Musings...

So, I thought I would post about how fun Halloween was, or how cute the boys are, some of the other exciting things we have been up to, but I haven't. I keep wanting to post pictures to, but again, I am sadly lacking in the picture department. Instead you get my ramblings from 3:45 am. "What?" you say..."why did she stay up so late?!?". The answer, dear reader (if there are actually readers, a fact I sometimes question considering how often I update) is that I didn't. Nope, I went to bed at 10:00 pm, which is actually LATE for us these days. But, the boys are sick and Gabe has been hacking and coughing for 45 minutes. So, I got up and gave him some medicine and cough syrup and a drink of water so he could sleep, and propped him up on his pillows so he could breathe a little easier. Now he is sleeping peacefully, but I am wide awake.

Here is what I have been thinking about lately:

1. Next year. I think we will be moving next year. That thought makes me happy and sad, as moving usually does. On the one hand, I am ready for a new house. I like this one, and it has served us well, but we are growing out of it. Also, the floor plan kind of drives me crazy. Also, in the last two weeks our toilet seat broke, 3 of our cupboard doors fell off, the caulking came off the kitchen sink, and the caulking came out of the shower. Plus the kitchen is pretty terrible in general (although I like how big and airy it is). On the other hand, I really, really love this ward. It's one of my favorite wards I have ever lived in in my whole life. I love the friends here, I like the calling, I like the feel of the neighborhood, I like all the extra stuff we do. I will be very sad when it is time to go. So, I think next May/June we will try to find a nice single family rental home. I would like a yard, and I want to move in time to get a garden in. Alice finishes school in May, and we might have to wait until she is done, but right around then is when I think we will be going.

2. Books. Right now I am reading somewhat of a mix. "Belles on Their Toes" by frank and LIllian Gilbreth. This is the continuing story of the Gilbreth family from "Cheaper by the Dozen". I have read it many times before, but it is a classic and I can read it again and again. "The Kingdom Keepers" by Ridley Pearson. This one I am not very far into, but it has an interesting premise - a group of teenagers get hired to be models for holographic guides for The Magic Kingdom (Disney World). They end up becoming holograms and discovering the dark secrets at night behind in the scenes in one of America's most beloved theme parks. "Birth" by Tina Cassidy. I picked this one up from the library as I was browsing the other day. It's a history of birth, and how the different ways we give birth kind of happened. I am not very far into it, but once again, it's a subject I am very interested in. I have been looking for a comprehensive history of obstetrics and midwifery. I will let you know what I think.
Assorted Agatha Christies. What can I say...there is a reason they call her the, "Queen of Crime". I can't get enough of that Dame. "Peter and the Starcatchers" by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. I have been wanting to read this one ever since I first saw it on the shelves. I am enjoying it so far, but I got stuck for awhile, because I accidentally left it at the dentists office. "Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians" by Brandon Sanderson. My niece just returned home, but while she was here she shared with me her love of all things by Brandon Sanderson. So I thought I should check him out. In a literary way of course. I am happily married, even though Brandon does teach at BYU, so I could probably meet him if I really wanted to. Last but not least, "The Kingfisher Illustrated Dictionary of Dinosaurs" by some science guy. Joe and April invited us to go to the BYU Paleontology museum last Monday as our FHE. Gabe hadn't really been introduced to dinosaurs before, but now he thinks they are very cool. That is the book he picks pretty much every time. I am actually learning quite a lot about theropods and the carnosaurs and what cretaceous means. Having children can be very educational.

