In case we don't see you...

Snow Day!

2012-01-12T12:05:00.000-08:00

Blake had the day off today and when we opened the blinds, what did we see but snow!! It was so exciting. Isaac and Blake got dressed right away and went out. I tried to get James and I ready to go but by the time we got almost ready, Isaac was cold and ready to come in. Poor James looking out the window wishing he could have gone.

But that's ok because after trekking to the grocery store it warmed up slightly and we were ready to go out again. We broke out our new sled! I bought it for the kids for Christmas but hid it so well I forgot about it. I guess that's a good thing because it would have been disappointing to get a sled for Christmas and not be able to use it until now, 3 weeks later.

Look at that pure joy!

It may not look like it, but we have a terrific sledding hill just steps away from our back door. It is big enough that it's lots of fun but not too big that it's too hard to walk back up. And we had it all to ourselves!

We were so glad Daddy was here for our snow day!

Forest Park on New Year's Eve

2012-01-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

We've been enjoying wonderful weather lately, just like everyone else, I think. Just yesterday we ate lunch outside in our front yard. Blake had New Year's Eve off but had to work the night shift that night. But we had fun during the day with the fam.

As much as Isaac loves his new bike, James LOVES his "new" trike. Actually, it makes Isaac jealous and lots of times he also wants to ride the trike. And then James will scream because he wants it.

Some of these pictures are out of focus but I love them anyway. Like this next one where you can tell that Isaac is balancing so well on his bike because his feet are way off the ground.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-29T12:41:00.000-08:00

We were happy when it was finally Christmas Eve! Until that day, Blake had been at the hospital 18 days straight. Not full shifts every day--some were night shifts so he was technically in the hospital Saturday and Sunday. But still. And at least 11 of those nights he was home after the kids were in bed. We were all pretty burned out.

Our nativity.

Presents set out.

The favorite toy of the day was the one he saw first--Mr. Potato Head.
He also loved his big-boy legos.
James just wanted to eat.
So we all took a break and had waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.
Pausing for a moment to take an annual in-front-of-the-Christmas-tree photo.
Yes, my boys love their kitchen set. The mess is getting bigger.
Hooray, an ironing board cover from my parents! (But I thought it was pretty good that they noticed we needed one!)
I love the look of concentration on his face.
James wanted to play with the old toys.
And maybe page through a new book. He will never let me turn the pages or read books to him. Books are for flipping through.
More mess. And I had to take a picture of one of my presents--an umbrella light for photography. I made everyone dodge it so I could get decent Christmas morning pics.
LOVING the new bike. We've ridden it multiple times every day this week. He's getting the hang of balancing on it a little bit. And sometimes he just walks with it. Either way, he loves it. We were out riding yesterday and he stopped and stood up and said, "My bum hurts." He stood for a minute and then said, "It's all better!" Way to go, Isaac, don't let saddle soreness get you down!

Blake got some random computer things, a printer, razor, shoes, etc. My big gift was a Silhouette. I've only done one test run and one cutting out a fabric HAPPY BIRTHDAY for a new birthday banner, but it's super cool and fun. What should I cut out next?

Santa at the Magic House

2011-12-21T13:14:00.000-08:00

Christmas card

2011-12-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

Please pretend that a hand-addressed envelope arrived in your mailbox. This was inside:

2 busy busy parents

0 things we would change if we could

1 joy-schooling, fast-running, always-talking 3-year old

1 red-haired, toddling Mama's boy

Gingerbread houses

2011-12-11T18:32:00.001-08:00

We had a fun time making gingerbread houses with some friends. Next time I think we need to do it with someone who isn't going to make ours look lousy, though!

Yes, this last one is ours. Put to shame. But I do get some credit for making the gingerbread, right?
Isaac was making me laugh in this outfit he was in the other day and how he was doing some serious digging.
Isaac's latest thing is writing! I don't know where he picked it up, because I never really brought it up, but all of a sudden he's writing letters.
If you can make it out, he wrote a mom down at the bottom and two Isaac's (he thinks he has O's in his name instead of A's.

Thanksgiving plus it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2011-12-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

I was lucky to get some family to visit me for Thanksgiving. Blake had to work all day--6 AM to 8:30 PM. Andrew and Anne came out from Utah. We went to Ted Drewes, of course.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Wednesday so Blake could eat with us. It was awesome because Thanksgiving we didn't have to cook at all (except making pie and more mashed potatoes) and we ate turkey 3 times. dinner lunch dinner.

Apple pie, Andrew's request.

Candied sweet potatoes were Anne's request.
I love how Blake wears his new Cardinals t-shirt everywhere. We're such fair-weather fans--we've lived here for 4 years but once they won the big one in October, Blake finally got a t-shirt.

We went for a turkey trot with the kids since Blake was working and I couldn't let Andrew and Anne run without me! Usually James is such a peaceful running companion. I love to take just him because he will just sit and watch the cars pass. Isaac will usually complain "I don't want to go to the park! It's too cold, mommy! Goldfish! ..." but ironically during the race Isaac was silent the whole time just watching everyone and the other strollers and dogs and James cried off and on. yes, it's me again, the lady with the crying kids. Sometimes it feels like it's always me. He may have been cold--it was unusually chilly that morning. We took turns pushing the stroller (2 miles each) but it didn't slow down Andrew or Anne at all. I however, am not used to running fast so I was dead when we finished our 6 miles in under an hour. ok, I know that's not fast at all but I was still dying.

My first real race ever!
That afternoon we went for a lovely walk in Forest Park. It's always so lovely there.
I love this--my 6'2" brother stooping over helping 2' tall James walk.
Mouth full of his staple--peanut butter sandwich.

We went to Pappy's (bbq), which was totally worth the 30 minute wait, and went on walks and played games and watched movies. It's always nice to have family in our house --it makes it feel more like home. And it is hard when they leave.

It's getting colder and looking more like Christmas around here. I snapped some pictures of what our home looks around this time.
Blake really wanted a full-size tree this year so we bought the cheapest one we could find to last us a couple years. It does the job.

I've never had stockings since we've never been here for Christmas, but since we're not going to Utah this year, I am making some. One done, three to go. Not sure I'll make it, but as long as we have at least two we'll be good, right?
Isaac is in a backpack phase right now. He stuffs it with stuffed animals and clothes and whatever and he'll pack it all over. I've started leaving his clothes down on the washing machine because I'm so tired of his clothes getting all over the house. He's loving the Christmas season and taking off a link in our countdown chain every day. He makes us laugh when he says things like "Happy Birthday Jesus" or "mommy, you fooled the fire department. you be in time out." (Curious George)

James is still holding on to my hand to walk. I don't mind following him around everywhere but I do think he' not giving himself enough credit because he could totally rock the walking thing. He loves balls and that was his third word--after mom and dad. And now he's becoming enchanted with balloons. He will make a beeline down the hill of our playground to the balloons that say "lease today!". We went to a party yesterday and took a balloon home and he calls it "ba-oo". Cutest. Never gets old.

Happy Halloween from a fish and a skeleton

2011-10-30T18:59:00.000-07:00

But first, I want to post a picture I've been meaning to share: This is Isaac, just up from his nap (I know, it's out of focus), having put on five pajama shirts on top of his play shirt, and four pairs of pajama pants on top of his jeans. He's discovered his dresser, since there's nothing else entertaining in his room during nap time.

Ok, so actually I have about a million photos I want to share and it's taken me forever already to get them up in this post, so I want to go to bed now instead of annotating them. So here are many photos with minimal words.

This is a classic James profile.
Grandma Karen came to visit and we went to a little pumpkin farm. Isaac loves his pumpkins and has carried his little one around for two weeks.
Grandma brought a little house to paint. Isaac had tons of fun while I freaked out about potential paint messes.
James wanted to paint too. Or at least get out of his chair.

We went to Boo at the Zoo, the one thing Grandma wanted to do (besides buy Christmas presents.) Isaac was excited to be friends with the animals because who wouldn't want to be friends with a fish? But unfortunately all the animals were in bed.
Mom, I will stand here while you take my picture but I won't be happy about it.
And let's show off the back.

For some reason I didn't dress up James. Why?But he is always very patient in the stroller.
Waiting to get in the zoo and I kept taking pictures because what else was there to do?
Good thing I did, because this is a keeper! Going on the wall as his one-year picture.
We were amazed this didn't freak Isaac out.
And I was there too.
I made Grandma take our pictures for our Christmas card and I tried to snap some pictures of Isaac when we were done. Not gonna happen. The ones I took of James I posted on his birthday. come on, Isaac, let go of the stick and let mom take your picture!
Give me a smile!
Playing in the leaves.
And party time! Here's an excerpt from my journal:
James was a little full so didn't eat too much cake but did make a glorious mess, which was fun to watch. Isaac wouldn't touch his cake at his one year party. He was spoiled with presents and Isaac did so great keeping his distance as much as he could. We had prepared him well that he had to let James play with the toys but James would share with him. He got a music table (G and G Newman), a ride on car (G and G Newman), a real phone, some books, a bus, and a jacket and sweater (Grandma K). I love James so much. He adores me and always wants to be in my arms or have me close by. He likes me to put him to bed, which is good because there's rarely any other option. He eats really well, at least we think so. He eats most vegetables and fruits and lots of what I'm eating. He has a more varied diet than Isaac. He crawls well and pulls up on things, can walk with only one hand helping him, likes to bang drums with the drumsticks, likes to take legos apart and put them together, likes to put toys into baskets, waves hello, claps, says momom, dada, and other gibberish, knows his name, knows Isaac's name, loves his older brother and follows him around and wants to go into his room when he's sleeping. He still has cute reddish hair and still the seven teeth (what an odd number to have stopped on for five months!). We can feel the molars coming in soon. He loves to be outside and does pretty good now not to put sticks and sand into his mouth. He loves to explore the sand box and gives the biggest grin when you let him go down the slide by himself into Isaac's arms. He is a really sweet boy and we're grateful for what he adds to our family, even if some nights are still rough. Happy Birthday!

I love how James will play on his knees sometimes.
The first ride on the car!

We carved the pumpkin with Grandma, which Isaac wasn't too thrilled about at first but then he caught on. Then he loved it and wanted to kiss it.
Thanks, Grandma Karen, for coming to visit! You spoiled us rotten! I didn't take any pictures, but she babysat one saturday while Blake and I spent over six hours at 6 Flags. We've always wanted to go so now was our chance. I have never left my kids that long ever. Except Isaac I guess when I was in the hospital with James but Blake was home then. It was a little traumatic but such a joyful reunion! It was so sweet to see James scramble to me.

Oh, and finally a picture of our little skeleton! (Yes, that was the best picture I could get. This boy is on the move!) We went to our church's trunk or treat last night.

We've also enjoyed having Blake home--he's been on vacation and the "pull list" for two weeks. He got pulled in for a guy who's wife had a baby. I guess that's a good reason but we were annoyed Blake had to spend two days giving a guy paternity leave. But I know we would appreciate it if someone did the same for us. Isaac said the cutest prayer last night:

"...Thankee Daddy not go to work
thankee get candy at church
thankee go to the park
...bwess mommy take care Isaac and James
bwess James sweep well
bwess Isaac go to potty and to share
bwess Daddy not go to work
..."

Happy Birthday James!

2011-10-23T18:45:00.001-07:00

2011-10-09T18:09:00.000-07:00

Isaac loves singing but has to sing things by himself. Don't you dare try to chime in with his "Book of Mormon Stories." Lately he's been switching the words to songs, just exploring words, I think, not trying to be silly. The best one so far (as we finished our run past our complex playground):

I love to see the playground
I'm going there some playground
To feel the holy playground
To listen and to playground.

He's finally started eating meat! thanks to Alexis, who brought some deli ham when she came swimming with us and Isaac wanted some "pink stuff." So now he eats "lexi's pink stuff" all the time. Daddy taught him to make eye holes.

James got an ear infection two and a half weeks ago. He refused to nurse. I tried for a whole week to get him back on, painstakingly hand-pumping in the meantime. But he is just done. It was a really miserable week but now I'm over it and James is better and I guess that made weaning really easy. It's so sad when babies grow up and we lose that little newborn bond. James is one in two weeks so I quit pumping this weekend and when I run out of formula samples, whole milk here we come.

