Thursday, April 24, 2008

Lilly Got Tagged


Lillian Marie Jessup was born March 13, 2006 at 12:03 pm. She came out with red hair and we knew we were in trouble. She weighed 8lbs 3 oz, and knew she wanted to eat right away. She has a personality not to mention a super cute face that will melt any heart. She is taking being 2 very seriously and is keeping mom running nonstop. Thanks for tagging us Alexa, Lilly talks about you all the time!


1-Lilly recently learned she likes to give hugs and kisses. She has to wrap her little arms around your neck, and plant the kiss on you lips. However if you make the kiss noise she promptly tells you "NO! I do it". That is a phrase we are hearing a lot these days and not just when she is giving out loves.
2-Lilly loves mischief. Anything she can get into when mom is in the tub or shower.


3- Lilly loves to put on Mommy's makeup or any she can find in my Avon boxes. She has also decided that markers and fingernail polish are good substitutes for when there is no makeup to be found.



4-Lilly loves princess and dressing up. She regularly comes out with some crazy outfits on and announces she is ready to go to the ball.


5- Lilly loves treats. She knows just how to get them out of her grandpas. She sweetly says "Peas Pompa" To which they can't say no.

6-Lilly loves her big girl bed. When it is nap time she always asks if she can sleep in her big girl bed. Mom says no, and off to the crib she goes.

7-Lilly likes to climb out of her crib where she still takes her naps. No pictures of that sorry



8- Lilly loves sunglasses. She has multiple pair. She especially loves the ones she got for her birthday from Grandma and Grandpa Jessup.


9- Lilly loves her pointer finger. If she is upset and needs comfort, she will cry "I need my finger" This started happening when the Dr. told me to take away her binkie. I'm not so sure it was a good idea! :o)


10-Lilly loves her big sister Lainey. The first thing she asks when she wakes up from her nap is where is Lainey. She often gets sad when Lainey leaves without her.
This is our Lilly in a nutshell. This was really hard to keep simple because there are so many stories. We are tagging Ava and Adie Basinger, Ty Campbell, Kaitlyn Bowling, Katie Pack and Noah Campbell.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Tee-Ball and Pony Rides

The night before Lance came back, my sister Rachel and I decided to try to take the kids out. We went to Gardner Village, (mom's favorite place). Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Renn decided to join us as well. We wanted to go to the petting zoo, but got there just after it closed. They still had the ponies hooked up so the nice girl gave us the last ride of the day. Last year Lilly didn't like it very much, but this year she kept yelling "WOOHOO" it was very cute. We decided to have dinner at Archibalds, the girls weren't so cute in the restaurant. Lilly once again knocked over a glass of root beer. This time she missed my purse by a fraction of an inch. Whewww!!


Lainey is also playing Tee-ball. She seems to really like it. Especially the trying to get the ball when playing outfield. She and Katey spent most of today's game just wrestling each other to the ground. Lainey is usually the one getting tackled by her friend just like in soccer with Mari last year.



Lainey and her friend running to second base.


They are either excited about the treats or the Bees tickets. Not sure which, probably just being girls. :-)
Lets not forget Lilly who helped Daddy play second base coach.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

You Tube

Lilly, and I were just watching You Tube and came across this awesome video. Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI&NR=1

Monday, April 14, 2008

Lilly's New Do




When I posted the other day I didn't have a completed style for Lilly on the camera. Since then I have been trying to get a good shot to really capture the cute haircut. Lilly is growing up so fast and it just seems like this new haircut makes her seem even older.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Lainey gets Brave

Before

Lainey has very long hair, and she will only let me cut it. Until today. While we were at Cookie Cutters, I kept asking Lainey "Do you want to get your hair cut too?" Her answer every time was "No", until she saw Lilly with a balloon and a sucker at the end of her haircut. She said "I want a balloon", I told her they were for the kids who get their haircut. She said "Okay, I want a haircut". For Lainey this was huge. She is stubborn just like her mom and to give in like that without me asking. So she got her hair cut to. We just trimmed hers to even it out because mom is no beautician, and put a few layers in. She loved the style they put in and was very excited to show her cousin Keatley and Aunt Jana when we met them for lunch at the "Dinner Store with a park". I think Cookie Cutters just got some new customers!!

I told her to smile and this is what she gave me.

