The Stoddards

Happy Birthday Ian!

2012-02-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

Now it's time for Ian's birthday post, early as well but I wanted to do it before we leave town. This little man is a joy to have in our home. Here are a few things you should know about Ian.

He loves to swing.

He's already into playing with cars, and he loves stuffed animals. He's not doing it in this picture but he particularly loves to try to eat the faces off of stuffed animals.

The boy puts anything and everything in his mouth. Here, the milk cap from an empty gallon he dug out of the recycling bin. He also likes to try to dig around in the trash can, but luckily it has a lock on it so I can literally keep him from eating trash.

He needs no coaching when it comes to getting food in his mouth either. (Not his actual birthday cake, but a practice run a few weeks ago.)

He's already showing strong right-handed dominance. Look at the pictures above and below. Right hand=nasty. Left hand=totally clean.

And a short video of a happy walking Ian, just because I feel the need to redeem myself from the last video of him attempting to walk. Apparently we need to buy a new camera that shoots HD video, because the quality of ours stinks!

I sure love this little man of mine. I know I'm biased but I think he's the most adorable thing in the world. I couldn't have asked for a more accommodating third child either. He just rolls with the punches and keeps on smiling. Happy first birthday baby boy!

Happy Birthday Lydia!

2012-02-01T19:54:00.001-08:00

Due to scheduling conflicts, we celebrated Lydia's birthday today instead of Saturday. And, to her great joy, she got to have a "real" party this year. I told her she could invite three friends, but of course I neglected to get a picture of them all together. Here's the rundown of the much anticipated day!

#1--The Girl

Happy as all get-out as you can see. The child had been planning this "birthday celebration" for three weeks, I kid you not. She's her mother's daughter, planning things out in advance! :)

#2--The Cake.

She wanted a heart themed birthday party, which I thought was fabulous being that her birthday is so close to Valentines day. I went to the dollar store and went crazy with stuff for the goody bags :) She dictated colors of frosting and chose the star sprinkles...not hearts...go figure. She helped me sprinkle them on her cake and loved it.

(Side note: I tried this frosting. It tastes superb. Give it a try, especially if you don't particularly like frosting.)

She was also particularly insistent that she have a checkerboard cake once she saw it in the JoAnn's flyer. The cake picture is actually what got her planning her birthday party three weeks in advance. The cake is supposed to come out looking like this:

Mine came out looking like this:

So much for using three colors and trying to be tricky. However, Lydia told me "It's lovely Momma. It has the checkers just the way I like them. And it tastes so yummy." What better endorsement could you get?

After having lunch, cake, and opening presents at our house, I took the five kids (I left Ian with a friend) to Pump It Up Jr. to jump around for an hour and a half. We had the place to ourselves when we arrived and only a few extra people showed up partway through. If you're ever heading there, I recommend going at 12:30 on Wednesday afternoon!

The tour:

The party attendees in order of appearance: Erica (already at the bottom), Katelyn, Lydia, Ryan, and, finally, Luke. (My friend Megan and her daughter Piper were there too, but we were chatting so much I didn't get any pictures when they were there!) Of course, they scorned my motherly and ER nurse advice to not start down the slide until the child in front of you gets off. What fun would that be?

It was a fun, low-key birthday party and the best part was seeing the perma-smile on Lydia's face the entire day. I can't believe five years has passed since I first held my beautiful baby girl. She came out with her eyes open and hasn't stopped observing and learning since. I love her imagination and her spunk, and she certainly knows what she wants out of life and isn't afraid to push for it. Happy early birthday my dearest Lydia Jannon!

Future Luke

2012-01-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

I foresee a similar scene occurring in our home in five or six years.

Ian is learning to walk....sort of

2012-01-19T21:38:00.000-08:00

My little Ian has started taking his first steps. This video looks like torture but we had a few attempts at capturing a happy Ian where we thought it was recording but wasn't, etc. You're getting the third or fourth take. However, it's proof that he is figuring out that his legs are good for something other than crawling. I sure love this little guy. I can't believe he's turning one soon!

Some pictures I like

2012-01-05T22:32:00.000-08:00

I think I need a swing set and an insanely unsafe-looking merry-go-round in my back yard. And Aunt Shelly to orchestrate more reindeer-cupcake-making extravaganzas for Lydia.

I'm Scared

2012-01-01T20:35:00.000-08:00

We were looking at pictures and watching videos from our photo library tonight, and when we got to this portion of the library:

(This is Ian, if for some weird reason you can't tell my children's newborn pictures apart)

it made me really want to have another baby. And that scares me.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T22:55:00.001-08:00

For Thanksgiving we held the annual Smith Family Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. It was amazing. The weather was perfect, 70s, sunny, slight breeze....heaven. My parents rented a big house and my four siblings and I, our families, and my parents all partied together day and night. The kids were in heaven playing with their cousins all day long. We went to Sea World (thanks Grandpa Dave!) on Wednesday and it was great--we loved the shows, Tyler and I went on a fun and very high water roller coaster ride, we fed and petted dolphins, saw Bert and Ernie and Elmo, etc. We went to a kids' science museum, had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner (despite the oven breaking Thursday morning) and had a plethora of lovely desserts, went downtown and saw the Alamo, the Riverwalk, and the kids got to chase some pigeons to boot. Luke asks and prays to go back to Texas daily. Enjoy a slideshow of some pictures from the trip, courtesy of Aunt Jessica.

Lydia's Throat Saga

2011-10-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

Miss Lydia has had a rough time eating and swallowing since September 21st. She was eating a sandwich at a friend's house and felt like a piece of it got stuck in her throat. She drank some water and it passed, she got up and started playing like normal. However, although she could drink with no problem she refused to eat anything else that day, and thus began our month-long drama surrounding food and meal times.

At first Tyler and I thought it was just her being dramatic or anxious about feeling that "stuck" feeling again, but when it persisted for weeks and she was refusing to eat most things (applesauce included) because her throat "felt bad, like something is stuck in it" or that food was going down the wrong tube, I took her to the doctor. She got diagnosed with constipation and maybe reflux, put on acid reflux medication, and called it good. When there was no improvement we took her to a gastroenterologist, who wanted to do an endoscopy to look in her throat and do some biopsies to check for an allergic-type reaction that he thought could be causing her symptoms.

Tuesday morning we went to Legacy Emmanuel Children's Hospital to check in for the procedure. I knew we were off to a great start when we got there at 6 am and all the outside doors were locked and guarded because there was a "Code Silver threat level 2" (which I know from work means someone had a weapon on the campus and was trying to get in the hospital.) They weren't supposed to let any non-staff in the hospital, but after deciding that I didn't look like a monster and that I'd be much safer with my small child inside the hospital, the door guard let us in. We were grateful to be inside, safe and warm.

We had some time to kill before the start time, so Lydia checked out the playroom in the day surgery unit.

Then we went back to our room, watched some PBS kids and braided her hair while we waited until it was time for her to get some oral Versed to make her sleepy so she'd be out of it when they put the IV in. This is her just a few minutes after getting the oral Versed.

This is her about 25 minutes after the Versed.

She tolerated the procedure well, although I admit I felt a little teary leaving her in the procedure room even though I put other people's kids to sleep all the time at work. I will have more empathy for those parents in the future.

The doctor came to talk to me and said aside from three small white spots at the top of the esophagus and three more small ones at the bottom, everything else looked normal but he still took biopsies to test for the allergic reaction condition.

Lydia came out of the sedation obviously groggy but she ate a red popsicle and was doing pretty well, until she quickly said "my tummy hurts!" and vomited red popsicle all over me and the floor. It was awesome. This is her post-puking.

And again after some Zofran, which perked her up. She also loved her teddy bear, which she got when we checked in and stayed with her every step of the way. She named her Carmel or Ellie, depending on when you asked her during the hospital stay. We hope she really likes that bear for a long time, because it ended up being the most expensive stuffed animal we own.

The pathology report came back and it wasn't the food allergy condition--those white spots were yeast. How she managed to get a yeast infection in her throat, I don't know. It's possible that when she got the food stuck in September she scratched or damaged her throat and the yeast (which is always in our bodies, just kept in check by normal body bacteria) was somehow able to take hold. Or it was just some freak illness, who knows. At least now we know why her throat has been bothering her, and hopefully after she finishes her medication and takes probiotics she'll be back to normal. I sure hope so; I'm sick of fighting about food!

We sure love this little lady and are glad to at least know why she's been having such a rough time lately. Of course, I'm sure that I'm not going to hear any complaints about her throat tomorrow when she's digging through her Halloween candy bucket!

Stoddard health report #1

2011-10-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight I was trying to slice the last chunk of onion into two little slices. Instead I almost sliced a chunk of my pinkie off.

I can feel my heartbeat in my pinkie right now. Weird.

Stay tuned for more pictures and video of Lydia's hospital visit this week. I should have results tomorrow so I can give you all the full scoop.

Two things Luke loves...

2011-10-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

Donuts for breakfast

and

money.

Thanks Grandmas and Great-Grandmas for Luke's birthday cash!

Twinsies

2011-10-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

Remember when Luke ate an orange marker?

Apparently Ian was watching in heaven and couldn't wait to try it out today.

Lydia finds it all a little disturbing.

Rebuttal to Shelly's Post about Luke

2011-09-24T20:20:00.001-07:00

I saw these pictures from my brother's wedding and I thought of Shelly's post about Luke being photogenic, and then I laughed.

He's an Animal

2011-09-08T08:54:00.001-07:00

I've come to a realization about this guy.

He has large front teeth that are sharp, and he likes to gnaw on arms, legs, and shoulders...

He can look quite fierce, he growls when he eats, and he likes to howl at night before going to sleep...

and he likes to carry objects around in his mouth while crawling on all fours...

I think he is part wolf.

Coming soon....

2011-09-08T08:45:00.001-07:00

Pictures of our trip to Utah for the wedding of these two beautiful people:

(my brother Aaron and his wife Jessica)

Which took place in this temple:

And the good times had with all these people:

Now lets see how long it takes me to get the pictures and video downloaded from Tyler's phone.

Who's Who?

2011-08-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

Each of our kids at 6 1/2 months.

Can you guess who is who?

He's got ants in his pants...

2011-08-21T22:49:00.000-07:00

and two teeth in, and two more visible and coming through any day. Why did he decide he needed to grow up all at once when he hit six months?

I sure love this little guy.

Our trip to Bend

2011-08-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally getting around to posting about our family trip to Bend, Oregon, in mid-July for Tyler to do a century ride (100 miles in one day...or just under six hours, including climbing halfway up Mount Bachelor, for my amazingly athletic and awesome husband!) Sadly, I failed to take any pictures of him on his bike. You'll just have to trust me that he really did it!

I'll be honest, I probably wouldn't have posted about this trip had I not come across this montage of pictures from the day before the ride. This perfectly captures the many faces my children make while trying to get one picture where they're both looking at the camera and smiling. I do so love these two crazy kids of mine!

(Pardon the quality, they're from a phone camera.)

On our little walk in downtown Bend, we gave the kids $1 to spend on whatever they wanted. Not surprisingly, they spotted a candy store and were ready to throw their money down on the first sugary treat they laid their eyes on. Luke ultimately went with the sucker, and as you can see, he enjoyed it immensely.

Lydia went with the Sweedish Fish. I have raised her well.

This last picture was not taken in Bend. It was taken at our ward camp-out a week and a half ago in North Plains, Oregon. I just wanted to document that we did go camping this summer, even if it was just for one night.

Watch What You Say...

2011-08-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

Lydia is at a funny stage. Everything is very concrete. For example, I told her we were going to Out of this World, a pizza and play place. She said "how do we get back in to this world?" She is also in a "I must push the limits and freak out at the drop of a hat" phase right now. The combo can be bad news, as illustrated below.

A few weeks ago I came home from book club and asked Ty how the night went. Turns out, not surprisingly, that Lydia and Luke had not wanted to go to sleep and came out of their room five zillion times after being put to bed. Lydia went to the bathroom three times, Luke spouted many untrue stories about trains and "lights flashing" and being run over by a train, etc. The rule has been that if they came out for anything other than an approved reason after being put to bed (going to the bathroom, throwing up, bleeding profusely...that about covers the acceptable reasons) the childproof lock went on the inside of their door so they couldn't get out. Luke thought it was hilarious to try to get the lock put on, because it always put Lydia in such a panic. "What if I have to go potty? I'll have to pee pee on the floor or in my bed! AHHHHH!" Scream scream, cry cry, on and on. Inevitably, each time the lock went on she would knock loudly on the door two minutes later stating she had to pee, and would go squeeze two drops out, go back in the room, and they would go to sleep.

That night was no different. Luke was laughing as the lock went on, Lydia was panicking and yelling about having to pee, despite having gone three times already. The knock came as usual a few minutes later, but Tyler said he wasn't letting them out. "I'm going to have to pee on the floor then, AHHHHH!" "Fine, whatever, go ahead, you're not coming out," he replied. Eventually the yelling ended and the hoodlums went to bed.

