Last week Tom was kind enough to share his germs which resulted in both him and I being miserable with a sinus infection and take z-packs. Last Thursday was the worst day for me. We dropped Tom off at work and I took the kids to the store so that I could get some fruit juice...while there I saw some powdered donuts that miraculously jumped into my cart. When we came home Noah wanted to paint with his water colors so I let him but he got it all over his arms. When it was time to get down he started crying and ended up transferring paint from his arms to his face when he was wiping away his tears. Then he saw my powdered donuts and that made everything much better.

 

 

We got these shots over the weekend.

 

 

Can you tell that they're siblings? haha

 

 

In other news our little Georgia-bean is growing fast and getting so strong. She is showing the first signs of laughter (I swear I had her laughing this evening) and is beginning to reach for things. She can hold her head up fairly well and is already learning how to roll herself over. Not sure I'm ready for that... I somehow get the feeling that she is going to be one of those kids that doesn't necessarily say much but is in to everything. I'm praying that I'm wrong.

 

 

 

 

Noah LOVES animals and we have been meaning to take him to the zoo for months. We tried over the summer when mom and dad were here but we drove through the parking lot and it was packed so we didn't make it. We thought that now would be the perfect time though since schools are back in session and we could go on a Monday when Tom was off work. Tom told Noah Saturday that we would be going to the zoo to see animals on Monday and he asked about it all weekend, including getting quite upset Sunday after his nap because we weren't going to the zoo just yet. Noah loved seeing the animals and is still talking about how he saw them.

 

We saw an elephant drinking water with his trunk and Noah told Tom "He's using a sippy cup!" haha

When we were at the gorilla habitat there was a gorilla sleeping just inside the glass.

Noah kept saying "golilla sleeping!"

Giving the otter hugs. He gave it kisses right after this photo.

The Hogle Zoo has something called "Zoorassic Park" going on so they have animatronic dinosaurs spread out throughout the park. Noah would walk up to them and say "What's up dino?"

 

About a month ago Tom did something to his finger and it would bleed periodically resulting in there being blood all over our sheets and try as I might I just can't get the stains out. Tuesdays after his nap Noah woke up and noticed the blood stains all over Tom's pillowcase and he launched into this story about how a giraffe and a snowman pooped on the pillow and how he was going to fix it. He has this funny way of saying "I will fix it." Really saying "I will [verb]". That afternoon I went out into the living room and found Noah sharing all his toys with Georgia: "I will share with Georgia!"

 

Earlier this week Noah asked for a some cheese crackers with peanut butter filling for a snack, but all he does is eat the peanut butter out of the center. After one or two crackers I thought "I'll just give him a spoonful of peanut butter and that should take care of it." The peanut butter very quickly ended up in his hair.

 

 

Tuesday we walked up to story time at the library but we had a bit of a rough go of it again.. It was packed again this week and I think those days are harder for Noah because I think he is worried that he won't get his turn. We left in a bit of a hurry and ended up forgetting his coat up there so we walked back up today to get it and since the play area was empty we stopped for a few minutes. Noah loved having free reign of the place.

 



 

Tom is kind enough to let me sleep in in the morning times since I get up once or twice a night with Georgia. Yesterday, I woke up to Noah screaming about how he wanted "Birthday Cake" for Breakfast. We made the cake yesterday however, at dinner time Noah kept taking the beans out of his Taco Soup and sticking them in his ear. I told him that beans are not for ears and that if he chose to continue doing it he was choosing not to have cake for dessert. He kept putting beans in his ears so we saved making the frosting and eating the cake for today. After dinner Noah was sitting on the counter helping me make the chocolate frosting and he kept excitedly saying: "Mom's making mud!"

 

Sorry for the picture overload but I just can't get enough of their faces. :) Hopefully as I become more consistent with updating this thing there will only be one or two pictures per post. Other news, Tom is considering applying for a job as a Sociology instructor at the community college here in Rock Springs so wish us luck that all goes well!

