Brittons

Funny things from our life...

2011-12-01T18:24:00.001-08:00

The other day Gabe wanted to finish watching "White Christmas" when he got home from school. I asked him to please wait, because Tommy and Asher were both asleep on the couch and I didn't want the tv to wake them up. Gabe got really upset and told me, "you are just breaking down my heart!"Another time I was getting something out of the office and I saw Gabe's teddy, Baby Bear behind some boxes. I yelled "Daddy! Daddy!" in the highest, whiniest voice I could (my best impersonation of the voice Gabe uses for Baby Bear). Gabe immediately came running up the stairs yelling, "I'm coming sweetheart!" and Tommy from the other room said, "Baby Bear? Is he okay?" I thought it was hilarious that they both instantly recognized the voice of baby bear.Tommy loves to play Spiderman. Only, I don't think he actually knows who Spiderman is. In his world, Spiderman is the bad guy, and he is always chasing Gabe or Asher around. He puts on his toughest scary face and growls, "I'm spiderman!" It's pretty funny to watch.

Eternal Droning of the Endless Whine

2011-09-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had a somewhat rough bedtime. It got started a little late, I was already tired, and the boys weren't listening super well. When I asked Gabe what song he wanted, he asked for, "Down By the Bay", which wasn't surprising since that has been his pick for, no joke, the last three months. Are you familiar with it? It goes,

Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mamma will say
"Have you ever seen a whale with a polka dot tale?"
Down by the bay!

And so on, inserting various silly rhymes for the last part. After we sang a few verses of that, I asked Tommy what bedtime song he wanted. He asked for the dragon song. This also happens to be, "Down by the Bay"but with modified lyrics by Ontario, as follows:

Down by Dragon bay
Where the dragons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
Mamma dragon will say
"Have you ever seen a cat, wearing a hat?"
Down by dragon bay!

So I sang a few verses of that. Then the endless whining started. Gabe was so upset that I sang him "Down by the Bay" when what he really wanted was, "Down by Dragon Bay". The conversation went something like this:

G: "Mom, you just did something that wasn't very nice"
M: "I did? What was that?"
G: "You sang Down by the Bay, but I wanted Down by DRAGON bay"
M: "Well, I just sang that"
G: "But you just sang that first and you missed your chance to be nice and sing the song I wanted!"
M: "Gabe, you asked for Down by the Bay, and then I sang both of them, so you got to hear it"
G: "I just asked for Down by the Bay as a joke! But then you SANG it!"
M: "Well, you didn't tell me it was a joke, you just asked for it"
G: "But if you don't do what I say and be nice and make me happy, then I will just say that I hate you!"M: "I will be sad if you say you hate me, but it's still time for bed."
G: grumble grumble *endless whining* mumble dragon bay mumble I just didn't WANT that grumble mumble you just shouldn't have DONE it mumble mumble....

Only, make this whole conversation continue for another 20 minutes.This was also after our conversation earlier today when I told him we were going to do a fun activity after lunch and he came slumping into the kitchen saying, "Just whoever cares what you say!" Yeah, I don't have a four year old. I have a teenager.

Bethesda...

2011-09-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

I just came across this talk in my personal study, and I was really touched by it. I have a lot of friends and family members that can relate to this in many different ways. I love the clear doctrine that he teaches, and the reminder of the work we are doing when we are serving the handicapped. I would really encourage you to read this talk, it's awesome.The Moving of the Waters by Elder Boyd K. Pcker.

Um....

2011-07-13T06:20:00.001-07:00

"Mom, could you please come help me find some clean underpants?"
"Sure, Gabe"
"Thanks, I made some but they were too tight"
"You made some?"
"Yeah."
"Um, what did you make them out of?"
"It's okay, they were just too little and tight, so I just need other ones"
"Yeah, I will find you some cloth ones, but can you show me the ones you made?"
"Okay, these ones!" (holds up a piece of paper with pieces of tape stuck to it)
"Yeah, I can see why those didn't work as well"

Projects...

2011-07-12T06:11:00.001-07:00

So, I have a few projects I have really been wanting to tackle. Unfortunately, the only power tools I own currently are a drill. I suppose I should say the power tool. There is a lot I can do with that, but not either of the large projects that I have on my project list. Here is what I would love to get finished as quickly as possible:

1. A sideboard for the dining room. This has to be homemade, because our dining room is actually a small breakfast nook. I can't just find a good sideboard and stick it in there. I want to build two small shelving systems that fit on either side of the radiator, with a long counter area that stretches across them. Oh, that would be lovely.

2. A bed. I have very specific requirements for a bed, and once again it's something that I need to just make myself.

I have a lot of other smaller projects, but those two would really be awesome to get done. Luckily, I just talked to my MIL, and she said she would bring some tools when she comes up this weekend, so I might actually get some of them done. Woo hoo!

My latest baking endeavor

2011-07-11T10:49:00.001-07:00

Patriotic cheesecake....yum!

Nothing important

2011-05-18T13:49:00.000-07:00

It's raining right now. Hard. I opened the blinds to show the boys, and it looked like a mini niagra outside our window. I showed Gabe and he asked where the waterfall was coming from. I told him the sky. It makes me happy, because I love rain, but sad, because I like rain especially when my husband is here to enjoy it with me. He has been on a business trip for the last two days, and won't be getting back until after midnight tonight. I am missing him. I should think up some wonderful welcome home surprise for him, but it might end up just having the house clean. We shall see.

I went to the temple this morning, and it was wonderful. It was my first time going to the Manhattan temple, and I just loved it. All temples are beautiful, but this was one was especially lovely. I got to go with a good friend, so that was extra nice.

I am working on a more interesting blog post, reviewing my top ten alphabet books. I have to make one ore two more library trips and then I will be able to finish it. How wonderful are public libraries? They are some of my favorite places.

Well, I am going to go read stories with my kids and maybe clean my room a little. Hurrah!

I got featured!

2011-05-06T09:17:00.001-07:00

This post is way overdue, but I just wanted to let you all know that a friend of mine featured one of my recipes! Check it out at her blog.

In other news, I just got a Cuisinart 14 Cup PowerPrep Plus Food Processor and I. Am. In. Love. In the last two days I have made hummus, pizza, salsa, cheesecake, grated cheese, sliced veggies, and a fruit syrup. It was all delicious, especially the hummus and the cheesecake. Yum! Do any of you have favorite recipes or tips for using a food processor? I have never had one, so I am still figuring out all the things I can do with it. :)

Also, many of you may know that right before we moved, my phone got lost. So my sweet husband got me a new one for Christmas, that I ended up dropping in the toilet two weeks later. I was without a phone for 6 weeks, and then I got a hand-me down phone from my sister-in-law. It's been having some issues (the front piece dropping off and the buttons falling out) for a few days, but yesterday Asher totally killed it by actually ripping out the microchip. Amazingly, earlier that day Tommy had found the cord for my old (new) phone from Christmas and wanted me to plug it in. So I woke up to my old phone alarm, on a phone that had amazingly decided to resurrect itself! So I had a phone again! Hurray!

Until now, when it keeps shutting itself off and acting weird. So maybe it didn't recover completely from it's potty bath. Anyway, if you are having a hard time getting ahold of me just know that it's not you, it's my phone.

I love Craigslist!

2011-04-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

This is the AMAZING armoire we scored on craigslist yesterday. The best part? It was FREEEEEE!

Points of awesomeness:
1. Solid wood construction, really well built. Also super heavy, but that's what you get with quality!
2. Paint job. It's black on the outside, and olive green on the inside. I really like it.
3. Made in Italy, specifically Florence, my home away from home. Yay!
4. It's designed to be used for clothes OR electronics (note the place for a curtain rod or electric cords), so it's extremely versatile
5. It's pretty. It is a style I would have chosen if I was actually shopping for something, and not just emailing every available armoire on the free section of craigslist
6. Did I mention it was free?

Anyway, I am super excited. I was originally going to use it for food storage, but I like it so much I kind of want to convert it into my desk area. Or possibly my sewing nook. The boys have been using it as a sweet playhouse, as evidenced by the last picture. I haven't decided what it's final job will be, but I am happy to have it be mine!

Potty Training

2011-03-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I am finally buckling down and doing it. I stocked up on skittles and M&Ms, I found a Thomas the Train chart online, I went to the thrift store and scored a couple of Lightning McQueen toys, I have the potty training pants that my good friend gave me, and this week we are going to do it. I think Gabe and Tommy are both ready, honestly Tommy a little more so. But the toys are a big motivator for Gabe, so I think he is more on board now.

In other news, Tari will be working out of town for the next three weeks and only home on the weekends, I finally got a calling (yay!), and we have Uncle Johnny staying with us this week which the boys are loving.

My Casting of "The Hunger Games"

2011-02-17T19:27:00.002-08:00

So, my friends Mel and Lizzie posted their versions of a dream cast for the Hunger Games trilogy. I decide to do my own post in their honor, so this is dedicated to them. I think the casting speaks for itself...