Blake of course was on nights when the ear infection surfaced so he probably slept better during the day than I did at night! After three days of misery, finally on Sunday I had just had it--I was exhausted and so DONE with hearing James cry. He wouldn't nurse so therefore had a hard time falling asleep, because he's always been nursed to sleep. He would wake up in the middle of the night and whatever I did, end up being awake for about 2 hours. I was a bad wife and woke Blake up after only having slept 4 hours (home from a night shift) and told him I was taking Isaac to church and he could do whatever he liked with James. Let him cry, try and bounce him to sleep, get him up, either way I was out of there. Blake took over like the superman he is and I somehow was recharged by attending church with Isaac, who sat in sacrament meeting like a perfect angel, and teaching my primary class which has generally been really hard for me but that day it felt so much easier than the rest of the week had been.

Whenever Blake talks to friends/family on the phone and they ask him how internship is going, he replies, "Oh, it's going just fine." Lots of the time it is going just fine but lots of the time it is going just crappy. Blake is gone a lot. I put kids to bed alone a lot. Is it lame that I feel like a superstar when I manage to finish the week's "work" on friday and do the bathrooms and vacuuming all by myself? And think about all the laundry I did the day before and how I even managed to make it to the grocery store? I am a spoiled wife, but Blake used to help with all those things. I know, most people do all that stuff without even thinking how their husband used to clean the bathroom while you vacuumed. Last week Blake went four days without seeing the kids at all. But we're making it, and as long as it doesn't get harder than the week of the ear infection, we can handle the rest of intern year.

Now that I've finished my rant, I will get on with updates. James has started playing with things in a way other than chewing them. Today in church he sat on my lap for five minutes and put little finger puppets into an empty spice jar over and over again.

My mother came for a visit, at a perfect time when Blake was super busy in the MICU and I was needing some serious sleep catch-up.

We went to the "train park" (museum of transportation), played in the sand box,

listened to conference,

went to Suson park (has a playground, lakes, and animal farm),
and played at the rocketship park. That's Isaac's new fav. (I tried to make these pictures look better, but they are only iPod pictures, what can you do?)

Swimming

2011-09-04T19:36:00.000-07:00

We love swimming! Isaac is getting quite good at dog paddling. Daddy is a pretty good swim instructor. Isaac last week finally jumped in the pool all by himself. Thank you Jeremiah for teaching us reverse psychology ("Isaac, don't jump in the pool all by yourself!"). James is getting quite good at sitting in his little "boat" for thirty minutes after which point he is so out of there, crawling around looking for something else to put in his mouth.

I love James' hair so much. It's been growing in and seems to be quite red, much to my surprise and joy. Blake tells me daily I must cut it. So here is a picture before those darling red locks are shortened.

Isaac loves to be outside. His favorite is to go to the playground after the neighborhood women/children have gone for their walk and we have gone for our run. We all play at the playground for an hour and Isaac chases Brynlee around, screaming like one of the girls, and digs in the sand with Peter. We love having kids Isaac's age around. It's so different from living in the city, where the dogs passing by were friends and the brick alleyway the playground.

Seems like I've been continually painting and nailing since we moved in, doing one project or another. Some have expressed mild curiosity as to what the headboard I made looks like, so here is a picture. That is $10 worth of board covered with an old blanket and $3 worth of clearance fabric put together with $2 upholstery tacks. I really wanted to get designer fabric but the point was to go cheap so I settled. Anyway, we've never had a headboard and it seems to make our bed more official.

Half marathon

2011-09-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

Does it count if you and your two friends put on a race of your own? We defy authority and driving an hour to a race that happens to be on a Saturday and paying $50. I was so happy to finish my goal!

running buddies Tori, Emily and me

I made t-shirts, using this tutorial. She's right, it is extremely fun and addicting (to make t-shirts).

WE DID IT!!

Fourth of July and stuff

2011-08-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

Jeremiah, Megan, Hannah, and Zeke visited us for the Fourth. Isaac loved having Hannah around, even when they were fighting over toys they didn't really want but the other wanted it so it must be worth fighting over. I love it when my family visits. We had a good time swimming and going to the zoo and even catching the Webster Groves fireworks. It was quite a show and worth keeping the kids up for. I cried when they left...

Hannah took some lessons from Isaac about hanging out in your underwear.

These two boys looked so cute in their matching rompers! Interesting fact: They share two of their three names.

Blake obviously has started residency. Yes, we see less of him, but it's going just fine. Isaac has switched from being a Daddy's boy back to being a Mommy's boy. "No, Mommy do it!" Isn't Blake handsome in his new long white coat?

Besides that, we've been doing a lot of swimming, playing with trucks and trains, running to parks, sweating like crazy, and playgroups. And James learned to crawl two weeks ago! More recently, a couple days ago he started cruising, still very unsteadily. We've had many crashes.

I know in the video it doesn't look like he's crawling, but this was his first day and trust me, he was moving! Now he's much more adept. He can find me anywhere! (and any paper and cereal.)

If you ever

2011-08-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

think you want to wash that hand-dyed wool quilt that's never been washed, don't. Even if you think it's dirty from hanging up in your son's room for three years gathering dust. It's fine. If you really want to, swish it in some water. Definitely don't put soap on it. And if that soap makes the colors run, leave it. That stinks, but it's ok. DON'T EVER EVER EVER put oxiclean on it. I love oxiclean. But oxiclean and wool quilts do not mix. You will be left with a chain reaction of every dye in the quilt running running and dye staining your sink and your bathtub.
It used to be beautiful. There used to be white in it.

2011-07-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

We thought moving out of the city would solve this problem:

So yesterday afternoon I was sitting at the table reading/eating lunch during naps when I saw a little blonde boy run towards our window, playing. I thought, "Weird, I don't recognize him. I thought I knew all the kids in our complex." I heard his mom knock on the next door and start a conversation with "Hi, I'm your neighbor and I wanted to talk to you about...next week..."

I am a mean person, but when I get an hour break when both kids are asleep, I don't take any phone calls and I just sit and read or surf the internet or something. So I ran into the living room and when she knocked on my door twice, I ignored it.

Later that day, I noticed Isaac's favorite backhoe was no longer in our front garden. He loves that thing--plays with it every day to put dirt into his dump truck. So I was a little distressed and immediately thought of that little boy and maybe he accidentally took it and they would realize it and bring it back some time. Or maybe some other animal took it, though it's a little big for that.

Well, today we got a notice from our management saying there was a lady soliciting for an Autism walk but soliciting is not allowed in our complex and furthermore, there is no Autism walk on the date she was collecting money for. People make me sick. Who would do that, make up a cause and collect money for it? Pretty sure she doesn't live here. So her son totally stole our truck and she stole other people's money and I guess there are dishonest people everywhere, county and city alike.

What a lousy week

2011-07-17T18:38:00.001-07:00

Blake continued working working working his 12-day stretch. I got sick. James got sick. I lost my voice. Blake was on call today (Sunday) so I had to haul James along to my Primary class, which consists of (7) 4-year olds and one teacher (me).
BUT...
I joined basically a wives group of Wash U residents and went to the Welcome Brunch yesterday while Blake took the kids swimming because he finally had a day off and I won $20 to Ted Drewes! If you have been to visit us or live in St. Louis, you have been there and you have loved it and dreamt about it. If you haven't, good thing you'll never know what you're missing.

Camping at Johnson's Shut-Ins

2011-06-26T14:23:00.001-07:00

It was fun in a miserable sort of I hope this is over soon sort of way. I've never been so stressed as I was at 8:30 trying to get both kids to go to sleep in a tent with noisy bugs and birds and neighbors. We went as a last hurrah before Blake started his intern year. The main attraction is the pools that are a .25 mile hike. Crystal clear water that is only marred by a few snakes here and there. When someone spots one, they call "Snake!" and you get out of the water for a couple minutes until you assume it's gone. So seriously, I'm not sure we would go back, but it was sure pretty and Isaac loved the water. It's a good thing we went somewhere with water because there was a heat advisory in effect.

I guess we're quite the serious hikers because one of the rangers said, "I've seen one of those backpacks once!"

Trusty hiking shoes

So beautiful, camping in Missouri. But with this beauty comes BUGS. Ants, flies, spiders, big beetles, cockroaches, grasshoppers, gnats, mosquitoes. It takes all the fun out to be swatting and waking up in the middle of the night to a spider crawling up my arm.

James was miserable. No place to nap, so hot, but once we did finally get him to sleep at 9 he slept until 6, which ironically is the longest sleeping stretch he's ever done.

Such clear, amazingly refreshing water.

Isaac loved the tent. It was hot in there, though. We all just barely fit in our 4-man tent with the pack n play in the corner. Isaac really wanted to relive his baby days and sleep the pack n play and did not want a big boy sleeping bag.

Isaac #2ed for the very first time in the potty in the grass while we were there. Nothing can live up to that now. And I would like to report that I feel like potty training is complete. We've only had one accident this entire week and the #2s have finally clicked, thanks to the reward of ice cream. And may I just say, to anyone potty training soon, that if it starts getting wearisome, try changing the treat reward because I did m&m's for a week and it was super exciting when the treat changed to fruit snacks.

Isaac is 3!!!

2011-06-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

Isaac was thrilled it was finally his turn to get a cake and candles!

I worked hard to make it a good day for him. He got to watch a lot of the Little Engine That Could when he woke up. That's his favorite movie. We went to the zoo at 8 after letting James get a little nap and we rode the carousel and went to the children's zoo. (These things are free before 9.)
Then we paid $15 to ride the train! What a birthday treat. We made the mistake of sitting in the very front, though, which was too loud and Isaac had much more fun when we switched to the middle.

(too loud!)

After that we made our way back home and James got a nap and we did presents! Lots of things a 3 year old loves. After his nap we all went swimming, which really isn't that unusual since we've been almost every day since moving here. We had the friends over for dinner and we let Isaac and Benjamin just play instead of eat. I made Isaac a blue balloon cake, but I did it all wrong. I showed him the cake in the shape of a balloon and he said, "No, balloons on it!" so I blew up little water balloons and put them on and he said, "No, big ones!" Oh well. He still lit up with a big smile when we all sang happy birthday and he spit trying to blow out his candles.

I just want to say that Isaac is a really good boy. He's a very good older brother and likes to give James kisses and gives him toys, "Here go, James." He always wants to please Blake and I and is very seldom disobedient. He always asks permission to do things, "I go outside? Yes, dat's fine?" He's picked up on some movie phrases like "Train tracks? That's weird." He's beginning to play interactively: "Mom, I'm the scary train. You're the blue engine. I want the boy back!" and then I'm supposed to say "You can't have him!" (These are all from The Little Engine that Could.) He still won't eat meat but he will eat half an apple a day so he can eat a cookie. He likes wearing his Thomas and James underwear and Mickey-mickey diapers at night (has a mickey and minnie on it). He loves trains and trucks and sometimes likes to read books in a big long stint. He's graduated from board books and likes The Little Mermaid, the Prince and the Pauper, The Little Engine that Could (of course), but sometimes he'll go back to old favorites like Little Quack Counts or Red Train. He loves to play in the sand at our apartment and loves to swim and go under the water. He's getting so tall and is talking so much. I love him to death and I'm so glad he's part of our family.

Yes, you read that right: Isaac is wearing big boy underwear! He's doing a really good job, but we haven't quite got the #2s down yet. I know it's only cute for me to see him in his undies, but I'm posting a picture anyway.

The questions I'm asking myself are: Is is better to throw a diaper away that has pee in it or clean up pee on the floor? Is it better to wipe a poopy bum and throw away a diaper with poop in it or wipe up a poopy bum and gingerly throw poop from little train undies into the toilet and then scrub the undies in the sink? I know he's learning a life skill, but it's hard getting there. And he is doing a good job learning. It's just hard. I thought it was going to be magical.

throwing balloons at our beautifully lush and green new townhome. we love it here!

