Today we all slept in after yesterday’s birthday festivities–and it didn’t adversely affect our punctuality at church, since today is BOTH daylight savings and stake conference. For stake conference, our stake meets at the Tabernacle at Temple Square, which is an incredible experience. Sitting in that historic building by itself would have been wonderful, but having served my mission at Temple Square, I felt an added measure of enjoyment.
A discreet shot of conference.
Mary slept on a bench for the first part of conference.
One of our speakers was 102 years old, and she was the granddaughter of both President Heber J. Grant and Joseph Fielding Smith. She herself was the General Young Women’s president at one point and was the impetus behind the restoration/building of many church buildings, including the Beehive House, the original Joseph Smith Farm in Palmyra, and the Church History Museum. She told some wonderful stories from her life, and we were all impressed that at 102 years old she could still “rally the faithful.”
But my favorite part of conference was when we learned about our new “forty days of holiness” program. For the next forty days, members of our stake will read through the entire four gospels and 3 Nephi in anticipation of Easter. It’s kind of like Lent, only we’ll be reading about seven pages of scriptures a day instead of giving up something. I am so excited to get started, so I’ll post pictures and start already!
Eventually, the girls couldn’t handle conference, so Abe took them outside and let them play on the square.Mary wanted to push Lydia home.She made it pretty far.We took a walk after dinner, and the girls fell asleep.It’s been an exciting weekend.
Most of all, we will miss my mom soooooooooo much. But we know she’s going to another happy spot, and we are happy she and Grandma have each other for company. We love you, Grandma!! We’ll give Mom lots of hugs and kisses tomorrow to give to you when she gets back.
Happy birthday, Lydia!! We tried to make this the happiest, most fun day for Lydia we could think of. We started off by watching videos of when she was a baby while we cuddled and I told her how exciting it was to meet her this day three years ago. Abe headed downstairs to make pancakes with pureed strawberry syrup, which both girls had fun dipping their pancakes in.
My mom went to the church to fulfill our cleaning assignment so we could have the morning with Lydia together. She is the most selfless person I know. We are so happy to have her here!
Then Lydia and I baked the other half of Lydia’s cake while Abe played with Mary.
Abe did all the dishes while I read to the girls. Then my mom gave the girls matching dresses to wear for Lydia’s birthday. We took Mary’s off so she wouldn’t get it dirty climbing around the movie theater, but they played at home in their matching outfits (my heart pitter-pattering the whole time).
Lydia giving Mary a birthday kiss.
When Abe and I were both finally dressed and ready to go, all of us (including my mom!) headed to the Gateway where we had Dairy Queens before going to Frozen.
Tom joined us for the movie, and he was a great help when Mary escaped near the end and started climbing the stairs at the movie theater.
After the movie, we played outside in the sunshine for a while and let the girls run around. Lydia loved twirling in one of the new dresses Nana gave her for her birthday.
Then we headed to the library and read Lydia a book about birthdays. The protagonist was not only her favorite thing in the world–a cat–but she was wearing a startlingly similar dress to Lydia’s. Then we checked out some pink books in honor of her birthday and headed to the store to pick up some things before going home.
At home, we made frosting and assembled her yellow and strawberry cake. The strawberry turned gray when Lydia dumped in the sprinkles (THE essential ingredient of her cake, in her opinion).
I basically injected pureed strawberries into a regular buttercream icing, and while the result was tasty, the texture left a LOT to be desired. Basically, it fell off of the cake. But Lydia didn’t care since the cake was pink and full of strawberries, and after dinner she enjoyed the whole song-candle-blowing-cake-and-ice-cream-eating process.
Pinterest fail. Maybe I’ll learn how to make a successful, fresh, fruit icing when I take my baking and pastry classes.
Then Abe gave the girls baths and changed them into jammies before we opened presents.
Nana brushed their hair.
Eyeing presents.
Mary was dying to wear a costume, too, so she got to wear this hand-me-down shirt from a family reunion we had years ago. It made her SO happy.This diaper cover completed her look.
For the last hour the girls have been playing with Lydia’s new presents, and right now Abe is trying to make sure they sleep in tomorrow by playing vigorous games of chase-and-throw-the-children.
Then Clark, Swathi, and Balu called from New York and wished Lydia a happy birthday. She relived her whole day in their conversation and kept repeating that she had a fun birthday. She especially loved telling them repeatedly about how the game of chase made her laugh and giggle.
I am beyond ready for bed, so I’m blogging early and will be retiring as soon as I hit publish (hopefully). Happy birthday, my sweet and beautiful Lydia!!!
