Our Life

Loving. . .

2010-06-08T14:02:00.000-07:00

Him,

her,

this,

those,

& these!

One Year Old

2010-05-22T21:58:00.001-07:00

I can't believe my baby is 1!!! What a great year we have had, not to mention short- it seems to have flown by! She has changed so much, and is progressing so well!

She got her first "girl" toy for her birthday- a pink dolly and two baby bottles. She plays with Benson's toys all day, and loves them, so we thought it was time for some pink things to nurture.

Benson, like the good big brother he is, stepped in to help Alison unwrap her gifts. He was so excited to wrap the gifts we got her, and was mostly happy to let her have the presents. He kept saying, "when I turn 4, then I will have another birthday."

Two shots from the birthday party- smaller than we planned because Benson has had a fever for two days. So we just had our little family and Grandma Nielson to celebrate. But we had a great time anyway!

Love you, baby girl!

225 lbs

2010-03-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

I am starting a new blog. It will take the place of Weight Watchers in my life, since I can't afford it at this point. I need the nice little lady smiling while she writes my weight down on my card at the weekly meeting, and since I don't have that right now, I figure a public display of my weight will work nearly as well. The blog is posted on the side bar, but you can click here to go directly there. In case that doesn't work, the address is www.itisnotworththeweight.blogspot.com

So, 225 lbs is not my current weight. I will be posting the current weight tomorrow on my other blog. (Wednesday will be the weekly weigh-in day.) 225 lbs is my heaviest weight, besides pregnancy. That was in 7th grade. Yup, you read that right. I used to be afraid of telling people my weight, because I thought they wouldn't like me anymore if the knew how much I weighed. Silly idea. My thigh and arm circumferences will still be the same if you know my weight. I will still look the same. Nothing will have changed, except the idea in my head that maybe, if you don't know "the number" that you might perchance think I am a size 6, and this will somehow make me feel skinnier. Once again, silly idea. My weight is part of who I am, and always has been. It won't matter if you know the number. Still, though, there is something motivating about posting the number, because if it stays the same or even goes up week after week, I will feel the appropriate amount of dumb and work harder, knowing somebody in blogland may be thinking, "hello, isn't she supposed to be losing weight?"

This may not interest you. Personally, however, I love reading success stories of weight loss, recipe ideas, inspirational thoughts, and the grueling day in and day out emotions of the trouble of it all. So, I will probably post that stuff too. If it helps someone, awesome. If not, great. It will help me, and in turn I will be able to help others personally.

So, on with the journey.

Legs

2010-02-23T09:56:00.000-08:00

She will probably hate me for this one day:-) That is what I call HEALTHY! (Is that what I am too?)

We are working on bearing weight/ standing up. At Alison's nine month appointment, her pediatrician and I discussed the fact that although she is progressing, she is behind on her gross motor skills, and so he is going to refer her to early intervention. Funny, because Benson just graduated, since he turned three, and we were just starting to miss our wonderful Occupational Therapist, Melinda. Now she'll come again!

Alison was also diagnosed with Ocular Motor Apraxia, specifically because she needs to thrust her head to get her eyes where they need to be. Her head thrusting is MUCH less noticeable than Benson's, and because of that the pediatric opthamologist thinks this may be an X-linked trait. Meaning some male on my side of the family would have had to have it. Grandpa Hill? Who knows.

Benson is walking, jumping and some-what running, and has taught me that even if those skills come late, they do come. So I don't worry about Alison like I did with him. It's nice to have done this once already, to know to some extent what to expect. She is not as delayed, and is already sitting wonderfully, bearing weight, and catching herself with her arms when she leans, so her progress will probably take a different time table than Benson's. One way or the other, like our O.T. has said from the beginning, when they walk into Kindergarten, no one will know the difference.

Birthday Fun

2010-02-23T09:42:00.000-08:00

. . . And then he was three.

I can't believe three years have passed since Benson was born. He has blessed our lives in so many wonderful ways, and we are so grateful he is in our family!

We went bowling for his birthday, because we haven't been bowling since he was born. SO FUN!

The ramp and bumpers really helped. Benson, of course.

Alison and Grandma hung out while the rest of us bowled.

That night we had the grandparents and some cousins over for dinner and birthday cake. We love our family.

When I asked Benson what kind of birthday cake he wanted, he kept telling me that he wanted a vanilla circle cake. I asked him what color it should be, and he said it should be orange. (It looks yellow in the picture, but it was light orange.) I was gearing up to make a truck cake, or a bike cake, or something like that, and he wanted a circle. I can do circles. Vanilla circles, no less. He was happy, so it all worked out.

Great birthday, great day, great little boy! Love you, buddy!

Babies

2010-02-04T13:43:00.001-08:00

I love my babies! We went on a walk today- OUTSIDE- in the beautiful weather. This was the first time that Alison has gone in the BOB stroller without her carseat. She loved it!

Benson wanted to go outside and ride his "walking toy" but he said he needed his "hoodie" on. He is too big for this toy, but he loves it!

