We're Here!

Edit: I know I said that I would edit the pics as I lay here on the couch, but I just realized that that involves selecting which pictures to post as well as changing the size. So I'll just pawn that off on Jesse. Too much effort. Sorry.

We loaded up the truck (we used ABF, which I recommend, but tape everything well because things come back REALLY dusty) and left Friday morning. We drove up to Ann Arbor, MI (8 hours) and stayed Saturday and half of Sunday with good friends of ours, Ben and Telia. We had a great time seeing UM's campus, visiting local stores, and getting cider donuts. We went to church the next morning with them and then left after church to continue our trip. (Sidenote: I saw Brigg Turner's sister at church! What a small world.)

After leaving MI, we drove through Wisconsin, which doesn't deserve as bad a rap as it always gets. The portion we saw from I-90 was really pretty.

We drove through Minnesota, which was also pretty for a while. One thing about MN, though, is that they had a LOT of windmills. Lots. I didn't mind them, but Jesse found them creepy.

After Minnesota, of course, was South Dakota. That state also was...good. Lots of flatness. So flat that you felt like the road was pressing you up into the sky, and being on the slightest hill made you feel like you were driving off the edge of the world, because all you could see around you was the small area of the hill you were on. But South Dakota gave us the Badlands, which name sounds cool enough. It was also pretty. Look:

Badlands occur on every continent. The unique structures are where a higher plain is eroding down and turning into a lower plain. The South Dakota Badlands are really cold during the winter, and super hot with no shade during the summer. That's why they're called bad.

Ian ran around:

Kellan enjoyed his warmth:

We took pictures of small rugged hills that look like mountains:

After the Badlands we went to see Mt. Rushmore. We had never been before, and I was actually really excited to get a picture of our family in front of the presidents. Isn't it the all-American thing to do?

Here are the big four:

And other shots:

Our family photo:

I guess when Jesse asked the gentleman to take our picture, it was ridiculous to assume he would know we wanted the humongous national landmark that was right behind us in the picture too. I think it was actually probably harder for him to get a picture of us without the mountain face than it would have been to take a picture of us with it in the background.

After that we moved on and drove through Wyoming, then into Montana, Idaho, and Washington. Here are some more pictures:

Since we've arrived, we've just been getting settled and working at REI. Oh, and I guess we've been getting sick. We've all been sick at least once, most of us twice, since we've been here. But Jesse has still managed to get started studying for his tests, and I've thrown all my energies into wishing for a great winter. I need a lot of snow to wash the bad taste of those DC winters out of my mouth.

For Nancy

I just read Nancy's blog and saw that she was having a stressful week. So this post is for her:

They make dog Snuggies.

It Works For Now

Right now I'm smarter than Ian. At least I think I am. And I don't know how long life will be like that, so I have to use my superior intelligence to my advantage.

I was rocking him before he went to bed and he was SO tired, but he wouldn't settle down. I told him that we were going to have a contest and see if he could keep his eyes closed until I sang a whole song. I put my hand over his eyes just to make sure he wasn't peeking, and he fell asleep before I finished the second verse of "Mary Had A Little Lamb". So great.

A First!

We had dentist appointments today. This was the first time I had wished I had brought my own dental cleaning tools.

Goodbye, ghetto! I won't miss you.

On Sunday in Relief Society (the women's organization of our church) we usually take a minute or two for a "Good News Minute", where people tell about happy things going on in their lives. This last Sunday our activities coordinator announced that she had lost 40 pounds over the past few months, that she needed two bags of candy from everyone planning on going to the ward Halloween party, and that she needed them as soon as possible.

How could I be the only one who thought those two things announced at the same time was funny?

Odyssey

This:

And this:

Are going to move here:

In two weeks!

Thanks to getty images for my picture above; also, Jesse and Kellan do not have more fun than Ian and I do, regardless of what these pictures may lead you to believe.

Five Years

Jesse and I started dating almost five years ago! Thanks for making it a sweet five years, Jesse! Now take me out on a date.

