This afternoon Samantha and Alex were fighting (surprise, surprise) as we were getting ready to leave for IKEA. I believe Samantha hit Alex for doing something he shouldn't have, so Alex pushed her. This really upset Samantha and she was on the verge of crying when she stomped into the other room huffing and puffing and said "Alex, you're a bad ol' putty tat". I sense they're watching too much Looney Toons! But I don't care, I cracked up and thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard.

With Andy gone as much as he has been lately I try to think of the positive things about him being gone.

1. The house stays much cleaner. Not sure why. He must be a dirty boy!
2. I get to eat cereal for dinner every night without Andy getting mad at me.
3. I get to cry out loud at whatever commercial or episode of Supernanny that I want.
4. KING SIZE BED......ALL TO MYSELF!!!!!!

It's still better to have him home though. I miss you baby! See you soon!!

We got these great chairs for the kids at IKEA for Valentines Day. I love that they are the kids perfect size and they look good in the house. It's like we have 2 stylish dwarves living in the house! Good ol' IKEA.

Have any of you seen my sweet baby Alex? Because in his place seems to be an obnoxious, devilish 2 year-old who defies anything and everything his momma says! I miss the old Alex. I hope he comes back to me some day.

Both kids are up in their beds screaming their heads off because they need naps so badly, but don't want to take them. I love being a parent! I wish I could put up an audio clip for you all to hear the joyous sounds of a typical day in the Higham house.

You Belong in London

A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock. A unique soul like you needs a city that offers everything. No wonder you and London will get along so well.

What City Do You Belong In?

Andy will be super happy to hear this since we are looking to move to London when he finishes MBA school. Rock on London!

The kids and I were just watching a Looney Tunes cartoon before bed. One where Sylvester the cat fell into a fire after a failed attempt of eating Tweety Bird. With his behind smoldering Samantha laughed and exclaimed, "He's grilled like a hot dog!". Funniest kid I know!!

Yesterday as I was getting Samantha ready for church she said "Mom, I'm going to try not to get sick in Primary today". It seems about every time we take her to Primary she develops a cold a couple of days later. She then misses the following week of church and then the next week the cycle begins again. I wash her hands and do the best that I can to prevent the sickness that seems to live in our house, but if idiot parents keep bringing their sick kids to church we will never get over these colds. Please people, if you or your kids are sick, STAY HOME!!

We returned a few days ago from a week long trip to San Francisco. Andy had to do business there and so we decided to tag along and enjoy the free hotel and rental car (hey, he had to get them for work anyways). Andy's family still lives there so we enjoyed some time with them and our friends the Richards. Matt was even kind enough to take me on a date while Andy stayed in the hotel with the kids and did homework. Thanks Matt! Brandon and Claire invited us to dinner at their house one night and the kids played so well together and had a great time. Abby, Brandon and Claire's adorable 5 year-old loved Samantha and came up with all sorts of fun things for them to pretend. She even told me that Samantha "is so pretty and looks just like an angel". I couldn't agree more! Aunt Cathy was a saint and took us somewhere fun everyday to get us out of the hotel and having fun. We went to a trampoline place one day and I've never seen Alex so happy in my life! That kid had a smile on his face the entire hour. Samantha was a little more hesitant and only really jumped around and had fun when the male worker watching over the place looked at her and paid attention to her. She loves the attention of males. Yes, we are in serious trouble!!
We went into the city on Saturday with Andy and enjoyed the chill and rain. I guess that's what winter in SF is like. Still, MUCH better than winter in Utah. The kids loved the sea lions.
Another afternoon we went to the beach with Cathy and Julie and let the kids play in the sand. It was windy and cold but it didn't seem to stop them from having fun. We don't make it to the beach much so I think they just take every opportunity to soak it in. I prefer my beach with a lot of sun, but I try not to be picky.
Although the kids got a slight cold on the trip we still had a nice time. The hot tub at the pool was a favorite and they both did great on the flights. Andy is taking every opportunity possible to get the kids to be good travelers since he has his sights set on a family trip to Brazil in 2014 for the World Cup. Start saving your pennies Andy!

