Life Comes At You Fast

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2011-11-25T13:59:00.001-08:00

Our Thanksgiving was pretty awesome--

--full of food, family, and fun. Just a few of the things that I was grateful for this year.

And I'm going to have to write an entirely separate post about having a brother leave on a mission, then a brother get back from his mission just in time for Thanksgiving--as well as Clark's first haircut. But we'll talk about that for later. For now, you can just know that our Thanksgiving was wonderful.

How was yours?

I guess I might as well tell you...

2011-11-18T13:11:00.001-08:00

....One of the many reasons I haven't been blogging lately. I've been sick--well, morning sick, that is.
Yes, I'm pregnant again!! We're pretty excited, although I know I'll be more excited when I finally feel human again. This pregnancy has definitely been harder than my other two, but it felt really right to start trying again, so we were pretty thrilled when we found out that I'm pregnant.
I'm now 14 weeks along, which means that I'm due on May 14th, and which also means (hopefully) only two more weeks of morning sickness! Yay!! Everything seems to be going pretty well, and although we waited a lot longer to start telling people about this pregnancy (mostly because it felt a little different than my other two, which worried me, but also because our younger two will be really close together, and we didn't really want the judgements which we knew would come our way), I'm excited to get the news out here on the blogosphere finally!
So, yay!! Hopefully there will be more blogs coming your way after the next couple of weeks. :)

I'm Baaaaack!!

2011-09-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

Okay. So my reasons for not blogging--basically that my computer had a virus (or two--hundred), which made it slow, which wouldn't let me post the entries I had written. So I got lazy.

But today, my aunt gave me a CD with all of the pictures from our recent family photo shoot at the temple. Honestly, it didn't go as well as one might have hoped--Jack was cranky, wouldn't look at the camera, and by the end of the shoot, so was I. But, in order to apologize for my lack of blogging lately, I'm going to photo-vomit all over this post. 'Sides, we got SOME cute pictures!

Right? You can say it. He's handsome.

Smiling at his mommy.

Wrestling

Wrestling with Daddy

Trying to get him to smile

Typical.

By this point, we were tired and cranky, so we thought it best that we look away from the camera.

Jennifer did the caption, which just cracked me up. Pretty sure we're both on the verge of swearing right there (which is a double sin, 'cause we were at the Temple!)

I'm telling Steve to smile. He did. And it turned out to look pretty great!

Clark decided to take a bite out of Jack's hair, which Jack used as an excuse to throw a major meltdown for the next half hour. It was awkward, to say the least.

At least the grown-ups look happy, right?

And I just love his fat face. Does it sound weird to say I love to nibble on my baby?

So, that's about how we're looking these days. Hopefully now that my computer doesn't take half an hour just to boot up, I'll be on here more often!

Own It!!

2011-05-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

On Mother's Day, our next-door neighbors were the speakers in Sacrament Meeting, which made me happy, because I like these neighbors. I teach their girls piano lessons, their youngest daughter likes to play with Jack, and they installed sprinklers about the same time we did, so we were able to commiserate about how tough this Snowflake dirt and wind can be on anything you're trying to grow. Really. Remind me to tell you sometime about how we've been struggling again with our landscaping--or rather, lack thereof.
Anyways. Enough with the tangents.
The oldest three daughters and the parents spoke, and while all of the talks were very sweet and Mothers-Day-ish, the mom's talk stood out the most. Probably because she's about 10 years ahead of where I am in our family, and so I watch how she does things, taking mental notes of how she handles different situations. She really is awesome, but she's very real, and it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who has some of the struggles I have.
One of the things that she mentioned in her talk was kind of a life-changer for me. She said (and I'm paraphrasing here), "Own your decisions. If you're going to play with your kids instead of mopping the floor, don't feel guilty for having a dirty floor at the end of the day, remember that you decided to play with your kids instead of taking that time to mop the floor! And vice versa: sometimes you need to get the house clean, and if you have to put on the TV in order to do it, don't feel guilty! You made a decision, now just own it!"
That part of her talk (along with several others) really hit me hard. I am a BIG apologizer--I get it from my mom. In fact, on my mission, I was hit by a car while riding my bike once, and as I clambered off the guy's hood, I apologized and then thanked him. True story (and no, it was not my fault--I had the right of way, but the guy was on his cell phone and didn't notice me). Pretty much one of the first things Steve can expect me to do upon his getting home are kiss him and then apologize for whatever didn't get done that day. And let's face it, there is always something or other that didn't get done that day.
However, I'm going to take this as my mantra: own it. For two reasons--first, if I have to make a decision to do or not to do something, I need to make it a conscious decision, rather than allow my day to be decided by my situations. And second, this mantra forces me to not feel guilty (or at least try not to feel guilty) for whatever I've chosen to do.
So, yesterday, although I had a To-Do list longer than my arm (and I have very long arms), I decided that because Clark and Jack both had stuffy noses and coughs, I was going to take them and the humidifier into Jack's very messy room, and we were going to play in there with the door closed.
So we played.

And we played.

And we played some more.

And although the room got cleaned in the process, a half an hour later, it looked like this again:

And you know what? I was fine with it. Because I had made the decision that playing with my kiddos was more important than having a clean house--for yesterday.

Today is different. I still have all of those things that didn't get done on my To-Do list from yesterday, along with today's To-Do list, and I've decided that I do want to get the house clean in time for Steve to get home from his work trip. So, I put on a couple of TV shows, set Jack and Clark in a tent with the humidifier in front of them, and got a-cleanin'.

And guess what? That's okay. Because that was my decision, and I'm going to own it!

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

My favorite Mother's Day gift?
I didn't have to change one single poopy diaper ALL DAY. Win.

The Bunny--It Came!

2011-04-26T20:26:00.001-07:00

So...it's so interesting combining traditions for holidays from two different families, isn't it?
Growing up, we always had a scavenger hunt on Easter morning. My Easter Bunny would have some kind of note left where we could find it right off the bat (usually on the kitchen table), which would lead us through an entire hunt all over the property before we'd find out Easter Baskets, which we had put on the table the night before, empty.
Steve's Easter Bunny, however, would hide the Easter Baskets, as well as several eggs, all over the yard, and they would have to hunt for them all morning long.
So, this year, our Easter Bunny compromised. He hid the baskets, along with some clues as to where they were, and we helped lead Jack from one place to another, until he found them. Then later on, we took the eggs we had already colored (I just didn't want to even attempt coloring Easter eggs with a toddler in tow. Judge if you want. I don't mind) over to my parent's house, where Jack had a fun Easter egg hunt in their backyard.
We didn't get many pictures, but here are a couple:

Happy Easter!! Hope yours was fun!

Jack the Ripper

2011-04-25T20:12:00.001-07:00

Have any of you seen Disney's Lilo and Stitch? In it, there is a character named Stitch.
In the beginning of the movie, Stitch is actually introduced as a weapon of mass destruction. His creator hard-wired him to destroy everything he comes across, and the movie is about how Stitch learns to love his family, which teaches him how to reign in his destructive tendencies (among other things, of course).
I always liked that movie, but now that I have a toddler, I feel like I'm living it. You see, we have our own little "Stitch" on our hands, but we call him Jack.

He's just so curious and so busy that a lot of things get destroyed around here. Last weekend was no exception.

We went over to my parent's house for Sunday dinner, and they had just gotten two baby chicks and two baby ducklings. The birds were too small to live outside yet, so they were staying under a heat lamp in my younger brothers' room. Jack loves our chicks (which we keep in the garage, away from him), but we had never let him around them without close adult supervision. We're trying to teach him what it means to be gentle, but that's a concept he still doesn't seem to grasp, and instinct (as well as common sense) told us not to let him in near the birds. So, we locked the door to my brothers' room (not knowing that the doorknob on that particular door doesn't actually lock), and told each other firmly that we'd have to keep a close eye on Jack, then went our ways.

Later that afternoon, we were all sitting around the table, finishing our delightful cheesecake, when Jack ran proudly into the room--holding all four birds in his grasping, chubby little toddler fists.

I gasped, pointed, and stood up. Steve got there first, removed the birds from the child's grasp, and immediately took him outside, while McKay and I surveyed the damage. Both chicks were dead, and one of the ducklings seemed a little shell-shocked, but okay, while another duckling was totally fine. I started crying angrily, then went outside to discipline my little cold-blooded killer.

My mom took me aside, however, and let me know that they weren't angry or upset, and said kindly that she wasn't telling me what to do, but her advice was to let it go. Jack wasn't old enough to understand what it meant to die, she explained, and he had no clue he was hurting the animals when he squeezed them--to him, they were just like the toys he has. When you squeeze 'em, they make noise!

I appreciated her point of view, because my first instinct was to go outside and chew him out, show him what he had done, then put him in Time-Out for, oh, maybe eternity. But I listened to her advice (something I should have learned to do a long time ago), and was gentler than I originally would have been. I entreated Steve to let Jack come back inside, and we vowed, even more firmly this time, that we'd make sure not to let Jack anywhere near those ducks!

We enjoyed talking for a few more hours, when disaster, once again, struck in the form of Jack.

I had been in the kitchen, and I rounded the corner to the hallway to see Steve pulling Jack by his elbow out of...the boys' room.

My heart sank, and I ran into their room to see McKay once again crouching over his beloved birds. One of the ducklings had already died, and the other was obviously seriously hurt--struggling for each breath and just crying. Knowing that it was in pain, my dad took it outside to put it down.

I went on the front porch, fuming, where I saw Steve was holding onto Jack, who was screaming and trying to wriggle out of his hold. Jack still had no clue what had happened and just wanted to go back in and play with the "stuffed animals," but we were angry and frustrated by the fact that that kid seems to destroy EVERYTHING.

Once again, my parents gently came outside and talked to us, reminding us that these were farm animals, not pets, and that Jack had no clue what he had done. The fact that my parents were actually trying not to laugh helped a little, but we still felt heavy-hearted, especially when I saw how sad McKay was.

We promised him that we would get him more ducklings, and that cheered him up a little. Later, when my mom started telling McKay about the time he tried to teach some kittens how to swim, as well as about the time HE had gotten ahold of a few birds of his own, not to mention a couple of hamsters, all with less-than-desirable results, and as I remembered a few times when I had bathed our cat as a child, I started to realize that perhaps this is a phase that all children go through, and I cheered up a little. Now that a couple of weeks have passed, I still feel twinges of guilt when I think about the whole thing, but I am starting to see the humor in the situation.

Hopefully my child won't turn out to be a serial killer, after all.

The Eensie Weensie Spider

2011-04-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I was a sister missionary, and I was brave.
You see, in Taiwan, there are a lot of bugs. Lots outside, but even more inside. In every single area, we lived in apartments that were always one of hundreds of others--and although we'd do everything we could to keep the bugs out of our little areas, they would just avoid whatever we'd spray at or on them, run up a couple of stories to another apartment, then come back in a couple of days when the spray would wear off.
At first, I got pretty grossed out by the numbers of cockroaches I'd see invading my personal area, but after a few months in the country, I was pretty good about just grabbing a shoe, spray, or paper towel and killing whatever bug I saw right off the bat, without making too big of an issue over it. Most of my companions had been out even longer than I had, so they, too, were quite accomplished bug-squishers.
However, after several months on the island, I had one companion who came to me straight from the States.
This girl was (and is) an amazing person--optomistic, funny, and one of my favorite companions. She could bring the Spirit into any lesson we taught, and she had so much enthusiasm that it couldn't help but impress everyone we came across. I LOVED this girl. Still do, in fact. But, she did have one tiny little flaw. Insects of any form terrified her. Even the smallest cockroach was enough to send her running into the other room, calling for me to come be the hero and save the day, which, as her Trainer, I was usually more than willing to do. I'd come in, do the dirty deed, and then she'd get back to eating/brushing her teeth/whatever it was that the dastardly insect managed to interrupt by showing up.
One morning, however, even my nerves of steel were tested in a big way. We were sitting in our study room, having personal study, when Sister Smith gasped, jumped up, and ran full-speed out of the study room into the kitchen. I assumed (correctly) that a bug of some sort was involved somehow, and followed her into the kitchen to grab the bug spray.
"I just saw the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen in my life crawl out from under my desk!" she managed to gasp to me through her hyperventilation.
I had had a little experience with her exaggerated descriptions of a few cockroaches before, so I kindly, but condescendingly, patted her on the arm, then headed back into the room to take care of what I was sure an average, regular spider. I sprayed around the desk area for a moment--when nothing dropped down from under the desk (this was STRONG stuff--usually enough to stop any bug in its tracks), I sprayed again.
That's when The Thing ran out from under the desk, and I couldn't help it--I shrieked. Like a little girl.
This spider was HUGE. Bigger than the palm of my hand. I had never seen anything like it, and I've grown up in the desert, so tarantulas were common to me, but I did know this: it had to be killed. Immediately, before it could hide somewhere only to come out later, bite one or both of us, and kill us dead. I grabbed my shoe in my left hand, gripped the spray even more tightly in my right, and sprayed.
I hit it with the spray, but still, it ran. Fast.
I sprayed it again.
It jumped. Far.
I shrieked again, tried to hit it with the shoe, and missed.
It dodged under my proselyting bag. I shrieked yet again, kicked my bag out of the way, and sprayed it again. The dang thing just would not die!
I tried to hit it with the shoe again, and it jumped out of the way, causing me to scream yet again. By this point, Sister Smith was literally rocking back and forth in the other room, plugging her ears and humming Primary songs so she couldn't hear the raging battle going on in the study room. I finally managed to slow it down enough to literally drown it in a puddle of the poison I was spraying on it, then smashed it with a shoe, just in case. Steeling up my nerves, I picked it up in a bunch of Kleenix, then flushed it down the toilet, hoping and praying it wouldn't twitch or move as I did so. I was just sure I would die of grossness were anything like that to happen.
Both of us were jumpy for the rest of the day, and we didn't hold companionship study in that room again for a good week, although we finally got over it to the point of being able to go in the room without flinching or allowing our skin to crawl after a while.
That was a freaky experience, but I was pretty proud of myself for how I dealt with it. I stepped up to the challenge and killed the dang thing without freaking out TOO badly.
Fast forward about four years: by this point, I've had four years worth of a man around the house who can be my bug-killer, and my skills in this area have been woefully neglected. Two weeks ago, I was teaching a piano lesson to my 12-year-old neighbor. Clark was sleeping, but Jack was being especially fussy and clingy, which, when you're teaching a piano lesson, can be really irritating.
He had just come to me for the fifteen-thousandth time, whining about something or other, when I glanced at him.
And stopped cold.
The boy had a spider on his face. Granted, it was only a daddy-long-leg, but still. It was a spider on his FACE!! I flipped out and immediately started trying to flick the spider off of his cheek with my hand, so I could kill it. He thought I was hitting him, and started crying and trying to run away. I grabbed him, and tried desperately to move the spider off of his face without traumatizing him more, but the spider wouldn't move!
I then tried (gently-ish) squishing the spider against his face, so I could just wipe it off once it had died, and that didn't work--mainly because he was screeching, I was still panicked, and my brain obviously wasn't functioning clearly in that moment.
Finally, I paused for a moment to gather my senses, and I moved so that my angle would be different, then used my forefinger to carefully flick the spider AWAY from him without actually hitting his face. It worked--the spider landed on the floor and was consequently squished and disposed of, and I comforted Jack with a hug and some kisses. We went on with the piano lesson as if nothing had happened (although I still felt my skin crawl from time to time), and I resolved to call the exterminator THAT DAY.
What in the world happened to that brave sister missionary?
I wish I knew. If any of you see her, please let her know I'd like to have her back.

Has it Only Been Three Years?!

2011-04-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

Three years ago right now, this man:

took me to this place:

and said "Yes,"

which made me the happiest, luckiest woman alive.

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

11 New Additions to our Family...

2011-04-15T17:22:00.001-07:00

Did I mention we got baby chicks? Well, we did. 11 of them, to be exact, and thus far, we have had them for over a week and a half, and NOT A SINGLE ONE has died! I'm pretty proud of us, because, let's face it--we're as novice as it gets when it comes to any kind of farming lifestyle. Mostly plants. I have the blackest of thumbs.

Buster was not a fan--he hid behind the chair for a good couple of hours after we put them in the bathroom...

But with Steve's help, Jack has learned how to be really gentle with them! He had a ball touching their softness. Clark, on the other hand, just kept trying to eat them. Not yet, darling. Not yet.

Isn't that just the cutest everything you've ever seen in your life?

So, wish us luck!! Hopefully, within 5 months or so, Henriettas 1 through 11 will be providing us with all of the eggs we could wish for. Fingers crossed!

Birthday Fun

2011-04-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

So, here are the highlights from my big day:

Although Steve had to be out of town for the actual day, he took me out for SUSHI the night before. I haven't had sushi since before I was pregnant with Jack, and it was quite delightful!!

My headache, although still present, was nearly unnoticable all day long. Hallelujah, the antibiotics are kicking in. Finally.

I got several phone calls and texts from sweet people who remembered, somehow, that it was my birthday, even though it has literally been years since I've seen some of them. I wish I was that good at remembering other peoples' birthdays.

Noah and I taught our Rumba for the Dance Festival that the Snowflake Stake youth are participating in--and not only did no one die, but it actually looked like everyone had fun.

My mommy made me a chocolate cake, and my parents and youngest brother all sang "Happy Birthday" to me. I've decided you're never too old to get a kick out of blowing out the candles on your own birthday cake.

