Year in Review

I saw this on someone else's blog and thought it was a good idea. It's just a recap of the year with a couple pictures from each month. It helps to show how much Chelsea has changed and grown up over the year! Enjoy!

January

Chelsea in January. She wasn't quite 1, and wasn't walking on her own yet either. Notice the cyst on the top of her forehead. This was removed in February.

February
Chelsea had surgery to remove a cyst. This was taken when we were able to see her after the surgery.

Her stitches. I think there were between 16-20. This was a couple days after the surgery when we removed the bandage.

Chelsea turned 1! This isn't the best picture from her birthday, but I wasn't able to find many (our stuff is still in storage so I was limited to what I could find on the computer). She also started walking a couple weeks before her birthday!

March
Beginning of March we finally took her out to play in the snow for the first time. She seemed to enjoy it, but couldn't walk very well on the snow! It really wasn't that cold that day, but it was fun to bundle her up to go outside!

Chelsea and I made a crazy trip with my mom, sister, and her 2 two kids to Arizona during spring break. We got to see my Grandma and Grandpa Baker. Grandpa passed away a month after we saw him, so the trip was completely worth it. We also spent time in New Mexico visiting Darbie and Chad, and went to Explora! (a huge hands on science center)!
April
Easter! Chelsea loved exploring the candy from the baskets!

Jacob turned 26! (He's quickly turning into an old man...). He has this obsession with pirates, so I did a small pirate themed party for him. I just love this picture of him and Chelsea!

May
Graduation! Jacob graduated with an MA in Literature from The University of Akron on Mother's Day! Chelsea and I are so proud of our graduate!

As a graduation present from his parents, Jacob and I took an amazing vacation Chelsea free! We went on a cruise to the Bahamas, then spent a couple days at Universal Studios in Orlando. Grandma Lauritzen watched Chelsea for us in Ohio, and Grandma Melinda helped her out and watched her the last day!

June
So remember how I said I was limited to what pictures I could find on the computer? Well, for some reason I wasn't able to find ANY pictures from June! In June our amazing friends, Ashley and Kolbein Kolste, came to visit with their new daughter, Emma! We went to the zoo and Ashley and I got to take a night to scrapbook at Archiver's! It was a great couple of days, and we can't wait until we get to see them June 2011!

July
Jacob and I drove down to North Carolina for Rochelle and Scott's wedding! Jacob had already accepted a job offer from Gila Preparatory Academy here in Safford, AZ, and we had to move the next week!

Jacob and I after the wedding, right before the rain started!

Time to pack up everything we owned and move across the country!
Chelsea was clearly pulling her weight in the packing department...That is staying out of the way so we could pack everything up!

August
Chelsea on a walk to get a snow cone. Hot. Hot. Hot. No other way to describe the weather. Welcome to Arizona!

I had to take a first day of school picture of Jacob! He was so excited for his first day as a high school English teacher!

September
We braved the Arizona heat and went to the Phoenix Zoo. It was hotter than heck that day, so we only got through half of the zoo. (We decided to get a membership so we could go lots more!)

Pigtails! Need I say more?

Development of September: HAIR! Where did all that hair come from? It seemed that when we moved to Arizona she sprouted hair and teeth...during the move she had 4-5 teeth coming in. Where did my little baby girl go?

October
Graham County Fair. I was really excited for this. It was fun, but it will be more fun when Chelsea is a little bit older and we can do more.

My mom came to visit! We spent a couple days in Mesa with my Grandma Baker. We also got to meet Derrick's fiancee, Anika. Here's a 4 generation picture we snapped before rushing back for Jacob to work!

This is Joseph. Hiding in the ferns on the mountain. This is the first time we went hiking in the mountains. We had lots of fun! Maybe after the snow is gone we'll do it again!

Halloween! Chelsea was Alice (costume made by Grandma Melinda). This is her running at trunk or treat at the church. She had lots of fun!

November
We went to the Zoo again, focusing on the part we hadn't done before. The weather was much nicer so we had a much more enjoyable day!

Chelsea LOVES shoes. The first thing she asks for in the morning is shoes and socks. She gets so excited about them. She loves to walk around in Jacob's shoes!

December

I would have to say that December was our busiest month, by far! Derrick and Anika got married in the Mount Timpanogas Temple!

Of course we HAD to go to the Creamery for some burgers and ice cream! Chelsea LOVED it!

