What do you think?

I'm getting tired of my current hair style. I don't want to go short like I usually do when it starts getting warm out. I just want something more interesting and flattering. I'm thinking of just doing some layering but keeping the length I have right now. But I'm also considering bangs. I know that bangs can be bothersome, especially when you want to grow them out, but I really need a change to my look.

So, give me your opinion on this look:

There is no Arizona...

...no painted desert, no Sedona...

That's right, Roy did not get the job at ASU. I am heartbroken, but I'm getting over it. No offers from anyone else so far. We'll just keep praying and waiting!

Gotta get one!

USB pregnancy test. Oh man. It also doubles as a fertility monitor.

So behind

I'm behind on everything - pictures, updates, witty things I thought of to blog about. Sigh. We will be sending out our Shutterfly pictures tomorrow or Monday, so if you don't already receive those from us and would like to, let me know. That will show you what's been going on around here. The kids are really growing up and we've captured some cute things they've been up to. So, seriously, you'll want to see these pictures!

What else is new?

Roy - Just got done with winter quarter. The class he TA'd had a final this morning. He finished grading the papers this afternoon and now he just has to enter the grades on Monday and then he doesn't have anything going on till next Monday! Woo hoo! We thought about going to Blythe, but there's a lot going on here and making a trip is probably too much right now. I'm bummed, but oh well. Anyway, I was taking about Roy...umm...oh yeah, he's going to be teaching a class spring quarter.

Ashley - I've been busy with church stuff. I'm on the Enrichment Committee and the Activities Committee and both groups have been busy. We had a big Easter picnic today. It was a huge success (right, you guys?) and a ton of fun. And for Enrichment, I was in charge of a swap meet last week that was a lot of work. There was a TON of stuff and now I have to find a way to get it all to Deseret Industries. It took quite a few hours just to bag/box it up and put in the stage in the cultural hall. Whew. And then coming up this week we are having a big "quarterly" Enrichment that I'll be helping out with. It's good to stay busy though.

Rae - Just finished her first ballet class. It was only four classes long and she missed one class when she was sick. She had fun with it, but she said she didn't want to sign up for more. Which is okay with me - that's 30 bucks we save! :)
She is starting speech therapy in a few weeks. It's through the school district and I really really like the teacher that will be working with her. I'm really excited about the whole thing - especially that we'll be able to understand her better! I took her to Supercuts a few weeks ago and got her hair cut kind of short. It's cute and it's a lot easier to do.

Blaise - Man oh man, this boy is starting to talk so much! He mimics most of the words we say, and is pretty good at telling us what he wants. He's so cute! He's sleeping well, eating well, playing well. (Doesn't always nap so well though. Well, if you can get him to go to sleep, he'll stay asleep - but it's hard to get him to settle down!)

I'm starting to not be able to form sentences! I think it's bedtime! I'll post stuff about Easter tomorrow!

Oh Yeah...

One more: "Tales From the Crib" is doing one of their "freebies". Go and make a comment and you are entered into their drawing.

Yum

Just saw this on Slickdeals - sign up for this Black Angus Prime Club and get a free dessert. You also get a free dinner for your birthday. Too bad mine is not till Dec!

Bryce-a-roni

So my baby brother isn't a baby anymore. He's 18, just had his Eagle court of honor and just got accepted into college! Way to go Bryce! Next week he'll sell his last pig for 4-H - good luck with that! And a year from now he'll probably be off on his mission! Maybe I'll try to have another baby before he leaves so he doesn't have too many new nieces and nephews to catch up on when he gets home!

You're an awesome guy Bryce - keep up the good work!

Ashley:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West   Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The South
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Roy:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North   You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Ducks and naps

We have a couple of nesting mother ducks right outside of our apartment (kinda like last year). Yesterday Blaise decided to charge one of them, and by the time I got to him, she had made him regret his insolence:


As for today, this is what happens at 6 PM when Blaise hasn't taken a nap:

P.S.: We are really behind on sending pictures out. It's on the to-do list.

Arizona

I suppose it should be mentioned, for those who don't know, that I visited ASU Polytechnic last Monday through Wednesday. It was great, except that I had severe vomiting on Monday night and Tuesday morning. I think the hiring committee members were understanding, though. (Also, I never actually threw up in front of them, which is a plus.)

On a lighter note

Take this quiz...it's fun. I don't if there are that many people that read my blog that haven't already seen this on my sister's blog but I wanted to post it anyway.

I hate being sick!

I can handle it okay when the kids are sick, but when I'm sick too - that's when it is just unbearable!! I'll break down the barf fest for you:

Thursday 11:30pm Rae pukes in bed. Poor thing tried to wipe it off with a tissue. Got her cleaned up and got in bed with her to try to catch anymore puke that might be coming. She drank a bunch of water and then promptly threw that up. Cleaned her up again and put her back to bed. She slept really well after that. Roy had used some questionable jelly on her PB&J sandwich earlier in the day, and joked that if she threw up we would know the jelly was bad. So we figured that was why she was puking. In the morning she seemed fine and ate a ton of breakfast too quickly. She threw up again. Then she really seemed fine, so we went about our day, playing at the playground (sorry everyone that she played with!!) and everything. Later in the afternoon she was complaining that she didn't feel very good and we all took naps. (I still thought she wasn't very sick, just really tired from being up the night before) That night she and Blaise had a bit of diarrhea.

