John Turns 1!

On August 3rd John turned one year old! We celebrated on his actual birthday by having a google hangout with family where we sang to him and had him eat his cake. He was actually pretty clean with his cake and slowly ate little pieces. He loved opening presents and having lots of attention. The weekend after his birthday we had some friends in the area over for a train themed party. We ate lunch and enjoyed watching John open his presents. John weighs 19.6 lbs and is 28.5 inches tall. He is a very happy calm baby and loves to laugh and smile. He is walking around furniture and discovering new things everyday. His favorite games are still peek a boo and chase. He absolutely loves his stuffed puppy and sleeps with it every night. The puppy's nose has become his teething toy and is quickly getting worn out. John is a good eater and I love spending every day with him. This has definitely been the best year ever! 

4th of July 2014

We had a fun 4th of July weekend this year! On Friday the 4th we started out our morning with a flag ceremony and breakfast at our branch church house. It was fun and there was delicious food including yummy biscuits and gravy! After that we drove around for a little looking at houses that were for sale in the area. We didn't see anything that looked too interesting. That evening Michael's friend Drew from high school came over from Texas for the weekend. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and had my family's traditional american flag decorated dream whip cheesecake dessert. That night we headed to downtown New Orleans to watch the battling barges firework show. We were able to catch most of them with a great view. John luckily enjoyed the fireworks and kept pointing at them. He didn't cry even though they were pretty loud. We walked around for a bit after the fireworks and enjoyed the fun holiday spirit. There was a lot of people playing music and it was cool to see the river at night. 

On Saturday we went to the Destrehan plantation across the river and did a tour. It was neat to see all of the grounds and learn about the history of the old house. We then went to the garden district of New Orleans which is an old historic neighborhood with large beautiful homes and nice landscaping. It was cool to walk around the neighborhood and enjoy the quietness even though it is so close to downtown. We then went back downtown to walk more around the french quarter, Jackson square, and the french market. We made sure Drew tried the famous beignets at the Cafe du Monde. We headed back home very tired after the long day of exploring the area. We enjoyed seeing Drew and it gave us a chance to explore the area where we live since we haven't seen much yet. 

We didn't take very many pictures unfortunately but here are a couple from the fireworks. 

Michael, John, and Drew watching the fireworks

Happy 4th of July from the Albretsen Family!

John

Well John has changed quiet a bit since I last posted at 7 months. He is now 11 months old and he is learning new things everyday. In the last 3 months he has learned to wave goodbye, blow kisses, scoot around, pull himself up to his knees, and as of today pull himself up to standing. He can now say "yeah" "mom" Dada" "no no no" and "amen." He loves getting into just about anything he shouldn't. We have to keep a close eye on this guy. He loves to study everything and figure out how it works (just like his dad.) He loves opening and shutting doors, and thinks he is sneaky when he drops food on the floor or spits it out after putting it in his mouth. He loves all fruit and although he like vegetables and other food as well we lately have had to with hold his fruit intake until he has eaten his other food. He is small for his age and was 17.5 lbs at his last doctor's appointment. He loves being tickled and playing tag. He is so fun and keeps life interesting. We are so blessed to have him and can't wait to keep seeing him grow and progress. Time just seems to be going by so fast. 

John at 8 months

John after he first scooted 8.5 months

pulling himself up to his knees 8 months

John at 9 months

John at 10 months. He can now scoot the fire truck around on his own. He just cant turn :)

John at 11 months

His sneaky smile that I have been seeing often lately :)

Midwest trip

This year our big trip was a trip to the Midwest. Michael had to work in Chicago for a few days so

we started out our adventure driving up to Chicago where we stayed with Mike's cousins Lincoln and Tracey for day and spent time with them. We enjoyed hanging out with them and John and Bennett did a pretty good job playing together. We then headed to Libertyville (North of Chicago) to my Uncle and Aunt's house. John and I stayed there a few days while Michael was working in Chicago. We enjoyed spending time with them and seeing their beautiful home. I don't get to visit them often so we enjoyed the time we spent with them. 

    Michael spent the few days doing some training and then the last day was a banquet where they ended his year in the training program he has been in. They called it a graduation but Michael does not like that description since it was not like one at all. He did get a nice certificate that they had framed and he now has the official tittle of Operations Supervisor here at the Louisiana plant. They also informed us that we will be here for at least one to two more years and then it all depends on what is available in the company and what we want to do. 

