Trippin

So Eric finished his second semester on dental school and had a two week spring break which we spent visiting family in WA and MT. It was the first time that most of my siblings got to see Lillie as it was our first visit home since moving down here last summer. I was too pregnant to be able to go anywhere for Christmas, if you remember. I'd rather not remember. Anyway....

The first week we spent with my family and with my older siblings who live close to my parents, I saw everyone but Julee. The first day, there was a baby shower for Lillie, even though she's three months old, but it was really nice because now I have clothing for the upcoming months. And it was good to see family that I might not have seen otherwise. Gma Sharp held Lillie most of the shower and I learned more about Lil's namesake from her. It was nice to see her.

One night, we went out to eat with all my siblings and spent another evening roller skating at Scootney with all the neighbor kids. We got a little rock band in, watched Todd's softball game and Jody's tennis match in arctic weather, and tried our hardest not to get the stomach flu which was going around the family.
We dodged the stomach flu but Lillie and I both came down with some nasty colds. Not fun. Lillie was so congested at times, she didn't want to eat or sleep.... I was so sleep deprived this trip. The next week, we rented a car and drove to MT to visit Eric's parents. We spent our first day driving to the crystal park(notice how I just say driving because it was closed, but it was still a beautiful drive. I really want to go and dig for crystals sometime though.) The rest of our trip was spent visiting the museum of the rockies, shopping, playing rummikub and scrapbooking. Eric's mom was really good at making Lillie laugh and she loved pat-a-cake with his dad. She's sure a lot different than she was the last time she saw them at two weeks old.

Lillie was such a trooper, she didn't cry on the plane or during the 14 hrs to and from MT. Wow, I am really lucky to have such a good baby. My sisters also say this. I didn't realize how good is.

Lil also got her first taste of baby einstein. She loved neighborhood animals, she would coo at the animals and kick her feet. She watched it two and a half times before getting fussy. I wasn't neglecting her, I was making scrapbook pages for her. No, I don't believe that baby einstein is a substitute for taking care of your child, okay?

It was fun seeing Lillie and Haylee together. It's too bad I didn't get any photos :( We really only got to spend time with her one day. They don't really look anything alike even though they're cousins. She's three weeks older than Lil but seems a lot older in that she is better at using her hands, and she also just seems like an old soul. It'll be fun to see her personality develop in the next couple years.

Grady and Lillie were so cute... when he wasn't trying to (playfully) whack her on the head. He is such a sweet little guy. They'll also be fun to see together as they grow up. Grady looks like he is about two years old but is barely turning one. He's a lot bigger than Lillie and is already starting to walk. It seems weird that they are only 8 mos apart, it's not that long, but it makes a big difference when they are this young.

It was so great to visit our families. We love them all so much. It's also been good to be back: sleeping in our own beds and enjoying hot weather.

Deer caught in the headlights look

Lillie with her Aunt Katie and cousins: Kaden, Brandt and Grady. We are missing Amy and Haylee. :(
Grady was actually really good with Lillie. They're gonna be really good friends as they get older.
Lillie loves dinos and her grandma
Eric is sacrificing Lillie to the great T-rex

Lillie's bedhead. She's getting so much better at holding up her head.
Eric and Lillie doing something that wasn't done enough...
This was a cute store in Bozeman, my mom likes to call her Lillie Lou.

