Da Teller Bears

Sasha at 4 Months

2012-01-26T16:18:00.026-07:00

Continuing my endless catch-up of the blog, I want to share all the glorious thing about my baby girl as of 4 months. Here she is at 3 months: Then at 4 months:

Ironically, she has gained exactly two pounds at every dr's appointment since she has been born (birth: 7 lbs, 13 oz; 1 month: 9 lbs, 13 oz; 2 months: 11 lbs, 13 oz), but this time...

she was 13 lbs, 12 oz. BARELY missed it!!! Go figure, huh? That's just under the 75th percentile. She was also 24.75 inches which is right at the 75th percentile. Perfect little baby!

This month, Sasha has become a real talker. One night she started cooing to my mom, and that whole week we couldn't find the off button. Lately she has been more selective of her vocalizations. She is also uber observant. Here she is trying to reach my phone whilst wedged tightly in the bumbo. Maybe it's to call gramma so she can talk to her again.
Thankfully, the older she gets, the more happy she seems, so I can't complain.

She finally found her toes:

And once she found her toes, she found her desire to roll over... this cute little face-plant went on for about two weeks before she rolled from her back to front round New Years' weekend. Her doctor told me she isn't supposed to do that till bout the 6 month. Most babies roll from front to back first (by 4 months). She did that about a week after her 4 month mark.

Right after she turned three months, Sasha started having random screaming fits and couldn't get enough of her fingers. Sometimes she will even pop her pacifier out to suck on her tiny little thumb. I keep thinking she is teething, but we have yet to see any white nubs on her gums.

Sasha experienced quite a few firsts this month. Her first Christmas, of course. We took these festive photos before she was three months, but whatever...

I will blog more about Christmas later, but I have to mention how much she loves this little stuffed baby she got from my older sister's family. It's so munchable!!!

She also had her first trip to the temple... couldn't help but get a photo!

She also gained her first friend. I have a friend in the ward who's two youngest kids are just a few months older than my two kids, which is very convenient since we really like hanging out.

She also got her ears pierced (for hopefully the first and last time). She did pretty well considering... She got gorgeous little light blue sapphires.

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

As it's been getting colder, Sasha had a harder time sleeping at night. She doesn't like to be cold and she sleeps in the coldest room in the house. We have decided to double-bundle her every night. This seems to help (along with a space heater.) This unfortunate ensemble is the result of it being the night before laundry day.

Sasha was born with blue eyes, and everybody seemed pretty sure they would stay that way. However, lately I've started to question... At first I thought she had color-sensitive eyes like my dad. When he wears green his eyes look more green, and other colors seem to change his eye color.... But now I think they might be turning brown. Sometimes they look tan in the middle. Other times they have an olive-green tint. If her eyes do change she will be the first of her cousins (on both sides) to not have blue eyes.

What do you think? Blue?

That poor little bald spot keeps getting worse. My baby like to lay on her back and look around!

But at least her hair is growing on top!

Babies crack me up with the faces they make:

I couldn't tell you what this face is about!

ARRRR, Matey!!

I've had a lot of people tell me she looks like my dad in this picture... I'm not sure how to take that... for her sake or my dad's sake

Sasha at 3 Months

2012-01-25T14:16:00.015-07:00

It's been awhile since I blogged (Bad, Lindsey, BAD!!), but I am remedying that by bloggin the heck out of this blog over the next week. Firstly, I need to talk about our adorable little Sasha who became 3 months old way back in the middle of December. Here she is at 2 months: And at 3 months in the same onesie:
She started sleeping through the night (about 9-10 hours). And in general became a better, more scheduled sleeper. Good ole Babywise!!

She has gotten super squirmy, and will kick her legs and thrash her arms when she is excited. I guess that means she loves baths because her limbs go CRAZY in the bath! It's like she is trying to swim. To the contrary, she sits really well in the bumbo. Probably because of the change of scenery.

By three months she was starting to roll to her side. I was particularly grateful to this because she was starting to get a nasty bald spot on the back of her head.

It's been fun watching Sasha become more aware. She started staring at the camera whenever I would get it out.

The staring made it hard to get her to smile... which is saying a lot cuz she loves to smile. You can tell who her favorites are: Gramma Lynn

Or her mommy:

And Kaleb:

Unfortunately, Daddy wasn't amongst her favorites yet by that age, but she did like getting kisses from him and his bushy face.

Sasha did have her first giggles, and has had lots of little laughs. She hardly ever laughs at random things, but tickling her and playing with her can sometimes get her going. We have noticed she is particularly giggly when she is tired (like her mother)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JE1q42reOw

Sometimes it shocks me how photogenic this little baby is.

Kaleb Getting his Groove On

2011-12-22T08:18:00.002-07:00

Kaleb loves to dance when others are dancing, and we've had Christmas music on a lot these last few days. The other day I got a video of him dancing. I apologize for how shaky the camera is... I had to dance a little at first to get him going.

Two reasons why this makes me laugh:

One, it reminds me of the movie "Hitch" when Hitch is trying to teach Albert to dance and he's like "This is home." Kaleb knows he is too cool to do anything else.

UNTIL

He starts twirling that stick like a baton... AWESOME!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PACCYQTp5fw

Out of the Mouth of Kaleb

2011-12-16T08:15:00.002-07:00

The other day, I experiencd two fun moments with Kaleb... and his mouth.

The first was when he was playing with a toy and he was getting a little frustrated. It just wasn't doing what he wanted. Then I hear him very calmly say, "Twap, Howy Twap." (Crap. Holy crap.) It made me laugh so hard because... of all the words I expected him to say first as a declaration of fustration it is "Crap!" cuz that tends to be Ammon and my first word of frustration. "Whoopsy" is his popular mistake word right now. Anyway, what made me laugh most was his calm demeanor. CUTE KID!

The other fun moment was when I was putting Kaleb to bed and he asked to say his prayer all by himself. It went something like this:
"Hevly Father,
Thank you this day.
Please Daddy better.
Please Mama better.
Please Sasha better.
Thank you this day.
Thank you (for) bear.
These things, Jesus Christ, Amen!!"
I was so proud of him!! I honestly almost cried. Obviously we've had a lot of family members sick lately, so that's a recurring theme in our prayers. He's such a good, thoutful little boy!

Kaleb- 2 1/2 years

2011-12-07T15:50:00.016-07:00

Now that Kaleb is smack in between being a toddler and a preschooler, I find myself so thrilled when he learns new things, but so sad that he's growing up. Pretty soon he will be past the 'cute' stage, and tears start to form at the very thought of it.

BEAUTY SLEEP: He has become more challenging lately, I'm guessing because he doesn't take naps much anymore. We almost always have him take 'naptime,' but that is usually spent with him singing to himself jumping off his bed or tearing up books (he didn't do it for a month, and we had a relapse a few days ago... grrr). Anyway, he seems to be easily upset, and will often cry at the drop of a hat when we do something he doesn't like. He still tends to be a good kid, but he has such extreme moments sometimes.

MOMMY's LITTLE HELPER: One thing I am grateful for is his desire to help. Though it can add to my time-managing frustration, it's nice to know he likes to spend time doing what I do. Mostly this is limited to helping with laundry or getting the mail, but he also is very good about throwing away trash or getting something for the baby.

BOY/GIRL, GIRL/BOY: Recently, Kaleb and I had a discussion about gender, and I was able to catch a bit of it on video. I think it may be awhile before he really understands the difference, but never hurts to start some things early:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRkOLpiOBvo

I'm sure Ammon will be very disappointed in me for sharing this, but speaking of gender confusion: While we were visiting Aunt Tashina the other day, Kaleb found a bottle of orange nail polish (his favorite color), and asked Tashina with his fingers extended, "I have prettys?" So Tashina was nice enough to paint his fingernails. SO FUN!!

CHURCH: What I'm loving most of all of Kaleb's learning are his experiences from church. Right now his favorite songs include "I'm trying to Be Like Jesus" or I'm a Child of God." He has become very aware of finding Jesus in random pictures and books and sculptures. This includes when watching Harry Potter movies, and Kaleb calls out "Jesus" whenever Dumbledore comes on. Another fun time is trying to entertain Kaleb at church. The other day, I had given Kaleb a notepad and pen to draw with while I went to the bathroom. Well, Ammon got distracted with Sasha and forgot to watch Kaleb. Within a few minutes, Kaleb had drawn all over his face. Thankfully baby wipes are handy for much more than poopy diapers.

MEMORY: A smart purchase we made a few months ago were some cards that we got in a 3-pack at the dollar store. They come in matching pairs, so Kaleb and I have enjoyed playing matching games. Pretty soon, he will be ready to play memory.

WHATYATALK? WHATYATALK? One of the best parts about Kaleb getting older is his ability to speak. I love it when he picks up his toy phones and calls up grandpa (not sure which, but apparently he is the only on he likes to call), and asks if he's at work, then hangs up. He is more than comfortable talking on real phones with us as well. The best part of all is that he is saying his prayers every night... with our help of course. Now he's demanding we say them before his naps as well, such a good example. The following are some Kaleb-isms:

"What you doing?" (Said to anyone and everyone he can)
"LOOK-A-MAMA!!" (Said to anyone nearby, mom or otherwise)
"I farted!!" (Recently been replaced with "Scuse me!"
"I did it!" (Whether someone else really did it or not)
"Mackabutt" (Smack your butt)
"It's a hm..." (His answer to "What's that, Kaleb?" and he doesn't know the answer)
"It's a WARRRR!!" (Big cats are just known for their growls)
"RAAAARRR" (Yes he growls all the time)
Some of my favorite mispronunciations: SEELAY (silly), PORN (Popcorn), Fenden (Seven), Taybuh (Kaleb)

CLOTHING: Kaleb's getting better at helping with his clothing, including pulling up his pants and taking off his shirts. Plus he likes to put on his socks. Occasionally he will get sick of his socks and take on off... and then get involved in other activities... leaving one sock on. It makes me laugh every time!

BIG BANG: It has become evident to Ammon and me that we have been watching a little too much of our favorite show The Big Bang Theory. Yesterday, while watching it, we changed the channel when it got to commercial, and Kaleb looked around and said, "I want Bang Bang..." The other day, Ammon was watching it in the TV room and Kaleb was eating at the kitchen table, and just from listening, he could tell it was "Bang Bang?" My favorite story has to do with a song that is sung occasionally in the show called 'Soft Kitty.' The first line of the song is "Soft kitty, Warm kitty." Last week when I went into Kaleb's room first thing in the morning, I noticed his feet were cold, so I started rubbing them. I kept saying "Warm feet. Warm feet" Then he started singing "Warm cat, warm cat." I got the giggles from that!

Mmmmm... celery and peanut butter. Nuff said!

Playing at the park with his cousins!

For Thanksgiving, we went to my parents for the turkey dinner. Playing in the backyard brought on the opportunity to shoot some hoops!

His Thanksgiving Dinner, he only really enjoyed the deviled eggs and carrots.

CHRISTMAS: I'm starting to wonder if having a favorite holiday is genetic. Kaleb is LOVING everything about Christmas. We were able to get a new tree this year, so opening it and setting it up was a thrill for us too!

We got some train ornaments that have been such a joy for Kaleb... leaving glitter EVERYWHERE since Kaleb has driven them on couches, crashed them in the kitchen and so on.

Finally they made it to the Christmas tree. The longer we have the tree up, the better Kaleb is getting at leaving it alone.

Since the Christmas tree has temporarily displaced one of our decorative fake tree, Kaleb found a whole new use for it: a Target for throwing daddy's socks! Don't worry, the tree didn't stay in front of that couch... and the socks didn't stay in the tree.

BIG BROTHER: Kaleb's all-time favorite thing is his little sister. Here she is about to be eaten by him. Actually he was going in for a kiss, but for some reason, the pre-kiss face looks menacing.

Holding hands! He ALWAYS has to hold her hands!

Sasha- 2 Months

2011-11-22T15:44:00.012-07:00

My adorable munchkins!!

Little Ms. Sasha is now (over) 2 months old. At her doc's appointment, she was 22 & 3/4 inches and had gained exactly 2 more pounds again (just like last month) to make her 11 lbs, 13 oz. Here she is at one month: And here she is in the same outfit at 2 months. I don't see much difference, but she has started to grow out of some outfits. I've already had to put some of her dresses in storage because they were too short, even for a newborn.

Overall, Sasha is a pretty happy baby. She still isn't the best sleeper during the day, but most of the time at night she will sleep at least 6 hours, but more often 7 or 8. For awhile she would get really crabby at night during her last feeding. Ammon and I called it "The crazies" because she would eat for a few seconds, scream and smack the bottle away, then start eating again. Over and over for at least 20 minutes. I started nursing her for her last feeding and that seemed to solve the problem. It seems she just didn't like formula late at night. Silly, baby!

Here she is waving for the camera after a bath!

As I said, she is a pretty happy baby, but when she cries it's the end of the world for her, and she has that adorable lip sticking out... oh it's so STINKING CUTE!!!

Speaking of Stinking CUTE, I've been saying that phrase so much, Kaleb started picking up on it, and it's become a type of chant for our family. Here is a video of him rocking to the chant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_7HKs5Wr3o

As Sasha is getting older, she has been making such fun noises and started using her hands to grab whatever is in reach:

A rattle! (yes, that's really what that is)

A TIGER!

And her absolute favorite: HER BURP CLOTH

We are so happy our little Sasha is growing up so perfectly (to quote her doctor).

Halloween 2011

2011-11-10T14:56:00.015-07:00

We had a lot of fun this Halloween Season. For our first date post-Sasha we went to a few haunted houses with my sis and her hubby. Here we are with the crypt-keeper person. No idea if it was a man or a woman.l The best part was the giant guy in a tuxedo that followed my sister around saying, "Hi, Jess... You smell pretty." We had a blast!
We also visited the Spirit Store to get ideas for costumes. and got nothing, but the boys had a lot of fun trying on hats.

Kaleb really wanted to be a hockey goaley... or Jason. Let's hope it was a hockey goaley.

Here we are as a family at our truck-or-treat. See if you can guess what we all were:

Well I was "The Center of the Universe" and Sasha was "My Whole World."

Kaleb dressed up as Ammon and Ammon dressed up as himself... cuz people wouldn't know who Kaleb was otherwise.

Kaleb was the best candy-giver-out-er. He especially liked the unlimited access to the candy bowls and would casually grab handfuls and put them in his bucket!

Since I made Sasha's costume with a white onesie coloered with washable marker, I ended up with part of a map on my arm.

and Sasha got some on her chest as well.

On halloween night we went trick-or-treating at the mall with my sister and her kids. Here is Kaleb taking a break with a mini Snickers.

Kaleb learned very quickly how important the phrase "Trick or Treat" was. In fact, I don't think he knows that this holiday is called Halloween. It's called "Trickortreats" to him. Anyway, here is a video we got with the kids visiting See's Candy .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02H5c-uGCzU

Oh, so tired!!

Washing the face away. Our truck or treat was Saturday night, so I had to scrub Kaleb's face pretty hard to get the marker off for Sunday. But I barely tried Halloween night cuz we weren't goin anywhere the next day!

And of course, the purpose of it all: CANDY!! Kaleb's favorites seem to be Sweettarts andf Smarties (cuz they look like medicine...?) and suckers. Between the Trunk or Treat and the mall, Kaleb ended up with a full bucket! It was soooo worth it!!

Kaleb-29 months

2011-10-31T17:05:00.014-07:00

Kaleb is just shy of 29 months and continues to be such a blast for us. Some of his favorite things include tractors, trains and trucks. Plus he loves hi puzzles, though we have had to cut back on them since he would leave several 25-piece groups all over the house.

Recently we cleaned out our coin jar and gave all the pennies to Kaleb. He got a HUGE kick out of it... until he realized we weren't giving him the nickels, dimes and quarters... it was an opportunity to teach about sharing.
Pretend is also a fun new activity for Kaleb over the last few months. Kaleb took a liking to having a bucket or bag with him to carry his things, including a twisted up slinky, a broken cell phone and a torn-up foam hammer... ya know, the important stuff. To Ammon's shame, his favorite carryall is one of my old purses.

Anytime Kaleb has had any item of clothing removed he is "NAKED!!" and will shout it around the whole house. After showers/baths is particularly fun since he gets to run around in a towel.

With potty training in his near future, we have been trying to encourage Kaleb to put on/take off his clothing. Sometimes it is more effort than it's worth to correct whatever mayhem he has created, but sometimes it just reminds me how cute Kaleb is!!

Along with his pretending is his desire to project certain things on his toys. Now that Mommy has baby to 'play with' he likes to make sure he has someone to take care of. Usually it is his blue bear or his toy baby. Here he has sat bear down for lunch.

As for baby, the other day I was feeding Sasha, so he had to feed his baby... bologna. I caught some of it on video. At first he was lifting up his shirt to feed baby (for better or worse I didn't get that on video), but eventually he resorted to the bologna.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeY55ksp4RI

Mr. Potato Head's Eyes... for those who have seen Toy Story 3, this is that much funnier.

The cold snap a few weeks ago brought us back to the park. I LOVE living s close to a park!!!

Unfortunately for Kaleb, Mommy forgot that just because it's cool doesn't mean we shouldn't wear sunscreen. After three days at the park, Kaleb got quite a pink hue!

It has become VERY evident that Kaleb prefers to be a follower at this stage in his life. In some ways that can be a good thing because he is always fairly well behaved toward other kids. However, this also means Kaleb does anything the other kids do, whether it's against the rules or not... which drives me crazy sometimes.

Sometimes Kaleb's following can be awfully entertaining as well. On day at the park, he just wanted to follow his cousin Ellie around. She runs a lot faster than him (being one year older and the daughter of a marathon-runner), so just imagine the wolf from Disney's Sword and the Stone and you'll get the basic idea. Ellie running yards ahead, Kaleb puffing behind, barely reaching her before she would run off again. My poor little chubby boy!!

Kaleb loves his baby sister and always wants to hold her and touch her and play with her. He is the best helper and I couldn't ask for a better big brother for our little Sasha. She loves him too, always smiling and watching him whenever he is around.

He has also learned that the easiest way to hold baby is with the boppy!

Sasha-7 Weeks old

2011-10-28T23:50:00.022-07:00

I have been a slacker about posting anything about little Sasha's first few weeks of life, so here we go. Kinda in a hurry, so I will do my best to keep this brief.

