this little griff

i don't have the brain cells to really write anything right now, but i did want to post some more pics for the grandparents. we are loving this little guy!

our dynamic duo

his enormous feet

 bright eyed and awake at 12:30 in the morning after peeing through his diaper twice, pooping on dan, and projectile vomiting in his bed. keeping this boy clean is a busy job---someone needs to tell him laundry isn't free around here. :)

waiting for him to wake up in the morning is seriously too much for this girl. maybe i need to give her a night shift......

honestly to say this girl loves her brother is the biggest understatement of all time. i am glad he had 9 months in the womb to get a sense of her energy because it doesn't even phase him. he is her little prince charming and just eats him up. its pretty fun and also makes us a little crazy, but our house is pretty thick with love right now and i just love it.

 merry christmas?

 nova finished swimming lessons. she has no fear of the water and enjoyed it so much. it was so so so much fun to watch her.

 snuggled up after a sponge bath

 and sleeping with socks on his hands.

You Wanna Go Where Everybody Knows His Name

The moment has arrived. You've been wondering for months what we would call our new baby boy, and it's finally time for the big reveal. We've named him Periwinkle Abernathy Hope, and we call him Perri for short.

Worth the wait, right?

Okay, fine, just joking. His real name, as officially recognized by the state of California, is Griffon Clark Hope. He was born Tuesday night (July 31) at 7pm, he weighed 7lbs 11oz, and he measured 20 1/2 inches. He came out screaming like his hair was on fire, berating the nurse for letting the room get too cold. The birth went very well, even better than Nova's. We were admitted at 3pm, then Suzanne had the epidural around 6pm, and she only had to push for 10 minutes before our little Griff entered the world.

What follows is a slew of shamelessly fawning imagery of the new baby, so only scroll down if you're medically certified to handle cuteness overloads (images of me were edited out so as to maintain purer levels of cute).

 The last shot of Suzanne's belly just before we headed out the door to go to the hospital.

Moments after Griffon was born, with mom and baby both looking healthy and happy. As you can see from the ecstatic look on Griff's face, he had yet to identify the differences between a finger and a nipple.

 A proud little sister stakes her claim on the poor unsuspecting lad.

"Can we keep him?"

The whole family together at last.

A shot of what we've come to call "The Scowl." Evidently he's pretty unimpressed so far with the family he was assigned to. Every time I smile at him he gives me The Scowl. I was unaware that dads could achieve "uncool" ratings before the child was 10 years old. I can't wait to see the looks I get when he's 16.

A straight-on shot, to facilitate your debates about which parent he most resembles. I'm pretty confident he got my toes (pictures forthcoming at a later date), judging by the freakishly long lemur feet he's sporting.

The scowl returns. He's pretty disgusted that everyone seems so concerned about those girls on the TV, flitting and flipping about in pursuit of those golden circle thingies. Hoping the scowl goes away when I introduce him to Star Trek.

More scowls and disgust that his parents never seem to stop taking photos. This was taken just before we were discharged from the hospital this morning.

And finally, a shot of Griff's intense skepticism about this whole car-seat thing. Fortunately, he was asleep by the time we got home, so maybe he's okay with car travel now.

That should be enough pictures to satiate your ravenous desire for baby photos. If not, then we're obviously never going to be able to help you with your addiction. In such a case, I refer you here. For the rest of you who can wait a few days, rest assured that there are more where these came from.

nostalgic

normally i try to be all witty and funny on the blog, but today i have been a bit nostalgic. my baby turned 4. 4! i never thought i would be one of 'those' moms. you know, the ones who say "time goes so fast," or "enjoy them while they are little" or who are sad when their kid is off to kindergarten. but i am. maybe its because our little son is so close to being here and i have been clinging to these last few weeks. it has been us 3 for so long and although we have prayed and hoped and wanted to become a family of 4, there is that part of me that is sad to close this chapter of the 3 of us. i don't know what it is, but today i just wanted to eat this little kid up. i just look at nova and how big she is and how she is grown and the opportunity that i have had to play such a huge part in her growth. i feel so honored to be her mother. as weird as it sounds, i feel so often that her spirit is older than mine and i am so indescribably grateful to be her mother. to care for her. to love her. to teach her. to be her's. she made me a mother. i have felt also on several occasions that we were good friends up in heaven. she teaches me patience like i NEVER thought i could learn it. she has taught me that my capacity to love is more than i could have ever imagined. i never knew i could love someone like i love her.