I went in to check on them before going to bed. The first thing I encountered when I opened the door was Luke, completely naked, lying on the floor. (This was pre-potty training, mind you.) It had been a warm day, but not THAT warm. I laughed as I called Tyler in to see the site. Then I looked at Lydia on her bed and SHE was buck naked too!!! We were trying to figure out what they had been doing in there while putting underwear on Lydia and a diaper on Luke. As Tyler was putting the diaper on Luke he felt a little wet spot on the floor right about where he had been laying. Feeling around some more he found another little wet spot close to that one. We cleaned it up, figuring since Luke was naked lying on the floor he must have peed in his sleep.

The next morning I asked the kids about being naked and the wet spots. "Well, we were hot and sweaty Mommy, so we took off our clothes." Can't fault them for being practical I guess. "And, I told Daddy I was going to have to pee on the floor and he said it was fine, he said go ahead, so I did." Apparently Luke thought it looked like so much fun he joined her in peeing on the floor. Of course, this was three weeks after I had the carpets cleaned.

Tyler and I are now very careful what we say to Lydia, even in the midst of her tantrums.

First "Real" Haircuts

2011-07-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

A girl from church that I visit teach does hair, and since Lydia and Luke both needed hair cuts, and Luke's turned out soooooo well last time when I did it, I decided to have her cut their hair. Lydia enjoyed getting her hair shampooed and cut, but she didn't appreciate having it dried with the diffuser. She even got a little updo done after it was dried since she like to be "fancy."

It's kind of hard to tell in the pictures but Luke's little curls are gelled and spiked on top. He keeps reaching up to feel them, and he informed me "Mom, I can't sleep with my hair pointy like this!" I know I'm biased but I think they look pretty stinkin' cute with their new hairdos!

Update on Ian

2011-07-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

This little guy is trying to cut some teeth. His favorite teething toy? His feet.

His favorite time to eat his feet is when he is getting his diaper changed. Diaper off--foot (or feet) in mouth.

We caught this little bit of video tonight. He's been scooting himself backwards for a little while now, and can sit up for brief periods of time unassisted before he face plants or gets his belly on the floor and can't get himself sitting upright again. I was hoping he'd break the mold from his siblings and be content to just sit up and look around for several more months.

Looks like I may not get my wish.

Update on Luke

2011-07-23T22:51:00.000-07:00

Look who's wearing big-boy underwear all the time now!!!

Once he decided he was ready (and a few Skittles and Starburst helped too) Luke was pretty much potty trained in a few days, including wearing underwear at night. He's had just a few accidents, one of which was in the parking lot at Home Depot. I turned around to find him standing by the van, legs spread, not moving. "Mommy, I pee peed in my pants! I made a terrible mess! We have to clean it up!" I was really happy he let the floodgates loose in the parking lot and not in the van.

I am certainly enjoying not having to change his diapers, especially since his intestines apparently cannot hold fecal matter for any length of time, necessitating multiple BMs a day. Yuck.

He has since mastered the art of peeing standing up, and had his first experience peeing in the roadside bushes on our way to Bend last weekend for Tyler to ride his 100 bike ride on Saturday. (Way to go Ty!) We found him outside in the back yard of the house we were renting with pants down peeing off the steps. I'm sure it won't be the last time we find him urinating outside when a functioning bathroom is five feet away.

Update on Lydia

2011-07-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

Each of the children has passed a personal major milestone in the last little while. Lydia's has to do with her first round of swimming lessons, which started last week. This little lady has been less than friendly with water (especially if it touches anything above her neck) for the majority of her life. After two days of swimming lessons, check out what she can do!

The gentleman teaching her class came highly recommended from people in our ward and I have to say it's been worth every penny. He teaches second grade during the school year and is so positive and energetic with the kids, and inspires confidence in them. Now I just have to figure out how we can get to the pool more often with the three kiddos so she doesn't lose her newly found confidence in the water!

Memorial Day 2011

2011-06-08T21:30:00.001-07:00

Most of you probably don't remember this, but last Memorial Day we stumbled upon the Horse Tail Falls hiking trail. It's close to Multnomah Falls for those Oregonians reading this. We decided to hit the trail again this year.

The kids enjoyed the hike and swinging on the trail signs.

Ian had the easiest hike of all, strapped to Daddy's chest. Don't let the facial expression fool you; he fell asleep about five minutes in and slept the entire time. (Four month stats for the boy: 15.7 lbs (66%) and 26.something inches long (92%), on par with the rest of the kids. We grow them long and lean.)

The best thing about hiking with kids is you get lots of rest stops along the way for photo ops or just to look at cool rocks and ferns along the path.

Luke was running down the trail on the return trip and bit the dust...literally.

The kids' favorite part of the trip? Walking along the railroad tracks that back to the parking area and throwing rocks into the pond on the other side.

We're going to make it an annual trip, so come hike with us on Memorial Day 2012!

Oregon Coast 2011

2011-05-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

We had a great time spending the week with the Stoddard clan in Lincoln City for the annual Oregon coast trip. We know we had fun because of how fast the week flew by. We played on the beach, ate some smores and ate some sand, watched an excavator move big rocks around on the beach (Luke's favorite), played some golf and even kicked back to watch movies in the theater room. (I think we need to make a theater room a requirement for future beach trips.) As we rolled out of town all three kids were asleep like logs within minutes. Nice. Here's a little photo slideshow with some excellent photography work by Grandma Shirlene.

Which is worse?

2011-05-14T22:24:00.000-07:00

To have your hair growing in poofy and curly in some spots, and apparently not growing at all in others....

Or to have your mom end up shaving your head bald while trying to "just even it out a little bit?"

Methinks the second. Sorry dude!

Have a happy day!

2011-05-02T22:19:00.001-07:00

Ian sure is!

My Kids Are So Creative...

2011-04-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

My sister came last week for a visit, which was spectacular. But I haven't got all the pictures organized yet, so I can't blog that. For now I just wanted to share the special art project my kids collaborated on while I was in the bathtub yesterday morning. Behold their masterpiece:

I know you are all extremely impressed and jealous of the talented little artists I am raising.

Blog Stealing

2011-04-16T20:27:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this post for a while, every day really, when I start to get frustrated with something at home. But then I was blog hopping and read a post from my sister's friend from high school who has four kids and her son is autistic. I felt pathetic for wanting to post about this. However, I've still been thinking about it so I'm posting it anyway.

I've found myself getting increasingly frustrated with how cluttered and dirty my house gets now and how quickly it happens. I don't consider myself a neat freak in the least, but my when my kids' empty every dresser drawer onto their floor every day (literally) and I trip or get stabbed in the foot by small toys and train tracks wherever I walk, it gets to me. And when I am frustrated I am not the nicest mommy or very fun for my kids to be around. I was reading a friend's sister-in-law's blog (who has four young kids, two are twins and her husband is a doctor and gone a lot....again, I feel like a wimp but oh well) and found this that she posted on her blog by someone named April Perry. I stole it.

"How we feel about our lives depends on the relationship between our expectations and our realities. One way we can understand our potential and the nature of family life is to accept the fact that the world is made up of opposites. If it seems like the world is against us some days, and that we’ll never “reach our potential” or create the “perfect” family life, that’s okay. In order to enjoy the good, we need to experience the bad.

We wouldn’t know how beautiful an entire eight hours of undisturbed sleep is if we hadn’t had nights where we saw the clock change every single hour. When we become mothers, we need to expect opposites and realize that we have the capacity to grow and nurture our families—even when times are tough.

If you wake up in the morning saying, “Well, I know I’ve got my work cut out for me today. Hard things are definitely going to come my way, but with the help of Providence, I am ready for them,” then when hard times DO come, you think, “This is what I expected. And look what a great job I am doing!”

On the other hand, if you wake up thinking, “Today better be less crazy than yesterday. This is my itinerary, this is what I need to get done, this is what I want to happen, and if anyone gets in my way, there’s going to be heck to pay!”, then when the challenges come, we scream, “I've been cheated! Today turned out horribly! This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

I'm really working on trying to change my expectations after reading that, because it's so true. The days I get most frustrated are the days when I have a list of things I want to get done and a timeline of when I want it done. So from now on I'm going to expect my house to look like this by 9 am every day:

And I'm going to expect that my kids will be in cahoots when I have a phone call to make and two emails to respond to and start "cooking" with all my silverware and many of the bowls in the cupboard....

And I will not be surprised if I return to my room from putting away the kids laundry (which now resides in their closet on a shelf that they cannot reach, I'm not ready to expect the empty dresser daily yet) to find that a certain little boy has done this in my bathroom.

When I first started thinking about changing my expectations I felt kind of like I was just giving up, but the more I've though about it I've changed my mind. I will expect my children to be normal, curious, mess-making machines. I will also expect my children to help me clean up the messes they make (and probably not willingly either.) I will expect to hear whining every day and "mommy, get me (fill in the blank)" 50,000 times a day. But I will also expect them to say rephrase their request in a normal voice and with the word "please" inserted into the sentence before I will comply. You get the idea.

One day last week we just sat around all morning listening to acoustic music, dancing, and reading books together. The kids trashed the house. I didn't do any laundry or sweep my floor which was littered with dried-up macaroni and smashed pretzels. And it was okay. I didn't feel stressed out. I just enjoyed being with my babies and tried to remember what they said and how they felt in my arms as I held them, because I know it won't be long before they grow up. I wish I could say every day I had hours or even moments like that but I'd be lying. I'm learning to let go of some of my expectations and adopting new ones that will allow me to enjoy my kids and motherhood more...at least that's my goal. Wish me luck.

Ian at Two Months

2011-04-01T12:27:00.001-07:00

I can't believe my sweet Baby E is already two months old! However, it does seems like forever ago that I was pregnant and weirdly enough, I kind of miss it. It seems like with the other two kids I wished away the newborn stage; I was excited for them to start smiling, and rolling over, and laughing, etc, etc. This time I don't want him to grow up at all. I guess I just realize how fast kids grow up now and I want time to just stop!

He had an appointment with the doctor this morning and got two shots, which he was not happy about in the least. He's packed on three pounds in the last six weeks (now 11.8 lbs) and has grown almost three inches too (24.25 inches now)! He's still a lightweight compared to the babies on Tyler's side of the family but about on par with our kids.

When I was home last week I had some pictures taken by the same person who took the family shots at Christmas. He was tired and not happy to be having pictures taken, would not go to sleep so we could get cute sleeping baby shots, and was not having being naked at all! Nevertheless, I think we still got some good pictures. I sure love this little man of mine!

Out of the Mouth of Babes

2011-03-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

Last night as we were travelling home from our Spring Break vacation (more to come on that plus some pictures soon) we were delayed an hour by an accident on the freeway. After some Googling on our phones, Ty figured out that it was a fatal crash a few miles ahead of us that was holding up traffic. Lydia and Luke couldn't figure out why we were not moving on the freeway, so I explained that it was a sad day because there was an accident ahead and somebody had died in the crash. They asked a few questions like if it was a boy or girl, and where the dead person was. I told them that their body was on earth and would be buried, but their spirit had gone back to be with Heavenly Father. A few minutes later Lydia asked another question about where the dead person was and then said "it's actually a special, special day Mom." I asked her why. "Because her spirit is back with God again, so it is a special day." I love the simple faith and understanding of my little girl.

New this week....

2011-03-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

My husband went to play church basketball last night and left looking normal. It's been a pretty calm season. He's only sustained a ripped shirt and a few bruises, and hasn't had anyone ask him if he "wants to take it outside right now" like last year. He returned from last night's game looking like this:

(It looks more impressive today, this was a mere hour after it happened.) If you get grossed out easily, try not to look at the next shot.

Some guy jammed his finger in Tyler's eye socket, breaking a bunch of blood vessels and giving him double vision for a while. A different teammate got his other eye with his fingernail. Apparently church basketball in Hillsboro involves some vicious, bloodthirsty opponents!

Last week I was upstairs feeding this guy, who thinks he needs to eat all day long. Lydia and Luke were in the backyard playing when I went up to feed him, since for once it wasn't raining! I heard them come in and out of the house and turn on the bathroom sink a few times, but that's pretty normal since they get dirty playing in the dirt and think they need to wash it off before they can put more dirt on themselves.

Lydia came in and asked me if I wanted to go to their picnic when I was done. I agreed, thinking they were making mud pies on the kitchen set on the deck and it was a pretend picnic to eat them. Not so! These two set up this picnic all by themselves, including washing the fruit before bringing it outside to eat (I was a proud mama that they remembered to do so!)