How We Love Thee, Rock Band

So.... a couple weeks there was a girl's night out in our ward and we got together to play video games, Rock Band, DDR and the Wii. I had only played Rock Band once before but after playing it again, I realized that it was really kind of fun. Eric had been trying to convince me since the first time we played it in LV that we needed to get it. So that night after I got home, in my moment of weakness, I conceded and we purchased it on Ebay. My life has been ever changed since the day that the box landed on our doorstep.
I love the guitar! I am not a good enough singer to like the mircophone and I stink on the drums, but that guitar makes me feel like I am a real rocker. It makes me think that I could actually pick up a real one and bust out some awesome tunes. That's not really the case, but the fact that it makes me feel that way is great.
I have never been good at video games, just ask Stephanie, who played many rounds of Mario Kart with me, or Desi, who knows that I am terrible at anything on the Wii. Seriously, I lack major coordination. But I am getting better at the guitar. If I'm feeling adventurous I might even try the Hard setting. I also feel like I am expanding my musicality (I might have just made that word up). I finally know some songs that the Rolling Stones, Garbage, etc sing. And I am figuring out the words to the songs too (Instead of just singing what I think they're saying).
Anyone who knows Eric, knows that he is having a hayday. He loves rock music, old and new, knows all the words, guitar solos, etc. But he is best on the drums. He even has started playing some songs on the expert level. Yeah, I can only do the Easy setting.
So we've started our own tour, our name is White Hot Winter. Ha ha. If Eric doesn't have too much homework, after Lillie's asleep, we rock. It's a ton of fun and we've had a few neighbors stop by already and I know we'll have more once the word spreads. It finally makes me feel like having a 360 is not the worst thing in the world.

Random Info

So, there have been a couple things that I've been wanting to blog about but they aren't very long or exciting and so I'm combining them.

Today we went to the beach. Normally I'm not very excited to go...weird huh? But let me explain. The beach requires a lot of packing. Sunscreen, swimsuits, sunglasses, blanket, umbrella, towels, boogie board and food. And it's not that it's a pain to pack it all, but to lug down to the water as you are sinking in the hot sand and to unpack it all at the end of the day when everything is COVERED in sand. I never get in the water because the ocean is FREEZING and it is usually windy. And TRAFFIC, don't let me get started about LA traffic. I'm a big whiny baby.
But today the weather was HEAVENLY! It was supposed to be in the 90s at our house and was still about 80-85 on the beach. Lillie was so good and it was fun to sit and chat with friends and watch my hunk of a husband boogie board. What a fabulous day.

Not all family trips this week were great though. We went down to D-land on Thursday and Lillie had her biggest meltdown to date while on the train that goes around the park, so we couldn't get off and it's not just a short ride. I could tell the people around us were not very happy about the SCREAMING baby. She was dead tired and all the CRAZINESS around us was too much. It'll be a while before I'm brave enough to go back.

Lillie has been progressing by leaps and bounds lately. She is still such a little talker, it was sometimes hard to hear General Conference over her yelps. She now looks at all the toys dangling above her on the play gym and intentionally bats at them. She can grip things now and often has my hair, clothing, necklaces, etc in her tight grasp. I need to get her a rattle. She is much better at sitting up in her seat and even tries to sit up when laying down, she can do a mean crunch. Her favorite thing in the whole wide world is sucking on her hands. She can now bring them up right to her mouth and tries most of the day to fit them down her throat. Some times a single finger slips in and she gags and gags until Mom pulls it out. Honestly, it's kind of nice, she doesn't need her binky as much and can keep herself happy for quite a while.

She has finally gotten a ton better at going to bed at night. Thank goodness. I was about to admit myself into the hospital for sleep deprivation, but she's getting better. I won't say she's good at sleeping until she goes through the night without waking... still a long way off.

Eric has finals week coming up...yikes. We BOTH hope that they go well. It's just gonna be tough not having Daddy to help out much this week. On Friday we will fly out and spend the next two weeks in WA and MT to visit family. We are all so EXCITED!!! Lillie hasn't met her cousins and I can't wait to meet Haylee, Lillie's cousin that is about a month older than her. I am already getting giddy at the thought of going home. I'm almost a little afraid because I think that it will make me homesick after the break.

Bumbotastic!!

So I got this little seat for Lillie to sit in to make her neck stronger so that she will be able to start holding up on her own without any help. She's getting pretty good at it, but she only likes sitting in the chair for five minutes at a time. Eric thinks the seat is stupid, but I know that she's gonna love it eventually.

