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!