Grateful #9: siblings

I have 9 siblings. In my family there are 7 girls and 3 boys, and the girls definitely have strong personalities. As girls we probably like to go out and eat the most. We probably like food way more than we should. As we've grown older we've definitely grown closer, and become friends. I think we're more like friends than sisters. We tease each other, (in fact we say that when we're not teasing you, is when you should be worried) and tell each other almost everything.

My relationship with my brothers is different. I'm grateful to Matthew for being friends with Nolan pretty much his whole life, because if he hadn't we probably wouldn't have wound up together. I'm much closer to Ben now that we both have kids (it's good to have things in common).

We can talk about movies, politics, discuss current events, go on vacations, and not kill each other. So I'm grateful for siblings that are also my friends.

Grateful #8: My parents

I purposefully left family posts closer to Thanksgiving day. Here's a list of why I'm grateful to my parents:

-Without them I wouldn't be here.

-They still buy me things when they go to the store including clothes and food even though I'm married and have kids of my own. (This may sound materialistic but to me it shows they are thinking of me.)

- They baby sit my kids.

- They reassure me that I am not a terrible mother.

- They are fantastic grandparents.

- They taught me how to cook.

As I grow older, and have kids of my own, I realize that parents truly never stop loving their children. I will always be their daughter, and they will always be my parents, whether they like it or not. (hahaha) And they never stop taking care of me. For example, the other day, I was just making the remark that I needed to go to the store to buy milk on Monday, and my mom was like, oh, we have extra milk, just take some, Dad bought extra. So I took some of course, because she would have been insulted if I hadn't.

Grateful #7: Facebook

Facebook is an amazing social network. Without it I wouldn't be able to keep up with all the doing and goings on of my extended family. I've had friends move all across the country and I still can keep up with them on a day to day basis because of facebook. I can see their pictures instantly, offer condolences, offer congratulations, offer advice, ask for advice, etc. Some might say that Facebook has no redeeming qualities, but I say those people have not looked and indeed might not want to look and might only want to see the bad. But Facebook can be an excellent tool to build relationships with those whose location to us would not make it otherwise possible.

Grateful #6: naptime

Naptime, enough said!

Crocker Art Museum

I went to the Crocker Art Museum for the first time today. I went with friends from church as a playdate. I didn't actually get to see much art since I had the kids, but Oliver loved it. We did the Wee Wednesdays which is the group every Wednesday for young children. They showed the kids a painting and read a story and talked about warm and cool colors and went around and tried to find warm and cool colors on other paintings. Oliver looked at statues and told me what the statues looked like to him. It was really a neat experience because I thought he would be too young to appreciate or even pay attention to the pieces, but he surprised me. Then of course I had to go see Uncle Eric who is the executive chef at the cafe there, and had lunch with him. It was so fun to see Oliver interested in art when I thought he would have no interest at all.

Grateful #5: Ready to wear clothes

Imagine before you can wear a shirt, you have to first shear the sheep, pull the wool, spin the wool, weave the fabric, cut the fabric and then finally sew, by hand. Now, I just go to the store, shop the clearance rack and find a couple pairs of jeans, each for only $9 (yes I went shopping today and found some jeans at Old Navy today for only $9). I know that's two posts in a row about modern conveniences, but I think they are pretty darn amazing. So I am totally grateful for ready to wear clothing that fits and looks good, and is inexpensive.

Grateful #4: Refridgerator and Freezer

I love that I can just go grocery shopping once a week or even once every 2 weeks and throw my perishables in the fridge or freezer and know that they will last a while until I can use them. I think back to the days before fridges and try to imagine having to go to the market everyday for your daily food, or having a ice house and having to cut out an ice block from the river and dragging it to the ice house, covering it with hay, and hope it lasts a while. We are so lucky to have this amazing appliance that keeps our food fresh and cold. Next time you open that door, just hink about what you would do without it.

Grateful #3: Glasses

Yes Hillary, I'm copying this from you.

