Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Weber River Flooding

So I guess it is not like the floods back in '83 (that is what everyone is comparing it too), but there has been some flooding going on around here. First, it is the winter that wouldn't end. We even got a little bit of snow today. It also rains more days than not out of the week. This is all good for the drought that Utah was in, but now reservoirs are at capacity, rivers are at 100% flood capacity, the mountains are packed with snow still, and the ground is just soaked through. If it warms up now quickly, though we would like it, the snow pack would melt, and it would create even worse problems. We took a drive with our neighbor for family night to check out the flooding river. Holy cow!

Um, that barn is not supposed to be surrounded by water.

James loved looking at the river and pointing and talking too


James' First time on a Horse

Second day in Colorado James got to ride our horse, Cinnamon. This time of year when it is getting warmer (though it doesn't seem to be, really) animals loose their winter coats. Cinnamon has always had a good winter coat, this year seemed to be exceptional. By the time James was done riding her, he was covered, head to toe, in her hair. It was actually a good thing that Nathan wasn't there, he's allergic to horses :(

Helping with the hair, and eating Cinnamon's carrot


James loves horses. He loves all the little horses he has at home, tries to ride them now too. He also knows what a "horsey" says, an adorable little "neigh".


Someday though we'll have a horse of our own, and it will be my responsibility to take care of it. There was also a tractor where my parents board their horse, so we took some cute pictures too.


Gramies and James on the tractor


A very loved little James :)

Friday, April 15, 2011

Colorado Day 1

This last weekend James and I, along with my kid sister, Kirstin (who was an angel and so much help with James), went to Colorado. The purpose was to deliver some items to an aunt, and we ended up having so much fun that I didn't even care we had to drive out to Colorado! Saturday Kirstin, Mom, James and I went to the Littleton Historical Museum. It is a living and working farm, that still does most things like they did in the 1860's. We used to go there a lot as little kids, but I think now they have additional funding or something, because there were lots of animals now, the blacksmith was working, and there were period people working on the farm.

James in the old barn

Seeing the cow Millie

They were moving sheep and lambs to a paddock while we were there. Most of the lambs were no more than two weeks old! James absolutely loved it.

Petting a sheep


Kirstin with a two week old lamb


Moving stubborn sheep 1860's style

It was so windy that day. There was a field that was open and had old farm equipment in it. It was just a picturesque place, so out came the camera and we tried to get some fun shots.

James

Love this one


James checking out this old plow

My mom, so pretty, and see the wind!

Kirstin striking a pose

Gramies, Mommy, and a not-so-happy James
We had ducked into the old schoolhouse when the wind was really getting bad. James obviously didn't want to stay inside, but the wind was so bad outside, dust was blowing everywhere, we had to stay for a little bit. He was not happy about that, he wanted to be in the wind!

Video of James at the Park






Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Cute James

James is a cutie at the park! We went as a family to the park right by our house in between conference sessions on Saturday. Did I mention that I am in love with his hat? And best part is...he loves to wear it too!


Daddy and James with his sword/stick


Walking next to the pond with mommy


Throwing sticks and rocks into the little stream


Spinning with Daddy at the park


"I love this thing!"
James will have to have his Daddy spin with him, Mommy gets sick!


On Sunday we went to Grandma Hiller's in Salt Lake for the morning session. In between the morning and afternoon James and Daddy built a GiAnT snowball in her backyard with the 5.5" inches of fresh, really wet, and heavy snow that fell.
Daddy and James in Grandma Hiller's backyard playing in the snow


James on the snowball, he loved sliding down it


Hmm, snow is pretty good


Cutie-petutie Jamers holding a snow-ball

Mission Reunion

The night before General Conference are usually mission reunions. Nathan served in the Melborne West Australia Mission from 2003-2005, Mandarin speaking. This year we went and it was at President and Sister Curtis's home in Murray. I love that the only picture we got has James picking his nose. Hah!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Supernal Joys of Life

Lately I have been looking into trying to "network" my blog. I don't know why. I'm not a great writer, I don't have an interesting or profound or inspirational life, and I don't feel the need to complain about everything my husband and child do. I do find joy in motherhood, I find joy in serving those around me and trying to find and lift up those who need it, and I do have the absolute cutest kid in the world though. Many may think that they do, but my James really is the cutest.



