Sned Fam

Comedy

2012-02-02T09:50:00.004-07:00

First off, thanks for all your love on my last post. What a hard day it was, and sometimes I just need to vent. I think we are going to hold off on the referral for now to see if Rowan makes some improvements in his preschool first. Both Marshall and I feel good about that. I am feeling a bit better and am incredibly thankful for family, friends, kind words and small acts of service. THANK YOU!

If you've ever heard of Brian Regan, you'll know that he's hilarious. Marshall and I have loved his stuff for years. He's a super clean comedian that manages to keep you laughing, without doing what many other comedians do. I've seen certain comedians in the past that I turn off in less than 30 seconds because of what comes out of their mouth. When I heard Brian Regan was coming to SLC, I knew what I wanted to get Marshall for Christmas. I checked on tickets, only to find that they were mostly sold out and pretty costly. Then around Thanksgiving, I noticed that they added 3 more shows and found a place that sold the tickets cheaper. We went on a Saturday afternoon and had 7th row seats.
Before the show, we ate lunch at Tucanos (a Brazilian restaurant) and took the train down to where the show was, at Abravanel Hall. What a day to be outside. Tons and tons and TONS of rain which then turned into snow. I was wearing a pair of boots that were more for cute than protection and my feet were so wet and cold. When we finally got to the show, we couldn't stop laughing. The kind of laughing where your cheeks hurt so bad after an hour and a half. He did 10 shows here in SLC and I'm hoping he comes back again next year, it was so worth it! Wonderful date with my sweetheart. In case any of you haven't heard of Brian Regan, watch one of his clips below. Love it!

Not Cut Out To Be a Mom

2012-01-31T15:11:00.004-07:00

I generally am pretty good about putting a smile on my face and telling others that I'm doing well. What other's don't know sometimes is behind that smile, I'm hurting. I would like to think that I see the glass half full most of the time. I feel like if I do get down, I have others telling me how good I have it and how much worse it could be. I don't want to hear that today, because it's not going to put things into perspective or make me feel better. I don't want to hear about other's problems that are "worse" than mine. Maybe my challenge is just as hard as a different challenge is to someone. Today, I'm definitely feeling totally defeated and at a bit of a loss. I need to get it off my chest. As you know, Rowan has had some developmental delays which I talked about last month. Today we went in for his well child visit and it couldn't have gone worse. At first, it wasn't too bad. He was ok getting weighed, measured, bp taken. Once the nurse stepped out and the Dr. stepped in, it seemed that everything went downhill. He was laying up on the exam table eating a granola bar and became unruly. It had chocolate on it, and he wiped his chocolatey hand on the wall. I told him no, wiped it off and he did it again. This happened a few more times before I got him off the table. Once on the floor, he started thrashing. Our ped, trying to help got a wet wipe and asked Rowan if he could wipe off his hands. He screamed, tried to scratch the Dr. and finally got his hands wiped down. I tried to pick him up and he started thrashing and hitting me. At this point, I'm trying to have a conversation with our ped while trying to manage Rowan. I put Rowan in a naughty spot in the corner and it only made things worse. He screamed, threw himself backwards and kept trying to hit me. I almost didn't recognize this child.
The ped started asking me a bunch of questions about his behavior, vocabulary and asked if he had regressed from his 3 year well child. I think he's about the same with a bit more vocabulary. He then began to ask me about ADD, and if there was any family history of mental problems, asperger's, etc. We talked for quite a while, this whole time Rowan basically failed to use any sort of communication with me or the ped and was aggressive. He does have bouts of this, but it's not usually this bad. Chandler was laying on the chair at this time, and was down on the floor. The ped got after him and asked me some questions about Chandler as well. After chatting with him for about 10 minutes, he also suggested that maybe there is some sort of pervasive development disorder or which is on the mild spectrum of autism. He told me he wanted to refer him to a child psychiatrist for a second opinion. He said at least if we meet with a child psychiatrist, we could rule out certain things, or pinpoint the problem. He also said that it would probably be a month or so before they would contact us since they are pretty booked out. He wants to see Rowan back in a month. This whole conversation, I was fighting back tears.
Once I got in the car, it all came out.

I cried the entire way home.

Today I feel like life is unfair and I'm not cut out to be a mom. I have already had so much guilt about school, but once school is over, I'm still wanting to work part time. I need that outlet in my life, but it means that my kids are in some sort of childcare. I see over and over how stay at home moms are grateful to stay at home with their kids, but I want to work a couple days a week. I look at some families with 5 kids and they are able to manage better than I can with 2. I see how they behave sometimes and wonder what I am doing wrong. Yes, tell me not to compare, but today I'm going to compare. I'm going to compare because I'm feeling bitter.
I'm also confused at this referral from the ped. He spent 10 minutes with Rowan, asked me 50 questions and sent out a referral. Is his 10 minute evaluation and referral justified when I am his mom and am with him a lot of the time? I told him I did have some testing done and he is getting help through the school district, but I almost feel in a way that he dismissed that. Part of me doesn't want to go through with the referral because I feel that we need to go forward with his special preschool for a bit, but I don't want our ped to think I'm not advocating or being neglectful of my child. He kept telling me that it probably came somewhere genetically and I'm just so darn frustrated I want to scream. What do I do?

I seriously love my boys, so much, but sometimes I wonder if I could ever handle any more kids. Marshall and I have discussed when to maybe have another child, but days like today I almost feel like we should be done. I can't handle it, I'm not cut out for it, and I feel like I'm not doing a good job.

Now excuse me while I go take some Aleve with a Coke, my head is throbbing and I think I'm dehydrated.

Well Child Checkups

2012-01-31T15:09:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again! Here are the stats for the boys:

Chan @ 6 years:
45 lbs - 50%
45 inches - 50%

Rowan @ 4 years:
35 lbs - 50%
40 inches - 50%

Growing just like they should!

A Day In NYC

2012-01-29T07:17:00.001-07:00

At the end of last month, I was invited to become a Slim-Fast Ambassador. I'm sure some of you are shaking your heads like I don't need to lose weight, but the idea behind the ambassadorship and program was to create a WOW moment. I'm still carrying 10 extra lbs from before the first time I got pregnant. I'm also shooting to run a half marathon in 2 hours, so those are my goals. You can read more about it here.

I went to NYC on the 16th and 17th for a Studio Wow event. Amazing and quick trip to say the least. We are 45 mins from the airport, flight is 5 hours and it was another hour to get to my hotel in NYC, so to say the least, I did a ton of traveling in just a few short days. Some of the other bloggers were only being flown in for the day but because I live farther away, they put me up in a hotel that night. I stayed at 70 Park Avenue. This was posted above my bed. The part that you can't see on the picture said, "hold" in red. I didn't get it either.

While I was there, I was too afraid to go out by myself, so I opted to order in room service that night and the next morning. In case you are wondering what $25 of room service in NYC looks like, see below. Breakfast in the morning was equally as expensive.

The next morning, I went for a nice run, ate breakfast at the desk in my room, and skyped with my Rowan man since it was his birthday. I spent my time showering and getting ready which doesn't happen all that often and checked out at 12 pm.

I was then taken over to Gary's Loft, where Studio Wow was set up in a top floor penthouse. It looked pretty amazing!

I had this fantastic view of the Empire State Building if I looked out one of the windows. Too bad it was foggy that day!

We ate lunch at a fabulous place and then came back to Studio Wow to have our own little wow moment. The Studio Wow team was so amazing and included photographer Nigel Barker, beauty expert Joey Maalouf, chef Robin Miller, stylist Jacqui Stafford and Ali Auerbach - their registered dietician. Here is the kitchen where Robin Miller was set up.

I met with each of them one on one and it was so much fun. I was excited to get this picture with Nigel Barker:

Ali gave me tips on how to lose a bit of weight while I train, Joey did my hair, Jacqui showed me some styles that would look great on me, Robin let me taste some of her meal creations, and Nigel took some pictures! Below is my headshot that I was e-mailed, pretty fun, right?

Amazing experience, and I'm excited to meet my goals!

Rowan's 4th Birthday

2012-01-22T11:16:00.005-07:00

It seems like between the months of November and the first of February, we never stop celebrating. In that time span we have Chandler's Birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Marshall's Birthday, Rowan's Birthday and my birthday. It's a good thing that our anniversary is in the summer. ;)
Rowan's birthday this year fell on a Tuesday (the 17th) but we celebrated on the Saturday before.

I was going on a blogging trip on his birthday and so we celebrated his birthday on a Saturday which worked out great. We pretty much stayed in, had an ice cream cake, and opened presents. Rowan was pretty content to watch his new movie and play with his new toys so we didn't go out. I still don't think he understood fully what it meant for it to be his birthday, but he knew he got to blow out candles and got presents so he was a pretty happy camper. From us he got: a cars 2 puzzle, the cars 2 movie, a big interactive Mater car from Cars 2 (seeing a theme?), and a little Mickey Fishing game. He also got some Trio Fisher price sets from Gma & Gpa Snedaker, and $20 from Puppy and Papa Nielson. We opted for an ice cream cake this year which I thought was a great success. I don't love to make cake, and when we buy the themed cakes, we end up having so much leftover which I don't want hanging around. So instead we bought a Lightening McQueen car and stuck it on top of the Ice Cream Cake. Huge hit, genius thinking.
I took a ton of pictures that night and when I went to upload them today, they were all magically gone. I'm so disappointed to say the least as we had gotten some cute pictures of him. We, however took some video which I've compiled below. He got so so excited, and even has a Mater impersonation down, so you definitely need to watch the video below! (Ignore the title text thing, I forgot to put in a title in imovie.)

At age 4 Rowan's:
Favorite Foods: Peanutbutter toast and waffles, fruit snacks, apples, french fries
Interests: Trains (still), Cars 2, Transformers, playing iPad
Is wearing: size 4T pants and shirts, and a size 10 shoe

We sure love our little Row Row and even though he isn't a baby anymore, he's still my baby. Happy Birthday Rowan!

Happy 29th

2012-01-14T12:29:00.002-07:00

I love this man. He turned 29 on the 7th. Got him shoes, some smell good stuff, a new shirt, and Boyce Avenue tickets for when they come to SLC in March. Made cupcakes with blue frosting. Went to Winger's for dinner. He says he had a great birthday, much deserved.

Basketball Practice

2012-01-06T10:43:00.005-07:00

We've wanted to sign Chan up for some kind of sport for a while but wanted to wait until he wanted to and was ready. In looking into Jr. Jazz, he was able to play this year as long as he turned 6 before the end of the year. We signed him up, thinking he'd be playing with other kindergartner's. They didn't have enough of his age sign up so he is playing with first and second graders. There is one other kindergartener on his team, the only girl, and he's the youngest. Most of the kids we know because they live close and are in our ward at church. It was so funny to see our little man with all of these bigger kids. He really looks small. He has practice once a week and 8 games starting at the end of the month. I took a short clip at his first practice. I think he was clueless, but totally had fun and even made some baskets while they were practicing shooting. Look for the shortest one with a jersey and you will see Chan. :)

Potty Talk

2012-01-04T09:26:00.002-07:00

It seems that on a daily basis the boys are doing something that we are laughing at or just shaking our heads and wondering, what were they thinking? The other night, Marshall and I were downstairs watching TV and the boys were upstairs in their room. We took a quick break and Marshall went to check on the boys.
He found Rowan in the bathroom, pants off, sink full of water with his feet in the water. He was bending forward to dip his little bottom in the sink. After taking a survey of the area, he saw "skid" marks around the bathroom sink and poop in the toilet. He also noted that the toilet paper was out.

Rowan indicated to his dad that he needed help with his bum. Poor little guy didn't know what to do without any toilet paper, so he created a homemade bidet to try to get clean. Marshall got Rowan down from the sink and went to find some toilet paper. Once he found it, he brought it in to Rowan, and what did Rowan do? Not wipe his bottom, but proceeded to wipe his skid marks off the sink. What a good boy. But really, one of those moments....

Rowan Rides the Bus

2012-01-03T12:55:00.002-07:00

Today Rowan got on the bus, his first day at his special preschool. It was a bit hard putting my 3 year old on a bus, but he was oh so excited.

Once on the bus, he was totally ready to go. He looked a little panicked when another child we know got on the bus screaming, but I'm sure he'll do fine. Cute little man, I really do love him.

Sledding In Idaho

2012-01-01T21:11:00.004-07:00

While we were in Idaho, we went sledding/snowmobiling up to the Rexburg Bench with Marshall's family. Lots of fun!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

This year we were able to spend 5 wonderful days with family in Idaho. The trunk was packed tight and I don't know how we fit everything, but we did. We left on Thursday evening and got up there at about 10:30 pm. The boys were wired to say the least and continued on like that for the next 4 days. :) All day Friday, we spent the day with Snedakers. It was the best night for everyone to get together since Marshall's brother's family was headed down to Utah for Christmas. We spent the day eating, playing games, and enjoying each other's company. That night we played chimes which is a pretty fun tradition that they've always done. We also did a fun little gift exchange and the kids got in on that one too. Then we sang carols and exchanged sibling gifts. We got a bunch of marshmallow shooters and I think everyone had some fun with those.

Christmas Eve we spent at my parent's house. I started the day with a nice long workout and then we all hung around. I went to Idaho Falls with my dad to do some last minute shopping as well. We spent a few hours making Christmas cookies and after 5 dozen somehow they all got eaten, (including the cookies we had set aside for Santa.)

We had our classic Christmas Eve dinner of Hoagies, salads and cold shrimp. YUM! The boys got to open their Christmas jammies and I must say that they looked VERY cute.

Afterwards we watched the nativity, sang some songs and watched the show 17 Miracles. It was a very humbling show to watch. The kids all put food out for the reindeer and then we got them into bed. It was close to midnight before they all went to bed. I made a fun movie of Christmas Eve, all on my phone. Marshall and I both got the iphone 4s back in November, and I've had so much fun with it. All of the video was taken with an 8 mm app and edited in iMovie. Yes they have imovie for iphone! Way cool, right?

The next morning we got up at around 8:30 am and the boys were so excited with what Santa had brought. He brought duplicate presents this year, thus no fighting. Santa is one smart cookie. We opened presents, and had a delicious Christmas breakfast.

And here's a short clip from Christmas morning.

At 1 pm, we headed to church. My parents were speaking and they did a fantastic job. What an amazing blessing to be able to have Christmas fall on a Sunday and to be able to go to church.

