Sing, Eat, & Be Happy

We celebrated Audrey's 2nd birthday a few weekends ago with close family. We sang (Happy birthday, of course), we danced, and we ate cake- (what else?!) Audrey enjoyed opening her presents much more this year and is still talking about all of the fun. I can't believe how fast this last year has gone and how much she has changed. Thank you to everyone who came. Here are a few pictures, some from the video camera- so they're a bit pixel-y.

Too Old

For the last month, a little voice has been shouting "Happy Birthday to you!" on an hourly basis. Audrey turned 2 on April 14th,it was so much fun. When asked how old she is, she responds by saying "two old"... hopefully no grandparents nearby get the wrong idea. She loves hats and rarely goes anywhere without one. Quite often she'll carry the bag of diapers over her shoulder and say "see ya later, goin' to work." Between the clothing and outfit changes that occur at regular intervals and dragging around Mom and Dad's shoes, it is inevitable you will find yourself tripping over stuff all day long. These days everything she wants begins with a question which she answers. for example, we will hear "Do you want to go the Park? Yes I do." Are you all done? Yes I am." etc, etc, etc, and at least one more etc. She is so sweet to her little sister. We often find extremely large toys balanced in Bethany's extremely small lap, all because of Audrey's desire to share. She often tilts her head to the side and says in the sweetest little voice "Bethany cute." She has become Quite daring of late with her trips to the park. She climbs everything in sight, goes down all the slides, and loves climbing the ladder. The other day, she slipped on the ladder. Dad caught her, and said, its okay. For the rest of the day every time she climbed the ladder, she would whisper over and over "its okay, its okay." We could go on and on about our little "sweetpea" as she likes to be called. the truth is, we are head over heels in love with her, and our so lucky to have her in our lives.

Better Late Than Never

We have been having fun finger painting, playing dress-up, planting in our garden, and in between, trying to keep up with day-to-day life. So, here are a few of the pictures we took for Easter.

I Still Love Rock'n Roll

As many of you may know, I (Doug) have been playing guitar and singing with a group of friends for 11 years now. About 3 years ago, we started a project that began with simple intentions, and then grew to be a major undertaking. Referred to as the "Sides Project," it is a 3 disc set of music that began because of a desire to "document" several years of songwriting, and the end (or what we thought was going to be the end) of playing music together. It turned into a project that we joked about naming "Pomposity," due to our arrogance at releasing a 3 disc set of music. The three discs consist of A sides, which represents, in our opinion, the strongest and most cohesive material that we worked on, B sides, which is material that was good, but didn't seem to fit on A sides, and then C sides, which is a combination of outtakes and earlier recordings that we felt like sharing with the world.

We have been threatening to release this music for sometime now, but finally got ourselves in gear, and have created a blog that is designed to share our music with THE WORLD. Everything is available for download. From the album artwork, to virtually every song we have recorded in our long and often overrated time together, is free for you! There are pictures, videos, and reflections on the songs of the sides project. I hope everyone will click the link below, or in the sidebar, and visit Asher Music and wander through the site. Please feel free to make comments, and to pass the link to friends. Keep in mind that ignoring Asher Music is a form of heresy and is a punishable offense. Enjoy.

P.S. For those of you of the Bastian Clan, Richard Robbins was the star drummer on the sides project.

Blessing Bethany

At the beginning of February we started discussing Bethany’s blessing. Then we got caught up in our plans to travel to California (see post below). When we returned we realized that we were less than 2 weeks away from the blessing and had not told a soul. So, we are sorry for the short notice. We are blessing baby Bethany on March 2^nd in our home ward in Nibley. Sacrament meeting starts at 1:00 p.m. The address of the church is 1000 West 2840 South. After the meeting is over, we will be having a light lunch at our home. We would appreciate an e-mail or a call to let us know if you will be attending so we can make arrangements for food.

Sand May be Better than Snow

There is nothing like a nice warm february day. 70 degrees, blue skies, green grass. Of course, to find such a day in northern Utah is nearly impossible. In fear of collective hypothermia setting in on his entire family, Steve Pierson, Heather's Dad, decided on a whim to get everyone out of the cold as quickly as possible. Flights were booked, hotel rooms arranged, cars were rented, well worded excuses to bosses were rehearsed and then delivered all within a week. Steve and Claudia even convinced Emily and Spencer (Heather's brother and sister) to drop everything and hang out with the family for an entire week in California. To add to the chaos, Doug had a training to teach in Northern California the day before the trip was scheduled. Due to the prices in airline tickets, Doug flew out Thursday afternoon, taught his class friday and flew back to Salt Lake, arriving at 11:00 p.m. (2 hours earlier than expected due to good fortune catching standby seats), only to prepare for a departure at the airport at 6:45 the following morning.

