Still here...

Don't worry guys, you can call off the search party. I'm still alive and I've decided to return to the world of blogging. I was on hiatus there for a while. It felt good to be away from the computer, but then again, it feels good to be back and be able to unload my thoughts in this entry and account for the events that have taken place over the last four weeks.

The fam is doing well. We were all sick with the flu for two weeks. Ian was first to get sick, quickly followed by myself... Noah managed to ward off sickness for the first few days Ian and I were sick, but the bug managed to bite him too. Actually he was sick with the flu and with croup! He's no stranger to trouble with croup- this was the umpteenth time he's had it. The doctor treated his croup with a shot of steroids and soon thereafter Noah recovered. Just after I began to beat the flu I came down with a pretty bad sinus infection. It was miserable and for nearly a week I walked around the house like a zombie. Coughing fits kept me up most nights- looking back it's a surprise I still have both lungs; I can't tell you how many times Spencer told me to get out of bed at night cuz he thought I was going to cough up a lung! Surprisingly the only one in our family who didn't get sick was Spencer; good thing too- he was my "go getter" when we were out of Children's Tylenol or Pedialyte and I wasn't feeling well enough myself to run off to Rite Aid.

I thought I'd add that just after Noah and Ian finally started feeling better, I got a call from one of the other mothers in our ward following church one Sunday. Her youngest is in Nursery with Noah and apparently he had Hand Foot Mouth Disease (a common and highly contagious illness among infants and children). She thought she should warn me that since Noah and her child shared the same toys in Nursery, there was a good chance Noah would get sick too. I couldn't believe it! GOTTA LOVE NURSERY! Is it really a place worth sending our kids too?! It's a cesspool for germs and illnesses and EVERY mom SWEARS their kid first learned to hit, scream, spit or worse, say something like "NO" or "shut up" in nursery. Just last week Noah started to pinch us! We've NEVER pinched him, so WHERE IN THE WORLD did he learn it from?!!! I decided since we don't know where he learned this bad habit, we'll just lay the blame on nursery; surely no one will try to argue otherwise with me. Oh and by the way, Noah never did get the Hand Foot Mouth sickness, thank goodness.

I managed to keep my time while we were sick pretty well occupied. There were doctor appointments to keep, loads of laundry to be washed and folded, grocery shopping to get done (quite honestly I don't trust Spencer to do our grocery shopping- he's done it a few times in the past, and each time he has come home with gallon sized containers of maple syrup, 5 pound bags of pancake mix and boxes and boxes of Mac-N-Cheese or Captain Crunch cereal- he completely "forgets" to buy any produce at all; usually I only depend on Spencer to do the shopping when the fuel tank in our car is low and needs gas. I'll send him off to Costco to fuel up and buy water, toilet paper, diapers, wipes and baby formula.) Along with doing normal household chores (i.e. making beds, cleaning the bathroom, dusting and vacuuming or making meals) I also found the time to tackle tedious tasks like organizing boxes of pictures and keepsakes I've been keeping around the house- in fact I actually used my Cricut machine for the first time since getting it for Christmas to make labels for the storage boxes I keep all those things in. Below is a picture of my fancy new labels I made on the Cricut... I was quite pleased with the result.

I also cleaned out all of our wardrobes- we all had so many clothes we hadn't worn for so long that just needed to be sent off to D.I. (the donation center) where somebody else may appreciate and wear them more than we do. I'd already gone through the boys old boxes of clothing that they've outgrown 2 or 3 times before, but they still had more clothes than necessary, so I decided to downsize for them AGAIN. The following is a picture I took of just their infant clothes (0-9 months), piled on the right, that I decided we didn't need any longer and could be donated; might I add, a lot of the clothes of theirs we donated they never in fact ever wore- many of them still had their price tags!

I thought I would donate some of the boys unused or unwanted toys, but surprisingly there weren't any toys to be donated. I usually keep a close eye on their toy collection and I immediately get rid of a toy when I see it's broken or no longer played with. I did however have to spend an ENTIRE afternoon replacing the batteries in some of the toys. It amazes me how many of their toys require batteries to function- even more so, how quickly those batteries die cuz the darn toy doesn't have a power switch to power off when we're not using them! Here's a good tip I've found that works when a toy of theirs is missing pieces or parts: If the toy is still worth keeping around, you can usually contact the manufacturer of the toy and request that they send you replacement parts. Usually the manufacturer will agree to send you the pieces completely free of cost! I've done this a couple of times, even for cheap $10-$20 toys.

I cleaned out our food pantry too and organized what was left in it. It's funny cuz I had boxes and boxes of hard taco shells piled away on the shelves, and yet any time I find myself at the grocery store I mistakenly buy more because I think we're out of them at home. I do the same with cans of Black Beans & Jello. I guess I need to do inventory more often.

