More cousins, first outing, and Easter

You've grown so much in the last three weeks. You were able to meet more of your cousins when Casey, Candi, Canyon and Alena came.

You are also beginning to learn to interact with the people and things around you. You've learned to focus your eyes really well and you are always studying everyone's face who is holding you are. One of your favorite things to do is to lay down on your play mat and watch the fire in the fireplace. You are so mesmerized by the colors and the flames. You've also been learning about your arms and hands. You get upset at me when I wrap them up if you aren't ready to sleep because you want to move them around and play.

The weather has been getting warmer, which both you and mama are very happy about. The day before Easter was especially nice and so we decided to take you on your first walk. We still bundled you up to make sure you were nice and warm and put you in your stroller. The sun was very bright but you seemed to really enjoy the movement and noise being outside.

For Easter, and Julianne came over and we had our traditional Easter meal and then everybody took a very long nap. You slept in one of your favorite positions, laying on daddy's chest and gave mama a chance to catch up on her sleep, while Julianne napped with her puppy.

Then we dressed you up in your Easter dress that we got from Oma and Opa and took some pictures to show off how pretty you are.

In your fifth week you and mama have really gotten used to each other and are so comfortable with each other. You also went to the park for the first time with mama and our neighbor Chelsea Fullmer in your stroller, and you like to help around the house by sleeping in your sling so that mama can carry you with her. You still do much better sleeping when your close to somebody else. You are so adorable when you are falling asleep. You always have to peak a few times as you are drifting off and make sure that we are still paying attention to you before you can feel comfortable enough to sleep. You slowly open your heavy eyelids and look into our eyes before the weight of sleep forces you to close them again. You are also eating more and getting chubbier.

We still can't believe that you are really ours and sometimes it feels like we are just taking care of you for somebody else. Everyone still tells you how pretty and perfect you are, most especially your mama and I. You are an absolute joy to have with us and we are very blessed and privileged to be your parents.

Adrielle at 5 weeks

Adrielle is two weeks old

Adrielle, you are our little angel and we feel very very blessed and privileged to have you. You are a wonderful baby and you bring so much joy to your mother and me. We still find ourselves just watching you and not quite believing that you could be so incredibly precious and not believing that you are ours. We love the faces that you make and the way you coo at us. You are always really cuddly and loving with your mama, and when you are upset then you almost always immediately calm down in daddy's arms.

Grandpa Rick and grandma Susy got here before you were born and stayed for the first three days after you got here and got to be with you and helped out mom and dad cleaning, painting, and fixing the house up. Then, last weekend, when you were a week old, your cousins Aiden, Erik, Analeigh, and Emmitt came to visit you. Aiden and Analeigh could not get enough of you, especially Analeigh, who has been anxiously awaiting your arrival since she first found out that we'd be having you. Ryan and Summer did us a huge favor for your birthday present and built food storage shelves and sealed large buckets of food storage for us while they were here.

With Analeigh :)

with Aiden

Thank you Ryan and Summer!

With cousin Erik

Emmitt and Adrielle

Aunt Julianne came on Saturday also with her lighting equipment so we could take some baby photos of you that turned out really great (thank you Julianne!).

Wednesday we gave you your first bath. We made sure that the water and the bathroom were nice and warm so that you would be comfortable. You were happy for a most of it, and mom and dad had a blast taking pictures and watching your reaction to the water.

After her first bath

Then this weekend you got to meet some of your cousins from Boise when Jon and Cherie brought Natalie, Karina, and Catherine to meet you. Grandpa Rick and grandma Susy came back too. Natalie and Karina loved holding you and kept touching your face and fussing over you, and little Catherine would sit next to you and stare at you with a huge smile on her face. She kept saying "baby" over and over again and looking at everyone around her to make sure that they were seeing you too. One time when mama took you to nurse, Catherine found one of your teddy bears and was looking all over for you to give it back to you. When I told her you were in our room she walked over to the closed door, held the teddy bear up to the door and looked at me. I asked her if she wanted to me to give it to you and she gave it to me and then waited until I went in, gave it to you, came back, and told her that you had it before she went back to playing.

Precious girls

Karina with Adrielle

Sisters with their babies

Grandpa Rick's version of heaven (minus a couple other grandkids)

Catherine giving "besitos"

You are such a joy to have with us, and you are always on your best behavior whenever anybody comes to visit you. Everyone loves you and thinks you are such a beautiful and perfect little baby. You have even been a good sleeper and seem to know the difference between day and night already. Last night you slept for 5 hours between feedings and then 3 before the next one so we could sleep too (though to be honest, dad sleeps through a lot of your feedings anyway, but you are very thoughtful of your mother). We love you and can't believe we get to keep you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This is Adrielle

I hope to update this blog more often now that Adrielle is here. Hopefully I'll be able to share enough on here so that everyone can follow what we're up to and how she's doing and progressing. As a first post, I just wanted to upload a video we took tonight to help you all to get to know her better. This is Adrielle just being herself.

Valentine's Ball

In one of our last dates without having to worry about a babysitter, we went to a Valentine's Ball at the Provo library. Our next door neighbors heard about it and we ended up going with 6 couples total from our ward. We had a three course dinner and then there was dancing with a live jazz band. One of Michelle's good friends, Jameia, did her hair for her.

Masquerade...Paper faces on parade

About a month and a half ago a good friend of ours named Chris Hill told me that there was going to be a masquerade ball in Provo on the 29th. I knew that Michi had always wanted to go to one and so I bought tickets and was going to surprise her...only then we were out dancing with Chris and he asked me in front of her if I had bought tickets yet. The surprise was ruined, but it all ended up working out in the end. In fact, we ended up being able to spend the whole day together due to an altogether unexpected turn of events...