That's not what I started writing about. I tried to log in to some secure websites to pay some of our bills and our computer must have updated or something, because I kept getting Jesse's security questions. You know, the ones that ask what your first pet was, what your favorite color is, etc. and I couldn't pay any of our bills because I can't get any of his questions right. Does this indicate something about our relationship? Do we not talk about things that matter? Do our minds work differently? What's wrong here?

I feel so disoriented. Does anyone else out there have this problem?

DJ/Budge Reunion!

Jesse was telling me the other day that his mission reunion will be coming up in April, and that he really wanted to try to get out for it. Which made me start thinking.

Not about his reunion, obviously, because I only have one job to do there: try to look cute so he can prove he was a good missionary. Ha! Joking, completely joking!

No, I started to wonder how mission reunions go. Do they have them every year, or just in intervals of five? If husbands of friends and friends and their wives will all be in Utah attending conference, wouldn't it be an easy time to have a get-together with all of our friends? Wouldn't that be so fun?

Please don't tell me that they only have reunions every five years. You don't want to be responsible for breaking my heart.

It's Not Me. It's You.

That's what I wanted to tell Ian. He wouldn't take a nap today. He wouldn't go to bed earlier than normal. It's now 7:30 p.m. and he is still awake.

Sweetheart, it's not me. I gave you dinner early and made sure you ate a lot. I gave you a bath. We rocked and read and rocked some more. It's all you.

Okay, fine. When I put Kellan to bed and he cried for five minutes, that didn't help I'm sure. But he cried for five minutes and then went to sleep.

Make a note, Ian.

Beef

Don't people realize that they can't take a recipe out of a recipe book and call it their own?

Why We LOVE Mondays

This is how Ian spent his morning:

They were mowing, edging, and blowing outside, and when they do that Ian is glued to the window. He was so distracted that he didn't even notice me taking pictures. He absolutely loves anything with a motor or legs/wings. Pure boy. I have a feeling Kellan will love those things, too, but only because Ian does.

Anyways, that's how Ian's morning went. This is how MY morning (and day) went:

Kellan went down for a nap. Ian woke him up early.

Ian went down for a nap. Kellan woke him up early.

Kellan fell asleep for the night. Ian woke Kellan up when I put him (Ian) down.

Kellan woke Ian up when I put him (back) down.

Ian woke Kellan up after he had fallen asleep while I was nursing him.

Jesse woke me up when he came home from REI, after I had fallen asleep trying to get the kids to sleep.

During Kellan's hour-long wake period I put him in his swing and decompressed by reading some blogs. I wold look over the computer screen at him and he would just be sitting there watching me, waiting for me to acknowledge him. As soon as I looked at him he would get this HUGE grin on his face. Finally I couldn't take it anymore, and took him out to let him crawl around so I could pinch his cheeks while I had some Ian-free time.

He didn't want to cuddle, though. All he wanted to do was chew on his frog.

Mormon Messages

Since it is General Conference this weekend, I will use this time to confess something that I have wanted to say for a long time.

Our church has made some "Mormon Messages" videos that feature one of our apostles or the prophet speaking, along with music. Each video has a different focus. They're very good, and I am addicted to them. They make me cry, but in a good way.

Here are some of my favorites:

Restoration

Hope Ya Know, We Had A Hard Time

O Remember, Remember

Watch a video. It will make your day better, and who doesn't need a better day?

OCD

When Ian takes off his shoes, he places them neatly side by side right in front of the door, in the exact middle of the door. Facing the door. It's like he wants to be able to just step into them and continue out the door.

He also insists on opening the door that leads out of our apartment building. There's a fake deadbolt and he has to turn the deadbolt to the exact upright position before he opens the door. We'll try to get it right at least four or five times before we can leave.

And, just for fun, I caught Kellan trying to eat the dust bunnies in our closet this morning.

Fall!

The trees here are starting to turn red--just the very tops of some, but it's the beginning of fall! Which brings me to wonder...why don't the grocery stores out here have good hot cocoa? All they carry is Nesquick and individually packaged Swiss Miss with marshmallows. Gross.

