McDonald Family

Old year and New year

2012-01-24T08:07:00.007-07:00

Man, it has really been awhile since I have recorded anything on this blog. But life has been busy! For one, I got a new calling at church- I'm the second counselor in the Relief Society presidency- so things have been busy while I try to learn my responsibilities, and visiting sisters, and well, the llist goes on. But I'm grateful for the call because it has helped me look outside of myself, which is something that I needed desperately when I received the call due to some personal grief I was struggling with. Anyways, this week is drastically more laidback than the last month, so I'm catching up and finishing some things I've been pushing aside. Hence why I am finally writing a post. I think I might just do bullets with pictures thrown in, which will hopefully shorten things up since I know some of you don't actually read all the way through when I blog long posts (Mallory W. I'm talking to you! :)

We stayed in Arizona for Christmas break, which was nice because it was quiet and Adam needed a lot of time to catch up on one of his classes since it got pushed to the side during a test week he had the week before break.
We went and saw Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo, and it was cool- there were just a ton of people everywhere and it made it hard to keep moving in some spots. We made it once through the whole zoo, and decided it was time to go home because of the crowd and because of the boys' bedtime.

We also had a couple of friends over who stayed in AZ, too, on Christmas eve to decorate Santa sugar cookies. It was fun and our house was a little bit chaotic with all the little kids running around.
Santa brought Caleb and Nathan a couple of small "quiet" toys and books they could take to church. After church (we had the 9:00 meeting time) we opened up our family gifts, which was nice to keep the focus on Christ. But Adam gave me a Kindle, which I have enjoyed, and the boys each got a bike which they were ecstatic about. Adam didn't get anything too exciting from us, it was mostly practical stuff- khaki pants for school, Inception, a personal trimmer (for his old man hair growing from his nose! Hahaha! Actually, he really did want this one!). And from extended family we got lots of fun things, too. Including an external hard drive to use for backup on our computers. Which is a huge blessing! I can't tell you how stressed I got thinking about losing all of our pictures and videos of the boys if something went wrong with the computer! (Now I just need to upload them to the hard drive!)
I had my 24th birthday Caleb had his 2nd birthday. We decorated the house with a bunch of balloons and I made special birthday garland out of felt that we can reuse. For my birthday, Adam and I got to go on a date to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Ironically, it was a last minute plan and I had already made a cheesecake for my birthday cake, so we will be going back another time to share a slice. Which means another date! :) Caleb also scored; we gave him legos and he got even more toys and cards from extended family. Thanks everyone!

With the new year, we also decided to start potty training Caleb. He just seemed ready to me, so I decided to roll with it. And he's done fairly well. It's harder this time than with Nathan because I'm not home 100% of the time because of my calling, taking Adam to and from school, running errands, and taking Nathan to and from preschool, and we've had to use pullups some, but all things considered, he's doing well for a 2 year old. We've been going for about 3 weeks, and we still have accidents every day, and sometimes I really start to think we should just go back to diapers, but then the next day he's back to near perfect. Darn those distractions!
With the new year, Nathan has graduate from nursery to sunbeams at church. The first couple of weeks were rough because he didn't want to go- I think because it was different. The older nursery kids did get to go into primary a couple of times at the end of last year, but it's not really the same thing. Anyways, he ended up going with the wrong class because he was kind of afraid of the male teachers he had and he even fell asleep one Sunday and Adam had to go get him (we meet at 1, which is naptime and I'm sure that compounds the problem). But we started "bribing" him to go to nursery. We made a chart with 10 squares, and if he takes a nap before church he gets to put a star on his chart and if he goes to primary happily and sits with his class he gets to put on another star. When his chart is full, he gets to go choose a new toy train from the store. This last Sunday went ok, he didn't take a nap but he didn't cry when I dropped him off and he did sit in a chair- even if it was the farthest chair away from his teacher. :)
I've finally started to work on my first machine quilted quilt, which I will post pictures of when I am done. I have finished the top, the backing and the binding, now I just have to do the quilting and then bind it and I'm done! I'm really excited how it is looking and I can't wait for a special Baby Jillian to finally get her present! So hopefully I will post again later this week with those final pictures!

Merry Christmas 2011 Blog Card

2011-12-16T15:23:00.003-07:00

So I decided that I wasn't going to do Christmas cards this year because of finances and because of time. Instead, I decided I would take a picture of the boys, and then post it here as the McDonald Family's official Blog Christmas Card:

Merry Christmas! We hope this season is filled with wonder and magic for your family as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. With Love, The McDonalds

November 2011

2011-12-03T13:38:00.008-07:00

My mom graciously called me a "blog loser" so I'm making myself sit down at my computer and post what we did this last month. The first couple of weeks were same old, same old, but the last two weeks Adam had school off for Thanksgiving. It was nice to have him home for so long, even though he started having studying withdrawals since he had been doing school stuff pretty much non-stop for 10 weeks. We had a pretty laid back break, though. We bought season passes to the Phoenix Zoo- it was only $90 for our family, and we only have to use it 2 times for it to be worth what we spent because of the admission prices. It's kind of nice to have something like that so we will always have something to do, at least for the next year! So we spent a day at the zoo. We were really impressed with how well kept the living areas were for the animals, as well as how clean the animals were themselves. You know how the animals, especially the Safari animals, always look dusty and dirty? Well, they looked freshly bathed. The boys really enjoyed seeing all the different animals, especially the monkeys. They had an orangutan exhibit where one of them was trying to get a collapsed cardboard box through a small door. Nathan laughed and squealed with joy the whole time and just thought it was fun to watch. Then they also had a special exhibit that you walk through where the monkeys are free roaming. The monkeys were small, but they were not afraid of us at all. One walked right up to me and Nathan, and then there were several that used the railings along the path as monkey bars. It was really neat. The only complaint I had about the zoo is that there wasn't a ton of aquatic life and there were no seals, penguins, or polar bears, but then again, we are in Arizona. I guess it would be asking a little much for those exhibits, but they could build a large air conditioned indoor exhibit, right? Hahaha. One other thing that was cool is that while we were going through the amphibian exhibit, it was feeding time, so we got to see a gigantic, lazy toad eat his crickets. He just sat there and shot his tongue out at the bugs. Nathan thought that was pretty cool, too.

Do you like the random kid in the back?

Other than that, we went to the library several times and checked out movies to watch and just hung out and made treats and delicious food. Here the boys are sampling the homemade brownie batter of our new favorite brownie recipe:

We did go hiking at the White Tank Mountains on waterfall trail the Saturday before school started again. It was just under 2 miles round trip, and the boys loved being outside and picking up rocks. I thought it was really funny because right as we started our hike Nathan said, "I need a stick," so we found him one and he insisted on bending over as he was walking and dragging it on the path. Funny boy. At the end of the trail, there is a small cliff that is home to a waterfall during wetter seasons (hence the name of the trail), but when there is no running water, there are a lot of rocks to climb on. The boys were in heaven- finally they could climb without being told "No! Get down from there!"

Now Adam is back in school, Nathan keeps begging us to go trick-or-treating at Daddy's school, Caleb keeps throwing ornaments from the Christmas tree onto the floor, and I'm trying to keep up with housework, Christmas shopping, and everything else that comes with being a mom.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-30T21:41:00.005-06:00

I was struggling with ideas for Nathan's and Caleb's costumes this year, so we looked at the costume picture wall at a local party store for ideas. I'm so glad we did, because Nathan solved my dilemma. After steering him away from the Thomas the train costumes (I realize it's hard to dress a child like a train, but that costume was horrible) he saw Mario and Luigi and got really excited about dressing up like the "bad guys". He called them "bad guys" because when we were living in Sacramento, Adam borrowed his brothers Super Mario game for the Wii and played it a lot. And since Mario and Luigi fight bad guys, he's dubbed anything in that game "bad guys". Anyways, the costumes were $25 each, and that was definitely not in our budget, so I decided to make them. Which is what I wanted to do originally anyways. So after finding a tutorial for a hat and figuring out the general idea of making overalls, I set to work. And here are the results:

I had to make everypart of their costumes (besides the shoes, and the moustaches I found at the part store- they are just stickers and they were $.25 each) because believe it or not, I could not find any long sleeve shirts in red or green (for a decent price since they were for Halloween and we are in Arizona) in stores or online. Nathan's shirt turned out really well, and Caleb's turned out well all except for the collar. I think it had mostly to do with the fabric I was using, but I was able to salvage it and I think it looks fine. Adam and I were also amazed because once we put their moustaches on (we waited until after we ate dinner at the trunk or treat) they left them alone and wore them the rest of the night. It was awesome!

I was originally going to dress up as a nurse for our ward trunk or treat, but last minute I decided that was boring and so I looked through our costume box and my closet and found this costume:

Can you guess what I was? I was Sandy from Grease the movie. I know I don't look all that much like her, but most people were able to guess who I was, and several people "loved" my pants and were in awe that I found them in high school and could still fit in them (I didn't mention that when I wore them in high school for a school project that they fit me much looser and that if I weighed even 1 pound heavier than I did that night, I probably wouldn't have been able to zip the zipper completely- it's on a need to know basis, right?). Anyways it was fun to do something more than just wear scrubs. Adam was the same thing from last year: an electrical outlet. I didn't get any good pictures of him this year, but here are a few of him and the boys before we left for the trunk or treat.

Happenings

2011-10-30T17:22:00.007-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted, so I thought I would finally just sit down and do it. There hasn't been a lack of things to post, just excessive laziness on my part. :) So I'll catch up in this post.

The first happening is that a couple of weeks ago, our family got the stomach bug that has been going around Adam's school. First up was Caleb. Then a couple of days went by, and we thought maybe we escaped everyone else getting it. Then Adam woke up nauseous and vomiting a couple of Sundays ago. So he stayed home while I took everyone else to church, including choir practice following the block. Unfortunately, during the last 10 minutes of choir practice, Nathan joined the rank of the sickies all over himself and the Relief Society Room floor. I was mortified, but thankfully, everyone that was there was really kind and helpful and we had everything cleaned up quickly. (And Caleb slept through the whole thing, which has to be one of the greatest blessings of all!) Then Caleb threw up again a couple of days later, and five days later, I got sick. Thankfully, my illness stayed nauseous instead of acting on the nausea (I hate throwing up, and I will do anything in my power to not. Maybe too much information, no?) Anyways, a lot of people here have had the same stomach bug, and we're glad that we've put it in our past.

Adam was great with the boys while I was sick.

They made a fort and played a lot so I could get some extra rest.

Then last week, Adam had his white coat ceremony for school. It's basically a congratulatory ceremony celebrating the students success up to this point and kicks off the beginning as their roles of students in the medical field. I had both boys with me, which was tough because the boys wanted to just climb up and down the stairs the whole time. Thankfully it wasn't too formal of an event, so we didn't stick out too much. After the ceremony, we went to the optometry school reception where they served us sandwiches, crackers, cookies, and sodas/waters. While we were there, Adam introduced me to one of his teachers who told me that they really enjoy having Adam in the class because he is a good student and definitely at the higher end of the class grade wise. Adam then started joking that he was at least in the top 50 (there are 49 students in his graduating class). I'm going to have to teach him how to take compliments!

This is how the boys looked and felt after we were done with the ceremony part (it was ALL of the first year students at the school and was between 1-1/2 to 2 hours long)

Student Doctor McDonald

Adam walking up to recieve his coat

After being clothed in his official white coat

The day after white coat, Adam went to the school to do his typical Saturday's study (which means he sequesters himself in the library or student lounge all day, sometimes taking a break for lunch, trying to finish going through all of the lectures he is responsible for knowing for the following week's test). On his way home, he waved to a girl in his class just as he was supposed to take a turn, resulting in a sudden stop and a swerve. Unforunately, this led to his laptop bag snapping off his shoulder and flying into the nearby reflection pool/fountain. Upon the recommendation of everyone we talked to, we put it on rice to try to absorb any excess moisture in the hopes that it would still operate fine, but we were unsuccessful. So after a very stressful weekend of dreading a bill of $1300 for a new macbook pro, Adam took the laptop to the IT department on campus. They said they would have to take it into the Apple store for it to be repaired/replaced. So they said to check back the next day for news on what the cost would be/ what needed to be done to fix the problems. Adam called, and because the laptop was so new, because he was honest about the situation and the fact that Apple has a good relationship with the school, we got the laptop repaired for free! It was such a relief to not have to come up with the extra money (which we don't have being graduate students- it's all loans based off a single person's living expenses). He has it back now, and is loving being able to use it in his classes again to take notes and to record lectures.

Also, you may recall that I was doing preschool with Nathan here at home. Well, there was a couple of other girls in my ward who were wanting to start a preschooling co-op, so I joined them. And it has been great. Nathan gets to associate with other kids near his age (he's 3 and the other 2 kids are 4) and instead of having to plan multiple lessons each month, I only have to plan 2, sometimes 4. I was originally concerned that Nathan would be the youngest, but now that I've observed him in a "classroom" situation with the other two, I think it works fine.

The boys are just growing so fast and doing new things every day! My house is almost always filled with song, whether it is Nathan singing or Caleb shouting the words (he's working on singing, but he mostly just shouts the words right now). The most frequent melodies are "The itsy bitsy spider", "Wheels on the bus", "I am a child of God", and the "ABC's". Caleb is also close to being able to count from 1 to 10, he just needs a few reminders sometimes around 6. Both boys enjoy storytime at the library, but unfortunately, Nathan has preschool during it, so Caleb is the only one who has been able to go the last couple of weeks. But we still go visit the library so they can play with the train tables, puzzles, and play kitchen, and of course, get new books. I always look around me at the library and most parents only take a couple of books, but I fill up an entire reusable grocery sack with books and it only lasts us a week. It's a good thing our library is close and has a lot of books! Of course, Nathan also likes checking out a new Thomas movie every week. So we don't ONLY get books, just mostly.

Bedtime has begun to get a little easier as far as Caleb falling asleep (we just realized it was a game for Caleb to come out of his room only to be put back in bed, so we baby gated them into their hallway so Nathan could still go potty if he needed to, and it has been wonderful!), but naptime is still hard, so Caleb is still falling asleep after lunch while still in his high chair.

Nathan is finally understanding the concept of drawing a face.

This is his best attempt so far.

Adam dug out some of his old toys from growing up and enjoyed playing Z-bots with the boys, or "the guys" as Nathan calls them

We've also had a couple of encounters with the dentist this month, once for Nathan- his first time actually, and a couple of times for me. With Nathan's appointment, he clung to my legs most of the time and refused to cooperate, which in turn led to a lot of crying and screaming. Thankfully, the dentist seemed used to it (it was a pediatric dentist) and despite not getting x-rays or a cleaning in between fits, she was able to keep his mouth open long enough to look at his teeth and determine they looked healthy and that we should just keep doing what we are doing to take care of his teeth. She also encouraged me to bring in Caleb next time, too. I thought she was nuts, mostly because I would say Nathan is more cooperative of the two when it comes to strangers, but I scheduled them both on the same day in the spring. Hopefully everything will go at least ok. For me, I began going to the dental clinic associated with Adam's school. It had been a while since I had been to the dentist, and I was having some occassional pain in some of my teeth. This was a great option for me because I don't have dental insurance and since the dental students are doing the work, the prices are discounted. Well, for the first appointment they did an initial patient screening to see if I was eligible to receive care there (basically it's just financial need, at least from what I understand). Once I was cleared, they did a bunch of x-rays and I told them about the pain I had been having. Then they started getting really excited and started mumbling something about "2's". Well, it turns out that I have class 2 cavities on 3 teeth, and these specific types of cavities they have been having a hard time finding in patients and they need those types of cases for the 4th year dental board exams. What that means is that I am being given an opportunity to be a board exam patient and for my participation, I will have the work done for free! I couldn't believe it. That was definitely a blessing!

