He's Back!

My baby brother got back from his mission in North Carolina this past Monday and Afton met her Uncle Jordan (aka Uncle Jonah) for the first time.  We're excited to have him back on this side of the continent.  
Afton liked his tie...

and his nametag.  Jordan was pretty tired (and recovering from a month-long cold), but he looked pretty good.  He did say "y'all" a few times, but otherwise is missing any southern drawl.  

That evening we went to an undisclosed location for some sight-seeing.  (Sorry Chris and Audra, but the whole keep-the-place-where-you-live-secret thing only works when you live in the middle of nowhere.)  It was Jordan and Afton's first tour through the lights at Temple Square.  

This was my favorite picture.  It was one of the few that wasn't completely blurry (we need a different camera), it has the beautiful Assembly Hall, and the three of them are looking good even after a week of traveling around the tree-lined roads of NC.   
The happy family.  Aside from Afton, I was the most bundled up person there, and I was still cold!  
And here's Sweet Baby Afton giving her Grandma Debbie a giggle.  You would have never guessed that she had had a major stranger anxiety meltdown a couple hours before when her loving grandparents were trying to entertain her for the twenty minutes I needed to make dinner.  The short version of the story is that in my attempt to address the sobbing, shrieking child, I overlooked adding half of the meat to the meatloaf mixture until I tried to cut one of the mini-meatloaves open to see if it was done.  It just oozed apart.  There are things that should not ooze, and meatloaf is one of them.  My mom told me it would taste fine, and my dad claimed to have tried some and thought it would be good.  I chucked it all in the garbage after telling my dad (in retrospect, probably somewhat insensitively) that he did not have a discerning enough palate given that no one has cooked for him for six years.  (My mom is a great cook, but she just sort of stopped a while back.  My dad is fine with it, though.)  Sure enough, Afton perked right up while we waited for Tony to come back with the Thai take-out.  That's when my mom told me that I couldn't be mad at something as cute as Sweet Baby Afton.  (I must not have been very cute as a child because I certainly remember my mom being mad at me a lot...Isn't it funny to watch your parents as grandparents?)  Filled with the Christmas spirit or overflowing with the milk of mother's kindness I said, "I've lost a lot of sleep in the past eight months because of her," or in other words, "TRY ME."  A few minutes later and Afton was back in my arms where she reached up and started gnaw/suck/lick-ing my face.  I took it as her invitation to kiss and make up.  All was forgiven.  

All that aside, welcome home Jordan!  

Daddy Daughter Duo

Christmas has really snuck up on us this year.  Its reminiscent of Cato sneaking up on Clouseau after which they pummel each other (*if you don't recognize this reference, do yourself a favor and watch the Pink Panther Strikes Back.) Anyway, in the mad rush to reach the Christmas finish line I have really appreciated our little sweet baby Afton.  I'm sure these feeling may momentarily dim in a few years as I am frantically trying to assemble a swing set, play house, bike, etc. for Afton on Christmas Eve.  However, I love hanging out with my little mini-me who exhibits such a genuine and enthusiastic wonderment at the world around her.   Here are a few pictures of Afton and I:

Hanging out after my Saturday morning run.  I apologize for the short shorts.  I also apologize to anyone who happens to see me running in my shorts each day.  I am looking forward to the spring when the weather warms up so I can take Afton along on my morning run in our jogging stroller.  

Here we are catching a few precious minutes of sleep before we have to get up and face the day. Afton and I have the same fuzzy hair in the mornings, though mine is darker and thicker.  I am sure that just out of the camera's view Gabby is sleeping at my feet or on top of my pelvis.

Here we are after church today.   Afton and I can't wait till we can bring treats to church like cheerios, fruit snacks, beef jerky etc.  

Merry Christmas from Afton, Heather, and I. 

Tis the Season

Does anyone else feel like the month of December is just a mad dash to the 25th? I've been meaning to post these pictures for a while, but... Notwithstanding the test of endurance that the blessed month brings, we've been loving the festivities. We started the month out carrying on a tradition from Tony's family -- December 1st gifts. When Tony was growing up, each family member would get some small gift on December 1st to begin the holiday season. For our December 1st gifts, Tony got Afton and me Whitman College garb. He knows the way to my heart.