Our sweet baby girl is 8 1/2 months old! She was loving her yogurt, so I thought I would get some good smiley pictures while I could. She smiled so much about the yogurt that even our slow camera captured the moment!

Love those cheeks!

At-Home Posting

2010-01-27T21:16:00.000-08:00

Well, it's official! We finally have the internet! 4 1/2 years without it, and now it feels like perpetual Christmas- we are giddy with the next fun thing we can do on the internet- request and hold a Redbox, blog, facebook, check email, look up recipes, look up potty training info, research sunday lessons, find out what the heck is going on in the world (we don't get TV either), and a host of other fun things, like Pandora, Hulu. . . the list goes on and on. My goal is to not be an internet junkie, and to limit my time. I am currently limiting chocolate, so if I can succeed there, I am certain I can limit the internet. So.

Here are some pictures of my babies. Our camera is slow, and doesn't always get the shot i meant it to, but its good to have some moments caught, one way or the other.

Alison is constantly talking, spitting, and usually smiling, although this picture suggests otherwise. She is 8 months old, and has started experimenting with waving and clapping. She is sitting up, rolling, and very motivated to reach everything, so these are all good things, developmentally speaking. Benson is such a good brother, and he is loving that Alison is interacting with him now. He is starting to have a little playmate! Hurray!
There will be more posts now. Many more. I have the internet. It's about time.

Blessings

2009-08-27T18:14:00.000-07:00

I can't believe so much time has passed. We blessed Alison at the beginning of August, and it was wonderful to have so many friends and family there in support. We are truly blessed.

This is a picture of Alison the day we came home from the hospital. The outfit was huge on her tiny little body. Three months later, she is huge! Way to grow, girl!

We dumbly didn't get any shots all together in our Sunday clothes. But oh well. Great day!

Similarities?

2009-07-14T19:16:00.001-07:00

Benson, about 7 weeks

Alison, 7 weeks

Benson, about 8 weeks

Summer Fun

2009-07-14T19:08:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our fun ward swimming party. Benson loved the water and learned to put his face in it safely (that is key!). Alison and I hung out in a comfy camp chair and nursed and played- great family time.

Alison at 7 weeks old. My how the time has flown. She is sleeping about 6 hours at night, so that is good for everyone!

Our adorable little buddy. He loved the swings after Phil showered off the chlorine and got him in his jammies. Two babies are busy, but very fun!

You Tube Meg's Song Video

2009-06-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

So, I secretly like writing music, which some of you know, and a friend of mine recently let me use his equipment to record one of my songs for a contest. He videotaped it, and put together this cool video found here . If you watch it, keep in mind that I had a baby 5 days later. I wouldn't usually post something like this, but I would love feedback- for instance, if you think its cheesy, let me know. If you like it, let me know. I love writing music, but I want to know if there is a market for my style- it's obviously a Christian/ Inspirational genre, but I hope in my heart of hearts its not cheesy. But if it is, it's better to know now. (The second verse is based on words spoken by Gordon B. Hinckley)

More pictures. . .

2009-05-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

Here are more pictures. Check out the post below for more details on the birth.

Here is the first picture of baby Alison. You can't take pictures of the actual surgery, so let's hope this one isn't too detailed. Kind of cool, though.

Since they were hard core on all possible details/ complications, these hands are the NICU nurses doing their thing, rather than regular nurses. Phil said they were crazily efficient.

Baby Alison. . .

. . .and one more makes two!

This is Benson's personality, "oozing joy" as I call it. I love this boy, and I love our new little girl!

Baby Alison

2009-05-28T16:18:00.001-07:00

Hello from the Baby Cave! We had our little Alison Claire last Tuesday, and she weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz, 19 1/2 inches long, and her head was a nice and average 35 cm. (That is important when she comes from the genes of large craniums!)

I was super nervous about my C-Section, which had been moved to the main O.R. at St. Marks because of a scare of my having an accreta, which means my placenta had grown into my uterine wall, which has a much higher risk of hysterectomy. We got there at 6:00 a.m., got a spinal, and 10 minutes later they pulled out Alison. THEN, out came my placenta, perfectly! We had prayed and fasted so dang much, and felt prepared for whatever the outcome might be, but it all went so smoothly that even the doctor commented, "if I didn't know any better, I would have thought this was just a routine C-Section." I then, in a state of drugginess, called out, "Thanks Heavenly Father." Maybe cheesy, but very true. We didn't really want to be done having kids just yet. SO!

This was my first glance at Alison from after they delivered her. AND, this is the all time most non-flattering head shot of the afore-mentioned large cranium, aka Meg's forehead, so just ignore that! Phil looks pretty good.

Benson liked "baby girl Alison" right from the start, but it was the parents that he was struggling with. We got the impression that he was confused at why he hadn't been with us for four days, and only could see us at the hospital. The minute he walked into our hospital room, he would start throwing tantrums, so we tried to give him little tasks to help him feel important, like push his "baby sistoo." He did awesome, and now is adjusting really well since we are all home together again.