After Michael finished his few days with work I picked him up and we spent a few hours in downtown Chicago before heading to Kalamazoo. We went to Millennium Park and Navy Pier. It was fun to see a small part of Chicago since I had never been. We then drove to Kalamazoo where Mike's parents live. Mike's grandparents and sister Jen and her kids were there as well. It was so fun to spend time with so much family. We spent the weekend going to museums and to a beach on Lake Michigan in South Haven. We had a lot of fun. On Sunday we were lucky to be able to be there for Mike's brother Brian getting set apart as an Elder in the church. It was a neat experience and we are glad we were able to be there to support him in this advancement. We spent the whole next week in Michigan with Mike's family. We had so much fun. It was a much needed break. I felt so spoiled to have dinner cooked for us every night and so many people willing to watch  and play with John. On Thursday we spent the morning with Nate and Deborah and there kids for a quick hello since we were only a couple hours away. Michael enjoyed spending time with their 4 boys. 

On Friday we said our goodbyes to Mike's  family and headed down to West Lafayette, Indiana. Mike has an adopted Grandma and Aunt who live there. John and I have never met them and it has been 5 years since Mike has seen them. It was great to get to meet them and spend a night with them. They were so nice and friendly. They truly feel like family.  They drove us around the area and showed us their old house where Michael remembers going often to play as a kid. It was fun to see some of the areas he grew up in. 

Saturday morning we said goodbye to Grandma Helen and Aunt Donna and began our long drive back to Louisiana. We did make a stop in Mahomet, Illinois where Michael lived for awhile growing up. We drove past his old house and the old schools he and his siblings went to. It was fun to get to know more about his growing up years and to see parts of the country I have never seen before. 

We had a safe drive home and all went well minus John having a fever the whole day. He unfortunately was sick for a few days after our trip but we did have so much fun and made so many wonderful memories. Thanks to everyone who hosted us during the trip and made it such a wonderful experience! 

John and I at Millennium Park in Chicago 

At The Bean in Chicago

Michael and John at Navy Pier

The Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier

Eve and John in the restaurant at the Kalamazoo Museum

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John and Samuel at the restaurant 

Eve and Michael making us yummy food

 John and Michael at the Marina Museum in South Haven

Michael, John, and I at the Marina

He is just so cute!

All of us who were there for Brian's ordination (except John who was sleeping during the picture)

John playing in the Doll House

John enjoying his first smore in Michigan

This is out of order but this is John and Bennett at Lincoln and Tracey's 

John playing with Coco and Popcorn my Aunt and Uncle's puppies

He loved them!

Eve, Sam, and John with Grandma in South Haven

John and I in Lake Michigan! It was a little cold but not as cold as I thought it would be. 

It took John a little to get use to the water but he loved it after a couple minutes. 

John with Grandma Helen

John with Aunt Donna

April and May catch up

So I am very very behind in my blogging. This is my attempt to catch up! In April we were lucky to have our firsts guests in Louisiana! Mike's parents and brothers came to visit us the first weekend in April. We had so much fun visiting plantations, checking out downtown New Orleans, and just hanging out spending time together. It was a great weekend and we were so glad they made the long drive to come see us! 

Downtown New Orleans Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral

The family at Destrehan Plantation

We had so much fun celebrating John's first Easter this year! 

We took some Easter photos of John. He is just too cute!

This was taken at our branch Easter pic nic. We had a great turn out and 

enjoyed spending a day at the park. John loves being outside! 

Easter morning John woke up to some candy and gifts from the Easter bunny

He got a new swimsuit! 

John and I on Easter Sunday

Our little family after church on Easter Sunday. This is the 

best part of Easter. Celebrating the real meaning of Easter and the sacrifice our 

Savior made for us. 

In May I had the fun opportunity to go to Novi, Michigan and watch Nate and Deborah's kids while they took an anniversary trip to Florida. John and I spent 5 days there and had so much fun. They were such good kids and were so good to John. It was fun to get to know them better and make memories with them. 

John had fun playing the piano there as well. 

That about sums up our fun adventures in April and May. We are adjusting the south and enjoying our time here. It is getting plenty warm and humid but we like the people and the adventure we are having!