Saturday we were all okay. Then Saturday evening Blaise threw up twice. In the morning he seemed fine and we were all getting ready for church and he threw up again. And then Rae started complaining that she didn't feel well. So we all stayed home from church. At noon it hit me (it probably would have hit me sooner, but I was fasting and as soon as I ended my fast and ate something it all came out!) I had the runs all afternoon and then when I tried to get up to get some fresh air I threw up. I stayed in bed the rest of the day. Not a very peaceful Sabbath.

And today? We are all a little slow and feeling yucky. Rae has been complaining all day about stomach pain, and just now she headed to the bathroom with the runs. I think that made her feel a lot better. She just had a Pedialyte popsicle and she's a lot perkier now. I have a ton to do but no energy to do it. Roy is gone proctoring a midterm and as soon as he gets home we are taking him to the airport. He's going to ASU and will be home Wed evening. The house is a mess and I just want to sleep all day. I know everything will be fine. I know I can get the house cleaned up tonight or tomorrow, and I know life is still pretty good. Luckily Roy hasn't been sick (so far - I did make sure he packed some anti-diarrhea medicine just in case) so he was able to take care of us and prepare for his interview (probably not as well as he would have liked). Hopefully we'll be back to normal by the time he gets home! Wish us luck!

Let's see....

What's new? I went to the dentist today. It had been almost 6 years since my last visit...yikes, huh? But I didn't have any cavities! Seriously, don't even bother brushing, because cavities are a fluke that happen to some people and not others. :) I'm the world's biggest candy junkie and I usually only brush my teeth once a day (but don't be grossed out when you see me next time, because I'm starting to brush them twice a day!!) I do need to work on flossing though, because my gums are pretty sensitive and the dentist said I need to be careful or I'll get a gum disease.

She also said I need to get my wisdom teeth removed. I've been trying to read about this a bit because I'm not entirely sure that I do. I mean, I'm going to get a second opinion and find out why they really need removed. The dentist I went to didn't give me a reason. I didn't exactly ask for one (my mind hadn't fully wrapped itself around the whole idea until later in the day) but I thought that if there was some specific reason, she would have told me. They made me an appt with the oral surgeon for two weeks from now and I'm most likely going to cancel it. For one, I don't have time to go to the dentist again. Two, Roy doesn't have time to take care of me. Three, that doesn't give me enough time to see another dentist beforehand. My friend said that one dentist told her she needed them removed and that she need 9 fillings, and then she went to her childhood dentist and he said that wasn't true. That happened to another friend of mine too. What's the deal with that? I wish I could go to MY childhood dentist - he was the best!

One problem is that I want to get pregnant sometime soon, so what if during my pregnancy my wisdom teeth suddenly start acting up? Do you think there is a good chance of that happening? They've been in for several years, so what are the chances of them acting up now? Ugh, all the questions I should have asked the dentist!! I am the worst about not asking enough questions.

I didn't mean for this entire post to be about my wisdom teeth! Any advice/criticism is welcome!

Advice

I got a waffle iron the other day, and now I need a good recipe for waffles. I looked some up online and tried one, but I wasn't too impressed with it and I don't want to waste my time trying recipe after recipe. What I want is a whole wheat recipe with substitutions like applesauce instead of oil. Anyone happen to have one like that? And I want them to turn out nice and crispy on the outside. Do you have to beat the egg whites and fold them in to get them to turn out like that? Any advice would be so appreciated!

Another thing I need some advice about: I want to start working out with workout videos. The only time that I can workout is at night or while the kids are around and lately I just don't feel like going out when it's dark and cold at night. Anyone have any "favorites". More importantly, do you have any I could borrow and try out? I might go to the library sometime and see if they have any.

Thanks in advance!

Happy Birthday Katie!

Today is (one of) my big sister's birthday! Hope you have a great day and get to relax a bit. Sorry I stole the pic off your blog, but this was the only picture I had of you:



This picture is Katie preparing to pose for her own self portrait. Apparently putting your mouth like that before you smile makes for a good picture. She would know - she's the best picture poser in the world.

Catching up

On Friday we drove up Interstate 80 and hit the first place to play in the snow. There are a bunch of state run snow parks up the 80. We decided Friday morning to do it, so we were prepared, but we didn't have a sled or anything. We figured Rae would be too scared to sled. But there wasn't much else to do. The snow was really hard and we could hardly build a snowman, and Rae couldn't do a snow angel :( And Blaise hated it. But at least Rae got to see some snow and she loved to eat it. Here are a few pictures:



Rae and her snowman



Blaise showing his disgust for the snow.




"Seriously you guys, I want to leave!"



"Yay, we are leaving!"

Got behind again

When I get behind on blogging I never feel like trying to catch up. Especially since I feel like I'm just trying to keep caught up on every other aspect of my life. Ugh.