3 YEARS! 3 years since the last post. Now that's just funny! Life does get a bit busy with moving a couple of times and having a couple of kids. We used to be the only people I knew with a "blog". In fact, we were probably the only people who knew what a blog was. And now everyone has one and I think it's a great way to keep in touch with friends and family. I enjoy prying into everyone's lives so hopefully people will enjoy a peek at ours. I'm sure Andy will post about school (he's in MBA school), work, travel and food. I'll mostly post about Samantha and Alex and our fun-filled days at home together.

Is anybody surprised at how long it's been since we've written in our blog? I'm certainly not. Instead of silly excuses, let's just cut to the highlights, shall we?

Looks like the last time I wrote was in early February. So we'll pick up from there.

On 11 February 2005, we went to court in Provo, UT to finalize Samantha's adoption. It was an amazing experience. The judge was very kind and offered us some sound advice. The next day we had Samantha sealed to us for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. Sadly, the sealer spent most of his time telling us about the geography of the temple instead of potentially talking about the importance of the ordinance he was about to perform, but his priesthood authority was what really counted I guess. I blessed her the next day in Church, and remarkably she didn't cry at all during the blessing.


Later on in February we went to the USS Intrepid museum, which wasn't nearly as impressive as we'd hoped. It was cool to see the inside of a Concorde though - man those things are tiny inside! And it was funny to walk through Times Square on a Saturday afternoon, with Samantha completely passed out. What I wouldn't give for her to be able to do that now..... We also went up to Boston for a weekend. I had to go up for work, so Kristi and Sam tagged along for the drive up. We had a good time walking around, but MAN was it cold. I guess that's what we get for going to Boston in February. The best part of the trip was that ESP picked up the tab for the very nice Westin Copley in Back Bay, and we had a very high room for free! Samantha had her first pool experience, and again she exceeded expectations by not crying one little bit. On the way home, we drove through Newport, RI to check out the fancy mansions, and Kristi drove home from there. She was kind enough to take us on a short detour through the Bronx, but it was just a quickie, and we didn't even get shot at! Wow, February was a busy month!

I don't remember too much that happened in March. We went to the Auto show, which was pretty cool, but that was about it. Or at least, that's the only place where we took pictures. Samantha is crawling now - not sure if she started that before or not. There are plenty of cute pictures from March, so I'll just post some of those for your enjoyment.

Messy Eater

Bath Time

Samantha likes to play a head butt game with Mommy

The famous old man face

In April we flew back to UT for Kristi's birthday and a Loveridge family trip down to Moab. We had a good time hanging out and hiking around Arches Nat'l Park.

May was a big month. We moved from Jersey City down to Woodbridge. The move was quite a process. For the week leading up to the big day, I hauled down one or 2 loads every night in the Brentmeister General. Then on Saturday, Maile came and took Samantha, and we loaded up the truck. We had some help from the missionaries, one of the guys in the ward, and 3 of the Young Men. Unfortunately, those Young Men were the only ones that were able to come down to Woodbridge and help us unload. One of them was a champion though, and really made up for the other 2 not being too much help. The new apartment is amazing - 2 whole bedrooms! We don't have to lock ourselves in the bedroom when Samantha goes to sleep! Samantha took to the new arrangment right away, and now sleeps 12-14 hours/night. Yes, we do love that, thank you very much. We also can actually cook dinner for ourselves, and speak in a normal tone of voice. It's like a whole new world has been opened to us.

Maybe I can get back in the swing of this...

Is anyone surprised that I've started a few entries, only not to post? Me either.

We've been a little busy. Samantha can be quite a little handful. But we love that handful OH SO MUCH! Lots has gone on with her recently. She rolls over like a champ now. She mostly sleeps through the night (usually wakes once to feed and once to cry). She has her first 2 teeth, which are absolutely adorable. She has brought so much joy and love to our home.

Hopefully one of these days I'll get together a bunch of pictures, and those will jog enough of my memory to put together a good long post.