Sorry this one is sideways. This gives you a good picture of her hair.

Fist-eating glory!

. . .And, last but certainly not least, the proud big brother!

Thanks for everyone's prayer and thoughts! We couldn't have done it without all of you!

Baby Update

2009-05-07T13:09:00.001-07:00

So, I have marginal placenta previa, and therefore have a C-Section scheduled on May 19th. At this point, that is only a week and 5 days away, and it seems crazy to think that the pregnancy #2 adventure is almost done! My very brilliant sister-in-law Heather made this car-seat cover for a Graco Safe-Seat and sent it down from Washington. I chose the fabric, and she did all the work. I am completely in love with it!

Heather makes custom car seat covers, so check out her blog here.

Benson apparently likes it too!

What we've been doing. . .

2009-05-07T12:59:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged for a while. Christmas happened, 37 weeks of pregnancy happened, and our house happened, and now it is May. Here is a tiny taste of our life during the past few months. . .

Phil has a great new addiction/ addition to his life called Cross Fit, which is a type of cross training workout that our neighbor set up in their awesome garage. These guys live and breathe the weight lifting, the running, the lunging, the box-jumping, and all sorts of other intense things. And now we eat a lot more protein, which is probably good one way or the other.

Benson turned two a couple of months ago, and this is a picture of his Bus Birthday Cake, which was not supposed to look like a "short bus," but oh well. At that point, Benson loved all kinds of transportation vehicles, but could only say "bus." So, a bus cake he got! Very homemade, but it turned out alright.

Two days before Christmas we had carpet installed, and all through the Fall we finished walls like crazy to make that happen. Here is a peek at our living room, with half of the doors molding up, but painted and finished, one way or the other. Now I am spoiled and hardly ever have construction tools laying around, and lounge around in thick carpet all day. Carpet definitely works wonders on walking babies and happy mommies!

AND, of course, cooking a baby! More to come on that. . .

And We're Walking!

2009-05-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

This picture doesn't do the little dude justice, but he has officially started walking! The first official day, according to the mommy, was April 6, 2009, when he was 26 months old. Now, a month later, he is walking around everywhere, only falling occasionally, and loving his new found freedom. Walking seems to lead to climbing, bouncing, rolling, and in general being more wild, and Benson loves it!

You've come a long way, baby!

It's a . . .

2009-03-05T11:52:00.000-08:00

I never posted our family picture from Christmas, and as I was cruising the picture files, I ran across this one from when Benson was 8 months old! My, how my little boy has grown! His current thing is singing the ABC's, the entire thing, with only a few prompts for N and T. I think he might have music in his bones, one way or the other. Anyway.

SO! We had our 28 week ultrasound yesterday, and this time around our baby's legs were nice and open, unlike the 20 week modest pose. AND, my four dreams were right! We are having a girl!!!!! Hurray! I spent about 5 hours yesterday looking through family history books, from Kunz cousins to Steel cousins, to Hill cousins, looking for names that we like, because now that we know its a girl, I'm not satisfied with any of the options, and i like names with meaning and history. I dreamed family history all night, and woke up and dove right back in. But you know, it's always good to learn about your roots.

1983

2009-02-10T23:57:00.000-08:00

Gotta love the 80's!

Marc, Paul, David, John, Meg

Ode to Loreal Mascara

2009-02-10T13:53:00.000-08:00

I love mascara. It has to be used, in my world, along with eye liner, namely MAC eyeshadow applied with an angled brush, but still, mascara is an absolutely essential part of my face. When I didn't have time to apply it, my first graders would say, "teacher, you look funny today," or "teacher, are you tired today?" My eyes are really deep set, so if I don't wear those two essential items, my eyes look lost.

As much as I love mascara, I have tried every brand out there, Estee Lauder, MAC, Clinique, Lancolm, Cover Girl, Mary Kay, you name it, but have always come back, in the end to LOREAL VOLUMINOUS mascara. This mascara always does for me what its name promises, it gives me more volume, which is what I need. Knowing all this, I was happy to discover that LOREAL has come out with a new version of what I love called VOLUMINOUS NATURALE. Oh my heck!!!!!! I thought there would never be anything better than the original formula, but I was wrong. This stuff goes on without clumping, just like they say it will. The brush has stiff bristles, but is completely flexible all at the same time, and it just works wonders! My eyelashes, which mostly just need darkening and volume, now also look longer and curlier. Seriously, this stuff is great. If you have ever had trouble finding a good mascara, go spend $5.34 at Walmart and pick up a tube of LOREAL VOLUMINOUS NATURALE! Seriously worth it!

Love!

2008-12-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

Oh my heck! As always, my crazily talented sister-in-law Joslyn took these pictures of Benson, and I can barely stand it! It seems like a picture can capture the looks that we can never quite describe, and this is my sweet little boy who I love like crazy! (And he, apparently, loves to swing!) Thanks, Jos!

