Loving Our Life: 2008

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Iowa is c-c-c-c-cold

So let's just push that last post down a little. :) I love Max, and what's the greatest is that he loves me even with all my crazy ideas.

We had our first freezing rain this past weekend. It was crazy--it looks like rain coming from the sky and then it hits the ground and turns into ice. A nice layer of snow dusted the top. The next day, everyone was outside chipping away at the two layers of ice on their driveways and sidewalks. It must have stopped part way through the night because there really were two layers, each about an inch thick, that separated as you chipped through it.

After the freezing rain, we had a high of -1 degree on Sunday. Getting in and out of church was COLD!!

Here is Max after shoveling one day. It wasn't snowing--his breath just gave him a nice frosty beard and hair. Quite the beard, eh!

Also, can anyone guess my Christmas present? Don't worry, it is exactly what I asked for.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Max is hijacking the Blog... because I love her.

I decided that Kate can't have full power over the blog otherwise some of you may miss the amazing things that she does because she is too humble to tell you. So I took the liberty of compiling a few photos of kate and one small movie clip of her incredible skillz to show you just a glimpse of how cool she is. I'd write more but I'm afraid I'll get caught by the editor in chief if I press my luck too far. Have fun.

Christmas Tree Hunt

For our first 5 Christmases, we always bought a tree permit, made a long drive up past Strawberry Reservoir or out past Toole, and hunted for the perfect tree. Sometimes they weren't so perfect--in fact one year was downright pathetic--but it was fun and often exciting. One year it started snowing quite hard, the wind was blowing, and our car started slipping down and kind of off the side of a hill. The last year we went, Jonah didn't want to get out of the car, Wyatt, only six months, was whining and needed to be fed so Max did the hunting and cutting himself. Last year we gave up and went tree hunting at Harmon's grocery store. We even took pictures.

This year, I think we found a good mix for the age of our family. We went to a local tree farm, only ten minutes away. It was $30 for ANY size pine or $40 for ANY size fir. Since we have a vaulted ceiling, we decided to go big. After walking around a bit, we found a beautiful 10 footer. Once we cut our tree and started dragging it to the parking area, an employee came and helped us drag it the rest of the way. Then, they put it on the shaker--probably the most entertaining part. Then, for $1 they wrapped it in netting and strapped it to our roof for us. Then--can you believe it could get any better?--when we went to pay, there were cookies, cider, and candy canes in the little cashier shed. We will definitely be returning next year.

We've never had cows on any of our previous tree-hunting trips

the winner (Also, this was almost a month ago and Max has been growing this beard ever since. I'll have to post a photo of that too.)

Wyatt stopped at this tree and said, "This is a good one!" He hasn't even seen A Charlie Brown Christmas.

The tree shaker.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

It's a . . . .

BOY!

We had our ultrasound this morning. I was pretty convinced, and I think Max was too, that we were going to have a girl because of how different this pregnancy has been from my others. I just thought there had to be something different to make me so sick--a girl, twins, a puppy, something. But it turns out that he is a little boy just like our other two.

Jonah was a little sad at first because he has said for a long time that it is a girl and her name is Molly (a friend from preschool). It took a little while, but now he seems excited to have another little brother and says that we should name him Mikey (another friend from preschool). We'll see about that. Max and I have been very good at picking out names an hour before we leave the hospital.

We're very excited!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Kid Kitchen

I saw on Diane (Grimshaw) Olsen's blog one day that she had made her kids a play kitchen out of big cardboard boxes, wrapping paper, and other such stuff. It got me thinking of how I could make a kitchen for our playroom without spending a lot because those little kitchens--at least the really cute Pottery Barn ones--can be pretty pricy. This is the final result. Best part--it is made from 100% recycled materials.

The frame is made from collapsable shelving that you can make into just about any configuration. I think I've had it since college if not longer. The sink is an old wok lid, the faucet is part of a hose with a chopstick shoved down it to make it stand up like that, the bread box is from our last house (this house doesn't have the counter space for it), and the blue and green squares are all painted cardboard from bike boxes (I happen to have about a thousand Boot Scoot boxes in my garage so I didn't have go very far). And some of you might recognize the Oh! Sweet Sadie grocery list stationery I attached to the fridge.

