Happily Overwhelmed

I love 6-year olds

2012-01-19T22:24:00.006-05:00

And especially these ones:).

When children are in certain phases I think we all stop and say, "what a cool stage of life!" Even amid the intense moments, there are so many 'wow' moments that make it all worth it.

We had one of these tonight. Wes' teacher has requested the kids learn to tie their shoes. I'll admit I didn't really take heed because Wes' shoes are velcro strapped. I figured we'd do it sooner or later. Well sooner (and later) came tonight. Wes is a very responsible child and so he was in a bit of a panic when he remembered they were practicing tying shoes in class tomorrow.

So we pulled out his shoes that have laces and within 2 minutes (and me reminding him there's no whining, giving up, saying I can't, etc.) he had it. Then Kate races around the corner and says, "I wanna try." And another minute later and she had it too. Who knew how rewarding and fulfilling tying shoes could be ... not to mention watching the mysteries of the world peel back layer by layer to them every day. I love being a mom.

Just a side note ... Wes read an entire scripture verse by himself tonight, with if I remember correctly, no prompting other than 'sound it out' encouragement. There was much whooping and hollaring by a certain mama:).

He's really great at sounding out words and is gaining so much confidence. The best thing about it is it encourages Kate along too. We always thought she'd be the speed reader, but she's too busy loving life (and everyone in it) to be bothered sometimes;). Love that girl.

Another side note. The picture above is of Wes and Kate at a LEGO competition in December. As you can tell, we're LEGO novices around here, but Wes has since caught the fever. His principal encouraged him to enter and so he did, and true to form, Kate wasn't about to be left out.

They were supposed to design and build their favorite cartoon character's home, all on site; no building it at home and taking it to the competition. Good Grief. What were we supposed to do with a theme like that? They'd barely even touched real LEGOs at the time of the competition. So we went to pbskids.org and looked at Word World. For those not familiar with Word World, the letters make the shapes of the words they are (does that make sense?). If you look closely, Wes' house is Dog's house (that spells out HOUSE), and Kate's is Sheep's (that spells out HAY):). It was very fun.

Back to the Duggars

2012-01-18T18:32:00.003-05:00

Why does everything in my life right now go back to the Duggars?

I've never actually seen their show on TV, but I've followed the many news reports about them over the past several years. They have 19 children, homeschool, are very musical, seem well-behaved, are religious.

How do they do it? I realize there's a buddy system; there must be a lot of organization. Perhaps I should watch a show or two because here's where my thoughts have been lately...

Picking up socks all over the house that seem to multiply like rabbits... "how do the Duggars do it?"

Doing laundry ... "how do the Duggars do it?"

Okay, I guess maybe those are the only times I really think it, but still, how DO they do it?

If you give a mouse a cookie ...

2012-01-14T22:13:00.001-05:00

Am I supposed to give Laura Numeroff credit for using that title? If so, here it is. But it fits two posts so well, I'll roll them into one. Apologies again for no pics, we hope to remedy that soon.

***

We were so happy to have my sister's family visit us for Christmas. They were able to do some fun family vacation traveling in D.C. before coming to our place, and before my nephew entered the MTC (headed to Spain). As soon as they got here, they were mobbed by our children, and continued to be so the whole time here. My sister's children are 19, 16, 14, and 11. So we had a house full of big and little people.

We don't have a real dining room table and so our friends let us use their 4x8 sheet of plywood and their saw horses. It turned out to be a perfect table for our house full of 12.

Our excitement came Christmas Eve. I knew we still had one mouse in the house, after trapping its brother (or sister) a few days earlier, I was still seeing evidence of one around. During our Navitity play, my nephew, who was sitting on the hearth, said, "I just saw the mouse." It had run from somewhere in the kitchen, to somewhere toward the dining room, maybe the pantry. So we finished up the activity, Matt started his nightly routine of putting the kids to bed, and I went to the pantry to look for the mouse (that's where I'd first spied his brother). Sure enough, he was hiding inside the 9x13 Tupperware.

I notified everyone, and we all got our game faces on.

I started to move the Tupperware and off he went, running through the kitchen and into the family room. I don't remember at what point my brother-in-law got the broom, but he was pretty soon whacking the mouse as it darted through the house. The broom was too soft-bristled and really did nothing but maybe slightly zing the mouse. It scampered under the bookcase, over the hearth, and back behind the TV system. We shined a light under my cedar chest (where our TV sits) and I saw a harmless looking little brown mouse.

By this time Matt had finished with our children and came downstairs. He went out to the garage and got our heavy duty outdoor broom and I traded it with my brother-in-law. Then I poked the mouse under the cedar chest with the broom, and off it went running back over the hearth, over "If you give a mouse a cookie" (no kidding), and under the book case.

My nephews, niece and I positioned ourselves so that the mouse really only had one way to run, and then we prodded it again. All I have to say is they are fast and I don't know how my BIL kept his eye on it, but he did. Out the mouse shot, against the wall and into the kitchen again, meanwhile running over my sister's feet. She promptly did a belly flop on the kitchen table, holding on for dear life with feet up in the air, while my BIL jumped over her and delivered the death blow.

Then we laughed long and hard; those kinds of laughs that don't come often, but that just feel good.

***

Meanwhile, Wes and Kate are progressing SO well with their reading. We love seeing their excitement as this whole new world opens up to them. And one of their favorites, at least before Christmas, was "If you give a mouse a cookie"...

We're still here:)

2012-01-13T21:06:00.002-05:00

It's just that so much is going on and I've never gotten around to finishing a few partial posts. But this one begs the question ... "how much do you share when your blog is open, and it's not a true journal, but sometimes you treat it that way?" It must be my way of posting my 'status'. I never post anything on FB, just look at everyone else's.

These are just some things I'm thinking tonight ....

We're in one of those 'outflow' times that come to all of us. Meaning that everything seems to be breaking.

Right now our 'to buy' list includes:

*dvd (or I guess Blu-ray since that's the wave, right?) player, at least twice a week I have to remove our dvd player cover to retrieve a lost disc.
*camera (ours had an untimely meeting with the floor, just weeks past it's 1 year warranty before Christmas)
*Desktop computer (ours was infected with a hearty virus 18 months+ ago and has been operated on many times since, most days we're surprised by things it does, i.e. even the keyboard has a bug where sometimes a key works, sometimes it doesn't, or sometimes it produces a different result from the one expected. The most annoying is I never know when I will be able to copy and paste. Today our speakers don't work, although all signs point that they should).
*Laptop computer (this one just happened last night, which is very problematic for my radio jobs).

Complain, complain. If only those were really important worries.

I told Matt that maybe we should just live a simple life and give up all electronics.

7 Months

2011-12-05T12:16:00.007-05:00

Not quite ... but he will be next week, and that's close enough.

This handsome little guy is 7 months! If you think it's whipped by for you, that's exactly how we feel.

He's a mover, a shaker, and has the makings of a Kate-part-2. Don't worry, that doesn't have us scared. We love our vivacious little lady, and are excited to add another handful to the pack:).

His top two teeth broke through yesterday and he's got the 'heavy breathing through his squinched up nose' look down pat. Now I've just got to catch it on camera.

These pictures are of him after our family shots last weekend. He was diggin' the up close and personal interaction with Mother Nature.

Family Pictures

2011-12-04T22:49:00.006-05:00

We're not very good at getting family pictures. The last (and first) official one we got was when I was expecting Sophie and the twins were almost two years old. So I told Matt that we really needed to do a better job of documenting our brood.

We asked a friend take them, but in the end we dilly-dallied and then things just didn't work out. So we set up our camera on two 5-gallon buckets, placed our newly built bench (by Matt, for our under-construction laundry room) in the backyard, and snapped away.

Our first idea was to go to Matt's campus for pictures since it has some pretty cool backgrounds and possible props, but we were running out of time since Matt and Kate were going to a ballet in the afternoon. However, we knew if we didn't do the pictures then/now, we'd never get them done for a photo Christmas card.

Some turned out well, some didn't, but we're ALL in the picture! Hooray! I told Matt my level of expectation for family pictures has gone way down since having children ... I just want us all in the picture.

Dresser starved

2011-11-30T09:02:00.005-05:00

We've been dresser-starved for many months now.

Matt's parents gave us a dresser years ago that had three columns of drawers and so we put all three children in them. (not actually the children, but their clothes;). Sophie was short-changed in the deal since she got the narrow drawers, so with Joshua's debut, we either needed more baskets to store stuff, or a new dresser, and move Wes' and Joshua's clothes together.

So I scoured ads, craigslist, and second hand stores.

Here were our options:

Real furniture store item = too pricey and sometimes not the best material throughout the piece.

Big Box dresser = pressed wood (and I'm tired of going that route).

Build our own = a real option, but we've got many other projects we're juggling.

Second-hand item = another real option, but once again, redoing the piece becomes a time issue and I haven't mastered the talent of seeing 'potential'. I get hung up on how an item looks in its current state.

It's easy to get overwhelmed by all the blogs out there who show you wonderful things you can do by re-purposing an item. I'm all for doing it, but I mostly catch myself saying, "where do these people find the time to do all this stuff?" I have a hard enough time keeping my house clean, laundry done, church callings, regular home maintenance, parenting, etc., etc. How to find balance? That's the magical question. And how to stop comparing ones self to others ... blah, blah, blah ... this is a whole other blog topic.

Continuing with the dresser:).

One day I stopped at a second-hand furniture shop and saw a really ugly dresser. But somehow I saw its potential. It was well-built (a must for Mr. Matt) and had a price tag of $45. I asked the man if he'd take $40 and he said, "I still have to pay tax, you know." So I said, "okay, $42". and he said, "okay, $40". ??? "I was confused at his logic, but didn't question him, and paid him $40 smackeroos.

Here's our subject (with the drawers removed, but you can see them in the background)...

Wes was immediately in love. I told him in an excited voice, "Dad and I are going to sand it down and paint it black."

He promptly had a meltdown. He thought I'd bought him a Lightning McQueen dresser.

I was shocked. And I've found I often do this. I assume someone is on my same brain wavelength and are just as excited about something as I am. Then I thought to myself ... if I were a (then) 5-year old boy and my mom brought me home something that looked like the theme of a children's movie, I'd be pretty upset if she said we were going to ruin it by painting it black".

I know this sounds horrible, but we did finally convince Wes that the decoration had to be removed, mainly because paint was chipping everywhere and the dresser was pretty banged up.

So Matt and I started to sand, strip paint, and sand some more. And after taking off three layers of red, blue and pink paint, this beautiful piece of furniture was revealed.

We decided to put the old drawer handles on it, just because, and yes, we painted it black. Whenever we ask for suggestions for colors, Kate always comes up with 'rainbow', so I think we'll stop asking, and they've pretty much accepted that I love black.

So there it is. Wes and Joshua's new clothing abode. And although this post makes it sound like I did a lot of work, it was really Matt who provided most of the elbow grease. I think he's growing tired of me bringing home 'my' projects that 'he' has to finish.

Decor

2011-11-15T21:35:00.002-05:00

(This is a post from my radio blog, thus the reason why my voice is a bit more formal and less familiar regarding my children... it's set to appear on tomorrow's entry).

Wednesday 11/16/11

I haven't taken the time yet to be an extreme couponer, but I'm just like everyone else and try to score a deal every once in a while. I was so excited to do that yesterday with something I've been eyeing for a while.

Remember the wall map that I ordered to put up in my son's room?

(www.amazon.com)

Well, I wanted something equally educational for decor in my daughters' room. So I've been eyeing this solar system decal set for a few weeks now.

(www.kohls.com)

Well as luck would have it, I got a $10 promotional gift card in the mail with no strings attached, EXCEPT that the item must be $10 or more, before sales tax. No Problem!

So I looked at the solar system online and SCORE!!! It was on sale this week.

Here's the break down ...

$22.99 regular price

$11.49 sale price

-$10.00 gift card

= $1.49 pre sales tax

WooHoo! Imagine me doing my happy dance/pump fist:).

Thought process of a 3-year old

2011-11-14T08:20:00.003-05:00

Sophie's and my breakfast conversation this morning ...

Me: Sophie, do you want to eat your french toast?

Sophie: 'Cause, I want to eat a hotdog, cause there's no more apples."

Fog Delays

2011-11-08T07:18:00.002-05:00

In Connecticut there were snow days for 1 or 2 inches of snow ... here there are fog delays. Most interesting.

We got a prerecorded phone call this morning at 5:15 a.m. stating that school would be delayed by one hour.

Believe me when I say I LOVE IT! I wish school started at 9 a.m. everyday.

Different Journal

2011-11-02T21:21:00.006-04:00

My radio self is pretty much common knowledge to friends and family. But something I haven't shared, and wish I could somehow merge with this blog, is my blog on my radio page.

At the start of the year, my new boss (who is now my old boss) asked me to start blogging every day as another way to 'connect with my listeners'. So I started to do it, and I've loved it. I haven't been totally faithful to the every day suggestion, but have blogged fairly consistently.

It's very different from this blog (at least I think so), and has more 'daily doings' on it; projects I'm working on (or would like to work on), articles I find interesting, recipes I've tried and liked, blog links with ideas.

Now I'm realizing I really want to figure out a way to get what I'm writing over there, over here. I guess because it's a good personal journal for me (of sorts). But the problem is, habitually I'll put a start date and an archive/expiration date, so many of them are gone. I'll have to find out if they're gone gone, or saved somewhere out there in the internet blue yonder.

If you're interested, here it is. (Really have to get a new profile picture though:)).

Life and Festivities

2011-10-29T20:24:00.007-04:00

We've really tried not to over-schedule ourselves, but now we're entering the age where children's activities often overtake the family's activities. But it really is a fun time of life.

This week has been crazy and fun, and now that it's Saturday night I'm happy to sit and breathe, now that the bulk of crazy is over. So here's part of our October.

Since I nearly had a breakdown when Wes and Kate started school, I decided to be involved in their classes as much as possible. Their teachers have been great and very responsive to my many emails and questions.

I was able to go with Kate's class to a pumpkin patch. I knew her class was diverse, but actually being there and seeing it was pretty amazing. Jasmine, Jaire, Le'Donte, Samuel, Malachi, are just an example of some of the school friends she talks about. She's one of four Caucasian children in a class of 24.

Wes' class on the other hand is pretty much 50/50, and I'm not exactly sure why or how they decide who's in whose class. His teacher is a seasoned educator and I know she's been requested by several of the parents, and so maybe that has something to do with it.

So far I've been pleased with both of their experiences. The lesson plans are the same, but maybe executed a little differently from each other. But it seems to be going well.

I emailed both their teachers last week and asked if I could bring in a Halloween treat, so Sophie and I were running around at the end of this week, getting everything done for that, also for Halloween costumes, Fall Harvest Festival items for the school, church responsibilities, along with regular home responsibilities.

We went to the school carnival last night and also to our neighbor's church's trunk or treat. This afternoon we went to a set of girl and boy twins birthday party, which was a Halloween costume party too. So we've definitely had our fill of the season. On Monday we'll go to a nearby town with some church friends where the old part of downtown really goes all out for Halloween and it's a popular spot for trick or treating.

As for costumes ...

Here's Wes as John Henry. He's wanted to be him for two years now, and we finally did it. So simple, don't know why I didn't do it earlier. But it's one of those costumes where people have to ask you what/who you are. And even then, most people have to ask you who John Henry is/was. One man at the party today asked if Wes was the Brawny paper towel man ... haha!

Kate is not a planner, and didn't seem to have any ideas for a costume, except the standard princess. I told her she should 'branch out' a little. For about 5 minutes she was going to be Angelina Ballerina, and then decided against it. So after hearing more suggestions, she settled on being a cat. Score for me! Another easy costume.

My mind wasn't even on a costume for Joshua, until I found this site, and whipped up a pumpkin hat in literally 6.3 minutes flat:). I think I'll be revisiting this pattern for dress up hats for Christmas gifts for Wes.

Sophie's had her costume for a year. We hit the after Halloween sales last year and she and I both got witch hats. She was happy to finally get to wear it. We paired it with a Halloween shirt that used to be one of my neice's. Then Friday afternoon we made the skirt after it donned on me that you wouldn't be able to see her cute striped tights if she was wearing jeans, which was our original plan. I know, I'm a real planner;). But this 'how to' no-sew pattern was the winner and really only took about 15 minutes from start to finish. Re-reading this makes me think that I'm giving my readers the idea that I can just 'whip' things together in no time. Ohhh, don't be fooled, I'm not as seamless as that, it's just a good thing there's the internet and people who do the thinking part for me.

I think she looks adorable.

I'm so excited to be at this time of year. I love Autumn, the holidays that come with it, sweaters, hot chocolate, football ... you know the list:). We love Thanksgiving at our house, and it's Wes and Kate's birthday. Then of course Christmas, and we have family scheduled for a visit then too! It's amazing how when you live away from family, visits like these are so anticipated. And they motivate you to get projects done. Hopefully we'll soon have pictures to show you the progress along the way.

Classic Cereal Face

2011-10-16T22:15:00.007-04:00

This is Joshua's reaction to his first taste of cereal, documented at 7:45 a.m.-ish, Sunday morning, October 16, 2011.

Love the complete and utter look of "what in the world are you doing to me, Mom":).

