The weeks update, along with much much more...

Alright, so I'm not even going to begin by promising to make this entry short, because we all know that in the past when I've done so, I've never kept my promise... So hopefully this post finds you at a time where you don't have much to do and you have 5-10 minutes to spare to read through this.

A lot of my friends who have blogs of their own have all decided to "come clean" recently and admit that they're addicted to blogging. They're not only addicted to keeping their blogs "up to date", but they're also addicted to reading over their friends blogs; sometimes once, twice, three times daily- anxious to read new "news". Why not? Blogging makes us all feel closer to each other rather than "out of touch" right?... I appreciate the COURAGE my friends displayed by admitting their addiction. Here I was thinking I was the only one with this problem! What a relief in knowing that I'm not alone... I would like to note though that while I'm obsessed about keeping my "own" blog up to date and noting mere occasions like how "Noah dumped another can of baby formula down the toilet again today", it's because I use my blog as my journal- it's the only written account I have about what goes on in the lives of my tiny family- and I fully intend to charge Noah 20 years from now for the cans of formula he emptied down the toilet- I'm keeping tab.

I too though am one of those unfortunate souls who have become addicted to reading friends blogs. I'm not quite sure when the addiction started- probably immediately and I didn't even know it. I've been an addict now for 10 months I suppose. The addictions getting a little worse and it's only now that I've begun to recognize it. (Thankfully, "recognition of there being a problem" is the first step to solving an addiction, so maybe I can shake this...) I wake up in the morning, put the baby gate up and before I get the boys out of bed I check my email and check my friends blogs to see if there's anything new that they've posted. Lame huh? Sometimes I'll skip over those friends blogs who I know rarely post, only in a blue moon,- but I will always check my friends blogs whom I know blog at least once or twice a week. I think it's these friends blogs who feed my addiction. (By the way, I'm writing this all with a sprinkle of sarcasm added).

I guess I should be thankful that I only have this addiction to blogging and not other things, like for example, meth. Hey, it's just an example, but haven't you seen on the news or on Dateline or something like that, about how more and more "stay at home moms" are becoming meth users! It seems to be all over the news these days. Its beyond me to think where in the world, in between baths, changing diapers, cleaning, cooking, tutoring, grocery shopping, BLOGGING, and paying the bills, where mothers find the time to use meth! I mean COME ON, reading over emails and my friends blogs daily usually takes at least 30 minutes- it hardly leaves me any time in the morning to myself to get ready for the day!

So now that I've come clean and I've openly admitted my blogging addiction I feel a bit better. Spencer knew long, long before I recognized it, that I was addicted; bless his soul for putting up with my addiction.

Bloggings exciting though- like I said before, I use our blog for journaling purposes and as a source for collecting my thoughts; I can't wait to read over this stuff I wrote 10, 20, 30 years from now. I wonder what kind of technology will be around then for us to document our "daily happenings"....

So this is kind of just a random thought, but over the last week, "Drop Dead Gorgeous" has been on E! non-stop and I haven't caught the whole movie at once, just pieces here and there, but it really is funny! I especially love that Kirsten Dunst' manager in the movie, is also the same lady who played the step-mom with the Wisconsin accent in the movie "JUNO"- this lady is HILARIOUS!

Alright so things have slowed down quite a bit around our house now that the holidays are over- (just thought I'd mention that I still have yet to put the Christmas decorations away- I hate the thought of unstringing the Christmas lights from the tree and boxing everything up).

I never mentioned what we did for New Years Eve, probably because it wasn't that "rockin'". If I remember right, we put the boys to bed at their usual bedtime and then I sat down on the couch to see what was on the news, but ended up falling asleep immediately. Spencer came in and woke me up about 5 minutes before midnight so I could see the ball drop on television. I managed to stay awake for another 10 minutes before crashing on the couch again.

