End of the Long Road

Yay! It's finally finished! Thad graduated Friday morning at 8 am at the Tabernacle in Provo. The Ceremony was pretty short, which Andi much appreciated, and afterwards we had a BBQ at our place with all the fam in town and had a great time. We've enjoyed our time here at school but are very glad to be done and to be going home again.


Friday night we headed up to Heber for Grandpa Richards 90th B-day celebration. All 11 kids were there, with some of the grandkids, all together about 50 people. Thad and I have been married for over 3 years, but I was still meeting people I'd never met before ;)
Well, this post is a farewell for a few weeks till we can find a place to live and get settled. We are leaving for Bakersfield Wednesday and will begin the hunt then. I assume it's not going to take too long considering Thad agreed no fishing trips till we have a place to live. So he'll be pretty motivated ;) Thad starts work on the 7th of May. Wish us luck!

Smarty Pants

Well, Andi may not say much, but she definitely understands and has her own way of communicating. This week we discovered a few new tricks she had up her sleeve. When she sees something she wants to eat/drink she points and very loudly "mmmmm" s as in "yummmm". So she was doing that at dinner this week and we figured out she was after the juice, and being the lazy parents we are, we told her to go get her sippy cup. She wandered off and we thought "ya, right, she's going to get her cup." But she did! So now we tell her to bring us all sorts of things and for the most part she does.
Now that my table and chairs are finished I have not been able to resist the packing bug. So little by little we are getting there. It's amazing how much I find to pack that we just don't use very often, or like ever, and then I start thinking maybe I should toss it. But I probably won't.

yes, she is wearing Thad's ski goggles.

15 months

So, Andi had her 15 month check up yesterday. And we discovered she now recognizes the Dr and has learned to fear him. The minute he walked in she started clinging to me for dear life. When I put her on the table she started screaming, she just knew they were going to swab her throat or poke her legs. Poor girl! But it was weird to see her act like that because up until yesterday she would try to play with the Dr's instruments and take the tongue depressors from him. She wasn't afraid at all, but I guess now she remembers her past visits ;)
The stats: She is 87th percentile for height, 63rd for weight, but off the charts with her big head. So she's tall, skinny, and has a huge noggin. She is ahead of development as far as motor skills and activity go, but behind in the verbal. She is supposed to have a vocabulary of 10-15 words and all I hear all day is daddy, daddy, daddy. I know she understands a lot more, because she follows commands and stuff, but that's all she will say.
Anyway, today is Thads last day of class! Finals start Friday and he only has 4 left. He took one last night, so this really is the end! I finished the table and chairs and have now begun packing some things that I can get away with. I can't believe we are moving in two weeks.

Dancin

Andi loves to dance. She spasses out like this every time she hears music she likes. Enjoy!

Make an on-line slide show at onetruemedia.com

Easter

So I know this was technically Andi's second easter, but it really was the fist she was aware of. She helped dye eggs, which to her meant throw them around the kitchen and hope they land in the dye cup. Needless to say hers were pretty cracked ;)
As far as finding the eggs went, she liked busting open the plastic eggs more than finding eggs. So we still have jelly beans in the grass that I need to clean up. But here is a pic from easter morning. I finally had an excuse to wear one of the bridesmaid dresses again .

projects

So you all know I'm a little ocd, and since we decided when/where we would be moving to I have had the almost uncontrolable urge to start packing. I packed up everything I could in the basement, but since we still have several weeks here Thad won't let me pack up anything upstairs. I was really having a hard time restraining myself, so I decided I needed a project to keep my mind off of packing. So I started refinishing our dinning table and chairs. For those of you who don't know, we bought the set off this old man who was moving back to Brazil. It's super old, and had the weirdest finish, but we were poor students and it was cheap. I was planning on leaving it in Provo, but Thad got all sentimental about it and wanted to keep it b/c it was the first peice of furniture we bought together. Anyway, so I have one chair totally done, one halfway done and the table leaf done. Here are the before and afters.

Before After

You can totally tell it's a homeade job, but I think it looks a ton better.

Oh, so we have stray cats in the lot behond our house all the time. Thad likes to shoot them with his pellet gun. Anyway, there has been this one cat in the shed lately and everytime Thad goes in there to get something it attacks him! Usually they run away, but the cat hisses at him and growls and all sorts of crazy things and he has to throw whatever he can at it to get it to go away. Turns out, the dumb cat has kittens hiding behind some stuff in a corner of the shed. They are only a couple weeks old so we don't want to move them, but Thad is getting really tired of being attacked by the mommy cat ;)

your attention please . . .