He was very concerned through the entire experience.

(And I'm loving Sophie's one-eyed, large-nosed pumpkin in the background:)).

Where did 5 months go?

2011-10-14T21:04:00.007-04:00

I just can't believe that our baby is 5 months old! I know parents say this all the time, but wowzers ... time just zips by at amazing speed with little people under the roof.

Joshua is the sweetest, most content little baby we've had. He's a great mix of what Wes and Kate looked like as babies, although I'm thinking he'll fall more in line with Kate in the end.

He's long and big and just way too cute to be real sometimes. The finger sucking wasn't just a temporary thing, it's pretty prominent in his life now, and I don't mind one bit. I love to hold him side ways in the crook of my left arm. In go his fingers, and he and I are just happy little larks.

We haven't started him on cereal yet, probably a project for tomorrow, mainly because he's cloth diapered, and I haven't been ready to enter that stage of cleaning the diapers with goo that's people-food, and not just mother's milk. No explanation here on what that all means. If you're dying to know either google it or call me;).

He's super strong and just yesterday started the rocking back and forth on knees and hands action.

His lower gums are swollen and he's been a bit more drooly lately, so teeth are on the way. Our children are early teethers, although he's about a month later than the others were.

Gotta love this picture. My friend gave him some cute pj's, and I put him in them one night even though he wasn't quite big enough for the age range yet. By morning when Matt went up to get him in his crib he found him like this.

Joshua's first hair cut was last month. He was born with such beautiful hair, which promptly fell out, all except a lovely Mohawk, which I talked about in a previous post. Well the Mohawk kept growing and his other hair wasn't filling in, so it looked all stringy and straggly, and so off it came. Now he has a cute little do that's finally starting to fill back in.

He is the most kissed and hugged person in our family. Wes, Kate and Sophie just adore him. He's got a huge mouth, like Kate, and so his smiles are just perfect.

(Sophie's saying, "hurry Mom, he's getting away!")

We love you Baby J!

Shenandoah

2011-10-14T20:04:00.005-04:00

All summer long Kate was after us to go camping. So finally last weekend we did it. Matt took off early from work on Friday and we packed up, picked Wes and Kate from school and headed to Shenandoah National Park.

Until last year I had never heard of Shenandoah other than in John Denver's Song Take Me Home with the line ... "Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River," but didn't realize it was a National Park.

We arrived in the early evening and stayed at a nearby camp ground in Front Royal, VA, because there was no vacancy at the park's camping sites.

Everyone was in heaven, even Joshua ... prop him up for a few pictures and he's ready to go in his little USU Aggie coat:).

I was concerned about the cool temperatures at night, especially with a little one, but it was pleasant ... not warm by any stretch, but comfortable enough that the mountain of blankets and sleeping bags we brought didn't need to be fully utilized.

In the morning Matt made one of his signature dutch oven dishes, sweet rolls, with some hot chocolate, hard boiled eggs, and we were good to go for a day in beautiful country.

It was absolutely gorgeous ... 100 miles of rolling mountains, leaves just starting to turn, stunning look-outs, and not too crowded roads and hikes.

We stopped about mid-way through the park and decided to take a short 1.8 mile hike to a waterfall. It was the shortest hike in the bunch, we thought that best, so our children could handle it on their own.... minus this little cutie who road first class on his mama's back:). (I told Matt I'd take the baby so he'd could do mule pack duty in case one of the bigger kids needed a hand;)).

Just a side note here. Wesley is not a walker. Any time he can ride his bike, ride in a car, or in some other mode of transportation, he's much happier. So we were a bit concerned about the hike, until I remembered a Utah mountain hiking trip from last year.

So here's how we phrased it, and how the conversation went, more or less:

Us: "We're going to go see a waterfall."
Wesley: "Do we have to walk?"
Us: "We're going mountain climbing."
Wesley: "Mountain climbing? Really?"
Us: "Yep."

That did it ... he led us the entire way and kept telling us to stop taking so many breaks:). Amazing what a little rephrasing will do to one's perception. But to be fair to us old, out of shape people, it really was vigorous exercise. Matt said, "if we did a hike like this every day we'd drop some serious poundage." (my paraphrasing, I don't think I've ever heard Matt say 'poundage'.)

(here's a nice shot of some random man's back, but he'd just fallen and smashed his knee pretty hard on the rock by Kate's head and so we figured he needed a rest without us disturbing him;)).

By the time we got back to the van it was early-mid afternoon so we hopped in and drove to Luray
Caverns. I was glad this was not like the Timpanogos Caves, with a 45+ degree hike for over a mile or two. This one you paid your money, walked around a wall, down 50 or so stairs, and there you were, at the front of the tour.

It was pretty cool. I keep saying this, but I hope our children remember at least some of these things they're seeing.

Back at camp we cooked, cleaned up a bit and hit the sack. This was a much less desired night for me, at least. I had a pounding headache that didn't leave until about 4 a.m. and I think I'm too old to be sleeping on the hard earth;).

Sunday morning we rose early, took hot showers (gotta love that), dressed in our Sunday best, amid stares from fellow campers who probably thought we were wacky, and headed out to the local Front Royal ward.

We knew something was wrong when we to the parking lot and there was one car there at 8:57 a.m., for a 9 a.m. church start. Luckily the car contained missionaries. Matt talked with them and found out it was Stake Conference in nearby Winchester, VA. and it started at 10 a.m.

So back to the campground we went. As we pulled into our site and I hopped out, our neighbor campers looked at us funny, and so I verbalized what they were thinking and quipped, "That was quick!"

We raced around like crazies, breaking down camp as fast as we could. We figured there was no sense in going north to church 35 minutes, turn around after church, break camp, just to turn around and head NE home.

We were a tad late, but were able to get settled in for a nice meeting with Pres. Tingey, the former Washington D.C. Temple President, as the guest speaker (I thought he was the current, but a quick search on the church temple pres. site says he was just released in Aug.)

After church we drove about another hour and some and stopped for a picnic lunch on the D.C. Temple grounds. So beautiful - couldn't have asked for a better weathered weekend.

Anyway, that was our trip; So fun, and worth the 8 loads of laundry afterwards.

Close call

2011-09-20T21:10:00.000-04:00

When my mother in law visited us in May she counted the trees in our front yard. It's an amazing number, something like 21 or 23. The backyard is pretty much the same. All in all there are pines, oaks, dogwoods, a tulip poplar, a couple flowering fruitless trees and a pretty Chinese maple.

The pines are massive, easily a few score years old. They're big enough and our soil is basically sand, which means pretty wimpy root grasping situation. So storms like Irene had us, and our neighbors, worried about the safety of our homes. Matt and our neighbor have been in the process of cutting down the ones that aren't quite as massive and foreboding.

A couple Saturdays ago they were at it again, chain saws in hand, which was to go. They chose a mid-sized pine in the back, and planned where to fall the tree. To skip all the details, it didn't fall where it was supposed to and nearly crushed our shed. Luckily they maneuvered and manipulated and were inches, or centimeters, away from destruction.

Our children have strict rules when Dad gets out the chain saw, but we had a front row seats to the action from our family room windows.

Let the games begin!

2011-09-19T20:50:00.000-04:00

We've never had Wes or Kate in sports until this summer. Mainly because we've had the habit of going for 3-4 weeks during the summer right smack dab in the middle of tee ball or soccer season. So because our travel was local this summer we signed 'em up.

The first was tee ball. It was an interesting set up. We thought it was going to be teams and actual playing but it was more of basic instruction and drills, which was okay too. They're excited for next year to actually play games.

They just started soccer this month and are loving the go-go nature of the sport. Matt and I never played soccer but now that it's a mainstream sport we figured it would be a fun Fall activity. They have no problem getting right in the middle of the crowd. The problem they have is scoring in the right goal and on the right field:). There are three fields side by side by side and the games tend to blend.

Here's to Saturday mornings at the soccer field!

Where did it all go?

2011-09-16T20:28:00.003-04:00

When our babies are born they come out looking like a haircut should be ordered soon. But they go through the losing hair bit, just like all other babies. Joshua's has been quite the process though. It's almost the exact opposite of a man who loses his hair on top, but keeps it on the sides. He's kept a really nice Mohawk and lost almost everything else.

From this ...

and this ...

to this ...

this ...

and this ...

can you see the receding hairline, and the makings of a comb-over?

Here's to hoping it grows back:).

We're seeing a pattern here ...

2011-09-15T20:24:00.002-04:00

None of our children have been thumb or finger suckers ... until now.

This little guy tries to get his whole hand in his mouth but usually falls asleep with 2-3 fingers in. We'll see if it continues:).

Monkey see, Monkey do

2011-09-15T20:13:00.004-04:00

This week has been busy in the news world in Cache Valley and I've spent more time on my cell phone than usual. One of these days I was positioned next to my front room window, right where the cell reception was the best (Sprint has much to be desired in my neck of the woods). I was intently listening to a police official give me story details when suddenly I heard what sounded like a prayer being said behind me. I turned around and saw Sophie standing behind Joshua in his doorway jumper thingy. She had her hands on his head and was giving him a blessing. I had to stifle a laugh.

Funny girl.

I think those back to school blessings made an impression on her.

Laughing

2011-09-15T20:00:00.004-04:00

Sophie's got a talent that the rest of us haven't yet figured out how to master ... she can make Joshua laugh almost at the drop of a hat. I'm not really quite sure how she does it. He'll give the rest of us smiles up the ying-yang, but Sophie gets most of the laughs. Maybe it's because she's close to his size, but whatever it is, it's really fun to watch.

Sometimes I think she thinks he's her own personal doll. She'll dress him up, snuggle next to him, push him around in the stroller, and other things, which need a whole post to themselves.

Here's how I found him the other day when I walked into the family room, decked out in her Sleeping Beauty sunglasses. Wish the picture was a little more clear.

Good thing he's so obliging:).

Record it

2011-09-05T20:46:00.002-04:00

This has happened a couple of times, and I've finally got to document it...

We've tried different methods of reading the scriptures as a family. Currently we're trying to get Wes and Kate a little more involved with actually reading, or repeating, because they're not quite up to reading the scriptures on their own yet. So Matt or I will say a phrase, and they'll repeat it.

So here's the setting tonight, with Wes repeating along with Dad ...

Matt: "And behold, there are many.."
Wes: "And behold, there are many.."
Matt: "who are already lost..."
Wes: "who are already lost..."
Matt: "from the knowledge of those.."
Wes: "from the [mumble, mumble].."
Matt: "knowledge of those."
Wes: "knowledge of those [yawn]."
Matt: "who are at Jerusalem."
Wes: "who are at Jewuslum [mumble, yawn].
Matt: "Enunciate please."
Wes: "Enunciate please."

At this point I burst out laughing.

Wes looked at me startled, and then turned red, realizing what he'd said.

I couldn't help it. It was funny!

We only have them read two verses, so it's not like it should be torture, but it's probably time to change it up since this way of study has lost it's appeal ... [insert a little yawning and whining.]

First Day

2011-08-29T20:05:00.005-04:00

So many emotions today. Sophie and I spent most of it just looking at each other, wondering what to do next. I felt like half of me was missing. The clock never moved so slowly.

Dramatic phrases, I know, but when two from your household leave for the day, it makes quite a difference; especially when they're the chatter boxes and energy of the family.

It's funny how opinions change. I used to think all-day kindergarten was a good concept, but now when MY children are in it, I'm not a fan at all. Another thing that I will have to get used to is the comparisons of teachers. I almost think it would be better to have them in the same class so I wasn't comparing one against the other (teachers, I mean). I wouldn't know any better. Ignorance is bliss, right?

We're letting them ride the bus for the first week and then I'm planning on taking them. A 45-minute bus ride to and from school, with a bus change in the middle, is too much for 5-year olds.

Kate, our excessive-energy child, even said I should give her a 'no sleeping pill' so that she wouldn't be so tired coming home. Well good grief, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.?!?! Anyone would be tired!!

Okay, enough with the negative vibes:). They had a great time and came home full of stories.

Here's such a sweet picture of Sophie. She was completely crushed that she couldn't get on the bus and go to school with Wes and Kate. She got dressed in the morning with them, put on her backpack, and just figured she'd do what she's always done ... be the triplet in a set of twins.

Bouncy boy

2011-08-29T19:51:00.003-04:00

We've got great neighbors; next door, across the way, kitty-corner, down the cul-de-sac ... we couldn't have picked a better place. The neighbors down the way are in the midst of cleaning out their garage so their vans can park inside.

We have been on the receiving end of many of their baby and toddler things.

The latest is this bouncy chair thingy that hangs in the doorway. Coincidentally I was looking at these on amazon.com over the weekend. Great timing!

Joshua's loving it, and I'm having a heck of a time keeping Sophie from sending him spinning or swinging:).

New Era

2011-08-28T20:52:00.004-04:00

And I'm not talking about the church magazine ;)...

Wes and Kate are five and entering Kindergarten. I've been very uncertain about the whole thing for more reasons than one, but here we go!

Despite threatening the delay of opening day by Hurricane Irene, our school called this afternoon and reported it will be open and ready for Day 1, tomorrow. My opinion so far, and we've only gone to open house night, is that Wes' teacher impresses me more. I hope to be pleasantly surprised by both their experiences. You'd better bet we'll keep close tabs on the situation.

Meanwhile, Matt and I have talked a lot in the last few days of how this marks a change for our whole family. I'm so wishy-washy about the whole thing, but am so excited for them. They are ready for the next step. Pictures to follow:).

So big

2011-08-22T21:34:00.003-04:00

Time just flies, and I'm amazed that we're already to these milestones in Joshua's life.

So for documentation purposes, he officially turned over from back to belly on Saturday, August 20.

He's such a strong little guy. He's also been very spitty lately and regularly soaks the front of his outfit by 10 a.m. Today I put a full bib on him, the kind you put the baby's head through so it has a front and back. I don't think he was a fan since it kept tangling his rolling over progress. A couple of times it looked more like a superhero cape than a bib.

What a sweet baby too. He's completely captured all of our hearts!

Some other things about J ... he losing hair and has not only the traditional bare spot in back, but a couple of funny looking bald patches on the side behind and above his right ear. And boy, talk about a serious cowlick (is that really how it's spelled), it's the swirl of all swirls. Funnier still is that the hair grows really well there and is poofy. It's pretty endearing:).

Humans

2011-08-19T17:51:00.002-04:00

The other day Wes turned on PBS and found an English movie playing. He turned to me and said, "I want to watch a kid movie not a human movie!"

Treading Water

2011-08-16T21:42:00.012-04:00

I've come to the conclusion that I lack certain life skills, and if I'm ever to develop them it's a matter of beginning, rather than thinking about it.

Now for the background:

I think our adjustment to a fourth child has been fairly normal; we've loved him to pieces, cooed over him, juggled life with him, and occasionally forgotten he's there if he's not making a noise. But I think the best way to describe how I personally have felt amidst all the joys and moments of awe, is that the water is slowly entering my ears and I have to tilt my head up so that my nose can still breathe. I'm certainly not complaining about my circumstances, because I'm loving the stages of all our children, but it's more a realization that I have a harder time multitasking than I think I should.

(Note: I am writing this all in good humor and a slightly self-deprecating tone, not to fear. I mean, just look at that face).

My parent's didn't come to visit when Joshua was born, and the main reason was that they were planning on serving another mission at the end of summer and so would delay the visit until right before their departure; and also that my saintly mother-in-law and my purely delightful (it's true, Shannon) sister-in-law would be here to help.

By mid-summer my parents finally slowed down enough to book tickets for the visit. I called my mom soon after and said, "Bring your work clothes because that's what we'll be doing while you're here:)!" And for those who know my mom, you can imagine her somewhat smirk-y response, "Oh REALly?" But my parents are workers, and I knew that if we had four sets of hands going strong during their visit, we could really whip this place into shape, which is exactly what I needed.
The trip was jeopardized soon thereafter when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. That's the marvelous thing about serving missions ... you have to get thoroughly checked out each time, even if you swear off certain tests, like my mom with mammograms, hers always come back problematic. It appears this was caught fairly early, or it was super slow growing and hopefully contained, but as of now the report is that miracles have been at play and her prognosis looks fantastic, even chemo and radiation free. The mission is slightly delayed. But thankfully after a visit with the cancer doctor, the trip to us was not cancelled or postponed. Hooray!

We had 10 wonderful days with them, and I dropped into bed each night, exhausted from what we'd accomplished. There really is something to the Asian, and some other nationalities, way of life where multiple generations live in the same home. Shared work and child care, home maintenance and food preparation; it was so wonderful. Our house was clean the entire time they were here. This is where I need to work on basic life skills, and I can't blame it on children, I wasn't the best homemaker even before they arrived. I'm far from a slob, but I'm great at piling papers and other items at various locations through the house.

As for a tribute to my dad, one night Matt said to me, "your dad just goes and goes". It's true, he never sits down without a purpose. We had a hard time keeping him occupied on days when Matt was at work. And although my parents are comfortably into their 70s, they work just as they did 20+ years ago.
So, here is some of what we accomplished, and yes, we did see some sites along the way.

