Here's to you, Mrs. Robison

Bostonisms

2011-11-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well, sleep as of lately is improving, as far as Boston goes. He hasn't pulled another all-nighter since my last post, which is always appreciated. He usually seems to go in waves, so hopefully we are on a good-sleep wave right now and maybe we will eventually outgrow the entire shenanigan. Nevermind that Maia has taken this opportunity to start waking up at least twice a night again to eat. She started sleeping 13+ hours only waking up once around 12 weeks, which was fantastic. Oy.

Lately I keep telling myself I need to write down all the funny stuff Boston is saying. He cracks me up on a daily basis, there is never a dull (or peaceful, or relaxing) moment when he is around.

He was going potty the other day and since we have been at this for a while and he is doing pretty well, I don't usually praise him with as much gusto for a successful toilet trip. As he sat there he turned to me and said, "Mommy. Tell me good job!" So I did. He then told me somewhat sternly "Nooooow say I'm so proud of you! Come on, Mommy. Say it."

We were driving in the car the other day and he started singing Child of God, unprompted. Since he won't usually sing on command, I turned my music down so I could hear him better. He sang out, "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me....FLY LIKE BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!"

I asked Boston what he wanted for lunch the other day. "Lets go to Grandma's!" I asked why we should go to Grandma's and he replied, "Because. Grandma will give me candy for lunch." Busted, Grandma.

He loves to climb into Maia's crib in the morning and talk and play with her while I get her dressed. He was in there the other morning and I left to go to the bathroom. The bathroom is right by her room and I could hear him the entire time talking to her. "Hello, little princess! Did you sleep good, pretty lady? Huuuuuh? Did you sleep good? You're so pretty!" He talks to her in a high pitched baby voice and it is a crack up. As I came back into the room I heard him say (in the same high voice) "Okay, Maia. I'm going to jump on your head now...." Luckily I got back before he smashed her noggin into the mattress. Poor girl has a rough life ahead.

Today for lunch he asked for "a sandwich with a cheese square cooked in a pan" - I translated it to a grilled cheese.

Not really a funny saying, but something to remember - Boston is obsessed with socks right now. He changes his socks 20 times a day, and loves finding new socks to try on. He steals Maia's sock leggings constantly and takes off his pants to wear them. Printed sock that go up to his knees are by far his favorite, as seen above. He also loves any of mine or Jason's socks because he can pull them up so high.

Another favorite of his lately is going to the gas station. He asks me several times a day if it is time to go to the gas station to get our drinks yet. There is a good to excellent chance this is 100% my fault.

Please take note that this post was written at 2:30 am...

2011-11-06T01:56:00.003-07:00

Somebody....please help.

I'm going to lose my freaking mind, due to the fact that a certain 2 year old has recently decided sleeping is optional.

This kid used to be the BEST sleeper on the planet. I used to smile smugly to myself when I could lay him in his crib awake and he would lightly babble for a few minutes before drifting off to dreamland. I gave myself a little pat on the back when he transitioned seamlessly from crib to toddler bed with nearly no issues at all. I practically printed out my own blue-ribbon certificate when his bedtime routine consisted of taking him to bed, singing a few songs, telling him goodnight and leaving the room, with no worry of him getting out of bed...because he never did.

Holy mother of crap, none of that exists in my world anymore. He is terrible to get to sleep to begin with and it is becoming less and less often that he even sleeps through the night. He will wake up around 1 or 2 a.m. and stay awake until 4 or 5 a.m., regardless of what we do. He isn't waking up scared or upset (I don't think its night terrors), he wants to play, watch movies, you name it. I have tried every trick in the book and IF they work, its only once or twice and then they no workie no mo'.

Things we have tried:

--Locking his door and letting him cry it out*
--Going in his room, singing songs, reading stories, holding him, etc
--Going for a drive (a last resort that usually works. Not tonight.)
--Very small doses of Melatonin
--Giving in and letting him watch a movie
--Letting him come in our bed (augh), which never works because he is always too hyper and wants to play

*His doctor suggested this method, because he (as am I) is a very strong believer in sleep training. We have sleep trained both our kids and both responded very well. The problem with letting him cry (scream) it out now is he is a much MUCH louder screamer now and will come and repeatedly kick his door, etc. If we let him keep it up for too long he will wake Maia up, and we also live in a condo and I feel terrible that our neighbors that share a wall with his bedroom probably hate us slash are ready to call DCFS on us for neglectful parenting.

Back when we were sleep training him as a baby, we would let him cry for 10 minute intervals, go in and soothe him, let him cry for 10 minutes, etc. It was extremely effective and as I mentioned, he has been a stellar sleeper since. If I try to let him cry in intervals now and go in to calm him down every so often it only seems to aggravate him more.

I'm seriously at a loss here. I have no idea how a 2 year old can stay awake for up to 4 hours in the middle of the night. I can barely do it. He has been up for 2 1/2 hours so far (woke up at 1:15, its now 2:45 but also daylight saving time) and he is showing few signs of slowing down.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Words of encouragement?

Halloween 2011

2011-11-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

Halloween this year with Boston was a blast. He loved Trick or Treating (except that he tried to walk into EVERYONE'S house), he loved seeing all the costumes (he became awkwardly obsessed with another little boy in a Buzz Lightyear costume and stood thisclose to him screaming "BUZZ! YOU CAN FLY BUZZ! BUZZ LIGHTYEAR TO THE RESCUE! YAY!") and yet he is still has a memory of a 2 year old. Meaning I gave him 2 pieces of candy that night and put the rest away and he has no idea.

I originally wanted to dress him as a Polynesian fire dancer, but decided that in order for it to work he would have to be barefoot and bare chested, and doing that in October that might fall under the Child Abuse category.

And so, he was a greaser. Everyone thought he was Fonzie, so we'll go with that.

And Maia was a duck. The fluffiest, puffiest, cutest duck you ever did see. Boston started calling her MaiaBird and it stuck. So cute.

I'm pretty sure she saw her reflection in the lens and thought, "WTF did you do to me?" Or maybe you can submit your own caption in the comments. I laugh like a lunatic every time I look at this photo:

She was great with the headpiece all Halloween night but didn't love it so much for photos. The outtakes from this session are one of my favorite things EVER. She is either scowling, cross-eyed or looks completely baffled in most of the photos. Some a combination of the 3, which is even better.

Once we took the head piece off, she was much happier.

Potty Training

2011-11-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to form a theory/idea. For anyone who hasn't started potty training their toddler, don't. I bet that if you just never broached the topic, the social pressure would eventually be enough for a kid to potty train himself. Granted he might be, like, 15 and severely ridiculed, but I'm starting to think thats not so bad compared to the loads of pee-smelling laundry I'm washing.

Potty training sucks.

Sigh. If I'm being perfectly honest, I really shouldn't complain. It only took Boston 2-3 days to "get it" and he rarely has accidents. He is in underwear anytime he is awake (he still has a pretty wet diaper most mornings so we are sticking with diapers at night for now) but we can comfortably go out grocery shopping, to the mall, etc and he will stay dry. He is great about telling me when he needs to go unless he is playing with friends or at a park or whatever, then he needs to be reminded.

But it still sucks. I know accidents are inevitable you can't potty train without them, but MAN do I hate them. Its so frustrating to know that 95% of the time he is accident free, then randomly he will walk up to me and announce, "I PEED!" with wet pants. I have gotten into the (good) habit of always bringing him spare pants/underwear whenever we leave the house, and that has saved my soul more than once. Add to the equation that Maia poops with the force of a hurricane and is regularly found with poop spilling out of her collar, and I find myself dealing with a lot of bodily fluids on a daily basis. (For real - the girl explodes at least one diaper every. single. day.)

I know this totally falls under Sucky Things We Signed Up For When We Decided To Breed. I know its only going to be a small blip in life and soon I won't even remember how obnoxious it was. I think I just need to start reminding myself of that every time I start the washer (AGAIN) filled with tiny little monster-truck undies.

Random thoughts

2011-11-02T13:49:00.003-07:00

There really is no point to this post, other than to get out some random things bouncing around in my head lately.

--Throughout October I was really wanting to change my ringtone to "This is Halloween" because I just love it. Only, I kept forgetting and putting off downloading it. Imagine my surprise when the day after Halloween I discovered I had downloaded it last year and made it into a ringtone. I was bummed for about 3 seconds before deciding that whose business is it of anyone's if I have a spooky ringtone after the Eve of Hallows? It will likely stay set as my ringtone until Christmas, when it will change to something Grinch-related. I appreciate any calls that allow me to listen to it.

--Chick Fil A is such a freaking mommy hang out, and it drives me nuts. This is possibly the most hypocritical opinion that I own, being as that I go around noon to take my kid to play like every other mom in Utah County. GAH its just so crowded, but I can't resist the excellent service, decent food and a play area that is completely enclosed so I can send B in there and ~~ignore him~~ decompress for a few minutes.

--Potty training sucks. Not much more to say about it.

--I might be swearing off Facebook until December. Its only November 2 and I am sick to death of hearing what everyone is thankful for*. Not that I think this isn't a good practice, or that you shouldn't take the time to think of things you are grateful for, but my feed is clogged with thankfulness and I'm really more of a "If you're thankful and you know good for you (clap clap)" kind of girl. Meaning, I would rather ponder on the blessings of my life with myself instead of shouting it from the rooftop for all of facebook to see.

--Don't you hate it when you forget to turn your Redbox? I mean, Bridesmaids made me laugh and all, but it wasn't really $16-and-I-don't-even-own-it good.

--Can we talk about the service at Chick Fil A again? Man. The employees are so helpful and nice. Having my drink refilled while I wait at my table, bringing me mints and any other item I might need while dining? I guess its no wonder its a madhouse. There is something to be said about getting better service at a fast-food restaurant than many higher-end restaurants.

Hmm. I think this turned into more of a therapy venting session. Thanks for listening. I feel better now, don't you?

*I know a lot of you are doing this, and don't feel like you have to stop because of me and my grinchy opinions. Be grateful for whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want. Just don't be offended if I hide everyone from my feed until Dec 1. :)

Maia's Nursery

2011-10-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

First off, I have to say that its possible I am a psychic mother who foretold her children's personalities simply in the design of their rooms

OR

The decor of the room of a tiny little infant who doesn't even sleep in it yet let alone care about the color palette has the power to shape and mold them into the humans they are to become

OR

a child's room has no impact on their personality whatsoever and I'm delusional and should stop trying to make things out of nothing.

One of those.

Regardless, if you will recall, Boston's room was (is) decorated in lime green, black and white with pops of orange. Prints are all polka dots and stripes. (I don't think I ever actually blogged his entire room. Shame. You can get an idea of it here.) (Or you can just be facebook friends with me, because I document things much better on there, apparently.) Anyway, its a loud, fun, bright, crazy room and I seriously love every inch of it. Its just so him. (Loud. Fun. Crazy. If a room could be described as exhausting maybe it's a little of that too.)

When I started designing Maia's room in my head, I wanted something much more calm, cool, and peaceful. (You see where I'm going with this, right?! PSYCHIC!)

I ended up going with a color palette of grey, pink and tangerine orange. I used owls in several areas of decorating as well.

Its funny...because as much as I LOVE Boston's room...I LOVE Maia's just as much. It is just as much her as his is him. I love the clean simplicity of it all, the bright whites and fun pinks, and cute little owls.

Bedding was made by me, using the Moda Sunkissed fabric line.
Owl pillow in bed as well as owls on shelf: Pier 1
Frames and knick knacks on shelf and dresser: IKEA, Hobby Lobby, Target
Rocking chair, curtain panels: IKEA
Tree murals painted by me
Name frames: IKEA shadowbox frames with scrapbook paper, letters of her name etched into glass
Prints above dresser: Trendography Prints, the empty frame will have a birth stats collage when I get around to making it
Pink Bench: Homegoods
Dresser: KSL Classifieds, sanded down and painted white

Maia - 4 months (and some change...)

2011-10-12T22:43:00.001-07:00

Awwww. Baby Maia. I'm going to try to document all the wonderful wonderfuls about this little lady in the 4 months since she joined our family.

Maia is sweet, smiley, calm, curious, bright eyed and overall the happiest little baby ever. I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father knew the personality Boston would pack, so he set aside this little darling as a reward for keeping all parties alive so far.

At her appointment this week, she weighed in at 13 lbs. She is in the 5th percentile for height and head size and 20th for weight. Just a little thing, and she is perfect that way! She started smiling around 8 weeks and hasn't stopped since. She gives huge, gummy smiles to anyone who will look at her. Sometimes she gets so overwhelmed with the HAPPINESS and EMOTION of it all that her entire body starts to shake and her face looks like it might break from smiling.

She can roll from front to back and back to front, but still has a look of "WHAT THE CRAP JUST HAPPENED?!" every time she does it. She has started scooting around the floor while on her back, and today after her nap I found her in the opposite end of her crib, facing the opposite direction of how I put her down.

She still has barely any peach fuzz to speak of, but I am happy to report her super insane widows peak indent seems to be filling in. Until she decides to grow some hair we will be rockin' the headband look.

She is an amazing sleeper, sleeping around 13+ hours a night, waking up once to eat. She loves her naps and has taken to sleep training incredibly well.

Boston still does great with her. Really amazing...considering how wild he is in most aspects of his life, he is very sweet and gentle with her. He calls her his "little lady" and loves to talk to her in the morning when she wakes up. He always talks to her in a very high-pitched voice, "Good morning, widdle wady! Did you sweep well? huuuuuh? did you? You're so pretty!" It melts my heart every time.

She fits so well into our family. Its so funny to see how opposite she is from Boston already, I can't wait to see if it changes as she gets older. We you so, SO much little lady!

2011-09-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Now that I've finished reliving the good, the bad and the very very ugly, I can finally get around to posting about other things, I have one more post of photos in So. Carolina coming up, and then we can all move on to the super exciting topic of My Daily Life. There I will thrill you with tales of timeouts, potty training and how I got so lucky as to have the World's Calmest, Most Chillaxed Baby on the planet. (And if you think I'm talking about Boston, you clearly need to read back a few posts...)

The One Where All The Bad Happened

2011-09-28T00:21:00.000-07:00

So, right. Flying with kids and stuff. I have started to come to the realization that despite any and all planning; despite trying to foresee problems, tantrums and triggers; despite all of it - - -I am still the mother of a 2 year old. And a very spirited two year old at that. There are going to be times when the perfect storm of tiredness, overstimulation, and the Terrible Two's join forces to change my child from his usual funny, happy self to a demon in need of a serious exorcism.

You can probably tell by this point that the flight home from South Carolina did not go well.

To start the story, we had woken up that morning around 7 am. Not terribly early, but earlier than his usual routine. (I should also mention that while Boston averages 11-12 hours of sleep a night with a 2 hour nap, during the trip he whittled that down to 5-7 hours of sleep a night and no nap. awesome.) We got everything packed, loaded the cars and we were off. We spent a few hours shopping before leaving Myrtle Beach and making the drive to the Charleston airport.

The first flight Boston did fairly well. He whined a little about wearing his seatbelt, but was distracted easily enough that nobody got hurt. We ended up waiting in the Chicago airport for a little over 2 hours due to a delayed flight, which gave him the chance to run around, expel some energy, and eat.

The flight into SLC started off fine. A little while after takeoff we could tell he was starting to get tired and fidgety, so we tucked his blanket around him, turned off the lights above us, and started a movie on the tablet. He was calming down and really starting to get sleepy. The flight attendant stopped by to get our drink orders, where we ordered Boston an apple juice.

A few minutes later she returned with our drinks. She handed me mine. She handed Jason his. She went to hand Boston his, but instead bumped the tray. A cupful of icy apple juice landed directly on Boston's head, sending ice cubes and apple juice all over him. She gasped and made a semi-lunge to catch the falling cup, wherein she spilled the rest of the conents on her tray (more apple juice, more ice, and soda) all over Jason, me, Boston, and the feet of the row behind us.

Ya'll. Do you know what happens to an almost-asleep 2 year old when doused with icy juice? Have you ever tried to baptize a cat in an ice bucket? Imagine, if you will, that 2 year old clawing his way up and out of his seat, wild eyed, half screaming, half crying, all in all losing his ever loving mind. Not to mention everything within a 3 foot radius is also cold, wet and quickly becoming very sticky.

Jason and I jumped into action to try to bring some semblance of order back to our row before people started throwing holy water on the demonic being occupying seat 14F. I pulled out Boston's spare clothing bag and started undressing him, while ice cubes are falling out of his diaper and apple juice is still dripping off his chin. He was still in a state of WTF JUST HAPPENED?! and did not appreciate my trying to get him out of wet clothes. Jason was literally holding his arms and legs down while I tried to force clothing onto them. He was screaming that he wanted his blankie - which I gave to him - then re-freaking when he realized it, too, was freezing cold and saturated.

I'm going to interject the story here to share one fatal error made on my part. I have gotten into the habit of using salesmen, clerks, waitresses, and FLIGHT ATTENDANTS as a sort of threat to keep Boston behaving appropriately in public. He is very much in the "leery of strangers" phase and I completely use this to my advantage. It is not rare for me to threaten, "You better sit down or that cashier is going to be very mad!" or "Oh no! Hurry and buckle your seatbelt or that lady (flight attendant) is going to take you away and you will be in trouble!" I had used this several times on all flights on this trip, so he probably didn't have the greatest opinion of the otherwise very nice flight attendants.

Back to the story. She felt awful for spilling on us and kept reappearing at the most inopportune times to apologize profusely and ask if there was anything she could do to help. At one point we had gotten Boston's crying down to a whiny whimper and were trying to talk him into sitting back down to watch his movie again. She came back with a beaming smile saying, "I know how I can help! I'll take him with me and we will walk around the plane and see all the cool things while you guys get situated!" Putting her brilliant plan into action, she reached down and picked Boston up by the arms.