one of our birthday traditions is to go around the table and say our favorite thing about the person's birthday it is. dan told nova how he loved it that she let him call her squeaker. he loved her because she is happy, and creative. he loves her because she is smart and loves to learn. at any given point in the day she wants to be a dental hygienist, a nurse, a scientist, a dancer, a writer, a painter. dan loves it. as soon as dan comes in the door she runs to hug him and asks him what they can learn about and they do science experiments until dinner.

i told her i love that she has music in her soul. when i say she is constantly making music and sound i mean it. i love that she is so brave, i love that she loves church and invites our neighbors to come to primary with her. i love that she is obedient and is so good at following the strict diet requirements that is required of her. she never complains about what she can and can't eat. i love that she is thankful. she really wanted to go to red robin today for dinner and was so careful about eating things low in PHE so she could have french fries. all through dinner she kept hugging us and telling us thank you for such a special day. it doesn't take a lot to make her happy and she finds joy in the little things. i hope she is always able to do that. i love her so very much and am so grateful that Heavenly Father has entrusted her to dan and i to care for and pray every day that i will be the mom that she needs and deserves.

nova's bicycle helmet---that's what she wanted---that and some t-shirts and big girl pj's. she is pretty easy to please.

 she wanted a strawberry shortcake cake......what? i wanted to be supportive of a non-princess cake, but felt freaked out about this idea---but it turned out better than i thought even though the shape is off----but she loved it and loved helping with it---and that's all that matters.

 a closer shot of the cake

on a non-birthday related note, here is a cute pic of nova and her good friend louie. they are the best of buds and we are so glad they live so close.

and nova went to the dentist on monday and LOVED it! she keeps asking when she can go back. and is obsessed with flossing. i was blown away with how well it went. i'll be honest, my expectations were not very high, but she did AWESOME. and no cavities! 

busy busy

we have been so crazy busy!
here are some pics:

nova gave her first talk in church today: sidenote: i am so proud of her. she has been so excited to do it. she practiced all week and drew pictures and colored pictures to hold up as she gave her talk. she practically wrote the whole thing and she did so awesome. i love that she is so brave. here is a copy of her talk. i will post a video of her doing it at home.

Heavenly Father and Jesus have asked us to pay our tithing.
Tithing is a good thing to do.
When we get money we pay 10% to Heavenly Father
We put our tithing in an envelope and give it to the Bishop.
I feel happy when I do that.

There once was a girl named Nova.
She did a job for her mom.
Her mom gave her 10 coins.
Nova counted 1 coin and put it in an envelope.
On Sunday she gave it to the Bishop.
Nova felt happy.
Heavenly Father felt happy.
Satan wasn't happy.
Nova's tithing will help temples and churches be built.
Tithing is a good thing to do.

we switched it up a little---but she was assigned the topic of tithing, and so we talked to her about it and asked her to teach us back and that is what she came up with, with a little bit of prompting from us. but we asked her to tell a story about someone who payed their tithing and that was the story that she came up with. (my favorite part is the satan line---we took that out though...)

 

 she graduated from preschool:

 went to a birthday party with her friends

 we went to idaho and visited the farm. and family in jerome and rigby--we also stopped in utah. and saw our new nephew camden---but i have no pics!! what? and she saw a cow give birth---and thought it was awesome.

 had a sleepover with her girl cousins

 and took some silly pictures

 went on her first airplane ride

 with her very own ticket. we also had our own emergency landing on the way home with a 5 hour lay-over.....she was a trooper though and we made it home to see our dad finally. hooray!

 nova finished dance class

 and loved it. she can't wait to do another one.

 dan and i went on a real live date. it was awesome. we went to a movie. it has been forever--we even had the theater to ourselves. gotta love jerome! :)

 we went to happy hollow for memorial day---my crew loved the roller coaster.

 i can't believe how fast the last couple months have gone. and its just going to stay crazy i think. just pray that among the crazy-ness we can come up with a name for our little guy before he gets here. AH!

easter and spring break

easter totally snuck up on me this year. i think last year it was a lot later and so this year i realized it was easter, oh, i don't know, a week before it actually came. nova had a lot of fun decorating easter cookies with a friend, going on 3 easter egg hunts, going to an easter party at a friends and an easter themed preschool. we tried to fill the week with a lot of fun. i think we accomplished it, but by the end of the week i was wiped.