Gale:

Peeta:

Katniss:

Mrs. Everdeen

Prim:

Darius:

Cinna:

EffieTrinket:

Rue:

Haymitch:

President Snow:

Foxface:

Glimmer:

Thrash:

2011-02-06T10:53:00.001-08:00

Tommy and I are both in the recovery stage of a nasty cold, so we stayed home from church today (Asher also stayed home, by default). The boys went down for a nap, and I decided to look through what pictures we had on the computer so I could update our lds.org profile. There were a lot that Ontario had downloaded from his phone, mostly from the last six months. There were a lot of things documented: Gabes birthday, visiting the pumpkin patch, Johnny's wedding, trips with family to various locations, the move, playing with cousins, just pictures of the boys being cute. It was fun, and also a little sad. It made me really homesick for Utah, especially for the friends that are now too far away for us to play with regularly. It made me grateful for the relationships we have with those people, and the knowledge that it is easier then ever to stay in touch. It also made me laugh, remembering a lot of the things that we did. One of the funniest things was finding pictures of the boys helping out by decorating the day before we moved. Luckily, my good friend was there helping out and it all cleaned up surprisingly well. I just have to post them here, since it's very true that in this case a picture is worth a thousand words...

In other news, the oven repairman told us that the problem is with the main breaker and we have to call an electrician and in the meantime we shouldn't use the oven, and then the stove "repairman" took out the old range, threw it away, and THEN found out that the new top didn't fit. So we are trying to figure out what foods can be cooked in the microwave, and enjoying this new adventure, that hopefully won't last any longer than tomorrow morning.

New Years Resolutions 2011

2011-01-26T15:22:00.000-08:00

I just want to begin this post by saying that I have three adorable and charming children. Ahem. On to the blogging!

So, I am not usually one for making New Years resolutions. In general I feel like they are a way to start off the year with failure.
However, Ontario's family has a meeting every year to set their resolutions together. They have 6 categories, and they are supposed to set a goal in each one. The categories are:

1. Physical
2. Financial
3. Emotional
4. Spiritual
5. Education
6. Career

So, this year I did it with them. I set goals in each of those areas. I was actually excited about it, because all of these were goals/areas of improvement that I had already been thinking about. I liked having time to sit down and write out specific goals and ways to accomplish them. Also, I am approaching it differently this year. These are my resolutions for 2011. I know that I will not do them all starting now, but I do want to have these accomplished by the end of the year. So instead of getting depressed and feeling like I am failing, i am just excited about having a plan for improvement that I can implement slowly over the course of the year. I am posting my resolutions on my blog for a few reasons. First of all, I want to remember them. Writing them down reminds me what they are. I am also going to print them out so I can hang them up somewhere visible that I will see them often. Secondly, I will feel more accountable if I know I have TOLD people what changes I am planning to make, instead of just telling myself it's okay that I haven't. Third, this makes a blog post, which have been sadly lacking in these parts. So, withour further ado, here are my New Years Resolutions for 2011, including comments on each section:

Physical:
1. Lose 10 lbs, get more toned
2. Improve personal and family diet
3. Exercise 3x a week

I am not really as concerned about my weight as a number, this is just one way of measuring my goal of becoming healthier. I am actually much more concerned about changing and improving our diet as a family. Here are specific things I want to do to help accomplish these goals. Menu planning and careful shopping, increasing my knowledge of health and nutrition, calendaring in my exercises, looking for small ways to be more active , drinking more water. I think I want to start exercising during naptime, so I don't have quite as much help!

Financial:
1. Pay off all debt
2. Create new budget and stick to it
3. Save $10,000
4. Plan long term financial goals
5. Create babysitting fund

These ones are a little fun. Ontario's new job will definitely help, and so will the wondeful blessing of our house, which my in-laws are letting us stay in for a very reasonable rent (It's not actually reasonable, it's an insane rate. They are not getting anything out of this deal, except the knowledge that they are helping their children). My specific goal is to have our emergency fund ($1000) and debt all taken care of by the end of March. Then I am going to start really putting money into savings. I think I am going to plan a special "financial date" when Ontario and I can sit down and map out some of our longterm financial goals. Right now our biggest goal is buying a house. I want to be in a position to buy a house within the next year or two. Writing out a specific budget will help all of those goals.

Emotional:
1. Get enough sleep
2. Schedule sewing time
For me, getting enough sleep means getting to bed by 10:00. The biggest help for me is having the goal of turning off all electronics at 8:30 (computer, iPad, iPhone, tv). That usually means I need to have all my computer stuff done by 7:30, since that is when I want to start the boys bedtime routine. If I turn everything off and put it away in the cupboard (so it's out of temptations way), then it is really easy to get my bedtime routine done, and even have some relaxing time before lights out.

Scheduling sewing time is one I am still working on. Sewing is something that I find very relaxing, but I haven't had very much time for it in a long time. I also don't know exactly what I want to sew...quilts? Clothing? Curtains? This is a goal I will be thinking about and working on later in the year probably. One thing is finding a good sewing area...that is another thing I am still figuring out.

Spiritual:
1. Study both the Relief Society and the Sunday School lessons ahead of time.
2. Schedule in specific time for gospel study every day
3. Read the Book of Mormom
4. Write in my journal a minimum of 1 sentence daily
5. 100% visiting teaching
6. Schedule in monthly temple visits
7. Improve Family Home Evening

For my gospel study I went through and wrote a study plan on my calendar. I chose a different thing for each day: M-RS lesson, T-"Teaching No Greater Call", W-SS lesson, Th-"Preach My Gospel", F-Personal Progress, Sa-Ensign, Su-Topical. I gave myself 10 minutes for each study time, plus 5 minutes for reading the Book of Mormon. That might not sound like a lot, but in my world 15 min. of sitting and quietly doing anything is a luxury. I was going to do it in the morning, but I am thinking now that my evenings might be a better time.

The journal writing is a goal I have had before and one that helps me stay much more faithful. Obviously my earlier goal of turning off electronics at 8:30 will help with that.

For visiting teaching I went through and wrote on the calendar to schedule it the first Sunday of each month. I am also going to program in email reminders to make sure I am remembering it throughout the month. I am still trying to figure out how VT works here, since it's a very different dynamic, but I really do have a testimony of the importance of taking time to serve our sisters.

Ontario and I have already started calendaring in our temple visits. We are going to be switching off with Ontario's brother and his wife for babysitting once a month, and then hopefully we can find a couple in the ward to swap babysitting with in the offmonths. I am hoping that Asher getting old enough for solid foods will help this goal happen. We also figured out that with Ontarios new job we could each take turns going to the temple by ourselves once a month, while the other one stays home with the kids. So I will hopefully be going bi-monthly.

Our family home evening goal is one I am very excited about. We went through the calendar and broke up each month so that every Monday would have a different category. First monday is Preparedness, the second Missionary Work, the third Family History, the fourth Gratitude/Service, and if there is a fifth one, that is a bonus where we get to do something special. We even went through and brainstormed a list of topics for our preparedness lessons: Budgeting, Gardening, Fire Safety, Food storage, Stranger danger, etc. I think we came up with at least 14 things we could do for that general topic. Having a plan and knowing what area we need to focus our lessons on is really helping us be more prepared. I am sure we will think of other ways to improve as the year goes on, but so far I am happy at the steps we have already taken. We already did our gratitude lesson this month and wrote thank you notes for Tommy's birthday. It's great to see a plan actually working!

Education:
1. Take a photography or a cooking class
2. Read one educational book a month (this can just be any book that teaches me about something)
3. Do 1 cultural activity every month
4. Complete the Financial Peace University

I really want to take some kind of class where I am learning a new skil. Photography and cooking are both things I would love to study. I know that eventually I need to figure out going back to school, but at this point in my life I am happy with just doing one or two classes.

I love reading informative books. I have so many things that I want to learn more about, and I know that the NYPL system will be a great resource for that. I am so happy to be back in the land of Interlibrary loans! Some of the topics I currently am interested in are gardening, home school, Montessori education, home birth, potty training, cooking, personal finance, home decoration, DIY, nutrition, herbology and politics. I am sure there are lots more I can't think of right now, but that should be enough to get me started. Some of those are things I have already started studying and just want to continue learning about, and others are areas that I feel very shaky on and want to have a basic understanding of.

I live in NYC, so doing one cultural activity a month shouldn't be hard. I just want to make sure we are taking advantage of the amazing opportunity we have to live in such a diverse place.

Taking the financial peace university is a goal I have had for a long time but I really want to make it happen this year.

Career:
1. Follow my flylady routines
2. Make weekly menu plans
3. Redo my filing system
4. Completely unpack my house

Since being a mom is the career that I have chosen, all of these goals are to help me be better at that. Really, the overarching goal is to be more organized, have a smoothly running home, and not feel like I am running around like a crazy person all day or freaking out at my kids. I have other goals that fall into these categories (be on top of birthdays and anniversaries, send thank you notes promptly, stay in touch with friends and family, have all regular maintenance items scheduled and taken care of) but I will start with babysteps and move up from there.

Obviously all of my goals tie into and effect my other goals, so as I improve in one area it will positively affect the others. I am sure that I will have times that I fall down and feel like a failure, but knowing I have a plan and being able to reference it will help tremendously. Also, I have a lot of resources at my disposal. Here are some of my favorites:

Flylady! One of my all time favorite home organization websites. I love the flylady!
Cozi, a calendar and organization website, I am loving it so far. It has an online calendar, weekly routine schedule, to do list, shopping list, and more.
Dave Ramsey, a financial educator
Jonathan Roche, personal trainer and founder of the No Excuse Workout
LoseIt!, a website for tracking diet and exercise
Meals Matter, a healthy menu planning resource
LDS.org. The new church website has tons of resources, including an online study journal that lets you save notes and reference back to talks and scriptures you have been studying.
ZionsBank EZ budget, an online budgeting tool
The New York Public Library

Most of these are free or have free resources available on them, so you should definitely check them out. I am so grateful for the internet and the wondeful resources it offers!