 

 

 

 



 

 

Tom still wasn't feeling the greatest this morning so he only went in for a half day of work and had me pick him up at 1:00pm. And, I'm sad to report that we officially have sickness in this household! Boo!  I was hoping that Tom would keep is germs to himself but it appears that I'm getting it too. I really don't handle being sick well, we're talking I just whine and moan and sit on the couch until I'm over the worst of it.

Because my throat has been feeling scratchy I decided this afternoon to go and get a soda ("juice" if you're Noah, and yes I am slightly concerned that that's what he calls it) because the carbonation feels good on my throat. As we were leaving Noah decided that he wanted to play with some of my bracelets, or rings as he calls them, then as I was getting Georgia out of her bouncer he decided that Georgia needed to wear the rings and promptly slipped them on her arm.

Doesn't she look fabulous?

A few weeks ago, Noah was helping me make some chocolate chip cookies. He was sitting on the counter and when I turned my back to grab something Noah took a big pinch of brown sugar out of the bowl. I asked "Did you sample the sugar?" and he laughed and the rest of the time whenever I would pull out a new ingredient he would beg for a "sample". And now, when either of us gets into the baking/cooking ingredients he still asks for a "sample". Well tonight we had creamy chicken noodle soup for dinner, one of our favorite Pinterest recipes, in the hopes that it might help us to get over being sick more quickly. I don't know how likely it is to actually work but, it's worth a shot right? Anyway, I got into the flour so that I could make the roux and Noah, once again started asking for a sample. He kept saying "I want sample flouler, please?!" We gave him some thinking that maybe he would like it all that much because well...it's flour. For whatever reason he seemed to like it and kept asking for more.

He got flour in his eye at some point during the sampling process. Poor kid! Also, slightly funny...

Well, here is to hoping that the chicken noodle soup does the trick! Bibbers out!

Tom stayed home from work today. For the last few weeks he has been complaining that he has been having a bit of sinus pressure and congestion and it hasn't been getting better so he figured it would be better to go into the doctor and get checked out before he starts his on-call shifts next week. Seeing as how Tuesdays are normally one of Tom's twelve hour days at work, we didn't complain too much. Apparently he has a sinus infection so they prescribed him a Z-pack and hopefully he'll be ship-shape in the next week or so. Noah in particular loved having Tom home for the day and begged him all day to play Legos and read story to which Tom obliged--he is such a good Daddy.

On Tuesdays they do Toddler Time at the library just up the street from our apt. It's specially geared for kids 0-3 they do sorting activities, read stories, sing songs, do ring around the rosie, etc. They took a break for the summer and they just started up again last week since schools are back in session. We went last week but Noah had kind of a hard time at the end because he was headed over to play on a plastic rocking horse and just as he was going to sit down on it this other little boy came and nudged him out of the way and sat down on it. I didn't know what to do because I didn't feel as though it was my place to discipline the other little boy but his mom wasn't paying attention. Poor Noah, he freaked out, understandably so. But it got even worse after that. I don't know if his crying was drawing the other kids attention when Noah was headed for a toy or what not and then they were noticing that toys were free and were going for them or if it was just bad timing but the same thing essentially happened 3 or 4 other times with different kids. Noah finally got to the point where he decided that he had had enough and hauled off and hit one of the kids who did it. I went over and told him that other kids were not for hitting and made him give the other kid a hug and say he was sorry. We took him again today and there were significantly less kids and things went much more smoothly--thank goodness.

At some point today while Tom and Noah were off playing Legos I was sitting in the living room with Georgia and nibbling on her feet and she smiled at me and went "ha". First of my little girl's laughs? Perhaps!

