Crouch Family Continued

Day 15: Silly dance

2012-02-15T17:15:00.000-08:00

So today I was pretty sure that the fact that I got a full hour nap was going to be my Kairos, but then dinner happened. Daddy got home, and he made spaghetti. Yay no cooking! Then at dinner James started toddler be bopping. I love it when he does this. It was just so fun, so I joined in. Ethan thought it was pretty funny and started laughing. Then when everyone was done we danced the silly dance in the kitchen, and just had a fun time. I love my family. Kairos.

Boys Update Ethan's 7m/James 2 1/2+

2012-02-15T04:55:00.000-08:00

James had the best Valentines Day a two year old could have. He had an hour long bath this morning, and fully enjoyed every minute. He got to run around the house in just his diaper for almost another hour. I think he enjoyed the freedom of movement, because he literally ran around the house for an hour. Ethan thought it was hilarious. Then he got to go to tumbling for an hour, after which his friend Grace came over to play. He got a "hot dog on a stick" for lunch, and then a two hour nap. After his nap he ended up going to play outside with Grace for another hour. They road their bikes, and played in the puddles and the snow. He got candy from both sets of Grandparents, Valentines from his friends and grilled cheese sandwich for dinner. And he gets to watch a Thomas before bed!

James is going through all sorts of vocabulary changes. He says full proper sentences that just surprise me all the time. He has started the phase of "I don't like it" before he tastes anything. Not happy about that, but he has branched out some and is eating carrots regularly and we are trying to get him to drink more than just apple juice and milk.

Above is mid-dinosaur face, below is his fish face.

James has started to want to read to us. Yesterday he did the best job I've ever heard from him. He usually gets the gist of the book from memory, but yesterday he 'read' one of his train books to me word for word -save a few of the hard words. It actually sounded like he was reading. Such a fun moment for me, but crazy because he felt so much older than he is. He has also started recognizing some of his letters, and I think he is starting to get the concept that we put letters together to make words. Anyway fun developments.

Ethan! This crazy kid has been teething up a storm. He has two through already. This is the best pic I could get of them. But he has four more he is working on. Since his teeth have come in he's started saying 'dada', 'mama' and 'nana.' The syllables not the words. He still growls a lot, and it is fun to growl back at him.

Ethan sits up to play most of the day, and has not wanted to do much else. To the point that I think he forgot how to roll over cause we haven't been doing a lot of tummy time. So we will try to encourage that more. He is starting to be more and more attached to things not just people. His bear, his two blankets (frogs and monkeys) and his pink dog. The pink dog was a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa, and we are so grateful that he loves it. It sings lullabies and without him taking a binky it has been one of the few things to calm him down in the middle of those long teething nights when he has been up multiple times.

He weighs over 18lbs but I don't remember exactly how much, but I think his face is looking a little chubbier lately. Oh and he can hold himself up on his hands and knees for a minute but only if I put him there. So we'll see how long it takes him to crawl. He still smiles a lot, and laughs easily. I hope that lasts.

Day 14: Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T18:09:00.001-08:00

The day started by finding out that someone had accidently got garlic in the butter tub. It ruined our pancake breakfast. Daddy saved the day with cinnamon rolls and a rose. Happy Valentines Day!

Day 13: Cookies

2012-02-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

My neighbor and I are switching watching each others kids once a week. So James was gone playing with his friend. Ethan was sleeping. I got a few minutes to make some Valentine's treats. Something about making cookies that brings a little order to the chaos of the day. Kairos.

Day 12: Boys

2012-02-12T20:25:00.000-08:00

Boys. I mean really how can you not love them? I know to all my friends that have heard me lately I'm itching for a girl. I do sometimes feel overwhelmed by the testosterone in this house, but despite all of that I love rough housing and playing with my boys. This morning was a snuggle in bed morning. (Obviously not for very long since church is at 9am) But my Kairos today happened way back this morning when we all got to snuggle in as a cute little family.

Day 11:Family

2012-02-11T19:36:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to be faithful to this commitment I've made to noticing the Kairos. Here is my moment for the day. It has been an long and emotional day. Still nothing is settled. However due to everything that has happened I had a moment this evening to sit with my family. Cory was reading a book to James before bed. I was feeding the baby. I just looked at all of them and realized how blessed we are to be together and to have our health. For that we really are very lucky. Kairos.

Day 10: Baby kisses

2012-02-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

Today I got baby kisses. Basically he attacked my face mid smile. So they were an open mouthed slobbery mess, but it was adorable. A moment to melt a mother's heart.

Day 9: Waffles

2012-02-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

In many ways today was a hard day. Emotionally and physically. I don't need to go into all the details. It was rough. Kairos came in the form of an overdose of sugar covered carbs with a side of over salted eggs. Yes, the toddler and I ate on the floor while we watched Polar Express (he's been begging for weeks). Sometimes Kairos is just a good old comfort food.

Day 8: Daddy wins!

2012-02-08T14:18:00.000-08:00

Daddy wins the moment of the day! Not that it was a competition of course. Ethan had a rough night last night due to teething. I wasn't sure we would get any sleep at all. While we were in the thick of fits and tears (from the baby ;) I looked up a watched Daddy trying to rock Ethan to sleep. I was suddenly struck with how luck I am. I have a wonderful husband. He is a wonderful father and takes really good care of all of us. E and I ended up out on the couch most of the night, but at 5 am Cory was nice enough to switch me, and I got a couple extra baby free hours of sleep before he had to leave for work. He left each of us little notes this morning before he left :D

Day 7 :Lesson Learned

2012-02-07T14:43:00.000-08:00

So today has been a bit of a rough day. The little man has been absolutely miserable. He has two teeth that have broken through, but we suspect two to four more working their way to the surface. He's had a hard time eating, and hasn't done much but be sad. And for most of the day I've let him, and babied him. I mean he is a baby after all. During brother's nap we were bored so I thought I would try to make E laugh. It took a few minutes of effort to get him to giggle, but once he did we had a twenty minute tickle/gut laugh session. He's been much happier since then. I've turned on some music and he keeps smiling at me. Sometimes even babies need to learn how to smile through misery. And their Mom's need to learn to teach them. Kairos :D

Day 6

2012-02-06T16:59:00.001-08:00

Today has been kinda blah. It is laundry day after all. James went and played with a friend this morning and then took a three hour nap. So it's been me and the little man most of the day. After naps we went to the park by our house for just a little while, waiting for Dad to get home. He met us there. Just before he got there I was chasing James around the field with Ethan in my arms. Both boys were laughing. Kairos. After Dad got there we watched another family from our neighborhood fly a remote control plane. Or correction we watched them crash said plane multiple times. Ha!

Kairos: Day 5

2012-02-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

Sorry no pic today. Today has been a good day, but full of lost of emotions. I serve in my church in the women's organization called Relief Society. Today I had to teach. It went really well, but not because of me but because I am blessed to be in such an amazing ward of women. It was so uplifting to hear all that they had to say. They are really amazing. I am so blessed to be surrounded by them.

However I think my Kairos moment today was a little ironic, because it happened twice and twice in the same situation. I fully believe God has a sense of humor. So do my children. This morning quite early when I was trying to finally go back to sleep after a couple of restless hours my baby decided he was hungry, and then decided it was a good time to say "mama" for the first time. I was exhausted and despite the fact that right now it is just a syllable and not really my name it still warms my heart. It happened again when I wanted a nap after church. How can you not get up and play with a kid that so sweetly says your name? Kairos

Happy Birthday Rinny!

2012-02-04T15:44:00.001-08:00

My sister's birthday is tomorrow so please let me indulge in a little bday surprise for her. James made up his very own song :D

Day 4

2012-02-04T15:30:00.000-08:00

Ok so today warrants two moments. The first only get a mention and happened last, but I got to go to a good friend's baby shower. Yay for baby showers for little girls! I got to buy pink stuff :D And I got girl time without kids! So double yay there.

This moment though was really what I was going to post today. Before the shower I was making the bed, with clean sheets. I've always enjoyed making my children into the bed. They enjoy it too. Picture that moment from Corina Corina where she whips the sheet up over her head and it comes down perfetly. Mine don't come down quite so perfectly. Maybe someday. But Ethan was having a blast. Baby laughs are always a wonderful moment. So this was my Kairos for today.

Kairos: Day 3

2012-02-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

I know this is kinda a gross picture. I only had my phone handy so deal with it ;D So today's small moment was at lunch. Ethan was napping and James had already eaten a corn-dog and a granola bar, and decided he wanted a lunch like Mom's, so I made him a tuna sandwich and chips. It was really cute. It was one of the very few moments of quiet today. Anyway what was cute was watching James watch me eat. I would take a bite of sandwich and then a chip, and he would mimic me. Ha!

It just made me think about how easy it is for people to come together and bond over a good meal. I've seen it so many times in life, and with toddlers. I'm not kidding about the toddlers part. There have been so many friends we've had over that they just fight and fight over toys, but sit them down to a snack together and they suddenly think everything is funny and life is wonderful. So today our Kairos was over food, and life is wonderful :D

Carpe Kairos Project

2012-02-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

Warning this may be a long post. So here's the deal I feel like the first six months of Ethan's life was a struggle. A struggle everyday figuring out how to feed/change/entertain a baby while simultaneously feeding/change/entertaining his two year old brother who loves to climb on me and baby every moment. I struggled getting dishes done, laundry done, and keeping my house clean. I mean it got done, but not without a lot of stress and turmoil.

Lately, things have started looking up in our house for two or three reasons. One is that I had a wonderfully kind sister in our ward who heard I needed some help organizing my day came over and explained how she organized her days and broke down the chores into a one-a-day system. I used to think this was for highly over organized people that spent everyday cleaning instead of playing with their kids. Man I was wrong. Instead the theory is you spend 20 -40 min a day cleaning and clear up instead a lot of time to play with the kids. She also helped me realize that no matter what I did my apartment will never look like those people's homes that have houses. It is just physically impossible with the lack of space, so stop stressing. Anyway, reason one we are more organized including some 'Mommy time'.

Reason two is that Ethan has reached a stage where he can entertain himself for small periods of time. This has been very helpful to help me get things done, and to help me give time to James. Part of reason two is that I've also lowered my expectations for James (only a little) but right after the baby was born I expected him to act more like a little boy than like a baby, and he really is right in-between the two. So each day is an experiment for us to figure out what I can and can't expect him to do.

And reason three I am trying harder to Carpe Kairos. About three weeks ago I read this blog post here. It was posted on facebook by the same friend that helped my organize my day. It is all about how people are constantly telling moms of young kids to "enjoy this time because they grow up so fast" but when your kids are driving you up the wall that is not only hard to do, but you end up feeling like you are failing as a parent because you aren't enjoying every single second of them pulling poop out of their diaper and wiping it on the wall. (I stole that experience from a dear friend) Anyway instead she talks about how you should focus not on Chronos, physical time, but on Kairos, God's time. "Kairos are those magical moments in which time stands still."

Anyway, so I really loved that article and I'm trying harder to focus on those moments each day. In effort to not just focus on them but remember them I'm going to try to blog about one each day for the month of February. Because this is meant to be more of a diary thing, and I doubt that every time I will have my camera handy nor will I want to spoil the moment with a pause to go get it, some may have pictures and some may not, and the quality of those pictures may be kinda low. It is meant to document OUR Kairos and not be a photographic project. Since today is the 2nd there will be two posts because I looked at the calendar yesterday and flipped that it was already february.

Day 1- Out on a walk, and I just loved how cute Ethan was all mismatched because I couldn't find his other boot or a matching set of mittens. Also I had this crazy moment when I realized that last year all James wanted to do was push this empty stroller around, and I was prego and kept telling him how he would be able to push his brother. This was the first chance that we've had to actually do that. Kairos

Day 2 - Three little kids in a tent. This actually is kind of cheating because I'm sorta redoing one from last week before this project started. Last week it was James, Ethan and I reading books in a tent. It was a small moment of heaven. This moment was just as fun since E got to play in the tent with the big boys, and loved reaching up and touching the blanket. We had our friend Stephen over this morning and him and James loved playing cars in here. Fun little Kairos.

Singing at NIGHT!

2012-02-01T20:19:00.000-08:00

Haha! So this little gem (which is really long) is of James singing. Sorry there is nothing to see, I recorded it through the baby monitor. It starts off with him quietly singing a song he made up about Ethan. I think it is because he wanted to wake him up. He gets much louder singing "she'll be coming round the mountain" This went on for five minutes. By the time I finally went in there to stop him. I found him standing right next to Ethan's head, with the light on, singing at the top of his lungs. Apparently he was bored and didn't want to sleep so instead he thought he would wake up his playmate. Ethan surprisingly slept through most of it, until just when I came in. I was needless to say, not very happy with James. Looking back it is kinda funny and kinda cute. Anyway, enjoy!

Brothers :D

2012-02-01T20:03:00.001-08:00

Mostly this little video is just because. I love how happy of a baby Ethan has become, and I love how much fun James has trying to make Ethan laugh. Enjoy!

James 2 1/2

2012-01-24T13:32:00.000-08:00

My Silly little boy

(he looks so different upside down :D)

Best Friends!

