K's Fishbowl

I have a lot I want to write about but we'll see how long before I need to get back to my "mom-duties."
(Yep, I knew it would take a couple tries to finish this one... I know it's long... but you also don't HAVE to read the whole thing.)

First off... This is my favorite thing I did this week:

I showed Jared these pictures and he said "What? So you took more pictures of Nathan?"
"No, Honey. I took another picture of Nathan and put it next to Drew' s picture."
"Oh, I see now."
Good thing he knew which was which when he looked closer. ;)

Drew really likes his brother. Sometimes he likes his brother too much and shares his trucks too roughly. We're working on it.

So this last Thursday, Nathan finally decided to rollover after many days of attempting and getting frustrated and giving up. He even demonstrated in YW's on Sunday.

He also is a pacifier-kid. (Drew never liked a pacifier even after trying many kinds. He learned to "suck on his tongue" and still does it today when he has is blanket and gets tired.) Nathan seems to always have SOMETHING in his mouth. If it's not his fists or a pacifier, its some part of MY arm or hand that has brushed his cheek. He has also started to sleep through the night, sometimes, for up to 10 hours! But other times he is up twice a night. I gotta figure out the consistency trick. And if Nathan's sleeping good, then Drew is up with "night terrors" or sleep-walking. Goody. Unfortunately, sometimes Nathan's 10 hour nights don't start til after 11pm, and then Drew is up at 6 sometimes?! No sleeping in for me... I know I need to get used to this.

I'm happy to finally have a new car. We have a 2001 Mazda 626, dark gray. Its a boring, good size, reliable 4-door sedan. I'm VERY happy to report that Jared likes to work on this car and has fixed the little quirks so that I couldn't possibly have anything to complain about. It's nice. The only thing left to fix in the "sunburned" hood. Not hard, just last on the list, because it doesn't affect function.
This last weekend we went shopping for new WARM clothes for the boys. We have all of Drew's old clothes to use for Nathan, but we were living in CA with Drew. We had no long sleeves and pants for this size. Utah seasons change a bit sooner, and its already threatening cold.
Well, Drew hates trying on and wearing new clothes. The poor kid even has TONS of hand-me-downs from CA friends, but again, no long sleeves. Shopping was an adventure to say the least.... But the hardest part of the trip was walking past the newly-opened Halloween stores. We walked past them the first time and he just had a worried stare and clung to my leg. He has a high-pitched voice anyways, and then when he gets upset, its even more difficult to understand him. It took Jared and I a minute to figure out the problem. Of course, we had to pass it again to get back to the car, and Drew lost it. COMPLETE HYSTERICS. He started running backwards. I caught him and gave him a piggy back ride so he could hide his eyes til we were past.

I talked to Lauren the other night. OH MAN do I wish I could go visit her in DC. She is rubbing elbows with some BIG WHIGS! She has one AWESOME internship, and hope she can appreciate it. On top of that, she is right in the middle of MAJOR sight-seeing and political crazies. How can one take it all in? It's just cool.

Oh, and my MAJOR pet peeve of the day:
I took Drew out to our playground this morning. He has is bucket of sand toys/trucks he takes out every time. He's really good at keeping track of them and sharing them with whoever is out there. The other "regular kids" know they are his and are good about giving them back when we need to go inside. Well, this morning there were 3 boys I haven't seen before. I noticed they were walking back to their apartment, but I didn't notice they walked off with some of Drew's trucks for a few minutes. UGH. I walked around the corner to find one boy still outside. I got him to bring 2 trucks back, but there are still 2 missing. I knocked on a few doors, but couldn't find them. Now I don't mind "loosing" some of Drew's trucks. He has ENOUGH. But, I am frustrated because Drew has an INCREDIBLE memory and keeps asking about them. And he will continue to ask for a while.
The same kind of thing happens when we look at old pictures. He tells me he wants to go back to Grandpa Bob's house or Grandma Teresa's house or ride the trains or the boat or the Dustin's Big Trucks or visit Lauren. I told him Lauren has a new house and job REALLY far away, but he still says he wants to go see her at her "new office." Sometimes he'll see old toys, in pictures, that we have gotten rid of or they broke, and he asks for them again. That will happen with these trucks we lost today. I'm sure. How can I make him forget? Or understand they are gone for good? Stop asking me Kid. We CAN'T get them back. They're GONE.


On a happier note... I think we're going to go swimming tonight for YM/YW's. One last hurrah before the weather turns. And maybe go to an Air Show out in Wendover this weekend?? I'm looking into it. And I'm still plotting Kelli's Birthday. tee hee hee. ;) Any spectacular ideas?? I do have some of my own, but I could still change and/or add to it....?? **devilish grin**


This is Drew's "airplane."
And this is Drew posing with his truck and Montana shirt from Uncle Dustin.

buying a house??
having a garden at said house
snowboarding at least once
fitting into normal size clothes again

4 people that I have tagged:
Krista
Jamie
Jessica
Kirsten

It's official. I have family spread across the whole country now.
Lauren is now in Washington DC for an internship.
Dustin is in Montana on his mission.
And Kelli and I are in Utah.
My folks are still back in CA.
Its kinda exciting that we're all grown up and off doing our own thing. It is also kinda of a bummer because it'll be Christmas 2009 before we're ALL back together again.

