Molly is 9 months old

Yesterday was Molly's 9 month birthday. We have been celebrating today by waking up with a stuffy running nose. Going to the doctor and getting a flu shot. Forcing Molly to eat spaghetti that she hated. Making Molly try drinking out of a sippy cup which she also hated. So far getting older means going to the doctor and having a hard day getting over shots. It makes me think that maybe her 1 year birthday should be a little more fun. I made sure not to schedule her doctors appointment on the 28th of march so she would have a HAPPY birthday for once.

Here a is a look back at the last 9 months:

1 day old:

1 month old:

2 months old:

3 months old:

4 months old:

5 months old:

6 months old:

7 months old:

8 months old:

And Finally Molly Today:

Its a little late but Merry Christmas Anyway

Fall Semester 2010

Fall Semester is finally at an end as of 12/16/10 18:55. Yay. Seeing as my (Fred's) last post was in August I thought I would update on the great events that have taken place this semester whilst I was a homework zombie (to quote Sara). Very few of the great events are school related.

Pheasant Hunt - I love to hunt little birdies like grouse and I used to hunt ducks but I'd never had a successful pheasant hunt. I went last year on public land with a guy in my ward and we saw one but I was too slow and he missed it too so we came back empty handed. This year a guy in my ward invited me to go on his land with his dogs. Let me tell you that is the way to hunt those creatures. The dogs would go crazy in the cattails and flush the pheasant out of there like they were flushing a toilet! I did get one (although I'm holding two). Best hunt I've had all year.
Ye Old Deer hunt - For some reason I did participate in this witch hunt. Me, the wife, Dad, and Frank searched in very egregious forms for a mythical creature. I expected to see a unicorn before an actual buck. We hiked mountains, ran through snow, froze our faces off on the four wheelers - everything short of rapelling - but never got one. We actually did see a male deer but he was very tiny. If he were a human I think we would call him a toddler. I could only tell he was a male if I looked through the 12x50 binoculars from a hundred yards away. I would probably have felt bad about shooting him. I'm still deciding whether I should pursue the creature next year.

Land Yacht - My senior design project was to build a wind-powered land vehicle - a land yacht. Please do not confuse this term with the wikipedia's definition of a landyacht. Our was basically a big 3 wheeler with a sail. Our front wheel came off a suzuki motorcycle from the 70's and the back tires are chevy cavalier donuts. It's a honey! We didn't get any good testing on it (yet) because the weather was extra calm after the great snowstorm of thanksgiving. Only this week has it started to pick up.



Christmas Tree - After two sad years of a fake christmas tree we finally got a real one! I'm so excited and love the pine smell when I come home. Molly has also been loving it too - tearing it down and eating the needles anyway (any ideas for keeping kids off the tree??). Plus there is a lot of room for loot underneath it.

6 hour final - Yes you read that correctly - a 6 hour final. For my controls class we have so much material and it's a long iterative process to get the parameters right that the professor let us take the test in the computer lab. Glad to be able to use the lab but 6 hours is a long time! My brain was more deep fried than year old okra (for those of you who've eaten okra).

Molly - Molly has learned how to clap, say da-da and crawl. I think she'll be walking pretty darn soon but we don't want to rush that. More details will come with our Christmas card so I don't want to spoil it for you. Too often I put stuff on the blog and have nothing to talk about when I see people in person.

Graduation - This is my last semester!!

Mars mission - For my dynamics of space flight class we created a mission plan of how to get to Mars. Very interesting project and it's been a lot of work but so much fun! I've probably put 40 hrs into it so far. If my initial flight plans were followed you would have smacked into mars 10 times over or miss the planet by 100 million miles (that's further than from the earth to the sun). Finally got it working today though!

Picture Update

Well we have lots of updates and pictures. I thought I would just put up the pictures to update.

Molly has been loving our entertainment system. She loves to crawl inside and just sit there. I think its funny how she will push all her toys aside just to get in there and play with the walls.

Its become her own little condo.

Molly is holding her own bottle now which is great. She is also finally big enough to fit into the stroller we bought last christmas. This is her enjoying a little lunch in the stroller while we ate sandwichs at the park. It was also the first time we all sat and ate a meal together.

I took Molly out in the snow for the first time today. She went through many emotions sitting there.
First confusion, then uncertainty, warming up to contentment, then happiness, quickly followed by dislike, then ending with hatred.
All this happened in the space of 5 mins. This picture was taken in the contentment stage.

Here is a couple of random pics to end. This one I took because I love how cute she is in that suit.

Here is the last one. I dont think I notice enough but Molly is generally a mellow kid. Really her biggest problem that will always get her crying is be left alone. I can deal with that.

The Joys of Parenting

Molly is crawling now and spends much of her time on the carpet. Its an interesting feeling to be so proud that your baby is learning new things but also so frustrated that your baby is learning bad things.

Example 1: Molly is learning to feed herself which makes me so proud. BUT she is learning by picking up gross things off the floor and choking on them. Gross!

Example 2: Molly is learning how to hold her own bottle which is so awesome. BUT she is also learning how to throw her bottle and wave it around her face so milk gets everwhere. Not fun.

Example 3: Molly is starting to laugh more. BUT when she is really happy she will scream at the top of her lungs. So you can try to make her laugh but make sure its not too funny or it will hurt your ears.

When I pictured motherhood I never did picture myself having to pick my childs boggers and search my baby's mouth with my finger to find nasty leaves, hairs, crumbs etc. But its all part of the job right? There is definitely a reason why children come out cute and learn to smile really fast.

Here's a video of Molly trying to walk along the couch. I think she is going to be a born boot-scoot-and-boogie-er because she keeps doing the grapevine.

Deer Hunt 2010

So here are some photos from the deer hunt. The hunt was changed from a 5 day hunt to a 3 day hunt which was a bummer. Everyone still had a fun time on the four wheelers. It started to snow on saturday and continued til monday which made the mountains beautiful but the hunt was freezing.

Here is a fun "where's waldo" pic. Can you find keith in the sink hole?

If not here is a closer look at the sink hole with Keith in it.

Here is another picture of the guys falling in into the sink hole.

Here is a picture of Frank to show just how cold and snowy the hunt was.

A few deer were chased but no deer was caught. The lillywhite tradition lived on for another year.

And to end the post here is a pic of Molly. We grew this pumpkin for Molly and it turned out to be the same size as Molly's head.

White Tiger

Sneak Peak of Molly's First HALLOWEEN