My Columbus Family

Top row: Jordan (holding Andry who belongs to Mino and Liva), Liva (holding our Lucy) and Mino who are from Madagascar, Debra (holding Nikki) and Arturo who are from Guatamala

Bottom Row: Yours truely (holding Lily Kins), Gary and Elisa Elisa is a recent BYU MBA grad who interned here last year and is now working full time at Cummins - another awesome side note, she was baptized while in the MBA program! Gary and Elisa are a fun couple from China. Adam is on the far right. 

As Mino said last Sunday during Sunday School when she was talking about the BYU intern group "It's not like we're family, we ARE family."


And I agree 100%. I love the church network - how else would we be able to move to a completely new town, but instantly have a loving network upon which we can rely so heavily upon each other.  Within just the first week we all became close friends and I can honestly say that I look up to each of them - Whenever we get together, I always feel like I come away a better person from their influences. 

Tonight we did an international pot luck and it was delicious! I brought Key Lime bars and Blue Bell Ice Cream. Midwest- I'm sorry- I'm not sold on Blue Bell Ice Cream. We also had Madagascar's version of Cantonese rice, Cabbage and Tofu, and Rice, Beans and Chicken in delicious sauce. 

Cheesy

On our anniversary-eve I was saying our couple bedtime prayer and thanked our Lord for our 4 beautiful years of marriage. Jordan fell off the bed laughing mid prayer. 

I don't know what that means. He claims I said it in a funny voice. I guess my prayer voice is hilarious. 

Yes, I'm in my PJ's

 We spent a quiet evening at home (well, quite as soon as the kids were in bed) and watched Cinderella Man and enjoyed our cheese.


The majority of our traditions revolve around food and our anniversary is no exception. On our honeymoon we stayed at a Marriot Residence Inn so that we could have an oven, fridge, ect so on Sunday we wouldn't have to break the Sabbath. So Saturday night we went to a local Harmons and saw the cheese section. Jordan is usually a frugal man, but we were on our honeymoon. We bought several new cheeses that we've never had before and some that we knew were good and brought them home to eat on Sunday.


We always get a havarti and a cheese ball each year, and then several random ones. This years picks were: Butterkase, creamy, apple wood smoked Gouda, Sweet Swiss and a sharp cheddar cheese log. hmmmm.... These were all superstars, but I think Butterkase is our new favorite. 


Our marriage is pretty cheesey. It gets better with age, until we get old, crumbly and moldy. And then we are blue cheese and great on salads. 

Skype-ing

I personally have never skyped - however I broke down and tried it for the first time when we set up a skypeing date for Lily and her two friends back in Provo, Chloe and Lily Diane.

Lily didn't really know what to say, and in those cases, we're always glad Chloe is around - there is never a lack of conversation with that cute chatter box. "I have a question for you....." :)

Lily wanted to show off her cute foot :) 

Memorial Day

After an awesome ward BBQ we headed to the Cummins Employee Recrational Area (CERA Land) with the other BYU interns. The aquatic center was over crowded, and the kids were already pretty worn out from the BBQ - so we opted for the less populated paddle boat area. 

Thanks to Dora, Lily was estatic about wearing a life jacket and going on a boat - in fact she was a perfect angel on the boat. Lucy on the other hand, wasn't a fan of her life jacket (do you blame her) and was ready for nap time. 

She was entranced by the water for about 15 minutes, and then called it quits. 

I'm stoked about Ceraland and I envision many family outtings there this summer with the subsidized prices. 

Harry Potter Lessons at the Literacy Fair

For a town of only 40 some thousand, there is a large range of things to do - mainly since they have Cummins helping to foot the bill.

Everybody, meet "Everybody"

 Another bonus of having fewer toys, is Lily can finally fit all of her dolls in her arms. Every night and each nap time she has to find each and every one of them, and put them all to sleep before she will go to sleep. 


She's in a large twin bed, but that doesn't mean there is any more room for her than there was in her toddler bed :)

Lucy's First Pair of Shoes

Jordan mentioned last week that with how mobile Lucy is lately that she needs some shoes. He didn't have to tell me twice to go shoe shopping! 

Last Friday Night

One thing Columbus does very well is the 50's . We started out last Friday with some dessert at an old time ice cream parlor

Lucy's ready for her ice cream!

Lucy's first taste of ice cream! There was no smile or any show of excitement - instead it was an instant addiction with a cry for more until the ice cream was gone.

Downtown Columbus. Again, is this C for Columbus or Cummins?