Gratitude II

2008-12-01T12:34:00.003-08:00

We took some pictures on Thanksgiving, and here a few of them. I am truly thankful for my little family. My favorite thing in the world is spending time with them. And adding our extended family on either side just adds to the fun! It's nice to know that at the end of a long day, you can be together with your family, and feel like you belong there. I love my family!

The three and a half of us

Benson enjoying his Thanksgiving dinner. . . after a long nap!

Our little boy who looks so grown up!

Prego Mego

2008-10-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

It's official. I am 7 weeks pregnant! Hurray!

First sign that I was "expecting" before the "surest" sign (if you know what I mean):

Besides being a bit tired in the afternoon, and having to get up a lot at night for a bathroom run, I was pretty sure something crazy was going on inside of me when, about three weeks ago, I was tending my nephews and nieces and I was walking them to school with Phil on a day when Cosmo the Cougar was going to be a "Special Guest" crossing guard in the morning. When we got there, Cosmo had not shown up yet, and all the kids were waiting, and the excitement in the air was nearly tangible, about ready to burst. Phil and I stayed to see what would happen. WELL, all of a sudden Cosmo the Cougar jumped out of a van, ran towards the kids, and the crowd went seriously wild. Screaming, cheering, jumping, you name it. That was when I completely lost it. I started sobbing, and saying to Phil, "Oh honey, isn't this so exciting? These kids are so excited to see Cosmo, and they are so happy, and isn't it just wonderful!?! He has made their day! What a wonderful experience!" Etc. Etc. Phil was looking at me strangely, and I stopped and thought (as a true UTE fan would) "Oh my. I must be pregnant."

Hair-Do

2008-09-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

I would like a little girl next so I can do what this mom does here.
Seriously. Can't Wait!

Blog Envy

2008-09-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

So, I have a new theory about blogging. . .maybe not too profound, but I seriously believe it. I always look at other people's pictures and think to myself, "wow, they did something so cool," or "they have such a cute living room," or "their life seems so exciting." So then I get a comment on my blog from a friend who basically says that something we did seems really cool, and all the while I am thinking, "oh, but honey, it really wasn't all that! It's just what we were doing."

My theory is that maybe blogs are like the infamous "Christmas letters," a.k.a "Brag Letters." You pretty much write all the cool stuff you do, because it is the most interesting, and in the meantime you don't mention that you really need to mop your floor, or do the dishes, or that you haven't washed your car in like a year, or anything that is less than glamorous. I completley don't believe in Brag Letters, but I love the good old blog. So, to help the envy come to an end, let's all (or maybe just me, if I'm the only that has ever experienced this) remember that the person who took a really cool trip to some exotic location also has dirty clothes at home, waiting for them to wash and that their babies smear oatmeal from breakfast in their hair, too. And really, that's what makes life exciting!

End of Summer

2008-09-15T08:20:00.000-07:00

This has been the summer of exercise, gardening, dry-walling, mudding and trips. I went to Youth Conference and all of Young Women girl's camp, Phil went up to King's Peak with some friends and climbed the whole thing in like 14 hours (a time he is determined to beat this weekend), and I flew to SanDiego with some very fun friends for just a day of lying on the beach and eating mexican food! FUN!!!

We ran a lot of races (okay, four) from May to September (Bryce Canyon was one of them; definitely a favorite) and we have only two coats of mud to go before we paint our upstairs and get carpet! Wahoo! The picture above was taken at the Greek Festival 5K/10K race that we ran a week ago, where Benson was a real trooper, although his Mommy had to take a break in the middle of the race at a Chevron to use the restroom. Oops! Daddy had pushed him in the last race, so I did this one. The double stroller adds a ton of weight, but it is awesome to be able to run with the whole fam, whether there are babies or not. (Don't make fun of the double. When baby #2 arrives, it will have been worth pushing around an empty seat for 2 years! Seriously!)

I planted my very first garden this year. Everything died, except the tomatoes, and up until this weekend I thought my peppers had died, but low and behold, there actually are like three baby green peppers growing! Who would have guessed. A good friend helped me learn how to grow from the plant above, to the jars below! What a satisfying event to eat your own produce!

Although he looks a bit sly here, onesie boy not only learned how to crawl this summer, he also has learned to pull himself up to standing and cruise around on furniture, or even push chairs. He is also a big fan of stairs, where he has learned to go both up and down. His O.T. came two weeks ago to do his 18 month review, and he is at age level for all areas of development (fine motor, social/emotional, language, etc.) except for gross motor, where he came in at a roaring 11 months developmental age. That, I tell you, is amazing! He has progressed so much from six months, and we are so grateful. As our Occupational Therapist says, when he walks into Kindergarten, no one will know the difference!

Crawling!

2008-09-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

This was taken at the end of July. Benson opens up our lovely drawers, and reaches in and grabs whatever he can find. In this case it was a half-used bag of pasta. . .who knew it would be so much fun to play with!

Hello Camera!

Crawling! (He started in June at 16 months! Way to go buddy!)