Our fabulous new couches finally arrived a couple weeks back! They're wonderful, just in case you were wondering. I didn't even shed a single tear saying "goodbye" to our old couches- who would after finding out that they were the same couches your husband used to furnish all of his old bachelor pads with- thus implying that not only he, but every one of his old roommates, laid on and probably even "made out" on them with their old girlfriends! Yuck!!! In fact, it was funny, because when one of Spencer's friends came to help him move the old couches, he couldn't help but laugh because he remembered EXACTLY what girls he used to make out with ON those couches! Anyhow, back to the topic, our new couches arrived and I LOVE THEM!!! I struggle a bit every time I have to get off of them because they're humongous and the cushions are the width of a twin size bed, and while I sit on them my feet barely touch the edge. Maybe I struggle more to get off the couches because of my big pregnant belly- I'll have to "compare and contrast" after this pregnancy to decide on that one. The couches are 100% Italian leather with down filled cushions-glorious- built to last for centuries; I'm sure our great grandchildren will be sitting on them years from now! I've fallen asleep on our new couches EVERY NIGHT since we've had them (thought I'd mention though, I usually do wake up around 2 A.M. and drag my butt into bed). Even Noah loves the couches and Ian just gets lost on them- there's no way he'll be rolling off these. We added a couple of throw pillows to the couches that are made of micro fibre- they do MAGIC on Ian's hair as you can see from this picture
I suppose it's a good thing that the sectional is made of leather and not micro fibre, otherwise Ian may always look like that while sitting on them! Doesn't he look like the marshmallow man from Ghostbusters in that picture??? I swear he doesn't really look like that- it's just a bad pic- worth a good chuckle though.

Here's a picture of our fabulous couches! There's an open invitation for anyone wanting to come over and test them out.

Enough with the couches- seems kinda ridiculous I've talked about them so much- I had quite a bit of rearranging and redecorating to do once they arrived. I let days prolong into weeks before I actually got around to doing it. I absolutely hate hanging pictures and things similar; I find myself always wishing I had a professional decorator to do that work for me. (I watch too many design makeover shows on HGTV). Just last week Noah was playing around and he ran head first into a little end table/storage thingy we picked up a while ago from IKEA for just $30 and he managed to do some damage. He actually blew a big chunk of wood off the siding. I love IKEA, but I can't deny the fact that their stuff is pretty cheaply made- I suppose it's a good thing the end table was cheap for us to buy. Here's a picture of it- you gotta take a close look to notice. Maybe he'd be good at martial arts...I'm happy to report that Noah's head was fine- he didn't even get hurt! Once I got everything hung and in place, it was nice, because one of the back rooms where we keep our treadmill was a little more free of clutter that I have had stored in there. It's no wonder I haven't used the treadmill much lately- all the clutter in the room it's in drives me NUTS! I absolutely HATE clutter and my mind won't function when I'm in a mess!!! Call it O.C.D., call it whatever, I'm just weird like that.

I managed to slip in some R&R while I was sick- or maybe I should rephrase that; I tried to relax. I watched quite a few movies. I caught "BeetleJuice" playing on television late one night- I hadn't watched it since it came out in theaters when I was younger. That movie's just weird- I can't believe our parents actually let us watch it either! I watched "Elizabeth- The Golden Age"- I loved it! Another good movie I watched was "Gone, Baby Gone"- the edited version. If you have a chance to watch this movie I suggest you do!!! I really, really liked it. I watched "Rendition"- the edited version- and thought it was well made. Another movie I watched a while back was "Kingdom"- I loved it, but it was pretty intense. I know it was just a Hollywood Film depicting what they think war and life in the Middle East is like, but WOW, I get the impression it's totally a different WORLD there!!! I saw the "Heartbreak Kid"- EDITED, featuring my favorite male actor, Ben Stiller as the lead- this film was hilarious but kinda had a strange ending that made me say "LAME" at the end; and I also watched "Super Bad"- EDITED- and nearly cried laughing through out the whole movie- but then again, the way it ended left me a bit disappointed. "Death at a Funeral" was hilarious! I watched "Martian Child", not particularly my favorite and usually I love John Cusak films and "Becoming Jane" was another movie I watched but wasn't impressed with- I suppose that's because generally I think Jane Austins literary works are a drag. We also watched A LOT of Disney movies at Noah's request.

