Sunderland Family

August, September, October and November 2011

2012-01-23T13:03:00.015-07:00

August

The month of August brought some changes to our lives. The best two changes were that we were able to move into a 3 bedroom apartment and Michael started Kindergarten. Our new apartment is so lovely! I seriously love it! We still have the boys sharing a bedroom, and the 3rd bedroom is now an office/guest room. The closet is also huge, so that has become our pantry. I need to post some pictures of our space, and maybe I'll do that someday, but you can kinda get a feel for where we are in this photo below. This was taken before we moved, and there was a HUGE rainstorm so Nathan took the boys out to splash in the puddles and listen to the thunder. I went out to take a few pictures, and didn't realize it at the time, but I was also taking a picture of where we'd be living a few weeks later! Our old apartment is behind me (you can't see it in the picture) and the new one is the apartment you see in the picture. Make sense??

We also love that Michael is in Kindergarten now!! He feels like he's finally arrived in life! He loves his backpack, and I love watching him learn and grow. I also love that he goes in the afternoon, while Xander is napping, so I get some nice alone time to relax and get some stuff done. It's really nice!

Also, Nathan's sister moved down to Rexburg in August. She got accepted into BYU-Idaho and stayed with us for a few weeks until her apartment was available. She's been a HUGE blessing for Nathan and I and our boys. We really love her and enjoy this time we're able to spend with her.

She's so fun!

And then here are just some other random pictures and a video from the month of August:

Xander and Michael both enjoy looking at books. Because we have more room, we're able to keep their bookshelves out in the living room, and it's allowed them to be more interested in reading their books! It makes me happy.

My cute Xander-Mander!
Becca has a way of doing Xander's hair that I just love! For some reason, I'm not able to duplicate it very well.
Sometimes the boys' pants get put into the wrong drawers. Usually Michael comes to me and lets me know, but this day he just went with it. Turns out, Xanders pants fit Michael in the waist, just not in the length! The horrible thing, is later in the day I forgot that Michael was wearing these pants and took him out shopping. At least it was just Walmart!
Xander has discovered how to get his way, even if we say no. This was the first time I saw him find a can of pop and a cup and pour it himself.
and then finally, a video of the boys dancing. Mainly Michael, but you can see Xander a bit as well.

September and October

As far as I remember, September was a pretty mild month. We got used to our apartment, got moved in and fairly organized.

I bought a shoe organizer for our entry closet that Xander got himself stuck in a few times.

Becca and Xander really have fun together.

Notice his cute hair style! And I love his big blue eyes!

The weather here has been AWESOME! The first part of October we spent some time outside with the camera, and I actually got a few pictures of the boys that I liked.

This looks more scary than it was. They were wrestling, and Xander was okay with it.

For Halloween Michael was a knight and Xander was a dragon. I really like to have my boys coordinate costumes!!

November

I have some videos from this month. The first week I was able to go to St. Louis Missouri for a Parents As Teachers conference, and while I was gone, Nathan stayed home with the boys. During that time, he taught the boys about Hide and Seek and tag. Xander kinda has those games confused. When we play hide and seek, he runs around the couch screaming, and then hide and seek he runs after Michael. It's hilarious! So enjoy the videos. They're kinda long, but really fun. You also get somewhat of a tour of our new apartment as I follow them through the end of the apartment trying to find Michael. Just beware---the boys' room was messy!

One day after school I let Michael have some kids over to play. For about 10 minutes they sat on the couch and watched a show on Netflix. I just thought they looked so cute sitting there all together!

Sitting next to Michael is his best friend Kyler

As I said earlier, the weather has been so great!! We've had hardly any snow and just really nice warm temperatures. That said, we have had a bit of snow here and there, and here is Xander one day just dying to go play in it! He's all dressed up in his gear.

And Xander playing on his "computer".

Xander Turns 2!

2011-11-03T21:53:00.005-06:00

We've had such a fun day today!! I love birthdays, I really do, and I hope to pass on that love to my boys. I think I'm succeeding...
Xander was such a happy boy today because he was getting so much attention. I've been prepping him for the "how old are you" question for about 5 weeks, and he's finally got down today and we've all been having fun with asking him. Here's a video I did trying to get him to say "two", I wasn't successful, but it's a good example of his personality. I also think the end is kinda funny.
He's just so cute!
The other day I was cleaning out our storage area and layed the car seat down on the floor, and Xander started sitting in it and playing. I thought it would be fun to compare pictures of the first time he was in that seat and was so tiny!
Coming home from the hospital:

I also thought it would be fun to compare pictures from last year and this year. He's grown so much!!

1 year old:2 Years old:We've basically skipped the 24/2T clothes! I brought out the 3T box thinking the clothes would be huge on him, but they actually fit him really well! I have to roll the pants up, but otherwise, they fit great. What's wierd, was that Michael stopped wearing the 3T stuff only 2 years ago! So, even thought they're almost 4 years apart, the clothing sizes are really close...if that makes any sense at all!
I can't believe how much he's grown up! He's just so much fun. He has a great smile and loves to laugh and talk. It's so fun to hear him talking and having short conversations with us. He's truly such a joy and such a fun addition to our family!
Here are a few of the cupcakes I made. They really looked a lot better in person, I promise! Xander enjoyed them!
The video singing Happy Birthday and him figuring out the whole "blowing out the candles" thing:
And another video after he was done with his cup cake...Again, he's just SO CUTE!And finally opening up his presents!

July 2011

2011-10-24T23:07:00.010-06:00

I'm slowly doing it! I'm getting caught up. I can hardly believe it!

Our July was pretty much like our June and May. Just a lot of questions about Michael and not much else going on, that I can remember anyway, other than the 4th of July.

For the 4th, we had Nathan's cousin and wife, Ben and Chelsea, come down from Canada with their 3 kids. We, of course, had a blast! I always enjoy our visits with them, but they're never long enough! We had a fun day that started with the parade on Main Street. Then we went home, attempted naps for the boys, did some shopping and cooking, and then took off for Idaho Falls to wait and wait and wait for the fireworks and then came home. So the typical 4th of July. It was fun, but I wish we would have just stayed at our place and not gone down. It would have been way less stressful for everyone involved and probably more...enjoyable/memorable. Next time!

Michael waving the flag with so much enthusiasm it hardly shows on the camera!Xander holding a gun and sporting the awesome USA headbandBen and Chelsea's adorable, but massive, little Levi. I think at the time he was 9 months old?? He just had his first birthday a few days ago!!! I'm not sure he knows what to do with himself in all the red, white, and blue. He's a canadian!
But he soon warmed up to the idea that it's not so bad after all! Or maybe he's just trying to show 'USA' whose boss?
Xander spent a lot of the time we were in Idaho Falls hanging out in the stroller. He didn't mind it too much and enjoyed people watching, while we didn't have to worry about him wandering off and getting into trouble! It was a win-win!And that was about as exciting as our July got!
Xander got into some sugar.... He enjoyed it!
He also started climbing....The boys started playing together more and Michael started making goofy faces for the camera. And then I had a little photo-shoot with Xander in a box!He's so stinkin' adorable!!!!!!!!Here's a quick video of Xander. He's an incredibly picky eater, and the faces he makes can sometimes just be priceless! There's really no question what he's thinking most of the time!Good thing he's so sweet, as well!!

Videos from June 2011

2011-10-24T14:16:00.001-06:00

Xander learned to jump in June!

The boys playing Ring around the rosie!

May and June 2011

2011-10-24T13:34:00.006-06:00

Here are some pictures of our lives from May and June.
On May 13, we hopped on a plane and flew to California! About 4 weeks (probably more, actually) I got a phone call from my dad saying that he had been asked to serve in our ward as the bishop! I was pleasently surprised and we made plans for our trip down to california.
Here's a funny little tangent about an experience I had the week before my dad called me. I was working and at a home visit with a family and we were talking about her planning a trip home to see her family and all the stuff that goes into preparing to go on an airplane with little kids. Suddenly, I just got a feeling that we were going to be going on a similar trip home to see my family! It was wierd, but I brushed it aside not thinking anything about it, because we weren't planning any trips at the time. Then later in the week my dad called me and told me the news! It was pretty cool.
So the trip was short and fast, but so fun! It was great to see some cousins I hadn't seen in a long time, as well as some Aunts and Uncles. It was fun to let my family see my kids and to have us all together for such a short time!
As far as I remember (this was, sadly, 5 months ago), the plane rides went really well. We had the usual snacks and activities to keep the boys entertained. One of the snacks were pull-and-peel licorice. Xander and Nathan had fun with that:

I love his puffy cheeks here!

Do you wanna hear another fun story? Of course you do, right, otherwise you wouldn't be here! In the weeks leading up to Xander's birth, I was understandably concerned and a bit freaked out about having another baby, and was worried about his health and blah, blah, blah...everything you worry about! So I asked Nathan to give me a few priesthood blessings to help give me some comfort. He did so, and it was just so interesting, because in those blessings, I was told that Xander would be just fine and healthy, and that he would bring lots of laughter into our home. I remember thinking that was an interesting thing to hear in a blessing, and Nathan and I discussed it lots. But what's been even more interesting, is the fact that Xander really is just FUNNY! He makes all of us laugh a couple times a day! Whether it's by the things he says or the things he does, and especially when he's throwing his tantrums. He's just plain funny!

Here he is on one of those funny days! I think he was trying to take off his shirt, and it got stuck. He now does this regularly just to get laughs, but this day he was really frustrated!

Michael and Xander fight a lot, but they really are good friends. Xander really enjoys following Michael around and frequently copies the things he does and enjoys being Michael's little shadow.June

Here is Xander in the crib again about a month later. At this time, he was really interested in dressing himself. The problem was, he didn't realize what went were, so he was trying to put his shirt on his legs. Michael thought it was hilarious!Oh My Gosh--To say that Xander had a shoe fascination in the month of June would be an understatement! He. Was. ObSESSed! If he saw a shoe laying on the ground, he would pick it up and bring it to you!

It didn't matter if the shoes matched or not, or even if the shoe wasn't yours! It was lose, and that just wasn't acceptable! Also, if he noticed that someone wasn't wearing shoes at all, he would go on a mad hunt to find the shoes and return them to the owners! Thankfully now he's consumed in putting the shoes away! I like that obsession a whole lot more!

If this picture wasn't so blurry, I'd love it!

Michael and Xander also liked to play Ring Around The Rosy. I have a video to upload, and I plan on doing that as soon as I can! It's pretty fun.

Nathan also randomly had flowers delivered to me in June!

And Michael insisted it was cold...in June....

My studdly Xander...

and my handsome Michael.

Michael's Pre-K Graduation

2011-09-24T00:41:00.006-06:00

On May 20, Michael graduated from Pre-School. Of course, Xander and I were running late and Michael was so excited to see us!! Poor guy, I asked him later and he said he thought we weren't coming.

As you can see in this video, Michael was very excited for this event!

Blogger is having issues with the video.....whose surprised????

He's so handsome!!!!!

The whole class together

After the graduation we all went into their classroom and had an ice cream party. One of Michael's favorite parts about pre-school was the dress up area! Here he was dressing up as a cow boy with his friend, Mathew. What's funny about Michael and Mathew, is that they LOVE each other!! Michael will frequently see Mathew around town and they will, literally, run towards each other and give each other bear hugs! Then they will hold hands until it's time to go their separate ways.

The Final Chapter to Michael's Medical Mysteries!!

2011-09-23T22:53:00.003-06:00

It's funny--while I was writing my huge post about Michael's summer, I was starting to realize why I had no energy or even motivation to update my blog! I knew it needed to be done, but I really didn't have the energy. It was something I was feeling really guilty about, but now I feel okay with it! I was tired, and worried, and confused!! It's funny how fast this summer went by. The other day, someone asked me what I did this summer, and I honestly couldn't think of anything at all to tell them!! I felt like such a dud. But, now I know--I got my prayers answered!!

So Tuesday we had the appointment with the Pediatric Cardiologist. I didn't realize that we'd get to meet with the cardiologist that day; I thought we were just going to do the EKG and then meet later on in the month or something. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that she was actually there and met with us about 10 minutes after the EKG was finished.

She was great, and actually sat down and listened to everything that had gone on in the past few months and my concerns. Then she listened to Michael's heart and was very good with keeping him still and feeling like he still had some control of the situation. Then she told me that everything appeared fine with his heart! She didn't notice any holes, or murmurs, the valves were opening and closing right, everything looked great!

The most surprising part of the visit was learning that, in her opinion, the seizure Michael had was not a seizure!! She said that with seizures the individual comes out of it feeling very tired, quite confused, and just wanting to do everything they could to go back to sleep. She also said they are very red in the face. Michael was not any of those. When Michael came to, he was pretty aware, incredibly pale--almost sickly, even--and certainly wasn't tired!
Since there is a family history of passing out from pain, she believes that's exactly what happened with Michael! He just passed out!! I was so relieved, and almost giddy, to hear her say that.

We feel so blessed that we were able to get all these answers!! I know that things happen for a reason, and I know that one of the reasons we are still living in Rexburg is because of these services that we have! I mentioned to Nathan a few weeks ago how interesting I found it when I look back on our lives together.

When Nathan and I met, I was trying to get into the elementary education (eled) program. I was not having much luck, so the first semester after we were married I decided to take a child development class as a pre-req. for the eled program. I fell in love with child development that semester! I vividly remember sitting at our kitchen table reading out of my book for that class, looking up at Nathan, and just saying, "I just wish I could major in child development!" He looked at me and said with a 'well-duh!' sort of tone, "You can." It had never occurred to me that that was a possibility.

