Quick Update

Just wanted to post a quick update here. Baby and Mother are doing great. Sephora has a little bit of a cold, so she isn't sleeping very well as she is all stuffed up. We gave Sephora her first bath the other day. She managed to stay calm, unlike her big sister who still hates to take a bath. Sleep deprivation has caused us to often forget what day it is. I only remember because I show up to the office and check the calendar to remind me. We went to Waller Park yesterday to feed the ducks. We took a huge bag of old rolls, left over from my Mom's 50th b-day party. Darcy loves to throw the bread to the ducks. Darcy loves her baby sister "Baby Fora." Darcy and I went to church alone today and as we were leaving the building, Darcy told me she wanted to go home and see Mommy and Baby Fora and give them kisses. Well, as for me I am knee-deep in tax returns. We are actually cruising along nicely. That is not to say we aren't insanely busy with taxes and financial planning, but at least I haven't been up til 2AM doing taxes, yet. We are already making plans for what we want to do after this busy time is over. My plans are: master bath re-model, paint the exterior of the house, fill in the pool, do some minor landscaping. That should keep my busy through the summer. Then this fall before it gets cold I want to re-do the duct work in the attic for our heating system. It heats up the bedrooms far more than the rest of the house so I'm going to reduce the size of duct work going to the bedrooms and send more heat to the common areas, kitchen and living rooms. Well, the update turned out to be much bigger than expected. Now to posting a few pictures.

Sephora's 2-week update

Late last night Sephora officially became 2 weeks old. She is doing very good. She grows everyday. Darcy is doing great with her as well. She loves to help with diaper changes and of course loves to give Sephora lots of hugs and kisses. Everyone is healthy, happy, and very tired. Here are a couple of photos. I'll be taking a bunch more this afternoon so I'll post those later!

The New Addition!

At 11:45PM February 21, 2009 the Leishman Family got officially bigger by 1 girl. Sephora Violet Leishman was born at Sierra Vista Hospital at 8lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long. Mother and Baby are doing wonderful. We cut is pretty close again this time, getting to the hospital and having the baby born within an hour, just like Darcy. Tara and Sephora will be coming home tomorrow around lunch time. I'm posting a few pictures now. If the photo taking is anywhere near what I did with Darcy, there will be many thousands more to come. Sephora has near black hair, which was a major surprise after Darcy and her blond curly locks.

Just a thought

I heard this on Fox Business yesterday:

A government that embraces a policy of robbing Peter to pay Paul, can always be counted on to support Paul.

Experimental Photography

I don't usually take pictures of anything other than people, especially Darcy in particular. I think I'm up to around 4,000 of her alone. My goal is to take at least the same number of photos of Baby Girl #2, so she doesn't feel like Darcy got all the attention. Anyways, a few weeks back Dillon and I went out to shoot some experimental stuff, in particular an old beat up shack type building and an old abandoned house on a hill. Here are a few of the shots from that afternoon.

Potty Trained

Darcy started potty training about 4 weeks ago. The first week was absolutely HORRIBLE. But after that first week was over, Darcy had gotten the hang of going in the potty. We are so happy and excited that she has really grasped this potty thing, before her baby sister comes, which should be in the next week or two. Not to mention that fact that we don't have to buy all those diapers for Darcy.

Just a little fun

Darcy is such a wonderful photographic subject. I came home from work today and asked her if she would like to do a "Darcy Photo Shoot". She said, "Yeah!" So we took a few pictures just in the family room. Nothing formal or fantastic, but still fun!

Last weekend's home improvement project

Last month's gas bill was a big shock. It had jumped from $100 to $278. I know we had some cold spells, but that was about all I could take. I had already bought a fireplace insert a few weeks ago, but had not found the time to install it. After that bill came, I suddenly had plenty of time to install it. A fireplace insert is basically a large cast iron box that go into your existing fireplace. It has it's own metal chimney pipe that simply goes up the inside of the existing chimney. The fireplace insert has a door that seals and also a fan that turns on and blows the heat created from the fire in the insert out into the room. I bought this one from a guy in Atascadero. I sanded it down and re-painted it. Also polished the metal door. We fired it up and man the family room is nice and warm now. Hopefully our gas bill won't be so high next month!!

38 Weeks

38 weeks and only a couple more to go. The doctor is very mean and says that the baby could come any day, but we all know that she probably won't for at least 2 more weeks. Darcy came 3 days late. Darcy is VERY excited for her baby sister to come out of Mommy's tummy. She wants to hold her and give her hugs and kisses. The holding part might have to wait for a little bit though. We have been very busy around here lately. Working around the house, having fun with our friends John and Kari Sinner, and playing a lot.