After reading my SIL blog post today, I realized how grateful I am for MY glasses. I just got my first pair this past July. I've been needing glasses forever, but we haven't had the insurance, or I've been pregnant, or any number of excuses you can think of. So now that we have insurance and I'm not pregnant, I decided that now is the time! I love being able to see! I'm nearsighted so I couldn't see things far away. So watching TV, movies, trying to read street signs were all pretty difficult. Then I got my glasses and TA-dA, suddenly everything had details. I remember watching the newest Harry Potter movie and wondering, "When did Lupin get all those scars?" Now when I take my glasses off I realize how bad my eyes really are and wonder how I got along without them. Next step, Laser eye surgery?!

Grateful #2: Friends

I feel so blessed to be in a ward with so many friends! I have made friends with the women not just my own age but with the women of all ages, and I have my callings to thank for that (Which I might do as a later post.) But I am really especially grateful for the friends I have made through playgroups. These women have kept me sane on the long days when Nolan is at work. Sometimes those days feel like they will never end. But then the thought of going to go play with my friends, and the kids get to go play with their friends, makes my day a lot easier. We talk on facebook, and vent if we've had a hard time, or give each other tips about kids. I've never met a more accepting group of women. And as more young mothers/ women come into the ward they just join right into the group. I love it! It's like a group of ready made friends.

Thank you friends!

Grateful #1: Nolan

So my unoriginal self is going to copy countless others and do a gratitude post for the month of Thanksgiving. I don't know if I will actually do one for each day of the month, but I'll try!

I'm pretty much grateful for my husband everyday. But if I posted about him everyday that would probably get pretty boring (but trust me I could find 30 things about him to be grateful for!).

Here are just a few:

-He is the best father ever! (I think he is a better father than I am mother)

-He works super hard at a job that he doesn't love.

-He lets me be a stay at home mom even though he would love to be a stay at home dad.

-He is an incredible husband.

-He tells me I'm beautiful all the time, and lets me know just how desirable he finds me.

-He tells me I should spend more money.

-He tells me I should take more "me" time.

-When I've had a bad day he always makes it better.

-He puts me first.

-He can always make me laugh.

-I love to talk to him, and hear what he has to say.

Ok, so maybe that is more than a few. But seriously, if you think you have a better husband, you would be wrong. He is my best friend, and he tells me that I am his all the time. I don't know what I would do without him.

Halloween: Pumpkin Patch and Fairy Tale Town

We went to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm on Saturday! We have been going to this place seriously since I was a little girl. It has changed so much since then however. When I was little they only had a few slides and a hay ride to the pumpkins. Now there is so much to do there. But it still holds a place in my heart as the place to go get pumpkins. We have started a new tradition where we take pictures of our children on top of the giant pumpkins that they grow there. Here's Iliana in her pumpkin clothes.

Iliana's playing with grandma's pumpkin earrings. They are so cute together.

Oliver and Sam love to play together. Mostly they love to argue over whose item is whose. (The "mine!" game) But when they sat on pumpkins together, it was just too cute to pass up. By the end of the day we had ridden the train, petted some goats, watched them make cider, bought said cider, bought fudge, picked out pumpkins, went for a hay ride, went down the slide a million times, and fell asleep.

Later that night, Nolan and I took the kids to Fairy Tale Town to their safe Halloween event. Earlier, I had asked Oliver what costume he wanted for Halloween. He had said, "candy." So here's his costume, a Trick or Treat bag. He has a pocket in the front for his candy. Everyone loved his costume! Once he realized he could put candy in his pocket he was more than willing to wear his costume.

This is the castle. I forgot to mention that the theme was Harry Potter! Which is the only reason why we went. Look at the spooky dementors surrounding the castle!

This is Oliver in the room of Requirement.

These horse are always at Fairy Tale Town. He was disappointed that they didn't move.