I'm 26 now, so I'm going to seem wiser to people who ask me how old I am, now that I'm in my mid-to-late 20's, rather than my mid-to-early 20's. There's a difference!

I got on Facebook the day after, and felt so spoiled by the sweet people who said nice things to me. It's always nice to feel special.

I got Jack to take a THREE-hour nap, which meant that I got to take a nap, too!!

I got the movie Tangled from Jack and Clark (though I suspect Steve had a hand in it, as well). That's one I definitely wanted to own.

I've decided that birthdays are nice. Thanks to all of you who made it so special!

A Mathematical Equation:

2011-04-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

The past 2 weeks have equaled:

10 days of Mom feeling MISERABLE

7 days of Clark feeling MISERABLE-R

2 days of Jack feeling slightly MISERABLE

37 breathing treatments for Clark

approximately 70 hours of watching either Sesame Street or Blue's Clues

2 boxes of Kleenix used

2 sinks full of dirty dishes

4 hampers full of dirty clothes

5 trash cans that have not been emptied

1 very neglected dog

7 meals eaten from either McDonald's or Taco Bell

11 chicks arriving in the mail (and all are still alive thus far! Wonder of wonders!)

4 days straight without taking a shower

approximately 1/2 inch of grime on my kitchen floor

2 trips to the Walk-In Clinic

1 1/2 bottles of Children's Ibuprofen used

10 days of hibernation on the couch

1 bottle of antibiotics for Mom

1 trashed house

and 1 fabulous, amazing, superhero husband who stepped it up and was both working overtime AND being both Mommy and Daddy when he was home. That man deserves some kind of award.

Now that I'm on day 4 of antibiotics, I'm finally feeling human again!! I can move my head without feeling utter agony, I actually voluntarily opened the blinds yesterday and didn't wince, and I've ceased to feel like my brain somehow turned into cotton...so life is good again!!

Sick...

2011-04-05T22:40:00.001-07:00

Yep. Jack was majorly sick last Sunday and Monday (is it bad that I kind of secretly enjoyed actually being able to snuggle with him for hours on end while he had a low-grade fever and no energy?), then Clark picked up whatever he had on Thursday, and when it didn't get better within a couple of days, I took him in to the Walk-In Clinic on Saturday, only to find out that he has RSV. Poor baby. So, we've been busy with breathing treatments, rocking babies, and watching lots and lots of Blue's Clues and Sesame Street--and somewhere in the middle of all that, I caught it, too. Keep your fingers crossed that Steve will remain the strong one. One of us needs to be able to run to McDonald's for dinner at night.

Before and After

2011-03-31T15:14:00.000-07:00

So, the day we thought would never come...has. Yep. Steve got his braces off!! There has been much rejoicing in th Busch household, that's for sure.

Before:

After:

Anyone else see the difference?

I'd say it was worth it.

Why I Never Go ANYWHERE

2011-03-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided to go grocery shopping at 10:30 this morning. It was about 11:15 when I left. Why? Here's why: I put Jack's shoes on, then went to change Clark before I put him in the carseat. I turned around to find that Jack had taken his shoes off, so I laugh a little, pick him up, put his shoes back on, then go take Clark off the floor to put him in the carseat. I then realize that Buster is still in the house, which is NOT a good thing to happen when we're gone (remind me sometime to tell you about the 4 sets of blinds that stupid dog has ruined, trying to get out through the windows), so, holding Clark, I go let Buster out, only to come back into the front room to see Jack with his shoes off YET again (why is that kid so obsessed with shoes?), so I sigh, put Clark down in his bouncer (I don't like to have him in the car seat for too long before we actually get in the car, because then he gets fussy and can't be consoled), put the shoes back on the feet, then go get Clark and put him in the carseat, only to hear Jack opening the back door and letting Buster in, right before dumping all of the dog food and water out on the floor. Argh! I shove poor Buster (who is now wondering what he did wrong) out the door, decide the dog food can STAY on the floor, for ALL I CARE, grab Jack by the hand, pick Clark's carseat up by the other (I'm getting amazing biceps, by the way), and take them both to the garage, where I strap them in their carseats, then I go back in to grab my wallet and diaper bag. Who cares if everything I have is in there? I just want to get OUT. Yep. That's why I never go anywhere. It's just not worth the stress. I wonder--can you order groceries online, and if so--how much extra do you think it would cost? *Edited to say: I tried typing this up in several different paragraphs so it would be easier to read, but Blogger is being dumb and is just making it into one ramblingly long paragraph. Sorry it's not as asthetically pleasing. Maybe I'll be able to fix it later.

We're Being Obedient...Right?

2011-03-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

These two children:

These two sweet children: These two sweet, adorable children:

These two sweet, adorable, innocent children:

These two sweet, adorable, innocent, wonderful children:

made church a NIGHTMARE for me yesterday.

We were running late yesterday morning (when aren't we running late, I'd like to know), and we ended up showing up to church nearly ten minutes late. As we bustled in to the chapel, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible while sliding into the empty bench near the back, I caught a whiff of something.

"Steve? Will you check Jack? I think he's poopy."

He leaned over, checked, and sure enough, the kid was messy. "I'll change him right after Sacrament is passed."

"Okay--thanks."

A couple of moments later, as I was trying to be reverent and think of, you know, spiritual stuff, Clark made a familiar face and an even more familiar noise. "Shoot. Please, please, please let that have all stayed inside his diaper..." I prayed silently as I let him finish his business, then lifted the sweater vest to see...the trademark stripe. You all know the one. The one that lets you know that you should have invested the 10 bucks more for the expensive diapers.

I silently leaned over to Steve and showed him. "Which one do you want to take?" I whispered.

"I don't care," he replied sotto voce (we were still trying to show respect for everyone around us who was trying to feel the Spirit despite our noisy, smelly children).

"I'll take Jack--you take Clark?" I whispered back.

"Sounds good."

I then tried digging surruptitiously in the bag for diapers and wipes--found the diapers right off the bat, but...where were the wipes? I dug lower and lower in the black hole I call my diaper bag, only to realize with a gasp--"Steve, I can't find the wipes. Maybe you...?"

He dug, but the effort was fruitless. There were no wipes in the bag.

Sigh.

"We'll just have to use paper towels, then, huh?"

Steve nodded resignedly.

So, as soon as Sacrament had been passed, we both stood up in as dignified a manner as possible, clutching our diapers and our children, and went our ways--me to the women's room, which luckily has a changing table, and Steve to the Primary room, which was, blessedly, empty.

Another ten minutes later, we slid back into our bench to listen to the beautiful testimonies that were being shared and to try to salvage what was left of our Sacrament Meeting experience.

Times like these make me grateful that we attend a family-friendly church. That's for sure.

Birthday Boy!

2011-03-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

My Jack is now 2 years old! I can no longer say that I have two kids under the age of two--which, frankly, I'm okay with. :) Some things about Jack:

He loves his brother, Clark. He is always trying to give him hugs and kisses, and although sometimes Clark isn't totally appreciative of his enthusiastic loving, most of the time it's pretty darn cute.

Jack hates, hates, HATES going to bed. He still takes naps, but it's always a fight to get him to stay in his room, and more often than not, I'll come in to realize he's just been playing quietly for the last hour. One day, I came in to find out that he had had Rex take a nap in his behalf.

I only wish it worked that way.

Believe it or not, he actually really likes shopping. We took him shopping right before naptime a couple of weeks ago, and he decided to just take advantage of the free ride. He loves his Mommy--although he still won't call me "Mommy," or even "Mom," he gets excited to see me, and enjoys having his special time playing, whether we're reading, building blocks, or dancing like freaks together.

He also loves his Daddy. This kid is most definitely a Daddy's boy! On Saturday, I took him to see Daddy perform in a preview for a play, and as he walked into the theater, he knew that he was there to see his Daddy. He kept calling out for Steve, and when Steve finally came out on stage, Jack could barely contain his excitement. "Daddy!! Daddy! Daddy!!!"

Needless to say, everyone in the audience (and in the cast, too) knew that Steve had a big fan there.

Jack loves to read, and he LOVES to be outside. Recently, now that it's getting warm, he's decided to make a habit of sitting on our back steps and reading out there. I'm okay with it.

He LOVES cars--ever since he was about 15 months old, he's known exactly the noise that cars make, and he'll play with them for ever. It's pretty cute.

He also loves drinks. If you hung out at our house, you would note that he nearly always has a cup of something or other in his hand. He is a milk addict and will drink several cups a day if I let him, and juice is even worse. Luckily, he thinks all drinks are called "water," so when he asks for something to drink, I can always give him water, because that's what he asks for. So what if it's not what he wants?

So, that's a rambling post about my little boy. Part of me can't believe that he's getting so big--but the other part of me thinks that it's about time that he turns two, because he's been acting like a two-year-old for over a year now, so I'm ready for it.

I love this kid!

An Ah-Ha Moment

2011-03-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

This last week, we were in the Valley (the Phoenix metropolitian area for those of you who haven't lived in AZ) for my brother-in-law's wedding (which was lovely, thank you). Because Steve had a work meeting on Tuesday, we decided to make it part of the trip, so we stayed in a paid-for hotel on Monday night.
We ended up running late to go check in, and because I knew beforehand that these fancy places don't do complimentary breakfasts, I made Steve stop at a K-Mart on the way to the hotel so I could run in and quickly grab some breakfast foods, since I knew that that would be easier than trying to take the chillins out to eat somewhere in the morning.
We then arrived at the hotel, and I was immediately a little self-conscious, to be perfectly honest. I'm sure the rooms to this place cost upwards of $200 a night, and as we handed the keys of our dusty, animal-cracker strewn Honda to the valet, I inwardly winced to think of what he must be thinking of us.
I made some feeble excuse about the state of our vehicle to him, and he nodded politely, but didn't say anthing as he took our car to the parking garage. As we walked through the extremely modern, streamlined lobby, noting all of the well-dressed people watching me lug my baby's carseat in one hand and clutching my K-mart bags in the other, I felt like shouting, "I'm an intelligent, well-mannered woman! Just don't judge me by my appearance right now, okay?" I refrained from making any speeches, however, thinking (rightly, I'd assume) that doing something of that sort would not raise anyone's opinion of me, but I still flushed more than a little when Jack decided to lay down on the ground rather than walk, and Steve had to pick him up and carry him (none-too-quietly, I might add) to the room.
We got into the room, the bellhop gave us a short tour (I still was trying to keep Jack from climbing up the furniture, so didn't hear the exact directions on how to work the television), and then we went to bed, after having to listen to Jack share his exact feelings on the Pack'n'Play we had provided for him for a good 10 minutes. I kept expecting the phone to ring any moment with complaints about the noise, but luckily, either the walls were thick, the rooms around us were empty, or everyone close to us were all deep sleepers, because we heard no complaints.
The next day, while Steve was at his meetings, Jack, Clark, and I hung out downtown. Again, I felt extremely self-conscious amongst all of these downtown executives as I was trying desperately to hold on to my toddler's hand, carrying my 20-pound baby in a sling, and I'm sure I appeared rather disheveled for most of the day. Let's face it--who can chase a toddler while carrying a baby while still appearing graceful and put together? (Besides Audrey Hepburn, of course. She could make anything look classy.)
Around noon, I found a little restaurant that didn't have insanely expensive prices, and we ate our lunch. I did sucessfully keep Jack off of the table for the majority of the meal, but I wasn't able to save the tabletop from a thorough ketchup-and-mustard scrubbing/salt dumping, so I left a big tip and then tried to get out of the restaurant whilst drawing as little attention to ourselves as possible.
While I was shamefacedly leaving, Jack decided to treat the experience as his own little parade, and he started waving to several of the suit-clad women sitting at the tables on the sidewalk as I tried to pull him away from the place where I'm sure no one was sorry to see us go.
"Hi!" he said cheerfully, and the professional-looking woman sitting nearest the sidewalk smiled and waved back.
"How old is your baby?" she kindly asked me.
"Four months," I replied distractedly, pulling Jack away from the curb.
"Oh, he's adorable! I have a four-month old at home, and I would love to be able to spend all day with her." she responded, a little wistfully.
That stopped me in my tracks right then and there. What? This beautiful, professional-looking woman envied ME--a harried, cranky, semi-crazy mom?
I asked a few more questions about her baby, and it turns out that she also had a son who was Jack's age, as well, but because she worked, they had to be watched by a babysitter all day. There was no mistaking the longing in her eyes as she watched me, however, and although we didn't talk long or about anything of great importance, that interaction has stayed with me since.
Although being a mother is more often than not messy, and not glamorous or admired by most people, there really is nothing I'd rather do at this point in my life than stay home and be with my sons. I sometimes forget that fact, and although I get bogged down in the messes and the tantrums and the monotony of the days, I realized at that point how much I love being a mom. Yes, it's the most difficult thing I have ever attempted to do in my life. Yes, it's often thankless and overlooked. But more than anything else I have ever done, I feel like what I'm doing truly counts, and I'm grateful for those moments when Heavenly Father sees fit to remind me of the eternal nature of my job. I truly am blessed that I get to be a mommy, aren't I?
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go wipe a runny nose.

A Comedy of Errors, or in other words, A Bad Idea for Family Home Evening

2011-03-09T14:01:00.000-08:00

Monday afternoon, it was about 5:45 and starting to get cold, so I was building a fire in our lovely little wood stove when my husband walked in. Surprised, I looked at him and asked, "Wow! How come you're home so early?"
"Well," he replied, "Since I have a week of PTO coming up, and we're planning on using that time to landscape, I thought we could go get some of the supplies for landscaping tonight, for Home Evening. What do you think?"
I was on board with that, so I ditched the fire (I am becoming a master fire-builder, by the way) and set about getting the kids ready to go as Steve went and gathered up all of the information he needed for the supplies we were going to get. As time went on, however, Steve realized that he had left a few of the calculations on how much timber we needed for landscaping at work, so he started measuring those up again as I tried to keep Jack busy looking for his shoes.
As it started getting later and later, I found that we were getting more and more stressed. By the time we finally left our house, it was already 7:30 (the store closes at 9:00, and it's a half-hour's drive away), and we were starting to feel a little on edge.
We got to my parent's house in order to borrow their truck, and I ran inside to get the keys while Steve swapped the car seats over. I came out to find him stressed out--"Jewel, Jack's car seat won't fit in the back. The seat's too small."
Clark was starting to get fussy, and by this point, I was a little cranky. "Fine. You go to the store, and I'll take the kids home."
"But that's not nearly as fun!" Steve began to protest. "What if you drive the Honda behind me?"
"Really?" I began.
"Or--you could just take our van and put the wood in the back," my dad suggested gently.
Steve and I both looked at each other, realized that that was a brilliant idea, and popped the kids in the van and headed to Lowe's. On the way, we decided that we could still make this a fun evening, so we tried to de-stress and enjoy spending this time with Hurricane Jack strapped down and unable to do too much damage.
Once we got there, we realized that it was a half hour before closing time, so we tried to hurry. We needed a lot of wood (we're using landscaping logs to do a raised bed garden, as well as some flower beds, so we needed 38 logs, plus some wood for a chicken coop), so we ended up with two of those huge carts full of wood, plus a regular shopping cart for me to cart the kids around in. By the time we got to the check-out, I had an inch-long splinter in my middle finger (I'm not exaggerating. I measured it cause I'm mature like that), Clark was starting to get a little fussy, and it was 5 minutes past closing, so we were ready to load up the van and go home.
Luckily, the cashier was wonderful, and offered to help us load up the van, so I could go sit in the front seat and nurse Clark.
As I nursed Clark, I could hear Steve and Lizzie (that was the cashier's name) loading up the van in the cold--everything seemed to be going fine, until they tried putting the plywood in the back of the van.
"Uh--Jewel? Can you come back here and maybe open the doors wider so we can get a better angle?"
"Sure!" I unlatched Clark, put him in his carseat, and hustled back there. "Okay--now try it."
Still no good. After some rearranging and a few more tries, we realized something: the back doors were too narrow to fit a sheet of plywood through them.
Shoot.
So, I sheepishly called my brother and asked him if he would be willing to drive his pickup all the way up to come take the plywood home. He willingly agreed, and so we said good-bye to Lizzie (by this point, it was already 9:45--waaay past closing time), and decided to huddle up in the van.
We dug through the diaper bag and found some old cereal that I had packed in there probably a few months ago as a snack for Jack, gave that to him, and then waited, grinning and waving sheepishly as all the Lowe's employees headed out to their vehicles.
Surprisingly enough, we were all in good moods by this point--Jack was having fun playing with his toys, Steve was okay playing with Clark, and although I was hungry, I was doing all right.
My brother and dad showed up at around 10:20, loaded the plywood in the back of the truck, and agreed to meet us at home.
We decided to stop at Wendy's on the way home so we could silence the monster growling in my tummy, but when we got to the drive-through, although the sign said that they were open till 11 and there were people inside, they were obviously cleaning up and ignored us completely. Feeling somewhat disgruntled, we passed a few more closed fast-food restaurants (cursing small towns under our breath the entire time) before we came across a McDonald's that was still open. Victory!
Jack fell asleep halfway through his McDouble, and Steve and I, now with full bellies, laughed about the ridiculousness of the situation we were in. We got home, I put both boys to bed while the menfolk unloaded the van and pickup, and then Steve headed over to my parent's to pick up our Honda while I started getting ready for bed.
About 10 minutes after he left, I got a phone call.
"Jewel?"
"Yeah?"
"Your dad and Noah just went inside, but I think my keys are in the diaper bag--which is on the kitchen counter."
I looked through said bag, and yes, indeed, there they were, shining innocently up at me. Thinking fast, I came up with a solution. "Okay. The boys are both asleep, so I'll put my phone on speaker and leave it on the dresser in Clark's room, then run in the other car and bring you the keys. It'll be like a long-distance baby monitor. Sound good?"
"All right."
So, I ran out into the middle of the night in my jammies, drove like a madwoman (although still keeping to the speed limit--last thing I needed was to get pulled over and try to explain to a cop why my two children were at home alone) to my parents', where Steve ran over, grabbed the keys I handed to him, and then drove home, praying the entire time.
We got home, all was well, and then we went to bed. I was ready for that day to be over.