So I enrolled as a Child development major, started to learn about children and the different theories and behaviors that are typical in young children, received an internship with the Parents as Teachers program that gave me more of an in depth look into the typical development in children before they enter into kindergarten as well as the different screening tools to identify any developmental red flags. It was during that time that Michael was beginning to show signs of a speech delay, and I started to notice it before a lot of people around me thought it was a big deal. But I persisted, and because of my internship I knew where to go to start the process of getting him speech services. Shortly after this, I got offered a job and was able to find work before the down turn of the economy.

Through Michael's therapies I gained some contacts to give me support and guidance after Michael's "seizure"/fainting episode. These contacts let me know about Dr. Lawson, the behavioral psychologist and warned me against the crazy neurologist that I was originally going to take Michael to. I hate that Michael had to have that scary episode where he passed out, but I'm grateful for it as well, because it's what led us to these answers!

It's just been made really clear to me these last few weeks that my life has a plan. This particular plan was started 7 years ago! Who could have known that so much would have come from me enrolling in one little class! I had no idea that I would have a child with special needs! I needed to take Child development from that particular teacher and that particular time to help us get to this point.

I'm excited in another 7 years to look back and to see more of how this plan has rolled out!

Michael's Months of Medical Mystery

2011-09-18T13:16:00.013-06:00

***Warning: This is a long post***

May was the start of a crazy summer for us! I wish I could say it was a good crazy. Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of good things that happened this summer, but it's also been tough.

Seizure
On May 10, Nathan turned 27. We celebrated by having a nice day together....I forget what all we did, but it was a good, fun day. I baked some yummy molten lava chocolate cakes and we let Michael stay up a little later than usual. About 8:45 I decided it was time for Michael to go to bed. Nathan volunteered to do the bedtime routine and they went up to bed. I sat down to watch the rest of a show we were watching, listening to the giggles that were coming from upstairs. Then I heard Michael cry out, "OW! OW! OW!". It concerned me, but I continued watching the end of the show. Then Nathan yelled down to me, frantically, to call 911.

I found the phone, dialed, and ran upstairs. Nathan came out of the bedroom carrying Michael in his arms and Michael had his eyes closed and appeared listless. The 911 operator came on and I said that we needed an ambulance and that my son has passed out. The operator was asking me questions and after a few minutes, but what felt like hours, Michael started to wake up. First he was groaning, then he was crying. We went down stairs and waited, again for what felt like hours, for the ambulance to come. It felt like it was taking forever, and it was so eeriy to hear the sirens and know it was coming to us. While we waited, Nathan and I were able to talk for a few minutes. Nathan told me that he and Michael were wrestling, which is not usual for them. Nathan pulled Michael's leg to bring Michael closer to him than usual. At that point Michael screamed out in pain, and started to slowly lose control of his facilities. He lost the ability to continue screaming/crying, then slowly down,and slowly closed his eyes. Nathan said it looked like Michael was trying to fight it, but couldn't. That was when he called me.

Finally the ambulance arrived, and the paramedics came in the house and checked Michael's vitals. They said everything looked fine. Michael was a bit pale, and yellow, and kinda green, but he was aware of what was going on and acting pretty normal, but a tiny bit sluggish. The only thing that was wrong was that his leg hurt and he couldn't walk on it much. We also noticed that Michael had wet himself at one point. The paramedics suggested the possibility it was a seizure and suggested that Michael go to the ER to get checked out. We opted to take Michael ourselves, instead of riding in the ambulance. The paramedics left and Nathan and Michael went up to the hospital.

The doctor diagnosed Michael was a sudden onset seizure and a sprained leg. We're thinking that when Nathan pulled Michael's leg, he must have twisted it in a weird way or something. We're currently in the process of trying to figure WHY that pain caused him to pass out/have a seizure. Luckily Michael hasn't had any more episodes. Originally, we thought he had a few more during the next few days, but those were ruled out by a neurologist as not being seizures

EEG
A few days later we were referred to a neurologist in Idaho Falls. We told him what happened and he suggested that we do an EEG. Basically it's a test to map the brain waves and check for seizures. So we drove down to Idaho Falls at 9:00 PM to do the test. They like to do the test around bedtime so they fall asleep. They get a better reading when they're sleeping, somehow. So we did the test and then came home. The whole thing was maybe 45 minutes. That test wasn't conclusive enough, so a different was ordered. This was more interesting--it was a sleep deprived EEG. We had to keep Michael up ALL--NIGHT--LONG!!!!!! Nathan volunteered for the position of keeping him up all night since I was going to be the driver. They went out and bought all kinds of yummy treats and movies. Nathan said Michael did great and didn't seem to have a hard time at all! Then I got up at about 5:30 and we drove down the Idaho Falls. That was hard for me to keep him awake, since he wanted to fall asleep as soon as we were on the highway.

Soon after he started to fall asleep in the car, I saw what I considered a blessing, although it was gross. It was a cow doing his business. But, it was enough to keep Michael entertained and not sleeping. We kept pointing out other cows and started that nasty bathroom talk! Like I said, gross, but effective. Michael was able to stay awake and turned into quite the chatterbox! The EEG went fine and we also did an EKG, basically a looking at the heart. The doctor was thinking that the seizure may have been related to a common issue on Nathan's side of the family that revolves around passing out from pain. After these tests, we drove back home and slept away most of the day.

Luckily, from those EEG's the neurologist didn't see any seizure activity, but did refer us to a pediatric cardiologist. Basically he just wants to make sure that Michael's heart is working well, and wants it looked at by someone who specializes in pediatrics. That test is coming up within the next few weeks.

Sensory Processing Disorder
A few weeks after these tests were resolved, we started Michael with a new physical therapist. Michael has continual muscle tightening and bowed knees, so he's been seeing a PT for a while. The old one moved away, so we got a new one who did some evaluations on Michael to get an idea of what needed to be worked on with Michael. When the PT showed me the results, I noticed that a lot of the areas that Michael needed to work on had to do with fine motor skills--small muscles in the hands. I suggested that we also do OT, which is occupational therapy, and the PT agreed. So, now Michael sees a speech therapist, PT, and an OT. He's a busy boy, but he doesn't always realize he's doing "work", so he doesn't mind it--usually.

I love his OT! He's a really great, young guy who is a lot of fun. He also does some work with Sensory Processing Disorder, and noticed that Michael has a lot of the characteristics of children who struggle with SPD. So, he did some more evaluations and gave me a questionnaire to fill out, and together we've come to the conclusion that Michael has a sensory processing disorder!!
This was really a light bulb moment for us!! Finally we started having Michael's behaviors come together and we finally realized why Michael does a lot of the things he does. It was truly a great feeling! What is a SPD? There are two types. There's sensory seeking, and sensory overload. Michael is sensory seeking. I'll do my best to explain what it is.

Basically, or not so basic....Michael is not receiving enough sensory input, so he's constantly trying to do more to get more input. We have a place where we are sensorally comfortable...I think I just made a new word....anyway, there's like a sensory equilibrium. Sensory seeking children are below normal, sensory overload individuals are above it. So when Michael is running around and shaking people's arms, and just getting in our faces, he's trying to get more input to raise himself up to normal. Also when he's yelling/singing/etc. he's also working on getting it up. Eventually, they get enough input and they are comfortable for a bit, but they don't maintain it, so they start to fall and they have to start the whole thing over again. Hopefully this paragraph made SOME sense! To find out more information, you can go to http://www.sensoryprocessingdisorder.com/. There's TONS of information there!

SPDMaintenance
So we've been trying to figure out what helps bring Michael up to his normal limit. Some things we've discovered with the help of the OT is a sensory brush. Basically it's a surgical brush that we receive at the hospital after giving birth to give the baby a bath. It's a small little brush that fits in the center of the hand and has stiff bristles. We rub it along Michael's arms while pushing hard on the brush and kinda "paint" his arm with it. We do it on his arms and his legs. It's interesting, because when we do this, I can sometimes actually see him calming down. We mainly do it as a part of the bed time routine, and his head literally starts drooping and he begins yawning.

We also do joint compressions after the brush. We also do these on the limbs and the fingers and toes. Basically, we hold both ends of a joint--so for the wrist, we hold the palm in one hand and the forearm in the other--and push and pull the joint. These two things give him enough input to help him calm down and get ready for bed. What's interesting to me, is that for the few weeks before the diagnoses, he wasn't going to bed until 10:30 or 11:00 at night!!!! It was ridiculous! But, the first night we did the brush and compressions, he was asleep before we even got to the bottom of the stairs. It was Amazing!! There are still a few nights where he stays up really night, but 99% of the time, he's asleep within 10 minutes of putting him to bed!

Some other things that seem to help are mints--they give an intense immediate flavor and help him focus. Also pushing against firm surfaces. So, pushing boxes that Xander is sitting in, or pushing against Nathan's hands or the other side of a door that Nathan is pushing against (I'm too weak so I don't offer any help there). Anyway. It's interesting what helps him, and I feel like we're always learning about it.

Hair Twisting
Amidst all this stuff going on with Michael, he's also started to twist and pull his hair. At first it was just kinda weird, but it's now started to actually give him bald spots. They're not yet bald, but getting there. We're thinking this has to do with the SPD, but we're also wondering if it's anxiety related and are working on figuring different methods to help him that aren't so....obvious

Behavioral Psychologist and Results
And lastly, this past week we got some more information about Michael. We took him to a behavioral psychologist in Idaho Falls who did a ton of tests on him and was able to give us some information on what was going on with Michael. We had a lot of concerns, and it was really nice to feel validated! Basically, he findings were that he has a mild case of apraxia, which is random muscle tightening through out his whole body. He also definitely has ADHD and the SPD. Both of those combined leads him to a secondary learning disorder. Basically, he's really smart and is able to take in information, but his ADD and SPD make it difficult for him to process the information and to sit and listen to what he is being instructed to do, therefore not taking in as much of the information as he needs to. She gave us some really good tips and information to help him cope with school and life, as well as some other resources to tap into to continue getting Michael the help that he needs.

What else have we done?? We've also moved into a 3 bedroom, flew to California to see my Dad called to be a bishop, and Michael has started Kindergarten.....I'm a little tired!
So, needless to say, we've been busy!!! This has been a crazy, busy summer, but it's also been really good and I feel like we've made a lot of headway in Michael and getting him the help that he needs!

Xander.....Nutella......uh oh.....

2011-09-17T15:06:00.004-06:00

Xander got into the nutella today. He's pretty happy about it.Too bad he's allergic to milk. We have some fun days and diaper changes up ahead.....

April 2011--Easter

2011-07-31T15:24:00.007-06:00

We celebrated Easter at home this year with just the 4 of us. It was a good weekend. We started out with Michael and I trying to make it to the 30 second long Rexburg Easter Egg hunt. That thing was RI-DIC-UL-OUS!!!!! So it started at 9:00 and Michael and I parked at 8:58. As we're walking to the field we hear the blow horn starting the race. We got into the field about 30 seconds later and there were kids and parents walking around looking dumbfounded that were no more eggs to be found. It was annoying. We heard that there was going to be an easter egg hunt a few hours later at the grocery store so I drove by the store to confirm it. As I was driving home, I saw a sign in our park advertising a different hunt. So we went home and rested from our exciting morning--that is sarcasm--and then went out to the hunts. The hunt at the park was AWESOME! Not very many people knew about it, so it wasn't crowded at all.
After that we went to the grocery store and that was CROW-DED! It was the rexburg hunt all over again. We all waited outside the aisles for the hunt to start, and when it did, there were some kids that got baskets full, and then kids like Michael that didn't get one egg! I was a bit perturbed, to say the least, and Michael was sad that he didn't get anything.Michael is on the left side of the photo wearing a dark blue shirt. He's by the girl with a red and white stripped shirt.

I was grateful when some of the employees came around with bags of eggs that weren't hidden to give to the kids like Michael.

Michael got to see the Easter Bunny there too, and that made him happy.

Then we came home and dyed some eggs. Michael was interested in the eggs for a few minutes, but then thought it was much more interesting to mix the colors on a plate. So that's what he did.

But we did have an interesting conversation about how to catch the easter bunny. I'm going to be VERY sad when he figures out the realities of the holidays.The finished productsThe next morning the boys came down to their loot!I have some videos of their easter egg hunting, and I know they're not that exciting, but I also know that my mom misses seeing our kids on the holidays, so these are for her. There are some funny parts, though, that other viewers might enjoy.

Michaelisms

2011-07-31T15:15:00.002-06:00

This is just for me to remember some of the funny things that Michael has said. I'm trying to clean up my blog a bit.
**August 2010--(After Michael unleashed a whole string of countless questions) Mom: "I don't know, Michael. What do you think?" Michael: "I DON'T think"
**May 15, 2010--Mom: "Michael! We need your fireman expertize!" Michael :"What!? You need the fireman to pee?"--**April 29, 2010--Michael walks over to Mom holding his arm out. Michael: "Mom, look!" I look at his arm but I don't see anything. He points to his arm and I see some small red bumps. I say okay, and Michael says, "I have NIPPLES growing on me!"
**Sometime in April 2010--Nathan had Michael in a headlock. Nathan: "What do you need to say?" (looking for uncle) Michael: "Andrew!" (Andrew is the name of Nathan's brother, Michael's uncle)
**March 26, 2010--Mom: "What does 'A' say?" Michael: "MICHAEL!"
**March 24, 2010--Michael: "Mom, can I play in here?" Mom: , "I don't know, son." Michael: "Say yes!"
**March 1, 2010--Anyone: "Happy Birthday Michael!" Michael: "Yah, Happy birthday to you too!"--He did this all through out the day.
**Feb. 27, 2010--Michael: I want a candy. Nathan: Not right now! Michael: But it's my birthday!
**Feb. 26, 2010--Nathan: Don't step on the carpet or it will eat you up! Michael: But it doesn't have a mouth!
**Feb. 21, 2010--Me: "Come on Michael, get your coat on so we can go home!" Michael: "Calm down Mom!"
**Feb. 11, 2010--Me: "Michael, you're not disobeying are you?" Michael: "Me am, but I wont do it again. I pwamise, Mom, I wont do it again, okay?"
**Feb. 2010--Michael: Let's watch Americol Idon!
**Feb. 2010--Amy from the other room: Michael, you're not hitting your brother are you? Michael: Me am!
**Feb. 2010--I was upset about something he did, and he looked at me, raised his eyebrows, and said, "It's okay Mom. It really is."
**Early Jan. 2010--We were driving on a side road and Michael asked about the bales of hay that were stacked up. Somehow we started talking about how horses eat hay. Then Michael said: "When I'm a little horsey, I'm going to eat hay!"

