Land of the Laidlaws

Her First Birthday

2011-02-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

Found this in the "drafts"...

Mercedes turned ONE on Tuesday last week! We had a small "party" for her on Saturday with my parents and a couple of friends. Very simple but nice. I decided to be useful and made her invitations, birthday cake, banner, and party hat. I searched online for the longest time trying to find cute invitation ideas and they were all the same thing and blah. I knew I wanted to do something with her hands to document their size but wasn't sure how to incorporate it. Then an idea came. I think they turned out cute, although not exactly as I had envisioned.

As for the cake - I made marshmallow fondant, dyed some of it to make the different colors, cut out circles, and voila! It took forever to make for such a simple cake. It definitely was not perfect, but not terrible for my first time making and using fondant. Since the top tier of the cake that was supposed to be for her slid off the oven rack and onto the oven door she only got a slice or cake to eat rather than her own cake. I think this worked out for the better because she was able to get better handfuls or the cake rather than trying to claw through the fondant.

She had just woken up from a nap and had this expression like "why is everyone staring at me?"

Green and pink polka dots to match her dress.

The letters are done in gold glitter.

It's Been One Year

2011-02-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

Usually moms tend to say they can't believe their baby is one, but I can. She is taller, bigger, funnier, smarter, faster, louder (well maybe just as loud as she has always been), and more able. I just love my little babe and am so blessed that I get to take care of her all day.

Anyone who has been around Mercedes for more than a few minutes knows that she is a firework. She has a very strong personality, short temper, and a determination to get her way. She can be a bit feisty during the day, but I can't complain too much because she is such a good sleeper. She goes to bed around 6:15 p.m. (I know, crazy but she's so ready for bed then and I don't mind) and wakes up around 6:40 a.m. and she takes two 1.5 hour naps a day. Her feet are looking beautiful and correcting so well.

I'm not sure if this is typical of babies but she LOVES ANIMALS. Obsessed. I have no clue where she gets this from because it is definitely not from Eric or me. One of my favorite things she does is talk to the animals we pass by throughout the day. She hears or sees a bird, dog, cat, squirrel, whether it's real or a stuffed animal and she immediately begins squawking "gwa-gwa-gwa" (that's her "animal" talk). It's amazing how quickly she notices an animal. I hardly ever recognize the birds over head or the ones in the planters on my way into a store, but she will instantly. After shopping at Michael's the other day, I found myself inside the Petco that was next door. I normally would NEVER step foot in any pet store for fear it would smell like animals and make me gag. But here I was showing her the parakeets, guinea pigs, rats, mice, and whatever other rodents they had just to watch her smile and squeal in delight. The things we do for our kids....

One Year Old Summary:

29 inches - current length
21.5 lbs. - current weight
4 mos. - rolled over day before turned 4 mos.
5 mos. - crawled backwards
6 mos. - crawled forward & clapping on que
8 mos. - pull herself up & stand up & "da-da"
11 mos - walks with help holding her hands
Says: dada, da-ee (doggie), na-na (no no), ah ga (all gone), haaa (hi)
Favorite things: her blanket, this brown bear stuffed animal, Little People farm house, hippo push toy thing, hair clips, keys, her vitamins (sick), cell phones, the car steering wheel, being outside, trying to pick up ants, teeth getting brushed animals, trying to walk, dancing & shaking her tush, eating oranges and tangerines - she's addicted!!
Dislikes: the Roomba iRobot (terrified of it), water dumped on her face when taking a bath, blankets on her legs, the sound of my parents house phone ringing, grass, getting rubbed with lotion or sunscreen, sitting still, her Bumbo, being told "no", drinking out of a straw, getting her diaper changed, long carseat rides,

Happy Holidays

2011-01-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

We hope you had a great Christmas and New Year! We spent our holidays in Wyoming, Utah, and California. It was crazy, busy, fun! Here is the holiday card we never sent out. I wanted a professional picture so I could make a cute card and we didn't end up taking any so I felt silly sending out my makeshift one where none of us look too hot.

P.S. My baby will be turning ONE years old in about two weeks. I can't believe it!

To Make Bread - or - NOT?

2011-01-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

Doesn't that look delicious?

I'm considering getting a bread maker machine. I've never used one and I don't make bread regularly with pans or anything, but would like to start making homemade bread. It's tastier, healthier, and cheaper - so why not?! My sister makes bread all the time without a bread machine and it is fabulous...I just don't know if I have the baking skills for that. Do you have one or know someone who does and just love it? Which kind is it - if you recommend it? Any downsides to a machine vs. by hand?

Thanks :)

It's that time of year

2010-11-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

I am actually going to send out Christmas/New Years cards this year....I guess that's what you do when you have a baby right? I know I have a lot of your mailing addresses, but just in case would you please email me your address or if you don't mind posting it in the comments, feel free to do that too! Thanks!

ehlaidlaw@gmail.com

Stairway to Heaven

2010-11-19T10:01:00.006-07:00

My brother, Evan, who lives in Hawaii just sent me this picture and I had to share it. Does it get anymore amazing than this? To really grasp the beauty, click the pic to enlarge!

P.S. He is 26. Single. Employed. Cute. Single.

My Little Snowboarder

2010-11-16T19:11:00.003-07:00

Some of you have been asking about Mercedes' feet and how they are doing. I realized I never finished updating about them and the amazing progress she has made. My last post about them was in July and even that post was outdated.

Mercedes is doing awesome. Her bar and braces have not slowed her down one bit. After three weeks of wearing her last set of casts, we were given special shoes that she wore all day and night for 3 months (with the exception of bath time). At the beginning of July she was told by the doctors that her feet were doing good and she could go to wearing them "part-time."

So now my lil' babe only has to wear her brace for 14-16 hours a day, which isn't that bad...until she's 3 years old. I put them on her in the evening around 6 p.m. before she goes to bed and either take them off when she wakes up at 7 a.m. and put them back on during nap times and at night. Or lately I have found it easiest to keep them on her in the morning until 10 a.m. and then let her take them off until 6 p.m. so she gets 8 hours of FREEDOM. According to the doctor she can't wear them too much --- it's better to have them on more than not enough.

I was really worried that she would cry and fight me every time I put them on but she has been great! I had Mercedes transferred to the Shriners Hospital in L.A. since we now live in California but was NOT AT ALL impressed with their service, facility, nor care. We ended up transferring her back to Utah and are so glad we did. We will get another check-up on her feet in December/January when we head to Wyoming for Christmas!

We think she looks like a little snowboarder with her boots and board!

We try to find fun socks in order to spice up her braces (Target has the best we've seen). They only make the boots in this blue gray color. I contacted the company to see if they had pink ones but I was informed they are not that far along yet.

If Only I Were in Utah...

2010-09-29T09:16:00.001-06:00

I wish I were in Utah SO BADLY and could go to this!

A Must Have

2010-08-25T09:44:00.003-06:00

I normally don't post about my purchases, but I'm really excited about this one so I just HAD to!

In case you haven't heard of Molly's Clothing let me educate you. My good friend Meagan introduced me to Molly's--or rather, "mini Molly's--just a few weeks ago and I finally decided to order some for myself. They came in the mail yesterday and I am so excited! All I can say is that they are so worth the buy! I cannot believe I didn't hear of these sooner especially since I lived in Utah, the capital of modesty.

Please don't be deceived, this is not me in the picture ;)

Practically everyone has heard of Shade Clothing and how awesome they are for creating modest clothing. (I think Shade even makes these now, but they aren't the same material and don't fit quite the same.) However, there are many times where I have shirts that are already modest in length, but maybe a little skimpy on the neckline or sleeves. It's really annoying wearing an undershirt that is LONG under a cute shirt/dress that is already long. My undershirt bulks up and the top shirt rides up as the undershirt goes up, or I get a layered look with the two shirts that is not what I am trying to go for. So Molly's makes this mini molly that is basically a half shirt. It goes just under the bust line and has just enough elastic that it doesn't ride up. The material is spandex like so it can be dressy-er or worn more casual. The sleeves are the perfect length, along with the neckline (even for us bustier gals) and so comfortable and non-restricting feeling.

I ordered a 3-pack (black, white, and cream) and tried on the cream one yesterday under a shirt I haven't worn in ages because of the problems described above and I just fell in love. I am seriously kicking myself that I didn't have these years ago. They are AWESOME. The designer of Molly's Clothing is known for her gorgeous wedding dress creations at elyseREUBEN. Standard 7-10 shipping is FREE and since the clothing ships out of Temecula, CA only 30 minutes from my house, I got my shirts the very next day after they were shipped.

Another plus, and maybe this is a bit cheater-ish but I did a Google search for "Molly's Clothing Codes"online and found a website that gives a code to get a 15% discount that supposedly expired back in 2008. But when I tried it on the website, it worked. So if you want to save yourself 15% enter JENONLINE08.

Happy 4 Years to Us!

2010-08-05T18:28:00.002-06:00

Yep, it is our four year anniversary today. Doesn't that seem short. I know it's long in some ways but it feels like we been together for so much longer than that. I guess time has its way of playing tricks on us. We've had a fun journey thus far. I do have the most perfectly fitting husband. What a match! :)

In four years we have:

Lived in our first apartment together in Provo, UT
Went on a Western Caribbean cruise
I graduated from BYU
Had my first real job
Moved to Salt Lake City, UT
Took many trips to Wyoming
And a few trips to California
Moved again to another SLC apartment
Bought our first home
Became landlords
Revisited our mission (Florida Tallahassee Mission)
Went on a Laidlaw family vacation to Oahu, Hawaii
Got my second real job
Went to Maui, Hawaii
Had a beautiful baby
Eric graduated from the University of Utah
Eric became an official Mechanical Engineer
Moved to California

And many more to come....

