Matt and Haley

Annual Aquarium Trip

2012-01-19T21:40:00.003-07:00

Caleb has been asking when we can go to the Aquarium since last year it seems. We look forward to this yearly field trip with preschool. The last two years Matt has been able to take the day off work. We love having him with us!

Riding the train

The carousel remains a popular favorite!

Christmas Festivities

2012-01-01T16:20:00.006-07:00

My parents must have been in heaven this Christmas as we had the whole family gathered together. It was so good to see Lindsey and Derrick who just got married about 6 months ago, as well as Clayton and Kara with their darling little girl, Ellery. My elder brother moved to the Netherlands about 4 months ago from living 10 minutes away from us, so we were so excited to have them back for Christmas. Cousins have definitely missed each other!

I failed at taking pictures of everything, but we enjoyed a nice dinner together. Our Christmas Eve traditions always involve acting out the Nativity story in Luke 2, chimes, and White Elephant.

Here are Gavin and Carter as wise men

Sammy as Mary and Dallin as Joseph

Drew was an angel, and Caleb wanted to be a shepherd.

Grandma and Grandpa's gift to Carter. He can't quite reach the pedals, but he still loves to ride it.

A new tradition we're going to continue. Matt and I played this game at a Christmas party we attended this year and loved it, so we introduced it to my family. A pair of dice are passed around; if someone rolls doubles, he/she has the opportunity to "dress-up" in winter clothes and attempt to open a present in the middle of the circle. It's a lot of fun!

Caleb and Carter on Christmas morning opening their stockings. Carter got a stuffed Elmo that he is quite attached to. It goes everywhere with him. A few weeks ago he caught some sort of stomach bug and the only things that made him happy were watching an Elmo movie we have or Tangled. He's especially obsessed with Tangled for whatever reason.

Caleb's big present this year. It's a little too complicated for him to build all on his own, so Matt and I have enjoyed creating marble runs. Caleb will sit there for quite awhile continuing to feed marbles and watch them go down.

Carter's big present was a little car ramp and cars.

More chunky Legos to make big towers.

Caleb and Dallin made a gingerbread house together one night, and then enjoyed eating it! I love Gavin's face in this picture. He seems mesmerized by all the yummy things in front of him!

It was so nice to spend so much time with family. There were lots of nights staying up late and playing games--our favorite thing to do. We did some Spades, Canasta, Bang!, Ticket to Ride, and lots of Dominion. We even went Black Light Miniature Golfing all together. So fun! I don't feel it was necessarily a relaxing Christmas vacation however. With finishing making Christmas projects, planning preschool, and church responsibilities weighing over me, there was no time to do my most favorite thing on a "vacation." Read! Everything else trumped reading time, but memories created with spending time with family are definitely more important!

Snow at the Zoo

2011-12-22T21:28:00.003-07:00

Last weekend Matt took the boys to the zoo because they were making snow at the zoo! Of course everyone in the city also went to the zoo to see snow, so it was quite busy. Here are the pictures Matt captured (no snow pictures):

Carter loves the carousel!

Dancing to Christmas music

Carter's a little obsessed with the goats. The goats get a lot of TLC every time we go to the zoo.

and a kiss or two...

Thanksgiving

2011-12-03T13:37:00.005-07:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. It is so fun to have both of our families near so we can see both on each holiday. (Plus we love hitting up two Thanksgiving feasts each year!) We enjoyed going to Matt's Uncle Chris' house for a Thanksgiving lunch and spending time with his extended family. They are all so relaxed, laid-back, and so sweet. Uncle Chris has a large plot of land with cows and chickens, so it's very exciting for the kids.

The bull that approached us at the fence.

After lunch, there was some face painting to occupy the kids.

Caleb and Carter with their MeeMa

(Poor Carter was ready for a nap.)

MeeMa and Papa

Matt's family minus Rachael's husband. Rachael is a proud new Mama to Bryan Eugene. Matt is standing next to his younger brother. Can you believe it? Matt and his eldest sister look just alike favoring their mom, and Rachael and Patrick look just alike favoring their dad. I would never be able to guess that Matt and Patrick are related or Matt and Rachael for that matter. It's funny how those things work.

Back row: Olivia, Jeff, Rebecca, me, Matt, Patrick, baby Bryan, Rachael

Front row: David Earl, Abby, McKayla, MeeMa, Carter, Papa, Caleb, Hunter

After a Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house, some of us took a walk to get the kids out of the house for a bit. Here's Dallin, Carter, and Caleb with my dad.

Over yummy pies, we played some family games. All in all, such a relaxing day (besides all the cooking). I love spending time with family and playing games!

Meeting Baby Ellery

2011-12-03T13:33:00.003-07:00

While in Utah for my grandmother's funeral, I was able to meet my new niece: Ellery Jean Shurtliff. It's so exciting to see my younger brother as a father. Ellery is so precious. We can't wait to see her again for Christmas!

Caleb holding his cousin Ellery for the first time at Thanksgiving.

Family

2011-11-25T13:37:00.007-07:00

This Thanksgiving I am really grateful for family. My dad's mother passed away November 12, 2011 and we celebrated her life this past weekend in Utah. It was wonderful that so many could gather together on short notice to support my grandpa and reflect on my grandma's life; all but 4 grandchildren were able to attend the funeral. During the funeral services, I loved hearing from my dad's brothers and sisters about their memories of Grandma. There were some very tender moments, but I also was able to learn things about my grandma's life that I didn't know. To sum up my grandmother's life, she led a life of service and charity. She had a testimony of Jesus Christ, and her greatest hope for all of her posterity was to continue our faith and honor the covenants we have made in the temple. Most of my memories of my grandma are before I moved from Utah when I was 7. She loved having her grandchildren over, and I could always feel that love. I loved my grandma's house because she would give me sugar cereals, which weren't allowed at my house; she always had candy or treats. We played games frequently at her house. I loved playing games with all my cousins in the basement of her house...lots of "Murder in the Dark" as we grew older and visited for Christmas. Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's involved gathering around the player piano and singing Christmas songs. It was also so special to have my grandparents at my wedding in 2006.

My grandma was diagnosed with kidney cancer several years ago. I remember gathering for one "final" family reunion in 2007 when I was pregnant with Caleb. We did not expect my grandma to live much longer. I was earning my Master's Degree at the time and was able to finagle my way out of a mandatory class because my grandma was pretty much on her deathbed. She was a fighter though and continued to fight in order to take care of my grandpa who struggles with Alzheimer's. It was difficult to see my grandpa deal with the funeral. Some days he is more lucid than others. We're hoping that he will be able to join her soon and continue the mission they have led on earth on the other side.

Some pictures from the funeral:

My grandma and grandpa on their wedding day

All my aunts and uncles on my dad's side.

Saying goodbye

Grandma loved the bagged pipes

Sisters

All the male grandchildren minus my brother Jared.

Dad's 4 sisters and 1 brother + Grandpa

Our family minus some spouses and Jared's family. Lots of closed eyes in this picture :o)

I was really grateful to be able to attend. Matt stayed home with the kids and amazed me when I got back with how well he survived 3 days alone with the kids. I came home to an impeccably clean house! His sacrifice was very much appreciated.

No!

2011-11-10T18:30:00.004-07:00

Carter's in a really fun stage right now. He's finally starting to outgrow some of his "naughty" behavior that was a result of not being able to communicate very well. Now that he is talking more, or at least able to pull my hand and point to what he wants if I'm not understanding him, he resorts to biting, pinching, or pulling hair a lot less. :o) The funniest thing about him right now is that he answers "No" to most every question. Our typical conversations might look like this:

Me: Carter, would you like to go on a walk?

Carter: No

Me: Would you like to stay inside?

Carter: No

Me: Would you like to play with toys?

Carter: No!

Me: Would you like to read stories?

Carter: NO!

Me: Carter, it's time to get ready for bed.

Carter: No

Me: Let's go take a bath.

Carter: No

Me: Would you like to stay up really, really late and play?

Carter: No!

Me: Would you like to eat lots and lots of candy?

Carter: NO!

The more questions I ask, the more emphatic his "no" becomes. I can no longer joke around with asking silly questions for my entertainment, however. In an example like the 2nd one above, when I asked him if he wanted a treat instead of dinner, he said, "Otay" with a big smile on his face.

On more than one occasion, I've heard Carter talking in his crib late at night. I've put my ear to the door to listen to what he was saying to see if he was awake. Instead, he was dreaming and calling out "No" over and over in his sleep. It makes me chuckle.

Here he is at about 20 months. I took this picture this morning, so you can see that it is a balmy 78 degrees right now. I just arrived home from Utah yesterday (post to come) and got made fun of for one of my dressy outfits I brought to wear; it wasn't winter attire. With the warm winter I'm experiencing right now, I forget what appropriate winter attire includes! I tried to capture a picture where Carter was displaying his teeth. He has all his teeth except for the two next to his upper front teeth. It's so strange as most toddlers get those teeth right away!

Dressing-up

2011-11-01T13:50:00.006-07:00

Caleb and Carter had the opportunity to dress up 4 times this Halloween. Carter loved every minute of it! He would have worn his dinosaur costume day in and day out if I would have let him.

Caleb the pilot at a church Halloween party

Love Carter's smile

Matt and I enjoyed dressing up for a friend's Halloween party this year. Caleb had the opportunity to dress up in a few different costumes (that I bought for preschool), and he loved having options.

Trick-or-treating

Caleb had so much fun. We went for awhile in my sister's neighborhood with Grandma and Grandpa. Then Caleb and Matt went longer in our neighborhood while I put Carter to bed and passed out candy. Carter held Grandma or Grandpa's hand the entire time and would have nothing to do with Mommy or Daddy!

What a fun holiday and fun time of year! Perfect weather too!

Huntsville Half Marathon

2011-10-23T07:02:00.005-07:00

I ran my third half marathon yesterday morning. The morning started early as we made the drive to the race. We were all sleepy and a bit cranky (Carter was very cranky) as we didn't get to bed as early as I would have liked due to circumstances outside of our control. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful morning at a cool 65 degrees--perfect. My goal each time I run a race is to improve my previous time so I set out to run an 8:45 mile pace, but I didn't know how the numerous hills would affect me. Not all the hills were steep, but there were at least two steep ones and all the hills were definitely more of an incline than I ever run on my regular routes. The lowest elevation was 357 feet and the highest elevation was 490 feet during the half marathon course. Our good friends, the Burches, were there with us again for this half marathon. I'm so proud of Jacob who swore after the Galveston Half that he would never run a half marathon again. Not only did he run it again, but I believe he smoked his time from the Galveston run!

Here we are with a thumbs up ready to run the race.

This week we got a Garmin to help me track my runs. It's expensive, but amazing! I love being able to see what pace I'm running at any glance of the watch. I can see my mileage, set a pace guy to run with, see calories burned, etc. And I love being able to analyze the data afterwards on my computer. Love it! I've always clocked my regular running routes with my car, so I could not deviate from my routes if I wanted to know how far I ran and thus be able to calculate my average running pace. Clocking the mileage with my car, needless to say, is not the most accurate. (One of my loops that I do my car clocked at 1.1 miles and my Garmin clocked at 1.05 which makes a difference when I'm running long distances.) It's just nice to know and to be able to run any direction I feel like and my Garmin will clock it. Have I mentioned yet that I love it?

Anyway, the race course was two 6.55 mile loops. (So those two steep hills I mentioned previously I had to run twice making it 4 steep hills.) The first half I ran really well and surprised even myself that I was doing so well. My slowest mile in the first half was 8:35 and fastest was an 8:14. The hills didn't bother me too much because the downhill more than made up for the uphill I thought. The second half of the race was a little harder. The hills seemed more unbearable. By mile 11 the downhills hurt more than the uphills because momentum would carry my body faster than I was able to go at that point. The second half of the race my fastest mile was an 8:23 and my slowest mile was a 9:11.

Here I am sprinting at the finish.

I was so pleased with the final results! According to my Garmin, my average pace was an 8:34 minute-mile which put me finishing 13.1 miles at 1:52:13. I knocked 5 minutes off last year's half marathon time. That is a significant improvement, and I'm finally out of the rut of running 9-minute miles! Running is invigorating, and I love seeing improvement. As always, a big thank you to the support of my husband who had to deal with two cranky boys for the two hours that I ran.

After the race

The best picture of me and my boys. Caleb is unable to look at the camera for a picture these days.

Pumpkin Time

2011-10-19T13:07:00.006-07:00

Some cooler weather came our way, so what better time to visit a pumpkin patch? We went today for a preschool field trip.

The best picture we could get of my boys and me.

Jackets were a necessity with the cool wind! Each person got to take a pumpkin home after the field trip.

A train ride

Playing at the park while we ate lunch in a pavilion. Carter just went back and forth between the swing and the animals.

Petting the dogs

Kissing a goat

I actually got a picture with Carter looking at the camera and smiling!!

Looking at these pictures of Carter, he looks like the sweetest most lovable little boy--which he can be at times. He actually is quite the challenge, especially compared to Caleb. He's into bullying/hurting other smaller children with pinching, biting, and pulling hair. I'm having fun working through it especially when he doesn't understand the connection between the consequences and the undesirable behavior. A lot of his aggressive behavior has to do with the inability to verbally tell me what he wants. Hopefully this is just a passing stage and not here to stay!

Carter with his cousin Gavin.

The cooler weather is very welcome after the hot summer weather. We hope it is here to stay!

Cantaloupe

2011-10-19T12:26:00.003-07:00

We haven't done as well staying on top of our garden this year, but we are producing some cantaloupe. This is the biggest one so far, and there are about 6 more growing right now. Caleb finds it so exciting to watch them get bigger and finally to pick them! We'll have to do better next year.

