Locks of Love...

...Now has my hair! I cut off 10 inches (minimum donation length), and after it was cut, the stylist stepped back and asked "do you need to cry?" But I like it! It's a good change. A little short for me, but I'm glad I did it. One more goal down. I think I donated more hair than I have left on my head.

Spiritual applications by Carly

Today Carly and I were looking at this picture:


I asked Carly who she thought was in the picture, and she immediately identified Jesus.
I asked her who Jesus was talking to, and she pointed to the man under the rag tent.
I explained that the man was sick and that Jesus was going to make him feel better.
I asked Carly how she thought Jesus was going to make the man feel better.

Carly thought for a second, and then said confidently that Jesus was going to put the man to bed and turn on the wind (humidifier).

Delight

Carly got a big treat today. Mommy let her dump out the cumbs and remnants at the bottom of the animal cookie bag, and lick them all up!

Can you imagine how exciting that is??

Piggy jammies and the offending little piggies

At bedtime, mommy let Carly pick out her own pajamas. Carly had a very specific request: her piggy jammies. Unfortunately she outgrew her piggy jammies last year. But Carly insisted, and mommy dug them out.

Once Carly got them on, she discovered that the piggy jammies hurt her toes. Mommy had a great idea that she had heard from her veteran mommy friends. So she got out a pair of scizzors, and did some jammie surgery.

Carly was devastated!

She kept screaming and crying that she wanted her jammies all fixed. Mommy kept explaining that the piggy jammies were now permanently toe-less. Carly decided in a fit that the only solution was to take the offending toe-less jammies off. Now! Mommy probably wasn't very helpful with all the picture taking of the melt down in progress. The camera went away at this point.

Once the jammies were off, and thrown in the trash, Carly and mommy started from square one picking out new jammies. But at the mention of new jammies, Carly broke down again, deciding that she really did want the piggy jammies. No others would do.

Piggy jammies came out of the trash and back onto her little body. The moment they were all the way on, she looked down and remembered their utter toe-less-ness, and the tantrum ensued once more. Mommy offered to throw them away again, but Carly insisted instead that we needed bandaids, and lots of them. She cried, "Mommy, you fix them? You put on bandaids?" over and over and over again. But me writing this sentence doesn't convey the absolute pathetic tone with which she just sobbed this plea. Mommy assured her that bandaids would not fix the scizzor inflicted wounds. She reminded the hysterical toddler that the toes of the jammies were hurting her own little piggies.

Carly melted into a sobbing heap on the floor. "I don't want to see my toes!" she sobbed.

Solution? Carly went to bed wearing toe-less, 2-size-too-small, piggy jammies with SOCKS over the offending holes.

This had to be one of the most hysterical exchanges I have had to date with my child. It was really hard to be comforting or compassionate to my exhausted baby because I was just laughing way too hard.

That said, I am NOT looking forward to bedtime tomorrow. Those jammies are going to make a quick exit in the morning.

Madness of March

That's right, it's that time again.

The time of year when husbands face off against wives.
When those who could care less about basketball actually check the score.
When non-sport-fans vaguely recognize names like 'Marquette' and 'Butler' from last year, though they don't even have a clue where in the country the campus is located.

It's time for March Madness!

The tradition of competition in our home dates back to that first March of 2004, when Marshall and I were just engaged. Marshall's roommates had a competition, and all who entered their abode were invited to fill out a bracket and tape it to the wall by the front door. Score was kept meticulously by Russ. Rules were interpreted and enforced by Dan. Marsh carefully highlighted winning and losing picks using the trusty green and pink highlighters. Ryan was good enough to play along (I think Maranda did too?).

I spent an hour or so one evening procrastinating homework in order to fill out a bracket. I even researched each match-up to see the strengths versus weaknesses of the opposing teams. I had no clue what a seed was, no idea who was in which conference, and didn't recognize any of the school's names. In fact, I hadn't really been to many college basketball games. But I was a good fiance, and played along to pacify my future husband.

I knew I would lose. I didn't mind that I would lose. I made jokes about how badly I would lose.


I won.

The whole competition.


Yes, and so began the ruthless competition in our home.
2004 - Me
2005 - Me
2006 - Marshall
2007 - Me
2008 - Marshall
2009 - Marshall

2010 - ?
Disclaimer: I didn't win the whole competition each of those years- I was just keeping track between myself and Marshall.

And so here we are, at another year. My bracket is filled out. No longer is it hanging on a wall in VP. We have now all dispersed and need fancier technology to compare scores. Plus it would kinda be awkward if we were still living in VP. So we have an ESPN group where we can all gather and talk trash.