SLEEPING:
The hardest part about raising Sasha so far has been her pickiness during sleep. She didn't like to be swaddled from the beginning. She woud just scream and squirm. If she did fall asleep while swaddled, she would still squirm out (Sasha is anythig but the 'Sleep like a baby" type. Her arms flail and she makes a lot of little noises. Cute, but a little unnerving for the first few weeks. )
Since Kaleb had serious spitting-up problems and our two most recent nieces were diagnosed with acid reflux, we were a little wary for our little Sasha. Her doc suggested keeping her propped up a little while sleeping, so I came up with this little nest in her crib. So far it seems to be working great.

Another issue with Sasha's sleeping was her distate for anything slightly chilly. She didn't like breezes while she was sleeping which made it difficult for her to sleep in our room the first few weeks since I am a fan-a-holic. We had to make a fort-type cover on her playpen. Plus, we resorted to using a hotpad to preheat her bed at night since she seemed to hate sleeping at night (we assumed due to the cold). Thankfully it has worked. She consistently sleeps 5-6 hours every night and occasionally goes for 7.

One God-send is the swing Ammon's brother and his wife let us borrow. She will fall asleep almost instantly (as long as she isn't starving), so it has been really nice as a last resort when she just doesn't seem to want to settle down.

HANDS: I've already commented on Sasha's sper-long fingers and finger nails. But one great thing is how quickly she has learned to use them... or not use them. Within her first week, Sasha almost never scratched herself. Thank goodness cuz her nails grow like weeds!!

DADDY: Ammon has SOOO looked forward to having a little girl! I get pictures of him with her ALLL the time... but none with me. Go figure.

Anyway, This is when she wore her first dress.

Daddy coming home from work:

And sleeping together at church:

FIRSTS: Of course the first month is filled with many firsts, like her first bath (delayed a bit by a belly button that just wouldn't heal):

Her first time to the park (obviously very exciting):

Her first real smile was the day before she was a month old. This picture was taken more recently. She has been really smiley over the last week or so.

EATING: I have been nursing Sasha as well as giving her formula since her second day, but unfortunately it took quite awhile to get her used to formula. Then, about her third week she started having horrible, noisy gas bubbles churning around in her stomach. Gas drops didn' seem to make a huge difference so the doctor suggested I lay off dairy and maybe try a new formula. So now I keep my milk intake to a minimum and we have her on a special gentle formula. That seems to do the trick, but it gives her really stinky poop. However, I'm really happy to say she hardly ever spits up, so our acid reflux fears seem to be in vain.

ONE MONTH: At her one-month appointment, Sasha weighed 9 lbs, 13 oz and had grown to 21.5 inches, both in the 75th percentile. I like to take comparison pictures in the same outfit so here Sasha is at 3 days old:

And here she is at one month in the same outfit:

I love it when babies cross their eyes!!

Just for laughs we put Sasha in Kaleb's Size 6 diapers:

Blowing bubbles. A new hobby as of week 6.

Sasha can already stand up without help, and she loves to use those cute little legs of hers!!

KALEB: He is the best bigger brother I could ever ask for. He loves the baby (and I will go into more detail in his post. Here is a picture of his first attempt at holding her.

Just for fun, I did a random little photo shoot of my own while Sasha was asleep the other day! We did the wedding ring thing with Kaleb, so I decided "WHY NOT?"

Photo Shoot

2011-10-23T21:49:00.017-07:00

When Sasha was about three weeks old, a friend of mine came over to do a little photo shoot with my adorable little munchkins. It was a learning experience for me: Firstly, do photo shoots either after five weeks or before two weeks because you want the baby really sleepy or happy awake, not cranky awake like she was at three weeks. Then again, Sasha isn't the best sleeper, so that didn't help. See a later post about Sasha's first month.

Also, one of the few ways to get Kaleb to sit for a 'stranger' for pictures is to let him have his bear with him and to jump off the furniture:
I also learned that day that Kaleb has a great little fake smile. I would say "Teeth" and this is what he gave us. Not too shabby for a two year old!

HOLY SMOKES THIS KID IS SO FLIPPIN CUTE!!!!!!

OF course, cuddling with the bear!

And with his baby Sasha:

Finally, Kaleb let us take some pictures of Sasha.

This is what I call 'The Lindsey Face'

SOOOOO Beautiful!!

That's right! It's a tutu! The photographer actually made that for her for the photo shoot. Sasha wasn't a huge fan, but it was so CUTE!!

This is the way I see her most often.

And of course, snuggling with the bear!

Thanks, Julie!!!

The Story of Sasha

2011-09-20T15:47:00.017-07:00

So I went into the doctor's office Thursday, the 8th. I was at 3cm and my doc stripped my membranes (more painful than I remember), so we were all sure that this baby was coming within 48 hours. Well, silly us!! I still hadn't had any real contractions as of Saturday morning, so we went walking... Costco Saturday morning (oooh, samples) and the mall Saturday night, during that really awesome storm (which tore down a tree in our backyard-thankfully Bowser was away at Ammon's brother's house). The timing wouldn't have been so stressful except Ammon's brother Rylan was due back from his mission Wednesday, the 14th, and I really wanted the four of us to meet him at the airport... well that was not in the cards I guess.

So that stormy Saturday night comes and goes.. and still nothing. I wake up feeling great Sunday morning, so we go to church and I give a fantastic lesson for my new Sunday School class (involving several rounds of hangman), all the while I'm worried my water is gonna break right then and there. Well it didn't, of course.

So that afternoon, after I haven't been able to nap and I'm getting more and more anxious (and cranky... and emotional), Ammon and I decide to have a yummy, unhealthy dinner of bacon, fried potatoes and cream of wheat... Mmmmmmmmm.

***This is where it starts getting a little more graphic, so TMI Warning***

At bout 7pm, I'm just finishing my cream of wheat when I feel a... what can only be described as a small gush down there. Just enough to make me wonder if it was really anything, but when I stand up, more comes out, and as I start heading to the bathroom, more is coming. So I stop, turn to Ammon who was engrossed in the TV, and say, "Uh, I think my water broke." His head almost flies off as he turns with a bewildered expression and chokes out, "What?!" I wasn't sure so I kept heading to the bathroom to assess the 'damage.'

Sure enough, there was plenty of something all over me, but not enough for me to be sure my water had broke, so Ammon, like the classic TV dad starts rushing around, grabbing bags, making phone calls. I decide we should wait for my mom to pick up Kaleb, not only to keep Kaleb calm, but also so we have a few minutes to gather everything. Within a half hour, Kaleb is with my mom and we are at the hospital. Another hour later, they determine my water has broken, there's a small amount of meconium in the fluid, I was at 3cm, and I get admitted.

Since I'm still no having any contractions (seriously wonder if my body was broken), they set me up with fluids (the nurses thought I was a little dehydrated since I was running a slight fever) and get the Petocin started. After a few hours on the Petocin, I got to my epidural point (6 on the pain scale) and order up. Since my first epidural didn't go well, I was desperate for this one to be like everyone says, so the anesthesiologist was very thorough. Unfortunately, in medical terms, thorough means "takes longer than usual" so by the time he has me set up, I'm at an 8 on the pain scale.

BUT it finally worked like a charm, the pain subsided, I started getting nauseous, dizzy and shaky all at once, all of which is "totally normal." They give me meds for the nausea, oxygen for the dizziness and have me lay on my left side for the shakes.

The nurse checks my progress and says I'm at a 5/6 and that my water is still intact. I must have sprung a leak somewhere higher in my uterus. Funny that the triage nurse didn't tell us that. Anyway, because of the loss of amniotic fluids, the nurse wanted to have me keep switching sides to keep pressure of the baby during contractions, so that was a fun workout with an epidural!!

A little while later, I'm starting to feel a little pressure down there, and I was about to call the nurse when she walked in and said, "I just paged your doctor. She will be here in about 15 minutes to break your water and it shouldn't be too long before you need to push." Sure enough, my doc comes in shortly thereafter, pops me and says, "Okay you're ready to push."

{Now here is the funny thing, even after I had been wanting to have this baby for the past week and doing all I could to get her here... at that moment, I was thinking "wait, what, I'm not ready." Go figure}

Anyway, so about five minutes later, my doc is gowned up and I'm in position, raring to push! My body is shaking as badly as ever, but I bear down once and the head all but comes out. Two pushes later, out she comes. IT WAS AWESOME!!! Virtually pain-free and only three pushes, um yes thank you!!

Sasha Lynn was born 9/12 and 4:12 at 7 lbs, 13 oz and 20 inches.

They cleaned her up before I could take a look at her, but the whole time, Ammon is describing her to me, and the first thing out of his mouth is "You should see her fingers and toes!! They're freakishly long!!" This isn't the best pic, but believe me, her toes are as long as her fingers, and her fingers are really long!! Plus she had a full set of long fingernails (which explains the tear in the sac I think)

Here we are with my doc, she is so awesome!! Not even on call, but specifically gave us a note to give to the hospital staff to make sure no matter when I was admitted that she would be the one to take care of me! Love her!!!

Daddy and daughter!

The rest of our stay was pretty uneventful. We only stayed the one night since she was born so early Monday morning (and who wants to pay more hospital bills?)

We had a bunch of visitors that day, but of course the most important was big brother Kaleb, who absolutely LOVES her!!!!

Already smiling!

Going Home!

Um, Daddy, a little tighter please!!

Kaleb gives Sasha kisses all the time, but they're so quick we have a hard time photographing it, so this is the best one of both of them together. We will keep trying!

Snuggle-time!!

Love those little smiles!

My favorite feature of Sasha's is her eyes!! She just has the prettiest eyes. They're blue right now, but I'm crossing my fingers that they will turn brown so they will look just like Ammon's!

2nd Pregnancy-38.5 Weeks

2011-09-08T08:14:00.002-07:00

One week ago I was finally dilated 1cm, 80% which gave me a little hope. Later today my doc will be stripping my membranes just to make sure things get moving along. So far I've had no real contractions, or at least the ones I've had are not the real labor I remember. And the few that are pretty uncomfortable are spaced so far apart I don't get my hopes up. I'm pretty sure the baby dropped a few days ago. My balance shifted and different muscles are hurting. Otherwise not much to report. When I got my membranes stripped during Kaleb's pregnancy, he was born less than 48 hours later so I'm really keeping my fingers crossed!

Kaleb-2.25 Years

2011-09-04T15:47:00.007-07:00

Such a big helper! Everything for Kaleb is an "I do it" moment nowadays. Most of the time, he spends abou ten seconds trying to do whatever it is, and then it's "Momma do it" (or Daddy). Ammon convinced Kaleb to vacuum half the living room the other day. SO AWESOME!

I have reached that point when I should stop counting Kaleb's age in months. He is getting so big and is racing past the toddler stage into the 'preschool' stage. He LOVES to learn! Right now he pretty much only likes doing puzzles and playing 'match games'. I put that in quotes because we don't flip the cards over. Just the basics "Find the fish. Find the yellow tractor." He is learning colors. Orange is the only one he really knows (and even then that can mean yellow or red), but he is so eager to talk about other colors. Red is usually called Elmo before it's called Red. Counting has become a new interest as well. We will have him repeat us for 1 thru 10, but when he counts on his own it usually sounds like, "One, two, four, eight, nine... four, eight, six." We get such a kick out of that!!! Kaleb has the occasional language barriers, like not being able to pronounce "OPEN" properly. We are really working to get him to say "SEVEN" but it ALWAYS comes out FENZEN.

Letters have opened up a new world to him. We have an alphabet puzzle with pictures for each letter (Fish under the F, Tie under the T; see the video below) and now he relates a lot of the letters with that picture. I can draw an H and he will say "House" and so on. He makes me so excited! Ammon's mom has expressed concerns since Ammon had a hard time with language when he was younger, but thankfully Kaleb doesn't seem to have any delays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfakihftSpw

We are SOOOO looking forward to Kaleb becoming a big brother, and he is showing so many signs of being the helpful little man that every parent hopes for in an older sibling!

2nd Pregnancy-37.5 Weeks

2011-08-31T13:40:00.003-07:00

I have reached that point:

*When my arms go numb all the time
*When I can't fit my feet in my crocs due to swelling
*When I wonder if not-cranky-Lindsey will ever come back
*When I can't remember not having a belly
*When even maternity clothes are getting a little snug
*When I have to take naps or chug down a diet coke to function.
*When I'm wondering, "Why isn't this baby coming?"
*When I'm wondering, "Am I even ready to have another kid?"
*When I'm wondering, "Will I love her as much as Kaleb?"
*When one of my first thoughts of the day is, "What can I do to put myself in labor today?"
*When EVERYONE is asking how much longer I have.
*When this baby stretches to the point I fear a scene from Aliens will be reenacted
*When... this whole pregnancy thing... is no longer fun!

As of 6 days ago (my last doc appointment), still no signs of labor, and I'm kind of disappointed. Everybody keeps wondering what's my big hurry, and primarily my biggest fear is having to get enduced (because my body just doesn't do what it's supposed to) or having a C-Section (cuz we wait till the baby is too big to push out.) Another worry is that Ammon's brother Rylan is coming home from his mission on the 14th, and I really want to have us all go to the airport to welcome him. Since Kaleb was a week early, I got my hopes up that this one would be just a little earlier, and that would give me some time to recoup. Now it's hard to imagine that this is even a possibility. Leave it me to worry about things I can't really change.

We had a little photo shoot with Kaleb and the belly last week, and this is my favorite. Our little boy loves babies so much, and we are SO excited for him to be a big brother!!

2nd Pregnancy- 34 Weeks

2011-08-08T14:42:00.004-07:00

Well I had a little family baby shower the other day. It was fun to celebrate this moment with those whom will be closest to this little flowery bundle of joy. I've had a few of those "I'm having a baby... I'm having a girl... WEIRD" moments over the last week. It's still hard for me to believe I have less than 6 weeks till I meet her! So far the most surreal was on Saturday when we finally made a few steps to make the baby's room live-in-able and we put that lavender and pink bumper around the crib. I stood back and just said to Ammon, "It's just so girly!" I don't know why, but that's harder for me to accept than just having a new baby. I decided to include a photo from my pregnancy with Kaleb (at 35 weeks) and me below at 34 weeks. I feel a lot smaller in the belly than I did then, but since I started out 20 pounds heavier with this pregnancy it's really hard to tell. What do you think?

I feel a lot more comfortable this time around too! I don't have half the numbness in my arms and it takes awhile for me to get to that "IGOTTASITDOWN" point when walking around. My feet are now to MALLOW status, all kinds of puffy, but I can still wear my crocs, something I couldn't do the last few weeks my first time around. This little girl never ceases to surprise me with how much she can push. I had a little scare last week when she almost stopped moving for two straight days. All is well, though. So now I want to hear predictions of when this baby is coming. Either post a comment here or leave a comment on Facebook. I always love to hear what people might say. Here's my guess: 9/3/11 round noon. 7 lbs, 15 oz.; 18 inches. Although 9/10/11 would be really cool and easy to remember!

2nd Pregnancy- 32 Weeks

2011-07-25T22:19:00.003-07:00

That's right, 8 weeks left!! I've noticed I've gotten bigger everywhere, but especially in the belly. I look and feel so much more pregnant these last few weeks. I'm sleeping better (except for Tuesday nights... no idea why it's always Tuesday nights) and eating 'better', and by better I mean a lot more! Almost twice as much as I was a few weeks ago. I've already gained 28 pounds which was basically my goal for the whole pregnancy. It wouldn't be so bad, but with Kaleb's pregnancy I gained about 15-20 pounds the last two months (45 TOTAL)... no thank you!!

I've started to swell more regularly: my wedding ring getting stuck around my knuckles, giving me a claustrophobic panicky feeling, so I've stopped wearing it. My feet are especially sensitive to the swelling since I'm not a sit-with-my-feet-up type of person. I remember being a lot more uncomfortable with my first pregnancy at this point... except for the baby itself. This little girl caused me a lot of pain over the past weekend with her random stretches and poking. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the sudden-ness of it. One time I almost peed my pants because she wacked me so hard in the bladder. Thankfully i was sitting at the time... it could have been disastrous and makes me nervous for the next 8 weeks.

As for her name, we weren't planning on deciding for sure until she was born, but Kaleb convinced us pretty strongly that we should keep the name we had been leaning toward. We've been planning for the name Sasha, but nothing was set in stone. We only mentioned it once in front of Kaleb as a baby name. The other morning as I got him up for breakfast, the first thing out of his mouth was "Sasha. Sasha" very clearly. I asked him what he said and he repeated, "Sasha Sasha." So I said "Kaleb, Sasha is the baby's name" as I pointed to my belly. He nodded and said, "Yep Sasha is the baby's name." Now some people might think of it as a weird coincidence, but we basically accepted it as confirmation that we will be naming this little girl Sasha. Kind of exciting!!

Kaleb-25.5 months

2011-07-19T14:15:00.013-07:00

SPATIAL DOMINANCE: Over the past six weeks, Kaleb has learned to put his sandals on all by himself and has proven quite the little helper. One morning when Ammon was really tired he asked Kaleb to clean up his Legos and then proceeded to fall asleep (he admits he isn't proud of that). After a little while, Kaleb woke up Ammon with "Daddy, all done." He had cleaned the entire room, putting legos in their bucket and toys in their bucket. Kaleb also shows his organizational skills at my parents house. When it's time to clean up, he's pretty careful of which toys go into which bins and he is the expert at making sure all the bins fit properly in the cupboard (if you don't put them in just right they don't fit.)

VERBAL FUN: His words seemed to be improving and he always surprises me with the things he has learned. Like shapes and stripes and songs. He now likes us to sing the ABC, Eentsy Weentsy Spider or Twinkle Tinkle Little Star before bed, and he'll often ask us to sing the Apple sing, but we still haven't figured that one out. His favorite phrases right now are "I don't want any" or "I did it!" The hardest thing is when a few of his words sound the same like "Bider" is the word for Better, Spider and Pepper. He also loves water and will announce whenever we pass a fountain or pool or pond in the car. One thing I am particularly happy about is that Kaleb is finally calling me Momma most of the time (instead of Daddy.) He learned this about the same time as most of his cousin's names (Mia is MeeMee, Ellie is Addy, Christian is Chicken, and Mark is well, Mark), so I my head is not swelling quite yet.

HOWDY, PARTNER: A few weeks ago I took Kaleb to the temple with his favorite hat and we did a little photo shoot.

FIREWORKS: I think Kaleb had fun on 4th of July. Since he is more of an observer than a reactor in new environments it can be hard to tell. We got some of our own little light shows and things and set them off with my sister and her family. Kaleb only got a little scared with the first big one that was set off. He liked throwing the poppers and thought the flaming "Poot" (Glow-worms) were kinda freaky.

Overall, this was usually the response he gave to each of the fireworks.