Running Update

2011-10-01T13:01:00.006-07:00

A year ago at this time, I was training for a marathon. Carter was 6 months old, and I had been training for 2 months already. It was definitely difficult to work the training around nursing, but it felt invigorating to seriously train again after taking a 6 week break when Carter was born and doing some light running to try to get back in shape. Since my marathon on January 1st of this year, I haven't run any other races, but I have kept up the running to around 6 miles. Since the money can add up to run a lot of races, I didn't plan on running another race until November. I planned to run the Galveston half marathon again this year since I enjoyed the run last year along the Seawall looking out at the ocean. Unfortunately it was cancelled. The next half marathon race I was aware of nearby wasn't until March. I was kind of bummed. It's fun to work towards a race, but March was too far off.

A few days ago, I learned of a half marathon coming up in 3 weeks about 45-60 minutes away. Today I ran 13.1 miles to make sure I could do it, then I signed up. It's a month sooner than the Galveston race I was planning on, which cuts my training short. There's more I still want to do to shave minutes off my time, but I'll just have to make do.

I have made great strides in improving my running times. I've been able to run up to 6 miles in 8:45-9:00 minute-miles depending on the day while pushing my kids in a double running stroller. Today's 13.1 mile time was 1:54:35, 3 minutes faster than my half marathon last November, and the last mile was pushing the stroller as Matt had to be somewhere. The pace was 8:45-minute-miles. I'm hoping to run just as well in 3 weeks if not faster. The number one thing that might get in the way? Hills. The half marathon I signed up for I haven't considered in the past due to the hills. There are 2 large hills and other mild hills throughout the race. There are not many hills to train on around here that are close, so I have not done much hill training. In the next 3 weeks, I hope I can get a chance to run some hills but will have the difficulties of time (the closest hills are 20 minutes away so that's 40 minutes of driving time) and having to push my kiddos in the stroller. It's exciting to have a race on the calendar though and to have a time frame to push myself harder. Races have such a fun atmosphere, and I'm looking forward to it!

Happenings

2011-09-18T18:21:00.005-07:00

A few weeks ago, Caleb went to the doctor for his 4-year-old check-up. His doctor visit at 3 years old didn't go so well, so I was pleasantly surprised this time around. He was a little jittery and nervous, but he did great as the nurse took his blood pressure, temperature, etc. He had a vision and hearing screening done as well, which was kind of fun. The amazing part was that he didn't even cry during his shots. On shot number two he said "ow," but that was it! To carry on the tradition from last year, his doctor's visit was followed by a snow cone.

As I mentioned in the last post, our lives are busier now due to preschool. Caleb is a great student and is very eager to please. He loves having all these friends come over regularly as well! (I have a total of 8 students including him.)

Here's Carter on the first day of Caleb's preschool. He wants to be a big kid and just tag along.

When I'm not teaching preschool, we're spending more time on the potty seat. We've had a few random successes, but we'll keep practicing. He's such a big boy!

And as mentioned in the last post, church is keeping me busy always, but I love working in the Primary with the children. We did a Primary temple trip yesterday and had a tour around the temple. A temple worker also came and spoke to us. Overall it went well. We were surprised by a little rain as we walked around, but definitely grateful as we're in a drought right now.

(Carter's grumpy face...we had to wake him up early from a nap in order to attend.)

Busy

2011-09-11T19:51:00.004-07:00

I just realized that it's been a few weeks since I've posted. My free time has dwindled with the start of preschool this year. I have 8 fun kids in my class--5 girls and 3 boys. The first two weeks went well, and I am anticipating a wonderful year. It's a lot of work though when I don't have a sister to divide up the work-load with this year. It's fun to plan all the fun activities/field trips we'll do this year though. I love teaching Caleb especially and seeing him learn and socialize. Carter does pretty well while I teach. I just make sure to have an extra carpet square and activities for him as he wants to do everything right along with the rest of the class. Sometimes he proves to be a distraction, but the kids are learning to ignore him. I'll plan something more post-worthy for next time!

P.S. Right now any free time I have is spent reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. It's a page-turner and reminds me a lot of Hunger Games, which I quite enjoyed. Check it out if you're in the need of a good futuristic book.

4 Years Old

2011-08-26T11:11:00.005-07:00

4 years ago on August 22nd, this sweet boy joined our family.

Caleb has waited FOREVER for his birthday to come. He's so excited to be four!! Caleb definitely has his hard things about him (#1 being his sleeping as I've posted in the past), but we have loved every minute of him being a part of our family. Here are some of the things I love most about Caleb:

1) He tries so hard to be a good boy and make everyone happy. He's just plain sweet.

2) He is always asking questions and loves to learn.

3) He is such a hard worker. He loves to help me clean, loves to help Daddy build, and just works hard at whatever he does. Recently he worked really hard to learn to ride a bike, swim, and now as we're learning to read.

Due to the timing of his birthday and the cut off for grades, we've really debated whether to put Caleb in the grade he should be in knowing he'll be THE youngest in his grade, or to hold him back so he can be the oldest. We've decided to put him in the right class, but because of this, I work extra hard with him. He has come so far this past year, and he's right with all the other students in our preschool class. I love being able to teach him in preschool to see his progress. He is such a smart boy.

Here are more birthday pictures with my family. One of the presents we got Caleb is a real t-ball bat and balls. He has such a natural athleticism in general, but he really excels at baseball. We know that this will be a fun talent for him to pursue in the coming years.

Caleb blowing out the candles on his dinosaur cake.

We love you Caleb! Happy birthday sweet boy. Here's to another year of waiting...

One Year Older

2011-08-25T19:48:00.007-07:00

We were so happy to celebrate Caleb's 4th birthday this past Monday. On Saturday, he got to have 4 friends over for a dinosaur party.

We first decorated some dinosaur headbands:

Then we went dinosaur bowling with dinosaur pins.

Jumping for joy at a knocking all the pins over.

Playing a dinosaur matching game.

The kids had to walk across the room while balancing a "dinosaur egg".

Next, we went outside to dig for some dinosaur fossils.

And inside we "hatched" some dinosaur eggs to discover what kind of dinosaur was inside.

Then we ate some dinosaur Jell-O eggs that had a dinosaur fruit snack inside!

Carter inhaling his dinosaur egg.

Eating dinosaur cupcakes.

Opening presents

We debated about doing a friends party this year, but Caleb was so set on it. He had such a fun time that it was worth all the work and effort!

Daddy & Son Day

2011-08-14T19:43:00.003-07:00

Caleb and Matt got the opportunity to go bowling together last weekend. Caleb's only been one other time probably about 18 months ago, but it definitely made an impression. He's wanted to go again ever since!

Here's the excited bowler.

Looks like a strike!

The final score. Matt's looking pretty rusty. :o) At the beginning of our dating relationship, Matt and I went bowling with several friends. I was shocked when he pulled his own bowling ball out of the car before we went in. Who owns their own bowling ball?!? Matt used to bowl once a week with work friends before we dated and apparently got quite good. He has a very aggressive spin in his bowling game and would score anywhere from 180-220 on a regular basis. Looks like he needs more of those weekly practice games. :o)

What a great time. Thank you Daddy!

Family Vacation

2011-08-07T19:53:00.007-07:00

After my sister's wedding, we headed off for a short vacation since my brother and sister-in-law were here from Utah. We went to the Goliad, Texas and rented a ranch. As a family, we LOVE these vacations and the chance to play games, talk, and, in this case, swim!! Having a swimming pool in the backyard was a wonderful activity for the kids. We went swimming mornings and evenings most days. Caleb made some great progress in his swimming. If you look closely in this picture. Caleb is swimming from my brother, Clayton, in the middle of the pool, to me by the steps.

Although playing games with kids is difficult, we got a lot of game time in, especially during naps and late evenings. The game that dominated this family vacation is Dominion...great fun.

I didn't do very well at taking pictures, but between meal times and games, there really wasn't that much to catch on camera. Here's Caleb, Dallin, and I taking a break from packing up in order to practice taking pictures of ourselves. It was difficult for them to understand how to look at the lens rather than the view finder.

On the way home, we figured it would be a good idea to check out the history of the city since it has a role in Texas' independence. This is a picture of the Presidio, La Bahia, which Texans took control from the Mexicans in 1835. The first declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas was signed here. After losing the Battle of Coleto in 1836, the Texans surrendered with the promise that they would be set free in a few weeks. However, Santa Anna (Mexican General) ordered that all the survivors were to be executed. In the Goliad Massacre, 342 men were killed and 28 escaped. Colonel Fannin was killed last after watching the execution of all his men.

The Fannin monument to commemorate the massacre.

Even though it was short, it's always wonderful to spend time with family. We missed Lindsey and Derrick though who were on their honeymoon. It was especially fun to spend a lot of time with Jared and Kari's family (my older brother) before they move to the Netherlands. We will sure miss them! Hopefully they don't get too attached that they don't want to come back after the allotted 2 years! I'm so grateful for my family and that we are all such great friends.

Lindsey and Derrick's Wedding

2011-08-02T09:51:00.007-07:00

My sister, Lindsey, got married on July 30, 2011. Everything went well with a luncheon at 11am, wedding at 3pm, and reception later that night. It was great to meet Derrick's family!

The beautiful bride

Walking out of the temple

All the grandkids on our side

Siblings + Derrick

Siblings

Sisters

More sisters

Clayton and Kara are expecting in October

Congratulations Lindsey and Derrick!

Bouquet Thief

2011-08-02T07:04:00.007-07:00

When taking pictures after the marriage ceremony in the temple, Carter understood his job to steal the bouquet from Lindsey at all times. He would walk up to Lindsey and whine until she handed over her bouquet. (After about the third or fourth time, she probably was getting a little annoyed.)

Then he would take the bouquet and pass them off to someone else. For whatever reason, he didn't want Aunt Lindsey to hold her flowers.

Mommy with her little thief.

The only picture I got of the back of my hair. I wanted to do an up-do because it was going to be so hot taking pictures. So I watched tutorials online earlier in the week, and had one shot to get it right because I didn't practice. It turned out pretty well, but it was time-consuming (Matt didn't appreciate having to do most everything to get the kids ready), and I walked around with 48 bobby pins in my hair all day.

Entertainment when not needed for pictures: Grandpa

Lindsey's Reception

2011-08-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

The Cake

Feeding cake nicely

Decorations

Table setting

Caleb the Bike Rider

2011-07-25T09:03:00.003-07:00

On Saturday July 16th, our church congregation had a party to celebrate both the 4th of July and Pioneer day. As part of the events, there was a bike parade. The Monday before the party, we decided it was time for Caleb to learn how to ride a bike so he could participate in the parade! We picked up a bike from our neighbors about a year ago who were just going to throw it away, but we hadn't gotten around to buying training wheels yet. So once the training wheels were bought and attached, it was time to start practicing. It was a slow process at first, but it helped that Caleb wanted to ride so badly. He wanted to keep practicing even though sometimes he got frustrated. We didn't think that Caleb would be able to ride independently come time for the parade because every few minutes he'd lose momentum and need a push to get going again. He surprised both Matt and I at the parade when he went around the parking lot several times all by himself. I think the other kids were motivation!! He is now quite the expert and is getting really fast. He loves any opportunity to go ride his bike!

Carter, the fabulous wagon rider!!

Misspelled

2011-07-20T19:39:00.005-07:00

Everyone has their little quirks and odd interests. I have to confess that I am a grammar nerd. I took a grammar class in college that really opened up my eyes, and I felt like I was finally able to piece together everything I learned in my previous schooling. I'm definitely not perfect, but I love paying attention to grammar and spelling specifically. In my opinion, spelling correctly shows refinement and attention to detail. There are so many tricky words though, and I'm still finding new words that I realize I've been spelling wrong! It's like a fun little puzzle for me. So here are a list of supposedly the most commonly misspelled words (misspelling in parentheses). Have someone quiz you to see how you do!

accommodate
accordion (accordian) I can't recall ever writing this word, but I would have spelled it incorrectly.
acquaintance (acquaintence, aquaintance)
atheist (athiest)
axle (axel)
barbecue (barbeque)
believable (believeable)
broccoli (brocolli)
cantaloupe
carburetor
cemetery (cemetary)
chocolaty (chocolatey)
collectible (collectable)
Dalmatian (Dalmation)
definitely (definately) This one annoys me a bit with how often I see it spelled wrong. It's such a commonly used word that I think people should spell it right!
Dr. Seuss A lot of people spell it Dr. Suess.

embarrass (embarass)
exhilarate
flotation (floatation)
gauge
handkerchief (hankerchief)
harass (harrass)
hemorrhage (hemorage)
indispensable (indispensible)
inoculate (innoculate)
irascible
irresistible (irresistable)
judgment (judgement) I have a funny story about misspelling this one when I was in high school.
lieutenant
liquefy (liquify)
marshmallow (marshmellow)
medieval
millennium (millenium)
minuscule (miniscule)
mischievous (mischievious) I realized not too long ago that I've been pronouncing this word wrong all my life.
occasion
occurrence
onomatopoeia
pharaoh (pharoah)
pigeon (pidgeon)
pistachio (pistacchio)
plagiarize
plenitude (plentitude)
poinsettia (pointsettia)
pronunciation (pronounciation)
privilege (priviledge)
puerile
raspberry
rhythm
ridiculous
sacrilegious (sacriligious)
savvy
sergeant
supersede (supercede)
ukulele (ukelele)
vacuum
weird

Learn anything new?

Building and Dog-sitting

2011-07-18T12:43:00.007-07:00

Does anyone else feel like summer is flying by?!?

One of Matt's summer projects is to build a new play gym for the backyard. Our old one was gifted to us, but some of the wood was badly warped. I was nervous each recess for preschool when we had 3 kids swinging at a time that it would break! Luckily it held up for the year, but I didn't want to chance another year. Rather than replacing the wood that was warped, Matt decided that he would build a bigger and better play gym (male ego). Hopefully it will get finished this week, but here's the progress so far.

Digging the holes to place the poles and fill with cement (it has to be extra sturdy because it's extra big!)