A few "updates":

Blaise is finally starting to get better. I don't think I ever mentioned this, but it turned out that he did not have pinkeye. I'm pretty sure he had a sinus infection, maybe even an ear infection. But it was so off and on that I never knew if I should call the doctor. And, if I did go to the doctor and they told me it was an infection, I was going to let it run its course without antibiotics anyway, so what's the point? Hindsight - I probably should have gone to the doctor for peace of mind. But now he has no more fevers, no eye goop, not as much nose goop and he coughs less. Actually, coughing is his only symptom really. He has this horrible cough at night...but it's improving, so I'm not worried. He's sleeping well despite the cough. I think that once he feels completely better he'll be a great sleeper. Oh yeah, and he got his two top molars and now he's working on his bottom molars. Poor little guy.

Rae is growing up so much. Everyday she says something that I want to blog about! Today we were in the car and we were discussing something and she said "okay mom, if you say so". We've been reading the Book of Mormon every night and she's starting to recall stories from it. Unfortunately though, she now talks about swords cutting people and being able to stand in fire and not get burned. She likes to try to be a little mother to Blaise, but he will have nothing to do with it.

As for me, umm, I'm just trying to survive everything. :) I'm managing Roy's traveling - but just barely. I'm still doing Weight Watchers, and I FINALLY hit my 10 pound mark! Hopefully I'll be more disciplined this month and lose more consistently.

So, my visiting teachers came while I was writing this and I lost my train of thought. That's all for now I guess. :)

Valdosta

For Valentine's Day last week, I spent the day in Valdosta, Georgia. I didn't have time to take any pictures, but the one above gives a pretty good example of what the nicer parts of the city look like (lots of Spanish moss and azaleas). I hear there are also a lot of alligators in Valdosta; one professor told me that an eight-footer had recently gotten into the pond on his property. Speaking of which, the cost of living there is amazing(ly low).

I'd like to avoid giving too many details, but I really enjoyed the university. The pictures on this webpage show very accurately what the campus looks like.

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

I know you are having a crappy day so far...hope it gets better! I'll try to give you a call tonight. If I lived nearby I'd babysit for you!!



Ahh...remember what it was like to be young :)

Utah schools

Got back from my (long) trip to BYU on Saturday. Spent an evening with the Utah Jeppsons. On Saturday morning I had some extra time, so I went to the SLC temple and also took some pictures of "the U" that I couldn't the first time.


We now have UofU and BYU magnets on the 'fridge, right next to each other. It's a beautiful thing.

Real quick

I finally uploaded the pictures from my personal camera, and found this one of my mom opening her GPS that all of her kids got her for Christmas. Thought I'd share it so my siblings that weren't there could see her reaction.

BIG BOY!

So, Roy left today and I decided to take matters into my own hands and make some changes around here! :) I posted our crib on craigslist: "Free if you come and disassemble it". I got a phone call within 10 minutes and within 30 minutes after that the crib was gone! Yay! I then proceeded to assemble the toddler bed we bought a couple of weeks ago. I managed to do a pretty good job without killing the "helpful" children! Here's a picture of Blaise sleeping blissfully in it.



Now, you'll remember that I have weaned him now, so at night we usually get him to sleep by rocking him in the dark. But, tonight I told him to climb into bed and go to sleep, and he did! He fussed a little and messed around a little, but he stayed lying down the whole time and fell asleep within 10 minutes! I'm truly shocked. And then he didn't even stir when I put Rae to bed a few minutes later. What a peaceful night to end a not-so-peaceful day. Oh, did I mention that the kids have pinkeye? It'll be fun to do eye drops every 3 hours without any help! Just 68 more hours to go without Roy! Sigh.

Our trip

So, as Roy mentioned, we went down to Yorba Linda for his mom's 60th (!) birthday party. We arrived late Thursday night and went straight to the hotel that his mom had so generously provided for us. :) Friday morning the kids and I went to Dennys for breakfast so Roy could get some more sleep. Then we all went to Target to pick up little things we had forgotten. After Baerbel (Roy's mom), Dale (her husband) and Sonja (Roy's sister) got done getting their nails done we all went to the Santa Ana Zoo. It's a great little zoo, and the weather was amazing. Then we went out to lunch and dropped Roy and Blaise off at the hotel for a nap (just for Blaise) and hung out at Sonja's house.

Saturday morning we all went to Dennys for breakfast again. Barb and Dale took off to get some glamor shots done. We just chilled and dinked around all morning. Roy took the kids to the park in the afternoon and then we all got ready for the party. We went to Claim Jumper for dinner (YUM!) and then back to Sonja's house for cake and ice cream. It was fun. And Barb was all dolled up for her pictures!

Sunday we went to Sacrament mtg and then hung out at Sonja's house all afternoon. Rae had a blast with her cousin Catrina, and Blaise loved the cats they have and all the toys. It was a lot of fun. We left around 3:30 and the kids were asleep by 4:00! Rae slept the ENTIRE trip and Blaise slept till 6 and then was back asleep by 7 and slept the rest of the way. It was a great trip home. We are glad to be back, but sad that Roy is leaving us tomorrow :(

Rae started a "mommy and me" preschool today. She liked it a lot. I get to host next week. She's going to the doctor in a few minutes to check on a possible bladder infection or UTI or something. I'll update later about that.