3. Parties. I like parties. I like hosting and throwing parties. I like getting to know people, and I really like cooking and creating fun party menus. I have a couple of party ideas brewing that I have been wanting to do for some time. That being said, I don't know when they will actually happen. Going back to section 1 on this post, I really hate the floor plan of this house. It is not conducive to parties. One of the best parties I have ever attended was a tea party by my friend Krista in MD. She didn't just make a few little sandwiches and a few mugs of herbal tea. Oh no...this girl went all out. She spent weeks shopping for real china cups and saucers. None of the dishes matched, but they were a lovely hodgepodge of china. The best part? The let everyone take theirs home as their party favor. HOW COOL IS THAT? I know...someday I will be able to be that awesome of a hostess.I still have my cup...it's black and white china with a rooster on it. Much prettier than it sounds....kind of that old school french style. As for food, she had scones and teacakes, and tiny little sandwiches, and clotted cream, and lemon curd, and something like six different kinds of tea. It was the tea party I dream of. I have been wishing I could do one similar ever since. The other party I want to do is a mocktail party. I want to make some yummy drinks (maybe pina' coladas and daiquiris) and have everyone dress up in cocktail dresses. The main reason I want to do this party is so I can make the hors d'ouvres for it. In March we visited my old boss, and he showed me some of the new hors d'ouvres he had been working on. Combined with the old ones I used to make, all I can is...yum. I would have fandangos, and cold spoons, and those mushroom thingies, and figs wrapped in prosciutto, and tons of others. And they would be delicious. I am hungry just thinking about it.

4. My kids. They are so darned cute! They are finally at an age where they can play together, and it is so fun to watch. They will talk and laugh, and take turns being silly. Tommy loves to follow Gabe around, and both of them hate it when the other one is sleeping and unavailable. We have had many discussions about not waking up your brother. I am glad they want to be together though. The other day Gabe was playing with a hand mirror and he stuck it under his chin, mirror side up. All of a sudden he looked down (into the mirror) and started freaking out and stumbling around. I think seeing the reflection of the ceiling made him think that the floor had disappeared, and he was about to fall over the edge. It was so funny. I had to take the mirror away and he got his balance back and then said, "woow....sad!". I laughed so hard. Tommy is just a cute smiley guy all the time. Well, most of the time. Right now he is cutting his top two teeth, he has had this nasty cold for over a week, and he has a diaper rash. He has been a pretty sad baby. But aside from that he is cute and happy and a joy to be around. Alice is also cute, though in a different way. The other day I got a text from her that said, "In Marketing class I forget we have big test. But I get A! I think I'm genius!" Haha...she is so cute! I love having her as part of our family, and I am glad that she will be here the whole school year.

5. My husband. He is so awesome. I love him! He is awake right now, doing some work just to give us a little extra this month so that things won't be too tight. He is amazing. Also, he is funny. We still laugh. The other night at Wal Mart we were laughing so hard I may or may not have snorted loudly in a public place. I am glad we are still friends and can have so much fun hanging out. He is also a great dad, and I love watching him with the boys. They love him too, and it's cute to watch them try to be like their daddy.

6. Now I am starting to think about my bed. I think it's time to return to the land of slumber. Speaking of, I got a couple of blankets off of freecycle, so now we actually have bedding that fits our bed. It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. We live in the basement, and the cement walls get cold at night. So it's nice that their is enough blanket that no one is left next to the freezing wall with no insulation (and just for the record, that someone was usually Ontario....poor guy). Anyway, I think I will follow my children's lovely example. Good night all!

Nothing better on a cool autumn night...

Is it bad that I treat my children as teddy bears/bed warmers? I just love nothing better on a cold night then grabbing a warm cuddly little bundle of sleeping baby and pulling it in close to me. I love the way their hair smells and the sound of their breathing. I feel safe, and not only that, I know they are safe, close to me.

Now, for some reason I have a lot of friends who won't admit they sleep with their kids. Or, if they do admit it, there is always a caveat telling people not to worry because it's only in the mornings or occasionally when everyone was too tired to go back to their own beds. Did I miss some piece of common knowledge that says that sleeping with your babies is almost as bad as driving without a car seat? I would like to publicly state that I have my babies sleep with me. I don't worry about rolling over onto them in the middle of the night for the same reason I don't worry that I will roll on top of Ontario or suddenly fall off the bed. Even when I am sleeping, I know where I am, and I know who is nearby. I don't worry about them suffocating on the blankets. They are tucked in close to me and I keep the blankets off their faces. Our sleep patterns match each other, so we naturally wake up at the same times. I can hear when they start making the first little sounds of hunger, so I can feed them before it becomes a screaming match and we are both completely awake and cranky. I sleep so much better, knowing where they are, knowing they feel safe, and not having to miss my babies all night.