I am your dentist!

I found this video online and it pretty much sums up both my reasons for becoming a dentist and what I've learned in Dental school so far. We really are quite sadistic.

Miss Pamper Head

I change so many diapers each day. The other day I put a diaper on Lillie's head and called her Miss Pamper Head and she thought it was funny. I was surprised to get any reaction at all. I managed to get one of her smiles on camera.

Easter Lillie

Lillie's first Easter was spent barbecuing in the park with the Burbanks and Farrs. It was a beautiful day and Lillie and Hallie had fun finding easter eggs, or at least their parents had fun taking them around. We had video of the event, but no pictures. Lillie got ribbon in her eggs for making headband bows and candy. Now if only her mom would get around to making them...

Lillie's first day at the beach

Lillie was taking in the rays and putting out the vibe for the other baby boys cruising the beach.


BFF's Hallie and Lillie finally were caught on camera together - happy - at the same time!!


We had a great time it was a sunny 85 or so today (but it was very crowded and too cold to swim). Here's what Lillie had to say about her first beach visit:

Our Week in Review

Last Wednesday, Lillie and I and our friends went to the zoo in support of the Dental Wives Club. We saw some pretty cool animals, but my favorite (and the most anticipated) exhibit was "Spider City". They had all these tarantulas along with your local faves like the black widow, etc. I have to admit, I was a little freaked out and it felt like I had spiders on me through the whole exhibit. Lillie was not the best behaved and I had forgotten the snugli, so I held her in one arm and struggled to push my stroller with the other. It was good to get out, but next time I'll have to make sure Eric is with me. I can't handle Lillie in public alone without the snugli.

Me and Lil stopping to pose for a picture outside Spider City.

Eric had the next day off, so we went to Disneyland with a few friends. We spent all our time at California Adventure. Eric went on all the big, scary rides with our friends while I watched the kids. I am such a chicken. The one ride I did go on was a water rafting ride, which was fun but I was soaked after that. I was more wet than everyone else. Good thing it was a hot day... in fact, Eric and I both got mild sunburns.
Eric and our friends on the Maliboomer. Neither of the women next to Eric are me... I'm the scaredy cat/photographer.


My Little Lillie Bug

Group photo with Shanell, Brad, Hallie, Desi, Anna and Jarom outside of "It's tough to be a Bug"


Lillie turned two months last Sunday and to celebrate we had about 15 people over for dinner... okay, that was for us, not her but it was a ton of fun nonetheless. On Monday, Lillie had her two month checkup and shots. We had been wondering how much she weighed because we could tell she had gotten a lot bigger lately. The damage wasn't as bad as we thought. She only weight 11 lbs 7 oz, which put her in the 50th percentile for her age. Her head circumference was also at the 50th percentile, but the real shocker was her height. She had grown 3 inches in the past month, she is now 24 in tall, which put her in the 95th percentile. We've had to move onto 3-6 mo clothing and so I'm not surprised that she's in the 95th.
So that was basically it for the week, a couple of days out, but a pretty low-key week.

CLOGGING VIDEO

Yes! I found the video of Carrie clogging!

