Hey everybody! It's been a crazy few months but I have some exciting news, however first you need some back-story. I've been in med school for about 3 months now and it's true what they say: it's really hard. I've learned a lot of stuff and I'm not sure exactly how to explain it but I think I can feel myself getting smarter. Like when you work out at the gym a lot and you can feel yourself getting stronger, except I've been working out my brain so I'm getting smarter. It' weird and frustrating and cool all at the same time- just like med school! The thing is this takes a lot of time and I haven't been around as much as I was before school started, so I've been worried that I'm missing out on all the cool Suvi related stuff that's going on. But! This morning I learned that I have nothing to fear. I was cleaning up the kitchen while Suvi played and April napped (she spent quite a bit of last night up with Suvi because she's an amazing mom and needed some sleep this morning) and I noticed that Suvi was being quiet in the next room. Not usually a great sign. So I go to investigate and what do I find? Suvi has found my skateboards and is standing on one of them. Like this:

You may notice that I dressed her in her most punk rock outfit too. She's still just like me even though I'm not around as much as I want to be. I guess it's just part of that special daddy-daughter bond. Life is awesome.

Suvi's Birthday!

So my baby is a year old today!

I honestly am having a hard time wrapping my head around it. So instead of doing some mind bending I think I am just going to flash back to one year ago today and reminisce on Suvi's birth story. After all it is her "birth" day anniversary! So one year ago yesterday. was Labor day! And surprise I went into labor on Labor day! So we spent the day with my family and had a BBQ and ate yummy food. I had a few contractions but they were spaced far apart so i didn't think anything of them. We went home and the Jepsons came over and we played Monkey scrabble, and I had a few more contractions. We went to bed that night at about 11ish. And Ben fell asleep quickly and   I laid in bed and was uncomfortable, so I got up and went out to the living room and put on the "Big Bang Theory" and laid on the couch, and it turned out that I really was in labor and the contractions got more and more intense and closer together. But I was still dozing in between until about 4 am when they were really picking up. I was timing them and when they were between 3-5 minutes apart I finally went in and woke up Ben.  He was so confused when i went into the bedroom and told him that we needed to go to the hospital. I had let him sleep through all of the laboring at home, which he later told me was something that he wanted to help me get through. But I think it was better for both of us that he slept and i didn't get frustrated with him trying to be helpful. Maybe with the next one we can try it together. Anyways we headed to the hospital, which was a 20 minute drive. We went up to the maternity floor and it was nice and quite, it was just after 5 when we got there. So they took me in and checked to see how far that I was dilated. I was just praying that I was far enough along that they would keep me. I really did not want to get sent home. And I was dilated to a 5 so I got to stay. They took me in and got my IV started and all the monitors set up and by that time it was almost 6. They asked me how I felt and if I wanted an epidural. And I always said that I would go as long as I could without it and then I would get an epidural, but when they asked I was at that point where I would be much happier with it. So I said yes and the NA came on at 6 so i was his very first patient of the morning. When it started working I was a happy "in labor" camper! I called work and told them I wasn't going to be in that day I was a little busy having a baby. Ben was great all through everything. Except he keep eating yummy smelling things near me. But after I got the epidural I actually took a nap for a little while.  The Dr came in and checked me about 8ish and broke my water, at that point I was at about a 7. I was progressing along but Suvi's heart beat started to slow down with every contraction, so they put the little heart monitor on her head. At about noon the nurse checked me and I was at a 9. But it was only about 15 minutes later I got super uncomfortable, and I felt like I needed to push, so I had Ben get the nurse and she checked me again, and I was fully dilated and so she called the Dr, and we did some practice pushes. The Dr. got there quickly and from that point everything was pretty much a whirlwind. Her heart beat was still dropping so the Dr. wanted to get her out quickly, so I got an episiotomy and then I pushed a couple time and Ben said he could see brown hair, and I was so confused, our baby couldn't have brown hair! But I think i might have forgot that it was coming out of me, I was kinda under a little bit of stress. So I pushed for 5 minutes and at 12:48 pm our little Suvi was born. Ben cut the cord. And the Dr. asked us if we had any guesses on the weight, we were clueless, but he guessed 7 lbs 9 oz. and that is exactly what she was! We had a good doctor! She was a little blue, but they gave her some oxygen and she pinked right up. She was perfect and has been ever since! Happy Birthday Suvi!