We enjoyed a lovely afternoon picnic of apples and strawberries together (Luke had politely taste-tested my apple before giving it to me) and chatted about springtime and what we want to plant in our garden in a few weeks. Luke also informed me that "when I was a baby I popped out of you and drank your milk. But now I'm not a baby; I'm handsome." That's right little man, you are, most especially with your jammies on backwards and wearing your sister's boots!

I love these two so much and I'm glad that I had them as close together as I did. I love that they have a playmate when I'm busy with the baby and can't play with them. They still fight about things but they've really gotten so much better at playing with each other since they started sharing a room. Sometimes it's bad that they have a little buddy though; they dream up some naughty things to do when I'm not paying attention. I was lucky this time and I hope there are many more picnics to come with my favorite kids!

Our New Life

2011-03-02T21:55:00.001-08:00

Their faces pretty much sum it up: mostly happy with moments of uncertainty about how we're handling the adjustment to our new addition. Even Ian seems like he's not sure about this whole "being in the outside world" thing yet, as demonstrated below.

He goes between grumpy and surprised, with a lot of this in between....

complete with the "don't hate me because I'm beautiful" model pose.

Sometimes he gets so sick of this place it makes him want to vomit...okay, so it makes him vomit.

(Remember this? I fear my days of eating dairy and chocolate may be numbered. Again.)

The rest of us aren't to the point of throwing up, but we've become rather lackadaisical about personal grooming and dress standards (excluding Tyler, who actually has places to go and people to see every day.) I'm lucky if I get showered before 3 pm, and even luckier if I get dressed in something other than pajamas and/or lounge-wear. (I keep telling myself it's just because my regular clothes don't fit quite right yet...how long can I keep using that excuse?) The kids wear all kinds of weird outfits, and even go to the store in them occasionally, because I either don't care enough to make them change or I haven't done the laundry so they don't have any matching clothes to wear besides pajamas....well, at least Lydia's pj's match. The shoes though, not so much :)

It's been raining A TON here, and yes, we've even seen some of the white stuff too, so I've remained holed up at home. The kids brought home a cold from somewhere (most likely church) and now the baby has a stuffy nose, so I'm trying to avoid exposing him to more germs and exposing my kids to places where they can bring home MORE germs to sicken Ian, so we've been trying to keep things interesting so that we all don't go stir crazy.

We've been watching more movies than I care to admit lately, but we've jazzed it up a bit by having indoor picnic lunches while we watch our movie. It's the new fave at home.

This was the entertainment we came up with today. I used to put my tights on my head and run around when I was little, so I thought I'd pass down the awesome tradition to my children as well.

In all seriousness, so far the adjustment hasn't been as bad as I feared. Ian is a great baby who sleeps pretty well at night and is generally pretty content. It helps that I don't have kids who have to be somewhere at certain times, so we can pretty much do whatever we want whenever we want to do it. We all adore our little Ee-Yon, as Luke pronounces is (think of the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding), or our Sweet Baby E as I like to call him. (Another side note: trying to teach your preschooler letters and sounds, and then throwing a name like Ian at her that is not spelled phonetically and trying to explain why it's not pronounced Eye-An....difficult.)

Even Luke has decided that our new life is not so scary after all.

Labor....My Side of the Story

2011-02-11T21:15:00.000-08:00

I think Ty did a fantastic job of reporting the basics of the labor story, but since this is really my only form of journaling for the present time I would like to present my side of the labor story before I forget it. I'm warning it will be long and may contain information which people, mostly males, may consider too much information, so read on at your own discretion. I threw in some pictures of the handsome devil for those of you who don't read posts without pictures.

Thursday morning I was busy, out and about with the kids. We went to a friend's house, went to story time at the library, and went to Costco, where I ate a slice of combo pizza for lunch. (Does that old wives tale about eating spicy food to start labor actually work? Maybe in my case!) I ran into tons of people I know at the library and Costco and was lamenting the fact that I was still pregnant, even though I was only 38 wks 4 days pregnant. After our Costco run, we came home and miraculously both kids went to sleep at quiet time, and so did I which was a huge blessing in hindsight. I woke up at 3 pm and went to the bathroom. I walked out of the bathroom and felt like I peed a little more. "Hmm, that's odd, I don't usually pee my pants" was my thought process at that point. I went in the bathroom again and tried to empty my bladder again, but the same thing happened again once I left the bathroom. I started thinking that maybe my water had broken, but since it wasn't a huge gush of fluid all at once and both other times I'd had to have it broken in the hospital I wasn't sure.

I grabbed my phone and went upstairs, put on a pad and called Tyler as I was still leaking fluid every few steps and I was pretty sure at that point I definitely wasn't peeing my pants. Of course, he didn't answer and I was starting to freak out because when they broke my water with Luke I delivered him an hour and a half later. Luckily, he saw that I called (he was in a meeting) and texted me to see what was up. "I think my water just broke" was my response. He called about one minute later :) He called the neighbor to come down with the kids and I called his sister to come get the kids from the neighbor and stay with them until my mom came. I grabbed my bags, kissed the kids who had just woken up, and ran out the door. I wasn't feeling any real back pain at that point (that's where I feel contractions) but I was expecting at any minute to start feeling them.

I got to the hospital still pain-free and checked myself in to labor and delivery. The triage nurse took me back, hooked me up to the monitor, asked me what had happened, and took a few swabs to test for amniotic fluid. Tyler got there just after that. She left and was gone for seriously 15 minutes at least, which was when I was getting really concerned that I really HAD just peed my pants. I was going to be so embarrassed if I had to tell everyone that my water hadn't broken, not to mention my mom was already on her way to Portland, etc. The nurse came back and said that she couldn't get a positive test for amniotic fluid off the swabs but my story sounded too good so they would watch me for a while. I said, "Are you sure? I have a whole pad soaked with the stuff." She took a test from the pad I had been wearing and was back about one minute later to say that it definitely was positive for amniotic fluid. Whew!

I still wasn't contracting regularly at that point but they put in the IV, took me to a room, and the midwife came in to see me. Her name was Lindsay and she was fabulous. They got my first dose of antibiotics for GBS going but I was still not really feeling any contractions, so Tyler and I started walking. We decided after the 15th lap of the L&D floor that they need an eliptical machine or treadmill for that unit--the scenery gets old really fast. I was serious about wanting to give Ian and Lydia separate birthdays. The midwife had offered to start pitocin if I really wanted to get him out, but remembering my not-so-fun experience when I had it with Lydia I wasn't wanting to start it right away. We decided if at 10 pm I wasn't pretty close to delivery we'd start the pitocin. After multiple more laps the midwife finally checked to see how dilated I was. I was at 6 cm, which was disappointing to me since with Luke and Lydia I had been contracting pretty regularly with fairly minimal pain and had been at 8 cm both times with them. (If you are a woman who has had children and has a typical labor, please don't hate me because of the previous sentence. I realize my labors are not normal.)

After more walking and bouncing on the birthing ball, and starting the second dose of antibiotics, it was about 9:30 pm and I was realizing that labor was not going to start on its own any time soon. I was baffled because this labor was so different from the previous two. After talking it over with Tyler I decided that we should "get the party started" as I put it and start the pitocin. They started it at 10:30 at a low dose per my request and put me on a telemetry monitor so I could still walk the halls. My mom got there just after they started it I think and we walked for a while. I started to be able to feel when I was having contractions but they weren't bad--I could walk and talk through them. They bumped it up every half hour, and just before midnight we went back into the room. The contractions were getting stronger but not too bad. At that point I was so frustrated that it was taking so long; at the rate I was going I felt like it was going to be several more hours before he was out. I was also feeling bad that we had someone at the house with the kids who had to work the next day, and my mom had been up for a long time and had a long drive and would have to be up with the kids the next day, so I suggested that since it didn't look like things were going anywhere any time soon that she go home. I will forever feel bad that I did that, I'm sorry Mom! She left just after midnight and that's when things started picking up. Quickly. (Ironically, my mom had just been telling her labor story with my youngest brother Aaron and how fast she dilated and was ready to push with him.)

The contractions really started to pick up in intensity and I had Tyler pushing on my low back to give some counter-pressure to the back labor I was having. (That's been his job for every labor and he does it fabulously!) I was reaching the point where I was thinking "this isn't fun, I don't like this, why am I doing this without medication again?" Yes, I know that sounds wimpy. I'd been in real labor for what, 20 minutes or so? I asked to be checked again, thinking I must be really close to pushing because last time when I felt this way it was almost time to push. Lindsay checked and said I was at 7 cm, but the baby was really low now. I about cried when she said the number 7, and then I asked if they could turn off the pitocin. The answer was no, they didn't want my labor to stall. After two or three more contractions I felt like I had to pee, but I couldn't go when I went in the bathroom. With every contraction I felt a lot of pressure. She checked me again and I was at 8-9 cm. They had me lay on my side and I really wanted to push with the next contraction, but she wanted me to pant through them to dilate the rest of the way. I made it through two that way but by the third I said "I have to push now" and just started pushing. I pushed through two contractions on my side (I think) and it felt really awkward so I rolled onto my back. I think it was a total of three or four more contractions with pushing before he came out. Once his head and shoulders were out she had me reach down and pull him up on my chest. It was the best feeling ever, not just the relief of pain/pressure but to have my healthy newborn baby crying on my chest with my handsome husband right beside me. I don't think words can describe the feeling you feel after giving birth! He was born at 12:48 am, and the nurse told me later that they considered my "active" labor to be about one hour and I pushed for 7 minutes. Not too shabby, but at the time it felt like waaaay longer than that! I feel like a sissy compared to others who have long labors and terrible contractions--I definitely won't win any labor story contests but that's okay by me!

(I just had to throw in this picture of Luke, who came up with the outfit all by himself and asked me to take a picture. This will be Ian's role model...should I be worried? Another side note--Ian was 9 days early, and so was Luke. He shares the same birthday with one sibling and same gestational age as another. Odd but true.)

All in all I feel really good compared to the aftermath of the other two births. Ian is a really laid-back baby so far, and besides a little bout of jaundice (par for the course for my kids) he is doing great. We love having him in our family. Lydia and Luke love him too, and love to hear his baby noises and his hiccups especially. We feel so blessed to have three beautiful kids and to have had so much help from family. Grandma Shannon was here for a week taking care of us like only a mom can do, and Grandpa Dave is here now for the weekend playing with the kiddos and rocking the baby to sleep. Grandma Shirlene will be here next week and we're excited to see her. In the words of a Primary song we sang for FHE this week, "we are a happy family!"

Now We're Five!

2011-02-10T20:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, perhaps this is a bit more exciting news than the destroying of a snowman. Yes - it definitely is. Ian Tyler Stoddard was born just after midnight Friday 2/4/11. The stats: 8 lbs. 15 oz., 21.25 in., 3 in. biceps, 12 in. waist, blond hair/blue eyes ... ok, ok, no hair/brown eyes.

It was a pretty exciting start to labor before things settled down. I was in a meeting at work when I got the text that said, "My water just broke, I think." :) I showed it to my boss, who was sitting next to me, and told everyone I'm out! as I hustled back to my desk. I hadn't really planned ahead since we were a week and a half from the due date and had ridden my bike to work. Nice. Ashley was handing the kids off to our neighbor then driving herself to the hospital while I was peddling as fast as I could to meet her there.

She got there just before I did, and I found her in the triage room. She looked concerned. She said the contractions weren't really consistent yet and so she thought maybe her water really hadn't broken. Fortunately, the nurse ran a test that confirmed it was amniotic fluid. Whew. She was checked into her room and then we started walking the halls. Because the contractions weren't consistent she wasn't in much pain or discomfort yet (she can amend this later if she disagrees). All the nurses were very impressed with how fast and how much she was walking. I estimated that we walked a few miles in total. My feet were getting sore, but that's not really very manly to tell my full-term wife that I may need a break because my feet are sore. I tucked my skirt in and kept walking.

Ashley was hoping to get him out before midnight so he'd have his own birthday. But Lydia was hoping he'd wait so she could share her birthday with him. She said it'd be the best present ever! (I'm sure you can picture her tone and expression when she said it.) In the end, the birthday wish of a four year-old carried more weight. We were told that active labor lasted a little over an hour and she pushed for a whoppin' seven minutes (I'm sure it seemed longer for her) before Ian joined us in the outside world. It was just as beautiful as it was when Lydia and Luke were born! Ashley reached down and grabbed him and put him on her chest. He cried for a little bit and took a peek with his left eye to see the world around him. Both mom and baby are happy and healthy. Lydia and Luke are both excited to have a new baby brother, too. Enjoy a few photos and videos.

Death of a Snowman

2011-02-09T18:45:00.000-08:00

This took a little longer to produce than I had hoped but here it is. The fitting end to Mr. The Snow Man referenced earlier that we made at Christmas time. Good times.

