Saponas Spot

Off the Grid

2012-02-05T19:51:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts since November. We've been a little busy.

There was that whole Christmas thing where we were gone for two weeks in Oregon.

Then there was that first trimester of 24 hr morning sickness in Dec and January- which sucked me dry of all energy and ambition. We are lucky my sweet toddler survived. We ate a lot of tater tots. Which is my only real craving.

Then we just found out we are moving to California!
So over the last two weeks we have replaced the roof, installed a new back door, repainted the kitchen, and tried our best to de-clutter. (I've spent over $100 on plastic storage boxes from costco. Crazy.)

Busy.

But at least it is all very happy, exciting and new events that are keeping us busy. You can't complain when all the blessings you've been patiently praying for suddenly happen all at the same time.

The latest and greatest of our news is we are moving to California in the beginning of March. We have four weeks to get our house show worthy, and put it on the market.I actually am having fun prepping the house. I've never had a good reason to buy all those accessories a house needs to feel complete, now I do! I've bought generic art (that I love that brian would never choose himself), those generic wicker balls to decorate my living room, a mirror! a lamp! A small table for the entry way! Maybe even curtains next week! Ahh, Heaven is spending money to make your house look more traditional so buyers will like it.

Know anyone moving to Georgia? Send em our way. I really will miss Georgia. I love the people, I love the food, and the landscape. I do not love the bugs though. Plus I've learned lots of my mommy skills from the wonderful southern women here, and I don't think I'll ever be able to say "hun" or "sweetie" with out thinking of some of those ladies. I also don't think I'll ever be able to say certain mom phrases with out a little twang. Even Bradley says "Go" and "no" with a little twang sometimes.

NYC II

2011-11-25T21:12:00.001-05:00

We began our second day in NYC in an attempt to conquer the subway. Our goal was simply to go up the island and get off around half way up central park. After our subway train failed to stop at the next three stops we figured out the express train does not stop along central park at all. Rather, it stops a few blocks after the top of central park.

So of course we decided to walk through the top half of the park get to the Natural History museum along the center. Central Park really is a beautiful place and Bradley loved running around all the trails. And it is HUGE! It was not a quick stroll to get to the center.

Then we FINALLY arrived at the Natural History Museum!! Of course we had to eat lunch first. THEN we went to the planetarium show. Bradley was unimpressed and began clapping so the darn thing would end. When that didn't work he buried his head in Daddy's shoulder and fell asleep. But mom and dad were SO excited for Bradley to see the dinosaurs that we didn't really try very hard to keep him asleep for very long.

A mildly grumpy Bradly found the dinosaurs really really cool. And proceeded to "rawr" at each new one.

And Brian was very excited to see the monkey exhibit. We kept trying to pick out which monkey was the "trouble maker monkey" in the "Night at the Museum" movie. (This museum is supposed to be THE ONE in the movie.)

Mom was way more excited about the largest asteroid in the world rather than stinky monkeys. Bradley really really wasn't excited about the largest asteroid in the world. He snuggled his new dinosaur and calmly strolled around with us till...

Mom found the beautiful rock room. And then Brian let Bradley run around for the next 30 minutes while I looked at all the pretty rocks. Best room in the whole museum.

On our walk through the rest of Central Park Bradley finally fell asleep. Too little too late. Brad proved to us that it is very foolish not to let a sleepy baby sleep. My attempt to put him down later that night was a complete failure and he finally ended up falling asleep in his fave place in the world- between mommy and daddy.

Lesson learned. Don't take the express subway train, and let sleepy babies sleep.

Future lessons learned:
*Sigh* the subway still sucks
Pizza is best when you stand in line
Jackson Pollock ROCKS
Never ending candy rooms really do exist.

A little bite out of the Big Apple

2011-11-21T22:57:00.001-05:00

We needed another vacation before the end of the year. So we decided to tack on another vacation onto our trip out to PA for Thanksgiving. Where else but New York!

So here are some snipits from our first day.

It is a little chilly here. Bradley has quickly embraced his warm hat, gloves, and puffy jacket.

After just a few minutes of walking, we found ourselves in Times Square! This place is crazy! Combine all the flashing lights and billboards along the strip in vegas, and put them along one or two blocks of street, and you have Times Square.

Of course we had to go the air museum. Brian loves this pic of little brad, big SR71.

Just a hop over to Rockefeller center, (every time we walk through here, which is a lot for some reason, the 30 Rock theme-song goes through my head.)

Then we ended our night at a little, tiny, 8 table Indian restaurant for the BEST Indian food I've ever had. Brad was a good little trooper and ate his rice without too many outbursts or grains of rice flung into the neighboring customers.

Soon to come:
Subway "success"
and Why Brad NEEDS a Nap Before 7pm

What Manner of Mother am I?

2011-11-11T18:44:00.001-05:00

I ponder this question often, especially when I have the opportunity to spend time with another mother with young children. I always compare our mothering methods, our temperaments towards our children, our patience, our adorance of our children, our knowledge of the world vs the innate knowledge of being a mother, how the gospel is approached and taught in their home. I know, wow, I sound like an obsessively insecure person. But I can't help it, I learn so much about myself in this process. I learn so much about how many mothers there are, how we are all different, but how we all have unique amazing qualities that make us the perfect mother for our child.

More often than not I'm hard on myself and desire to have better, other, more experienced, mothering qualities. Mostly I struggle with patience, grumpiness, and my natural mother knowledge (which is nonexistent). But this always provides the opportunity to reflect on my own two years of motherhood and see how much I have changed in this short time.

Maybe I am just resistant to change, or don't naturally have the mothering gene, but I found the transition from independent woman to whole giver of self kinda hard. Maybe I'm just more selfish than other mothers, but it is not easy for me to drop what I'm working on and run over to my baby and jiggle a toy above their head to please them. It has taken practice and patience as I work to forget my desires and focus on my child's needs. I value this quality in other mothers. How did they get it!?

In my transition to motherhood I did get one surprise mothering ability! From the first night I could easily wake up and hop out of bed to calm, feed, rock my lonely little infant. I never had a problem initially leaving my sleep behind for my little guy. I greatly missed my sleep, but I could get over that uggg time to get out of bed feelig. I admit now it is sometimes a little harder to jump out of bed at the littlest sound. But I can still do it, and I always feel a warm surge of gooey love when I hold my cranky toddler and he cuddles into my arms.

Anyways, after all the frustration that I'm not like that other "perfect" mother, I remind myself that after all, I've only been a mother for 2 years. Heavenly Father sent Bradley to me, my family, because he knew we would all grow in love and experience together. And, absolutely no one else has ever mothered Bradley Saponas. SO I can stop worrying about being that ideal mother for him, he already thinks I am.

2011-11-09T19:15:00.001-05:00

Last night Brian was trying out a new recipe (yes my awesome husband cooks a few times a week) and he noticed Brad come in the kitchen and pull up a chair to the counter. Pretty normal. Brad loves to watch us cook. Yes, he loves to watch me too, even though I mostly have no idea what I'm doing.
As Brian finished different elements he would place them in bowls on the counter. Pretty soon he noticed Bradley playing in the mixer bowl. Still normal for Brad.

Then he noticed he was actually stirring something. Further investigation revealed that Brad had gone over the drawer, pulled out his own mixing spoon, and came back to the counter and helped himself to the green beans. He was pretty sure he could improve on Daddy's preparation.

I helped out by getting down an empty salt shaker and some plates. He will tell you which ones are for Mommy, Daddy and Bradley. Oh yea, he has this all planned out.

Sadly, even though he created a wonderful bean side dish, he would not actually eat it because of course it was green beans. At least they were good for playing with! There's hope!

2 Year Old Boy

2011-11-06T20:09:00.001-05:00

Bradley is 2 years old! He is in the multiple years old! Which also means I've been a mom for two years- an equally odd thought. We wanted to celebrate the completion of Brad's second year of life by doing all his favorite things.

We started our day with eggs and pancakes. Then we went to the gym (you may think this was a selfish parent move but Bradley really loves playing with the other kids). Then we went to see the airplanes!

Both Brian and Bradley LOVED walking around and in the airplanes!

Next, we had lunch at a pasta place so Bradley could get some spaghetti with red sauce and we came home and Bradley took a nap while I baked a cake.
After Bradley woke up and was not grumpy, we played "Portland's Clues!" Which is just like "Blue's Clues" but Portland left the pawprints around the house not Blue. Bradley caught on right away and started running between the rooms looking for the paw prints. This is a pic of Daddy and Brad writing down the third clue (which you can see under the shoes).

Of course Portland led Bradley outside to play frisbee. Brad loves running around outside. He is so so on the frisbee aspect of playing outside.

After pizza we opened presents and ate cake! I made a special banana cake for Brad (and I didn't even mess it up!) Banana custard filling and blue paw prints on the outside, super yummy and cute.

He got a bathtub bubble blower, train toy and..... a big boy basketball hoop!

Best Birthday Ever.

Pumpkin Carving- The Pumpkin Pi Pun

2011-11-03T22:44:00.000-04:00

I grew up with a father who took a creative approach to pumpkin carving. He was definitely the first kid on our block who I knew to carve complex pumpkin designs. The first one I remember my Dad carving was Frankenstein. It was so cool and had so many little details- I thought my dad must be a pumpkin carving genius!! Naturally I enjoy the yearly carving myself but have taken an equally geeky although less intricate approach to my pumpkin ambitions.

This year Bradley was eager to help us out...and since we purchased 8 or so pumpkins, we had a few extra for him to play with.

The two from Burt's Pumpkin Patch were huge so we wanted to keep our tradition of one kid pumpkin one scary pumpkin. This year Brian did the cute kid pumpkin and carved a Blues Clues pumpkin in honor of Brad's fave tv show. (Duh I let my kid watch tv. How else do you get ready in the morning?)

Since we had more pumpkins than hands this year, I just quickly free handed a scary skeleton face for our scary pumpkin. I think it is pretty cute.

Then we started on the "Pumpkin Pie" project.

LAST YEAR we did a pi symbol --- π --- on a pumpkin for "Pumpkin Pie" and thought we were pretty clever. Then we got this great idea that we should carve the actual numbers into pumpkins.

Do you remember back to high school Trigonometry or maybe Geometry? Pi or π represents the number 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592.... to infinity. Well, if you are a complete nerd (Brian and Brian's family, whom I love with all my heart, are nerdy math nerds) you find all math humor HILARIOUS. And because I find my nerdy math family to be rather funny themselves, I thought we should take Pumpkin Pi to the next level.

Slightly extreme for a pumpkin pun I know.
But when you combine the nerdy math powers of my husband with my over-the-top artistic powers, the results are often ridiculous and extremely geeky. But to us, well worth the effort.

No, few trick or treaters got the joke. Neither did most of their parents.
Which honestly, just makes it even funnier.

MORE CANDY

2011-11-01T15:08:00.003-04:00

Bradley loves candy.

Halloween, Christmas, and Easter are the three times a year he can have all the candy he wants. Because he doesn't get it the rest of the whole year unlike most kids.
He does get an M&M for going pee pee on the potty though.

Buzz Lightyeart Trick or Treats!

2011-10-31T21:35:00.000-04:00

Bradley quickly got the idea of trick or treating and soon was asking to go to every house we passed. So much for only going to two or three houses. It turns out when you are cute they give you more candy too. Because we certainly came back with way more candy than houses we visited.

Bradley was Buzz Lightyear with a vest that blinked green and red with LEDs.

Portland was a cow. A Chick-Fil-A cow, specifically.

Ohh my sweet cow, grazing in the grass.

I think the practice at Disney's Halloween party this year really helped Brad grasp the true meaning of Halloween. Because as soon as we got home he dumped out his candy and began chowing down. He was fully aware of the wonderful treats he was collecting at every house and very eager to begin the feast.

I'm allowed to spoil him a little, right? Who ever said candy was bad for kids. Never mind those dentists, they are just money grubbing tooth advocates. Their opinion doesn't count on Halloween.

Brad's First Camping Trip!

2011-10-16T18:28:00.000-04:00

October is my fave month in Georgia. The leaves change and the weather cools down. After my last few experiences of camping while pregnant in Georgia in the summer, I have learned that it is not enjoyable. But this year, THIS YEAR, we decided it would be fun to let Bradley experience "camping in georgia." I simply refused to do it during the summer, and there wasn't much time to anyways.