Hopefully the boys will play with it. Now I just need to find some play food. I'm still thinking recycled--wrapping food boxes in contact paper as we use them. Only problem, I'll have to go to the store to buy contact paper 'cause it's not so recyclable.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Halloween and More

Well, at least I'm posting about Halloween before Thanksgiving, right? This is kind of similar to my goal with W's First Year photo album--I've just got to get it done before the next baby, right?

J had a preschool party where they all got to dress up, play pin the nose on Frankenstein, and eat treats. J is wearing a clown costume I wore as a child, although I didn't have the cool wig or the big red nose that usually wound up on Jonah's forehead or in my hands.

Here we carving pumpkins. We found the warty pumpkin at Bloomsbury Farm when Max's parents came to visit. It was called a "super-freak" pumpkin. Pretty cool looking if you ask me. I love Jonah's face in this photo. He does this in a lot of photos, but at least here it makes sense.

If you notice in the next photo, I'm trying to keep W's legs warm since he's not wearing any pants. This is because when I change his diaper any time in the evening, I go to put on his pants back on but he declares, "No Pants!" and wiggles away as fast as he can.

Halloween night. Scary creatures coming out to play. Oh, except for W who refused to to dress up.

This is our family's new favorite game--UNO. J loves to make any of us draw 2 or draw 4. W gets a big kick out of it too. The first person to win is declared "First Winner" and runs to the couch to jump up and down. The second winner also gets to jump up and down, but then has to lay down on the ground.

I'm not exactly sure where these rules came from, but I usually get to beg out of the jumping on the couch by blaming it on the baby in my tummy. Max has his own excuse with a broken wrist. His tires slid out on a rainy day riding home from school a little over a week ago. It's the third time he's broken his right hand/wrist so as he says, "It's not my first rodeo." However, this is the first time he's broken it while having to take copious notes and type papers for school. I think he'll be glad when it heals.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Blogging Catch Up

So it turns out I'm about as consistent with blogging as I have been with journaling in the past. Although a month lapse is actually pretty good for me when it comes to journaling so I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself. So now I want to do a recap of the past two months now that I am finally coming out of the first trimester pregnancy fog.

Back in September our good friends the Livingstones came to visit. They have two boys too, and their older son Ian is WAY into John Deere tractors. So we drove to Moline, Illinois, the home of John Deere, to visit the museum and other John Deere attractions. The boys loved it and occasionally ask to go back. If it wasn't an hour's drive away I'm sure we'd be there weekly.

Jonah turned 4 in September. For his birthday we all went and rode the Hawkeye Express--a train that only runs on Saturdays to take spectators to Hawkeye football games (at $10 a person--at least kids ride free) from more distant parking lots. The boys loved the train ride and didn't mind waiting for it in the rain. On the day of Jonah's birthday he had a Joyschool field trip planned to go to a local apple orchard so we had a little birthday party with his JoySchool friends as well. This apple orchard is a great place. You can eat what you want while you are there, pick your own apples for purchase, and they also have fabulous apple tarts made hot and fresh. We will definitely be going back next year.

In mid-October, Max's parents came for a weekend visit. While Max was busy with school we took the boys to some fun places including Bloomsbury Farm in Atkins. They have a bunch of fun stuff for kids including water pump duck races, live pig races, tractor rides through corn fields, and a corn (as opposed to sand) box. The corn box actually felt great on the feet and was much better than sand when it came time to brush off and clean up.

We also went to the Amana colonies with Max's parent's. The Amana colonies used to be home to a religious group that succeeded at communal living for over 100 years! It is now more of a tourist site with lots of fun little shops, a delicious bakery, and family style restaurants. Ramona bought the boys this great musical marble toy the that boys have been playing with daily ever since. I put the best photo of it up above. The marble falls down and around the toy making different toned dripping sounds as it goes around. Maybe I'll have to take a video of it sometime for the full effect.

Ramona loves to go for early morning walks. This morning the boys went--Jonah with his Superman cape and Lightning McQueen slippers and Wyatt in his Thomas slippers.

We all had lots of fall family fun in October as well.

