Ari's first trip to Chick-Fil-A

Today was my first trip to Chick-Fil-A since Ari was born. I know, tear. Since she is old enough now to share some chicken and play in the toddler area and since it was my birthday and we had nothing else to do, we savored the event.

Happy Free Birthday to Me! (Pt. 2)

This was my amazing lunch:

Free birthday Keva Juice for joining the email list and a free Chick-Fil-A sandwich for taking a survey a couple of months ago.

Happy Free Birthday to Me! (Pt. 1)

This morning I got up just before six and headed out for a dozen free doughnuts from Krispy Kreme! They were great!

I also made some hashbrowns and bacon so we wouldn't get sick. I even squeezed some juice from the Orange Grove oranges we got from Jeremy's parents. Delicious; a perfect birthday breakfast!

Lilian Dorene... Come on Down!

You're the next member of the Ford family! This is a little late. I blame my scanner; it blames my incompetence. I recently had my first appointment with the Perinatologist and everything went great. I've been able to feel her swim around for a while now so it was cool to finally get to watch her in action. They printed a couple of the shots for me, but they are not the best. It took a long time to finish all the checking and measuring. Turns out that it's pretty hard to measure one chamber of a heart when the 10 oz. fetus it is growing inside won't stop doing flips! I'm raising gymnasts, I guess!

Here's the first little glimpse of our Lily:

We love you, Lily! We are so excited to meet you!

Cute pics with Great-Grandpa

My grandpa was in the valley for a few days to be with his brother, Gerald, who passed away the afternoon of the 27th. While he was here we were able to have dinner with him and spend some time together one evening. Here are some cute pics we got of him and Ari together:

She was being pretty wiggly that day, but she had a great time showing Great-Grandpa her three teeth and how fast she can crawl!

Really?!

We recently got a box from my mom that had stuff for our anniversary, some cute clothes for Ari and some old stuff of mine that she had found moving things into her new house. It was mostly old certificates and ribbons, things I wrote in English classes and some pics. Hilarious! Among the items was a packet of these pics (I don't think I gave any away!):


Really?! I don't remember taking this picture and I don't know if I had anything to do with choosing this look. I also know that the people that did this to me read this blog and although I wasn't told "no" very much growing up I think this would have been an appropriate time. Oh, well! I hope you all have a good laugh and Ari, I vow to you that there will never be a picture taken of you that resembles this one!

Did anyone order an Ari?

So, lately I've been in a little trouble from the Grandmas about the lack of Ari pictures on the blog, so here we go! This is a set of pics that Aunt Kristen took of Ari playing in the box to the new booster seat that Grandma bought to have at her house. Enjoy!

And a silly one of her enjoying some lasagna in the new seat!

J. O.'s Birthday Cake

Those of you who facebook already know that I made my first carrot cake at the beginning of the month for Jeremy's birthday. I appreciate the luck that was wished and wish that I could have filled the out-of-state requests for slices. I used a Martha Stewart (shocker) recipe and was quite pleased by how it turned out. I couldn't quite pin Jeremy down with an answer as to whether it was better than his mom's. He would only say that they were both very good, just different. Lawyering skills, I guess!

Martha's:

Mine:

After:

I think it was pretty close! Next time I make this you are all invited; it's pretty big! Jeremy ate it for about a week but wasn't able to finish it!

Just to substantiate the rumors

All right, you caught us, we're pregnant! I'm about seven weeks and everything is great. I'm pretty sick this time, but that's ok because it's a good sign. My due date is April 29th which puts the little ones about fourteen months apart (unless this one comes a month early like Ari!) Kind of crazy, but we're very excited. The ultrasound isn't much to look at (he/she is only 8mm long,) but we got to see a good, strong heartbeat when they did it. I feel like this one is a boy so check back in a few months to see if I'm right!

For the last vacay of the summer, we took a Ford family trip to Brian Head, UT. All the siblings were there except for Casey and Tianna who were closing on their new house. We all stayed in a really nice cabin at the ski resort. One of the evenings we took in a play at the Shakespearean festival in Cedar City. We saw School for Wives. Not Shakespeare, i know, but it was pretty funny and really well done. Ari had to stay at a day-care center across the street that the festival uses each year. I was anxious, but she did great, of course and I got to go check on her during intermission. They were showing a Baby Einsteins video when I got there at intermission and I started to say something, but I decided that her language and social skills wouldn't be delayed too much by just one. And you can't blame the staff for showing it when they have a bunch of little ones they've never met and that are only with them for a couple of hours. On one of the days we headed over to Bryce canyon and even though a lot of our group are direct descendants of Ebenezer Bryce we still had to pay to get in! Oh, well. While in the area we split up into groups and a few people went horseback riding while others rode quads. Me? I shopped! Heather, James, Jeremy and I stayed around the touristy area. We ate at a buffet place in a hotel that was pretty good and spent the rest of the time in the shops. I got a T-shirt, of course, and a really cool piece of petrified wood! I'm a nerd, I know! We also picked up a Christmas ornament. (We get one each time we go somewhere as our mementos.) Back at Brian Head we rode up a ski lift that they open for the summer for mountain bikers. It was really relaxing just looking at the beautiful area and during the ride we watched two storms come straight at us from different directions and listened to the thunder so it was a little exciting too! It was starting to rain by the end so we had great timing. Ari did a great job until I said, "I'm glad I have such a good baby that I don't have to worry about doing things like this with her." Jinx! She started crying about half way up so we sang to her, which helped, and Daddy rubbed her forehead just above her eyebrows and she fell asleep when we were half way down the other side. It went a lot higher than it looked and I think her ears may have been hurting. Poor baby! We also got to see lots of wildlife. The first morning we were there Jeremy, Mom and Dad went fishing and on the way saw dozens of deer including quite a few babies! They said they were all over the road like cattle. We had a few that would visit the cabin also. Down the road a little ways there was a colony of Southern Utah prairie dogs living under the storage units of a set of condos. We hung out with them for a little while. Then on the quad tour of Bryce canyon there were antelope! We all had a blast on the trip and Ari was perfect on the whole trip. Such a big girl!