It is the same cast though, plus a few additions from over the years. This year is the biggest group yet!

Would you care to join us? It is always fun to add new blood, and we need more non-sports-fans so that those who pick based on uniform color or cuteness of mascot will not feel left behind. You can join by visiting the "Andrews and Friends" ESPN group. You'll have to create a quick account using your email, and then you can make your picks using whatever strategy you'd like. You have until tip-off Thursday morning to get your bracket submitted. If you want to receive Marshall's round by round analysis of our competition, also get us your email address. You can email me, or leave it in a comment.

I look forward to beating you all!!

Two peas

Marshall and Carly are like this (if you were sitting here in my living room, you would see that I was crossing my fingers). They are that tight.

Carly loves her daddy. They are so much alike. I think it is sometimes hard to see your own personality's effect on your child, but I can see Marshall written all over her. The way he interacts with her has really shaped who she is. She is goofy, and carefree, attention seeking, sharp, and kind of a rough and tumble kind of girl. I bet she gets her attitude and bossiness from me. But that's beside the point. She probably also gets her active imagination from me. Also besides the point.

Carly and Marshall are both kinda neurotic. Marshall has always had a touch of OCD. He is generally disorganized (at least by my standards), but there is an apparent method to his madness. He is very specific about where his mess goes. He also has funny little habits, like putting the TV on a certain channel and volume every night before bed. Or lining things up a certain order. Or eating candy or cereal by color. Or eating his hamburger in a circle, every time.

Carly is the same. She loves to organize her alphabet letters by color and letter and in a straight line. If in the process she runs out of fridge, she has a melt down. She lines up her blocks down the hallway, and if I put one out of line, it is the end of the world. Her blankets have to be arranged on her bed in a specific order at bedtime. She has to be holding a certain stuffed animal during a certain movie. She has very specific ideas of where things go, and will tell me if its wrong.

Probably the biggest way Marshall has rubbed off on Carly is they way they rough house. Carly has been raised with daddy tossing her around and smashing her on the floor. She can't get enough. Shrieks and squeals and laughter are the background noise in our home when daddy is home, along with daddy's explosion sound effects. One of their favorite games when Carly was just starting to walk was "Super Bully." This is a game where Marshall would wag his fingers in his ears, while crouching down, and chanting "super bully! super bully!" And then Carly would scream and tackle him. Hours. On. End. And Marshall never misses a chance to practice his wresting moves on her, or piledrive her into the couch.

Now that Carly is verbal and so good at telling us exactly what she wants, conversations about rough housing are some of my greatest entertainment. Tonight before Marshall left for work she was asking him, "You pick me up and hang me upside down?" And "You pick me up and throw me on the bed?" Of course Marshall happily obliged.

And once he had left, it was apparent just how much this is all a reflection of Marshall, and how little of it has anything to do with me. She brought me a chip clip and said, "Here. You chase me and pinch me with this clip?"

Me? Not going to chase my toddler and pinch her. We put away the clip and she helped me make dinner.
Marshall? Totally would have.

And I love that that's their thing. That Marshall is able to shape her and give her qualities that I totally would not. I love watching those two become best friends.

8 months

Wes turned 8 months old on the 8th.

We don't see the pediatrician again until his 9 month appointment, so no stats this month. However, we did take him in to the doctor a week and a half ago to check for RSV, and at that time he was 18 lbs!! What a big guy!

- Wes is now crawling! He started 2 weeks ago, and is getting really good at being mobile. He follows me around the house like a puppy. If I walk into another room, I can hear his little pug-like grunting as he hurries to follow me down the hallway. One downside though...he now finds new and inventive ways to bonk his face on things. So the era of bruising begins.



- Wes clicks constantly. He is very talented at this. I don't know how he gets such a clear sound. Maybe it has something to do with not having any teeth, so he can click his tongue really far forward in his mouth. You can tell I have sat around trying to replicate. I have actually spent a lot of time trying to figure out his secret.

- Wes was starting to "mamama" for a while. For a couple days he was mama-ing more than dada. But then Marshall got wind of the new development, worked his voodoo, and once again we are a "dada" only home.

- Wes likes Carly. At least for now. But he really puts up with all of her abuse very well. We had our first instance of Carly trying to carry Wes this month. She just picked him up under his armpits and lugged him across the living room. Freaked. Me. Out. I'm sure there is more of that to come.

