Kendells Take Chicago

    My parents and little sister Brooke came out to visit us the last weekend in April. It was honestly one of the best weekends we have had in a long time. My mom has only been once before (right when I had Lydia so we didn't get to do a whole lot at that time for obvious reasons) and it was my Dad's and Brooke's first time visiting so we tried to pack a lot in to the 3 days they were here.

      The first day we went to our favorite breakfast joint called Wildberry. Hands down the best breakfast food I have ever have and I am usually not a big breakfast person! Then we went and drove around all the mansions and cool houses in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff. It was a bit too cold to get out and walk it. But we stopped quickly and got out to show them Lake Michigan at one of the beaches.

Lydia decided to share her lunch with Brian. 

    That night, after Brian was done with school and tests, we ordered our favorite deep dish pizzas from The Silo and rented a redbox and just played with Lydia. She loved having her grandparents and auntie visiting. It was Christmas all over again!

      Saturday we got ready to drive into Chicago to first do the architecture tour by boat (which is THE BEST way to see Chicago) and then walk around and see the Bean at Millennium Park and Magnificent Mile and whatnot. We were pooped by the time we got back to the car and ready for naps.

Seahawks in honor of my brother James serving an LDS mission in Seattle Washington.

     Sunday we went to church and came home for a quick walk and lunch before they all took off for the airport. Short and sweet was the visit (a bit too short for me-I wanted them here longer!) but it was so nice to have them come see us! We love having family out!!

Wild Child: 6&7 Months

     More than half a year has passed since we welcomed Miss Lydia into the world and into our home and hearts. I will admit that it hasn't been the easiest time. Between battling baby acne, colds, thrush, low milk supply, an angry bleeding diaper rash, a clogged nipple pore, and double ear infections-my poor baby girl has had it rough. But looking back. those things are the "little bad things" because the joy and happiness that has come with this girl and all the things that she is learning and doing far outweigh all of it.
     Honestly even the distress that labor brought with all those contractions, and the painful beating that a woman's body goes through to bring a child into the world-is so faded that I can't even remember what the pain really felt like. Which is such a blessing in so many ways.. Don't get me wrong, I know there was pain, and a lot of it, but it isn't something I remember very clearly and I think Heavenly Father has big part in that. We remember those first pure moments of joy when we held new life and the raw emotion that was in the room.

     7 minutes old and 7 months old... I feel like I was just holding my newborn baby and now I am chasing after a crawling wild child.

This girl is my little diva. She has quite the attitude ha! I have loved watching her personality develop more and more over the months. She is my social butterfly and wants to be involved in everything-meaning the center of attention!

Now that it is finally warmer-we are enjoying the nice weather by going to the parks. This girl loves swings! Look at that crazy hair!!

"Lincoln and Lydia swinging at a park..."

    She is learning and growing so much! She loves to feed herself and usually ends up stuffing her face with everything we put on her plate. She is a "crawler" for her own form of the word. She knows how to get from point A to point B but she does it in her own style by flopping like a fish out of water. It's hilarious. But she is so fast at it that I wonder if she'll ever learn normal crawling.
    She is still sleeping 12-13 hours at night with one wake up that we are currently trying to get her to break. She is a major chatter box and will talk and squeal your ears off if you let her. Her favorite toys are her fingers but she'll grab anything out of your hand and make it into something to chew on if you aren't careful. She loves to eat bananas and if you leave a bottle in site she will zoom across the room and grab it before you know what hit you.
    She loves looking at board books and is trying really hard to turn the pages. She and the cat have become "friends" which pretty much means they just ignore each other. She is very animated and makes THE BEST faces that get us all worked up in laughter (which only eggs her on). 

She is not a huge fan of all the crab grass around our home ha. 

Yes I am that mom that let my child eat grass-well she munched on it more than anything and then slobbered it out everywhere.

Oh I live for this face! Sometimes Brian and I just go sit beside her crib and watch her sleep-both secretly wanting to wake her up and play with her. 

Bath sinks are the best! Best load of dishes I've ever done!

  

Marriage Journal: 4 YEARS OLD!

     Sometimes time seems to just stand still in my little world, but then I look up and 4 years have passed since we were sealed for time and all eternity. Woah! What have we been doing the last 4 years? (In no particular order) We've been...
-Adopting a Bunny-that multiplied with 9 more
-Became a True Aggie
-Taking the MCAT
-Worked in an orphanage in Mexico
-Visited Utah lots
-Invaded by squirrels 
-Lots of at-home date nights!
-Graduating from Utah State University together
-Lost my dear cousin Jared
-Getting accepted to Medical School
-Moving to Chicago
-Chopped my hair off
-Brian getting "Cloaked" in the White Coat Ceremony
-Working as a nanny to 3 different families
-Welcomed a cat into our home
-Traveled, Trips, Treats,
-Miscarried our sweet baby
-Made Family Music Videos
-Found my new love for apple picking 
-Visiting all the temples in Utah in one go!
-Did the Disney thing-twice!
-Cruised the bahamas
-Found out we were expecting!
-Said goodbye to my Grandpa Johansen
-Explored, Kayaked,
-Gave Birth to our baby girl Lydia
-Sent my brother James to Seattle to serve an LDS mission
-Blessed our baby girl
-Surrived my first night of motherhood
-Now have a 5 month old baby!