Something about Lilly



So this morning was like just about any other morning, Lilly got up and the first thing she wanted was cereal. She ate her breakfast and was very eager to get dressed. She stripped off her PJ's and diaper. I told her she had to wait for her bath till Lainey was done eating. She decided to go and pick out some clothes for the day. Pretty soon I hear her yelling "I need help" I walked into her room and found her sitting in her top dresser drawer. I told her to hold very still and ran for the camera. She had used her other drawers to climb up. The girls then took a shower ( a recent discovery). I got both the girls dressed and ready for the day. I then went to take a quick bath. Lilly usually thinks that mom needs help and comes in the bathroom. She usually leans over the edge and splashes her hands in the water. I keep telling her she is going to fall in and to stop. She never listens. Well today she fell in. She was very shocked and soaked from head to toe. Sorry there are no pictures. She didn't like how cold she was as she waited for mom to take her wet clothes off and get her dry, warm and redressed for the day.
We then took off for Cookie Cutters. After seeing the pictures on Jane's blog, and tired of Lilly's hair always looking messy off we went. This was Lilly's first official haircut. She did great and I love her new do!!

Little bit of India

For those of you that tune in to read Cari's posts I am sorry. You have to deal with me yet again. This is a means of my girls and I communicating to some extent. Please bear with me, I know my posts aren't as good as Cari's, but hopefully I won't type a whole lot, the pictures should tell the stories themselves.

My friend/co-worker Kumaravel took Brian and I out all day long. I feel bad for the poor guy, hope it wasn't too bad for him. Thanks Kumaravel - we really appreciate it.

We went to this absolutely awesome place called Mahabalipuram. Basically, there are a lot of large stones (granite I believe, but now I'm not sure) that they carved beautiful temples into/out of over a thousand years ago. They call them monolithic stones because the whole temple is carved out of one stone. For a better explanation click the name of the place above, it is a link.



According to the tour guy this is an ancient slide. Basically, an old-school playground.

This stone apparently is natural. The tour guy said the British tried to pull it down using 5 elephants (because it was thought to be dangerous) and it didn't budge.
So maybe stories in this stone wall. No way I could include them all in the blog (sorry, Cari or I will have to tell you personally).


Notice how my facial hair experiment works well on the right side, but not so well on the left. :-)

There are actually 5 temples here, one for each of 5 brothers. If I understood correctly, they are all made of one continuous stone. Even if I am incorrect, each building is a single stone.


Remember, a single stone..... This one actually has a large crack in it from an earthquake that they had to patch (can't really see it in this picture although the ones on the top may be related.)

We also went to a place called the Crocodile Bank. Basically, a large zoo for crocodiles. This isn't like any zoo we in the states (or rather Utah) would be used to. You actually get to see the crocodiles move and very close.



All of the crocodiles sat around most of the time. When the keeper came out with food and said something all the crocodiles started moving like crazy. This one wasn't shy at all. The best part was when a kid walked up to the wall to peak over and saw the open mouth of a crocodile that close. Needless to say he screamed a bit and jumped back - I would have too.
Kumaravel and Brian. Just an example of how most of the enclousures are setup.


In the evening we were able to do some shopping. I was able to get some clothing for Cari and the girls. I was even able to find a little dress for our new baby in August. Just kidding, I don't know what we are having yet. :-) I did find a present that works for a boy or girl baby though. Kumaravel had a friend join us to help with our shopping. His friend is a girl, the question of course is she just a friend or is she more... Now I sound like Cari. Just teasing you Kumaravel. :-)

I got each of the girls two dresses and Cari a Salwar. I don't want to spoil the surprise so I only am posting a picture of one of each of the girl's dresses. This red one is for Lainey.

This one is for Lilly. I must say this is probably my crowing achievement as a father. I don't think the picture does it any justice. Basically, it looks like the dress Belle wears in Beauty and Beast. All you parents of girls know what I am talking about. I just wish they had one in Lainey's size too. It took me about 0.00001 seconds to decide to get it. Awesome!!!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Kids are kids no matter where they are from

Tonight a co-worker had myself, Brian (another co-worker from Salt Lake), and the other people I have been working with over for dinner. First of all, I must say - delicious. I do wonder if they toned down the spice just for us, because all the other food I have eaten has some spice in it. Either way the food was great. I was a bit worried I was going to explode though because they just kept piling on the food. I would ask for small amount of rice to go with the little bit of food I had left. Then they would give me 1-2 big scopes. It didn't take too long for someone else to notice I had more rice then the rest of the food and the I would get a couple more scoops of the rest of the food and the cycle kept repeating. All very good and I had a fun time.

My co-worker, Saravana, has a 4 year girl (soon to be 5 on the 23rd). At first she was terrified and being very shy around Brian and I. By the end she was showing us her birthday clothes and kept saying thanks for coming over. It was so fun to watch the same mannerisms in her that I see in my girls. I actually gave the camera to her to take some pictures. Unfortunately, I still had the flash off from the night safari so many didn't turn out. Here are a couple including one of her. I loved her dress, especially her birthday dress (not pictured). Girls are great! Lainey wanted to see the pictures. Here you go sweetie....