Brian and I grew up camping in Oregon, so rain really doesn't scare us. We didn't really think much of the high percent chance of rain for the North Georgia Mountains. We kept on planning and packing.

This is what it looked like 10 minutes from our destination...

15 minutes later it started to pour.

So we spent the next 45 minutes in the car in our camping spot! Bradley thought this was a most excellent way to start a camping trip. Portland was less than excited about both the rain and the toddler crawling all over her.

Our heroic Daddy started setting up camp during one of the breaks. Georgia rain is nothing like Oregon rain. It poured HARD for 15 minutes. Took a break. Rained at a harder level for another 10 minutes, took a break again. And then lightened up for a little longer and continued in this light rain and break pattern for an hour or two.

Portland was unhappy, but Bradley thought wandering around the campsite was very fun.

Bradley did have a small freakout moment in the tent after dinner. He thought dad was lost in outerdarkness because he wasn't inside the tent. But eventually Daddy came in the tent and was able to settle Bradley down and we all had a nice snuggle. I was 20% on thinking we might have to bail out and drive home in the middle of the night. But he ended up snuggling with Dad all night long and woke up a happy camer!

Camping breakfasts are always the best. Pancakes, scraballed eggs and sausage! Happy tummies.

Before we broke camp we hiked all 604 steps up and then 604 back down Amicalola Falls. Last time I tried this hike I was slightly pregnant and it was near 90 degrees outside. I did not make it back up the falls. In fact on this trip I insisted we start at the bottom instead of the top.

My happy hikers were all thrilled to see the waterfall!

Then we had to hike back down down down down.

THEN (and the real reason for coming to Amicalola) We went to Burt's Pumpkin Patch! Which is just down the road! Last year it was so much fun (minus an offroading excursion) we had to go again!

Awe. Kisses for the Dads.

Dad let our little helper pick out some gords. He was very excited to put his own pumpkins into the wheelbarrow.

Best camping trip ever.

Home to Oregon

2011-10-09T15:46:00.000-04:00

I love going home to Oregon. This trip was extra special because my super cool sister was able to fly out and visit too (I was able to visit with my super cool brother earlier this summer). Grandma and Grandpa Daniels were in grandkid heaven! And Heidi and I got some much needed goofy sister time.

We loaded up my grandma's car and drove 4 adults and 2 babies to the coast for a few nights of fun. It was the best because my dad was able to take off his "Bishop Daniels" hat and put on his "Grandpa Daniels" hat and goof off with the grandbabies. Plus our beach house was actually on the beach! During high tide the waves would splash the bottom of the stairs.

The first stop of course was the Tillamook Cheese factory. For you non-northwesterners, this is where the most tasty cheese in the US is made. Look for it next time you are in the grocery store. It is WORTH it!

Then we played on the beach in the 70 degree weather! Yea we were super lucky.

Then we went to the outlets. Brad is expressing his feelings about being in the Gap for longer than 15 minutes.

Then we came home and played for a few more days.

I was also able to visit Bradley's newest cousin or second cousin w/e.. Alex!
Brian's family is very close, so yes, on my trip to see my family in oregon I spent time with Brian's aunt and her daughter in law Alina! Alina and Alex are so sweet together! Alina has this beautiful accent (romanian? right?) and I love how she says "bubay" for baby.

It is always such a blast to go back to Oregon, but this was defiantly a special trip I will never forget.

Not So Scary Halloween Party

2011-10-02T20:35:00.000-04:00

I don't even know where to begin. The Not so Scary Halloween Party is easily the coolest night at Disney I've ever had. The average day at the Magic Kingdom during September-October isn't much different than any other summer day. Just a few extra fun decorations. But if you beg your mother-in-law to include the special after-hours Halloween party in you vacation, you are in for a real treat.

Needless to say, you dress up. And everyone in our family was such a good sport and dressed up with us.

In our party we had Woody, Jessie, Buzz Lightyear, Alice and the Mad Hatter (Scott, brian's brother and Meredith, his wife), and a couple of clowns (Tim and Lou)! One of the clowns in particular looked a little goofy.

There are lots of neat activities going on all over the park. There is trick-or-treating at the rides, special character meets all over, all the Haunted Mansion cast members looked and ACTED like zombies, funky music and lighting all over the park, a special fireworks show and there were even dance parties with some characters- we made an appearance at the Woody's Roundup Dance Party in the Saloon in Adventure Land.

You should not attend this party if you don't like Disney stuff or Halloween.

My fave special event was the Boo to You Parade and the special Evil Characters Show.

Special characters only come out for this parade, and all the normal characters are in costume!! Best parade ever. Yes even better than the Christmas parade. That's how cool it is!

Do you know who these two are???? Not from a movie, but any Disney goer should know!

The Evil Character's Show! All the characters come down to meet you after wards, and it ends with Curella Deville stealing the stage for a solo.

The dance party! The real Woody and Jessie came and danced with us!

This is completely narcissistic, but the best part was how much attention we got because of our awesome costumes and adorable son. No less than 4 strangers asked to take our photo- front and back. hahaha

During the whole night strangers and cast members would shout, "oh hey it is Woody and Jessie!" I found this extremely funny. Even parade dancers would exclaim "Hi WOODY! HI JESSIE." All the parade free roaming characters walked up to us to shake Bradley's hand or pat his and we got extra candy at the end of the parade. Because we were awesome.

The ultimate compliment was at the end of the night in line for the bus, I finally tucked my red yarn wig behind my ears to reveal my brown hair and I heard a little gasp. On the bus I sat next to a grandma who told me her granddaughter told her she knew I wasn't the real Jessie because she could see my brown hair. How cute. That and girl the yelled "Hey Howdy Hey!" as I walked by were pretty darn adorable.

I'll post details on how I put together our costumes in a few days on my crafty blog:

Jubilationstudios.blogspot.com

Hotel and other fun Activities - Disney World

2011-10-02T16:19:00.001-04:00

We were in Disney for nearly a week, sooo we had to fill Bradley's time with more than just rides. So we did all "the other stuff" there is that kids can do! And we had a ton of fun too!! Here are a few pics.

We didn't log too much hotel time. But we did get to spend one day playing at the pool and watching all the animal in our backyard.

Characters - Disney World

2011-09-21T22:28:00.000-04:00

Bradley really liked meeting the characters last time, so we thought we would do a few more meet n greets.

He couldn't take his eyes of Mickey. Actually that is true for most of the characters.

Okay here's a sneak peak at our Not So Spooky Halloween Party costumes... More on this even later.

Rides - Disney Wolrd

2011-09-21T20:16:00.001-04:00

Clearly the most exciting part of any Disney experience are the rides. Unless you travel with the Saponases and all they can talk about is the food for the previous three months to the trip.
Bradley, however, was quite thrilled with the ride aspect of our trip.

Safari Ride - Animal Kingdom

Rockin Rollercoaster - Hollywood Studios

The Car Thing - Magic Kindom

SPLASH MOUNTAIN! - The best ride in the whole world - Magic Kingdom

Peter Pan - 2nd Best for Brad - Magic Kingdom

Mission: Earth - Epcot

Triceritops Spin - Animal Kingdom

Jungle Cruise - Possibly Brian's fave ride if you get a good guide - Magic Kindom

Carousel!! - Bradley's All Time Fave!!! - Magic Kingdom

He would get sooo excited when ever we were in visual range that we started taking alternate routes through the park so he wouldn't see it. I can't believe the whole Saponas family, all the slightly weak stomached amoung them, went on this ride every single time Bradley wanted to. Luckily we only waited in line once for it, and walked on it every other time... not so for Peter Pan- which caused a nearly equal enthusiastic reaction from Brad.

Parades - Disney World

2011-09-21T20:00:00.000-04:00

I could watch the parades over and over and over. But I realize that not everyone has the same passion for stuffed Disney creatures and dancers walking down the road.. So I settled for just 3.

The Electric parade was very cool... but there were thousands upon thousands of people there. And NO ONE KNEW DISNEY RULES! Foreigners.. j/k. I figured out that rules in DW are different than Disneyland. Including huge European men, with balloons, on the front row, standing up in front of 40 or so people watching the parade behind him. Combined with the fact that this was a very long parade, and I had to hold Brad up, and it was late at night, this wasn't my fave parade.

Although it was pretty cool.

6 Years..

2011-08-28T18:19:00.000-04:00

Six years on August 26th. We rock.

Little Places

2011-08-28T18:16:00.000-04:00

When Bradley was just a little thing I used to ponder the little places that my life seemed to revolve around. The crib, the swing, the jungle gym, the bouncer, and my all time fave- the blanket on the floor. All these little places that I would hover over, fill with little toys, sing songs, and cry around. We would spend most of his waking moments cuddled together on his jungle gym or a small blanket with a few toys and diaper scattered around us. Life was so simple... and tiring.

He loved laying under his little baby jungle gym and watching the stuffed animals sway above his head.

I can remember waking up around 5:45 am one morning and putting him in his little jungle gym and laying on the floor next to him. I love that little jungle gym, and have explored it from many angles.

I can remember moving his bouncer from room to room as I cleaned up. I would even put it in front of the shower door and bring a plastic hanger in the shower so I could still bounce the darn thing a few times while I showered.

I just love this picture. Sleeping so sweetly - which never happened- with his dragon watching by.

We would make the neatest little play areas with all sorts of fun things to grab at!

Now we play in big spaces. Huge! My whole house can't contain Bradley and his love to explore. I miss the little places.

Dog Pile!

2011-08-28T18:15:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning dog piles are the best!

Three Little Monkeys

2011-08-14T14:49:00.000-04:00

Three little monkeys jumping on the bed.

One fell off and broke his head!

Mama called the doctor and the doctor said...

No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Pioneer Day

2011-08-14T13:29:00.022-04:00

Our ward celebrated Pioneer Day (the day that the mormon pioneers reached the Utah valley) by having a good ole southern bbq at Cooper's Furnace. (that is that huge rock furnace behind Brian. It was used to make all the guns in the south for the Civil war, i think.)

There was much bbq chicken, fried catfish, hushpuppies, corn on the cob and watermelon. But before we could enjoy the yumminess we decided to take a hike...
Yep. One of those "it will be real quick; it's just up here; only a third of a mile to go" kind of hikes.

There were signs most of the way, so we knew we were never lost. However I wouldn't say the signs were very accurate. Let's just say the visitor center wasn't a third of a mile away.

Bradley walked nearly the whole way! Brian started carrying him when the trail turned steep.

There was no visitor's center, but we did get to see a great view of the dam. Yes Brian successfully taught our son to say dam, however it comes out as more of a grunt rather than an expletive.

Birth Certified

2011-08-08T12:09:00.000-04:00

I'm a slacker. I still don't have a copy of Bradley's birth certificate and he is nearly 2 now.
The hospital didn't even give us a cute non-official version with the hand prints! They gave us a paper that said we could order one for a fee in a few weeks. I figured I wait a few weeks and do it. Then a few months later I got around to reading the form. It is a badly photocopied version of some hospital form for the Georgia Department of Human resources. The first and second page are badly photocopied and talk about two ways to submit the form, and requires that you get a certified check. Sooo I put it off a few more times.

After re-reading it for the 10th time I'm still pretty unclear what my total amount for the certified check should be, and if I should mail it in with a copy of my license, do I add shipping to my certified check and how much should I add, or can I "go in" with a copy of my license and request it, and where exactly is this place that you can "go in"?????

I thought, "Darn it! I'll just google the **** thing!"

So within in 10 minutes I was on a recommended website filling out info to request a copy (the website was recommended by the GA Department of Public Health, so I thought it was legit). There was a $9 fee for the website, in addition to the normal finders fee and shipping fees, but it is allllllll done. Way worth $9. Maybe worth the $20 they make you pay for shipping. At least it is done.

Are We 2 Yet?

2011-08-07T17:48:00.001-04:00

I heard gear grinding noises and then the fated, "uh-oh!"

So I walked over to find that the dvd tray would not retract, and in fact would make a horrible grinding noise in attempting to retract. So I grabbed a flashlight and peeked inside to see the slightest hump of a orange crayon. Grr.

Then I grabbed a paintbrush and pencil and shoved them in there to see if I could coax it out, which of course only shoved the crayon further back. (Which is probably why your not supposed to stick your fingers down your kid's throat if they are choking.. good to remember)

So I whipped out my mini tool kit and opened the sucker up! Crayon retrieval was successful. And so was screwing the dvd player back together.

