Good times in Utah

Mia and I are having a blast in Utah so far, even though we are missing papa/Zeus like crazy.  We talk to him a couple times a day and even Skyped with him last night for a little bit.  For some reason he couldn't hear me, so we ended up video chatting and using our cell phones for sound.  Crazy technology - so grateful for it!  :)

We flew in Tuesday night and the rainy/stormy weather in Texas seems to have followed us here as it's been a bit stormy here as well.  I guess parts of Austin ended up getting up to a foot of rain and there was lots of flooding.  Thankfully Zeus and our little house were fine and didn't flood!  My dad was a dear and held Mia while I got her NAM cleaned up to put back in after she'd pulled it off for the ump-teenth time.  :)

Grandpa advice video

On Wednesday Mia and I relaxed a bit in the morning and I unpacked and put away and organized our clothes while Mia took a nap.  When I went to put in her new NAM she SCREAMED.  The part that goes across her lip was added too a little too much and really was squashing her little lip.  Also, one of the nostril pieces really pushes up that side and I wonder if that was bothering her too.  Because of the screaming and the pinched way her lip looked I decided to make an "executive decision" and take it out and switch back to the old NAM for a few days to help bring her front lip and gum area back a little further in the hopes that it won't pinch so badly anymore.  When they first made this new NAM, I don't think the lip part was built up enough, so her front gum/lip area came forward more than it had previously.  I'm really hoping my plan works and that the new one fits better tomorrow after using the old one for a few days!  *crossing fingers* 

Because we were using the old one, I ran to a medical supply store to see if they had some liquid adhesive to help the nose/lip part stay on.  On the way home we stopped by my friend Amy's house to see if her and her adorable twin daughters were home, but they were out.  :(  Then, we headed over to surprise my good friend Heidi.  Mission accomplished!  It was so nice to sit and visit with her and to see her two youngest interact with Mia.  Jacob and Eli were SO adorable with her and Mia just smiled and smiled at Jacob.  We were able to stay and chat quite some time before I headed off to Layton to meet up with some of my old roommates (Lori, Marie and Sara) for dinner.  We some good food at Mimi's Cafe and a nice chat,then Marie and I headed over to Lori's house to check it out now that she's all settled in and has it all decorated.  On the way home, Mia and I stopped by my friend Nicole's house to say a quick hello before I took Mia home and put her to bed.  While we were at Nicole's house Mia got hungry and Nicole wanted to try feeding her and did a GREAT job!  So fun to have friends learn how to feed her too!  :)

On Thursday, Mia and I went and ran some quick errands with Heidi and Eli and then came home and hung out with grandma for a while.  Later that evening Mia and I went over to visit my friend Marie and see her cute new home for the first time and to chat for a bit.  It's so nice to be able to spend some quality time with good friends!

Her house ended up being out by my friend Sandy's house, so I decided to drop by and surprise her too.  I worried that it might be a bad time because it was around 7 pm and I wasn't sure if she'd be putting her kids down to bed or not.  She actually ended up being at a church women's meeting down the street but her husband Mike said I could go down and surprise her there if I wanted and that she'd just texted him and it sounded like they were starting to wrap things up.  I drove down there and it was so fun.  She didn't even see me walking towards her until I was almost there and then she was so surprised!  :)  I'd asked Mike if he minded if I kidnapped her to go get some ice cream after and he said it would be no problem, so we headed to the ice cream shop for my FAVORITE ice cream that I can only find at two places in Utah - fire stick ice cream - YUM!!!  It's a light pink color and is cinnamon (red hot) flavored.  I know it sounds crazy, but the combination of creamy ice cream and red hots is a total hit in MY book!!!  :)  I wish I would have taken pictures!!!  :(  Sandy had her adorable baby Camilla with her and we SO should have taken photos!!!  Camilla is two months older than Mia and is SO stinkin' cute!!!  I wish I'd have gotten pictures of her and Mia next to each other in their car seats - Camilla with her light hair and big blue eyes, and Mia with her dark hair and big brown eyes!  I could just kick myself for missing that photo op!!!