easter cookies


easter egg hunt

our ward had an easter egg hunt at a golfland and we could mini golf for a discounted price. nova did pretty good--but when her ball went in the little river running through the course, she just jumped in. good thing she was wearing flip flops. swinging on her own

bunny ears that she made at the easter party with friends---they also decorated cupcakes, colored pictures and eggs--and i took zero pictures. nova had a blast


and although nova doesn't have spring break, some of her older friends do. which means, our friends plan fun things and we benefit from it! we went to the park this week a few times, went to happy hollow, and finished off the week with the beach and some sunburns. we had way to much fun at the beach for pictures, but needless to say, california is the right place for nova. she was in the water the entire time and has no fear of it. a lot of her friends like to just dig in the sand and run away from the waves. nova wants the "big waves", and then the "bigger waves." she was chasing after some friends when one of them stopped and bent over and she flipped over them and landed face first in the sand. i ran over and was trying to wipe her face off in the ocean and i told her to let me carry her to the towel and i would wipe off her face with some clean water. she just opened her eyes and said, "its ok! i can still see a little bit!" and off she ran to go get back in the water. when we got home she told me we needed to live closer to the beach---and this morning she slept til 8:30----which is UNHEARD of for this girl. maybe we should move closer to the beach! :) ha!

happy hollow: her buddy weston--he was her best friend on the roller coaster---they rode it several times---and screamed and screamed. she LOVED it!

if you blow this picture up bigger you can see her face---mix of fear and excitement

on the carousel

her other favorite ride which she also rode over and over again with weston. and here is just a video of nova and weston on the roller coaster---its not the greatest quality, but i love to see how she interacts with her friends--sometimes its not all good--, but its so fun as a parent to see her becoming her own little person. plus you can hear them screaming--and it cracks me up every time.

let me explain....

i wish i had the energy to be witty and funny and all that jazz. but i don't. i am behind on the updates and its been a busy few weeks. (insert something witty and hilarious that makes you laugh) "so let me explain....no, that would take to long, let me sum up".....(can anyone name that movie?) anyway, here are a few pics of what we've been up to.

dan's sister janalee came to visit. we hung out, went to san francisco, went to the exploritorium, drove around fishermans wharf, got lost several times, and stopped by the beach. it was so much fun having her and nova loved having time with her. thanks for coming jana!

at the beach

dan had a birthday shout hooray! we celebrated with pie....and smoking? he was just trying to show nova how cool he looked......but i think she was just alarmed. nova had fun decorating our living room like a space ship and making a pie with about a pound of sprinkles on the top. (also as a side note, dan ordered his birthday present and we got it in the mail. dan opened it early and when nova woke up the next morning and realized that a) he had opened his present BEFORE his birthday, and b) opened it WITHOUT her, she was more than appalled. she asked to call him at work and she gave him a tongue lashing. she was really put out that he would do something so horrible. we can really see how we parent because the conversation was made up of mostly these comments----"that was not a good choice. i really love you and that makes me sad when you make bad choices. there will be consequences. NO CANDY for 10 years. i still love you and i am really really frust-a-dated and i love you-that was a bad choice. i love you. lets talk about it." i wish i would have recorded it because it was hilarious.



nova set a lepracaun trap, and didn't quite catch one, but he left a trail of gold to the door and left some lucky charms, green nail polish, and turned our milk green. he is one 'tricky guy.' according to nova. she really wanted to set a trap to catch one because our neighbor made one. dan helped her to build one and he told her that you have to leave something that the lepracaun would want, so she drew a red hat for him to have if he left her some gold.

success!

and the lucky charms with green milk.


and last but not least, april fools day. this year we kept with tradition and dressed up like a crazy folks. i opted to not wear my bathing suit outside of my large preggo body this year. and we ate on garbage bags with strange utensils. nova was a bit concerned with the whole thing. she was alarmed when i just dumped noodles on the table. and when we ate dessert first nova was almost in tears because, "you can't eat dessert first! its not right!" sigh.....at least the things we are trying to teach her are sinking in right? but after the initial shock of it all, i think she had fun with it.

also, i hung the pictures upside down to see if nova would notice, and nova didn't like it at all, and she particularly did not like the mustache i gave her. alas.....

eating dinner

and the whole family, in all our sweet sweet glory......