Trouble maker.

I really couldn't help but think, "Isn't stuff like this supposed to happen after they turn into devils at age 2?"
Maybe it is just the moms who turn into crazy yelling idiots at age 2, because I was pretty livid at this discovery. Next time I will have to practice keeping my cool.

The Banana Book

2011-08-05T22:07:00.000-04:00

We went to the library a month ago for story time. Afterward, we walked around the library and Bradley spotted this book on the shelves in the children's area. He grabbed it, sat down, and started yelling banana! banana!

So we checked it out. And have read it at least once a day, every day that we've had it. On this particular day we read it no less than 10 times.

The book is due this week... I don't know if he can part with it yet.

Asian Food Sunday

2011-07-25T23:08:00.000-04:00

Mmmmmm. Here's how ya do it.

Step 1: Marry a talented husband.

Step 2: Stay out of the way and keep the baby occupied. (We made a crown during toddler time at the library this last week. It still had some entertaining qualities on Sunday.)

Step 3: Enjoy the awesome Asian-ness. Thai Basil Noodle, pot stickers, rice.. life is good.

Happy sunday yumminess.

Red Top Mountain

2011-07-17T18:48:00.002-04:00

We started our rainy saturday arguing about the big hike we had planned. We wanted to drive up to Amicalola Falls and spend half the day hiking the falls and enjoying the cool mountains. But with rain predicted for 3 pm I really didn't want to drive 1.5 hours just to turn around.

So we compromised with some Dunkin Donuts and Red Top Mountain (which is only 20 min away). A wonderful hike along part of the lake there.

We have neat friends here, one of them told us to keep their kid-pack till we were done with it or till they had grand kids to pack around in it. So we've been able to hike to our heart's content.. Thanks Osengas!

We met this "little" guy in the middle of the trail. Ick. It is about three quarters long and one quarter thick.

What! a real mushroom with a red top with small white/yellow spots? I thought those only grew out of question mark blocks in Super Mario!

"Hikes are the best!"

Sniff Sniff Sniff

2011-07-14T08:32:00.001-04:00

Bradley and I are always working on our communication skills.
He just walked up to me, grabbed his diaper, and started rapidly "sniffing" through his nose...

Hmm, I'm not very good at reading "Bradley signals" but I'm pretty sure he is trying to communicate something to me.

A few months ago I started getting all these emails about potty training tips for an 18 mo old. I ignored most of them because I thought 18 months was way too early. But one caught my eye, "your toddler may be ready for potty training if he tells you he has a dirty diaper." It suddenly clicked in my head why Bradley will randomly walk around holding his diaper. I really thought he was getting a urinary infection.

So we started rewarding this behavior with M&Ms! Then two months went by and he stopped doing it. A week before our vacation he started doing it again!! So we started up with the M&Ms again and kept it going on vacation. The Grandparents thought it was so cute and were way more excited that Brad would get an M&M than he was, which I think just reinforced the idea to him. I'm pretty sure he mostly gets that poop = M&Ms. Somehow the sniffing was added for clarification.

I know what you are thinking... Won't he just start saying he has a dirty diaper just to get an M&M? Probably, but we aren't there yet. We aren't even to an M&M ever day. Some days are great and he totally recognizes when he Went. Other days he is still completely oblivious.

DISNEY LAND

2011-07-12T20:07:00.002-04:00

So in May my WHOLE Daniels family got together and flew from the various corners of the US to go to DisneyLand together.

Sadly my camera card was shoved in the wrong compartment of a laptop and was not retrieved till after we all had gone back to our corners. Never the less, here are my fave pics from our tip. Check out Heidi's Blog for her fave pics.

Brad's Fave ride was any carousel.

DUDE, Oscar- the chef of Carnation Cafe and inventor of "Oscar Potatoes" came out and talked with us and shared his secret potato recipe with us!!

The best husband in the world bought me cotton candy. The best food ever.

Brad also really liked the Challenge Course in CA Adventure.

I heart Disney. I may even do a Mickey Room for Brad's next room theme.

Defending the Family in a Troubled World

2011-06-23T14:02:00.000-04:00

I came across an article in the Ensign this week that has been buzzing around in my brain. (The Ensign is a monthly magazine my church publishes that has messages from the Prophet, other church leaders, and inspirational stories) Titled: Defending the Family in a Troubled World, it is a topic that I think about a lot now that I am a mother and charged with raising children.

I nonchalantly told Brian it was about how the Family is under attack today and within seconds I was being lectured about how he doesn't feel like his family is under attack, that if we would just have proper sex education in schools it would help prevent more teen pregnancies and that he doesn't know why Christians are so up in arms about the morning after pill because it does the same thing as birth control. LOL

Maybe I may have pushed him on the subject one too many times.

Anyways. I thought it was an interesting, long, article that had some good points but was maybe over the top for the Ensign. After an hour of quoting parts of it to Brian and having him go off on other rants about how things aren't any worse now than they were years ago, I came to my own conclusions. I often use Brian as a sounding board for some of the topics in life I haven't made up my mind about. He is good at pointing out logic flaws in their and my arguments, and I value his opinion.

I do think the family needs to be defended in this world. I feel like many of the prevailing attitudes towards living your life for yourself and so seeking supposedly more fulfilling professional endeavors, negatively affect the youth of today and their future families. They are taught to value individual professional success over any sort of family centric life. Children are "viewed as a burden, a distraction from the pursuit of happiness and personal fulfillment."

I recognize that unless you have experienced the true personal fulfillment of raising children, which it is a hard thing to explain or compare to. And even harder to convince others of the value it brings even though it is not monetary based. But even Olympians have been quoted as saying their most valued accomplishment was not their gold medals, but their family.

But, I don't think these attitudes are solely the reason that families today are under distress. It is hard to blame any problem entirely on the forces of outside elements. Families more often have problems from the inside out. Sadly, this is not a new problem, and comes from generations of abuse in various forms, and the lack of loving father figures. (Ya, I know there are tons of other factors, but this is what Brian and I spent most of the time talking about.)

In the scriptures it talks about the sins of generations being placed on the father's, or parent's, heads, meaning the mother and father take responsibility for the consequential sins of their children. I think this was wise of our Father in Heaven. There are so many circumstances where you can hardly blame an individual for their sins or mistakes when the family they grew up in was loveless, unstable and fatherless. But families with even less severe situations still produce children that lack the emotional stability to form healthy, positive relationships with others largely because their parents never taught them how. As a result I feel we have a world of people who lead sad, lonely lives.

There are exceptions to all situations of course, but social patterns are hard to break. An abusive husband twenty years ago has likely produced abusive sons, and daughters who seek abusive men. When does this pattern stop? Several generations down the road when it is socially acceptable to go to therapy? No wonder those children today seek solidarity in professional careers and tout the joy of individual success. I'm glad they have overcome hard childhoods, but I am saddened they are unlikely and have no desire to then raise stable, happy families themselves.

I didn't think I was an exception when I was young. I thought all families ate dinner together, I thought they all liked each other; I thought that all families regularly said, "I love you." It saddens me beyond words when a friend doesn't want to go home for the holidays because they don't like being around their family. Or when a sibling sadly helps yet another brother or sister through a divorce. Or even if a family that can't make it to dinner together a few times a week!

Now, as a mother to my own family, I cherish the examples my husband and I had growing up. I am so thankful that I had a father that was a an example of a good and righteous husband and father, so as I grew I would value those attributes in men, and knew they type of person I wanted for a husband. I am thankful for a mother, who every day of my childhood, taught me how to be a mother. I have such happiness in my family; I wish everyone could feel the same way.

I don't have any great solutions. Just raise your own family in righteousness and love, and pray for the Lord's help in raising children that will love and value their family for eternity.

Thanks for the rant. My head feel clearer.

New Haircut!!

2011-06-21T08:22:00.001-04:00

Oh my boy is so big!! Dad finally told me he really didn't care if he was "there" for the first haircut in a salon, so I took Brad on Monday to get his hair professionally cut. I have had two previous attempts, and I just couldn't keep up with his growing locks any longer.

This was the result last time I cut his hair...

Not bad but not good. We are going to visit our Grandmas and Grandpas in Oregon next week, so I thought it would be nice if he didn't look like a hooligan!

Here's a decent "before" shot. Clearly his little boy hair is now slightly long.

We went to Pigtails and Crewcuts and it was so cute! Bradley got to ride in a plane while he desperately clung to me as Miss Nici cut his hair.

He did such a good job and was even patient enough to let Miss Nici use the shaver razor on the back of his neck and around his ears! I think he like it better than the water and scissors because it buzzed like a bee.

He loved playing with the airplane after all the commotion over his hair was over. What a boy.

Frozen Ham

2011-06-19T13:12:00.002-04:00

The sister missionaries are coming over for dinner today, I've got it all worked out. Cheesy potatoes and leftover Easter ham. My only problem is how you defrost and reheat said ham without drying it out or having it taste like the freezer.

So I turn online for help. I found a great little forum on the question, but the more I read the more I found responses like this:

-You didn't make a spiral cut ham... all you did is open the package, heat, and eat... what you did is *serve* a spiral cut ham.

-You're reheating leftover ham... it's NOT open heart surgery! sheesh

-ham bout a month ago and froze the leftovers.
oven
Lol...this is almost as ridiculous as the "How long to cook instant ramen?"
thread...

I am not making top ramen! I am trying to make a meal for guests!

And now I feel like a domestic flop who can't even reheat ham. Gr.

Some of us don't naturally have the "domestic food gene" and we are only capable of serving semi-homemade food because of the pretty pictures in the cookbooks or online youtube videos.

On the plus side the sister missionaries are really nice, and even if it tastes like dog food something compels them to tell me it tastes wonderful. It is only later in the week my husband will fess up and tell me it was horrible. So I have a week of thinking I served a picture perfect meal regardless of what actually happens.

Just Tuesday

2011-06-16T18:22:00.001-04:00

We had a visitor on Tuesday.
Stephanie Yando (who has so many similarities to me - other than her name - it is crazy) brought over HER boarder collie, Carlie.

Naturally there was much herding going on.

Then mommy worked on her spoons garden project - which turned out less than professional looking. Oh well.

After a nap we went to the pool.

Then we played with mommy's garden spoons till dinner time.

Playing in the dirt - even if it is in a pot - is still fun for a little bug.

buddies

2011-06-12T13:22:00.001-04:00

I think they became play buddies this week.
Every night for the last week, when mom and dad are too tired to keep running around, Brad and Portland figured out that there is someone else who still has energy.
Here's the run down of our nights this week. First, Portland brings out her multi-squeaky lion and plops it in the middle of the room. Then she starts to de-fluff it, and slowly pulls out little tiny pieces of fluff till either I or Brad notices. Either way, she wins because someone notices her.
Then Brad usually goes and sits on top of the lion, which causes a small ruckus and the games begin.
Pretty soon they are playing tug of war and Portland is dragging Bradley in circles around the house. Entertainment till bedtime.

Who wouldn't love their puppy for that.

Pjs, puppies, and play.

2011-06-09T14:15:00.000-04:00

Let's go play mom.

I'll take the frisbee, see ya later.

mmm, new nail polish that matches my flip flops makes me happy.

I threw the frisbee in the bush mom!!

HA got it mom!! Now quick throw the frisbee!!!

Ha got it mom!! Let's go check out theeeese bushes.

Did you hear that airplane!?!

Bushes are so cool.

HA! this is what you get when you come sit by mom!

Come take a walk with me mom. I can't go down the driveway with out holding your hand. Please!

oookay. We'll go on a little walk around the culdesac.

Now what.

Time to go inside.

Just joking, let's go look at the bushes one more time.

Oh I thought I saw another airplane.

Go inside? no way!

I'm not going inside!

hehehehe.

hahahaha I made mommy chase me all across the yard!

ooook. Time to go inside.

Big Swimer

2011-06-05T16:09:00.000-04:00

We went swimming three times this week!!! Brad thinks he is ready to swim on his own. We went swimming with some friends and as soon as Brad saw the other kids swimming on their own he was pretty sure he could too.

Last year we made it to the pool a handful of times, and Brad was only semi interested. He sat on his pool floaty duck and splashed a little.

