darrenandjanell.com

Lillia is adored by one and all.  Everyone comments that she is a regular Gerber baby and the prettiest baby they have ever seen.  She crawls around and can never hold still which is cute, but makes her a handfull.  She actually skipped scooting because she is really long and skinny which made it easier to crawl and harder to scoot.  See our video page for the latest giggly video.

Janell and I finally are changing our eating habits.  No more giant desserts every night for us!  It truly was a golden age.  Oh well. Janell joined a gym and I am taking a grappling class and helping people move.  We are in a married student ward so during this time of year we have at least 2 or 3 moves a week.  I count it as both service and exercise. 

We went to the Iowa State fair on Friday.  It is the best state fair in the country.  They have a life size cow made out of butter and a bunch of huge Dr. Seuss stuff also made out of butter.  I wonder what they will do with the butter when it is over. They also sold all kinds of fried things like fried Twinkies, fried candy bars, fried Oreos, fried pickles, fried butter, and fried cake.  Janell and I suspended our nutrition goals and ate a fried snickers bar.  It was like a corn dog except with snickers instead of a hot dog.  

I'm helping dad with the dishes.

Too much love!

Drop me off in Iowa City.

Janell, Darren, and Lillia’s time in Utah and California in pictures.

Lillia: I'm not with these people.

Lillia: Won't someone please paint my toe nails.

Look into my eyes while I dig my nails into your face.

Lillia: its not nice to point; just sayin.

Janell and I were walking through the coralville mall with Lillia when we ran into a man in a cow costume.  We thought Lillia would either be fascinated or very afraid.  As it turned out, when we put her close to the cow, she displayed no reaction whatsoever.  I guess she is just too sophisticated to get excited about a man in a cow costume.  That probably means taking her to Disneyland would be a waste of time at her age. oh well.  Anyway, mother’s day was fun.  I thought it would be cute to buy a live tilapia to cook for dinner.  I set it out on the table on mothers’ day morning with the breakfast I made for Janell.  It turns out tilapia are much harder to kill than the trout I killed as a boy scout.  Also, I have become far more squeamish since than.  I battled with my own sympathies for five minutes before hitting it on the head with a hammer.  And then it kept moving about so I hit it 5 more times before gutting it.  The fish tasted very good and fresh, but it was totally not worth it.  At the moment, I am in Los Angeles working with a law firm and Janell is in Utah visiting family.  She will join me for 2 weeks before we head back to Iowa City to spend the rest of the summer working for the state of Iowa.  It is nice to be able to split my summer and experience the public and the private side of the law.  Thank you for visiting!

Lillia is healthy and happy, and when she’s happy, we’re happy.  Therefore we are happy and life is good.  Janell has been busy with her new calling as primary secretary.  She has tons of great ideas for our ward’s kids.  I was in DC for a moot court competition two weeks ago, during the storm Obama called “snowmageddon.”  over 20 inches fell in metropolitin DC.  It was almost surreal  to see the normally busy DC streets entirely empty.

Janell’s favorite cookies are chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and mine are just plain chocolate.  Right now Janell’s favorite is winning the polls, but I don’t mind, because chocolate chocolate chip cookies taste great.  I am the real cookie fiend the the relationship.  I can’t resist good chocolate chip cookies.  They are both my best friend and mortal enemy.  Janell craves chocolate cake; warm cake, with frosting, she adds.  our problem is that we like desserts in general too much.  A few weeks ago, we decided to limit our dessert intake.  Now we only eat desserts on Sundays, family night, date nights (Friday and Saturday), holidays, social events, and special occasions.  That may seem like a lot of exceptions, but to us it is progress.  Thanks for visiting, and check out our videos page for new Lillia videos!

Sorry, no penguins this week.  Lillia is being very sweet, but I wish she would cry a little less.  She has been uncharacteristically fussy the last two days.  Her cardiologist said she is doing so well that we could potentially push back her next surgery untill she is four.  We probably will want to take care of it sooner, since her PDA may be interfering with her weight gain.  Janell and I are doing fine.  Have a great day!

We went to the temple this Saturday.  We could not find a clean warm outfit for Lillia so we put a penguin costume on her.  We were going to save it until Halloween but it was so soft and warm that we could not resist.  We are back into the swing of things here in Iowa.  I have clinic this semester, so I spend all day in the clinic doing legal work.  It is a nice change of pace.  I am doing employment law, which is what I have been wanting to do.

I ( Janell) have been enjoying being home with Lillia. Lillia enjoys smiling and taking baths and going on walks in her stroller in our local mall ( because it is WAY too cold outside).  She has had trouble keeping her tongue in in her mouth the last few days. Lillia also likes to sit up on our laps so she can see everything that is going on. She has been sleeping longer hours, especially at night time. ( horray!)

I had written an entire posting when I found out that in Google Chrome, cntrl W closes the broser and you lose everything.  So if you are trying to capitalize “w” and you mess up you lose everything.  Instead of writing again, I will just list a bunch of words about the topics I discussed:  Vegas bowl, Utah trip, lazy Europeans, baby blessing, family, 5 generations, brief, baby beating, video page, don’t do drugs.  Here are some pictures.  More pictures are coming, once I receive them by email.

Oh fish sticks! Winter started.  We got a few feet of snow early this week, and Iowa declared a snow emergency and cancled University classes.  Unfortunately they did not send out the email until I was already at the law school taking my final.  I got stuck twice and had to push two cars free just to get into the institute parking lot.  Anyway, its warming up and except for that one day, winter has not hit too hard.  Janell is super excited to fly to see family for Christmas.  She has been a super mommy and needs a break.  I would post a picture of her head on supergirl’s body, but when I Googled supergirl all the pictures were scandalously immodest.  I guess supergirl is not that super, morally.

I learned from my home teaching companion that his fellow med students voted Lillia the cutest baby in pediatric surgery.  I suppose that makes her Miss Pediatric surgery 2009.  Congratulations Lillia.  You have earned it.  She also was a favorite among the nurses.  They would always give her extra attention and tell us how cute she is.  Happy holidays!

Lillia, with some additude

Lillia went in for her abdomen surgery on Wednesday.  All went well and I am tired of writing about medical stuff so we shall leave it at that.  We will have our sweety back home tomorrow it seems.  Horahhh!  It is actually a few days ahead of schedule.  Janell is crushed because we were planning on watching Twighlight tomorrow, but we can’t because a few days early.  She will get over it though.  We are adding a new video to replace the old one which we don’t like as much.  Anyway, here are some pictures of our healing little baby.