Lily is at cooking school, so it’s me, Abe, again! I’m a little worried about Lily because earlier this week she developed killer shin splints while working out and her cooking school involves five hours of standing……..let’s just say I’m impressed that she is gutting it out.
I left for work around 7AM and made it in time for our weekly company TGIT (Thank Goodness It’s Thursday) breakfast and meeting. After that I commenced grinding it out on phone calls and e-mails. I did not have any great results today, however, I know that I did great work and the results from that will surely manifest in time. Not too much more to report on the work front.
Meanwhile, back at the house, Lily had a play-date with her friend Jen. After that she took flowers to Marilyn, one of the great ladies she hometeaches, because Marilyn just had surgery. After that, Lily took the girls to a lunch date with Misty at the City Creek Food Court. The only complication was that afer Misty and Lily met up, they split to buy meals at separate places and then could never find each other after that. And so, they didn’t eat or play together, but they certainly intended to!
At home Lily put Mary down for a nap, cleaned the house, taught piano to Lydia, cooked dinner, and then picked up Georgia from the airport once Mary woke up.
You heard right! Georgia was back in town today! We’ve missed her greatly and it’s so nice to see her again! Lydia was so excited to see Georgia (Nanna to her) that on the car ride to the airport she forced herself to stay awake so she could see Georgia, even though she was so tired that her eyes were rolling to the back of her head. When she finally did see Georgia, Lily reports that Lydia gave the biggest smile she has ever given to-date. Mary was very happy too and played peek-a-boo with Georgia in the car.
Lily and Georgia got to catch up a bit at the house before Lily dashed off to cooking school. When I arrived home, I ate with the girls, bathed them and put them to bed, and Georgia cleaned the kitchen and the kid’s room. After the kids were down, Georgia and I had a great time chatting for an hour and a half. She gave me updates about her life as well as how Grandma Cullen is doing (Hi Grandma) and I told Georgia all about how much I am liking my new job at Qualtrics. And now I’m blogging!
Pictures!
Lydia having a tender moment with her cat
Mary being happy!Mary laughing in the car as she played peek-a-boo with GeorgiaMary being content
I spent all morning cleaning, although my house is in shambles right now and there’s no way anyone could ever tell that. I am also exhausted because we just got back from a dinner party in Park City that was so fun we lost track of time and arrived home after 10 pm. Good thing we didn’t have to bathe the girls tonight!
Here are some pictures from the day:
Our friends from Chicago invited us over for the most delicious jambalaya dinner–and there were cupcakes afterward! We met a couple at Kristin and Adam’s November sealing that we loved, and so they came too. We loved visiting with all of them, and the girls loved running around the humongous house Kristin and Adam are house-sitting.While I was cleaning, I stepped out of the bathroom for a minute and returned to find Mary thus perched. The fact that I took a picture of her probably detracted immensely from my post-picture scolding.A happy moment from our piano lesson.Lydia’s hand.Look at that technique. She actually found it very difficult to play the first two notes of “Twinkle,” and for the last ten minutes of the lesson my heart broke for her because she had tears in her eyes–but didn’t complain or fuss or even cry at all. She just felt bad that she couldn’t play it correctly, and I felt bad that she felt bad. This is such a tricky, complicated time for us. On the one hand, our relationship has really deepened with these piano lessons and one-on-one time, and on the other, I am terrified I am being too hard on Lydia. I wish I always knew the best way to give my daughter the best of everything.
Today at church we talked about Abraham’s sacrifice and what that means. During the course of the discussion, the importance of personal revelation came up. One woman made a comment dismissing the importance of revelation, and I could almost see Abe’s allergic reaction to her words. He controlled himself and didn’t allow himself to respond, but afterward we spent a long time discussing how grateful we are for personal revelation.
Then Abe bore his testimony in church. Lydia was perfectly behaved and sat quietly on the bench the whole time, but I missed most of what he said because I was chasing Mary around the halls the whole time. She has a lot of energy.
This afternoon my lovely visiting teacher, Erika, came over. I always feel bad because I talk to her for such long periods of time, but she is just so fun to talk to.
After she left, Anique called and invited us on a walk to a playground. Mary had just woken up, and it was too early to break our fast, so the timing was awesome.
The girls had so much fun playing, and Anique and I spent the whole walk back talking about food. I get so hungry on fast Sunday that I was literally drooling while we talked. It was a little embarrassing. We made plans to start a monthly lunch date. I’m so excited.