In the end, we all managed to board a plane, Audrey in Doug's lap and Bethany in Heather's lap. (Needless to say that before traveling, a great deal of research was done by Heather to confirm that her children would be safe, and to find the best ways for them to be comfortable on the flight.) Audrey found the whole thing very exciting. She kept wanting to see "nother plane," and when she would see one, she would point and say "plane riiiiiight there." She giggled during take off, had fun, looking out the window, coloring, and playing with her dad and Grandparents, and laughed out loud when the breaks were engaged upon landing. Audrey loved traveling by plane. Soon we were enjoying incredible weather and a great time.

The first stop for anyone with any sense when arriving in southern California should be the beach, and so it was with us, where Audrey continued to run towards the ocean and then away as the waves approached until her feet were so cold that her Dad refused to allow her to continue. Sea World was the next exciting stop where Shamu was exciting, dolphins jumping 16 feet in the air were fun, Polar Bears were "wowowowowowowowowow" but above all were the starfish that Audrey got to touch and where she would have spent the whole day had her parents allowed her. To keep the adults entertained, a trip to The "USS Midway," a retired aircraft carrier that is now docked in San Diego and serves as a museum, was really impressive. For Doug, it was somewhat sobering to stand in the captain's meeting room where life and death decisions were made during military conflicts over the last 60 years and to reflect on the heroism of our Military. The last big stop was at the Wild Animal Park, which is the breeding grounds for The San Diego Zoo. The most exciting part was definitly standing 2 inches from the mouth of a huge male lion while he licked and played with one of 6 cubs that were climbing all over Dad and two larger mother lions who lounged nearby.

All in all, we managed to de-thaw, relax and have a lot of fun. We have to give special thanks to Steven and Claudia for their generosity. It was a great time. The pictures below were taken at 6:00 a.m. on the harbor where Audrey and Dad walked every morning on a particularly foggy day.

The "14th" Club

The Illustrious "14th Club" gained a new member December 14th, 2007. Bethany Nicole Moore was born with gusto, and joined sister Audrey Marie Moore (born April 14th, 2006) and Dad (born February 14th, 1978) in the exclusive club. Bethany certainly took an abnormal approach to joining the club. As you will see, she clearly did not want to be born too late.

Heather started having contractions around 5:00 a.m. We began to prepare for the big day by making sure that bags were packed and loaded into the car and that Audrey had people to watch her (Doug's mom in the morning and Heather's mom in the afternoon). Things progressed slowly. Heather's contractions were coming regularly but they were quite far apart and not too strong. As the day progressed, rather than getting stronger, they became weaker and further apart. At one point Heather thought about sending Doug back to work because she thought that she was having false labor.

Finally, things began to start moving. Heather had about 5 contractions in a row that were stronger and during these contractions, final preparations were made to go to the Hospital. Suddenly Heather's water broke. It was time to get going. Heather asked Doug to go get her some flip-flops to wear while she went to the bathroom and then we would go to the hopsital. By the time Doug got the flip-flops and got to the bathroom door, Heather shouted out "I think I am having the baby!" To this Doug asked "Can you feel it?" Heather Responded "Yes, Get In Here!" Doug immediately opened the door and found Heather holding the baby below her. Bethany was here! Doug ran in and grabbed her from Heather, checked to see if she was breathing (She was crying...ah, relief) and then checked to see if she really was "Bethany," and not "unkown male"(A Girl! Good work ultrasound lady).

Heather's mother was out in the hall with Audrey during all of this. Audrey looked a little surprised by all that was going on, but quickly found her toys more interesting than "the miracle of birth." As Doug gave the baby to Heather to breastfeed, Heather's Mom called 911. We were instructed to wrap her in a towel and wipe her mouth and nose clean. This was the easy part. The next instruction was to tie off the umbilical chord 6 inches from the baby. Doug went in search of a string, and soon remembered that his friend James Krause had a similar experience a couple of years ago, and used his shoelace. Doug whipped off a shoe lace, tied an overhand knot, and then after careful consideration determined to finish it off with a square knot.

About this time, the EMT's showed up. Dad was given the honors of cutting the umbilical chord (the EMT even let him keep the scissors). Heather was still in the bathroom, so we moved down the hall to the front door, and Heather and baby were loaded onto a gurney. As Heather was being wheeled out of the door, she looked up at Audrey, put on a big smile and said "I love you, Audrey." At this one of the EMT's said "Oh, that's it, this is the ultimate Mom." Dad had to agree.

Mom and baby arrived at the hospital in excellent health. Heather felt much better than she had during the previous delivery (She had only experienced about 5 hard contractions to deliver Bethany, and isn't really sure if she pushed or not, it happened so fast). Bethany was 6 lbs 15 oz. and 19.5 inches long, making her they exact measurements of Audrey.

Since delivery, both Mom and Baby are doing excellent. Baby has already gained about 2/3 lbs, and eats like a horse. This is a welcome change from a challenging feeding experience for the first few months with Audrey.

It has been an excellent Christmas. We are enjoying our new family member, and are so grateful that everything went so well. Below are several pictures of baby Bethany that Heather took. Enjoy.