Our Christmas Card

Just incase you didn't get a card in the mail - here is our highlights of 2009!

Our family has experienced a lot of changes in 2009!

GOOD:
Lauren has grown into a great big sister! She and Liddy love playing together and Lauren is a good helper to her Mom. She started kindergarten and loves going each day. Lydia changed a lot in ‘09 - going from a snuggly little baby to a fun, sweet toddler. She loves to follow her big sister around, especially after learning to walk!


BETTER:
Dave graduated with his doctorate from the University of Iowa and is now a professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. (Tricia thinks this may be the best news of all from ‘09)


BEST:
We are looking forward to welcoming Folsom Baby #3 in June 2010.

Merry Christmas!
The Folsom's (Dave, Tricia, Lauren & Lydia)

One Lost Tooth!

Okay - so I haven't blogged in almost 2 months - pretty lame! We have visited some pretty fun places - NYC, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia to name a few. We had grandparents visit and even had our first snow of the season but I won't play catch up right now. Today was an exciting day for Lauren because she lost her first tooth. We noticed it was loose earlier this week when she was eating an apple. All week we have tried different ways to get it out but it wasn't coming. Then tonight - as we were eating rice for dinner - out it popped. She was so excited and couldn't wait to put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy! So here are a couple of cute pict. of Lauren with one less tooth in her mouth!

My baby is 1!

Wow - where has the last year gone? I can't believe that Lydia has already turned into a big 1 year old! It took us so long to get her and now I can't even remember life before she was in our family. She is such a HAPPY little thing. She has the best little laugh and she loves to be where the action is. She LOVES her big sister and loves to crawl all over her and be where she is. She is a bit of a Mama's girl (which I secretly love) but it can make it difficult to try to make dinner when she is crawling all around my legs and just wants me to play with her and hold her. Liddy had a fun birthday and got some fun new toys and really enjoyed eating her cake and ice cream!

Lydia checking out her new toys on her birthday!

Digging into the cake and ice cream. She was much messier by the time it was gone.

Things Liddy can do at 1!

• At one Lydia is starting to walk a little bit. She still definitely prefer's to crawl since she is so speedy at it but she is getting more balanced and taking a few more steps these days.



• She is a fantastic sleeper and I love that the girls share a room. Last night I could hear them jabbering away to each other for over an hour!



• She loves trying to feed herself. It is a VERY messy process (especially the morning cereal) and we have a lot of food under our table!



• She can say Mama, Dada, uh-oh, hi, and no. She can also wave if she feels like it.



• She loves to pretend that she is talking on the phone. She is very good at holding it up to her ear and then gets a big smile and says, hi.



• She loves playing peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake. If you start singing pat-a-cake she immediately starts clapping her hands.



• She LOVES dancing! She loves a good beat and can't sit still if music is playing (even church music). Her favorite music is the theme song to Phinius and Ferb. As soon as she hears it she immediately comes crawling to the TV and starts dancing!



• She LOVES the bath! She could splash and play in there for hours if I let her. She loves to try to pull the spout that changes the water to come out of the shower head and claps her hands when she is able to do that.

• At her one year check-up Lydia weighed 19lbs (20%) and was 29 inches long (50%) and her head was 18 in. (70%). At her 9 month check-up (which happened at 8 mos) she was closer to the 50% for weight and 30% for height so she is starting to lengthen out a little bit. But this was our first time at our Dr. office out here in PA and so the difference could also be due to different ways of measuring and different scales. (Oh how I miss the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics and our Pediatrician, Dr. Christensen!)
  
  
  Happy Birthday Sweet Lydia! We love you!

Lydia at 1 month - so sweet and innocent!

Lydia at 1 year of age - she has really grown into quite the character!
Can you tell what Lydia is going to be for Halloween? Hint: "May the force be with you."

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit!

My parents came to visit us at the end of September. It was fun to have family here, even if it was only for a few days! We were able to show them around the area a little bit (we are still figuring out the area ourselves) and we took them up to Lehigh to see Dave's school and office. We were able to do some shopping and my Dad helped me trim up our tree in the front yard (thanks Dad - I no longer hit my head on it when mowing the lawn). While my parents were here we decided to go down and explore some of Philadelphia. We did most of the historical stuff and it was really interesting and fun to do that together. We got to see the Liberty Bell and we got to take a tour of Independence Hall and see the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed. We also go to see Benjamin Franklin Museum and eat a Philly Cheese Steak sandwhich while there! It was a lot of fun to do together. Before we knew it, it was time to take my parents back to the airport and we are on our own again out here in the East! Lucky for us though, my older sister and some of her family are here visiting this week and we saw them in NYC over the weekend (another post I need to do) and we are meeting them in Lancaster, PA tomorrow to see some Amish sites with them. So if anyone else wants a visit, come on out!