HAIR: Kaleb has great, thick hair, but it is really lazy. We tried to spike it for church "just like daddy's," but his hair just kept falling down. We were finally able to get it into a faux-hawk... kinda. Maybe we will try again later when it's a little shorter again.

BEAR NECESSITIES: Kaleb has always had tons of bears surrounding him at all times, but lately he has grown very attached to the blue bear he got from Landon and Katie the day he was born. He likes to take it everywhere and we have to make sure it's in bed with him. Thankfully he hasn't thrown very many fits when we have to keep it at home, but I feel that day is soon to come. The other day, Kaleb also realized that his toothbrush handle has a bear on it, so now every night after he brushes his teeth he gives the toothbrush a hug and kiss. It gets me every time!!

FUN PICTURES

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: About a month ago, Kaleb had an incident that might have a permanent impact on his future potty training. This story is pretty graphic, so I warn you now it is not for the faint of stomach: Kaleb has pretty regular bowel movements, so I tend to take it for granted the he will have a poopy diaper a day. Well, on this infamous day, Kaleb had yet to poop. It was getting near bedtime and he was letting off some good farts, so by bath-time I figured he would have filled his diaper. No luck, but it did make me a little wary of him taking a bath. Oh, well, I thought and I put him in the bath. About five minutes into it, he starts farting again, saying "I poot" and I started to explain that farts don't make anything but poop does... and then he decided to demonstrate. He stood up and started pooping in the bathtub. Because of my awkward pregnant-ness I wasn't able to grab him in time, and as the ... um... log landed in the water I said, "Look Kaleb, you pooped!" (more to instruct than anything). When Kaleb saw the log floating in the water he started screaming and crying and scrambling out of the tub as fast as his little legs could go!! I was able to put him on the toilet to hopefully get him to finish, but his fear of the toilet made that impossible so I ended up placing him on the bathroom rug. He hadn't quite finished pooping before his little tirade, so needless to say their were streaks on the tub, toilet, his feet and the rug. It took another twenty minutes for Kaleb to calm down. It's been over a month now and Kaleb still has problems taking baths. In fact, he prefers it if we give him a shower. He is also obsessed with poop and likes to look at the contents of his stinky diapers to confirm that he did, in fact poop. A few days after the incident I was able to get a cute little video of Kaleb talking all about how he "Poot (Pooped) in the water."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4yBIevQUWs

2nd Pregnancy- 29 1/2 weeks and counting

2011-07-06T14:28:00.003-07:00

Here I am at 24 weeks And at 28 weeks. I seriously don't see much of a difference.

Well, the last two months actually haven't been that bad. Right around week 24 is when my hips and feet started spreading and that was pretty miserable. I have had to deal with a lot of insomnia, caused by a nasty cold or a scrambled mind or just plain adrenaline last week (three nights where my body only wanted about 6 hrs each, it was annoying). Thankfully I don't seem to need as much sleep with this pregnancy as with my first, but I still really want it!! I tested normal with my glucose test, which wasn't terribly surprising. I didn't have much of an appetite until last week. Food just wasn't very appealing to me, which is good and bad. No major cravings or aversions, but spicy is now extra-spicy to my tongue.

I call this baby my Tiny Dancer (don't worry, that's not going to be her name) because she always seems to be moving. There was a week or so where she was trying to push my pelvic bones apart, but otherwise it's just distracting. In some ways it's kind of nice because she doesn't seem to be on my bladder all the time, either that or I am sweating all of my fluids out... Oh yes, the hot flashes have come on with a vengeance. I'm sure the 115 degree weather isn't helping, and now the humidity, oy I am so grateful for air conditioning and fans!!!!

I can still wear my wedding ring most of the time (my true test of puffiness), but I feel more and more swollen all over each week. Now my biggest fear is preeclampsia since I had REALLY high blood pressure when I went into labor with Kaleb. I have had plenty of BH contractions, uncomfortable but obviously not awful. Last night they went on for a good hour or so since I had spent a lot of time on my feet the last few days (my feet are extra-swollen today because of it, too.) It's hard to keep trying to get things done when your body just keeps telling you NO.

Still so much to do and get before she comes... like getting Kaleb into his big-boy bed... kinda need that crib for the baby... stuff like that. No panic has set in yet, so unfortunately I haven't gone crazy organizing and nesting like I really need to before I get much bigger! I'm still having a hard time believing I only have two more months to go (or four more paychecks as Ammon and I keep joking.)

BB

2011-06-18T23:20:00.002-07:00

For those who care I finally finished my second semester of college. I only took two classes: Microsoft Excel 2007 and Macroeconomics. I got B's in both classes, and I'm not at all disappointed. Firstly, because I was pregnant (and therefore sick for half of the semester); secondly, because I didn't have Microsoft Excel 2007 on my computer at home till the last week of the class and thus made applying time to each project a little difficult; and lastly, because I think the study macroeconomics is one of the biggest wastes of human effort I have ever experienced. What is the point of studying something that you will never be able to predict or change? Anyway, having had to deal with these three challenges during the last three months, I am very proud of my two B's. Hopefully I will be starting classes again in October, but that depends a lot on how FAFSA works out, where we are financially, and how the new baby settles in. Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

Kaleb is 2!!

2011-06-15T14:32:00.009-07:00

I can't believe my little baby boy is actually 2 years old. He has absolutely no baby traits (and probably hasn't for awhile), but I don't remember it all happening. Pregnancy does that I guess!

Well, at his 24-month doctor visit, Kaleb weighed 34 lbs, 8 oz and measured 37.75 inches, both of which are supposedly in the 97th percentile... at least he has finally gotten as tall as he weighs. One interesting thing we discussed with the doctor is that if you double the height of a 2-year old you will get their approximate height as an adult. That would put Kaleb almost exactly equal to Ammon, just shy of 6 ft, 3 inches. It will be fun to see if it comes true!

WORD-WISE: This month, Kaleb's vocal skills have blossomed! He can pronounce the "K" and "G" sound which was impossible for him before, and it opened up a whole set of words he could never say before, like dog, bug, cake and it's become so much easier to understand him. He also puts a few words together on a regular basis like "That's a rock." Random strangers are beginning to understand him, and that makes me feel a little less worried about his future vocal skills.

SCARY WORLD OUT THERE: Kaleb had a slip in the bath-tub (nothing even worth remembering, except that he unfortunately did), and got scared of takings baths for several weeks. Swimming has really helped, but he still hesitates to sit down in two inches of water... when it's in the tub. He has loved taking swimming lessons but can get a little frustrated when he doesn't have the freedom he has with just normal swimming. Kaleb also went through a week or so of severe separation anxiety. We moved his crib into the playroom so that his old room could become the baby's room, and that seemed to set off a series of days that he just didn't want us to leave him. He almost ripped off the arm of one of the poor nursery leaders while trying to escape that Sunday, and Daddy's absence was constantly a source of tears. Everything has settled once again, but I hold a little trepidation for when we put him in big-boy bed next month.

Random other things: Kaleb has always loved fruit, but lately will not want to eat the skins of things like apples and grapes. He chews them up and then takes the skins out of his mouth with a "Eeeew." When Kaleb tuned 2, his favorite movie was The Lion King and his favorite book was You Are Special by Max Lucardo. He also has wanted us to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star every time he goes to bed for the last few weeks. Somehow Ammon realized that's what he wanted. We don't even know where he first heard it, but hey, it's comforting so no biggy for us when he says, "Sing Sing, Star!"

Of course we had Kaleb's 2nd birthday party, which was just a family barbeque. We decided to do an Elmo Cake since it's one of the few things he would recognize. Thanks to my mother-in-law and sis for their assistance.
This was Elmo after the cake was cut. I have a sick sense of humor and there just seemed to be something seriously disturbed about the image of a massacred muppet!

Kaleb was in a great mood all night until we sat him down to be sung to. Slowly he got more and more unhappy until the blowing out the candle moment became way too much pressure! He almost cried, it was so cute but so sad.

Daddy helped him blow out his candle... twice and that was the closest we got to a smile until he actually ate a piece of cake.

Afterwards, presents were opened and Kaleb enjoyed every minute... We had taken several trips to Toys R Us to determine what Kaleb would want most.

The "Elmo Laptop" was one of his favorite toys at the store, so we figured why not? It's a little obnoxious, but at least it's educational.

He has really enjoyed ALL of the toys he got that night, so it's been a little easier for those times when we just don't wanna leave the house. Kaleb has a fresh batch of toys to look into.

Kaleb at 23 Months

2011-05-19T14:39:00.011-07:00

As Kaleb is approaching the BIG TWO, he has been improving and growing in so many ways. He understands more complex ideas, and it seems to be getting easier and easier to communicate with him. Of course, with that understanding comes my frustration when he chooses to disobey us. I've become that counting mom, except I never get to three. Kaleb will either choose the better path or get whatever discipline comes to him by the time I get to three.

BETTER MEMORY: I've noticed Kaleb remembering things a lot more, for better or worse. He often remembers where he left toys or books that I can't seem to find. He also remembers how to get to his favorite spots. For instance, whenever we pass the mall, he starts yelling , "No, NO, NO!" because it's the best to play.

BETTER VOCABULARY: With the better memory comes a better vocabulary. Kaleb has well over 100 words, whether anybody but Ammon and me can understand is another subject. The other day he started playing peekaboo with "Here he is" after each one. He likes to 'count' now as well which is mostly just pointing at objects and saying ,"We, we, we" for each. We often just get random mumbles of run-on sentences, but Ammon was able to get Kaleb to say a few things very clearly for the camera the other day. I LOVE THIS VIDEO!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_PywuphvLw

GOOD BIG BROTHER-ISH: I can't wait for Kaleb to be a big brother!! He already shows so many signs of being patient and wanting that company that comes with a bigger family. Kind of a random picture we got with his older cousin-look-alike Christian. They could be brothers.
Kaleb shows the most potential with his cousin Evelyn who is at our house all the time. He still balks a little at sharing his favorite toys, but this picture defines how he takes everything in stride, even letting her crawl over him to get to his sippy cup. The best part is that he usually seeks her company and likes to play with her. Plus he is magnanamous enough to offer her his less favorable toys.

WHERE DID HE GO? He has this new habit of hiding his eyes and/or his mouth when he gets excited. Daddy was chasing him down the hall and he tried to hide by covering his eyes.

And this is a fun photo of his excitement at getting to wear Elmo pajamas. The absolute joy!!

ROLLING, ROLLING, ROLLING: Kaleb loves to jump all the time. When he's walking some place there must be a few jumps included, complete with the narration "Jup, jup, jup." Then there is the running. He always runs with his head a little forward and Ammon said it best when he commented, "He's like a boulder rolling down a hill." Here is a video of some running with a new-found friend at the mall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlC7WUW8BSU

NEW BEDTIME SCHEDULE: Kaleb has essentially demanded some changes in his bedtime routine. Firstly, I've been giving him more baths. With how often he was getting sick, I figure it couldn't hurt to clean him more often. Here's a great shot of him trying to get the bath to go a little longer by being a human plug.

He also has been demanding that he reads most of his stories instead of having us read them to him. We still try to stay involved, but sometimes it's hard to tell a ten-second story when he skips a lot of pages. There has also been the sudden expectation of a song every night. I used to sing to him when he was a baby, but got out of the habit. Now he begs for it, and if it's anything that doesn't sound like a church hymn or primary song he stops me. My little boy likes to have peaceful dreams I guess!

JUST KEEP SWIMMING: The high-ninety degree weather recently prompted us to beg to use a friend's pool. Once we all got used to the cold water it was a ton of fun. Kaleb seems to have a healthy fear of the water, so that makes me more comfortable with the idea of giving him swimming lessons in a few weeks.

SPECIAL KISSES: Kaleb has always been a lover, not a fighter. He loves to give hugs and kisses. Recently he started giving me some really wacky kisses. This is a photo of a normal little Kaleb kiss.

The new kisses include his grabbing the back of my head and shoving our lips together with his eyes really wide. He only gives those 'special' kisses to me, and a few people have commented that he was inspired by mommy and daddy's kissing. However, I think it's more of a payback for all of the grab-his-face-and-smooch moments I've gotten over the years.

As a side note, Kaleb's favorite movie is now "How to Train Your Dragon" and his favorite book is "The Monster at the End of the Book."

The problem with electronics...

2011-05-13T16:30:00.002-07:00

THEY BREAK!! Yeah, that's right. It all started with our printer a few weeks ago, it ran out of color ink... no biggy. I went to Cartridge World and bought a replacement. Test page printed fine, but no good after that. The printer would just let paper go through it without a single dot of ink on it. After a few frustrating attempts over a few days, the printer finally tells me that it's out of black ink. So back to cartridge world, new black cartridge... still wouldn't print for me. The computer kept giving me prompts of "Cartridge not in right." So I took both of them out several times, but to no avail. I took both cartridges back to cartridge world, and it turns out the color cartridge was faulty... of course. So get a new color cartridge, install both cartridges. It prints twice and then quits, but I never got to attempt another printing because the computer went on the fritz...

So every time I tried to access the internet, the computer would go into this restarting loop. It would just keep restarting saying that if it stayed on, it could damage the computer. For hours it would do this until finally I just turned it off. Well, thankfully my brother had given us another computer he had built months ago. We basically never used it because we hadn't connected it to the internet and microsoft office hadn't been installed, essentially useless to us. So we turned to this previously useless computer. My brother was gracious enough to transfer the wireless router... which needed installation software we didn't have...

SOOOoooo my brother went online at his house using the router serial number and was able to get the info he needed and install it onto my computer. He had gotten the internet all working!!! YIPPEEE!!! After a week without it, I was able to access the internet. Now to just get microsoft office and the printer hooked up...

Oh no, the printer doesn't work because the cartridge isn't in right... again. Oh no, i can't install Office because this computer is missing some critical something which we thought it already had. Oh no, Ammon tried to use the computer a little later, and right when it started to set up the Windows' screen, the monitor died! That's right, the monitor is broken now. Thankfully we have the original monitor still attached to our now-dead older computer that was totally functional a week ago.

Ammon and I are placing bets on what electronic item in our house will die next. The dryer has been making funny noises, so that wouldn't be a shocker... I'm betting it's the TV though, because we have a spare one of those ;-)

2nd Pregnancy- 20 weeks

2011-05-01T15:52:00.005-07:00

Here is my updated photo to show my belly progress. I don't feel a whole lot bigger except at the very bottom of my abdomen. My doctor said this baby is really low, and I can tell cuz my bladder is already getting a beating. I had my ultrasound last week and everything was good news. The baby looks good. In fact, because of the measurements, they predict me to be a few days 'more along' than my doctor originally thought. Since it's not a significant difference I will wait until my doctor actually tells me she is going to change my due date before I get my hopes up.

And of course the best news of all was to find out the gender, and we were right. It's a GIRL!! We are excited for a new adventure... not that any new kid isn't an adventure but it's especially different with a new gender. I've already got my mind spinning with nursery decorating ideas. At this point we are thinking purples and greens with flowers and butterflies... basically the overall theme of "GARDEN."

2nd Pregnancy 19 Weeks

2011-04-23T21:12:00.002-07:00

I will have an updated photo next week along with the ultrasound photos I will get on Monday. I'm so excited to see this little one close up! From the beginning we have thought of this baby as a girl. This pregnancy has been so different from Kaleb's, and it's kind of a pattern of my family to have a boy then a girl. We do have a name picked for the girl, but otherwise having a boy would be way more convenient. In other words, we will be excited no matter what we're having.

Speaking of differences, here are a few: firstly, my eyes are mutinying on me. I get headaches from wearing my contacts for more than a few hours. Plus, my skin is breaking out like I'm a teenage boy. Neither of these were a problem with Kaleb. The only strong craving I've had over the last month is to eat tuna plain out of the can. I also haven't had any serious aversions to food lately which has been very nice. I have sneezed more in the past week than I think I did all last year. Plus the sneezes are uber strong; I have to brace myself to make sure I don't pee!

Of course, in general I've been feeling more changes. I have a hard time tying my shoes cuz my belly is starting to get larger and harder. I feel like this baby is smaller, but that could be proportionate... because I still have all the weight I gained with Kaleb. I've been feeling little movements occasionally since week 15, but this past week the baby has really picked it up! I'm already starting to get a little waddle in my walk, which I'm not so proud of! I am probably the most grateful that my center of gravity is still normal, but I have had some random losses of balance (like tipping over when I'm standing around doing nothing.) I think the best part about this pregnancy compared to my first is that I am WAY less emotional. Yes, I get cranky, especially when I'm really hungry or haven't gotten enough sleep, but overall doing way better this time around.

The Zoo

2011-04-19T15:59:00.008-07:00

For two months now I've been trying to get my little family to the zoo. Between bad weather, Kaleb being sick, my migraines and Ammon's new job, it was a bit of a struggle to work anything out. Finally, on the hottest day of the year (96 degree high), we were able to go. My main motivation was of course, to give Kaleb a fun new experience. Since his pathetic mom is tired all the time or busy with school, he doesn't get to do 'new things' often. And since he freaks out whenever animals are on TV, I figured what better place than the zoo.

It took Kaleb about five minutes to realize there was something cool about this place. We pulled the stroller up to the savanna, and he immediately struggled to stand up in it to get the best view... even though there really wasn't much to see.
Because of the heat, a lot of the animals were asleep or, well, not that interesting. But we had a few fun experiences. As always the petting zoo was a little adventure in itself. Kaleb was slow to approach any of the goats, which all seemed to have taken a dose of Valium. Eventually, when we prodded, Kaleb would go up and tap one as if to say "tag" and then he would quickly walk away. It was more fun for us just to watch him!

A relatively new feature to the park are the little water-works. Not only are they great for letting the kids play, but it was so nice to cool down a little. Kaleb got pretty excited at all the spontaneous water jets... Just another reminder that we need a lawn with a sprinkler. We had invited my sis and her fam to come with us to the zoo. They ended up spending half of their time just playing in the water. To each their own ;-)

The zoo had recently opened a new orangutan exhibit that allows you to get up close and personal with the big guys. Kaleb and Ammon had a lot of fun making faces at the male until he bared his teeth (see below), and scared Kaleb for good. We think he was just yawning, but it's hard to explain that to a toddler.

Here's a great shot Ammon got of the elephant.

Our favorite part of the zoo is the monkey village. You basically have a little trail to walk around the squirrel monkey habitat. A couple of them were only a few feet from us. Kaleb liked the monkey's so much! We've had a little stuffed squirrel monkey among Kaleb's toys (something Ammn bought years ago), but Kaleb never really paid it any attention until now. It seems to be one of his favorite toys since our trip!

Our little family in front of the rhino pen. Aren't we cute!?

