Forgot

I forgot one of my favorite parts of Christmas.

I saw Henry pull Charlie and the Chocolate Factory out of his stocking. He held it and stared at it for a minute. I thought to myself, "Score, he likes it." Then I saw him throw it, shaking his head and muttering to himself "don't wannit." I tried several times to give him that movie and every time he threw it with a look of disgust. I have no idea what he didn't like about it. Finally I decided to video tape him hating his movie. So I had Dave give it to him one more time while I taped it. He decided then that he liked it, so I never caught this precious moment on tape. It really was hilarious.

The holiday

I don't know why I initially labeled this post "the holidays" because I only celebrate the one holiday. Anyway, I thought I better post after all the requests I've had to quit being lazy and post. ("All those requests" meaning the one time my sister mentioned it and the nagging voice inside my head.) So here is the huge Christmas post.

So I guess Christmas officially started on Christmas eve with the Low family party. It was a fantastic party with great food, all of which was prepared by my mother-in-law, great company, provided by the fantastic Low children, and great entertainment, provided by the Low grandchildren.

Although probably no one cares, I'm always looking back on Christmas trying so hard to remember what we did for gifts, so I'm recording it here. Feel free to skip this part. For the gift exchange we had Trisha. We got her the coolest hat/coat rack from Ikea, some earrings, and a shelf for her shoes. Can you tell that from this that she has a new house? I think she liked it, since she picked it out herself. Jesse and Brooke gave us our Christmas present. It is a 14" bronze statue of the prophet Joseph Smith. It's awesome. And Dave's parents gave us a beautiful, soft red blanket, and a generous gift of money which we used to buy Dave some new "metro" clothes for 2010. (More on that later) They also gave our boys Power Ranger costumes and toys, a Zhu Zhu pet, and some Lightning McQueen slippers for Henry that are delicious. Thank you to the Lows!

The Low party always includes a program. For the program the Martineau kids did their singing and piano playing, the Isaacson girls did some singing and a nativity arrangement, the Champlins read a Christmas story, and the Lows..... well we aren't that talented. So we did some singing and dancing that included everyone and Isaac recited a poem. Afterwards the kids performed the nativity, which is always great.

Our kids started falling apart by around 4:00 so we took them home. We made homemade fettucini for dinner which the boys enjoyed. We sat down to eat with our fancy champagne glasses and sparkling cider to drink. Two of the five glasses broke over the course of the dinner, but we tried our hardest to maintain our composure and keep the dinner happy and fun. Next year we are buying plastic ones. We set out some treats for Santa, and read the Christmas story before bed.

Santa came, thank goodness, so I awoke to Isaac in my face telling me that Santa brought us a Wii! Thank heavens that Santa brought it, because IF I were the one putting together a Wii, it would probably include me thinking that two out three controllers were broken, and cursing Sam's Club's name for selling broken controllers, comtemplating running to Walmart to buy some new ones, until I learned that I had to click a little red button to sync it. (That's what we in the computer world call an "ID ten T error".... ID10T, haha) It would also have included us having the sensor way too high and the controllers cutting out as a result. It may have also included us wasting way too much time creating Wii Miis. So, yes, I am very glad that Santa just did it all for us.

This happened around 7:45, which was much later than I expected. We got dressed, the video camera ready, and then kids came right out and ripped into their presents. Isaac was so excited I thought I might hyperventilate for him.

WE gave them piggy banks that digitally count their money for them, and Build a Fort kits which are AWESOME!!! I love them. They are a tarp like thing with ropes and clips to make fort building easier for kids, and cut back on blankets used. I couldn't believe how easy it was, I clipped those things to very un-sturdy items, and it all stayed. Probably, every family should have one of those!

Santa brought a Wii and a huge bucket of Tinkertoys. Smart guy, boys LOVE anything to build. They like the Wi, I think they were less impressed with it than we thought they would be, but we have had a ton of fun. Dave and I have played tennis after the boys are in bed, but I pathetically lose every time. Oh well.

The boys stockings were filled with great stuff as well including: Lego Indy, Star wars watch, candy, Air Buddies, Space Buddies, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Star Wars micro machine ships, batman action figures, and Hemy got a 14 pc set of tiny Pixar cars... a perfect match for him who loves tiny things.

Yep, Santa did pretty good, definitely not an extravagant Christmas, but just perfect for our family, and parents who like to be minimalists with toys.

Shortly after we opened presents, Dave's parents came over to see the kid's Christmas, and they stayed for breakfast. It was SO wonderful, I'm so glad they came. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and then they left to go visit some other grandkids. Does it get much better than that? I don't think so. We were very lucky. Thank you!

We went to visit our friend's Christmas, which was only about 10x more than ours, but we enjoyed seeing all the things they got.

Afterwards, our friend Stu came over. We put up the fort kits to make a tent and had a "Back to Bethlehem" lunch. Dave led the show and we all tried some different foods like what they ate in Bethlehem and wore robes and towels on our heads. The kids loved it. It was definitely a keeper, and we'll improve on it next year.

We had a lovely dinner of Roast, stuffing, and garlic beans and got the kids to bed. It was a great Christmas!

Yesterday, (Monday) was the Biada family Christmas party, since they were in St. George for the holiday. So they came up to our house for the party, which was nice. Grammy and Grandpa were also very generous, Dave and I got Texas Roadhouse giftcards, YES! And our kids got adorable stuffed monkeys, games, movies, and best of all THREE Wii GAMES! Lego Star Wars, Lego Indy, and Wii Ski. Isaac had died and gone to heaven. My sisters gave me a cute handmade scarf, some soap, and a perfecto wallet for me. They win! I have great sisters.

We again made homemade fettucini and enjoyed some Wii Sports.

So back to the Metro clothes. Fashion has never really been a part of my husbands life. I've tried, but never with much success. So he finally declared he was going Metro in 2010(Kind of a joke to mean he is going to actually care about how he looks). So we took our Christmas money and went out to buy him new outfits that make him look hot. Last night he wore his new jeans, Black zip up, and a black hat, all that black with the sweetest blue eyes I've ever seen.... He looked awesome! I hope it sticks, I'm enjoying the new "Metro" Dave.

I guess that's all. Merry Christmas to all. Hope your holiday was absolutely perfect!