I know some people don't sleep with their kids because they don't get a good nights rest. They wake up whenever the baby makes a sound, or they worry to much about the baby getting hurt to relax and go to sleep. That is fine. I think people should sleep in whatever arrangement lets everyone in the house get the most rest. But if you secretly enjoy it when your baby somehow makes their way into your bed, don't feel ashamed or like you are breaking some rule. Just enjoy it, and give that baby all the cuddles it wants.

And now, I am going to go snuggle under my blankets with my sweet little Tommy boy and head off to dreamland...

Don't expect any updates anytime soon!

Due to my unfortunate broken arm (no, seriously, I DID break my arm, I am not just avoiding communication!) don't expect much in the way of blogging for the next couple of months (until I am out of the sling!).

For those of you who want more details, on August 19th (last Wed), I was decorating for my friend Krissie's lovely backyard wedding. I climbed onto the outside of the deck to hang some curtains, but when I went to grab one of the cross supports, it turned out the wood had rotted and I fell 6 feet, onto my right shoulder, breaking my humerous bone (no, it isn't funny!) and bruising myself pretty badly.

The break is too high for a cast, so the doctors estimate I will be in a sling for 2 months, with no heavy lifting for 4 months, which is not easy when I am the mom of two very active little boys. Since I can't even use my left arm very effectively without hurting the broken one, I am not doing a lot! I am grateful to have such great friends and family who love me and who are helping me cope with everything that needs to be done!

And don't complain that I managed to blog this alright with a broken arm--because I actually dictated the whole thing, and had somebody else do all of the actual typing.

A brief moment for clarifiying...

I didn't realize when I wrote that last post that it sounded like we are adopting. Sorry for all the confusion. We are not adopting, we are hosting JiYoung (english name Alice) for a full school year as she attends High School in the USA. We already feel like family, however, so we have gotten into the habit of referring to her as our, "Korean Daughter". As much as we would love to keep her, she will be returning to her own family next year. I will try to post some pictures of our fun times together. That should be easier now that we have found the camera cord.

A brief moment for blogging...

We leave in about an hour to pick up our new korean daughter. I'm a little nervous, but also excited. We have spent the morning decorating her room, and I hope she likes it. It's actually the first room in our house that we have made an effort to decorate. Hopefully this will start a trend and we will get our pictures hung up. After all, we have only been living here a little over a year.

The boys are so amazing. Tommy is THIS close to crawling. He can get up on his hands and knees, and rock. Usually he goes straight to chest diving, since that gets him closer to his goal object. I think he will be crawling before his aunt arrives in a week.

Gabe is quickly learning many new words, mostly automotive related. He LOVES cars, and anything to do with them. He can hear a motor anywhere in the house, and recognizes the different types. "Mo!" (Motorcycle), "Apane Car!" (Airplane), "Chain Car!" (Train), "Chuck!" (truck) and the classic, "CAR!". I also found out he can recognize and say "Buzz" in reference to Buzz Lightyear. I don't even know where he learned that. We don't own Toy Story (though I wish we did), and I don't know if he has ever seen it.

I need to go finish the cleaning, and hopefully get Tommy don't for a nap. He has been struggling staying asleep today, so we will see how it goes.

Pictures!

About a month ago I won a photo shoot on stephmodo.com, thanks to the amazing and talented Christine Olson (christineolsonphotography.com). We decided to use it for family pictures, which we got taken yesterday. We haven't seen them all, but here is a sneak peek. I am so impressed. She did an amazing job, and I love her style! Thank you Christine!

Thank you, Bill Watterson...

(no copyright infringement intended. This is back from our dating days.)

Summertime...