We actually went opening weekend to watch "Horton Hears a Who". The book has always been one of my favorite books- I LOVE DR. SEUSS; I'd actually already been collecting some "Horton" things for Noah's room LONG before I knew they were ever making a movie out of it. The film was HILARIOUS and the boys LOVED it- I would see it again in a heart beat! You gotta see it whether or not you have kids of your own to take in tow. I'm sure you've seen by now IHOPS commercial advertising their "Horton Hears a Who" breakfast. We decided to take the boys there for dinner a few days before we went to watch the movie and we ordered the meal for Noah. He LOVED it!!! I must admit, if I were a kid too, I would think it was pretty "cool", which actually happened to be Noah's EXACT words when the waitress brought his meal out to him. In fact, he thought the stack of pancakes were birthday cakes! He ate every bite of his meal- something he NEVER does! He even drank his entire drink which looked really neat too! In fact, I asked the waitress what it was made of, and she said it was just Sprite and cubes of blue and red Jello mixed together. I thought it sounded fairly simple to make so I decided to prepare it as a special treat for Noah at our family dinner the Sunday just before St. Patricks Day. It was the same night I decided to make the traditional "poor mans" Irish meal in honor of a family tradition I grew up with. The cabbage and potatoes tasted fine, but it was my first time cooking a Corned Beef Brisket and I think I over salted it just a tad TOO much. Oh well, there's always NEXT St. Patties day when I can try my Irish luck at making Corned Beef again.

I mentioned that I collect "Horton" things for Noah's room; another thing I like to collect for the boys are things with giraffes on them- they have giraffe blankies (Noah refers to his blankie as his "raffe"), giraffe booties, giraffe bibs, Noah has a giraffe back pack and we even have books and music about giraffes. I guess we're just a family of giraffe fanatics and I'm not even sure what the obsession started with! Anyhow, here's the latest: I've always had one of these giraffe growth charts for Noah, but just recently I decided to buy two more, one for Ian and one for the new baby so that they can each have their own. I hung the charts on their bedroom door and now it looks like we have a Mecca for giraffes in our home... What do you think? Maybe one of our sons will grow up to be a zookeeper. I can only hope...

The weather has been beautiful lately- Spring's arrived and after a long winter, it appears as though it's finally over. The flowers have begun to poke through the grass' surface- I can hardly wait to see the yard filled with tulips! It seemed pretty awkward we celebrated Easter before any of the flowers in the yard bloomed. Now that the snow is melted and it's a bit warmer outside, I try my best each day to get the boys out on either a walk around the neighborhood in their wagon (our neighbor across the street has an orchard and chickens that roam around, and another neighbor a block away has a llama, an emu and a goat that Noah likes to watch) or we'll visit the park. One of the parks we frequent is the park situated directly behind Mountain View High School and the Rec center. The first couple of times we went there, Noah thought we were actually going to go swimming- he must have an excellent memory because that Spring and Summer just before he turned ONE, we used to walk over to the Rec center nearly EVERY day to go swimming- but we haven't been there since and that was over a year and a half ago. Any how, Noah always has a great time at the park when ever we go. He avoids all of the small slides that are intended for kids his age and spends most of his time sliding down the really TALL slides- the ones that are meant for older kids. He's a bit more courageous than I ever gave him credit for before and sometimes at the park I find myself wishing he were a bit less brave- I can't help but see playground equipment as potential sources for injuries like broken bones, scraped knees, or worse, STITCHES. I can only wonder how I'll react when that first day comes that one of our boys gets seriously hurt.

The following picture below is of Noah and Grandpa Campbell working in the garden. Noah was SO excited on this day to wear his giraffe gardening gloves and boots and use his mini sized garden rake!

I had to take Noah out of Soccer Lessons since it was an 8 week course and he was sick for two of those weeks. We'll put him back in soccer lessons again in mid-April when the next 8 week course starts up again. Mean while, I think I'll look into getting him signed up for swimming lessons over at the Rec center. Usually he takes his swims lessons during the summer just after all of the outdoor pools have opened, but I'm expecting the new baby then and I don't really want to have to mess with lessons at that point in my pregnancy.

We've been busy on the weekends attending parties of all sorts for friends and family members. My niece Kirstyn was baptized the first Saturday in March; we celebrated Grandma Campbell's birthday the last weekend in February. One Saturday afternoon, Noah and I attended a FABULOUS birthday party for my niece Tori at a fun salon situated in Draper that is meant for "Tween" girls; it's called Sweet & Sassy. We all met at my sister's house in American Fork where a huge PINK limo picked all the girls up to take them to the party location. After a little convincing from my sister I decided to let Noah drive in the limo with the girls. The limo was a bit of any eye sore, but it was evident the younger girls didn't seem to think so- they all LOVED it, especially since it had multiple flat screen t.v.'s mounted inside of it that played Hannah Montana music videos during the duration of the car ride to and from the salon. I was informed by the girls that Noah had a GREAT time riding in the limo!