Nathan and Caleb after Nathan's dentist appointment

(they gave both of them balloons and prizes)

But speaking of health care professionals, Nathan also had his 3 year check up and everything looked great. He was in the 75% for both height and weight and the doctor said developmentally he's doing great. His stats are: weight 31.5 lbs. height 38 inches.

On My Mind...

2011-10-22T00:54:00.003-06:00

I have felt impressed to record some of the thoughts I've been pondering lately. As many of you know, there has been a lot of political discussions regarding religion, specifically the mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), since Mitt Romney has joined the presidential race in the republican primaries. I have felt sheltered and naive about how the world views my religion, perhaps because I have been surrounded by mostly LDS people for so long, and reading/watching news clips of how others respond to the church has been intriguing. I've noticed that some media groups do their research thoroughly, while others barely skim the surface of what makes up the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and focus on the stereotypical misunderstandings of the church, such as polygamy. Today I read one such article where the author seemed to quote anything she could find that could be used against the church, quoting mostly an atheistic comedian. It made me start thinking, what if this belief in God is a hoax? I know that I have had experiences in my life that have proven to me, without a doubt, that God is real, and that His son, Jesus Christ, is my Savior and Redeemer, and this question wasn't a question on if I was going to leave the church or not, it was just a "what if". I concluded that it wouldn't really matter how I was living, because after I died, there wouldn't be any accountability. But, I think I would still choose to live the way I am living now. Why? Well, for one, I am happy. I have experienced true joy as I have sought to follow Christ's teachings and I feel that it has made me a better person. Better in that I am more willing to serve others, that I am more willing to put aside my personal desires and comforts for the greater good of my children and my family, and better in that I am comfortable with who I am as a person. So then I started thinking, if it turned out that faith in Christ in conjuction with righteous works doesn't matter, as so many appear to think, why do they care if I choose to live in such a way? It would be a wonderful thing if everyone believed the way I do, because I truly believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ was meant for every person who has lived, does live, and will live on the earth. However, I know that it will never happen because we all have our agency, we all have the ability and right to choose for ourselves what we believe in and how we live. So why does it matter if my beliefs are peculiar? I don't really have an answer to that question, but when Adam and I were reading our scriptures together tonight, we read a couple of verses of scripture that comforted me and taught me something in regards to what I've been churning around in my mind. The verses we read were John 15:18-20:

18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

These verses comforted me in that they taught me Jesus Christ's followers would be persecuted by the world, just as He was because they do not follow the world's teachings and ways of thinking. These verses bolstered me up and gave me the strength to hear the slandering of the church I belong to, the mormon church, even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, because it is the true church and nothing anyone says will every change that. I know that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and that He guides and directs everything the church teaches and does today. I know that Christ suffered and died for all the world's sins so that we can repent, make ourselves better, and draw closer to Him and to our Heavenly Father and eventually return to live with Them. I know that I am not perfect, but as long as I do the best that I can in following the Lord's commandments and as long as I am humble, meek, and submissive to our Heavenly Father's will, that Christ will welcome me into His fold that I may be counted among His righteous.

If you would like to learn more about what I believe, please visit mormon.org, or ask me! :)

Home Preschooling

2011-09-21T12:04:00.009-06:00

It's amazing how the foci of our lives change so often! Not too long ago, I spent my free time scouring food blogs for new recipes, then I started stalking craft blogs (which I still do, and I've only remained faithful to one cooking blog to this day), and now I'm constantly thinking of preschool. Yes, I still like to find new recipes and cook, and yes, I still like a good sewing/craft project (unfortunately, it takes money most of the time, so these activities are at a minimum, although I do hope to finally finish collecting fabric for a quilt I've been collecting fabric for over a year now. Someday, someday...), but I find it challenging and exciting to create a home preschool lesson plan and I look forward to doing the lessons, activities, games, and art projects with Nathan (and Caleb, although I'm sure he doesn't get what is going on). I am not sure exactly how a professional preschool will fit in our budget (if ever, at least for the next 4 years), so I decided to work on things with Nathan at home. In the past we've focused on ABC's and counting to 10 with Nathan, and recently we've been working on phonics and counting to 20 and spelling his name vocally. I'm also starting to do more fine motor exercises to help strengthen the muscles in Nathan's hands and wrists so he can eventually write. The resources I've been using are:

1 + 1 + 1 = 1

2 Teaching Mommies

Preschool Express

The local library (to check books out for daily/weekly themes)
Kitchen-Table Play & Learn by Tara Copley & Andrea Custer (from the library, but I plan to buy it; it has simple lesson and activity plans grouped by theme for preschoolers)

I also checked out the book Early Education at Home by M. Jean Soyke yesterday, but I haven't perused it enough to say if it's really worth having yet. It does have a section in the book that talks about preschool age development, which I found helpful since I didn't do early childhood development in college, and it also has weekly lesson plans.

The first week, we talked about "Nathan". We talked about our bodies, our family, and how to spell his name. Then last week, we had farm week where we talked about animals and food that come from farms. One activity we did during farm week that my boys got a kick out of was making ice cream in a baggie on the day we talked about cows. If you are interested, here's the recipe:

Ice Cream in a Baggie

1 c. whole milk

2 Tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

(you could probably also put in jam or desert syrups to flavor the ice cream, just make sure you really mix it up in the baggie)

Place all ingredients into a Ziploc bag (the directions say a quart sized bag, but I used a sandwich one and it worked fine). Place that bag into a larger Ziploc bag (gallon sized) that has partially been filled with crushed ice and salt (I used ice cubes and ice cream salt). Mush it around with your fingers for 5 to 8 minutes and you'll have ice cream. (I've also heard of the same container and ice/salt concept but using cans/jars. But you roll the containers instead of shake them like you do with baggies.)

Then this week, we've started the ABC's. Since Nathan is already familiar with all the ABC's, both uppercase and lowercase, we're doing one letter per day. I'll post more about this week another time since we still have a couple of days left. Here are some pictures of what we've been doing.

This is from when we talked about our bodies, more specifically our faces. We drew faces on the bathroom mirror using Crayola window markers (dry erase would also work). Nathan loved this, and it was his first time drawing any kind of face. I think it helped to have the mirror so he could see what his own face looked like. I did have to help him with drawing a circle big enough for a face to fit and I did also prompt him with where the eyes should go, where the mouth should go, etc. but I think he did a pretty good job (his is in blue). The head shape looks like it's two circles, but really, one circle is the head, and the other is hair. The circles that make his person look like they are crying is really 3 different things, eyebrows, eyes, and ears. Then you can see the dots for the nose and the line for the mouth.

This is our "art project door" where I display our art projects for a week before I throw them away. Nathan likes to show off what he's done to Adam and he's proud of what he made each day.

The Farm week "art project door." The houses were from pig day (we read the 3 little pigs), the sheep are the boys hand prints made with black poster paint and cotton balls, the plate has vegetables cut from grocery ads and glued onto the plate (Nathan does all the gluing now and he loves it! I just have to remind him sometimes when he has enough glue on his paper.), the paintings were done with apples cut in half, dipped in paint, and then stamped on paper, and then with the cows, we worked on following instructions. I told Nathan what to color each object in the picture, and he had to identify the object and then use the correct color to color the picture. He got the concept really well, until he tried to create sky under the cow's feet! :)

Here are the apple stamping boys. Caleb was angry and cried when I told him it was time to be done. We'll have to do more painting at our house!

Picture and Video Dump

2011-08-31T11:39:00.009-06:00

I'm not going to say a whole lot here because I just did the long post about our move. But both boys are adjusting well to the move. Caleb is in a big boy bed now, and bedtime goes smoothly for the most part but naptime is hard so we let him fall asleep in his high chair when he's eating lunch and then put him in bed. I think he just gets excited his big brother is in the same room as him, it's not dark, and they're not confined to their beds. Both boys love swimming, and Nathan is getting really good at "swimming" with his floaties on. We visited the library, and the boys love it! They have several tables for puzzles, two train tables, another play area, and a patio, not to mention all the book, and that's just in the children's book area. They also have a large selection of DVD's we are looking forward to perusing. Nathan says hi to everyone and anyone that he sees and gets so excited when they say hi back. He is also getting quite the three-year-old attitude and thinks that he is the boss most of the time. And Caleb is starting to show signs of being interested in the potty. He mostly just likes to sit on it, both the big potty and the training potty, and either with or without his diaper on. So for now, I'll let him sit and leave it at that. We'll start pushing after he turns 2 unless he shows us he's ready before then! Another thing Caleb has started doing is wanting to say the prayers at mealtimes and bedtime. So we give him prompts and he actually does a pretty good job. He has been saying a lot more words lately, I can't believe how grown up he is getting! (So much for not saying much! :)

Nathan sporting Mr. Potato Head's glasses. When he did this the first time, Caleb laughed hysterically for a couple of minutes. It was way funny!

Smoothies have become one of our favorite treats

Caleb's a little TOO helpful with the dishwasher- he likes to unscrew the cap for where the jet dry or finish should go

Move to Arizona and our new apartment

2011-08-31T10:18:00.005-06:00

Yes, we are still alive, I've been meaning to update our blog for what, 2 weeks now- you know, after everything got unpacked- but it kept getting put off for one reason or another, such as swimming, or grocery shopping, or hanging out with the girls in our ward, or, well, you get the idea. It's not that I don't enjoy blogging. I do. It is a nice form of journaling, and lets be honest, it's the only type of journaling I do (but I'm thinking I'll change that soon.... :) Blogging just takes time to sit down, collect one's thoughts and pictures/videos, and then to communicate clearly exactly what I would like to convey. But I do like having a place to record information about my family. Anyways, I am finally making myself sit down and do it before I get too much to blog about and then I become one of "those" people who fall off the face of the blogging world, for one reason or another.

So, for those who missed it, we moved to Arizona earlier this month. We rented a budget truck and with everyone's help, we had the truck packed in around 3 hours. But that was mostly because everything was already in boxes in the garage since we had it all in "storage" for the year we were in Rocklin. (Thanks for your help Jon, Vikki, Jamie, Ethan, Taylor, and Renae!)

The move itself went fairly well as we split it into two driving days (mostly for my sake! I do really bad driving all by myself in the car, even with the boys in the car, and I can't do more than 6-7 hours before I start getting drowsy and my caboose is so sore that I'm flexing to keep my rear from coming in contact with the seat). I think everyone was really happy to get a break after the first day, and it was really nice that we were able to stay with Adam's grandparents again. Poppadad showed us pictures of the airplane he used to own and fly as well as some of the architectural work he had done in the past. They also took us out to eat, despite our insistance that we had food with us. It was just neat because we got to get to know them a little better, or at least I did, and it's also nice that the boys had an opportunity to get to know their great grandparents.

The second day went really well, and we enjoyed seeing gas prices start dropping as we left more and more California behind and got closer to Arizona! :) We arrived at about 3, maybe 3:30 in the afternoon. At which point we signed our lease paid our first month's rent, got keys for our apartment, mail box, pool, weight room and the community gate. Then we went to our apartment and the boys went wild! They were running in and out of rooms, slamming doors, and just enjoying being free. We also found out at this point that we had missed the guy that was turning on our internet service by 45 minutes and that meant we had to wait another week before we could get another appointment for him to come back. The dumb part about that is that we didn't know they were going to need access to our apartment, and apparently they didn't either. When the came to turn on the internet, they couldn't tell which line went to our apartment because it wasn't labeled, so they needed to come inside and send out a signal so they could identify it. Anyways, when they finally came back it took like 5 minutes and we were on our way to being connected again. I am just glad that I printed directions from our apartment to all the major places we would need to go before we left Rocklin. :)
Since we didn't know anyone in our immediate area, Adam unloaded most of the truck while I took the boxes from the front room where Adam was depositing them and moving them to the appropriate rooms. I did have to help Adam with the larger pieces of furniture, except for our couch and piano. For those, Adam called an old roommate from BYU-Idaho that lives in Gilbert (not exactly a quick trip to Glendale) and he said he'd actually be in the Glendale area the next day and he could stop by on his lunch and help him move those two things. Well, actually, he was only supposed to help with the couch, but the piano (it's a Clavinova keyboard, so it's not as heavy as an actual piano) needed some screws tightened and it was dark and hot the night before so we just left it for the morning. So thanks, Kevin! And actually, because Adam was unpacking the truck while it was getting dark, we discovered we didn't have a lightbulb in our porch light, so I had to find the camping lantern so we could at least see the stairs. (And, we're still waiting on said lightbulb. I'd just go buy one, but it's got a square base where it "screws" in, and when I asked the manager what type it was, she said that one of the maintenance people would bring me a new one.)

