Zaugg Blaugg

6 weeks old

2012-02-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

Why is it that time flies so fast with a newborn, but seems so slow during pregnancy?
I absolutely love this little boy! He is so sweet. He has been a little more needy and fussy lately, but he's also had a cold. He is starting to be awake longer during the day, and still sleeps very well at night. He usually passes his day in the swing, and the boys LOVE him. I've never been worried about them hitting the baby, or hurting him. The love to kiss him, and help carry him around. I can leave them alone in the same room without worry. (though not for long. I'm not THAT mom)

So far:
Owen has gained 4 lbs.
He's in size 1-2 diapers
He just grew out of newborn size clothes
He smiles, though not frequently yet
He loves to sleep on his side, but hasn't yet slept in the crib
He thrives on routine, and lets us know when it's been disrupted-(as do I)

He has brought so much love into our home, and it seems he's always been a part of our family.
Look at those chubby cheeks!

Nursery

2012-02-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

I came across this cute nursery on a blog, and it gave me some cute ideas...
I didn't know if I dared to do such a bold color, but I tried it and I'm soooo happy with it. The better part is it will work with a girl too;)

I made this sign from before mentioned fence wood and sanded it down. We chose Silent Night because that's our lullaby of choice. We have sung it to our kids from day one, and they still get to hear it now. I had the vinyl made and went with it...I think this sign took a total of 20 minutes, including cut and sanding time!

I found these cabinet doors at an antique store here in town. I wanted to do some animals on them and just had them printed on vinyl to save me the time.

I bought the tree stickers at target.
I finally have a nursery again!

Coat Rack

2012-02-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to make one of these since we moved in.
We have a coat closet, but it's down the hall, and when we come in through the garage, it doesn't make sense to wander through the house just to hang up your coat. I'd rather just go without. This way the kids can be responsible for their own jackets.
I inherited a few old fence slats from a friend in my ward, so I sanded one down, spray painted, sanded some more, bought some jute from the craft store, and got the hooks at Home Depot. I dare say it turned out cuter than I thought! Here's to happier moments getting out of the house!

18 months

2012-01-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

Its funny how life seems to slip away from you so fast. I sit here both sad and happy that we've survived 18 months of Henry's life. I ask myself where did it all go? I remember his birth just as vividly as Owen's, and somehow I don't remember how we got this far. Really we should be celebrating BECAUSE we survived to this point! Oh, Henry. Where do I start?!

You are the busiest kid I know. You STILL climb on things, rummage through ALL my cupboards and drawers, run everywhere you can (mostly away from us), and you GET IT!
You are keenly aware of life, and understand so much of your world. You can't handle being left out of anything we're doing. You eat like it's your last meal ALL THE TIME. You nod for yes and no, and you say a lot more words than I thought you knew...

You LOVE animals, Old MacDonald, and The Lion King. You are starting to understand and listen to bedtime stories. Books are open non-stop in your arms, and you laugh all the time. You have an infectious smile that still gets to my heart.

You are chubbing up for a rainy day maybe? I've never seen you this chunky, but it's cute! You are so gentle and soft with Owen, and I know you have a very sensitive side to your rough-and-tumble attitude. You LOVE your blanket and your bedtime Buddy, and you won't leave your crib until both are in hand.

Since Owen's birth, you've been on a "big kid" kick. Luckily you'll still sleep in your crib, though we fought you on that one. You refuse to sit in the high chair, and want to start doing things by yourself. You test us constantly with your boundaries.

You love to be outside, and can't help but cry when one of us gets to leave the house without you. You adore Porter, and mimmick what he does everyday. You're becoming better and better friends.

Instead of running pell-mell in any direction, you are starting to look back and stay closer to us, which is very comforting to me now. I can see a light at the end of your energetic little tunnel.
I don't know how I got so lucky to have you in my family, but I LOVE YOU! Happy 18 months!

3 weeks

2012-01-29T19:22:00.000-08:00

Really? 3 weeks? 3 blissful weeks at that! Any of you that really know me, know that I HATE the newborn stage. Hate is a strong word, but I have never liked it with the other kids. Getting up in the night, losing my independence, no set schedule, not knowing who this tiny kid is, and the crying, crying, crying...The only thing I've enjoyed was the tiny little cuddles I constantly got with my newborns. I dare say I'm enjoying this one. I keep my fingers crossed that it'll continue to be so easy. Of course, the purple cry stage hasn't hit us yet, which is hard on anyone, I think...
After Henry was several months old, and we'd survived the crying stage, our pediatrician told us about new studies about how probiotics in infants helped with the colicky cries-if the cries had anything to do with tummy issues, and I wish I would have known it for Henry. Just to ward off a chance that Owen might do the same thing, we've been giving him probiotics every couple of days. He sleeps REALLY well at night (usually only up once), but last night was an exception where he cried until 2:30, so maybe we're not off the hook...
Except for that, he's been absolutely delightful. I could have 6 more kids if they were all this easy! (But not really 6).

He just smiled at us today on purpose. I LOVE IT! How does someone so small and relatively boring leave such an impact on a heart? Lucky for them they're cute!
I just finished his nursery, so I'll post pictures of that.
Owen has gained about 2 pounds already. I promise I don't overfeed him, but I think my milk is all cream! He loves the pacie and soft blankets. I set aside all the ensigns from the last 6 months to read while I was up with him at night. Though I'm up only once or twice with him, I've finished them all (except the conference issue)! We have gotten the middle-of-the-night routine down to 40 minutes, which seems long, but I'm so glad it's not longer! He sleeps in his own room, and always has. His cry is very soft, and rarely does he let us know he's upset. He is starting to look around and notice objects. I love that he recognizes my eyes now. How in love I feel!
I think of how fast they grow, and I wish I could bottle it all up! I've been trying to take a lot of video, since photos are hard for me to remember to take.

I love life most when I'm with all my family, and I wish time would slow down for just a few weeks...

Owen's birth story

2012-01-12T19:02:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: As this is meant as a personal record of the birth, details are NOT left out. Feel free to skim, or skip story entirely...

Thursday Jan 5^th.

At 8:00 am I was getting breakfast for the boys when I felt something funny, and wondered if my water was breaking (wishful thinking). It was my mucous plug. I got excited thinking today could be the day. I jumped online to see what the stats were on timing after the plug was dislodged. It said anywhere from hours to 2 weeks afterward. I calmed myself down and reassured myself that at least my body WAS preparing, and probably still knew what it was doing. The night before, I started to have some crampy pains, and Evan and I took a long walk to see if we could get things started. Nothing else happened, but with Henry, those crampy contractions started a few nights before he was born, so I knew things were starting to happen.

The contractions started about 8:45 am, and continued throughout the morning, though not consistently. They were practically painless, so I figured they were taking the place of the Braxton Hicks contractions I never really had this pregnancy. I got busy with last minute things. Laundry, cooking ground beef, vacuuming and mopping floors, and dealing with the boys, who thankfully left me much to myself during the day. The contractions continued all day long and only got consistent during lunch time- every 15 minutes. The rest of the day they were anywhere from 10-40 minutes apart. They slowed down during the afternoon. As I kept in touch with Evan and Ruth (my friend/neighbor) during the day I said, “probably Saturday.” I went to Activity Days and came home, had dinner, and at that point, they started to get more painful. Not more frequent, just stronger. Evan had book club that night, so I had him help me with getting the boys ready for bed and packing a hospital bag (just in case) until he left. I got through a couple more contractions while I put the boys down. We had explained to them that if they wake up and Grandma is at the house, that means the baby came. I told Evan I’d only call him IF we were headed to the hospital.

I immediately laid down after the boys went to bed. 7:45. I called Ruth, thinking the contractions would slow or stop since I was changing my activity. I had one contraction while on the phone with her. Since she was going to watch the boys, I told I’d keep her posted. We talked about labor with Henry and how this was actually very similar to his, and that got me thinking about how soon this baby really could be born if this was the case. I started texting Melodie (another friend/neighbor-also a L&D nurse), asking her if she thought this could be it, and to see if she could come check me. I told her I’d let her know later. I decided to take a hot bath.

In the tub, I got comfortable and played games on my phone. I called my mom and explained my situation, and that if I am having this baby tonight, I'm letting her know it could be any minute, but that I’d wait until we were headed to the hospital to have her come. I wanted to have my water broken so the labor would go faster, and I wanted to get to the hospital before transition this time. I shaved my legs and had Melodie come at 10:00 pm. She talked to me about my labor, also called “prodromal” labor and she explained that it was normal for some people. She also reminded me that with each baby, your body requires less contractions and less frequency, because the muscle is already strong.

She checked me and I was at 6cm and 95% effaced. I guess we were going to the hospital! She called the hospital and told them I was coming. I called my mom and told her to head down, and texted Evan, hoping that by now, they were wrapping up Book Club anyway. He came home, we packed a few last minute things, took the monitor over to Ruth’s, where I had a pretty good contraction, and left for the hospital.

I had one contraction in the car before we backed out of the garage, and no more until we pulled in at the hospital, including stopping so Evan could give me a blessing, and none until we got to our room. SO AWESOME! That’s 4 total in 1 hour. 11:15 pm. When the nurse checked me, I was at a 7. Couldn’t believe it. She told me this would go fast, and that she was surprised my water hadn’t broken already, as it was very bulgy. Dr. Nance showed up at 11:45 pm, and checked me. 9cm. I had had 2 or maybe 3 contractions in that time, but none so bad or long I had to moan or really concentrate for.

He broke my water, and there was meconium in it. They called in the respiratory NICU team to check baby out upon birth. That meant I wouldn’t get to hold him right away. I was okay with that. They tried to give me IV’s 2 times, and finally after they infiltrated, they called in another nurse to do it. That’s when transition hit. I was laying on my left side. The nurse was waiting for me before she tried a 3^rd time with the IV. This was the contraction I was dreading and waiting for. It lasted about 5 minutes and I was moaning and wondering how long it would go on, and how many more it would take before I was complete. I am happy to say that was it. I could feel a little pressure toward the end, and I could feel the baby had moved down far enough to be ready. I thought maybe one more contraction like that would be all I’d need. I had a small one, and then the Dr. checked me and said I was ready to go. I really couldn’t believe it. They got me ready, but I never felt the urge to push. During a small contraction, we got started, and I forgot how painful this part is! I pushed a total of 3 times, all during one contraction, and he was out! He cried a lot initially, and everything checked out well. He was born at 12:11 am. That brings all my labors to 15 hrs each. I guess we have this thing down! Oh, and except for the11 minutes technicality into a friday morning, all my babies were born on thursdays! (their choice!)