7 months

2011-06-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

We missed his six month checkup, but here James is at 7 months:

20 lbs 6 oz ~ 80th percentile
26" ~15th percentile

He's sure a chunk, but he's so adorable. We get a comment wherever we go about what a cute smile he has or what cute red (ish) hair.
He's doing good eating solids and we're making sure to give him lots of veggies and throw in some meat in the hopes that he won't be as picky of an eater as Isaac.
Some times he sleeps really great, sometimes not so great, but he's definitely getting older and figuring out how things work.

Isaac loves his brother a lot and always wants to hug him and give him kisses and maybe "play" with him:

and finally a smile.

Graduation

2011-06-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

Yay, Blake! We're so proud of the man for graduating. I made him dress up the night before to take pictures in front of the hospital.

Such a handsome graduate. It was a nice occasion, but a bit long for two little kids. My mom took James out for more than half of the ceremony. Isaac did ok but said, "Daddy wear a dress?" about 50 times while he sat on my lap.
We were so glad we had so much family support. It meant a lot that five people would travel here to watch Blake walk across a stage in a green dress.

Bear Lake

2011-06-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

We went to Bear Lake on our way (sort of) back to Missouri. It is always so beautiful and peaceful there, even if the water is a little chilly. Isaac had a blast there and James hated it (if his sleeping habits have anything to do with likes/dislikes). Everyone bailed on the trip (Blake's whole family was supposed to come) but we were happy that my sister spent the night with us in between bike races. We watched her as she passed the cabin on her second race. Watch out, here comes IronmANNE!

Our trip to Utah

2011-06-05T15:26:00.001-07:00

We spent a LOOONG time in Utah. I'm still trying to decide if it was too long, too short, or just right. Was it long enough that it makes us glad to back in our own place alone? Was it long enough that it just made it really hard to leave again? Did we get sick of everyone? Did they get sick of us? Who knows. It was a fun trip and yet it is nice to be home again. Here's what we did:

I had a birthday with an awesome white cake. Gloriously, though, this very week I started eating chocolate again and James has slept 6 hour stretches both nights so hooray! Now I can eat chocolate again, just in time for me to be back home without chocolate treats everywhere I turn. (It was good weight control, though, because I actually lost weight this trip to Utah.)

I had a good helper to open presents, though he wasn't as thrilled with the gifts as I was.

We celebrated twice.

We went to the park on the days that were fine (and few and far between).

Isaac grew very attached to both grandmas and did everything with them. Like they would have to hold up his peanut butter sandwich for him to eat.

Classic James face--"What are you making me sit here for?"
Then it was Easter. We got to dye eggs.

And our fingers.

Then we got to search for the eggs with all our cousins. I looked for all the starburst and let Isaac have the chocolate eggs. Isaac was very obedient and only ate the candy when we told him he could have a piece. For a full month, the candy was in a basket, then in his recycle truck, then in a sand bucket, then in a bag, then back in the recycle truck, etc. Slowly diminishing piece by piece. When his cousin Eli came over a week after Easter, he points excitedly to the candy in Isaac's truck: "Look, candy!" Isaac's like--oh yeah, it's been there forever.

Somehow all the kids magically wore red/orange (except Kate).

Poor James was sleeping during the hunt.

Then we hunted again with the other side. Isaac did a good job finding all his blue eggs and James' orange eggs.

Oh, how I love this smiley boy! He is so sweet!

We celebrated Blake's birthday once

twice

three times. This was the first time in four years or so the triplets were all together for their birthday. Isn't it so sad they never get their own cake?

Isaac occasionally gave into sleep at Grandma K's house.

It snowed. More than once. This was May 3.

James and Isaac are such good pals. Fingers crossed it will always be like this. I love this picture because I swear James is almost as big as Isaac!

Blake played a lot of basketball, mostly waking up early on Fridays to play with his brother and Dad.

He played once with my handsome younger brother who is currently single...

And it got warm! Just in time for us to pack up our car and drive the miserable 20 hours back to Missouri. But this time Grandma Karen and Grandpa Kent drove with us and loved to have Isaac in their car. They played with stickers and read books and watched "The Little Engine that Could" twenty times. James was able to nap a little better in the car since the noise maker was gone. He also is older and more interested in toys so overall the drive went much much better than it did two months prior.

Bye Utah! Bye family! Come visit us!

P.S. Oh yeah, and a shout out to my awesome brother Chris, who surprised me by flying in from London to surprise me for my birthday. Umm, how awesome is that? Didn't get a picture, sadly, but he is just as handsome and single as my other brother up there.

Match Day

2011-06-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I hate having to play catch-up, but I want this to be in "our story", so I am posting about the event that happened three months ago. Several days before match, we woke up to this outside our window:
We were so glad we had an apartment ready to move into the day after match to escape the noisy (and smelly!) tuckpointing happening at our building.

Here we are, walking to school on the big day--

This is a terrible picture, but the best I could do. Yay, we matched in St. Louis! Isaac made everyone laugh because he wanted to be with Daddy, but once he realized they were going to the stage, he buried his head and clung to him.

Sarah and I have been through a lot together. I remember vividly meeting her and Logan at the first mingle after the white coat ceremony and thinking, "What a cute girl. I hope we become good friends." And it happened! We've spent a lot of time together, the first year just playing games and eating as couples, and then later playing with our boys. We spent so many happy days at Sarah's apartment at the Hawthorne that when we went to their move last week and I saw their apartment boxed up, I couldn't help but burst into tears. I will miss Sarah and Jessica and Ann and all of my other Lindell ward friends that are moving or are even still there but we have moved out to a different area.
Isaac and Callum enjoying match day their way.
James could be happy anywhere! Such a smiley baby.

We spent the rest of the day packing because we moved the next day!

A poem

2011-05-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

I've been looking through a lot of old family photos and things and came across this poem someone wrote about my Dad. It is such a clever poem, and describes the true event so you can SEE it happening, so I decided to share.

Yet Another Ode to Dr. Perry

by A. Davis

September 1986

Once again my voice I raise

To laud our Joe in rhyming phrase,

For Joe has shown us all his pluck

Is not confined to saving ducks.

It seems he finds himself distinguished

Concerning flames he late extinguished

So here is how the story goes,

Or so I’m told by one who knows.

“Twas once upon a stormy nite

When witnessed Joe an awesome sight—

Upon the neighbor’s roof a flash

Of mighty light and then, a crash

Joe stood in mute anticipation

Of some religious revelation

But when no angel reared its head,

And flames began to leap instead,

Our doctor came to understand

That matters he must take in hand;

By standing rooted in amazement

The house would be soon in ablazement

His silent lips became undone

And shouted “Dial 911!”

Rushed then Joe into the breach

With hose clenched tightly in his teeth

(The hose’s stream, when Joe took measure

Was somewhat short on water pressure

Requiring Joe to climb much higher—

Up on the roof—to douse the fire.)

Joe bravely made the needed climb,

Arriving in the nick of time.

He made short work of putting out

The fire this poem is all about.

So when the pro’s came on the scene

Joe sat upon the roof serene

(The truth, however, in the matter—

He was waiting for the fireman’s ladder

For Joe, it seems, had sadly found

The real dilemma was getting down.)

So there he sat, with discretion and valor

And a little soot to hide the pallor

But yet a hero, be it said;

Where Joe rushed in, no angel tread.

6 months

2011-04-20T18:30:00.001-07:00

James is 6 months this weekend. He started eating rice a week or so ago and some days loves it and some days not. He is sleeping a little better for us and he is the life of the party at Grandma's house! He can find anyone smiling at him and will smile back. Such a people person. Pictures in grandma's backyard...

And some of Isaac to be fair...

2011-04-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

Well, Blake had a mid-life (or mid-twenties) crisis after match day and decided he didn't want to do neurology after all. He now really wants to do dermatology.

So we had to turn down our spot in St. Louis and find whatever we could to do derm. Fortunately, he found a spot--but it's in Puerto Rico. And they don't pay their residents. But at least Blake will be doing what he wants to do.

We found some affordable housing right on the beach!

Let's pray there's no big storms.

I'm going to go start learning Spanish.

We matched...

2011-03-25T08:12:00.001-07:00

in St. Louis!

As soon as we found out we finished up packing our apartment and moved the next day to a bigger place in the county.

We put some things away, Blake conveniently got out of jury duty because he now lived in the county instead of the city, packed up the car, and drove 20 HOURS to visit family for 6 weeks.

So here we are, enjoying grandmas and cousins until we have to do that awful drive again and survive another 4 years in Misery-I mean Missouri.

A really stressful 3 minutes

2011-03-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

So Isaac and I just went out to get the mail. None, thank goodness (it's usually bills). Isaac ran back inside and slammed the door on me. I was locked out!!!

I had visions of myself running down Taylor in my slippers in the pouring rain to a friend's house to try to call Blake who usually doesn't get service in the ER to try to get keys while Isaac ransacked the house and hopefully James stayed asleep.

Thank goodness with super-human-three-year-old strength, Isaac managed to open the door when I asked him to.

It's march!

2011-03-04T07:17:00.000-08:00

We have finally emerged from the dark hole of our apartment and have been able to get outside! It's such a relief to have winter almost behind us. Isaac has been going stir crazy and is a new boy with outside play time.

Isaac's getting good at recognizing letters and will point some of them out on the street and on paper around the house. ("L library!" "T!" "I Ichi!" (Ichi=Isaac) "B Benjamin!" "M Mommy!" "D Daddy!" "G Grandma!" etc.)

He also sings a mean "Book of Mormon stories" which we need to video record.

James is even fatter than Isaac was! We took him to his four month checkup and he was 17 lbs and 24.5" (same length as Isaac). He has gotten two teeth already and seems to be getting two more. I hate hate hate teeth. Why oh why did this have to start so early? Between being sick, teething, being sick, teething again, he has never settled into a good sleep rhythm at night.

James is getting good at bringing things to his mouth especially his favorite butterfly toy.

Blake and I are anxiously awaiting match day on March 17! Blake did end up deciding that he really wants to stay here in St. Louis. I asked him every day for a month if he was sure and if he'd changed his mind yet. Sometimes it seems overwhelming that I have to do four years all over again in the same city. But at least I have some friends here even though most are moving, and at least we're moving out to the county so we don't have to watch yet another man pee in our back alley, at least our new place will have a pool and people will want to be our friend to come swim, and at least there are some fun things to do here and we know where they are instead of learning a new city.

2011-02-10T04:54:00.000-08:00

Little snowmen in the back alley

Pushing up

Done!

2011-01-26T05:58:00.001-08:00

Hooray, no more interviews! No more juggling a crying James while trying to get a reluctant Isaac into pajamas! No more days of not having a car and also not having any excitement of Daddy coming home at the end of the day! Now we just have the task of ranking. I'm slightly disappointed that Blake is leaning towards staying here. I don't get to go home to Utah or any closer (not that St. Louis is that far) or go anywhere new. But Blake is known to be wishy washy on his residency rank list, so we'll see and who knows how the match will go anyway.

Isaac turning into such a big boy. He took Mavala STOP like a champ and has been two weeks thumb-sucking-free. The reviews on Amazon were right and STOP is heads and tails better than Thum. We only had some crying the first night we tried it. I feel like a mean mom to take away part of his identity--he's been sucking his thumb for over two years! But it was getting to be very bad habit--he did it all the time, not only to sleep. He also amazes us every day with things he understands/says. He is going through a word spurt. Some examples:

(putting on backpack) "Let's go airport. Mommy Daddy I-chi plane. Gu-uh's house." (Wants to go back to Utah to Grandma's house.)

"Make coocoos. Baking power?"

"Lightning go house. Tired. Close eyes. Wake up! Go circle big tunnel." (Playing with his new car.)

(looking at Cars jacket) "Lightning, Sawee, powice car, fire, Ma-er, Doc, King, Cheek, Weegi, Stop..."

I really wanted James to be my baby who slept. He is better than Isaac, and I can usually get him to take one, maybe two two-hour naps. Other than that, it's a half hour. It's really hard to get him to go down for the night. Put him down, half hour later pat his back. Works for 10 minutes. Then try feeding him. Then bounce him. Pray he stays down at some point. Since Saturday, he's gotten in the nasty habit of sleeping three hours at night and then getting up every hour. At least before that it was 3-3-2-hold him for an hour. What do I do to create babies like this? If Blake and I weren't Mormon and didn't believe in families, we'd give up. As it is, the number of children we wanted when we were engaged innocents has definitely decreased.

