"Out Came Lots of Popsicles...and One For You"

(Posted by Richard)

We've been working on this montage for the past few weeks, but we finally finished it last night. There's a little bit of Halloween at the beginning, but it isn't much because our Halloween was pretty pathetic this year. Oh well. 

Also not showing up on the video was Laura's birthday last Friday. We did some exciting stuff like letting her sleep in--amazing, huh! (Although I did give her the slippers she's been wanting first thing in the morning so she wouldn't have to have cold feet). Also, my class got our early, so I went shopping for her. I found a sweet relationship-building board game that made me think of Laura--it was called Charisma :)  We got a babysitter to watch the kids, including Logan, while we went and got some Polish mustard, Swedish chocolate, and Carino's dinner. It was excellent. I'm intentionally ambiguous about the "it", because Laura really did open up the mustard in the car and test it (ew). The Swedish chocolate was fantastic, as is to be expected. It was fun talking to the owner of the foreign food store, who was from Poland. It was really interesting how she mentioned a lot of things about Poland that bewildered Laura, and, actually, vice versa--Laura talked about things that this lady didn't know about. 

I've been busy with teaching, PhD application materials, and such. The next few weeks will really be crunch time--grading enters a whole new level, the application stuff is due (well...more due. It would have been good to already have gotten them in), and there will be all kinds of distractions. But seriously, when is life ever not hectic? It fills whatever space you give it. 

Laura and I have been playing the "Memory Game" with the kids using Go Fish cards. I'm really impressed with how good they are. Gabe mostly just chooses the cards that are closest to him over and over again, but Ethan will really give me a challenge some times. One small thing that helps him is that I think he's learned to recognize the backs of some of the cards--a starfish card has a tiny hole in it, a whale card is even more wrinkled than the others, the back of one of the dolphin cards has slightly washed-out colors, etc. I specifically don't use that knowledge, even though the differences are pretty obvious, but I suspect he does. 

We're pretty picky about what we let the kids watch, but we really like Shaun the Sheep. I've noticed that when we put it on for the kids so we can work on something we tend to get stuck watching it with them. It's from Nick Park, the same guy who did Wallace and Gromit. 

Here are some funny things Ethan has said recently:

After watching a Shaun the Sheep episode where Shaun cooks for the farmer:

Ethan: "Why does Shaun know how to cook?"

Richard: "Because he's really smart."

Ethan: "He must read the scriptures."

After listening to some new music on Spotify (I believe it was Kronos Quartet):

Richard: "What do you think of this music?"

Ethan: "I think it's pretty selfish."

Richard: "Selfish? What does that mean?"

Ethan: "I don't know."

A few notes about the movie:

• The music is "En El Muelle De San Blas" by Mana.
• No Gabes were hurt during the filming of this video. Yes, he was stunned for a second when he slipped on the bread on the kitchen floor. Yes, I did stop the video to chew him out for jumping off the teeter totter before it was safe to get off.
• Near the end of the video I secretly video tape Ethan quizzing Gabe on his colors. Anyone who was an older sibling probably did something similar.
• I expect to sell Gabe's "Baby Logan"picture for millions of dollars when he becomes a famous artist later in life...or even better, maybe we should make some shirts with that as the logo. Hmmm...
• The basic gist of Ethan's robot story is that he and Gabe draw pictures of robots which come to life; however, if they're drawn with a frown they're bad robots. That should help you follow a little easier, even with subtitles.
• It's really long (mostly due to Ethan's extended robot story at the end), so I had to upload it to Viddler. If you have problems viewing it, just let me know.

October--Birthdays, Canning, and Ghosts, Oh My!

Hi all,

Laura may not be in a position to post today (let's just say there was some illness and throwing up involved--probably because the peach nectar we made earlier was so good that she decided to have too much), so I thought I'd just have a quick post with the montage we finished yesterday.

We apparently haven't done a montage since the beginning of the month and my birthday on the third. I thought Laura's birthday cupcakes were quite original. Also, if anyone's interested in how I did the water balloon inside the air balloon, I'll make a tutorial :) I have ideas on how I'd make a water balloon inside an air ballon inside a water balloon, but I'm not sure I could pull that off.

Occasionally Ethan and Gabe will play together in really funny ways, so I decided to get some footage of them playing over the gap in the table (hence the shakiness). I'm afraid I missed some of the funniest things they said/did, but this should give you an idea.

Here's a funny thing Ethan said the other day. I had just finished asking him what he did to make Gabe cry:

Ethan: "I hit him on the head."

Me: "Was that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Ethan: "It was a bad thing."

Me: "Why?"

Ethan: "Because it made him cry...and you are big people."

And here's one from Gabe. We've been trying to work on both of their pronunciation recently:

Laura: "Gabe, say 'avocado.'"

Gabe: "Atado"

Laura, enunciating: "Avocado"

Gabe: "Motorcycle"(pronounced in his own way, of course)

Hmmm, we'll have to work on that.

The kids were getting in the Halloween spirit by being ghosts. Actually, they do that all the time, but we encourage it more around Halloween, I guess?

A few days ago, Melissa/her family, Stephen/Shawna, and Laura/me/the boys decided to have a picnic dinner get-together at a park. We had a lot of fun. What doesn't appear on the video is the frisbee and the basketball (which Liam and Zoe participated in and did quite well, I thought). Also the delicious cake because this was in part an October birthday celebration. My birthday as well as Zoe's, and Shawna's birthdays all happened this month.

Anyway, everything else is going well. enjoy!