Life with 3

2012-01-12T09:49:00.000-08:00

Owen David Zaugg joined our family Jan 6th, 2012 after an amazing labor and delivery (story to come). Once again I did it unmedicated, which was virtually painless this time!
He's 6 days old today, and life is surreal. It's amazing how good I feel. The blessings are flowing freely and it doesn't seem fair how easy this has been so far. It could be that my mom is still helping out, and I haven't been on my own yet, but I somehow feel an ease of transition. I spent 2 nights in the hospital-a first for me, which was wonderfully relaxing and I felt so good by the time we left, that I'm ready to take it all on again. Like I said, the blessings have been plentiful.
Porter seems interested and helpful, yet indifferent. Henry has been a challenge. He has hit an "I'm not a baby anymore" stage. It's been difficult to deal with. He won't sit in the high chair, doesn't want to sleep in his crib, and needs more one-on-one attention from me (that's a given.) I feel bad, cause none of this is his fault. His life was changed with no input of his own and he is trying to deal with it the best he can. We're debating whether to put him in a bed, or fight it out...
Owen has been doing well, and seems to have caught on so far about nights and days. My other 2 kids have had a pattern I prepared for for this one. The 2nd and 3rd nights (both at home) they are up ALL night. I remember sitting in the rocker holding a pacie in their mouths all night twice in a row. After that, they seemed to catch on and created a schedule of 2-3 wakings during the night. (I can live with that). I stayed an extra night in the hospital so that I could rest the 2nd night and not have to deal with a fussy baby. It worked! Despite Evan's best attempts to leave the baby in our room that 2nd night, exhaustion won out, and we both slept well with Owen in the nursery. I think that has contributed to my overall good feeling. That 3rd night was not bad, and we took turns dealing with a fussy, non-sleeping baby. The other nights have been better than expected, and last night, we were only up twice.

I found a cool product online a few weeks ago as I was researching an alternative to the swing for baby to sleep in. It seems for the first few months, my babies can't sleep well on their backs in the crib, and propping them up always made me feel uneasy and I wanted to check on them all night long and make sure they were still alive. I found a cool product called the nap nanny. The downside to this was the $120 price tag. Unfortunately I couldn't find one much cheaper than that, so I looked for an alternative. I found a fisher price sleeper seat called the rock n play sleeper. It's wonderful! We're singing it's praises every morning around here. It's basically an inclined bassinet that rocks, but the seat is big, and the back is straight, and the incline seems to be the same as the bassinet at the hospital. The best part-babies are SUPPOSED to sleep in it! It really takes the worry out of leaving him there in the night. He sleeps like a champ! LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Henry is growing up!

2011-11-15T15:40:00.000-08:00

I have neglected to take pictures of my kids the last few weeks. Sadly, Henry has much fewer pictures than his brother (typical). I took him in for his 15 mo well check, and he is much smaller than his brother was at that age. Here are the stats:
23 lbs 28%
32 in 76%
He's still small enough to be small to me. I love that he eats everything and loves to mimmic his brother. Last night we played red light/green light, and he insisted on doing everything we do. He is a ball of energy and loves to climb on EVERYTHING. I don't know when this stage will end, but I hope soon. He's started playing well with toys and his brother. This has led to many blissfull moments for me to get things done without his "help". He is so quick to understand everything, and is really good at sleeping. He has one more tooth to come in, then we can finally be done with that! He enjoys being outdoors and LOVES animals. He does all the the sounds when prompted. His favorite movie is the LION KING. He says a few words like: "mama, dada, hot, water, car, go, cracker, grandma." He signs for a lot of things, mostly when asked, but is great at it!
We just need to get him past the clingy stage to welcome baby brother...sigh. We sure love him!
Here's a few photos taken today for this post...

happy halloween

2011-11-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

Cornbelly's

2011-11-15T14:56:00.000-08:00

Last year we went to cornbellys with the kids and we all LOVED IT! We decided to try it again this year. Unfortunately, we picked the WRONG day to go. It was super windy and very cold. We only lasted just over an hour. The kids had fun, despite the weather, but we decided to cut our losses, and plan better next year.

Porter jumping on the pillows

The kids loved the singing farm animals

My latest project

2011-10-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

It only took 2 days and a long night to go from this:

To this:

I only did my hallway, kitchen and the great room, but those ceilings are high, and the time it took to climb and unclimb and reposition the ladders on the stairs and the great room was the biggest time-taker. I did run across THE BEST tools for the job- one is the shur-line edger. ($5) Those smooth lines? No taping! Not a lie. It saved me loads of time and frustration. The second is the Wagner turboroll. It's a paint roller that hold all the paint in the handle, and I could do more than one wall without going back for more paint. Totally worth the $ for the time it saved me. ($40) I just have to do the rest of the house now, and pick a color for the archways.

Halloween Craft

2011-10-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since we've done a craft, and we wanted to do some Halloween wreaths. The descrepancy was our door colors. Tea's is white, and mine is black. She found a really cute wreath I though I could replicate for my door (picture now unavailable-from etsy). It would be cheap and fast. During Priesthood session, we got started but my kids weren't allowing us much undivided attention, so we did them one at a time. Hers turned out super cute, and fast, and easy. Mine was a different story...

I bought a foam wreath, and covered it with quilting batting, then wrapped it tightly with gauze.

Then, I did it again, this time loosly.

After that step, we ripped up some gauze, and placed it haphazardly around the wreath. I ended up sewing on the gauze strips, because gluing it would show too well...that took the longest.

Then I found some mummy hands at Michaels and spray painted some black and brown and glued them to the wreath. Then I hung a rediculously short ribbon around it, (because I wasn't thinking at the craft store) and viola! It's done!

Can you tell what I am?

2011-10-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

It's a boy!
We found out in May, but didn't openly publish it, except to those who would obviously be aware in the coming months. We were so sure it was a girl, with no real reason except we had felt since Henry was born that the next would be a girl. And I started laughing when I noticed what was up in the ultrasound.
"What are we going to do with 3 boys!!!" That's the common phrase around our house. We don't have even 1 boy that will sit through a cartoon yet, so I have NO idea (and yet, a whole lot of ideas) of what I'm getting myself into.
The surprise came when we didn't actually miscarry-which was why we started so early...so I guess we can plan on never being in control. We'll leave that up to the Lord.
We are excited, nervous, and just plain scared. I had convinced myself that it was ok to have a girl, and started seeing visions of pink and hairbows, and dresses, but now, we are back on budget, and happy just the same! No names to agree on yet, and a minivan to purchase, but we can wait on those things:)
We are due Jan 9th.

Park City

2011-10-05T15:31:00.000-07:00

Our annual trip to Park City came and went so fast! The boys had a blast swimming every day, running around, fishing and just enjoying the "hotel room". It was beautiful weather all week, and we took the kids out on the bike trail a couple of times. The kids liked roaming around, and just lazying and being together. Of course, a trip to Park City wouldn't be complete without a ride down the Alpine Slide!

Heading up to the slide

Riding the airplanes

Climbing the rope tower

Henry running around

In a bobsled

Typical play-date.

2011-09-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

Porter is 3

2011-09-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

Porter's birthday always lies around Labor Day, which makes is hard, yet fun to plan parties. Since we just had Henry's party and invited the family, we didn't want them to have to come to another one, so we had a low-key friend party this year. And, just like Henry's, it rained. At least we were able to party, though.
My mom and dad and Tea and Ryan came Sunday for Porter's favorite dinner-spaghetti, and we opened the family gifts.

Monday (Labor Day) we invited some friends and their families to come to a water party. We bought a water table, had the slip and slide going, and bought water guns for all the kids. It was overcast and perfect. We all hung out under the tents and ate hot dogs and had cake and ice cream. It was wonderful, as you can see:

3 yr stats:
31 lbs
39 in
You have been such a joy to have in my life. You answer all questions with a full sentence: "yes I am," or "yes I do". I am amazed each day at your intellect. It seems you are far too knowledgeable for your age. You are beginning the "why" stage. You have such a methodic mind. You love to put puzzles together. It takes you once with help, and you can do 24 pieces in a few minutes. I love watching you talk to yourself while you do an activity. You are beginning imaginative play. It is so neat to watch you start playing with other kids and make up stories. I LOVE IT! You are a big helper around the house, and you are understanding that work brings rewards. You are good at obeying and you always stay close. I don't remember when you were too little to do that! Thank you for all your goodness and your fun. Life would be so dull without you in it. Thanks for making me laugh each day, and for always reminding me why I love being your mom.

Outdoors in August

2011-09-26T15:48:00.000-07:00

In August we also went to the family cabin site-affectionately called The Pines for a little getaway with nature. The boys love it, and since there's indoor plumbing now , I love it too. Here we are at Meek's Cabin Reservoir:

Here's Porter at the bottom of the Y. I hiked it with him when a friend and her family came to town to visit. Its funny how the hike always seems shorter than it is-or maybe it's shorter when there isn't a 2 yr old climbing it with you.

And canning. Lets not forget canning. My sister came over the middle of July to can so jam with me. She had never done it, and I wanted her to learn how. Instead of a monthly craft, we learned a useful skill instead. These are strawberry and raspberry jam, all from our garden! This summer I've also done beans, beets, and salsa. It's my dream to put in a canning kitchen in the basement when we finish it someday...

We went to Boise, ID in August for Evan's family. His big sister Linda, had 3 kids with big events. We're grateful they squeezed it in in one weekend! Her daughter was baptized on Saturday, her son had a mission farewell sunday, (first grandbaby AND missionary in the family, and we are so proud of him) and a baby blessing the same day. Talk about crazy! She handled it all very well, and we ate ourselves silly. We headed to Salt Lake that night where we slept soundly until monday, when we hopped a plane and arrived in Washington D.C. (yet again). This was the first time there that we didn't see any historic sites, monuments, or parks. (We did stop in at the Air and Space Museum the last day, for Evan) We spent our days in the hotel room, which was treat enough for the kids. Eating out-YES PLEASE! and doing a lot of walking and riding the metro-as usual. It was great to see Evan during our time there, since we hardly see him during the day on business trips. It was like a real family vacation! Thanks again to Evan's company for the wonderful accommodations and putting up with our kids during meals!

Me and Henry at the Nationals baseball game

At the Air and Space Museum

Henry is 1

2011-09-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

From the stress of having strangers in my home, keeping it clean, and worrying about a birthday cake, we had a pretty low-key celebration this year. If you remember Porter's shin-dig for his 1st, (click here) it was nothing like that. We didn't even buy him gifts. We had some hand-me-down from a cousin that were put into a box that he opened. I threw the cake together that morning, sunday because the dancers were supposed to be gone, and it was a good day for a family to get together for a BBQ-our favorite thing. We had our families all here and ate well and played well. We sang, cut the cake, and opened presents. Pretty much a perfect day. I love my family!

At one year you are:
21.5 lbs
38 in.

you are so busy! I follow you around most days and pick up what you've scattered around the house.
you have the highest pitched scream I've ever heard
you love to copy whatever Porter does
you beg to be held all day long, and scream and cry if you don't get your way
you are super independent and won't let us feed you anything you can't eat by yourself
you are starting to run, and climb on EVERYTHING!
have the cutest smile that melts my heart
still let me cuddle with you and sing to you at bedtime.
you go down to sleep easily and have learned to fall asleep on your own
have 8 teeth
love to be outside

Shalom Israel

2011-09-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity to be a host family for some Israeli folk dancers for the Springville Folk Fest this year. We went back and forth about it, but decided we'd wanted to do it. Last year, the date fell over Henry's due date, and we couldn't have THAT mess to deal with...but our neighbors did it last year, and wanted to do it again, so we hosted together, which turned out FABULOUS!
We were put with Israel last-minute when our Aremenian dance team canceled a few days before hand. We had a good time with our dancer-men, and got to see some pretty cool folk dancing too! Our neighbors hosted 2 men, and we hosted 2 men. It wasn't what we originally planned on, but we were glad to help. If you personally know any Israelis, then you might have a clue as to how our week went...if you don't, then I will just leave it at that. It was an experience to say the least. They LOVED our boys, and Henry especially LOVED them!