Sunday afternoon, we went back to Snedakers. We had a delicious turkey meal and played games and visited the rest of the night.

How grateful I am to spend this time of the year with family. It's so fun to have kids too. Their excitement rubs off and reminds me of when I was a child. Hoping that your Christmas was as wonderful as ours!

Kindergarten Christmas Program

2011-12-17T11:35:00.003-07:00

Chan had his Kindergarten Christmas program yesterday. Lots of singing and lots of distracted little kids. We were sitting back a little bit and all I had was my phone so I didn't get any decent pictures. I, however, got some video of a couple songs. Chan is in red and keeps turning to the side. Gotta love the reindeer antlers.

The BEST Feeling

2011-12-16T18:49:00.001-07:00

We Believe

2011-12-15T19:38:00.010-07:00

I took the boys to see Santa today. While standing in line, there was a big sign that said, "We don't want your kid to have a picture with Santa unless you pay $25." Maybe it wasn't quite worded like that but they didn't allow cameras or cell phones for pictures with Santa. Lame. Might I add that the $25 package came with like 1 5x7 and a couple 4x6's? Talk about a 1000% markup. We waited for a half hour, and then Chan was star struck and didnt talk much. He told Santa he wanted a robot? Uh- yeah....ok? I think his mind changes every day, depending on what catalog we got in the mail that day. Santa told Chan to be sure to be good and not go to time out. Chan just stared at him in awe. He must have seen him in time out a few times this week. Amazing what the man in the big red suit knows. Rowan mumbled a few things in a very Rowan like way and we got a picture in front of a Christmas tree. (Free of charge, provided by my iphone.)

For the record, at 28 years old - I still believe.

School Update

2011-12-10T15:24:00.003-07:00

Since three of us are currently in school, what better way to take a break from studying than give a little update on school?

First, the boys. We got a call from Rowan's special ed teacher. He will be going 2 days a week and will also be meeting with a speech pathologist on a regular basis. His teacher, Miss Anita and I set some goals and he will go in for his IEP testing next Friday. So, next semester he will go to the ECCLES lab preschool full time Mon, Wed, Friday, and his special preschool on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I had parent teacher conference with one of Rowan's morning teachers yesterday. Her name is Lisa and Rowan adores her. She went over the whole semester and just how far he's come. We also got a nice binder that his other teacher, Miss Heather made to document his progress and pictures. It's fun for me to see everything that Rowan has done while in preschool. When I have a few more minutes, I'll scan in some of his preschool binder pages. I'm so glad that he will be going back there next semester.

Chan is soaking in school and doing well. I am helping with his classroom Christmas party next Friday and he's excited for that. Loves his teacher and is having a great school experience so far. I know many doubt the public school systems, but I have nothing but good to say about it so far. His teacher is wonderful, he has friends in school, and he's learning, happy and motivated.

School for me. I'm burnt out and am coming up on a much needed Christmas break. I just finished 480 clinic hours for the semester. I have a small final on Monday and then a Physics registry on Wednesday. This will be my second time taking the physics registry. I took it back in May and didn't pass by just a few questions. That was disheartening, and it costs $200 every time you take it. I've been studying a LOT this time and will be very surprised if I don't pass it this time around.

The thing about ultrasound, is that there isn't just one board you have to pass to be registered. You have to first pass physics. It is the only board you can take while still in school, you just have to have had a passing grade in the class. I want to get it out of the way so that I can take one of my other boards when I graduate. There are tests/boards for OB/GYN, Abdomen, Vascular, Neonatal Heads, and Breast. I'm planning on taking OB/GYN when I get out of school and then maybe taking another one a few months after that. I'm really excited that there are only two semesters left! There has been talk of hiring some students while we are still in school so I've been stalking the job boards to see when they post. Doesn't necessarily mean I'll get a job, but I can always hope. US techs make a pretty good amount and it would sure help us pay off some debt if I could get a job while still doing my clinical hours.

Marshall is the only one not in school right now, but he's expressed wanting to go back to get an MBA. I definitely think it's a great idea since it's always good to continue learning.

Staples

2011-12-03T11:14:00.003-07:00

I can't believe we've made it 6 years with Chan without any stitches/staples. He did tear his top frenulum when he was about 2, but other than that, no big mishaps. I was at clinic yesterday and Marshall texted me saying he was going to pick up Chan early because his babysitter thought he needed stitches. I guess he fell down the stairs at the babysitter's house and hit his head on a bookshelf. The girl who watches him also lives in a townhome much like ours, so I knew he had fallen down a full flight of stairs. Naturally, I really wanted to be there, but I was stuck at clinic. Because I was so worried, Marshall gave me a play by play via text on my phone while taking him to the Dr. . I wasn't too worried after seeing him chill in the Dr.'s office with a sucker and a kid's magazine.

2 staples later, he was fixed up and ready to go home. :)

Delayed

2011-11-30T17:28:00.002-07:00

I've known for a bit that Rowan wasn't quite on track with his speech. He has a pretty good vocabulary but doesn't really know how to apply it. He goes to preschool 3 days a week, and was evaluated by a speech therapist about a month ago. He passed hearing but they felt that he needed further screening. After contacting the school district, we set up an appointment for a screening. Today was that day. It took about an hour and a half, and we met with a Speech Pathologist, Early Special Education Teacher and a Psychologist. He was actually pretty cooperative for most of the testing which I was glad about. They had me fill out a bunch of papers, one for Asperger's. He really doesn't exhibit the signs for that, and the survey I took showed that, but he is delayed in other areas. They rank children on a scale much like they do a growth chart. So like if your child is 50% for weight, that means they weigh as much or more than 50% of other kids their age.
In cognitive development, Rowan ranks in the 3rd percentile, meaning he doesn't know how to use his words appropriately. He also ranked in the 10th % for receptive and expressive language, and 4th % for Social/Emotional. In order to be referred for a category, they need to be at or under the 7th percent. I guess they felt like he needs help in receptive and expressive so they are referring him for that as well. He ranked in the 11th % for adaptive behavior/ self-help skills and 80th % for physicial/motor development. So he's actually ahead on physical and motor, but is lacking everywhere else. We are getting referred to a special preschool through the district and we will get a meeting set up in the next couple of weeks to see if he will be am or pm and how many days a week he qualifies for.
This has honestly been a really hard thing for me as a mom. It's hard not to compare your kids to other kids their age and see what they are doing. I know people are proud of their kids, but it almost hurts when I see what another kid is doing or I see a Facebook update about how amazing and smart their kid is. I know I shouldn't feel this way, but I've shed some tears over it.
At this point, I am so glad that we are getting some help for Rowan. He is the most amazing and wonderful little boy and I want to give him every advantage this world has to offer.

Oh Christmas Tree!

2011-11-28T22:02:00.004-07:00

We got our little tree up tonight! For the last few years, we've been saying that we are going to get a new Christmas tree and it doesn't ever happen. We have a skinny little tree my mom gave us probably 5 years ago and it's served it's purpose, so we keep it. Tonight we cranked the music, and put up that little tree. Chandler exlaimed that it was the most beautiful tree that the had ever seen. I love how simple things make him so happy. The boys were so happy to decorate the tree and I foresee Rowland our elf making his appearance in the next day or two. He's an elf that plays at night and watches the boys during the day. He reports back to Santa to make sure they are being good. For now, here's our humble and most beautiful Christmas tree!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T21:53:00.002-07:00

Thanksgiving this year was spent up in Idaho. We spent the majority of our time at Marsh's parent's house. We left Thanksgiving morning and got up there that afternoon. The next few days were filled with lots of laughter, tons of food, and wonderful family. The boys had such a great time with their cousins and played until they were exhausted. All of the girls went to Breaking Dawn on Saturday and it was fun to have some girl time. We stayed at Snedaker's home until Saturday evening and then we spent Saturday night and Sunday at my parent's house. It's so much fun to be able to spend time with family.

Gma Snedaker with Chan, Rowan and their cousins Claire & Jake

Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

2011-11-12T11:44:00.003-07:00

We went to Yo Gabba Gabba Live! again this year. I think the boys both liked it a ton more. Instead of being at The E Center, it was at Kingsbury Hall. We were only about 15 rows back, so we were a lot closer to the stage. I think that helped the boys get into it a lot more. Plus, they've been watching it on Netflix so they knew the songs and the characters a lot better. They sang, danced, and smiled to their heart's content.

Chandler's 6th Birthday

2011-11-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Chan's birthday on a few different days. Marshall's parents were supposed to come down the weekend before, but ended up not being able to make it. I had already ordered a cake for Saturday, so we decided that we would celebrate anyways. Chan woke up Saturday the 29th early in the morning screaming that someone was hurting him. He must have slept wrong on his neck because his neck was hurting him the entire day, he couldn't even move. That changed a few of our plans since he basically stayed in bed until 4 in the afternoon. Marshall still went to pick up his cake though and he got to open his presents from us when he was feeling better. He got a Spiderman figure and the Cars edition of Sorry! The rest of the night we laid low and played his new game.

We celebrated again on the day of his actual birthday. He got to open his presents from his grandparents. Grandma & Grandpa Snedaker got him some Pokemon cards, a folder to put them in, and a Pokemon game. That folder with those cards hasn't left his sight since. Puppy & Papa Nielson sent $20 so that Chan could go pick out a present. He ended up getting a Joker toy that goes with his Batman Imaginext stuff. We then went to Planet Play and played on their arcade games, mini bowled, and Chan played laser tag with Marshall. Chan kept asking me that day when he was going to turn 6 because we weren't celebrating? I finally realized that he thought he had to have a party with lots of friends in order to celebrate. I told him that we don't have a party with friends every year and this year we were just celebrating with family. I guess I just don't want him to have expectations every year of a party. We ended the night at Coldstone. Still can't believe he's 6.

Halloween

2011-11-05T18:59:00.004-06:00

Halloween this year was fun! Chandler got to dress up for his parade at school that day. Then that evening we went trick or treating. This is one time that I love living in town homes. The homes are close together so there's less walking. We went for about an hour and the weather was absolutely perfect and warm. Marshall sat by the door to give out candy while I went trick or treating with the boys. My sister had a witches brew party a few weeks before so I already had a great witch costume. I dressed up and a few people didn't recognize me. I think it was the blacked out teeth. Nice, right?

The boys were both transformers, bumblbee and optimus prime. This was the first year since I've had kids that I didn't have any say in their costumes. Chandler didn't care at Rowan's age since he didn't have an older brother. But because they like everything alike, they both wanted to be Transformers. (I forsee some duplicate toys at Christmas so that everyone is happy.) The boys loved coming back and helping hand out the rest of their candy. I actually think it was their favorite part.

Happy 6th Birthday Chandler

2011-11-01T01:31:00.000-06:00

Chan,
It's hard to believe that you are 6 years old today. I look back on the last 6 years and it's been some of the best of my life. Our whole world changed when you were born. This last year I've seen you grow and stretch in so many ways. You started kindergarten just a few months ago and can already write your name, all of your letters, and are starting to read. You're so smart and I'm surprised at how quickly you catch on to things.
You have really mellowed out the last few years and are a really good boy. You are a great helper and listen really well.
You've lost your first two teeth in the last 3 weeks, both your bottom. Just another realization for me that you are growing up. You're definitely a mama's boy and always want to sit next to me at the dinner table, will hold my hand if I lay by you before bedtime, and are always good to give me hugs and kisses. You are a great example for your little brother and are so patient with him.
You love to play the ipad, loved going swimming countless times this summer, and love playing with other kids.
Your favorite foods have not changed much and include corn dogs, and bean burritos. You and your brother are really into superheros and especially transformers. You are really witty and say the funniest things right now.
Thanks for being you and for being such a wonderful little boy. Dad and I love you. More than you'll ever know.

Love,
Mom

Family Pictures

2011-10-30T01:16:00.000-06:00

We had some family pictures and pictures done of the boys about a month ago. I was so impressed with the place we went. Our photographer was amazing with the boys and even got Rowan to smile which is impressive. :) Best of all, we got all of the pictures on a cd for us to print out how we want. Nice, right? I didn't want to resize them all, so they are a bit smaller than I normally post pictures. I went through and picked some of my favorites, but there were lots of other good ones on top of all of these! If you want to see any of them bigger, just click on the image.

Hee Haw Farms

2011-10-22T21:27:00.002-06:00

Hee Haw Farms is a fun place to visit in the Fall, or so I've heard. I took the boys about a week ago, and they had so much fun. There was so much to do. They rode an animal train (aka animals behind a lawnmower), rode down a big slide, played in the hay, in a big corn pit, on a blow up toy and more. We also took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin. We went right before dark so it was a little hard, but Chandler found a perfect little pumpkin just for him. Rowan had already gotten a pumpkin a few days before when my friend took him to a pumpkin patch the day she was watching him. It was a lot of fun and a good reminder of how much fun it is to have two little guys.

Rowan is such a ham. He actually will stop to smile for the camera now which I love.

Riding the animal train

Sliding on potato sacks

Chandler & his pumpkin

St. Charles, Suzuki Momfest

2011-10-20T10:16:00.003-06:00

I've got quite a few posts to crank out, and since it's my day off, I'm going to do some blogging! For the first time in well over 4 years, I feel like this blog has been put on the back burner. My other blog brings us income, which we need right now so it still gets a lot of attention. But when I step back to think about it, this blog is my journal. It's where I record my thoughts, milestones for my boys, what's going on in our lives. So in all reality, I can't put my journal on the back burner either.

2 weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to beautiful St. Charles, IL for a Suzuki momfest. It was the first time Suzuki reached out to mom bloggers. They wanted us to get to know the brand, and I although I was only there about 30 hours, I most definitely feel like I know the brand better. I flew into Chicago at about 4 pm and joined some other bloggers on our trip to St. Charles. It took another 2 hours to get there which was a lot after already being in the airport all day and taking a 2 hour flight to St. Charles. St. Charles was on the top 10 list of places in the US to live as far as family friendly cities go, and I can definitely see why. That night we had a meet and greet dinner. There were 12 bloggers in total. We stayed at Hotel Baker which is this amazing hold hotel. I had a hot tub on my balcony and a beautiful historic looking room.
The next day, we learned more about Suzuki, test drove cars, went to Target for a fun scavenger hunt, attended the scarecrow days in St. Charles and had a fantastic lunch. It was fun to make new friends and learn more about the company.