Nativity at the Lows




Henry with his cars and slippers. He calls him "Mcqueenie" It sounds Italian. Kind of like Linguini.

Our Bethlehem lunch. Pitas, olives, pistachios, grapes, fish, eggs, dates, pomegranate, and our subsitutes: mustard for something bitter and chicken legs for lamb.

Our tent

Random pic- Dave and I all dressed up for a Christmas party.

Number 23

http://www.livescience.com/culture/091217-happy-state-list.html

Number 23? Are you serious? Get with the program Utah, we should be the very happiest people on Earth!

9 months

My G. baby is 9 months old. He is so sweet. He really was such an easy baby until he decided to get teeth. He's been kind of a late bloomer with no teeth at nine months. The last week or so, he has had some moments of pain where he cried. (I mean crying? Are babies supposed to do that? Not mine anyway, who are the easiest, happiest, smartest kids on Earth! See disclaimer 12/11/2009) But luckily, he has responded to baby Motrin very well, and we have still enjoyed a happy baby most of the time. Hopefully these two teeth come through quickly and we can have a few pain-free weeks before he starts teething again. ;)

G. is on the move. As tradition would have it, he started scooting right before he turned nine months, just like Isaac and Dawson. He is now up on his hands and knees, but hasn't quite figured out the coordination with his hands. So he ends up looking like a worm sticking his little bum up in the air and then propelling himself forward, sometimes even face planting. It's pretty cute, but what else would you expect? (see disclaimer 12/11/2009) If he keeps with the tradition, he should take his first steps in his 11th month, and we'll have him walking before spring comes... HURRAY! Crawling outside is such a nasty thing. Henry was an early crawler and crawled around all summer, eating the dirt.

G. Jesse really has been such a happy baby, especially since he overcame the newborn stage. He is so content, I really thought he would never learn to crawl. He loves to smile, and smiles so big it's more like yawning. He laughs his head off at his brothers, when they do nothing at all.

Although this kid gave me the worst pregnancy yet, a momentary disappointment in gender, a violent, emergency, premature delivery in the car, and completely rocked my world as I had 4 kids 5 years and under home ALL DAY LONG, ALL SUMMER, I am so grateful for him. It really has been a hard, hard adjustment for me to go to four kids. I thank my lucky stars that he has been a fairly easy baby. I wouldn't trade him for anything now, not even a girl! He is a lot of fun, and I can't wait to ask him some day, "What was the big hurry to get here?"

Disclaimer

Disclaimer 12/11/2009.  If you think I'm  too braggy on my blog, and do not appreciate bragging in blog form, I would encourage you to not read it.  How can I help it that I have the world's best husband, and the world's smartest, cutest, and bluest eyed childrem?  ;)

Thank you!
The writers at ericalow.blogspot.com

New Calling

Dave got a new calling last week. He was called to the High Council. It was kind of a surprise as he was just getting in his groove with his new calling as Ward Mission Leader. But I think it is a perfect calling for him, and he will do SUCH a great job with it. There will be no "Dry Council" when he's around, that's for sure. He is definitely the youngest of the 12, and I'm sure he'll learn a lot from being with them and the Stake Presidency.

Although I don't think he's thrilled with me blogging this, I don't have anywhere else that I journal anymore, so this is the place.

For the record, it was quite a Sunday for him last week, his day included the following meetings:

-Bishop's interview to advance as a High Priest
-Ward Council
-Ward Missionary Correlation
-Sacrament Meeting
-Sunday School
-Elder's Quorum (for the last time)
-Stake President interview to advance as a High Priest
-Stake Missionary Correlation meeting
-Tithing Settlement
-Stake Priesthood Meeting
-Setting apart as a High Priest and High Councilor

11 meetings in one day, that is definitely a record for this family. This week was a lot more low key, and I really think this calling will not impact our family too much other than the blessings he will receive as he serves.

I feel so extremely grateful to be married to such a wonderful man who has lived his life worthy, and prepared himself to receive this calling. As a young girl I dreamed of marrying a man who was a "worthy priesthood holder" and I think that is a dream come true. What more could I ask for? Well, that my sister's are blessed with the same, and that my boys become just like their father. (Well, with a little bit of me in there :).

Re-joining the world of technology

So for those of you who know, I got rid of my cell phone last winter when I was on bedrest. I didn't leave the house, so there wasn't much reason to have a cell phone. I actually quite enjoyed getting rid of it. It was refreshing to leave the house without people bugging me when I was out. And when the baby came, I had to strip my life down to complete simplicity in order to survive. This was one less thing to worry about.

When school started I felt guilty to not supply the schools with cell phone numbers to get a hold of us. I realized I needed to re-join the technology world and get a new cell phone. Ultimately I didn't want any other cell phone than the iphone. But I just couldn't rationalize the monthly cost of that. I found out that Sprint had a pretty sweet new plan with unlimited text, internet, and tv. I like that idea, so we took the plunge. I planned to get the free phone, but decided to get the Palm Pixi instead because it is so much like the iphone. I'm sure the iphone is better in some ways, but I actually found out some pretty cool features that the Pixi has that the iphone doesn't. In the end, the really selling point for me was the Disney channel. My phone gets the Disney Channel live and has recordings. It is awesome. It kept my kids captivated at a doctor's appt, which was fantastic.

The Pixi has a touch screen and apps and works very similarly to the iphone. It is actually the smallest smart phone on the market at the moment. One thing that it does better than the iphone is you can have multiple apps open at one time. It has a flash on the camera, and the internet looks just like it does on a computer. But of course, I know nothing about what is really cool on a cell phone anymore, I have been so out of the loop. But now I am re-joining with a top of the line cell phone that will be obsolete in about 1.3 months. Then I will fall behind again and become totally clueless in what the latest cell phone technology is. Oh well. For now, I am having lots of fun with my phone, and learning how to text message. And when these stupid things go on sale, I am going to buy one of these.


Unlike skins for most phones, this IS the back of the phone. Not just a skin that you put on top of it. It's made out of a cool rubbery material, and fits on seamlessly. It's a sleek little set up, and I really want a back like this so I can tell the difference between my phone and Dave's (he got the same one)

FHE

Last night we went to Angies for FHE with some of our friends, the Allens. Stanton Allen is our dentist, and definitely the best Pediatric dentist in the valley, check him out at ABC Pediatric dentistry.