James is now 2 1/2 and headed on to three. He is super smart, and I'm enjoying all the things he is doing and learning. James spends a small part of each day "reading"to himself, to his brother or to me. He has a fair amount of our books memorized, and some of the library ones too. The most common phrase I hear every day is "Lemme do it myself"He is becoming very independent and enjoys getting food out of the fridge, climbing to get things and pushing chairs over to the counter to sneak muffin tops and cookies.

James also has started singing. Some of his friends have been doing this for awhile, but James has just picked up on it. He sings all sorts of fun songs and rhymes now, and if I try to join in he yells, "Stop singing Mommy!" Apparently it is something he must solo in. James also loves his brother and always wants to wake Ethan up, or can't wait until he gets up.

There are two videos below. The first is him explaining to Daddy what he built. The first 'defined' lego creation that we knew what he made. (Cory was very proud. Really only the first 30 seconds are talking about the 'bridge') The second was just last week (I know it looks like Halloween) but James discovered a scrapbook I made of last year, and decided he wanted candy, so he wanted to go Trick-or-Treating. We obliged and actually got him to dress up in his monkey costume. He went to all four doors in our house and then took the costume off. He got what he wanted out of it, so he is quite clever. Enjoy!

Ethan's 6 month pix

2012-01-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

Can you believe that this little boy is six months old? I can't and on top of that these pix make him look so much older. I'm totally freaking out about it. So for stats E is now 17 lbs and 8.5 oz which puts him in the 54% and he is 27.5 inches long putting him in the 86%. He is average and tall. He has started teething, and has got a stuffy nose, and has been having a hard time sleeping. A friend of mine sells essential oils and suggested lavender. And I have to admit it works amazingly well! Other than teething E is such a delightful child. He smiles and laughs easily (Well for me and James that is. Cory has a hard time making him laugh. And I will admit I love being the favorite, for now anyway.)

He is super snugly and he LOVES his brother. He and James are playing more and more together, and it is so fun to watch their relationship develop. E is sitting up all by himself now. He can sit up for almost 5 minutes, and does really well on soft surfaces (ie couches, beds, chairs) He sits really well on the floor but not for as long. He is really curious about everything, and reaches for anything near him. So cooking with him on my hip is kinda out. He really really wants table food, even though we have started solids and he loves them. So far he's had sweet potatoes, carrots, and I let him teeth on a fresh apple the other day. He loves seeing other babies, and smiles at most everyone. Sorry for the overdose of pix, but I really couldn't narrow it down. He is just sooo cute! Enjoy!

New Year 2012

2012-01-02T06:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I realize it is the day after New Year's but sometimes it just happens that way. Anyway, I though I would do a brief overview of our past year 2011, and say some of the things we are hoping for this coming year.

So I had to look back at old journal entries and blogs to remember but around January of last year James still had his binky, and we were proud that he had some 20 words and 30+ signs. HA! Now he speaks not only full sentences but has an imagination and will pretend to be a dinosaur or other animal, but dinos usually win. His motor skills (fine and gross) are far surpassed what they were a year ago. I remember worrying that he wouldn't be able to do our front stairs by himself by the time the baby came. Ha! Now he climbs the built in shelves in our apartment, getting him 5 feet off the ground. Can I say PROBLEM! He is going through the 'terrible twos' and testing all of his boundaries but he is still a mostly delightful child.

The beginning of last year I was dealing with morning sickness, then having my belly trampled by my toddler, and then learning to juggle two kids! I've served in our Relief Society Presidency for the last year and really enjoyed the friends I've made in this ward.

Cory has worked hard finishing another year of school. He changed jobs this fall. He was working for Zagg but got an internship with Axis 41 working on the Novell team. He has been thriving/surviving as a student. He has gotten some wonderful recognition at school this last year, and earned a 4.0 this last semester. To see his latest project click here.

Ethan's biggest accomplishment this year was being born! Ha! We are so grateful for his added dimension to our family. He is a sweet spirit and has an easy smile. He was born in July so is 5 and half months old.

We are grateful for all that has happened this last year, and are excited for 2012. Cory's got one more semester and will graduate in April of 2012. We are very excited and nervous for what this will mean for our little family. There may be a move coming, and who knows what else. This year is going to be a lot of big decisions and I already can see where it will require a lot of faith. But we are glad to be moving on, though we are both very grateful for our college experiences. Happy New Year!

Christmas Santa Suit - Five Months Old!

2011-12-16T06:54:00.000-08:00

So here is the 'traditional' baby santa pix. I say traditional cause I have an aunt that buys a Santa suit for the new babies and wants a pic in their little suit. I got the jump and took the pix of E in the one she bought for James' first Christmas. You can see James' pix here. It is fun to look back at James as a baby cause I see a lot of the same expressions still, so I get excited to see what E will look like when he's two. Don't worry I'm not wishing away his babyhood, cause I'm really enjoying him as a baby, and am kinda sad when every time I realize he is doing new things.

So I'll give you a quick update of E. He is a delightful baby. He is five months old now. He is chewing on his tongue and drooling all the time, so I think he's in the beginning stages of teething. He has discovered his feet. Eating his feet and tickling his neck are two guaranteed ways to make him giggle. He is still a total Momma's boy. He is getting close to sitting up on his own but he's not quite there yet. He loves rice, but I'm not super consistent about giving it to him yet. He is still up twice a night to eat. He's getting really good about going down for naps, and only cries for a minute. He still won't take a binky, which sometimes make me sad, but other times it's fine. He's 'talking' more and more now. He loves his brother, though sometimes he can't figure him out :D We love him lots. He has a quieter, gentler spirit than James, and it will be fun to see how they work together as they grow :D

I just love these chubby hands!

My little elf.

This quiet look of curiosity is the one I see most often.

And it's just not Christmas pix without a little eating of the lights. :D

Merry Christmas!

James the 2 1/2 year old

2011-12-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

This is what I am feeling like I see everyday!

This is how everyone else sees him!

So in a grand effort to again see the positive here is a list of James' good traits, and fun things about him.

(Ok so this got longer than I thought it would, if you don't want to read it all I don't blame you)

1. James is a very good brother. Despite laying on Ethan once or twice a day. He bounds with joy to our bedroom door whenever Ethan is awake, to get him up. And always beats me in there and asks "Have a good nap Ethan?"

1.2. He also likes to give Ethan kisses, which usually smother him, but E doesn't seem to mind.

2. James loves to put away his clothes. I don't know why this chore in particular strikes his fancy but it does.

3. He is becoming a champion climber, which helps when he can climb into his own carseat.

4. James is pretty good at sharing for his age. He still has his moments, but for the most part he will share with others.

5. James (for now) will put a toy back on the shelf at the store when asked to. And he will walk away. He will try and steer us back 10 times but he doesn't throw a tantrum that he can't have the toy come home with us.

6. He has a budding imagination. His toys are having more complex conversations all the time. They still repeat themselves but it is more than just "hello" now.

6.2. Part of that imagination is that he is starting to pretend. Pretend being dinosaurs, robots, race cars. It started awhile ago, but is now a lot of the time.

7. His face lights up when he does something new all by himself. Yesterday he hauled a half empty gallon of milk out of the fridge for the first time. I still poured it, then he put it back too. I was very proud.

8. He is a muffin top thief. Muffins are a great food cause I can make them and he can get to them whenever he is hungry. However he eats mostly muffin tops, so I end up eating all the bottoms. It is sneaky but cute.

9. I love it when he says "SNEAKER MOMMA!" First time he did was Thanksgiving weekend. He caught me eating something off his plate. It kinda made me want to steal stuff from him all the time. We say it to him cause he loves stealing food off Daddy's plate, or just his dinner seat.

10. James loves to dance, but only when it really strikes his fancy. Which is always at really random times like at the dinner table and then he has to have everyone dance along with him. No matter what.

11. His memory is growing, a LOT!

12. His vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds, and he speaks in full sentences. This is good, but I keep expecting more from him because of it, and it is hard to remember he is only two.

13. His smiles are one of the best things in the world.

14. His hugs really are the BEST thing in the WORLD!!! (If only he would learn that if he came up and hugged me right after he did something naughty I would probably forgive him faster :)

15. Ok this is more like a favorite memory, but just a week ago E was sleeping and James had just gotten up from his nap, so we cuddled underneath his Thomas the Train comforter on the floor, my legs propping it up like a tent. I don't even remember what we were talking about. Tickets and the Polar Express I think, but it was a quite happy moment for us. It was nice. Those seem kinda rare right now.

16. He is love with the Polar Express, all trains are the polar express. All trains are headed to the north pole. And Santa Claus is super fascinating to him.

17. His funniest phrase is "Lemme show you!" He says it like he really knows how to do something better than you.

18. He is 80% potty trained. We are still working on this, but for the most part he is doing good.

19. He loves art. Mostly coloring and painting. Though he does love his playdough. I think if I gave him a camera he would love that too, cause he always wants mine. And he is always trying to "lemme show you" Daddy his graphic design homework.

20. He has really cute Jamesie prayers. They are just so sincere and simple.

Despite the tantrums and fights, the bickering, the whining and other general two year old attitudes I really do love this boy. He is crazy, and full of energy. He is smart, and challenging. But he is sincere and loving and fun. Hope you enjoyed this too :D

Gravity!

2011-12-14T19:29:00.000-08:00

Ok so quick story. Tonight while playing with James I thought I would try something new. We were playing with his blocks and were stacking them up and knocking them down. Each time they would fall he would grab his head and yell "HOW'D THEY DO THAT!" So now we as parents have kept our answer to this question simple. Basically assuming that he doesn't really want to know. So we usually answer. "I don't know. How did they do that?"

Tonight I thought I'd test him. Now I know he is two and a half. I know that the first time I introduce an abstract concept like gravity he's not going to get it, but I figured what the heck. Let's at least give him the right words to use. He is in a point where he loves learning new words, and is trying to make up words for the ones he doesn't know yet. Super cute. (Side note: the other day he couldn't come up with the word for 'eyelashes' and kept saying something like 'glue' Ha!)

Anyway back to tonight. So we were stacking blocks and knocking them down and he'd say "HOW'D THEY DO THAT" and I started saying "GRAVITY" It took him a few times to say it right, and then he started yelling it too. We'd knock something down and yell "GRAVITY" I tried in small terms to explain it, but like I said he's two and it is a really abstract concept. But either way it was fun, and it was fun to hear his two year old little voice yelling "GRAVITY!" Well see if I come up with any other crazy complicated concepts to introduce to him :D

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-09T18:02:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving this year was another fun filled event. Sadly I'm still lacking some of the pix. It's been a juggling act since half are on one computer and half on another. But it's almost Christmas so I will do the best with what I've got. These are also out of order, sorry.

This year we split the holiday as best we could between the Chadwicks and the Crouchs. We did family pix of the Chadwicks cause we haven't in an extremely long time. I think I was twelve. The plan is to do Crouch pix at Christmas when Uncle Sean can be there. They turned out pretty good despite the crazy kids all itching to eat.

Papa is the best person to curl up with a book.
Rinny in her turkey coma :D Love it!
James not in a turkey coma just in a play coma. He crashed just before dinner and slept through the whole thing in the same room! He never does that, I was totally shocked.
Papa had crashed with him just before dinner and woke up in time to eat.
They were reading before they crashed. (Like i said the pix are out of order)
Are these two just not adorable. Kenzie is James' age and William is Ethan's age.

James is happiest with Tracie's dogs or with a train :D
We were able to go out to a wonderful WWII exhibit at the museum with Grandma and Grandpa Crouch. Ethan slept through the whole thing, James ran around like a crazy man, but it was fun for all.
Ethan looks a bit angelic here :D Sorry there is a reflector built into the stroller. I wasn't aware till after the pic. Hehe..
Overall it was a fabulous holiday, and we are looking forward to more family and fun at Christmas!

Ethan's 4 month pix

2011-11-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

Can you believe this little man is 4 months old already? It seems so crazy to think that 4 months has gone by. So for the update. Ethan is doing great. He is 14 lbs 6.5 oz and 25.5 in long. He can grab things really well, and can roll from his belly to his back but not always. He is very alert and is up for more like two hours at a time in between naps. He sleeps from 6pm to 5 am but he get up 3 times to eat. He is "talking" a lot more now, and him and James are starting to play together in small ways :D

I took the pix with his bear again to give you an idea of how much he has grown since I shot the first ones at one week. I have to say his smile is definitely my favorite thing, but so is James'. If only they could smile all the time. Ha! I keep thinking that James and Ethan look so different but when I go back to pix I am proven otherwise. Here is James 4m. James was 3 lbs bigger but they definitely look like brothers. Enjoy!

First Snowfall

2011-11-06T17:15:00.000-08:00

I was excessively lucky to get to go out and shoot this morning. Part of that had to do with Daylight Savings and all because both boys were up at 5:15 and Ethan back down for a nap before the sun rose. I have this thing with predawn light. I don't know why but I am going to finally own up to the fact that I love it! Anyway, James came with me to see snow again for the first time in 6 months. I wondered if he would remember it. Based on the second picture, YES he did. All he did last year was eat it. Silly boy. He is a good little assistant when we are outside, because he loves to go anywhere outside. Click here to see the others I took. :D

Halloween 2011!