For anyone who has ever had a class in the infamous Clyde Building on BYU, you know that the whole thing is made of brick and cinderblock and terribly underfunded because they like to pour their money into the business school. For example, last semester they were drilling holes into the wall next to my desk for three weeks to mount these safety monitor boxes. Then they were drilling holes for 4 weeks next to the main computer lab after that. Basically, if you can't hear drill reverberations, then you know that it's 5 p.m. and time to go home.

Anyway, Thursday morning there were contractors in the basement of the Clyde who were...you guessed it...drilling holes into the walls. Unfortunately, one of them drilled right into the main powerline and caused a surge that fried the main circuit board for the entire building. He was taken to the hospital with severe burns, but luckily he's in stable condition and should be fine. The circuit board, however, was burnt to a crisp, and because it was a specially designed part from the 60s or 70s, they had to reorder it from the original manufacturer in Ohio. So all classes within the Clyde Building were cancelled for Thursday and Friday until the part came in.

So Friday morning, instead of going in to work, we went up to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival and watched a movie called Bran Nue Dae (click on the title to see the trailer). It's a musical comedy about an aboriginal boy in Australia who runs away from boarding school and is trying to get back home. It was actually really enjoyable and clean (we were worried because none of the movies there have ratings). We cruised main street afterwards to see if we could spot anyone famous, but we didn't.

We got home a couple hours before our dinner reservations with our friends so we could get ready. Michi rented her costume from the Hale Center Theater and I wore my tux, and our masks were vintage from Venice, Italy (Michi bought them traveling around during the Olympics). Anyway, I can let the pictures tell the story from there, but in short we had a great dinner at Macaroni Grill and a lot of fun masquerading with our friends.

Whistler and Chris' birthday

So Michi and I spent Tuesday through Friday up in Whistler for training (we flew up Monday and back on Saturday). It rained every day until Friday, when it snowed heavily in the morning and then cleared up for the last two hours of daylight Friday afternoon. I was surprised how pretty it was once everything cleared up, too bad it wasn't like that for longer.

Training actually went really well. I was pretty worried because I was her coach and I'd never seen the track up there before and didn't know the lines at all and because Michi had had problems up there the last time she trained. She started out at junior start and then slowly progressed up to ladies start and we were able to correct all the problems that she had been having, and on her last day she had 4 completely clean runs out of 5 pulling off the handles from ladies start. It was a really successful week, we saw lots of improvement, and she said I was a great coach.

My birthday was Friday, which was also the last day of training, and in between runs we went down to Whistler and checked email. My family had emailed me during the week to wish me a happy birthday, but I was pretty bummed because none of my friends had written me anything. Michi told me to check facebook because they'd probably written there, so I did and there was nothing there either. Michi saw that I was a little disappointed and wanted to do something for me, so she very sneakily signed into her facebook and wrote happy birthday on my wall, and then once we got back to the track she called the tower from ladies start and had them announce happy birthday to me over the PA system. She'll never know how much those two little things meant to me, it really made my day.

Recipes from Chris and Michi

The first recipe is one that a couple people asked for from over the holidays. The other one came from the creative genius of Michi's culinary mind, we had it today so I had her write it down so I could share it.

Christopher's Heartstopper Spinach and Artichoke Dip

What you'll need...

Serves 8-12

1 pkg frozen spinach

1 jar marinated arthichokes

8 oz. Cream Cheese

8 oz. Sour Cream

3/4 c. shredded Parmesan Cheese

8 oz. shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

1/2 onion finely chopped

1/2 stick butter

red pepper flakes (optional)

First, sautee the onions in some butter (not the whole half stick because that will just drown them so they won't sautee). Then add the ingredients in this order, mixing well after each ingredient is added:

Butter (the rest of it), Spinach, Cream Cheese, Sour Cream, Parmesan Cheese, Artichoke Hearts, Red Pepper Flakes to taste.

I like the red pepper flakes but Michi doesn't so I usually leave them out. The artichoke hearts can either be added chopped or pureed. If you like having chunks of artichoke heart in your dip then leave them chopped, I like to have the flavor of the artichoke hearts in every bite, so we usually just puree them in our Isablender (a.k.a. magic bullet).

Finally, you move your molten concoction of goodness into pyrex, top with Monterey Jack Cheese (pepper jack is actually my favorite), melt, and serve with bread or tortilla chips.

Michi's Shrimp Primavera

What you'll need (Michi says you can use however much of anything you want, but here are some guidelines)

Serves 4

2 Tbsp Butter

1/2 lb Shrimp

1 Onion Sliced

1/2 Red Pepper Sliced

1 Clove Minced Garlic

1 1/2 - 2 Cups Chopped Mushrooms

1 Chopped Tomato

Handful of Spinach leaves

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

1/4 Cup Red Wine Vinegar

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tbsp White Wine

2 Tbsp Cream Cheese

1 Cup of Milk

Feta Cheese

Cooked Pasta

Sautee shrimp, onions, red pepper and garlic in butter on medium heat until shrimp is cooked. At the same time in a separate pan, sautee mushrooms with some red wine vinegar and some butter (not included in measurements above) on low heat and covered. To the first pan add olive oil, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, white wine, 1/2 cup of milk, and cream cheese in this order. Stir and let simmer. When the mushrooms are evenly cooked, add them to the sauce along with diced tomatoes, spinach, and the additional 1/2 cup of milk. Let simmer, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Serve over pasta and top with feta.