- Wes still sleeps well. He can now just be put down in his crib with a blanket, and knows what to do. I'm really lucky here.

- He is still eating more and more babyfood purees. He is learning he can let me know he is done by spitting it back at me. So much fun. Might be time to start baby signing. Less messy.

- Wes got a tooth!! Just one so far, on the bottom left. But the next door neighbor is bulging, so I'm sure it will be here in the next week or two. He cut his tooth last Saturday. He was not very willing to play along with mom trying to get a picture. Luckily, I'm bigger and stronger.

- Wes is really, really good natured. Kiernan and I have a theory that he got all his madness out in his first 2 months of life. He is such a sweet, laid back kid. Especially compared with the grumpy little ball of screaming that he started as. Thank goodness.

Fair weather

Carly has lately begun to understand the concept of "friends." Actually, I believe she has understood about friends for a while. I guess what has really happened is that Carly is becoming a master manipulator.

"You're my Best Friend" is a common accolade in our home when the present adult is giving our little angel what she wants. I think this phrase has replaced "I love you" to express her approval of whatever it is we are allowing her to do.

I read a book with her, I'm her best friend.

I give her chocolate, I'm her best friend.

I turn on 'Little Einsteins,' I'm her best friend.

I play 'ponies' with her, I'm her best friend.

She is fairly easy to please.

The other time we hear that we are her 'Best Friend' is when it is whined as a plea to avoid doing something. Normally this is when she is being put in time out, or in bed. When told to do something that she does not want to do, she will yell "but your my best friend!" As if best friends would certainly never send one another to the time out spot.

Ultimately, her pleading does not work. She is still sent to bed at the normal time, regardless of friend status for the evening. This leads to her 3rd use of 'best friend':

The "You are NOT my best friend!"

This is the threat. We hear it a lot. We go from best friends, to not, to back again many times in a day. Once in a while she can hold a grudge and pick one parent as a best friend and disown the other for a while. Usually at bedtimes when Marshall is at work. She will tell me that "you are NOT my best friend! Daddy is my best friend now!"

I know she uses this to try to manipulate my conscience to give in to her wishes. I know she really believes there are power in these words. I think that the decision to offer and withdraw friendliness is the definition of fair weather friending. And so it is our duty, as parents, to not encourage it, as cute as it is sometimes. I mean, if we reward this attempt at manipulation, will she forever scheme and connive and use other people's friendships to get what she wants?

So here I am, stuck balancing friend and parent. About 10 years earlier than I anticipated this becoming an issue. :::sigh:::

Only the worst Bachelor finale ever

I can't believe Jake chose Vienna!! :::::whiiiines and moans:::::

Anyway, please enjoy the talents of this lovely lady.

I will link 2 videos from her blog, where she does impressions of the top two. Wish I could embed the video, but I don't think she allows that. Either that, or I just can't figure it out without the video offering directly to let me embed at the end.

Vienna This is SPOT ON! I saw this 2 weeks ago, and I gotta say it made watching her on TV even harder.

Tenley

I hope this brightens your day after such a horrid evening!

Like Mother....

When I was a little kid (3? 4?) I put a rock up my nose. I told my parents that I had a rock up my nose, but they didn't really believe me. They had me blow my nose and nothing came out. But still, I insisted I had a rock up my nose. All through dinner, all through my evening bath. I don't remember what the catalyst was for them to finally believe me, perhaps a bunch of crying, but my parents finally took me to the ER where low and behold- there was a rock up my nose. In the sinus cavity. They had to use suction to get it out, and now it is glued inside my baby book.

Carly is sick right now. Lots and lots of snot. So blowing our noses has been a pretty regular occurrence in our house this week. Imagine my surprise when I asked her to blow, and then inspected the tissue for productivity, and found a popcorn kernel. Yep, at some point today she shoved a popcorn kernel up her nose. And she never mentioned it. And she looked at it, shrugged, and went on with her day as if that was entirely normal.

The difference between Carly and me is that she is apparently not bothered by foreign objects up the nose.

The difference between me and my mother is that I am not going to paste the kernel into Carly's baby book.

It's hard to find good help

Carly loves to tag along with me while I do chores. She just has to be in the middle of whatever I am doing. So I let her help me "fold" towels, and she gets to sort the clean silverware back into the drawer. When I vacuum, she runs away and screams, and later takes full credit for the job well done. She knows what pillows and 'gwankets' go on her bed. And she knows how to put a dirty diaper in the diaper genie. If left in her room and told she can't come out until it is clean, she will put all of the toys into the toy box.