I'm sure you can deduce by now why the backstory of the Evil Flight Attendants was necessary. That child lost his shit so fast she probably thought she electrocuted him with merely her touch. He was in full on meltdown mode. Screaming, crying, clawing, kicking, you name it. Jason and I sat there with him shrieking and flailing between us, mouths agape, staring at each other in horror. His freak out of course woke up Maia, who was dead asleep through most the debacle. She started screaming to match him, and life as we know it ended.

Long story long, he eventually did stop trying to kill everyone around him and fell into a fitful, whimpery sleep. He woke up several times throughout the remainder of the flight (it was probably around 10 pm when The Evil started, we landed around 12?) crying and we would have to calm him back down.

People that I told the story to in the days following asked how long the actual tantrum lasted and honestly - I have no idea. It was so horrible, so loud, so cold and wet and embarrassing that I literally had zero concept of the time that elapsed. I know he sat (ha. flopped. flailed? exploded?) there screaming bloody murder for what felt like FOREVER after she tried to pick him up.

You know when you have a really bad experience, and you talk about it and moan over it and swear that it was so awful you will NEVER forget how terrible it all was....and then a few months later you somehow convince yourself that it really wasn't *that* bad and you could probably do it all again if you had to, and maybe you're even somehow grateful for the experience because it made you a better/stronger person?

Nope. Not this time.

Flying with Babies, Part II

2011-08-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

AHHHHH, we're home. Back to routine, back to sleeping normal, back to bone dry, breathable air. The vacation was awesome, we all had a great time. The weather was perfect, the ocean was beautiful and I really think Charleston might be one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

I'll recap the vacation in the next few posts, but figured I better share how the actual traveling part went while the details--both the good and the very, very bad--are fresh in my mind.

1. Snacks.

The Innobaby snack containers were (and are!) in a word, awesome. I used them for church this last Sunday, and I anticipate us using them a lot in the future. The fact that I bought these so long ago and never bothered to use them until now really bums me out--they seriously rock. The cups hold the perfect portion size, plus it gives Boston options for a snack. The cold snacks stayed nice and cool in the bottle cooler with ice pack. Star rating: 5

2. Toys.
Obviously, Boston needed things to occupy him on the plane. Packing his backpack with his stuff worked really well, mostly because it kept all his crap centralized and out of my bag.
I don't really think the wrapped toys were a big deal to him. Rather, I don't think wrapping the toys made a difference. He was really excited to have new stuff to play with, so that part was definitely good for keeping his attention, but the actual wrapping paper part I probably won't do again until he is a little older. I think he is still a little young to grasp the concept of gifts, so the wrapping paper really only added extra garbage I had to throw away.
The ABC cards were fine too--nothing spectacular, but they kept his attention for a bit. He liked looking at the different pictures and naming things he knew, but I wouldn't say they were groundbreaking. I'm not too worried about his lack of enthusiasm for them. I plan on pulling them out pretty frequently to help him start learning letters, so they're more of a long-term activity to me.
The tablet was a life saver. He played lots of games and watched plenty of movies. It also ended up being our saving grace to be able to turn on a movie when he was having trouble settling down and going to sleep in a new place.
Star ratings--
Wrapped toys: 3 1/2
ABC Book: 3
Tablet: 5

3. Carseats.
Checking the carseats worked well, something I would definitely do again. Lugging Boston's huge seat through the airport and on and off the plane would have been hell. Maia is still small enough that holding her the entire flight is no big deal. We double bagged both seats in heavy-duty garbage bags to keep them from getting too dirty, but Southwest ended up having huge bags available as well. I've read horror stories of carseats coming back broken and filthy, but ours were fine. The bags were a little torn up (as expected) but thats what they were there for. Star Rating: 4 1/2

4. Mei Tai/sleepy wrap.
Surprisingly I didn't use the wrap as much in the airport as I anticipated. I knew I couldn't keep her tied to me through security and as we boarded the plane, but I planned on wearing her the rest of the time. Once we got through security and had to repack bags, put our shoes back on, etc I didn't see a point of tying Maia back on me for a 5-minute walk to our gate. I just held her as we walked, which worked fine. Same thing when we got off the plane. I will admit probably the biggest reason I ended up not using it as much was because we had so many people with us. Between Jason, my dad and my siblings, I had plenty of help in carrying bags and babies. I imagine if I were to ever travel with both kids alone I would utilize the wraps much much more. (I did use the wrap plenty during the actual vacation. Anytime we went shopping, sightseeing, etc she was tied to me.)
Star Rating: 2

5. CARES system
Overall, I think this was a pretty cool thing. It was easy to use, quick to take on and off at the beginning/end of the flights, and one of the pilots actually made a comment about how great he thinks they are. I also I think the design of it helped Boston feel more like he was in a carseat.
My original thought was that it would help prevent him from taking his seatbelt off. It did for almost the entire flight out there--he figured out how to unbuckle it close to the end of the flight. The flight home was kind of a different story. He remembered how to take it off, so if we didn't keep him occupied he would try to escape. Keeping a blanket over his lap also helped keep it 'out of sight, out of mind.'
Star Rating: 4, because it cost me less than $15 to try out. I'm not sold on it enough yet to pay full price, but it was worth renting.

6. Extra Clothes
You guys, if there is anything to take away from this post......this. is. it. Packing a change of clothes ended up being the best decision I made the entire trip. We used Maia's spare outfit the day after we got there when she had a blow-out of such proportions, it was squeezing through er armpits and oozing into her hair. I'm going to save the story of Boston's outfit change for its own post, as it is something that will likely require a few more therapy sessions before I can write freely about it. Packing the extra clothing was so simple and took up only a little space, and I will never travel without doing it. If you don't end up needing it, no sweat. If you do, you will thank the heavens above you have it.
Star Rating: 10,000

7. Clothing style
I don't know if this actually needs a recap, as it is mostly my own warped rantings. Is it a coincidence that Boston was dressed very well for the plane ride out and his good behavior quite exceeded my expectations.....yet when I just let him wear whatever on the flight home we were all enveloped into the Seventh Circle of Hell? Maybe. Maybe not. The story for the flight home is where his change of clothing comes in, so once I work through all my Feelings and stop getting the shakes just thinking about it I will share with you.

And there is the recap. I have been trying to think if I could come up with a list of things I wish I had done, or would do differently, but I can honestly say that 90% of the traveling went as well as I could have hoped. I fully acknowledge that we were lucky to have so much family with us as it made things infinitely easier. Anyone who has traveled alone with small children has a special place in heaven set aside for them. And it comes with all the Diet Coke you can drink, and a free babysitter.

Flying with Babies, Part I

2011-08-11T20:47:00.007-07:00

In 5 hours I will wake my babies up, pack them, 4 suitcases, 2 car seats, 1 stroller, myself and the husband in the car, drive to the airport, and make the 7 hour trip to South Carolina for a week of sun and beach. (Whose idea was it anyway to book a 6 am flight anyway? Mine? Oh. I guess when I booked it I was thinking, "getting up at 6 am isn't so bad..." well, duh.)

Now, for those of you who don't know Boston in the flesh, let me paint you a picture. Imagine a squirrel. In a room of shiny objects and mirrors. Who just drank 3 shots of espresso. He talks really well, and is possibly smarter than you. Oh, you have a new little baby squirrel you have to keep alive, too. (Who, to be fair, is actually a quite calm, laid back little thing, something you really think you have earned after the first described squirrel)

Now imagine you are to confine them both to a seat for 7 hours, keep them happy, fed, hydrated, and well-behaved. This, my friends, has been on my mind for the last 3 months.

I have put hours and hours of thought, preparation and planning into this 7 hour time frame. I have made lists, scoured the internets, and have possibly driven myself slightly nutty trying to prepare for every possible scenario. (ha.)

(ha ha.)

(ha ha ha.)

And so now, dear reader, I share with you my plans for tomorrow. My idea is to blog the plans I have made and the things I intend to do while travelling. When we get back I'll update you all on what worked, what didn't, and what was such a major flop of failure that I was left sobbing in Terminal 2, Concourse B.

1. Snacks. Boston is definitely a snack-motivated child. (Possibly common of 2 year olds.) While I know and embrace the fact the he can be bribed into good behavior, I also recognize that it isn't very prudent of me to think that "HERE! HAVE A SUCKER! Now, fruit snacks! Aren't you HAPPY? No no no, don't be loud or obnoxious on the plane, here have CANDY! MORE!" and then expect him to sit quietly and, well, behave is a little irrational. And so:

I have made good attempt to make his snacking options somewhat healthy, filling, and least likely to induce a sugar high. I also didn't want my diaper bag to be full of ziplock baggies of stuff that would just end up crushed into powder, smushed into goo, and all smeared over everything. I bought these Innobaby stackable snack containers months ago from Baby Steals and had yet to use them, so I thought this would be the perfect time! They hold around 1/3 cup of product, you can stack as many or few as you need, and have interchangeable lids. I have one of "dry" snacks --raisins, goldfish, pretzels, cereal and mini marshmallows. I also made one of cold snacks - cheese cubes, olives, and grapes. The cold container fits perfectly into a bottle thermos with a small ice pack.

On top of these I have a small bag of other snackable items - fruit leather, applesauce (have you seen these? We loooove them), peanut butter-on wheat crackers, etc. He also has a sandwich packed in his backpack.

2. Toys. One suggestion I kept finding was to buy a few small, dollar store toys, wrap them up and let him play with them as a new and exciting thing.

Done and done. Small dinosaurs, a motorcycle, stickers, etc. Plus a new Mickey Mouse coloring book and crayons. All of these items are in his own backpack, along with diapers and wipes, a sippie, and a few other essentials. The plan is that he will carry his own backpack, but we'll see how long that lasts.

Last week a friend of mine was hosting a craft night where everyone could just bring whatever they wanted to work on and have a kid-free night of crafting. I didn't have any current projects so I decided to make Boston an ABC book for the plane. Despite a few setbacks and cosmetic flaws, I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

We also bought a Viewsonic G-Tab a few months back. Boston already loves it, and frequently asks to play his games. Its also loaded with several movies. (This will also come in handy for the drives we will make between Myrtle Beach and Charleston)

3. Carseats. We have decided to check both car seats, to reduce the amount of items we have to carry to and from the gate. I went back and forth on this for a while, but hopefully this works out. Boston's car seat is very bulky and heavy, and carrying Maia in her is heavy enough, plus it makes it very difficult to carry anything else in that arm. (plus we didn't but her a ticket)

4. Mei Tai wrap. Since Maia is a lap-rider and we won't have her car seat, I'm planning on wearing her pretty often. Definitely through the airport to our gate, again after landing to get luggage, and probably fairly often during the vacation itself. She loves being in any sort of sling or wrap, and it gives me both hands to deal with other things. I can also carry Boston on my hip while wearing her if I absolutely have to. (Short distances.) Another reason for this is we didn't want to lug our Sit 'n Stand stroller around, so we are only taking a small umbrella stroller for Boston to use occasionally.

5. CARES system. Since Boston won't be in a carseat on the plane, my main concerned was him getting out of the airplane seatbelt. I don't anticipate it taking long for him to figure it out, and once he does keeping him sitting will be the biggest challenge. Enter this:

It's a CARES seatbelt system, specifically for planes. It hooks around the back of his seat, then clips across his chest, much like his car seat straps. I'm really hoping the familiar look will help him understand that just as we don't unbuckle in the car, we don't do it on a plane. They are crazy 'spensive, and unless you fly often I don't know if the cost is justifiable. We rented ours from a seller on Ebay for 12.99.

6. Extra clothes. I'm really hoping I don't have to use this one, but I have packed in the diaper bag an extra full set of clothing for each kid. Blowouts, major spills, etc - we're prepared!

7. Clothing style. This might make you all judge me a little (a lot), but both kids are being dressed in nice, coordinating, planned and ironed outfits. If you know me at all, you know that few things drive me more crazy that children who look unkempt. I take a lot (possibly too much?) pride in how my kids look. Not only do I think it reflects on me as a mother, I honestly believe that people are more forgiving of slightly obnoxious 2 year old behavior when said 2 year old is clean, matched, and looks put together. A snotty-faced, bed-headed, dirty play-clothed child having a tantrum is a lot harder for me to accept. This might be a last-ditch effort that despite my planning, he likely will have a small meltdown or two and hopefully people will be a little more understanding of that. (Read: He might be acting naughty, but damn he is cute....and that makes it a little better) Again, you might call me crazy, but I never said I wasn't.

Whew! On top of all these, I have my diaper bag packed with the essentials. I'm really hoping the plane ride goes smooth, and we all emerge on the East Coast with limbs and sanity intact.

Now I'm going to go catch a few (very few) zzzz's, as my 5 hours is now 3 1/2 hours, and if I thought this trip might be hard to begin with, just imagine it with a sleep-deprived, less-than-fully-functioning mama. Oy.

...and 3 becomes 4...

2011-07-26T08:00:00.002-07:00

Maia was born May 26, 2011. She arrived at 3:00 pm, weighing 5 lbs 14 oz, 17 inches long. The story:

I had been having pretty regular contractions for a few weeks and was very eager for my 36 week check up, where I would find out if I was progressing at all. Turns out I was dilated to a 3 and 85% effaced....wahoo! My doctor knew that Boston had been born early and after checking me and discussing my contractions, made the prediction that she would be born before my 37 week appointment. This was great news to me as A) We had family coming into town that weekend and it would be awesome if she could arrive while they were here, B) Jason's work schedule was such that it would allow him several days home with us without actually having to use vacation time and C) I was 36 weeks pregnant and reeeeaaady to be done.

We joked that Friday would be the ideal day for her to arrive. My friends, if her birth is any indication of her future obedience, raising her shall be a dream. My contractions really started to pick up early Friday morning (around 1 am). I couldn't sleep through them, so I went to watch TV and time them. (Side note: I passed the time catching up on "16 and Pregnant" episodes. Funny.) They were pretty consistently 1 minute long and 4 minutes apart. At this point with Boston, we packed up the bags and headed to the hospital. Determined to not spend ALL DAY in the hospital again, I decided to wait it out until I was for sure this was it and until the contractions got more painful.

I was supposed to work that morning at 8. By 6 am the contractions were still 4 minutes apart, but were hardly painful at all. I showered and got dressed, still pretty sure this was "it" but also feeling very stubborn about the fact that I wanted to wait until I was far enough along that I wouldn't be stuck bored all day in a hospital bed. Off to work I went!

When I got to work I told my coworkers that I was most likely in labor and I wasn't sure how long I would stay. I'm fairly certain they all thought I was insane. By this time the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart, around 90 seconds long and getting more painful. I definitely had to stop what I was doing to breathe through them, but I still didn't think they were too bad. Maybe a 4- 5 on a pain scale?

Fast forward 2 hours, about 10 am. By this time the pain had picked up. I was on a 911 call when one hit, and had to ask my friend to take over the call....I was asking the caller questions but couldn't even think about what their answers meant. I left work about 10:30, picked up Ashley on my way home, and decided to get my stuff together and head to the hospital.

By the time we got to the hospital it was around 11:30. My contractions were 2 minutes apart, and although they hurt some, I still don't think it was worse than a 5. (I had my epidural pretty early with Boston, so I never experienced the toe-curling, scream-like-you-mean it contractions and I was--curious?-- to see how bad it would get.) We got to labor and delivery and after telling the nurse "I think I'm in labor?", she took one look at me, gave a slight eye roll and asked me to wait in the waiting area because they didn't have a triage room available just yet. She very clearly did not think I was.

Jokes on her! When they finally got around to putting me in a triage room, I was dilated to a 7 and fully effaced! The nurse got a little flustered and asked if I was dying and if I wanted my epidural now. I told her I could wait until I got admitted into a regular room. I don't mean to brag or make light of contractions....but I really was surprised at how easily I was handling them. I kind of even thought, "this is it?? I can do this!" Looking back I sort of kinda almost think I could have done the entire labor natural, but I didn't. And I definitely don't regret the nap and comfort the epidural gave me, so there you go.

I got settled, epidural'd, and kicked back to relax. Jason, Sam and my mom were there, and Jason's family got into town from St. George soon after.

I napped.
Sam kept warm.

This is my nurse, Cheri. She was the most amazing nurse ever...I want to keep her forever so she can be there with any future children I may birth. She was funny, laid back, intelligent, and gets most of the credit for me having an easy, relaxed, calm birth experience. She let me take the lead on how and when I wanted things done, offered opinions when asked, joked and laughed with my family, and really just set the tone foe the entire day.
By 2:45 I was dilated to a 10! Cherie told me I could start pushing whenever I felt like it. (Did I mention I love her?) I told her I didn't push long with Boston so she called my doctor in and we were off!

After 10 minutes of pushing, Maia was born healthy, happy and covered in goo. Jason cut the cord, congrats were said, and my doctor was gone! Maia was checked over and found to be in great shape, given back to me. (Fun side note: Both Boston and Maia were born on the exact day of gestational age, 36 weeks and 4 days.)

I cuddled with her for a bit, then Jason went with her to the nursery to get cleaned up while I got ready to move into my room. Cherie was waiting with a frosty cold Diet Coke. (By this point you should not need any more proof that she is the best nurse EVER)

Boston came by later that day and met his new baby sister.

He decided to keep her.
And thats that! I really can't describe how fast, calm and...dare I say...easy this entire labor was? I wouldn't change a thing about it. In comparison, Boston's birth seemed much more chaotic. There were tons of medical personnel in the room--technically if the baby is born prior to 37 weeks, the respiratory team and other high-risk people are supposed to be there. Cherie may or may not have 'forgotten' to call them since I was very close to 37 weeks. Having only my family, 2 nurses and my doctor there was so much more personal and intimate. (Lets also not forget the moron nurse I had with Boston, who also contributed to the feeling of chaos) This time, I felt in control and prepared. Everything fell into place, and the whole room was just a feeling of relaxation.

We are so happy to be a family of 4, Maia has fit seamlessly in from the first second and Boston is a very proud brother who loves to tell people about his Baby Maia.

She Lives!

