Graduation pictures

So, it's been over a year.  V is almost two and a half and has a one year old little brother to boss around. She loves being a big sister and always gets him to follow her around and play. I graduated ten months ago and now stay home with the kids. J is still in school. We are hoping he will graduate in another semester or two. It will be interesting to see where we end up then.

But for now, here are some pictures from my graduation.

Here is E at almost two months

My  grandparents and cousin who came from Paraguay for the event

And two attempts at a family portrait

Vivi can walk the walk, but can she talk the talk?

Just in case anybody is wondering, she cannot talk the talk.  I think the closest she has come to talking is pointing at something she wants.  When Teresa was a baby/toddler she refused to talk for a long time, and her reasoning is "why would I waste effort talking if I can get what I want just by pointing at it?"

In other Vivi news, she is growing a couple teeth, which means weaning time is upon us!  Actually her birthday is in a couple weeks and we were going to wean at 1 year anyway.  Good timing I guess.  They aren't the front middle teeth, by the way.  They are the top teeth that are on either side of where the middle teeth are.  We tried to get a picture, but she doesn't like us playing with her mouth, and it just isn't worth the effort.  Sorry Vivi fans!

It snowed in Provo. Just so you know.

This morning around 8:00 I don't remember much more than a drizzle of rain.  When I left for the ward basketball game (we won by like 40 points, it wasn't a very seat-gripping game to watch) it was pouring.  Vivi and her car seat got soaked in the 15 steps it took to get from the car to the building.  After the game the rain hadn't let up in the slightest. A few hours later I left with my family to visit Teresa at work and go bowling, and at this point it was starting to hail.  Eating lunch with Teresa was great, as usual.  Just in case there are any Taco Bell fans, Teresa works at the Taco Bell on campus and has several excellent custom menu items that she has invented.  Anyway, after bowling (I broke 100) my family left and I was debating on wandering campus for the rest of the evening until Teresa was off work, or going home.  I noticed it was snowing outside, and figured that I'd wait, because I was certain that it would stop before 9:00.  

I was wrong.

I left trudged through the snow at about 8:00 with the goal of getting Teresa some scrumptious McDonalds french fries, and soon discovered the extreme intensity of my undertaking.  The snow was thick on our car, and I had to use a hat to cover my hand so I could wipe the snow off the windows.  Fortunately I already know that importance of driving slow in adverse snowy conditions, and even more fortunately I've come to assume that most other people don't have the same understanding of how to drive in the snow.  I almost saw to accidents: First as I was pulling out of the parking lot, a car slid a dozen yards or so, horizontally, almost crashing into a line of cars parked outside the law building.  Shortly after I was driving through the Marriot parking lot, and saw possibly the craziest stunt I've ever witnessed in person.  They came into the parking lot off University Parkway, and were driving probably around 15-20 mph down the middle lane (see picture). They didn't slow down at the corner, they just did some professional looking turning and skidding.  I watched in awe (and slightly in fear, because these were clearly crazy people, and Vivi was in the car with me) and as they came out of the turn I thought for sure that they crashed into the sidewalk or something.  When I drove by their tracks though, they were inches away from hitting the curb.  

Absolutely amazing driving, or incredible luck.  Anyway, I digress.  I was victorious in that I obtained the french fries and returned safely home with my family.  

Oh yeah, and it has stopped snowing.

New Smiley's in 2012

So far there are no new Smiley's this year.  All three of us were around for 2011.  Even Vivi was there for like 10 months.  Obviously Teresa and I were there the whole time.  Anyway, the point of this is that there will be a new Smiley later this year.  Probably late June.  There is a possibility he will be called "Shawn" or "Carlton" but nothing is set in stone yet.  We thought he might be jealous of Vivi having a name from the hit TV series Psych (Juliet is her middle name.  I didn't tell Teresa till much later so she wouldn't be able to object) and of the male characters the names we like best are Carlton and Shawn.  Teresa shot down Gus and Henry.   Anyway.

As far as I know we don't really have any new years resolutions.  And no, it isn't because we're still working on last years.  Instead we have a tradition that we inherited from Teresa's side of the family.  We stay up on December 31st until midnight, drink cider (the martinelli kind) and eat 12 grapes.  With each grape you eat, you make a wish. Two years ago when we did it I did pretty well and got like 3/12 wishes.  Fortunately for my cousin Jen one of them was that she would meet her future spouse that year.  Last year, I didn't get any of my wishes.  :'(  This year my wishes were more resolutionary than usual.  I'll just have to wait and see how I do this year.  I'm pretty sure a couple of them are like Vivi talking and walking.  Oh, and being toilet trained.  That is my number one wish.  Cross your fingers for us!

Vivi standing up. And falling down.

Sadly, this video doesn't really reflect how well she can stand up.  She's gotten to the point where she can stand on her own for a while, and after she thinks we aren't paying attention anymore she'll slowly crouch down and then fall onto her butt.  I mean bum.

She's eating lots more food now than before.  She'll eat two 4 oz jars of food in one sitting.  I personally don't think I could get past one spoonful of anything other than the applesauce flavors.  I still can't believe I ever let myself try the chicken flavor.  : p

With the semester almost over I've taken some time to reflect on everything that has happened this semester. Actually, I didn't really take time to reflect, mostly I'm just trying to remember stuff without having to walk all the way to my room and grab my journal.  Anyway, in addition to Vivi's incredible development (in everything except her size and weight) Teresa and I have had a very full semester.  My day started at about 6:40 every morning so that I could be ready by 6:50 and at campus by 7:00 for my Spanish class.  While I can't honestly say that I feel I've learned a significant amount of spanish, I can say that after sprinting to class Monday through Friday for three months has got me into pretty good running shape.  I ran a 5K over Thanksgiving and was able to run just over seven-and-a-half minute miles with energy to spare. Which was good, because last year I didn't have as much energy when I tried to run that race, and the result was not pleasant.

Anyway, thats all.  I can't think of a  good way to end a blog post.  I mean, its not like I can promise I'll write later. I think this is my first real entry.  No promises on this being a habit.

Vivi likes her high chair.  Also, she doesn't like squash.  

In other Vivi news, she has been babbling "baa" mostly, so we're going to stop letting her watch lambchops until she's saying "mama" and "daddy is awesome."  Also, Vivi likes Taylor Swift.

Vivi sits up

Here is a video of Vivi sitting up and playing with her spoon.