New Zealand to Utah

No I didn't go to New Zealand, but my niece Raven and her friend Erana came from New Zealand to America on Holiday. I had never met Raven before and she is actually the first of her family that I have met. Her mother is Clark's oldest sister Keaka...and I still can't wait to meet her. I was so excited for them to come, but little did I know how much fun I would have with them and how closely I would bond with them. They are truly amazing women and I'm starting to think I'd like to raise my family in New Zealand because they sure know how to do something right.

I don't want to forget a second of our time together, so this might get a little lengthy. They first arrived in California, but eventually made it up to Utah. They got here on Friday April 1st, and I kept telling Clark that we had to see them right away. I had cleaned the house and got all ready because I was so excited. We didn't get to see them immediately, but eventually we went up to Clark's brother Marcus' house to see them. They were with Clark's mom and sister Mattie. Raven opened the door looking beautiful as ever. Then they introduced me to Erana...it's a Maori name and you roll the R so after they told me her name I was like "what?" But I soon got it. I would go to bed at night saying her name because I wanted to make sure that I was saying it right...I didn't want to be one of those white Americans who can't say cool Maori names.

Raven gave Clark and I a package full of New Zealand Lollies and loot. I still love to look at the stuff and we now have cool Kiwi magnets on our fridge that Macy loves to point and squeal at. All of their candy is so yummy and it's funny how they have different stuff there than we do. I always just pictured it like Hawaii, but I've come to learn that it is quite different.

The girls stayed with Marcus and Tami for the weekend. On Saturday night we went up to have kind of a girls night while Marcus and Clark went to priesthood session. I painted Tami, Mattie, and Ravens nails in French manicure while we watched Night and Day. It was quite fun to hear the girls laughing all throughout the movie.

The next morning the girls got up bright and early to go to Conference at the conference center in Salt Lake. Because they are from another country, they just had to show their passports to get in. Raven had a little bit of a hard time because she is an American citizen, but when she told them her stake and stake president in New Zealand, they let her in. I'm so happy the girls got to experience Conference in person. It is such a spiritual experience like none other to be in the same room as the prophet and apostles.

That Sunday night we had a family meeting with Clark's family. There was an abundance of food as usual. After hearing a plethora of stories about Clark's grandparents and family we decided to hit the road. This night the girls were coming home with us. Mattie and Sina also came just for a couple hours. We talked a bunch about boys, conference, and spiritual experiences. We got to bed really late, but that was just the beginning of some very late nights.

My pictures are backwards of the things that we did together, so I will just go backwards. Raven said that she would like to go ice skating, so I took them to Seven Peaks Ice Arena in Provo. The girls were really good and didn't fall once. Erana's ankles started hurting, so she stopped after a little while and helped me watch Macy (she was always doing this and I dont know what I am going to do with out her now...she will be the greatest mom). Raven went around and around getting a good work out. After ice skating, we went a picked up Clark for a break from school and went to also pick up Rebecca Tuala. I took the girls to the Provo temple to do baptisms for the dead. Macy and I got a much needed nap. After the temple, we went to Pleasant Grove and played volleyball with a cousin Michael. I just watched as the girls showed off their mad athletic skills...I was highly impressed. Macy just kept saying ball over and over again. After volleyball they threw around the rugby ball. This was my first experience with a rugby ball and man did those girls show me how it is done. They know their rugby.



On another day, I took the girls up to Park City. The Alpine Slide wasnt open yet, but the Alpine Coaster was. I loved the Alpine Coaster when I went on so I kinda encouraged the girls to go on...they needed little convincing and went. They had a blast, but they really have a blast doing anything. Then we went to the olympic park and walked around. After the olympic park we went to the outlets for a short time. I was impressed by the girls abilities to shop...they shop til they drop. After shopping, I took them to the famous Cafe Rio...yum and yum.

On the way back from Park City, we stopped by temple square. We put a few quarters in a meter and started walking. We went in the Joseph Smith Building and saw that a showing of the Joseph Smith movie was just about to start so we ran on in. Macy does not like to sit still, so most of the movie I was chasing her around the theater. Even with a moving baby, I still managed to cry. On the way out, Raven reminded me that our meter had run out. I had totally forgotten...so I booked it to the car. Luckily there was no ticket...we must have been blessed because we were doing a good thing.