Well, to stick with my goals I am going to post this and then go put away my electronic devices for the night. I certainly seem to swing between never posting and then posting way too much! Good night all!

Update on the last four months

2011-01-25T13:22:00.000-08:00

So, I haven't really updated since October, and a LOT has happened since then. I know I can't blog about it all, so I am going to just do a list of bullet points:

October:
-Went to the pumpkin patch with friends (my last real post)
-Had Gabes birthday. It was so much fun with a train theme. I still want to post pictures, I just have to figure out where they are on the computer. :)
-Alice got baptized. Yay!
-We decided to move. It was pretty sudden. Even though we had been talking about it for a long time, the actual decision was pretty quick. Not only that, we decided to move to the Bronx!
-We visited MD and NY for a family wedding. We are really happy to have Bridget as part of the family now. It was a lot of fun, and we got to go and see our new house. So pretty!
-Ontario was working on his contract of building the iPad app for the BYU MOA Carl Bloch exhibition. It turned out amazingly and I am so proud of him!

November:
-We started packing and decluttering.
-Thanksgiving dinner with friends at Krissie's house. It was the perfect last holiday with friends (well, not last, but the last for the foreseeable future).
-We both got released from our callings
-Finished packing and loaded our pods for the big move
-Said goodbye to all of our amazing friends and family in Utah. The hardest part of moving has definitely been all the people we are leaving behind. I have just been praying that I will be able to find the same kinds of friends here in NY.

December:
-Started the trip from Utah to NY. Drove 583 miles on 5 hours of sleep. That was a long day.
-Visited friends and family in Colorado, Indianapolis, and Ohio on the way to our new home
-Arrived in NYC and started unpacking
-A week later we had visitors Alice and her sister JiHae come to spend some of Christmas break with us. We got to take them around to see a lot of the NYC sights, and had a little Christmas morning celebration with them before we left for our own family Christmas
-Went to MD to spend Christmas with Ontario's family. We stopped in PA on the way to meet up with Ben and Robin, and make the rest of the drive with them.
-Spent two weeks in MD visiting family. It was such a fun, relaxing Christmas. It was the first year that all of the kids were home, plus we had new spouses, kids, and other significant others to add to the mix, so the house was packed! It was so much fun being with everyone. We did miss having Nathan and Hunter with us though. :(
-Celebrated our fourth anniversary! It hardly seems like it has been that long. I am so grateful to be married to such a wonderful, fun, righteous, loving guy. He is my favorite! I can't wait for the next four years. :)
-We also did our third annual Iron Chef competition as a family. It was a lot of fun, and super yummy! Our team lost, but we ended up getting to eat lots of yummy food, so I think it was worth it. :)
-Celebrated New Years with games, food, and the ever popular chocolate fountain!
-Celebrated Mama Brittons birthday. So glad to have her as my mother in law!

January:
-We returned to New York and got back to work settling in.
-Chrissy came and spent her winter break with us, so we got to do lots of fun things with her.
-We visited Little Italy, which was lots of fun. I got to bust out my italian, and we got some amazing bread. Yum!
-Spent the weekend with Ben and Robin to celebrate Tommy's birthday. For the party we had everyone decorate cupcakes, using the awesome books Tari gave me for our anniversary. We did the creepy crawly bug ones, and they turned out so cute! It was so much fun, I think I have a new hobby! Grandy, Papa, Chrissy and Annie also were able to make it, which was so great. Tommy loved all his presents.
-Tari started his new job teaching iPhone development classes for FMC. It is really the perfect job for us right now, and he is loving getting to teach and not having to fill up his time with contract work. So far he has taught in NY, Boston, and tonight he is leaving to teach a class in Washington D.C. I will miss him, but we are hoping we can drive down and visit him during his stay. I want to take the boys to the Natural History Musuem to see the dinosaurs.
-This weekend all the family is coming to visit for Ben and Johns gig. It will be fun hosting everyone here for the first time. I definitely need to do some more unpacking to make sure we can fit them all in though!
-Throughout this month we have also had 3 or 4 big snowstorms, and Asher has learned how to army crawl!

So....that is the rundown on what has been happening in our lives for the last few months. I have another post that has been brewing in my mind for awhile about my new years resolutions. I might get that done tonight, but we will have to see. :) Life is good. Ontario likes his job, we are enjoying our new ward, we are having fun with the adventure of living in New York City, and our kids just keep getting cuter. Hopefully I will be updating this more often during 2011!

Too much to post about, so you get this instead...

2011-01-10T09:06:00.000-08:00

I came into the library to find Tommy waving half a skeleton (leftover Halloween decoration) up and down and saying, "Jesus! Temple! Jesus! Temple!". Still not sure what exactly that meant....

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-12T16:20:00.001-07:00

My friend Lisa invited us to celebrate fall by going to a local pumpkin patch with her and her two little boys (one of whom Gabe calls his, "best shrend" which is how he says friend. We invited our other friend to come as well and they both brought their nice cameras. I was especially happy that Tari's schedule allowed him to come. It was my first time going through a corn maze, and I was so happy to be able to do it with him. It was a lot of fun, and definitely worth the $4. Gabe couldn't stop talking about it, and kept telling me we were going to Pumpkinland every time we got in the car. I love fall! It's definitely my favorite season. :)

Good Friends

2010-09-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

One of my friends has the most inspiring blog I have ever read. She is a mother of 4, and has gone through a lot of things that I am now going through, including raising a young family. It seems like every time I read her blog, she has posted something that applies directly to whatever I am struggling with, and she has the answers that I am looking for. Not that she is the most wise person I have ever known (although she is very wise) but because she knows where to look and has the same questions I do. I just want to follow her example so that I can be a better mother and wife in Zion. I really look up to her as a wonderful example, and I am so grateful to know her. She probably doesnt know how many times she has been an answer to my prayers. It makes me appreciate the blessing that technology can be. :)

Asher Owen

2010-08-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

So, this post is about 2 weeks late, but I figure better late than never!

Asher Owen Britton was born at home at 10:36 pm on Saturday, July 24. He weighed 6 lbs, 9 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. He is a sweet baby that we have just been enjoying. The labor was great, my best one so far! I will hopefully post the full birth story soon.

The newborn pictures were taken by our friend Amy. I love how they turned out!

Spring Cleaning (of sorts)

2010-05-20T17:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't really cleaned my kitchen in two days. I at least did most of the dishes last night, but I haven't wiped down counters, cleaned the table, or swept since Monday evening. I guess my boys decided it was time to do a little deep cleaning, because they spilled wildberry smoothie all over the linoleum and the table. Definitely need to mop.

But wait...what is this? Oh yeah...they took the smoothie into their bedroom. So I am not just cleaning the kitchen, I also had to borrow a carpet cleaner and clean smoothie out of the couch, carpet, sheets, teddy bear, lambskin, and my wedding quilt (which got it the worst! :( ). I ordered pizza for dinner.

On a cuter note, while spending the morning at our good friends house, Savannah (Gabe's BFF) asked her mom if she could go outside.
"Yes, we can go outside later."
"With Gabe and Tommy?"
"Yes, with Gabe and Tommy"

When Gabe heard that he perked right up and pointing very excitedly to himself said, "Gabe right here! Gabe right here!" It was super funny. His super excited facial expression was the best part.

New Schedule

2010-04-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

We have been adjusting to our new schedule of putting the boys down in their own room. It's going pretty well, although there are still a few bumps. Tommy is completely weaned now, although he occasionally asks for milk. I am amazed at how it's helping me be more organized and how much more smoothly my days are going. Effective bedtime and menu planning seem to be the secrets to my day going well. Speaking of which, I am going to go update my calendar, review the budget, and go over the menus for this week. Ci vediamo!

Maternity clothes

2010-04-06T21:59:00.001-07:00

In general I like being pregnant. I have pretty easy pregnancies, so I don't think of it as a time of aches and pains and pukiness. I like feeling the baby move, and thinking about what the newest little one will be like. One of the things I don't like about pregnancy however, is maternity clothes. Actually, let me correct that-maternity pants. I can't seem to find pants that look cute, stay up, are comfortable, and don't start sagging (especially in the butt area). They drive me crazy!

Luckily, I have finally found a solution: Leggings. Specifically, leggings with skirts. I always like wearing skirts when I am pregnant (for the above mentioned reasons), but now I can wear them in complete comfort of being totally modest. I borrowed a pair of leggings from Alice the other day to wear to church, and I am now firmly hooked. I went and bought three pairs tonight. Now I just need to find some comfortable drawstring/elastic waist skirts to go with them, and I am good to go. You might not see me in jeans again this summer. Plus, a pair of leggings costs $5, as opposed to maternity pants which can range anywhere from $20 all the way up to $100. So, leggings it is!

And now, pictures of some skirts I would like to own:

Lack of Inspiration

2010-03-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

"Help, help, I'm being oppressed!"
"Did you see my house oppressing me?"

Okay, so I may have paraphrased a little, but that is pretty much how I am feeling right now. Here is a list of things that are oppressing me:

1. My orange couch covers. I don't even like orange that much to begin with, and I have had these large, citrus eyesores for over 3 years now. I think one of the main reason I don't decorate is because my couches do not inspire me. At all. They just get messy (very quickly) and dirty (also very quickly) and I can't ever think of anything that really "matches" that I would want to decorate with. I am sure they would be perfect for someone, but I am ready for a change.

2. My kitchen. I have so little useable space, and I have more things than have homes. So It doesn't ever really look clean, even when it is. Also, it could use a good paint job.

