Lucie-isms and Life Update

life update as taken from a letter to our missionary written:   1/15/23
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Dear Elder G. (aka "Our Favorite Missionary in the World"),

First off, I'll start off with the barrage of questions.....
{boring, boring, boring}

Second off, I'm a little upset that you haven't called back your Portland weather yet!   Seriously, it's been raining/snowing every day for weeks and I am officially ready for Spring (only 2 months and 2 days according to Alexa).   😞  Next time someone here talks about a drought I'm going to loudly guffaw and say, "Drought.  Shprout.  Have you been outside lately, you little lout?"   I think it's going to go over very well and win me lots of friends.   

Speaking of friends, I Facebook stalked your companion and see that he's friends with my cousin's daughter.   Is he from Pleasant Grove?   Or does he know her from college?  And if you haven't answered me yet....how is everything going with your comp?

Speaking of comps, I am very happy to have a couple extra comps hanging out with us this week.  It's been so fun to have Cami and Lucie here.   Lucie has been a little on the grumpy side the last couple of days, but you will not be surprised to learn that she's still an adorable companion, even when she's grumpy.   This picture includes Jack K. (Katy's son, who is about 9 months old).

For your information, Lucie says exactly three words:
1. "Hi," which she uses with a wave whenever she sees someone/something with a face (including stuffed animals, dogs, snowmen ornaments, and people sitting behind us at church).  
2. "Doggy," which sounds like doodoo.   She is quite enamored with both Rocky and Denali and loves to softly pet them or beep their noses.  We are keeping her away from Kiwi, but she loves to wave at her from a distance (usually through the closed gate which we got for the top of the stairs).
3. "No," which she actually doesn't use super often, but also usually shakes her head to show that she means it. 

She also signs, "more," "water," "thank you," all done," "hot," and "milk."   In other words, she's quite good at communicating what she wants and quite good at wrapping the whole world around her fingers with her adorableness.😍  

She still isn't quite walking yet, though she can walk along furniture and crawl up the stairs now.  We've been working on teaching her to go DOWN the stairs safely and she's starting to get it! 

 Speaking of Lucie,  you've probably noticed that ALL the pictures for this week will include her!  😆

We took Lucie over to meet Denali's siblings today. 

There are 8 of them and she wasn't quite sure what she thought of them and their up-close-and-personal greetings.   

Sadly, most of the family was gone and we didn't get our dose of Natalie love while we were there. 

Puppy love was nice though...until one nibbled Lucie's ear.  

Here's hoping she sleeps well tonight, because the construction zone behind us seems to keep her up during the day.   Speaking of construction zones, the house behind us is going up warpspeed now that they've hired people to come work on it.  Every once in a while, we'll see the owner out there hobbling around (last week he was hobbling ON THE ROOF without a rope)😱, but we are glad there's action finally starting to happen there and have hopes that it will actually be completed before 2030 now. 

Alright, I guess I've sent you like 47 gigs of photos and told you all about Lucie.  What else is happening?  

Precious little.  

I'm still mostly staying home and trying to spend as much time as possible with Cam and the Goose (which is what Cami calls Lucie).  I've also finally found a way to share the Come Follow Me activity pages.   It's not very many people, but at least they won't be sitting there doing  nothing anymore.  

I hope the transition to Beaverton and your new comp is going well!  I can't wait to be able to talk to you later.   I LOVE YOU and am so proud of you!!!

Love,
Mom

PS  Here's a spiritual thought that came from Elder Christofferson's talk, "The Doctrine of Belonging."  "Thus, the doctrine of belonging comes down to this—each one of us can affirm: Jesus Christ died for me; He thought me worthy of His blood. He loves me and can make all the difference in my life. As I repent, His grace will transform me. I am one with Him in the gospel covenant; I belong in His Church and kingdom; and I belong in His cause to bring redemption to all of God’s children."

Sick Brain

 LETTER WRITTEN TO OUR MISSIONARY 1/2/22
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Hola Hermana!

Only one week and one day until you come home! Hopefully you'll feel better and we'll all feel better by then. Dad, Ellie, Kristina, and I have all developed fevers and feel pretty much like garbage. Dad got it first, so we did have Dad tested for COVID, but we haven't heard yet. If Dad tests positive, then I'll probably get us all in to get tested, just to make sure. It would be super random if we all got COVID the same week and we aren't even together. I hope you're feeling totally better now and that quarantine hasn't been too bad!   😷

NEWS FLASH:  A puppy in the best of  circumstances is stressful, but a new puppy with 7 extra people in the house and most of us feeling like crap is totally knocking our socks off.   She is terrible at sleeping at night, not very good at housetraining, and super energetic...not good combinations when you have a houseful of sickies that need lots of sleep and don't have the energy to keep an eye on a hyperactive puppy 24/7.  Hopefully we'll get this puppy training thing figured out soon. 🐶

Speaking of the extra people in the house, I am totally exhausted.  The K boys are sweethearts, but they  also make ginormous messes. Their flight home today ended up getting canceled, so they rented a car and drove home this afternoon instead.  Of course, with the aforementioned new puppy, the holidays, and the extra guests,  the house is a total wreck and my energy level is almost zero, so here's hoping we'll actually get it cleaned up before you get home. 😫

  

I don't have anything significant to say and my brain isn't really working very well right now, so I'll finish up with a few of my favorite pictures of Lucie from this week.  

And here's a random meme that struck me as particularly funny this week.   Like laugh out loud funny...yeah I  know I'm weird. 

And to finish off this bit of randomness that is my feverish brain...here is a hair-do I attempted on Ellie this week. 