I took the girls to BYU. We walked around looking at buildings and shopping in the bookstore. We got ice cream from the cougareat and a taco bell burrito. It got really fun though when we met up with Vernon Heperi. Marcus knew that he had known Raven's dad Jamie when they were growing up, so he told us to meet up with him. Then Erana told me that her mom had dated him. What a small world. Well we met up with him around noon and he took us to the skyroom to eat. It is not cheap and the food was wonderful...we were stuffed. Come to find out, Vernon knew a bunch of Erana's uncles and had roomed with Raven's uncle at the Church college of New Zealand. He told us all sorts of stories. Then he took us around some of Provo to get a good look of the whole valley and to see the football stadium. The doors were open to the stadium, so we got to go in and take pictures. Then he took and bought the girls BYU hats and gave them shirts and shirts for their parents and a shirt for Clark and myself. Man did we get lucky meeting up with him.



We also saw the latest Narnia movie at the dollar theater. At nights we would rent a movie to relax and watch. I will always think of Raven and Erana when I watch "You Again." It was such a hysterical movie, with out anything bad in it.
I will never forget all our drives together. First, the girls knew more American songs that I did, and Erana knew pretty much every word to every song. Second, Erana would sit in the back with Macy and they would dance their little hearts out. Erana taught Macy how to use her hands when she is dancing and now Macy always uses her hands.
I constantly had a blast with these girls. I don't know how anyone could not like them.
On Thursday I took the girls to Tami's school because she wanted them to help her with a science lesson. It was so hard for me, but I let them go. The next day, they were gonna be at Marcus and Tami's with no place to go, so I bugged Clark all day to go up their with me so that they wouldn't have to be alone and bored. He finally agreed and we went. I was soooo happy to see the girls again. I took them to Betos where we got nachos (we didn't wait and we ate them there even though we were supposed to bring them back) and to Walmart. The girls LOVED Walmart. I was so impressed by their lack of superficiality. They aren't all about couture and name brands...as long as something was cute or sporty...they liked it. I learned a great lesson from them (well I learned a lot, but that was one of them). Finally, after staying longer than I told Clark, we headed home. I was supposed to see them again while in Utah, but Julie's friend Marissa's dad went into the hospital, so we started for California early.

I wanted so badly to see the girls again, and I was trying to find a way to get them into Disneyland for free. I could not imagine if I didn't get to see them longer...they became two of my very best friends and they always will be!

Macy's Bday Pics (LATE)

Macy LOVED her cake!!! She even kissed it.



We played put the spot on the ladybug.


We were leaving the same day for California so we had her party in the morning and served breakfast (pancakes, bacon, and eggs). Macy devoured all of her food.
We had the party at the church.
The kids made caterpillars out of egg carton pieces.


I made a ladybug cake out of red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting and reeses crumbs in the filling. I also made cup o dirt cupcakes...chocolate cake, pudding filling, chocolate frosting, oreo crumbs and gummy worms. My mother-in-law made a trifle with the left-overs. And of course Macy had her smash cake.

video!

One Year Old

I cannot believe my baby is ONE year old!!! Where has the time gone. I have been super emotional about her growing lately. Yesterday, Clark and I packed away the clothes that don't fit her anymore and put away things she doesn't use and we both got really emotional about how the time has flown by and that Macy is not a baby anymore. Well she is, but isn't all at the same time. The good thing about her growing up is that she is really blossoming. She is understanding so much of what I say to her. She can actually communicate with me, not all with words, but it is still so helpful.
Macy is such a little lover. She gives honis (kisses) freely. Often I will look over to see her giving her toys, dolls, books, etc. kisses. This melts my heart. One of her favorite things to do when she is allowed in Mommy and Daddy's bed is to go back and forth giving Clark and me kisses. The other night she was doing just this and as she went to kiss Clark a burp came out and up came spit up right in his mouth. He spit it out on my sleeve and this made Macy laugh soooo hard. This was the hardest she has ever laughed and she went for about 3 minutes straight. Clark and I just laughed and laughed with her. This is my favorite memory I think I have of us all together so far.
Macy is getting so smart. I'm sure she is just normal, but I am a proud mama. She can tell us what a doggie says, what an elephant says, and what a cow says. She is working on cat right now, but meow is a hard sound for her to make.
I'm pretty sure Macy is going to be artistic like her father because she loves to look at pictures. I often find her staring at a painting on the wall or just looking through the pictures in her books.
This picture is Macy making her elephant noise. She has a little sense of humor and thinks she is so funny. When we were in California for Christmas, she fake sneezed for my mom and dad. When they got a big kick out of it, she did it over and over grinning after each time.
Macy has finally learned how crawl correctly. She still prefers the army crawl because it is much faster, but she will get up on all fours and crawl now. I don't think she is close to walking just yet. She is incredibly cautious and doesn't like feeling unstable in the slightest. She has gotten a little more daring, but I think it will be a couple months until she walks. I walked at 13 months and Clark at 14 months so she's not really behind in that matter.
Macy has become a copy cat. She copies most of what I do. I love this because it is such a good way for her to learn. She now knows how to use a phone because of copying me. She picks it up puts it to her ear and jibber jabbers. We pulled some cotton out of a shoe and Clark put it up to his face and said HO HO HO. Macy took the cotton put it to her face and said O O O. What a little precious.