The one chore I haven't let her do is to help me clean the bathroom. Too many chemicals. But last week, I made the mistake of letting her watch me while I scrubbed the toilet and scoured the floor. It was an immediate attraction. She HAD to help me. But I quickly locked up all of the bushes, bleaches, and chemicals and told her that she was too little.

Unfortunately she didn't get the memo, because all week she has had an unusual fascination with the bathroom. She is always in there. She and I have previously had disagreements over bathroom etiquette. I don't want the whole roll of toilet paper in the toilet. She does. She wants all of the towels to be on the ground. I don't. She wants to run the water and play with all of her toys in the sink. I don't think that's a good idea.

Well, now she 'cleans' the bathroom. With handsoap. Today I walked in and she had squirted half of the soap into the toilet and was elbows deep swirling the water. When she saw me in the doorway, she proudly told me that she had cleaned the potty. Yesterday it was the mirror, and then the floor.

I just hope she continues to enjoy cleaning the bathroom so much. I'll make sure she reads this post when she's 13 and no longer sees the joy in scrubbing the toilet.

Tender Mercies

2-year-olds are hard. Really hard. It definitely doesn't help that I completely lack patience.

What is trying about my 2-year-old? Well, let me tell you.

1)The word 'No.'

This drives me up the wall. Basically anything I ask gets this standard response. And it's not like a cute automatic response of a baby, barely learning to talk who picks a random word and sticks to it without grasping its meaning.

She has many ways of telling me no.

Q- "Carly, can you go put that in the trash?"

A- "No, you do it."

Q- "Carly, are you ready for bed?"

A- "Ummm, no. Not right now."

"Carly, go to bed!"

"No, I don't want to!"

Q- "Carly, can you please look at mommy when I talk to you?"

A- "No, you go away now."

Just charming, eh?

2) Willful disobedience

I can tell her 5,000 times a day to not do something...

don't sit on your brother

don't stand on the table

don't open the fridge

don't unravel all of the toilet paper into the toilet

don't drag your brother by his foot, or hand... or head

... and she'll still do it for the 5001st time. Gah!

And I really don't buy that she doesn't understand my expectations of her, or that she forgets 4999 times that it is wrong. She will run away and hide if I come up on her doing these things. She knows. She knows the consequence is timeout. She knows I'll tell her not to do it again. She just wants to do x, y, or z more than she cares that she is going to go sit in the corner after she does it.

3) Picky picky picky

My daughter is a picky eater. Not in the way that the pediatrician keeps assuming I mean. He keeps trying to give me tips and tricks to sneak veggies or protein into her diet. But it is not that she doesn't like those things. She does. She loves just about all vegetables, and even asks for them by name. In fact, there are not many foods Carly has met that she doesn't like.

So what's the problem right?

Well, she's strong willed and knows that meals are just one more arena where she can defeat me. No matter what I make, she doesn't want it. She can be begging me for "dinner" (her word for all meals), and I can ask her specifically what she wants to eat, and she can tell me exactly what she would like, and I can make the item to order, and she'll look at it and say "no, I don't want that anymore, now I want _____."

So let her go hungry right? Well, I've tried this. She loads up on water, and basically just doesn't eat. And then I'm talking to the pediatrician at the next well child check about how she only eats a real meal rarely, and we are back to his tips and tricks.

The other solution, which I usually resort to so I don't feel guilty for her losing 2 lbs when she only weighs 30, is to make multiple items a day and eventually we'll get to the random one she really wants.

Indecisive? Maybe
Evil Mastermind? More likely

So after a week like I've had, you know you are due for a tender mercy. I am a big believer that when we do our best, despite trying circumstances, and endure said trial well, we are due for a small miracle. I basically count on it, and so far I haven't been disappointed.

Well, last night I was in bed asleep. It was about 2am, and I woke up randomly. I was just turning over to get back to sleep, when something told me

Go tuck Carly in.

Whatever still, small voice! I have to get up in 4 hours!

Go tuck in Carly

So I pull off the covers and tiptoe down the hall. Carly was lying in her bed with no blankets. They were all on the floor. I picked them, cover her with them and start to head back to my bed. I make it to the doorway when I hear a small voice

'mommy'

'yes baby'

'thank you mommy'

'you're welcome sweetie, goodnight'

'I love you mommy'

She's back asleep, probably was never really awake. But I've received my tender mercy. And it's all worth it.

Little sickies

My kids are whiney, sad little puddles of snot today. And I missed most of it.