Medicine Park

While we were in Chickasha, we headed down to Medicine Park with my mom and brother for their centennial celebration. We watched a comedy/music show, ate lunch, fed the fish and turtles, did some shopping, and bought four rubber duckies for the annual duck race. We didn't win. Oh, well. We tried to get Colton to volunteer to help catch runaway ducks at the end of race, but he was too cool so I decided I'd go do it. Apparently rubber ducks don't move very quickly (see below) but I got to cool off in the creek. All in all it was a very fun day.

Fourth of July

I know this is a little late, but July has been pretty busy. To start off the month, Ari took her first plane ride. She was perfect, of course. She continues to amaze me by how well she handles every situation. We went to Chickasha to see family. It was the first time Ari got to meet her Grandma Sherree and we had a blast. It's funny to go home now; my mom has moved to the city and my grandparents have moved back to Chickasha from Phoenix but have bought a new house. They were just moving in when we got there. I like to think I helped a little, but mainly we just distracted them! We had a great trip and I was so grateful to have the opportunity to go.

The Grades Are In!

One down, two to go! Jeremy has had, I believe, a pretty impressive first year of Law School. A letter came yesterday from the University that I figured was his official ranking. It was, of course, but he was doing some work for the Pro Bono association and was coming home late. So it sat on the end of the dining room table as I anxiously awaited his arrival. When he got home he opened it up... his official rank at the end of his first year is 18 out of 154! That puts him in the top twelve percent of his class. Not too shabby considering we bought a house, put in a lawn and had a baby this year as well. He also found enough time to complete many interviews, receive a great job at Stone and Davis, work ten hours a week at the end of this last semester and catch a good amount of fish! Most importantly, he has more than upheld his position as an actively loving husband and doting father. It has been a very full year, but he has seemed to enjoy himself and I am continually grateful for all his hard work.

"Solid" Food

Ok, so Ari has been getting bigger and learning a lot of new things. She has also been staying hungry ALL day so I started looking at the baby cereals. After reading their purposefully vague age recommendations we decided that she was a “supported sitter” and was hence ready to launch out into the exciting world of single-grain rice cereal. So we cracked out the bibs, sat her up in her bumbo seat and went for it:

I wouldn’t say she enjoyed it, but she started to get the hang of it. It actually wouldn’t have been quite so messy if it wasn’t for her new infatuation to live life with her little fingers in her mouth at all times. But she’s getting better at it and it has cut down on the number of times she has to eat in the day. Yea Ari!

Eating is hard work!

Happy Graduation Day!

Yea Kristen!! I wanted to take a minute today and congratulate my sister-in-law on her graduation. She is graduating this afternoon from Desert Ridge high school in Mesa. For the next two years she will be attending MCC with a full scholarship. Awesome! She'll be studying, at least for the time being, elementary education. We'll see what her major is in a year and a half or so; am i right? Kristen - you're beautiful and I love you so much. I'm very proud of you! So, congratulations and best of luck to the Desert Ridge class of 2008!

Just for Fun

The rules are simple:

1. Go to http://www.flickr.com/.
2. Type your answer to each question in the “search” box.
3. Using only the first page, pick an image.
4. Copy and paste the picture into your blog.

What is your first name?

What is your favorite food?

What high school did you go to?

What is your favorite color?

Who is your celebrity crush?

What is your favorite drink?

What is your dream vacation?

What is your favorite dessert?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

What is your favorite indulgence?

What do you love the most?

Things I Love, by Ari Ford

My bouncy seat

Taking a bath

Drying off after my bath

Riding in the car (especially to Grandma and Granddad's house!)

Sleeping on Daddy

Chillin' in my Boppy

Slumber parties with Aunt Lara

My fishy swing (Thank you to my cousins Bethany and Adam for sharing!)

Sleeping in my crib like a big girl

Tummy Time!