Andy
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Sent from my Treo

Well Andy wasn't kidding in his last blog about us being parents!! 4 days after he wrote that blog our little girl, Samantha Janell, was born. First of all....she wasn't supposed to be born for another 2 weeks. Second of all...she wasn't supposed to be a she at all! Sara had an ultrasound that indicated a baby boy! That technician needs to be fired! Thursday the 29th of July I got a call around 5 pm from Sara telling me that I was a mom! I was in complete shock and insisted that she was kidding and playing a cruel joke on me. Her story was just too unbelievable....an early baby, a girl instead of a boy, and she delivered in her bathroom at home!!! Come to find out, she wasn't kidding! She gave birth at home around 11.30 am and she and baby Sam were taken to the hospital by fire truck! Our little girl sure has a great story to tell. She was 9 lbs 5 oz and our little chunk is now 2 months old and 11 lbs 8 oz!!!
Andy and I flew to Utah the next morning and drove straight from the airport to the hospital to meet Sara and Samantha. Sara was so sweet and handled the whole situation so well. Samantha was a beautiful baby that didn't look like a newborn! She never looked like a newborn but rather a month old baby! We suspect she wasn't in fact early, but late in her arrival. There were some complications simply from timing since all of our paperwork hadn't been approved yet. We weren't going to be able to take Samantha home with us right away or even take custody of her until some things were done. Our amazing lawyer stepped in and managed to get a judge to sign an order on a Friday afternoon to allow us to take custody of her for the time being. We were very relieved and grateful. We didn't want to stay in a foster home with people we didn't know as we began our parenting journey. We felt much better that we were going to my parent's home to stay until all of the other paperwork was done. We weren't sure how long that was going to take and it ended up taking a lot longer than we thought. Poor Andy couldn't stay in Utah with us forever so he had to go home to work which made all of us sad. He was able to come back for a weekend but sadly missed the majority of his baby's first month of life. I was in Utah for a whole month before being able to fly home to New Jersey with Samantha. It was a long wait, but as I look back I'm so grateful for the help that my mom and sisters gave me. And so, Samantha and I flew home August 27th.
Those are the main details of how we became parents. There was a lot more involved and Andy may add some things into it, but now I'll just jot down some of my feelings about it all. We weren't expecting to be parents so quickly and while I thought I was ready for it....I don't think you can ever be totally ready for the life-changing event that it is. You suddenly forget all about yourself and you forget your needs and your whole life is wrapped up into this little, pooping, crying, eating, fussing, adorable infant. I had a rough first couple of days coming to terms with the whole adoption. I felt so horrible for Sara. I felt like I had stolen something from her. She never gave me any indication that she felt that way, but that's how I felt. I broke down one night and so I received a blessing from Andy with the help of my dad. I felt a lot better after that. I still thought of Sara everyday and I still do. She is an amazing girl.

We're going to be parents???

Fatherhood. That's not a word that I expected to apply to me right now, but it looks like it soon will. Thanks to Ashly's sister's, boyfriend's sister, it looks like we should have a baby in just under 3 weeks. Needless to say, this is not how I expected the adoption process to go. Normally it takes people years to adopt a child. It's taken us a few weeks.

Ashly told Sara about us after finding out that Sara was planning to give her child to an adoptive couple. Ashly first told us about it in early June, and we sent a letter and some pictures to her to share with Sara. Then she asked us for another letter. This was when we started to really buckle down on the paperwork. Then Ashly told us that Sara wanted to talk to us on the phone. We weren't sure if that was a no-no or not, but LDS Family Services said to go ahead. We called her on a Sat. afternoon, and during the course of that call, she told us that we were at the top of her short list. Woo Hoo!!!

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Sent from my Treo

Fourth of July in DC

One of my fondest memories of my summer in Washington, DC was watching the fireworks from the Mall. I figured since we were going to have a 3 day weekend, we could go down again this year. I got a good rate on a hotel room, but it turned out we didn't need to use it. John & Katherine Faust had to cancel their trip to San Diego at the last minute, and they generously offered to let us stay with them in their new home. It was a great place - much bigger than it looks on the outside. We loved the master bedroom. It had a step down area in the front of the room that was more than large enough to accommodate a couch, desk, and a tv. Awesome.