Anyway, I've read many blogs, and the common thread in most is the complaining about anything and everything, finding annoying things with motherhood, their little ones and husbands, being over busy, and wishing they still worked full time instead of enjoying the privilege of staying with their little ones full time.

Well, General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was held this first weekend in April. It is the chance for the prophet and apostles to address the members of the church at the same time. This excerpt is from the talk by Elder Richard G. Scott, a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles:

Once I learned an important lesson from my wife. I traveled extensively in my profession. I had been gone almost two weeks and returned home one Saturday morning. I had four hours before I needed to attend another meeting. I noticed that our little washing machine had broken down and my wife was washing the clothes by hand. I began to fix the machine.

Jeanene came by and said, “Rich, what are you doing?”

I said, “I’m repairing the washing machine so you don’t have to do this by hand.”

She said, “No. Go play with the children.”

I said, “I can play with the children anytime. I want to help you.”

Then she said, “Richard, please go play with the children.”

When she spoke to me that authoritatively, I obeyed.

I had a marvelous time with our children. We chased each other around and rolled in the fall leaves. Later I went to my meeting. I probably would have forgotten that experience were it not for the lesson that she wanted me to learn.

The next morning about 4:00 a.m., I was awakened as I felt two little arms around my neck, a kiss on the cheek, and these words whispered in my ear, which I will never forget: “Dad, I love you. You are my best friend.”

If you are having that kind of experience in your family, you are having one of the supernal joys of life.


That was last Sunday. James got sick on the following Wednesday night this last week. He was throwing up all night, and couldn't keep anything, not even an ounce of water, down. Of the five times he did throw up, it was all over me four of those five, including once at Walmart when I went to get pedialyte to rehydrate him. However, James has not been that snuggly since he was a little baby...and I loved it. He is a daddy's boy, and loves men more in general, but when he was sick, he wanted mommy, and wanted to be held and snuggled. I loved it, and him. It was a supernal joy. He was better by morning, not completely back to his wiggly self, and wanted to be snuggled more so that was fun for me.

James, I thought this was cute, he was watching a movie, he had already thrown up once. I sat back down with him, and he did it all over me...again

I also give kudos to myself for surviving his stomach flu without a) thinking it was really sick to be thrown up on and b) not getting sick myself.

So, my conclusion to all of these experiences is that I do not feel the need or want to complain about being a mommy. It is the best calling in the world.

Mommy and James

What were some of your favorite talks from conference?

Monday, April 4, 2011

My One Pregnancy Woe

So as far as pregnancy goes, I really do have it easy compared to most. Last time was a cinch, and I do apologize to all friends and family who read this and pregnancy wasn't easy for them. A brief lowdown of last time:
~Sleeping just fine, even up to the last day (no body pillow ever needed)
~No throwing up (except when I got some food poisoning from Aubreigh's
chicken)
~Just a little nausea at night, easily fixed with a bowl of cheerios
~Lots of energy (worked out everyday, ran and rode bike too)
~Didn't get very big belly (James was seriously straight as an arrow in me)
~Liked the bionic nose thing (good smells were 10x good, bad smells still bad)
~Baby didn't make me hot (actually I was colder than normal)
~My back hurt, but not too badly
~Didn't have any other kids to worry about
~Labor was about and hour and ten minutes in the hospital
~Cracking jokes during labor and transition (it helped me deal with the pain)
~No epidural=move legs immediately afterward

I did get a stuffy nose most of the time too, and the worst sinus infection I had ever had. Now this doesn't seem so bad to most people, but the deal is that I cannot breathe through my mouth, I feel like I'll die if forced to. Nathan just says welcome to his life with allergies. No sympathy there. Growing up mostly allergy free, I do not understand this state of being. I would try to breathe through my nose until I would feel light-headed from lack of oxygen. The sinus infection on top of the stuffy nose was so bad, I guess I annoyed the people around me in my nursing class in my feeble daily attempts to breathe. Blowing my nose sounded like an elephant trumpeting. It wasn't until during a clinical when the RN I was following suggested I called my doctor for a prescription for an antibiotic to clear it up.

