Wow, it's been a long time...

Well, I've definitely not proven myself to be a passionate or even consistent blogger up to this point. :) However, I've been feeling motivated lately to try yet again. I have a very simple, and what to many would seem a boring life, but I am happy (most of the time) and have so much to be grateful for. I've found that writing helps to increase my gratitude and bring more clarity to my perspective--I'm actually a pretty consistent journal-writer, so that's where I'm getting this from. I do love writing, and maybe this blogging thing will help me learn some things and help me in my journaling for my family.

It's been nearly 2 years since my last blog post (I can't believe it!), and a LOT has happened for us since then. I won't take the time to try to chronicle it all for the reader, but a quick summary: Skyler graduated with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in spring 2011, and I graduated with a bachelor's degree in family life and human development in December 2011. It was a LONG journey getting those "4-year" degrees, but well worth it. After I graduated, we left Wymount, sad to see it go, and moved to Springville. We enjoyed a lot about Springville--good neighbors, close to family and friends, and Abby loved the trains that went by right outside the apartment. About 6 months after moving to Springville, Skyler started a civil engineering job in Las Vegas, so away we moved! It was the biggest move we've had as a married couple and was sad and exciting and stressful all at the same time. We moved into a terrific ward in Vegas/Henderson, where people welcomed us with open arms and made us feel right at home very quickly. That's been a huge blessing, especially since we were no longer very close to any family or people we knew.

And now, we are happily expecting baby #2. That in and of itself has been a journey. Without delving too deeply into it, we tried for 2-1/2 years for another little one, and it felt like an emotional roller coaster at times. I know that that is a shorter time than a lot of couples deal with it, and so I don't share this to complain, but just to say that that experience has helped me sympathize much more with couples who face that particular trial. It is a very hard and emotional thing, and the unsurety of it all is very trying. But we are feeling very grateful to be blessed with this pregnancy and the chance for Abby to be a big sister. She is VERY excited. :)

These are a couple pictures of our Valentine's Day festivities--we had fun decorating homemade sugar cookies together. Abby turns out to be a very meticulous and skilled cookie-froster for her tender 4 years. :) She did a great job. Even Skyler got into it--he's very good with finding the appropriate food ratios...you know, frosting to cookie, chocolate syrup to ice cream, milk to cereal. :) And I must say, the cookies were delicious. Yum.

And here's the 20-week baby-bump. Halfway there! At least we hope only about halfway...with Abby having come 7 weeks early, we are hopeful this little guy (oh, by-the-way, it's a boy!) will make it closer to the 40-week mark. So excited for our little one!

Life is good!

Well, just a quick post. Abby is so much fun, I thought we'd share a little of what's been happening.

Abby with Cinderella

Grandma Argie and Grandpa Gene treated Abby and Meghan to a night at the ballet back on February 12th. We saw BYU Theatre Ballet's production of Cinderella, and we loved it! I was worried that Abby would get bored after the first little bit, but she not only made it through the whole show, she LOVED it! She was pointing her toes and kicking, trying to dance along with them. She was also very well-mannered. She was quiet during the performance (except for when they brought out the pumpkin...she got very excited and shouted, "Puhkin! Puhkin!"), and waited until intermissions to do most of her moving around. Amazing for a two-year-old! Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for an evening of wonderful memories (and quite possibly sparking a love of dance for a future ballerina)! Abby still talks about "bal-yay" and asks Mom to turn on music so she can dance.

Abby looking at a picture
the Spring Fairy took of them

Before the show, they had a "Prince and Princess Party," where the kids could come dressed up and meet the dancers. I thought Abby would love getting to dress up as a princess and would be a little scared to meet the dancers, but I was slightly mistaken--she was only a little excited about her new princess dress, and much more enthusiastic about the ballerinas! She is typically a little shy, but that night she would just walk up to the ballerina, make eye contact, then turn around and back into them, expecting they would let her sit on their lap. :)

Princess Abby riding her
pony into the sunset

Something else Abby loves doing is story time. We usually go to the Provo City Library for story time, but this last week we went to the BYU Bookstore Story Time. Abby ended up being the only little kid there, so she got lots of good attention. :) She was read a bunch of books about princesses and dragons, and then the story time girl sat and made a paper crown with her. Abby loved her new crown and wore it for the rest of the day.