End of September

We meant to post this earlier.  It's just another montage of the regular stuff we've been doing around here. We've (I've) been horrible at taking pictures, probably because we don't have as many free hands as we used to.  We've also just plain forgotten to take the camera with us on many outings and so the phone camera has had to suffice --which accounts for the poor quality of some of the pictures.  In fact last weekend we went to our nephew's baptism, had family visit us, and blessed Logan, and except for the pictures my in-laws took, we didn't manage to get pictures of any of it. Luckily Richard's dad recorded some of the action as Richard and his brother had fun juggling after the baptism (and no, they are not juggling with the green tomatoes you see in the forefront of the video, in case you thought that, like I did). 

Although we still have fun playing the usual indoor games such as "boofer cushion" (which has evolved some as you can see) we have also made an effort to get out and enjoy the last of the summer weather --which I'm surprised lasted as long as it did. I think it's what they call an Indian Summer, although I'm not sure why.  Today was actually the first day that it kind of felt like fall because it's been cold and rainy.   

A few weeks ago, we went for a picnic and Richard and the boys found a cool tree to climb. That was also our first fishing trip at the nearby lake as well (again no pictures). We've actually gone fishing one other time, and as usual, neither ended in success. In fact, the last outing ended in a snag and a lost lure, and eventually in the breaking of our only pole.  Yeah, we're pretty much a disgrace to my family.  I think the kids enjoyed it though.  Of course, we had to keep them away from where the fishing was happening since their idea of fishing is merely a opportunity to throw rocks into the water. Richard has also been making use of the tennis courts that are near us to wear out the kids before bedtime. We went together one of the times taking the baby with us, and the kids had fun pushing the stroller around one court while we hit a few balls back and forth in the other.  It was a great set up :).  

Anyway, here's our newest montage.

End of August, Move and more

A lot has happened in the past few weeks. We didn't document it so well with pictures and movies though because we were a little distracted.  In a nutshell, we packed up and moved to Idaho, I had an emergency gall bladder removal as soon as we got here, and Richard started work teaching at the college.  Luckily we had help from my mom and other members of Richard's family. Honestly, I don't know what we would have done without them.

Now that things are settling down, we figured we'd post a short montage.

Backyard fun and other stuff.

We've been kinda home-bodies lately, and I'm sure you can guess why... but we've managed to have some fun still.

The weeks before and after Logan's 0th birthday

The montage includes some pictures from last week before the baby came --just to prove that I actually did feel well enough to do a few things with the kids.  The park was while I did some last minute shopping Saturday before I went into the hospital, and then we got out the pool to wash the kids off after I gave them all hair cuts that night.  It was a tender mercy that I felt well enough to take care of those seemingly small things before the baby came, and it made me feel immensely more prepared.

We went to the hospital Sunday after church to start the process of getting my body ready to be induced.  I felt good about the decision, and with the kidney stone and the upcoming move, I really do think it was the right thing. Richard's parents came to watch the boys, and that was a great help --the boys love their grandparents-- and it was so nice to have it all set up beforehand, and to be able to prepare the boys for what to expect. The picture of Richard and I was the last picture taken by his Dad just before we left for the hospital.  Richard came with me, and stayed just long enough for me to get settled, and then went back home to help get the kids to bed.  He slept with his phone just in case, but didn't really need to come back until early the next morning,

Monday morning they started me on the pitocin, and while I labored, the kids and their grandparents had a fun morning up in Grand Teton National Park, playing at String Lake and such.  It didn't take as long as Ethan's induction, and by the time they woke up from their naps, the baby was here.

So I figured it was about time we introduce our baby:  Meet Logan King Samuelson!  He was born July 25th at 3:36 p.m.  He was 8 lbs, 20.5 in long.  He's healthy and strong, eats well, sleeps well, and is overall a wonderfully mellow yet alert and happy baby.

Logan came with just a little bit of complication --the cord was around his neck-- but overall it was a very easy delivery. (The hardest part was that hour of hard labor before I got the epidural.)  I won't bore you with details, but if you want to hear the whole story, you can read it here.

The boys and their grandparents came to see Logan a couple hours after he was born and we all ordered room service and had dinner.  Did I mention how good the food is at the Jackson hospital?  The kids were super excited to see their new little brother, and loved his little hands and feet.  Gabe might have been little thrown off, but not really.  He just didn't want to kiss the new baby, although he assures me that he loves him whenever I ask. They were especially excited to wear their new big brother shirts and bring him balloons for his birthday.  After they all went home and I got moved to a different room, my younger sister came for a visit. He was awake and alert, andI hope she gives me some of the pictures she took (hint hint). Although it had been a long day, I felt great.

The next day was supposed to be the day they took out the kidney stone and stent (I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait, but it all turned out for the best).  Turns out, --miracle of miracles-- I passed it right after the baby was born without even knowing!  Richard's parents came again, but by themselves this time while Richard watched the kids, and held the baby while I got the stent and stuff taken out.

They went home that night, and Richard got to come and have a "Candlelight dinner" with me that the hospital provides for new parents while our neighbors watched the kids until my mom got there.  She drove up from Utah to help out, and let me tell you, she's worth her weight in gold when it comes to helping (including getting up in the night with the baby). She came to the hospital and visited later that night by herself, and then they all came again the next day (Wednesday) to pick me and Logan up from the hospital.  I was glad to finally be home, but it had also been nice to have the nurses around to take the baby anytime I needed to rest.  I also missed the cheesecake.

My mom stayed that night and the next, and on Friday my Dad flew up as well.  Richard went back to work Thursday and Friday, but my parents took the kids out for a hike up Cache Creek canyon, and to the park so I could get some extra rest.  It was so nice having them around to help, to keep the kids occupied, to do some shopping, and cooking, and it was especially nice having the dishes consistently clean without having to do them myself. They left Saturday morning and I was a little sad to see them go. I think the kids enjoyed their time with them as well, and will miss the extra attention once we're on our own next week.  We'll see how that goes. Wish me luck!