Xander's First Trip to the Dentist

2011-07-31T13:21:00.008-06:00

On April 12, 2011 we took both boys to the dentist

The waiting room is awesome! There's a tree house play structure with a slide and toys for the kids to play with. The walls are all painted lime green and it's just a really fun atmosphere.

Here are the boys playing, Xander having NO idea what's about to happen.....

We let Michael go first with the hygienist, and Xander payed close attentionThen it was his turn with the hygienistHe was NOT impressed!

Then Michael met with the dentistAnd Xander got increasingly more cautiousThen Xander's turnI think you can tell just how well that was recieved!

But we all made it through it and their teeth look good and healthy!

That month we also got Xander into speech therapy. I knew he was still young, but I regret that we didn't Michael into speech earlier than we did, and I didn't want to regret it with Xander. So we got him evaluated and he qualified (but just barely) and has been seeing the same speech pathologist as Michael about 3 times a month. And if you see the side bar, his speech has ExPLODeD!

Family Pictures!!

2011-05-28T22:58:00.017-06:00

We had our family pictures taken last month for the first time in almost 2 years! We lucked out because one of my clients at work has just started up a photography business and she offered to do our pictures for completely FREE and gave us the CD with all the pictures included! Can we say AWESOME! Here are our favorites!
Xander--Favorite couple picture--My favorite family picture--

These last few pictures always make me giggle. They're just so...US!Can you guess what happened??Michael and Xander were at the end of their ropes and started wiggling while Nathan and I were trying to contain the excess energy. Well, the inevitable happened--Michael and Xander bonked heads. These pictures are perfect. PERFECT! I love it. Definitly not frame-able, but perfect non-the-less.
I love that our personalities are captured. Xander is freaking out and making a bigger deal out of the head-banging than is really necessary, Michael is just holding his head quietly, I'm laughing, and Nathan is just kinda shaking his head. I love it!

This picture says it all--
Xander's got his pacifier out, Michael is zoning out, and Nathan's body language just says it:

They're D-O-N-E!

February 2011

2011-05-06T16:40:00.003-06:00

Words to come, but for now, enjoy some fun pictures and videos!

March 2011

2011-05-06T09:43:00.007-06:00

Words to come!

Free Willy!!

2011-03-10T21:03:00.002-07:00

Tonight Nathan gave Xander a bath and when the bath was done, Nathan wrapped Xander up in a towel and laid him onto our bed. I was reading a book on the bed and I looked up and saw that Xander was trying to get his hands out of the towel. Finally he got one hand out, and soon after the other hand started coming out. Because his hand was almost free, I said, "freedom!" Because Nathan was being silly, he yelled out, "Free Willy!" (I know, random!). But the funny thing was that Xander had taken a whale bath toy out of the bath with him, and that's what he was holding in his hand. As soon as Nathan yelled Free Willy, Xander chucked the whale across the room. We all busted up laughing. What a coincedence that Xander just happened to have a whale in his hands as Nathan yelled Free Willy, and decided to throw it! That was easily the best part of our day!

January 2011

2011-02-12T23:55:00.010-07:00

Is it just me, or did January fly by! I can't believe that we're already half way through February. Unbelievable!
Michael is so funny!! He can NOT wait for his BIRTHDAY!!!! He asks me a few times each day how much longer he has until he can be 5. He's so jealous of his friend Kyler, who turned 5 in October. It's so funny when I tell him he still has 2 1/2 weeks. His response is ALWAYS either "that's too long" or "you said that yesterday". Oh to be young and have turning 5 be your biggest concern!!
Here's our month of January in pictures. There's not much rhyme or reason to them. Michael has become more interested in taking pictures than actually being in the picture, so there's not a lot of him. Xander on the other hand still has no say on the matter, so he's pictured quite often.
There's not much to update you all. I talk about Nathan's new business in the post just under this one. I've just about doubled my work hours so I'm staying busy with that. Nathan also freelances for a news paper in Idaho Falls and Pocatello, which is pretty cool and fun. Michael is going to Pre-K and will start school in September which he pretty dang excited for! He's learning so much, and is always spouting some random nonsense out. It always rhymes, but rarely makes sense. He also LOVES telling knock jokes that also don't make much sense, but just telling them makes him pretty happy. I need to get those on video!
Anyway, there's a quick update on us. Enjoy the pictures!
Xander all bundled up and ready to go out into the snow.

He's happy in the picture, but didn't last long in the white stuff. We'll try again next year. My prediction: He wont be able to get enough of it!

I realized as I was uploading pictures for the December post that I have a lot of happy pictures of Xander, and he is usually happy. But to get a good representation of the kid, you need to see him mad.

Here's he's just telling you he's not happy,

but now he's just plain ticked and so incredibly hurt that we would deny him what he wants! Heaven forbid!

But the anger certainly doesn't last long.

He discovered that he can see us through his legs!! How exciting!
You can even see the wall!

He was actually trying to look at me, but he didn't quite get how to turn his body so he could actually see me through his legs.

In the months of December and January we realized that Xander has a milk allergy. It suddenly appeared a few weeks after his birthday. It's so sad, because he loves milk products. But, he LOVES fruit, especially bananas!

And when he gets a banana, he inhales it. He can eat a full banana in about 2 minutes.

It takes a few minutes for him to actually chew the thing, but it's all in there!

Just chill-axin' in Dad's lap. If you notice in the picture he has a cup and spoon in his hand. This is another thing he loves doing! He gets a spoon and a cup and "stirs", "sips", and "dumps". He can do it for about 10-15 minutes at a time. Love it!

One night I read him this book before bed and he refused to put it away when we were done. He was clutching it so tightly that I could NOT get it out of his hands. So I decided to put him to bed with it. About 30-45 minutes later when Nathan put Michael to bed, he was still reading it!! He was laying in bed holding it and looking at the pictures.

(I'm holding the book up in the picture because he wasn't interested in holding it once the camera was out, of course.)

Bath Time Fun!
Xander is a huge fan of the bath. He gets so jealous if Michael is getting a bath and he isn't. He really gets mad.

He sits in that tub and splashes the whole time. And, if Michael is in the bath and Xander isn't, Xander will make his way to the tub, stand up, and reach into the tub just so he can splash.

My favorite picture! I love his eyes, the pure joy in his face, the shower curtain barely in the picture, the little water particles you can see on him! Everything! I love it.

Michael's thing right now is to chew on the ducks head---don't ask why, I have NO idea! He's crazy!

December 2010

2011-02-12T22:22:00.010-07:00

December was a very, very tough month! There was a lot of stress and not a lot of time together, just because of the way that my schedule and Nathan's schedule worked out. We were constantly trading spaces in the house. He'd go to work, come home, and then I'd leave for work. It was tough, but we got through it!

For Christmas this year we went up to Canada to be with Nathan's family and it was a very much needed break!! Then the day after Christmas we came home and the next day picked up my family from the airport. It was also a very nice break to have them here and to show them the fun that Rexburg can be (that's a bit of sarcasm, btw.)

So because of the busy-ness, there's not a lot of pictures, but I hope you enjoy the ones we do have!

Getting Ready For Christmas

So, I don't have very many pictures at all of our house decorated for Christmas, or any pictures of Christmas at all! I'll have to try harder next year.

Michael and Xander admiring a snow globe

Michael decorating the tree. He was so into it this year, and did a fairly good job.

The finished product. We rearranged some balls after Michael went to bed. Xander did really well with the tree. He was a bit interested in the ornaments, but didn't really touch them at all. We were pleasantly surprised.

Xander
Oh, Xander, Xander, Xander! His personality really started to come out during December, and I'm absolutely loving it!!! He's such a fun little guy!

One day I put him to bed, and when I came back to check on him, I couldn't see him. My heart skipped a beat until I realized that he was just under his blanket!

I pulled the blanket back and there he was, sleeping like a rock! Since this picture, I find him like this at least once a week!

Where's Xander?? There he is!
Figuring out the dishwasher!
The dishwasher is one of his favorite places! I really have to plan when I do the dishes because I have to do them while he's sleeping or if he's eating in his high chair. Otherwise it's a constant battle between keeping him off the dang thing, keeping the dishes inside the washer, or keeping the racks in the position I want them in.

Xander constantly keeps us laughing!! He has such a funny personality. One night I made bread bowls and soup. As we were eating, Michael busts up laughing and points to Xander. I look over and I see this:

Xander had taken his little piece of bread and placed it right on top of his head!!! Seriously, who does that!?! A 13 month old is who!!! So funny!!!!

I love this picture! He looks so grown up in it!!!! He's really starting to become a little boy and not a baby! It makes me sad, but also so excited for what's to come.Nate and Tony at the Movies

In December Nathan quit at the Standard Journal (Can I get a HaLLELujAH!) so he could focus on his business,Nate and Tony at the Movies. We're very excited about it, but he's a movie critic with a good friend Tony Potter. They worked together at the Standard Journal for a few years and their business has slowly evolved into a pretty full time thing. Here's Michael displaying one of their shirts. It's pretty fun. They have an awesome illustrator who designs Nate and Tony as the main characters in the big movies and they put the designs on shirts and coupon fliers. I'll have to see if I can get some of the designs to post. Hollie Hibbert is seriously so awesome! You've gotta check out her website. She's seriously awesome, I'm not just saying it. My Parents Came To Town

My parents finally came up to visit between Christmas and New Years. It was really fun to have them down. It was the first time Dad has been up here in the middle of Rexburg, and he fully enjoyed the weather. He's always obsessed about the weather (yes, dad, you're obsessed) but being here at the beginning of winter took it to a new level! He was constantly stepping out when the temperature would drop to see what it felt like. I think the coldest it got was -1? He'd be able to tell ya if I'm right or not.
One of the days they were here we all went out and played in it. We played more than we took pictures, so I only have a few pictures. We had a snow ball fight and built snowmen. It was really fun.

New Years

New years this year was really nice and relaxing. It was just the four of us for the first time in a few weeks, and it was nice to be a calm family again. Nathan and Michael played the new WII star wars game he got for Christmas a bit that night, Xander hung out playing with toys and just roaming around. I spent some time in the kitchen making a few little appetizers that we ate that night. Then we put the boys to bed at about 9:00 and Nathan and I watched some movies we got through Netflix. It was a really nice evening.

November 2010

2011-01-24T20:24:00.003-07:00

Alright, so here is our November 2010 in a few pictures. Not much happened that month, other than Xander's b-day and Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving at our house with just us. It was a nice day. Nathan finds cooking Thanksgiving dinner therapeutic, so he did most of it. We had the usual--Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, etc. For desert we had a cherry cheesecake.

Nathan gave Xander some of the cheesecake filling, and Xander loved it! Xander with his huge roll! It's seriously the size of his face!

On November 27, 2010, we decided that it was time to give Xander his first hair cut. So we sat him down with a graham cracker and buzzed it off!

He did alright for the first little bit, until he decided he didn't like this anymore. Then Nathan had to pretty squeeze him and keep him still so I could finish it.

Michael took this picture, and even though he cut Xander off below the nose, I love it! It shows the true terror and fear in Xander's eyes.

When we first cut it, I was really, really sad! I didn't mean to cut it so short, but I couldn't turn back. I seriously almost cried! Now that it's grown back a bit, I really like it.

All the hair that got chopped. It was a lot! It really looked like I had gotten a trim, there was so much hair!

To kick off the official beginning of Christmas, the town of Rexburg puts on a shin-dig with Santa, a chili dinner and hot chocolate, and a sleigh ride. It was a nice night.

Michael was quite excited to see Santa! That's his "cheese" smile. He's not growling...

Xander all bundled up. He stayed pretty warm the whole night, while Michael, on the other hand, was freezing cold about half way through, and spend the last 10 minutes we were there sobbing.

Michael getting off the sleigh

Xander's Birthday Cake

2010-11-14T10:15:00.001-07:00

Finally!!!!! I figured that if I put it on youtube, then I can embed it into the blog. It's not ideal, but at least you can all see our videos.....

video test

2010-11-14T09:24:00.006-07:00

Nathan has a theory as to why the videos aren't working on our computer. He says it's because the camera is too old, and blogger may have recently updated their stuff, and so because their equipment is new, and ours is old, it may not be compatible anymore and doesn't work. Well, we just got a new camera, and so we'll see if this camera is new enough to show the videos. I still have my doubts, but I really hope it works. I guess we'll see...

Nevermind. Didn't work.

Xander's 1st Birthday

2010-11-07T22:23:00.008-07:00

Michael was so excited for Xander's birthday! This year he has grasped the full joy of birthdays. His favorite thing is presents!! It was pure torture for him to not be able to see what was in Xander's presents that Grandma Stoa sent up a few days before the big event. On Wednesday morning he ran into our room yelling that it was Xander's birthday! When we came down stairs, this was how one of Xander's presents looked. It originally had ribbon on it and was taped down. Michael did just as much as he could before actually opening the thing.