Bottled spaghetti sauce, organized and filled a newly built (by Matt) pantry, reorganized the food section of our laundry room, cleaned the fridge - including the top of it where we tend to drop off anything we don't want little hands taking away, cleaned out the garage so we could park the van inside:), took boxes up to attic, laundry, assembled adirondack chairs, stained adirondack chairs, stained children's picnic table, witnessed Joshua's first laugh (as a result of my dad's play time with him), took out bushes in front of house, cut down two trees in front yard (many, many more to come), mowed the lawn (twice), more laundry, Joshua's baby blessing, substitute taught Wes and Kate's Primary class, sold our car, Assateague, the beach, Ocean City, Dolle's Salt Water Taffy shop, crab dinner, cleaned the van, Mom's & Dad's 48th anniversary, laundry, Washington D.C. (Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, WWII Memorial, Washington D.C. Temple), made s'mores on the deck, watched W, K, S & J while Matt and I went on a DATE?!!! played, played, played with grandkids, made the best darned granola you ever did taste.

And that's just a sampling ... I'm so glad Matt takes pictures.

We took them to Baltimore for their departure on Saturday. It really didn't hit me until they were walking through the airport doors that we probably won't see them for two years. Good thing for Skype-type communications. Our little Joshua will be walking and talking, Sophie will be in Kindergarten and Wes and Kate will be preparing for baptism!

My parents arrived safely, spent the next day in SL with my sister's family, and my mom went in for surgery on the next. When she called me later that afternoon after the surgery was over, she sounded the same as when she left on Saturday. In a couple of weeks we'll know the complete results.

And now the water is back down to the tops of my shoulders and neck, and I can bob and tread for a little while longer. We love you Mom and Dad. The burden you lifted is deeply appreciated.

View life from a different position

2011-07-16T21:18:00.003-04:00

This is how I found baby J today after I left the room for a couple of minutes. I heard him grunting a bit and then he was quiet for a while. When I walked in he was just looking around, no doubt enjoying his new vantage point and enjoying a little lite reading from a nearby science magazine;).

Don't worry Mom, I promise to be more vigilant.

Things I've lately heard ...

2011-07-16T20:53:00.007-04:00

*Do you run a daycare or all those yours? (random ladies, twice this week)
*Mom, don't throw away my blanket because it's my favorite blanket. (Kate)
*But Mom, Batman wears his cape outside [why can't I]. (Wes)
*Squawk, squawk. (Joshua)
*Mom, fish go unduh WAHHduh (imagine exaggerated hand motions) (Sophie)
*Can you believe how fast these kids are growing up. (Matt)
*Look both ways; no spitting; Show me how fast you can clean this mess up: on your marks, get set, GO!; I'm going crazy. etc., etc. (Me)

Other doings ...
A project we've been eyeing for quite some time now and finally did, thanks to this site and this site. They're reversible. Kate's and Sophie's have Batman on the other side; Wes' has Superman.

Update

2011-07-11T20:59:00.006-04:00

We got to spend the 4th of July weekend with some great friends in Connecticut. Even though we were there only two years we made some really good friends and feel so blessed to have lived there.

A great friend (many people know her as my 'knitting friend') was brave enough to host us for three nights.

As we drove into Wethersfield Matt and I started pointing things out to Wes and Kate, and pretty soon they were recognizing and remembering the surroundings. My idea is to make a few trips to CT while we can so that these landmarks and some activities 'solidify' themselves in their memory so they'll actually remember it physically, more than just remember it through pictures.

At church on Sunday we felt as if we'd never left, even occupying 'our pew' in the back corner. A whole group of us had coordinated the visit so there was a ton of visiting; as a result Sunday School got started WAY late (sorry Bro. Smurthwaite;), next time we'll visit AFTER church). But it was so great to be with friends again.

Some of our other activities included a dessert potluck (more visiting), pancake breakfast (more visiting), mini golf (I stopped keeping track because Kristin put us to shame with her putting), BBQ (more visiting), and firework show in our friend's backyard. It was an ideal weekend. What made it even better was that there were babies EVERYWHERE. Wow, the Hartford Nursery would be bursting in a few months if everyone was still there. Totally awesome.

On another note we're loving the veggies filling our dinner table these days. Beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini; just writing it all makes me feel healthy. This picture is of the 5 1/2 foot tall tomatoes that we're being overrun by. We've never experienced anything like it but are told it's common here.

It's been a while

2011-06-24T22:04:00.006-04:00

So I've posted a succession of journal entry posts. Feel free to spend a minute or 40 catching up with us.

First off, we're experiencing a mild drought in our region. But finally some welcome, and prayed for rain visited us. Our children were so excited that they set up camp to watch it.

And that's our new 2004 Toyota Sienna (8 passenger, we're so excited!) van they're behind. No more traveling in two cars to church, shopping or anywhere, as a family. Now to sell our car.

Our little man Joshua is growing like a weed. I'm taking weekly pictures of him, an idea I got from Young House Love. At his 6 week appointment he weighed in at 13 lbs. 2 oz. I don't know how this compared to Sophie (the twins started out much smaller so it's not a fair compare), but he is a big boy, and so happy most of the time.
He's just started to smile at us and seems more interactive. His clavicle is completely healed and he sees the cardiologist in July, but his irregular heartbeat doesn't seem to be slowing his growth at all. His pediatrician thinks he'll just grow out of it.
We had a visit from Matt's mom and sister ... thank you so much! We just loved having family here. They spoiled us and Matt became a whirlwind tour guide. These are some D.C. pics, but a funny side note is when Matt took Shannon to Philly for her flight out they saw some sights and while at the Liberty Bell ran into Sarah Palin on her opening day of her America tour, or whatever it was. Funny, huh.
Matt's mom had to cut her visit short since Alice, daughter #4, had her first baby 3 weeks early; so off Brenda flew to Denver! Busy Grandma.
We also went to Assateague with them and just all in all had a good time.
We also said goodbye to the first family who had us over for dinner here in our new ward. They had pool parties at their home almost every night for a month before they left. We'll miss them!
My brother came to our neck of the woods for a business trip and we were able to visit with him for an hour or so. It's always fun to meet up with family in different parts of the country. He knows the D.C. area better than we do since he did an internship here with a Utah politician, can't remember who, back in the mid 90's. Good thing he does since we left our GPS at home and had to be guided to his suburban location via phone. It was good to see him. I can't believe how much he's reminding me more and more of our dad .. mannerisms, looks, etc.

Next up ... a trip to our beloved Connecticut! I can't tell you how excited I am!

While the cats away the mice will play

2011-06-24T21:45:00.004-04:00

Or maybe it's 'while the mother sleeps, the children entertain themselves'.

Any mother to a newborn knows that your schedule is thrown out of wack for a while. I'm still in that stage where I don't get up in the morning at a consistent time; it just depends how baby J has been throughout the night. Lately Matt has left for work or gone to the garden by about 7 a.m. or so. Our children tend to wake up around 6:30 a.m., or so. I am usually up by 7:15 .am., or so. There, the picture's painted.

Earlier this week I was drifting in and out of sleep and hearing the tinkling of what sounded like china to me. I was aware enough to know that at least one, maybe two children were in my bedroom and by my bedside, but since they weren't tugging on my shirt or patting my face, I kept dozing. When I finally decided it was time to open my eyes and start the day I saw Wes and Sophie having a tea party at my side. So I raced (or dragged myself) to get the camera (by that time Wes was gone).
I went downstairs to find the other child of mine at the kitchen table 'doing school'. This was a surprise/candid picture of her (with Sophie's dinner still on the table beside her from the night before ........ oh well).
At least they can keep themselves entertained while I sweep away the cobwebs in my early morning mind:).

New Beginnings

2011-06-24T21:31:00.003-04:00

We've been on the hunt for a piano for a while. My sister offered us hers last year but it's a good thing we didn't take it because due to our uncertain living circumstances for 6 months over last year and this year, it would've been really hard to figure out how to get it cross country and where to store it.

Every once in a while Matt would go on Craigs list to see what was out there but we never called on anything ... until this week.

He got on and found one for $35, and in our city. So he called and I went and looked at it. It's not the prettiest piano ever, but we figured for $35 you can't be too picky. I told Matt the first piano I remember in my home growing up was painted sky blue.

We picked it up yesterday and it now resides in our living room.
Our children are so excited and we've had to go over piano etiquette. Now Kate has added 'piano lessons' to our daily list of to-do's (play baseball, go for a bike ride, have a snack, learn more reading, do school, piano lessons; believe you me, that girl holds us to a schedule;)). And it's also been confirmed to me that it's difficult for a mother to effectively teach her own children piano. We've only had the instrument one day and I've almost retired the post.

Gardening in the East

2011-06-24T20:35:00.004-04:00

One thing we've loved about gardening in a milder climate is the length of the growing season. In fact we learned the other day that we could've, and probably should've, started our peas in January; also, we most likely will harvest well into October and early November. Wowzers!!! And if there's anything that gets the blood pumping through the veins of a farmer boy like Matthew, it's our garden. He loves it and it's a welcome hobby that's awakened from two years dormancy.

He's taken control of our gardens, I've only helped plant a couple of things and harvested a few peas, spinach and lettuce, mainly because of moving and birthing baby J.

A newly baptized member of our ward has a larger plot of land that he offered us partial use of, and Matt loves to go to it a couple of times a week for watering and weeding. Meanwhile the little 8' x 16' plot at our house is showing signs of greatness. In my opinion Matt's been a little too ambitious with the tomato plants, 21 in all. I'm thankful for tomatoes, and we really need spaghetti sauce, but if they keep producing late into the fall, we'll have to get really creative with what we do with the bounty and where we'll store it.

When our children and I were in Utah last summer/fall we spent some of the time gathering seeds from my dad's garden and placing them in labeled envelopes so we could use them for our future garden. One of the varieties of seeds was a purple pole bean that my dad got from my grandpa. Matt had seen in a magazine or website the idea of making a teepee structure for your kids and having the pole beans climb up the poles, making a cool garden teepee. Here's what it looks like now - so cool. I only wish I were small enough to fit inside. (We resurrected the grape vine this year, seen in the back of this photo, but it doesn't appear to feel like producing grapes ... maybe next year).

Another thing we absolutely love about the East is the 'Pick Your Own' farms. While Matt's mom and sister were here Matt took them strawberry picking, then they came home and made jam and pancake syrup.

And now it's blueberry season. We took a morning to visit a PYO farm and picked three kitchen bowls full and made it home before the withering heat and humidity set in for the day. We froze some and then made blueberry syrup. It's kind of sounding like we're about to open our own IHOP with all the different variety of syrup's we have ... too bad we didn't take a trip north during maple sugaring season to complete the circle of homemade syrups;).
We think we'll go back for more so we can make pie filling and maybe just bottle some whole.

We were totally thrilled, as in Little House in the Big Woods thrilled, when Kate said something to the effect that if we kept doing things like this, "we'll NEVER have to go to a store again!". We've been enjoying those books on cd in the car and it's really opened up her's and Wes' imaginations. I love it.

(Side note ... one of the best things about being a parent is learning and re-learning so many great things - history, literature, science, music, exercise - kids just infuse you with the desire to discover, at least that's my experience. Don't judge me too highly by thinking I'm doing this perfectly and consistently, but in those moments when we're learning together, it's the best feeling ever and makes me want to buy them a chalk pencil and slate;)).

Anne in the Mud

2011-06-20T20:29:00.002-04:00

Wesley relived an Anne of Avonlea scene today and even recognized it due to the fact that the kids watched it with me a couple of weeks ago.

I was at the kitchen sink watching it all unfold ...

Wes turned on the sprinkler in our backyard to wash off his muddy feet and hands. He let the water run for a while and was jumping over and running through the 18" high spray. After a while I called out to him to turn it off since everything was turning into a mud pit ... lots of trees = poor grass growth = lots of bare earth in the backyard = mud pit, when wet. He said okay and promptly fell front first into the mud. Ring any bells, Anne fans? He looked just like her, minus the light blue dress and mud-caked face.

What's in a name

2011-06-04T20:20:00.002-04:00

Joshua has been named for six days now but I just haven't been able to write about it. We've been busy, yes, but whenever I sit down to write the 'behind-the-scenes' process, I just haven't been able to do it. We love his name, but he was 'baby' for such a long time that it's hard for me to call him by name.

Either way, Joshua it is ... and he's the center of our lives right now:).

is it Rumplestiltskin?

2011-05-17T21:16:00.015-04:00

Crazy title for a post about a baby, but it's exactly how I feel. More on that later ...

This is a true journal post. The detail is extensive for record keeping purposes; you are forewarned:). If you'd just like to see some really cute pictures, scroll down to the end. (Or since my computer isn't cut and pasting again, (didn't we just get this fixed), please enjoy the pictures out of order above and then read the story, if you'd like, below.

Here is the story behind Baby Boy Bailey:).

May 13th was my doctor's appointment day, and also my 40th week and 1 day mark of pregnancy. I was not surprised, since I went over with Sophie; and it was quite convenient, considering all of the change that's happened in our family life over the last 3 weeks.

Matt was set to proctor two finals at 1:30 and 4:30 and so I dropped off Wes, Kate and Sophie at his work at 11:45 a.m. so I could go to my doctor's appointment and then pick up the kids with plenty of time for him to get to his 1:30 exam. So I did, not knowing I wouldn't see them for nearly 24 hours.

As soon as the nurse put the heart monitor thingy on my stomach I knew something was wrong. I thought she was picking up my heart rate, not the baby's. She moved it around, but still was picking up a slower heart rate. The doctor paused from his paperwork, looked up, and then stood up to try to adjust the monitor himself. After about a minute he said, "the heart rate is a little slower than I'd like; how about if we set you up in the other room for a stress test."

So that's what we did, but it continued to be slow and the alarm kept going off (acknowledging too slow of a beat for its liking). After 20 minutes the doctor came in and said he'd like me to go grab something to eat, and head to the hospital for a more thorough stress test. I said okay, and calmly walked out the door. As soon as I hit the parking lot something took over ... side note: I'm not a very emotional person (although I cry easily at movies and church meetings), but as I left the building a flood gate opened. I'm still not really sure why, other than it was an unexpected turn of events (why should it be when I'm overdue?), and I wasn't mentally prepared to have the baby yet (ditto comment as parenthesis above); plus I was afraid of how this would affect Matt, his schedule, etc., which seems ridiculous now, but was very real to me then. Where were we going to leave our children if I needed to be admitted? etc., etc. We had some things lined up, but for some reason I felt completely overwhelmed. So I sat in the car taking deep breaths so I would be composed when I called Matt.

Breathe.

He picks up the phone and I lose it all over again. He repeats, "hello," since I'm unable to speak coherently; then I tell him what's going on and he calmly says, "Heather, I'll take care of everything, you just go take care of you." I instantly feel better.

I grabbed a chicken sandwich from the dollar menu at Wendy's, very tasteless, and headed to the hospital. I never went on a tour of the hospital and so am pretty lost, but finally make my way to labor and delivery - still thinking I'd just get the test over and be able to go home and get myself ready for delivery in the next couple of days.

I'm greeted at the door by my new neighbor's daughter; someone I met only a week ago but we talked on a few occasions and I connected with quickly. That makes me feel better and she guides me into the test room and hooks me up to a machine. After about 30 minutes the doctor on call comes in and says, "so what do you want to do?" I looked at her blankly and then she explained that the baby's heart rate was low, and there was an arrhythmia. She also said 'the recovery rate' wasn't there, which I can't remember what that meant but basically wasn't pleasing her. She said she'd prefer to admit me into the hospital, since I was overdue anyway, and the test she'd have to perform to give me the go-ahead to go home would most likely put me into labor anyway. So essentially my decision was made for me.

By this time it was about 3:00 p.m., an hour and a half or so into Matt's test. So I called his department secretary to ask her to get him out of the test so I could tell him. I'm put on hold while he comes. When he does I tell him the news. (At this point I have to apologize for going back and forth between present and past tense, I'm not keeping track).

He says okay and I give him an update of who I've called for child care, etc., and he tells me not to worry and that he'll be there as soon as he can.

I get checked in, gowned up, and hooked up. They start the pitocin at about 4 p.m. - Matt arrives shortly before 5 and says the department head and his wife have taken W, K, and S. So now their family of four (4-year old twins) has expanded to 5 children, 5-yrs and under. They are the greatest and are some of the most sincere and good-souled people we know here. Matt said they just stepped right in and said not to worry. The Dept. head proctored Matt's last exam while his wife, who works in the next department over, took the kids home after picking hers up. Good thing they have a van:).

So now that that's settled, we start to focus on the task at hand. Matt has this way of trying not to smile in certain situations and it feels good to me that he's excited, despite the unplanned timing. I keep saying that, which seems silly since we were overdue and you usually can't plan these things, but I guess we just thought we'd get through the weekend and then be able to mentally prepare for the big arrival.

By about 7:30 p.m. the contractions are hard and I'm thinning, mentally. I've never been able to visualize well and have always had the desire to be unmedicated, but have always given in to the pain. What I'm amazed at is recently, every single one of my pregnant friends have posted amazing natural birth stories. I am in awe. At 8:15 p.m. an epidural is in place and I'm feeling much more optimistic about life.

My body has a history of progressing very slowly so I settle in for a long night. Matt and I have a great conversation not afforded us very often at home any more. We talk of his finals, student stories and the possibility of having a Friday the 13th baby.