Incision and Final Casts

2010-07-08T14:59:00.002-06:00

At this appointment Mercedes had the incision done on her Achilles Tendon. They first put some numbing cream on her tendon and after 30-45 minutes, they took her to a room (where parents aren't allowed - especially moms) to do the cut.

(Waiting for the room to get ready)

The process was incredibly quick. They gave her a local anesthesia shot and then made the 2 millimeter incision. Dr. Santori brought her out 15 minutes or so later and said she did great. She was sleeping when he gave her to me.

We had to wait at the hospital to make sure there wasn't too much bleeding. They said it's normal for the cut to bleed through the casts but that if the amount of blood got to be the size of a quarter they would want to take off the cast and check it.

(Entertaining ourselves while we waited to check her bleeding)

I couldn't imagine how that much could get through the thickness of her new casts. Those babies were huge! She only had a tiny bit of blood come through, the size of a pen dot.

Hello, HUGE!

Now, only three weeks to go wearing the same cast and then they are off! That also means sponge baths for the next three weeks :(

Official Birth Announcement

2010-07-08T14:23:00.002-06:00

I thought it would be fun to post Mercedes' birth announcement we had done--even if it is way late. We mailed these out to most of our family (if I had their address), so that means a lot of you didn't get one. The photographer who took Mercedes picture also did the announcement. We gave her a bunch of specifics and presto, she made it happen.

I realize that I have still not posted the cute baby pics we had done. They are quite outdated, but beautiful, so I will be sure to do that soon.

Casts - Weeks 3 and 4

2010-06-23T11:50:00.002-06:00

Cast #3 -
At Mercedes third casting, the doctors informed us that she was progressing enough that she would probably only need two more casts before they did the incision instead of the eight we were previously thinking she would need. 5 vs. 8 sounded good to us.

Cast #4 -
We received some awesome news this week! This is going to be Mercedes "last" cast (4 casts vs. 8 casts) and next week they are going to do the incision. After the incision on her Achilles Tendon, she will be in the next casts for three weeks. If all goes well she will FINALLY be done having bricks for legs and get her bar and braces.

Casts - Week #2

2010-06-04T16:48:00.003-06:00

Mercedes got her first set of casts off and a lovely new pair on. She definitely needed those things changed because when babies have blowouts it ends up down their legs. Well imagine the damage that occurs when there is a cast up to her bootie cheeks. You can't just put her in the bath.

"Cutting" the casts off - the tool actually just vibrates them off, it doesn't really cut

Splitting the casts apart to take them off

You would think she'd be happy to have them off, but her legs and feet are so sensitive it is really uncomfortable for them.

Look at the difference in just ONE week!

Children's Books HELP

2010-05-24T15:18:00.000-06:00

Dear Blog Readers,

I need help. Sadly enough, I do not own any baby books yet. I went on Amazon today to look for some and 87,678 showed up just under the "baby 0-3 month" category!! I did not even know where to begin. I spent over an hour sorting and narrowing down books and still had no clue which to buy.

If your kids (or friends kids) loved certain books or there are books, authors, styles, or types of books you have come to love please let me know. I would like to get a variety from colorful, to educational, to touch & feel, to cute, fun, etc. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated :)

Thanks so much!

~A Momma in Need

A Baby Blessing on Mother's Day

2010-05-17T14:38:00.001-06:00

This Mother's Day was special in a new way since I am actually a mom now. We also blessed Mercedes on Mother's Day making the day even more memorable. We decided to bless her on the 9th because Eric was graduating from the University of Utah on the 7th and figured it would be easiest for those who came into town from out-of-state to be able to attend both events in the same weekend.

Eric gave a beautiful blessing and also a great talk in church. The poor guy had to stress over finals, graduation details, getting our house rented, the blessing, and also prepare a talk in the same week, plus deal with me who was the biggest stress of all. But he managed it all so well.

Thank you to everyone who came to participate with the blessing and visit afterward!

The Maker of her beautiful dress (Eric's Mom, Kathy)

....She was getting really grumpy at this point in the photo shoot :)

Former mission companion, Lara and her youngest boy, Lenden

California Here We Come

2010-05-05T08:57:00.001-06:00

It is official, we are moving to Southern California. Eric has been interviewing with different companies all over the country and accepted employment with Northrop Grumman in Azusa, CA. They will be relocating us in June. We aren't sure where we are going to live yet, but we will be taking a house hunting trip out there in the next week or two. We are planning to rent our duplex which we live in now - hopefully we will find great renters. The only solid thing we know for now is that Eric starts working June 14th, so we don't have much time left in Utah.

The First of Many Casts

2010-04-25T13:40:00.005-06:00

At only 8 days old, Mercedes went to Shriners Hospital for an evaluation on her little club feet. She left Shriners with thick, tiny white casts up to her thighs. The overall experience at the hospital was really good. We met the four doctors who specialize in clubfoot and would be working with Mercedes. They were all so friendly and knowledgeable. We felt really confident about the service she would be receiving and about their ability to perform the Ponseti Method. Each of the doctors had personally trained with Dr. Ponseti which was very reassuring.

When Eric and I found out that our baby would have bilateral clubfeet we did a lot of internet research on different methods of correcting clubfoot. I was most familiar with surgery as the main procedure because that is what my younger brother, Bryson, had done when he was just a baby. He actually went through two major surgeries to correct his feet. From everything Eric and I read, those who have surgery almost always experience a great deal of pain in their feet when they get into their late 20's and it only worsens as time goes on. We wanted to avoid surgery at all costs. So when we learned about Dr. Ponseti and his method for correcting clubfeet through a series of casts (without surgery) we were really hopeful.

Our friend Maria, educated us about the Shriners Hospital in Salt Lake City, where they specialize in orthopedics and at no cost to patients! It is the coolest place. It doesn't matter whether you have insurance or not or whether you fall into a certain income bracket, the hospital will take you in at 100% if your child has a need for help. I hope that we can one day give back to Shriners as they have given so much to us.

Back to our visit, the doctor's said her feet were "moderate" in their severity. The Ponseti Method works like this for Mercedes (and most kids): She will go through 6 to 8 different casts, being changed weekly (on Tuesdays at Shriners).

Then the next step is for a tiny incision to be made on her Achilles Tendon that is only 2-3 millimeters long. This is done with a local anesthesia so she doesn't have to be "put under." The incision will allow for her foot to relax and her heel to drop for better correction. The procedure is very quick and then she is put in another thigh-high cast that stays on for three weeks. If all looks good and goes well, this will be her last cast. Then she will be in a special set of shoes that are attached to a bar that will help keep her feet turned out.

She will wear this contraption for 3 months full-time. Once again, if all is going well, after the 3 months she will only have to wear the braces and bar at nap time and night time for....oh the next 2 to 3 years. If we can get her to wear them until 3 or 4 years of age that is ideal. However, the doctors informed us that it is extremely hard for parents to keep their children in them past 2 years old because they become so smart and figure out how to get them off. We are going to have to be sneaky and find a good incentive to help her keep them on.

So far, her casts do not seem to be bothering her. I will say it is much easier to change her diaper holding on to the casts than her feet when they were turned in. They were so slippery!

(Obviously Mercedes is older than one week old - I am writing this as though it is the present tense, but really this is all "old news", I just want to document her progress week-by-week :)

Right before she went to get her first cast:

(Her feet aren't bruised or anything, the photos just appear that way)

And now the casts:

Her Story and Mine

2010-04-08T15:15:00.000-06:00

I asked my sister on Sunday afternoon if I would be able to tell if my water broke. I know a lot of people never have their water break until they are quite a ways into the labor process, but I was curious if I ended up in the minority group if I would notice it. She assured me that I probably would. Well, at 3:00 a.m. on Monday, February 8, I woke up to my water breaking. And let me tell you there was no way I could have missed that feeling! And this is where the story begins....

I showered. Eric cleaned and packed his hospital bag - he was not prepared like I was ;) We drove to Alta View Hospital in Sandy, a 45 minute drive. There is a hospital a few miles from our house, but my doctor is in Sandy so Alta View is where we ended up. I didn't really have contractions yet, just mild ones that we barely uncomfortable. We got to the hospital at 5:00 a.m. The nurse checked me and said I was only dialated to a 2 or 3. She put me on an IV, after numbing me of course, so I wouldn't feel the IV (I'm terrified of getting IV's). We waited a few hours and at 7:00 a.m. I was still at the same dialation. They decided to start me on Pitocin to speed up the contractions. I was practicing my breathing techniques because the contractions were getting more uncomfortable but definately still manageable. At this point I get a new nurse who is super friendly and smiley. She asks me if my baby is head down or breach. I inform her head down, as that is what the doctor has told me each time he checked me and I just visited my doctor 4 days earlier on Thursday. She double checks my stomach and feels a "hard spot" in the middle, but assures me it is probably just the baby's rump or back. Maybe 10 minutes later, she comes back in to the room wheeling a mini ultrasound machine. She said she just wants to make sure the baby really is head down. She does the ultrasound and can't really find the head and suggests it could be just low in my pelvis. She gets the doctor for a second opinion. My doctor is out-of-town this week in Mexico, so I have one of his on-call doctors delivering me. Dr. Tanner does another ultrasound and sure enough the little tyke is breech! I have no idea when this happened, if she flipped last minute or what, but in some ways Eric and I always had a feeling that she was sideways in me, which she was. She was transverse lay aka horizontal.

