Tuesday Tid Bits 04/15/14

Jude

- Had his first zoo trip. His favorites were the monkeys, which is very appropriate because he looks like a little monkey himself and has lately been just as busy as one. He gets in moods where he will wiggle just to wiggle, a great workout for anyone trying to hold him.

- Started playing the game where if you do something like shake your head he will go back and forth imitating you.  

- Was a celebrity at church as always. 

- LOVES his snuggle and play time with Grandma and Grandpa Fender. And I LOVE to be a spectator!  It’s so rewarding as a mother to see my child build a relationship with my parents. 

              

            I can't upload all my pictures/videos from my camera so we only have those from my not-so-nice phone right now.

Arianna & Michael

- Discovered the perfect date for moms and dads who aren’t up to going out for date night and are more in the mood for just hanging out in bed. Michael and I got onto Google Earth and gave each other tours of some of our favorite places we have traveled. Google Earth is so cool because you can quite literally walk the streets of wherever in the world you want and snuggle your husband all the while! He showed me some of his favorite and not-so-favorite places he served his mission giving commentary like, “And that was THE BEST pizza restaurant, we would go there all the time!”

I showed him my favorite spots in New England including Sleepy Hollow, NJ where my mother and I wondered an old cemetery on a perfectly foggy and spooky fall day. We also walked the streets that my little brother is currently roaming in Fukuoka Japan. Afterwards we felt like we had gone on a mini trip and had come to know each other and the things we had experienced before “us” a lot better.

- Michael got awarded Employee of the Month. He works at a large health care facility as the HR Manager. He gets nominated all the time but because he is in charge of giving the award in the staff meeting he never chooses himself. So this time around they surprised him by making him read a sheet of facts like, ‘This person is always kind and optimistic and has a genuine concern for others etc.”, thinking he was describing someone else. After he was done they told him that it was him. 

Less then 6 months into his employment with Rocky Mountain Care he received the Legendary Employee Award, which is only given annually. My man is on fire!

 
- We had a great weekend together which involved exploring an old cemetery in SLC complete with spooky crypts and deer snuggled up against head stones, driving through our dream neighborhoods and choosing our favorite old houses, and going on sunshiny walks. 

-   - Michael made Jude and I animal pancakes like my daddy used to do for me on Saturday mornings growing up. Here is his rendition of a giraffe. :)

Tuesday Tid Bits 04.08.14

Jude

- Jude has never been a worse sleeper. Mikey and I are sporting some nice bags underneath our eyes as a result. He has always been great at sleeping (we’ve used the Baby Wise schedule) so this past week we’ve had a wake up call (pun intended) for how spoiled we have been. I’m assuming it is teething. He got his first two teeth over a month ago so he is probably due for some more. He loves getting his teeth brushed. I say, “Ahhhh zebenya benizenama” (there is probably a 99% chance you sing it differently) and he opens his mouth up wide for a good scrub, smiling all the while.

- Many know that Jude has been coughing for attention for months now. He learned dangerously early on how to ‘work it’ to get attention. Right now he just thinks it is funny and it makes him smile when I react to his coughs but I am trying to get out of the habit of giving him too much attention when he does it because I don’t want him to be one of those kids that constantly says, “Moooom, I’m siiiick.”

- Jude had his first little fever. Mamma hit the books on how best to treat it and we kicked it to the curb quickly. Likely another sign of teething.

- Jude and mom have been starting each day off with some Michael Jackson and dancing in the kitchen. Your day cannot go wrong when it is begun with the King of Pop, folks. Man he is good.

Arianna & Michael
- I mixed melted chocolate with some of Jude’s baby food and (no, I did not feed it to him!) put it in one of his diapers. I then placed it in Michael’s underwear drawer and waited in anticipation for him to find it as he exclaimed, “Oh, what the heck?” T’was a classless April Fools joke.