A Preview of Family Pictures

2011-01-17T21:12:00.001-08:00

During Christmas vacation we had family pictures taken when my mom had a friend take pictures of the entire clan (see previous post for just one said picture.) She had quite the job taking photos of 18 people, eight of which were young children ranging in age from 9 months-7 years. After the entire family picture when we were in the orchard we had her take a few more of our family. Luke wasn't too excited to be having more pictures taken, as you can tell in some of them. (Warning: most are not the full resolution pictures, I don't have that CD yet. But you get the general idea.)

The kids brightened up a bit when they discovered the apples on the trees in the orchard, and that they could pick them and throw them.

Somehow the grey shirt and snow and such somewhat hid my belly in these pics, I think I was about 32-33 weeks along in these pictures. I don't think anything can hide it now!

The inside shots, prior to tromping around outside in the snow and the kids were a little more agreeable to having pictures taken.

I'm not promising any more posts until after baby boy arrives. He's due Feb 13th; I was hoping for an early delivery but I am starting to get the feeling that this little guy wants to stay put for a while :( As my mom would say, "time will tell." We'll put the word out when he makes his grand entrance!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-17T20:46:00.000-08:00

This post and the next go out to those of you who have been nagging me to update my blog...it's not that I don't think about it, I've just gotten so far behind that the task seems daunting. Tyler wisely advised me to pick one topic to talk about instead of trying to recap our whole Christmas vacation. I took his advice and have tried to dedicate this post to the lovely snow we enjoyed at Christmas.

This lovely group is who we spent the holidays with--my family, minus my little brother on a mission in Detroit. (Not the full resolution picture, beware if you try to make it bigger it might look fuzzy.) I flew home with the kiddos a little bit early to spend more time with my brother, his wife, and four boys from Houston, and my sister and her husband and two boys from Las Vegas. We don't get to see each other often so it was fabulous to get to be with them for a week. And of course, it was GREAT to see my parents and be at home in good ol' Fruitland, Idaho. The kids loved being with Grandma and Grandpa and playing with their cousins.

Tyler drove down on Sunday--since it was so snowy he ended up leaving early after delegating his Sunday meeting duties to another member of the bishopric and made the long, slow drive to Fruitland, but he made it safe and sound and decompressed after the long drive by building this totally awesome snowman with the mound of snow in the cul-de-sac outside my parents' house.

Of course, the best thing about the snow was that the kids got to enjoy it. Although in the above picture it looks like Lydia is not too sure about sledding down the hill, she really did love it--I just caught her mid-sentence in the picture, I swear. My parents had enough snow in the front yard for the kids to slide down, and then we drove to McCall, Idaho and spent several days there. It provided much more snow than Fruitland. Lydia's expression below says it all!

There were giant snow piles in the parking lot of the condominiums where we stayed, and the kids played forever out there in their Snow Castle. We had a great Christmas vacation with lots of food, fun, and most of all, being with family. We didn't take near enough pictures or video, and what we did take was with our cell phones. There is clearly a difference in the video capabilities of my iPhone vs. Tyler's latest and greatest iPhone, but it will give you an idea of how the kids feel about sledding. The end!

(Yikes! Please ignore the bossy mommy in the background. Seriously, who is that lady? And eventually he got the hang of it and was able to do it on his own on the first...okay, maybe second, try :)

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

The kids had a great time at the ward trunk-or-treat last night, once I convinced Luke that it was okay to wear his fireman coat and hat. I couldn't get the boots on him for the life of me.

Originally, Lydia was going to be a skunk (see last picture--it was way too big for Luke last year!) and Luke was going to be a peanut. But man, he went running and screaming any time he saw me come near him with the peanut costume. And I somehow managed to lose the skunk costume from last year. So we went to Goodwill and improvised. I'm sure I'll probably find the skunk costume this week :)

With a little help from the dollar store and some glitter paint, we made sure nobody mistook Lydia for just a princess or a fairy....she was "Fairy Princess Lydia," and don't you forget it!

Can it really be that these are the same kids? One year sure makes a big difference!

Hope you all had a very happy Halloween!

Why I Now Do My Shopping at Fred Meyers....

2010-10-14T21:14:00.001-07:00

...because they have a Play Land, where my kids can play while I shop without them. The first picture was taken when we got to Lowes, otherwise known as the "tractor store" in our house. Everyone, including Mom, was happy and loving the outing.

Fast forward 10 minutes, after Luke ran away from me 15 times, climbed the huge metal stair thingy with the employees only sign on it while I was trying to find the right screws, and then got buckled in the cart due to aforementioned behaviors. If my memory serves me right, Lydia was crying because I told her she couldn't have any snacks since she had refused to eat more than 3 bites of breakfast. (May I add, I did warn her before we left that she wouldn't be able to have snacks at the store unless she ate more of her breakfast. But did she? Of course not.) Thank you Fred Meyer for making it possible for me to get groceries without this fiasco.

Luke's Getting Ready for Halloween...

2010-10-08T09:59:00.001-07:00

I guess he's trying to tell me that I need to make the house look more festive. He took the liberty of decorating himself by eating an orange marker. Yes, you read right. He ATE the marker. He's still spitting out chunks of the spongy tip.

This is what I get for trying to be productive and make lasagna ahead of time so that I'd actually have dinner ready when everyone was hungry.

(Note said lasagna in the background. It better be good!)

I should write the Crayola people and thank them for making non-toxic products, so that people with weird kids like me don't have to worry when their child eats various coloring utensils.

UPDATE from Dad: Can I just take this moment to say how proud I am of my boy? Like father like son. (Nice find on the picture, mom.)

If you ever feel like.....

2010-10-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

"my tummy is going up into my throat and squishing together"

"my tummy is trying to go up as high as the sky,"

beware.

You're probably going to throw up.

Ask Lydia. She knows.

Luke's second birthday

2010-09-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was Luke's second birthday. Oh how I love that little boy! He is getting to be so much fun now; I definitely think two is my favorite age for kiddos. He loves to run and jump and play with trucks, and he gives good hugs and kisses when you're lucky and catch him in the right mood. His vocabulary is constantly expanding, and he surprises us sometimes with his sentences. Today he said, "I see a squirrel right now!" and (very forcefully) "Come down right now! Dinner!" He definitely isn't afraid to take charge. He also is very polite in that he almost always says thank you whenever you do something for him.

He has started singing a lot and now has renditions of "Rock-a-bye Baby" and "I Am Like a Star" added to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." He also attempts to belt out the hymns at church, and usually the little kids around us turn to look at him during the Sacrament hymn to wonder why he is being so irreverent. He has the best smile and I love his dimples. I just love him so much--even though he can be a MAJOR stinker when he wants to be!

I learned that when you whip frosting a lot to mix in food coloring, you should put it in the fridge to harden again before you frost with it. Otherwise you end up with melty frosting, fire truck windows that slide down the cake, etc.

Video Mania

2010-09-04T21:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the plethora of videos, they're more for the grandmas and grandpas than anyone else. Luke has taken up singing/sing-talking lately. This isn't his best rendition but it's the best we could get without a loud "cheese!" when he noticed the camera.

Lydia is becoming uber-creative lately, with this just being one of the many ideas she's come up with lately.

Some of her creativity is not as constructive. This is her closet after I left her in her room alone with the instructions to pick up and put away everything the floor.

(I didn't take a picture of the floor where she dumped all of her noodles because she knew she couldn't have dessert unless she finished her dinner.)

Lastly, this is the fun toy that the kids discovered. Don't let Luke fool you, he's the first one who thought to climb up the table and slide down after the legs broke off my work table.

Retaliation

2010-08-30T12:53:00.001-07:00

Do NOT take Lydia's mixing spoon when she is making mud soup.

What We've Been Doing Lately

2010-08-28T16:22:00.001-07:00

First off, this is what Tyler and Lydia did this afternoon:

Very nice. Monday through Wednesday this week I took the kids to the Oregon Coast, where Tyler's parents had a timeshare rented at Otter Crest. Luke did not enjoy the morning walk out to the tide pools....

Lydia also had a rough time going up the bajillion steps because "there's something in my shoes and socks and I can't wear them!" She solved her own problem though, as you can see.

They both enjoyed throwing rocks into the tide pools and hearing them go "ker-plunk!"

Before we left I fulfilled one wish for each of my kids. Luke's was to go around in his diaper all day:

Lydia had been requesting that I make her a play dress, so I did out of dollar-a-yard fabric. I was actually quite proud that I put in the sleeves and a zipper all by myself, with minimal seam ripping involved. And as a bonus, it twirls enough that she will consent to wear it.

Tyler and I also fulfilled one of our wishes, which was to refinish our deck. I didn't take any before pictures, but here's a few pictures of after it was all sanded down. (I think my hands are still shaking from holding that hand sander for so long!)

And a few after pictures of our deck "a la Cedar Naturaltone" stain and water protector. And can I say, I detest painting railings or anything like unto them.

And here's a little video of the kids at the Coast. Don't ask me why I can't move the video up to where the other Coast pictures are, or why this is underlined. Blogger is frustrating me right now but I'm too lazy to work on it anymore!

Back from the (blogging) Dead

2010-08-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

Howdy everyone. I'm lacking the motivation to sort through the many pictures of our wonderful family trips over the last two months, the first with Ty's family to the Oregon Coast, and the second with the Smith side in McCall, Idaho. So today you don't get pictures of our trips, you get videos of what we've been doing recently. Hopefully that will suffice and eventually I will get my rear in gear and post more frequently!

We spent a few hours at the Washington County Fair. Lydia loved the ponies; she came up and told me all about it (I wasn't there when she saw them the first time): "I put out my hand and he sniffed it and his whiskers gave me kisses!"

Luke has gained a new skill--riding a bike. He seems like such a big boy to me, riding his bike around the cul-de-sac in his little yellow helmet!

This last video is Luke's attempt at Red Light, Green Light. The kids love to play that game when we're grocery shopping; I have to stop the cart every time they yell "red light!" (Sometimes shopping takes a long time!) It was interesting to me to see his little brain equate moving in a shopping cart to moving on a bike, and to know that the same game applied in both situations.

Please drive slowly if you're ever on our street--his steering skills and "watch out for cars" skills are still developing!!!

It has begun....

2010-06-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

I am becoming my parents. I realized this as I listened to myself tell Lydia "If you wouldn't pull all the clothes out of your drawers, you wouldn't have to pick them all up." Oh, the memories of hearing words like that growing up. "If you just stand right here and put the clothes in your hamper when you take them off, then they wouldn't be all over the floor." "If you would do the job right the first time, you wouldn't have to come back out here and do it again." Go ahead and laugh, Mom and Dad. I'm just doing my best to pass on the gems that I learned from you!

You know you live in Oregon when....

2010-06-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

Your kids have rain getup like this:

And you randomly stumble on waterfalls with hiking trails like this:

And you overhear this conversation at Target, after the sales lady remarked that the customer's daughter was very petite for her age:

"Yes, well, she's been strictly breastfed since birth, and she only eats organic baby food, so you know, she IS more petite than SOME babies...."

(I wish I would have been buying baby formula and sugar-packed snacks for my kids. That would have been awesome.)

The facts of life according to Lydia

2010-05-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

Today as we were driving to Costco Lydia informed me that she had had a baby. When I asked her where her baby was, she replied (in a tone implying that I was an idiot for asking the question) that he was still in her tummy. "See, it's getting really bigger." She also told me he was wearing pink jammies. "He is wearing pink jammies? In your tummy?" I asked. Yep, was the response. When I told her that she and Luke had been born wearing nothing, she tried to sound appalled. "We were NAKED????" she yelled. Nice try at trying to sound modest, little girl. Not after you dropped your pants and took off your shirt in the middle of the Children's Place outlet last weekend because you saw some clothes you liked.

As we pulled into Costco she told me her baby "just popped right out." That was easy, I said. "Yep, it's not hard, I just pushed and he came right out." And here it is, my favorite part of the conversation--

"And now he's drinking milk from my brain."

I hope I'm there when she has her first baby, who will pop right out wearing pink pajamas and start nursing on her lactating brain.

Crib antics

2010-05-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

I took down the crib after we watched the kids do this Sunday night. I'd really like to avoid broken bones this year.

Happy Birthdpy, Tyler!

2010-05-12T22:04:00.001-07:00

On May 6th our loving and totally awesome Tyler turned 33, and we love him 33x more than we did last year!

Whoever packed my package of birthday candles can't spell--either that, or I've been spelling 'birthday' wrong my whole life. Happy Birthdpy!

We went to one of Tyler's favorite restaurants, La Hacienda Real, one of which they conveniently just opened in Beaverton, saving us the hour drive to Salem. We had yummy Mexican food and loved it, or as Ty would say, "that was some pretty good crap."

(I figured since I had blogged Lydia's contribution to Ty's cake, I should blog Luke's, which was licking the beaters after I made the frosting. He found something he can excel at.

Happy Birthday my love!!!

