Indo Family

Jeans and Self-Esteem

2012-01-15T21:12:00.003-07:00

I finally bit the bullet last week and went and bought some new jeans. All of my other jeans didn't fit. I mean REALLY didn't fit. They were old, purchased 20 pounds ago, plus really stretched out, and were just bad. But I didn't want to suck up and deal with the serious blow to the self esteem that is required to buy jeans. Girls, you know exactly what I'm talking about. After 3 stores, roughly 18 pairs of jeans, and over an hour, I finally came home with 3 pairs of jeans that I now LOVE. But really the point of this whole post is to promote a blog article that I just read. Seriously, this blog post needs to be read by EVERY WOMAN. And if you think you're too old for it to apply to you, she has a version for 'older' women as well. Enjoy.

MOM JEANS AND THE DREADED LONG BUTT

Funny Stuff Lately - via Facebook Statuses

2011-12-16T09:25:00.002-07:00

12-13
N - Daddy, let's pull your finger and see what happens!!!

12-9
While driving home
N - Mommy my nose hurts
E - Why does your nose hurt?
N - Because there's a straw in it!
E - If you take the straw out your nose won't hurt anymore
...Moments later...
N - My nose still hurts
E - Did you take the straw out of it?
N - Yeah, but my finger is in it!

12-8
Jingle bells inside of a balloon make for a happy K.

12-6
Just found K standing on the tv stand, swiveling the tv back and forth

12-4
E - Do you want some medecine to make your cough go away?
N - No, I'll keep it

12-2
Snuggling in bed with Noah before he went to sleep...
N - Mommy, are you happy?
E - Yes, I'm very happy
N - *Hugs my arm to him* Let's be friends
E - We'll be friends forever ok?
N - Forever ever ever ever?
E - Yup.

12-1
N - I have a map to Nana Jean's house!
E - How do we get there?
N - Take the freeway, then park, then ring the doorbell and go in and say HI!

11-22
K is upset with me since I wouldn't let him play on the computer. So he's standing at his open window, looking out forlornly and crying 'want daddy'. Yes, I laughed at him for it.

11-18
K takes his sock off, tries to put it back on, gets frustrated, hands me the sock, I put it back on. Repeat for 30 minutes.

11-15
N - Sometimes when Walmart doesn't have Buzz Lightyear, they don't have him. And sometimes when they do, they do!

11-8
The boys were in the bath tub, Z and I were laying on our bed talking...
N - Mommy, Daddy! Kaiden got out of the bath tub!
Moments later we see K's naked, wet little bod come trotting into the bedroom. He took one look at us, laughed, and ran the other way.

Family Photo Time

2011-11-12T21:51:00.010-07:00

My good friend Rochelle did our family photos again this year. I don't think they really need any captions, they're pretty self-explanatory. Here's the good, the bad, and the crazy.

K Speaks

2011-11-11T08:09:00.002-07:00

K is doing a new word just about every day right now. Here's a list of what he's currently saying, or at least what I can remember that he's currently saying.

Toast
Want That
Banana
Ball
Daddy
Meow
Outside
Hot
Shoes
Tickle
Papa
More - signing
Please - signing

Naked Time

2011-11-08T19:04:00.001-07:00

Children were naked, not adults. Zander and I were in our bedroom talking while the boys were in the bath. Here's what happened next...

N - Mommy! Daddy! Kaiden got out of the bathtub!
E - What?
N - Kaiden got out of the bath tub!
K - trotting down the hall, naked, wet, with bubbles all over him and laughing. Comes into the bedroom, laughs at his parents, shuts the bedroom door, and says 'buh bye!'

'Hidden' Posts

2011-11-06T09:15:00.004-07:00

I've been updating the blog a lot lately, just putting the posts in the correct date range rather than having things from June posted in November. Ya know? So here's some of the things you might have missed.

The Dirty Dash

Em's Birthday

Victor Idaho

Hogle Zoo

Zoorasic Park

My Girls

2011-11-05T19:20:00.002-06:00

Today I went to lunch with my girls. We've been friends for roughly 20 years now. Words can't express how much I love them, so I'm not even going to bother trying.

Halloween

2011-11-01T14:57:00.000-06:00

Halloween should always be on a Monday. It allows for LOTS of Halloween activities. Here's what we did this year...

The boys decorated some smaller sized punkins early in October. They sat happily decorating our front room for a while, then moved outside later in the month to join the collection we ended up acquiring.

I'm really proud of Noah for this one. He designed his punkin by himself. I had nothing to do with this.

The bats invaded our front room. Don't they look awesome? I'm pretty proud of them.

A How to Host a Murder party set in a Prohibition-Era Speak-easy. Becca was a murderer this year.

Fun with mustaches!

Noah carving his first ever pumpkin. He had drawn the face, sort of helped me scoot out the guts, and even sort of followed his own lines. His punkin ended up with a 'secret passage' in the side of it's head as well.

Noah and his dinosaur costume. I have no intention of actually putting this thing away. It will provides lots of entertainment during the cold winter months.

Cowgirl Em and a freakishly real looking Flo from the Progressive commercials.

Halloween party at the Indo house. With sloppy joe's of course.

Eva and a Little Red Riding Hood that didn't get away from the big bad wolf.

Zander the Rubix Cube. He won 2nd place at the costume contest at his work. And won $120 while he was at it!

K Dancing

2011-10-29T09:43:00.002-06:00

Sorry, you'll have to turn your head sideways. I've never figured out how to rotate a video. But trust me, it's worth the 17 seconds of awkwardness.

Some stories of today's adventures

2011-10-17T16:39:00.002-06:00

I was in doing my hair and Noah's comes and tells me that he pooped. Here's kind f how that went.
E - *ask questions first, then get mad if necessary* Where did you poop?
N - downstairs
E - *deep breath, keep asking questions* Where downstairs?
N - in that back room
E - *Another deep breath* Show me where you pooped
we go downstairs and he takes me into the bathroom and points at the floor (or so I thought)
N - it's right there! I called you lots but couldn't find you

He had gone downstairs to poop in the potty, and even tried wiping himself!!!

Yay for me not getting mad at him and calming down and figuring out what actually happened!

We finished cleaning him up and I told him I needed to go finish my hair and makeup.

N - I'm going to make some lunch for us
E - uh......ok
I go finish my stuff upstairs, come down and remember that he was going to make some lunch. Find him sitting at the table with a plate in front of him, and an egg in his hand.....
N - I made some lunch! I got an egg!
E - where did you get the egg from?
N - the fridge
E - where in the fridge?
N - that bowl thing
E *breathes a sigh of relief knowing I boiled those eggs this morning*
N - look, I got some lunch for you too!
E - *look over to see a plate sitting on the table for me, with an egg on it*

Such a sweet little boy!

And now Kaiden is trying to take my hands off the keyboard so he can climb in my lap. I love my boys.

Noah is a Ghost

2011-10-17T12:18:00.002-06:00

I was downstairs, he was upstairs. He came downstairs like this.

Get Some Guns & Ammo

2011-10-16T17:05:00.004-06:00

Yesterday Z and I went on a date to Get Some Guns & Ammo down in Orem. This place was amazing. Literally hundreds of guns that you can purchase, with all of the ammo and accessories to go with it. They also have an indoor range, with a bunch of guns that you can rent. We rented 6 different guns, and really want to buy a couple of them. Z's been wanting a full sized hand gun, and I want something small that I can conceal, and going shooting at Get Some really helped us figure out what we wanted. We each went through a box of ammo, plus split a box on our shotgun (we have bruises to prove it) and then we each took one shot on the .50 BMG sniper rifle. There is nothing like the experience of shooting that beast. wow. It was amazing. I'm not a 'shooter' by any means, this is the first time that I've enjoyed shooting, and I might be a little hooked on it now.