http://jjpulsipherfam.blogspot.com/

Our First Family Vacation

We moved down here about seven months ago and we hadn't left SoCal. So we decided that it was time to get out of town. We had a couple extra days because Eric had midterms this last week and so why not go to Vegas? It had been almost five years since the last time we were there and we've had actually a couple of friends move to LV in the last year. Lillie was actually really good on the drive, I was worried because we weren't more than five mins from our house when she threw up ALL OVER. She soaked her clothes, bib, burp cloth and blanket. Wow.
The first night we had dinner and then went and played Rock Band with some friends from MT. We had never played anything like this before. We did not know what we were missing. It is seriously such a blast. And I was terrible. After a few tries I was able to finish a song the guitar. I hate to admit it, but Eric was actually really good. He was scoring over 90% on the hard setting of the guitar from the get go and did just as well on the drums (which were impossible for me), I failed out multiple times.
The second day we visited some of the hotels on the strip and then that night we went to a show. Our friend's father is an agent and got us free tickets to an acapella group. It was pretty good and the free tickets made it even better. It was our first time leaving Lillie with a babysitter. When we came in the door our friend's 4 yr old said, "Lillie was crabby." So I guess she cried most of the time and it might be a little while before we do that again.
The third day we went to the shark exhibit at one of the hotels. It was actually pretty cool. After that, we headed out to visit our friends from WA. We spent that night playing Guitar Hero for the first time, which was also a ton of fun. We left the next morning for home. It was really nice to get away and even nicer knowing that we can do it with a little baby. So even if it turns out that Eric didn't do so well on his midterm exams, at least we had a fun time.
Me at the shark exhibit in front of the jellyfish.

This is our little friend Abigail making a fabulous fish face. She was such a big help with Lillie.


Eric and our little shark bait... It was a restaurant outside of the exhibit.
Eric, Lillie and Nicholas Cage just hanging out on the strip.


Our little family posing in front of the canals of the Venetian .
A little shout out to our man, Chihuly and the great city of Seattle.


Can you see Lillie's bedhead? It looks like her dad's hair in the morning. She spent most of her vacation sleep in the Snugli.
Here's my Gene Simmons rocking out on Guitar Hero.

Pulling Off a Talent Show

Eric and I are on the activities committee for our ward. We thought that this calling would be a piece of cake, that all we had to do is set up and clean up a couple times a year. In this ward, however, there are activities every month and we were assigned to put on the talent show as our first activity. This was a ton of work. Eric spent many evenings making endless phone calls trying to coordinate sound, lights, dessert and of course, the acts. I spent my evenings trying to keep our colicky baby from crying too loudly so that Eric could make the calls, so it was very stressful for both of us.
The next stressful part of the activity is that I somehow got volunteered (I know it was Eric who gave me up) to clog with a little group. Honestly, I would have said no if I hadn't been the one putting on the production. It actually was a lot of fun preparing our routine. I didn't do the best job remembering steps during the actual performance, but I loved the challenge of learning new steps. It was a blast.
Actually, I think the whole night was a huge success. The gym was packed and the acts were all really good (seriously, I was impressed). So, a huge thank you to all those who participated, whether it was help cleaning up, performing, being the emcee, etc.
You know, there was someone who told us that he didn't want to be part of our activity because he thought it was going to be crappy. I really hope he was there and that he felt bad for what he said, because seriously, how rude is that.
I don't have any pictures or video of my performance... and I'm not really sad about that.

Photo Shoot!!

So today... inspired by the cute photos of our friends Brad and Shanell.... we put Lillie through torture like only 2 proud parents can. Here are some of the better photos we took.








P.S. I just want to add that I made that cute little tutu. I know it's not that well made. I don't sew and I didn't have any idea how to make it, I just gave it my best shot. I think it turned out pretty cute.

happy girl

Our Adventures in So Cal

Here are pictures from Lillie's first trip to Disneyland, to the California Science Center, and then another trip to Disneyland (today). My family came down to see Lillie and visit us for a couple days. It was fun to have them around.

Us at the science center. We look terrible and that's because we felt terrible. We hadn't gotten enough sleep those couple days and had spent the entire day before at Disneyland.
But Lillie still looks cute.
Eric rode this bike across a cable, which is balanced by a big weight below. It was three stories high. I would have been way too scared to do it, even though it's next to impossible to fall.
Our little princess posing with us in front of the castle.
Lillie waving hello on the dumbo ride, her first ride ever at Disneyland. She slept right through it...and the Peter Pan ride and Pirates of the Caribbean. She was awake in the Tiki Room though, she was so content watching the birds singing.
Lillie is so spoiled. She's not even two months old and has already been to Disneyland twice. I didn't get to go to Disneyland a second time until after I was married.

