THE BROWNS

Babies, you're better off raisin' tomatoes!

2012-02-01T15:19:00.001-07:00

It's a little early to be thinking about adding another little one to our family, but I just thought I'd ask:

Who wants to buy us a mini-van? Anyone? A bigger car is pretty much the only thing coming between me and a baby.

Oh and convincing Tyler to have another one. Kind of important. ;)

#randomthoughts

I'm sure tomorrow when I've finished changing like the 5th poopy diaper of the day, I'll be singing a different tune.

Proportions

2012-02-01T15:05:00.003-07:00

Some people are fortunate enough to have very thin looking faces in comparison to the rest of their body and weight. Like, I've seen pictures of people before I even met them, thinking they were totally skinny by the look of their face and then realize in person they are actually quite chubby.

I am not one of those people. I've decided I'm the opposite. Slender frame and flubby face, almost like a final fantasy character, but not really.

Darn you neck chub. I'd have to be completely underweight to ever be rid of you.

#necktoningexercizes

Check off the funny box, cuz this is funny.

Birthdays!

2012-01-29T20:05:00.002-07:00

My babies aren't babies anymore!

This last Thursday, Erica turned one. ONE! Wow. And tomorrow, Logan will be four.

Let's take a moment to get to know the birthday boy and birthday girl:

Logan
1) My favorite thing to eat is pasta and meatballs.
2) My favorite outdoor activity is kicking the soccer ball.
3) My favorite shows to watch are Kipper and Curious George.
4) My favorite subject at school is the alphabet. I love to sing an alphabet song that I learned from school. "A-a-achoo! B-b-boo! C-c-Crack!..."
5) My favorite indoor activity is playing with my train tracks, but play-dough, bubbles, and the iPad are a close second place tie.
6) I am really good at cleaning up after myself. I wash my hands, and wipe my face, and I'll even pick up my toys if properly motivated. (Treats).
7) If I could go anywhere in the world, I'd go to Nana and Grandpa's house every day. Or over to cousin Chandler's house to play.
8) I don't think Mommy and Daddy know what my favorite color is; I've kept it a very good secret. But I think I like dark colors the most.
9) When I grow up, I'm going to do lots of things. Maybe I'll be an architect because I like to build things.
10) My current favorite song is the alphabet song I learned from school.
11) The book I love most right now is The Jester Has Lost His Jingle.
12) Three words that describe me are: Observant, Teachable, and Enthusiastic.
13) My favorite thing about having my birthday in the winter is the snow - if only there was some.
14) The snack I like the most is Larabars.
15) One food I refuse to even try is blueberries, among many, many other things.

Erica
1) My favorite thing to eat is applesauce.
2) My favorite thing to do outside is touch everything I can see and put leaves in my mouth.
3) My favorite thing to watch is the ending song of the Baby First TV videos. Other than that, the TV just isn't all that interesting.
4) My favorite thing to do indoors is climb the stairs and play in Logan's room. He's hilarious.
5) I am really good at being demanding. I command and attract attention where ever I go.
6) My favorite stuffed animal is Logan's Curious George. But I just got a dolly for my birthday that I really like too.
7) When I grow up, I am going to be a professional cutie pie.
8) My favorite song is any song that Mommy sings.
9) The book I love most right now is 10 Tiny Puppies.
10) Three words that describe me are: Adorable, Persuasive, and Loud.
11) My favorite word is "hi."
12) The snack I love most is whatever anyone else is eating. I want it too.
13) I don't like peas.
14) My favorite toy that I shouldn't be playing with is Mommy's iPhone. It stops tears instantly.
15) I love to tease my brother.

I spent the morning getting some dinner stuff prepared, and baking their cake. Tyler blew up a bunch of balloons and had fun entertaining the kids. For anyone who needs a cheap and fun kid activity idea, I highly recommend balloons. Blow 'em up and let them just run around kicking them. Blow up a balloon and let it fly. They'll love it.

He was all over the place. There's no way I could have caught a still shot. iPhone cameras are pretty good, but not amazing.

They got spoiled.

Logan reading the notes in his new piano books from Omi and Opa!

Erica playing with a piece from Logan's train set.

Cake time! It took him two attempts to get the candles blown out. And he didn't spit on the cake!

Whole Wheat (soaked flour/only sugar in this is honey) Chocolate Cake with home made Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting (the frosting tasted just like a cinnamon roll, I kid you not. If you want either recipe, let me know). When you don't give yourself enough time to eat breakfast before church Sunday morning, this is a fantastic cake to come home to...just so you know. It's also a good cake to eat on a full stomach. Either way.


Erica's first taste of cake! She did great, haha.

Watch the video. I love how she takes such grown up bites out of the cake and then just sorta throws the rest on the tray, haha. Can you spot her ONE tooth?? Probably not. The video is so small. If anyone knows how to enlarge that, please let me know.

Logan "setting up" Settlers of Catan for us. I have never seen him so attached to anything the way he is to those little game pieces. He loves playing with them. Putting the game away is pretty much the end of the world.

It was a nice combined birthday. They had a great time, and so did we. I've never been very keen on the idea of doing big huge birthday parties, at least while the kids are so young. But now, I almost can't wait until next year. Logan will be 5 and I think it would be so fun to do a theme and invite tons of his little friends. Not to mention, watching kids try to beat up a pinata is pretty much one of life's special little gifts to adults amidst the chaos. Haha, I can see it now.

Happy birthday Logan and Erica!! We love you!!

Another Pinterest Idea - Fail to Fix

2012-01-27T09:46:00.003-07:00

Hello!

Yesterday I saw a very simple breakfast idea on Pinterest and decided to give it a try this morning. It was a chocolate banana smoothie type of thing. The picture of the smoothie looked pretty good.

Mmm, right?

Well, the very simple directions that were on the picture (I guess I should have followed the pin back to the original site, but oh well, I already fixed this...I'll get to that in a minute) said this:

1 frozen banana
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
Blend until smooth
110 Calories! Woo!

So I tried it and EWWW. It did NOT look like that.

Too much cocoa powder, and I just can't handle frozen bananas. Literally, my hands cannot seem to work with frozen bananas. It just turns into a clumsy mess.

So I thought, "Hmm, I have a bag of mixed frozen fruit in my freezer. Maybe I can fix this."

I grabbed the bag of frozen fruit (mine is peaches, strawberries, mangoes and pineapple -plain with no sugar added). 70 cals per cup. I threw a cup and a half of that into the blender (now messy banana crap free), added ONE tablespoon of cocoa powder, and since I knew from the aforementioned mess that this would need at least some liquid, I grabbed some of Logan's Vanilla Almond Milk (he is sensitive to casein - the protein in cow's milk, so he drinks almond milk. And for those of you wondering why we don't give him Soy Milk, soy lowers testosterone levels - not good for boys).

So, new recipe:

1 and a 1/2 cup of frozen mixed fruit
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 Cup milk (this vanilla almond milk is 90 cals per cup)

Blend until smooth.

YUMMMMMM. It was awesome. And at a grand total of 200 Cals, it's now going to be a favorite go to breakfast of mine I'm sure. It tastes like light chocolate with a lot of the fruit flavors mixed in (I mean, AWWWWESOOOOOME), has all the benefits of real fruit, and yeah...it's just good. And depending on the milk you use, other added goodness might be yours. Logan's almond milk has a lot of added nutrients so I guess that's a plus right there. I'm so glad I tried it. And maybe you've already heard of something like this, but I hadn't so I'm pretty excited about it, haha.

My kids even loved it. Logan has already decided that it is chocolate ice cream.

Yes, sweetie, it's chocolate ice cream. Yes it is. For breakfast.

And no sugar. Oh yes.

Anyhow, I didn't get a picture. We three ate it all up before I could do that. But go try it!

The "No Heat" Curl (and my alterations)

2012-01-25T13:35:00.007-07:00

So, being a busy busy stay at home Momma, I CANNOT take forever in the bathroom curling, straightening, let alone even blow dry my hair. Not unless I want to get up really early before the kids wake up. And let's get real...like that's gonna happen. Not like I leave the house everyday anyway.

So when I came across this "no heat", "curls in minutes (overnight)" easy tutorial, I jumped on it. I end up pulling my hair back out of my face into a messy bun and it stays like that pretty much all day. I wanted something EASY and fast (or no effort).

Plus, Tyler's always hinting that he really loves it when I wear my hair down. I had to do something. "Wear your hair, just for him....Do the things, that he likes to do...(Best Friend's Wedding...anyone?)"

Here's the gal's tutorial. It's actually super easy and even easier than I thought it looked in the video. Took me like 5 minutes to get all of my hair up.

Since I showered super late last night, I ended up just putting my hair into the headband when it was still pretty wet (not dripping), and it really didn't dry very well overnight. (DUH, Brigitte...that happens when your hair is all bunched up). When I pulled the band out this morning, it looked like this.

Ah! Brigitte "No-Makeup Zombie!"

Flat, dull waves. I was not impressed. But I suppose it was my own fault. (Refer to wet hair realization).

Then I thought a little bit about it, and decided that since I have SO MUCH stinkin' hair and it's very thick , I'd try splitting my hair into two parts (top/bottom) and use the same technique with two headbands. Immediately, I put my hair back up.


I kinda think it's cute all pulled up haha. I'd totally run to the store like that. Not like I'm wearing curlers or hair rags.

Then, as my sister in law suggested to me, I pulled out my hair dryer (sorry, this curl DOES have some heat), and dried my hair completely in the headbands. I let it sit that way while I baked some cookies and played with the kids and all that. So my hair was up like this for a few hours. Then Erica finally decided to take a nap. I went back to the bathroom, put some more blow dryer heat on the curls one last time and then let it down. (Hair might get kind of caught in the bands - so there on the left side of the picture, it got a little foofy).

Bottom half down

All down

Then, I just used a little bit of mousse, and some curly hair lotion, and tamed the flyaways - I didn't really run my fingers through the curls; I liked how they already were.

And voila!
"This IS my happy face."

Teehee, oh...inside jokes.

My assessment? It's a decent enough looking wave.

Here's the rundown of how I would do this from start to finish, especially if you have thick hair, or shorter hair (since short hair might no reach all the way down to the neckline, breaking it up into two parts might be a good idea)...

1. Dry your hair until it's pretty much mostly dry.
2. Separate hair into two sections, top and bottom. Pull the top section into a bun on the top of your head so it's out of the way. Put bottom section into hairband (watch tutorial).
3. Do top section.
4. Sleep on it (if you want to, obviously I was able to put my hair back up this morning and redo this whole process). I did find it a little difficult to sleep with my hair like this, but that's most likely because I'm just used to sleeping with my hair completely down.
5. In the morning, use the hair drying to set the curls a little better and dry out any leftover moisture.
6. Take out the bands and apply any hair product you want.

This takes so little time overall that I think this technique is at least worth a try, especially if you're a very busy person! I will be doing this again for sure.

Hope this helped someone :)

Another Logan Update

2012-01-22T00:16:00.000-07:00

I have to share this. It is a HUGE deal.

What seems like just out of no where, Logan has started to answer 'yes or no' questions. He won't always answer, but I'd say 4 out of 5 times, you'll get a reply, and an accurate one at that; he's not just blabbering out yes or no.

For example:

Q: "Logan, do you need to go on the potty?"
A: "Yes, poopy."

And then he'll totally go poop on the potty. Yipeee!!!

Q: "Logan, I'm headed upstairs with Erica to change the laundry. Want to come with us?"
A: "No, downstairs."

Q: "Logan, want some carrots and cucumbers?"
A: (Immediately) "No"

Q: "Want a treat?" (after successfully going on the potty)
A: "Yes, treat!"

And other random questions that could be answered yes or no. I even asked him about family members, both near and far, and if he remembered who they were. He knows who Nana and Grandpa are very well (Tyler's parents). When I asked him if he knew Omi and Opa, he said yes and pointed to the computer. (He like's seeing you guys one Skype!...and hopefully we'll see you all again in person sometime this year :)

He's just surprising me all the time, but I've particularly seen quite a big jump in just the last few weeks. I can't think of everything off the top of my head, but there have been a few instances that surprised me. Earlier today as we were cleaning out and reorganizing the kids closets, we found a(nother) package of crayons. Logan grabbed them, fanned them out in his hands and then turned to Erica and said, "Pick a color."

Haha, it was just a funny, surprising moment.

A few days ago, Tyler let me sleep in until he left for work (since Erica had been up crying until TWO.) He sent Logan upstairs to wake me up. Logan opened the door, hopped on the bed and said, "Let's go downstairs, Mommy."

I just loved that. I can't wait to hear what he has to say next :)

Erica is also talking a little bit. She has been saying "hi" for months, but has now added waving. And this isn't just the little baby open and close your fist kind of wave. I mean full arm waving. It's pretty darn cute. She says Daddy (Daa-eee). She says "Apple" - her first real food was apples; she'd munch on those whenever she could. But now, "apple" is the word she uses whenever she wants anything at all. If she sees you eating something, she crawls over to you really fast with "apple" on infinite repeat. Then she'll sit at your feet and "apple" will quickly escalate to a sort of desperate "AAAApple!!" She's also repeating a lot of sounds. And sooooommetimes she'll repeat a sign. We tried to teach her the sign for "more" and she's done it once or twice, but it's not really sticking at this point.

So yeah, it's been a good week! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

RUNONSENTENCEEEEE

2012-01-14T22:26:00.003-07:00

INEEDTOSTOPLOOKINGATPINTERESTUNTILIACTUALLYGETSOMEOFTHECRAFTSDONETHATI'VEPINNED.

Alright. So. I actually have been working on a few things.

1) New designs for my headbands. It's seriously fun to do, but when I take a step back and try to see what I'm doing from a different perspective, the headband business is TOUGH. And maybe it would discourage most people. But, I've made a lot of designs, they're posted and now I just wait for people to find me and buy them. I'm in no hurry to make a bajillion munnies. And I'm also in no hurry to do much marketing and advertising. Only just yesterday did I actually add meta tags to my site, haha. Yeah...

This was just a preview picture. I have finished this pink headband, as well as the silver one below and plan to take a few more official pictures of them soon. Then they'll be up and ready for purchase on the website.

2) I am crocheting a lovely wine purple and cream colored quilt. That is to say, I am crocheting square blocks of purple and cream yarn, and then I'm going to stitch them all together. I don't know exactly which color I will use for the stitching, but I am leaning towards charcoal gray. Or just more cream.

3) Instead of giving me a birthday gift, Tyler gave me birthday money. I've already spent most of it...on MORE crafting supplies. I've overwhelmed myself already with projects to do. I'm anxiously awaiting for them to arrive on my doorstep. I ordered a cute grapevine wreath that I plan to attach interchangeable flowers (refer to my headband flowers) depending on the season. Also, there are some foam wreath forms for other seasonal wreaths to be made, a bunch of little canvas squares for painting cute letters or words onto and hanging in the kids rooms or around the house, and some cute little wooden eggs that I will paint intricately with happy little Easter....things.

4) I recently decided to purchase like 4 yards of muslin for a WIDE variety of possible crafts. I plan to wrap it around varying sizes of foam board (or heck, cardboard would work and be cheaper), like a canvas, and then paint letters and words on it, or stitch cute applique things, or embroider cute sayings....(see previous point).

5) I have about 5-6 unfinished quilts stashed away in my house, and I just got a 76"x76" quilt pattern and all the fabric to go with it as a gift for my birthday.

Anyhow, the point of all this is, I need to stop looking at Pinterest, because I have SO MUCH STUFF I could be working on, but I'm addicted. As these things come along and are finished, I'll keep you updated with pictures :)

Feeling very grateful....

2012-01-07T21:34:00.009-07:00

Logan, as many of you know now, is (what I'm going to personally diagnose as his mother), high functioning autistic. Anyone who is involved enough in our lives on a daily, weekly, or frequent basis can see just how far Logan has come in the last two years. We've decided it isn't necessary for him to receive an official physician's diagnosis because I honestly believe that over time, he may have little to no lingering attributes of his condition.

Logan will be turning 4 years old in just a couple of weeks. It's so strange to think that in the last 22 months, he has gone from saying absolutely no intelligible words, to more than we can count. First off, he's definitely able to repeat nearly anything he hears, and most of the time very articulately. We rarely (rarely meaning maybe 2-3 times a week instead of 2-3 times a day) have to deal with the frustration of a communication block anymore; he is so much better at communicating what he wants or doesn't want. We're still working on emotions with him - but just as with any child, if he's crying, we know he's sad, and if he's laughing or smiling, we know he's happy, even if he's not yet saying "I'm happy" or 'I'm sad" yet.

He talks so much to us, telling us what he's doing or what he sees. He often points to the sky and says, "Look Mommy, the sky is blue." I cannot begin to describe to you how much emotion I felt when I first heard him say that.

He tells us what he likes: I like pasta, I like meatballs, I like apples and bananas.

He tells what he sees: Cows! Horses! Dog! Cat! etc, etc...

He tells us what he hears: (Erica cries from her room) Erica is awake! Mommy, Erica is awake! The bus is here! Daddy is home!

He tells us that he loves us: (In the morning) Hi Mommy! (he waves). I love you Mommy! (As Tyler leaves for work) Bye Daddy! (waves again). I love you Daddy! (As I take Erica upstairs to bed in the evening) Goodnight Erica! I love you Erica!

His favorite game lately is Hide and Seek. Luckily for me, Erica actually keeps quiet when it's our turn to hide. And Logan does follow through with counting to 20 before he comes looking for us, even though he counts what should be 20 seconds in the span of merely 7 or 8. Gives the game a little bit of excitement - how fast can Mommy haul Erica up the stairs and get in a good hiding spot?!

He READS books. He's mesmerized most of the ones we have, but he actually does recognize a lot of words when he sees them outside the pages. He knows pretty much all basic shapes. He knows how to count and write numbers up to 100. He knows every letter of the alphabet, both upper case and lower case, and writes them legibly. He knows how to spell and write his name as well as a few other small words. He's finally started drawing things. This morning he drew a fish. "Shish" he calls it.

He amazes me so much. What a sweet little boy we've been blessed with. He's taught us so much about appreciating the little things. He's taught us how to be patient and observant. We still have the occasional "bad" day, but often it's because I've allowed myself to be selfish and let the situation get the better of me. He still gets overwhelmed in unfamiliar places and might throw a mini tantrum to deal with it, but it's loads better than it used to be.

I just feel so blessed to have Logan as my son and wanted to share some highlights of his wonderful progress with you all!

PS. I have been working on a bunch of crafts lately. I'm excited to finish a few things and take some pictures. :)

Hmmmm

2012-01-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

Haven't really been in a blogging mood, and as far as I can tell, neither has anyone in my family (come on guys...I want to read about your LIVESZZZZZZ). So here's a quick run down of the last month:

Early December was filled with a lot of holiday shopping stress. Ordering everything for the kids, gifts for other people, and making gifts for other people. About a week before Christmas, I actually found myself sitting on the couch after we put the kids to bed, wondering what I had left to get done. AND NOTHING HAD TO GET DONE. Then the spirit and love of the season finally arrived for me.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were splendid. :) I love watching my kids open gifts. Logan got a 61-key keyboard and knows how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." He also got Buzz Lightyear, the good one with all the real buttons and gadgets. He was pretty excited to open that one.

Erica got a massive multi-activity play box.....thingy. It has a bead maze on top and lots of other fun stuff on every side. Solid wood. The thing is a beast. You've probably seen it at Costco.

And of course we (as well as their grandparents) spoiled the kids with lots of other things.