But after Adam had moved all the boxes into the house and locked up the truck, he hit the showers. Which led us to discover a few malfunctions. The first was that in our bathtub, the water wouldn't flow from the faucet, only the shower. The best we could tell is the thing you pull to redirect the water flow from faucet to shower and vice versa was stuck up so all you could get was the shower. The second thing we discovered was that we had NO HOT WATER! We just laughed and it made me grateful that I didn't try to make macaroni and cheese for dinner like I originally planned and that we just got pizza instead. So Adam took a quick shower, which he didn't actually mind because he was so hot from moving stuff. After he got out, we checked our hot water heater and it appeared the pilot light was out. Even though there were instructions on the water heater for lighting the pilot, we had no idea what we were doing, so we decided to call and leave a message reporting the problem on the office's answering machine. Adam decided after a little while that he'd try to light it so I could start getting some laundry and dishes done. Which meant, I had to search for matches. Once I found some, Adam tried several times with no luck. So we gave up for the night and resolved to call the office again in the morning. So the next day we called and they sent a maintenance person right over. He tried to light the pilot as well, but couldn't either and on further inspection found that the pilot itself was damaged. So he went to get a replacement part and when he came back, he still couldn't get the pilot to light. Which meant we were going to be stuck without hot water until Monday morning, when they would come and replace our hot water heater. Up to this point, I had been boiling water on the stove and then diluting it with the cold water from the tap to wash dishes and the boys and I had not showered, but we needed to desperately because we had been sweating from the heat outside and from getting everything organized. And I insisted there would be no swimming in the pool until we had hot water so we could bath afterwards and have water to wash swimsuits and towels. Anyways, the management decided that they would give us the key to the model apartment so we could shower/bath/do laundry/etc. while they fixed our problem. Which was way nice of them. So we decided we would take the boys and everything we needed hot water for (except my kitchen stuff, I figured it could wait, I'd just boil water and continue as I had been) and drove over to the apartment (it's a big complex and we had a lot of stuff plus the boys to carry!) Once we got inside I went to the laundry room to start a load of whites but the washer and dryer weren't hooked up so we scratched that idea. Then we decided Adam would take one bathroom and shower while I bathed the boys in the other bathroom, and then I'd shower while Adam finished bathing the boys and read them stories. So we split up. I took the boys to the bathroom and Nathan immediately demands to use the toilet, so I let him, but when I lifted the toilet seat up for him there were a bunch of dead bugs in the bowl- so I thought, this must not get used very often... While Nathan finished, I pulled back the shower curtain to start running their bath water and 1- realized there was not a knob to turn the water on, and 2- the tub was filthy from bugs and dust. So I went into the other room and asked Adam how his bathroom was working, he met me half way to see if I had a shower liner in our bathroom. Adam couldn't answer my question because he was concerned about getting the shower curtain wet! So we both went into the bathroom and did an inspection. His looked a lot cleaner and there was a knob to turn on the water. So we decided that Adam would shower, then we'd bathe the boys, and then I'd shower. It was better than nothing right? Well I only heard the water run for like 1 minute before it was shut off. I thought Wow Adam must be just taking a quick shower so we can hurry and get home to get the boys in bed or something (It was pretty late, I think it was almost 10 at this point). So I kept reading to the boys and soon Adam came out and said, well, I guess it's time to go home. There's not enough water pressure for a shower/bath and there's no hot water here either. I just laughed. You've got to be kidding! So much for being "nice"! The model home doesn't even work! I guess we're just not supposed to have hot water! So we took the boys back home and put them in bed. I took a shower that was, yes, cold, but it wasn't freezing. Then the next morning I boiled water, and just like the pioneers, made a bath in the bathtub for my boys. I didn't quite get the temperature right at first, so I had to let it cool before they could get bathed, but they had a blast once they were allowed to get in. And when Monday rolled around, they came- early- and started the replacement process. When everything was installed, they lit the pilot and said "you should have hot water in 45 minutes." We thanked them and then did the countdown. When it had been an hour, I turned on the sink in the kitchen, and didn't get anything but a sputtering sink and cold water. I thought, Maybe it just needs more time to heat up ALL the water. So I waited some more. When it didn't work still after more waiting, I thought, Maybe I need to just let it run for awhile. When nothing was happening after 5 minutes, I informed the managers again, and the repair man called me and asked me to turn a knob and that the problem should be fixed. So I obeyed, and waited some more. Still no hot water! By this point the office was closed, so we called and left a message. The next day, I waited until noon before I had Adam call again. Finally they came back and I guess the problem was that the pipes needed to be flushed because they were still filled with cold water and an air pocket from the pipes being partially drained for the installation. We had tried to just let the water run, but aparently, using only one outlet for the water takes a long time, so we ended up turning on the bathroom sink, bathtub, and kitchen sink and we soon had hot water! I was so grateful! And I immediately started washing dishes and doing laundry! :) And now that it's been two weeks, everything is still working great. We're just waiting on the bathtub faucet to get fixed, the light to be replaced on the porch, and a recent malfunction- our bedroom fan that blew its motor- to be replaced. Hopefully soon, but someday!

Even though it sounds like we've had a lot of problems (and I guess we have with only being here 2-1/2 weeks) we still like our apartment and the space we have! Our ward is great, and we've started to make friends. In fact, the only true complaint I have is that I got sick right before we left Rocklin and before I had time to recover from that chest cold, I caught ANOTHER cold. So as Adam says, I am looking forward to the day I am not sick in Arizona!

And Adam started school yesterday, and is already dedicated to studying 100% of the time. I'm hoping I can convince him to take Sundays off for my sake and the boys' sake, but we shall have to wait and see. For now, we get about 2 hours with him for dinner/bedtime for the boys. Then he goes straight back to studying. Let's just say, I'll be reading a lot, sewing a lot, and, well, I'm sure I'll find something to do! :)

Here are some pictures of our apartment as is, but keep in mind, I will be redecorating a little, and I'll post the improvements I make as I make them- probably a room at a time.

Nathan and Caleb's room

Nathan and Caleb's bathroom

Mine and Adam's bathroom

Mine and Adam's bedroom

One of the two balcony patios we have, one is off the master bedroom and the other off the dining room

Kitchen

Dining Room

Front room- this is actually the room that I'm not entirely sure what do with it as far as decorating goes

Camping and Water Adventures

2011-07-31T15:56:00.011-06:00

For those of you who know us well, you might have done a double-take when you saw the title of this post. Camping? Does that say camping? Yep, it does. While Adam and I could think of 100's of things we'd rather do than camp, we were invited by some extended family to go camping and we thought the boys would enjoy being outside with their cousins, so we went- for one night. :) The only regret I had was that I didn't pack shorts or a swim suit for any of us, since it was way HOT and there was a creek next to the campsite. Thankfully there was a wind that picked up and we let the boys wade in the water, even though it quickly turned into swimming with all the falls and slips into the water they sustained. At least we had extra clothes, right? We cooked hotdogs over the fire for dinner and then made s'mores for dessert. Thre was also many a fire dance performed once the sun went done and the kids got to where glow bracelets. The boys didn't want to go to sleep, but once they did, they slept well on the queen size air mattress we all shared. (Unfortunately, Adam and I didn't sleep as well, but we got some rest...) The trip wasn't too bad, in fact, the worst part was the noisy neighbors we could hear at all times, and they were easily recongnizable from their language, to their loud laughter, to their marijuana. Lovely, huh? Here are a few pictures I did take, although, I didn't get very many:

We also are lucky enough to live just a block away from a city park, and are even luckier that this park has a splash park, too. So we decided to take the boys to it on one of Adam's days off. I had taken them a couple of weeks earlier, but neither of them were excited about it and insisted on playing at the playground instead. This time, Nathan loved it, and Caleb was hesitant, but finally warmed up enough to put his hands and feet in the little fountains.

I think Nathan's face describes the water well- It's cold!!!!

We also had an opportunity yesterday to meet up with some friends from BYU-Idaho that are living just outside of San Francisco. We decided to meet up at the Elk Grove community aquatic center (it has another official name, but I don't know it :). Unfortunately, when we first got there, at 10 AM, we found out that they didn't open until noon for recreational swimming, but we did find the park behind the pool and hung out there and ate lunch before we went swimming. So it worked out. The pool itself was pretty busy, and it wasn't even that hot (it was around 80 or so) but it was a neat place to go, plus it was pretty inexpensive! They had two kiddie pools with splash park equipment, one was heated and one was not. Guess which one we went in.... the heated! We actually just sat in the shallow water the whole time while the little kids played in the fountains, except for when Adam and Mike and Mallory's sister went off the high dive in another pool a couple of times. Mallory and I just hung out with the kids in the meantime. It was actually funny because all three of the kids were sleep deprived, and it showed both in Maddie's fits and in Caleb actually falling asleep in the pool two or three times. :) Thanks guys for hanging out for the day, it was great to catch up and meet the older Maddie!

And because now is as good of time as any, I'll just do a quick update of the boys and then I'll share a few random pictures I found while uploading the ones I've already shared. Caleb has hit the "mine" stage and he give the meanest, crustiest looks when he thinks something is his and that he should have it in his hands immediately. He's also teething, so he's really pleasant right now :) Nathan has slowly been slipping out of trains into cars, but I think it's mostly because he has more cars at his immediate disposal. Adam's mom has a ton of Thomas trains, but they are put away in her room until they are asked for, where as his cars are wherever he last put them (or where I've put them away). It will be interesting to see which he prefers when we move and he has equal access to cars and trains. He also has learned the concept of red light/green light and enjoys yelling go/stop and dictating which direction we should go when we are driving in the car. Unfortunately, he doesn't always choose the correct way... He is also excited to move to Arizona to go swimming in the pool.

In these last two pictures, the boys' hair was long and overdue for a cut, so we had some fun the day before we gave them haircuts- twin style. :)

4th Wedding Anniversary

2011-07-26T17:28:00.003-06:00

Today is mine and Adam's 4th wedding anniversary. I am so blessed to have him as my husband and my best friend. I appreciate everything he does for our small family and for everything he stands for. I've enjoyed all the experiences we've had together and the strength we've gained from said experiences. So to Adam, thank you and I look forward to spending eternity together! I love you!

Disneyland 2011

2011-07-17T18:23:00.004-06:00

After we found out Adam made it into optometry school this fall, Adam became determined to take me to Disneyland before school started so we could have fun and relax. I was reluctant at first because of our financial situation, but when we sold his truck for more money than we needed to move to Arizona, I ran out of excuses. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to go and have fun, but somehow things are less fun when you know that you don't have the money to do them. Anyways, we left the boys behind with Adam's parents and went on a three day trip. It was really nice to not have to tend to any children for those three days and be able to focus on our relationship.

We went on the new Star Tours ride twice, and we liked it. They start out by saying you have a rebel spy on board and show a random picture of someone in your group that was taken before the ride started. The first time we went on it, I was the rebel spy. And typically 3D stuff makes me a little nauseous because of the different layers and how some are not always in focus, but I thought the 3D animation was really good. We also rode on the new Little Mermaid ride in California Adventure, which we also liked. Some of their anamatronics were really cool- especially Ursula and Sebastian. Adam also made me go on the Hollywood Tower of Terror ride in California Adventure, and I was really nervous the first time. After I survived, I suffered through it 2 more times since it was Adam's favorite ride, and by the third time, the ride wasn't quite as scary for me :) I think my favorite ride was either Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disneyland or California Screamin' in California Adventure. Actually, Screamin' made me think of the time my family went to Disneyland when I was in 9th grade and we rode the roller coaster a couple of times to figure out where they took the picture and then rode it one or two more times until we got a picture where we all looked scared, bought it, and then showed it to my little brother who took one look at the picture and insisted he would never ride that roller coaster. Then my dad left it on the plane when we flew home- sad, but funny! Or at least we thought so.

We also went on Splash Mountain 3 times and the first time we were both bone dry at the end, except the residual water left on the seats from the group before ours. Then the second time, we got put in the front with a bunch of teenagers in the back and we thought we should be ok since all of us were relatively thin. We couldn't have been more wrong! I was in the very front and got drenched, and Adam, who sat behind me, wasn't any better. The we immediately got back in line for one more go before we went back to the hotel since we were already wet. (Thankfully the lines were really small at this point because they were doing some show in the middle of the park that a lot of people were watching.) This time, we asked to be put in the back because of our last experience and a bunch of large people were put in front of us. After the first drop, it looked liked we were doomed again, and we were! We got wet again, but thankfully, we were done for the night and we could go to the hotel and change into dry clothes.

Since we were there for 2 1/2 days without kids, we were able to ride all of the rides we wanted to and we were definitely ready to be done when it was time to go back home. But we had a lot of fun, and we're recharged to be parents again (at least for the next couple of days :).

I thought these caramel apples were cool- they also had some that were Minnie Mouse

This is what Adam would have looked like after the teacup ride if he hadn't taken his motion sickness medicine- no joke! :)

Happy Birthday x 2

2011-07-10T19:54:00.005-06:00

When I was pregnant with Nathan, my due date was July 8, the day before Adam's birthday. Can you believe that my loving husband wished me to be 1 day overdue when I gave birth to our first baby!? He said it would immortalize him, because everyone would focus on the baby's birthday instead of his birthday, and therefore he wouldn't be as old. I'm not sure how that logic works out, but it doesn't matter because Nathan was born a week and a half earlier than his due date (thankfully!). Despite the fact they don't have the same birthday, it does mean that we have the opportunity to celebrate their birthdays together, which is what we did yesterday (on Adam's birthday). We did a pirate theme and made a yummy pasta bar with marinara sauce and alfredo sauce, homemade rolls, and fresh fruits and veggies. For dessert we did chocolate cupcakes with blue frosting (per Nathan's request) that I topped with sprinkles and a pirate coin, as well as mini banana cream pies (for Adam). We also set up a pirate treasure hunt for all of Nathan's cousins to go on to find their goodie bags. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us, as well as those who sent cards and gifts. Adam and Nathan had a great celebration! I also need to thank Adam's brother and sister-in-law for letting us crash their house Saturday afternoon to bake all the goodies for the party since our oven stopped working the day before! So thanks Ryan and Corinne! Oh, and current ages? Adam: 27, Nathan: 3

For Nathan's actual birthday, I made him special Mickey Mouse pancakes in the morning and he got to go see his first movie in the theater- Cars 2. He loved it!

Ice cream with Lucas

2011-07-10T19:41:00.006-06:00

We are lucky enough to have one of Adam's really good friends from growing up and his wife living nearby, and we occassionally get together to hang out. The boys especially like it because Rob and Ashley also have a son that's 2, named Lucas. All three of the boys play really well together, despite the occassional sharing issues. This last time we hung out, the boys got to play in Lucas's water ball, which is like a sprinkler that attaches to the garden hose, but it's a ball that sprays water. Nathan and Caleb weren't all that interested in running through the water, but they did like the icecream that daddy and uncle Rob dished out. Can't you tell?

River Cats Game

2011-07-10T19:32:00.005-06:00

The weekend before 4th of July, we went to a River Cats Baseball Game with the family we have in the area, and it was a lot of fun- despite the heat! They were playing the Tucson team, and Adam and I weren't sure who to root for! ;) Adam's sister got us cheap seat tickets, which means we sat on the grass behind the field, but it was fun to hangout and the boys liked playing with their cousins. Nathan even got a baseball from one of the players who threw it over the fence from the warm-up area behind the outfield. After the game, we also got a special treat because the stadium let off a small fireworks show. The boys loved it! We also were lucky enough to be sitting right in front of the little pavilion where the mascot, Dinger, played the drums for a couple of minutes before the game. Nathan loved it! He kept calling the River Cat (aka a Racoon) a bear. Whatever he is, Nathan kept his eyes glued on him the whole time!

4th of July

2011-07-10T19:23:00.005-06:00

We had a pretty low-key 4th of July this year. We hung out at home with family, had a BBQ dinner, played in a pool in the back yard and had a water fight, had snow cones and smores, Adam went and played baseball with his dad and brothers, and we watched fireworks. Nathan and Caleb loved watching the fireworks, in fact, Nathan liked them so much he wanted to go and "help" light the fireworks. He didn't appreciate the no he got in response to his demands!

Toddler Helps: Healthier Eating

2011-07-07T18:10:00.002-06:00

I don't know about you moms out there, but I've been having a struggle with meal ideas that are healthy for my two toddlers. Well, yesterday my friend Ashley introduced me to a site that has a lot of ideas and I thought I'd share it. The website is superhealthykids.com and it has lots of ideas for different meals and they even have a weekly newsletter you can sign up for. While I was browsing that site, I came across the link for a different site, produceforkids.org. This site is focused on getting kids to eat more fruits and veggies, but the recipes it shares also involves proteins so it's not just a glorified salad site. I haven't completely browsed through all the archives on either of the these sites, but they look like they are good resources for ideas. Now I just need to figure out how to get my picky eaters to actually try new things! :)

Fairytale Land

2011-06-11T20:39:00.010-06:00

Today Adam and I took the boys to Fairytale Land, which is a small petting zoo/park across from the Sacramento Zoo where each part of the park has to do with a different Fairytale. They had Jack and the Beanstalk, The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, Peter Rabbit, Robin Hood, and many others. It was nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine as a family. Unfortunately the sun wasn't cooperative with the shots, but here's what I got anyways:

Before Boise... Batting Cages

2011-06-11T20:33:00.002-06:00

A little over a month ago, Adam went to the batting cages with his brothers to have some fun. The boys and I tagged along just to have an excuse to get out of the house. The big guys got sore and left with "war" wounds, but I left with a big-little boy who used a public potty for the first time and these pictures:

Before Boise... Mother's Day 2011

2011-06-11T20:26:00.003-06:00

These pictures are from a Mother's Day photo shoot I did with the boys at our stake center to use in both Grandma's Mother's Day Gifts.I wanted to post these pictures sooner, but since I took my mom's gifts with us to Boise instead of mailing it, I couldn't post them until now so I didn't ruin the surprise. So enjoy!