2011-07-24T22:19:00.006-07:00

Wow. So, whats it been, like...a year a half? Yeah. About that. I don't really have any excuses other than I just, well, stopped blogging. So there you have that. Lets move on, shall we?

I had pretty much given up on blogging once I got so far behind. It seemed like I couldn't just pick up where I left off, considering things in our lives were changing so fast and to catch up would just be overwhelming. But then a few weeks ago I was wondering about something from when Boston was a baby, and lo and behold, I had blogged about it! It was so easy to just clicky click to that month and find what I was looking for, and in doing so I re-read a bunch of posts where I had written information I never would have remembered otherwise. So, here we are again, attempting to create some sort of documentation of our daily lives and my daily musings.

Lets begin.

In the past year and a half:

Boston grew into a 2 year old. He walks, he talks, (he talks back) he runs, he sings, he yells, sometimes he sleeps and he generally keeps us extremely busy with his busyness.

Jason got a new job, and now works at the Kennecott Copper Mine. He currently works in the concentrator and loves everything about it. He works long hours and has a long commute, but its a great job with an amazing company and has been a major blessing for our family. He hopes to work there for a long, long time!

We have another baby! Maia Le Robison was born May 26, 2010. Much more coming on her later, but suffice to say we are in love with her.
We are still in the same house. We are definitely ready for a move, but the market is sucktastic so here we sit. For now.

Anyway. Those are the main highlights. I'm happy to be back, and hopefully stick to it this time. You, in the meantime, get to look forward to Maia's birth story, an upcoming vacation where we will be shlepping both kids on multiple flights across the country (God save us all), my random thoughts in general, and daily hilarity of raising a 2 year old with a baby in tow. Aren't you lucky?!

belly laughs

2009-11-04T20:54:00.003-07:00

Well since I cant get Aubrey to blog about our little man I am doing my first blog ever...I recorded Boston the other night doing some belly laughs and I wanted to share it with people cause it brought such a smile to my face. Ignore my laughs and listen to Boston. He is such a blessing in our lives and is such a happy little boy. Boston daddy loves you...

The rest of the summer....

2009-08-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

Now that we are (mostly) caught up, I'm going to finish out the rest of our summer happenings in one post. Aren't you lucky.

We blessed Boston on July 5, 2009. It was a great day with friends and family, and Boston looked like the cutest 2 month old Mormon tennis player ever. (I didn't want to go the white satin tux route, so he had a cute little knit outfit.) Somehow I didn't manage to get a single photo. I might see if he still fits into the outfit and snap a few this week. Nobody will ever have to know....

Boston has tried his hand at swimming! He hated it the first time, didn't like it the second time, and was irritated the third time...but by the third time he decided it wasn't so bad. He loves it now, and will lay on his back to float, splash around and even let me dunk him under!
Plus, he looks like the cutest little fattie in his swim suit!

First haircut....(he has had another since!)

He hated it...

Played in the sun

And learned to SMILE!

He also sat in a bumbo for the first time and LOVED it!

Robison Family Reunion

2009-08-24T22:53:00.000-07:00

We spent a weekend in Beaver with the Robison Family as a last little HURRAH before Wes, Trish and Jaiden jet off to an exciting new life in Italy. The cabin was HUGE and we had a blast spending time with everyone.

We played a bunch of team games outside. Potato launches, string golf, and a clothing relay!

We also had a big competition where we had to build bridges out of popcicle sticks and glue.
While the adults played, Grandma got all the cuddling time she could ask for :)
Jaiden and Boston got to hang out for the first time. Jaiden liked to make sure Boston always had his binky (whether he wanted it or not!) and would hold it in so he couldn't spit it out.The last night, we got back into our teams and played Project Runway using various random household items. The outfits turned out AWESOME...especially Coy's. Have you ever seen a better pimp? I doubt it.
After the cabin, we spent a few days in St. George to celebrate the 24th. It was a nice getaway, and great to have (almost) the entire Robison family together--the last time for 4 years!

Fun With Nora

2009-08-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

We were so lucky to have Nora come spend an entire 3 weeks with us! Nora is a friend of mine from Germany. She lived with us for a year in high school as an exchange student and we have been like sisters since. I have visited her in Germany a few times and she has come here. We are hopefully planning a trip out there sometime next year. (Remember Jason's citizenship? Key player here.)

We had so much fun hanging out with her! We spent a weekend in Beaver at a cabin with Jason's family (separate post), spent a weekend in Park City for Nora's birthday, spent lots of time at the pool, and spent a lot of time hanging out on the couch watching movies! (typical for us....)

and just for good measure...

Having a conversation with Aunt Sammy

Boston - 4 Months

2009-08-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Boston,

How is it possibly I have a 4 month old? I can hardly believe time is passing so quickly. It seems like yesterday you were just a tiny little thing with your baby bird squawk and your wrinkly, loose skin! You are so much fun to play with now, Daddy and I love all your little personality quirks coming out.

You have become quite the happy baby. You smile and talk to us all the time. You love to spend time under your play gym and kick your little legs until they don't kick anymore. (Funny side note: you kick your right leg more, so it has one less thigh-roll than your left) Speaking of rolls, you definitely have your fair share! Arm rolls, leg rolls, a double chin...the chubby baby works, and I love to kiss it all.

You discovered your hands a few weeks ago, and it is all I can do to keep them away from your face. Try as I might to keep your nails as short as I can, you still find a way to scratch your poor little nose and forehead to shreds. When you're not scratching, your hands have taken up permanent residence in your mouth. You love to suck and chew on your hands, my hands, daddy's hands, or anyone else's you can grab. You often break the silence of a car drive or nap time with very loud slurps of your hands.
Even though you are generally a very happy kid, you do not hesitate to let us know if you disagree with something we are doing. Whether it be trying to feed you before you are ready, playing in your face for too long or not wrapping you up just right for your nap, you have already learned the "scream". You know the one...you aren't actually crying, just a quick outburst of a scream to let me know you are mad? I never thought I would have to tell my baby "no" so early! :)

You are an excellent little sleeper, during the day and at night, and for that I thank you. Also, thanks for being cool with it when you are ready to get up before me, and I ignore you and let you play and talk to yourself for a little while. Mama needs her beauty sleep sometimes.

We went to your 4 month check up the other day. You are growing great, and are a healthy, strong little boy. You weigh 13 lbs 10 oz, and are 24 inches long. (Despite the fact that you are quite the little chub, you are still a little small for your age, in the 20th percentile.)

We gave you a taste of rice cereal on your 4-month birthday. You looked at us like we were crazy. (Can't say I blame you, I can't imagine it tastes good!) We will keep trying, and maybe one day you can eat something a little tastier!

I love you, Mister Magoo. I can't imagine a life without you, you are my world.

Love,
Mama

Obviously this was a while ago

2009-08-20T21:05:00.004-07:00

Yeah, this was early in the summer. Made obvious by the fact that my baby is still wee in these photos, and today he sat next to a 1 week old which made it blatantly clear to me that he is now a huge man child and will probably go on his first date soon.

Sigh.

Anyway, Jason finally got his citizenship*! Yay! We got to go to a (kinda long, pretty boring) swearing in ceremony where he took an oath and became all official. I kind felt like a jerk, cuz there were so many people in tears, celebrating their long hard journey to citizenship and I was all, yeah, we just want to go on a cruise, and maybe to Europe, and it would be great if Jason can get back in the country after the trip.

(funny side note, there was one guy who stood up and tearfully gave thanks about his citizenship, and said it meant so much to him because now he could finally realize his dream of becoming a firefighter. I wonder if it would bum him out to know that Jas has been a firefighter for 8 years, sans citizenship?)

Anyway, we are happy its done with, and I'm going to encourage anyone who applies to citizenship to fill out the right form the first time, because if you don't it will delay you mucho long and probably make you lose $500 to the government. (Even if it was their fault you filled out the wrong form to begin with.)

*This does not in any way mean you have to stop making racist Mexican jokes. Heaven knows I won't.

Needed!!

2009-07-02T21:21:00.004-07:00

Anyone out there have a tartlet pan they can part with for a day?

I am in last-minute need and my favorite cooking stores are letting me down.

If you have one, live in or near Utah County (or Salt Lake County) and are willing to help a sista out, let me know. i'll come pick it up wherever you are! Let me know by commenting or texting me at 318-1842.

(I need it asap...Friday afternoonish at the latest? Either kind of pan shown above would work!!)

No more Google Reader right before bed

2009-06-16T08:52:00.002-07:00

Last night I had an entire dream set in NYC, narrated by and in the blog style of (NO) sex and the city. Choppy sentences, random people, and I think there may have even been a Bachelorette recap in there somewhere.

Anyone out there feel like interpreting that one for me*?

*(If your answer is I read too many blogs, you're probably right)

Crib Sleeper

2009-06-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

No, he is not sleeping through the night yet, thanks for asking. (Although his Dr. thinks giving him prevacid is going to help him sleep longer at night than he has been. Fingers crossed.)

He still sleeps in a bassinet in our room for now, but he naps in his here during the day. These are photos of his very first time sleeping in his crib, he looked so tiny in there!

Fire Training

2009-06-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

These are a few weeks old, but they sort of goes along with this post. Also: really cute.

(I would like to note that photos like this do not come without consequence....such as poop in my fire helmet. Which I needed to wear a few days later. thanks, dude.)

On May 2 we had a big fire training at an old house next to where we live. The house had been donated by the family who had moved out a while back. Since early spring we had been training inside the house.

Training included smoking the house up, breaching walls, and emergency rappelling off a balcony

This is Mindi and Annalee, my two female firefighting partners in crime

On the Burn Day training, smaller fires were lit inside the house. We had to go in as teams to practice live fire detection and extinguishment.

Once we were done with the training part, we lit the entire house on fire and watched it burn to the ground. Sound boring? It totally wasn't!

It didn't take long...

Oh, and the baby? He just hung out in the engine, content as could be! (we did have some very willing and helpful firefighters wives tending to his every need :)

8 weeks!

2009-06-10T09:15:00.007-07:00

I know its totally cliche, but WOW I cant believe it has been 8 weeks already! Time is flying by, and we are trying to enjoy every second of it.
Boston decided to really learn how to work and use his lungs starting about 6 1/2 weeks. My mom and I took Ashley to St. George for a girls (plus baby) weekend of shopping and hanging out for her graduation. We had a ton of fun, but Boston was pretty fussy, especially at night. I chalked it up to disruption of his schedule/surroundings and hoped for better once we got home.

"Better" has been about 2 weeks coming now! He stayed fussy, sometimes crying most of the night or day, with very few things to calm him down. We though it is colic, so we had been trying all sorts of things to help his tummy. Gripe water seemed to work for a few days, but then not so much. Our doctor recommended a very small dose of sugar water occasionally, which actually did help him calm down enough to sleep the few times we tried it. Putting him in his carseat and letting him hang out on the dryer while it ran also worked pretty well.

We went to the doctor today for his 2 month checkup. He rang in at 10 lbs 9 oz and 22 inches long. His doctor is fairly certain all his crying may be due to acid reflux. We noticed the last couple days that he was spitting up more and getting very upset after eating. He is now on prevacid which should hopefully help things. He was an absolute trooper for his shots, he only cried during the needle stick and was happy as a clam by the time the bandaid was on. He is currently sleeping and has been for most of the day. Poor little guy :)

Other than that, we are just having fun playing, cuddling, and enjoying every bit of him! He started smiling about 2 weeks ago, it is darling. I have yet to catch a photo of one (they are still a little sporatic) but I will definitely keep trying. He loves his bath time, loves to look around (he has been holding his head up since around 5 weeks and does not like to be held laying down unless he is going to sleep. He wants to always be looking around, its a lot of fun.)

I try to take photos of him as often as I can. He is changing so much every day! He has finally started to chunk out, he has some nice rolls forming on his arms and legs, and he is about to burst out of his newborn sized diapers. (we WILL finish that package though, dangit!)

Boston's First Photo Shoot

2009-04-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

(This post is a little out of order, but oh well. enjoy anyway)

Poor kid, he better get used to the sound of a shutter! He wasn't even 24 hours old before he had his first mini photo shoot, right there in the hospital room.

All packed up and ready to go home!

One Week Old

2009-04-27T13:00:00.001-07:00

Dear Boston,

You turned one week old last Friday. I would have written this then, but you have given your sleep-deprived mama and daddy an exciting week! Even though it has been an adjustment, we love everything about you. From your thick dark hair to your curly little toes, we love sitting and watching and marveling at you. You have had lots of visitors this week. So many friends and family have stopped by to see you and help us out.

We were sure you were going to be a big baby. (hello, have you seen your daddy?) When you were a tiny 6 pounds, we had to send grandma to the store to buy a new outfit to bring you home in! The newborn size we bought was way too big, you ended up in premie clothing. We had to go buy more clothes for you because nothing we bought was going to fit for a few weeks.

Because you decided to arrive a few weeks early, you had a little bit of jaundice. Your doctor decided to put you on Bili lights when you were 3 days old. You weren't a fan at first, but you quickly got used to it and slept like a champ every time we put you in there. As long as you were dry and fed, no problems! I think it was a lot harder for us to put you in than it was for you to be in there. You ended up needing to stay in all week, and we are now so excited to hold and cuddle with you anytime we want. (Even though you made an adorable little glow worm)

(you were also a very brave little boy when you had to get your heels pricked over and over.)

You have given your mama quite the time with breastfeeding. You fought and fought with me all week, and FINALLY started to get it on your one week birthday. Once you got it, you were all, hey, no big! Check me out, breastfeeding and all!
I tried to tell you all week it wasn't hard. Is this the early showings of a stubborn streak, perhaps?

Little Miss Mollie has had to adjust having you home too. She growled at you when we walked in the door. She moped for a few days. She seemed just as frustrated as we were when you screamed your way through an hour and a half feeding at 4 am. She is doing much better now, and I'm sure you two will become fast friends once you get a little bigger. For now, we are concentrating on not allowing her to eat your face when you have a little lunch leftover on your chin.

Aunt Sammy and I broke the bili lights rule and took you out to take some photos of you at 5 days old. You behaved perfectly, allowing us to squish you into all sorts of positions. You stayed asleep through the whole thing! I hope this is a trend, cuz mama has some big plans for this week. You need some photos with our fire gear, and I ordered a sweet little hat in the same green that seems to represent YOU all over the house. Plan on having a camera lens in your face for a good portion of your life, baby.

One of my favorite things about you so far is your Warning Squawk. Before you cry, you send out an ear-piercing, shrill, baby-bird squawk. You might do it once, you might do it twice, but it always means that something needs to be fixed or else you will cry. Overall you are a very happy baby and even your cry usually is very mild, so we don't mind much. It sure is adorable though.

We love you, baby. We love getting to know you. We love everything about you. Happy first week, we can't wait for the rest!

Love,
Mama

Happy Birth Day

2009-04-26T12:58:00.023-07:00

Last Thursday night I was sitting at Anne's looking through her ever-expanding collection of Every Day Food Magazine. After an impromptu deep freezer purchase, we had decided to make a bunch of freezer meals to use after I had the baby, and just throughout the upcoming weeks. I had felt great all day, but I had an instant feeling of nausea. It came on really suddenly and I ended up going home about 10 minutes later because I felt so sick.

Once I got home, I was still really sick and started throwing up. I threw up a few times, tried to eat a few things to settle my stomach, and threw up more. We decided to just go to bed and hope that I felt better in the morning.

I didn't sleep well from about 11:30 till 2 am. I was awake enough to know that I didn't feel good and that I was having contractions, but I was too sleepy to get up or do anything. (plus, I had been having pretty strong contractions for a good week so that part didn't really phase me.)

At about 2 am I decided to get up and walk around a little. I went out to the living room, walked around, facebooked, read blogs....you name it. The contractions seemed to be more frequent than what I was used to, so I decided to start timing them. I found a cool contraction timer online and sat on the couch timing them for about an hour and a half. They were about 3 minutes apart.

At 4 am I decided to go wake Jason up to time the contractions with me. I walked around for another hour and by this point the contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and stronger. We decided to go to the hospital to get checked. I showered, Jason packed bags (despite all of your awesome advice, I had yet to pack a single thing...) and we were on our way!

We got to the hospital about 6 am. After visiting with my dad in the ER for a few minutes, we made our way up to L&D. they checked me and said I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced. (I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced on Tues at my doctors appointment.) They said they would watch me for an hour and if I made any more progress they would admit me.

They checked me again at 7:15 and said I had made a little progress. I was now a 3+ and still 90% effaced. They called my doctor who said to go ahead and admit me (woot!)
After checking in, we called and started letting people know where we were. Jason's parents (along with his brother and family, who just happened to be in town from South Carolina) started the drive up from St. George, with strict instructions that the baby MUST wait until they arrived around noon.

Lots of family and a few close friends hung out with us all day in the hospital.

They hung out. They ate. I ate popcicles and drank water.

Anne showed up with these aahhhhhhmazing donuts from Beyond Glaze. I got to look at them, and know they were just as tasty as they looked. (and eventually got to eat one many hours later)

I texted, blogged, facebooked, and really just tried to pass the time!

I had 2 nurses in L&D. One was awesome, fun, helpful and overall a great nurse. The other was from a hospital in Richfield. Apparently they don't get much OB action in Richfield, so their nurses come here to brush up on their skills. The trainee girl I got was horrible!! She gave me possibly the worst IV ever (Jason and I had to actually talk her through how to hook it up and draw my blood. Seriously?!) Then, I was given Penicillin because my strep-B test hasn't come back from the doctor a few days before. The Good Nurse warned me it stings a little in the IV, so they kept the dose pretty low. The Incompetent Nurse came in a little later and didn't know how to adjust the dosage and ended up opening the line up ALL THE WAY. I had searing pain shooting up my arm, it was like battery acid flowing through my veins. I yelled that she needed to turn it down, which she finally did once she figured out how. GAH!

