The DAISY Award

And the real Daisy award goes to my sister-in law...... Chari Alvarez Reynolds, who carried the baby for nine months and just delivered a sweet girl named Daisy Skye Reynolds!  September 17 to be exact.  Can't wait to meet her! 

Cousin Nate gave me the "Daisy Award," http://nfeaton.blogspot.com/
which is essentially an invitation to update my blog, thank you Nate.  Obviously, I'm six months behind!  And who knows how much time could pass if he hadn't poked me. 

The Daisy Award asks me to list seven unusual or weird things about myself. 

1.  I once went on a week-long vacation with five other Italians to southern France:  Cannes, Nice, etc.  These were friends from my mission, and we had a blast.  Favorite memory was parasailing in the French Riviera with Andrea (pronounced Ann-drey-uh; its a male name in Italy).  He started cursing in Italian because ropes had gotten tangled up in his business and the whole situation was so random and hilarious to me that I got the giggles.  We kept going up and up and it was exhilirating, and there was Andrea, in pain, cursing in Italian.  Awesome.

2.  I once ran into two co-workers in Venice.  These kinds of coincidences fascinate me!  There were only 70 working for the theatre, so not a big business, and we just happened to be on vacation the same time as them.  There I was, perusing some museum in Venice in St. Marks Square, and I saw Seth out of the corner of my eye.  Crazy!  He invited my sister and I into their swanky hotel room.  Fancy!  I sat on the bidet, we all took a picture and sent it to our friends at work.  Nobody believed us at first, even with the picture, they thought we weren't serious.

3.  Speaking of bidets, I happen to favor them.  Most Americans think they are unnecessary and weird, but they are the best hygeine invention ever!  And why do we not have them in the States!?  Its just a convenient little bath/ shower for your privates, which hello, we all need from time to time, so, just sayin... I may have one installed in my home someday and I hope that you won't think I'm weird.  More importantly, I hope that you too will embrace the bidet.

4.  I had the same BFF from kindergarten - 12th grade!  We were inseparable and so much alike.  She was the brunette version of me and I was the blonde version of her.  We both played violin in orchestra for 9 years, sang in choir, worked at Ned's Krazy Sub (her dad's sandwich shop), wore matching nerdy clothes, went to girls camp and everything Young Women together, studied French with Randy Payne at Mesa High School, and played church and city softball.   We truly had a soul connection and I sure loved her guts.  She was fun, she was cool and she was a good Mormon girl.  What a blessing in my life!

5.  I used to work in the Travel & Tourism Industry and got to travel to interesting international spots such as Guadalajara, Mexico; Vancouver & Victoria Island, British Columbia; and lots of domestic places such as Chicago.  Man, I still miss the perks of those jobs.  Especially the snazzy hotels they'd put me up in.

6.  I met my husband on a blind date.  My sister Teri lived in Omaha in 2000 and I visited her on a business trip.  She hardly even knew Peter, she just knew that he played the piano and that I liked pretty, musical guys.  Voila!

7.  I sometimes unwind, relax and otherwise work through my life by shaking a pen in my right hand - very quickly and purposefully.  Then I zone out, if you will, and go to some other dimension of concentration (slight exaggeration).  The best pens are the ones with a white or shiny tip so that they stand out against a dark background.  This is definitely the most unusual thing about me and oddly, I should be embarrassed but I am not.  The term is known as "stemming" which is any repetitive or soothing behavior.  People with autism do it all the time; they move a toy car in circles for long periods of time, for example.  Many people have some minor little habit of stemming, such as myself.  I started realizing how often I did it when my daughter at eight months began imitating me!!!  That was trippy and I have since cut back on the secret stemming.

8.  I do love kickball!!!  Its my favorite group game/ sport. 

Nate, I know thats eight things, but I couldn't leave out kickball or bidets!?  Pictures coming soon, I promise.  Check back in a week or so.  I especially hope to have a picture of my BFF and I in those purple koolot pants with the frilly purple shirts and the snazzy light blue tennis shoes.  Sixth grade people.  Big glasses.  Its pretty awesome.  Now to start digging...

SIX MONTHS!

She almost sits up by herself. She's got two teeth. And she's grabby. She says, "da, da, da" sometimes. She's learning to wave. She'll look at her hands and mimic the wave. We think she's "advanced." NOT! Peter's got a negative stigma against people who always think their child is special or advanced. Goes back to his days working at Mad Science (science camp for 6th graders). 80% of the parents would whisper to him, "our child is special" or "advanced" and so it became a joke. Yeah, lady, we'll be sure to put him with all of the other special ones.... so I guess you won't catch us saying Sydnie is either of those adjectives. Except when we compare her to Cousin Tessa who's 3.5 months younger...