Blaise is an AMAZING sleeper now that he is weaned. He is a much heavier sleeper and he slept 8 hours straight last night!!!! WOOOOOO HOOOO! Then I got him back to sleep in his crib at 3:30 and he slept till 4:30 and then I just brought him to bed with me. He didn't get up till 7 this morning, and he still took a 1 1/2 hour nap this afternoon. And this is all while teething! I'm loving it and just enjoying it while it lasts!

Anyway, I better get going to the doctor. I'll post some pics from our trip tonight.

Black and White Blaise

We went to SoCal for my mom's birthday. Blaise and Rae were photogenic. Going to BYU tomorrow and another school next week, so I bet the Wrightblogging will remain light for a while.

The time has come....

It's been about 40 hours since I last nursed Blaise. I didn't want to wean him in a "cold turkey" sort of way, but that's just sorta how it happened. The plan was to start nursing him less during the day to see if we could night wean him. But once I started refusing to nurse him and saw how easy it was to distract him, I wanted to go all the way. Lately nursing has become a huge chore and not enjoyable. Blaise nursed ALL night long and ALL day long but never really seemed to be comforted by it. He's getting his molars, so he's just all around miserable and using me as a teething ring wasn't working for either one of us. The first night went okay. He had about a two hour stretch where he was fussy (first with Roy for an hour and then with me for the second hour) He didn't really seem that angry or distraught, just unsure of how to fall asleep without nursing. I finally brought him to bed with me and just held him and sang to him and he fell asleep. I don't mind him sleeping with us, I just mind him being attached to me (literally) all night.

Last night went even better. He slept from 7-12:30 and then Roy got up with him and changed his diaper and then I got up and helped him fall back asleep (in our bed again) This time it only took an hour and he slept soundly till 6-ish (when Rae started making a racket!). Today he's doing pretty well. I haven't really felt any regrets (except that I'm in so much pain from engorgement - one downside of cold turkey!). It feels right and it feels so free and positive. I would have liked to nurse him longer, and maybe even after he starts sleeping better I might start letting him nurse a couple of times a day if he seems like he needs it. His appetite is way up and he eats everything we put in front of him!

I wonder if it's something about January that makes me feel like I'm suddenly trapped and NEED TO WEAN. Rae was weaned about this same exact time 2 years ago. All the rain and being stuck inside is taking a toll on me. And with Roy out of town last week all I could offer Blaise was to nurse to sleep and it didn't work out very well. And since he's going out of town again next weekend (and probably a few more after that) I really needed to have that freedom from nursing. I don't know how my sister nurses so long...was it easier because your kids just nursed a few times a day or were you just more determined than me? :) I can handle the all night nursing - it's the all day nursing I can't handle.

Anyway, what a long and random post. Just thought I'd keep ya updated. Oh, and to my sisters - now I know what it feels like to have huge boobs like you guys! LOL - can't wait for the milk to dry up!

The U

Snowy.

More pictures

We went to the "Dolphin Habitat" at the Mirage. The kids loved it!


Us on Christmas Eve

Rae and Blaise and their cousins

Some pictures

I wanted to write a bit last night, but Blaise was having trouble sleeping, so I just brought him to bed with me and went to bed early. I always have about 15 minutes in the morning when the kids play nicely before breakfast...so I'll post as many pictures as I can before they find me!




Rae loves her grandpa!




Rae wanted to take the boat out by herself.



Blaise was introduced to fire...and...guns...



No lectures please...it was just a BB Gun and Roy was just posing, not actually shooting something. :)

Updated links

I updated my sidebar links. Sorry Audra, I had been meaning to add your blog (and others) for a long time now but never got around to it. There ya go.

Jobhunting

A little rusty

I'll have to get back in the habit of blogging. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to back-track and update you on our past month. I started a draft all about Roy's birthday so maybe someday I'll finish that, but for now I'm just going to say that we had good birthdays in December and good vacations. We went to Vegas from the 18th-26th then Blythe from the 26th-Jan 2nd. We got a lot of awesome stuff for Christmas and enjoyed time with the family. I was going to post some pictures, but I'm using the laptop and can't find them anywhere- I think Roy deleted them when he put them on the desktop computer.

In other news:

Roy: Leaves on Thursday for an interview at University of Utah. (This is for a post-doc position.) Then he has an interview at BYU 2 weeks later. (Also a post-doc) He applied to something like 45 positions, so hopefully we'll be hearing from a lot more in the next few weeks. Right now he's a TA (for the same class he TAd last quarter) so other than a few hours a week for that he spends his time preparing for interviews and trying to come up with new ideas.

Ashley: Is sad that Roy leaves on Thursday! Ahhh! I've never been home alone before, so this should be interesting. I started Weight Watchers when we got back from vacation. I lost 3lbs my first week and I weigh in today and I think I've lost about 3 more pounds. If I ever manage to squeeze in some exercise I'm sure I'll do even better. But last week I had some back problems and now it's raining, so there is always an excuse. I'm seriously looking into joining a gym (one with babysitting) so I can just go in the middle of the afternoon without taking up Roy's time. But I'll have to see if that's going to fit into the budget!