The cakes I made for Xander. I got the idea from Our Best Bites...back in May! It was really fun to make. I made a little one for Xander.

The night of his birthday we had a few friends come over for cake and ice cream.

This is Jen with her daughter Ashlyn and son Kyler, Summer, and Shayna with Zoe.

Xander was very timid with his cake. At first he was just poking the icing and licking his finger. Then I showed him a bit of the cake and he figured it out. Before long he looked like this....

Summer put it well--the monkey reversed!

"Oh ya, this is good!"

Oh, he was so messy!! But he enjoyed it, and that's what mattered!

The final product when Xander was done with it. Not a lot was left

A Humbling Few Days....

2010-11-06T20:06:00.005-06:00

On Wednesday, October 27, Nathan had his appendix taken out. It was a crazy week, to be sure! But, it was also very humbling to me and it was a good opportunity to see how the Relief Society works.

The weekend before, Nathan wasn't feeling very well. He had a small stomache ache and a head ache, but he took it slow that weekend and was feeling well enough to work on Monday and Tuesday. He was still having stomach pains, but it wasn't bad enough to keep him from his responsibilities. Then on Tuesday night they started to get really bad. He said it was like a sharp persistent pain in his stomach, primarily on the right side. He was able to sleep for a bit on Tuesday night, but then the pains woke him up. By 3:30 he could hardly walk. He woke me up and told me we needed to get the ER (Doesn't this sound like a labor and delivery story??? lol) I was a bit surprised, but not really. Interestinly enough, I had been waking up every few hours when he would come back into bed and he would tell me that he was in pain. I had a feeling that we would be taking him to the ER that morning, and he would be getting surgery. I was able to call our friends Jen and Jared and Jared came over to be here when the boys woke up.

When we got to the ER, they took some blood to run tests on and also gave him some "contrast" to drink. He was told he was going to have a CT scan to check for appendicitis, and the contrast would help them see what they needed to see better....or something...anyway. They also gave him some morphine to help with the pain....and THAT was interesting. I've never seen Nathan so out of it, but oh man, it was hillarious. I can't repeat most of the things he said--it would make him too embarrased--but he definitly had some wierd thoughts going around in his head!

So he went for the CT scan and then about 20 minutes later the doctor came in saying it was appedicitis and he would be having surgery that day. About 30 minutes later we met with the surgeon and he told us Nathan would be going in at about 12:30 for the surgery. At this point it was about 9:00 and Jared had class soon, so I went home to put Xander down for his nap and to spend some time with Michael. I was home for about an hour and a half, and I was busy the whole time! I had to arrange for people to watch the boys so I could be at the hospital with Nathan. I also took a shower and prepared the diaper bag and got the boys ready for the day. During this time, Jared had called to tell me that he had just been assigned to be our Home Teacher! I found it interesting that the one couple I felt the most comfortable calling in the middle of the night turned out to be our new Home Teacher! Coincidence? I think not! At about 11:00 Michael went over to Jen's house and stayed until 12:30 when he went on the bus for preschool. He stayed at preschool for most of the afternoon and come off the bus before 4:00 and went back to Jen's house. I took Xander over to Tony and Shayna's house.

Nathan went into surgery at 12:20 and was back in the room at about 2:00. The surgery went well and the doctor said by the time he got in to the appendix, it was pretty swollen. It's a good thing they got it when they did, because it looked like the appendix was pretty close to bursting. If that had happened, Nathan would have been in the hospital for about 10 days!!!! Which means, he would STILL be hospitalized, or at least coming home today! I'm so glad it didn't burst!

I stayed with Nathan until about 4:30 and then came home. That night was our ward halloween party, and I really debated on taking the boys, but I decided that they needed to have some normalcy/excitement in their lives! It was a crazy day, and I hated that they hadn't seen me or Nathan much that day, so I decided that I would take them. So I ran home, got the boys from Shayna's and Jen's, and then came home and got them dressed in their costumes. Then we went back to the hospital for a bit so the boys could see their dad, and so Nathan could see them in their costumes. On the way back I got Michael something from the drive through for dinner and we went to the Halloween party. It was a lot of fun, and while we were there I saw my visiting teacher and relief society president. I was surprised that they already knew what was going on. The visiting teacher offered to bring me dinner the next night, and the relief society president offered to help me figure out babysitting the next few days so I could be with Nathan and she also said she's help set up dinners. I was so grateful for those offers of help! While talking with the RSP that night, I discovered how she found out about our situation. Jared had called the Elders Quorum President, and then the EQP called her. Then she called my visiting teachers. It was just surprising to me how quickly word travels, and I was grateful for the system that is in place to provide RELIEF.

So after the party I came home and put the boys to bed. Then a lady from the ward came over to house sit (the RSP had called her and asked for me) so I could go up and be with Nathan again. I stayed up at the hospital until about 10:00 that night.

The next morning I called the Relief Society president and told her the hours I'd need babysitting. While she was calling around, a friend of mine called who'd heard about the surgery and offered to come over and watch the boys for me. We decided she'd come over in the morning, and then the RS president found someone for the afternoon. The great thing was that the person for the afternoon was able to drive over and get the boys and take them to her house. She had a boy that was the same age as Michael so they, of course, had a blast playing together. Xander, unfortunately, did not have a blast. I went to pick them up at about 4:30 and as soon as I got to the door I could hear the wailing!! I felt soo bad! She also had a daughter a few months older than Xander, and she was also wailing. When she answered the door she was holding both children on her hips. They both had huge tears running down their cheeks and their faces were bright red. It was quite the sight to behold.

We got home and I fed the boys, played with them for a few minutes, and then started calling around trying to find someone to watch the boys/house sit again so I could be with Nathan. It seemed like everyone I called was busy or not answering their phones. Finally I had the thought to call one of the ladies in my ward. It turns out, she was actually the compassionate service leader in the ward. So she knew about what was going on and offered to make some calls and figure it out for me so I could spend my time getting the boys ready for bed. She had a hard time getting someone too, so she came over with her baby and husband (they decided to make a date out of it...at my house....lol!) so I was able to go sit with Nathan some more. I think I stayed that night until about 10:30.

Finally the next day--Friday--we were told that Nathan could go home! So I quickly called someone that morning and she came right over and I was able to go back to the hospital and bring him home! It was such a relief to be home! It was such a relief to not have to worry about where my kids were, to not have to worry about if they were alright, to not have to worry about if they were missing us and how they would be when we got home.

Nathan has been home for a week now, and he's doing really well. He stayed home from work the full week after the surgery and went back to work yesterday (Friday). It's been slow going, but he's healing and getting better.

It's also interesting to note that a few months ago I was trying to decide if I would be able to fly to St. Louis for a work conference. I really wanted to go, but every time I thought about it I had a really bad feeling. I thought it was just because I didn't want to wean Xander so early and that was why I had the bad feeling. A few days later another opportunity came up for Boise and I decided that I would go to that meeting instead. Well, this week I realized that the meeting in St. Louis was for this weekend. If I had decided on going to that conference, I would have left yesterday!! There was no way Nathan would be ready to be with the boys one on one for 5 days! But, he will do just fine in 2 weeks, which is when my conference in Boise is.

It's just so humbling to take a step back and to realize how blessed we were through this whole ordeal!

October 2010

2010-11-04T22:23:00.012-06:00

****I wrote stuff for all these pictures, but when I went to save publish the post, I realized that my internet was down, and so it wouldn't publish. Because of that, I had lost everything I had done, so that's why the posts were really unorganized and not much was said about the pictures. I have now organized it and given information on the pictures. Enjoy!****

Michael discovered that he can barricade Xander from the living room. It was frustrating for Xander to not be able to get into the living room to play with all of Michael's toys, but Michael loved it.

This is how I found Michael hiding during a game of Hide and Seek.

Musical Michael

Michael got a sword thing from Grandma Stoa, and when it broke, Michael decided it would work well as a violin. I was pretty impressed with Michael, because before I could ask him what he was doing, he told me he was playing a violin. I didn't even realize he knew what a violin was!

Eye-less ElmoWe have no idea what happened to this Elmo!!! All we know is that Nathan put Elmo in Xander's crib one morning so we could get a bit more sleep, and when I walked back in the room, Elmo's eyes were on the floor and Elmo was laying face first in Xander's crib....Should I be concerned???

Xander takes a good 45 minutes to fall asleep when we lay him down for his naps. He's rarely upset. He just talks and plays in his crib. When he finally falls asleep, he ends up in all kind of wierd positions! I don't know how he can sleep like this!

I loved how Xander was striking a pose.

I had so many empty baby food jars laying around so a few friends and I got together and made these fun halloween decorations. We just modge podged some tissue paper on and then cut out shapes from construction paper and modge podged those on as well. They came out pretty cute. We may get together and make some snowmen or something.

On the 23rd I convinced Nathan to take us to a pumpkin patch in Idaho Falls. It was a small little thing, but it was fun. Michael wasn't interested in the pumpkins at all, but there was a hay maze that he had a lot of fun with.

The funny thing about Xander, is that he HATED the hay!!!! I mean, this is a kid who freaks out on grass! So he could hardly stand it! You can see his foot in this picture. He would not lay it down. By the end of taking these pictures he was bawling!!

We finally carved our pumpkins on Saturday, the 30th. I was taking a nap on the couch, and Michael decided he couldn't wait. So he took a butter knife and started on the pumpkins. He was so proud of himself, but I was not happy he had taken a knife to our pumpkins! But, he actually didn't do too bad of a job. I was able to work with the cuts, so it didn't look mutilated.

Halloween 2010 Michael was Frankenstein

and Xander was a mad scientist.

About 5 months ago, I took Xander out of the bathtub and noticed that he had so much hair that if it was spiked out in all directions, he would make a good scientist. I mentioned it to Nathan, and he suggested we do Michael as Frankenstein for Halloween. The costume was really easy. For Xander we got some of Michael's hair gel and spiked it all over, for the glasses we just got some face paint/crayons and drew them on, and then we got one of Michael's white church shirts and put it on Xander. He looked really cute.

For Michael, I went to DI and bought him the shirt and pants. The total cost was only about 4 dollars. For his head/hat I cut the bottom off a milk jug and painted it black and green. This part was a PAIN!!!!!! I got the idea from a magazine, and it suggested buying some primer for a base on the milk jug, otherwise the paint would chip. But when I priced primer, it was so expensive I just decided that the paint chipping shouldn't be a big deal and I would just reapply every time it chipped....I wish I had bought the primer!! The paint more peeled than it did chip...everytime the stupid hat was worn. It became such a pain!!

Xander was moving around too much when I was drawing on his glasses, so it doesn't look as nice as I'd hoped.

Look at that face!!!!! A sad, sad Xander!!! I think this was on Sunday, the 31st. He was just so sad!!!

Xander loving on some chocolate...I gave him the bar fully wrapped, and within 10 minutes he was able to get a corner of the paper off and enjoyed himself some chocolate!

And lastly, here's a video that you probably wont be able to see. It's Michael being Frankenstein and yelling "I'M ALIVE!" It's pretty cute, and I'm so mad at blogger for not allowing my videos to work. I can't figure it out, and it's getting to the point that I'm thinking about moving my blog to a different web host like word press or something.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY XANDER!!!!!!!!!!

2010-11-03T09:49:00.002-06:00

Believe it or not (I hardly can...) he's ONE! We love you our little Xan-Man!

Halloween 2010 Sneak Peek

2010-11-01T16:27:00.000-06:00

Late Night Ramblings

2010-10-09T00:35:00.003-06:00

In my high school and college writing classes, I would always struggling with how to begin and end my essays. I remember my teachers, friends, and proof readers always commenting on my lack of conclusions, or how my beginning needed a better intro and giving me suggestions for how to start it. Well, it turns out that not much has changed since those classes. I have my middle, but I have no beginning and no ending.

This post is just a bunch of ramblings. It's probably the most "real" post I've had in a long time. You know, I used to post things about my miscarriages like it was nothing. I wonder if it's just the stigma of PPD. No, I think I'm afraid of people reading that I don't always enjoy the life of a mother. The day to day crap that mothers sometimes have to endure. It's hard on days when Michael wants to do nothing but play with me! And I don't want to. But then I think that there will be a day when he wont want to play with me at all. And that makes me sad. It's like that song. The son wants to play with the dad all the time, but that dad is too busy. The boy grows up saying he's going to be just like his dad someday. He grows up, gets married and starts a family. Then the dad wants to spend time with the son and the son is too busy. It never happens. And that's going to be my life! I'm going to want to play with Michael and spend time with him, but then he's just going to want to go out and play with his own friends. I know that some of this is due to the PPD. I just pray that Heavenly Father will use Christ's atonement and make up for some of this. But I know that it's also my duty and responsibility to make an effort! It's something that I'm trying to do better with. But, I did play Hide-N-Seek with him today. That was fun. He just loves to play those games. And I also end up enjoying it too.

For bed time today we read a fun book. Although, I can hardly remember what book it was. After the book we sang a Halloween song together. It was so sweet and so fun!!!! It's a song that Mom sang to him last year and I started singing it to the boys about a month ago. I didn't realize it, but Michael has a pretty good memory of the words. The song goes like this:

I'm a mean old witch with a hat, I ride my broom with a cat, my shoes are pointy and
my chin is too. And you better watch OUT, cause I might scare you....I'm a mean old
witch with a hat...BOO!