This is Brad one year-ish ago! Cute suit, little swimmer.

Look at my big boy swimmer!! Can you believe he still fits in that same suit! I know it was huge on him last year, but this year it fits perfectly! Now I need to find one of those kid life vests and some water wings and this kid really will be able to swim on his own!!

Red Top Mountain

2011-05-29T16:46:00.000-04:00

So around this time, one year ago we took a little hike.

I am proud to say that this year's "first hike of the season" was much more successful!

We went 15 minutes up to Red Top Mountain and hiked their Homestead Trail. Beautiful!! It is a 5.5 mile trail, and 1/3 of it follows along some of Lake Allitoona.

Bradley rode in the kid backpack again, and he really liked it. Brian complained more than Bradley did this time.

We hiked for 2.5 miles or so and decided to sit down and have our lunch- we packed sandwiches from Panera, how rugged of us. After a half an hour of Dad saying, "We are almost there Brad, we just need to find a place." We sat our selves down on the ground - which was rugged! After our sandwiches we walked around the bend to find a lovely bench which we could have eaten at. Predictable, oh well.

After lunch, Bradley wanted to keep walking. So we donned a Bradley pace for a while before we couldn't take it any longer and plopped him back in the backpack again. Which he didn't mind.

Don't they look SO cute in their nearly matching shirts!
Portland equally loved the hike, and proved it so by smelling every little thing the entire 5.5 miles. Brian told me I don't write enough about her in our blog and to include how happy she was on our hike.

Everyone had so much fun, it didn't rain, it didn't thunderstorm, we had a map, and we correctly followed the map. I think we will definitely go back and hike this trail because it is so close and so pretty!

Water Torture

2011-05-29T13:32:00.000-04:00

Last night Brian was making us wonderful crab cakes, Bradley was helping of course, and Brian had a slightly clumsy moment and dropped the open vegetable oil. I should say he has been having a slightly clumsy weekend, because this was now the second time this weekend I got to clean the kitchen floors. Anyways, I offered to clean up while Brian finished making the remoulade sauce for the crab cakes. A few seconds later Bradley shrieks and Brian and I both look up to see him rubbing an eye. Then Brian yells, "Bradley, did you get Tabasco in your eye!!!"

Not pausing to ask how on earth this would happen, I grab the baby and soak a paper towel in water and begin flushing his eye out- which of course Bradley does not enjoy. After a minute or two I pause to see if I'm actually helping the situation and as soon as I let go of Bradley he calms down and appears as though nothing is wrong. I begin examining his eyes and find they look the same. Surely if you got Tabasco in your eye it would be bright red. I look at Brian and ask how Brad got Tabasco in his eye to which Brian says, "I don't know, maybe it dripped in just the right way?"
I examined the rest of Bradley and didn't find anything wrong. At this point I realized I may have given my son a little water torture for no reason. Oops.

New Carpet

2011-05-15T13:44:00.000-04:00

In the midst of the craziness of april, we got new carpet. We had a slight toilet issue last month- nothing big, just gushing sewage onto some of our carpet. But I forgot to post some pics of our fresh new carpet!

Old carpet, empty room.

Okay, so maybe I'll elaborate on the story. Toilet practically explodes one Friday night, we spend the night in a hotel. The next day the plumber fixes it, but the carpet is still really gross, so we rip up the soaked parts. New carpet is needed. After a week of shopping, we order carpet. A few weeks later inlaws get into town. The second day of their visit I get a call that says we can either have the new carpet installed in the next hour, or we can wait 10 days for another appointment.

Cut to 30 mintuets later and we have the above and below pics.

My inlaws are so cool and literally jumped into action and helped me move all the furniture into the other room within minutes. Which was good, because the carpet guys called a few minutes later.

This is our new carpet!!

We went with Home Depot, Platinum Plus Collection, Sandy-Beach. I think it does look like a sandy beach. How soothing. It is so soft and plush to lay on, and it doesn't show dirty puppy feet!

I think it looks pretty good all put together again.

cracks me up

2011-05-11T21:18:00.000-04:00

nuff said.

Easter Bliss

2011-05-08T16:34:00.000-04:00

Easter day #1

The Easter Bunny visited us! Bradley was thrilled to see so many baskets just for him!

While no one was looking, he grabbed a candy and managed to open it no prob. This, it turns out, was his favorite part of Easter. For days afterward he kept track of the candy bowl and would point and cry at it ever time he remember it was there.

Then we dyed easter eggs! Grandma was an expert halfsie egg color-er. Brad was fascinated for a few minutes, then he just liked trying to tip the cups over.

Day #2!

Grandma & Grandpa flew out Sunday morning, but we had a nice Easter afternoon together.

We came home from church and began cooking our easter feast! Potatoes, ham, salads, the works! Then one by one our dinner guests called and told us they each had someone in their family that was sick and they coudn't joins us. However... they wanted to bring their food over for eveyone else.

So we divied up the food and sent most of it back home with our friends.. and then ate a HUGE dinner with the works!

Then we had a little easter egg hunt for brad. He remembered that candy is inside easter eggs, so he eagerly gathered all the eggs up! I don't think he minded that I forgot to give our dinner guests their portion of the easter eggs. Oh well.

Happy Easter!

Sick Babies are No fun.

2011-04-17T16:36:00.001-04:00

We started off the week so chipper and fun!

I call this, ode to Mickey. We start off each week pretty much the same. Brad wakes up, we eat breakfast, and then we go upstairs and print off a new Mickey pic to color. This takes up a good portion of the morning. I highly recommend it.

Then we play trains for the next half of the morning! Then snack and nap! It is a very excellent way to start out a week, and usually yields a very happy baby.

I guess most of the week was good. But on Thursday Bradley had a fever.
And Friday wasn't much better.

I don't mind high fevers... 102 ish. Much higher than 102 is scary, and much lower is painful for more than just Bradley.
I don't know how your families respond to sickness, but as soon as the lower fever sets in that is when my guy is inconsolable. Every little thing is actually the end of the world, and further, all the things that I cannot interpret also equal the end of the world.

So you do everything in your power to keep your sweet, sick little guy happy for as long as possible. (And send many prayers to heaven hoping to keep your patience in check while your toddler screams for no curable reason.)

There was a lot of Disney Channel playing in my house this week. I try not to watch too much tv during the day, like none, but when I have a sick little boy who only wants to sit with mom or dad (mostly mom though), mom and dad NEED something else to distract Brad.

Daddy was very good about entertaining Brad while I ate my food, but this was too cute to miss. Apparently the "Leader" climbed on the coffee table and started to dance around when he was tired of singning "following the leader."

Dad's entertainment tricks went so far as putting the puppy on the slide. (yes that is me with a mouthful of food trying to hold back the laughter.) Bradley was more than happy to help push Portland down the slide. Sweet boy, helping the dog overcome her fears.

Naked Baby Morning

2011-04-08T13:14:00.001-04:00

Some mornings just need to be fun. So after Brad insisted on a diaper change I just let him run wild. Then he peed on the floor. Then I put a diaper on and let him run wild once more.
He definatly prefered the full monty side of life, but he was quite content to run half free also.

I had my nice camera out so I thought I'd snap a few artistic shots of my little toddler playn around. This is pretty much how most mornings go. Breakfast and then play time. What a life.

Then we had to get dressed for the day. Naturally we had to celebrate the Blazer's victory over the Jazz with a little Blazer fan power!!

Good Mornings are the simple ones.

See more photos on our web album. Here!

Hope for Japan

2011-03-21T12:33:00.008-04:00

When a huge disaster occurs like the earthquakes in Japan, or hurricane Katrina, I often feel helpless and a little detached because I know all my sad feeling and wishes for things to get better won't help. I watch the news reports, share with people in the feelings of saddness and amazement of the survivors. And that is it.

I don't know what changed this time. I guess I saw other people on Etsy donating a portion of their sales to the relief efforts and I decided- I could do that too. (maybe I saw one too many disney "you can make a difference" commercials, i dunno.)

So my sister and I decided to design and offer a special scrabble tile pendant in our Jubilation Studios store, devoted to helping those in need in Japan. It isn't anything over top, just a simple statement of Hope.

The Japanese characters for "hope" are in the background, and the english word "hope" is in the foreground, reminding us that no matter who or where we are, we can have hope. 100% of the proceeds are being donated to relief efforts for Japan. The pendant is currently $6, though we have taken special orders for $10 pendants.

If you want to order one- click on one of buttons or links in this blog or on the side bar. If you hate Etsy and want to order via well, me, or if you want to donate more than $6 and still get a pendant, shoot me an email at jubilationstudios@gmail.com and we can set it up!

Family

2011-03-20T17:24:00.001-04:00

I could not figure out what to do with my Sunday today.
I wanted to blog, but if I blog on my crafty blog that is probably "working" on work stuff. So I can't do that.
I really really want to start making all the Japan Relief Pendant orders we received this weekend, but that is really really working on the Sabbath, so no go there.

So I wandered around the blogs for a while till I came across this photo:

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FAMILY! Everyone looks very odd in this photo to me.

See, my dad should have A LOT more facial hair, and maybe a few more pounds. My mom should have WAY POOFIER hair, and bangs that rise a few inches off her head and she should be wearing some printed flowery shirt that is tucked in with a belt. MY BROTHER SHOULDN'T BE THAT TALL. Nor should he have a thick boy neck or look "hot" in any way.

Blech.

This is how my family should look, minus my mom who is taking the photo. (And you are so lucky mom that I couldn't find that perfect 80's photo of you!)

Awe. Now doesn't that remind you of how your family is supposed to look! I feel much better.

Good Weekend

2011-03-13T21:31:00.001-04:00

It seems like we've been pretty busy nearly every weekend since the start of the year. Last weekend was Stake Conference, and though it added to our list of weekends that were already planned, it ended up being cool because we had Elder Anderson of the 70 come and talk to us. All the messages were focused on the family and how to raise a righteous family in these latter days.

However, my favorite message was: Men, help out around the house. Women: Be thankful for the help.

Or at least that is what my ears heard. ;-)

Brian's ears must have heard the same thing because when Saturday rolled around he decided that we needed some more clean clothes for the weekend, and so...... He Did the Laundry! It was glorious.

In return, first, I didn't worry or stress over how he was doing the laundry.

Second, I started the yard work for the spring! I cleared out all leaves in the front area and along the pathway. A most excellent and satisfying way to spend the day.

Better yet, we got to end our evening at a Hawks/Blazer game! Brad stayed home with a babysitter, and we jetted off to the Phillips Arena! Brian wore his bright red Blazer shirt and I wore a Hawks shirt so we were balanced, but we both sported Blazer "3 goggles" to show the love. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you aren't a Blazer fan.)

We had wicked seats gifted to us by a friend. So this pic, yea I took it from a few rows back. These are the two cutest guys on the team- no contest. Aaaaand they are pretty talented too.

Just to make our weekend extra wonderful, we had beautiful weather on Sunday, so we spent half the day outside enjoying fresh air. Brian was a bit sick, so he stayed home from church and kept Brad with him so I could enjoy a day of church without the kiddo.

Brian may have set up our new slide for Brad while I was gone.

The weather was sooo nice we heeded the council given the weekend before and spent some much desired family time together outside.

Brian even felt well enough for a little bbq outside. Although he did give me the annoyed, "why do you have to document every part of our life" look while I took his picture. He said he perfected it earlier in life thanks to his mom.

Disney World 2011!

2011-02-17T17:32:00.000-05:00

Every winter Brian gets a little restless at work and requests a vacation. Two years ago we went to Disney World in February, and last year we went to Washington DC. This year.. Yup, Disney again. Who could resist.. it is just 8 hours away!

So he sneakily turned it into a birthday present for me. Which was nice.

Brad was pretty excited about being in this new crazy place. And so so about riding the rides.

They weren't scary for him. He just sat and observed.

Brian and I opted for the "baby pass" on the big rides. I actually didn't mind riding alone at all. I found it funny to watch the families with little kids. My fave was riding the Tower of Terror because I had a 10 year old girl continually asking me if it was scary and if they had seat belts.

The best was dessert the first night! I take this to be my b-day surprise. Brian reserved seats for us at Disney's Fireworks and Desserts thingy. Basically you walk up to four huge carts full of desserts, grab a plate and stuff your face. They even had hot chocolate and milk!