Tyler bought me a new (non-expensive, which is what I wanted) wedding ring. Ever since my original ring got lost in the snow about 3 years ago, I've been wearing a cheapo plastic looking thing. Strangely enough though, I did receive many compliments on it. Get up close and you can totally see it's a fake. So, he got me a nice one that was actually made of metal :) I love it.

I got Tyler a cool sweatshirt jacket thingy from Buckle, that I think he looks downright hot in, as well as the big gift he wanted: Skyrim. A video game. He is loving it. In fact, I'm playing it a little here and there too. I'm level 8. I've killed a dragon. Go me.

On the last day of 2011 I turned 26. It was a great day. Tyler took me out on a date for a few hours while my inlaws babysat the kids. This was Erica's first time being babysat (while awake) and she did very surprisingly well.

26 feels old. I remember being 20, and thinking people who were 26 were old. But, I actually haven't felt better in my entire life. Life is good, and even after having two kids, I feel better about myself than I think I ever have. So, here's to being 26!

I genuinely hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I won't be making any resolutions; just going to work on improving where I see the need, and when I see the need.

Happy 2012!

It's just one of them days....

2011-12-01T11:41:00.003-07:00

Seeing as how everyone is getting over this flu bug we've had circling our little family, I can understand why the kids might be a bit put out every now and then. But today, I have no real words to explain what might be distressing my 3 year old.

The kid has been a bottomless pit for the last few days. He wants crackers and cheese for breakfast. Then pulls out last nights pasta and meatballs. When he doesn't get that, it's on to the raisins. Next, it's apples. Then a turkey sandwich.

All before 9am.

Since this strange uplift in his appetite doesn't appear to be subsiding anytime in the foreseeable future, we decided to go back to just feeding him what we think he needs instead of letting him pig out. But it's come with some unexpected (totally expected) consequences.

The kid is CRAAAAANKAY.

This morning actually wasn't too bad. He had a normal size breakfast. Woo! Maybe he's stopped the binge.

But then now it's not even noon and he keeps wanting to eat. AND EAT. AND EAT. I gave him some options. He chose some cheese and crackers. I cut up an apple since Erica was asking for one (oh yeah, she's 10 months and asking for apples - whole new thing for me). Logan wanted some too. Awesome. I am totally down with that. So we get his plate and he goes and sits at the table to await his waitress mother to bring his food to him.

Erica is meanwhile sitting in her jumper, as happy as a lump on a log with her apple slice, just sucking away at it, and even biting off chunks, though I'm not entirely sure how, seeing as she still has no teeth. Not even one breaking through.

Logan eats the cheese. Doesn't touch the crackers, or the apples he specifically asked for. (Probably because Erica was getting some). Then, out of nowhere, he sits there and stares at me and begins to cry. Then begins to yell. His face says, "I want you to have pity on me and do exactly what I want or I will scream like this for the rest of the day."

I know that's what he's saying because we've been there before. And of course, if Erica makes even a PEEP, he cries even harder.

But I mean, he got everything he wanted and he still wasn't happy. Is my three year old a brat? Don't answer that; it was a sarcastic question. He's a teddy bear...most of the time.

But, finding that I wasn't going to give in, he decided to climb out of his chair and shove his face into the backside of the couch over there by the table, the space in between the couch and the wall to be exact, and continue to cry. Can't say I'd find any comfort there myself, but to each his own.

Welcome to Thursday morning, December 1st, 2011 at the Brown residence.

12:05 -

Cried himself to sleep on the floor.

Family Photo Shoot

2011-11-27T18:21:00.002-07:00

I posted a few pictures from our family photo shoot in my last post, but these truly need a post all of their own. I am so in love with them, I've been spending an enormous amount of time looking at them, thinking about them, and of course imagining and planning the soon to be gallery through my home. We couldn't be happier with how they turned out! Thanks Erica!

This just CRACKS. ME. UP!

"Love, it seems like only yesterday...."

Real hair color. Envy me.

Can't wait to go frame shopping!

It's almost 5 a.m. ...

2011-11-26T08:39:00.003-07:00

Wanna know what's new with us? Want to hear some happy news?

If you answered yes to the first question and no to the second, you're in the right place.

We're sick over here. Monday morning last week, Logan went off to school, seemingly fine and dandy. But, when the bus dropped him off that afternoon, the thing I'd allowed myself to falsely hope we'd avoid was staring at me, literally. Logan's little pink gunky eyes were staring at me through an obvious battle of fatigue, and the fatigue was winning. I had to carry him off the bus, he was so tired.

(After emailing the teacher to find out why they never called me to just come have him picked up, I guess I can believe that Logan wasn't showing any indication of illness until he came home. But whatever. I can't imagine any district anywhere would let a sick kid slide by for a day and put the rest of the kids at risk - mine got sick after all. *Sigh*. Brigitte, welcome to the reality of having a child in the public education system).

The week before as Logan was being dropped off from school, the bus driver informed me that a few students in Logan's class had pink eye. Wonderful. By the time Monday morning rolled around and no symptoms showed, I assumed Logan hadn't caught anything.

Wrong. I've never dealt with pinkeye before, so I don't know what kind of incubation period it has. And boy is it gross. He definitely had it. I'll spare you the details. So, we called the doctor and got an appointment to have Logan seen the very next day. Doctor prescribed some antibiotic eye drops and assured us Logan would actually be all better, right in time to attend Thanksgiving dinner with the family without any problems.

Well, he was right...sort of.

Logan actually did improve very quickly. Only, then I got sick. And it wasn't (isn't) pinkeye. In hindsight, I believe Logan may actually have had a little more serious illness that he just rubbed into his eye (which I now know is a very definite possible cause of pinkeye and the more likely reason as to why I'm not having any eye issues).

Thanksgiving came around, Celia was with us, and I was super bummed about the now obvious scenario we found ourselves in: Everybody else was well enough to go celebrate the holiday with the rest of the family, but it looked like I would need to sit out. So, Tyler offered to give me a blessing. His dad drove up to help. And after warning family and asking what they thought, I was able to attend Thanksgiving. What a great family I married into! I'm so glad they were all understanding and willing to risk their health to have me there with them. Now a couple days later, no one has reported any signs of illness - so far so good. I truly hope it stay that way.

Because...

I feel like death. Pretty sure this is the flu and a super horrible flu at that. It must be laughing at me, because it has good reason to think it's winning this battle. I've never felt so dreadful. And I know some of these symptoms are ones where you hear things like "If [this] lasts longer than so many days, contact your doctor immediately." But of course, it's now the weekend, and I don't think I'm going to die, so I'll wait it out til Monday before calling anyone I guess. I can totally handle it, even though I don't feel like I can.

The good thing in this is how surprising well everyone else has been. If Logan brought this home from school (which is the only explanation I can come up with), he's done remarkably well. Other than the pinkeye, he's had nothing more than a slight cough at night. Cross your fingers it doesn't develop into anything more severe. Like what I have.

Worst full body aches and chills of my LIFE. Headaches. My throat is on fire and it's been that way for DAAAAYYYUUUZZZ. Every cough sends a pulse of dry shock down my throat. I can't sleep because lying down makes my cough worse and more productive (isn't that an indication of possible pneumonia? I'm getting paranoid now). So tired. Voice is completely gone (thanks to that hour and a half phone call to Sprint YET AGAIN about their inability to be consistent - totally a whole 'notha story).

Tyler is starting to show some small signs of the flu, but Erica seems to be getting by completely fine. Yay.

Anyhow, I'm sure I'll live. I'll let you know.

On a happier note, we got our family pictures in the mail yesterday from our photo shoot with Erica Kirby Photography! We love the pictures so much! Here are a few of my favorites:

Aren't they just wonderful photos? We are so blessed to know people with amazing talents. Well good morning to you all....off to the kitchen. Logan wants pasta for breakfast.

Will you be seeing Breaking Dawn? Here's my review...

2011-11-25T14:55:00.011-07:00

Hey everyone!

It's been a little over a week since Breaking Dawn Part 1 of the Twilight Saga hit theaters and in that time, I've observed many shared declarations from people and friends saying they will be sitting this one out. Based on online reviews from popular and respectable sites aimed to warn parents and the public in general about the content of Breaking Dawn and other current films, most of these declarations seem to be based on a pretty consistent line of reviews stating this movie is not for young audiences. Some even go as far to say Breaking Dawn should have received an R rating from the MPAA.

I saw Breaking Dawn last night. It was a decently filled auditorium, just to give you a setting. There were a large number of groups, consisting of young and middle aged women. I saw a few girls that I assume could have been 12. Some couples.

The groups of young and middle aged women were the ones that annoyed me every once in a while. Giggling in all of "those" scenes, or cheering when Jacob would take off his shirt to expose his bazillion ab muscles. That stuff just gets on my nerves, haha. I mean really, shut up and let me watch my movie. Next, a group of young couples that all came together sat right next to me. I was distracted, yet amused occasionally by the wife who would frequently lean over and explain things to her husband, who sat directly to my right. He actually seem genuinely interested to understand the plot.

Besides all that distracting chatter going on at random during the film, I still feel I got my money's worth, enough to write a review for you.

I will be reviewing this movie the best I possibly can. I might even be making some detailed descriptions, though nothing explicit but those of you who know me well enough might be surprised by how I write this, to help you get a better idea of the content, and help you make a more informed decision if you wish to see this movie, since so many people are on the fence. SPOILERS! If you have not read the books or don't want to know the details of how they brought certain elements of the story to life, stop reading. Have a good day.

Now, let's review just what the MPAA does and what the decided and proposed ratings (for this particular movie) mean.

The MPAA is an independent board of parents with no past affiliation to the movie business. Their job is to rate each film as they believe a majority of American parents would rate it, considering relevant themes and content.

Breaking Dawn is rated PG-13 for a few obvious reasons to those of us who read the books. We're all expecting that there is going to be few scenes of sensuality, and we all know why. Two people (virgins) just get married and now anything goes. Did you know that brief nudity by itself does not require a PG-13 rating? That can be PG. A PG-13 rating is typically only applied when brief nudity is sexually oriented.

So, does Breaking Dawn have this? I guess we have to break down what nudity is, and if it was brief here. If you consider nudity the "display of any private areas of the human body", then no, I would say that no where in the film do you even briefly glimpse "anything." The scene where Bella and Edward go for a swim in the ocean on their wedding night, they're making out in the water (more of their bad acting - why can't those two ever get a good looking kiss?!), they are bare from the waist up. Edwards arms are covering up any chance of seeing Bella's topless-ness. You can see her bare back and side, as well as his. I guess a bare back (bra-less) might be considered nudity on a woman. This scene maybe lasts 5-10 seconds. Count that. Decide if that's brief enough to you.

The scene then changes to them in bed. The camera is zoomed - more kissing, and you only see them from the shoulders up, like what's in the trailer. Nothing weird in my opinion. You see some of what I'll call "intimate facial expressions" for a second or two, and very little of implied bodily movements, but nothing more. The camera angle changes to show you (again, just like in the trailer), Edwards back, and he's holding onto the headboard of the bed. Yes, he breaks it, juuuuust like in the trailer. Later on, we get a full view of a practically destroyed bed, but this isn't in a sexually oriented setting.

Some people can understandably find that implication a little too arousing for their standards. But in this situation, I think having read the book helps keep this whole scene in check and within what I personally think is an appropriate depiction of Bella and Edward's predicament. Him breaking the headboard isn't supposed to be a sexually explicit implication. He's trying not to kill her. That's the point. Weird concept that anyone would die during sex I know, but that's the fact nonetheless. Didn't seem all that rated R-ish to me.

When it comes to movie ratings, the discussion or reference of intimate topics isn't exactly laid out in the rating criteria. But the subject of intimacy is brought up a couple times in conversation. When Jake comes to visit Bella at the wedding reception, his explanation for coming to the party is that he wanted to see her one last time before she becomes a vampire (since the whole deal was for her and Edward to get married, and Edward would change her into a vampire himself). She tells him that she won't be changed right away, because she still wants to have an enjoyable honeymoon rather than be writhing in pain (from vampire venom). Jacob catches the drift that this can only mean Bella and Edward will most likely be having some intimate moments together while she's still a very fragile human. So, he gets angry. Edward arrives back to the scene (since he left them alone to talk) and Jacob yells at Edward, I think he yells, "You'll kill her!" Obviously, we can guess that the "killing" he's referencing to would be because sex with a vampire is apparently dangerous business.

Bella and Edward, after having spent their wedding night together, doing activities every newlywed couple does, talk the next morning about how it was the best night of their lives. Edward is very skeptical that he hasn't hurt Bella, even though she says she's perfectly fine, and decides to play the abstinence card on her for the rest of the honeymoon. She eventually sorta begs him, which could definitely be interpreted as weird, but the whole setting had more of an "I need this emotionally" more than "I want you physically" ring to it. I don't recall seeing much sensuality from that moment on throughout the rest of the film.

Overall, I didn't feel uncomfortable watching this. Would I go see it with my parents or my in-laws? Ya know, we're all adults. It wouldn't bother me. But they, I'm sure, have their own views of seeing the movie, so they probably wouldn't bother going anyway. Just say "Twilight" and I'm sure you'd lose their interest. Would I take my 13 year old daughter to see it? (I don't have a 13 year old daughter, but you know what I mean)?. I'm mixed on that. One, I don't think hormone driven, immature, giggle crazy adolescents need to see stuff like this because it just messes with their heads about the reality of intimacy. On the other hand, Bella and Edward tell each other what an incredibly experience it was, and as I saw it, it was a happy, relationship building moment for them. It wasn't all about the physical aspect of it. The movie hinted a little bit at the important emotional side of intimacy that every relationship ought to have. Not many movies, or at least not one I've EVER seen, has portrayed something special like that?

Now, I'm not saying the whole sex scene was needed; no movie really ever NEEDS that stuff. But, since we all knew it was going to be in this movie in some way, shape, or form, I thought it was actually done rather tastefully and may have actually provided an encouraging (though infinitesimal) message about how special waiting for marriage and physical intimacy can be.

That's not to say I'm now going to go watch every movie ever made just because "I can handle it." No. I'm saying I think all the reviews about the sex content in Breaking Dawn were a bit of an overreaction. If you go to the movies to see sex anyway, then it's time to grow up. That is all.

Now that that whole explanation is out of the way, another thing a lot of people had a beef with was Jacob's unnecessary use of the F word. My view of this? The F word is a horrible sounding grunt of foul air. But if I hadn't already read reviews of the movie before seeing it, I would never have known it was even in the movie at all. I cannot remember hearing that word even in the slightest. I'd have to go read the online reviews again just to know where it was.

Blood, gore, and disturbing images.

As Bella's pregnancy progresses, she looks thinner and thinner. She gets so thin, your mind will automatically compare her to a holocaust victim. A pregnant, third-trimester, holocaust victim. Yes, rather disturbing. She's very sick looking, because she is. For anyone who is concerned that the movie industry made Kristen Stewart lose a sickly amount of weight for this role, rest easy. It was all digitally altered, but you'd never know that. It looked INCREDIBLY real.

Blood. There is more blood in this film than the previous three. Obviously if you've read the book you know that the baby Bella is carrying wants nourishment in the form of human blood, and that's why Bella is so sickly - it's been feeding on her. So, Bella drinks blood...from a white non-see through foam cup and a clear straw. The most blood you ever seen all at once in this movie is when this cup gets dropped once and spills. Even the birth scene doesn't have THAT much blood.

But yeah, the birth scene. Yes disturbing. Bella's back breaks in half and you see her crumble to the ground in what appears to be astonishing pain. When on a sort of "operating table" Rosalie is about to take a scalpel to Bella's stomach to get the baby out. You never see the blade touch the skin, never see skin cut open but you do see a bloody hand holding a scalpel.    You see, in a blurry chaos of quick images for dramatic effect, Edward bites into Bella's stomach to help get the baby out (remember the uterus has become too hard for anything to penetrate, but of course vampire teeth can cut through anything). He gets blood on his face. When the baby is born, it's covered in a thin layer of blood, no chunkage.

Bella appears to die, and you see an overall view of her body (covered, though slightly bloody) and it looks sickly thin and well, dead.    Edward stabs her in the heart with a very large syringe.

That about sums up any kind of "questionable" content I can think of.

I thought the movie was great. Excellent actually. Compared to the other three, this one had a far more intriguing flow of events, far more emotion and in all the right ways to make you connect with the characters, and just better acting all around. I think boycotting this movie is a bit silly, haha, but that's the whole reason I wrote this review.

I'm not trying to make excuses for the movie or claim it's completely okay. I do think it takes a bit of maturity to watch. By that definition, maybe it does qualify as rated R, but I'd say that that's a bit of a stretch. I'm also not defending the movie. Most movies these days have unnecessary content. I thought it was very well done and if you want to go see it, you should be able to do so without judgement from others. I know SOO many people who are in love with movies far worse than this one (The Notebook anyone? Seems to be one of those movies almost every girl I know loves. I hate it.).

The rest of the film was fantastic. The wedding was beautiful, the vampire/wolf feud was excellently done, and even though a lot of people in the theater were laughing, I thought the part where Jacob imprints was also done well. If you read and actually LIKED the books, I think you'll be pleased with it.

Hope this helped!

2011-11-20T20:51:00.005-07:00

Twilight marathon with my hunny this evening. Say what you want ;)

The acting is slowly but steadily getting better with each movie, but Edward's hair was way better looking in the first one. Agreed?

Little laugh for my fellow closet Twilighters: (only 2 minutes long) How Twilight Should Have Ended

I got hungry...

2011-11-14T15:51:00.001-07:00

I call them ...

"Honey Whole Wheat Cinnamon Vanilla Banana Muffins with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting and Graham Cracker Dust and I Want to Eat Them Every Day Because I Am a Pig Like That and I Don't Care Who Knows It."

Playing around with photo edit...

2011-11-08T20:21:00.006-07:00

I took some shots of Erica wearing one of my headbands (I loved the one that Melissa had me make for her, I just had to have one for Erica); I was hoping to get a little idea of how I should go about taking model shots for more product photos.

This was the best shot I got.

I happened to be on Skype with Britt when I uploaded some of the pictures, so I sent her that one. We both decided to edit it our own way and then show each other. What started out as a "let's try to make this photo look like a product presentation" turned more into (for me) a "make this photo as fun as possible". Britt's photo looks fantastic. It really brings out the headband. I was playing around a little too much with adding random features, haha.

Mine

Britt's

They're both fun pictures!!
(Click on any photo to view as a slideshow).

Flying Candy and The Stroller Potato

2011-11-06T21:59:00.018-07:00

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween. This was probably the best Halloween Tyler and I have had together.

I won't deny that Halloweens past were always pretty awesome, the main reason being I was young enough to go out and put in the work of ringing doorbells, earning myself a sweet treat for as little effort as possible; I was the sort of kid who pretty much just stood there as the other kids said the words. I would take my turn walking up to the kind old lady holding a bowl full of teeth rotting artificial confectionery, and grab a few of the "good ones", say thank-you, and then make my way by the shortest route possible to the next house where another kind old person would gladly fork over the same gooey, chocolaty, or crunchy yum-yums.

My sisters and I (I really only remember going Trick-or-Treating with Brittany and Celia - where were you other three??) would then come home carrying (dragging) pillow cases filled more than half way full of candy, dump them onto the kitchen table or the carpet in the family room, sort everything into it's proper category, count it all (to make sure no one stole anything), and then toss it all back into the pillow case. Within about a week, it would all be gone.

Obviously those days are over. Not that I want to return to them. If I want candy, I grab my wallet, hop in my car, and make a quick all-right-turns run to the grocery store only a stones throw away. And I mean stones throw; I could probably hit Wal-mart with a rock from my driveway. I've never lived this close to a Wal-mart. I'm not entirely sure whether to be happy or embarrassed by that. But even so, getting older and wiser has rubbed off on me when it comes to candy. The stuff really does have more of a kid appeal to it. I just don't care that much for the stuff. (Though Logan rarely gets any - I see that as a good thing, but sometimes I feel bad for restricting his sugar intake so much).

Anyhow...

Logan is old enough now to go Trick-or-Treating! And he is an adorable little professional. He successfully understood the ritual this year. Last year, meh.....it was still a learning experience. This time around, the loud "TRIIIIT - OOO - TREEEAAT" that was yelled milliseconds later than the rest of the group and sounded like the voice of a small boy that could only be my little angel, filled the evening air. Funny how stuff like that will bring such a big smile to your face. On top of that, Logan was very particular with his candy selection, or just overwhelmed with the choices presented to him. He was usually the last child at the door, taking a few moments to weigh his options before finally deciding on a piece.

He was so cute. Running after his cousins as they all made their way to the next house. But, two times too many his excitement led to trips and falls. He'd be pulling and tugging on Daddy's arm to catch up with the other kids and would lunge a little to hard and trip over his own feet, sending his little bag of candy flying. Is it just me, or does that not tug at your heart a little bit? Even though I gave a little laugh and assured him he'd be okay, I just felt so sad for the little guy. After he cried a little, and we picked up his candy, he'd be perfectly and completely happy again, on his way as if it never happened. But still, it made me feel so bad for him, haha.

There's something about growing up and having your own kids (or nieces and nephews - kids in your life you love just as much as if they were your own), that changes the way we see the "Holidays". I obviously don't care about how much candy I'll bring home. I don't care if all of the pumpkin pie is gone or if I didn't get a chance to sample the dark meat at Thanksgiving. Gifts with my name on them are the farthest thing from my mind Christmas morning. I just want my kids to have fun. I want them to feel the excitement and joy of the holidays. Of being around family. I want them to feel the love and happiness that comes from giving and sharing, and spending time with the ones that truly matter in our lives, because those are the things I remember and reminisce about the most from my younger years.

We had a lot of fun on Halloween. Getting together with Tyler's family is always a blast. Tyler and I dressed up this year (which we never do) in lit up TRON costumes. They were a pretty big hit. (The picture below only shows the reflected light from the flash off the tape I used. When it got dark enough, we switched the lights on. You can see that in the previous post). My mother in law liked to stay and chat with her neighbors for a few moments after the kids got their candy; finding us again was never a problem. We stopped at the house of Tyler's old YSA leaders, who I got to know pretty well while we were dating, and she took one look at me and said with a big smile and chuckle, "Oh Brigitte, you're such a Mormon wife." Haha, love her.

Besides the nice compliments, numerous looks, and pointing fingers, people standing in their doorways to look at us, some even chasing us down to ask how we made them, others yelling out of their cars or from across the street to tell us how awesome we are, or that we were their "hero"....the real fun was seeing Logan and Erica just enjoying the evening. Logan's costume got a lot of compliments too. He was Rufio again. (See last year). Erica was a champion stroller potato. She pointed and babbled, sucked on her fingers, laughed and smiled and took a nap.

It was a great evening, and I look forward to many more wonderful memories with my husband and my babies!

P.S. Do NOT wear 4.5" heals as an accessory to your Halloween costume. It doesn't matter if heels completes the look. Don't do it.

Logan and Erica's faces...hilarious. You can't see my hair, but it was pulled back into a tight bun like the sirens in TRON. And of course I couldn't pass up an excuse to really pile on the black eye shadow. I'm surprised my kids still recognized me.

My Tron Suit

2011-10-26T22:38:00.004-06:00

My suit doesn't have quite as much design as Tyler's does - I have 18 feet less wiring on mine. Mostly due to the fact that I found it impossible to attach it, one handed, to my own arms. I needed to be wearing the suit as I built the design because it's a stretch suit - yes I could have asked Tyler to help me GLUE stuff on, but I honestly don't trust him to do it right (a.k.a. the way I want), haha. So, no arm lights for me, but I love it just the same. And as you can see from the reflected light on the wall, there's a little bit on the back. Tyler's has some on the back as well. I was going for the Quorra look, but ended up with a few differences to compensate for the long wires.

Contemplating the idea of making some "Identity Disks" to go on the back, and even helmets, haha! Like Rinsler/Tron. I've got an entire roll of reflective tape left over, and four wires (each 9ft). But with how busy our weekend looks, let's not count on it.

Dweeb flash over. More pictures after Monday!

2011-10-24T09:47:00.001-06:00

It's about time we had a small dose of the kiddos. Erica is a real crawler now, and since this video was taken, has learned to crawl with her knees.

And of course no video is complete without Logan acting silly for the camera. Love that kid, running in and out of view, falling over. It's how he likes to impress people. (Have you ever noticed kids do some strange things when you have company over and your kid wants to get everyone's attention? It's either, "I'm going to be shy and stick my tongue out at everyone, or bang my head against this wall and make myself trip to see who laughs. Decisions, decisions."

You bring the milk, I've got the cookies...

2011-10-22T15:31:00.004-06:00

I have an okay sugar cookie recipe. The problem with this sugar cookie is it's kind of bland, but it works really well for decorating or frosting. It's fluffy, not crunchy. And I love fluffy, cake like cookies. So, in an attempt to make this sugar cookie a little more taste-bud friendly, I started to experiment with it. I also tried to make it a little healthier at the same time, using honey instead of sugar, whole wheat instead of white flour.

They turned out alright. Not a cookie I would brag about or give away to anyone, lest they see the not so grand side of my baking endeavors.

On my second try, I decided to tweek the recipe yet again and make a chocolate cookie...

...because I was in a chocolate cravin' mood.

And these came into creation.

They're good. Like, the soft chocolate cookies you crave from your local grocery store bakery and ache a little inside when you turn to get in the check out line kind o' good.

Even after a couple days, they're still soft and wonderful. You know those super soft sugar cookies with the pink frosting and sprinkles, that despite your best efforts, even you have to admit call your name? These ARE those cookies, except chocolate.... minus the sprinkles .....and frosting.....aaand all the sugar. But YOU could frost these. Use them as your home made "oreo" ice cream treats. Set them out at a party topped with that special family recipe cream cheese frosting and there won't be left overs. These would be fantastic for dipping in cocoa or milk (I assume fantastic in milk, but I wouldn't know - milk is siiick).

Want the recipe? Even if you don't, here it is. And I call them:

Whole Wheat Soft Chocolate Chocolate Chip Old Fashioned Sour Cream Cookies

Just kidding. We'll go with Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, or something like that.

Ingredients:

-3/4 C. Butter (softened)
-1 C. Honey
-1 egg
-2 tsp. Vanilla extract
-3 1/3 C. Whole Wheat Flour (I used half whole wheat, half organic white)
-2/3 C. Cocoa powder
-1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
-3/4 tsp. Baking Soda
-3/4 tsp. Salt
-1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
-1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 C. Sour Cream
Opt* Chocolate chips, sugar for sprinkling on top of cookies

In a large bowl, mix butter, honey, egg, and vanilla thoroughly. In a separate bowl, measure flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Sift ingredients to reduce clumps, but I honestly didn't feel like sifting the stuff, whisking it all together to mix was just fine with me. I do hear though that sifting can make a big different in some cookies.

Add flour mixture to the already mixed wet ingredients alternately with the sour cream. I did half of the flour, mixed, half of the sour cream, mixed, second half of flour mixture, second half of sour cream. Mix everything until well blended. Add optional chocolate chips and mix. I used mini dark chocolate chips.

Turn on your oven to 400°. And let the dough sit for about 10 minutes. This should help it thicken up a little. Take a regular size cereal spoon and scoop half spoonfuls. Or use a round tablespoon utensil and scoop small balls of dough, just under the size of a rounded tablespoon. Roll the dough in your hands into a ball (the dough is soft so don't expect it to maintain a ball shape). Flatten the dough a little, and place onto a GREASED cookie sheet. Sprinkle with large granule sugar if you wish. I just use a little bit of C&H Organic.

I was easily able to fit 16-20 cookies on one sheet.

Bake for 8-9 minutes, give or take a minute depending on the variable tendencies of your own oven. 9 minutes seems to be the magic number for mine.

Let cool for about 2 minutes and then transfer, by spatula or hand (I just quickly picked them up) to a cooling rack or paper towel. When they're mostly cooled, put them into an air tight container or ziplock bag to retain moisture.

Makes about 4-5 dozen 2" cookies. Plenty right? Nope. Not for me.

I had fun taking pictures, hehe. Thanks for showing me that "green flower" thing Britt!

In some other recent news, I was the unfortunate victim of what I call a "tagalong attack." That is to say, I wanted some girl scout cookie tagalongs like my life depended on it. Of course I regretted it after eating about a gazillion. I made these:

Last year when a lot of family was in town, we made Tagalongs, but this time I just got lazy. I don't like dipping cookies in chocolate. It's messy. Not like truffles where it's all nice a neat. So, I just drizzled the chocolate on top.

Sometimes I make Tyler take some of my baking to work with him, in an attempt to rid myself of the temptation. Someone finally asked him how it is that Tyler and I aren't fat.

To tell you the truth, I don't even know.

And if I haven't spent enough time making stuff, I finally finished Tyler's Halloween costume last night! Mine is almost there. It should be done in time.

In case you aren't familiar with this design, I copied the outfits from TRON: Legacy. The top picture shows how it lights up, the bottom how it looks when light from a car, or a camera flash looks. We ordered black custom fitting stretchy suits, much like Morphsuits, reflective tape, and electroluminescent wire. I used permanent fabric glue to get the tape to stick to the suits, and then used clear packaging tape to stick the wire onto the reflective tape. I had originally planned to sew everything on with clear quilting thread, but it made the tape rip. I hate that I'm a little bit of a ....can't describe it well enough; belated perfectionist? I can see all the things I did wrong with these but now it's too late to fix.

So, there it is. We're having a lot of fun with these. If I get mine done before Halloween weekend, I'm making Tyler take me on a date so we can wear our costumes and have a little fun with it, without the children, haha.

Logan will once again be Rufio (please know who that is people) for Halloween, this time WITH bright red mohawks, and Erica is going to be a cute and simple little pumpkin (her costume, I did NOT make - oh well).

Hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful autumn weather!

2011-10-02T17:36:00.001-06:00

Hello again. Erica here.

I was very upset when I realized Mommy was about to set me down on the floor this evening. See, she'd been holding me for a very long time (at least for her), which is what I'd wanted, and I pretty much get what I want around here. I started to cry.... a lot. Like, I didn't take a breath for a good 10 seconds. That's how devastated I was.

Tears were about to fall when Mommy suddenly presented me with ....

AN APPLE SLICE.

And then the world was right again.

I don't know why Mommy hasn't given me an apple before. I mean, after trying to force that awful baby food down my throat for weeks now, you'd think she'd get the message. When my face says "No", I mean "NO!"

But this, I can handle.

Thanks Mommy.

Erica

2011-10-01T15:40:00.002-06:00

Dear loyal fans,

I love the headbands Mommy has been making for me. They just add to my cuteness and make me feel like a princess. I am adorable and I know it, as you can see from this pose I struck while Mommy was taking my picture.

Oh yeah, I can sit up all by myself (and I've been doing so for weeks), but I'd rather just be held all day every day. Why sit when someone can prop me up and carry me around? I'm a baby after all. Pamper me.

I like to watch my brother build train tracks. He is really good at it. I am really good at crawling in and flinging all the pieces apart. Then he has to build all over again. It's great fun.

Thanks for reading my post. Don't tell Mommy I was playing with the computer.

Erica

2011-09-26T11:29:00.004-06:00

So, taking product pictures is much easier than I originally thought. I was certain I would have to find a "professional." But, all I had to do was design a presentation for the item, take a picture with a lot of light, let my photo gallery automatically adjust the lighting contrast, crop it, add a few little details and some words and it was all over within a minute or two. I mean, WOW. Not too intimidating.

Yes, my business name is called Pure & Posy. I'm working on a faceboook page, possibly a blog page, and of course the shop itself.

I have some costume projects for Tyler and me for Halloween that I want to get done before I open shop, so it won't actually be up and running until after those are done. I definitely want it up before the holiday shopping season starts.

Until then, those of you who read my blog are more than welcome to give me suggestions, tell me which ones you HONESTLY think don't look very good (go to Pure & Posy), which ones do, and you are more than welcome to order from me! (just send me a message on Facebook or my email - brigittebrown06@yahoo. All headbands are $10. Headbands with the very large rhinestones are $12 (I haven't really posted those yet). Shipping I estimate to be anywhere from $1.50 if ordering one, or more obviously for multiple. I need to do some practice shipping anyway and get the handle of it all.

I'm getting excited!

Preview

2011-09-22T23:45:00.004-06:00

I've decided to give Etsy a go. Not sure when exactly, but I want to get a few product photos taken by someone who knows what they're doing with a camera first, before I post anything or create a shop. I will be making headbands for babies, toddlers, children, adults, whoever. I'm unsure about making these flowers into hair clips because I've yet to decide on a technique that I really like, so we'll see; I wouldn't want anything to fall apart or somethin. I also want to offer these flowers all by themselves, whether just a few or even bulk orders, but, one step at a time.

So, to hold you all over until I do get my little business rollin', here's a few preview photos of some of my favorites so far (keep in mind, this is only a few, and not the only style or colors I will offer):

I'm pretty much in love with this one because it could go with just about any outfit. Elegant and simple. While the silky fabric isn't my favorite to work with, I have a feeling this one could do pretty well for all age groups.

That little rhinestone center is my favorite too.

Pleasant Pearl. There's a gal at church having a baby shower this weekend and her colors are yellow and black. What do you think?

Summer Sunflower. That center was a great find!

Erica will never go without a stylish headband. I'm totally spoiling her!

Crazy Crafty

2011-09-21T21:25:00.001-06:00

People. I'm going nuts with these flowers.

UPDATE:

PEOPLE!

A Finished Product

2011-09-21T14:59:00.001-06:00

I finished a headband. I think I could crank out a decent amount of these if the demand was there. Isn't Erica pure sweetness?

Some people may not know that I studied a lot of interior design in college. Unfortunately, I don't really have a knack for interior decorating. It's pathetic. So, while a good many of you may already have a candle dish...thing somewhere in your home, I did not. But, I had some of the stuff to make one. Candles: check. Accents: check. Tray thingy: nope. But I found a cute little one at Walmart on clearance and voila! My new holiday appropriate center piece.

If you like those pine cones, I can't recommend anywhere to purchase them from. We (my siblings and I) picked those cones from my grandmother's pine tree AGES ago and my Mom spray painted the bottoms red, and the tops gold to use as holiday decorations in whatever capacity she saw fit. My Mom is an arts and crafts genius. She's the whole reason I love it so much. I obviously felt they should compliment the candles in this dish. It's funny; picking those pine cones is a very clear memory of mine. Your kids might enjoy scrounging around for pine cones too.

Just make sure it's legal to pick them where ever you decide to go. ;)

Lotso Fun

2011-09-20T14:12:00.007-06:00

A few weeks ago, Logan and I headed out to the playground and stumbled upon some neighbors having a birthday party for their kid out in the common area. It looked like quite the party! Lots of food, people, friends, and a giant inflatable obstacle course. Not wishing to disturb their fun (I had never met them), but also intent on getting some good outdoor time with Logan, we walked passed and headed over to the playground. As I was sitting on the bench watching Logan, the birthday kids father came up to me and invited us to use the obstacle course if we wanted to.

And a good thing we took them up on the offer. Logan had SOO much fun on that thing!

You may not be able to tell it from the pictures, mostly because I took them near the end of the time we spent out there but Logan was incredibly attached to that thing. He ran through there probably 30 times or more. After our neighbor invited us over, I ran through it about five times with Logan, just to make sure he got the hang of where to go and how to climb it. There was one very steep climb that made me nervous. But I clumsily lost my balance at one point and rolled onto my arm wrong and popped somethin' in my elbow. It was blue and green for weeks. But, Logan continued. He DID NOT want to leave. Since it was pretty hot, I carried Logan home and Tyler took Logan back out to play again and they both ran through the course. Erica and I went back outside a little later. It was a really fun afternoon and I was glad to see Logan having so much fun with it.

That week, Logan started preschool. He goes twice a week, from about 12:30-3:30pm. The school bus picks him up and drops him off right in front of the house. The school is only about five miles south of us. While I am really grateful that I don't need to worry about taking him to school (since we only have one car), that first day gave me a bit of a scare. He was picked up at 11:15am because the bus driver needed to get a feel for the route, and have time to pick up all of the kids (about 15). Some parents like to take pictures next to the bus and all that too, so, the first day was lengthy. Well, the early pick up I understood. What scared me is, as I sat outside waiting for Logan to come home that afternoon, 4:00 went by, then 4:30, and I texted Tyler to explain I was getting really anxious that Logan wasn't home yet. School had already been out for an hour! Next I called the bus driver and found out where they were. Then 5:00 went by and Tyler was home. Then, FINALLY, at about 5:30pm, Logan's bus drove up. He climbed out, no problem, apparently unaffected by the lengthy bus ride...but COME ON...2 hours to get a kid home????? Since then we've learned that Logan is the first child to be picked up and the last one dropped off. Wonderful. But, as the days have gone by, it's gotten a little better. Only a hour each way now, which I can live with and Logan seems no worse off. I think it'd be nice to have him dropped off first since he's picked up first, but I've yet to decide how much action I really want to take on the whole thing. We'll see.


A little confused about what was going on, but he loves school! Always gets such great daily progress reports! I love my little boy and I'm so proud of him!

A few days ago I made Oreo and Mint Oreo truffles. OH MY GOSH. These things are so yummy. Especially the mint. Go make them. And then eat them all. And then make them again. Get sick if you must, but don't stop eating them. RECIPE.

After you make the balls, put a toothpick in each one and THEN put them in the fridge or freezer. Dipping will be much easier. When you remove the toothpicks, just cover the hole with chocolate or pipe a design over it like I did.

I've been toying with the idea of starting an Etsy shop recently. I've dabbled in a few different crafts for the holidays coming up, but nothing really seemed "Etsy-ish" enough that I ever thought "Hey, someone might buy that!" Until now. And yes, they're for making baby headbands - I know, those headbands are all the rage right now it seems silly to even attempt to break into that market. These are really basic looking, but I kind of like the simple looking stuff personally. I'm not a huge fan of all the frilly, fluffy, feathery stuff. But, some babies can pull it off, haha. To each his/her own. I'm very new at this, so don't laugh!...unless it's a shriek of pure enthusiasm. That's acceptable. Here are my pretty little headband flowers:

The ENDLESS possibilities! (And those are just made from stuff I had lying around) Cute fabrics, cute buttons, and the color spectrum of bands to go with them! (Why do I get super creative around this time of year? This happen to anyone else? Like, my mind explodes with a brainstorm of concept crafts just before the holidays).

Anyhow, I plan to make a teal colored flower headband for Erica to match the outfit I picked out for her to wear in our upcoming family photos. I'll post a picture of that when it's finished, OR I'll just wait for the family photos to be done and let the professional show off the work. (Check out our photographer's website HERE.)

But tell me if you don't mind leaving a comment, are these flowers something you'd want to see adorning your little one's noggin? Got any suggestions?

Thanks!!

Home Sweet Home

2011-09-10T22:41:00.000-06:00

Monday night, we drove home from Socal and that concluded a very long, but enjoyable few months of B-U-S-Y. I just might blog about some of it but...

...in honor of our new found quiet time, I stayed home this whole week (well, in the neighborhood) and made Tyler do the grocery shopping (hehe). I didn't put on a single bit of makeup, I never had to do my hair, and I wore PJs pretty much every minute I was in the house.

LOVED it.

Leave this space blank? Yes, I can't think of a title right now.

2011-08-19T15:28:00.007-06:00

With how often I posted last month, I'm feeling very behind now. The last real one was over three weeks ago. But here's why: My laptop has been in the shop for nearly that entire time. It would spazz out every minute or so, no joke. The entire screen would just fill with dancing pixels. Sometimes I could make out what the screen looked like, other times, not so much. We took it in last year for the same problem. It had a loose wire in the fold where the monitor meets the keyboard, but instead of just readjusting the wire, this time they replaced it completely. Yay!

So how is everyone, huh? :)

Tyler is loving his new job. I think I mentioned before that we were weighing the pros and cons and stuff. Well, it all worked out. He's been working there since the beginning of August and is loving it so much, he doesn't even mind staying an extra hour to make up for the time we'll be taking off in a few weeks. Working with friends and some family and having a great time. I'm happy for him. I doubt many people enjoy, much less tolerate their work environment. We've been truly blessed for him to have this opportunity. He gets to do what he loves and what he's good at.

Erica tried some peas for the first time the other night. Squishing them up in her hands was the highlight of this experience. She ate maybe three. She sorta got scared and had a very surprised look on her face when she swallowed the first one. You know that part in My Fair Lady where Eliza swallows a marble? "I swallowed one!" That's what ran through my head.

She had fun. So did Mommy. I'm so proud of my little girl. I'm going to stay away from commercial, and even organic prepared baby foods right now and see how she does with soft cut up foods that she can just mash in her hands and eat. I can make my own baby food of course but if she'll eat stuff with her hands, spare me the mess and dishes.

Mom, Dad, and Lisa came to visit last weekend for Celia's graduation from BYU! I'm so glad they were able to make it out here. My kids needed some Christensen time. Seems like every time we get together, Logan just wants to go play with Opa. hey immediately turn into best buds. Erica had a lot less "stranger anxiety" than I thought she would. She got to see Omi again, and meet Opa for the first time! She warmed right up to everyone and loved being held by Omi. I don't know how you do it Mom, but my kids seem to just calm right on down when you hold them. Years of practice you might say, but I think it's something else. They just love you.

Congrats Celia! I'm so excited, I can barely contain it. Can't you tell?

Picture that Auntie Lisa took. Great shot!

Another Auntie Lisa shot. Capturing some good ones!

And here's Logan this morning. :)

I don't think I've ever posted anything about our lovely popcorn popper! We pulled it out for Omi and Opa when they got here. Watched Source Code and munched on this yummy popcorn. We love it. Not a fan of the butter flavored oil though that they recommend using. I like using just plain old butter in there. Much better.

A couple weeks ago, we bought an entryway table off of Tyler's brother and we LOVE it! Still working on how to really decorate it. I just threw what I had on there for now. I'd really like to get working on some table runners for the upcoming holidays. Or learn to crochet one of the table doily things. That would be really pretty. Now, what to put on the wall above it....

Speaking of table runners and making things, I FINALLY finished this quilt I've been working on for years. I get sidetracked with so many other projects and things.

Look closely and you can see the quilting on it. (For those unfamiliar with terms, when someone says "the quilting" on a quilt, they are referring to the decorative stitching). It's just what I wanted.

It's been a really busy couple of weeks. Months actually. I feel like as soon as July rolled in, we've just been busy, busy, busy. We don't have too many plans other than random errands, getting the house bug sprayed and all that, and hopefully some relaxing evenings before 1) Logan starts preschool (last week of August) and 2) we all head out to SoCal that first week of September.

UPDATE: I take that back. We have just been even busier. Ai yai yai.

Tomorrow, we're heading out to Bridal Veil Falls to have a little family picnic! Last time we were up in the canyon, Logan jumped in the creek, found a mud puddle and played in it like it was a bathtub, and then threw dirt all over himself. I know someone in the Brown family got a picture. Gotta track that one down. Erica decided the other day that she no longer likes grass. So, here's hoping that tomorrow doesn't drive us all crazy, haha!

2011-08-13T10:51:00.000-06:00

I get MY computer back today. Yay! I guess I'll need to make a new post soon :)

PS. We finally saw Harry Potter last night. Show started at about 9:45 and we got home a little after midnight. We're paying for it this morning but it was totally worth it.

LDS.org

2011-07-31T12:50:00.008-06:00

The August issue of the Ensign has truly been a blessing! I recently read the article titled: "Garrett Was God''s Child First." (If you're unfamiliar with the LDS church or it's distributed material, visit this link HERE.)

First off, I couldn't help but notice the incredible similarities in facial expression that the boy in the article's picture has with Logan. I took one look at it and just about cried. In fact it was kind of hard not to. I can't explain exactly what I felt, but it just hit home. The look of pure happiness in that little boy's face is the same look I see in Logan's on those really good days when he's been happy all day long. He goes to bed with this expression and I know I've done my job that day. Logan is happy, and I'm happy knowing I couldn't have done any better in helping him with his struggles. Those really are the best days ever.

After finishing the article, I noticed they had a list of suggested reading material that was on LDS.org. Further yet, there is a sister-site called Disability Resources. Why did I not know about this before??? It has been so great to read through. I highly recommend this site, and the article in the Ensign, to anyone who may have someone in their lives with disabilities. I particularly loved this opening statement found on the Autism specific page:

"Autism is a disability with characteristics that vary across a wide spectrum. While persons with autism can’t be identified by their physical appearance, they have similar attributes that can be observed. They usually have difficulties with language or communication, social skills, and behavior, often due to sensory difficulties. Children with severe autism may be nonverbal and seem unaware of other people. Those with mild autism can appear to be incredibly smart but may seem very odd in social interactions. (Describes Logan pretty well). Most people with autism are somewhere in the middle. Even though they have difficulty expressing their feelings and relating to others, people with autism still sense how others feel about them. (< Love this - something we all need to remembering while interacting with children like Logan).

Whether a person’s autism is mild, moderate, or severe, it is commonly accepted to be a lifelong developmental disability. The exact causes of autism are unknown; however, it is a brain-based disorder. It is clear that individuals with autism are born with the disorder or born with the potential to develop it. Autism is not caused by bad parenting."

Autism is not caused by bad parenting.

It's always been really nice to hear that Logan's condition is not a result of bad parenting, whether it be from the people we've worked with in Logan's case, friends, or family. It is one of the most reassuring things I can hear: it's not my fault, and as long as I'm doing what I can, I'm doing a good job. I think I can safely assume that whatever the church publishes on it's website is either inspired by, or a direct doctrine of our Heavenly Father. While it's been such a great blessing to hear offers of reassurance from the people around me, I personally felt in my heart that the last sentence in that statement was something I needed to hear, because I can now know that Heavenly Father wasn't going to hold me accountable for Logan's condition. The rest however I know is up to me.

I know now that Heavenly Father sent Logan to us knowing full well that he would have this struggle. I definitely have questions about it all: why exactly is it necessary for us to experience this? Is this really Logan's trial, or mine and Tyler's? And if it is, why at Logan's expense? Why does he need to suffer on behalf of Tyler and me? If it's purely Logan's struggle, what's the purpose in giving a child so young and innocent such a huge burden?

I know I may never learn the answers to those questions, and there's a simple reason for that:

It doesn't matter.

No one in our family is being punished. No one is at fault. This is a rare and special opportunity for our family to be close. To laugh and cry with one another. To share in the joy of simple triumphs that other families may overlook as insignificant. To learn to listen. To learn to teach. To learn to really be a team.

I didn't know what it was like to parent a "normal" child. I just knew how to parent one like Logan. Erica has been different, easier in fact. She's well...."normal". Sometimes I think to myself, "Wow, parents with normal spectrum children have it eeeaaaasssyy." Of course that is not the case. Everyone has something they're dealing with. I'm grateful we're dealing with this. I'm grateful for the patience it has taught me. I am grateful for the sweet little laughs, the random hugs and kisses - the silent communication among the waves of incoherent babbling and mini-fits of frustration. I am grateful how much I've learned about unconditional love. I can't force anyone to care for my child the way I do, but I can help them see children like him in a new way. I am grateful to have experienced as much as I have and look forward to the progress, as well as the setbacks, that will surely come.

New Favorite

2011-07-30T08:38:00.005-06:00

Logan is getting much more used to Erica, and wanting to help out more - he likes to copy how I play with her. So cute to see my kiddos laughing at each other and interacting. He doesn't like it so much when she touches him though, he always says "Ow!" for some reason. Whatever, haha. Silly kid.

Erica is rolling around like crazy. Remember how I mentioned that she'd never stay on her tummy; always rolling onto her back? Now it's nearly the opposite. She sees something she wants and rolls onto her tummy to get it, back to her back and then onto her tummy again to play with whatever toy she's grabbed. It's cute. Can't put her on the bed anymore if I need to do something upstairs. She just rolls around it too. The floor works just fine.

I tried a new recipe! - more like I tried to remember how Teppanyaki made their fried rice (O.M.G. good) - and just did it with quinoa. It was pretty fantastic.

Here's what I did: I just call it Stir Fried Quinoa

-2 eggs
-Veggies of your choice: I prefer sliced carrots.
-3 C cooked quinoa
-3 Tblsp butter
-2 Tblsp Soy Sauce
-Dash of salt and pepper

In a large skillet, scramble the eggs into small pieces, over medium (slightly higher) heat. Don't make them too dry. Move eggs to a bowl or plate and set aside. Add veggies to the skillet, sliced thin for shorter cooking time. Let them gain some heat and cook slightly, 3-5 minutes. Add quinoa and butter, mixing everything together until the butter is completely melted and absorbed (if there's still streaks of melted butter on the pan as you're mixing, it's not fully absorbed; the pan should appear dry when this step is finished). Add soy sauce and salt/pepper and thoroughly mix in. Keep mixing until the quinoa is no longer sticking together so much, unless you like it that way. Mix the eggs back in. Done!

I could eat this all the time. Mmmm.

PS. I am THIIIIISSS close to finishing the quilt I started like 3 years ago, haha. Pictures soon. I also changed the look of the blog and lost most of the links for the blogs of family and friends that I read. Just because you don't see your blog listed doesn't mean I'm not reading! I'll get around to re-posting yours in my list.

National Fire Hazard Month

2011-07-26T22:01:00.003-06:00

Today is FINALLY the end. The end!

From June 26th through July 26th, residents of the great happy state of Utah shoot off fireworks in celebration of not only Independence Day, but Pioneer Day as well (24th). We get an entire month of "Snap, Crackle, Pop!". Good times. Good times.

Not really. The fun sorta died around oh....day 10, haha. But I'm not going to go out and purposefully ruin anyone's fun. Fire works ARE fun. I really love 'em. The homes behind us and across the open space provide us with a pretty good show in fact. Three or four different shows to choose from. Or I could just stare at one and let my peripheral vision enjoy the rest. EVERY. NIGHT. It wouldn't surprise me at all if those people spend hundreds of dollars on fireworks. I'm starting to feeling like someone is cracking their knuckles up along the inside of my skull.

So yeah. Tonight is the last night. My brain can finally find rest...tomorrow. :)

Random, but I was sadly reminded today just how bad I am at talking to people I don't know very well. I never have anything fun to say! Or I just ramble. That's a really good talent of mine.

I mean, I don't have this problem around Tyler or family or my good friends - I can be quite eloquent actually.

I just type so much better than I talk I suppose. I really need to work on getting comfortable outside my box!

Beating the Heat

2011-07-22T12:36:00.001-06:00

There's been a lot of talk about the immense heat hitting numerous areas of the United States. "Record Breaking" and "Deadly" temperatures seem to be a very common way that reporters and journalists describe "The Inferno."

I won't deny it's been hot. We've been in the 90s for over a week and I don't think it's supposed to let up anytime soon.

What's making me chuckle, is the response to the big question, "How are you beating the heat?"

People are flocking to local pools and beaches, malls and department stores. I just think it's funny. Like, they're saying, "I'm beating the heat by.....going out."

Haha! I know there are many people who don't have the convenience of an air conditioner, but you'd think, since the majority of people probably do, their responses would be more like, "Just cranking up the AC and staying the heck away from it." Just like on those days when it's too cold to go out in the snow, some days are just too hot to stand being outside for more than a minute or two.

Least that's what I'm saying. Seems counter intuitive to go outside to beat the heat.

The Mormon Bachelorette

2011-07-21T09:13:00.002-06:00

For those of you who like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, have you guys seen this? Haha, kinda funny. I may check in and see some of the "episodes" every now and then. Just seems like an odd thing to participate in when your view of dating and relationships is so different from the standards set by the rest of the world, but who knows. If this works for some lucky couple, more power to them.

http://www.themormonbachelorette.com/

Little bit of this, little bit of that. :)

2011-07-20T23:42:00.005-06:00

Logan is starting to play more and more with Erica. For the first few months after she was born, he seemed pretty content to have nothing to do with her. A couple days ago, he realized she would laugh if he threw his soccer ball around. For a good fifteen minutes, I watched in loving amazement as they both enjoyed laughing at each other. Unfortunately, I didn't document that special blip in time with video footage. But here's something else Logan's been enjoying.

Erica likes Peekaboo. Logan, the professional copycat, quickly picked it up. I think she's confused why Logan is saying it and not Mommy. He'll even go into her room sometimes while she's napping and say "Boo!" Yes, once he woke her up and she wasn't too happy about it. I suppose the thought of someone randomly walking into my room and disturbing my innocent sleep with a loud "Boo!" might creep me out too. I'm so glad we keep a child gate on Logan's door still. Who knows what I'd wake up and see in the middle of the night; two little eyes and wide grin just staring at me, waiting for me to wake up. I think I remember Mom saying sometimes we kids would do that, and it would really scare her. I'm sure my day will come. Haha.

Since blogger is being a big booger and takes forever to upload my videos, I'll have to save a few of them for later. I think I get more video of Logan than I do pictures.

Aw, look at me. I love my highchair and binkie!

You can't handle these gorgeous big blues!


My new favorite face.

A month or so ago, I ordered this awesome wall decal off Amazon. Turning my home into a living scrapbook is my ultimate goal, but then, that might be tacky. I still can't deny that I want to do it. It's just, there are so many REALLY cute and really good wall decals and quotes, I could fill my walls. Ones for the bathrooms, laundry room, bedrooms, kid's rooms, you name it. I'm happy with how it turned out. If I hadn't already had such a good day, I might have lost my patience with the decal itself though. A few times it rolled up on me; it's like a giant sticker, and since it came in a tube, it'd obviously been warped into a tubular shape. Trying to untangle it was a nightmare, but I wasn't going to let it defeat me.

Looks like our family pictures are a little outdated, eh? No worries. I'm hoping sometime this fall we can have some family portraits done. And I know just the photographer for the job, and she's moving into the area soon! A girl I knew a little growing up takes some the most amazing photos I've ever seen. Look at her stuff HERE! Just hoping she doesn't book up too soon.

Tyler and I got to go out for a good lunch date today, thanks to our awesome friend and neighbor, who watched Logan for us for a couple hours. Tyler had a small meeting to get to, and then we headed over to Teppanyaki. I was incredibly disappointed to learn they don't put on a show for lunchtime. For lunch and early afternoon, they offer the sushi bar and take out. All I can say is, if you're going to offer a meal and a show that good, it should be readily available at any hour. Seriously. Still, a good ol' trip to Olive Garden suited me just fine. Mmmm. Tyler only ate half of his plate. HALF! He must be sick or something, because that just never happens. I've never known Tyler to take home leftovers. Whatever. Erica slept practically the whole time too. Then she woke up and our waiter complimented us on how adorable she is. Lucky for him - up until that spark of kindness, he wasn't very helpful. She just saved him from a 15% tip. Because of her, he got 18%. I guess I just immediately like people who like my kiddos.

Fun day, fun times. :) Just like life should be.

PS. I've made it my business to bring more humor into this blog. Basically, instead of just going over what we've been doing lately, I'm going to be telling you what I'm THINKING sometimes. Great deal or what? So you tell me: is it working out much? About the same? Lay it to me straight people.

Stay cool my friends, it's hot out there.

Momma and Movies

2011-07-20T19:07:00.001-06:00

I think I need to plan my next baby around movie release dates, that way 1) I don't have to leave the theater to use the restroom every 15 minutes, and 2) I'm not in the nursing/baby's too young to be left with a sitter stage (for my liking). Or... 3) I guess I could learn to be patient. I just want to see Harry Potter!! I think about it every day, haha.

I'm sure it's just me...

2011-07-15T21:10:00.002-06:00

...so don't be offended if you're one of the people who are saying this, haha.

We all know Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 just came out. Obviously everyone is talking about it across the internet and social networks. It's pretty much the biggest movie franchise ever and will certainly define this era of the silver screen.

I can't tell you why I'm bothered by it, but I am. Actually "bothered" isn't the right term; I'm laughing about it and enjoying the fact that it entertains me. Here's what I'm talking about.

Everyone keeps saying things like:

"Just finished watching HP7.1!! Off to see HP7.2 tomorrow! Can't wait!"

Alright, technically speaking, if we're going to use decimals, it's HP7 and HP7.5! Let's get it right! Haha.

Told you it was just me. :)

Update: Saturday morning, 11:00am - so many people are saying 7.2 this morning. I threw my hands up in the air and looked to the ceiling with a humored smile and quietly yelled, "Argh! 7.2! Noo!!"

I amuse myself.

Long post....grab your popcorn...

2011-07-13T15:21:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago we purchased an iPad. It's been great. We love having our scriptures and hymns on it. It's so much easier to carry around at church along with all the kid and baby stuff we have to pack into the diaper bag. Logan realizes now that if he sits pretty still for a good portion of sacrament meeting, we'll let him play some games on it for the rest of the meeting. He's been good about not playing with the volume buttons so far. He really enjoys the Kindergarten app we got for him. It's got visual learning for recognizing words, math, and spelling, writing and tracing letters. Just the kind of stuff he likes. He's also pretty obsessed with Tangrams, a puzzle game that uses just all sorts of shapes to create larger more complex images, and some other puzzle games. While I don't like for him to play on the iPad very much, other than on a need to use because he won't sit still basis, it has come in handy in other ways too. For example, last week Logan decided to wake up super duper early. Erica was just back to sleep after I'd fed her and I certainly wasn't ready to get up for the day. We grabbed Logan from his room so he wouldn't wake Erica up, put him on our bed and let him play with the iPad for a little while so I could get just a little more sleep and Tyler could get ready for work. I actually fell back asleep with him there. Boy, was that nice.

Usually in the evenings, Tyler will put Logan to bed. For some reason, Erica always wants to eat right around Logan's bedtime, but on the days she isn't so picky, I'll take a turn. I think I've just gotten too used to Tyler being the one who watches Logan when he's home, and me with Erica, that I forget just how much I love that one on one time with just him and me, even if it is just for a few minutes before bedtime. (I really want a Logan and me date sometime. We can leave Erica and Daddy at home, hehe). He's so much better with brushing his teeth. He often enjoys repeating the words when I help him say his prayers. Since his ability to communicate exactly what he's thinking hasn't developed, I often sit a little longer with him after the bedtime routine is over and just look in his eyes. He just looks back and smiles. The one thing I'm always thinking in these moments is, “I cannot wait for the day that I get to meet you.”

That's not to say I don't know who Logan is. This is really hard to explain actually. Obviously I know what activities he likes, what foods he likes, but, I have no idea what he's interested in. Does he see birds and wonder why they fly? Does he see a tree and wonder what makes it grow? As far as I've seen, heard or whatever, he doesn't express complicated thought. Most kids his age and younger are asking “Why Mommy?” He doesn't do this. To the developmental professionals, this is a delay. And it may very well be. But at the same time, maybe it's because he trusts that Tyler and I will always tell him what the world around him means, so he doesn't need to ask. I'd still love to hear those words of course.

He is incredibly echolalic. This is the term used at his school district testing. He repeats everything he hears, often over and over. Sometimes, for no apparent reason he'll be playing and babbling things like “Sorry”, “Good job”, “Try again”, or “Erica baby”. I personally see this as a tremendous improvement, seeing as how only 16 months ago, he wasn't saying A SINGLE WORD. Now, he says everything he hears, and quite articulately, including some songs. He's been wanting to read more lately. He wants to play with his flashcards; he loves numbers and words and letters like no other kid I've seen. He recognizes and reads some words, like “cat” and “cow”, “moo” and “quack”. It's been amazing to watch him around other children. While he lacks a lot of very basic social skills, he easily surpasses many children in trivia and educational things. But I think his social skills are coming along a little too. As I sit here typing, he came over and sat down on the couch and put his arm around me. What a cutie pie.

Now onto Erica! She is growing like a weed. She's a healthy weight and height proportion. She's wearing mostly 9 month clothing. She's nearly consistently doing that “swimming” thing on her tummy. She completely straightens herself up into a pushup while on her tummy. She looks around for everything – watching people walk around, looking for the source of any sound she hears. She squeals and smiles all of the time. She's starting to swivel in place, not yet trying to crawl. She sucks on her toes all the time. She expresses what she wants very well, and also what she doesn't like. She reaches out to indicate she wants to be held. She loooves her little bug toy. (It's the one Tyler is dropping onto her tummy in a previously posted video). She gets so happy when she sees it and tries really hard to reach for it. She reaches for anything she can get her hands on. She loves when we read to her. She gets so excited, I think it's hilarious. Much to my dismay, she still wakes up a good 2-4 times a night. Often enough, she doesn't want to go back to sleep right away. In trying to teach her that nighttime is sleep time, she adequately expresses her disappointment when I put her back in her crib and leave the room. Our daytime routine is much much easier to deal with. Even when I hear her in the middle of the night crying out for me, and I get up half asleep and zombie on over to her room, I always love seeing that beautiful little smile on her face as soon as I come into view. That'll never get old.

Loves to sit in her jumper and highchair

Aside from my obvious lack of sleep, there are other fun things to talk about for me. I've been more diligent in my crafting lately, now that Erica goes to bed regularly at the same time each night. I'm working on a jean quilt. I don't think it's going to be as big as I hoped it would be, so my hopes for using it as a picnic and beach blanket may not work out. However, I think it would look really good hanging on the wall in Logan's room. I've also been making cloth letters to hang in the kids' rooms. So far they've turned out cute, and I've learned how to improve some of the letters if I find more reasons to keep making them.

I think I'm going to get rid of the ribbon and somehow hook them to the wall from the backside of the letter. The N is lookin a little hefty too. Oh well. First time around :) You try sewing letters that come full circle and tell me it's easy, haha!

Jean quilt and Erica's letters. Those jean squares alone are 9x5.

Not that anyone really cares to hear about my post-partum weight, I am really proud of myself. For the past month, about 50% of what I eat consists of fruits and vegetables. I think in that time, I've only eaten 3 slices of bread, not because I'm trying to cut it out, but for some reason I just haven't wanted it. We've changed the way we eat a little bit. I do try to find organic stuff. We've cut out a lot of processed food, and we eat mostly things with simplest ingredients. Tyler and I workout everyday, except Sundays. (And can I just say how much more motivating and easier it is to workout when you have a buddy, especially your spouse? It's been great). I've reached my pre-pregnancy weight; just working on being in shape now. I am a huge advocate of just eating right to lose weight. It works people! By September when we visit Socal, I may actually be excited to hit the beach. We'll see.

The weather here has been kind of crummy. For the last week-ish, it's been thunder and lightening, rainy and sunny. The sunny times are too unpredictable to really plan on being outside for very long. It's a bummer really, since we just got Logan a little pool. We bought one and used it but it was defective, so we returned it. Even so, Logan loved that. Hopefully the new one is better. “If only this rain would stop!” ….so we can use it. Who can tell me the movie? Kiel?

I've gone to a chiropractor a couple times in the last week. I was getting the most insane headaches for over a week and a chiropractor was recommended. Good choice in my opinion. If it weren't so expensive, I'd actually go ahead with the adjustment schedule the chiropractor suggests. Having my back adjusted (twice now) is like.....if I knew my back could feel this good, I've have gone a heck of a long time ago. So my back feels great, but my headaches keep coming. Pretty sure it's just the wacky sleep I'm getting, and not enough of it. The weird thing though is the “Ice Pick Headaches” I've been getting a lot lately. Go look that up if you need to. As I was sitting in Relief Society on Sunday, I was getting them like one after another, and they were lasting like 5 seconds each. I mean, DAANG those are like incapacitating. But, after my second back adjustment, on Monday, I haven't had anymore. Hopefully they don't come back.

While at the chiropractor's office, he also took some back x-rays. I've always associated x-rays with “bad” but the more the doc knows about the current structure of the bones, the better he can help. It was interesting to see the difference since I was younger. I have scoliosis. I remember going to see a back doctor all the time when I was little. Mine was never as progressed as my older sister's scoliosis, so after I was about 12ish, I stopped seeing the doctor about it. The last time I remember going, I recall him saying I had an 18 degree curvature to my spine. These new x-rays show I now have a 24 degree curve. (Ah, I'm getting shorter!). Not anything to worry about. That's a pretty slow progression in over a decade. Still it was interesting to see. Technology. We certainly take it for granted.

Lately I've been watching a show called “How the Earth Was Made” on Netflix. It's rekindled my love for geology. I've always loved earth science. I now know that if I ever go back to school for a full blown degree, I want a geology degree. Just can't get enough of it. Plus, I live in a fantastic state for geological study. Utah's geological history is amazing. Allllriiiight, dorkfest over.....except...

Now I keep thinking about all the natural God-made wonders of the world that I want to see with my own eyes in my lifetime. It would just be incredibly fascinating to me! (Tyer...not so much, haha). So far here's my list. The ones with * are the ones I've already seen (though I'd definitely love to see again) and most people probably have. Not all are geological; some are astronomical, which is equally just as fascinating to me: there's probably more cool stuff out there to see that I don't have listed...

-Orion Nebula

-A meteor crater

-The Milky Way Band*

-The Andromeda Galaxy

-Rings of Saturn

-A comet*

-An eclipse*

-Lava (yes I want to get up close and see that molten rock in all it's magnificence).

-A glacier (the Aletsch Glacier in The Alps looks like it would be awesome).

-An ocean ice shelf

-The Grand Canyon

-The San Andreas Fault (particularly The Scar part of it).

-Yellowstone*

-Yosemite and Half Dome* (though I've yet to climb half dome).

-Straight on view of rock layers with a volcanic ash band

-The Matterhorn in The Alps

-Niagara Falls

-Mammoth Caves*

-Sequoia and Redwood trees, the tallest kind of tree in the world*

-A whale (in the ocean)

Random thing I've been wanting to do lately – I want to build my own console table for the entryway in our home. All the ones I want are too expensive and all the ones I can afford look like crap. I have an image in my mind of how I could build it and paint or stain it, and I think it would just be great fun. I'm not too bad a handy-gal either, or so I'd like to think. I doubt I'll ever get around to it, but it's still a fun ambition to have. We also have a GIGANTIC mirror upstairs that goes with our dresser, but I don't particularly like the way it looks. If there's anywhere I can find that cuts mirrors and glass, I have a few places in the house I've love to put bits of that mirror.

Tyler is working a little bit at a prospective new job today. Usually Wednesdays are his day off. But, he figured he might as well see what it would be like to work there before actually jumping all in. We've been weighing the pros and cons for a little while and so far it seems like a great opportunity. There's actually very few cons, which is probably why I don't feel quite sure about it. I guess I'm hoping for a definite feeling of do or don't, but that may never come. So, we'll see what happens there.

Is your popcorn bowl empty?

Take care everyone :) We love you all.

The Chillins

2011-06-30T10:29:00.001-06:00

Ah! Get that camera outta my face!

All binkies beware - I EAT YOU!

I guess I'll finally smile for the camera.

Erica for some reason enjoyed having her little stuffed animal dropped onto her tummy. Logan enjoyed feeling in control of the situation: "Ready, set....GO!"

Lately...

2011-06-28T22:00:00.002-06:00

Hola! So here's what's new with us...

Logan had some more testing last week with the school district and qualifies for their preschool. For those of you unaware of our situation, he is developmentally delayed. While the school district does not make any official diagnosis, his scores placed him on a scale that indicated it is very likely he is autistic. We're still not sure if a real diagnosis is something we want to pursue at this time. I used to be reluctant to talk about it, but after all we've been through, I don't care who knows it and I don't give a darn what anyone thinks about my child anymore. He is the biggest sweetheart you'll ever meet. He doesn't always understand what you're saying to him and because of that, he doesn't react the way other children do. To most people, this makes him look like he just has behavior issues, but those of us who know and love him, we know he's just confused. He needs a little bit of patience from everyone. We talk a little slower with him, using simple words. We give him more time to respond. He's learning a lot and talks all of the time, though rarely to anyone unless he wants something. There are many days where he flat out surprises me. Like how lately, he's started pointing to things and using the word "that". It's a big deal! He's using a pronoun. I've seen some changes in the way I deal with everything too. The last few weeks have really been enlightening for me. I've talked to a lot of parents with autistic children over the last few years, and one just recently who especially who helped me feel .....I can't really think of a good way to put it, but I've always felt very much alone in this situation. She changed that. She helped me realize there truly is someone else who knows exactly what we're going through over here - someone I can openly talk to about it all and know she doesn't just sympathize. I could have kept talking with her forever. Laughing and crying. I am considerably more optimistic about Logan than I have ever been, and we are ready for his next step. As of right now, the only thing I'm dreading is the moment I watch his little school bus drive away...

Since my outlook on all of this has improved over the last year, I've had a lot of time to realize a few things about myself, too. This might sound a little selfish I suppose. I would give up anything for my children but I've realized I NEED NEED NEED to have some 'me' time. When I don't get enough sleep (can't remember the last time I did) I can't give my kids what they need. I am a better mother when I feel good about myself. This means most days, all I need is a good workout, a shower, and have some time to make myself cute. When I go days without putting on some mascara, let alone any makeup at all, I just feel frumpy, and that's not good for me or my family. Anyhow, to wrap up this section of gibberish, momma needs to feel like a human being once in a while or everyone suffers. And since the whole point of being a momma is to love and nurture those special little spirits, best that momma gets what she wants.

A minute or two to check email or answer notes on Facebook helps too.

Tyler and I have some uncertain but rather exciting opportunities in our future, so we're looking forward to see if those things work out or not. Nothing I can really spill the details about because nothing is set in stone, but it's along the lines of business and such. Tyler could have some good doors opening for him. We'll see.

Erica is five months old. Can you believe it?? What a cute ball of pudge she's turning into. She is definitely a squealing machine. Always laughing and smiling, except when I try to take her picture of course. Can't get her to smile at all if she knows the camera is there. She's almost ready to sit up and often looks like she's trying to. She holds onto me when I carry her on my hip. She takes turns talking with us. She babbles, we babble and back and forth. It's cute. She's starting to do the swimming thing sometimes during tummy time. All things Logan didn't do that young or even at all. But I'm really trying to not compare them. I see the differences, but it makes no difference. She isn't trying solids yet. We're going to wait until 6 months old. We're also waiting until she's at least 10 months old before she gets any vaccines. We love our family doctors and this is what they've recommended.

(There's just too many words in this post. Not enough picturage).

Something that made me laugh this evening:
Friend's status on facebook:
"The weather is crazy. Thunder and lightening in June?? Who would have thought?"

I just laughed. Maybe it's because lightening storms are always at their best in the summertime. Maybe it's because I watched a Discovery program about lightening. I dunno. I thought it was common knowledge that lightening storms need warm air in order to form.

Tyler, after I told him what was so funny, asked, "Wait, this was a family member who said that?"

"No no, of course it wasn't. If it had been, I'd have had no problem letting them know how dumb they are."

So there it is. If you are a family member reading this, you can thank me later. It's a blessing to know I would be that honest with you. Second, I just saved you any doubt Tyler may have had on your intelligence if this was something you planned on putting as your status anytime soon.

Next time I post, I have a cute little video of Erica laughing to share with you!

Take care everyone! :)

Imaginary Beach with a Playground

2011-06-16T10:01:00.001-06:00

First off, a fun video of the giggling princess, held captive by the roaring monster aka Daddy.

Swinging...

Swinging is pretty much the best. You can't look at that face and NOT want to swing.

Fuzzy head. Just chillin'

I thought my hair was straight.

Presh.

After trying every trick in the potty training book we could find with no results, Logan sat on his little potty last night for a good 45 minutes... and TOTALLY peed in that toilet. Cue victory music. No really his potty played victory music. Something stupid sounding. Would have been a whole lot better if it sounded like this:

(Link)

2011-06-07T09:45:00.001-06:00

The girl...

SUPERBABY!

Camera! Surprised face.

The boy...

No more pictures, Mommy!

5 Years!

2011-05-28T08:27:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary!! 5 whole years :)

It's amazing to me what time can do. Tyler and I were young and in love when we met. Got married, how could life get any better? Two kids, 3 residences, 3 cities, 5 years later, our lives have been so much better than I think I could have realized. We've grown so... comfortable around each other, talk about anything and everything, laugh all the time - I'd say we're more in love than ever. Enough with the mushy.

We celebrated our special day on Wednesday, since Tyler has that day off work every week. We left Logan with his Mom and took Erica out with us. We went to the Riverwoods shopping area in north Provo, ate a great meal at Tucanos, and browsed just about every shop there. We stopped at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory first, since I LOOOOVE their caramel apples. I loved browsing the shops - but we don't really go shopping, like, at all. So we didn't actually end of buying anything other than a few books at Borders. There were LOTS of really fun shops with little housing and decor accessories, clothing, and some that were just so darn expensive, it was just fun to look at. Who spends $5.5k on a sleigh bed?? $3.5k on a chair? Haha

It was a fun afternoon. A much needed afternoon. It's a little sad I guess, but we don't get out on dates more than maybe 3-4 times a year.

Last night, since it was actually the day of our anniversary, Tyler's brother called us up and surprised us! They offered to take us out to Teppanyaki. I've never been there before. I grew up (SF Bay Area) seeing commercials for a restaurant called Beni Hana, and I knew it was something like that.

SO GOOD. SO FUN.

I didn't take that picture. I pulled it from google. But you get the idea. It was GREAT. The food was outstanding (why did we go to Tucanos on Wednesday??). Our cook was so funny and made it a fun show, even for the kids. Logan was a little unsure about the whole flame thing. He'd just stare at it with this look of confusion on his face, while leaning as far back in his chair as he could. At other tables, you could see children running away, off their chairs and towards the door haha. It was a little more expensive than Tucanos, which is the most expensive restaurant we usually go to, but you get what you pay for. Great show, awesome food. Even something as simple as the friend rice...I was in heaven with that stuff. Erica slept the whole time, freeing us from the torture of rocking her to sleep or hearing her cry in the middle of a restaurant, haha.

It was a great way to end the day, and anniversary week. Date with Tyler, he came home early yesterday with my favorite frozen yogurt, and then an enjoyable dinner. Made the whole "big 5th anniversary" more fun that we got to celebrate over a few days. :)

Coming up - memorial day BBQ with the whole Brown family! Hoping this darn rain goes away before Monday!

Finished

2011-05-24T13:47:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago before Mother's Day I got some new books to read. I read too fast. I've already read them all.

Not 5 minutes ago, I finished reading The Curse of the Wendigo (I know it sounds kinda weird), which is the second book in the series. The first book is called The Monstrumologist, and a third book comes out this fall. Here is a link to the author/book site. There's a video there that might trick you into thinking it's a movie trailer, but it isn't. As far as I can tell, there's no movie in the works yet. And even if there were, I'm not so sure I'd see it. And here's why:

I loved the books. Go read them and come back and read that again. I loved the books. You'll think I'm crazy, or a perhaps a psychopath. The books are creepy. Beyond creepy. If it were a movie, it would be rated R, and even then, the morbidity would need to be taken down a notch. There are even a couple segments of the story that really rubbed me the wrong way, but it's just part of the story. I don't love that stuff. Spooky stuff. You need a very strong stomach or a weak imagination to read these books. Strange enough though, I never really went to bed frightened. Shocking really, since I scare easily. (Tyler would probably attest that I suffer from some slight paranoia even. Which is understandable. I worry about my kids. Normal right? Someone know what I'm talking about please?)

I loved Rick Yancey's writing style. It was very reminiscent of older writing, like Jane Austen or Bram Stoker's Dracula. I didn't know anyone wrote that well anymore. While I'm not one to poke a finger at inferior oratory abilities, books like Twilight or The Hunger Games, or even Harry Potter have nothing on these books in regard to word flow. It might just be me. We all have our opinions.

Aside from the spooky, I'm looking forward to the third book!

The Post-Partum Mind

2011-05-18T22:40:00.001-06:00

Allow me to explain a little bit about the last few months of the pregnancy experience. This may also be part of the early stages as well. For me, it's the entire 9 month process. The following went through my head every second of every day:

NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEEEVVVEEERRRR.

Want to know what's going through my head now?

I want another one. I want another one. I want another one.

Yup, and it hasn't even been 4 months.

That is not an announcement. Just sharing my insanity with the world.

(But, take a look below and I'm sure some light can be shed on that mental migration).

Kiddos

2011-05-18T14:23:00.001-06:00

Beauty...

And the Beast...

No, just kidding. It's Logan counting his Easter loot. Guess I don't have a very recent picture of him. I'll get on that.

Early Mother's Day gifts

2011-05-05T09:58:00.002-06:00

I've already read The Hunger Games Book 1, so Tyler got me the next two, as well as another series that had decent reviews. It has a third book that comes out in September. I love books! Growing up, a part of our family room furniture consisted of over a dozen large shelves, full of books. My Mom and Dad had collected them throughout their lifetime and read them all, from many different genres. There must have been hundreds. I'm sure they had many other books stashed all over the house, but looking back, I'm grateful that those bookshelves were there. Whether intended or not, they were sort of a symbol of the importance of learning and reading. I hope I can collect enough books to create the same example in my own home.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

2011-04-21T12:13:00.000-06:00

As I said in the video, Erica has been rolling over since she was 3 weeks old. Tummy time is really hard to come by because she just keeps rolling. Hopefully it doesn't interfere with learning to crawl. Maybe she'll just roll herself around the room to get where she wants.

She holds her head up really well now as you can see and (before rolling) loves to look around and see the world from a new point of view. How do you like her patchy hair? The right side of her head is pretty much bald, and that spot in the front doesn't look like it'll ever fall out. I'm not sure how to deal with that; making her hair look girly is a new thing for me. Can't really just buzz it like I do with Logan...

Erica's newest developments: sometimes I think she's trying to sing with me. It's really cute. She's also starting to laugh, but she doesn't quite have the continuous chuckle down yet. :)

Last night she slept from 9:30pm until 4:30am. It was FANTASTIC! Then, after eating a little bit, she slept from 5 until 9 this morning. I can't help but get my hopes up that this will soon be the norm. Fingers crossed!

As for the rest of us, life is good. Logan's just as cute as always, though still getting sick regularly (I'll try to get some recent pictures of him), work is going well for Tyler, and I'm just trying to keep up with the kids. We all love to be home together, or out playing. I've been baking a lot lately. I don't think I'll be purchasing bread ever again. Even though I feel like I'm in the kitchen a lot, it makes me happy to know my family eats well (at home - still trying to convince Tyler that Ramen isn't exactly a great lunch everyday, no matter how cheap it is, haha).

Lickety Letters!

2011-04-12T18:23:00.003-06:00

Logan is just shy of obsessed with letters lately. Here's what he did this evening all by himself.

We decided to finally retrieve the Y from under the stove so he can complete the alphabet.

Things like this make me smile :)

Awake

2011-04-12T06:01:00.000-06:00

Been up since 4.

Erica is incredibly congested. One of those moments where, do I wait it out? or just take her to the hospital now? take her to the doc and have Tyler take off work yet again? I hate illness!! My poor babies!

Logan seems to be doing slightly better. At least no one is coughing their guts up, which is reassuring. It can't be that bad of a virus.

Still, I hate sitting and waiting and worrying. I've been suctioning crap outta Erica's nose pretty much every hour for the last day and a half.

Is it crazy to WANT to get sick too, just so she can get the anti-bodies from nursing? TMI? Boy, I'm tired.

Good morning.

2 months old

2011-04-05T15:58:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to redesign the way my blog looks, so that's why it looks horrible. That and I just gave up on it for now.

Erica is now 2 months, 1 week and 3 days old :) She had her 2 month check up last week.

Stats:
Height: 24 inches
Weight: 13lbs 11oz
Can't remember the head circumference, but it was good.

Both her height and weight are in the 94% for her age. (I guess this means she'll be tall too. Logan just turned 3 and already looks like he should be in Kindergarten). Erica is happy and healthy and doing very well! She didn't receive any immunizations yet; she'll get her first shots this Fall. She loves sitting in my lap and reading books, and loves to "dance" to whatever music we've got playing. She can now roll from tummy to back in both directions, and if it weren't for her little arms, she'd have rolled from back to tummy a long time ago. She likes to look around during tummy time, but after a few minutes, she'll get cranky and turn into a bobblehead, or just roll over to her back again. I think it's cute :) She still spits up quite a bit, so we're running with trial and error in the "what does Mommy have to cut out of her diet now (*roll my eyes*)" department. I've given up soda, but for now it's carbonation altogether. Good-bye seltzer water.

She's been all smiles lately, and loves when we talk to her. Here's a video and some pictures I took of her the other day - PLEASE ignore the repetitive "Mamama's" and "Smile please" and such; I just say it to get her to smile, but after watching the video, I realized it's pretty darn annoying, haha. The video camera was very interesting apparently. She got super fidgety whenever she saw it.

Has anyone else ever noticed that I sound like Snow White when I talk to babies? I really need to work on that.

Logan is sick again, and this time Tyler is too, but life with two children is getting easier. If I need to go someplace with both of the kids, I'm sure I can manage it stress-free now. Tyler likes taking turns with me to watch Erica so I can have some Logan/Mommy time, and of course Erica/Daddy time is important too. We have so many things in mind to do this summer with both of them. The zoo, aquarium, hikes, walks around the Temple, sports, and just plain being out in the sun! I can't wait for the consistently warmer weather, BBQs, family get-togethers, friends, playdates, and all that fun stuff. I'm crossing my fingers for maybe a chance that ALL (Tyler too) of us can visit Cali sometime soon too. I really want to take my kids to the beach! I can just see Logan squealing and laughing as he runs away from the waves. He's at a really good age to see and do everything.

We enjoyed spending time with Tyler's family for Conference. Yummy food and fun. Even though everyone says this, there truly were some talks I needed to hear. I can't pick a favorite.

Lately, in what seems to be spare time, but really isn't because Erica is unpredictable, we've been watching the show BONES. We're halfway through season 5 now, and even though I go to bed nearly terrified, I like how intellectual it is....I AM slowly getting over the "zombie under my bed" state of mind that comes from watching things like this. Maybe I'll be able to handle seeing a horror movie in a year or two. Once Erica starts to sleep more at night and less during the day, perhaps I can pick back up on a few of my sewing and crafting projects in the evenings like I used to do. I'm really starting to miss that creative outlet.

Tech Fail

2011-03-28T11:14:00.000-06:00

Dear Belkin Router and Apple TV,

Could you two get over your differences and work together? I'm talking ASAP. Especially you Apple. If it weren't for the monthly fee, I'd have gone back to Xbox Live long ago.

I'm going to assume we've reached an agreement on this. I expect results.

Sincerely,

The woman who hasn't yet thrown you both at a wall.

Guess I won't be doing that again...

2011-03-23T18:19:00.000-06:00

It's not unusual for me to go grocery shopping or be baking something on an empty stomach. It's a great motivator to get up and get that errand out of the way, or to try something new. But, we're told never to do anything food related while hungry - we just end up making bad food decisions.

I now know not to purchase certain foods anymore. I completely consume them within 24 hours of eating them. Cheezits, oreos, candy...ya know, all that good processed stuff.

Now I have this problem with making things at home. I made these cute little single serving mint ice cream cups with oreo crust (MMMmmm) a couple months ago:

It wasn't a great idea, even though it seemed like one to begin with. Let's just say one wasn't enough and leave it at that.

Then a few weeks ago, I decided to use up some of the pretzels in the pantry, and make these cute things!

Cute was a good description wasn't it? The sprinkles just give these treats LIFE! But, they were gone (I had help) before the day was over.

Where is the self control? No where to be found. I guess my pregnancy appetite decided to stick around. Two more things to check off the "Never buy/make again" list.

Best update of 2011

2011-03-19T22:34:00.000-06:00

Wow I've really neglected the blog!! Some days just go on by without giving me a moment - I've been known lately to completely forget about showering, or whether Logan has had a nap. Oops!

Most everyone I know has heard the good news: we have a new, cute and cuddly bundle of joy now! Erica is a week shy of 2 months old.

...and it feels like it's been two months. No, time is not passing quickly for me. She loves to be awake at night, and seeing as how I lack the talent of falling easily to sleep while the sun is out, time is moving all too slowly. It wasn't my intention to start out my post on a slightly sour note - after all, Erica means everything to us! Buuuut, I've had a few zombie like days. Take "zombie" literally, please.

And now the girl you visited this blog to see: :D

Newborn photo


A little older...

And older...

And yesterday :)


Last night.


Today.

Today :)

As you can see, she is happy and growing!

The delivery went really well. Went to the hospital at 6:30 in the morning, got all the inducement stuff going and she was here at 12:30pm. Less than 3 minutes of pushing - just through one contraction. THANK YOU EPIDURAL. She was 7 lbs, 14 oz, and 19 inches long. "Practically perfect in every way." She is so beautiful. I love just looking at her. Tyler got to be home with me for that first week after she was born. Logan got sick that week, so his help was definitely needed, and I'm so grateful for him.

She wasn't a great sleeper to begin with, but I think she's getting a LITTLE better. Last night she slept a good three and a half hours straight. I think I got 6 hours total. When Tyler is home and I she and I get to sleep in (I have the best husband), I don't typically get up until about, oh...10:30 on those days. THOSE ARE THE BEST DAYS EVAAHHH!!!

:)

Erica's been pretty well tempered for the most part. She cries when she's hungry, though now she doesn't really cry for that anymore - more like grunts. It's the cutest thing. She makes little squeals in her sleep.   She curls up her legs underneath herself whenever you pick her up, which is in my opinion one of the CUTEST things about babies. She rolled from tummy to back for the first time when she was 3 weeks old and has now rolled a total of 9 times. It's an off and on thing. Sometimes she'll do it a couple times in a row and other times not at all. She loves to look around and follows me with her eyes whenever I walk around her or around the room. She's smiling a whole lot more now, which you can tell from the pictures. She's also done some cooing. When she's really awake, she loves to kick her legs and wave her arms around a lot. I love it! She loves music time - any kind of music really and I help her clap her hands to the beat. When I sing, she smiles: Logan yells at me, haha. Logan knows who she is, though he doesn't try to interact with her very much. He loves to give her kisses (which have ceased for now since he's still a little sick).

A couple weeks ago she was blessed in Tyler's parents ward in Orem, Utah and it was lovely. My family, minus Shelley and her family, and Dad, were all here for it. I love it when they visit! Logan enjoyed having Omi here all to himself for a week, but then got a little unsure when two of his younger cousins (crawlers) came to visit, haha. He turned into a little bit of a bully (which isn't really like him) and would occasionally throw toys. Poor Bruce and Sydney.

As for how we've all been the last few weeks, Logan has been sick for a week and a half with a horrible cough and cold thing that resembled the symptoms of whooping couch. He lost his appetite for 4 days as well, and would only drink juice and milk. Then on day 5 he started finally taking a couple bites. At least he stayed hydrated. He's doing well now, but still coughs occasionally and has some yucky congestion. Erica was spared from everything but a little congestion, thanks probably to nursing. She picked that up like a pro. So glad we don't have to buy formula (as well as wash a million bottles a day) along with all the diapers - two kids in diapers, ugh. We're putting in the real effort this week though to get Logan potty trained.

I've been feeling pretty good as far as everything post-partum goes. My weight loss was excellent according to my Doc, but this week, my scale betrayed me and decided to ADD a pound instead of subtract. How it mocks me.    I've had no real problems with the baby blues at all, but I do have my moments of frustration. Normal. All worth it :D.

Definitely worth it.

I'll try to be a little more reliable at posting!

Flats

2011-01-04T12:59:00.000-07:00

I just felt like sharing this little tipbit about myself, for absolutely no reason whatsoever and in no way to discourage anyone from doing what they want to, like to do, or like to wear, haha.

But...I hate flats. I just don't understand the appeal. They hurt and cut the back of your heels, they have no support for your arch and I just don't like how they look. (I take that back slightly, I actually think they look okay on someone who can pull off the skinny jeans, other than that, nope). Some flats look alright. For example, I think Sketchers has some cute looking flats. Maybe because many of them have a little bit of heel built into it and some arch support. But real flats, those ones that barely even stay on your foot and only cover your toes, those.

Am I the only one? It's totally cool if I am, I have no problem with other people wearing them at all. I just don't see how people can stand it, haha.

Give me some high heels and I'm a happy girl. Or slippers.

Halloween

2010-12-29T10:33:00.001-07:00

Alright, this is WAY late, but here's a few pictures of Logan in all his Lost Boy awesomeness. I think the costume turned out pretty good! Go me! Haha! We unfortunately weren't able to get the red mohawks to work, but whatever...it's still cute :)

Clicking on the image should give you a higher resolution. (Fam, you may drag and save these if you'd like).

TRON

2010-12-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

Tyler and I are interested in seeing the new TRON: Legacy about to hit theaters in a couple of weeks. I've never seen the original TRON, back from 1982, so we've been searching high and low for it with no luck whatsoever. I take that back, we could probably buy a (rare) copy of the 20th anniversary edition for what....$120? No thank you. Tyler's parents think they have a VHS copy somewhere. but they can't find it.

On a different note, Logan has been playing with his cute new nativity set that Omi and Aunt Brittany made for him. He loves it. I don't know why I didn't give it to him earlier. He's been playing with it for an hour. Tyler and I were looking at the Three Wise Men figures and got onto the topic of the gifts that they gave to the Baby Jesus.

Sry for stealing the picture Shelley, haha.

"What the heck are Frankincense and Myrrh??" I asked.

So we looked it up. They're both a sort of tree sap used for fragrance and stuff - maybe you already knew that - but that's beside the point actually. At the time of the gift giving, these two gifts, as well as the third one - gold, were very special and rare things to have. These wise men gave these rare items to the babe as a token of their respect for their newborn King.

Call it whatever you want, but what Tyler said next just made me laugh.

"So is that like giving someone a copy of TRON?"

No disrespect to the Wise Men and their gifts, or Baby Jesus intended. :)

Laugh Until You Cry

2010-12-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

Tyler and I love to laugh. Who doesn't? There are so many things to laugh about all around us, so we take those opportunities to point and laugh. When we do this, we are rarely pointing at other people, so rest assured we're not total jerks.

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day health-wise. Tyler has been sick and congested for over a week, and Logan woke up with a snot faucet set on the highest possible flow. I woke up puking my guts (obviously from the pregnancy, I'm not really 'sick') and well, that's just that. So, it was a stay in, stay warm kind of day. It's really odd but it's as if 50% of the time, someone isn't feeling well over here lately. Guess it's time to up the Vitamin C intake. But, we had fun being together despite the ailments.

As it was nearing bedtime for Logan, we noticed that he hadn't done much high intensity playing - running, jumping...just the "get your wiggles out" kind of playing. If he doesn't have this before bedtime, he doesn't sleep well. Kids need to get them wiggles out!

Tyler took over the task of getting Logan some rough play. They wrestled and tickled and laughed and I laughed watching. (I can't wait to have this baby and be able to run and jump and all that good stuff again).

The REALLY funny part, at least to me, was when Tyler suddenly picked up one of Logan's toys - a doll thing..boy named Buddy that has a bunch of animals and buttons for learning and interactive play on him - and started chasing Logan with it. I can't begin to describe how funny it looked to see Tyler manipulate this little funky farmboy doll into running around after Logan. I think it had something to do with how the doll waddled and it's feet actually looked like they were running after him. It was just absolutely hilarious to me, and to Logan. Tyler got the biggest kick I think out of the fact that Logan loved it so much, and that I was dying with laughter on the couch. I could barely breath, I was laughing so hard - and since laughing uses a lot of abdominal muscles, I got worried about inducing labor, haha. Not really, but the thought did occur to me. So I tried to calm myself down a little. Just too funny.

Anyhow, that was our evening. THE END :)

Thanksgiving!

2010-12-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry I won't be posting any pictures, but if you know Britt's blog, you can see them there :)

I am so grateful for a lot of things in my life. It would take me forever to name them all, so I'll just let you all assume what those things are; they're probably the same sort of things you're grateful for as well :)

I am especially grateful that I was able to attend Thanksgiving with my family. The last 'holiday' I was able to spend with them was also Thanksgiving, but in 2007.   Before that, it was Christmas 2005. That's life though I suppose. I've become accustomed to spending the holidays with Tyler's family over these 5 years - his family is awesome and though I definitely miss my own family every holiday, I never feel like it's "just not the same."   It's been a fantastic blessing to live so near to The Brown clan.

So, I got to spend Thanksgiving with my fam this year, sort of a last minute thing. Tyler wasn't able to come with me, and I just couldn't bring myself to be comfortable with driving the whole way to SoCal at 7 months pregnant. Though I'm also very grateful my little sister Celia could drive with me, being the only driver just didn't sit well with me.

Plans were in order to have Celia fly out to Cali and back, but at the last minute, my mom decided she could just fly out to Utah and drive down with Celia, Logan and me so that we all could be there. Thanks so much Mom!!

Mom (Omi) flew in Monday morning and spent the day at my place. It was a lot of fun catching up. I miss seeing my family so much! Logan quickly warmed up to Omi. That made me happy, since obviously he doesn't see her very often.   We left for Provo that afternoon, but not before stopping at Tyler's work so he could wish us all a good trip and say good-bye. In Provo, we picked up Celia and headed out to St. George where we stayed at my aunt's place for the night. Always a good time at the Clark's house :) My mom's younger sister, Andra, also came by to visit us. I think we were all up until about 1:30 just chatting away. Thanks Kristen, Tessa, and Scott for letting us invade for the night!   Logan was awesome with the drive by the way and even went right the sleep without the barrier of a door gate to keep him in his room that night.

Good thing we left when we did - Northern Utah got quite the storm on Tuesday.

Next morning, Aunt Kristen made us some yummy pancakes and we were off to Yucaipa! I can't remember when it was exactly that we got there. We were the first to check in at Hotel Jordan (Shelley and Steve's house ;) - which is pretty much the best hotel around. They take care of you there. Thanks so much Shell!!). Wednesday afternoon, Dad, Brittany, Gabe, and Sydney arrived, and then that night Lisa drove up from San Diego. Grocery shopping, catching up, grandkids playing and bickering all began in full force, haha. It was so much fun.

Thursday - THANKSGIVING! - we had a great time just cooking, and baking, and having fun. Melissa drove up with Bruce (Kiel had to work). Bruce - how do you describe the cuteness!?! I just loved being with the fam! (But also wishing every minute that Tyler could be there too). I was in charge of the mashed potatoes. I wasn't able to mash them (my preggo-ness doesn't allow for too much strenuous activity) so Mom took that job as I gave her the ingredients - I wanted to try a new recipe I found. They were pretty good :)

Friday, we had yummy leftovers, Kiel drove up with Melissa and Bruce again, and we all headed out to the Apple Cider and Apple Butter Festival in Oak Glen, near Shelley's place. It was fun! We took family pictures, joked and teased our photographer (Britt -hehe), spent some time at the festival, let the kids see the goats and animals there, and just had a great time! That night, those of us who hadn't already seen Harry Potter went out to the movies. GOOOOOOOOOOD MOVIE.   I felt a little bad about seeing it without Tyler, but, I don't mind seeing it again ;)

Saturday morning, we said our goodbyes and Celia, Logan and I headed back to Utah. I was nervous about driving the whole way back (about 10 hours) in one day, but another storm was supposed to hit Saturday night/Sunday morning, so, we had to get home or I'd have had a breakdown I'm sure - I just hate driving in the snow! The drive went very well and we made really good time. I started to get a bit drowsy as we neared St. George but luckily we were planning on stopping there anyway. We stopped in St. George for lunch at my aunt and uncles restaurant and of course they insisted we eat for free - Thanks a bunch Andra! Logan barely had any trouble with the drive and even fell asleep for a whole 10 minutes at one point. Once we got to Utah county is when I got REALLY anxious - drivers are just plain STOOPID in Utah County. Boy was that fun. After I dropped Celia off in Provo, all I could think was, "35 miles and we're home - please don't let us die this close to home." Exaggerated I know, but come on, if you've seen the drivers here, you know your life is at stake every time there's a curve in those construction filled lanes.

Logan and I were both so happy to finally be home and see Tyler. Although Tyler missed us very much, I think he enjoyed his vacation - at least one of us got one, haha. Don't get me wrong, being with family is the best thing ever, but I still had full on diaper duty and childcare on my hands, which isn't a vacation...I'm sure you other parents understand :).   I'm glad Logan was able to spend so much time with his cousins though. They entertained each other nicely.

Well!...that's this year's Thanksgiving tale. :)   I hope everyone had a great one! Bring on Christmas!

By all accounts, it doesn't make sense...

2010-11-17T18:16:00.000-07:00

You know that scene in The Emperor's New Groove when Kronk and Yzma are chasing Cuzco and Pacha, and at the end, somehow Kronk and Yzma catch up to them? Kronk pulls out a chart and says, "You got me. By all accounts it doesn't make sense."

If that doesn't make sense, I feel sorry for ya...you've missed out on a great comedic moment. But this is all pretty much beside the point.

I had my glucose tolerance blood test last week to be tested for gestational diabetes. I'm good just so you know. Happy day too, because I am in charge of the potatoes at Thanksgiving and I wasn't about to give up starchy goodness if I had to be the one buying it. That and sweet things. Oh yummy sweet things.

With Logan, I was borderline diabetic (gestational). They run a test to check your blood sugar levels after drinking a thing of like, pure sugar. Normal ranges are something like 65 to 134 nowadays. When I was tested with Logan, the top of that margin was 140. I was 139. Obviously, had I been tested now with him, I would have had to undergo more testing and probably been diagnosed. Now the interesting part is, I repulsed sugar with Logan. Fruit was about the closest thing I wanted to sweets. I wasn't overindulgent.

I am having some issues with this pregnancy in regards to sugar. I love it. In fact, I insisted on buying not only a large bag of Hershey' Kisses yesterday at the store, but cookies too.

They were scrumptious, thank you.

My results last week came back with awesome results. 69. I now refer again to the title of this post.

HUH??

(Anyone happen to know what it means when you're lower than normal? Is that bad?)

Oh well, I'll take the good news. On another note, I was diagnosed with moderate Anemia. That explains a lot. I've had so little energy, I was about to ask them about it. Time to get more iron into my diet...and they prescribed me something, of course. I hate pills.

Yup, that's it for today :)

Stay tuned for a couple more crafts I've been working on.

PS. My shoulder devil keeps telling me to eat another cookie. Just one more....one more.

Lucky You!

2010-11-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

Congrats!!

If you are reading this, you've been stamped with the Brigitte Brown mark of approval and can now view my blog any darn tootin' time you want to. Visit often. My posts will continue to consist of family updates and little nifty things I like to do in my spare time.

Why women often feel worthless...

2010-11-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recently sent out a link to a clever blogger and I believe his view on why most women very frequently feel undervalued and worthless to be kind of intriguing. It's a good read for both men and women. It might help us all feel a little better about ourselves and the messages we send to our friends, loved ones, spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, or other single friends.

Read it here. Read it all.

Christmas Crafts

2010-11-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

As promised, some pictures of the little things keeping me busy lately...

Cute little stocking ornaments. You can just barely see the green one I made through the branches.

I enjoy painting wood letters and other wood crafts for my home. But using fabric, I don't have to worry about the paint and design looking bad because these fabrics already have a great pattern! I'm also going to have to point out how much I love my tree this year. It was pretty dull last year. The snowflakes were only $3 for a package of 20 at Walmart! I love 'em. They looked tacky in the package (they have glitter all over them), but you can't even tell once they're on the tree.

I've discovered that many of the crafts I see made out of wood and painted all cute, can just as easily be done with fabric and a little imagination. Plus, it's less messy (most time's less money too) and quite a bit easier than if you're the type that cuts the wood yourself. I'm enjoying it :)

Here's my latest quilt. I sent this one, as well as a baby quilt I'd been working on since I was pregnant with Logan, off to be professionally quilted today, I'm just not that good at it. Okay, I SUCK at it; puckers galore. But, I should be getting them back before Thanksgiving! I can't wait!

Another set of stuffed letters. I'm planning on making a cute little snowman to sit at the end of these and complete the white-blue-white pattern I'm going for here.And a cute recent picture of Logan. He get's kind of silly and shy around the camera these days. I hope to get those pictures of Logan from Halloween soon! He was such a cute little Rufio!

Christmas Couch Potato Crafts

2010-11-08T14:02:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a few home made Christmas decorations - particularly things that don't require my butt to leave the couch or sewing table. Also because we've been watching The Office from start to finish and I wanted to be productive during all those hours. I'll be posting a few pictures soon!

PS. Picture of Logan all dressed up in his Halloween costume coming soon too. Pictures weren't taken on our camera. Waiting game.

Halloween is almost here!

2010-10-22T22:53:00.000-06:00

I'm a little bummed that the weather is predicted to be unfavorable for the big day - and Halloween is a big day, now that I have a child old enough to hopefully understand it, dress up and participate without running around, which is all he did last year. I don't think he yet knows that Halloween means candy, but once we get out there, he'll probably get the picture. (Logan doesn't even know the word candy anyway, so...whatever). Still, rain or shine, he'll be wearing his costume. Even if it SNOWS and we do nothing to celebrate this holiday, he will be Rufio.I've already taken a picture of him wearing this, and it is BANGARANG. See what I did there? Yeah. I brought in an element of the movie to make that sentence awesome. I'm cool like that.

I still have one thing more to add to the costume and I think it's complete. :)

Change things up...

2010-10-05T12:53:00.000-06:00

I got a little burned out with sewing. So I painted. I have a wonderful book written by a fabulous painter of cute and adorable things, that has incredibly plain and simple directions. I unfortunately could not imitate the step by step pictures of the different painting strokes. So we end up with this...I will not be posting a picture of what it should have looked like. Instead, you can adore my masterpiece of what should resemble a pumpkin.

Next I decided, since it's starting to get very cool this week here, to make minestrone.
I somewhat followed THIS recipe. It was absolutely delicious. I didn't roast the vegetables like it said, but we loved it just the same. I thoroughly enjoyed the site author's witty narratives of the recipe (she includes step by step pictures and directions). Logan, who won't eat any vegetable but salad, was constantly saying "more please" because he loved it so much. He loves soup. He can over eat on this stuff for all I care. Awesome. It is also my personal opinion that most, if not all soups, should contain kidney beans.

As far as other things in life go, we've decided to name our baby girl Erica. It just rolls into our last name well. Erica Brown. We like it.
Erica is kicking more. She's graduated from the little tapping (the kicking that's more like a real kick that lasts for just a second) onto the pushing out. She's still little, (I'm only 22 weeks but measuring 23+) but she's sticking out her elbows, feet, and hands I guess, stretching out. It's fun, a little annoying, but fun.

This week, I will hopefully have all of the materials I need to make Logan's Halloween costume. It's going to be good. *crosses fingers*

Pregnancy

2010-10-01T11:49:00.000-06:00

Assuming the people who read this are ones I normally converse with, you all should know I'm now in my second run with this thing we call pregnancy. If you're not an "invited" reader, move on. You know who you are. This isn't a happy feel good entry anyhow, but I'll try to be entertaining. No promises.

If you're one of those people who don't care for pregnancy tales, I won't hold that against you; it makes some people squeamish. I specifically recall a friend of mine looking at my belly when I was pregnant with Logan and seeing it move. Wasn't her thing. (I on the other hand find that the best part of pregnancy is seeing a vague outline of a foot or hand sticking out to greet me. I love watching a movie and just resting my hand on my belly for it's entirety. It might seem weird but that's me.) Many people who I guess haven't been around pregnancy very much, consider it a little bit alien. Parasitic. Gross. There is a living, growing thing inside of you, moving around, sucking up your nutrients. Makes sense I guess.

Being pregnant with Logan was a breeze compared to this little girl. I didn't have to take any medication. I didn't "pop" until about 18 weeks. Itchy stretching skin didn't hit until about month 7. Logan made me puke every morning when I woke up and then decided he was done torturing me for the day. I want to say he simply didn't enjoy the Utah elevation; for a week or so that "we" visited So.Cal, I didn't have to puke at all. It was an okay deal. Lasted up until the day he arrived. I survived and so did he. I never craved anything sugary. Candy, cookies, cake, cheap cereal (aka candy in disguise)..all grossed me out. Burgers made me puke at the site of them. I liked Mac & Cheese and Ramen Noodles the most. Could have been worse. I gained a healthy 25 pounds and topped the scale at 160. I lost it all in a matter of hours. I wasn't super emotional or moody. I didn't swell up like a balloon. No cankles. I only had one major scare: heavy spotting at 6 weeks. The doc said if I was going to miscarry, then there was nothing anyone could do. So we waited, and my paranoia proved unnecessary. Logan was good to me.

Pregnancy number 2 has been a little different. Just like with Logan, I started to get "sick" around 6/7 weeks. It was fine. Normal queasiness. I didn't have to puke. I was feeling super lucky. Then suddenly it took a very dark turn. I was able to keep down 2 meals one week, out of the normal what...21. (7x3=21...I've still got it!). I couldn't keep down any liquids. I'd never felt that sick, lightheaded, achy, crabby, disgusting, braindead tired and weak in my entire life. Soon enough I started having indescribable stabs of pain. Miscarriage paranoia came back. I called my doc again for what seemed like the millionth time that week and they told me to come in immediately. Tests indicated I was lucky. My body was severely dehydrated, but just barely at the point of "eating itself"....I think my doctor likes to use scary termology. (That, I don't think is a real word). A couple trips back to the doc's office over the next week, and a few IVs and I was good again. Accept for the nausea medicine I now had to take. It's sick, and a huge oxymoron. They prescribed me something disgusting, to make me stop feeling disgusting. What a joke. I couldn't just swallow a tasteless pill and get it over with in a matter of 2 seconds, no. An over-sweetened dissolvable tablet of white powdery crap that has to sit in my mouth all over my tastebuds for an eternity (like 10 seconds actually). I won't even get into the side effects. There is no difference between me taking the meds and puking up my guts, except that I'm just not puking.

Luckily for me, I was allowed to take as little of it as I wanted. But they didn't decide to tell me that for a couple months. I take 1/8th of it now, and slowly the puking is weaseling it's way back into my life.

On the upside, and since this post is already so full of negativity, I was really happy to discovery Baby B #2 is a girl. I had a whole list of reasons it would be great to have another boy, but I guess if I NEVER had a girl, I'd probably feel my life wasn't complete. Good thing too, this might be the last one. Maybe I'm just being selfish, but I hate the sickness. So much that I'm willing to be done with children. (Sorta have to be able to afford babies too though, so when we're rich and famous I guess we'll consider adding in another one).

Since I haven't spilled the beans yet on names - here are the two we are trying to decide between. I'm not asking for a vote, because I don't want anything to persuade me against one or the other. And they are...

Lilian or Erica

It's entirely possible that one day I will wake up and no longer love either of those names, so let's not get too excited about either of them just yet. She and I still have 4 months left of this journey together and she could very well kick me for calling her something she doesn't like.

As for my cravings - it's been a real roller coaster. First, I craved Olive Garden. It didn't even really matter what food was there, I just wanted to eat there..all the time. Tyler is very good at keeping me under control. We've never had to visit OG more than twice a month. Next it was potatoes. This craving is still in full force, but I can go longer now in between withdrawals. Last week, at a very late hour, I craved Eggo Waffles and couldn't think about any other food until I'd watched the box of frozen fake comfort slide over the check out scanner, gone home, plopped about 4 or 5 of them into the toaster, smothered them in butter, and eaten every crumb. So good. Baby agrees. I've also had some trouble with sweets this time around. I'm not actually craving sweet stuff, but I've yet to say no. And when you can't say no to something, you know you've got a problem still. (I may have baked a few sweet goods over the last few months as well, like cookies, peanut butter rice chex krispies, cinnamon rolls, brownies, and some...other...stuff). Talking weight here, I have about a 10 pound allowance if I want to keep myself on par with my first wonderful pregnancy. Let's get real though...that'll be a miracle. Maybe 15, but not 10. Of course, I started out 5 pounds heavier with this one, so really the situation isn't too dismal.

If any man (or woman too) on this earth starts to complain about not sleeping well, they'll get a good laugh from me, or at least a roll of my eyes. They have no idea. Try sleeping with 20 pound ball under your shirt sometime and you might experience a little slice of the pregnancy world. Try doing that for 4-5 months and you'll understand sleeping in the 2nd and 3rd trimester. Your hips and shoulders will experience pain and discomfort you didn't know was possible. You might wake up in the middle of the night, on your back, and you can no longer move your legs.

Pregnancy is a bittersweet time. It's no cake-walk for Tyler either. If he's reading something funny or wants to show me a great youtube video on the computer, I still try to sit on his knees so he doesn't have to get out of the seat for me, poor man. He takes it like a champ though. He also gets a lot of overtime in the "shoulder to cry on" department. He gets my wrath when I can't sleep. He gets to come home to a really moody fat woman some days. And he continues to wash the pots and pans after dinner without complaint. I tell ya....that is one great guy right there. (He's mine ladies, mine!) Logan puts up with it too. I can't keep up my energy like I used to. He's up to watching 2 movies a day instead of the strict "1 movie" rule we were so adamantly supportive of. I don't think he's suffering though.

I think I need a nap now though, so...there it is. Before I go, I'd like to lay down a little tribute to the fact that pregnancy can give you some super weird dreams. Last night, I was in a fashion show. I was a skinny but healthy looking model, wearing some amazing looking clothes and a pair of heels I don't think I'd ever be able to afford. I was fantastic. Until I looked at my legs. I had the fattest elephant calves and cankles the world had ever seen. Seriously, just picture an elephant leg on a human (skin tone of a human). Sick right? And then I woke up.

I don't particularly enjoy ranting on my blog, but....sometimes it's just nice to make fun of myself. :)

More Projects

2010-09-29T10:10:00.000-06:00

Here's a little showcase of what I'm working on now.
Fall blanket/afghan.
And a Thanksgiving wall hanging. I'll be adding a multi-fabric border around this, continue embroidering the pumpkin vine, and add some leaf buttons to the vine. This isn't a pattern or kit, so I'll take any suggestions I can get on this one!! Things I design on my own tend not to turn out the way I imagine, or perhaps I'm just more critical of them.

While making the letters on this, I completely forgot to draw them backwards. Using wonder-under (not an undergarment, no) basically turns fabric into a sticker, so applying it on a backwards design will give you the result you want. Fortunately, some of the letters are symmetrical and it wasn't necessary to redraw all of them.

I think I've got too many projects in the works. I get so excited about starting something new, that I end up leaving many other things half finished or just barely done. Off the top of my head, I've got three quilts unfinished, plenty of crochet stuff to keep working on and then of course once I get an idea, I just consider it part of that list. Perhaps if I promise pictures, I'll get them done!

PS. Glee's latest episode wasn't anything to rave about. Just one big Britney Spears music video...minus Britney Spears. Kinda boring.
+PS. I'm actually liking the way my blog looks with this template. Joy.

Recently...

2010-09-28T15:39:00.000-06:00

...life is good :). Everyone's happy. Everyone's well. Life is easy for the time being. (Except Logan who isn't taking his nap - which actually means he's just dandy, I'm the slightly frustrated one, but whatever).

This morning, I took this picture.
21 and a half weeks. I'm a mess, no smile, no make up, and my belly is big. Lovely isn't it? :) And yes, we are thinking of girl names, but just can't quite get the right one.
Update: Now down to two names. Which one will it be? Hmmm...
I'm feeling alright. I'm now down to taking 1/8th of the prescribed dose for the nausea medicine. Much to my dismay, that 1/8th is keeping me from going crazy sick again. I went a day without taking anything and it was just plain yucky. But, I'll keep trying.

This morning, we got a new ceiling fan installed.
And last week I made this for the first time...Scalloped Potatoes. This pregnancy has been all about potatoes. PO-TAY-TOES. Mash 'em. Boil 'em. Stick 'em in a stew. Love 'em.

And ...I've never liked Britney Spears. But I wish I had cable, just so I can watch Glee tonight.
The end :)

Yuckity - Yuck

2010-09-27T18:58:00.000-06:00

Logan has been on a gluten-free/dairy-free diet for a couple weeks now and he's not had any problems adjusting. (He's just a little behind in his speech and some people claim this diet helps, so we're just giving it a shot).

I can't be the one to say the diet has helped him improve, but he definitely has been saying things more consistently, mostly just nouns like milk, juice, cracker, cars, Thomas (one of his favorite shows) and other things. He's communicating - that's all that matters to me at this point.

Today I decided to make some of the Mac & Cheese I picked up for him at our local health food store.
(Ignore the 12 pack)
I figured he'd love it. I never give him Kraft Macaroni because well, it just isn't good for ya. As for me, I'm pregnant; if I want my mac & cheese, don't get in my way.
I promised myself (and for Logan's sake) that whatever we end up having to buy for him, I'd always give it a try and see how it tastes; gluten-free stuff isn't always very yummy.
So, I made this CRAP. This stuff seriously tastes soooo bad I wanted to yack. But surprisingly it has some good nutritional value for a pasta dish and I figured I'll only throw it out if he won't eat it.
He ate all of it, the poor guy. Good for him. Guess we'll keep the other box.

More Crafting ...

2010-09-23T14:45:00.000-06:00

So here is my latest creation...

Super simple panel quilt from Keepsake Quilting. Unfortunately, they no longer seem to have this particular one in stock (I've had it sitting in a box for a long time, just waiting to be quilted). But they have so many other cute and affordable things :). I still have other projects in the works...stay tuned for those!

Done with the Pumpkins

2010-09-11T12:56:00.000-06:00

Am I getting into the Fall Holiday season a little too early?

NAH!!
I'm done making cloth pumpkins. Two sets, each with one large and two small ones. That's 6. I'm pretty proud of myself, ain't gonna lie.

You should be able to click on the picture for a larger view.
Not only do I mean that I'm finished with the ones I wanted to make, I'm just done making them, unless someone wants to pay me, haha. My finger tips are a tad raw from the little bit of needle work I've done on these, and my Christmas quilt. You know, that dry rough skin that results from folding laundry for hours or washing the dishes in really hot water to the point where it kinda stings? That. Hopefully it goes away soon, because I'm on a craft and homemaking roller coaster that I don't want to end just yet. Too many ideas to stop now.

Next, Happy Birthday to my favorite brother! Hope it's a good one...
Lastly......I hope the family and friends of those who lost their lives this day 9 years ago have found some peace in the absence of their loved ones.

Current Projects

2010-09-07T11:30:00.000-06:00

Here's a little preview of some things I've been working on.

Center square of my Christmas quilt/wall decor. It's nearly done now. Just two more rows of border.

As far as I can remember, my Mom was really good at keeping our home decorated for the holidays. I remember a set of cloth pumpkins she always set out on the entry way table as Fall came around. I was inspired to make my own! I made this little one last night.

It was a piece of cake, let me assure you. It did take a little while (about 2 hours), but if you're an 'okay' sewer, you could do this too. I found a pattern for "Cloth Pumpkins" online and just followed the directions, though I did make some adjustments of my own. I added some green wire and leaf buttons for a little extra flare, and of course picked out a busy Autumn fabric.
The pictured pumpkin is a bit small; it's a little bit bigger than my palm, but I copied the image of the pattern to my computer and using my basic picture gallery program, I was able to magnify and shrink the picture to create different sizes. The smaller the size however, the harder it is to sew in my opinion.

I'm a dork, I know. But I love this stuff :)

I'm also still working on making Christmas tree ornaments. So far I've got a few of these done, but I need to get out my saw again and cut the rest.

Just need to drill some tiny holes at the top and add a little wire and voilà!, new ornaments ready for the tree. Sometimes I just don't think a project is done when it really is. I'll probably end up adding some small holly leaves and beads to the wire just for some extra appeal.

Befuddled

2010-09-06T19:44:00.000-06:00

I was lazy today, so for dinner I made this......I've been wanting Au Gratin potatoes like mad, but this is all I had. (Oo I'm a rhymer).

We also had this...

Logan only ate one of those. He wanted NOTHING to do with the other. Guess which one he had two helpings of..?

Yep, the salad.

Wha..??

Not that I'm complaining...

Veggies, Flu, Screen Doors, and Baby bellies...

2010-09-01T23:06:00.000-06:00

Hmm, what's new with us?

Life is on one of those "just same-old same-old" stretches lately, and that is just fine ;).
I've been trying extra hard to get Logan to eat his veggies. So far he's eaten a little salad every day for a week. But, now we're out of salad :( ...and he finished off his peach/carrot fruit leather.

A week and a half ago Tyler caught some kind of flu bug and he's still trying to get over it. He's taken off a few days of work here and there, but he feels he won't need to take anymore time off from now on. The poor man even sleeps on the couch just to make sure he doesn't cough on me. Luckily, Logan and I haven't picked up on the fun. Logan shows absolutely no sign of illness, and I merely have some congestion. Probably allergies.

Last week Tyler's parent's and his grandpa came over to help install our new screen door. Tyler and his dad spent a few hours putting it in and saved us a good $100. Yay!We're also in the process of installing a ceiling fan in the main room. Too bad summer is nearly over. Maybe Fall will give us a few warm days to use it. In our backyard, plans are under way to put up a fence and gate. Our townhome didn't come with a fenced in yard; we have to do it ourselves. Logan should LOVE it and I won't feel uneasy about letting him out back without me there. Now if only the landscaper would PICK UP HIS PHONE.

17 week belly picture. A friend of mine just posted a 16 week picture of her belly; she's having her first. There's no belly there at all. That's how I was with my first too, haha. It's amazing how much a difference there is. I know my tummy didn't look like this at 17 weeks with Logan. Darn stretching and stuff eh? I think I look huge for 17 weeks. (Btw, I am 18 weeks today). :) It wouldn't surprise me if at my next ultrasound they find two in there, though it's unlikely. I'm just FAT! Haha, juuust kidding.
I'm also feeling little baby kicks now.
We'll be finding out if Baby #2 is a boy or girl in a week and a half! Sept. 15th!

Coming up! Tyler turns 27 on Sunday, and Logan starts a gluten-free diet next week. I'm also halfway through the Christmas quilt I've been working on. Hopefully pictures soon.

Food

2010-08-21T14:34:00.000-06:00

Baby B wants Olive Garden. Can't complain about that.

Fruit Leather Attempt

2010-08-14T08:44:00.000-06:00

Here is the recipe I sort of followed to make fruit leather.

I used peaches and instead of chopping it up first and cooking it with water in a saucepan, I cooked the peaches whole until they were soft and juicy, then put them in cold water to cool. Once cool, I peeled off the skin and cut it up into a blender for the puree.

From there is says to add spices, sugar, or whatever other things you want to the puree. I used honey to sweeten mine, and parchment paper to line the pan. If you use just peaches, it won't be this orange. I also put carrots in it, for Logan. He can't tell the difference :).

It turned out pretty good for the most part. My mistake was spreading the puree too thin. I had two pans drying in the oven and only one turned out okay; the other was too thin and too tough to chew. Also my oven does not heat to any lower than 170 degrees, which is obviously not the 140 degrees recommended in the recipe. Anyhow, I suggest pouring it thick in the pans (1/4 inch think or a little more) and just keeping an eye on it and it will turn out great!

On a good day last week, I made meatballs! ...75 of them. I'm not so sure I will ever make them again though, at least not while I'm pregnant. I've always hated (HATED) touching raw meat, not to mention rolling it around in your hands. This was nothing like rolling cookie dough balls.
EW is just about the only word that completely sums up raw meat in my opinion.

But, now I've got 75 meatballs packed away in the freezer for a lazy day of easy cooking.

The Ambitious Sick Person

2010-08-09T14:15:00.000-06:00

This pregnancy so far hasn't been a real walk in the park, but on the rare day, or moment, when I'm actually feeling well or energetic enough to get up and do something, I day dream about making something like this...

How fun would it be to make your own fruit leather? I realize I'm blogging to a lot of people who already do this sort of thing, but I'm starting to hop on the bandwagon. I keep thinking of yummy fruit combinations to try. I'm even considering adding in some veggies to get Logan to secretly eat them. And how easy this is to make! Not to mention, I get to decide what goes into this; I don't have to worry about all the extra sugars and additives that are in all the fruit snacks and roll-ups at the store.
I've got so many ideas running through my head now, but this was something easy to explain. If anyone has made fruit leather before and loved what they did, let me know - I would really appreciate suggestions :)

Did I Mention?

2010-08-02T15:29:00.000-06:00

...that Logan is now 2 and a half? Yup, July 31st marked the "half." Now you know :)
I am also officially 3 months pregnant. Does anyone know what this means?? Logan and Baby B #2 could have the same birthday! Cool-a-roo huh?

The Overreactor

2010-07-24T20:28:00.000-06:00

TRY NOT TO LOOK AT THE LITTLE VIDEO YET. CONTROL YOURSELF.

Tyler enjoys reading online forums. Someone will make a statement about such and such, and then others will post responses.
I don't know what the original post was about, but apparently someone responded to it with something along the lines of "the world is going to end."
It was obvious that this dude was overreacting, and so the next poster posted this in sarcasm:

Random, but hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing for 10 minutes, even breaking into the laugh so hard you aren't making any noise kind of laugh.
Did you laugh? If you didn't, come back and see it again on one of those days where everything is funny.

Movie Review

2010-07-17T22:24:00.000-06:00

This is my second post for the day, so be sure to read the first one below since it contains more important news.
But, I sort of like to review movies as they are fresh in my mind, or I'd like to do it more. We rented Remember Me. Starting to really love Red Box.
Maybe I wanted to just see Edward, ya know ...*wink*...not really, but I actually enjoyed Robert Pattinson's acting in this movie over all of his Twilight stuff so far. I'm not saying he's oscar worthy or anything but he fits the part he plays in Remember Me rather well. Maybe with a little more acting credits he could get some noms.
I wouldn't say this is a movie for people who remember movies for the reasons they are rated the way they are. Does that make sense? I'm one of those people who remember movies for the story, not the PG-13 material, so just sayin...don't judge me for liking this movie. It's got a good moral base to it. Anything that helps people realize the importance of family and relationships is a good thing in my eyes. There's a reason we have fast forward/skip buttons.
I don't think this movie was really publicized much, but if you saw the previews, you might get the idea of the storyline. However, there's an interesting twist at the end I definitely didn't see coming.
Anyhow, not much in the way of detail here, just that I liked it.

Baby Brown #2 and the catch up...

2010-07-17T15:43:00.001-06:00

Title kinda says it. Baby Brown #2 is on the way!

This is a 9 week ultrasound. Baby B is currently 11 weeks along and doing fine.

So, in early June, I had the wonderful opportunity of playing host to pretty much every member of my family and their families here in Utah. Dad, Celia, Lisa, Shelley and the kids, and Britt and Sydney, all stayed with us...at the same time. That's 7 adults, 3 toddlers and 1 baby in a tight space. Now, SO NICE to be with fam, so nice. But it was a little cramped. We all went up to Idaho for my Grandpa's funeral and came home the same day. It was a lovely graveside service. I was glad I was able to make it out to visit him and Grandma a few weeks earlier.
Next, Dad went home and everyone else stuck around to head down to St. George for the Keddington Family reunion (Mom's fam). Fantastic weekend. Nearly everyone was there.
Next Brittany, with Gabe and Sydney, came back to my place and stayed another week. Loved having my twinner here.
Mom, and Grandma came up from St. George where they stayed behind for a few days and picked up Celia from BYU.
Kiel, Melissa and little Bruce...you were sorely missed.

For 4th of July, we spent an evening with friends and then the actual 4th with Tyler's fam. Logan enjoyed the fireworks to say the least.
THEN Logan got really sick and kept puking in the middle of the night. We were up til 4am trying to get everything cleaned up. Logan was bathed I think 3 times, had 4 changes of clothes and went through the entirety of our linen closets contents. Tyler graciously cleaned the carpet in Logan's room and spared me from the overwhelming task, while I got Logan to bed. For anyone that's not been pregnant before, allow me to let you in on a little secret: Your sense of smell goes THROUGH. THE. ROOF. You can smell everything. Cleaning that room would have killed me.
So, a big thank you to my awesome husband.
Next day, Logan would only drink. He didn't want a THING to eat. Not even fish crackers. He was so wiped out he even fell asleep on the living room floor. Just never happens.
Such a cutie. I put a blanket on him and decided not to move him to his room.
We're all doing fine now :) Tyler took me to see Eclipse the other day and I was pleasantly surprised by the considerably better acting and story flow. Good job Mr. Slade.

Have a good weekend everyone ;)

PS. If anyone wants to bring me some panda express potstickers, they sound alright. Don't forget the dipping sauce.

Brig

No new posts in a while...

2010-07-09T22:42:00.000-06:00

So heeeeeeey...
Last post I made was in May.
Yeeeaaah. Sorry.
Just been busy. I promise to make a more detailed post before the end of the month.
Until then, have fun everyone, where ever you are and with who ever you are, and what ever you are...doing.

Brig

The Second Half of May...

2010-05-30T21:42:00.000-06:00

...has been a tad busy.

A few weeks ago I took my little sister out to dinner for her birthday. Congratulations Celia on turning 21. You've joined me now in looking forward to that last legal stage to becoming an adult....age 25 when we can finally rent a car. (Who came up with that age anyhow??). On those days when I start to feel old, I just remind myself of that.
Next, my brother and his wife had a baby :) -see previous post-
Then I think a week went by that I can't really remember. Oh well.
Next I left Logan at home with Tyler (I'd never been away from Logan before for more than a couple hours!) and flew to Phoenix, met up with my sister Shelley and her fam (who flew in from SoCal), and then we all flew together to visit my grandparents (dad's side) in Tennessee. It was great to also see many other family members from the Christensen Clan there. It was a very wonderful visit and I will always love that time I spent with them. I flew home this last Monday night and just couldn't wait to see Tyler and Logan. Tyler picked me up while his sister-in-law came over to our place and kept an ear out for Logan while he slept. (Thanks Courtney!) When we got home I ran upstairs to see my baby, and even got to see him awake for a few minutes thanks to his diaper needing a change. I can always count on him to need a change in the middle of the night, and I can assure you that was the only time I've been grateful for it :)

Wednesday, Tyler and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary!! (which was Thursday). We went to one of our favorite restaurants, Tucanos, and saw Iron Man 2. We also bought Logan some new clothes. Maybe that seems like a typical date night for many of you but well, just don't tell me, haha. The last movie we saw before that was New Moon in, I think, November. Sad I know. But the infrequency makes it more fun I guess when we actually do get to go.
Looks like we're now up to this weekend! We tried out Redbox for the first time the other day and have since used it twice. It's rather neat. We got Sherlock Holmes and then 2012. Really enjoyed Sherlock Holmes; clever, but 2012 had far too many "unrealistic close calls", as I kept telling Tyler throughout the movie, for my liking. I think I said "Oh geez, come on...*shakes head*" like every 5 minutes.
Yesterday and today I spent a good deal of my free time painting. I've started painting the baseboards in our home and then I painted Logan's name on some blocks. I think they need something, but I just can't figure out what it is. (I did the blocks on the bottom a few years ago).I'm starting to think the letters look too....halloween-ish? But I'm still proud of them.

Have a good Memorial Day everyone!

Welcome Bruce!

2010-05-17T09:01:00.000-06:00

My new nephew, Bruce!

Bruce was born yesterday evening at 8:22pm weighing 7lbs 12 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Congrats to my brother and his beautiful wife! Love you guys! Bruce is soooo cute!!!!

New addiction...

2010-05-04T11:14:00.001-06:00

Yum. Have you had these before? I rarely visit Costco anymore. It's just too much "bulk" for us and prices are better other places around here. But, yesterday I saw these and had to have them. So good, I had to divide it up into little bags just to limit myself on a daily intake. No wonder I can't drop those stubborn five pounds. Go try these!

Hogle Zoo: Better late than never...

2010-04-17T20:30:00.000-06:00

...alright, well it's not that late. It's now Saturday evening and we went to the zoo on Wednesday.

Here's a few pictures from our fun adventure. I'll spare you of all the animal pictures. I'm sure we've all seen monkeys and giraffes before.

Logan and TylerLadies, is it not one of the greater moments in life, to just sit back and watch your baby hold his daddy's hand? I submit that it is!

My nephew, standing at the monkey measuring board. This was the only time he would actually let me take his picture, haha.

Our adorable niece, sitting on the rhino statue!

And, this baby elephant was just too cute to not photograph.

And here we are, as we were leaving, a little tired (and someone a little cranky), but grateful for the beautiful day we had.

That evening, Tyler got a call from his brother. He and his family also went to the zoo recently and apparently witnessed something exciting.
I was anxious to learn what it was, but had to make due with Tyler's side of the call which consisted only of "awesome"s, over and over, amidst some chuckling, which I could also hear from the phone.
After he hung up, I finally learned what it was.
While visiting the gorilla enclosure, one of the big males decided to put on a spectacular show. While swinging on a rope, he publicly (well, lets keep this clean) went #2, caught it in his hand, and then ate it.
Yeeeaaah -- glad I wasn't there.

Day Trip to Provo Canyon

2010-04-07T17:01:00.000-06:00

Today we packed up lunch and headed out to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon (Utah).

Logan had fun in the trunk. Look at him with his little sandwich. Haha I just think it's cute.

The falls! It was a fun walk to the falls. Logan's gotten into the habit of actually holding Tyler's or my hand finally, and not run off.
And here's a random photo that was on my camera. Four deer ran through our backyard a few weeks ago. Can you see three?

Happy April 1st!.....SIKE

2010-04-01T17:33:00.000-06:00

Logan decided to play a fun game with me this week. :)

It all started out on Monday afternoon when I put him down for his nap. Most of the time he falls right to sleep. Occasionally though, I'll hear him in there playing or kicking the sides of his crib, and he may not sleep at all for the duration of his nap time.
If you're a parent, or taken care of small children for a long period of time, you know that when a child is very VERY quiet, there are only two possibilities:

1) He/she is finally asleep. Joy. Time to get some things done.
2) They are up to no good.
Guess which one we experienced :)

That's right. I walked into his room to find him naked. He was sitting in POOP. There was poop on the floor. There was poop on his blankets. There was poop on the crib, walls, in his hands and ON. HIS. FACE.
Since I usually try to post some kind of picture with my blog, *insert mental image here*. I'm sure you understand why I won't be posting any today.
(Keep in mind I am laughing as I write this. No need to pity me. Go ahead and laugh too).
Anyhow, luckily it didn't get into the carpet. I washed him, his clothes and everything that was touched by the POOP a few times, and we were back to normal. I also decided it was time that Logan stopped sleeping in a crib.

:)

Today is April Fools. Oh some people will have a lot of fun today, but not me.
HE DID IT AGAIN!
Happy April 1st everyone :) If only it was a joke. I shall cherish this day always.

UPDATE: Logan was successfully apprehended soon after being put down for the night before a very similar incident could get out of hand. Evidence found in a diaper on the floor, unattached to its rightful wearer. Minimal poop found on Logan.

PHEW!

Logan is now fast asleep in very tight, much to small for him footed pajamas that I would be impressed if he got himself out of. He'll be wearing them for the rest of his life. Don't you want a pair? :D

My friend, the soon to be famous author!

2010-03-29T09:39:00.000-06:00

My friend, Andrea Pearson has written a book and will soon be published! She is such a fantastic writer. Her book, The Key of Kilenya, is set to be released July 6, 2010, but you can pre-order the book starting April 6th. Here's a brief description of the book:

"When two vicious wolves chase fourteen-year-old Jacob Clark through a gateway from our world into another, he has no idea they have been sent by the Lorkon—evil, immortal beings who know he has powers they desire to control.

The inhabitants of the new world beg for Jacob’s help in recovering a magical key that was stolen by the Lorkon and is somehow linked to him. If he helps them, he will be in great danger. But if he chooses not to help them, our entire world will be in peril. The Lorkon will stop at nothing to unleash the power of the key—and Jacob’s special abilities."

I had the wonderful opportunity of reading her very first draft and can't wait to get a copy of the finished story. If you want a chance to win various prizes, including a signed copy of The Key of Kilenya, visit this link.

Love you Andrea! I can't wait to have my very own copy! :D

Week gone by...

2010-03-24T22:51:00.000-06:00

I feel like I haven't posted in a while even though it's only been a week.

Logan has stopped coughing. He doesn't wake up in the middle of the night hacking anymore, and in fact is sleeping so well that he's refused to nap during the day for the last four. Tyler caught it soon after our doctor visit and took last Friday off from work. He and I seem to be on the same level of illness; it's not enough for us to shut ourselves indoors but we avoid being around people too much. I wouldn't want anyone to get what we had/have! I have no idea when the "no longer contagious" stage hits, but I feel confident that it'll be soon. Hopefully in the next 24 hours -- Mom and Grandma drive in tomorrow!
Earlier this week we got a really nice storage bench/ottoman set! Logan's toys began to over run the room long ago and I never felt it looked like an inviting space with all of his toys scattered or neatly set at the wall. I couldn't be happier with how it looks and with the amount of storage it has!

We decided to leave the legs off for now and I really like it. We also got a small square shape one to match. The picture makes it look shiny for some reason but it's really a nice leather material covering and more brown then it looks. I love it :) Best part is, buying both of them was under $140 bucks. Oh how I love good deals.

Today was one of those "can life really get any better" kind of days :) Tyler's days off from work are Wednesday and Sunday, and I love having him home those days. We spent a while at the park today with Logan and he had so much fun. The park we go to is up in the homes north of our little townhome community, and it pretty much looks out over the entire Utah County part of the valley. It is so beautiful. I just love days like today :)

Suspicion Confirmed

2010-03-17T16:07:00.000-06:00

Bronchitis.

Must be a new favorite...

2010-03-16T10:49:00.000-06:00

We don't have television. What a shame, I know. It has been almost 5 months since I've watched a regular TV show as it was being broadcast, but you know, we've been watching something a little better, or so Logan might tell you if he could say it in so many words.

His favorite movie is UP. Mid-morning, almost every day without fail, Logan will run over to the movie shelf and grab UP, run it over to me and expect me to turn it on. He imitates nearly every gesture the characters make, many of the sounds including the alarm clock, and sometimes the music. It is so cute really. I think he's also trying to imitate some of the words they say.

The "no more than 2 hours of TV a day" also applies to movies right? Haha. Oh well. He enjoys it so much and he's coming along with his communication skills in part because of it, that, what the heck, he can watch it as much as he wants in my opinion.

On another, less fun note, we are moving into week 3 of this horrible cough Logan and I have. Tyler seems to have avoided it...somehow. I really wish I knew his secret. I am certainly no MD or diagnostician, but according to the possibilities on WebMD, the illness our symptoms follow the closest to is Bronchitis. Pfft, I know right? Do people even still get that? Well, let's just hope not. Dr.'s appointment tomorrow should shed some light on this weird cough.

Hope everyone else is having a good start to the week :) I have the privilege of sitting here at my computer with Brittany and Sydney on Skype. Jealous huh? You should be.

Hmmm...

2010-03-12T12:11:00.001-07:00

Tyler says this looks interesting. He's seen the original; I haven't. Time to go rent it? Maybe. Anyhow, this looks like one we'll maybe see in theaters.