Two Year Recap

 November 1st, 2014
Two Year Recap for Biennial Merritt Family Reunion

Picture after we bought our house!

(Our family photos haven't come in yet so this will have to do.)

The last couple years have been busy ones for the Sorensen family. Last time we met together as a family Andrew was just a little guy learning to crawl. Since then we've become first time home owners! We love having a place to call our own and all the space that comes with it. Andrew likes being able to go outside and having a yard to play in. It's so nice not having to listen to people walk overhead, or deal with shared walls. Daniel and I also bought our first vehicle together. We participated in a few of the Ragnar series races and a couple other fun runs. We will be celebrating 5 years of marriage in December!

Daniel is working for Mountain West Farm Bureau as a data analyst, training and taking tests to become their in-house Actuary. He passed one of many Actuary exams that he has to take in order to earn he title of Actuary. He spends a lot of time studying for exams. When he has free time he likes to watch sports, spend time with the family, fish and hunt. He recently got a job working in the University of Wyoming Football score box. He is loving it! Daniel's job sends us to a work conference each year. This year we got to spend a few days in the Florida Keys and last year we went to Williamsburg Virginia. He also had surgery on his knee at the beginning of this year that put a damper on quite a few activities, since there were complications. They've all been resolved now, but it was a long few months of recovery.

Jeslyn is still managing the Cowboy Village apartments part-time and also subbing for the school district. She graduated in May with a Bachelors in Secondary Education Science-Biology. She stays home with the kids, and is busy having adventures with them.
 
Andrew turned two this year and is busy as ever. He is talking really well and is always surprising us with new phrases. He keeps us on our toes. Shortly after we moved into our new house he managed to get on the roof while I was busy doing chores around the house. I had the screen door open and could hear him calling for me. I went outside and couldn't find him in any of his regular  hiding places, so I called out asking him where he was. He exclaimed that, " Momma I'm on the roof!" Sure enough he was on the tip top of the roof trying to show me all the birds and trees that he could see. He was on top of the world. He loves being outside and especially loves to fish. Next to fishing, he loves music, singing and dancing. He's a great big brother. He participates in a co-op "preschool" and loves learning.

Haizlee is eight months old and is just as busy as Andrew was as a baby. She LOVES her brother and follows him just about anywhere she can. She loves bathtime and playing in the water. She can stand on her own for short periods of time, but doesn't seem too eager to start walking at this point. She's a little monkey with a head full of hair. She likes trying new foods. She's a pretty serious baby, but when she lets herself laugh it is infectious. She's a momma's girl most of the time and has a spunky attitude.

Just a few short highlights from Wyoming. Here's to two more adventure-filled years! Until next time...

20 months

Andrew Language explosion
Acting out
Really getting going on girls camp
Adjusting to having Haizlee home-sleeps good, eats good
2 week stats-8lbs 6 oz
I'm feeling great!

16-19 months

Oh wow this semester has flown by, but it's been super busy as well. I didn't write down as many things as I should have, so hopefully I'm not missing anything major.
I'd like to start off by saying that I finished out this busy semester with a 4.0 GPA. I really didn't think I was going to be able to pull it off with the course load and balancing family, work, and callings. I did it! Now on to student teaching...now this could prove to be very difficult. I put in two weeks of student teaching in December to bank some time for after the baby comes.

Baby Girl Sorensen (yes, she still doesn't have a name...) is on her way. Everything is looking good, and I'm feeling great. Now if we could only decide on a name...Some of my friends threw a baby shower for me. It was fantastic and we finally got some "girl things" in our house. We've been putting it off. Angela Wilde made a beautiful and tasty cake. Amanda Cory, Sarah Bade, and Jacylyn Hyde put the party together and provided delicious treats.

Around Christmas Zak got hurt. He fell off a loader at work and broke his arm and hurt his leg pretty bad. We spent Christmas in Laramie this year. It was the first year that we didn't spend it with Daniel or my family. It was nice not having to travel. We relaxed and hung out with friends during Daniel's time off work. We drove around and looked at Christmas lights and decorated sugar cookies. It was a great Christmas all on our own.