Then we decorated. Afton kept herself occupied with some plastic holly berries while I pulled out our decorations. We don't have much, and what we do have I credit to my mom and grandma. They both love the holidays and have supplied us with many ornament and decorations.

Then, the tree. (Yes, Tony was still sporting his Thanksgiving "beard" at the time this picture was taken. It's gone now.) Afton was pretty bored with everything but the lights and beads.

Never try to string beads on a tree after you've decorated, especially when you're sporting a bundle-o-joy in a baby bjorn who can reach and grab. To his credit, Tony only sighed after I broke the third glass ball ornament as I was trying to loop the beads around. :). He also tends to get nervous whenever I use a knife in the kitchen...

The finished product.

The First Thanksgiving

We are mourning the passing of Thanksgiving (Afton's first), largely because we loved the four days of doing relatively nothing.The long breaks between busy semesters is the one thing I miss about college life. Some days, Tony and I would kill to have two weeks off at Christmas just to do, well nothing in particular. But I digress...

On Thanksgiving, Afton woke up from her afternoon nap just before we sat down to eat. No worries, however, because there were ample volunteers for the job of holding her. Note the distance from the table -- Afton is now a reacher, grabber, and yanker. When it's the table, it just makes a mess. When it's my hair, it really hurts.

Fortunately, the version of stranger anxiety that hit Afton in September is over. She had a great time with her grandparents and didn't shriek when they held her. As a side note, I will say that one of the perks of my Latin/Latin-influenced in-laws is FLAN! Nothing tops off Mark's Thanksgiving dinner like Ive's flan.
If it looks like Tony just woke up, it's because he did. For me, Thanksgiving is about the family, the traditions, the food. For Tony, Thanksgiving is about the food, the nap, and the football game (although I'm not sure if it's in that order).

Probably the best part of Afton's first Thanksgiving is all the time she got to spend with her dad. Tony took the Friday after Thanksgiving off, so we had four entire days to spend as a family. Tony took her on a couple walks -- which she loves. It's mesmerizing.
And, of course, a little daddy-daughter time before bedtime never disappointed anyone.

Tony is going to love this one...

Okay. I was husband tagged twice in the last week or so, so I'm obligated to respond, right?


1. Where did you meet your husband? At the J. Reuben Clark Law School.

2. How long did you date before you were married? Not as long as we will tell our children. Our first date was on October 15. We were married on July 22 the next year.

3. How long have you been married? 3 years plus a little

4. What does he do that surprises you? You must remember that my first impression of Tony was through our acquaintance in law school. He was my constitutional law TA (who taught the finer points of constitutional law - such as the dormant commerce clause -- did anyone know there was a commerce clause, let alone a dormant one?), and he argued some complex point of civil procedure (in a sharp-looking suit and tie) during the exhibition round of the moot court competition. Needless to say, I spent much of my first year with Tony being surprised when he’d get lost driving home in a familiar neighborhood or got really confused by math – no, not trigonometry or calculus, but plain ol’ addition and subtraction or occasional long division.

5. What is his best feature? Smile.

6. What is his best quality? His humor – or shall we say, “razor wit.”

7. Does he have a nickname for you? Not really.

8. What is his favorite food? Sausage and/or steak.

9. What is his favorite sport? Hm… he played tennis, but he watches college football and basketball and some golf…

10. When and where was your first kiss? Around Halloween at my apartment in Provo.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Doing things as a couple? Wow, that’d be nice… It may sound strange, but I like doing ordinary thing with Tony. Before Afton, we used to do grocery shopping together frequently. (Although, I’d leave him in the produce isle to inspect 100 apples individually so he could pick out the three he wanted and then I’d do the rest of the grocery shopping and meet back up with him).

12. Do you have any children? Just one for now. Sweet baby Afton.

13. Does he have any hidden talents? He remembers everything – Tony v. my family in Trivial Pursuit = Tony wins. He tops all of our collective knowledge.

14. How old is he? 31… turning 32 in just a month!

15. Who said I love you first? Tony. He was so angry about it too. In all fairness, I had (conversationally) cornered him. It went something like this:

T: Why don’t you stay in Utah after you graduate?
H: I have a job in Boise.
T: You could find a job in Salt Lake…
H: But, I don’t really have many friends or family in Salt Lake.
T: uh…
H: [feigning innocence] Why would I stay in Salt Lake?
T: uh…
H: [waits]
T: ah
H: [keeps waiting]
T: well…
H: [still waiting]
T: because, um…
H: [waits even longer]
T: [completely flustered] agh, ugh, because I love you.