We love you and can't wait to see you next week!   Hope you're feeling better!  😘💕

Love, 

Mom 💗💕💖💗💓

November Life {via a letter written to our missionary}

 11/7/21 (letter written to our missionary)

Dear Emma, 

Oh man!  It's the first night of Daylight Savings Time and I'm STILL getting off to a past 10:00pm starting time on your letter.   

BUT...I have a good excuse....I've been working on the Christmas card for this year.   haha   

Actually though...it's true and I'm very excited about it.   

I'm still working with the Etsy artist who did the portrait to get Adam's and Cami's hair color adjusted, but overall I'm very happy about it.   I think the likenesses for Dad and I are the least life-like, but overall I'm thrilled that we'll have a picture together in a year that we can't actually be together.  

Right now the plan is to get it printed sooner rather than later, so I can beat the Christmas rush.  Then I'll wait to send it out until Lucie is born, so I can include information about her arrival in the letter.   Speaking of Lucie's arrival.....IT'S GETTING SO CLOSE!!!!! I'm rather excited about it!    Ellie's disappointed that I commissioned this  before we knew about Denali, but I plan on adding something about her in the letter too.   We shall see!  

Here's a close-up of the tag I created for the portrait.  You know just in case you always wanted a digital version of your tag.  

On a completely different note, here's a gorgeous sunrise we saw this past week.  The Alpine City Cemetery is about a 5 minute walk from our house and I am enamored with the view from atop the hill there (where this picture was taken).  

On another another note, my mom gave me this picture that I drew when I was 10-years old.   It was funny, because as soon as I saw it I remembered the book where I drew my inspiration from.  Here is my picture next to my inspiration!  I know, I know.  It's amazing and everyone should be jealous of my mad art skillz. 

I'm just going with random thoughts tonight...

Here's the latest picture of Denali.  She's quadruple her birth weight, is walking around now, and is all around pretty darn adorable.   

We finally celebrated Adam's birthday this weekend.  We took him out for dinner (he picked Pad Thai for his birthday meal), watched the new Marvel movie (it was okay), and found our new Utah ice cream (Brookers Founding Flavors)!  

Also, check out the bros' matching outfits!  Spence wouldn't allow me to take a "real" photo of them, but I thought this one captured their matchedness pretty well.  Both Spence and Adam were quick to inform us that their similar attire was definitely just a serendipitous coincidence, because, you know, matching on purpose is for wusses and their mom. 

Here is the birthday cake Ellie made for Adam.  Garbanzo bean chocolate cake with raspberry frosting and chocolate ganache between the layers.  YUM!!!

Alright, I promised Dad I would be ready for bed by 11:00pm, so I guess I should check out for now.  I hope you had an amazing week!   WE LOVE YOU!!!! 

Love, 
yo momma 

Best Day of Ellie's Life

Ellie has always had a soft spot for anything cute and cuddly.  She's Rocky's biggest champion and is drawn to animals wherever we go. She animals of all kinds (cats, rabbits, llamas, alpacas, guinea pigs, etc), but her favorite has always been dogs.   When she was young, she was known to stop dog owners in parks to chat them up about their dogs, while she played and loved on their pets while they chatted.  She has "Must love dogs" on her list of required traits for a future spouse and has dreams of owning several someday. 

That's why when my good friend, Natalie, announced on Facebook that her sweet poodle mama had just had puppies, I knew we needed to invite ourselves over for a visit.   Luckily they were born right before Fall Break, which meant that we had plenty of open time  for a visit when they were just 2 days old.  

Mia {the dog mom} had just given birth to 11 goldendoodle puppies and it was seriously such a cool experience to be there and watch her gently caring for her large litter.  

Their eyes weren't open yet and they mostly just squeaked and writhed around looking for milk, but they were adorable and so fun to watch.  Ellie was enamored and very much enjoyed giving those sweet teeny little pups lots of love and snuggles.  Not even a pound each yet, they were so tiny they fit into the palms of our hands. 

Natalie's daughters {and a friend} joined the fun and we were having a certifiable puppy snuggling party!  We enjoyed learning all about the process of responsible puppy breeding and what it takes to properly care for a litter of new puppies.  They literally watch them 24/7 the first couple weeks--taking turns staying up all night with them. They also weigh each one of them a couple times a day to make sure they are all thriving and take time to perform some neurological stimulation exercises with them each day as well.   It really was a highlight of fall break for Ellie! 

I should have known this would happen, but as soon as we left Natalie's house that day, I got a full court press that we needed to adopt one of the new puppies.  And it didn't just come from Ellie.  It also came from Cami and then from Glen as well.  

Eventually I said, "yes." 

Here are a few of the reasons I changed my mind {I'm including this here for some future day when I'm overwhelmed with doggy responsibilities and I question my past sanity}:

1.  Rocky is 13-years-old...and the average age that puggles live to is 10-15, which means our time left with him is likely somewhat short.  He is also deaf and sleeps 20+ hours a day.

2. Ellie really really really loves animals 

3.  Ellie is the lone child left at home

4. We are new to the area {again} and still feeling pretty lonely

5. The puppies were responsibly bred and are being very well-cared for

6. Goldendoodles don't shed and aren't normally as high energy as the breeds of Rocky or Kiwi

7.  I read a study about benefits of pet ownership on people's physical and mental health. 

8.  I think I will enjoy having a dog in the house when the kids are all gone 

Soooooooo....I hope I don't regret it, but here's Denali.....

She's now two weeks old and growing soooo fast.  Denali just opened her eyes this week, which adds some depth to her personality. 

 She's snuggly and calm so far and is supposed to end up about 25 pounds.   We'll get to take her home around Christmastime and in the meantime, Ellie is determined to visit and snuggle her as often as possible.  

So what was the best day of Ellie's life?   

First it was meeting the 2 day old puppies for the first time.  Then it was me eventually saying, "yes," to keeping one.  The next best day will be the day we bring her home!   💓💓💓