We got to their place around 2pm. After a tour of the house, we took the Metro downtown. Man, it may be kind of 70's retro, but that thing is a whole lot cleaner than the NYC subway. Downtown we went to the Spy Museum. It's privately owned, so it's a lot more high tech and "edgy" than most museums there in town. It's pretty cool, but there's a lot more to read than there is to see. I think we both enjoyed it though. After we finished up there, we met John and Katherine a couple of blocks away at the District Chop House for dinner. John eats there for lunch sometimes, but I guess the lunch menu is a lot cheaper. He was kind of embarassed for bringing us to a pricey place, but it was about a 3rd cheaper than it would have been in NY, so it wasn't really a big deal. Tasty food.

On the way home, J&K were nice enough to show us around the monuments, which are beautifully lit at night. The highlight was the brand new World War II monument. It is quite large, and very well done. It has only been open since Memorial Day, so it was kind of crowded, but rightfully so.

Actually, the real show stealer was the fireflies. Kristi had never seen them before, and she was enchanted by the little insects with the glowing backsides. It was really cute - I wish I could have gotten a picture of her reaction.

Sunday morning we went to church with the Fausts. It seems like it's still a very strong ward. The district president from Belarus was there, and he bore his testimony. Apparently there is no such thing as freedom of religion in Belarus. A very sad thing to think about on the day when we celebrate our independence...

Kristi and I skipped out after Sacrament Meeting and went to the Udvar-Hazy branch of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It's basically a giant hanger out near Dulles airport, filled with airplanes. They have a Concorde, a Blackbird, the Enola Gay, and a space shuttle. The shuttle is still being put in place though, so it wasn't that cool.

After that we went back to the Faust's for a 4th of July BBQ. The massive rain storm knocked out the power for about 45 minutes, so we dined by candlelight. It was fun to spend some time with them again. Marcus (now Bishop Faust)spent some time playing with my Treo to see if it would work for him. It did what he needed, but I don't know if it was really fast enough for him.

We'd planned to go in to the American History museum before the fireworks, but because of the weather and the BBQ, we opted for a nap instead. By the time we woke up, the weather had cleared up enough that we were willing to risk going into town. Kristi and I rode in on the Metro again, and camped out on the lawn below the Washington Monument. We really lucked out, because they were launching the fireworks from just a couple of blocks away, so our view was totally unobstructed. It didn't seem to last as long as the last time I went, but it was still a lot of fun. We even managed to get home at a reasonable time, though still too late for home made ice cream at the Faust house.

Monday morning we said thank you and good bye to John, Katherine, and the boys, and drove downtown to see the American History Museum. It was funny to see Fonzi's jacket in the same museum as the Star Spangled Banner. We spent a couple of hours wandering through there, and then headed out to the Cheesecake Factory at Tyson's Corner for lunch before hitting the road in earnest. Surprisingly, we didn't hit very much traffic at all on the way home. The one notable exception to that was the parking lot known as Delaware. Man, that place is always a mess.

Well, Kristi's uploading the pictures to Snapfish right now, so as soon as that finishes, I'll be back to plug those into the above slop.

Omar's Party @ Django

Nothing like standing around for an hour with your co-workers and a bunch of clients, at a bar. Bo-ring. I guess free booze is attractive to some people, but otherwise I really can't tell what the draw was. The place was nice enough, but not even a Golden Tee in sight. I stayed for a little more than an hour, but I just couldn't take anymore. On the plus side I had a pretty good conversation with James, who's a really good guy. We kept each other sane holding up the wall, away from the inane chit chat. Well, I'm rambling, and my stop is coming up, so peace out!

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Sent from my Treo

Hey! It works!

Apparently you really can post a blog via email. Cool! Now if I could just learn how to speed up my one thumbed typing , I'd be set. Or if I could just manage to get a seat on the train, I'd be able to get another thumb in here. It looked like there were some seats in the front - I'll have to try that next time. Looks like this blog might be totally pointless. But hey! Isn't that what the web's for? finally got to 14th street, and I can sit. Sad that I'm excited to speed up my typing by using 2 fingers! Well, that's enough of this. Até mais.