It was so fun because when I started singing it, I would pause at the end of each line, just to see if he knew how it went. And for each line he did! Then I sang it again and he would occasionally join in, usually for the last few words in each line. Then he started singing it with me for the whole song. It was so fun. I was sitting on the bed with him directly across from me, with his feet in my lap and his bum by my toes. Our hands were also joined together and when I would put my hands down, he would--seemingly subconsciously--bring his hands back down and join them with mine again. Very sweet. We sang that song probably 10 different times. Every time we got to BOO he would poke me just under my chin. I love the memory of his face while we were singing this song! He just looked so happy and excited. I could just tell that he loved spending this one on one time with just him and his mom. I loved it too. I just love my little boy!!!
Michael is such a sweet special little boy. I love him so much and I'm so excited to see who he's going to be! I get so worried about what he'll remember from me and my horrible no good post partum depression. Today was not a good day. I was just feeling very down and gloomy. It didn't help that the weather was also very gloomy. Usually I love these days! I love the feel of fall in the air and the rain and the cold. But this week has just been so incredibly busy and stressful that today was just hard. I had been trying and trying to do everything and be everything that I needed to be this whole week, that I was just drained today. Finally I called Nathan and I just broke down. While we were talking I just started bawling and I felt so bad for Michael! He handled it well. He just played in the living room and hardly even seemed to notice. Finally I got off the phone and knew that I needed to go upstairs and pray my heart out to my heavenly father. Michael handled it so well. He stayed down stairs and hung out watching tv and playing. When I came back down stairs he asked if I was done crying. It just breaks my heart that he's had to see me cry more times than I can count. I don't know that I remember ever seeing my mom cry when I was younger!!! I just hope that he doesn't have any horrible memories from this last year. I know that we've made some good memories, but I worry so much about the bad ones. I worry that there have been more bad than good, although I'm pretty sure that's not true. Again, I just have to rely on the lord's atonement and that the things I was unable to do this last year will have been done anyway, and that Michael will not be damaged or influenced in a negative way. I have faith that the spirit can help teach him the things that he needs to know and that his questions and concerns were taken care of.

Experiencing post partum depression this last year was an interesting experience. It's definitely not one that I'd like to re-experience, and certainly not something I would wish upon ANYONE!!!! Although it has been tough, I have learned a lot. I'm intending on, in future posting postings, recording all the things I've learned from this post partum journey.

But for now, a teething Xander is screaming in his crib and needing some comfort. Good night!

Are My Videos Working For You?

2010-09-27T11:15:00.002-06:00

It looks like my videos are having issues. My videos play just fine on my computer, but it looks like they're not working on the blog. So I put a poll up to see if you guys are having the same issue. Please let me know if you can see the video and hear the sound. And, please, if any of you know how to fix the issue, please let me know!

Thank you!

UPDATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-09-21T22:22:00.010-06:00

Finally, after how many months of my blog being behind, I am CAUGHT UP!!!!!!!!!

This is our life from the last 3 weeks. It's not that exciting, but there are some fun videos and pictures.

First off, here is why you should not put concentrated dish soap in your dishwasher. EVER! Not even a little bit!

It actually looked worse than it was. Nathan just got some big towels and soaked it all up, and then we let the dishwasher sit mid cycle until the bubbles were gone.

Egin (Hidden) Lake and the sand dunes
A few weeks ago we went to Egin Lakes and had a blast! It's a little lake right in the middle of the sand dunes. It's a perfect little place to families and not a lot of people know about it. It was seriously so fun!

The lake is so shallow! This is Michael and Nathan right in the middle, I think. So it's not very deep at all. It went up to Michael's waist. The water was cold, but it wasn't much worse than the ocean.

Xander and Michael loved playing in the sand and water! Mud bath anyone?After Egin Lakes we showed Michael some of the sand dunes. Nathan and Michael walked on a few steep dunes. After playing at Egin Lake we showed Michael some of the dunes. He and Nathan climbed to the top of a few.

Nathan and his two boys Nathan and his boys.Xander's Exploits Xander has discovered that there are drawers and cupboards that are full of all kinds of things! It's really fun. I don't mind it too much that he gets into stuff. I love watching him and seeing his mind work through what's going on in his world. He also loves the bathroom, our storage area under our stairs, and going outside. If he sees that any of those doors are open, he'll army crawl as fast as he can hoping for a few minutes in these no-play zones.

In order to barricade Xander into places, we've been putting chairs down so he couldn't crawl into areas that we didn't want him in. But, in the last few weeks he's figured out how to crawl through them.

On Friday September 17, 2010 I was feeding Xander when he put the bib in front of his face. I think he was telling me he was done and he wanted the darn thing off, but I just said peek-a-boo. He looked at me for a minute, and then put the bib in front of his face again. We went back and forth for probably 5 minutes. Of course, though, as soon as I turned the camera on he decided to just yell at me. But, it's still pretty funny.

See that personality!! He's full of it!

This next video was taken tonight after dinner. Xander has been blowing raspberries for a few weeks now, but tonight it turned into a game between him and Michael.

I love this age that Xander is at!! It's so fun to watch him and see his mind work! He's really grown a lot lately. Some of the things he's learned to do are to pull up to a stand on low objects (me when I'm on the floor, the stroller, the stairs--but not climbing yet, thank goodness!, bath tub, etc.), he can go from laying to sitting up, clapping, he understands "come here", "Where's ___", Michael, Dad, Mom?, and a lot more. He still only has 2 teeth and we've been thinking the others would make an appearance soon, but we're still waiting. We're also starting to do night sleep training. He's been waking up to eat 2-3 times a night, and that just has to stop! So our first night was last night and we're looking forward to a full night sleep! I can't remember what I looked like without bags under my eyes!

Michael giving birth?? Okay, now this was just hilarious!!!!! This was just this last Sunday night. That day we had spent our time at Nathan's aunt house in Utah, and she has kittens. Michael loves these kittens and spent a lot of the day playing with them. When we checked on him that night this is how we found him! I'm wondering if someone explained to him that the kittens used to be in their moms belly or something.

Michael

2010-09-21T21:34:00.008-06:00

I can't believe this little boy is 4 1/2!! It's going by way too fast. It's crazy and exciting and sad all at the same time. He's such a fun little boy who loves life! He spends his whole day pretending! He is very rarely sitting still, and it's usually when he's watching tv. He'll sit for about 10 minutes but then he's up trying to find a toy that he can use to reinact something he saw on tv. He's always making me laugh!
One day in August we were on a walk and I saw a sign that was advertising FREE hair cuts for children!! I don't usually walk in that direction but decided to change it up a bit that day. It was such a blessing that I walked by the sign. So we went in and got Michael's hair cut. It looks pretty dang cute!
In August we went to our county fair, and Michael actually got to talk to a real fireman!! Michael thought it was SO COOL! The fireman gave a little fire safey demonstration, taught Michael how to crawl out of a window in case there's a fire, and then let him try on his fireman gear!! I love how it's so huge on him! As soon as this picture was taken he took the jacket off. He said it was too heavy.

Michael has also started back at preschool this year. I've gotta say, it's HeAvEn!!! He goes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the afternoon, and he gets to ride the bus. What's also nice, is that while Michael is at preschool, Xander is taking his nap, so it's complete alone time for me....again, HeAvEn! Michael is doing really well at school and really seems to enjoy it. It's fun to see how he's changed in the few short months he wasn't going to school during the summer. He's so excited to show me the things that he brings home from school and will tell a thing or two of what he did during the day. He preschool also has a blog where they list the schedule and the activities they're doing, so that helps jog Michael's memory and he tells all types of things they do, and if he can't describe it, he'll show me with his body. It's really fun.

His speech is also improving. I've discovered that if I have him clap while trying to say a word, he'll do better with it. The biggest thing Michael struggles with is pronouncing the first letter in a word. For example, Fireman is said Hireman. Or Tractor is pronounced Hactor. A lot of words are replaced with a "huh" sound. So anyway, if he says Hireman, I'll say the F sound a few times in a row and then say Fireman. Then he'll repeat it back to me, usually ending with Hireman. But, if we clap while we say the F sounds, then he'll actually say Fireman more often. It's pretty exciting!

He recently discovered a neighbors bike and has grown quite attached to it. The problem? (Other than that it's someone else's bike) It's pink. So he'll be getting a bike for his birthday.

This picture makes me smile. It's just so totally Michael...

2010-09-17T12:45:00.003-06:00

How Twins Are Made

2010-09-15T10:20:00.001-06:00

My mom sent this to me in an email this morning and I thought it was so cute!

Superheroes!!!!

2010-09-14T19:43:00.006-06:00

Michael wanted a cape and I thought it'd be fun to do it with Xander too. Nathan had his work camera so he took some nice pictures. It's so fun to have a nice camera to take pictures with, as opposed to our 4 1/2 year old camera which is basically falling apart....

And then this is just a random picture. I thought it was so cute because Michael and Xander were actually playing in the same room and weren't fighting. Yes, they are already fighting. It's mainly because Michael wants to rough-house with Xander, and it annoys Xander to know end (as it should, considering Xander is still a baby...). When Xander is annoyed he yells and gets really mad. It's funny but can also get really frustrating.

***I just noticed the drool on Xander's shirt!! I forgot that he used to drool that much. I think this was when he was teething. Geesh he used to soak his shirts!

California Trip

2010-09-03T23:39:00.003-06:00

Beach!!!!!!!!!

2010-09-03T23:17:00.006-06:00

Baseball Game!!!!!!!!!

2010-09-03T23:04:00.004-06:00

Disneyland!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-09-03T21:17:00.016-06:00

Just after walking into the park

Michael with his 1st visit button

Michael was obsessed with this firetruck! We probably could have left right then and he would have been just fine! Xander in some fireman boots

Michael got a Mickey Mouse pirate hat...it was only cool to wear for the first few minutes....

then I got the honor of wearing it....

Peter pan was awesome!!!!! When we walked by, he was all alone. When Peter Pan saw Michael he got down on his level and asked him his name. Then they just started chatting. The Peter took Michael by the hand and started walking around Disneyland with him! We had to walk so fast to keep up. Michael was in heaven! We stayed with Peter Pan for at least 15 minutes. As we were walking, some people would stop him and take a picture, and then Peter would just come right back, grab Michael's hand, and start walking. There were a few times, though, when we couldn't Michael away from Peter that he ended up in a few kids pictures....Michael acted like he owned the place, it was so funny.

Michael and his cousin Emma Kellie and Emma

Brandon and Michael

My mom and Emma Emma dressed as Snow WhiteMichael and Mickey!

When we walked into Mickey's house, we didn't realize we were actually going to meet Mickey, so my dad and Brandon aren't in the picture. Michael and Emma were soo tired! They were both asleep within minutes of us starting to walk. I love how Emma's legs are crossed and all prim and proper, and Michael is totally relaxed and slumped over onto her!

But eventually they had to wake up...and they were quite silly!

I think Bryce may have won the coolest Uncle of the year award after we got off Pirates of the Caribbean....He bought Michael a Captain Jack Sparrow sword!!! He already had the pirate hat, so this was HUGE! He hasn't let one day go by that he hasn't played with that sword!

My favorite picture

The fireworks that night were amazing!!! It was almost just as much fun to watch Michael's face light up as it was to see the fireworks. Michael was amazed. And it really was a great show! It lasted for so long and had a flying Dumbo and Tinkerbell.

Random California Pictures

2010-09-03T20:08:00.005-06:00

I am so grateful for my brothers and their abilities to take such wonderful photos and capture my children's personalities!! I have them to thank for all these wonderful pictures, and I feel so blessed for that. THANK YOU BRYAN AND BRYCE!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

2010-08-26T14:42:00.003-06:00

Xander woke up early from his nap and he's been having so much fun crawling around and playing with Michael's toys while he can. I pulled out the video camera and pushed play just in time for Xander to go up onto his knees! Talk about luck! He's been army crawling for a while now, but we've been curious to see if Xander would crawl the normal way. Michael was a foot crawler, where one knee was in the normal position and the other foot was flat on the ground, and he would push off with his foot to crawl. It was interesting to say the least.

I have so much blogging that I need to do! It's awfully daunting, so I haven't done it yet, because it's just too much. But, I would feel horrible if I didn't document our summer, so it's coming! For now, just enjoy this video of my adorable baby boy!

Random Pictures--The First Month Of July

2010-07-21T21:39:00.014-06:00

We haven't been up to much. Just doing the day to day boring life things. We had an enjoyable fourth of July weekend. On Friday night Cathy and Becca came into town. On Saturday we did the parade on Main Street and then went down to Idaho Falls and watched the fireworks. On the actual holiday we didn't really do anything. We bought some snappy things that pop when they hit the sidewalk, but other than that, it was pretty low key....or boring....

Here's some pictures and a video of us at the parade

A flag we made a few days before.

This was how Michael dressed himself on the morning of the parade. A canada shirt and waving the canadian flag....I made him change....

It was so cold that morning!! We were wearing our jackets and some people were wrapped up in blankets.
Nathan taking pictures for the paper of people waiting for the parade to start.

Michael was so funny at the parade. The "floats" (they were just trucks with people sitting in the beds...ya, they worked hard on those...) had people throwing candy out into the streets. All around kids were going nuts for the candy, filling up bags and getting as much as they could. Then there was Michael. He'd pick up a piece, put it in his pocket or bring it to Cathy, and then walk back into the street and the CHEER for the other kids who got the candy! It was so funny.

Michael and Xander are going to be really good friends, we believe. We had just gotten back from a walk and I went into the kitchen to get a drink and I hear Michael and Xander laughing, and Michael saying, "hey baby, HEY!" So I walked around the corner just in time to see Xander lean over and pull Michael's hair. I had to get it on video. It was just too cute!

I LOVE THIS KID!!! He just makes me so happy! We looked up his middle name (Isaac) last night and it means "laughter". And that's just so fitting!! He's such a happy baby (most of the time) and lately, whenever he smiles he has a little giggle that goes along with it. He's just so fun!