Zander's shotgun bruises

These are the rounds for the sniper rifle. Literally almost the size of my face.

We decided to finish off this target with the shotgun. We almost sawed through the whole thing, but then ran out of rounds.

Link to me shooting the big fat gun is HERE
Link to Zander shooting is HERE

Victor Idaho

2011-09-27T08:49:00.004-06:00

Zander was going to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, and my dad was going to be out of the country, so my mom and decided rather than staying home by ourselves we'd go up to Idaho to visit my brother Dan and his family. His boys and my boys always have a BLAST playing together, and this trip was no exception. We got there on Friday afternoon, hung out at their house for a while, then headed over to 'our place'. My mom had found this amazing vacation rental condo that was just a few minutes from their house. It worked out PERFECTLY.

Next morning as we were heading back to their house, we noticed a little car show being set up in the park downtown and though it might be fun to go to. So after some breakfast we headed on over. Realistically there were only maybe 20 cars, but they were all really nice, and well presented. We were there pretty early, and I think they probably brought more cars in throughout the morning. It looked like they were going to set up some music as well. There were a bunch of people there with Husky's, and the boys thought they were awesome!

After we were done perusing through the car show we headed over to the Warbirds Cafe. This place is seriously awesome. It's right on the runway of the Victor airport so you can see the planes taking off down the runway. Let me tell you, 4 little boys watching airplanes taking off was pretty awesome to watch. The food was fantastically good as well. Easily the best sweet potato fries I've ever had. Attached to the cafe is a museum-ish airplane hanger that they all had loads of fun in as well.

The next morning we decided to drive over to Rexburg and see my grandpa for a while. On our way over we took a slight detour to find my Great Grandpa's house that is in Driggs. I remember as a kid whenever we'd go to Rexburg my parents would always show us all these 'old' places where they used to hang out, and where old relations had lived, and I was always really bored and just didn't care. Amazing how things change as we get older. I thought it was really cool to see the house that my Grandma grew up in, and learn about their farm, and the stream that they used to go fishing in etc. We even got a nice view of the Tetons, which we weren't expecting considering how many clouds there were in the area.

We got to Grandpa Weatherston's (my mom's dad) house right in time for lunch, and they didn't disappoint. I haven't been to my grandpa's house in literally 10 years, and he's moved twice since then, but I remember very clearly that meals at their house were always really really good. We had pot roast, a tomato cucumber salad (I liked it, and even ate the cucumbers!), fresh rolls, and peach pie. My Aunt Sherry lives just down the street and she came and joined us for the pie. It was really nice to finally re-connect with my Idaho roots. For whatever reason I kind of boycotted that part of my life. I guess I was forced on too many trips there when I was in my angsty teen years. Who knows. (there's my bit of a rant)

After we finished up eating and chatting in Rexburg we headed back 'home' to Victor, and had Dan and his family over to our place for dinner that night. The kitchen there was fully stocked with all the equipment we'd ever need, but we still just kept it simple with a taco soup in a crock pot. There weren't any toys for the boys to play with, but there was a movie, and some chairs, and that was more than enough to keep them entertained for the evening.

And not to leave out the dear little baby Kayana. She's so adorable and cute and slept a lot while we were there, as she should. She's such a good little baby. And she LOVES snuggling with her daddy.

2011-08-10T14:31:00.002-06:00

Some funny stuff from the boys over the last month or so, via facebook statuses (statusi?)

8-9 While playing at the park
N - Hey mom, I found a new kid. Do you like him? I don't have his name.

8-5 After waiting for MONTHS for K to fit into a really cute shirt, he finally fit into it. About an hour after I put it on him, he managed to find a pair of scissors and cut 3 rather large holes into it.

8-5 Noah saw a can of carrots sitting on the counter and asked for some for breakfast. 10 minutes later he handed me the empty can.

8-1 N - Mom, where's the tape measure?
E - Why do you need the tape measure
N - To measure something, cuz I'm Bob the Builder!

7-27 N - I want Santa to come over today

7-25 While we were playing outside Noah said he wanted a drink, so I told him to go in and get one, thinking he'd get the drink he had left on the table. Instead he climbed on the counter, got a cup out, and filled it with water from the fridge. A little bit later he said he wanted a piece of toast, so he went inside, climbed on the counter, and made himself a piece of toast.

7-25 N - April fools Mommy! April fools Kaiden!

7-19 K found a pack of Pez, and was really determined to eat some, to the point where he just ate right through the package.

7-18 Noah woke up and decided that we're going to the library, aquarium, farm, and dinosaur museum.

7-15 At Discovery Gardens, K somehow managed to get into the middle of the Float a Boat pond. Thankfully he has a natural knowledge of how to float, and dog paddle.

7-13 While I was talking on the phone with my mom I said "I'm dying for a subway sandwich". Noah was really concerned and said "Mom you're dying?!"

7-12 At Costco N - Look Mommy, a brown one!
E - a brown what?
N - a brown kid!
E - *facepalm* we need to get out of Utah county more often

7-10 Noah is determined that we're going sledding.

7-9 K discovered that post-it notes are a great toy.

7-8 Three year old + sleeping bag = AWESOME

7-7 N - Hey look, we have two of them dude. haha, I just said dude.

Em's Birthday

2011-08-05T09:19:00.000-06:00

This is the birthday cake that I made for myself this year. Isn't it AMAZING? I'm actually rather proud of myself for it. It even tasted pretty darn good. I've never been a huge fan of home made cakes, they're an acquired taste that I haven't gotten into yet.

And see my pretty roses? My husband is awesome.

Kayana!

2011-08-04T18:00:00.004-06:00

I have a brand new niece! Kayana was born last night, 8 pounds and 21 inches long. Isn't she absolutely adorable?

Discovery Gardens

2011-07-11T15:41:00.005-06:00

I've known for a long time that the Discovery Gardens at Thanksgiving Point existed, but I had no idea how INCREDIBLE they are. My friend Mary invited us to go with her and her boys, and we gladly accepted the offer to go explore with friends. I had no idea there were so many things to explore, discover, and play with in there. Not to mention it's just a beautiful setting.

We started with a little stop at the splash area. I somehow missed the 'memo' that this was a swimming type setting, so the boys were pleasantly white trash in shorts and diaper only.

After splashing around for a bit, we wandered down to the "Float a Boat". K had loads of fun trying to climb into the pool, and Noah was running up and down the hill over and over to send his boats on down the river.

Next to the boats was a giant sand box, and what kid can resist that?!

Noah eventually decided it would be more fun to go build a 'fire' with the other kids, so he headed over to that area.

After spending 3 hours, we were all tired, and hot, so we headed back to the entrance to play in some more water for a bit.

We had so much fun on Friday that we went back again on Saturday to discover the rest of the gardens! Both boys loved the Pebble People. Noah had lots of fun finding them and putting them back in the box, and K was just happy that there were rocks he could play with.

And Noah gave us a nice little concert to finish off the day.

Sleepy Noah

2011-07-07T09:54:00.003-06:00

Evidently he was too tired to eat dinner, or even get in his chair. There's even a puddle of drool involved.

Another Book Finished

2011-07-03T15:30:00.002-06:00

I purchased this book in college for a Myths and Legend course that I took. We only read bits and pieces of it then, and I decided I should finish it. Greek mythology has always been really interesting to me, and this was a quick way to get through some of the more prominent stories.

Island Park and Yellowstone

2011-07-02T08:08:00.009-06:00

Last weekend ago we went on a trip to Island Park with Z's family. I'm not sure if I can express how excited I was to go up there again. My family had a cabin up there when I was growing up, and we went up there a LOT. I haven't been in over 15 years, so I was excited to see it all again, and test my memory on where things where. We stayed in a cute cabin built by Susan's Great Uncle in the Mack's Inn area. After arriving Friday afternoon, we hung out, went for a walk, Noah went fishing for the first time, we had dinner, and crashed.