I've decided that New Years just isn't that big a deal to me, since I'm not a drinker and I've never really partied hard on the evening. When I was younger, New Years Eve was an evening my parents especially liked to have us kids stick around home, since it was a guarantee that the San Diego streets and freeways would be littered with drunk, reckless drivers. A couple of times I remember going to some New Years Eve dances in Orange County for LDS Singles- those were kinda fun... until the DJ started playing Kool and The Gangs "Celebration song". Yeah- New Years isn't that big a deal to me especially now that I'm a wife and a mother. The last few years since I've been married, we've spent the evening with my side of the family ringing in the New Year with my nieces and nephews. Last year I remember we lied and turned the clocks forward an hour and tricked the kids into thinking it was midnight when really it was only 11pm just so we could get the party over and hit the sack. This year, my sisters and I got together with our families on Sunday, the day before New Years Eve and we partied then. We ate the classic "Truesdell" meal- Taco Salad- and then the kids had fun decorating sugar cones as Christmas Trees using frosting and a variety of candies. All the kids took great pride in their work, so they were a bit disappointed to find Noah eating some of their "trees" later in the evening. He had a hard time resisting the licorice rope my niece Tori strung as garland around her tree. He ate it all gone. He even took a big ol' bite out of his own tree! He a sucker for sweets.

Below is a picture from the evening. Noah's on the left eyeing Tori's tree. Sorry about the color of the picture- the lighting wasn't the best.

Noah's found himself in a little bit of trouble recently. Last week he found the container of pens we keep near our computer and he took a permanent marker and drew ALL OVER our new computer desk. He even used the marker to draw on a picture I had framed sitting above the desk (It was a picture of me and Spencer; he drew all over our faces, kinda as if he we were drawing hair and mustaches on our faces in an attempt to be funny)! He was only alone for no more than 5 minutes but he managed to do quite some damage. Fortunately, I was able to keep my cool and with a Clorox wipe and some elbow grease, and after 45 minutes of scrubbing, the markings were gone. Needless to say, anytime I leave Noah alone in the living room, I have to make sure and move the pens to a higher location- one he can't get to. I also have to remove the computer chair from the room and store it away while I'm not in there because he uses that as a climbing tool.

Noah's been pretty good lately about helping me clean up, but a few different times he's been "too helpful". Just yesterday I had my camera out because I needed to download some photos from it onto my computer. When I went to use it, I couldn't find it. I looked and looked everywhere for it, and after searching long and hard, I spotted it hanging from a branch on our Christmas tree! Another time, I had just written a check out for a bill I needed to mail; I left the check at the computer desk while I went to find an envelope. When I returned the check was missing! I searched and searched for the check and it wasn't until later in the evening that I thought to look over at our book case. Noah had used the check as a bookmark in one of our books; I spotted it just barely peeking out from the pages of book.

Speaking of books, Noah's always been good to get us our Book of Mormons when it's time for scripture study as a family just before bed, but he's never shown much interest in reading along with us. In the last week though, Noah has taken up interest in reading with us. He will repeat a verse word for word just after we've said it. It's so cute and dear to hear him say it.

He's still talking a lot. Sometimes, I understand immediately what he says and sometimes it will take me a minute or two to catch on. He's just coined the phrase "just give me a minute"; hmmmm, I think he picked that up from me since I probably say it to him a few times through out the day. Last night he also started calling me "tephie", not "mom"! It was probably a month or two ago he went through a phase of calling Spencer "pencer" and not "Dad", now it's my turn to be addressed by my first name I guess. He has a hard time saying words like "drum" or "share" or "grandma", and so on. I know there's an actual English term for words like these, but I can't think of its name right now. Anyhow, he can't pronounce the first two letters in the word- he'll just say "um" or "are" or "andma". The doctors warned before, while he was still young and just barely walking, that he'd probably need speech therapy as he grew older, I just didn't think much of it until now. I'll have ask his pediatrician what he thinks we should do at his next appointment. Speaking of appointments, we have quite a few booked for the next few weeks- gotta love visiting doctors offices! You get there on time, but still you have to wait at least another 30 minutes or sometimes an hour or two before actually being seen by the doctor. One of the appointments is for myself (hopefully the doctor will do an ultrasound early for me at 17 weeks and let us know what the sex of the baby is), one for Ian, one for both of the boys to get their 2ND flu shots, one for Noah at the Allergists, and Noah goes back into to see the Geneticists up at Children's Primary Hospital next week- hopefully it will be his last follow up there. In case you weren't aware, Noah's had quite a bit of medical intervention through out his short life. For the first year of his life, it practically felt like I had to take him into to see a different doctor or specialist almost every week! (I'm really not even exaggerating either). I haven't ever written down anything about Noah's history those first two years of his life. I suppose I should because I'm sure there's some things he would like to know in the future, such as all the adventures he had as a "wee one", and he really is "our little miracle".

