I am thankful for

My Space

Here is a way to show your friends a little bit about what it is like where you live. I thought it would be fun to document our little cinder block apartment in which will will likely be residing for the next 3.5 years:

1) Your favorite appliance:

It may not look like much, but after spending over four years without a dishwasher (I know that isn't much time compared to some people), this little portable dishwasher that hooks up to our kitchen sink is my favorite thing!

2) Where you sleep:

As you can see, the walls are made of cinder block and they are normally painted an off white color called "navajo white". It is not he most lovely thing. We wanted to do something to our room, but didn't know what to do with our plain, boring, brown bedding. Not wanting to spend much money, we decided to spice things up with some paint. This "jalapeno green" turned out to be a little much! Oh well...

3) Your favorite room:



This is my favorite, not because I spend much time here, but because I have put the most work into it. Again, we wanted to do something to make our cinder block box feel like home. I am proud of this room because I hardly spent any money. It is not easy to decorate on a budget! My parents gave me crib and changing table for my birthday before Hannah was born. Everything else came from ebay, yard sales, the K-mart going out of business sale, or walmart. Even the chair I got used for super cheap, ripped it apart and recovered it with a cheap-o walmart slipcover! I don't feel like the room is quite done yet, but it is fun to have a work in progress. Jack hates the lamp in the corner because it has a furry shade on it. When he sees it he always says, "She is not a prostitute!"

4) Favorite piece of art in your home:

I brought these babies back from Spain. They were done by a local artist in Granada. I spent 9 months in Granada and these paintings depict the famous Alhambra and the coast. To me these depict exactly what Granada is like, the most beautiful place in the world!

5) Your pantry:

Our apartment doesn't really have a pantry, but we use this cupboard as one! It contains lots of cereal, oatmeal, beans and cans!

6) What your kids are doing RIGHT now:

Pretty much she copies whatever I do. If I vacuum then she pushes the vacuum around the house. If I put dishes away she climbs in the dishwasher. If I cook she empties the pantry. She also asks "What's that?" about everything she sees that she thinks is interesting, even if she already knows what "that" is.

I tag Bethany Baker and Michelle Evans because I REALLY want to see where you live and also anyone else who wants to show off their space!

Hannah 11 Months

Favorite Foods: most everything, but especially bananas, kiwi, peas, beans and rice, bread. The only things she doesn't really like are pickles and cheesecake (wierd!)

Favorite Toys: Balls, balloons, books, anything she can throw and then go get (fetch) or anything she can slide along the floor.

Proudest Moments: Climbing up the playground and going down the slide all by herself! Climing stairs. Saying her first words which include, "dada", "what's that?" and "hi!". (notice that mama is not in the mix yet).

Favorite People: Mommy, Daddy, Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, Grandpas, other kids and babies. She is quite the Daddy's girl lately though. She follows him everywhere and begs him to pick her up. She looks for him every morning at his desk. She cries and cries everytime he leaves the house. This is a little hard on all of us since he isn't around much.

Biggest Fear: The elderly and a vibrating cow toy

Favorite Non-Toy: Dogs, binki, paper, pictures of babies and kids, cords and plugs.

Things She Mimics: Shakes her head no, kisses, so big, high five, singing a Spanish song "canta y no llores" (she does the ay ay ay part with me), smiles, barking like a dog.

Favorite Games: peek-a-boo, emptying things (especially my makeup bag), catch, fetch, chase the ball,

Soothers: Binki

Favorite Place: The playground, she just takes off and doesn't care whether I am there or not, grandma's house (both of them) because there is a dog and stairs to climb.

Mischievous things that she does: Unplugs things, finds pens and draws on the couch, empties the garbages.

Least Favorite things: Laying on her back, getting dressed, having old people hold her, when other kids pull her hair.

Hair Color: brown and getting darker

Best Features: big very blue eyes and very long eyelashes! Everyone always comments about them!