Saturday morning we headed out to Big Springs. The water is still amazingly clear, the scenery is beautiful, and it's just amazing to see how much water is pumping out of the ground all on it's own. Sadly there weren't any fish or otters, and there were about 5 million mosquitoes.

Later that day we found that we had some time on our hands, so we figured we'd drive up to West Yellowstone (about 20 min) and wander the town and see the touristy shops. Noah fell asleep on the way, so we decided we might as well keep driving and go into the park and let him see Old Faithful. As we pulled into the parking lot we could see the geyser spurting up over the treetops. How's that for really bad timing? So we went into the gift shop, got some drinks and new sunglasses for Noah, then hung around on the boardwalk for the next 90 minutes waiting for Old Faithful to go again.

Typically touristy cheesy photo that I absolutely love.

Noah took this picture

I've seen Old Faithful a dozen or so times, and I still think it's amazing, and even more so to watch through the eyes of my three year old.

When we got back to the cabin we had hotdogs and s'mores over the fire. Sadly the mosquitoes were out in force again, so we mostly just cooked the food outside and ate everything inside.

Have I ever told you how much Noah loves Auntie Lisha? They're best friends. Seriously.

After dinner we got loaded up and headed over to Dan and Krystal's house in Victor. When we got there we got the boys to bed, then stayed up until about 2am talking with D and K. In the morning we had breakfast, played, watched the boys run and run and run, had some lunch, then headed home. The drive out of Victor and into and through Swan Valley is absolutely beautiful. Last time we drove it, there was a ton of snow covering the landscape, it was still pretty, but nothing compared to the greener version. It was so pretty we took pictures from the car while we were driving.

Date a Girl Who Reads

2011-07-02T08:06:00.002-06:00

If you're thinking to yourself "Man, Em has been reading a lot lately," here's my response, stolen from a fellow reading devotee.

Date a Girl Who Reads by Rosemarie Urquico

Date a girl who reads.
Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books.
Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.
She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.
She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.
Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love.

Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by God, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.
Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not?

Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you.

She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes.

She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day.

You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable.

If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone.

If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.
Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

The Last Lecture

2011-06-29T12:56:00.002-06:00

I generally shy away from 'trendy' books. Ok, I more than shy away from them. I flat out refuse to read them. This one has been sitting on my shelf for a year or more, and I decided to go ahead and try it out. I started it on Friday. I finished it today. If I had the time I would have read it all in one day. For that matter, I plan on reading it yearly. It's an amazing book about living life, and being a good person. Truly a great read.

Catcher In the Rye

2011-06-23T21:22:00.003-06:00

I just finished reading this today. It's taken me about 6 months to get through it, largely because it was stupid and boring and I couldn't handle reading more than a few pages at a time of a teenage boys mindless internal monologue prattling around in an a.d.d. fashion about absolutely nothing. I kept hoping it would get better, that it would go somewhere, but it just never did. *sigh* Onto the next book, which I have good expectations of. Everyone has said great things about it so far.

Day in the Sun

2011-06-22T19:36:00.003-06:00

Today we:

Went for an hour long bike ride

Played in the front yard (Noah rode his bike)

Discovered the Splash Pad in Highland

Got home from the splash pad to discover the neighbors had a sprinkler and pool out, so we did that too.

CRASHED after a whole lot of fun in the sun.

The Zookeeper's Wife

2011-06-22T12:18:00.003-06:00

I just finished this book. It was amazing, beautiful, heartbreaking, and informative. It tells the true story about Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski, their associates with the Polish Underground, and how they risked their lives to save over 300 people from the Warsaw ghettos during WWII.

Noah's Third Birthday!

2011-06-16T14:43:00.003-06:00

I haven't mentioned lately how absolutely adorable my Noah is. The kid is hilarious. I end up laughing all day long at his antics. He's funny, clever, loving, and a fantastic helper. My sister in law does a cute little quiz with her kids each year, and I thought I'd start doing it now that Noah's old enough to give me some answers. Here's what he said....

My name is ....... Noah
I live in ..... Lehi
My favorite movie is ..... Curious George
My favorite tv show is ..... Caillou and Shaun the Sheep
My favorite food is ..... Mac n cheese
My favorite drink is ..... milk
My favorite color is ..... probably green....and blue and orange...and pink and red

We're going to be doing his actual party on Saturday, and just a mini party tonight, so we'll have bigger and better pictures later. For now let's do a picture review of his life. Here he is as a 'tiny' newborn. He was born 8 lbs 8 oz and perfect.

One year old and absolutely adorable.

By two years old he was absolutely a Daddy's boy.

This was just before his third birthday, playing with his best friend, Papa Frisco!

Noah you are an absolute JOY to have in my life. You are a wonderful little boy and I'm so lucky to get to spend so much time with you.

Oh, and this is what Noah has to say about turning three.....

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K's Birthday Celebration!

2011-06-08T14:16:00.003-06:00

I don't think I really need to do a whole description on Kaiden's birthday party. It was a typical birthday party. We held it at my parents house, cuz their house is amazing and holds way more people than ours does. The whole camo/army theme is because K's #1 nickname is 'tank'. I'll caption where necessary though.

Yes, those are avocados that he's holding. He got 3 for his birthday and LOVED them. Easily his favorite food.

Honestly he didn't really eat very much of the cake. He doesn't eat 'sweet' food very often and just didn't really know what to do with a whole piece of cake. He still made a spectacular mess though!

The Dirty Dash

2011-06-05T10:37:00.000-06:00

Here are just a few 'treasures' from my adventures at the Dirty Dash. I plan on doing it pretty much every year from here on out. It was SO MUCH FUN.

Our clean 'before' picture

Coming down the last hill on our way to the final mud pit

Free snacks and healthy treats at the end!

We survived!!!

Random Spring Stuff

2011-06-01T10:30:00.003-06:00

Here's some random pictures of our spring time activities.

Noah has a tendency to grab my camera and take pictures of everything. His toes, the trash, the carpet, even me and K. Yes, Noah really took this adorable little pictures.

We were watching UP and he decided he wanted to go see a waterfall too. So off we went, and he brought a rock home to paint.

Noah was holding onto his brother making sure he wouldn't fall off the couch while they were watching a show.

Z and I bought new bikes, and the boxes that they came in turned into a giant slide for the boys. The video is sideways, but still pretty funny. Pay special attention to K at the end.

Yesterday Kaiden decided to start trying to jump. There's a lot of effort going into, with very little success other than making his parents laugh hysterically.

Easter

2011-06-01T10:17:00.003-06:00

It's several months late, but here's our post about Easter! Fairly simple and typical Easter Sunday for us. We dyed eggs in the morning. Noah thought it was pretty darn cool. I was really excited to use the little shrink wrap things on them. I've never done them before. Deprived childhood I know.

Noah loved watching the eggs change colors

Here's our 'haul'. I was really proud of myself for getting 4 colors on the same egg!

An Easter egg hunt at Grandma Susan and Papa Frisco's house. Eggs were EVERYWHERE.

K walked around holding these eggs in his hand, then took a big bite out of them. Shell and all...

Cousins comparing their baskets.

Eye Update

2011-05-29T21:22:00.002-06:00

Z goes back to Excel Eye Center tomorrow morning at 10 to get the bandage contact lenses removed. They've been protecting his eyes to help his corneas heal, but they also make his vision really blurry. It'll probably take another week for everything to be completely healed up, then we can start getting him in his new prescription glasses etc. He might even be able to handle wearing contacts now that he has the plugs in his tear ducts. YAY!

