Apples and Oranges

So it finally happened and when it did, it made our lives a lot more confusing: Johann got accepted to his top two grad programs, Chapman and BYU.
We knew about Chapman about a month ago and we were just waiting to hear about BYU. A couple weeks ago they invited him to interview and we just kept saying if he didn't get into BYU it would make our choice nice and easy. This past Friday he interviewed and they said they would let him know by the end of this week. Last night Johann started reading the email they sent him aloud and initially it sounded like a rejection letter, "we have had so many wonderfully qualified applicants..." blahblahblah and then "we are pleased to tell you we will be recommending your acceptance" etc. Then as he read on they also told him they will be offering him a paid research assistantship with one of the professors who emphasizes in some of the areas he is interested in.
Ah.
So now the people that constantly talked of just getting the heck out of Utah are confronted with a very difficult choice. Here are some pros and cons to each, add some in if you like:

Chapman:
Pros-
1. Close to family.
2. In California, ie the mountains, beach, Huntington Library, numerous museums and activities EVERYWHERE.
3. Johann would get his EdS and MA in 3 years.
4. Different school for his grad than he did for undergrad.
5. Lots of possible schools for me to go to in the area when its time for grad school, (UCI, Claremont etc)
6. Evening classes 3 days a week.
7. Better job placement possibilities

Cons-
1. COST OF LIVING, ie housing.
2. Cost of school ( about 4 times that of BYU)
3. Transportation issues (only one car, campus not in walking distance from where we'd mostly live).
4. All the normal moving things like not knowing anyone in Orange, not having near by sitters available, not knowing a good Dr. or pediatrician.
5. "Hands off" faculty- don't work as closely with students.
6. No research opportunities.
7. No offered jobs.

BYU:
Pros-
1. Very affordable program.
2. Opportunity for research.
3. Work closely with professors.
4. Part time job already offered.
5. Within walking distance.
6. Cheaper housing.
7. Familiar Drs. and pediatricians.
8. Some family and friends very close by.
9. People who are willing to babysit.

Cons-
1. FREEZING WINTERS.
2. Program is full time/day time classes (ie less opportunity to get another job).
3. Possibly issues with job placement in California
4. Very far away from most family.
5. Same as undergrad.
6. No grad programs for me to go into, though the opportunity to take post bacc classes for cheap.

Okay, so those are the main ones that we have thought of. There are some more but they aren't ones that are for sure things so I left them off. So...what do you think?

Super Henry!

Monday I came home to the happiest little boy. My friend Elena has been so sweet this school year with helping out on days that I need a sitter for Henry- including this past Monday. When I walked in the door I saw him in this little 'cape' smiling like crazy. Elena used my feeding cover (very clever!) and he just loved it. Generally he's always pulling his clothes off but he kept this on literally all day; the next day he pulled it out of the diaper bag, I put it on him and he wore it again throughout the whole day. Funny kid!

"That photo"

So I was looking through some of our pictures of Henry and noticed we've recently started to get quite a few of 'those' kind of photos...ie the kind you pull out when Henry brings his first girlfriend home. Just thought I'd share a few:

Henry can't take his eyes of the screen when Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords is on

In this one he's too busy chatting on the phone to take a family picture

"Oh, is that mine?"

No idea what this one was about

Cheese!

Getting back to his Okie roots!



Finally, my favorite. Henry having a dance party...by himself.

Ode to Amanda

A is for always helping me out
M is for man...you deserve some really smart/hot/nice/intelligent man
A is for avocados...thats right I love you as much as avocados...possibly even more
N is for nitrogen because you're a scientist
D is for DUH Amanda is awesome
A is for ax...I hope you catch the next ax murderer at your job!


Okay, so that was a little silly, but the gist of this post is: Amanda we miss you and hope you have an awesome experience with your new job in Philly! You were such an awesome roommate, babysitter and most importantly friend. Thank you for everything!

Amanda is the one who taught Henry how to 'high-five'; now who will teach him cool tricks?! =)

Nine is feelin' fine =)

Its so hard to believe but 1 year is in the not too distant future as Henry adds another month to his age. As I mentioned last month he is becoming a happier baby day by day. We never thought he would get to this point; we often thought he was just going to be difficult until...well, his twenties! We are so glad to see him growing healthy and happy day by day.

His 9 month stats:
Weight: 17.46lbs (9.27 percentile)
Height: 27.5inches (29.51 percentile)
Head Circum: 17.6inches (35.77 percentile)

He is still a little small for his age but nothing to worry about. It does crack me up though when people at grocery stores or wherever comment on him being 'a big guy' or ask what I'm feeding him to make him so big...are they serious? I'm thinking maybe next time I go I should pin his percentiles onto his shirt so people don't make ignorant statements that mildly annoy me anymore! Ah...good to get that out.