Henry with Ofir

Henry with Aviel

Since Henry celebrated a birthday while they were here, we hosted a big BBQ (somewhat kosher) for all the dancers and their host families. We sung happy birthday and he was showered with attention, of course.

Summer chaos

2011-09-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

What! How do our summers slip away from us? We wait and wait for it to get here, then we run ourselves ragged trying to make the most of it, and when it's over, we collapse. I feel like my summers are spend packing and unpacking. That's where I find myself at the end of this summer, and I finally found some time to sit down and write about what we've done.
Here are some things that have happened since the Holiday:
We were loaned(?), (given?) (lent?) a bike trailer from Evan's sister for our family. It has been wonderful. We use it several times a week. She even threw in little helmets for the boys. Porter enjoys it just as much as we do!

Here he is pulling Henry around

We've spend most of our summer outside playing around with the neighbor kids, and heading to the park when the weather was cool enough. Henry decided to show off at 10 months by climbing up the rock wall and sliding down the slide with NO HELP! What are we to do?

Here are some pictures of the kids playing around:

Here we are at the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days 24th of July Parade. It was pretty cool. Cooler even, that we got to ride our bikes to the parade route, and home again. Jig-a-Dee-Jig!

The 4th of July

2011-07-08T14:29:00.000-07:00

This is my 2nd most favorite holiday. I am becoming more patriotic the older I get. I can't even make it through the hymns in church this time of year. Sad but true. I cry and cry. Of course I cry at the opening of the first football game of the season too...

As usual, we took the kids to the parade and sat in our "usual" spot. The kids LOVED the WHOLE 2 HRS of it! It took me back to last year being so pregnant and hot, and that my sweet baby is WALKING! It's not fair how fast they grow. We went to the carnival afterwards and generously bought tickets for Porter to go on some rides, which he refused, so we had to scalp the tickets. Then we left for some yummy luch at Cafe Rio (I know, nothing like Mexican to celebrate America). We visited with some family, then came home and napped. Later that night we went to a BBQ at a neighbor's house where Porter experienced his first sparkler! It was kind of magical.

I LOVE LOVE LOVED the new law this year! Aerials were awesome! The kids loved seeing them all over the sky. It kinda made up for not seeing the big ones this year. I don't think we missed out on much.

Camping

2011-07-08T14:18:00.000-07:00

I know most of you wouldn't post about camping. Big deal, right? It's kind of a big deal for us. We've been meaning to do this for WAY TOO LONG! (2 yrs) I've been making excuses and the timing has just never been right. Evan has had a super crazy work schedule lately, which made our Friday night camping trip a bust, so...determined to keep my husband happy and my promise to my boys, we packed up saturday afternoon and went. It was really fun. I don't hate camping. I really enjoy it. BUT, it's very hard with very young kids.

On our hike

We went up Hobble Creek and reserved a site, set up the tent, and went on a hike. Then we came back and played in the tent for awhile, made dinner, and put the boys down for an "early" bed, which turned out to be a short nap, cause they were up playing again for another couple of hours until we all got to fall asleep. SO fun!

The next morning we were up and out before 8 am, fed and happy. I can do camping trips like that. I keep telling Evan that I can't wait until our youngest is 2 and we can really ENJOY family outings like that. Until then we'll just have to make do and plug through it, right? It's worth it, right?

The boys had a blast and I did too, to tell the truth. But most importantly, Evan had a good time, which was my whole objective!

2011-07-08T14:03:00.000-07:00

We had a surprise visit from my Grandma last week. She is old, and doesn't like to leave her house, even though the flight is less than an hour and it's FREE! She came anyway for an afternoon. After hearing she was here, I packed up the kids and we headed to Salt Lake. My brother and his family were also visiting from WA, so when we got there, the kids had a pretty good water fight in the back yard. Porter has never been given a water gun before so he was pretty much all smiles. Henry played with little Scott and tried to wrestle a lot with him, but the moment had passed by the time I pulled my camera out.

Later that day, my dad took all the grandkids to the fairgrounds to ride some horses. Porter was excited, but as you can see here, he spent his time with the chickens. He missed out on quite the experience.

Morning shower

2011-07-08T13:48:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when I take a long shower and leave P to his own devices. He's been on a toy kick lately where he'll bring every toy, pillow and blanket he owns to a specific place and just sit there surrounded by them. Henry was asleep, so when he asked me to bring MY pillow and blanket out and lay down to play on the floor, I jumped at the opportunity. I got in a good hour nap while Porter played happily around me, until Henry woke up. I love this kid! So funny!

Oh Deer

2011-07-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

It's bound to happen when you drive 4 hrs a day in the dark on a dirt road...Good think work paid for it!

Sunburst Mirror

2011-06-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

I saw this craft last year and wanted to give it a try. My sister Tea came over in April, and we braved it together.
I thought I could just run to the nursery to pick up the wooden plant markers that we needed, and what do you know? Apparently nobody here carries them. We improvised the hard way and bought wooden craft sticks and cut the ends off. I think it was something like 96 sticks. Ugh. Wire cutters are NOT meant for wood. End of lecture. The rest was easy.

We glued on the mirror, the sticks and the skewers.

Lastly we tied a string around it to transport it and make it easier to hang. It's virtually impossible to hold by hand.
Tea spray-painted hers silver, and I did mine this amazing sea blue. I LOVE it!
The sad part is, by the time I got around to painting and hanging it, I took off the contact paper, and my mirror is WARPED! What? I promise it's not a cheap mirror...I'm so mad about it, but I don't quite know what to do, so there it hangs in my entry way until I can figure it out.
Thanks Teezer for the fun-and interesting craft day!
Supplies used:

Ikea Bjurön plant glide

2 dozen 5-inch wooden plant markers (available at nurseries)
2 dozen 5-3/4-inch wooden plant markers (available at nurseries)
2 dozen wooden skewers (with two flat sides)
7-inch round mirror
silver spray paint
wood glue
wooden tooth pick
sawtooth picture hanger
Con-Tact paper (color doesn’t matter)
newspaper or drop cloth
paper towel
books that are the same thickness as the plant glide

Tools

hammer & nail
small sponge paint brush
scissors
wire cutters
pencil & ruler
sanding block & fine sand paper

The truth of why I've negleted my blog

2011-05-30T14:52:00.000-07:00

You know how you've been busy? I've been busy, but not really the interesting busy. I really have nothing to blog about. Unless you want to know:
How many diapers a day I've been changing..
How many times I've done the dishes and wiped down the counters...
The endless baskets of laundry to fold...
Evan's long work days...
Spring cleaning...
Evan's being out of town...
Going to McDonald's for dinner 3x this week...
The constant battle I've had with cat urine in my carpet, and trying to get that out...
Watching my neighbor's kids...
Running 33 miles this week...
Taking care of sick, whiny kids...
Getting up early to run...
Dinner out with friends...
Why I don't want to do my hair or put on makeup today...
How I've lost all the baby weight...
Our weekend away...
Planning activities with the ladies...
Getting new renters...
Working in the yard...
Crafting...
The list goes on. I know I'm not alone in the mundaneness of my life, but I really have nothing exciting to offer you.
I do have a tidbit though. Since we were in California and I began running again, I decided to run the Utah Valley Half Marathon June 11th. It became a goal of mine to run a half between having each kid. It's a goal that makes me get back in shape and lose all the baby weight. Evan has been very supportive and has helped with the kids in the mornings, and those long saturdays when I'm out.
I'm pleased to say that I'm ready. Actually I've been ready for a long time. I started training way too early and I've mentally burned myself out. I do like to run, but I've hit the motivation wall. The race is 2 weeks away, and I've run 10 miles each of the last few Saturdays. I also signed up to run the Ragnar Relay the week after the half, so I've been "training" for that. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the end of June, and to sleeping in. I find myself exhausted and energyless. But it all is worth it when I look in the mirror.
So glad we got the treadmill with a tv screen, cause it's been rainy more than sunny, and how else to you run 6 miles completely alone? Lots of good movies and me in the basement together. Can't say I'll miss it.
The bright side is that I've met my goal. I now have maybe 1/2 lb to go before I'm down to pre-Henry weight. Not that I don't have 10 more after that...I'm not going to be impractical though.
Stay tuned for my final time and wish me luck!

10 Months

2011-05-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

Henry is growing so fast! He is almost walking now, and thinks he's 3.
He sleeps phenominally (except now, cause he's sick).
He eats most everything, and prefers it if he can feed it to himself.
He takes about 10 steps now before he falls down.
He's pretty fearless.
He's discovered the kitchen cabinets.
He has started vocalizing a lot. Screaming, cooing, babbling, etc.
He loves to be outside. Because of the way he crawls, he now has one hole in the left knee of almost every pair of pants he ownes.
He HATES car rides.
Very independent.
Hates the word "no".
Has started the manipulating grin.
I think he understands most of what we say.
Cries almost constantly when he's with Porter-because of being pushed down, thrown at, hit, kicked, etc...
Has 6 teeth.
Cuddly.

Springtime, or winter?

2011-05-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

I get this itch for spring every year right around March when the sun starts getting serious about shining and the snow stops falling. Well. I've been itching for a long time now. I think we've had 3 non-jacket weather days, and most are rainy. The river here is running past capacity, and the threat of flooding is emminent. Probably not for us, but definately for some whose back yard is already under water. We go on walks on the river trail often to check the river levels. It's scary to think of those praying every night that nothing will happen to their homes.

Regardless of the rain, we've been trying to keep busy and outside. We found this pretty Robin's nest just outside our back door. The female Robin is always sitting on the nest, and we can't wait to hear the little peeps of new life and see the little birds. I kind of feel protective of the nest since it's so close to our home. Watch out predators!

We bought Porter this tricycle A: because his cousins have one and they're nearly INDESTRUCTIBLE. B: because the neighbors have been missing theirs since Porter has learned to ride it. C: Isn't it time we start collecting our own toys? It'll last through all the kids. Everyday Porter asks to go ride it. He's so small still, but he grows fast.

Our newest project has been this:

Now you don't see it...

Now you do

We have been playing inside too, and our neighbors come over a lot and vice versa so we get company for these dreary days.

Did I mention Porter LOVES Cars?

Bath Time

The South

2011-05-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

April 21st, we took a BIG trip with the family. This was fun for us, because Evan usually takes us places when he goes for work, and this time, we took an extra few days, and spent it with friends, like a real family vacation. Go us! We flew into Augusta Georgia and spent the next 4 days with Evan's high school buddy Derrick and his family. It was great for the two of them to reconnect and for us to get to know them a little better. They (rarely) get visitors (so they say) and we thought it would be great to actually see some of the South, cause I'd never been before.

Porter and Henry at a bounce house

Porter and Audrey at dinner. They play like siblings

Playing puzzles

Easter Egg Hunt

Playing in the straw

Evan, Derrick, Audrey and Porter

We spent Easter with them and they, Becca, were the perfect hosts! Thanks guys, we had lots of fun.
Then we took yet another road trip of 7 hrs down to Orlando. We stopped at the beach-no pictures- and the boys did great!
Evan's boss put us up at the DisneyWorld Resort Hotel. This was SUPER NICE. If you're familiar with the area, that's the hotel that the monorail goes through on it's way to the park. Since we went to DisneyLand in Feb, I wasn't going to spend the money again, or brave the park with 2 little kids, so I had a list of fun things for us to do. We didn't even need to leave the hotel. All the food was there, and entertainment, and free bus rides to Downtown Disney, which was really fun.