Lauren and Grandma Hobbs at Independence Square Visitor's Center.

Me and Lauren in front of the Liberty Bell.

Grandpa, Grandma, and Lauren at the Liberty Bell.

The front of Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was written and signed.

Statue of George Washington in front of Independence Hall.

Lauren inside Independence Hall

The room inside Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. This room was pretty neat to see and it has 13 small tables set up around the room where each of the 13 colonies sat. The table at chair at the top were where George Washington sat. The chair is the actual chair that was in the room at the time of the signing.

Independence Hall

We also visited Unknow Soilder Square (it is called something like that). This is a monument to honor the soilders who fought and died for independence.

First Day of School (2 weeks late)!!

Here is Miss. Lauren in all her Kindergarten glory! She was beyond excited for school to FINALLY start. We moved to PA the end of July and she was desperate to make some more friends and to have something to do everyday so we weren't sad at all for the school year to begin -for us it could not come soon enough. She picked out her outfit and told me she wanted her photo taken in front of the tree in the front yard. And she came up with all the fun/crazy poses herself (believe me, there are a lot more crazy poses but these are the lucky few that made it to the blog). And the wonder of Kindergarten has not worn off and for that I am very glad. She comes home everyday and tells me how much she LOVES Kindergarten. If I accidentally ask if she liked school that day she corrects me and tells me, "Mom, I don't like school, I love it!" And she really loves it when she has homework. We have already had math homework and some writing homework and she couldn't wait to do it. I hope this enthusiasm never leaves.

And this last picture here is of my cute girl in front of the D.C. Temple. We went down to D.C. for a temple trip a couple of weeks ago and it was a lot of fun to see this beautiful temple in person. The girls did great and loved staying in a hotel with a nice swimming pool inside. And Dave and I loved that the ward provided babysitting at a nearby stake center and we were able to enjoy a session together. It definitely made all the expense of the trip worth it! We are excited to see a lot more of this temple and to visit the D.C. area a lot more in the coming years!

Funny Conversation with Lauren

Sometimes I have the funniest conversations with Lauren and they make me laugh. A week ago we were driving back from visiting the Washington D.C. Temple and had just made a quick stop and while stopped Lauren grabbed a free real estate magazine. Once we were back on the road she asked me to hand her the magazine so she could read it (she is 5 and can't read). After I handed her the magazine the following conversation took place.

Me: Lauren, whatcha doing?
Lauren: Reading my magazine.
Me: Will you read it to me?
Lauren: No, I can't read Mom.

Dave and I smile and laugh a little at this point. So I ask again:

Me: Lauren, whatcha doing?
Lauren: Reading my magazine.
Me: Will you read it to me?
Lauren: No, I can't read Mom.

By this point Dave and I are really starting to laugh in the front seat of the car.

Me: Lauren, whatcha doing?
Lauren: Reading my magazine.
Me: Will you read some of it to me?
Lauren: No, I can't read Mom. I already told you I can't read! Why do you keep asking me to read to you?

Dave and I were laughing so hard. She really just didn't get what was so funny about the converstation.


A couple of weeks ago it was a beautiful day outside and I took the girls to a outdoor fountain to play. As we were walking up to the fountain Lauren said, "Mom, today is such a beautiful day I am going to say a poem." Here is her poem

The sky is blue
birds are blue
I love you
tweet, tweet, tweet!

I think the tweet, tweet, tweet part is my favorite!

Going, Going, Gone!

After 5 months of trying to sell our condo - we are glad that as of Friday we will no longer be home owners in Iowa! We got an offer last week (too low) but after some negotiations we were able to reach a selling price. The buyers are really getting a great deal but we are very glad to not be paying the mortgage on an empty condo anymore!

I am actually more sad than I thought I would be about finally selling our home. Besides all the wonderful friends we left behind in Iowa, this is our last big attachment to Iowa and now that it is sold it really feels like we have moved on. Even though I struggled with making our family of 4 fit into this 870 sq. foot 2 bedroom/1 bath home for the last 6 years we loved it there and are sad to say goodbye to our first home (first one we bought anyway). We have lots of good memories of our time in Iowa and in our little home but we are so glad to have finally sold it!

They like clean people in Connecticut?

I just had the following conversation with Lauren and thought it was pretty funny.

Me: Come on girls - it's time to take a bath!
Lauren: Ah Mom, I not want to take a bath!
Me: Do you know why we have to take a bath tonight (besides the fact that you played at the park today and got all sweaty and stinky)?
Lauren: No, why?
Me: Because we are going to Connecticut tomorrow so we need to get ready tonight!
Lauren: So why do we need a bath? Do they only like clean people in Connecticut or what?

