Arizona

Mom, Dad, Amanda, Alison and I, got to accompany dad on a business trip to Arizona. We toured in a cool new rental (cool as a van can get). Mom loved it; as she got to lie in the sun, which is what she does best. I did what I did best, which was running around outside, and running on the treadmill inside. Alison took a few really good pictures, which was an activity she got into there. Here is the tanning order from the greatest time to least time spent: Mom, Amanda, Dad and I, and very much last place – Alison.

As far as “out of the resort activity” there was shopping, riding bikes, and using the other resorts tennis court. We all went on a bike ride together, and a hike. Then Dad and I went on a navy seal type bike ride on pathways filled with small boulders and uphill almost the entire way. Amanda went grad dress shopping with mom, the mall was cool, and Dillards department store is twice the size of Midnapore mall. With stuff close to the same price, but has actual worth.

The weather was very nice, and the resorts and vegetation were incredibly unique and beautiful. A lot of the buildings and houses are made of a red-brown rock. There were cactuses that were bigger than we thought possible; some were at least 30 feet high.

Dads 54th

Dads 54th. I asked him how old he was turning to get it right...it took him a little bit to figure it out.

How Cute is This Girl?

Emmeline at 8 weeks old

I have a goal to catch up on my posts and from then on to post more regularly. What better way to end my blogging hiatus than with a post about this cute little girl.

Emmeline is such a great baby. She is currently 10 weeks old and for the last 3 weeks I've stopped feeding her at night. Her last feed will be around 9:30ish and then she doesn't eat again until between 8:30 -9:30 am. She still wakes up at night but she usually goes right back if I pop her soother in her mouth. She takes a great morning nap, and we're working on stretching out her afternoon nap to get 2 solid hours of straight sleeping. I follow a baby sleep schedule and start training from super early on (like day 3 pretty much). I swear by it, and it makes my life so much more manageable a predictable.

Emmeline is so happy, calm and smiley. She is especially charming and talkative right before bedtime. It takes so much will power not to keep her up and play with her. It's like the little stinker knows it's bedtime.

Oh and for those wondering, we've stuck with the pronunciation of EmmeLINE. We went back and forth for a while, but her great great grandmother pronounced it that way, and we love it, so we're keeping it.

Life has been feeling back to normal lately. Charlotte went through a difficult and emotional phase and luckily it seems like she's rounding the corner on it because she seemed like a completely different child. We've been getting out a lot and I've been getting back to the gym which I absolutely love.

This post is feeling all over the place, but maybe that's a reflection of how busy we've been since Emmeline was born. Dave's schedule is so crazy. If he didn't love what he was doing I swear he would require some meds and counseling (and maybe me too). This last month he's averaged close to 100 hours of work per week which doesn't include study time. Also about 1 month ago, he got called into the young men's in our ward which occupies at least 1 night per week away as well. He is pulling at least one 27+ hour shift at the hospital per week so catching up on sleep is almost impossible for him with all his responsibilities. He's had busy weeks likes this during other times in our marriage but I have never seen him this tired. Never. I feel like I can't allow myself to feel tired because the girls need at least one parent functioning on a healthy level.

You would think that a crazy schedule like ours would make things pretty tense around the house but it's been just the opposite. It's like we both recognize that the other is working as hard as they possibly can to keep this family afloat so there is really no place for judgement, criticism, or discussions about division of responsibilities. I've noticed that Dave does whatever he can to help me, whether he has 5 minutes or 30 minutes, and I try my hardest to keep things going at home so he doesn't have even more to worry about. Truthfully I have never felt so appreciative of him. He's like totally the guy of my dreams. Not even kidding.

That's not to say that we haven't had our moments of frustration. After a 4 day stretch of Dave being either out of town or on call and I had been juggling the girls at home completely on my own I sent Dave the following facetious email

"Please scan the list below:

maintained, clean home
regular meals
clean clothes
girls tended to
wife not in sweat pants
bills paid
errands run

Now choose 3 of the above."


For the record, Dave doesn't have certain expectations for me for any of the things mentioned above. I had just stepped in cracker crumbs one too many times that day.

Despite my moments of frustration, I can honestly say that I am relishing this special time in our family's life. I have made it a point to enjoy each day and soak up as much as my girls as I can. Our life is busy, yet simple, tiring, but fun, difficult, yet rewarding.

Happy 29th Birthday Jordan!

Jordan’s birthday was last week on the 8^th of November. It was a fun event. We celebrated first the Sunday before at Jordan’s parents with dinner and cake.

And then on Tuesday on the actual day we went to Ruth’s Chris steak house with Jen and Dave, and Jake and Renee. It was a pretty fun night with great food, great company and great service. Jordan has wanted to try it out for a while and we were pleasantly pleased. However we definitely paid a lot for it.

Jordan's free birthday dessert which was massive

Crunch Time

After months of taking a course and studying for the GMAT test, Jordan has finally set a date to take it! October 27, 2011 at 1pm.

So the real dedication starts, daily studying because there is no longer any excuses not to.

It can’t wait till it’s over. So we can relax! Well,mostly him.

And so he can apply to schools and we can know what and where he will be going next fall!

We are leaning towards Calgary. But maybe BYU. Maybe Harvard.... that’s a far distant dream. But you never know. Jordan is a smartypants.