Christmas! Chelsea absolutely loved opening her presents! Santa was good to her this year!

We went to Disneyland with Joseph and Jessica! It was great to see Jessica and get to spend so much time with her! We had a great trip and it was a great way to end 2010!

So there is a recap of our year in pictures. We had a good year. We're very blessed for Jacob to have found a job right out of school, and we're getting used to living in Arizona. We'll see what 2011 holds for us! Who knows...maybe it will hold more regular blog updates!

Happy New Year!

So, I was ambitious this year and decided I was going to make Christmas cards this year. I figured with not working, I had plenty of time to finish them. Well, things got busy with the holidays...my brother got married, we visited family, then went to Disneyland the week after Christmas. So the cards didn't happen this year. Maybe next year! Here's the poem Jacob wrote to send out. Check back in the next few days for LOTS and LOTS of pictures of our adventures this last month!

“The Lauritzen’s 2010: A Year in Review”

2010 was a year of transition

With graduation and moving and paying tuition.

Here is a poem with some of our story

Sit back and relax (I hope it’s not boring).

Upon graduation, we left on a cruise.

We flew to Miami for food and to snooze.

We ate Key Lime in Key West and saw Hemmingway

And in the Bahamas we played all day.

We left Ohio towards the end of the summer.

With vacation over it was back to a number

Of “unfun” stuff; moving and packing and driving cross-country

From East to West to make some more money

Jacob got a new job, or two, or three

At a high school, a college, and university.

Now he is teaching, and teaching, and tutoring students

Wiping their noses and grading their truant … papers.

Chelsea had surgery to remove a cyst

She turned one, can run and climb onto … well, let me list:

Her crib rail, the table, chairs and benches

Computers, and scooters and did I mention … everything?

She is starting to talk, saying, “peeze” and “more.”

It’s so cute and precious we cannot ignore

When she tugs at our fingers and drags us in place

To play Legos or balls or to clean off her face.

She loves Minnie and Mickey and going to the Zoo,

Dora and Diego and Ming Ming too.

She is our bundle of joy;

Our love and our world!

We love her so much—

Our Baby Girl.

Whitney has been scrappin’

and a little head scratchin’

To find what to do

in our town of like two

Or three thousand,

a Walmart, and mountains.

She has been reading a lot of murder mysteries

Where the killer kills with new recipes.

Then, she tries them on Jacob to see how they taste,

And when he survives she puts some on her plate.

But still we have fun

Out here in the sun

Through good and bad days,

Through the sweat and the tears

Merry Christmas from us

And have a Happy New Year!

Halloween

We had a pretty good Halloween. Chelsea wasn't feeling too well, so she got kinda cranky by the end of the night. We also weren't able to get any great pictures of her in her costume, so later this week we'll have her put it on again so we can get some pictures.

Grandma Melinda made the most adorable Alice costume! I made the headband :) and in true Turner fashion, finished it promptly a few minutes before we left! We went to Basha's, a grocery store, to do a little trick or treating. She had lots of fun running around the store, and we got LOTS of compliments on how cute her costume was and how cute she looked in it!

This seemed to be one of the best pictures showing her whole outfit. Most of the other pictures only have half-a-Chelsea in them because she was running.
She loved getting the candy!

The last week has been pretty busy (Jacob had to help with the haunted house that Gila Prep was doing) so we hadn't had time to carve our pumpkin yet. We did it after going to Basha's.

Chelsea really wasn't interested in sticking her hand in much further than that. She did have fun picking up the seeds, putting them on her spoon, then putting it in the bowl. She had fun watching us get messy, though.

Jacob with his masterpiece. I tried to get a picture of Chelsea with it, but she was more interested in the buckle on her booster chair. She's been fascinated by them lately.

We laid Chelsea down for a second nap since she was sick and we wanted her to be able to enjoy herself Saturday night at trunk or treat. She had fun playing the games, got some cute little toys, and seemed to have a good time.

Chelsea really liked this game. I think she looks so cute sitting there, and I love the bright colors in the picture. This was the beginning of the night, so she was still in good spirits. About 10 minutes later, not so much.

She had a good time though. There were a ton of kids, because it was 3 wards combined at the activity. There weren't too many trunks to go to, maybe between 25-30 total for the 3 wards, but Chelsea eventually caught on to the getting the candy part. Overall the holiday turned out ok.

