Baby Evan & Me

Baby Evan 10 months old and counting

2009-02-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

Baby Evan is a busy boy these days. Some of his latest activities include:
crawling, crawling, crawling up on his knees and getting very fast!
getting into all the cupboards, bathroom, toilet, etc.
Getting four upper teeth!
standing as much as possible
getting more vocal everyday (he loves to babble- if only we knew what he was saying)
He is getting better at sleeping- taking two naps a day and sleeping pretty well at night
He loves to eat crackers and feed them to himself

Baby Evan's Sock Monkey Quilt

2009-01-12T21:40:00.001-08:00

My mom helped me make this really cute quilt in Utah (and my sisters helped pick out the fabric. We BARELY finished this before we left and I did the binding on the long car ride home! It was really fun to make.

By the way, I love this blog but it's just too confusing to have two blogs, so I'm discontinuing this one and will be posting on jamesandcassie.blogspot.com for now on, so check there for pictures of our Utah trip.

The powerful results of What Not To Wear

2008-12-15T23:03:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite shows and I had it on today while I was cooking. James was home, and he made some funny comment about the show and I said:
"Hey, I really love this show. It's really inspired me to try to dress nicer and not look so frumpy." (I was being very serious)
James took one look at me, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon wearing sweats and a sweatshirt, not having showered or done my hair or make-up at all, and he replied, "I can tell."
We both just started laughing! It was pretty funny. Here I was pouring out my testimonial of the show- but my clothes spoke a lot louder! Maybe you had to be there. Of course he was joking... Anyway, then we started discussing what Stacy and Clinton would have to say about my outfit- pink monkey sweatshirt and all. "How old are you, 13???" I guess I need to keep watching a little more since I still have a few things to learn. :)

Tagged

2008-12-14T22:08:00.001-08:00

Okay, I'm finally responding to being tagged by my sis:
1.Do you like bleu cheese? Surprisingly I do like it with the right salad.
2. Have you ever smoked? No.
3. Do you own a gun? No.
4. What flavor Kool-Aid was your favorite? I didn't drink a lot of kool-aid growing up. But now I really like the invisible-aid- it's fun to surprise people by making them think it's water! And I'm sure it'll be great when Evan drinks it and spills it and it won't stain.
5. Do you get nervous about doctor appointments? Depends. I REALLY get nervous for the dentist ( like months in advance)
6. What do you think of hot dogs? Sometimes I really get in the mood for them.
7. Favorite Christmas movie? I recently watched Elf and that's a funny movie. Of course It's a Wonderful Life is a classic. I've yet to see A Christmas Story and I hear I'm missing out.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? I hate to admit it, but I'm a hot chocolate addict.
9. Can you do push-ups? I used to do a lot when I did track- it's been a while. But I did do some abs yesterday- and I'm feeling it today.
10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding ring, although I'm still very sad that I lost the wedding band- it lies somewhere on Bulldog Blvd in Provo between the two jobs I used to work at. After endless searching and tears and offers of money to coworkers to find it, I had to give up the search. I can't wait to someday get a new one.
11. Favorite hobby? That's hard. It depends on my mood. I go through phases-I love to scrapbook or sew or cook or walk. Before I got married ice skating was my favorite.
12. Do you have ADD? I don't think so.
13. What's one trait you hate about yourself? Oh what is not to love? Just Kidding. I don't know, probably I wish I was more outgoing.
14. Middle initial? M.
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I should really go to bed since it's 12:30 I can't wait til James is done with finals. It is REALLY cold today.
16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? water, juice, milk (but not very much milk, mostly with cereal or brownies)
17. Current worry? Driving to Utah with the weather
18. Current hate right now? James having finals
19. Favorite place to be? Anywhere very warm-at home, I am a homebody most the time, although I do get cabin fever and have to get out
20. How did you ring in the new year? Well that's about to happen but I don't know what we're doing. Last year we went to see the Rockettes in Des Moines around New Years. That was really fun.
21. Where would you like to go? Minneapolis to the Mall of America
22. Name 3 people to tag? Steph, Cindy, Jessica
23. Do you own slippers? Yes, really cute monkey ones from James- and they are cozy!
24. What shirt are you wearing? A purple pajama shirt
25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Never tried it.
26. Can you whistle? Barely. James is really amazing.
27. Favorite color? Have you seen my bathroom? Purple
28. Would you be a pirate? Random question- no. Why would I?
29. What songs do you sing in the shower? I usually don't, for the same reason as Melanie-listening for Baby Evan! But I do love to sing to baby Evan in the bathtub- you know, rubber duckie and Rainbow connection.
30. Favorite girl's name? I love the name Allison-Alli- I just have to convince James it's a cute girls' name
31. Favorite boy's name? Evan, Jamison
32. What's in your pocket right now? nothing
33. Last thing that made you laugh? Baby Evan being really cute
34. What vehicle do you drive? Oldsmobile Aurora- I'm really spoiled because it has heated seats- best thing ever in winter.
35. Worst injury? never broken a bone- can I call childbirth an injury? Just Kidding- although it was painful! Probably stress fracture from cross country- well I did recently sprain my wrist from lifting baby Evan...
36. Do you love where you live? Yes, although it's hard to be away from family- but it is bonding as a couple to live far away from family because you have to rely on each other more and you have more chances to create family traditions. But in terms of weather, today's not the best day to ask, considering it's practically a blizzard outside right now- so cold you can't breathe even if you're outside for a second- and you can hear the cold wind from inside... But yes, I love how beautiful Iowa is, and I love how Des Moines has so many beautiful walking trails and how down-to-earth people are... and interesting places to visit like Pella, Amana Colonies, Omaha- Zoo for sure, and more...
37. How many TVs do you have in your house? one
38. Who is your loudest friend? Have you ever heard baby Evan cry?
39. Do you have any pets? No, but I'd love to have a kitty.
40. Does someone have a crush on you? I hope baby Evan does. He's very flirtatious!
41. Your favorite book? That's hard. Good classics I like are Jane Eyre and To Kill a Mocking bird but I also like self-help books like Dr. Laura-don't laugh or motivational books but I can't think of any titles.
42. Do you collect anything? No. And I don't want to. I wish I owned nothing. After moving twice this summer I realize how awful it is to keep stuff- it's too hard. But it's also hard to throw stuff away and I still have way too much stuff.
43. Favorite sports team? I used to be a die hard Utah Jazz fan years ago with Stockton and Hornacek, but now I'd say BYU- since James is a die hard BYU football fan so I can't really escape it.
44. What song do you want played at your funeral? I don't know, but I have to agree Mel that Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto is amazing. But I never think about it.