After we left the bookstore, she caught the alluring smell of the bakery right outside the bookstore entrance; so she got a donut, which she patiently carried in a paper bag all the way home where she was allowed to eat it. With a nose for baked goods like that, she is definitely her mother's daughter! :)

Abby and the remains of
a donut well-enjoyed

Some pics from Disney World and Florida with the Reneer Fam

Here's some photos that I swiped from my sister, Caitlin, of our family trip to Disney World (thanks, Caity!):

 Daniel, Skyler, Abby, me, Noel, Jacob, Brianna, and Caitlin standing in front of Cinderella's Castle at the Magic Kingdom.

 Abby waiting as patiently in line as she could to ride Dumbo, one of her absolute favorite rides alongside The Flying Carpets.

Here we are still waiting in line for Dumbo.

Abby enjoying the water at Clearwater Beach in Florida--the water was sooo nice.

Little bro, Jacob, rockin his flashing Mickey ears at Fantasmic--so cute. :)

A blurry picture of a fabulous dinner--the Coral Reef restaurant at Epcot. We ate while we watched my dad scuba in the massive fish tank (world's biggest, I believe). Abby was more interested in sticking her hands into anything within reach....

 

Caitlin, Mom, and Dad. :) You might as well goof off with the camera while waiting in the many, many lines.... I have such a cute family.

Finally posting again!

Ok, so much for that resolution to post more frequently! :) Life has a way of getting away from me, and I rarely think to update our blog, but I've been catching up with some different friends' blogs lately, and I'm feeling more motivated to post (at least for today).

This summer has been good. We had an amazing family vacation with Meghan's family in May--we went to Florida to stay in a nice vacation house and spent a week at Disney World. So hot, but so fun! Although, Skyler, Meghan, and Abby didn't spend as much time at Disney World as the rest of the Reneer family; if you ask most of them, they'll tell you they got a little "Disney World-ed out." It was sort of a marathon, but it was a great experience, and we hope we'll get to go back someday. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

We also got to spend a fun and memorable few days with Skyler's family in Fort Collins, CO. We had the annual Christensen family reunion, which was supposed to be mostly a camping trip on a lake. However, since it poured rain that first night and everyone was camping literally right at the lake's edge, and the lake was rapidly rising and tents flooded and kids were wet and parents were cranky, well, everyone decided to ditch the campsite and take shelter at Brent and Zora's house. Lucky for us, we (Skyler and Meghan) planned on arriving late that first night, but the weather was so yucky that we ended up staying by ourselves at the house, instead of in a flooded tent. Thanks, family, for pitching our tent for us even though we didn't end up using it! :) And thanks, Mom and Dad, for letting all of us crash at your place (I think we had about 23 people there total for a bit--big crowd!)! The rest of the trip was lots of fun though, getting to hang out with brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, parents, and Grandpa Christensen. It's a fun group, and we had lots of great camping food, adapted for cooking indoors. :)

Meghan was feeling pretty bummed after that trip was over, because we didn't have any other big plans for the summer and she was seeing herself sitting at home all day with Abby while Skyler took a summer class and worked. Ah, but life doesn't always turn out the way you expect, and in this case that was mostly a good thing. Skyler is taking a summer class, but he's not working for now (that might change really soon), so he's been home a lot, which is wonderful. And then, Noel, Meghan's 11-year-old sister, came out to stay with us for the summer! Yay! I've loved having the company, and so has Abby. Mom gets boring after a while, but Aunt Noel is great fun!

I just have to share a couple cute pictures of Abby from earlier this summer. She and Meghan have been taking walks/hikes up the Provo canyon on a fairly regular basis, and we usually get a little farther each time. We discovered last time we went that pretty far up the trail, there's a delightfully cold natural spring that's been made into a continually running drinking fountain. It's tricky learning how to get a drink from it without getting a faceful of water, but Abby was determined. Here's the before, as she's tentatively leaning in for a drink:


And here's the after, as she assesses the results of her approach:


Meghan's good friend, Angie Self, took the pictures while Meghan held Abby over the spring, and we were both laughing so hard we were crying as we watched Abby do this a few times. She was a thirsty girl and wasn't about to give up easily! In fact, she was very unhappy with Meghan when it was time to head back down the trail. The girl's determined!