Here is a brieƒ summary oƒ what has been happening in my liƒe:

1. Helping my friend move into her own apartment. I'm very excited ƒor her.
2. Helping my ƒriend have a!! baby. That was an amazing experience, and I am so proud oƒ her. She did amazing! Also, her baby is incredibly cute. I know he will be best ƒriends with my boys.
3. Helping my other ƒriend plan her wedding. She has ƒound a wonderƒul man to take her to the temple. I love seeing how they balance each other out. I'm proud oƒ them ƒor making good decisions.
4. Summer reading program. I haven't had tons oƒ downtime to read, due to items 1-3, but I managed to squeeze in some ƒun books during nursing time. I also ƒound out on Saturday that I won a prize! I haven't picked it up yet though, due to number...
5. Pinkeye. Blergh. My leƒt eye has been swollen almost shut, and red and weepy. Gross. Also, for some reason it has been accompanied by muscle aches and joint pains. I spent all day yesterday laying on the couch watching "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out oƒ Here!"
6. Helping my wonderƒul hubby start his own company. It's going to be a little tight, but I think everything is going to work out well. We just have to survive the next 3 months!

Speaking of, he calls to reclaim his laptop. Later friends!

P.s. He spilled coke on his keyboard a ƒew months ago. Ever since his "ƒ" key only does the greek letter. Weird.

Cute!

So we submitted some pictures to a baby contest. All I have to say is, look at these two cuties!

Picture Proof

Tommy's Aunt Marie has been saying for a long time (well, a long time in Tommy's short life!) that he looks A LOT like she did as a baby. So, she finally sent photographic proof.

Compare for yourself. All of these pictures are of Marie as a baby.

A video for you all

Sorry about the awkward part with Ontario...

Farmers Market

Happy family

Gabe meeting the guinea hens. You can't see how really excited he was about them.

Keep those birds in!

Cute. Just....cute!

We ventured off to the Farmers Market today with Heidi and another friend from the ward. What fun! We looked at all the wares, tried some various foods (homemade donuts, authentic tacos and navajo fry bread with honey butter...yum!) and played on the jungle gym. Heidi got some cute pictures of Gabe meeting the guinea hens, Tommy being cute in his stroller, and our family being happy. You can't really tell in the pictures but the boys are wearing matching onesies.

Tari's favorite part was the cool indie band with bicycle powered equipment (http://shakeyourpeace.com/) that had some fun songs and audience participation. My favorite was the navajo fry bread. I will definitely be getting that again!

I think I'm getting strep throat. Lame! Well, it is now almost 2:00am. Definitely time for bed! Goodnight all!

A Moment of Peace...

My darling husband (who only got 4 hours sleep last night) just told me to go and have a break while he watched the kids and cleaned up dinner. How sweet is that. I decided to take the few minutes to blog, since I do that so rarely...hahaha.

We have had such a fun month. Ontario's sister came to visit and we did lots of fun things. We camped in Moab, went to Goblin Valley ( SOOO cool!), saw a lot of wildlife, and some not so wild life (the baby lambs kept butting Gabe), went to Park City, spent a day in SLC, played games, went hiking, watched crazy french movies with the worst subtitles ever, and enjoyed just visiting and catching up. It was such a fun, enjoyable visit. I sometimes get ready for visits to or from people to end early, but this one could have gone on much longer. We will miss her and I hope that she can come back again soon!

Bum lambs at the "9 Mile Kanyon Bunk N' Breakfast

Family picture at Arches National Park. Gabe is so overcome with the majesty of the view that he has to drink his bottle.

Moonrise in Goblin Valley...beautiful

The cool alien-esque scenery of Goblin Valley. You are allowed to hike and climb on these. Gabe loved it.

More majestic views at Arches

3 handsome guys and one crazy shadow

Tommy and Mommy in their sweet hiking wrap. It also gives him nice sticky out ears. So cute!

This whole month is very crazy. We have 2-3 more trips planned, not to mention various calling responsibilities, some planning for new arrivals in the summer, and other summer activities. I'm excited, but trying not to get overwhelmed before stuff even happens.

The baby is crying...I should probably go rescue my sweet husband. Later everyone!