As I was doing laundry today Noah came over to help...as he usually does. He has this obsession with one of Tom's shirts. It's grey with orange red stripes down the sides and made of that silky drylux (?) type material that you wear for running. Every so often Noah will go to our dresser drawer and pull it out and carry it around the house, and it is the one shirt he is usually guaranteed to pull out when he's helping me with laundry. Today, I was sitting there sorting through piles of clothes when I pretended to sneeze and launch some clothes at Noah. He thought it was hilarious, he was giving those deep belly laughs the kind where it sounds like he is having trouble breathing because he is laughing so hard. We spent about 30-45min repeating the game. Every time I would stop he would look at me and go "ah-choo?"

Tonight at dinner Georgia spit out her binky and it rolled over into the living room but I only say it out of the corner of my eye and remarked to Tom that I had initially thought it was a mouse. Noah then proceeded to tell us that he saw a mouse in the living room so Tom pretended to go get the "mouse" and take it outside. Noah then proceeded to tell us about a ladybug and all about how he wanted the ladybug to eat ketchup with him for dinner, and he wanted the ladybug to eat ice cream with him, and that he wanted the ladybug to go check the mail with him, and he wanted the ladybug to go get a quesa (quesadilla) with him, and how he wanted the ladybug to go to the park with the wood chips with him. Quite the adventurous ladybug.

Holding "da Miss G" this morning.

Noah's favorite of Tom's shirts. He decided it would be fun to wear it like a mask today.

Helping Me "sweet" the house.

Georgia is coming up on 3 months old now and we have been anxiously trying to get her to laugh and then it occurred to me...I don't remember what the first thing was that made Noah laugh. When we were pregnant with Noah I thought for sure that I would record every moment and that he would have stories and things to look back at and remember his childhood if for no other reason than because he was my first, but I haven't been so great at that. I don't know that I remember for sure what Noah's first word was...I'm pretty sure it was "ball" but I can't say that with certainty. Life gets away from you and in the business of the day to day somehow I have let the importance of recording the little things slip past me. When I was pregnant with Noah pictures of my "bump" were taken sporadically at best and I don't think I have any from when I was pregnant with Georgia. But, little things like that are important. I'm quickly discovering that my kids are growing up all too quickly and with that I'm having to let them go bit by bit...someday I will only have the memories, but not if I don't write them down. So...here is to being better so that I and my children will have something to remember this time of our lives because as the song says "[we're] gonna miss this."

 We went to the library this week and checked out this book called I Love You Because You're You. For some reason though, I can't read it to Noah because otherwise he will break down and start crying for Tom. Tom is the only one allowed to read it to him...that boy loves his Daddy.

The Libraries here in Rock Springs are kind of "eh", but we love the library in Green River. They have a train table, a doll house, pretend tools, a Lego table, wood blocks, magnetic dress up dolls, and build you're own flowers. On this particular day Noah was loving him some blocks. He kept saying: "I stack 'em!"

Noah loves to bring toys with him wherever we go. We tell him we're going to go bye and he will run to the living room pick a toy and say "Bring (insert toy) you?!" Earlier this week we were headed to the park and he decided he wanted to bring his stuffed Elmo, "Bear", and "Ducky" with him.

The vacuum started making this weird noise on Saturday night so I asked Tom to take a look at it. Noah promptly ran right over so that he could try and help his Daddy fix it.

Helping Daddy fix the vacuum. He kept saying: "I got a screwdriver!"

We put a pair of tights on Georgia Sunday morning as we were getting her ready for church. They said they were size newborn but we had to laugh because when we put them on her they were still up to her nipples. Ha!

 

Other happenings recently that we haven't necessarily gotten pictures of. Noah loves to help and whenever he sees me cleaning he says "cleam up da house." He loves to "sweet (sweep)" and "mop" and is constantly getting them out and "helping" me clean up the floors. There will probably pictures of him helping with these chores at a later date. He also likes to help take the trash out to the dumpster.

 

At some point when Mom and Dad were here over the summer Noah caught on to the fact that Tom wasn't just "Daddy" but that his name is Thomas. Every morning Tom is woken up by a tiny little voice whispering "Thomas, Thomas, I want go living room. I want watch Elmo [Sesame Street] please?"