Another bit of news, our Chevy Malibu is currently out of commission--Meghan got in an accident on I-15 trying to take Noel and Abby to the zoo. :( This was back on June 25th. We were actually very blessed things went as they did. Meghan was driving in the far left lane next to a cement barrier, and ahead of her in the far right was a tow truck, towing an SUV. The back of the tow truck started fishtailing and then lost a few big tires and big metal rods off the back of the bed, which flew across the highway and landed in our lane. Meghan was able to avoid the tires without leaving her lane, but one of the metal rods was laying across the lane, so she hit the brakes hard to avoid running over it and blowing a tire. She didn't hit it, but she got rear-ended by the car behind her, and he got rear-ended. No one was hurt besides the last guy who got burned by his airbag, no other traffic got involved miraculously, and nobody lost control of their car. We are SO grateful that everyone, especially Abby and Noel, are alive and unhurt. The Lord was definitely watching out for all of us. I was a little shaky immediately after the accident, but not really scared. I actually started realizing a day or two afterward how easily things could have gone differently, and I've become more and more grateful that it went as it did. My car may still be sitting in the driveway, unfixed, but I can deal with that. :) Plus, it's been a good opportunity to learn to drive stick, as now I'm just left with Skyler's car, which is a manual. I've felt like a teenager all over again as I've stuttered and stalled out all over town. :) But, I'm actually pretty decent at this point. Yay, for independence!

Well, for now, that's a wrap! I'll probably be back to post in a year! ;)

Summer 2009

Well, here we are, it's been a little less than a year since the last post, so we're making a new year's resolution to keep up with this a little better (maybe we'll update every 6 months!).

Let's see, new updates...oh yeah, we have a daughter! She is 7 and 1/2 months old (boy it goes quick), her name is Abigail Elaine, we call her Abby, Little Miss, Wee One, Little Monkey, Munchkin Doodle (Skyler tried to veto this one), Popsquat (Meghan did veto this one), and Toadstool (also vetoed, you can guess by whom). She is our high-maintenance little girl who enjoys everything from waking up several times a night, to being carried around most of the day, to back massages. But, all of the high maintenance is worth it when she flashes that round-cheeked, gummy grin. Like most babies, she is rather gassy. She has a knack for picking opportune times the do it, like during quiet moments in church, or when Meghan is holding her and then bends over to pick something up. We enjoy all the humor she brings to our life, she is wonderful.

Meghan is loving having the summer off so she can just be "mom". Her experience this past winter semester of juggling work, homework and the Wee One was a little a little less than desirable, so this break from school was much needed. The break is also giving her a little more time to take care of the household and her husband who has become the other child as of late (more on that later). She is also getting in some summer reading, including the Chronicles of Narnia (her and Abby are reading that together, they've already finished the Hobbit).

Skyler is broken. He broke his collar bone a few weeks ago playing ultimate frisbee. Hence, he has become another child for Meghan to take care of, and she is trying her hand at single parenting. Besides being broken, he is also unemployed! He is currently looking for a job that will allow him to go to school a little more and therefore finish faster, which in turn means a job that pays more than peanuts. He is currently taking one class this Spring term and plans on taking two in the Summer term.

Abby is showing off her raspberry-blowing skills

Family Life

So for one reason or another, I haven't posted on this since the day I created it, so now I'll try to change my ways and catch up a little bit.

We are expecting a baby around December 5th. We found out this last Friday that it's a little girl. We're excited to welcome a new little life into our home, and we're bracing ourselves for the lack of sleep and the crazy schedule of taking classes and taking care of baby. I'm four months along and need to expand my maternity wardrobe, but feeling pretty good. Skyler's been great about taking care of me and being patient with the quirks that come along with pregnancy (especially the hyperactive sense of smell that used to cause me to pull away anytime he even wanted to hug me). He's going to be a great daddy and is already planning out all the things he wants to teach "daddy's little girl."

These are some of Baby's first pictures--each has written on it what it is.
I bet she has my feet. ;)







This looks pretty skull-like, but on the DVD they made for us you could see the shots
vary from the face to the structure of the skull. It's pretty incredible to see her developing.

The Beginnings of Our Blog...

Well, we've never done this blogging thing before, but I (Meghan) thought it sounded fun...so we're going to try it. I hope it will be a good, fun way to keep family and friends updated on our (boring) lives, and it should keep me somewhat computer literate. Skyler has been taking a computer class that he loves this semester, so hopefully he'll make this even better with his new-found skills (although this does mean that both of us will have to be better about taking pictures so that this isn't too terribly dry for everyone--we've never been good about using the camera we have).