View from my hotel room just after sunset

Beautiful St. Charles

The pretty red Suzuki Kizashi that my friend Jacque and I got to ride in all day. It was a standard and not everyone could drive a standard, so we were in this one. We ended up getting lost, and doing a little offroading, lol. It was a super nice little car. Honestly, I would consider Suzuki for our next commuter car. The warranties are awesome and they drive well.

Louise from MomStart, Me, Jacque from Blessings Abound Mommy

Lost Tooth

2011-10-09T18:19:00.002-06:00

Chan lost his first tooth last Wednesday, Oct 5th. He lost it right before school and was pretty excited. Kind of a weird milestone to hit for me and I'm not even sure why. He put it under his pillow that night and the tooth fairy brought him 50 cents which he was super excited about. We had an idea that he bottom two teeth would come out first because we saw his permanent teeth on xrays this summer on the bottom.

Free Time

2011-09-29T19:03:00.003-06:00

I can't believe it's been close to 3 weeks since I posted. That's unlike me! Just busy I guess. Most nights when I get home from clinic, I'm too tired to do anything. I make a conscious effort to try to get a run in because usually it gives me a bit more energy. School is going well. I can't believe I have 6 weeks down already! I usually only have 1 day off a week so I definitely need to make the most of it. Today I tackled a mountain of laundry. I'm on load 6 and only have 1 more load to do. :) Also went full out grocery shopping for the first time in a month. My house still looks a bit like a disaster but that's because I needed to get out and actually spend some time with the boys. If I get free time, you bet I'm going to soak in my little boys.
After Chan got home from kindergarten today, we packed lunches and headed to the splash park. We have a huge park/splash pad only a block from our house. It was a perfectly beeautiful day, in the low 80's which is nice for the end of September. The boys played for close to 2 hours and I enjoyed actually being outside.

Eating lunch. Nutella and pb for Chan. He loves nutella right now.

Playing on the splash pad. Isn't it a pretty day?

Amazing what fun a plastic baggie can create.

Abc's

2011-09-10T22:53:00.001-06:00

Rowan has started singing a lot lately, and he always feels the need in the car. He's just cute. That is all.

Zoo Day

2011-09-06T08:39:00.000-06:00

What's the summer without a day at the zoo? My mom was here a few weeks ago. I totally look forward and soak up the time when my mom is down here. Although she lives 4 hours away, she makes it a priority to come down quite a bit to see her kids that live in Utah. She spent a few days helping me clean, take care of the boys, and we took a trip to the zoo. This year, they have Zoorassic park where there were huge exhibits of dinosaurs all around. They seemed really lifelike and some of them even spit water. Rowan was terrified of the huge T-Rex. Once we got home, I realized I didn't get any good pictures of the Dinos, but still got a few cute shots.

Checking out the monkeys

Grandma Puppy helping the boys get on the Rhino

Kind of a cool wooden horse.

It was lunchtime for the elephants!

Hiking, Bocce, Crafting, Boating

2011-09-04T09:30:00.003-06:00

I'm finally getting around to posting the last about Bear Lake. The day that we went to the Minnetonka caves, we also went for a hike. The hike we went on was Limber Pine Loop. It was close to bear lake, and makes a loop. It was about 2 miles, so a perfect distance. All of the kids did great!

Everybody before the hike.

All of the grandkids together for a group shot.

Rowan and his hiking stick

View from the top of the loop.

Rowan getting a shoulder ride from Uncle Geoff

That evening, my brother organized a bocce game. The kids and adults had fun playing.

The kids prizes were inflatable animals. Rowan was riding around on this Flamingo half the night like this. Who knew dollar store toys could be so cool.

The girls also did a flip flop fabric craft. We tied pieces of fabric around our flip flops to get a fun look.

Didn't mine turn out cute?

My sister in law Cheryl and I showing off our flip flops

The last day that we were there was a day spent at the lake again. There was more boating, food, and burying in the sand. The first day that we were at the lake, all of the kids were riding the tube. They somehow all fell off and so Chan and Rowan weren't interested in riding the tube anymore. Thank goodness for life jackets and for some of the older kids stepping up to take responsibility for our little guys.

Such a relaxing vacation, and I can't wait for our reunion next year!

Kindergarten

2011-08-30T16:36:00.002-06:00

I've heard people say many a time that the older you get, the faster time goes. Late 20's is not old by any means, but I feel like life is literally flying by. Chandler started kindergarten today. I thought I would be all sorts of emotional, but really I was just excited for him, and I think he was excited too. He got to have his favorite breakfast of nutella & whipped topping in crepes, and we pulled out his new backpack. Before leaving, Marshall gave him a Father's blessing which was a great idea.

When he got to school, he played with some of the other kids on the playground before the bell rang. Once the bell rang, he lined up with all of the other kids in his class. I went to say goodbye and his reaction, "Mom, you can leave now. I'm fine, really."
I've always been one of those paranoid and overprotective moms. I don't see that changing anytime soon. I don't let my boys go outside without me, like to have them in my sight. Chan is almost 6 and still in a 5 point harness car seat. Better overprotective than under, right?

The time flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to go get him. He had a great day, and was excited to tell me all about it. I had to poke and prod a lot, but eventually learned what they talked about, the book they read, and that there is a girl that sits next to him with a "K" in her name. Ha ha. Here is a picture he drew today. Total heart melter.

And now I'm ready for time to stop. I want Chandler to stay little forever. I guess that one is out of my hands.

Random Thoughts About a New Semester

2011-08-29T07:41:00.003-06:00

I still am not done blogging our Bear Lake trip, Marshall went up with the boys camping for a few days, and Chan starts school tomorrow, so I'm behind on a lot of blogging. However, I wanted to sit down and get out some of my thoughts on a new semester.
I quit my job about 3 weeks ago. Actually I went prn which means I can pick up if I want to. I am so enjoying not working graves and having my body in a regular rhythm. I am thankful for a good hubby who basically told me to quit when I saw my fall syllabus and almost had a nervous breakdown. I worked my last night on the 19th. Things definitely have a way of working themselves out. I'm making almost as much monthly with my Babes and Kids blog as I would be working at the hospital, so that income won't be missed too much.
This semester, I'm in my specials rotation with 1 general day a week. The first 6 weeks, I am up at Primary Childrens. It's been a good experience so far, but it's always hard when you are the newbie somewhere. I'm getting used to that a lot since this is the 5th hospital I've been to. I'm not getting to scan at all, it's mostly observing, but I'm hoping as I'm there longer that I'll get chances to scan. My one general day is with my preceptor I had my second semester and I'm excited to be back with her. I will also be going to breast care and inpatient at IMC this semester. I'm currently doing 32 hours of clinical a week, along with 1 day of classes. My classes are an ethics and vascular class which are 8 hours of coursework. Needless to say, it's staying pretty busy. I'm still loving ultrasound and know it was a good decision. There is a possibility that I could get hired on before I graduate which I am crossing my fingers on.
Since Chandler is starting kindergarten tomorrow, it's going to be a juggling act with the boys this year. I am in clinic and class 4 days a week, so on those days Marshall will take him to school, and then my friend that lives across the street will bring him home and he will be there for the afternoon. Rowan is back at the Eccles lab, where he and Chan were last Spring. He's loving it and jumped right back into being in preschool there. I love his teachers and know he is in good hands. The only bad thing - we're feeling the sickies already. Rowan woke up with a fever of 102 today, and I'm sure he picked it up Friday at school. Thankfully Marsh is staying home with them today so that I can go to my first day of lecture and clinical the second half of the day.
I'm feeling torn about Chandler starting school. His teacher is really awesome, and he did quite well in his kindergarten assessment. I'm just amazed that he's almost 6, and going to kindergarten. Where does the time go?
I got released from the Primary Presidency yesterday, it was bittersweet. I only served there for 20 months, but I think the Lord is mindful of how crazy my life is right now. I'm going to continue serving in Primary as the Teacher Coordinator though.
I'm still running a lot and am training for a half marathon October 8th. I set a goal time to finish in under 2 hours and 10 minutes, and I think I just might get there. I'm running faster than I was last summer and that's exciting! Marshall is signed up to run the dirty dash this next month with his work group. (It's a 10K mud run.) That will be fun to watch. :)
I guess I have to get back into the taking it one day at a time so that I don't feel overwhelmed. I've always been blessed with how much Marshall does around the house. He cooks, cleans, will do laundry, take care of the boys. It sure makes everything go smoother. His job has also been very flexible which has been a huge blessing.
I guess that's it for random ramblings....

Before and After

2011-08-19T14:15:00.004-06:00

Marshall and the boys are up in Idaho camping. I had to work 2 days, and I couldn't get it off. So I've had lots of time to play around in photoshop the last few days. I figured out how to make eyes pop a bit more, airbrush and more. I took the chocolate cookie out from under his mouth and brushed up some of the owies on his face. Granted, you can't always get rid of stuff like that, because that's what makes them a kid. ;) It's been so much fun. Just wanted to share a before and after picture of Chan, love how it turned out!

Before....

After

Minnetonka Cave

2011-08-17T20:38:00.009-06:00

The second full day that we were at Bear Lake, we went to the Minnetonka Cave. Pretty amazing experience. Since I'm not going to explain it right, here is what the cave is all about from their website:

Minnetonka Cave is a fascinating 9-room cave of stalactites, stalagmites and banded travertine that was originally found by grouse hunters.Enjoy a guided 90-minute, half-mile walk into this beautiful cave. Be prepared for the 400 steps up and down in the cave and bring a jacket, since the cave is cool at about 40 degrees year round.

Since they only start tours on the hour, we had to wait for the next tour. The kids stayed busy trying to feed the chipmunks. I didn't actually get any of them in the pictures, but they would come right up to the kids and eat out of their hands. The first time that one took a cracker from Chandler, you would have thought he won the lottery, it was so cute.

Chandler with Uncle Jason in front of the cave

This is my niece Bianca. She is so so funny. I told her to smile, and she crosses her eyes, sticks out her hands, and starts making monster noises.

These are the steps you see when you first walk into the cave. It was definitely chilly at 40 degrees, and there were a TON of stairs. 444 in and 444 out to be exact.

One of the stalagmites. It's funny how they look like people and things. They all had names.

Overall, it was a really great experience. Marsh and I had to carry Rowan during portions, but the boys did great. It was a very cool cave, I would recommend it to anyone visiting the Bear Lake area.

Nielson Family Reunion 2011 - Bear Lake

2011-08-12T10:24:00.002-06:00

This year was our 2nd annual Nielson family reunion. If you remember, last year we rented a house on the Oregon coast. This year, we spent 4 days in Bear Lake. We rented a beautiful lodge very close to Bear Lake. We spent the days boating, eating, hiking, going to the Minnetonka caves, going for Raspberry shakes, playing bocce, crafting, watching movies and more. It was such a fabulous vacation and so nice to see my siblings and parents. I had over 250 pictures after I'd gone through and deleted over 100, so I'm going to share some of my favorites from each day. And since a 4 day vacation post would get quite long, I'm going to break it up by day. So here is some from Sunday night when we got there, and Monday. I realized I didn't have a lot of Chan on this day, but I think it's because he spent a lot of time on the boat while I was on the beach taking pictures.

My dad's reaction in this picture is funny. It was really a lot darker, we were out by the fire roasting marshmallows.

My beautiful sister who lives in Oregon - I hadn't seen her and her girls for a year. Isn't she pretty?

Rowan totally rocking my sunglasses

We tried to get a picture of Marshall and I, but the f-stop was set really low on my camera, so instead it's focused in on Rowan, who appears to be thinking. :)

The tube of terror! Fun stuff! Lia, Avry, Me Cheryl (My sister & Sister in laws)

Geoff and Cheryl spent all of this time making my nephew Kaden into a merman. Ha!

The first of 2 days that Rowan napped on the beach. Notice anything out of the ordinary?

He got buried in the sand and fell asleep about 5 minutes later. He stayed like this for over an hour!

I call this picture "sand toy"

My niece Maeli

Pretty shot of Bear Lake from the beach

Marshall

Stay tuned for Tuesday pictures....

Lagoon

2011-07-31T18:00:00.005-06:00

I've wanted to take our boys to Lagoon since we moved down here. I knew however, that we would spend most of the time in KiddieLand, so of course we couldn't justify $130+ (that's probably with a discount) going. My sister and her husband both have Lagoon days, and I was so so excited when she said she had extra tickets for our family to go.
I think it would be an understatement to say that the boys were in heaven. I'd worked (of course) the night before, so we didn't get down there until 2. It was really hot and weirdly humid. I was surprised at how patient Rowan was to wait in line. He had his moments of course, but he did really well for the most part.

Chan was tall enough to ride a few of the roller coasters, and loved going on The Bat. I'm surprised at the fact that he has absolutely no fear, and would have ridden some of the big coasters if he could. Our tickets included a nice lunch and so we sat with with my sister and her husband to have lunch.

Later in the evening, Avry and Justin took the boys so that we could go on some bigger roller coasters. It was fun, but I'm much more into seeing that the boys have fun. My brother, sister in law and their two girls were there as well, so a bunch of us adults went on some of the rides. I did about 5 rides and was done. (Can you say dizzy/puke? ;) ) We were able to validate our passes and are probably going to be bouncing back for $10 a ticket this week, which I'm excited about. Thanks Justin and Avry for the tickets, we really appreciate it!!

Lewis Family Reunion

2011-07-24T18:39:00.003-06:00

One family reunion that we try to attend every year is my grandma's. (My dad's mom.) Although she's passed on, we still go to the reunion, and this year my aunt's family was in charge of it. It was in Lava Hot Springs, ID. It's normally all weekend, but we just went for Saturday. It was close to a 3 hour drive for us. We got up there just after lunch. We had planned on going swimming, but after seeing like 500 people at the pool, we decided we weren't going to do that. Floating the river is something that a lot of people like to do, and my mom said she would watch our boys, so we walked up to one of the tube rental places. On the way, we saw a cousin that had broken her toe. Then a few minutes later, we saw my dad and brother Geoff. They were all beat up and had some pretty good cuts up their arms, legs, on their sides, etc. I guess my dad had fallen off, and they both got cut up trying to get him back on. It sounds like they dragged down the river for about a minute.

I was a little bit apprehensive after this, but we finally decided that if we got a 4 person tube, it would be less likely for us to tip. Marshall, Geoff and I ended up going down the river 3 times and it was actually really fun, with no tipping of tubes or falling off.