- Last night I went to a Cardio Barre class with one of my girlfriends, Mallory. It is a ballet infused cardio workout and it is owie. However it feels good to exercise so much self-discipline that you wake up hurting head to toe the next day (OK, let’s be honest, I was hurting the second I left the class).

- We had a family movie night on the living room floor and our little Juders passed out between the mamma and daddy. We had a good family sandwich snuggle.

- We were naughty and went on a milk shake run late last night. We sat in the car as we talked and ate them and Jude snoozed in the backseat. 

- We spent time with our friends Camille and Dustin Wiggins last Thursday. We ate homemade sushi and ended the night with live violin music courtesy of Camille and a not-so-authentic/interpretation of an Irish jig by Michael. Haha The following night we joined Kamille and Brandon Bonnet for some yummy Belgium waffles.

- As always, Arianna has a big crush on Michael.

Tuesday Tid Bits - 04/01/14

In effort to be better about documenting our little Jude and our family, I have decided to set aside time each Tuesday for little updates. While these will mainly be for us to look back on, we of coarse want to share them with those friends and family who care to keep updated also. Here’s to hoping I can keep this up! Michael and I are grateful for you and your support and love. 

Jude
- When I nurse Jude in the early morning (5 am to be exact) he will reach his little hand up and play with my lips while I am trying to sleep. He thinks the sound they make is entertaining.

- There is something about grandpa Fender’s nose that is irresistible. Whenever grandpa holds him, Jude opens his mouth and goes right after it to give it a nice bite. He consistently does this with grandpa but nobody else.

- He gives the BEST hugs! He buries his little head in the crook of your neck, throws his arms around your shoulders and squeezes. He gives these to his mom and dad and most recently his grandparents.

- He has started various foods but mostly just eats to humor me. Still prefers mamma’s milk over all and I completely don’t mind. I love that time with him. However, nursing 6 times a day and feeding him 3 meals is a lot of work! I was fine to wait as late as I could to start feeding him solids. haha

- At our 6 month check-up the pediatrician told us he is average in height but lean (we never got the baby rolls, his legs are actually quite muscly). He is healthy and she told us he is a very beautiful, happy baby (which we already knew but is nice to hear from someone who looks at babies all day long:).

Arianna
- Taught a contemporary class for the past couple weeks. It feels so good to choreograph and move like that again. My soul is happy, my body hurts, life is good.

- Started on completing the Personal Progress program again in Young Women’s and finished my first value. I told Michael he has to buy me something pretty if I finish the whole thing. :) I’ve wanted to do this again for a while and since having received a calling as a Mia Maids advisor I felt now was a great time to start! My goal is to finish it by next year. This year my main focus is on reading the entire Standard Works (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price). 650 pages down, so far so good.

- Woke up the other morning to find a TON of ants gathering in the kitchen. I decided I would vacuum them up because I didn’t know what else to do with so many. As I started to do so the vacuum just spit them right back out, spraying them everywhere including right up my pants. So I’ll go ahead and say it: I had ants in my pants. Which led to ant bites. That was terrible. And I don’t think I deserved that being that I clean those floors practically daily. 

Michael

- Was surprised to get a calling to teach the 11 year-old boys. He had been teaching elder's quorum (incredible teacher). Michael has a gift for story telling, especially telling the stories in the scriptures, which he has a profound knowledge of. He will no doubt help instill in those boys a love for the scriptures also.

- He is on a sweet potato kick. Though Jude is not, he hates sweet potatoes.

- Working on starting his Administrator’s License.

- Consistently the best husband and father ever. If anyone ever wonders what the secret to happiness is, we could take Michael as a great case study (I think we could all agree he is one of the happier people we’ve ever met). The answer is this: be kind, put others first, focus on the good and never the bad. Not a single, single day goes by where I don’t think to myself “Dang Arianna, you are a lucky girl.”

* Elder Fender

- Alex is now working in the Mission Office and is a District Leader. He works really hard each day to get his office duties done so he can go out and proselyte.