By 9:30 I still had not made any more progress and the contractions had started to die down a lot. The doctor said I couldn't have an epidural until I hit a 4 and threatened to send me home if I didn't make progress sometime soon. (um yeah, I was SO NOT going home at this point.) I asked to be unhooked so I could walk around a little. By "walk around" I actually meant that once all hospital staff was out of my room, I jogged in place, did lunges, and stair-stepped on the back of my hospital bed for a good hour. It started the contractions up a little, but they still weren't as strong as they had been that morning...but it was okay!! The doctor checked again and I was now dilated to a 4 and ready for an epidural, yay!

The epidural was not near as bad as I thought it would be. A little sting from the local anesthetic, a tiny bit of pressure and cold, and done! I could still move my legs (this becomes a key point in the story later) but I had no contraction pain and generally felt great.

I was dilated to a 4 for.ev.ver.

forever.

really really long time.

no progress made.

2 hours later? yup, still a 4.

2 hours after that. 4. still. no. changes.

They ended up breaking my water around 1:15. The only I will say about my catheter is that Incompetent Nurse did it and was really, well, incompetent about the whole thing. And it hurt later when my epidural wore off.

Yeah, it wore off. Remember how I could move my legs the entire time? Apparently that can either mean The Perfect Epidural or, 'oh wait its not in right and we have to do it again.' Mine was obviously the latter. I started feeling everything below my hip bones (still numb to contractions though. Thank goodness for small miracles) so they called a second anesthetist in to re-do the epi. He did a great job and ten minutes later I couldn't have wiggled my pinkie toe if you paid me.

Oh, and during all this? Yeah, still a 4.

FINALLY around 4:20 they gave me Pitocin to hurry things along, and hurry they did. I went from a 4 to an 8 in 20 minutes! After that it was smooth sailing. I was a 10 at 6:30. the doctor wanted me to rest at a 10 for thirty minutes and said I could start pushing at 7.

The nurse came in and had me start pushing with each contraction. She told me to rest in between because it usually take an hour or two for a first time mom. After about 2 pushes there was no way I could do that for 2 hours, so Boston and I decided we were going to do things a little quicker. 10 minutes later he was ready to say hello, so the nurse went to get to doctor.

Oh, wait. He went home. So, stop pushing till he gets back, k?

I wanted to kill the nurse. And the doctor. WHO GOES HOME?! Also, about not pushing? Not possible. It's just not. It took him a few minutes to get back but we soon saw him sprinting into the building. Once he got to my room it was like a pit crew at a Nascar race. GOWN! HAT! GLOVES! BED! GO!

About 30 seconds later, the best thing that ever happened to Jason and I arrived!!!

He was a little early so they had to check his lungs and everything before I could see him. Everything checked out great, he was a healthy 6 lbs 9 oz and 18 inches long.

I absolutely love this photo...the proud daddy!

Welcome to the world, baby Boston! We love you so much!!

Introducing...

2009-04-22T19:52:00.010-07:00

Boston Kai Robison

April 17, 2009
6 lbs 9 oz
18 inches long
7:14 pm

We are doing great at home! Thank you to everyone for all the well wishes, meals, support and love.

I'll post more about the big debut later. For now I have some serious cuddling to do with a seriously cute boy.

We had a little photo session with him today. Editing still needs to happen, but in the meantime...

I think I'm in love.

Ready or Not...

2009-04-17T07:24:00.003-07:00

...here he comes!

We're checked in, registered, and waiting! Contractions started about 2 am, we came to the hospital at 6, admitted at 7:30. We'll update as much as possible....

Full Term

2009-04-15T05:45:00.004-07:00

Well, we have made it to 37 weeks, full term! I'm feeling huge, uncomfortable, clumsy and it is really hard to move effectively! Despite the uncomfortables, I am so excited and amazed at how everything has gone. Other than a few painful bumps along the way (very few, really) this has been a great pregnancy and I really don't have a lot to complain about!

I went to the doctor yesterday, I am 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. He said chances are highly unlikely I will make it to my due date (!!!), especially because of all the contractions I am having, all day long. This was great news to me....I'm ready for this kid to come out as long as he is healthy and ready to go! My guess is I will have him by next Saturday, the 25th. Anyone else want to venture a guess? Date, weight, etc? (If you say 13 pounds I might delete your comment, fair warning.)

Even though I am super excited he might be coming so soon, it has been a little bit of a reality check. Sort of like, um, crap. We are going to have a kid soon. What now?! I'm feeling excited, overwhelmed, nervous, happy, prepared and yet so completely not prepared. Its like I spent so much time preparing for and reading about the pregnancy part that the actual RAISING A BABY part...and the fact that our lives are about to make a huge change forever...got a little back-burnered. I think (hope) it comes with the territory.

Anyway, in an attempt to take baby steps into feeling more prepared for the next part, I wanted to ask all your advice on hospital prep/packing. What did you take with you that you totally didn't use/need? What did you send your husband home to get? Anything that would have made the stay easier/more convenient/more pleasant? Anything you would (or did) completely change the second time around? As long as your advice has nothing to do with me getting as much sleep as I can these last few weeks, I'm open to anything!

Definitions

2009-04-14T07:10:00.003-07:00

Self Control:
-When your co-worker brings in strawberry pie for everyone, and despite all your wants and wishes, you don't put the whipped cream can to your mouth and go to town.

Less Self Control:
-When an entire sleeve of thin mints is polished off by you and a friend before 7 am.

How's your morning shaping up so far?

Help me, internets!

2009-04-09T06:09:00.004-07:00

I need a little help/advice from everyone.

Samantha and I have a wedding coming up at the beginning of May. Due to the possibility that one of us may be in labor around the same time (and the couple purchased a wedding package that includes 2 photographers), we are bringing in a photographer from Virginia to shoot the wedding with Sam. (She rocks too. Check her out here) She is a friend we met at a photog convention last year, and we are so excited for her to come!

She will be staying a little extra time* to take in all the sights, sounds and smells that Utah has to offer. She has never been to Utah or anywhere near here really. We want to show her a good time, but we are drawing a few blanks about where to go/what to do.

Here's where you come in.

Leave a comment with your favorite Utah 'thing'. It can be a pastime, restaurant, shopping, tourist attraction, etc. Something that is home in Utah, that someone staying here a few days would find interesting. We want as MANY ideas as we can get, so even if you're a crazy blog stalker who has never commented before, do it now!

So far, we have on our list that she needs to try fry sauce, she will learn the correct usage for "heck", and if she is reeeaaalllly lucky, maybe we'll swing by the BYU bookstore or something.

help!

*It's not a lot of extra time, so it's probably best to keep ideas centered around Utah-Salt Lake counties. Something like a week-long hike in Zions probably won't work. Aaaaaand we wouldn't do it anyway.

Me too, little buddy

2009-04-07T06:10:00.004-07:00

I have never claimed to be much of a history buff. I don't pride myself in being able to recite the constitution by heart, I can't name a single Civil War general, and who exactly did we or did we not get along with during WWI?

Well, whatever. What I do know is I now know exactly what a certain Dr. MLK was talkin' about when he proclaimed, "I HAVE A DREAM!"

I'm guessing he was 9 months pregnant, and had been suffering from a super crappy cold for over a week. He had coughed both lungs up, had a splitting headache, runny/stuffy nose, sneezing, the works. I also bet he was suffering various pains from pregnancy, including (but not limited to) a pelvic bone that was all but splitting in two. Oh and also? He had an eye infection and has been stuck without contacts for the last two days.

I'm guessing all of this lead our good friend Martin to get verrrry little sleep as of late. Tossing and turning, waking up to rollover from one achy hip to the other, to blow his nose, to cough, only to lie awake for hours after. He was probably so sick of not sleeping that he had resorted to huffily storming out to the couch to try and sleep there, if not only for the change of scenery.

Then, one night, something miraculous happened. Though he still coughed occasionally, his hips didn't ache as bad. The headache was gone. The eyedrops started to work, and lo and behond, there was air flowing through his nostrils once again. He slept so good, in fact, that he was finally able to once again achieve deep enough sleep that HE ACTUALLY DREAMED.

I totally get it, man.

Post Secret

2009-04-07T05:37:00.015-07:00

Last week Jason, Sam and I all took a nice little road trip to Logan to see the PostSecret event. It was held at Sam's old stomping grounds, USU.

We got dinner beforehand at a deeeeelish little place called Cafe Sabor. It was awesome mexican food...some of the best I have had in a while.

The salsa was soooo good. It was all warm and roasted-y and delicious. Jason didn't like it, but he is kind of a salsa snob.

As delicious as our food was, the service was a little strange. We ordered our meals, and the waitress brought out our drinks and salsa. She then immediately brought over 3 wrapped up fresh, warm tortillas. She quickly explained that they were to go with Jason's meal. We figured that meant we were getting FAST service, woo hoo!!

or, not.

It took 15-20 more minutes for our food to arrive, all the while the fresh tortillas just sat there. She seemed so rushed to get them to us, with no food.

All of us posing with the really random tortillas.

AAAND the food. Huge burritos, steak tacos, yummmmm.

This photo for size-reference on burrito.

After dinner, we made our way to USU. We got awesome parking right next to the building, and front row seats!

One of Jason's (several) failed attempts to catch a photo of Frank Warren, the founder of Post Secret.

If you have never read Post Secret before, you should! Frank started it as more of an art project a few years ago, when he sent out blank postcards and asked people to mail their secrets back. It has since gone worldwide, with hundreds of secrets sent every day.

Frank posts secrets every Sunday on the blog. Some are depressing, some are funny, some are eye-opening. He has also published hundreds of secrets in several different books. If you ever get a chance to go to one of these events, you should. (Provided it is close. 2 hours was a long drive, and while I don't regret going, I don't think that I would drive that far to see it again.)
Frank talks about how Post Secret got started, some of his own secrets, the impact it has made, etc. The mindset behind it is if you keep your secrets, you can never move past them, and never grow from them. You need to tell your secrets to someone, even if it is completely anonymous.

Things You Are No Longer Allowed to Say to Me,

2009-04-01T07:34:00.006-07:00

... at Least Not for the Next 5 Weeks or Until Such Time as this Blessed Child Decides to Exit my Blessed Womb and Make His Appearance in this Blessed World

--Sleep while you can! (this doesn't even make sense. Unless you have discovered a hole in the universe that now makes it possible to bank unnecessary sleeping hours for later use. Or if you can cure my hip/pelvic pain so as to make it possible for me to sleep in the first place. If not, shut it.)

--Wow, you are sooo (Large/Small) for being 35 weeks pregnant! (actually, you can say small. Just not large.)

--Aww, do you have a cold? (If by "cold" you are asking if I have sneezed 15 times every day since 2 cells met up in my uterus and decided to start dividing, yes.)

--You're going to just hate it when you have to go back to work! (I know. Thanks.)

--Is it cold in here? (no. its freaking hot. I don't care that it is snowing outside. Do you see the beds of sweat on my brow? Something must be wrong with you if you think its anything less than sweltering.)

--You're eating AGAIN!? (mainly for Jason's reference. It was only said once, but rest assured, it should never be said again.)

--You're looking pregnant! (obviously!)

This list is sure to grow over the next while, so feel free to keep checking back.

*Feel free to replace "Blessed" with other words of your choice

Vita-mix me, baby

2009-04-01T06:58:00.006-07:00

I wish I was artistic and/or creative. If I was, I would write a long flowery poem about this awesome machine. I would lovingly list the many many fresh fruits and veggies I have had the pleasure of eating over the last 2 weeks. I would describe the amazingly fast chopping, mixing, heating, blending, and the many other verbs it accomplishes in seconds.

Alas, no such poem will be found here. I can tell you, however, that never has a better $400 been spent on a kitchen appliance. I have used this thing almost every single day at least once, sometimes two and three times.

Every morning I start off with a fruit smoothie. It easily packs all my servings of fruit and at least one serving of veggies, all before 6 am. (I work early....being functional at this ungodly hour is not by choice)

We have also made 2 different soups, several kinds of ice cream, fruit sorbet, and many more items to be tried. Is there anything the Vita-Mix can't do?!

(well, yes. It cannot take a bunch of ingredients that don't go together and make tasty ice cream. see below. This was attempt #1 at ice cream, but we decided to ignore the recipe book and make it up. I don't recommend this until you are more familiar with your ingredients....)

Other than our verrrrry iffy "ice cream", I have yet to encounter a recipe that isn't a hit. There was a debatable vegetable soup puree incident that Anne made (in her matching Vita-Mix!) . . . .it ended up with a 1 thumb up, 3 thumbs down vote. I happened to be the thumbs up, but some say my taste was altered due to pregnancy. Whatever.

Expect to read more about this in the future. This week I am trying another soup recipe. I love how easy and fast everything I have made so far is, and how delish. and fresh. and healthy. (We're talking 0 grams of fat, 90 calories per serving ICE CREAM here, folks!)
Thank you, kind of pushy Costco Vita-Mix Demonstrator lady. You rock my world.

Because I know you think I'm slacking,

2009-03-19T20:17:00.002-07:00

This is not me falling off the blog-wagon again. I have had a really long week of work and training. I'll be back next week.

Dear John Q. Public,

2009-03-11T07:24:00.003-07:00

It would be helpful for me if you could take note of a few minor things today:

--If your underage friend is 'hypothetically' drunk, but was just 'hypothetically' stabbed, yes, officers are going to come over. And paramedics. Even if you try to assure me this is only a 'hypothetical' situation and you just want to know if your friend would get an alcohol ticket.

--Reporting a street light that hasn't come one for 2 days in your neighborhood is not a 911 situation

--Neither is your missing dog

--Neither is wanting to know if your scumbag ex-boyfriend has warrants or not

--Come to think of it, if there is not blood, flames, weapons, or immediate danger to yours or someone else's life, it is NOT a 911 situation.

--Do you remember 10 seconds ago, when YOU called ME? Voluntarily? Ok. Good. Since nobody forced you to dial this number and you are likely calling to ask for help with something, maybe lets not start out the conversation by you screaming at me.

--If you steal a car, and later it gets impounded because an officer finds it in your parking lot and sees that it is stolen, probably it is not a good idea to call 911 to report the car that you stole, stolen.

--Please Please Please Please stop letting your baby play with your cell phone. Yes, it rings through to 911. No, it is not cute or funny that your baby did that, and it is not amusing to me when I call you back. (this part isn't just me whining. This really is huge problem, it frequently ties up 911 lines so people with real emergencies cannot get through. )

--If I ask you your address, ALL I need to know at this point is your address. I don't need to know what your sisters husbands mom did five years ago to piss you off which has resulted in years of family feuding and thats why you punched your father yesterday. Juuuust your address.

--I can make peace with some people not knowing their license plates. There is no excuse to not know the color and type of vehicle you are currently driving. When I ask you the color, I am looking for one of the following: red, blue, green, black, white, yellow, purple, orange, silver, etc. "Graphite charcoal" is gray. "Mystic amethyst" is purple. Tan is a perfectly good word if your car is a "silvery brownish almond color". If you tell me your car looks like "a silver car, sitting under a very green tree with the sun filtering the green down" I am going to call it light green and then make fun of you when I hang up the phone.

--You locked your keys in your car. You did not lock them out of your car. If you had, you wouldn't need our help today, would you?

Whew, I think thats all for now. Thanks for your time!

(It's 9 am. I have been at work for 3 hours. Anyone want to venture a guess on how its going this morning?)

Priorities

2009-03-10T11:56:00.003-07:00

You know your priorities in life are changing when fresh produce for a screamin' deal makes your week.

Fellow Utah County-ers: have you been here?

Man. Every Wednesday they have their double-ad day, where the sale prices from the previous week and the upcoming week both apply.

I've gotten some amazingly delicious fresh fruit and veggies for way cheaper than any of my local grocery store prices. Strawberries, melons, apples, pears, asparagus, avocados, potatoes, onions...you name it. And they are delish. And they give rainchecks if they run out. And I love them. (Not the rainchecks, necessarily. The people, and the store.)

We have been trying to eat healthy(ier) around here lately, and this is really helping the effort. Now all I need is this bad boy and I'll be all set. Anne, tell your anniversary to hurry up!

.666666667%

2009-03-10T06:46:00.003-07:00

There are a lot of weird questions people ask you when you are pregnant. Things you would (hopefully) never dream of asking a non-pregnant person.

So, do you have stretch marks yet?

Are you constipated?

Do your knees/hips/ankes/joints feel loose and wobbly? Mine felt like Jello!

So, are your insides just one big bruise?

Retaining water sucks. Are you super bloated?

Then there is the all-encompassing, "How are you feeling?" When I used to ask my pregnant friends/coworkers this (because I thought it was the polite thing to do), the really general, vague answers used to bother me a little. "I'm good." "I'm fine," always accompanied by a polite smile.

It wasn't until I got pregnant that I learned that you are asked this questions approximately 5-10 times daily, so there is a reason not much thought it put into the answer. (also? If I do give you more than "fine" and tell you about my achy hips, my acid reflux or my calf cramps, please do not give me The Look with The Eyebrows and The Knowing Smile and tell me to "just wait" or start listing all the horrible things that I have not yet experienced but will soon. not helpful. or nice.)

Anyway, I have gotten used to all the strange and prodding questions. Truth be told, I usually don't even mind them. Last week, though, Sam and I were shopping at a baby boutique and I got one of the weirdest questions I have been asked so far.

The sales girl was making small talk about my pregnancy, and asked how far along I was. I told her just over 30 weeks.

"So, you're about 2/3 of the way done, then?"

blink blink. erm.

(quick math, quick math)

"No, I'm 3/4 of the way done. I guess."

She smiled and went back to folding her stack of baby clothing. Hi, you work in a baby store. You should probably know that we do not measure pregnancy in fractions. Or decimals. And to ask a pregnant woman to convert how far along she is into anything other than weeks or months is not nice. Our brains are functioning at a lower capacity, and you should be glad mine worked out to be such an easy fraction or I would have just stood there staring at you, finally answering with "I don't know" and it would have been super awkward and I would have felt dumb and you probably never would have realized that YOU were the dumb one.