At the salon, my niece and her friends were pampered by stylists who did the girls hair, their makeup and their nails!(my niece Rayanne and Alana are getting glammed up in this picture) They even got to sort through a HUGE closet of fancy ball gowns and dress up. It was a little girls paradise! (Here's the birthday girl, my niece Tori- she's definitely not camera shy!) Noah was a bit nervous with all pink that surrounded him and all the giggling girls made him a little uneasy. He found a makeup chair off on the side of the room and sat there quietly while the girls got glammed up. Noah has fabulous hair and lots of it, and although the girls all wanted to see him get his hair done I decided against it; I did however ask a hairstylist to spray glitter on his mohawk and all the girls thought that was pretty cool. It was pretty punk rock! Here's a picture of Noah showing of his glittery mohawk- he's not trying to be goofy in the picture, that really is his new "cool" smile- kinda cheesy and "piratish" but he's convinced it looks HOT and I can't seem to as of lately get him to smile any other way!

After the girls were finished with their makeovers, it was time to do some dancing, a round of "limbo" and a fashion walk. Noah had a hard time knowing what to make of all of this- I could see in his mannerisms he felt just a "bit" awkward at Sweet & Sassy. I don't think he knew what the salon meant by their slogan, "Get Your Girl On", nor did he care to know. He did however take a couple of strolls down the runway and he even participated in the "limbo" game. The girls couldn't help to keep their hands off of Noah- they all thought he was so cute and he got plenty of hugs and kisses from them at the party; he didn't seem to mind the extra attention.

What's a party without cake??? My sister actually had these huge cupcakes made for the party- the kids all loved them! Noah especially liked his lollipop that was on the cupcake. (Here's another picture of the birthday girl and her crew of friends. The two girls on the back row, left side, are my nieces Alana & Rayanne, and my other two nieces are seated off to the left of Noah on the front row, Tori & Kirstyn.) Gotta love that silly smile of Noah's!

I have to laugh, because another place that Noah clearly felt awkward in that I took him to just recently was Victoria Secrets. I'm not sure whether it was all the pink in the store that made him nervous- (it's possible the color even makes him nauseous) but maybe it was all the perfumes and lingerie. Anyhow, my visit there was just a brief one, and usually when I take Noah into a store with me he likes to touch things or pull things off of shelves- but not in Victoria Secrets. It was obvious he was COMPLETELY out of his comfort zone! He hid behind me and held onto my leg the whole time while we were in the store. He couldn't keep his embarrassment hidden; he was blushing A LOT! I'll have to be more careful from now on I suppose and use better judgment before I take him into some stores. He IS getting OLDER and he IS a BOY...

I had fun a couple weeks ago when I decided to get a makeover done. I figured it was time to ditch the old makeup I'd been using and buy all new stuff- but before I did I had a consultant in Nordstrom's do a makeover on me. I liked what I saw and bought the new look. I was a little worried she'd mention my premature wrinkles around my eyes and try to suggest some fancy cream for them; I'd had a friend from college, whose name I'll keep anonymous, (you know who you are though Danielle), oopps that slipped; anyhow, I remember she told me once that it was obvious for a stranger to tell I was from California because I had wrinkles around my eyes from squinting into the sun too much!!! I'm not sure how serious she was, but I've believed her for years since then and I really thought that my face was full of wrinkles so imagine the utter shock I had when the makeup artist told me I had nice, wrinkle free skin with fairly little sun damage! Her compliment was greatly appreciated by me. It's always fun to pamper oneself and this just happens to be how I prefer to be pampered. I get a thrill when I buy fancy new makeup brushes and fabulous lip glosses!

We also all got haircuts last week. This was Noah's millionth time getting his hair cut- he knows the routine by now and he'll sit perfectly still for our hairdresser with out us even having to ask him to- no fits from him thank heavens. Ian was in dire need of a good cut; his hair was getting pretty scraggily. This was only his 2nd haircut so I was a bit worried he wouldn't cooperate but surprisingly he didn't fuss either. Now that he's had a trim his hair is looking a lot more blonde than it did before- I like his hair blonde. I suppose his hair color will just continue getting lighter as we spend more time outside in the sun, especially with summer just around the corner. Would you believe me if I said Spencer pitched a tantrum for the hairdresser???!!! Okay, well of course he didn't- wouldn't that be funny though? Spencer just got the normal cut and I just had my roots touched up and a little trim done. I like short hair- it's much easier to manage, but I've decided that I think I'd like to grow my hair out again, at least while I'm preggers and post pregnancy until all the baby weight comes off. I'm annoyed of looking at my pictures with my short hair and only seeing a "cheeky" face.