This was my round 1. My faves ended up being the cannoli, the berry tart, and the chocolate strawberry.

Then we had awesome seats for the fireworks show! Tinkerbell flew right over our head.

I can't believe we got him to wear this hat all morning long.

This was our only character experience. It went well, and Bradley was pretty excited to meet Goofy and Pluto. He would have been really really excited to meet Mickey, but we weren't up for that line.

On Safari with Brad and Dad!! We saw hippos, rhinos, giraffes, and more!

Bradley really liked Toy Story Mania. Not because he could see the show, he liked the crazy ride and pulling the string on the gun. You could say it was more fun than a barrel of monkeys for sure.

Okay. So Bradley's all time favorite thing was..... The Honey I Shrunk the Kids land. Everything is huge- that is a huge dog's nose on the right there. It is sniffing Brad. We let him run wild with out any restraints. Too bad we didn't discover it till the end of the day on our last day! I guess we'll know for the future.

Sleep baby Sleep

2011-01-31T21:01:00.002-05:00

Some moms are overly worried about feeding their kids all natural/chemical free foods, some moms are overly worried about autism and immunizations. I guess I am overly worried about forming bad habits. Especially when it comes to sleep.

My brain thinks things like "If I don't put him to bed after 9:30 every night he will wake up too early in the morning. If I rock him to sleep he will never learn to sleep on his own, if I let him cry it out he will not sleep well, be cranky, and hate me when he wakes up. If he wakes up too early from a nap, he won't go back to sleep on his own if I rock him. If I bring him into bed with me in the morning he will sleep better. Worst of all, if I don't pay ridiculous attention to all these little sleepy things I will have a three year old that won't sleep by himself or have any good sleep habits."

The longer I am a mom the more my experience shows me that most of these thoughts are silly, and the issues resolve themselves over time. And I'm pretty good about quelling most of my truly paranoid thoughts into infrequent worries. But I still find that when I'm under stress or when I'm sleepy, they still creep into my head and stick till my brain is working again.

Brad started out last week with a cold, or maybe teething I never know, and so his beautiful, normal sleep patterns started going crazy. It always takes me a few days to figure out something is up. So instead of waiting to see how things go, I start in with the over analyzation in the mean time. I began worrying about what I am doing that might be causing the problem or what I can do to help. It rarely occurs to me that Bradly will shift back to normal on his own.

So I started with a warmer blanket. This seemingly helped. Then he started waking up early from naps. So I rocked him back to sleep and put him down. He slept for another hour and a half. Sweet success right? NO. More waking up, more sleeping at odd times. What what what?? Teeth? Cold? nobody knows.

This week. All better.

GA Aquarium Today

2011-01-22T15:49:00.003-05:00

Ever since we came back from oregon, Brian has been busy during the weekends. Every weekend! So Brian promised that we could do something fun on his off friday this weekend. In contemplating what fun thing we could do it occurred to me that we haven't been to an aquarium in a while. Our number of aquarium vs air museum trips isn't too good. Naturally, I felt that a trip to the Atlanta Aquarium was needed.

Truth be told - I love fish. They taste pretty good yea, but I really love looking at them. I've only ever swam with the fish once or twice, and that was pretty much cooler than any aquarium ever. But since I don't get that opportuinity every day, looking at them through plexiglass is the next best thing.

Bradley liked them too. I think he mostly liked walking around by himself, but he did stop to enjoy the fish occasionally.

Brian tolerated the fish. He much preferred the otters, but as fish go, he did like this aquarium. Nearly every exhibit featured fish and other sealife in a 360 capacity. there is even a clear tunnel through the water where you can see everything swimming around in the deep saltwater exhibit! Sharks, manta rays, whale sharks, hammerheads, huuuge other kinds of fish.

I would also say that about half of the exhibits featured a hands on sea life experience. My hint - even if you don't have kids that will play in the kid zone area, go in anyways because they have the coolest hands on stuff in there. We touched a live: manta ray (or some kind of ray), a shark fin, a star fish, a sea urchin, and I touched a sea anemone!

These are fish from Africa! How colorful, and ornate, and swishy! Gliding through the water must be so relaxing.

Okay, so I fully understand not everyone gets as excited about fish as me. But I still think it is a very neat aquarium and worth a visit.

Not really Goals

2011-01-17T10:44:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about this new year for nearly half of last year. I've slowly been formulating some "goals" or more like personal desires that I would like to work on now that Bradley is out of the 100% attention phase. We are in a 70-60% attention phase now.
So what do I want to do with my 30% + of time not spent on Brad??

Clean? Yea right.
Cook? Kinda.
Craft.... Yahtzee!

But I can't just craft all the time. First my dear hubby wouldn't appreciate the constant spending of hard earned funds with out any pay back other than self gratification. So I guess this needs to be a money making endeavor. And second, I do have to clean the house.

A few years ago I ordered a scrabble tile pendant from a seller on Etsy. I've been a little obsessed over the last year about it. I'm a good designer, I could easily design better imagery for these little tiles. I'm a good crafter. It only took me one try to figure out how to make these little guys. AND I already have a mother with a successful website so I could network between two websites.
For practice and for service... I used the tile pendants as an incentive project for my Young Women for church. So now I've had nearly a year of experience making them. And I've extensively experimented on papers, printers, glues, and done some dabbling in jewelery baubles. I think I'm ready to start this little project. Too bad I only have two naps a day to really get any work done.

So now I need another buddy to help me... Who do I know who wouldn't mind a few extra bucks a month who is already spends a lots of time on the net, a pro blogger and experimenter, whose husband already has his own etsy site... Heidi!!!! My dear sister.

So now I have a half baked plan to sell these pendants online with my sister doing the footwork on the Internet. Wish me luck and lots of sells!!

Oh yea, other "goals...."
um. Clean the stupid house more often. Paint the kitchen & bathroom. Get a haircut. Raise a charming and sweet boy.

Santa!

2011-01-13T21:26:00.001-05:00

Brian found my camera!! So I can post some Christmas memories!
I made this santa ornament when we were living in SLO, CA. I didn't really think my little boy would play with it and recognize it as "santa" someday. Sweet.

Bradley did surprisingly well in Santa's arms at our ward Christmas party. He asked for some books and a new horse to replace his unicorn.

We also went to Lights of Life, which is Life College's "free" drive through light show. If you turn right instead of going straight you can pay $5 to stop and look at their little santa showcase thing. (Life college is not a weirdo southern conservative school, though it has a weird name, it is a medical-ish school).

Yay $5 santa ville!

Snow Days

2011-01-12T08:50:00.005-05:00

Snow Days Day 2

2011-01-12T08:49:00.002-05:00

Snow was fun for Portland, but Bradley had some other ideas of what to do for fun.

How could I resist snapping a few pics of Bradley wearing his Portland Blazer's shirt while riding Portland? She patiently waits for this to stop, then after Bradley climbs off, she takes off! There is only so much pony time she can handle.

He also dug out the wood wheely turtle Grandpa Daniels made and drove it around the room for like an hour.

Playing in PA!

2010-11-27T17:47:00.005-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Brian, Bradley and I flew to Pennsylvania to be with my Sister's family for thanksgiving! They happen to have a new, adorable, baby named Bladen. Who, by the way, is an amazingly sweet and quiet baby. How did the loudest member of my family breed the quietest baby I've ever met? When I, not the loudest member of the family, made a loud, inconsolable infant. Thank goodness Bradley is a year old and out of his crying all the time phase. We are lucky to be in the toddling all over and chewing on things phase.

Anyways, Deric was pretty worried about the company drinking all his sparkling cider, so he bought each person their own bottle. Very sweet.

Brian cooked mostly everything and he did a great job. We had turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, jello, stuffing, cream corn, deviled eggs (which heidi's facebook post discussion could not confirm if this is a normal thanksgiving tradition) and pumpkin cake and banana cream pie.

This is the only picture where we could get them both looking-ish at the camera and not bawling or crawling. They are pretty cute though.

Bradley looooves their dogs. In this pic he is "talking" or yelling at Scout. When he isn't telling them all about the world, he is pulling their tails, climbing on them, or trying to poke their noses.

Heidi and Deric took us to a famous old mansion in Meadville where they decorated each room for christmas! It was very beautiful and cool to see an old house. Every room had a different tree and a hidden white-tailed deer!

Merry Christmas Ence Family!

Who is that adorable nephew? oh yea, That's my boy Bladen! What a little smirk!

The Puppy and the Ball are SO Funny

2010-11-10T12:31:00.002-05:00

I love that these two get along.
I catch Portland all the time walking up to Brad and giving him kisses when I didn't even tell her to do it! She gets very worried when I use the mom voice or correct Brad or tell him no. Portland will start circling and herding, and kissing Brad so he knows he needs to stop what he is doing or they are both going to get in trouble! She is like a big sister looking out for her bro. Uuuunless there is a frisbee or tennis ball nearby. Then she is all business.

Brad equally loves Portland, and seeks her out when he wants to make some trouble. But the very first time I brought the big ball out they fought over it! Brad hung onto it with his body (as I steadied him) and Portland batted at it with her paws despite my insisting it was Bradley's turn first since it was HIS birthday present. Portland isn't the best at sharing new toys. But clearly they worked out their differences and are having a ball in this video. (Pun totally intended.)

The art of balencing a spider

2010-11-10T12:00:00.001-05:00

I got my battery charger back so now the photos and movies can continue! Hurray!
The noise in the background is Brian cutting wood in the basement.

2010-10-23T16:21:00.002-04:00

Welcome Bladen Paul Ence!!!
Congrats Heidi & Deric. I'm so excited to be an aunt!!!!!!!!!!

Pumpkin Time!

2010-10-19T09:47:00.000-04:00

We had so much fun at the Bert's Farm Pumpkin Patch! We got three cool pumpkins and some delicous pumpkin pie.
Then our GPS - whom we call Jane - took us on an off-roading adventure that ended in a towtruck. ... At least the first half of the day was really fun!

Mom & Brad!

2010-10-19T09:33:00.000-04:00

Pumpkin Time!

2010-10-19T09:31:00.000-04:00

Blocked

2010-10-18T12:20:00.001-04:00

it is a few stairs up but at least we have a gate!!

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Sick bug

2010-10-11T11:19:00.002-04:00

I thought that we would sneak through this first year without any colds or illness. well we almost made it.
I felt sooo bad for the little guy when the peaditrition said yup he has a sore throat.
now it has been a few days and i think he is feeling much better, but he still wants the same level of attention and caudling as before. i feel like the recovery from recovering is going to be long and hard. what happened to my headstrong independant little boy!

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Busy and no camera

2010-09-23T23:29:00.004-04:00

We've been up and down and all over the country this last month. Sadly few if any cameras that I owned were able to join us on our adventures.

But I haven't posted in a while so I figured i would share the last few pics I took of Bradley's adventures. Yes he has learned to crawl... and climb!

Hmm, what should I do next....

Caught you! Little sneaky boy! He races for the stairs if the pillows aren't blocking the way. I always know as soon as it gets quiet... he's either headed for or crawling up the stairs!

He loves sitting on the edge of the fireplace hearth. He will stand up then sit down, then crawl down, then crawl up and turn around and do it all again. He has the silliest facial expressions while he does it too.

I strongly dislike teething too little bug. Growing teeth is hard to do!

Well that's my official 10 month update. He is pretty cute, pretty fun, and absolutely worth the labor of the first 6 months.

The Drawer Pull Experiments

2010-08-03T14:21:00.004-04:00

Day 1: Failure
My recent explorations into the kitchen have been met with many new discoveries. Namely the dishwasher, the fridge, and the drawers.
Oh the world of the drawers alludes me.
Upon first discovery I was thrilled to find a cavern filled with boxes and bags, but suddenly the cavern disappeared. I must investigate further.

Day 2: Painful Failure
I was able to find my way back to the mysterious bottom drawer today. I slowly pulled it open and peered inside. But suddenly the force of my weight slammed the thing shut again! And with it went my fingers... ouch.

Day 3: Again with the fingers.
I must discover a way to obtain those bags without the painful experience of shutting my fingers in the drawer.