3. My living room. I keep dreaming of having a peaceful haven, that I want to retreat to. But instead I have a badly organized room with a big orange lump in the middle. Not the place I want to retire to at the end of the day so I can read and relax.

4. The lighting. I like having a variety of lighting....natural, bright, soft, different combinations depending on time of day and my mood. I have some lamps, but they are currently missing lamp shades, so they aren't very useful. I just hate incandescent lighting when I am wanting to wind down and relax.

5. My bedroom. My bedroom can be arranged in only one way that is even slightly useable. It is not the most graceful, or pleasing, or I am sure, "feng shui" method of arranging the furniture. It's just the only one that lets you access all the doors and keeps the furniture in the room that needs to be there. I am very tired of that particular arrangement.

All of this oppression and lack of inspiration also means that my house isn't staying as clean as I would like. It's hard to motivate oneself to clean a room that doesn't look *that* much better when you are done. It just feels a little fruitless.

Now, this isn't just a post to whine about how I don't like my house. It's actually a post where I am recording the things that are bothering me about my house, in the hopes that as I identify them, I can also identify solutions. Number 2, for example, lets me know that I need to de-clutter, re-organize my cupboards, re-evaluate what I have in my kitchen, and maybe ask the landlords if I can paint. I can almost guarantee I would do a better job then the last people who painted it, seeing as how they missed a section of wall. I might even ask if I could paint it a color, just to make it a little more interesting and exciting.

I also know that if I start going through my house and getting rid of things, that I will feel better. I can rearrange the living room, try to figure out some lighting options, and maybe even figure out a new couch cover. Really, anything has to be better (except the couches that are underneath the covers, unfortunately). I will also start looking for pictures to inspire me. I will just make it a goal to make my house as comfortable and homelike as I can within the limitations that I have. Hopefully as there is some improvement, I will be inspired to make more. I am also hoping that as my house improves, my routines will fall into place more, and I can get my home to a manageable point before the baby comes. I want it to be easy for other people to maintain things while I am recovering, so that it can be a happy, peaceful experience for all involved.

What inspires you?

My angel Gabriel

2010-03-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

I love my sweet boy. I think he is currently cutting his final set of baby molars, because for the last two days he has been sad, clingy, grumpy, tired, and has had no appetite. Also, he got a high fever last night. I know not all kids do, but fever is one of the big signs of teething in my children.

Yesterday we woke up, showered, got dressed and went upstairs for breakfast. After I had given the boys each a muffin to tide them over until I finished making the french toast, Gabe went in the playroom. I went to check on him a few minutes later and he was just laying quietly on the bed. I asked him what he was doing. He replied, "I'm sleeping". He played that he was "sleeping" for the next hour. Every time I checked on him he was still laying quietly on the bed. Once or twice he got up and came in the kitchen to tell me, "I woke up" but then he would head back to the bed. It was so sweet, but a little heartbreaking too. You know he can't be feeling great if he thinks the best game is just laying down for an hour. Today we are watching movies and vegging out. "No Herbie! Just Thomas!". So...no Love Bug...only that old' Tank Engine.

His vocabulary has been increasing by leaps and bounds. One thing we have been working on lately is what sounds different animals make. He is great at monkey, dog, pig, cat, snake, fish, etc. The other night at dinner we taught him that Mommy and Daddy say, "I Love You!". He says it in the sweetest little voice. However, for some reason Daddy has now morphed from saying, "I love you" to "I love grxxely mxeglsh" some weird sounds. Mommy still says "I love you" quite clearly. :)

2010-03-04T13:36:00.000-08:00

I just posted a best-practices list for using iPhone art. Please leave me a comment!

http://blog.getlimed.com/lime/2010/03/getting-your-art-right-for-your-iphone-game.html

meanderings of my brain

2010-02-18T21:18:00.000-08:00

My house is a complete mess right now. Last night I picked up 12 HUGE* bags of clothes from freecycle. It was a completely random mix, and I have been sorting clothes all day. I am now trying to get rid of the things we can't use, and make some kind of sense of the things we can. It's definitely going to be a two day project.

There was quite a lot of baby girl clothes, which we won't know if we need until mid-March. Going through all of them of course made me hope we are having a girl, since they have the cutest little dresses and outfits! Also, I happen to know that if we had a girl she would be quite beautiful. I won't tell you how I know, and neither will Tommy. Let's just say I hope his sisters get his eyelashes and curly hair.

My wonderful aunt sent Gabe a box of matchbox cars and toy dinosaurs. He has been playing with them all day. Tommy and Jack prefer the dinosaurs, but Gabe (of course) loves the box of cars. He just carries it around and asks "Where's Gabe's car box?" It's pretty cute.

Last night my phone rang at 3:00am. That never means good news. I woke up groggily to see who it was..."caller Unknown". Huh...so I answer, to hear my sister (who lives far away in another state where it was currently 5:00am) saying, "Hello? Elise?" I explained, that no, I wasn't Elise, to which she responded, "Meggan? What are you doing up at this hour?" Um...answering my phone. Once my sleepy brain figured out that she was not calling to tell me that someone had died, but was just trying to call her early morning seminary student for their regularly scheduled class, and skype had just misdialed me, I hung up and went back to sleep. It was pretty funny...this morning, when I was awake enough to appreciate it.

*The footnote has nothing to do with the bags of clothes. Just writing that sentence reminded me of a sign that Evan and I saw today. It said, "HUGH Sale on Saturday!". I wanted to take a picture and send it to anyone I know named Hugh.

Saturday Morning...

2010-02-06T08:56:00.001-08:00

Wow, for a little while there I was blogging every day. That is completely out of character for me, but probably a pleasant change for my readers (of which there are probably not many, but I appreciate the faithful few).

The boys are getting so cute! Gabriels vocabulary is expanding daily. Some of his favorite phrases are, kitchen, blankie cuddle, help, no poop (that one is almost always a lie), dinosaur, read it to me, mom mom mom mom mom, and my personal favorite, "Brother". He has stopped calling Tommy by name, and now always addresses him as "brother". As in, "no brother!" "cute brother" "Go away brother!" "oh, baby brother!" etc. It's pretty funny. The other phrase he has that makes me think we can never buy him concessions at the movie theater is when he asks for popcorn but calls it, "car porn". Yeah...that's a little awkward. He has been sick the last few days, so we have been spending a lot of time just cuddling and reading books. Also watching Thomas the Tank Engine.

Tommy is just getting cuter and cuter. He loves books, and will sit and read to himself (with weird growls) for long periods of time. He can say "mom", "dad", and "alice" and loves to cuddle. He is walking all over, chasing Gabe and trying to be just as big as his brother. That works out sometimes and not at others. They are getting much better at playing together. He has six teeth, 2 on the bottom and 4 on the top. He likes to tell baby jokes, and he can crack himself up. It's pretty funny to watch.

Ontario is still super busy. We are trying to figure out how to work his new schedules, and we aren't quite there yet. Hopefully we can figure out a better system soon.

Last night we went on a super fun double date with our good friends Krissie and Barry. I want to blog more about it, but I will wait until I have pictures to post with it. It turned out really cute, and Krissie and I had fun planning it.

Now I have to go finish all my Sunday prep, and take care of these sick little boys. I hope they get over this soon. It's no fun for any of us.

Tommy's Birth Story

2010-02-03T15:52:00.000-08:00

I was reading other birth stories and it reminded me that I had not yet finished Tommy's. So here it is. As long as it is before the next baby arrives, right?

Anyway...on to Tommy's story. Tommy was due on Saturday, Jan. 17th, 2009 so both of Ontario's parents came out to be with us that week. I started having contractions Friday night so it seemed like things were progressing nicely. Gabe was born at 12:27 am on his due date, so it looked like we just had very prompt children. Saturday everyone helped me get ready, and by the afternoon all of the set up and prep was taken care of.

We chose to have a home birth, and the midwife we were working with was Dianne Bjarnson. She is one of the most experienced midwives in Utah, and has delivered over 1100 babies. She actually founded the Midwives College of Utah. Needless to say we felt very comfortable having her as our birth attendant. On Saturday she sent one of her assistants to check on me and see how I was progressing. I am sad that I can't remember her last name, but Laina was one of my favorite midwives ever. We connected so deeply and felt like she was part of the family, even though we had just met. She stayed all day and even slept over waiting for something to happen, but I just wasn't progressing. So, she left Sunday morning and Ontario and I went for a long walk.

It was even longer than we had anticipated. We drove to the mall to have a warm place to walk around in, and when we got back to the car we found out one of the tires was flat. So we walked the mile or so home. All of that exercise didn't matter though, because I kept having intermittent contractions without any real progress. On Wed my father in law flew home. By this time I was very anxious to meet the baby. We didn't know the sex, so I was still really curious about whether or not it was a girl or a boy. We kept trying different things, but nothing was working. I wasn't worried about my health or the baby, but I did want to finally meet that small person!

On Friday I had an appointment with my midwife. She said everything looked fine and that baby was doing well, but there was no change. I was all ready, it was just up the baby to decide when the time was right.

That evening one of Ontario's friends had a fondue party. Since nothing else was going on, we went and had a fun time visiting and eating yummy food. I'm pretty sure Tari tried chocolate dipped bacon, but I refrained. :) I had contractions about every 15 minutes, but since that had been happening all week I didn't think much of it. When we got home I was still having contractions. Ontario and I decided to go on a walk and see if that would help. We went on a long walk around the neighborhood, and the contractions stayed steady. By this time I didn't think I would ever go into labor, so I was just relieved whenever I had another one. We called the midwife when we got home and she said she would come check on me.