#1 helper: Caleb

#2 helper: Carter

#3 helper: the dog we were sitting

Unfortunately his help included digging holes in our grass where we didn't want holes!!!

(Yes, Carter is eating dirt.)

The holes were the perfect size for Carter to jump in

All boy

Where we stand today. Still to do: 2nd tier, roof, attach swings, ladder...

The same night that Matt dug the holes, it rained (which we need desperately!) so he didn't get a chance to set the posts that night with cement. That also meant that the holes in the backyard became mini-swimming pools for Carter and the dog. Carter escaped in the backyard with the dog and thoroughly enjoyed the muddy pools, along with the dog. Then we watched as Carter and the dog climbed up into the sand table (I was impressed that Carter could pull himself up there!). 2 of a kind.

Not a fun clean-up, but the dog and Carter had a lot of fun!

The puppy and Carter were quite the pair for the 2 weeks we dog-sat. The dog stuck like glue to Carter whenever Carter was eating, because something always goes over the side of his high chair for meals/snacks. And Carter stuck like glue to the dog the rest of the day. He was fascinated by him. Carter usually greets me with a kiss first thing in the morning, but I moved down the totem pole with a dog around. The first thing Carter did each morning was run and lay on top of the dog. He would then give him a kiss on the mouth, which for Carter is an open mouth. It was gross to witness.

We learned a lot by dog-sitting. I've been contemplating getting a dog for awhile now because my boys love dogs as do I. I learned that we are not in a stage in our lives where we are ready for a dog/puppy! It was a hard 2 weeks. I think the puppy was missing his family desperately, and we had different rules in our house than he is used to.

4th of July

2011-07-05T20:12:00.004-07:00

Is it sad that I didn't miss the fireworks that were banned here in the south? Ever since having kids, fireworks = crying babies and no sleep for the whole house until like 1 am when they finally seem to taper off. We enjoyed a family breakfast and baseball game with my family in the morning and swimming and hamburgers with Matt's family in the evening.

I truly am grateful for the freedoms of this country. As I am teaching about temples to the children in my church this month, I'm also appreciative of the opportunity to worship freely. My beliefs influence everything I do in my life, and I'm so grateful for this freedom.

Recipe

2011-07-05T19:40:00.004-07:00

The recipe from my last post. Definitely yum. And I love her food blog.

Chocolate Orange Swirl Muffins

I made a few variations: I used milk chocolate chips; the orange taste wasn't enough for me, so 2nd time around I added a little orange extract; and instead of buttermilk, I used milk with a T of vinegar (a trick I learned in my BYU cooking class). I also under bake all my sweets by a few minutes.

Father's Day

2011-06-23T20:11:00.002-07:00

For Father's Day, Matt got a chance to sleep in while the boys and I made breakfast for Daddy. At Matt's request, we made bacon and eggs. I love trying new recipes, so my boys also helped me make some orange and chocolate swirl muffins. They were a hit, and Caleb's been asking for them every day since Sunday.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Matt is a terrific father. The second he walks through the front door after work each day is everyone's favorite moment of the day I think! The boys immediately drop whatever they're doing to greet him at the door. Matt is so good about spending time with them, and they love him so much!

Day 4--Heading Home

2011-06-15T07:57:00.007-07:00

We had to check out of our hotel by noon, so our morning started early. The earliest church time we could find was 9 am, and we had to take the subway to get there. The church looked more like a cathedral than an LDS church. It seemed relatively new and was beautiful. It was interesting to go to different floors for each hour of church. We only had time for the first 2 hours, but can I tell you how nice it was to have a week off with no kids at church? We could actually listen the whole time! And I loved going to Sunday School. Being in Primary, I really miss the other meetings.

We snapped a few more pictures below ground. We were really fascinated by the subway system of travel and how crowded it can get!

One of the items on the agenda for Saturday was to see Grand Central Station. Due to the rain, it didn't happen, so as we were walking back to our hotel, we made a quick side trip to snap a few pictures.

(The clock was not as big/tall as I had assumed based on Madagascar.)

Leaving the hotel

Catching a taxi back to the airport

The plane ride home was not fun. There was bad weather on the plane's route to Texas, so we had to taxi for an hour while someone rerouted all the courses. Due to this hour delay, we had to refuel in Memphis, Tennessee. We were either in an airport or on an airplane for 8 1/2 hours on Sunday. Not fun! We were so excited to see Caleb and Carter again though once we got home.

Worst part about the trip: The taxi ride to our hotel and the plane ride home were pretty bad, but the part I hated the most were the elevators in our hotel. The Waldorf Astoria is old and the elevators were not a smooth ride. If we would have been on level 10 or less, I would have opted for the stairs everyday, but we were on floor #22 of 25 floors. 3 days after the trip, I still feel like my equilibrium is off and I feel slightly dizzy when I run each morning.

Best part about the trip: I loved experiencing the city with my hubby. The heart truly does grow fonder with each passing year we are married. I look up to and admire him so much for the person he is. His areas of greatest strength are probably my areas of greatest weakness...we constantly joke that I'll make it to heaven hanging onto his coattails. I've never met someone with such a good heart who has the best intentions always. He gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, assumes the best of everyone, doesn't participate in gossip, and is willing to help anyone he can. He comes home in a good mood from work everyday willing to help me with the kids or dinner or dishes. If only I could greet him with a cheerful attitude each day! There's much I need to work on, and he is so patient with me loving me despite my faults. It was so wonderful to escape "life" for a few days and share this experience with him.

Day 3

2011-06-14T19:09:00.006-07:00

We took advantage of having no kids around and actually slept in for the first time since having kids! We only slept in until 8:30, but it felt glorious! The first thing on the agenda was a visit to the Manhattan, LDS Temple. We were excited to visit another temple. It was our first time to have to wear headsets to hear things in English as they were doing a Spanish session at the time we arrived.

When we left the temple we were met with rain. A cool front had come in on Thursday night, so it was chilly and rainy, and we were not prepared for either. We had planned on visiting Central Park after the temple, so I was really bummed about the weather condition. Since it was just a few blocks away, we ran over to Central Park, snapped this picture, then ran back to the subway!

We still had a long walk to get back to our hotel after the subway ride, so we ducked into a few stores on the way to step out of the rain. One of the stores was a Lego store. It was neat to see so many things made out of Legos.

Luckily the rain slowed down later in the afternoon so we walked over to the Theater District hours before our show for the night so we could walk around and find a nice restaurant for dinner.

Toys R Us Ferris Wheel (inside the store!)

I loved the way the store was organized. I won't post pictures of each section (Barbie, Lego, Willy Wonka, NY, etc.), but here are a few:
Candy Land section.

Jurassic Park section

Hershey store...yum

M&M Store

We ended the night with The Lion King. It's our second time to see this one together, and we're both just amazed with the costuming, animals, props and the staging of the performance. So fun!

We had a rainy walk home after the show, but this time we had an umbrella provided by the hotel! We wanted to send some of the rain to Texas where it's desperately needed!! I was very sad at the end of the night, because I knew our trip was pretty much wrapped up by that point. Sunday would be filled with church and travel...

Day 2

2011-06-14T18:34:00.002-07:00

We got an early start as we had mapped out lots to see. We heard the Empire State building gets busy, so we headed there first. After our first taxi ride, we opted for lots of walking (and it cost money to use the hotel's fitness center--lame--so I wanted to walk for the exercise). For long distances we took the subway/train, but mostly walked.

The entire time at the Empire State building I had scenes from An Affair to Remember running through my head. It was a great way to start the trip to be able to see all of New York City from the top of the building. We were amazed with how many foreigners were there as we walked around catching different languages and taking pictures for others. Neat experience.

Statue of Liberty in the distance

Next we rode on a subway for the first time as we headed to Brooklyn.

A cool building we saw as we hiked up the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge

I love this picture that Matt took.

Next: Ground Zero

There was a lot of construction due to the rebuilding process.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was the boat ride to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was neat to see the Statue of Liberty in person. I have to admit that she was shorter than I imagined based on movies and pictures.

Ellis Island

Exhausted from a long day and lots of walking, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our Broadway show. After a quick dinner, we arrived in the Theater District for Phantom of the Opera. Of course it was phenomenal, and we enjoyed it immensely. It's such a sad and tragic story.

It was a packed day, but come Saturday, we were so glad we fit in so much on Friday!

5 Year Anniversary

2011-06-14T17:44:00.003-07:00

What better way to celebrate 5 years of marriage than to head to New York City, right? The best part about the trip was that almost the entire thing was a gift through a connection of Matt's. We were so excited to have a weekend break from our day jobs and be "Matt and Haley" again instead of "Mommy and Daddy". Of course it was hard to say goodbye to our boys (who stayed with my parents), and by Sunday we were definitely missing them badly and ready to be home.

We left Thursday afternoon and arrived in New York City around 6pm. Due to rush hour traffic, a rainstorm, and a truck getting stuck in a tunnel, it took forever to get to our hotel and cost us a pretty penny for the taxi cab. We were exhausted and starving by the time we arrived (in case anyone hasn't flown in awhile like us--they no longer give snacks on an airplane, and we didn't eat lunch in the rush to drop off the kids and catch our flight). By 9pm we had finally checked into our hotel and sat down to eat dinner at the very fancy hotel restaurant. Needless to say, we did NO sightseeing on day 1 as we were exhausted!

Double Trouble

2011-06-01T12:43:00.006-07:00

Ariane and I have been getting together for a little bit each day as we've divided up preschool stuff in order to go our separate ways next year. We set the older boys up with a movie yesterday, but that didn't entertain them enough. So today we set them up in Caleb's room with some trains, train tracks, cars and a ramp. The little boys were in the preschool room with Ariane and me. Carter wants to be a big boy so badly and play with Caleb and Dallin, so he kept wandering into the room they were in. Maybe one day Carter and Dallin will be friends, but for now, they're double trouble. Dallin likes to tease and Carter likes to be in Dallin's business. Ariane and I were going through all our leftover craft supplies, dividing it up, when Caleb came running into the room announcing that Dallin got paint on the floor. (He had snuck in the preschool room and grabbed some!) We rushed around the corner to Caleb's room to see Dallin holding a squeeze bottle of washable finger paint over Carter's head while squeezing the paint out. Carter thought it was a good old time, putting his hand in the paint on his head and using the finger paint as body paint. Luckily things didn't get too out of hand before we intervened!

Year One: Check

2011-05-30T14:02:00.003-07:00

My last day teaching preschool was this past Thursday. We had a water party, which was a lot of fun. It will be nice to have the summer break from teaching (and have my house back!), but I loved teaching this last year. I loved that 6 hours a week was not too demanding, and I loved seeing the kids get into whatever theme we were learning about and their progress throughout the year. I'm apprehensive about next year because I won't have my sister to lean on and share the workload with, and I have a lot of work to do this summer putting together a new curriculum of themes etc. It's a little overwhelming at this point, but I have 3 months to figure it all out. :o) I sure am going to miss these kiddos over the summer though!

Diamond Club

2011-05-14T14:27:00.006-07:00

The owner of the company Matt works for offered Matt Diamond Club tickets to the Astros game yesterday. We were scheduled to babysit for our babysitting co-op, but luckily we were able to trade with another couple. The owner rarely offers to give these seats away (row 7 right behind home plate), but this is the second time he's offered them to Matt! The first time Matt was offered these tickets was 8 months ago, and I had just barely been called into the Primary presidency and the tickets were the same night of my first presidency meeting. Because I would have had to cancel the day of, I passed on the tickets and Matt took a friend. After they came home and told me all the food they consumed and how awesome the seats were, I was very excited this time around.

We parked our mini-van among a Mercedes SLK 500, a BMW 750i, a McLaren, a Bugatti (several of the player's cars) right next to the stadium. Needless to say, we felt a little out of place. It was the first time ever that we had to go down stairs in order to get to our seats. The seats were actually cushioned and comfy instead of hard and uncomfortable. Because we were sitting right behind home plate, we knew we would be on T.V.! We kept calling family to watch the game so they could see us! All in all, it was the best free date we've ever had!

The price of the tickets! ($375 each)

The action

The food was incredible and of course free! Besides dinner, we filled up on ballgame snacks and all-you-can-eat desserts/ice cream.

7 inning stretch

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-14T14:25:00.003-07:00

Day to Day

2011-05-08T19:18:00.003-07:00

Carter is at the stage right now where he loves to look in the trash can for left-over "yummy" snacks. In general his objective has been to dig through the trash looking for a fruit snack wrapper and then hold it in front of my face making a whining noise, thus communicating that he wants some fruit snacks. He's also discovered a few times how to throw things away in the garbage (i.e. a shoe or other object). Hence the reason that the trash can now sits on top of a chair in my kitchen

My little man, Caleb, is in love with music. He loves to dance to it and listen to it. It's a great independent activity for him which I fully support. This day he was listening to a CD with all the 2011 Primary songs on them just laying down and singing along with all the songs. It was so cute, and I loved his sweet voice singing in the background while I was prepping dinner in the kitchen.

Zoo Field Trip

2011-05-06T13:32:00.006-07:00

After spending all month learning about specific zoo animals, the children in my preschool class were so excited to see them all live. We didn't quite make it to all the animals we studied before everyone needed to head out, but we enjoyed what we saw. Now that I have a zoo membership, we will be frequenting the zoo quite a bit this next year.

Here are some monkeys and a lion. (Caleb's on the right.)

Most all of my preschool students (minus 3 girls) sporting their animal masks we made at preschool

Viewing the elephants

Caitlyn, Caleb, and Chloe on the carousel ride

Carter having fun riding and ostrich

Caleb and Dallin in a hippo's mouth

Caitlyn, Dallin, and Caleb daring to touch a rhino :o)

It's crazy to me that preschool is wrapping up at the end of this month. My sister and I have loved taking on this endeavor together and really enjoyed ourselves! We loved splitting the workload and bouncing ideas off each other. We will be teaching different age groups next year, so we're enjoying our last month of team-teaching.