The next day, Chelsea and I stayed home from church because she was sick. That night we were going to the temple to take some pictures for Jacob's parents, so we got her dressed so she could run around outside a little bit. When we told her we were going to change her clothes, she went to her room, went right for her Alice costume and got all the pieces so we could put it on her. I think she'll be ok with putting it on later this week for a photo shoot!

We're Still Alive

Well, it certainly has been awhile. Our lives have completely changed. Jacob graduated and was lucky enough to find a job teaching high school English in Safford, Arizona. We found out about the job at the beginning of July. Jacob left JC Penney, I left Archiver's, and we moved. On July 24 we packed up the truck and left Ohio on July 25.

My amazing friend Jessica helped us pack. There is no way we would have finished without her! Chelsea was laughing and covering her mouth :) (Jul 24)

When we first got to Arizona, I was excited to be able to go to the Baker Family Campout. There is one every year, but because every member of my family has lived too far away to come, I was happy to be the Turner Family Representative. It rained all weekend and was cold and muddy. Chelsea had a great time. It was great to see everyone, but I was happy to go back to a nice warm bed.

Chelsea LOVES playing with dogs. Even if they are twice her size. This is my Uncle Tom and Aunt Ginny's dog. (Jul 31)
Chelsea loved being able to play in the dirt. I never let her get dirty. (Jul 31)

It sure was hot here. Chelsea and I decided to go for a walk one day. It was about 3:00. We walked down the road to get a snow cone. I was hot, and immediately regretted even coming outside. But we wanted that snow cone!

She wasn't very interested in eating it but she did insist that it was on her tray. That was the only day we went for a walk at that time--I decided we needed to go earlier next time. (Aug 2)

Chelsea has loved playing in the kitchen. Not cooking, just playing with the dishes. She gets them out, runs around the house with them, and sometimes puts them back where they belong. She loves the water jugs, rolling pins, and brushes. Oh, and we have to check things before using them because she likes to put Legos in them. We'll be in trouble when she figures out how to open the oven...

(Aug 12)

This apron was made by Jacob's Grandma Lauritzen. Chelsea loves wearing it! (Aug 23)

Chelsea also loves to play with Grandma and Grandpa Lauritzen's Legos. She loves to put them together, take them apart, carry them around, and put them in and out of things.

(Aug 24)

We blew up her tiny pool and put it out in the yard. She had fun playing in the water, but wasn't really sure what to do. She lots of fun though!

(Aug 28)

We had been wanting to go down to Phoenix to do some shopping. There really isn't much shopping in this town. We decided that Labor Day weekend would be a good time to go, hoping to catch some sales. We also wanted to go to the Phoenix Zoo. We decided to get a membership so that we could go whenever we head that way. The weather said it was supposed to be 104 that day. We had been looking forward to it, so decided it wouldn't be that bad, so to go ahead and brave the Arizona heat. Bad idea. It was so hot the animals weren't even really out and we were sweating like crazy. Chelsea was a trooper. We decided to spend the rest of the day in an air conditioned mall.

This picture wasn't too long after we started. It was so hot! (Sept 4)

We let her out of the stroller to run around a little bit. We have a picture from last summer on a frog at the Cleveland Zoo, so we thought it would be fun to get a similar picture. (Sept 4)
She didn't want to go back into the stroller. (Sept 4)

I try to let Chelsea help me do things during the day. She likes to help put dishes away (of course) but she loves to help me with the laundry. I decided to take some pictures of her :).

(Sept 4)

We go to the park every once in a while to play. She loves the slides but won't get on the swings. She also loves to play in the dirt. But, her favorite game would be keep away...keeping Chelsea away from Daddy, that is. I have also managed to get her hair in pigtails a couple of times. She doesn't sit still for me to do it, so it hasn't happened much. This girl is finally getting some hair though!

(Sept 10)
We went to Taco Bell after playing at the park. She was treating her burrito like a baby doll. Here she is hugging her "baby." I wish we would have gotten a video because it was the cutest thing in the world. We just didn't realize what she was doing, and when we did, she stopped. (Sept 10)

We don't have church until 1, so Sunday mornings Chelsea gets alot of playtime with Daddy.

Jacob built her this out of the waffle blocks. She was having a tea party. Notice the boots? Yeah, she found them and wanted to wear them. Napoleon Dynamite? (Sept 12)
You can never start too young! :) (Sept 12)

Jacob built her a pirate ship. It was so much fun to watch them play together. This is Daddy and daughter being pirates--notice the hooked fingers? (Oct 3)

One thing that I was excited to go to was the Graham County Fair. It was hot outside, and we weren't really interested in the rides, so we just walked around and looked at stuff. Chelsea loved seeing the animals. Some of the chickens and turkeys were so big I was really surprised.

