Christmas Wishes 2012

At this Christmas season, we wish you all happiness as you spend time with your loved ones. We are grateful for our families and their incredible support and love for us. We receive so many of the Lord's blessings through them. We are also grateful for our friends. We have been blessed to meet so many wonderful people in each of the places we've lived and we are grateful for their support and love as well. 

Most of all, we are grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows and cares about each of us and the things we face. We've learned for ourselves that He cares about even the smallest of our worries... we simply must communicate with Him through prayer and He is swift to help us. We are also most grateful that our Heavenly Father loved us enough to send His Son- Jesus Christ- to earth to be crucified so that we may be able to repent, to be comforted & uplifted through our hard times by One who suffered it all, to be resurrected, and so that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father.

Our wish this Christmas season is that Christ will be at the center of all our celebrations and family traditions. That we'll be more swift to forgive and to do good. 

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Midwest Living

What are we up to since the big move? How are we liking it? What's going on?? What is Auralia up to these days???? Easy now, I'm going to give you an update and answer all of your pressing questions (don't you love how I create an eager audience so that I'm motivated to write this post!)...

Our drive here took about 18 hours of pure driving. We broke it up over 3 days which was perfect. We stopped in to see Tyron's cousin & his wife (Darren & Me) in Columbus, OH and then stayed with his Aunt Reva & Uncle Justin and their family in Indianapolis. When we got here we stayed with a friend from Tyron's mission in Cedar Rapids (Claudia). We are so grateful for everyone's hospitality and kindness. We then spent 2 solid days driving around Iowa City area looking for an apartment. Most area's with available housing were kind of sketch, but as we were driving to another apartment on our list, we drove past a 'for rent' sign at a condo. We looked at it and loved it so we applied and got it that same day! Since it's a college area, it's difficult to find housing outside of the summer. So we were so blessed to find such a great place! It's 2b 2 1/2 ba with a screened in sunroom/porch which I'm super excited about for the summer! And we have an attached garage, dishwasher, and washer & dryer!! Are we in heaven? No, we're in Iowa!!

We moved in on Oct 29th (has it been that long already?!?!) and so we didn't have any plans for Halloween. Auralia had thrown up the 2 previous nights, so we didn't want to over do it. But we did at least put on the costumes that I spent a few hours making and took her to a few of the condo's in the area (Mom stayed at the condo to pass candy out to the 12 trick or treaters that we got). We came home and then pigged out on the costco sized candy bag that we bought! We froze a bunch but ended up eating that up slowly over a couple of weeks. Ya, not good. Anyways, here's some pics from Halloween:

Cutest little Pebbles ever!

For Thanksgiving we went to Des Moines and spent it with a family from Tyron's mission- the Andersons. The food was super yummy! We contributed by making the stuffing, pomegranate salad, green bean casseroles, and 3 homemade pies! We skipped out on black Friday since we are currently unemployed and then spent the weekend in my hometown of Osceola! We had dinner with a few of my old high school friends; so great to get together and catch up on 7 years.We stayed with Cinda -a previous YW leader- and went to church on Sunday. I have greatly missed Cinda and the Osceola ward. They are such amazing people and so kind and friendly.  I'm sad we didn't take any pictures of Thanksgiving or Osceola :(

We are loving being back in Iowa! It's so clean, the people are super friendly, and Iowa City/Coralville is very family oriented. We have a pass to the children's museum which is a 10 minute walk and attached to the mall and there are lots of play groups and story times that we are loving. Auralia is becoming much more social than when we were in NY. We are attending the married student ward and loving it as well. We've met lots of really great young families and look forward to the next few years here!

We found this little princess table & chair at a consignment store. Auralia loves having furniture her height. It's her favorite thing to find at stores. We ditched the highchair and now she eats here :)

Yesterday we switched to a forward facing carseat! She loves being able to look out all windows and likes that she can see mom & dad. Seeing her fall asleep is unpleasant though as her head drops forward.

Did NOT like Santa

Daddy to the rescue!

She's still wondering why she's near the creepy bearded guy...