Easter Fun

2011-04-26T13:06:00.007-07:00

Caleb on the hunt for Easter eggs during our preschool egg hunt

Matt's mom made these beautiful Easter baskets for the kids and me. I thought this was such a clever idea for an Easter basket! Matt helped her with the beginning stages of wrapping the balloons with string, and he also filled the baskets with candy afterwards.

We got together Sunday night at my parent's house with all the cousins. Caleb, Drew and Dallin anxious to start the egg hunt.

Carter finding eggs too!

Caleb was very serious and very fast!

Watch out! This kid will plow you over to get to an egg! :o)

Carter finding an egg with Grandma's help

Jared, Sam, and Alex finding eggs

The hunt is over and candy is disappearing quickly from the eggs

Alex's cute smile

Dallin and his mommy

Drew with his mommy

Gavin enjoying playing with an egg. He didn't care what was inside.

Carter and Me

Matt didn't get a picture of Lindsey, but she was down this past weekend with her boyfriend Derrick. We enjoyed having them here and playing games and tennis with them. The kiddos all loved playing with Aunt Lindsey as well!

Warm Weather

2011-04-17T20:16:00.005-07:00

When the weather warms up, it's time to play in the water. We went to some fountains in the area so the kids could run around in the water. Kids got wet and had fun while Mommies chatted in the sun (I went with my sister and a friend). Carter had fun exploring the water fountains.

Trying to figure out the water shooting out of the hole in the ground.

Caleb having fun.

Helping Carter get wet :o)

Fascination

Gavin, Ariane, Dallin, Caleb, and Samuel

Even though the kids are ready for summer (because summer = constant water fun), I'm enjoying the cooler mornings and nights. I think summer's heading our way though...

Helping Out

2011-04-06T17:16:00.002-07:00

My younger sister is doing a school project where she and her partners are trying to see how many people they can get to view this video they created. She even featured me in her video! If you could take a moment to look at it, she'd appreciate the help!

Maybe One Day...

2011-04-02T10:26:00.004-07:00

Caleb used to be very afraid of dogs, but recently he's started loving them. For about two weeks straight, Caleb asked every day if he could have a dog. He specifically wanted Brona, our next-door-neighbor's dog. Carter is very taken with dogs as well. As soon as we step outside the front door, he immediately grabs my hand and walks me over to the neighbor's fence where he expects me to lift him up (and hold him up indefinitely) so he can see Brona.

Matt and I have had several serious conversations about getting a dog. I LOVE dogs. I worked at a dog kennel all throughout high school and became very attached to some of the dogs that always frequented the kennel. We had a dog growing up when I lived in Utah. Periwinkle was *my* dog. She slept with me at night, and we were the best of buds. It was so difficult leaving her behind when we moved.

After a few discussions about getting a dog, we finally decided that the time is not right for now. Matt's biggest reason why we shouldn't ever get a dog is because I become too attached. There were a lot of other things...we couldn't make up our minds about small vs. large dog (I'd love a dog that could go running with me), outside vs. inside dog, we would want a dog that didn't shed hair, I'm trying to take good care of our 2-year-old couches and don't want a dog jumping on them, and cleaning up the backyard after a dog isn't necessarily appealing especially when I teach preschool and have kids playing in my backyard constantly. So to answer Caleb's constant question, maybe one day we'll get a dog. For now, our neighbor is kind enough to let us borrow his dog on occasion. We love it when Brona comes over to play!

Completely unrelated to dogs, we love our wisteria in the corner of our backyard. It has completely taken over all 4 corners of the fence. It only blooms for about 2 weeks in the year, so we had to take a picture of it before all the blooms left. (It also attracts a large number of bees and wasps for those two weeks!) It is green all spring and summer so it still looks nice, but we always look forward to the blooming.

Happy Birthday!

2011-03-30T19:20:00.006-07:00

There's still more celebrating to do this weekend with Matt's family, but tonight we celebrated Carter's (and my) birthday with my family.

A recap of my day first: Matt got me a new MacBook Pro. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with everything to learn and frustrated that some of the shortcuts aren't the same as a PC, but this blog post is coming from my laptop while I'm watching American Idol. That's a great feeling. Maybe now I'll keep up better on my blogging! Matt is such a great gift-giver, and he always manages a great deal because he knows I'm not happy with a gift if it's more money than I want to spend (I would have never asked for this gift). I'll never be able to equal his ability, but he still loves me for my efforts! Some church friends took me out to lunch as well, and I got lots of birthday wishes from friends and family.

Carter didn't know his day was any different except for a visit to the doctor's office where he got three shots! Cruel of me, I know. Carter weighs 23 lbs. 13 oz. in the 66th percentile, and he is 31" in the 85th percentile. He's looking to be taller than Caleb will be.

My family came over for cake/ice cream and presents. Here are some pics:

I made a Texas sheet cake because it's one of my favorite cakes. Ariane brought some peanut butter balls as well, since I'm a sucker for peanut butter and milk chocolate. They were yummy.

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Carter and I blowing out our candle.

Carter crawled on the table ready to dig in!

Matt took a lot of pictures of Carter eating cake. Here are some of my favorites:

He couldn't understand why everyone was watching him/filming/taking pictures. "I'm just doing my thing." Carter LOVES to eat.

Opening presents. This shirt says "I'm always hungry." Perfect.

Carter is most always asleep by 7pm if not earlier. It was 8pm when the party wrapped up. You can tell how disinterested Carter is.

I couldn't get Carter's red eyes to edit for some reason, but I still thought this was a cute picture. Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

Sweet Tooth

2011-03-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

Carter is going to have a sweet tooth like his Mama! Honestly it doesn't matter what anyone is eating; if you have food, Carter is right next to you like a little doggie begging for a bite. In this case, I was making a dessert and accidentally dropped a Cool Whip lid on the ground. Carter was quick to snatch it up and have his way with it. Carter turns one at the end of the month, and I'm predicting he will demolish his piece of cake.

Preschool Field Trip

2011-03-14T18:23:00.008-07:00

We have been learning about bugs this month in preschool, so we did a field trip to the Butterfly Museum. The kids were so excited about going and talked about it for 2 weeks. I was really excited about going because it was my first time to use my new camera! Our Christmas present to ourselves was supposed to be a new camera (our old one was literally falling apart), but we decided to hold out for a sale. We now have a Canon G12 PowerShot that we're really enjoying using and experimenting with. I haven't read the manual yet (it's on the to-do list), but I can already tell a difference in the quality of pictures. Anyway, here's a slideshow of our trip:

Rodeo 2011

2011-03-03T19:00:00.005-07:00

We enjoyed going to the Rodeo again this year, courtesy of Matt's work. We scored FRONT row seats this year which, as part of the action seats, gets free food. It was fun to take Caleb this year and let him see all the animals. We love so many of Clay Walker's songs, so it was fun to see him live. Caleb stayed awake the whole time, then zonked out in the car. Thanks to my parents for watching Carter for us!

And He's Off!

2011-02-20T20:49:00.005-07:00

Caleb started walking at 10 1/2 months almost to the day. After Carter turned 10 months, we kept joking that he had until Feb. 15th to figure out how to walk. He wasn't very close at all though. He loved to walk around holding our hands, and did pretty well at holding just one hand, but his balance wasn't as good as Caleb's.

He shocked us all on Feb. 15th when he took his first independent steps (5 of them). I was finishing up some dinner prep in the kitchen, and Matt was on the floor playing with Carter. We had my sister over for dinner that night who was also on the floor playing with her son. Carter was standing up holding onto Matt, and then he just took off walking to Ariane.

So he tied Caleb and has since done very well at walking further distances. I love the zombie arms as he walks. Now it's time to work off all that baby fat (and he has a lot of it!).

He is all smiles and giggles as he walks from one person to another.

Love this cute face!

Daddy Time

2011-02-06T19:49:00.005-07:00

Caleb has been really interested in building things right now, so Matt and Caleb have been busy every weekend.

The first weekend they built the ramp in the back of this picture out of a cardboard box and pizza boxes for his cars to go down. They also built an elaborate train track together and a station for all the trains to park in.

The pizza boxes didn't hold up so well, especially with Carter trying to climb on the ramp, so Matt and Caleb built and painted this ramp together. Matt used some scrap wood that the builders in our neighborhood were just going to toss. Caleb's loved having races down the ramp with his cousins and preschool playmates.

And lastly they built an amazing fort in our family room this past Friday using all the blankets we have in the house. (It was an unexpected three day weekend because Friday was a "snow day". It didn't snow where we live, but the overpasses were icy, so schools were cancelled and most work places were cancelled.) We left the fort up all weekend, but I forgot to take a picture of it before they took it down yesterday. It provided great entertainment for both my boys. Reading books and playing with toys is sooo much cooler when you can do it in a fort!

Pictures Galore

2011-01-29T14:41:00.013-07:00

My sister-in-law, Kara, did a photo shoot for everyone while she was here this Christmas. She is finishing up her degree in photography, and you'll see how fabulous she is! I can't wait to frame them all to decorate my house. Thanks Kara! (click to enlarge)

All the grandkids with my mom and dad

The new babies

Everyone

Sisters

The men

All the boys

All the girls

Family Day

2011-01-29T13:21:00.007-07:00

Matt took a Friday off of work, and we went to the Aquarium for a family day. We went with a group of people and were able to get a steal of a deal. Unlimited rides was the best part. We rode the train, ferris wheel, and carousel multiple times!

Carter and me on the carousel

Matt encouraging Caleb to touch the sting ray

Pictures by the white tiger exhibit

(we don't know what he has to do with an aquarium...?)

Best Buddies

9 Months

2011-01-17T18:59:00.007-07:00

Carter turned 9 months a few weeks ago. He weighed 22 lbs. 12 oz. (80th percentile) and was 30.25 " tall (95th percentile). He was 90th percentile for weight and 68th percentile for height at his 6 month appointment. His weight-gain is slowing down, but surprisingly he's quite tall. Neither Matt or I are particularly tall, so we'll see if his "tallness" sticks around. We're predicting Caleb to be the baseball player and Carter to be the football player. We'll see.

Some fun things about Carter: He is a very empathetic baby. If another person is crying, in particular Caleb, then his lower lip starts quivering, and he starts crying too. He has 4 teeth, and is a great eater (hence the chubbiness)! He picked up crawling at 8 1/2 months and being able to pull himself up into a standing position. At 9 months he figured out how to crawl up a few stairs. Within the next few days, he could go up the entire staircase. He seems to understand that he has to be very careful about trying to go down the stairs. He's only fallen down once and it was just 3 stairs. Carter's still trying to figure out how to go down on his tummy, but he's been able to do a few stairs so it shouldn't be too far off.

I've given him 2 haircuts now. I've learned that his hair is not like Caleb's, and that I can't cut it as short as I do Caleb's. Because when I do, his hair sticks straight up in the back like in this picture.

If he could have his way, it would be to have me holding his hands and walking him wherever he wants to go all day long. The walker just isn't the same because it doesn't allow him to maneuver as easily.

Carter is a great sleeper at night, but a horrible napper during the day. (Caleb was bad all around, so I guess this is an improvement.) Carter goes to bed between 6:30 and 7pm and wakes up right at 7 am every morning. He's been doing this for the last 3 months, and it has been a sweet schedule! He takes a morning nap for 1 to 1 1/2 hours and an afternoon nap for 1/2 hour. Both of these naps are preceded by anywhere from 15-60 minutes of crying. The crying beforehand wasn't always this lengthy (though it's always been there). Ever since he learned to pull himself up to a standing position, he'll just stand in his crib and cry till he's exhausted and finally falls asleep.

If I have mentioned in previous posts that he is a happy baby, I have to modify that statement. He is a happy baby only if I am carrying him or I am walking him around the house. Otherwise he's pretty cranky all day. This may have something to do with not getting enough sleep in during the day, but I'm at a loss as to how to fix that.

Despite that it's frustrating at times that Carter will only go to me and not Matt (very seldomly), I love that Carter loves me so much. He's always so excited to see me, and he's a fun cuddler as well. With Caleb preferring his Daddy over me anytime, it's nice that I have someone who I can snuggle with.

Carter does pretty well in preschool. The kids ignore him for the most part, but they can also be really cute with him. Carter crawled up to one of my students and then...

gave her some love :o)

It's been so fun to see him learn and grow. I can't believe he's approaching the year mark already! We all love having him as part of the family. I especially love watching him and Caleb play together. It takes a lot of patience on Caleb's end, because Carter is usually destroying anything that Caleb is building. Caleb's really sweet to him though.

26.2

2011-01-06T13:43:00.013-07:00

What better way to bring in the new year than to run 26 miles right? January 1, 2011 I ran my first marathon. I never anticipated that I would set this goal to run a full marathon, but a friend convinced me to join a running group in our area. There were two groups...one group was training for a half marathon and the other was training for a full. The half marathon schedule started out so super easy with 1 mile and then slowly adding on additional miles, that I thought I would train with the marathon group just to see. I could always skip the weeks in the schedule that they were running more mileage than I felt comfortable with. I had signed up for a half marathon for Nov. 20th, and looked around at marathon races on a Saturday. There was only one available that was close by on New Year's Day. The group I trained with was training for the Houston Marathon on Jan. 30th. If I wanted to run the one on Jan. 1st (Kingwood), I knew I'd have to adjust the running schedule. My decision was made for me when I tried to sign up for the Kingwood race, and it was full. I had been waiting to sign up because I wasn't sure I was capable of doing one yet! I went on the waiting list of over 200 people and figured that was the end of any thoughts of running a marathon.

As I continued with the running schedule in order to train for my half, I felt capable of continuing with the higher mileage. I was at 15 miles when I heard that I got into the Kingwood race. I immediately talked with my coach about how to adjust the schedule to make sure I would be ready.