The family reunion had a Harry Potter theme, so when we got back, we were separated into our houses and played quidditch. (I'm sure I spelled that wrong.) Then it was dinner and the auction which is of course fun every year.

Picture of mom, Avry & me, with brother Geoff in true Nielson style. HA!

It was another late arrival home as we didn't get in until 1, but once again I'm glad we went. In 2 weeks we are headed to Bear Lake for 4 days for another reunion which I am super excited about. Love summer!

Idaho 4th of July

2011-07-21T10:38:00.003-06:00

If there's anything I've missed since we moved to Utah 3 years ago, it's been the 4th of July in Idaho. We always had big celebrations with barbecues, parades, and of course the biggest firework celebration this side of the Mississippi. Don't believe me...just get up to Idaho Falls for the 4th. They have the most incredible show. The only hard thing is splitting time between our families since our parents live a mere 5 minutes apart. It's something that constantly stresses me out, but we had a good time anyway.

Sunday night, we barbecued with my parents and cousins. We set up the big shark slide that we brought up and it was a hit with all of the kids.

Before everyone got to my parents for the barbecue, Chan spent time playing Boggle with my dad on his ipad. Love moments like this, I wish I could freeze them.

One comedic part of the evening - We all sat down to eat and suddenly there are goats wandering around in my parent's back yard. It was funny trying to watch everyone chase them off and get the back through the fence because they would just come back over. A neighbor finally came and got them back home.

I made some pretty delicious strawberry lemonade cupcakes that night, and the boys kept going back for more. I posted the recipe here. I finally had to put the brakes on after each of them had had 3.

The next morning we went to the Rexburg parade. Below is my mother in law Jana, and my sister in law Ashley.

It was pretty warm and the parade was like 2 hours long?! The boys were pretty good sports. We had ice cream, and tons of candy. I should have put a halt on the candy because Rowan threw up right as the parade was ending. It happened again in the car which warranted pulling the car seat out, and cleaning out everything. He felt better later that afternoon, so I'm pretty sure he had too many sweets. I always tell the boys that too much candy is going to make them sick, and then they sing the Yo Gabba Gabba song back to me about candy making them sick. I think it might have clicked with Chandler when he saw how too much candy did make Rowan sick, lol.

That afternoon, we did the slip and slide at grandma and grandpa Snedaker's, jumped on the trampoline, and had another barbecue.

Next it was off to the Idaho Falls Fireworks with my parents and my brother and his wife, Geoff and Cheryl. We found a nice spot right by a hotel, and about 30 minutes later a lady tried to kick us off. She ended up letting us stay which was good. It was fun to see all of the people and have the anticipation of the fireworks!

The fireworks didn't disappoint and they were even more spectacular than I remember.

We had to drive home that night since I had clinic and Marsh had work the next day. We ended up getting home at like 3:30 am, but it was so worth it.

4th of July Peek

2011-07-05T19:16:00.003-06:00

I have about a million pictures to go through from our weekend in Idaho for the 4th of July. However, I found this one of Rowan and totally loved it. We were waiting at the greenbelt for the fireworks here. So so cute. This one is straight from my camera, unedited. I love the colors. 4th of July to be continued....

Blogging Is My Favorite (Running Too!)

2011-07-01T10:54:00.005-06:00

It's no secret that I love to blog. Family blog, product review blog, and I've recently started a new blog. Well, it's well over a month old. I know I'm totally nuts for doing it, but I wanted a place to be able to track my running and share experiences, journal, etc. I actually just registered for the Layton Half Marathon in October, and I'm going to be keeping track of all of my workouts, sharing about gear, and doing recipes. Should be fun. Since I've run a couple half marathons just to run them, I'm going to set a time goal for myself this time around. I'm hoping to finish in under 2 hours and 10 minutes which is under a 10 minute mile. I generally run comfortably around a 10:30-10:40 mile, so I will be pushing myself more, but I totally believe I can do it!
Anyways, if you are interested in checking out my running blog it's here: See Tiff Run

Basketball Boys

2011-06-29T20:46:00.001-06:00

These boys are Marshall's. No doubt about it.

Cleaning It Up

2011-06-27T20:03:00.007-06:00

So lately I've had a total lack of energy. I blamed it on just about everything, and everyone told me I had such good excuses, but I was tired of making excuses. I pretty much fell asleep during a scan last week at clinical. I was watching a tech, closed my eyes, and caught myself just before I went head first into the patient's bed. I felt just a little bit dumb.
I tried to pinpoint why I was so tired, and decided that half of the problem was my diet. I don't have problems with exercising, I love to run. I generally get enough sleep. I only work one night a week and Marsh is great to let me sleep in on Fridays and take a Sunday afternoon nap. I seriously eat a lot of foods that just aren't good for me, and while I believe in eating cookies and candy, I need to stop at 1 serving and not eat the whole bag. So last Tuesday I decided I was going to clean up. I can't believe what a difference it's made, and it's only been about a week! Making sure to drink a lot of water, fresh fruits and veggies, lean protein, good carbs. Like I said before, I don't deprive myself of sweets, but I watch the calories on the sweets. I've not only noticed a difference in my energy levels, my skin seems clearer, my bowels seem happier with me (yes, I had to add that), my tummy isn't 20 weeks pregnant looking bloated like it usually is, and I'm just feeling good. Tonight when I came home from school, I had enough energy to play with the boys AND clean the kitchen. Doesn't seem like much, but normally I don't have enough energy to do anything after a long clinical day, so this was huge for me.
A friend of mine that I'm at clinical with right now and I set up a challenge. I've always wanted to get down to my pre pregnancy weight from before Chan, but I've always hung onto 10-15 lbs. I know I by no means need to lose weight, but it would be a fun milestone to hit. We set goals for each week, are tracking and encouraging each other and are going to reward ourselves for the milestones we hit. I'm currently 12 lbs away from pre pregnancy Chandler weight and I'm excited to have a goal in mind. Random ramblings, yes. Good for me to write them down, yes. :)

Pampers Blogger Day

2011-06-19T11:03:00.002-06:00

This last Monday through Wednesday, I attended a blogger event for Pampers at headquarters in Cincinnati, OH. I'm one of 21 ambassadors for Pampers and so they gave us the chance to all come out for a blogger day. It's fun to be an ambassador for a product that I believe in and have used with both my boys. I got there Monday at about 3ish, and the first thing we did was go on a P&G archives tour. This was really interesting, and there are some brands that I wasn't aware of that P&G owned. Pampers has actually been around for 50 years and it was fun to see the history behind it. The picture below is actually the first Pampers baby. Isn't it scary? Looks like a man on a baby's body, lol.

After that, we headed out to Drees Park/Pavillion. We had an incredible view of Cincinnati and I got to visit with some of the bloggers and PR reps and get to know a little more about everyone.

They had this adorable and yummy Pampers cake.

The next day was packed with a lot of different things. We spent the day at Baby Care, Pampers Headquarters. We started the morning by sharing what we are doing for our Miracle Missions. Pampers gave each of us as Ambassadors $1000 to do a random act of kindness as part of their 50 year celebration. Mine is still in the works, but I'm donating to our local homeless shelter, and also putting together gift baskets for mom/baby refugees. It was incredibly touching to hear about what everyone was doing for their Miracles Mission.

Next, we got a chance to hear from and interview Rosie Pope. She's a maternity clothing designer, and also has her own reality show, Pregnant in Heels, on Bravo. She was incredibly gracious and adorable. All of us bloggers designed a diaper and Rosie got to choose her top 3. Mine wasn't one of the top 3, but it was fun to design anyways!

We spent the afternoon discussing different ideas, taking a tour of the facility, seeing changes and new designs on Pampers Cruisers and learning about 3 new apps that Pampers has in the works. (One is actually already out, and it's pretty darn cool. It's called Hello Baby if you are interested in downloading it.) They gave us new ipad2's so we could try out the new app which was a big surprise.

At the end of the day, we took a quiz to see who remembered the most information from the day. I ended up getting the most right on the quiz and won a year's supply of diapers! It came in coupon format, so I can save them and use them with our next baby. :)

Overall it was such a fun trip and I'm looking forward to the next time we get together!

Blankies

2011-06-12T16:05:00.002-06:00

When both of the boys were born, my mom gave them each a nice fleece type blanket that would grow with them. Granted, they aren't big enough for an adult, but perfect for a child. They have their names embroidered on them and have become favorites of both the boys. They sleep with them every night. They will sometimes walk around the house wrapped up in them when they are cold, especially Rowan. Chandler's is yellow with ducks, and Rowan's is blue with a transportation theme.

A Whole New Ballgame

2011-06-08T22:12:00.008-06:00

I started clinical in the Vascular Lab this semester. Even though I was feeling pretty good in generals last semester, Vascular is a WHOLE new ballgame. Our Vascular class in school isn't until this Fall, so it's a bit hard to grasp, and I really have to think about things and break them down. Monday was my first day and boy, was it a doozy. I watched carotids, ABI's, venous legs, and a venous arm mapping. So crazy and so incredibly confusing.
Now that I have about 31 hours under my belt this week, I'm feeling a bit more confident. Today I scanned about half of a leg by myself, but it's still so frustrating and mentally exhausting. I can't believe how much this brain of mine will hold, it's quite incredible. Here's about 3/4 of the veins in the leg that we scan, just because I need a picture. (Not a fan of all text posts. ;) Oh, and you would scan the veins in the leg to look for a blood clot. Veins collapse, so you push on them to collapse them to insure there isn't clot.)

I have a really great preceptor, and some other great techs to follow. I'm just hoping I can get a lot of it down in 8 weeks which is how long this semester is. Needless to say, I'm exhausted, my house is a complete disaster, and we've eaten out 2 of the last 3 nights.

In other news, the boys started a new preschool this week. Some of the stuff seems really weird about it, and the last two days, it sounds like Chan has watched a good amount of tv. I haven't been in there other than to tour it before we signed them up, so I'm feeling apprehensive as well. I had a good cry to my sister today, and Marshall and I aren't feeling all that great about it, so we are going to explore other options at this point. I want my babies taken well care of, and most definitely do not want them watching a ton of tv, that's not why I enrolled them in a preschool? I feel pretty blessed that my good friend has helped me watch them a lot, that's been my only saving grace this week.
To be quite honest, I've felt like a horrible mother the last few days. I'm at school while someone else is watching my kids and I'm not with them. Alas, another reason I cried today. To put things into perspective, I am about half done with my program, which means that I'm closer to getting to spend more time with my little men, and that much closer in being proficient in something that I seriously love. Marshall continues to be a rock and my support. For that, I am grateful.

So I guess that's it. I'm incredibly tired, but I'm looking forward to the fact that I can sleep in past 5 tomorrow, spend some much needed time with Chan and Rowan, do laundry until my heart is content, catch up on some blogging, and clean. Now please excuse me while I go pass out in my bed.

Just Like Me

2011-06-02T10:53:00.003-06:00

You know how when your kids are born everyone tries to say, "Oh he looks just like you, or he looks just like your husband." ? I've gotten that with both the boys, but I don't think either of them are a spitting image of either of us. However, as the boys get a bit older, I see that one is more like me, and one is more like Marshall.

Chandler is just like.........me

He's got my terribly dry skin, gets eczema if we don't lotion him down after baths.
Today we went to the dentist, and it was confirmed that he has my teeth and my weird oddities. He's had 2 teeth filled, and has a few more cavities forming in between teeth. He's also got a molar that has 3 roots which is somewhat weird. His top teeth are twice as big as the baby ones he has which means that there is going to be some serious crowding. The dentist said there would be braces in his future. Me? I've had like every tooth in my mouth filled, and missing all 4 of my wisdom teeth and a permanent tooth for which I have had an implant.
There's a weird bump on the back of Chan's head that I also have.
He's got my hazel eyes.
Although his hair is short, the texture is coarse, like mine.
I catch glimpses of his side profile and I see myself.
The middle of my top lip has a lot of shape and is smaller than the bottom. So is Chan's.
His fingernail shape, just like mine. (Which I got from my dad.)
He's tall and skinny, built just like me.

Rowan is just like.....Marshall

Rowan has this crazy soft hair, just like Marsh
He's got a pointed head, just like Marsh
At the Dentist today, he commented on how great his teeth look and how he has strong enamel. Confession - we don't brush Rowan's teeth as much as we should, and they are perfect. Just like Marshall's.
Their ears look a lot alike, from the shape to the detached earlobe.
Rowan is also tall and thin, but built a bit more like Marshall. He and Chan have the same measurements around the neck and stomach.
He has the LONGEST straight eyelashes, just like Marshall. (I've always teased Marsh about his eyelashes, say they look like horse lashes. Really it's because I like them so much. :) )
Rowan's top lip is straight across, just like Marshall's.
He does not have Marshall's brown eyes, but hazel like mine. Guess the hazel gene has been dominant.

Their mannerisms have both been learned, and I see a lot of Marshall and me in both of them. Chan is SO imaginative and I know it's due to Marshall. Rowan loves to cuddle, and so do I.
I sure love these boys, and it's fun to see their physical differences and who they are most like.

Day Out With Thomas

2011-05-29T20:29:00.002-06:00

We wanted to take the boys to Day Out With Thomas last year, but I almost choked when I saw ticket prices. It wasn't in the budget and we couldn't justify it at the time, so we didn't go. I was so happy this year to get a media contact for my Babes and Kids blog so that we were able to go for free. The boys had a ton of fun riding the train, and doing different activities.
Our tickets were for 4:30, and we stood in a line for a bit thinking it was to get on the train. It wasn't the line, and we barely made it on. It was a sold out ride, so there was nowhere to sit. Luckily some nice people moved for us. I got a new lens for my camera which I was super excited about and got to really use it a lot for the first time this day. I think it captured some awesome shots.

Love this picture of Marsh and the boys on the train.

Chandler with Sir Topham Hat

It started raining after we got off the train, and some people that were sitting by us decided they were going to leave. They gave us tickets for food that they had paid for, so we got free cotton candy and ice cream. The correct way to eat cotton candy. ATTACK!

Posing with Thomas the Train. Shortly after this picture with Thomas, Rowan had a TOTAL meltdown realizing that it was time to leave. Kicking, thrashing, hitting. It was horrible. Understandable when Thomas the train is what matters most to him in life. Overall, I think the boys had a great time, but I'm not 100% sure it would be worth $18 a ticket that they charge.