Here are some photo examples of some goals of mine:



This is the skinniest I've been since having kids. This was when Rae was 8 months old (March 2005) and I was almost in, maybe even in the top of my "ideal weight range". Unfortunately this didn't last very long. I've got quite a bit to lose.




I also want to grow my hair this long. Right now it's to my shoulders and it's driving me crazy. I want to cut it but I'm holding back.


Rae: Is now officially potty-trained! She hasn't had a daytime accident in more than a month!!! A couple of weeks ago she asked if she could wear underwear to bed, so I let her and she went about a week without having an accident! But then she had a few accidents in a row, so we are back to pullups until she can show me that she can keep dry at night. She's in Sunbeams now (a class in church) and she likes it a lot. She loves to sing the primary songs even if she doesn't know the words. She'll sing just about anything and put her own words into it. For example (not a primary song) she likes to sing "John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt, That’s my name too" but she sings "Don jacob dingle pirate ship". She's so much fun!

Blaise: Is getting two molars! He has his four front top teeth and three bottom front teeth, and now he is skipping to his molars. We didn't even notice they were coming in, but now we know why he's been so IMPOSSIBLE lately! He went to the doctor for his 12 month checkup last week and he's a measly 21 lbs but he's 32 inches long. He's just so long and skinny. He just wants to nurse all day long and won't drink any whole milk, so it's going to be tricky to get some meat on his bones.

I think that's everything going on right now. I'll try to post pictures later today.

Happy Birthday Chad!

All day today I've been thinking to myself "Jan.20th, what the heck is happening on Jan.20th - why does that day seem fairly significant?" Then I check my sister Katie's blog and remembered that it's Chad's birthday!


Happy Birthday Chad!

Ugh

So, here's the deal - on Nov.20th the university shut down our internet. We had a virus on our PC and it's the second virus we have gotten since we've lived here, and therefore our "second offense". They told us to fix the problem and then wait for Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) to contact us (since it was our second offense). We fixed the problem and waited and waited. Finally Roy replied to the email (on Dec. 13th) and told them we had fixed the problem. They emailed back and said we needed to meet with SJA. Well, now it was winter break, so we decided to just wait till we got back from vacation. When we got back Roy went to the SJA office and asked them what the heck he was supposed to do. They set him up with an interview with like the top guy. He finally had that interview today and the guy pretty much said that it was ridiculous that we had to meet with him since our first offense was like 3 years ago and he's sorry that we got lost in the paperwork and that we'd get our internet back. He actually apologized a couple of times. Argh. Oh well. The good news is that we have internet now! Okay, technically we've had internet this whole time because we can pick up our neighbors wireless (and they are our friends, so they don't mind) but that wasn't always a reliable signal and it was only for the laptop and Roy needs the laptop at school and most of the time that he is home. And I just like the desktop better. I'm so happy to have it back!

And so, my fans, as soon as I figure out where I left off and where to begin, I will update you on our birthdays, Christmas, etc, etc, etc :)

Does Bobby read my blog?

I doubt it. But Happy Birthday to ya anyway! (Bobby is my oldest brother)

Friday's storm

(click for awesomeness)

We had winds up to 60 mph, and some parts of town lost power for a couple of days. I guess it was about as close to a hurricane as we'll ever see over here (news story).

Okay, Roy changed the link to "James Marsden" in the previous post. It's a small clip from the trailer. This is why he thinks of Chad when he sees the commercials for 27 Dresses.

What do you think?

I'm in a blogging rut. Don't feel like blogging. But here's a little something.

Everytime we see a preview for 27 Dresses, Roy talks about how much the lead guy looks like my brother-in-law.

Chad (bad picture - look at other ones on the blog for other poses) looks like James Marsden from 27 Dresses.


What do you think?

Om nom nom nom...

(click for awesomeness)

Slickdeal

I don't know if this will be interesting to anyone out there - but Fisher Price's nativity set is on sale. I want one of these but will probably wait till next year to get one. Here's the LINK

Freebie

I'm breaking my silence to tell you about a new freebie. We have had very limited internet the past two weeks (long story) and it's just not very fun to blog when you can't do it whenever you want and when the internet access you DO have is pretty slow. So, check out THIS FREEBIE It's pretty cool.


Oh, and we are all doing fine. Not too sick, not too busy but a little busy enough.

Just had to do it

Have you seen this? Fun stuff. http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9550719588

Some things I love about Rae

I feel like I've been writing about Blaise lot, so here's a post dedicated to Rae (with an update of Blaise at the end)

Here are some things about Rae that make me smile:

--When she takes her shoes and socks off (like at the playground) she always puts her socks in her shoes. I only had to tell her to do that like once and she started. That's my girl! I don't know why this is so delightful to me :)

--She likes to tell me that she'll take care of Blaise for me. Today I showered while they were both just hanging out watching cartoons (this is the first time I've tried and it worked okay!) and she let me know that she would watch him. (she's even mentioned before that she'd nurse him if I needed her to!)