Blake seems to remember this getting better around four months. It did, because I lost all pride and patience and let Isaac cry for two weeks until he learned to sleep. But then he got sick. And then we went on a trip home. And then he got teeth. Up and down for a year. I'm sure in 10 years I will look back on this and realize what a small smidgen of my life this babies at night thing is, but for now I'm tired and discouraged. It's a good thing James gives such good smiles during the day!

what we did for Christmas

2011-01-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

First we celebrated in St. Louis. Isaac was very confused that finally he could open the packages that had been taunting him for two weeks.

Blake's been teaching Isaac to play football. It's so cute to hear him say "se...hi!" (set...hike)

Then we traveled to Utah, which ended up being a nightmare with a flight delayed 2 1/2 hours. Isaac was fine--give him some juice and airplane crackers and he was in heaven. James was fine--he slept a lot. But Blake and I were exhausted! We finally got the kids to bed around midnight St. Louis time. The next morning it had snowed enough to make a snowman!

Made gingerbread houses with my family.

James has been smiling more and more and making fun little sounds.

Decorated sugar cookies with Blake's family. All the cousins sure are fun. Even Ellie, who Isaac identified with a scream and "woud" (loud) because she is in a screaming stage right now.

And then we celebrated Christmas again! Isaac again was not thrilled to open presents. He already had a whole room full of new Grandma toys--why did he need to open unknown packages?

One of Isaac's favorite presents!

Oh, the coveted "wightning!" Isaac LOVES this movie and watches 15 minutes of it almost every day. He especially loves the first 15 minutes, which we probably all know by heart. (Can you tell I am playing with my Christmas present, a new camera lens? Look at that awesomely low aperture!)

Played a traditional game of fox and geese with my family on the backyard sport court.

Went sledding with cousins.

My mom insisted I learn to make caramel apples. They are super yummy and I think I have the technique down but they take a little bit of time and money that I'm not abundant in right now.
We blessed James while in Utah, as well. It was really neat for us to get to have a lot of our family in the circle. I love this picture because Isaac is giving James a hug that's way too rough and I'm trying to push Isaac away so he doesn't squish James. Happens a lot.

Made these booties when I found out I was pregnant with James.

Such a fat, cute baby! Compare Isaac and James on their blessing day: Isaac here. I think James is even fatter! (James is a week or two older than Isaac in his picture, but still...)

Merry Christmas

2011-01-08T12:21:00.000-08:00

Blake
Finds interviewing a chore
Deciding whether to live in St. Louis anymore

Marie
Excited to no longer be poor
Wants to sleep some more

Isaac
Trains are his true amore
Only child no more

James
Makes his mom's back sore
Needs to eat a little more

Wishing you all MORE of all the good things this year!

2010-12-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

James has been gaining weight like crazy, true to his older brother's style. He's now in the 90th percentile for weight. Look at those chins!

We went to visit my brother and his family in Chicago for Thanksgiving. Thanks to them for an awesome meal while I sat around and nursed and special thanks to Hannah for sharing her toys.
Isaac and Hannah loved to play together, especially with elmo.
Isaac's always the ladies man.
We got out once to see the Chicago Botanic Gardens and used Jeremiah and Megan's brand new double stroller. It was freezing! We liked the greenhouses.

James liked the greenhouses too.
Jeremiah got excited for their new arrival (coming in January!), James making him remember all the sleepless nights and endless rocking. He's wearing a sweatband because we made a movie called "Donutman" to share in the glory of our sister Anne who completed an Ironman last week. It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. The best part was eating the donuts. Mmm...

More James

2010-11-28T14:56:00.001-08:00

Grandma K came to visit

2010-11-28T14:38:00.000-08:00

Isaac and Grandma K became great friends. They played in the leaves together, went to the store innumerable times for random groceries and to ride in the car cart and for a free cookie, played with cars and playdough, made cookies and cake, sung and danced to Hokey Pokey, etc. She also cooked many delicious meals and treats and cleaned and babysat while I slept. She took such good care of us that I stopped losing weight while she was here (thankfully I've started to shed pounds again). We did manage to do a few fun things while she was here--went to the Science Center, the outlets, and the zoo.

How James saw the animals

The walk to the zoo in the leaves was almost more fun than the zoo

We miss you, Grandma K! You were so much help and so much fun!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T13:45:00.001-07:00

Since the trunk or treat at church, Isaac keeps saying "Hoween" over and over in an attempt to get candy.

Choo! Choo!

A testimony

2010-10-31T13:27:00.000-07:00

I’ve not given enough credit to my Heavenly Father for how this birth turned out, which I wanted to rectify. I sometimes feel silly bearing my testimony but I felt like I should post this. This pregnancy has been full of anxiety for me as I really wanted to have a VBAC and not go through the pain of another C-section. Plus, I knew that I would be stuck with more C-sections if I had another one and that made me nervous about having more kids.

I’ve been praying the whole 9 months that I could deliver vaginally and sometimes felt good about it and sometimes full of despair. Well, when it was the week before my due date I got very discouraged and noticed a book in our bookshelf—Drawing on the Powers of Heaven. It was a book about the power of faith and how God wants to give us what we desire—he just wants us to live worthy of the blessings and to ask for them. Plus, we had exert our faith that he would fulfill our prayers, which required positive thinking. So I exerted all the faith I could and tried to think positive, which sometimes was very difficult. I prayed constantly through the days that the baby would come within 5 days of his due date. Blake gave me a blessing the day after my due date during which he told me that God was pleased with the choices I’ve made in my life and according to my faith, everything would work out according to my desires.

I don’t know where the Castor oil fits in to any of this, but I do know I had the baby just 3 days past his due date, which was a miracle to me because he didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Also, when the baby was in distress and his heart rate was dropping and I seemed to see all my progress vanishing before my eyes, I prayed that I would know the right way to push so the baby could come out. I felt that I wasn’t doing it right. That was when the doctor said we had to choose a C-section or the vacuum and I just had a feeling that Heavenly Father was going to bless me—I just needed to exert my faith. It was a hard thing for me to go against every single person in that room who thought I was making the wrong decision. I could see it in Blake’s eyes that he thought I should stop trying but he was supportive and stuck with my decision. When they told me this was the last time, to push with everything I had, I suddenly knew that I needed to push more from below than straight on and that’s when the baby popped out. I felt so guided and extremely blessed that Heavenly Father helped me have the baby the way I wanted to. Heavenly Father wants to bless us and he will and DOES.

2010-10-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

Introducing

2010-10-24T06:29:00.001-07:00

James Perry Newman

Born Saturday, October 23, 2010 at 8:29 AM

7 lbs 8 oz

21.5 inches

If anyone is late and wants to have their baby, we have the secret! Castor oil. We had tried everything else and heard to take castor oil, so on Friday evening we picked some up and I took some at around 5 PM. After some yucky effects, at 11 PM I was having consistent contractions and having trouble sleeping. At 2 AM my contractions were very painful. Some very nice friends came over and slept at our house at 3:15 AM and we made it to the hospital by 3:45. Blake and I were very pleased to find out that I wasn't just having Castor oil effects and I was in fact in labor. Everything went fast and smoothly (slowed down once I got my epidural, thank goodness) and I was able to have a VBAC as planned. The baby wasn't tolerating pushing very well so the doctor told me she'd rather do a C-section but she could try the vacuum. I wasn't ready to give up so I said vacuum and luckily the baby popped right out!

He's a cute little bundle and is much sleepier than Isaac was. It's hard to get him to wake up enough to eat, which definitely was not a problem Isaac had. Isaac is so sweet with the baby and as soon as he saw him wanted to hold him and give him kisses. Then he was done and wanted to play with cars. He'll be a great big brother.

Welcome to our family, little James!

Many adventures

2010-09-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

My nesting has taken the form of not cleaning, but hurry and visit all the places you've wanted to visit before the baby comes. Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Pick your own apples at Eckert's Farm. Wholesome family fun!

Yum!

Isaac's favorite part was riding to and from the fields on the "cu" = truck = wagon behind a tractor.

There was a fun little fair outside where we got to sit on tractors, ride John Deere trikes, play mini golf, and be jealous of those big kids riding the horses and swings.

Bee Tree park on memorial day
How the first 15 minutes of our hike went
How the rest of our hike went

I want mom to carry me now

We found a half price day for the Meramec Caverns so we braved the hour drive down there. Isaac did really well in the car, both ways, and was in awe of the cave when we got there. He wouldn't let us put him down the whole time. I was just glad we didn't have to worry about him touching things that weren't to be touched. It was a neat cave with lots of awesome stalactites and stuff. There was a little free fair outside and Isaac got to ride a little tractor train twice!

The Great Forest Park Hot Air Balloon Race. Blake and I have attended every year we've lived here.

Isaac loved the "la la"s and would wave "bye bye" to the people inside, who were also waving.

He maybe loved his blonde brownie more than the "la la"s.

Possibly the only pregnant picture of Marie to ever be published.

We'll miss you, Owen

2010-09-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

You've been the best little brother in training we could have asked for.

We heart Forest Park

2010-09-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

I am too fat to have pictures taken of me. So last Sunday I had fun taking lots of pictures of Isaac and Blake, who are always cute.

Classic lampposts all over our neighborhood

"The "choo" is over there..."

Silly boys

Funny how fun it is to go up and down stairs

Probably my favorite

The excitement of the month is that I finally gave in and bought Isaac some crocs. They were his first shoes last year and he loved them. Owen has some so whenever he comes over and takes them off, Isaac jumps on them and squeezes his feet in them. So we went to the mall a week ago and bought fluorescent yellow crocs and now interspersed between Isaac's random talk about "choo choo"s is "shoe! mall! buy!"

This pregnancy is going by really fast. I forgot how crazy I get--sorry to Blake. I am very sensitive, whereas usually I feel like a have a pretty thick shell. We rented a movie the other night and I ended up bawling, "What if you die and I have to tell Isaac you weren't coming home anymore? He wouldn't understand and would be so sad." This was only slightly related to the plot of the movie we were watching. This is the quilt for baby.

We submitted residency applications! St. Louis, Portland, Salt Lake City, Denver, Phoenix, Chicago, Iowa City, Cleveland, Ann Arbor, etc.

sooo hot

2010-08-15T12:57:00.001-07:00

We head to fountains or a kiddie pool regularly. Isaac loves to swim.

5 years

2010-08-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

This week was our five year anniversary! We can remember when we were newly married living in the student village at the U and meeting a couple couples who had been married five years and thinking, "Wow, that's a long time!"

I love being married and I love my husband. Blake is a cute doctor, especially when this week I asked, "Is the doctor in?" and proceeded to tell him how I could not move my outer left toes. He got this excited look on his face and said, "Are you serious? This is exactly what we [neurologists] are consulted on." He proceeded to give me a full neurologic exam and diagnosis. (We decided it was just some more sciatica, which I've been experiencing for a week.)

Anyway, I love you, Blake, and I hope we're married a lot longer. Especially if I have any more neurological problems.

Choo? See?

2010-07-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

When Isaac says this it means it's time to go for a walk to see the trains (the metro) and swing ("see") at the hospital playground. I've hit the jackpot on walks! I know that lots of pregnant women can run throughout their pregnancy but I'm a wimp and had to stop two weeks ago. I cried out of sorrow that we couldn't run to Forest Park anymore because we love it there but it's too far. But Isaac likes this even more! Sometimes I get a nice long walk twice a day! The metro security guys are beginning to recognize us.

Isaac is OBSESSED with trains. He's never quite hit anything like this. More than half the words out of his mouth are "choo". If he lines up cars, it's "choo". If he lines up foam letters in the bath, it's "choo". If we color, it's "choo" (and I have to draw one). If we drive close to where the metro is, he points and says "choo". I think I'm going to have to make this little man a train costume for Halloween.

I put a vote on the side--we can't decide where we want to go to residency! We would love to stay here because Washington University has a great program. We'd love to go to Utah and let our kids play with their relatives. And we'd love to go somewhere new to have one last adventure before we settle down for real. What do you think?

Utah

2010-07-03T10:48:00.001-07:00

We visited Utah for two weeks at the beginning of June. I've been totally stressing about blogging about this trip because so much happened. So I'm just going to write down a few memories and not worry about the whole thing.