Summer

2008-08-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

Summer Top Ten:

When i wasn't blogging (oh, that was never!) I was:

10. staying cool-ish in the house
9. helping little boy learn to crawl!
8. cooking healthy food/ having family visit
7. running early in the morning
6. eating treats after the healthy food
5. painting walls/ helping family move
4. conferencing and camping with the young women
3. auditioning for American Idol
2. cleaning, dishes-doing, gardening, weeding etc.
1. Enjoying summer

Wow! We really needed an update. A meager attempt, one way or the other!

Update Alert

2008-05-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

6 new posts. I've gotten behind, but here it all is. Too much to take in at one glance, but have fun!

WAY Befores and Afters

2008-05-20T09:58:00.001-07:00

Just thought you might be interested to see the before pictures back from when we bought our house nearly three years ago. Our construction is taking a long time because we are doing it ourselves in random spare time, but looking at these pictures makes me remember that it is seriously worth it! AND, we are nearing the end for the upstairs to be actually completed! So. . .

Original gross, brown, yellow nasty bathroom. We used it for a year, and then in 2006 we remodeled to. . .

This! I love our bathroom. It is about 6 inches longer because Phil moved a wall next to the tub, and our cabinetry makes the space there is much more usable. Oh. Plus it doesn't drip random yellow moisture from the ceiling like the old bathroom. That is always a plus.

Hello the Brown kitchen. Brown floor, brown cabinets, brown walls, and brassy brown light fixtures. It actually did have kind of a cozy, homey feeling, but I was not in love with it, by any means.

New, clean, modern (very modern on style, so for all you traditionalists out there, you may prefer the brown look).

Mostly Done Kitchen

2008-05-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

New Wilsonart HD Bella Noche Countertop installed! I chose the dark color to tie in the floor, black appliances and silver hardware, and I think it works. You can see some of the details of the kitchen that still need to be finished, like the back of the bar and some doors, but it is fully functional, and I can COOK again! Hurray!

My very favorite IKEA thing is having mostly DRAWERS as our base cabinets. This is not a very traditional idea- go to any Home Depot Kitchen and notice all the regular doors, not drawers- but the drawers are awesome! We don't have a pantry in our kitchen, and so we needed lots of usable space to hold food, and its the details about IKEA design that I love.
The drawers are VERY deep, and hold every ounce of food we have, and because they are drawers, you can see it all, and don't have to rearrange everything to get the one item you need out. I can't quite tell you how convenient this makes it to cook!

The drawers are also deep enough to hold all my appliances, which once were stuffed in one tiny cabinet, where, if I wanted to use the crock pot, for instance, I would have to unload everything to get to it. Now I just lift the appliance out of the drawer, and Bam! Breadmaking in the Bosch in an instant! (Yes, I am a little obsessed, but I seriously love it!) This also makes unloading the dishwasher happen at lightning speed!

Ikea Cabinet Slide Show

2008-05-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

Finishing Walls

2008-05-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

Learning to mud. . .but Phil did most of it!

The mudded seams and screws

Primed walls! Hurray! It's starting to look like a room!

PAINT! By far my favorite part of remodeling. This color is Sherwin Williams Trusty Tan in Satin finish! Sherwin Williams has extraordinary paint!

PAINT FINISHED, and floor reinstalled. This picture was taken at 3:47 in the morning after we had spent all day reinstalling our floor. The purple patch was trying out a color idea for the backsplash, which I didn't end up liking.

Walls

2008-05-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

This is the Kitchen sink/dishwasherwall with all new plumbing and electricity.. .

and this is the same wall with insulation (It backs the bathroom, so any insulation for sound is helpful, if you know what I mean).

Drywall beginnings

Drywall finished!

Kitchen Remodel "Before" Part 2

2008-04-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

If you haven't checked out the previous post, look there first.

Here is the plaster. Oh how we will miss the plaster, and the metal, and the dust. The dust that is still settling on my piano. Phil hates plaster, so he took it all out! Our whole house was made of plaster, and now the only plaster left in the entire house is two walls and a ceiling in the living room, and the stairwell. Everything else is drywall.
We took up the laminate floor, which is the only thing we also kept for our new kitchen. Underneath was interesting tiles that had a red tinge underneath the black coat. Hmm. Maybe we should have used that. . .
OOOH! This was a good day. No plaster, all new wiring and electrical boxes, a brand new ceiling, and beautiful can lights. It is lighter with those 5 lights than it ever was before!
Just didn't want to leave this detail out. Underneath the corner cabinet was a tiny remnant of the original 50's flooring. I'm secretly sad that we can't keep it, but you know, we all have to sacrifice.

Look for more posts about the NEW kitchen, which is turning out beautifully thanks to IKEA, Wilsonart laminate countertops and flooring, and Sherwin Williams Paint.