A maybe not so well-known fact about me is I'm a student/lover of numbers. Matt hasn't really found a pattern in it, although he thinks it strange. At first he just thought I loved prime numbers, then odd numbers, then that theory was blown away. For example ... I like the numbers, 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, not 14 or 15, but 16 and 17 are okay; no-go on 18; but 19 is good; 20 no; 21, 22 no; 23 yes, 24 no; 25 is okay but not preferred; 26 and 27 yes; 28 no; 29 yes, and 30, 31 not so much. So for the days of the month I was so hoping this baby would show up before midnight.

By about 9:45 I'm starting to feel heavy pressure. I tell Matt and decide to wait a little to see if it really is that and if we should call the nurse/doctor. Then at about 10 p.m. I'm bleeding along with the pressure. So Matt gets the nurse, who calls the doctor and I'm checked and they say, "let's have a baby!" They're suited up and tell me when I feel the pressure to push. After one push the doctor says, "okay, we'll have this baby in one or two more pushes." So we wait for a few seconds and push again. I can feel the doctor adjusting things down below and I think of one of my friend's posts who said when her midwife did that, the pain was excruciating. Then the last push and out comes baby. These are the doctor's words as the final push is going on, "wow, you're a fat little one, it's a BOY, mom!"

I was shocked. This is two for two for me, with me being wrong about the gender. I was positive Sophie was a boy, and although I wanted a boy this go-around, I was positive it was a girl. So for any future children out there, I need to either not try to guess, or just guess opposite of what I'm sure it is.

I didn't feel the flood of emotion this time like I did with Sophie, I was just shocked. I was convinced I was a boy mom who was going to have a house full of girls.

He was weighed and came in at 9 lbs. 6 oz., which to me is pretty deceiving because he's got a smaller head, like Kate's, and chicken legs, like both grandpa's:), so where all that weight is stored, I don't know.

When he was put on my chest I still thought, "it's a boy? how can it be?"

After about an hour he was taken to the nursery and received other care then brought back to me. Matt left for some much needed rest and I spent my first night with my 2nd little son.

In the morning Matt brought Wes, Kate and Sophie and told me as they walked in the room, "they don't know what he is, they haven't asked if it's a boy or girl." They were just excited to have stayed the night at our friend's house, that we had a new baby, and that they were now able to share all this wonderful news with me. We then announced we had a boy and they were all so excited. Kate quickly forgot the news she'd told me two days before that she wanted a sister and that she'd be very sad if we had a boy.

Throughout the day the baby and I began our recovery and I still wondered what name he'd be called. Matt and I had asked the nurses if they had a baby book and they presented a 2" thick copy of names. I religiously flipped through every page and jotted down names I thought were possibilities. Matt and our children visited right before bedtime ("we're having a pizza party Mom, and we got a MOVIE!"), and we passed a few names between us, without any luck.

I forgot to mention when Matt called my parents to tell them the news and told my mom we were considering the name Ivan (which we weren't), there were 5 solid seconds of silence on the other end of the phone. Matt has this delight in teasing my mother.

By Sunday morning I was finished with the hospital. The nurses had been wonderful, but I was ready to be home. Good thing we stayed though (we could've gone home 24 hours after the birth but since it was late into the p.m., they suggested we stay an extra night) because the next morning's exam by the pediatrician revealed a fractured clavicle (big babies sometimes are squinched just so in the birth canal that they suffer a fracture during birth), and more heart issues - 2-4 skipped beats per minute, calling for an EKG.

I was about to go stir-crazy but by about 4 p.m. we were finally released, with instructions for follow up visits on the two concerns.

But what about a name? Well 5 minutes before we left the hospital Matt said, "Well you said you wanted a name with significance? Either a family name or something religious/biblical? How about Gordon?"

I looked at him funny.

"What? He was one of the most revered prophets in our time."

I wasn't buying his sincerity.

"Well then how about Brigham?"

That struck a cord.

Me: "I like it ... Brigham Bailey. I really like it."

Him: "You do?" (I think his sincerity maybe wasn't 100% on this suggestion either)

Me: "I really do."

Him: "Okay, let's do it ... you do realize this is almost the same way we came up with Wes' name."

Me: "Yes."

Him: "Okay."

Brigham it was ........ for 2 about minutes. I left the room to go back to the nursery and when I came back Matt said, "No, it's not Brigham."

So without going into any more revealing detail, that's been the story of our lives for the last week. We suggest names to each other and haven't been able to come to a consensus. I've told Matt we're not doing this again for any future children that may be up there ... it's been a pain at doctor's appointments, and the insurance company isn't liking/buying it either. You'd think that after 9+ months, we would've been able to make this decision, but oh well, he sure is cute though. Many times I have felt just like the miller's daughter-turned queen in Rumpelstiltskin as she's trying to guess the funny little man's name.

Now just some thoughts:

-Matt's been a rock through all of this, keeping us afloat during transition.
-I forgot how much I love all the sounds and faces a newborn makes.
-We really need a van. It was one of those things that didn't get done.
-We moved into the best neighborhood for us now. Our neighbors have truly taken us in.
-It's hard not having family close by, although our ward family and aforementioned- neighbors have been awesome.
-Each day I hold this little guy I love him more and more and our connection deepens. I've truly been blessed with a wonderful family.

Arrival

2011-05-14T15:50:00.002-04:00

Hello blogosphere. Matt here.

Just wanted to let you all know that Heather delivered a 9 lb, 6 ounce baby boy on May 13 at 10:22 pm. More details and pictures to follow once we get them home. Mom and baby are doing just fine. No name as of yet.

We've almost made it

2011-05-09T20:22:00.003-04:00

Quick update ...

No baby yet; due date on Thursday.

Still boxes everywhere, but slowly making progress.

LOVE the neighborhood - great neighbors.

Our children have made friends here.

Got phone and internet up and going today ... honestly have not missed it.

Matt's finishes school on Friday! Can we make it until then? Of course we can.

Swamped

2011-04-25T07:59:00.007-04:00

But we're almost there. Yesterday Matt said, "if we can just make it through this week ..." But I must have a few extra minutes if I'm sitting down and documenting this.

*We're in the thick of moving. Our apartment is half bare (it's heavenly and makes me want to yard sale everything!), and the garage at our new house is half full. Here's our house ...

Yes, landscaping is a major priority. And a paw print-less mailbox:).

*Easter was fun. We adopted an idea I came upon where Saturday is candy day and Sunday is about the meaning of the holiday. I think it went well. We had a mini egg hunt inside the empty rooms of our house. This picture is our culmination ...

*A woman in our ward passed along a bag of Sunday clothes just Wes' size. I was thrilled! I'm thinking dapper is a good description for this not-so-little guy ...

*Too much on the plate for sewing or shopping for Easter dresses this year so I resorted to opening up the 5-6 year old clothing bin and pulled out these dresses for Sophie and Kate. They loved them. At first the 5T dress Sophie is wearing was on Kate, but when I could see 3 inches above her knee it was passed on to the 3-year old. I think Kate's is some sort of swim suit cover, or just a casual jumper.

*Car collision late Friday night is causing me to wait from 8-12noon today for the insurance adjuster. Funny thing is I had a feeling a crash was coming minutes before it did. I remember adjusting my lap part of the seat belt because I thought, "boy if I were in a crash this baby wouldn't like it one bit." Good thing I was probably only going 5 mph (in skid mode) as I hit the man who apparently didn't see me and pulled out in front of the car. And thankfully no injuries. My first thought after was, "oh man, this will go on the vehicle report and we won't get as much money for the car when we sell it next month!" Oh well.

*Crazy jobs. Matt and I must have an obsession for crazy jobs to bring in a little extra cash. I won't go into details because I'm more embarrassed than proud of these. But when they come our way we always seem to say, 'okay', we can do that. But thankfully this one is over so no more of this pregnant lady getting her walking exercise through a huge club store at 2 a.m. this morning... why we're doing this right now in the thick of things is beyond me.

*Pollen. It's a good thing none of us has Spring allergies (even Wes isn't exhibiting major symptoms), because the pollen is blanketing the area. I thought the kids had been playing with yellow chalk on the car. Then I looked around and it's everywhere! Our realtor said it happens every year for a week or two.

*37 1/2 weeks. I'm really hoping this baby is late. We just need that much more time to get settled. Sophie was 5 days late, so I'm hoping for that this time too. My due date's the 12th, Matt gives two finals the 13th, then we're home free. Here's to hoping.

Ketchup

2011-04-12T20:57:00.005-04:00

Or Catch Up in this case. Good grief we've done a lot and I haven't recorded it yet ... so go pop some popcorn, you're going to be here a while.

March is a month we always look forward to because Matt has Spring Break. And ever since we've lived on the East Coast (I make it sound like we've been here for years and years), that means travel time for us!

This year we chose to go to Williamsburg/Yorktown/Jamestown. #1 reason is because they're awesome places to visit, and #2 reason, my due date is getting closer so we didn't want to travel too far away for comfort's sake.

Wow, we were not disappointed at all. It was gorgeous! On the way down we went over the 23-mile long Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel which takes you down under the water twice, pretty cool. We got to our hotel and don't you love it when you are so pleasantly surprised with what you booked: it's appearance, hospitality and price. We'll definitely stay there again when in that area. Of course the highlight of the entire trip for our children was the pool at the hotel and the breakfast. Oh well, at least we (Matt and I) will have memories of the sites.

We first went to Yorktown and loved it. Living History Museums are the best. We saw blackpowder musket demonstrations, camp layout replicas, and were able to dress up like the first English who tried to make life work in this new land.

It was perfect ... a Thursday, slightly cool, and not a lot of touristy people.

Friday we started off walking around Williamsburg. I called my niece and told her there's got to be a way we can get her to go to William & Mary. Holy Smoke, that campus in that city is absolutely fantastic and beautiful and all other descriptive words you can think of.

Our kids didn't like walking around Williamsburg too much since we were seeing mostly shops and historic buildings and such. We decided the price was a little too steep to go on the full tour so we left and headed over to Jamestown.

About 20 or so school buses greeted us and we decided Friday's must be field trip day at sites like these. But still it was a lot of fun. We saw more replicas, Indian camps, an early village, and some cool ships.

We couldn't have asked for better weather and a springtime get away. That whole area is so well-kept, for obvious tourist reasons, and we look forward to going back again and again. We just scratched the surface as far as things to do. The one thing I feel badly about is not getting Matt the bumper sticker "Virginia is for Lovers". Totally describes him (may come as a surprise to some, but the truth).

It was a quick trip, but those always seem to go the best with our family.

Onto the next event in March ... Sophie's birthday!

We'd just gotten home and kind of counted the trip as a birthday present and so we played it pretty low key. I hung balloons on the ceiling fan the night before, knowing they'd be a big hit at breakfast time. We had a fun breakfast, opened presents and then headed off to a Primary Activity.

(someday we will get/make a real kitchen table and chairs:)).

When we got home we quickly made two round cakes and decorated them like balloons. Definitely not one of my most creative ideas, but Wes and Kate had fun decorating them.

We ended the day with a pizza party using this recipe ... one of our new favorites. It was just good family fun.
Sophie is truly a beautiful little lady. She tries so hard to keep up with Wes and Kate, and for the most part does a pretty good job. She's got spirit and spunk, and has a great relationship with her sister. Wes, on the other hand, has a somewhat typical (could you call it that?) brother/sister relationship with her. Although, many times they're very sweet together.

I'll start to wrap up with this picture.
Today we'd just sat down to lunch when this friendly little bat decided to join us outside our kitchen window. It climbed up the screen and settled in for a long nap ... in fact it's still there - 10 hrs later. But it was such a great preschool moment. We quickly googled facts about bats and by dinner time Kate could recite practically everything about it to Matt when he came home from work.

Lots of changes are coming our way and we're so ready for them. After a very unsettled year we're finally closing on a house next week (we've been there the last two FHE's planting a garden; got permission beforehand since it's really not 'officially' ours yet). We're also spending many weekends traveling to get new vehicles ... a truck for Matt (once you've had one, it's tough to be truckless, plus our house has lots of fun remodeling projects for us:)), and a van for the family. Our Camry has served us well but we think the state would frown on us strapping a child to the roof, or creating a third row in the trunk. We've been a one-car family for nearly three years and are so ready to be done with it.

Our baby is due in four weeks, and that is such an anticipated event. Wes and Kate were really too young to grasp when Sophie came along, so this go around has been really fun. I've even had a creative spark in changing out the nursery items ... farewell Americana, hello black, white and lime green. That's gender neutral enough isn't it? I changed out some of the basket fabric the other day and made an easy crib skirt like this one (obviously in my choice of colors), and am looking forward to making some stuffed toys like this and this, and possibly a yo-yo quilt (a little hesitant on that one, but I can dream:)). And just saw this cute blessing dress today, if we have a girl. I also want to make new slip covers for a glider rocker my parents gave us when the twins were born. My problem is 'my eyes are bigger than my plate', so we'll see how it all goes. It's been fun though.

Whew ... I think we're somewhat caught up:). 'Til next time then ...

Funny little lady

2011-03-10T20:57:00.003-05:00

I've got the best picture of Sophie, but dare not post it because it's an underwear picture. But yesterday she came out of her room donned in her sweatshirt and no pants, only her hot pink panties with white polka dots, and her winter boots. Earlier in the day I'd done her hair in a high ponytail bun, and when she saw me she struck a pose just like Wonder Woman. I pulled out the camera and had to capture it for posterity's sake. So funny.

Some other funny things she's done lately ...

For those of you who know (and love) the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice ... remember the infamous Mr. Collins and all of his idiosyncrasies. One of them is when he quickly puts his hand up to his mouth as if to quiet himself when Lady Catherine de Burgh cuts him off. But the way he puts his hand to his mouth is not covering it (parallel), but perpendicularly. Does that make sense?

Well, whenever Sophie coughs or sneezes, she hold her hand in this exact pose. I know I have a future P&P lover on my hands:).

Secondly. Whenever she goes to the bathroom she requests a book. We've got four or five in a basket in the bathroom for her reading convenience. So this morning I read Come Back, Amelia Bedelia.

In it, Amelia Bedelia is fired from various jobs because of her literal way of taking things, so she keeps seeking out 'help wanted' signs in windows.

On our nature walk this afternoon (we live within 4 blocks of a great museum near a pond, an easy walk along a wooded path), we kept seeing various signs along the way ... election signs, ADT security signs, signs identifying plants along the nature pathway. Each time we saw a sign Sophie would say, "What's that sign say, Mom?" I'd tell her what it read.

She'd then say, "No, it says 'help wanted'."

Just this morning I said to Matt, it's amazing what 6 months can do in the life of a 2-3 year old ... they just grow and verbalize and sponge up so much during that time. She's so much more grown up than I'd like to admit.

What I just heard

2011-02-28T15:18:00.003-05:00

(file photo from CT, but very appropriate today)

{Background ... Kate's been asking me for food all day long. She's had healthy portions of breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and now it's 3:19 p.m. and she's asking for more. It's not for lack of food ... must be growing.}

Kate: "If you didn't name me Kate, then I wouldn't be hungry all the time."

Me: "Oh, is that what it is?"

Windy Days

2011-02-21T21:13:00.004-05:00

After our time at the beach last week, we said we wanted to take a kite next time because it's so windy there. So after leaving the beach we went to the store and bought a kite.

Well, Saturday turned out to be cooler and lots more windy, so we thought it was a perfect day to try out our new purchase.I think I had as much fun as Wes and Kate:).

I want to remember ...

2011-02-20T21:43:00.003-05:00

There are many things I want to remember from my children's childhood ... and this is one of them.

Wesley, with his half-tucked in shirt (into his underwear, no less); his tie clipped on by himself, on the outside of the collar; and the sweet innocence in his eyes.

Such a sweet boy. He's always concerned about me and is in a mommy phase. He accepts and freely gives kisses to me, although they're quickly wiped off, but that's more than Matt's getting right now. He's constantly saying, "Mommy, I like you." I always respond by saying I love him and he says, "but Mommy, I really like you." Which, in his language means, we're all supposed to love each other because we're in a family, but I really like you as a person, too.

He's always concerned about the baby and will say, "I'm not hurting you, am I Mommy?" when he sits on my lap.

He still has issues with sharing and totally accepting everyone (he holds grudges a long time), but wow, if I could have another boy as sweet as he is, I'd take 10 ... okay, maybe 1 or 2;).

Regional phrases

2011-02-18T19:37:00.006-05:00

(No, this is not our new car;))

When you grow up in an area and don't move around a lot, you get used to phrases or words that are commonly used in that region. I took a class at BYU that talked about accents within the United States and pronunciations common to certain areas.

So when we moved to the East Coast I was kind of excited to start hearing some of these regular phrases that are regional. One example was: in Utah I was used to hearing 'shopping cart', whereas in CT I commonly heard people say 'carriage' as in, "go get me a carriage, please", when entering a grocery store.

A new one I was introduced to a couple of weeks ago and figured out just yesterday that it might be a regional word or phrase is punch buggy. Now I could be totally wrong about it being a regional word, but now that I've seen/heard it twice here, I think it may be one that is regional.