Honestly,  I just have to say that I have felt so blessed with how things turned out.  I am so grateful for everyone's prayers on my behalf as well as those who sacrificed their time and energy to come and help out.  We have felt so much love and support, and even though there were some tough parts that I would rather have not gone through, I feel that though they were inevitable, it all turned out in the best possible way.  Thank you all.
After all, there must needs be opposition in all things, and in order to get something so wonderful as our little Logan, I had to go through it all.

Enjoy the montage.

Father's Day, Ethan's Birthday, Fourth of July, and E.R. visit.

A monthly post is about all we can do at this point I'm afraid.  I admit, part of the problem was taking pictures.  We covered a lot of time, and plenty of big events, but there's not many pictures to show for it. I was usually too tired to hunt down the camera really.  Sorry.

We start the day before father's day, when Richard's parents and grandmother came up to visit and I made shish kabobs and homemade ice cream for them.  Delicious!  The next big event was probably Ethan's birthday, or should I say birth-week.  His birthday happened to land on Sunday this year, and we were heading to Rexburg that night, so we kinda celebrated it the day before with a few presents (yes, Gabe thought they were all for him) and some grilled pizza, Yum!  The next day, Richard and I had talks in church and then we left for Rexburg celebrating Ethan's birthday with cake at least twice, and going to the splash park.  The kids and I stayed in Rexburg while Richard went on to Boise to defend his master's thesis.  It was accepted (Yay!) and now he's just got to do all the paperwork and submit it then we'll be done and Richard will get his diploma!  Woohoo!  I'm so proud of him; he's worked so hard.

After that, we came home for a few days, and then went back to Rexburg for an informal family reunion over the 4th of July weekend.  We all went to the new water park there, but didn't manage to get any pictures.  We did, however, manage to get some bad sunburns though (not the kids, just Richard and I).  That evening Richard and his family went to the temple while I stayed with everyone's kids (I think there's one picture of them all zombied out in front of a movie --yep, piece of cake).  Sunday afternoon we went for a drive to see where the Teton Dam broke, which the kids didn't fully appreciate, but it was nice to get out of the house.  Monday morning before the parade there were several family members who had planned to run a 5k, but after finding out that the date had been moved and they had missed it, they planned their own Samuelson Family 5k, complete with timers and water stations and prizes for finishing each mile.  Almost all the cousins ran all or most of it, even down to my three year old nephew in diapers and I think wearing crocs who ran the whole thing.  Wow!  Richard, although I can't remember the last time he ran any kind of distance, decided last minute to run as well --in regular shoes and jeans no less, and he ended up getting 3rd place overall --right behind his 10 year old nephew (just in case he needed some humbling).   Of course, I wasn't so sympathetic when he complained about being sore and tired.  I really didn't need both of us feeling that way.  Still, I was impressed, and a little sad I missed it all. I stayed with Gabe, waiting for Ethan to wake up (he's not the early bird his cousins are apparently), and missed the whole thing.  We did make it up in time for the parade though, (once again forgetting our camera --all we had was Richard's phone) and were set up quite comfortably near the beginning of the route.  The kids had lots of fun gathering candy... that is, until a wayward piece of candy caught Ethan right in the face and gave him a bloody nose.  Who knew parade candy could be so dangerous?  It took him a while to calm down and get back into things, but then his hand got stepped on and he gave up trying for candy altogether.  Gabe subsisted on what cuteness could do in persuading his cousins to give him their candy for the most part.  Still, too much sugar all around.  We stayed and visited some more that evening, and then left just in time to come back home for the Jackson firework show, which was still amazing even though we watched it from a distance, but I'm afraid we stayed up way too late.  Poor Richard had to start work early the next morning --and no, the kids did not sleep in. Isn't that always the way it goes?

Richard added a bunch of random work pictures to this montage, one of which shows a semi on it's side near where they were spraying.  Don't know much about it, except that it was way over the weight limit. Another one was from this past week, where he saw plenty of moose.

Speaking of this past week, I'm sure most of you already heard, but I went to the E.R. with a kidney stone last Sunday.  You can find the whole story HERE, but in short, they put a stent in to bypass it, gave me pain killers, and will take it out when the baby comes. I am feeling okay, there's a little pain and overall discomfort (which is partially due to being 2 weeks away from my due date), but for the most part it's manageable.  As much as I'd like to have my body all to myself and everything else resolved, this week my goal is to not have a baby, but to find housing for us to move to Boise by August 12th.  Wish me luck!

Keepin' busy

So, we've been making the most of our time here in Jackson (and the precious time before the baby comes).  When it's beautiful, it's really beautiful, and we enjoy going outside, but we don't always have the best weather, and the apartment is small, so we've been coming up with all sorts of things to do.
The kids are almost as creative as their dad when it comes to finding things to do --although some of their ideas I question -- and I say whatever gets all that extra energy out without me having to do much is fine with me.
They came up with the 'run-away-from-the-big-spool' game themselves, but Richard instigated the "boof-the-cushion' game (coined so by Ethan) to run off some energy one evening.  I also helped them come up with rainy day ideas by making some activity sticks with them, letting them paint and everything, so whenever they start showing signs of boredom, we pull those out.  By the way, painting with two toddlers is an extremely stressful activity --that is, if you care at all about your carpet, furniture, and clothes.  Also, red finger paint stains.  Just so you know.
We've been lucky enough to have some friends and neighbors --a young couple in our ward who work with Richard-- offer to babysit so we could go on dates.  It's been nice to get out since I don't know that we'll get to go on dates much after the baby is born.  Ethan is constantly telling us that he wants us to go on dates, so obviously he enjoys his time with them.
Richard has been enjoying work, and keeping busy during his off-hours finishing up his thesis.  Hopefully he'll be done with that soon, and we'll have him back on Saturdays.  However, I'm not holding my breath, since he'll have to work on his syllabi for this fall semester, and research PhD programs so we can start applying.
I'm just doing my best to hold down the fort while preparing for when this baby comes and the ensuing move and all that accompanies things like that.  For now though, there's not much I can do so I'll not think about it.
Enjoy the montage.