(Oct 8)

That same weekend we got to go to Mesa. My mom was in town, as well as Darbie, Chad, and the kids, and Derrick came down with his fiancee, Anika. It was great to meet her and we are excited for her to join the family! It was a fast weekend, but it was amazing to get to spend some time with my mom!

We took a four generation picture before we left town! (Oct 11)

We had been wanting to go hiking, so for Jacob's friend Joseph's birthday we took him to lunch then we went hiking. It was fun. The views were just beautiful.

Jacob and Joseph after the hike. (Oct 16)

I made cupcakes one Sunday and decided it would be fun if Chelsea helped me frost them. She was actually more interested in eating them, but we got a family picture!

(Oct 17)

So, if you made it through all that, that is what we've been up to the last 3 months in Arizona. It's hard to believe that we have been here that long already. In other news, Jacob is working like a madman. He teaches high school English, adjuncts at Eastern Arizona College, and is doing ETutoring for The University of Akron. He's surviving, but we are excited for the semester to be over and have a vacation. We decided that after Christmas we are going to go to Disneyland with my friend Jessica (who is coming out to visit) and Jacob's friend Joseph. We decided it would be a good way to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary, and it isn't too far.

I love being able to spend so much time with Chelsea, but I decided to take a class at the college to give me something to do. It is just a break, and I'm really enjoying the class. I've been scrapbooking LOTS, and am starting to get into doing other little crafts as well.

Chelsea is growing like crazy. We finally had her 18 month appointment, and she was 33 inches and 23 pounds. When we left Ohio, she had 5 teeth. Now she has 13 or 14. At least 4 of them came during the move. She is trying to talk, and can say basic words like Mom, Dad, Up, Ball, Book, Box, Dog, Purple, and a couple others that I can't remember right now. We're trying to teach her to say trick or treat for this weekend. Other than that, she just plays all day. She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and will sit and watch it for hours. We have gone to story time at the library a couple of times, but most times I am too lazy to get up to take Jacob to work.

Anyway, things are going alright here in Arizona. We really miss Ohio, but we're settling in here with Jacob's parents. Maybe I'll actually start updating this thing to make everyone think we actually have real lives out here...:)

Pictures

Here are some pictures of our little Princess from the last couple of months!

March 2010, in New Mexico at Explora!

At Darbie and Chad's in New Mexico, March 2010
Easter 2010. Don't worry, this wasn't her Easter Dress. Since we had General Conference that day, she wore her Easter dress the next week.
Her 1 year pictures. She totally posed for this picture :)
Beautiful blue eyes.
I have 5 teeth! Can you count them?
Daddy on Graduation Day!Chelsea and Grandpaon Daddy's Graduation day!

During the Graduation, Zippy (the mascot) was outside waiting. My mom took her outside to play with him. She loved it!

Family picture at Graduation. If you look closely, you can see that Chelsea is actually showing her teeth in her smile!

Here are some pictures of our little Princess the last couple of months!

What We've been Up To...

Life has been quite busy lately. Since the last update (almost 3 months ago...) Chelsea turned 1. That's probably the highlight of things. We had a little Cupcake Party with my parents and a couple of close friends. Chelsea seemed to enjoy herself. She was very polite when opening her presents...opening it, giving it some individual time, would look at the person and smile, then put it aside when it was time to move to another one. Very cute, and very polite. (We can't figure out where she learned that one...but we're proud of her :)) At her 1 year appointment, she was 29 inches and 19.6 pounds. She is right around the 50th percentile for height, but only the 25th for weight. The doctor told us we need to feed her more, but she eats what she wants, then throws the rest on the floor to let us us know she's done. I hope she gets out of that stage soon...and learns just to say she's done :). She's got 5 teeth (finally) and loves to brush her teeth. Or at least play with the toothbrush.

For Jacob's spring break, Chelsea and I were nice enough to go out of town so that he could get some good work done on school. We went to Arizona with my mom, stopping in Illinois to pick up my older sister and her two kids, then driving to New Mexico to visit my other sister's family, then on to Arizona. It was alot of driving, with 3 kids in the car, but it was completely worth it. My Grandpa passed away a couple weeks ago, and we got to see him when we were out there. Just knowing that he's gone now made the crazy trip totally worth it. Will we ever make the attempt again? Who knows. It was a fun trip. We were also able to see Jacob's parents and his little brother, Dallin. Dallin hadn't met Chelsea yet, so he got to meet her.