Sleep Schedule: She is doing really well these days. 12 hour nights (she usually goes to bed at 7 or 7:30) and two 1 - 1 1/2 hour naps. This has definatley not always been the case. We have had to let her "cry it out" on two seperate ocassions now (once at 8 months and again at 10 months after we stayed at someone else's house for a week), but it worked! She even reaches for her bed when she's really tired. She can't sleep anywhere but her crib though and that can be hard sometmes. Also, she struggles when her schedule gets too disrupted. About an hour before bed we need to start by having a bath, nursing, reading 2 books and saying prayers, if we skip out on this she has a hard time settling down.



Here she is after emptying the trash can and then heading to unplug the dryer.

My proximal phlange

Today I broke my proximal phalange (one of the toe bones). I was playing with Hannah and I caught me toe on her crib and it bent in a weird way. It hurt really bad but I thought I had just stubbed it. But then the pain got worse and I couldn't walk. Then I sat down and examined my toe. It was twisted at a crazy angle facing away from my foot. I should have taken a picture! After awhile I decided that I should go to instacare and have it looked at because it really hurt and I couldn't walk at all.

While I waited for Jack to come home and get me and take me to instacare, I was laying down putting my foot up in the air. Hannah sensed my pain and frustration and she started to freak out a little bit. I couldn't pick her up, so I had to make her follow my directions, "come here," "find your ball," "give me a kiss," "give me my phone." She did so well! I guess I don't give her enough opportunities to follow directions. She also started waving and saying "hi" today (it sounds more like "ha!"). She always says it to the baby in the mirror. Also to the strangers at the DMV where we waited for 2 hours for me to get a new licence today...that is another story.

Anyway, I got my foot x-rayed and the bone was completely snapped in half and also rotated to the side. Everyone knows they can't really do anything for toes, the Dr. just buddy taped it so that it will heal correctly and gave me a walking boot. I still can't walk though. Hopefully the 800mg ibuprofen I have left over from Hannah's birth will help out with the pain. I fell so dumb saying, "I broke my toe!", it sounds like no big deal, but I really can't walk! So I have no pictures of my feet but here is Hannah eating some spaghetti and she was mad for some reason so she rubbed it all over. Even after I gave her a bath her skin stayed orange.

Happy Halloween!

Jack had to study on Halloween (and every other night too) so Hannah and I went trick-or-treating and my Dad's office and then visited my grandparents. Here are some pictures of Hannah's costume:


It was such a beautiful fall night! Autum in Utah has been amazing this year. Here is Hannah's Jack-o-lantern smile:

Jack Dunyon Stringham II

Stole this one from Katie...
Jack Dunyon Stringham II

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? Rarely does he have time, but if he did it would be CNN, college football, House or the Office.

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Rarely would he get a salad but if he did it would probably have lots of ranch dressing to smother all of the healthiness.

3. What's one food he doesn't like? Beans (f this question did not specifically state "One food" I could make you a list a mile long...he has real issues with the textures of many foods.)

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? If we actually went to a bar he would get a Coke.

5. Where did he go to high school? Olympus

6. What size shoe does he wear? 11

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Skis

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Peanut butter and jelly with homemade strawberry jelly on Granny's Delight sprouted wheat bread.

9. What would he eat every day if he could? Ribs

10. What is his favorite cereal? Hot cereal, strawberries and cream variety

11. What would he never wear? square toed shoes

12. What is his favorite sports team? Ute football team

13. Who will he vote for? McCain

14. Who is his best friend? Me

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Forget to rinse out my cereal bowl right after eating

16. How many states has he lived in? 3: Utah, California, Arizona

17. What is his heritage? Italian and English

18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake? Icecream cake

19. Did he play sports in high school? No, he was on the wrestling team but then he found out he wasn't allowed to ski and be on the wrestling team, so he quit.

20. What could he spend hours doing? Studying. Notice the question does not say what he enjoys doing for hours, it says what CAN he do for hours.