2011-11-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome Halloween this year. It started the Friday before with trick or treating at Cory's work. Novell let's the employees kids come trick or treat office to office every year. If we had older kids they could have gotten quite the haul. Eight floors of who knows how many offices. We just did one floor, and a few on the next floor and we were pooped.

Cory's co-workers made him dress up, as what I'm not sure. But they all had unibrow-s in his office when I got there, and retro jackets. I dawned a skirt and went as a gypsy, James was a fireman, and Ethan a lion... a very tired lion.
So I loved Ethan's costume, partially because I scored it off of freecycle. Yes that's right it was FREE! And it was a super cute old lion costume. So here are few pix of him in it monday afternoon before the festivities.
You'd think he was intentionally being super cute in these pix but really he was trying to rub his face.

And here is James bored with Mom taking pix of his brother.

The blue seat is the Bumbo I just got off KSL for half the price. It helps Ethan sit before he actually can sit, and gives him a different view of the world. Needless to say he likes it. Sad thing about the lion costume is the head piece kept falling down over his eyes.
James actually smiled for the camera!!!

My cute boys! And below a pic of half of James candy, and the accessories to his fireman costume. We opted to not buy him a costume this year because we couldn't wrestle him into his monkey one we bought last year. He just wasn't into dressing up, so we went simple with a hat, and some toys that made him happy.
Ok so for the rest of the details on our Halloween. Sorry folks but our flash on our family cam is lame so we didn't really get pix of the trick or treating itself.

See I told you. Lame. The backpack was a last minute way for him to bring his axe and extinguisher without having to carry them. We ended up dubbing him a forest fire fighter, since the backpack made him look more outdoorsy.

So James went with his friend Stephen, who you can barely see in the above picture. Those two boys are the best of friends and are so stinking cute together. They would run from house to house, and then struggle up and down all the front stairs (due to little legs). But they loved it. They loved the candy, they loved being together. They loved being out in the dark. Cory came with us (the boys, myself and Stephen's parents) for the first block. But then Ethan was getting fussy so he took E home to bed. He also had homework so he missed out on most of the hilarious two year olds.

Small moments from the evening include:

Stephen kept getting to the door first and would get his candy and then ask for some for "Brains" (Yes that is what he calls James) Everyone was so confused by this they would just give him more candy which he of course took :D

James would repeat whatever the person at the door said. i.e. "Happy Halloween" "happy halloween" "Bye" "bye" "See ya later" "see ya later" and it would circle like three times as they kept trying to shut the door and James just kept talking to them. He just loves people, and loves people giving him candy.

Both boys tried to say trick or treat. James did it pretty well, but Stephen thought we were trying to get him to say "Pick a treat" which is what he was doing, so that's what he said. HA!

It was obvious when James started winding down cause he was slowing down and was having a hard time keeping up with Stephen who had endless energy. On our second to last street (they are small streets) I said "James follow the Stephen" I'm not sure why I said the, but I did. This made James think of the primary song "follow the prophet" and he began singing it replacing prophet with stephen. He did this for four or five houses. "Follow the Stephen! Follow the Stephen!" HAha!

My favorite was as we were headed home James held my hand and we two year old bee bopped home. He would make a sound and I would repeat it. He thought this was a great game and it really came close to being a song. It was just the cutest.

I have to agree with my friend Jamie (Stephen's mom). There are some hard things about two year olds, but really they are just so much fun. James was so delightful that night. I can't wait for the rest of the holidays to see what he will do. It will be so much fun!

Blissful Peace

2011-11-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

I ask you. Is there anything better than a sleeping child?

Video Post

2011-10-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

Oh how my blogging has changed since we started two years ago. Most of what I do now is write in details of our lives. What I used to do was simply post videos for the two sets of grandparents that were missing our baby growing up. Where I have been enjoying my chronicling, it has been pointed out to me that Ethan needs more videos of him posted for the loving grandparents. So here we go!
In my defense it is hard to take any videos of this kid without big brother getting in the way or stealing the camera, but you will just have to deal with that, and so will I :D Enjoy!

And then because James wanted to make a couple videos I'll share those too. Can you tell how tall he's gotten?

Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago we carved our first pumpkin with James. So fun! He didn't want to touch the guts, and neither did Dad so that was my job. Daddy got to help James pick out a smile for the pumpkin and then he was the one that got to cut it :D James calls it our "Smile Pumpkin" Ethan of course slept through the whole experience, but it was fun and next year he will get to participate too :D

Sorry this one is dark. James is trying to get the lid on the pumpkin. He loves the camera so videos of him are short these days, cause he wants to hold the camera not be in front of it. (hmm..sound familiar :D) But this is a good example of how good James' sentences are getting. :D

Colds...

2011-10-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, so picture this scenario. You have a cold, a pretty bad cold, so you call in a sick day. Then you sit around all day on the couch drinking juice, and soda, and eating light foods, (don't forget you have cold medicine) while you watch your favorite movies curled up on the couch under a blanket. The living room then gets peppered with all your tissues from your gross nose. But all in all despite your discomfort you have a nice day.

Now picture this. You are a baby, and can't do anything for yourself. You have a stuffy/runny nose. (Your wondering how it is possible to have both, well when you are a baby it just is.) You can't breath. You can't eat. You can't sleep. When you poop the effort makes you gag, and every hour your mother shoves a torture device up your nose, and tries to suck everything out. All this does is make you gag again, and sneeze, but it doesn't really help you breath any better. All you can do is suffer through until your little tiny body finally fights off that stupid infection.

Poor Ethan has a cold today. A pretty bad one. I am surprised he is managing as well as he is all things considered. Happy Cold season! Remember to wash your hands :D

Thoughts on babies...

2011-10-12T05:35:00.000-07:00

Ok so I've been thinking about this blog post for the last two weeks, and just feel like I need to post it. I have a lot of friends who are expecting right now, either their first baby or their second. And then I have some friends who have one child and don't want another one, in some ways I feel like from fear of dealing with two. So I thought I would write a small post about the challenge of children and babies, from my limited experience.

Just after Ethan was born a dear friend in my ward, whose had nine children and her family is all grown, kept telling me that it always took her three months to get back into a routine. I felt like that was a really long time, and that I would surely get into a routine sooner. Ha! No it has taken really taken three months, but looking back I've realized that three months isn't that long.

So here is an over generalized fact. (I realize not all situations are the same, and there are some exceptions to this) Generally I think that with any baby the first six weeks are the absolute hardest. That is the time it takes for your body, as a woman, to recover from labor, and get used to feeding another human being on a regular basis. It's the time it takes for your new jelly bean to start smiling (regularly) and interacting with you. Thus proving that all the work you are putting into the jelly bean is worth it.

And then after the first six weeks it gets progressively easier until you pass the three month mark, and a routine has been established, and the new jelly bean is sleeping through the night. (Not entirely but after the first two months of up every few hours, when they get up once after a 6-8 hour stretch it counts. The trick is going to bed when they do, I don't.) As the parent you are getting more sleep and that helps make everyone happier too.

As for the other sibling I feel like it's taken between 2 and 3 months for James to realize that Ethan isn't leaving, and that we can't go anywhere without him. And now he wants to check on the baby, and has become a better big brother. He still pokes him in the face, and tries to climb on my lap while I'm feeding the baby, and will sometimes lay on his brother, but I've also gotten used to this. And realize that some of it will never go away thus making it a part of normal everyday life and not really a big deal.

I also realize that things will keep getting easier, and more fun as Ethan learns to sit up, then crawl, and laugh. Since then the boys will be able to play together, and have more cute moments with each other.

So for my friends having their first baby, it's hard and stressful but hold on it will get better. For my friends having their second child, we've done it and it is hard, but it does get better. And for my friends that worry about adding to their family, it is possible, and each child is worth it. Now when the opportunity presents itself to take just James somewhere I usually feel bored that it's just me and him. It's more challenging with two, but James also doesn't need me as much anymore and it's kind of boring that I'm not as needed. I'm so glad we have two, and know that when the time comes to add another I will be up to the challenge, and will know that I've just got to make it past the first 3 months. :D Happy Babying :D

Toddler Prayers

2011-10-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

Tonight when going to bed James said the prayer. This wasn't the first time he's said a prayer but it was the first time he said one without us whispering to him what he should say. We didn't understand all of it, but here's what I remember that he prayed for.

Dogs, cats, the Baby,

dogs, Uncle Sean,

Missions...Little Einsteins,

peanuts,

the sky, Little Einsteins.

So there was a lot of gibberish in between but I think towards the end he either was really grateful for Little Einsteins or forgot what he was doing and was starting to try to sing the song. Though he did remember to say Amen, so he may have been praying for watching more Little Einsteins. (When he said missions he meant the Little Einsteins kind) Either way it was super cute. And hopefully Uncle Sean realizes that he was the only family member prayed for. :D

I'm so grateful for such a wonderful little boy, who delights us every day with funny new things :D

Pumpkin Painting

2011-10-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

Have I told you about our garden? I'm not sure I have. Basically it goes like this. Our upstairs neighbor planted a fabulous garden this year. I tried to help, but being very fat (prego) I wasn't much help. Just about the time it really started to produce, they up and moved to Oregon. So I became the instant owner of a very large garden. Sadly this happened to be about the time Ethan was born, and I wasn't much up to gardening, but I gathered what desire I could muster to at least water it regularly. As you can see we had pumpkins take over everything :D There are some tomatoes in there, as well as some zucchini and summer squash. We've eaten a lot of all of these things. I even mustered up the courage to can 8 pints of tomatoes. It was an interesting challenge with two kids. Since it has started to get cold the tomatoes have stopped really producing much. The zucchini and summer squash are still going strong (though slower) And we have over 30 pumpkins! Well ok I haven't counted since I started giving them away. I have roasted 3, and froze 2 of those, and baked pies, muffins, and pancakes from one. We've painted 4 and given away a few. We plan on carving a few more for Halloween in the coming weeks as well as roasting some more.

We painted pumpkins last year, and it went really well, so we did it again this year. James loves it, and was entranced for almost an hour. I was taking care of Ethan so I didn't paint mine until both boys were in bed. It reminded me of my mother, who tends to be the last to do anything of any family activity (mainly gingerbread houses) because she is tending children, making sure everyone has what they need, and being Mom. It was funny to me that I've now become the Mom in one more way. :D

Ethan's 3 month pix

2011-10-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

Ok folks. It's time for Ethan's three month update. Can you believe it's been 3 months? I can, and I'm loving it. Ethan is getting better and happier every day. It is making our lives so much easier. He has quiet time by himself every day (not a lot, but enough) He is smiling more and more, and fussing less and less. He still cries, I mean he is a baby, but not the same as it was a month ago. He loves bath time, and if it wasn't inappropriate I would film and post a video that proves why we called him Thumper for the duration of my pregnancy. He still loves kicking (one leg) in the water. He still is a Momma's boy, but I'm ok with that.

I've started to have him 'cry it out' to go to sleep, and I'm amazed at how well he is doing. In some ways I feel like he is still a little young for it, but it has become a necessity as he isn't responding to rocking the way he used to, and I've got two nights out of the week that Cory isn't home till after the boys are in bed. Ethan is still getting up to eat one to two times a night, but that's alright for now :D

So here is my photo essay of this adorable little boy. I personally see a resemblance in my two boys, but I don't feel like Ethan is really that much like James as a baby. See here for James' three month pix.

Also I am obsessed with my babies eyes. I've decided they are my favorite feature on Ethan just as they were on James. My babies are born with BIG eyes (not bug eyes) but big, and dark, with a lot of depth. I love it when Ethan stares right into mine, and just smiles. He has so much personality just waiting to burst out.

This is the "Help save me!" look I get from him 10 times a day. I'm trying to intervene less, and let James have more of a chance to get to Ethan. I'm hoping it will foster brotherly love. I now only intervene if Ethan is crying or James is doing something really awful.

And here at the end are a few of James. He was so excited today to be able to wear his new Thomas shirt and pants. He got them for his birthday, but it was finally cold enough today to wear them. He isn't very co-operative in taking pictures. He used to be so good. I guess that is what comes from Mom taking way too many pix of him, he become apathetic and of course two year old silly.

Our House

2011-09-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

So strange as it may seem I thought I would post about our house (apartment.) So we live in the basement of this house. For some reason our last apartment doesn't mean as much to me as this one. I was talking about this with Cory yesterday. Our first apartment, in my mind, was like a place we survived together. The apartment itself wasn't horrible, it was our first home as a married couple. But it was small, and had no real natural light to speak of. The windows all faced in in the complex so we didn't leave them open a lot because we felt like a fish bowl. We made a lot of friends there, but I don't know if I ever thought of the place as home.

This is what I think of when I think of our first home. We are in the basement, and don't necessarily have much more space than our last apartment, but I love it so and here is why.

1. James has his own room. A space for him where his toys and books have a home, and don't have to always clutter the living room. (though they usually do anyway)

2. I have a fabulous kitchen. It is large, and I love to cook in it. The only downfall is that it doesn't have a dishwasher. This hasn't been a downfall for the last year, I've actually enjoyed washing my dishes by hand. It gives me time to think. It's becoming a downfall now that I have two and can't find the time to do my dishes so they just stack up. This is kind of a bummer, but I still like my kitchen.