And of course no trip would be complete without the ever-so-short-nap on the way home. Kaleb slept for about twenty minutes. Then was wired for the rest of the day. I will take one of whatever he is having.

Our Fourth Ammoniversary

2011-04-18T22:17:00.003-07:00

In February we had our fourth anniversary, but I was so nauseous and tired all the time, Ammon and I agreed we wouldn't celebrate it until I was able to really enjoy it. Last weekend we were finally able to do so!! With my mom watching Da Kayub for 8 hours, we went to an early showing of the movie Limitless. Really interesting. Just as good as the previews make you think it will be.

This was the weekend that was 50 degrees and rainy, so it was PERFECT weather for Ammon and I to go to our favorite restaurant, The Melting Pot. Thankfully they take pictures when you arrive and post them on Facebook. Nice little side courtesy. (By the way, note the cute new haircut I had gotten the night before.) Ammon surprised me with a much-too-expensive bottle of sparkling cider, but it was romantic and just fun to make ourselves feel special with a really expensive dinner. As a side note, the General Manager of the Ahwatukee location is a ton of fun, too!

We arrived at my parents house to pick up Kaleb, and discovered a family friend visiting. Kaleb was enjoying her kids' company so they ended up staying until 9pm. Just as they left and we were cleaning up toys, Kaleb proceeded to ... show us all that he had for dinner that night. For whatever reason, be it some food allergy or whatever, Kaleb spent the next three hours throwing up in ten to fifteen minute intervals. We didn't leave my parents' house until 10:30 because we couldn't gather the nerve to move him. He finally fell asleep at midnight once I stopped giving him any water. Needless to say, not the best way to end an evening (especially since Kaleb had just gotten over the flu the week before), but Kaleb is okay and we still had a great time before that!

2nd Pregnancy and Other Updates

2011-04-03T21:53:00.005-07:00

16 WEEKS- I'm now totally fine with being pregnant... because I've actually had a whole week where I felt 'pretty good.' I have more energy now than I remember having with Kaleb at this point, so that's a plus. However, I definitely feel much bigger (cuz I am) than I did with Kaleb. I've already started to really show, which is kinda cool, but also a little annoying since I'm not even half way done. I've already gained ten pounds! Six were just in the last month. GRRR. Since the weather has hit 90 degrees, per Ammon's and my agreement my long locks will be facing the chopping block in the next few weeks, and I should be able to find out the gender within the next month! SO EXCITING!! EMPIRE- Ammon is LOVING his job. He really likes everyone he works with because (go figure) they all have that sense of decency and respect that most people find in a normal work environment. He's usually stuck working with the less savory folks, so it's been refreshing. As planned when he got hired, he will probably start the night shift in a week. It might be a hard transition at first, but I think once we all get into the groove of it we will be fine. It's been fun to really make plans for the future again! THE BIG BUZZ- We decided to give Kaleb a buzz-cut for the warmer season, and Ammon figured he could do a decent (and free) job of it. So the other night, we strapped Kaleb to his booster seat, stripped him down and started a-buzzin! Here's the before picture!

At first he handled it really well, but then the hairs started itching, and daddy wasn't finishing fast enough, it became one of the most traumatic experiences Kaleb has ever had. We bribed him with a couple of otter pops, and thankfully Gramma Teller showed up as a great distraction.

After a good bath, everything was fine. The funny thing is that he looks SOOOO different to me, I almost don't recognize him. I love rubbing my fingers all over the fuzz, but it's still kind of foreign. The wierdest part is when we spend time with his four-year old cousin who inspired us to buzz Kaleb's hair. From the back, it's hard to tell them apart unless they're standing next to eachother. The great timing is that Kaleb came down with a nasty flu the next day, so the short hair made it much easier to cool his 103 degree head.

Kaleb at almost 22 Months

2011-03-23T14:44:00.015-07:00

Kaleb is just a few months shy of being two years. This past month he has learned to get into the carseat all by himself and LOVES making new friends. He seems to have no problem going up to strangers and 'talking' to them... or dancing for them, whichever the situation calls for. He doesn't like it when mom or dad (both of us he calls Daddy of course) leave unless we give him proper goodbyes with a hug and kiss and a wave.

DIET: I've been slacking with his food lately (totally playing the pregnancy card on that one), so he has found a fresh dislike for all things green except sugar snap peas. We have gotten into negotiation mode where we give him veggies first then reward him with the rest of his food in increments. Milk is often a dessert or it becomes the only thing he has at meals.

VOICES: Much like his mom, Kaleb loves to hear all the interesting things his voice can do. He likes to whisper and 'shoosh' me whenever he feels it's appropriate. He will join in screaming if others around him will do it. Plus, his new thing is growling. I'm not sure if it's from watching the Lion King a lot recently, but there you have it.

OH, GO FLY A KITE: With that windy Monday we had a few weeks ago, Ammon and I couldn't resist buying a kite and making it a day of outdoor fun. Ironically, the kite plus wind factor made it impossible for Kaleb to fly it by himself, but we all had fun at the park as usual.

Kaleb was pretty pooped on the way home, so Ammon had the chance to carry him... well that and the kite got stuck in a tree, so Ammon had to go home and get a ladder to fetch it. My cute boys' butts!

WHAT TO DO? The other day my mom bought a bunch of her grandkids pinwheels to play with while at the park. Kaleb didn't really get the chance to use it, so when we got home he seemed kinda lost, but he found a few fun things to do with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLbC-MKnLhI

WITH THE CHANGING TIMES: Kaleb has a lot of new favorites. His favorite movie is Up and his favorite book is Duckie Duck. While channel surfing the other day, we tripped upon his favorite Disney heroine: Tinkerbell. Her first movie was on and he sat and watched the entire thing, even with giggles (I had never heard him laugh at the TV before.)

OPEN THE FLOODGATES: I think I've mentioned before that we have a hard time keeping Kaleb dry the whole night. His size six diapers just can't hold ten hours worth of Kaleb apparently. Well, it was pretty bad, but nothing compared to how it got when he came down with croup (swollen vocal chords) and we were asked to boost his fluids. A couple of mornings of this picture were probably the worst part of his illness.

PROJECT STUCK-IN-CRIB: Kaleb has become a bit of a trouble-maker whilst in his crib. The other day he ended up climbing (or falling) out of it for the first time. Plus, he has a tendency to try some new fashion statements.

KALEB'S KISSES: This is just a fun thing Ammon has trained Kaleb to do, he can get Kaleb to give him kisses in specific spots. SO FLIPPING CUTE!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_3jd3pAK1A

LITTLE HELPER:

CINCO DE SPRING: Spring Break inspired a cousin playdate. We ended up with five of them together at my parents' house. It was a good time without any real arguments. Kaleb loves it because his favorite thing to do is follow others around and see what they do.

SAY GRRRR: My newest frustration with Kaleb is his love/hate relationship with the camera. He always wants to see the pictures on the back, so he won't stay still for me to take any. At first it started with a cheesy grin...

Then came the tears with constant whining of "Mine"

Then the groping...

Finally, with some practice, and some more negotiating, we have gotten a great smile!

What I Learned From Dr. House

2011-03-03T20:09:00.002-07:00

So earlier today Ammon and I got stuck on the couch watching a few reruns of "House." One of the episodes struck me a little to the core. I couldn't possibly repeat any of the medical jargon but basically a man had lost his ability to filter his thoughts. He told the absolute, unedited truth. We didn't even see the end of it, but there was a point in the episode when the doctors thought they had figured it out but wouldn't do anything because the man had such a slim chance of living through the surgery to fix the problem. Essentially the man went to House and practically begged him to do the surgery because of how negatively it had effected his wife and daughter. There was a chance they would never want to be around him again if he wasn't fixed. He would rather die than not be able to control what he said.

I thought about this a little. Being a pregnant woman, I tend to have a much looser filter than normal. However, I still can feel and regret the impact of what I have said. As a general rule, truth is definitely the way to go. However, I think there is a lot to be said for kindness and respect. In Sunday School the other day, there was a discussion based around "How can you tell a true disciple of Christ?" Ultimately I got the impression that most people in the group agreed that is was based on the way that person treated others. Obviously only Heavenly Father can know each of our hearts, but I would hope and pray that overall I give off the impression of being a disciple of Christ.

Thank Goodness for Caterpillars

2011-03-01T20:11:00.002-07:00

Ammon got a job with Empire Caterpillar in west Mesa! We are so excited. It's kind of a long story, but 'I will sum up.' About 6 weeks ago Ammon put in applications at Empire for truck driving and/or a field welder position, both of which required his CDL license. He got called in for an interview and weld test for the latter. Turns out that job would pay pretty well, but it would mean a lot of traveling for Ammon, often weeks at a time. Well, a few weeks later, Ammon was called in for a 'second interview.' As he sat down with his interviewer (Johnny) Ammon was told, "Well you didn't get the job." Basically a guy with tons more experience barely beat Ammon in getting this field welder job. However, Empire was opening positions in the shop for some machinist welders, and Ammon had done such an impressive job on his test and interview, Johnny wanted to personally introduce him to the foreman in the shop. This gave Ammon a foot in the door and a shining recommendation. Three weeks later, after a lot of prayers from family and friends and a little bit of the run-around from Empire, Ammon got a call from an admin at Empire asking him to fill out some information online. We figured this was just protocal since he didn't actually apply for this second job. However, when she called a few hours later it was to ask him to come in to sign some pre-hire paperwork. I had to actually hear her say over the phone that Ammon got the job cause I didn't believe it otherwise.

This is a miracle for us at our 11th hour of need, and we are so grateful that Ammon was inspired to get his CDL (without which he may never have gotten this opportunity.) And we're grateful that HF granted Ammon a job where he will be home every day and not on the road. And we're grateful that Ammon's dad saw the ad for the Empire jobs. And we're grateful we were comforted all these months in knowing that something will come 'when the time was right.' We have seen the miracle that prayers and faith can work, and we're so grateful for everyone's support. Thank you!!!!!!

2nd Pregnancy- 11 Weeks, 2 Days

2011-03-01T19:49:00.002-07:00

Well, as kind of a pregnancy journal I want to document some things I've already experienced on the blog. Overall I have been sick in some way almost all the time except first thing in the morning. Usually from the time I wake up till about 11 am, I feel so 'normal.' The term morning sickness obviously doesn't apply to me. I'm beginning to assume it's a tiredness issue because I usually feel the worst the last few hours of the day. And let me tell you, I am ALWAYS tired. Even if I haven't done anything my body gets a bit... shakey... by the end of the day... like I've really over-exerted my muscles, that type of shakey. I don't deny that feeling scares me a great deal since I haven't gained enough weight to really exhaust myself. Although I have gained some poundage already and that scares me too. I have to eat every 2-3 hours, serving-size meals (which is about 2/3rds of what I would normally eat three times a day.) Most of the time I have no control over what my bod is willing to accept. Usually my fall-backs are cereal, cheese and eggs (shocking for most pregnant women.), but there are few consistencies. I've craved peanut butter smoothies, tacos, lima bean soup, Greek kabobs, pancakes, cottage cheese (Wal-mart cottage cheese), my mom's fried rice, fajitas, root beer, etc. If you kind find some sort of pattern let me know! The worst is all the heartburn and indigestion. I'm starting to wonder if I have an ulcer since I often have an miserable pain within my stomach like I'm being eaten from the inside. Mexican strawberry cremesicles have been the most reliable remedy for it. (GO FIGURE!) Ammon and I already joke that this baby is a girl because it's acting like a spoiled brat... needing everything 'just so.' HAHA Overall things to be getting a little better every day. A migraine and sinus infection didn't help these last few weeks, but I feel like I'm on an upswing as I enter the second trimester.

Us Thus Far

2011-02-10T21:34:00.009-07:00

Yes, as I am sure you have guessed, we are pregnant, due September 18th. That puts me at just shy of nine weeks, and oh what a time it has been so far.

Here is the video of me telling Ammon. Keep in mind, Ammon didn't know that camera was running. I had put a hamburger bun with the test strip in the oven. Anyway, hope you can join us in our happiness:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTCWiXE5YNU

The first time I felt nauseous was just after I hit 5 weeks. That was a sign of things to come because I've had it rough ever since. It's been a bit better for about a week, primarily because I've learned how to deal with it: eat small meals all day long and get tons of sleep and do very little during the day. If I break from any of these three rules I am miserable! I'm hoping because the sickness started so early that it will end early too, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. I can already tell I've gotten thicker in the waist (something I did not need for another two months) and my dreams are really wacky, but otherwise not much else to tell. My doctor did an ultrasound for my first visit, and I was able to see the heart beating already, so that was my favorite part so far!! Here is my beginning pic at 8 weeks. So far to go ;-)

In other news, Ammon tried his first fresh coconut the other day. Inspired by Discovery Channel's Survivorman, he thought it would be a lot of fun. Grossly overestimating the flavor, he never before knew that the coconut we buy in the bags at the store had been sweetened. How cute is he? Needless to say, he wasn't a fan.

Goodbye, chickens. We rid ourselves of all but two of the chickens. They were making a mess of our yard and the twelve of them hadn't laid a single egg in over six weeks. We kept the two for pest control reasons.

As a Christmas present to my ever-giving parents, my siblings and their spouses pooled a big-ole chunk o money to help them buy a new stove. They had their old one since they had their house built 23 years ago. They had so much fun picking it out, I can't wait till we can do something else for them. The irony of it all is that the toaster oven you see to the left exploded inexplicably the next day. Even appliances get jealous.

Just a reminder of how silly our Kaleb is. He likes to wear Mr. PotatoHead's glasses.

And he likes to make sock puppets. This is never something we showed him, but he finds it a lot of fun. Chip off the old block I guess.

As promised, here is a video of Kaleb telling a story. It's classic!!

AAA

2011-01-30T21:04:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to announce that I'm finished with my first semester in college and

YADADADAH!!! (Elmo's World Moment)

I got straight A's in all three classes: Accounting Principles, Payroll and Computer Information. Not too shabby for a 29-year old homemaker if I do say so myself!!

I'm so excited to have the next month to spend cleaning and organizing! I know that sounds really lame, but most of you know why I can expect little more than that for the next few weeks. And for those of you that don't know, I will be posting about it next week.

Lightbulb

2011-01-16T21:47:00.002-07:00

2010 was not a proud one for me spiritually. I went through some real moments of questioning my faith. I didn't ever wonder if there was a God or anything so basic. It was more a matter of self. Did I really believe that our Father in Heaven cared for us? If he did, and we're doing what we're supposed to, he would bless us, right? Am I worthy of blessings? There were some dark months I went through a bit of a depression cause I hated my life and I hated myself for hating my life. Thankfully things have gotten slowly better (not my life, just my outlook.) Now I find myself seeking the light I have missed so much. Yesterday Ammon and I got to attend the temple, and even though it was a bit of a runaround at first, we really enjoyed it. I can't wait to go back, and we have plans to within the next week or so.

Well, today in Relief Society we were discussing Sacrifice... having a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I thought about how horrible I've been, and how little I've appreciated. I realized that we have EVERYTHING except a steady income. We are so blessed, and I have been SO SELFISH!! I couldn't believe what a jerk I've been, and I found myself in tears. Then a scripture was brought up. Luke 18:18-23. A young ruler asked Christ what he could do to be worthy of eternal life. Jesus listed off the commandments, and the man said he had done all those things. Then Christ asked him, "sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." The teacher asked if we would be able to give up our material things to be with Him. When I thought about it, I realized that Heavenly Father had already gotten us halfway there by forcing us to live without a lot of the luxuries we are so used to. Now all we need to do is follow Him. He gave me this wonderful gift to give me a chance to be closer to Him, and all I've done is whine and complain. My very ugly true colors have come out and I've been wearing a Laman and Lemuel badge for way too long!! No more! I'm so grateful for that lesson, that lightbulb that I was granted today in class. I just pray that I can continue on this better path.

Kaleb at 19.5 Months

2011-01-16T20:56:00.005-07:00

As always I like to document Kaleb's continuous progress. He already seems so much older than a few months ago. We have seen him trying to declare his independence over and over again as he will for the next upteenth years. Ammon has become a great disciplinarian. Very consistent... I on the other hand tend to get the giggles when he's in time out. I'm the worst when we tell him to stop doing something and he just keeps doing it, looking at us like, "Um, I don't want to stop, so please just ignore me if you can. Thanks!" I can't help but smile at how completely unappreciative he is of our power. Anyway, he is usually a well-behaved kid, so I can't complain.

Light Up His Life: The other day, Kaleb discovered my touch lamp. You tap any metal part and it has three lighting settings. It's like 20 years old. Anyway, Kaleb thought it was the most amazing thing, so I had to snap a photo.
Good One, Mom!!: About a week ago I bought some bubble bath for Kaleb. A stroke of genius, so I thought. We can't afford a bunch of new bath toys, so having foam covering his bath water seemed a logical solution....

Obviously NOT!!

I couldn't tell you what he didn't like about it. He kept trying to escape from the tub until we moved the bubbles out of the way. Even then, he would only crouch, whereas normally he sits flat on his butt during his whole bath. We've tried a few more times. Tonight I put the bubble bath in at the last minute while he was already in, and he didn't seem to mind that. Baby steps I guess.

HANS Kaleb Anderson: My favorite new thing Kaleb does is his story-telling. We've been working on his words (see entry below), and I guess that has given him some verbal confidence. Now whenever interesting happens (usually something falling), he will tell us all about it. The other day, while playing with his cousin, she started crying and so he came over to us and told us all about how she had fallen down. He even rolled onto the floor to show us. Keep in mind, we usually can't understand a word of it, which makes it that much more fun for us. I'm gonna try to get a video one of these days.

Coordination: Just a side note that Kaleb actually ate a whole bowl of oatmeal today with a spoon... and I didn't regret it. He barely spilled any of it! It's a little thing, but I'm so HAPPY about it!!

Kaleb Steps it Up: The other day we rented Step It Up 3 (not worth the Red Box dollar unless you're really into dancing), and Kaleb LOVED the dance scenes. He even started rolling on the floor to mimic a guy's breakdancing. It was awesome. Here he is during a waltzing scene. We wanted to get something a little more interesting, but he REALLY wanted to play with the camera whenever I would get it out. Anyway, he makes us laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoWMEMiN-mM

Word Wise: After our pediatrician pointed out Kaleb's slight delay in learning words, Ammon and I put ourselves to work. One night he really wanted to look at a book, so we wouldn't let him until he tried to say the word "Book." It took about 90 minutes and a whole lot of tears, but we finally had a break through and since then Kaleb has accepted that he doesn't get anything without first trying to pronounce it. Over a month has gone by, and I've written down more than 20 words in his vocabulary, which is considered pretty good. Granted most of his pronuncuations leave much to be desired, but the point is for him to have words for things. His best words are probably Bye, Nana (banana), and Night Night. His most popular is MeeWee (Movie), Tosh (trash) and Bu Bu (Buckles). The hardest to figure out is when he says Ow for Open. I've worked hard on getting a second syllable, but for some reason he thinks open sounds like Ow. The last few days he has even said "what's that?" in his own way.