Just a quick summary of my training: It was really nice to be able to have people to run with for the long runs on Saturday. I was in a group of about 25 people all training for a marathon and at a pace of between 9 and 10-minute miles. There were seminars every other Saturday about different tips to take care of your body. Since the seminars started at 8 am, our long runs had to be finished by then. That meant that Saturday mornings were always an early start for me. As the mileage increased, so did the early start. We oftentimes started our running in the dark. I did not get through this whole ordeal without injury. My knees hurt a lot when I ran 18 + miles (which was only twice), but they've been popping frequently from the beginning. I also had pain in the arch of my right foot, which subsided a bit when I got fitted for new shoes. My left ankle bothered me some, but I learned that I just needed to stretch it really good, and then it was okay.

My half marathon went really well on Nov. 20th. I concentrated on pushing myself hard. I aimed to run 8:45 miles, but ended up with 9-minute miles. Because I pushed myself so hard, I felt awful after finishing and made a decision right there that there was no way I wanted to run an additional 13 miles on top of what I already ran. I wanted to pull out of the marathon and get my money refunded. After thinking about it some more, I decided to continue to try to run a marathon, but realized that I would need to slow my pace down significantly if I actually wanted to finish!

Marathon day approached. Weather was perfect. It started out at 47 degrees and by the time I finished it was around 57 degrees. The race track was 4 loops of 6.55 miles with pretty scenery. I was set with a book on tape (which I finished during the race). I did not get a good night's sleep the night before though (fireworks kept me up), and I didn't eat as good as I should have the previous night (all the appetizers were so yummy...but I did pass on dessert). I think because of my diet the night before, my stomach hurt really bad for the first 13 miles. As I was crossing the start/finish line at 13.1 miles, I wanted to quit because I just wasn't feeling good. It was at this point that I saw Matt, my boys, and Matt's parents. That gave me the extra motivation I needed to grab a snack and keep going.

Suprisingly, for not feeling well, my time was better than I expected. I set a tentative goal of wanting to run around 10-minute miles. I started out slower than that (I heard that was supposed to help with energy at the end) at 10:15 miles. Not intentionally, I started running 9:45 miles around mile 4. I was able to keep that pace for quite awhile. I remember looking down at my stopwatch at every mile marker and just being surprised that I was running ahead of schedule, but I was running at a comfortable pace...I wasn't pushing myself at all. My "comfortable pace" was quicker than I anticipated, and I attribute that to my speed training and tempo runs that I did on Tues./Thurs. during my training.

Around mile 20 I hit "the wall" that a lot of runners talk about. I was just doing what I could to keep running, and as soon as I got to a water/gatorade station, I walked while I drank. My pace slowed considerably for about the next 3 miles. Around mile 23, energy kicked in, and I was able to pick up my pace. That mile was actually pretty emotional. While other runners were wiping sweat, I was wiping tears as I realized that I was going to accomplish this goal that was such a challenge to work towards, even the day of the race. It's always more meaningful to accomplish something when you wanted to give up many times throughout the process.

I finished strong, and my finishing time was 4:28:34, which I was very proud of. Overall it was an incredible experience. I was very shaky after finishing...my knees were killing me. (My quads were sore for the next two days, and I walked like an old woman.) I was very grateful to Matt and his parents for coming out to support me. It literally made the difference of me finishing the race!

Mile 13, when I wanted to give up. Blurry picture, but I was handing off my jacket to Matt as I passed him.

Heading back out with snack in hand even though I was in a lot of pain and just wanted to quit. (Side note--> My hair is probably the longest it's ever been right now. I grew it out for the marathon, and I'm so excited to chop it off!)

After the race getting my award. Caleb came to greet me.

Me with my "Texas-sized" award. It is soooo heavy, but I love that it's so big because it represents a big accomplishment. (It was so painful to get in this position for the picture, and Matt had to help me stand up again. The theme of the race was ducks for whatever reason...)

So, are more marathons in my future? I don't think so. I don't have a desire to qualify for Boston (I'd have to run it in 3:40), and the training process took its toll on my body as well as a lot of time away from family. I plan on sticking with half marathons from here on out. The only way I'd run another marathon is if Matt wanted to run one. Then I'd want to run it with him...and beat him :o). In the mean time, it feels AMAZING to be in the best shape I'll probably every be in in my life!

First Movie

2011-01-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

While Clayton and Kara were in town for Christmas, we went to see the movie Tangled. It was Caleb's first time to see a movie in the theater! After about 20 minutes, he said he was all done and ready to go home. He sat through it all really well though as long as I pointed out the funny chameleon and horse. I quite enjoyed the movie. It was only my second movie to see in a theater this entire past year (the first was Harry Potter about a month ago).

Caleb, Dallin, and Sammy (I think it was all of their first time in a movie theater)

Mommy and Caleb after the movie.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-02T15:53:00.009-07:00

Caleb on Christmas morning. All month long Caleb asked if it was time for Santa to come, so it was so exciting when Santa actually came!

Flipping through a new book of picture scriptures that he opened.

Caleb with his toys: trains and a dinosaur from Grandma. (The Cheerios were to distract Carter as we opened presents.)

Other presents: books!

Carter ate snacks and played with the wrapping paper!

Later in the day at Matt's parents. One of the presents Caleb opened was a remote-controlled helicopter! Daddy actually enjoyed this present just as much, if not more than, Caleb.

Carter with one of his presents: a frog piggy bank.

I forgot my camera on Christmas Eve when we did presents with my family, so no pictures. Caleb was excited about the movie Toy Story 3 that he also got from Grandma and Grandpa. We enjoyed the holiday and loved having Daddy home for several days!

Family

2010-12-23T21:36:00.002-07:00

Christmas is so much more fun with all the family around. Clayton and his wife, Kara, just flew in to spend Christmas here, which means we'll have all my family home for Christmas. My grandma is visiting as well. We'll have our big get-together Christmas Eve with all our fun traditions (white elephant, chimes, acting out the Nativity story now that there are some kids, present exchanges, food and games). Can't wait!

Here are the latest family pictures taken by Matt's dad:

And my handsome boys. Caleb is so excited for Santa this year!

Half Marathon #2

2010-12-04T08:41:00.002-07:00

Saturday, November 20th, I ran my second half marathon. It was a year and a half after the first and one baby later. My goal was to beat my time from last year, which was 1:58:45, or slightly over a 9-minute-mile pace. I was able to keep a steady 8:45 pace for the first 5 miles, and even ran an 8:30 on one of those miles. At mile 6, a side cramp hit me, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up this pace for the rest of the race. I ended up finishing in 1:57:47. I was actually disappointed when I crossed the finish line because I remembered my time wrong from last year's race and thought that I hadn't beat it. I was still hoping to shave off more time, but it does feel good to have beat my time, even if it was just a minute. I finished 16 out of 122 in my class (Females ages 25-29) with 8:59-minute-miles.

It was interesting to compare last year's race and this year's. Last year I trained completely on my own and did a little reading up on taking care of my body as I trained, but not much. Fellow runners don't believe me when I say this, but I did all my training, including the actual race, without drinking water as I ran. I would drink some water before and after. I've learned since that you should be drinking water at least every 15 minutes while you run. I also didn't eat before my runs during my training. I heard late in my training that eating a banana before you run is supposed to help with energy, so I started doing that a couple of weeks before my race, including race day. During my actual race last year, every time someone I ran with stopped for water, I would think in my head "sucker, I'm going to pass you up." I've also learned about some energy gels that most runners take while running since my first race. I didn't do any of that last year. Interestingly enough, I had energy throughout the whole run, and I felt great and rejuvenated after I finished the race.

This year I am training with a group where they have seminars every other week with running tips etc. So being wiser, this time I stopped at all of the water/gatorade stations except 2 (spaced out every 1.5 miles). I switched off between drinking water and gatorade. I felt like all the water stations actually slowed me down, so my next competitive race I'll probably carry water on me. I still didn't use any energy gels, but I will for my marathon. After I finished this race, I felt like I was going to puke, and I wanted to just lie down and die. And I only beat last year's time by a minute. Hmmmm. Maybe the experts don't know what they're talking about. :o)

After I finished, I couldn't even imagine running an additional 13 miles on top of what I just did. I began to have thoughts of giving up on my marathon goal. After some more time, I decided that running a marathon is doable, just not at the pace that I ran my half. My full marathon is 4 weeks away. I have the dreaded 21 mile run next Saturday, which hopefully will be more enjoyable as I listen to a book on tape. My main goal for my full marathon is to finish. I'm going to have no time expectations whatsoever. I also want to run the entire thing, but I never know how my body will be feeling and a walking break or two may be needed.

At the start of the race, Caleb and Matt looking on as I took off.

Carter, still in his p.j.s, watching from his stroller.

This is about mile 9. I had just seen Matt and the kids, which gave me a boost of energy. The race was along the Galveston Sea Wall, which was great scenery.

To pass the time, Caleb, Matt and Carter played on the beach chasing birds.

We went to Galveston with some friends, Jacob and Kim. Jacob ran the race as well. Here is Caleb about to give Jacob a high 5.

Afte the race. (I was feeling much better by this point.)

Me and Jacob before the race. We had to carry our bib numbers because they ran out of safety pins! Lame. Even though I had registered early, they ran out of the t-shirt size I requested (Medium) as well. All they had left were XS, which I won't fit into until I lose 10 lbs. (highly unlikely). Double Lame.

After the race with our medals.

Roughing It

2010-11-30T20:40:00.004-07:00

Weather was looking good prior to Thanksgiving, since on Thanksgiving day a cold front was coming through. So the day after Lindsey got home, we headed out camping. We went to a new campsite that was free, but it was definitely roughing it from what we were used to. No water and pit toilets. It was a good thing we just stayed one night. After the kids went to bed, the adults stayed up late playing games, and then woke up early with kids the next morning. We cleaned up and left around 10 am so we could get back in time to get the turkey in the oven!

Carter in the tent
Aunt Lindsey and Carter--love his smile
Me and Gavin after breakfast--his hair is starting to curl :o)
In the empty campsite right next to ours, a tall tree just randomly fell. It was a bit scary because the kids had been playing over in the general area earlier with Aunt Lindsey. The tree rotted from the inside. After it was down though, of course it made for great playing.
Uncle Matt and Dallin
Caleb and Daddy

Lindsey's Home!

2010-11-29T15:15:00.004-07:00

Lindsey came home Tuesday 11/23 from her mission in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Spanish-speaking

Waiting at the airport for Lindsey to get off her plane.

She came running when she saw us all waiting.

Greeting the kids.

Cheerful and tearful reunion:

Hugging Mom

Hugging Dad
It was so fun to have her home in time for Thanksgiving. Her one request was camping, so we planned that for Wednesday night. She looks great, and we're enjoying the time we have with her home before she heads back to college.

Sleeping

2010-11-26T19:27:00.005-07:00

I'm so behind on blogging, and I'm going to attempt to catch up this week. So look for several posts this week including my half marathon race, Lindsey coming home from her mission, and another family camping trip.

For now, I thought I would record some of my favorite things about Caleb's sleeping so that I won't forget them! Caleb is a really good kid, but he is not a good sleeper. He has the capability to go on less-than-average sleep and still be happy and pleasant all day. It was so hard to train him to fall asleep on his own as a baby. We got lots of advice about letting him cry himself to sleep. It would take around an hour for him to cry himself to sleep, and it was torture for me to listen to him. When he was old enough to stand, he would cry himself to sleep in a standing position with his head and arms resting on the top of the crib.

When we transitioned him to the "big boy bed," that created more issues with him getting out of bed. The bottom line about his sleep issues is that he's scared--of what exactly we're not sure. If he could have his way, he would have someone sleep with him all night. We've tried night lights, leaving his light on all night, hall lights, a picture of Jesus, and we've had several conversations about monsters, shadows, noises outside, etc. and how the Holy Ghost will protect him when he gets scared. We've also done motivational steps like earning toys and getting to make cookies with Mommy the next day when he sleeps all night. We've had weeks and maybe even a month where we felt like we were finally making progress, but at 3 years old, Caleb is still waking up most every night in the middle of the night. In the beginning, he would just wake up and then come sleep on the floor outside our door where we would find him the next morning. He's since learned to crawl into bed with Mommy and Daddy, and then the battle of taking him back to bed begins. We've now bumped the incentive up to getting an ice cream cone at McDonalds whenever he sleeps all night. Matt and I have been stumped about what to do, because he is genuinely scared at night. Caleb doesn't take naps anymore, and we've discovered that if we keep Caleb up later, then he tends to sleep harder at night and doesn't wake up. That's not a solution we necessarily like though, so we're pretty much just holding out for when we feel Carter is old enough to move into Caleb's room. We're crossing our fingers that this will solve Caleb's waking-up issues at night.

A few weeks ago, my parents babysat so Matt and I could attend a church function at night. They did the bedtime routine, kissed Caleb goodnight, then came downstairs. An hour later they started up the stairs to check on the kids, and this is what they saw. He just needed to be close to them (without them knowing because he didn't want to get in trouble), so this is where he ended up. I love this little boy.

Camping, Oct. 2010

2010-11-16T14:06:00.005-07:00

We thought that Caleb's face-swelling would mess up our weekend plans to go camping, but we got the okay from the doctor and headed out for a family camping trip over Halloween weekend with some good friends. We left Friday afternoon and returned Saturday afternoon, so it was a very short trip, but still required lots of packing and planning ahead.

Friday night we ate dinner and s'mores, put the kids to bed, then sat around the campfire talking. It was too cold to venture too far away from the fire! Friday night's low was 30 degrees. Matt and I were so worried about our boys that we slept with them sandwiched in between us. It was a pretty miserable night for me. Whichever boy was sleeping next to Matt (and we rotated throughout the night) ended up sweating next to him. Matt has the warmest body temperature! He quite enjoyed the cold weather and happily wore shorts the next morning.