3. It has really big windows. I am a light-aholic. I love light. So letting the sunshine in is my biggest priority. I love the sun shining in the kitchen in the morning, and the sun setting in the living room in the afternoon. It makes me happy.

4. Having my own washer and dryer helps too.

5. We have a garden. This year we've taken more possession of the garden, since our upstairs neighbor moved out. I have such a feeling of satisfaction cooking from the garden; zucchini, italian squash and tomatoes. Now we have 30 + pumpkins that have taken over the garden, and I've started roasting pumpkins.

6. Neighbors. I know we lived in a great ward before, but everyone was busy with school and work, and we saw each other at church activities and on sundays. This neighborhood has a lot of wonderful stay-at-home mom's with kids James' age. In the summer just go outside and the kids are playing and the mom's are sitting on the lawn watching them, and it gives us a great time as mom's to socialize. I've loved getting to know my neighbors and their lives. I still need to be more friendly than I am, but I do love this neighborhood.

7. This is where James started talking, walking, and his general mischievousness.

8. This is where we brought Ethan home to.

I know this sounds like we are moving and this is an ode to our apartment. We aren't and it is anyway. We still have at least another year here, but I was feeling very nostalgic and thought I would write this all down before I forgot why I love this place. Haha! I'm sure as the boys grown in the next year it will get cramped, but it is still a place I like to call home.

Cloth Diapering

2011-09-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

Did you know that I am cloth diapering? I think that the bulk of you didn't. And if anyone remembers it wasn't that long ago that I thought cloth diapering was craziness. However having two in diapers and a hubby still in school has changed my mind. It also helps that we have a washer and dryer at our access now that do not require quarters. The average cost of a disposable diaper is $.25. Yup that is a quarter for every diaper changed. And for a little baby that is a lot of diapers, on average 10-12 a day. For a toddler not quite as many, more like 6. I feel better about every diaper I change that I'm saving us money. Don't get me wrong there is a special kind of stink to cloth diapers. But life with kids is full of stink anyway, and for now this is worth it to me. Right now Ethan is in pre-folds and covers, while I have some fancier pocket diapers for James. I want to change Ethan over to pocket diapers as soon as I can get some more. And cloth diapers are cute, and if anyone has noticed disposable diapers are trying to mimic cloth with patterns now (i.e. denim diapers, etc)

But there is something about hanging up clean diapers on the line to let the sun bleach that just feels so fulfilling, and strangely romantic.

Ethan's 2 month pix

2011-09-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

So Ethan turned 8 weeks old this week! Can you believe it? It's crazy how time can fly and crawl at the same time. Ethan was 11 lbs 10 oz which lands him in the 56% and was 23 and 3/4 inches tall which lands him in the 84%. So yes I have another tall and skinny boy on my hands. Not overly light, mind you, just not ubber chunky either. Ethan has started struggling more with what we think is reflux. That's the problem with babies they can't tell you what hurts. He hasn't been a bigger spitter upper till this week, and still I've heard of worse, but he's been uncomfortable and thereby fussier. He also is a momma's boy in the fact that I am the biggest comfort to him than anything else. This has been an interesting juggling act trying to figure out how to keep both him and James happy. James has gotten better at playing by himself (for which I'm grateful) but there still is a limit to that, and he gets bored easily. Somehow with prayer and faith we keep plugging along. Enjoy the pix. Aren't his eyes beautiful?

Blessing in Idaho Falls

2011-09-11T06:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were able to go to Idaho Falls and have Ethan blessed. We decided to go there because it was less people traveling (mostly just us and Uncle Sean) vs having everyone come down here. Also my sister had a baby just two weeks after us, so we were able to have both boys blessed together. It was a wonderful weekend full of family and fun.

The Crouch Clan

Alyssa and baby William with Me and baby Ethan

the boys :D

Nana and Papa with their newest grandsons

So I also tried to get some pix of the boys together. I'll be honest I didn't try very hard. It is hard to coordinate two babies to be happy at the same time when we are also trying to juggle so much family and so many activities. At least we got these few. (In case you aren't sure Ethan is on the left, William is on the right)

James

2011-08-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

My dearest two year old. I haven't blogged really about him in a bit, and he needs some internet attention too. Don't you just love that face. How can you not? I haven't gotten a good pic of him in months because he's too active, and wants to play with the camera instead of being in front of it. I'm glad I finally got a good one. James has grown up so much in the last month I can't even believe it. Yes he has done some incredibly annoying big brother things, but he also has learned a ton.

He is speaking in sentences now, not just two words putting together. Things like "Mommy want some?" He knows his numbers 1-10 (with help) and can say all of his letters just not necessarily in order (we're working on that). He's recognizing type everywhere, and when he notices it says "ABC?" He is officially climbing. He's waited till now to really try climbing EVERYTHING! He can make it on our bed which is quite tall. He tries to climb his old crib, and onto the table. I know other babies were climbing these things before him, but he wasn't interested until his little brother was here, and on top of them. Ha! He's already taller than he was in June, though we haven't checked how tall. And his hair, like always, has grown like a weed.

We are working on him actually listening, since he tends to tune us out whenever it suits him. He can open all the doors in the house, Yikes! And can go up and down the stairs very well by himself, finally! And last but not least he has started singing. This was the lovely melody he made up on the way home from Thanksgiving point on Tuesday. We love it!

(If you can't tell he's singing "La la la chicken" This did eventuallly become "la la la papa, la la mama, la la la daddy" but it all started with chicken. Ha!

Ode to Rinny

2011-08-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

So my sister has officially moved out of Provo. She is off to big new adventures in Logan, and will start school in two weeks. We will miss her a lot.

She was James' best friend all summer. She went with us to the splash park, and more often just played in the kiddy pool with us. She took James to the park, played trains, trucks, and generally chased him around the house. She barely missed Ethan's birth, but got to spend a lot of quality time with him after she got back. She babysat so we could go to Potter weeks after Ethan was born. She helped me clean out the shed, and did my dishes. We chatted about life. She worked two jobs, and frequently came for dinner. If you can't tell from the second picture we both cried when she left this morning. Rinny we will miss you, but we know Logan will love you. Ha! (now she should marry a man named Logan...hehe...)

My Favorite Things - 1 month old

2011-08-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

So as of tomorrow Ethan is 1 month old. Can you believe it! So we shot his 1 month pix today. As of yesterday he weight 9 lbs 9 oz which is a huge gain from his beginning at 7 lbs 3oz. He is trying valiantly to catch his brother. Anyway the inspiration for the blog was a friend of mine who blogged about her favorite things starting with the line from the Sound of Music song girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes. However my favorite line from that song has always been brown paper packages tied up with strings. So this was my attempt at an interpretation of that line. I will say Ethan was a little difficult to work with, probably because of the heat, but I am convinced it is easier to be just the photographer, and not photographer/mother. I was glad to have my lil sis' help though or these probably wouldn't have turned out as good as they did. Enjoy!

Things I do instead of sleeping...

2011-08-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

blogging is one of them. But you all have to admit that you appreciate it. So here is little Ethan today. He is 3 weeks old, and still not reached his due date (which is tomorrow). He is having some more alert time, and I wonder what to do with him and with James at the same time. We are figuring it out one day at a time. Ethan far prefers sleeping on his belly or his side to his back. This is of course a no no since studies have shown that the risk of SIDs goes up when they sleep on their bellies or sides, so he must always sleep on his back. I will admit the second time around I'm being a little bit more lenient in what he wants rather than what the drs want. Not to excess or anything to be worried about. Just long enough to get things done, and only during the day when I can watch him and check on him. I mean come on he's so cute this way.

Ethan also gets the hiccups when he's tired and can't fall asleep. And he works up to angry cries. If I were to only have one child I'm sure he wouldn't cry much at all, but since I have two and am trying to balance the needs of two sometimes Ethan has to wait to eat, or get his diaper changed, and he grunts and groans and works up to a healthy really angry cry. Then the world seems to fall apart for a few minutes until I can get everyone taken care of and it starts to heal itself again.

I've learned there is no where safe for Ethan to be from his brother. Pretty much anywhere I put him James can do something to him. Poke him in the eye, lay on top of him, shove a snot sucker up his nose (those bulb things for boogers). All normal big brother stuff, but when I want Ethan to stay asleep for five more minutes it's kind of annoying. James' favorite game to play with his little brother is this. Whenever Ethan starts working up to a cry or even is crying he tends to be flailing his arms about, so James sticks his head right in the path of Ethan's arms and then will pull back laughing "He got me!" Crazy kid. Just wait till Ethan really can pack a punch it won't be so funny anymore.

Overall we are doing good. I'm loving being a Mom of two. Even though the two year old drives me crazy, and I'm losing sleep to the three week old they are both adorable, and remind me everyday why I should keep them. Enjoy! I know I will :D

Two reasons I will lose my baby weight...

2011-07-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

One is named James.... the other named Ethan...

Tonight I learned why I will probably lose my baby weight from this pregnancy faster than I did with my last. I seriously wish that I had a video of this because it would be that much funnier. But we didn't get one.

So after a dinner and a movie (at home with the boys) Cory was working on a project I'd set him to, and James was begging for Mommy attention. Not only was he begging for Mommy's attention he was begging for Mommy to chase him. Ethan on the other hand wanted to sleep, but wouldn't let me put him down. So I thought I would try both. Ha!

Yes I was carrying my two week old in my arms while I chased my two year old around the house. The funniest part about it was that Ethan fell asleep faster while I was running than with anything else I have tried. Does this give you a clue about what my pregnancy was like?

I know I'm not supposed to return to "normal activity" for six weeks, but honestly I do feel pretty good all things considered. And you try telling that to my two year old. It really was quite funny.

Cute story!

2011-07-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

So who knows what James really will be when he grows up, but tonight he showed excellent potential in being a chef. And of course not just any chef, but one with his own cooking show. I don't know where it came from, since we don't have cable and therefore don't watch cooking shows. But tonight he was "helping" me do the dishes. This really entails him standing next to me on a chair and playing with the bubbles. Tonight he would pull a bowl full of bubbles out of the sink, and pour them into a pot. Then he would stir the stuff in the pot, and then repeat. The adorable part about it is that he was commentating the whole thing. "Ok, Now, jibber jabber babbling...hot...cook. Ok, Now stir." So cute! I loved it.

I was so surprised when I realized what he was doing. Then Cory had to take over doing the dishes with him, since I had to feed Ethan. The cooking just got cuter as I listened to Cory question James, "Now what's the next step. Oh I see! Stirring." It was just a really cute moment to remind me that I love my boys. All of them!

One Week old pix

2011-07-25T11:21:00.002-07:00

I took a small opportunity to take Ethan's first pro pix by mama :D I have to say it is a lot harder to get some good shots when the two year old wants to be in the way or see every shot. So I didn't get a lot, but I got a couple of really cute ones. The bear is the one we had James make for his baby brother a few weeks ago at Build-a-Bear. We made one for James before he was born, and enjoyed carrying on the tradition.

Family

2011-07-25T11:21:00.001-07:00

I thought we'd just post a couple of pix from when my parents were here just after Ethan was born. Papa is James' best buddy, and was very happy he came. Nana even got lots of special love from James this trip. James is very good at turning anyone into his friend. I got a cute pic of Nana feeding Ethan. And the last one is my favorite, Daddy and James drawing. Daddy is James' favorite drawing partner since he will draw anything for him on demand; trains, planes, cars, or trucks. So fun!

Brothers

2011-07-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Can you believe we have two boys!? Brothers through and through already and Ethan is only 11 days old. James has taken to being a big brother really well. He still is struggling with losing some of Mom and Dad's attention, but he's doing a little better. But being a brother has come naturally to him. He's very soft with Ethan and constantly is giving him kisses and patting his head. He points out all of Ethan's parts, like "little eyes, little nose, little ears!" So cute! If Ethan cries James calls out "Baby crying!" and then directs one of us to pick him up.

Every once in awhile James will want to hold his brother, but for the most part he leaves that up to us. The cutest story is that the day we came home from the hospital James made us bring the baby into his room, and got us to put him on the floor. He then tried to play trains with him, and was pretty bummed when he realized that it wasn't going to work. We tried to explain that eventually they will be able to play together but not quite yet. I'm excited to see how their relationship will grow as they both get older. For now enjoy a couple of cute pix.

Ethan's Birth story and other random details

2011-07-20T11:54:00.001-07:00

Hey all, so I've decided that I need to write some details for the world at large that actually follows this blog, and for myself (in case I don't find the time to handwrite it into my journal anytime soon) Forewarning this might be too much information for some. Sorry.

So Ethan was born at 9:20 on July 14th 3 and 1/2 weeks early! It was a major surprise for everyone. So here's how the story goes. The night before on the 13th I was...uncomfortable. I know people are like WHAT! just uncomfortable. Well it's sort of true. I don't know a better word for it. I wasn't really having contractions I just felt pressure and some back pain, and I thought that maybe it was just the baby "dropping" into my pelvis, and that I would from then on waddle worse than a duck for three weeks. I apparently was making all sorts of horrible faces, and groaning though because Cory got worried enough to start packing the hospital bag. It had been on my list of to do's but we had three weeks left so, no it hadn't gotten done yet.