I am informed that I will have to have a C-section. There goes my plan to try out "natural" childbirth. I was terrified of an epidural and the joy of a possible episiotomy or tearing. Eric and I handled this change of plans pretty calmly. My thought was I guess this will speed up the delivery, we will have our little baby sooner, and I won't have to keep having these annoying contractions. Between the different books we read on labor and delivery and our Lamaze class we always skipped over the C-section parts as those didn't apply to me. So I was pretty clueless about how the whole process worked.

At 12:30 p.m. I walked to the Operating Room and got onto this narrow metal table with a sheet over it. My anastesiologist was amazing and prepped me on the whole Spinal Block process. I was shaking pretty bad with nerves but Eric helped to keep me calm. My big fear was that I wouldn't be numb enough and I would feel them cutting into me. It's weird to have a surgery and be awake through it. After several tests they determined I was numb and they could begin the surgery. I couldn't feel any pain but I could feel the pressure of what they were doing. I really had to focus mentally so I wouldn't get nauseated and start puking like the girl did who had a C-section earlier that day. Eric decided he wanted to watch and I consented with the condition that he could not make any grossed out or scary faces because if I saw him do that it would throw me into a panic.

I layed on the table, put my arms out on the arm planks and Eric held my had as he watched the otherside of the hanging sheet divider. After a minute or less I glanced at my husband just out of the corner of my eye and he turned his head towards me and I noticed he was white as a ghost, his freckles standing out bright, and he was going cross-eyed. He started leaning down towards me in slow motion and I yelled for someone to help him. "He's going to pass out! Someone grab him! He's going down!!" Immediately several nurses came to his aid and wheeled him to the back corner of the room. This got me worried about him but I was trying to focus on not focusing on what was happening to me.

Well that was hard to do because after a few minutes I started to realize the doctors were having some trouble getting the baby out. I could hear them saying, "I can't get her, push harder." "I can't turn her, she's stuck." "I can't grab, I can't...." The anesteiouloghist kept assuring me everything was okay but I could tell it wasn't. The doctors started pushing and heaving harder and harder on my body. While I couldn't feel the pain it got to be incredible uncomfortable as the pressure bore down. A few times I yelped out uncontrollably because of the force on my chest and upper body - although I didn't feel it. At this point I was trying so hard to stay calm and not puke. Things reached a climax when the anesteiologhist offered the doctors his help becuase he could tell they were having a problem. The doctors then said they needed to do ANOTHER incision to get her out becuase they needed her out now--it had been too long. Normally C-sections take 5 minutes or less. Mine had been over 10 minutes. So yes, I had a "t" incision. Not on the outside of my stomach, that is only the horizonatal bikini incision, but on my uterus they had to do a "t".

I heard the docs and nurses say the baby was coming out and thought things were done. But I soon realized I was wrong when I heard one nurse in particular saying loudly over and over again, "Come on little baby you can do it. Come on little baby, Come on!" That is when the panic started to set in. She wasn't breathing. I hadn't heard any cries. At that moment when panic was about to set in I said a simple prayer that she would be okay and that Heavenly Father wouldn't take my baby girl away. Finally, after 3 minutes of chest compressions and oxygen they were able to get her breathing and I heard her cry. I think my heart started beating again too at that moment.

The nurses hauled her and Eric off to the nursery and I was put back together. While sewing me up Dr. Smith looked over the drape screen thing and informed me I would always have to have a C- Section after this due to the type of incision they performed. I was then wheeled into a room where I was monitored for 45 minutes. After which time, Eric pushed in the wheelie cart with our baby in it. She was perfectly healthy. The doctors tested her cord blood to measure the stress level that was put on her to see if there might be neurological problems. Another miracle...the results came back she was great.

Since the delivery she has been perfectly fine other than her incessant screaming. She never had jaundice or any other typical baby problems. She does have bi-lateral clubfeet which we knew about from the ultrasound that told us she was a girl. We plan to use the Ponseti Method to treat this. I plan to make weekly posts about her progress from treatment.

We sure love the handful that we have been blessed with!

You can see the severity of her clubfeet in this first picture (According to the Orthopedic doctors they aren't that severe?!)

Coming Soon

2010-03-11T15:45:00.003-07:00

Mercedes Brooke Laidlaw
Born: February 8, 2010
Time: 12:56 p.m.
Weight: 6 lbs 13 oz
Length: 19 inches
How: C-Section

More details coming soon!

Proud Sponsors

2009-09-21T14:31:00.003-06:00

We are thrilled to announce that we are having a GIRL! We found this out last week but I have been in Las Vegas for work so I didn't have time to post.

We couldn't be happier. We said we were neutral on whether the baby was a boy or girl, but deep down we both sort of wanted a girl. The name game will be so much easier for us now!

A Baby

2009-08-31T09:12:00.003-06:00

If you haven't noticed from the baby ticker on the side of my blog or heard the news yet, YES, we are going to have a baby! This is something we have wanted for a LONG time, so it's really exciting for us that it is finally a reality. I am 16 weeks along and due February 13th. We will find out this month whether we are having a little girl or boy... we are very anxious for the news.

This is a little miracle in so many ways. I would probably still be clueless that I'm pregnant if it had not been for one day where I felt so nauseous I could barely open my mouth. Otherwise, I've felt great thus far throughout the pregnancy with the exception of fatigue. I started a new job and did this in part because I was told it could be a long while before we would have any babies. I took several tests every week for several weeks before accepting the job to confirm that I was not pregnant. I didn't feel it would be appropriate to start a job knowing I was pregnant. Not surprisingly, all of the tests were NEGATIVE.

Then, three weeks into my job, I started feeling weird--mostly when it came to "what to eat?" I could not think of anything that sounded appetizing and when I did, I would still be hungry afterward. I also had a few moments where I thought I was getting the flu because I felt funny, but then the flu never came and I would feel fine again so I ignored it. The pregnancy thought NEVER crossed my mind, because I knew I wasn't.

While I was having all of my food issues, Eric was gone on a snorkeling trip with his brothers in Cozumel, Mexico. Food indecisiveness really isn't that unusual for me, as I constantly go through phases of something different grossing me out. I felt great the day Eric got back from Mexico, but the following day I felt incredibly nauseous. Jokingly Eric said "Maybe you have a baby inside of you." He says this regularly to be comical so I just laughed. But to put away any questioning, I took yet another test. And shockingly it showed a PLUS sign! Usually they would be blatantly negative before I was even done peeing on the thing. Well, four positive tests later (in one evening) I thought maybe this is real and set a doctor's appointment. The following week I had an ultrasound and found out I was 8.5 weeks along. That was such an amazing experience. Crazy that four weeks prior I took a test that showed negative, even though I was 4.5 weeks along....maybe that's normal though?

My bosses were really awesome about the news. Very excited for us and very supportive. I couldn't work for better people and feel more blessed. So that's our story.

Nerd Champs

2009-06-25T10:45:00.006-06:00

Eric and his mechanical engineering team have been working FOREVER to build a robot for their junior design project. There have been many times when I wanted to take a sledge hammer and bash the "thing" since he was spending so much time on it. I also threatened to throw away any parts, tools, or other important accessories if I found them left anywhere other than on his work table. I never could really bring myself to do either the bashing or trashing...but oh I wanted to. Everyday I would find tools strung throughout the house, the kitchen table, countertops, on top of the fridge, on the entertainment center, our bedroom dresser, in an 8x8 baking dish, seriously anywhere! But I resisted.

So they were required to build this robot that could navigate a course all on its own via programming and pick-up specifically marked crates, load them onto the robot, return them to their home base and dump them. They designed every aspect of the robot from scratch. Their hard work paid off because they won FIRST PLACE against 34 other robots! Go team Brodys!

Here is Eric's own words from an e-mail he sent out to family: "The past two semesters I have been working on the junior level project of my mechanical engineering curriculum. It finally wrapped at the end of April, and, as it turns out, we did surprisingly well, going undefeated and taking 1st place out of 35 teams.

I don't want to toot my team's horn too loudly, but we were the only team to achieve a perfect score of 20 points (we accomplished this twice :), and while the average score for the class was 2 points per round, our average score was almost 9 points per round."

Here is a video of their professor explaining the project:

Here is a video of them stomping the competition (they are the black robot):

Going Private

2009-05-26T09:57:00.003-06:00

I've decided to go private with our blog. Details on why will come later... If you'd like to continue reading please send me your e-mail address by either posting it in the comments section, or by e-mailing me at: ehlaidlaw@gmail.com

Thanks!

Thanks Glenn & Kathy for the BEST Trip Ever!

2009-05-13T16:40:00.001-06:00

In case you haven't noticed, I'm having the best time ever with Picasa. It is seriously the coolest!

A Lil' More Aloha

2009-05-13T15:54:00.002-06:00

Waikiki

Hawaii Finale

2009-05-13T15:49:00.001-06:00

I need to post these pics before I move on to more recent updates...

Hanauma Bay

Was my last post really that long ago?

2009-04-07T16:24:00.002-06:00

I haven’t posted a tag in a while and since I just love this girl, I’m succumbing to the peer pressure.