Mommy Who?: In relation to that, every night Kaleb gets a few bedtime stories. Lately he has been obsessed with a book my sister-in-law made about us getting married (She does it as a business, so Liz leave your info in the comments if you want.) Anyway, it has pictures of our wedding day and he just loves to have us read it to him. SO SWEET!! Well, tonight after his bath he was looking through it and I was asking him to point out each of us, "Where's Daddy?" "Who's that?" To every response I got, "Daddy." Kinda cute, but I finally had to bribe him with a 3 Musketeers to even mention my name. Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj6l_VG8MOo

By the way

2011-01-11T14:04:00.001-07:00

A photo of Kaleb playing with all the tickets we won at Chuck E. Cheese. Forgot to include it earlier.

Holidays 2010

2011-01-10T15:07:00.017-07:00

We had such a fun Christmas. Not even Ammon's getting laid off a few weeks before would dampen out holiday spirit. We had already bought most of our presents before that happened anyway. Below are our 2010 ornaments (a yearly tradition). Elmo is for Kaleb, the guitar is Ammon's (he's been really wanting to learn to play the guitar since we started jazzing on Rock Band a few months ago) and mine is the little wooden Nativity. Kaleb loved taking ornaments off of the tree, but if he ever saw his Elmo up there, he would whine, quickly rip him off and give him a big hug. Below is Kaleb squeezing the stuffing out of his little Elmo ornament.

The week before Christmas we delivered some holiday goodies to some family and friends then drove out to the Christmas lights. You couldn't have asked for better weather, but HOLY SHMANOLIES!! I have NEVER NEVER been to such a crowded event since Disneyland. We are definitely going to go earlier in the season next time.

Christmas was a little rushed this year. Ammon's brother Rylan was calling from the Peru Mission at 9 am, so we had to make sure we were at his parents by that time. However, Kaleb usually sleeps till 8:30 or 9, and we all had a bunch of presents to open. SOOO, Kaleb had three gift-opening sessions this year. The first was Christmas Eve, he got a VTech Learning Giraffe Bike, Elmo Chair (just his size), Nerf gun, Mr. Potato Head, etc. Then we went to his parents house for the yearly Christmas Eve Navajo Fry Bread Fry. We make a bunch of Fry Bread and deliver it to family and friends with a little carol. It was kinda hectic this year with Landon's new baby and making sure we got Kaleb in bed in time to wake up early enough for Rylan's call. Still fun though. That night, Ammon and I opened our presents (again, to lessen the hecticness of Christmas morning). Ammon got me a new set of kitchen knives, non-stick skillets, socks (yes, I asked for them), Shape-Up sneakers, warm brown hoodie, an MP3 player, and Hungry Hungry Hippoes. I got Ammon some videos, a comforter, office chair (the secret present I got up early for on Black Friday), and the 11th Tennis Shoes Book. The really big surprise was that my sister and her husband gave him their XBOX 360 (since they got themselves a new one... long story), and I got him 3 new games to play on it. We had all been hiding it for so long it was a relief to finally get it off my chest, and Ammon was SOOOOO surprised. My sister had dropped it off earlier that day saying that it was a gift for me. Poor Ammon thought he was in on this big gift for me. GO FIGURE!!

Anyway, Christmas morning, we made it Ammon's parents in plenty of time. Kaleb woke up pretty early, so we even made it for orange waffles and buttermilk syrup!! YUM!!! Rylan called an hour late, so we ended up opening presents early. We had brought more gifts for Kaleb to open: Whack a Ball, some books and trucks and an RC Truck. Plus, his Aunt Katie's parents gave him an adorable Koala Backpack from Australia. He loved it... obviously!

Kaleb's second favorite thing about opening presents at the Teller's house was throwing away each piece of wrapping paper as he would open his gifts.

Ammon's mom had made Kaleb an I-Spy quilt. Basically a patchwork quilt that is fun to play I-Spy with.

Then for lunch and dinner we went to my parents, and Kaleb opened more presents. Another truck and mini-tent and tunnel. The Grandparents Reed gave him some scripture movies and a set of Jesus board books

Another funny thing that happened at my parents house involved another surprise for Ammon. Since he had wanted to learn to play the guitar, I had asked my sister to let him borrow hers along with a beginner's book. Well, she had forgotten to bring it to my parents house Christmas evening, so I told Ammon, "Well, the gift I thought would be here won't be here today." Long story short, Ammon kept asking me all these questions about this mystery gift to try to get me to blurt out what it was... and it worked. I ended up saying something like, "Well I don't know when they're gonna bring the GUITAR!!" and I kinda yelled guitar since I realized I was saying it (Bryan Reagan reference "When is the BABY DUE?!") Anyway, we now have a little joke about it.

The best part of Christmas was playing with the toys for the next few days, watching Kaleb discover everything about them... and maybe Ammon had some fun too!!

New Years Day was a blast, even if it came a little too early. My brother Devin (who is in the Navy) and his family stopped in AZ between San Diego and South Carolina where he will be doing training for the next year or so. They have three kids whose birthdays are all around the holidays, so they decided to have a birthday celebration for the two boys, turning 3 and 5, at Chuck E.Cheese's. They provided all of the adults... ahem I mean kids with 100 tokens, and so super-fun times ensued.

Here is the proud 5-year old. We will call him Iron Man (since that was the costume he chose for the day).

Here is the distracted 3-year old (Batman) and his gorgeous mama!

And the proud Daddy with their youngest (she had her 1-year b-day party a few days before.)

Then they had subs and cake at my parents house to top everything off. Overall, a great way to start off the new year.

And what would a Teller holiday celebration be without some headaches.

That's right, a flat tire on BOTH of our vehicles.

Plus, almost everybody on my side of the family, siblings and their children alike, have come down with a 12-24 hour flu that makes "your entrails become your extrails." It really has put a damper on things, but hey, it also gives us something to laugh about. Happy Holidays!!

Kaleb 18 Months

2010-12-16T23:04:00.009-07:00

He's finally there. 18 Months. All 34.5 inches and 31 pounds, 5 oz of him!! Yep, he's a big kid, but that's old news. Some new news is that we have been working on his word usage. Ammon and I are specifically asking him to say words in order to get what he wants (Movie, Candy, Banana) and most of the time we get an attempt at a word. He has said Nana, Puzzle, All Done, Buckle (buh buh), and Buh is valid for book, bear, and box. He's gotten obsessed with flushing the toilet and will say Vosh when he wants to flush. It's slow work and sometimes we can't help but laugh when he says something that is nothing like what we asked him to say. He's gotten frustrated to the point of tears, so we are still owkring on finding middle ground between challenging him and driving him crazy. Tis the joy of being a parent.

Per some requests I've included an extra dose of Kaleb photos.

Here he is regressing to a womb-like state:

Graduating to the booster seat wasn't his favorite, but since buckles are a new obsession, he has fun fastening himself in, even right after I've just unbuckled him. Also, he really loves to eat with utensils now.

Too young for piano lessons?

Kaleb thinks that the words Grandpa and Outside are synonomous. Whenever he sees Ammon's dad he wants to go on walks outside with him. It's what they do together and he just loves it. Probably the indian in him!!

Decorating the Kisawuzawus Truh (Christmas Tree) was an event this year. Kaleb loves all the lights and sounds (from the musical ornaments) and he just can't keep his hands off of every single tree he sees, complete with an "OOOOOOOOOOOoooohhh" to go with it!

My own Christmas Cherub!!

OH MY GOSH!! We have created a MONSTER!! Kaleb has become obsessed with watching his two Elmo videos. He runs into the play room, turns on the tv, parks his butt on the futon and will watch his video for at least 30 minutes without even moving. This photo is an example of how he didn't even get to the futon.

Books are also more fun for Kaleb lately. I think he is starting to connect the pictures with real things as we read and point at stuff.

Or maybe he just wants to be like his Daddy!

Not-So-Bleak Black Friday

2010-12-16T22:43:00.003-07:00

I know it's been almost a month since Thanksgiving (and my last blog), but I just wanted to remember a few things about that weekend. The best way to do that is to blog about it!! Firstly, Thanksgiving Day was a lot of fun. We got to hang out with both sides of our family... a bunch of times. Going from my parents' house to Ammon's brother's house (which were fortunately only about a mile apart) became a running joke that day. I think I made that one mile trip about 5 or 6 times each way (uphill in the snow with no shoes on). One thing we learned from this year at Thanksgiving, we will never do two again!!!!

***Lesson learned: Ammon and I agreed that we will either host one or pick one. No more volleying ourselves back and forth.

After that fun day, we came home to a front door that was wide open... we got nervous and called the police, but since there was no sign of forced entry and nothing was missing we all agreed it was a case of a not-fully-closed-door.

***Lesson Learned: We are locking all the locks we can on all the doors we can!

A few hours later we convinced Ammon's mom to sleep on our couch while we went to Toys R' Us for the 10pm opening. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Those were some good times, edging through the parking lot around the 500 people in line. We went to Denny's to try to wait it out, but to no avail.

***Lesson Learned: With a little bit of hot chocolate you can make any outing into a fun date.

The next morning, my father-in-law picked me up for a 7am opening of a store to pick up a very large present for Ammon. (I acn't mention what it was or where because Ammon actually reads this blog... go figure) It was going to be $100 off the original price, so I thought it might go fast and it would be worth getting up a little early to get. Well, Ammon's dad drove into the parking lot and basically said "Get out and go wait in line. I'm gonna park the truck and stay in here where it's warm." That might sound rude, but if you knew my father-in-law it's more funny than anything. Anyway, I waited in the 25 degree line for about ten minutes before the store opened. Since I had been by the store a few days earlier I knew where they kept this particular item... in the back of the store. I walked nonchalantly to the back, grabbed it and pushed it slowly to the front. (It was heavy) As I waited in line, catching my breath, I started looking around at all the hustle and bustle and I realized that the item I had come for was also stocked about ten feet from the front registers.

Lesson Learned: Ask about an item before looking for it; especially on black friday

Otherwise it was a fun weekend, and both Ammon and I got most of our shopping done that weekend. At the end of the day, we ended up having my sister and her family over. We all got high on hot chocolate and started playing with a hula hoop. Sure it was much more funny to us at the time, but the following evidence was caught on tape:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMbu8eCZIro

Not quite 18 Months

2010-11-22T14:26:00.009-07:00

With the cooler weather I decide Kaleb should sport a sweater vest for church. Can you believe it's the same sweater vest he wore when he got blessed over a year ago.

Kaleb at 17 months

Kaleb at 3 months

As most of you know we decorated kaleb's room with a bunch of stuffed bears. A few months ago it became a 'thing' to have Kaleb pick one of the bears to sleep with every night. It's a new 'thing' for him to have every single bear in his crib when he sleeps. For some reason it comforts him. He has slept better when he's got more bears. Here he is after his nap when it becomes absolutely necessary to evacuate everyone from the crib.

Kaleb giving Baby Evelyn kisses

The other day Kaleb demanded that he feed himself his yogurt, and this is was the awesome shot that was the end result... yogurt in mid plop.

Kaleb doesn't seem to really like coloring with crayons. Actually he loves crayons, but coloring is highly overrated when you could do so many other things with them... like rearranging them in their container.

Kaleb's almost 18 months. 1.5 weeks to go to be precise. Why am I so excited for this stage?

1. Nursery! DUH!!

2. Doctor's appointment. Everyone ALWAYS asks me how much Kaleb weighs, but all I have to go on is his last Dr's weigh in.

3. 18 months doesn't sound as weird as 17 months or 16 or 15... When telling people his age I get uncomfortable counting in months anymore but I don't want people to think he's a giant for "a-little-over-a-year" or underdeveloped for "almost 18 months." It's stupid, I know, but I care what other people think about my sweet little boy.

Anyway, Here's what's new with Kaleb:

WORDS... KINDA
I've been working hard to try understanding Kaleb and I think it's paying off. We know he says Mama and Dadda (Da) and I've been able to also distinguish Door (Doe-wer), Trash (Zosh) and Kiss (Dish). Plus he has said phrases like Don't touch, Made a mess, All done and Close the Door. He tried saying Movie and Bird today. They didn't really sound distinguishable but he pointed and that helped A LOT. My favorite thing he has attempted thus far is when I say "Change your Diaper" he will repeat it, but it sounds like "Ja Va Dawa" or something similar.

"Kaleb Quirks"

Beyond the reorganizing crayons and his Bears-in-the-Bed, Kaleb has multiple other quirks.

**Since it's almost Christmas, we've been looking at toys a lot lately. While we were in Toys R' Us the other day he could not contain himself. Every corner was "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh" as loud as his husky voice could carry. Now it's something he does all the time, particularly if there's anything with Elmo visible.

**Kaleb has liked closing doors for a while now, but he has recently figured out how to close them by pulling, not just pushing, so heaven forbid if I ever close a door if he's around. He HAS to do it or there can be an emotional meltdown. Kaleb also enjoys turning out lights (when he's being held cuz he can't reach them otherwise) and throwing away diapers.

**Just keep spinning. Just keep spinning. And he does and he will. He has replaced dancing with spinning. His eyes go as far to the left as possible and he turns in circles toward his left. And he falls over when he gets dizzy and he does it all over again. Quirky!

**As most people know, Kaleb loves to give kisses, but now a lot of his kisses come with sound effects.

Here is just a fun laughing video. Kaleb and I often get the giggles, especially right before bed, but this is just one of those times that we were having fun and I got it on video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDSw-I9HLU0

Pre-Thanksgiving Update

2010-11-22T14:18:00.002-07:00

Over the last few months I've actually been pretty good about blogging once a week, but I have been slacking lately. It's primarily because of lots of little things that just needed to take a priority.

I've been going to online college now for a full month. I have all A's so far (fingers crossed to continue that trend), and I'm actually really enjoying it. No, really, I'm shocked too! I'm taking a basic computer class and two accounting classes and so far the computer class is the easiest. Go figure. I'm hoping as I get more into accounting it will be a little easier, but right now it's just learning all of the laws and processes that I never could have imagined, but that will hopefully make sense in the end.

I've also been watching my niece Evelyn part time. She is so cute!! Kaleb has been pretty good overall, so the transition has been relatively smooth. Of course, I watch her mostly when Kaleb is napping, so that also helps with the transition. Here's a photo of her, just so you can admire as well.

Katie's Baby Shower

2010-11-22T14:05:00.006-07:00

A few weeks ago, I helped host my sister-in-law's (Ammon's brother's wife's) baby shower. It was a lot of fun (of course, as all showers are). Our colors were pink and purple and since the baby was to be named Lilly we decided to add a little flowery-ness to stuff.

A photo of the diaper cake I made, complete with lilies. Katie plans to use cloth diapers, so of course I made the cake out of white cloth diapers. I think it turned out pretty nice!! (Who am I kidding?!?! I am so proud of the way it turned out!) Ammon's mom and sister were in charge of the food, and it's a good thing too! They always make great food. The shower was no disapointment (except that Shary didn't make her guacamole... sigh). Anyway, my personal favorite were the cookies made to look like pink and purple pacifiers. Cute and tasy!

A photo of some of the guests. LOTS O PEOPLE CAME!!

Our guest of honor Katie holding up one of her gifts

The father-to-be Landon (he's so... excited?) and his laptop which is showing Katie's mom who watched via Skype from Australia.

Lilly was born last Monday, November 15, 2010. 8 lbs, 1 oz. 20.5 inches and so healthy. Sorry I don't have a picture of her for the blog. She's cute, so I will be sure to share some photos when I get some.

2010-11-01T15:11:00.001-07:00

A package of wet wipes: $5

Two unsupervised minutes for a toddler: PRICELESS!

Wanna see something really Creepy?

2010-11-01T15:08:00.004-07:00

A bathtub full of rusty water!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHH

Hot water heater trouble prompted this little surprise. Something my dad forgot to mention after fixing the part. Silly, daddy! The water doesn't look all the bad unless you realize there are little non-slip decals at the bottom of the tub that you can barely make out.

NASTY!

HalloWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEn

2010-11-01T14:40:00.011-07:00

It's funny how some holidays are just SOOO overrated. Halloween is one of those holidays. You use up an entire month planning, spending way too much money, and all for one night so your kid can collect a few bucks worth of candy. It's cruel irony really!

That being said, I will admit this is one of the best Halloweens I've ever had, in spite of everything. It would have been better if Halloween hadn't landed on a Sunday. We just didn't feel comfortable trick-or-treating on the Sabbath. Anyway, here are some photos of our fun little weekend.

We dressed Kaleb up as an ewok. He walks like one, so we thought it would be a cute, appropriate costume. Here is the little bear costume we got on Amazon.com. ISN"T HE SO CUTE?!?!?!?!?

I made the ewok hood. It took me about 5 or 6 hours!! Never again!

Looks like Kaleb felt about the same way

Here is our cute little family. Ammon was the zhombie again (since we spent so much on his costume) and I was "Yo MAMA!"
I got two quick videos of our pre-trunk or treatin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKNRmy0Cbao

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiFLFmrZWso

Once he got over wearing his costume, Kaleb seemed to have a... a time. He never smiled while we were at the trunk or treat (until we took the costume off). My suspicions are that he was probably too hot and turns out he had a cold the next morning. He was a trooper though. He didn't smile, but at least he didn't cry!

Here's our after-party. My sister Jess and her rugrats came with us to our ward Trunk or Treat and her hubby met us at our house afterward. If you want more details about that see her blog (don't wanna do too many repeats)

Mmmmmm.popcorn

My tired face and curled hair

Happy little zhombie

Ammon's mom was in charge of a haunted house Saturday night, so we were invited to be spooky clowns placed in there to frighten people. Overall it was a really fun experience, and we got some really good scares out of people (and others got some out of me). Thanks for inviting us, Shary, and thanks for watching the kids, mom!!

Thank Goodness It's Fall

2010-10-22T13:45:00.014-07:00

My favorite season has got to be Fall!! There is so much to look forward to with beautiful weather and the holidays! For some reason I always get a little twinge of butterflies, almost like I'm about to ride a rollercoaster. So many changes are coming and going! Ammon is working and will be starting slightly later hours soon. I begin my online college classes next week! And then there's Kaleb. Constantly so much learning and growing:

**MOMMA'S BOY**
Kaleb seems to be slightly obsessed with me of late. If I leave his side for any amount of time there are tears and often some screaming. I think it's primarily brought about by Ammon's going back to work... and it's 'that age.' I try not to encourage it, but sometimes it is nice to feel so loved.