Sometimes I will put sit Xander on the counter in the bathroom and put his hair into a mohawk. It's the best I can do until I finally have a girl! This was the first day he got excited about "the other baby" in the mirror.

I was able to get a FREE high chair earlier this month, too! It's so awesome! Someone in my ward announced they had a highchair they didn't need anymore, so I jumped on it, and got it!!! And this highchair is SO AWESOME!!! It has 7 different heights it can adjust to (which has been perfect for feeding Xander in the living room if I'm watching a movie with Michael or if we want him to be sitting at the table with us, it can act as a booster), has wheels that lock, the trays can fit into the dishwasher, and the cover can be thrown into the washing machine. It also comes with 2 really fun toys that Xander LOVES! The toys hook onto the tray so he can't push them off and it keeps him occupied when I'm getting his stuff ready. It's pretty cool! A few weeks ago there was a huge fire in Idaho Falls. It was incredibly windy (over 50 MPH winds) so all the smoke got pushed over to our city. It looked realy wierd. This is a picture of our tree...it's usually really green, but it looked white. Crazy!
Xander has started crawling...kinda...He pushes off with his toes and pulls himself with his fingers. But he's definitly getting around, and he seems to be so much happier now! But we've really had to start being super careful about what's on the floor! He can get to anything he wants, and those little fingers are GREAT at picking all kinds of things off the floors. I forgot about the tiny little vacuum stage!!

Article Of Faith #1

2010-07-21T21:21:00.004-06:00

I am so proud of Nathan and Michael. For the past few months Nathan and Michael have been reading the scripture stories out of the Doctrine and Covenants at bedtime. They have also started working on memorizing the 13 articles of faith! Here is Michael reciting the first one. He didn't get any help on this at all, and has almost mastered #2!! Article of Faith #1

We believe in God, the eternal father, and in his son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

What Not To Give For Christmas

2010-07-12T21:57:00.008-06:00

FREE Swiffer Wet Jet!!!

2010-06-24T22:02:00.003-06:00

I'm so excited! Today I received my FREE swiffer Jet Wet! I will also be receiving a FREE movie, "Waking Ned Devine", on Monday!

I was able to get these free because a few months ago I signed up for Swagbucks. Basically, Swagbucks is a search engine that awards you Swagbucks for searching on their site. So you do a few searches, and are randomly awarded swagbucks. The bucks are anywhere from 5 to 50 bucks. After you have enough swagbucks, you can trade them in for prizes, which include Amazon gift cards. You can then use the gift cards just like any gift card!! Now, I know this sounds too good to be true, but it's really true. I've had Nathan look into it, and he can't find anything wrong with it. He's still really skeptical, but he can't find anything bad about it.

There are some other ways to win bucks:

Go to the swagbucks website and click on Special offers. Do the no obligation offers and just click on either No or Skip. You'll get one point for that, and it takes about 30 seconds.
Also on the main page you can complete the poll and get a point.
They also have surveys, that will award you quite a few points, but take a loong time, so I usually don't do those. But you do get a point for just going to site, and you can access that through the main page as well.
And the last way is to download the toolbar. Just using that will get a point.
Also the swagbucks organizers will release codes that if inputed on the swagbucks website will get you a few points as well.

I am extremely grateful for Swagbucks. We've been needing to get a new mop for a while now! Our old one broke when Xander was born, and I've been washing our floors on my hands and knees because we couldn't afford to get a new mop. So I'm so grateful to be able to get a new mop and a fun movie without spending anything. Swagbucks is totally free and there are no strings or gimmicks. It's really great.

To sign up, click on this link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/mom2sons or click on the widget on my sidebar.

Feel free to ask me any questions!

Lost Generation

2010-06-16T15:05:00.003-06:00

This. Is. AMAZING!

Random Pictures--Warning, This Is Long!!!!

2010-06-13T21:01:00.010-06:00

It's been way too long since my last post, so there's a lot of pictures and not a lot of words....Enjoy!

He's sitting in the booster chair. He was so happy to be sitting up with us at the table during dinner.
Xanders first bath in the big bathtub! As you can see in the video--He loves to splash!

Chilling out in a box!
Michael and I made a firetruck with a left over diaper box. He of course had to get his firefighter outfit on!

Michael is a great big brother! He (most of the time) really enjoys helping Nathan and I out with getting diapers, wipes, or throwing them away. Here he is *pretending* to feed Xander. Luckily Xander had just eaten, so he wasn't getting mad that the spoon was empty. He just played along, sometimes looking a little confused.

Such a smily happy baby!!

I loved this little wink!

Oohh...Hands!

Multi-tasking

I love these dimples!

He loves playing with and sucking on his tongue! When he does it he sticks out his lips and his cheeks stick out. And now, we'll leave you with this--

It's a video of Xander one day before bed. This is to prove to our parents that he's a fiesty little guy with a bad temper!! Especially when he's tired!

2010-06-13T19:15:00.003-06:00

While we were sitting in Sacrament meeting today Michael was looking through my scriptures and the pictures that are included in them. I was talking to him about the pictures and reading the captions underneath each picture. But when we came to these two, he didn't give me a chance!!

He immediately knew this was the tree that Christ knelt next to and prayed on.

And when he saw this picture he said, "this is where they layed Jesus's body after he died." Now, I'm aware that this is not where they layed his body, but the angle of this picture that's included in the scriptures shows the round hole in the center of the photograph. So it looks like a tomb hole.

It was such a neat experience for Nathan and I and we realized that even though it may not seem like Michael is paying attention or learning anything, he really is. And, I really have Nathan to thank for this. Every night he reads Michael a scripture story from either the New Testament, Old Testament, Book Of Mormon, or the Doctrine and Covenants. Then they say prayers and Michael goes to bed.

I'm so grateful for the gospel and the chance that I have to teach these little children about Christ and the love that he has for us. Michael has such a HUGE love for Jesus and a strong desire to know about him. It's such a blessing for Nathan and I to see the innocence of a child and how open they are to the truths of the gospel. I can truly understand why in the scriptures we're told to become like little children.

Nathan Will Be On The Radio!!

2010-06-10T21:19:00.004-06:00

So, for about a year and a half now, Nathan and a co-worker, Tony, have been doing weekly movie reviews. He gets to see all the movies and now he's going to be ON THE RADIO!! He just had the final meeting with the managers of the station today and finalized everything. He's going to be on every Friday between 8 and 9 in the morning. It'll just be a little 5 minute segment, but still...that's pretty dang cool!!!!

REVENGE

2010-05-17T14:13:00.004-06:00

A few weeks while I was uploading pictures onto the computer, I discovered that Nathan was in a silly mood one day and decided to take some pictures of himself. I really debated putting them on the blog, but decided that I would save them for the perfect opportunity. Well, now is the perfect opportunity....

Remember that picture from the Farmers Market post? (click on the link to see it) You know, the one with the ugly picture of me eating a cob of corn. Ya, he posted it without my knowledge. I discovered the picture and removed it. I look hideous in it! Well, Yesterday, I was skimming through the blog and realized that Nathan had reposted it. So, instead of getting mad, I'm getting even.

Enjoy Nathan's silly mood! He rarely lets people in on this aspect of his personality, so enjoy! I know I am!

Revenge is sweet!

Nathan Is 26!

2010-05-10T22:30:00.004-06:00

Today Nathan turned 26. We didn't really do anything big or major since Nathan worked most of the day. But I made some pierogi's (A polish meal that Nathan had growing up) and a chocolate pudding fudge cake. Michael and I also decorated the living room a bit. It was fun to celebrate, since Michael is getting more aware of birthday's and the specialness of the occasions. He's so fun!

The cake I made--YUM!

Now for the mushy stuff. I'm so grateful to have Nathan as my husband. He's such a great father and husband! I love watching him with our sons. He loves to get down on the ground and wrestle with Michael. He loves to hold and play with Xander. Xander L-O-V-E-S Nathan's glasses and the feel of his beard. And when Xander reaches for them, Nathan will gently explain what Xander is touching and the feeling on his hands, then gently pry the glasses from his stubby fingers. He truly loves our sons and it's so fun to see that love emanating from him! And Nathan is such a great husband! He's been so perfect during my PPD struggles. Nathan's job is incredibly demanding, but he makes sure to make the time for me so that I'm still sane by the end of the day. I just love him so much, and am so happy that he's my husband. Agreeing to marry him was the smartest decision I've ever made!

Xander--6 MONTHS

2010-05-09T21:04:00.004-06:00

It's so crazy that Xander will be 1 year old in just 6 months, and that 6 months has already passed. Time just keeps going faster and faster. So the other day I took some pictures. It's so hard to choose which pictures to put up. He's just so cute! I wish I was a professional or at least had a professional camera. It would be so fun, and these pictures would look so much better!

Xander is really becoming so fun! He's starting to interact so much more now. It's like each day he's doing more and watching more. It's so funny to watch him and Michael. Michael absolutely adores Xander. It's so fun to see him play with Xander every chance he gets. Of course, sometimes Michael is a bit too intense for Xander, but we're trying to teach Michael to be aware of the signs Xander is giving to say he's had enough. Slowly Michael is catching on. But Michael loves to jump around and do "tricks" and Xander will laugh and laugh at him! It's pretty fun. And there have been times when Xander has actually leaned forward to be closer to Michael.Xander has started to blow raspberries/bubbles. He loves to do it when he's mad or sitting up playing. But mainly when he's mad.Xander is now in 9-12 months clothes, and has been for a few weeks now!! I had him in an outfit today that Michael wore when he was 16 months old!! I love that he's so chunky! Xander is now a perfect sitter-upper. He will sit up without falling down for at least 15-20 minutes now! And when he's done sitting up, he will graciously fall down to be on his back.
Another new thing he's doing while he's on his tummy is starting to go in circles. He kicks his legs and moves his arms and body up and down, and before long he's facing a different direction than he was just 10 minutes before. Nathan is convinced he'll be crawling soon.
Xander and Mom
Xander has now outgrown his bathtub. Next bath will be in the big boy tub. I think Michael is pretty excited.

Family Pictures--Kinda

2010-05-09T20:48:00.005-06:00

One friday Michael came home from preschool with a note asking that a family picture be brought with him to school on Monday. I read the note and put it down, making a mental note to find a decent picture with all of us in it. Then we went about our day and weekend and completely forgot until Sunday evening. Well, the last time we had family pictures taken was August 2008, so they obviously didn't have Xander in them and our printer is broken right now so I couldn't just print one off. So I decided that we would just all sit on the couch together and take a picture. It would be way easy and only take a few minutes. Well, 15 minutes and 16 attempted pictures later, this is what we got:

Nathan telling me I wasn't doing it right

Michael ended up taking a family picture from Aug. 08 and explained that Xander was not it.

The good news: This convinced Nathan that we need a new family picture!!!! (something I've been trying to convince him of for YEARS!) So stay tuned, new family pictures are in the works!

Rexburg Farmer's Market 2010

2010-05-05T18:38:00.009-06:00

Last Friday, (April 30 2010) we went to the Rexburg Farmer's Market, because its fun, its cheap, the food is fresh and it always tastes great.
It was the first Farmer's Market of the season, so I had to take pictures at it (this is one of Nathan's rare posts by the way). and I thought it would be fun to take the family along.
I snapped some photos quick photos of Michael and Amy, (although she was trying her best to stay away from the camera.) eating corn-on-a-stick smothered in Parmesan cheese.
Amy will most likely be mad when she's sees that I posted a photo of her (because she doesn't like to look like a messy eater! And corn-on-a-stick is messy!) But I think the photos are fun, so here they are:

**Nathan was right, I was mad about that picture. It's an ugly picture where I look like I weigh 300 pounds and I'm covering my face, and it's just silly! So, I deleted it. I'm sure most of you had already seen it, but oh well. Enjoy the pictures of Michael!

***(Nathan Again) Now that its not at the top of the page I'm putting the photo back up... she'll never know...

Who Are You???

2010-04-23T22:23:00.002-06:00

Alright, so I've recently had a few different conversations revolving my blog, and I've been realizing that there are quite a few more people out there who look at this blog than I'd originally thought. I have my regular 5 or so commenters and I've figured there's more than that who actually read this thing. So, I want to make a poll and I want you to tell me who you are!!! You can find it on the side of the blog, and just click on which ever option fits you best. Thanks!!

Another Random Post

2010-04-23T21:49:00.003-06:00

There isn't going to be any rhyme or reason to this post. These are just some videos and pictures that I got off our camera from the last few weeks.

This video is of Michael watching the video where Xander was pushed over from his sitting position. In the post I mentioned that Michael watched it like 10 times in a row. I love how Michael starts fidgeting and giggles when Xander's about to fall over. He just thinks it's the funniest thing ever!

You probably also noticed the really cool lines that were cut in his hair above the ear. Well, that wasn't planned. In fact, I'm really a bit embarrased that it's so visible in the picture. What happened was when were getting ready to cut his hair he picked up the razor and turned it on and decided that he would give himself a bit of a buzz. I looked at him just as he took it to his head. Luckily it doesn't look to bad and he didn't do a straight buzz. Otherwise we'd probably have to shave his head completely.

This next video is a cool trick that Michael learned by himself the other day. We have a bit of a backyard where we are and he loves to run and do summersaults down the hill. Here he is doing it in the hallway of our apartment.

This last video is of Xander getting solids for the first time.