The Rules:

- Link to the person who tagged you. (See above link)
- Share 7 things that people may not know about you.
- Tag 7 people to share 7 things and link to them.
- Let them know they have been tagged (How do you do this part?)

1. Supposedly I used to eat beetles as a little girl. I know it sounds sick and gross and weird, I think so too. But according to my mom, I would look around the front yard for little baby black beetles and eat them. Luckily it was just a phase.

2. I had a lamb growing up. Mind you I didn’t live on a farm, I lived the suburban life in Southern California. But I had a lamb and I named it (can’t remember if it was a he or she) Pepsilee. I have no idea where I came up with that name.

3. My fingers are double jointed and can do really weird things. Eric finds it amusing and disgusting. My elbows are also somewhat double jointed.

4. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in 2002. It is either gone now or in remission (probably the latter) but I no longer take medicine for it as of one year ago!

5. I love to take baths with really hot water and bubbles.

6. I’ve been skydiving from 14,000 feet over the Pacific Coast. Good times at BYU Hawaii.

7. Eric was my first kiss---at age 23! Call me a prude, stubborn, afraid, a tease, smart, non-committal or just plain fun!

I’m a taggin’:

1. Sarah (b/c she’s good at things like this)
2. Lara (b/c she needs a good taggin’)
3. Lesley (b/c she needs to take the reigns and give the Parkster a break)
4. Sara W. (b/c I don’t think she does tags)
5. Fabiana (b/c I know she will do it)
6. Tracy M. (b/c I want to learn fun facts about this gal)
7. Chris S. (b/c he’s a boy)

Tuesday

2009-02-17T12:53:00.013-07:00

One of my best friends, who I was roommates with while in Hawaii, hooked us up with really cheap tickets to the PPC. Thanks Kari!! Before heading to Laie, a few of us drove to the North Shore again to visit the fun lil' town Haleiwa and get some shave ice. Can I just say that those are the tastiest things ever! On the way back towards the PCC, we got some shrimp in Kahuku from Giovanni's Shrimp Truck. We shared a garlic shrimp and spicy shrimp plate with Melissa and Seth. It was fabulous, but seriously the spicy shrimp was SPICY! Usually, things aren't spicy enough for me, but my lips were on fire after eating those lil' buggers.

The PCC was wonderful. I reminisced about my fun days working there as a hostess/greeter/caterer girl wearing a cute muumuu and pretending to be Polynesian darling. I wish I had a picture or two to post of those days...maybe I'll rummage one up later. The day flew by and I wished we would've given ourselves a bit more time to visit the villages, oh well. One of my favorite parts of the day was getting to see Sharon, Kari, and Kari's way cute kids, after so many years of absence.

Matsumoto's -

This is Eric's second "shave ice", one just wasn't enough for him! (Notice the mess on the ground)

Giovanni's - Before the spicy shrimp and my MEGA red lips that followed.

PCC -

This picture is awesome! If you notice the lovely male dancers in the back row, the one near the left of the pic is Eric. Hahaha! You can barely see him; he's right behind the girl in the green shirt. We were at the Tahitian village, and one of the dancers comes over to recruit volunteers, I thought she was headed for me and began to panic. However, it turned out she wanted a hunky male dancer and snagged Eric. He tried telling her "no," but Fabi and I convinced him to go up on stage. He really does NOT like things like this at all, and was a bit grumpy about it once his "debut" was over. But from the pics, you'd think he was having a great time--although, maybe not as good of a time as the green shirt girl. What a good sport he is.

Ali'i Luau Dinner

Mele Kalikimaka

2009-02-11T14:05:00.002-07:00

Sort of. It wasn't really Christmas while we were there, but close enough. The entire Laidlaw clan flew to Oahu January 4th for a week of relaxing, tanning, playing, and of course, eating. We stayed at a beach house in Ka'a'awa and had the luxury of 4 rental cars to tote the 14 of us (12 adults, 2 kids)!

(Picture is awkward on purpose--promise!)

This was a special trip for me because I was going back to a place I once lived 7.5 years ago and absolutely love. In the summer of 2001, after my freshman year at BYU, I went to BYU Hawaii and worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center. My cousin, Bryn, was supposed to be my partner in crime over there, but she met a boy whom she fell in love with just before our adventure was about to begin and didn't end up coming. She ended up marrying that boy and he is awesome, so it all worked out. I loved Hawaii for its weather, the ocean, the smell of Plumeria flowers in the breeze, the people, food, friends, endless fun, rain, laid back atmosphere, and of course the Aloha of it all.

In many ways, my experiences in Hawaii led me on paths that have shaped who I am today. I was grateful to go back FINALLY and have Eric there with me to bask in the island fun.

For this trip, often we were together as a whole family, but there were many times where we'd split up and those with similar interests went off together and did one activity while others had fun somewhere else. Here are some of the highlights:

Monday:

A morning sunrise walk along the beach...a good way to start off the trip

Pipeline
Since I was a little girl, I always dreamed of seeing a surf competition on the North Shore, however, we were a little late for that this year. For winter, the waves were rather small at Pipe, Waiamea, and other popular surf spots. In fact, Waiamea was as smooth as it was in the summer time when I swam there. Lucky for us we were able to hang out on the beach and play in the "waves"!

Kaena Point
I had really wanted to hike out to the point of the island, but there weren't too many takers other than Eric. On the way to the point was supposed to be this "Hidden Beach" that required an off-roading vehicle to get there. A group of Laidlaws filled the jeep (our only 4 wheel drive vehicle) and headed in search of the beach. The rest of us waited for what seemed like an hour for our ride to the beach which never came. Unfortunately, the road was EXTREMELY bumpy and the surf rough so I never got to the beach. In the mean time I had fun taking pictures....obviously I have no idea how to work the settings and filter on our camera!

A self portrait (the beginning of MANY) while waiting and waiting and waiting for the jeep crew to take us to "Hidden Beach"

Stay tuned for Tuesday's adventures....

A Little Slow

2009-01-27T15:18:00.001-07:00

I have been slacking with my postings lately. I don't really have any excuses for it. We've had a lot of fun happenings to post about but I just haven't taken the time to do it. I think it's because I'm so far behind and that I don't want to play "catch up". But since I just got off the phone with my sister who reminded me that I haven't posted in a while and she wants to see Hawaii pictures, I guess I'd better start now. (Yes, we went to Hawaii two weeks ago!) Get ready for a bunch of posts, most were written some time ago, I just didn't have the pictures to put with them, but now I do. Here's to Christmas and Thanksgiving....

Christmas with the Laidlaws

2009-01-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

I know you are loving my getup, but hey it was late and we were decorating!

We switch off celebrating Christmas between the Youngs and Laidlaws every year. This year was a Laidlaw year. Instead of everyone heading out to Wyoming we spent the holiday at Ryan & Darci's house since it was a central location with enough room for a large group of laughing obnoxious adults...and kids. Normally we go to Riverton, WY but since everyone was taking a week off work for our Hawaii trip in January, it was decided it would be easier to stay in Utah this year. (Eric's parents were ever so kind and gave everyone a trip to Hawaii for their present!)

Christmas Eve we stopped by Sarah's to visit her and the baby, and drop off Christmas gifts to be sent home to California.

We then arrived at the Laidlaws for the night, which consisted of clam chowder and a cookie exchange. Each family made a batch of cookies to share with everyone else. We ended up with seven or so different types of cookies aka about 16 dozen. It was a great idea and probably a tradition that will continue to next year, but I think next time a dozen cookies per family is plenty. Christmas morning was spent opening gifts, cooking, playing w/the niece and nephew, etc. Eric and I did our Christmas gifts to each other a little different this year. We had a $20 limit (which comes out to be $25 or so because we all know one can never stick to a budget) and it was to be spent at none other than Wal-Mart. We knew we'd be spending quite a bit of money in Hawaii so we decided to be simple and fun. We drove to Wal-Mart Christmas Eve and took off in different directions armed with our own shopping cart and money. We had about 30 minutes to find fun little surprises to buy as presents. It was great! It made us be creative and sneaky as we checked out our loot. I'm horrible with surprises...I love them, but I go CRAZY when Eric has a surprise for me or when I have one for him and can't tell him. By shopping the night before Christmas, it was easy to keep a secret for just one night. I was surprised by all of my little gifts.
Our tree:
Their tree: In case you can't tell from the pics, there is about a 4 ft. and 500 branch count difference between the two!

Although we missed Wyoming, we loved the snowy white Christmas here in Utah with family. Thanks Ryan and Darci for opening your house to ALL of us for 3 days and having it decorated so fun!

Us after shoveling snow for an hour... 1 duplex = 2 driveways = good work out!

A Day of Thanks with Family

2009-01-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving weekend was EXTREMELY busy for us this year. It was nice to spend time with the Young side of the family, but I was exhausted in the end. Grandpa & Grandma Kreipl had dinner and stayed the night with us. It was a treat to be able to have some one-on-one visit time with them. Eric and I spent Thanksgiving morning/afternoon baking Sweet Potato Souffle, a Green Bean Casserole, and Rainbow Jello. Dinner was at Sarah's & Creighton's and we had a full house. My parents and brother, Bryson, drove up for the holiday, so we were able to enjoy the day with them, along with my grandparents. I have to admit I do not like turkey (too bird-y) nor mashed potatoes (too potato-y) so Thanksgiving dinner is never a favorite of mine. However, I do enjoy most all of the other side dishes (especially the ones we bring)!