I thought I would TRY and find some CUTE maternity clothes to buy since I'm beginning to outgrow all of my "normal" clothes. I never shopped much at maternity stores before with my previous pregnancies. I had a couple of maternity clothes but rarely wore them because they always proved to be too big for me even when I was 9 months pregnant and ready to pop! If I began to outgrow clothing, I usually just bought clothes a size or two bigger than I was used too and they'd suit my needs. My pregnant belly now is already pretty round and I thought I'd dare to embark on the venture of finding cute/fashionable clothing for pregnant women. I began my shopping trip as an optimist- I thought I'd find at least a few cute things to buy, but after an entire afternoon at the mall I've decided maternity clothing is still how our mothers explain it was for them in their time while they were all pregnant too: frumpy and ugly. I visited Motherhood where everything was striped, made out of nylon material, or fluorescent green or pink. I thought I'd try to see what Gap Maternity had to offer but apparently they only sell clothes to pregnant women who are expecting septuplets! Okay, I'm over exaggerating obviously- but all the clothes there were REALLY big and nothing was sewn to show off my silhouette- (not that I think it's hot really)- all the clothing just hung loosely like Bo-ho clothing, and everything was either black, grey or white. I'd like a little pop of color in my wardrobe. (Note: I hope I haven't offended anyone who likes to shop at either of these two stores). I visited Old Navy to see what they had in their maternity section, but it was pretty sparse. Either they don't offer much or there must be A LOT of expectant moms in Utah County who are all shopping at Old Navy too! Help!!! I need someone to tell me where I can actually find CUTE maternity clothes, especially cute tops before I'm forced to wear my husbands basketball shorts and his tee shirts all day long... oh wait I do that anyways- oh well, I'm open for suggestions. Evidently it's not cool for me to shop at Pac Sun anymore while I'm pregnant and just buy everything in large- the sales clerk there the other day gave me a questionable look as if to imply "what in the world do you think you'll find in this store to fit your pregnant belly?!". She didn't say it, but I knew it was what she was thinking.

I think it should be a commandment that NO ONE EVER should approach a pregnant woman and tell her she looks like she's due any day. I haven't exactly had someone approach me and say exactly that, but close enough. About a month ago our Relief Society President came up to me at the beginning of Relief Society and asked me again for the third time during this pregnancy when I'm due. (I should just write out my due date on a piece of paper and hang it around my neck for those people who wonder about it). Anyhow, before I could answer her, she asked if it was in a month- "uhhhh- try again- how about in June...".!!! Okay so I reminded her of my due date- I thought she wrote it down and put it in her records. I couldn't keep from wondering if I really looked THAT pregnant in the dress I was wearing so I've decided to avoid wearing that dress since then due to that incident... Okay, so about two weeks ago, we had a change in our Relief Society Presidency and a new president was called. I've never ever even talked to this sister ever before, and before I sit down in Relief Society she comes up to me and says, "So you're just about due any week now right?!!!" (She was smiling of course). I asked her what she meant by "any week" and she explains she thought I was due towards the end of March. Again, "ummm, no," I respond "my youngest son right now is still 9 months old- I didn't get pregnant the day after having him!" I tried to be polite when I answered her, but I was pretty steamed up inside! Thus to say for now, our new and our old Relief Society Presidents are not my favorite sisters in the ward. I think I'll avoid them from now on until after the baby is born.

Now that my belly has gotten rounder, Noah finally understands that I'm going to have another baby. Sometimes he thinks he has a baby in his belly too, especially after he eats a lot and his belly is bloated. This pregnancy has definitely been the easiest of all three of my pregnancies. Occasionally I still am sick and need to vomit but I only have to take Zophran once, maybe every couple of days as opposed to every day, twice a day. This baby's pretty active- noticeably less active though than Ian was but still more active than Noah was- maybe he'll have a good mix of both Noah and Ian's personalities.

Over the last month I've been getting up earlier in the mornings than I am normally used to, so by afternoon when the boys lay down for their naps I'm usually ready for a short nap too because I'm exhausted! It hasn't been easy chasing a toddler around the house and carrying a chunky baby to and from where ever it happens to be I need to go next. I think I may have exaggerated before in the past about how BIG Ian was however, because when he was weighed two weeks ago at the doctor's office he was only 23 pounds. I may have said in a previous post that Ian was 26 pounds or something near that. I'm not denying that he's a big boy- he still is, especially since Noah's only 3 pounds heavier and he's 20 months older than Ian- but Ian's pretty well proportioned and I don't want anyone who hasn't seen him recently to misunderstand and think he's just a big, obese baby. Actually, he's still really long- he's in the 98th percentile for height and the 85th percentile for weight. Noah on the other hand- well, his chubby cheeks may mislead you and cause you to think he's fatter than he really is, but he's still on the low end for both his weight and his height(I think he may have just had a growth spurt finally though-cuz he looks just a little bit taller than he did a week ago). The Portuguese had a word they used for babies who were chubby that I loved, "flufflino" (I'm sure I totally mispelled that word, but at least that's how I'd spell it phonetically). Noah's just a bit "flufflino" folks. I have to be a bit careful buckling or strapping things onto my boys. A few weeks back I accidentally caught the chub from Ian's inner thigh in his seat buckle- ooops, my bad- I promise it won't happen again; just yesterday I pinched some of the chub under Noah's chin while I was trying to snap on his bike helmet. Bigger ooops!!! I'll definitely be more careful with belts, snaps and buckles from here on out.

