Sammy Eats!

Sam is almost a year old, so we're trying to introduce him to "grown-up food". He does best with pasta, which he really likes.

Messy, but totally worth it!

Sam also loves bread and cheese, so making little sandwiches for him is also fun. He doesn't do so well with lunchmeat yet, though.

It's an adventure every day.

I like nice people

Sam and I took our first plane ride completely by ourselves this weekend. The kid is a handful (more like two hands full, for honesty's sake), so I was pretty worried about him freaking out on the plane and not being able to contain him. Lucky for us, the flight from Salt Lake to Denver is only about an hour long. We were so lucky on both flights- the gentlemen sitting next to us actually liked babies. On the first flight our seat mate showed pictures of his little girl to Sam (he loves pictures of babies) and gave him a RiceKrispies treat to play with. On the return flight our seat mate offered to hold him and get my bag from the overhead rack. Seriously, it means so much to this frazzled mother to have people act kindly towards my son.

While in Denver, Sam and I attended the funeral of the son of one of my best friends from my undergrad days. I think the death of a child is one of those moments where you know for sure whether or not you believe in God and trust in His plans for your life. My heart breaks for my friends, who will have to wait many years before they see their little boy again. I take comfort, however, in knowing that they know that they will see him again. Their marriage was solemnized in the temple of the Lord, and their children will be with them forever, even if they don't have the blessing of their company for more than a few months on earth. In looking for comfort I could share with them, I found this poem by President Gordon B. Hinckley:

What is this thing that men call death,

This quiet passing in the night?

'Tis not the end, but genesis

Of better worlds and greater light.

O God, touch Thou my aching heart,

And calm my troubled, haunting fears.

Let hope and faith, transcendent, pure,

Give strength and peace beyond my tears.

There is no death, but only change

With recompense for victory won;

The gift of Him who loved all men,

The Son of God, the Holy One.

After the funeral, my cousin Steven picked us up to take us back to the airport. I haven't seen him in a couple years, so we had a lot of catching up to do. We talked about how Facebook has both helped people keep in touch, and yet enabled us not to keep in touch at all. I know Steven is planning a trip to Africa with his jump team and his girlfriend, and he sees all my pictures of Sam, but we haven't really talked since we saw each other in April '08. It is kind of sad, actually. It further contributes to my love/hate relationship with FB.

In any case, the three of us had a great time hanging out. Sam looooved his bread crust treats at Panera Bread. Steven and I spent the car ride talking about things that are actually important. It was a good way to finish a trip that started off on a sad note.

My New Obsession

Last September, Ryan, Sammy, and I were all sick at the same time. This was before Sam got all mobile and wiggly, so the three of us spent many hours on the hide-a-bed in the living room watching Cake Boss. This prompted us to make our own fondant and decorate a magnificently layered cake, a la Buddy and co.

Yes, we're keeping our day jobs.

In any case, it inspired a love for beautifully decorated, imaginative cakes. I can waste hours online looking at pictures of amazing cakes.

And then I met Nina Fullmer, and started keeping up with her blog (yes, she does live in the apartment above ours, so I COULD just go say hi every once in a while, but this way I get to keep my pasty white skin from getting exposed to deadly UV rays.) Nina's blog's sidebar features a blog with the intriguing name of Cake Wrecks. Being rather obsessed with cake, I had to investigate.

Oh my hilariousness. This blog is dedicated to professional cakes that can best be described as "horribly, hilariously wrong." Like all the different ways you can spell "congratulations". And misuse an apos'trophe. And crazy carrot jockeys! Seriously, people, words cannot do this blog justice. You must see for yourselves.

My dearest wish is to be a Wreckporter. And if you are ever stumped on what to get me for my birthday, a CakeWrecks t-shirt would hit the spot.

Oh, I kill me. Hit the spot!

Downside? I pretty much always want cake now.

So close... and yet so far

This is my last week of clinical rotations forever! What an amazing feeling. I finally feel like perhaps I am ready to be unleashed on patients on my own. After this week, I will have the Pregnancy Risk Line rotation and my research defense, and be finished in June. WOW!

On the home front, things are going well. Baby Sam is creeping and cruising, he's close to crawling but not so close to walking. Ryan graduated from the Institute of Religion this semester. Sammy and I are so proud of him.

We have successfully indoctrinated a new friend into the world of geocaching. Jennifer accompanied us and the Andersons on a cache trip on campus yesterday. It's so good to get outside and walk around. Geocaching is awesome.