I just kept laughing at him as he packed the bag. "Haha! Nothing is happening. It won't for weeks yet, but it's cute that you are packing already" Little did I know.

Anyway so we went to bed. Around 4:30 I woke up and needed to go to the bathroom. However my pants were already wet. I had heard all sorts of stories about prego women peeing their pants and thinking their water broke so I smelt it. It didn't smell like pee. Then I started thinking "Oh crap! I'm not due for almost another month." So I went and googled it. I know technological age and all that. One website told me to lay down for a half an hour, and then when I stood up again see if I had another "rush of fluid" So I decided to do that before I woke Cory up in a panic. This didn't work so well, cause about 5 minutes after I laid down I started to panic, and had to wake Cory up for comforts sake. This was around 5. (He thought it was midnight, the approx time I woke him up when I was in labor with James)

So about the time I woke Cory up the contractions started. And they started at 8 minutes apart. I mean seriously my body is on the fast track, cause I woke up to contractions 5 minutes apart with James. I have never had contractions start at 20 min apart and get closer together they start fast. Anyway, Cory woke up and started gathering the last minute things that we hadn't packed the night before. At some point he asked me if I was having contractions and I said yes about 5 - 8 min apart. We discussed what to do with James and were glad that our upstairs neighbors haven't moved yet because they are super amazing and sweet and would take James at any hour if we asked them. (again I still had three weeks, I hadn't gotten around to making my list yet of who would take James) It was closer to 5:45 at this point.

Cory wanted to call first before we went upstairs so he the house phone, and then their cell phone before he got an answer, but when he did of course they said yes. So then he had to pack a bag for James, and woke James up. James and I snuggled on the couch while Dad run around and had a last minute Mom and James moment before our whole world changed. So Cory ran James upstairs and then came back for me. We headed to the hospital and arrived shortly after 6. We got checked it, and around 6:30 when they checked me I was already dilated to a 5 and a half. So no way they were sending me home, or stopping little guy from coming.

So they started hooking up monitors, starting my IV and calling in the anesthesiologist (he does amazing work) My epidural was even better than last time, cause I could feel and move my feet but still not feel the pain. The anesthesiologist teased us that we had just created a search and destroy team by having two boys and should sell or break anything nice we have now before they can get it. Ha!

Anyway Cory texted everyone around 7 that we were in the hospital and having a baby. We had a little time to then talk and wait but not a lot because by 9 o'clock I was at 9cm and the nurse said to call her when I felt the urge to push. Not even 5 min later I had to call her back in because I needed to push. The appropriate doctors showed up, and I pushed all of three contractions and out came our little guy at 9:20. So crazy! So from beginning to end my labor was about 5 hours, half of what is was for James.

Ethan was 7 lbs 3 0z, which we I am happy that he was at least that for being 3 weeks early. I'm not surprised because he has an older brother to catch up to, and would have if he could have been patient enough to wait the extra 3 weeks.

It has been a crazy adjustment to such a little baby. (For anyone who thinks 7lbs 3 oz is normal please forgive me. My sense of normal was spoiled by my first baby, so 7 lbs is super small for me.) Ethan is super tiny and doesn't fit most of the clothes we have for him. He has been jaundice and so we've had to worry about feedings and if he's getting enough. He's also been super sleepy because he's so early and sleeps through feedings more often than not. All of those things are new adjustments for me.

I'm trying really hard to not compare absolutely everything about my two boys because it isn't fair to them. They are two separate people, but I am finding it difficult. I will have to keep working on it.

James is doing well at the big brother stuff, but I won't say that the adjustment has been easy or smooth. He is very nice to baby, however he takes it out on Mom and Dad that life has changed. He has been overly whinny and loud, and super hyper. He's trying to hit more, and fights meals. We are hoping now that our amazing helpers have left that he will calm down some more. Cory thinks that he was even more reactive when even more people were paying attention to baby and not him and not just mom. We can hope that normalcy will return to our little clan soon.

I have so much more to say, but I also have a toddler that woke up and now don't have the time so you will have to be satisfied with this. Enjoy!

Suprise!

2011-07-15T04:23:00.000-07:00

Most of you probably know by now, but Kayla and I had a little surprise Thursday morning. Our second little guy was born three weeks early at 7 pounds 3 ounces, 19 inches long. Thankfully he is healthy and doing well. It seems he was just in a hurry to get into this world, though he cried so much when he got here I think he may have had some second thoughts! Most of his first day—in true baby style—has been spent sleeping off his first adventure. The much anticipated name has still not been made official yet (after all we did think we had a little more time) but don't worry, after long debates and much thoughtful consideration we have definitely and unequivocally decided to name him. :) So stay tuned...don't touch that dial...the name is one its way. In the meantime here are some first pictures and videos to whet your appetite. Thanks to all of you who have helped and supported us. We and the baby appreciate it.

Mama prego with Thumper- 34 weeks

2011-06-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

Hey all, so I had a really hard time deciding which blog to post these on. In the end I will put a couple on my photo blog, but most of them are here. So last week I convinced Rinny to do some photos of me and my belly. I didn't do anything this nice when I was pregnant with James so we've decided it evens out the fact that I haven't photographed the belly as much with this pregnancy as I did with James. (I really want to fairly photograph all my children, and not have a decreasing amount of each one)

Anyway this was an interesting experience for me because I am very rarely in front of the camera, and to some degree now understand my clients a little better. It is hard to relax when your being photographed. This was a collaboration between Rinny and I, and really a fun opportunity. I wish I could have had a few with Cory and James too, but due to timing and crankiness it wasn't a logical time to do those kind. I'm also glad we did them when we did, because I'm starting to feel bigger every day and will shortly be in that very unattractive stage of pregnancy that all women go through. Enjoy the fun tan difference between my arms and my overly white belly, I didn't want to edit that out for posterity's sake. And of course the last image is because it is truly how my children should remember me.

New Bed!

2011-06-27T12:49:00.000-07:00

James got a new bed, and he loves it! I was gearing up for all sorts of trouble of him getting out of bed, and playing with his toys. Once we put it up he played in it all afternoon. The first time we tried a nap I warned him that if he got up he would end up in his crib. Five minutes later he was in his crib. He didn't like that but he slept. That night though he was determined to sleep in his bed. I gave him another chance again warning him that he would end up in his crib otherwise. That night he slept soundly only having got up once to get his dog stuffed animal. He's been a champ ever since. He doesn't get up and run around he just goes to bed like a good little boy. I can't believe it, it's been the easiest transition. I couldn't have even guessed it would have ever gone like this. I keep waiting for things to change but so far they haven't.

I'm grateful that we have need of the crib soon, and didn't just take it down because I'm sure otherwise he would have been up and around with no way to keep him in bed, but he loves it so much the threat of not being able to sleep in it so far has kept him in bed. :D Enjoy!

Lagoon

2011-06-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago we had the opportunity to Lagoon. Zagg held it's annual summer party there. So we got in free, and then enjoyed a fabulous lunch. James loved the rides! This one was his favorite. If you listen really close you might be able to hear him laughing. He thought it was just so fun. He also got to ride a bunch of other rides, and we got to ride the train (which of course he loved!) It was a wonderful day that ended with getting to see Nana and Papa for a few hours. They had come down for a family reunion which we missed, but we got to see them. James loves seeing them anytime he can for even a little while.

The boys' room

2011-06-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

I've been working recently on reorganizing everything for the coming baby. One of those things included redecorating James' room and making a measuring board for our kids. Cory's family measured their boys on a wall and when they moved it was one of the things that Cory was really sad got left behind. So I made one that can move with us wherever we move. I used a $.50 scrap board we got from Home Depot, paint left over from last year's chair repainting, and wall-dots I got from Kohl's on clearance. I deco-paged the dots on so they are permanent. James is just under 3 ft, and was the first mark on the board :D

Then I had lots of dots to put on the walls too. So I really like how cute their room is now. The last this we have to do is put up the toddler bed. Which will happen after Cory finishes his summer class. Enjoy!

James' B-day party

2011-06-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

Last week we threw James a little birthday party with a few of his neighborhood friends. It was in my opinion the best two year old birthday party. Small, unorganized, and outside. Haha! We played with bubbles, and in James' kiddy pool, and had cake and ice cream and then did presents. It lasted no longer than an hour and half, and was before nap time when James does his best.

James had a cupcake and a half, and two bowls of ice cream. I don't think the other kids were quite as overachieving with the ice cream. And opening presents with a bunch of two year olds is really funny because they all want the gifts. Overall it was a great party, and I'm glad we could give James something fun on his birthday.

2 years old!

2011-06-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

Can you believe we have a two year old! I can't, and in other ways I can. The last two years have been pretty fun. He's a crazy one but we love him a lot. So here are some of the things that funny James has been up to.

- Cereal has rotated into his favorite breakfast. His favorite being "mini's" (frosted mini wheats) Every morning that he doesn't want pancakes or eggs he wants cereal, and has to dictate to us each step. 1. Cereal 2. Milk 3. Spoon. He says each one over and over until it happens. Ha!

- He is getting really good at playing by himself. This I appreciate, and am very grateful for as he will need to be able to do this a lot once baby comes. When he does play by himself it's usually with his trucks or trains and they have full conversations including hellos and goodbyes over and over again. Yesterday I caught him talking to his trucks about a baby brother. Not sure if he was telling them about his baby brother or if they were getting a baby brother, but it was really cute.

-James is beginning to be really helpful. I will be honest this may have been delayed on my part because I haven't asked him to do a lot until recently. But yesterday he helped bring in some groceries, and he's started knowing how to wipe up spills and even began looking for towels himself when he's spilled something. The things he is best at is finding his shoes. He is obsessed with his new crocks (they are a rip off brand). He loves them because he can put them on himself (almost) and I think because he doesn't have to wear socks. He actually cried when I made him wear church shoes on sunday.

- James has turned into me when it comes to choosing. Always go with secret option #3. If Cory gives me two choices I will usually come up with one of my own that was not presented (i.e. Would you like a smoothie or a back-rub? I will say I would like ice cream.) Haha! Well James has taken this on. In the mornings when I give him a choice between shirts to wear he will randomly remember another one and pick that. Such as one day I said, "do you want to wear trucks or stripes?" and he said "Dog" which I have to admit took me a minute to remember he has a dog shirt.

- Monkey has turned into one of James' favorite things to wear, since it means we are going on a walk. I'm glad that he likes it because though it makes me walk a little faster I don't have to run to catch him as much, and at seven months pregnant that is a blessing.

-He doesn't get to run around stores as much or push the carts as much as he likes to because I just can't do it anymore. I can't spend the whole shopping trip chasing him, so he ends up in the cart. However he has learned to buckle buckles. This has also been a blessing because he is obsessed with buckles being buckled. So when I put him in a grocery cart he has to buckle himself in. He will spend ten minutes doing it, then once it is done he will ask to be taken out of the cart. I will unbuckle the buckle and he will "have" to buckle it again. Strange little game but it works.

Overall James is still a delightful child and we like having him around.

We took his two year pix this week. Please forgive the long hair, and the utter lack of really good smiles. He refuses to be the wonderful camera subject, I've apparently put him in front of the camera too much. Oh well, we will take what we can, and hopefully do better once I'm back to a normal size, and can chase him around more.

4 years ago today!!

2011-06-06T18:04:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it?! Four years ago Cory and I were sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple for time and all eternity. The last four years have been amazing, and crazy, but mostly amazing. A bit of trivia for you, not only has it been 4 years of marriage but it has been 9 years since we started dating. Yes it's true 9 years!

So for those of you who don't know, Cory and I met in high school at the Turkey Trot. It was a cowboy themed dance that was mostly go in groups not as dates, and just have fun. It was the cowboy hat that brought us together. Haha! Cory was dating someone else at the time, but she was out of town for the weekend so he'd gone with his other friends to the dance. I too had gone to the dance with my friends, and though we still left with our friends our hearts were uniquely entwined as were our futures after a few hours of flirtation :D

Well long story short we dated through his senior year. He graduated moved off to Boise to attend college, and I stayed in I.F. to finish high school. Did this break us up? Of course not we did long distance my whole senior year. He came and stayed with his grandmother for six weeks the next summer so we could be together some. Then I headed off to college at BYU and he received his mission call the day after I moved into the dorms. Two years later, lots of waiting, lots of stress, and lots and lots of letters written he came home, and I was still single, and very much infatuated with him, but we had both changed. This was October of '06

Cory didn't get into BYU, but into BYU-I so the next semester (Jan of 07) he went to Rexburg and we again did long distance. Phone relationships are not ideal, but we made it work. We got reacquainted and fell in love all over again. Cory proposed February 11, 2007 (that year valentines fell in the middle of the week, and we only had weekends to be together 'cause of school)

Cory moved down to provo May of '07 giving us only one month living in the same town before we got married in the previous 3 years of our relationship. Not that any of that matters now. Haha!

June 7th, 2007 we were married. Yay! One of the happiest days of my life. In the last four years we've owned 3 cars (the first two were real clunkers), I graduated from BYU, James was born June of 2009 two years and one week after we were married. We've lived in two apartments, we have celebrated 28 holidays married, Cory is getting close to graduation, and we are pregnant with baby boy #2 due in Aug. I think we've done a lot!