Iliana was asleep for most of the time. She finally woke up! Here she is in her costume. Our theme this year is the 50's. Grandma Debbie made her little skirt. The event included trick or treating and everyone handing out candy was dressed like hogwarts students. It wasn't all that spectacular, but it was fun to do together as a family, and it wasn't too crowded for the first hour and we found parking really close. We did make it to Divination class and Nolan read my tea leaves. He only predicted bad things in my future. Boo! Oliver just wanted to pour out water out of the tea pot. Potions class always had too long of a line to go to it. So for the most part we really just went around and got candy and let Oliver play.

Some Funny stories

Oliver climbed into the high chair the other day. I kept asking him if he wanted me to take him out and he said no, so I kept washing the dishes. Eventually it was quiet over where he was so I looked at him and there he was asleep.

Iliana thought it was hillarious for me to put glasses on her.

Oliver is learning his ABC's. This is the best video we've gotten of him. Unfortunately it shows him pushing his sister over so she will stop playing with the toy.

Nolan and I have decided that our children are survivors. Today gave me more proof of that. While I was in my room getting dressed, my children were up to their usual mischief. When I came out, the fridge door was open and Iliana was sitting on the floor with a tupperware container of leftovers, the lid off and she was happily eating. Unfortunately I did not get a picture.

The other day, Nolan was singing to Oliver as he was changing his diaper. Oliver told him, "daddy, no singing." We had a really good laugh about that one.

San Francisco Zoo and Beach trip

We went to the San Francisco zoo for Oliver's 2nd birthday. I know this was back in May, but I promised myself I would get around to writing about it. Oliver loves animals so we decided that his gift would be to go to the San Francisco zoo since they have a lot more animals than our zoo here. And you can't go to San Francisco without going to the beach! We invited my family to come with us and so we had a very large group with us. The first animals we saw were giraffes and the kids loved it! One of the best parts of the day was when Oliver walked by the gift shop, saw the stuffed animals, grabbed one, then walked out and said "thank you!" Dad got to see 2 American Bald Eagles and that just about made his day. They also had a train for the kids to ride and they loved it! Oliver just about jumped out of Mom's arms in order to get on. As we went through the tunnel bubbles came out. One of the really cool animals was the rhino. We got to see him play with a ball, and it showed what a really powerful animal a rhino is.

After the zoo we went to the beach. It was so cold! Whoever decided that California had warm sunny beaches was clearly wrong. But as least we got our feet wet, which for me is a requirement if you ever visit a beach. Oliver did like the ocean, but Iliana stayed in the car with Nolan.

Iliana: 1 year old

Iliana is now 1 year old. Here's her stats from her doctor appointment:

Weight: 22lb 11.3 oz. (73.89%)

Height: 2' 6.5" (87.43%)

Head circumference: 18.27" (83.44%)

She can say:

bottle

dog

mom

duck

bye

She's walking more than crawling now, but still falls a lot. She loves bath time, and won't sit still for anything except to eat. She loves to be held, but only if the person holding her is standing up. She is great at throwing tantrums, and climbing on everything.

Date with Oliver

Yesterday I went on a Mother/Son date with Oliver. He is a member of the Caboose club with the California Railroad museum and so once a year he gets an invitation to their ice cream social which was yesterday. Luckily Nolan's schedule just changed to where he gets Saturdays off so he could stay home with Iliana. So we left and drove to Old sac. We managed to find a car that pulling out of a metered parking spot (which wind up being cheaper than a garage) that was really close to where the train ride was, which also happened to be right in front of a peruvian shop. As I looked over at the shop I saw a sign that said that they sold Inca Kola there, which is something that Nolan loved from his mission. I got really excited, and decided to get him some while we were there. So we wondered over to the tent, got our train tickets and stickers. While we wandered we saw people dressed up in olde timie costumes and they were totally in character. Some were marchers of the women's suffrage movement, some were anti-slavery speach makers, there was actually a guy wearing a barrel with suspenders. We got our ice creams, and walked around some more while we waited for our train. We stopped to listen to some singers which Oliver really liked, bought the Inca Kolas, and then when Oliver saw the car, he got really sad because he thought we were going to go home. I told him we weren't going home yet, and we made our way to the line for the train. Since we had a lot of time and no one else was in line yet, we walked over to the Delta King and looked at the river, and then went back over to the train. While we waited I called Nolan to tell him that I bought him a surprise because I couldn't stand to wait, but I didn't tell him what it was. I was so excited. The train came and as always Oliver was so excited to go on the choochoo. We got to go on the outside car, so Oliver got to stand up and walk around. By the time we got to the end of the line, he was done. They switched the engine to the other end, and he was so tired, so he just curled up on my lap.