While we waited Ontario and I layed on the bed and did relaxation exercises. We had taken a hypnobirth class when I had Gabriel, and it worked really well. We had reviewed the book and Cd's again for this birth, but I didn't feel as prepared. Next time I want to take another class so I feel more ready. It was still soothing to lay there and breathe through each contraction.

The midwives arrived around 1:20 am. The attendants at the birth were Dianne Bjarnson, Angela (Johnson?), and Lisa (?). They got set up while Tari and I kept breathing and relaxing. I knew that this baby would be different from Gabriel, and I guess I thought that meant a faster labor. However, I kept having contractions well into the night without the kind of progress I had with Gabe. Most of the time Tari and I were on the bed or the couch just laying together while he helped me breath through each contraction. Around 6 I was getting pretty tired and frustrated. Tari had fallen asleep and I wanted to let him rest, but things started getting a little too hard. About 6:30 I started feeling the need to push, so the midwives came down. With Gabriel I had pushed for half an hour, and everyone says the second birth is faster, right? Not this little monkey...he took his own sweet time. I pushed for an hour, trying different positions to help the baby through the birth canal. I finally pushed the head out, but he was such a little chunk I had to do another push for his shoulders, then one for his chest, one for his tummy, one for his butt, one for his thighs, and then he finally slid the rest of the way out. It was 7:39am, Saturday, Jan 24. I was so excited to see him and find out we had another son! He looked so much like his daddy, even from the first few minutes he was born.

I remember before I had kids thinking that it might be a little gross to hold them when they first come out and they are all covered with vernix and amniotic fluid and who knows what else. But it turns out I love the feeling of holding them when they are all still slippery and warm. We cuddled him for about an hour and started nursing, and then he got to go get cleaned up and measured and I got to get a few stitches. He came in at a healthy 9 lbs, 20 inches. Once we were both cleaned up a little everyone went to bed. By that time I was so tired all I wanted was to sleep and cuddle my baby. I would say that his birth was harder than Gabe, just because I was more tired going into it. I was also expecting it to be shorter, which it wasn't. However, it was just as peaceful and joyous, and I am very happy with the outcome. Tommy is now a happy, joyful part of our family, and we are happily awaiting the arrival of baby number 3.

Another rambling post...

2010-02-02T02:23:00.000-08:00

I feel like I usually post on my blog when I have insomnia, or in this case, child induced sleeplessness. Maybe that is the only time I really have time? Don't know...

Anyway, Tommy has been restless and/or screaming and/or awake for the last two-four hours. He was restless from when we went to bed till about 1:30, when he decided to take it to the next level with screaming. I don't know what the problem was, but I finally gave him some tylenol and he has just conked out. I, of course, am still awake.

So, we are looking at buying a house. I am very ready to move out of this place. I have loved living here, but it's time to go. We were planning on renting again, but since Ontario's calling limits us to a 10 block radius with extremely limited housing options, we will take what we can get. I think this really might be the house for us though. At least for the next few years. It's a fixer upper, but it has great potential. And as my brother Evan said, "it's definitely an Anderson type of house". It's true...we like going for the old houses with lots of character.

I took a bunch of pictures of the inside when we did our walkthrough, but I am still having issues uploading from the camera. So I will just include the ones I have found online. It looks cleaner in the pictures then it is in real life. The first tasks will be painting the kitchen (I don't hate that purple, except in the kitchen. It just clashes with the cupboards) and ripping up the carpet. I want to put in wood floors, but we will have to see what our options are. Actually, the very first job will be getting a new roof. But we will be hiring someone to do that. :)

It's a 3 bed, 2 bath house with a 1 bedroom accessory apartment in the back. The downstairs rooms are all very spacious, and the lighting throughout the house is amazing. I love the way old houses use natural light. I love the idea of being able to control what happens to our house. I also love the idea of getting a garden started. That will be one of the other top priority projects.

We will hopefully be talking to someone tomorrow to get the ball rolling on paperwork, applications, etc. The realtor selling it has been a little slow about getting info to us, so I am hoping it comes tomorrow.

Okay...I am going to try and put this baby down, and maybe get a little more sleep myself. Night all!

Crazy Hair

2010-02-01T12:31:00.000-08:00

So, I took a couple of pictures with the iSight camera in an attempt to capture the awesomeness of Tommy's post nap hair. I don't know how he gets that kind of body and fullness. He is just naturally blessed with it.

Day of rest....for me

2010-01-24T17:29:00.000-08:00

So, our first real Sunday with Ontario as second counselor. It turns out that Sundays will not be a day of rest for him. Here was his schedule for today:
7:00am-8:45am Bishopric meeting.
9:00am-12:00pm Church
12:00pm-1:00pm lunch and getting hometaught
1:00pm-1:45pm sacrament at the Complex (an apartment complex for older people)
2:00pm-3:00pm counting tithing
3:00pm-4:00pm Sunday School presidency meeting (he still hasn't been released as president)
4:00pm-10:00pm Bishopric training meeting with the stake presidency.

That is right...he had an hour (only it was really more like 30 min) break for lunch. And that is pretty much the only time we saw him today. My schedule was more like, church, lunch, nap, brownies...you see the difference?

His last meeting is a training they said could take "3-6 hours". So I just took them some brownies, cause a 6 hour meeting is just depressing.

Well, I think I need to go rescue my kitchen before the chocolate elves wreak any more havoc.

Changes for the Brittons

2010-01-18T10:42:00.000-08:00

Well everyone, this is a post to update people on the many big changes happening in our lives currently. It feels like 2010 is off to quite a crazy start. Let's go back to the beginning...

ITEM 1. January 1 saw us still in MD about to begin the last leg of our very long cross continental drive for Christmas vacation. While there my sweet, wonderful in-laws gave us their Toyota Sienna minivan. Let me tell you...to 5 people who had just driven across America in a Chevy Cavalier, with all of their luggage and christmas paraphanelia, no greater joy can be imagined then driving back in a much larger, more comfortable vehicle. This also answers the question of what we were going to do this summer when...

ITEM 2. Baby #3 arrives. Probably around the end of July/beginning of August. I think we will find out the sex ahead of time, but that won't be until March. I am super excited. Tommy has started walking (which is so cute as he zombie toddles from room to room) and I am in need of another baby. We love that our family is growing and getting bigger each year.

ITEM 3. Ontario's work. Before we left on vacation, there was a period of unrest when there was the possibility that Ontario would be laid off (right after we found out we were pregnant of course) and so he started sending in resumes to various companies. The company he was working for ended up deciding to keep him, so we had *some* job security, but he decided to keep looking at his other options. When we got home, he contacted, and eventually hired by, LIME marketing. This week he has been finishing up his last work for ZAGG, and he starts at LIME on Tuesday. It's a higher paying job, doing work he likes a lot better, for a company he is really excited about. We both felt really good about his decision to switch. It looks like it will be more high pressure, and I don't know what the hours will be like yet, but I think it will be awesome.

ITEM 4. New calling. On Thursday we got a phone call from the Stake Executive Secretary asking if we could come talk to the Stake President that night. Man...that phone call makes you nervous. So we went in and Ontario was called as the new 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric. He was officially called and sustained yesterday during Ward Conference, and was set apart that evening. His papa flew out to ordain him, and we loved having him visit, even though it has been for a very short time. Sunday was a little crazy to say the least. I know Ontario will do great, and the initial shock is subsiding. I keep thinking about what it means for our family (basically, we see him a lot less), but it also makes me grateful for how the Lord prepares us. I am not usually one to make New Years resolutions, but I have had a lot of goals this year, and I can see how they will all help us as Ontario magnifies his calling. Maybe I will do a separate entry on them later.

School Bag

2010-01-16T08:27:00.000-08:00

Alice (our exchange student) has been having lots of issues with her school bags. She prefers using a tote, but every bag she has gotten has broken within a couple of weeks. I suppose that is one of the hazards of using a handbag for schoolbooks. Anyway, she has been getting really frustrated with it, and she finally asked if I would make her a bag. So...she bought some sturdy black material, and last night I made her a bag.

I didn't have a pattern, so I just made it up as I went. I have actually made quite a few bags recently as part of a church humanitarian aid project, so I wasn't flying completely by the seat of my pants. This one was a little more complex though, since she wanted side panels and a pocket. It actually turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. The bottom corners are a little funky, and it doesn't have the straightest lines ever, but to a casual observer I think it will pass just fine.

Things I am glad I did:

-I topstitched all the seams after I was done, so it had a little more structure. It also reinforced all the seams, making the bag stronger.
-I sewed a seam on the pocket to make it into two front pockets. It was originally one large pocket, but it kept flopping open. It just looks better this way.

Things I wish I had done:

-Have someone teach me how to do those corners, or figure it out online. They turned out okay, but I am sure they could have turned out much better.
-Measure a little more. I faked a lot of stuff, and I think measuring and creating even a simple pattern would have made it a little better.
-Made it slightly smaller. Alice wanted it big, but the material is a little light for it's size. So, I would either use a sturdier material that had more structure for a bag that size, or make it a little smaller so it wasn't quite so floppy.

I was going to post some pictures, but our camera is ghetto, and won't let me upload them. That also means I can't upload any pics from our Christmas trip. Hopefully I can figure that out sometime soon and get the pictures up.

So, what creative projects have you done lately?

Musings...

2009-11-23T02:43:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-09-27T00:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-08-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-08-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-08T07:34:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-07-04T15:38:00.001-07:00

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

Summertime...