However, our plans took a turn when Porter woke up fussing that first night, and was pretty whiny the whole day. He wouldn't eat, and later that night, he had a fever. We basically stayed in the hotel room for 2 days while Porter was down and out sick. I was so sad to miss out on all the cool things we could have done, but very glad he wasn't sick in South Carolina with friends. What a bummer for him.

Sick in bed

We finally bought a thermometer, and found a walk-in clinic and took him in. Ear infection. The first of his life. He'd never been sick enough to WANT to stay in bed, and that's precicely what he did. After the first day of anitibiotics, he was feeling much better, and our last day went a little better.

Working with Daddy at the Lego Store

Riding the Monorail

We missed out flight by 3 minutes on the way home, so our nightmare began finding flights and staying in hotels, and not sleeping much. But we made it home finally and we're glad to be done with vacations for awhile.

9 mo

2011-05-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

Henry is the happiest little guy. He adjusts well to new places and situations, and is a momma's boy. New territory for me. He is much more clingy than P, and always has to know where I am.
He loves to stand and walk along furniture, even though he's too strong for his own good.
He's constantly being bullied by Porter, and is used to the abuse he gets from him. It's a good thing he's built like a football player.
He smiles all the time and is curious about everything. He's good as long as he's fed and rested, and as long as he's close to me.

Love him.
Stats: weight 20 lbs   51%
         height 30.5 in   97%

Subway tile- the tutorial

2011-04-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

Ever since I've seen these tiles, I've wanted to make one. Evan and I got together and decided what things we want to teach out children to do. It's just what we do as a family. I started by printing them off in Word. It was a bit tricky to find the right spacing and font size, but I somehow did it.

Then I had it printed at fedex/kinkos on a HUGE piece of paper.
In order to know how big to make the board, I needed to calculate the final size of the wording.
So...

I cut the pieces of paper just at the top and bottom of the letters, and put them together, measured, and cut my board.

I bought cheapo wood at HD and cut and glued and nailed them together.

It looks VERY homemade, but also perfectly sized.
I wanted the final wording to look more natural than white, so I went to work and stained the wood a dark walnut color.

Then spray painted an almond color on top of that. Then I was ready for the tedious part.

I glued each word strip to con-tact paper with some spray adhesive, and when it was dry, I cut them out and started measuring, cutting and pasting each INDIVIDUAL letter onto the board.

I marked each letter placement before I cut all the letters out, then stuck them down on the con-tact paper side. This is why it's taken me 3 months to complete. I left it sitting out on my table for the 2 months we were in Cali.

Now that the lettering was all done, I went over all the letters with my finger to stick them down one last time before I painted it black.
Some of the letters were peeling up at the edges, which didn't bother me too much, but I knew I couldn't touch them up after if they were too black (keep watching).

So I spray painted everything. As you see, some of the letters were peeling up, especially the D in attend. After I was done with the top coat, I tried to stick the D back down with my finger, and it came right off. So now I have a big finger print on the D, but I knew as a first-timer, it wouldn't look perfect. Everything else turned out better than expected.

I took some sand paper to it a few days later, and here it is, hanging in my hallway. I'm quite excited to see how well it turned out because of the countless hours it took me to make it. I've learned some things along the way, and I'd do it again...if I had to.

Update of the boys

2011-03-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Porter's language has taken off, and he talks so much now. We were so excited in California because of how much he would say, and he'd repeat things to let us know HE understood what we'd said. One of the blessings of being there was the progress our boys made. Henry slept through the night, and sprouted 2 teeth, (not at the same time-we're not THAT lucky). Porter's vocabulary shot out, and he started singing.

He's obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. He knows all the songs, and we often sing them in the car. It took a few days for us to realize what he was singing. He sings more songs now, and asks for them by name. It is SO fun to have him talking now. I love having conversations with him, and he loves expressing his feelings and likes and dislikes. In fact, he had a conversation with Evan today about what Henry likes to do, and what he likes, and what Mommy says, and daddy says. I LOVE IT! He's also become quite the little ladies' man.

He loves to play with others now, and tries to recruit Henry in games that most often are still too rough.

But he helps when he can:

And plays when he can:

He still practices selective hearing, though, but I'm sure they don't cure of that until age 19?

Henry is so happy. All the time! Here are the pictures to prove it:

He did go through quite the ordeal to get his teeth here. I was hoping for one of those kids who don't seem affected, but boy was he ever! It started as a "sickness" including 4-5 blowouts a day, constant fussiness, and night waking. Once they came through-one day after the next, thank goodness-he was a different person. All smiles and laughing again. Whew! I think we might be on to something again, though. We couldn't see the teeth, but his mood was the evidence. I still don't have a picture of the teeth, because you still can't see them, but they're there! So enjoy another picture:

He started crawling at the same time his teeth came in, and though he scooted a lot beforehand, he took off. My life hasn't been the same since. He doesn't crawl with both knees on the floor. He uses his left knee and his right foot, and that kid has SPEED! He pulls himself up to standing every chance he gets, so I don't think it'll be long.

It's so neat to have two very different boys. I guess you expect it, but you don't know what to expect about it. Henry is a lot more needy than Porter ever was. He cuddles a lot more, and he lets you know when he needs a break from playing to be held for a few minutes before getting back to it. We trained him from the get go to sleep by himself without rocking, and it works against us in places like church where he just wants a bed to lay down on. Porter never really looked back once he started to crawl, and was into EVERYTHING, but Henry, as of now, still looks around to see if I'm there, and needs that comfort of having me close by. He doesn't drool. I mean NEVER. Porter drooled til 18 months. I still think drooling should be a sign of teething, but not for this one, not that I'm complaining!
Henry adores Porter and followes him everywhere. Porter doesn't seem to mind, and soakes up the attention. We're working on sharing.
Porter has an amazing memory. We went to see the sea lions in San Luis Obispo- 3 times! The last time I was trying to convince him to get dressed so we could go see them, when he stopped, looked at me, smiled, and said, "Red Elmo Shirt!" I was excited that he even would request an item of clothing-still doesn't care- when I remembered he wore that shirt the last time we went to see the sea lions. I can't believe he'd remember such a thing! Such a prodigy!!!
Then again, he always guesses Disneyland when I ask if he knows where we're going...

Guess Who's Crawling!??!!

2011-03-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

While we were here

2011-03-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

We ran the Rex Lee Run 10K. Thank you California for the nice weather to run outside and start getting back in shape. We ran it together, and finished in 58 minutes. Not our best time, but we did it together. More to come on running...

Hiatus

2011-03-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

We came back from Ca for a 2 week "vacation" from our "vacation". Actually Evan had a conference up in Montana, and I had one in SLC, so we came home for those and decided to make the stay worth-while and stayed for 2 weeks.
While here, we met up with some friends that we NEVER get to see, because they live on the East coast in SC. They were here for a family wedding, and came down to provo for an art exibit. We met up with them at BYU and had lunch and played afterward. They have a little girl just older than Porter, and a little boy a few weeks older than Henry. It was fun to see them play and get to know each other, and for us to catch up!

Porter and Henry with Audrey and Bennett

Thanks for coming to see us, guys!

Prediction

2011-03-27T19:09:00.000-07:00

My mom read somewhere when her kids were little that if you measure your child's height on their 2 1/2 yr birthday, and double it, it gives you the most accurate prediction of how tall they'll be. My mom did this with my brother and me, and we were both dead on. We thought we'd try it, so Porter complied, and we measured him at 37 1/2 in. which doubled is 75 in. which translates to: 6' 3".
I'll get back to you in 20 or so years...

Rainy days are perfect for...

2011-02-26T10:26:00.000-08:00

We made regualy boxed cake mix, but frosted them with brown butter frosting. YUMMM!!!

Ants in my pants!

2011-02-22T21:56:00.000-08:00

With an old house, there comes a lot of character. Sometimes that character is charm. Other times it's quirks. Often it's in surprises, like the one we've been getting. I'm not talking about the creaking of the floor in the quiet of night, or when you jump as the furnace kicks on, fearing an explosion... I'm talking about the residents of this house. Not the former occupants, but this home's residents. They've obviously lived here a long time, long enough to form secret passages and know the ins and outs of the house. We thought it was the rain, bringing in some ant activity (maybe a party?) that got rained out, but as the days progressed, and the numbers increased, we started rethinking our strategy, (which at that time was to keep the house clean and put out ant traps).
Well, after waking up Sunday morning to ants all over the kitchen, we started realizing the problem on our hands. We used cinnamon around the holes we knew they were coming from-which works by the way!
But when yesterday we awoke to lines of ants crawling up the kitchen cabinets and into the cereal...we got down and dirty. If we had an adequate vacuum that had enough power to suck them up, we'd be less likely to jump to our 2nd resort...fogging.
We had actually purchased 6 fumigators for use with the spiders-don't get me started-which we used on the ants too. The downside...getting the house ready for fumigation. (seriously...why don't people just spray for bugs?) This task wouldn't have been so daunting had we been in a real "vacation" home. Now THIS particular house appears to us to be a project that the kids didn't want to take on after mom and dad died. There are knick-knacks everywhere, family pictures and albums left in the drawers, and old, useless appliances in the cupboards. Whatever. We still had to cover it. So we packed up our food, and bagged the plates and cutlery. We left the house for 3 hrs- during naptime mind you-, and came back to a pleasant odor, and no ants.

I was pretty sure this had done the trick, unless the ants went into their holes and hid from the poison. This morning I found a few crawling around the bathroom floor, but they dissappeared a while later (scouts, maybe? "The coast is clear"!) We've been pleased not to see any ants today. Thanks to the Edwards' for helping make it happen!

I think I'm in love

2011-02-18T14:45:00.000-08:00

Maybe this was one of our best Valentine's Days. Maybe It was fabulous because of what happened last year, which was NOTHING. Not one thing. Not even a card! I thought for sure it would be yet another bust due to the overwhelming amounts of work Evan needed to do. But thinking about the holiday made me a little sad and at times resentful, so I mentioned it to Evan, not knowing if I'd regret doing so, for the sake of a really genuine Evan and whatever that brought to me. I didn't want him to do something just because I mentioned it, or because he felt he HAD to- but really? Aren't we in love? At least do SOMETHING! Anyway....He did say that he couldn't win. Don't get me wrong, he does show affection, and is always good for mother's day, and anniversaries and such. It just happened to be a sore spot from last year.
I woke up to a note that asked me to meet him for lunch that day, and he arranged for Mary to watch the kids. It was wonderful.
I showed up to the restaurant to see this:

Inside was this:

Soooo yummy!
He also gave me a new one of these:

It's a new Sansa Clip, an MP3 player. My last one broke and I've missed it terribly.
He totally redeemed himself this year. Whether I said something or not, he really did it right this year.
I love him a lot. He is perfect for me.
At the end of the day, I gave him this:

I make him a card every V-Day. The inside isn't pictured, but I think it's the best one yet.

California Lovin'

2011-02-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love it here. For all who don't know, we moved to California! Yeah! No! Just kidding. Evan's work has a project in which they're teaming up with a company out here, and they needed Evan and his Utah co-worker, Matt, to come out here for a month to work with them, and light a little fire under them. The thought of leaving home to come out for a month was a little sobering, but after thinking about it, I'd rather be here with him, than home without him. All our food and gas and expenses are paid for, it's warmer, plus we're here with Matt and his wife, Mary, and their 1 yr old daughter, Izzy. The company is great!