Eric & I went shopping on Friday of course to hit the sales. We weren't as crazy as my family who got up at 3:00 a.m. to shop in Park City as they open at midnight on Thanksgiving. (I would've liked to have gone then, but my hubby isn't much of a shopper let alone getting up at extreme hours to do go!) It's sort of a tradition for us to go to the movies with my family so we saw the new James Bond movie (too much killing and blah), saw the lights on Temple Square and went to dinner.

The fun didn't end there...Saturday we held an open house style baby shower for Sarah at our house so that family could get to visit. We had a great time visiting with some of Creighton's family and the Clark/Gardner (Grandma Kreipl's) side of the family. Sunday was baby Dawson's blessing in Lehi and luncheon afterward.

I never thought I'd say it, but it was a relief to go to work on Monday!!

He Conquered the FE!

2008-12-22T09:47:00.004-07:00

He passed! Eric found out last week that he passed the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering Exam)and we couldn't be more excited and relieved. It's a pretty intense test that most study long and hard for and we are glad to have it out of the way. Eric decided to attempt the exam last minute and gave himself hardly any studying time; then due to his homework load this past semester he did not have time to study for it whatsoever. He was mostly taking the test on a whim for the experience of it. The plan was to use this attempt as a trial run and prepare better for it next year...well now we don't have to. So this summer we'll be able to play more and have no school stressors whatsoever! Good job love!

Twilight the Movie a.k.a. Girls Night Out

2008-12-08T08:53:00.007-07:00

I got together with my sister-in-laws that live here in Utah (Sarah, Darci, & Fabi) to go see Twilight on the Friday right after its opening debut. We were all so excited and had been waiting in anticipation for this evening for quite some time. First, we had dinner at the Olive Garden and then watched the movie at the Jordan Commons Megaplex. Of course we had to go out for dessert/hot cocoa afterwards to gab about all the details of the movie. It was so fun to have a Twilight splurge session with a bunch of gals that love the books. I was worried that seeing the movie so close to opening night we'd have a bunch of obnoxious teens in the theater screaming the whole time and I wouldn't be able to hear any of the movie. However, I was pleasantly surprised and grateful that the squealing was minimal--I think Darci did more "ahs, ohs, and eeehs" then anyone else (love her). As for my thoughts on the movie, I liked it! Of course it wasn't the best movie ever made, it was LOW budget. Yes, it was mega cheesy in many scenes and there were quite a few differences from the books. But, I expected all of this when I went in to see it since I had watched so many clips and trailers which didn't hide these facts. What I enjoyed is that I was able to see the characters from a book series I love come to life AND despite all the make-up, those Cullens are pretty nice to look at!
(Notice how Darci and I are sportin' the Twilight attire. I made my shirt: the front says "La Push Cliff Diving Team" the back says "I am Switzerland"...although I'm definitely more "Team Edward")

A Laidlaw Halloween

2008-11-04T12:29:00.007-07:00

This year, we spent Halloween with the Laidlaw family at Ryan's and Darci's house. Most everyone dressed up, minus Eric and Jon. There was TONS of candy, chili, chips, sugar cookie decorating, pumpkin carving and decorating, a little "Hocus Pocus" and lots of laughing. I really wanted to be JLo for Halloween...you know the sparkly diamond face Jennifer Lopez from her music video "Waiting for Tonight", 1999. Unfotunately I couldn't find an appropriate JLo outfit, so I ended up turning into a Hannah Montana groupie.
The Adventures of Peter Pan brings you....

Tiger Lily, Peter Pan, and the nasty Captain Hook

Dracula man chomping on Vampire girl

The girls:

Thomas & Julia
(It is not easy to get two kids to hold still for a picture)

Pumpkin decorating....kid style (aka easy clean up)

Left to Right (Back) Eric, Jon, & their lil' dog, Sara, Me, Fabi, Thomas, Darci, Ryan, (Front) Julia, Nate, & the top of Thomas' head

And of course me with Dawson (his hair looks orange in this pic but I promise they didn't dye it...nor is it orange in real life:)

I am...

2008-10-31T16:30:00.006-06:00

I've been slow in responding to this tag, but here it is finally...
I am: a girl
I know: Jesus is the Christ.
I want: to be skinny like I was in the pre-mish days
I have: a house
I dislike: baby corns (seriously they are the grossest vegetable ever grown)
I miss: the beach
I feel: warm
I hear: the copier machine (I’m at work…otherwise I wouldn’t be on the computer)
I smell: Papa Johns pizza (we had a party at work…it’s Halloween!)
I crave: frothies from Starbuck’s (chocolate milk blended with ice, squirt of coconut, whip cream and sprinkled with cinnamon…it’s my own creation mmm…)
I cry: over sappy movies occasionally?
I search: online for everything!
I wonder: about eternal principles
I regret: not keeping in better touch with people from my mission
I love: my handsome hubby
I care: about my family
I worry: about food storage (mostly because I don’t do anything about it LOL)
I remember: fun trips to Dinkey Creek
I believe: most people are honestly good people
I dance: Tahitian style but only to the mirror
I don't: have a new car
I argue: never…I only discuss and disagree LOL!
I write: e-mails
I win: when I got married (I guess that would be “won”)
I lose: my keys, bras, footies, tweezers, cell phone, purse, sunglasses, chapstick, rings, etc…..
I wish: Eric was done with school but I’m trying to find “joy in the journey”
I listen: to my new lil’ nephew breath when he’s sleeping (it’s the cutest)
I can usually be found: reading, at work, and if it’s after work always with Eric
I am scared: of spiders and bees (terrified but I’m working on this:)
I need: to laugh, be loved, and talk
I forget: where I put all the things I lose
I am happy: when it’s warm and sunny and people are nice!

Tag: Anyone is it!

The Spice Queen

2008-10-27T08:53:00.005-06:00

This past Saturday, Eric and I attended our ward's annual Halloween Chili Cook-off party and we actually entered the contest! First, I have to give a little background which I'm sure Eric will disagree with, but since he doesn't make any posts, he doesn't have much say :). Last Sunday, they passed around a sign-up for the cook-off and Eric told me after church that he signed us up. I was fine with that since I told him I thought it would be fun to enter the contest....mind you I've never made chili before, unless you count heating up canned chili. I'm not a very big chili fan at all since I don't do the whole ground beef thing but we both like competitions.

I remembered later that week that Eric had to take the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) Exam, an 8 hour test, on Saturday. This posed a bit of a predicament since Saturday was also the chili day. Sure I had thought it would be fun to sign up, but I had really expected Eric to do the cooking since he usually does. I searched most amazing recipe site around, allrecipes.com, for the best chili recipe they had, because I couldn't enter and not make a gourmet chili.

After over 2 hours slaving away in the kitchen chopping, cutting, dicing, stirring, opening, trying not to gag while smelling the ground beef cooking, a masterpiece was created. We let the chili simmer all day and took it to the cook-off, where I was presented with a gold Burger King crown, and granted the Queen of Spiciness. There were over 20 different chili’s made, and only 3 categories...and we were WINNERS! Doesn't mean it was the best chili, but it was the spiciest. I was proud:) Eric actually tried all of the chili’s several times and thought ours was the best besides being spicy...but since he is my husband, he might be a little biased.

If anyone's interested the recipe is called the Boilermaker Tailgate Chili. It's a recipe used at the Purdue Boilermaker football games.

As a disclaimer, I modified this recipe a bit, taking other people's comments/suggestions into consideration and using my own preferences. Eric and I can handle "hot" things really well, so we didn't think it was even that spicy. So don't be afraid of a lil' kick, but don't worry, you won't need the fire hose.

This isn't a picture of my chili, but this chili looks the same as mine, minus the serving bowl :).

Yes, I am Twilight Fan...

2008-10-10T14:04:00.006-06:00

Eric is NOT! I think he's the typical male who is anti the whole Twilight series becuase his wife got sucked into them and "disappeared" for a few days, weeks, etc. Seriously, he wants nothing to do with them. He's even suggested making a "Don't Call Me Edward" club. (Not because I call him Edward, because I don't, I'm not even "Team Edward", okay wait, I am.) Mostly because he just can't stand the hearing the word twilight, let alone Edward or Bella. I'm a typical reader--I like the story of the books, but I'm not in love with the characters like many crazy fans out there. Anyhow, my point to this blog is that the NEW and FINAL trailer is now available for watching and it is SOOOOO good. If you haven't jumped on the Twilight Series band wagon you are missing out! I don't have a MySpace, so I can't embed the actual trailer, but to see the HD version on MySpace click here Make sure you make the video full screen. Enjoy!
Wait, I might have been able to get it to work....for your viewing pleasure.
Twilight HD Exclusive Trailer

Our Egan St. Abode

2008-10-03T10:34:00.010-06:00

Finally some pics! Eric has been on my case for quite some time now about posting pictures of our side of the house since it was redone after the water damage. It's funny that he's been so persistent about me blogging them b/c he doesn't really want to have anything to do with the blog. Personally, I think he just likes to read the comments:) But I agreed that since I posted pictures of the disaster, I should also post pictures of the restoration. So here is the side of our cute lil' duplex that we live in: (BEWARE: Bare walls throughout, we still have not put up half our pictures....a work in progress)
Living Room:

Kitchen: (It's a bit dirty...sorry)

Hallway:

Bathroom:

Our Bedroom:

Eric kept getting in my way so I had to post this pic just for him:)
Spare Bedroom: not pictured b/c it is in a disaray. This room is used as an office/workout room/laundry room/guest room. So as you can imagine it has so much going on it does not deserve a picture at this time.

