motherhood

1. Typically what time do you wake up? Lately? 2:00 am, 4:30 am, 6:45 am, and then finally between 7:30 and 8:30. That may be a bit of an exaggeration... but not much! I wish someone could remind James that, until 6 months ago, he used to be a good sleeper!

2. On a good night what time are your kids in bed? Most nights it's between 6:30 and 7:00. Rarely later than that... except nights that we are at my in-laws or decide to go on a "family date."

3. How long have you been a mom? About 3 1/2 years... 4 years in November.

4. How old were you when you became a mom? 23 years old.

5. What is your favorite kid TV show/movie? Charlie and Lola is a super cute show. And on Sundays I like to watch VeggieTales with William...

6. What is your least favorite kid TV show? Thomas... so boring. Caillou... I'm convinced that kids become more whiny after watching it. It's a Big, Big World... I really dislike that one. Oh. And Barney... I think that comes from having to watch it with Rachelle when I was in 6th grade.

7. What is your favorite chore? Growing up I liked to clean the bathroom... I have a feeling that will change when William finally gets potty trained. I don't really know if I have a favorite chore now.

8. What is your favorite meal to cook? Anything easy. I like making pizza because Rich likes it so much.

9. What is the meal you cook most often? I don't know if I cook anything too often. I like trying new recipes and I try to mix it up a bit.

10. What is your kid’s favorite meal? Mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese since that's about all we can get William to eat. Oh he really likes pancakes and waffles. Everything else is a battle just to get a nibble. Just today he told me that he didn't like food. James on the other hand loves anything but especially chicken nuggets.

11. What is your favorite thing your husband does with your kids? I love that Rich gets up with William on Saturday mornings... and most every morning... so that I can sleep in a little bit. He also plays with the boys all the time--they LOVE their dad. He even comes home at lunch time to be with us.

12. What are 5 things that make you smile when you're being a mom? When James puts his little head on my shoulder. When William tells me "Good job mom!" "Mom is beautiful" or something equally as nice and sincere. When both boys are asleep. When the boys are playing nicely together for an extended period of time. When my boys are laughing.

13. If you could take your kids anywhere where would it be? I want to take them to the beach. Our first beach excursion, last April, was no good. It was a giant sand storm... and freezing! We're hoping it will be more successful in July. And, like Katie, I've been thinking it would be fun to take them to Disneyland one of these days.

14. When was the last time you went out without your kids? We are actually pretty lucky that we get to do this nearly every week--thanks to Rich's parents. Thursday Rich and I went to a dinner party for the 25th anniversary of the company Rich works for. It was a great dinner and we got to hear Col. Oliver North speak. It was incredible! Then on Friday night and Saturday I went to Time Out For Women and listened to some good music and amazing presenters. One of my favorite religion professors, Camille Fronk Olson, spoke which made it even more fabulous!

15. What is your favorite past time/activity to do with your kids? Lately we've enjoyed taking bike rides (William rides his trike while James and I walk).

16. Name 1 thing you said you'd never do as a mom. I can't think of anything except what Katie said. I'll never put my kids in daycare.

17. What is your favorite quality that your mom has? My mom has a million great qualities. She is really great at finding fun in everyday things... especially for little kids. I wish I could do that better with William.

18. What is your advice for new moms? Oh goodness. I remember some advice that was given to me before William was born. She said "You can have a clean house next year." Don't worry about having a perfectly straight house. Don't focus on 'what did I accomplish today?" Spend time with your little baby because they grow up way too fast!

19. What is the scariest or most heartbreaking moment as a mom? I remember laying in the operating room and realizing "He's not crying. William was screaming his head off." Then Rich pointed him out to me across the room and explained that he was unresponsive. I couldn't believe it. The first time I really saw him he was hooked up to a million tubes.

20. What is your most joyful moment of being a mom? There are so many. It could be when William was born and I officially became a mother. It could be when they released James from the hospital on the same day as me--much earlier than expected.

21. When was the last time you were told 'I Love You' by one of your kids? I'm sure that William has told me at least once today.

22. I tag: Amy and whoever else would like to play along.

wonderfully william

Thank you Carrie for reminding me that even on bad days my life is truly blessed. Elder Henry B. Eyring has said,

... You could ask yourself, "How did God belss me today?" if you do that long enough and with faith, you will find yourself remembering blessings. And sometimes, you will have gifts brought to you in which you failed to notice during the day, but which you will then know were a touch of God's hand in your life.