Headbands

2011-05-24T13:52:00.004-06:00

I am SO not crafty. I think that part of my brain doesn't work. My sister Avry however is a master crafter. (If you are into crafting, you should probably check out her crafting blog.) She's awesome at decorating, making just about anything and has great taste. In fact, if you were to come into my house, 99.9% of my decorations are ones that she's made or gotten me. Her latest and greatest creation - a bunch of adorable headbands. Totally love them. Thank you Avry!

No Shame

2011-05-23T12:43:00.004-06:00

We entered Marshall in a contest. And we need votes. At first he didn't want to flaunt his attractive back all over the internet, but when he found out he could win free laser hair removal on his entire back, we got to work. Seriously, there's only 5 people entered, so he has a pretty good chance. Voting goes through next Monday!

Visit here: http://www.my995fm.com/pages/elase/
And vote for: #2

Marshall's Back Thanks You.

Pretty

2011-05-18T00:11:00.003-06:00

Out back we have tulips that bloom every year. I so look forward to them, so pretty. Don't they make you happy just to look at them? Marshall also gutted our bed in the front and I can't wait to plant it. Now only if it would stop raining long enough for us to do it!

The Climb

2011-05-10T16:29:00.002-06:00

I was editing some photos of a picnic we went on the other day, and I couldn't help but see this in the pictures I took of Rowan. I've also been thinking about quite a few things and people...they know who they are.

The Climb

We all have to start somewhere. We grab on, hold tight and trust.

Occasionally we take the time to stop and think about everything going on.....sort through things, just to keep on climbing.

At times you climb, not even sure where you are going or what you are doing. All you know is you need to make it. (At this point, it would be best not to look down.) Just listen to the encouragement below you and continue on.

And when you finally get there, sit back, enjoy, and stick your tongue out at all that crap that tried to pull you down. Cause you made it.

Mothers Day

2011-05-08T20:47:00.004-06:00

Mothers Day is a pretty good idea if you ask me. It's a chance to get to celebrate the wonderful woman I call mom, and it doesn't hurt that I get a little bit of pampering being a mom too. :)
I'm generally a consumables type person, and although I think flowers are beautiful, sometimes they seem impractical as they don't last that long. Marshall brought me the best of both worlds.
He had the boys each pick out a plant/flower for me which was a wonderful idea. I can't remember what either of them are called since I don't have a green thumb or the little tag handy that came with each flower, but I don't care - they're beautiful!
Here's the indoor flower Chan gave me.

And the one Rowan got me that we will plant out in our flowerbed, once we get it cleaned out, etc. Marsh said he wanted me to pick out flowers for the bed and get it all prettied for the summer. We haven't done it yet, but I think it's a fab idea.

This morning, Marsh brought me breakfast in bed. My favorite - crepes with fresh fruit and whipped topping. At church, I was relieved of my primary duties and got to go with all of the women to Relief Society. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a rut with primary and I definitely needed the lesson today.
The rest of the afternoon consisted of a nap, and laying around. So so nice. After dinner, Marshall brought out the Magnum Ice Cream Bars. He said they used to eat them when he was in France, and searched high and low when he got back in the states for them. Could never find them. Guess what? 8 years later, they are available. Your cue to drool and head out to the grocery store to find them.

Incredible, and for the record, I don't like to share them...

And last but not least, I've been wanting something from Vera Bradley for a while. A few designs were 50% off last week, and I bought myself a Mothers Day present...at least that's my excuse.
It came yesterday and I love it. But that may not be a good thing. I'm already looking forward to someday getting a purse. :)

Chandler's Preschool Program

2011-05-04T17:36:00.003-06:00

Most days when I ask Chandler what he learned at preschool, he mumbles "I dunno..?" Sometimes I can get out of him what he ate for lunch and that he played outside and that's about it. He had his preschool program yesterday, and it was fun for me to see just how much he's learned this semester. You're going to think I'm pathetic, but I about teared up when they came in singing "See ya later Alligator, See ya later Alligator.....See ya later Alligator, it's time to say goodbye!" to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic. His teachers Miss Jacque, Miss Laura, and Miss Karen have been phenomenal. It's crazy to think that Chan is going to kindergarten this fall, and he'll be 6 in November. Am I old enough to have a kid that old? I guess so. Anyways, he did such a great job in his program, sang all of the words and was a regular champ. In all, there were 26 kids in the program, but since the preschool runs full time, some are afternoon kids, some are morning, some only come Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Tuesday Thursday...you get the idea, right?

He's been singing all of his songs since he came home yesterday. Avry came with me to the program, which was really nice. I was using a new video recorder, my Sony Bloggie, and I should have turned it sideways to take video because it looks all funky. The battery went dead about halfway through so I didn't get some of the other fun songs that they did. This preschool was really a blessing for Chan this semester, and he loved it. (This video is super long, almost 10 minutes. Blogging = my journal, therefore I upload it. If you watch any of it, watch a few minutes in when they do "Tooty Tot." It's hilarious!)

Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon

2011-04-30T14:51:00.003-06:00

I love to run, I really do. And I've decided I really like half marathons. They aren't so long that you feel like you are going to die, (aka the marathon I ran last year) but 13.1 miles is also a challenge and a test in and of itself when you get down to the last couple miles. I signed up for this marathon around New Years, simply to give me a goal. I like to have races to train for because then I'm a lot better about exercising. My mom, sister, and sister in law also signed up. A few weeks ago, I decided I wasn't conditioned for this race like I wanted to be. Life is simply too busy that I was lucky to get 2 maybe 3 runs in a week.
It was freezing, and snowing during the first part of the half marathon. I'm not sure how cold it was exactly, but cold enough to snow. I'm glad that I dressed warm. I got into a groove and stuck around an 11 minute mile almost the entire time. We ran through the Thanksgiving Point gardens and all around the golf course. It was definitely challenging with tons of steep hills, but was so so pretty. When I run outside here in Eagle Mountain, all I run are hills, so it was fun to pass people up who had to walk them. :) I also kept my hat and hoodie on the entire time, which lets you know that it never got much warmer.

My brother Jason and Marshall and the boys were cheering us all on at the finish line. I finished in about 2 hours and 28 minutes which means it was about an 11'15" mile. I actually felt great after the race and will be sore for a few days but that is to be expected.

While we were waiting for everyone else to come in, the boys played on blowup toys, and met the Chick-fil-a cows. Silly cow decided to sit in my stroller at one point which I wasn't exactly happy since the weight limit is like 90 lbs. He then posed behind it and pushed it around a bit. Strange but funny.

Mom, Lia and Avry coming down the homestretch!!

We got some great shots together when everyone came in.

We all had matching shirts that said, "How is my running? 1-800-RUN-FAST." Ha! (I dare you to call the 1-800 number.)

It was a fabulous run and I love being able to do with family. Can't wait until the next race, whatever that might be.

Easter & Dad's Birthday

2011-04-26T08:16:00.005-06:00

Although we were up in Idaho just two weeks ago, we went up again Easter weekend for my dad's birthday and Easter. His birthday happened to fall on Easter this year. I worked Friday night, so we headed up bright and early Saturday. I didn't get much sleep on the way up, but the girls were planning on crafting Saturday afternoon while all of the guys went to shoot guns, so I operated on less than 2 hours the entire day. Avry had stuff to make charms for necklaces. They were super easy and so fun to make.

The afternoon got away from us quickly! That night, all of the men helped dad sheet rock in his lawn mower room that he is refinishing. The boys had so much fun playing with their cousins, and I think this is one of the first times I haven't felt stressed the entire trip because I was always worried about my kids. We still had to keep a good eye on Rowan, but he's getting easier as he gets older. It was so nice!

Sunday we went to church and then came home to do a big birthday/Easter dinner for dad and an Easter Egg hunt. We all pitched in with the eggs and figured that we had about 179 eggs for 8 kids! My brother also brought full size Reese's eggs, so my kids came away with a haul of candy. My parents also hid 4 eggs for the adults, and I happened to find one that had $20 in it.

Dinner was incredible and it was fun to be there for my dad's birthday. He's definitely a great dad and I'm proud to be his daughter. I totally forgot to bring my camera this trip so I had some fun playing around with my dad's camera. He also gave me a little lesson while I was up there on photography which was fun. He's got some really REALLY nice equipment so it was fun learn a little more.

Tennis

2011-04-20T06:00:00.000-06:00

Marshall and I both played tennis in high school. He was actually very good and played singles. I was down lower on the roster and usually ended up playing mixed doubles, but we both really liked it. Chandler got a racket last year and loves to go play. He's actually quite decent at hitting the ball and is trying to serve. Funny watching a 5 year old try to serve. He's really patient with it.

Rowan loves chasing the balls back and forth and was quite content to try to hit and push balls around with an extra racket we have the entire time. Looking at these two little boys playing tennis, it reminded me of a time Marshall and I went to play right before I had Chandler. I was 39 weeks and trying to get myself to go into labor, so we went to play tennis. I got really into the game, forgetting that I was 60 lbs heavier with a gigantic belly and tried to slam a ball down. Needless to say it HURT when I came down. I almost peed my pants and had some yucky pelvic pain that night. Chan didn't care. It didn't put me into labor. Anyways, tennis is fun for our family to go play and will be something we can enjoy for years to come.

Weddings and Graduations

2011-04-19T08:30:00.003-06:00

Last weekend we went up to Idaho for Marshall's sister's wedding. (Ashley) We left Thursday morning and were there until Sunday afternoon. It was so nice to go for more than a day or two, caught up with a lot of family and had a wonderful time. Ashley went through the temple on Thursday night, and it was the first time Marshall and I had been together in a long time. Amazing how kids put a damper on actually going together. She got married Friday afternoon in Rexburg, had a dinner that night, and then a reception Saturday night. She married a nice guy from Calgary, AB (AJ) and they make a fabulous couple. We couldn't be more happy for them, and it will be fun to get to know a new brother in law. I took a ton of pictures but here are just a few.

Ashley & AJ

Chandler and his cousin Claire

My brother Geoff and his wife Cheryl also gradauted from BYU-Idaho. If I remember right, Cheryl graduated with a Bachelor's in Music Education, and Geoff with an Associates in Architecture, and a Bachelor's in Construction Management. Geoff spoke at his department graduation and did a great job. They are headed to Moscow for graduate school in the Fall and I admire them both for continuing on with Master's programs. I know all I could think about was a break when I got my Bachelor's. Congrats Geoff and Cheryl!

Chan Rides a Bike

2011-04-17T01:19:00.006-06:00

Last year, we got a Strider Running Bike for Chandler. It basically doesn't have any pedals and is supposed to teach balance. He used it all of last summer and this Spring when we got it out, it became apparent that he needed a new bike. We got him one for Easter, but since we are going up to Idaho for Easter, we figured we would give it to him early. He was up and running in 15 minutes. 15 minutes! Doesn't it usually take longer than that? Crazy how fast he caught on and now he's looking like a pro. We never put the training wheels on, because that is the purpose of having a balance bike. I'm a firm believer in this Strider bike now, and Rowan is cruising all around on it. He's pretty fast, and I bet he'll be riding a bike next summer. Anyways, we went to play tennis today, so we took bikes and taught Chan there since it was flat and we didn't have to worry about roads. What a fun milestone!

Woohoo!! On his own

Fast little Rowan on the Strider Running Bike.

The Process

April?

2011-04-08T09:43:00.004-06:00

I think the weather is a bit confused. We are up in Idaho for Marshall's sister's wedding and we woke up to this today. (This is just outside my parent's back door.) Oh well, it's still pretty!

Grape Juice

2011-04-06T22:39:00.002-06:00

This little boy makes me happy. And I love that grape juice makes him happy.

Life

2011-04-05T19:15:00.003-06:00

A day at a time has been my motto lately. Sometimes the days and nights get long, and I have to remind myself to live in the moment. Since I'm trying to do that, I thought I would give a brief update on everyone in the family. (More for journaling sake than anything else.)

Marsh is incredible as always. Sometimes I wonder how I got so blessed to end up with him. Making dinner, cleaning house, playing with the boys. He's seriously stepped up to the plate so much since I've started school, especially clinical. His support is overwhelming and I just love him. Work seems to be going ok for him. He likes it but feels limited to what his boss will let him do at times. If any of you know Marsh, you know he's always wanting to go above and beyond. He's constantly trying to improve and help things at work, but it doesn't always seem to work. I have to tell him to just keep trying. He's currently Sunday School President and is enjoying his calling. His entrepreneur mind is always on, and he's been doing some pretty heavy research for a business idea he has. It has to do with....mommy bloggers. ;) Stay tuned on that one. He's still deeply into NBA and rooting the Lakers on. We canceled our cable about 5 months ago, so I feel bad he doesn't get to watch his games live, but that doesn't stop his fanness. (Is that a word? If not, it is now.)

Chan is his adorable 5 year old self. He's witty, funny, and such a good boy. Of course he has his moments, but overall, he's always wanting to please. He's really doing well in preschool, can write his name, and is starting to sound out some words. He's inquisitive to how the world works around him and needs an explanation for most things. Still into superheros, loves The Incredibles, playing outside, and video games. (Of course.) He's really excited to go to Kindergarten in the fall and seems to be growing up so fast. It's weird to be scanning other pregnant women and think back to 6 years ago when I was pregnant with him.

Rowan. Sweet Rowan. He's cuddly but very independent at the same time. I have a definite soft spot for him, and he knows it. Sometimes takes advantage of me, but oh well. You're only little once, right? He's been a bit of a late talker just like Chandler was, but is saying more and more everyday. He loves superheros, honey sandwiches, and is a bit of a bully. He and another boy go at it in nursery at church, so they are splitting the class. There are other reasons too, but he reminds me a lot of Chandler at this age. He's also very stealth, and would go with a stranger in a heartbeat. I have to keep an eye on him all of the time so he doesn't sneak away. He loves to take showers, and has made it so Chan does too. What 3 year old boy likes to take showers? He's not potty trained yet, but I think we will try when I have my break from school in May.