We ate breakfast huddled around the fire and sipped on our hot chocolate. Once the sun came out, it warmed up quickly. We played Ladder Golf, played card games during Carter's nap, and went to see the baby alligator show that the Park put on. Caleb loved touching a baby alligator! After lunch, we started packing up. We got home in time to unpack quickly, then get ready for the Halloween party that night.

Thanks to our friends for coming with us! We had a great time.

(Poor Caleb has a swollen cheek in all these pictures!)

Explain This

2010-11-04T18:25:00.007-07:00

We have learned a lot over the years of how to treat the weird reactions Caleb has to certain things. Ant bites--start the Benadryl immediately or else the area will puff up like a balloon. And prepare yourself mentally for a very long night to follow. Any sort of bug bite--start the bleach baths, ointment on the area, and nasal swabs to prevent staph infections. The poor kid has had 4 staph infections in 3 years.

Last Wednesday, I noticed Caleb's left cheek/neck was swelling a bit. I had my sister-in-law look at it that night when we went over to her house for dinner. (She used to be a nurse before she stayed home to be a mommy.) She had no explanation as it was too high to be a swollen lymph node. Caleb was acting completely normal, and it wasn't bothering him, so I didn't worry. When Matt got home from work, he didn't think that the swelling was very noticeable, so we put him to bed without a second thought.

Caleb woke up screaming at 10:30 pm. The swelling had doubled in size! While Matt was consoling Caleb, I called the nurse hotline. He did not have a fever. There was nothing unusual inside his mouth; he had just had a dentist appt. 6 weeks earlier. The area that was swollen was not hot, or red, or hard. The nurse suggested giving him some Ibuprofen, and because the swelling was getting bigger, to go to the emergency room. Matt and a close friend gave Caleb a priesthood blessing. We felt like everything was going to be okay, but that we should go to the ER to figure out what was going on. Caleb, who is usually fearful of going to the doctor, was such a good boy! He let them look in his mouth and touch the area, etc. The nurse who took all of Caleb's vitals had no idea what caused the swelling. Three doctors looked at it and drew the conclusion that his parotid gland swelled. They said that something he ate that day that was sour caused it. (He had not eaten anything sour though!) They gave him some medicine (clindamycin), waited until it took effect (the swelling wasn't getting any worse), then sent him home.

Caleb acted fine the next morning, which was a preschool day, and said he wanted to go to preschool (preschool is at our house). All during preschool he was mostly fine. He did ask for some Tylenol about halfway through. The funny thing is not one of the kids at preschool noticed this huge lump on the side of Caleb's neck. When Dallin arrived, Caleb's cousin, I told him to look at Caleb's owwie on his face. Dallin looked all over Caleb's face and said, "where?"

By the end of preschool, I thought the swelling looked worse though. I wasn't really satisfied with the doctor's conclusions from the ER the previous night after doing a lot of research about the parotid gland on the Internet. What I read didn't seem to match up with what was going on with Caleb. Matt and I decided it would be best to talk the situation over with Caleb's pediatrician. So that afternoon Caleb, Carter, and I headed to the doctor. By this point, there was a harder area in the middle of the swelling that was also red. Still no fever, still nothing abnormal inside his mouth. The pediatrician thought it was a swollen lymph node that possibly got infected with staph which caused the swelling to intensify. She drew a circle around the harder spot so we could gauge if the swelling was getting worse or better. She gave him a shot of clindamycin to jumpstart the medicine, and Caleb didn't even cry!!! (because he wasn't expecting it).

The swelling finally went down slowly over the course of 4 days with taking clindamycin 3x per day. I don't feel that any of the doctor's conclusions were right. When Caleb gets a staph infection, he is in a lot of pain. For example, when Caleb had staph on his thigh, he limped around and at one point could not even put pressure on that leg. So I don't think it was a staph infection. The doctors at the ER didn't think it was a lymph node, and the research I did on the parotid gland didn't seem to match up either. The funny thing is that Caleb acted completely normal through it all, except for that first night when he woke up screaming in pain. I would ask him if his face hurt during the day, and he would say, "No, it's getting better." I also asked him why his face had an owwie, and he said it was because of his lion costume. I'm completely stumped by it all.

Here's a picture of the poor boy. This was pretty close to the biggest it got. I think the swelling is at least the size of a pool ball.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-04T18:02:00.003-07:00

Cousin Sammy, Caleb, Cousin Drew, and Carter

Caleb insisted on being a lion because his favorite Primary song right now is "Follow the Prophet," specifically the verse about Daniel and the lion's den. (We have listened to this song non-stop in the car for about 3 months, and he's still not sick of it.) Carter was a dinosaur. He's 7 months old now and the costume is 18 months size. :o)

We actually spent Halloween weekend camping (I'll post that soon). After we got home Saturday night, we went to my parent's ward party so Caleb could participate in their "trunk or treat" since we had missed our ward party. I'm envious of Utah celebrating Halloween on Saturday. Caleb was sad that he didn't get to go trick-or-treating to all our neighbors.

Caleb the Firefighter

2010-10-24T19:04:00.005-07:00

Caleb went on a field trip to a fire station a few weeks ago with his preschool. Prior to heading out, all the kids got to dress up as a firefighter. We then talked about some safety tips, calling 911, and "stop, drop, and roll."

At the fire station, the kids got their very own fire hat, they got to climb in a fire truck, and even hold the water hose as it sprayed water!

They got to see a real firefighter dressed up and ready to fight a fire.

And finally they got to try on a real fireman's jacket. They all had a great time!

Caleb's Room

2010-10-24T18:56:00.004-07:00

Caleb's room has been a work-in-progress for some time now because we couldn't find a Cars border that we liked. In the end we painted a road instead, but I like the way it turned out. I love the red, black and white combo. We'll see what if we can find some peel and stick cars to put on the road. My mom did the bed skirt, quilt, and valence over the window for Caleb's birthday.

Bored

2010-10-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

Carter was looking like this...
While Caleb was doing all this...

Life just isn't fair sometimes.

Comparing

2010-10-06T19:07:00.004-07:00

I love comparing my two boys' stats. Carter had his 6 month check-up today. He was 20 1/2 lbs. (90th percentile) and 27 inches (68th percentile). Caleb was almost 18 lbs (50th percentile) and 26 inches tall (30th percentile). Carter definitely favors me with his paler skin and blue eyes. Caleb favors his dad with tanner skin and brown eyes. Carter looks like he'll have a bigger build (from me) and Caleb will probably be on the smaller end like his dad. Carter also had his first two teeth pop in within the last 3 days. Caleb didn't have his first tooth until he was 9 months old.

Carter

Caleb at 6 months

Preschool

2010-09-26T20:15:00.003-07:00

I've been missing in action from the blogging world for some time now. Between teaching preschool, a new church calling, and my running (plus all my daily "Mommy-duties"), I've had to cut some things from my life in order to stay sane! It's amazing how much more time I had in my day/night when I cut T.V., reading, and blogging. I'm feeling that things are getting more manageable now and that I can find a good balance.

Just under a year ago, my sister and I started toying with the idea of teaching a preschool class instead of doing a rotating preschool like we had been doing. A few mothers had approached Ariane with interest, and with time, Ariane convinced me to jump on board. For the past 8 months or so before we started teaching, we have worked feverishly to put together a curriculum and do as much as the planning/preparations as we could so that this new adventure wouldn't take too much time away from our families. We are almost one month into teaching, and I am loving it! Including our boys, we have 9 children that we teach for 6 hours a week. This first month has been a lot of trial and error, but I think we are smoothing out all the wrinkles now and really enjoying it. We have also perfected the art of multi-tasking as we have our two babies' schedules that we work around as well. We rotate teaching the different sections (i.e. circle time, centers, music time, art) while the other person is on baby duty and setting up the next activity. My main motivation for doing this is to provide a quality learning experience for my son where he can also socialize with peers his age. What wouldn't I do for this little boy? I love him so much!

Even though it's not the middle school-age that I was teaching a few years ago, it is so fun to be teaching again!

Bath Time

2010-09-26T20:06:00.003-07:00

Carter's first bath with Caleb without his baby bath about 2 weeks ago.

Random

2010-09-05T20:42:00.006-07:00

Mr. Chunkers at 5 months

He's a pro at sitting up now, so we figured it's about time we start feeding him in his high chair. In the high chair for the first time. (The Cheerios were more of a way to distract him while I was trying to feed him. He's not quite ready for those yet.)

Such a big boy. He had to go potty during quiet time, so he went by himself and then got dressed again afterwards too. Finding the right holes to put your legs in is tricky though. (Both legs are in one of the leg holes.) You can't tell in the picture, but his pants are on backwards as well. I have no idea how that was comfortable, let alone how he managed to fall asleep.

Caleb loves blueberries, especially if they're frozen. He would eat them all day long if he could. He quickly ate me out of stock of the blueberries that we picked at the Blueberry Farm (I went twice and picked a lot!). I'm afraid his cuticles and skin around the nails are going to permanently be dyed purple!

And finally I feel like I'm back up to speed with my running abilities prior to baby Carter. I ran 9 miles yesterday at a 9-min. mile pace. I have a half marathon in Nov. and my goal is to beat my time of my last race in April of '09. I'm experiencing lots of knee popping this time around as well as the arch of my right foot constantly sore. It feels good to be back in shape again though.

Again?

2010-08-31T15:39:00.005-07:00

Caleb has another staph infection. We had to go to the doctor, drain the wound (nightmare), and now we're doing the oral antibiotic, Mupirocin ointment, and bleach baths. He hates the bleach baths, but is doing better about the oral medicine than last time. We already know that Caleb is prone to these (4 of them in 3 years), so the doctor gave us some tips so that we never have to go back in again for this problem (thank you!). Staph lives in your armpits & nose, so if Caleb touches those areas and then touches any wound on his body (like a bug bite), it has the potential to turn into a staph infection. The doctor said as soon as we see any sore on Caleb's body, to automatically start bleach baths to try to nip it in the bud. Cross our fingers that we're done with this problem!

Exploring

2010-08-28T07:44:00.001-07:00

Carter is very much into exploring right now. He is at the fun stage where he can focus in on an object and grasp it.

The other day, he was exploring his cousin Gavin.

All babies know the best way to explore is to put the object in your mouth. Gavin wouldn't quite fit! Actually Carter is just loving on Gavin and giving him a big smooch.

And the newest babies on my side of the family all within 5 months. Alexa arrived on 8/9/10.

Carter almost 5 months, Gavin 2 months, and Alex 2 weeks

We Survived!

2010-08-26T08:48:00.003-07:00

Caleb had his doctor's appointment this morning. At first, I didn't think it could go any worse. From the moment they called us to the back, Caleb starting kicking and screaming and trying to run away while screaming, "I don't want to!" I'm so glad Matt was there because there was no way I could have handled it on my own while holding Carter. No amount of bribery was working (we had gummy bears with us and the promise of ice cream afterwards). Finally we had the bright idea to have Panda Bear (who was with us) go first in everything so Caleb could see it wasn't scary. That did the trick! Luckily the nurse and doctor were very nice about it. Caleb cried for about a minute after the shot and is limping around the house, but other than that he survived!

Still has a smile for the camera.

Both Caleb and Panda Bear got a sticker and a cool band-aid for being such a great patient (sort of). Caleb was able to help the doctor look in Panda's ears, mouth, nose, and eyes as well as listen to his heart beat.

I'm a Big Boy!

2010-08-26T07:40:00.001-07:00

Carter has no interest in rolling over, but he definitely is interested in sitting up. He's not incredibly stable right now, so I have to constantly be next to him in case he falls over, but he's catching on really fast.

And of course if I'm taking pictures of Carter, Caleb has to be in one too!

Caleb is a great big brother. When we practice tummy time so Carter can learn to roll over, Caleb is quick to show him how it's done. "See Carter, like this." Carter can roll onto his side, but I think that he can't get enough momentum to roll all the way over due to his weight! :o) Caleb sat up before rolling over as well.

Birthday Celebration

2010-08-24T08:52:00.004-07:00

Caleb turned 3 this past Sunday. He's been really looking forward to his birthday this year! To celebrate the big event, Grandma took him out to lunch and to Build-A-Bear on Friday.

He rode the carousel at the mall
and built a Panda Bear.

Saturday we had a few friends over for cake and ice cream. Matt and I made his train cake (Matt was the brains behind the operation).

Caleb's friends singing 'Happy Birthday.'

Blowing out the candles

We had family over Sunday night for presents and dessert. Caleb is so excited to be three now!

P.S. For those of you with experience, any suggestions on taking a 3-year-old to the doctor for shots? Caleb is Terrified of the doctors (with a capital T!). I bring it up every few days to talk about how important it is to go to the doctor so we don't get sick. I've tried to role play stepping on the scale, looking in ears, listening to his heart, etc. He knows he's getting a shot though, so anytime I bring up his visit to the doctor's in a few days, he gets very angry and shouts, "I don't want to go!" I've asked for Matt to take a half day off work, because Caleb is definitely a Daddy's boy, and I know having Matt there will make a difference. I'd love any suggestions though!

4 months

2010-08-08T20:35:00.005-07:00

Carter's stats:

Weight: 18 lbs. 93rd percentile

Height: 26.5 lbs.

Head Count: 44 cm.

He's still a chunky monkey!

Carter eating rice cereal for the first time.

Carter's hair is completely blond now. I think he looks more like me than Caleb does.

Old Testament

2010-07-23T20:17:00.005-07:00

Caleb has always been fascinated with the scriptures since we started reading them together at night just before bedtime. At first, he was just fascinated with the pictures (specifically of boats), but now he's becoming fascinated with the stories which is so fun. We just bought the Old Testament children's version about a month ago, and Caleb is really enjoying the stories. When we ask Caleb to pick out 3 books before bedtime, the scriptures are always one of his books (even though we would read them anyway). And lately, he doesn't care about reading other books, but just wants to pick out his favorite stories from the Old Testament and read them. I was very surprised when Caleb brought the scriptures to me this afternoon and asked me to read them to him just out of the blue. That's a real test of love. We're now trying to encourage Caleb to tell us the stories. It's a work-in-progress :o).