I wish I knew how to diffuse the sunlight coming through the trees. Darn splotches...

I think this might be my favorite picture that I have EVER taken! (And would you believe it was the very first shot from the shoot?!)

Other Happenings on the "Farm"

2011-06-11T17:38:00.005-06:00

Since I've gone away to college and have gotten married, my parents have moved to their own little "Ferguson Farm" in Middleton, Idaho. The have a lot of land where the have a huge garden, chickens, one calf (soon to be two calves), their house, a greenhouse and a shop. So needless to say, there is always something to do. Caleb's and Nathan's favorite thing to do was to "ride" the tricycle up and down the driveway. Nathan could do a pretty good job- until you stood in his way and forced him to steer, but Caleb just sat/stood on it and rocked it until it moved. In fact, Caleb liked the trike so much that if anyone left the door open, he took off running to find the trike. How many times did that happen? Oh, I'd say at least 3 and one of them was during a baby shower my mom threw for her friend with lots of people in the house. Let's just say that I felt like mother of the year when I couldn't find him!

And speaking of baby showers, my mom enlisted my "craftiness" to make invitations. (My mom could be just as creative, but she's busy, so she often claims that she could never do it. But since I've moved away from home, she's had to do her own decorating and craft projects from time to time and she's a natural!) My mom decided on a cowboy theme and decided to decorate with red bandanas and the western stuff that she already had decorating her house. So this is what I came up with...

And what trip to Grandma's house would be complete without some freshly baked cookies? Especially when the cookies are as big as your face! Yep, they ate the whole thing...

And like I said, my parents have a green house and a huge garden that always needs tending to. So when Caleb wouldn't leave Grandpa alone when he needed to go water, Grandpa strapped Caleb into a baby back-pack and took him outside. Caleb loved it. In fact, we're pretty sure Caleb would live outside if we let him.

Other things that happened that I don't have pictures for:

My youngest sister turned 9 so we threw a birthday party for her. The them was luau because we found some cute invitations at the craft store that were flip-flops. So we made yellow and green tie-dyed cupcakes with blue frosting and teddy grahams decorated to look like they were wearing swim suits. So why don't I have any pictures? Well because my mom asked that I make a satin flower headband for each of the party guests (9 girls were invited) and it turned out to be a last minute project, so I was in a rush cutting, singe-ing and gluing flower petals together and we were litteraly finishing each headband as the parents came to pick up their girls.

We went on a road trip to Salt Lake City to attend a memorial service for my biological paternal grandfather. It was a strange experience because I hadn't seen any of my family from that side for a long time, but that also made it a neat experience, too.

My mom recreated the "Biggest Loser campus" for me to help me (and herself) get motivated to lose the extra 5 or so pounds we were carrying around. I went and worked out at the gym with her, including her personal training sessions (thanks Paul!) and we did weight watchers and held each other accountable. I've only lost about 4 pounds, but I feel good about myself again and I've continued to get up early in the morning to exercise and have been doing the best I can with eating right since I've been home. I am hoping that I can at least maintain my weight now until we move to Arizona, especially since I'm not 100% in control of what food is served at mealtime (remember, I still live with my in-laws).

Thanks Mom and Dad for arranging the travelling and allowing us to come and hang out!

Boise Zoo

2011-06-11T15:38:00.005-06:00

While we were in Boise, I took Nathan and Caleb to the zoo with my brother Parker and nieces Laila and Avery. We also met up with my cousin's wife, Amy, and their son, Carter. So we had 5 little ones to chase around. Luckily we were able to rent a wagon and I think that might have been our saving grace. Unfortunately, the zoo in Boise isn't very big, but it was big enough for the kids to get tired and worn out :). Thanks Amy and Carter for going with us!

The sign said, "Please to not climb on fence." :)

3 buddies

When we saw this scenery, we could hardly believe we were still in Boise!

I didn't realize until too late that Amy was trying to get into the picture too- sorry Amy!

My reason for being absent...

2011-06-10T15:00:00.015-06:00

The boys and I got to go to Boise for about 3 weeks and play, so I spent my time with family instead of updating the blog :) . I'll do a seperate post of the things we did, but for now, enjoy the photo shoot pictures we had done by Holly Miller Photography. Thanks Holly for such great pictures!

And because my mom would kill me for not saying so, she wasn't planning on getting her picture taken. So even though I kept telling her she looks great, she insists that she doesn't look cute. (I wish my "ugly" days let me looking so good!)

How many licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop?......

Caleb couldn't tell you....

But Nathan might... if he could count that high ;)

Video Love

2011-05-14T12:05:00.002-06:00

Youtube finally cooperated (and I finally sat down to try again) with uploading the videos I wanted to share. So here you go!

All Aboard!

Nathan's "Baby" Part 1

Nathan's "Baby" Part 2

Caleb's Boogie

Peek-a-boo!

"I'm a Big Kid Now..."

2011-05-01T21:23:00.010-06:00

I've been trying to get some videos uploaded onto youtube so I could share them with you, but it's not working for some reason right now. So I'll keep trying and I'll do a seperate post with them...

Do you remember that song? Well, we have ventured into the land of potty training with Nathan and it has definitely had its ups and downs! He has used the potty a lot, but isn't perfect at it, and still has a long way to go. What seemed to work best for us (because I know I'll get asked) is we let Nathan walk around the house for a day without any underwear/diapers/pants/pullups on. He seemed to like the independence of being able to just sit on his potty without messing with pulling up/down his pants and he had zero accidents with this method- now remember it was only for a day. We would have continued, but not everyone in our house was gellin' with that idea, so we had to go back to underwear. I was frusterated because we finally had something that worked, but since I have not control over that issue, we focused on helping Nathan realize when he needs to go. For him, he doesn't necessarily hold himself when he needs to go, although he did start doing that today which makes it much easier to know he needs to go instead of guessing, but he does seem to get a nervous look on his face now that we're a week into potty training. Today he actually did pretty well if you don't count the random spout of diarrhea- yeah, I know, too much information! :)

Don't worry, those are window markers. As for the face, your guess is as good as mine... :)

Other than the obsession with going potty and the moderate todder nudity that is the majority of our life right now, Caleb had his 15-month doctor appointment a couple of weeks ago (even though he's now 16 months- I can't belive it either! He's still my baby!). He is definitely gaining weight now (he's 21 pounds 5 ounces) and he's just over 31 inches tall. He met all the developmental milestones the doctor wanted him to, and he's starting to talk more and more each day! Probably my favorite things he says is "All aboard the choo-choo train" repeated several times in a row, and "Ready, set, go". They are both pretty clear, but everything else he says are just small words like baby, ball, done, bear, more (he usually signs more, but he'll say it occasionally), and of course car sounds. He is less and less of a baby each day and while I'm glad he is progressing and learning new things, I can't believe he's already almost 18 months old! Boy the time has flown!

This is kind of an old picture- I just found it on my memory card and I don't think I've shared it before. But this is one of Caleb's favorite places to sit, especially when it's on and the bowl at the bottom of the ramp is spinning...

Easter was nice, we went to my sister-in-law's house and had a yummy ham dinner and angel food cake with strawberries for dessert. I didn't get any pictures of the boys with their easter baskets, but the Easter Bunny brought Nathan a package of dinosaur toys, Caleb got a teddy bear (his first one!) and the eggs contained a plethora of peanut butter cups and jelly beans- Nathan loved the peanut butter cups, and Caleb liked both and stole from anyone that had either candy open and accessible. We also did an Easter egg hunt with our ward a couple of weeks before and then another one when we went to Easter dinner. Nathan loved it, but Caleb was afraid to collect any eggs that weren't on the grass or cement. If they were in the flower bed or in the dirt, he just looked at me like, "What? You want me to what?" so I did a bit of hunting myself, too! ;)

We also went to a joint birthday party for two of Adam's nieces at Bouncetown, which is an indoor jumphouse where they have a bunch of inflatable obstacle courses and slides to play on. Caleb wasn't sure about the slides, but there was an area where you could just jump attatched to one of the slides and he loved playing with the huge bouncy balls on the inflatable trampoline. Here are some pictures I snapped of the boys at the party (some of the pictures are grainy, but that's because the lighting was really bad):

I've been keeping busy with potty training Nathan and cooking and housework, especially since right now my mother-in-law is in Connecticut visiting my sister-in-law and her family. I have a newfound respect for all of the work my mom had to do with all of the 6 kids at home plus working. It also makes me a little sad that I didn't help out more than I did. Live and learn, I guess. Something kind of fun I was able to do was make a 2-tier birthday cake for a friend's son's birthday party. I had more elaborate plans for the cake, but since our income is relatively low still, I had to cut back. But I still think that it turned out great!

Adam is still cleaning blinds at his job, which is fine, but he's not quite working 40 hours a week like we were hoping, especially with wanting to save for our move to Arizona until Adam's loans come through. It's also a little frusterating for Adam because he would pick up a second job to help us get more money for the move and to help us get established, but he doesn't have a set schedule- it's mostly day by day. We are grateful that he has a job, but we wish we could now how everything will work out. But don't worry, we know it will all work out because it has so far and because we are doing our part. Other than working, Adam hasn't done a whole lot- well, I guess he did get to go spend some time with his brothers and his dad while playing golf on Friday. And he seemed to enjoy himself and I'm glad he was able to get out and spend some time with "the guys". I think I forget sometimes how he needs to spend time with buddies just as much as I need to.

So pretty much, that's everything I could think of to update everyone on. Oh and since a lot of people seem to be asking, I'll also say that we are planning on moving to Arizona mid-August since optometry school doesn't start until the end of August. So, until next time!

We're Holding Even Tighter to the Seat of our Pants...

2011-03-25T17:48:00.003-06:00

It's amazing that change does not need any time to happen! Can you believe it was just last week that we rushed off to Arizona? Can you believe that it was one of the best choices we've ever made? Well, it was a good choice because this morning Adam found out that he was accepted into Midwestern University's Optometry Program in Glendale, Arizona and he enters this August. He actually found out in an odd way. This morning he was checking the application stuff that Midwestern had posted in his potential student application account and it had a link, which wasn't there before, where he could click on it to pay $1000 and sign his matriculation agreement. He was really confused because he was told during his interview last week that he would get a phone call, followed by an official letter, informing him that he had been accepted. So he called the admissions office. Lo and behold, someone had dropped the ball and not called him on Tuesday like they were supposed to and he had, in fact, been accepted into the program! We were ecstatic! Finally, all of his hard work payed off. However, there was still one question looming overhead- do we really need to move to Rexburg for one measly little class? On the potential student application account (I don't really know what it's called, he has to log into Midwestern's system to view his application status and to exchange information with the school.) it said that he had all of the prerequisite classes completed, including biology, which is the class he would be taking this summer. So he called- again. And said he had a class he was planning on taking this summer and asked if he still needed to take it. The admissions counselor said that his file was showing as complete and that he didn't need to worry about the class. So Adam got off the phone, and after a couple of minutes, he called back. This time he was very specific about the class he was going to take and the admissions counselor just laughed, then reassured Adam he had all of the classes he needed, then told him to stop stressing out. So, what that means is we can forget all of the drama that comes with moving and looking for a new place to live. Plus it saves us a couple thousand dollars when you add in BYU-Idaho tuition, fees, insurance, moving costs, apartment deposit, plus what we would need for stocking the house up with things like food and cleaning supplies. Yeah, we're on cloud nine! Life's not perfect and we still have trials to deal with, but we're starting to see the sun through all the clouds that have been hanging around overhead.

Changes

2011-03-20T16:45:00.004-06:00

Sorry, no picture this time, but there is a lot of interesting info to follow!

The last month has brought a lot of new happenings for our family, some happy, some not so happy. The first major event that has happened is that Adam has finished all his applications for optometry school after finally passing the optometry admissions test. Unfortunately, when we were filling out some supplementary applications, we discovered he is missing one biology class that every school has listed as a prerequisite for their programs. How we missed this in the last two application years, I don't know. And what's even more frusterating is that the pre-health career advisor Adam checked with on the classes he was taking didn't catch the deficiet either. But what that means is that we have to get the class finished pronto if we expect to make it into optometry school this year. Thankfully, BYU-Idaho came to the rescue, which means happening #2 is that we will be moving back to Rexburg at the beginning of April so Adam can take the one class. We just hope and pray that Adam's application for the class is approved since we won't know for sure if he makes it into the class until a week before classes start, which is when we will be moving. So, lets just say we'll be living life by the seat of our pants for the next couple of weeks! It's tough to have to move everything again and to find a new job and apartment, but we're excited to be close to some of our close friends again. And while we still need to finalize an apartment situation, ok we still need to look for an apartment let alone finalize, Adam has been promised a job at Walmart when we move back and they can't wait to have him start working there again.

Another exciting thing that has happened is that in the midst of all our frustrations with the missing class, Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona invited Adam to their campus for an interview. It was crazy because we finished and submitted their supplementary application on Monday of this last week, and they sent him the invitation e-mail with scheduling instructions on Wednesday! So we looked into it, and we could either schedule for Friday, March 18 (two days away) or Monday, March 28. And guess which one we took! Yep that's right, were talking about seat holding again. The interview was scheduled for the 18th, so we got our oil changed and made other travel preparations for a trip and drove to Arizona the next day! It was somewhere between $500 and $600 for Adam to just fly there and back with the short notice, plus what it would cost if needed to rent a car, etc. and so we decided to drive, but it's a 12 hour drive and I was worried about Adam driving by himself, and since it wouldn't cost that much more to add me and the boys to the hotel room and pay for food, the whole family went. It was nice to get a change of scenery, even though it was a long drive spread out over just a couple of days (We stopped 1/2 way home Friday night and stayed with Adam's grandparents and finished the drive yesterday.). It was a little hard on the boys, in fact they cried when we got in the car today to go to church because they thought we were going to be in the car all day again, but overall they were pretty good and each scored a new toy out of the deal.

Since I wasn't personally in the interview with Adam, I'll give you as much information as I can, but it isn't much. He had to be there by 7:30/7:45 AM on Friday morning, and they fed him a continental breakfast and then proceeded with the interview followed by a tour of the campus and information about admissions, financial aid, and the program. Adam said that Midwestern has the most advanced optometry equipment than any other school in the nation and that he really enjoyed being on the small campus. He said he also liked that the school was just for people studying to become health professionals on the masters and doctorate level because the maturity of the students was elevated compared to BYU-Idaho. He also said that there were a lot of LDS kids on campus, and he even saw someone he knew from one of his classes. There were two different panels of interviewers, of which he and the 6 other potential students only got interviewed by one panel. Both panels consisted of two optometrists that were part of the admissions office. The first panel consisted of a friendly man that welcomed everyone there and introduced the program for the day, and a woman that was making it a point to talk to each person individually throughout the day. The second panel consisted of a shy woman and a man from India. And lucky Adam, he got the second panel. He said it was really frustrating because the man from India was really hard to understand at times, and since the woman was shy, he dominated the interview. Then he said that both of the interviewers wouldn't give him eye contact when he was trying to make eye contact. Overall he feels like he answered the questions the best way that he knew how to and that he felt it went fine, he just hopes that having what he considers the harder panel doesn't negatively affect his application. His day actually finished around noon after they fed him lunch, but they had a woman optometrist visiting the campus and discussing her specialty in the field and invited everyone who was there for the interview to stay if they would like. So Adam stayed and said it was really interesting and that it made him even more excited to start school. So now we get to wait. The admissions office told him that they should know if they are accepted at the beginning of April, and that if they are accepted, they will receive a call as soon as the decision is made and then will be mailed the official acceptance letter. So now that the interview is over, everything is out of our hands in regards to this school. We will be anxiously waiting their response and we hope its in the affirmative! We still have yet to hear from the other schools as to if they want to interview, so we'll see what happens there.