Let alone what we've done I'm proud to call Cory my husband. I'm grateful that he's stuck with me through thick and thin, and that we are sealed for time and all eternity because I can't imagine any part of life, especially the next one without him. He is the best husband a girl could ask for, and I know that I am the lucky one in this relationship.

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-03T10:21:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this is a mondo huge post. Sorry guys, but we did a lot last weekend. I know it's taken me a whole week to get these up, but I had to recover we did so much. Ha! Ok so start with this was the last all together Chadwick get together before both babies are born. I got the idea to get everyone together for Day out with Thomas (well it started with just Joey and James, and then grew cause no one wanted to miss their reactions, and the girls didn't want to miss out either) So both Joey and James are obsessed with trains, so we went to Day out with Thomas on the Heber Creeper. It was fun, but we probably won't do it a second time.

Papa and James, and Joey all dressed like train conductors. It was pretty cute.

James pretty much hung out with Papa the whole time. He loved having him here for the weekend and was very sad every time Papa left even if for just a few minutes.
This one we took on the train. It was a really short train ride, and kind of slow, but the kids loved it.
James' favorite part though was the tent where they had five or six of these train tables set up. He would have stayed here and played all day long.
Saturday night after everyone had rested, we had a little birthday party for James and Elli. Elli's b-day being May 31st and James' being June 16th if we happen to be together they get a joint party. Last year it worked out this way too, so we'll see maybe they will always share.
This is my little frosting thief.

Then Monday we went to the Hogal zoo...in the rain. Despite the rain it was really fun, and at least it wasn't hot. The surprising thing is that right now thru august the zoo has a dinosaur display up that is actually really cool. So we went to the zoo and saw dinosaurs. They are animatronic/robotic, and I seriously was having flashbacks to Jurassic park. James loved them too, but Kenzi was not so fond of them.

Sorry not all the zoo pix are in order. We saw all sorts of fun things, and the fun part for me was that James knew how to say the names of most of the animals. Last time we went to the zoo he was barely walking and still signing everything.

Me and Bria in front of the tigers. Her favorite.

Ok so this video was purposely a repeat of last years. We couldn't believe how much James has grown in the last year, and that he still loved this one exhibit most. If you want to see last year's to compare click here.

So we went to the zoo and James still found diggers to watch.

And of course the kids had to ride the carousel at the zoo. They all really enjoyed it, even James but he still won't ride an animal, he has to sit on the bench. That's ok, we'll work up to it eventually. Anyway, it was a wonderful weekend, and a great kickoff to summer.

Revision

2011-05-25T06:42:00.001-07:00

I feel like I must revise my earlier post. Before I said that I thought Thumper had grown big enough that he'd run out of room and this was the reason he had slowed down. This is sadly not true since right after I posted this he picked up again. I guess he was just giving me a break. Last night at 4:30 there was a Zumba party in my belly. For all you who don't know what Zumba is you can google Zumba videos and get a good explanation :D

Text Blog

2011-05-23T09:31:00.000-07:00

Ok guys, sorry but photos on this post will be limited if at all. So if you aren't into wordy posts then you can choose to not read this. But I need to write some of this down before I forget.

So first I will update you on James. James is becoming so fun all the time. Every morning he used to play with Daddy in our bed while Cory attempted to keep sleeping. James has figured out now though that if he instead stands at the side of the bed and pulls on Cory's arm long enough then Cory will follow him into his room and they can play for 20 min or so before Cory finally will get ready for work.

He has also invented the Tiger game. Basically it involves James reading books to his toy tiger. But James is funny about how he plays games, if you do something with him once you have to do it exactly the same way every time you play if from thence after. So we always have to sit right next to his chair and hold Tiger just so while he reads to him. If you shirk on any of these duties James will let you know, and show you how to do it. So funny. Oh and he always has to be sitting in his train chair.

So the next thing James has started doing, that I need to get a picture of is that he wears his jackets backwards. He likes to do as much as he can dressing himself, and for some reason this is easier. I zip it up the back and it's not quite as much of a fight to put it on to go out. Since it has rained so much lately we've had to wear jackets a lot. People have commented on it, but I don't really care cause it makes my life easier.

Also new to James is his leash. That's right folks I broke down and got him a leash. I have mixed feelings about it, but it comes down to the fact that he is getting faster, I am getting slower, and these two things don't mix. He also thinks it's funny to be chased and won't stop when I tell him to. So he has a leash, which surprisingly he likes, because he thinks it is my leash. This is partially true. I have to walk a little faster then I would like when he is on it, but I figure it keeps me from having to chase him with my large belly, and is good exercise to walk a little faster.

James has started full sentences! Yay! The other morning when he woke up I asked him if he wanted to wear shorts, and he said, "I like shorts!" then at breakfast Daddy asked if he wanted minis (Frosted mini-wheats) and he said, "I love Minis!" So funny he is. He also learned, a couple weeks ago, that the magic word to get out of nursery is "potty." He kept telling the nursery leader "potty potty" so she brought him to me in Relief Society. Sneaky little guy. I had to then explain to her that we hadn't even started talking about potty training let alone began the process.

I've also re-decorated James' room and will try to get pix up as soon as I completely finish and take the time to take some good ones. But it is really cute, and I'm super stoked about it.

Ok Thumper update. I know I need to get a pic, but that will have to come another time too. I've fortunately gotten a little break from the Thumper craziness this last week. A few weeks ago he was kicking and punching and turning so much I actually googled if it was possible to have too much fetal movement. It's not. I was beat up from the inside out. He's calmed down a bit which makes me think that he's grown to a point that he's run out of room. Now he can't quite keep up the gymnastics he was before. I'm still pigging out on mostly healthy food, but eating a lot of it! I'm gaining weight like crazy and growing bigger all the time. I've been good the last few weeks though and worked out a little more, so I'm not entirely uncomfortable which helps.

Other than that nothing too big to report until I can get some photos off my phone, and we have a super fun weekend planned for this weekend. Let's hope we don't get rained out. Enjoy!

25 years old!

2011-05-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

Can you believe I am 25 years old! I can sometimes and then not again at others. So I am a quarter of a century I think that is probably an accomplishment in itself but who really knows. Either way I had a really good birthday. It started sort of early since I awoke before everyone else. I got a good start on the day by working out, and then going for a photo walk. I haven't been on a photo walk by myself in a really long time, so it was really nice to not have to wrangle a child while trying to be creative.

After my walk we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then Cory cleaned the house, and we went out to a new park. James loved exploring a new toy. He also has fallen in love with his Aunt Rinny. She has come down for the summer trying to get her residency in Utah. She's only been here a week, but when she's with us she can't go anywhere without James calling out after her. "RINNY!"

Then Cory surprised me and took us out to Jdawgs for lunch, which we took up to the bell tower and ate picnic style while we fed the ducks. James of course loved the ducks, and kept trying to get close enough to pet them all the while saying "Hey Buddy, hey buddy." So cute!

After the ducks we went home for naps. Yes I got a nap on my birthday and it was very nice. After my nap we opened presents, which is always fun. And Cory and Rinny sang me happy birthday and I had another cinnamon roll with a candle in it this time :D Then we took my gift card and went to Kohls and went shopping. I have to say shopping for strictly myself can be kind of hard now, but I successfully got a couple new frames and some decorations for the house. Then we picked up a five buck pizza and dropped off Rinny and James at home with their pizza, and we headed out to a nice dinner at Tucanos.

I signed up for their birthday club, did you know they give you a free meal for your birthday! I mean how cool is that! Anyway, we ate like kings without having to chase/wrangle a child or worry about him. All very nice. After dinner we walked around the Riverwoods and checked out the new 'beach resort.' Mostly we just enjoyed not having to rush home too quickly.

After James was in bed we watched the 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader' and went to bed.

So overall I had a marvelous birthday with lots of fun things, and fun calls from people I love. I really wish my birthday could fall on a weekend every year and no one would ever have to work on it, cause this year was the best. Now I've read a lot of friends blogs this year that also turned 25 and they recapped things they've accomplished in 25 years. Mine won't be very extensive I assure you, but here's a short one.

Graduated from high school

Got accepted to BYU and then to BYU's highly competitive photography program

Got married to my high school sweetheart and the best husband ever!

Graduated with my BA in Photography

Had my first baby boy

Successful haven't given up on said child during his terrible two's (not yet at least)

Served in callings

Worked part-time through all of school and up until this last year

Now pregnant with boy number 2 and awaiting the arrival of juggling two kids

Ok that's enough. Thanks for all the B-day wishes and gifts it was a great one :D

6 months pregnant with Thumper!

2011-04-24T17:01:00.000-07:00

Hey all, so it's time to update on baby #2 again. As much as I hate pictures of myself (like everyone in the world) I have once again posted an update of the growing belly, and man is it growing! So in case you didn't catch it from the title we are calling this baby Thumper. Why you might wonder, because he is very active and kicks constantly! And he will need to be that active to keep up with his crazy older brother! We are officially 25 weeks and mom and baby are healthy and mostly happy. Not really much else to say other than we are anxious for the next 15 weeks to go quickly.

Easter Egg Hunt & Easter Vest

2011-04-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

Our Easter egg hunt this morning was so fun. James really got the concept though he still needed help finding the eggs. I know this is a long video but hang out till the end and you will be rewarded with the best victory dance. HA!

We received James' first Easter Vest from Grandma Cheryl in the mail this week. She's been working hard on it. And much to James' delight it has train buttons on it!

Cookies

2011-04-24T16:40:00.000-07:00

So on top of decorating eggs yesterday we also decorated sugar cookies. James needless to say loved it! The video is of him, after ten minutes, discovering that he could eat what he was playing with and that it tasted SoOO GOOD! Haha! He's hilarious!

Dying Easter Eggs

2011-04-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

So having a two year old is so much fun at Easter! We did all sorts of fun things the first of which was dying easter eggs. I was a little worried at what kind of mess James could make with this, but he did surprisingly well, though we had to intervene some. As you can see from pix below his hands got dyed too, but only for a day, so it wasn't too bad. We added the extra video as a bonus, because we love how cute James was running around in one of Cory's shirts (I didn't want to chance staining his own clothes)

Happy Saturday!

2011-04-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

Yes this was a very happy Saturday for our little James. And we will tell you why...it involved a lot of things. First I'm cheating and adding James' drawing on here first. We did this earlier this week. It was his first time using markers, which he loved! But it also was a art project for Grandpa Brian and Great-Grandpa John's birthday cards. So since we gave away the art I thought I would document it here. Isn't it precious :D

Ok, onto our grand Saturday. So James got to play outside this morning for two hours, because it was nice, and not only that he got to watch Daddy photograph for his homework. (Yes I said Daddy not Mommy) James loved having both parents outside, and not being shunted away from Daddy's homework. Don't you just love that face, crusty nose and all.
James also got an apple this morning. He hasn't had one in over a week because he's been teething and hasn't wanted to eat anything. He loves apples! Loves them! I think it's because they are portable and he can just carry them around with him everywhere while he eats.
Then James got to watch one of his favorites 'Sid the Science Kid.' This is his tv chair, no one else's. If you sit in it when the tv is on he will kick you out.
Then after his nap and Daddy got some more homework done we went out to the D.I. and found a gem of a treasure. A bike all for James, and only for $5! It actually looks really good now that we got it cleaned up. Now I know it has purple wheels, yes it was technically a Dora the Explorer bike, but we tore off all the stickers and cleaned it up, and no one will be the wiser.

James has been desperate for a bike of his own for months now. All the neighborhood boys his age got bikes for Xmas. I figured we would get him one for his b-day and we started pricing them. Kids bikes like this can get up to $60! I mean really that is ridiculous. I figured it would take some garage sale-ing this summer to find something semi decent but then we found this beauty. And James couldn't be happier. He just about cried when we put it in the trunk to take it home because he thought it wasn't coming with him. And he wanted us to keep it in the house not the shed. He is in love with his new wheels, and I am so happy we got them so cheap. So over all it was a Happy Saturday!

P.s. and we had a picnic in the park for dinner. Awesome!

Six Truck Adventure

2011-03-28T18:18:00.000-07:00

So last Thursday Nana, Auntie Linda, Uncle Blake and his bro & sis-in-law ended up in SLC. Nana and Linda were not initially part of the party, but due to some circumstances ended up there on Wednesday and I got a call that said, "Hey we are in SLC anyway we can meet you somewhere and see you and James?" Can I say I was really grateful that I had just finished editing my last wedding right before that call. Yes I was, it meant that we had nothing to do Thursday but go meet Nana and Auntie Linda and Uncle Blake.

Linda and Blake are my Aunt and Uncle and really haven't been able to see James a lot, which is sad, but it was nice that they got to see him Thursday. Nana loved it because Papa wasn't there and Papa definitely wins out when they are all together. (last trip because he not only let James drag him everywhere but he had a pocket-full of candy he kept dishing out)

Anyway I should have photographed our outing but sometimes I just want to be a Mom and not a photographer, weird I know. Anyway, we met them at Thanksgiving point and hung out in the Emporium for awhile, spent a fair amount of time enjoying their atrium while James ran around dishing up rocks for everyone and yelling about the water. HA! Anyway, Nana got some quality time, and James got a lot personal attention which he loves. He got to ride on Auntie Linda's walker, which he thought was a ball. And Aunt Linda and Uncle Blake bought James SIX TRUCKS! I thought one or two would be fine, but they bought their way into his heart by getting him all six! He loved it, of course. He gleefully laughed and smiled for them, because he knows this is what gets him what he wants.