End of May, and June 4th free fishing day.

The weather here has been pretty up and down.  On rainy/cold days we find various ways of getting the extra energy out and keeping ourselves occupied, for example by practicing our "gymnastic routines,"  going swimming, and crafting (i.e. making foam fish and "catching" them with magnets).
On the rare but welcome sunny warm days we go for walks to throw rocks in the river, build "sailboats" in the back yard, and go exploring.  On one of our outings we even caught a frog!  Fun fun!  Ethan wanted to throw it in the river like a rock I think.
Last Saturday was free fishing day here in WY, and so we figured we'd take advantage of it.  We didn't catch a thing (although the fish were jumping all around us --they just didn't want what we had to offer), but it was still a beautiful day and a fun family outing.  The kids had fun throwing rocks in the river some more (a favorite pastime that they never tire of), eating outside, and getting muddy.  What more could a kid ask for? (Besides eating fish --which I think they wanted to do just for the novelty of it.)  Anyway, just for an extra bonus, you get quite a few glimpses of my huge pregnant belly.  (Ugh, and I still have 7 weeks to go!)  I was hoping it would bring me good luck while fishing, since I was probably about that pregnant with Ethan when I caught my last fish (sad I know --we're not very good at fishing apparently).   We'll just have to keep trying.

Tongue in Cheek

Just in the past half hour Ethan said some funny things that I thought I should share.

Angry that I had made a new (quite reasonable, in my opinion) rule about eating dinner, (that he can eat what I made for dinner and get a popsicle or I could make him a different dinner but no popsicle) Ethan ranted and raved before finally succumbing to the unappealing fare he had before him.  Two of his rants were particularly humorous:

"This is not about you! This is about popsicles!"

"You be a nice Mommy!"

After finally cramming it down, and getting his popsicle, he pretended to read what was written on the stick:

"Won't you be my neighbor, of the Church of Latter Day Saints, of the Holy Ghost."

This also shows off his new short haircut.

I wish I could remember all the funny things that come out of his mouth.  This will have to do for now though.

First two weeks in Jackson

We've only been in Jackson two weeks and it feels like we've already done a lot.  It's nice to have Richard here in the evenings, and we even had some pretty good weather a few days ago.  The kids are happy, although Ethan did ask to move back to Boise the other day.  Solution:  Go to the pool and remind him why we like Jackson so much.  We try to do that about once a week --especially on rainy days. Ethan's getting really good at holding his breath and is so proud of himself. I'm glad I have healthy young husband who's willing to take them up all those stairs to go down the slides over and over and over again --I'm not up for that these days.  We live quite a ways from any parks, so when it was nice weather out, we made our own in our little back yard and had a picnic.  Yesterday, I was feeling under the weather (yes, another illness to plague this pregnancy, ugh), so Richard took the kids into town to a park and to do some grocery shopping.  It's been cold the last few days, even a few snow flurries, but we were expecting that.  We've been making the most of it, and look forward to better weather this summer.

By the way, we're having trouble with Blogger's video uploader, so we've had to use Viddler. Sorry if there's any quality decrease, but we figured something was preferable to nothing.

Missing Boise pictures and Boys Weekend

So, when Richard made the last two montages, he missed a lot of pictures that he had taken on his phone and some videos that I hadn't downloaded yet.  In this montage are a few pictures at the zoo, taken on Gabe's birthday, and one of the last evenings in our Boise home, plus a few more clips from moving day that Richard's dad had taken on his camera while he watched the boys at the park and we finished up things at the house.  I felt bad leaving them for so long (did I ever mention that one of my biggest faults is underestimating how long it takes me to do things?).  I think I told Richard's dad I'd be no longer than an hour... and then two hours later finally came to pick them up.  We really wore him out, and I'm so thankful for his help.  The kids really had a fun time bonding with their grandpa during it all.
Shortly after we made it to Jackson and got our things unloaded, I took off to Park City for another wonderful girls weekend with the female portion of Richard's family.  I left my camera with Richard, and so I didn't take any pictures, but you can see a few here.  It was really fun, and so rejuvenating.  I love all the women in this family! While I was gone, Richard and the boys stayed with his Dad in Rexburg for a boys weekend of their own. I got back to Rexburg to find them all sacked out together. It was the cutest thing;  I just had to take a picture.  I think they had so much fun they really wore themselves out.

Sleepy Gabe

Sorry, I know this is painful to watch, but it's just so dang cute! We were on our way back to our new apartment here in Jackson the day we emptied the moving truck (I won't say moved in, since the place was a mess for days). The kids had been at my sister's place while we unloaded everything and they hadn't had a nap that day, but it was about 6:00 in the evening and we were only 10-15 minutes from home. I didn't want him to get a cat nap in or it would be just that much harder to get him down at bedtime. I thought maybe chewing on something would keep him awake, but it didn't help. The poor kid was exhausted. Does taking videos of this kind of thing make us seem like heartless parents?

