Life with the ladies

This week: busy! I picked up my mom from the airport on Wednesday afternoon and it’s been nonstop from there! We went to Lua’u that night to see Alex perform and we loved the show! Liz was sleeping when we first sat down, but she quickly woke up with all the noise and she loved it, too.
Congratulations to the Griffin family with the birth of their son!
Emily had her son, Channing David Griffin, by a C-section this week. He was born on the 24th, three and a half weeks early, and he weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz. and was 20 inches long. Channing had to have surgery on his intestines and he’s up at Primary Children’s in Salt Lake, but he is doing very well. We’ve been keeping him in our prayers and we ask you to do the same!
I went to a service project at the JKB this week; the English Society was hosting judging and readings of this year’s “Freedom Festival.” Kids from all over Utah sent in essays about “Family, Freedom, God and Country.” I helped read entries for a high school journal too. Man, I had to crack up—so many kids really don’t have a handle on punctuation, grammar, and spelling. But it was fun to do!
Mom, Liz, and I were headed to class on Friday afternoon when we spotted familiar faces coming out of the bookstore: Sister Sikahema, Sister McNaughton, Elise, Lana, Kaylie, and Trey! It was a total Jersey party—then Alex came walking out of the bookstore. The Jersey crew had a great time catching up. I tell you, whenever the Jersey gang gets together, we take over BYU ;) Congratulations to Trey on his mission call: he will be serving in the London England mission and he reports to the Preston MTC on July 3rd!
I took my mom and aunt to the temple on Saturday morning and then I took Liz to south of campus. Our mission: complete the Tree Tour! This is an assignment for Biology class. I got a good part of it done when Chris was here, and Liz Vanderwerken was able to join us then. This time it was just Liz and me. I’m so disappointed that I hadn’t discovered this area south of campus until now. There’s a duck pond, lots of trees, walking trails, etc. It’s beautiful! I’ve spent my entire four years north of campus so I’m not too familiar with south of campus, but I’m glad I was able to discover it before we leave for good.
Liz continues to be a bundle of joy. She has been growing a lot lately, at least I think she is growing a lot lately. She loves to stand, loves to laugh, loves to smile. Mom says she’s getting close to rolling over, so we shall be waiting anxiously to see what can happen. Here are some pictures for you:






A movie for Dad:

Dad is in MD!

Lizzie and I dropped off Chris at the SLC airport this morning for his non-stop to Dulles. Tomorrow is his first day of work for Lockheed Martin in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He made it safely with his luggage, thankfully (he flew Northwest; Northwest lost one of my mom's suitcases when she left after Liz was born). He's been provided with a rental car, apartment, and money for food while he's there. We're happy that Dad is out there safely and we miss him so much already! We recorded a few videos of Chris talking to the camera, and I'll play them every morning, afternoon, and night for Liz.
When I dropped him off this morning, I got teary-eyed but then I realized this month will really fly by. My mom arrives on Wednesday--Utah, get ready, you never know what to do with yourself when Juanita arrives--the rest of my family arrives two weeks later for graduation; my classes, exams, papers, and schoolwork will no doubt keep me busy until finals and graduation day. I'm ready to be finished for good!
We were able to get together with the gang before Chris left; one last Beto's run for the boys and a get-together at the Holden's. (We really missed Bri, as she's been in TX visiting her brother.) We're going to try our very best to get together one more time before Steve H., Bri, and I graduate next month. Chris and I realized that it will probably be the last time we all see each other for a while...sad to think about really. I can't tell you the next time we'll be out West. When Bill graduates from BYU? I don't know. We want to make a trip to Texas at the end of the summer but Texas doesn't qualify as "West," so I'm told. We shall see!
I got my graduation announcements and I'll be sending them out soon. Well, I have to wait for the new ones; the ones that were sent to me last week neglect to announce my Spanish minor. I didn't think anything of it but then Steve H. passed out his announcements and his double minors were listed. I called the company and they'll be sending out the corrected ones ASAP. Like I told Chris, we didn't pay $56 for them to NOT put on my Spanish minor. Sheesh!

Oh, I want to tell you a story.
So I made a big mistake two weeks ago. You know facebook has all those ads on the right side of their applications. Well, one of them caught my eye: "FREE UGG BOOTS!" If you know me, you know I can't survive Utah winters without my uggs, so naturally I was intrigued. In the back of my head, my common sense was telling me that it was too good to be true, but my mind was thinking about the prize at the end of the tunnel: UGGS.
I clicked on the application. That was the big mistake.
I read all the fine print which I normally don't read. Essentially, it said, if you fill out these surveys, we'll send you your choice of uggs. All right, I thought, I can do this.
Most of the surveys were for smokers; obviously that doesn't apply to me, but there was an option to skip over those particular ones. Great, I thought.
I get to the end of all these surveys and then comes the kicker: I have to subscribe to at least three of these magazines and then I will get my free uggs. What a waste.
I click out of it and I believed I was done with that.
Not so fast, Mary--I have been BOMBARDED with a ridiculous amount of junk mail. Junk mail has never plagued me before. Now it plagues me on a daily basis.
Moral of story= don't click on those ads! Save your inbox from the plague of junk mail!
Pictures to come soon :)

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Kiss me, I'm Irish!

