HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!

Dan turned 31 today! He is officially in his 30s. For his birthday we went to Old Town Sacramento for dinner at Hard Rock Cafe (we had gift certificates to eat there). The only thing he wanted for his birthday was candy! For the last month he has been waiting to go to the candy store to have his choice in salt water taffy. It took awhile for him to choose since there were so many flavors!




Happy birthday Danny! We are grateful for all you do for our family. We know times are a bit tough right now but as long as we do our best and stick together things will work out!

Lily Update

Lily is growing like crazy! She has become a lot more interactive and is getting into everything. Some fun highlights of late:

She said her first word "hiiiiii" earlier this month. She says it really slow and drawn out. Then she waves with both hands.

Her second word she just said tonight: "DaDa." She says it over and over to Dan until he looks at her. It makes Dan really happy.

Her hair has finallly gotten long enouh to put in tails.

I found a fun bench at a garage sale. It's also a toy box. She loves to sit in the box and play with her toys. The picture we have above is her sitting on the bench with your first ponytail!

The only way we can get her to go to sleep is to put her in her swing. She is way too big for it so it doesn't go as fast as it should. She sure does love it, though! And hey, whatever it takes to make sure the girl gets a nap!

After the pigtails came out tonight.

She was introduced to stairs at a friend's house a couple of weeks ago. She was intrigued but not in a hurry to climb too high.

She is fun and full of life!! We sure do love her!

Gluten Free Diet Update

I have now been on my gluten free diet for almost a full 3 months http://djlsouthwick.blogspot.com/2008/06/gluten-free-diet-does-it-get-easier.html. I have to say that I have been very pleased with the results.

• My brain is no longer suffering from "cloudy syndrome". I can now think clearer and have more energy than I ever remember having. I just keep going and going and going!


• Since I have more energy I am able to exercise more. I walk every morning for at least an hour which equals out to about 3-4 miles.


• I have lost 6 lbs. I weigh as much as I did in high school! Can't remember the last time I was that thin. I'm also losing inches. I now fit into a size 5/7. The smallest I've ever been is a size 8/10.


• My back doesn't hurt!

I can always tell when I've had something gluten-y because my brain gets groggy and I just want to sleep. It's nice to feel that way once in awhile because then I realize how much better I feel on a normal basis!

If I seem to be bragging, I am. I'm pretty proud of the changes that I've forced myself to make. Eating healthier and cutting out the gluten has made me a changed woman. I think we all have the right to brag now and then, eh?

It has been quite a sacrifice (like having to give up peach cobbler). I still struggle with the fact that I can't eat some things. But, never fear! There are SO many gluten free recipes out there! For instance, my good friend Sara Menlove Doutre just sent me a gluten free peach cobbler recipe! I made Dan pause his TV show so we could talk about how wonderful it is that we can have peach cobbler next week.

Lily's Eating Habits

When we were in UT my sister Shonnee was a little concerned about Lily's eating capabilities. "I don't think she quite understands how to eat." This blog is to let Shonnee know that Lily's eating habits haven't gotten any better... in fact they seem to have gotten worse:

She loves to smear it all over her face! Especially the food she doesn't like. Makes complete sense to me!!

Labor Day--Old Town Sacramento

The Saturday before Labor Day we headed in to Old Town Sacramento. They were having "Cowboy Days". It was amazing! For the event they brought in 500 tons of dirt to cover the roads! No longer was there a place for cars, only horses and wagons. The food and entertainment was amazing and very cheap. There were roadshowesque plays in the street with a lot of gunshots (it's amazing that Lily will cry at the blender & vacuum but gunshots only piqued her interest).

My favorite part were the bands. They had one guy singing who sounded like Kenny Chesney. He even dressed like him. The next guy we heard sing was a Johnny Cash look-and-sound alike. I could've listened to them all day. Big slices of watermelon only cost a quarter and you could get a full tri tip meal for $5. Even candy was free in the candy store--as long as you ate it inside. What a fun event!

After we saw all we wanted at the Old Town we walked over to the mall. It was a bit too rich for our taste but they had a fun play area for Lily. She LOVED this car!

Most of the way home(we rode the train) Lily and I played her new favorite game...sticking our tongues out at each other.

Labor Day-The Fair

We got free tix to the CA State Fair. It was fun! I haven't been to the fair in years. As soon as we got there we made a beeline to the animals. Lily doesn't get the opportunity to see sheep and horses very often.

Lily and I taking the sweet horse for a walk.

Lily sitting in more corn kernels than I ever thought imagineable. It was fun until she started eating it. Then the fun was over!

The people taking care of the display of "wild horses" had a collier dog. Lily saw it and immediately wanted to get down. I tried to get her to pet the dog but all she would do was sit right down in front of it and look at it. She was very serious about the whole thing. The display peoples thought she was a hoot!

Lily enjoyed rolling the world around.

This was Dan's favorite part: motorcycles that did tricks in the air. They laid sideways and even turned upside down! It was pretty amazing!

Family PIctures

I think I mention it below but while we were in Nibley we did family pictures. It was fun. Here are some cute ones:

Visiting the Mecham Family

It was great being in Nibley again. It was hard to believe that it had been a whole year since we had been there! Here are the things that we did (click on the pictures and they will get bigger):

It was so fun for Lily to get to know her cousins. Emily is only 1 month younger than Lily so there was a lot of gouging of the eyes--in love of course! Lily was kind of tired of so many people all the time but overall she did pretty good.

It was fun visiting Grandma Mecham and everyone else who came to see us! It was neat to have a 4 generation picture done.

Fun to be home again! Fun to see all the family on both sides.

More vacation pix...really quick.

So it's been over a month since we've been home from our vacation so I thought I'd get the last of the pix up since so much has happened this month that I need to post about! If you want to see the pictures better you can click on it and it should come up bigger.

On Sunday we went to church in Stanley with Dan's family. It was really interesting as there is not much of a ward there. It is a branch that is mostly filled with visitors during the summer. The church building is a nondenominational one that has a big glass wall so you can see the Tetons. It's amazing! After church we went to the fish hatchery for a few seconds. Lily was fine until she stuck her hands in the water and they got nipped at by all the fish. Later we went to Perkins Lake where Dan's nephew was baptized....he was actually baptized in the lake. It was pretty cool.
Monday was the end of the reunion. We hadn't been to Dietrich in 2.5 years so we decided to head there and see The Valley. It was amazing! A pond has been put in. It was great to go kayaking. Lily had her first fill of the mud and she was intrigued!
We also stopped at Mammoth Caves which is only about 20 minutes from Dietrich. Oddly enough Dan had never been there! Funny how we don't take advantage of the things that are closest to us. Mammoth Caves is a deep cave that is underneath the desert. It was amazing. You never woulda guessed it was there. There was also a room filled with stuffed dead animals. It made me pretty sick. One of the pictures above shows Lily with big eyes looking up at something. Then the next picture is of a bear. That is what she was looking at. It was a fun time!

NieNie

Has everyone heard about this website? I just heard about it. It's a blog about an LDS family. The mom writes about her family, 4 children, the gospel...I guess it's read by many, many people across the nation and the world.

The end of August "Mr & Mrs Nielsen" were in an airplane crash. They are both in medical induced comas. Stephanie has been burned over 80% of her body.

The blogging world has bonded together to help raise money for this couple and their children. What a sadness! The ladies in my office have been crying as they feel like they know this family and are so sad for this tragedy.

The blog is touching. What a neat family and what a tragedy.