The boys have been doing well. Ian had a minor surgery 2 weeks ago to correct his blocked tear duct. He had to be sedated for a little bit before and while they preformed the surgery. He recovered well and he hasn't had problems with his right tear duct getting goopy since. He will however have to have follow up visits at the ophthalmologist through out this next year to see whether or not he'll need to be fitted with glasses. Apparently he may have problems with his vision in his right eye.

He's grown and changed so much over this last month- especially in the last two weeks! He FINALLY began CRAWLING!!! It happened two weeks ago, just two days after he turned 10 months old. For the first couple of days he moved like a sloth on the ground- very slowly; after a couple days of practice, he's been getting around pretty quickly though- he reminds me of a rhino when he's after something he really wants! It wasn't long after he began crawling that he also started pulling himself up to standing position along the sides of things. Here he is standing at his school bus.
A few days after hitting that milestone he began walking along furniture and now today he was trying to crawl up the stairs. He didn't quite get that figured out just yet, but I'm sure in another week he'll have the stairs mastered. It's so fun to have a baby crawling around the house again. It's a bit troublesome, but crawling babies are just so darn cute!!! Ian likes to follow us everywhere, and I just observed yesterday morning while watching him, that he'll crawl from room to room just after waking up in search of remnants of food that Noah may have dropped on the carpet. He's a speed demon on the carpet if there's food as bait!

Just the other day, I told the boys it was bath time, and before I knew it, Ian had crawled into the bathroom and pulled himself up to standing position outside of the bathtub! He was READY for his bath and he even managed to beat Noah into the bathroom- surprise! Here he is ready in waiting.

It's so fun to watch him as he discovers and learns new things!!! He just started a couple weeks ago saying "Momma". I love hearing him babble it. He can say "Dadda" too, but he prefers to say "Momma" more often. He's always been a "Momma's boy". Today he started waving "hi"- it's so precious to see his chubby hands make that motion... He just got his first two bottom teeth in over this last month and he surprises me by with what foods he can actually chew now. He prefers to feed himself and he likes to eat almost anything- cooked asparagus, green beans, pineapple, cut up strawberries, cheese sticks, pieces of hot dog and bread. He's a bread lover- hopefully he doesn't get unlucky and develop a gluten intolerance like I have. Ian actually eats quite a bit at meal time; he easily can eat more food than Noah. I guess he's a growing boy! Here he is eating bread, mango and a stick of cheese! He's a hoot!

Every night just before we go downstairs to get the boys ready for bed, (usually just after they've eaten dinner) Noah has to count stairs while Spencer's parents watch and count with him as he descends. He's gotten REALLY good at counting because of this. Here's a picture of Spencer with the boys counting stairs- notice I have Noah and Ian dressed alike- I dress them alike occasionally just because it's fun and I can. Cute huh? By the way, did you notice in the picture another one of Noah's cheesy grins???

Now that he's mobile, the boys play a lot more together. It's really nice because now Noah has a playmate right here at home and he doesn't always have to beg either Spencer or I to play with him. Ian adores all of the additional attention he gets from Noah while they're playing together. Noah's so silly, I catch him calling Ian "cute" ALL THE TIME- exactly in same tone we call Ian cute. It surprised me the other day though because I overheard Noah call Ian a "piggy". Not in a demeaning manner, but like a pet name. I didn't know he even knew the word, but my guess is he overheard Spencer at one time jokingly call Ian a "piggy" and thought it was okay to call him also. I quickly corrected him. I certainly don't want to see Ian develop any complexes as he gets older because Noah called him a pig at 10 months old!

One of the funniest things I should comment on is how the boys play together at night just after we lay them down for bed or early in the morning before we've gone in to let them out. They'll entertain each other for hours sometimes. We'll lay them down to sleep at 7:30, and sometimes I'll hear them in their room 2 hours later chuckling or Noah will be playing the harmonica! I'll open the door, turn on the light and there Ian is, sitting up in his crib, with his feet dangling out the side of his crib and his hands gripped around the bars, just watching his brother in utter amusement. Sometimes though Ian will actually be in standing position in his crib, jumping and bouncing up and down on his mattress. He gets a real kick from doing this! Noah will usually have emptied out his toy box or taken books off of his bookshelf, and a lot of times I'll catch him dancing around the room in an attempt to entertain Ian. On a couple of occasions, Noah was smart enough to turn on the lights in his room after we put them to bed. We wouldn't notice the lights were on sometimes until hours later after we'd pass by their room! I had to put a stop to that, so I decided to cover his light switch with masking tape to keep him from switching on the lights at indecent hours of the night. I also had to take the doorknobs off of his closet doors because he began opening those during the night and taking all the clothes out of it or toys I'd hidden in there.