We have an announcement that I, first, never thought I'd be making, and second, never thought I'd be happy about making. But I am on both accounts. We are moving back to Bakersfield the first week of May. Thad accepted a job offer there yesterday so it is official. And now I have a month to get things organized and ready to go. It was really hard to make a decision about this because we really have never had anything this big to think about. I mean leaving Provo changes everything. We are no longer poor college students so we have to think about saving money for a down payment on a house, and mortgage payments, and car payments(I need a new one), and 401K's, and school districts, and a million real world things that we have not had to deal with yet. Wish us luck ;)
Here is my new favorite picture of Andi.

Say what now?

Andi is trying desperately to talk now. Most of the time she really thinks she is talking, and she gets mad at me for not understanding. She just babbles and looks at me like, "why are you not doing what I told you!?" Last week I was talking to a friend at our house and Andi just kept babbling. I tried to talk over her, but if I got louder she would get louder. She finally climbed up on the couch and yelled in my face until I stopped talking and listened to whatever it was she was trying to say. She's kinda pushy.
Her hair is getting longer finally and she can now wear pig tails. Although, for the most part it looks like she has a mullet. That hair in front just won't grow!


So Thad has one job offer in CA, and is flying back to Northern CA tonight for an interview with a different company. The offer he got last weekend had some pretty sweet perks including 2 weeks paid vaca effective immediately. Some of the other Co's he's talked to you have to wait a year to get any vaca time. And since I am all about play time I like the Co from last weekend ;) But we'll see what the next 2 have to offer.

distractions welcome

Patience is a virtue I do not have. We are still 2 months away from moving, and I do not even know where we will be moving to, but I am having the hardest time fighting the urge to pack! I mean, I know we are leaving, so why can't we just pack up and leave instead of having to sit around for the next two months talking about leaving. I think the real issue is that we have been talking about moving forever, and now that it is so close I just want it to happen now. Time moves so slowly when something big is in the near future. Until then I spend as much time as Andi will allow on the computer looking up housing and cars and planning even though I can't really plan. I just can't help myself. I'm a little ocd.
I have no cute Andi pictures for this post because she is asleep and I am in the living room on the laptop that does not have any pictures on it. But she is getting weirder/funnier every day. She loves baths and recently learned how to make the water come out of the shower head. So she stands there in the tub switching it back and forth and screaming and laughing every time it starts dumping on her head. She also has this book that apparently is her favorite. She brings it to me every 5 minutes to read to her. Yesterday she brought it to me while I was on the phone and got tired of waiting for me, so she started flipping through the book babbling and pointing at the pictures like she was reading to herself.
Thad is gone again tonight at dinner with some company that is recruiting his whole competition team. I'll be glad when the recruiting/interviewing process is over and he's not gone so much. I get bored to easily.

The Great Outdoors

Okay, most of you will probably think I am a horrible parent for saying this, but the funniest thing happened yesterday! We took Andi to the park because it was a beautiful day(we are being hazed lately, 60 degrees one day, and 6 inches of snow the next, lame.) Anyway, a couple of the ward people were there with their dogs. One is a pug, Spanky, that Andi chases around and Spanky is used to her. The other was a big ol Lab puppy who was really high strung. Well Andi decided the lab was more entertaining than Spanky and kept following it around, but being a high strung puppy it was running around like crazy. So the dogs owner calls for it and it turns around and runs, flying by Andi and missing her by maybe an inch. Seriously, you could see her hair wave by the breeze the dog created. Anyway, she thought that was pretty funny and went after the dog just in time for him to turn around and body slam her. She was of course really upset so that was the end of the park, but we got in all on video ;)

So here are a few pics of Andi playing outside with Thad.

We have discovered that Andi really, truly, hates dresses. I used to think that it was just because it got in the way of her crawling, but now that she is walking and still gets mad when I put one on her, I have to admit. She hates them.

Oh, and the computer is her favorite toy. We've had to start shutting her out of her own room because we find her like this ALL the time!

In other news, Thad is home this weekend, but flying to Cali the next two for interviews. So Andi and I get ditched again! But we are going to Bako the week he is going to be in Texas. A week is just too long to get ditched like that.

days go by

First off, Andi would like to thank her Uncle Walter & Aunt Stef for the fabulous outfit she is wearing in this picture. She fits into it now and I realized when I was dressing her that she needed a jacket to wear with it, and since none of her jackets would look good with it, we had to go buy her a really cute denim jacket. She really is more stylish than I am these days.