--She wants to follow the rules. I like that she actually looks torn between following her friends and doing what is right. A lot of kids don't even hesitate. Hopefully as she gets older she'll really recognize the consequences of following your friends instead of your parents. I hope she becomes more of a leader.

--She has a very cute wave. I can't explain it, but it's adorable.

--She likes to read in bed after I turn off the lights.

--She sings along with songs even if she doesn't know the words. I do that too :)

Okay, I think that's enough now. She just lights up my world and makes my days more pleasant (and stressful, but I'll try to block that part out of my mind right now).

Blaise was quite a bit happier today. Still not completely normal, but really getting there. He went to sleep without any fight. (which is amazing, because Roy isn't at home tonight and I thought it was going to be impossible!)

I got to wear an orange vest and a hardhat and work on the highway today. We would drive along the shoulder and look for young trees that had been run over by highway workers and we would drive stakes into the ground and tie neon ribbon to the stake so that they don't get run over anymore. There were too many of us out there, so there was a lot of standing around and talking, so it was fun and felt good to help out a bit. Next month I'll be doing it again, and hopefully I'll actually get to plant some trees! (This time they needed people who had a car to go on the highway but next time it is just planting)

Anyway, all in all a good day and I am ready for bed!

Dairy overload

Blaise seems to be a lot happier today. He slept fairly well last night. I still feel a little tired, but I'll probably be able to take a nap later today (between going to get flu shots for the kids and then planting trees for 3 hours) Things are looking up.

I'm finally starting to notice a pattern with Rae's eating habits and her poop. Well, I've noticed it before, but today I know for sure. When she eats too much dairy her poops are explosive and messy. I woke up to the sound of her saying "Mama, I pooped. It's on my hands." Not something you like to hear before the lights are even on. It was all over her body, pajamas, bed, floor. Ugh. But it was a fairly easy clean up and Roy got up for a minute to hold Blaise and start some bath water for Rae. 15 minutes later it was like it had never happened.

But it has to be quite a bit of dairy to this to her. Yesterday she ate like 3 bowls of cereal, lots of cups of milk, probably 3 string cheeses, and almost a whole box of macaroni and cheese (that was her lunch and dinner). Makes me a bit sick to think about it. She loves milk and cheese. I, on the other hand, do not enjoy explosive poops. And I wish she'd stop pooping in her diaper before even getting out of bed!

Update

Blaise's fever went away. No other symptoms emerged. Teething maybe? I have no idea. He's now super cranky and is sleeping badly. He yells when anything goes wrong for him and when he doesn't get his way. He yells after I stop nursing him even if it's been 20 minutes. He was up for 2 hours last night just yelling. He wouldn't fall asleep nursing, in my arms, in Roy's arms, nothing worked. We finally just gave him some Tylenol and he fell asleep, but it was within 10 minutes of giving it to him, so I don't think it was the medicine that did it. Just now we were trying to get him to sleep and he just kept yelling and yelling so we put him in his crib and he fell asleep after about 10 minutes. I think he got so much holding and cuddling while he had his fever and now he's not ready to let that go. And I'm willing to cuddle and nurse him a little bit extra, but the way he yells and screams about it is just insane and there is just a limit of how many hours a day I can sit there nursing him. And he never seems sad when he is yelling -never any tears or anything -he's just really pissed. My heart doesn't ache like it does when he is really crying. It is actually kind of amusing.

Anyway, I can't even think clearly enough to write anything else. I am exhausted from our horrible night last night. And I've gotta go babysit for my friend. It was our turn to go out tonight but Roy has midterms to grade and we are all just so tired and just wanted to save our date for next week. Anyway, more later.

Don't you hate it when...

...you take your kids to the doctor because you think something is wrong with them, and when you get there they stop crying and start acting all playful and happy? Well, that almost happened today. Blaise's fever started yesterday afternoon and continued all night and was a little higher in the morning. So I called the office and spoke with the advice nurse and she said I should bring him in. So she checked the schedule and said "can you be here in 5 minutes". Ahh! I grabbed the kids (luckily Roy was home to help me out, but he couldn't come along or stay home with Rae because he had a phone interview) and we dashed out the door. Blaise had just woken up from a nap, so he was rested and feeling a little bit better, and I was just like "ah, crap...we are going to get there and they are going to say there's nothing wrong with him". Well, that's what they said. He did still have a fever, so at least I'm not completely retarded. But nothing else is wrong with him. He just has a fever and incredible moodiness. But he's asleep now. And so is Rae. Delightful! (yes, it really is 6:45 and they are both asleep!) I'm sure Blaise will be up a lot tonight and Rae will probably wake up at like 5am, but oh well...I have some time to myself!

Roy's phone interview with University of Nebraska went okay. He feels like he gave good answers. It's just hard to tell on the phone I guess. I'll let you know if he hears anything more from them.

Not much else is going on around here. The weather has been beautiful and hopefully we'll be able to enjoy it more tomorrow. We are still trying to decide what we are going to do for Thanksgiving - either go out somewhere or try to make some sort of homemade meal. I'm looking forward to Roy having a little bit of a break and enjoying some beautiful fall weather. Maybe we can jump in some leaves or something. I remember enjoying last Thanksgiving so much and I'm hoping it will be as great this year. I guess that's all I have to blog about for now.