President Hinckley has also said,

My plea is that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am suggesting that as we go through life, we "accentuate the positive."

And so with that I devote this post to a little ray of sunshine in my life--the wonderfully wacky William.

I have been so impressed with William lately. He has been so pleasant and helpful the past few days. Just the other day I was sitting at the kitchen table when I see him grab a napkin. I didn't think much of it but a few minutes later he tells me "it's really dirty." And sure enough there were dust bunnies all over the napkin. Next thing I know he is getting the broom and dust pan and sweeping up under the oven--continually reminding me that it was "really dirty." (Note to self: ocassionally sweep under oven.)

In addition to doing these "extra chores" he's also getting really good at cleaning up after himself, putting his jammies away, putting his shoes on by himself (on the right feet), picking out his clothes every morning, sorting laundry with me, and helping me cook. I love that when he makes a mess he doesn't try to hide it but comes and tells me "mom, I made a big mess."

William is great at playing by himself. I love to hear him singing to himself or laughing while reading a silly Dr. Suess book. Anyone would enjoy listening to the dialouge he has with his toys. Lately he's been playing with his castle. Yesterday the conversation was "Are you having a hard day?" "Yes, I'm having a hard day." This morning as I searched the internet I heard shouts of "I love you, guy!" "I love you, King!" as William sent them flying down into the dungeon.

And I cannot say enough how it warms my heart to see how much my boys love each other! It makes me smile when I see William holding James' hand or when I hear my sweet James laughing because William is playing, what he calls "swim game" (jumping around saying "swim swim"). Or William's sweet voice saying "I love James" and "James really loves me."

Other wonderful ways of William: covering his eyes with the backs of his hands when he's being shy, always remembering to say please and thank you, saying sorry even when it's not necessary, telling me today that "those cookies might be good," singing along with any song even if he's never heard it before, telling me "I'm too busy mom" or "mom, I need your arm"... and about a gazillion other things.

I am so, so blessed to be able to stay home with my boys so that I don't miss out on these truly wonderful moments!

brotherly love

I just had to show off the cutest boys in the world! Can you tell--William and James love each other so much!

celebrating summer

So... summer is here! Thank goodness this summer has not been so brutally hot like last year! Here are some of the things we've done to kick off summer.
At storytime we've been "camping" and to the "beach" We even made ice cream one day! It was so much fun and EASY that I thought I'd share the recipe.

Ice Cream in a Bag

• 1 gallon ziplock bag
• 1 quart ziploc bag (heavy duty)
• 4 c. ice
• 1/4 c. salt (rock salt I think)
• 1 c. whole milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 TB sugar
• cups and spoons

1. Pour the milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small ziploc bag. Squeeze as much air out as possible and seal the bag carefully.
2. Place the small ziploc bag down into the large bag. Cover with the ice and salt. Seal the large bag tightly.
3. Shake, toss, and flip the bags for 5 to 10 minutes. If the bag gets too cold to handle, wrap it with a towel or pass it from person to person. Don't open the large bag to check on the ice cream because it may not seal properly afterwards.
4. Open both bags and spoon the ice cream into small cups. (Or just eat right out of the bag!) Enjoy!

Flavor variations:
1. Substitute other extract flavors for the vanilla.
2. Omit the vanilla and half the sugar. Add strawberry or chocolate syrup to the milk mixture.

For our date on Friday night we took a walk around Mitch Park in Edmond. This is the best park ever! There are playgrounds, baseball fields, walking trails... We unknowingly took a different trail than we usually do and ended up walking for an hour! My flip-flopped feet were a little sore.

On Saturday, when William came in all hot and sweaty from doing yard work with Rich he said, "Go swim. Let's surprise Dad." So we set off to fill up our little wading pool and subsequently break it in. William had a great time and thought it was hilarious to splash mom with the cold water.

William now picks out his clothes everyday. He is pretty good at it but has decided to only wear "up-pants" (as opposed to "down pants"). When I tell him to go grab some shorts he corrects me, "not shorts mom--up pants."