As for the boys, they are doing great. Caleb is a monkey and climbs on everything he can pull himself up on and is starting to pick up on more words. In fact, when we were at the hotel in Arizona, we went swimming and I kept saying "kick, kick, kick" trying to get him to "swim" by kicking his legs and he repeated me-"ki ki ki". Nathan is talking more and more each day, too, and he surprises us with words he has picked up, and sometimes we aren't so pleasantly surprised. Now, we don't swear, so we aren't talking swear words here, but he's been watching Pixar's Cars movie a lot lately, and Mater says "Shoot Dang" and "Oh, Shoot" and he's been saying that. Yeah it's not that bad, but he does a vowel substitution, so it does sound like he's swearing. The other thing he surprised me with is "Oh my Gosh", and I'm not really sure where he picked that one up. I don't think Adam or I say it, I mean maybe we do once in a blue moon, but he's so active in learning the language that it could have been anywhere that he picked it up. So while it's fun to have him "say" his own prayers, we have to be careful what say. The other thing is that Nathan loves to sing. He is definitely like Adam in that aspect. In fact, it seems like he is always singing when he's playing and he has an opinion on what he wants to sing or have sung for him. His favorite is called "When I'm With You" by Sherrif. And he can actually sing it pretty well. I've been meaning to get him singing it on camera, so when I get around to it, I'll post it. Other than what I've posted here, there isn't a whole lot else new with us, but there will be in the near future, so I'll keep you updated!

Preschooler and Toddler Helps

2011-02-25T09:42:00.004-07:00

I just stumbled across these two blogs (run by the same woman) to help with learning activities for preschoolers and toddlers. I just thought I'd share really quick, just in case any of you are like me in that I struggle to find different things to do with Nathan and Caleb. So if you are interested, here are the links:

For preschoolers: 1plus1plus1equals1.com

For toddlers: totallytots.blogspot.com

Videos!!!

2011-02-23T11:56:00.003-07:00

We're recovering from a cold that has affected everyone, and has left Nathan with a double ear infection and Caleb with an ear infection in his left ear. So I don't feel like typing a full update or anything like that, so I'm posting videos instead. I will say that the only things that are different from last time is that 1- Adam is in the middle of re-applying for optometry school, 2-Caleb had his weight check and the doctor's and everything looks fine. It just seems like he's a tall, skinny boy- I wonder where he got that? ;) The 3rd and last thing is that Nathan is starting to show interest in going potty. In fact, yesterday he went #2 in the potty so we kept trying to get him to go #1, but we always took him to the potty late by just a couple of minutes. But I'm just happy he's interested!

Nathan's ABC's

Nathan's Booty Shake

(We've actually learned as of late that this means he needs his diaper changed...)

Nathan and Caleb monkey climbing and playing

Nathan's Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Let's just say we need to work on his stage presence!

Just a Quickie...

2011-01-28T19:53:00.005-07:00

I don't have a whole lot to update everyone on, so I just wanted to drop in briefly to say that Adam finally found a job! He's cleaning blinds for a friend's father's business. It's unsure how much work he'll get from it, but it's better than nothing. As for the boys, they are doing great, although they are becoming a pair of trouble makers! They are starting to wrestle each other and they tag team on making messes- which of course make me and Adam so excited! ;) Even though it can be exhausting cleaning up their messes all day, they are fun to have around and we couldn't imagine life without them.

Chef and Conductor Nathan
Nathan playing soccer with his soccer net Adam and I got him

Caleb watching Nathan play soccer (believe it or not, he stayed in this position for a couple of minutes before he got up and started running around)

Caleb stretching after his meal

Caleb learning to feed himself... let's just say it's a work in progress!

2 cookies + 1 baby = pure bliss

Have a great weekend!

December festivities and update

2011-01-02T14:21:00.010-07:00

I promised an update, so here it is! I'll just do a paragraph for each person followed by pictures at the end.

Adam- He's still been busy studying for the OAT so we can apply for optometry school for fall 2011. Unfortunately, he still hasn't found a job, but he did have a promising interview at one of the Walmarts this last week, so we're waiting to hear from them. He did, however, get new callings at church a couple of weeks ago. He is now the Valiant 9 teacher in primary (all boys in the class) as well as the Webelo cub scout leader (which happens to be the same boys from his primary class). The boys seem to like Adam, so hopefully he'll find it easy to get past his aversion to scouts!

Tari- I was released from teaching in Relief Society and from playing the piano in Relief Society to become the new Primary pianist. It makes for interesting Sundays because Caleb can't go to nursery yet, but he's really active and mischevious. Especially if Nathan is sick- like today. We were learning a new song in Primary today, so I felt it important to be at church and Adam had to teach, which meant we couldn't take Nathan home. So I had both boys with me in the Primary room during the second hour of church (Adam is in there during 3rd hour for senior primary sharing time). Surprisingly, they were both really good, just a little adventurous. They kept trying to play the piano with me and Nathan kept standing on a chair I gave him so he could sit by me behind the piano, but that was the limit to their chaos. Thankfully I'm not the only mom who has to have her baby with her in Primary, so everyone's pretty good about helping out when someone has to do their job. But besides church, I just had my 23rd birthday, which wasn't really that big of a deal to me (or anyone else). But I'm fine with that. I also started doing a book club again with one of my good friends, but it's a long distance book club, so we'll just read and then talk about it over the phone. I've really missed scheduled hobby and girl time, so I'm really excited to read! This month we're reading the Count of Monte Cristo.

Nathan- He had a great Christmas this year! In fact, everything Caleb got seemed to be in Nathan's hands almost immediately, so it looked like we spent tons of money on him, but little on Caleb. (At least Caleb is passive enough to let Nathan have it and then go find another toy. But don't worry, he tries to take things from Nathan, too.) Nathan is also starting to talk a lot more. Some of his recent phrases are things like, "What happened?" or "What doin'?" or "I/it stuck" or "I fine" or "I found it" or "I can't find it" or "Where'd it go?"and he has started to do a lot of animal sounds. He also has mastered the words "chocolate milk" and is very persistent when we tell him no, especially when he is tired. He is also starting to sing. He can almost do the entire alphabet by himself, and he'll sing to random commercials that come on the tv, as well as other little kid songs or songs that Adam listens to a lot.

Caleb- He has been to the doctor twice in the last month. The first time was because he had this really random rash that was over most of his body and would flare up around breakfast, decrease in severity during naptime, flare up around lunch again, and then go away for the rest of the day. We were really worried that it might be an allergic reaction, but the doctor said that it was probably just a virus and that we'd keep an eye on him. Thankfully the rash only lasted a couple of days before he got better. Then he was at the doctor this last week for his 12 month check up. He was 30.5 inches long and weighed 18 pounds 9 ounces, which was almost a whole pound less than his 9 month check up (which I think is weird because he has always been a good eater and seems to eat more than Nathan most of the time). The doctor thinks that the scale must have been off either at this weigh in or the previous one, but just to be sure, we'll be going back in 6 weeks for a weight check. The doctor also said that he doesn't think anything is wrong and that if he did lose weight, drinking whole milk now that he's one should help him gain again. Other than that, everything else checked out good. And when it came time for shots, he had to get 5 separate shots given by the same nurse. I felt bad for both Caleb and the nurse! How spoiled we were in Rexburg where they had combination shots! Hopefully they'll get the combos so there'll be less punctures next time! Caleb has started to drink whole milk, which means I'm really close to weaning him from breastfeeding. The only problem is that he doesn't like to drink out of his cup very much and he doesn't seem interested in the cow's milk. Any ideas? Caleb is also starting to enjoy books and reading more, which is fun because that's something I really enjoy doing with Nathan. Caleb also has 4 teeth now, two on the bottom and two on top- the top teeth are still making their way down, but they are through his gums and you can easily see them in his mouth.

Bathtime! (We started giving the boys a bath together and it's wonderful! They love it, and I love not having to do two baths!)

Nathan, our little artist

Opening presents on Christmas:

Caleb eating a candy cane (he was actually getting some of it)

Four Generations of McDonalds (left to right): Henry (Poppa Dad), Nathan, Adam, Caleb, and Rodger (Grandad)

Caleb jabbering (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM6GpHOn2Eo)

Shooting Hoops with Nathan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dl40wTefEY)

Caleb is 1!

2010-12-29T18:14:00.007-07:00

I can hardly believe that Caleb is 1 year old today! He has definitely been a blessing in our small family and I'm so happy that I get to be his mommy! We had a combined birthday party for Caleb and myself (My birthday is the 28th and Caleb's is the 29th) and these are some pictures/videos from the party.

Caleb's birthday video, part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztwiki6DujQ)

Caleb's birthday video, part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7tUB5u_L6Y)

Here are some things that Caleb loves:

Playing with (or destroying...) anything that Nathan is playing with

Eating! Whenever we are eating, Caleb thinks he needs to be eating, too.

Climbing the stairs

Dancing

jabbering and talking

books

exploring new places (and familiar places, too)

making noise or playing with anything that makes noise or music

bathtime

Happy Birthday Caleb! We love you!

(Caleb has his 1-year check up tomorrow, so I'll do another post later this week with updates from that visit as well as updates for the rest of the family)

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-24T09:33:00.002-07:00

I can't believe it's already Christmas! Time has flown by this year. I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas with a promise to do an update this coming week after Caleb has his 1-year check up with his doctor. So may you enjoy spending time with your loved ones and find peace and joy in remembering our Savior, Jesus Christ, his birth, and the miraculous blessings we have received, do receive, and will receive through him. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

The Gift That Keeps Giving: Holiday Cards

2010-12-08T11:53:00.003-07:00

It has been over 3 years since Adam and I got married, and I have yet to send out Christmas Cards. The first year seemed silly since it was just the two of us, then the next year we were poor college students with no time, and I thought I'd have to pass again this year because of our finances, even though I have two handsome boys that so many people would love to see grace their collection of cards this year.

This is where Shutterfly comes in. They are doing this great promotion right now (and I know some of you have already heard about it) where they are giving away 50 cards to each blogger that does a post on their favorite holiday cards from their website. Now, I have never used Shutterfly before, but I have heard good things, so I thought, why not? It's a great opportunity to try out one of their products while saving a little money this year around the holidays. (If you are interested in getting free cards, go here to register and get the details. But hurry! Registration ends on Friday, December 10)

I was impressed with their selection of cards as there seemed to be something for everyone. There were cards with "Merry Christmas," "Feliz Navidad," and "Happy Holidays." There were cards with traditional red and green, and some with trendy brown and blue. There were classic cards, simple cards, fun and spunky cards. And they have a variety of layouts, too! There are cards where you can have just one picture, or some for two, three, four, five, and some that even let you use nine pictures! Perfect for if you have a larger family and can't decide between your pictures! I also like that they had cards where you could include a personalized message, and some of the cards even had room for your year summary (if you do that kind of thing).

Here were some of my favorites:

I really loved the colors of this one. You have the classic red and green but I feel like the brown just adds a little more interest to it.

I really like the layout with this one. It would be perfect to have our family picture on while still being able to spotlight the boys. And again, there's brown! :)

And this is one of those cards where you could do your family update letter on the card with your pictures. I just thought it was really creative to do bullet points, plus I'm busy with the kids, so this would just take a couple of minutes to fill out. And it would also be possible to do the whole family and spotlight the kids.

So if you haven't done your Holiday cards yet, it's not too late! Head over to Shutterfly's Holiday Card page. You'll be impressed by their selection, too!

But wait! There's more than just holiday cards over at Shutterfly! You can also use your photos to create personalized gifts or items for your home!

Like these calendars:

Or this wall art:

What a great gift idea for friends and family!

So what do you think? What's your favorite Shutterfly product? Do you have a favorite holiday card?

Especially for Grandma

2010-12-02T12:18:00.002-07:00

Hide and Seek

2010-12-02T12:15:00.002-07:00

Caleb does a lot of roaming and exploring around the house. But one of his favorite spots is behind the blinds of the back door in the kitchen. There he can usually find a couple of stray cars and his favorite, the door stopper!

Teething Treasures

2010-11-08T12:36:00.004-07:00

Have you ever noticed how when babies are teething they make some of the funniest faces? Well, if not, both of my boys have made funny "cheesy" faces when they are teething, and since Caleb is in that stage right now, I have captured the cheese for you:

Strolling

2010-11-08T12:15:00.003-07:00

As of yesterday, Caleb is finally confident enough to walk on his own! Crawling is still more convenient, but he walks a lot more now, at least enough for me to finally catch it on film! :) I'll try to get a better video later on, but this is good enough for now:

If you are having trouble loading/watching it on my blog, try going here.

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T09:48:00.002-06:00

Here are pictures of the boys' costumes this year from our ward Halloween party on Friday. I don't have a picture of me, but I dressed up as Miss America- but the only thing "Miss America" was that I wore a crown, some rihnestone jewelry and a ribbon sash that said "Miss America 2010". So in other words, nothing special. Adam was an electrical socket (I made his costume, but I found the idea on the internet), Nathan was a tiger (I know, boring, he was the tiger last year, but it still fit!), and Caleb was a scarecrow (I made his costume by decorating the overalls and I made the hat, too!).

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm

2010-10-28T13:51:00.010-06:00

Last week we went to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm with Adam's sister and brother, as well as their families. The boys had a lot of fun exploring a "farm" and by the end of the day they were all tuckered out. Here are some pictures I snagged during the day (And there are a lot!):

We started off the day by going to the petting zoo and looked at all the animals.

Here are some pictures of the boys with their daddy

They had a wooden train that kids could climb on and play in. Nathan had a blast following his cousins around and watching all the other kids playing. I just couldn't capture it on film...

Nathan enjoyed running, scooting and climbing in the dirt pile and tire yard. Adam was concerned about the mess he was making, but he cleaned up easily enough!

Meanwhile, Caleb spent his time chewing on foam puzzle pieces, digging in the diaper bag and playing in the leaves.

Here we are waiting for the tractor ride to take us out to the pumpkin patch

Pumpkins! Unfortunately, we didn't get to go into the fields to take pictures because of time and because no one felt like getting out of the back of the tractor. So we rode it back to the farm.

A quick family picture (taken by Adam's sister- thanks Jamie! And matching shirts were courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa Ferguson)

Hawaii 5-0

2010-10-28T13:46:00.002-06:00

My parents took a trip to Hawaii a couple of months ago and brought the boys back these shirts. So I figured I better take pictures before they get too small.

They actually look like they like each other here! (In reality, they are getting to be really good friends. They can even stand to play by each other with the same things on occasion!)

I couldn't resist posting this picture solely because of Caleb's face. Can you say, "Waaaassuuuuuup?"

Ragu review and giveaway

2010-10-16T18:19:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone. Just to let you know, there is a giveaway for a $100 Visa gift card over at Buns in My Oven. Go here, take a look at the Ragu pasta sauce review and don't forget to enter!

Counting to 10

2010-10-12T21:40:00.002-06:00

We've been working on numbers 1-10 at our house and Nathan has definitely caught on. (Click here if you are having trouble viewing the video from here.)