It was not aesthetic, but it was functional.

16. What is his favorite music? Hm… I’m now beginning to doubt my knowledge of my husband… He listens to all sorts – classical and opera, blues and folk, alternative/rock. He even lets me listen to country and can now distinguish between Alan Jackson, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, and “the Garth” (as he calls him).

17. What do you admire most about him? His dedication.

18. What is his favorite color? Blue (I think…)

19. Will he read this? yes. (and he probably regrets the joint blog)

20. Who do you tag? Whoever needs an excuse to bug their husband ☺.

We thought it was daylight savings time...

or a growth spurt. Or both. Starting on Halloween and continuing into last week, Afton was just out of sorts. She got all finicky about eating, and as we tried to get her back to a 9:30 p.m. bedtime after daylight savings time, her sleep seemed all whacked out. She woke up in the middle of the night one night, and then by Thursday she was little Miss Moody. As we waited for Tony to come home, Afton pitched a fit anytime I so much as thought about setting her down. We tried all sorts of make-the-baby-happy tricks, and then we found it: a tooth.

The little white thing poking out of her fleshy gums solved the mystery, but it probably took us so long to figure it out because it is way in the back. I only happened upon it by pulling sweet baby Afton's lip down and over (which she loves). According to What to Expect: The First Year, this is the tooth that typically comes in fourth. It's not surprising that Afton is teething in an order all her own. She has a knack for doing things her own little sequence, such as only being able to roll over back to front (not front to back), gnawing only the back or edges of pacifier (instead of sucking on the front), or, geez, being born before she really had the ability to eat. We'll see if she somehow is able to walk before she crawls :). In the meantime, we're occasionally tossing her teething ring in the freezer and letting her gnaw on our fingers whenever it strikes her fancy.


(Nope, no picture of the tooth -- I am not skilled enough to pull her lip down and over, keep her still, and click the camera at the same time).

Stop Global Warming!

Save the penguins. Happy Halloween! Love, Afton

Say it again now

Last week I took a break one evening to be with some friends and returned to the smell of grape juice and the sound of Linda Lyndell singing "What a Man" courtesy of the Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration CD. (A year ago I wanted to donate to NPR -- Tony agreed if I would get this CD as my thank-you gift... When our local NPR station "forgot" to send it, Tony called them to "remind" them...I got the warm feelings in my heart from donating and Tony eventually got his music.)

The Saturday before, Tony and Afton had picked the grapes from our grapevine. Actually, Tony picked the grapes and Afton picked the leaves.

That night, however, they went in to full-blown grape juice production. The only thing better than the taste of the juice was the sound of Afton giggling as Tony danced to the music. Someday she too will know the pencil sharpener, the hitch-hiker, and the sprinkler. I did capture it on video, but I love Tony, so I will only say that it was classic.

FOUR MORE YEARS!!

A little over four years ago I more or less invited myself out to dinner with Tony to get the ball rolling on this relationship. To his credit, even though I had to initiate the first date, he really took the ball and ran with it. When I suggested dinner, he planned for us to go up to Park City. It was fall, the leaves were changing, Main Street would be good for strolling, and the restaurants were nice. Each year since, we've celebrated by heading back to the hills and having dinner in this lovely tourist town. We were lucky this year to have some friends who were kind enough to watch Afton so we could have our first real date in... well, since Afton was born.

(I look goofy, but it was nice of some random Park City tourist to take a picture of us in front of the moose.)

Where's Uncle Josh?

We recently had a visit from Chris and Audra before they flew to the east coast for Chris's recreation guru conference. Elsa walked in the door and I gave her a big hello and a hug, and the first thing she said was, "Where's Uncle Josh?" We were sorry to disappoint.

Elsa liked giving baby Afton sweet kisses. On her part, Afton just kept trying to lick Elsa like Elsa was one of her toys. I explained this to Chris, and Elsa said, "I'm not a toy!" She clarified that she was a girl.


Gibson and Afton enjoyed getting reaquainted.