    And I could probably go on and on and on with all the things we have done in the last 4 years but this list is a fun flashback for me to glimpse through. Though the events of my life haven't gone the way I had dreamed or planned-I am happy with where we are right now, 4 years later-living in Chicago, in our 3rd year of Medical School, and holding my baby girl. Time has been good to us and helped us to grow, learn, and gain a stronger testimony of our Savior and God's plan for us. We are happy and we love right now.
    Adding more to our Marriage Journal is always fun for me-especially to talk about the next part of our lives. Here are my latest entries. I love to look back through these, even just at the pictures and be reminded of our adventures together. We have many many more to come and that excites me even more.

4 years together with 4-ever to go!!

Lydia at 5 Months

This girl.

She makes my heart happy.

Every new thing she discovers these days gets me so excited. I love seeing the world through her eyes. The wonder she feels when she hears something crinkly or touches something soft or squishy. I love watching her learn and use her 5 senses.

She loves to blow raspberries and will stick her tongue out and make the sounds all day long. Her shirt is usually soaked in slobber but she doesn't seem to mind it. If we blow some back she gets so excited and giggly and it will continue on in a little spit war. (I know, I'm teaching her great things) By the end of the day, I am usually covered in spit.

    Her toes are her next fascination. I could take a daily picture of her like this. Every time she is in her bumbo now she goes for that left foot. And when she is laying on her back, those toes are tangled in her fingers.
    I guess I caused the fascination just a little bit by painting her toenails. I couldn't help it. I needed a bit of sunshine from this crazy cold.

       And once.. this happened-- she grabbed my glasses and they fell right on her face. I died laughing and of course had to snap a picture.
     Valentine's day was special this year because I had 2 Valentines! It's nice to sit back and enjoy myself this year with my two loves-last year the morning sickness was hitting about this time and so I was looking forward to not feeling like I was floating through every day of nausea. Lydia and I gave Brian one of my favorite books, "Guess How Much I love You" that we found in a fun pop-up version. Brian likes to read it to Lydia at night and it's fun to see her focus on the pictures and pop-ups. I also gave Brian some ice skates so we can get out and about in this cold!

    I don't know if she is teething or not yet because she has always loved sucking on her fingers, but she certainly is chomping down hard on all her fingers-and ours! If we put our hands within reach, she will drag those babies into her mouth before we have time to react.

    The first thing people comment on are her large blue eyes. They are giant on her little face-especially when she is around other babies and I see normal-sized eyes, it makes me realize just how big hers are. But we love them. They are so expressive and bright. She has always seemed much more alert to me because of them.

    There have been a few times when she pulls her bow down and falls asleep this way. Baha.. It kills me. ha

And then of course.. I cut my hair-which has been nice due to her Lydia not pulling on it at all. And Brian tells me that I can just grow my hair back out along with Lydia growing hers. So it works! 

Lydia loves to look at the cat, though the cat would prefer to have nothing to do with her. As soon as the baby goes down to sleep-the cat comes out to get her "neglected" attention. Though every not and then she will come play which involves Brian letting Lydia "pet" (or grab handfuls of) Minnie's hair. Poor kitty. Don't worry, we give Minnie plenty of attention-just not as much as she used to get.

     She loves all foods so far, and she has tried a plethora of them. We let her sample whatever we are eating-whether it is turkey, salads, toast, or even ice cream. She gladly eats anything. I always thought I would be a stickler mom when it comes to food and feeding her solids. But we have really enjoyed feeding her and she still eats like a champ (minus thrush problems), so I'm not worried. I'm hoping it will help her not to be picky as she grows because she will have tried so many different things. I guess we will see.

        Thrush has been a battle. If you don't know what it is-it's a fungi infection in the mouth that looks like a bunch of white canker sores all over. It makes it super painful to eat and suck anything-from nursing to her binky. If it wasn't all over her mouth, it was on me and we played ping pong with it passing it back and forth all month until the doctor finally gave us stronger medicine. It is definitely clearing up now, but it hasn't been fun.
     Lydia didn't gain as much as she was supposed to this month (she dropped from 60% percentile to the 40% in one month) and so they want us to take her in bimonthly to see if she will gain any more weight once the thrush is gone.
    I can already tell a difference with the new medicine in her eating so that's excellent. She already seems much happier and is sleeping better through the night. (For a couple weeks she was getting up in the middle of the night twice to eat because she didn't seem to be getting as much during the day because it was painful to suck). But now, we see the light at the end of the tunnel!

     Everyone keeps telling us that she looks like a mini mama.. So to test that out, here is a pic of me at 5 months and one of her at 5 months. Obviously.. she didn't inherit my chubby cheeks.

     I am hoping this month doesn't fly by as fast as the last one-though if it means the sunshine will shine through and we can get out and about then maybe I'll allow her to be one month older-but only one. We love our moose!