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| Holland Rose |
Holland Rose is a month old now. She's smiling a bit. Mostly out of the right side of her mouth, like a pirate. I'm proud. And when she does, her dimple pops. Awesome!
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| Our bathing beauty loves to dip her feet. |
She loves her baths. We spray the water out of the handheld thing at her feet and she lifts her feet and moves them in front of the spraying water. Its pretty cute to watch. Its my favorite part of the night. Yeah, she'd stay in the tub pretty much forever if she could. She cries each night when I take her out and we towel her off.
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| Our friend JessieAnn Baird made the cute hat. |
Jenn says she smiles a lot in the morning hours after I've gone to work. Makes me sad that I miss it. She definitely loves her mama. Just when I think there is absolutely no way to soothe her and there is absolutely no way she could still be hungry, . . . hand babycakes over to mama and instant sootheness.
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| I rule. Don't mess with my Mohawk. |
So two lessons I've learned: uno . . . mama has magic powers, and dos, my baby Holland Lop is a bottomless pit. The girl can pound it. She eats so much. Did I mention she grew two inches the first two weeks? And I don't know what's normal . . . but is a dirty diaper at every feeding every two to three hours normal? Meta-bo-lism! So if you're ever watching Holland and you're thinking, "she couldn't be hungry!" The answer to that is, "oh yeah."
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| My two girls. |
She's over her jaundice but she's still pretty dark as you can see in the pics. I think it must be Papa Turtle's Cherokee blood coming through because she's not snowy white like Jenn and me. Sometimes Jenn calls her Coconut because she's kind of a nutty light brown color.
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| Ooh. Who dat? |
And she has this cool natural mohawk thing that happens to her hair. Don't know how. But her little chicken feathers just stick up in the middle.
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| She loves Nana Dori. |
She's been sleeping four to five hours at a time at night, then eats for an hour or so, then back to bed. So not too shabby, I guess. Not that I really have anything to do with anything at night. Jenn, thanks for taking such good care of Holland at night, while I'm sleeping. Wake me up if I can do anything.
I love it when I come into the room after being away for a while and as soon as I say something, Holland turns her head toward me. Jenn says, "Do you hear your daddy?" Makes my heart go pitter-pat. Maybe she likes me!
Actually, she kinda likes it when I hum in her ear or blow raspberries in her neck. That can usually get a little pirate smile out of her.
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| Brady, Grandpa Tom, Grandma Mary. |
We enjoyed having Grandpa Tom and Grandma Mary last week. They came all the way out here from Rexburg (aka Hoth) with Ty and Brady to help us a bit with our move and to see the baby. Its was fun having them. They were great help too. We hope to be seeing them in a couple weeks when we go on our Tour de Hollanda through Nevada, Utah, and Idaho. Woop-woop!
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| It feels like a bit of a sacrifice. I'm not gonna lie. |
If you know us, you know we've agonized like never before the last few months. We've had to make some tough decisions. The last year or so has been one of struggle and learning for us. A new house to build, my family moving away, I fell off the roof and broke my foot, financial woes, some illness, and it goes on . . . so we struggled to find some peace. We fasted and prayed, attended the temple, and I kept at my job teaching institute. We were desperate for help and wisdom. We decided to simplify. To pay off debts. To offload stuff. We felt it was the right thing for us to do. And now the house is sold and we are on our way back to school, so I can wrap up my English degree and get into CES, maybe, hopefully, vamos a ver. Its been an adventure mostly because its tough in the present tense and we don't know what will happen in the future tense. Its an adventure in contentment . . . an experiment on faith. I confess its due in part to all those nights months ago when Jenn and I would read Neal A. Maxwell to eachother before we went to bed. I love that guy. I miss him.
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| An angel? I dunno. |
Adam and his family are on their way here right now. We're excited to have a little time with him and Amy and the kids. Isaiah and Maddox are growing up so fast! We're hoping for some Mo Mo stories to share after weeks end. Stay posted.
K. Peace out. Do a good job, friends.