It's really started to become a CIRCUS putting the boys to bed recently. I think Noah would go to sleep just fine; Ian's an instigator for trouble though! I've actually heard him from outside their door babble for 40 minutes or so until he manages to disturb and wake Noah up from sleeping and then that's when the "trouble" begins and they start playing around! Noah's upset Ian though plenty of times through the night... He's our bottle snatcher. He'll reach into Ian's crib while Ian's drinking his bottle and snatch his bottle right out from his hands!!! He'll then proceed to drink the rest of Ian's bottle and sometimes he'll hide the bottle under his sheets at the foot of his bed so we won't see it, or he'll throw it back in the crib with Ian!!! He's really perfected the art of bottle snatching- Spencer and I don't quite know how to keep him from doing it and we don't want to have to separate them into different rooms. Hopefully Noah will retire from "bottle snatching" here soon before we're FORCED to separate them...

Noah's matured quite a bit in the last month too. I was just telling Spencer the other day, I noticed that Noah actually has more "understandable" conversations with us now rather than just babbling gibberish to us. One of his favorite things to say at the moment is "No Way", and last night Spencer and I had a good laugh over something he said just after we asked him to stop being silly and settle down for family prayer- he said, and I quote, "CALL ME CRAZY" with a big pirate grin. He still counts a lot- 9 is still his favorite number- and he's even beginning to recognize his colors and shapes. It still amazes me how quickly young kids learn!!! He's gotten much better about following directions too and he's become a great little helper. He's usually fabulous about cleaning up his toys when I ask him too. In fact, I think he's very meticulous about keeping things clean and organized-I suppose he inherited that quality from me... Today I had to take him to the dentist for his 6 month check up. I wasn't really looking forward to the visit, imagining he'd pitch a fit and make the trip miserable- but he surprised me and sat down in the patient chair all on his own and followed the dentist' instructions 100%. Oddly enough, he seemed to enjoy his visit there! He's discovered his voice and now he likes to sing. It was cute, cuz about a week ago, I was in the bathroom, getting ready for the day and from down the hallway I could hear him singing to the theme song from a Disney show called "Little Einstein's"! I wish I had it tape recorded.

Regretfully I still haven't bothered to potty train him and it's not that he hasn't been ready, I've just been avoiding it. I'm afraid that once I start we'll never be home and that's the worse thing to do to a little kid when they're first potty training. I think he needs to be around home at least for the first week so he feels comfortable using our toilet. I should have done the training while we were all sick and home bound. I guess I wasn't thinking. Anyhow, I experienced a parent's nightmare the other day. It was morning and Noah had been eating breakfast. I was on the computer reading the CNN news headlines when Noah comes up to me and tells me he's poopy. I kinda ignored him for a second- I figured I'd change his diaper just as soon as I was finished with what I had been reading, but he caught me mid sentence when he started to wave his hand that was covered in POOP in front of my face! He had reached into his diaper and covered his whole hand in POOP!!! So gross!!! You can probably imagine how quickly I jumped out of my chair and swept him into the bathroom where I scrubbed him down head to toe in the bathtub! Ugggh! The memory of that incident still makes me want to gag!

He's been OBSESSED lately with pirates. I think his obsession may be engrained in him, considering he was born September 19th, International Talk Like A Pirate Day. I bought a bunch of pirate stuff 6 months ago for his 2nd birthday party and now he wants to wear it All the time. I also have a c.d. that has pirate music on it, including Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme park song- and he plays it any chance he gets. I really need to get it on tape when he's singing along to it- all he really knows of the lyrics is "Yo ho, yo ho" and that's about it. We even read his book "Peter Pan" at least twice a day because he can't get enough of Captain Hook! (I wish he'd had been fascinated with Hook 6 months ago at his birthday party when Spencer dressed up like him- I would have liked to have gotten better pictures than those I have of him screaming because Hook scared him). After listening to his pirate c.d. so much lately, I'm in the mood to go to Disneyland. I think we'll go soon- probably with in the next 2 or 3 weeks. Spencer and I are still planning on taking a trip to California, we just need to sit down and actually finalize our plans. I can't wait to see the beach again!!!

Spencer's doing well. He keeps busy with work. It's March Madness right now, so he's been following his favorite teams in college basketball, and he's also been watching lots of Jazz games in the evenings. He can't wait to see their team make it to the NBA playoffs. I'm hoping they don't get too far in the playoffs, only because I HATE watching basketball, but please don't tell Spencer what I'm hoping for- I'm afraid he'll be disappointed in me. I try to support him and enjoy the same things he likes, but I just haven't found anything I like about basketball. I'm excited baseball season is just beginning! I actually like watching baseball and going to baseball games.