It seriously never occurred to me that I could do that.

When asked by the nurse from my doctor's office why I thought I had a sinus infection, I stated that "I get at least one every year" and "because of the copious amounts of opaque green stuff coming out of my nose". I got the prescription. And I got better.

Fast forward to this pregnancy. Most of the list above is the same. I haven't thrown up, but I do have an aversion to chicken. I have gotten a bigger belly faster this time. I run around with James, and I still exercise almost everyday. My back does hurt, but the monthly chiropractic appointments totally help. And I got a sinus infection again. About a month earlier this time, but I got it all the same. How did I know again? "I get at least one every year" and "because of the ping-pong sized blob of green stuff that I just snorted and spit out"... "I'm pretty sure it is an infection". Yep. Gross. But I got the prescription. And I got better....until I met a new nemesis:

Orange blossoms. There were some in Arizona that were just opening up, letting out all of their stuffy-nose-inducing pollen. Apparently, most people get a little bit of a stuffy nose when this happens. For me, it awakened something in my nose that I loathe...stuffiness! This time it wasn't an infection, because no green stuff, just couldn't breathe. I thought that after we left AZ it would get better....not yet. My friends now-a-days are lots of tissue (I should probably invest in real tissue, and not just toilet paper which I seem to be going through a lot of on a daily basis), Sudafed, though it recently stopped working for me :(, and Afrin nasal spray, though I can't use that too often or nasal stuffiness will "recur and worsen" according to the package, and from experience.

The real remedy will be when baby number two is delivered. Until then, I look for a little sympathy for my nose from my friend.........and for more tissue.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Happy Birthday my Nathan!


Yesterday was Nathan's 27th birthday! Wow, I remember when he was 21 and we met, then he turned 22 and we were married shortly thereafter. That does mean that our five year anniversary is coming up, but I digress. Back to his day

His morning was filled with a quick ultrasound (amazingly quick, usually our appointments take an hour this was about 15 min) of which he was interested, but mostly I dragged him along to hold James. Ironically, he was doing his time sheet in the car when I went in to check in, they took me directly back to get started, and so he was able to see three minutes of our ten minute "big" ultrasound. Anyway, that's okay.

In the afternoon I took him a veggie sub from subway for lunch at work.

He got to come home a little early from work a little later that afternoon to then subsequently go on a long (40+ mile) bike ride on the warmest day so far this year. That was his choice activity, and I didn't mind so I put together our new grill we just got from our tax return and got steaks, mashed potatoes, peas, and green smoothies ready for dinner. Our neighbors Nicole and Jeremy came over too, which was very helpful as Jeremy helped me with the grill, though I must brag I did most of it myself, and Nicole helped me with James. And they brought the ice cream cake (licking lips sound inserted here).

After dinner Nathan's brother Jason and our sister-in-law Nicole came from Twin Falls since Jason is having surgery today in Salt Lake to stay here. We stayed up late reading this hilarious new blog, I seriously almost peed my pants and was rolling on the ground I was laughing so hard. And I think it was even funnier because of everyone else laughing hysterically. We had to stop because it was hurting Jason's gall bladder (what he is having removed as I type this) to laugh that hard.

So here's to my honey bun. My very hot, smarty-pants, spiritual leader, incredible provider, kind and caring daddy, generous, husband, lover, and best friend. Happy birthday!