Dee Dee Unplugged

2010-05-06T12:10:00.001-07:00

Can I just say that I love this little lady?

I love hearing how her mind works and how she tries to label new sounds/ideas with ones she already knows. For example, today after lunch her stomach was gurgling. (Sidebar--one of my favorite medical terms from nursing school is the technical name for that--borborygmi. Use it in a sentence today, I dare you.) She turned to me and said, "Mommy, my stomach is snoring!"

Today we were making Ty's birthday cake and Lydia was "reading" the recipe to me. Some highlights:

3 cups of oil
1 thing of sugar
one hot chocolate
whipped cream
water--"boiling Mom, it has to be boiling hot"

After playing dress-up she voluntarily picked up the clothes and put them away. She ran in to tell me about it while I was making dinner and I just said, "Awesome!" She replied with, "you're welcome Mommy." A gentle reminder that I forgot to say thank you!

Yesterday I was doing her hair and she wanted two little piggytails in front and one ponytail in back. I did the two front ones and got up to leave, at which point she used her most dramatic voice to tell me, "But Mom, I need my other piggytail. I don't feel beautiful!"

Yesterday she was scooting down the stairs on her bottom when she said, "Mom, my bum just made a stink in my face!" The rest of the day was spent reminiscing about how she ate too many strawberries and "now my bum is full of gassy."

Looking at this last picture made me sad. They both look so grown up and as much as I may say otherwise, I love the ages my kids are at right now. I want them to stay young and cute and innocent, and realizing that they're growing up so fast freaks me out!!!

McDonalds

2010-05-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no pictures for those of you who don't read blog entries without eye candy to go along with it. Tyler's been gone since yesterday afternoon on Boy Scout Camporee, so I've been staying busy with the kiddos. They were really good this morning going to Lowe's and "helping" me weed/lay down fabric weed barrier/spread mulch on part of my yard, so I promised them McDonald's for dinner. It was a funny trip.

First off, when I pulled in the parking lot there was one of those mini-semi trucks pulling a long trailer PACKED full of steers and heifers. I found it ironic that there were all these cows parked outside an establishment where the people inside are consuming cows all day long. Maybe it's not funny to anyone else, but I found it amusing.

Lydia is very aware of the fact that there are certain privileges tied to behaving well (the McDonalds trip being one), so all today she kept saying, "Mom, am I being have? Mom, I am being so have right now!" I never had broken the word down before, but I totally see in her mind how it works.

After the kids inhaled their happy meals, I let them play in the play structure for a few minutes. Another little girl about 7 or 8 went down the slide and must have been going way too slow for her liking because when she reached the bottom she said, "Mom, my butt doesn't work." I love it!

Benefits of Living in Oregon

2010-04-21T16:34:00.001-07:00

How often do you see a double rainbow? (BTW, the outer rainbow had faded considerably by the time I got the camera out.) I can live with the rain if it will leave a few of these babies every time it dumps on us!

On a completely unrelated note, I need to change my hairstyle. I haven't cut it for literally a year and it needs something done. Recommendations?

Sicky

2010-04-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

You know Luke is sick when you find him passed out on the floor. The boy has a cold and an ear infection but is on the mend and back to his destructo ways. Hooray!!!

Sew Crafty

2010-04-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

Ha! Such a clever title, I'm proud of myself. Here's what I've been spending my time on lately:

I made this for my friend Annie, who is giving it to her little girl for her birthday. It will match the curtains in the play kitchen she's making her. Annie gets all the design credit. Of course, Lydia wants one as well so I let her pick out the fabric for hers today. It's a hot pink leopard print--it's going to look fabulous, at least to Lydia!

I saw a tutorial for a little girl's dress made from a mens dress shirt, so I gave it a try. Lydia was asleep when I finished it so I put it on Luke to test the length, because it looked pretty short to me. You can see how happy he was about it.

Obviously I measured wrong at some point, because it's more like a long shirt/tunic on Lydia, but it will still work with leggings. The white ribbon is in place of the red waistband that has yet to be applied to the shirt/dress.

I love those rosy cheeks!

At the prompting of my friend Gemia, I made a Peeps bunny ribbon garland thingy for Easter. I decided I hate cutting anything out of felt.

More baby wraps for friends having babies.

Yes, that is a cabbage patch doll. I learned after the picture below that Luke is way too heavy for a stretchy wrap.

Happy crafting everyone!

Allergy Testing

2010-04-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning I took Luke in to the allergist to get tested because of his reaction to peanut butter. Luckily for the docs, he freezes in a doctor's office so he was actually quite well-behaved.
This is about five minutes after they started skin-testing.
This is fifteen minutes later. The red spot on the left is histamine (just a control to make sure his skin would react to an allergen.) The top red spot on the right is eggs, and the one below it is peanuts. They had to mark the borders of the biggest hive with pen, because there were so many tiny hives all around it it was hard to measure.
I have to take him in Monday to have blood drawn to double-check the skin testing results and see to what degree he's allergic to both substances. I'm curious to see what the egg test says, because the only time I've ever notice him have problems with eggs is if he's had they straight, like scrambled eggs or hard-boiled. His eyes get all red and itchy and a little swollen, but no trouble breathing or swelling like with peanuts. I feed him eggs all the time in other food, like bread, baked goods, etc, and I've never noticed it to be a problem. There seems to be evidence that a lot of kids outgrow egg allergies by age 5, so that may be the case.

With the peanuts, based on the size of the hive he is 100% for sure allergic to them and I have to carry and Epi-pen and Benadryl all the time. The good news is because he doesn't seem to have asthma, his chances of dying from a ingestion of peanuts is less than if he did have asthma. So, we've got that going for us! He tested negative for the other nuts (tree nuts) but they still say you should avoid them, because there is an increased risk of developing allergies to them in childhood.

Wish me luck on Monday. I've already checked his veins--he's got a few that should be pretty easy to hit, as long as he doesn't kick and scream too much. I don't mind pinning other kids down for shots or IVs, but it's not as fun when it's your own kid you have to hold down.

The Goob

2010-04-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

Meet Luke, otherwise known as Goober, Goob, Tub-a-bub, Lukey-Dukey, Lukester, etc. He loves to make messes any time I turn my back (or in this case, I was on the computer.) Lotion, soap, and water are his personal favorites to use to make messes.

(Note that although you can't see it, his shirt says champion mess-maker.) This was what he decided to do Monday morning while I was sending emails for my Church calling. After this was taken, we went to clogging, where he and two other little ones just older than him overflowed the sink in the bathroom adjacent to the nursery, took dump trucks and buses from the nursery and filled them with the water, and drove them out into the middle of the nursery room and dumped the water out. It was very un-awesome.
The next morning I stopped doing laundry when my toast popped up, and as I was buttering it I could hear Luke laughing, then Lydia. This is what I found. I'm sure I thoroughly confused them by laughing and taking a picture, and then having a talk with them about how they can't ever do it again because they could get stuck in there or break the dryer door.
This was this morning, rearranging the silverware while I was getting Lydia dressed.

The little guy is full of energy and spunk, which is one of the reasons I love him, but he sure does challenge me sometimes! He is starting to speak more, which is fun to hear. His favorite thing to say seems to be to yell Mom repeatedly at top volume. He spoke his first real sentence this week, which was "I nee ep peese" (I need help please.) Pretty cute. Hopefully he stays that polite. I sure love this little guy and all his antics!

Update: As I was posting this, the little man himself ran in to say hi:

I went to see what else he had colored with blue marker. I found the following:

(There was also some on one of the dining room chairs, but I didn't take a picture.)
Apparently when he was done he ate the tip of the marker--hiding the evidence, I guess? Luckily Crayola makes water-soluble, non-toxic markers. This is why I can't blog while my children are awake!

Playing in the Sunshine

2010-03-20T21:00:00.001-07:00

The last several days have been sunny, which I'm LOVING. I put the kids outside while I was fixing dinner a few days ago and walked out a five minutes later to find this:

They were fully clothed before I sent them out there, I swear. A plastic bin with 2 inches of water is definitely enough to swim in according to my kids!

Today we went for a walk in Noble Woods, which is just a few blocks from our house. We collected sticks and pine cones on our walk and the kids threw them in the stream. If you look closely you can see a few teeny tiny baby pine cones in Lydia's hand--they were pretty adorable.

Despite Luke trying to dive in the stream a few times, we all arrived home dry, happy, and

fully clothed. It was a nice walk.

On a completely different topic, does anyone out there have dust mite allergies? Have you used the covers you put over the mattress and pillows to cut down on allergens? Are they worth the money or is it a big crock? Just wondering.

I'm Livin' the Good Life!!!

2010-03-16T20:17:00.001-07:00

Lately I've found myself becoming very easily and quickly frustrated with a few things in life, namely my body's desire to recognize every microscopic particle floating in the Oregon air as an allergen, and Lydia's newest "developmental stage" (at least I hope it's a stage.) She seems bent on ignoring us or doing the exact opposite of whatever it is we ask her to do, and she has to do everything "all on my own," even if that involves lots of screaming and crying because she can't do it. Nothing major, but annoying nonetheless. Thinking about this today, I realized that I do have some great perks in my life that few others are able to enjoy on a regular basis.

Perk #1--My Personal Restroom Attendant

Yes, that's right folks, this Charlie Brown look-alike will come running when he hears the bathroom door open and stand with his hand on the lever, awaiting the okay to flush your waste away. While waiting for you to finish your business, he also will turn the water faucet on and adjust the temperature and flow, allowing you to get those hands clean even faster than you were ever able to before you had your own personal bathroom helper!

Perk #2--My English Language Efficiency/Inefficiency Expert
This lovely lady has coined a few key phrases in our house that are ingenious combinations of words. The two most commonly used are "sugarman"(cinnamon and sugar) as in "Mom, would you please prefer to get me some toast with butter and sugarman?", and "hanitizer" (hand sanitizer), as in "Mom, I want hanitizer instead of washing my hands."

On the flip side, sometimes she gets stuck on a phrase and repeats it 10-15 times, such as "Mom, I need....I need.....I need......um......I need......" you get the picture. However, tonight (right after the soon-to-follow pee story) I very much appreciated her repetitiveness when I put her to bed. I told her, as I do every night, that she is my favorite Lydia, to which she responded, "Mom, you are my favorite, and Dad is my favorite, and Luke is my favorite.....we are all my favorite."

So, in the grand scheme of things, who cares if I can't wear contacts or makeup for a few months, or if I have to clean up pee off the floor twice in one day because someone decided to hold it and cry/throw a fit when I set them on the potty. I've got two crazy kids who give me something to laugh about every day, and a husband who is pretty stinkin' awesome if I do say so myself. I get to stay home with my kids and do basically whatever we want to do, except my one night a week when I get to go to play Nurse Ashley in the ER and poke people's veins, which I love. Yep, when it all boils down I'm definitely livin' the good life.

Another random post...

2010-02-17T21:42:00.000-08:00

First, a few pictures from Lydia's birthday celebrations, which have lasted for about two weeks....do you see a theme going on here?

No, I did not make the cake. I paid a girl in my ward to make it.

Second, a scenario for you all to consider: Last week while driving home from work at 2:30 am Thursday, I stopped at a red light and watched a young gentleman bike across the crosswalk in front of me. The bike he was riding still had the cardboard poster thingy in the front wheel and I could see a plastic sleeve with papers in it hung on the handlebar. Obviously this guy had just bought himself a brand-new bike.....except that it was 2:30 in the morning, and what sporting goods store is open at that time? I sat there debating if I should call the cops and report a (possibly) stolen bike or just let it go? I went with the third option: go home and put it in the capable hands of my little superhero!

Happy Third, Lydia!

2010-02-05T19:59:00.000-08:00

What better place to celebrate a birthday than Red Robin?! Lydia must be a "big girl" now for sure. As soon as we sat down she looked up at the server and said, "Today is my birthday!" She soaked it all in, especially the ice cream with whipped cream and sprinkles. Now the challenge is to get her to realize it's a birth day not a birth week or birth month. She is most definitely our little princess!

Dumpster Diving

2010-02-01T21:30:00.001-08:00

As you may recall, Luke has had a certain affinity for garbage cans from an early age. His new fetish is flushing the toilet/flushing things down the toilet. (I think he may have a future in waste management.) So when my keys turned up missing and I'd looked ALL OVER the house for them, I had a suspicion that they might be in one of those places. Since tonight is garbage night, we figured we better check the nastiness that is our garbage can before the trash man took it away for good.

Success!

I'm definitely keeping my keys out of his reach from now on.

The Haps and the Craps

2010-01-23T20:18:00.000-08:00

The Haps first, then we'll move on to the more important and wildly exciting craps....My sister inspired me to make a Moby-type wrap for my friend's baby shower, so here's the picture of the finished product. Thank you Luke for modeling how it's used. (Well, at least one of the ways you can use it.) I have one extra one that's almost identical to this one, except it was my practice one, so the bottom edge of the paisley fabric has ribbon on it to cover up a mistake :) If you want it you can have it, just let me know!

If you want to make one of your own, all it takes is 5 or 6 yards of fabric, depending on how long you want the ties to be. You actually get two wraps out of one piece of material, because you cut the 5-6 yard piece down the center. I finished the edges of mine with a rolled hem on my serger and added the paisley fabric, but some materials you don't even have to sew at all. Voila, it's done! When I make one again I will use stretchier material--this one was good for a bigger baby because it had less give, but when they're teeny tiny I think it would be better to have more of a T-shirt, cotton jersey type of fabric so they're snuggled up really tight right next to you.

The Craps: LYDIA IS USING THE POTTY, HOORAY!!! I don't know what happened to change her mind, but we'd been having talks for a while about how when she was three she'd be a big girl and would be ready to use the potty. She would usually cry because "I'm not a big girl!" if you even suggested that she sit on the potty. Since she'll be three in about two weeks I suggested that we practice sitting on the potty to get ready to be a big girl. She resisted, until Wednesday. She voluntarily sat on the potty for 20 minutes trying to go, but couldn't. I suggested that she try after taking a bath, because that might help her pee-pee come out. She was in the tub, stood up and told me she had to pee-pee, so we sat on the potty and she did it! In her own words, "I felt the tickle and then I sat on the potty and my pee-pee just fell out!"

She's doing GREAT at peeing on the potty--even at night. She'll wake me up when she has to go, which is exciting to me even at 1:45 am. Our problem is pooping. She already has constipation problems, so going poop on the potty is going to be a big challenge. She hasn't really gone since Wednesday, despite me loading her up with fiber supplements and starting Miralax yesterday. Today she had to go a few times, but she can't really control the urge when she has to go so she ended up peeing and pooing just a tiny bit in her underwear. I put pull-ups on her this afternoon and told her to just poop in them and she could have any treat she wanted, but she's so focused on NOT going in her pants now that she won't do it. So, here we are--her with tons of poop in her bowels but refusing to go, and me pleading for her to poop in any way, shape, or form. Any ideas of how to get this cute underwear-clad lady to poop?

Luke, on the other hand, has no problem pooping and peeing his pants all day long. He is now fascinated with the toilet and loves to flush it. Yesterday as I was getting ready to go to the shower he managed to stuff half a roll of toilet paper and a block in the toilet and flushed it several times, causing it to overflow. It made me think of the book "Love You Forever" and I actually smiled when I first saw it. His new word is showcased in the following video. I sure love this goofy little guy!

Now you know what we've been up to for the last few weeks!

The Little Lady in My Life

2010-01-18T19:22:00.000-08:00

My little bundle of sunshine has really been on a roll today. A small sampling of her quotes of the day:

*We've been putting Lydia and Luke to sleep in the same room for the last several nights, and it seems to be working out pretty well, although Luke always wakes up first. This morning I got him up when I heard him, and Lydia came down a while later. I asked her how she slept. "Well, apparently Luke woke up and was crying," she said with a furrowed brow (and she put a very special emphasis on the word apparently--long and drawn out with a pause afterward.) "I had to put my blanket over my head to keep him out!"

*I handed her her vitamins. She started scarfing them down and I said, "Say thank you, please." She looked at me for several seconds before saying, "Thank you please" with a smirk on her face.

*Tonight for Family Home Evening Tyler was reading from his journal about Lydia and Luke's births. Lydia was running around wildly not paying attention except to ask every few minutes when we were going to have our FHE treat. In Ty's journal entry about Lydia's birth he wrote about how her eyes were open when she came out and he wondered what she was thinking at that moment. "Lydia, do you remember what were you thinking about when you were born?" he asked. "Yes, I was thinking about our Family Home Evening treat."

She's such a sassy lady sometimes but I do love that little girl....I can't believe she's going to be three years old in a few weeks!

Merriest New Year!

2010-01-12T21:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I have a New Year's resolution to contribute more to the blog. Nah, not really. But I guess since my recent contribution equals zero I've already met my goal with this post anyway. Very nice.

We had a wonderful Christmas break in Pendleton. Lydia has figured out the true meaning of Christmas - presents. It was fun to see her get so excited opening the presents. Though sometimes it seemed as though she was just feeding off of us as we were excited for her. She didn't want to let us down. Luke was a big fan of other people's presents. He picked up his cousin Tate's new dog toy, started playing with it and called it a "schweka." In fact, schweka became his word for a lot of things that week. Everything he pointed at was schweka. It must have been so frustrating for him that we couldn't figure out what he was talking about. It's so simple.

Just before New Year's we were hit with a beautiful snow storm. It came hard and fast and no one was expecting it. It was perfect timing. It started to stick to the roads just before rush hour. As I rode the Max home I watched as cars spun out, bumped into other cars and on highway 26 no one was moving. It was a good day to ride the Max.

By the time I got home Lydia and Luke had already built their snowman. Though Luke was more interested in eating the raisins that made up the snowman's mouth.

After the New Year celebrations were over (We watched a movie and fell asleep. We really like to party.) We went to the zoo to see the Zoo Lights. Very cool. Yes, they were just lights, but there were lots of them and they were pretty. Plus, we got to see some monkeys and that's always fun.

I also celebrated by not shaving. It started because I was lazy and didn't feel like shaving. Now I'm past the point of no return. I think I'll at least let it go a month.

And there you go. Hope everyone's having a wonderful start to 2010.

This One's For Daddy and Grandpa Stoddard

2009-12-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

A short summary of our lives...

2009-12-16T14:26:00.000-08:00

I thought this video was a pretty good summary of our life in general--mostly happiness and joy,

while occasionally getting smacked over the head unexpectedly :)

A few funny stories about the kiddos, starting with this one:

Yesterday she was really into talking about the garden we're going to plant in the spring. We were discussing what to plant and I suggested planting broccoli since Luke really likes it. "Okay," Lydia said, "I want to plant quesadillas for me!" What can I say, the girl loves her cheese.

Tyler bought her "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and has been reading it to her nightly at her request. Today she was riding her little car around the house and I asked her where she was going. "I'm taking the Christmas tree to my shop, because..... I'm the Grinch!" (Insert a very mean Grinch-like sneer here) You probably had to be there, but it was hilarious.

Picture taken shortly after Luke peed through his diaper all over Tyler's pants :)

This little guy has been doing better napping, but he will now let me know when he wants a nap by laying face down on the floor and not moving. Today he did it in Dick's Sporting Goods. When I went to pick him up I noticed he was licking the linoleum floor. Awesome.

He's started saying "ank u" (thank you) and "ere go" (there you go) all the time. He likes to bring you something and say "ere go," then take it from you and say "ank u!" I love it!!!

Photo courtesy of Ashleigh Hansen Photography, who took our family pictures, which I will post soon

No cute stories from me or Tyler, except that our car battery died and we had to buy a new one. But I don't think that really qualifies as cute, do you?

Help!!!

2009-12-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

So I've been a delinquent blogger lately, but we've been gone a lot in the last few weeks. First we had Thanksgiving with my family in Sun Valley, which was amazing. Unfortunately, I can't find the pictures now to prove what a great time we had. Last weekend I headed to Utah to meet up with some of my best friends and ex-roommates for the wedding of another best friend and ex-roommate. Tyler took the kids to his parent's house in Pendleton, so I had a baby-free weekend! (Thanks Stoddards!) It was fabulous to get some girl-time with some of the best ladies in the whole wide world, but I forgot my camera (and my temple recommend to get in to the wedding--no worries, I still made it in) so I have no pictures of the trip. Clearly I am lacking in brain power and this is why I need your help.

Luke is having napping troubles and I can't figure out how to get the kid to nap effectively. For the few weeks before the trip I thought he was trying to transition to one nap a day, and I was getting him and Lydia to go down at the same time. Hooray!!! It was great, but those days are gone. He wakes up at about 6:30 am every day, and is cranky and wanting a nap by 9:30am. If I put him down at that time, he sleeps for about two hours and then refuses to take an afternoon nap. (By refuse I mean moaning and crying endlessly, which wakes up his sister and grates on my nerves.) So, he is irritable and goes into destruction mode by 5 pm. I refuse to put him down then because he will wake up at 5 am if I do. So, we have a very unhappy few hours until he goes to bed around 6:30-7pm.

Yesterday I thought that I'd try to get him to stay awake in the morning by running errands, since that usually keeps him interested in his surroundings. I got to JoAnn's at 10 am and after ten minutes he put his little hands on the cart handle, laid his head on them, and went to sleep. This from the kid who screams bloody murder every Sunday when we try to hold him and get him to nap at church! So, I'm just at a loss of what to do. If I let him nap in the morning, then I basically have one hour to leave the house between his and Lydia's naps and I'm stuck at home the rest of the day. Does anyone have any great ideas of how get him wait until afternoon to take his daily nap? I can't take being a prisoner in my own home much longer!!!

(P.S. Thanks for reading my rambling mommy frustrations.)

The Boy's Got Skills!!!

2009-11-17T13:58:00.000-08:00

Sunday afternoon we were relaxing on the couch when Luke began "reading" to me. As you can see, he's very serious about what he's reading and only reads the words on the page when and how he wants to. No messin' around with this kid!

Now, if only he would let ME read a book to HIM. He spends the entire time trying to eat the book or knock it out of my hands. I guess my reading skills aren't up to par--his interpretation sounds a little different than mine. Next time I'll just speak gibberish and see if he'll sit still for reading time.

Randomness

2009-11-14T21:38:00.000-08:00

Forgive me for my rambling. I haven't posted in a little while so this is a collection of recent events/thoughts.

So this thought actually ties to the picture; the rest, not so much. I just threw the other ones in for fun. The other morning Lydia was in the other room yelling, "Mommy, I broke my leg!" "Oh no!" I replied. "It's okay," she said, walking into the kitchen as you see in the picture. "I already put a cast on it." I wonder if the guy who invented air splints got the idea from his 2 year old putting a water wing on her leg. Probably.

Tonight Tyler was trying to do something (I can't even remember what it was and it just happened a few hours ago--sad!) and he couldn't get it to work. I heard him turn to Lydia and say, "When things are really hard, don't try to do them anymore. Just give up." Of course, he was laughing as he said it, but I don't know if she is old enough to catch on to his sarcasm. I can't wait to hear her repeat that line to someone in a few days.

Lydia is getting into the "why" stage of her life, and it seems that she likes to use it most when I am frustrated, and it really annoys me. For example, I stubbed my toe and made a groaning sound, and was not really in a talking mood for at least 30 seconds afterward. "Why did you make that noise Mommy? Why? Why did you? Huh mom? Why?" When I slipped going down the stairs this morning (while holding Luke, I might add), her first question was "why did you do that Mom? Why did you fall? Why did you do that?" spoken in a tone insinuating that I had purposely fallen down the stairs. As I'm writing this I realize that it only really bothers me after I've had some kind of bodily injury, so maybe I just need to stop hurting myself and the "whys" won't annoy me so much. Maybe.

A while ago I noticed that there was this kind of film forming on my bathroom floor, I think it's hairspray residue that falls after I spray my hair. Anyway, today I finally got around to cleaning it off the floor. I started with this environmentally friendly cleaning solution that the previous owners left behind because I like the way it smells (lavender and tea tree oil) and because if Luke got a hold of it somehow and ate it it wouldn't kill him. (I really think about these things because he eats everything--today it was my deoderant. He left little tooth marks in it before I could wrench it out of his death grip.) The eco-friendly stuff didn't work AT ALL. After scrubbing for a while I busted out the Scrubbing Bubbles and let that stuff sit on if for a minute or so, and watched the residue just lift off the floor like magic. Way to go eco-unfriendly cleaning solution!!! That poison-in-an-aerosol-can stuff is amazing!

(Don't worry, this doesn't stay sideways for long at all--Lydia refused to cooperate due to her wet pants from earlier puddle jumping adventures.)

Last random question--does anyone else's hair grow in really weird after having a baby? I grow all these tiny bang-like things around the front of my head and they stick out like horns from the side of my head every time I try to pull my hair back (hence the hairspray and hairspray residue on the floor mess.) I am concerned that if I have another baby I may never be able to pull my hair back again without a fan of little baby hairs in a semi-circle around my head. Any ideas?

Halloween

2009-11-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween! I know I'm a little late getting pictures posted, but we sent them to our families and I don't even know if anyone besides our family members even looks at this site, so I figure I'm okay!

Lydia was all psyched up about getting dressed up for Halloween; however, once we arrived at the church for the trunk-or-treat activity she changed her mind. The millions of kids in costumes, some of which were scary, was a little much for her delicate nerves and she spent most of the time clinging to my hand. She loosened up a bit once we made it back to our car, she parked her ladybug bum next to Daddy, and realized that what all those people had been putting in her bag was candy!

Luke (the "stinky stinky skunk" as Lydia referred to him) spent the time climbing up and down the curb, running between cars, and rolling around on the ground--probably pretty close to what a real skunk would have done, minus the raising-the-tail, spraying bit. Tyler and I were un-festive and didn't dress up, but honestly, when the kids are dressed up who actually looks at the parents anyway?

We had a fun Halloween--low-key and spent filling my tummy with Tootsie Rolls, quite possibly the best Halloween candy ever. I'm enjoying my kids' younger years--they could really care less what you dress them up to be and as long as they each have a few suckers they're happy for hours. Life doesn't get much better than a sucker in each sticky hand and a trail of pink drool down your chin and onto your Halloween costume!

Five

2009-10-26T21:14:00.000-07:00

Yep, we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on Friday, October 23rd, although from the space between us in the picture below you'd think we had known each other five days :)

Tyler's sister Breann and her husband Tony came and watched the kids for the weekend while Tyler and I escaped to Seaside, Oregon. (Bre and Tony's report here.) We found a great hotel, Rivertide Suites, which we liked so much we took our picture with it below. If you're going to Seaside anytime soon, check it out.

We had lunch at a charming restaurant right off the beach front Promanade and then snagged some salt water taffy to take back to the kids...

But my favorite activity of all was walking the beach with my best friend. The only bummer to our trip is that I got sick last week and wasn't feeling so great even by Friday, so I basically layed around a lot Friday and Saturday morning recuperating. Tyler took great care of me, getting me whatever I needed/wanted, and wouldn't let me even start feeling bad that I had tainted our weekend away by getting sick. He is truly the kindest, most sincere, loving, and handsomest man I know! Seriously, how could I not love this guy with my whole heart???

It's hard to believe that in the last five years we went from this young couple riding bikes on the Provo Trail....

To the happiest, "my cheeks hurt because I can't stop smiling" couple ever married at the Mount Timpanogos Temple!

We've had a few diplomas on the way...

But by far the most fun and most challenging additions to the last five years would be this:

and this.

I've loved the last five years of my life and I love my husband. The end.

It Won't Be Like This For Long

2009-10-21T21:11:00.001-07:00

Last night I ran to the store after dinner, and when I returned this is what I found on the couch:

This is actually a pretty common occurrence, especially on nights when I work and it's just Tyler home with the kiddos. Lydia loves to "rest her eyes" with her daddy, and I love to see the two of them snuggled up together sleeping peacefully. Seeing the two of them last night made me think of this song:

My thoughts exactly.

Happiness is....

2009-10-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

...seeing the look of complete pride and joy on Luke's face when realized he could climb up and stand on top of the toilet. I must add that he had a pair of underwear around his neck at the time, since he puts anything he finds over his head and/or around his neck. If only I would have had a camera to capture the moment. This will have to suffice.

Sadness is what Luke experienced after I took him out of the bathroom and shut the door because he kept climbing up on the toilet any time I put him down. Even after he fell off the toilet. Twice.

Signs

2009-10-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

First off, I know I've been posting a lot lately, but don't expect the trend to continue. I'm sure I'll soon revert back to once every two or three weeks. Just thought I'd throw that out there; the pressure of frequent blog posting is too much for me!

Lydia has been terrified of fighter jets ever since the Hillsboro Air Show, which was at least six weeks ago. The Thunderbirds flew right over our house (I believe they were F-15 bombers) and were super duper loud, like shake the windows loud. Lydia happened to be asleep the first time they made a pass by our house and she bolted out of her room, ran screaming to me and collapsed into the fetal position at my feet, covering her ears. I then had to spend 45 minutes with my hands over her ears as they practiced their passes over our house. She cried at least half of that 45 minutes even though I was holding her. She was traumatized, to say the least.

Fast forward to the present. Lydia would start talking about the fighter jets and how they came in her room and were loud every morning when I opened her door. She would talk about them as were were in the car running errands. She talked about them at the dinner table. I decided I'd had enough with the fighter jet preoccupation. I borrowed a little trick from my parents, which they used to banish my childhood nemesis from bothering me (my preoccupation was with big blue monsters from California, not fighter jets.) With Lydia dictating, I made a sign and stuck it on her door.

The morning after we put the sign up, I went to get her out of bed and she said, "Mom! The fighter jets didn't come! They saw my sign and they stayed away!" (Probably from repulsion of the hideous artwork :) Needless to say, I was overjoyed that it seemed to work. We're several days out from the posting of the sign, and while there have been random mentions of fighter jets, it's nowhere near the level it used to be. Thank goodness for Sharpies, pink construction paper, and a great idea from Grandma and Grandpa!

Deals of the Week

2009-10-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

I love getting a great deal on something. When you find something you like, and it's super cheap, it's like a double bonus!!! It's too bad that I don't play the lottery because I'm feeling lucky this week. Here are my finds:

1. Bar stools for the island. I found these at Goodwill for between $5-$9 each. Considering that one new bar stool at Freddy's is $30, I was pretty happy to find these. I even managed to strap Luke's high chair fairly securely onto one!

2. These adorable shoes for Luke. I found these at Goodwill for $3, and they appeared to have never been worn before and made by some fancy-schmancy French company. (Of course, Luke scuffed them up in the first 10 minutes of wearing them.) I got home and looked up the label, and these babies sell for $55-65 a pair. Again, getting something that I love for an amazing price makes me love them even more!!!

#3. Our corner entertainment center, which I have been on the lookout for for months. It was basically impossible for us to find an entertainment center that would fit in the corner and still house a TV large enough for Tyler's liking that didn't cost an arm and a leg. My sister-in-law Melissa was going to build us one, but I saw this pop up on Craigslist two days ago--custom built out of maple, never been used, would fit in our corner like a glove and house the size of TV we want. What's more, the lovely older couple selling it had received it as a donation for their foundation fundraiser auction and it didn't sell, so they were selling it for an AMAZING price just to get it out of their garage. I can't tell you how happy I am about this find!!!

Now, does anyone know where I can get a great deal on a 46" flat screen TV? Lydia is tired of dancing in the TV space to entertain us!

My Project is Done! (almost)

2009-10-03T16:27:00.000-07:00

For the last several weeks I've been working on a home improvement project. My sister-in-law Melissa gave me the idea to build a kitchen island/bar in our breakfast nook to give me more counter and cupboard space. I had fun figuring out how to do it and I learned a lot of what NOT to do on my next project. Here's what I started with and what I ended up with!

I bought a table off Craigslist for $30, took it apart, and sanded it down for the counter top, instead of paying $300 for a real butcher-block counter top.

I bought two separate base cabinets that were pretty inexpensive and scuff sanded them, then primed them with spray primer.

After screwing the cabinets together, I tried to get an idea of what the finished product would look like.

Painting the cabinets to match my kitchen cabinets. Lydia loved to "help" me. Notice the ketchup bottle--that was the "paint" she wanted to use. We settled on giving her a few paper plates and some blue glue stick to paint the plates with.

The lucky recipient of the new bar/island.

A few views of the finished product. I haven't added the hardware yet, and eventually it'll be repositioned a bit once we finish a few more home improvement projects and move some rooms around, but you get the general idea.

I still have to clean out the bottom of the cabinets (as well as the garage, tools, my house.....)

I'm happy it's done and Tyler is happy that the garage will be back to normal! I think it will work well for what we need. I just have to find bar stools now and it'll be ready to use! Lydia and Luke have already initiated it by spilling milk on the cabinets and smearing nectarine on the counter top. Nice!!!

Happy Belated Birthday Luke!!!

2009-10-01T12:40:00.001-07:00

Luke turned one on September 14^th. Yes, I realize that was over two weeks ago, but I figured you all might enjoy a few tidbits from his birthday celebration even though it’s belated. We had cupcakes that evening, and as you can see in the progression of pictures, although he didn’t really eat much of his cupcake he made a pretty good mess like a little one-year-old boy should.

Here's Luke's reaction after he'd had some time to play with his food.

Lastly, Luke's favorite birthday present, his big-boy car seat.

He enjoyed riding front-facing on our trip to Pendleton a few days after his birthday. We went to the Pendleton Round-Up rodeo, which was very fun, and my parents came up from Fruitland so the kids got to have both sets of grandparents there to spoil them. For some reason I failed to take any pictures while we were there, so you'll just have to take my word that it was a great trip. The kids were sad to say goodbye to their grandmas and grandpas and return home with their grouchy, mean parents!

I love my little man. He has a smile that lights up the whole room. He is very loving and still cuddles with me when he's tired, which I enjoy very much. Every evening when Tyler walks through the door Luke gets a huge smile on his face and runs to his daddy, hugging his legs. He loves to jibber-jabber all day long. He can say a few words now: mom, uh-oh, go, dog, car, and just yesterday he started saying daddy. (Granted, you have to be familiar with his jabbering to pick out the words, but they are there.) He routinely tries to kill himself or maim his body in some way, but I love his energy and his happy disposition. Happy one year Lukey-Dukey!!!

Poison Control and Prose

2009-09-10T08:54:00.001-07:00

Luke has officially given me the opportunity to pass a parenthood rite of passage (or so I hear) by having to call Poison Control. Last night I was unloading the dishwasher and turned around to find him with a sour lemon face. I picked him up and found white powder in his mouth and on his fingers. The detergent didn't completely dissolve, he found it, and ate it. I cleaned out his mouth and hands, read the dishwasher detergent box that says give large amounts of water or milk and "call the doctor immediately." I knew they'd just have me call Poison Control, a necessary but annoying institution in my interaction with them in the past. (They send basically everyone to the ER and then keep calling to check on them.) However, my fear of NOT doing something else that would be beneficial overruled and I called. They didn't have too much else to say, other than to feed him and watch for vomiting. They did want to call back in two hours to check on him but I got out of it by telling them I'm a nurse and was comfortable that we'd be okay. Even though I have to watch him every second of the day, he is my lovable little man. He loves to belly laugh and he gives hugs and kisses freely. (He occasionally bites shoulders when he hugs, so watch out!) I can't believe he will be one year old in less than a week!

Eating his post-dishwasher detergent snack of hamburger and ketchup. As you can see, it didn't phase him all!

Lydia has been on a roll lately with all kinds of funny statements. This morning I went in to Lydia's room to get her, and she was awake smiling at me when I opened the door. "Hey Mom, I waked up!" "I know," I said, "whatcha been doing?" "Oh, I'm just relaxin' with my babies," she said nonchalantly, pointing to her teddy bears. "I was just talking about you. I told them you're a silly girl." I wish you could have heard her, because the tone she had when she said it made me bust out laughing. Sunday on the way home from church she was making up a song, starting with "I know my father loves me" and she threw in a bit about white bruisies (bruises) and how they tickle and finished up with something about big bear hugs. Yesterday she was playing on the castle slide toy saying, "Mom, look at me!" while she danced around. "Beautiful!" I said. "No Mom, not beautiful--cool!!!" Bottom line: I love that kid! She always keeps us guessing at what she's going to say next.

Apparently she fell asleep while "reading" her scriptures. I don't know where she learned that--nobody in this house falls asleep while reading their scriptures!

Lastly, and not related to anything I've been talking about, I'd like you all to know that my current favorite song is "Hey Soul Sister" by Train. Check it out. It's upbeat and happy, although I don't get some of the lyrics. Lydia and Luke love to dance to it--in fact, she requested it last night. ("Hey Mom, I want to hear the Hey I'm Not Afraid of You Sister song!") If I was sophisticated I'd have one of those music player things on my blog, but I'm not, so you'll have to look it up on iTunes or Amazon, but I recommend it if you're looking for a good tune.

***New Development--I am not sophisticated or tricky, but my brother-in-law is, so he figured out how to put the song on here so you all can enjoy it. Thanks Travis!!!***

Picture Time

2009-09-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to getting Luke's pictures taken and the kids' taken together a few weeks ago. They did pretty well, considering Luke doesn't really sit still very well and Lydia is in a "I'm not going to smile for the camera" stage. Here is a sampling of the pictures--I'm pretty sure they'll be grainy if you enlarge them. Just a note, if you go to Portrait Innovations, remember that when they tell you if you purchase a large package you'll get a CD with all the images taken, that does not mean you'll have the digital negatives. You get thumbnail files, but not the actual images that you could edit or print, etc. I wish I had known that BEFORE I bought a huge package!!!

The Weekend

2009-08-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had a great time playing with Ty's family, minus Shelly, Eric, and Tate. Friday evening Grandma Shirlene and Grandpa Dave (and Tony and Breann, once they arrived) watched the kiddos while Tyler and I went to the beautiful Portland Temple with Travis and Melissa. It was a fabulous, peaceful evening and much needed.

The next morning, we got up and lounged around after breakfast, then decided to go to the park.

Luke is clearly not sure if this is a great idea.

Lydia, Taegan, and Grandma were a little more excited about the park plans.

After some wrestling and some marshmallows, we were ready to go.

(I just had to put this picture of Lydia in--I love her curls!!!)

Luke decided to sample the playground bark. It's not that great, in case you were thinking of doing the same.

Lydia loved learning the monkey bars with her daddy.

I knew Luke had a strong grip (especially with toys that Lydia wants and my hair,) but we discovered it extends to money bars as well. He was able to hang on unassisted for a few seconds two or three times. Not bad for a little rascal like him!

I had to throw in this picture of Tony and Bre because I think it's hilarious.

It was a fun-filled weekend and Lydia was sad to wake up from her nap on Saturday to find that all her friends were gone. Lucky for her, we're talking a road trip this week to see Grandma and Grandpa Smith in Fruitland so she'll have some new playmates for the weekend!

A Funny Morning

2009-08-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

This morning has been one filled with funny moments. I've chosen to blog about three. Hopefully somebody besides me finds the humor in them.

#1--Lydia woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. I was bathing Luke and she refused to get in the tub, so she was sitting on the toilet looking at a book. The window was open and a bird was in the tree outside singing loudly. Lydia looked up with a serious scowl on her face and yelled "Knock it off bird, knock it off!" Luckily some pancakes and juice put her in a better mood.

#2--Luke has a new fascination with toilets--playing in the water if you leave the lid up, unrolling a new roll of TP in 15 seconds, etc. (If you visit my house, you will find that the rolls of TP are sitting on the back of the toilet where they are out of his reach.) Today he found a new trick with toilets. Lydia ran in to me crying that Luke got her teddy bear wet. When I asked her how, she said, "in the potty!" I found Luke giving her teddy bear a swirly with a big grin on his face. Does this mean he's going to be a bully when he's a teenager?

#3--I was unloading the kids in the Costco parking lot. Luke was already in the cart, which was positioned next to the trunk. I was bent over unbuckling Lydia when I heard this lady start yelling frantically, "Someone lost their baby! Hey, hey you! (yelling to a lady about 10 cars down from me) You forgot your baby! You forgot your baby!" At this point I stood up and claimed him, and she just said, "oh, okay, cool" or something to that effect in a totally normal voice and walked off. Definitely random. Another lady who had witnessed the scene pulled up next to the car as I was loading the kids up and told me that she hadn't seen anything that funny in a while and it had made her day.

All this and it's not even 1 p.m. yet. I like today.

One Small Step for a Little Man....

2009-07-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true, Luke's a walking man now! He took his first steps last Saturday at just over 10 months old, and is getting pretty good at cruising around now, although he still reverts to crawling whenever he wants to get somewhere really fast. What happened to my little baby??? See his new trick for yourself - thanks to Tyler and his video editing!

(Note: While it may appear in the video that both clips were taken the same day, they were not. The second clip of Luke walking was taken a week after the first.)

The Last Two Months...

2009-07-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

... have been full of traveling, it seems! Here are just a few pictures of our travels to catch everyone up on what we've been doing (although you've probably already seen them on Facebook if you're on it!) Pictures are in chronological order starting from the most recent trip to Utah/Idaho for my brother's wedding, a camping trip after, a few pictures from home, and then pictures from our vacation to the Oregon Coast with Ty's family.

That'll Show Her!

2009-06-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

So this afternoon I was checking the family blogs and marveling at my sister-in-law Melissa's skill at building various home furniture items, this time a large armoire which was beautiful. I posted a comment on her blog asking when she finds the time to build stuff when I can't even find the time to mop my kitchen floor. Luke must have been reading my comment from afar and agreed that a floor mopping was way past due. I turned around after hitting "post comment" to find this scene:

He got his grubby little paws on the table cloth and yanked it, spilling half-eaten Kix cereal and milk, a box of rice cereal, my scriptures, newspaper, and various other items all over the floor. (Luckily my scriptures weren't ruined.) He gave me just the push I needed to get the floor mopped. The two kiddos went down for a nap and I mopped the floor and enjoyed the cleanliness for an hour before they crushed crackers all over it. Luckily, I have given up hope of having a crumb-free kitchen floor. It makes snack time for Luke easy--I just put him down and let him eat his way across the kitchen floor! :)

Luke and the Stairs

2009-06-13T17:25:00.000-07:00

It's the small and simple things that really make life fun. On Monday Luke finally took notice of the staircase. He pulled himself up onto the first step and took a look around. He seemed to like the view and the challenge. Ashley and I realized we'd better come up with a good way to block off the stairs when we're not supervising the climb. The next day Ashley left the room for less than a minute, and when she came back Luke wasn't there. She ran to the stairs, and he was already almost to the top! And out came the video camera ...

Here's our temporary solution - it's pretty clear from the photo what Luke thinks of it.

Reaching the Beach

2009-05-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

We started bright and early at 6:30 AM (I was a little late though - sleep is just too precious sometimes) meeting at a gas station about a mile away from the starting line. We knew early on that it was going to be a b-e-a-utiful day, and it was. Fortunately, we got most of the hill climbing out of the way about 12 miles in, which is good because I'm not sure I could have climbed any hills by the end of the ride. The event organizers set up rest stops about every 12-15 miles stocked with everything a rider could want - water, gels, bananas, cookies, peanut butter?, and uh, pickles.

Some pedaling and sweating ensued and eventually (after about six hours of riding time) I could smell the ocean air. It was an awesome sight coming around a bend and seeing Haystack Rock out in the distance.

Once I crossed the finish line I searched out the family. We celebrated by going to McDonald's and ordering everything on the menu (almost).

I completed my first century ride (100 miler), and I had a blast. I rode with a great group of guys and would do it again in a heartbeat ... or maybe in a couple months.

Calling All Babies!

2009-05-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

Meet Julia and Brett, our friends who are two of the most loving, kind, caring, funny, and just generally awesome people that you will ever meet.

juliaandbrett.blogspot.com

After many years of trying to have a baby, Brett and Julia decided to adopt and are still waiting for that special little one to come along. Julia and Brett will be wonderful parents and give a child a stable, happy, and overwhelmingly love-filled home. Please pass their information along to anyone you know that is thinking about placing a baby for adoption. Thanks!

juliaandbrett.blogspot.com w.parentprofiles.com/profiles/db24166.html

http://www.providentliving.org/ses/birthmother/viewsingleprofile/0,12272,2133-1-10088,00.html

https://beta.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/21629485/ourMessage.jsf

2009-05-05T09:41:00.001-07:00

Need I say more?

Lydia the One-Armed Wonder

2009-05-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

Here's Lydia's telling of what happened. She was obviously more interested in her fries than her elbow by this time.

Now for the long version.....

Last night I went to the gym for the first time in a few weeks while Tyler was on a bike ride. I dropped the kids off at the child care center and went to water aerobics. It was almost over when one of the girls watching the kids came to get me saying that Lydia was crying and asking for me. When I walked in after changing the girl said that Lydia said she fell down and was hurting. (Later Lydia said, "I just fell off the chair" when I asked her what happened. I think she must have fallen and put her arm out to catch herself.) I took one look at her right elbow and knew she'd either dislocated it or broken it. There was a definite bulge right above her elbow and the swelling got worse in the five minutes it took for me to drive home. She also wasn't moving it at all and just kept saying, "Momma, my arm is hurting."

After a little family prayer, Lydia and I went to the ER to get it checked out. I got a little preferential treatment since I work there--they got us back really quickly and the X-ray tech came to get us before the nurse had even made it into the room. Lydia was a real trooper--she hardly cried at all when we had to manipulate her arm for the X-ray. We read books and sang a song while we waited for results. The doc said that he didn't see an obvious fracture, but there was definite fluid around the joint which is a secondary sign of injury. They splinted it and put a sling on her last night and sent us home. I just got a call from the radiologist, who said that it was a supracondylar fracture with some angulation, so we have to go see an orthopedic surgeon on Monday to follow up. I don't think it's bad enough to need surgery, but they may cast her arm. Judging by how much she likes her splint and sling already (she's tried to take it off three times this morning) a cast should be interesting. Lesson learned--Mom exercising is hazardous to her kids' health!

A Happy Week for All

2009-04-29T14:56:00.000-07:00

The last ten days have been pretty exciting for Luke. He cut his first two teeth and started crawling, I'm just a little late getting the video posted!

You may have to enlarge it to actually see his little teefers!

This video is about a week old--he's cruising around now much better! And I didn't want to leave big sister out, so here is a picture of her and her teefers too!

We have tons more pictures here for your viewing pleasure!

Luke's New Favorite Pastime

2009-04-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

I thought I wouldn't have to worry about my garbage can being tipped over since we don't have a dog, but I underestimated Luke and his ability to lunge his way to it when I put him in his exersaucer. As you can see, he couldn't be happier about his new-found ability!

Two Peas in a Pod

2009-04-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the kiddos doing things together for a change. Tonight when Tyler got home from work he was watching the Trailblazers game with his feet up. Lydia crawled under to eat her three M&Ms (bribe in exchange for her eating her chewable Amoxicillin pill) and Luke had to follow to check out what she was doing. They stayed under there for at least five minutes, which may not sound like a lot of time but considering that Lydia usually tells Luke to get away when he is within two feet of her, it was a miracle. The second picture is pretty self-explanatory :)

On another note, Lydia about broke my heart tonight. She wanted me to play with her after dinner, but I needed to feed Luke. I tried to explain this to her logically, that Mommy had fed Lydia dinner and now it was time for her to feed Luke, and I thought she understood because she walked away and started playing by herself. As I was cleaning up after feeding Luke his cereal and sweet potatoes, she walked up to me, climbed up on my lap and said, "Mommy, I want you to take care of ME now." It had been a busy day, with visiting teaching, play group, and running errands so I thought she had had a fun day doing so many things with me. Her comment made me realize that what she really wants is to have some time each day when I focus just on her and what she needs. Thanks for the reminder, my Sweet Baby D!

(Looking at this picture it is clear that I should spend more time alone with her if only to gain some of her fabulous accessorizing expertise!)

Gotta Love Dr. Laura!

2009-03-31T08:02:00.000-07:00

So, last night Tyler came back from taking the missionaries home (we fed them dinner) and said something to Lydia about having a treat for mommy. Naturally, I was curious and excited to find out what it was. After the kiddos went to bed, I got my treat, which was unexpected and amaaaaazing. Tyler just sat and brushed my hair for at least 20 minutes! You ladies out there know how fabulous it is to have someone brush your hair!

It turns out he had been listening to Dr. Laura on the way home from work and she was giving some guy advice, part of which was to brush his wife's hair. Then she stopped and made some comment about how all women love to have their hair brushed, and Tyler took it to heart. He checked when he got home and found that I didn't own a regular brush, only a round brush, so he had to stop at the store buy one on the way back from taking the Elders home. What a sweet and thoughful husband I have. What made it more thoughtful on his part is that he is getting sick, so he didn't really feel that great but he still took the time to make me feel loved and appreciated. I love him so much! Thanks babe!!!

Office Advice

2009-03-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

Just a little tid-bit from Lydia tonight ... I asked her what I thought was a simple question. She mulled it over for a moment then looked at me and said, "I'm gonna go away now." And then she ran off. I thought to myself, "Wow! What a great response." Now I'm wondering if this is something I could use at work. It reminds me of a Brian Regan segment about politicians not taking any questions. So, next time you're asked a difficult question, or one that you just don't feel like answering, you can follow Lydia's lead and just say you're gonna go away now and then run off. I'll try it tomorrow.

A Week of Firsts

2009-03-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

This week has been a week of firsts, starting with Luke deciding to sit up unsupported for more than 2 seconds at a time.

Today I attempted to put Lydia's hair into pig tails for the first time. She still has somewhat of a mullet but I think it looks pretty cute.

And yesterday we brought home our first loveseat. What a week, and it's only Wednesday!

Hallelujah!

2009-03-16T19:44:00.001-07:00

Lydia is currently upstairs entertaining Luke, who is in his crib. They are alternately shrieking and laughing at each other, and occasionally she pops up yelling "peek-a-boo!" over the side of his crib. I stopped doing dishes and went in their room trying to be a part of the fun, but Lydia told me emphatically, "you go back downstairs and wash the plates right now!" (She said this both times I attempted to crash the party.) This could be the start of something beautiful--my children actually playing together without me in the middle of it all!!!

In other news, my mom, sister, and sister-in-law were here this weekend for "Girls Weekend." It was fabulous--good food, better company, and we also saw the Broadway play "Wicked," which was wicked awesome! It's been a long time since I've been to a musical and it was fun to see one again. I also enjoyed spending time with the girls only--no kids allowed. We live so far apart that we don't see each other often, and never without kids, so it was a great break for all of us. Thank you husbands for watching the kids (or in Dad's case, being home alone!) I have a great family and I love them so, so much!