So here's the definition from Wikipedia ... Punch buggy (also called punch bug, slug bug, or beetle bug) is a car game generally played by children in which participants punch each other in the arm upon first sight of a Volkswagon Beetle while calling out "Slug bug" or "Punch buggy" in reference to the Beetle's nickname, the Bug.

First encounter: Wes went up to a lady at church and asked, "You drive that red slug bug?", she laughed and said, "oh, that's a cute name, and yes, that is my punch buggy!". I thought she was just giving it an endearing name.

Second encounter: A slug bug in our apartment parking lot was decorated the other day, and the window paint said 'punch buggy' on the back. Thus, my putting two and two together that maybe this was a real name/regional name.

I came home tonight and googled it and sure enough, it's real.

Just some random food for thought:).

Assateague again

2011-02-18T19:13:00.005-05:00

Our children and I went to Assateague National Seashore again today. We knew it was going to be 70 degrees and so we thought we'd celebrate by going to the beach.

We dropped off Matt at work, came back and packed a picnic and were on our way. We got there around 10 a.m. which was so perfect. I think the wind never stops blowing there, so it was mildly cool, but not uncomfortable; after a couple of hours it warmed up and we shed our jackets.

We spread out our blanket and I settled down with the Scholastic book order pamphlets that we used to get in elementary school, and a book about homeschooling*.

Wes, Kate and Sophie immediately took their buckets and shovels and needed my attention no longer.

After a couple of hours we had lunch and then started to play again.

During this time I kept thinking, "this couldn't be more heavenly; no schedules to keep, no places to be, and the kids are playing so well." I even took a little catnap.

Next time we've decided to take a kite. I think this will be a regular place for us this Spring, Summer and Fall. After about 5 hours away from home we came home tired, hungry, and full of fun things to tell Dad:).
_____________________________
*I've always been interested in homeschooling, mainly because I'm concerned about quality education. We plan on enrolling Wes and Kate in public school kindergarten in the fall, but I'm interested in homeschooling principles and how we can keep learning opportunities in the forefront of our family life, and use them to supplement our children's public education experience. I'm pretty sure I don't have the patience to be a good homeschooling mom, but from the book I was reading today, that's a common excuse/reason a lot of homeschooling parents had at first, until they learned how to make homeschooling work for them. It's a really interesting research topic (much to the chagrin of my mother;)).

The innocence of children

2011-02-17T21:27:00.003-05:00

On the heels of the previous post, I have a great illustration of the HUGE difference between adults and children; or at least between most adults and most children.

We went to a really great playground today to celebrate 65 degree weather. This play area is one of those that is built for many ages and many abilities. It really is the jewel of our community, or at least what I've experienced of the community thus far.

A section of this playground has a little boat where you can pretend you're steering, etc.

Kate bee-lined it to this area right after saying, "I'm going to go make some friends, Mom."

So I followed, with Wes and Sophie. By the time I got there Kate had already introduced herself to a mother and a 5-year old girl, who were playing in the boat. Then she took the helm and said, "this is just like a boat we read about last night. It's where these two bad brothers named Laman and Lemuel tied up their righteous brother named Nephi, and then the Liahona stopped working because they wouldn't repent!"

Still going a hundred miles an hour, she continued. "Then a huge storm came and they were all about to die, and then Laman and Lemuel decided they should repent and they let Nephi go, and the storm went away and the Liahona started working again and they made it to the Promised Land."

I'm learning to step back and just let Kate be Kate. There have been times where my own discomfort about her openness took over and I muzzled her a few times, or warned people, or made excuses. But I've really come to admire her in so many ways. She can make friends with anyone. She is not shy at all, and freely gives hugs and tells people she loves them. This is pretty close to 173 degrees opposite of how I am, and I'd probably say how Matt is too. Where she got this I don't know.

This mother at the playground was probably wondering who in the world this little girl was, what she was talking about, and why she was using words like 'repent' and 'Promised Land'. But I thought, wow, if we all could be that open about sharing the gospel and stop worrying about if we're going to offend someone just by saying what we believe, we'd all be in a better place.

I hope this gift of hers doesn't wane with age. I hope it's refined and developed.

It's just the mailman, Mom! And wonderful gifts

2011-02-15T21:53:00.004-05:00

Kate tends to think that anyone who smiles and wears a uniform is NOT a stranger. So she will happily talk to them whenever. Although I'm thankful for her innocence, it frightens me that she's so willing to trust people who appear to be an authority figure. There are other situations I won't post, but I don't seem to be 'getting through' on the stranger/danger subject.

Tonight I was in the back of the apartment and Kate comes running down the hall. It's a very small apartment = about a 10 foot run down the hall, so I'm not quite sure how I missed all this action. But back to it ... she runs down the hall with a package, evidently delivered by the UPS man, unbeknownst to me.

After our 'talk' once again about not opening the door unless I'm there, we opened a much welcomed and anticipated package from my sister. Inside were 6 or more hardback books about Book of Mormon heroes, and some CD's about morals/principles. My mind's hallelujah chorus was going crazy.

One of the best things about being the youngest, are the hand-me-downs I've gotten. They're much more appreciated as I grow older;).

My sister got these books from a neighbor, who bought them for when her grandchildren visited her. She, my sister, was recently going through her library and thought they'd be more age-appropriate for my children. I also love that she has almost single-handedly supplied us with our preschool materials. I must remember to 'pay it forward', since Matt's the oldest in his family and has siblings who can benefit from our hand-me-downs in the future.

These books look almost new and are in near perfect condition. Wes and Kate were thrilled, and instantly requested we read about Nephi and the Brass Plates, since that's where they're reading right now.

We're also excited to listen to the CD's about honesty, forgiveness, and more, since we are freshly finished with Ramona the Brave, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8.

'Conversations'

2011-02-04T20:36:00.002-05:00

In the Fall my sister introduced me to an aspect of the Mormon Channel I hadn't explored previously ... Conversations.

I have LOVED listening to them. I'll usually listen to them on Sunday mornings, or at night after the kids are in bed and I'm folding laundry. I've been so enlightened and inspired by these interviews with people with a unique LDS perspective. It's another example to me of the blessings the internet can bring.

Frustrated with Reality

2011-02-03T12:57:00.002-05:00

Why is it that in my 5'11" frame I cannot carry a baby with grace and elegance? You'd think I'd be able to tuck a second little body in there with ease.

I'm barely 6 months along and look as if I'm about to deliver; and I'm not being overly self critical, I'm stating reality.

But then I think I really need to stop complaining, since all those years we were without children I would have loved looking huge, just for the privilege and chance of being pregnant. Must be my state of mind;).

The simple pleasure of cut and paste

2011-01-22T09:09:00.003-05:00

After many frustrating moments on our computer I've finally accepted the fact that it's definitely been compromised.

A few months ago, I bet it was in late Spring, I clicked on a how-to video on a blog I regularly visit. Instantaneously my computer went berserk, downloading all sorts of things. We tried home remedies but slowly, slowly, over the weeks, it became bogged down and crashed the day before we moved from CT. It probably would have been smarter to take it to a repair shop soon after the incident, but we didn't.

So while our children and I were in Utah for our extended stay, Matt took the hard drive in (at this point it would turn on but we'd only ever get a black screen) to have it rebuilt and hopefully save some of our stuff.

Well they saved it, but many of our functions are gone. I've looked for answers on the internet and tried them, but I can't restore cut/copy and paste. What a pain. I never realized how often I use them. That's why for a while I wasn't able to control where pictures were placed on the blog.

Now when I post, it's usually from our laptop, so I can cut and paste to my heart's delight.

Assateague Island National Seashore

2011-01-18T22:14:00.004-05:00

Late last week Matt came home from work and said he had an idea for the weekend. Since we moved here our weekends have consisted of going to a building workshop at Lowe's or Home Depot for our children, and then grocery shopping. What happened to the adventure days when we were in Connecticut? We just haven't had that spark here. But I'm so glad he suggested we start.

So Saturday we got ready, packed some snacks and loaded in the car for a trip to Assateague Island National Seashore. It's a 40 mile or so strip of island off the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia, known for its wild horses and beautiful beach. It just happened that our entry fee was waived because of the MLK holiday; added bonus.

We'd prepared for some beach action by taking a bucket and two kid-sized snow shovels. This was the highlight of the trip for Wes and Kate. They were the only ones who braved the wind and cold, and we ended up coming home with a bucket full and hat full of beautiful shells. After the first beach stop we ran back to the car to warm up and head to a nearby town for lunch. As we were driving out of the park Matt said, "Oh! There are some horses." We hadn't seen any on the way in, so were happy to turn around to see three wild horses grazing on the side of the road.

We pulled up to them (picture Yellowstone and bison alongside the road, it's the same experience here) and I rolled down my window to get a picture. Then I noticed the lighting was better on Matt's side so I handed him the camera to get a shot of a horse in the sunlight.
All of our attention was focused out Matt's window until I felt a nuzzling in my lap. I snapped my head forward to see a whole horse's head in my window in my lap, sniffing the plastic bag of snacks we'd packed. I was scared to death but didn't scream for fear of being bitten. I quietly, but with great panic, whispered Matt's name, to which he turned his head to us and let out a surprised expression (all clean:)). He ended up just putting us in gear to move forward. The horse wasn't startled at all and just took the bag out the window with him.

We then started to laugh and recover from the fright, and then decided to turn around to try and rescue the horses from bellyaches of plastic bags, and fruit snacks in plastic packaging. We figured the oranges, bananas and vanilla wafers would probably be digested okay.

Matt got out of the car and approached the three eating horses and did his scarecrow dance that he does with his dad to move sheep, horses, cows, whatever animal needs to be moved. But these horses are evidently too used to humans and didn't budge. One ended up turning around with hind end facing Matt and back kicked a couple of times. I couldn't tell just watching it, but the horse did nick Matt in the elbow with one of those kicks. Needless to say, we only recovered the plastic sack the snacks were in.
After all that excitement we got lunch and then came back for more beach fun and a short hike through one of the marshes.

On the way out of the park we stopped at the visitor's center and played with the crab in the learn and grow tank, and watched a really cool movie on the history of the horses. They were owned by early Americans 300+ years ago, who let them graze on the island since it was a natural corral. Over the years some were never rounded up and the population on the Maryland side has been controlled at 80-100. It was fascinating. We've got to do more of these trips soon.A few months ago a member of our ward lent us a book called something like Day trips of Delmarva, and as I was browsing it today I've picked our next destination .... Smith Island.

Allergy History

2011-01-13T14:59:00.011-05:00

When Wes was a baby I thought he had cradle cap. So I scrubbed faithfully, hoping to remedy the situation over time. But after a while I noticed his scalp just looked red and inflamed. So we went to the doctor and the diagnosis was eczema. Every time I was scrubbing his little head I was aggravating his condition. That made me feel like a good mom. Our doctor said sometimes eczema is linked to other allergies or asthma.

Well through the years (5 of them), he hasn't had any more scalp eczema. It's just shown up in the other typical places, on his legs, behind the knees, in the crease of the arm at the elbow joint, the crease between earlobe and head, etc. We've medicated quite successfully with hydrocortizone you buy at the store.

When he was 18 months old I was drinking a soy protein drink and gave him a sip. Within a couple of minutes his face around his mouth became red and puffy. Matt and I were alarmed but decided to wait a few minutes before calling the doctor. Good thing his reaction wasn't too bad and went away fairly quickly.

We've also noticed that when he rides horses, or is around them at Matt's parent's house he has a reaction. Our pediatrician in CT recommended a little allergy medication, which we've had on hand if we felt he really needed it.

Finally at his 5-year old check up I remembered to ask the doctor about this history. I told him Wes complains when we have pancakes ... "Mom, my throat feels funny." Followed by a growling/clearing the throat sound. So Matt and I started to experiment ... was it the pancakes, was it the syrup? We'd try straight wheat pancakes, we'd try strawberry jam instead of syrup. Finally we heard no complaints with corn meal pancakes and regular syrup, so that became our standard. This is just an example ... After each meal we'd look at him to see if the red blotches would appear; they usually would after at least half of the meals. Good grief, was he allergic to everything.

We never felt like it was serious enough to take him immediately to the doctor. It reminded me of something from Matt's family. I think (I could be wrong), but I think when his brother was on a mission he was tested for food allergies and found out that he was basically allergic to everything on a traditional hamburger, except the mustard. Nothing was bad enough to put him out of commission, just a ton of mild allergies.

Like I said, if more serious symptoms appeared we would've been more responsive, more quickly. I don't think we're running into the irresponsible parents category.

The doctor sent us to a lab to run blood tests. The results came back today, and now I think we'll start to get some answers (after another appointment with an allergist).

He's mildly allergic to dust, dogs, trees (maple, hickory and ragweed, specifically), tomatoes, whole eggs, cow's milk, and wheat.

He has higher levels of allergies to grass and peanuts (good grief, he gets peanut butter and honey sandwiches at least once or twice/week).

His highest allergy is to soy.

Luckily there are people smarter than I am to interpret all of this. My questions to the allergist will be like these ... does a mild allergy mean he can still eat it since he really hasn't ever complained about it before, i.e. he LOVES milk and hard boiled eggs ... and how do you cut out wheat? Luckily it's a mild allergy, so hopefully I won't have to cut it out. My news director has coeliac disease and I've always thought it would be a terrible thing to have.

We'll see.

Easiest Dessert

2011-01-13T10:56:00.003-05:00

A few years ago my mother in law shared this easy dessert recipe. I've found if I'm in need of a quick something I can throw together, this is a great stand-by.

Triple Chocolate Cake

1 Devils Food Cake Mix
1 small pkg. chocolate pudding (instant)
2 cups milk
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix first three ingredients. Put in a greased cake pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. When cooled top with cool whip.

Stroke

2011-01-10T20:50:00.002-05:00

One of the side blessings of having young children is the comic relief they often provide, without meaning to. Another one of these moments happened at our house today.

Wes was pretty active, aka hyper, and running around like a mad man. His favorite thing lately is to scare Sophie by crawling/chasing her like a tiger. He's in the midst of this when Kate comes up to me and says exasperatedly, "Mom, he's giving me a stroke!"

Me too, is what I wanted to say.

At times like these I think ... it really would be confusing, trying to learn new words in this language that swirls around a child. All of these adults are using expressions that don't make sense, but if it's a cool word, why not try it out?

Wrapped

2011-01-05T19:13:00.002-05:00

This little lady has her daddy completely, utterly, and unmistakably wrapped around her little finger.

One of those days

2011-01-05T18:41:00.004-05:00

Usually I try to keep my posts about events in our family's life and record fun times and such; but tonight I'm changing the focus a bit, just for true journaling purposes.

Today was just one of those days. I had a bad attitude and really had no reason for it (other than a headache, which these days is common. Some women are nauseated during pregnancy; not me, I'm of the headache variety). This makes mothering difficult. I was short tempered and unkind for much of the day. At the end of it, before Matt got home, I said to Wes and Kate, "I haven't been a very good mom today." They both agreed and said I hadn't. That made me laugh a little and then scold myself for such behavior. They (the twins) are pretty active by themselves, but you add in the synergistic energy of them together feeding off each other and you're in for more than a ball or explosion of fire.

Pre-teens and teenagers (I admit I was one of them), often wish for twins. I even had a Young Woman once tell me she wanted sextuplets. And it is true ... there's a ton of attention given to you and them, especially during pregnancy and as babies, and it's really a lot of fun. I would do it again all over. But boy, is it hard. I guess if you had mild children, it wouldn't be as much of a deal.

So that's that. Just some thoughts of today. No call for sympathy, just me documenting feelings during this short stage of life.

I think I'm about to embark on a study of motherhood. I'm leaning toward Ensign articles. So if there are suggestions in that arena, bring them on!

I think I need a cookie.

New Year thoughts and do-dads

2011-01-03T20:00:00.005-05:00

This week we introduced the concept of goals to our children, essentially to set them for our family for 2011 ... resolutions of sorts. Since they're relatively young, we made suggestions and they approved or disapproved. I plan to make a nice computer print out of them and put them in a nice black frame so we can see them daily, an idea from my brother and sister-in-law.

Here are a few:
*Have more meaningful Family Home Evenings.
*Complete a family service project monthly.
*Be Healthy ... nutrition, exercise.

Tonight was a success in the FHE front. So here's to 51 more successes this year:).
------------------------------------------
Documenting section for posterity:

Wes and Kate had their annual well-check visit today and they met their new doctor. Things went well and both are growing well. Although I'm convinced they had the wrong growth chart measurement for Wes. They must've had him measured up against a 4-year old rather than 5-year old, because they put him in the 90th and 97th percentile, which is not true. He's a skinny little guy and has always been right around the 37th percentile in both. And I didn't see any shooting up this year, other than with Kate. She's now four lbs. heavier and 1 1/4" taller than Wes.

Sophie is our little potty training queen. We started last summer, but were interrupted by our extended stay in Utah and stay at a home owned by Matt's employer, which I didn't feel like cleaning the carpets everyday due to accidents. So we waited until we moved into our apartment. She's been ready to train for a while and so it's been a total breeze. The other day Matt looked at me and said, "I don't remember Wes and Kate being this easy." They WEREN'T. Part of the frustration was training two at one time, but also I think now we're more relaxed about it and it's worked wonders. So way to go Fia Fia!