I hope that you are all having fun celebrating the arrival of summer!

what a wonderful world

I'm trying to start a new habit of going on a walk everyday. This allows the boys and myself to get some fresh air, soak up some rays, and tricks me into thinking that a walk around the block counts as exercise. James usually falls asleep soon after we begin our journey and--as long as the sun stays out of his eyes--he is content. William has started to love these walks. First thing this morning--before he was even dressed--he told me "Spiderman shoes! Go on walk." As we begin our trek around the block we pass our neighbors house--William always tells me "need rock". They have a ton of those little white rocks--the kind that we used to write on the sidewalk with as kids. I really ought to buy some of those rocks to replace the 20 or so that we picked up. On our Sunday afternoon stroll William saw his shadow and was making shadow puppets as we walked. Cute. Next we see little frogs. I'm talking itty-bitty. William likes to try and touch them and follow them around for a while. He can spot them everywhere! Even when they blend in perfectly with the pile of dirt they are sitting in. (Those little spots in the pictures really are frogs!)We spy every puppy along the way... and as long as they stay enclosed in their yards we are all smiles. (We had an encounter with a dog the other day which had William jumping into my arms and clinging on for dear life.) We don't just stop for frogs, dogs, rocks, and shadows. William finds wonder in just about anything. Everything is "so cool, mom." Birds, bugs, butterflies, bugs, pine cones, bugs, water puddles... nothing escapes his notice. And ya know... these things really are amazing. What a wonderful world we live in with such diversity and beauty! Seeing the world through the eyes of 2-year-old is a great reminder of the beautiful place in which we live.

nana bread and "lawn"dry

William is such a good helper. He'll help me with the laundry and changing James' diaper. When he sees me start doing dishes or thinks that I'm going to cook he'll tell me "Wee-yum (William) need chair" and begin to push a kitchen chair over to the counter. One of his favorite things to make (and eat) is banana bread. Rich and William especially love when I make a special loaf with chocolate chips in it. This weekend he helped Rich do some yard work. While Rich was mowing the lawn I caught William's attention through a window. He began to explain to me that dad was doing lawndry. Pretty clever!

Last week I lamented that I was unsuccessful at giving William a haircut. My mother-in-law often picks William up on Friday afternoons to play at her house. On this particular Friday she decided to take him to Snip-its hoping it would be fun enough that he'd hold still. Apparently it wasn't fun enough because he still threw a fit--but his hair is nice and short now. Yea! (And I was informed that all two-year-old boys hate getting their hair cut...)

So as I sad as it is I think that William is done with naps. I know he still needs them because he'll fall asleep in the car... but with gas prices being what they are it's not really worth the 30 minute drive for a one hour nap! The problem was that he was going to bed even later than normal. Needless to say that was not a happy mommy. I decided to try out my mom's advice and put him to bed extra early. So instead of the normal 8 o'clock bedtime (with the falling asleep happening an hour or more after that) I decided that he would be in bed by 6:30. I didn't know if it would work and feared that he'd wake up SUPER early the day. So I laid down with him and in 10 minutes he was asleep!!! What were we going to do with ourselves? Rich did a Sonic run as a reward and we played a rousing game of our "new" (from a garage sale) Trivial Pursuit. (Random note: we have about 3 or 4 versions of this game because we go through all the questions and then can't play anymore 'cause we remember all the answers! Sad. I know.)

Like I said I was worried that William would decide that he needed to wake up super early... but he actually SLEPT IN. Too bad we have 9 o'clock church so I couldn't sleep in too. I plopped him in the bathtub while I got everything ready for church--checking in on him occassionally. When I came in to get him out I was finally in my dress. He looked at me, cocked his head and said, "Mommy got... prettyful." What a sweetheart.

And with all this William talk I have to include something of James. He is my perfect baby and is still so smiley. Here are some pictures from the other night!

what a weekend!

Well, this was quite the weekend and I am exhausted. Most of the exhaustion comes from the fact that not only did William decide he wouldn't take naps this weekend (which caused extreme, almost constant crabbiness) but he also would not be going to sleep before 10 pm (despite our attempts to go to bed at 7).

Friday night, after our date, I stayed up until after midnight making apple and pecan pies for the Piedmont Pie Festival. They got a little more brown than I had hoped for and wasn't exactly super pleased with the outcome... but they were okay. I got up Saturday morning and dropped them off early to ensure myself a small sized t-shirt (which they ran out of last year). We didn't want to be there all day so we ran some errands and did some stuff around the house. I had been informed that the awards ceremony would be at 2:00. Well, last year they said the same thing and it didn't start until 3:00... so we showed up a little late. When I say a little late I'm only talking 10 minutes. As I got out of the car I heard them announce the winners of the last (of 12) pie category--we had missed the entire thing! I had the unpleasant task of asking if I won anything. It kinda takes the fun out of winning. As silly as it is I was a little disappointed after having won the first place apple pie last year. Now there are two third place ribbons added to my pie winning collection.