I worked today, and when I got home, it was a sad, sad sight. Marshall hurried out the door to go to his work. And I was left with these pitiful monsters.

When I woke up this morning, my throat was a little rough. So I knew it was possible we'd be dealing with sick kids. When I got home, both were faucets of snot, and warm to the touch. Both were hungry, but not wanting to swallow anything. Both were exausted, but wanted to just cry and cry.

So liquid dinner, tylenol, and 1 hour later, my house is quiet. I put my kids to bed at 6:30pm. Never done that before. Almost feel like a mean mom, but they both went so willingly, they must have needed it. So I have a whole evening to myself! Wowwy!

But all I can do is think how cute my kids are and how much I miss the cute, non-sobbing monsters they normally are.

Here are some pictures from yesterday (before the sickly transformation):
I'll just look at pictures of my happy kids until they are returned to me!

Love is...

...Waking up this morning to scrambled eggs and sweet words.

He said, "I've been in a 'make-scrambled-eggs-for-you' kinda mood all week."

If that's not love, I don't know what is!
He even scrubbed out the pan afterward.

Hope everyone's Valentine's Day was full of love.

Conversations with Carly

- Watching a recent snow storm from the window, Carly called for me to watch with her. "It's beautiful! It's incredible! Mommy, come look. It's amazing!"

- Laying in bed with daddy the other day, she suddenly yelled "oh! Let's go in our cave!" She pulled the covers over her head and then whispered "there's a dragon flying around up there."
Marshall: "Up where?"
Carly: "Up in the sky!" She pulled the covers down an inch, shrieked, and pulled them back up. "He's still there!"
Marshall: "Oh no, what are we going to do?"
Carly: thought for a second and then announced "we have to catch him." She pulled the covers down, and waved her hands around in the air. Suddenly she grabbed onto the imaginary dragon. "I caught him!" she announced.
Marshall asked if she was going to keep him as her pet.
Carly: "Oh no! He got away!" while flinging her hands apart.
Marshall: "Uh oh, where did he go?"
Carly: "I don't know; he's all gone."
Life continues as normal until a few seconds later Carly announced ":::gasp::: The dragons back! We have to hide in our cave!" and pulled the covers up.

She could play all day like this. What an imagination!

- Yesterday, while reading a book about a kitten who gets stuck in the tree, Carly went to her window and looked out at the tree outside her bedroom. "Mommy, the kitten's stuck in my tree! It's terrible! We have to save him!"
Me: "How are you going to save him?"
Carly: "I'm going to fly." She paused, "But I don't have any wings!"
Me: "Oh no! Where are you going to get wings?"
Carly: "I'll get some!" She ran to her bookshelf, pulled off two books, and started flapping them behind her like wings. "Now I'll save the kitten!"

What a cute, creative little genius we have!

7 months

So Wes is now 7 months old. Such a big guy!

- Still no teeth (where are they?) But he does have some bumps on the bottom front, so I think they should be making an appearance soon.

- We are weaned. Too soon, but the milk is gone. At least I made it 2 months longer than I did with Carly.

- Wes LOVES solid food. LOVES it! He has tried the following: butternut squash, sweet potato, peas, green beans, carrots, bananas, plums, zucchini. He actually hates zucchini and green beans, and prefers bananas heavily over anything else. And his favorite veggie by far is carrots.

- He is still a very clean eater. It's a miracle after dealing with Carly as a baby. He keeps his hands out of his mouth. It's great! The exception is when he eats a food he doesn't like. Then he spits it out, and blows it out, and wipes it out with his hands. It's quite funny that he'd rather wear green beans than eat it. Any location is better than his mouth for those. But foods he loves, he won't spill a drop. Can't waste the good stuff.

- Wes has been sleeping wonderfully at night. Lucky, lucky me. Once we started solids, I wasn't being terribly consistent with them because I figured they were just for practice. And so a couple days I didn't give him any at all. Coincidentally, those were also a couple days he would not sleep. Awake for hours fighting it and fussing. So one night I decided at about midnight to feed him some solids to see if it would help. He ate 12 ounces that sitting! And then he slept 12 hours. So now I load him up with a bunch of veggies in the evening, and his evening bottle is only 4 ounces or so, and he's out like a light!

- Most days, when he naps he can just be put into the crib awake and he knows what to do. Nights aren't usually this easy- he fights it at night for some reason. But during the day, if I can tell he's getting tired, I just place him in his crib with a blanket and he'll usually fall asleep on his own.