Suvi took her first steps today! It was awesome! My sister Celeste is in town visiting for just a couple of days, I was home from my crazy class/ study schedule, and we were all in the room! It was awesome! Suvi has officially started walking- and it happened during the Olympics! I think this is a portent of things to come.

So while I'm here I think I'll bring people up to speed on what's up with the med school journey. I've been drowning in info since my second day. It's not hard stuff it's just the sheer volume of it. It turns out that med school is hard! But! We found some really nice people to be friends with and a bunch of really nice people we could be friends with. I've got a great study group. I even have a consistent daily schedule that involves keeping up with classes and spending time with my family. Things are going pretty good. Well, I need to get back to studying- it's only 11:30 PM so I'm not done yet. I will try to post on here from time to time though.

Post by April

 I know what you are thinking - really April is going to post on her own blog. It is true! I know that Ben has been the one to keep the blog updated. But it will be a little bit harder for him now that classes for med school start today. It has been a crazy month. I am learning to love it here and I am hoping that it will only get better. The ward here is so nice and friendly. We have a lot of good members and they are very welcoming to the students here.
 I think that is going to be my saving grace - the abundance of nice people. Our very nice neighbor brought over a ginormous tomato to say welcome to the neighborhood. Honestly this thing was probably the biggest tomato I have seen in real life. I think we ate it for four meals. Sandwiches three time and just a bowl of slices once.

I have the most adorable baby girl. I will never get tired of being told how cute she is!  It is crazy that we have had to make sure that she has been obviously dressed as a girl. With meeting so many new people, we have been trying to keep her in pink so that people will think that she is a girl. It is the curse of the bald babies, they all look like boys. She has also got a new tooth on the top. It is a crazy big tooth and I thought we were going to go crazy waiting for it to come through. I seriously think that it took two weeks for that tooth to come through. 

We finally got a desk for Ben's study room and now I feel like our house is almost home. We will see.

Suvi's new tooth on the top!

playing peekabo with Daddy

So in the week that we've been living in Tennessee I have learned a few things about our new home.


       1- If you live in Tennessee you root for the University of Tennessee, the Volunteers. They are the volunteers because Tennessee has had more soldiers in every war in America's history than any other state, from the Civil War to the War currently happening in the Middle East. The unofficial fight song is Rocky Top which, I have been told, we need to memorize immediately. Also, it is very important that we root for UT (go Vols!) in football, but most people don't care about basketball. So it should be ok for me to keep my promise of being a UK fan that Dr. Seeley made us enter in biomechanics at BYU. (He got his doctorate at UK and is now a die-hard wildcat.) Also, UT has 2 important rivalries. Alabama and Florida, and unlike New England where you don't have to love the Red Sox but you do have to hate the Yankees, it's not enough to just root against the bad guys here, you really do have to be all for the Vols.

       2- Tennessee really is a tropical environment. We have already driven twice in rain so hard that you can't drive faster than 35 mph. It literally looks like someone is pouring a never-ending bucket of water on the windshield. It's amazing. Then yesterday on the way to the movie (we saw Spider-Man which was amazing! and which we payed 5.50 for 2 tickets to see it- also amazing!) the windshield fogged up after the rain but the fog was on the OUTSIDE of the glass! I couldn't believe it. It's like the town of Middlesboro was breathing on our windshield to fog it up. It is seriously humid here. Further on that note, we have a mimosa tree in our front yard. We also have a holly bush, a hibiscus, and a stand of bamboo in the back. I believe this place is tropical now.