It makes me think about how fast my kids are growing up. (Oh geez, now I REALLY sound like an old fuddy-duddy.)
Nathan is 3 months old this week. We also moved him out of our bedroom and into Drew's. The weekend of our anniversary and 2 days before Jared's car accident, we were working on rearranging rooms and storage spaces.
Drew helped Daddy take apart his fire truck bed and put together Nathan's crib.

Daddy even let him "do the trigger" on the drill.
Unfortunately, because Daddy was hurting from the wreck and I had to take care of my 3 boys, it took until this week to get more shelves up and the rest of the storage organized and put away. Kids have a lot of stuff!!
My 3 boys:

So here's just s sample of the pictures I've been taking to capture my growing boys.
** If you want copies of any pictures, let me know. Or you can click on the picture and it will show you a bigger copy you can save or print it.***

I wanted to see the car seat comparison from.....
First minutes home from the hospital to...
3 months old!
Here's a bunch of pics to follow along... I love looking at the sequence of him growing up. I hope to keep this up and remember to take a picture about every 2 weeks for the first little while.
Starting at one day old with mommy and daddy.
one day old
3 weeks old
4.5 weeks old
6 weeks old
8 weeks old
10 weeks old
and finally... 12 .5 weeks and he holding onto toys whether he knows it or not.

He's a proud big brother!

I'm WAY excited to be looking for a new car, but I also feel the pressure of trying to make the RIGHT decision. OK, maybe just a GOOD decision.
Do we get something just to get us by or something similar to what we had?
Do we worry about gas mileage or get a bigger "family" car?
Do we get something cheap and use the rest for paying off debt, or get a newer, more expensive car that is more reliable?
Or do we shoot for getting 2 cars? Jared found some advertised at a credit union repo auction that might just work... considering we win both auctions, 1 week apart.
Ugh. decisions. decisions.
And we gotta do it fast.

On a more fun note...

Last week, Drew was working on his ABC turtle puzzle, and he stood up and told me he was making an "A" with his lags. WOW! COOL. He figured that out all on his own!
I asked him what other letters he could do. He came up with several more with and without my help. It made for a great photo shoot.



C
A
little r maybe?
L
E
O


X

M


P

I or Y (like on the mountain? I can't remember)


Oh, and Nathan's smirk. He's been starting to smile a lot more this last week or 2. I even got it on video! And I don't know what causes it. Most of the time it just happens at random when I'm not even paying attention. Or maybe he know that's how to get my attention??



You can see he's got a little dimple, too.

I was going to post about our wonderful anniversary weekend of temple sealings and dinner at McGrath's fish house, (courtesy 2 amazing babysitters) but then the next day Jared got in a car accident on the freeway. I've been crazy-busy since taking care of "3" kids.

Jared is ok, in that there's nothing broken, but he's pretty sore and not doing much. He got rear-ended in rush-hour traffic on his way home from work, by a BIG Dodge Ram that obviously didn't see the traffic slowing down. Now we're pretty sure our Rodeo is "totaled" but neither our's, or the other guy's insurance is moving on ANYTHING. We've hired an attorney and he's going to take good care of us, I hope.

Jared had to go back to work today because they need him, and I think he'll get a bit more peace there than at home with a 3-year old who has refused naps the last several days and an 11 week old.

I got a rental car this morning and I'm THRILLED to have transportation for a while. Even though I'm still a bit nervous about taking these 2 boys out by myself. We did go to the library this morning with some success. I won't let Jared drive with the meds he's taking. We don't need him getting a DUI on top of all this mess, so he'll be getting a ride with his brother-in-law to work.

So instead of shopping for a house... I'm shopping for a car, even though I don't know how much I can spend til the insurance DOES THEIR JOB!!
ugh.

Funny note for the week:
While in church yesterday, Drew sang with us! Well, he sang the ABC's, loudly, while we sang hymns. But at least he sang during an appropriate time!

Here's some more fun pictures for today. I'm so glad I don't have to buy film and get them developed... I'd be broke.

Its serious business when it comes to helicopters! That hook get s a lot of use.


Is this a familiar post-bath scene to any other parents? I thought he would have started this ages ago, but it's only become a recent game.


Caught ya... you hooligan.... Oh boy. Looks like its time for another haircut. Joy of joys.


Oh, and I forgot I took this picture. I have to brag about my hubby for a minute.
The other night Jared made a Costco run for a few things and brought back strawberries, too. YUM!! He wanted to be creative with them before they went bad. Look what he did?!
After the kids went to bed, he made crepes with a fresh strawberry cream cheese filling. OH MY GOODNESS! And to think I was going to bed. I came back out to check on him and I'm glad I did. We're keeping this recipe around.

