Thank You!

Abby received some after Christmas gifts and wants to express her thanks. We took Abby to Toys R Us and let her run free. She picked out some veggies for her new kitchen and a popper thing that she used (loudly) ALL over the store. She used money from Great Grandma Ruth to buy her gifts. Abby's birth Mom's Dad and his wife (Geoffrey and Maria) sent Abby a gift card to Toys R Us and she picked out a "Band in a Box" set complete with tambourine, maracas and a triangle. She made music for hours last night and today! Thank You to all!
While at the store Abby also found her new car. We kept saying "All done?" to which she would respond emphatically, "NO!" Eventually we just had to pull her away.
All of this happened on our 8th anniversary! We just spent it together--the 3 of us. What could e better than that?

Aunt Christie and Uncle Jerry Thielen sent a great gift which we received in the mail today. It is a Disney storybook that plays "Once Upon a Dream." Abby loves to push the button and definitely loves books! Thank you so much!

We hope everyone has the most wonderful and safe New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in California! We spent almost a week with Matt's family and had a wonderful time. It began with the BYU bowl game! We came to Cali all decked out in our Cougar attire! What a game! GO COUGARS!
We loved seeing our new nephew, baby Dexter, and I managed to hold on to both kids at the same time! Whenever I tried to hold Dexter Abby said, "Up!"

Christmas Eve day we took the train to downtown L.A. to get a top band to my wedding ring (at the incredible jeweler that made the ring in the first place) and Matt's parents bought he and Brandon new suits for Christmas. We had a great time, but Abby was very unhappy (unusual for her when she is out and about!)--later we realized she is getting 3-4 new teeth, poor little girl.Christmas Eve night Abby got to open her first gift--Christmas pajamas. We also gave some to Dexter but they are too big right now!
Christmas morning Dexter came out looking like a little reindeer! He is adorable.
Abby received a kitchen from Grandma and Grandpa Garrett which she loves very much!
Abby also liked the money from Great Grandma Ruth--she should buy some items for her new kitchen!
Matt will enjoy his two new ties--one is for BYU and one is for the Huskers!
Later Christmas day Grandma Barbara, Matt and I took Abby to a nearby park where she decided to swing in a big swing all by herself for the first time.
Christmas night after Abby's bath we drove over to a street that had quite a display of Christmas lights. Here you can see Abby and Matt in front of a well decorated house.
Saturday Barbara and Roger took Abby back to L.A. to pick up the new tailored suits and Abby loved going with them. This is a picture just before they left.
A picture of Matt teaching Abby how to make a basket!
Our little Abby likes nothing more than to be outside, playing in the dirt with a rock! Matt and I took her on a long walk on Sunday afternoon and then let her play in Garrett's front yard. Suddenly we looked over and she was standing up from falling flat on her face in the dirt. She had dirt all down the front of her and was trying to wipe off her hands on her face. As you can see, she really didn't mind.
One more picture just for fun--Abby also loves to play the piano and was enjoying Grandma's piano. She even plays with one finger at a time and keeps her feet off the piano (had to see an earlier blog video to understand that one!)

Wonderful December

I have a little catching up to do, so how about quick explanations and lots of photos. That's what you all want anyway, right?! First of all, Abby is slowly investigating her new pink toilet. As you can see, she is not so sure about it!
The end of November and beginning of December were full of choir performances and both sets of grandparents came out to visit! Abby had so much fun with them as you can clearly see! Here she is helping Grandpa Mark work out one morning.
This is even better...a video of Abby doing sit-ups with Grandpa!



Pictures of Sunday! Abby, Grandma Karen & Jen
Abby & Grandpa Roger
Grandma & Grandpa Wilcox brought Abby a tiny nativity and she loves to play with it. (Kind of hurts to step on though when she leaves the pieces out!)
Abby stayed with our friend Natalie while the adults went to Jen's ASU Christmas concert.
We also added a new arrival to our extended family! My beautiful sister, Tiffany had a little baby boy named Caleb Joseph Shakespeare on December 15th! He is so cute and clearly adored by his family! Abby and I will travel to Washington on January 7th to see him (thanks Grandma Karen!)

The last day of seminary was December 17th and that evening most of the students came over to our home for a party. As you can see, we were quite cozy!
We also went to the park nearby and they played football, ultimate frisbee and hide and go seek. Abby loved running around and the kids loved to run after her!
The next morning Matt and I took the kids to do baptisms for the dead at the temple.
The Sunday before Christmas was a busy one for me with the Sacrament Program for our Tempe Ward. The program went very well and Abby looked very beautiful--I managed to get her hair up into an up-do which lasted about an hour!
The best one is Abby at the organ--eat your heart out Grandpa Mark!
Finally, a picture of the 3 of us in our backyard! Notice the grass!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Cutest girl ever!