Caleb at 19 months

Caleb at 21 months
Caleb telling the story of Jonah

Ignore Caleb's unfinished room. We finally ordered the 'Cars' border that will finish it off!

Downtown

2010-07-18T18:13:00.008-07:00

Last weekend we checked out the Natural Science Museum downtown with some friends.

"Uncle" Peter and "Aunt" Lauren (so nicknamed because our kids adore them!)

Caleb sticking his tongue out like the iguana

We ate a picnic lunch outside (what were we thinking?!?), and then Caleb saw the choo choo train. He would not stop talking about the train, asking over and over again if he could ride it followed by a "please?" in the cutest voice. So Caleb got his train ride before we headed home.

And he was one happy boy!

Vacation

2010-07-13T20:08:00.008-07:00

This year for my side of the family's yearly vacation we stayed close to accomodate my sister-in-law who was 8 months pregnant and 3-month-old Carter. We rented a house for 6 days on a lake and enjoyed lots of fun activities together. Matt and Caleb enjoyed fishing together several mornings, we played lots of games even into the wee hours of the morning, and as always there was lots of yummy food. To make up for our guilty pleasure of eating a lot, my dad and I also went running together amost every morning. Here are some pictures of the other fun things we did:

We went on a 3 mile hike and the rain caught us on the way back. It was quite the downpour, and Carter was such a trooper. Good thing that it was warm outside so he didn't get sick. I carried Carter on the first half of the hike, and my mom helped out for the second half. Matt and Caleb headed back early because Caleb had an accident towards the beginning (he was afraid to go #2 in the woods), so they stayed nice and dry in the car while they waited for us!

Canoeing with the alligators (we only saw one)

Swimming in the neighborhood pool

We spent one day on the lake riding Jet Skis. Everyone was a little scared riding with Matt because he had one objective only: throw the other rider as quickly as possible! I had Matt give me a nice ride before he tried to throw me. I also took Caleb out for a fun ride.

Halfway through the vacation, my sister Ariane and her family were able to join us with their newborn. Gavin is the newest addition to the family (atleast for the next month). For those that know my sister and haven't heard the news, you can read all about Gavin joining their family here. He is such a sweet baby and Carter is so glad to have a best friend!

Uncle Clayton and Carter lounging around at the house.

Can I just say that I love having a photographer in the family now? Kara, you're the best! Here are some family pictures she took:

The entire gang minus Lindsey who is on a mission.

Daddy and Carter

Love this picture!

Caleb loving on his baby brother.

3 Sweet Boys

2010-07-05T13:16:00.002-07:00

I've been meaning to post these pictures for awhile. Here are the boys in the rotating preschool I participated in on their last day of preschool together. They have their baker's hats on as we had worked on the nursery rhyme 'Pat A Cake'. They were so much fun to teach. I'm getting excited for doing more preschool teaching come end of August.

Signing Up

2010-06-28T13:42:00.002-07:00

I have found a half marathon on a Saturday in November in Galveston and a marathon on a Saturday in January in Kingwood. Anyone interested in signing up with me? I'm also thinking about doing a training program this time around with Woodlands Fit that starts in a few weeks. If you live in this area, let me know if you want more details!

Lucky

2010-06-23T10:05:00.009-07:00

The Lucky streak continues.

Matt and I went to see a musical production of Jane Eyre a few weeks ago with some friends. During intermission, there was an opportunity to put your name in a drawing to win 4 tickets to the next musical production, Rent. As they got ready to read out the name of the winner, I turned to Matt and was about to say, "Wouldn't it be funny if they called out your name?" but I never got the chance before they announced Matt as the winner of the tickets. They just arrived in the mail, and Matt is going to sell them very cheaply to a co-worker.
The other day, Matt won 4 golf passes from a radio station to a course close by. With his long drive to work each way, he sometimes uses the time to call into radio stations and try to win fun prizes. He had his name in a drawing of 5 people the other Friday for a weekend getaway package, but that one didn't pan out. It would have been perfect timing for our anniversary.

Matt and I celebrated 4 years of marriage earlier this month. The longer I'm married to him, the more I realize just how lucky I am to be his wife. I'm lucky that he is such a positive and upbeat person. It really brings a wonderful atmosphere to our home; he is such a pleasant person to be around. It takes a lot to make Matt upset because he just chooses not to let things get to him.

I'm lucky that he is so patient both with me and the kids. When my patience has long worn thin when dealing with the kids, he still has an incredible amount of love and patience to give.

I'm lucky that he is such a hard worker. He works really hard at his job and around the house. He is more than willing to jump in and help with any household chore I ask him to do (even mop the kitchen floor on hands and knees which he thinks is silly).

I'm lucky that he has such "worldly" knowledge when it comes to fixing things around the house, fixing cars, building things, buying a house, etc.

I'm lucky to be married to someone that has so many similar interests as I do. We love playing sports together and playing games together. We are both really competitive so we have had to learn how to lose graciously over the years.

I'm lucky to be married to someone who supports me in my other interests that we don't share namely music. He is willing to go see musicals with me even though it wouldn't be his preferred activity for the evening.

I'm lucky he is such a people-person. It has helped us out in more than one occasion. He loves talking and getting to know new friends.

I'm lucky that Matt honors his priesthood and is so service-oriented. He would do anything to help people, and he does it because he loves it so much! The downside to this though is that he has a tendency to overbook himself sometimes and can't keep all the promises he's made to people! It leaves me husband-less at times too, but I'm glad that he is so charitable. (We like to joke that it makes up for my lack of charity!) We balance each other well, and I'm so grateful for all he does for our family.

I'm so lucky to be married to my best friend! I love having him by my side in all that we do. He makes me want to be a better person.

To celebrate our anniversary, we kept it really simple this year as we'll probably do something bigger for our 5th year. Matt came home early from work with a dozen roses, and we had a steak dinner at home followed by some tennis.

We Love You Daddy!

2010-06-20T15:34:00.003-07:00

Love, Caleb and Carter

Caleb and Carter woke up early with me to help me make some muffins for Matt (early as in 6:15 am as we have early church). Caleb made the card at preschool using his thumb print. Matt is a terrific father and his boys love him so much!

Life Goes On

2010-06-15T19:35:00.006-07:00

I've heard friends from church talk about blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, and peach picking in this area, but we've never gone and taken advantage of this fun and yummy opportunity. This past weekend we decided to brave the heat with two kids in tow and go blueberry picking. We had so much fun! We were all sweaty and tired by the end, but Caleb was a great helper. He would add a blueberry into the bucket, while simultaneously pulling two out of the bucket to eat. He ate a ton of blueberries and really enjoyed the experience. I just barely had fresh blueberries for the first time in my life a few months ago and quite liked them. I've enjoyed experimenting with some new blueberry recipes. The only one I've tried so far is a blueberry cobbler, but I was surprised with how yummy it was. I've also enjoyed fresh blueberries in my fruit smoothies in the morning. I can't wait to try blueberry pancakes (never had them), blueberry coffee cake, and homemade blueberry muffins. We're definitely going to be better about taking advantage of more fresh fruit picking in the future.

I've also started up running again. Since we don't have a double stroller yet (no point since Carter can't sit up), I've had to start running at night. I enjoy running best on an empty stomach, so it's definitely not what I'm used to. If I'm feeling overly full from dinner then I'll end up rollerblading instead. My sister has a double running stroller, so when she's available to run, I'm able to run in the mornings with her (we have our two toddler boys in the double which is 60 pounds of boys plus stroller and Carter in my walking stroller). I started running again 5 weeks after Carter was born, and it was not fun starting up again from scratch. I undertstand now why people say they hate running. It definitely felt like a chore. I've run 3 miles consistently every other day, but I have struggled to push myself to run further or faster. I finally pushed through and ran 4 miles this last Saturday, and tonight I did a two-mile "sprint" as it was getting dark and was able to average 8.5 minute miles. It felt great, so hopefully I'm at a break-through point and will be able to start adding on the miles and get to the point where I enjoy going out and running again. Even with starting up running again, I have not been able to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I have just under 10 pounds that refuse to come off. I hope it doesn't continue to get harder with each child.

Since January, my sister, a friend, and I have been doing a rotating preschool with our boys. It's my month to teach, so I've been busy with that and learning the delicate balance of teaching 3 toddlers with a 2 1/2-month-old baby. The theme I chose for the month is nursery rhymes/fairy tales, and we've been having a blast reading fun books and doing fun crafts.

And finally, here's my chunky monkey sporting his Alaska onesie that my parents bought him on their vacation to Alaska. He's growing bigger before our eyes (maybe fatter is the more appropriate word), but we love having him in our family. As of tonight, he weighed 16.5 lbs. and he's 2 1/2 months old. He sleeps better at night than my almost 3-year old. Carter goes to bed at 8 pm and is only waking up once a night now usually around 5:30 am. This is definitely manageable, and I'm a better and happier mom when I have some consecutive hours of sleep! Because he's such a good baby, I'm worried that he's going to spoil it for the rest of my babies. My expectations are high now! We're able to get out and do fun things during the day for Caleb now too like we used to before Carter came along. We'll go rollerblading as a family once or twice a week...Matt pushing Caleb and me pushing Carter. We're loving being a family of 4!

The Chunky Monkey

2010-06-01T09:14:00.004-07:00

Carter had his 2 month check-up today. He weighed 15 lbs. (98th percentile) and was 24" long (85th percentile). The nurse didn't write down his head count for some reason, but that was in the 80s percentile as well. He is definitely one chunky baby! Caleb weighed 13 lbs. 7 oz. at this age.

Carter has just started babbling and smiling. He responds to my voice so well and always rewards me with smiles and cooing. He is only waking up once a night now, usually somewhere between 4 am and 5:30 am. I'm loving that!

Here are some smiles I caught on camera.

Thunder thighs, double chin, extra rolls where there aren't creases...I love it! He's one healthy baby!

Big Catch

2010-05-23T13:09:00.002-07:00

Apparently this is going to be a bi-monthly activity because Caleb LOVES to go fishing now with his daddy. That's all Caleb could talk about all morning yesterday and was eager to help Mommy and Daddy all morning so that he could go. I promise I won't post every fishing trip, but Caleb caught his biggest fish to date this time.

His first catch: a purch

Caleb's biggest catch to date! Daddy had to help reel in this catfish.(BTW, I'm so glad these fish are set back free in the water because I would have nothing to do with the preparing to eat or eating of these fishy guys! Yuck!)

Our friends and neighbors, Peter and Lauren, went with Caleb and Matt. Next time Carter and I will have to join the party!

One of Lauren's catches.

And of course being outside in the hot weather deserved an ice cream cone to follow!

It's Coming Along

2010-05-20T10:45:00.005-07:00

Our garden wasn't so successful last fall with broccoli and cauliflower. Here is attempt #2 with tomatoes, green pepper, and one strawberry plant just to see how it would do.

The first tomato
Green pepper getting pretty big
This is the same first tomato. It is now turning yellowish and working it's way to red. Yum! Can't wait for those BLTs.

It's fun to have a garden, although I can take very little credit. Matt does most all of the work from planting to treating/looking for bugs, etc. I cover the watering when I water the rest of the lawn.

All Things Caleb

2010-05-16T15:15:00.006-07:00

Here are some fun things that Caleb has been up to lately:

Caleb had a chance to visit the Old MacDonald's Farm with his aunts, Grandma, and cousins. Carter and I stayed home, and it looks like we missed out on a lot of fun! (I sure enjoyed catching up on some sleep though.)

Matt and Caleb went to a Fathers and Sons campout. Unfortunately it was a long drive just to have it pour rain almost the entire time. They did get some fishing in when it wasn't raining though.

Caleb was bummed that he didn't get to ride the canoes at the campout, so on the way home, they stopped off at a community center where there were a bunch of fire trucks. Matt asked if they could take some pictures with the trucks and look at the trucks. Caleb loved it!

Caleb sporting his "Big Brother" shirt

I thought this was too cute. Caleb was feeding all of his animals/dinosaurs play dough the other day.

Too Precious

2010-05-06T13:32:00.004-07:00

Carter was laying on my bed yesterday morning while I was getting ready for the day. When Caleb came into my room and saw Carter on the bed, he immediately climbed up next to him and started "reading" to him. It melted my heart. So precious.

First Time Fishing

2010-05-01T12:44:00.004-07:00

Father/Son Outing #2

There is a pond full of fish and ducks right next to our church building, so a few Saturdays ago when I needed to go practice the organ at the church, we decided to make a family trip. Carter and I went and practiced the organ (he slept), and Caleb and Matt went fishing. This was Caleb's first time, and he found it so exciting.

First they looked at these ducks that had just hatched a few days ago.
Caleb's first catch
Caleb about to hold the fish for the first time (yuck!)

An Added Joy

2010-04-25T19:45:00.007-07:00

I was even more nervous for this second baby than I ever was with the first. Excitement overwhelmed me the first time, and this time I was mostly nervous about the first few months with a toddler on top of it all. I was also paranoid about colic or some sort of medical concern with Carter, but Matt says that's because I'm a pessimist. (Really I just like to be prepared for the worst.) All these worries, so far, were unnecessary, because I'm loving having a baby in our home. Granted, the nights are rough (especially with Caleb waking up frequently), but I love little babies. We're having so much fun with Carter being a part of our family.

Carter is a calmer baby than I remember Caleb being. I love that Carter goes back to sleep most of the time right away after the nighttime nursings. With Caleb, he seemed to be wide awake at night for the first month, and it was not fun training him that nighttime is for sleeping. Carter brings a special spirit into our home (as Caleb did)...maybe because he was just with our Heavenly Father not too long ago.