Utah State Fair

2008-09-29T09:32:00.002-06:00

We went to the Utah State Fair on Sept. 13th for my b-day. I've always wanted to go to a rodeo...and this is the closest thing we got to a rodeo. It was fun but definitely not a cowboy affair. I seriously wanted to buy some wranglers, boots and a cowgirl hat and wear my brown button-up western style shirt that Eric can't stand, but I opted out. Maybe next time. There was lots of expensive, tasty fair food, a cool reptile show and an exciting tiger performance. I am not a pet person at all, however, I love exotic animals. I would take a tiger or more preferably a lion cub any day and move to Africa to raise it. Eric on the other hand will not allow me to fulfill this dream. I can't forget to mention that there were lots of commericial booths trying to reel you into buying their "as seen on TV" type products. I thought they were fascinating to watch and let me just say that I get reeled in. If Eric wasn't with me, I probably would have come home with all of these random household items that were junk but thought they were the coolest invention. He's a bit wiser and can't stand sales people in general...so he kept me under control. All-in-all, the fair was a hot, fun day probably a bit more geared towards kids. Here's some of the highlights:

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Sadler

2008-09-29T08:20:00.013-06:00

My super rad MTC companion, Lesley, got married to her beau, Parker, on September 12th (my Birthday)! So fun...their anniversary date will be easy to remember. Lesley is such an awesome friend. Even though we went to different missions, New York New York South and Tallahassee Florida, we kept in touch throughout and her letters were such a strength to me. Well, she finally found her true love and they got hitched in the Salt Lake Temple and have since moved to Seattle while she attends grad school. It was such a gorgeous wedding and they are a good looking couple. I just love her and am so excited for the fun adventures that lay ahead of them. Hopefully we'll get to visit them in Washington next summer!
The newly weds

I wish I had some better pics, but with so many people around at a reception, it's hard to get just the two of them and I forgot my camera at the temple :(
The get-a-way car

Blowing out my "birthday candle"

Announcing....Baby McEwen!

2008-09-15T12:15:00.009-06:00

I have the most darling new lil' nephew. He's so stinkin' cute. Sarah just had her baby a few weeks ago and it has been so fun for the Young family. I wanted to post a "Yea yea yea" blog about this the day he was born, but I told her I wouldn't steal the glory and I'd let her post the news on her blog first, which she did...so it's my turn! Seriously, he's a darling baby boy and I just love him. It was fun to be there at the hospital before he was born (unfortunately he came after visiting hours so I didn't get to see him until the next day)...and then hold the lil' tyke after his birth. When she was in labor I thought to myself "yeah, and this is why I think I'll hold off having a baby...not fun...people say it's worth it afterward but I would have to disagree." However, when I got to go back to the hospital and hold him the next day, my thoughts changed to "oh he's so precious, yeah, I think maybe I could have one of these...but a girl." Good thing that's still awhile down the road though. So here's the stats on the new baby with some cute pics...some of which I snagged from Sarah's blog:
Name: Baby Boy McEwen (he does have a cute name, however, for privacy/safety reasons I am not posting it)

Birthdate/time: Tues. Aug. 26th at 9:04 pm (11 days early)
Weight: 7.5 lbs.
Length: 19.5"

The new parents

My Favorite

We have a Renter!

2008-09-11T09:15:00.007-06:00

We FINALLY finished the remodel on the rental side of the duplex on Labor Day and just last night signed a Lease with our soon to be renter/neighbor. It was such a relief and feeling of accomplishment to have finished slaving away. Although we still have minor things to finish, it is pretty much DONE. Now we can have a life. Some of Eric’s siblings came over on Saturday for a family day and our good friends the Pereira’s came over Sunday for a BBQ and catchin’ up! It does help having people over now that we have couches again. So here are the before and after pics of what we’ve been working on every evening/Saturday for the last 2 months. I’m so behind on my bloggin’….sorry!

Oh and the renter, her name is Rae--we think she is going to be awesome!

In these before pics besides all of the previous tenant's clutter/junk it doesn't look that bad, but once it was gone it was disgusting. Carpets were thrashed (putting it mildly) the kitchen was like a food bomb went off inside and never cleaned. Pretty much the whole place was a dirt infested unloved house.
BEFORE:

AFTER:
(We refinished the oringinal oak hardwood, tiled the kitchen and bathroom, painted the entire house, including trim/baseboards, cleaned and cleaned, fixed broken doors, closets, caulked, etc.)

My Many Faces

2008-08-27T15:14:00.004-06:00

As I have been looking through our photos from our mission trip along the gulf coast I noticed several things: 1) I have the same classic cheesy grin in 90% of our pics (see below) and 2) in the other 10% of the pics I have a vast range of expressions that are a bit scary (see below). I just can't help it--no matter how hard I try I always end up making some silly face. Let's just say it wasn't easy trying to take wedding pics. I think this just about sums it up...

** Eric is just about as bad as I am w/the cheesy smile and funny facial twists. I'll have to do one of him--some of his pics make me laugh so hard.

We are Still Alive

2008-08-25T17:12:00.005-06:00

I guess it's been a long time since I've posted real updates--we are still here, just mega busy. I'm going to give the brief synopsis of the last month or so and then additional more detailed posts will follow once I upload pics.

We moved into our new house July 12th and began remodeling the other side of the duplex so that it would be ready to be rented July 17th. As of today, we are still working on the remodel and we pretty much work on it nearly every evening. It is almost done and we have some great before and after pics that will come (sorry Sara...please don't be mad, they are coming and so is the party).

We sold our couch and currently don't have a new one to replace it...

AND we just took the best trip of our lives and went back to our mission for the last 10 days. I guess it's good to be back, but I'd so much rather be in the South. Yes, for those of you who didn't know, Eric and I served in the same mission. No, we were not lovers on the mission, in fact, we barely knew each other. Us even dating was incredibly random and coincidental. But that is a long story and will be told at another time...if there is interest in hearing it. So we went back to OUR mission and couldn't have had a more perfect trip. I've got nearly 1000 pics (so fun) so I'll post a day by day of the trip once we upload our SD cards!

August 5, 2008 - Two Year Anniversary

2008-08-08T13:19:00.011-06:00

We've been married for two years now (3 days ago...I was a little slow posting) and it is amazing how time works. It seems like our actually wedding day was so long ago and yet it's fresh in my mind. Our wedding day was a PERFECT day. The weather was gorgeous especially for blistering hot August temperatures in So. California. Everything was beautiful. Our sealing was so personal, so real, and just for us. Eric is perfect for me. It's interesting how prior to him, I didn't understand love and it's immensity whatsoever. Anyone who knows me knows that I was not exactly committal to relationships throughout my dating life and lost interest in guys so quickly. I just couldn't imagine that I'd ever find someone that could keep a hold on me. When Eric and I were dating, I'd joke with him ... more so WARNING him that I was the runaway bride type (not that I ran from engagements...but rather relationships). We were pretty funny with the analogies and he'd just respond back that he'd tie my shoelaces together so I couldn't run away. I laughed because I knew that would never work! So he decided then that he would just hit me with a 2 x 4 and see if that did the trick. Guess it must've worked! Seriously though, my hot husband is amazing. We think that we are the most in love couple that ever existed. As much as I think that's true, I hope that it's not because everyone deserves to feel loved like I do. And to find the one they truly love! Sorry for the sap, but what can I say, I'm blessed:)

Here's a cute story from our wedding day that describes Eric's personality superbly:

Notice in how the temple picture I am wearing a "Calypso" colored sash with my dress. Notice how in the pictures from our reception at my parent's house that I am missing the sash??? Well there's a good reason for that. I lost it. Well technically it slipped out of pocket thing on my wedding dress bag and was left at the temple. As I was getting ready for our reception I realized the sash was nowhere to be found. I came to the conclusion that it fell out and was probably long gone. (Actually someone turned it in at the temple and one of my good friends went back a few days later to retrieve it for us).

I was devastated. My wedding colors, flowers, decor, nearly everything was centered around the color of my sash, and now for the reception I would be without it. I was so sad and mopey. Our photographer was hurrying everyone together for photos and I just couldn't smile because I was so stuck on this missing piece of material. It's funny to look back and think how dramatic I was being. I was being a girl and an over stressed bride. Then comes my hero.
Eric pulled me towards him, in my dress now adorned with just a thin, simple white ribbon, and points out the following: my pink sash was great, it'll look fabulous in the temple pictures, but it was the eye catcher of the dress and that's where most of the attention goes rather than to the dress itself. He said that now without the sash catching one's attention, the focus will be on the entire ensemble...His simple observation totally changed my perspective and took away all of my gloominess over my loss as I realized what he said. Like I preluded to before.... I’m the WINNER!!

Happy Birthday Eric!

2008-06-30T12:38:00.012-06:00

Eric's birthday was this past Saturday...he turned 24! For the next 2.5 months I am only one year older than him. For his b-day, I made him breakfast (with his bro's help) we toured Mt. Timpanogos caves, had dinner at Red Robin, and then saw Iron Man at the REAL movie theater--shocking for us since we usually only go to the dollar theater.