The most exciting is that we got to see all of our siblings and parents and grandparents. Almost all of Blake and my married siblings are pregnant. Isaac will be getting four cousins (plus a brother) in the next six months.

We spent the first week with Blake's family--pushing cars around the block, playing with trains in the play room, drinking crystal lite, going to the park, and going to Bear Lake. Unfortunately Blake's sister didn't come and it rained off and on but we still had fun walking down to the lake and dipping our feet in the freezing cold water.

Playing in Grandma Karen's backyard

Driving at Bear Lake

Cold Bear Lake Beach

The second week we spent with my family down in St. George. Isaac did pretty good with all the traveling we did--planes to and from, car rides to Bear Lake and St. George and Zion's. We felt bad always packing him up. We rented an awesome house with many bedrooms, a carriage house, pool, and tennis court. We mostly went swimming in the best pool ever--it had a 1 1/2 ft depth section that Isaac could have lived in. We also went hiking, went to Iceberg's (I miss those grasshopper shakes), went to Tarzan the play, and went to a couple fun water play parks.

St. George, borrowing cousin's scooter

St. George sculpture park and water play area

I have ten thousand pictures but decided to spare you all. We love our families and miss them!

Isaac's birthday parties

2010-06-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

Isaac turned 2!!!
He's such a sweet boy. I am so lucky to be mom to this little, happy, obedient, loving child. He usually is very good at following my directions and not doing naughty things. He always is happy and smiling. He gives great hugs to me and to his bear and other stuffed animals. He always gives his friends hugs, especially if they are littler than him (or a girl). He's getting to be so smart and surprises us every day by things he understands or says. He's very easy to please--just give him a car or train or bear or take him outside and he's good to go. I love him so much. I hope our next little boy is just like him.

PARTY IN ST. LOUIS
We went to the cutest park up the street, had cupcakes, ran around, and some kids played in the fountain. It was a perfect party!

PARTY AT HOME
We opened presents at home the day we left for our vacation home to Utah. Nothing too exciting except the water balloons given by a friend.

PARTY IN UTAH
My sister let us crash the backyard of her new house for our party. It was the perfect venue with a swing set and playhouse. The kids had a blast! The cake was a truck and I don't think Isaac could tell but every time he sees the pictures he remembers how good it tasted and smacks his lips.

It's a boy!!!

2010-06-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

Coming soon

2010-05-26T17:28:00.001-07:00

to a family near you approximately around 10.20.2010.

If for some reason I have to schedule a C-section instead of the VBAC we're planning, it's totally happening on the due date!

We find out next week what we're having--boy or girl. What do you think? What should his/her name be?

Blake's birthday

2010-05-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Blake's birthday the Saturday before the day. We all went to the zoo right at 9, when things are free. Isaac and Blake rode the carousel like 6 times and I took Isaac for his last run. Isaac did not want to leave that! We went to the children’s zoo and Isaac had lots of fun petting the goats (and hugging one—eww) and playing in the play area with the house and food and such. I surprised Blake in the afternoon by taking him to the boathouse at Forest Park and we rented a paddleboat for an hour. Isaac had a great time at first but after 25 minutes decided he was so done with the life jacket and sitting still thing. Blake got frustrated at me because I was helpless at steering. But I did do more than half the paddling because Isaac was being a Daddy’s boy. We played at the park a little longer and then went to Red Robin for Blake’s free birthday burger and sundae. It’s a great place to go with kids because they give them balloons and crayons but it makes Isaac feel like he owns the place so he doesn’t have to behave and sit still or anything.

On Blake's birthday he worked all day and got home after 6 and it was raining so we couldn't picnic like I'd planned. And his present, a Wii, didn't arrive until two days after the day. He is ecstatically happy about it and I'm still pouting that he bought one. But he did get a good dinner and help blowing out his candles.

Blake made me some awesome waffles and dinner for Mother's Day, but sorry, Blake, what I liked most of all was Isaac's poorly constructed card from nursery with his handprint on it. I love being Isaac's mom.

Naptime last Saturday

2010-05-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

Isaac was sick last weekend. He screamed and kicked when I told him it was time for a nap but I knew he was probably exhausted. I stuck him in his crib and he was just frantic. I left the door ajar because I was going to let him cry for 5 minutes and then try to soothe him. I went into the bathroom to do my hair and two minutes later, I was scared out of my wits when Isaac walked in. He must have been so mad that he just flung himself over the side of the crib. He just wanted me to take him back to his room and be bounced and go to bed. The crib was on the second to lowest setting so that afternoon Blake moved it to the lowest.

A birthday, Easter, and random fun

2010-04-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Here's lots of catch-up photos for you.

A month ago I was excited to see buds. Now it's full-blown summer, practically (here).

A rare moment when Isaac actually sat on his trike instead of pushing it.

We hope whoever lives here doesn't mind Ike moving their gate.

Cathedral fish

Isaac was a good helper unwrapping presents

"No, I want to wear it!"

The loot

Posing for my new tripod (his idea)

Awesome friends (one with the same birthday) who made a birthday feast

spring break (a whole day)

At our favorite park

Silly boys

Easter bunny brought jelly beans and a felt Mr. Potato Head (thanks to Megan)

Easter bandits
Best buds Callum and Owen

Owen being squashed yet again. It's rough being little brother in training.

Thank You

2010-04-08T09:25:00.001-07:00

1. To the person driving through Forest Park who noticed that while I was putting Owen (babysitee) in the car on one side, Isaac walked into the street to get in on his side. Thank you for stopping. I know I didn't acknowledge it at the time, but I was hysterical so forgive me.

2. To the planners of Forest Park who not only designed an awesome park the perfect running distance from my house but also put in a free air station right by the playground just in case a mom with a jogging stroller got a flat tire even though she replaced the tube the day before. Great planning, guys!

WE WON!!!!

2010-04-01T07:15:00.000-07:00

It happened

2010-03-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

My 6-year old dell laptop died.

Lovingly referred to as: The Desktop, Fattie, Lappy 500 (Blake's is Lappy 600).

It all has happened at little inconvenience to myself as Blake had to have a Seagate external hard drive for Christmas that automatically backs up your files. Even my journal entry from Sunday was saved.

I know it had its quirks: backspace didn't work, several keys were missing due to Isaac's exuberance, the speakers only worked if you plugged in some headphones, etc. But Lappy, we will always remember you. My first computer, a surprise gift from Pops left on the doorstep by UPS just in time for summer semester my second year of college. You have served us well.

And now Blake and I will have to fight over the Lappy 600. No more ignoring each other in the same room, each intent on our own blog/news article/hulu show. I guess one of us will have to read. or something.

Go buy yourself an automatic external hard drive.

He's going to be a scientist

2010-03-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

This is such an exciting time! Isaac is exploding with new activities and words.

Isaac is liking to dump out his legos and put them back in the bin. He will say, “eenup” = “Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere...”

He loves cars. He has to take one everywhere. He will push it along and say “voo”= vroom.

He can pick out which books he owns on the back of the Boynton board books. We will read one and he will point to one on the back and get that one to read.

He will point to a picture of a cow in Barnyard Dance and say “moo”.

He will say bye to everything—but bye is just saying the word twice really slowly. “ca, ca” = bye car.

Isaac loves the book “What was I scared of?” by Dr. Seuss. Sometimes we read it three times in a row. His favorite part is to say "Hi" to the pants at the end.

If you mention doing an activity Isaac wants to do, he will wave bye bye to whatever you’re currently doing.

Isaac can spot balloons anywhere. “La la” = balloon. La la is also any word with many syllables that he can’t say. Like toothbrush. Or playdough. But you can distinguish playdough because he rubs his hands together.

Last week Blake was on call and I was putting Isaac to bed and he said, “Ca. Da.” I think he was saying Dad was with the car somewhere and he wanted him home. That’s the first time he’s put two words together.

He likes "head shoulders knees and toes" from nursery. But he really just likes to touch his toes and gets annoyed at the other parts.

Isaac loves to ride on dad’s shoulders. He also has a newfound love of riding in grocery carts. He likes to “help” take things out of the cart and put them in the car.

Isaac likes to show us he knows where things go. When we get out the cereal he will point that it goes right there on the table. When we’re at the magic house and he wanders with something, I can ask him to go put it back and he will get it right every time.

Isaac is starting to line things up. (cars, shoes...)

Here's some pictures from our walks:

We were at a super fun birthday party with Isaac's pals and Blake and I looked around to realize Isaac was the biggest kid there. How did that happen? He's getting so old.

We are loving spring (ish). We've been able to run to the park many times in the past couple weeks. I think Ike could live outside.

Blake is 3/4 done with 3rd year! Only peds and ob left. Match is this week and just think, one more year and it's us!!!

Chicago

2010-02-14T06:54:00.001-08:00

Isaac and I went to Chicago last week and bugged my brother and his family. Jeremiah was too busy to notice I was there, Megan had to cook for us and give up her bedroom, and Hannah had to share her toys. Isaac and I had fun, at least.

I just read their blog post today, though, and it sounds like they weren't too annoyed by our trip, so I guess we're good. I was lucky enough that my brother married one of my best friends, which made things very awkward in college, but now it's great! I get to visit friends AND family in one.

Isaac loved his new old friend, "nana". Hannah liked to give really big hugs, which Isaac would return, but only for about a tenth of the time that Hannah intended. Isaac loved to play with their stroller and the Elmo that sings and tells stories. Hannah liked to steal the stroller to watch Isaac run after her. Then she would drop it, Isaac would take it, and Hannah would be disappointed he stopped chasing her. Megan and I were surprised because we thought that behavior didn't start until elementary school.

The highlight was going to Shedd Aquarium. Isaac ran around pointing at all the fish. There was a little play area in the basement and the kids LOVED that. I wish we could have gone to the other couple museums that were free that day, but I think we picked the one the kids would have liked the best.

We had to cut our trip half a day short, so we were disappointed to miss out on some more fun, but we did make it home safe and sound despite the snowstorm. Jeremiah so kindly carried our suitcase to the El and rode with us for an hour and a half to the airport, as opposed to driving.

In other news, Isaac seems to have finally picked up on this talking thing. He has lots of new words and surprised me in Chicago one day by repeating back all the animal sounds in The Very Busy Spider. Yay!

Isaac likes to look out our window for "cu" = trucks.
He's trying to teach Hannah.

Frozen lake. It looked so crazy I had to take a picture.

Cute pout, waiting for mom in the store.

What's new

2010-01-31T11:33:00.000-08:00

1. another rash. spared you the picture. Is he allergic to sulfa drugs? Or was it a virus? No one knows...

2. but his three-antibiotic-course ear infection is finally over!

3. playing in the kitchen sink. stirring bowls. reaching into the drawer for a measuring spoon. just like mom.

4. getting pushed in the shopping cart, not just pushing it around.

5. giving nice gentle pats. if he hits you, you say, "no, be gentle" and he'll pet you. (he didn't hit owen first--he knows by now to always be gentle with little-brother-in-training.)
6. sitting in a big chair. his booster seat is so not cool anymore. fine with me, as long as he's sitting and eating!

7. going to Chicago on Thursday! trying to escape the cold...haha

8. remember how Isaac did so good to go to nursery at first? now he screams every time. apparently for only two minutes, but it is very distressing to me. I looked in today and he was happily doing actions to "popcorn popping on the apricot tree." I didn't know he could do that!!! I wish they could video tape nursery every week and send it home with us.

9. screaming every time I try to put him in his car seat. any suggestions?

10. Blake might not be happy with me announcing this, but he is 95% sure he's going to do neurology. YAY! It feels so exciting to have plans. It feels like someday soon we'll actually have an income instead of taking big chunks out of our savings/loans every six months. and somehow that is linked to buying a house, so I've been looking at real estate in utah, colorado, arizona, california, ...

A very boring link

2010-01-24T16:36:00.000-08:00

February 2010 issue of the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.

So glad that's done (3.5 years later).

If you want to read THE WHOLE THING I can email it to you...just start lining up...