**WORDS?**
Playing with sounds is Kaleb's new pasttime. He likes to buzz his lips like a bee and blow raspberries and screech at the top of his lungs (obnoxious but his face makes me laugh so hard that I cry, so I'm still trying to teach him not to)... and now he's even sounding out letters he had never attempted before. "Wutta Wutta Wutta" and so forth. He's getting closer to forming words. Yesterday, I would swear he asked me to open the door. It sounded something like, "wis is en da wa da door", but he said it twice in a row and gestured to the door, so my mom-dar was apparently working.

**Routines**
1)Kaleb HATES having his diaper changed (tears and screaming and squirming), but every time I tell him we're gonna change his diaper, he trots himself to his room like a lamb to slaughter.

2)Today we were going to the park, so all i needed was my housekey. Kaleb had a hard time leaving the house without the diaper bag draped over my shoulder. He kept tugging at it as I waited at the door saying, "Let's go."

3)Kaleb SO associates a bag with leaving that when he was playing with my purse the other day, he threw it over his neck and said "Bye" to all of us with a wave of his hand. He was ready to go!!

**The Park**
We live so close to a park it's almost torture to drive past it every day during the summer and not be able to utilize it except after 9 PM. However, with the great weather we've had recently Kaleb and I have gone to the park multiple times and really enjoyed ourselves!!

>With the new park adventures comes Kaleb's love to play with the stroller

It's especially fun when all three of us can go. Here's a great picture of Father and Son on the way to the park

Sliding is something Kaleb will rarely do without both of us there. I think he realizes that if one of us isn't watching the other will be there to catch him.

So happy to be with Daddy!!

Trips to the park also give Kaleb time to ponder the mysteries of life.

Here's a closeup. What do you suppose he's thinking about?

I love showing all the wonders of nature. Like trees (and shade)...

and grass...

and bouncy panda bears...

and sand!

There he goes, pausing for thought again. Seriously, what IS he thinking about?

Oh, I see. He's thinking about how time is like grains of sand passing through our fingers!

Or maybe he's thinking how he just likes this weather, too!!

Updates

2010-10-10T13:51:00.006-07:00

Kaleb at 16 Months

**Kaleb keeps a growing and growing. We had to get new shoes (Size 7.5 Wide) a few weeks ago because his feet had grown a whole size since June. Yoiks!! I also got him a new outfit that was a Size 3T. The shorts were a little big, but the shirts fit perfectly.

**Kaleb has started to make some verbal advances. He calls me Mama (finally)... but then again most of what he says all day sounds like "Me" or "Ma" or "Be." He usually says "Ba" for ball or Bye and I've gotten him to say "Beez" for please a couple of times. That's a little tougher since he knows the sign language for Please. He continues to surprise us with what he understands.

**Over the last few weeks Kaleb has shown SERIOUS clinging issues. Any random person use to be able to come up to him and he's happy for any kind of attention. Now he takes about 20 minutes to warm up to practically anyone, sometimes even mom or dad.

**Kaleb LOVES babies!!!!! Anyone that is near his age or less he HAS to give hugs to a bunch of times before he feels totally satisfied. Below is a classic example of bestowing that love on his cousin. Unfortunately, he has also started grabbing kids' shirts with a vice-like grip which drives most kids (and his parents) a little crazy. My little linebacker is taking his role a little too seriously

Do the Zombie

**A friend of mine had a birthday party the other day with the theme Zombie Prom. Ammon can never do anything halfway, so here were our costumes. We had so much fun I can't possibly regret spending more time and money than we would normally for even Halloween!!

Gauntlet

**As for our diet, we are doing our best to stay as true to it as possible. It's difficult however when you're not supposed to have salt, sugar, wheat or milk... or anything processed at all. I've had to change mine up a little to include a few more calories (800 a day don't cut it for me). After two days of migraines and another of being nauseous a whole afternoon, I just couldn't take it anymore. However, the good news is that after 6 days, I lost 5 pounds and Ammon lost 10. We're excited to see if the results will continue! If they don't we may have to change it again to include cheaper food. Unprocessed meat gets expensive when you eat it five times a day!!

The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown!

2010-10-03T14:14:00.002-07:00

Starting tomorrow, Ammon and my sister Jessica will be joining me in a weight-loss challenge. We will be utilizing the information of the "6-Week-Body-Makeover" to change our diet and create an exercise program. We decided to do this all together, not only for the peer support, but also for the reward. We are each putting $10 into a 'pot' so that whoever loses the highest percentage of weight gets the $30. We are all very excited about it, even though I'm sure Ammon will probably win (if he sticks with it.) Men naturally lose weight faster, not to mention the simple fact that Ammon has NEVER done anything DIET-esque EVER!!!!! My personal goal is 20 pounds. I will try to keep the blog updated on our progress. November 13th is our last day. Wish us luck!

The Answer to Prayers

2010-09-30T23:35:00.002-07:00

Twice this week I have taken the time to say some very special prayers. One was for my sister-in-law to help promote labor and the other was for me to find peace with Ammon's long-haul job. I can't go into too much detail because I feel that both of these experiences are private and sacred, but I will say that both prayers were answered very quickly. The second was answered in the form of a phone call.

There was a chance that Ammon was going to be gone for 6 weeks during his training with Swift. That six weeks was bound to start some time this weekend. At about 10 this morning he got a phone call from the company he was working for when he learned to weld. They were looking for a welder for a few months. After a long pro's and con's discussion, we agreed that he should take this job and continue to look for a local driving or welding position. I am so grateful for this opportunity that we have as a family to spend a little more time together, if not permanently then at least for a little while longer. I'm also very grateful for the gift we have to talk with our Father in Heaven and ask Him for help. This is such a wonderful blessing!!

Smarter than I thought

2010-09-26T16:14:00.002-07:00

I know this sounds awful... but I have always seen Kaleb as good-old-fashioned "normal." He seldom has been ahead of or behind the developmental stages, sitting up at four months, crawling at 7.5, walking at 11. I've just accepted the fact that he would probably be average in his learning and I think that's better than constantly hoping he will excel at one thing or another and then getting disappointed. Again, I see how that might sound a little... odd, but I think most mothers of average children can see where I'm coming from. Well, the other day, Kaleb totally surprised me by completing a puzzle all by himself. The video I was able to capture doesn't quite do him justice, but I still think it's pretty impressive. So here is my moment to brag about my little one, who is, after all, smarter than I thought!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHDuCd5djOY

Bam Bam

2010-09-26T16:10:00.002-07:00

Kaleb smashed his forehead into a wooden toy one day and smacked his chin on the wall the next. I promise I'm a good mom, if not extremely talented at passing on my clutz genes.

Per Request

2010-09-19T14:19:00.010-07:00

Photos and Videos of Kaleb:

"I make this look good!"

Group Hug

"I claim this playplace for all Tellers EVERYWHERE!!"

Urban Cowboy

Just before the picture above was taken I shot a video of Kaleb wearing Daddy's Shirt as well as the cowboy hat. It's just silly fun... as always here at the Teller Bear Cave!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbFxryopR4A

here's another one with Kaleb in a different shirt, just for a little overkill!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUUkMGlXnHs

UPDATE on Da Plan

2010-09-19T13:15:00.004-07:00

Okay, I have had a lot of people asking lately, so it is now time to let you know how things are going with our aforeposted entry: DA PLAN.

AMMON: He received the state grant to attend truck driving school and has since graduated without a hitch. He officially has a CDL now and it's just a matter of finding the right job. He has been pre-hired to a few companies, however all of these specialize in long-haul, which means normally a "Two-weeks-on, two-days-off" type schedule. We knew the odds were heavily in the favor of Ammon being gone a lot once he got a trucking job, but he's going to look another week for something local. If nothing comes up, he has an orientation set up with SWIFT on Monday, the 27th. Obviously we are not looking forward to the separation, but having a stable income will be a welcome feeling. I'm so proud of the way Ammon has taken on this heavy responsibility in order for me to raise our kid(s eventually).

LINDSEY: Due to a lot of issues with financial aid and Ammon's probable out-of-town schedule, I've decided to put my photography dreams on hold for now and focus completely on getting a degree in accounting. This way I can take classes %100 online and not have to toss Kaleb around while I go to various classes. I've finally received the official notification that I got the Pell Grant to set up my classes, and now I can even get books!! Classes begin the end of October!! I'm sooooooooo excited for this new stage of my life!!

Kaleb-15 Months

2010-09-12T21:02:00.002-07:00

Kaleb had his 15 month appointment last week. He was 32 inches tall (75th percentile) and just shy of 29 pounds (95th percentile). The doc suggested we try to give him a little less milk to see if his weight/height ratio will even out. We also had a discussion about his communication skills, primarily because Ammon and I aren't quite sure if he's really talking yet. He can say "More, Please" and "All Done" in sign language and he definitely understands things that we say (Mom, Dad, Hi, Water, Milk, No, Ball, Shoes, Kisses, Hugs, Dancing, Remote, Pieces [of a puzzle or toy], Put it Back, Can I have that, Change the Diaper, In there, Take a Bath, etc), but it's very seldom he says anything that actually sounds like another word. He often makes sounds that repeat what we're saying, like Ha for Hi and Ayaya for I love you, but he doesn't seem to even call Ammon Daddy or me Mommy. The doctor said she won't be too worried about it unless he's at the same level at 18 months. Thankfully, my sis-in-law is a speech therapist and I was able to get some professional advice and comfort. We'll focus a little more on speaking with him and see how things go.

Some more Kalebisms:

***He now flirts. He will give a little smile that brings out his adorable dimples and giggles in a high pitched-tickled-type-fashion like he's being coy. He does it randomly to anyone. More often with people he knows, but occasionally it's with an old man at the grocery store or a baby at church. I get a kick out of it cause it seems to make him happier just when he does it.

***Interactive Play. Since we've been spending more time with his cousins Christian and Ellie over the last few months, they've been opening up more and he's learning how to actually interact in play. Plus, he has been handing me toys to get me to play with him or show him how to play with them. It's so fun to see his mind grow and learn.

***Stacking Duplo Blocks. He's no expert, but about 60% of the time he can put them together. Small feat, but one I want to document.

***Baby Love! I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Kaleb loves babies!!!! He's so gentle and has to be around them!!! There was a lady with a 3-month-old at the mall playplace and he gave the baby hugs and crawled up into the mom's lap to make sure he had his arm around the baby and could give kisses. It makes me so proud!! Thankfully the mom was understanding and enjoyed his attentions.

***Binky-free. Kaleb has been sleeping without a pacifier for a full week now. About a month ago we tried to wean him from it, but he got sick after the first night, so we decided not to give him extra sleeping stress. Big mistake because Kaleb got doubly attached to it after that. Thankfully he has done pretty well this week. It takes him a little longer to get to sleep and occasionally with a few tears, but nothing like the drama I was expecting.

Veggie Tales

2010-08-29T14:15:00.002-07:00

Don't worry, I'm not talking about a religious talking cucumber. Just have some silly stories to tell involving Kaleb... and of course, (SARCASM, SARCASM) every child's favorite thing:

Vegetables

Story #1-Broccoli Sandwiches
Recently we have had a devil of a time getting Kaleb to eat his vegetables. Most other things he will eat with little complaint, but veggies "are like, so yesterday". Well, the other day Kaleb ate some baby-food type carrots without blinkin, so I figured that I would just serve all his vegetables in baby-food form for a little while.

Since baby food can be expensive, I had the AWESOME MOM idea to buy stuff at the Farmer's Market and make the food myself by boiling then blending. Carrots, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage and Spinach... and a horrible concoction I now regret that went straight to the belly of our chickens: Zucchini and Bell Peppers (don't ask)

Anyway, the next day I sat down to give Kaleb his Broccoli Goo and he absolutely refused to even look at it... turning away at every attempt I made. Then I had this brilliant idea: I spread the green jelly onto a piece of bread and voila: Broccoli Sandwiches. He ate four or five bites before I took the picture you see below. Eventually he wised up to the horror that I had served him, but hey, he got his vegetables!

Story #2-Daddy's Little Boy
Two days ago was I'M SICK OF MOM DAY. I wasn't sure that it was listed on your calendar. Apparently Kaleb is the creator of said day and celebrates it occasionally by throwing tantrums when I want to spend time with him. Well, lunch time on ISOM Day is no picnic of course, because anything that moms want to feed their children is and will be wrong.

Well, on ISOM Day, I tried to feed Kaleb a small bowl of mashed carrots. Again, without getting a taste he completely refused to let me feed it to him. And of course, Daddy came in and Kaleb had to reaffirm ISOM Day by crying and stretching out to Daddy in pleading motions. Daddy said, "No you need to eat," and he scooped up the carrots and held the spoon out to Kaleb. With only a second's pause, Kaleb took a good bite, swallowed and smiled at Daddy as if to say, "Such a good boy am I!" He then took two more bites before I tried my hand, literally, which resulted in a NO-like head shake and the evil eye from Kaleb. Ammon then fed the whole bowl to Kaleb with constant smiles. Cruel IRONY, but Hey, at least he got his veggies!

Story #3- Veggie Fork
Kaleb really likes to eat Veggie Straws. They taste a lot like really good potato chips, but they're made with spinach and tomato as well, so hopefully a little more healthy. Well, Kaleb thought they made some pretty decent skewers, so he started stabbing his little bits of ham to feed himself. Cute little video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhE734lohzg

Baby Shower

2010-08-29T13:49:00.009-07:00

Last week, my sisters, mom and I threw my sis-in-law Kelli a baby shower. It was a lot of fun and I just wanted to share some photos:

I was in charge of decorations... which means I decorated the gift table... and that's about it! The theme for the baby's room is butterflies and flowers with a lot of pink, yellow, purple and green, so we went with the same kind of stuff for the shower. So glad we did cuz some of the stuff turned out really cool!

Like this gorgeous diaper cake made by Liz!!

And the cupcakes and brownie-cake made by Jess!

I had to get a picture of the drinks. That white stuff is a Pina colada Sobe that looks like milk. Freaked the guests out a little (like me) but definitely a conversation piece!

This is the only up-close picture I will post of Kelli since she isn't a fan of prego photos. This one was cute and showed off one of the many great presents she got.

I think everybody had a great time. I should add that my sis Alana made the beautiful invitations and my mom provided the rest of the awesome food. It was a great family affair!! Can't wait for the next one!...?

The Value of Loyalty

2010-08-17T21:14:00.002-07:00

I am one of those people that will stick with something/someone like glue... Life is just simpler that way. Some people would call this loyalty. Dictionary.com defines Loyalty as "Faithful adherence," so I guess I could go along with that.

However, I recently discovered that maybe the value put on loyalty is highly over-rated.

Anyone that knows me, knows I love mint and that I love gum, specifically peppermint gum. I would say it was probably 4th grade when I got addicted to Extra Sugarfree Peppermint gum and I have been a loyal chewer, 5 or 6 sticks a day strong. That... is a LOT of gum. When I became pregnant, mint was something I had to avoid. My body just didn't like it. An ironic burden yes, but I dealt with it. As soon as Kaleb was born, I was poppin Andes Mints and bought a pack of my Tried and True Extra Sugarfree Gum...

But WAIT! It tasted a little different. The gum was a little tougher AND the flavor didn't last as long. I thought it was just me, so I kept buying... and chewing... just not as often or as long.

THEN I went to Walmart for one of my grocery trips, and they were ALLLL out of my gum. It wasn't in the candy aisle and I didn't see any at the registers. I was frustrated, but I settled for the 5 Brand Cobalt (peppermint) gum. LO and BEHOLD, when I tried it, I discovered all the familiar flavor and softness and long-lastingness that I had remembered with EXTRA. If I didn't know better (which I don't) I would say that 5 bought the recipe from Extra then Extra cheapened themselves up!

I'm not bitter, but now I feel like a much wiser consumer! My 20-year affair with Extra is now over. Do I question my ability to be loyal in the future? Maybe a little. But at least I will have clean teeth and fresh breath!!

The Joy of Change

2010-08-15T12:17:00.010-07:00

A few weeks ago, on a whim, we decided to take a bunch of our loose change and head over to Peter Piper Pizza for a fun family night! $20 of change=100 tokens=900 tickets=a bunch of fun toys including an echo microphone, rubicks cube, chinese finger traps, a blowdart, etc. It was one of the funnest evenings Ammon and I have had in a long time. Then you include the fact that we got a bunch of fun toys just makes the fun last and last. When we got home, Ammon was so excited to try out the blowdart, he ripped it open and started shooting it off. I don't know who ended up liking it more: Ammon or Kaleb:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd8g4asbsUk

Kaleb is fourteen months now and with that comes his ability to learn much more quickly, but it also means he wants to be more independent. Most of the time both of these are a lot of fun, except in church. He's starting to become a pill at church and I've become one of those moms that just can't wait till we can leave him in nursery so I can actually listen to more than three consecutive minutes of a lesson.

Anyway, below are some fun videos and photos to commemorate his growth:

My future couch potato

Kaleb has broadened his fashion horizons by trying new things... like hats...

... and Minnie Mouse ears

Here he is refining his skills at Rock Band 2!

Exploring the world one beetle at a time.

And of course, with time comes Kaleb's illnesses. A few weeks ago, Kaleb had some random stomach virus and this past week he came down with a viral infection in his mouth. His gums are nasty-swollen and he's pretty much made all of his meals become milk and yogurt. He hasn't been sleeping very well, so the other night he conked out on the couch while Ammon was watching TV. Poor sick little boy!!

Also, we got a video of Kaleb interacting with our little friend Dave. For those who don't know (or just need a reminder), Dave is a little mouse puppet I got many years ago

that seems to bring joy to all children everywhere.

I finally brought him out for Kaleb the other day and joy ensued.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCeeCMhCoYc

Another good couple of laughs from the munchkin

Da Plan

2010-08-02T12:59:00.002-07:00

There is a saying that if you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans. I have been a big believer in this concept. I think God knows I have a sense of humor about things and as long as not-too-many-bad-things happen too close together I can usually laugh it off.

Well, it's been a LONG time of not-as-many-good-as-bad things have happened, and I will admit I went from laughing, to fake-laughing, to crying, to numb, to motivated, to cranky, to hopeful. Well, now that we are in the hopeful stage I feel that I can share with ya'll DA PLAN that we have had in the works for a few months. Nothing is set in stone of course, but that's what makes plans so sonderful, their ability to evolve.