Our next big project is getting back to the house hunt. Hopefully we'll avoid soap operas and 'one for the record books' (direct quote from our Realtor) this time.

Back in business

2011-01-02T20:19:00.009-05:00

After weeks and months of not posting with pictures, we're back in business! Thanks to a new camera, and getting our belongings out of storage, we have documenting capabilities again. The problem now, which I've never had before, is I'm unable to maneuver the pictures on blogger like I did before. Hopefully it's just a problem tonight, and I'll be able to rearrange them soon. But meanwhile there they are ... all at the top of the post.

A nutshell run through of our goings-on over the last 3 weeks prove to be mind spinning, but I'll try to be brief.

The day after the previous post about putting up our Christmas tree we were notified by Matt's work that the home we were staying in was booked for the Christmas holidays. What it essentially meant was that we had to move out in six days. So that Thursday our children and I toured multiple apartment units recommended by our Realtor, and found one that offered a 3-month lease since we plan on being in a home by Spring.

The bonus was we'd finally get our moving van unloaded (it has been stored outside of town since August) meaning we'd have different clothes and winter coats! The downside was that we'd be packing up and moving again in a matter of weeks, and our apartment is only two bedrooms; but there wasn't much else we could do, and we figured we've been jumbled for so long that 3 more months really can't be that bad.

Meanwhile we had a terrific Christmas! And even received an unusual snowstorm which brought about 10 inches. Our city declared a state of emergency for 72 hours. Welcome to the shore!

We were unable to go to the temple lights and concert series before Christmas, but made it shortly thereafter. We made a day of it and visited some places in D.C. we didn't get to during our visit last Spring Break. It was also before we realized we'd be moving here.

We LOVED the Library of Congress and envisioned scenes from National Treasure 2 (good grief I can't even create links tonight, otherwise there would've been one there).

We also went to the United States Botanic Garden, where they had a seasonal display of trains and Christmas trees. It was so beautiful.

Later, we went to the temple and enjoyed the lights and atmosphere. Matt and I commented that we picked the right week to go since the week prior had temperatures about 20 degrees cooler.

We also sledded a bit, and found the only decent hills in the area are near a city park and golf course. When we went to buy sleds after the snowstorm they were sold out. So by the time they came in our snow was pretty scarce, but everyone loved it anyway.

We feel so blessed to be here with a good job. That's what's most important right now. We're excited for 2011 and for the changes and experiences it will bring; namely a home, hopefully in March or April, and a baby in May.

Kate said to me on the way home from church today, "Mom, you're the luckiest mommy I know." And I'd have to say she's right.

The tree is up!

2010-12-07T21:53:00.003-05:00

Matt surprised me tonight by suggesting we get a real tree. For clarification purposes, we always get a real tree, but this year since we're in limbo we'd talked about getting a tiny desktop version. It'd still be real, because I think it's against Fountain Green blood to consider anything else, but we'd just have our own version of a Charlie Brown tree.

With that in mind, our children and I shopped for minimal ornaments since ours are still in storage. We came home with small candy canes and 12 silver bells from the dollar store. When Matt came home we headed to the tree lot for a tree. It was so, so cold, and especially so since none of us have coats (in storage, is anyone tired of this sad song, or offering me a small violin;)), we're just hanging out in our matching sweatshirts (Matt bought them for us and presented them to us when we arrived here in October, thank heavens for that). But for the peninsula area we've heard it is really cold, even for them.

Anyway ... Matt walks up to a 5 foot tree and says, "how 'bout this one?" I was astounded, until I remembered I'm married to Mr. Christmas. Matt loves Christmas so much and I'm so grateful, because I love Christmas too but don't think to do all of the fun little traditional things: make gingerbread men, homemade ornaments i.e. popcorn and cranberry strings, and he does.

So off we went with our tree, new tree stand, two boxes of lights (good thing I'm not married to my brother who puts something like 13 strands on one tree), a star, icicles, and small ball ornaments. Looks like I'll be selling a few Christmas things on eBay in the spring, or taking a donation trip, since we have all of that already:). But I'm happy that we did it. (P.S. we did hold off on another tree skirt and figured a towel or two, neatly draped will do the job quite nicely.) All in all, a $42 investment that equals one of those priceless moments from the commercials, especially when Sophie kissed me and said after it was decorated, "oh, it's so beautiful!" I love how dramatic our little 2 1/2 year old is becoming:).

So it's official ... we DO have a Christmas tree in our cute little temporary house! And I will be hanging $1 stockings from the mantle to boot. I toyed with the idea of actually hanging socks, but figured that might look funny, especially when my visiting teachers come;).

Aggie trip

2010-12-04T20:50:00.004-05:00

We just got back from D.C. where we watched our Utah State Aggies play the Georgetown Hoyas. Matt tells me the Hoyas are ranked 16th and are undefeated. We gave them a run for their money the first half, but then came out of the locker room a different team and eventually lost by 17. But oh, it was so good to be cheering for Aggie Blue again.

I graduated from BYU, but I think it really makes a difference in how long you live somewhere and if tickets are free or not. My course of study kept me busy and at BYU students have to pay for tickets. Matt went to USU and so when we married we purchased a student spouse pass which got me into anything, as if I were a student myself, and it was only $38. Factor in no children for nearly 6 years and whamo! you have a devoted Aggie couple who went to every home game there was ... football, even though the team wasn't very good, and basketball, where they rocked every year. Along came Wes and Kate, and eventually Sophie, and they can cheer Ag-gies along with the best of them.

My former colleague lined us up with tickets for today and so off to the Verizon Center we went. It was so great.

I took pictures but since we're still living out of suitcases (someday I'll actually be able to stop using that phrase), I don't have picture download-able capabilities.

I love that we still live relatively close to a grundle of historic sites. My sister said, "how would it be to be able to plan field trips to D.C. museums every month or two?"

Our children and I just got back from a fabulous trip to visit friends in Harrisburg, PA. Gorgeous country, a basement all to ourselves, and TOYS!!! The kids keep asking for reassurance that their toys have not been given away, but are just on the 'big truck' (moving trailer). Rachel and Jared and kids were fantastic hosts! We toured the sites at Hershey's Chocolate World, went to stores our peninsula doesn't have, namely JoAnn Fabrics (a disappointment I learned when moving here), and ate great food! It was just what the doctor ordered. In fact, when we drove home and parked in front of the home we're renting Kate despaired, "I don't want to be here, I want to go back to Rachel's house." We desperately need a home. I won't fill in details there yet because it's too confusing other than to say we won't be in our home by the close of 2010. So thanks to our friends for hospitality that surpassed all.

Meanwhile we love the Christmas season and all the lights and decorations we see. One of our favorite pass times is going to a store and browsing their Christmas decoration section. We're blessed to have so much.

Giving Thanks

2010-11-27T17:29:00.003-05:00

What a wonderful time of year. We're so thankful for this 8 week period where it's so natural to think of being grateful and turning our thoughts to Christ.

We had a great Thanksgiving with friends, were able to talk with family and even finally got on the skype bandwagon.

We had toyed with the idea of going to Connecticut for Thanksgiving, but then received an invitation to dinner with Matt's department head. Since we're in temporary housing and all of our things are still in storage, we knew it would be a scaled down holiday anyway. The kitchen here has the basics for cooking, but really nothing for baking or serious kitchen action. So this year's feast included a lot of store-bought items, but it was still wonderful.

The family we had dinner with also has boy and girl twins who just turned 4, so there was a lot of action! They had a great playroom that the five kids played in practically the whole time, so it was a perfect set up.

We ended up making some great Pilgrim bonnets and hats and Mayflower replica's, but they'll have to be saved for another time when I can post pictures again. They were tried an true Martha Stewart ideas, and turned out really cute.

We also had a great weekend celebrating Wes and Kate's 5th birthday. Wow! Can it really be 5 years already? We went and saw Tangled (highly recommended by our clan), and then opened presents and had cake. One thing I've realized about having late-November babies is you can get GREAT deals on their presents if they fall after or on Black Friday. We scored big time this year. Matt's just not excited that we've added two more things to our collection of 'stuff' here in this small house. But I figured, house or no house, it'd really be hard explaining a 'no presents, until we get into a house' policy to five year olds.

Another thing we're thankful for is Magic Eraser. I was on the phone this afternoon with a friend in Michigan and Sophie took the opportunity to share her artwork on the walls.

Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful!

Interpretation of Tongues

2010-11-15T09:09:00.003-05:00

As a parent you soon learn to interpret many languages: grunting, pointing, cries, and then of course English - 2 year old style.

For example: Sophie just came and asked me for a bye.

"A bye?", I repeated.

"Yes, a bye." she said.

I knew she was hungry because she's been on an eating spree lately. So I said, "do you want a drink?" "No!" "Okay, do you want an apple?" "NO! (jumping up and down included).

I try again ... "Sophie what do you want?"

"A (mumble, mumble) bye".

I'm still not getting it, so I say, "Show me."

She walks over to the cupboard and points at the granola bars.

Of course, I should've known, since a kye is a car and the doy is the door, etc., etc.

Now I've gotta start keep track of the good ones Kate comes up with ... i.e. "I'm feeling ridiculous." :).

We're Here

2010-10-25T20:20:00.002-04:00

I'm still amazed that we spent 11 weeks in Utah. That's nearly a quarter of a year! We are so grateful for family and friends who housed and fed us.

But now we're finally together again as a family. I'm sure Matt's had to adjust to the noise level:).

We are still in transition and don't have a set date when we're not, we just hope it's soon. The disadvantage of buying a foreclosure is all the stickiness and lack of speed with which it's handled. But hopefully that will be a memory soon. If not, we'll just look for another house and move forward. Too many details to discuss here.

So here are some things I'm thankful for ...

*increased humidity.
*mild weather, making running in the mornings pleasant.
*children who seem to go with the flow in whatever situation they've been placed.
*employment
*time to spend checking email and blogs without feeling like I'm hogging our host's computer.
*proximity to the ocean - not that I'm a beach bum, but man, you gotta check out our neighboring city. It's breathtaking.
*the consistency of the Church.
*that we're together as a family again.

We're staying in a University house while waiting for a permanent residence and it's quite nice. Fully furnished, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, the cleaning lady comes every Friday (I warned Matt I might get used to that;)), beautifully decorated, what more could you ask for in what basically is an extended-stay hotel at half the price?

All I can say is this will definitely be a time we'll look back and reminisce on the craziness of this move. Meanwhile I'm loving reading through three months worth of magazines I got in the mail, exploring a bit of the city/area each day, and not having too many responsibilities yet.

Mishmash

2010-10-02T20:54:00.009-04:00

Amazingly, we're still in Utah.

We're holding up but I'm ready to go. Since the paperwork on the foreclosure we're buying is taking way longer than we ever anticipated, I'm booking tickets to Maryland and just calling it good. We'll still be living out of suitcases, but at least we'll all be together as a family.

Our families here in Utah have been so generous in offering us a roof, food, and entertainment. We really could never repay their kindnesses. A blessing has been that our children have gotten to know cousins and grandparents like they've never done before. They no longer cling to me every second, and now freely give hugs and kisses to all.

We've been at my parent's the last couple of weeks and have enjoyed daily trips to feed some neighbor's horses corn stalks freshly chopped down from the garden. My dad has a trailer we ride in that's pulled by his 4-wheeler. I hope my children retain memories of these days.

As we've gathered in the harvest and put things away for the coming season, it's reminded me of one of my all time favorite children's books, 'The Oxcart Man' by Donald Hall. Since I can't seem to move the picture of the book, you'll see that it's at the top of the post. What a great book. The description on Wikipedia says, "the book deals with an 18-century farming family that uses an ox-cart to take their goods to market, where they make money to buy the things they need." Anyway, I have been in that mode of thinking right now for some reason.

Another joy and complete surprise was the announcement of the Hartford, CT temple in this morning's session of LDS General Conference. I can't tell you how much I wished we were sitting in the chapel of the Hartford ward building to hear the announcement there. I gasped, then immediately started crying. Kate looked at me and kept saying, "Mom, why is your face like that?" Oh, what a blessing. You'd better believe we're going to the open house or dedication!

I miss my husband, I miss my CT friends, I miss having a home, but we have been so blessed to have so much support at this transitory time. It will soon be over!

New Routine

2010-08-25T00:14:00.005-04:00

Our children and I are settling into a new routine. We've been in Utah for 2 1/2 weeks and should be here for approximately one more month. We packed enough clothes so we wouldn't be washing every other day, and so it really isn't as bad as I anticipated.

I suppose my hesitancy in staying so long is because of the unsettled nature of our visit. We, as most know, are 'between homes' right now. Matt flew back to the east on Saturday and is settling in nicely at his new job. He would've gladly traded me places as I dropped him off at the airport.

We're trying to close on a foreclosure home and are now in the midst of the endless paperwork it seems is necessary to purchase a home. But if it works out, it will be really nice for our family.

We took a quick trip as a family to look for homes, right before coming to Utah, and found several that would suit us well. One thing we've realize though, is we are lacking in the furniture department. Our one couch, one chair, and one bookcase would have to be stretched between a family and living room, but there are no complaints from me. I'm quite looking forward to the commitment of long term furniture.

Wes, Kate and Sophia, meanwhile, are loving playing with cousins and getting to know grandparents better. We're really blessed to have family who are so willing to house us during this time. I'm trying to make it as 'normal' as possible, meaning attending story time, reading routine, arts/crafts. I figured our first 2 weeks were the 'vacation' phase, and now we're down to the 'be as normal as possible' phase. Although it can be stifling at times, I miss the humidity of Connecticut. I spent the first week in Utah constantly applying Carmex to my cracking lips, and hydrocortizone ointment to Wes' eczema.

Meanwhile, I can almost taste the cider and hear the crackle of dried corn stalks as we head into autumn. I LOVE IT!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

2010-07-24T19:26:00.012-04:00

These last few weeks have been full of fun and trying to get all the things in that we want to do.

I don't know about blog etiquette and apologize if any of these friends don't want their picture floating out there (so tell me, if you don't), but this is an introduction to some of the best women and book club members ever. I never thought of being in a book club before moving here, but was invited the first Sunday and it turned out to be such a rewarding experience. I made great friends, loved the social outlet it provided for me, and really enjoyed the expanding of my mind with the great selections in literature.

Earlier this month we went to a local air museum and took advantage of these great pedal planes for children. Wes got really good at maneuvering this puppy.
Most of the museum was indoors and in huge hanger-type structures. Then there was a field of old planes on display.As a family we've taken advantage of the booming blueberry season here in New England. We've been drying blueberries like crazy so they'll store well and look forward sharing a little bit of the East with our family in the West. Sophie is quite possibly the best blueberry picker in our family.

I had to snap this great picture of Sophie the other day while we were running errands. Don't worry, Matt was driving, not me. She insists on putting her sunglasses first thing, and then usually asks for her hat. This time the hat wasn't there, but sunglasses were - upside-down, which is her preferred way of wearing them.
Two Sundays ago Kate was acting suspicious. When I asked her why she was being so sneaky she told me she didn't want me to ask her questions like that. Okay. I let it drop for a few minutes and then went to the couch to read the paper. Kate joined me and was playing on the floor. After a while of looking at her I could tell something wasn't quite right. She had chunks of hair missing. Good grief, I thought we were over this stage. After questioning her she told me she wanted short hair like "W____'s", a new girl that has moved into our ward. I was not a happy camper, but Matt did well to step in and smooth the situation over while I calmed down. Needless to say, I decided I needed to take her to a professional to repair the damage.

So our friend Erica was nice enough to blend in the short sides without chopping her hair entirely off. I will admit though, she doesn't have nearly as many snarls as before. I warned Kate to never touch Sophia's hair, and that if she wants a haircut she needs to come to me beforehand. My parents think I'm just planting ideas in her head about Sophie.
It's been a great summer so far. We've had to say goodbye to too many friends who've moved away, but we've made some great memories.

Chesapeake Country, here we come!

2010-07-17T21:42:00.002-04:00

Where in the world is Carmen San D ... oh I mean, Matt?

2010-07-01T20:53:00.004-04:00

Matt's on official job hunting business and I thought I'd update this for posterity's sake.

Here's a description of his travels and the reason why our car could basically drive itself to the airport by now. I'll just name states here ...

Fly to Wyoming, home, phone interview with Chicago, fly to Chicago, home, phone interview with California, fly to Maryland, home, fly to Wisconsin, home, etc. TBA.

He's about 2/3 of the way through this schedule and for those who really know Matt, this is completely NOT what he likes to do. But I appreciate that he's doing it for our family ... since employment is basically a necessity:).

This is all in the last two weeks and we know for sure that Wyoming is a no-go. It's still too soon to know about the others, although things hopefully will start to come together in the next couple of weeks.

Mishmash

2010-06-06T21:54:00.010-04:00

Matt mowed the lawn yesterday. When we woke up this morning there were about 50 of these (pictured below) in our yard. Just shows how much humidity and dampness we've had lately. I've taken showers morning and night for the last week, and pretty much haven't done my hair in that time; not worth the effort. I don't remember it being this humid this early, but my skin is loving it.