I've commented before about how he LOVES TO DANCE and actually now his new thing is INSISTING that we get up and dance with him!!! He will have us stop whatever we're doing to dance with him if he hears a catchy tune on the television or the radio.
We finally fixed our car CD player that broke last year, the day after we brought our car home. Yes, the day after! We'd purchased our car the evening before and it had this great 5 disk CD player in it that worked great- great that is until the following morning when the player completely quit working for good. We took the car back to the dealer and instead of fixing the player themselves, they just wrote us out a check so we could take it to have it fixed anywhere we wanted. Well, we put things off for a while, and one year later, we finally decided to have it fixed. Not only does our CD player work now, but Spencer had some new fancy touch screen system installed that also plays movies along with other functions that are beyond my understanding. Noah's THRILLED about being able to watch movies from the dash in our car and "I kid you not", every time we have gotten into our car, even if it's just for a quick drive around the block, he asks for movie to be put on! He expects a movie in the car now, like a passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight expects a bag of peanuts! Modern day conveniences...

My son Noah, has acquired in his day a few "gross" tastes for things like bar soap, shampoo, lotion, bath water, pool water and just recently I can't get him to stay away from our jar of Resolin. (Resolin is butt paste, you know ointment for baby's bottoms when they have rashes). He doesn't eat a ton of it if he gets his hands on the jar, he just likes to sample it quickly- the rest of the time he'll smother it all over his face and hair. Gross huh?!!! Surprisingly he hasn't gotten sick.

Ian's had a few good bumps and bruises on his head in the last week. Noah will no longer climb into Ian's crib anymore, but he does like to throw ALL of his toys and his books into Ian's crib in the morning while Ian is still sleeping. I guess Noah just thinks he's doing Ian a favor by giving him things to stay entertained by; but I don't think he's considered the fact that a guitar or a xylophone are big and bulky enough to leave a bruise on Ian's ol' noggin... Poor Ian.

Ian's such a smiley baby, I just love it! Correction- he's always smiling and flashing his dimples, unless he's hungry, then he lets the Titans loose and screams bloody murder! He's finally beginning to get mobile. He's crawling a little- backwards that is- wrong direction I suppose, but at least he's moving.

We took Ian to get his hair cut for the first time the other day. He had just turned 8 months old, and sure, he didn't have much hair to trim- not even comparatively close to how much hair Noah had at just 1 month old, but Ian needed a little cleaning up around the ears and at the back of his neck. He didn't mind his haircut and he did really well. The "Mohawk" actually looks decent on him now.
Doesn't he look like such a chunk in this picture?!!!

Noah got his haircut too- this was like his "umpteenth" haircut! If anybody needs some good advice for how to keep a toddler still during a haircut, just get them a Jamba Juice. They'll drink it during the cut and stay totally still!

I had my hair cut and highlighted too. I decided to go for some change this time, and although I loved my hair long, I opted to go with a bob. Spencer likes to call my hair "The Bob" now. I haven't had my hair this short since my Senior Year in high school and Freshman year in college. My cut was inspired by one of Nicole Richey's hair cuts. I even got bangs cut. (By the way, just thought I'd add that Nicole Richey is NOT my inspiration or roll model for life). I like it short- it's easy to manage, and even if I hated it and wanted my hair long again, I know I won't have to wait long- I'm blessed with hair that grows pretty fast. My guess is it will be past my shoulders by summertime- just in time for "The Bob" not be cool and in style any longer.