We left Jan 31st and drove out over 2 days. It was fun having another family to travel with. The boys did great, as we've now come to expect. (I don't know where their good travel abilities come from.)

Here's the view of the backseat!

Did I mention we're in San Luis Obispo? We love, love, love it here! I could live here, it's so beautiful-and it sounds like I just might be here awhile!

Here's us at the beach:

We went to the old train depot in town. Porter was in heaven:

Evan's sister Terri flew in for the weekend to get away from the snow. She's the favorite aunt, and thus, the kids had an awesome time. We drove the 3 1/2 hours down to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday, and see some friends.
We got there late, and crashed with Brent and Linnae, who graciously put us up in 3 different rooms of the house. The next morning it was Disney time! I was so excited, it was hard to contain myself as we walked into the park. Porter was in heaven.

Here's Porter with Kirsi:

His favorite ride was the cars:

Or maybe "it's a small world"

Or maybe meeting Mickey Mouse:

Mostly we liked being having Terri along

We've had a great time being able to play, and discard all sorts of housekeeping responsibilities, and being able to play with the kids, and go wherever we want, whenever we want.

Here's some pics of us playing:

Matt and Mary

Henry is such a good sport. This is basically how he spends most mornings out and about. He's clearly not sad about it:

6 months

2011-01-30T10:44:00.000-08:00

Henry,

You have added a measure of joy to my life that I treasure. You are always happy to see me, and I cherish your cuddly side. You are a good sleeper, and you surprise us some nights by not needing us at all. You are becoming more aware of your world, and especially that of your brother's. You stare at him constantly, and he'll sometimes involve you in play. You LOVE food. I've never seen a baby scarf it all down, or put it away quite like you do. You explore everything, and it goes straight to your mouth. You love to be held, but only when I'm not doing something that takes me away from your attention. You are very strong, but won't roll over anymore. You still hate being on your tummy, but we still keep trying.

You kick all the time, especially when you're excited. You are loving the walker more and more, but would still rather be held.

You fall asleep often in your car seat, but almost never in our arms. We've accustomed you to sleeping by yourself lying down, so you won't give in when we coax you at church.

Your squeals and noises keep us happy, and we enjoy watching you learn. Your personality has been interesting to figure out, and we are so pleased with your mellow charm.

You sit up on your own now, and you're starting to engage yourself more in play and exploration with new toys. It's fun to watch.

You laugh a lot at our expressions, and you seem to have a grasp of what's coming up next. (We love schedules!)

Letting you cry has been the key to many naptimes, and we're grateful you put yourself to sleep at night, so we don't have to hear you cry then.

You are on formula now full-time, and watch us like a hawk when we get bottles ready.

You've been easy and fun. We love having you with us and look forward to your sweet laid-back character to continue teaching us.

WE LOVE YOU!

online scrapbooking

2011-01-24T15:57:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited! Look what came in the mail a few weeks ago. I spent a month working on this "scrap" book of Porter's first year. I have always wanted to keep a memory book for my children, but I have no time for cutting and pasting.

I decided on a 12x12, cause that's the size I would do if I kept a scrap book. I loved this project, and hope to do one for every year of their lives. I did keep a journal for Porter, so I have a lot of the details and dates of things, which I included in the book.

He doesn't get it yet, and i don't let him look at it unsupervised, but I flatter myself that he'll appreciate it one day...

As promised!

2011-01-16T16:02:00.000-08:00

Here's my house. We've been here for 8 months, but it seems we've always lived here. We're a far cry from getting it all decorated and fitted to us, but we'll get there.

Sorry the video quality is so poor- we had to make it fit in blogger somehow...

And as for the mess in the master bdrm... we just finished hosting play group when I filmed this. I didn't take the time to pick up the mess. Enjoy!

Craft day

2011-01-10T14:08:00.000-08:00

Tea and I decided to make a V-Day craft this month. I stumbled across these cute XO XO frames here and decided to try them out.

We bought some Stik 'n Seal at HD
I spray-painted my frames from the Dollar Store
The frames, and thus paper is only 5x7 size.
Unlike the originals, we wanted to have some color to ours, so we picked up bigger rocks. These are Tea's. These are mine

How cute. It only took us about an hour.

My Collection

2011-01-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

Since my wedding four years ago I've had a serious lust for anything pampered chef. I have to admit, one of my secret desires is too have one of everything-I know, I know...kind of shallow. Going to a party is like poison on my pocketbook, but the good thing is...Evan kinda crushes on 'em too!

2011-01-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

We had another AMAZING family photo experience with Susan Monson. She captured the best of what we gave her, and we're glad to have some updated pics with all 4 of us!

Thanks Henry!

2011-01-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

Henry slept through the night!

9:30-8:00. Actually, he did this the night before last too, but we didn't want to jump the gun, however, he proved to us he's finally ready to make mommy and daddy happier during the day. It could be the cereal we fed to him right before bed, but we haven'y slept this well since before he was born. His naps have improved a lot too. I love this boy! Can you tell?

Christmas

2011-01-03T13:25:00.000-08:00

We had a low-key Christmas this year. We wanted to stay at home with our little family and do Christmas morning here, then we went up to Evan's parent's house for the afternoon. We spent Christmas Eve with my family at my parent's home, where we always have a little christmas message and devotional with music.

Mother nature gave us the gift of 3 ft. of snow. We didn't go anywhere for a few days.

Evan and Porter made a snowman! Porter still begs for one every snowfall. Kinda creepy, huh?

Porter playing with his collection of CARS from Christmas

My first loaf of whole wheat bread from my new breadmaker!

Evan and my dad had been working on a table Evan wanted to build for Porter. This table is AWESOME! It has room for toy bins below, and when not used as a table, they can stack to become storage bins for toys and other supplies. I don't have a picture of it from the camera, because we mostly got christmas from our new video camera. Speaking of which, maybe it's time to do a tour of the house, since we've only been here 8 months. I'll get a picture of the table posted as well.

Thanksgiving

2011-01-03T12:55:00.000-08:00

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house. We won the vote simply because we had cable tv. It was perfect. After borrowing tables and chairs from the neighbors, we had enough to fit the 50+ people we were expecting. We love having people over, and unfortunately the weather was down in the single digits, so playing outside was out of the question. Here are the pics.

5 months

2010-12-29T12:30:00.001-08:00

I love you, Henry! You are so much fun to have around. You smile whenever you see me, and laugh at almost anything. You love to watch your brother play, and especially love your diaper changes. You can roll over, but prefer not to, though tummy time doen't make you mad anymore. You have your own agenda, and you're still a night owl.

You sleep so much better now, and you went 8 hrs the other night, but we only have to get up with you 2-3 times in the night, and you eat so fast that it doesn't seem like I'm up much. Thank you! I'm still waiting for you to prove to yourself that it's ok not to see us in the night at all. You eat well. You have taken an interest in food, and stare at us unrelenting when we eat, but we're still waiting to give you "real" food.

You've started doing this cute thing with sticking your tongue out. So cute!

You have learned to fall asleep almost anytime in your carseat, and you do really well on longer trips in the car. You catch on so fast, and you're just starting to realize you can manipulate things with your hands. You suck your thumb occasionally when you want to, though its not for comfort, just play. You suck on your fingers, too. You only take the pacie when you go to sleep, and I don't mind. You smile a lot, and scream like a girl when you're left alone, or can't see me.

I never thought it'd be so much fun to have a little baby around again, but it is great! I don't want to miss a single thing you do! I love having you in my family!

Ding-Dong Ding-Dong

2010-12-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

After going back and forth a lot this season, we finally decided to get a tree. I have never had a real tree before, so this was a first. I really wanted to find a great deal on a pre-lit tree, but I didn't want to brave black friday this year. We borrowed a stand from Evan's sister, and bought this amazing tree! We had some lights collected from previous years and some ornaments my grandma gave us. Porter LOVED putting them up.

We did make a star out of construction paper and put that on top. Merry Christmas!

Stats

2010-12-06T13:19:00.001-08:00

I always thought my kids will be in the 90% at any age, just because Porter is so big and Henry is following so close. Here's the shocker: Henry's not! Yay! I have an average size baby? What? I still think he'll be catch up. The funny thing is his head. When my sister saw him she said, " Wow, he's all head!" I tended to agree. However, there must be a whole lot more kids with HUGE heads, if this is the comparison:

4mo.

Weight: 14.3 lbs 36%

Height: 24.75 in. 43%

Head: 15.25 in .9%

2 mo.

weight: 12 lbs 59%

Height: 23 in. 54%

head: 14.25 1.7%

That's right! Ha! under 50% in all 3! The doctor was actually quite concerned because he's not following the curve, but I say he doubled his birth weight in 4 months- I'm not worried!

He still hates tummy time, but is starting to roll over. He kicks his legs non-stop. (It's really hard when I'm carrying him in the car seat, and it's moving on it's own!) He's lost almost all his hair. I really should shave the rooster crown off the back, but I can't bring myself to do it.

4 Months!

2010-11-29T12:45:00.000-08:00

You have been the best baby! You are happy, healthy, and growing like a weed. You have the sweetest disposition, and nothing tends to set you off. You have the biggest smile I've ever seen. You know just how to cheer me up with that grin of yours, and even laugh a lot too.

You LOVE your jumper. You tend to spend an hour at a time in it, and coo and laugh, and you are so strong.

You love to stand up, and your little legs are definately the better for it. You started rolling over last week, and though I'm not sure how to feel about that, I'm proud of your progress.

You are definately sleeping better. Your brother didn't sleep well for a long time, but you seem to have it down. We only meet once in the night (90% of the time), and you are extending that time more and more as the weeks go by. You are taking longer and longer naps in your crib now, and I don't worry about your schedule anymore.

You've put on some weight recently. I think you're about to 16 lbs now. I didn't do that on purpose, just so you know. You aren't over-fed!

Thank you for lighting up my life. You make it all worth while.

Mommy

Crafty Crafty!

2010-11-29T12:30:00.000-08:00

I am on a HUGE craft craze right now. I found this way cute wreath online, (thanks Bethany), and decided to make one.

My sister came over and we got to it. She used the Lima Beans, and since I wanted something a little different, I made mine with nuts.

Glueing

Tea's wreath

My wreath before the paint

It took about 4-5 hours, but we did it. We spray-painted them a pretty almond color, and tied a ribbon with a bow. I love it, and it was cheap!

Hanging up

sweet tooth

2010-11-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you give P a ring pop to enjoy on the way to grandmas

Pumpkins 2010

2010-11-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

The annual pumpkin fest is now over. Laura (Evan's sister) has cleaned the house, and surely, the pumpkins have made their way to the dump. However, we have photos to remember them by. Laura has her own pumpkin website to view them here. We had many a dream to carve lots, but reality set in, and Evan and I scrambled for the remaining 3 hours we had to carve one together. That leaves 2 for me, and 2 for him. Next year, we hope to make a substantially better contribution. We carved a BIG one, Golom, not pictured here.

Cornbellys

2010-11-11T20:51:00.000-08:00

The friday before Halloween, we went to Cornbelly's with Evan's sister, her kids, and his mom and dad. It was soooo much fun. I think it'll be a tradition. Despite the wind, we had a blast. I felt so excited the whole time. It was like taking my family to Disneyland-we had that much fun. Since I'm an awesome mom, I forgot my camera. (Like always), so here's what I could capture on my phone.