       3- We really did move to the South. We went to a laundromat the other day and there were 6 people in 3 different families that I could not understand. I pride myself on being able to speak easily with anyone regardless of accent. I picked up maybe 1/3 of what they were putting down. My mother-in-law had to pretend to be hard of hearing just communicate with them! Then at the farmer's market (that's where we buy our produce, in case you had a doubt about how far out in the country we are), there was a very friendly lady who told our baby to, "Get that suckie outta your mouth." That's a new word for us. Finally at Wal-mart yesterday we stopped by the deli counter to get some meat and cheese for philly cheese steaks and it took 30 minutes after the guy started helping us. Also at Wal-mart, every single aisle had at least 2 people who had stopped in the middle of everything to have an extended conversation. Some people stayed there for 10 or 15 minutes. It's a little different here than anywhere else I've lived. Here's a story from our own neighborhood- we wanted to make cookies but didn't have any vanilla, so I got sent out to get some from a neighbor. I found someone at home and after refusing to "set a spell" 7 times I finally took a seat and eventually returned (after over 30 minutes) with the vanilla, a baby book for Suvi, and a new set of friends. I think I like it here, but it will be an adjustment.

       4- There are more people going to DCOM from church than I expected. There are about a half dozen 2nd years, but the impressive stat is that there are 11 first years that just moved in. I have 10 classmates at church! That's like 3 times what I was expecting. Oh- and we are just about the closest family to the building. We are almost exactly 1 mile from church! So close! We might just walk one Sunday if the weather looks nice.

       5- I have also learned that April is amazing! Since we got here we (and by we I mean April and her mom, and me kind of helping) have started a garden, made bread from scratch (which was amazing), made tortillas from scratch (dinner tonight, I'll let you know how well they make burritos), made 2 kinds of biscuits from scratch, I made waffles (I'm cool too I promise!), they also made 2 kinds of cookies (one of which was filled with so many substitutions that it was doomed to failure from the beginning, like yogurt instead of butter and applesauce instead of sugar and stuff- and it was STILL delicious!) one of which they invented (see previous parenthetical observation), and every meal we've had since we unpacked the kitchen has been home-cooked awesomeness. Something tells me that April will do just fine out here in TN. I may even start an April Willford fan club. So look for that in the future, club dues are $20 and due at the start of every calendar month week. You can send checks or use our paypal account. (just kidding- kind of, a med school budget isn't glamorous) Seriously though, she's amazing and I love to brag about her.

Suvi exploring all the rooms in our house!

Our front door, complete with welcome sign.

The sunset from our front porch

Cute Suvi in her Tennessee summer weather appropriate outfit!

We made chocolate chip cookies and this one had a smiley face in chocolate chips. And then April "Chomped away at it, and it was yummy in my tummy."

I hope this gives a good picture of our experience in Tennessee thus far, and we plan to keep everyone posted on what's happening with the Willfords. Look for more pictures to soon be featured on the family blog!

Hello everyone! We have arrived in Tennessee and are settling in. We had quite an adventure across the country with 10 month old Suvi in the backseat and me in the truck that had all our earthly possessions in the back. I have a few comments about the road trip.

First things first, without mothers we never would have made it here. My mom came up from San Diego and helped us load the truck and she was amazing! Nothing even fell over all the way across the country- and there were a few times that (due to road construction) I think I caught air in the truck. April's mom has been a consistent lifesaver from the first hour of the trip. Keeping Suvi entertained all the way across Nebraska, remembering things you need in a house (it turns out it's hard to move into a completely empty house when you're not emptying another one into it), and being generally awesome. I've learned that you never outgrow your mother. Thanks moms! You really are the best!

Wyoming is a terrible place to eat at restaurants, Nebraska despite being boring to drive through is charming and has great restaurants, and Missouri is where Carl's Jr. becomes Hardee's. Also, Hardee's is not as good as Carl's. I was sad to see that only half of their burgers come with lettuce, which as anyone who knows me will tell you is the hallmark of a good burger- way too much lettuce is a requirement in my book. We also took a few detours through Mexico, Canada, Columbia, Sidney, Versailles, Hamburg, London, two Lexingtons, two Syracuses, two Boonvilles (apparently Daniel Boon is big on the "western frontier" there were also Boontowns, Boonburgs, etc), Wentzville, and stayed the night in Mt. Vernon. It was quite a road trip, as many of those places aren't even on our continent! Also, I owe the great state of Utah a formal apology. I have long thought that Utah has the worst road construction situation in the country. Now I know that the place that deserves that dubious honor is actually St. Louis Missouri. I almost died twice through that one town. It's awful. And I called my friend Jennifer to tell her this and started with, "Utah isn't the worst place to drive in the country." Before I could say anything else she blurted out, "Because of St, Louis right?" Yes! In the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses shall every word be established. (1 Cor 13:2) We also passed Stinking Creek. It's about 13 miles from where we live.