5 months!

Don't worry, we'll only be putting up the monthly posts for the first year of her life...

Life's Gifts

I recently put together a couple of gifts and these projects brought me great joy. My sister-in-law Chari turned 30 on February 20th and my older sister Teri turned 40 on February 25th. Big birthdays! What do you gift someone on such a special birthday? Stealing the idea from another variation, I came up with "30 Things we love Chari" and "40 Things we love about Teri." Getting input from family members, they came out quite lovely when framed. It brought tears to my eyes reflecting on the individual phrases and the qualities each of them embodies. Sisters are excellent gifts.

Peter has a sister, Amy. She's his twin! We recently had the chance to go up and visit her family in NH. Here's a picture of the two of them going jogging. I love how Peter has no qualms about wearing my "feminine" looking purple hat bc it was cold outside. We had a wonderful time. I took the girls to see "Big Miracle" in Concord where we devoured an enormous tub of popcorn and extra large sodas. They were fascinated with my car's sunroof (well, not Cope especially). Did I say we had a great time? Family is an excellent gift. Take Sydnie for example. She's pretty much the best gift ever!!!!!

Wazup with the NY Nelsons

So... Peter's on an anesthesia rotation. He'll be doing this for the next few months. Instead of taking call and working with patients in the oral surgery clinic, he spends his days with the anestheologists in the hospital. They have a variety of cases and surgeries, so its always new and exciting. He's learning how to perfect his skills at putting someone to sleep and the vigilant monitoring it requires. Sometimes it can be loathsome and tragic - as was the case last week. He calls me to report that he assisted with anesthesia for two VTP surgeries. I naively asked what that stood for. Voluntary termination of Pregnancy. My jaw dropped and my eyes immediately started watering. WHAT did you just say!? Yeah, pretty horrible. Especially considering the fact that we waited so long for Miss Sydnie and we never knew if she was ever going to come. People are killing babies in their tummies and we know folks, ourselves included, who'd willingly take them into our arms and our lives. Peter and I both had a good cry. The good news is that he often gets home much earlier than he normally would (afternoons even). We'll take it!
On happier topics, I am throwing myself into my Young Women calling. We are doing a Readers Theatre based on the parable of the 10 Virgins for New Beginnings in two weeks, and I still have to finish writing it! Its all in my head and its been there for two months. Now I must get it out of there and onto the paper. The theme this year is "Arise and Shine Forth." I'm also polishing up a Jeopardy game in Power Point based on the New Era for 2012 that we will play with the youth tomorrow night. Peter is the Young Men President and we love working together. As usual, Peter throws himself into his calling and is making a real difference in the lives of the boys.
Cousin Nate Eaton and lovely wife Erica visited NYC last weekend. We had dinner with them at a diner in midtown before their show. They are both so fun and excellent conversationalists. Welcome to the family Erica! We love adventures into the city. In fact I went to lunch with a colleague from my old job at Prisma on Monday. We ate at Brother Jimmy's BBQ. Yummy. Syd loves to get out. Often her only request is to talk to her, take her outside, and to see new things besides the walls in our apartment. :)

Killing us with her cuteness!

My baby is four months now and I've turned into the typical obsessed new mother. How can I not? She's a little piece of heaven right there in my arms! The smile, the cooing, the facial expressions... four months is an awesome age.

Baby Sydnie is a lovely, mellow, social and patient person. So far. She's the embodiment of CHILL. We are spoiled, we know, don't worry we are repeatedly told this and we are aware that not all babies are this sweet and kopasetic all the time. And we are grateful every day.

Here are some recent pics. I love her sideways glances in the carseat shot. If I remember correctly, she was skeptically observing Daddy as he acted like a monkey.

We went to AZ over Christmas and blessed her on December 26, 2011 in Scottsdale. Tons of family were present; we got some great pictures!

We are getting used to all of this quality time together since I quit my job (halelujah sweet freedom)! Life couldn't be more domestically sweet for us right now.

Super Syd!

Here she is! Our gorgeous little baby Sydnie Jolene Nelson. She's already a month old, born on 9-21-2011. She weighed 6 lbs, 9 oz and was nearly 21 inches long. At our one month doctor visit, she weighed 8 lbs, 13 oz, so she's growing well...as you can see in the progression of pictures. We are predictably, blissfully in love with baby girl. She's an angel, sometimes sleeping 6-7 hours at night. We are spoiled, but so is she!