Hurricane Jack Strikes Again

2011-03-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

You may be wondering why my usually cheerful Clark is so serious in this picture.

Well, Hurricane Jack has struck again (and again, and again)--I tried to get a picture of him in action, but he was too fast, so it turned out blurry.
However, when he stopped to laugh his evil laugh, I snapped a picture really quickly.

"Bwahahahahahaha!!"

Now, this is what happens when your toddler is your hairstylist. Note the bobby pin hanging helplessly from a couple of strands of hair. It just flat-out gave up. I decided to put this picture in this post, because it kind of symbolizes how I'm feeling about today thus far.

As I was in the front room, nursing this baby,

the following happened:

Jack found our stash of birthday gifts in the closet--and thoroughly enjoyed strewing them all over the computer room...

After which he found my wax paper and decided it would make a good nest...

Followed by a redecorating of the nursery...

He then found several DVDs we've been storing on the shelf in his closet (I'm beginning to rethink how I've got my storage system laid out).

The Piece de Resistance, however, is when he introduced two full bottles of lotion to our bedspread and carpet.

...and it's still only 2:30 in the afternoon. No wonder I fall into bed exhausted every night.

Win for Me!

2011-03-03T20:11:00.000-08:00

Today, we hit a major milestone, but in order for you, Dear Readers, to understand the importance of this milestone, I have to tell the story from the beginning.

Ever since Jack was about a year old, I've been trying to teach him how to be a polite, loving person. Well, as with anything I've tried to teach him, some of it has stuck, and some of it hasn't. He's great at giving kisses, high fives, and knuckles, and he'll hug and play with just about anyone (which can be kind of scary when he's running up to total strangers and trying to give them hugs, but that's beside the point).

However, when it comes to saying the polite things that all toddlers should know how to say--you know, "Please," "Thank you," "I love you," and "You're a wonderful, amazing mom," well, Jack was a little more stubborn.

For the longest time, his favorite word was "Bah," because, as you see, "Bah" could have all sorts of meanings--"Buster," "Ball," "Baby,"--the possibilities are endless! And because Jack didn't ever go through that parroting phase where he repeated what Steve and I would say, when I asked him to say "Please" in order to get something (anything, really), he wouldn't say anything at all, and I would feel like a mean, horrible mom because I would end up leaving him in his high chair long after he had finished eating, take snacks from right under his nose, and not let him play with certain toys, all because I would tell him "Say 'Please,' and I'll give it to you/do it for you!"

And he wouldn't. Ever. And I'd always have to follow through with the deal I'd made, so I'd end up not giving him what I really wanted to give him all along. After a couple of weeks of this battle, there came one day when I told him, "say 'Please!'", and he said "Bah!" instead. I decided that was good enough, I let him get away with it, because I really actually wanted to give him the popsicle he was begging for, rather than deal with a several-hour long tantrum.

That was last March. And ever since then, when he's wanted something, and we ask him "What do you say?" the answer has always been "Bah!"

That is, until today!!! This morning, he was asking for his cereal, and I said, without thinking, "Say 'Please!'"

"Ggeeze!"

I did a double take, thought my ears must have been deceiving me, and decided to try it again. "Say 'Please!'"

"Ggeeze!"

Definitely a "Please!" I nearly did a somersault for joy right then and there. I tested it out a few times later on in the day, and it's definitely a new habit for him. Hallelujah!! My son is finally learning how to speak English!!

Now, if I could only get him to stop calling me "Daddy."

Yeah, I know I'm Lame

2011-03-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

But to be perfectly honest, I just haven't felt like blogging. Not that there's been anything wrong, I've just been feeling a little vanilla pudding-ish. You know, blah. Not bad, but not really exceptionally good, either.
This blog, however, shall make up for a little bit of that with a whole lot of pictures describing what our lives have been like lately.

We've had some shoe-trying-on:

A bit of wearing out:
A whole lot of smiles from this chubby guy: Way too much needy from this guy:

Just enough cool to balance us out:

A daily dose of crazy for me to deal with:

A few "What the--?!" reactions:

The million messes cleaned up:

Not nearly enough of this:

A whirlwind trip to Utah to meet Cousin Cindyll:

(Cindyll's on the left, in case you can't tell the difference between her and my GINORMOUS child Clark. Isn't she cute?)

Our daily regimen of tummy time:

A fair share of Buzz: (Jack's second-favorite cartoon character. Elmo is the first)

Way too many of these:

A couple of "Really?"s:

And again, a fair share more of these:

Dealing with a lot of this:

And the occasional experience when Jack dresses himself:

And of course, the perfect amount of these:

So...that's our life in photos over the past few weeks. I would promise to write more in detail about some of the specifics (like how Jack is trying desperately to learn how to walk in my high heels, how Clark still manages to make me laugh every day, and how I'm still learning a lot about not going crazy), but I don't like to make promises that I don't want to do. :) But hopefully these will tide all of y'all over until I do feel like blogging, right?

Thank goodness for MLK...

2011-01-19T17:26:00.001-08:00

So...
Our three-day weekend was a blast. We ended up taking a semi-spontaneous trip to the Valley (by semi-spontaneous, I mean we decided to leave about three days before we left. I call that pretty spontaneous, with two kids under two!), and instead of staying with Steve's parents, which we usually do, we decided to stay with my aunt Mindy and her family.
My Grandma Flake turned 71 this last week, so we had a birthday party for her on Saturday, which was a ball! After that, we just mostly spent the weekend hanging out with Mindy and her family. She has four living children, the oldest who is 9 and the youngest who is a week older than Jack. Marlee, her youngest, was fascinated with Clark and kept coming up and gently patting him on the tummy, the head, or the arm. She was so sweet with him!
The other kids had a ball playing with Jack, and he had fun running around in their landscaped backyard in the warm weather. It was SOOO nice down there--it's times like these that I miss living in the Valley.
Monday, we went and visited with Steve's brother, Andrew, and his fiancee, Julieann, after which we saw his parents. Then, it was a quick trip back up to Snowflake. Nothing exciting, but it was nice to get warm and to see some of my Flake aunts and uncles who I haven't seen for a while and who hadn't met Clark yet.
Well, I'd better go. This kid (sorry--I'm too lazy to turn it right-side up. Just tilt your heads, will ya?) is yelling at me from his high chair that he wants down.
Remind me to tell you later about our amazing Relief Society retreat and my new exercising goals!

I Can Do This!!...Right?

2011-01-11T13:45:00.000-08:00

As the New Year has approached, I've been thinking a lot about the goals I wanted to set for myself, and, along with the typical goals I set for myself (you know, eat healthier, exercise more, pray more often, etc), I found one thought about something I could improve on kept returning: Look for the Moments. The ones that make me glad I'm a stay-at-home mom, and help me realize why I do what I do. Those moments are often fleeting, and sometimes I really have to search through a lot of more stressful moments in order to find the sweet ones, but when they happen, I'm trying (not always successfully) to really appreciate them and savor them for the time that they last.
For example: the other day, I was exercising in the front room, and when I got on the ground to do my sit-ups, Jack ran up to me, threw himself belly-down on my belly, and gave me a kiss. He's not a snuggler normally, never has been, but he snuggled with me for about 5 minutes straight!! Normally I would have just been irritated that I couldn't keep doing my sit-ups (I need them pretty desperately right now), but I thought, "this is a Moment," and just enjoyed hugging my toddler.
It may not seem like a big deal to many people, but changing this part of my outlook has really helped me with the frustrations I've been dealing with. It's helped me realize that even when the situation seems to be most stressful, there is still joy to be found in the work I'm doing. Here are a couple of pictures of "moments" I had yesterday:

I was folding laundry, and Jack wanted to help. Anyone who's ever had a toddler "help" with anything knows how unhelpful they can be--but Jack was especially fascinated with our sheet and pillowcases, so I decided to make it a game. I put this pillowcase over his head for a minute (he could still see through it, so he wasn't freaked out), and he wandered around, pretending he was invisible. It took me about an hour longer than it would have otherwise to finally finish folding the laundry, but he was having fun, and I genuinely had fun watching him.
The other moment happened yesterday morning; right after I fed Clark, he spit-up all over me (of course, none of it got on the burp rag I was using--he has good aim that way). I pulled him off my shoulder, feeling irritated because I now had to go change, and he grinned up at me, as if to say, "Aren't I cute? Even when I puke?" I had to smile back at him, because--yeah. He is one cute, fat baby.
So, that's my New Year's Resolution. I'm not perfect at it yet, but I'm trying, at least!

It's Christmastime!!

2010-12-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

We had an opportunity to meet Santa this last weekend at Snowflake's Christmas Market--it was the first time for both Jack and Clark!!

Jack has his coy face here--it cracks me up that he was acting shy, because first thing when he saw Santa, he ran straight up to him, screaming with excitement. He has no concept of "stranger danger."

And, as you can tell, Clark was completely unimpressed. He slept the entire time.
Now, I don't know if you can tell who this particular "Santa's Helper" is, but I'll give you a hint. I'm married to him.

Anyways, it was a fun experience for everyone involved, that's for sure!!

Hormones are a Beast

2010-12-09T13:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I had my first full-on "Baby Blues" day since Clark was born. I've had Baby Blues moments, but yesterday was the first entire day that I was just plain sad all day long, and couldn't cheer up, despite my best efforts. You know that feeling?
I'm sure it was because Steve had been out of town for three days and two nights, I had been alone with two kids under two for that long, and I hadn't slept much for either of those two nights because I hate sleeping in bed without my husband there. Add to that the fact that Jack decided to forgo his naps for those three days, he was getting into everything possible (and some things that shouldn't be possible but somehow were), and Clark was still keeping up his poop-through-three-outfits-a-day schedule, and I can now understand why I was a little bit melancholy.
In my defense, I tried to get out of it the best I could--we went on walks, I played in the backyard with Jack (by backyard, I mean the fenced-in area of dirt and weeds we have behind our house), I sang songs and danced with Jack to try to get my blood moving, I prayed and read my scriptures in more depth than I usually do, and I even went to visit a couple of neighbors. I kept repeating my mantra of "it's okay--I'm just tired/hormonal/bored/lonely," to myself to try to explain why I was feeling so incredibly unhappy.
It didn't work--despite everything I could do, I was still just sad. I had a few months like that after we moved to Snowflake, when Jack was brand-new, but this was my first time since Clark's birth to be so blue, and I forgot that, while there are explanations to why I'm having these emotions (mainly hormones), these emotions are still very real. And still very unpleasant.
Luckily, once Steve got home, he worked hard at helping me be happy again....we had a yummy dinner, he gave Jack a bath while I did dishes, and we drove around looking at Christmas lights and listening to Christmas music before coming home and putting Jack to bed, which really helped me feel more peaceful. I'm grateful for such an understanding and patient husband who has the ability to help me get out of slumps I may experience.
I guess yesterday also reminded me of how grateful I am that I'm not usually an unhappy person. I'm usually a positive, happy person who is prone to look on the bright side of things, and I'm lucky that that's a part of my personality. I've struggled with depression and negativism before in my life, and it's not a fun issue to have--and yesterday was like returning to those times in my life, and it served to show me how wonderful my life really is.
So, I guess the point of this blog is...well...okay, who am I kidding? My entries rarely, if ever, have a point. But I've learned once again how the Atonement's power can help us rise above negative feelings and thoughts. I also realized that sometimes Heavenly Father puts people in our lives who are willing to help us when we really can't help ourselves rise above those feelings. Hopefully someday I can be one of those people to help others. But for now, I'm grateful for those around me who are helping me.

Thinking out loud

2010-12-07T19:14:00.000-08:00

Clark is growing like a weed. He's getting so chubby--I don't know what it is about my milk, but apparantly it's really fattening, because that kid is getting some major rolls....he's also getting to where he's more alert, which is fun. He'll just lie there and look around--compared to Jack, he really is a mellow baby!! I'm hoping it continues to be a defining characteristic, because Jack is anything but mellow, which is fun, but exhausting. It's nice to have a relatively easy baby this time around. :)
Jack loves kissing and hugging Clark, which I'm grateful for (I had visions before Clark was born of Jack trying to hit or push his little brother away), but I can't leave him alone with Clark for a moment, because he's always trying to pick him up! Today I went in the kitchen to grab a plate (it took me about two seconds), heard Jack running from his room to the couch where Clark was lying, and ran in there to see Jack trying to pull him off the couch. I got there just in time to grab him before he was dropped, but it's exhausting having to take either one or the other with me everywhere I go. I have a sling that I like to use, and it's quite helpful, but after an hour or so of wearing it, it starts to hurt my back.
So, I forgot just how much (and how often) newborn babies poop! It's ridiculous!! Clark has pooped or peed right through an average of 4 outfits a day for the past week and a half...it's irritating, but it makes me really grateful we have a working washing machine. Between his sheets and blankets and our sheets and blankets and his clothes and my clothes, I'm getting really good at doing laundry.
Steve was out of town last night and all of today. He had a work meeting in the Valley and decided to use this time to do a little car shopping--we're outgrowing our Yaris quite quickly, and although he originally wanted to just upgrade to a 5-seater sedan, I quickly talked him out of it and into either a minivan or crossover (because, let's face it--at the rate we're going, we'd outgrow a 5-seater in about two years, and if we're investing in something, I'd like to invest in something we'll be in for at least a little while). I don't want an SUV because they're gas-guzzlers, and he doesn't want a minivan because, in his words, "they suck," but we'll see what we find for cheap. I'm nervous to be making this big of an investment, but it's time. I just don't want to have a car payment again--we paid our Yaris off in March, and it's been so nice knowing that we own it outright. Oh, well. What can you do?
Anyways, with him being out of town, and me knowing that it was just me and the two kids for two days straight, I was pretty nervous, but it actually hasn't been too bad--the weather has been ridiculously warm for mid-December, so Jack was able to go play in the backyard for a couple of hours today, which put both him and me in a better mood. He just went to bed, and I can hear him still playing in his room. At least he hasn't opened the door--he's now a pro at opening doors, and although we purchased those childproof doorknob covers, he knows how to take them off. That was money right down the drain.
Steve's parents came up for a "post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner" last Saturday and Sunday, and it was just plain wonderful! She brought all of the fixings for a Thanksgiving feast (except for a couple of pies, which I made--lemon meringue and apple), and we sent Dad, Steve, and Jack to Walmart, which gave us a couple of hours of just talking, which was bliss. I sure have missed her. We just don't get to see Steve's family very much, and when we do, it's usually on crazy busy occasions where it's impossible to spend any time together. I know Jack loved getting to spend time with them--every time he sees them, he just gets so excited.
So, random tangent (actually, this whole post has been one random tangent after the other, so you should be applauded for making it this far without falling asleep or rolling your eyes), Clark will be a month old on Thursday!! It's crazy how fast this time has gone, and how fast he's changed, and it makes me a little sad that he's already gained at least two pounds since he's been born and is already too big for a couple of his sleepers. I just love this newborn stage, and it goes so darn fast. It almost hurts my heart to think what a short time has passed since Jack was at this stage, and how much he's changed, and how fast my little Clark will change, too. But I guess all I can do is just appreciate the time I have snuggling my little baby right now, and take the changes as they come.
Well, I guess that's enough rambling for tonight. If you made it this far, congrats!! I applaud your stamina!

Redheads Have all the Fun

2010-12-02T16:00:00.001-08:00

When it comes to my hair, I've been wanting to make a change for quite a while, but I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do--I didn't want to cut it (because I know I'll probably never grow it this long again), and because I was pregnant, I didn't want to risk dying it, so I waited till Clark was born and my sister was in town--and I went red!!
I apologize for the fuzziness of the picture, but it gives you a general idea. I love it!!

Picture of Clark

2010-12-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

So, last Tuesday, on Clark's 2-week-old mark, we asked my aunt Jennifer to come over and take some pictures with her fancy-pants camera for us. She kept apologizing about how she was inexperienced when it comes to taking pictures of babies, but we just told her if we could get a couple of good pictures, we'd be happy.
That night, Steve sent them over to Wal-mart to get developed, and the lady nearly didn't let him take them home because she thought they were professional, and she wanted proof of copyright.
I tend to agree. I think these turned out great--but what do you think?

I love his little mouth in this one

Jack has a picture from when he was a newborn that's nearly this exact same pose, and it's ridiculous how much they look alike!
Jack and Clark's hands

Little baby feet

Daddy and son--I think Clark's face in this one is so funny. "Can we just get this over with?"

Mommy and baby--forgive the post-pregnancy fat face...

I LOOOVE this picture. We had Jack hug Clark, and this was the face he made. He loves that baby!

He's just plain beautiful. So thanks for letting me brag about my cute kids!! I'm still just trying to figure out how the heck people do this two-kids thing, but at least they're cute, so that makes it worth it. Right? :)

Updated Busch Family!!!

