Tasty

Well my little boy is quite the man for waterworks...by waterworks I don't mean crying, or even peeing, he has this incredible talent of spitting up, and by spitting up I don't mean just a little dabble on your shoulder, I mean a fountain down the front of your shirt onto your pants with enough to spare to end up on the carpet. I have started to think that instead of making sure I pack him an extra change of clothes maybe I need to pack myself some.

Thus in the spirit of research I have found many things that suggest rice cereal, mostly if you put it in the the bottle with formula, but since he doesn't drink formula and he was close to 4 months I thought maybe just a tad from a bowl would help.

I have promised from day one that Thomas would be able to give the first tasting of any food for our son. This in hopes that I would stop catching him giving our infant tastes of cheetos, lemonade, icecream, lollipops, and who knows what else that I haven't caught him in the act of tasting. (Maybe that's the source of Rainier's problems.)

Thus the tasting of rice cereal began.

With a very attentive audience.

But a not so intent baby....playing with Dad is much more fun.

And the sweet little guy still spit-up and hasn't had a taste of rice cereal since.

Adventure

What do you get when a fun mom (not me, Tammi of course) wants to have a sleep over?

Six girls ready to go...

on an adventure of bike riding to the park, with

expectations of a fabulous night...

and one girl with an arm ran over by a bike.

I received a call from Tammi with a guilt ridden voice that she was the one who did the damage. When I found out about it I just laughed. I think anyone could have guessed that there would have to be some sort of causality just by the sheer number of 6 girls biking to a park.

Apparently Tammi was riding behind the girls and Ainsley fell, Tammi with her 18 mos girl, Taylor in tow, had no time to stop and had the gut wrenching ordeal of running over my little girl or toppling to her and Taylor's death :). I'm so glad I wasn't faced with that decision. After some icecream, the girls none the less, had a fantastic time at their second home (honestly it is) and now I have an interesting story to blog about, although I feel a little guilty it is at Tammi and Ainsley's expense.

Wakey-Wakey

This morning I awoke to an awkward sound; two little girls giggling and chatting away. I looked at my clock and it was a quarter to 7, fifteen whole minutes before I usually have to drag myself out of bed and go try to happily wake the girls up and encourage them to get moving (this is a hard process, if I don't do it right I will likely end up with 3 girls in total protest). I lay still in my bed trying to process mentally what was going on, I hear the bathroom sink going, giggles, I hear foot steps down the stairs...giggle, giggle, chatter, chatter. Next the garage door opens and shuts, opens and shuts, more giggles, chatter, chatter, clink, clink. What is going on? Giggle, chatter.

I finally drag myself out of bed a few mintutes later to see what these two are up to, you never know with my kids, for all I knew they could have been dressing the dog up in the school clothes or mischeveously eating icecream for breakfast....but I got a pleasant surprise; Claire and Ainsley smiling away telling me "Look mom we're dressed, we made all of the lunches (thus going out to the garage for food in the freezer) and we've already brushed our hair and teeth." "Wow" I say, "That's great, thanks so much for doing that for me! I'm going to go back to bed." Ainsley then replies "Okay mom I'll drive us to school." chuckle chuckle....

Ten minutes later I shout out from bed "Go wake up Alli." "Okay mom!" I hear Alli's door open and some chattering and more giggling. Awhile later Alli is in my room whining at me (this is how my mornings normally are) "Claire didn't pick out the right clothes for me, they probably packed poop for lunch, and Ainsley said she was going to drive me to school." My reply "You're 9 pick out your own clothes. Yum sounds good and yes Ainsley is driving to school today, you better buckle up." Then we hear more commotion "Alli do you want cereal or toast for breakfast?" By the time I officially came down to take the girls to school (I figured maybe Ainsley wasn't quite ready to drive) everything from breakfast was completely cleaned up, counters wiped down, bowls were in the sink and the table and chairs were promptly being wiped down so we could head off to school while Claire was giving instructions as to where she had put Alli's lunch and snack in her backpack (nice sisters). What a nice treat, I wish every morning were like this. Thanks little girlies for letting me get a little extra sleep.

Road Trip

Last week I had the opportunity to go to California on the fly. I literally decided Wednesday afternoon at 2 that I would leave the next morning and go. My oldest sister Debbie had surgery the week prior and I wanted to go down and keep her some company while she was confined to her family room couch. Luckily Thomas is a supportive family man, whenever there is a family function or family need he always makes sure I am able to be there. I love that. So he took my 2pm call with grace and acceptance and let me go on my way.

I haven't been on a road trip by myself in ages, whenever we go on family trips Tommy drives 99.5% of the way and I usually sit there reading books, keeping the kids happy, or most likely sleeping the hours away, so I was little nervous about how I would handle driving myself. I luckily had the fore-thought to go to the library and get some audio books and they kept me entertained and made the trip go by really quick. Rainier slept the majority of the time and everything went off with out a hitch.

I lost most of my pictures on my camera (I seem to be good at that) but I was able to see the majority of my brothers and sisters while I was down there and we all enjoyed playing with Rainier and sizing up his ever increasing thighs and enjoying one another's company. All of this while my poor sister Debbie was confined to the couch, sorry Deb. It was great to have a fun, quick, trip, and to be able to spend some time with my sister while she recovered. Hopefully I was decent company.

Dear Thomas,

I am here blogging in my jammies as usual, and you are doing something nice for me, cooking your tomato chipotle bisque soup just so I can take some down to my sister Debbie tomorrow. You're such a good man. It's almost 10 o'clock and you've been working on it since you've been home. Oh I love you! Why are you so nice to me? Is it only because I finally bore you a son? :) Do you remember all of these nice meals you've cooked for me? They certainly were impressive.

Rack of lamb with fig chutney

Marinated Salmon with mustard mashed potatoes....ooooh those were good.

Oh and here you are cooking the tomato bisque last time my sisters were in town. Man you're good.

Some of my other favorites on your menu;

Lemon Grass Beef

Cucumber Salad

and your Artichoke Pork Loin.

How did I get lucky enough not only to score a good looking, hard working, intelligent, loving, humorous man, but also one who knows how to cook amazingly well? I must have put in some major overtime to afford you.

I love you. I'll miss you when I'm gone.

Love,

JO

Much Needed Entertainment

This is my sister Sheri, she came up to visit me, see Rainier for the first time, and relax. What could be a more exciting trip than that? I think she owes me big. :) We had a great time together, I got to introduce her to Sonic Diet Cokes, had some good meals together, and did a little art project for some church stuff.

Here is the picture I got when I asked Claire to take a picture of both of us. I think it is probably one of the best pictures I have ever had taken of me...thanks Claire. The girls always love visitors, they had such a great time with their Aunt Sheri, she of course spoiled them with gum, High School Musical junk galore, and as a special twist; lip plumping lipstick. The girls felt a little taken aback when they put that stuff on and their lips started to burn! Ha! Sheri didn't know, but now my girls want to know why on earth anyone would want to do that to their lips.

This is how Tommy greeted my sister the first night she was here. What a stud...my favorite part; the socks and flip-flops, but don't miss the Transformers shirt, and nice hat thingy. That guy can put a great outfit together.

Also that night Thomas modeled (can I say that for a man?) his new motorcycle pants. They apparently were a lot tighter than he expected.

Complete with a leather crotch and rear....for protection :).

And here he is running quickly up the stairs as we were heckling him and telling him I was definitely posting all of this on my blog.

Thanks for all of the entertainment that night Tommy, it was great, and Sheri thanks for coming to visit, its always great to see you.

Layers

Oh, My sweet baby.

Who would guess...

that this smiley boy...

all dressed...

in little man clothes...

is covering up his best attribute ever?

Layers...

and layers ...

and more....

layers of delectable CHUB.

Climbing out.