The boys are also getting to a great age where they actually play together. It is wonderful for me to see them playing games or pretending together. It doesn't always go smoothly, such as today when I was having a pregnant exhaustion moment (i.e. it was virtually impossible to keep my eyes open) while lying on the couch and I woke up to find Jonah hitting Wyatt on the arm with a "cutlass" hard enough to raise the skin and leave bruises. They haven't drawn serious blood as of yet, but I'm sure that is coming some day. For now, I'll enjoy the pleasant playing.

Oh yeah, and I LOVE our trampoline. I grew up with a trampoline and just always assumed my kids would have one. I can send the boys out to play and they jump together and even take turns showing each other new tricks. As you can see in the background, Jonah is becoming much more daring with his tricks.

So I made it just about to Halloween. I'll have to do that post another day because it is time to get the boys in bed.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Thank Heaven for Zofran!

So I have been neglecting the blog lately. I did change the background recently, and I'm not in love with it so I'll probably change it again soon, but that was about all I've been able to muster recently. The reason for all of this neglect is that I have been sick, sick, SICK with my third pregnancy. I threw up a few times with Jonah, a few more times with Wyatt, and always felt like I wanted to throw up more than I actually did so I thought I knew what pregnancy nausea was. I had no freaking idea!! I've never thrown up so much in my whole life combined (including the several times I got food poisoning on my mission, and that's saying something) than I have in the last month.

I finally called the doctor last Saturday (I don't know why I wait so long) when I hadn't kept anything down for about 24 hours and she prescribed Fenegren (I'm not sure how to spell it). It knocked me out, but didn't take away the nausea. Then on Monday, I called back, got my first Zofran and I am a completely new person--haven't thrown up since. Instead, I got a horrible head cold/ear infection and my ears have been ringing for 2 days now, but I've got medicine for this too, so I'm looking forward to feeling better any minute now.

Sorry for the super complaining post, but this has been my life for the past month and I'm finally reaching the end of it. I hope. I am really happy to be pregnant. Everyone says it must be a girl since I wasn't this sick with the boys. I say it's either a very hormonal girl or quadruplets with the way I've felt. Max has been wonderful. He is in a really busy semester of school and has had to come home to me on the couch with a messy house all around since I haven't picked up after anyone and no dinner ready for him or the boys. He's cleaned, cooked, taken the boys to let them get out, rubbed my back while I've thrown up again and again, and he still loves me. He is amazing. Here's a photo I took of Wyatt and him a little while back. He is an awesome dad and my favorite person in the world.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

CreatedByMom.com

My friend Quinn just started a great website that features only items from mom-preneurs. It is pretty fun to see all the fun stuff moms are making, and I agree with Quinn that knowing you've bought something that will support another mom makes you feel just that much better about making your purchase. And if any of you reading wants to get in contact with Quinn to sell the stuff you create, just let me know.

Quinn is celebrating her grand opening right now with a 20% off coupon code. Her ad/invite looked really cute, but I can't figure out how to put it on my blog, so I'll just give you the text with the coupon codes and a link to the site.

Grand Opening of
CreatedByMom.com

It's finally here!
For those of you that don't know, I've started an online boutique that features any products created by moms. This has been such an fun, inspiring endeavor!

Moms are incredible. I love this concept: if you buy anything from createdbymom.com, you know the profit goes to a mom & their family. Also, all the moms selling products in the boutique are entitled to a 20% discount off any other product in the store: moms promoting other moms & their products!

I've been working really hard to get a lot of fantastic products in the store (more are coming every day) & now it's finally time to unveil them, officially, & begin the festivities!

Grand Opening
October 1-18
@ CreatedByMom.com

Some of the festivities:
Blog Hype Contest
see my blog for full details on the chance to win a $25 gift certificate to CreatedByMom.com

$100 Shopping Spree Contest
all purchases made during the Grand Opening will be entered in a drawing for a $100 shopping spree

If anything, I hope you all enjoy checking out the fabulous things moms are creating.

Lots of love to all & a BIG thank you for your support!
xoxo quinn

p.s. feel free to forward this invite & the coupon offer to any of your friends & family that you'd like. Spread the love far & wide! :)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Recent Fun Stuff that Begins and Ends with Ice Cream

Jonah recently began JoySchool. We started off the year with a group field trip to a local petting zoo run by a long-time Iowa City resident family, the Danes. They used to own a dairy farm, but have sold off a lot of their land and all their dairy cows. They still own Danes' Dairy though, where, if you go to the petting zoo, you can go get free ice cream afterward. The kids all loved it and Jonah really likes JoySchool. I asked him if he wanted me to come on the first day, and he quickly said, "No, I wanna go by myself."