And this picture is really how we find her sleeping lately. Legs hanging out the bars and everything. Which means we will never buy her a daybed because she will kick the bars out the back of it like I used to do ;)


Things are starting to get back to normal around here. Work will be calming down for me after this weekend because I will have most of our fall/winter vacancies filled. Who knew people looked for fall housing in January? Thad is almost caught up with his school work from being gone last week and is scheduling interviews with the companies he talked to at the competition. He is also interviewing people to take over our jobs for the Schanks. So he is busy, but looking forward to having something decided as to post-grad employment.

hail the conquering hero

Thad is home! It has been a long 4 days. But it seems that it was worth it. Thad's team took 1st place for the heavy civil division, and 4 other BYU teams took 1st's in their divisions. The recruiters were all very impressed and anxious to be talking to the BYU guys. I wasn't wild about this competition thing before, but it turns out that it is quite the bargaining chip now for job offers. The companies know who Thad is and a bunch offered to fly him out(to their offices) for interviews in the next couple of weeks. Now Thad just has decide who he wants to talk to. The only downside to the winning is that he now has to go to Nationals in Texas mid-march. And with flying different places on weekends for interviews I'm gonna get ditched a lot in the near future. oh well, it's worth it if Thad finds a job with a co he really likes.

Fraggle Rock

Does anyone remember that show fraggle rock? Well, And i's hair is getting long in the front and gets in her eyes all day long. And of course she waits till she has food on her hands to wipe it out of the way, so he hair always has something in it. We have cute little clips, but she yanks those out after 2.3 seconds so they do no good. So I finally found some tiny rubber bands to pull her hair up with, and now she looks like a fraggle. But at least her hair is out of her eyes and clean.
Earlier this week after a grocery store run I realized that Andi has been walking for a while now and there is no real reason I have to carry her to and from the car. So I took her out of her seat and stood her in the carport and she ran straight for the snow. I hadn't realized that she has never walked around outside by herself before. It's been so cold and snowy since she started walking that she hasn't been able too. But she really liked it.

We have survived day one without Thad. Andi and I usually get in fights around dinner time because she's still a bit picky about what and when she wants to eat for dinner, but we did not need a referee last night and had a good day. But I will be glad when he gets back. It's almost 11 and I'm still in Pj's, Andi just has too much for me to do this morning ;)

The Fashion Plate

So this last week Andi has really become interested in her clothes. I came in to get her from a nap a few days ago and found her like this. She had pulled her socks and pants off and was playing with them.And almost everyday no matter what she is wearing she brings me her yellow sweat jacket so I can put it on her. This morning I haven't even gotten her dressed yet, she's still in PJ's but is wearing her jacket because she brought it to me and stuck her arms out waiting for me to put it on her. Thad is leaving Wednesday at 4 am for the CM competition in Reno and doesn't get back till Saturday night. So if you are bored please call me or e-mail or something cos I'll be bored.

the hunt is on

It has begun. Thad had his first job interview today, and has another one on Thursday. The guy he talked to today was up in Heber and they build ginormo homes in Park City. And he tried to hire Thad on the spot. . . as in start full time tomorrow. But Thad reminded him he was still in school and had another job commitment, but the guy was really bent on hiring him so asked him how many hours a week he could possibly give him while still in school. So the guy said he'd call again in a week. Anyway, it seems right up Thad's alley as far as smaller company that rewards for hard work and ability to move up the ranks quickly. Only catch is we'd be living in Heber!
After this summer with Kiewit Thad really is looking for a small company and I'm thinking that means we are going to get stuck in Utah. I mean, how many out of state "small companies" are going to send recruiters to BYU or the CM competition in Reno? but hey, Heber is better than mountain view, WY. . . Target, Costco, the mall, all within a 30 min drive back to Provo. I have been anxiously awaiting the interview/job hunt time but now that it's here it's a huge decision to make and I'm a little stressed about it. But I am very excited at the same time.

so much to say

First of all I need to rant and rave about Costco for a minute. I am so tired of them randomly not carrying things! Last week I went to get the Orange Chicken that I have come to love because we were having a little oriental night with our neighbors. So I go and it's not there. Then I went to get regular chicken this week, and for a while they were carrying a different kind that I liked better and it's gone now too. Oh, and so is my favorite yogurt! Stupid Costco! Anyway, this week became very insane on Wednesday. I had no idea students started looking for spring/summer and fall/winter contracts in January. Well apparently they do because starting Wednesday my phone has been ringing off the hook! And today I showed 10 places. and I have appointments all week to show places and appointments to sign contracts and the phone keeps ringing. I finally stopped answering it this afternoon because I needed a break and within an hour I have 3 new messages. It's nuts. Andi is really becoming quite a character. She is constantly playing hide and go seek around the house, and has learned how to get behind things now to hide. She also likes the throw everything she can get her hands on in the bathtub or toilet. And she is very quick to find toys and stuffed animals at the store. . . any store. . . every store. right now she is hiding behind her laundry bag giggling. She thinks Thad is chasing her, but really he's lying on the living room floor calling her and pretending he's going to find her.
Thad has his first job interview Tuesday. It's with a co in Midway that builds "high end luxury homes" in park city. The guy called him out of the blue Friday so he is going to go check it out. See, I told you. The minute I started getting excited about getting out of Utah he's gonna get a job here. I want to say thank you to all of you who helped in my bangs/no bangs dilemma. Here is a pick of the new hair cut.