Jessica pulling the cache from its hiding placeSammy trying unsuccessfully to steal the cache from MommyJennifer signing the logbook

On my mind today is the concept of seeking and receiving personal revelation from the Lord. I think it is so important to understand that everyone will receive revelation a little bit differently from everyone else. It is of paramount importance that we learn for ourselves how revelation feels to us as individuals. I understand the Lord's plan for me through my feelings; as I plan my life, He helps me to feel confident in the paths I choose (when correct), even if the world would say that I'm crazy for doing certain things. That's how it felt when we decided to be open to having a baby so early in our marriage. Our Sam is such a delight to us, and I know enough about genetics to know that he is one-of-a-kind; if we had waited another month to have children, we wouldn't have the same baby we have now. Sam is a gift, which we would never have had if we weren't open to revelation.

Happy Easter!

We had a very busy March. One weekend we went out to Delta, CO to visit Ryan's dad. It was a long drive, but once again Sam surprised us and did very well. The next weekend we went to the East Coast for some job interviews, and we also visited my family!

Sammy is a very popular guy. We were afraid we wouldn't get him back once the family got to hug him!

General Conference and Easter weekend coincided this year, which made both extra special to me. We made our tent Saturday morning, and for breakfast Ryan made a new treat called cinnamon roll cheesecake. Yum!

Elisa and Heidi joined us for Easter dinner- steak, funeral potatoes, asparagus, and delicious strawberry shortcake courtesy of Elisa!

We love using our china for special occasions. Ryan even took a daffodil from the Village flower bed so I could use my vase. What a sweetheart.

Happy Easter from The Reynolds Tribe

Nertz

Less than a month since my last post, uh-thank-yuh. We miss watching the Olympics every night, though I admit I am getting more homework done. My parents came to visit us, a short 2 day trip that was great fun. Dad and Ryan went go-karting, and all of us went to the Planetarium. There are lots of neat, free things to do at the Planetarium, I highly recommend it. I need to have my mum send me the pictures they took so I can put them on here. I do have a picture of Sammy on our last geocache to put up.

Sammy is still not crawling. We're trying to teach him how to do finger foods. Honestly, he is the weirdest kid. He will put everything in his mouth EXCEPT food. We give him Cheerios, corn, black beans, you name it- he won't eat it unless Mommy or Daddy put it in his mouth.

Lately I have been listening to Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre version of the Chronicles of Narnia. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first "chapter book" I ever read, so I am very fond of the series. The Radio Theatre version is fantastic. I tried to get into the audiobook versions of Harry Potter, but it was rough. No offense, Jim Dale, but you just can't bring the books to life with the same guy's voice for 16 hours. The Radio Theatre is great because they have different actors for all the main characters, sound effects, and music. Plus, they are abridged, so while you get the whole idea of the story, it doesn't take overly long to listen to. I love listening to it on the bus, and being transported to Narnia on my way to clinic. When I was a little kid I used to desperately wish Narnia was real, and I would look all over my grandparents' house and big backyard for a way to get there.

Nostalgia aside for the time being, I would like to direct your attention to my new album of Sammy picture on Facebook. You don't need to sign up for an account, just click here.

We Love the Olympics!

I haven't really watched the Olympics since 2002, so this year I was determined that we would be an Olympic-watching family. Ryan and I have had a blast following the athletes, and even Sammy likes having the TV on all the time. It's very distracting to him. Right now I'm watching Men's halfpipe finals and have just finished up some homework. Ryan just got home from the gym. Hooray!Since our last post, we had a visit from Cassi. It's so nice to have family visit. We had a good time with Aunt Cassi, going to the zoo and tasting Cafe Rio, a Utah original. Ryan made a special cake for me for my birthday, and Sammy got to taste french fries! We had a nice Valentine's Day. Sammy asked me to be his Valentine, and of course I said yes! I have been sick twice in the past month, which is ridiculous. I rarely get sick. We took our friends Elisa and Heidi geocaching for Presidents' Day. It was our first time using our GPS here in Utah. We did a picture puzzle cache around Presidents' Circle (appropriate for the holiday, we thought). Now that Sammy is old enough to appreciate being outside, we will probably go geocaching more often.

My parents are coming to visit on Sunday. We feel lucky to have so many visitors!

Our little boy is 8 months old now! We can hardly believe it! He likes to buzz his lips with his fingers and say "momomomomom" when he is sad. He doesn't eat in the middle of the night anymore (hooray!), although he still wakes up. No crawling yet, so our apartment is still not baby proofed. We love our baby Sam!