Day 4: Painful SUCCESS!
I have unlocked the mysteries of the bottom drawer. The secret is to extract the drawer fully before attempting to climb upon it.
At last those ziplock bags were mine! I extracted one bag and carefully examined it. A curious slippery, yet somehow sticky discovery. Suddenly, as if being pushed by some unexplainable force, the drawer began to close! Try as I might to keep it open, we both eventually succumbed to the force, and once again my fingers became lodged. Though less painful than the sudden slamming I experienced before, I was still unhappy.

Day 5: Success
Today I approached the bottom drawer with much excitement. I remembered my past experience and I would not be met with failure today! After fully extracting the drawer again, I mounted it with much ease. However that same pushing force began to close off my awaiting discoveries. Suddenly, a motherly hand appeared to turn a box sideways. Ah ha! The box arrested the drawer's closing movements and at last the drawer was mine to fully explore. I quickly began extracting bags from the sideways ziplock box and soon was surrounded in glorious plastic. Sadly the motherly force returned to end my plastic extracting fun, but we will meet again!
Next, I will explore the other end of the kitchen and with it... the Puppy Drawer!

Off -Friday Fun

2010-07-23T23:38:00.005-04:00

It is time to baby-proof our house. Bradley can now crawl around and pull up with ease so I guess we had better start limiting his access to certain things. This weekend we started with the entertainment center - which used to be a coffee table. Luckily Ikea had just the sort of system and size we needed. Next we'll need to cover the fireplace and gate off the stairs. Otherwise we are pretty good. Though if even a hint of a cord is showing Bradley will find it.

While Dad put together the new entertainment unit Bradley and I played around.

Then Dad mowed the lawn and we played with the puppy!

Then we all sat back to watch the Braves game.
It was a pretty fun off Friday for the family.

On a side note... He is wearing half 12 month and half 9 months clothes right now. These baby clothes are driving me crazy! It is a good thing I checked out the 12 month-ers because some of them are smaller than the 9 month ones!
"Thanks for the monkey pjs grandma D. I finally fit them!"

8th Month Fun

2010-07-17T22:46:00.003-04:00

I just offloaded my Rebel camera and had to share some of the cute Brad pics.
I must say that this has been the most fun month to date. I loved watching Brad test the limits of gravity in his attempts to pull up, crawl, and scoot!

Doesn't he look like Spiderman!

We watch the Braves with Daddy nearly every night. I think it must be boy bonding time because they both love it and I don't get it. It is baseball!!!

This is Dad's fave outfit. Overalls are so cute on kids.

Brad and his Seymore Snake!

Since Brian has been working hard at work and devoting lots of his time to his church calling, it seems like the time he gets to spend with his family is special. Everything seems like so much fun when Dad is with us, plus Dad wants to go do lots of fun things when we are together. So there have been lots of dinners out, lots of hikes, many braves games at home, and lots of fun side adventures like to the zoo and babies r us.
During the rest of the 20 hours a day I spend with Brad we have been playing with blocks, various noisy singing toys, a new set of duplos, crawling around with a spoon or camera, playing with the puppy, baby-proofing, scrapbooking, crafting, working on that crazy ward cookbook, making pillows, working on personal progress, and altering lots of pajamas (HE IS TOO TALL FOR 9 and some 12 MONTH JAMMIES!)

Fourth of July - Observed

2010-07-08T14:58:00.005-04:00

Brian has been working pretty hard during the week. So when the weekend comes he is in the mood to play hard. Which also means he gets crazy whims and since I'm an indulgent person I'm up for them.
On saturday we devoted our free time to an Eagle Project. Sunday was the 4th and we visited some friends for dinner and fireworks. And so Monday was when we finally had time to play as a family. We loaded our fishing gear, packed the camp stove, stopped off to pick up some bratwurst (thank you Heidi for the inspiring idea), and hit the road.
An hour or more later we came to the cool fishing spot we had been searching for only to read rule number 3 - NO DOGS- on the giant list of rules posted in front of the lake. Then I noticed rule 2 - NO WADING. What kind of lake is that???

So we flipped around and drove another half hour to our favorite camping spot- Cloudland Canyon.
We grabbed a sweet spot under the trees, spread out the blanket, and cooked up some lunch.

There was much lounging.

And playing.
And crawling.
And then there was the hiking...

Don't worry. Nothing too bad this time. Down the canyon to see the tiny waterfalls. And then back up up up a couple hundred stairs. (I heard some kids behind us counting as they walked down and they were at 600 something partway down.)

To the Best Dad

2010-06-20T15:39:00.004-04:00

For a few years Brian has been a puppy dad, and a very good one at that. So good, in fact, that our pup who once believed me to be the alpha of the family changed her mind and decided that Brian made a better alpha. (If you are not a dog person the alpha is the leader of a dog pack. They lead, instruct and protect the pack. Apparently I am now the "den mom" who takes care of the pack pups.)

But this is Brian's first year as an official daddy Dad! And he is such a good Dad! Every time we are out and about he takes Bradley for me so I can run around the store with both my arms, or eat with both my arms, or sit in church with both my arms. I really love using both my arms and I can when ever Brian is near.

Happy Father's Day Brian. You are the most supportive husband I could imagine. You are such a sweet and sincere father. You provide for our family, you make our home sound (especially when ceiling fans fall off for apparently no reason), you strive for excellence in your career, and serve other people freely. You are the head of our household and a wonderful example to our son. You live the standards of the gospel and worthily hold and use the priesthood.

I hope and pray that Bradley can grow up to be just like his dad.

Oregon Trip

2010-06-19T02:10:00.004-04:00

Well, it started as a trip to Seattle, WA to see my sis & bro inlaw BOTH receive their PHDs. Pretty cool. Congrats to Dr. Skeels and almost Dr. Saponas.
After the graduation festivities Bradley and I rode back down to good ole Beaverton, OR with Tim & Lou. We've been here for nearly a week and are having so much fun. It is so good to be with family again. To hang out with my mom and go junking. To see my mother-in-law squeal ever time she sees my little Bug. To hang out in the cloud cover without 90% humidity. I love being home in Oregon. And getting to share it all with Bradley makes it feel even more like home.

Of course I miss Brian terribly. It is always easier to be the one away rather than the one left alone at home. I hope he is okay. Luckily the next trip we get to take to Oregon he gets to stay the whole time.

Grandma Lou, Great Grandma Marcy & Bradley

Great Grandma Asmussen & Bradley (This trip had a triple bonus as he got to see three great grandmas! though I only have pics of two right now.)

Grandma Daniels reading the coolest book ever to Bradley

Bradley testing out his new mini highchair/booster seat. I figured we needed one that will stay in Oregon to move between the two grandparents' houses. It just so happens this seat is rockin the Toy Story 3 theme. Excellent.

We took a little hike...

2010-05-29T17:09:00.009-04:00

Nearly 9 miles later we emerged soaked to the bone and staring at a sign across the street - Toccoa River... 3 miles.

We started our adventure the way any good hiking couple would. We loaded Brian's new backpacking backpack with water, fishing supplies, lunch and snacks. We loaded the baby into a baby back rider and loaded his backpack with food, changing supplies, a toy or two, a blanket, and extra footie pants. We even remembered such essentials as a topo map, cell phones, ipod, camera, and fishing book. We felt fairly prepared. We checked the weather, looked good till around 5 or 6, loaded the dog and the baby in the car and left.

We drove a few hours to northern Georgia and found our trail head and began the hike. It was beautiful. So fun and so nice to be in the wilderness without hundreds of trail hungry people leaving trash everywhere and talking on cell phones. Just our little family.

Brian had warned me that the reviews online said the first 1/3 of the trail was fairly difficult, but that the next 2/3 were mostly downhill and easy. Plus, after we got to the river there was a different road we could take out that went along the bottom of valley rather than up and over the mountain. So I knew it would be tough but that it wouldn't be tough for that long.

It was really tough going for the first 40 minutes, but still fun and refreshing. We even missed a turn and got lost for a little while. Brian forged ahead and found the trail again, then turned around and told Portland, "Find Mommy!" and soon they came bounding up the trail back to Bradley and myself. A small setback but nothing big. We learned to keep our eye out for the diamonds marked on the trees so we wouldn't accidentally stray onto a side trail again.

About an hour and forty minutes into the hike Bradley decided he had had enough of the baby back rider so we took a break and Brian offered to take him for a while.

At this point I was suspicious that the topo map we were following had some serious flaws. It did not show any of the switchbacks we were going on, nor could I figure out where we were on it judging by the up and down terrain we had just hiked. Judging by the time we should have been about half way, or at least approaching the 1/3 mark where it is supposed to get easier. Brian kept reassuring me that we were following everything just fine and that we must soon be approaching the 1/3 point where the trail turns downhill.

Finally we reached a beautiful view and it seemed the top of the mountain. The trail turned down and we hiked eagerly on. Within 10 minutes though, the trail began to climb again. And climb with vigor. It started to switchback very sharply and rise very quickly. (It should be noted that I was a bit of a wimp and needed to rest my legs every so often, and during this point Brian was carrying Bradley and I was still asking to take breaks.) Eventually we reached what seemed like the top, again we started to go down hill. We thought we were on our way till once again, the trail slowly started to have a distinct upward feel to it.

Now we had checked the weather and radar map before we came out. There was not supposed to be any inclement weather till much later in the day. We had heard a few thunder rumbles and felt short, light rain patches since we started at 11:30ish, but didn't think much of it. I don't know the exact time the rain started, but it sure wasn't 6 pm!

We had switched and I was carrying Bradley and Bradley had decided it was time to eat. We stopped for a rest when suddenly, and I mean suddenly, the sky opened up. Brian moved us to a more sheltered part of the forest and we pulled out the blanket to cover Brad. Within one minute Brian and I were soaked through. This wasn't a cute Oregon-misting, or a light move-through rain, it was thunderstorm pouring.
Somehow I managed to keep Bradley covered and began nursing him. After some fervent prayers were said, the rain lightened enough for us to keep going. Brian carrying his pack and mine, and I carried/nursed Bradley and continued hiking in the rain.

About twenty minutes later the rain had let up and we found... a sign. Odd though. Our map did not show any other trails intersecting ours... hmm... At this point we decided that indeed we were on the wrong trail.

This realization was pretty frustrating being in the current state we were in. We sat down and ate our sandwiches, rested for a few minutes, and started the hike back.

We were very blessed and the rain did not continue. But Bradley was still somewhat wet, so I held him close to my body and hiked the rest of the way out. Brian attached my kid pack to his pack and took care of controlling the dog -who by the way was very very good the whole hike but the last hour.

The hike back started out in fairly low spirits because I knew what we had to re-hike. But it went surprisingly fast. and... we survived. We got to the car, put Bradley in warm dry clothes, toweled off and ate the rest of our snacks on the ride home.

Portland was happily tired. But still brought us the ball and was ready to play when we got home.

Here is a version of the map we later found online to see how far we went. We were supposed to hike 3 miles to the Toccoa River and then back out for a total of 6 miles. In the end we hiked a total of 8.5 miles.

In the words of our friend, "I'm glad other people do stupid stuff with their family too." Yesterday we were definitely the other dumb family.

Chillin at home - 6.5 Months

2010-05-27T21:32:00.005-04:00

We are approaching a summer of traveling, so for now we are enjoying just being at home together. Playing with toys and practicing rolling over... crawling is just around the corner.

I recently threw a little hissy-fit about not having enough room in the family room to play. Luckily, no one was home to hear it, but it resulted in me kicking out the coffee table. No worries, I didn't take a chainsaw or something to it. Instead I moved it to the dinning room. So it looks like we have Japanese style dinning in our dinning room. I'm down with that. We just need some pillows and few more chop sticks and we'll have a dinning room!

I needed to get some pics of two-tooth Brad, before he turns into six-tooth Brad. The top four center teeth are ever so slowly making their entrance.

Dad and puppy. I take care of the baby and Brian takes care of the puppy. In this pic he is asking her if she wants to go for a ride. Doesn't she look happy?

Six months is really an amazing time! Solid foods, teeth, sitting up, playing with toys, grabbing, pinching, biting, toe sucking... I've never had so much fun before, and I think Bradley feels the same way. I am so blessed to be a mom, and so blessed to be Bradley's mom. It sounds corny, but I really didn't realize that motherhood wasn't just a destination but a always changing eternal journey. I'm up

It sounds corny, but I really didn't realize that motherhood wasn't just a destination, but a always changing, eternal journey. I'm up for it.