They are a fantastic family with the cutest kids that are all super close in age, just like ours. I remember when I met them their little girl Chloe was in nursery with Isaac. She was one of his first biting victims, which was so sad because she is sweetest little blond girl, so innocent. I also remember doing the math when I realized that they had an 18 month old when they were blessing their second daughter in church, maybe 14 months apart? In my naivety I assumed it was an accident, who could possibly want their kids so close together? They had their third child right after I had my second. How did they do that? Then I learned. They were actually quite inspiring to me, and suddenly I was lucky enough to PURPOSELY have my children 16 months apart. It is awesome. Crazy, but awesome. I'm grateful that she showed me it was possible and fun.

So there we were at the restaurant, 4 adults, EIGHT CHILDREN. It was insanity. But so much fun.

Their kids are better behaved than ours. Henry wandered around the restaurant playing blocks with the jam packets, and intruding on other families. Somehow, I just ignored him. And at one point, Dawson flew a paper airplane across the restaurant. I learned a few things.

1. Our lack of courage to take our kids out to eat has created restaurant monsters who have no idea how to behave.
2. Dinner is way too long for their attention span. Driving through McDonalds is better for their need to be Power Rangers
3. Don't show your kids the Power Rangers movie right before taking them to a restaurant.

But really, it was so refreshing to have some one else clean up my kids dinner mess, and socialize with some people that we think are incredible and as Julie said, "get" our family.

And Isaac and Chloe got along great. She handles his boyish nature so well, and thankfully has forgiven him for the biting incident. He can't wait to play with her again.

Dear Accutane

I just wanted to drop you a quick note to say thank you. My face is completely clear at the moment. And now that it is, I realize that it hasn't been that way since I was about 11 or 12. I thought not having zits was the same as clear, but now I have a whole new definition of clear. My skin is completely smooth, you could say it's as smooth as a baby's bottom, my pores have shrunk, and my blackheads have disappeared. My skin has a much prettier color to it than it used to. And the best part is I feel so much more confidence. A quick dusting of mineral powder, some mascara on the lashes, and chapstick in my pocket (because you definitely have dried my lips out) and I'm out the door feeling great. I love it.

Since I started taking you, I have suddenly learned how many of my friends and family have issues with acne, I honestly thought I was the only one. I thought I was the only freakish individual with zits in their late twenties. Knowing that you are the only possible treatment for acne that can be permanent has made a lot of people that I know very interested in you, I'm sure you will get to know many of my friends and family. Please take good care of them as you have for me. And please keep up the good work!

Many thanks,
Erica Low

Book store

Just kidding, they aren't going to open until next Friday, the 20th. Friday the 13th is no good anyway. :)

To everything, turn, turn, turn....

There is a season, turn, turn, turn. It seems like I titled another post that once. Oh well.

We are seeing our family in a new season of life right now, and loving every second of it. When we had Isaac we were so worried about how our life was going to change. It scarcely seemed to change. We hung out with our best friends and their little boy who was a few weeks older, all the time. We stayed up late, we forced that little guy to be flexible and sleep wherever he was.

I remember one night we were driving home from the Kirks house at 1:00 am. We got pulled over by a policeman. Dave had forgotten to use a turn signal. Lame, right? The police looked in our car, saw the carseat in the back and said, "I was looking for drunk drivers and you turned out by the bar without a turn signal. I don't think you've been drinking, have you?" No, sir, but you can ticket us for being irresponsible parents and keeping our infant out until 1:00 am if you would like.

Every vacation we took, we declared our last. We hung out with friends and contemplated at what point we might grow up. 2 kids, 3 kids? Every time we got pregnant again we waited for life to really change. Well, it hardly seemed like it changed right up until this August when our kids were still frequently up at 10:00 pm.

Then school started. If Isaac is even up until 8:30 I have a hard time waking him up in the morning. It's terrible. "I ALWAYS have to go to school. FOREVER! Every single day I go to school. How come DAWSON doesn't have to go to school? School's not that fun." Those are some of the things I hear.

The whole morning goes differently if he goes to bed early. We try now to get him to bed at 7:00. Then he wakes up around 12 hours later. He plays for awhile and then he easily gets ready for school and leaves. He comes home from school, does homework, and reads for 20 minutes.

I feel like a grownup now. It's a new stage of life, one that I have to take a little more seriously. I have responsibility towards a schedule. I can't just disappear for the day, I have a little boy coming home at 12:30. I am enjoying myself so much though, I'm loving the change.

Isaac is handling school like a champ. His reading has really improved once he started the Book-it program of reading 20 minutes a day. It was amazing to me. Here is an example of a book he soars through.

Bats, Bats, Bats,

Bats have wings. Bats can fly.
Bats have fur.
Bats can live in a tree.
Bats can live in a cave.
Bats sleep all day.
Bats eat at night.

Not bad right? I sometimes have to remind him about the silent "e"s but he read that book right through without hesitation. (This was one of the books from my friend's store. We are LOVING all these new books)

Isaac was extremely upset with me about the 20 minutes of reading at first, but he improved so much and as it got easier, he enjoyed it more. The other day he told me he had a secret for me. He whispered in my ear that he loves to read. That made my day! I can't wait to see him keep improving, I think he'll be great.

Isaac's homework has around 7-10 pages in it for the week. I try to make him finish all the pages in 2-3 days because I don't like procrastination. Then I would know it was done by Wednesday or Thursday and it didn't stress me out. We have now decided that the math in Kindergarten (practically non-existant so far. Just grouping and counting and stuff.) isn't stimulating enough for him, so after his homework is finished he will do supplemental math homework that I print out.

If you google "addition worksheet" or subtraction, there are all kinds of printouts. I printed one out that was pretty hard, it had equations such as 9+7, that have double digit answers. Isaac has never done those before. He took quite awhile to finish the worksheet, but he did it with only 2 problems he needed to fix. It looked really messy. I looked a little closer and saw erased tick marks. I asked him what those were, and he sheepishly told me that he counted them. I was very impressed that he came up with that idea, and I'm sure in time he will memorize the answers so he won't need to do that anymore. I just need to keep him doing this supplemental math, and maybe he'll love math like me!