These bikes were so cool. I think we should get a bunch of them and have races at family reunions!

Porter at the water duckies races. Probably his favorite thing to do. He got all muddy and wet!Also P's favorite: There was noone in line, so the driver let them stay on, and they kept riding until we said enough. Here with cousin Abby.

My little cowboy

2010-11-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

Despite his smile, he needed lots and lots of coaxing to put on his costume. It wasn't until Halloween that he grasped the concept of getting candy for dressing up. It was as if he were thinking, "I can wear that!"

Porter started ripping his costume off seconds before the picture was taken. It was off completely just seconds after!

What we do all day...

2010-11-02T20:06:00.000-07:00

Usual napping place, unless we're running errands. Then he looks like this:

Hangin' around

2010-11-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T20:18:00.000-07:00

4 years ago today, Evan gave me a pumpkin. He got down on one knee, and gave me a ring.

I said yes, we said "I do," and I still "do" today. Thanks for the pumpkin babe! It's been an awesome ride.

My stand

2010-10-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

Years ago, I was the teaching the YW a lesson on prophets, and modern revelation. I asked the girls at the beginning of the lesson, “why should we do what the prophet asks?” The bottom line was, “Because it’s the Lord asking it. We follow the prophet”. We talked more about sustaining the prophets and how their words are the Lords words. Several more times during the lesson I asked this question, “Why do we do what the prophets say?” The girls learned through the lesson that the basic reason was, “Because it’s the prophet that is asking it of us.”

I wasn’t trying to teach them blind obedience, but simply wanted them to understand that there is nothing the prophets ask us to do that is not the will of the Lord. It’s black and white. You do it, or you don’t. President Harold B. Lee taught us that our very SAFETY, and that of our children, depends upon it.

“Now the only safety we have as members of this church is to do exactly what the Lord said to the Church in that day when the Church was organized. We must learn to give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through His prophet, ‘as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; … as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith’. There will be some things that take patience and faith. You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life. But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord Himself, with patience and faith, the promise is that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory.’”

I mentioned once to the other YW leaders how scared I am for the rising generation. I could see a gap closing in on them. This gap, between being fitting into “the world” and being “a peculiar people” is apparent. I could see that these youth were going to have to decide NOW where they stand. Soon there will no longer be a safe ground “in the world” to practice and believe what we must. It scares me that we may lose some youth to “the world”, not specifically because of sin, but because they didn’t gain a testimony early enough to ward off “the world” and were persuaded to join the world, instead of standing for the prophets and God’s will.

I’m grateful to my parents who taught me early on that God comes before all else, and that following His counsel and keeping His commandments brings happiness and joy. I know our prophets are called of God. I know that following them has brought me joy, even through the personal persecutions I’ve faced as a “peculiar person” (It’s really like being mocked from those in the Great and Spacious Building, while I cling to the Rod.) I AM peculiar, I have” old-fashioned” values, and I am sensitive to the ever-changing influences of the world against God’s desires for us. I have to take a stand.

For several weeks, I have been pondering over how to voice my resolve about the same-sex marriage issue. It’s been difficult to find the words within myself to convey my feelings. I have read several statements and articles that say it better than I can. I’ve attached them below. However, I do feel it necessary for my voice to be heard as well. I support the prophets.

I echo what Pres. Hinckley said in 1999:
“There is no justification to redefine what marriage is. Such is not our right, and those who try will find themselves answerable to God. Some portray legalization of so-called same-sex marriage as a civil right. This is not a matter of civil rights; it is a matter of morality. Others question our constitutional right as a church to raise our voice on an issue that is of critical importance to the future of the family. We believe that defending this sacred institution by working to preserve traditional marriage lies clearly within our religious and constitutional prerogatives. Indeed, we are compelled by our doctrine to speak out.”

I WILL follow God. I will obey Him. I will stand for His teachings, and His doctrine. I will fight with all I have, and risk losing EVERYTHING to defend my family, my religion, and the eternal principles God expects us to uphold. I choose His side.

http://www.ldsmag.com/lds-church-updates/article/6495?ac=1

http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/article.xqy?uri=/published/corus/articles/2010/10/en/tuesday-release

http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2004-02-15-1.html

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IF04G01

Sweet Sleeper

2010-10-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

This is the view I have of Henry for a good portion of the day. It's so fun to get to hold him as much as I can.

Henry slept in his swing seat most of the nights for a month or so. He got a cold during the first weeks at home, and his nose never seemed to recover from it. He was too stuffy to lay on his back, so we kept him in the seat to keep the peace at night. Plus, there's a little massage action in the seat that kept him calm for 2 hr stretches.
Luckily, he's over the cold, and back to sleeping on his back. He now sleeps 6 hr. stretches and sometimes 7. I put him down at 10:00, and he'll usually sleep til 4 or 5, then wakes up on his own at 8. It's wonderful!

For naps I usually sleep him in his swing, not because he sleeps better that way, but because I want him to get used to sleeping through noise, so he's in the great room during his naps. He does really well, and I hope it'll pay off when it comes to a solid schedule.

I love to look at this face all day! Here he's sleeping on the kitchen counter while I prepare dinner at lunchtime.

This is what Porter does all day. I'm going for mother of the year here, but we're you tube junkies. We watch Thomas episodes, Dr. Seuss movies, and animated characters. It all started with him wanting to see videos of trains...we are limiting our time here, though.

We've become really good friends with our next-door neighbors, the Wahlquists. Both our husbands are Electrical Engineers, and we both get to stay at home with our kids-they have 4. We recently started a date night exchange. It has been a lot of fun, and really easy to walk our kids next door to leave for a date. Here's a picture of their kids coloring when we were watching them. They're so cute together. We're planning Porter and Ellie's wedding...she's the blonde. It's better than wonderful to have such good friends close by.

8 weeks

2010-09-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

My sweet Henry,

I love how perfect your skin is, how smooth and soft your face is against mine. I especially love the way you smell.

I could watch you sleep all day. You breathe so softly and you look like an angel.

I love that I'm getting to know you. I'm glad you're sleeping longer and more solidly than ever before during the night. Our rendezvous only lasts 20 mins, instead of 2 hours.

I love your cuddles. Thanks for letting me hold you most of the day. The time will come when my arms aren't where you want to be, so thanks for your hugs.

Your smile melts my heart. It's like you know something we don't. I'm glad you're so happy here.

I love how little you are. Newborn clothes are still in the laundry and the closet. I wish you'd stay this way!

I am so happy you've decided to like it here. It made me sad that you cried all those nights for weeks and weeks, but I'm glad you've decided to be happier and enjoy your time with us...you know, we'll be here for a long time together, so we're glad you're making the best of it.

You're so busy with your hands, always putting them up to your face and pulling out the pacie. I hope you make use of those busy fingers and learn to play the piano. That would make me so happy!

I love you little guy! Thanks for being so sweet and fun.

Mom

P.S. Sorry about all the gas...I've been trying to cut back on the dairy, but really, I think it's just you.

2010-09-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

Do these glasses make me look smart?

2010-09-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Does he looks like Sean Astin to anyone?

Porter turns 2!

2010-09-14T14:23:00.001-07:00

We celebrated porter's birthday by going to the BYU game. If you know us well, we LIVE for BYU football, and being P's birthday, it was the perfect way to celebrate! We had a great time, except being slowly scrunched out of our seats...(seriously people, we paid, like you, to sit in one seat per person, so USE THOSE SEATS YOU PAID FOR!!!!!)

When asked what kind of cake he wanted, P said, "Ka-Chow". I don't think that could be any clearer. He kept coming up to me as I decorated it, excitedly repeating "Ka-Chow". I think he gets it.

We celebrated the day after his birthday, along with Henry's blessing, because it just made sense that way, so Porter had 45 people singing to him. He didn't know what to think. (Thanks grandpa Z for helping him blow out the candle!)

I think the train set was a hit!

Henry's Blessing

2010-09-14T12:21:00.001-07:00

We blessed Henry Labor Day weekend. It was so neat to have all the family here to help us celebrate. We tried and tried to find Henry his own outfit to wear, and nobody has infant church clothes that aren't rediculously priced, so we used Porter's blessing outfit instead. It was still way too big, but he looked handsome in it just the same. Evan's sister Jill and her family stayed the night before the blessing with us, because our church is at 9. And luckily, everyone made it in time! The blessing was amazing, and overall, it was a great weekend!

I'm so grateful to have a husband who honors the priesthood and is worthy to use it. My boys have a wonderful example of a real man who loves the Lord and puts Him first. I am humbled to be surrounded by so many family and friends who likewise live their lives. I appreciate all the love and help we've received in the past and the present in raising our family. We are so fortunate!

6 weeks old

2010-09-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

Henry is such a good baby. He still sleeps most of the day, and has begun going right back down after his night feedings, which most nights is only once. After 2 weeks, he started fussing a lot more during the evening- late evening, like 9:00-1:00. We actually thought he had colic because he would cry non-stop, but that has calmed down some too. We're starting to figure out who he is, and what his temperaments are, which for me has been the most frustrating. I don't remember not knowing Porter, and now its all coming back to me. I look into his face and think, "I don't even know you! Who are you?"

We've gotten some smiles out of him already, which is so encouraging when you wonder how you'll make it through one more sleepless night, cold, fussy time, or crying. He seems to have some reflux, and we have to keep him upright for about 20 minutes after he eats, or he'll fuss and spit up. He has gotten to be a pro at eating and can finish a meal in less than 5 minutes.

Now he's six weeks old, and we've been through quite a bit in this short time.

*a couple days old: everyone got pink eye

*a couple days old: we had colds, and a cough

*3 weeks old: I got a kidney stone

*4 weeks old: road trip

*6 weeks old: more colds and coughs

It's funny how God helps you forget the trials of newborns. I don't remember it being this difficult, and that's not because I have 2 now, it's just the newborn phases. The transition from 1 kid to 2 has actually been easier than 0 to 1. I guess that's because I'm less uptight about everything and I'm already in mommy mode. Like my neighbor says, "If you have 1 kid, they take up all your time. If you have 5 kids, they still take up all your time!" So true!

I hope you don't take this as complaining, because I love being a mom, and there's something about the sweet spirit of a newborn that brings such joy into my home, and I am appreciating this little boy much more than I did with my first. He's a good baby, and Porter hasn't regressed at all. What good luck we have!

Trip to Denver

2010-09-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

There is 1 conference a year that Evan's boss flies out all the employees and their spouses/girlfriends and kids. This year that conference was in Denver. We decided it would be more adventurous to make this a road trip. With a newborn, the luggage situation tends to get a little over-sized, and the thought of flying with only 2 suitcases didn't sound too fun. So, on the boss's dime, we rented a mini-van and drove out. It was so much fun! Not only did we have a great time, but we had wheels for the week in Denver. We made it there with only 2 short stops, and both boys were happy the whole time.

While there, we visited the aquarium and the children's museum-both of which I highly recommend. Here are some pictures of our trip:

At the Rockies game

2 weeks

2010-09-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

Henry had his pictures taken at 2 weeks. Here's some photos from the shoot. Susan did a fantastic job! For more details, visit her website: click http://www.ssmphotography.blogspot.com/

2 week stats:

weight: 8.2 lbs- 33% birth: 7.3 lbs

height:21.5 in.-80% birth: 20 in.

Brothers

2010-09-11T07:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a view of both boys at 1 day old. Do they look alike? I think they look like brothers, but not the same. Evan thinks Henry looks just like Porter. Porter is on the left.

Porter Turns 2

2010-09-03T21:19:00.001-07:00

I never imagined two years ago, that you would ever be this big. That you would be running, climbing, sleeping through the night, and understanding everything we say. You have grown so much. You are such a good big brother, always concerned about little Henry. You love to play with the “older kids” and mimic what they are doing. You look to us for approval, and are beginning to know right from wrong.

The terrible two’s are beginning, and the terrible three’s are right around the corner. You are testing your limits now, and we tell you “no” more than we ever hoped to, yet we love your independence, and your willingness to obey. You are starting to want to do things by yourself, and get angry if we help you. You still sleep with the pacifier, and you know that you only get it when you are in bed. Someday you’ll kick the habit.

You are still not talking much, though we work with you constantly. You can say so many words when you try, but so much of the time you are not even willing. “Can you say ‘beans’?” “No!” “Can you say ‘truck’?” “No!” “Can you say ‘caterpillar’?” “Cat-e-piw-wa.”

You worry about your little brother a lot, and you like to give him his passy, whether Henry wants it or not. You sometimes get upset if Daddy holds Henry, but you are learning that it is ok, since he is Henry’s daddy too.

Thank you for bringing us so much joy the past two years. We love having you in our family!

Happy birthday Big-Boy!

Welcome Baby Henry

2010-07-31T08:56:00.000-07:00

I was woken up Thursday morning (July 29) by STRONG contractions coming every 10 minutes for a couple of hours. I got up at 5, took a walk around and around the cul-de-sac and the contractions continued. Naturally I thought, “This is it!” I got a little excited and went back to bed around 7, thinking he would be born before noon. These contractions were pretty hard to relax and breathe through. I didn’t really expect my water to break like last time, but I didn’t know how difficult the contractions would be without it. (I know, they say the contractions are harder after the water breaks, but I feel differently). Bound and determined to do this naturally, I kept changing my activity and eating little snacks, and lo and behold-everything shut down. I felt a little sore, but no regular contractions. So I went and installed a new door knob and deadbolt at the condo in Provo. I got back from the condo and laid down for a nap. My contractions started up again then, and came about every 15 minutes. Of course I was waiting for them to come closer together before I got excited again, and they never did. You’d think the second time around, my body would be more consistent, but no. I took a warm bath and the contractions came 5 minutes apart, then 12, then 20, then 2, then 3, etc…. I couldn’t possibly go on! Is this ever going to end? My mom kept calling, wanting to know if she should come down yet, but I didn’t know if I’d know when to go to the hospital. I kept waiting for my water to break…

The contractions slowed down a bit until I suggested we pack our bags, just in case, and get Porters’ bag ready for grandma’s house. I shortly found myself on all fours on the floor waiting the next one out, and it didn’t seem to end. I felt nauseous, and suddenly had the clear impression that it was time to go. After making a phone call or two, we got into the car and drove up to Provo. I felt pretty blessed to have shorter contractions and longer breaks on the drive, ‘til we got off the freeway. I thought, “transition? Now?” It felt like the contractions were overlapping for awhile, and then letting up. When we got to the hospital, we had to stop every 30 seconds to wait through what seemed like 5 minutes of contractions at a time. We got up to the 5th floor, and I continued to say to Evan, “if I’m only dilated to a 4, I’m getting the epidural. I can’t do this anymore.” I was completely serious, though Evan kept telling me I could do it again, and I was doing great. We got checked in, and like a miracle, everyone was helping us all at once. They were rushing around like they knew something I didn’t. They were super nice to wait until my contractions ended before touching me at all.

First thing I did when I got to the room was plop down on the bed to relax during a contraction. The nurse had my hospital gown ready, and I was going to put it on after this one contraction. That’s when my water broke. It couldn’t have waited until I changed!

I got changed, and the nurse checked me first thing and said, “You’re at a 10.” What? “You’re kidding!” she wasn’t. She said the baby was still really high, and my water was only leaking a little, so we needed to get past a few more contractions to get the baby down a little further to break the rest of the water. The Dr. was 10 minutes away, and then we were ready. I was soooo excited! There’s no way I went through transition already! It was like a dream. Since my water had broken, the contractions were much more tolerable, and I happily got through the next 5, while feeling the baby descend further and further. (yay-progress!). The Dr. showed up, they prepped me, and before I ever felt the urge to push, I was pushing this little baby out! Far earlier than I thought, the baby was born! Compared to the 1 ½ hours pushing it took with Porter, this baby made it out in 4 pushes! It really was a huge relief to have the whole ordeal over and done! It was incredible how this day worked out. Never would I have guessed I’d have gone through the whole thing on my own. The staff was so awesome to work with, and very respectful of our wishes. They had everything ready for the Dr. in no time, and lucky him, he’d just finished dinner, and made it back home in time for dessert! My mom showed up right when we did, and didn’t even have to sit very long. I think everyone was super pleased, including our little one! Within an hour of arriving at the hospital, we were holding him, bewildered that he was already here.

Henry Scott Zaugg was born at 7:44 PM, weighing 7 lbs 3 oz, and measuring 19 inches long. He eats well, sleeps well, and is oh so cute. We are so happy to have him home. We left the hospital Friday night, after about 27 hours in the hospital, including labor and delivery.

2010-07-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

I realize the baby count-down ticker is below 5 days, and I never thought I'd see it this low. I fully expected this little one to be here by now. I'm also dissappointed in the false graphics of the baby floating in the ticker. It seems that baby is still small and has plenty of room to kick and grow, however that's not the case! They should really make it true to life. I've been trying everything to get this baby out, and he's still not cooperating! We went on a long walk yesterday after I had several "different" contractions, and during that hour walk, they came every 2-5 minutes, but today we're still here. I jumped on the neighbors tramp last night too, but all I got was excercise. I went on another walk this morning, and yielded 1 contraction-so weird! I even drank raspberry leaf tea last night to push it along. (It was really yummy). I keep realizing my due date hasn't come yet, and I KNOW I won't be pregnant forever. Evan is convinced he's coming today, but I say not for another week. Maybe it's because we're all ready already?...Patience is not my virtue!

Family pictures

2010-07-26T11:24:00.001-07:00

We had our family pictures taken a few weeks ago by a friend from our old ward. We were so excited to finally get something done NOT in a studio. We went to the bell tower at BYU and fortunatley, the weather was on our side. We got a few preggo shots too. Susan was awesome to work with, and did a great job. Here's her link: http://www.ssmphotography.blogspot.com/

Family Reunion Time

2010-07-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

Evan's mom's family had a big reunion this last weekend. They reserved the Timp Lodge up by Sundance, and it was perfect! We had a lot of fun. My mother-in-law and sisters-in-law planned and prepared it, bought the food, and put the schedule together. It turned out perfectly. We came home to sleep each night, but headed up each morning for the day. Porter loved playing outside and inside with all the balloons and game tables they had. Way to go family!

Skits

Playing in the sand and dirt

Hiking Stewart Falls

Park City

2010-07-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

We got out this week for a family vacation. We actually had a vacation this time! We did a few things, but most of all, we did a whole lot of nothing. That's what I wanted to do! Saturday we went miniature golfing:

Sunday, Evan's brother Jim and his family came up and spent the night. We went on a little nature hike, swam, played games, and just sat around. I'm so glad they came up! Thanks for a fun time!
The best part of their stay was the sandal story: Ashley (5) was leaning over the balcony and slipped her foot out of the railing, but her sandal got caught and fell down a floor onto the cement below. (We were 3 floors up). So, Evan and Jim rigged a hanger tied to the cord of the baby monitor, tied to a broom stick to retrieve it. I thought it would be easier to ask the people below us if we could get it, but when asked why this way, these smart men said, " Cause this way is more fun." They were right! Tuesday, our good friends the Ormonds came for 2 nights. We stayed up way too late, played a lot of games, went swimming, went to the Park City Farmer's market, ate way too much junk food, and went on another nature walk. We had a lot of fun! They're moving next week to Mississippi, so we won't see them for a long time.

Thanks for coming up guys!

For the first time on vacation, I really wasn't looking forward to coming home. But now, I guess life goes on, and now we can focus on baby!

Hiking

2010-07-08T11:56:00.001-07:00

We had some friends come into town over the 4th that had never been to Utah before. They are planning on coming out here for school, so naturally, we gave them the utah county tour! We took them hiking to the "Y", and here's some pics from that, though we didn't get any other pictures from this weekend-sadly.

We took Porter to the fireworks and the parade monday. Not knowing how he'd react, he did great! He sat there the whole time and watched intently as each entry passed by. Though his favorite were the firetrucks and motorcycles. He kept immitating the "honk honk" of the fire engines the whole time. I love that he enjoys outings like these more and more. I love my family!

Sewing projects

2010-07-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

I've been putting it off long enough, but I HAD to finish some loose projects that were stuck in the back of my mind. I needed a nursing wrap, so Tara, my sister helped me measure and plan for it. Though it's much different than the plans we started out with, I tweaked it just enough so it's perfect for me. I sewed in 6 pockets on the underside at the bottom to hold some necessities and terrycloth, and though I'm a beginner, I think it turned out all right.The other is some old fabric I got from a neighbor that I sewed onto some cloth diapers for burp rags. Cloth diapers are truly the best for burping! Not quite sure how to embellish them more, and my time's running out, so I think I'll just leave them as is...

They're back!

2010-06-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

The day we've been waiting for for 18 months finally arrived! Evan's parents came home from their mission yesterday! We all waited at the airport with signs and balloons and we cried, and laughed, and talked, and created quite the scene as you can imagine. Total there were 25 of us. We love you mom and dad. We can't wait for Porter to get to know you.

The Pines

2010-06-20T13:04:00.001-07:00

Since the baby will be here next month, and last summer was spent indoors while Evan worked on his Dissertation, We are trying to make up for lost time. Porter is at the perfect age where we can do fun things as a family without having to be by his side every second. We love it! This weekend we went up to "The Pines," Evan's family's property in the Uintas. The plan is to someday have a cabin there, and so far it's a "bunkhouse" and a bath house. We love it up there! We haven't been up since January, and this might be the last time-at least for me-this summer.
We took a few little walks and Porter love being outside. Since the run-off has been plentiful this spring, we saw much more water than ever before. So... there weren't a lot of places around the lake I wanted us to walk. We walked the road above the dam for the Meeks Cabin reservoir and enjoyed the marmots and other wildlife we could find.

Can you guess?

2010-06-15T20:03:00.001-07:00

Evan was out of town this week, and for those of you who don't know where...there's a contest!!!!

What is this structure?

what we've been up to this summer!

2010-06-15T20:01:00.001-07:00

Graduation pictures

2010-06-15T19:45:00.001-07:00

Evan's graduation was awesome!

I made him do it, I confess. This chance only comes once in a lifetime, and I wanted pictures!

Evan with his Prof. Dr. Long

Outside his home away from home

Afterward we all went out to Tepanyaki

Then back to our place to play and visit

Our summer...

2010-06-15T19:34:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day we went to Evan's parent's house to help in the yard before they come home from their mission. (T-minus 14 days!)

I was gone from the backyard for 20 seconds (20!) to grab something from the truck. On my way back I was met by my sis-in-law coming toward me hold P. He had a stream of blood running down his face and he was screaming. Panic set in. I threw my spade down, put my hand to my head, and ran back to the front yard, not knowing what to do. Trust me, I'm not the quick, calm thinker you'd want to be with you if there was an emergency. I took Porter from her, cause I didn't know what else to do. My sis-in-law didn't see what happened, but he must have run into the latch that holds the gate closed. We ran across the street to my other sis-in-law's house, and tried to clean it up as best we could. Really we just wanted to see where he was hit. He screamed and screamed, probably from all the panic more from the pain. For "some reason" we had packed tylenol for him that morning. We hadn't used it for months, but for some reason we packed it. Poor kid. The bleeding wasn't bad nor was he sore for long. He went right down for a nap, and woke up happy. He still has a little bump on his head, but he's fine. I better get used to accidents with a family like Evan's!

Pictures of the house

2010-05-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

These are just of the outside, the inside still needs a little work before I embarrass myself here:)

Backyard

Here's Evan, contemplating where to plant what. (Day after we moved in)

We moved!

2010-05-24T13:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been a week now, but we just got our internet up and running. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures (I forgot), but I did get a few. We started moving at 5:00 pm last Saturday, and we were done by 8:00. Call it my OCD organizational habits, but we had everything boxed and ready to go by the time people got there. We took 3 truck loads, a van load, and two trailers full of our stuff, and we were done. Mostly due to the fact that we left all our furniture at the condo for the renters. We have beds and a folding table and chairs. It's kinda fun to get to pick out all new stuff now. We still do our laundry at the condo until our washer/dryer comes next month, and we finally got our fridge on Tuesday. We are loving the neighborhood and all the new friends we're making. The ward is awesome and we have felt so welcomed and accepted. Porter loves his new freedom of a yard and neighbor kids to play with. Our culdesac is FULL of boys, and boy toys. It's like a free-for-all with toys and bikes, and he's hated these few rainy days. I'll get more pictures up when I get more unpacked and presentable.

Evan's brother, "watching" P while we finished packing

P, enjoying his push toy

Aahhh, relaxing

My sis-in-law, happy to be done

Dad, after unloading the last of it

Closure

2010-05-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

It's DONE! We closed today! We already celebrated but treating ourselves out at the Greene Turtle, here in D.C. Awesome food...thanks to Evan's boss for the credit card! We met a nice man from a title service company who came to us at the hotel and we signed all the papers! He then overnighted them to the title company where they'll be filed tomorrow and our loan will be final! We are relieved to have this behind us. We wired the money to them first thing this morning, and I think the seller's already received the funds on their end so they can close the deal with their new place tomorrow. Poor guys!
If anyone needs a good recommendation for a great loan, we have awesome references!
Pictures to come.

Mortgage Nightmare

2010-05-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry no pics.
Have you ever been in a situation where you've trusted someone else to do something for you when they say they're going to do it? And where you're stressed out about it, even though it's not really in your control? That's where we've been this last month.
I've been waiting ever so patiently to deliver all this news, but I wanted to wait until everything was said and done, and not have to be dissappointed after spilling the beans. We're buying a house! Evan started playing with the idea around Christmas, and we started looking in February, and found something the next week. It's really interesting how guided we've felt about this house. It fell into our hands after a sad experience with an offer we made on another one...long story short, we feel like THIS house is where we belong-it just feels right.
Closing was set for April 22nd. We had our mortgage broker and lender ready long before we needed it, and we set about anxiously awaiting closing. ALL the documents asked of us were provided, and we played the waiting game.
Here's where the nightmare started...
About a week before closing, we were bombarded, every couple of days with something or other. Proof of employment, a paper trail from our credit unions (for the past 3 months), flood insurance purchase, letters from Evan's boss, canceled checks, etc. We kept asking ourselves why all these things were needed at the last minute when we were told up front what we needed to provide. It was literally one thing after another, and we were stuck 2 weeks past closing deadline. We had finally scheduled the closing for the one afternoon, and were so excited. We got the check from the bank, and I was dropping P off at the sitters (mind you 15 minutes from closing). I was running out to my car when Evan called and said they weren't ready. WHAT! (More like *-%^!) They "needed more time to look it over". Our broker called that night with more bologna about some $ that was unaccounted for, and he told us he was dropping the company he went through, and was going with someone else. "We'll close in a week." What? We were supposed to close 2 weeks ago! "We are going with someone else too"! We got in touch with another company highly recommended to us by some friends and family, and I got all the paperwork into them Wednesday. Here we are on "vacation" in D.C., and our new guy called us tonight to tell us it's all ready! We should close from here Thursday! Though we're not counting our chickens yet, we're pretty confident we'll be moving Saturday.
Through all this, we've been packing the house, boxing up everything, going through all our belongings and spring cleaning, getting our place ready to rent, showing it off with our packing mess, and doing the deep-down-dirty cleaning. It looks better than ever, and we have boxes piled up for the day after we return to move on out. I can't believe we're already to this stage in our lives. I always thought we'd be in our condo until kid #3 was coming, and I am sad to leave this stage. Excited at the thought of NOT outgrowing our new home, having a yard, a nice subdivision with other home-owners, a garage, and also the prospect of starting a new chapter, I am sad to leave my friends and neighbors I've known these 2 years. Our ward has been exceptionally good to us, and we'll miss all the friends we've made here.
I'll post pictures as soon as I can, and I'll definately write the "celebration" post when the time comes and it's official!

I can sew!

2010-04-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

I decided to give these infant car seat covers for gifts for friends having babies. Maybe it's overrated, but I think they're so vital for moms. I went to the fabric store, bought some matching fabric, thread, buttons, and ribbon. I got a sewing machine for Christmas, and after I borrowed a machine from a friend, I wanted to have one for convenience, not necessarily because I want to take up sewing, or think I might be good at it someday, but I do like having it around. Here's just 2 of the 6 I've made. I made 4 covers out of 2 designs for girls, and 2 covers out of 1 design for boys. This one pictured will be mine for my little boy! The catch: babytrend car seats have different dimensions than all the others. It requires an extra 1/2 yard of fabric and wider spacing between the straps. I made regular hair bows for the straps so they can be removed and used for the girls if they want. I haven't sewn in a long time, so this project really scared me, but I think I can do it now! They turned out all right if I can say so.

What we've been up to

2010-04-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

This is why I haven't been blogging, making dinner, doing housework, or even enjoying the sunshine. His smile lights up my life, though.

It's a....

2010-04-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

It goes without saying...

My diet

2010-04-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

I have this sandwich every day. Yum! Whole grain bread, pickles, lettuce, tomoatoes, turkey, cheese, smothered in yellow mustard. It's better than a slice of pie. Can I say any more?

Our routine

2010-04-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

I have a confession. When it comes to TV, it is always on at my house. I don't sit and watch all day, but I do like the background noise and sporadic distractions it provides. (Though its rarely on after 6:00). The downside? We discovered cartoons a while ago, and now P's morning if filled with Super Why, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Special Agent Oso. P doesn't just sit and watch them, but I can say he's learning a lot. He recognizes his basic shapes, colors, and most of all, he dances to all the music. We have formed a bad habit, though. Porter eats better under distraction, so breakfast is spent like this, in his high chair, in front of the TV. Shame on me for letting it happen, but he does ok without it too-don't get me wrong. The best blessing for me is that he can sit there for up to an hour if needs be, eating, while I take a shower and get ready in the morning. It provides the perfect entertainment, and I think it's better than cleaning up a torn-apart bathroom from my human tornado after my relaxing shower.

The other discovery? CARS! Now, Porter NEVER will sit and just stare at the TV, no matter what's on, however, we bought cars for the trip down to St. George, and he didn't really pay attention to it in the car. A few days later we put it on at home, and his eyes never left the screen. It was like magic. Though Evan and I agree we will not use this as a baby-sitting tool too often, it sure is a blessing when we need to distract him. For example, we had a friend over the other night and we wanted to play some games, but with P around, that's impossible! So we put on CARS, and he never bothered us once! A blessing in disguise!

Grandma, Double-G, and spring

2010-03-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

We went to St. George this weekend! It was a short trip with my mom, sister, and little P. He absolutely LOVED it! It is so nice to have a little boy that just wants to play all day. We did virtually everything we needed to there without him tracking us down and getting in the way. He stayed downstairs and played with his older cousins' toys the entire weekend! We had several projects to do while there. One was to make, or buy, a wreath for grandma's front room. My grandma is all girl, old fashioned, and frugal. She loves the color pink. Her kitchen is pink-original 1960's decor, her walls are pink, her clothes, and everything else she can get away with. My mom and sister and I went to Tai Pan to price out flowers and get some ideas. We came across a wreath with NO greenery in it. It was beautiful. I was convinced we could make her one for much less than $130. We went to Michaels and bought the flowers and wreath, and 1 1/2 hrs later-voila! We LOVED it. Most importantly, grandma loved it! (under $60)
We also cleaned out the closet in one of the rooms and made a DI run. We took some old toys off my aunts' hands, and had a great road trip, not to mention the spring weather!
We also took P out to the Dairy-the one my grandpa worked until his death last year- so P could see the cows. He was scared to be put down, but liked to imitate the moos! Here's some pics of us at the Dairy.

We all fall down

2010-03-17T19:19:00.001-07:00

P took a tumble at the playground this week. Though he was all bloody and hurt, he didn't want to leave. He cried at being hurt, he cried for leaving. Thus the toddler years have begun!

It's official!

2010-03-12T11:45:00.000-08:00

Evan presented his dissertation last friday. It was a well thought-out, well thought-through presentation, one of hundreds he's done, though I've never seen him so nervous. His committee was there-all 5 professors, causally sitting at the back, and colleagues and family were there. It was surreal to listen to perhaps the most critical presentaion of his whole life. He did well. At one point, Evan's sister Terri turned to me and asked, "What language is he speaking?" To be honest, I didn't understand it either, but I liked the pictures. Evan did a wonderful job. They kicked us out of the room while they interrogated Evan for 30 min, then kicked him out to deliberate. He passed! He had a few minor edits on his paper, and now, he's submitting it to the library. The last step! Next week he will be officially graduated!!!!!

I'm grateful to have married such a smart, grounded man. Though his research and career won't save the world, or solve political problems, (I don't care about those things) he puts food on our table and money in the bank. I love you so much. I'm proud of all you've accomplished. I'm glad you're done, and I would do it all again just to see how happy you are! I love you Dr. Zaugg!

P enjoying his meal at the Olive Garden. Doesnt' he look happy? Happily he wasn't there at the presentation!

18 Months Old

2010-03-05T20:56:00.000-08:00

Porter,

You've brought such happiness into our family. We love your friendliness and energy. "Hi," you say to everyone, and "bye" as well. There's nothing in the house that you can't climb. You love to help me with everything. You love "Super Why" and anything with music. You dance with your head and feet, and sing the Elmo song. You're still my shopping buddy, and act so well in public. You love to sleep, and wave good-bye as we put you in the crib. You love the outdoors, no matter the temp. Long car rides are getting better as you interact more with us. You know that the green light means "go go go!" You are starting to use your imagination and can play more by yourself. We love to hear your voice as you try new words and sounds. You love reading, and playing ring-around-the-rosy, but you don't fall down (at least not all the time). Do the rules not apply to you? We love you Porter-boy. Please always keep that sweet disposition! Keep the sensitive side that gives you sympathy for others, and always know you can do anything you put your mind to!

Love,

Mom and Dad.