Clapping for Joy

2010-10-12T21:39:00.001-06:00

Caleb has recently learned a new trick. If you are having trouble viewing the video, try watching it here.

Videos finally!!!

2010-10-12T21:21:00.002-06:00

I finally gave up trying to get blogger to upload my videos, so I turned to the every trusty youtube. If the video above isn't working, you can also view it here.

And let's just say nothing is safe anymore at our house! :)

Caleb's 9 Month Check Up

2010-10-06T19:38:00.003-06:00

Yesterday Caleb had his 9 month check up. Everything looked great! He was just over 17 pounds and just under 27 inches long, putting him in the 5th percentile for weight and between the 25th and 50th percentile for height. His new pediatrician here in California is great with kids and we're glad we get to have him! He told us that Caleb is a little early for his age on pulling himself to standing and cruising around furniture, but that we need to try to get Caleb to start sleeping through the night. He suggested that the problem is night-time feedings and that Caleb has enough fat reserves now at his age that he can make it all the way through the night, it's just a habit to wake up and eat. So last night Adam surprised me and took over caring for Caleb last night and I was able to get a decent night's sleep for once in over a year! Let's hope that Caleb catches on fast so that both of us can catch up on lost sleep! :)

Just because...

2010-09-19T19:29:00.006-06:00

There's nothing new to report, but since there were no pictures of the boys' faces on my last post, I figured I'd post some now.

Caleb is 8 months old!

2010-09-03T16:17:00.003-06:00

I can hardly believe Caleb is already 8 months old! (He turned 8 months this last Sunday) He is definitely growing up way too fast, yet it is fun to see him hit all the milestones. Speaking of milestones, he has hit a couple recently. He has been an official crawler (hardly ever scooting anymore) for the last couple of weeks, and just this last week he has decided to pull himself to standing on furniture and attempts to cruise along the edges of the couch. He has even figured out how to climb the stairs. Unfortunately, he is still not sleeping through the night, although last night he didn't wake up until 4:30 am, so hopefully he is getting closer!

This little boy looks up to his big brother so much, and you can tell that Nathan loves how interactive Caleb is getting. In fact, Nathan has been seen egging his brother on to climb the stairs without mommy or daddy near by and whenever Caleb enters the room Nathan says "hi baby!". Nathan will even sneak into the room when Caleb is sleeping or when he has just woken up and puts toys in his bed. I'm excited to see how their relationship blossoms. I can just tell they will be best of friends!

July update and picture overload

2010-08-01T20:43:00.009-06:00

I was hoping I would have more to report than I do, but seeing as it has been almost an entire month since I updated my blog, I figured I would share what I do have.

We are now officially living in California, but right now it feels like an eternal vacation. We moved in with Adam's parents, and while they are great and the situation is fine, it's hard to feel "at home" because nothing is really "ours." We are grateful that are in a position to help us out at this stage in our life, but we will be glad when we can move into our own place. The boys seem to have made the adjustment fairly well, except for naptime/bedtime for Nathan. This child never sleeps anymore it seems, which makes for a very groggy and exhausted mom once 9 pm rolls around. I just hope that he gets regulated soon and starts to sleep more (as well as his younger brother- who is still not sleeping through the night!). Otherwise, we're all doing great!

Nathan has taken to cars and bouncy balls the last couple of weeks. In fact, I don't worry about how much TV/movies he watches anymore because it seems that he'll only watch for a couple of minutes before he runs out of the room to play with one of the two. And grandma's house is not lacking toy cars either. I'm pretty sure that you can find a car now in any room of the house, thanks to Nathan. As for the bouncy balls, Nathan loves to throw them down the stairs and watch them bounce. So if you live in the Sacramento area and come visit: BEWARE of the bouncy balls! Thankfully no one has been hurt and nothing has been broken. The crazy houlligan!

Caleb has also taken to playing with cars, and sometimes he even looks like he is driving them on the carpet. It's quite humerous to watch. He is also mobile now. He is proficient in scooting, but doesn't actually crawl yet. But as far as I'm concerned, he might as well be since he gets into everything anyways. Seriously. If he sees it and is interested, he will scoot until he gets to it. Especially cords and micro machine cars. Both of which can be dangerous for a baby his age. So he is keeping us busy! Caleb also is finally liking his solid foods! He eats it twice a day, and usually a whole 2nd foods jar of baby food plus a couple tablespoons of rice cereal. He is also always begging us for breads and crackers whenever he sees them. We've also given him some water to drink from a sippy cup and he loves to chew on the spout- especially when it is ice cold! If it's room temperature, he's usually not interested.

Adam graduated!!! Finally! And Adam was supposed to have a second interview for a job this last week, but the jobs ended up being given to other people who had more experience. However, the company said they would keep looking for an entry level job to give to Adam. In the meanwhile, we've decided to start looking other places, too. So we're still jobless. Unfortunately. But we're still hopeful that we will find something relatively soon.

As for me, I've eaten way too many chocolate chip cookies. And that's about it. Hahaha, no really. I did start reading the Harry Potter series (I've read the first 4 or 5, but in order to finish the series I figured I'd start at the beginning). I have also been trying to expand my recipe collection for fresh vegetable side dishes that aren't swimming in heavy cream or cheese. But other than that, nothing is new for me. So that's all for now- enjoy the pictures!

Adam and his parents after graduation

Our family after all of the graduation festivities (don't mind me- my makeup got packed in the back of our moving truck along with all our other toiletries by mistake)

Adam receiving his diploma cover

Caleb fell asleep on grandad during the graduation speaker

This is Bishop Packer and 2nd counselor (McKay) that Adam served in the bishopric with

Nathan sporting grandma's shades at the splashpark in Meridian

Caleb had a lot of fun playing on the ground when we were visiting my parents a couple of weeks ago. In fact, he'd play so much that he'd fall asleep right where he was.

Nathan: the next American Idol (now he just needs to learn to sing!)

Nathan helping us pack

Catching up...

2010-07-05T09:51:00.004-06:00

I'm so ashamed! I can't believe that I haven't posted anything earlier because, well, last Sunday, June 27, was Nathan's 2nd birthday!!! I can't believe we have a full-fledged 2-year-old at our house. Although, truth be told, we have had one living at our house anyways for the last couple of months. Oh well! We are glad for Nathan to be growing and developing and it is still exciting when he does something new. Thank you to everyone who sent cards and gifts. He definitely had a special day. Here are some pictures from his birthday party we had:

Nathan is also working really hard at learning his ABC's and counting. He always tries to count with me while I'm measuring ingredients in my cooking and he loves to say the ABC's. It's funny because he mostly repeats each letter, except every once in a while he'll say the next letter instead of repeating. I am so proud of him! He also had his 2 year check up at the doctor and was roughly 23 pounds and 34 inches tall. He's on track with development and the doctor said everything looked great!

In other news, Caleb is still trying to crawl. He is yet to be successful, but he is getting better about getting on his knees while keeping his head off the ground and without rolling over onto his back. He is also starting to get a hang of solid foods. Although he still isn't a fan 100% of the time. We've been trying to get him to eat solids since he was 4 months old (he's now 6 months) and he's only eaten the cereal and babyfood mixture really good 2 times, and both times were in the last week. I'm hoping he starts catching on soon so I can maybe have relief from feeding him every 2-1/2 hours to every 3 hours. Boy it gets exhausting! Caleb also had his 6 month check up, and he's doing great, too! He was 26.5 inches long and about 13-1/2 pounds. (And I'm a loser mom, because I don't think I have taken any pictures of Caleb over the last couple of weeks! Can you believe it? So I'll work on that and hopefully have some new pictures of both boys up by next week!)

And Adam has a job interview in Sacramento finally! We're really excited. It's with Horizon healthcare and it is a week from today (so on July 12). We're praying that this works out so that we'll have a job lined up for when we move to Sacramento at the end of the month! Good luck, honey! Adam has also been bitten with the tennis bug. He loves it and loves to take every opportunity to find a buddy to go play for an hour or two. When he can't get anyone to go play, or if the weather is bad, he gets a little depressed. So I got him a second tennis racket for his birthday (which is this Friday, but he already has it since I'm in Boise visiting my family) so he can hopefully have better luck finding someone to go play. Also, graduation is inching closer and Adam has been anxious and nervous about graduating. He seems to have some deep down fear that he is never going to graduate or that something is missing out of all the courses he has taken. I think we'll both be glad when we get past graduation and have a whole year to not worry about school!

Nothing much is new with me, I've just been busy crafting, trying to keep house, taking care of babies, and working out. I feel like I've been getting better at sewing, and I'm even starting to like it more and more as I try new things and am successful at finishing projects. And with working out, I've been trying to be more active during the day (i.e. walking to the park, playing with Nathan outside, etc.) plus I've been doing 2 good cardio workouts and 2 weight lifting sessions each week. And I've also been eating healthy and balanced, and because of all of my effort, I am now only 4 pounds away from my target weight!!! (That also means that I have lost a total of 19 pounds since I came home from the hospital with Caleb.) I feel so accomplished, especially since I have never really had to lose weight before having my boys. The things we do to become mothers! :) But one other thing that I did recently was run a 5K. My running partner and I had a little confusion on when the "race" started, so we got their about 10-15 minutes late, but we still ran the route. We finished in about 33 minutes and we ran 5K (or 3.1 miles) over some of the Rexburg hills (ugh! I was totally unprepared for that! I had only been running on the treadmill prior at zero degree incline!). But now that it is done, I am very proud of myself as it was the longest I've ever run in a row (although we did have to walk 3 times as we were going up the hills, but only for like 100 meters each time) and it's also the fastest mile time I've had since running in high school.

Beef Enchiladas from my other blog... Oops!

2010-06-18T16:38:00.004-06:00

I know I haven't posted videos yet on this blog, but I'm having trouble with blogger uploading them. Those of you who follow my blog may have just received an e-mail from me about a beef enchilada recipe I made. I'm sorry! I accidentally posted it here instead of my cooking blog. But I figured it gave me a chance to remind all of you that I do have a cooking blog!

It's called Budget Bites, and it's where I post yummy recipes that are budget friendly. There are two other contributors to the blog as well so you won't always be hearing from just me! And just in case you were wanting the recipe, the link to that post is here.

Finally Finished!

2010-06-04T08:31:00.003-06:00

Remember my niece that was born long and skinny? Well, I finally finished the outfits I set out to sew for her. Thankfully when I was in Boise 1-1/2 months ago, Avery got to try on one of the outfits, and it was HUGE on her. So I had more time to finish up. Now she's 9 lbs. 9 oz. and gaining weight wonderfully. I hope these fit her now! (Terran, I'm going to put them in the mail tomorrow, so you should get them on Monday.)

The finished outfits with my model, Caleb

A closeup of both patterned fabrics

A picture is worth a thousand words...

2010-05-29T12:49:00.006-06:00

...so here's a few! I'm not going to actually commentate on this post, but since it has been a while since I've posted any pictures, I thought I would share some love. (Oh, and P.S. Caleb is 5 months old today!!! And he's a rolling fiend!)

(I was going to post some videos, but they aren't uploading, so I'll try again later!)

Unmotivated and other news

2010-05-14T11:33:00.002-06:00

As the title says, I am so unmotivated to do anything that I should be doing right now. Thankfully both of my boys are asleep and my immediate responsibilities do not include them ;). All joking aside, besides making sure my boys have been fed and are happy, I sometimes get them clothed and bathed on a regular basis. My house on the other hand has been neglected. It seems like I can catch up on just one part and feel really good about myself, but then I leave the room and get depressed because it's a... well, it's not as clean as the room I just left. And let's be honest. Time is not to blame. It's my motivation. So when you have blah days (or weeks, or months) when it comes to housework, do you have any advice on how to get motivated, to make the time pass, or fast cleaning tips? While you think, I'm going to check e-bay for a time travel device so I can go back to when we made our mess and put an end to it! :)

In other news... Caleb turned 4 months old 2 weeks ago. At his dr. appointment, he weighed in at 12-1/2 pounds (I can't remember the exact ounces, so I'll try to remember to look it up after his next appointment on the growth sheet they give us) and was 25 (maybe 25.5) inches tall. I swear, my memory has stayed pretty good through pregnancy and being a mommy, but lately, it seems like little stuff like this slips every once in a while. Anyways, the doctor said that he looked great- which is always a relief!

Adam has also been to the doctor more recently for his foot. He has had some increasing pain since the beginning of the year, and our bishop, who is a family practitioner, gave him a referral to see the orthopedic surgeon here in Rexburg. We took all the x-rays and bone scan information we had from the doctors at the health center only to be told that they were irrelevant and we needed to have another x-ray done as well as another CT scan. *sigh* Then the doctor was on vacation for a week or so since his daughter was graduating from BYU. So we saw him on his first day back and found out that the bottom half of the bone Adam broke has healed, but the top half has rotated a little and has not healed. We were given the option of either a cortisone shot or being aggressive with surgery- of course we took the first option, and our doctor agreed that it was the first step he'd suggest. So we're waiting to see what happens. As of now, the shot has helped Adam's foot not be in pain, except for when he exercises. In which case, Adam thinks it's his muscles that get sore, not the bone. We're hoping that the shot fixed the problem, but if not we'll have to look at surgery. His next appointment is on May 24, so we'll see.

Nathan is, well, almost two, and acts more like it every day. He has started to find more hobbies around the house, such as climbing onto my bed and hanging out for hours at a time, or even better, closing my bedroom door and climbing on the nightstand. He loves the park, and whenever we go, he makes a beeline for the playground equipment. We went yesterday and after he got run over by another little kid while climbing the stairs, he started crying every time other kids came by him to go down the slide, too. He's such a softie. It's too bad that he doesn't get to hang out with kids his age very often. Although, every other week, I watch a little boy that's a couple months younger than him and he loves it! Sorry bud- hang in there and soon Caleb can play with you, too!

And last, but not least, we are sad to announce that optometry is not going to happen this year. On the positive side, we've done a lot of work at trying to figure out where we are going to be headed for the next year while we reapply for next fall and it looks like Sacramento is where we're headed. Nothing is set in stone yet, so don't call me a liar if we move somewhere else, but after praying we feel it's what is the right thing to do. In the meantime, we're applying for jobs and looking for somewhere to live. Oh, the joys of moving. I get tired just thinking about it, and I haven't moved in 3 years!

Well, I guess I better try to at least get some dishes done before Caleb wakes up to eat. So that's all for now (and sorry there aren't any pictures this time!).

Blog Loser

2010-04-20T11:56:00.006-06:00

Yes, I am. I am, as my mom would say, a "blog loser". I haven't updated this thing forever it seems like, but life has lifed on me. Nothing bad has happened, I have just been inexplicably busy the last couple of weeks. I still haven't even finished sewing those outfits for my niece! Thankfully I had her try the finished ones on last week and they're too big. Anyways, I'll try to remember as much as possible in this post, and as always, I will include pictures at the end. I do have some videos to post, but I'll try to get those up later this week.

Adam

He retook the Optometry Admissions Test last week and improved, unfortunately it wasn't enough. So we know 4 of the 5 schools are a no-go for this year. There is still a small chance of acceptance with the last school, but we're not holding our breath. So for now, we'll explore our options and then do some more serious praying about our next year!
His foot has still not healed (ugh!), but we are still going to doctors trying to figure out what to do next.
He started his last semester at BYU-Idaho today. While he's not excited for another semester, he has mixed feelings about being done in July. He's excited to be done, but can't believe that he'll be done with his bachelor degree.