2010-11-15T13:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I don't mind being the first to admit that I was wrong about having several more weeks to wait--for those of you who don't already know from facebook/e-mail/phone calls (it's amazing how many ways there are to spread news, isn't it?), our son, Clark James Busch, surprised us all (mainly me) by coming on his due date and being born on November 9th at 6:44 in the afternoon!! For those of you who don't mind these details, I'm going to share his birth story with all of you--for those of you who do mind these details, you can skip ahead to the pictures. :)
I was scheduled to go in on Tuesday morning and have Wendy, my midwife, strip my membranes. She was confident that this would start labor, but having had such a loooong experience with Jack's labor, I wasn't holding my breath, to be honest.
Of course, Monday night, Jack was up all night with some kind of stomach bug, throwing up, which meant that neither Steve nor I got any sleep--and as we were headed in to my appointment that morning, we joked about how ironic it would be if I ended up going into labor on 2 hours of sleep. (Little did we know...)
We went in at 8:30, Wendy checked me and I was at a 2, and she stripped my membranes and told me that since I had tested positive for Group B Strep, I needed to be in the hospital by the time I was at a 4 in order to get both doses of penicillin (which have to be administered 4 hours apart). I reassured her that I wasn't worried about the labor going too quickly--with Jack, I didn't get to the hospital till I was at a 7, and then the labor still lasted for 8 hours!! She predicted, however, that I would be heading in to the hospital around 1:00 that afternoon, and warned me that the second labor is usually much faster. I smiled, but inwardly, I was thinking, "Yeah, right. You don't know how MY labors go!"
We headed home, cleaned up all of the laundry that Jack had puked on in our absence (our neighbor, Heather, was an angel for watching him during the appointment, by the way), and I started bustling around, cleaning--I gave Steve a haircut, and did a few loads of laundry. Around 11:00 or so, I started feeling some contractions that were a little more intense than they had been before, so I had Steve time them for me as I ate something, took a shower, and laid down for a while (all things that will stop your contractions if it's false labor). They were pretty steady at 5 minutes apart, and getting more intense, so we called Wendy around 2:00 and asked if she would be willing to check me to see if we needed to head to the hospital or not--again, I had been burned before, so I didn't want to go to the hospital just to head home again. She was willing, of course, and when we went in, I was at a 4, so she told us to go to the hospital.
To tell the truth, I still thought I had hours of labor to go, so I stalled and stalled--we took Jack to my mom's, stayed and talked to her for a while--we wanted her there for the labor, but I reassured her that she could definitely do all of the piano lessons she had planned, and when my dad got home, he could watch Jack, after which she could come to the hospital. I knew I still had plenty of time, so we then went home and did the dishes, got our bags, and then finally left for the hospital.
It was about 3:15 when we got there, and at this point, the contractions were definitely painful, although still not insanely intense--the nurse got me checked in and started my IV (she was new, so it took nearly an hour just to get the IV started, which meant I didn't get my first dose of penicillin till 4:20). I was still at a 4, so we got up and walked around till 5:00, when she needed to check me again and have me do the fetal monitoring again for 20 minutes. By this point, I was at a 6 and still feeling pretty good, but I've realized that I really like having the option of being able to move around while I'm in labor--having to sit still in bed and just wait for the contraction come makes it much more difficult to bear. During those 20 minutes that I was in bed with the fetal monitor on, I started transition and the contractions got REALLY painful--so much so that I started panicking. I knew I had to get my next dose of penicillin at 8:00, but I also knew that I couldn't go through that much pain for that long.
As soon as I could get off the fetal monitor, I asked if I could sit on a birthing ball (that really helped ease the pain with my last labor), and the nurse (who had just gotten on shift) kept making other suggestions--finally, Steve got the birthing ball for me, and then the nurse realized that the other nurse hadn't had me sign all of the paperwork, so she started having me sign paperwork in between contractions! I realize now that she was just new to the situation, so she had no idea how fast I was progressing, and probably thought I was being dramatic, but at the time, I was definitely irritated with her interfering with my concentration.
At this point, I started feeling pushy, but because Wendy still hadn't come in, I thought it might be wishful thinking, so I held back for a few contractions--but finally I asked my mom to go get Wendy, because I was feeling like I needed to push.
Those were the magic words--they got me up on the bed, Wendy came in, and they started getting everything ready for me. My water still hadn't broken, but because I never made it to the second dose of penicillin, Wendy didn't want to break my water till the baby's head was down further. I heard her say this, and thought that maybe it meant that I still had time before the baby would be there, and that really made me panic--it was hurting so bad that I definitely couldn't do it for much longer. At this point, I asked for an epidural, and both Steve and Wendy laughed. Wendy answered, "The only way you're getting an epidural at this point is if the anisthesiologist is standing in the doorway!"
I didn't like that answer, but one push, and the baby was out!! I couldn't believe how fast it was--I grabbed him and just held him, bawling--and looked up at Steve. He was here!! And he was beautiful!! The nurses kept wanting to take him to the warmer, but I just didn't want to let him go. Steve cut the cord, I fed him just a little bit, and then I finally let them take him.
As they were bathing him, Steve asked me, "So--what do you think?"
"He's a Clark," I answered--and he is. Clark James Busch. They weighed and measured him--7 lbs, 13 oz, 20 inches long, 14 inch head circumference. No wonder he came out so much more quickly than his brother did!!

After they had bathed and swaddled him
Isn't he beautiful?

At first we didn't think he looked like Jack at all, but as the swelling has gone down, he's turned out to be almost an exact replica of his big brother--just smaller!

So tired--but so happy!

We had a baby this time!! Not a kindergartner!

Proud papa Steve

Jack came to visit us the next morning--and he was so good! He kept giving Clark kisses, and when we let him hold him, he just beamed.

Kisses for his baby brother

My three favorite people in the world

And this is him, this morning, sleeping--I'm in love.

So, that's our latest!! We're tired and a little shell-shocked, but happier than should be allowed.

Happy Birthday, Honey!!

2010-11-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

I should have written this yesterday, but between meetings, a family dinner to celebrate, and phone calls, I didn't have time to blog.
So sorry, Steve, but your birthday blog is a day late. Just think of it as an extended celebration!
Because my husband is now (gulp) 28 years old, I'm listing 28 reasons why I love this man...or why I'm happy to be married to him...or why I'm grateful for him. It all pretty much means the same thing--I am one lucky woman.
Here goes!!
1. He is just so cute. I still get butterflies when I see him.
2. He's an amazing daddy. Watching how Jack's face lights up when Steve walks into a room just makes my heart melt.
3. I love how he walks up behind me when I'm working in the kitchen and wraps his arms around my (rapidly expanding) middle, then pulls me in to lean towards him.
4. He's hilarious. Not a day goes by that he doesn't make me laugh--which is important to me!
5. His testimony. Hearing him bear it in class (he's our ward's new Gospel Doctrines teacher) is one of my favorite things in the world.
6. He's talented--getting to see him perform in Beauty and the Beast was pretty awesome--especially when I got to tell people, "Yeah--you know Lumiere? I'm married to that guy. I know, I know. I'm pretty lucky."
7. He's good at figuring things out--he's assembled probably 80% of our furniture--with only my help (which is probably worse than doing it by himself).
8. He's creative.
9. He's thoughtful and considerate.
10. He thinks I'm beautiful, and tells me so when I need to hear it most--even now, when I generally resemble a beached whale.
11. He didn't kiss me till I was 21 years old, just because he knew it was a goal I had set (loooong story).
12. He waited for me when I went gallavanting off to Taiwan for a year and a half to serve a mission.
13. He loves our son and plays with him any time he has a spare minute.
14. He is a hard worker--he puts everything he can into his job to make sure he is successful.
15. He provides for our family.
16. He's a very good cook--and likes to do it when he has the time. He's especially good at desserts.
17. He loves his family. One of the first things that attracted me to him was how he talked about his mom.
18. He loves my family, and (despite what my teenage sisters may say) my family loves him. It's amazing to me how easily and how quickly he fit in with my crazy family...but I guess the fact that he's just as (if not more) crazy than they are helped a lot, too. :)
19. He's committed to the Gospel.
20. He's considerate of others, whether he knows them well or not.
21. He has always treated me like a queen. A big reason why I fell in love with him in the first place was that I never had to feel second-rate...he acted as though I was incredible, and because he treated me that way, I felt incredible.
22. His love of all things Halloween and Disney. It's just so endearing.
23. He watches chick flicks with me...and doesn't complain!
24. He is so easy to talk to--from the first date we went on, I've been comfortable talking with him about anything.
25. The fact that he loves living in Snowflake. When I first started dating him, I never thought we would end up living in a small town--yet here we are! And we love it!
26. His intelligence. He is so darn smart.
27. The way he snuggles with me at night before he falls asleep--even though I know it's not his favorite sleeping position.
28. His goodness. He is a genuinely good person, and I am always impressed by things he says or does to show his integrity, charity, and kindness.

I could go on and on and on--but because he's only 28, that's all the reasons you get this year. Thanks for marrying me, Steve!!

Baby Update

2010-11-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

So, just so you all know, I'm nearing my due date (which, according to my midwife and ultrasound is the 9th, but I'm still going with my Ovulation due date, which is the 14th...just in case I have another late-comer), and I'm getting TIRED....lots of contractions, but still only at a 2--which, with Jack, lasted for 3 weeks.
Jack, however, is not getting any tireder...weird, huh? It would be nice if he could recognize when Mom doesn't want to be his jungle gym, but he's still apparantly not that observant.
Any suggestions on how I can make it through the next couple of weeks without plopping my kid in front of the electronic sitter 24-7?

Halloween Joy

2010-11-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

Again, it's nearly midnight and I'm blogging. Mostly because the only time I really feel inclined to blog is when I can't sleep (and when Jack's not around to distract me). So most of these posts probably aren't the best reflection of my wit and/or intelligence, but at least I'm leaving a record of our lives, right?
Right.
Anyways, we had an awesome Halloween--our friends, Raf and Rikki Drotar (and their baby, Jesse) and Misty Hardy came up and helped Steve turn our garage into a haunted house for all of the Trick-or-Treaters. I love the fact that this is becoming a tradition for us. Especially because this year, I told Steve in advance that I would not be helping out besides sitting out front, handing out candy, and taking Jack out Trick-or-Treating. That kept me busy enough.
So here are just a couple of pictures: we had a scary surgery going on... With a cannabalistic surgeon eating my husband...

And then we had a "doll room" with my sister, Katie, being dragged under a bed by something...she probably got the most screams. She was quite enthusiastic about screaming, herself, in fact!

(That's Misty behind the doll mask...creepy, huh?)

...And, because I thought it was just plain adorable, here's Jack in his Jack-Jack costume. If I do say so myself, it turned out pretty good!! Probably one of the easiest costumes I've made in the past year! (And don't mind the fact that he looks absolutely terrified in this picture...there were a lot of cameras present, and he didn't know what to do).

So that's our Halloween in a VERY small nutshell--how was yours?

Scarred for Life

2010-10-28T01:34:00.001-07:00

Our poor son. He's going to grow up having such a weird perception of what's scary and what's not. Steve, as many (or all) of you know, absolutely adores Halloween, and before we were married, he collected quite a few Halloween decorations. We've had them up for a while now, and although they made Jack a little nervous at first (many of them talk or make scary noises when you push their buttons), now, he's...well, let's say he's gotten over those fears.
Here he is, kissing the skull we have for our centerpiece. Is that weird to anyone else?

And these two figures both talk and bob their heads around when you push their buttons. Although they terrified Jack at first, now he can't get enough of them and begs for me to push the buttons over and over (and OVER) again whenever he sees them. Hence, they've been banished to the den until Halloween night.

Side note: isn't his outfit cute? I'm still making his "real" costume--he's going to be Jack-Jack from the Incredibles, but we went to a carnival last Saturday, and since his other costume wasn't ready yet, he got to be a kitty cat.

Soon to come (hopefully): pumpkin carving pics!!

Learning Curve

2010-10-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

Is it bad that I'm frustrated with my son because he's hitting new milestones?
He has learned a LOT of new things this week, and it's driving me CRAZY.
See how we've arranged our chairs?
He's learned to push chairs around. And not only push them around, but push them to the counter, so he can climb up on said counter and play with all of the extremely dangerous and unsafe items I keep up there. I should say "kept." I'm quickly re-evaluating my kitchen layout.

Tonight, he climbed into his high chair--all by himself. I thought it was so cute how he was just chillin' in his own chair...but I just know one of these days he's going to fall on our extremely hard tile floor and bust his head open.

Other things he's learned how to do in the last week:

Open the fridge (AAARRGGHHH!)

Climb up from our toilet onto our bathroom counter

Climb up my parents' kitchen stools onto THEIR kitchen counter

Climb up the piano bench onto the piano

*Edited to add: AND he opens our sliding glass door into the backyard. Even when it's "locked." Argh.

And--although this one I can fully rejoice about, rather than feeling sick to my stomach--he now says the word "Dad." And means it to refer to his dad.

I'm just dreading the day he opens doors. He's actually done it a couple of times, but both times he thought it was just a fluke and couldn't replicate the action. But I know that means it's coming soon, and then NOTHING will be safe.

Any hints for how to completely reorganize my kitchen so that nothing is on the counters?

35 Weeks and Counting...

2010-10-13T21:44:00.001-07:00

Wow. You know how when you see a picture of yourself, you can be completely shocked to realize that you don't look like what you thought you looked like?
That was this picture for me. Here I am, 35 weeks pregnant (and barefoot, I want to add)...and I am HUGE!! And low!! I forget how big I am until I see myself from a different angle than the mirror usually provides. (By the way, the cute maternity shirt was provided by my amazing aunt Jennifer--the same one whose minivan I ran into. Isn't she awesome to still love me enough to give me cute maternity clothes even after I dent her car?)
In pregnancy news, the baby dropped last week, which has provided some relief for my heartburn and cramped lung space, but which has also made it hard to walk and/or sit.... I'm in the full-on pregnancy waddle stage now. And last pregnancy, when Jack dropped a couple of weeks before the due date, I remember being super excited, thinking that it meant the baby would be coming pretty soon--but then I had another 6 weeks to go. So I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much with this little guy.
Anyways, yet another preggo pic for you guys. Hope you don't mind!
*I just realized that there's totally a bra hanging from my closet door. Oops. We did laundry today, and that's where I hang dry my "unmentionables." I'm sorry you all had to see that, but not sorry enough to edit the picture, apparently. :)

Comfort Techniques

2010-10-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

I was a thumb-sucker when I was a kid--in fact, my mom despaired of ever getting me to stop. By the time I was four, they had tried cayenne pepper on my thumb (not recommended--apparently it made me cry, which made me rub my eyes, which got cayenne pepper in my eyes. Needless to say, not a pretty picture) painting my fingernails, punishments, threatenings, pleadings, coaxings, and bribings. None of that worked, until my mom came up with a brilliant idea.
She got a bag of M&M's, and then my older sister, my younger brother, and I each got an assigned plastic cup that went on top of the fridge every morning with 10 M&M's in it. Every time one of my siblings caught me sucking my thumb, one of MY M&M's went to them. I hated it (and I doubt it promoted sibling bonding), but apparently, my mom said that within a week I was done sucking my thumb.
So, needless to say, I was prepared for Jack to have an odd comforting technique that I would have to break him of eventually. But I was unprepared for what it was.
Jack likes to play with his bellybutton. When I put him to bed in onesies that zip all the way from the ankle to the neck, he gets SOOOO mad at me--because he can't find his belly button! When we're in new situations, I can tell he's uneasy or nervous, because his fingers find their way under his shirt and onto his bellybutton.

I snapped this photo while he was watching Elmo the other day...

He's not only obsessed with his own bellybutton, however--he likes to find and play with mine, especially now that it's pretty obvious where it is (my bellybutton has been popping since month 5 of this pregnancy. Not attractive). Anytime my shirt rides up just a little bit, he wants to put his hands up there and find my bellybutton. I just laugh it off, but when it happens in public, it's a little awkward, to tell the truth. Luckily, he's more interested in his own than he is in mine, so if he can't play with mine, he'll play with his.

So, anyone else have weird comforting techniques they or their children have had?

I'm a Little Concerned

2010-10-06T10:05:00.001-07:00

You know that we have a dog--Buster. I'll have to write more on my love-hate relationship with this exceptionally neurotic puppy later...but right now, I want to mention some of the things that come along with Buster, whether we like them or not. Dog hair, dog food, dog beds, dog messes--you who have had pets know what I'm talking about. Most of the time, these inconveniences are totally fine with me. They're worth it. But I am concerned about what having Buster (and his food) around has done to Jack.
You see, Jack LOVES dog food. Loves it. We finally got a fence (yay!), and because we had the fence, I thought that putting Buster's food and water dishes outside might limit the amount of dog food our child was consuming (I used to have to put Buster's dog dish on the counter any time he wasn't actively eating it, because otherwise, Jack would grab handfuls of the stuff and put it in his mouth). But even now, any time we go in the garage, which is where the dog food is kept, the first thing Jack invariably does is run to the open bag of dog food, grab a handful, and, if I'm not fast enough to get it away from him, stuff it in his mouth.
My parents recently got cats, and they now have a Rubbermaid trash can full of cat food. Yes, my very curious, very adept toddler has now found that, as well, and I can frequently find him walking around with a mouthful of cat food at my parent's house.
To further illustrate my point, this morning, I accidentally left the pantry door open. I hadn't realized this fact, and I was working in the other room when Jack joined me with his spoils. Did he go for the cookies or animal crackers--or even the cereal?
Nope.
He has half a dog bone in his mouth in this picture.

I've heard of the odd things that toddlers eat, but really? This is a bit ridiculous.

Feeling Better

2010-10-01T10:59:00.001-07:00

Um...before I start this post, I should probably apologize to you, the blogger world in general, about my previous whiny post. I was able to get to bed right after writing said post (although it still took a little while to fall asleep), and, as is typical, when I woke up the next morning (yesterday), life looked much brighter. Amazing, isn't it, how problems that seem insurmountable at 2:00 in the morning are much less frightening in the daylight?
Anyhow, I figured I'd just post a few pictures to show you all that life is, in fact, going all right for us. :)
We had a ward party a few weeks ago, and a lady from our ward took this picture of us. Jack would have smiled, but his mouth is stuffed full of the same kind of cake that is all over his face. Here's a close-up:

I just love this picture. My mom took it a while ago...but isn't he so darn cute? I still have a hard time believing he's mine!

This picture is WAAAY out of date to post, but I figured better late than never--this is Jack in the process of getting his very first haircut. Aunt NaElle did an amazing job, despite the fact that (as you can see), Jack was less than thrilled about the whole process. It was only a little traumatizing for me (he had such cute little curls), but I did get to keep at least one of his curls, so that helped. (By the way, this happened over the 24th of July weekend. Told you this was late!) Lately, Jack has been fascinated with hats of every shape and size. This isn't exactly a hat, but he thought it worked, anyway. Isn't he getting so big?

Anyways, like I said, although there are some rough times going on in the lives of those we love, life is still, generally, quite good--and we really are doing well. We're happy and healthy, we have the gospel and good friends and family to help us through trials, and what more can we ask for?

Thank you, all of you, for reading through this random post. Hope the cute pictures of the cute little boy helped make it more bearable!

One of Those Days

2010-09-30T01:16:00.001-07:00

I know it's late, and my body really wants to be asleep, but my brain won't shut off.
Have you ever had one of those days where it's really not a bad day per se, but because of bad news that you hear--even if it doesn't affect you directly, just your friends or family (or both), you just feel....burdened?
That's how my day was. And it wasn't even all that bad till tonight, when Steve got home and told me about these things--some of the stuff, I already knew, but then when I found out about these other things that were going on, it just weighed me down a little bit more.
So here I am, attempting to do a little therapy, get a little bit of it out of my head, and maybe get to the point where my brain will let me sleep. Which is what I really want to do right now, believe it or not.
Sorry I'm being so vague and fuzzy...for one thing, it's late, so I'm not communicating clearly, and for another, most of the stuff that's going on, I can't give details about, but here are just a couple of the things going on:
I just found out that one of my friends and her husband are, in fact, getting a divorce.
Some family members of mine are really struggling financially.
Steve has been having excess stress at work that could possibly be exacerbated quite soon.
Oh, yeah--and last night, I backed our car (our recently paid-off car, I might add) into my aunt's minivan. What am I, a dumb teenager? I couldn't believe it happened--we were at my parent's house, it was dark, they were parked behind me, I was late for a meeting, I thought I checked the rear view mirror...yadda yadda yadda. I have NEVER done something like this before, and I usually could laugh something like this off, but the timing...oh, the timing. Sigh.
Luckily, Steve was right there, so he went in and told my uncle, who came out and looked at the damage (so I didn't even have to be the one to tell the two most intimidating people involved, which was nice). My uncle was great about it, and this morning, my aunt called to make sure I was okay (true story, I bawled all the way to my meeting, and probably would have cried longer had it been an option), and they've been wonderful about the whole thing...not the least bit mad--but REALLY? How the heck could I be so careless? I'm still kicking myself for making such a stupid mistake. Granted, it's not a huge deal--just a little dent in our fender and a dent/scratch across the side of their minivan, but still, on top of everything else...Ugh.
Like I said, it's been one of those days.
But I know that even "Those Days" have a reason, and that how we react to "Those Days" is what defines us. Do we turn to the Lord, or away from Him? Do we humble ourselves, or pridefully insist on trying to handle it ourselves? Do we get down on our knees and truly pour out our souls for mercy and help and guidance for ourselves and our loved ones, or do we continue to offer up the kinds of prayers that seem to bounce off the ceiling? Do we despair and want to give up, or do we somehow find hope through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can still improve, that we can become better than what we now are, that through that same Atonement, we can be given strength beyond our own to overcome the trials that are thrown at us?
I guess the choice is mine.

What a week...

2010-09-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

We went down to the Valley (for all of you non-Arizonians, that means the Phoenix metropolitan area) this last week. Steve had a couple of classes during the week for work, which meant that he got free hotel rooms, and this time, Jack and I decided to join him rather than stay at home. Jack was excited when I got the suitcase out. He loves that thing.
He'll pull it all around the house, telling stories (that are still never in English). It's adorable.
So, anyways, we had a wonderful week! I was actually nervous about keeping Jack entertained in a hotel room by myself for two days straight, but it turned out fabulous--we went swimming on the first day, which made Jack a little nervous at first (it's the first time he's been really swimming for about a year), but by the end, he was loving it. Then we went to the mall and hung out with Mom and Dad Busch, who met us there. It was actually very relaxing, and because Steve's class got out pretty early, he got to spend about half of the day with us, which was a fun, unexpected twist. :)
That night, we got to see some very good friends of ours, Sarah and Jeremy (who we haven't seen for almost a year! Ridiculous!), and Jack enjoyed playing tag with Jeremy out in the Outback Steakhouse parking lot after we left the restaurant. Jeremy, thanks for entertaining my very busy toddler!
Then, this weekend, Steve had his 10-year-High School Reunion. It wasn't much of a reunion, actually--it was at a crowded bar that had a really loud live band and no program (or nametags, even--which made for several awkward moments when Steve would try to introduce me to someone he recognized but didn't remember the name of), but I did get to meet about 5 or 6 of his high school/elementary school friends, so that was fun. True story, we ended up staying for a couple of hours and then leaving to go get some late-night dinner. I realized what a boring couple we are when we ditched his reunion in order to go to Barne's and Noble for an hour to stall until Applebee's Happy Hour started so we could get some half-off appetizers. Wow. Lame. But what do you expect from us little country folks, huh?

The next day was church with Steve's parents, which was actually quite fun--Steve stayed with Jack in the Nursery (I guess they're between leaders right now, so each parent watches their own child), and I enjoyed Sunday School and Relief Society with Mom and Grandma Busch. It's interesting watching Jack in new situations--by the end of church, he was EXHAUSTED (their church starts at 9, and his nap usually starts around 10), so we would ask him to wave bye-bye to certain people, and he would blow them a half-hearted kiss and then turn around and nuzzle his face into my neck. It's funny to me that he's still social even when he doesn't want to be.

After his nap, he enjoyed playing with Nana and Grandpa's doggies (they have five dogs--but they're all MUCH smaller than Buster, so Jack thought they were hilarious to chase), and then we headed home. He actually did really well with all of the traveling we had this week, and I was glad he did so well sleeping in different situations than what he's used to. We have one more big trip before Boy 2.0 is scheduled to arrive, and then I think I'm going to be done traveling for a while--sitting for that long hurts my hips. Does anyone else have that issue?

Wow. I just looked back at this post, and it's definitely a less-interesting travelogue. Sorry everybody...but I'm too tired to go rewrite it. And I have a floor that desperately needs a good cleaning. So, farewell for now.

Tagged...

2010-09-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

My friend Sarah tagged me (and you have to go check out her blog...she's amazing), and, since one of my favorite things to do is talk about myself, I decided to answer her questions. Here you go!

What is your favorite TV show?
Community...but almost all of the NBC Thursday night shows are pretty darn funny, although sadly not always appropriate. Yet I still watch them. Sigh.
When were/are you the most happy?
Specifically, the happiest moment of my life was when I was in the temple, holding my brand-new husband's hand, looking at him, and thinking, "I get to be married to this man forever!"
Non-specifically, I am most happy when the house is clean, Jack is in bed, my legs are shaved, and I'm on the couch with a bowl of ice cream, snuggling with my husband while we watch a good movie or show, knowing we don't have to get up early in the morning. It's rare that all of these events happen at once, but when they do--magic.
What is the moment you were most proud of yourself?
When I walked off of the airplane at the end of serving an 18-month mission for the LDS Church in Taiwan--I saw my family and realized that I had absolutely no regrets from that time in my life, and it felt so good to be able to face my family (and "Friend"--Steve was there) with honor.
If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?
Probably in bed. I'm loving the whole sleeping thing lately.
What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas. It's the most magical holiday there is!
What do you love most about being married?
Having the security of knowing that someone loves me, no matter how gross I look or how cranky I am, and will stay by my side forever.
What are you looking forward to?
Going to bed. I told you, I have a one-track mind these days...
What does a perfect Saturday look like for you?
This is going to sound silly, but Steve doesn't have to work, so we sleep in a little, after a good breakfast, we work hard and get one of our big projects out of the way (it seems like big projects are endless around here), just in time for us to shower (although showering is optional, depending on the project we've done), get changed, and go out for a family dinner at a restaurant, after which we come home, Jack goes to bed, and Steve and I snuggle with dessert and a movie before going to bed. Boring, I know, but I like to think that I'm realistic in my expectations, at least, although predictable.

Now, I have to tag eight people--so I tag:
Alicia
Jennifer (Brandon's)
Mindy
Stephanie
Heather
Cristin
Kelly
Shauni

Your eight questions are:
1. What is your favorite candy bar, and why?
2. What is your greatest accomplishment, to date?
3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
4. If you were a vehicle, what would you be?
5. What is your dream date like? (the activity, not the guy--you've already got him!)
6. What is your earliest memory?
7. If you could have anything to eat right this moment, what would it be?
8. You have an unlimited credit card, and you have one store to use it in. What store do you choose?

Rhino Adventures

2010-09-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

Many of you know my brother, McKay:

(That's him on the right--he was excited for dinner)

McKay has been fortunate enough to have Rhino as a pet. Meet Rhino:

Now, Rhino usually resides in McKay's room, in a marvelous cage with lots of twisties and tubies to run around in. However, Rhino apparently doesn't think the cage is so wonderful, because he is always looking for opportunities to get out of said cage and roam my parent's house.

On Monday, I was over at my parent's, helping make applesauce, and my mom and I were taking a break in the front room, when I heard a rather loud scraping/banging noise. I thought at first that it was someone bringing the dumpster in from the road, but I quickly realized two things: 1)We were alone--all of the kids were at school, and 2)the noise was coming from inside--to be specific, inside the couch!!

I looked at my Mom, a little panicked--"Do you have mice? Or rats? Because that noise is too big for a mouse to be making it!"

She just looked back at me for a minute, flabbergasted, and then started laughing. "No, but we do have a hamster!!"

We opened up the drawer in the couch that the noise was coming from, and sure enough, it was Rhino! There was a little piece of the metal railing inside the otherwise empty drawer, and he had been pushing it around, which was what was making the loud noise. I, for one, was relieved it wasn't some disease-ridden nasty rodent that was going to infect us all with rabies or lyme disease or something, but my mom was still nervous. "He bites. How can we get him out of there?" She looked around the front room, found someone's discarded sock to put over her hand (how's that for resourceful?), and picked him up.

Needless to say, Rhino was placed gently back in his cage, and McKay was happy to have his pet back.

And I was happy that my parents have hamsters, not rats.

What We Did Over Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

We went camping with my Flake family--all except for Shiloh and Danica (who live in Utah), and Jayze (who is on his mission). To be entirely truthful, I was a little nervous about camping at 7 months pregnant, our first trip with a 18-month-old, and the fact that the campgrounds we chose had neither running water nor toilets...but it ended up being an AWESOME experience. Daliah with her "camping hairstyle," thanks to NaElle

Jack loves his Uncle Cody--here they are discussing in depth the assorted plants growing around them. Cody was so good about keeping Jack entertained when he would start to get cranky!

This place was so gorgeous--even though we didn't end up even leaving till 8:00 on Friday night (typical Flake tradition--we planned on leaving by 4. Hah!), we ended up getting lucky and finding this beautiful, clover-filled meadow--in the dark! It was great, because Jack didn't end up getting nearly as dirty as I had planned on him getting!

And my dad, being the amazing man that he is, cooked ALL of the meals. Every single one. He would recruit some of us kids occasionally to help, but he was in charge. And they were delicious.

On Sunday, we went up to Green's Peak. Here are my parents, enjoying the view--isn't it amazing? I felt like Julie Andrews in Sound of Music-- "The hills are aliiiiiive...."

Molly, Noah, and McKay, sitting around the campfire, waiting for dinner...

Jack was yelling at me for some reason or other...although he did surprisingly well at sleeping through the night (all except the third night we were there, which was miserable), his naps were a different story--so he definitely had his cranky moments (or hours, as it were). Luckily, there was usually enough stuff around to distract him. That kid LOVES being outside.

Our family at Green's Peak. Note the fact that I'm wearing Jack's hat--he desperately wanted me to wear it and would get mad at me when I took it off.

Steve and I snuggling by the campfire--so romantic. Note--Steve has lost 20 pounds lately. Doesn't he look great?!

Cody, teaching Jack the finer points of horseshoe. Jack was pretty much enthralled by anything Cody did.

We did have some neighbors, who brought horses--and Jack loved to try to go chase them. My siblings were really good sports about chasing after Jack, however, which was nice for me. Here's Levi, bringing Jack back for me.

Noah brought a guitar, and Jack, of course, loved that!

Isn't he just so darn cute?

This is our "Pregnancy Pose" at Green's Peak. I'm learning that T-shirts--even the XL ones--don't make great maternity shirts. They're just too short in front for me. Sigh. It's a little hard on the old ego to not be able to fit into an XL.

My parents took Jack on a little walk while we were up there, so I wouldn't have to be chasing him the entire time--because the hill was so steep, I was pretty nervous about Jack wandering (I kept picturing a reenactment of The Princess Bride: "Aaaaas...yoooooooou....wiiiiiiish...."). So this was nice of them. Note the flowers in my dad's pocket--he picked my mom a bouquet of wildflowers. Isn't that just cute?

Basking in the beauty--except for Jack. He didn't really care for the scenic view--he was more interested in picking up and throwing rocks.

Levi, Katie, Cody, Molly, Noah, Jack, Daliah, Steve, and I, sitting on the side of the hill--I'm literally getting up to go chase Jack. That kid is so dang fast!

Steve was done with his diet on the first day of the camping trip, so he finally got to eat!! Hallelujah!

There was a pretty crazy cave that several of the group went to go check out. Looking at these pictures makes me glad that Jack and I opted out of this particular outing. Left to Right: Molly, Steve, Levi, Noah, Abe, Katie, McKay, Cody, and Dad (NaElle was the one taking the picture)

Steve said there was one point where they literally had to army crawl through sludge for about 30 yards--hence the fact that everyone (especially my dad) is filthy

Do you see that mud? I really am glad I wasn't there, but had I not been pregnant, I would have probably really wanted to check it out. It sounded like it was pretty cool--although kind of scary and gross.

The triumphant explorers, after the cave!! L-R: McKay, Levi, Katie, Steve, Noah, Cody, NaElle, Dad, Abe, Molly

So, despite the nervousness I had going in to this whole camping experience, it was actually wonderful. Good company, good food, good entertainment...what more could you ask?

Me at 29 Weeks...

2010-08-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

This is for some of you who have been asking me to put a pregnancy picture of me on here--it's me at 29 weeks pregnant. I can't figure out why the picture saved so small...Sorry!! But it'll give you the basic idea. :)

Argyle Dreams...and Nightmares

2010-08-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else make plans to get something done by a certain deadline, and then as the deadline approaches, they realize--"Holy crap!! That's tomorrow!!"? We've been planning on moving Jack into our guest room a couple of months before Boy 2.0 makes his appearance (translated--beginning of September), but the problem was--that was the only room in our house (besides the kids' bathroom) that had not yet been painted, so obviously that needed to be remedied before Jack moved in...which we had planned on happening by next week.
In April, when Steve and I were helping with the high school's production of "Bye-Bye Birdie," one of the sets had this awesome pink argyle pattern, and we both just fell in love. So we decided then and there that that was the pattern we would use in the guest room--only in blue and green.
Little did we know then what we were getting into. I'll warn you this--if you hate taping, measuring, or time-consuming projects, an argyle pattern is not for you.
We did this part last Friday--this was probably the hardest part, just trying to get all of the measurements figured out and getting the tape to the exact lines it needed to be on.

I painted all of the blues in while Steve was at work on Monday--surprisingly enough, it didn't take me very long--just a couple of hours.

And today I added the green touches. It's actually a very good thing that these are fuzzy pictures taken with my phone, because if they were clear at all, you'd be able to see all of the mistakes and pencil markings (that we'll have to go over with white, unless one of you knows a good way to get pencil off of flat white paint--anyone? Anyone?).

I added the green stripe on the side because our wall wasn't even--measuring was a beast because the side wasn't level (or maybe I just wasn't measuring right), so I just decided to fill that whole part in. How's that for lazy?

So, there you go!! That's what I've been doing the past few days, and I actually really like how it turned out. Now we just have to get the rest of the room decorated and organized.

It's a Conundrum

2010-08-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

I have a question for all you out there:

What should I teach my child this is?
And what noise do you think it should make?

Road Trip....A Very Small One

2010-08-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my mom and Jack and I went to go visit my sister and her husband, who recently moved to Flagstaff.

It was such a fun trip--getting to talk to my mom for two hours either way (I've discovered that I like traveling a lot better with someone else in the car rather than by myself), just hanging out with NaElle and Cody with NOTHING else that we had to do, and enjoying a few little places in Flag.

As we were heading to the mall (by the way--fun play place for the kids in Flagstaff mall, in case you were wondering), I had to take a picture of this and send it to my husband:
Excuse the blurriness. This photo was taken as I was driving (but not by me, I might add).

Of course he has his own boulevard. Why wouldn't he?

We also enjoyed getting to see NaElle and Cody's new apartment--and Jack LOVED playing with all of Cody's old toys. Although his method of playing "farmer" was a little...well, unorthodox...

But it was nice to take a little trip with my mom and to hang out with my sister for a day--what a fun little trip!

Priorities

2010-08-12T11:03:00.001-07:00

Does anyone else have issues trying to figure out what needs to be prioritized in their lives?

I really am struggling with this one. Here, for example, I spent the last four months of my life living and stressing and breathing Beauty and the Beast, and now it's over.

And what do I have to show for my last four months of work? A weed-ridden yard, a trashed house, a neurotic dog who can't get enough attention, and a suddenly-clingy one-year-old (true story, I almost typed two-year-old...apparently I can't even keep track of how old my child is!).

Yet, at the time, I felt like it was important to put Beauty and the Beast as a priority. And I still don't feel bad about it, but this morning, as I was out attempting to weed the area of our front yard that we optomistically call a lawn, I was wondering--was it worth it to neglect so many other areas of my life in order to help put on a play that most people will enjoy for a week or two?

Again, I'm not looking for validation or fishing for compliments--I guess I've just really been pondering Elder Oak's conference talk from a while ago: Good, Better, Best (go check it out if you don't remember it--it's amazing), and I hope that I'm focusing on the best things in life.

If not, I guess that's what the Atonement is for, isn't it?

I Love Nice People

2010-08-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've gotten used to the fact that everywhere I go, people will complement me on how adorable my son is. And why shouldn't they? Look at the guy!!
(Doesn't his haircut make him look so darn old? Sigh. I don't want to talk about how much I miss his cute little curls.)

But yesterday, we went to dinner at a restaurant, where a complete stranger came up to me, smiling.

"You..." she began, and I mentally prepared myself to receive a compliment about my son (which I'm never sure about the proper etiquette concerning that--do I say "Thanks?" Like it's something I did?), "...are the cutest little pregnant lady ever!!"

Flabbergasted, I hurridly retraced my mental steps. "Oh, uh....Thank you!! Thank you so much!!"

Can you believe it? Not only did she call me cute, but LITTLE?! I could have kissed her. I'm still smiling about it.

At the Risk of Sounding Like I'm Bragging...

2010-08-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

...Beauty and the Beast was amazing. And such a neat experience, too. Seriously, though, it was an absolute miracle that it all came together as well as it did. But luckily, we have an incredible amount of talent in this small community of ours. The "Assorted Enchanted Objects" Champagne Flute (Marissa), Doormat (Spencer), Sugar Bowl (Jessica), Cheese Grater (Me), and Creamer Pitcher (Beth)

The Villagers, including Maurice, Belle, The Silly Girls, Gaston, and LeFou

The entire Cast and Crew of BATB

I LOVE these people. Really.

My husband, "Lumiere," and "Cogsworth," also known as Ben

And the costumes--well, see for yourself. They were pretty darn good, too. If I do say so myself.

Gaston (David), LeFou (Byron), and Monsieur D'Arque (Mike)
The transformed Prince (Alan) and Belle (Delsy)
Her grandmother made that dress. It's INCREDIBLE. And I sort of want to wear it. Just once.
Again, my cute husband as a candle. Isn't it fun? I totally did that....with some help from my mom. But really--it's probably my favorite costume in the show. :)
The Enchantress (Cindy) and the Young Prince (Mike)
The Napkins--Chelsea, Emery, Alyssa, and Jessica.

Aren't they adorable?!

Our Plates: Collette, Shannon, McKenzie, and Cindy

Cool story--the plates totally spun when they danced. Steve was the one who figured out how to make that one work.
Cogsworth, Babette (Nancy), Lumiere, Madame de le Grande Bouche (Brenda) and Mrs. Potts (Mindy)--Enchanted versions

Me: the Cheese Grater. Can't even tell I'm 6 months pregnant, can you?

If you look closely, there are hidden mickeys on my costume. See if you can spot them!

Human Version: Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, Babette, and Madame de le Bouche

Honestly, I don't mean to brag, but aren't these costumes so much fun? They really did turn out to be pretty incredible. And although it was probably one of the more stressful experiences of my life, I really am glad I got to be a part of this show. The people were amazing, the play is just a wonderfully written play, and it was just magical.

Thanks to everyone who came and watched!!

**By the way--if any of you know anyone who is putting on Beauty and the Beast anytime soon and would like to buy some costumes, I know of some they could ask about. Let me know! :)

Oh, No...

2010-07-18T10:22:00.003-07:00

Yesterday, Jack climbed up onto my parent's kitchen table. BY HIMSELF.

My life is over.

Introducing:

2010-07-07T17:30:00.001-07:00

Our little baby, thinking hard

Busch Baby Number Two!!!
We went in for our ultrasound on Tuesday. I could hardly wait, because, well, I wanted to see a picture of my baby! With Jack, it was an incredible experience to get to actually see him moving around (quite a lot, in fact), not to mention finding out that he was a boy, and I was actually counting down the days till we could meet this one.
With our second baby, we went in, and it took me a little longer to realize the gender of this one, but after a couple of minutes watching him, we learned that this one was a boy, too--so Jack gets a little brother!! We're all very excited (although I think Steve and I a little more so than Jack--he still has no clue there's a baby in my tummy), and I can hardly wait to meet Boy 2.0. We also got to use the new 3D ultrasound, which was fascinating to me--to actually see the features on our little guy, and to see him yawning, squirming, and pointing in various directions was just magical. I sure am grateful for modern technology that also helps us know ahead of time about any major difficulties to come, and I was glad to see that, as far as we can tell, this baby is just fine. Huge for his age (what else is new?), but fine.
So, watch out world! Here comes another one!!

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

This post is in honor of all of the "Dads" in my life. First off, I of course have to talk about my dad, who has always been my hero, and who is now my child's hero:

I mean, c'mon. Look at that face. Can you think of anyone more heroic than that? Jack absolutely adores him. And how could he not?

Second, we have Dad Busch, who has accepted me like a daughter, and who loves being a grandpa, and is very good at it, by the way:

They sat there for probably fifteen minutes, watching cars go by. Jack never EVER sits still that long, unless he's asleep, which leads me to the third "Dad" on my list:
This, ladies, and gentlemen, is the father of my children. All together now: Awwwww. I love that man so much.
And, just because I can, here's a picture of Jack with his little backpack. Isn't he adorable? And he's getting so big. Sigh.

I am one lucky lady to have so many wonderful male role models in my life, and I hope I raise my little boy to one day be the kind of Dad I've been blessed to have.

Here's to all the Fathers out there--

Happy Father's Day, all!!

Why I haven't blogged in forever...

2010-06-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

Beauty and the Beast is taking over my life. You know the Disney movie?
Well, they moved it to Broadway. And since it's not on Broadway anymore, our town has decided to perform it. My husband is going to be this guy:

I wanted to be the French maid who flirts with him, but they figured it would be awkward to have a pregnant French maid. Sigh. So instead I'm the sugar bowl. My costume is shaped a little like this lady:

Which reminds me: have you ever tried to make a teapot costume for a full-grown adult woman? It's not easy. And I would know. Because my AMAZING mother is in charge of costumes for this play, I've been called into service as her assistant. It's rather like being a working mother, I've discovered--I show up at about 10:00 every day, drop my child off into her complimentary day care service (I love having younger siblings who are so responsible!), then work till about 9 at night, when I head home and try to find something for my famished husband to eat. It's crazy. We finally finished Mrs. P two days ago (HURRAY!). She looks awesome. But I don't want to show you any pictures till you see the final product on the actual actress (my old choir teacher, Mrs. Flake--who is also amazing). But I will give you a small sample of what we have produced:

This is Chip. You know, her son? He's not finished in this picture (he is now, however), but look at all that gold embellishment. Guess who TOTALLY did that--by hand--with puff paint. Yep. Me. You have my permission to be impressed. I made the cup and saucer, too, out of foam. I do love foam.

Anyways, so this is why you may not be hearing from me much until July is over. We still have about 20 very difficult costumes we have to make by the end of June. It's going to be interesting, that's for sure. But it will definitely be cool. Very cool.

Memorial Day Weekend...

2010-06-09T11:02:00.000-07:00

This is what we did over Memorial Day weekend. Warning: all of the pictures are fuzzy, because, once again, the only pictures I ever DO take are with my phone. Not the best quality ever. But that's okay--you'll still get the gist. Here you can see the final product of our Memorial Day project--our wood stove. See that GORGEOUS stonework behind it? Yeah. We totally did that. Don't worry, though--we had a professional come and actually do the stove installation. That one I wasn't comfortable trying to do with only DIY.com for help. I tried uploading these in chronological order, but Blogger was being weird. So be glad that Jack is sleeping long enough to let me actually post!! Here is the stonework in the process--oddly enough, the hardest part of finishing this was just getting the cement board screwed onto the dang wall!! Cement is not easy to drill. In case you were wondering.

Here is my hero, Steve. He did most of the actual labor. I was his assistant--mostly just handing him what he needed and trying to keep our child and puppy happy and out of the way.

Here is Jack in his makeshift fortress: he was screaming right before I took the picture, but he's getting old enough now that he recognizes when I'm taking a picture of him, so he'll pose and smile for me. He's trying so hard to be cheerful!

Note: I do not usually let my front room get this messy. But when you're up to your elbows in mortar (literally), sometimes something has to go. In this case, we were just happy that Jack was content with his fruit snacks, graham crackers, and sippy cup of milk. Who cares how many DVDs he may have destroyed? (Okay, my husband actually does. Strike that last comment...)

But look at that stove. Wasn't it worth it? AND we'll actually be warm this winter--despite having a tile floor!! Whoo-hoo!!

Everything's Coming Up....Weeds

2010-05-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Neighbors,

We appreciate your patience with our terrible, weed-ridden yard full of dying plants of every variety.
We're trying to landscape. We really are. But when my husband works 60+ hours a week and I'm feeling too tired and yucky to even take care of the inside of our house, much less the outside, we don't get a lot done. I'm sorry for that. I really am. But we're working on it--we planted two apple trees today, my husband bought me one of those topsy-turvey tomato planters for Mother's Day, and we have four daffodils that actually have bloomed!! FOUR!!
Now, who cares if the numerous tulips we planted have all been blown to death by the cursed Snowflake wind? Or if our lawn is actually more weeds than lawn, and that which is grass is about two feet high because we don't own a lawn mower (yet)? We're working on it. Really. Okay, well, we're not actually working on it yet, but we feel guilty for how terrible it looks. How's that?
Hopefully by the end of the summer we will at least have grass in the front yard. That's the goal.
Again, thank you for your patience.

Love,
Steve, Jewel, and Jack

P.S. I would include pictures, but they would just depress me. And probably you.

Promotion!!

2010-05-14T22:44:00.000-07:00

Jack is excited. Not only is he grown up enough that he's now running, learning to talk, and getting tall enough to open the kitchen drawers (help!), but he's been promoted...to the position of big brother (I was going to capitalize that title, but it looked a little...1984-ish).
Yep, we're pregnant again!! I'm about 13 weeks along, we got to hear the heartbeat two weeks ago, (which was just as amazing as it was with Jack), and I just felt the little one moving inside of me for the first time tonight, which gave me such thrills. It's such an incredible feeling to realize that, once again, there's another little life inside of me, growing and developing. I'm hoping that the sick, yucky part of the pregnancy will pass soon...it's definitely been a learning experience, trying to keep up with a very busy 13-month-old and an even busier puppy while trying not to puke, but hopefully after a couple more weeks, I'll be past the really sick stage.
This baby (Steve's calling her LaFawnda the Spawn-da) is due on November 14th, so we're expecting to have us a Thanksgiving baby, which should be fun. We just told our families last week (Steve's brother, Andrew, came home from his mission last Wednesday, so we figured that would be a good time to tell everyone), and although my mom and sisters were not surprised (they know me well enough that they could tell I was sick), I think most everyone else we told was. Hopefully, including you folks!!

Mommy's Little Helper

2010-04-01T13:29:00.001-07:00

My son is so helpful. You may think your kids are helpful, but do they:

Help unload the dishwasher (directly onto the floor?)

Clean out your cupboards (and by clean, I mean completely empty)?
Make sure the water in your toilet is up to par?

Sweep (and/or mop)?

Or even help you drive (by honking the horn constantly)?

Yeah. I thought not. I'm so lucky to have such a good helper.

What the--?!?!

2010-03-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

I could write about how much fun Jack's birthday was--how we enjoyed having Steve's parents (and brother and girlfriend) come up--how we ended up saving a brand-new calf's life--how Jack LOVES all the toys he got (being the only grandson on both sides, he gets spoiled just a bit)--or how Jack's getting SO big and SO old--but I don't want to. I just want to be sappy for a little bit.

Does anyone else remember how this little baby:

Turned into this slightly bigger baby:

Who has suddenly become this BOY?

Sigh. I'm feeling old.

Pushing My Buttons

2010-03-10T12:44:00.000-08:00

I've been in denial, but it's time to face the facts. My son is no longer a baby--he is a full-fledged toddler. How can I tell, you ask?
He throws tantrums. He's walking. He throws tantrums. He's into EVERYTHING. He throws tantrums. He likes to "read." He throws tantrums. He's learning to color. Oh, and did I mention he throws tantrums?

It's been weeks since I've sat through an entire Relief Society lesson--I watch other mothers longingly as their small children (the same age as Jack--give or take a few weeks) sit on chairs next to them or on the floor in front of them, quietly playing with their own toys and maybe occasionally venturing out past the row, but then quickly returning to home base. In contrast, I spend the entire meeting trying to keep Jack out of the trash can, off of the piano, and away from other babies' diaper bags, toys, and snacks. When I try to hold him on my lap, he squirms and screams, and if he doesn't get his way, he lets me know, as well as everyone else in the entire building.

He has exactly 6 months and one week till he's eligible for nursery. I can't wait.

Amazing what 5 little words can do

2010-02-18T22:56:00.000-08:00

The other night, I was lying in bed, feeling sorry for myself.

It had been a rough day--Steve had had to work late (again), Jack had been extra cranky, and Buster had been completely disobedient. The house was a wreck, despite my many efforts to make it otherwise, and although I had tried to do everything right, I still felt like a complete failure.

Just as I was lying there, trying to go to sleep, feeling completely undervalued and unappreciated, my sweet husband (who was probably completely exhausted as well) rolled over, put his arms around me, and murmured, "Thank you for being wonderful."

I fell asleep smiling.

I'm totally famous!!

2010-02-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

I feel really cool. My amazing friend, Sarah M. Eden, is an author. Soon to be an author published by a major publishing company, Covenant. And I know her. I know her!! (Tell me where I got that slightly modified line, and I'll be your friend...even more than I already am).
And she thinks I'm cool enough to interview me and put the results on the world wide web. Yes, that's right:

I'm pretty excited. Go check it out.

The Joys of Costuming

2010-02-16T08:27:00.000-08:00

I've actually been past this particular phase of my life for a couple of weeks now, but I knew it needed recording, and I figured all of you would want to hear about it. Even if not, I wanted to talk about it. So there.

In January, my mom was in charge of making (and designing) the costumes for some 60-odd cast members to put on a children's production of Wizard of Oz. She had been working on it for months, and since I knew I was getting my tonsils out two weeks before the production, I decided to help her while I could. So I spent several weeks over at her house, working on these costumes, as well.

We used my siblings as models for our creativity a lot, since they were the correct age group/size, and in the process, I got probably one of my favorite pictures of all time:

My 13-year-old sister, Katie, is to the stage where she is waaaay too cool for wearing costumes...and I had to get a picture of the process. She's an unfinished apple tree, by the way.
I, however, am obviously not too cool for anything. Even trying on my other 13-year-old sister's lion costume to make sure it fits right.

So, although it made for some stressful weeks on my mom's part (you remember my post about how my entire family was sick? My mom was watching an incredibly sick and miserable Jack all during that time...and it of course happened to fall on the exact deadline of when she needed all of the costumes done), we finished them all and got to watch the play. It was adorable.

Doesn't he make a cute flying monkey?

And I was glad to have at least some way of paying my mom back for putting up with us for a month. We were not fun.

What the heck?!!

2010-02-15T15:54:00.000-08:00

Well, it's happened: after threatening to do so for the past couple of months, the boy is walking.

98% of me is thrilled, but there is a tiny little part of me that wants to cry. Is that normal?

Balloon Faces

2010-02-02T14:08:00.001-08:00

For Family Home Evening last night, we were tired, but we had set a goal to have Family Home Evening every week. So, our lesson and activity were simple: we drew balloon faces and talked about how we are all unique children of our Heavenly Father. I decided you all needed to see our amazing artistic abilities.

Buster and his balloon face, as drawn by yours truly
Jack and his balloon face, drawn by Steve (note the four teeth!!)

Me and the balloon face Steve drew for me...

Steve and his balloon twin...or at least, my version of it.

Jack didn't draw anyone. I didn't think my ego could handle seeing what his version of me would be. But he did have fun playing with the finished products, until we saw this:

and then he had to take a bath and go to bed. Poor guy. We never let him have any fun.

I Beg to Disagree

2010-01-30T09:03:00.000-08:00

Who says that when you're a mother you have no privacy?

Little wishes

2010-01-22T08:57:00.003-08:00

Well, Heavenly Father heard at least one of my complaints last night and decided to do something about it.

We got snow, people.

I'm happy.

Musings of a Medicated Mommy

2010-01-21T20:52:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm feeling better. Meaning I actually ate enchiladas--my first non-blended meal in over a week (although I lost 10 pounds in the last week--now offically done with baby weight!), and although it hurt, it didn't make me worry that I was ripping scabs off of the inside of my throat as everything else I've tried to eat has. So I'm taking that as a good sign.

Jack is still goopy. He has a cough, continuous fever, a really runny nose, and his eyes are glued shut every time he wakes up from a nap. But he got into my book shelf again today, so I'm seeing that as progress...before, he was too tired to get into any trouble, but today seemed to be better. Hoping he keeps progressing.

Steve is now the one we're really worrying about--his cough is so bad, it makes him sound like he's dying of tuberculosis. Plus the fever. And the stuffy sinuses. Why is it that he had to steal my thunder and get this incredibly frustrating sickness right when I was the one who was supposed to be pampered?

Anyways. That's why last week stunk so much--if it wasn't for my amazing mom and sisters, I don't see how we would have survived. As it is, I still haven't showered for a week and am wearing the same clothes I wore the night after I got my tonsils out. Yeah. I'm gross. But at least I'm alive--and happy about it, for a change!

So that's my random old-lady moment rambling about all of our health issues. How are all of you feeling about the crazy storm hitting the entire western half of the US, eh? We've been getting rain all day--we had snow last night, and it even stuck and looked pretty for about an hour, then turned into rain. Everyone around us is snowed in--but we must be a few feet lower in elevation or something, because we're not even freezing. It's cold, but not pretty. Darn it.

Wow. This is sure a negative post. Let's see if I can't think of something positive to leave you all with--I have some amazing warm slippers that Steve's Grandma Busch gave me for Christmas, and I LOVE them. Seriously. I wear them all the time that I'm indoors. I'm pretty sure I'll wear them out by spring, but I don't even care. They are amazing.

I guess that's random enough for y'all.

It's a Hard-Knock Life For Us

2010-01-19T17:23:00.000-08:00

Getting your tonsils out is awful.

Getting your tonsils out and then having your husband come down with a nasty cough and fever is awfuler.

Getting your tonsils out and then having your husband come down with a nasty cough and fever and then having your son come down with the same thing plus an ear infection is awfulest.

It can only get better from here. Right?

Announcing:

2010-01-19T14:44:00.001-08:00

...the newest member of the Busch family--Buster!!
We had always known we had wanted Jack (and the rest of our children--eventually) to grow up with a dog. So, a couple of weeks before Christmas, we went to the Animal Shelter up in Pinetop, and adopted a German shepherd mix named Forest, who we renamed Buster.

It's not the easiest thing in the world to take care of two pooping, eating, mess-making machines, but Jack and Buster have become fast friends. After all, they have so much in common: Same interests (those are birds, by the way. Pretty sure they're glad there's a cage there)
Same nap schedule

Same tastes--literally

Same sense of humor.

Seriously, though, although there are many many moments when I have to wonder what the heck I was thinking adopting a 5-month-old, not-housetrained German Shepherd puppy to add to the chaotic mix that is our lives right now, when I see moments like these, it makes it all worth it.

I just have to remind myself that every time I see a "gift" on the floor for us to find.

Forgotten Carols

2009-12-02T11:29:00.001-08:00

The town of Snowflake is putting on Michael McLean's Forgotten Carols tonight at 7:00, and again on the 18th and 19th (same time). I'm mentioning this because when I found out about it, I was thrilled for the opportunity to be involved in one of my favorite plays/stories, so I tried out (and made Steve try out, too). Surprisingly enough, we made it--I'm the lead character, Constance, and Steve is my love interest, Dr. Hallifax. Half of my family is also in it--my dad, Noah, Levi, and Molly are all involved. So, for anyone who will be in town any of those days, come support us! (And, if you would, keep me in your prayers. I'm extremely nervous.)

Primary Thoughts

2009-12-01T19:27:00.000-08:00

As I was teaching my Primary class a week ago, I was in charge of Jack that day (Steve and I switch off whenever he has the lesson in Priests Quorum), and my kids (the 6-7-year-olds...I LOVE them) were getting kind of distracted, because he was crawling all over the place and trying to get into EVERYTHING.
The lesson was on our parents, and how just like Heavenly Father loves us, they love us, and we should love and respect and obey them like we love and respect and obey our Heavenly Father (and vice versa).
Jack was fascinated by the trash can, and the kids kept cracking up when he would make a beeline for it and I would have to pick him up and move him somewhere else, when it hit me: use the distraction (aka my child) as an object lesson!
"Okay, everyone--why am I not letting Jack suck on the trash can?" I asked them.
"Because it would be gross and germy!" the kids all chimed.
"But he really wants to grab it! See how frustrated he gets when I don't let him do what he wants? Why don't I just let him do what he wants? He really wants it!" I asked.
"Because it would be bad for him!" was the answer.
"So are you saying that I maybe understand better than he does what is good and what isn't?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, Heavenly Father feels the same way about us. He loves us so much that sometimes, He doesn't give us what we want, even if we really, REALLY want it. Even if we pray for it--sometimes He knows that what we want isn't what is best for us. So we have to trust that He knows what we need, even if we don't understand."
As they all nodded in understanding, I thought to myself, "Way to go--turning this into a teaching moment." And then I promptly went on with the lesson.
Then, last week, I was given a new calling and released from my old one as a Primary teacher. Let me clarify: I LOVED teaching Primary. It was my first time being a Primary teacher, and I loved my class, I loved the simplicity of the lessons, I loved the Spirit I felt when I was with my kids. So when the Bishop called and released me from that calling to give me a new one that was completely out of my comfort zone, I felt overwhelmed and frustrated by this change.
It was today, as I was dragging Jack away from his millionth attempt to get into my bathroom, that it hit me.
Heavenly Father loves me. And He understands what calling I need right now. So although it's one that I'm feeling daunted by, it's the one I need in order to stretch and grow, even though it's not necessarily the one I wanted. And I need to trust that He knows more than I do, and even if I don't understand, I can choose to obey and be kept safe and happy, or I can keep reaching for a closed door and end up wasting my time and efforts on something that wouldn't be good for me.
Interesting, isn't it, the things you can learn from your kids?

Jack Update

2009-11-23T19:47:00.001-08:00

I just realized that I've been rather neglecting updates on my little boy. So, here goes:
We went to the doctor a month ago (at 7 months) for a well-baby visit. At the time, he weighed 23 lbs. and was 33 inches long--in the 100th percentile for both height and weight. I'm not surprised. This kid is huge.
He's already wearing 18-month clothing (now that he's 8 months old), and carrying him anywhere in his carseat is a crazy workout!
He is insanely curious (he's too big for his bumbo now--this picture was taken two months ago, but I liked how it showed his exploration for every and anything), and he especially loves to get into things that he can tell aren't allowed. Power cords are a big favorite.

This kid has no fear--Steve tries to startle him and surprise him in so many ways, and sometimes he'll jump a little, but immediately he'll start giggling. He loves people and will go to just about anyone, but he does like to keep me in sight...he gets nervous if I leave the room for too long.

He started crawling a month and a half ago--he had been warming up for it for a couple of months already, and we were beginning to think he would go straight to walking, because he kept trying to stand up before he would try to crawl, but then one day he just took off! Ironically, that was the same day he pulled himself up to stand on the furniture. I was nervous that he would really rather walk, but it's been a month and a half and he still likes crawling (although he LOVES to be standing up). He's quite quick, in fact--as I can attest by the many plates of food he's dumped in my lap when I thought they were far enough out of his reach.

He's also started the phase where whatever I'm eating is far more interesting than the boring baby food we're trying to give him, so it's been fun to see him experimenting with different tastes.

I sure love this boy, and I'm enjoying having such an adventerous, mischevious, curious little boy to chase around. This time is sure flying!!

Family Pictures 2009

2009-11-19T18:48:00.000-08:00

So, these pictures were actually taken about a month ago, but I thought I'd share. We haven't had any family pictures taken yet, and I'd been wanting to have my incredibly talented aunt (I won't say who, because she told me not to tell anyone who she was, but she lives in Snowflake and her name starts with a "J") take our pictures for a few months, but something came up every time.

Finally, one Thursay, Steve had the day off, we'd been working on our yard all day (planting a lawn!! Eek!!), and we figured we'd just take some time and see what kind of pictures we got. Good thing you can't smell us--we're sweaty and manure-y. But we look good! Here are some of the results:

Jack and his daddy--he wouldn't get his hand out of his mouth, (Jack, not Steve) but I thought it was actually pretty cute
I like Jack's face on this one. It's kind of a patient surrender.

I love the colors of the leaves in the background on this one!

Isn't he just beautiful?

This one we blew up and have on our wall. I liked it as a familiy photo.

So, there you go. That's the Busch Family as of October, 2009.

Oh, The Irony

2009-11-18T18:52:00.000-08:00

The other day, I was with a good friend of mine, and we were sharing stories, and she told one about how her son had pooped in the bathtub, which had resulted in her having to bleach down the bathtub and all the toys involved, etc., etc. (One thing I found interesting about the story was that her son pooping in the tub wasn't the climax--it was just a minor supportive detail).

I thought, "Wow. I'm really lucky Jack has never pooped in the bathtub before."

I didn't even have to say it out loud, apparently, for the irony fairy to hear me. I kid you not, that night, as I was bathing him, he was playing his favorite game--escape from the bathtub--and he did it.

He pooped in the tub.

Once again, it's a good thing he's cute.

*No, I wasn't going to post a picture of the poop. How gross do you think I am?

Guess Who:

2009-11-14T13:00:00.000-08:00

Two members of our family have been sick this past week. I'll give you three guesses as to which two of us I'm talking about:

The good thing about the flu is that it doesn't last forever. Right?

*and yes, I realize that by posting this picture of me, i will probably have several internet stalkers trying to find me. But one must occasionally take risks like that.

Soooo Famous!

2009-10-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

Well, Steve finally has been rewarded for his Halloween obsession (there's just no other word for it, honey!). He was interviewed on my amazing author friend's website!! Go check it out!!

Yep. It's Legit.

2009-10-19T21:25:00.001-07:00

Do any of you remember these? My grandma had a few, and I thought they were amazing.

Little did I know how amazing they could be--the other night, Steve and I were watching late-night television, and a commercial came on selling these:
Wow. What do you think?

Disney Recap

2009-10-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

Warning:
Once again, I'm going to give you a picture overload. I'll try to make comments in between so they're not totally overwhelming, but I can't promise anything. We left for Disneyland on Monday, stayed the night at Mom and Dad Busch's house that night, then met up with Shauna and drove to California on Tuesday. To tell you the truth, I was actually terrified about this trip. I've never been to a theme park with a baby before, and I know how Jack gets when he's in a car for too long, when he doesn't get a nap, etc. Plus, Steve and Shauna are both huge Disney afficionados, so I was worried that it would be a stressful trip. But I prayed really hard, took a breath, and dove in. Jack even helped me pack:

And surprisingly enough, he slept almost the entire way there!
When we got there, it was surprisingly busy--especially for an October. If there were one thing I would change about the trip, I would have remembered that we were going on Columbus Day weekend and changed the day.

But Steve and Jack were thrilled to be in the Haunted Mansion--Jack actually did surprisingly well on the rides!

He also enjoyed meeting some of the characters--Cinderella is Steve's favorite. (We went to Mickey's Trick-or-treat party on Thursday night, hence the costumes. Steve's Prince Charming, Jack is Squirt...I couldn't find a Cinderella dress, so I'm Cinderella on her wedding day, and Shauna is Ugly Better)

Steve as Prince Charming

Like I said, Jack LOVED the characters. He just started giggling and laughing every time he met one

The whole group. I love Jack's face in this picture

And his face right here made the entire trip worth it... the stress, the money...everything. It was totally worth it. :)

Bedtime Blues

2009-10-12T21:34:00.001-07:00

Jack has a problem. Okay, I have a problem, but it's affecting Jack, so it's his problem, too.

I can NOT get him to go to bed without it being a huge ordeal. I've done all sorts of things--I've established a nightly routine where I feed him dinner in the high chair, give him a bath (with the special nighttime baby shampoo and lotion, even!), get him in his jammies, then rock him, hum to him, nurse him, and listen to classical music while he gets sleepy (Doesn't that make me sound like a good mom? I only say that, because I feel like anything but a good mom right now). Then I lay him down.

Now, one of two things happens: One, I've nursed him long enough that he's actually sound asleep, so when I lay him down, he rolls over and goes right to sleep. Or two, I nurse him for the exact same amount of time as the other times, sometimes even longer, but he's not asleep yet. So he screams.
And screams.
And screams.

Then, I either feel bad and go in and get him out of the crib, calm him down, and try to nurse him till he falls asleep for real this time, or I just let him cry it out. I hate letting him cry it out. It makes me feel like the worst mother in the world to hear my baby crying for me like that and not going in to make it better.

Tonight was a "crying it out" night. I was tired and sore from our trip, and I just didn't have it in me to keep letting him try to nurse. So I laid him down and started giving Steve a haircut, so I wouldn't be able to go back in and get him.

He cried for half an hour, and then finally quieted down. When I went in to check on him, I found this:

I really feel like a terrible mother.

I'm So Excited

2009-10-05T10:39:00.001-07:00

Guess where we're going to be in two days?

And with whom?
Riding what?

I am SO. STINKIN. EXCITED.

Working in the yard...ish

2009-10-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

I have a problem. I rarely finish projects that I've started. And it drives me NUTS to have unfinished projects lying around the house--but I can't seem to stop getting distracted once I've started a project by another project that needs finishing. For example:
Steve had work off, so we went by Home Depot and bought what we needed to finally get some landscaping done in front of our house (right now, it looks like very natural high desert landscaping--basically dirt, rocks, and some GINORMOUS tumble weeds that Jack got lost in the other day).
We spent lots of money.
Then we came home, and it just happened to be the windiest day we've experienced since living up here in Snowflake. We worked on the "lawn," picked all the tumbleweeds, planted four of the shrubs...and then had to quit. The sandblasting effect was just too painful, and I felt like I was drowning in dirt.
So our yard is level, at least--but I have no idea when we'll get it done. Sigh.

Feels good to get things done

2009-09-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

I am quite proud of myself, and this post is probably going to be a little bit braggy. That being said, I decided on Tuesday to get Jack's room painted, finally--it was just plain white before (sorry, no before pics--just imagine a white room), with absolutely nothing on the walls (because Steve made me promise not to hang any pictures till we'd painted). I got to work, and by the time Steve came home for lunch, I was finishing hanging the last picture on the wall!! Of course, I couldn't have done it without my awesome cousin Michelle who came over and kept Jack occupied while I was busy in his room. But still--pretty proud. What do you think?

The lighting in this picture is awful--and you can ignore the cardboard box holding all of his toys for now till we get a real toy box. Just look at the walls :)
Aren't the animals cute? They're decals that Steve found on sale at Target...a LOOOONG time ago.

My favorite part of this picture (besides the adorable magnet board our friends Misty and Sarah made for us) is the fact that the diapers are now hanging directly next to the changing table (or dresser I use as a changing table--don't judge). Before, they were hanging off the side of his crib, and if I forgot to grab a diaper before I started changing him, I was always left with the choice of a) either letting him go for the split second it would take me to cross the room and grab a diaper and risk him falling off to his death or b) picking my poopy baby up after his diaper was already removed to go grab a diaper. Fun times. So this new arrangement is quite a bit more convenient.

Anyways, that's what I've been up to. And I'm sore and tired, but Steve's face was worth it. He was so impressed. As he should have been. :)

No Offense

2009-09-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

Okay. I'm going to be incredibly uncharitable for a moment.

Does anyone else get sick of those people who are so easily offended by everything and everyone all the time?

We're not in Jr. High, people. But here are these full-grown adults acting like 12-year-olds. They either:

1) Refuse to talk to you but tell everyone else that they're mad at you--or that you're mad at them

2) Act like everything's great to your face but hold in all of this resentment till the moment's right to blow it up in your face and bring up all of the things you've ever done to offend them or

3) Just drop little hints of the fact that they're offended for you to pick up and act on, if you will.

Do any of those things sound like something 40-50-year-olds should be doing?

The funny thing is that these people are also usually the ones who are so willing to share their (sometimes entirely offensive) opinions on everything.

It kind of makes me want to print off several copies of this talk by Elder Bednar and hand it out like candy.

My life is a country song

2009-09-22T16:46:00.000-07:00

Or so it seems.

In just the last weekend, we had more countryfying (it didn't use to be a word, but it is now) experiences than we've had in the past year...and living in Snowflake, that's quite an accomplishment.

First off, we attended an animal auction at the county fair. My siblings were all in attendance, as they were selling pigs for 4-H, and Steve needed to go and represent the local Wells Fargo branch, as they usually buy a pig and then donate half of the meat to the volunteer fire department and the other half to a rest home here in town, so I went along with him, and helped translate ("Okay--it's a dollar a pound now. Do you want to bid?" "Now it's 2.50. Get the card down!! You don't want to bid now!!").

While we were there, a nice lady made a balloon giraffe for Jack. He enjoyed sucking on it until I took it away (I may not be the best mommy ever, but I do know that sucking on balloon animals isn't exactly the best activity for a 6-month-old).
The next day, we went up to Pinetop-Lakeside for their yearly tradition...they have several local business owners dress up in old Western outfits and rob the Wells Fargo wagon, after which they have a hanging, which was behind one of the local bars. Yes, I took my child to a bar. Don't judge. We had Jack take a picture with one of the bar maids:

Note: I'm not even lying--the average age of these bar maids was about 60-ish. And they were all chain smokers--the float behind her is covered in cigarette packages. It was so bad, it was funny. They were nice, though.

Then that night, for our ward social, they had face painting! We thought it was appropriate to put a Jack-o-lantern on Jack's face:

after which we all enjoyed some good hamburgers, salad, and various desserts typically found at a ward party. It was good times.

Afterwards, we came home and decorated for Halloween. I felt like I owed that much to Steve.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

2009-09-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I taught my first Primary Sharing Time. I was pretty nervous, because I've never taught Sharing Time before, and because I'm over the Jr. Primary, I didn't know if it would go over well (I taught about how the prophets' teachings help us build a stronger family, and illustrated it by having them "build a house" on the board). It seemed to be going well, however, till I hit a snag midway through.

They have a rather ingenious system in this ward where, in order to call on the kids, you can draw a popsicle stick with the child's name on it to come up and be involved. I was nervous, and as I drew one, it had a rather unusual name that I couldn't be sure if I was pronouncing it correctly, so I was concentrating on sounding out the name, rather than actually looking to see where the child was.

"K--Keetin? Keaton?" I glanced up to see the Sunbeams teacher shaking her head at me.

Just then, the little boy on her lap offered, "That's my brother's name."

"Oh, that's nice--" I began.

"He's in heaven," The boy finished.

What? I just called on a dead kid? Why in the world is his name still in the group, then? "Oh...I'm so sorry..." I stammered.

"Why?" A little girl three rows back asked. "Heaven's a great place!"

I hurridly changed the topic back to the game, and stumbled through the rest of the lesson.

After class was over, I went up to the Primary President. "Did you have a little boy pass away?"

"No," she answered. "I was confused when he said that, so I went and asked his mom if they had had something like that happen in their family--she said that she and her husband had been talking about how they wanted to have another boy, and if they did, they would name him Keaton. So that's his little brother's name--and he's up in heaven. Don't worry. You're fine."

Ah. That makes more sense. Well, at least I didn't call on a little dead boy.

Being a Momma

2009-09-16T17:02:00.000-07:00

Why is this such a crazy emotional experience? Literally, one moment, I'll be trying to get something done, frustrated because Jack is fussing and crying and wanting me to carry him around as I try to (fill in the blank here)...but carrying him, even in my sling, is rather difficult, not only because he's 20 pounds already (not exaggerating--he's already wearing 12-month clothing), but also because he is so. darn. squirmy.

So then I'll finally turn towards him, exasperated, and he'll give me this face:
And then I feel bad because I'm not taking advantage of every precious moment that I've been given to have my little boy with me, just me and him.

I know this time goes by quickly, and I know that I should appreciate it. But somehow, I find myself more often than not only watching that time slip by, but hoping it will go even faster so that Steve can come home sooner and give me at least a little bit of decent conversation and maybe even a break so I can get something done.

It's a Jack-in-the-box!! Get it?

But then I stop and look at old pictures of my baby, and look at how much he's grown and changed and developed already, and my heart literally hurts at how fast this time really is going. Then I'll hold him and snuggle him (as much as he allows me--he's not much of a snuggler, really) and kiss him and tell him how much I love him and hope that that makes up for my previous bad mothering.

Now, the question is, how do I keep this perspective all the time?

*P.S. Sorry about the blurriness of all of my pictures lately--I can't find my camera (once again, thanks to the move) so I'm just using the one on my phone. Not the best quality.

At least he's cute

2009-09-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry--I couldn't help posting one more picture. As I was sitting here on the computer, Jack tooted--REALLY loudly. Not kidding...it shook the floor. Then I looked down, and he had this look on his face:
Tell me he's not irresistable.

I'm back!!

2009-09-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't had internet for several months, I'm obviously waaaay behind on my blogging. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought I'd put in a few (for those of you who are bored by baby pictures, this post is probably not worth your time, as there are quite a few pictures of Jack in here) to help tell you about the past few months in our lives.

Right now, we're getting ready for the Halloween season...hence the socks.
This is our bedroom. As many of you know, Steve and I bought a brand-new house, and have been working to make it ours. We just painted this room over the Labor Day weekend with the help of our amazing friend, Shauna!!

Jack is just starting to learn to crawl...he's to the point where he can get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth, but then he usually gives up and lays on his tummy again. And in case you're wondering about the socks on his hands, he has this nasty habit of grabbing my skin and squeezing it with his little sharp nails. I have cuts all over my chest, neck, and face. So this was my retaliation.

I made my own salsa!! We got several tomatoes and chiles from my parents' garden, and so I made a bunch of homemade salsa and froze it.

Eating solid foods has its drawbacks. This is one of them.

About half of the corn my parents' garden produced. Since we helped (about this much)

they let us keep some of it, too.

Jack's enjoying some of the garden produce we've been getting up here in Snowflake

I would like to think he's teething, because he chews on EVERYTHING, but no teeth yet. It's okay, really, because I'm still nursing.

Dancing

My parents own a couple of bull calves, so we decided to let Jack ride a bull!

Yes. I married him.

Jack is quite the pro at rolling from his back to his stomach, but it took him a lot longer to figure out how to get back to his back. This was the first time he actually flipped over on his own.

What can I say? He's cute.

So, now that I once again have easy access to the Internet, hopefully I'll be able to post more often. I've missed the blogging world!

Careful--They're Dangerous

2009-05-31T08:06:00.000-07:00

So, this morning, I was snuggling with my adorable little baby in bed, enjoying the nice, lazy Sunday morning where we don't have to go to church until 1:00...and he reached up to touch my face...

And THIS happened!!!
I don't know if you can see the details, but he DREW BLOOD, people.
Really?

Good thing he's cute.

California Trip!!

2009-05-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

So, we had our California trip with my family--what a crazy trip!! Don't worry--we bought batteries (finally) so now we have TONS of pictures to make up for the lack thereof in previous posts.

Isn't that a good picture of Jack smiling? This is on Sunday morning in the hotel room--that's my sister-in-law, Danica holding him and McKay hugging her.

Mom Busch bought these little sandals for Jack to wear at the beach...however...his feet were too fat to fit in them. Sad day!!
We had originally planned on riding in Shiloh and Danica's car with them, but when their car broke down 30 miles outside of Needles, we ended up all riding in the same van together--all 16 of us!! Wow.

You can't see everyone, especially since Danica is hiding behind Shiloh, but they're all there. Trust me.

Isn't this a great picture of Steve? We took this one right after the Memorial Day Beecroft Runoff. This was the 29th annual race--my Grandpa Beecroft was the one who started it, and it's still going strong--there were over 200 people there! (Granted, at least 76 of us were there for the reunion, but still)

Jayze and I goofing off after the race--I was able to run the first half without stopping to walk!! I was so proud of myself!!

My mom and her siblings: L-R: Julie, Lisa, Mom (Pam), Jackie, Debi, and Jon
I love this picture--they had so much fun being together again!

Else, my cousin, had her baby, Charlotte, 3 days before Jack (even though she was due after I was), and yet Jack is still way bigger!! It was so fun to see the two of them!

I spent a lot of time doing this: feeding Jack in the car. Fun times. Luckily, Jack was actually a WONDERFUL little traveler. He spent the main part of both 12-hour drives either sleeping or cooing and giggling at us. Thank goodness.

Me at the beach...it was FREEZING that morning, but when the sun came out later that day, it got a bit more comfortable.

Jack at the beach in his little beach outfit...

Steve and I in our wetsuits...without them, there's no way I would have even attempted to get in the water. Thanks, Aunt Debi, for letting us use all of your stuff!!

We even attempted to surf--Steve was successful a few times. Me, not so much.

So, those are a few highlights from our trip--I have a ton more pictures, but they take forever to download, and Jack doesn't have a very long attention span, so we'll see...the trip was wonderful, however, despite the technical difficulties with the cars. I loved getting to see some of my cousins who I haven't seen in a long time, and just sitting around and talking and hearing about all of them was absolutely wonderful.

I do owe Steve, however. 12 hours in a car with all of my siblings--yes. I owe him big time. Any ideas on how I can make it up to him?

Catching Up is Hard to Do

2009-05-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

Sigh. Does anyone else have the issue where when you don't blog for a while, you just put it off longer because there's so much more to catch up on? That's my problem. Let's see what I can catch up on.

Life here in Snowflake is still about the same--Jack is getting HUGE!! At his 2-month visit to the Dr's office, he weighed 16 lbs, 10 oz. What the heck am I feeding that kid? Steve's started calling him Gigantor, the Monster Baby. But he's still cute as ever: See below.
Awww. He's started smiling and "talking" like crazy, but because we STILL can't find the cord to plug into our camera in order to charge the batteries, no pictures of him smiling yet. Grr. Maybe when Steve gets home tonight, I'll make him find it. I honestly have no idea where it is. But just imagine that cute little face turned up in a grin, and you'll get the basic idea.

In other news, my brother, Jayze is graduating this Friday...so great!! And my sister, NaElle, is getting married in July. My brother-in-law, David, is moving up to live with us next week (as far as I know), and poor guy, he'll be rooming with Jack. Fun for him!!

Actually, Jack is now sleeping much better at night, which I am grateful for--he'll usually go down between 8 and 9, and then sleep till 3 or 4, when I feed him, and then he'll go back down till around 6 (which, if you ask me, is still too early, but at least he's in a good mood when he wakes up in the morning!! That's more than I can say!)

And...hormone fluctuations are the pits. That's all I'll say about that.

Steve's doing really well at work--he's working nearly 60 hour weeks, which gets old really fast, but he's being such a trooper, and we have a vacation this next week (yay for family reunions in California!! I'm so excited), so that will be nice for him to have some relaxation time.

Well, I suppose this post is random enough. I'll stop now.

I Love This Thing!

2009-05-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

Because of this baby sling, today I was able to:

Make dinner...a good one, too, not just hamburger helper
Check my e-mail
Finish unpacking and organizing
Make my bed
Do the dishes and clean the kitchen
Dust and polish the piano
Blog!!

I love this thing.

These Pictures Say It All

2009-04-30T21:50:00.000-07:00

Something I would not recommend to anyone: moving with a one-month-old newborn. Just don't do it. Especially when you're required to move within a time period of two weeks.

The past few weeks have been wonderfully exhausting--we're now officially moved in to our new apartment (pictures to come soon...our camera's batteries were dead and I don't know where the charger is...excuses, excuses, I know), and as of today, we even have most of the boxes unpacked and even some pictures up on the wall. So tonight, this is a little of how I feel:

Just a few little updates, since I haven't posted for a while:

Jack has started smiling! The first time I saw him really smile was last Tuesday--he was asleep, but he started laughing and grinning like crazy, the entire time with his eyes closed. Luckily, Steve got to see it, too--he's smiled and laughed several times since then, but I have yet to catch it on camera, mostly because they're rather fleeting moments. Still, they melt my heart, every time. He's also cooing and gurgling, as well as sitting up in his Bumbo--my baby's not a newborn anymore!! Sigh.

We had Jack's blessing last Sunday, the 26th, down in our old ward in Glendale. It was absolutely beautiful--Steve gave him such a sweet blessing, and afterwards, we had a nice brunch with several family members and friends who were able to make it in a local park. Luckily, the weather was gorgeous--not too hot or anything, so it all turned out better than I could have hoped.

Steve's adjusting to his new branch and his new home town...I know it's a big adjustment to go from living in the city your entire life to moving to a town where the Dairy Queen closes at 8:00 at night. Not so fun. But he's being such a trooper, and he's already seeing some really great progress with some of his staff, so that's been quite exciting. Plus, it's been fun for us to go out at night and watch the stars--something I've missed.

Other than the move and all of the craziness that goes along with it, as well as me adjusting to being a mommy, there's not a lot to report. But I knew I had to get on here and blog again--I hope you'll all forgive my absence...and hopefully, I'll once again be more regular at posting.

What Can I Say? He's Just Darn Cute.

2009-04-03T19:09:00.000-07:00

Claire put more pictures on her website--and not gonna lie...I totally teared up while looking at some of these. I just can't believe that someone that cute is mine!!

Big Changes

2009-04-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

So, you know how in my last post, I mentioned that Steve had a very important phone interview? Well, we found out last night that despite sounding like Sid the Sloth, he got the position!!

Now for the big news--the position he had interviewed for is actually as the store manager...in the Snowflake branch of Wells Fargo. He met today with his new boss, and found out that they want him to start within 2 to 3 weeks, which means us moving up to Snowflake in that time frame. WOW.

We had always planned on ending up in Snowflake eventually, but we honestly had no idea that an opportunity like this (not only is it a promotion, but it's a pretty good raise, as well) would come up so soon. When Steve was offered the position, we were flabbergasted. We are super excited about moving up to Snowflake, but at the same time, it's a very bittersweet feeling, because we have so many wonderful friends and family down here. Leaving Steve's parents is going to be especially hard, not to mention our amazing ward and the friends we've made from other areas.

I'm also feeling a little bit overwhelmed to think that we have to find a place to live, pack, and be ready to move within three weeks--especially with a newborn who I feel like I'm feeding literally 24-7. But it will all work out. And this is obviously where Heavenly Father wants us to be. So I just have to have faith and take it one day at a time, right?

Not going to lie, though--we're excited.

Worst Life Ever. Ugh.

2009-04-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

Not me. Steve. Well, according to him, anyway.

He got his braces put in last Wednesday, and he's actually been pretty good about it all--sore, but dealing with it all pretty well. But then he got the expander put in today...and he found out that it has to stay in for an entire year. Ugh. And for any of you who have ever had to have a pallet expander (I didn't--my four years of braces luckily didn't have to include that nifty little gadget), you know that it makesh you talk like thish...think of Sid the Sloth from Ice Age.

And Steve happens to have a very important phone interview tomorrow.

Oh, dear. Maybe he's right.

Week of Firsts

2009-03-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

This was definitely an interesting week of firsts for Jack (and for his sometimes clueless parents). We got pictures of some of those firsts, and others, you'll just have to imagine for yourselves. So, here they are, not in any particular order:

The First Bath!! He actually was very calm, remarkably so. We were proud of him.

First time in front of the "electronic babysitter:" The other night Steve was holding him, and because he was being incredibly fussy and hard to please, we put him in this bouncer that has a vibrator on it (to simulate a car ride, I guess it's for). Well, that didn't work, but when we turned it around, he caught sight of the television, and was fascinated by the lights--it seriously quieted him for about 20 minutes!! Should I feel guilty that I'm already using the television to entertain my child?
Jack's first photo shoot: on the left is Diana, holding up the background. He kept crying, so we figured out to put him on Steve's lap (covered by the same black sheet used for the background), and have him suck on Steve's finger until just before Claire (on the right) took the picture. It worked, as you can tell from my previous post. The pictures turned out great!!

First time actually using a pacifier. He still only takes it when he's not upset or hungry (which are usually the times when we want him to take it the most), but he's getting better!! I was actually kind of against pacifiers until I had a baby. Now I'm 100% for them.

Some other firsts that were, unfortunately, not caught on camera, but are noteworthy nonetheless:

First time nursing in a public situation. Of course, it had to be at Steve's good friend's super ritzy wedding (we wouldn't have gone, but we had already RSVP'd, and he was paying a LOT of money per person, and besides that, we had guilt), and the timing just had to work out where Jack started screaming unconsolably right as the bridesmaids were preparing to walk down the aisle. It was definitely interesting to throw the shawl I use to remain semi-decent over my shoulder and unbutton my dress as everyone in front of us is turning around in their chairs to look behind them...I was a little embarrassed, to say the least, but Steve said that I did it so smoothly that no one could even tell I was feeding a child under the shawl. I say bull, but I'll never see any of those people again, so who cares?
First time getting pooped on in a public situation. Same wedding, about 5 minutes after the ceremony was over, I was holding Jack on my lap, and he made a familiar face...I looked down just in time to see bright yellow poop gushing all over his cute little outfit that we were planning on getting him blessed in, as well as all over one of my favorite dresses. So that lead to...
First time dealing with a screaming, poopy child in public. We went into the bathroom, where thankfully they had a changing table in one of the stalls (it was much nicer than trying to deal with him out in front of the sinks or some place equally visible), and he proceeded to cry and scream uncontrollably as I did my best to mop both of us up with wipes, toilet paper, and wet paper towels. It took about 15 minutes, after which I fed him again, and then, of course, for the rest of the festivities, he was either alert and perfectly content, or sleeping in his car seat. He was a positive angel for the next two hours.

So, now I feel like I've joined some club. Shouldn't there be some commemorative pin or something for anybody who's ever been pooped on in public?

Pictures of our little guy

2009-03-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

I LOVE having a professional photographer for a visiting teacher--not only does she spoil us with taking plenty of pictures of us in the pregnancy stages and with our brand-new newborn, but she also brings over delicious coconut cake.

Claire came over last week and we had a photo shoot with Jack...he didn't really cooperate the entire time (in fact, he cried a LOT...), but she is amazing and still managed to get some great shots. You can see them here.