Another thing that was a big change was Dawson going to preschool. He has to leave early like Isaac, which was hard at first. I'm really pleased with his schooling though. He is really excelling in him tumbling and swimming. The swimming teacher even said he was the best floater in the class. He comes home with fantastic tumbling skills, and can even do a cartwheel.(Well, for a 3 year old BOY it is a great cartwheel, KWIM?) As far as academic, well preschool isn't exactly rigorous. I've spent a lot of time comparing it to the joy school that I did with Isaac. I don't think the curriculum is any better than joy school at all. I do think Dawson's preschool is outstandingly creative (which impresses mom way more than student and probably doesn't matter that much). The biggest differences that I see in the Sports Academy experience is the independence that they learn and the structure. This is really important for Dawson. They have a perfected little schedule and they do require them to do a lot of things on their own. I'm sure it's a little different for Dawson's class than the class that I teach (4-5 year olds), but I just see this as such good training for Kindergarten, and of all my kids so far, Dawson will benefit the very most from this.

Wow, that became a long post. I'm just fascinated by the changes and new things we are experiencing. The only thing that is constant is change. Or so they say....

Note to self

Note to self... and pretty much any other mother or grandmother that might read this.

No one wins the lottery without buying a lottery ticket.

No one profits from growth and appreciation without investing.

No one catches a fish without some bait.

No one reaps a harvest without first planting a seed, and then nurturing that seedling regularly.

This is my mom. She has bought an uncountable number of lottery tickets, invested more than she should have, searched for creative forms of bait, and planted and nurtured seeds in my kids (so to speak) more than most grandmothers could even comprehend .

And consequently, my kids adore her.



Well I do too. She is the best example to me of unconditional love and of a person who would never, ever dream of making you feel bad about yourself or your life. I have only ever heard from her how wonderful my husband and children are, and of course how exceptional she thinks I am :).

My kids think the Biada household is greater than or equal to Disneyland. Nothing is ever a problem there, everyone is happy to see them, it is all-you-can-drink chocolate milk, play all day, and then crash in front of a movie in the rocking chair snuggling with whoever won that privilege. My kids are showered with love and attention from Grandpa, Grandma, 2 aunts, and an uncle.

But the point of my blog post really wasn't to showcase the best example of a grandmother I know. (Although I wanted to do that obviously) The point of my blog was to remind myself now and in 20 years that you reap what you sow. So many people are curious and frustrated when they aren't given the attention they desire from other people. Why don't they want to be with me, why don't they like me? I sometimes forget this principle, that you reap what you sow.

We have some friends in the neighborhood who just moved in within the last two months. They invited us over for dessert last night. I felt a little flustered when they called that I hadn't invited them over first. What a great example to me of this principle. They don't sit at home feeling sorry for themselves that they moved again and have no friends. They don't complain about unfriendly neighbors and cliques. No, they buy lottery tickets. They throw out some bait. They MAKE friends. Brilliant people!

Why liken this principle to my mother? Well one because I am so, so grateful for her and the relationship she has built with my kids. But also because I frequently hear mothers from my club... you know the boy mom club- moms of 4 or more boys- yep, it's a proud little club!.... that they are worried about all of their daughter-in-laws. I don't subscribe to the theory that girls don't like their mother-in-laws because they aren't blood. I think that girls who don't like their mother-in-laws don't like them because they don't treat them like daughters, and don't build relationships with the whole family, especially the grandchildren.

Am I worried about my four future daughter-in-laws. Not if I can remember this principle. If I invest in them and their children, the growth and appreciation of my love will be mine to keep. I can have wonderful relationships with them and my grandkids, I just have to "buy their chairs" (ever see Phenomenon?). I'm sure with four different daughter-in-laws, coming from different backgrounds and different cultures potentially, there will be things I won't love about them. But I solemnly swear to keep those to myself. I'm going to be the best mother-in-law in the world. And I'm going to have fun with it. I love being a boy mom. I would never trade it. I love being a member of "the club."

Note to self: pull this post out in about 16-25 years when your kids start getting married. In the meantime, share these thoughts with others in case it might bless their lives. These kinds of semi-intelligent thoughts are few and far between to this brain-dead mother of four.

Best Friend

Henry has a new best friend. Her name is Kate and she looks just like her aunt Kate did when she was 2. She has a lot of the same spunk as his auntie Kate too. I've never seen him play like this with anyone. They were like two peas in a pod. I think they are soul mates.

BOOKS!!!!!!

Our friends are opening a book store. Jensen's Books. Every month they will get a new shipment of books and sell them. Pallets and pallets and pallets of books. They have everything. Seriously, you name it, they have it. Self help, biographies, novels, trashy novels, text books. And then there are the children's books. Board books, puzzle books, pop-up books, Golden Books, coloring books, hardcover, softcover, Scholastic, those obnoxious books with buttons that make noises, early reader (Just what I need for Isaac), yeah, everything you could want and more.

See these two bags FULL of books. Guess how much that costs? $7 for all you can fit in a bag. I'm not kidding. I spent $3.99 a book at Borders for a few early readers for Isaac. I thought that was a decent deal. I got 20 early readers that he can read right now, and some Level 2 for the future. Not to mention the 4 Nemo books I got for Henry, 2 Star Wars, 1 Jimmy Neutron (thanks Trisha for finding that one), two Cheerios books for church, a couple of Disney's version of "Where's Waldo", and tons of fun little books to read with my kids.

So for $14 I got two full bags of books for my kids. I can't wait to go back. I wanted to take ALL the books there.

They officially open on November 13th. You gotta go! It's located by SEI in Logan, and if you need more info let me know. I'm so excited for them. And for all my new books.

Finding Nemo

This blog post was so cleverly named by Keri!

We got a taste of how Marlin felt when he lost his little Nemo and searched the whole ocean looking for him. We lost our little Henry Nemo at the Elementary School carnival which only had about 2.3 billion people at it! It was so scary.

Henry wouldn't even let me put him down the whole night, and finally he got down for a minute, and a minute later he was gone! We searched the school several times in and out of every room, and I couldn't figure out how he could have gone so far away from me. I got to the point where I was pretty sure he was kidnapped, because he was nowhere to be found, and I just knew he couldn't have gone far away without screaming about my absence. Finally a girl at the front desk got word that Nemo was found on the stage in the gym. The one place I didn't look for him, I didn't know there was an activity in the gym. I guess I'm pretty new to the school, I didn't even know where the gym was! I blinked back the tears that had been welling up in my eyes, and recovered my little Nemo from the gym. I still don't understand how and why he went so far away, but I'm sure glad we found him.

Other than that story, Happy Halloween from us.

Our sweet little Santa Baby. He just sits in that car seat without making a peep. He is such a good baby.


Our big boys who decided to be Buzz again instead of Storm Troopers like they were planning.


And the USU spirit squad. (That uniform doesn't fit quite like it used to.)

Birthday Party

Birthday Party Take 1: Candles blown out before song.



Birthday Party Take 2: "Henry don't blow the candles out yet!" Henry says, "Why?" (his new favorite word)


Birthday Party Take 3: He sang so cute in Take 2, we thought we better video it. Notes: Next time turn on lights for video, G. Jesse was terrified of the singing- watch him screaming, Who wants to eat that cake after all those boys spit on it, and Henry won't say anything when I want him to!


The "Mamo" cake that Henry loved.


ps Henry is blowing these candles out as I type. so cute.

Two years ago

Happy Birthday to my precious little two year old, who insists that he is THREE!



Two years ago, right this very minute I was crying. I was in pain with a baby in the wrong position. By the time I am finished writing this post, it will be 2 years to the minute that my perfect little 35.5 week oversized preemie flipped around and came right out at 6 lbs. 11 oz! If only I had any idea two years ago, that this baby would be one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.

I have enjoyed two years raising the sweetest human being I've ever met. I absolutely adore this boy, and he absolutely adores me. Not only has he had the most fantastic personality, but he was without question, the cutest baby I ever saw. Henry has a cute little smile that he gives out VERY freely. He loves to find any excuse to smile. Even at the terrible age of two, though we have our moments, this kid is pretty incredible!

Smiling even before he was born.


Looks nothing like him now, but still really cute


Sweet Henry

Love that crooked smile!

Another famous baby

One year ago.... we went to Phoenix. Why didn't I blog about this then? 1. I was SOOOOOO sick. 2. The photographer never sent us the photos, and Dave finally got them last month.

Just as G. Jesse had a short period of fame from his delivery, my husband has a story of his own. Dave was the first baby born in the brand new hospital in Mesa, AZ called the Desert Samaritan Hospital, now called the Banner Desert Hospital or something like that. They took this picture (Dave's only baby picture) and put it on the front page of the newspaper. I guess it's family tradition. :). At the 25th anniversary of the hospital (and Dave's 25th birthday) they flew him and his parents down to Mesa, took a picture of him holding a new baby born there, and put it on the newspaper again. Shortly after we were married, I found this newspaper picture of him holding a baby and got a little bit concerned. He assured me that he didn't have some estranged child out there, and explained his story.

Last year, a representative of the hospital contacted us and asked if we could come down for the 35th celebration. They flew Dave and I, and his parents down for a night to go to this party. Dave went on stage and spoke briefly with an interviewer, and then we ate fancy schmancy appetizers, and slurped down all the fantastic non-alcoholic drinks we could stomach. It was a lot of fun, although way too short of a trip for all that travel time.

We saved them all kinds of money on our free flight compliments of the wings on my head ;). haha, just kidding. I was very sick, and too lazy to do anything nice with my hair. So I flipped it out and created those awful wings. Other than that, nice picture eh?



Dave and his Mom, 35 years later, holding the picture from that day.


Dave and his Mom. Doesn't she look fantastic? I don't look that great after I have a baby. And I totally think Dave looks like Henry when he was born.

SOOOOOOOOOO SWEET

This baby is so ridiculously sweet. He is happy almost all day. He loves to smile at people, and play with toys, and is happy rolling around on the ground or sitting in a high chair with no toys. He finally has some kissable cheeks, and I can scarcely keep my lips off him. He is such a blessing to have in this family, and I feel bad for him because as unbelievably good he is, he doesn't get the credit he deserves because: 1. I'm too busy and 2. He's following Henry who was truthfully the best baby I have ever met in my life, so how could he ever beat that.

I love this boy, and all my boys, and I'm planning on blogging about that one of these days because I am about to burst with how much I enjoy these kids, but I just don't have time to write it.

Click on this picture so you can enjoy the magnitude of beauty in this child's gigantic blue eyes framed in long dark eyelashes. What a babe!



And two videos. The first of G. laughing. He loves to laugh. My family was enjoying him laughing the other night, so I thought I'd capture it on video.



This vid is of Henry's latest phrase (well, he has a lot of them), "He hit me" It isn't always used properly, but who can blame him? It's a fun phrase to say! Henry talks so much now, it's unbelievable. Just a few months ago I was worried about his speech, and now I can't believe the things he says. Pretty much everything he says is so cute, I'd like to have it all on film.

Baby boy gets free flights for life

And I thought I had done it all.... I guess there's always next time ;)

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – A baby boy who made a surprise arrival on board an AirAsia flight this week will be given free flights for life with the budget carrier, as will his mother, the airline said Friday.

AirAsia said 31-year-old passenger Liew Siaw Hsia went into labour on Wednesday's flight from the northern island of Penang to Kuching on Borneo island.

The aircraft made an emergency diversion to the Malaysian capital but the baby arrived just before landing, delivered by a doctor who was on board and who was assisted by the airline's flight attendants.

"The baby was safely delivered when flight AK 6506 was approaching Kuala Lumpur for landing at 2,000 feet," the airline said in a statement, adding that mother and baby were taken to a nearby hospital following touchdown.

"To celebrate this momentous occasion, we decided to present both mother and child with free flights for life," said AirAsia's director of operations Moses Devanayagam after visiting them in hospital.

car crash

http://hjnews.townnews.com/articles/2009/10/20/news/news03-10-20-09.txt

Two things about this article

1. Be the Jeep. Jeep vs sedan= Jeep wins. My husband drives a Jeep (with over 200,000 miles on it) and when it dies I'm going to remember this equation.

2. The girl driving the Jeep is one of Dave's students. Please say a prayer for her. This was an accident, but I'm sure it will still be really hard for her. She's a good girl!

Article says Garlic can fight off the Swine Flu

Article found here.

Maybe that's why we are practically the only healthy people left. I feel like there is a plague. Have you ever read or seen Steven King's The Stand? Kinda like that. Everyone around us is sick and we're wondering why we're not. It's probably just a matter of time. But yesterday Dawson went to preschool with his cousin and she came home with a fever/cough/etc. Isaac played with a little girl two days ago and she stayed home yesterday with swine flu. There are entire families in my neighborhood that are sick. I think I'll bring them all dinner. If I keep serving people, maybe I won't get sick.

All I ask is that I don't get sick. Most parents say they would rather be sick than their kids. I must be a bad mom. I say, I'd much rather them be sick than me. I'll spoon feed them chicken noodle soup, and nurse them back to health. But if I get sick.... who is going to take care of me? Hmmm? No one. I'll be making pancakes, changing bums, pouring bottles, breaking up fights, turning on movies and cursing motherhood the whole time. Yes, if I get sick it is the end of the world. If I could just schedule my illness over some school holidays, at least I could have Dave home to help!

I think I'll go figure out how to incorporate some garlic into my lunch. For those who know me, you know that won't be hard!

Visiting the classroom

I went to go observe Isaac in the classroom today. There are really only about 2 kids in the classroom that are NOT having any issues paying attention and/or talking during class. Both girls. Jillian happens to be one of them, so congrats Jamie! Although, she is in the far corner, so she can't really talk even if she tries, but she was always paying attention when I was there, never spaced out or anything. Maybe that's where Isaac should sit. He has a boy on either side of him that keep leaning over and talking to him. That never helps. But really, I thought he was pretty good, and I thought he would be really distracted with me there.

After class I went with him to lunch. It was fun to watch them. These little tiny kids with their lunch trays, putting condiments on their sandwiches (or in their silverware slots, you know, whatever). The lunch was great. I never eat that good at home. I wish I could go more often. I

Isaac was so excited for me to be there. He held my hand as we walked. I tried to savor every second of that, because I know that the day will come when his cheeks will burn red just at the thought that his mother is at school with him, and he definitely won't be holding my hand then.

Decent little lunch!

Henry lost my ipod

And every time I asked him where it was he said, "I don't know?" and then turned his full attention to reaching into the Fruit Loop box and grabbing another handful to eat. Finally I noticed a common thread and after a tug of war with the cereal box, I recovered my ipod from inside the cereal. That kid puts things in the weirdest places.

The latest randomness

I have lots of little things I'd like to blog, so I think I'll combine them all.

1. THE BIG NEWS

So over the last two months I have gone into the doctor's office for pregnancy tests and other bloodwork. The first month the pregnancy test came back negative. I went back exactly a month later and took another test, and this test was............................................................................negative. I get asked so often if I am pregnant again, and that is a valid question for me. But no, I am not pregnant. And that is GREAT NEWS! Why? Because I have finally decided, at age 27, that I am done having acne. My older sister Aimee never got rid of her acne, and I seem to be following in her footsteps. Actually for both of us it was extra mild in high school and got worse with age. My brother-in-law is a dermatologist and he told me that the only treatment for acne that lasts after you stop taking it is the drug "Accutane." It has an 80% chance of curing acne for life. The only problem with Accutane is that is extremely toxic to developing babies, so there is a government regulated program where you must pledge to use two forms of birth control and have pregnancy tests monthly. So if you were wondering, I will not be pregnant again for quite awhile. But I will have the radiant, beautiful skin that I ought to have at age 27. And I will be loving every second of it when I do!

Okay, that was a gross topic, I just wanted to put that first and see if I could fake you out into thinking I'm pregnant. Did it work?

2. POLITICS

Today in the car I was listening to talk radio as I drove and Rush Limbaugh was singing the "Mmm, mmm, mmm." Obama song. If you are into politics at all, you know which song I speak of. Before long, my little Henry was in the back singing, "Mmm, mmm, mmm." Maybe Henry's a democrat? But could you really be a democrat growing up in a car with your mom listening to Rush? Doubtful.

3. BABY NAMES

Isaac told me yesterday, "When Heavenly Father sends us a baby girl, lets name her Peaches." Okay Isaac, we'll put it on the long list anyway. And I would replace the word "when" with "if."

4. PRESCHOOL

I am absolutely thrilled with Dawson's preschool. I feel like he is learning great things, and the tumbling and swimming lessons are incredible. When I took him swimming with my mom he could float on his back so well. I mentioned that to the swimming teacher today when I picked him up, and she said, "Oh yeah, Dawson could float on his back all day. He's really good at that." I told her they were amazing teachers. Man, I'm really getting my money's worth out of this preschool, especially since I'm not paying very much. The sad thing is, that up until this week, he would cry every time he went. This week he did a lot better, and he seems to be having fun and feeling more comfortable. It's definitely stretching him, I'm very pleased about that, but it has been stressful for me to watch him be so stressed out. It's such an awesome preschool though, I'm glad he has the chance to go.

5. POWER OUTAGES

Last night the power went out. For. a. long. time. Seriously, it started to go out shortly before 8:00 at night. Luckily, I had my kids in bed at 7:45, so they had no idea it happened. It was weird, it went dim for about 20 minutes before it went out, which I have never seen happen. I realized how boring it must have been before electricity. Wow, candles just don't cut it for me. Not to mention the fact that I was in the middle of canning pears and not only did I not get to process the rest of them that night, but my sink was full of pear guts and I couldn't use the garbage disposal. The nerve! I am so completely reliant on electricity, it is amazing. I feel more grateful now. And at 12:15, when Dawson got up to go to the bathroom, he flipped on the light and I woke up and realized the power was back. So the kids really never knew about it.

6. GOVERNOR'S MANSION

On Sunday we went with our friend Nate Herbert to General Conference. He is the governor's son, so we had awesome tickets. Our seats were row "B"!! But unfortunately, we were late, so we sat in row "U" which was still pretty close. Afterwards, we went to the Governor's Mansion for a personal tour and lunch. It was awesome. He showed us the governor's quarters which he said even most of the employees that work there have never seen. It was really neat. Yeah, I think mansion living with servants is definitely the life for me. I keep racking my brain trying to figure out how I can get myself a mansion and servants. If you have any advice for me, please let me know. (And special thanks to my family who tended my kids while we went)

7. LUNCH WITH FAMILY

On Saturday, in between conference sessions, we got together with Dave's siblings while our brother-in-law Mark was in town from Switzerland. We had a fantastic lunch and enjoyed seeing all of them.

8. PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCES

Last week was parent/teacher conferences. It was my first experience, and not quite what I had in mind. In my mind, a teacher should focus on the positive so that a child feels good about their school experience, and then quickly brush on the things that should be improved so the parent can catch on to what they need to work on, but the child still feels good about things. Isaac's teacher is fantastic, and I really like her, but the conference wasn't like I pictured it. She very quickly mentioned that his Dibels testing score was 35 when the benchmark was 21 and the goal was 10-20 in language arts, and his math score was 17 when the benchmark was 10 or something like that. Personally, I would like to dwell on how brilliant that makes my child is. I mean, not ALL my children will be that smart, I might as well enjoy it with this one. I also asked her about reading and how most Kindergartners started out the school year reading-wise. She said there were 3 kids in one of her classes and 10 kids in another that scored above 100 (out of 117) points on the pre-assessment. She didn't mention his score. When we got out to the car, I quickly added up his points, and he got 111! So he's doing very well academically. Even if his teacher doesn't want to focus on that. And since we didn't get emphatically praised at his P/T conference, you will deal with me bragging about it on my blog a little bit. Sorry. I can't help it. We did talk at the conference an awful lot about how he has a hard time listening when she talks and staying focused. So we are bribing him to try to improve his behavior. We'll see how he does.

Henry is going to be Frankenstein for Halloween

Last night Henry had a very average fall that resulted in a head split open and blood gushing. It was lovely :). He just tripped and hit his head on a bar stool, but it was just at the perfect angle to cause damage. It was split wide open, it looked like a big, black hole. I took one look at him and yelled to Dave, "We have to go to the hospital RIGHT NOW!" Remarkably, the gushing/squirting blood stopped within just a few minutes, and he didn't even cry very much. We took him to the ER and luckily they offered us Ketamine to sedate him so we could get him the best stitch job possible. The Ketamine was awesome. He was mad that they gave him a shot, and then I could see the look in his eyes change. "Henry do you feel good?" I asked. "no." He quietly replied as he looked at me with big eyes. "Henry are you sleepy?" "no." a little slower and quieter. And then he was gone. Staring at me with huge blue eyes and nothing behind them. It was a little bit creepy watching him with his eyes open laying perfectly still and snoring. But it lasted the perfect amount of time for them to do the stitches, and then he gradually woke up and we left. He couldn't hold up his head for awhile, and he couldn't walk until this morning, but today he's good as new. Just a little bit grumpy.

The funny things.
-After the initial hit, he hardly cried at all.... except when they took his shoes off to put the monitor on his toe. "He's very sensitive about his shoes and feet," I told them. You would have thought they were stitching him up right then, he screamed so much.
-That initial bleeding got all over both of us. We walked into the ER looking pretty bloody.
-Our ER nurse was actually the one who told Dave to take his shirt off when we showed up at the ER when G. Jesse was born. It was funny, she told us she thought of that line when another lady had her baby in the parking lot and it was really cold. "Dad, take your shirt off." Wow, those ER people are going to know us really well.

Here is my little Frankenstein.



And here is the pose he kept giving me. I have no idea why. He was a little bit loopy, so maybe that explains it.

Hubby made me dinner

And this is what I got. Isn't that cute?

Happy Birthday Aimee

Yesterday we went down to Bountiful to visit my family and go to the pool with my mom. We had a wonderful, thought short, swim and the boys played on the climbing wall at the rec center. It was a lot of fun. Then in the evening we went to the cemetery, sang happy birthday, and let go green balloons in Aimee's honor (green was her favorite color). We finished off the evening with a lovely dinner at Chili's and the birthday cake was..... well what else would you get at Chili's but molten chocolate cake? Mmmm, it was delish. I enjoyed my drive home from Bountiful thinking about Aimee and feeling happy for her about where she is at now. Happy Birthday Aimee. And Happy other birthday to Jessica on the 29th which marked two years of her birth into the next life. I hope she celebrated that day on the other side, and giggle a little bit at the thought of her only being 2 years old. And if that's the way they do it, then she's older than Aimee, ha!

Thanks to my family for a great birthday party yesterday, the only thing that could have been better would be for Aimee to have made an appearance, but I understand that is a little bit difficult.

(I didn't bring my camera since I knew I would have swimming hair, yuck, but I provided some generic pictures to represent the party. Lame, I know.)

Man vs woman

Man's perspective

Woman's perspective


I asked Dave to go outside and pick tomatoes since it was going to freeze last night. He brought 2 small tupperwares downstairs, looked outside, and thought, "Ahh, there's no ripe tomatoes." I came home that night and he asked if he was supposed to pick the green ones. I growled, put on a sweatshirt, and went out to pick. I filled the two tupperwares and the box lid shown above and came upstairs looking for some buckets. After some pushing and growling I got him to follow me downstairs and out the door where he learned that there were actually quite a few tomatoes. He got some buckets and before long, what do you know? They were full! We had a good laugh over his two little tupperware bowls.

Isaac-isms

Mom, you look nice. (Mumbling a little bit) You're probably a zebra? - (I am wearing an animal print dress.)

Yesterday while playing with a friend.

You are a patawan learner. I was a patawan learner once too, but now I'm a real jedi knight. I'll be your master.

(Good one Isaac)

USU Homecoming Parade

Every year we go to the USU Homecoming Parade, and this year we were lucky enough to have Trisha and her family come. As Trisha said, it is a terrible thing to teach children: run around in the road and pick up candy from the ground that was thrown at you by strangers. Nonetheless, it is fun, and our kids love it. Dave had to go help out with his Alumni group, so we went alone, and we had a little surprise half way through the parade...



I really can't complain about this kid. He is so good. He sat in the stroller almost the whole time, and laid on the grass for the rest of it. He's very sweet.


SURPRISE!!! There is my husband IN the parade. It was kind of funny.


And some cute videos of the kids dancing. I'm pretty sure we had the cutest kids at the whole parade, but we can't help it, can we Trisha?







And thanks to Auntie Kate who provided the Halloween pumpkin bags that we used to catch parade candy as well. Great buy!

Happy Johnny Appleseed Day

Happy Johnny Appleseed Day.

Isaac's teacher celebrated this day with them yesterday by having them bring in different kinds of apples. I sent Isaac with one of the Macintosh apples off of our tree. He told me his was the biggest one! We have had an awesome first crop of apples from our tree. They are huge, and tasty, and we probably ended up with 50 of them.

Isaac's teacher (Miss Melanie) is awesome. She doesn't mess around with baby stuff, she takes Kindergarten very seriously. Maybe a little too seriously, but I love it. She taught the kids this apple poem, and I love that she is working with them on memorizing.

The IPOD

Lately my kids have been doing a lot of this.....



They watch movies on the ipod. They love it, they escape into their own little world with their own screen and headphones.

So today while I was cleaning, I resorted to this:



I don't know if you can quite tell, but I am sporting the 80's kids headphones that my mom gave Dawson for his birthday. We have two ipods, but only one set of ear buds. So after I snapped that picture of Isaac, he took this little sweetheart of me. Don't I look hot? Maybe Isaac will have a career in photography. Then he can buy his own ipod....

Dr. Appt.

Just got back from Dawson's 3-year appt. (better late than never) The highlight of the appointment was when the doctor asked Dawson what color the dinosaur was. Henry turned his head, looked straight at the doctor and said, "Green." I assured the doctor that it was just luck. We are still working on WORDS with Henry, not COLORS!

Dawson is only 33 pounds, which is 60% and 38.75 inches which is 70%. Not as much of a munchkin as I thought he was. He did great, and I was thrilled to have no concerns with him to report. Night trained, potty trained, eats well, sleeps well, and is healthy as can be. I may take him to get his speech evaluated, but other than that we are good to go!

G. Jesse's appointment was last week and he weighed in at a whopping 15 lbs (15%) and 25.5 inches (20%). The doctor was actually thrilled with that, and wrote "On the regular curve!" I thought he had grown quite a bit since I quit nursing, but I guess it wasn't quite as much as I thought. He just is so much chubbier than Henry, I thought he'd be at least 50%.

Healthy boys! Henry's 2-year appointment is next month, but since he performs so well for the doctor, I'm sure he'll do fine too. ;)

Mamo

Henry has had a thing lately for "Mamo". He discovered that his swim diapers had Nemo on them and carried armfuls of swim diapers around every day. I took pity on him, and so I decided to get him some Nemo paraphanalia. With Halloween coming up, I gave in and bought him a Nemo costume too. It is the cutest thing ever! When he runs around his little back fin wiggles back and forth and he actually looks like a fish. SO CUTE! He was very pleased with his Mamo costume and I can't wait until his other Nemo things come in the mail. He'll love them.

First day of Preschool

Today is a good day. I sent off TWO kids to school today. It was exciting. It was Dawson's first day of preschool. I decided to not do joy school with him, and send him to the Sport's Academy preschool with his cousin Naomi. I am so excited for them. When I taught tumbling at that preschool I had a little boy/girl cousin set in one class. It was so cute how they interacted, different than the other boys and girls treated each other. I hope it works out the same for Dawson and Naomi, that they can be great friends.

I did work at the Sports Academy Preschool when Isaac was a baby teaching tumbling. I always swore I would send my kids there as I do think it's the best preschool in town. But since I was pregnant the last two years there was no way I could drive Isaac across town all the time. So Trisha and I are carpooling, and I am feeling better this year with definite plans to NOT be pregnant this year. The Sports Academy Preschool have an incredible program. They swim for an hour on Tuesday and tumble for an hour on Thursday. And they run an incredible preschool for the kids for the other two hours. I can't wait to see the things they come up with for the kids this year, it should be awesome.

So this morning I got up with Isaac and started getting him ready. I came out of my room to find Dawson on the floor in the hall wrapped up with a blanket with it over his head. That's not out of the ordinary for him. He doesn't wake up very well. The first thing he said to me was, "Preschool's not that fun." I assured him it was and it would be worth waking up and getting ready. Well, somehow Henry woke up early, which hasn't happened yet since Isaac has been in Kindergarten. So when I walked Isaac to the bus stop Henry screamed the whole time, sure I had abandoned him forever. At this point I did have Dawson convinced that preschool WAS fun, so he was cooperating to get ready. Oh wait, jump back to the walk to the bus stop. I walk out the door holding Isaac's hand and he says to me, "It smells like a good day mom." "No Isaac," I said, "that's horse poop." But his good mood couldn't be dampened. "Well it smells WET, and that's a good thing mom." He's a good kid.

Henry was not happy about the neglect of his mother getting older brothers ready for school. He was panicked about his "paa-paa" (backpack), his shoes, and his bottle. And I just ran around getting Dawson ready. When Daws was finally ready, I walked him outside to take some pictures, and I could scarcely get a picture without Henry in it. Here is what we got. (Notice the little red croc over the blanket sleepers)








Go ahead and enlarge this one. It's worth it.


I am thrilled to have two kids gone today, and I think I'll go get some things done before the baby wakes up. Bye.

First stitches

There has to be a first for everything, right? Well, we had our first stitches of the family. Isaac was using a knife to cut a hole in a jar for a bug to breathe. Makes sense, right? Forget about the five million times I have told him not to use knives, or the 2 million times he's reminded me that he can't use a sharp knife. All that went out the window when the bug needed to breathe. So he wound up with a nice size hole in the webbing of his forefinger and thumb. Remarkably, it didn't bleed much, and we learned that area of the hand is actually hollow, so you could see right in there. I tried taking pictures of it, but the didn't turn out that great. He was actually playing at a friend's house when he did it, and happened to be wearing a superhero costume (I'm too clueless to know what superhero he is). I kept snapping pictures of him and he said, "Mom, why are you taking so many pictures?" I told him I thought it was really funny.

2 stitches was all it took, and we were on our way. Everyone laughed as I took him out of Instacare, I told them that even superheros get hurt some times.