Our Christmas trip home

2010-01-10T16:42:00.000-08:00

There were good times and bad times, there were fun times and fat times. Here are some highlights. I got a new camera (thanks Dad) so I had a hard time choosing which awesome photos to post!

Isaac was on amoxicillin for an ear infection when we left. On the night of the 23, we noticed a rash starting. By the next day, Christmas eve, he had broken out into hives! I guess he's allergic. He was very itchy and didn't sleep very well. We stopped the amoxicillin. A week later he got the ear infection back. He didn't sleep very well.

Playing outside

Chris had a birthday! No one knows why the neck opening is so large, but we all know why Bekah gave Chris an apron with this inscription: "Captain Cook--Surrender your buns".

"Little" (6'2")brother came home! He's so spiritual and awesome. And he got my mom to babysit so I could go snowshoeing with him.

Marie's pregnant! Or just playing Mary.

"Don't worry, mom, I'm just sledding with my cousins."

Jeremiah, Megan, and Hannah surprised us by flying in New Years Eve! What sneaks. "Uck" learned to call her "Anna".

The picture cannot display the depth of aversion nor the volume of scream. He was the laugh of the party.

Isaac finally was content and happy the day before it was time to come home.

And now--it's just memories: pictures on a computer, entries in a journal, and a posting on a blog. And we're all huddled around space heaters in 1 degree weather back in St. Louis. But grateful to be home in our own space with email and cell phones.

***NOTE: I just noticed there are no paternal side photos. S0rry, we love you too and had an awesome time with you too! I just got my new camera after we were with you. Isaac loved to push the car with Grandma and open her sliding doors. And play with the train at Matthew and Josh's house. And fight with Ellie over the car.

Christmas card

2010-01-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

We threesome of Missouri are

Bearing loans we traverse afar

Westward leaning, still proceeding

Two years left until reward.

From the three New Men

fun weekend

2009-12-06T11:37:00.000-08:00

We've enjoyed Blake being home this whole weekend! We went to the Magic House...

And a neighbor randomly gave us tickets to Holiday Magic--a little carnival downtown in the convention center. We rode on the train and on the carousel. And on the carousel again.
and again. and again. and again. I never understood parents standing around the carousel taking pictures before, but now I do! It's just so sweet! He loved it so much. And on the way out, he just had to ride the escalator. That's almost as fun.

How to cure your son of his addiction to Town House crackers

2009-11-29T11:23:00.000-08:00

Accidentally buy the reduced fat variety. He will eat less and less and finally when he finishes the box and you can buy the regular kind again, his love affair will be over.

Isaac has said a few new words:
"gerl" = squirrel
"coo" = cool
"ga"= yogurt
His new fun thing to do is to grab a book and sit on my lap to read it. I love that.

We had visitors for Thanksgiving! We squished in Jeremiah, Megan, and Hannah (my brother and fam) and my mom. Hannah is much more talkative than Isaac and called him "uck". So fun to see them!

(yes, that's mom's nose)

I hope that someone can relate to this

2009-11-08T16:08:00.000-08:00

Today I taught Sunday School as usual at church and Blake had Isaac in the hall as usual. I guess a nursery leader came up to him and told him it was time for Isaac to go to nursery. He's 17 months tomorrow--I guess they like to transition in from 17 to 18 months. She took him from Blake and walked to nursery. When I walked out of Sunday School, the nursery leader found me and told me that Isaac was doing great but he needed a diaper change. But I was supposed to bring him back after he was cleaned up.

What? He's in nursery? But he's not 18 months yet!!!

I changed him, grateful that he needed me. I walked down to nursery, certain he wouldn't want to stay again. When we got there, he looked at the nursery leader and at the kids eating snacks and looked at them like, "Hey, I was just here. And it was fun. At least, it wasn't too bad." He didn't look back at me and the nursery leader got him up to the table to eat some animal crackers. The leader looked at me and said, "Marie, I think it's time to make a graceful exit."

So I left. And I couldn't help crying through Relief Society, the last meeting of church.

My baby is getting so old.

I'm not ready for this.

Happy Halloween from a little dragon

2009-10-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad this costume fits this year at least. I was so disappointed it didn't last year!

Worst day yesterday

2009-10-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

Man peed in our back yard (alley) while we were watching with disgust from our porch.
Workers' hammers woke Isaac up.
Workers smoked on our shared porch.
Blake is sick.
Grated my finger with the carrots.
Got audited. Who knew you had to pay to St. Louis City, as well as State and Federal?

Curse my life.

Not as much faith as my mother or my brother

2009-10-18T12:29:00.000-07:00

I am so proud that my mom and brother have been serving as missionaries for the past year and a half. Anyone that has talked to me here in St. Louis has heard about how I was going to visit my mom who was coming home from her MISSION at the end of September. And my brother is such a funny letter-writer and we can tell he's just so awesome, as can his mission president because he's been AP for months and months.

Excerpt from Andrew this week:

"But yesterday was probably the best day of my mission, so it is all worth it. Now I am sure you must be thinking, "Andrew, the BEST DAY of your mission? That is a bold statement. What did you do? Find, teach, and baptize a family all in one day?" Not quite...but we sure came close.

Gina Garcia asked for a missionary visit. She had gone to church with a friend in High School and enjoyed it, so she wanted to learn more. Our appointment was for yesterday. Going into the lesson our main focus was to teach by the spirit, and that meant to do everything possible to invited the spirit into her home. So we began with a Hymn, #135 My Redeemer Lives. Then we prayed and bore solid, pure testimony of the Restored Gospel. The Spirit was so strong, I was on the verge of tears. She is a single mother and has struggled for years, finally she is humbled enough to say, I need God, what do I need to have His help. She is going to prepare for baptism on October 30th. When we started to leave, she said, will you also go downstairs and teach my sister and mother? They are waiting for you. Basically the same experience happened, they too are committed to baptism on October 30th. My entire service out here has been in anitcipation for such an experience, and it happened. They have had exposure to the church before, when they lived in Forest Grove, and now they want it in their lives. Really, we did not do anything, just another instrument in the Lord's hands. They were prepared for our visit, and they recognized the spirit.

When we left, I realized how many months I had been wasting trying to indoctrinate people and convince them of the truthfulness of the Gospel by my own logic and reason. The way the Lord asks us to preach is by the spirit. If they feel the spirit, they will recognize us as servants of God. And if they believe with all their hearts that we are the Lord's servants, then teaching becomes easy, it becomes secondary to the testimony they have received. The Lord has people prepared, people who will recognize the promptings of the spirit, and once I understood how to really teach by the spirit, the Lord poured out his blessings on us."

He's my little brother?
And my mom is awesome too. It was so funny seeing her walking around her huge house with this look on her face like, "Where am I? What am I supposed to do? Who can I teach?" (The answer was the photographer we met up the canyon and the lady who asked us to take a picture of her and her dog.)

Anyway, I visited home. It was fun. Wish I was still there.

On Wednesday I was reminded of something that happened on my trip to Utah. At 7 AM I was unloading the dishwasher and Isaac was walking around the kitchen, as usual, pulling things down from the shelves and putting magnets on the floor and taking utensils out of the dishwasher and getting them dirty on the floor. Anyway, his shoes were on the floor by the fridge and then one of them was missing. All day we couldn’t find it. I was just sure it had to be in the kitchen because I didn’t think Isaac had left. When I was in Utah with my mom Isaac lost a shoe in the middle of a shopping trip so we traced our steps through Deseret Book and the across the parking lot to Bed Bath and Beyond. My mom drove up to Bed Bath and Beyond and while she passed me said, “Have you said a prayer? We should pray.” So I know my mom prayed and I did say a quick little prayer, but I was thinking that was a little childish. I found the shoe in Bed Bath and Beyond and I know it was because of my mom’s faith, not mine.

So on Wednesday God was giving me another chance to pray for something I needed. Anyway, found it at 5 PM in between the rice and the oatmeal where I had looked five times. I almost called my mom to get her prayer power because hers work better. So now we know—four of my prayers = one mom prayer.

FHE

my sisters

so many boy cousins

missionary mom (and Drew)

Cute things Isaac likes to do lately

2009-09-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

He likes to go for walks and will pick up sticks. “Tee” = stick.

He will always notice the sound of a plane and will point up. “Dis” = plane (and a lot of other things).

He will walk towards birds and dogs. “Dis” = bird. “Gog” = dog. He’s always so disappointed when the birds fly away. And he loves it when he can pet a dog and even tries to kiss the dogs sometimes.

He likes to go to the library, especially if there are other kids there. He will pull out some books and not want me to put them back. He twirls a bookcase.

At home, he loves to listen to music and will periodically turn the dvd player on and off to turn on and off the music. He can reach on his tippy toes to turn on and off the tv too.

One of his favorite toys is pig. Pig belongs on the backrest of the couch and Isaac will stand on the couch and throw it into the quilt rack and I’m supposed to get it for him.

Isaac likes to go in the back of our building and drink some water out of the hose.

He likes to splash in a bucket on the porch and watch mom bounce the ball, which one time he called “ba”.

Cars are his backyard friends. "Ca" = car.

He loves to stand on the counter and pull out all of the spices.

He likes to turn on and off lights.

He likes it when dad comes home and if dad gets on his hands and knees Isaac will chase him anywhere. “Da” = dad.

Isaac loves to give kisses and will randomly throughout the day give me a kiss on the lips with a lot of slobber. If anyone at the store or on the street says hi he will give me a kiss to show them he’s with someone.

When Owen (the boy we tend) is at our house on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he gives Owen lots of kisses too and will hand him some toys.

Isaac's little brother in training. Such a cutie! So patient and happy!

When we go for a walk with Owen, Isaac likes to push him in the stroller and periodically go to the front of the stroller and see what Owen is playing with.

Isaac’s favorite book is Barnyard Dance because he can dance to the rhythm when we read it.

Isaac likes to turn on the computer and watch a video or two of himself and maybe Elmo’s song on youtube. He sings “ya ya ya” when Elmo sings “la la la”.

When we run to the park in the morning, Isaac’s favorite thing is to climb the stairs. Sometimes he want to go down the slide, but mostly he wants to go up and down the stairs. He can do it by himself, mostly, when he holds on to the railing. He can’t do the stairs at our apartment building because the railing is too high.

His favorite food is townhouse crackers.

If you try to give him a drink and he doesn’t want one, he’ll shake his head and say “nuh”.

Playing in the front "yard" with Ike

2009-08-30T12:42:00.001-07:00

Putting on shoes

Opening and closing the door

Making sure Mom comes too

Up and down the steps

Picking up a stick

Banging on the light pole

Last week Blake called me while Isaac and I were on a walk. Naturally, Isaac wanted the phone and I didn't want him to throw it on the concrete. So I said, "Look, a stick!" and he forgot all about the phone in quest of a stick. Awesome.

Isn't real life lousy?

2009-08-08T08:23:00.000-07:00

Is what my sister said to me yesterday. Totally agree. I've gotten used to student life--Blake goes to school early, comes home early, studies in the evening. Third year of medical school has been a rude awakening. For example, last Saturday Blake had 24 hour call- 7 AM to 7 AM Sunday. Monday he left at 4:30 AM, came home 8 PM. Tuesday same. Wednesday same. Thursday he got home at 5:15! Friday he left at 4:30 AM, had overnight call, and was home at 6 AM. Is this post about how bad I feel for Blake? No, of course it's about how bad I feel for myself.

Blake has been such a fantastic husband--helps with Isaac while I make dinner or he makes dinner with my instruction while I play with Isaac. He always did the dishes. He cleaned the bathroom. But now I have to do it all myself. The thing is, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. But this is real life, Marie! Most wives cook and clean and take care of their kids. I'm sure when I'll read my journal when I have five kids I will remember the good old days when I still could read during Isaac's naps and sew at night. And I like to cook. And I don't mind to clean--it feels so awesome to have a newly vacuumed floor. And I'd rather be dancing with Isaac than stuck behind a computer in an office or worse! up at 2 AM stitching up someone's wounds. So my goal is not to freak out at Blake when I go to book club and I come home to two pots in the sink, because my life is great and I can clean two pots and let my exhausted husband go to bed.