Daniel had surgery on his knee on January 3rd. The doctor went into the surgery knowing that there was a tear in his meniscus, but not much more than that. They wouldn't know the extent of the damage until they got in there. The surgery went well, but...the expected recovery time was longer than Daniel had hoped for. This was just the start of a long sequence of bad events; during my student teaching no less. A couple days after Daniel's surgery he had his first physical therapy appointment. He told them that he had a pain in his calf. They therapist told him to go to the ER and get an ultrasound. He did as he was told and they found a blood clot. All of this happened while I was at school and so I hadn't looked at my phone. He left a somewhat cryptic voicemail telling me that I might have to pick Andrew up from the babysitter because he was headed to the ER. When I tried calling, and texting, and calling, and texting....I didn't hear from him and started getting really worried. Finally I just packed Andrew up and headed to the hospital.  Sure enough there he was in the ER getting blood thinners and finishing up discharge paperwork.

I was released from Primary as a teacher. I've been in there for over 2 years. It was sad and exciting all at the same time. I'll miss the kids, but now I'll get to know more people in our ward. I get to start working on Young Womens camp for this year. Last year was okay, but I learned a lot and hope that this year can be even better!

Andrew contracted Hand Foot and Mouth and got sick on Feb 12th. Talk about a not so fun experience. We first started noticing spots on his bum and then he got a really bad fever. Spots started popping up his arms and legs almost like chicken pox. He was pretty miserable for several days. He's all better now though and the spots are still healing. More on Andrew. He LOVES Frozen's "Let it Go" He sings it! It has got to be the cutest thing ever. Unfortunately every time we try to record him he gets more excited about the fact that we are recording him, and forgets about singing. He is learning so much, so fast. One of the words  that he tries to say is milk, only it comes out mumph. I can't even begin to list the things he is able to do. He loves clocks and counting.

Well anyway....until next time!

Baby Girl Sorensen is Here!

This post will be out of order since I'm behind, but I had to get something posted :)

Haizlee Mei Sorensen joined our family on February 21st, 2014 at 4:14 pm. She weighed in at 8 lbs and 3 oz. She was 20 1/4 inches long. She has a head full of dark hair and looks a lot like her brother! She is already very loved. So far Andrew has been a very protective and loving big brother. When he wants to hold her he asks to, "Hold it? Hold it?" It's very funny. When Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen wanted to hold her in the hospital, Andrew told them that they couldn't and immediately placed his hand over her as if to say don't touch my sister. He got upset when they held her anyway. We are home now and everyone is healthy and happy. The transition so far has been fairly easy. The real test will be when I return to student teaching in four weeks.

Welcome to our family Haizlee Mei! We love you!

14-16 months

We took a week long trip to Virginia for Daniel's first Farm Bureau Actuary Conference. We were spoiled! We had a great time and got to experience a lot of history. The Williamsburg area was full of things for tourists to do. Daniel had meetings in the morning and then we planned our afternoons for sight seeing. My mom came down from Pennsylvania to help with Andrew and visit us. We didn't take nearly enough pictures. We also got to enjoy an evening at Busch Gardens.

Haircut before we left

Loved all the cobblestone roads and tree shaded ways!

Playing on the beach

Yorktown

Jamestown

Around 15 months Andrew started counting 1...2...3....It was very entertaining. At some point his favorite number became 9 and he started counting 1, 2, 9!!! Sleeping is going MUCH better. With him knowing he could get out of bed he wanted to get up and be with mom and dad. He'd sit at the door and knock if he wasn't ready to go to sleep. He finally decided his bed was an OK place to be and that after teeth were brushed and prayers said he could snuggle in and go to sleep. He also got some new teeth.

A couple weeks after our trip to Virginia my second to last semester of school started. I'm taking 18 credit hours and will be student teaching in the spring. The weekend after the semester started I ran the Color Vibe 5K fun run in Cheyenne with a group of friends. It was fun , but oh so hot! It didn't help that I was 15 weeks pregnant by that point. The first 4K were a breeze; the last one kicked my butt. All in all-totally worth it! As you can tell from the pictures we were the Tighty Whities.