So I just thought I'd add something here that I've observed recently. Apparently I'm BLESSED because both of my children like to SLEEP ALOT, especially Noah. I used to think for a while that parents with kids who would wake up at 7 in the morning and only take one nap during the day were few in numbers; but in talking to a lot of my friends recently I guess it's kinda the NORM for their kids to wake up at 6 or 7 in the morning. I don't know what I'd do if my kids woke up that early! I'd probably have to start drinking coffee and taking caffeine pills. (I'm totally kidding about that). Fact is, I'm awake sometimes that early in the morning, so it wouldn't be that big of a problem, but other days I can sleep in until 9 or 10 if I so choose to, because the boys are ALWAYS still asleep until then. The time they wake in the morning always raises the question among my friends- "Well what time do you put the boys to bed???". No joke- the boys go to bed at a reasonable hour during the evening too- anywhere between 8 and 8:30P.M. So they both sleep from between 8:30pm until 9:30, 10, sometimes 10:30 A.M.. If I get lucky, they don't wake up until 11 and while Noah was still just a baby, he'd sleep in until noon. Once they're awake in the morning, I'll get Noah his BRUNCH, (not breakfast, because by this time it's too late to call it that) consisting of a banana, a yogurt and occasionally an egg or toast; he'll eat his Brunch, Ian will drink a bottle and then I'll bathe the boys. At which this time, after they're both dressed, Ian usually will go back down for a nap which will last anywhere between an hour or two. By 2:30P.M. or 3P.M. both boys are ready for their afternoon naps and they'll sleep usually until 5P.M. or 5:30P.M. After which, once they're awake again, it's time to start making their dinner. We'll feed them, they'll play- I'll run any errands I might have to do that day and then by 8 or 8:30PM it's time for bedtime. That's our day! Both of the boys are pretty good about being able to sleep away from home and in their car seats, on days in which I have A LOT of errands to run and have to keep them away from home during nap time. I've always said that Noah's LETHARGIC- (as a baby until he was 18 months old, he used to sleep for 18-20 hours out of the day; I used to call him my "house cat" since that's the same amount of time that house cats sleep). Anyhow, some of my friends absolutely CAN NOT BELIEVE that both of the boys sleep this much, but it's true, THEY DO. I guess it's a rarity for parents and I consider myself LUCKY. ;) (Note: I truly think the fact they sleep so much is a TRUESDELL trait my boys have inherited. All of my nieces and nephews sleep ALOT and they don't function well if they're sleep time is cut short).

Spencer is still SUPER BUSY. I'm always saying that about him huh? Well it's true, he is. His work load is out this world right now- the company got a TON of orders over Christmas and the last two weeks. He took his G.R.E. on the 2ND. He said he "rocked" on the math part- getting an "above average" score, and he did "alright" on the English- getting an "average" score, and he still has yet to find out about the written part. I'm sure he did "Excellent" on the writing- he's really a good writer. That same week he turned in the first of his Grad school applications- another one is due next week sometime and the rest are due by the end of February.
He received his Bachelors Degree in the mail last Saturday morning. We opened it in, of all places, the bathroom. (The boys were in taking their baths and we were supervising). Spencer chose not to walk, he doesn't care for attention drawing ceremonies like that. His mom was a bit disappointed he wouldn't walk or wear a graduation robe for him to get his picture taken in, but I just chose to respect his wishes. He let me get video of him opening it and that was enough. His schooling is far from over despite getting his degree, this is just the first step; especially since he still has to complete graduate school.

So I spent a good day or two, sorting through pictures I had downloaded onto my computer over the last year and a half. I have thousands of pictures saved on my desktop and I've decided it's time to clear up some space on my hardrive. I've put off for too long developing any of these pictures, so I spent most of Tuesday and some of Wednesday choosing the best of our pictures I want to develop. I really tried to conserve and use good judgment- these pictures that would be printed are ONLY going to be used for scrap booking, but somehow I still managed to find myself with nearly 3,000 pictures in my Walmart Online Shopping Cart. (At 9 Cents a picture, my total before tax and processing fees came to just under $200)!!! I've resolved for this new year to print my pictures once every month and then clear them off of my computer and save them on a disk or a flash drive; that way we won't have to throw out a big chunk of change in having them developed like I have now. Also, I think after having spoken to a friend of mine, who is TOTALLY into SCRAPBOOKING, I'm going to start doing DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING, it might end up being cheaper for me that way.