Don't worry Tawnee - I am making them take a bath so we don't offend the people of Connecticut with our smelly selves!

Our new place

As previously stated, we are in PA and we are slowly getting our house organized and put together. Today we attended our new ward for the first time and it was great to meet so many nice people. Lauren has a really fun primary class that is full of lots of other 5 year old girls. She is going to make lots of friends and have fun. RS was packed full today and I don't know if it is always that full in there but it was nice to have a lot of sisters there. Our ward is the only one that meets in this bldg. so it isn't a very large building but the ward is supposed to be a very strong ward. But this bldg. has the smallest chapel I have ever seen - it only has 5 rows of benches! It looks like a stunted chapel! They have rows and rows of padded seats that go all the way to the back of the cultural hall to fit all the members. Since we are still working on the inside of the house I will include some pict. of the outside of the house so you can see how green it is.
There are so many trees here too. We are so used to wide open corn fields and rolling hill in IA that it really bothers me to drive down the highway and only see huge trees on both sides of the roads! I am sure we will get used to it though.

View of the front of our house

Front of the house and the side yard

A pict. of our neighborhood park taken from our front yard! It is great to have it so close!

From our deck looking right

From our deck looking left

Tree in our front yard

Looking out from our front door

Back/side yard

We are very excited to use our yard. But it sure is A LOT of grass to mow. We bought a new pool last night for the girls so if we can get a day without any rain then I am sure we will be swimming soon.

NYC

Okay - we are here in PA and slowly getting our house put together! Luckily we have had Dave around all week to help. I have a few pict. and I will post them soon but I don't like any of the pict. inside the house because it is messy in all the pict! Hopefully we will find a place for everything soon.



I need some help though. Dave has a conference in NYC in a week and when it is over I am thinking of meeting him there with the girls and spending a couple of days in the city. Since Dave hasn't been in 10 years and I haven't ever been I am wanting advice on what to do with two small children (remember, we will just go for a couple of days)?!?! Any suggestions from those of you who have been would be greatly appreciated. If you can think of a great place to stay too I am open to those suggestions also!





Thanks for the help!

This is where we put Liddy while we were moving boxes into our basement. I have no idea why the pict. is coming up sideways - sorry!

We are on our way

Well, the time has come to say goodby to Iowa and move our house to Pennsylvania! It has been a very busy last month so it will be good to finally be in PA and in our new home. In the last month we have flown to PA to find a home - Flown to AZ to visit family - Driven to Utah to visit more family - Driven back to AZ for a final visit - And flown back to IA! I forgot the camera for the Utah portion of our trip but I have lots from AZ and now I can't find the cord to download them so that will just have to wait until we arrive in PA and have the internet up and running. Fortunately we shouldn't be without it for long - that was the first thing Dave set up for the new place! We are very sad to leave behind our good friends and home in Iowa - we have LOVED the last six years here. But we are excited to start the next phase of life. Dave drove one of our cars out to PA this weekend and he just kept calling me saying how beautiful PA is. He says we are going to have a lot of beautiful places to camp and explore with the girls. So the movers come tomorrow to pack us up and hopefully we will be on our way Thurs!

Busy

Okay - everyone is busy so this really is a lame excuse but my poor blog has been seriously neglected over the last month. We have been busy playing with trips to Kansas City, Pella, Independence, and Nauvoo. In the middle of May we had Grandma and Grandpa Folsom pay us a visit to meet Lydia and to also see Dave graduate with his doctorate from The University of Iowa! We have had lots of play dates at the park, children's museum and friends houses. We had Lauren's graduation from Pre-school and her dance recital is today. And in between everything we have been getting quotes from moving companies, showing our condo - still trying to get it sold, cleaning constantly so it is ready to be shown, and looking for a place to live in Pennsylvania! I will be glad when the last one is done! It takes up way to much time to constantly be looking at the listings, emailing people, making phone calls, setting up times to see properties. And tomorrow Dave and I are leaving our sweet girls with some dear friends and we are finally off to PA to pick a place to live! So once we are back we will finally put some pict. of all our big events we have had the last month.

Here are a couple of cute pict of the girls though!

Lydia and Lauren adore each other and love to play together.

Look - I have two teeth now!

Lauren at her dress rehearsal for dance yesterday!

(From L: Tori, Megan, Claire, Anne, Lauren)

Where's Liddy?

Can you find the cute little baby among all the toys?

We're moving to Bethlehem!