If you don't believe me that he knows how to get his way then you need to spend more time with my son. He has known from a very young age how cute he is, and his effect (his smile's effect) on people. I worry how this will effect his teenage years, if he will just be a major ladies man, but for now he gets his way. I'm ok with it for now, since he only has four short months left till he is no longer an only child. So here is documentation of his six trucks that he had to have on his lap on the ride home, and has subsequently taken to bed with him in different variations. Love this crazy boy!

As you can tell he swiped the orange one, and it doesn't really feature in any of the pix. It was his favorite today.

5 month pix with baby #2

2011-03-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Finally an update on baby #2! I know some people probably think it's horrible that we keep calling him baby #2, but don't worry we love him already, and it won't damage him for life unless we keep that name after he's born! HAha! jk. So, Ultrasounds are a miraculous thing. Cory and I agree it is much easier to identify little body parts when you can see them moving and have someone telling you what they are. But with that said I have to agree also that it is getting easier for me to see for myself baby and identify parts with each ultrasound I have.

Anyway here is documentation of our newest little guy. He so far is right on track and really healthy, and already bigger at this stage than most babies. Yes I have big babies and I'm ready for another one.

So here's the pix of my growing belly. Now I will admit I feel bigger with this one faster than I did with James, but I realize it is hard to tell from pix. I have a lot of friends that have posted comparison pix and I can't tell a difference from which stage they are in from their 1st baby to their 2nd. So if you don't I won't be offended. But here's the link to our 5th month pix of James. Scary difference on how much has changed.

James is starting to notice a change in my lap and how I carry him. I'm sure this will only get worse, but he's been bumped off a couple of times if I'm sitting cross legged, and I have to hold him up and over my belly when he's snuggling before bed. Otherwise James just climbs all over his little brother and kicks him frequently. I'm hoping this one will fight back, just not till after he's out of the womb. Ha! That's all for now. Enjoy!

HairCut!

2011-03-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

So Cory and I have calculated how long it has been since we cut James' hair. We think the last time was in November. So four months, which doesn't seem like that long except you can see the difference in this little boy what four months will do since his hair grows faster than any kids' I've ever seen.

We took him to GreatClips yesterday and asked for their best stylist with kids. Her name was Susie and she did awesome! I say this because she was fast and accurate, which made it easier. James was still really scared of the clippers and the hair dryer, but initially he was just shrugging flinching and ducking his head. He did start to cry the longer it went on, but it still was better than if we had done it ourselves again. One thing that Susie said was that it is easier for them to hate a stranger than their parents. And I have to say I'm grateful I didn't have to be the bad guy this time. Once he was done he cheered up really quickly, especially since he had a lollipop, and watched Mommy get her haircut while he danced around.

I put these backwards so the first once are the after. He's so cute! These next ones are the before. It was so shaggy!

This is the pic of the area the city has dug up behind our house. They are putting in an alley. James has loved seeing the big trucks. The trees in this pic are already gone. I have mixed feelings about it. It will give us a quicker way to get to the park, but it also will give James another route to run off on me before I notice. So we'll see how we deal with it.

Quick Aquarium clip

2011-03-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

I know I just posted for our very exciting weekend of seeing Disney on Ice but we had two exciting weekends in a row. It would have been more fun if we could have made it to Boise to see the family we've missed lately, but that plan fell through, so for Cory's spring break we made the effort to go to the Sandy Living Planet Aquarium again. Why, well because we loved it last time, and so did James! We were really lucky to hit it right after a school group left, and it was fairly empty compared to last time. Since we've been there before we didn't take very many pictures, but we have to share one really funny video.

So the preface to this video is two things. First off our 'little parrot' has learned the word "fast" you'll have to listen close to hear but he says "They're fast!" Also he's started repeating me and says "hang on" all the time, partially cause he hears it a lot throughout the day. So in this video he's trying to get the penguins to slow down so he can see them better, and he repeats "hang on" over and over again. He's just so cute now that he's communicating with the world around him ;D

p.s. there is like a 30 second wait till he starts talking again.

Disney On Ice

2011-03-20T19:32:00.000-07:00

So last weekend our beautiful friend Judith invited the whole Chadwick clan down to see Disney on Ice. It was a lot of fun for all the kids to get together and play, and for all us adults to see each other.

This is James and his cousin Kenzie who is just two months younger than him. They are the closest of the cousins, but only till August! Yes it is true these two cousins are getting two younger siblings that are due within a week of each other, so there will be another set close together! Cute :D
Papa and the youngest grandkids :D Yes this was a new train to James and he carried it EVERYWHERE with him for 3 days. It is still his favorite, but he's not quite as attached now.
These two (mostly James) dragged Papa everywhere they wanted to go :D

Here is a small clip from the show, just for those you that have no concept of what disney on ice is like. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of music and dancing on ice. James did really well. He was glued to it like it was the tv for the first half, and then the second half he got more into the music and started dancing, and enjoying it more.

Here's everyone but me (since I'm taking the pic) It's actually a decent pic since we took it after the two hour show.

This is what everyone really felt like! :D haha!
We really enjoyed having everyone here and can't wait for the next time they all come down!

Prego/James Update

2011-03-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

Hey all, so sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I know I promised I would soon. Oops! That's life though right. So anyone who is wondering my pregnancy is going really well despite some new challenges and old challenges too. I wasn't very sick, though I had a few killer days, but overall I was mostly dead tired and couldn't figure out how I had been pregnant and gone to school and worked last time around. This time I had a few days where James and I just watched movies and lazed around. My neighbor kept coming down around noon to borrow things and I would still be in pjs! I felt so dumb.

Anyway the new challenge with this pregnancy (other than taking care of a toddler while prego) is my gallbladder. BOTH my older sisters have had their gallbladders out, so I know what to look for. And over a month ago after a multiple days of eating lots of fat I had some majorly sharp pains in my upper right abdomen. I didn't write this off as prego pains and instantly changed my diet and then talked to my doctor. Since then I've done a lot better though I haven't had major pains my body has looked at certain foods and said "no way! YOU eat that and I WILL be very mad!" So I try to be good. This is hard since Cory has gotten a sweet tooth since i stopped making brownies and cookies, etc. He's made cookies and bought doughnuts and encourages me to just eat it. HA!

The other challenge is that this baby gets hungry just like its brother did, and a salad does not satisfy me, so that has been a challenge to balance foods that have more substance and lasting power than just fruit and veggies, but we've been doing ok. When I have my ultrasound in 1 and 1/2 weeks they will check my gallbladder too. So we'll have more info then.

As for old challenges this baby likes to sit on/block my left kidney just like James did. It gives me major back pains and limits which side of my body I lay on, but other than that it's not a big deal.

James is starting to get wise to what's going on, partially because I'm getting bigger, and partially because we are starting to coach him. He likes to copy Daddy so if Cory rubs my belly James wants to too. He's so funny. He takes really good care of his teddy bear like it's a baby (ie patting it's back and rocking it) so we think he will be an awesome big brother. He's getting increasingly curious about babies that he sees, and always has to go check them out. :D

In other James news, he has turned into a total parrot. I'm not kidding. I know it's hard for most people to get until they hang out with him, but he will repeat one to three words of every sentence. In sacrament meeting he will be playing with toys and I'll catch him repeating words from the speakers. Not everything he says he remembers to use later, but he understands almost everything, and has really really good pronunciation for his age. We've been hanging out with the neighborhood kids who are all about six months older than him, and he says things the clearest out of all of them. I don't know if it's because he's a first baby and they are second or third in the their fams but James loves to talk. I'm happy with it because it has opened up our communication a lot. I think signing helped a lot too. He still signs when he forgets a word or if he hasn't learned it yet, so it's still helping. I want to sign with all our kids.

Ok that's all for now. Here's some pix that are a few weeks old I've been meaning to get up.

Cory made these tracks out of a diaper box. James loves them, though the puzzle animals don't usually make it out with the tracks it is pulled out at least once a day with all his trains.
This sad little dump truck was our x-mas gift to James. He's figured out how to take the dump bucket off and sit on it. It may not last to summer if he keeps it up since it sags horribly every time he sits on it. :D

Don't you just love this face!

James also loves forts and playing underneath any of his blankets. These are the best pix I could get of him, since he is so wiggly.
P.s. if you think his hair is long in these pix it's longer now! I took these two or three weeks ago, and we still haven't cut it. Why you ask? Because he is terrified of the hair clippers, and the last time we cut it was such a horrible fight that I don't want to repeat it anytime soon. We will take him somewhere to get it cut next time, now we are just waiting for Cory to have a free day (HA!) so that we can both be there to help the poor hair stylist.

p.p.s I will get pix of my growing belly up sometime in the next month or so. Enjoy!

Big News from the Crouch Family!!!

2011-02-23T11:34:00.000-08:00

So for anyone that doesn't know already, Crouch Baby #2 is on it's way. Due to arrive August 6th (yes that is on Cory's birthday) We are super excited and semi-nervous on how we will handle two kids, but mostly excited. I have all sorts of things to post now that we've finally announced this online, but I will wait to share those for a few days. Enjoy!

p.s. the pic was how we announced to family for Christmas, James looks so different from this already. :D

Highly Anticipated...Finaly Captured

2011-02-13T18:18:00.001-08:00

There are a few videos we have been wanting to catch for a while but haven't gotten around to it.

This is documented proof that our son will eat butter and sour cream straight up if we don't stop him. Blackmail material for when he's on a date as a teenager. :)

This is documentation of how much James loves water. Though it may appear that we are administering Chinese water torture, James actually begs us to do this. If you listen you can hear him calling for more saying "wawa!"

This is a long awaited video of james doing the dance that comes in the book that Grandma Cheryl gave him. Unfortunately it was bedtime so the video is really dark. Maybe we will try again on this one.

This last one is showing James eating his Valentines candy. James got Valentines form all his grandparents and really enjoyed them.

Feburary

2011-02-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

Here's another update on our crazy kid. He's still wearing the fish hat :D As you can see he will sometimes wear it even during meals. If you look closely you can see some of the wear and tear that is happening to flounder's tail, but James still loves it.

The other thing he has been sadly cut down on this winter that he loves is the great outdoors. It has been a cold winter, and I've been overly lazy so we haven't made the effort to get out as much. James has needless to say had multiple days of cabin fever. This morning however it was beautiful, and almost spring-like. So we went out for a walk before church. James is the only one that was successfully ready for church at this point. Hence the cute clothing.
He loves this step. It's right outside our staircase to go down to our apartment. He can manage it really well now, even covered in ice. It's been a bit of a death trap all winter. I'm just grateful neither of us have fallen on it.
Aren't my boys so cute!

These are James' fabulous new shoes. We just got them this week. He jumped from a size 5 1/2 to a 6 1/2. Needless to say it explains a lot in why he hated his last ones so much. I think he likes walking even more now and in some ways I think it has made him faster.

This is the best one I could get of him face on. He tends to avoid the camera anymore and is a moving target like no other. If you look close you can see where he smacked his head (right between the eyes.) Cory and I left him with one of the families in the ward so we could go out to dinner, and 20 minutes after we left we got this frantic call that James had smacked his head, and wasn't calming down. I told her wear his blankie look-alike was in the diaper bag and that we'd check back in ten min to see if he was better. She was really worried he'd have a concussion cause he was acting kind of funny. We were worried, but proceeded to order in hopes we could get it to go if we had to go. He recovered just fine, and there was no concussion. He had a really big goose egg last night, but that has gone down a lot too.

When I went to pick him up. He instantly wanted me to hold him, and as I picked him up he started waving and saying "bye bye" like 'I'm outta here crazies' So he had his first traumatic babysitter experience. But it really wasn't that big of a deal in the end.

The other really fun thing James is doing now that we haven't been able to capture is that he has turned into the best parrot ever! He repeats at least one word of everything we say to him. He is well over 30 words he knows for sure, and is picking up more everyday. I think he has almost all of his sounds but he has the most trouble with s, and apparently z though I don't think I've tried to have him say anything with a q. Anyway he is brilliant, and it almost takes me off guard how much he can say now.

He also knows how to get his way, and has learned that 'please' gets him almost anything. After multiple attempts to get something he will remember and say 'please'. So cute! Anywho, that's all for now. Hope that's enough to hold you over till next time :D

James in January

2011-01-24T11:05:00.000-08:00

So it is a new year, and I have a rambunctious 19 month old, the posts on our blog are going to change slightly. Where I will still try to on a semi-regular basis do a nice photo shoot of James that has proven to be more difficult these days. So this year I'm going to share more of the little stuff, and hopefully document what is important to James at any given time.

Example A: The Flounder Fish Hat.