Last Thanksgiving - check out that belly!

One more thing

Today is Dale's birthday! (Roy's mom's husband) Happy birthday! It is also Sabina's birthday! (My brother's wife) Happy Birthday to you too! What a great day!



This is Dale in Germany. He's fun guy!



Sabina and Rae in Blythe June 2006

Tagged

My sister Katie tagged me:

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. Crushing on Andy, Abraham, umm, probably about 5 other guys
2. Growing taller than any of the guys and my friends :(
3. Attending Blythe Middle School
4.Listening to my "Language Arts" teacher compare me to Katie
5. Spending the night at Cami's a lot

5 Things on my to-do list: (some of these are for tomorrow)

1. Clean up the kitchen
2. Watch Heroes (if I manage to stay awake long enough)
3. Find letter from Medi-cal to find out who my new case worker is
4. Take laundry down to dryer, then bring it back up and put it away
5. Call the doctor in the morning if Blaise still has a fever. :(



5 Foods I enjoy:

1. Chocolate (although I have been so good the past 2 weeks and haven't had any)
2. Lasagna (sorry mom, I've found a new recipe and it's replaced yours)
3. Steak
4. Ribs
5. Ice cream

5 Bad habits:

1. Spending way too much time on the computer
2. Biting my nails
3. Not answering my phone and not calling people back
4. Yelling at people (mainly Rae and Roy and probably Blaise soon)
5. Watching TV instead of going to bed
That made me feel great listing all of those! :(


5 of my favorite toys:
1. My van - love it
2. Computer
3. Immersion blender (it's fun to find new things to use it on)
4. Can I list toys I'd to have someday when we have money? DVR
5. Umm, no, seriously, we have no money.

5 People I tag: (I don't know how often these people check my blog and if they will even respond to this "tag" - I think they actually have lives)

1. Paola
2. Sarah
3. Rachel
4. Cheryl
5. Andrea

Germany pictures

We just posted 300+ pictures from Germany on Shutterfly. Leave a note if you want to see them and didn't get an email.

Milestones

Blaise is 11 months old today! I can't believe how many things he can do. I'll try not to brag, because I can't remember when Rae started doing these things and I don't know if he's as extraordinary as I think he is!

Of course he's an excellent walker now since he's been walking for 2 months now. He's starting to run and it's a pain to be constantly chasing him.

He uses a fork better than Rae does. He won't eat unless he has a fork.

He likes to imitate so many things. The other day he saw Roy brushing his teeth, so he ran and grab a crayon and pretended to brush his own teeth! He's done it again on several occasions, and now we give him his own toothbrush to use.

He likes candy - especially suckers.

He likes to dance.

He'll walk up to us and give us something and when we say thank you he grunts and nods and walks away. Then he'll come back and take the item from us and then do it all again.

He's starting to say "yeah" when we ask if wants something or wants to do something.
He's also starting to say "mama" and actually mean it.

He yells (not just a cry, but a really angry scream) if I do any of the following:

Take away something he shouldn't have
Refuse to nurse him
Leave the room when he's not distracted
Put him in his crib when he's awake
Refuse to pick him up
If Rae is trying to do something specific with her toys and won't let him touch them

He likes to attack Rae. He's not a very nice brother. He attacks her when she's vulnerable - like when she's a zombie watching tv.

He just brought a book over to me for me to read to him. He's starting to enjoy books

He's a pretty fun little boy. He's high-maintenance though. He wakes up at least 5 times a night and takes a long time to fall back asleep -even if I nurse him in bed. Last night Roy took care of him till about 2:30am and then I finally gave in and nursed him. He seriously needs to be night weaned. He'd be a lot happier during the day if he slept better at night. And so would I.

Anyway, I just can't believe he's been around for 11 months already. Where did this year go?!

New Freebie

Check it out

Not much to report

Yesterday I washed a used disposable diaper. Yes, in the washing machine. Yes, with a load of laundry. Must have missed the trash can and went into the hamper. That's the kind of day I had yesterday. But the laundry smelled fine and the diaper stayed perfectly intact, so I didn't bother to re-wash the load.

Kids slept in till 6:00 this morning. We are making progress! Actually, Rae went to bed extra early last night because I had an Enrichment activity at my house and Roy doesn't get home till 9 (which is why the activity was at my house - so I could actually attend) and I needed Rae to get to sleep so I could try to get Blaise to sleep in time. Roy usually gets him to sleep, so Tuesdays are always a little difficult. But I did it! And I got my house all cleaned up (even vacuumed - which is hard because both kids are scared of the vacuum) and I got my soup made (it was a cooking club Enrichment) all with a few minutes to spare! I was pretty proud of myself. The kids didn't get baths though. Just a wipe down with baby wipes.

Anyway, I should be taking better advantage of Blaise taking a nap and Rae watching a movie. Anymore suggestions on a humidifier?

I want

My favorite Slickdeal of the day: This mirror I wouldn't have anywhere to put it in our apartment, but someday when I have a house I want something like this.