2009-06-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-07T21:06:00.001-07:00

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

Picture Proof

2009-05-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the awkward part with Ontario...

Farmers Market

2009-05-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-05-13T19:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-13T23:26:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-02-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-02-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-02-22T18:03:00.000-08:00

Still sick

2009-02-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-03T00:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-25T17:02:00.001-08:00

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...

2009-01-20T22:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-12T22:04:00.000-08:00

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. :)

2 Years

2008-12-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Ontario's and my two year anniversary. I really wanted to surprise him with a getaway while Gabe can stay home with a babysitter and before a new (nursing) baby arrives. It was a pretty small window of opportunity and I wanted to take advantage of it. Sadly, things were looking pretty tight and I didn't think we were going to be able to afford it. My sister told me to pray and ask for help, and if you read our last post you know that Heavenly Father ended up really blessing us. Even more than I wrote then...we ended up with double what we were expecting.

So, I sneakily took some of the money (that Ontario had not found out about), made a reservation at the Hines Mansion Bed and Breakfast, and bought a gift certificate to Chef's Table, the fanciest restaurant in Orem. We have been wanting to try it out forever. I also made sure we would have a babysitter, and everything was set up for a fun anniversary surprise. I made the reservations for January, since that the timing that worked out for babysitters, hotel, etc.

This is a picture of the room I chose, called "Whispering Willow". There was another one I actually liked better, but this one had a shower, while most of them only had the hot tubs. I figured Ontario would like both.

Imagine my surprise Christmas morning when I opened my stocking and found that my sweet husband had decided to surprise me with a nights stay at the "Whispering Willow" room at the Hines Mansion B & B, dinner at Chefs Table, and a play at Hale Center Theater. When he went in to make reservations, he found that I had already made them, so he just moved it to our actual anniversary (Dec. 29). The funniest part is that he chose the exact same room I did, for the same reason, only he thought I would like a shower. He didn't know until he had already picked it that it was the one I liked. It worked out really well, since I really liked getting surprises, and he really likes figuring out his presents ahead of time. So it turned out nicely. Plus there is no doubt we are united!

The other side note to this is that I really wanted to get him the "Amelie" soundtrack (AMAZING!) on iTunes, since the copy we had was not legal and also scratched up and not working. I was waiting until Christmas morning to buy it so he wouldn't know ahead of time. Oh the irony when I opened my email Christmas Eve and he had gotten it for me first. Nothing harder than shopping for the person who can read your mind. :)

Last night we went out for our getaway and it was a lot of fun. We checked into our room, then headed off to the Chefs Table. It was really good (and also it was really good we had TWO gift certificates, since it wasn't cheap either). The best things we had were the bacon wrapped sea scallops (YUM!) and the cream of mushroom soup. The entrees were good, but they overcooked my pasta. As my friend Heidi would say, I am a pasta snob, and I really can't bear to eat it if it's not al dente. The sauce was very tasty though, and I was mostly full by that time so it was fine.

After that we went and watched the show "Room Service" at the Hale Center Theater. It's a 1930's comedy about a producer trying to get his show on Broadway while trying to not get kicked out of his hotel. It was fun, and well done. We haven't ever been to a play together, so that was also fun.

Then we headed back for a romantic evening at the bed and breakfast. At least, that was the plan. I soaked in the hot tub for a little while and drank my complimentary sparkling cider, and then I got super nauseous and had to lay on the bathroom floor for awhile trying to decide if I was going to be okay or if I was going to puke. I finally decided to brush my teeth to decide the point one way or another, and I threw up all of that lovely meal. My poor husband. Afterwards I felt really tired and quivery, so we just laid in bed and cuddled. Not exactly what I was picturing, but thankfully I'm married to Ontario and he was wonderful about it.

The breakfast this morning was tasty whole wheat pecan pancakes and homemade yogurt. We also found out that friends from our old ward, Scott and Abby Rey had stayed there last night for their anniversary. It was fun saying hi and catching up with them. After breakfast we checked out, picked up some Brazilian treats for Evan who had been watching Gabe, and headed home.

Gabe didn't seem overly excited to see us again-happy, but not over the top, until Ontario tried to leave for work. Every time his daddy tried to leave again he would get so sad, and stand there saying please and asking to go with him. It was too cute, and I think it made it extra hard for Tari to leave. Still, it's nice to know you were missed.

We spent a lot of time last night talking about the last two years, and what we want the next year to be like. I think the main thing we have noticed about our marriage is how great it is. I love being married to Ontario. We had so many people warn us that marriage is hard, and you have to work at it, but it's worth it. They always made it sound like a constant uphill battle with occasional bright spots. I have found that it's the opposite. We are happily helping each other up the mountain, and it's only occasionally that things seem to get overwhelming or hard. I love being with my husband, and wouldn't have chosen anyone else. I just think I'm terrifically lucky to be married to him.

Happy Anniversary sweetheart, I love you!

The men in my life

2008-12-21T13:57:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to two of the most important men in my life: Heavenly Father and Ontario, my amazing husband. This week started out a little stressful as we were getting ready for the holidays. I realized whilst doing our budget that we would have almost no money for Christmas. I had kind of a little breakdown about it, which Ontario was very sweet and supportive of. The next day I felt much better. It was definitely a situation where I knew Heavenly Father would take care of us, I just didn't see how. Then on Friday we got our check which was quite a bit more than we were expecting. That was our first miracle, taking the crunch off Christmas and food and gas for two weeks! In addition to that though, Ontario had two business meetings this weekend where he helped his company land two large contracts. That means he gets a 10% finders fee, which is significant. We get the first payment on it on Monday, so instead of a lean Christmas, everything is looking up. I am so proud of my husband. He has worked really hard the last few weeks, and he did a lot to make things happen in time. I am also so grateful for Heavenly Father taking care of us. I know none of it would have happened without His help and guidance. He really does watch over and bless us always.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season!

Hurray for a positive attitude!

2008-12-19T11:21:00.000-08:00

I thought today was going to be stressful and chaotic. I didn't do my before bed routine last night, and I got to bed really late. Add to that waking up at 3:00am to take Krissie and Aaron to the airport, and then waking up to a sink of dirty dishes, I was sure that I would be too tired and stressed to deal with the day.

However...

My husband woke me up before he left for work so we could have family scriptures. I got dressed and decided that even if it started late, I could still have a good day. I did go back to bed for a little while, but I woke up when Gabe woke up and started talking to me. We have some very nice morning conversations. We went upstairs, had breakfast, I took all my supplements, and then we cleaned the kitchen. Gabe helped me with sweeping and dishes, which he thought was great. We need to get him a little broom so he can help me more often. I talked to my sister while I cleaned, so it was fun for me as well. Also, I feel good knowing that I didn't let the inauspicious beginning determine the tone for the day. I actually think it's going to be a great day!

Now I am going to write a to-do list and a shopping list, cycle the laundry, and make sure I am ready to run errands this afternoon when Ontario comes to get me. Then I might lay down and take a little nap until he gets here. I think I've earned it.

Random morning thoughts

2008-12-08T05:51:00.000-08:00

It is currently 6:38 am, and I am sitting in my dark quiet living room enjoying the lights on the Christmas tree. I love this season. It makes me happy just thinking about all the wonderful things it brings. I like how everyone is focused on service and looking for ways to help others.

Our house is still a little crazy as we are trying to get Heidi settled in, but I think most of the major stuff should be taken care of today. I am mostly concerned about Evan getting his bed fixed so it is no longer in my kitchen. Once that happens I think the rest of the house will be able to come together. I can finish decorating, get all the laundry finished, and start my Christmas planning. I know it's a little late for that, things have just been so crazy and up in the air with Tari's work that I haven't known who/what/or how much I was planning for. Now that I have a budget it makes things much easier!

Yesterday in Primary one of the little boys got very excited during sharing time. He wanted everyone to know that he was reading the Book of Mormon, and he had gotten almost to the book of Helium. It was so funny. I love serving there. I always learn something new.

I am mostly sitting here hoping I will get sleepy enough that I can catch another hour of sleep before I need to get up. I had to take Tari to school this morning, which meant waking up at 5:40. That wouldn't have been too bad, if I had been able to get to sleep before 2. Gabe woke up right as I was drifting off around 1 and insisted on screaming and thrashing around for an hour before going back down. I think he must not be feeling well, because he usually has an easier time sleeping than that. It's just been somewhat of a crazy night.

It's crazy to think that we only have 5 more weeks before the baby gets here. I need to hurry up and get my house ready. I have been so focused on Christmas, and moving people around, and new callings that I haven't realized how little time I have left to finish preparing. I think that's nice in a way though...it helps the time go faster.

Since we decided not to find out the sex of the baby this time around, it's been a little trickier deciding on names. We pretty have a boys name agreed on (amazing, since I have the hardest time thinking of boys names I like. Maybe it's because there are so few of them that it narrows it down really quickly) and there are quite a few girls names we have talked about, but nothing definite in that area. It's so exciting thinking about meeting this person for the first time, and finding out just who they are. I can't wait. Also, this baby likes to kick and poke out a LOT, so I won't mind getting to cuddle it externally for a change.

Maryland

2008-11-07T07:55:00.000-08:00

We are currently in Maryland visiting Ontario's family. We are actually leaving today to drive up to NY where his brother Ben lives and attend the blessing of Ben and Robins sweet new little girl Felicity. I am super excited.

1. I love being back in Maryland. This is the first time I have visited when it wasn't all cold and snowy since my mission. It smells SOO good. I realize it's November, but it's about 65 degrees, overcast, and humid. I love it. It's so pretty.