Sunday Pants

2010-05-23T17:39:00.000-04:00

My mom made these pants and gave them to us when Brad was born and I have been waiting for six months to use them. Brad is finally big enough! And I was lucky enough that Brian's mom gave Brad the top and it matches perfectly!!! For some reason sunday outfits are very important to me.
I love his little sunday outfits. I fully believe that regardless of age, pjs are not appropriate attire for church. But I love love that he has an adorable white shirt to go with his pants. All he needs is one of those "future missionary" tags. Maybe we'll have to get one of those for when Nate gets home! (Just a few more months till Nate gets home from his mission!)

6 months!

2010-05-10T22:01:00.000-04:00

Our First Braves Game!

2010-04-19T01:41:00.003-04:00

We had our first Braves experience this weekend. Much thanks to uncle Scott & aunt Meredith for providing the most awesome seats. We sat right on the third base-home plate line, like 20 rows back from the front. I literally sat looking down the stairs to see the home plate.
Bradley was so good. He loved watching the game, the people, the lights and hanging out with his family. He even tried to keep with baseball game tradition and eat a hot dog. Brian was holding both Brad and his hot dog when Bradley simply leaned over grabbed a handful of bun and shoved it in his mouth before anyone could stop him. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen because he has been so intent on getting his hands on mommy & daddy's food for the last few weeks. He finally got his hands on some! We let him gum on the piece he got in his mouth, but he isn't quite ready for such bigboy food. It was so cute.

check out facebook for pics!!

Spring is here!

2010-03-31T18:10:00.003-04:00

My best buddy Kyli called me and asked if she could drop off some taco bell for lunch. Duh. Yes you can come over. We ended up on a blanket under the blossoming trees. It was so relaxing. We let the kids run around (or roll around as the case may be) and play in the yard. It was so beautiful I had to grab my camera and take a few shots before the trees change.

Bradley was so cute and loved tumbling down the hill we were laying on. It was the first time he rolled from his back to his belly, but I know it doesn't count.

This is my fave pic because Porter was being a twerp and Kyli still has the "I love you despite your boyish ways" look on her face.
Who wouldn't be relaxed laying down and looking up at that for an hour or so?!

Totally chill.

Phases

2010-03-17T17:53:00.000-04:00

I didn't understand the concept of going through phases till Bradley left the "infant" stage. Is it weird that while I was in the midst of it I was crazy, and didn't know how to cope or handle it, but now that it is gone I miss it?

I don't miss all of it. But I still miss his little infant face, his little infant hands. Growing up is such a good thing. I couldn't live in the infant stage forever, but I still miss it.

Luckily we have moved onto the bouncing stage. My parents gave us this bouncer for Christmas and I have been patiently waiting week by week till Bradley was old enough to use it. I'm pretty sure Brian could give tutorials in how to put together baby "junk," because this one only took an hour or so for him to do. (trust me that was way shorter than the swing!)

He can only reach with one foot at a time, but he loves it!

I think he really loves standing up and playing.

More DC Albums!

2010-03-11T11:30:00.002-05:00

DC Trip - Wednesday & Thursday

DC Trip - Friday

DC Trip - Saturday

DC Trip- Sunday

2010-03-11T09:49:00.000-05:00

DC Trip - Sunday

More to come!

Jackson Pollock

2010-03-01T16:17:00.003-05:00

It is has been a life's ambition to throw paint at a canvas and call it art. I have always had a natural attraction to the shapes which take place when gravity and paint combine. Then, I took 20th Century Art in college and learned about the abstract expressionists, beginning with Jackson Pollock. I love them. I love the ideas, I love the paintings, I love the simplicity and complexity. I even love the giant color circles named, "Red Dot." The bigger the better in my mind. If I had the means I would absolutely paint a giant blue square on a huge canvas just to see what it would look like. I love to see art on a large scale, and some of expressionism includes this idea. But what I really love is the love of art. Art for art's sake my friends.

There are others in my family, namely Brian, who do not have the same utter appreciation for the abstract expressionists, including Mr. Pollock. Never the less, I finally got my wish and went "pollock" on a big 3'x3' canvas.

It was harder than I thought. I had a really beautiful composition going and then I messed it up completely and decided to start over. After a few hours of careful dripping and tipping and splattering, I had my completed piece! And of course I hung it in my bedroom for Brian to appreciate. He says he likes it, but I'm pretty sure he is just humoring me.

I love it!!!!
I'll get off my high horse now, but I fully plan on making more!
And since I have an art degree- all you art nay-sayers- I get to call it art! ha!

Snow Day

2010-02-12T21:48:00.003-05:00

Portland thought it would be a good idea to go play in the snow today. I have to admit it was a good idea, especially seeing how it does not snow very often.

Daddy thought it would be funny to pretend to drop a mini snowball on Bradley. As you can see, the snowball found its way to Brad's head despite the "pretending."

Daddy had to fix the situation as he was the cause of the problem. Good thing he is good at it- crisis averted.

New Hair

2010-02-05T23:10:00.001-05:00

I have worn a ponytail nearly every day since Brad's birth. So I didn't see this coming. I didn't notice that my hair was changing in any way, so when I got it cut the other day I was slightly shocked the first time I dried it and could not straighten the top three inches of hair.

I now have wavy/ verging on curly hair. In related news, it is also darker. Weird.
I didn't know having a child would physically change my hair along with the rest of me. The hair I have grown since Bradley's birth is both darker and very wavy - see second pic.

I gladly embrace this change and am ready for something new. I have to use curly hair products to encourage the lower portion of my hair to curl. The upper portion has no trouble complying.

It is now short enough that Brad really has to try to hard to grab it. Mission accomplished. It is also easier to style now that all I have to do is partially dry it and put product in it. Maybe the next three months my hair will only be in a ponytail half the time.

I don't know about you, but I can clearly see a difference between the few new inches of hair and the old. It isn't shockingly curly in this pic, but it is darker.

Month 3

2010-02-04T23:21:00.005-05:00

Heidi told me I needed to post more pics.
It isn't like I don't want to. It is that I find it hard to dedicate time to uploading, blogging and posting. But I'll try harder anyways. I know there are lots of family members out there who are eager for more frequent updates.

Well the third month has shown me that things do indeed get better. Not that they were bad before, but it amazes me how wonderful, how amazingly happy things are now. I love waking up to smiles, I love hour long naps, I love five hour stretches at night. I love wiggling, I love the kicking and the talking! Oh the talking!!!

Bradley will tell you a story almost as soon as he is awake. And then he tells me about how good his dreams were, and then he tells me about how good his breakfast/brunch/lunch/linner/dinner was, and then he will tell me how funny the monkeys are, and then he will tell me how cool the tv is, and then he will tell me that I'm not paying enough attention to him, and then he will tell me he is tired, and then he will tell me he is really really tired. And then he sleeps and we start over again. I can't believe that I could have so much fun doing this same thing over and over again, but I do.

We go to stores together, we go to Kyli's together, we go on walks and to church activities. He is so happy to go out and see new things. I love it. The biggest change for this month is his ability to be cool in all sorts of situations. Chillin in the carseat while I walk around the mall for a few hours, or chillin with me at the mother's group I go to sometimes. I can go to target nearly when ever I want. I don't really know what to do with all this new freedom!

I think Brian is enjoying this stage too. He can get Brad to smile and giggle just by looking at him. I'm sure it helps that Bradley knows a session of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" is in his future every time he sees Dad. Brian has a talent for making him giggle.

Little Talker

2010-01-29T21:19:00.004-05:00

Clearly Bradley has a lot to say.
I love it.

Divine Timeline!

2010-01-15T12:41:00.004-05:00

I am the Personal Progress leader for our ward (if you have no idea what I'm talking about you can check out the LDS Personal Progress program Here). I thought I would share my most recent activity (plus my mom asked me to post some pics so she could see). I can't take full responsibility for the activity, I saw the idea to make timelines in a YW idea book, but I came up with the rest!! Instead of just normal timelines we made Divine Timelines!!
So yes, the value for this month was Divine Nature. I "divided" our divine natures into four categories: Life Experiences, Values, Aspirations, and Talents. We talked about each category and how it related to our Divine Nature and then each girl listed her own. I made sure we wrote down either the grade or age for each listing so it would be easy to put on the timeline.

For example. Life Experiences included anything that has happened birth till now that made an impact on your life. I asked everyone to include birth, baptism, and entering Young Women's. (I made special markers for each of these, see below.) But this category also included things like moving, new pets, births or deaths, making friends, etc.
Under Values we talked about the different ages we came to realize that we valued something. I gave the example that in the third grade I learned that I valued art. During this time I would collect my classmates art projects that they didn't want because I thought that all art was valuable and deserved to be viewed. Most of the girls wrote down the ages that they came to value music or the gospel or money. Which I thought was cool.
Under aspirations we wrote down what we wanted to be when we grew up at different ages. My favorite was Britt's, she wanted to be a bunny when she was 2 or 3.
Talents was probably the easiest category to determine an age for, but I worried that some of the girls would feel like they didn't have any talents. So I asked each girl to include "smiling" on their list. I explained that it was the first talent they learned, that we all learned. I have experience this with Bradley. He has a beautiful talent for smiling. All babies do. We still have that talent, we just choose not to share it as often as babies do.

After all the writing and talking came the creating!! We had lots of buttons and little bangles left over from Girl's Camp crafts, so we used those to embellish our timelines. This is what mine looked like. We used a different color of paper for each category and everyone got a "My Divine Timeline" headline for their page.

Each girl got a Smiling Baby bauble to symbolize their birth and first smile!

Each girl also got a CTR ring bauble to symbolize baptism.

They also got a YW's torch to mark when they entered YW's.

Just some of the fun stuff we used to decorate.

Value Examples: When I came to value good grades.

Bradley is currently sleeping. Which is why I was able to post!

Portland is currently pouting.

The baubles were easy to make, but probably not "archival." I just used a glue stick to glue on the print out (tacky glue made the image blur) onto a clear squished marble.

I loved seeing how all the girls made their timelines. None of them looked like mine at all. Some used a similar style, putting all their events on a line of some sort, and some took a totally different approach. I thought they were all really creative, even if not all the girls think they are creative.

Highlights of Month 2

2010-01-10T21:08:00.008-05:00

My second month of motherhood was surprisingly harder but better than the first. The first month was hard but there were lots of people here for the majority of the month. The second month I had more one on one baby time.

The 5th and 6th week were more hard than fun, but then suddenly way more fun than hard during the 7th and 8th week. This may have been because I was in Oregon for the 7th week, and I had lots of help. But I attribute the awseomeness of week 7 to The Swing. The swing is now my best friend. Bradley willingly sleeps for a five to seven hour period during the night. And regularly takes hour naps at regular intervals during the day. My life became much more predictable when the swing entered. But I also think that Bradley seriously matured during that week. He suddenly would have long happy, giggly, awake stretches where he would amuse himself. I am amazed at how much difference a week can make.

It is odd how I am still living my life week by week. During pregnancy I would eagerly await the emails updating me on the development of the baby growing inside. Each week felt like a new victory as I grew larger and closer to my due date. Now, I still find my self celebrating each week accomplished but with even more enthusiasm than before. I survived another week! He survived another week! He learned to smile this week! I learned how to put him to sleep in under 5 minutes! My victories are small, but monumental when compared to the previous one.

The best development this month by far is his smiles. I love those gummy, giggly smiles.

Bradley's blessing outfit made my Grandma Daniels!

We were so blessed that we could do Bradley's baby blessing in Oregon with our family. And double blessed that Brian's family, who is not of our faith, was willing to support us and attend.

Daddy and Bradley chillin on the floor playing with new Christmas toys.

I try to take a few photos each week, this was my fave from week 6.

Oh my girl is so patient. I don't think she "loves" Brad yet, but she tolerates him and accepts him as a member of the pack. When he is upset at night she will run over to Brian and sit right by his head and stair at him as if saying "FIX IT!"

See more pics at : http://saponas.blogspot.com/2010/01/highlights-of-month-2.html

1 Month!

2009-12-07T12:07:00.003-05:00

We made it one whole month! It is weird to have so much change so fast. Every week is different, every day seems different, and I swear I can do the exact same thing every three hours and get different results. But we are getting along nicely. Thank goodness Brian is flexible and can come home if I need him. It gives me peace of mind knowing that he is just a call away if I go crazy.