I did a tribute to him on this new website "Photatobug.com" that my boss is currently in the process of helping to create. It's only in the beta testing stage right now, so all I have is the link to view it with. So to check out some HOT & FUNNY photos of Eric, watch this

View PhotatoBug Slideshow

House Update

2008-06-27T11:41:00.004-06:00

Eric and I closed on our house this morning! Yes, this is the house that is shown in the previous "Homeless" post. Since the disaster, there has been a restoration company in there, ripping out damaged areas of sheet rock, soundboard, insulation, baseboard, cabinets, counter tops, and all of the flooring. At the same time, Eric and I have been picking out new baseboards, new counter tops, new paint colors, new flooring (we are getting solid hardwood floors), etc. It's been stressful, but in some ways quite fun to choose what we want in it. The best part of it all is that the Owner's insurance is paying for it all. So we are going to have a better home than if we had bought it without all the damage happening to it. Another cool thing is that Eric, with his brothers, Nate's and Ryan's help, have been relocating the washing machine and dryer from the kitchen to the closet of the extra bedroom. (See previous location of W/D here.) We are putting in more cabinets and counter space where the W/D were. They've been slaving away for days redoing the plumbing, electrical, and venting...but it is finally done. However, the reconstruction is not yet finished.

We think and are hoping that everything will be done soon and that we'll be able to move in the weekend after the 4th of July! Which means we are still having a month long slumber party with Ryan, Darci, & Thomas. They have been so so so good to us. They have been so hospitable, easy going, and understanding--absolutely great to live with! Thanks guys!

My First Tag—Picture Tag!

2008-06-23T14:27:00.011-06:00

I chose this one because it was short, quick, and easy and didn’t take much thought:).
Katie, Sarah, Sara, Darci, Erin, Bryn and anyone else who wants to...YOU’RE IT!

Favorite Food:

Middle name:

Favorite place to be:

Favorite Color: all shades of blue

A place I'd like to visit:

My major in school:

A favorite holiday:

The name of a past pet: She was my lamb.

My age at my next birthday:

Homeless

2008-06-09T10:50:00.020-06:00

This is an exciting story, but hold tight 'cause it's a LONG one! If you get bored part way through and quit reading that’s just fine. I'm recording this for Laidlaw history and for those who've been asking how the move went!

Eric and I have been in the home buying process for the last month. We found a cute little duplex in Layton, Utah that we decided to buy. Eric still has a few more years in school, so we thought it'd be a great investment to buy this home and live in one side of the duplex and rent the other side out, helping pay for our mortgage. There is already tenant renting the other side (which makes things easy on us) and she does a fabulous job of taking care of the property.

PREFACE: I was going to blog these pics and announce us buying a home last Friday, but decided to wait until we officially moved. Well, since I didn't blog this earlier and so much happened over the weekend...that explains the long bloggage:)

These are some pictures of the house. They only show the side we'd be living in and only one of the two bedrooms. (Oh, and the decorating is not ours, but the previous owner's.)

For the last 2 weeks we have been trying to close on this home, but as anyone who is trying to buy right now knows, it is not any easy process. We have an awesome broker who has informed us that we are perfect candidates for a loan but because of all of the foreclosures, underwriters are being extremely careful and picky, and the fact that we are buying a duplex makes it even more difficult because there aren't a lot of comparables in the Layton area for the appraisal.

We were supposed to close May 28th, but that date was pushed back since we didn't have our loan yet and the seller hadn't completed all of the repairs that we requested. Well, each day since the 28th we have been told we'll close tomorrow, we'll close tomorrow, we'll close tomorrow... Meanwhile, Eric and I told our apartment complex manager people that we would not be renewing our contract, and so our lease expiration date was set for June 9th, as in TODAY!

We've been extremely stressed trying to make things work out with moving. Since we thought we would've closed 2 weeks ago we thought we had ample time to move out. We had a U-Haul rented for this past Saturday, the Elders Quorums from both wards scheduled to help us move out, everything was great, except for the closing. Lucky us, our seller is really flexible and told us we could move in even though we hadn't closed yet.

So Eric picked up the key to the house Friday night, from the seller's agent. We finished our packing and had EVERYTHING we own in boxes, completely ready to be moved on Saturday. We picked up the U-Haul; we had 7 people from the ward to help us move and had everything in the truck in 1 hour!!! A flawless move. We were 2 hours ahead of schedule, so we sat around and visited with fellow ward members for 30mins before driving up to Layton to unload.

Now here is where things get SOUR. We get to the house and I visit with the renter next door and discuss the lease she is going to be signing. The Maytag delivery guy shows up to drop off our new washer and dryer so Eric helps him. Then, 10 mins or so later, Eric comes next door (where I am at with the renter) and tells me in this very serious voice that he needs to talk with me outside...alone. Once outside he says, "Now I want you to imagine the worse case scenario." Which doesn't make any sense for me, "worse case scenario" what? So I say, "They brought us the wrong washer and dryer didn't they?" And he says, "Worse." So I think, "They are charging us full price for them and the seller isn't paying for them as we had agreed upon?" Eric begins to see that I'm not comprehending a "worse case scenario" and just takes me inside the house to see the problem. We open the front door, and I walk in and don't see anything, but then I HEAR the problem.

Sorry, I know this is getting REALLY long, but I'm not good at cutting out the small details.

I hear water running...not from a faucet, but from the ceiling. And I SMELL this gross, mildewy, old, dirty, WRONG smell. And I step into the living room to see this...

Yep. This is our new house. But lucky for us, we haven't closed yet, so in all reality this is still the seller's house and HIS problem to fix. We both were in shock, completely in shock. All I could do was mouth "No way" over and over again. If you can't assess the damage fully from the pictures, here's the synopsis. The tile floor is lifting and sinking in the kitchen, the fridge, microwave, and range are ruined, along with the countertops and cabinets, the carpets are soaked in all of the rooms of the house and spreading under the wall to the tenant's unit next door. This is an older home, so there are hardwood floors underneath the carpet which are sagging about 3/4", you can see from the living room picture the main support beams showing through and the dips in between. The insulation is ruined along with the electrical. Pretty much it’s just a big disaster.

It has been semi-determined that the plumber who went to adjust/fix something on the house last Monday did something seriously wrong to the water line for the swamp cooler. The water has been running into the ceiling/air conditioning duct at full speed for over 5 days...we think it finally got turned off last night by some heating and electric guy from the ward.

After taking these pictures, we got back in our U-Haul and drove to Eric's brother's house in Saratoga Springs where we unloaded the entire 24' truck into their garage. To put this trip into perspective, we drove around 150+ miles on a truck that was having transmission problems, getting less than 8 mi/gallon. What we thought would cost $100 turned into a several hundred dollar expenditure, just to move our stuff further than its original destination.

Since our lease is up and Towne Gate has no more openings for us to move back in, we are officially HOMELESS.

Well, that's not true entirely. We have been flooded with compassion and hospitality from all of our family and friends. Eric's brother and our sister-in-law are allowing us to stay with them for as long as we need to get things worked out. And let's just say the accommodations are quite posh! They recently built a gorgeous home and just moved in themselves 2 weeks ago. If you want to see pics, check out their blog from my family list: Ryan & Darci. They are being so truly wonderful to us right now. We've even had some friends and co-workers who live a lot closer to our works offer for us to stay with them. We are so blessed to have so many charitable people in our lives.

We have no idea what we are going to do as of now, whether we'll continue with the sale on condition that the seller's insurance COMPLETELY redo the entire house and make it better than it was before or if we'll look for something else, or nothing at all. Everything is up in the air...we want to consider all of our options, but we know that we felt really good on this house and the situation (prior to the flood blast) so we don't want to be patient. We feel it was such a blessing that the home didn't close earlier and that Heavenly Father was watching out for us...He saw the bigger picture, as always. We'll keep everyone updated. I do have to say though that I think I am handling the situation quite well...mostly trying to laugh at it all and not get more stressed than already was prior to seeing the damage:)

"Who are they from?"

2008-06-05T10:35:00.007-06:00

My husband is the best! He gets my breakfast and lunch ready for me in the mornings, along with his too. He even makes me dinner about 95% of the time. It's not that I don't like to cook, I really do, but I don't like the mess it makes and raw chicken grosses me out. So we have a pretty good system. Eric starts getting dinner ready and I clean up after him, rinsing the measuring cups, putting the spices back, spraying the countertops right after any chix guts get on them, etc. I'm not OCD at all...it's only with the kitchen.

A while back I mentioned to Eric that it'd be great if he did small cute surprises for me, that were out of the ordinary things. I didn't tell him this because he doesn't do a lot for me, (as I mentioned above he is always taking care of me), but mostly I brought this up because I'm a girl, and girls like sweet surprises. I told him that he didn't actually have to carry out the idea--it'd be great if he thought of things he'd like to do for me. I just want to know that he's thinking of them:) Well, days and weeks went by and I'd completely forgotten about our conversation. Then on one random Thursday at work I came back from lunch to find these on my desk...

They were beautiful and in a vase! I was so shocked I had to go ask Clarissa, who I work with, "Who are they from?" Now let me clarify, it wasn't that I thought Eric wouldn't have given me the flowers, but with his work location and schedule I didn't think it'd be possible for him to drop them off, nor would he pay for someone to deliver them. He is all about doing things himself.

But they were from him. He surprised me alright. He picked out the flowers and the vase himself and put the arrangement together. He did all of this on his lunch and sped like a demon to my work to drop them off while I was out. Why? For no reason at all. Like I said he's the best!