Cutest, saddest story ever

Tonight Heidi and I were watching "House". It was a very sad episode where an epidemic spread through the maternity ward, making a lot of babies sick. Gabe woke up in the middle of the episode, and came and sat on my lap. Just then they showed one of the babies in the intensive care with all the cords and monitors attached to it. As soon as Gabe saw it his mouth turned down, and he started to cry. When the baby went off screen, he stopped. Every time he saw a sick baby, he would start to cry again. He even had tears. It was the cutest thing! Heidi and I were both crying too, so we were all sitting there feeling so sad for those sick babies. I didn't realize my toddler was so sympathetic.

Update on Tommy: He is home!

Here is the update for everyone, since I don't think a lot of information has been getting out. We have been pretty busy the last few days. 

Everyone has been sick for the last 1-2 weeks. I had a cold, and then Gabe got it, and then Heidi got it, and then Tari and Thomas got it. Everyone seemed to be doing kind of miserable, but okay. Then on Tuesday Tommy turned blue and got all limp, so we rushed him to the ER. He was diagnosed with RSV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_syncytial_virus) and admitted to the hospital. Because RSV is a virus, they can't cure it, they can only treat the symptoms. He was on oxygen, and antibiotics for a bacterial infection in his eyes, and then they also suctioned out his air passages every few hours. He responded very well, and is back to the pink little boy we love. 

He is doing very well this morning. Yesterday they took him off of oxygen, and once he was able to go a whole day keeping his oxygen up on his own, and not needing the deep suctioning, they discharged. He still has the virus but he is doing much better. Now we just have to keep an eye on him, make sure he gets suctioned out, and we will probably take him into the outpatient clinic if his breathing gets really labored. 

This whole experience has made me very grateful for the technology we have and the wonderful people in the medical profession. Also for health insurance. I know that Heavenly Father was watching out for us, and is blessing him to heal quickly. I am so happy to have my whole family back together again safe and well. Well, part of us are well, and the rest of them are working on getting that way!

Now I just have to start taking care of everything that has been ignored for the last month and a half while I have been recovering from baby and dealing with sickness. Hurray for flylady. She will save my sanity today, I just know it! :) 

If there are even five people who read this blog...

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be.

The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!!

I don't actually care if you post this on your blog or not. I just thought it was a fun and cute idea. 

Still sick

Well, that whole fever thing with Gabe just seemed to be the kickoff to our cold and flu season extravaganza of illness. Gabes fever stuck around, though not as bad, and then turned into a nasty cold with lots of congestion, coughing and a runny nose (so gross on a toddler). The cold that I have had for two weeks stuck around and just got worse. Then Tommy started getting congested and now he has a cough and it's the SADDEST thing when your tiny little baby can't eat because he can't breath and he is so sad about life. Yesterday Heidi started getting congested and in the evening Tari got home from work and crawled into bed all sick. So, the whole house is down with whatever it is. I am thankfully coming out of it, so I can take care of people. It's still sad though. Ontario says to say that he is sick and loving it. It's one of the few times he can lay around in bed, take a break and not feel guilty about it. Poor guy...enforced vacation. 

In other news we are going to California next month. I'm super excited. We will be in San Francisco for 2 days, and Monterey for 2 days. It's going to be a very quick visit, but I can't wait. Ontario and I have never gone together before, and I am excited to show him around. Also, I'm excited to show Gabe and Tommy the beach. I love the ocean...I miss it. 

Scary Times

Yesterday Gabe got a little sick. He was listless and clingy, and I could tell he wasn't feeling top notch. He had a slight fever, so I cuddled him and he fell asleep around 9:30. Tari and I stayed up later than our bedtime so he could finish some work, and Gabe woke up again before we had gone to sleep. He was burning up that time, so I could tell the fever had spiked. He obviously wasn't feeling good, so we took off his pj's and I asked Ontario to give him a blessing. After that I was cuddling him. He started shivering, and then he started shaking. That was when I realized he was having a seizure. SUPER SCARY. We immediately got dressed, and rushed him to the hospital. They gave him tylenol to bring the fever down, and then ran some tests on him. It turns out that fevers can cause seizures, especially when the temperature rises quickly. I did not know that. I was very relieved to find out that it is quite common (1 in 7 children have febrile seizures before the age of 6). So, it ended up just being a virus, and we got to come home. The fever broke and he is doing fine this morning. Thomas hasn't been showing symptoms, so I think he is okay. I'm glad that is over, and I am even more convinced that I don't want to take these little kids out too much in the middle of flu season.