Sophie's learned how to open our car doors and her favorite thing is to get inside and turn every knob and press every button. It's caused quite a problem, so we've had to start locking our car doors inside the garage. If someone's gone in and out of the garage door that leads into the house, she's a swift little cookie and will be out there in a flash. We found her this way the other morning. Apparently I'd left some mascara in the catch-all.

We also had a scare with it on Friday: a hot, humid day. I hadn't seen her for about 5 minutes and asked Matt if he had, which he hadn't. So I started searching the house, with no luck. Then I went to the garage and there she was, in the car with sweat dripping from her hair and face. I swear it was 90 degrees in the garage, don't know how much in the car, but plenty warm. She was playing away but it scared me that if Matt and I had thought she was with the other for 30 minutes or so, we could've been in real trouble.

My friend and I are embarking on this building project. This is from www.knock-offwood.com

It's my favorite site. This play kitchen was made by one of her readers (the blog host is a very talented woman who offers her plans for free). My friend and I are having fun getting things going in the early stages. Mine will be for Christmas, and hers for a birthday in July.

I'm in a laundry slump. I just can't seem to get it together. I knew it was bad when today I went downstairs to get Wes some underwear from the unfolded pile, and found that I've exhausted that supply. So tomorrow is a 'get-it-together' day. I'm fine at washing and drying; it's the folding part that's somehow lost in the mix.

Today in Church our Primary Presidency was reorganized. So women were standing up and sitting down all around us, being released and sustained. Kate leaned over to me and said, "Mommy, why aren't you getting proposed today?" I asked her to repeat herself because I couldn't figure out what she was saying. When she said it again I realized she was taking the words, "it is proposed so-and-so be sustained as the new such-and-such". I told her it wasn't my turn yet, and once again realized how much of a sponge children are ... taking it in, when we think they're not paying attention.

Lately Matt and I have been pondering Elder Bednar's General Conference talk Watching With All Perseverance. We've been re-thinking our family scripture study. I won't go into our nightly circus act performance, but will say we're grateful for talks like this which cause us to stop and think, then start and press forward.

We went to a fun Greek Festival Friday night. Last year it was a big hit and every time we passed the Greek Church since then (since it's on the way to Matt's work), Wes and Kate would say, "remember when we went there?" So we were so excited when we saw the banner go up again saying when it would be held. We went with some friends and enjoyed good food, music and dancing.

We're trying to squeeze as many fun things as possible in these last few weeks.

So far so good:).

Firsts

2010-05-31T21:10:00.002-04:00

We experienced a couple of 'firsts' this Memorial Day weekend and it's really been enjoyable.

First we watched the PBS Memorial Day special Sunday night. I don't remember the official name, but it was a concert in front of the U.S. Capitol building in D.C. It was a great tribute to our soldiers of today and yesterday. It was also an opportunity for us to talk with our children about honoring those who've sacrificed to make our country free.

We also grilled shrimp on our little Smokey Joe. We were inspired by my brother's family. Recently they took a S. California trip and blogged about it every day. They were always grilling something. So I ventured out to the grocery store in search of shrimp. We are not really exotic eaters and so I'd never done this before, but now that I've shelled and deveined shrimp, I'll know next time that perhaps the $1 or $2 extra per pound to have that done for you is worth it.

No, it actually wasn't that bad, but I thought about the process too much, and when I do that, sometimes I don't want to eat it. It did turn out really well though. We used the instructions here, and then the recipe for the marinade here.

Wes and Sophie ate it up. Kate was a little leery.

We also skewered some green peppers and early squash, then cooked corn in their husks right on the coals. We topped it off with rootbeer floats and called it a success.

Sweet Boy

2010-05-26T16:13:00.006-04:00

Wesley is our sweet boy. We're still trying to figure him out sometimes, but one thing we know for sure is he has a big heart and is very sensitive. Sometimes that equates to a touch of wimpy-ness, or you might call it drama, but he is generally very kind.

He often tries to please people, especially Kate. Whenever he is in a situation where he has what he wants and Kate doesn't, he'll quickly give what he has to her, so that she feels better. I'm trying to figure out how to handle this sometimes. I'm happy that he's generous and caring, but at the same time I don't want him to give in, just because someone's having 'a moment'. Many times it truly is out of the kindness of his heart.

Wes is very sensitive to loud noises. Oftentimes in the car he'll sit there with his fingers in his ears the whole time because Sophie's too loud for him. But then again Sophie knows exactly what buttons to push with Wes.

Baseball is Wes' favorite sport and he's very determined when he 'practices'. From the get-go Matt and I realized that Kate is a natural athlete but doesn't really get into ball playing. She just loves running around like crazy. Wesley has a certain drive about him where he tries and tries and now he's become really good at throwing and hitting. He absolutely loves when we go to baseball games in our area of the minor league affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.

Wes has really developed his artistic side. When Kate was creating and coloring a ton a year or two ago, Wes never really had an interest. Now he's the art king. He loves drawing, cutting and taping. I've had to designate a tape dispenser just for him because he was constantly taking our office one and I could never find it, or there wouldn't be any tape left. I'll find all sorts of pictures or projects taped to the wall.

The other day while playing with his train, Wes stopped and ran for some paper. He came up to me and showed me what he'd drawn and asked if I could help him build the fort he'd colored. He'd drawn the couch cushions in a design and wanted to recreate it. I thought that was pretty good and told Matt we had a little contractor/architect/engineer on our hands.

We love our brown-eyed little guy. He loves to snuggle and kiss (as long as it's not on the lips, so funny), and asks me every night if I'll come in and knit by his bedside after Dad's finished singing songs. We'll keep him.

2010-05-24T10:21:00.002-04:00

I've struggled posting anything as of late, but will write a few sentences now. There's been so much to say, but since this is not a private blog, and even if it were I wouldn't post some things (gotta figure out that post option of not allowing the world to see).

I'll share just a bit, for record's sake, and then privately account for everything.

We are moving. And I'm very sad about that. Not that our current state has become our home of homes, but still, we truly love it here. We love our friends, our church family, and the easy access to adventures.

We have grown here. We appreciate family more, church more, and each other more.

The problem is we don't have a job. I don't feel sorry for us, so you shouldn't either. We'll find one, but just haven't struck it yet. That's where the test has been. There's been a high level of stress in our home (thanks to me), and our children have been affected (again, thanks and no thanks to me).

We spent a very nice weekend in Boston visiting more sites, John and Abigail Adams homes (what marvelous people), the Children's Museum, and a temple session (for me). We traveled home on a less traveled highway and enjoyed the winding roads and small towns along the way. We will miss this.

Our house is for sale. Our landlord has been wonderful and very accommodating, but it is still tough keeping a house clean and tidy for showing. But again, it's been fine (and only 4 days. Ask me in a month and maybe my hair will all be gone).

The blessing in all of this craziness is the peace and calm that Matt has been. He has been a rock. He's held his cool as I've lost it. He's responded optimistically as I've let the stress overcome me. He's answered with love as I've reacted rashly. I'm so grateful. He's such a good man; a gentle giant.

Now I'm committed to leave my old self (of the past few weeks) behind, and take on the day. The house is clean, the children fed ... now let's enjoy these last few weeks.

Homemade vs. Store Bought

2010-04-27T08:26:00.003-04:00

This was such a stark experience this morning that I have to document it quickly. And just a note ... although I would love to claim I regularly make homemade bread, I don't, but have the desire to do so, just haven't found a recipe that's easy and great tasting. It's all in an effort to "eat what we store, and store what we eat." (I know that's a quote somewhere, but won't take the time to find it right now.)

I think we've found it ... thanks to one of our great friends who regularly posts recipes on her private blog. And since it is private, I feel it my obligation to share it with the world since it's such a find!

So here's the situation. I made breakfast this morning of eggs and toast. We were on the last of our homemade bread and so I gave that to the children and made a slice of store bought for me. I took a bite and thought, ugh, this isn't very tasty. I took a bite from Wes', just to make sure my taste buds weren't off this morning and instantly I heard (imagined) the angelic choirs that sing of bliss. What a HUGE difference. So I feel it my obligation to share. Here's the link ... you won't be disappointed. Scroll down to the bottom and there's a whole wheat cinnamon roll recipe I'm excited to try.

Some of my favorites

2010-04-25T19:00:00.009-04:00

Last week during one of the beautiful Spring days we've been enjoying we hopped in the car with the camera and set out to find our 'favorites' (see last post).

So here's a tour of houses in our little city. The only one that's not in our city is the large one that we see on the way to church every Sunday. So I'll start with that one with three views of it ... it's pretty gigantic, but really beautiful, and even more so during the holidays.

Then here's my favorite in our city.Now, here are some of the great colors used for homes here. I think what makes them stand out even more is that the garage doors are painted the same color and so it's a pretty great block of color.
I love the 'shutter doors' that go in front of the front door. I'm assuming it's the early New Englander's version of a storm door. I only wish my camera and skills could do justice to this 'tour'. I hope there's not some law where I'm not supposed to post picture's like this, and hopefully it's not classified as a violation of their privacy, but more of an admiration from me.

Thoughts

2010-04-14T20:09:00.005-04:00

It always seems there's so much to do and so little time. I'm especially feeling that now as our family looks towards our future. I need to keep my camera with me at all times to take all those pictures I've said I wanted to take before we move on.

Here are just some of pictures I want to take and will post when they're taken.

*I have two favorite houses here ... one very extravagant that we pass every Sunday on the way to church, and the other, a more manageable abode and so beautiful.
*The different colors of homes in New England. I love how deep and rich some people paint their houses: reds, blues, greens, yellows, burnt oranges, black and dark browns ... you'll see what I mean when I actually post them ... so unlike what we're used to in Utah.
*Granite curbs. (I'm pretty sure they're granite, sure look like it). Our friend confirmed there's a lack of gravel here and so asphalt and granite are used, where Utah seems to be built upon gravel pits and so cement is very plentiful.
*Live wreaths (or candles) in every window of a home at Christmas time (I can't believe I procrastinated on this one so badly that I won't be able to get it before we go) ... so beautiful and a tradition we've said we'd like to carry with us wherever we go.

But today I did get a picture I've been wanting to take ever since the blossoms started. On our bike rides we pass a beautiful tree in bloom on the border between two exceptionally well-kept houses in our back neighborhood. It's so stunning to me that I've contemplated ringing their doorbells and asking permission to have family pictures taken in their yards. Hopefully they'd take it as a compliment, but I doubt I'll really do it. Someday I hope to have such an inviting garden/yard.
I wish my camera and picture taking skills could do it justice. (Notice the asphalt curbing)

Songbird

2010-04-06T21:25:00.003-04:00

Sophie's always been affected by music. Whether it's listening to Aretha Franklin or 80's ballads, she pays attention.

Her latest thing has been to sing at the top of her lungs, which sometimes sounds like she's screaming. Then she'll stop and laugh.

Tonight as I was putting her to bed she was singing:

"Do AS I'm doing,
pollow, pollow me"

The emphasis is definitely on the 'as', and it's pretty funny. It took a little longer than normal to go to bed because she kept singing over and over, without seeming to tire. But it was cute and worth the extra 10 minutes.

Dinners

2010-04-05T17:57:00.004-04:00

My mother has often told me of days when my siblings and I were young and my dad traveled. She's said that our dinners mostly consisted of hot dogs, mainly for the convenience.

Now I find myself in the same boat, although hot dogs haven't graced our menu yet.

Matt's been out of town and our nightly menus have been thus:

Tuna sandwiches and tomato soup
Peanut Butter and Honey sandwiches (twice)
Pizza
Cereal
Fish Sticks
Lasagna (at least one night I tried)
Toast
and tonight, Waffles

Do you think I have issues with carbohydrates?

It's a good thing he's on his way home:).

Eastery start to the weekend

2010-04-03T22:11:00.007-04:00

It seems when you have children you celebrate holidays longer, i.e. as soon as St. Patrick's Day was over, everyday seemed like Easter. We broke out the baskets earlier and held our own egg hunts (sans candy) throughout the house on multiple days, printed coloring pages off the internet, and baked goodies. The great thing about this year has been the twins' realization of why we commemorate Easter.

In Primary they watched some of the Church's videos of the crucifixion and resurrection, so we've been answering tons of questions like, "why did those men want to hurt Jesus?" and statements like, "but Jesus was resurrected with living breath" (? don't really know where that recurring statement comes from ... a song? a lesson?), anyway, it's really made an impression on them and so we've had many great discussions about it.

*Yesterday we made Sweet Dough Bunnies, a recipe I got many, many years ago while interning at KSL (noon cooking segment). They must've cleared out their recipe archives because a quick search didn't find it - it was there last year. I'll forward the recipe to any interested.
*Took our annual Easter picture. We went to the Church today for part of General Conference and so I snapped this before going.
Something else we did today was go stock up on some board games. Target was having a really good Hasbro sale and I was in the mood for a game of Twister. On the way home from Conference Sophie and Wes fell asleep, so Kate and I broke out the games and had a ball. That girl's more flexible than her mother; I never realized how much of a workout Twister can give you:).Tomorrow we're planning to lay low and enjoy more words of inspiration and revelation.

I love this time of year.

Sophie's Version

2010-04-02T10:40:00.003-04:00

Sophie sings 'Follow the Prophet' so well without the camera in view, but I can never catch it. So this is the best version we got for documentation purposes. She's far too concerned with saying "cheese" and "so pitty" (so pretty) when she sees the camera.

Squirrel

2010-04-01T16:56:00.003-04:00

A squirrel has somehow made it into our basement and can't seem to figure out how to get back out.

I first noticed him/her/it this morning as I was taking things downstairs to put in storage. Our basement is unfinished with shelves lining the outer cement walls and one bearing wall down the middle. The squirrel was up in the rafters of the floorboards. When he saw me he scurried along the outer wall and the next I saw him was in our winery/back storage; at least I hope that was the same one and not a partner. There were some bottles knocked over (beets and peach jam), thankfully not broken, and paper and cleaning products on the floor, as if he'd hopped over to that shelf and scattered the contents.

It hasn't bothered me all day, but now I'm starting to get concerned. Our landlord will probably come by tomorrow for the rent check so maybe I'll let him know.

I went outside to look for the point of entry and can't find it. Evidently he can't find it either.

After many trips up and down during the course of the day, and not seeing him again, I hoped he'd made his way out. But this last time I went down I got as far as opening the door to the stairs. There he was about 6 stairs down, looking at me. I screamed, slammed the door, Kate came running, and I had to explain that squirrels aren't necessarily scary, but kind of alarming if they're not in a place they're supposed to be.

During dinner I even heard what I thought was scratching at the door that leads downstairs. Could've been my imagination, but I don't think so.

So here I sit, trying to figure out what to do, short of calling an animal control person. I've created scenarios in my head reminiscent of Curious George's antics or even MacGyver's. But so far haven't dared try any of them. I'm just hoping we get him out of there before he gets desperate and starts gnawing through our cereal boxes/pasta/cake mixes in food storage.

Almost too much to share

2010-03-29T22:15:00.019-04:00

I'm quite simply overwhelmed at starting this post, but I know if I don't do it now, it will disappear. So I'm going to share a list of things and places we've visited and then barrage this post with pictures to browse at discretion. It's been a lot of fun and we've put many more happy miles on our car.

*visited a maple surgaring farm
*Wilford Woodruff's birthplace
*Washington D.C.
*Gettysburg
At this juncture I would be remiss if I didn't thank our good friends, the D's, for their hospitality. We stayed with them in Annapolis and to say they were incredible hosts would be an understatement, if that's possible. We just wish we could've spend more time with THEM, but we were running around crazy trying to see all the sites. A funny thing though was on the way home we asked Wes and Kate which site/museum was their favorite. They answered, "the one with the fish and the big slide." WHAT? That's the museum we frequent monthly here in our own state. Oh well, someday they'll appreciate history.

*Sophie's birthday
This little lady has changed so much in the last month. She's very vocal and loves to sing along with her siblings every song from 'Follow the Prophet', to 'Hi-Ho'. She's also become very assertive ... in fact, we're having flashbacks of Kate as a toddler. So we've strapped on our seatbelts for another volatile/expressive ride.

She's also very sweet and gives the best and tightest hugs I've experienced from a child. As the third child she's not about to be pushed aside and forgotten ... she's out to make her mark, and we love her for it.

Enjoy the highlights.

Wilford Woodruff's birthplace
Kate catching drips from a newly tapped maple treeKate and Sophie soaking their toes in the sink
Washington Monument
Capitol
View of the "Mall" toward the Capitol from top of Washington Monument
Kate and Brigham Young inside the Capitol Building
White House
World War II Memorial
Friends at Lincoln Memorial
Washington DC temple as it "pops" in to view from the freewaySophie on temple grounds
Temple groundsThe little lady blowing out candles
Not only was Sophie given gifts, but Wes and Kate too. These aprons are from Aunt Karen.
Typical shot of Sophie sweeping her hair out of her eyes.

Heavenly

2010-03-08T20:17:00.003-05:00

It was nearly 60 degrees today and just plain heavenly. We had the back door open for half of the day and the little ones freely ran in and out as they planted seeds (mustard seed from my spice rack), played kick ball, had a picnic in our screened-in back patio, and ran around screaming for the joy of being outside. It was glorious!