2. I haven't been to NYC since I was abotu 14. I have never been there with Ontario. It's going to be really awesome.

3. We get to see Johnny for the first time since his mission! Yay! This will be the first time I have seen Johnny in 3 1/2 years.

4. We also get to see Felicity for the first time. The pictures say she is a cutie, but I can't wait to give her some snuggles.

5. We also get to see all the rest of Ontario's family, whom I love. They are wonderful. They are so welcoming and loving everytime we come. I am just feeling very happy to be here.

6. Our flight yesterday was awesome. Actually, the whole trip went so smoothly it was almost disturbing. Gabe was cute and fun on the hour long first flight that was super cramped. During the really long wait to get off the plane, he started playing with the little boy sitting behind us and was laughing so hard that everyone had to turn around and look. It was pretty cute. The second flight was almost empty, so we got a whole row to ourselves. Gabe stretched out and slept for most of it, and then woke up and was happy the last hour. I was very nervous about how he would like being penned up for so long, but it ended up not being an issue. I felt very blessed the whole time.

On a less happy note, I didn't get to sleep until 3:30 last night, and then Gabe woke up every hour after that screaming. I am not sure what the problem was...I think he's teething again. It always seems to strike during the night. He will be fine in the day, and then sleeping becomes a huge painful ordeal. After the 2nd or 3rd time my wonderful husband (who hadn't got to sleep at all yet, since he was trying to get his homework finished) took him and I got to finally sleep. I love Ontario. I also love that Gabe is now sleeping peacefully and will hopefully be in a much better mood when he wakes up.

Stupid blog

2008-11-02T18:32:00.000-08:00

I just tried to post a blog about labor and delivery, but it didn't work. I would re do it, but my baby just woke up, so I will try to post it again another time. Grr.

Funnest Week So Far!

2008-10-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

So, our computer is down and our neighbors moved away, taking their internet with them. That means that I stopped updating the blog really. However, we are someplace with internet, so I'm going to turn the keyboard over to my husband so he can give you all a quick update on our lives:

This has been the MFW, the Most-Fun-Week. I entered a programming competition at school for a 3G iPod touch, and just missed it getting second place and a Mac programming book for the prize. But I also won the suprise raffle at the end for another 3G iPd touch. The next day I was layed off, so more time with Meggan and Gabriel! We've been eating out a lot with the gift cards we've accumulated and running important errands together. It's been so nice. We jumped right onto job searching and I have found some good contracts that should be more lucritive that my last set up- so everything is good! We feel bad for my old boss who feels like he failed the company when he had to let half of it go a week ago.

We just feel very blessed. It's been a good learning experience, and also a nice reminder of how much we like spending time together as a family. It's hard to see getting layed off as a trial when everything that has come from it so far has been a real blessing. We are just really happy and enjoying whatever adventure this brings. Now we are off to Red Robin for lunch. Hurray for gift cards!

Ontario here...

2008-10-02T14:11:00.001-07:00

Hi all- my first entry on my blog. I also had a lot of fun on Saturday. If Gabe is awake, he's always fun. I've been thinking about this Saturday coming up too, and General Conference. And I've been forming an opinion lately about living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and being your best in general. It's based on a favorite scripture:

O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe.
...

arise from the dust, my sons, and be men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity;

...

Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound...

I think the prophet Lehi is warning about the kind of apathy that can creep over us slowly until it puts us to sleep. So which of the following is worse, and please chime in below as you please:

1. Wanting to do what's right and doing it. (I pick this as best.)

2. Wanting to do what's right and failing.

3. Wanting to do what's wrong and succeeding.

4. Not caring anymore about either.

Farmers Market

2008-09-27T13:32:00.001-07:00

Ontario finally had a free Saturday, so we decided to clean out the car (which had been smelling like moldy orange and getting progressively dirtier) and then hit up the Provo Farmers Market.

After a yummy late breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes, we set out.

We had a fun time working as a family getting the car cleaned out, and it smells and looks much better now! Luckily the moldy orange was in a garbage bag we thought we had thrown out, but hadn't. It made cleanup a lot easier than if it was ground into the carpet. :)

The Farmers Market was awesome. It's pretty small, but we ended up going on the day they had a bunch of stuff sponsored by the Boys and Girls Club. It was just cool to see all the booths, and there was a fun carnival atmosphere.

It was Tari's first time going, so it was fun showing him some of my favorite booths, and then deciding together what we wanted to get. We ended up with some earrings and a ring for me (thanks Babe!) and a cookie and homemade soap for him. Plus some pears and yummy fresh squeezed strawberry lemonade for everyone.

After we had wandered around the booths for awhile, we took Gabe over to the park. He loved swinging with his dad, and grinned big enough that we could really see his teeth, which is hard to do usually. Then his daddy took him to play on the jungle gym, where Gabe proceeded to CLIMB THE SLIDE. This kid isn't even a year old, and he is already a monkey! He did it without any help. Luckily it was the small slide, so I didn't get totally freaked out. Then he climbed the ladder portion of the jungle gym to get to the tallest slide, and slid down that with no fear. This kid loves adventure.

All in all, it has been a great Saturday so far. I still get to finish my talk, do some laundry, and then go to the General Relief Society Broadcast. I'm pretty excited.

Yay for Packages!

2008-09-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

I just got a package, and it inspired me to write this blog as a shout out to flylady. Who is flylady, some of you are asking? She is my sanity and the person who keeps my household running smoothly. Her real name is Marla Cilley. Check out her website at www.flylady.net. Basically, it's a home organization system for people whose minds work like mine, but it is also much more then that. I truly believe that she is an inspired woman, who is helping thousands of people. My package had my calendar and my dryer cleaning kit, and I am super excited to use both. I guess that shows that I am a nerdy mom type person now, when I get really excited about household tools. I do though! I love having good tools! Anyway, this post is dedicated with gratitude to the wonderful flylady. I'm off to calendar now.

Weaning time

2008-09-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

So, the time has come at last to wean Gabriel. We started about a week ago and things are going pretty well. I think it's obvious my body was done, since I haven't had any engorgement at all, even though we have cut him down pretty drastically from nursing whenever to maybe once a day. I guess the pregnancy hormones have pretty much shut down milk production. Luckily, he has taken well to a bottle (Raw goats milk, rice bran syrup, and molasses. Glad it's not me drinking it) and hasn't been too upset when we have had to say no to nursing. He slept through the night two nights ago, but last night was up and down quite a bit. It never mattered before because I didn't have to wake up to feed him, but now I am grateful for every time he settles back down without a bottle!

In baby news, we found out that our insurance WOULD pay for it, although with many warnings about it being out of network, a non provider, and probably horribly dangerous. Also many warnings that the deductible would be $3000, as opposed to $1500. That wasn't ever really an issue though, since we won't even hit the lesser deductible, with all costs included. Still....it's nice to know that it's taken care of, and we can use our other money for a new computer, since ours died and I have to use Tari's school laptop that has to be returned soon.

I've been feeling incredibly pregnant lately, and am starting to waddle. Also, I am hungry all the time while feeling very full. Our kids always seem to sit right up inside, snuggled in amongst my internal organs. Not very comfortable. This one isn't too big yet though, so it isn't really bad. They are still in the acrobatic flipping around and practicing kickboxing moves stage. I actually love this part of pregnancy. It's so amazing feeling someone growing inside of you!

Gabe is doing great, apart from the weaning. He has anywhere from 3-5 teeth. He won't ever let me look to get an accurate count, and it's hard to guess from feeling (which he also hates). He is going to be a jack-o-lantern though, since none of them are in the usual first teeth places. He has two for sure on the bottom, on the left side. Then he has one, possibly two canines on the top. I can't wait till they get a little bigger and you can really see them when he smiles.

In other news, Tari and I have to give talks on Sunday about preparing for General Conference. Any suggestions on what your favorite way to get ready is?

Playing at the Park

2008-09-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

This morning Gabe and I walked to North Park, about 6 blocks from our house. I had to stop halfway there for a little rest break. I'm obviously super out of shape, pregnant and have a gammy leg. However, I'm very glad we went because the weather is gorgeous and Gabe loved it.

It's funny watching him at the park. He has no fear, and hasn't figured out things like gravity. He really likes trying to catch up to the other kids, and climbing the jungle gym. He has only really started walking this last week, but he doesn't let that stop him. He also snacked on some wood chips, but I tried to keep that to a minimum.

Right now I'm waiting for the lasagna from last night to heat up for lunch. It was super tasty. I always get kind of nervous about my cooking, but I usually end up loving it. Is it stuck up of me that I really like my own cooking a lot? I really enjoy anything that is tasty, and I love trying new recipes. I've actually been considering going to culinary school. It's the only thing I can think of that I would really enjoy studying.

2008-08-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory (or many, I don't mind!)that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

It's been too long!

2008-08-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

So, I realized it's been almost 2 months since I updated. Most of that is because we have been in the process of moving to our new house, having family visit, and going on about three different vacations. The time of travel is now done, and I am safely back in the bosom of my family. As much as I enjoy travel, I am very glad to be done for awhile. It's nice to finish settling in.

This week has been a lot of fun as all the students have been returning. Our house turned into the landing zone, and we have had many visitors in the form of Krissie Ostlund, her friend Jenna, Aaron (not sleeping, but hanging out) and tonight we will get Joe Clark, not to mention my brother Evan who is living with us. They are all young folk trying to figure out jobs and housing in the Provo world, but we have just enjoyed having them around. Hopefully they will all be able to find apartments, since Provo is undergoing a major housing crisis right now.