 

Other loves of our little boy at the moment include all things animals, minions or "frogs", making sand castles--periodically throughout the week he will see something like a bug, a bird, a toy, etc. and he say "[blank] make a castle sand you?", and playing with his Legos--"play blocks you?"

 

He also doesn't do this so much now as he used to but sometimes he will pick up "someping" off the floor (which is really just air) and hand it to you. He is already starting to play make believe and we just think he is adorable. This afternoon he walked out and wanted one of his toys to make a sand castle with him and attempted to open the door to go "bye". He is constantly saying "goodnight" to them and giving them kisses and putting them in Georgia's car seat so that they can go "bye".

 

Georgia right now is a fan of eating, sleeping, and getting her diapers changed...in that order. She is getting better at smiling but she is still trying to gain complete control of her face so her mouth opens wide and you can just see it in her eyes that she is content.

 

Also, side note, Tom finished up his licensing requirements this week! Woot Woot! We are so proud of him and are so thankful for all the hard work he does for our family! :)

 

 

Goings On

So...it's been nearly two years since we updated this thing. Oops. Life has been busy in The Bibber household.

Tom is steadily plugging away at his job and is months away from finishing his license which means less stress for him, a higher salary, and the hope of loan repayment. We're definitely looking forward to that!

I worked for a small amount of time this last year as a social worker for the local hospice agency. I loved helping people as they were making the transition to end of life but I quit in February and am now living the dream as a full time SAHM. It's a bit of a challenge going from school and work and almost constant mental stimulation to housework and runny noses...sometimes I feel like my brain is melting. But the truth is that I love being home with my kiddos and watching them grow.

Noah is rapidly approaching his second birthday at the end of the month. He has had some gross and fine motor delays but he is quickly catching up and doesn't let anything stop him...when he really wants to. In contrast he is very advanced verbally. At his 18 month developmental screening he was in the 6th percentile for motor development but the 75th percentile for language development. He is very insistent about getting what he wants when he wants it. He is a busy little boy who loves all things puppies, balls, mukicks (music), and books. We are so happy that he is a part of our forever family.

Mom and Dad just left this morning after a month long visit to welcome our newest edition: Miss Georgia Marie. Noah LOVED having Grandma and Grandpa come to visit and was thoroughly spoiled with early morning donut runs and trips to get fries and "juice". We were sad to see them go but we know it had to happen.

Miss G was born June 11th and will officially be a month old tomorrow. She was blessed on Sunday with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends in attendance. She had her one month well baby yesterday and she appears to be growing well and following the curve. No sign of reflux...yet. We are at least relieved for now. So far she appears to be pretty mellow, she wakes up to eat and occasionally she has her moments but for the most part she is content to sleep the day away in her swing. :)

Life is good! Here is to blogging more and giving my kids some record of the childhoods. haha

Just after our last blog post, Tom and I took a trip down to Independence, KS so that Tom could interview with a Mental Health agency. Tom got the job but, while we were super grateful, we were a little uneasy about the offer that they made. The salary that they offered left a lot  to be desired and from the look we got of the place we just felt like things would be extremely tight for us on the salary that they offered, that is if we were even able to break even to begin with. On top of that, they wanted Tom to sign a contract agreeing to work there for four years and if he for whatever reason needed to leave the agency before the fulfillment of the four years we would have to pay them back monetarily for whatever supervision they gave him towards his clinical license. We were pretty stressed for a few days simply because something did not feel right to us about the offer but we didn't know why and we worried that if we turned down the job that maybe no other job opportunities would present themselves for a while. That being said, Tom and I spent a few days thinking over things, doing a lot of internet research and, after realizing that we had no idea what constituted a "normal" job offer, we e-mailed some of our old professors to ask for their advice/insight. After conferring with them the uneasiness we were feeling started to make a lot more sense and ultimately Tom and I decided to not take the offer in favor of continuing the search and hoping that a better offer would present itself.
On the bright side, Independence is home to one of the historic Laura Ingalls Wilder homes and a really ginormous train that we initially thought was on of the largest trains ever made...sadly, we were wrong about that, but it is still pretty cool looking.