Anyway, if anyone is keeping score, I have about 60 days left, which is about .2143 percent of my pregnancy left. Anyone want to convert that to a fraction for me?

Perinatologist

2009-03-06T22:38:00.003-07:00

We went to the perinatologist on Wednesday and got great news!! He said he is only seeing one echogenic foci now, and it is in the left side. He checked and measured everything and said everything looks right on schedule, Boston looks perfectly healthy and there is nothing to worry about. He also said for now he sees no reason for us to have any further ultrasounds to monitor the foci or for Boston to be evaluated by a specialist after birth. YAY!

Boston currently weighs just over 3 lbs and still has his legs stetched out and crossed at the ankles. You would think with the significantly less amount of space he has compared to then he would start to scrunch up a little, but apparently not. So far his stretched out feet haven't caused any pain or problems, but his little butt is permanantly shoved into my right rib. It is usually only mildly uncomfortable until he wiggles and catches my rib just right.

I decided 30 weeks is the morph from "completely enjoying pregnancy" to the beginings of physical discomfort. I can't bend over to pick anything up without an audible "oomph!", getting off the couch is harder and harder, I have to change my sitting position frequently to accomodate squirmy limbs and sore hips, and I am overall starting to feel very pregnant. Its crazy to think I only have 9 weeks left...it seems like a long time when I think about May but I know it is going to fly by.

I won't call this "What happens in Vegas" because thats chiche....

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

Warning: this post is going to have a lot of photos. a lot.

Sam, Anne and I spent the first weekend in February partying it up in Vegas. We found our flights a few weeks before for suuuper cheap, so we booked without really planning and set off for a weekend of shopping, food and fun!

Can you guess who has the short legs of the group??

We rented a super awesome puddle jumper chevy cobalt to cruise around town in. You may think we went with an economy car to save on cash, but due to the fact that none of us are 25 yet...it still ended up costing a small fortune. Stupid $25/day fee!

After an awesome brunch at In n Out (coming soon to an Orem, American Fork and Draper near you...holla!) we set out to find our hotel and plan the days activities.

We spent the rest of the day shopping...shopping, and more shopping. We hit up SO many stores, I'm pretty sure Boston is set for next winter. I got sweatshirts, pants, shirts, a super nice coat, and plenty of other stuff for next to nothing! (Now here's to hoping he somewhere in the vicinity of 12 month clothing next winter....)

Pop Quiz: You are walking from a parking garage to a mall. You park on the bottom level of the parking garage. Your options are

a. walk across the street from you car to the mall

b. take the parking garage elevator up one level, walk across the walkway bridge, take the elevator on the other side back down to the first level, walk into the mall.

Sad to admit, option A didn't even occur to us. We went with option B. sigh.

We had dinner at Cheesecake Factory....with no wait! Hello, awesomeness.

The next morning we went to the Village Buffet at Paris. It is so yummy, we ended up going two mornings in a row :) (I told you this trip was about shopping and food!)

They have so much to choose from, and lots of European foods that I haven't eaten in a long time! We took our time and savored everything.

I bet you can't guess what we did after eating. Yeah...more shopping. We hit the stores hard for a few hours and returned to our hotels looking like drowned homeless girls. (it was raining, and none of us had showered yet...)

We got ourselves cleaned up and hit up the Mac Pro store to get our makeup done for the night. Sadly, no photos of that part, but we did look smashing!

Next it was dinner at the Bellagio buffet and Cirque de Soileil's Zumanity. (Which, erm, I don't recommend unless you are in the mood for nakedness. Lots of nakedness. Nakedness not known to us beforehand...)

YUM....creme brulee, chocolate raspberry pie thing, key lime tart, The Best Cheesecake You Have Ever Eaten.

After the show, we headed back to our hotel room and took some old-style photos. When you get your makeup done by professionals, you need proof!

It ended up being quite the late night, we didn't go to bed till around 3 am. It made for an early morning, but we had a few hours to kill before our plane left. We made one last shopping stop (Sam and Anne got killer deals at the Banana Republic outlet...pregnant people need not try on their clothing) then got a quick treat from the amazing Jean-Philippe Patisserie before speeding to the airport in hopes of not missing our flight. (We didn't, but it took very fast walking and some super speedy bag rearranging--we bought a lot and our bags were over the weight limit!)

BYE, vegas!

Feliz Cumpleanos, Senor Jason!

2009-03-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

(disclaimer: you kind of have to know us to "get" this post. Racial slurs are part of daily life in the Robison house, due to Jason's family having adopted children from every corner of the world. Black, Asian, Mexican, white, Mayan Indian...you name it, they make fun of each other So we really aren't racist, which is so not obvious by what I am about to write .)

Jason had his big 3-0 birthday last month, so I knew we needed to do something special to celebrate. Anne and I planned a surprise party for him, and decided the only appropriate theme could be Most Offensive Mexican Party Ever.

The party store did not disappoint! We decked out our clubhouse in all things red, white and green, put Mexican flags everywhere, had several pinatas, and even found this little gem:

Its not a great photo, but its a big center piece that looks like a red, white and green firework with mexican flags shooting out all over. It. Was. Awesome.

What Offensive Mexican Party would be complete without candles?!

We also played a rousing game of "Pin the Stereotypical Item On The Mexican" - among the items to be pinned were a sombrero, a mustache, tequila bottle and a taco.

We had an awesome dinner of carne asada tacos, homemade avocado salsa, corn and black bean pie and chips. We made Bakerella's Fire & Ice Cupcakes, which were a big fat flop. I don't know if I used the wrong kind of chili powder (I used what she listed...) but they were HOT! This coming from a girl who can handle her spices, too. It way overpowered the chocolate, nobody was too big of a fan.

Anne and I were masters of the grill and grilled the steak by ourselves! We may or may not have also broken the grill in the process. (When I say broken I really mean the wheel freaking fell off when we tried to move it 2 inches. not our fault)

We had a great time!

Mindi & Kevin Andy & Emily

Anne, Jason & Hazen

Miss Mollie

2009-02-28T18:00:00.001-07:00

3 months ago, a phone call between my mom and I...

Mom: Hi! So, there is a girl at my work, who has a reeaaallly cute puppy. She is super cute and a really good dog, but the girl has a skin allergy to her and can't keep her anymore.

Me: oh. ok.

Mom: So, I was thinking that you guys should adopt her! She is so cute.

Me: Yeah, no. We don't really want a dog right now. We are having a baby, remember?

Mom: Weelllllll I think you should take her anyway. She is just tiny, a mini poodle shih-tzu mix. She is all black.

Me: nah. We are gone a lot. And the whole baby thing.

Mom: Yeah....well I kind of already told them you want her. So when can I bring her over?!?!

Sigh. We agreed to let my mom bring her over and we would look at her and see what we thought. The family that couldn't keep her was going to give us her and all her stuff for free. I was pretty set on not keeping her.

AWWWWWWWWW!!!! After one look at her, and watching her run around and play with us, we were smitten. We named her Mollie and she has been the best thing to happen to us! (Erm, except for our real baby, who is still on the way. But Mollie is pretty great too.)

She is the best behaved dog I have ever owned. She is playful and fun, great with kids (Anne and I often allow her to babysit Hazen in the playroom when we hang out...see here and here.) loves to cuddle, came to us completely potty trained and is hypo allergenic! She has such a cute personality, we can't imagine life without her now.

This is her sweater and leg warmers set. Tell me you could see a set of puppy leg warmers and not buy them, please. She has a few outfits and doesn't hate them. We had a really cute christmas t-shirt for her, and after her baths she would go find her shirt wherever we left it and bring it to us. awww. A girl with fashion sense!

(she does get a little "drowned rat" looking during bathtime...)

I am a little worried about jealousy issues when Boston gets here (she already gets a little jealous when I spend too much time on the computer...she will come lay across the keyboard until I pay attention to her...) but I think it will be okay. We'll see. We might need Hazen to babysit her for a few weeks until she gets used to the idea that she is not the only baby in the house anymore!

Echogenic Foci

2009-02-26T08:22:00.003-07:00

We had another ultrasound yesterday at the doctors office. When we had our 20 week appointment, they saw 2 small spots on Boston's heart. They are called Echogenic Foci, which are small spots of calcium in the heart.

When we first found out, the doctor told us this sometimes could be an indicator of Downs Syndrome, but also that lots of babies have these foci with absolutely no problems. He said having them increases the risk of Downs Syndrome by less than 1% and it was nothing we should worry about. He also said most of the time they go away on their own and nothing more is ever an issue with them. We scheduled a second ultrasound to check the progress, which is the one we had yesterday.

It looks like now there may be a third spot in the heart, or one they missed the first time. Our doctor is sending us to a Perinatologist to get a more focused ultrasound and see if they can tell anything more.

The good news: There are no other abnormalities found and other than the foci, it looks like Boston is a perfectly healthy little boy. (There are usually more abnormalities in Downs Syndrome babies that are more obvious on an ultrasound) Because I am only 22, the chances of Downs are significantly lower, even with the presence of these foci. Our doctor says he still is not too concerned about it, but would just feel more comfortable with the second opinion of a specialist.

The blah news: Having three foci is slightly more concerning than just one. Also, if the foci were only in the left ventricle of the heart, it would be even less concerning, but one of Bostons is in the right ventricle as well. Again, not necessarily significant, but its just another concern.

Anyone out there ever have an ultrasound with echogenic foci? Or know of anyone that has? Either way, we have our appointment with the specialist next Wednesday so we should hopefully know more then. We are trying to stay positive and have faith that everything is going to be just fine. Deep down, we both really feel like it will be, but there is always that concern. We would appreciate any prayers or happy thoughts sent our way!

The nursery continued...

2009-02-25T07:53:00.007-07:00

It took me forever to pick out a crib I liked. Before we were set on colors, I changed my mind from white to black to cherry to dark brown...Jason was about ready to kill me. I finally found a crib I decided I loved and off we went with decorating ideas.

We had to special order the crib from Babies R Us beacuse they didn't have any in-store. We also got a killer deal on it, so I was super excited.

Ha. Or so I thought.

To make a realllllly long (several hours at Babies R Us, days of waiting, and one long drive to Ogden) story short, the warehouse had sent the wrong crib to the store, and then discontinued the crib we had bought. It took a bunch of phone calls and a few days of patience, but the awesome Babies R Us manager ended up finding us the crib we were supposed to have in Ogden. We didn't want to wait longer for it to be shipped to us, so we drove there to pick it up and got a gift card for our troubles. (Hello, free crib mattress and changing pad!)

It took about 20 minutes to get it all set up, and it was totally worth the wait!!

Jason and I spent last weekend in St. George with his parents. His mom is awesome when it comes to all things sewing. I am very proud to say we got all the bedding sewn in 2 days without a single tear or swear word! (one or the other -or both- happens within 5 minutes of me trying to sew on my own. every time.)

His mom was a HUGE help, and the bedding turned out exactly how I pictured it. I wish I had taken photos of us sewing all weekend, but I didn't. So here is the finished product...

I wanted everything about the bedding and nursery to be very modern. I didn't like any of the babyish pastel stuff I kept finding. (even though my mom's argument was, "but he IS a baby!!" every time I brought this up...)

I still am working on the other 2 walls of the room, so I'll post photos as soon as those are finished. I'm so happy with how its shaping up so far!

30 Weeks

2009-02-25T07:18:00.014-07:00

You know how sometimes your face just looks super chubby in photos and you really hope its not that fat in real life and its just an unfortunate angle?

Thats kinda how I feel about posting this photo today. BUT, in the grand scheme of keeping up with the blog and documenting what is left of this pregnancy, here is Boston and me at 30 weeks:

(note: the flash is obviously not doing me any favors. My shirt is not, in fact, see-through today)

Things are still just going swimmingly. Other than a few minor inconveniences like leg cramps, swelling and feeling overall clumsy and bumbling, there isn't much I can complain about pregnancy. I was never sick, which rocked. Now if I can just get through the next 10 weeks of this kid flopping around inside of me like an acrobatic fish!

We are thisclose to being done with the nursery as well. Painting was a lot of time and effort, but I looove how it turned out. We decided to go with black, green and white, and use mostly polka dots and stripes. I had a great image in my head of how it was all going to look, but as I started painting and buying fabric, I started to get worried it was all going to be pattern overload! Luckily now that is is almost finished, I don't think it is and it is better than I pictured!

The paint. It was supposed to be a tad darker (not quite so lime, but it still turned out well. (Although you should have seen the look on Jason's face when we opened the lid. He thought I was insane.)

The primer was a nasty, super bright yellowish color. I wish this photo did it justice.

We (I) decided to stripe one wall. It was hard work, and lots of layers of paint! We were debating striping another wall, but after doing this much, we decided it was good enough and kept the other wall solid.

And because it is impossible for me to use paint in any way without making a huge mess of everything...

Poor miss Mollie was banished outside the room after sticking her face in the primer within 2 seconds of it being opened. She watched at us like this for 2 days straight.

p.s. We did learn a killer tip about paint stripes from here. You have to make sure to run something stiff and straight (we used the plastic piece you smooth spackle with) across the tape a few times to get a good seal, and we found 2 coats of glaze worked best. We ended up with razor straight stripes!

2009-02-24T12:19:00.002-07:00

Sigh. Ok, so I know it's been three months. (over 3. wow.) You would think being pregnant I would could actually think of interesting things to blog about. (I read that once on someone else's blog, and I was all, yes you could! When I'm pregnant I'm going to document the whole thing, right here on Mr. blog! ha.) So far, I have taken one--count it--one photo of my belly, and have blogged a total of 3 times about this pregnancy.

Truth be told, I get really intimidated by blogging sometimes. I read other's blogs every day, and I get bummed if people don't update, but everytime I go to update I get all paranoid about being funny or entertaining or interesting. Then I don't do it. And here we are, 30 weeks pregnant, with lots of exciting things that have happeneded to us and nothing to document it.

So here is yet another resolution for me to blog more. I really want to be able to look back and remember so much that has happened. I see people making blog books, going back to previous pregnancies, remembering old vacations, etc. through their blog, and I want to be one of those people!

Things on my List to Blog:

--Mollie (our sweet little puppy)
--Pregnancy updates (the one photo I have so far. Plus hopefully more to come)
--Jason not being an illgal immigrant anymore (a work in progress. And okay, he's not really illegal. But we are trying to get his citizenship)
--Anything else I deem interesting or blog-worthy. (or even if its not interesting. Because remember? I am going to blog more, regardless of interestingness. I am going to be one of those people.)

Baby Update!!

2008-11-18T02:39:00.007-07:00

Wow, a whole month and a half since I updated? You would think something like being pregnant would give me stuff to blog about. I guess my problem is not necessarily log of things to blog, but lack of motivation. Hrm.

Anyway, things are going great here, baby and all. I never got sick really, which was huge for me. I am completely worthless when I feel nauseated, so it really was a miracle. I have been really tired, but feeling better the last little bit. I think.

Due to the fact that my 20th week is the week of Christmas (and knowing how my doctors appointment scheduling usually goes)(and how crazy the holidays are) I had severe doubts about whether I would be able to get my ultrasound done before Christmas. Jas and I decided we simply couldn't wait any longer, much less into a whole new year, so we headed to an early ultrasound yesterday.

I'm happy to report things look great so far! This kid is definitely a kicker. It would pull its legs clear up to its chest and push them out as hard and fast as those little frog legs would go. I have a feeling thats not going to be so cute in a few months when it's is doing that straight into my ribcage.

Oh, and also we found out the sex. :)

In a poll closer to call than Prop 8, 51% of you guessed boy. And...

You win! We have a healthy, kicking baby boy growing in there. He was super proud to show off his boyness too. Every time we would move down there, he would arch his back like that and put himself on display. (another thing that probably won't be so cute much later on...)

He kept his little hand up by his head and mouth the entire time. He also kept his feet mostly stretched out with ankles crossed. Apparently I have a very comfortable, lounge-able uterus. Go fig.

Also, made obvious by the ultrasound, his name will be Boston. Boston _?_ Robison. (Middle name TBD.) We're kinda diggin it!!

YUM

2008-10-06T11:31:00.003-07:00

We spent a lovely Conference Sunday with Anne and her sister. We sat, we watched, we slept, and we ate. Boy, did we eat. I wish I had taken pictures, but you know how one of the 7 deadly sins is gluttony? Yeeaahhhh.

One of the things we ate were these. Holy mother of breakfast food, these were divine. They are so warm and gooey and amazing and delicious and they will definitely make you sick if you eat more than one. But what a wonderful one it is.

Things are going well on the fetus front, no updates or changes to report. Still biding our time till we can find out what we are having and get the fun going.

I really need to start packing. We leave on Wednesday for Wisconsin, and dang if I have done anything to get ready. Most of my camera gear is ready to go, but with my brain lately, it will be a miracle if I can get myself there with a camera in hand. Please pray I don't forget any of the essentials.
We will be flying in to Chicago and driving up to Wisconsin. Anyone know of any attractions between Chicago, IL and Appleton, WI we cant miss? I'm thinking "Worlds Largest Cheese Wheel" or something. Make it worth my while.

2008-10-02T10:45:00.002-07:00

I guess I should include a few more details about the whole baby thing.

Due: May 10, 2009
Which just so happens to be our third anniversary. And mothers day. I was excited at first, but now I'm hoping he/she comes early, cuz I really don't want to share those 2 days. No good for anyone. Sorry, kid, your birthday is canceled this year. Momma and daddy are going to the BAHAMAS! (also, to bring out the fat kid in me, there is a really amazing mothers day brunch that I look forward to every year, and a hospital stay would really mess up that plan)

I am 9 weeks along according to my ultrasound, and things look good so far. I have had very little nausea, but have been very sleepy. I'll take it. We got to see and hear the heartbeat on Monday, so cool!