- Growling. He loves to shriek and scream. You can hear his high pitched trills throughout the apartment (its helps that it is a small apartment). He also growls now. He makes this loud, low pitched grunting noise that a normal person might make when frustrated. But he primarily does it when super super excited and all screamed out. So he goes from talking, to yelling, to screaming, to growling as the excitement grows.

- Babbling. Wes is now doing the identifiable babbles: gagagaga, dadadada, babababa. Yet to be seen is mamama, but I'm working on it. Marshall is working hard on the dadada. Let the games begin!

- Crawling progress. He can't crawl yet. He is on his tummy 80 percent of the day. Okay, not really. He sleeps a lot too, and loves his bouncer. But he spends probably the majority of his awake time on the ground scooting around the living room. And he spends a lot of that time on hands and knees rocking. He is also moving his hands and knees forward, but not in a coordinated fashion I'd refer to as crawling. He also loves to do planks, where he is in a push-up pose on his hands and toes. He can hold it an amazingly long time. I am sure we'll see full fledged crawling this month. He is so. dang. close.

- Wes is great at maneuvering while on his tummy. He doesn't do the army crawl (too busy up on his hands and knees to want to be on his belly). But he can spin in any direction at lightening speeds. He can do the 180 on his tummy so fast it kinda defies logic. You'd think the kid would have rug burn on his tummy.

- Wes has started taking baths in the big kid tub. So far just solo, since he still can't defend himself from Carly. But I'll put an inch or two of water in there, and put him in on his belly, and he's in heaven. He kicks and squeals, eventually growls, and splashes. It's a blast!

- Wes can now sit unassisted for a pretty decent period. He gets too excited though, and jerks backward and falls over. But he can sit upright, and doesn't have to support himself with his hands.

- He can hold his own bottle. Except when sleepy. Because he has to sleep with his hands over his eyes. Just like Marshall. The genetics run strong on this one. When sleepy, those hands fly over his eyes, and it just isn't possible to hold a bottle and have your hands on your eyes.

- When just laying back and chillin', he has his hands behind his head. Lounging like a grown man. It's the cutest.

- He also likes to keep his feet together. When standing or jumping, or doing his baby push-ups, or just laying down, he often has his feet crossed or on top of one another. Doesn't make for the sturdiest base.

- He plays rough. In the last month he has gotten more bold in his interactions with others. He now loves to find opportunities to pull Carly's hair. And when being held, he loves to explore his handler's face. With great force. He loves to gouge eyes, scratch noses, and hit and slap. All in good fun- he is just very excited. But you have to be on your guard with this one!

Constancy

Marshall and I have lived in 5 apartments during our marriage. It doesn't feel like we have moved that frequently, though I'm sure it has felt frequent for Russ and Star, our expert moving help! Some people take moving, or a change in seasons, as opportunities to change the decor or layout of their home. But I guess I am a creature of habit, because there are some things that you will find the same in my home, regardless of time of year, or different address.

1. Christ/lilies arrangement
I received this vase as a wedding present from my former 5th grade teacher, and absolutely love it!

I also love flowers.

One time Marshall bought me a bundle of beautiful lilies before a date. They were gorgeous! So I set them out in this vase, just like this, and we left to our dinner. When we returned home, our cat (the legend himself, Vegas) had knocked over my vase and eaten the heads off of all of my flowers. I was so distraught! I believe I may have even said something along the lines of Vegas being pure evil because flower represent all that is good, and he ate them! Satan incarnate! Well once Marshall had let me cry, and then calmed me down, he went out and bought me a couple fake lilies, so that man and beast could cohabitate in peace. Now, every once in a while, he comes home with another fake lily to put in my vase. It's a cute little reminder that he loves me, even long after Vegas has passed on.

These frames are among my first purchases and projects as a married woman. I wanted to have a framed picture of Christ, and of the Family Proclamation and The Living Christ arranged together somewhere in my home. But I couldn't find the documents in 5x7, which I wanted so that I could mat them into 8x10 frames. So I took them to Kinkos and shrunk them down, and I love how they turned out.

In every apartment, I have had these frames hung together, and I have put the lilies in the vase under them. Something about lilies and Christ just go hand in hand together, in my opinion.

2. Spicy candles
I refuse to believe it is not fall all year long. Fall is my favorite season, and I love the warmth of the colors and smells. So I burn this scent all year long. You will find one of these candles somewhere in my home on any given day, even if it is the 4th of July.