Basic Crepes recipe: 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 Tbl sugar, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 cups milk, 2 Tbl melted butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 2 eggs.
Strawberry Cream Crepes from Cooks.com: 12 cooked dessert crepes; 2 cups (1 pt) fresh strawberries washed and sliced; 1/4 cup sugar; 8 oz. softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup powdered sugar.
Prepare crepes. Reserve 1 cup strawberries. In small bowl, combine remaining strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar, chill. In medium bowl, blend cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Stir in reserved strawberries. Spread about 1 tablespoon strawberry-cheese mixture over each crepe. Roll up. Serve topped with sweetened chilled strawberries. 12 crepes.

It's rich! so beware, a little goes a long ways.

As I'm typing this, Nathan is sleeping in the swing and Drew is doing the wood turtle-alphabet puzzle from Auntie Cheryl. After putting in each letter, in reverse order, he tells me Z is for Zebra, Y is for Yo-Yo, and so on. He likes K for Kelli and Keys and M for Mommy. R starts with Rabbit. E starts with Elephant. You get the idea. I love this. He'll get is straight eventually. I was wondering when he would start catching onto beginning sounds.
Now when I ask him what does ___ start with. He gets it most of the time! Well, except for mixing up C and K. Why would anyone torture a kid like that?!

I have a love/hate relationship with sailing.
Its complicated.
But Friday night was WAY fun.
The BYU sailing club hosted a "Float and Floats"activity. THANK GOODNESS the thunderstorms blew out pretty fast. We had root beer floats and then went out on the boats.
Jared took Drew out on a Hobie 16, with some help of course. I was just planning on hanging out on the shore because I'm not about to take an INFANT on a little catamaran. But someone talked me into going out on the Catalina. Unlike catamarans, this one is a bit bigger and has a small cabin, it's rare that you get wet, and it's not going to flip.
It was such a nice time. Nathan was rocked to sleep quickly, and I wasn't stressing about Drew doing ____ (fill in the blank.) I got to socialize with adults! I was out of the house! And I even remembered my camera!

Here they are coming in, right after the sun went down.


Yep! That's Y mountain! and Provo temple is off to the left.



There was some pretty sky that evening.


We had 5 club boats out on the water. Here's 3 of them, if you look carefully.



4th one. I was on the 5th, but I forgot to ask someone to take a picture of me!


Yes. It was a nice evening out on the boat.


Well, until we came in off the water. The bugs were CRAZY. I have 14 bug bites on just one leg. And I'm not sure if that was before or after the bug spray. Nathan was covered up and spared. Drew got one on his neck. He didn't know to start freaking out about bugs until after I sprayed him and started smacking them all over the inside of the car. oh well.
It was still worth it.

Nathan smiled today.
I was humming "Did you Think to Pray" cuz it was stuck in my head from YW last night.
Nathan got excited and smiled several times in reaction to the same part of the song over and over. I feel like he can finally communicate "I'm happy" instead of just "not crying".
I'm THRILLED!

When Drew smiled the first time, I just assumed it was another milestone, and I don't remember getting super excited, but I did think it was pretty cool.
The doctor asked about it on Tuesday and I said he hasn't smiled "on purpose" yet, just when he's falling asleep.

*sigh* I'm glad to have another "happy thought."

I try to find little victories to get me through some of the tough days. I giving myself a gold star for each of these accomplishments this week.
- I fit into a pair of pre-pregnancy jeans (without officially working-out, yet.)
- I cleared out my closet of most maternity clothes
- I emailed Dustin with pictures. (this is always a double gold star)
- We took both boys for their well checks, and they are very healthy. Drew is done with his shots until kindergarten!
- I helped to get us to church "on-time" (about 10-15 minutes early cuz Jared helps the boys with the Sacrament.)
- I got out of the house last night, BY MYSELF for about 1/2 hour.
- Drew hasn't had an accident is about 1 week.
- Nathan slept for 7 hours last night.

Drew looks like he's not going to nap today he's been in his room for 1 1/2 hours and isn't even slightly sleepy. ugh. I have to get ready to teach the Young Women how to lead music tonight. When I learned (way back when...) I thought it was boring and useless, too, but here I am advocating what an important and easy skill it is. We'll have a follow-up lesson in a few weeks. If you have any pointers for these girls, I'm open to them!

Here's some pics for the week...
I take pictures of them sitting next to each other almost every week. I hope to enjoy the size comparisons down the road. This is the best one of Nathan in this series, but I think Drew was too into the TV show.

This time the elephant joined us.


Silly boy.
I don't have many pictures with my boys cuz I'm usually the one taking them. So I tried to sneak in one. I better figure out the self-timer one of these days.


Then Drew has to copy Mommy.


Auntie Lauren called the other day from camping in Yosemite. Drew just happened to have the tents out, too! (and tunnels, and sleeping bag, and pillows, and blankets)



This is my goofy puzzle-loving kid. He got a 36-piece puzzle from Aunt Tiffany and he had it done, by himself, within about 15 minutes of having it out to the box the first time. (ok, maybe I helped with the first 3 pieces.) Now when he puts it together, he then takes it apart lining up the pieces, just so, over and over again.