21. Does he belong to any men's organizations? Does the Elder's Quorum count?

Hannah 10 Months

Where did this last month go? You love to play "so big!" and often do it during dinner which means you get food stuck in your hair. You constantly laugh and sometimes the laughter is forced, a little fake sounding laugh. When you want something you make short little laughs "ha ha ha" until I give it to you. You have seven teeth now, four on the bottom and three on the top - the funny thing is that you still don't have one of the top middle teeth, so it looks like you've lost a tooth, I think you look like a Jack-o-Lantern. You love books that have textures you can touch and pictures of real things. You love balls and anything that you can push around the house. You are good at playing "catch", always throwing the ball right back to me when I roll it to you. You like to make mommy and daddy play fetch, throwing things from your highchair or the grocery cart on purpose so that we will get them for you. The only food I've seen you dislike so far was a dill pickle, you spit it across the room! You love most foods but especially cheese and kiwi and bananas. You have finally figured out how to drink out of a sippy cup. You are overcoming your fear of strangers but you still really dislike elderly people, too bad because they love you. You understand many words but have yet to really say any, you constantly speak your own little language though. You absolutely love peek-a-boo and swinging in the swing, you could swing for hours. You always eat the woodchips on the playground. You love to jump on your bed. You often draw in your breath loudly and it sounds like you are struggling for air but you just do it because you like the noise. You are terrified of Halloween masks, I didn't know little babies knew how to scream in terror! You always kick your legs when you are excited. You have learned how to give very slobbery kisses but you won't give them to daddy because his face is pokey. We love you!

Halloween Fun

I love this time of year! Hannah has such a fun Halloween costume, she is a hula dancer. The other night we had a neighborhood Halloween party. I couldn't get a very good picture of Hannah, luckily we have a few more chances to dress her up and get a decent picture. Here is is with Jack. She was mad because I took away the tag from her leotard that she had literally been carrying around all day long. Here she is, now content because she is again holding said tag:

And here we are at the neighborhood party with our friends and neighbors the Frandson's (Jonny is in Jack's class):

In other news, I think we need a new camera. The small digital one Jack purchased in asia a few years ago is becoming quite outdated and SLOW. Any suggestions for some VERY unskilled inexperienced camera users who mostly take pictures of their baby?

9 Month Appt. & Chopped Hair

Took Hannah to the doctor last week. Here are her stats:
Weight = 20 pounds (69th percentile)
Length = 30 inches (98th percentile)
Head = 17.3 inches (48th percentile)

I was surprised to see that though she grew about three inches she didn't gain much weight. I guess those long skinny Stringham genes are kicking in. She did get a flu shot and she was not too happy with that, but I decided that if Daddy is going to work in healthcare we'd all better get one. This week she has started climbing up on things (especially the TV cabinet), looking at me, and then letting go and trying to come to me (meaning that she wants to walk but she really just falls). I guess it is a precursor to walking, but so far it has resulted in her falling on her head many times.

Here she is playing with the toilet paper.

Also, I got my hair chopped off and I really like it! Natalie DeMill did the honors, she is awesome.

Hannah 9 Months

Clapping your hands, waving "bye-bye", and crawling like a speed demon are all things you can do now. You have five teeth now, four on the bottom and one on the top - you like to grind them which drives me nuts! You laugh all the time, even when there is nothing to laugh about. You fake cough just to get attention. Your favorite book is "Millie Moo", we read it at least twice a day. Your favorite toys are balls, big and little, you love to chase them around. You also love to play with my laptop, cell phone and keys. I can't name your favorite food because you love everything I've ever given you, you prefer to feed yourself and if I feed you baby food you spit it on me. You love other babies and kids but lately you are shy of adults and bury your face into me when they try and talk to you. You love animals, especially dogs and birds. You love me to jump out behind something and scare you, even when you expect me to jump out it still scares you. People constantly compliment you on your long, dark, curly eyelashes - mommy is jealous of them too! You have recently had a major growth spurt and the clothes and shoes that fit you a week ago no longer fit. We can't wait for your doctor's appointment next week to see how much you've grown (and no shots this time!).

The Zoo

Jack finally finished his killer week of FIVE intense tests. That means that we haven't seen much of him for the past two weeks. Yesterday, to celebrate, we took Hannah to the zoo for the first time. She enjoyed it, but I think she enjoyed the other kids and the water features more than the animals. Her favorite animals to look at were the birds, something you don't have to go to the zoo to find! Oh well, since the zoo is literally a block away from us we ended up buying an annual pass, so she's going to get a lot of zoo time this year. Here are some pics (most of them are of the back of her head, it is hard to get pictures of the child and the animal when the child is looking at the animal).