Along those same lines:

3. Fall flowers I love the warmth of oranges and browns. Not Marshall's favorite, but he dictates the rest of the home's color scheme, so when it comes to my orange flowers, he doesn't get a say. For the most part (okay, entirety), our home is decorated with navy blue as the main accent color. Blue throw blankets, blue curtains, blue bath accessories. This comes back to Marshall's love of BYU. Also due to Marshall's college football preferences, you will never find red in our home. Ever.

4. Photo calendar
I do a photo calendar each Christmas of the grandkids for our extended families, and so the only calendar you will find in my home will feature the cutest kids you have ever seen.

5. Photography
90 percent of the artwork on our walls is comprised of photos of our family. Probably more than 90 percent. We also have a couple other sentimental pieces, such as the framed crochet my mother made of our family name and wedding date, and the caricature we had drawn by a cartoonist at our engagement dinner. But for the most part, every available piece of real estate on our walls is home to various photos of ourselves. We're just vain like that.

6. Baskets

I have baskets throughout my home to hold, contain, and hide everything. Need somewhere to put something? I probably have a basket for that. Baskets hold books, hair accessories, paper plates, bottles and sippy cups, hand soap and washcloths, magazines, medicine, toys... even shoes. I have a large basket in the front entryway that invites all to throw their shoes inside, because shoes all over the ground are ugly and a tripping hazard, but I would really prefer not to vacuum everyday.

I think I inherited my love of baskets from my mother. It's all her fault. Her and her longaberger habit. My mom owns far more baskets than me, but at least mine are all functional. I haven't gotten to the point yet of buying baskets just for decoration. Though I may be well on my way...

So that is our home in a nutshell... a glimpse and tour of what remains the same in our apartments despite year, address, or season.


*Oh, also, for some reason google reader didn't pick up yesterday's post. So if you didn't see it, I posted about Wes at 6 months. Be sure to stop by the blog and check out that post too!*

6 months

Wes is now 6 months old.

At his 6 month appointment with the pediatrician, his stats were as follows:

Weight: 16lbs 1oz - 23rd percentile

Height: 27 inches - 70th percentile

Head circumference: 16.9 inches - 20th percentile

Diapers: 3, though we are cheap and are finishing out those size 2's before we buy more!

Clothing: 3-6 fits in Carters, and he is moving on up into 6-9 in many other brands.

What has changed in the last month?

- Wes now rocks on hands and knees. This is a very new development and he has only done it a few times. He spent most of the month doing the 'superman' on his belly while yelling at the target of his desire, hoping he'd somehow move forward magically.

- He sits up unassisted for short amounts of time (less than 30 seconds before he has collapsed or fallen over)

- He is getting about 1/3 breastmilk, 2/3 formula. I hope I can continue longer, if possible.

- He is sleeping through the night wonderfully. He doesn't wake up at night at all anymore, and generally sleeps from 10pm to 8 or 9am.

- In the last week, he has decided to break out of his swaddle. He has been turning over onto his belly consistently at night, so we have begun putting him down on his belly now that he can roll and has full control of his head, and SIDS is not as much of a risk anymore.

- He found his feet this month, and has had endless fun playing with his toes.

- He is now eating solids everyday, though he still isn't a fan of baby cereal. We have tried squash and sweet potato so far, and we are going to try out peas tomorrow. (This has been a fun new hobby for me, as I have been learning how to make homemade baby food!) He also now had gotten the hang of eating, and opens up real wide most bites. He is a much cleaner eater than Carly was, which is a pleasant surprise!

- He is turning into a little "mama's boy," which is another stark difference between him and Carly. She never really had any sort of stranger danger or separation anxiety. Wes will inevitably cry if I leave his line of sight, and give me huge smiles when I come back.

- Wes took his first trip to California, had his first Christmas, visited the beach for the first time, and met Auntie Emily! He had a lot of fun adventures in the last month, and is such a fun kid!

Eating my words

Remember last fall when I said how "awesome" it would be if all of my couples got babies all at once? Yeah, so, it happened. And now I kinda regret tempting the fates.

Okay, not really. Because I can't be anything but extremely happy for all of these wonderful people whose lives I have been a brief part of. But MY GOODNESS, I am tired. I can't really put into words how overwhelming it has been to do 10 placements and 2 relinquishments in less than 6 months. (A placement is when my client is the adoptive couple; a relinquishment is when my client is the birth mother who is placing her child). I have done 4 of those placements, and 1 of those relinquishments in the last 2 weeks. (2 of those placements while driving to California, relying on my awesome coworkers to step up and help with the in-person parts.)

To give you an idea of why I am complaining, in 2008 I did like 6 or 7 placements ALL YEAR.

