Our Nelli Jane

Nellli Jane was born December 17th at 3:54pm, 7.12 lbs, and 20.5 inches long.  She has such a cute cry, more like a wimper to let you know she needs something.  She's calm, curious, and smiles a lot. I've noticed that I feel the Spirit more keenly since she's been born.  She's a special girl! Now that she's here I wonder what I ever did with out her. 

Waiting for Nelli

The week before Nelli came

I think it's amazing what my body is capable of, now that I've gone through pregnancy and birth. I was tired and uncomfortable a majority of the time, but I got to see what my body could do to sustain a life inside of me. It's nice to see the results of all that work and... be able to give Taylor a real hug.

Baby Shower

Anna and Ruth

Jana and me

My sister Ruth threw me a baby shower the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It was great to have the support of the women in my life :).  Thanks to everyone who came.

Thanksgiving with the Southwicks

This Thanksgiving, Jana and Scott came down from Spokane. Tyler and Ali hosted the holiday dinner, but we all pitched in to help make the meals.  What resulted was a fine Thanksgiving meal, to say the least.  We had everything and more, and everyone got quite full.  It was fun to be together and relax. We enjoyed Tyler's iPad and other games together.  Later, we met up with a bunch of Southwicks in West Jordan and saw Harry Potter 7, followed by a post-Thanksgiving leftover feast.

Grandma G's

Grandma Gibson and me

Traden, Amber's oldest son, with Grandma

caught ya! Derek, Amber's youngest son, kept sucking his toes

My cousin Amber and I went to see Grandma Gibson in Hurricane, Utah (which is pronounced hurriken...don't you just love good ol' southern Utah?).  Amber brought her three fun boys; I even got to eat their treats with them in the car :).  Grandma Gibson is doing great, thanks to Aunt Cathy who's been helping her do exercises everyday, get the care she needs, and having her do as much as she can for herself.  I loved seeing Gma again!  I lived with her for part of the week when I was working at the hospital in St. George and going to SUU in Cedar City, before my mission in October of 2008.  We'd eat chocolate together out of her sweet stash when I'd come home from work and I'd tell her and Grandpa crazy stories from the hospital.  She'd always make sure I was warm and well fed, then we'd watch TV shows with Grandpa; "The Lawrence Welk Show" and "Mash".  I was usually so tired from my 12 hour shift that I'd fall asleep.  I even remember catching Grandma getting up before me, about 5 am, to turn up the heat so I'd be warm when I crawled out of bed. It touched me how she cared about a little thing like that.  I definitely have the best Grandma.

Rachmaninoff in SLC

As a surprise early anniversary gift I took Taylor to see a symphony, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, put on by the Utah Symphony. They had an amazing young pianist, Conrad Tao, be the guest of the night. It was beautiful music and a fun night...I like surprises!! It's almost more fun to be the one doing the surprising because I get to anticipate the look on Taylor's face :) 1 year...wow! It definitely doesn't feel like it's been that long.

Shoes That Match

So, my favorite story this week happened on Monday morning when I was cleaning up from being at Ruth's and then Grandma Tanner's for General Conference (which I wish I had pictures of).  It was super fun to go to the Conference building to watch the Saturday morning session with Ruth and feel of the Spirit that permeated that gorgeous building as the prophets and apostles spoke.  Back to my story... Taylor had left for school and I was putting away things from the weekend away.  When I was putting my shoes in the closet I noticed that both of Taylor's jogging shoes were on the bottom of the closet, no, one of each of his jogging shoes were in the closet.  I started laughing and called Taylor.  He picked up to me laughing and I asked him how comfortable his shoes were feeling.  There was a pause and then an, " Oh my heck!!! I didn't even notice".  Then he started laughing with me :)  What a hubby!

Twins' B-day

Naomi & Jerry's Reception

Go Tay!

Odin caught a spider (he kept it with him all day :)

Sisters!