One morning last week, I went downstairs to get some Boot Scoots ready for shipment and when I came up, this is what I found. When I saw the heaping bowl and scattered Cheerios on the table, the chair, and the floor, I asked Wyatt, "What did you do?" He answered with the obvious, "I got more Cheerios." What was I expecting him to say?

We went for a walk the other evening after a rainstorm. Jonah decided to be a Superman Pirate, though we didn't get a shot of him with his eyepatch on, so Wyatt got to wear the Batman raincoat. Most of the walk then entailed Jonah trying to convince Wyatt to trade superhero costumes with him. It didn't work.

On Saturday Jonah got to go to a Primary activity--the Primary Olympics. If any of you are in a Primary presidency, this was a great activity. The kids began arriving at 9 am, they registered, were assigned a team (Jonah is on the orange team), then went into the gym to color posters for their team. Then, as a team, they went to various rooms each with a different event--warm up, jumping, running, strength training, obstacle course, and medal ceremony. Jonah's group actually ended up being the first group to the medal ceremony so they got the prize before anything. All the kids loved it. At the end, everyone met up in the obstacle course room (which Jonah is doing in the second picture) and some of the teachers had to run the kid size obstacle course. Two grown men racing to squeeze through a tiny box had all the children cackling. As they left, every child also got a small bottled water and granola bar. It really was a great activity and what was amazing is that they said it would be from 9-10 and it was! They did all this in an hour with somewhere between 60 and 70 kids. Amazing!!

After the primary activity, we went on a great hike around Kent Lake. It is a state park area that is really well cared for and only about 15 minutes away. The park has restored a bunch of old iron bridges from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a fun walk. On the way home, we found a fun little small-town restaurant/ice cream shop. They even put sprinkles on top of Jonah's mint-chocolate chip shake (under the plastic lid) because he REALLY wanted sprinkles.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Trip to Canada

We just got back from an amazing vacation. We spent 6 days with Max's aunt and uncle at their remote lodge on Lake Timiskaming in Quebec. It was definitely one of the top vacations of my life. Jonah has already asked to go back several times and actually cried when we were leaving, "I just want to enjoy Scott's 'clodge' for a few more minutes." The setting was spectacular, the boys played hard every day, we played games every night with Max's aunt, uncle, and cousins, I got to read 2 books, Max and I went repelling and cliff jumping, Max went kayaking, I went water skiing, Jonah and Wyatt swam through the "tunnel" under the dock, Jonah and Wyatt went for tractor rides behind the riding lawn mower, I took the boys tubing down some little rapids, and oh so much more. Here are a few pictures.

Me and J tubing

tractor rides

can you believe how gorgeous this place is?

can you believe how gorgeous these two are?

"The Lover's Jump" as Scott called it, or "Frog and Praying Mantis" as Max and I call it, only days before our 6th wedding anniversary. Congrats to us!

Cliff jumping at the Grande Chute

This trip reminded me how much fun I can still have.

Max and Scott kayaking the Kipawa River

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Johnson County Fair

Something that I am really coming to appreciate about Iowa City is that lots and lots of things are free. There are free concerts and outdoor movies all summer long. The arts festival was free. Maybe Utah was an anomaly or I didn't know about all the free stuff in Utah, but really, have you ever been to a free fair? We went to the Johnson County Fair yesterday for kids day--admission was free, there was free popcorn, free ice cream bars, commercial booths giving out stuff left and right. The boys loved it so much that we went back in the evening with Max.

Wyatt is 2!

Me: "How old are you Wyatt?"

Wyatt:

"2!"

Wyatt just recently had his second birthday. (And last night he threw his first 2-year-old tantrum--it was pretty intense.) We thought about going out somewhere for his birthday, but decided he would have just as much fun at home. We were right. Swimsuits, sprinklers, slip-n-slide, cake, ice cream, and presents. He was very happy.

Loving Our Life