As for me, busy as ever. Writing is definitely an outlet for me, so I'm still blogging here AND at Babes and Kids Review. Still getting a lot of great opportunities there, and it's been a blessing financially as well as it brings in some extra money each month. I'm loving ultrasound school, mostly being in clinic. I'm scanning a lot by myself except 20 week OB's. Those I can only do about 40% by myself, but it will come. My trainer is the most amazing woman, her name is Barb. She's been scanning for almost as long as I've been alive, and is so patient. She's is so smart and any question I ask, she knows the answer. I really admire her. I have 4 weeks left of the semester and will be done for the month of May. Summer semester I will be in the vascular lab, and that's all a bit foreign to do arms and legs, so it will be a great learning experience. The days fly by when I am scanning, and it's incredibly fun to do something I really enjoy. I love my days when I'm home with the boys. I can't believe how quickly they are growing up, and it's hard to believe some days that they were once small babies. Being a mom is such a huge blessing and although it's not all easy, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm still serving as Primary Secretary and sometimes I wonder if I can still do it all, but our presidency is great and willing to step in whenever I need help. I cut down at work and am only working 1 12 hour shift in the ER every week. It's helped immensely, and even though our budget is even tighter now, I think we've been blessed in a lot of ways to make things work.

And because posts wouldn't be the same without a photo or video: random video of the boys playing with some spiders we got for the review blog. :)

Just Because

2011-03-29T12:23:00.001-06:00

You don't really have to have a reason to take pictures of your cute kids, right?

Fishy

2011-03-28T21:01:00.003-06:00

I got a few fresh fish from a co-worker today and Chandler was so, SO excited. He helped Marshall fillet and cook them. Well, maybe not the fillet part. ;) Chan was watching a video on youtube and instructing Marsh on how he should cook the fish. Quite cute. It turned out super yummy!

Answers

2011-03-27T12:07:00.000-06:00

Here are the answers to the pictures. I was actually surprised at how well some of you did. Especially you, Camille. ;) Taking into consideration that everyone is different and scans differently, these pictures are ones that you can see fairly well. Not everyone is this clear cut.

BLADDER

PANCREAS

AORTA

GALLBLADDER

RIGHT KIDNEY (some of the r lobe of the liver can be seen too.)

Uterus and 1st trimester baby were also a few guesses, so here are some pictures of that:

And for good measure....a scrotum. Yes, I just said scrotum on my blog.

Let's Play a Game

2011-03-25T09:15:00.004-06:00

In the short 3 months that I've been scanning, it's unreal how many people say, "How do you know what you're looking at?" Lots of practice people. Lots of practice. 210 clinical hours down - 1490 to go. Another misconception? That ultrasounds are only for babies. Wrong! There is so much diagnostic screening done with ultrasound anymore, and it's incredible what you can see. Another misconception? You can see so much on a baby with a 3D ultrasound. Wrong again. Yes, it's a bit of a dog and pony show. Pictures are cute, you could see cleft palate or lip if the baby had it, but that's about it. Everything diagnostic is done with 2D because you can actually see into the body. And word to the wise - if you are pregnant and go into your 20 week ultrasound, while it's important to you to know the sex of the baby, remember that all of that boring stuff is to ensure your baby doesn't have abnormalities or defects like Trisomy 13, Anencephaly, Down's and MUCH more.

Now let's play a game. I'm going to post pictures. Pictures that you would find in the abdomen and pelvic area of regular structures you would see. Can you guess what they are? (I'll post the answers in a few days.) And I know this will be totally boring to some of you. Knowing my sister Jeralee, she will research to find out exactly what they are. ;)

I Can Only Imagine

2011-03-19T15:17:00.002-06:00

Imagination is a big part of any kid's play, would you agree with me? Lately, the boys have found great fun in hiding in their duvet covers. I don't understand the novelty, but then again maybe that's why I'm the parent and they are the kids. They'd play in their room for a long time, talking, imagining, etc. Savoring these simple moments.

ipad

2011-03-13T18:04:00.004-06:00

Sometimes I wonder who gets more use out of this? Marsh and me...or the boys? :)

Thankful Post

2011-03-12T04:42:00.006-07:00

I've been feeling sorry for myself the past few days. I did something seriously bad to my back and really need to get into a chiropractor. I've been trying to ride out, but I think I need to get adjusted, massaged, something! My treadmill that I've been so excited for came on Wednesday. The UPS freight guy said he couldn't bring it inside my door, so he left a 225 lb treadmill on our doorstep. It was in a huge box, and I mean huge. That evening, I attempted to help Marshall bring it in. I'm not the strongest person in the world but I figured I could try. He turned it at an angle, and asked if I could lift the corner just a bit. Famous last words he said to me?
"Lift with your legs and not your back."
I didn't listen and lifted as hard as I could with my back. I felt kind of a crunch/pop, and it sent me to the floor. I was hysterical and I don't think Marshall could tell if I was laughing or crying at first. I had the sharpest shooting pains just barely to the right of my back. I sat on the floor bawling, unable to move. We were supposed to watch a baby for some friends in our ward and he showed up to drop her off right about then. He helped Marshall bring in the treadmill like it was nothing. It took me another 15 minutes to get up on the couch. Getting up the stairs later that night was no treat, and I woke up so much. Marshall tried to talk me out of going to clinic the next day but I wasn't sure when I would make up the hours, so I went. My clinical instructor had me keep ice on it all day and the pain was alleviated a bit while I was walking around. It was feeling better and then I bent over in the shower yesterday and it almost felt like something went out of place to the right again. Hard to explain. Anyways, my back is super sore again, and I'm going to hopefully get into a chiropractor and get a massage on Monday. That's my sob story. But wait - this is a thankful post right? So among all of my griping, complaining, pain, and feeling sorry, it's nice to remember the people and things to be thankful for, so here goes:

1. I'm thankful for a great husband who spoils and loves me. He does so much it's ridiculous. Sometimes I wonder how I lucked out.

2. I'm thankful for 2 sweet boys who call me mama and can melt my heart with a simple glance.

3. I'm thankful for this sister who listens regardless, is a second mom to my boys, and is just plain wonderful. And I'm thankful Dr. Google MD who always knows what's wrong, how to fix it and always gets me.

4. I'm thankful for Jason who would help me at the drop of a hat, and lets me sleep in his guest bed, Clint who's witty sense of humor always makes me laugh, and the Raptor who's always entertaining.

5. I'm thankful for my mom that's up at 6 am to talk me through my drive home from work, always gives a listening ear, and loves unconditionally. Also a dad who is quick to compliment, encourage, and sends notes and card unexpectedly letting me know he cares.

6. I'm so grateful for Sara who lives only a mile away and is more amazing than she will ever know. She's been a listening ear, a helping hand, and my much needed adult interaction.

7. I'm also grateful for Camilliaflower whom I was supposed to be visiting tomorrow but plans fell through. (Fingers crossed for May!) Talked to her on the phone tonight for the first time in a long time and it was easy to pick up where we left off. That's a friend.

8. I'm thankful for church, a warm home, good health, food on the table, jobs, school, and laughter.

I sure have a lot of people and things in my life to be grateful for, don't I? I think this post was therapeutic for me.

Rockstar

2011-03-07T18:57:00.001-07:00

Home Baked

2011-03-01T19:36:00.003-07:00

I was craving some serious sweet carbs tonight. I debated between making banana bread with my old bananas, or chocolate chip cookies. I settled for both. Too bad I added an extra 1/2 cup of butter to my banana bread. It's not staying together quite right, but it tastes awesome.

And the cookies? Compliments of Chandler who did 70% of the work. If they look a little doughy, it's because they are. Those are the best type of cookies. The ones that aren't cooked 100%. They stay softer longer.

28

2011-02-27T18:50:00.004-07:00

I'm 28 now. Well, as of the 6th. I will report that I don't feel much different, but that's to be expected right? My birthday fell on a Sunday, and I had worked all weekend, so after church all I really wanted to do was sleep.
On my way home from work Sunday morning, I heard some music in the car. I turned off the radio and couldn't figure out what was going on. I finally realized that Marsh had stashed the ipad underneath the seat. It went off at 6:30 am and was playing a birthday song and had a card with it.
After I got a much needed nap, Chan and Marsh sent me on a scavenger hunt, which was a cute idea. Each clue ended with a gift, and a small green bag with a question mark on it to give me another clue. Sense a batman theme here? Riddler to be exact. I got a new tripod for my camera, a camera case, and a new cd holder for the car. The scavenger hunt ended with Mr. Freeze in the freezer and an ice cream cake with everything you could imagine on it. Marsh and the boys got a bit carried away, so it was the kind of dessert that you eat 2 bites and you are sick.

Ice cream bars, whipped topping, marshmallows, and almost an entire bottle of magic shell.

Sound weird wishing myself Happy Birthday, but happy birthday to me. :)

Ready for Spring

2011-02-25T08:21:00.004-07:00

I've decided that this last week I'm ready for Spring. Warmer weather, no snow, less sickness. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the snow. There just gets to be a time when it's time for it to be warm. The boys are antsy being inside all of the time, and when the sick bug hits, it usually gets Rowan hard. It's a hard balance to have sick kids when both Marsh and I have to be somewhere most of the time during the day. So Rowan stayed home from preschool all week. You know what really makes me mad? I think I can pinpoint the boy who got him sick. Last Thursday, I stuck around Rowan's classroom for about a half hour. One little boy was coughing and green snotting EVERYWHERE. I was surprised that the teachers didn't say anything and was hoping they would call his mom to come get him. It was the kind of cough that had a ton of mucous behind it. Not the 3 day old, I'm finally getting over this cough. His mom had to have heard it when she brought him in. Yet she still brought him. I think there's a difference when you can't tell your child is sick, they have a fever, etc and they are around other kids, versus having a horrid cough and green colored snot, SEEING it, and still bringing them in.
Let's fast forward to Sunday evening. Rowan starts coughing and it's all been downhill from there. Fever, cough, wheezing, and lots of snot. I know he couldn't have gotten it from church as he started coughing that night, and we didn't go anywhere else that he would have picked it up.
So Marsh stayed home Wednesday so I could go to clinical, and I stayed home Thursday so Marsh could go to work. And to that mom who sent her 3 year old to preschool when he really should have been home - here's a sarcastic thanks from me and any other kids who got sick.

Countdown

2011-02-17T21:41:00.003-07:00

Would you believe that when I was titling this post, I actually googled to see if countdown was 1 word or two? Yeah, pathetic. I actually do that a lot if I don't know how to spell a word, etc. Google and I are best friends.
I've seen these neat countdowns on a few friend's blogs - for vacations, school, etc. I thought I would copy because I'm cool like that and countdown the approximate days I have left of ultrasound school. You wonder why I countdown, but tomorrow is a 24 hour day consisting of 10 1/2 hour clinical, followed by a 12 hour shift that I'll be working. THAT is why I countdown. Not because I don't like school, I actually love it, but because of how much I miss sleeping and seeing my family sometimes. I've been told on several occasions to take it a day at a time, and I am. BUT - just in case you are wondering, I copycatted some of my friends and got a ticker. (It's at the very bottom of the page.) Took a screen shot a few seconds ago...

I'm going to bed now. One day at a time....

Happy 3rd Birthday Rowan!

2011-02-16T13:05:00.005-07:00

I'm a little behind posting this, but better late than never! Rowan turned 3 on January 17th, so just about a month ago. I remember thinking how big Chandler seemed at 3, but Rowan still feels like my baby. Maybe because he is. I made huge strawberry flavored/chocolate bear and tiger cake pops for his big day.

We didn't do much for his birthday just because the boys are constantly getting new toys with blogging. I did find him a zhu zhu pet for $4 with a little set. He was so cute and happy with it.

We next headed to McDonalds, which wouldn't be my choice, but it definitely hits the top of the list for Rowan. We were going to try to go see Megamind at the dollar theater and hyped the boys up to see it. We got there right when is was supposed to start, and it was sold out? The boys were so sad and couldn't figure out why we had to leave. Instead we headed to Target and let them play in the toy aisle for an hour. Kinda tacky, but who cares.

At 3 Rowan:
Is starting to talk much more, in sentences and says the funniest things

Loves to draw and color

Likes to eat: Honey sandwiches, Pepsi (if he gets ahold of it.), oatmeal & cereal, broccoli, hamburgers, apples

Loves animals, especially my sister's dog Martini. (Even if he isn't always nice to her.)

Is about ready for potty training. He likes to put on Chan's clothes and underwear. Come spring break, guess that's what we'll be doing.

Likes to look at books with little or no words. Aka scriptures, manuals, textbooks. Funny boy.

Little Man Love

2011-02-11T23:40:00.001-07:00

I really haven't been home that much this week. I've had clinical and work everyday, sometimes work overnight. Today was the first day that I got to be home with the boys and I have to be honest that it tugged at my heart strings a little bit. I'm so excited to be cutting back at work this next week and will only have 1 shift a week. That should lighten the load a bit. I pulled out the camera today to get some shots of the boys in some new clothes we got to review.

They were adorable as always, and as I edited the pictures for the post this afternoon, I was reminded just why they tug at my heart strings. Perfect, healthy, handsome boys. I sure am blessed.

CTR

2011-02-04T10:51:00.003-07:00

About 3 weeks ago, Chandler got a CTR (Choose the Right) ring from one of his teachers at church. He was so excited when he showed it to me and said he wanted to Choose the Right. It's been interesting to talk with him when things happen, and I see the wheels turning in his head when I ask him what Jesus would want him to do and what is the right way to choose in certain situations. (Fighting with brother, listening to mom and dad, etc.) Although it's a cheap ring worth only about a quarter, it's amazing what kind of an impact it's had on him, and how it makes him stop to think. It hasn't left his little finger since he got it, and I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon.

Well Child Checkups

2011-01-30T17:57:00.005-07:00

Thought I would do a quick post on the boy's well child checkups before I forgot stats and such.
I took them both in yesterday as it works out easier to get them both done in one appointment. It's so hard to take them both places, and I really try to avoid it unless Marshall is with me. First off was weight and heights:

Chandler @ 5 years: 40 lbs and 43"
Rowan @ 3 years: 32 lbs and 37"

When we looked at the growth chart, they were both 50% for both height and weight, which I expected. I am a little surprised that Chandler isn't taller, but I'm sure it will hit sooner or later considering Marshall and I are both tall.
Chan had an eye test, and has great vision, and then the Ped came into talk to us. I've really been avoiding going to the pediatrician as I knew exactly what he would say when I told him I haven't been giving Rowan his meds. He's supposed to be on Singulair granuals once a day, and an inhaled steroid through a spacer twice a day. Last summer, the ped said we could maybe wean him off if he was still doing well. I watched and listened, and started weaning him off myself at the end of the summer. He seemed to do great, and we've actually had a pretty mild winter so far. I think that attributes to the fact that I haven't taken either of them out much. Church and to my sister's and my friend's house to be babysat while I go to school, but that was about it. Even though the ped wasn't happy, he told me Rowan was ok to be off his meds and be sure to use his albuterol if he needs it. I seriously believe that some kids are over medicated, and haven't felt like Rowan needed it. My friend who is a respiratory therapist mentioned to me that even though he may not be struggling to breathe, he may need his meds as he might not be getting as deep as a breath as he needs. While I believe that this might be the case, I still feel that he's done well not being on meds, and I've chosen to keep him off for the time being.

