Updates

Just before I crash back into bed, I feel bad that I haven't been letting anyone know what's up with me and my family.

Bryan is in school. He's going back for another degree in accounting. Since he already has so many classes under his belt, it was something that he could get in a year and that he liked. Bad news was that since he has a degree, there are zero funding options available, so we had to pay for it ourselves, up front. Ouch. But obviously we feel like this is the right thing and will be worth the investment of time, money, and family effort.

Living. We are, thankfully. We're staying at my mother's parent's house on the far west side of town. It was a little crowded over the summer when my mom, my two brothers, me and my 3 boys, our dog, and my grandparents were all in the house. It was chaotic, but pretty fun. Having a lot of people around is pretty neat, I think. But my mom and her boys now have their own house - one house over - and we're settling in for the short haul over here until Bryan gets a job.

I have a job now. I applied at Michaels, where I've worked before, and was hired back. I always loved working there, and I still do. The people are nice, the customers are fairly nice, it's a pretty easy and enjoyable job. But! I work nights right now, and it's killing me. I get almost no sleep, and so I spend most of my days and days off sleeping. It's been really rough. And I REALLY miss being at home with my boys. It's NOT a break to go to work. Although I can say with certainty now that working is easier than parenting by a bajillion miles. My first day was a real doozy, and all my coworkers were asking "So, how are you doing?" And I replied very honestly that it was much easier than my other job -- Mom.

Alexander is an interesting child, shall we say. He's so opposite everything that Christopher was. He eats EVERYTHING he can find, but he's also a crawler and scoots amazingly fast all over the house. Keeping the floors clean enough to prevent him from eating/chewing at least one really bad thing a day seems to be impossible, and I have pulled several nasty things away from him while he was on floors I'd just cleaned, including a trip to the ER after he ate BOTH a piece of glass and a pill not five minutes after I'd scoured the floor he was on and I could have sworn it was perfect. He must have a radar for those things, either that or I'm blind. Other that than terrible habit, his only other bad habits are that he doesn't sleep for more than 2 hours, ever. Night or day. He eats constantly, leading me to surrender my plan to fully breastfeed for most of a year, and give in to giving him bottles and baby food. I still mostly nurse, but he'll just keep eating and eating. He loves those puffed crunchy things they sell for babies (something like flavored, mushy rice crispies with a fancy package and a high price tag), because he can eat them I suspect. He loves eating anything you let him put in his mouth. And he HAS teeth, they've been there for over a month, but they just aren't coming through. You can see them, they just don't wanna come out. Poor baby. And he crawls, stands up on everything he can, babbles, laughs at everything, and generally is very adorable. I love him a lot, bad habits notwithstanding. I'm very glad he came to join us.

Christopher LOVES his brother. He's very helpful, and surprisingly trustworthy around him. He's not mean to his brother, and he's careful to make sure that his brother has safe things, and he keeps his own little toys (legos, etc) locked safely in his room on a closet shelf. I've been so impressed with Christopher and how responsible he is. And I never even asked him to really. He's LOVING living near his uncles and his "DeeDee" - my mom. Living at Grandma's is fun too, like a permanent sleepover at party central! He loves the big backyard, all the people around him, the fact that there's a TV here with kid's channels, how much room there is to play, all the toys.... it's great for him and he's having a blast. The only thing I'm sad about is that Christopher is a very schedule-oriented kid, he always wants to know what's happening when, and this place is pretty chaotic, so he doesn't have that and sometimes it's tough on him. But otherwise, he's having a blast. He's growing up so fast. He likes to do "school" with me, and I'm happy to see that he's getting a little better with his letters. He's great with numbers, he loves to count and he can add and subtract in his head with basic numbers. He really surprises me sometimes with what he can do with numbers. But letters don't seem to interest him. But a little "school", some fun home-made flash cards, and time with Mommy seem to be working past that aversion, and he's getting better with letters, although I don't know that he'll ever love them like he does numbers.

So, I waxed a little long-winded about the boys, but I'm a mommy who loves them very much, and I know that most people want to hear about them anyway, so I don't worry about it! I hope this little update helps everyone "catch up" with us just a bit. It's been so crazy (and exhausting!) that I haven't done anything with anyone for so long and I miss everyone. I hope you are all well.

The Joys Of Marriage

Today my dear sweet lovable husband was working out in the backyard with my grandpa. It was fun to watch him be the handyman. When he came in one time he handed me a cup with plastic wrap rubber-banded over the top.

"Look what I found!"

It was a little baby snake! I had caught one just like it the day before, and he was bringing me a second! If you didn't already know, snakes happen to be my most favorite animal. So this was a great present that I was happy about.

Later I was in the kitchen, and I hear him at the back door.

"Hey Hon! I've got something for you!"

I come to the door and notice that he's got his fist closed and dirt on it. I know he's got a critter, maybe a third snake. He gives me a kiss and drops a lizard into my hand. How fun!

Now, I know some people will go "EEEEEWWWW!!! That is SO GROSS!" Well, tough. For me, that was a very awesome thing for my husband to give me as a gift. In years past, he let me get a pet snake for an anniversary present, and was not exactly excited but still patient at another time when I showed up with 4 baby snakes after an "evening out". It's his way of loving me the way I like to be loved. And that kind of respect and courtesy goes both ways. I love my marriage. (Let me brag once in a while. =)

So now I have 2 tiny snakes and a baby lizard. And as I was looking at them, I thought how very interesting it was that Bryan would do that for me. When we first got married, I don't think he would even have touched those critters, let alone chased them down and brought them to me! And yet here he is, catching me creatures. As I thought about it, it amazed me how much our marriage has matured into something really fantastic. Each of us has grown and changed into people that the other person really likes and is happy with. Each of us does things for each other just because we know it makes the other person happy. I feel that we've managed to take the best of each other and make two better people. I love my husband, and I love our marriage. I'm so happy that my life is what it is.

A Trip!

Most everyone probably didn't know this, but I just went with my two little boys to Utah this past week. It was a great trip! I went to bid farewell to my sister Susan, who is leaving to serve a mission in Carlsbad, California for a year and a half. In spite of it taking 8 hours to do the 6 hour leg of the trip and 10 hours to do the 5 hour leg, I made it to Utah in time to see Susan get set apart, which was neat. My brother Joe, who is attending BYU there, and his friend Jessica was kind enough to watch my little boys while he and I went to that, so afterwards Joe, Jessica, the boys, and I went out to eat at this nifty little noodle place. It was exactly like Chipotle, but served noodles. It was yummy. Then the boys and I went back to our hotel, which for being a budget hotel was amazingly nice. It was a lot better than I had anticipated.

The next day we woke up and hurriedly got ready to meet up with Susan, with whom we spent a few hours. When time was up, we gave parting hugs and goodbyes, she handed over her cell phone and a few other things she can't take on a mission, and off she went! We didn't go to the MTC with her, a friend took her, but we did get to enjoy some time with her. She was happy that she got the chance to see Alexander, because otherwise she wouldn't have seen him until he was 2 or older. I realize that for some families that's no big deal, but in our family we're pretty close, so that seemed quite sad to miss out entirely on meeting one of her nephews for that long. Personally, I also enjoyed the drive, the trip, seeing my siblings, and visiting Utah. It was so gorgeous.

Afte dropping off Susan, we went back to the hotel and the boys and I miraculously all fell asleep together and had a nap! When we woke up we got ready and went out to meet Joe and Jessica at "the duck pond". It's this place on the BYU campus where there's a tiny pond filled with ducks, and you can feed them. The night before, I had stopped at a grocery store on my way back to the hotel and gotten, among other things, two loaves of bread. We used both loaves. Christopher (and admittedly myself) had a blast!!!! These ducks were completely 'people-a-tized' and would eat out of your hand. They also would walk up behind you and steal your bread from your lap if you were dumb enough to set it down momentarily. That was actually very hillarious, because once that duck stole the whole big piece of bread, the other ducks started what looked to be a game of full-contact football in their attempts to steal it. Also, Christopher wondered if the ducks would do tricks like Onyx (his dog), so he held up a piece of bread, and what do you know! One duck sized up the situation, jumped/flew up to grab the bread, and dropped back down with bread firmly in beak. It was awesome! We also saw turtles, and I picked one up to let Christopher/Jessica see it, but neither one wanted to really get too close or touch it, so I put it back. There were also some adorable ducklings, which we tried to feed with little success.

After that I ran around a bit with the boys, visiting the Provo temple, and a store along our way, eventually winding up at the hotel. Alexander cried for 4 hours that evening. I was glad that we were in a satilite room and the hotel wasn't busy, because I'm sure somebody would have been pretty mad if there was anybody near enough to have to listen to that. It was then that I realized how vital it is to have two parents, because the baby drove me crazy and there was nothing I could do and no way to take a break. In the end I lay him in his crib and let him cry until he fell asleep, which was two of the four total hours that he cried. Christopher doesn't like his crying, so I gave Christopher a bath so he wouldn't hear it so much, then I sunggled him to sleep with me.

In the morning we took it slow, watching morning cartoons, eating breakfast in bits when we felt like it, and cleaning up and getting ready to go at a nice slow pace. Joe came over after his classes to help me out by emptying my camera on to some disks so that I could take more pictures; I had filled up my memory card already. Then we went on an adventure to Bridal Veil Falls, where neither of us had been before. It was really great to spend time with Joe, he's amazing and I'm so proud to have him as my brother. We arrived at a trailhead, put the baby in the baby backpack, and started walking. Before we even started the walk, Christopher had found a hill, climbed up, slid down, and gotten covered completely (really) in brown powdery dirt. I was glad that we were going to find some water. I didn't want him back in the car like that!

We walked a ways and found the falls, which were beautiful!!! The water was very cold, but we played in it anyway. Christopher ran around for over an hour, climbing the falls, splashing in the water, playing imaginary games, and being cute. I sat with the baby mostly, but I really enjoyed myself. We eventually left when I realized that I needed to get on the road again.

The drive home was much faster than the drive up. The boys slept or were mostly good, so I didn't have to stop as much. All in all, even though the trip had it's stresses, it was fabulous and I was so thankful I got to go. I enjoyed the time with my siblings, doing fun things with Christopher, and being in such a beautiful place. But it's also great to be home!