Lookin' Out

Every morning Hannah has this tradition: after I change her diaper she wriggles away and stands up in the window that looks out to the playground at our apartments. She loves to stand there and look at everything. She gets very excited if she can see birds. Sometimes people walk by and wave to her and she loves that too. I tried to get some pictures of her doing it, but it was hard to get a great shot since the window is up high from the ground and I am short. And yes, if you walk by my place, you are likely to see a window covered in little finger prints.

Funny Story About Jack

What's new with the Stringham's you ask? Actually you probably didn't ask that, but I will tell you the answer anyway. First the funny story:
I got called to be the ward chorister which makes no sense because I have absolutely no musical talent. I know the VERY basics of conducting, but that is it. On Sunday, I lead the first two songs and then took Hannah to the mother's room to feed her. She fell asleep in my lap so I decided to stay in the mother's room and let her sleep for awhile so that she wouldn't be grumpy during church and leave in time to lead the closing hymn. Well I sat there for awhile and I kept checking the clock and then I looked at the clock and realized it was broken! I woke Hannah and ran back to the chapel but they were already singing the hymn. Who was leading in my place? My dear husband Jack (who has far less musical talent than I and absolutely NO conducting skills). Yes he was up there leading a song that was, of all things, in 6/8 time. He was twirling his hands about in the air and the entire congregation was audibly laughing. Some people were trying to help him by leading the music from their seats, trying to help him get the beat, but to no avail. At the end of the last verse he put both hands high in the air to end the song. Some were shaking their heads in disgust, others were nearly crying with laughter. I thought it was hilarious and cute. He was bright red with embarassment (something that doesn't happen to Jack often) and quite upset with me. Thanks for helping me with my calling sweetheart!

And here is what is going on around our house: 1) Jack's school is incredibly busy and we don't see much of him these days. He is very stressed about trying to "honor" his classes (they don't give grades at the U med school, just "Pass", "Fail", or "Honor". ) The most important thing is to pass, but to get into some of the more competitive specialties he needs to honor his classes. 2) I am teaching Spanish at a nearby preschool. It is VERY part time, but the pay is awesome. Now that I've started though, I wonder if any amount of pay is enough for this job? I think some people naturally work well with kids, but I am not one of them. These little preschoolers are cute but they are crazy and wild and I have no idea how to control them. 3) Hannah is getting very good at pulling up and she can stand on her own now for about 20 - 30 seconds. She also can take a step between Jack and I. TODAY she finally started crawling...she crawls very slowly but she is up on her hands and knees and not down on her belly or anything. She is very proud of herself and we are proud of her too. I don't have any great pictures to share to illustrate these things, but I sprinkled some in because blog posts without pictures are boring. Cheers!

Hannah 8 Monts & Med School Begins

I can't believe another month has passed since my last post. Hannah turned 8 months yesterday, so again I wanted to record what she is doing now. Hopefully soon I will post some pictures from all our fun trips this summer!
Jack started med school today! Last week was his orientation which included a lot of fun activities. We met a lot of really cool people that I'm sure we'll become good friends with over the next four years. He was pretty nervous when he left this morning for class.
Here are some pictures from the white coat ceremony where he received his white coat, took the Hippocratic oath and got his stethoscope.



Uh...hopefully someone got a better picture than that...we are all looking in different directions!
Hannah...here is what you are doing now:
- You STILL can't crawl. You get up on your hands and your feet and then just sit there and fuss until I come get you.
- You can briefly stand on your own and you are so proud of yourself when you do!
- You babble all the time. You also constantly whisper to yourself and it sounds like you are speaking a foreign language.
- Your favorite toy is a set of stacking cups.
- You LOVE feeding yourself, mostly I give you peas, carrots, crackers, cereal, bananas, and noodles. You love everything I give you.
- You are finally sleeping well in your own bed! Last week we let you "cry-it-out" one night in your bed without picking you up. You cried for most of the night and it was SO hard but now you are doing so well, sleeping through the night or waking one time briefly. We love it! You sleep 12 hours at night and take two 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps during the day
- You will imitate us when we do certain things such as shaking our heads no or opening our mouths really wide or chewing.
- You still just have the two bottom teeth, but they are getting bigger.
- Lately you are very interested in my eyelashes and try to pull them out. You also like Daddy's eyebrows and also try to pull on dogs' eyelashes.
- You LOVE birds and you love when I hold you and chase the birds. You even know what the word "bird" means and when I ask you where the birds are you look up at the sky.
- We love you!