Kitchen Remodel "Before" Part 1

2008-04-27T17:49:00.000-07:00

So. 6 weeks later, I am finally posting about what we have been doing. Phil started remodeling our lovely, "80's updated" kitchen on my birthday, which, as you can tell from this before picture, wasn't exactly the beginning of the remodel. The large beam on the ceiling is from Phil taking out a huge wall separating the kitchen from the dining room, the wood panneling on the right hand side HAD to go, and the wall strait forward was leftover electrical work access.

The pure wood theme of our kitchen was one of the things we both didn't love about our kitchen, not only for the "oh my heck the whole kitchen is brown" issue, but also because it was very dark. So, we took everything out!

Going. . .

going. . .

Gone!

One Year Picture

2008-03-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

It's small, but cute!

Haircut!

2008-03-05T18:05:00.000-08:00

Check out the hair before the haircut- long locks of craziness!

Then. . .voila! The Saturday after Benson's birthday, I laid him on the floor on his changing pad, gave him a grahama cracker, and cut his hair. It isn't perfect, but I figured out of his eyes is better than totally even. And, he looked darn handsome, if I do say so myself! Of course, we saved a lock in a baggie for his scrapbook. I guess it's just what you do!

Birthday

2008-03-05T17:52:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to the sweetest boy in the world who has completely changed my life and expanded my ability to love unselfishly and thoroughly! I love giggling with him, reading to him, throwing balls with him, singing finger-play songs, pointing at things with him, making him laugh, him making me laugh, watching him learn how to fold his arms, clap, wave, scoot, and a million other little things that he does! Motherhood is wonderful, and I am priveleged to have such an amazing boy for a son! Love you, buddy!

Holidays

2008-03-05T15:53:00.000-08:00

Here are the highlights from the Holidays which, until now, have been nonexistent on our blog:

Phil and Benson downtown at the lights.

Cold, happy family

Christmas Morning- Benson got a bath toy from Santa. . .

but really it's the paper that he loved the most!

Christmas at Grandma Nielson's house. These are some of his favorite toys- stacking cups and blocks from IKEA, and classic Fisher Price stacking rings. Learning how to put the rings on the stacker taught him all sorts of great fine motor skills! Thanks Grandma!

What a fun first Christmas for Benson!

Delinquent

2008-03-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

three months later. . .what can I say?

Gratitude

2007-12-03T14:08:00.001-08:00

My very talented sister-in-law took this beautiful photo of Benson on Thanksgiving. Although Thanksgiving is over, the season of gratitude continues. I am so grateful for family: a wonderful husband, a darling little boy, awesome brothers, mothers, and in-laws, and for all the friends that are considered family in my mind too! Thanks for all the love and support I receive so abundantly!

Whoops!

2007-12-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

And suddenly it is December. I truly don't know what happened to November, but anyway, I though I'd better get back to posting, because otherwise, I might never do it again. We have spent the month focused a lot on our little boy and our house. Phil has put in tons of insulation and drywall, and we've decided to try and get our kitchen done (yea!) before Christmas. Usually our jobs take longer than we expect, but here's for hoping!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'll post pictures later!

Constrution Updates

2007-10-27T20:57:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd update our blog about current construction activity. This picture shows our front bedroom after Phil took down the inner walls, and, by the way, I made Phil pose that way! Our outside walls had no insulation, and were just made of two layers of bricks with plaster attached to the inner brick wall. Phil took down ALL the walls, including ceilings, and then took out the inner brick wall. So, for about a month, the walls we had in our bedrooms were red brick, the same that made up the outside of the house. Needless to say, we needed to get insulation and walls in by the time it got cold.

This picture shows the newly framed 2x4 wall that Phil built to replace the inner brick wall. The Pink stuff is a thin type of R5 insulation that serves as a vapor barrier too. He rewired the bedrooms completely, and then we installed the regular R13 insulation that you can see on the right hand side. Getting the insulation in has improved our home's ability to keep a more constant temperature, and it has been wonderful! Let's hope for lower heating bills this winter!

Halloween Preview

2007-10-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

Here is our little Pea Pod a week early. He didn't really love getting into the costume, but we snapped a couple of shots with out any crying. Getting out of it was another story.

If you notice the walls in the background, you will see what walls look like underneath wood panelling when exposed. We tore down the wood panelling, and since then, Phil took down all of the dry wall in order to insulate and wire. Fun, fun!

Close-ups

2007-10-21T21:39:00.001-07:00

Gotta love great cameras! Thanks, Grandpa Jankovich, for letting us use your camera! (Benson doesn't have any unidentified growths on his face- these pictures were in the middle of a graham cracker fest!)

Sunday Graham Crackers

2007-10-21T21:12:00.000-07:00

Today we visited Grandma and Grandpa Jankovich and Benson decided to eat a graham cracker all by himself. He's gotten so good at sitting that we didn't need to stuff a blanket in the sides of the booster that Grandma J has, and he just had a grand old time creating a film of graham-juice all over himself and everything he touched.

He needed to wash the graham cracker down with some water, but this picture also shows his reaction to the flash of Grandpa's awesome Canon SLR camera. He didn't like it.

He's concentrating really hard on what to do next in his cracker adventure. The tongue must help him think. . . just like his mama.