I tried to get a picture of Elsa's cute grin, but the camera took FOREVER. Thus we caught the blink. I then asked Elsa to "smile big" for me.


I didn't know that "smile big" was what Chris and Audra say to get this smile. It cracked me up. I must say, I'm in love with those big blue eyes and long gorgeous eyelashes.

I've been tagged -- back to the glory days!

LHS class of ’96!

DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM HIGH SCHOOL? Yes.

WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE? 1970 lime green/yellow Chevrolet truck (which, incidentally, my mother also drove in high school). I had to sit on a pillow to sit high enough to see over the steering wheel. It got 8 miles to the gallon. It also had a gun rack. I drove it until I melted its axel… Then I drove a red Ford Ranger with a white stripe (an ’86, I believe). It may have had a gun rack too.

WHAT WAS YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT IN HIGH SCHOOL? Hm…I block these out. I know I burned my neck on a curling iron the day of prom and so it looked like I had a hickey.

WERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? No.

WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? I highly doubt it.

WERE YOU IN BAND, ORCHESTRA, OR CHOIR? Band. I was even a drum major.

WERE YOU A NERD? Maybe. I prefer to think of myself as “academic”…just shy of being a bona fide nerd but not a really obvious one? Okay, who are we kidding? I was on the honor roll and a marching band drum major. Yes.

WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? Oh no. I have no athletic skill. I lettered in academics, band, and speech. (See supra, “WERE YOU A NERD?”)

DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED OR EXPELLED? Sorry. No. Very boring.

CAN YOU SING THE FIGHT SONG? No, but I don’t think it had words. We used the Notre Dame fight song at LHS (which I could play on the flute at one point and which I conducted frequently before football games).

WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHERS? Mr. Howell (my band director), Mr. Sebastian (my history teacher), Mr. Cahill (my English teacher)

WHERE DID YOU SIT DURING LUNCH? On campus (or at the seminary building on occasion) but rarely in the cafeteria for whatever reason.

SCHOOL MASCOT? Tigers

DID YOU GO TO THE HOMECOMING? WITH WHO? I don’t think so…

IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND DO IT ALL AGAIN, WOULD YOU? I had fun in high school, but no. I miss driving trucks, though.

WHERE DID YOU GO ON SR. SKIP DAY? Up and down the Willamette River on a riverboat.

WERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? Speech club, NHS, band. I did student government one year.

HAVE YOU GAINED SOME WEIGHT SINCE THEN? Oddly enough, a couple years ago I lost the weight I started gaining in high school. (when I came back from Korea at age 23 I weighed as much as I did at the end of my pregnancy with Afton…in both cases, I gained 40% of my body weight…Nursing was an easier diet…)

WHO WAS YOUR PROM DATE? Sophomore year, Jessop. Junior year, Eric. Senior year I didn’t go because I qualified for state in speech (and didn’t really have a prospect for a date anyway ☺ -- easy decision). Tony was prom king at PG high. I wasn’t that cool.

WHAT CLIQUES WERE YOU IN? Does band count? I never felt all that exclusive.

O.K. I tag Tony (but I doubt he’ll do it), all my relatives and friends who check our blog.

It's the Great Pumpkin Patch, Afton Elizabeth

On Monday night we ventured out with Afton to visit a pumpkin patch for Family Night. It was a beautiful fall night and we are pretty sure Afton couldn't have cared less about being there. However, in the attempt to create memories which we can later regale Afton with, we braved the trip down I-15 at rush hour and found some Great Pumpkins which Linus would be proud of.


As you can all see, Afton was practically jumping out of her carseat to begin the excursion.

Afton soon warmed up to the pumpkins and Heather flashed a coy look to the camera.

I immediately set out to find the right pumpkin. Given the fact it takes me 10-15 minutes to pick out the right apples, pears, oranges, other produce at the store (Heather just loves this), there was a real possibility that finding an acceptable gourd may have taken me a good couple of hours.

Luckily, I found one relatively quickly.

We then set out to find Afton's pumpkin. She liked this giant albino pumpkin.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Afton Elizabeth Cont'd

One of these is not a pumpkin.....


One of these is in the 2nd percentile of its respective weight class.....


One of these is worried that her parents are going to leave her with a bunch of large orange spherical objects...