Then we went home, ate dinner and Face Timed with Clark and Swathi. They amused Mary with funny faces and listened patiently to Lydia ramble on about whatever was on her mind. Then I talked their ears off about the culture at culinary school and the drama of preschool hunting. At one point, I laughed so hard I cried. That felt fantastic.
Then we played with the girls until Tom and Suzanne came over for a visit.
They all had “princess hair,” including Abe and the cat.
It was so fun to see Tom and Suzanne. Suzanne taught the Sunday School lesson in her ward today, and it was interesting to hear where her ward went in the Abraham discussion.
And now Mary is crying because she doesn’t want to go to bed. She’s saying a new word! “Daddy! Dad! Daddy!” Awwww…Abe can’t resist and is going to her. I wish she would learn “Mama” one of these days…sniffle.
**I’m adding these last pictures a day later because I just now received them from Abe’s phone:
I won my cooking competition this morning!!! Well, okay, okay. They announced it was a tie, but when I got home and looked at the scores, I realized that the judges forgot to circle/add up one of my scores, so I technically won by one itsy bitsy little point. But still! I got a ticket for two to our school restaurant and a Ninja chopping machine. Abe and the girls came and cheered me on, and it was so fun to see their smiling faces through the glass.
The surprise ingredients weren’t that hard, really. They told us to use orange roughy and apples on our plate, which had to contain a starch, vegetable, sauce and garnish. Here’s what I did:
I made a blue cheese polenta cake, beet/carrot/apple/poppy seed slaw with raspberry vinegar, baked orange roughy and a candied lemon garnish. The blue cheese was rancid; I thought it was tangy, but I didn’t realize it was rancid until the judges absolutely tore me apart for it. Also, I plated my fish upside down. Oops! Thankfully, the other two competitors in my division made the same mistake. We’re all learning.
Then we came home and ate lunch. Ironically, I had to throw out my food before eating it all because we were in such a rush to clean the kitchen. Also, Abe had to leave early because he forgot to put a diaper on Mary this morning, and there weren’t any in the car. Oops! Mornings are hard for him.
I spent the girls’ hours of quiet time finishing my most recent book, Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, today. It was a total page turner, and now I am scared that we’re all going to get blown up by the crazy people in power around the world. I sneaked to the library just before they close to get some more books to help calm me down.
My relationship with Mary deteriorates by Saturday afternoon because I’m gone all evening Friday and all morning Saturday. She gets so mad at me that when I finally get back, she screams if I touch her and clings to Abe for dear life. The only way we get back on friendly terms is if I play peek-a-boo with her feet and let her step on my face. I’m not kidding:
Also, Lydia found grown-up socks today and wore them the rest of the evening.She also made Abe wear her headband.
Lydia and I had another piano lesson today. I remember how hard it was to sit still when I was little, and I’m so proud of her for enduring. We made it to thirty minutes today. When I told Abe I want to try for an hour on Monday, he asked me to keep it to thirty minutes because he’s a more fun, compassionate parent than I am. Maybe we’ll compromise at forty-five. Our poetry session was truncated by my need for a nap, but we did read “Tiger, tiger, burning bright” and “The Lamb” by William Blake.
I have a TON of pictures from today, and since I have to get up early tomorrow, I’m just going to post them with captions.
Rose came by this morning and asked if I wanted to go on a walk. Of course! We had a great walk, and Rose gave the girls stickers.Then I took the girls to the library (and read down some more fines).
Then we headed home for a play date with Misty, Sophia and Max. I love them all so much. Max is starting to army crawl, and he is just the cutest.
After they left, I put Mary down for a nap and gave Lydia another piano lesson. I set a timer for twenty-five minutes. I think she could do longer sessions than that, but I run out of steam. I’m going to try for at least half an hour next time. When her piano lesson was over, I gave her a cookie and cuddled with her on the couch while we did another poetry session. We read “Heaven-Haven: A Nun takes the Veil” by Gerard Manley Hopkins and talked a lot about Aunt Lydia (a nun) and angels (since that’s what Aunt Lydia is now). I love that poem, but I really wanted to work more on “God’s Grandeur,” which is my favorite. Next time.
Oh! And we read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 (“Let me not to the marriage of true minds”) and talked about it a bunch. Lydia decided (on her own) that Shakespeare was writing about the relationship between her and her cat. Um…..
Speaking of her cat, Lydia brought her stuffed animals into my room while I was doing homework and she was supposed to be having quiet time. From there on out, we had “quiet time” in the same room.