Jacob has been working hard trying to finish up with school. He graduates on Sunday. As of now, there are no job prospects, so we're just planning on staying here for a while still. We haven't completely given up, but we are ready to move on into the next stage of life. If anyone knows of any English teaching jobs, send them our way :). He's still working at JC Penney's, although the hours have been very minimal.

I'm still working at Archiver's. I got a promotion to receiver, so the hours are much better for my schedule (no nights and weekends...yay!) and I absolutely love it. I basically just open all the boxes when they come in. I'm the first to see anything new that comes in, so it's hard, but I'm doing pretty well at not buying everything that I want. Maybe some day. Other than that I've been doing alot of scrapbooking. It helps me to relax and get away from life for a while. Jacob lets me have time to do it (Thanks Babe!) and is excited to be done with school so that he can have a hobby--other than homework.

Chelsea is growing up so fast. She's almost 15 months. I can't believe it has been that long already. It seems like she was just a little baby the other day. We love watching her grow from day to day. She's walking like crazy (actually, she's working on running now), and is finally starting to play with her toys. Up until now, she didn't seem all too interested in them. She's learning to climb--anything and everything that she can. She was standing on the handle of her toy stroller the other day. Gave me a heart attack. I don't see how she could balance on it. She hasn't figured out how to get out of her crib yet, but she uses it for a snack when she wakes up. We try to cover it, but she just finds an area that not covered to bite on.

With the weather finally warming up, we try and take her outside for at least a couple minutes each day. She loves the sunshine and loves the wind in her hair. Yep, she's finally got some hair. She still won't really wear a bow, but we're trying. Chelsea jabbers alot, but not much is distinguishable other than "dada," "mama," and "dis" and "dat." At least we think that's what she's trying to say. She loves to point at things. She has a picture of Mickey and friends above her crib, and when she wakes up she points to it when we walk in the room. Yep, we've brainwashed her already! She gets excited when we ask her if she wants to meet Mickey this summer, so she for sure recognizes Mickey, and is getting really good at bringing you things when you ask. Especially your shoes, her shoes, her coat, and her purse. She loves her purse.

We love her to death and can't wait for her to keep growing and learning. She changes so much from day to day. It won't let me upload any pictures right now, so I'll try again later. Look for a post full of pictures. :)

Last Update of Chelsea's First Year

That's right! Chelsea will be 1 year old on Saturday! Hard to believe that it has already been a year! It's been challenging, but we love our little girl and are so grateful to have her in our family! We are having a small party for her, so I'll do a post on that and talk more about her developments lately.

Chelsea has been doing great since her surgery. We took the bandage off a couple days later, and she really didn't scream when we did it. The incision was larger than we expected (which we had been warned about). She didn't even seem to realize that anything had been done to her head, because she never really touched it or picked at it. She did hit it a couple of times, but she did pretty well at moving her head just before she would hit it.

She got the stitches removed this last Tuesday, the 16th. She was definitely not a fan of the nurse that was removing them. Jacob held Chelsea, I held her arms down, and the nurse had to hold her head still. She screamed and screamed. I'm surprised how quick it was considering she was being anything but cooperative. THere is still a scab covering it, which should fall off in the next week or so. The only thing we can't do right now is dunk her underwater, for another week. After that, she should be perfectly fine. It's still just a little bit swollen, but looks great! Here's some pictures of our little princess :)

This was just before we took it off. She loves books, and I think she just looks adorable in this picture!
Right after we took it off. She had 13 stitches in that tiny little area.
This was her on Valentine's Day. It's actually her Christmas dress, but I never got any good pictures of her in it at Christmas. We were all sick, and really didn't feel like doing much, and never got around to taking the pictures. But I fell in love with the dress when I first saw it, but wasn't willing to pay $40 for it. Just before the holidays, it was marked to half off, and then we had Jacob's employee discount at JC Penney's, so we got it for only $16!

After the stitches were removed. Her hair is finally really starting to grow, so you really can't tell anything is there. When the scab is gone, you really won't be able to tell at all because her hair is getting much thicker. It's still too fine to put a bow in, but hopefully soon!