Here she is opening her mouth as wide as possible and growling. Weird.

Hannah 7 Months

This post is for me...so that I can record it in my journal...once I find my journal. We're in the middle of a move, but I want to remember these things and so I will take a minute to type them up.

Seven months...what you're doing now:
- You love water with a passion. Tonight you splashed in the bath for an hour. Each splash makes you laugh. We took you to Lake Powell and you would have stayed in the water all day if you could have.
- You also love food! We discovered that if we put noodles on your high chair tray, you will remain silent for quite a long time while you meticulously pick up the noodles and put them in your mouth.
- You have become very good at pinching with your thumb and index finger and pick up anything you find on the carpet...even the tiniest little piece of lint.
- You laugh out loud all the time now, especially when we throw you in the air or blow on your tummy.
- You can sense when I am stressed and then you get upset too.
- You love animals, especially grandma's maltese Max. When you see a dog, you shake your hands in the air and squeal. You even squeal when I show you pictures of dogs.
- You are learning how to wave "bye bye" and almost have it down
- You babble insessantly, your favorite noises are yayayayayay and dadadadada.
- You rarely cry these days, instead you stick your index finger in your mouth and yell yayayayayayaya in a very sad voice
- You still can't crawl, but you pull up to standing on everything and love to open drawers.
- Peek-a-boo is your favorite game, hands down
- Your favorite toy is your little piano
- You just realized that mom and dad are actually in the front seat of the car, so you crane your head around to stare at me during the drive. I think you'll like when you can go in a front-facing car seat.
- You get extremely hyper at night before you go to bed, you wiggle your whole body and try to jump.
- When you are happy, you shake your head "no" at everything I say...hopefully this is not a sign of your future behavior!
- You love being social and being around people. You give a charming grin to anyone who will talk to you.
- You have two little very sharp teeth on the bottom.
- Lately you have been sleeping form 9pm to 9am, usually you wake up once in the night to eat. You also take two 2 hour naps during the day.
- When you want to get a better look at something, you tilt your head sideways. You also crane your head to look at something if an object is blocking your view.
- You often scrunch up your face and breath heavily through your nose, this is not pleasant when you have a cold.
- You are the joy of our lives and we wouldn't change anything about you!

Summer Time!

We've been so busy having fun lately. It is so nice to have Jack around and have some free time before med school starts. We have been on a few short road trips lately. We are also in the middle of moving. We have to be all packed by next Thursday because we will be out of town for two weeks and then we move the day we get back! The problem is, once I fill a box I have nowhere to put it so we are living amid boxes. We are excited to move and start this new phase of our life (the med school phase), but we are sad to leave all of our fun neighbors.


Last week, Hannah turned six months old. She went to the doctor and here are her stats:
18 lbs (82nd percentile)
28 inches (98th percentile)
16.9 inch head (64th percentile)

She has started eating solid foods and she likes bananas and apples and sweet potatos and oat cereal but she hates squash and green beans. Mostly she prefers to feed herself so she loves tortillas and noodles and crackers, but we still don't give her much "real food" yet. She has been sitting really well on her own for about two months now and is starting to scoot around on her bum (she still does not like her tummy very much). She also is starting to pull herself up on everything. We think she is on the verge of crawling, but I hope she waits until after our move because the house is not baby proof at all right now. She also got her first tooth last week which made for a couple of sad days and sleepless nights, but she is feeling better now.



Yesterday, we took Sam to the MTC. He will be serving his mission in the Netherlands. We will miss him!


Jack has decided to pursue Opthalmology for now (he still has a couple of years to make up his mind) and has started doing some pretty interesting research on cataracts.

Other than that, we've mostly been hanging out with friends and neighbors, doing some BBQs in the canyon and setting up kiddy pools so the babies can cool off in this weather.









Overall, this summer has been awesome so far and it is going way too fast!