Amidst our busy Saturday I decided to give William a hair cut. Silly me. Due to his lack of sleep we had quite the battle and in the end I lost. One of these days it will get done... He did however have fun with the snake that Rich found in our garage.

On Sunday Rich gave James a name and a blessing at church... a great thing for Mother's Day. William could've been a little--okay a LOT--more pleasant at church... or at least have gone to nursery. Overall I did have a great day though. The boys got me an hour massage--which I definetly need!

As crazy as this weekend was I am feeling much better today--after a much needed nap of course. William has been surprisingly sweet and obedient today which I just love. Hopefully it carries on till bedtime.

sweet baby James

As my six-year-old brother, Jacob, often reminds me--James is an angel baby. And he really is. He never wakes up during the night more than twice. Last night he slept for 5 hours. Five uninterrupted hours of sleep (because William didn't wake up either! and the sounding tornado sirens couldn't even disturb my slumber). He rarely cries unless he is hungry and otherwise he has the cutest little squeaks and noises. I've noticed that he will let out a sympathetic cry when he hears his big brother crying. When James smiles his sweet smile at you nothing else really matters. He is also very obedient. In the NICU we kept telling him to do what the nurses told him so that he could come home. To everyone's surprise he progressed so quickly that he was able to come home the day that I was released. Also, when my mom explained to him that just because he was awake didn't mean that he needed to eat, he looked at her as if he was thinking, "really? alright if you say so." After that he was content to just look around. Oh I love my angel baby so much.

ward party adventure

Yesterday we had a ward chili cookoff at Route 66 Park at Lake Overholser. We had never been there before and it was a really cool park. William loved it! He wouldn't even hold still long enough to eat 3 bites of a hot dog bun. I guess I should have learned by now that playing is much more important than eating. The playground there was massive and he just ran all over the place. At one point I was sitting on the benches and holding James while keeping an eye on William. I must have looked down for a minute at James and when I looked up William was gone! I frantically looked around for him but couldn't find him. I was about to panic when I saw Rich and William walking over from the pavilion. What a relief!!! Apparently in the few seconds that I turned my head, William had run over to the lake and jumped on in. He was wet up to his knees. I felt so horrible for losing him! How could I have done that?! And how did he run the 50 or so yards so quickly to get into trouble! However, a few minutes later when about half the ward was looking for their missing children I didn't feel so bad. (He did attempt a second dip in the lake but I used my mad track skills to catch him.) He thought it was pretty fun though because he kept telling us "William jump in water." I suppose this is all payback for me doing the same kinds of things to my own mom.

...W, X, Y and Z

Well, while my 2 year-old naps and my infant views the world from his place on the floor I thought I would begin my first entry. I am new to this whole blog thing but I thought that I would give it a try. I have been awful at keeping a journal lately and thought this might be a little easier. I haven't even written about the birth of my second son yet! (Shame on me.) I'm not as wonderful of writer as my husband or even my friends but I'll give it a shot.

I have to say that William amazes me everyday. Just yesterday as I was feeding James, William was in the corner playing with his toys and talking to himself. All of a sudden I realized that he was singing "W, X, Y and Z." Maybe I'm a bad mother but I haven't taught him the ABC song yet. So I asked him where he learned that song. "Big Bird sing it," he replied. It's amazing what kids pick up on... tv can't be all that bad.

William LOVES his new little brother. He is always hugging, kissing, or singing to him and telling me that he is a big brother now. It's sweet but sometimes James gets a little too much loving. He is also very protective of his baby brother. On the plane to California for my sister's wedding he even told the stewardess--sorry, flight attendant--"no lady, no look at James!" He doesn't even want other people to hold James.

Today we went to the neurologist for James. When he was born he had a seizure due to lack of oxygen from a prolapsed umbilical cord and a traumatic birth (we'll save that for a whole other entry for those of you with weak stomachs). He's been on phenobarbital for the last 5 weeks and I've been dying to wean him off already. Today we got the go-ahead and the doc was so impressed at James' improvement that we don't even have to go for a follow-up visit! YEA!!! James is such a good baby--he just eats and sleeps. Most people think we're crazy because "that's what babies are supposed to do". Well, they never had a "William baby". Although because I did have a "high maintenance" child first I think I can more fully appreciate a baby like James. In fact, I think that William wakes up more than James at night. Fun stuff.

Well, William is now awake so I had better wrap this up. Hopefully there will be more to write from my run-of-the-mill everyday life.