Last time with Emily

One of my best friends, Emily is moving next week, all the way across the country. She has lived in the Sacramento area her whole life and has never been to the capitol, so as our last outing with our kids we went downtown.


Apparently it's Carl's Jr. 70th anniversary and so they were giving away free burgers. There was a super long line, and not worth waiting for with 3 young kids.

We love our kids.

The debut of my new glasses! They don't look half bad in this picture.

Oliver loved the bears.

Kaidan did not want to be in his stroller any more.

awww.

Lunchtime! With coupons of course.

Oliver tried to use chopsticks.

I'm going to miss you Emily.

Lake trip

For the past few summers we've gone to the lake to go swimming. This year we decided to go to Rancho Seco since it's warmer. The pictures aren't really in order.



Here's Oliver ready to go on a canoe for the first time.


Matthew's having so much fun.

Sam is having so much fun!

We loaded everything up in the canoes and canoed AALLLLL the way over to where those people are. Whew, it was quite the trip.

hmmmm, snack time!

So much fun!

Texas Trip part 2

The plan for that Wednesday was to go to the Houston Zoo. As we were on the freeway it became obvious that as the line for the zoo exit was already long, that maybe the zoo was not going to be the best idea. Then as we got off the freeway, and couldn't even get close to the zoo, we decided that maybe we should go somewhere else. So we wound up at the children's museum. Melissa, Oliver, Iliana, Rogan, and I wound up in the toddler area upstairs, while Rachel, Sarah, Roxy, and Roscoe wandered the rest. It was also crowded but but still fun. The toddler area had slides and mirrors, and cars, and blocks, and even a little area for the infants with bumpos. Then we went outside where they had a water area and the kids played in the water and got wet. On the way home, we stopped and got shaved ice again. The afternoon we relaxed and watched TV and Rachel made us barbecued pulled pork for dinner. Then we watched scary movies, since Rich doesn't like to watch them so Rachel likes to watch them when we're around.





Thursday was St. Patricks day. Rach and Rich do this holiday really big in their house, so I made sure my kids had their green on. Rachel bought really cute hats for Iliana and Rogie. That day we went to this awesome wild animal park where you ride on this tram and the animals come up to the tram and you can feed them. This was my favorite part of the trip. As soon as we pulled in, we had an animal come into the car! And it was my first time ever seeing a rhino (which was far away, but pretty awesome). I was a little nervous for Oliver since he was pretty scared of animals for a while before this, and I didn't know how he would react when they came up close. But for a while before the trip I was prepping him with animal books. He did pretty good and only got a little nervous. He threw the food to the animals though, instead of letting them eat from the bucket. The part he loved the most, however, was the free pony ride. As soon as he saw the ponies, he wanted to go on them. He calls horses "sit theres" or "yee haws" and they always say "yee haw" and that ride was the best thing ever! He was so sad when he had to get off. Then we went to the little petting zoo area that was right next to the giraffes. At one point Oliver tried to squish through the fence to get to the giraffes. Then we went to Chikfila for lunch, and the kids played in the playground more than they ate lunch. That afternoon we relaxed, played in the yard, and rested. One the afternoons, we skyped Anne, but I'm not sure which one. That afternoon, Mom came to Texas! She was staying for a month to care for the kids while Rachel worked, so her stay overlapped with ours. That night we went to the movies (we saw Red Riding Hood) at this theater where they serve you dinner while you watch the movie. Which is pretty awesome, and I wish they had one here. It was nice to spend with the girls without the kids. By the time we got home Rich had the kids all in bed!

Friday was our last day. I packed in the morning, and then we went to breakfast where they have giant food. Then we all got ready to go, said our goodbyes, and left for the airport. We said good bye to Rachel at the airport. We went through security, waited, boarded, flew (me in front, with Iliana, Melissa and Sarah behind with Oliver). Oliver had a lot of energy this flight, so he did a lot of jumping and kicking and not even Spongebob would keep him still. Then we got into the San Diego airport which has to be the lamest airport ever, where you have to go through security again after you land before you get to the next plane. So we got through security where there was a super long line, and we were a little worried that we wouldn't make it, but we didn't need to worry, since our plane was delayed and delayed, which then turned out very badly since it was delayed for a couple of hours. I spent the time chasing Oliver around the airport while he ran and ran,and tried to lift poles and said "heavy" and basically had a blast. I figured this would tire him out for the flight. Finally we got to board, and we were on our way home. I sat in front again, Oliver fell quickly asleep, Iliana fell asleep, and we had a quiet flight in the dark. As we flew into Sacramento we saw that it was raining, and raining hard. We landed, and went to get our luggage. Nolan surprised us there. I had to do a double take because he had shaved his beard and mustache. We went outside and it was cold and pouring! We were not dressed for this type of weather. It was so nice to be home and with my husband.

Texas Trip

This year my sisters and I decided that we would take a trip to visit our sister and her family who lives in near Houston. Nolan did a good job of working hard to help save up money, and I asked for money for my birthday and Christmas to go toward the trip. We were able to save up enough for me to go with the kids, Nolan couldn't go because he couldn't get the time off of work, and we planned to go in March when Rachel would be off of work because of Spring Break. We waited and waited for plane tickets to go down, and it looked like we might not go after all, and then about 3 weeks before the planned date, the tickets went down in price and we bought them! Well, my sister bought them, and then I paid her back. Luckily, I didn't have to pay for my kids since they were both under 2. We left on a Monday evening. Nolan took the day off of work so he could take us to the airport, and so we packed up in Mom's van, picked up Melissa and Sarah, and drove to the airport. There we said good-bye and went inside. We checked our luggage, and proceeded to go toward security. 3 adults, 2 children, several carryons, and airport security. Recipe for trouble. Luckily having 1 more adult than there are children makes things a little easier. So between removing shoes, and holding children, and setting off the alarms, and being patted down, it was just a tiny bit stressful. I know that being patted down sounds terrible, but the agents were very apologetic and seemed to really not want to do it, but they have no control over the rules; they are not in charge. Do I like it? No. Do I think they should profile? yes. Did those individual agents have any more control over the situation than I did? no. They are given the rules and they have to follow them. If we want to make a change then we need to elect different representatives in government. So armed with the iPad, Spongebob, fruitsnacks, toys, cookies, etc we boarded the plane. We flew from Sacramento to LAX. This flight was very easy. Oliver fell asleep. We all tried to sit on the same row but were told that each row has only 5 air masks. So Sarah sat in the row in front of us. Iliana began to cry just as we were about to take off so I nursed her as the plane took off. Since this was only an hour flight, it was really fast, and were getting off soon. We hung around LAX for a little bit, until our next flight to Houston. We boarded, this time I sat across the aisle with Iliana while Melissa and Sarah sat with Oliver in another row. We finally made it to Houston sometime after 11pm where Rachel was waiting for us. Melissa and Sarah picked up the rental car and drove to the hotel, while I drove with Rachel to her house where I was staying. Rachel was nice enough to ask around and was able to borrow 2 carseats for me to use while we were there. We got to Rachel's place and I got the kid's ready for bed, but with the 2 hour time difference and the recent daylight savings time change, we were really 3 hours earlier then them and so my kids did not fall asleep until 2:30 am, and by that time I was crying because I was so tired and just wanted to sleep, and I missed Nolan.