Daddy had to cuddle with her to calm her down after the Santa fiasco

After Santa we went to a toy store where she was much happier! There were these puppies in a purse that she LOVED to pull down and kiss.

We will be in Utah for Christmas from the 15th-31st! We are excited to see family and friends!

A quick Auralia update: she went to nursery in our new ward and did great today! So glad to have her in class so we can actually listen and participate in lessons! She is saying several words and signing several words. She eats and sleeps like a champ and is doing great!!

Our last events in NY

Okay so I'm really catching up here since we moved almost a month ago! But I wanted to document some things from New York that were really great!

The first was our going away party that the ward threw us! There was a great turn-out of many friends that we've made the last year while in the Bronx:

Salinas and Diaz families. Such incredible families who were the heart and blood of the ward.

The awesome sister missionaries! We met so many amazing young men and women who dedicated their time to serving a mission. They were so dedicated and we just loved having them in our home!

Yolanda- she loved Auralia and would buy her little gifts and bring them to church! So sweet :)

You know how you meet those really special people who represent goodness and when you look at them you see the Light of Christ shining through? That's what I found in my good friend, Carla Bonilla. Love this lady & her cute family!!

Susanna & Cari became our friends from the first day. They were starting PhD students as well. We didn't see Susanna much, but she was a lot of fun when we did. And Cari was such a special person in our lives. She is so sweet and kind. She helped us move- just came over for lunch and ended up sticking around all day! Such a wonderful lady!

Living in the Bronx was incredibly challenging; being a member of the church was very demanding and some of the hardest service I've ever done. But it helped us grow and develop in ways that I couldn't have experienced any other way. I'm grateful for our time there.

The last "New York" experience that we had was taking my mom to the Top of the Rock observation deck for spectacular views of the city! I felt satisfied with having this as my "goodbye New York"/ last hoorah in the city.

Had to tickle her to get her to smile. Not my mom, Auralia.

Thank you New York for all the good times and all the life lessons. It's an interesting chapter in our book of life that we're happy we had. Also one we are happy to have over as it was so hard to raise a family there. Farewell NYC!

My mom's visit to help us move!

Wow it has been forever since I did a post.  My quick 10 minute posts turn into an hour so I never sit down and do it.

But as I'm sure anyone reading this knows, we left the Bronx and moved to Coralville, Iowa (it's part of Iowa City) on the 22nd of October. The funding for Tyron's research at the school in NY fell through, leaving us to find another option. So we contacted the University of Iowa (the other school that accepted Tyron last year) and they are working on getting him transferred! It probably won't be until Fall 2013 so we decided to have faith and move anyways. We wanted to get settled here so Tyron could find a job for the next year.

We were HUGELY blessed to have my mom fly out and help for 2 1/2 weeks! When she first came out, her and I took a girls trip down to Washington D.C. since she had never seen it before! It was a quick 2 day trip, but we saw alot of things!

We also did a harbor cruise around Manhattan island and went to the 9/11 Memorial:

Auralia loved picking up rocks from the tree planter boxes at the memorial. She would walk from one to the next getting and leaving rocks.

My mom helped us pack boxes, did a ton of the actual loading and unloading of the truck, along with a ton of unpacking. Auralia knew something was changing and she clung to me during the whole move so I actually wasn't much help at all. My mom was so wonderful and did so so much to help us accomplish this move! I love my mom so much. I know she loves me, Tyron, and Auralia- it's always so easily found in her kindness and sacrifices to help us with whatever we need. She helped us pay for food along the way and groceries & other items once we got here. She is such an incredible woman and I'm proud that she's my momma!

Yummy pumpkin dessert recipe

Today's high was only 55 degrees so I wanted something warm. And since it's fall and I love pumpkins, I decided to do a yummy pumpkin treat! Luckily I bought some cans of pumpkin a couple of days ago :)  Here's the recipe in case anyone wants to try it!

Pumpkin Treat
 
Crust:
1 c. bisquick
1/2 c. quick rolled oats (I used regular oats chopped up)
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. butter

Mix until crumbly then press into 9x13 pan. Bake 10 mins at 375.