One Year Ago

2011-05-29T07:42:00.002-06:00

We got to meet our Kaiden boy one year ago, right about at this point in the morning. I'm so glad that I have him in my life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAIDEN!

K's first birthday

2011-05-28T08:28:00.004-06:00

As Kaiden turns one tomorrow, I thought I'd list all of the amazing things that he's learned how to do this year, things that all of us adults take for granted.

Smile
Respond to sounds/voices etc
Vocalize
Lift head and keep it steady
Roll Over
Reach and grab for an object
Laugh
Bring hands together
Follow an object
Sit
Crawl
Stand
Eat solid food
Feed himself
Look for a dropped object
Blow raspberries
Walk

It's been a whirlwind of a year. He has by no means been an easy baby, with reflux, gas issues, and a completely crazy personality, but we love him. He's adorable and makes us laugh all the time. The kid really is funny, loving, sweet, creative, and tough.

The day after

2011-05-27T12:30:00.003-06:00

Everything went well with the procedure yesterday. Z was really uncomfortable through most of it, bad chair to sit in for 1 1/2 hours, but the procedure itself went exactly as they wanted it to. We got him on some percocet and muscle relaxers and he pretty well passed out for the rest of day day. I think that Noah was pretty concerned about his daddy, cuz he ended up in our bed several times last night wanting to snuggle with daddy.

This morning we had a follow up appointment and they said that things are looking great and going exactly as they planned. The bandage contact is the main thing causing physical discomfort at this point, though he is still really sensitive to light and things are still pretty blurry while his cornea finishes healing and smoothing out. We'll go in on Monday to get the contact removed.

I ended up finding this website about the procedure, if you're curious about what they did to him.

keratoconusinserts.com

Keratoconus

2011-05-25T08:40:00.004-06:00

Just thought I'd catch everyone up on what's going on with Zander's eyes. They've been bugging him for a long time, we knew he had an astigmatism and they're perpetually dry, but his prescription changed YET AGAIN, so he went to the Dr.'s down at Excel Eye Center in Provo. Really good eye care center, and his sister works there. Double bonus. They were more thorough than the other dr.'s that he's been to, and discovered that he has keratoconus, which means that his cornea's (the clear, outer lining of the eye) are really weak, and could potentially rupture.

So today he's going to go get his tear ducts plugged, to help his chronic dry eye problems, and tomorrow he is going in for a procedure new to the US called corneal crosslinking. They'll remove the outermost layer of his cornea, then apply a series of riblofavin drops to his eyes, followed by some fairly intensive UV light stuff. This will rebuild his cornea so that it is strong and normal. He'll have to wear a bandage contact lens for a couple of days, and he'll be sensitive to light for a while, but this should fix most of his eye problems. He'll still have the estigmatism, since that's a problem with his lens, but this could very well fix most of his vision problems, and he may not need glasses after this.

Zoorasic Park

2011-05-22T09:56:00.000-06:00

Hogle Zoo is doing this really cool Zoorasic Park thing right now. Throughout the zoo are various dinosaurs. They're animated, and they make noise and everything. Most of them are scaled down a little bit, but the T-Rex is full sized, and honestly, a little bit terrifying. It was a fun little addition to zoo!

We have new neighbors!

2011-05-06T20:17:00.006-06:00

Our new neighbors moved in some time late Thursday. Thankfully they're on the other side of the complex from us, and they're being nice and just minding their own business. The extermination guys came and freaked out a little bit and said they couldn't handle that large of a swarm until Monday. So the HOA people found some guys to safely transport them away for us instead. They should be gone some time later today.

Hogle Zoo

2011-04-17T09:43:00.000-06:00

We decided to go to the Hogle Zoo. Noah has only been once before and he was really little, and K is old enough now to enjoy it, so away we went! I don't think I need to say much more about it, the pictures pretty well speak for themselves.

In case you were wondering

2011-04-15T15:28:00.003-06:00

My boys look a lot alike. Can you tell which is which?

Top is K, bottom is N. Did you get it right?

Parents house Updated - again

2011-04-11T17:01:00.004-06:00

Stage one of the parents house is officially done, and here's some of the pics. They're now working on phase two, meaning the master bedroom the upstairs bathroom, mom's office, and the hallway upstairs.

The completed kitchen

More kitchen (can you believe that stove?)

...and even more kitchen. It just keeps going.

The new laundry room. This is what used to be the 'hobby room'

The new downstairs fireplace

From the landing looking up

Standing at the basement fireplace looking down the hall

Special K

2011-04-10T11:29:00.004-06:00

It's time for a Kaiden brag. This kid is seriously a hilarious little monster of a boy. He's constantly a mess, growling, laughing, and just a funny funny kid. We love him. He's an over-achiever too. He started crawling at 6 months, and now at 10 months he's walking. Isn't he just adorable?!

Salt Lake & Discovery Gateway

2011-04-08T21:39:00.002-06:00

Last Thursday the boys and I went for a little adventure to Salt Lake to visit Z, and do some fun stuff. On our way up there we needed to stall for a little bit, so we drove over to the airport to see some planes. Noah thought that it was really cool, and asks me all the time now to go back to the airport. K slept through the whole thing, which was perfect cuz it was his only chance for a morning nap, and we had no idea what time we'd actually get home for his afternoon nap.

Around 11 we got to Z's building, did a quick little tour, then headed to The Robin's Nest for some lunch. It was pretty much fantastic, and I found myself craving it for the next couple of days. The people were incredibly friendly and helpful in a place that looked like it would not be very child friendly. So kudo's to you guys.

After lunch it was time for a quick trip over to Gateway via trax. Noah's been on the trains once before, and I think each time gets to ride on them, it's the highlight of his little life. Seriously people, the kid likes his trains.
None of us had ever been to Discovery Gateway before, an we all LOVED it. All sorts of things to keep all 4 of us entertained. We easily could have spent the entire day there, and would happily go back again and again. I was thoroughly impressed with their selection of stuff to entertain people of all ages. Z and Noah had tons of fun in the Studio area building drain pipes and towers, K had a ton of fun playing with all of the stuff in the duck pond, and I was thoroughly happy to sit and watch all of my boys playing, though I confess I had a lot of fun playing in the water area.

Spring is Coming

2011-03-29T13:20:00.002-06:00

I planted pansies today. They're such cute little flowers, and they make me happy whenever I see them sitting outside my porch. I have some extra's and I think I'll put them in a pot inside so I can see them in here too. They make me excited for Spring. It keeps looking really nice outside, but somehow it's just not quite warm enough to truly enjoy the coming spring weather. Hopefully it stays nice enough that my pansies will survive. And hopefully I'll remember to water them. Quite frankly I trust the weather more than I trust myself on this one.

Parents House update

2011-03-14T10:00:00.002-06:00

It's DONE! These are some of the mostly completed pics. I'm sure I'll get some more from them in a few weeks as they get all of the decorating finishing touches in etc. But here's how things are looking.

First Family Vacation

2011-03-07T12:30:00.004-07:00

Yes, it's true. Noah is 2 1/2 and he's never been on a trip before. Up until this last weekend, the furthest he had been from home was Layton, and we were only there for an hour or so. This was largely due to my fear of screaming children in the back of the car for hours on end. But overall, we did really really well on this trip.

We had originally planned to leave around 2 on Friday. Some things went south for Z at work that afternoon though, so we didn't get out of here until more like 5 or 6, which ultimately worked out well because the kids did lots of sleeping on the 5 hour drive up to Dan's house in Victor Idaho. We got to their place around 10, hung out for a bit, got the kids into their beds, then all crashed for the night.