I've been pretty bad about taking pictures and that's my new goal for the rest of the trip.  I do have a few on my camera that I need to upload from our visit with Heidi, but always seem to think of taking pictures AFTER I'm already back home for the day.  Sadness!

Today, I slept in a little later than normal - 8 or 9 am, because Mia was up at 5 am and I was TIRED.  :)  I got Mia fed and we showered up and got dressed and headed down to pick up my sister Tiffany from BYU down in Provo.  It ended up taking most of the day to drive down there (about an hour each way), including going up to the student union area to eat lunch.  It was BEAUTIFUL down there and some of the trees were starting to change on the mountains. 

I sure do miss the gorgeous season changes that Utah has! 

While we were at the Cougar Eatery we sent a pic of the salad wrap that my mom got to my sister Michelle in the UK.  She was SO jealous and sad!  I guess she LOVES those things.  :)  It was so cool that I could send a picture from my phone to her email and have her emailed response come up as a text on my phone!  Another who-rah for technology!  :) 

My mom and Tiffany took turns holding Mia so that I could finish eating.  It is so nice to have extra hands sometimes!  I tried to feed Mia a bottle of pre-mixed formula because she got hungry, but she was having none of that!  She likes her regular formula and likes it really warm, if you please!  Silly little girl!  Anyhow, we finished eating and Mia was getting tired but sometimes has trouble falling asleep when there is a lot of stimulus around.  The miracle fix to that is to cover her head with a blanket and pat her bum.  :)  The funny thing is, lots of times she will be out like a light after about 5 or 6 pats!  lol  Well, at one point Tiff was working the magic with her and I started laughing and told Tiff that it looked almost like she was nursing Mia with the blanked over her head like that.  (I'm such a mean sister to tease her like that, but I just couldn't help it!)  lol

Tiff is NOT breast feeding my daughter in this picture, just helping her get to sleep by covering her little head.  :)

I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but she turned BRIGHT red and started giggling nervously and looking around to see if anyone was watching.  lol 

We stopped in the bathroom on the way out to get some hot water to mix a bottle of formula for Mia and there was a nice lounge area off to the side with couches that we could chill in to feed her.  Tiff wanted to try and feed her and ended up doing a great job!

Great technique Tiff!  She even did it standing up!!!  :)

Tiff ended up being a natural!  She DID comment on how it was harder than it looked, and had to hand off near the end because her hand was getting tired of squeezing the bottle, but she did a GREAT job!  Grandma wants to learn next.  :)

Then to end the night, I went with my parents to a church presentation and dinner.  It was nice to hang out with my mom and dad and to eat some good food.  For desert they had assigned people to bring pies.  There were all these tables they put end to end that stretched across the large room and there were tons of pies from one end to the other!  It was so hard to choose which slice to try!!!  I ended up choosing a slice of fresh home-made peach pie and it was AMAZING! 

Y U M !

I took a picture on my phone and sent it to Zeus to torture him because he LOVES Utah peaches.  :)  I'm such a sweet and thoughtful wife!  ;) 

When we got home, Tiff was excited to see Mia.  I put her on the ground on a blanket while I went to get Mia's pajamas and clean her NAM off so I could put it back in for the night (we're suppose to take it out and clean it at least twice a day).  When I came back, Tiff was laying on the floor with Mia.

It was so cute!

Tiffany and Mia were just a chatting away like crazy!  Tiffany would talk to her and Mia would just coo and coo back at her.  I took the cutest video of it on my phone, but unfortunatley when I uploaded it there wasn't any sound to go with it.  I had my phone on silent when I recorded it, so I'm wondering if that's why the video ended up having no sound!  I didn't know it did that and was SO sad to have missed capturing the moment!  :( 

It has been SO fun spending time with friends and family and introducing Mia around to all these important people in my life.  Can't wait to continue working on making the rounds next week, and this time, taking pictures!  :)