In September Daniel ran the Colorado Ragnar. With his brother, Shawn, and team. School had me too busy to participate in that race.

The week before Halloween Daniel and I both had really busy weeks between work, school and church callings, so Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen graciously took Andrew for a week so that we could get everything accomplished. I missed him the whole week and even though I was so so busy, I wished he was home at night so I could put him to bed. We had to Skype at least a couple of times because mom missed him so much. He was having a ball with Grandma and grandpa's new kitty. He made a new friend, but by the end of the week he was excited to be home with mom and dad again.

He has picked up lots of new words-basketball, sorry, and he mimics lots of sounds and actions. He is constantly jumping. He's like a little Tigger. Shortly after coming home he had his 15 month doctor appointment. His stats were as follows:

Height: 31 5/8 in

Weight: 23 lbs 10 oz

Head: 50 cm

Daniel had to take him, becouse the appointment was during one of my classes. When I got home that night he said something along the lines of, "You could have told me he was getting shots!" Oops. Sorry honey! Surprise! I figured he knew that was part of the deal. Guess not!

He loves running around half naked.

Hanging out with Uncle Zak

Andrew is developing some pretty awesome new dance moves. He is such a musical baby. He also love clapping and is starting to clap to a beat. His molars are coming in and they are taking their sweet little time getting here. He's growing lots! Dad bought him a Wyoming Cowboys baseball hat and he LOVES it. He finds it and puts it on all by himself. His favorite bedtime toy right now is a  small stuffed horse that his Aunt Bk gave him. Oh, and one more thing....no more pacifiers or bottles. We went cold turkey without a fight.

Now to catch up with the most recent 3 months.....Whew! Getting there slowly. A semester's worth of information to catch up on is quite daunting, and I fear I'll miss some important event :(
Until next time......

Baby Sorensen #2

A college semester of 18 credits put me a bit more behind on blogging than normal.

Announcing the pregnancy-"Only Child Expiring Feb 2014"

Baby Sorensen #2 will be joining our family on Feb 20, 2014! 

27 Weeks

30 weeks

Busy=Behind on Blogging (11 to 13 months)

Like the title of this post busy does indeed equal me getting extremely behind on blogging, again. So to get caught up, here we go......

With Aunt Brindi

With Papa

Mid-May Andrew and I took a trip to North Dakota to visit my family. Daniel got us plane tickets for my birthday. It was Andrew's first time flying and boy did he do great! We flew out of Laramie to Denver. He slept through that short flight. Denver to Minot was another story. We had some time to kill in the Denver airport so we got some breakfast and walked around. Andrew loved the "moving sidewalks". There were a lot of people who commented on how little, and well balanced he was while riding them from one section to the next. When it came time to board the plane everything went smoothly. We got sat down and everything arranged.Andrew was even getting ready to take a nap. The pilot went through his pre-flight checks and found an issue with the plane so we had to unload the plane and go to another gate. When we got to the other gate they told us that we would be loading back at our original gate but on a new plane. So back across the airport we went. By this point any chance of a nap had slightly vanished. We got settled in on the new plane and down the runway we went. Take-off didn't phase him. About halfway through the flight he decided that he wanted to stretch his legs and had enough of sitting on mom's lap. I let him stand on the floor for a minute and then we had to break out the snacks and any other possible means to get him to stay sitting. I succeeded without disturbing too many people. Luckily, everyone just thought he was cute. I was also only one of two women on a plane full of oilfield workers. They were very helpful in the plane transition with loading and unloading the stroller. We made it to Minot in one piece. The landing was pretty rough and coaxed Andrew into being OK with sitting on moms lap. We only had one more slight mishap and that was an issue with luggage. It didn't come in with our plane, but on one later that day. Mom and I ran around Minot and came back and picked it up before heading out to Stanley.

Playing with the kids

Helping Great-Grandma

This kid LOVES brooms. Sweeping Gma and Gpa's new shop.

We traveled down to St. George, from North Dakota, with mom and dad. They had to finish up a few things on their shop, so Andrew got to visit with both sets of great grandparents that trip. It was a lot of driving and Andrew did very well considering the amount of time he was in his car seat. It was a fairly quick trip down and back because we had to make it back to NoDak for Zak's high school graduation. During all our travels Andrew got two more teeth. He now has 6 total. Clacking his tongue became a fun pastime as well.