DA PLAN started blossoming in April when Ammon went to a job fair. He met a rep from a truck-driving school and got really excited about the possibility of becoming a truck driver. However, the school cost $4000, something we obviously did not have! Through some leads he got from the school, Ammon was directed to a government career center that has been one of the biggest blessings!! It has shown Ammon a way to tap into the Workforce Investment Act, which is basically a government-funded... everything. This Act offers so many opportunities including classes to help you improve resume-writing, job-searching, interviewing... and it is also a way to tap into grants offered to people in Ammon's exact situation. There's a lot of work involved in getting this grant, but it is worth it!!

Ammon is on the tail end of finishing up his paperwork and then within a few weeks, we will know if he qualifies for this grant... to go to school... to get a trucking job.

Well, that's the first part of DA PLAN. The second part happened when I realized that I needed a job... and was not getting a job. Something I have been aware of, but not so acutely until my unemployment was running out. Then, I was asked by a friend to do some photos for her family and a friend, and it hit me! I want to be a photographer!!!!! Okay, for people in my family this may not be such a surprise. I have loved doing photography for 15 years! I wanted to study photography right out of high school, but registered so late for my college classes that I never got a photography class. Hence, my dropping out of college 6 weeks later. I've never lost this 'dream', and in fact have done multiple photo schoots with family, friends and random friends-of-friends over the years. However, I haven't known about my resources until now. This, of course, is why I'm in the hopeful stage.

Shortly after this would-be revelation, I went to a class offered by the aforementioned career center that taught me all about the FAFSA. WHAT?!? I could get free money to got to school to become a photographer? (IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS!!). I never realized how little I knew. Anyway, needless to say, I am now registered at a local community college to work toward my Certificate of Completion in Digital Imaging, which is basically a fancy way of saying Photography. Of course, I still have to GET that free money, just like Ammon, but we are both hoping and praying that everything will work out for the best. And don't worry, my plans for education don't end there, I also want to get my Associates and eventually my Bachelors. I'm leaning toward Accounting, but we'll see how everything turns out over the next few years.

So that's DA PLAN!

Baby Bumpin!

2010-07-24T22:15:00.003-07:00

This video pretty much explains itself, except to say that Kaleb learned this "trick" after about five or six tries, and now he loves it!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8qSt1o5c9k

Da Bowser

2010-07-24T22:02:00.005-07:00

For various different reasons, we recently decided to bring Bowser into the house on a more permanent basis.

Firstly, Bowser is a very 'good dog'. He always has been and the one reason we haven't given him away in spite of our awful financial situations is BECAUSE he is such a good dog.

Secondly, he makes a fun little playmate for Kaleb.

And of course, thirdly, it's flippin hot outside.

Now, the reason we haven't had Bowser in the house on a more permanent basis before is as follows:

1-Our backyard is a dust bowl. To have a dog indoors all the time means he literally needs to be inside almost all the time or we have to give him a good bath every time he's been outside for a few hours.

2-Bowser is BIG and he's a CLUTZ! We needed to make sure Kaleb was big enough to have Bowser wacking him in the head with his tail and occasionally step on him.

3- We used to have a real problem with ticks on our dogs. NOw that we have the chickens peckin all over the yard, the ticks seem to have disappeared (one of our initial reasons for getting chickens).

Who knows if this phase will last. I hope so. He obviously enjoys it, and we like having him around... most of the time. Here are some photos we captured:

The LOUNGING Bowser

The PUTTING-UP-WITH-KALEB Bowser

The LOVING-KALEB Bowser

The KALEB-IS-MY-DENTIST Bowser

(Don't worry, he was just yawning)

In His own little corner

2010-07-17T22:03:00.003-07:00

Kaleb has taken to placing himself in corners lately. While he is playing with his toys he will take a little break and go and sit in a corner, alone and content. I hope this is a sign of maturity and self-confidence. Kaleb has always struck me as an 'old soul', somebody a little wiser than his age and I often get the feeling like we've been friends much longer than this life has allowed.

Adventures in Puppysitting

2010-07-17T21:50:00.005-07:00

A few days ago, we puppysat a friend's Yorkie. I've been a little dog-hungry lately, and even though we have a dog, he's not my dog and he's a huge dirty, clumsy dog (that I love dearly), so it's not quite like when we had a couple of dogs to play with. Sooooooooo off the subject, but anyway, Boaz was a fun little playmate for Kaleb for a few hours, and it definitely broke up a little of the monotony. Most of the time, they just followed each other around. As soon as one would lose interest, the other would start getting interested.

Silly little dynamics that made me laugh.

Yes, that is a dog's tongue inside my child's mouth. Don't knock it! That dog's mouth is cleaner than the baby's...

And apparently it tickled!!

Overall Boaz was one of the most easy-going young dogs I've ever seen. Heck, I would have kept him myself ... except that he's already my friend's dog... and he's the size of Bowser's... well anyway, there was a funny little habit this dog had of forgetting that he had met people before. So when Ammon went into our bedroom for a few minutes and then came back into the front room, the dog flipped out. Of course, Ammon decided to play it up and really aggravate the poor little guy, but it made for a fun video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_LoeTqms7w

Swim Party

2010-07-17T21:40:00.006-07:00

Last week, we were invited to a swim party. It was basically a gathering of all the guys that were in a priests quorum at any given time, along with their wives. Ammon was oldest in the group that came, so of course, I ended up being the oldest attendant (other than the hosts, who had been the leaders at the time). Anyway, enough self pity.

There was a breakfast provided, then everybody jumped in the pool. I'm not a fan of group-swim parties (partially due to a strange fear of drowning and partially a fear of anyone seeing my ginormous patoot in a swimsuit), so I decided to just sit back and take a few photos!

Ammon got to try out some scuba gear for the first time. Random at a pool party, but nevertheless... daitis!

Landon (Ammon's Brother)... the Waterbender

Ammon and Landon gave everybody a turn on the Teller-Pult, where they throw everybody in the air like a rocket.

Ammon even got a turn getting shot up in the air (notice a few more guys at the base)

A fun photo of the most of the group

200... and still going strong!!

2010-07-17T21:30:00.004-07:00

This is my 200th post and thus and henceforth, I wanted to pay special homage to my blog. It started as a way of communicating to family. Then it morphed into a way to sometimes document my emotions and the many random things that happen in my life. When Kaleb was born, it evolved into a classic mother's blog: listing all the things I want to remember about our sweet bundle of joy. And despite all of the inevitable changes that have taken place, I have consistently placed immortal words for virtually anyone to hear. And I've come to realize that this blog is totally and completely 100% for me. So, with no further ado, I would like to make a list of things that I am wishful and thankful for, and it all includes the number 200:

I wish:

I weighed only 200 pounds.

I had 200 dollars not completely devoted to bills.

I had 200 ways of styling my ever-growing hair.

There were only 200 calories in a tub of ice cream or bowl of popcorn... YUM!!

It were only 200 miles to the Harry Potter Experience!!

There were 200 ways to show my husband I love him!

I could remember 200... of anything!

I could have 200 more wishes to help everyone who has helped us.

I'm thankful:

It does not hit 200 degrees in Arizona.

I am not 200 years old!

I have more than 200 friends (according to Facebook ;-)

There are less than 200 days till Christmas!

I have taken more than 200 pictures of Kaleb

Our electrical bill was less than $200 this month!

There are more than 200 sunsets every year!

Some of my Favorites

2010-07-09T17:00:00.010-07:00

This past week I had the chance to do a little photo shoot for a friend of a friend (turned out I actually knew the mother of the bride). They were married last year and were getting sealed on their one-year anniversary, so they wanted to get some photos around the temple with some friends. I had forgotten how much I loved photography, and this group was a ton of fun!! Here are some of my favorites:

Murphy and His Stupid Friggin Law!

2010-07-09T15:43:00.002-07:00

I remember being a very sensitive, negative child; a normal, if not creative teenager; and an eventually optimistic single adult. However, I remember several years ago when I was an 'optimistic' single adult, someone asked me why I was always so happy. I told them that I always expected the worst, so therefore I was never disappointed with what God/life threw at me. Is that optimism? I'm not sure. I do know however that lately I have not been feeling happy. I've been feeling very negative and often depressed. Things just weren't going my way. Then I tried to focus on giving service wherever possible and I even started a 'gratitude journal'. Sounds cheesy but it's been helping. Then these last two weeks hit, and I'm beginning to realize, maybe my 'optimistic' younger self wasn't so silly after all! Recently I have had experiences that make me feel like I'm never supposed to expect good things to happen.

THE BATHROOMS-Since January, our shower has consistently plugged up once a month. We would use a few treatments of Drano and it would clear up. Then, in April, the toilet in our master bathroom started flushing itself. Or rather it would make that wierd running sound like it was flushing. It did it at least three or four times an hour. A plumber friend told us the part to get... we got it... Ammon doesn't have a clue how to replace it... so it still runs. Then, about a month ago the bathtub in the guest bathroom started cloggin up. It now takes at least three hours to drain half a tub. This makes it hard to clean of course, so Kaleb is getting fewer baths. Last night the same plumber friend told us we need to replace a pipe in the wall and then he will be able to snake it out. Oy. Then two weeks ago, I found a puddle on the master bathroom floor. The valve under the sink was leaking. Ammon put a bowl under the drip and bought a part about a week later, after the drip was getting to once every second and there were two more puddles. But don't worry, that one actually got fixed. Lastly, on Sunday, while we had family over, our guest bathroom toilet broke. You can only flush it by opening up the tank and pulling the arm, which is now almost snapped in half. That's it for now, but I'm just waiting... waiting... waiting...

THE BANKRUPTCY- As most of you know, we recently filed for bankruptcy. We just reached that point where we felt we had no other alternatives, so there you have it. Sucky yes, but out credit was already ruined. We decided this back in September, but the lawyer we spoke with suggested waiting until after we get our '09 tax return, spend it, then file, so they couldn't use the tax return moneys to pay off some of the creditors. Sounds good!
When we started doing our taxes it became clear we didn't have a W-2 from one of Ammon's employers. Apparantly the company had gone under and we had to fill out a separate form and file by mail. This delayed us getting our tax return by about six weeks. Then, we got the return, spent it, paid the lawyer, then we realized that we still had Ammon's name on his brother's car loan as co-signer, so we had to wait another few weeks for his brother to refinance... Then Ammon got a temporary job and we had to spend all of his paychecks ASAP otherwise they would take that money... and well, you get the picture. Eventually we filed the beginning of June (four months after we originally planned!!)
This morning, we go into our hearing: THE LAST THING WE WOULD HAVE TO REALLY DO FOR THIS TO BE ALL OVER!!!! We would finally have this debt forgiven! We could move forward! NOT SO MUCH!! Oh, no, they are going to keep our case open so that they can take our entire tax refund next year!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!

THE CAR-A few months ago we purchased a vehicle through a friend of ours. After some repair work that ended up taking a month (they were doing it for free, which was great, but because of the bankruptcy we were kinda in a hurry to get it.) Anyway, when we got it, there was a temporary permit from California on the back that we could use until we got the car registered in our name with AZ plates. When we bought the car, our friend asked us if we wanted California plates put on it, but we said it would be easier to just get the AZ plates. BOY were we WRONG!!
Once the California permit expired, I went into the DMV to get it registered... they said we can't get it registered without the emissions test... so I bought a 30-day AZ permit to give us some time to get that done. Well, between the campout and bankruptcy stuff, we didn't get the emissions done till last week. The permit expires tomorrow. This past Wednesday morning, Ammon was busy taking some classes, so Kaleb and I got into the car to head to the DMV... the battery was dead. About an hour later Ammon's dad was able to give the car a jump, and we headed down to the DMV. Ammon just finished his class, so he met me there to take Kaleb home so I wouldn't have to worry about him... well when we got there, there were 20 people in line... just to get a number! Ammon had only about an hour before he had to go back to class, about the same time Kaleb needed to take a nap, so I said, forget it, I will just come back tomorrow early!
Thursday morning, we leave the house at 9:15. Get to the DMV, their system is down statewide and they have no clue when it will be up and running. Through a chance meeting with my bankruptcy lawyer a little later, he tells me about the off-site offices that can also register vehicles. I get to this office, NOBODY IN LINE. I'm thinking "SWEET!" The lady at the desk tells me that I have to get the vehicle inspected because of the Salvage title on the car. I told her I wasn't told that by the lady that gave me the permit. She said, "Well, that's the law, and here's the number to make an appointment. It costs $50."
"I have to make an appointment? I have 36 hours to get this stupid car registered, but I can't till I make an appointment to get it inspected, and I have to PAY FOR IT?!?!?!?" DIE, DMV, DIE!!!
So I get in the car, call the number... "I'm sorry you can't make appointments through this line anymore, you have to call another number, here it is..." (Do I even have to mention that I didn't have a pen at this time... oh yes, I wrote the phone number in lip gloss). So I call the next number and the only appointment they have before Monday is at 11am, Friday morning at Greenfield and Baseline... Normally I would've been praying a sigh of relief. However, we had our bankruptcy hearing at 10am in downtown Phoenix on FRIDAY. "WHAT THE?!?!?" So I made the appointment, hung up the phone and screamed!!! Then I proceeded to Dunkin Donuts which was conveniently next door.
So, thankfully, this morning our hearing went quickly. They opted to have us go first since we were the only ones toting a toddler. Afterwards, we raced down the freeway, (legally of course) and got to the DMV in 30 minutes. I walked in right at 11 am, checked in, gave them my ID and paperwork, and I got to work with the nicest human being I have met in a long time... Why do I say he was the nicest human being? Because he told me that we didn't have to get the inspection. Our car is a salvageD title, not salvage, which means it's already passed all inspections and is good to go. I would have kissed him... but I didn't.
Anyway, the wait at the DMV was attrocious, so we decided to head to one of those off-site offices again, prepared to yell at anyone that told us we had to get an inspection. Could it be that easy? Were we finally gonna get this car registered without any more hiccups? HECK NO!!! When we bought the 30-day permit, we stuck it in the glove box. We didn't have a plastic sleeve to protect it from the wind and our windows are so darkly tinted you can't see through from the outside. So what do you think happened? YEP!!! For 29 days, we have been driving around with no plates or ID on this car. AND NOW, 1 MILE from getting our car officically registered, we get pulled over. DOH!! Don't worry, the cop was understanding. He looked at all of our paperwork and let us go. We now have plates. I now have sanity!

Why am I telling you this? Mostly because I know I will look back on all of this and laugh. AND a little bit of sympathy never hurts!!

Kaleb-13 months

2010-07-04T23:10:00.011-07:00

Another month, another update.

****Kaleb has gotten much more picky with foods. Normally I can still get him to eat healthy and relatively diverse foods (it's not like we have reached the 'he'll only eat peanut butter' phase). But he definitely makes his preferences known. The other day, I cut up some grapes and cheese for him. As soon as he tasted the grapes, he wanted nothing to do with the cheese. After a 30 minute tantrum of screaming every time he saw the cheese, he finally got hungry enough to eat everything. (and yes I am stubborn enough to not let him have the grapes until he ate some cheese too)

Happy Grape-Eating Kaleb

Sad Cheese-Refusing Kaleb

Right now, Kaleb's favorite things to eat are: Grapes, Bananas, Tylenol (see next asterisk), Water and Otter Pops

****Over the last month, Kaleb was diagnosed twice with double ear infections. The only time he was without them was when we were on our camping trip (go figure), so he has been sucking down a lot of Tylenol and antibiotics. Thankfully he usually enjoys the taste of his medicines, but that doesn't make the pain any easier. Along with the ear pain, Kaleb popped out two more teeth (that makes ten) and is working on two more. My poor little baby!

****Kaleb got his second haircut this month as well. It's amazing just how different he looks:

BEFORE (or as I like to call it: his Justin Bieber look)

AFTER: (Or as I like to call it: Is that my baby boy?)

****All of a sudden Kaleb started climbing. Still not sure how I feel about it since I'm proud of him for making that step but scared to death of him getting into a really high place he can't escape without calling the fire department (paranoid-much?)

Looking Good on his new perch

So Sad for structural weakness!

****Since we are stuck in the house a lot more in this summer heat, Kaleb has found ways to entertain himself... or me. Here is a video that just cracks me up!!! He does this a lot lately, walks back and forth along the entryway of our house. We call it the Baby Run. Whatever makes him happy right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8tTcPW2MKg

Here's Kaleb just too bored to function:

**We also have discovered that Kaleb is in love with the vacuum. He WILL NOT focus on anything else in the house if he hears the vacuum running. He wants to be in the same room, watching it go and occasionally trying to help by holding the chord. Then, when it's not running he needs to play with chord, plug it into itself, pet it like a puppy dog... whatever.

****Playmates. Kaleb loves playmates, whether it be kids or puppies. We went to the mall the other day and let Kaleb play with a corgi puppy. If we had ANY way to find a way to pay for this expensive little mutt, we would have bought it because it was so perfect for Kaleb... but it's probably a good thing we don't have that kind of money to spend:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs6cHq9BDa0

Here's Kaleb piled up with a couple of his cousins, who he spent hours playing and laughing with:

****Kaleb has found his bellybutton. I have been trying to teach Kaleb parts of the face for months without any sort of response. We mentioned bellybutton like two or three times and suddenly it's the best body-part ever!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGhDilsHipk

A Niece Time

2010-06-25T23:07:00.007-07:00

We had the fun opportunity to watch over my 6-month-old niece for a few days, and oh what an experience!! It was so fun to have a playmate for Kaleb and to have a little baby in the house again.

LOOK AT THIS FACE!!! WHAT A CUTIE!!

I was so happy and proud that Kaleb showed such interest in his little cousin without getting too rough. Most of the time he just wanted to look at her and sometimes that meant just plain laughing at her!

Or sometimes that meant eating her feet!

During her stay, this sweet little girl was an angel and Kaleb acted like the big older brother and was very sweet to her. We did have to teach him how to not take toys away and not stab her eyes or squeeze her poor little head like a ripe melon. In the end, Kaleb grew to resent her a little, but at least we got this cute kissing photo before he got too unhappy!!

The Definitive Camping Trip

2010-06-25T21:44:00.027-07:00

As most of you know (because I've mentioned it before), I'm not the biggest fan of camping. SOOO when my in-laws said they were taking a week-long camping trip on the Rim and wanted to do everything they could to get us (specifically me) to come along (and enjoy myself) I felt a little bit of pressure to bear down and make the most of it. We made all of the preparations... which means we borrowed a bunch of camping stuff, and packed ourselves into the Malibu Monday morning and headed up to Jones Crossing, a campsite about 50 miles north of Payson. I told Ammon that I would give it two days and if I wasn't really enjoying myself, we would go home. If we ended up having a great time, we would stay until Friday. My thought process at the time was: 85% chance of a Wednesday trip home.