Spring is in Full Bloom

2008-06-03T13:18:00.028-06:00

Eric and I went with Pereira family to downtown Salt Lake City a few Sundays ago to see the flowers at Temple Square. We took Trax to the temple and walked the temple grounds enjoying the warm weather and blue skies. Going from 40 degrees to 80 degrees in a few weeks is a bit tramatic for me. Don't get me wrong I LOVE the sun and its warmth, but my body doesn't adjust to the change as quickly as my brain does. Being a California girl I'm not used to snow one day and beach weather the next....so I was so thirsty the entire time. I'm glad we brought our nalgeen bottle, because I think I drank 4 bottles worth in the 2 hours we were gone.

It was so fun to be out chillin' with Pereira family, we really enjoy the Brazilian-Alaskan Trio. Eric and I don't have any lil' kids of our own, but that doesn't mean we don't love playing with the lil' tykes! And Owen is so so so much fun to chase after. He is one of the most hilarious lil' boys so full of excitement and energy.

Meet the Pereiras: Rachel (Ms. Alaska), Owen (Mr. Dangerous), and Bruno (Mr. Brazil)

There weren't any "Keep Out" or "No Swimming" signs (maybe its just implied;)-

Owen's first time with sandals. The guys trying to demonstrate how to use your toes to hold on to them.

Eric having a photo shoot--can we say nerdy?

I'm just about the farthest thing from a photographer, but I'm posting my efforts. I was inspired by Rachel taking pics of the flowers up close and so I thought I'd experiment.

THE END

The Best Summer Ever

2008-06-03T13:10:00.006-06:00

A few weeks ago, after Eric’s finals, he announced that this was going to be “the best summer ever!” He was so excited to FINALLY have a break from school this summer and have the freedom to get out and DO things other than studying ALL day. the other day, we created a summer “to do list”, not a boring one full of dreadful tasks, but a list of all the FUN we want to have this summer. The list became quite extensive, so some of it will definitely have to be spread out over the next few years that we live here in Utah.

ADVENTURE #1: The Capitol Building in SLC.
This building has had some renovations to it recently (hence the construction fence) and it is simply beautiful. We went right around sunset and had a great time touring the grounds and sneaking through the building. One of the high schools was having their prom there that night, so it was in the “pre-production” stage. I’d love to go to some fancy dance there and get all dressed up, it’s the perfect place for that sort of fun!

The main reason Eric wanted to go here was to see the huge lions that they recently added to the outside. I couldn't resist putting this picture up since he was so excited about them.

"When We're Helping We're Happy..."

2008-05-19T12:51:00.013-06:00

I would have never guessed that picking up trash could be so exciting....well at least for 3 and 4 year olds. For our Primary Quarterly Activity, we tried planning a fun service project cleaning up a member's yard. But when your Primary consists of mostly children under the age of 5, people don't get too excited about having children come "clean-up" their yard. Lucky for us our neighborhood is in the less posh region of Salt Lake City, more commonly known as the "ghettos", so we have lots of trash and garbage built up along the street, at the parks, in front yards, etc.

I felt a bit like a failure when I couldn't find a place for the children to go plant a garden at, or pull weeds, or clean windows and rake leaves. I mean who really wants to walk a measly 2 blocks away and pick up trash along the sidewalk for a service activity? To my surprise, when I told the kids Saturday a.m. what we'd be doing for service, they were ecstatic about the idea of picking up trash!! SOMETIMES it can be easy to please lil' tots.

Our little Sunbeams and CTRs got so excited over every piece of trash they found along the way...it was like a little treasure hunt. I absolutely love getting to spend time with these children, hear their stories, and watch them interact with one another. They have such bright and hilarious personalities. By the time we got to the park where the actual service was to take place, they got so distracted by the jungle gym, flowers, and swings that they were done with service for the day and ready to play. Most of the leaders continued to rake up the pine needles and pick up the remainder of trash with the help of the Senior Primary.

After the clean up we my 1st counselor, Susel, had games and activities ready and Eric was already grilling up hot dogs for chomping on. We ended up with about 8 or so extra kids from the community who joined us in eating. I am proud to say we didn't have any food left over!

This was my last activity as Primary President before we move (a blog with details is to come...) so I was kinda sad about it, but I'm glad the overall activity was a success. I failed to bring my camera for this activity so I don't have pics, but instead, I'll post pics of our activity from January.

For this activity, we rode Trax down to Temple Square, visited the Museum of Church History, I am a Child of God exhibit, and then enjoyed walking around Temple Square. This activity fit perfectly with this year's annual Primary theme: I am a Child of God.

Loved It!

2008-05-15T08:02:00.005-06:00

"A fantastic, inventive, thoughtful, and powerful novel. The Host will keep you reading well into the wee hours of night, and keep you thinking, deeply, hauntingly, well after the final word." —Ridley Pearson, author of Killer Weekend

I just finished reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer and absolutely loved it! I became "obsessed" over her Twilight series books and have read those sadly to say 5 times through. Eric will not touch the things since I was completely absorbed by those books last year. However, I did get him to watch the new movie trailer....Anyhow, I really wasn't excited about reading her new book The Host because I'm not a Sci-Fi girl at all--I've never seen a Star Wars episode! That stuff just doesn't spark my interest whatsoever. Well, Sarah called me to tell me the book is only $14.95 at Costco, compared to $25.99 everywhere else so I thought "okay, okay" I'll read it. To be honest the first two chapters were quite confusing and hard for me to get into, but once I figured out what was going on, all I could do was read. It was a very capturing book and I highly recommend it. But I am proud to say I didn't get all crazy with it like Twilight, but that's only because there was just one book for me to read, not three.

A Wyoming Weekend

2008-02-20T14:25:00.012-07:00

For President's Day weekend, Eric and I went to good ol' Wyoming for some outdoor adventure. Eric is from a small town called Riverton which is only a 4.5 hour drive from Salt Lake City. We had the best time getting away from all the stressors of school, work, and our callings and just relaxing. I absolutely love Wyoming for that reason--it's my escape. We went ice fishing on Boisen Reservoir a.k.a. a FROZEN lake! I have never done anything like this before and was so excited for the adventure. The ice was 2.5 feet thick--strong enough to hold a semi. We drilled holes with this big ogger drill thing that Eric's dad has and placed the tippets in each hole. There were 12 holes altogether. I ate it only once on the ice. The first tippet went up and Eric and I raced to the hole...of course it had to be the one of the farthest holes from where we were waiting. I was shuffle, sliding, trotting pretty good until I took one wrong step and flipped flat on my back. It was a good thing I had my beanie on to cushion my head somewhat. Eric was so worried about me he left the fish to help me. I kept telling him I was fine and to get the fish but he wouldn't listen. AND I was perfectly fine...a lil' sore, but fine. We rode the four wheeler around and just enjoyed the freezing cold. After many hours of fishing we caught 3 Rainbow Trout, averaging 3.5 lbs. or so!

Eric's dad took the first attempt at the ice let's just say it wasn't too reassuring. I guess you have to get past the first few feet where the ice is weak from shallow water and the sun melting it.

On Monday we drove the long way back to Salt Lake City through Jackson Hole. Our purpose in doing so was to go on the sleigh ride on the Elk Refudge. The weather was incredible, especially for Wyoming--no wind! We stopped along the way and took lots pics of the Tetons. I'm a geography girl so I find the landscape to be absolutely spectacular. The Elk Refuge was great. We saw a two bald eagles and got "up close and personal" with some gigantic elk. Thousands of elk were just a few feet from us!

It was so good to get away...yet never long enough!

Where Do I Belong?

2008-02-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

You Belong in London

A little old fashioned, and a little modern.
A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock.
A unique soul like you needs a city that offers everything.
No wonder you and London will get along so well.

What City Do You Belong In?

Happy Birthday Sarah

2008-02-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

Otanjoubi Omedetou Gozaimasu! My sister, Sarah, turned 27 today! Happy Birthday to her! Our family isn't huge into doing birthday gifts, cards, and parties for siblings so this is about as good as it gets. But for memories sake, here are a few fun pics from the past to relive the many memories. I do have an absolutely wonderful sister. She's incredibly talented and an amazing teacher...just ask her students!

The entire Young Family with Grandma and Grandpa at the Mt. Kenya Safari Club, Africa (Dec. 1997)

Sarah's high school graduation 1999!

*I'll have to get some younger ones of her up here because she was a super cute lil' girl, but unfortunately I can't find them right now.

Here we go...

2008-02-04T16:05:00.000-07:00

I am the biggest slacker at keeping in touch with people and even worse at writing in my journal (I have not written a single entry since the last day of my mission 10/19/05). And sadly enough, Eric is not much better at either of those than I am....what a great combo!

With that being said, I have no idea how to work this blogger-ing business, but I'm going to try. I've been reading friends' and families' blogs for the past year, avoiding ever starting one of my own. Most all of the blogs I read originally started off with a message somewhat like this one and I guess I am pretty much like everyone else--I am mainly beginning this blog as a way to document our oh so exciting life together and of course to give updates on what's going on in our lives for anyone who's interested. I have been postponing starting our own blog because frankly, we don't really have anything too incredibly exciting going on in our lives; no kids, no homebuilding experiences, no African safaris, etc. BUT, as I got to thinking, we do have so many fun and memorable things that we do together all the time and if I wait until we have kids to start this blogging thing who knows when it'd happen! So the time has come.....