It's true though! This little lady is indeed Irish, in addition to German, Ecuadorian, and English. Gotta love the Multicultural girls! ;)
I have to laugh and I'll tell you this: when I was younger, I wanted to be Irish. I'm not quite sure why (as if Ecuadorian wasn't cool enough or something?). I just knew I wanted to be Irish. Perhaps it's all the green; green is one of my favorite colors. Either way, when I learned that Killion is Irish in origin, I almost died with happiness. I finally got my wish after all! Who knew?

I had to put these pictures up--
It's been BEAUTIFUL outside this week, so we've taken quite a few walks around the neighborhood in the Snugli--this girl loves exploring and observing the outdoors!



Lizzie has been grabbing things for awhile, but now she's learning how to keep her grip on her toys. She already knows how to keep her grip on my hair! haha


When we got back from class last night in SLC, Lizzie was sleeping, but she had to eat and she needed her diaper changed. Well, she basically stayed asleep during the diaper change, which has never happened before.

I had to take some pictures because she was too cute, smiling in her sleep!

Happenings with the Killion's

Well. What's been going on with us?
This weekend was BUSY. We had a ton to do. I had a Biology exam to take...eh. That's all I'll say about that. I studied more for this one than my first one, but I didn't do as well as I thought I did. Oh well, life moves on. ;)
Chris, Liz, and I went to the Draper Temple Open House with a guest who came down to Provo for the weekend...drum roll please: Joe Walker!


He drove down from Logan, since everyone up there is on their spring breaks. He happened to be in Provo when I had finished class, so we invited him to join us to visit the temple. In a word: beautiful. The Draper Temple is gorgeous (what temple isn't?). The colors used inside the temple reflect the surrounding landscape of the mountains. Absolutely beautiful.
For Biology class, we have to take the BYU Tree Tour. Apparently BYU has one of the biggest collections of different types of trees in the nation or something, so Chris and I put Liz in the stroller and went to work. Liz Vanderwerken joined us and we enjoyed the GORGEOUS Saturday afternoon examining the trees! Lizzie had a great time; she talked to us constantly and loved the fresh air!



Oh yes, Saturday morning was Russ and Eric's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Yes, I just typed Chuck E. Cheese. These guys turned 27, respectively haha. The boys went to town at the arcade while we women had fun watching them be kids!
Lizzie loves her Aunt Bri :)

Chris with the Carter Family!

Good times all around!




Tonight we went to Jess Naval's Open House--she reports to the MTC on Wednesday and will be serving in the Argentina Resistencia Mission. It was fantastic to be with the Jersey crowd; we always have a great time when we get together. We wish her all the best and we know she will be a fabulous missionary! (I forgot to take pictures, even though I brought my camera; lo siento!)

The Jensen's in Illinois sent us the CUTEST things for Liz this week. It's a little jumper with the words "Little Lady" on it, with a matching headband and a blankets decorated with ladybugs--LOVES it! Liz wore everything on Friday and she got a ton of compliments from my classmates :)

Good times with the Gang

Yes, we had another Murder Mystery dinner night on Friday, complete with a chocolate fountain and chocolate fondue. I tell you, we can't get enough of these things! This one was called "Death by Chocolate," and it took place in Paris in 1900. Everyone looked really good--the costumes for this game were pretty sweet!
Adri, Marchioness Duchamp, and Russ, Bertand Chocolat...and his creepy mccreepster mustache (love ya Russ!)

Chris, Dr. Sigmund Fraud and me, Dr. Doris Johnson

Steve, Mike Bison and Britney, Barbara Carthorse

Bri, Maria Von Schnapps and Steve, Little Fitz...and Ziggy the puppet


Steve's birthday was the 28th, so Bri brought a cake (confetti cake--THE best!) and we celebrated the occasion. Here's Steve blowing out the candles!


The Stapley's hosted a game night yesterday and we played Cranium. Despite the boys' protests that this game was more geared towards the women, they won at the very end with a very easy question!



We had a wonderful time playing the game and eating homemade caramel popcorn; Bri gave me the recipe so I want to try it soon! And, cutest of all, we had Lizzie and Emrie playing together while we adults played the game.



By the end of the night, Lizzie was out like a light!

Fell asleep right on Dad!

Fun with Liz

As these pictures illustrate, Liz is only getting more fun every day! She loves to smile and to laugh, especially when we sing "Patty Cake," "Miss Mary Mack," and a few other songs. We've been singing to her every day. She has also become very drooly, so if you see her chin glistening, that would be the lovely drool. Here are some favorite pictures of ours from the past two weeks of our little Liz:
Playing with Daddy on the red couch

Dancing with Daddy on the big bed!

Singing time with Mommy

Smiling and Laughing for some picture time

I'm cool!

Wearing a CUTE outfit from Amie Lauriello back home!

Giggles :)

Hey there--I love her hand here!

In a dress that Granny in Texas made!

Cheetah Girl ;)


And here are some videos for your enjoyment, as well as ours! :) (Remember to pause the playlist so you can hear what's on the videos.)