It just so happened that I had my camera out for his first roll over, so we have the before and after shots. Clearly he is pleased with himself. However it hasn't happened again. Brad doesn't really like tummy time. In fact he hates it and howls every time I put him on his belly, so I have to choose my tummy times wisely. I got lucky this time I think.

Before

After

Before we even attempted tummy time we had a little model session. The sweater, hat and booties were made by Brian's Aunt Roberta. They are soooo cute. The hat fits perfect right now, and I think the other two will fit well in another month or two. If his feet keep growing like they are the booties will fit next week I swear.

Clearly he likes his hat. Thanks Aunt Roberta!!

Hopefully we'll have another good morning soon and can model Grandma Saponas' booties!

More photos at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027529&id=1026071036&l=7b877756a8

Highlights of the Last Two Weeks

2009-11-18T14:50:00.009-05:00

I always used to wonder what happened to people after they had a baby.
As an online looker I would wait and wait for weeks for pictures and updates to be posted about my friend's babies after they were born. I swore that I would be different. I would surely find time to post, facebook, and blog all the adorable photos I would take and let everyone know how things are going. (Because I know you all are on the edge of your seat in anticipation of my updates ;-)

Then I had a baby. And I realized that even if you do have enough energy to be awake when the baby is napping your time is not spent blogging. It is spent calling people, or cleaning or giving cleaning instructions (as I am lucky enough to still have my mom here to help), or planning meals, or hey showering or taking a bath, or eating. Definitely not blogging or posting the pics that I have yet to take.

Sometime around the beginning of the second week I found time to take some adorable pics and post them on facebook. I thought it would only take a few minutes more to post them on my blog. Several days later I found a few more minutes. Yesterday I spent my extra minutes talking on the phone, today I spend them posting. I have no idea when I will have a few extra minutes again, but I think that is part of the fun of having a crazy schedule.

So here's the update:

Being a mom- awesome.
Being an eternal family- rocks my world.
Sleeping in 1-2 hour segments for the last two weeks- hard but not impossible.
I am thankful for husbands who let you cry for no apparent reason, boppy pillows, grandmas and grandpas, fiber pop-tarts, ipods, and sleeping on my slightly smaller belly.
I cannot even begin to describe Bradley. He is happy to sit and look around for hours. Pretty good at sleeping for 2ish hours at a time, and the best snuggler I have ever met. He also likes to make dinosaur sounds. He does a great pterodactyl and t-rex impression.

One week old!

Brian eyes!

Snuggling with Dad.

Home for the first time.

First bath! I couldn't honestly say Brad enjoyed it.

I am so happy I'm not 9 months pregnant any more.

Bradley Video

2009-11-07T16:01:00.005-05:00

Courtesy of Grandma Lou (if you were curious whose voice this is).

Bradley Brian Saponas is Here!

2009-11-05T21:54:00.007-05:00

He is 7 pounds 4 ounces and 19 inches tall. Enjoy the pictures and feel free to pass them on!

Mom and Baby are Okay

2009-10-21T19:38:00.003-04:00

Brian told me that when ever you have some unexpected medical news, you have to start your conversation with the current status. So last night he called both of our parents and began the conversation with "Mom and baby are okay..."
Now if that was the first thing you heard, where would your head go? Delivery? Some dramatic line of events that lead to a successful c-section?

Let me start my post with: Mom is still uncomfortably plump and baby is happily kicking away in-utero.

I hate when they give me an OB appointment in the afternoon. I nearly never remember it. Thus, I took extra care to remember my 3 pm appointment yesterday. My morning/afternoon ended up rather busy so by the time I was on my way to the OB I had the dog in the car with me. My normal appointments are hardly even 20 min long, which is not great but a reasonable amount of time for the dog to wait in the car. (Yes the windows were cracked and it was not hot outside. I even changed parking spots twice to make sure she was in the shade.) But we got there a few minutes late, so I ended up waiting 20 min in the waiting room anyway. When they took me I kept my mouth shut because southern people love to chat, and I only asked two well planned questions, as to make my appointment as short as possible.

note- the next part may be a TMI moment if you are squeamish or a guy.

All week long I had been looking forward to seeing if I was making any progress towards labor...

So she "checked" me to see if my cervix was dilated. She happily announced I was 1 centimeter, then she took her hand out and I felt an odd sensation of other fluid come along with her hand. Did she break my water? No. That would have been awesome.
Apparently in the check she had poked or scratched or something a little too hard, and rather suddenly I began to in her words hemorrhage blood. Fun. Now I'm bleeding, a lot, and have people opening and closing the door with my legs spread eagle while they run to get more supplies to suture the tiny tare causing the problem. And my poor dog is in the car.

The wonderful part was, I did not have to ride in an ambulance to the hospital like my OB wanted, because for some reason Brian came home from work early. So he was able to come and take me and take care of the dog.

After a super fun night of observation in the hospital, I stopped bleeding, did not go into labor, and had a low but survivable blood pressure. So they released me this morning.

What have I learned from this situation? Bring lots of pillows when you have to go to the hospital, don't take your dog to doctor's appointments, and you must begin all phone conversations with your current medical status.

Sadly, after all the craziness all I can think is "Dang it! We were so close!!"
Maybe at next week's appointment she will break my water instead of poking holes next to my cervix. ;-)

Happily Brian learned that hospitals are boring and he gave me my thanks for carrying my child gift early... I am now the proud owner of a sweet iTouch. I love you honey.

Shower!

2009-10-08T22:54:00.003-04:00

Last night I got an odd call from Brian. He was at a mutual activity with the Priests so I expected that he needed something he forgot at home. Our conversation went something like this:

Brian - Are you respectable?
Me- What?
Brian- Are you wearing respectable clothes?
Me- I guess. Why.
Brian- Something to do with the Young Women. I think they are coming over.

Luckily I had cleaned earlier that day so I wasn't worried, but I was wearing basketball shorts and a shirt that didn't entirely cover my belly. So I went upstairs and changed and by the time I was ready a Young Women, Kelcie, was at my door with Sister Walsh. They had a totally convincing story about how I needed to come to the church. So sneaky. So I willingly went.

In the car another young woman, Madison, was waiting and looked annoyed to be there. She gave us a story about how some guy friend punched her that day. I was quite alarmed about the whole situation but no one else in the car seemed to think it was a big deal. This too was a fake story, however I totally fell for it.

Finally we entered the church and wouldn't you know it, nearly every single young women and their moms! were waiting to throw me a surprise baby shower in the relief society room which had balloons and all sorts of decorations. This was truly a surprise. I can't believe they kept it a secret! 20 plus young women and half their mothers all managed not to say anything about it for apparently at least the last month or so! Kudos to you girls. I would have never thought you were all capable of holding a secret for so long.

So here is some of the gear that I took away from the night. I combined all the gifts into a few pics.

Special thanks to the Mia Maids for planning it!

Amazingly enough, there were no repeats of lotions or shampoos!

Thank you Beehives for my baby tub and goodies!!!
Thank you Beehives for all the sweet painted toys! I am using them as Christmas ornaments!

The Laurels did an awesome job with the diaper cake (I've always wanted a diaper cake ever since I saw my mom make them for her friends. It has been a life long dream really.)

All the cute clothes!!!

Paint Trials

2009-09-21T11:14:00.006-04:00

I have a few goals to get through before the baby comes. Brian and I had a very productive weekend in terms of these goals. We painted our bathroom and the baby's room. Bathroom- looks great, a much needed improvement to the previously bland yellow walls. Baby's room- umm better, but not great. It is no longer a dark green cave. I would say it is now a neon green cave with one beautifully brown wall.

We have now painted the family room, living room, kitchen, stairwell/hallway, master bedroom, master bathroom, and baby's room. We have used three different brands of paint, painted six rooms, and only used four basic colors: green, brown, blue, and orange. Aside from re-painting the baby's neon room, I think I am content with the rest of the colors in the house. Though the downstairs bathroom is a nice color, it is an old paint job and may need to be fixed soon!

During the last few months of painting experiments I have learned:
1. Always use a drop cloth
2. If you are picky about a precise shade, get the little tester cans and see what a big swatch looks like.
3. Tape everything off you can and press the tape down hard with your nail.
4. Buy a tester of trim colored paint so you can fix ceiling and trim bumps with the roller.
5. Paints with a glossy appearance may look nice, but they are the hardest to roll and you can ALWAYS see where you touched up the paint. The flatest/cheapest paints may look cool and modern but they marks the easiest and the marks will not come off. Go for an in between. All touch ups blend in very nicely on semi flat or eggshell finishes.
6. Finishes vary brand to brand, so look at the samples and get the finish down from what you think you want. The samples are less shiny in the store and way more shiny on your walls.

Behr Paint in Satin (Master Bath blues) - thick, shiny, harder to roll, shows brush strokes veeery well, good thick coverage but paint is so thick you have to be careful to get down in the grooves.
Glidden Paint in Satin (Baby's room brown & green) - thinner, semi shiny, easy to roll, easy to paint with a brush, good coverage goes on smooth, beware of drips.
Valspar Satin, Eggshell, and Flat (Master bedroom blues & grays) - My fave is the "flat" finish which is on all but the stripped wall is not fully "flat" in finish, medium thickness, medium easiness in rolling, easy to paint with a brush, great coverage.

In the end I will get Glidden for any future jobs because I think it is a little cheaper than Valspar.

But as I am hugely cheap, I am using the left over neon green paint and mixing it with other left over brown paints to make a darker color for the baby's room. I'm sure that professional painters would be horrified a the thought. But the Glidden paint covered so quickly without a second coat that I have plenty of paint left over for another round!

If it is successful... pictures will follow.

Goodbye Grandpas

2009-09-16T10:27:00.006-04:00

September thus far has been a very very busy month for me. Sadly, Brian and I each have had a Grandpa pass away this month. Both grandparents were in poor heath and so it wasn't un-expected. But that doesn't take away the sadness from missing them.
I'm sure my sister will read this and laugh. I have a way of attending funerals and not crying through the whole thing, whereas I'm sure Heidi could attend a complete stranger's funeral and use a whole box of tissues. But just because I can get through two funerals with the use of one tissue doesn't mean I'm not sad and don't miss them. ;-) I think that having an eternal perspective helps me not be super super sad because I know. I know that families can be together forever. Though it is sad that I cannot see and talk to my grandpas (Brian and I have no more living grandpas!), I have so much more joy with the knowledge that I can see them again and spend the rest of eternity with them as a family. What is sad about that!

On the plus side, I got to see both my families!! For the last few months I've been feeling like Georgia is on the other side of the world from Oregon, and I had such a big desire to see my family again one more time before the baby comes. I don't know why. I just wanted to see them. I am so lucky that I was able to attend both funerals and even get to see all of Brian's extended family. I find such comfort in having family around, and feeling the love that is present when everyone gets together. Both sides of my family have this quality about them. Even though I was only able to stay a day in Colorado, visiting with Brian's whole family, the love and support that is there feels exactly like it does in my own family. I am so lucky.

This is my Grandpa Earl Asmussen last Christmas

This is Brian's Grandpa Pony Saponas a few years ago.
(I stole this from Scott's website, I don't have any pics of him on this computer.)

And this is me, two weeks ago. 8 weeks to go.

Nothing Really

2009-08-24T20:53:00.003-04:00

I know I haven't posted in a while. When this happens it is usually because I'm too busy, or nothing interesting is happening. I feel like both have been the case.

On the too busy side, my Grandpa Asmussen passed away a few weeks ago and so I went to Oregon for little while. It was a little hectic organizing all the dog stuff and travel stuff, but it was fine in the end. I have great friends and family.

Then there is the rest of the month where I spent my time growing a baby and fixing up the house.

I have entered the third trimester and am officially pregnant. Every month I can't imagine myself getting more pregnant. Then after that month has passed I can't imagine what it was like to be any less pregnant. This month we have progressed to the "uncomfortable" stage. Where there are no comfy positions, and the baby's new fave place to hang out is under my ribs. (I'm super looking forward to riding in the car for our next trip to visit my sister in Pennsylvania.)

The only other exciting happening is Brian's new calling as Young Men's President. Which, as most callings go, means that I get to be very involved in his busy-ness. I think it is so much fun though, he is doing a great job.

But otherwise, still not busy, and still pregnant.

Oh, I finally made a friend in my neighborhood. She knows my name and everything.