Decidedly Picky

May has been a month full of adjustments. I adjusted to not being pregnant and all that comes with that. We adjusted to having 2 kids. You know what they say, "2 kids are better than 1! Double the pleasure, triple the trouble!" And we adjusted to Lewis working full time again.

Things are going good but nowhere close to settling down into a routine yet.  Evelyn sleeps great during the night but only because she loves to snuggle while we sleep. During the day she constantly wants to be held, which I find really difficult. I'm so excited to get projects done now that I'm not pregnant but I really shouldn't complain that I'm forced to sit down with her all the time and watch TV!

That being said, I did get some things done this month. Here's how I did on my goals:

Completed:

• Go to 3 museums For Evelyn's first outing, we decided to go to the BYU Museum of Art. I was excited to look through the exhibits but Indy was not thrilled to be inside and quiet. Lewis tried to wrangle him while I looked about but it's just not as fun without someone to share it with. So we indulged Indy who much preferred the outdoor exhibits.

 

We had already gone to the dinosaur museum as a family (here) and for the 3rd museum, I took the kids and my mom for her birthday. We visited the new Museum of Peoples and Cultures, which was tiny and not very interesting. I did really like the Polynesian weapons display though. We also visited the Bean Museum, which was really awesome. They had a huge and terrifying polar bear and the liger from Hogle Zoo. But my favorite was the giant elephant. They also had a really awesome display of Boyd K. Packer's work. I had no idea he was so talented. 

• Find and start baby book for Baby Girl
• Have at least 1 out of the house activity per month We went to a couple family celebrations. One for the birthdays of this month (Ben, Mom, and Dad), a BBQ for Memorial Day, laser tag and one with Lewis' family where we got to show off the new baby and see his aunt and uncle who live in D.C. We also went to Tyrell and Adelaide's wedding reception which was just gorgeous! But the funnest thing we did as a family was go to Brick Slopes. The displays were amazing! They had a life-size Batman, entire battlefields, Elsa's ice castle, the entire town square from Back to the Future, and so much more! Those were fun to see but nowhere near as fun as the Brick Pits. We spent several hours in a pit full of thousands of LEGO pieces making lots of fun creations. Lewis made an awesome demon shrine complete with impaling spear. I built a space ship with cloaking device (do you remember the cloaking device from when we were kids, brothers? They totally had one there!), a tranquil garden and a motor boat. It was Indy who finally had to drag Lewis and I out of the brick pit so we could go home. 

 

Right on Target:

•  Go to the temple 12 times (3/12) On May 22nd was my 5th anniversary of being endowed. It was really great to be able to go again on my actual anniversary. I did spend way too much of that time worrying about my baby though. I guess that's what you get for having a brand new baby that you adore.
• Write at least 20 blog posts (9/20)
• Host at least 12 game nights (5/12) This month I invited a bunch of new people but like my previous experiences in other places, everyone I invited couldn't make it except 1 or 2 people. Next month I'll try again to include new gamers and give them a little more notice so they can actually come.

Needs Improvement:

• Hold at least 45 Family Home Evenings (16/45) I really need to get better at this. I think I need to plan ahead better if I'm going to get more than 3 a month.

Failed:

• Create savings account for Ireland trip

June Goals:
I don't have any June specific goals since I was giving myself plenty of space after having the baby. I didn't know how much I'd be up to doing but I am feeling great now and I've decided to make all the goals I haven't finished in their appointed months my goals for June rather than adding more goals. So my newly reorganized goals are:

•  Create savings account for Ireland trip
• Catch up in family journal 

This next month, I look forward to getting more projects done, my baby getting even cuter and some fun in the water. What are your summer plans?

P.S. If you've noticed that my writing has taken a nosedive lately, don't worry too much. It's just that my mind is completely disjointed from lack of sleep. Hopefully it will improve in a couple months.  

April has come and gone and what a crazy month it was!

The most exciting part of the whole month was the birth of my beautiful baby girl, Evelyn Prudence Strasburg. She was born on April 26th, weighing 7lbs 3oz and 19 inches long.

Mom and baby are happy and healthy. And for those of you interested, I will be sharing my birth story in a post just as soon as I get it finished. I started it a few days after she was born and I still haven't finished it 4 weeks later! Everything takes longer than you expect with a new baby and a 2yr old vying for attention.

The next most exciting part of April is that Lewis got a job! Evelyn was less than 24 hrs old when he got the call and they needed him in Southern California for training the following week! So I was not as thrilled as I normally would be for him. But everything went fine the week he was gone and now he has a job he likes.

I also had my birthday this month. I am now officially no longer a young person. To quote one of my favorite books "Being 'still young' is so different from being young!" (The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery) Of course, maybe that's more about being the mother of two kids than it is about being 27. I had a good birthday though. Lewis surprised me with a sapphire for my charm bracelet. You know any birthday where your husband gives you precious stones is a good one. ;)



Now onto how I did in April...

Completed:

•  Not have my uterus explode Yay! You can read all about that in Evelyn's Birth Story
•  Name the baby
• Make window seat for hope chest I didn't have this one slotted until September but I realized I needed to finish it now if I was going to use that as a diaper changing station for Evelyn. It turned out really well, I think. 

• Have at least 1 out of the house activity per month This month we did quite a few things as a family. We went to the Liar's Competition on April Fool's Day. It was a fun new way to celebrate this rather absurd holiday. We went to the Art Stroll which was fun but the baby shifted and I had a pinched nerve after only 2 blocks of walking. I was so ready to have the baby get out! We went to the nickel arcade with my brother Ben's family to celebrate my niece Cordelia's baptisms. And the day before I went into labor, we went on a fun hike up the Provo River Trail past Bridal Veil Falls.

Right on Target: 

• Write at least 20 blog posts (8/20)
• Host at least 12 game nights (4/12)

Needs Improvement:

•  Go to the temple 12 times (2/12) So much for going a bunch before the baby arrived...
• Hold at least 45 Family Home Evenings (13/45) We only got 3 again and that includes the one I squeezed in on the very last day of the month. :S

Failed: 

• Find and start baby book for Baby Girl

May Goals:

• Create savings account for Ireland trip (For our 10th anniversary we want to go to Ireland and stay in a real castle but that's really expensive and by then we'll have at least 2 children to tag along too so we need to start saving now if it's ever going to happen.)

  The month of April felt like a never ending stream of doctor's appointments and job interviews but it ended with a bang that gave us everything we wanted. And looking back, we really did have some good fun along the way.