This lovely silly hat we received as a gift from our dear family friend Judith. My best guess is that she went to a disney on ice or some other related event got the hat and didn't need it, so passed it on to us. James loves it. As you can see from these and future pictures he wears it a lot. He runs around in it and will say "hat" or "at" depending on the moment. He passes it off for us to wear but only momentarily before he snatches it back.

The next five are pix that Cory took. He's not too bad right!? He's actually in a photo class this semester which I'm excited about because someone else gets to explain to him the technical stuff :D

So Cute this one :D
James likes to wander. This could be a future problem. So far though he always heads for the park which is only a block away, so if he is lost in the future we will check there first. See the hat, I tell you he loves it!
James also loves the snow. Eating it, crunching it, trying to walk on top of it (which he only semi accomplishes, he's not that light!) This is one of those days that is was all melting. For now it is gone, but I don't think James minds too much because I let him outside more often now.
Such a face :D
Also I want to document that James' imagination is growing and it's so fun to see. Now, all of James' toys talk to each other. Later I'm sure they will fight but for now they just talk. Mostly he gets them together and says "hi" "hi" So cute. But sometimes there will be full conversations of which I don't understand much of, but they are intense. He does this with his trains, trucks and stuffed animals. Love it!

So that is our incredibly long post folks. I still have a few other pix in mind that I need to capture before I can post them, but for now this is James and what he does.

Word post

2011-01-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry guys, but this is just a word post. No pix. I have ones I want to post, but that would be on the other computer that Cory is working on so they will have to wait. I thought though that I would take a moment to document a few funny things that James has been doing lately.

As of Friday we have taken the binky away from James' naps. The poor kid. Friday he forgave me because you could tell he thought I just forgot to give it to him. He didn't sleep as long, but he slept without it. This gave me hope it would be easy. Ha! The next day he knew it was intentional and was mad mad mad. He was whinny and cranky and miserable. This made us very worried about taking it away, but we stuck to our guns. Sunday he did better. And today even better. I'm so proud of my adaptable little boy. He seems to get over things well. He still gets the binky at night though, so the day that we take it away all together I will be prepared to not sleep for a few days. But this experience gives me hope that it will only be a few days.

Also we've moved to one nap in the day time. I'm desperately missing the extra two hours I had to myself when James was taking two naps, but he was headed to one nap anyway, and taking the binky away I've learned it's easier to just keep him up so that he is so tired he can't fight too much. Mean I know, but he doesn't seem to mind.

The other really really funny thing that I'm proud of James for but semi frustrated, is diapers. James has started telling us (signing to us) that he has a diaper the second he makes it. However he still won't willingly let us change it. So crazy! He still runs away, and fights and struggles, but he realizes that he's made one. So that is progress, in a really crazy weird way.

In other news the semester has started again, and James and I are trying to adapt to Daddy being gone lots, and having tons of homework. The Christmas Holiday was really wonderful to have Cory home more and helping out tons. James loves Cory so much, and misses him lots. But the last few weeks he's mixed us up and calls Cory "Mama" and me "Da" Even though I know I have a title. It's made me a little sad to loose being called "mama." I know it will come back eventually. But when Cory's gone he keeps asking for "mama" It is so cute. We are going to be troopers and make it through the next year of school and take what time we can get. We know Daddy is doing big and wonderful things at school and are so glad we see him as much as we do.

So that is all for my wordy long post that is completely abnormal for me. I'll be back to normal pix soon. Promise.

The truth about parenting

2011-01-11T18:55:00.000-08:00

So a friend of mine posted this video on Facebook, and I loved it so much that I posted it on my facebook and then tonight some of what they talk about happened to us, and I felt like I wanted to blog about it too. So first if you have the time (aprox 15 min) watch this video.

So it talks about the highs and lows of parenting. How one moment you can have this supreme happy moment and then you are just in despair. Tonight (wish I had pix to accompany this) we did the dishes together as a family. It didn't start out that way. I started by myself while Cory attempted to entertain James. At some point James became bored and came begging at my legs for me to pick him up. Instead I put in on a chair and let him play with the bubbles while I washed the dishes. He loved it! Cory came in to "supervise" and I put him to work drying. It was such a fun happy family moment. So super cute! I really wish I had a picture of it. Alas it of course had to come to an end so that I could finally finish the dishes. So while I finished the dishes and began wishing we could have another happy family moment Cory took James in to get ready for bed. Which like always began an all out fight over diaper change, which because worse because James had developed a bad rash. The poor kid was screaming his head off, and trying to get away, and it was all Cory could do to get a diaper on the kid.

Anyway, it reminded me of this talk. Life as a parent is good and rewarding and really really great, but not every minute of the day. Mostly every other minute of the day, since the other half of the minutes they are freaking out. But as is also pointed out in the talk, kids emotional levels are so crazy because the littlest things are the end of the world to them. And since we are the parents we get dragged along in the emotional roller coaster.

I just thought I would share our emotional roller coaster of evening. Enjoy!

James playing!

2011-01-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

I love that James has started playing on his belly. He lays down all the time now to play with his trucks and trains on eye level. It's great because he (like all babies) went through a phase that he hated his belly. Now he's come full circle and loves it!

I couldn't resist this pic opportunity. James loves his train chair that he got from Cousin Joey. He sits in it now for story time. We were blessed to receive an Ipad from Cory's work for Christmas. It isn't something we would have bought ourselves, but we love it since we got it for free. James loves it too. We have a few age appropriate Apps that he loves to play and the other day he just snuggled up in his chair to play. LOL!

Christmas in Idaho Falls

2011-01-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

We got to spend Christmas in Idaho Falls with ALL our family this year. It was pretty great and James got very spoiled. Sadly though like always when we get together with family I tend to forget my camera, not really forget, but not really want to photograph so the event is poorly covered. Here's some of what I got.

We opened presents at the Chadwicks in the morning. James didn't quite understand what was going on, mostly wanted to play with Papa's train that was right there under the tree and couldn't figure out why we wouldn't let him. James got 6!! Thomas the Train dvds for xmas from Aunt Tracie. He sat like this staring at the cover for some time. He really likes them.
This was the feast of d'oeuvres that uncle Sean cooked up while he also cooked the Christmas feast. It was all very yummy.
Uncle Sean in his cooking toga :D
In the afternoon we opened presents with the Crouchs. James pretty much ran around until he had something awesome to play with. The lego train from Uncle Sean and Aunt Becky is still one of his favorites.
Papa and his two youngest grandkids :D
Papa and his grandsons. This pic turned out quite nicely. I got everybody smiling. :D

Waxing Nostalgic at 18 months

2010-12-18T10:38:00.001-08:00

Do you remember these pictures? I do. This was my little one last Christmas. All smiles and laughter. He was breaking in two teeth at the time. He could barely sit up on his own, but had been eating cereal and baby food for two months already, though he was still breastfeeding at that point.

Look at him NOW! One year later I can see how my baby in his face, but barely! Look at my cute little boy now. He is now a full fledge toddler. He walks almost runs everywhere. He likes sharing with adults but not kids his own age, unless it's snacks. Those he will share with anyone. He will eat almost anything. Especially if it has butter or sour cream on it. Both of which he would eat by themselves. Crazy kid.

Last year he had two teeth at this point. Now he has a mouth full of teeth, 16 to be precise.
He is obsessed with sticking things in his ears. I suppose it is better than his nose, but it does become a problem.
He is great at signing has 20ish signs, and as of the count today 20 full words. Not all his words and signs are the same. This is his sign for whistle. I don't think it is the official one he made it up himself since he has a whistle that he holds like that.
He is super curious about everything, especially my camera and like me would prefer to be behind it. A year ago he loved to be in front of it smiling at me, and me smiling back at him. Now he's too active and sits still only for a few pictures. It's a good thing I can chase him around :D
James loved looking at snow and rain last year. Now he can play in it, and hates to come inside even when he is freezing he will stay out in it. When we walk to the park he can't walk on the sidewalk but has to tromp through everyone's snow covered lawns. He just loves it. I'm so glad we got him boots even if they are purple.

He also eats snow, which I prefer to his dirt eating.

So cute. We went and played at the park the other day completely covered in snow and it was slippery but every time James fell he just laughed and laughed. He thought slipping was so funny.

I am really enjoying this toddler stage. I wish the tantrums over being told 'no' were fewer but for the most part he is just so much fun. He is learning new things all the time, and becoming more independent each day. I miss my baby but I like my toddler. Thanks for indulging my walk down memory lane. Hope you like the new pix!

Thanksgiving!

2010-12-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Ok, I am going to warn you ahead of time a few things. One this is a really long post, because I put up a lot of pictures. I would have done a collage with these but I was too lazy. Second I apologize now to the Crouches who are not shown here mostly because, other than a family sitting I had at the beginning I didn't pick up my camera the whole holiday and stole these from my lil sis who graciously photographed the whole thing. (She also loves photography and uses her new camera every chance she can get, which works for me because I've become a bum.) Anyway, we start with the annual gingerbread house decorating. Yes this does happen every year at my house and has since I was really really young. James LOVED IT! It involved candy everywhere and frosting too, so of course he did. He didn't last too long though before his nap which I was fine with.

See he's eating frosting here.
Dad's trying to prevent it. Doesn't look like it's working does it.
Nana trying to help direct his attention. Don't worry folks he's not actually putting anything on, he's just swiping more frosting in this pic.

The end frosting face. Don't judge me I didn't do my hair at all that weekend. Sad I know.
Our finished product! :D Isn't it cute! I promise the others looked way better. But we didn't go for precision this year.
Then later that afternoon we got to go see some model trains. This guy outside of I.F. has a whole separate building built to look like a train station that he and a friend have set up this whole town of model trains. They let the public come in in small groups for free! It was awesome since James is now thoroughly obsessed with trains and so is cousin Joey.
He was pretty starry eyed the whole time.
Awesome cousin Joey had so much fun. He dressed up as a train conductor in honor of the occasion. So did Papa. Isn't he the cutest nephew ever!

Can you see him saying "choo choo"

Papa was stellar and carried James all around it. Which was awesome cause he weighs so much now. We all took a turn, but Papa had him the most. The best part was when one of the trains was going really fast and James signed and said "go go go go" He really really loved it!
Aunt Rinny with all the munchkins. This was her had to have pic of the weekend because she's in love with all of them, and can't wait to have her own, but for now has to deal with just being the best Aunt ever (except she's in competition with Aunt Tracie who has dogs and James loves those too!)

Finally a new photo shoot!

2010-11-04T17:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys I've been slacking lately. I finally chased James around enough to get some decent pix. This time a cookie was our main focus of fun. I couldn't resist the cute pix with chocolate all over the place. My lil boy is growing up. Sometimes I can't believe it!

Bragging Time!

2010-11-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

Ok I've been debating about posting this or not, because I really feel like I am hugely bragging about my son. And the truth is I am. I am just so proud of how much progress he has made that I just can't help it. This weekend we sat down and did a full count of every word James knows. And there are a lot!

There are 12 words that he says on a fairly regular basis - mama, dada, cracker, juice, choo choo (train), up, hot, cold, hi, wow, and uh-oh, and the newest 'apple'.

But on top of that we have 16 asl signs he does on a regular basis too (some overlap) - juice, bird, mama, train, eat, cracker, bus, hurt, dog, milk, more, hot, cold, chicken, 'goldfish' (it's really a sign created by my sister that signifies goldfish crackers but it works) and the newest addition apple.

I have to say I absolutely love signing! It has saved us so many times. It hasn't saved us from every temper tantrum he's still a normal toddler, but so many times it has broken the communication barrier and to be honest James gets more of what he wants more often because he signs, and I'm just so happy that I understand he just gets it (mostly harmless requests like a cracker right before dinner or something).

Monday though we had to run some errands and on the first one he signed 'all done' and I explained I was 'all done' too, but we still had just a few more places to go. It wasn't fun but we had to. And he did pretty well. He still preferred being out of his car seat to in, but no major tantrums took place.

I will admit I cheat in teaching Asl signs and always get the signing time dvds from the library, but they help me learn the signs more than him and then I just use them all the time till he picks them up. And I am so grateful I've take the time. Now we just need to expand his vocabulary so that he can ask for more things. For instance he most commonly asks for a cracker or chicken to eat, and we can't just eat crackers and chicken! Anyway, I'm done bragging but I just wanted to say I'm proud of James and how much he knows, and we are so excited about signing :D

James' second Halloween

2010-10-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

So far Halloween doesn't seem to be James' holiday. Last year he went to bed a six and missed all the fun. This year he's had a cold for the last three days and been pretty cranky. However despite the cold we were going to go trick or treating to a few houses and call it a night. Haha... if you haven't heard yet we got fully rained out. We went out and it was sprinkling and by the time we had made it to our upstairs neighbors' front door it was a downpour. By the time we were going to leave the wind was picking up and getting kind of scary so we just went inside, and hung out till we decided to sneak out the back, and back down to our apartment to wait out the storm. Since it didn't really let up we decided to let our 'lil monkey just chill and watch a movie with us. "How to Train Your Dragon" is soooo good, and we all loved it! Monkey included. James surprisingly stayed up until it was over, enjoyed the whole thing but conked out shortly after. All in all it was a good Halloween even though it wasn't overly eventful. The video is of him Trick or Treating our own apartment after we came back :D