We went out to dinner and to a Jazz game just the other night when they played at home against the New Orleans Bobcats. We had 12th row seats, they were fabulous! I think the fact that we had lower bowl tickets made the game more enjoyable for me to watch. I had a good time and actually I think I would like basketball a lot more if I could ALWAYS be at games instead of watching them on television. Here's a picture of Spencer and me at the game (pardon the big lady whose standing in between us- we didn't know she wanted to be in the picture too); oh and by the way, if I look a little tired, that's because I was. I'd taken 2 benadryl just before the game started and right after going out to eat; I'd eaten some french fries and occasionally I'll start to have an allergic reaction to them if the fries were fried in the same oil as other battered food- I can never be sure so I take benadryl as a precaution as to not go into a state of anaphylaxis.

We have heard back from 2 of the 3 schools that Spencer applied to. He was admitted to all 3 schools, but denied a place in 2 of the 3 schools Graduate Writing Programs. Kinda a bummer... Now we're only waiting to hear back from Bowling Greens Department of English in Ohio to see if they'll accept and offer him a scholarship for tuition. It's the most difficult of all three schools programs to be accepted to, but Bowling Green has been the best at keeping in touch with us as they evaluate his application. We haven't completely given up hope just yet.

At this point I've decided I don't really care either way whether he gets into school or not. It seems PRACTICAL for me to WANT to see him get into a writing program at a university this fall, that way he's on track to getting his Masters degree and that much closer to becoming a professor like he'd like to be; but I just heard a couple weeks back on the news that while the economy and the housing market are doing poorly, so are universities. The cost of college tuition is increasing dramatically and less and less states and private lenders are offering student loans. If a kid does qualify for a loan, the interest rate on that loan is extremely high, and I'm not sure right now is the best time for us to acquire debt like that in student loans- especially with how the economy's been looking. In sum, I'm trying to say that maybe if Spencer doesn't get into Grad school for now it could be a blessing in disguise and other possibilities for our family could be just around the corner. Thankfully the business he shares with his brother is doing really well for now.

We have decided that if he doesn't get into Graduate school we will buy a house. Why not? It's a buyers market and we have no other payments to make such as on car loans, etc. Spencer's started to look casually at what's posted online for here in Utah County but we won't start the real hunt until closer towards the end of summer just after the baby's born and when prices on homes are more likely to plummet again.

We finalized things with our life insurance policies a couple of weeks back. I was a bit perturbed because my policy cost just a little bit more than it should because the life insurance company said my blood cholesterol level was border line high...! Tell me how that makes sense when everything else says I'm healthy and my blood pressure is ALWAYS just BELOW normal. Our agent said it was possibly borderline high because I was pregnant, so I decided to ask my doctor about it at my follow up visit. My doctor told me that a pregnant woman should NEVER have her blood cholesterol tested because it's always going to be completely inaccurate. It can be raised 20-40% during pregnancy! After hearing this fact from my doctor I immediately got back in touch with our life insurance company, but they didn't want to negotiate, so it looks like for now over the next year I'll be paying a higher rate thanks to being pregnant; don't worry though, I can get another physical done next year to see if we can adjust my payment rates.

I was also a bit upset about our life insurance policies because the company denied Noah of any coverage. Apparently his medical history didn't qualify him as a candidate for coverage. He's had too much medical intervention through his short life span. I wanted to cry literally when our agent told us this! How should I feel any sense of security that Life Insurance promises to its customers when one of my own children is left out off the policy?!!! Stupid life insurance and health insurance companies!!! Something is definitely wrong with how they operate when the sick or those who are more in need of help can't get coverage. My sister told me I needed to watch the documentary "Sicko"- I still haven't yet- I'm just afraid it will make me MORE upset with insurance companies. Any how I guess in 2 or 3 years we can try to add Noah to our policy again... Dumb...

Okay, so I think I've mentioned all the highlights of our last month together as a family. We've definitely had our memorable moments. Thanks for reading along.

Oh by the way, in case you were curious, I did stay up late the last Monday night to watch the season premier of "The Hills". I mentioned before in a previous post that I was expecting to have "Hills" viewing parties but it doesn't look like that will be happening this season...bummer too, because we have the perfect viewing amenities-a big comfy couch and a great big television to watch it on- did I mention also I love playing hostess??? A couple of my "Hills" buddies have moved and my neighbor who also likes to watch it just had a baby last week so she won't be over to watch it with me anytime soon. Ahhh well. C'est la Vie! I guess it's their loss, maybe I can convince Spencer to watch it with me. I have found another show I love to watch- "John and Kate, plus 8"- it's on TLC. Does anyone else other than myself watch it???