Walking the Des Moines Skywalks

2008-12-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but for me one of the hardest things about winter is exercising! Walks are my main form of exercise, but temperatures in the teens combined with wind and ice don't entice me to get outside much. I'm desperately out of shape, so I've been brainstorming various solutions to my exercise problem: walking at the mall, buying exercise dvds, getting a pass to the Drake gym next semester... But yesterday my solution was to walk the skywalks downtown. One unique thing about Des Moines downtown is that is has skywalks connecting practically every building. They are generally used by people who work in the buildings and they have many interesting features:
-beautiful views of the city
-lots of places to eat lunch
The Hub of the skywalks is kind of like a mini mall consisting of a few shops, including a cute little toy store and Christopher and Banks. There used to be a Younkers (department store) but sadly it went out of business). There are some gift shops and fancy dress stores. I wish it had more stores, I think it would make the coolest mall
-The skywalks take you past all the big businesses, insurance companies, banks, through lots of different buildings
-at Christmas time different buildings have Christmas lights or trees and decorations. One building had an enormous wreath
-There are lots of doors you go through in the skywalks, but they are almost all automatic, so with the stroller I never have to stop to open them!
-You don't see a lot of people walking through them- their high traffic time is before, after work and during lunch
-I do wish the stores were open later- their hours cater mostly to the working people and they close around 5.
Anyway, that's a little overview, but the point is, I walked the skywalks yesterday and really enjoyed it. It was warm and I felt like I got a good walk in and I got to feel like I was walking through a city and it was just nice to get out.
Here's the problem:
I've been struggling trying to figure out where to park to walk the skywalks. And I've done lots of research. Weekends all downtown parking is free, so Saturdays are great days to walk and I know where to park close to skywalk entrances. But on weekdays there are parking meters everywhere and the garages cost. So I tried the downtown library, but they have all these posted signs saying you can only park there WHILE IN the library. And they have signs about video cameras. So I don't want to get arrested as a mom trying to get exercise walking the skywalks. anyway, the library is a little far from the skywalk entrance and would mean I'd have to spend a short time outside- and that wouldn't be ideal- but I'd do it if they didn't have those signs. So- I looked online and drove around downtown but there is no free parking anywhere near the skywalks on weekdays. So either I pay for a meter- around 75 cents for 45 minutes- which would be fine- or I just walk Saturdays. So, I love the Saturday idea and I may pay the 75 cents every once in a while if I'm desperate to get out and really want to do it. I'm disappointed about the parking thing, but I'm glad I at least have another fun indoor place to walk( malls get old). Any other suggestions on how to get winter exercise???