One other thing this area lacks: Cinnamon bears. Nowhere to be found.

C Jane

Read this post here, called "First The Babies". I mean, if you want to. It's not an order.

For anyone unfamiliar with C Jane, she is Mormon and has her own blog. She started her blog to help her try to enjoy life while battling with infertility. Her sister is Stephanie Nielson of The NieNie Dialogues, another blogger who is read by many.

I loved C Jane's post and totally agree with it. Right now is my time to be a mother. I don't need to be anal about if my house is all in order, or busy myself with projects and other things that take a lot of time away from my children. I mean, obviously we all need one or two things to keep ourselves sane, but right now is the time I have to take care of my children, to teach them gospel principles, and to be the best I can be for them. I shouldn't allow myself to be distracted by trying to cook picture-perfect dinners or to be overly obsessed with trying to stay in fashion.

It will all come later, after the kids.

I Smell T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Going In The Book

Last General Conference Elder Eyring mentioned that he wrote one sentence a day about each of his children in a diary. I am going to start that. I don't want to forget that today Ian told me I had a big head, or that he was playing with his bear and looked at the tag (placed on the bear's bottom) and said, "Eeeew! Poop!".

I also don't want to forget that yesterday was Kellan's first attempt at pulling himself onto something with any kind of height to stand up. I don't want my kids to blend together.

???

The other day I woke up in the morning to find that my pillow was missing. I found it in the hallway.

Favorite Books List

I loathe reading stupid kid books, so in an effort to spare others the same pain, I am going to put a "Favorite Books List" on the side of our blog. If you're a mom and looking for a good toddler book to read, we can recommend some. Not that that really applies to that many of my friends, but I have to feel like I'm doing something with my life.

Car Woes

My Subaru has problems. We took it in and they said that the heads had become warped, causing the head gaskets to leak. To repair the problem, as well as replace the timing belt and water pump (which needed to be done anyways), would be a little over $1800.

So Jesse's dad went in and talked to the Subaru dealer in New Hampshire and basically said that Subaru should fix the problem--warped heads had been a problem with their cars in the past, it was still a problem for their cars, and they should take responsibility. They agreed to fix the problem if we would pay for the parts--amounting to $750. Unfortunately this would require us to get our car up to New Hampshire. Jesse went in and talked to our local Subaru dealership, told them what the NH dealership agreed to do, and they basically agreed to do the same. We will end up paying $900 for the problem to get fixed.

That's a lot cheaper than we originally thought, but it's still a lot of money! Wouldn't life be better if we all rode bikes, or horses?

Only the Beginning, I'm Sure

Today as I was trying to put Ian down for a nap, he kept saying "bite cheek?" or "bite hand?", and then he would pretend to start to bite me. I don't like it when he plays this game because I'm seconds away from actually getting bit. Then he said "bite big nose?" Yeah, I really don't like that game.

Question

So, what does a caterpillar do when it's in the cocoon growing its wings? Is it sleeping? In a coma? Still awake? How come they don't teach these things in school?? I remember learning about the polluted Chesapeake (btw, the drains here STILL run into the Chesapeake. Shouldn't that have been solved?), but NOT what a caterpillar is doing in there. According to Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", they stay inside for more than two weeks. That's a long time. I want answers!

Ian

Lately Ian has started pretending, which is so cute. He'll crawl around on the floor like a dog and bark, and a surefire way to get him to eat when he's too busy is to pretend to feed a bite to his truck. He likes lining his cars up along the edge of the desk when we're rocking before he goes to bed, and he loves his truck books. We're doing the "How to Teach Your Baby to Read" thing, and he loves loves loves when I pull out his words.


He counted to two yesterday, which was a huge victory for us, and he pointed out two things that were red, and one thing that was yellow. I was really happy about that, as it's the most interested he's been in colors and numbers since...well, ever.