Grandma Gibson and Mom

Naomi & Jerry

Daddy

Ethan

Ethan touching baby cousin

Dan, Anna, & Sam

Look at Ashley in that hot hat

Yankee Meadows

We used our tent (thanks Siri & Chris)!  We got to hang out with Drew and Chrissy and their super cute kids, Ethan and Rebecca, as well as Dan and Ashley and their little Lucy.  It was so good to be with family.  Ethan and Lucy were so excited to be outdoors that they were running around and exploring everything.  I got some good advice and ideas from Chrissy and Ashley for my adventures ahead of being a new mommy; which have already come in handy. We definitely want to go camping again soon.

Dan and Drew changing diapers :)

We're having a Girl!!

It was so awesome to watch as the ultrasound image came up on the screen at the doctor's office.  We saw our little one moving around for the first time.  She had her feet up over her head, folded over like a taco, during most of the ultrasound.  Yay!  A little girl is just what we wanted.  They said everything looks good and her development is right on track.

Levi

Levi is a super cute lady from the Philippines. The first time I walked into choir she turned around and waved energetically. She the beckoned me to sit by her. She never married and so never had children of her own so she makes everyone in the ward her children and grandchildren :)

Best Hubby!

So, I woke up last night with a gnarly cramp in my leg. I must have cried out pretty loud; Taylor immediately sat up and started frantically saying, "What happened? What happened? What can I do? What can I do?."  I had to calm him a little and tell him it was just a charlie-horse. I shook my leg, no good. I then stood up and walked around for a minute; it went away.  I lay back down and it felt like it was going to come back, but it didn't.  Taylor was still a little panicked :). I think I have picked the best one!! I can only imagine what he will be like when I start having intense contractions...

Westminster

Windblown hair...

Tay and I took one more trip to Westminster, where Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abby are.  There is just something about Big Ben... I really like it! It seems so mysterious and elegant. It felt great to be walking around in the cool, windy evening.

Kumon

I volunteered at a after school program called Kumon. It's a world-wide program that encourages children (or adults) to learn independently.  They come to the center to have a quite place to work as well as turn in and pick up their work. Lupita runs this center I worked at in London.  She monitors the children's work coming in and moves them forward in the program.

I worked at the oral reading counter where children would come take oral tests with me.  I would time them and give them feedback. They would also come read books out loud to me and I would score them for Lupita to see.  I would also correct their work and record it.

Sarah

I worked with some refugees from Somalia. It was so sad to hear Niema's story about how her parents and four brothers were killed in the tribal wars. She came to London a year ago to escape the terror. She said that she'd be at the markets getting food and someone would throw a bomb in the middle of the market...:(  It's a whole other world there. She has a great attitude!! I would have never guessed all that she's been through. She's so fun and playful.

Niema and me

Tour of Western England

Do we look like tourists or what?! We took a tour through a company called Students Tours this weekend to Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral and the city of Bath. It was a great experience to see so much in one day.

Stonehenge is set in beautiful fields just eight miles north of Salisbury. There are many explanations about why it is there and how it was built. This version (it has been built multiple times throughout the centuries) is 5000 years old! Each month the sun shines through a different set of stones, so it's like a big calender. The stones were not as tall as I imagined them to be.




This is Salisbury Cathedral which is 800 years old. If you look at the bottom of the pic you can see our tour guide, he's holding up a red paper to gather the group to him.

Great picture, I know!

The inner courtyard

This cathedral was beautiful. It was constructed in the Gothic art period which our tour guide said we could tell by the pointed archways and the flying buttresses (what are flying buttresses anyway???).

One of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta is housed there. We got to see it, written in Latin on vellum (pig skin...). Great story behind it (check wikipedia for more information if you so desire). The Declaration of Independence was inspired by it.




Here is the town that was built around the cathedral. The story is that a little over 800 years ago there was a division among the people that lived in Salisbury. Apparently the military and the English Church were not getting along. The priest of the church got sick of it and said he was going to shoot an arrow in the air and wherever it landed he was going to build a new cathedral and build a city around it for his followers. The Salisbury Cathedral went up in 30 years. There is always construction going on because it is made of limestone and gets the breeze from the sea nearby.



This is Bath. It looks exactly what I imagined it to look like: water everywhere and antique :).
We walked to along the markets enlivened by the live musicians ( it's so great! They're everywhere here in England serenading our trips...). We walked to the Jane Austin center, who lived in Bath long ago. We didn't go in, but the ancient Roman Baths are there, which they used when they occupied part of England.