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Sent from my Treo

Blogging from the Treo

Rumor has it that you can publish to your blog via email. Será que é possível?

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Sent from my Treo

What are the odds that I'll be able to keep up with this? Pretty low I'd say. But I do have blogger on my Link bar in IE now, and it's got a bright orange icon that makes it stand out, so at least I'm going to notice it more often.

This past weekend was Memorial Day. We didn't have any real plans to speak of, except that we thought we'd go out and catch the new disaster flick, The Day After Tomorrow. It was actually pretty good. We both liked that it just showed how people were dealing with the disaster, instead of building a huge space laser to re-heat the earth. The big news of the weekend though was that Kristi's Nana passed away Sat. morning. It had been a long time coming, so it was something of a relief to everyone, but it's always a sad occurrence. So Kristi flew out on Monday morning (Memorial Day). That brings me to the most noteworthy part of the weekend - the 50 minute roundrtip drive out to LaGuardia and back. I think that it must be some kind of record. No traffic whatsoever. It was great. I was tempted to drive out onto Long Island, just to see what was there, but I didn't want to push my luck and get caught in some freak traffic, so I hussled back to JC where I vegged out all day. Watched TV and played computer games. Absolutely no redeeming value in the day at all. And I think that's what holidays are all about ;-)

Of course today being 1 June, it's dad's birthday, so I need to give a big shout out to him. Happy Birthday dad! We got him a pair of nice earbud headphones for him to use on the plane, since he's always flying around the west for his church calling. They aren't electronically noise cancelling, but they are designed to fit snugly in the ear, thus blocking out as much sound as possible. Hopefully they'll live up to their reviews!

Fashionistas on the beach in Makena 

Wow! It actually works! I guess I'm going to have to go back and try to edit some of my previous posts - that would make the blog much cooler!

As you can tell from that picture, we just got back from Hawaii a few days ago. It was a great trip. My family is still there - they don't get back until tomorrow. Totally unfair.

It was an uneventful trip - great for Hawaii. Kristi got a nice sunburn the day after we arrived, so that kept us out of the sun during prime daylight hours, but that's about what I'd planned on anyways. I actually picked up some sun, which is amazing. We stayed in the Kahana Falls in Kahana (above Ka'anapali, and then commuted down to Makena every day. Kind of a waste of a couple of hours, but it's a pretty drive, and it's so nice down at that end of the island (and at the Ziegler's condo), that we didn't really mind. And it was nice to spend time with family, which we don't get to do too often out here. And let's not forget the gorgeous sunsets....


The find of the week was when I bought a rashguard at the surf shop. After Kris got burned, I got really paranoid about getting too much sun, so I picked one up to keep the sun off while I was in the pool. By the time we'd left, Dave, Elaine, Julie, and Meghan had all gotten them too. I'm such a trendsetter!

We started on the road to Hana one day (the back way), but it was kinda gross and rainy, and I could tell that Kristi's stomach wasn't going to be too happy driving on that windy, undulating road, so we turned around and went back while the rest of the family forged on. However, I did manage to haul her around the north side of the island one morning. It really is gorgeous and serene up there, even if some parts of the road are SUPER tiny. It helps a lot that they've obviously repaved it since the last time I was on it though.



The food was great, as usual. Kristi made some awesome Banana Macadamia pancakes, there were steaks and ribs on the grill, chocolate covered macadamia nuts (which might have made it back home to Jersey too), fresh Ice Cream sandwiches, and lots of Lapperts. Perfect! The only problem with the trip was that it was too short. Hopefully we'll be able to turn it into an annual event though - that would be the best!

The other big news is that I no longer work for Neovest. One of my customers, ESP, made me an offer, and it seemed like the perfect time to make a move. I think that the opportunity for growth is much better here - I was starting to get a little stale at Neovest. So far, so good - we'll see how it shapes up!