another day

It is always something with Andi. Now that we have her ears under control with tubes she gets tonsillitis. She comes by it rightfully though, I had my tonsils out when I was 5. And it looks like she will be following in mommy's footsteps. The way things are going she's gonna get my bad eyes, bad skin, bad curly-fro hair, and hey why not my asthma too. Poor girl. If she gets Thad's metabolism though, I think it will balance out because she'll never have to worry about being fat ;)


This pic is from yesterday, and I promise she climbed in that basket herself. She sat there and played for quite a while and then moved on to play behind that table. weirdo. Oh, and yesterday she decided is would be fun to drag the trash bag around the house before Thad took it outside.
We have been trying to get her to drink Milk instead of formula now, but for some reason she won't take it. She drinks strawberry lemon aid and anything else Thad tries to give her, but don't even think about milk, that's way too weird! Although it is whole milk, so I kinda don't blame her, that stuff is nasty. But I don't see how it's much worse than her fake milk formula. Any moms out there with advice?

More Firsts

Andi has had a couple more firsts this weekend. First of all she went sledding for the first time. We went to rock canyon park which is 2 minuted from our house and we'd never been, but it is an awesome sledding bowl! And she loved it. She actually like being pulled back up the hill better than sliding down it. But it was fun.

She also tried feeding herself with a spoon for the first time tonight. Obviously she didn't do very well, but she knew what she was supposed to do, just couldn't keep the food on the spoon long enough to get it in her mouth.
Unfortunately she has also learned to climb on the coffee table with no help. At first it wasn't bad because she would crawl around and then slide off on her tummy feet first. But now she stands on it and tries to walk off. I even let her fall a couple of times hoping she'd learn her lesson, but as soon as she stopped crying she climbed right back up. So I think the coffee table might go to the basement for a little while till she understands that she can't be on it.

1 year old!

Andi turned one yesterday! We had a little party for her with Michael &Cari & little Tino. I made Andi her own cake to destroy, and she did pretty well with it. For a complete play by play of the demolition check out Thad's website. www.et.byu.edu/~tsb43
She has also decided this week that she will now be a picky eater. We started feeding her the "graduates" dinners that are basically normal people food, and she won't eat it! We've had quite the battle the last few nights trying to get her to eat. She usually wins, but only because she has Thad on her team who gives in and makes her a sandwich or bottle.
I am taking her to play group this week for the first time. She loves running around with the other little kids at church so it should be fun.
Other than that we are just settling into to the new semester routine, and everything is going well.

Terrible what? . . . and pictures

So I really think that the fever Andi had with this last ear infection has melted her brain a little, or that whoever came up with the "terrible two's" seriously misspoke just to coin a phrase. Since we have been back she has started doing all kinds of weird things. First off she screams, and not in the "check out this cool new noise I can make" way either. It's a banshee wailing scream that is accompanied by flailing and rolling around on the ground. She has done this twice in the last week and the first time she did it I was actually afraid there was something wrong with her. Then I realized it was a tantrum and laughed at her. She is such a drama queen!
Secondly she makes these weird faces all the time. And will make them on command. If you make them at, her she will do it right back. And she knows it's funny because she laughs while she's doing it. Also she has discovered chocolate in all it's fabulous varieties. We had to put the candy dish away because she would yell and point at it whenever she caught a glimpse. I made brownies the other night and when they were sitting on top of the stove she yelled and pounded on the oven till we gave her some brownie. At lease we know where she gets this ;)
While she still doesn't say anything but daddy she has learned to point at whatever she wants, or wherever she wants to go, so she is communicating with us pretty effectively these days.
As for Thad and I we mostly just sit and laugh at her. Thad started school today. I know he wasn't looking forward to classes today, but I woke up in the best mood because it is his last semester. I have been very cheerful all day and just keep thinking how quickly the semester will go by and how soon we might be done with Provo! Of course now that I've said it out loud the semester will drag by and he will get a job in Provo and we'll be stuck here forever, just watch.
Anyway I promised Christmas pictures so here are a few.