The Leishman Family had a wonderful Christmas this year. Seth got a new lens for his camera. He has a Canon 40D and decided to buy the Canon 24-70 F/2.8 L lens for his Christmas present this year. Tara let Seth surprise her, sort of. With a big list of possible presents Seth had to find ones to purchase. He ended up getting her 2 new All-Clad pans, a Boos Block cutting board, and a Pepper Grinder. We are trying to outfit Tara's kitchen to the max!!

We have been working on the house lately. The next post I'll post the pictures from my project from last weekend.

I'M DONE

I have officially passed all 4 parts of the CPA exam. I've been waiting to hear back on the last part since I took it before Thanksgiving. It's official now though! Best Christmas present I could have ever asked for!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We wanted to wish everyone Happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for. We feel so blessed. We live in an amazing country. We have the gospel. We have eachother. We love you all.

I passed!

I just found out that I passed the Auditing portion of the CPA exam. That puts me 3 of 4 exams done. I recently sat for the last one that I haven't passed yet so I won't hear back for a few weeks on that one. Everything is business as usual in the Leishman household. Darcy's birthday on the 1st of November was wonderful. We had our family there, Cameron & Rachael and their kids, and John & Kari Sinner with Berkley. Congrats to the Sinners on their handsome new baby boy. I'm going to post a few photos from the birthday party.

Darcy was a little embarrassed to blow out her candles.



Darcy loves to eat the batter from the beater.



Tara made an Annie from Little Einsteins dress for Darcy. She also has her microphone like Annie and pig-tails. Darcy loved to be Annie for Halloween!!





Darcy showed me her tongue after she ate a big blue sucker for Halloween

Another quiet Sunday

This morning we woke up and ate some breakfast while we waited for Darcy to wake up. After she woke up and got un-groggy we decided to go for a drive as a family. We went out past Sisquoc and out Alisos Canyon Rd until it hit Los Alamos. It was very nice. Then we got home and Darcy wanted to get ready for Church. Darcy loves to go to church. She remembers every Sunday that we get to go church. We got her ready in a dress that she got as a gift from her BFF Berkley Sinner. She looks so adorable so I took a few pics. Here is one of them.

A few thoughts

I feel so glad to be on the side that respects others. During the recent election cycle, opponents to Proposition 8 were completely disrespectful to those that did not agree with them, swearing at them on the street, ripping up signs, spitting on them etc. They talk about respecting their decisions and accepting their beliefs, yet when another person stands up for what they believe in they are met with grotesque slander. The recent commercial from the No on Prop 8 campaign focusing on the LDS Church and portraying our missionaries, who give up 2 years of their lives to serve others, as monsters is a disgrace. What has happened to our society? This Saturday Night Live culture that we have allowed to take over has turned us into classless, arrogant, ignorant people. The idea that I won't tell you that what you say or do is wrong so you don't tell me that what I say or do is wrong is insane. That just perpetuates the idiotic.

It makes me sad to think that our society has fallen so far that respect is so one-sided; others have to respect what you say and do.

It is so nice to meet people who are genuinely nice, considerate, and respectful. They have class. They would find it shameful to say or do the things that everyday go on today. I hope someday people realize the mud they have stepped in and spread around.

My grandparents would be ashamed to even think about doing or saying the things that so many people do everyday. That generation is not "old-fashioned," they are just right. We need to try to emulate more their sense of self-control and class. I recently read an article that I will post the link to about this exact type of attitude and disrespectful behavior that has been shown to our current President. It is short, so take a moment and check it out.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122584386627599251.html

We moved in!

Well, we moved in. Finally. There is still no carpet in the master bedroom or the family room, so everything is just sitting in the great room until next week sometime when they come to lay the carpet. Tara and I are camped out in the nursery for now. But, with the carpet basically the only thing left to make it livable, we decided to just go ahead and move in. We love it. It is so cool to come home to the new house. There is still so much to do. Someday there will be the funds available to do bigger projects, ie: cutting down many HUGE trees, etc..but for the time being we are just going to enjoy living in the house and being in our own house. 400sqft to around 3000sqft is a HUGE leap in space. Darcy runs around like crazy! Now she actually can!!! Yeah! Well, I'm supposed to be studying to take the Auditing portion of the CPA exam next Tuesday. I'd better get back to that. Ugh. Now that my computer is set up at the house and internet will be turned on next Thursday I can go ahead and post pictures for the house, before and after.