Look at that graham cracker film on everything. He's cute with it, though!

Brain

2007-10-04T08:50:00.001-07:00

MRI results: Perfectly Normal! Yea!

Stats

2007-10-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

As of last week, which is an almost 8 month measure, Benson is 18 lbs, and 27 1/2 inches long. That means he has grown 5 pounds in 2 months, 4 of which he gained in the first month of good old formula supplementing. He gained the other pound in the past month, which puts him at the 25% curve, up from the 2% mark. Good job, buddy! He's holding his own head up in this picture, which for him is tremendous!

delinquent

2007-10-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

I thought maybe it had been a week since I'd posted, but now suddenly its October. Whoops! Benson is now a professional solid food eater, and his favorite food, as shown by the pictures, are prunes. He loves prunes! He stopped spitting the food out once I started using a graham cracker as his spoon. Because he loves graham crackers, he now loves food!

We brought Benson to an Opthamologist in the middle of September to check out his eyes, which tend to work better if he's looking out their sides, and the Doctor said nothing is wrong with the shape of the lens, so he won't need glasses, but he also didn't know what was wrong, so he ordered an MRI that we had up at Primary Children's last week. I am still waiting for the results.

He is super motivated to action whenever he sees a glass full of water- he pretty much goes crazy trying to get it. When we give him the glass, two things happen: He actually does swallow some, as well as drowning the front of his outfit. He also fills the glass so full of floaties that you really can't share with him. Maybe he does that on purpose so he can have it all to himself. One way or the other, he is growing and changing so much that everyday is an adventure! It's awesome!

Motherly Musings on Monday

2007-09-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

In trying to figure out how to balance all of the necesseties of life, here is what I've been thinking lately:

* My little boy is adorable
*A schedule/routine is important to get anything done
*If the kitchen is messy, the whole house is messy
*If the kitchen is clean, the whole house might be clean
*If the whole house is clean, mommy is smiling
*Mopping is an important part of the week
*Showering is an important part of the day
*Dirty diapers accumulate fast unless you throw them outside right away
*Spiders are bad
*Construction can kind of drive you crazy (but that's okay, of course)
*Losing weight is tricky
*Chocolate is not tricky
*A good book can make you have a little vacation
*Too many good books makes for messy kitchen, house, etc.
*Blog posts without pictures are kind of boring
*My little boy is singing to me right now, in a tired, please-give-me-a-bottle-and-a-nap kind of way

If anyone has any great ideas on how to get it all done, everyday, please let me know. In the meantime, I'll keep counting my blessings.

7 months

2007-09-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd post these pictures that Joslyn took at her house this week. She is so talented at catching the best expressions that my camera and ability can't come close to, and I just love these! Thanks Jos!
A little Benson update: He is what I'd call "officially" sitting up, although pretty wobbly, and he ate pears today. . . and he didn't throw up! Yea!

Sleepy Boys

2007-09-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

Daddy and Benson took a Sunday afternoon nap today at Grandma's house. Sundays get to be tricky for Benson's naps because church isn't exactly the ideal napping place. He gets tired earlier in the afternoon because of this, and apparantely so does Daddy. Oh. And he might be tired too because he just cut his second tooth yesterday, and there's been a little bit less sleep the past few days!

Couldn't Resist These

2007-09-02T17:14:00.001-07:00

I think he's saying, "Oh, bless your heart!"

Shy boy

More Exercise

2007-09-01T12:45:00.001-07:00

I'm possibly becoming one of those annoying, bragging mommies who always says how brilliant her child is, but really, I'm just so proud of our little boy! He's making such good progress in so short a time. Yesterday he finally did a variation on the "tripod sit" on top of Daddy, and he didn't flop all the way over like he did on Monday.

More tummy time practice on the Boppy! He cried at first, but then Phil and I started making crazy faces and noises to entertain him, and he forgot that he was unhappy, and held his head and chest up great!
Although Benson hangs out in the bouncy seat a little bit everyday, he has never, except once, actually played with or even really noticed those hanging toys. Today he was staring at them, and his hands cooperated! He first grabbed the toy with one hand, then he brought the other one up to help,

Muscle Mass Man

2007-08-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER: First of all, I couldn't catch the smiles today with our slow camera, so I always caught the half shut eyes blinking from the flash.

Although this might look like any normal baby pose, (besides the crazy eyes) this was one of the best days yet. Benson is behind on his gross motor skills, like holding his head up at all in tummy time, and we had an Occupational Therapist come to our house on Monday to test him, and see what was up. He said his neck, shoulders and lower back muscles are too weak, and we need to strengthen them. When we put him on his tummy on Monday, he wouldn't lift his head at all. The therapist showed me some simple exercises to do with Benson to prop his head up so he could at least get some practice, and so we've been working on them all week. Now, just 5 days later, he was in this position on our Boppy pillow! It truly is miraculous!

These two pictures show what he usually does when you put him on his tummy, basically acts like a two month old or so. . . But now he can lift up his head! How darn exciting! The Boppy helps a lot because he is already off the ground a bit.