After, leaving Independence we drove down to Cherstin, Dan, and the chillins' in Oklahoma City being as it was only a 3 hour drive south. We got there Thursday afternoon and spent Friday with them before leaving Saturday afternoon to head back to Springville. It was good to get to see them as they live far enough away that that doesn't happen as often as we would like. So, Friday night while we were in OKC we got a text from Mama Bibber saying that she had heard there were supposed to be some pretty nasty storms in OK and KS the next day and asking us to look into and be careful the next day as we headed out. Cherstin helped us look into that night and the weather service was saying the storms weren't supposed to start until Sunday so we thought we were fine and we left the next afternoon without even thinking to check the weather reports again.

Now, I apologize for the inordinately sized map of Kansas below, but I feel that it is necessary to explain what happened next on our adventure.

As we headed out of OKC that afternoon we checked with Dan to find out the best route to take on the way home. He said there were two ways, he said we could either go up through the OK panhandle, which he didn't recommend because apparently it is extremely boring, or we could take the 35-N back into KS and then take the 70-W at the junction in Salina, KS. Tom and I left and everything was fine for the first little bit, we took the 35-N and junctioned with the 70-W just fine. If you have never been to KS, it is pretty much a whole lot of nothing but cows and corn. As you can kind of tell on the map, heading west on the 70 after Salina there really isn't anything until you hit Hays. So, Tom and I were driving towards Hays when I suddenly had this overwhelming urge to use the bathroom. Thank You, Noah. We stopped at this rest area in the middle of nowhere so that I could use the facilities and, Thank Goodness we did. While we were there Tom heard a weather service report saying that they were having "extreme weather" in Western KS. We kept driving but we turned on the radio and tuned into some weather reports. As we got closer to Hays it sounded as though the thunderstorms and everything were heading towards Hays. At that point, Tom turned to me and said that he thought we should turn around and start heading back towards Salina to wait out the storm. We turned around and as we were waiting in Salina we heard on the radio that a tornado had been spotted in the Hays area and that people were being advised to seek shelter. Tom and I were super grateful we made the decision to turn around because a) we were traveling and would have had no clue where to stop and take shelter and we would have basically been up a creek and b) I have been absolutely terrified of tornadoes ever since I saw Twister in the second grade and I sincerely hope I never have to live through one. We ended up being delayed 3 or 4 hours and we still had to drive through a pretty good sized storm but at least there were no tornadoes. Thank goodness for the promptings of the spirit and a husband who listens to them. :)

On the way back to Utah we stopped in Denver and spent some time with Desi, Mike, and their kidlets, and Matt, Alyssa, and Jack. We even got to be there for Desi's Birthday! We really are grateful that we are close-ish to them and that we get to visit at least somewhat frequently. 

After turning down the job in Independence, Tom and I decided that we actually wouldn't mind trying to find a way to stay in Springville. That being said, Tom began focusing his job search more in the Salt Lake/Utah Valley area. However, we also realized that we needed to look in other areas as well in case UT didn't work out so the job search also included WY and ID. 

I've always had this secret desire to be crafty-pants even though I do not have a crafty or artistic bone in my body, but after some searching on Pinterest I decided that for Father's Day I would make Tom a personalized mug. 

He also got breakfast in bed.

Tom eventually got another job offer from an agency in Gillette, WY. The starting salary that they offered was awesome and Tom and I were seriously considering it, until we found out about the agency's insurance plan. The agency offered healthcare benefits that would have covered Tom 100% but they wouldn't have covered Noah and I at all. The monthly cost to cover Noah and I through the agency's insurance plan would have been $1500 a month! At that point, it didn't matter how good the salary was, Tom and I were pretty sure that it would be difficult for us to make it work with an insurance premium that high. We looked into private insurance options but they all said that they wouldn't cover maternity care and that they wouldn't even insure me right now because the pregnancy was a pre-existing condition and that if they did insure me after we had Noah if I ever became pregnant again they wouldn't cover maternity care. And, we know Obamacare will be taking effect soon, but there have been a ton of mixed reports about the effect that that will actually have. So, in the end things just seemed a little dicey in terms of insurance for Noah and I and we decided not to go with the offer in Gillette either.

