three peas in a pod

madeleine, alice, ainsley

with my dad being on the older end of eight children, i got to enjoy the rare experience of being pregnant at the same time as my aunts. my aunt sally had alice shill linford on november 9, 2007, my aunt jennifer had ainsley sorensen linford on december 18, 2007, and madeleine followed a week later on christmas day. we were all together at my cousin's bridal shower on saturday and took some fun pictures.

Gordon B. Hinckley

june 23, 1910 - january 27, 2008

our beloved prophet, gordon b. hinckley, died yesterday of natural causes, surrounded by his family. i just wanted to share a few of my feelings about what a wonderful man he was.

president hinckley has been the president and prophet of the church for the majority of my life, and definitely throughout the impressionable years. his counsel and guidance to the members of the church has been very influential in my life and as i have listened to his talks in general conference and other meetings, i have gained a greater testimony of the importance of modern day prophets that guide and direct us in this world.

he has taught us the importance of temples on the earth and has been crucial in the construction of so many temples around the world. has taught the youth of the church of the need to be grateful, smart, clean, true, humble, prayerful, positive, and still. he has taught the need for husbands and wives to love and care for one another and was a wonderful example of that in his relationship with his own wife. he testified of the truths of the gospel, of the restoration of the gospel, and was a special witness of jesus christ. he was a man of god and was the ordained prophet to guide and direct the church. he truly gave his life in the service of god.

we will miss president hinckley, his constantly optimistic outlook on life and his sweet sense of humor, but i am so glad that he finally gets to rest and be reunited with his wife. and even though we will miss him, i know that president monson will step up and fill his new role as prophet and the work will roll forward.

happy birthday mom

it was my mom's birthday yesterday (i meant to get this up yesterday, but didn't get to it) and i just wanted to say what a wonderful mom she is. she has always been such a great example of hard work and selflessness and has been especially helpful as a grandma with madeleine, coming down from sandy twice a week to watch her. she is not just my mom, but my best friend and i don't know what i'd do without her. happy birthday mom!

one month old!

madeleine turned one month old yesterday. hard to believe! she is so much fun. we didn't take as many pictures this last week, so i don't have that many to post, sorry.

going back to work hasn't been as bad as i thought it would be. don't get me wrong, it's not fun for me to leave everyday, but it hasn't been as heartwrenching as i thought it would be. it helps that she's with randy or my mom when i'm gone and that i come home at lunch to see her. randy has been a great sport to give up a lot of practice and study time to take care of her and is doing a great job as mr. mom. i think it's given him some good perspective about how much work childcare really is. now he understands why i wasn't able to shower before 2:00 on a couple of days during my maternity leave and why i assaulted him with conversation when he would get home from campus because i was so happy to finally have some adult interaction.

madeleine is growing more and more every day. i haven't weighed her since 11.5 pounds, but i'm sure she's up from that. look at those chubby cheeks. perhaps she's hiding a rattle or a stuffed animal in each. or maybe she just eats a lot.

in other milestones, we have had three GREAT nights of sleep in a row this week and it seems that she is settling into a bit more of a schedule in general. she has been in bed by 10:00 or 10:30 for the past few nights and only gotten up to feed a couple times and goes right back down after eating. let's hope it continues...

i had a friend tell me that madeleine has rock star hair and i think that she's right. it's especially great right after she gets out of the bath (picture on the left). by the end of the day (picture on the right), the back is this wonderful mess. too much fun.

randy's trio

randy's been playing in a trio since last semester and they decided to start gigging, so they've been busy getting ready for that. they just got business cards printed (thanks rhonda!), took pictures last weekend with kathryn's roommate, who is an awesome photographer and got some great shots, are getting a website up soon (kathrynmerriamtrio.com, thanks dad!), and are playing at the bridal fair on next saturday in hopes of drumming up some business. i'm really proud of the hard work that randy has put into this whole process.