Easter and moving 2011

Here's our easter montage finally. It was cold, and the kids ate way too much candy, but we all had fun. The kids loved the egg hunt so much, it became a favorite pastime for the rest of the month. I didn't manage to take any pictures of our Easter dinner with family, but that was great too. I never make things like funeral potatoes just for our little family, so it was a nice excuse. We also had ham, salad, and deviled eggs and for dessert some cute little cake pops that were way too yummy.

Before I could even put away the easter decorations properly, we were moving again. Yep, back to Jackson for the Summer. I'm afraid all the excess Easter chocolate was primarily consumed by me out of stress. Richard was very busy with his Thesis and such, and being pregnant I was in no shape to do it all myself. Bless all those people who gave their time and energy to watch the kids, to help pack, and to clean my dirty house! The kids did very well, which I feel was a tender mercy, and all our family who lived in Boise, including Richard's dad who came up from Rexburg to help, went above and beyond the call of duty. I am so grateful to them all! Another tender mercy was the weather --where it was supposed to be rainy in Boise, we had great weather and were able to take all the kids to the park while the guys did all the heavy hauling, after which we had pizza over there as well. We made it to Rexburg the first night, and since the pass to Jackson had a snow chain restriction on it the next morning we went the long way around down by the palisades --coming within 6 miles of our limit on the moving truck. Even though the weather wasn't ideal when we got to Jackson --it was a good thing because it gave my sister the day off of gardening work so she was able to watch the kids. It all worked out fantastically actually. Now we are all settled in and are just recovering from the whole ordeal.

Gabe's Birthday!

Yes, we are a little behind. Here's the montage of Gabe's 2nd birthday which was almost a month ago. We had a lot of fun --I think Ethan was more excited about it all than Gabe was, and we all got pretty worn out. We rode the bus (a real novelty for the kids) to meet Richard on campus and walked to the zoo and spent a couple hours there. On the way back home, I missed our stop and had to walk back a couple blocks with the kids. Ugh. They let us off near an empty lot full of rocks and the kids thought I had done it on purpose just for them --they love rocks. After naps we went to a park and had pizza, then came home for cake and ice cream. I love Gabe's face as soon as we start singing the birthday song. Ethan was so excited to give Gabe his presents and couldn't even eat his cake. He sat there waiting for Gabe to finish his ice cream, ready at any moment to take his bowl and put it in the fridge to save it for later. He was really actually pretty good about understanding that they were all for Gabe --of course hoping that he also might get a chance to play with them as well.

Just a word about Gabe:

Gabe is a very sympathetic soul. Where Ethan is stealing toys from other kids, Gabe is right there to kiss them better and offer a new toy. He is very verbal and talks more than a normal two year old I think. He is extremely coordinated, and I think that has something to do with having to keep up with an older brother, but also I think our trampoline and the cuddlesac have helped. He is also super cute, and he knows it. I have to admit he sometimes gets away with things that Ethan doesn't simply because when I get mad at them, Ethan gets mad back, but Gabe's very quick to say "I sorry", or his latest "I be good" --even though I know very well he's going to do it again. He's got a little naughty streak in him I'm afraid. The other day he pushed a chair up to the counter and told me to go away. I asked him "Why? Are you going to get into trouble?" and he said, "Yes." Well, at least he's still honest. I can't help laugh at his indignant pose, with his arms crossed and glaring from under his eyebrows, but he can't keep a straight face when he does it either so he usually turns his back on me to hide it. Although Gabe's a classic two year old, wanting to do things himself and throwing tantrums and such, I love this sympathetic, cuddly, curious, independent, fun stage he's in. We love him and couldn't imagine our family without him.

April trip to Utah

So, although Richard already posted about his trip to Atlanta, he had another conference right before that in SLC, so the kids and I decided to go there with him, and stay with family while he went to both so we wouldn't be alone for quite so long. First we all stayed at his Sister's house near Park City since that was closer to where his conference was, and I also got to go to my mission reunion while we were there, and visit my Brother and his family in Heber. Then, when Richard went back to Boise and to his other conference in Atlanta, I went with the kids and stayed at my Parents' in Mapleton. I got to hang out with my best friends one of the nights we were there, and the kids loved riding on the four wheeler and jumping on the trampoline. They were getting really good by the end there! It wasn't ideal Spring weather like I was hoping for (especially with the foot of snow that dumped on us in Park City Sunday morning), but it could have been worse. Overall, it was a fun trip. Exhausting, but fun. My mom was so kind to drive back with me and the kids to Boise so I wouldn't be on my own (she flew back to UT since she can fly for free), and on the way we stopped at the famous Garden of Eden truck stop --complete with the tree and the snake and everything --in case you were wondering what those pictures were of there at the end.

Trip to Atlanta (Apr 5-10)

I was in Atlanta, Georgia a few weeks ago (Apr 5-10) with friend and fellow BSU graduate student Jeremy going to a national Rhetoric and Composition conference. I was going to take the camera with me so I could document my trip effectively; however, I realized when I got there that I had left it with Laura, so we're stuck with my terrible cell phone pictures. At least I can describe the top ten experiences, in mainly chronological order:

• New stuff--taxi, pub, scallops: believe it or not, before this trip I had never been in a taxi (although I felt surprisingly prepared by the movies I've seen) and I had never been in a pub/bar (Jeremy and I got late-night hamburgers--they were surprisingly good). I'll mention the scallops experience later.
• CCCC in general--The Conference on College Composition and Communications (CCCCs) is a few orders of magnitude bigger than other regional conferences I've been to. In other conferences, there are around 5-7 panels to choose from per 70 minute block (with the majority of them on one day). At CCCCs, there were around 40 panels to choose from lasting over the space of three full days (and workshops on the first day). It was impressive, and there were some fascinating discussions/presentations.
• The hotel elevator ride--The hotel that hosted the conference was 47 stories high. And, as you can see in the pictures, it was open on the inside. There were glass elevators on the inside that went up all the way to the top--they were impressively fast. On the way down, it was near-free-fall speed. I wouldn't have thought I would classify an elevator ride as one of my top experiences, but it was super fun.
• Meeting swedish guy--On Wednesday, I attended a full-day workshop on incorporating technology in teaching (it was very helpful--I learned some things I wanted to know, and things I didn't know I wanted to know). In the morning, as we were waiting for it to begin, I overheard that a guy at my table was from Sweden. We talked about general Swedish things, then during a break talked in Swedish for a bit. He was very complimentary (especially about my accent), even though I felt very self-conscious.
• Meeting famous people--During the last few years, I've been reading a lot of essays and books by Rhetoric and Composition scholars. Because this is a pretty major conference, I actually got to meet (or at least see and hear) a few people whose work I know and respect. We had lunch with Bill Lalicker (whose work I read earlier this semester), was introduced to Linda Adler-Kassner (who I've also read a lot this semester--she's good friends with my first-year writing program director), saw and heard both Peter Elbow (who we sometimes affectionately call "The Elbow") and Steven Mailloux. They were those geeky "I'm never going to wash my hands again" type moments.
• Scallops--Both Jeremy and I were awarded travel grants, which I believe improved our overall experience significantly. Rather than living on granola bars and rolls stolen from buffets, we were actually able to try out some of the local cuisine. At a particularly swanky restaurant, I decided to try the scallops. I've never really been a fan of sea food, and decided I should give it another try. I've never had scallops, let alone Nouvelle cuisine, but it was a good experience...even if I needed Jeremy's help to get them all down.
• Zoo with Jeremy, Ian, Sarah, and Christian--Ian, Sarah and company only live three hours away in Alabama, so they decided to come meet us at the zoo, then take us to the Atlanta Temple Open-House. The zoo was packed, steamy, and there were bees everywhere (friendly ones, though), but we still had a great time talking, looking at animals that they would only have in a larger zoo (the gorilla exhibit was huge!), and trying to keep up with Christian. It made me really miss Ethan and Gabriel when Christian was doing really cute things (like offering Jeremy pretzels, insisting that we all get a stamp on our hands, waving to the people on the zoo-train, etc.).
• Temple Open-House--After the zoo we went to the Atlanta Temple, which had recent extensive renovation (two-years' worth). It's not one of the most impressive buildings from the outside, but the inside--as is to be expected--was amazing. I think it was a positive interaction with the church for Jeremy. It was also really fun to go out to eat with Ian, Sarah, and Christian afterwards.
• Getting asked for money 7-8 times--Throughout our time in Atlanta, we were constantly getting asked for money by guys on the street. I think we looked like wealthy, young business men (although Ian joked that we only needed to say "grad student" and they'd apologize). One particularly creepy guy approached us as we were waiting for a bus. He was...umm...invading my personal space. And he wasn't making much sense, but he was fairly friendly. Apparently he owned a car dealership...yeah. Anyways, at one point he asks me "you know what I'm sayin'?", and I honestly blurt out, "um...I actually am having quite a hard time following what you're saying." A little while later Jeremy comes to my rescue by recommending we go get something to eat. We walk away and leave the guy guarding our bus stop. The bus never came, but we were still hesitant to walk too far away in case the bus came while we were pretending to leave.
• Church--I had time before our flight to go to church on Sunday. It was great to see the work the ward had put into helping making sure the open-house went smoothly. It was also fun that I was able to get to know two other guys who were at conferences and visiting that church for the first time--one from California and one from Utah. It was Fast and Testimony meeting, so everyone that got up said "good morning brothers and sisters," to which the congregation would reply "Good morning!" There were an average of 3-5 people waiting to bear their testimonies at any given time. There were some really cool people (the bishop was particularly awesome).

Honorable Mentions:

• Leaving my jacket in the hotel--Yep. I went back to Boise without it. But I was able to get it back by calling the hotel and giving them my credit card info (I was super hesitant to do so, but I really like that jacket. And I had headphones in the pocket).
• Travel--I really like airplanes. Forgetting that I had a pocket knife on my keys, getting stopped by airport security, and being forced to mail it to myself--not so much. But I enjoyed all the flights.
• My conference presentation--It went well, even though I didn't have it completely ready until the day before. I'm really glad Jeremy was nice enough to help me smooth out some of the rough transitions and such. My panel had speakers with really different topics, which is why I think it didn't have very good attendance. Still great though!

Here's the video:

March 2011

Here's a montage that should have been posted weeks ago. We're a little behind the times. We have a few more in the making of the past few weeks which will come out soon. This is just some more of how we've been passing the time here at home. St. Patrick's day is in there somewhere with just one little picture of Ethan eating some cereal --what you can't tell from the picture is that the milk is green. Those sneaky leprechauns... Besides a green/Irish themed dinner with the Boise fam, that was pretty much the extent of our celebrations. The kids and I still spent most of our time indoors, with short excursions on nice days to go look for any sign of Spring we could possibly find. There might have been a few new buds and a flower or two back then but not much. It was a late Spring here this year. We were happy to have a visit from my sister to break up the monotony, and spent most of the month looking forward to our Spring Break trip to Utah, General Conference, and Richard's conferences. Those montages to come.

Enjoy!

It's a Boy!

Honestly, are you really that surprised? I won't include any obscene pictures from the ultrasound; rest assured though that we're pretty sure about this one. Here's a profile shot of the lil' man though.