We started Xander on solids on Monday, April 19. I'd been waiting until he was closer to 6 months to start on solids, but the other day I noticed that he was getting more cranky and wanting to eat more often. His sleep schedule has also been way off since we are trying to teach him not to sleep swaddled anymore and at night he'd been waking up about 2-3 times a night. Monday morning I was thinking about this and it occured to me that he may have been needing to start solids. So later that day I went out and bought some rice cereal, 3 cans each of carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash. My plan is to let him eat the canned stuff to make sure he likes it and doesn't have any allergic reactions and then we'll buy the vegies and make them here at home. Anyway, so Monday night we fed him some rice cereal and sweet potatoes and he loved it!! He didn't have any trouble taking it at all. He'd open up, leaning forward sometimes, swallow, and be ready for the spoonful. It was like he'd been doing it all along. In fact, it was a bit anti climatic. We've since given him carrots and he doesn't seem to like those as much as the sweet potatoes. He'll kinda squint after the first few bites like trying to decide if he likes it, but then he'll eat the rest no problems. AND, I'm happy to report that he's sleeping soooo much better now!!!! He'll still have issues going to bed, but after he falls asleep at night he'll only wake up ONCE at night, about 5-7 hours after his last feeding, and then he'll wake up between 6:30 and 7:30. It's wonderful!

This last picture is of a HUGE bear that's in Michael's room. It sits on his chair and is literally the same height as Michael. So anyway, I saw that bear had stickers over his mouth and I immediately started feeling quilty that we were telling Michael to be quiet too often or that he
was feeling unheard. After a few days of worrying about this I decided to just ask Michael about it. So I pointed to the bear and asked him why stickers were covering his mouth. Michael answered, "So the bear can't eat me up!" I should have known not to jump to conclusions!

PPD Sucks!!

2010-04-23T20:35:00.002-06:00

Since Xander was born, I have been struggling with Post partum depression. And believe me, it is a struggle!

I have been debating on blogging about this for awhile now, and I finally decided that I will. A lot of you will think I'm crazy for posting this (Nathan included) for the world to see, but I figure that the reason for this blog is to document what happens in our family, and the downs are just as important as the ups.

I want to document this now so that when it passes (which I know it will, and I really can't wait for it to) I don't forget what it was like. I would hate for my daughter or a daughter in law, or anyone really, to be struggling with this and not know how to help her. I have a tendency to forget what a trial was like after it's past, and I really don't want to forget about this one.

It's really difficult to describe the feelings of post partum depression. Everyone has days when they feel sad. We've all been depressed now and then, but this is so much worse! It's difficult to do anything. I have half my mind telling me, almost screaming at me, to get off my butt and clean the kitchen, or clean the bathrooms, or go play with Michael, but it's almost as though I am physically incapable of moving. It's like there's a darkness around me. My mind is clouded with thoughts and I'm jumping back and forth between things that I should do, or things that I want, or reasons why I'm not good enough to do something. Now, my depression has rarely been as severe as what is depicted on the media or in television shows. I don't want to hurt myself or my children. The bad thoughts are directed towards myself.

I have also been struggling with anxiety. I don't know what is worse, feeling so incredibly down and out or not being able to sit or stand still because my mind and body is so full of worry. When I'm really stressed I can't stay still anymore. A part of my body has to be moving. When Xander was sick and we were in Canada, my in-laws probably thought I was nuts!! I was so stressed with the thought of something being horribly wrong and the fact that we didn't have insurance for him pretty much did me in. I feel horrible that I didn't visit with them much that day, but I couldn't focus on anything. It was horrible. It was really tough.

And poor Nathan! He has been so great through all this. He's been bending over backwards to accommodate me and to make up for where I am lacking. He has been making more time to hang out with Michael, he's great about holding Xander for me so I can finish up dinner or letting me get some time away in my room reading a good book. He's always willing to take my calls when he's at work so that I can vent or have someone to talk to when I'm feeling especially low. It's so great to know that I have him. He's always making the time to call me when he's working late (which is more often than not since Xander's been born), he checks in on me to make sure that I'm handling things well, and he comes home for a few minutes when I need him to. I'm so grateful for him and having him in my life makes all the difference. I really don't know how I would handle all this without him.

Because of Nathan's support and encouragement, I was able to talk to my doctor about 7-8 weeks ago and was prescribed an anti-depressant. It has made a world of difference!!! It's been so nice to feel more myself. It was amazing the first night I realized that I was starting to feel better. I was walking down our stairs, and I just started running down. Then when I got to the bottom, I jumped off. It was such a simple act, but it felt so good! I realized that it had been a while since I'd felt that way. And it's been getting better ever since!

Taking the anti-depressants haven't made me immune to the effects of the depression, though. It helps me handle my feelings better, but the depression is still there. It gets worse depending on how stressed I am, but I do find myself being able to manage that stress better and calm myself down. I notice that I am less anxious and fidgety since being on the anti-depressants. My life is better all around. Hopefully I wont be on them for too long; probably for a few more months.

I don't know why post partum isn't talked about a lot, but I know that it is out there, and I think it's more common than we think it is. Hopefully this blog entry will help someone who is feeling the same way. The biggest piece of advice that I have for anyone who feels they may be struggling with ppd is to not be afraid of talking!! Find someone that you can trust to listen to you. Don't be afraid to talk to a doctor and getting help. The most important thing for someone who is struggling with PPD is to have support.

Get that support, and things will be alright.

Calgary Zoo April 2010

2010-04-10T10:23:00.006-06:00

For Easter/conference weekend we took a trip up to Canada to see Nathan's family. It was fun to see them again and have them see Xander again. The last time we traveled up was in September and the last time they came down was in January, so it'd been a while.

Michael, Andrew, Becca, Cathy, Nathan, Me, and Xander in the high chair. Chris is taking the picture. These pictures are from Becca's blog. Our camera was dead, otherwise we'd have more pictures from our trip posted.

While we were there, we went to the zoo! At the Calgary zoo they have a life size dinosaur exhibit with moving dinosaurs that roared. They were pretty cool, and apparently too lifelike....

This is SUCH a sad picture! Michael was totally and completely terrified! We tried explaining to him that the dinos weren't real, but then he'd say, "but they can move!" Finally Nathan told him that the ropes/gates will keep the dinos away from him and Michael relaxed a little. But he didn't get out of the stroller!

Amy: Michael, tell me about the zoo.

Michael: It was fun, with Mama and Papa Sunderland and Becca.

Amy: What'd you see?

Michael: Dinosaurs and other things. And the dinosaurs were scary. I was scared of the dinosaurs. I wanted them to die again. When are they going to die again, Mom?

We did see other animals (of course) but they obviously didn't make much an impression on him.

As is our luck, Xander got sick while we were visiting. For the week leading up to the trip, Nathan and Michael both had a really bad cough. I was hoping that Xander wouldn't get it, but Midnight, on the night we were leaving, Xander started coughing. I was hoping that it wouldn't escalate into anything worse, but by Tuesday morning we knew that he needed to see a doctor. The problem? We were in Canada, and Xander wasn't a resident of Canada. So even though he was a Canadian citizen, he didn't qualify for the health insurance. If we wanted to take him to the hospital it would cost over 500 dollars! Luckily it was MUCH cheaper to take him to a doctor office, so that's what we did.

At the office, they took his oxygen reading, and it registered at a low 83%. The nurse said they like to see in the mid 90's. When the doctor came in he said he would prefer to send us to the emergency room, but he didn't want us to have to pay an arm and a leg, so he prescribed an inhaler for Xander and gave us strict orders to go to the hospital if he didn't improve. Luckily, Xander did improve. Mind you he was still bad, but he was better. So we were able to leave the next day and then on Thursday we took him to our family doctor.

After taking some x-rays and blood and a nasty RSV test, the doctor said that Xander had an asthma attack! So we have a nebulizer and are doing breathing treatments, as well as giving him a few doses of steroids to see if we can get his breathing under control again. Now, this doesn't mean that he has asthma. Hopefully it was just an isolated incident, but if has repeated issues like this one than the diagnosis of asthma will come. I really hope it doesn't!

All in all, it was a nice trip to Canada. It was fun to see some family that we hadn't seen in a loooong time (Nathan's grandpa and aunt) and to talk and chat. It was definitely a MUCH needed vacation!

5 MONTHS?!?

2010-04-10T09:53:00.005-06:00

Xander at 5 months old: 17 pounds, 6 ounces

I'm about to sound like a broken record, here, but I can't believe another month has passed us by and that Xander is 5 months old! I really love this age. In the past 2-3 weeks he's really taken off developmentally. He has started rolling over, playing with his feet, sitting up, and occasionally giving us little "talking to's", AKA babbling. He's just keeps getting funner and funner. I think we're going to start introducing solids soon, which is always fun!

Michael was "helping" with pictures. He was putting his teddy bear on Xander's head...don't ask why...we have no idea. Also, any position that we put Xander in, Michael would put his bear in that position too. He kept telling the bear to roll over or sit up. And then would pretend to take pictures of it. Too cute.

Another funny thing about Xander is that he gets very annoyed if something gets taken away from him. If he's playing with a toy or something and someone takes it from him (usually, but not always, it's Michael), he'll watch it leave with sad eyes and then start screaming until he can find something else to play with. It's a bit sad, but funny to see his personality shining through.
I could NOT get a picture of Xander without his fingers being in his mouth! This kid L-O-V-E-S his fingers!!!!! And he's a drooler! It's getting worse, and we're beginning to wonder if he could be teething soon. Michael was such an easy teether and I'm really hoping that Xander will be too.

Okay, I LOVE this video!!! It makes me laugh everytime I watch it. And Michael? Well, he watched it 9 times in a ROW! And everytime he would bust up laughing! I also think it's funny that you can hear him laughing at the end of it, too. Michael really is sympathetic to Xander, really!

April Fools!!!

2010-04-01T21:01:00.006-06:00

Now doesn't that look yummy! But it's not what you think it is...

I LOVE April Fools day! (As long as I'm not fool) I love the idea of playing jokes on someone and the excitement and fun when they realize they've been played. The picture above is what I made for dinner. It looks like a cupcake and juice, but it's really meatloaf in cupcake wrappers and mashed potatoes colored with blue dye for the iceing. And then the juice? It's jello.

Here's a video of Michael sitting down for some dinner:

The little girl is Michael's friend Kaitlyn. We were watching her for a while today so we included her in on the fun. She was more expressive about her confusion than Michael was, but Nathan wasn't able to capture both her and Michael.

I also got Nathan this morning. You might remember THIS post from last year about our computer. We've been continually having the problem of our computer shutting down on us randomly and it was extremely upsetting to Nathan. Finally we figured out the problem and Nathan fixed it (It needed an extra fan). He fixed it on Monday and it's been running wonderfully since then. So I decided that I would call him at work this afternoon and tell him that it shut down and he hadn't succeeded in fixing it. He actually took it really well. He was listing a bunch of reasons of why it still wasn't working and was just very calm. I was a bit bummed becuase I was expecting him to get all mad and worked up. So after he gave me his list I just said, "or it could be that it's April Fools Day and I'm just kidding." It was GREAT! He was completely shocked and a bit annoyed at me! It was wonderful!

I LOVE April Fool's Day!!! What are some things you guys have done??

Xander Rolled Over!!!

2010-03-29T20:22:00.002-06:00

Xander finally rolled over today! I was so excited for him! Of course, I didn't actually get to see it, but it was still exciting.

I was starting to get a bit worried that Xander wasn't rolling, so I put him on his stomach while I was doing the dishes. He was starting to get cranky and was kinda bobbing back and forth on his tummy with his arms by his side. So I went over and put his arms up by his head so he could support himself and went back to doing the dishes. A few minutes later I look down at him and HE WAS ON HIS BACK!! My first thought was, "where's Michael!" I was wondering if he had rolled him over quickly without me seeing him, but he was in the other room and Nathan was at work, so I knew that Xander had done it himself. I was so excited for him!

And then while I was putting Xander into his p.j.'s he discovered how to grab his feet! I LOVE it when babies start eating their feet, so I know that's coming soon too. I just love this part of having a baby! They get to be so fun and really start playing and laughing. It definitly has it's hard moments when I wonder what the heck I was thinking wanting to be a mother, but the good times really outway the bad.

Regression???

2010-03-23T22:22:00.003-06:00

Tonight I put Michael to bed and went down stairs for a bit. After about 20 minutes I came up stairs and he was laying in his doorframe. When he saw me he sat up and complained that he was having a hard time going to sleep. I suggested that maybe if he wasn't laying on the floor he'd have an easier time. So he got up and went back onto his bed. Then he goes,

"Mom, I want a pacifier."

I stopped and looked at him. I thought I misunderstood him and asked him to repeat himself. Nope, that's what he said! He wanted a pacifier. I explained that pacifiers are for babies and to go to sleep. Then I went down stairs.

Fast forward an hour, and Xander wakes up crying. We go into his room to give him the pacifier. Only we can't find it!! Wanna guess where it was? That's right...

IN MICHAEL'S BED!!!!!!!

Xander is FOUR months old!!!

2010-03-16T22:03:00.008-06:00

Okay, he's actually 4 1/2 months old, but whose counting....
Time is going so SO fast!! I can't believe that he'll be 5 months old soon! Wow!

At 4 months Xander was:
16 Pounds (71st Percentile!)
25 Inches long (I didn't get the percentile for this, but the nurse said he's long)

and had a head circumference of 17 inches (74th percentile!)

So he's a big boy. I say he's a 4 month old in a 6 month old body. I'm starting to put away some of his 3-6 month clothes and am planning on pulling out the 6-9 month stuff. That just seems so wierd to pull out 6-9 month stuff for a 4 month old!!! But he's ginormous, so I have to!

He's really ticklish, especially on his legs. And the bottoms of his feet are starting to become ticklish now too. Michael enjoys playing with him and gets excited when Xander smiles at him, which is occuring more often now.