Next, it was time for shots. Both the boys got flu shots, even though I'm pretty sure they had the flu at the first of the month. They were both horribly sick for about 4 days, but I never took them in, so I don't know for sure. They also both got one other shot, I'd have to go look at their records to see which one it was. Chandler just stared while he watched Rowan get his two shots in his leg. He then sat there by the door, traumatized, and began to fight the nurse and I when it was his turn. I'm surprised at just how strong he's gotten and the fight he has in him. We finally got him into position, and the tears were streaming down his cheeks. Once the nurse was done, Chan said, "Is that all? That wasn't so bad?"
He then smiled momentarily and started to bawl again. Poor boy. He did survive though and we can now register him for kindergarten next week. Of course he was ok after a run through the drive through at McDonald's and only has a small bruise now.

How I love these boys, but I would be lying if I said they didn't challenge me everyday. I look at other moms who have pretty mellow children and wonder what it would be like. But then I have to remind myself that I'm glad that my kids are headstrong and know that they will fight for things that they want in life. I hope neither of them lose that fire, although I don't mind them calming down.

I look at Rowan right now, and he is the epitome of Chandler at this age. Communication is lacking, but I'm not worried because he does say over 100 words and is putting things together. It's just taking more time, and he will likely be 3 1/2 or so, JUST like Chan before he's potty trained. He's incredibly active and trusting of other people.
We went to Ikea last night, and Rowan was crazy. He would cry, and push, and shove, and run, and make messes. Everything you don't want a child to do. I just have to hold tight onto him and put on a fake smile while he thrashes around.
Lastly, we lost Rowan at church today, which is totally a Chandler thing too. I went to get Chan from his class, and Marshall had Rowan during the last block. Rowan weaseled away from Marsh, and ran down the hall. Marshall got out of the class as quickly as he could, saw me, and told me which way Rowan had run. After 15 minutes, I lost it. We couldn't find him anywhere in the church and he wasn't anywhere outside. I was frantically bawling and couldn't think straight. Another 5 minutes went by and I started to assume the worst. Rowan has no stranger fear, even though we've tried to teach him, and would probably go with someone. Also, he'd stand in the middle of the road, even if a car was coming. I decided to look outside one more time, and a Sister in our ward was carrying him toward the church. He was a block down, out of sight, playing in the road. I count my lucky stars that she and her family walk home and she noticed something was out of place to see him playing in the road. It just takes a second. Longest 20 minutes of my life.

Now I'm off track. Started with Well Child Checkups, ended with random thoughts about my crazy wonderful boys. Oh well, it's my blog. :)

Another Year Older

2011-01-27T20:53:00.005-07:00

Happy Birthday on the 7th to Marshall! He's getting old. (28) Although, I shouldn't say that, because I'm not far behind. We celebrated by doing a raclette dinner which was super yummy! Marshall used the raclette all of the time when he was in France. We could never get his to heat up hot enough when he brought it home because the voltage in outlets is different here in the US, so I got him a new one for Christmas. It's also called a party grill, if you don't know what I'm talking about. We got some yummy cheeses, fresh veggies, and canadian bacon and sausage. You melt the cheese on the bottom, and grill the meats and veggies on the top, then basically eat from it as you go. We also did parsley potatoes, and it was delish!

I made Marshall a double layer fudge cake. It turned out yummy, but the glaze wasn't quite right. And since when do I call my husband dad? I realized that when I wrote it on the cake. Oh well.

Love love love this man, and it was so much fun to celebrate with him.

Sledding

2011-01-18T12:17:00.004-07:00

While we were in Idaho after Christmas, we went sledding with Marshall's family. Let's just say it's been a while since I've been sledding. I mostly stood at the top and took pictures, but went down a couple times. It was SO super cold so we didn't stay too long, but the boys absolutely loved it.

Where's Rowan? And why isn't he buckled up? I'm just now realizing this.

Love this photo.

Natalie, Chris & Jake

Check out Marshall's sweet hat.

Beautiful Day

Grandma Snedaker getting Claire (Chris & Natalie's daughter) ready.

Marshall and I didn't bring snow clothes, so we used whatever we could find at his parent's house. Alas, my fabulous magenta hat and Kelly Canyon coat.

That day, we also got bambino's (a must have when we visit Idaho), and visited BYU-Idaho to see how much campus has changed. I almost don't recognize it with all of the remodeling they've done. Brought back a lot of memories though, as I was involved there for 7 years. (Marsh was a Freshman when I was a Sr., so we were there 3 additional years after I graduated.)

Will Work For Free

2011-01-12T15:34:00.006-07:00

Working for free....and I like it. Yesterday I saw: a stone blocking a ureter, and what could be kidney cancer, a healthy 20 week baby, a supposed molar pregnancy, appendicitis, a pleural effusion, and ovarian cysts. Pretty cool.

Blah

2011-01-04T15:48:00.002-07:00

Feeling rather blah today. The boys have been super sick since yesterday morning. Both have had high fevers. Rowan throws up when he tries to eat, Chandler coughs and his eyes are bloodshot. I've been getting caught up on a few things, snuggling the boys, and am starting to feel a little funky myself. Maybe if I tell myself it's all in my head, I won't realize that my body is feeling a bit achy right now, and I've got a bit of a chill. I'm seriously contemplating crawling in bed. In the meantime, know that we are doing a whole lot of this.....

And this....

And hoping to be on the mend.

Bahamas - Final Chapter

2011-01-03T18:48:00.003-07:00

Sick of hearing about the Bahamas yet? Well, if you aren't, here's one last post. I'm wishing I was back there since it's absolutely frigid outside right now.

This top video is compiled of all the other videos we took while there. You'll get to see Marshall doing some awesome dancing at the Authentic Bahamian Bonfire/dinner we went to on Tuesday night. The one where he is showcasing his knees is the "sexy knees contest." (You'll just have to watch to see.)

Bahamian Bonfire & Dinner, Tuesday night.

Wednesday, we spent the day at Taino Beach.

A Conch, notice his funny eyes?

Building a sandcastle

Riding the paddleboats

Starfish Marshall found at Taino Beach

These are our friends Barry & Betty. The stayed at the same hotel, happened to go to Garden of the Groves the same day, and were at the Bonfire with us. Funny, they booked the same cheap vacation on expedia as us back in February. They were from New York, newly engaged. We hung out at Taino Beach together on Wednesday and went to dinner that night at a yummy Greek place in Port Lucaya.

The one day we walked to the grocery store, we noticed this. It's VERY Special K. :)

One day we went to the beach to see the Sunrise.

Last day before we left, I think this was Friday. Feeling a bit silly at lunch.

Soaking in the sun.

Marshall, the snorkeling king. I don't really like to snorkel, I don't like the idea of things touching me.

The night before we left, they put all of these fun Christmas lights up at Port Lucaya.

In the airport at Dallas. We had $10 left from our entire vacation, and decided to feast upon this deliciousness.

Yum!

And there you have it! Interestingly enough we noted that a LOT of people there were older, like 70's. Marshall and I decided that we don't want to spend and save our whole lives just so we can travel when we're old. I will watch the deals, we can stay in old hotels, and travel together...provided we get a tax return each year. ;)

Christmas Morning

2010-12-28T12:41:00.005-07:00

Christmas morning was a bit different for us this year. It was the first year we haven't been in Idaho. I had to work Christmas eve and wouldn't get off until 6am on Christmas morning, so it only made sense to stay home.

It was fun for me to get home to see that Santa had come for the boys.

Since we were headed to Idaho later that morning, we woke the boys when I got home. Neither of them wanted to get up and it was 7am. Maybe it's because it took Chandler an hour to fall asleep because he was so excited. Chan kept laying back down even though we told him Santa had been here.

Finally he and Rowan made their way downstairs, and the look on their faces were priceless. Chan was particularly happy to see a Pokemon Wii game by his stocking...the ONLY thing he'd asked Santa for. :)

Since the are into a lot of the same toys, Santa brought them a variety of things to share like Bigfoot, a Chuggington Train Set, Stinky the Garbage Truck, and a Imaginext Batman set.

Meeting Bigfoot

Marshall and his new Apple TV.

The Aftermath...isn't it wonderful?

Bahamas - Part 2

2010-12-28T00:04:00.001-07:00

The week that we were there in the Bahamas, we booked a couple of excursions to do. Our hotel concierge was amazing and really funny, her name was Genie. She was the one that told us about day trips and we booked through her. We decided to book an Island tour on Monday and an authentic Bahamian bonfire party on Tuesday. We only booked out that far as we weren't sure what else we wanted to do.

The Island tour was very informative, and one of our favorite stops was Garden of the Groves. It is a fabulous garden that was made to show thanks to a man that really got the Grand Bahama up and going. He put a ton of money and time into it and even negotiated a 100 year tax free deal with Britain. The garden was full of tropical flowers and plants, ponds, waterfalls, and more.

After the garden, we went to some liquor store which I thought was odd since we have those all over in the US, but others seemed to be excited. We also saw a lot of the homes and how the people lived.
Next, we headed off to a small market to have lunch which was Conch. Conch is a type of snail that grows in a really beautiful shell.

They are a lot of white muscle and live on the bottom of the ocean. It's one major thing that they eat in the Bahamas. We got to see how they got the Conch from the shell and were able to eat it grilled. It was actually pretty interesting and tasted quite good. We ate it almost every way you could prepare it while we were there. (The picture below is of Genie, our concierge. She actually met us there since her friend owns this little place and helped show us about the Conch.)

Holiday Letter

2010-12-25T03:05:00.006-07:00

I didn't include a holiday letter in our Christmas cards, but thought that I would journal the happenings of the year and post it here. (Note that I said I would journal it here, and none of it is new news to you that read this blog, so if you get through this lengthy "letter," kudos.)

2010 has been one rollercoaster of a year, but then again, when is life not?

Chandler has grown and developed so much and has actually become quite witty. We are constantly laughing at the funny and cute things he says and I need to be better about writing them down because it seems like I forget so easily. He really loves to play video games, and we have to watch him sometimes that he doesn't play too long because he'd play all day if you let him. He also really loves arts and crafts and when he's doing them his attention span is quite good. He loves to paint and help me cook. In fact, I find when he helps me cook, he's better about eating his dinner because he feels like he made it too.
This year was his second year in primary, he was in the CTR4 class. We really struggled a lot of the year, and it finally seems like he's gotten better but it's been a long time in coming. I don't think that it helped when I got put into primary at the first of the year and it triggered his emotions even more seeing me standing at the back of the primary room.
He's very independent and can make his own corn dogs and cereal, has finally started to have an opinion about what he wants to wear, and is great at picking up after himself a lot of the time.
He's still very active, likes to run and jump, play battle with dad, and just flat out be a boy. Toys he likes are transformers, puzzles, games, and trains. He's so sweet and loves to cuddle and show love. It's interesting because he was SO not cuddly when he was younger, and now if we are watching a movie, he wants hugs and to snuggle. I love it. It's amazing that he's already 5 and how fast the time goes. He and Rowan are starting full time 2 day a week preschool in January and it will be great prep for kindergarten next fall.

Rowan's year started out rough. He's battled with asthma since 7 months and was hospitalized in February with RSV. We stayed there for 2 days while he fought to keep his oxygen up. I guess I should be grateful he didn't get it as a baby, because I'm sure it would have been much worse. Most kids are fine with RSV at home when they are 2, but Rowan wasn't. He was on a ton of meds at the first of the year, and he's slowly been weaned off of them. I haven't given him a neb treatment in probably 6 months, but then again he hasn't really been sick which is when he really gets wheezy. I hope this winter will be more mild so he can breathe well.
We watched Rowan go from very cuddly to also independent over this year. I think a lot of it had to do with his pacifier. He's always had a hair fetish, and had to hold hair while he had his paci in, but once we got rid of it in September, he didn't want to cuddle or hold hair anymore. Kind of sad. Row's been a bit of a slow talker like Chandler was but is saying more and more. It's nice that he's able to express himself better, but has always been a screamer and still is. He likes to play with Chandler, but also fights with him about half of the time. He's started to really fight back and Chandler often has lots of scratches from Rowan. We have introduced the naughty spot, but I don't think it's quite clicking yet that he can't scratch. He's not potty trained, but I'm not rushing anything. When he shows more interest, we'll pursue it.
He's so adorable, growls when he gives bear hugs, and is quick to give kisses, which I love. He likes to sing nonsense to himself and enjoys watching shows and playing outside. He also loves loves animals and we've contemplated getting him a cat. We're still on the fence on that one.

Marshall started the year pursuing his business, Pivo Web Marketing. He had some clients but wasn't making as much as he'd like so he looked for a job elsewhere. In February, he got hired at Speed of Trust, which is under the Franklin Covey name. He does e-mail marketing for the book "Speed of Trust" by Stephen M.R. Covey. He really likes the people he works with but sometimes feels like he doesn't get to contribute as much as he wants. I think it's something that will come with time. It's really amazing how motivated and how much initiative he has. I think if half of people put as much into their job as he does, this world would be a much better and efficient place. It's been a great company, and we've seen tons of blessings from it. He's also got another business, ACN that we are doing on the side and it's been fun to see him excited about that.
He's the most amazing dad to his boys, cooks when I don't want to, and cleans like a mad man. :)
He was serving as ward missionary leader most of the year, and was recently called as Sunday School President. He's loving the calling so far!