Even though he obviously doesn't love being right on his stomach and doing his little exercises, if we prop his arms underneath him like this picture shows, he will lift up his head, and turn and look all around!

So, in 5 days his muscles must have strengthened at least some to be able to do what he could not even get close to for the past 6 1/2 months! Way to grow, buddy!

Ceilings!

2007-08-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

No Ceiling

Yea for ceilings! Who knew that having (or not having) ceilings could change your life so much. The plastic in the background of this picture was the current "door" into our bedroom, blocked off to keep out the dust. Thanks to a lot of hard work from Phil and his mom, we officially have ceilings in our two front bedrooms. This enabled us to move Benson out of our bedroom and back into his, because now, if spiders want to crawl on the rafters of the house, they won't fall into his crib. I hope. Stay tuned next week for 2x4 walls!

Ceiling!

Cute.

2007-08-27T17:09:00.001-07:00

The Bouncy Seat Narcotic

2007-08-27T17:00:00.001-07:00

I started teaching piano again when Benson was almost 2 months. Holding him in my arms while teaching was a little bit tricky, but he wasn't happy any other way. And then, we discovered The Bouncy Seat. He would hang out there for an hour while I taught two piano lessons and be perfectly happy and playful.

Lately, however, we are thinking it is more like a drug, because Benson will stay happy in it longer than anything else. Is this normal? During the last half hour of a three lesson stretch last week he even fell asleep. With a six year old playing a lovely rendition of Jingle Bells. Only a drug could do that. So, we are trying to lower the Bouncy Seat time, and try to get the "happy times" to last longer doing other things.

Grow Baby, Grow!

2007-08-17T16:30:00.001-07:00

Practicing sitting up at 6 months

He's pretty much always smiling. . .
. . .unless he's busy playing.

I think Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is playing into our little boy's life right now. Maslow said that if a person's basic needs are not being met, they won't be able to develop into any higher level of being. Two weeks ago, right before Benson turned six months, I looked at him and said, "Buddy, you are one scrawny dude!" We went to weigh him, and he weighed in at 13 lbs 12 oz. He was 13 lbs 2 oz at his 4 month appointment. Needless to say, he hadn't grown enough. I think I possibly only make skim milk or something, because he seemed to eat constantly, but somehow hadn't grown much. We started supplementing every other feeding with formula, and in a week's time his development has exploded. He is SO much more alert and happy, and is babbling constantly now, as well as rolling over. When we went back to the doctor a week later, he weighed in at a whopping 15 lbs 2 oz, or at the 8% for his age group. He will have to do some catch up in the developmental department, but we are so grateful that he seems to be thriving!

Construction Zone

2007-08-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

We are remodeling our house in our "spare time." Now that we have a baby, it is trickier to find more time, but we seem to be finding it, because he needs to learn to crawl in a lead-paint-chip free zone. My idea of remodeling was "paint and decorate," and Phil's was "rip the house down and build a new one," so our compromise has lead to all new plumbing, HVAC, upstairs bathroom, new walls (and less walls) and more insulation. We are almost getting to the "paint and decorate" part of the adventure, and I can't wait. Kind of crazy, but very exciting.

Phil and I ripping out the wall between our kitchen and dining room last Spring

Yes, that is a brick wall separating our kitchen from our dining room. It is now at the dump. Along with a lot more of our house.

New skylight where the swamp cooler used to be

This is the most current job- Phil ripped out the walls in two bedrooms because there was no insulation there at all. We could feel a cold breeze there during the winter. He took out the cinder-block wall, and is reframing and insulating. Yea for lower energy bills!

... And Out Came the Carrots

2007-08-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

Starting solid food is interesting. He pretty much likes milk. That's it. But, maybe one day he'll keep those carrots in his mouth. I think he's eating, and I keep feeding him, and then all of a sudden out come the carrots. All of them. More like a chipmunk who decided he didn't want what is in his cheeks. Chipmunks are cool, though, so we'll keep up on the carrots. Oh. And the milk.

There they are. Freshly pureed steamed carrots. Maybe jarred baby food would be better.

He looks pretty happy about the whole thing.

Catch Up

2007-08-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

So. I've finally figured out our camera/computer/flashdrive/no-internet situation, and I'm ready to become a better post girl. So, watch for better updates in the future. For now, here are some picture updates from the past few months.

First smiles (and baby acne) at 6 weeks

Blue everything, even eyes, at 2 months

Just chillin' at nearly 3 months

A bit of head control at 3 1/2 months

Figuring out how to grab between 3 and 4 months

The B Man

2007-06-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

Who knew one little boy could be so much fun. These pictures are from his blessing when he was 3 months old. A little out of date, but more will come.

Is this thing on?

2007-06-01T14:39:00.000-07:00

We'll see how the blog thing goes. Might be fun. One way or the other, it will be a good way to record what is happening, and if anyone wants to peek in to see, then great. Happy blogging!