Xander still hasn't rolled over yet, but I'm not too worried about it. He almost did it yesterday. He was doing tummy time on Michael's bed and was soooo close!!! His back was on the bed, but his legs weren't. So I almost want to say that he did, but it wasn't quite there yet.
xander is now in his crib!!!!!!!! We finally moved him about 2 weeks ago, which was good, because he had outgrown the bassinett in every way. He was too heavy for it (the weight limit was 15 pounds, he weighed 16), he was too old for it (the age limit was 3 months old, he was 4), and he was too long for it (his head was at the top and his legs were at the bottom). It was scary to put him in the crib for a few reasons. One, it was different. We knew that he was a good sleeper in the bassinett, and I was afraid that moving him somewhere else would totally throw him off. Luckily it didn't. Two, the crib doesn't have a vibrating function. The vibrator on the bassinett would most often put Xander right back to sleep, and I was worried that Xander had come to rely on it. Luckily he hadn't! Three, not only was it not at the end of the bed, it was in a completely different room! So we couldn't just check on him when we felt like it anymore. And we were less likely to hear if he needed us. But that hasn't been a big deal after all. He definitly knows how to use his lungs (See video at the bottom) so we have no trouble waking up from a deep sleep. And lastly, we were worried about moving him because he would be in the same room as Michael. When Michael goes to sleep, he likes to talk and play and read in bed for about 15 minutes before he drifts off to sleep. Sometimes he can be pretty loud, but it hadn't ever bothered me. But now that Xander would be sleeping in there, I was worried. We were also concerned that Michael would try to "help" too much or something, but he's actually been really good. And, in fact, I think it's actually helped Michael to go to sleep faster. He knows that he has to be quiet or Xander will wake up, so he just plays quietly (most of the time) and then goes to sleep. It's been working out quite well.

Here is a video of Xander. As I mentioned, Xander has a set of lungs, and he knows how to use them!!! I swear, this kid is going to be a T-R-I-A-L when he gets older!!! He has a short temper and knows what he wants and when he wants it. And if he doesn't get it, watch out! He'll scream at you, and your ears will ring!!

Xander has also gotten so much better with his hands! He's always been a fan of his fingers and has been getting his fingers into his mouth since he was about 2 months old, I think, but now he's mastered hitting objects. His favorite thing to play with is his activity mat. My mom gave him a ball with a rattling ball inside and I hang that from the activity bars and as soon as he's layed on the blanket he starts hitting that. This toy allows us to eat dinner each night, because it will occupy him JUST long enough forme to whip something together!

These are a few pictures I've taken this past month that are a bit random:

This was a picture of the bubbles on his lips....This kid can drool!!!!!!! Seriously, he can soak a shirt in about 15 minutes if we're not careful and wiping the drool from his chin every few minutes! (I really need to pull out his bibs!)
This picture is a product of Michael's "Helping". We were cleaning their room, and I left the room to grab something. Xander started to cry, so Michael gave him a toy....I thought it was funny where it was layed.

Michael Is Four!!!!!!!!!

2010-03-16T21:14:00.007-06:00

Weight: 36 Pounds (53rd Percentile)

Length: 42 Inches (85th Percentile!)

I can't believe that Michael is 4 years old! It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that he was born. But he's a great source of happiness and joy, and we wouldn't trade anything for him!

We had a really fun day. He loved the fact that it was his birthday. I LOVE birthdays!!! In my mind, they're an extremely special day where the birthday boy/girl should be made to feel extremely special. That being said, we didn't really do anything for him on his actual birthday, since he had a party, but he had fun time getting as much attention from me and Nathan as he could. He loved being told Happy Birthday! And everytime I'd tell him "Happy Birthday!" he'd say, "ya, you too!" He was very cute!

When Nathan came home from work we opened presents and then went out to eat. Here is a video of Michael opening his presents from us and my parents. You'll have to turn up the volume on your computer to hear what he's saying, and listen really closely to the first few seconds. It's tough to catch what he says as he's opening the present, but it's absolutely hilarious what he says and does!! We were busting up laughing. I'm really glad Nathan was recording.

Mom, he really does like the jammies. He just wanted to get to the toys!!

He was really excited to get sung too at the restaraunt. Although, the waiter was a bit clueless, and it annoyed me a bit. So we told the guy it was Michael's birthday and he said okay and that he'd bring out a little dessert for him. So towards the end of our dinner a group of waiters/waitresses came out clapping and singing. They went to a different couple, but it got Michael excited for his turn. So our waiter comes over and we mention that we're ready for Michael's dessert. So he leaves and then comes back out a few minutes later and places a wimpy little cup of ice cream on the table and starts to walk away! I had to stop the guy and ask him to gather the waiters and sing a song to Michael. It was just kinda wierd. I mean, it's a kids birthday and they'd just done a big thing 5 minutes before. The waiter seemed a bit embarrased that he didn't do it initially, but also a bit annoyed that he had to do it. It bugged me. But, Michael liked it, and that's what's important!

Michael is so funny, because he gets really excited anticipating something, and then when it's happening he's just quiet. Almost like he's just taking it in and processing it. Then when it's over he's non-stop talking about it. That's exactly how it was this night. I LOVE that little, sorry Michael, BIG boy!!

Happiness

2010-03-14T23:47:00.001-06:00

I have a TON more blogging to do, but I wanted to get this picture up while I was thinking about it. This is currently on our desktop and everytime I see it I can't help but smile! No matter how depressed I might be, my boys (including Nathan) can always make me smile!

I LOVE THEM!!!!

Michael's 4th Birthday Party

2010-03-13T16:19:00.007-07:00

For his birthday we threw him a Star Wars party. His friends Kyler and Lyndee came over and we tried to play a few games (they weren't too interested, so we just played instead) and had cupcakes and ice cream. It was fun, small, and Michael had a really good time! I'm kinda mad at myself because I forgot to take pictures of some of the decorations. Here is a picture a few hours after the party was over. One of the streamers had fallen down and been put back up once, so it doesn't look that great, but you get the idea.
I found a party box at Walmart full of plates, cups, napkins, decorations, a game, and some party favor stuff for like 20 bucks, so it was a pretty good deal. It was really fun because Michael really enjoyed it. I decorated while he was gone with Nathan and when he walked in he said "Whoa, Mom!!!!" It was really fun. And Xander was funny, too. Each time I walked into our back room where all the decorations are, he would just stare at everything! It was funny.

Lyndee, Kyler, and Michael

Okay, now, don't laugh, here's the "cake" I made Michael. Now, can you guess what it is?

It's supposed to be a lightsaber cake. It's just cup cakes, but Michael knew what it was and loved it. That's what matters, right?

Here is Michael getting ready to blow out the candles. Doesn't it look like he's devouring those cupcakes in his mind!
Us singing Happy Birthday

Digging in!

NO MORE CREDIT CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-03-13T16:01:00.003-07:00

We love tax return season!!! As soon as we could, we completed our tax forms and paid off our credit cards! Nathan has been looking forward to that day for so long! He's been thinking and thinking and thinking about what he would do when we could finally get rid of them, and settled on burning them! I think he had a little too much fun with it!

Screaming Michael

2010-03-11T17:58:00.002-07:00

Michael 5 1/2 months old

Our Snow Playground

2010-02-20T15:07:00.013-07:00

So Michael and I (this is one of Nathan's rare posts) have been building a snow playground in our backyard for a couple weeks.
We have about 2-3 feet of accumulated snow in our yard so we had plenty to work with.
Our backyard is also on an incline so we build several snow hills to add to the incline. We also cleared a wide path under the homemade hill so that we could go very fast. It was fun - really fun at least until it got too slick and Michael didn't enjoy the speed. :)

We then decided that one of our snow hill needed a snow man - so we built up the hill a little higher and built a snowman, which Michael has named "Michael the Snowman."

Then several days ago the temperature rose a little and melted the outside of our hills -then it promptly froze again that night. So we decided that making snow caves would be fun now that the outside of our hills were made of ice. We've built two of them.

I think this is the first time Michael has ever built a snow cave... and maybe even a snowman.
It's been a lot of fun!

I'll miss the snow if we decide to move south.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BECCA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-02-19T12:52:00.003-07:00

Our wonderful sister and aunt turned 17 today! We love you Aunty Becca!!!

3 Months Old

2010-02-04T20:50:00.007-07:00

You can kinda see some of his dimples here in this picture. There's one in his cheek on the right and he has one on top of his lips on each side, just like Michael. SO cute!

I really can't believe that Xander is already 3 months old! It's going by soo fast! Really, I'm not sure where my time is going. I know I'm busy taking care of the boys and the house and Nathan and all, but really, where does it go? I keep expecting Xander to still be little and only a few weeks old. Not huge and 13 weeks old! It's just weird.
A few weeks ago, Xander weighed in at 14 pounds 6 ounces. Since that was about a week and a half ago, I'm assuming that he's over the 15 pound mark. At that appointment, he was 80th percentile!! I didn't get a percentile for his length, but he was 25 inches long. I'm thinking that pretty long, because he has a 9 month sleeper and he's almost too long for it!

I LOVE his legs!! He's just sooooo chubby! Michael was always right at the 50th percentile so he didn't have any of the chubbiness. It looks like I'm squeezing his legs in the picture, but I'm not. I genuinely can not wrap my hand around his thigh! And my hands are not little, either. They're like man hands...Seriously, they're the same size as Nathan's!
Xander is in 3-6 month clothes and has been since he was about 2 months old. It's sad, because he has some clothes that he literally only wore once or not at all because he grew out of the 0-3 so fast! I'm thinking that he'll be in 6-9 months pretty soon, since some of his 3-6 month stuff is either getting too short, to tight, or both.

Some things Xander likes:

He's starting to enjoy Michael, I think. Or at least he's not crying when he sees Michael walking toward him anymore. Now he'll smile and coo at Michael, as long as Michael isn't feeling too lovey at the moment.
To sleep! And I like that he likes to sleep! He's a really good napper. He takes probably 3 2 to 3 hour naps and then will go to sleep for the night around 8 or so. And then once he's asleep for the night, he'll only wake up to eat once or twice during the night, but then he'll go back to sleep immediately after eating. It's pretty nice!
To smile and laugh and coo
He's trying to sit up straight on his own. If he's propped up against the couch corner or reclined in his swing, he'll move his shoulders and upper body, just trying to sit up straight.
Spitting up! Now, I'm sure that he actually doesn't "like" spitting up, but it's something he does a lot of. He actually was diagnosed with Acid Reflux when he was 2 months old. We'd been giving him Zantac twice a day to treat it, and it really helped. We're thinking he's growing out of the reflux now which is so nice. He doesn't seem to spit up as much and as often, which is wonderful for our laundry room/bedroom. We also haven't given him the medicine in a few days and he doesn't seem to mind.
Another thing I'm sure he doesn't "like" but does quite frequently is blowing out of his diaper!!! I swear this is no exaggeration, but Xander poops out EVERY time he poops!! I don't know, maybe his butt is so big that the poop just doesn't have anywhere to go?? I need to find a diaper that will contain all his poop! Were there any keepers for you out there in blogland?? I need some advice! We've tried both Pampers and Huggies. Luvs is next on our list.

Things Xander does not like:

Being in his car seat. I think this is more not liking the car seat cover we have on it to keep him warm. But, he is definitely better than he used to be! Now, he'll actually let us drive for about 10 minutes before he starts complaining. When he was younger, he would start crying immediately.
He's not too fond of his tummy. He'll tolerate it for a few minutes, but then he's done.
Being hungry. When he's hungry or angry, he'll let you know it!! He has a very demanding cry!

Isn't this a cool picture? Michael took it a few days ago.

How I'm doing handling 2 kids and all my other responsibilities???

Not very well.

I'm having a hard time getting out of survival mode--Just doing what needs to be done and not being able to do the rest. It's getting really frustrating! I feel like my house is a disaster area all the time. I'm finding myself getting extremely overwhelmed too often. Things that used to not stress me out before Xander was born are now way too much for me to worry about and I just feel myself shutting down. It's really tough. I'm sure I'm struggling with of post-partum depression.

But at least not every day is this way. A lot of them are, but I do have some days where I am able to get a lot done and play with Michael and generally feel good about myself and my abilities, but a lot of days are not that great. I know that it will not last forever and I eagerly await the day when it's gone! Until then, I'm just trying to figure out my coping strategies and focusing on one minute or child at a time. If any of you have any suggestions, I'd LOVE to hear them!!

Saturday Is A Special Day

2010-02-04T14:24:00.007-07:00

One day, a few weeks ago, I was cleaning our bathrooms and Michael wanted to help. So I gave a wipe and he actually did a pretty good job. While we were cleaning up stairs, he decided that he needed to clean the bathtub. While we were singing I was teaching him the primary song "Saturday" and he really enjoyed learning it. So much so that he couldn't stop singing it! Here's a video of him cleaning the bathtub.

After I took the video he noticed that the tub was wet, so he decided he needed his swimsuit! **Notice he's still wearing his pajama top! SO funny!**

Now, when I say I'm going to clean the bathroom, he runs up stairs, gets his swimsuit, grabs a wipe, and jumps into the tub. Silly boy!

This is a picture I took of Xander about a month ago. I still need to get his 2 month pictures up!! I hate myself for not doing that yet. And then, right after I get those up I'll need to do 3 month pictures! I can't believe he's already 3 months old. It's going by very fast.

One of the few things that I enjoy about where we're living right now is our backyard. We actually have a little patio area. It's great in the summers to sit on, and lately I have been letting Michael going out and playing in the snow. It's great for those times when I don't want to go out with him but he needs to let out some energy. He loves to shovel the snow!

And eat it too!