For now we are just sitting back and waiting for the exciting stuff to happen. It still doesn't seem quite real, just because not much has changed in my day to day life. (other than more naps than usual!) We are anxiously awaiting to find out if it will be a boy or girl (sidebar poll, anyone?) so we can move forward with the planning details. I'm really loving this for a girl...NOT, however, loving the price. If it turns out to be a girl, I'm tossing the idea around of making my own version of this. Can't decide yet if I am completely crazy or not. Jason's grandma has made lots of them, she says it is easy and she will help me. (still though....I can sew a straight-ish seam, and thats kinda the end of my sewing abilities.) We'll see.

Also, calling all pregnant people and have-been pregnant people: when can I start blaming things on "pregnancy brain"? I am not far along at all but I swear I am so spacey lately. I can't remember where I put things 30 seconds later, I forget everything, I lose my train of thought, lock my keys in my car...you name it.

All in all, its been a very fun and exciting experience so far, and we are looking forward to the rest of it!

I am

2008-09-30T07:35:00.003-07:00

Bumped. Multiplying and Replenishing. Expecting. Kinda Grouchy. Knocked up. Fertile myrtle. An employer's worst nightmare. Have a bun in the oven. Crying during TV shows. Gestating. Peeing a lot. In a delicate condition. With child. Prenatal Popper. A fruitful loin. Eating for Two. Very tired. Hormonally challenged. Spawning. Smelling everything. Embarazada.

Pregnant.

(also thinking about being this for Halloween.)

So You Think You Can Dance (dance...dance...dance..)

2008-09-30T07:12:00.001-07:00

So I have never really watched much of this show, but every time I do watch it I enjoy it. Anne does not feel the same way (read: she never misses an episode) therefore I ended up watching a lot of this past season.

A few months ago Anne talked us into buying tickets to the tour, and we had a blast! They did so many of the dances I LOVED from the season, and we had a great time overall.

We were going to eat dinner at a place Anne's sister Heather recommended and raved about. It did not go well. Please take note of the bullet holes and other damage.

(damage done sometime before we went. Not During.)

All in all, we had a great time, and I'll probably actually watch next season. (maybe even DVR it, oooh)

Sigh.

2008-09-30T06:32:00.010-07:00

I have done it again. Let all just acknowledge the big, purple almost-2-month-long elephant in the room, and move past my serious lack of all things blog.

The worst thing about falling off the blogging wagon is how much you have to catch up on when you return.

First things first. Yes, I got all my camera equipment back, safe and sound. Thank heaven and all that is holy, because DANG that would have sucked.

October is going to be a BUSY month for me. 6 days (and 2 weddings!) in Wisconsin , 2 days in St. George for a reception, 2 days in southern Cali for a family session, 2 baby/child sessions, 1 family session, 1 engagement session, 3 birthdays...whew!

Jas and I spent a fun-filled, sun-filled week in St. George and Vegas with Anne & Jason.

It was a fun, relaxing, warm weekend, filled with some of this

Some of this

Some of this and this

A little bit of this

But mostly this

LOTS of this

Which led to this

Plenty of this*

Not enough of this

And finally, a little Napoleon to top the whole thing off

*image may or may not actually depict Anne and I. Rest assured, there was plenty of shopping done.

Just in case

2008-08-06T21:23:00.002-07:00

So, if your air conditioning ever goes out, forcing you to take your car to the dealer for repair, and it takes longer than necessary because they force you to buy all sorts of different parts in attempt to diagnose the problem....

AND if they tell you it is fixed, but when you come to pick it up, it is, in fact, NOT fixed, and then overheats due to the non-fixedness of it all, forcing you to take it BACK, oh and also they broke your windshield in their carwash....

BUT THEN they give you a really sweet rental to 'make up' for all your trouble, and actually end up getting your car fixed in a timely matter this time and when you get your car back the AC is now frigid cold and you have a shiny new windshield and everything seems to be back to normal in your crazy life...

probably, you should not leave over $3000 worth of camera gear in the back of your rental when you turn it back in. And probably you should realize it before they rent it out to someone else.

I'm just sayin'.

State Fire Testing

2008-07-30T01:45:00.013-07:00

Last Saturday we had our big state Firefighter test. Talk about nerve wracking! We have been in class since March, and I was so burned out. It was a Haz-Mat, Firefighter I and Firefighter II class all crammed into one, with one long marathon test day.

There was last minute cramming all around.

We had 2 written tests in the morning followed by a long afternoon of practical tests. We had to do put our SCBA's on in under 1 minute, roll fire hose in under 1 minute, put a "car fire" out, crawl under the garage in full gear to simulate a confined space escape, raise a ladder, demonstrate extrication, and a few other skills.

Mindi, Jason, Andy and Kyle not taking the test seriously.

There were a few breaks to cool off (and cram for what the next test would be!)

Our whole class...thrilled to be done!

AND....I got my letters back from the state a few days ago and I passed all my tests! WOOT! It was a long and exhausting class, but I'm so happy it is over (and that I actually passed)

2008-07-30T01:20:00.006-07:00

I'm not even going to apologize this time for my lack of all things blog. Because an apology would suggest that I intend to not do it again. While that may be my intent, its probably not very plausible, so lets all just accept that fact and move on.
So, here we go....

We spent a nice warm July 4th weekend in St. George. We got to see Jaiden again and I bought her the cuest 4th of July outfit ever.

It was over 100 degrees the entire time we were there. We got to lay in the pool, go shopping, BBQ and play Wii.

Jason was pretty smitten with Jaiden. Maybe we will have to get ourselves one of those soon.

2008-06-27T01:13:00.003-07:00

All about me, from A to Z

A-- Attached or Single? Attached to a big brown guy

B-- Best Friend? Jason (aforementioned brown guy)

C-- Cake or Pie? both!

D-- Day of Choice? Any of the 3 days I have off

E-- Essential Item? Phone, camera, makeup

F-- Favorite Color? Green

G-- Gummy Bears or Worms? Sour gummy worms

H-- Hometown? Pleasant Grove, UT

I-- Indulgence(s) anything white chocolate

J-- January or July? July

K-- Kids? Not yet

L-- Life is incomplete without? My camera, my family, dessert

M-- Marriage Date? May 10, 2006

N-- Number of siblings? 5, Steve, Drew, Ashley, Kaden & Kamber

O-- Oranges or Apples? cold, hard apples, pulpy orange juice

P-- Phobias or fears? Drains

Q- Quotes? "Stop it."

R-- Reason to Smile? I'm going south for the 4th, and its going to be hot hot HOT!

S-- Season? Spring, Summer, Fall.Basically anytime without cold.

T-- Tag 5 People?? Anne, Julie Ann, Kelli...anyone else who reads this and hasn't been tagged yet?

U-- Unknown Fact? I can sleep for 12+ hours after a graveyard, no sweat

V-- Very Favorite Store? The mall (it encompasses most of my favorites)

W-- Worst Habit? Procrastination

X-- X-ray or ultrasound? X-ray. Ultrasounds are all squishy and messy

Y-- Your favorite food? Fettuccine Alfredo

Z-- Zodiac? Saggitarius

Also....

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

so, there's that.

2008-06-23T22:56:00.004-07:00

Today I got one of the worst calls I think anyone can ever go on. I was sleeping when my pager went off around 9 am. The dispatcher came across the radio sounding very stressed...which usually means a "good" call is coming.

"Rescue one, respond on an agency assist, have reports of shots fired and an officer down. Repeating shots fired, an officer and another suspect are both down."

My stomach sank and I wanted to vomit. I don't think I have ever gotten dressed so fast in my life. Jason and I sped to the station and took the rescue lights and sirens to the call, 2 towns over.

When we arrived, I expected chaos. Thats how big incidents always seem when you are working from the other end of the radio (the dispatch chair.) I expected everyone to be running around and orders being shouted; pandemonium at its finest. When we walked into the scene, though...it was calm. Somber. The suspect had been shot dead by other officers and was still laying on the pavement. Blood covered the vehicle, the sidewalk, and a trail leading to an ambulance where other fire personnel attended to the officer. He was shot twice in the head. His clothing had been cut off and still laid on the sidewalk, in a grisly outline of where his body had fallen.

An officer who knows Jason walked up to us in tears. He hugged Jason, and broke down. This was his third officer-involved shooting that he had witnessed in his short career. I turned away to keep myself from tearing up only to see 2 officers behind me, sobbing and hugging each other.

It was surreal. Many of the officers I know and work with on a day to day basis are some of the toughest guys I know, and yet this happened to a very experienced officer in the blink of an eye.

I hope and pray this is something I never have to dispatch. I hope I am never on the radio when an officer calls out "shots fired, officer down". I hope, and yet I know it is something I can't avoid forever. As long as I am in this line of work, the chance of me having to stay calm and coordinate the response during the worst day of someone's--or many people's--lives gets greater and greater. It makes me a little sick.

Keep Capt Harold Terry, his family, and the rest of the officers who work day and night to keep you safe in your prayers tonight, won't you?

Reason #372 I love my husband (and why he is sometimes a nerd) (and also some recent happenings in our lives)

2008-06-23T03:42:00.008-07:00

Behold, the Onion Tree. I was cleaning out the fridge tonight when I came across this. I sent a pic to Jason at work so he could see and appreciate the fact that we don't clean out our fridge enough. He called me immediately. "DON'T THROW IT OUT! You didn't already throw it out, did you? Get it out of the garbage!"

...errrr, ok.

Apparently, he knew we had this little science project in our fridge all along. He even waters the little produce bag it calls home in the back of our crisper. He has been waiting for me to get my planter box out to try my hand at gardening again, at which time he wants to plant it and watch it bloom, so we can harvest our own onions. (I should mention the planter box I have is small. Like, really small.) Wondering if Anne & Jason would mind sharing a spot in their much bigger gardening box with our budding beauty? Let me know. I'm not sure how long I can stand looking at this every time I open my (newly cleaned out) fridge.

In other news, Jason and I have been busy but have had lots of fun this week. It was Strawberry Days, which always calls for fun times around town at the the fire department.
We went to the rodeo and hung out with Anne, her Jason, and the Carnies. Jason also ran in the 5K and marched in the parade Saturday morning. (I was totally bummed I couldn't participate, but I had a wedding that day. Which totally rocked, by the way. But you will have to read about that on my photog blog in a week or two.) Jason and I were also on 4wheeler patrol Friday night for the rodeo and carnival. Unfortunately nobody needed our services, but that did not stop me from feeling like a total badass while we rode them around town :)

(some of these photos may or may not have been shamelessly stolen from Anne's blog. Used without any permission whatsoever.)

Also, I am very pleased to announce that Jason and I now have soft water! (totally lame, I know. Seriously, though, I could not be more excited about this) We had this little baby installed this week, and it is a dream come true.

My skin feels better, my clothes smell cleaner, and my bathroom fixtures have never looked shinier. I think the sun shines a little brighter and the birds chirp a little louder, but that could be just me.

We also FINALLY decorated one of the walls in our house. I know I took step by step pics of it, but I don't have them right now, so you will just have to settle for the finished product.

(don't mind the crookedness and overall awfulness of this picture. It is 5 am.)
I'm really pleased with how it turned out. We bought and painted some baseboards, cut them to make a "frame", painted the wall inside it a different color, and voila! (when I say "voila", I also mean it took 2 trips to Home Depot, 3 trips to Rod Works, lots of wall putty, and a very patient husband for this to come together the way I envisioned it)

The Injury

2008-06-09T20:01:00.002-07:00

So, in preparation for this post I have looked high and low for a clip from "The Office." Its the one where Michael grills his foot in a George Foreman. Alas, I couldn't find the clip anywhere (YouTube has never failed me! What to do?) so you will have to make due with this re-cap. (However, I fully recommend you track down a copy of The Office Season Two and watch it for yourself. It does not disappoint.)
Anyway, it's one of my favorite episodes. Last week, I came home from work to Jason's feet looking like this:

...Unfortunate accident with a lean, mean, fat-grilling machine, or a simple sunburn from a long day of fishing and his favorite wal-mart sandals?

YOU decide.

2008-05-28T20:10:00.002-07:00

Because sometimes, you need a little something to make you feel better about your own family.

In which I admit that I am a totally craptastic blogger

2008-05-23T03:43:00.005-07:00

YOU GUYS! man. I really suck at this.

Truth is, I am always thinking of things to blog. Every time something remotely interesting happens in my life, I think, "wow, I can't wait to blog this!" Obviously from my lack of posting, you can guess how far that idea really goes. In my defense, life has been suuuuuper busy lately. I am now working graveyards at the PD, which automatically requires me to get 9 hours of sleep to feel semi-normal. Factor in wedding season in the ol' photo biz and fire academy 12 hours a week, and dangit if I don't feel just a little ragged.

And so, as my Summer resolution (because New Years is too far away and that would seem really lazy of me to procrastinate a resolution almost 7 months into the future....) I plan on blogging more. Lets say, a goal of 3 times a week.

Wow, I feel better, don't you? Goals are always a way to make you feel better about something you sorta suck at.

Now is the part that I would normally update you on the exciting life that is me and Jas, but...I kinda already did that. Graveyards at the PD, photography and fire class serioulsyv take up 105% of my life right now. Jason did get a new job, though! Actually he got several new jobs, and we are trying to decide the best route to go from here.

Option A: Full time at PG fire dept. Jas applied and is in the testing and interview process. (Can I just say I am so proud of him for passing the physical fitness part of the testing! He had to run a mile and a half in 15 mins, do 35 push ups, 35 sit ups, and bench press at least 75% of his body weight. He has been working really hard lately to get in better shape and has lost of 50 pounds!) Anyway, we won't find out till the beginning of June if he gets hired, so this one is kinda in Limbo for now.

Option 2: (yes, I realize the first option was an "a" and this is a "2". Its my blog and I can be as inconsistent as I want) Medical Security officer with Securitas, stationed at Kennecott. This one is a good job, and it just 'fits' him. One con is the commute to Kennecott and our current gas pricing situation. One pro is if he gets hired at PG fire, he can keep this job and the hours work together in perfect harmony. Also after 6 months he would be stationed somewhere else, hopefully a little closer to home, but not guaranteed.

Option C: Medical Responder at Sundance Resort. This job is actually only part time for now. He is training for it this week. He seems to really like it, but who knows if or when it would move into a full-time position. Still, though, could be fun as a part-time gig.

There is also an option of a real-estate company, where he would be upselling real estate programs to people wanting to become realtors. Given our current economic housing situation, I am really iffy about this job, and phone sales make me throw up in my mouth a little. So this one is very 'meh' to me.

So thats it in a nutshell. If you have any pearls of wisdom to guide us through this maze of jobs, please let us know.

testing...check, check

2008-03-30T11:41:00.005-07:00

so..does anyone still read this thing?

I know I have been very neglectful of ye olde blog. And I wish I had some great excuse. Like, maybe, I was on an African safari and was captured by an aborigine named Nyack and forced to wear large bones as earrings and a plate in my lip and talk the click-y language and I barely escaped within an inch of my life.

OR maybe that I was on a peace mission in Bolivia where I was building orphanages and digging wells for the villagers and I just fell so in love with the people and the land and decided to renounce my American ways and live the simple life in a hut.

OR OR maybe the CIA recruited me for a top-secret job and I had to leave in the dead of night without telling my friends or family goodbye and move to a small town in Alaska where I wore lots of fur coats and hunted baby seals as my daily source of nourishment.

Unfortunately, the truth is simply I have become lazy and couldn't think of anything interesting to write. Which is unfortunate, cuz lots of fun things have happened in my life as of late.

-Went on a little trip with Mom, Drew's girlfriend and her mom out to Missouri to watch Drew graduate from Army Combat Engineer training. (this trip was not so much of the "fun", as "makes you really appreciate home and the less-crazy people you normally spend your time with")

-Jason and I spend Easter weekend with his parents in St. George. Went on a shopping trip to Las Vegas where I was introduced to the World of Trader Joes. I may never be the same again. Mostly because they have the birdseed cookies that I love so much and have only been able to find in Germany.

-Spent a fabulous, fun-filled week in Las Vegas with Sam, Amy, and Kelly at WPPI. We had a blast learning and meeting photographers from all over the country. (including [b]ecker, Jesh De Rox, and Jessica Claire. While this may not be significant to many of you, we were quite star-struck. good times!)

-Had a couple FUN bridal sessions with some gorgeous brides. Check out my Photog Blog for updates.

so..all in all its been a fun couple of weeks. Lots of coming and going, lots of long car rides, lots of family and new friends. Now I'm ready to sit back and enjoy the beautiful spring weather. (er..except for the 3 inches of snow we got today. figures.)

.freezing.

2008-01-18T07:20:00.000-07:00

Can you say COLD? We had 2 engagements shoots on Wednesday. The first in park city, and the second in Provo.
Park city's high for the day was 13, but it hovered right around 8 while we were there. Poor Annalee and Buck, they were such good sports! Sam has one posted so far, check it out! Their photos turned out awesome!

Eddie & Nichole came and played around at the farm with us. Poor Nichole stepped through ice into 6" of water wearing stilettos...and then had to walk around in the snow! They were also quite the troopers. Here is one of theirs...it's more of an artsy photo than a real engagement one, but I like it nonetheless. They also have tons of fun/cute ones to choose from!

check back soon on our photo blog for more engagement fun.

In other news, I have potentially something very exciting in the works. Exciting for me, anyway. And it would be sort of exciting for you if you live in Utah County. I don't want to jinx myself just yet....but keep your eyes out at your local Fire House Car Wash and I'll keep you updated!

Wedding-ness

2008-01-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

Entering a contest where I have to come up with a "fun, interesting, new or creative way to photograph wedding rings."

This is take 1. I have some other ideas bouncing around my head, so stay tuned for that. Maybe you can help me decide on which one to enter.

(Not from a real wedding. Those are mine and Jasons rings. HOWEVER, I have 3...count em...3 weddings to shoot coming up soon. WOOT!)

My Fruit Will Go On....