The next day, Tuesday, we decided to just take it easy. So we slept in, got ready slowly, and when Melissa and Sarah got there, we went for Hawaiian shaved ice! hmmmm. Delicious. I only get these once a year when the state fair comes around so this was a good treat. The kids sat on this bench that was practically on the ground and were so cute just sitting there eating their shaved ice. Even Iliana got to try. Then we went back to Rachel's, played outside, then left the kids with Rich, and went shopping. By the end of the trip we all wound up with the same wallet. I bought some costume jewelry to dress up for a party Nolan and I went to when we got back. Then we had dinner, and had a Blue Bell ice cream party. Roscoe kept taking the cartons and acted like they were all his. hmmm, ice cream.

Oliver's birth

I don't think I've written out the story of Oliver's birth, and since he just turned 2, here it goes.

I was 38 weeks along, and had been diagnosed with pre-eclampsia a few weeks before (although later they decided that maybe they were wrong and I just had hypertension. I could have told them that since I only had high blood pressure and there are other symptoms that would have indicated pre-eclampsia. I'm still tiffed at that) and so my doctor decided that they should induce me. I was admitted on Monday May 4th, no where near close to being in labor. They started the induction process with trying to soften my cervix, and I was not allowed to get out of bed at all because they had me on an anti-seizure medicine which basically made my muscles too weak to walk. Finally after a whole day of trying to soften, they decided I was at a 2. WARNING: this next part is really weird. They stuck an uninflated balloon up my cervix then they inflated it and pulled it out which got me to a 4, just the right number to start the pitcocin. So they hooked me up and it started. The contractions began and were not too bad at first, I had my mom and Nolan there. Then a little while later they broke my water, probably around 3pm on Tuesday, which really got the contractions going and painful. They just became more and more painful and then it started to feel like it was a never ending barrage of contractions. I asked for an epidural, which didn't come until an hour later. They got me set up and jabbed the needle in, which I flinched at, and then I felt a cold wash go through me, but no relief from the pain. They told me to wait for it to work, but it never did, so they gave me some more, which still didn't work. Eventually they gave me a button to push to give myself some more, but I could only use it every 10 minutes. I pushed it on the very next contraction, and then threw it away from me because it was useless. Finally they decided that the epidural just wasn't going to work because I was progressing too fast, so I just started to cry waiting for it to be over. Sometime around 7pm, my sister called saying that she just got off of work and asked if she could just come then, being in the middle of contractions I just didn't really care, so come she did. Finally around 7:30 they told me I was at a 10 and could start pushing. So I pushed and pushed, and then he was almost here, and when I tried to take a break, it hurt more not to push then to push so I kept going. When he started crowning they told me to stop, and let him come out more slowly, they also used their fingers to stretch out my cervix to help prevent tearing. I was actually amazed at how much control I had over those muscles to get him out. Then his head was out, and the rest of him just slid right out. Oh my gosh, what a relief! It was over. I tried to push the placenta out, but I was too tired so I gave up, and just looked at my little boy. I counted his fingers and toes, and just looked at him. Everyone was already at the hospital when he came out, so basically my room was full after he came out. I was completely surrounded by the people I love, to welcome this new little person into the world. Then they stitched me up, and let me nurse him, which he took to immediately (indicative of what was to come). We stayed in the hospital until Thursday night, the worst experience of my life basically. So terrible that I hate to talk about it. But we had some nice visits from friends and family, and disgusting food that was almost inedible. It was such a relief to go home that I cried. We stopped at Jack in the Box on our way home, and then took a picture of Oliver in the bassinet to show how small he was.

I love my little man!