However, while Tom was considering the offer in Gillette he contacted our friend, Stephen, from the MSW program who had gotten a job in WY to figure out how licensing works. Stephen was super helpful to Tom and mentioned that if things didn't shake out in Gillette that his agency, in Rock Springs, was hiring and that he would be willing to put in a good word for Tom with the HR and agency directors. So, after turning the job offer down in Gillette, Tom applied for and was offered the job in Rock Springs. We gave the offer some thought, did some research on cost of living, etc and decided that Rock Springs would be a good option. So, long story short, we're moving to Rock Springs. We would have liked to have found a way to stay in the Springville area but with the number of people from our cohort and from the U who wanted/needed to stay in the area the job market for Social Workers was quickly becoming saturated. And Rock Springs seems like a nice, quiet little town. Also, the agency Tom will be working for has been really accommodating and has agreed to let Tom start work in mid-August so that we can have Noah down here seeing as how I'm already so far along. Speaking of which, as of my 36 wk appt on Monday, my Dr. said that I am dilated to a 2 and that I am 75% effaced so there is a chance that Noah could make his debut before August 6th! Knowing my luck though, the kid will decide to camp out there and be a week late or something. 

Tom and I, I think are still a little nervous just because there are a lot of changes coming up, it would be stressful to either move or have baby just on their own but, when you consider we'll be doing both in a matter of weeks it is a little anxiety provoking, at least for me, but we're moving forward with faith. Here's to our new adventure! :)

Tom's started watching Doctor Who and he is super cool!

Shenanigans and Job Interviews

Sundays we have church from 11-2. I thoroughly dislike that time. I know that many people love it, but I just have always struggled with it being right in the middle of my day, but I digress. Last Sunday afternoon following church the weather was gorgeous and Tom and I had the wonderful opportunity to go for a walk.

Springville, is a small town just south of Provo and while it's not exactly the sticks, it's actually fairly well populated, there is still a fair portion of the community that is agricultural. So, pretty much down the street from us and across from our Church building is this family that has a tiny little animal farm. They have pens with horses, chickens, cows, llamas, sheep, goats, emus, and this weird sort of shaggy cow looking thing that Tom and I haven't been quite able to decide what it is, that line the road. Frequently, after church families will take their children across the street to pet the animals. Sunday, our walk happened to take us in that direction and I begged Tom to stop and pet the animals with me. Tom was a little hesitant for fear that they might bite, but I eventually wore him down. Most of them would just sort of blink at me when I whistled to them but there were a select few that obliged, including one of the llamas! I told Tom I was a llama whisperer.

That night we were sitting at home discussing the adventures of our day and Tom got to wondering about whether the animal I petted was actually a llama or an alpaca so he did a search on Wikipedia. These were the images that accompanied the article on alpacas.

Tom's Favorite Picture

                                         

Felicia's Favorite Picture

You cannot tell me that you don't at least giggle a little to yourself when you see these. I seriously laughed for at least twenty minutes at these photos....there were tears. My favorite is the white alpaca with the farmer guy, it still cracks me up when I look at it. Needless to say, Alpacas are my new favorite animal.

Last week I bought into Bountiful Baskets which, if you don't know, is a produce co-op. Basically, you and a bunch of other people in your community each pay $15 for your "basket" and then that money is pooled together and used buy fresh local produce. We picked up our basket last Saturday and it had a pretty good amount of produce including a small cantaloupe, watermelon, and pineapple, romaine lettuce, two heads of cabbage (which Tom and I initially mistook for iceberg lettuce...oops), onions, green peppers, squash, oranges, bananas, and two artichokes. I knew what to do with everything in that basket except the cabbage and the artichokes. Monday, after some thorough searching on Pinterest I found a recipe for Spinach Artichoke Pasta. The recipe called for canned artichokes which we already had some of, but I figured I could just add the fresh ones we got in our bountiful basket along with it. At one point as I was preparing the artichokes I look up to find Tom doing this....