2007-12-22T00:12:00.000-07:00

My little brother (Kam) is learning about the Titanic at school right now. He came home the other day, and was telling me and my dad all about the movie.

Kam: ...and then Rose and Jack were in the water, and Rose was laying on a board but there was no room for Jack so he was floating in the water and they were just holding hands, but then it got too cold and Jack died so Rose had to push him off the board and he floated down into the ocean and he was dead and THEN Rose got rescued and she went to New York and she was standing there and she reached into her pocket....and she still had the necklace! And it was ONE HUNDRED BANANAS!

Blink. Blink.

Dad: One hundred bananas?

Kam: Yep!

Dad: Um. Do you mean 100 carats?

Kam: Oh, ya. Thats What I meant. I knew it was a fruit or vegetable, I just couldn't remember which one.

I think he felt bad that we laughed so hard.

Not only can I photograph your baby....

2007-11-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

FINALLY something to blog about!!! This morning started out SO cool. Normally I would be less than thrilled about being jarred awake at 5 am after not going to sleep until 2 am...but today, it was all totally worth it.

I woke up to my ambulance pager going off for a pregnant female, possibly in labor. Since I wasn't on duty I turned my pager down and rolled back over, per usual. Then they updated the page and said the baby was definitely coming, and the address was in my complex, just around the corner from me. Me and Jas jumped up and got dressed (if there ever was a world-record for speed-dressing, I'm sure we broke it) and jumped in the car.
As we ran into the house, I had time to get one glove half-way on before I was delivering the baby!!! Her little head was about halfway out, and with a push or two more, she was born right there in Mom's bed.

It was the coolest thing ever!! She was a cute little baby girl, 8 pounds. (I'm not sure how long she was.)

It's kinda funny...I was just saying a few days ago that I would love to be able to deliver a baby sometime beforeI quit the ambulance. Not that I plan on that happening anytime soon, but who knows how life goes!!
It was really one of the neatest, most exciting calls I have ever been on! and although they didn't name the baby after me (it always happened on Rescue 911!) I was so excited to be able to help bring that little baby into the world.

We are going to visit them in the hospital tomorrow, so hopefully I can get a couple pics...stay tuned!

In other news, check out http://www.everylittlemomentphoto.blogspot.com (our other blog...don't know why the hyperlink won't work)...for some pictures of the cutest little girl from our latest session.

2007-10-29T01:01:00.001-07:00

I have been a blog slacker lately. This is do in part to 2 things:

1. I don't have much interesting going on in my life. Nothing blog-worthy anyway.

2. I have been suffering from a cold which might be the death of me. Last week I was sitting there feeling perfect, when I suddenly sneezed. An everyday sneeze. Suddenly I was sick, and the next 24 hours I went through multiple tissue boxes, sneezed more times than I have up to this point in my life combined, and had one red little nose.

Over the past few days I have been feeling on and off better. Until tonight, when the cold decided to leave my head and take up permanent residence in my chest. And my neck is sore. And my throat hurts. And I am sitting at work right now.

Merrhgh.

I'll be back when I'm feeling better.

2007-10-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

Jas and I are off to Vegas for the weekend for a little BYU/UNLV football action. In the meantime, please enjoy a few photos from some recent photo sessions...

In honor of my little brother Drew, who will be leaving Monday for the military. Around February he will become a full-time Marine. We are all very proud of him, of course, but it is definitely a scary though given our Country's current situation.

These guys were so much fun to work with. Lots of joking and laughing, and Grandma and Grandpa were a crack up!

These guys adopted Landon a couple months ago and were just sealed as a family.

This family was SO much fun to photograph. Their kids were all so photogenic and posed so well. Aren't they adorable?

Fun shoot up AF canyon with a mom and Son

2007-10-10T04:57:00.001-07:00

I am pleased to announce that The Cheesecake Factory will soon be gracing Utah with it's presence. Here's proof.

If we could all please have a moment of silence in honor of this event.

Should any of you need to find me on November 1, 2007...you know where I'll be.

p.s. Since it is opening in like 2 1/2 weeks I'm sure lots of people knew about this before I did. Shut up. Don't spoil my fun.

"Dude, remember that night I got impounded?"

2007-10-06T00:12:00.000-07:00

This has gotta be sent into Jay Leno, of Dumbest Criminals, or something.

Tonight around 0100 we got 2 911 calls. First one was from a local college apartment complex saying the fire extinguisher glass had been broken and there was blood smeared all down the hallway and all over the walls.

Second one was a local tow company. They had just impounded a vehicle from said apartment complex. When they got the vehicle back to the tow yard and started to take inventory, they found, (amongst other things) a guy passed out in the back seat. UUMMMM ya. Kinda funny at first, till the tow truck driver starts screaming that he is covered in blood, and he doesn't know if the guy is breathing or not.

Paramedics and officers rush down, yada yada yada. Turns out, the guy is not only breathing, but VERY intoxicated. He had punched the glass for whatever reason, and cut his hand pretty bad. He then proceeded to smear it anywhere he could. (sometime after the glass-punching and blood smearing, he drunkenly made his way to his car and passed out in the back seat. At which time both he and his car were towed.)

The funniest part of the story is, he is so drunk he probably won't remember any of this in the morning, and is going to wake up in his cell having no clue how he got there. Which is kinda a bummer. Can you imagine being a college kid and actually being able to tell your buddies "dude, I so got impounded last night!"

ya, stuff like this is total job security.

Sweet New Happenings and How My Husband Can Look Just Like Mr. T

2007-10-03T04:54:00.000-07:00

I have never cut anyone's hair before. Ever. Except for my own. When I get home from getting it cut I usually have to fix it, and due to the fact that I have NO idea what I'm doing, I usually screw it up. But, in the real world of hair cutting, I am a novice. When I told Jason this, he was surprised. "You never cut ANYONES hair? like EVER? What about in High School? Or just for fun??"

um, no. Sorry, just because boys are born with some weird ability to look under the hood of a car and have the slightest clue as to what they are staring at does not mean girls are born with the innate ability to cut hair.

Well this was the beginning of a few conversations about hair cutting. It eventually led to me asking my husband what he looked like bald.

"Scary. I look like a gang member," was what he told me.

Not 30 minutes later we're sitting in the kitchen armed with a brand new pair of clippers, a towel and the excitement of my first "real hair cut." (mind you, I never really CARED that I had no idea how to cut anyone's hair, the mere fact that he was going to let me touch his sacred halo of curls was enough motivation for me.)

So, here he is BEFORE:

The First Cut...

Feeling more comfortable:

And, um, during. (I call this, "bowl cut")

WHO KNEW JASON LOOKED JUST LIKE MR. T?

Um, ya. Practically twins.

And, a little more fun in-betweens (Not really sure how I talked him into this...but the "gang member" is starting to show through)

This kid has the thickest, curliest hair ever

"AFTER!!"

(I can see where he was coming from on the whole gang member issue. But as long as we stay far away from the Mr. T scowl, we should be okay. Except he will probably scare the poor kids in nursery.....)

Good times were had by all.

In other news, our website is LIVE!! After a weekend of slaving over a hot keyboard and several calls to the tech-support guys, that bad boy is ready! So, take a moment and wander over there, won't you? Give us feedback. After all, it is our first website. Have a look around. Hire us. Tell your friends to hire us.

http://www.everylittlemomentphotography.com

In other other news, we got our business cards printed up too! Look!!

(front)

(back)

and in the last bit of news...I have now been up for 25 1/2 hours. and I. Am. Sleepy.

2007-09-26T23:12:00.000-07:00

So chances are if you live in Orem...or anywhere in Utah County...or anywhere in Utah....or perhaps anywhere on Earth, you may have heard about the sweet little old lady that an Orem Police Officer arrested for not watering her lawn. (I'm only half joking about living on Earth...we have seriously gotten complaints about this from as far away as England and Australia)

I personally don't understand what makes a person see a news story, immediately assume that what the MEDIA is reporting are all true and complete facts, and take it upon themselves to call and unleash their fury on the first person who answers the phone. Seriously, folks. You calling me at the PD and ranting and raving about our incompetent, evil officers does little to boast your intelligence or deepen any respect I may have had for you as a general human being. (for the record, she was NOT arrested for not watering her lawn. She was arrested for failing to comply with an officer)

That being said, I do understand that the media has portrayed this story in such a skewed fashion that it is not too surprising that the public has been outraged. HOWEVER...that does not give you permission to call and scream profanity-laced ranting at us. It just doesn't. I have absolutely nothing to do with the whole situation and I don't deserve it.

On that note, may I direct your attention to Mr. Robert Kirby, columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune. In this article he tells the whole story, and frankly publicly announces what some of us have been wanting to scream back at every jerk who calls about it.

Old age does not make one exempt from the law

"The oldest person I ever arrested when I was a cop was probably in his 80s. I stopped Bill one afternoon on suspicion of driving under the influence.
When I asked Bill for his driver license, he picked blearily through his wallet, then handed me a Polaroid of his genitals.
I told Bill to get out of the car. Realizing his mistake - and that I was now going to want to know who he really was - Bill tried to drive away instead. An incident ensued during which Bill got a small ding in the head.
Passers-by didn't see that Bill was drunk, that he had given me a picture of his doodle or that he tried to drag me onto the highway while I leaned in the window and grabbed his keys. All they saw was a mean cop roughing up somebody's grandpa.
Fortunately, celebrity attorney and legal showboat Gloria Allred didn't find out about that. Orem Officer James Flygare isn't so lucky. Allred came to town last week to save kindly Grandma Betty Perry from Flygare and the forces of darkness.
In July, Perry allegedly became disorderly and interfered with Flygare as he attempted to issue her a citation for deliberately violating the city's landscaping ordinances. She was arrested and taken to jail.
The arrest of an elderly woman for simply failing to water her lawn horrified everyone, including Orem City, which immediately rolled onto its back and tinkled a public apology into the air.
At a press conference after Perry's appearance in court Tuesday, Allred held aloft a set of 19th-century leg irons and asked how many Orem residents would "like to have your great-grandmother taken from her home with bruises and blood, and placed in handcuffs for failing to water her lawn?"
That's one way of asking it. Another way would be to say, "How many of you would like to see a cranky old woman get what she's had coming for a long time?"
It's a fair question. With even a little digging, Perry no more resembles the average lilac-scented grandmother than a real pirate resembles Captain Morgan.
Perry wasn't arrested for failing to water her lawn. She was only going to get a ticket for that. She got arrested because she deliberately pushed it to the next level and wouldn't let Flygare write the ticket.
I suppose it's possible Jim screwed up. He's been through a lot. In 2002 he was wounded by a burglary suspect, whom he then shot and killed. He also shot it out fatally with a bank robber in 2005.
Maybe he's decided to cut back and just beat up old ladies.
But I'm betting the problem is more a matter of perception. What the public doesn't see is that Perry has long history of confrontational behavior with Orem City, her neighbors, clerks and anyone else who gets in her way.
Thanks to the media, Allred and even Orem City, the public sees Perry as a nice old lady who can't afford to water her lawn, or is too infirm or maybe just forgets. Orem City gets nasty e-mail from all over the world from people who think they know what happened.
The truth is that Perry lives comfortably enough on a retirement plan. She has an older Mercedes in her driveway, and an RV that she drives to Florida. She has a sprinkling system.
Although she can afford it, she asked to have her water shut off nearly a year ago. She just doesn't want to water her lawn, and she's said so to lots of people. Her lawn has been reseeded and had new sod put down by a local church. It was dead a month later. She became angry when someone trimmed the waist-high weeds in her backyard.
When Flygare tried to let her know about the law, she told him that she didn't care, she wasn't going to water her lawn, and moreover, she was leaving town. Then she refused to tell him who she was.
So she got arrested. It's fair. Why should age, gender or race make someone exempt from the law? If it did, you can be sure I'd use "old, fat and stupid" as a defense the next time the UHP stopped me for driving like a lunatic."

Bravo, Mr. Kirby!!

Star Struck

2007-09-22T20:23:00.001-07:00

I transported a celebrity on the ambulance today. A utah celebrity anyway. I'm not sure what all I can say due to HIPAA laws, but I do believe I can refer you to
this article for more information.
So he's not exactly a celebrity I suppose, but it was kinda fun nonetheless. And he is a totally nice guy. He has my vote. (do you vote for attorney generals?)
Oh, and also, he touched my pen. And got blood on it.

In other news, Sam and I went to PGHS's homecoming football game Friday night. It was lots of fun, and it was nice knowing things in high school really aren't as important as they seemed at the time.
The school just refinished the football field, and the city council/school district wanted pictures of it. Not just any pictures, however, they wanted birds-eye view shots. Due to our impressive photography skillz, Sam and I were voted to go up in the aerial fire truck to obtain such pictures.

Yeah, it was freaking high. (bear in mind I am using my Super Sweet Lens and had a good zoom, so you may not be able to fully appreciate the height. But trust me, it. was. high.) We did get some fun shots. Who knows...today, the PG High school football game...tommorrow, aerial shots at the superbowl. From the blimp. It could totally happen.

2007-09-19T23:37:00.000-07:00

My night thus far:

911, what is the location of your emergency?

I'm in Orem...well, Orem, or Salt Lake City.

Okay...which one? Orem or Salt Lake?

I am literally in both cities.

Sir, you can't be in both Orem and Salt Lake at the same time.

Oh. Okay. Then I don't know where I am.

Deliciousness

2007-09-06T22:29:00.000-07:00

I just bought this lens. It is am.az.ing.

Never mind the price of this one lens alone costs more than my camera itself. Nevermind the cost is close to one entire paycheck, or 3 months car payment. Nevermind that Jas and I could very well be eating ramen for the next couple years to pay for it.

OHHHH, the pictures is takes. Remarkable. I am shooting the Miss American Fork Pageant this week. I took one set of pictures last night with my kit lens, and one set tonight with this lil baby. The difference is crazy.

*SIGH* Too bad its not mine to keep forever and ever. Thats right, I bought the lens only to use for the pageant (low light. I needed it) and then I have every intention of returning it to the camera heaven from whence it came.
Really I do. Every intention. Except the small part of me that thinks it might not be so bad to work overtime every single day for the next 3 months. Just so I can keep it. Forever and ever. hmmmm.....

In other news, this past weekend Jas and I spend 3 fun-filled days in sunny Moab. We rented jeeps (his parents just bought this new 4 door Sahara. I covet it.) and crawled all over the mountains. I have never been jeeping before...it was so fun!! Jasons family used to go all the time, and it was great to have almost the entire family together. We totally want to buy a jeep now.

Here is Kam, thisclose to flipping his jeep right over. Instead of being worried about himself or the jeep, as soon as the front 2 tires were off the ground he started yelling "TAKE A PICTURE!! GET THE CAMERA!!" I was more than happy to oblige.

Wes's cute wife Trish, who was bound and determind to not let the fact that she is 4 months pregnant hinder the adventure. She kicked Wes out of the driver's seat the first 10 mintues, and I don't believe he was ever allowed back.

I think this is one of perhaps 3 pictures that proves I was actually on the trip. I was behind the camera the other 99% of the time.

My hot husband

Does this look scary? Becuase it totally was. One slip of the tires and the jeep was sideways or upside down.

Cute baby ollie.

Claim to Fame

2007-08-31T07:09:00.000-07:00

I'm totally famous. As in, front page of the good ol' Daily Herald. Red the story (and see the normal size pictures)here.

(Not really sure what I'm doing here. Rest assured, I do not walk with a limp or any other ogre-like quality, as this picture suggests. I 'm pretty sure I walk perfectly normal.)

(HMM. And I am a lot more helpful than this picture would suggest)

Okay so even thought I look a little handicapped and totally worthless in both pictures, were YOU on the front page of the Daily Herald this morning?

Didn't think so.

2007-08-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to the funniest blonde joke ever!

AWWW little baby....

2007-08-29T03:49:00.000-07:00

Awww...these are from my photoshoot with lil baby Tyson last week.

(click on to view full size)

Isn't he the cutest thing you ever saw! (albeit he is a little furry, but he is still a cutie pie) As you can see he was less than thrilled with being naked in a suitcase at first. But after peeing all over us 5 or 6 times and eating a few more, he decided it wasn't so bad was a champ for the rest. Unfortunately we never could get him to go to sleep, but he was a trooper.

Salt Flats Adventure

2007-08-22T03:47:00.001-07:00

Nobody can say I do not suffer for my art.

If we aren't being eaten alive by brine flies, hiking up the side of a mountain with a wedding dress or ruining our clothing in a dirty train yard...

we are doing this.

And I'm pretty sure it was worth the 2 hour drive, my ruined pants, my torn up little toes, and all the millions salt particles left in my car. (Who knew vast stretches of pure salt could rip your feet to shreds?) Poor Sam's cousins. They are such troopers!

In other news...

We got our lighting kit!! YAY!!! (and a day early, too!) We now have the capabilities to do a studio photo shoot, on-location...your house, my house, or the park down the street! We actually took it along to the salt flats, but, um...couldn't figure out how to work it.

We'll have to take a gander at the ol' instructional video again. Even if we didn't know how to use it; though, you better believe we looked PROFESSIONAL with it all set up alongside us.

We have another photo shoot this Friday that I am way excited about. I am shooting Jason's cousins brand new little baby. He is only like a week and a half old, I can't wait! So stay tuned for those.

In other news...hmm. There really isn't a whole lot of other news in my life lately. It seems like everything is completely revolving around trying to get this business off the ground. I am even taking a few days off work this week to stay home, regroup, put my house back in order (I believe I have 6 loads of clean laundry to put away), and get my studio ready for li'l baby Tyson on Friday.

Also...only 5 days until Sam's birthday! AND only 8 days until Moab. I have never actually been to Moab for vacation-related purposed (just passed through) so I'm pretty excited. And hopefully I can get some cool shots with all the neat scenery down there.

Latest obsession

2007-08-15T03:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I feel a little lame admitting this, but I am in love with these books.

I know.

They totally make you want nothing more than to be bitten by your delicious perfection of a vampire boyfriend.