Hooray for finally getting some new pictures! No, we have not replaced our camera--but maybe tomorrow! I just had to get some pictures up! Our Abby just grows up so quickly.

Abby trying to ride Mommy's bike!
Abby and the blue jacket: she loves to steal Matt's razors and loves to make fun faces!
Thanksgiving at the Garrett's! We came out early to see our new nephew Dexter! Abby was very excited to see everyone as you can see from her outstretched arms to Grandma. She is giving her a "big love!"
Here is Heather, Brandon, Dexter, Matt, Jen and Abby! Happy Family!

Not Dartmouth

Well, today I received my first rejection letter. I've been sending out applications for faculty positions, post doctoral positions, and dissertation completion grants (if I dont get a job or a post doc I can always hope for an extra year of funding to perfect my dissertation). Today I received a letter from Dartmouth College that I will not be there next year. It was a LONG shot anyhow. They have a post doc position funded by thier humanities program, which means that anybody with a PhD in the humanities could apply. I'm sure they had hundreds of applicants, and by the promptness of this letter I did not make it through the first round of thier two-round review. I knew I had nearly no shot in the first round when compared to the other hundreds of applicants, but the second round is department specific and I thought I'd be competitive there if I got that far. Oh well, who wants to live in New Hampshire anyhow?

Cartwheel Splice

Visitors to the Blog

Okay, so that last posting set off a few hostile responses. In an effort to be more inclusive, here is a new list of the most frequent sources of visits in just the last 6 months:

1. Tempe - 446 visits
2. Lacey - 232 visits (so that's more than once a day)
3. Vacaville - 178 visits (about once per day)
4. Salt Lake City - 163 visits
5. Chandler - 157 visits
6. Midvale - 152 visits
7. Mesa - 140 visits
8. Phoenix - 114 visits
9. American Fork - 78 visits
10. Las Vegas - 57 visits
11. Grand Rapids - 51 visits
12. Litchfield Park - 49 visits
13. Cedar City - 45 visits
14. La Mirada - 44 visits (about once every 4 or 5 days)
15. La Vista - 41 visits
16. Baltimore - 40 visits
17. Denver - 40 visits
18. West Jordan - 40 visits
19. Orem - 34 visits
20. Oxnard - 34 visits
21. Provo - 32 visits
22. Gilbert - 30 visits
23. Heber City - 28 visits
24. Casa Grande - 27 visits
25. Bellingham - 26 visits
Others visitors include: Midway, Roseau, Seattle, Missouri City, Sacaton, Woods Cross, Santa Fe Springs, Allentown, Olympia, Tacoma, Ogden, Sandy, Kaysville, Scottsdale, Glendale, Los Angeles, Burnsville, Payallup, Buckeye, Stafford, Lincoln, San Antonio, Roy, South Jordan.

So, I should admit that my family does read the blog. La Mirada issues a hit every four or five days. They just dont read it like Jen's mom who seems to have an addiction!

I like to hope that all those cities which we do not have close friends in just MIGHT be perspective birth mothers checking us out--but probably not. Hopefully somebody finds our blog that wants to give us a little baby.

Where are Our Friends?

So today I was dinking around the statistics that track who visits our blog, and I thought you might like to know just who is visiting us. The most hits come from Utah, Arizona, California, Washington, and Nebraska--no surprise since we lived in all those states and still have friends and family there. There was one surprise--my family does not read the blog. Below is a list of the top 10 cities from which the most visitors viewed our blog since January 2008 (in order of frequency). Are you on this list?

1. Tempe (AZ) - that would be me
2. Salt Lake City (UT) - Abby's birth mother & family
3. Lacy (WA) - Jen's family
4. Chandler (AZ) - I'm guessing this is Sarah Crandall
5. Midvale (UT)
6. Mesa (AZ)
7. Lincoln (NE)
8. Las Vegas (NV) - Natalie, I suspect
9. Vacaville (CA) - Jen's brother & wife
10. Midvale (UT)

Thanks to everyone who visits our blog--we love to watch the hit counter roll. You'll notice there are no visitors from Southern California (where all of my family lives in one house fully equipped with wireless internet access). La Mirada (near my parent's house) came in at a less than impressive #17, just above Casa Grande (AZ) and West Jordan (UT)--I have no idea who lives in those locations.