I was more productive today than usual and I'm crediting it to the weather as well. There's just something about a little sun in one's life.

I've also been thinking of the fond days of yester-year when Matt and I would fly down to Southern California during this week. It's when the USU Aggies were in the Big West and the conference basketball tournament was held in Anaheim. I was working in sales along with doing on-air stuff. One of the perks was: sell well and get a trip. Plus with the on-air status there was a deal where we would get into Disneyland and California Adventures for free (I won't link to them since they have plenty of influence everywhere else). The trip would basically cost us our meals and the tickets to the tournament. Oh the days of being footloose and fancy free. We were so spoiled, and we loved it. Those are some of those memories we 'look back on fondly'. Those were also the days when I never took pictures and so you'll just have to imagine.

I'm glad to be making memories, whether they're picnicking in the backyard with my children on a beautiful day, or losing my voice while cheering on the Aggies. Either way, I've learned I'm happy for the changes that come with regular life and the renewal I feel with seasonal change.

Prayers

2010-03-07T19:59:00.004-05:00

Wes' prayer tonight, witnessed and retold by Matt:

"I'm thankful for today. Please bless we can go on a picnic and go camping and fishing with Grandma and Grandpa."

This is an event we did with my parents this past summer. Sometimes I'm amazed at what young children remember and retell you months later in full detail. He and Kate will also often talk about their visit to Papa's house (Matt's parents). And they'll state they want to go there. Now.

Often I'll ask myself, "I wonder if they'll remember this." My first memory is my 4th birthday party at my Aunt Shannon's house when my parents were on a trip to the Holy Land. So I'm assuming some of the things we're doing now will be remembered by Wes and Kate ... although I admit, I hope they DON'T remember some things (lack of parenting skills/patience/etc.)

But this is one memory of Wes' that I hope lasts.

Pizza and Primary songs

2010-03-01T12:37:00.006-05:00

I hope all of you, my blog friends, realize I use this medium as a way to journal and show our families what we're doing, so many miles away. It seems I often post the happy times, but don't you be fooled, we're exactly like everyone else and have our share of exasperation and frustration, hence the 'overwhelmed' part in our blog title.

This morning we made felt pizzas. It's an idea I got from a blog my friend introduced to me a few days ago. It was a successful project. I had a bag full of felt my sister gave to me as she was cleaning out her house before they left on their mission.

So here it is.It kept Kate's rapt attention for 30+ minutes, and Wes' about 15 minutes, until his train-building desires took him another direction.

Meanwhile in Primary yesterday, they must have been learning more versus to the song "Follow The Prophet". Since I haven't served in the main body of Primary yet, I only know some of the song and am unfamiliar with this part. But Kate has been singing over and over and over again this morning, "They were in the wilderness for 40 years."

When I first heard it I thought, "Wow, I'm thankful for such a great program and teachers for my children." But then after the 156th time of hearing that same line I said to Kate, "could you think of another song to sing because it's kind of driving me crazy."

She said, "How 'bout if I sing it like this, 'They were NOT in the wilderness for 40 years."

Oh well. I tried. And that was pretty funny. But still, as I write this, I've got a little helper singing it in my ear.

Sunday Mornings

2010-02-28T09:01:00.003-05:00

At the first of the year our ward moved to the 11:30 a.m. slot, a killer for toddlers (we feel it every week in Nursery), but that's another story. We leave our house at about 10:55, so the extra time in the morning leaves plenty of opportunity for Kate to request doing a craft (her favorite thing in the world right now). We usually make crowns or decorate brown lunch sacks for a snack on the way home.

So this is the crew this morning, with their hot chocolate.

Wes outdid himself. I think his crown looks similar to the Pope's hat, don't you think?

Glass Windows

2010-02-23T17:00:00.002-05:00

I have a habit of putting quart bottles that have just been cleaned at the top of our stairs. This way I'll take them down on my way to the laundry, etc., to be put back in their bottle boxes awaiting a future food processing day. I've always envisioned knocking one of them and seeing it tumble down the stairs to burst and shatter at the bottom upon contact with the concrete floor of the unfinished basement.

So it happened tonight.

I was unloading the dishwasher and placed one of the jars at the top of the stairs (there's a door that opens to our downstairs from the kitchen). I put the jar on the stair and it teetered on the lip before starting its descent. Of course it made quite the racket, combined with my yelling play-by-play commentary. Wes and Kate then came running, "what happened, what happened?!" I told them and then said, "I'll be downstairs cleaning it up." But then of course, everyone wants to help. So I said, "never mind, I'll do it later." Then Kate says, (she's cutting a cereal box and gluing a house right then) "but Mom, I want my house to have glass windows!"

A journal moment.

Snow ... FINALLY!

2010-02-17T12:09:00.004-05:00

This winter has been very mild. I'm not talking about temperatures ... we've been cold enough, but where's the snow? It's been bare and ugly for most of the season. By this time last year church had been canceled at least twice, school once (at our private institution, the public ones probably closed 4 or 5 times), and we had experienced the mild 'panic' that occurs in our state when snow is forecasted. I'd never before heard of things being canceled before a flake had even fallen. All in all, there hasn't been as much drama this year.

While Washington D.C./Philadelphia were paralyzed by record storms, we had bright, sunny skies. My mom kept calling and saying, are you getting snow yet? Nope. It seemed like those storms put all of their force into a certain area and completely missed New England.

A storm last week was supposed to finally deliver and so schools were canceled. Two inches fell.

The storm this week wasn't built up nearly as much (the meteorologists were probably gun shy), but lo and behold, we got 7"! A proper snowstorm! We've been playing, building, sledding and shoveling for the past 24 hours. It's been great.

Funny thing about it though. On Monday we went shopping for a sled. Apparently February is 'out of season' and so our shopping trip was unsuccessful. Wes and Kate were heartbroken. I had told them we'd go sledding that day. I went digging in our garage and found a saucer I thought we'd left back in Utah and presented the prize to the saddened crew. Their faces instantly changed and we bundled up and headed for the local elementary school grounds (school's out this week). Remember this is BEFORE the snow storm. As we rounded the corner I looked at the bowl-shaped school lot and thought, "Uh-oh, looks like we'll be sledding on grass." Luckily we found one narrow slice of snow that went from the top to the bottom, so we instantly claimed it as our own. We got some funny looks by passers-by, but oh we had fun. Too bad I didn't bring the camera because it was pretty desperate looking. After we were done I told W and K the forecast of snow for the next day and said we'd be able to do some proper sledding.

So the next morning off we went with some friends to the school. What a difference 18 hours made. There were three other groups already there and we had a ball.

Today we finished shoveling the last of the snow from overnight and proceeded to make an unofficial Boy Scout snow cave. This snow was perfect for it.

Hope you're enjoying whatever weather is at your house!

Literalism revisited

2010-02-07T22:46:00.004-05:00

I'm encountering these situations on nearly a daily, or at least weekly, basis ... must be the developmental stage we're in right now.

[Setting ... packing up to get in the car to go to church]

Wes: Mom, what snacks are you bringing for me?

Me: I've got some cereal, apples and carrots for you to eat in church, and a small baggie of cereal for the car.

Wes: But Mommy, the car doesn't eat snacks.

[His answer, unlike Kate's a couple posts ago, was very serious and innocent, as if to question my understanding of who does and doesn't eat snacks]

Needless to say I laughed. Very loudly. It was something I needed on a busy Sunday morning.

The power of example

2010-01-30T14:00:00.006-05:00

We're not claiming brilliance, just sharing a sobering observation.

Sophie can count to at least 13. As a mother of three busy, young children I didn't notice this at first. It was brought to my attention a couple of months ago by Wes' speech therapy teacher.

We were dropping him off at school and walking down some stairs to Ms. D's class. Ms. D had Sophie's hand. She stopped mid-way and said, "Heather, do you hear this?" Sophie was counting the stairs as she was walking down. When we got home I put in a load of laundry and walked up the stairs with Sophie. Again, she counted. We have 13 stairs, so she stopped at 13. Now mind you, there's no clear enunciation of the numbers, just the tonal imitation.

When Matt came home from work I declared her geniusness.

A few days later I'm coming up the stairs from another load of laundry, this time with Kate at my side. She starts to count. Ah-hah ... I realize what's happening. Kate counts everything, every where; in the car, at the store. Sophie's following her example.

Thus it is with the alphabet song. She's imitating what she's hearing.

Herein lies the problem. She's not only learning the good, but the bad too. Sophie's no longer playing nicely. Her most common playtime activity right now is to go up to Wes and say loudly, "Wes, NO!" and then swat him with her hand before running off.

{Sigh} Oh, if only ....

Literally

2010-01-30T13:45:00.004-05:00

It's easy to forget the complexity and comprehension of child development and communication, unless you're living with a child.

[setting ... driving in the car]

Kate: Mom, why is there that HUGE stop sign in the road?

Me: So we'll know where to stop.

Kate: But Mom, why was it sooo HUGE?

Me: This is a very busy street, so it needs to be big so all the cars can see it.

Kate: Mooommmm, cars don't have eyes. (said with the attitude of, 'get real, Mom').

Little Lady Sophie Lofie

2010-01-25T22:05:00.005-05:00

I keep putting off a Sophie post because our camera is broken, but I'm forgetting some of the funny things she's doing, so I'll do it now.

She's become very chatty. So here's a peek into what she's like ...

*When I take her off her bed in the morning she says, without emotion and kind of sleepily ... "wee". That's it. A statement. No "weeeeeee" with rollercoaster inflection. Just flat out, "wee". It's hilarious.

*She loves to acknowledge her siblings when they enter the room, so quite often during the day she'll say, "hello Wes", or "look mom, Wes" (pointing). And Kate's name is pronounced Keht (rhyming with 'set'). Every once in a while she'll pronounce the long 'a', but pretty rarely. So it's always, "ni-nite Keht".

*Sophie sleeps in the bunk below Kate and it's funny to watch when she realizes/remembers that Kate is above her. Here's background information ... we usually put Sophie to bed about 30 minutes after W & K because it's tough getting three down at once in the same room. So tonight I went in with Sophie, climbed on her bed with her and then hear, "psst, Mom!" I'm quiet, hoping Kate will take the hint and not talk again, since we've talked about the whole 'getting Sophie to sleep challenge'. But no, "Mom ... MOM!" Then here comes Sophie's realization that Kate's up there. Her response is, "Mom, Keht (pointing up)". Then comes the knocking on the wall by Sophie, "hello, Keht".

*Sophie's a TA-DAer, meaning, after she does things she usually ends it by saying 'ta-da!'.

Oh she's a cutie and we love her. More fun sayings to come, I'm sure:).

Documentation

2010-01-08T08:28:00.016-05:00

Phrases I've heard this morning ... (by 8:30 a.m.)

W* .... Mommy, I don't want those pants, they're too dangerous.

K* .... (wailing) I'm not ready to go to time out!

S* .... BOO! (our traditional response as we put on clothes and peek through, even if she's struggling against it, she'll always respond that way ... very cute).

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Thankfully I had an alright sleep last night and am not feeling hungry, because this has been one of those doozey mornings:).

For journaling purposes, here are a few things we're experiencing right now.

*I'm finding that the age of 4 is the 'whine and cry' stage for us. Hopefully this does not continue the whole year. (other parents of 4 year olds, or former 4 year olds ... is this normal?;))

*S* is exploding vocabularily. She repeats a ton of what we say, and sometimes we can understand it.

*W & K had their 4-year old doctor's appointment this week. W* is in the 50% in height and weight (we've come a long way from the 2nd percentile, yay!). K* is in the 75th in weight and 95th in height. She's actually 1 1/4" taller and 1/2 lb. heavier than W*. We won't talk about the drama of the shots, other than to say the nurse was impressed (probably in not a good way) with Kate's bucking, kicking, flailing, and howling. She is a very strong little girl.

*S* hasn't had her hair cut yet. It's curly and quite long (mid-back when wet). And it looks like her eyes have finally decided their color and it's hazel. So now we'd just need a green-eyed child and we'd represent every color on the spectrum (at least the typical colors).

*M's gotten really good at applying for jobs. His total so far is at least a dozen. The locations in yesterday's batch? ... Virginia, Utah, Hawaii and California.

*I've coordinated a knitting club -my latest passion. It's pretty close to being my most enjoyable hobby yet. After 7 scarves completed for Christmas, I'm preparing for the jump to a cute short-sleeved cardigan. Luckily one of our members is experienced, so she can mentor me since there aren't community classes offered this semester. The rest of us have less than 8 months experience, combined.

*Our second to last holiday activity was a visit to an Indian Reservation Casino Compound. Not to worry, we haven't turned to the dark side. They had a life-sized gingerbread house on display. I think most of it was edible, although after having been touched and walked through for the past month, it was looking very un-appetizing.

*Our last holiday activity was a walk downtown through our capitol city's holiday light display. Although it was nothing compared to Temple Square, it was very beautiful. We went New Year's night and were practically alone. It was so serene in a normally bustling city. We felt pretty lucky to enjoy the beauty in a restful peace. ... After the stroll, our camera officially died.

New Year Thoughts

2010-01-01T17:34:00.003-05:00

We've welcomed the New Year quietly and have enjoyed staying in our pajamas way too long, not combing our hair until completely necessary, and playing together inside, and out in the snow. It's been a great break. The best thing about it is with Matt's work, he doesn't go back to the 'nose-to-the-grind' until January 25th. He still goes into work everyday, but is a lot more flexible, i.e. I can ask him to go in a little late or come home a little early, and usually he can accommodate me. It's wonderful. Meanwhile he's applying like crazy to jobs and hopefully we'll start getting call-backs within about 6 weeks.

We're excited for 2010: the New Year, and the new decade. There's always growth and opportunity. I finished reading a newspaper article today that talked of resolutions and such, and it quoted a writer with whom I'm not familiar, Edith Lovejoy Pierce, but it was such a great thought.

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day."

Happy New Year.

Soup's On!

2009-12-29T12:09:00.003-05:00

We had a fun get together the other night and had soup, breadsticks and a whole host of appetizers to please any palate. Matt got this great crockpot soup recipe from his sister, and we've been savoring the leftovers. It's even liked by 4-year-old's, who seem to be picky about something new everyday.

Chicken Clam Chowder
1 lbs. bacon - diced
1/2 lbs. ham - diced
2 c. chopped onions
2 c. diced celery
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
2 c. diced potatoes
2 c. cooked, diced chicken
4 c. chicken broth
2 cans minced clams w/ juice
1 can corn w/ liquid
3/4 c. flour
4 c. milk
4 c. shredded cheddar or jack cheese
1/2 c. whipping cream
2 T. parsley

Cook bacon, dice it and return it to pan (with some of the bacon grease still in the pan). Saute bacon with ham, onion and celery. Add salt and pepper. Combine with potatoes, chicken, broth, clams and corn in slow cooker. Cook on low 6-8 hours (or high for 3-4). Whisk flour into milk. Stir in with remaining ingredients and cook for one more hour on high.

Resolutions anyone?

2009-12-27T17:56:00.002-05:00

I love New Year's Resolutions. I wrote mine down this afternoon and feel pretty pumped about them. They're soon to be posted in a spot in my room so I'll see them everyday. I LOVE it!!! I'll just share one of them ... Review resolutions each Fast Sunday so I'll keep on top of them better:).

I love the prospect of organizing, re-committing, and a FRESH START! Oh how I need it.

Gratitude

2009-12-26T21:09:00.005-05:00

It is common for this time of year to bring feelings of gratitude for family, friends, and faith, but for some reason this particular year I'm feeling it very poignantly.

I think it really started with Thanksgiving and the joy and fun we had. We live far from family and so our little family and our friends end up being a big part of our celebrations. As we were finishing out the day (Thanksgiving), Matt and I reflected on our blessings and how we are experiences so many different things - wonderful things - because of the fact that we are many, many miles from family.

Well it's happened again at Christmas, and I'm basically brim to overflowing. So let me share a little bit.

First of all, our Christmas was wonderful. Our children loved what Santa and their grandparents gave them. In fact it merited a trip to the big box store to stock up on storage bins so all the little pieces of toys will have homes, and so we can control what is out and being played with, rather than have them all over the floor, in S*'s mouth, and waiting to be sucked up by the vacuum.

We've also been partying like its 1999 ... which is frankly out of character for both Matt and me. But we've loved it. We had a party with friends and the missionaries on Christmas Eve, including a Nativity play by "four children and one cute baby". We had some friends over for a great Christmas night meal. And tonight we just cleaned up from another friends' party. It's been a great season.

As I was washing dishes, I thought that the one common thread in all of this is the Church. We have loved our time here (location shall remain nameless), and most of our great friends are from our ward. I think that's pretty common when far from family .... your ward family really does become your family.

We have a friend who did an essay about her membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (I wish I had a link here but will get one soon) on the local NPR radio station and it was so right on, as far as being a member of the church is a way of life and not just a Sunday thing. So this is a prime example ... anyway, we're just so blessed.

We miss being with family, but we're grateful for phone calls and other technology that makes it so the distance doesn't seem all that far. We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas season. We hope yours was the same.

(Camera is broken ... will be posting w/o pictures until the situation is remedied)

The Christmas Spirit

2009-12-13T15:22:00.000-05:00

The Christmas Spirit