Making the News-Almost

2008-12-03T12:39:00.000-08:00

Did anyone (locally) watch ABC 5 news at 5:00 yesterday (Tuesday). Well I wasn't on there. But I almost was! I was interviewed by ABC 5v in the grocery store parking lot... A lady came up to my car so I rolled down the window and she said, "Hi I'm doing a story about Payday Loan/Check Cashing businesses. Do you have two minutes for me to ask you some questions?" So I said sure, and next thing I know she goes to her car and gets a camera and comes back. I'm like, "woah you didn't say anything about a camera." Of course I knew it didn't mean I'd be on tv, but still it's not everyday you have someone pointing a camera at you and asking you questions. She had me say and spell my name and she told me to talk looking at her left eye. She had me answer questions about if I'd ever used a check cashing business like payday loans. I said no and then she asked why and she proceeded to talk about legislation that's in discussion about reducing the high interest rates these companies charge. She asked my opinion. I have NEVER been good at such on-the-spot questioning so my answers were terrible, not eloquent at all. James is the law person who speaks well, not me! And I'm very camera shy, so I sounded retarded. Well she was nice and all and went on to interview someone else but I knew there was little chance I'd make the news. And I didn't. But let's be honest- I would have DIED of embarassment if anyone had heard me! Actually I watched the news story and they were looking for people who'd had some bad experience with getting charged insane interest at one of these businesses so I wasn't even what they wanted to find- at least it makes me feel like my not being picked was more than because I sounded dumb! But it was fun- definitely not an everyday occurence to have the news interview you!
Of course, what I really wish would happen would be to have Curtis from Take-Home-Chef meet me at the grocery store!

By the way, someone is having a little trouble waiting for Christmas Day. He was caught in the act of peeking. Not real sure what to do about this problem:

My Personal Interior Decorator-My Mom's Visit

2008-11-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

My mom came to visit this past week. What a fun week! We did soooo much. One of the perks of living far away is that when people do come and visit it is one-on-one attention and very memorable. So my mom did so much to help me decorate my house. Here are a few things she helped me with:
my beautiful couch pillows (I love the fabric Steph helped me pick out!)
hanging my living room curtains
making a valance for Evan's bedroom window
dustruffle for Evan's crib
adding cute duck fabric to Evan's crib bumper pad
But no we didn't sew the whole time. We also did some traveling:
Amana Colonies-lots of fun shopping
Outlet malls in Williamsburg-I bought some cute baby clothes-see the picture of Evan in the blue sweater- $2 at Children's Place!
Iowa Falls, visiting Wilma and Karin, my old neighbors
visiting Amish villages-hence the picture of the Amish buggy parked at the grocery store
lunch at the Botanical Center "Riverside Cafe"
Indoor Farmers' Market downtown (Christmas Tree picture)

My mom never stops doing projects! I wanted to take a break for a short nap one day and she just kept on working! She really wanted to get the dustruffle done before she left but Sat night there was an Elders' Quorum Activity at our house for the BYU Utah Football game, so we hid in the bedroom and sewed! We BARELY had enough fabric for the dustruffle- all that was left were a few tiny little scraps- my mom is good at measuring! I've never seen someone sew as fast and well as my mom! Thanks mom for all the fun and gifts and decorating help and everything...
WE had so much fun and of course it was fun to see her and Evan interact!

Our Babysitting Group

2008-11-10T21:52:00.000-08:00

We recently became part of a babysitting group where each Friday we take turns with friends watching each others' kids. It's nice because we get two Fridays off and then we watch all three kids once a month. So this last Friday was our first turn to babysit. It was fun but I was definitely glad James was there to help because I'm used to only one baby and it is kind of scary when more than one need attention at once (how do you people with multiple kids do it???) The babies are pretty close in age- Evan's the oldest and Cambri and George are a few months younger. It's fun to see Evan interact with other kids, although as it appears in the pictures, Evan seems like the bully of the group- he was fascinated with Cambri's headband and, well let's just say I hope he's a little nicer to girls when he's older. She was a good sport and didn't care when he blinded her! Evan really was a good boy and he isn't really a bully I swear...