When it rains it pours....

Well we have officially been in Louisiana a week and a half and what a crazy week and a half it has been. You know the saying "when it rains it pours"? well that just sums up our last week in the good and bad sense. We headed out on March 8th for Louisiana and had a very nice and uneventful drive down (unless you count the diaper explosion). We felt very lucky to have the drive go so smoothly. We stayed at a hotel for a couple days till our stuff arrived once we got there. This is when all the craziness began. Apparently the tenants in the house before us had trouble paying their bills and as a result we had a lot of difficulty getting our utilities turned on. I began working on this the Monday after we arrived in hopes it would be all taken care of by the time we moved in. Well unfortunately this was not the case at all. We thought the electricity would be turned on Wednesday the day we moved inand we were waiting to here back from the gas company. When we got to the house on Wednesday therewas no electricity. Michael called them and due to a mix up we needed to fax them our lease (which we didn't have one) and then 2-3 business days after they receive that they would turn on our power. SoMichael hurried over to the church that we are renting from, they made up a lease, he signed it and they faxed it. All we could do was wait. That night we were blessed to have a lot of people from the branch here show up to help us move in. This was very nice because with no electricity it gets dark quick in the house. They went above and beyond to give us flashlights and even get us a generator to make it through the night. Once the sun was up it was not too bad but the downside was we had no heat. If it were just Michael and I this would not be a problem but we have John and Thursday morning when we woke up it was 55 degrees in the house. John had ended up spending most of the night in our bed and none of us had slept well. Just when its bad the good comes. That day Mike's boss called a friend at the electric company and our power was turned on that day! Yay! We were also invited to the branch presidents house for dinner which was nice not to worry about that since we had no food because our fridge was not here yet. We went and had a great dinner and as we got in our car to leave it would not go into any other gear. Let me tell you as much as it sucks to have your car break down there is not better place to have it do that then at the branch presidents house. We got the car towed to a auto shop and the branch president took us to the airport to pick up a rental car. When we got home that night we were discouraged to discover that our heat used hot water to heat the house so the electricity had done nothing for that. We spent another very cold night in our house with little sleep. We also had started bugging the gas company more wanting to get hot water in the house and heat. They seemed to not be able to help us at all and just kept saying someone would contact us within 10 business days to let us know what to do next. So frustrating!! Friday the car place called and our transmission had gone out so we said goodbye to the ford taurus! Friday night we were invited to a fish fry at Mike's boss' house. It was so fun. We got to experience real southern louisiana cooking. We had fresh fried catfish, crap boil, and shrimp boil. I am not a seafood person but I will admit it was pretty good. I felt like I was on an episode of duck dynasty. It was just like it. They way everyone talked and dressed. It was awesome. On Saturday we got our refrigerator! Which was exciting and we also spent the day car shopping and came home with a new 2014 Toyota corolla. We had no intention of getting a brand new car that morning but as we looked around it was the only thing we felt good about. Yay for a new car! Saturday afternoon we got a call as well letting us know that someone from the branch was bringing us dinner! Great I still had yet to have to cook without a stove! We also had dinner brought to us Sunday, Monday, and yesterday. Our gas was finally turned on yesterday as well and things are starting to feel back to normal. Sorry this is so long but as much as things went wrong this last week we were also blessed beyond belief. The branch here has helped us so much as well as Mike's boss. We had a camping stove brought to us, movies, a portable heater and food. We had people come help us unpack on Monday and watch John as well as a family in the branch let us shower at their house Saturday night so we could have a warm shower. Everyone here has been so generous and thoughtful. It may be a small branch but they have the biggest hearts. Before we left Utah everyone would talk about how great it is that we could go and help this branch here but I am so humbled as they have done nothing but help me and our family. This could have been an awful week but it has been a crazy and fun one. I have made friends and feel more at home that I ever thought I would. Thanks to all those who have blessed our lives and made our trials easy to bear! 

On the drive down. He did so well for the 30 hour drive!

On a walk on the levee in front of our house. That is the 

Mississippi river on the other side. 

Our house from the levee

Jambalaya that we had on our first visit.

Michael eating the fried catfish on our first visit. 

Michael breaking open the crabs at the fish fry on Friday. 

Our new car!!!!

A lizard on our trash can. They are all over outside our house!