5 Years

This last week it was five years since Eric and I got engaged. It doesn't seem nearly that long ago. I was way too young to get married, by anyone's standards, and we were both poor as dirt. We had only been dating for 5 months, but had spent every one of those days together. We even had the nickname of Caric (sad, huh).
Anyway, the other day I was putting away some books in the office and came across the poem book that Eric had given me the day of our engagement. He had written this poem (it honestly is pretty dang good) and then had cut out a space for the ring to fit in all the pages (probably took forever). It was fun to take it out and read it again. I can't believe that it was five years ago. Such good times, then and now.

Our Week in Review

Last week Lillie and I (Carrie) went to the doctor for her month check up. She had gained 14 ounces in 14 days, tipping the scales at an even ten pounds. It is crazy that a month has already gone by, it has been so fast and yet so slow... it's weird to think about life before her, it seems like it was forever ago. At the same time, she has already changed so much.
My parents and two youngest sisters came down for the long weekend. We had a ton of fun, we went to Disneyland for Lillie's first trip to the happiest place on the planet. She did pretty well considering it was a long day. We got her a little Minnie Mouse, because that's what I got on my first trip to Disneyland, when I was six, and I loved the thing. It was a blast for me too because I could finally go on the fun rides. My dad even forced me to go on Splash Mountain, which I'm really too chicken to go on. I hate the feeling of losing my stomach.
Eric worked on his first actual patient today on his sealant rotation. It's surprising that they let first years do this kind of stuff, considering he'd only practiced once on a classmate and it didn't go perfectly, as it messed up his bite and the dentist had to drill it down. And these poor patients, all they see are the blue scrubs and dental tools in hand and they automatically assume that the students had previous patients. But it went well with his patient. I'm so proud of him. That puts us one baby step closer to the DDS.

We took our camera to Disneyland, but the battery was dead. My mom took a couple, but she hasn't emailed them to me yet. So the pictures will be coming...

Sleep? Not Overrated

This picture is Eric trying to make Lillie the "happiest baby on the block"... this used to really help, but not lately.

I had no idea what sleep deprivation felt like before Lillie. I had been sleeping a minimum of ten hours a day during my pregnancy, I was so tired all the time, or so I thought...the only difference between then and now is that I used to be able to just take a nap when I needed it. The last couple of nights have been doozies. Lillie sleeps all day but at about 6 o'clock the last two nights she would be wide-awake and decided that she would stay awake and fuss for the next 6+ hours. And then I still have to get up a couple times during the night to feed her and then struggle to get her back asleep.
So we decided we'd had enough of that and that we needed to do something about it. We borrowed a book from our friends that many people in the ward had raved about, it's called Save Our Sleep. The main points are that children need a schedule to follow and that they need to learn to put themselves to sleep. Today is our first day and I have to admit that it was really hard to listen to my tiny baby cry the loudest and the longest she ever has. But she finally cried herself to sleep. We'll see how this goes. This is going to be as hard for me as it is for her, I don't like having to follow schedules, but I think she needs it.

Baby Blessing and Family Visit

Well, its been a couple of weeks and already Lil' Lillie has gained a couple of dozen pounds. It seems like she is growing faster than we can keep up with. The last doctor visit (at 2 weeks old) she was 9 lbs 2 oz! She has already grown out of many of her newborn clothes. She is starting to realize that she has lungs with which she can get our attention, and its becoming interesting at night sometimes, but we're surviving.
Lillie's Baby blessing was Sunday and we were lucky to have my parents, grandparents, and some aunts, uncles and cousins here to help out and celebrate with us. It was a great time and Lillie was an angel through the whole thing (she slept). She did look very cute in her dress but didn't feel up to posing for the camera afterward.



It was nice to have my parents staying with us to help us catch up on some things and to help with the little one. School was crazy busy for the first time all year which wasn't very convenient but we had a good time.

And did I mention that the Giants upset the Patriots?!?!? Way to go Eli!