And here's two of the cutest soon-to-be-big-brothers!

(I know, it's so posed)

I'm not disappointed, I mean, why stop when you've got a good thing going? We make such darling boys! (--if I do say so myself)

Here's a funny thing Ethan did/said lately:

The other day, Ethan came over to me, climbed up on my lap, and very sweetly cupping my face in his hands asked me, "Can I talk through your mouth to the baby in your tummy?"

Hair Cuts!

So, I totally forgot to do a before picture, and funny enough, I can't find any pictures of me that aren't really old, so this is all you get. As for Gabe, you can see how bad he needed a haircut in that last montage (especially the most recent picture with the Q-tips in his ears), but I might have overdone it a bit. He looks like such a little boy now (and his forehead seems so much bigger, but maybe that's just me). It's impossible to do any kind of decent job on something so wiggly. I had to keep going shorter and shorter to fix all the mess-ups.

Ethan was really thrown off by my haircut though. He was there to watch and at the first few big snips he came over and asked, "You gonna be a boy mommy?"

Trying not to laugh too much, we assured him I wasn't. As the haircut went on he got more and more upset, and I'm not exactly sure what his problem was. Maybe it was a control issue, or he thought it would inherently change who I was or something. Either way, I don't think he handles change well. He's over his initial anger now, but every chance he gets, he tells me he doesn't like my hair cut. Oh well. I like it. (Of course, I always like my hair right after it's been done, and I can never seem to do it the same by myself; so if I end up looking horrible in later blog posts, it's not the haircut's fault.)

Cabin Fever!

We were glad to see February go, but so far March has been kinda wet and dreary too. As you can see, we've spent most of our time inside, and we've had to get pretty creative with what we do for fun. Not to say we haven't gone outside at all, but somehow, I didn't get pictures of any of that. Still, we're sure looking forward to Spring!

By the way, the ninja/sumo/pillow man is officially called "Da Boofa" and he has frequented our place this past week or so. It evolved from Ethan's original game he made up called "Boof" which is apparently the sound one makes when hitting another person with a pillow or cushion.

Say what?

Now that Ethan is regularly conversing with us, I've decided to begin sharing some of the funny things he says. I've been trying to keep a small journal of them, (I say trying because I forget to most of the time) but some are just too funny to keep to myself. (In the future, I will post these as they happen so it won't be such a long post.)

So for the past, I don't know... 6 months, I've been hoping to potty train Ethan. I even gave in and bought him some pull ups for Christmas, but to no avail. I thought we were having some success one day when he went #2 twice for the reward of some candy, but it was short-lived. Ever since then, when anyone suggests that he should go on the potty he retorts "I already went two times!" ( --as if that absolves him of every having to go again.) The last time I asked him if he was ready to try big boy pants he said, "Mmm, maybe in the Summertime."

I'm holding him to it.

A couple of weeks ago, Ethan was playing with a toy mailbox and I suggested that we should write a letter and put it in the mailbox for Daddy. After a moment's thought Ethan said, "How about 'S'."

The baby has been a hot topic around here lately. On our way home from Utah in January, Richard and I were coming up with possible names for the baby to pass the time, just throwing them out there, and laughing about the funny ones. Ethan, not understanding what we were saying and supposing we were laughing at him (a serious offense indeed) was getting quite incensed and began yelling from the back seat "You stop! You stop that right now!" I turned to him and asked, "Ethan, why should we stop? We're just thinking of names for the baby." To which he replied in a shocked tone "You not know his name?!"

(We're just assuming it's a boy by the way)

After that initial shock wore off, and he realized it was our job to name the baby --not that we are second rate parents-- he started trying it out himself, however he still doesn't get it. The other day when the subject came up, first I asked him if the baby was going to be a boy or a girl, and he answered, "I think he's going to be a girl." Then, when I asked him what we should name the baby, he said resolutely, "S" (I think that's his favorite letter) then he added, "with an 'O' and a... 'B'."

I think we'll leave the naming of the baby to us.

Ethan has also caught on to the symptoms of my pregnancy and morning sickness, and I'll often hear him say, "I need to get some food in my tummy." Other times he gives the excuse that he can't pick up his toys because he's too tired, or too sick, or some random body part hurts.

Having kids often gives me the chance to see myself as if in a mirror.

For the most part Ethan has been patient with me not always having enough energy to play with him, but one day he grew quite impatient yelling "Mommy, you come here right NOW!" and began counting "1... 2... 3..."

While this propensity to talk is often funny, I'm afraid at times he can be quite sassy; however... there's nothing I love more about his ability to speak than when he comes to me and out of the blue tells me so sweetly, "Mommy, I love you all the time."

January and Some February 2011

After we got back from our trip to Utah, the school year started, and it was back to the grindstone for Richard. Most of the month I was too sick with colds and morning sickness to take many pictures (except the ones of Gabe's misadventures), but the first day I started feeling well was a beautiful day, and we were able to enjoy ourselves outside. Soon after that, Richard really started his thesis work in earnest, and for the last month we've hardly seen him at all. Near the end of January, Richard's parents came to visit to celebrate his dad's birthday and we had a fun time at his sister's house together. Ethan loved the pattern blocks and made a lovely flower pattern all by himself! February has flown by. Richard was so busy we hardly celebrated Valentines day, but he took the day off for our 5th anniversary. He got the kids up, took them to the store for ingredients and made me breakfast in bed --waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, Yum! That night we went on a date while Richard's sister watched the kids. Of course, I didn't manage to get any pictures. oops.

Funny thing Ethan said: When Richard brought me my breakfast in bed and went back out to feed the kids their breakfast, I overheard Ethan ask, "Mommy not like us anymore?"