He was shirtless because he had been playing WiiFit and doesn't like to get his Gs all sweaty.

Tuesday, Tom was able to schedule two job interviews for the latter part of the week. One, with Adult Protective Services (APS) in St. George on Wednesday afternoon, and the other with a place called Red Mountain Behavioral Health in the Phoenix area on Thursday afternoon. That being said we got things packed up on Tuesday night and left Springville early Wednesday morning in order to make it down to St. George in time for Tom's interview with APS.  

Tom looking spiffy-pants on the way down to St. George.

While Tom was at his interview that afternoon I got the opportunity to hang out at the St. George Temple and enjoy the scenery. Then, when Tom was finished he picked me up and we were off on another 6hr car trip down to Mesa, AZ. Tom was pretty pumped because this was going to be the farthest south he had ever been in the continental US.

From St. George the GPS wanted us to take the I-15 and go through Las Vegas, but we opted for the scenic route and took Route 89 instead. Northern Arizona is actually quite pretty.

As we were passing through Kaibab National forest on the 89 we kept seeing signs for something called "cliff dwellers" which we were kind of confused about. Eventually we came to it and it turns out its just this quick little turn out on the side of the road where you can see some cool American Indian cave dwellings and a bunch of huge rock formations. Below, Tom is "holding" one up.

Also, on the 89 we passed by two entrances to Grand Canyon National Park. The first one we came across was the entrance to the Northern Rim in Kaibab National Forest but, the entrance was closed for the Winter (go figure that May is apparently still considered Winter down there). We were a little bummed, but a few hours later we came upon the entrance to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, so we decided to go have a look-see since Tom had never seen the Grand Canyon before.

 

It was pretty late in the afternoon/early evening when we got there and the sun was just setting so viewing circumstances weren't ideal, but we still got there. And, I suppose the one bonus to getting there so late was that by the time we got there they had already closed down the guard stations for the day so we didn't have to pay the $25 entrance fee!

We got to our hotel in Mesa late Wednesday night and were going to try hit the Mesa Temple Thursday morning before Tom's job interview. Unfortunately, I woke up that morning with a pretty gnarly sinus headache and what Mom said she thought sounded like a sinus infection...awesome. So instead we settled for just taking a tour of the temple grounds and visitor's center and taking a quick peek at the Gilbert, AZ 9/11 memorial.

Again, while Tom was at his job interview I hung out at the temple. Which, can I just say the temple grounds in Mesa are huge and lovely. Tom said it reminded him of a little oasis and I must say that my favorite part was that it just seemed so still in the temple grounds. Outside on the street it was so busy with traffic, etc. but the minute you walk in the temple grounds it is very peaceful and it seems that the only thing you can hear are the birds singing in the trees.

Following Tom's interview we took off for St. George again so that our trip back to Springville on Friday wouldn't be quite as long. This time we did end up taking the I-15 up through Vegas and we got to stop and see the Hoover Dam on the way!

We stopped and spent Thursday night in St. George. Friday morning we woke up and got to attend the St. George temple. We also took a tour of the St. George Tabernacle before heading back up to Springville. We got home last night around 5pm.

Thursday, I hit the 27 week mark with Noah and so this morning I had to go to the lab at the hospital and have my glucose test done to screen for gestational diabetes. The punch I had to drink for that was really nasty and I practically gagged it down with Tom snickering at me a good portion of the time. 

27 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He made up for it though because when we got home there was a man waiting to deliver these for me...my Mother's Day gift from Tom.

What a sweet and wonderful husband I have! :)