Messy. Diggin' in to his birthday cake.

I'm 1!

The youngest graduating. Way to go Zak!

27 years young

We celebrated his 1st Birthday, as well as Daniel's 27th, the night before Zak's graduation. It was fun to celebrate with the family. Of course he was a mess and loved his birthday cupcake. Isn't he cute?!

We took a short trip to Jelm Mountain with some friends and had a fun late lunch/early dinner over a campfire. We pulled out my new gun and fired a few rounds off at a couple targets. Daniel and his young mens presidency had to do a little scoping out for their camp out the next weekend.

That next weekend Andrew climbed out of his crib. More like, climbed out and fell. Up until that point he had never made any attempts to crawl out of the crib while we were around. Talk about your heart dropping. It happened in the morning shortly after he had woken up. We could hear him in the next room moving around so we knew he was awake. Next thing you know we hear a "thud". I've never jumped out of bed so fast. I was afraid he had broke his neck or bit through his lip. We ran into his room to find him on the floor and starting to cry. I swooped him up and examined him. A quick check didn't reveal anything concerning. I held him while he cried and at one point he drooled on me and I immediately thought he was bleeding. I was a little worked up lol. All was well. No knots on his head, no broken neck, only one little monkey boy with a bruised ego and a new found trick. Thinking this was only a fluke incident I put him in his crib for a nap and supervised only momentarily before he started crawling out again. I snatched him out of his bed and knew right then that he wasn't going to be able to sleep in his crib anymore. his crib was already on the lowest placement. Luckily it converts to a daybed. We took the side off the crib and he was in his new bed. We got one of those things so he doesn't roll off and at first he did really well. I think it was because it was new. The first couple of nights he did awesome; didn't try to get out of bed. it was like he was still in his crib. A few nights later he figured out that he could get out of bed and so the long process of keeping him in his bed started.

Andrew's one year appointment stats were as follows:

Height: 29.5 in

Weight: 22.5 lbs

Head: 49 cm

Daniel and I both ran the Ragnar Wasatch Back this year. This was our second year running this race. As we expected, it was just as fun as last time, only a little more congested due to more teams racing. It was the 10 year anniversary of the race. I did really well on the first two legs. My last leg was mid-day and man was it HOT! It sapped my energy big time. Overall I was happy with my performance.

Before the race we went to the temple with Nic to get his temple endowments. Before we left for the temple Andrew got pushed down a long flight of stairs by his cousin. That was a little scary and I was out of the room when it happened. Luckily Daniel was there to sweep him up and inspect for injuries. He came out in pretty good shape with only one shiner on his noggin. While we were running Andrew stayed with his Sorensen grandparents. This was the first time he had spent a night away from home. Grandma reported he did great!

Upon returning home it was time to put the finishing touches on girls camp plans. It felt difficult getting everything in one spot, but we got it accomplished. And of course a midst all those preparations everything that comes with managing apartments came up at the same time. Girl's camp was the longest time that Andrew spent away from mom and dad. He spent the week with Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen again. Girls Camp turned out great and I learned a lot for next year!

Andrew says "Please" for the first time, but we have yet to hear him say it again. His new words include thank you, up, dad dad, mom mom, and uh oh.  He says "Keys", Sounds like "tees" He also likes to lead music during sacrament meeting. He's a music loving baby!

We went to Washington  for Nic's Wedding. Andrew traveled really well. Maybe even better than expected. We took an overnight camping trip with several friends in our ward. We got rained on, but the company was good. Andrew unfortunately had a rough night so we didn't get much sleep.

We headed down to Fort Collins for a drive-in movie with the Cory family. We had dinner at Red Robin before hand then headed to the movie in hope of not getting rained on. Right before they started the clouds cleared. We got to see Monsters University and Despicable Me 2. The older kids loved it.

Well their wasn't nearly as much detail as I hoped to include, but I have got to get caught up and get this blog going again.

Until next time....