While some may and some may not know that I've been having a struggle with post-partum depression, I am only airing my dirty laundry on the web to journal a few feelings I have had lately. The past three months have been some of the best. Having a new baby in the house and experiencing all of the firsts with him: first smiles, first coos, first night slept through, has been amazing. However the past three months have also been some of the most confusing and challenging, and probably it will be hard for you to understand them. I have felt as though I am in a hole and I have just recently started feeling like I am climbing out of it.

This isn't supposed to be a pic of me sad, just snuggling with my sleeping baby. :)

It had started out as what I thought was baby blues, a few days of sadness, then turning into despair topped off with a nice dose of anxiety. Large groups, mere acquaintances, or people I hadn't talked to in a while intimidated me to the point of avoidance, which in turn, has made it extremely hard to attend church. I found it hard to do normal tasks such as planning meals, cleaning, teaching primary, making simple decisions, even returning phone calls (so for those of you I haven't returned calls to this is my apology). I'm not trying to publish my medical woes to gain sympathy, I only explain this to let everyone know what my husband has had to put up with lately and maybe to explain some lingering thoughts if you thought I was acting weird, the truth is I probably am.

I can barely say in words how much love and gratitude I have for Thomas. He has showed me so much love and compassion in the past few months that I fear he is now sick of me. ;) He has come and literally held my hand through primary, teaching most of the lessons for me and doing other duties, while already having two church callings of his own. He has cooked countless meals without prompt, kept a happy face after coming home to a messy house, taken the kids after work to ease my stress and has kept a positive attitude about it all, while probably not fully understanding what the heck was wrong with his wife. He truly is my support beam. Being married, you always know that your spouse loves you, but it is humbling to me to watch and see how much he is willing to do for me, to actually see the true unconditional love in action has brought me to tears and has made my love for him stronger than imaginable. I hope that my actions show how much love I have for him.




Growing up I have always heard in passing that my mom had to go stay with her parents for a few weeks because she had a 'nervous breakdown'. (Who wouldn't with 8 children?) I have thought about it from time to time and wondered what had led up to it, why did she let it get so bad, and how did she over come it? I feel sad that I don't know much about it and that I can't ask her about it. But thinking of that makes me so thankful not only for Thomas, but for my own support group I have in my life. Thanks to my dear friends who have had countless talks with me and offered me encouragement, thanks to Erika for letting me live at her house during the days for the past few weeks :), and thanks to my sweet sisters and sister in law Tamzen, for calling me daily, and knowing me well enough to know something was wrong even when I wasn't willing to admit it to myself.




Going through things like this always makes you more humble, it always brings you to your knees and always strengthens your relationship with the Lord. How blessed I am to be able to have faith in Him. I have a strong testimony that our prayers are heard and answered and that our Heavenly Father knows us each individually, that he personally guides our lives and has a plan and purpose for us. I pray my children will be as fortunate as I am, to have such wonderful friends and family watching out for them, and I hope my girls will seek out a husband that has the same qualities as their dad so that they can be as happy as I am.

Party Hardy

Whenever we've been in town for New Years Eve we have been fortunate enough to spend it with the Mikos Family, this year was no different and I'm so glad for this fairly regular tradition we have. We had a wonderful night of Wii games, Rock Band (who knew I could rock out to the

B-52's and get an almost perfect score) movie watching, and way too much good food.

This is my dear friend Amy, she was one of the first friends I made when we moved to Arizona from Colorado and she's stuck with me for the past 7 years, poor girl, I think Tommy might be paying her under the table just to keep me sane.
Here is my dashing husband with his now infamous self portraits. It literally takes my breath away...I'm not so sure if that's good or bad in this instance.

Alli, snuggled in with blankie and pillow ready to watch a movie. Notice the bruise by her eye, apparently earlier in the day she had a brush with the trash can while riding her bike, glad she survived it.

Claire and cutie Paige cheesing it up for the camera.

The night ended with glow sticks and sparklers, of which my darling Claire burnt her hair with. Special thanks to Chance for 'patting' it out and then taking the heat from Claire for "hitting her on the head" she apparently had no clue she was on fire.

What a great start to 2009, spending it with a family we love.