Macy still loves to dance to any music she hears...I love this about her. She is such a happy and curious baby who doesn't sit still. She is letting me know her opinions more and more each day, but she is still a sweetie pie.
12 month stats:

length- 30 1/4 in 87% (she was arching her back so I think she is actually a little longer)
weight- 17 lbs 15 oz 7% (she was sick and lost a little weight, but she is still so skinny)
head- not exactly sure, but 75% (she has been 75% forever for head)

Santa Claus

WE took Macy to meet Santa for the first time at my cousin in law Geoff's chiropractic clinic in Lindon. Macy is usually totally fine going to strangers, but of course she was sick and totally clingy to Mommy. I was the total epitome of "mom" and kept trying to get her to smile and telling Clark to take another picture. I wanted to capture the perfect image.
This Santa has to be the best Santa I have ever seen. He was so sweet and jolly and even I was star struck. Macy looks like she could be one of his elves.
While we were waiting for santa to arrive, there were these little boys talking about why they thought he was late. One said that it is pretty hard getting down a chimney. The other said that he was probably held up at the hospital giving all the kids presents. How sweet and innocent childhood is. I love seeing Christmas through a child's eyes.
This experience really got Clark and I excited for the day when Macy really knows what is going on and can get all giddy and excited about meeting santa and waking up Christmas morning to find presents under the tree. But we are most excited about is teaching sweet Macy about our brother who was born in a stable and lived a perfect life and atoned for our sins so that we could return to live with our Father in Heaven again.

Roseola

A couple of days before Macy's first birthday, she came down with a horrible fever. Even after giving her tylenol, it was 103 degrees. I made Clark go get some infant ibuprofen at around 10:30 pm because I just wanted her to sleep. She was miserable and I was miserable. She had a very hard time sleeping and most nights she just laid in our bed crying. I felt so bad for her. I was terrified that she had some horrible illness, but we were lucky and after 3 days the fever broke. Then came a rash...to the untrained eye this would look like a bad thing, but luckily I have a pediatric nurse practitioner living right upstairs that helped me diagnose it as roseola. It is very harmless and very common, the worst part is the fever.
Macy wanted to be held all of the time, so when I needed to get something done she was handed off to Daddy. Here she is watching him play world of warcraft on the bigscreen. You can see how sick she is in her eyes.
Love my baby girl.

11 months (almost a month late)

Macy enjoyed herself some lasagna...as you can probably tell. She shoveled and shoveled to her hearts content.

Macy has mastered the stair at the camera look.

So sad that the one picture of her smiling is cut off...that's what I get when I am trying desperately to get her to smile and not paying attention to looking in the camera.

Macy has turned into such a little lover. She gives me hugs and kisses (honis) frequently. Lately she has been understanding so much. I love that she can understand what I am saying and somewhat communicate with me.

Macy can say a few words really well, and she attempts many others. Yesterday, we put up the Christmas tree and she called it the sasa de. It was pretty close. Her best words all start with the letter D, and if they don't originally start with D, she adds one.

Macy is a paper eater...any paper she can get her hands on goes in her mouth. I hear that her father also loved him some paper and even ate a whole newspaper once.

Macy is a great eater of solid foods, she will eat ANYTHING! The problem is that she eats more solids than she drinks milk, so I am trying to force a bottle down her along with nursing. She is just so skinny...she needs some fat on those bones.

Macy does not like to sit still. She is a mover and a shaker. The only time she sits still is when she is in a big group of people she doesn't know, or there is a ton of commotion to keep her occupied and entertained.

Macy is so close to being 1 year old. I cannot believe how quickly time has gone. Macy feels like a giant to me now, and I wonder where my baby has gone. I am enjoying seeing her learn and grow and develop. Being a mom is seriously the best job ever!