Need some advice

Even though we've been here for several winters, we don't have a humidifier. I really think we should get one soon - especially since we've all been so sick already. Once when we were at my parent's house we used their humidifier because Blaise was all stuffy and it worked miracles. But I don't know what kind to get. I know cool-mist ones are safer for in a kids room. But what if I put it up high and Rae is not the type to ever mess with it - and I pretty much ALWAYS know what is going on in their room since our apartment is so small. Do cool mist work the same as warm mist? I know you have to make sure the cool mist ones stay really clean because it doesn't warm up the water and kill off the bacteria in it. I've done a little bit of research, but I just don't know what to get. And should I just invest a lot of money into a really really good one, or are the cheap ones okay? I need YOU, my lovely readers, to enlighten me with your experiences and opinions! Thanks in advance!

Oh, and the kids were up at 4:45 this morning! Maybe they will sleep in a little each morning and we'll get back on track sometime.

Are you kidding me?!?

We turned our clocks back last night. We figured Rae would wake up around 6:30 or 7 the old time, since she usually sleeps 11-12 hours. Well, no, for some reason she woke up at 5:30 the old time!! So, 4:30! And Blaise woke up at 3:30 (the new time) with a leaky diaper and general grumpiness. I finally got him back to sleep just seconds before Rae started waking up. I would have made Rae stay in bed, but she was saying she needed to pee (she's never done that before- she still wears a diaper at night and often poops in it before even getting out of bed) so I really wanted to encourage this new behavior. And when I got out of bed to get Rae, Blaise woke up too. So it's friggin' 5:45 in the morning and cartoons aren't even on yet, we've already had breakfast, and I think Blaise is ready for his first nap. Sigh. I think I can wake Roy up in about an hour or so, and I can probably get a nap before church (hooray for 11:00 church).

I stayed up to watch Spiderman 3 last night. It was good, but a little cheesy. Topher Grace is way cute. Blaise wants out of his high chair...better go.

Happy Birthday Bryce

I don't know if you ever read this, but I hope you had a good 18th birthday. Don't forget to register to vote! :) I can't believe my baby brother is 18!!

Halloween

On Tuesday we went to the party here in the apartment complex. Rae wore her cowgirl costume because it was pretty warm outside. I don't have any pictures from that day. I dressed up like a pirate. I just put on some black capris, a black and white striped shirt, a red tie around my waist and a red scarf. Oh, and I had an eye patch, but I just kept it on my forehead the whole time. The party was fun, but we stuck around the whole time waiting for the university's pep band to show up and they never did. That was a bummer.

Halloween morning we dressed up and went to Music Makers - which is always a ton of fun. And we went straight from there to Nut Tree Family Park because they were letting anyone wear a costume ride for free. (It's always free to get in). We stayed there for like 2 1/2 hours. Rae's friend Natalie showed up too and they had a blast together. Usually we go there and Rae gets to pick one or two rides to go on, but this time we rode each of the rides (well, the 3 that she is big enough for and that she likes) at least 2 times.





I forgot Blaise's costume, but I had an extra scarf from my pirate costume, so I just tied it around his neck and it went well with his white shirt and blue jeans. While Rae was on a ride he got a turn with her hat. :) What a cutie!



I couldn't seem to get their attention. Rae cried on this ride. It looks mild, but it jerks you around each corner. She tried it a long time ago and cried that time too, but this time she wanted to try it again because Natalie was going on it.





The "Rescue Squad" ride. It's a great ride because each rescue vehicle has room for 4 kids and each kid gets a steering wheel and a button that makes noise.

After we got back we rested for a while and then I took Rae trick-or-treating around the complex while Roy stayed home with Blaise and handed out candy. Rae got a ton of candy (I took care of all of the good stuff last night). Then we bag up some of it and gave it to the guys who have been cutting down all the trees near our apartment (they are always really friendly to Rae). Now we just have some of the nasty stuff that doesn't tempt me too much - like suckers with a hand as the stick, and eyeball bubblegum and gummy brains. I do have some M&Ms left, and Blaise has discovered that he loves them. He yells at me when I won't give him anymore. And Rae talks about candy all day long and is constantly asking to "just hold some". Hopefully she'll lose some interest soon.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun but we are ready to move on to Thanksgiving! Bring on the turkey! Oh, wait, does anyone want to come visit and cook us a turkey? Looks like we'll be having Dennys or pizza or something. Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Trunk or Treat

Here we are at the ward trunk-or-treat Saturday night.



Mother-daughter witch team!



That is one cute devil! The broom is turned around the wrong way. He was carrying it because it says "dirt devil" on it. Heh.



The Halloween costume Rae was most afraid of? Spiderman (it was the full head-covering mask that really bothered her)





Helping himself to some of the loot.

Festivities leading up to Halloween

Here are some of the things we did "Halloween week"



Picking out a pumpkin at "Grandpa's Barn" (We didn't end up buying one because the line was really really long.)



Rae pointing out a rotten one.



Blaise thinks he's pretty strong.



This was the best we could get of them together.



Rae brushing a horse.



Rae's favorite part of "Grandpa's Barn"...the hay pyramid.




Practicing for Halloween. We play dress up on a daily basis around here. Check out his eyes - this was when he still had pink eye.