Middle Layer:
15 oz can of pumpkin
1 can evaporated milk (12 fl. oz)
2 eggs
3/4 c. sugar (I used closer to 1/2 cup to decrease the sugar content in this recipe!)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves

Beat until well mixed. Pour over crust. Return to over and bake 25 more minutes.

Topping:
1/2 c. pecans, chopped
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 T butter

Mix until crumbly. Sprinkle over pumpkin. Return to over and bake 15-20 minutes longer. Cool.
Serve with ice cream or whipped topping

A whole month later...sheesh! A crafty post!

Ya it's been a month since I posted last. Crazy. It's not that it's really time consuming, it's just one of those things that I keep putting off because I need to gather pictures from phones and the camera and take 10 minutes to sit down and type up what we've been up to lately. And when I wait a month it actually does become a time consuming process!


September flew by- which is great because I LOVE the fall, I LOVE October, and I LOVE Halloween! I started working on some fun fall/Halloween craft projects. There are some more that I plan on finishing- I'll have to post those later :) I'm hoping to decorate the apartment sometime this week!!

Hand sewn felt leaves. I added hooks at the end so I could hang as a garland. I just googled leaf templates and printed them out...then cut them out on felt and whipstitched the edges and did a freestyle stitch in the middles.

Awesome free subway art printable in a painted mat. Need some ribbon for hanging! You can search pinterest for autumn or fall subway art and you'll find others that you may like even more!

Frankenstein & witch silhouettes. Printed and cut out on paper then taped onto off-white cardstock and put in cheap frames (seriously, they are so cheap they are chipping. Oh well.). I may paint the frames at some future point...

Happy Fall and Halloween crafting!

Update on Auralia

I haven't done a post in a while about Auralia and all of her many many changes! She is 14 months. She took her first step the day before Father's Day, and now she is a speed walker!  She still has only 7 teeth, only takes one nap during the day now, loves blueberries and peas, is very shy around strangers, says "dada" constantly, but is really attached to mama. She is signing a few things- milk, more, all done, please, and eat. We are working on thank you :) She has started a phase where she points to things she wants and she is constantly shaking her head "no" to things she doesn't want. She is allergic to eggplant and doesn't love veggies as much as we'd like her to. She loves her fruit and milk.

She is totally over her toys- she rarely plays with any of them. Instead she gets into my craft corner and finds something fun, which I usually have to take away from her because it's a choking hazard, etc. She also likes to get into the towels and throw them all on the floor. She sometimes goes into our bedroom to our floor length mirror and yells at herself in the mirror; maybe she feels threatened by another child in the house? Hope she doesn't continue this yelling at herself in the mirror thing as a teenager!

Nana Jensen bought her some baby keens when she was here visiting with Farfar! Auralia loves her shoes- the velcro and how fast she can walk in them!

She is getting better with her baths. She used to cry the whole way through it, but now she gets a little anxious at the start and then relaxes once she is in and playing.

She sleeps like a champ. All through the night and plays by herself in her crib for about an hour in the morning so we can keep sleeping.

She was eating and it went really quiet so I checked up on her and she had zonked out! Food still all over the place.

Our most recent picture together. We really need to get pictures taken this Fall.

She slept 12 hours and when she got up I thought she was just glowing! So we had a photo shoot. She was in a really good mood so I was able to capture some fun pictures (see below).

She is going to be a heartbreaker when she's older!

Smeared spaghetti sauce all over her face

At the beach- yep, pretty sure she ate some sand.

She pounded down a hot dog at the Yankees Game! It was SO hot and then a storm came in and it poured. We at least made it through the 7th inning before the rain came!

Still pounding it down and Uncle Nathan taught her how to do a fist pound.

We went to some outlet malls about an hour north. They had a Toys R' Us so we took Auralia in to find some new toys. She LOVED this stroller. It was cute to watch her treat sock monkey like her baby. We ended up leaving with a xylophone, stroller, sock monkey, figurines, and a ball. I may have had more fun in the store than she did :)