After the ice cream parlor there was a concert in the park to celebrate the veterans - where they had a philharmonic orchestra playing awesome music from the 50's. We met up with some friends from our ward - who of course also work for Cummins.

Stir Crazy

We only brought one car to Indiana with - however we are lucky enough that there are 2 more interns from BYU staying in the same complex (hotel)- between the three of us there are 2 cars, so every other day Jordan drives them all to work. This equates to my having the car every other day. This is the first time in my life since I turned 16 (excluding mission and China) that I haven't had a car readily at hand. 

Walks are difficult with just the single stroller that we found at a yard sale, plus it's getting too hot during the day. So, we get creative and sometimes I just get a little stir crazy.

Lily and her "bungle bee" swim toy. Story. This was hidden away at the back of a closet specifically so she wouldn't get it out and pop it. On her way to the "bungle bee" she knocked over our large liquid laundry detergent - spilling about 1/3 of it onto carpet. That was fun. While I was busy cleaning up the laundry detergent, Lucy got ahold of my wallet and tried to eat $20. If we're going to eat that much money, shouldn't we do it in the form of chocolate?

Where are Lily and Lucy?

Peek-a-boo!

There is a swimming pool at our complex and we've been swimming a lot to get Lily over her fear of swimming. We've succeeded, and it tuckers the little girl out. Here it is only 7:30 (5:30 Utah time) and she fell asleep on her own - she hasn't done this in ages. 

We didn't bring many toys with us - and the benefit is that Lily is loving organizing all of her toys frequently throughout the day. In actuality, there is very little of our hoard of stuff back in Provo that I really miss. And what I do miss is mostly my kitchen supplies. 

Daddy makes a great toy rack

Lucy finally caught onto the fact that Mom always has a little something extra in her water :) Lucy's first taste of Crystal Light.

I love Lucy

I love that she gives me several pats on the back when I rescue her from her crib each morning

I love that she's so active. She refuses to sit in her high chair for even a few seconds. She has to stand, and then I have to keep her from crawling onto the table.

I love that bathing her, changing her, buckling her into the car seat, or anything that requires her to stay still for a minute makes me feel like I'm in a rodeo.

I love her feet

I love how much she adores her big sister

I love how she rhythmically chants, "Da-Da-Da-Da" when she's happy- particularly when we're dancing or going outside.

I love that when her big sister is sleeping she can rummage through Lily's bin of toys to pick out Lily's 2 favorite figurines which are completely off limits to Lucy - Dora and Diego - in no time and all - and then lets out her battle cry of happiness.

I love her sleep schedule

I love that she is so friendly and social with everybody! As long as they don't try to hold her. But she'll flirt with anybody and everybody.

I love that she would rather eat the food off the floor than the table - unless she's on the table - then that's her favorite.

I love watching her face light up when Jordan comes home each day and then she can't get out of my arms fast enough.

I love her spidery long fingers. We chant "Piano Piano Piano" in her ear as she sleeps.

I love that she might have curly hair like Lily.

I love that she is so smart!

Last week she started holding our pretend phone, a shoe, the remote or anything resembling a phone to her ear and starts babbling - I didn't realize I talked on the phone that much.

On Tuesday, May 21st Lucy said her first word, and it was...."Mama" Top ten best moments of my life. It was actually, "Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma". However, she did it as she was looking at me with her arms out stretched towards me so it totally counts.. Now she calls my name whenever she is sad, hurt or hungry - and I can't get enough of it.

On Wednesday she gave her first real high five (Where she meant to give a 5 five)! Jordan gave Lily a high five and Lucy wanted part of the action.

Today, she waved "bye-bye" for the first time. She did it to a nice Kroger store employee who was helping us find sun dried tomatoes. She was so pleased with herself that she waved bye-bye to everyone else throughout the store.

I love Lucy.

Ballerina Day

As I said earlier - we go a little crazy on the days Jordan takes the car. So one day, Lily declared it Ballerina Day - and insisted that she and her sister wear ballerina skirts. I have to hand it to her, with the help of Pandora and the new blue tooth speaker Jordan got us for Mothers Day - it was one of my favorite days. I don't know how many times we "chassed" up and down our little hallway.

My new goal is to get Lily dancing on video - it is hilarious. Except when she tried to dance during Sacrament Meeting to "I Believe In Christ." She was jumping around like it was "Trashing the Camp" from Tarzan. Instead of feeling like the ward circus I could look at the bright side, that she beats to the music of her own drum. Or something like that.

My new favorite picture.