Emmeline Diane Low

We would like to welcome Emmeline (pronounced emma-LINE) as the newest member of the Low family. Jen went into the hospital on Tuesday evening at around 10:30pm and had the baby at 4:30am on Wednesday, September 28th. Her actual due date was October 4th. She weighed 7lbs 1oz and was 19.5 inches long. Everything went very smoothly, and for the second time everyone in labour and delivery told Jen that she can come and have as many babies as she wants. No thanks. Emmeline is doing great and is eating and sleeping well. We are thrilled to have her home and as a part of her family. Jen has been absolutely incredible. I'm so grateful to have a wife as wonderful as her.

As you can see from the pictures Charlotte has been absolutely thrilled about the new baby. Charlotte was totally convinced before hand that it was going to be a girl and wouldn't even entertain the possibility of a younger brother. Thankfully she was right. She always calls her "Baby Emmy" and tells everyone we see that she has a baby sister. It is seriously so cute. Hopefully this honeymoon phase lasts as long as possible. I actually have 4 weeks off of residency (2 weeks paternity leave and 2 weeks vacation) to help out at home. That sure beats the 2 days off that I got when we had Charlotte duirng medical school.

We're obsessed with her crazy hair and it totally reminds us of Charlotte's. I think Charlotte's stood up a little bit more but the color is identical. In some ways I think she looks a lot like Charlotte but she also has her own unique look. I'm curious to see what she will look like as she gets older.

Not to toot my own horn, but I guessed the due date would be September 28th and I also guessed the weight would be 7lbs 1oz (toot toot). I'm going to ride this lucky streak and put some serious cash down on football this Sunday. My student loan isn't going to pay itself off.

Jamaica

Welcome to the land of Jamaica! Where the houses are never finished and people honk to say hi, thanks, and please. Early in September we were able to go to Jamaica for a week. This is where Jordan served his mission so it was a vacation plus a chance to go see some people he knew and see what it was like for him. It is definitely a whole other world down there.

Our second day there we went to Montego bay, which took about an hour and 20 minutes via taxi ride to go to church where we would meet up with Brother Smith, whom Jordan taught and was baptized recently the Branch President in another branch until it was closed down. It was so good to see him.

Jordan and BrotherSmith with some kids at church

Our ride home was quite interesting. We were in a taxi-bus with 17 people and 3 children stuffed inside. I was sitting on a “cross seat” which is a board that connects two seats in the isle so more people could fit in. What an interesting and squishy experience! I wish I had pictures but I thought it would be rude...However round trip cost us both about $20 instead of the $160 the hotel would have charged us.


A few days later we went to a cool spot called Dunns River Falls. It was really cool. We got watersocks/shoes and were able to go into the water at the bottom of the falls and then hike up it! We had a guide taking our photos, which was nice. But there weren’t very many show worthy photos. Too bad.

Afterward we went to downtown Ocho Rios. This was by far my greatest culture shock. It is so rundown and I am not used to it, and SO many people walking around. It is just CRAZY! I was a little overwhelmed and then I saw this..

The Church!

The story doesn’t end there. We ended up following a mad man while looking for a good authentic place to get rice and peas and chicken. A cop told us we didn’t need to follow him and he was just going to ask us for money. Jordan realized he should have known. I guess he was a little rusty in his Jamaican culture haha. It took us a while longer to find some food but we eventually did in the really run downmarket place. I was slightly scared to be where we were. But nothing happened and we got the food we wanted. I had to just keep thinking that Jordan has eaten food like this before and didn’t get sick..... So I ate it, and it was delicious!

This was our hotel. It was massive, but we learned how to get around and find things.

One day we went to see Brother Smith and his family at their home. He has 4 or 5 grandchildren living with him. So we hung out with them all. We gave them a suit case full of clothes and they LOVED it. Brother Smith also made us Curry Chicken which was wonderful and then we went to the beach where Jordan baptized him. It was beautiful.

Alia playing with my hair

Our last visit was with Tamara and Claudine, which was about 2 hours away in the middle of Jamaica. What a ride! It was crazy. It was basically driving in the bush the whole time on these little windy roads with a million and one pot holes. But it was cool to see more of Jamaica during the drive. We met up with them at KFC in the town of Mandeville. We chatted for a while and had lunch and then headed home.

We had a taxi driver take us there and back and so he hung around with us for the day too. It was kinda funny! He just sat around and then when we got lunch he sat with us and stuff.And when Jordan went to go pay for the food no one said a thing or batted an eye. And he paid for everyone including the driver! It was kinda funny even though he was intending to pay for everyone anyway.

Some highlights fromthe trip:

· The maid that wanted to hang out with us and take us around on her day off

· Cherisa’s new yard names, Splinter, Necky, and Mrs. Steps

· “Owls are in style you know”

· “Do we have to go to the tennis courts?

· The taxi driver hanging out with us all day

· Brother Smith saying “Church Stop and 1oclock” which we misunderstood thinking it started at 1. We were a little late

· “It’s nice to see a taxi driver that is young and pimp, its refreshing”

· Swimming in the pool after dark and eating jerk chicken and we weren’t even cold!

· Snorkeling

· Naps

· Japanese dinner

· The only reason to get out of bed was so we didn’t miss breakfast

· Crazy taxi rides