Molly Squealing

It's been fun watching Molly learn new things and see her personality develop. She is pretty mild mannered and doesn't get fussy much during the day. (The hour preceding bed time can be a whole different story.) We went to Kaysville for the 4th and Molly got to see her first parade. I'm pretty sure she got socked by the candy throwers a couple times but it didn't phase her. Sara also made this dress for her so she would match her cousin Savanna. In the parade there was this awesome dude that had converted his easy chair into a zippin' machine! Once we got over the shock of a cruising lazy boy we realized it was really awesome! Fred was lovin the parade because the missionary mall float was throwing out ties and I got one! So cool. Now I don't need to get a tie for 2 more years!

She was calm for the fireworks and was mesmorized by them. Tried to get a picture but it's hard at arms length - plus having to adjust to a high intensity flash while smiling is somewhat difficult.

Yesterday and today we went camping at Franklin Basin up Logan Canyon. We went with our friends Frank and Tawnia. We were pretty close to the road so it was really dusty but I think my favorite line of the whole night was when Frank said "The good thing about getting all dusty is you feel like you have a nice brown tan when you're done!". Truer words were never spoken. We had a blast and got to use the new dutch oven we bought at cal ranch. Getting that dutch oven was fun too! We didn't know where to get one so we went to Sports Authority. They had tents and sleeping bags but no dutch ovens. We talked to this one guy about camping in general and he pretty much determined that our method of camping was not actually camping but was in fact "caramping". Definition: When you camp a short distance away from your car. This was opposed to his version of camping which sounded much more strenuous. He would hike with a backpack for like 10 hours then camp at night then get up and do it all over again. I think the term is backamping. I've been since wondering who can officially lay claim to the term "camping". When we went there were tons of people who were caramping. And I don't think there are an equivalent number or backampers in the valley to compete with it. On the other hand, the sheer fact that backampers hike for 10 hours may qualify their species to lay claim to the term. I finally decided that the carampers could have the term camping because I am biased to that version and because caramping sounds like something that requires a doctor's attention. Case in Point when someone asks what I'm doing this weekend and I tell them "We're going caramping" I would expect them to say "Oh, are you going to get that looked at?". I don't expect that response if I said I was going backamping. It still sounds better than RVamping anyway.

On this camping trip Molly learned how to use her vocal cords. In the past her scream, cry, and yell has all had one monotone sound. Yesterday she started doing this squeal. I don't know where she learned it or what it is or anything about it's origins. It's pretty entertaining though.

baby lessons

The past 3 weeks we have learned a lot about raising Molly as well as attempting to teach Molly some extremely important lessons. First thing we learned and have been force to relearn time and time again is that babies are supposed to sleep 16-20 hours per day. Somehow we misconstrued this statement to mean "babies sleep all day". That is incorrect as a 1st grade mathematician can verify. What that statement really means is "babies are awake 4-8 hours a day (and they WILL get it). So if you were to come by our house around 3AM you might think we are throwing a party because the lights are on, the TV is on, Molly is awake, and so are Mom and Dad. We've been trying to keep her up more in the day to reduce the duration of these "parties". Those of you on facebook may have noticed that Sara will occasionally post around 3 or 4 am - enough said.

Second lesson learned is that Molly loves sleeping on us. Gotta admit, we kinda like it too as the pictures hint at. And don't be alarmed by the scariness of Fred's face. He is NOT dead!





We have taken Molly for walks to willow park zoo, the park, and on campus. She slept through the whole thing. She may not even know she's ever been outside! Last Saturday Heidi came up with Logan to see us and we went to willow park. That was fun. Molly slept right through it and Logan was awake. However we learned tha willow park is not much to see. The animals there consisted of about a million ducks, peacocks, pheasants, lame eagles, and a coyote or two. Pretty much it was just a bird zoo and a couple other animals that look like they just walked in and were adopted by the zoo. The monkeys were not out yet.



We also took Molly for her first day (of many to come) fishing! We would have taken pictures but we didn't catch any and Molly slept right through it

And now to the good stuff - pictures of Molly!

Details as promised

I guess its about time to release the previously undisclosed details of the birth experience. Saturday morning (27th) 10AM Sara started having contractions about every half hour and got progressively more intense throughout the day. We went for a walk, to the park, played frisbee, and tried to relax a little. At 10pm they were getting really heavy but still 15-20 minutes apart. We needed to pass some time so we started a new game of Super mario and cranked away. My job was to record how often and how long the contractions started. To the average bypasser it would seem like a funny sight. We'd play nintendo fiercely for 20 minutes til Sara started a contraction. Then I'd write down the time and time the length of the contraction. At the end of the contraction we'd hit the start button and continue fiercely playing mario til the next one. At about 3AM we were really tired and thought we would try to sleep - what a joke! Got up and continued playing Mario. We called the hospital and they said to wait til the contractions were 3 minutes apart. I thought the contractions would come pretty regularly. In fact I had hoped to plot the contractions using a sine wave. But alas, it seemed they came in more of a hyperbolic inverse tangent wave which is somewhat difficult to plot. Just looking at my chart here they came at 10, 15, 4, 8, and 12 minutes apart. In the meantime we got so close to beating mario, in fact Bowser was in sight! At about 4:30 they did come in 3 minute intervals to my mathematical joy and Sara's incomprehensible pain. Went to the hospital and she had dilated quite a bit more enough that we could stay. When she got it Sara gained a very strong testimony of the epidural in that she could sleep a little bit. At 7:56 Molly was born after 2 hours of pushing! When she came we both felt immediate relief but moreso on the part of Sara. I definitely gained a new appreciation for my wife and the pain she went through - UNBELIEVABLE! The end.

Ice Fishing, baby update

The last few weeks I've been hitting the ice fishing pretty hard. I went with my brother Ted and his kids and had a blast. We fished like demons, had lots of bites, but never brought a fish out. Boy we drilled a lot of holes though. My ice auger was the new toy of the day. I remember being that way when I first got my auger. I just wanted to drill holes almost more than I wanted to fish. And in true red-head Lillywhite fashion I went home with a cherry red sunburn that felt oh so good the next day. We were out there til 1:00 - that's a long day when you started at 7:30.

Nevertheless, I had to get back out there the next week. I was by myself from 7am til about noon when Keith showed up. I caught 3 decent rainbows and even a dinky bluegill. All the fish seem like they died very horrifically but let me assure you they were not.



There were these guys next to me that had an underwater camera and they would just watch the fish come to their line and when it got close enough they would jerk up and snag it in the face. They caught 10 between the two of them (5 each). I did pretty well catching 3 myself. I don't need no stinking camera! (But if anyone is giving their underwater camera away I would be willing to take the stinking thing.) There were a couple goobers next to me that were there til about noon and they didn't catch a thing! I felt their pain (when I wasn't catching a fish that is). When Keith came we fished much but it had slowed way down. Towards the end of the day though Keith snagged a little trout. And let me empahasize the word SNAG in that sentence. If you look at the picture you can see the fish wasn't hooked in the mouth, belly, or eye. He was snagged in the side of his tail! Many laughs were had over that fish.



Sara is unmistakably pregnant and is very excited?! for Molly to get here (her excitement level depends on the day - it's especially low after our weekly labor class). The baby showers are over and we were richly blessed by everyone's generosity. We have lots and lots of girl clothes. If the baby comes out a boy then that is just too bad because he will have to wear pink, be in a pink bouncer, wear pink diapers, and sleep with a pink sheet.