Finally, mom came to save sweet baby Afton.


We had a great time at the pumpkin patch. We are excited for next year when Afton is actually the same size, or even bigger, than the majority of the pumpkins there.

Fun with Grandpa Grover & Grandma Ive

On Saturday night, Afton got to spend long overdue quality time with her Grandpa Grover and Grandma Ive. She had a fun time with them and we found that Afton often had the same facial expressions as her Grandpa. Afton is already anticipating her next trip to see them.

Zucchini Growers Unite

Its that glorious time of the year when our thoughts are turned to fall: the changing of the leaves, the crisp autumn air, apples, trick-or-treating, and loads of zucchini being passed around between friends and neighbors as if it were the common cold.

I have a love/hate relationship with the zucchini. I love it because it grows even when I am actively trying to kill it. No joke, I tried for years to kill my dad's zucchini plants growing up for fun but to no avail. Its like Brittany Spears or those Work and the Glory books, they just won't go away. I hate the zucchini because...well, I have never really liked the taste all that much. I dreaded the zucchini casserole which would invariably make its appearance on our dinner table each fall (I blame Sylvia for this one - she liked the casserole and it was one of the like 4 dishes she knew how to cook growing up. Actually, I may be giving Dill too much credit here, I think she only knew how to cook 3 different things. I'm not counting ramen noodles Dill.)

I was always entertained growing up as our kindly neighbors and ecclesiastical counterparts would give us zucchini just like we would give our zucchini to others as well. It was one of those exchanges where both parties were too embarassed to decline the zucchini so they take it and then try to pass it off to someone else; a lot like the regifting that goes on during the Holidays. I believe at one point in 1989 we ended up getting a zucchini from one of dad's friends in Brazil that had actually originated in our garden in Utah. (That may be a bit of an exaggeration.)

Anyway, rather than continue regifting the zucchini each year, why not take advantage of its prolific growth (I actually looked up zucchini on Wikipedia, and it noted its "overwhelming production."*) and help those who don't have anything to eat. Just think, Utah alone could probably produce like 12 megatons of zucchini and we could petition the Church to send it to those in need. The relief packs they send out to hurricane victims would include: water purification tablets, a flashlight, a 22-lb zucchini, and directions from some kindly relief society president in Tremonton on how to turn that zucchini into a ham radio MacGyver style. To facilitate this idea, I propose the Perpetual Zucchini Fund (PZF), where tons of zucchini are stored to help others, and then those people can eventually grow gardens of their own and donate their zucchini. I think this idea has some real traction, and if any venture capitalists are out there, you know where I can be reached.

*: Yes, I took time out of my work day to look up zucchini on wikipedia. I'm sure my client won't mind when I bill it the .2 for "legal research."

Is it blog-worthy?

Now that we've joined the blogosphere, we feel as if we should be posting something rather frequently. But, sometimes our life doesn't seem all that blog-worthy. Here's the highlights from the last couple weeks while we had our blogging hiatus.
Afton rolled over for the first time. Afton was also mad as #@%* when she completed this milestone and found herself on her tummy. She hates being on her tummy. She has not yet repeated the rollover.

Heather attended her Korea Taejon Mission Reunion and had a great time catching up with friends, some of whom she hadn't seen in three or four years. Afton (surprisingly) did not not have an overstimulation-induced meltdown despite all the people and noise. When some of the Koreans there found out that Afton's daddy was Korean, their first response was, "Wow, her eyes are REALLY big."

Tony did not attend the above-mentioned reunion because he had to work--although he somehow was able to recount much of the VP debate that took place at the same time as the reunion... Actually, we can't give him a bad time about this one. It is true that Tony *loves* being the one Korean man at these Korean reunions that can't speak the language, can't use chopsticks, and can't stand the food, but this reunion coincided with Tony's second trial in the past two months. He was up and out the door by 6:30 a.m. on Thursday and Friday and home late. Given Tony's charm, charisma, and razor-wit, we are sure the judge will rule in his client's favor.

The little cowgirl

Lately, Afton has taken some interest in her small collection of stuffed animals.

She has discovered that their ears just happen to fit in her mouth.

This makes her pretty excited--even voracious...

and exhausted. Cattle wrassling taken to a whole new level.