A Thief at FSU

Well I am sad to say that there will not be new pictures on the blog in the next little while because our camera was stolen. Yes, stolen. I (Jen) am at Florida State University finishing up my research for my final paper. On Thursday the graduate students told me I needed to see campus and so they walked over to Starbucks and showed me the beautiful campus. I left my bag in the choral library with at least 4 other bags. They have left their belongings in this room for years without any incident. So upon our return (we were gone about 20-25 minutes) I walked into the room to get my bag because I had an interview with the Director of Choral Activities, Andre Thomas and my bag was not there. Neither was one of the other students bags, but all of the other bags were untouched. Everyone started a search while I went into the interview because he only had limited time. Everyone sprung into action and looked in garbage cans, dumpsters, bushes, etc. but the bags were not found. What was in my bag? My wallet, camera, cell phone and.....all of my research for my final paper that I have collected over these last three trips. I couldn't even think about it. I just prayed....I was interviewing Andre Thomas and at the same time praying! Finally a policeman came and we had to fill out a report. I called Matt and he immediately canceled everything. Then he proceeded to figure out how to get me on the plane, how to get me some money (since that was in the bag), etc. He was amazing.

But there is a pretty happy ending. The dean's of the school of music were also looking for our belongings and came across my bag and the other students stuff in a men's bathroom in a different music building. They walked in and I was afraid to hope....my black notebook was inside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray! Prayer does work I tell you--never doubt! So I am sad to say the thief took my beloved camera and cell phone and some money. But those things can be replaced. So please be patient while my amazing husband searches us out a new (cheap but excellent) camera.

I am so thankful to Grandma and Grandpa Garrett who came to play with Abby so that Matt could still teach and write his dissertation while I was gone. This was the first trip I could not take her on (couldn't leave her in a very cheap hotel with lots of little ants in the bathroom during the day). It was so, so, so very hard to be away from her. She's my traveling buddy. But Grandma and Grandpa have taken wonderful care of her. She will not want them to leave! Florida State was wonderful (except for losing my things) and I am very excited to go home tomorrow!

More October Adventures!

First of all, Abby is just cute! I can now braid her hair in various ways and this was our first attempt braiding pig tails!
On October 24th my ASU Women's Chorus performed at Camelback Bible Church with the Men's Chorus. The women were truly amazing and I am so proud to conduct them. I will later post a recording of their performance, but this is a picture of me conducting their processional. They surrounded the audience and sang three African pieces. Way to go ladies!
I have an incredible seminary building to teach in. We are very lucky to have it and recently an air hockey table was donated! But the seminary building has some issues--one of the doors will not unlock so we prop it open (birds have flown in twice!), and we have some bugs. Here is a picture of the scorpion that almost stung me last week. I was all alone after the students left, packing up my things and I looked down and this was maybe 2 inches from my big toe. Yikes!
This past week (October 27-31) Abby and I flew to Minnesota to do research for my final paper so that I can actually graduate! Matt stayed in Tempe to teach his classes and work on his dissertation. He had a very productive few days. Abby and I went to Northfield, MN to see St. Olaf College. My cousin Melissa just happens to live less than a mile from the school so we were extremely fortunate to be able to stay with her. Abby absolutely loved Melissa, her daughter Lexus and husband Jeremy. We are so very grateful that they allowed us to stay. Melissa was so wonderful--watching Abby while I went up to the school and even having dinner ready when I finished each day. Lexy played with Abby and Abby just loved her! Thanks Melissa & Lexy!
While at St. Olaf I had the opportunity to see some amazing choirs and very dedicated directors and students. I saw two rehearsals of their St. Olaf Choir and was blown away by the dedication of the students. They have an incredible program and I feel I gained much more than my research while I was there. I feel renewed as a conductor, teacher and person. I was fortunate to interview a renowned conductor, Anton Armstrong for two hours at his home. Here is a picture of my with Anton Armstrong after their Friday rehearsal.
Abby and I flew home on Saturday--Halloween! She was able to sit in her own seat like a big girl! She kept saying, "side, side" which means "outside." She loved looking out the window and trying to climb up the seat she was sitting in. It was a long process to get from Minnesota to Phoenix, but we both made it safe and sound! She is the best traveling buddy I could ever ask for!
Our Church had a wonderful Trunk or Treat with dinner outside and a Harry Potter theme inside. It was designed like Diagon Alley and featured Olivander's Wand Shop, Flourish and Blotts and more! It was a great party. Here is a picture of one of the Wand Shop.
Matt, Abby and dressed up as witches and a wizard. Matt with his amazing ability to find great things on-line for low prices found his wizard costume and my witch costume. Abby's very cute costume came from my sister Tiff. Thanks Tiff! Our costumes were a hit. No one knew who Matt was, I was mistaken for one of the young women a couple times (must be the wig), and everyone, I mean everyone thought Abby was simply adorable. They were still talking about how cute she was at Church on Sunday!

Abby and her very cute friend Indy Lee!
Matt and Abby "Trunk or Treating!" We didn't really get much candy. We don't need it!
Jen and Abby at the cake walk. We won yummy cupcakes!
What an incredible October!