Happy Birthday to Ardis the Great(est) Daughter!!

The doctor said, "It's a girl!"  Nyle said, "How can you tell?  All you can see is the babies head?" 
The doctor said, "This baby has very feminine features.  "I'm almost always right! about gender!"

Sure enough the baby DID have feminine features.  She was beautiful from the first moment she drew air.  Her hair was thick and black.  Her eyes were a deep sky blue.  I was ever so excited about her eyes.  I thought she would have eyes the color of her Father's.  I was a bit disappointed when her blue eyes turned golden brown.  The disappointment didn't last.  She has the same golden-brown eyes as MY Father.

Any place that we took baby Ardis she drew attention.  People raved and ranted over her lovely features, and her amazing hair.  We were surprised and amused at how many people told us that her hair WOULD fall out, and then grow back in.  I imagine they were trying to be kind in warning us.  Ardis' hair NEVER fell out.  It just got longer, and longer.  It was to her waist by the time she was three years old.

Ardis was a very easy baby.  If she fussed you KNEW that something was wrong.  For example, one night she cried, cried, and cried.  We took her to the ER about 3 a.m.  They discovered that she had a terrible ear infection.

From the first, Ardis was always good at self-comforting.  Feed her, change her,  give her a playpen, toys, and she would be happy for hours.

When I was pregnant with Ardis her Papa listened to some pretty rowdy music as "white noise."  He was a very light sleeper but the music seemed to help him relax.

It had the opposite affect on me.  I wanted to get up and dance to the music.  After he went to sleep I would turn off the music and I would go to sleep.

When Ardis was about a month old I was trying to rock her to sleep one night.  She could not seem to calm herself and go to sleep.  She wasn't fussy, but she wasn't sleepy either.  I put on some calm Barry Manilow music.  That seemed to make her fussier.

Then I thought about Nyle's crazy bedtime music.  I put on one of his cassettes and she was asleep in minutes.  I do think that she eventually grew out of listening to loud music at bedtime, thank goodness.

Today is the 29th anniversary of Ardis' birth.  I don't believe that we had any concept of the great things that she would accomplish.  She was Valedictorian of the History Department at Brigham Young University.  She went to London Study Abroad as part of her undergraduate work, and then also attended a term at Cambridge as part of a student transfer program.  She then earned her Master's at Cambridge University. 

Ardis volunteered with the Model United Nations program at BYU, and then at a National Level.  She has helped teach students from all around the world about the Democratic Process of the United Nations.  In this work she has elevated the lives of hundreds of young people.

Ardis has always been a deeply loving daughter.  As parents we have always been hugely blessed by Ardis.  She has helped us to reach higher in life, and to reach out more to others with love.  Thanks RDK for being such an amazing human being.  We love you!