Tari

I judged the Miss Falls Valley pageant a couple of weeks ago and had a blast! I got to see some old friends and I learned a lot more about the whole judging procedure. I was really glad to have the opportunity to judge, and would love to do it again if I'm ever offered a chance.
I joined a biggest loser group my friend in Boise put together in an effort to push me to lose the last 10 pounds I'm holding onto. It seems like I've been battling between losing and regaining about 2 pounds, which has gotten old and really annoying. But my total weight loss so far from being home from the hospital is 14 pounds. I'm glad Caleb's weight came off fast, I just wish Nathan's would shed faster! :(
I need recipe ideas! I'm starting to get into a rut with my cooking. Our dinners taste good, but I'm bored. So if you have any ideas, please shoot them my way!
I have also been playing around with my camera's settings and having fun experimenting with taking pictures when we go on walks. (As is evidence with the pictures I've posted below.)

Nathan

Although his birthday isn't until June, he is already a 2-year old at heart. Sunday he started yelling no at me and fits are the norm around our house. Adam and I used to think that it was just due to bad parenting, but we've tried a lot of things to prevent his tantrums and nothing seems to work. So now our opinion is that every child has a rough stage, despite what the parents try to do. I think some kids have a longer rough stage (some stages that last all through life) because parents feed into their child's behavior, so we'll do our best to help him express his frustrations without meeting his every demand.
He is finally starting to fill up his mouth with teeth! He was a late bloomer- his first tooth didn't come in until he was 14-months old. And when they started, it seemed like he only had two teeth on the bottom and four on top for a while. Now he has 4 molars, and is starting to fill the gaps between the molars and incisors with more pearly whites.
He's sleeping in a big boy bed! We switched him to a toddler bed about a week and a half ago. The first night we had the bed set up, he was so excited so we let him try it out that night. He slept all the way through the night perfectly, and when he woke up, he stayed on his bed until Adam came in his room to let him out (obviously he was too used to the confinement of his crib!). Then we tried a nap, and he was less than interested, so he napped in the crib. After a couple of days, he got more used to his bed and was willing to nap in it. He's only had one hard day since, where he's been too rebellious to stay in his bed for his nap. That day landed him back in the crib and he's been fine ever since.

Caleb

Caleb is starting to sleep longer at night! He still wakes up, but it is only once around 3 or 4 because he's hungry, but before his midnight snack, he sleeps for about a 6-hour stretch! Hopefully he'll finally start lasting 8-10 hours soon! (Nathan started sleeping through the night after we started feeding him rice cereal. Caleb turns 4 months next week, and I bough rice cereal at the store yesterday. So maybe he'll follow his brother's example?!)
He is also really ticklish right under his chin around his collar bones. We have a blast tickling him because he does a full belly laugh until he's laughed his guts out, and then only whimpers when we tickle him. We try not to let it get that far, but sometimes it's hard to resist!
He also gets really frustrated during tummy-time because he wants to roll over, but doesn't know how to yet. Hopefully he figures it out soon! Although, he has started to scoot when he's on his back and sometimes gets his head right against the door or wall and we have to rescue him.
He loves his floor gym! We bought him one because he didn't really have any toys that Nathan would let him play with and he just looked bored so often! So we put him under the hanging toys and he has a blast! He coos at the toys and even grabs the ones that are low enough for him to reach. It's really nice for me, because he'll spend up to an hour or two playing under it which allows me some extra time for my projects.

The Rexburg Temple

My Recent Sewing Endeavor...

2010-03-25T15:27:00.003-06:00

My niece, Avery, was born last Friday weighing 4 pounds 8 ounces, and was 18-1/2 inches long. Which means she's a long and skinny baby! So my mom commissioned me to sew her a few outfits. I'm not quite done- I have 3 more outfits + 2 hats + whatever else I can make with the extra fabric! So, the next couple of days will be full of sewing. But here's the first one I've finished:

This is just a close up of the fabric I used

Living Life

2010-03-18T00:01:00.006-06:00

There isn't too much to report, but since these babies get bigger everyday, I figured it was time to post the pictures/videos I've collected over the last couple of weeks.

Adam is busy finishing up his semester and studying for the OAT (he retakes it on April 12). He also just got a soccer game for his PS2 that he's been having fun playing.
I've still been trying to find things to do with my spare time. One thing I've decided to do is couponing to see if I can lower my grocery bill more (it's already pretty low, but the more money I can save the better since we're living on scholarships right now!). I've found a couple of really good deals already and it has given me the encouragement to keep going. I found boxes of brand name fruit snacks for $0.30 and $0.25 each, as well as some feminine products for less than a dollar per package, and Huggies jumbo package diapers for about $5 each. I'm in the process of building my coupon stash, so if you ever have coupons you don't want, I'd be glad to take them and see if I can put them to good use!

I was also just invited to judge a local pageant on Easter weekend, and I'm really excited! It's been about 4 years since I've been involved with pageants and it will be fun to see some of the Miss Idaho board and volunteers that I worked with when I competed. I'm just nervous about the interviews because I have to come up with questions!

Nathan is busy becoming a 2 year old in his attitude and all! He really likes to read stories with mommy and daddy and is starting to repeat a lot more words that he hears. He still doesn't talk a lot, but he's recently started saying zero, one, two, "hi baby", and today he tried to say I love you when Adam said it. Tantrums are a regular occurrence now, even if you don't see them in public. He'll hit and kick you if you try to pick him up to do any disciplining and if you take something away that he shouldn't play with, he yells and starts crying. At least we can just ignore him on this one, and thankfully it works.
I've also been experimenting with how we comb Nathan's hair. He has such weird callicks that I originally thought that it would be best to just keep his hair buzzed. But with a second baby around, haircuts don't happen as often as they should, so out of necessity I've tried styling it different than just plainly combing his hair. When I would just comb his hair, it would always stick up and look like he just crawled out of bed. So I tried spiking it- and I think I like it. So we'll see. I actually cut his hair yesterday just like daddy's so we'll see how styling goes now. But I've put a picture of his spiked hair at the end of the post.

Caleb is still sleeping a lot during the day, and starting to sleep longer between feedings at night. When he is awake, he is smiling a lot more at us and definitely has an opinion about being ignored or put down. Thankfully he does like his swing and if we turn the music on while he's in it, he's usually content (until he gets hungry or needs a diaper change!). He's in size 1 diapers and 0-3 months clothes, but I think he's currently getting bigger so I think we'll be moving up in both avenues soon.

Anyways, I know the pictures are what most people care about, so without further ado:

Caleb's 2 Months Old and Other News

2010-03-02T22:56:00.009-07:00

Warning: This is going to be a mass update since I haven't posted for several weeks. Sorry! But there are pictures at the end! :)

It's really hard for us to believe that Caleb is already 2 months old! While I did say the same thing when Nathan turned 2 months, I really mean it! If it's possible, time has flown way faster for this second round. And yesterday was Caleb's check-up and immunization appointment. Everything looked great- he's 10 pounds 4 ounces and 23 inches long, making him bigger than Nathan was at his age, but he's still in the 50th percentile for height and 16th for weight. It was a huge relief to know that he is actually gaining weight and growing well since I'm breastfeeding him. Nathan wasn't good at nursing so we had to switch to formula, which was a huge blow to my self esteem. But this time around I've been determined to be successful and so far I have been! But back to Caleb. He's starting to smile at us when we talk to him, and even if we just look at him sometimes we get a smile. Sometimes he will even talk back to us with gurgles and coos. He's also starting to protest if he isn't getting the attention he deserves. He still isn't sleeping through the night, but his feedings are becoming more and more spaced every week, so I'm hoping that before long I'll be getting at least one 5-6 hour stretch of sleep every night.

It's also interesting to note that this week is the 6th week I've been exercising (yes, I broke the 5-6 week rule, but I started out really mild, and it helped me have enough energy for both of my boys) and I have seen huge improvements in my body. I've already lost all of the weight I gained with Caleb, and I'm 1 pound lighter than when I got pregnant with Caleb. Leaving my total weight left to lose at 14 pounds! (For those who don't know, I wasn't able to get rid of my baby weight after I had Nathan due to a malfunctioning thyroid. And once we got it corrected, I got pregnant with Caleb, which meant I had to wait until now to lose the extra weight.) And it's nice to say that I have also seen inches come off along with the pounds. The biggest change has been in my waist- almost 4 inches lost! But I've also made improvements all over my body! Some of you may not really care about what I've just shared, but I'm really proud of it because I have NEVER had to try to lose weight before in my life. In fact it's been somewhat of a joke in the past that I had to work to keep up my weight just so I could fit my clothes! Aaah, to be 18 again... :) And that last sentence totally made me feel old!

We're still waiting to hear from most of the optometry schools Adam applied to for graduate school. We've heard a definite no from the one in San Antonio and we found out that Houston wants an extra class that Adam can't fit into his last semester next semester, so it's out, too. USC's optometry program (SCCO) hasn't said anything to Adam and Midwestern University in Arizona and Western University in Orange County, California both want to see a higher OAT score before they'll consider his application. Thankfully, there's still time for him to take the OAT one more time next month before the application deadlines close for these two schools. So here's to hoping!

And Nathan is getting bigger every day! For a while I was getting worried that he wasn't going to talk, but after I just accepted the fact that he'll speak when he's ready, he started saying new words every day! In fact, he usually says at least one new word a day. Some of his recent words are circle, diaper, water, and sticker. The funny thing is he seems uninterested in the basic words most little kids start with, with the exception of mama, dada, and "bo-bo", which we think is in reference to Caleb, so maybe brother... or baby??? Anyways, he loves to climb anything that is higher than the floor and he is starting to love to play trains. He is also becoming more acquainted with Caleb and will tuck him into his carseat and then rock him when he starts fussing. I know they are going to be best buds! Caleb also seems to like Nathan because whenever Nathan lays down by him on the floor or looks at him, Caleb smiles- even if Nathan is not the least interested in Caleb at the moment.

To finish up my update, here are some pictures. Enjoy!

Caleb's Blessing

2010-02-11T11:43:00.005-07:00

I feel like I have done little else besides cook, eat and feed the kids, then clean before I have to start the cycle all over again. Unfortunately that means I have been neglecting my blogging, and even worse neglecting capturing precious moments with our camera. I definitely need to get back in the habit of pulling the camera out here and there, especially since our laptop bit the dust and we're not even sure yet if it's fixable and if not, if we can recover any of the data. I'm hoping we can because we have a TON of pictures and videos on that hunk of junk. It has made me thankful that I have been somewhat consistent keeping up this blog over the last year since I've posted most of what we have. Anyways, back to the topic at hand.

Sunday we did Caleb's blessing and it went really well. Adam's parents and his brother Jon came up from Sacramento along with my family from Boise. We did have a luncheon afterwards of soup and salad. Thankfully I learned my lesson from Nathan's blessing and rather than cram everyone into my small apartment, I reserved a lounge in a nearby men's housing complex. Needless to say, it was a lot more comfortable! Thanks to my mom for taking pictures- something that I kept forgetting. So these are courtesy of her. (And Renae, if you are reading this I'd like to get a copy of any pictures you and Rodger took while you were here. You can just e-mail them if it's convenient. Thanks!)

Play date with Nathan, continued

2010-01-29T09:53:00.003-07:00

I forgot to check our video camera for any other videos. Consequently, I left this one out of Nathan.

Play date with Nathan

2010-01-28T12:02:00.004-07:00

It seems that now, more than ever, Nathan has been interested in playing with either Adam or myself. We think it has everything to do with us taking care of Caleb a lot of the time and maybe even that he misses his aunt and uncles that spoiled him while he was visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Boise. Either way, we enjoy it!

He's starting to become a lot more fun, and a lot more vocal. He still doesn't say very many words, but what he does say, he says a lot louder and he jabbers like he is carrying out a full conversation with whoever is listening. And if you ask him just about any question, he responds with "yep" or "yeah". His most recent accomplishments include barking like a dog, pointing to all the parts of his face, and figuring out how to open his dresser drawers.

He is also old enough to go to Nursery at church now, and while it almost seems too quiet in Relief Society now, it's nice to finally be able to pay most of my attention to the lessons. And thankfully, Nathan loves playing in Nursery! He wasn't too sure about it when I dropped him off on Sunday (our first Sunday back to church after having Caleb) but as soon as he was shown the blocks, he didn't care much about mommy. I'm just excited for him to now have a frequent opportunity to play with little kids that are around his age. Maybe they'll start teaching him words and some fun little kid games!

Here is Nathan playing in his Elmo bubble bath Santa brought him:

And playing London Bridge is falling down??? Or maybe the Limbo???:

Caleb's First Month

2010-01-28T11:24:00.004-07:00

Caleb is going to be one month old tomorrow- I can barely believe it! I already can't imagine our lives without him! Thankfully I don't have to! :) Here are some eye candy of him:

Brotherly Love

2010-01-17T20:12:00.003-07:00

Slowly but surely I'm getting back into a swing of things. Thanks for being patient!

Here is how the sibling situation is enfolding in the McDonald household:

Day 1 of cohabitation

Day 2 of cohabitation

Day 3

After 1-1/2 weeks

More of Caleb

2010-01-03T22:29:00.007-07:00

So I finally played around with the video camera and got some still frame pictures to share as well as a couple of videos that actually uploaded! Some of the still frames turned out a little fuzzy due to poor lighting, so sorry!

Here are some snap shots of Caleb's first bath:

While Caleb is crying through most of this video, you can see his cute little quivering lip. (Which is one of our favorite things about Caleb so far.)

This video was taken by Adam in similar fashion to a soundless video he took of Nathan after he was born.

Caleb Roy McDonald

2009-12-31T17:56:00.006-07:00

He's finally here! Caleb Roy McDonald was born on December 29 at 4:18 pm. He was 19 inches long and weighed 6 pounds 14 ounces.

Labor and delivery went really well, in fact better than the doctors expected it would! At my appointment on Monday, the doctors became a little concerned about my blood pressure and with the history of my last pregnancy, decided it would be better to get the little guy out before my blood pressure sky rocketed. So my induction was supposed to be 7:30 am on the 29, but Caleb decided he couldn't wait for the doctors! I started having contractions around 4:00 am that were about 8 minutes apart, and so I got up and took a warm shower to get a little more comfortable. The contractions kept coming and I couldn't sleep, so I read and finished packing for the hospital while I let Adam and Nathan get a little more sleep. I woke Adam up at 5:30 and we dropped Nathan off at some of our friends' house (thanks Carlee and McKay!) and were at the hospital at 6:30. After we got checked in (which by the way, took like 15+ minutes and the guy seemed oblivious to the fact that I was actually in labor and having contractions) we went straight to the labor and delivery room and my contractions had progressed to about 2-3 minutes apart and I was dilated to around 3-4 cm and 80% effaced. The doctor came in and broke my water, and decided to hold off on pitocin since I was already contracting. (And since my blood pressure was only slightly elevated, I didn't have any mag sulfate either! Yay!) My contractions were consistently getting longer and more painful, but not really closer together, so I got an epidural. At 12:30 pm when they checked me again, I was still at 4 cm but had effaced 100%. So they started the pit and it only took a couple of hours for me to progress the rest of the way. The nurses were all very helpful and encouraging through the whole thing. Then it came time to push, and after pushing through 2 contractions (or about 3 minutes) Caleb was born!