I often feel like Dan in Real Life, when he walks around the bookstore and picks up twenty random titles. That is what my trips to the library are like. As I chase Isaac around, I grab this and that, and hey, I'll try that. Isaac loves to throw on some tunes and shake his booty and I'm getting sick of our music. I think Isaac likes Arthur the best, though (and I must admit, who can beat jekyll jekyll hyde jekyll hyde hyde jekyll).

Isaac has learned how to make the saddest sad noise ever. Listen.

internet

2009-07-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

We finally got the internet at home! It is soo nice. I am writing this from the comfort of the floor of the hallway. Yes, the wireless is not working and the only working phone jack in our apartment is in Isaac's room, so we have an ethernet cable running under his door. But hey, I'm not at the library so life is good.

Here is a requested video of Isaac waving.

So, I am like WAY proud that I had anything to do with Citygarden. It is a sculpture park that just opened up downtown. I designed all of the attachments from sculpture to ground. Wow, the random things that I have designed in my two years as a structural engineer. This is only one of the few finished products that I've actually gotten to see. Anyway, it's the coolest park and Isaac liked to walk around so I think we will make many future trips.

Yes, that was my idea. Continuous clips. Aluminum. Painted to match sculpture. Checked for bending under wind loads and an estimated live load of an person pushing on it. Aluminum is not my strong subject so hopefully it doesn't fail!

We also went to Grant's Farm. Sorry again to Logan and Sarah who were supposed to meet us there but missed the last tram by 15 minutes. My fault for not checking closing times. Isaac loved to pet the goats.

Blake got his score from Step 1 of the boards and he was happy so I'm happy. Phew, that one's over. Here's a picture of Blake's first day on the job in scrubs.

It’s hard to whisper in duck

2009-06-16T18:24:00.000-07:00

That is the rebuff Chris said to Jeremiah when Chris was trying to be quiet for babies and Jeremiah made fun of him. Quote of the year for me.

This is a big long update, but it could be longer, so count your blessings.

Isaac turned 1! I can’t believe he’s so old! We had many birthday celebrations that turned his birthday into a three-day long affair. He got his cake on Sunday but would not touch it. Monday we went to the Magic House, which was a big hit. We went the day before his birthday because they start charging at 1 year. I’m so tricky. On Tuesday, his birthday, we went to the Tower Grove fountains. I think he had a great couple of days and loves all of his presents from his grandparents. We didn’t buy him anything.

My brother Nathan drove through and spent the night here with his “friend who happens to be a girl”. It was great to see him and his crazy hair.

My brother Chris was nice enough to fly to St. Louis and drive up with me to Chicago to see my brother Jeremiah and Megan and baby Hannah. Poor Chris drove the whole way because Isaac wasn’t okay with the stranger in the car. We stopped in Springfield on the way, which made our trip two hours longer. Probably not the best idea we’ve ever had, but it was cool to see Lincoln’s house and the old courthouse and his law offices and his tomb. It was a totally awesome trip, though I got little sleep, and though the bathrooms were off the bedrooms which were unavailable after babies went to bed. Isaac had a tough time adjusting at first, but he hit his groove on Saturday and started exploring and talking to people and noticing Hannah. He said “Hi” for the first time, probably because Hannah says it all the time. She called Isaac “Isa”. So cute.

Blake took his first board exam and started a surgery rotation. Blake looks so cute dressed up to go to “work”. Is this what real life is like? I need to start putting Isaac to bed at 7 as opposed to 6 so that Blake can actually see his son once in a while.

I’m tending little Owen two days a week. He is little-brother-in-training for Isaac. So far, so good. I can totally do two babies. (For 8 hours a day, 2 days a week.)

And I feel like I can finally say Isaac is walking! After two days with Owen, Isaac decided he could walk on his own. Now he putters around the house by himself. On Tuesday, he shocked me by actually going out of the room that I was in. He always wants to be right next to me. I'd better get used to it, I guess.

2009-05-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

Birthday boy! (the one in the red)

Still deciding if I like it. Is it too pastel?

Isaac has been doing this for the past two months but I'm finally posting a video. He still wants the security of a hand to hold but sometimes will forget he needs me and will walk across the room to whatever desirable (usually dangerous or breakable) object he sees.

On politics

2009-04-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

If it's boring, which it probably is, skip to the picture of Blake and Isaac.

I heart Ron Paul. Fascinating read. He says...

“For most people, in fact, the Fed is a complete mystery, its operations incomprehensible. That seems to be just the way the Fed likes it. We are supposed to be bored by it. We are supposed to treat it as a given, like the air we breathe. We are supposed to have confidence in it..."

This is how I have felt about government in general. I have been bored/intimidated by politics. As I grow older, though, I realize I have a responsibility to pay attention to what my country is up to. I grabbed this book at the library on a recommendation by a friend and it was so good! I’m still thinking, but I agreed with most he had to say. It explained many of the current issues in layman’s terms. If nothing else, it was an interesting beginner’s look at economics. Here’s another quote for you.

“The federal funds rate rises when there is too much demand from banks looking to borrow and too little supply from banks willing to lend. For reasons we shall see in a moment, the Fed often wants to prevent the federal funds rate from rising. ...The way it pushes the rate down is by buying bonds from the banks. That gives the banks more money and therefore more reserves on hand to lend to banks that need it. Funds available to be lent to other banks are now less scarce, and a correspondingly lower federal funds rate reflects this. There does the Fed get the money to buy the bonds? It creates it out of thin air, simply writing checks...If that sounds fishy, then you understand it just fine.”

Other subjects of interest: empire building, blowback, decreasing privacy, increasing presidential power, drug laws, heathcare...you name it.

Ok, back to a regular old post.
Isaac is becoming too smart and independent. He will walk up to the desk and let go of my hand and whine. That means to lift him up so he can play with my laptop. If the laptop is closed he will pound on it and cry until I open it.

He loves doors. Medicine cabinet, dryer, dishwasher, cabinet, and bedroom doors. He will swing them open and shut open and shut while I make sure he doesn’t get his fingers caught. He does the laptop trick with doors too—he will walk to one and drop my hand and pout until I open the door so he can play with it. He thinks the hall in our condo building is part of our house and fair game to explore.

Just in case you all didn’t know, health insurance is such a pain! I had to switch to private insurance after Isaac was born and after my work insurance ran out. Anthem quoted me a certain price for it. Well, in our application I mentioned that Isaac had taken some reflux medication. He was a very fussy baby if anyone remembers and we tried acid reflux medication for two months to see if it would help. It never seemed to really do anything and Isaac’s fussiness went away by itself at about 3 or 4 months. (or did it? I swear he still whines all the time!) Our insurance decided that that was grounds for increasing our rate $30/month. I fought it, and I have never fought anything! Whenever anyone tells me to pay something I blindly swipe the credit card. My mom stopped sending me to the grocery store because I would always be overcharged. Anyway, it has been a four month process, back and forth back and forth. I think it’s silly that just because we tried some medicine and it didn’t work, I have to pay an extra $400 a year in health insurance. A few weeks ago I was issued a new card and rate. They dropped our rate $5, so now our rate is only $25/month higher than I was quoted. Thanks.

But life is good and it’s getting warm again! And tulips are my favorite flower! And thanks to everyone who posted on our April Fools joke--we didn't know so many people actually read this!

botanical gardens

rainy birthday at the zoo

some of our recent hike went like this

and some of it went like this.

One handed

2009-04-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a video of Isaac walking with one hand for help.This is already outdated because Isaac has already taken some steps on his own!

Some news

2009-04-01T06:51:00.001-07:00

Well, Blake has decided that medical school is not for him. He’s decided to switch fields and pursue a PhD in social work instead. This will require him to get another master’s degree and then continue on to the PhD. Just when we thought we had 2 years of school left, we’ll have 6 or so.

However, I’ve been pretty jealous of medical school so I’ve decided to apply in a year, after I’ve taken organic chemistry. We asked Wash U if we could count the 80k + we’ve paid for Blake’s tuition towards mine, but they didn’t think that would work out. Oh well.

This means that having kids will be put on hiatus until I’m done with medical school. Once I’m done, we plan on going on fertility in the hopes that we can have quadruplets to finish up our family quickly.

We went ahead and blew through the rest of our savings so that we could get on food stamps. We bought a Hummer (Blake’s dream car) and a house! It has five bedrooms and a swimming pool! Pics to follow.

Isaac is quite precocious—last week he learned the alphabet and this week he’s tackling differential equations.

The week in numbers (and photos)

2009-03-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

One basil sprout that made my day! Fresh basil is so expensive to buy and pesto is so good and I hear basil grows like a weed. Hence my decision to plant a little pot of basil over a month ago which finally sprouted!

Two little blue crocs that Isaac wore for the first time on Sunday. His first pair of shoes! It was so nice out that we opened our door and walked with Isaac on the deck.

Three bowls smashed on the kitchen floor. It was my fault—I was cleaning out a cupboard and had some stacks of bowls on the counter. I walked past with Isaac and it was just a natural reaction for him to reach out to try and touch the pretty yellow bowls. The noise didn’t even scare him –I think he liked it.

Four people who have asked for recipes. Three were for salad, one was for bread. I always feel some pride when people ask for a recipe, but then I realize that all I did was combine the ingredients that the recipe required and followed all the steps. I didn’t do anything special really, it was the person who created the recipe who deserves the pat on the back.

Five teeth and counting. Isaac is growing teeth left and right! It has changed his smile so much. I think I got a picture where you can see his top teeth.

Our sixth visit to the pediatrician. Isaac at 9 months is now between 25 and 50th percentiles for both height and weight. 19 lb 6 oz and almost 28” long.

Independent Isaac

2009-03-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

It’s really been a while. Blake and I took back our exercise bike that we got for Christmas so now we are trying to run in the evenings after Isaac is in bed. By the time I do that, I don’t want to head to the library to use the internet. And Blake downloaded a nifty gmail app that lets me view my email offline, so that’s further incentive not to make the effort.

I don’t know if it’s just cold, or if pregnancy did something crazy to me, or if I’m just getting old, or if I’m a wimp, but my joints just ache when I go running. Hopefully my body starts whipping into shape soon or I might be doomed to run a 12 minute mile for the rest of my life.

Blake was super romantic and got me...a babysitter for Valentine’s! We went on a real date to the Olive Garden. (Cute flower he got me below...)

We’ve had a couple of good weather days so I’ve tried to take Isaac for a walk in his stroller. He doesn’t like those few extra inches away from mom so if we go longer than 15 minutes, sometimes 10, and sometimes 2, he cries to get out. But we’re working on it, and I know some day he will be happy to go for a walk and sit in his stroller. He used to hate his car seat too, but now he will giggle when I put him in because he knows he will get to go somewhere new.

Isaac is still running all over the house with me as chauffeur. He is getting more stable and can stand if he’s holding on to the couch. He still refuses to crawl. One day this week I was kneeling as I held Isaac’s hands so that he could walk, as usual. I noticed that we had begun to turn in pretty tight circles. I realized that I was wearing some red crocs and Isaac was trying to get to them, but every time he moved, they moved!

He’s becoming more and more independent. It’s getting hard to steer him the direction you want him to go because he has a good idea of where he wants to go instead. He’s drinking half apple juice half water in a sippy cup so now he will take a couple bites of food and then refuse to eat until he’s had a sip of juice. I love my opinionated boy.

As a random thought as April 15 draws near, let me just say that taxes + one kid + paying tuition = awesome refund and an extra bonus!

Isaac trying to look at my face underneath the camera

He's discovered the cd tower. My sister told me three years ago when I bought it that my kids would soon make me regret my purchase. Wise words.

Don't let that smile fool you, he hates it! He won't eat anything green, including this, which is broccoli.

Standing all by himself (sort of)!

I'm in love with his chubby legs.

Isaac has also discovered the dresser. Oh, the everyday fun things to play in.

oh, my back!

2009-02-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

Isaac now insists on walking around the house, occasionally stopping to eat/slobber on something. But if you sit him down, he will protest. He wants you to hold him standing up while he eats/slobbers. It's exhausting! He has no interest in crawling, and I guess who would, when you have a personal chauffer such as mom?

He seems to be getting a top tooth, as he is really fussy and has a tiny appetite. Hopefully it breaks soon!