I just noticed the other day in the mirror that I've got the adorable "Pregnancy Belly" now (I'm not too sure how "adorable" it is, but isn't that what everyone calls it?). There's no hiding it. I've always had a "belly" my whole life- when I was little, 2 or 3 years old, my shirts would never stay down over my belly, they'd always rise up and over it like Whinnie the Pooh's belly; My dad has a million pictures of me with ice cream and other food smeared all over it. I've always been able to hide my belly recently though- I can suck it in. Not now though- it's starting to take shape. Hopefully it doesn't take on TOO MUCH of a ROUND shape though. (By the way, I'm extemely shocked at how candidly I'm writing about my belly right now- where's my modest self???!) Anyhow, I'm feeling good these days too. Most of the sickness is over with. I'm still depending on Zophran though- half a pill in the morning, half a pill at night; it curves my ocassional sickness. I've gotten over my craving to drink a Sonic Strawberry Lime Slushee every day and eat a turkey and pickel wheat free sandwhich- now I'm more into eating my wheat free pretzels and drinking hot chocolate. I'm finally beginning to enjoy eating salads again too. I've discovered that with this pregancy I ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT EAT french fries- I've become more sensitive to foods like FRIES (that are fried in the same oil as onion rings and other flour battered foods are) with my wheat allergy this pregnancy. It's not too big of a disappointment though because hopefully it will help me keep any unnecessary weight off this pregnancy. (During my pregnancy with Ian, all I ever wanted to eat was fries and ice cream). I can't handle eating ice cream this time around- it makes me want to puke.

I went out to lunch this last Wednesday at Brazil Brazil in Orem, with a few Sisters from my ol' mission. I hadn't seen the girls for a while. Heidi looked fabulous and her little girl is SO CUTE- unfortunately Mae didn't care much for Noah; he was really overstepping his boundries with her and getting on her last nerve. I had to laugh at this; hopefully Heidi didn't think he was bullying Mae, he truely ment well. Janae look great too- she's prego too with her 3rd kid- just a week or two due after me. Of course she had no problem loosing baby weight with either of her first two kids, so I see it as being a bit unfair, but oh well, what can I do- that's her and this is me. Anyway- her two little kids- she has a boy and a girl are super cute. Her two year old little girl was very well behaved at lunch, I hoping she could be more of "HELLION" at lunch so Noah wouldn't look like the ONLY ONE. Not my luck though. Even Ian was being pretty IMPOSSIBLE to work with over lunch- he just wanted a bottle and wanted to go back to sleep, but there was no where to sleep. This restauraunt is a GREAT place, but there were only TWO HIGHCHAIRS in the whole place, and between all of girls, there were 5 kids who all should have been sitting in highchairs. Ian wouldn't sit up straight in the chair and he kept slipping out of it, so I let Heidi use it for her daughter and I tried to hold Ian. Ian was "ALL HANDS" and kept trying to grab my silverware or my soda- it distracted me a bit from keeping an eye on Noah, who was at my right pouring salt and pepper all over the table and into his soda and even pouring lime juice and tobasco sauce into it too. What is even more disgusting is that he liked drinking his "Spiked" Guarnana that way! There was quite a bit of screaming and yelling coming from the kids- mostly just from my kids- it's a surprise I was able to hear anything that the other sisters had to say. Next time we go out to eat, I think I'm leaving my kids at home. Lacy was at lunch with us too. She looked FABULOUS! She was definately sporting the "pregnancy glow". She's due to have her first baby in just a few weeks. I'm afraid after lunch Wednesday we may have made her a little nervous by how our kids were acting- again especially my kids. Anyhow, the food at BRAZIL BRAZIL is SO GOOD. I LOVE BRAZILIAN FOOD. I got quite a large meal, and barely had a chance at lunch with the girls to eat it, so I got a box to take it "to go" with me. I was super exciting about having it to eat later that night for dinner! I set the box on the front hood of my car while I buckeled the boys into their carseats, then somehow, I completely forgot about the box and DROVE AWAY WITH IT STILL ON THE HOOD OF MY CAR! I was totally embarassed because all of my friends probably wondered what in the world I was doing as I drove off with it still there- thankfully it was just food and not one of my kids- I think I probably saw it but thought it was probably just a hunk of snow stuck on the hood of my car. Needless to say, the box wasn't still there by the time I got home. Bummer too, I totally wanted those leftovers!
Janae's on the left front with her two kids, Lacey is behind her on the left, I'm on the back right with the boys, and Heidi's on the front right with her daughter.