Anyway, so we took the trip up during Kaleb's midday nap. We figured he would travel better if most of his time was spent sleeping. Here he is tucked amongst our bags and pillows, so comfy!!

However, Kaleb's nap was cut short when we got stuck behind a street-painting truck. All the breaking jarred him awake and well, just made all of us kinda cranky. Most of the 20 miles between Strawberry and the campsite was spent traveling 9 miles an hour. TORTUROUS!!! At least we, the miserable, loved the company of the thirty cars that backed up behind us.

So we got there eventually, without any harm, so could we complain? Not with 70 degree pine air whipping us in the face. The area in which we stayed was beautiful!!!! It truly was a little bit of paradise. We set up our tent and got ourselves situated just in time for some dinner. (My in-laws provided all of the meals, a port-a-potty type of set-up and a bunch of other accommodations to make our stay a little more comfortable). It was a great start to our trip. We made a fire and Kaleb went to sleep so easily, I thought, "This is going to be so awesome!!"

Oh cont rare!! At 11:30pm Kaleb woke up SCREAMING! The cold air (40 degrees) and strange surroundings seemed to really bother him and there was nothing we could do to get him back to sleep. HOURS were spent cuddling him into our beds where he would get warm, start to doze off then wake up screaming again! After four hours with no relief, I got so sick of it, I decided to try to 'rock' him to sleep in the car... the one place he will always sleep!! However, after several trips around the trails in the car, I realized our heater doesn't work and Kaleb would not be duped!!

I got desperate. I parked the car in front of our tent and I bowed my head to pray. Unfortunately when I did that I accidentally honked the horn, which brought Ammon a-running. I told him to grab my suitcase and the playpen cuz I was gonna find a hotel for the rest of the morning. MY BABY NEEDED TO SLEEP!!! He rolled his eyes his disgust, grabbed everything and said, "Well I'm not gonna let my wife travel alone at this time of night so let me drive"

Long story short, we now know there are no hotels open after 7pm except in Payson and by the time we reached that cozy little town, the sun was starting to come up and I had regained a few of my senses... well, at least my I-don't-wanna-pay-$50-for-5-hours-sense anyway. I bought a McDonald's burrito (yuck) and a Diet Coke and was allowed by my husband to drive back to the campsite. Kaleb finally fell asleep around 4:30 am. Here he is during our night-time rendezvous

The following day proved no more promising as far as hotel-rooms were concerned. We couldn't find a single one that was cheap enough for us to stay more than one night. We did however purchase a small propane-powered space heater that ended up working beautifully, keeping our tent about 15 degrees or more warmer than the outside temperature. Kaleb slept 7 hours the next night, then 9, then 10. It was a God-send because this camping trip ended up being a fantastic time!!

Here is a photograph of the meadow near our campground, taken practically outside our tent door.

Here I am all makeup-less and acting like I want my picture taken.

Most of our time was spent napping, chasing after Kaleb or playing a bunch of different group games, like Catch Phrase, Skipbo, Five Crowns, Bupkiss, etc.

Ammon enjoyed finding other uses for his time. Like chopping wood for the fires:

Whippin' It!

He has a whip, oh yes, he does, and he was not afraid to use it at least once a day to teach those offensive Dandolions a lesson. In all honestly, I find it kinda cool!!

Ammon's sister and dad also brought up a bunch of paintball gear, so they had a little free-for-all. What? Why didn't I play? I'm sorry do I look like someone who likes pain?

Ammon and Kaleb also had a lot of bonding time. Kaleb, overall seemed to have a lot of fun! However, it was hard for him to get around. The ground was very uneven and covered in prickly pine-needles, so falling down was less fun. Plus, we would often try to get him to stick with us while we were trying to play games but the only fun thing to play with was paper-products and other off-limit items (I'm mean other than his toys we brought up).

Anyway, Kaleb enjoyed sitting around the fire each evening, getting passed from person to person.

He enjoyed giving people kisses... or getting eaten by Daddy

He improved his whipping skills!!

He got to roll around in a hammock

He broke out of jail several times

He explored nature

One of my favorite things was when Ammon's Dad would take Kaleb without question or any chance for refusal and they would go for little walks. Usually these times would correspond with the times in which Kaleb or I were the most frustrated with eachother. I was able to get a couple of really special pictures of them together

And of course, Kaleb discovered dirt. He ate it!

He spat it out!

And then he wore it!

I have to say the best part about the trip was the food. My mother-in-law and sis-in-law making peach cobbler!!

One night we even had steak, Kaleb tried some and of course, being a Teller bear, loved it!!!

The last night we were there, we made smores with Ammon's seven foot homemade skewers.

Hmmmm Hmmmm GOOD!!!

Here's Kaleb waking up at 6:30 Friday morning.

I would say the rest of the trip (after that horrible first night) was great, but that wouldn't be the whole truth. Thursday night (our last night) I spent most of the night sick with what I can only guess was food poisoning (though nobody else in the camp got sick). Wouldn't have been so bad except the make-shift bathroom was about 100 yards uphill from our tent. Made for a very unpleasant situation. Not to mention that our battery was dead that morning, so Ammon's dad had to jump it. Ammon so wonderfully and willingly packed up everything by himself (since I was so sick) and then somehow locked both our keys in the car. He and his dad found a way to pry the front door open and retrieve the keys with a twisted bit of wire, so it could have been worse. Oh well, made for som interesting stories!

As I said, I thought Kaleb had a pretty good time, but when we got home and took his shoes off he got so excited! All he could do was walk around our cluttered living room shouting for joy. Here's a little video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8JWvQ4ljiw

Would I do it again? OH YEAH... just give me a couple of months to recover!!

Sigh... I've Got a Monkey on My Back

2010-06-13T22:48:00.000-07:00

Kaleb's Birthday Party

2010-06-13T22:29:00.011-07:00

Okay, finally posting about Kaleb's 1st Birthday party that happened over a week ago. Kaleb had a blast, despite having an ear infection for a week before! Family and friends had a blast, despite how crowded our house got! I had a blast because everyone else had a blast!! The following are some photos to share the blast-ed-ness!

My sister got this fun photo of the birthday boy. He looks so sneaky it cracks me up!!

This is my brother Chris trying to enjoy his hamburger. Kaleb started staring wantingly at it, so Chris humored me and made that scary face for the camera. Don't worry, he actually really loves Kaleb.

Video of singing to Kaleb, the group that was there, Kaleb BREATHING OUT the candle and starting on his hamburger cake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDHdEzWpVsk

A photo of Kaleb BREATHING OUT the candle

We didn't want to go too crazy with a theme for his party. So once we decided on having a BBQ, I dug out an old family 'recipe' and made a couple of hamburger cakes. One Big-Mac sized one for Kaleb...

And one 12-inch-Whopper-sized one for our guests.

Some photos of Kaleb enjoying his cake. Pinky up and all!

Opening presents

One of my favorite stories from that night is that while we had Kaleb opening presents we would kinda skip through them quickly instead of letting him really play with any of them while he opened them. So I made a big pile behind me so he could focus on the opening. Anyway, my mom (silly, mommy) included one of Kaleb's bottles amongst the presents since we had left it at her home a few days before. So the bottle ended up in the pile of toys. Once we were done with all of the gift-opening, Kaleb was released and went straight for that pile of toys. He didn't grab Elmo or the dump truck or the puzzles... oh no, he grabbed the bottle. That's my boy!!

Kaleb at 12 Months/1 Year

2010-06-11T13:08:00.006-07:00

Kaleb is now the Big "1". I mean that literally because he's a big kid. 30.5 inches; 25 lbs, 10 oz. All above the 75th percentile. He has been really showing some signs of growing up too.

The other day, he donated his first dollar to a charity.

He had his first kiss... with the vacuum

He has become Daddy's Little Boy. He will follow him around the whole house or just sit and cuddle with him. Kaleb only does that with me if he's not busy with something else AND I'm the only person in the house. I don't mind though. I think it's very sweet.

We also got Kaleb's big-boy carseat. As you can tell from the photo, he really likes it!!

Some other fun facts about Kaleb:

*He loves to wave and will do it on command or just randomly as he's passing people.

*Will often give kisses on command

*Loves to clap. Will join in when anyone else does it... even people on TV Also, when he thinks he's done something good, like the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOCh_IPmkd8

*Enjoys playing with doors and toilets. Both of which has been giving Mommy "Agida" (Oscar quote)

*Has been starting to communicate more and more. Often this entails grunting or randomly yelling to try to tell me something. However, Kaleb said his "First Words" meaning that it's the first thing he said that we knew for sure he was trying to say that actually sounded like what he was trying to say and that he pretty much knew the meaning to: "Hi, Dada". He said it to Ammon over the phone twice in a row, so we know he was doing it on purpose. It figures that the next day he actually called me "Mama". Other words we think he kinda says are: Diaper (die-die) and I Love you (Ayaya).

*Kaleb has never shown any real attachment to anything like a security blanket or whatever, However, we have noticed he REALLY likes walking around with his sippy cup.

*He now throws tantrums. They never last more than a minute or two, but whenever something happens he doesn't like he flails his arms in the air and starts to cry. Usually if we 'change the subject' he does just find.

*Also, Kaleb has gotten into the habit of hitting. Some might say it's no big deal at this age, especially since it doesn't really seem to be to hurt anyone. It's usually in play or to get something or someone away from him. However, we want to nip it in the bud, so if there are any suggestions to help with that let us know. Currently our method is to hold his hands for about ten seconds and say "No". If he repeats it several times times we cross his arms and hold him in a bear hug for about a minute as a time-0ut. Anyway, like I sais any suggestions would be good.

*Kaleb has fed himself for the first time. Below is a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzr3kD1uaqU

The Big 29

2010-05-27T23:06:00.008-07:00

I now have less than a year when I will no longer be able to be considered "in my 20's". My birthday, the other day was a good one, and really it lasted a couple of days. Of course, we enjoyed the many freebies that come on your birthday: Krispy Kreme dozen, JB's breakfast, Bahama Bucks Iced Goodness and we finished off with a very late dinner at Joe's Farm Grill (first time ever there; really liked it!) My official present was an apron. It's a long story, but I really wanted one, so this is what I got. The strange young man you see modeling it for us is a very sweaty elder that covers our area. He was a good sport!

Happy Bird-day? The morning of my birthday was a wacky one because we kept hearing creepy noises in our attic. It sounded like a rat had gotten stuck in some wiring and couldn't escape. It was, as I said, a creepy sound. Anyway, several hours later, we discovered a small bird had found its way into our fan in the bathroom. Thankfully Ammon was able to open the grate, chase it around the tiny bathroom and release it back into the wild. This would just be a wierd story but when you add in the fact that one of our chickens died that day under very mysterious circumstances, I feel I just have to call this my Bird-Day!

Here is the video of Ammon releasing the bird:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP4ynaNVuhA

Our poor little Kaleb, over an hour past his bedtime, so tired from all the activities of the day:

The day after my birthday, we had a nice little date. We dropped Kaleb off at the in-laws (he was sick of us and the car), and we had lunch at Y.C.'s Mongolian Grill. If you haven't been there you need to try it: SO GOOD!!! We originally planned to go there for my birthday, but among all the freebies, we couldn't fit it in.

Then we went to the Bass Pro Shop for the first time ever and had a blast shootin' it up and getting eaten by bears (CANNIBALS!!) Anyway, overall it was a fun little couple of days!

Just Plain Cute

2010-05-27T23:02:00.003-07:00

I've mentioned before that Kaleb loves Elmo's World the TV show. The other day we were shopping for birthday presents and we came upon a live-action puppet-type toy that Kaleb fell in love with. We would have gotten it if it weren't for the $60 price tag. After this video was taken, Kaleb cried until we left Walmart. Thankfully, there was a much cheaper, quieter alternative that we were able to purchase.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_YCVDwGN6U

Ward Campout

2010-05-27T22:38:00.010-07:00

This past weekend was our ward campout. We were in charge, and therefore (begrudgingly for me) we had to go. I have built the reputation over the last few years among members of my in-laws family that I HATE camping... and this all came about because when they go camping, they go for a week at a time. That's not camping to me. Thats attempting to imitate the pioneers; that's relocating; that's just plain nuts to me. So, therefore I "hate camping". Well, when we were told we would have to be in charge, my two criterion were 1-enclosed toilets (port-a-potties: perfect) and 2- in the pines. Well, after months of searching, some members of our ward found a spot up in the Pinal Mountains near Globe. It was close, free, in the pines with built-in toilets! AWESOME. So, we borrowed a bunch of equipment (since the closest thing we have to camping gear is a flashlight), dropped Kaleb off at my moms (didn't wanna worry about him eating grass, bugs and cow-pies the whole time) and trekked our way up to the beautiful Pinal Mountains. We got there around sunset Friday night, so I didn't get pictures till Saturday morning.

Ammon set up our wonderful borrowed tent, built for 7 (barely fit us on our borrowed cots)

We (the ward/activities committee) provided breakfast Saturday morning. We planned for 125. About 50 or 60 showed up. We ended up giving away 10 dozen eggs, 7 cartons of orange juice and two tubs of syrup.

Breakfast was made by some of our awesome High Priests and Ammon. The first counselor in our bishopric provided EVERYTHING (equipment-wise) we needed to make a first-class IHOP-worthy breakfast. Many thanks to all who helped out (who I am sure do not read my blog).

After breakfast, we sat in front of our tent and played games. Here is a photo of our neighbors' daughter singing (hollering) "Give Said the Little Stream" and "I;ll be Working on the Railroad" on top of a rock... all by herself. We thought it was entertaining, but it touched us when her mom told us those songs are on a video they made of her grandfather that just passed away. Apparently she really missed him.

Passing time away with a fun game of Mastermind

A view from the scary road on the way back to Globe. The funny thing about this road is that when I was a kid, I used to cry when we'd go camping in those mountains because I was so scared we would careen off the side of the road. (insert nervous laughter)

The rattlesnake that had just been run over on the road back to Globe. Gross but kinda cool.

Do you ever have an event that you are SOOOO not looking forward to that when it actually happens, you think... "I can't imagine that it will be worse than what I've imagined?" Like when you have been told a movie really isn't all that good, and when you see it you are happily surprised? Well, the ward campout was that way for me. The only complaint I have is that I couldn't sleep because the crazy wind made the tent create foot-step like sounds all night long. Otherwise good times. So much so that we just bought a tent and we plan on going camping a few times this summer... wacky little munchkin allowing.

The Pregnancy 20

2010-05-18T21:34:00.002-07:00

I have now lost THE 20 pounds of pregnancy weight!!! It only took 11 & 1/2 months, but I did it. Technically I've only been trying to get it off for about 3 &1/2 months, so not TOO bad. Now I just need to lose another 40 to get down to my wedding weight. (insert wistful sigh here)

Family Photo Shoot

2010-05-13T16:44:00.010-07:00

After months of trying, we FINALLY got family photos done. It was so much fun, and our friend Carrie did a fantastic job. First is a quick video that we shot right after we got home from the photo shoot. The outfit we got for Kaleb was a size too big, but was the only one we could find four our color scheme... anyway, it's just a cute little video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2kE6sKwg84

I also should explain that we didn't pose Kaleb, he naturally puts his hands together so sweetly. AND that he smiled with me because daddy was standing next to the photographer. However, he wasn't smiling for daddy's pictures because he didn't want to smile at me or the photographer. Oh well, he was so good through all of it I really can't complain.

Enjoy the pictures!

Kaleb-11 Months

2010-05-13T16:14:00.005-07:00

This posting is over a week late, but better late than never, right?

*Now that Kaleb is 11 months, knocking on the 1-year door, he is experiencing some real milestones. Firstly, he is walking about 60-70% of the time now, and with summer coming, we wanted to make sure his little tootsies were taken care of. Below is a picture of his new flip-flops... that lasted about a day. They were just too tight. We had a terrible time finding shoes that fit because of how fat his feet are. Finally, I was able to find some strap-on sandals that are perfect... and used (Thank goodness! Thanks, Jess)

*Also, Kaleb is able to use his mouth more... a LOT more. so far the closest he's come to talking is when he sees Daddy or a diaper and both sound the same... hmmmmm. Anyway, Kaleb has learned to click his toungue and whistle (kinda). It sounds more like wind blowing, but he's got the basic concept down.

With his newfound awareness we are able to play more games. Some of his favorites are:
**Hide-and-let-hide. Putting stuff in whatever space he can find (like boxes, the space under the end-tables by the couch or even my lap) and either forgetting about it or getting annoyed when it's somewhere he can't reach
**Tickling. He likes to be tickled (or massaged like the video below) but he has found that mommy has ticklish feet and gets a kick out of trying to nibble on my toes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61NO4T8n0l8
**Squishes. He stands between me and the couch while I'm sitting on the floor and waits for me to lean back and squish him over and over. Apparently those are some good times!!
**All forms of peekaboo. His new way of playing peekaboo is to randomly stand behind me and wait until i notice, smiling the whole time and then I surprise him by turning around and yelling "Gotcha" or whatever.

*I was always a big fan of Sesame Street, so I'm not too terribly dissapointed that Kaleb has grown to LOVE Elmo's world. I watch the news in the morning, so most of the time he ignores the TV until I change it, and he hears Elmo's voice, then its about ten minutes later when he comes unglued again. I think it's the high-pitched voice or something.

*No more onesies. Kaleb has pretty much grown out of all the onesies we have for him, so now he is sporting t-shirts. It makes him look so grown up!!

*Now that Kaleb is walking pretty regularly I decided to have him experience the playplace in the Superstition Springs mall. It's rubberized, air conditioned and someplace different that he's allowed to really wander in. So far he has been there four times, and he just LOVES it. He's so well behaved too. Plus, it's really funny when he recognizes that there is someone else near his age. He actually talks to them, whereas he basically just observes the other kids.

*I'm kind of excited for Kaleb to turn one. So many changes like a forward-facing carseat and no more bottles... but then again I'm gonna miss my little baby boy. Below are just some fun photos.

Dancing Kaleb

2010-04-28T17:21:00.002-07:00

The other day, Kaleb was hangin out in his playpen, while I was rockin out to some music, so he started rockin out too. Kaleb has always liked dancing, but squinting is a new thing that makes him laugh. Sorry you don't get to see his whole body, but he was naked at the time... I was airing out his poor booty from all the diahrea. Anyway, hope you like it as much as I did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOcc8KH1ZZo