EX. HAUST. ED.

So if I have been dodging your phone calls, and playing way too much farmville- it is because I have been too busy to answer the phone, and too overwhelmed typing casenotes and reverting to old collegiate strategies of facebook induced procrastination.

Now that all of those babies are placed, I have to meet with each family a set number of times to supervise the placement before they can finalize. I know each family, and remember their unique placement. But that is a LOT of babies. So I honestly can't really keep all the names straight, as horrible as it sounds. So I have my little trick when I blank on the name of saying "Oh he's so cute! Remind me how you spell the name for my notes." This has backfired lately as the couple looks at me and says flatly "J-A-C-K." Um, yeah, that would be how you spell that name. lol. So really, don't feel bad that I'm absent lately. Everyone is getting it.

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Speaking of awesome- that is Carly's newest word. Everything is "Oh! Awesome!" The first time she popped out that phrase, I believe, was Christmas morning while opening the plethora of presents. I need to get it on video, because awesome on a 2-year-old really is awesome!

Mia Maids Time Capsule- 1999

So in 1999, our Mia Maid class at church (group of 14-15 year old girls) made a Y2K time capsule. The idea was that we'd write letters to ourselves and have a forced reason to get back together in 10 years. In the last 10 years, we'd forgotten that it had been a church activity, and forgot who all was involved. But we knew that we were supposed to get together around New Years Eve in late 2009.

I can't believe how fast the 10 years flew!

We remembered that it was buried at Emily's parents' house, and we remembered some of the people who were involved: Emily, Breann, Jessica, Amber and Me. So we picked a day when we would all be back in Ojai and available for a get together. We brought our little families and dug that time capsule up! It was nice that this time around we each had a husband, so that the men could do all of the dirty work.

We also couldn't remember where exactly it was buried along Emily's fence. So the guys were digging for a while. They basically tore up the whole flower bed. But we finally found it, just when we were wondering if we all had a collective false memory.

There was some concern about how well the bucket could have held up. We figured that the pictures and letters must have all been yellowed or water damaged.

But the outside of the bucket was in pretty good condition! We could even read all of the signatures we had put on the outside the day we buried it. Once we read the outside of the bucket, we quickly realized that we had not gathered the whole crew. We were missing a few other girls and the leaders who had organized it. (Sorry Wenona!) But honestly none of us had remembered it being a church activity.

I made sure to take lots of pictures so that those who weren't there could enjoy what we found:

Breann Keller (now Farlow) Wenona UtterLaurel RenteriaAmber Criger (now Alvarez)Emily Ashby (now Bishop)Jessica Johnsen (now Aikens)Samantha KelschLauren Erickson (now Andrews)Aimee Crossett (now Poyner)

On the bottom of the bucket we had all been brave and declared who our crushes were at the time. We must have figured that after 10 years and once we were all married, this would be silly fun. I don't know why we didn't think this would still be embarrassing! lol! So I'll skip those pictures. Some of us had written names of boys others of us had eventually married, or names of guys who are good friends now. So some things are probably still better left unsaid.

When we opened the bucket we were pleased to find that the contents inside still looked as new as the day we put them in. We had included a newspaper with the headlines, and some ads so we could compare prices (not all that different...lol!)

But the best parts were the letters we had written to ourselves back in 1999. Some were all about the boy that person was in love with at the time, some were about our goals we hoped to achieve, others our testimonies. Mine was my testimony and the declared hopes I had for myself at 15. I listed the things I hoped I would have achieved by 25, and admonished myself to stay true to my testimony of the Gospel. It was really, really neat to read what I had to say to myself. I couldn't have been more proud of the girl I was at 15, or more tickled that I stayed true to what that girl had hoped for. I listed a few goals for myself, defined where I hoped my life would be at 25.

My hopes for my life at 15 included:

-Attend and graduate from BYU

-Have a career I love

-Meet a "choice son of God"

-Marry in the Los Angeles temple

-Have kids (I even suggested names I liked, though I have to pass on those now)

And I am very happy to say that I reached each and every hope and goal. That's knowing you've lived well! To know that you made all of the 10-year resolutions you made as a kid.

I hope that in 10 more years I have reached all of my new goals for myself.

It was really fun to see all of these girls I love. It was especially fun that we are all old married ladies now. I have 2 kids, and 3 of these ladies are expecting their first (as you can tell in the picture!) It is amazing what a difference 10 years makes.

What a fun idea our young women's leaders had. What a rewarding experience and fun reunion.