Dada

2009-01-29T17:03:00.000-08:00

Isaac said momom first, just for the record. But it’s really cute to hear him say dada too. The flailing arms is classic Ike—he makes me nervous sometimes. It’s like he’s saying, “Whatever you’re doing, mom, do it faster!”

We were able to go to the temple last week thanks to some good friends who came over and hung out while Isaac was in bed. (He went to bed a 6 PM.) I prayed in my mind all day that Isaac would sleep through our absence—I was really worried about leaving him. Apparently my praying throughout the day really worked, because Isaac slept until an unheard of 2:30 AM, ate, and then went back to sleep until 7 AM. Wow! He usually wakes up 2 or 3 times a night.

I ran out of sweet potatoes and bananas last week so I gave Isaac applesauce instead for a couple days. Now that he has tasted that goodness, he will not go back! He will not eat anything except applesauce and rice cereal. Any suggestions?

also a classic Isaac pose

Two flights and two teeth later

2009-01-12T17:32:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe Christmas vacation is already over! We flew home to Utah the Saturday before Christmas. Trophy goes to the St. Louis Airport, which has numerous rocking chairs which I took use of during our small wait for our flight. Isaac did very well on both of our flights. And we got extra peanuts because we had a baby!

Blake stayed two weeks and I stayed two and a half weeks. We really missed Blake when he left, especially because Isaac slept horribly for our whole stay and Blake was nice enough to take Isaac when he woke up at 5 AM and let me sleep. We’re not sure whether Isaac just knew he wasn’t at home, or whether waking up every two or three hours at night is just par for breaking two teeth! Great timing on that one.

It was fun to see the interactions between Isaac and his cousins. Eli was entranced by Isaac and wanted to hug him. Gavin wanted to give him toys. Seth always wanted him to sit in his lap. Justin said Isaac was cute. Kate constantly asked, “Can I hold him?” Hannah and Isaac batted and kicked at each other, excited to find someone their own size. Joshua just stared. Matthew was jealous and wanted Isaac’s toys.

Christmas was great, as always. Isaac got way too many toys, with which he has played and gotten sick of and now wants bigger and better things like space heaters and laptops.

Highlights: We went to see the lights at temple square. I think Isaac liked it. However, he didn’t like the Gateway mall or Park City outlets and fell asleep. We watched the Sugar Bowl—GO UTES! My mom’s stovetop exploded, sending glass shards into my back, as well as Chris’ and Bekah’s. No one was hurt. We got to use Blake’s parents’ elliptical to work out. We had a waffle party with old high school friends. I got to sew with Bekah. Blake and I went on a “date” to my sister’s new house to dinner. We left Isaac at home in bed which makes the first time we have been alone together since his birth.

Now that we’re home, Isaac is sleeping much better. He’s also using his new teeth—last Saturday he bit me so hard he drew blood and now it is really painful to nurse him. And we’re working on getting him to crawl. We lay him on his tummy and put something in front of him. He’ll get excited and scoot backwards (the wrong way). Or he’ll scoot sideways. But he’s moving a little! He’s getting so old! He’s a good little eater, as always. We have fed him rice cereal, bananas, sweet potatoes, peach, and applesauce so far.

6 month photos (before Christmas)(didn't copy very well)

self photo

cousins!

4 Generations

cousin Seth

quilting with Bekah

The aftermath: can you see his teeth?

Isaac’s first cold

2008-12-15T17:28:00.000-08:00

Oh no, a post with no pictures! Boring boring boring. Read no further if you only come to see Ike’s smiling face.

Isaac has a cough and runny nose. Poor kid. It is so sad to hear him hack away. He got it Saturday. We went to our church Christmas party that night and it was obvious where he picked it up!

We went to the pediatricians last Thursday for Isaac’s 6 month visit. It was like Isaac remembered the trauma there because as soon as I started undressing him he started to cry. But hey, I cry when I get shots too. He also always screams when he’s weighed. Stats: 17 lbs 5 oz, 26 inches. That’s about 50^th percentile for both. My little brother informed me that it is unacceptable to have an “average child”. He also informed me that Blake and I are perfect for each other because we are both “uber nerds”. What a geeky, average family we are.

And a funny story to end on.

On Thursday, Blake came up to me with a guilty look on his face and said, “Marie, I can’t find my wedding ring. I’ve looked all over the house and all over school.” I just looked back at him with my own guilty look.

You see, on Wednesday I noticed that Blake had forgotten to wear his wedding ring to school. So I decided to hide it. I thought that when he came home, I could “notice” that he didn’t have his ring on and ask him where it was. That would lead to a five minute search for his ring, during which I would interrupt him with a “Just kidding, it’s right here!”

Except I promptly forgot about it after I hid it. It reminded me of how my brother sabotaged my scholarship application, except that was infinitely worse. Sorry, Blake, to make you waste precious time looking for your ring when you should have been studying for finals! Luckily, Blake thought it was kind of funny. But now I am watching my back for his revenge.

Isaac talks!

2008-12-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

We have been very lucky to have visitors lately! My dad, aka Pops, came to visit a month ago. He was a very generous guest and he left us feeling very spoiled. Pops is welcome any time! We went out to eat and I got the best pasta I have ever had in my life. The restaurant is Eleven Eleven, if anyone dines in St. Louis. Pricey, but amazing.

For Thanksgiving, my brother Chris and sister Anne came to visit. We played lots of games and watched Brian Regan dvds and ate lots of dessert. And drank gourmet root beer. Apparently I have the king of all suppliers of gourmet root beer right down the street at a grocer called Straubs. I never knew what I was missing, but now Chris is very jealous.

We went to some Indian Ruins--the Cahokia Mounds. Pretty cool.

Woodhenge (no really, that's what it's called)

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we took off for Independence, Missouri to see some church history sites. We planned on leaving at 8, when Isaac usually wakes up. However, Isaac didn’t sleep very well that night and woke up much earlier than usual. So I was really worried we were in for a cry fest in the car. We left at 8:30, right when Isaac was wanting to take a nap. Chris sang to him in the back seat and Isaac sucked on his pacifier and watched Chris and fell asleep with no crying! Amazing! I was floored. Throughout the whole trip, Isaac did so well. I am so proud of him!

Being entertained by Chris

We walked around the old Independence temple lot in Independence. We then drove up to Adam Ondi Ahman (also in Missouri). It was beautiful, even in the winter. Then we drove down to Far West and saw the cornerstones of the old temple there.

Truman's House in Independence

On Wednesday, we drove to Liberty and saw the jail, which is inside a visitor’s center. It is rebuilt on the original foundation. It was neat to see the place where Joseph Smith was incarcerated for so long, for no reason. Then we drove to Richmond and saw a couple graves. I didn’t get out for the last two graveyards because Isaac was falling asleep while I sang endless verses of Old MacDonald had a farm. . .

I am so grateful for our pioneer heritage. Traveling to these sites made me again realize the sacrifice that the pioneers made in standing firm in their beliefs and not giving in to mobs and temptation. They were endlessly persecuted for their beliefs but had the courage to endure and build up the kingdom of God.

On Thanksgiving, I cooked all morning—mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, rolls, and turkey. It all turned out ok, except I still don’t make as good rolls as my sister or mom does. I was nervous about cooking a turkey but it was surprisingly easy. Chris did the hard part of carving. We went to the arch and for a walk around our neighborhood and to the medical school.

And then our visitors left the next day. That’s ok, because we fly to Utah in three weeks!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Isaac laughing

2008-11-13T17:08:00.000-08:00

He loves this toy! Good thing, because Blake spent lots of time putting it together...
It's so fun to be at this stage, where Isaac is laughing more and more. So cute!

About my boys

2008-11-05T08:57:00.000-08:00

Blake was published! He spent three years as an undergraduate/graduate student in a lab at the U and the research he did contributed to a paper in Nature magazine.

Life is not fair. I also sent in my graduate research to be published, now fully two years ago. It was rejected by one of the reviewers and given ten thousand comments by the other reviewer. I spent hours fixing up my paper with the help of my advisor and now it is under review again. It has been such a pain. And Blake didn’t have to do anything and now his paper is all pretty in a journal! OK, so actually I only spent one summer on my research and a couple months writing, so Blake collectively took more time on his. And between the two of us, I’d rather he was published. I don’t need to write a resume to our kids and list my publications in the Journal of Geotechnical Engineering so that they will hire me as their mom. But Blake’s publication will help for residency, etc. So fine. But I still wish my paper was published!

Blake also did research this summer and he just displayed a poster at the medical school. Isaac and I went to see it.

Isaac fell asleep on the way home.

Halloween was fun. Isaac was a dragon. It is hard to make costumes! I don’t know how people do it--this just about did me in. I don’t even know how many hours I wasted on it. My machine kept going crazy and I kept making mistakes. So I never actually finished it—notice the unfinished sleeves. But it was fun to dress Isaac up and go to our church’s trunk or treat. Isaac fell asleep right after we got there because it started at 6 PM, just about his bedtime. I guess he didn’t want any candy...

Apartment

2008-10-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

We love our new apartment. It was the cheapest two bedroom around. And it is way nice, especially compared to what we have been used to. But we are renting from an individual condo owner, and I don’t think the place has been really cleaned in years. I have been going at it, little by little, washing walls and cleaning blinds and washing the cabinets. I will be so happy when we finally settle down into our own house and I will not have to clean anyone’s filth but my own family’s. I always wanted to fix up a house but now I’m rooting for brand new. Anyway, I was cleaning a deep kitchen cabinet and found a receipt for 1992! Scary.

Our neighbors, for the most part, are very quiet. But last week someone buzzed us three times at 3:30 AM. Blake finally went to the door. It was some drunk girl trying to get in to our neighbors. They weren’t home so she buzzed us. That would be a logical step if it were 7 PM. Blake yelled at her that she was going to wake up our baby. (The buzzer is really loud.) She said that Blake didn’t need to be so rude and wasn’t he going to let her in? He said no and knocked on our neighbor’s door. No one was there. 5 minutes later we heard him get home and open his door to let in a whole party of people! At 3:30 AM! We didn’t care—we couldn’t hear them in the apartment, but we wish our neighbors had friends smart/sober enough to realize it’s not exactly kosher to buzz a random person in the wee hours of the morning.

Isaac got an early Christmas present from Grandma Karen and Grandpa Kent. He loves it already! The first time we put him in it, he played/looked at each toy, one by one, moving himself around the circle, until he had gone around three times. It’s amazing to me he can do that already.

Isaac also loves to see how many fingers he can fit in his mouth...

4 Months

2008-10-15T16:40:00.001-07:00

Isaac is the spitting image of his dad. The following picture is one of Blake that Blake’s mom sent us. Crazy. Although I think Isaac is not quite as chunky. We went to the doctor last week for the four-month visit and Isaac dropped from 90 percentile in weight to only 75th! Congrats to 15 lb 10 oz, 24.5 in. Sir Isaac. I will celebrate by eating a cookie.

Google Picasa

2008-10-08T14:34:00.000-07:00

Wow, coolest program ever! I made the above collage from it. I know it’s not very fancy and you can do much more things with digital scrapbooking, but it doesn’t get much easier than Picasa collages. I am addicted to editing our pictures now. I look so much better airbrushed! Just think, I was going to ask for a new camera for Christmas, but now I am just as happy because my pictures look cool with all the gadgets. Favorites: sharpen, warmify, glow, retouch. OK, sharpen isn’t saving right now, but I’m sure those google engineers will get it working soon. What can you do, it’s the beta version.

Isaac is doing so much better sleeping. He is definitely outgrowing his colic or fussiness or acid reflux, whatever you want to call it. He goes to bed at 6:30ish and sleeps until at least midnight, but usually later. Once he slept until 5 AM! After that he’s eating and sleeping until 8 AM. Life is good. Last week, I was even able to start putting him down during the day for naps. It was getting really exhausting holding him all day and having him insist to be held during his naps. He doesn’t always let me put him down, but at least once or twice during the day I get a break. And then I’m really productive and do things like edit pictures or read novels like the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, which was really good.

We just got new insurance, and they are stinky about pre-existing conditions, so they won’t pay for Isaac’s reflux medicine. But we think he is outgrowing it anyway, so we are going to see how he does with tapering off the meds. Wish us luck!