Our Other New Arrival

Some of you know about our other new arrival just before Thomas Gregson: Paper Pilot.  (Paper Pilot is a video game for iPhone and iPod touch where you race a paper airplane around 3D levels.)  It went on the App Store a couple weeks ago and it has just been growing up so fast.

First, it was highlighted in the US section "Staff Favorites."

Then sales really picked up in Europe and it was added to the section "New and Noteworthy" and also on the main iTunes Europe page.  This is helpful because anything featured in "New and Noteworthy" gets special precedence when users are browsing apps on their device:

And just today it hit two more milestones: Paper Pilot got featured in Europe and broke into the top 100 iPhone apps in the US iTunes store:

As sales increase toward an unavoidable plateau and decline, Paper Pilot will be updated with more features and marketing to help push that plateau up higher and later if possible.  I'll post about other additions after they happen, but the most exciting one will be dogfighting against other paper airplanes!

Pictures of Our New Arrival

We are so excited to announce the arrival of Thomas Gregson Britton, born Saturday, January 24, at 7:39am. He is 9 lbs, 21 in. and has lots of dark hair. He looks just like his daddy, and we are so happy to have him be part of our family.

Thomas Gregson Britton


Looking around


Sleepy time


Showing Gill how delicious his hands are


Cute cheeks!


A family Portrait


Grandy, Gabe and Thomas


Very first picture


Napping brothers

Waiting...

Well, it is now Tuesday, January 20 (almost the 21) and this baby still has not arrived. I actually started early labor on Friday, and I have been having contractions steadily-ish for the last 5 days. But have I gone into active labor? Does it feel like this baby will ever arrive? Have I decided that I will in fact be pregnant forever? No to the first two, and a resounding yes to the third. I am just at home, surrounded by loving family all waiting anxiously for this joyous event, and NOTHING IS HAPPENING. I know perfectly well that due dates are not written in stone, and that children arrive when they are good and ready. So why does it keep faking me out with contractions and losing my plug and other signs of labor? I'm just so excited to meet this baby, and not very patient about waiting for it to arrive. Hopefully next time I post it will be a birth announcement. And it will be tomorrow.

5 Day Countdown

So, I am due on Saturday, which all of a sudden seems very close. And also very far. I still feel like I have a lot to do (probably because I do) but also like I am very ready to meet this tiny new member of our family. Also to get my lungs back. I can't bend over any more.

Here are some of the things I need to do in the next two days (my sweet mother-in-law arrives Wednesday night, which means I need to have this all ready before then).
-Rearranging all the furniture in my house. That seems a little extreme, but we have to fit two more people in for a couple of weeks, so there is some serious shifting that needs to take place
-Cleaning and rearranging the storage closet. This also has to do with fitting everyone in.
-Redoing my control journal. That's basically the place I keep a list of everything important that I need to remember. I want to have it set up so that while I am recovering, the household will keep running and people can just refer to that. It's mostly a lot of typing and paperwork.
-Getting the final preparations done on my birth kit.
-Cleaning my house.

In and amongst all this I have a bunch of other commitments in my neighborhood and for my calling. I really don't mind...it helps the time pass more quickly. I just hope the baby comes at the right time. Saturday would be good. Not too soon, not too late. Gabe came right on his due date, so hopefully this child will be as prompt. Anyone want to guess on whether it's a boy or a girl?

Speaking of Gabe, he figured out how to twirl this morning. He was spinning in circles in the kitchen while I was making breakfast. It was very cute. We also went to Borders tonight and he was laughing so loudly at a Thomas the Tank Engine coloring book I was afraid he was going to disturb the rest of the customers. I have no idea what the joke was. He also started covering his mouth with his hand and snickering. It was really cute.

I love my life. I feel so blessed and happy. I don't know what I did to deserve this, but man I am grateful. :)