taken a two month break from it in order to do some problem solving on the project. I started painting it before I knew exactly what it was supposed to look like in my head...so poor Anne has to be very patient as I prepare to fix it...and make some pretty substantial changes.

I will post more pics as I work on it. You will see it quite a bit thicker in foliage, with much lighter and softer greens, maybe see a lower branch added to give it some lower visual weight (so it appears as a more inviting tree to the children). then once the basic tree is done I will add a few chipmunks, maybe a hole in the trunk, some birds, and some long soft grass which will run along the perimeter of the room, just above the 8" wood baseboards.
If you have any other ideas for me, pitch em please, that would be great!
(neat doll house, huh? the girls absolutely love it)

canned goods--er, i mean, canned grosses

Well I did an inventory of our 3-month, "rotating" food supply last Saturday. It felt good because sorting it has been on my to-do list for a while now ( I am obsessive about my lists). Well, I took out about 20 cans of expired/unappetizing foods and gave them to my neighbor, along with 5 boxes of expired mac-n-cheese that each member of our family disdains. My whole goal for food storage is to eat it regularly, you know, rotate it. The stuff I got rid of seemed to be choking up the rotation line!
Well Danny did not approve of my actions. Well--he approved the inventory part of course but not the discarding of the goods part. He said, "Annie, if we need to rely on that food storage tomorrow, I am not going to be unhappy to be eating slightly expired store brand cream of mushroom soup and macaroni and cheese. ...Does macaroni and cheese really ever expire?"
At first I was offended that he would interfere with food storage business, because so far, it has been my baby, not his. But he does have a point. That night we both took a can off the shelf and ate it for dinner to commemorate our food storage mishap. I chose Tomato soup--I've never had it, never wanted it. I am not sure how it even got to my food storage shelf. And Danny chose Dinty Moore Beef stew, a food item he had liked when we first got married (when he was used to that sort of thing a lot during college days) but now isn't so fond of. We tried to share with Melia. She ate a bit of the dinty moore but mostly just wanted the saltines.
That night we fed ourselves, like usual. But more than that, our hearts got a little bigger just thinking about how lucky we are to have so much.

I've been husband tagged!

What is his name? Daniel Robert Hyde

How long have you been married? 5 1/2 years

How long did you date? 9 months

How old is he? 27

Who eats more? Me, definitely. I don't know how he manages to stay 60 pounds heavier than me because I pork

Who said "I love you" first? Danny

Who is taller? He has me by almost a foot

Who sings better? Ummm...our daughter, Melia

Who is smarter? Danny is a genius. He can figure out ANYTHING--work, tools, puzzles, ...ME!

Whose temper is worse? Mine. When he is mad he gets a little snappy

What are your color codes? He is a red, I am a white

Who does the laundry? me, of course

Who does the dishes? me



What is a little thing or two you love about him? How he is so great at cheering me up, how he is always looking for original new tunes, I love his forthright communication style, and he has a nice zest for learning

Who pays the bills? me, but only because I beat him to the punch, he is good with money

Who mows the lawn? ummm...this last summer? Danny. But I have a decent amount of mowing to claim

Who cooks dinner? me

Who drives when you are together? When the girls are in the car, Danny. It is much easier for my shorter self to climb over into the back seat to attend to our little dears.

Who is more stubborn? me

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? It used to be Danny, all the way...but I think I have turned a new leaf over the past couple years

Who proposed? Danny...like 5 times (I said 'yes' every time!)

Who has more friends? Me

What is his love language? quality time and touch

What attracted me to him? His face, hair, smile, style of carrying himself

Who wears the pants? We share the pants, the close contact is nice!


I tag Beth, Shannon, Candy, Kari, Karen and Shelly