Recently, --when they're not getting into trouble and making messes (since they've had a lot of time to themselves while being neglected by a sick mommy)-- the kids have had fun coming up with new games (mostly of Ethan's design) and as you can see, hide-and-seek is among their favorites. I'm afraid our kitchen set has probably been used more often for hiding than cooking, but oh well. Whatever keeps them busy...

Well, enjoy.

Trip to Utah, January 2011

After New Year's, we had a long break before school started, so we went to Utah. It was nice to let the kids get some snow play in, and it was doubly nice to see and visit my family again. This time we weren't as busy as we were at Thanksgiving, so it was much more relaxing, and I got a chance to finally go out with my friends, yay! We also had my brother's family for Christmas and even though it was a little late, we got to give it to them in person. We had a fun time making their gifts --a wooden Aggravation board game, a beeswax luminary, and some wooden nameplates for the kids to hang up with their names wood-burned in Biblical Hebrew (they all have bible names) with the accompanying translation. Of course, we gave them some toys too, since nameplates aren't that fun, but hopefully they'll appreciate them later. And like always, we didn't take any pictures, so I have to write it down so we don't forget.

Besides playing in the snow and harassing the cat, the kids had fun playing on the cushions and such in my parents basement. One of the main highlights of our stay though was going ice-fishing with all the cousins. It was very slippery, which made Gabe a little nervous. Ethan took it in stride, and although it was cold and only one fish was caught the whole time --by my niece of course-- I think it was still a fun experience for the kids.

The Troublemaker

Who could believe such an image of innocence could be guilty of such mischief?

I'm afraid Gabe is at that age where curiosity and common sense are not in equilibrium, yet his height and capabilities give him more freedom than ever. He has been reaching things that have been out of his reach for some time (often aided bysmall chairs and stools he likes to carry around) and I haven't been able to keep up with him. He's gotten into a lot of trouble lately -- and I'll admit it's mostly because of my negligence while I lie on the couch dealing with morning sickness and a string of bad colds.

Here's a few of Gabe's recent exploits. Within the past month, he has...

Dumped a cup of cinnamon sugar on himself and the kitchen floor (he was found lapping it up and sucking it from the bottom of his socks).

Cracked an egg and dripped it over the entire kitchen floor.

Drizzled honey all over himself, the kitchen counter, cabinets, and floor.

Finger painted with a stick of butter on the front of my oven and all over his pajamas.

Poured a half a box of Cream of Wheat from one end of the kitchen to the other.

Drawn on himself and his shirt with permanent markers (while I was sweeping up the Cream of Wheat).

Filled the toilet with toys and garbage.

And we won't bother to mention the small infractions of wall drawing, sippy spilling, snack dumping, shelf emptying, sand throwing, bath defecating, book ripping, and of course the daily spills and thrills from atop his high chair, where for some reason food is not eaten, but used as ammunition, various artistic mediums, facials, and occasionally shampoo --and all was done with a proud little smile on his chubby little face.

How can anyone get mad at such a cutie? Well, I still manage, (I'm sure my neighbors know that one of my kids is named Gabe) although there have been times that I've had to leave the room so he couldn't see me laughing. Of course, I also have to pause and document it, all the while telling him what a bad thing he did, and probably encouraging it more in the process. I've been lucky (knock on wood) that most of it has occurred in the kitchen over a hard floor which is easily cleaned rather than on the carpet.

I'm sure more messes will come, but I'll keep loving him anyway.

Exciting News!

So in case you haven't heard... Yes, we're expecting baby #3 in the end of July. This is a picture from our first ultrasound (we won't have the ultrasound to find out what gender it is until April). The baby was literally jumping around in there. It was also sucking it's thumb which I find amazing since it just barely got thumbs!

The pictures actually look kinda funny, the first looks like it's got a beard, and in the second it's nose looks super long. That was all because of it's hand right in front of it's face messing things up, so we never got a good profile shot. Maybe next time.

Christmas 2010

Yes, we are still alive! Sorry it's taken this long to get out a Holiday post. Richard's had a lot on his mind lately, what with a Master's Thesis to write and all.

We had a fun yet quiet Christmas at home this year (so sad that Richard's parents couldn't make it because of illness, I hope this gives them at least a little glimpse of what they missed), and it worked out for the best that we didn't go anywhere since we decided to give the kids something big this year. We built them the kitchen set you see in the montage. I say we, but really it was thanks to the help and resources of my Dad and Richard's brother. They provided the know-how, and let us make messes of their shops. I can't thank them enough. I'd also like to thank my mother who contributed dishes and even my grandmother who sent little muffin pans which I had been looking for all along. Richard helped with some of the grunt-work, I simply came up with the design and did a little painting. Oh yes, and not to brag but the stove was completely my own idea. We're actually quite proud of our handiwork, and I'm pretty sure the kids love it (I think Ethan's hand-over-mouth reaction tells it all)!
We had a bigger Christmas than we anticipated, and hopefully the kids won't be too spoiled for the future. We had fun spending Christmas Eve and Christmas night with family here in Boise, with the chocolate nativity and the press cookies, but our camera was dying and we didn't get hardly any pictures.

Richard was home for the Holidays, and when we weren't playing with the Christmas toys, we had fun making a giant shuffleboard game on our kitchen floor.

We had a pretty uneventful New Year's Eve. All the family around here got a stomach bug, so we celebrated by going to dinner at a Chinese buffet, and spending the evening at Pojo's, a Chuck-e-Cheese sort of place, here in town. Once again, no pictures. Sorry. The kids loved the carousel best, and I think the night was special for them.

Well, hope you enjoy the Montage!