It would be an understatement to say this year has been amazing and full of opportunity for me. I started seeing so many doors open on my blog, Babes and Kids Review, and it's been such a huge blessing. I've reviewed everything from toys to vacuums, received numberless gift cards, and even made a few thousand this year. I also got to attend two movie screenings - one in New York City, and one in Austin, TX for Walmart & P&G. In May, Pampers flew our entire family out to Cincinnati, OH. I toured headquarters while the boys and Marsh went to a fun museum. In November, I went to Boston, Massachusetts to TJ Maxx/Marshall's headquarters for a holiday preview and it was fun to meet new friends. I love blogging, having a voice, and the opportunities it's given me. Plus I've been so many new places this year!
In March, I applied to an ultrasound program partnered with Intermountain Health Care and Salt Lake Community College. It's something I've wanted to do, but was put on hold as I got pregnant with Chan when I was finishing my 4 year degree at BYU-I. I decided to apply and out of 300 applicants, and 100 that interviewed, I was one of 16 that got in! I started this Fall, and it's been an adjustment getting back into school mode but I love it so far. I will be done in August of 2012 and start clinical next semester.
I took up running this year, and surprised myself at how far I could go. I ran a half marathon in June with my mom, sister, and two brothers. In September, I ran a FULL marathon with my oldest brother. It was hands down one of the hardest things I've ever done, but so amazing to me that I was able to accomplish it. I plan on running more races, but probably not a full marathon.
I'm still working in the ER as a clerk 2 nights a week and will cut back to 1 come January so I can focus on school and have some time with the family.
I'm serving in the Primary Presidency as Secretary and it's been a challenge for me to stay organized, but I love it and the women I serve with.
I know you are looking at everything I have going on and think that I have it all together, but I definitely have my breakdowns. Luckily I have a very great hubby that will listen to me blubber and cry until I feel better. :)

Marsh and I were also able to go to the Bahamas at the first of December for 8 days. It was so amazing, and definitely needed.

From our home to yours, Merry Christmas.

(Our attempt to get a picture of the boys in their Christmas jammies....yeah right. At least Chan tried. :) )

Today

2010-12-21T15:47:00.003-07:00

I'm having to remind myself to live in the moment lately instead of looking ahead, or overwhelming myself. It's hard not to think ahead, when things are settling into place for next semester. I found out last week that the boys got into the Eccles lab at my college, which is basically like a preschool. I'm really excited because it's structured well, they feed them 2 meals and a snack, and I feel like it will especially be good prep for Chandler for kindergarten next fall. Next good news- tuition is based on income, so we will only be paying about $400 a month for the two of them and they are going 2 days a week from 8am-5pm. So that takes care of two of my school days. Avry will be taking them my other clinical day, and I'm hoping my friend Sara will continue watching them Monday mornings while I go to class that day.
Anyways, now that I'm focusing on the future again, let's get back to the present. We got dumped on last night with at least 6 inches of snow. It's absolutely beautiful and Chandler told me Santa must be getting closer if we are getting this much snow. I agree. And to top it off, it's the most perfect snowman snow, so we set out to build a snowman.

Rowan didn't last too long in the snow, he mostly laid there and ate it, and then cried to go inside. Chan and I however built this awesome 3 foot snowman...named Frosty.

After that, I had some fun taking pictures of him. This is how he feels about the snow.

And I love this picture. I know you can't see his one eye, but I love the angle, the black and white, everything. Did I mention I am learning more about my camera, and I'm in love? Now I'm starting to realize that I want a telephoto lens to do some other things that my kit lens doesn't do.

After we came inside, I started making goodies for the neighbors. We went with chocolate chip cookies w/Christmas sprinkles, Peppermint Bark, and Oreo Truffles. I think the boys must have eaten their weight in chocolate, and I'm not far behind them. I keep waiting for either of them to say that they feel sick, but I guess they have my tolerance for sugar. :)

One last thing I must mention - we've had all of the presents wrapped under the tree for over a week, and not one piece of wrapping paper has been ripped off. Instead the boys pet the wrapping paper, hold the packages and Chandler looks for his name. It's adorable and brings back great memories from when I was a kid.

The Bahamas

2010-12-20T12:04:00.003-07:00

So going to The Bahamas was absolutely heavenly. We left on a Friday morning VERY early and spent most of the day traveling. We had layovers in Dallas/Ft. Worth and also in Miami. It was a first being to both of these places for me, even though we were only in the airport. We flew out of Salt Lake at 6 am and got to Freeport, Grand Bahama at about 8 or 9, I can't remember exactly. My first impression was how friendly all of the people were. Our shuttle driver gave us a little tour as we were on our way to the hotel. They drive on the left side of the road there, which was really weird since it's something I'm not used to. We got to our hotel, and it was pretty simple and outdated, but perfect for what we needed. I wasn't expecting a lot as the trip was so cheap to book.
We had a fabulous view of the Channel, alas why our hotel was probably called the Bell Channel Inn.

Saturday we slept in, ate breakfast at the restaurant upstairs, and walked to Port Lucaya marketplace which was about a 15-20 minute walk from our hotel. There was a beach right close by. That first day we ran into a man who was dressed in a floral costume and started telling us all about some customs and traditions around this time of year. Then he said something like, "And most people tip me $5." It was so out of the blue and we didn't realize he would just flat out ask us for money. We gave him $1.

The weather was pretty nice for the most part when we were there - high 60's to high 70's depending on the day. The water was coolish, but warmer on days when it was warmer.

That next day we didn't do too much. We had booked other things for the week, but decided to lay low on Sunday. We spent more time at the beach and just exploring a bit. I found this fantastic Goombay Punch drink down in our vending machine and had to have it. It was basically pure sugar, and tasted like a mix between pineapple and sprite. It was really good and definitely not the last time I had it while I was there.

To keep these posts from being incredibly lengthy, I'm going to break them up. Bahamas trip: To be continued.....

Temple Square

2010-12-16T21:04:00.003-07:00

Would you believe that in the 3 Christmas seasons we've lived near Salt Lake, we've never been to Temple Square to see the lights? We decided that we definitely needed to do it this year, and I had a meeting for work in Salt Lake yesterday so it worked out quite nicely. I definitely wasn't very prepared, only had a light jacket, and the boys only had their coats. Wish I would have packed hats and gloves.
The lights were absolutely beautiful, and we happened to find someone selling hot chocolate which we jumped on. I also got the chance to try out my new SLR camera, and I've realized there's a big learning curve to taking great pictures. For some silly reason, I thought that just because I had a great new camera, I would be able to take amazing pictures. I'm only about 10 pages into my instruction booklet, and I'd definitely like to take a beginner course to get to know a little bit more about photography, but I'm having fun experimenting. Some pictures actually turned out quite well!

Riding Trax around Salt Lake. The boys love riding the train!

Temple/Christmas lights

Nativity on the water, isn't it pretty?

R&R

2010-12-05T07:55:00.003-07:00

Hi from the Bahamas! I can't believe how relaxed and wonderful it is to get away. We got here late Friday night and have basically been kicking back. Sleeping, eating, laying on the beach, talking. I can't remember the last time I had this much time just to focus on Marshall and me, it was probably before we had kids. We have some fun excursions planned for the week, and the weather has been perfect so far - mid 70's. I miss my babies like crazy though. It's funny how you always feel like you need a break from your kids, and when you finally get one, you think about them and miss them. Oh well, they are in good hands up in Idaho with puppy & papa. I'm going to try to update our trip as we go so I don't have a ton to blog when we get home. Wish I could share the warmth with you all back home. :)

Merry Christmas

2010-11-30T12:24:00.002-07:00

To me....

Thankful

2010-11-26T23:01:00.003-07:00

I am thankful for.....

My awesome sister Avry who hosted Thanksgiving dinner and did a mighty fine job.

Family, and the chance to get together with them.

Thanksgiving dinner and turkey comas.

Avry's 15 foot Christmas tree - wow. Let us not forget brother Jason hugging it.

My mad Vanna White skills. (Can you tell the pictures I took were a bit random and sporadic?)

And everything else I didn't get a picture of. My loving parents, amazing siblings, wonderful husband, beautiful children, health, happiness, and home.

Rowan's Kitchen

2010-11-23T22:51:00.002-07:00

Welcome to Rowan's Kitchen, where everyday is a new gourmet treat. His specialties are concoctions, so you never know what you'll get. We're not guaranteeing that it will be good, but it will be an experience you won't forget.

Today's Concoction:
Italian Celery Egg Soup

Ingredients:

Italian Dressing
Diet Pepsi
Mushrooms
Hard Boiled Eggs
Cheetos
Water
Celery
Bread

Who wants to come for dinner?

Product Reviews

2010-11-16T14:20:00.005-07:00

You know your mom is a product review blogger when:

You get a package every day and know the UPS or FedEx guy by heart.
You yell "yay!!" when you see a brown box. (Who knows, it could be lima beans inside?)
You get get a new toy, and after you ooh and ahh over it, proceed to climb up on the couch and strike a pose, knowing she's going to need pictures to blog about your new toy. (Chan was especially cute today.)

And the adorable monkey? He's from Aurora.

Yo Gabba Gabba Live

2010-11-10T14:51:00.008-07:00

Back in April, I got a contact for my Babes and Kids blog asking me if I wanted to cover Yo Gabba Gabba Live, and get free tickets to the one here in Salt Lake City. I said yes because I knew my boys would love it. They don't watch Yo Gabba Gabba often, but they know who they are, and we all watch Party in my Tummy often on Youtube. After all, that is the best song. :)
So the show was last night. We sported some awesome DJ Lance glasses that they gave us, and got up to dance at every song. It was super fun and I think the boys really liked it. Of course my camera went on strike, and I didn't bring my flip, so the video I took didn't save right. I was bummed because Party In My Tummy was the last song and they had the food come down a giant slide. It was so fun to watch the boys dance and really get into it, but I was into it too, lol. It lasted about an hour and 20 minutes. After it was over, Rowan kept saying "You like it? You like Gabba Gabba? Chandler, you like Gabba Gabba? Dad, you like it?" It was super cute. I think it's definitely safe to say that we're fans now.

Chandler's 5th Birthday Party

2010-11-08T16:46:00.003-07:00

We've never really had a birthday party for either of the boys. We've celebrated with family and a few close friends before, but haven't ever done a real party with lots of friends. Since Chan was turning 5, I decided he would love having a party. I started planning it the end of September, and I shouldn't have told him a month before it was happening. Since he doesn't have a lot of concept of time, he would ask me frequently when it was. I whipped out my mad photoshop skills and made his invitations. They turned out pretty cute, don't you think? (I must also mention that I got 15 of them printed in a 5x7 size for less than $3 and that included shipping. I refuse to ever pay full price for anything. :) )

The day of the party, Chan and I headed out to do some last minute shopping. We picked up Chan's cake, a batman one, and headed home. I must say it was totally worth the $17 that I paid Walmart to make it.No headache, no trying to be creative, and Chandler was definitely impressed.

We had a superhero/hero theme. Chan wanted to do superheros but since we invited girls, I thought we'd just make it dress up. That way kids could dress up as superheros if they wanted, or just in their Halloween costume.

The guests started arriving right before 1 pm. We had 10 kids total, including Chan and Rowan. We played lots of games, did a small craft, had cake and ice cream and then played. It turned out really great! One of the games we played was "Wrap the Mummy" We used toilet paper and I thought this picture was hilarious.

All of the party guests

I also did a short movie with video we took that day as well as a few other pictures I didn't include in the post.

Toenail

2010-11-02T11:50:00.004-06:00

You might think I'm weird, or even a little gross for posting this, but oh well. Of course if you are reading this blog, chances are you are already my friend or a family member and read even when I post dumb/gross/weird things. On with it already, right? When I ran my half marathon in June, my one big toenail was just a tad too long. It throbbed for 2 days after. Turned purple, and it's been in the process of coming off for 5 months now. The other day before church, I dropped a binder on my toe and the nail pretty much came off. This is what was underneath. It looks like I had another nail growing underneath the nail. Pedicure anyone? (I made sure to make the picture super big for your viewing enjoyment.)

Reminds me of a sign I saw when I ran my marathon, "Toenails are for sissies." I agree. It is quite pretty as well. ;) Now that it's getting cooler, I haven't been running much. I so want a treadmill and find myself dreaming of one...
I promise I won't leave this post up at the top for too long. The picture is quite beautiful, but there's some birthday pictures and videos I need to edit.

To Chandler

2010-11-01T00:00:00.000-06:00

Dear Chan,
You are 5 today! The last 5 years have been some of the best of my life, simply because you are in it. You've been a headstrong boy since day one and have always wanted to do things for yourself and be independent. At the same time you are compassionate and loving, and quick to run and give me a hug if I stub my toe or feel sad.
You are really into transformers, action figures, trains, video games, and crafts right now. You also love to dress up like a super hero and play "battle" with Rowan and dad. Your favorite movie is anything new that is out. Favorite foods are corn dogs, Chinese (Kung Fu Panda food), Ice Cream, and cereal. You also love to drink water. If we give you a choice of any drink, you will always pick water.
I'm not sure how tall you are, (we'll find out when we go in for your yearly checkup) but are wearing 5T clothes and weigh about 40 lbs.
You say the funniest things lately and I'm not as good as I should be about writing them down. A few weeks you asked us if Jesus had feet. :)
When dad decided to grow a beard, you told him that it might grow as big as the house.
You ask lots of questions and are so smart. You can count to 100 and more, know all of your colors, shapes, and are starting to sound out words.
Your smile is contagious, and I'm so happy and proud to be your mom.
I hope you have a Happy Birthday, we'll do something fun today. :)
Love,
Mom

Fishy

2010-10-28T11:32:00.000-06:00

These last couple weeks, Chan has been in swim lessons. He's never done any lessons or had an outlet like this, and it's been great! I put him straight into a level 2 because I looked at what they learned in level 1, and he could already do everything.

He's done really well and only has a few days left. They've learned to bob 5-10 times in a row, float on their backs, and basics of the front and back crawl. It's pretty cute to see him attempt to do the front crawl. I took these pictures and video this last Monday when he was halfway through the session. I didn't get him doing anything exciting, but it's still cute. There's only 3 kids in his class, and he loves his teacher, Grace.

I'd love to put him in the next level, but I'm still not sure what's going on with clinicals next semester so we will see....
But for now, here is my little fishy!

Holiday Traditions

2010-10-27T16:59:00.000-06:00

I saw a contest on a couple blogs that I frequent, sponsored by Sam's Club. It was a video on a holiday traditions, and I decided to enter. Mind you, some of this was recorded at 2am when I got home from work because I was trying to meet the deadline. But it was all worth it in the end.

I entered this:

And won this: