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.