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania that is. Dave accepted an offer as a tenure track professor at Lehigh University yesterday! Even though this job moves us even farther away from our families we feel really good about it and are very excited to have a job! Lehigh is a small, private University with a top ranked Business Program and Dave will have some really good students to teach and work with. We have been online trying to learn more about the area and have talked to some church members who live there. We are excited for this new adventure. We want to take advantage of being so close to so many fun places and explore while we are there. We will be close to NYC, Washington DC, and Philadelphia and I am really excited to explore those cities and visit all the amazing historical areas that the East has to offer. So if any of you find yourselves on the East Coast - give us a call! We want visitors!

Six Months

Look who's six months old already!

At Six Months Lydia can:

Roll Over

Sit up all on her own

Sleep through the night

Eat Baby Food

Learning to drink from a sippy cup

Jabber and Jabber

Loves to play in her Exersaucer and with Blocks

Loves to put everything in her mouth

Has many nicknames: Liddy, Lid, Itty Bitty Liddy, Itty Bitty, Bitty Boo

Still has no teeth (this is a weird one for me since Lauren had teeth at 4 1/2 mos.)

Still won't take a bottle

Smiles and Laughes almost constantly

Insights of a 5 year old

My friend Annie just had a baby last week and says she is home, bored and wants new blogs to read so Annie - this is for you! (And anyone else who stops by to read my blog)

The other day Lauren and I were driving in the car and talking about how we are trying to sell our condo. She was talking about wanting to get some new toys/books and I told her we don't want more right now, we want less because we are trying to keep our house clutter free so it looks bigger/more spacious and so someone will want to buy it. She thought about what I said for a second and then said, "Oh, you are trying to make our house look fatter!" I laughed and said, "what"? And she said, "fatter. You know Mom - make it bigger". I guess you can't argue with that logic, fatter is bigger!

We were at the mall earlier this week and we ran into Claire's to look for some hair bows for Lauren and Liddy. While I was browsing, Lauren found a purse with a kitten on it and told me she really wanted it. Since it was her birthday I looked at the price but I just didn't want to spend $8 on the dumb purse so I told her no, not today ( I am not a big cat fan either but she really likes them). They had a cute purse in the shape of a cupcake (definitely more to my liking) and I said I thought it was cute so she said, is that purse on sale Mom? I looked and said no, it is $8 too. Exasperated she puts her hands on her hips and says, "Is anything in this store on sale"! Can you tell we usually shop clearance around here?!? Don't feel too bad for her though. Her Grandma sent her some money for her B-day and she knows exactly what she wants to get with it - a purse with a kitten on it from Claire's!

Lauren is 5!!!

Wow – I can’t believe my first born is a big 5 year old today! On Saturday we had her birthday party at the Iowa Gymnest! She had a GREAT time! She was able to invite 15 friends and they got to play on all the gym equipment for an hour and then for the last 30 min. we went back into our fun room (which had a big tree house/slide in it) and we ate cupcakes and ice cream and opened presents. I am so glad that so many friends were able to come and that everyone had a fun time running, jumping on the tramps, jumping into the “pit of cheese” and just playing together.

5 Things we LOVE about Lauren

1. Lauren has the tenderest heart – she never wants anyone to feel left out.

2. Lauren is the best big sister! She had to wait a long time for her little sister to join our family and she loves Liddy very much. She cannot be in a room and not be touching or kissing on Lydia.

3. Lauren loves to be outside! She loves to go on walks and find special treasures. She loves to throw rocks and sticks in the water and watch the ducks. And she loves to go camping and sit around the campfire and eat Smores and sleep in the tent.

4. Lauren loves to cuddle and watch movies! I love that she likes to cuddle now because she was not a cuddly baby. (I think she mostly likes the popcorn and orange julius we make when we watch movies together!)

5. She is a very social girl! She LOVES to play with her friends and she is so good at including everyone and having fun with anyone!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Lauren! We love you!

Going down the slide with a bunch of the girls

Lined up and ready to go into the gym to play

Learning the rules before taking off to play

The "pit of cheese" as the kids liked to call it!

This was one of the favorite places to play!

It also had a fun wall you climb. The kids liked to climb it and fall back into the pit.

Lauren ready to jump into the "pit of cheese"!

There she goes! (The funny thing here is that she won't jump 5 inches into the water but here she jumped 5 feet into a pit of styrofoam cubes!)

Anna, Lauren, and Claire playing at the gym

There were also some fun tramps to jump on!

This was another fun tramp the kids all took turns jumping on.

(the kids could also climb up on the pommel horse behind Keira and jump into the foam pit)

Back in our party room ready for cupcakes and ice cream!

Blowing out the candle on her cupcake!

Opening her presents from her friends!