Saturday we got some breakfast, hung out, played games, ate lots of junk food, went to lunch at Scratch (yummy food), ate some more junk food, hung out some more, and eventually took showers at like 4pm. Since Dan and Krystal were hosting, Zander and I figured we should do some cooking for them, so we had a Puerto Rican night. Tostones, rice, beans, pork chops, yumm. After we finally convinced all the kids to bed, we adults were total losers and sat around on the couch, barely awake, just talking until like 10:30, when we decided that we might as well go to bed since the majority of us were pretty much asleep anyway. All day long the kids were running, playing, shooting guns, and just having a grand time. Their house has an unfinished basement, so they spent a LOT of time down there, which worked out well for everyone involved.

Sunday morning we got some breakfast, cleaned up, hung out for a bit, then headed home after Dan plowed a way out for my car. It snowed 10 inches that night and was still going when we left. That on top of the 4ish feet they already had means that we saw a lot of white on our way out. It was really pretty though, and I'm excited to go back again some time this summer so we can see some more of the overall scenery.

I know, you're thinking "wow, what a boring trip." In all honesty it was a perfect trip for us, especially since the kids have never traveled, and K's never had to sleep somewhere away from home other than his car seat before. And when Dan and Krystal and their boys are involved, it doesn't have to be something elaborate. Just hanging out with them is a blast.

CONGRATS!!!

2011-03-02T07:39:00.002-07:00

My husband is absolutely amazing and today was offered and accepted a position at McCann Erickson of Salt Lake City. He's been working there under contract since October, and is now a full time employee. So far he's LOVED working there and we're really excited to see where this company can take us.

Thank you to everyone for your love and support over the last 7 months. It's been an interesting ride, and we really appreciate all of your help.

Random Adventure

2011-02-24T15:30:00.002-07:00

Today's plans started out very simple. Go to Ikea, grab the few things we need, then run to the aquarium real fast in order to be home in time for naps by 2 at the VERY latest. That's not how things turned out. We did go to Ikea, and managed to get only a few things, most of which was intended in the first place. The most exciting unplanned item is some play food for Noah. He's currently 'making' me a salad. Then it was off to the aquarium...which was BUSY. The only other time I've seen the parking lot that full, we didn't bother to go because we knew it would be too much to deal with. Noah was dying to go though, so we went despite the crowds and the fact that Kaiden had only slept for about 10 minutes in the car. We didn't stay for very long though. There were so many people that we couldn't really see anything, and on the rare chance that Noah did get up next to the tanks to see something, another kid usually shoved him out of the way.

Needless to say, the aquarium trip was kind of a flop today. Noah was disappointed and tired, so I came up with a remedy for both. Take a really LONG drive home, and somehow involve the airport. So we drove up I-15, then headed west so that we could hopefully see a plane either coming in for a landing or just taking off. As luck would have it, we saw a plane just come in for a landing, but Noah was already asleep..... So I just kept driving on our very long detour home via Tooele.

Once again things didn't turn out how I was planning. I figured the boys would sleep the whole way home, or at least most of it, since they were both so stinking tired. Unfortunately my bladder decided to throw a kink into the works as well. I had to make a ridiculously fast stop at a maverick somewhere between I-80 and Tooele, which woke Noah up, which in turn woke Kaiden up before we even hit Tooele. So we changed up the plans once again and stopped at a McDonalds for some food and play time. After the boys got their fill of both, we then headed home. On this stretch of our random day-trip, both boys slept for an acceptable amount of time, and we finally got home around 3:30.

Interestingly enough I really enjoyed our little trip. I've been really antsy to go somewhere lately (which is why we're going to Idaho next weekend), and this helped satisfy that urge a little bit. It also gave me some fun time to think about how we're going to survive that trip, and I thought of some fun little day trips that we can take this summer as well: Salt flats, Bridal Veil, Sundance, Park City, Fairview. Fun outdoors places that the boys will be able to have fun, and they're close enough that we can just make a little day trip out of them.

Too late

2011-02-22T10:41:00.002-07:00

This is the conversations I had with Noah last night as we were driving home from getting groceries.

N - Where's Star Trek?
M - At our house. We can watch it when we get home.
N - No mom. It's too late for Star Trek. We have to watch it tomorrow.

Glad that someone in our house is on top of things!

January Stuff

2011-02-14T21:04:00.004-07:00

What a long, fairly miserable month! I swear someone in the house was sick at least every week, and it was just nasty, cold, gloomy weather for a good portion of the month. There were however a few fun things that happened. Here's a quick run down via pictures, videos, and face book statuses (stasusi?)

Kaiden has officially started really crawling, and the kid is FAST! It makes life much more interesting having a toddler, plus a crawling baby. It also makes it much more difficult to mop or vacuum when the baby likes to chase it around.

He has also started crawling up the stairs. Sadly that also means that he ends up falling down them more often than I'd like.

1-3 Two days ago Noah had a goober that he wanted me to get for him. By the time I got to him he said he had gotten rid of it. I just found it on the wall outside his room.

1-4 Kaiden is chewing on my toe. When I ask him what he's doing, he laughs at me.

1-13 Noah spent a good portion of today filling a laundry basket with K's toys, then dumping them on him.

1-21 Noah pooped on the potty! You know you're a parent when bodily functions are this exciting.

1-27 As he was coloring today Noah said "Look! Blue prints like Bob the Builder. There, voila, perfect!"

1-29 Evidently all that Noah needed to entertain himself today was an electric toothbrush, and some of Zander's underwear.

1-30 Today we bought bunk beds for the boys. Kaiden obviously isn't in it yet, but Noah made the transition flawlessly.

1-31 Just gave K his first haircut. He thought it was hilarious.

Bountiful Baskets

2011-02-05T20:57:00.002-07:00

I'm in love with Bountiful Baskets. It's a produce co-op. You pay $15 per basket, you get 6 fruit, 6 veg, and you never really know what you're going to get, but it's always pretty darn fantastic. This is the second basket that I've ordered, and I'm going to continue ordering them every other week.
It also helps that my location is like a 10 minute walk down the street, so I just pack the kiddos up in the jogging stroller, and we go and get a bunch of produce, and take a nice little walk all at once.

Snap, Crackle, Pop

2011-01-27T09:39:00.002-07:00

This morning Noah discovered that his Rice Krispy cereal 'talks' to him. He spent the morning listening to it, and occassionally talking back. The smart little kid also grabbed himself a cutting board and a knife so that he could cut up his banana like Mommy and put it on his cereal.

Noah's Fortune

2011-01-04T20:16:00.003-07:00

This was Noah's fortune tonight:

You will be a great success - both in business and social situations.

How's that for a fantastic fortune to get?

New Years

2010-12-31T15:35:00.000-07:00

We've never been really big on celebrating the New Year holiday. It's kind of silly really. So as our own tradition mandates, we kept it fairly simple this year. New Years day we had a nice, lazy day, then had my parents over for dinner. We had salmon with teriyaki and macadamia nuts, lemon rice, and a salad. Not to toot my own cooking horn, but it was FANTASTIC! We spent the rest of the evening playing games, and being entertained by the kiddos.

Did I mention that Kaiden is crawling? Crazy kid.

Christmas!!!

2010-12-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Christmas morning we did the usual present opening thing. Noah wasn't really sure how he felt about it at first, but then he really got into it. The tent that Santa gave him was a little scary for a minute, until he figured out that it was his, and he got to keep it and play in it. Then we couldn't get him out of it to open anything else! Grandma and Papa Patterson joined us for the morning, since their house was in pieces. It was a lot of fun to have them with us! They stayed for breakfast, games, and overall Christmas morning fun.