Okay so in talking about my fellow Sisters I served with in Portugal, I'm a bit "trunky" for the place right now. I haven't been there for over 4 years and I still dream about it like I was just there yesterday. Only to make my "heartache" worse, one of my mission companions, Shara (formerly known as Sister Jackson) just went back there to visit for two weeks over Christmas. She's been posting pictures she took there along with summaries of how her trip went on her blog this last week, and while I LOVE reading her posts and seeing her pictures, it makes me a bit ENVIOUS and I totally want to go back there now!

So if anyone wants to generously donate to my PORTUGAL TRIP FUND, be my guest. I would totally appreciate it. Don't forget about my MAC FUND either. I'm beginning to sound a bit greedy huh? I can dream can't I??? Well, one of my dreams may actually come true today. I've been bugging Spencer for months now to get NEW COUCHES. I shouldn't complain about the ones we have, except that they're totally ugly and now that we have a toddler, there's water stains and food stains on our couches. Oh yeah, did I mention, Spencer had these couches for himself even before we got married, and these are the same couches I spent nearly all 9 months of my pregnancy with Noah on while I was dying sick hooked up to an IV 15 hours every day! They're pretty much shot. So I guess I've finally driven my point in good enough and TODAY Spencer has agreed to go looking for couches with me!!! Let's all pray he lets me get some new couches to swap out these old ones!!!

It's kinda funny, last Saturday we went up to Taylorsville to visit some old friends of ours we hadn't seen for a while. They used to live by us when we lived in our single apartment down in Provo; just recently though they bought their first home. It's super cute- totally "All American" looking. Anyhow, it was great to see them and catch up on things that occured and passed. I love talking to Adrianne because like myself, she's also from San Diego and she shares a bit of the same interests and annoyances I do. They had a new dog, a pug/terrier mix named "BUG" but they call him "BUGGY", that Noah absolutely LOVED playing with. (He woke up the morning after our visit there and asked my where Buggy was...) Ian even loved the dog and welcomed it with open mouth kisses- totally gross. Anyhow what's funny is I found myself for the entire evening eyeing their new sectional couch they'd bought. It was beautiful, especially compared to our old couches. Isn't that lame that I was totally drooling over their couches??? Oh well, what's the saying, "if you want it badly enough, there's a chance you'll get it" or something like that. I can only hope...

Okay so the last thing I thought I'd mention is about our "SNOW DATE" we had last Saturday. It's been snowing here a TON lately- infact, Wednesday we woke up and we'd gotten 8 inches of snow here in Orem over night! Noah's only been sledding once, (last year in January), and since Spencer's the KING of SLEDDING we dressed him up all nice and snug in his snow gear (he wore his snow suit from last year that is for 12 month olds, but it still fits him okay) and we drove down to south Provo to the Frisbee Golf Course off of State Street. Saturday also happened to mark the date 4 years and 1 day from the first time Spencer and I ever MET eachother. (That first date he took me sledding too, to the same park in Provo and then we got hot chocolate). Noah had a great time sledding- I took him down a couple of times. When Spencer took him he got a little more distance and speed than I did. I got most of the sledding on video; I only managed to remember to take one picture. Noah liked eating the snow- no problem I thought since it was fresh. We were celebrating a holiday for our family, "January 4th- the Day Spencer and Stephanie First Met".

If you haven't read the story of how we met, you'll have to check it out on this link to my blog http://www.sdgattinhaandctrpunk.blogspot.com , it's kind of a funny, semi embarrassing story.

So, there you have it- a COMPLETE update on the SINS. I'll let you know if we have any luck and find couches!

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