We're so glad to have our little guy here! He's healthy and doing well. In fact, he's a very good eater and I'm excited to be able to breastfeed this time around! I am exhaused, but thankfully, while I get some R & R, Nathan will be in Boise with my family until next Friday. Hopefully when he gets back, transitioning into regular family life will be a breeze! :) So don't expect to hear too much from me for the next 2 weeks, except for maybe pictures here and there as well as brief doctor appointment updates.

Last belly shot before heading to the hospital.

Caleb getting all cleaned up after delivery.

Hangin' with daddy

Hangin' with mommy

All ready to hit the road (I'm not sure why this angle made him look so small...)

Unfortunately, that's all I have to share right now. Adam used the video camera a lot more than the regular camera to capture the events of our stay at the hospital, so I've got to work on uploading videos and getting still shots off of the other camera. So until then, that's all folks!

Day of Doctors

2009-12-21T18:45:00.002-07:00

Thankfully our whole day wasn't full of doctor appointments, but Nathan and I each had a check up today. First, with Nathan's 18 month check up, everything went well. Developmentally he's fine and the doctor said that he looks great physically, too. We just have to keep an eye on how he walks because he walks a little pigeon toed/bow legged. The doctor wasn't worried about this, in fact he said he'll probably grow out of it as his legs develop more. He now weighs 22.5 pounds and he only gained a 1/2 inch, which means we'll be facing a growth spurt soon I'm sure.

At my appointment, everything went well, too. I didn't gain anything this past week and I'm not having any complications. My blood pressure was a little high, but I was rushed to get to the doctor's office today since we went to lunch right before my appointment. The doctor did do an exam, and the results were that my cervix is 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced. Which means, comparing this pregnancy with my pregnancy with Nathan, that I could go any day. I don't necessarily feel like it will be tomorrow or even the next day, but I could see him coming this weekend. We'll see what Caleb decides to do. If he doesn't come, that will mean that I'm doomed to have a doctor's appointment on my birthday next week! So here's a warning... I may drop off the face of the earth for a week or so if I do have Caleb soon (or whenever I have him for that matter), but I'll try to post pictures and/or video ASAP.

The Importance of Preparing

2009-12-18T12:51:00.002-07:00

It seems that we talk about preparing for emergencies a lot, yet I don't think very many people take the time to actually plan and prepare for the unexpected. We had an experience yesterday that inspired this posting. Our power went out around 7:30 last night and didn't come back on until somewhere between 2 and 2:30 this morning. And it wasn't just the normal residential black out that we've experienced a couple of times in our apartment. In fact, for several hours, it was a city wide blackout which means we couldn't go get a warm meal from a restaurant or go to the store to pick up a few items that would help us make it through the night.

We weren't too poorly off, except for the fact I didn't have any source of light for us to see in our apartment (the only flashlight in our house was out of batteries and I didn't have any spare- thankfully Adam remembered that we bought an LED flashlight for our car emergency kit so we ended up using that) and I didn't have any fuel for my camping stove so cooking was out of the question. Thankfully our water was turned off too, but if it had I would have water and heat wasn't an issue because we have blankets and cuddling helps to stay warm. Plus if it got too cold, we could always escape to the car where we could turn on the heater.

Anyways, my point is that this was a minor power outage but it turned out to be a HUGE reminder to me that I need to be prepared for emergencies within my home. I would encourage you to evaluate your emergency preparedness and take appropriate measures to ensure that your family has what they need to survive. I've included a couple of links that can help you know what to plan, the carrying out of the plan is up to you!

Rocky Mountain Power's guidelines for power outages (has guidelines of what you can do to prepare and report outages, as well as how they work to restore power)

Food Storage Made Easy's Emergency Preparedness Basics (this site is great because it focuses on short and long term emergency preparedness and they even have baby step checklists to help you start little by little)

Provident Living's Emergency Preparedness (Another great source for preparing that is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

FEMA's side for planning ahead (this site includes details about the different natural disaster dangers, too)

The American Red Cross's "Do More than Cross Your Fingers" 3 step planning (This site has it's information spread out, so it might take a little surfing to find the information you are looking for, but it has information about safety in a lot of different types of "disasters")

Full Term!!!

2009-12-17T18:03:00.003-07:00

Today is a very important day! I am now 37 weeks,which means I am full term and any day here out is fair game for Caleb to come. I don't feel like he's going to come before Christmas, but we shall see! I have been going to my OB appointments every week for the last 2 weeks, there's just nothing eventful to report- which is good! My blood pressure has remained normal up to this point so it looks like I won't be dealing with high blood pressure during this labor. I've gained a total of 20 pounds- which by the way, makes me a lot heavier than I care to be. Especially since I didn't lose any of the post-baby weight I gained from Nathan. I know it will come off, I just hope I can be committed to exercise and dieting once I get to that point. Other than the blood pressure and weight, baby's heart beat is still strong (I think it was 139 on Monday) and he's dropped. I haven't been checked yet to see if I'm dilated or effaced, so no news to report there. My next appointment is on Monday (as is Nathan's 18-month check up) so we'll see what the doctors say. In the meanwhile, here's a belly shot I had Adam take of me:

Ward Christmas Party & Entertainment

2009-12-12T14:41:00.009-07:00

First of all, I've been trying to post these pictures (and some video) since last Saturday but the internet has been to slow to upload the files. So sorry it has been so long since I posted and sorry there aren't any videos! But hopefully we'll have lots of opportunities to get videos taken during the next couple of weeks! :)

Last night was our ward's Christmas party, and there were plenty of things that kept us entertained! And since Adam had to work, I was sure to capture the festivities on film. First, the primary put on a nativity skit and asked Nathan and I to participate. Even though he still has a couple of weeks until he is 18 months old and old enough for nursery, I think he had fun being a wise man with me. He kept looking at me and laughing- I'm hoping because he thought it was funny we were dressed up in costumes and not because of some other reason that can't be helped.

Here are some pictures of Nathan's costume. We were asked to provide our own costumes, so I made ours since I didn't have anything lying around that would work for a wise man/king/rich person feel. I didn't have any pictures taken of my costume because it really wasn't that special. It was mostly a sparkly piece of fabric that draped over my head topped by a paper crown. I did make a collar (kind of like what the Egyptians wore a long, long time ago) but I didn't feel it was special enough for a picture. Everyone really like our costumes and I was proud of myself for making them, especially since I didn't have a pattern!

One of the other entertaining acts was the live band that played background music. I guess I should use background very loosely, and maybe even say it was foreground music because it was quite loud, but the room we were in wasn't extremely large and we were pretty close to where they were set up. But Nathan l-o-v-e-d it! He spent most of the night standing on his chair, facing the band and dancing.

We had a lot of fun just hanging out with friends and relaxing away from home. Thanks to everyone who planned the activity!

Feelin' Good and a Little Imitator

2009-12-05T17:14:00.004-07:00

This is Nathan listening to his favorite song ever! I just think it's funny how excited he gets. The video opens with him sitting on the couch, and for the record, I didn't put him there. I just ask him if he wants to listen to music and he runs to the living room and does 1 of 2 things. He 1) starts pulling at the cupboards on the entertainment center that hide the stereo or 2) jumps on the couch and waits patiently for the music to start. He seems to prefer the latter option, but once the music starts, he can't sit still for long!

This is proof that you have to be careful of what you do around young kids because they pick up on everything adults do!

Beware of the Monster...

2009-11-30T14:33:00.005-07:00

The Tickle Monster that is! Here are two videos of Nathan's newest trick, and get this, WE FINALLY HAVE SOUND!!! :) (Thanks for this technological advancement goes to my parents as they gave us an early Christmas present when we were visiting this last week.)

P.S. The little girl in the videos is my niece, Laila.

Cookie Carnival: Pecan Pie Cookies

2009-11-25T13:32:00.003-07:00

It feels like it has been forever since I participated in the Cookie Carnival! I think it has really only been a month, but I guess a lot of things have happened in my life since my last recipe experimentation. Anyways, these cookies were made as a substitute for Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving tomorrow. My dad requested a pecan pie, and my mom and I decided on doing these cookies instead to add variation to our dinner feast. I don't know that I can say I've ever had a slice of pecan pie, but these cookies were delicious! The only complaint I have is that my cookies spread out more when they were cooking than the ones in the picture, which can be found here. Since pecans are pricey, this is definitely a splurge recipe, but one that is definitely worth it!

Pecan Pie Cookies - from Land O Lakes - makes ~3 dozen

Cookie Ingredients:
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

Filling Ingredients:
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine all cookie ingredients except flour and baking powder in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add flour and baking powder. Beat until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Make indentation in each cookie with thumb; rotate thumb to hollow out slightly.

Combine all filling ingredients in small bowl; fill each cookie with 1 rounded teaspoon filling. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned (mine took about 10 minutes). Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.

Decorating the Tree

2009-11-24T08:43:00.004-07:00

I know it's not even quite Thanksgiving, but we put up our Christmas tree as a family last night. Partially because I wouldn't have been able to put it up later this week due to family plans, and then I've already resolved to take the tree down the day after Christmas (or if labor ruins my plans, ASAP after Christmas) since I'll soon have a newborn and an 18-month old to care for soon after and we want to enjoy the work that goes into decorating. That and it always seems a little tacky to me to have my Christmas tree still up at the beginning of February (which is what happened last year). Anyways, after I set up the actual tree, put on the lights and ribbon, we let Nathan "help" us with ornaments. Here are some pictures of the event:

I think this picture is really cute, but it's too bad this is the reactions (accompanied by a huge fit) that we received when we tried to get his attention away from the tree and tried for a picture with him smiling. Toddlers.... :)

The finished product. Well at least according to me and Adam. Nathan, on the other hand, decided that there was still decorating to do as you can see from the next picture and video.

Week 33 Check Up

2009-11-24T08:40:00.003-07:00

I had a doctor's appointment (again) yesterday. It's crazy to think I only have 3-4 left before my due date, although I still think Caleb is going to come early. But I guess I'll have to wait and see. Everything looked great. I even gained pounds since my last appointment! I know to most of you, that wouldn't be anything to be proud about, and I think pride is the wrong description for my point. I'm surprised! Of course, I hadn't gained anything at my previous appointment, and my total weight gain for this pregnancy is only 17 pounds so far. So it's totally normal and healthy, I was just expecting a 1-2 pound gain. :) Baby's heartbeat was strong and sounded great. My next appointment is in 2 weeks, so I'll keep you updated!

Just A Laugh...

2009-11-22T22:05:00.006-07:00

My grandparents have forwarded me a couple of e-mails that have a bunch of cartoons on it. Here are some I thought were pretty funny:

And just in time for Thanksgiving:

Sewing: Hooded Bath Towels

2009-11-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

I'm making a tutorial for this hooded towel because I want to remember how I made the one above for a friend's baby shower. I just love using actual bath towels as the hooded towel material because they are so much more absorbent than the ones the stores sell. And they're softer and warmer! All very important qualities. Although this is mostly for my purposes, if you want to make one yourself, feel free to follow the steps I went through below.

What you'll need:
Bath Towel
Hand Towel
Ribbon (at least as long as the width of the hand towel; this is also optional)
matching thread
straight pins
sewing machine

Step 1: Cut the hand towel in half across the width. If you are using ribbon, sew it to the end of the towel with the finished edges, opposite of the raw end you created by cutting the towel.

As you can see in my picture above, I cut my ribbon a little short for the width of my towel. If possible, cut the ribbon to extend the entire width.

Also, some hand towels will have a decorative "trim" a couple inches inside of the edge- you can place your ribbon on top of the trim to make it look more organized. If you feel the preexisting decorative "trim" is too far from the edge of the towel, you can fold over the end of the towel to make it closer and stitch it in place (just make sure to add the length you folded under to the raw edge you cut- i.e. don't cut the towel until you adjust where the trim is).

Step 2: Lay your towels "right side down". This means that the tag on the bath towel will be facing upward (I suggest placing the tag towards the bottom of the towel so it doesn't end up in baby's face) and the ribbon on the hand towel will be facing down. Fold both towels in half width-wise to find the center. Mark the center with pins. Line the pins up and pin the towels together, with the right sides together.

Something I just thought of- if it makes it easier, have you bath towel facing right side up and the hand towel facing wrong side down. Just keep in mind that my bath towel is not going to look exactly like what you are doing, but it will turn out the same way.

Step 3: Take the left side of your hand towel and fold it over as if you were folding a letter into thirds.

Step 4: Next, take the top right corner of the edge you just folded over and bring it down so you are aligning the preexisting finished edges of the towel. Pin in place. Continue pinning the edges together until you get something like this:

(You can't see it very well in the picture, but there should be a triangular fold towards the center of the bath towel where the hand towel was folded back on to itself.)

Step 5: Repeat this process with the right edge of the hand towel. Fold it over so that your new crease matches up with the corner of the left side of the hand towel.

Fold the towel back onto itself by pulling the top left-hand corner of the right flap down and aligning the preexisting edges up. Pin into place. You should be left with something like this:

And when you fold the hood over, it should look something like this:

Step 6: Now, sew the edges together using your sewing machine. I used probably about a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Go slowly and be patient because there are a lot of layers to make it through. Make sure none of the layers slip from where you are sewing. Now go back and make a second seam between the edge and the first seam you made. This will reinforce the seam and make the towel more durable. Clip your loose threads and voila!

Now you have a hooded towel that will help keep your baby or toddler dry, warm and comfortable when you take them out of the bath or swimming pool!

OD'd

2009-11-18T11:51:00.003-07:00

Don't worry, no one overdosed on prescription, over the counter, or illicit drugs at our house. OD happens to stand for Doctor of Optometry, and it is admission to one of the optometry programs that we hope to receive soon. Really, this post is to announce that Adam has FINALLY completed and submitted the primary graduate school applications for optometry school, has submitted 2 supplementary applications, and has scheduled an appointment to take the Optometry Admissions Test (OAT) on January 11! He's applied to 5 schools total, so the 3 schools that he hasn't filled out supplementary applications for will e-mail him those forms to fill out once they receive his primary applications. So cross your fingers and hope that we get positive feedback!

Sewin' Saturday

2009-11-15T23:53:00.004-07:00

I had a bit of a sewing bug yesterday, but it gave me an opportunity to do a couple of projects I've had my eye on. Unfortunately, my escapade has not cured me and I'm hoping to squeeze in a few more projects this week. It would help though if my friends would stop having babies. Then I wouldn't have as many excuses to make the cute girly projects I see on craft blogs! :) Anyways, I made a new tie for Nathan to wear to church (Adam approved the fabric, and is now excited to go to craft stores with me to scope out more fabric for awesome ties for the boys) and I spruced up a second-hand onesie to give as a baby shower gift using tutorials found on this site (I used the ruffle butt onesie and shirt applique tutorials found under the baby tag). The tie was made from a pattern I purchased from Ashley at Make it and Love it.

Of course when I tried to get a picture of Nathan's tie while he modeled it, he was uncooperative and actually acted a little camera shy!

This is the back of the onesie with a 3 layer ruffle...
and this is the front of the onesie. I decided it needed a little something extra, so I cut a bird out of my extra fabric and made my own applique. I think it turned out well, and Adam agreed with me! (Which actually surprised me a bit! Guys just don't seem to care that much!) Adam wants me to remind you that this onesie is not for Nathan and not for Caleb, but for one of the sister's I visit teach who is having a baby girl around the same time I'll be having Caleb.

As promised...

2009-11-10T20:42:00.002-07:00

Taken at 31-1/2 weeks.