I am really enjoying my new house, and I am get very excited about the fall and decorating for the holidays. I dont know why I can't have normal cravings when I am pregnant. I have been dying for Autumn, which isn't something you can just run down to the store and pick up. Instead I have been blessed with beautiful 90+ degree weather. Oh the irony of it all.

I am also getting very excited for the arrival of our newest addition. At my last prenatal appointment the midwife gave me the list of birth supplies I needed to get ready for the birth, and when I read the part about "baby clothes" and "baby hat" I got so excited. I can't wait to have another beautiful little tiny member of our family. Woo!

Moving

2008-06-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

So, haven't really had time to update this week. We have been moving from our tiny 1 bed, 1bath apartment to our glorious, spacious, fabulous 3 bed, 2 1/2 bath duplex. I can't even begin to say how great our new house is. It has everything we wanted, plus some. Washer/Dryer, yard, TONS of storage, lots of rooms, plenty of space for a growing family, and it's partially in the basement, which means it is so nice and cool.

Here is the stinky part of moving: I have had a headcold, and I am still having first trimester queasiness and exhaustion. That means I have had almost no energy for cleaning, packing, or organizing, all key elements to moving. Plus my nose has been running for the last 3 days. It is finally stopping, and changing to the thick goop in my lungs. Hurray.

Saturday we rented a truck and Tari and our friends the Smith moved TWO households...Smiths to Spanish Fork, and us to further west in Provo. They were superheros. They were hauling stuff up and down stairs and loading trucks for almost 7 hours. Luckily we got some help for the last couple of hours. I am so grateful for our awesome neighbors who were willing to lose their saturday to help us move.

Now I am at the old house (where we still have internet...we need to get that hooked up in our new place) and I am supposed to be finishing the packing and cleaning. Some sisters are coming at 4 to help clean (bless their hearts) but I would like to get the packing finished before they get here. If I can only muster the energy...

Vacation

2008-06-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

So, we have been in Crawford, CO for the last week enjoying a week of vacation with Ontario's family. We are staying at the family ranch which is AWESOME, to put it mildly. When I say family ranch, I mean extended family, not immediate family. But family nonetheless!
This is the house. The window on the far upper left is our bedroom window.

Our bedroom, with the awesome built in window bed

The view from our bedroom.

So, as you might imagine it's been a pretty awesome vacation. There have been lots of activities, like whitewater rafting, horseback riding, four-wheeling, hiking, goldmine spelunking, fishing, jeep tours, pony rides, etc. Unfortunately, I only got to participate in one or two of these activities because of my delicate condition. That was the same thing that happened last year. I have got to come sometime when I am not pregnant.

It's been a lot of fun, but also very tiring. I haven't been sleeping as much as usual, and neither has Gabe. Poor Tari has to put up with a cranky wife and son. But he also gets to do all the fun stuff I don't, so I don't feel too bad. :) It's been fun being with family and getting to know various cousins better.

One of the most exciting things that has happened so far has been our friendly neighborhood bear that keeps coming to visit. It's a pretty young bear that obviously hasn't been taught to be afraid of humans, because it tried to come in the house. It's just on the prowl for food, but it's pretty exciting when you are eating dinner and there is a bear 5 feet outside the window. I will post pictures of that as soon as I get them on the computer.

I need to go pack, since we head home tomorrow. I am tired, but happy.

Guess what?

2008-06-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

In other news....we are expecting another baby in January.

Free Babysitting

2008-06-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

I just talked to my brother Evan, and he told me that plans are moving forward, and he will be coming out in July. He is going to be moving in with us for an unspecified period of time. I guess we all know what that means: Live in free babysitting! Just kidding, although I don't think Evan even reads my blog. No, seriously I'm excited to have him come out. I haven't really gotten to hang out with him for a few years, what with overlapping missions, and then living across country from each other. It's going to be a party!

In other news, I took my friend Heidi up to SLC yesterday. She went to the chiropracter, and I went on a lovely walk around Temple Square with Gabe. It was a really fun excursion. We also had a nice picnic lunch that my wonderful husband made me. Spinach, tomato, and provolone sandwiches. Yum. We also got some neat pictures, which I will post once I get my camera back from Heidi.

My son is crawling around in his diaper, eating my cellphone. He has one of those gimpy crawls, where it seems as if only one legs works for actually crawling. I want to get a video of it, cause it's so darn cute and funny. Speaking of Gabriel, he is exhausted and it looks like naptime has come again. Later, ya'll.

2008-06-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our first day starting church at 1:20pm, as opposed to 8:00am, as it has been. It was kind of nice, having a relaxing morning, getting in some last minute lesson prep, and then heading off to church. We had a wonderful sacrament, with some really powerful testimonies born. I got a little sad thinking it would be my last fast sunday in this ward. I have really liked being here.

We also had a great evening. Gabe's mouth was really hurting him, so we went on a walk to distract him. We followed the same general path we went on when I was in labor with him, so it was somewhat of a stroll down memory lane. It was also the first time we had gone on a family walk since that day. Sad, but true. I think that is something I want to do more this summer. Maybe we will make it part of our evening routine to take a walk after dinner. It was so nice being outside, spending time together.

Gabe reminds me of a young James Dean today. He is sporting a tight white onesie, some dark wash jeans, rolled up, and a of course a very cool hairdo. He couldn't be more 50's if he tried! He wants so much to be walking, it's sometimes distressing for him. He is making great progress though.

For some reason I feel like a blog entry doesn't count if I don't include a picture. So here is a cute shot of Gabe and Ethan napping together the day before the Pauls moved. It makes me realize just how big Gabe is getting!

Packing

2008-05-29T09:12:00.000-07:00

So, I had somewhat of an epiphany yesterday. We have had a lot of people in the ward offer to babysit Gabe (one of the benefits of having a cute baby in a ward full of baby hungry newly married people) but I usually don't take them up on it. We are always busy, or we just take him with us. However, I am having a really hard time getting everything ready I need to in preparation for moving. Yesterday I realized I could take them up on that, and just go back home and clean! I got my fridge cleaned out, and Gabe's clothes sorted. It was wonderful. Yeah for babysitters!

This is how Gabe helps me with packing: eating the phonebook

Unforeseen Side Effects

2008-05-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

So, this week we have realized one of the side effects of Gabe getting a concussion. The doctors didn't warn us, but maybe they didn't know. Ever since he sustained a serious head injury, our baby has perfected the art of the insincere courtesy smile. I don't know if he is just humoring us now, or what brought it on. But he is always giving us this sickly fake smile. I am including photographic proof. It's one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

Concussions

2008-05-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

We had our first medical adventure with Gabe this week. Monday night he was sitting on the bed crawling around. He sat up a little too close to the edge and tipped off backward, landing on the exercise bike (which usually lives in the living room). He was crying and acting weird and disoriented for about an hour, so we called some family and friends, who agreed that we should take him in. Ontario gave him priesthood blessing, and then we took him to the hospital.

We got to sit around the ER for a few hours while various nurses and doctors would come in and check him out every once in a while. Our good friends had kindly come with us, and during the wait times they regaled us with stories of their visits to the ER. It all ended with Gabe getting a CT scan (which he held very still for, despite being awake) and everything checking out. He did have a definite concussion, but it didn't seem to have caused any internal bleeding. They said we could take him home, and just to keep an eye out for losing consciousness or vomiting.

During the night he would wake up occasionally, and the only thing that would calm him down was having his daddy carry him around and sing to him. Once he was calm enough, he would bring him to me to nurse and we would all sleep for a few more hours. It made me very grateful for Ontario, and that he is such a good dad to Gabe and such a supportive husband to me.

The next day Tari worked from home to help out. Gabe was sad and clingy all morning, just wanting cuddles. Then around noon he projectile vomited (NOT what we wanted to see) so we took him back to the doctor. They checked him again and said everything else was okay, and to give him some tylenol and keep him under observation. The rest of the day was spent cuddling sad sick baby.

Everything seemed to be going well until the next day (Wednesday) when he projectile vomited AGAIN, 4 times. We headed back to the doctor (Gabe can recognize the pediatricians office now) and they did another check. All of his other symptoms were fine, so they said we could take him home, but if he vomited again that he would need another CT scan. Luckily, that was the last of the vomiting. He has been getting back to normal, and seems to be doing just fine today. It was a sad and scary couple of days though.

We're moving!

2008-05-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

Ontario and I finally decided to jump on the bandwagon and get a blog. What can I say...basically everything that google does is awesome. I wanted a quick and easy place to post photos and updates of Gabe, and to keep our families in the loop. Hopefully some of them read it! :)

I started this blog about a month ago, but this is the first time I have actually posted something . :s Oh well. Better late then never, right? Our big news currently is that we are going to be moving next month! Due to an unfortunate series of events (i.e., they raised our rent a ridiculous amount) we have been looking for something around June or July. We finally found the perfect place in Provo. It's 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, with a front and backyard and a washer and dryer included. I am SO excited to be moving somewhere I have space AND I don't have to carry the clothes down three flights of stairs to the coin-op laundry! Plus, it's a partial basement apartment, which will be so nice and cool in the summer. I couldn't be happier with it. Heavenly Father really blessed us to find the right place.

Gabe is officially crawling. He likes to follow me around the house, and I think he is enjoying his new mobility. Except that I am still faster than he is, so he gets mad if he crawls all the way over to me and then I walk away. H is also pulling himself up on things and inching along the edges. I predict he will be walking in the next few months.