Driving in India

So I have been trying all week to get a good video that shows how crazy driving is in Chennai, India. The simple fact is that the small portion of what the camera sees is not enough. You need the full panoramic view for the full effect. Last time I was here everyone kept asking me if I was scared. I just kept telling them that I was in awe. I just didn't understand how people don't crash all the time. I am told that it is because we are in the city and you really don't a chance to go very fast. They say that when you leave the city that is where the majority of the accidents occur. It is simply amazing how it all works. Buses, cars, rik-shaw things, motorcyles, bicycles, and pedestrians all just use the same space and it works.

I keep asking them what the qualifications to get a license are "Do they simply have you drive to a point and back and if you survive you get a license?" :-)

Here are some videos that give a small glimpse, but don't really do it any justice. One is in the morning and one at night. At night is a bit hard to see (sorry), but I think you should see how crazy it is to go through an intersection. I should also mention that the honking is used to indicate "I am behind you" not "You stupid idiot!" like it is for us.

Way to work


Way to co-workers home

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

So Blessed

I'm sitting here watching Idol Gives Back, and feeling so blessed. Earlier tonight I was feeling run down and worn out. Wallowing a little in self pity about Lance being gone. As I'm watching this and seeing so many so less fortunate than us, I can't help but be a little humbled. I see how very blessed we are to live in such a good community, that we are able to buy the foods we want, the clothes we want, the shoes we want. So many in this world just want. I am so humbled. I see these children in Africa that are orphans. I think about my own 2 beautiful children, how it would kill me to see them go through some of those things. It brings tears to my eyes and a prayer to my heart. I thank my Heavenly Father for all that I have. I'm so blessed. It is so unfortunate that I forget these things so often. I'm glad for humbling experiences that help me to remember to be more grateful. I'm also grateful to belong to a church that does so much to help others, within our own community and through out the world. Sorry for the sap fest, but I couldn't help myself. And hopefully it will be a few more days before I have another pity party!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Wasn't Conference Great!

What a wonderful conference, at least what I heard of it. The girls seemed to get really rambunctous during the sessions. I really liked Elder Ballard's talk, directed towards young mothers. It made me feel like I'm not a complete failure!! On Sunday we had Grandpa Renn and Grandma Cindy over for dinner and to watch the last session. The girls were very quick to wake grandpa and grandma up if they thought they were sleeping. They had a lot of fun playing with Grandpa and Uncle Tyler after on the Wii. When it was time for them to go the girls could resist climbing on Grandpa one last time.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

A Big Thanks!!

Many people complain about their in-laws, I however have absolutely nothing to complain about. In fact the exact opposite. On Friday afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa Jessup took the kids for a couple of hours. They took them to the zoo. My girls love to go to the zoo with their grandparents! What a wonderful treat it was for me as well. I went to Gardner Village hoping to see a friend who works at Archibalds. I didn't see her, but I did sit and have lunch by myself. I got to eat my food while it was still hot!! It tasted so good! Then I went over to the Cottage Retreat Day Spa and got the pedicure Lance got me for Valentines. It was wonderful! I sat in a room with grown up women and had grown up conversations. As much as I love Lainey's curiosity about everything these days it was nice to have a couple of hours where I didn't have to come up with answers to questions like. "What do alligators eat?" and " Why does your shirt have buttons?". I got to walk around Gardner Village and go into the shops I wanted to. I didn't have to worry about my kids touching anything!! What a wonderful break, So a big big THANK YOU!!! To Monica and Gordon. What a support they are to us and our kids. Thanks again!!

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Singapore

I leave from Singapore to India tomorrow. Luckily, I got a chance to wander around Singapore a bit. They have tons and tons and tons of malls. A large majority of them are connected and one could easily get lost. Good thing I had a lot of time because it took me a while to find the exit.

The streets are lined with beautiful green vegetation everywhere. It is absolutely gorgeous.

This is a statue of a general Qin Shu Sao from the Thang (I think) dynasty in400 or 600 AD (somewhere around there). He and another general are thought to be guards of entrances and are located at each entrance of the Hilton.


Tonight I went to the Night Safari, http://www.nightsafari.com.sg/. Basically, it is like a Zoo but you walk around in the jungle via a thin path in the dark. A bit spooky, but pretty fun. I kept thinking it would be fun to have the girls here. Of course, I think Lainey may have been a bit scared. Unfortunately, since it is dark you can't really get any pictures. Here are a few.
I also caught the end of a tribal dancing show. Awesome!