Later in the day all the Patterson's got together for lunch. Since the parents house wasn't exactly a suitable venue for a dinner, we all went over to Mi Ranchito. Always a good place for eating!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T15:42:00.001-07:00

Christmas Eve is solidly an Indo day. It's when they do all of their traditional eating stuff, and it's worked out really well for all of the kids to be there all at the same time together. So here's what happened with all of it this year.

We had a nice and lazy morning laying around (since Z and boys were still sick), and then headed over to Grandma and Papa's around 11. We went through the motions of putting Noah down for a nap, but he knew that there was a party going on, and Eva was there, so he sat there jumping in his bed and laughing instead. So we let him out and hoped and prayed that he'd make it through the rest of the day.The afternoon was spent eating, playing games, eating, hanging out, eating, making empenadas, and eating. There was a TON of food sitting there for all of us all afternoon long.

The empenadas were done around 6, and that's when the last of us arrived, and the real 'festivities' began. As always, the elves brought the little kids new pajamas, and all of the adults had fun fuzzy socks in their Christmas stockings. I've always been a big fan of Christmas, what's not to like, but Christmas with little kids around is so much more magical! Everything is a big deal and amazing to them. Noah and Eva had a BLAST playing with all their new toys, K was happy as can be charging after everyone's wrapping paper, and there's something inherently childlike about all of the Indo's getting together. It was a fantastic day/evening.

Christmas Eve Eve

2010-12-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

For Christmas Eve Eve my brother and his family decided they were going to go see the lights up at Temple Square, and they invited my parents, and us to go with them as well. So off we went around 5 to meet up for dinner real fast first, then go see everything else. Since Z is working downtown and has a pass to the parking garage by his work, we figured we'd just park there and take trax to get over to temple square. Noah was excited about this idea, considering how obsessed he is with trains lately. So we parked, hoped on Trax at the courthouse. Thankfully people were really nice and understanding about us having a stroller on a train that was really really full, because Trax isn't very stroller friendly. We got off at the end of the line and took the short walk up to the Crown Burger on North Temple.

Evidently EVERYONE else decided that would be a good place for dinner as well. I've never seen a fast food restaurant that packed before. The employees did a really good job of getting orders out as fast as they could though. Noah was too busy playing with his cousin Jared to eat his food, and K was seriously over-stimulated by the noise, but Z and I had a few moments to eat before we were all ready to head over to Temple Square....

Which was also PACKED. I've been to see the lights a handful of times, and there's usually a good number of people up there, but I've never seen that many people at one time before! It was pretty crazy. Thankfully people were in the holiday spirit though, and there wasn't a lot of pushing and shoving. It was, however, freezing cold, and we had two tired and sick kids. We really wanted to stay and hang out with the grandparents, and James and his family, but it wasn't worth risking the kids getting more sick than they already were. So we headed back to the train to go home.

I forgot to mention how much Noah loved being on the train! Even just those two short little rides were really exciting for him. And while we were walking to and from the stops, if a train went by he was all sorts of delighted. We're going to have to go up there again some time and just ride around downtown with him.

Noah-isms - December edition

2010-12-21T15:57:00.003-07:00

12-21
This morning Noah came out of his room wearing his Superman costume. I didn't even know he could put it on by himself.

N - I wanna drive the car.
E - You wanna drive the car? (making sure I heard him right
N - YEAH! I'm 16 now.

12-20

E - Do you wanna go somewhere today?
N - I wanna go to the store
E - What store do you want to go to?
N - I wanna go to the Target!

'Cooking' with a bowl, whisk, and colander.
N - It needs more cheese!

12-18

N - The goobers are all gone!
E - Where did the goobers go?
N - In my tummy!

12-16
I couldn't get the sound on Z's computer to work.
E - Daddy has to fix it
N - (runs to talk to Z in the shower) Daddy computer broken daddy
Z - Tell mommy to fix it
N - Mommy can't fix it
Z - Where is your mommy?
N - Right there (points at me) she can't fix it
Z - Why don't you watch it downstairs?
N - oh....OK!

12-13
Didn't hear Kaiden wake up. Evidently Noah did and went in there to give him some toys to play with. And by some, I mean ALL of the toys that were in the toy basket.

12-9
Noah pulls an empty Mary Kay lotion bottle out of the trash in the bathroom...
N - buy a new one at Wal-mart?
E - No, they don't have that kind at Wal-mart.
N - Oh, buy it at Target? Probably yeah.

Moral of the story: This kid is just a little bit nuts.

Army Crawling

2010-12-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

Guess who figured out how to army crawl? It takes a lot of effort, and he looks like a fish flopping around, but he's consistently moving forward!

Six Months!

2010-11-29T13:55:00.008-07:00

HAPPY 6 MONTH BIRTHDAY KAIDEN!!!

I can't believe my little Kaiden is six months already! This kid really is hilarious. He likes to spazz when he see's himself in the mirror, or his brother, or his daddy, or his mommy. He blows raspberries all the times, especially when he's eating. He attacks people's faces, and army crawls backwards.

Sleeping with Daddy and his puppy.

He doesn't like limes evidently.

We like playing with his face. He has a lot of it to play with!

Funny things Noah says

2010-11-19T13:55:00.002-07:00

As I start humming to him before bed - "No! Song off!"

E - Noah, what do you want to do today?
N - Go to school!

I wanna cut my nails. They're really long

I totally jumped!

I totally fell.

It's totally stuck.

(Can you tell he likes the world totally?)

My feet are broken. I need to buy more at Wal-Mart.

Family Photos 2010

2010-11-15T21:08:00.012-07:00

Skirt

2010-11-12T12:01:00.002-07:00

I now own this. And I love it.

"I lost Mommy"

2010-11-11T19:55:00.002-07:00

It's been a CRAZY busy week, and it's starting to take a toll on Noah. My normally care-free, daddy-loving, never wants to snuggle little boy is suddenly clingy, and keeps telling people he lost his mommy. Guess next week we should stay home a little more.

Monday - we stayed home all day (I think)
Tuesday - Shopping in the morning, home for a nap, shopping in the afternoon
Wednesday - Cousins over all day. Great fun, but tiring and not much "mommy time"
Thursday - Indo's house and a stop at Patterson's. Gone a total of 8 hours
Friday - We're planning on more cousin time, cuz they're not here very often.

It's been really nice to be busy, but I miss my boy and I'm actually looking forward to a weekend, and next week, home with my little buddy.

Halloween

2010-11-01T14:14:00.005-06:00

I'm a bad mommy and didn't actually take any pics of Halloween this year, so it's taken me a while to get a hold of these. I'm loving that Halloween has turned into a week long event. Tuesday we had a ward party, Saturday we had a party with a bunch of friends, and Sunday we had a family party. Good times.

Another Reminder

2010-10-26T15:25:00.004-06:00

Remember how I have an awesome cooking/recipe blog?! It's very cool. You should check it out.

Simply Gourmet

Wheeler Farms

2010-10-24T15:57:00.005-06:00

Last weekend we went to Wheeler Farms with Jenn and Eva for some Halloween style fun. Along with all of the stuff they regularly have there (farm animals etc) they had a tractor ride, a corn maze, and a pumpkin patch.

Noah did lots of running in the pumpkin patch. It was IMPOSSIBLE to get him to pick a pumpkin. So we just kind of picked one for him.

Kaiden was very happy the whole evening. Isn't he adorable?!

Wandering through the corn maze. Noah did a great job picking the correct paths.

Aren't they cute? They even look like cousins in this shot.

On the tractor ride.

FORTS!!!

2010-10-23T16:09:00.000-06:00

The boys got to make their first fort the other day with their daddy!!!

Pictures like this you can tell that they're brothers.

Hey look! A FORT!!!

Noah had as much fun destroying it as he did playing in it.

Parent's House

2010-10-22T14:45:00.002-06:00

My parents are gutting their house, moving walls and stairs, rearranging rooms, putting in new floors etc. etc. etc. From time to time I'm going to put photos up on here so you can all see the fun progress. This is where they were at as of yesterday afternoon. This is standing against the wall in what used to be the piano room.

LOVED IT

2010-10-21T19:01:00.003-06:00

Squires

2010-10-19T22:23:00.002-06:00

Tonight we had a fun little evening with Dennis and Janie. We got to their house for dinner, only to be told to turn around and go to Olive Garden. This got an "OK!" response from me. I love that restaurant and will gladly take any chance to go. I tried something new tonight (Four cheese sacchetti with chicken) and it was fantastic. Very easily my new favorite dish there. Noah had about 5 bread sticks for dinner. *Sigh*

After dinner we headed back up to Highland to watch How to Train Your Dragon. If you're thinking 'hey, they just watched that the other night with Luca and Live', then you're absolutely right! We liked it well enough that we went out and bought it and very happily watched it just a few days later.

Thanks for a great night Dennis and Janie!!!

Gift

2010-10-17T20:12:00.001-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE AND PAPA!!!!!

Dragon

2010-10-16T09:12:00.001-06:00

Luca and Live came over last night for dinner and a movie. Fantastic little movie. I think we'll own it soon.

Farm Country

2010-10-11T14:29:00.004-06:00

About a week ago we went to the Farm Country up at Thanksgiving Point, and were very pleasantly surprised at the selection of animals. They a ton of different kinds of goats, pigs, horses, donkeys, llamas, ducks, chickens, turkeys, rabbits etc. nearly all of which you can feed and get right up close to. The weather was great for us as well. Overcast, warm, light breeze, perfect.

Gobble gobble gobble

Kaiden was amazingly happy to be in his seat for once, and then slept through most of the trip.

I asked Noah what this animal was and he said "a lion!!!". Understandable confusion on that one really.

Crazy Hail Storm

2010-10-11T01:40:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago we had a CRAZY hail storm. It came down 4 different times that afternoon. Noah had a ton of fun watching the ice coming down and eating it whenever he could get his hands on it. I'd open the door and we'd all just sit there and watch it. At one point I looked out the front window and noticed the grass bulging. Our rain gutters are piped out under the lawns, and there was so much water coming through the soil couldn't handle it.

Captain Noah

2010-10-09T12:08:00.006-06:00

Yesterday Z and I were both feeling pretty sick, so rather than Noah have a miserable day at home, we sent him to play with Grandma and Papa. He got to "drive" the boat, and was very excited about it!

Pre-Bedtime Fun!

2010-10-08T21:15:00.005-06:00

The boys, hanging out and stalling before bedtime.

Four Months

2010-10-06T20:42:00.003-06:00

K has officially made it through the first four months of his life, and this kid is a funny little spazz. He's cooing, eating his hands, trying to roll over, drooling, making raspberries etc. He still spits up on top of all of this, so he's generally a sloppy wet mess, but he's cute!

Length: 25 inches - 75%
Weight: 17 lbs 10 oz - 95%
Head Circ: 43 cm - 75%

He's a big kid.

I'm thoroughly amazed that he's been able to gain this much weight when he has reflux. He spits up about 2 oz of each feeding. He's just overall a big kid. I thought that Noah was a big baby, but at 4 months he was 14 lbs 10 oz, and 24 inches. K has him beat by quite a bit.

2010-09-17T21:36:00.001-06:00

I love this

Double Date

2010-08-22T08:09:00.003-06:00

We went on our first REAL date since having Kaiden last night. We've been out, but never for this long before, and it was really nice. We had plans to hang out with Luca and Live, and decided rather than hang out at the house with the little boys, we should all go out instead. Zander and I don't get out to movies very often, and Despicable Me looked pretty darn funny, so we all headed down to Provo to go see it. It was hilarious! I hadn't seen any previews so I went into it blind and with no expectations, and was pleasantly surprised. Really good, funny movie with a feel good ending that's not overboard on the cheesiness.

After the movie we headed down to Red Robin. I never ate at that place until I met Zander, and we go every 6 months or more now. The more I eat there the more I'm liking it, and finding more items on the menu that I like. Last night I got the Bruschetta Chicken Sandwich and it was AMAZING. Everything I wanted in a chicken sandwich.

After gorging ourselves on burgers and bottomless steak fries, Z and I went to go pick up the boys so we could get them home to bed. Luca and Live came over to the house a little while later and we all shot each other a bunch. Ok, really we just shot Zander a lot. He ended up being the Sheriff every game I think.

All in all a fantastic night with fantastic friends.

Minutes Old

2010-08-17T13:26:00.003-06:00

I just discovered that we had these pictures when I plugged the camera in today. I didn't know we had them. I was kind of busy being sewn back together during all of this and wasn't too aware of what else was going on. But isn't he cute all squashy and newborn looking?

Happy Birthday Noah!

2010-08-17T13:19:00.005-06:00

I know, his birthday was over 2 months ago. But better late than never.

Noah's birthday was really low key this year. We had a few people over to have hot dogs, open presents, and of course, eat some cake as well.

My Boys

2010-08-17T13:16:00.002-06:00

Aren't they adorable together?

We may not have a swimming pool...

2010-08-17T13:09:00.004-06:00

...but we have a bucket!

Happy Face

2010-08-17T12:59:00.009-06:00

Guess who learned how to smile?

Dinosaurs...... er trains

2010-08-17T12:45:00.003-06:00

Since Thanksgiving Point is running their yearly $2 Tuesday campaign right now, we thought it would be fun to take the boys to the dinosaur museum up there. All morning we were talking about it as we got a bag packed, shoes on, and loaded into the car. We got up there and quickly realized we weren't the only ones with this brilliant idea. Evidently EVERYONE in the valley wanted to go today too. The line went halfway around the building, and it's not a small building either. So rather than wait in Disneyland length lines to see something we can go to pretty much whenever we want, we decided to bail on our plans.I remembered that there was a little train station something on state street in Lehi, and decided we should go see what it actually is. I've gone past it a bunch of times and always been curious. Turns out that it isn't much. There's a small museum on railroads, which was closed, and a few train cars on the tracks behind the building. The building itself was built in the 1800's and is now under the guardianship of the Lehi historical foundation.

It wasn't much, but Noah, who is obsessed with trains right now, thought it was cool to be able to touch the train cars.

Horses!

2010-08-17T12:26:00.005-06:00

Last night we went to my Uncle Doug's house for a bbq cookout and horse riding type adventure. The kids did surprisingly well on the "long" ride to their house in Syracuse, Kaiden actually slept for most of it which is an achievement for a baby who hates the car as much as he did. When we got there Noah very proudly informed us "I found that house!" Originally I thought that it was just going to be my siblings and parents up there, but it was a much bigger deal. All of Doug's kids were there, as well as my Aunt Sonia and cousin Rob that are here for a bit from Alaska. It's been a LOOOONG time since I went to any extended family function like this, and it really was nice to see some of the family.

The highlight of the evening was of course riding the horses. Granted we were just in the small corral, but still, a horse is a horse (insert Mr. Ed theme song) and I'll take what I can get. Doug has Tennessee walking horses. Their footfall pattern is different than most horses and when you get them into their gait it's a very unexpectedly smooth ride. Z went out and rode Rose before all the kids were done eating. After very patiently waiting his turn Noah got to ride up on top of Baron. I got on Baron a little later. Noah also got to help feed the chickens with his grandma. Highlight of his little life.

An Update

2010-08-09T17:31:00.007-06:00

Kaiden is asleep, and Noah is contentedly sitting on my lap watching Caillou via Netflix online (yay for dual monitor), so I thought I'd write up a bit about what's going on lately....and I'm drawing a blank. Is that sad? Life has been really busy, but I suddenly don't know what we've been so busy with. Let's try this format and see what I can come up with.

Kaiden

This 'little' kid is getting to be a lot of fun. He's out of the "baby coma" phase and is now cooing, smiling, and laughing. We also started him on medication for acid reflux (Prevacid) about 2 weeks ago, and it has made a huge difference in his little life. Before we started the medication he just seemed miserable all the time, and cried accordingly. He's a lot more pleasant now, and sleeps a lot better in the day as well. For the most part he does really well sleeping at night. I think he's in a growth spurt right now, so nights have been a bit rough due to insatiable hunger, but most nights he goes 6ish hours sleeping.

Noah

We're officially potty training Noah starting today. We've had him sit on the potty every night before bed for about 4 months now, and he pees 95% of the time. So far today he's been on the potty I think four times and peed each time. I'm really optimistic at this point on the potty training. He adjusts really well to changes, and really hates being dirty or messy. Ask me again in a few weeks how this is going and hopefully it'll still be optimistic.

This kid really is hilarious. I'm constantly laughing at the things he says and does. He's a total spaz and learning things ridiculously fast. We took him to the aquarium a couple weekends ago and he loved it. Everything except for the bright green tree frogs. They scared him for some reason. We all liked it enough though that we bought season passes, so if anyone ever wants to go to the aquarium, we'll glad take you with us!

Zander

He'll be officially done with this semester as of this Wednesday. We're really really excited for that. It'll be nice to have a bit of a break from school for a few weeks before his FINAL SEMESTER starts up this fall. He's also looking for a new job, which will be a fun new adventure to get into. So if anyone knows a good company that's looking for an awesome front end/UI designer, let us know!

Emily

When I think about my life, it sounds really boring. There's not a lot of glory in staying home taking care of two boys all the time, but honestly, I'm really happy with my life. I'm feeling normal again after having a baby, and we're really getting into a good schedule. I have my days of course, but for the most part, I'm really very happy with my life and where I'm at.

Noah & Eva Meet Cupcakes

2010-08-01T13:01:00.006-06:00

CUPCAKES!!!!

Eva was excited. Noah dove right in.

And made a huge mess of his face

Happy children

For some reason they decided to eat their toes too

When the cupcakes was gone, we had to wash hands, faces, and feet.

and yes, this post was re-done about four times

2 Months

2010-07-29T13:16:00.004-06:00

Can you believe that Kaiden is two months already?! The time has flown by. I've been feeling like a bad mommy for never posting about him, but there's not much to tell really His life consists mostly of eating, sleeping and pooping. The last few weeks have been a bit more entertaining though. Here are some of his achievements:

Starting to coo
Smiles
Tries to laugh
Sleeps 6-7 hours straight most nights
Gets excited about flavors (tomatoes, grapes....sour patch kids...)

We're past the two month "fog" now, and back into real life. And honestly he doesn't look like a newborn anymore. He just looks like a baby. His bulk has something to do with that I'm sure. Here are his official 2 month stats:

Length 22.5" - 30%
Weight 13.5 lbs - 90%
Head Circ 40.5 cm - 75%

I think he carries his weight in his cheeks

And since I'm a slacker and haven't done this already, here are some of his newborn pictures.

Conversations with Two Year Olds

2010-07-20T14:08:00.004-06:00

N - Mommy Car?
E - Where do you want to go?
N - Papa's house!
E - I don't know if Papa's home
N - Car (meaning he went somewhere in his car)
E - Where did he go?
N - Wal-Mart
E - What's he going to buy at Wal-Mart?
N - DINNER!
E - What's he buying for dinner?
N - POOP

Two year old boys.....

Saturday Discoveries

2010-07-18T10:13:00.002-06:00

Things we discovered we like:

Cute little bistro in Highland. Really yummy, high-quality food

Really intense raspberry flavor

Surprisingly funny movie. Luca and Live came and watched it with us.

Gardens and Papa

2010-07-14T12:12:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I needed to pick all of the stuff in my parents garden, so I took the boys over the Papa Frisco and Grandma Susan's house so that I could garden without them. While I was slaving away in the heat picking raspberries, beets, carrots, onions, cabbage, and zucchini, Noah was having a blast with his Papa again. I can't complain too much about gardening though. I thoroughly enjoyed my solitary time in the garden, plus I got enough raspberries to make a batch of jam. Anyway, Noah got to play in the back yard, which resulted in him "naked", on the slide, and I'm pretty sure Papa was hosing him down. When I got there a little while later they were over in the park trying to get a kite to fly.

And not to leave Kaiden out, he took a nap and hung out inside with Grandma

Noah's day

2010-07-13T11:20:00.004-06:00

I had a different post on here this morning. I'm changing it to this. We're going to list the hilarious things that Noah has done today.

~ Opened the fridge to get himself some blueberries
~ Opened the fridge to get himself some more grapes
~ Sat on the stairs reading a book saying "I found a chicken! Dooodleooodleoooodle" (that's his version of Cockle-doodle-doo)
~ Looking in the sky yelling "I found the airplane!!!"
~ Told me he wanted to get in Daddy's car to go to Wal-Mart

Papa & Noah

2010-07-10T15:08:00.002-06:00

Frisco and Noah are best friends. No seriously. They are. When they get to play together it's the highlight of the day for both of them. They play cars, go for walks, and evidently water the plants in the back yard.

Family Time

2010-07-09T20:52:00.005-06:00

Tonight we went on a walk with the four of us. It was fantastic, nice, calm, warm, perfect. Noah was happy to be in his new stroller and Kaiden fell asleep.

Noah Moments

2010-07-05T16:03:00.002-06:00

Having a newborn has prevented us from doing much that is blog-worthy. It hasn't, however, stopped Noah from being hilarious.

Yesterday morning as we went outside to get in the car, Noah saw a spider on the sidewalk. Here is the conversation that followed:

N - BUG!
E - Do you want to squish the bug?
N - No. Mommy squish it?
E - Ok *bug squished*
N - Uh oh! It broke!!!

For the 4th of July we went to the Indo house for swimming, BBQ and fireworks. Noah was all about the swimming and BBQ part of the evening, and playing with Eva, but not so much the fireworks.

Swimming with Eva

Holding hands in preparation for the Parachuters

The first crackle bomb made Noah a little nervous.

He laughed at it though.

The second crackle bomb made him cry.
A few minutes later I told him we were going to do another one. He ran in the house and shut the door.

To Z

2010-06-20T07:02:00.004-06:00

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!

Ode to Noah

2010-06-16T08:34:00.002-06:00

Today is Noah's birthday. It's crazy to think that he's only been with us for two years, it's hard to remember life without him. This little boy is hilarious, and really is a joy to have in my life. Here's a quick trip down memory lane of the last two years with him.

Stats

2010-06-14T13:40:00.003-06:00

I took both boys in to the doctors office today. Noah had his two year checkup, and Kaiden has his two week check up. Here's the stats:

Noah
Height: 36 inches 88%
Weight: 30 lbs 4 oz 78%
Head Circ: 50.6 cm 91%

Kaiden
Height: 21 1/8 inches 62%
Weight: 9 lbs 1 oz 55%
Head Circ: 37.9 cm 64%

In case you were curious Kaiden was 8 lbs 6 oz at birth, and listed as 19 inches, though I think they didn't stretch him very far. 2+ inches in two weeks seems a bit crazy to me.

Lunch Requests

2010-06-11T11:21:00.003-06:00

blueberries
grapes
oranges
crackers
toast
pasta
hot dogs

This is what happens when you ask your almost two year old what he wants for lunch
He also asked for strawberries and apples, but I said no