a night out on the town

it's funny, one of the biggest changes that i've had to get used to since having madeleine is that i don't get to just get up and go to concerts any more. last semester, randy and i went to at least a concert a week, so this has been a big change. in general, it hasn't been that big of a deal, but a couple times it has been a little hard to miss the concerts. like a few weeks ago, randy went to a piano faculty concert for robin hancock and when he came home and talked about how awesome it was, it made me a little sad. oh well, such is the life of a new mom.

about 6 months ago, randy and i bought a package of tickets to jazz at the sheraton. we got tickets for three concerts, with the main reason being that we wanted to be able to get in to see brad mehldau in february.

we had our first concert in the series on monday night, a night of antonio carlos jobim music. my parents were good enough to take madeleine during the concert and randy and i had our first real date without her since she's been born. it was really nice to go and have some adult time together without being interrupted by a little baby (although we love that little baby).

the performance was really great, with a great flautist (i normally am opposed to flutes in jazz, but it works with jobim's music), and an even better drummer, jeff hamilton. my favorite selection of the night was "one note samba," played as a duet with just the flautist and drummer. it was really cool.

so thanks for a night out on the town mom and dad. it was nice to feel a little cultured again.

week 3

well, our little girl is almost four weeks old. hard to believe. she is pretty much grown out of her newborn clothes and is about 11.5 pounds and growing fast. she is still adorable. as evidenced by my last post, this hasn't been her best sleeping week (for those of you who laughed when i boasted about how well she was sleeping at first, i did make the disclaimer that i realized it could change at her whim) and i'm really hoping that it will improve quickly.


this is when i realized that she was out of newborn clothes. no, that is not supposed to be a 3/4 length sleeve. it looks like she may be cursed with her parent's gangly arms that don't really work in long sleeves.


yes, we're all feeling that way this week. but we still love her.

mama, if that's movin' out then i'm movin' out

in the middle of a very frustrating night last night, i made an emotionally driven decision. i kicked madeleine out... and i'm pretty sure that it's permanent. i know that it sounds rash, but i really think that it's best for all of us.

you see, up until now, she's been sleeping in a bassinet in our room.
the idea was that this would facilitate late night feedings and bedtime in general. however, the reality is that this means i hear every little movement and grunt, every whimper, and of course, all of the crying. it also means that as soon as i hear those noises, i hurry and get her out of bed because i don't want her to wake randy up, and in my late night, blurry-eyed, half awake mentality, i assume that all of these noises mean that she must be hungry.

well, at 2:30 in the morning last night, after she had still not gone down for the night, i decided that enough was enough, and like i said, i kicked our little girl out. i made an executive decision that it is time for her to move into her crib, in the other room, where i won't start at every noise and where she can hopefully calm herself down after waking up more often than i've been letting her.

at first she didn't like it...
but she got used to the idea.
and we all slept a lot better after that.
sometimes you've just got to let the kids go and move out on their own.

almost three weeks old

another week has passed and madeleine is almost three weeks old. in some ways it feels like she was just born, and yet i feel like we've had her forever. she gets bigger and bigger every day. i'm trying to think of any milestones she's had... this week her cord finally fell off, so she had her first real bath and also had a shower. randy got her to smile a couple times today, and she continues to entertain us with her myriad facial expressions. she's just a joy in general.

alright, enough talking, on to the pictures.

big yawn.
already playing peek-a-boo.
ready for bath time. this is our first whimsical purchase for her. randy and i were at babies 'r' us, looking for some burp cloths and randy saw this bathrobe. we couldn't help ourselves. it says 0-9 months, but i think that she still has some growing to do before it will really fit her.

one week older

well, it's been a week since i've posted any pictures of madeleine, so i figure it's about time to update you on her growth. she is more adorable every day.

i love this next series of pictures of her. i realize that they are pretty much all the same, but i can't help myself from posting all of them.



probably just gas, but the smile is still cute.



madeleine hanging out with her cousins.


madeleine with her grandmas.

after bath time.
two snowflake ladies.