Then I went to school and worked on the following:
Asparagus soup.Beef au jus. The potatoes Anna could have been less gray, the plate needs fewer broccoli pieces, the beef slices need to be larger, and the gravy drizzle more cohesive.
While I was at school, Abe took the girls to the ward party.
Lydia was actually thrilled, but you wouldn’t know unless you knew her…
Mary rode Chester tonight (much to the dismay of her terrified older sister).Abe doing his hair for the crazy hair competition at work. He met his goal for the month today, too! Go Abe!
Today I finally enrolled Lydia in preschool. After calling Challenger this morning, I felt so relieved to find a preschool that had a philosophy that fit what I’ve been looking for. Originally, I was going to go down tomorrow to sign Lydia up, but then I got scared the open slots would fill up, so I rearranged my schedule, picked up Lydia’s immunization forms and headed down to sign Lydia up.
From the moment I pulled up to the school, I had a good feeling. I would go into detail, but it’s late and I’m trying to hit my bedtime goal, so basically: we feel good about this decision, and we think Lydia will thrive at Challenger.
Then I took the girls grocery shopping, after which it was nap time and cooking-time. Abe had his birthday celebration a month late because Dan’s in town and staying with us, and so we took advantage of the situation to have Kade, Brittany, and William over too. It was a fun evening. The only way it could have been better is if Preethi, Nat and Kina could have been here too.
Mary napped from 1:30 to 6:15pm today. That made it possible for me to cook dinner, but I felt sorry for her because she woke up feverish and miserable. We think/hope she’s teething, since thus far she only has four teeth.
Yay for the sun! It’s back, it’s beautiful, and it felt gooooood today. After touring another preschool this morning, we went to play group at a nearby park.
Lydia kept claiming she couldn’t climb up this hill and would fall down every two steps. Mary kindly went down to help her up (my interpretation. Lydia said Mary came over to hit her…).
Then we came home and I fed the girls lunch. Then I cooked, cleaned and gave Lydia a piano lesson.
Then Lydia took a nap. When she wakes up from naps at home, she usually is a little…touchy. So I baked chocolate chip cookies while she was asleep, and as soon as she started to wail, I told her there were cookies downstairs for her.
She’s had a “winky” eye (at least, that’s what I call it) since she was born. That means when she takes a big bite of something, her right eye flies wide open. It’s pretty cute.
After Abe came home, we had dinner and FHE. I mainly sat on the couch in a tired stupor, but Abe taught the girls about Moses, and they drew pictures of Moses parting the Red Sea.
I spent all morning and the early afternoon at school, turning out French toast for a breakfast with the president of the Utah chapter of the American Culinary Federation (turned out she wasn’t hungry and didn’t eat a thing), washing mountains of dishes, and getting briefed on our team’s strategy for this year’s competition.
Next Saturday is my first black box competition, which is a competition where the judges put out surprise ingredients and you have to turn out a meal in an hour (like the show, Chopped). I am so nervous and am sure I will panic and blank, but it will be good experience. At the library today I checked out a ton of cookbooks on dessert because after the Saturday competition our team will have a pow-wow and decide what dessert we will make at the November ACF competition. It has to be an autumn-appropriate dessert that’s traditional but with some kind of modern twist. I saw a recipe for persimmon tea cake with kumquat glaze and thought that looked promising. We’ll see what my teammates think.
When I came home, I found this:
Abe made me pancakes, and Lydia scribbled a post-it note for me. It was so sweet. Also, Abe makes better pancakes than I do. Mine always come out so uneven.
Then we all took naps–except for Lydia, who would occasionally pop in our room announcing hunger or a desire to engage in some kind of activity requiring Abe and me to exert energy we simply didn’t have. I wish I were a super high-energy person; I could be such a better mom! Instead, I end up mumbling directions to Lydia from bed on how to procure herself animal crackers and cookies.
After Mary woke up, Abe and I dragged ourselves out of bed and took the girls to the library and on a round of errands.
When we got home, Lydia burst into tears at the prospect of dinner and begged to go “straight to bed” instead. Since she’d snacked a lot in the car, we obliged. Mary stayed up and ate animatedly with us. She has a new word! When we ask her how her day went, she smiles and says, “guh” for “good.” I am so worried because up until now, her only word has been “bah” for “bye.” Now at least she has a two word repertoire.
Then Abe and I watched the Olympics and I wasted time online. Abe still has to plan his lesson tomorrow, so I’m going to do some homework and then go “straight to bed,” just like Lydia.