Suvi did really well on the trip, but adjusting to life outside of the car seat has been tough for her. Not as much attention being aimed in her direction. She is dealing well with the humidity though. Better than we are at least. Oh, and it hasn't stopped raining since we got here. Very green but I'm missing the sun. We did find bookshelves at big lots, we got 4 of them, I assembled all of them myself and I only put one of them together upside down. I feel good about that. We also have an actual back yard, and a front yard, complete with a hibiscus, a holly, wild strawberries, and 2 small garden locations. It's gorgeous. Our neighbors are all really friendly, but the ones that border our back yard don't have the best hygiene. I took a picture, so you'll see what I mean, they're really messy and there's just no talking to them. Oh well, I'll be spending most of my days up on campus studying anyway. Well, I think that's about it. We're here, we're excited and I'm actually starting med school in about a week and a half (I went up to campus to double check yesterday)! So everyone keep in touch! Call us, write emails, comment on the blog and on facebook, whatever. We miss everyone so much! Well, I need to go call someone about a used washer and dryer set, but here ar the pics I told you about:

Ok, so our little family spent 2 days hiking in southern Utah, and it was AMAZING! We spent Wednesday at Arches National Park, which is incredible. It doesn't have the variety of Zion or the in-your-face-ness of Bryce but the formations there are simply unbelievable. Delicate Arch is ridiculous. You hike up the side of an enormous rock, I guess it's a small mountain but it looks like a single piece of rock to me. Then you go along the top of a cliff which has a nice view of some classic southern Utah landscape and as you round the bend around the cliff face delicate arch just punches you in face. It's amazing. And it's huge! I had no idea! It was amazing. Also, because we hiked it with Suvi strapped to me we were the most popular people on the hike. Everyone said things like, what an adorable baby, and you hiked all the way up here with her on your chest? And afterward we went to dinner at Subway and everyone recognized our baby. And us by association. It was great.

The next day we went to Goblin Valley and Little Wild Horse Canyon. Goblin Valley is the perfect paintball arena. Everywhere in the valley there are large rock formations called goblins that are basically small hoodoos that are really easy to climb on top of. It's way cool. So we took some great pictures and had an awesome game of hide and seek (I was at a disadvantage because I was carrying Suvi at the time).

Then we went to Little Wild Horse which was absolutely incredible! It is a slot canyon in the San Rafael Swell and there are places where the walls are close enough to touch with both hands and go up for 200 or 300 feet above you. Seriously awesome. We also saw some really cool designs in the rock, which is sandstone so it melts in the rain and looks like muscle fibers.

I think this muscle is called petrificus longus with petrificus brevis beneath.

Flash forward to last week. Suvi is amazing. I know that all of you already know this but I just want to point out that it's true. So Suvi and grandma Jones were reading the Velveteen Rabbit and halfway through the story there's a scene with real bunnies and Suvi goes to her toy bucket and grabs one of her toy bunnies and points at the picture of the bunny in the book. That shouldn't be possible. She also helps us unload the dishwasher. She grabs the silverware and hold it up one piece at a time for you to grab and put in the drawer. She's just amazing. So to finish the vacation story, we stopped by uncle Ryan's place in Scofield State Park and seeing as how Suvi is so far ahead in development, we decided to get her a gun. Don't worry, it's just a pellet gun. Ok, that's Ryan's potgut gun, but Suvi sure did like it. Just like her mama.

So that finishes up that vacation. There are some other things that happened before the move (which officially starts tomorrow at about 5 am), but we'll have to wait till Tennessee to post about those. I hope these pictures will keep everyone happy till then. And we promise to post more often in the future.