Ian loves Kellan and likes making him laugh. He likes laying down next to Kellan and letting him grab his hair and face and ears. He tries to share his food with Kellan all the time, likes getting in Kellan's crib when Kellan wakes up, and when Kellan is sleeping he tries to go in and wake him up so he can play.


Ian loves riding his bike, but even more than riding it, he loves pushing it.


The other day in nursery Ian was running across the room and he tripped and fell. This is what his nose looked like:


It's the worst rambunctious-induced injury he's ever had. I expect more to follow, especially when Kellan is old enough to participate.

I bought Ian tractor fruitsnacks the other day to give him if he used his potty chair. The only thing that happened was Ian would randomly go into the kitchen and scream "tractor fruitsnacks" through out the day. Ian won't be getting food bribes anymore for potty training. I can't take it.

A semi-related problem (in that it involves food, and sometimes the toilet) is the fact that Ian loves playing with liquids. If I give him milk and he has emptied out his cereal bowl already, he pours the milk in the bowl, then back in the cup, then in the bowl....He dumps things in his potty chair, in his dump truck, in our SHOES. Sometimes it's funny. Other times, not.

He loves putting things in his pockets. I have found a fair few rocks in the dryer after I have put a load through, so I need to start checking his pockets. The other day I went to change him and I found a five dollar bill in there that he had pulled off of the sewing machine! I had caught him poking the twenty under the front door, and we're still missing a five somewhere.

I remember taking this picture when Ian was 11 months old:

Obviously the toy box has some kind of magnetism for him.


Next up: deep questions.

Six Months Old!

I can't believe Kellan is six months old. Like Nancy said, it seems like he was a baby for a second. I apologize about these pictures. I think our camera makes them such a huge file size that they don't look good unless I size them down before I upload them, and I'm much too lazy to do that.



At his six month appointment, Kellan was nineteen pounds and 26 1/2 inches long--75th and 50th percentile, respectively. He sits up all by himself and never falls backward. He scoots all over the apartment (right now he's in my bedroom) and uses some kind of sixth sense to find every single piece of paper on the floor. He chewed up two books of Ian's, along with a few magazines, the two handouts I got in Relief Society on Sunday, and ate a recipe Jesse saved for me. And that was just yesterday. It's kind of scary and dangerous, so I try to keep things picked up, but with Ian it's impossible to keep things off the floor. I just have to do a sweep every now and then.



Kellan loves eating. His favorites are peaches, pears, carrots, spinach, green beans, and peas. He HATES broccoli. I am excited for when he gets a little older and can eat the same stuff we have for dinner. He watches us eat so intently I feel like I'm being a jerk and hoarding my food by not sharing with him. Last night he grabbed a handful of my salad while I was eating it and had it in his mouth before I could put my fork down.



Sorry--had to take a break. I heard Kellan coughing and it turned out he had left the bedroom for the bathroom, and was eating toilet paper Ian had left on the floor. Don't worry, it wasn't used.



Kellan LOVES watching Ian. He'll just sit there and laugh while Ian tears around the house. He loves playing with Ian, when Ian shares his toys, and his new favorite thing is for us to hold his hands and help him "walk". He gets so giggly and smiley he loses it for the first couple of steps. I think he wants to do everything Ian does.



His teeth are coming in and he's quite a bit more dramatic than Ian ever was with any of his teeth. Not as dramatic as other kids I've babysat, but it's still funny to compare the differences. I love looking at ways they are the same, and the ways that they are different. Kellan will probably be a quieter person over all, but more likely to get upset about things than Ian--at least as far as physical pain goes.

Anyways, I guess that's it for now. I'll post tomorrow for Ian, for the grand parents.

Survival of the Fittest, Part 2

If your toddler came up to your side of the bed in the wee hours of the morning, held his finger up, and said "Poop finger!" would you ignore him and try to keep sleeping?

Again, if life were like nature, Jesse would be a goner.

Survival of the Fittest

I don't want to make this blog a negative, ranting, dark corner of the internet. I really don't. But I have to. Because I just got my bill in the mail for the delivery of my second born son, and they got the insurance wrong. Again. I registered online (why do they even have you do this? it cuts out absolutely no time when you get to the hospital) and provided my insurance information before I even went into labor. Right after I registered I received a phone call. They had the wrong insurance information. We corrected it. When I got to the hospital they had the wrong insurance information. We corrected it. After I delivered, a woman came to my room to get me to pay before I left. We went over the insurance information and corrected it (good thing I didn't give her my payment information, because they would've overcharged me and I still wouldn't have gotten a refund). Once home I got a series of bills from the hospital, all with the wrong insurance information. This is the eighth time. I am calling them on Monday, giving them the correct information, writing a check for the amount I actually do owe, and then I'm ignoring whatever happens from that point on.

I wish, oh I wish that this was like the wonderful, wild outdoors, where incompetency gets its own reward--only instead of death, it would be an erasure of their "accounts due" database, obviously.

Ian's Big #2

Ian is now officially a two year old (and beginning to master the fine art of the tantrum). We celebrated his birthday on Sunday evening. Haley spent hours making Ian a firetruck cake -- firetrucks being one of the things that fills his little life with glee. (And where we live firetrucks and police cars scream by all day...and all night.) Unfortunately we ran out of red food coloring so it turned out to be a MaryKay firetruck. Ian loved it all the same.

Okay, this is Haley: That cake is hideous, and if anyone respects my pride, they won't enlarge the picture. Trust me, the cake is best viewed from a great distance.



The good thing about birthdays when they're this young is that you don't have to wrap the presents, really.


Ian was VERY excited about his presents. Part of that reason was because he got a trike and cars, both of which he loves, but also part of that reason--a very big part--was that he was allowed to indulge in cake-eating, which is a rare treat.

A Picture Story

We started out in New Hampshire.

Grandpa George coaxed Ian out on the boogieboard:

Here Ian saw a motorcycle. He was so excited he couldn't even say "motorcycle" before it had disappeared around the corner.



We went to the Independence Festival in historic Exeter. For some odd reason there were more women dressed up as soldiers than as...well, women.

We watched old guys shooting off cannons:

Grandparents, George and Janice:

Then we went to Vermont to see Jesse's cousins, aunts, uncle, grandparents, and mom, and nephew:


Church Street, Burlington, VT:

Ian LOVES tractors and his cousin Tyler:

And Great Grandma Watson loves holding Kellan:

This is what the whole week was like for Ian, entertained by one cousin or another:

Okay, check out Kellan spitting all over my face:

At least he thought it was funny:


Jesse's grandparent's 60th anniversary:


Someday Grandma Karen will get a granddaughter. Probably not from Jesse and I, though. Jens and Audree, I guess it's up to you two!

Night time exposure across Lake Champlain:

Diana is going to move to America (she's from Spain) and be our nanny, because she was so good with the kids. Right, Diana?


Her brother Daniel also was really good with the kids:


Jesse's cousins are ALL tall. This is the best picture I had to illustrate it, but I came up to his three guy cousins' mid-arms. I don't know how tall Diana's brother, Daniel is, but Sam and Patrick (brothers) are both 6'7", and Daniel is right up there with them. Here I am walking next to Sam.

And then we went back to NH:

This was just before Ian realized that he didn't have the means to stop a wagon from rolling down the hill on top of him...Luckily Dad was there to save him:

Oh, and we stopped by the Joseph Smith Birthplace on the way home in Sharon, VT.



Remember the story about how Joseph and Emma's twins died, and John Murdock and his wife had twins at the same time, and his wife died, so John asked Joseph and Emma to adopt his twins? Yeah, I'm a direct descendant of John Murdock. I just thought you would like to know.

At the Independence Festival, I decided that I should make us all period costumes for our Halloweens. Wouldn't that be cool? I could get the fabric and patterns on sale (maybe after this Halloween), have a craft project to work on all year, and then finally have a costume to wear on Halloween, instead of some stupid last-minute thing. And that way I could buff up my apparel sewing skills. What period should I do first?

In sum, it was a great trip.