As far as development his determined personality has once again triumphed and he is doing a wobbly little walk. I think the most he has done all at once is maybe 10 steps or so. He is so proud of himself and I can't help but admit its kind of cute thought I'm sure it will bring on a whole new slew of ouchies and bumps.

His favorite game now is to roll my big blue exercise ball or his soccer ball back and forth. He still loves going out anywhere as long as he's not in the carseat. He is doing better with sleeping at night much to mine and Johann's joy. I really do love sleep.

He is eating lots of new foods and getting to the point where he wants to try whatever mommy or daddy is having. Hawaiian sweet rolls and ice cream (yes, we have daddy to thank for this, though it was only a few bites) have earned some of his most pleased reactions. He is turning into such a little person so fast; it is so much fun and still a little sad to see our baby grow up. I think my favorite new development is that he will allow hugs now. He has never been very cuddly, always wants you close but not cuddling and now he will cuddle for a little bit at at time! Yay!
We are excited for everything this little guy has ahead of him! Happy 9 months Henners!

Valentines or Lupercalia? OR BOTH!

A few weeks before Valentines Day I started getting really excited about it. I realized that since it isn't a very BIG family kind of holiday it would be a good one to start our own traditions on. I mean, no one is going to be fighting over having us over for Valentines Day dinner or Valentines Eve...well, not that anyone ever fights over us...we just like think that they would if necessary. haha.

So Johann and I came up with making little Valentines boxes for our family home evening the Monday before Valentines day and reading a talk that we thought had something to do with 'love'. We read F. Burton Howard's talk, "Eternal Marriage" from April 2003 conference. We talked about how the message of treating something you want to last as special applies to almost everything in our lives, especially our marriage and family.



Valentines morning we awoke to our boxes being filled with goodies from....Cupid? Maybe we'll make up some Valentines gift delivering entity for next year.



My mom came out for the long weekend to visit so she got to share in our new tradition. Henry's Grammy sure is a funny one.

Grammy's nice pose in her new sunglasses...don't hurt me for putting this up! ;-)

After digging through our boxes we made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and got ready for the day. We all went out and did some shopping, well, mostly looking around then later went to Gloria's Little Italy for lunch. BEST GNOCCHI. yum. We came home and rested then Johann and I went out to see the film "Coraline" while Grammy stayed with Henry (thank you!). It was pretty good but the best part was actually going to a movie together. I believe it was the first one since Henry was born-9 months!!!

Afterwards we came home and had our Valentines Day cake. A great day of family, food, film and fun.













***Oh, so I couldn't help it and made Johann take this picture of him hitting me with salami. In one of my classic civilizations classes my teacher talked about Valentines day being the Christian holiday that replaced the middle day of the festival of Lupercalia- a festival of fertility rights where at one point women would run around in their birthday suits and men would slap them with meat to ensure fertility. I just thought it was too funny not to do something with that this year. Johann is such a good sport, eh? =)

February is a good month to be born!

Babe Ruth did it. Abraham Lincoln did it. Paris Hilton(?) did it. But most importantly: Natalie Jones and I did this. Thats right all of these people chose February to enter the world. ;-)
Natalie (Johann's sister) was born on the fourth and I was born on the sixth so two birthday celebrations in one week-yippee!
Wednesday (the 4th) we went on over to Bryan and Natalie's apartment, had pizza, Natalie opened gifts and then had cake. I was kind of bummed because I was still getting over some lovely food poisoning from the previous weekend-but I heard the pizza and cake were good =)

On Friday we went out to Goodwood as a kind of mutual birthday celebration. Happily I was feeling much better at that point and the smell and sight of food didn't make me feel sicky. Afterwards we came back to our apartment and opened gifts, had cake and played Scrabble. It was a pretty sweet birthday week!!!

Couples

The whole group

Our Little family

Johann made my 'princess' birthday cake. Pretty funny but delicious stuff!
Also Johann got me the sweetest, most unexpected gift- The Velveteen Rabbit. It was my favorite book as a child. I can't believe he remembered! I was so surprised and touched I think I may have 'gotten some onion in my eye.' =)

Jumperoo!

Henry getting some of his energy out. He got it for Christmas from Grammy Goodwin but wasn't really interested in being in it until about a month or so ago. Now this is what I put him in to tire him out before naps. Its great =)