I said I know

Seriously, though. They are written so well, and they are just the thing to fill the Harry Potter-sized void in my life. (not that I ever wanted Harry as a boyfriend...completely different story)
I started the first one halfheartedly, and only because I had heard from a few different people they were worth reading. After the first 100 pages or so I was an addict. I could barely sleep that first night because I hadn't finished it and I was mulling it all over in my head. With the second book I simply stayed up till the crack o' dawn so as to not stress over what would happen.
I am excercising somuch self control to not rush out like a strung-out crack whore looking for her next fix to buy the third book. I have alot to get done this week and the first two experiences taught me that I become completely worthless as soon as the spine of the book is cracked.

My happy cup runneth over. (Don't judge me until you read them)

In other news...
I took my brother out for a photo shoot today. Other than leaving with out clothes and hands blackened from the dirt, I think it turned out fairly well.

(he's single too...!)

And a few more shots from this past week

Photoshoots galore!

2007-08-14T03:57:00.000-07:00

What a busy, sometimes smelly, sometimes crazy, altogether FUN week!

First, I had an impromptu photo shoot with my little brother. He happened to be with a few friends so I packed them all ni the car and took them along. I learned that 4 nine year old little boys running around a park is NOT ideal conditions for any type of photo to be taken, other than blurry ones. There was a lot of "hey, get back here! turn around! Stop hitting him and look at me! No, dont get off the rock yet! DO YOU WANT YOUR PICTURES TAKEN OR NOT!??!

I kinda forgot that I made them come with me, and they never actually asked for a photoshoot in the first place. oops.

Here is a picture of Stewart and Mitchell, two very cute brothers (cute anyway, when frozen in a picture....)

For our photo class on saturday we went to the Great Salt Lake. Read the full rendition of the adventure here....it was interesting. Never have I smelled something so rotten, sunk in "sand" I later learned to be made from the waste of brine shrimp, and been accosted with billions of tiny brine flies every step I took, all in a ten minute window.

but the pictures turned out okay, no?

I also took Kam and Loni on a little jaunt up Provo Canyon. We went to this cool place a friend told me about...all in all we ended up getting chewed out by this little old man for trespassing on his property. Pretty sure he would have beat us down had he not been, like, ninety. And had we not brought along our trusty big brown guy, Jason.

And then...the crowning glory of my week. We somehow talked Sam's cousin Alexis into donning a wedding gown from the D.I. and playing "bridal photo shoot" with us. Not only did the dress fit her to perfection, she was the best model we have had to date, I think. She was so natural in her expressions, and we hardly had to pose her. She should look into a career as a fake-bride model. Is there such a thing? We took the pictures at this old decrepit mine. Now, I love how the pictures turned out, but in oreder to get to said mine you have to scale a small mountain and climb all over hige slabs of graffiti'd cement. All in the blazing heat, should you choose to do it in the hot afternoon August sun.

I'm thinking if we ever convince a REAL bride to go there, we should probably work out a pretty detailed Waiver of Liability form. Something along the lines of "...cannot hold us responsible for the ruining of your dress, the sweat pouring down your face, the inevitable trips and falls, and possible need for a tetanus shot soon after...."

We'll have to look into that.

In the meantime...

(click on this one to see it full size and fully appreciate it)

(click here for more bridal-y goodness)

2007-08-08T01:49:00.000-07:00

*sniff*

I went on a great photoshoot today. And I'm so excited for the pictures. My computer at work; however, does not understand the emotion of excitement and therefore has decided that reading my USB cable to upload my pictures just isn't going to happen. Tonight has been so wasted.

Alas, you can see Sam's versions of said photoshoot here.

And tomorrow I will be bringing in the reinforcements (computer, that is) and spending the vast majority of the time that should be spent working, editing.

2007-08-07T01:55:00.000-07:00

This past week has been awe-some. I shot my vert first wedding...ordered my new camera, camera bag, and flash and took some spectacular shots that I am danged proud of.

SEE!!!

(for some more neat-o wedding shots, visit Sam's page.)

We also took Sophie on a little impromptu mini-shoot. We have been searching for a field to take pictures in (and not get arrested for trespassing....) and we have found it! Alas, they will probably mow it down to nothingness soon to make way for new homes, but in the meantime....

And finally...We had fire training again on friday, this time we actually burned down the entire house. I got some pretty bad-A pics, but this...oh this. This lil' treasure is my new pride and joy. I love how it all turned out. Maybe you have to be directly involved with firefighting/EMS...I dunno. Tell me what you think.

Active Recruitment

2007-08-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

Well the plans are underway. So far we have worked out a rough pricing schedule, some cool places to shoot, narrowed it down to 2 names (hmmm...perhaps a future post for votes on the names?), and have a whole list of things that need to be done but haven't necessarily been done. (less fun things, such as opening a bank account and getting a business license.) OH and we bought a really cute desktop calendar to keep track of the many upcoming photoshoots we have scheduled. Don't make fun of me.

Progress.

We have arranged a couple cool shoots to get our portfolio built up. Jenny (Sam's cousin) was fun to shoot and the location was awesome. (so awesome, in fact, we are keeping it totally secret and will probably go to the lengths of blind-folding any future clients going there just so they can't divulge the location. It will be like the bat-cave.)

Exciting stuff, no? We are also helping shoot a wedding tomorrow morning, as well as the Miss American Fork pageant in September. I am very excited for that. (again, all thanks to my cool hubby, see below post)

We are still looking for models to build our portfolio. If you live in or around Utah County and would be willing to donate yourself, child, spouse, yourself and your spouse or any combination of the above to the interest of our adventure, please do let us know!

In other news....Sarah over at Hollywood Flakes deserves a big kudos for sharing this little treat. It keeps track of all the blogs you ~~stalk~~ read and lets you know when someone has posted something new. It's pretty convenient to have it all at once click and not have to go rooting around for people who have new posts. I'm a fan.

The Best

2007-08-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Can I just say, I have the coolest husband ever!

Reasons why he rocks:

1. He has been super supportive of my latest scheme to start my own business (a photography studio with Sam ...very exciting but scary and intimidating stuff)

2. Not only has he been supportive, he just so happens to know some of the coolest places (and coolest people) to photograph, and has arranged for some awesome photo shoots for us.

3. When I thought all hope was lost when my digital camera deleted 500 of my vacation photos, he figured out how to get them recovered for me and brought them home to surprise me

4. He knows EVERYONE....seriously. It doesn't matter what city or state we are in, he will run into his junior high football coach, the lady who cut his hair as a kid, the girl he took to junior prom, and/or a host of other characters from years past. He remembers everyone...and everyone remembers him.

5. Come to think of it....he is actually really supportive of most of my schemes, ideas and quirks. Its a really good feeling to know you have a good man standing behind you, whatever you do. (especially when that man is a big brown guy who can look really mean and intimidating, should you ever need him to stand up for you.)

okay so thats not all the reasons why he rocks, but those are the main ones that are sticking in my head right now.

Vacations and more...

2007-07-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

So you know how I was all "yeah I have 4 whole nights this week with which to blog, and yeah I will post all my pictures from my trip" and blah blah?
yeah obviously, 6 days later that didn't happen. It's a really long story involving graveyard shifts, CPR classes ALL freaking day, and 12 hours of sleep in 5 days. I won't go into all the gory details but it was NOT a fun week.
And THEN I went to upload all my vacation pictures to find 400 (of 550) of them gone. Vanished. Poof. So many good, fun pictures, never to be seen again. Such a bummer.

On a funnier note:
We all went to Hooters one night in South Carolina. (6 boys vs. 2 girls....we didn't stand a chance) We had Kaden (11) and Kamber (8) with us. The conversation was as follows:

ME: Hey, Kade. Do you like the girls' uniforms?

Kade: Well, they are kinda wierd. Their socks slouch all wierd around their ankles!

Kamber: [cracking up] UMMM....I didn't even NOTICE their socks!!

It was hilarious that the younger of the two picked up on it, while Kaden was absolutely oblivious to the world around him. And it was also kinda sad to think that Kamber is that young and is completely aware of the world around him.

Anyways, 2 rental cars, 1 accident involving a deer in SF canyon, lots of relatives 100+ hours of driving later, we are home safe, sound and sane. Probably less sane than before the trip altogether, but happy nonetheless.

The Smell of Success

2007-07-16T22:07:00.001-07:00

Well, we are back from vacation. Safe and alive, albeit exhausted and less sane than when we left. More on that later.

Hypothetical situation.

IF you ever decide that buying a new house, moving out of your old one and packing for/planning a 2 week vacation in 3 days is a good idea, and IF your plane tickets get screwed up last minute and you and your insane family decide to rent a couple cars and make a cross-country drive in 40 eye-blearing, mind-numbing non-stop hours is a good idea and IF you decide that in the midst of packing for the move you will just wait and pack for the vacation after you have moved all your crap over and cannot find ANYTHING and thus have to resort to packing in a frenzied mad-dash sort of sitation is a good idea.....

For the love of all that is good and gracious in this world, make sure your freezer door is closed tight and the 10 pounds of hamburger you have stored in there do not defrost, leak and rot all over your new-house kitchen for 2 weeks in 100+ degree heat with no AC turned on.

OHHHH YA. We exhaustedly made it back to our humble abode around midnight on Saturday to the smell of ROTTING DEATH. Seriously, folks. There are no words to describe the smell of it. We gagged our way into the kitchen to find pools of rotted hamburger and blood all over the kitchen floor, the freezer looking like somebody had been shot, blood and gore drippings all over the shelves....I cannot even begin to describe the horror. It has been hours and hours of scrubbing and bleach-baths and still we aren't finished. 10 lbs is a LOT of rotted hamburger. (I won't go into detail about the use of the steam cleaner except to say this: if you thought rotted raw hamburger smelled bad, try smelling it after it has been cooked with a blast of steam.)

The smell had permeated the entire house. The blood pool had gone clear under the freezer in big gloppy dried-up messes, the water tray was filled, the bottom of the freezer was filled, and it was all rotted.

So, 2 days and $50 worth of Febreeze and Air-fresheners later, we are starting to get the smell out. I say starting to because it is not near the gagging death trap it was earlier, but you can still smell it when you walk in. It was in all of our bedsheets, the carpet...everything. We have air fresheners plugged into almost every outlet, little fans that blow air-fresheny goodness throughout the room, I am Febreezing EVERYTHING that is Febreezable, and we have super heavy-duty Arm and Hammer carpet deodorizer for when we get all the boxes moved and can actually SEE the carpet.

It has been a disaster of epic proportions. Who knew being a home owner was so much fun??

In other news, I have lots of pictures and stories from the South Carolina trip. However, this is my first week back on graveyard shift so I have countless hours ahead to blog it all away. So stay tuned.

Caution: Crazy Week Ahead

2007-06-25T09:23:00.000-07:00

I am dreading this week. Not only am I dreading it, I am also taking every opportunity to put off the millions of things I MUST do before Saturday. Things like, oh, move to a new house. Pack for 6 people to go to South Carolina for 2 weeks. Work. Clean my old apartment so as not to tick off the new renters. Refrain from losing my mind.

My 3 days off this past week consisted of rodeos, 5K runs, ambulance calls, BBQ's, and all other things Strawberry Days. My house is a wreck and there are piles of clean laundry chanting my name everytime I walk by them. I haven't packed a single box. The dishes haven't been done in a week. Heck if I can get my thoughts organized enough to even comprehend what needs to be done, let alone do it.

I'm sure "moving" will consist of a day and a half of throwing things to the truck, driving to the condo, quickly unloading everything into the front room.....and back and again. It will probably also consist of me coming home from vacation to a houseload of boxes and piles and just STUFF! Not sure how much I'm looking forward to it. Actually, I do know. I'm not looking forward to it at all.

So..here goes nothing. Wish me luck. If anyone has nothing to do this week....my house will sure be a party, come on by.

The Waiting Game

2007-06-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

Still wading (and waiting) through all the paperwork for our mortgage. Stupid, stupid STA travel company....trying to say I owe them $250 from a trip to Germany when I was 14.....which was paid. They have nevertheless gone ahead and added a collections account to my credit, dropping my score significantly. I was 14, it was that many years ago and they added the collection account 3 weeks ago.

I guess buying your first house should never go smoothly, right?

CURRENT COUNTDOWNS:

Janet Evanovich, Lean Mean Thirteen: 0 days, wahoo! Going to buy it after work, actually.

Strawberry Days: Tomorrow through Saturday

South Carolina Trip: 11 Days (I'm excited, but after 6 hours of plane rides and 2 weeks with the kids I will probably need a vacation.)

Harry Potter: 32 days! Good thing I will be on graveyards

Moab Trip: 82 Days

One of These Things is not like the Other

2007-06-12T05:26:00.001-07:00

At the fine institution that is the Orem Department of Public Safety, not only are the officers dressed in full uniform, the dispatchers are too. I dont know why. We rarely have contact with the public. However, it is what it is and the why is not really the purpose of this post. I used to think my dispatch uniform was kinda cool. When I first stared working here, I thought the police patches, shiny badge, and name bar were pretty dang sweet.

Yeah, not so much.

After about the first week, I realized it definitly was not cool. Whenever I go out in public in my uniform, I get a lot of looks, alot of comments about being an officer, and kids feel the need to yell out, "MOM! look! a GIRL policeman!"

So needless to say, I try to not go out in public in uniform too much without some sort of sweater or jacket covering my shirt. I didn't have one yesterday. Enter...my life...

[The scene: The baking aisle at walmart. Long day at work, I was tired and a little ornery.]

[The characters: Me. and some other lady.]

...and action...

ME: Walking around the corner. Not paying too much attention to anything but finding vanilla pudding.

HER: um, can you tell me how much this is?

ME: still looking for the pudding. Oblivious.

HER: excuse me. Can you please do a price check?

ME: wha..? oh..me?

HER: umm...yes. I need to know how much this is.

ME: oh. umm. I don't work here.

Her: [looking very confused and irritated] You don't. oh. well....okaaaaaayyyy....

At this point she wandered out of the aisle, looking very much like she did not believe a word that had just come out of my mouth.

...and cut.

Are you freaking kidding me? Have you EVER seen a Wal-Mart employee wearing a police department uniform!? No, I answer for you, NO you have not. Their security don't even look like police officers! I didn't even know what to say to her--my mind went completely blank with bewilderment. I just kinda stood there - eyes wide and confused, mouth halfway open. And then off she goes, shuffling away like the fact that I'm in police uniform and cannot price check her item is everything that is wrong with the world today.

Man, oh man. Some people.

Changes on the Horizon, or Why I'm sometimes an idiot

2007-06-10T07:45:00.000-07:00

Jason always makes comments that the random times we pass each other while driving around town, he always waves to me and I am always oblivious to the world around and never notice him.

So I was driving home from work yesterday and happened to glance in my rearview mirror to see a big brown guy driving a silver civic. So I start waving like a clown on crack to get his attention. (I noticed him, dangit and I was bound and determined to prove him wrong about never noticing.) So here I am, waving my poor little heart out when FINALLY he notices. I got a short and feeble hand waggle from him in return. Well I took offense to that and immediately STOPPED waving, beacuse you better believe if I am going to put my heart and soul into waving especially since I get crap about it all the time and I probably almost crashed my car trying to get his attention and he doesn't even have the decency to give his wife a hearty wave back then heck if I am going to waste any more of my joyful waving on him, thankyouverymuch.

Then the civic passed me. 'Lo and behold it was indeed a big brown guy driving a silver civic...but not MY big brown guy driving a silver civic. Who knew.

In other news....we are buying a condo!! YAY!!!

Well okay, we are in the process of buying a condo. We need to buy this year for taxes, but the homes in PG are absolutely outrageously priced right now and we would probably end up living in a one bedroom no bathroom roach-infested shack. Sooo...I give you our cute little 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo...

It will be so nice to stop throwing our money away on rent. Not to mention the pool, workout room and theater room!! We are so excited, and hoping to be in by the end of the month.

in other news, we went to the Summerfest parade last night. Kinda disappointing, as far as parades go. I took a bunch of pics but I forgot my camer cord today, thus having no way to upload them. So maybe tomorrow.

It's all worth it

2007-06-09T06:19:00.000-07:00

So last night, me and Jas decided to go get dinner at this chinese restaurant I have been wanting to try. We had nothing going on (other than the fact the we were on call) so we decided to do a half date night and go to bed early since I work early this morning.
So there we are in the restaurant, and since we had never been there there were a few things we wanted to try. We decided to throw caution to the wind and order whatever sounded good. We ended up with an appetizer, 2 big entrees, soup, a big bowl of fried rice, a big plate of chow mein....lots of food for two people. The bill was going to be significantly more than what we wold normally spend on a casual night out, but as I said, caution to the wind.
As our meal ended and the waiter brough our fortune cookies, he told us someone had taken care of our bill.
What?? Who?
We were so surprised. The only thing we could figure is since we were both in uniform for the Fire Dept, maybe it was someone we had helped? Maybe it was a mother whose baby went into a seizure for the first time. Or an elderly man who woke up with crushing chest pain at 3 am. Or the young mother whose dryer caught on fire and she had to stand and watch as firefighters brought out flaming piles of her clothing and belongings.
Or, maybe it was someone who has never had any personal interaction with us, but simply appreciated what is done everyday.
It really made me feel appreciated. Which is something I don't think a lot of people let themselves feel. It seems to have become almost a faux pas to let yourself feel good about something you have done to help someone else. While I agree it is important to do "small acts of anonymous kindness", I also think it is good to know that someone appreciates YOU...YOU have made a difference in someone's life. And for me, it was a small reminder that sometimes, doing just a little more than saying "thank you" goes a long way.
It was such a simple thing, and we will probably never know who it was....but it was just an "upper." It made both of us smile. It was a reason to continue happily going on the seemingly insignificant calls as well as the important, life-saving ones.

Then again, maybe it had nothing to do with the fire department. But since I will never know otherwise, I am going to continue to let myself think it did.