Caleb is, for the most part, very sweet with Carter. If Carter is crying or upset, he will find the pacifier and put it in Carter's mouth. Caleb will also share his toys with Carter very well when Carter is sad and doesn't understand why this doesn't fix the problem. He's always giving the baby kisses. He's very proud of his little brother. If someone is admiring Carter, Caleb is quick to run over and smother the baby with kisses to take ownership that this is his baby. Caleb also is very aware of Carter, and if he doesn't see Carter, he will ask, "Where's the baby?" I can't wait until Carter is older and they can play together.

Here are some recent pictures of Carter:

9 days old

2 weeks old

20 days old

Big Brother

Caleb being a good helper by sharing his toys with Carter when Carter is crying.

(Carter is 4 weeks old)

Father & Son Outing

2010-04-15T17:43:00.005-07:00

One thing I didn't anticipate with a new baby was just how strong the feelings of guilt would be about not giving Caleb the attention he used to have. When I finally do get a chance to spend some one-on-one time with Caleb in the day, it seems like the time is always cut short because of Carter's needs. Caleb has been such a trooper though about being patient when I have to attend to Carter, and he always wants to be a helper. There has been some acting out on his part to get attention, but not too bad. I find myself losing patience a lot more quickly though with Caleb when he is "naughty" on purpose.

I was worried that Caleb would regress in terms of potty-training, because that's what I have heard from so many people. I'm thankful that this isn't the case. He has regressed in terms of sleeping, however. When we transferred him to the "big boy bed" in Decemeber, it took forever (months) for Caleb to be able to sleep through the night again. Now we're back to square one it seems with Caleb's sleeping habits where naptime and bedtime are very difficult, and Caleb will wake up at least once a night (most of the time we are guaranteed twice a night). The funny thing is that Caleb will sleep through Carter screaming at night, and then wake up at some other random time, so the two events are completely unrelated. Unfortunately for Matt, my body is not physically capable of waking up for Caleb's needs in addition to Carter's needs, so Matt has been on "Caleb duty" at night. Nights are rough. :o)

Matt has been very good about giving Caleb 100% of his attention when he gets home from work. They will play outside together until dark when it's time to start getting ready for bed. Caleb LOVES this time with Daddy. If Carter happens to be napping during this time, it allows me some "me" time to be able to get some things done on my to-do list.

Last Saturday, Caleb and Matt went to an Astros game together in order to give Caleb some extra attention. I don't know how much of the game they actually watched, because they spent most of the night playing in the children's area.

Here is Caleb racing the baseball player.
Caleb posing next to Craig Biggio.
Daddy and Caleb
Caleb sitting on a ball outside the stadium.

When the workers announced that it was time to close the children's area for the night, Caleb decided to pull a "naughty" act and refused to come out of the play gym area. Parents aren't allowed inside, so Matt wasn't able to aide in capturing Caleb. Apparently it took all 4 of the workers to climb through the play gym to try to catch Caleb, and they were at it for some time. If I had been there, I would have been thoroughly embarrassed, but one of the workers told Matt afterwards that he's the fastest kid they've ever had in there. Matt wasn't embarrassed, but instead proud that his little boy was so fast. :o)

Easter Festivities

2010-04-11T15:34:00.008-07:00

This was Caleb's first year to dye Easter eggs. He loved it!

Last year he enjoyed looking for eggs, but this year Caleb really got into it. It was a race to gather as many eggs as he could!
Carter and I watched the festivities from the sidelines :o)

Welcome Baby Carter!

2010-04-07T15:33:00.007-07:00

3 days old

Carter Matthew Call

Born March 30, 2010 at 10:23 pm.

Weight: 7 lbs. 13 oz.

Length: 20 3/4 in.

Here is the long saga of the whole birth experience. Feel free to skim as it is quite lengthy (hence the reason it has taken me so long to write up...a little here and a little there when I had some spare moments).

Following our day at the zoo last Monday, Tuesday the 30th began as every other day. It was my birthday, so it was fun to hear from friends all day long via email and Facebook. Caleb and I started the day with some exercise: going on a walk with my sister and Dallin. Following that, Caleb and I met up with some friends and rode the free Trolley ride they have in our area a few times. (Caleb loves riding the "Choo Choo Train"!) After that we met up with Ariane and Dallin again to let the boys play in some fountains that they also have in this area. Ariane and I sat on the side drinking our Jamba Juices and the boys had a great time.

After that fun-filled morning, Caleb was tuckered out and we went home so he could take a nap. Matt then surprised me by coming home from work early with my birthday present. It was a wonderful surprise. :o)

Later that night, we headed up to meet up with some of my high school friends. Leticia was in town from Wisconsin with her boyfriend, so it was a fun excuse for us all to get together (whoever could make it). She and Dave cooked us dinner, which was very yummy. Leticia and I grew up just down the street from each other, so Matt and I dropped Caleb off at my mom's on the way over to dinner.

I had been having a little cramping throughout the day, but didn't think much of it. I felt like this baby was going to go past the due date at this point. At around 7 pm, however, contractions started about 10 minutes apart. They weren't bad yet as I was able to continue to talk and laugh with everyone. At 8 pm, it got to the point where it was uncomfortable to be in front of people as I pretended that I wasn't in pain during the contraction, so we made an early exit after some yummy pie. We went to pick up Caleb at my mom's. I explained that I was having contractions to my mom, but I wasn't sure how serious it was and if things were really going to pan out. I didn't want to leave Caleb there unnecessarily, and he put up a big stink about not wanting to stay at Grandma's, so we took him with us. (Obviously I wasn't thinking rationally.)

On the way home, we timed the contractions, which were now coming every 4 minutes. They were also very painful, and it was very uncomfortable dealing with them while sitting/laying in a car. Conincidentally, it was about at this time (8:30 pm) that I decided I wanted an epidural. When Matt and I had been reading about natural birth, one book talked about the emotional signposts of labor. The first is excitement, the second is seriousness (this is really going to happen!), and the final emotional signpost is self-doubt. There were tips in the book for the partner about how to coach the woman through this self-doubt signpost. So when I told Matt that going natural was for the birds, and I wanted an epidural, he was unsure how to approach the issue. He finally just asked if he should try to convince me otherwise, and I told him No, I was getting an epidural!

During the ride home, Matt called my mom to let her know we were going to head to the hospital, and we wanted to take her up on her offer to watch Caleb (even though we were just there!). While we waited for my mom to come once we were home, I laid down in the "relaxation position" that was talked about in my books while Matt rubbed my back. Poor Caleb was very confused about his mommy hurting and was trying to help, so he climbed over me to put pillows on me to keep me warm and also tried to help Matt rub my back. Unfortunately, his "help" was only annoying me.

As soon as my mom got to our house, Matt and I took off for the hospital. Again I felt so bad for Caleb as he cried and cried wanting to be with Mommy and Daddy. The whole situation was just tense, and he knew that something was "wrong" with Mommy. He was a bit of a troublemaker the rest of the night for my mom because he was upset, confused, and probably a bit hurt that we didn't take him with us.

We arrived at the hospital at 9:30 pm. It took about 10 minutes to get a room ready for me. I changed between contractions (now 2-3 minutes apart), and then the nurse checked the dilation between another contraction. When she announced that I was a 7 to 8, my first question was, "Does that mean it's too late to get an epidural?" She responded, "I didn't say that. The anesthesiologist is standing by, but we have to get you checked in first." For the next 20 minutes or so, while I'm suffering through contractions, I'm signing and initialing all these papers. As I realized how much time was passing, I came to terms with the fact that I was going to get my wish and end up doing this thing naturally. The on-call doctor peeked in once, then left again. By the time they got the IV in my hand, my body started pushing the baby down on its own, and I announced that I needed to start pushing. I had been laying on my left side at the time, and the nurse made me roll over on my back. The doctor came back in joking with Matt that he didn't really have time for that quick snack he had just eaten. It was at this time, right before I started pushing, that my water broke. I told the doctor that I wanted to avoid an episiotomy if at all possible. With less than 5 minutes of pushing, Carter Matthew Call joined this world. They plopped him on my belly, and I started crying out of relief and amazement that I survived and that Carter was here.

The lovely hospital shot where women are looking their best after going through labor.

This is my second time to hold him after his bath.
After his sponge bath

Caleb meeting Carter for the first time.

Caleb loves "his baby" and smothers him with kisses.

Caleb napping with Carter at the hospital.

These men/boys are my whole world. Napping together on Easter Sunday in between Conference sessions.

So now that I've given birth with pain meds and without, here are a few thoughts about them both.

First I have to share a few "funnies". I don't know that any woman is particularly nice during contractions and labor, but I definitely was in fine form with Matt. I chewed Matt out on the way to the hospital because I thought he had gone to the wrong one (there are 2 hospitals that are within 5 minutes of each other). I had really bad back labor, hence the reason Matt was using his fist to rub my back throughout the contractions. I snapped at him several times for not rubbing in the right spot, and would physically move his hand to where I needed him to rub. He told me after the whole thing was over that he swears he put his fist in exactly the same spot that I previously had told him during the next contraction, only to have me snap at him again and move his hand to a different spot. Matt told me later that at one point one of the nurses whispered to him, "There is no right spot!" I also didn't realize how loud I was as I moaned/sang through the contractions. According to the books, moaning and singing are supposed to help, but moaning is pretty much involuntary. Whenever a contraction would come, I would sing "La, la, la, la" in a high pitch, and then repeat the mantra of "pain, pain, pain" over and over again. Matt was walking the halls calling people right after the birth while I was being stitched up (I had one small tear forward) and Carter was being checked out. At the very end of the hall, the nurses at the desk said, "It must be over." Matt responded that yes, we had our baby, then asked how they knew it was over. They responded that they couldn't hear me anymore. How embarrassing!

Immediately following the birth, I had the thought of why would a woman give birth naturally more than once? I was very shaky for the next hour or so, but 2 hours after birth I was up and moving around and feeling really good. A week later, I have to say that the recovery is so much better this time around. As I look back at the experience, the hardest part was getting through the contractions. I really had a textbook perfect labor though. A total of 3 1/2 hours of labor and only 2 of those hours were really difficult contractions. My water broke at the very tail end, which was perfect timing. The pushing part, in my opinion, was much easier than surviving those contractions. Anyway, bottom line, I'm just going to play it by ear next time around, although it's definitely encouraging knowing that if I did it once, I could do it again.

More to come soon about the special spirit Carter brings to our home. Although I was 1 1/2 away of my goal (I didn't want Carter to come on my birthday), Carter was the perfect birthday gift and the perfect end to my birthday.

Zoo Outing

2010-04-06T16:59:00.003-07:00

The last "Caleb and Me" day before the new addition arrived. We spent last Monday (the 29th) at the zoo for the majority of the day. Caleb had a blast looking at all the animals. I felt great all day long and didn't feel that I had to look for an "excuse" to sit down at all. I was tuckered out when the boys were tuckered out at around 2 pm when we headed home.

Caleb looking at the giraffes
Riding the carousel

Grandma came with us to the zoo as well. It was nice to have an extra pair of hands.

Three blonde boys enjoying the day: Caleb, Ammon, and Dallin

(Ammon is a good friend of Dallin's)

Playing at the park

No Rush

2010-03-28T06:43:00.002-07:00

From the women I've talked to, most pregnant women are ready for pregnancy to be over at this stage in the game. Both times I've felt just the opposite. Yes, it's awkward having a big belly, and it limits you in several activities, but it's so much easier taking care of the baby now than after he's born! As adorable as newborns are, they make me very nervous...they're so tiny and I worry over every little thing. I'm very much enjoying sleeping through the night right now as well (when Caleb lets me). I also do not have the problem of many pregnant women (or even not pregnant women) who have to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. I feel great and am enjoying these last few days of just me and Caleb. So I'm content to keep the bun in the oven until he's ready to come out!

I had a scare at my doctor's appointment this past Thursday. Without discussing it with me or even asking me, when checking to see what my cervix was dilated to (3 cm), my doctor just told me he was stripping my membranes, which is supposed to speed the labor along by starting contractions. This was after we had just had a discussion about me not wanting to be induced because I wanted the baby to come in his timetable...not mine or the doctor's. He did this with Caleb last time when I was 2 days past my due date, and I went into labor within 24 hours. I gave my consent with Caleb because I was already past my due date. But at my last appointment, I was only 39 weeks and definitely would have said no if my doctor would have asked me before he did it. (Time to look for a new doctor next time around?) I was very nervous all night that contractions were going to start hitting hard, but it definitely made me and Matt get all final preparations ready (a few more things down from the attic and I hadn't packed my hospital bag yet). I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I slept through the night without any mishaps, and I've definitely taken it easy these last few days (no more exercising). Like I said, I'm in no hurry. From everything I've read, I believe it's important to let the baby come when he/she is ready and don't agree with these modern conveniences of inducing or scheduling the day your baby is going to be born. If I had to make a request for my baby's birth day, I would prefer not to have to spend my birthday in the hospital (Tuesday the 30th) or Matt's birthday (Friday the 2nd). I also would rather my baby not be born on his due date, which is April Fool's day. We'll see how well the baby cooperates. :o)

Center of Attention

2010-03-27T06:24:00.003-07:00

I was not expecting a baby shower this time around because I already have all the essentials for a baby, and definitely have a lot of boy clothes. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when Matt's coworkers wanted to throw me a shower. Being in the limelight is not my favorite thing, so I was glad that they requested that Caleb come too because he does much better as the center of attention. He helped me open gifts and just acted like his cute self. Matt has thoroughly enjoyed working for this company and the people he works with. Thank you Bishop Lifting Products!

Everyone was so generous! I basically received lots of diapers and wipes. I have quite the supply built up for this next baby as I have slowly been stocking up on diapers for the last 9 months whenever there are sales and I have coupons.