Halloween Monkey Business

2008-11-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

Here are lots of pictures of Baby Evan in his monkey outfit. Yah, I took a lot of pictures, but after all that work making it I had to make the most of it! He got lots of wear out of it- he wore it on Beggar's Night (the night before Halloween when they trick or treat here) when we went trick or treating at the mall. That's where he got the picture with Winnie the Pooh- a pretty good picture considering the mass chaos going on around us and how I had to just hand the camera to a stranger to shoot the pic! He wore it to the church trunk or treat- fun- and to some halloween parties. It did make his head sweat but he was a good sport about wearing such a hot costume! I'm glad I made it even though it was hard and time consuming! It really helped boost my confidence in sewing and I learned SO MUCH about how to sew from a pattern. Lots of thanks to my mom for all the phone help and moral support! (and support when I was in tears because it was too small and I had to chop the outfit in half to add length!- it all worked out in the end!) It was a fun Halloween!

Apartment pictures

2008-11-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

Okay I'm finally posting pictures of my apartment so those of you who can't visit yet can see where we live. We really like our apartment. The first pictures show the bedroom- one shows our old headboard(in our old apartment) and the next shows it in our new place since James stained it darker. That was a lot of work! But it looks more finished now. James also stained the kitchen table- it used to be a light color and now it's dark. The close-up pictures of pillows are pillows that I'm going to make out of that fabric to help make the living room not look so brown! The Little Boys frame shows the embroidery I made for Evan's room. Some things we love about this place are:
lots of kitchen counterspace!
laundry is just outside our front door
1 1/2 baths-great for when guests come
we live really close to some great places to walk- I love that!
great friendly neighbors
So I'm really excited because my mom's coming to visit in just over a week! So that will be soooooooooooooooooo fun!!! For all other family, at least you can kind of picture where we spend our time.

Baby Evan's Halloween Costume-in progress

2008-10-15T22:49:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited!! I'm sewing baby Evan a monkey costume. I bought a pattern at Jo-ann's. I haven't done a lot of pattern sewing, but at first I thought, "Oh this should be pretty easy, just follow what the pattern says." So I had fun picking out the fabrics at the store. But then I got home and opened it and got very overwhelmed. All the cutting and directions seemed way confusing. So I almost just put in the towel and said it was too hard. But I gave it a try and I have to admit I'm way proud of myself- I can sew! I did all the cutting out a few days ago and this morning I started the actual sewing and I did a lot- it's gone fast. Partly because I sew like a pig. Seriously. I'm not a perfectionist. I only pick things out if they look absolutely awful. Otherwise I just don't care. That's probably bad but I get so excited about seeing it progress that I just want to keep going. So I am really glad that I gave it a try. It's so fun I just don't want to stop sewing!
I still have a lot to go but there's actually hope he might wear it this year!

Picture Day

2008-10-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

Today I took baby Evan to JCPenney for his first real photo shoot. I must have had too high of expectations, both that Evan would smile lots and that the photographer would be amazing. I came home disappointed. Baby Evan was bathed, rested and fed before he went, but he just wasn't in a smiley mood. I think he was a little "shy" about his strange surroundings and the strange lady talking to him. I was so sad! He's usually such a smiler and he just wouldn't do his huge smiles- just a few half smiles.
Okay, so I realize that's life, right- that your kids won't look perfect for their pictures, so get over it. But I was mostly disappointed in the photographer. She was nice, but I expected her to know some good poses for babies and she just didn't impress me. I don't know- she just seemed new at the whole idea and I wanted/expected someone who said, "okay, now do this, let's have him in this position..." I didn't think she did a very good job. So all in all, I'm disapppointed and there weren't any desperately to-die-for pics. I ordered a few still but man, I guess I just thought they'd be amazing. Has anyone else had similar experiences with professional pics? Probably it could have been worse- he could have been screaming.
After all the talk of pics, this post has no pictures considering I don't have them yet. Sorry.

Twins??? My sister comes to visit

2008-10-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

Last week was an absolute blast. My sister Stephanie and my niece (16 months) Ingrid came to visit. We were asked if we were twins several times! But we're not, she's actually 3 years older. Anyway, it was fun to play "tour guide" and show her around. We went on lots of walks and she helped me decorate my apartment. We also did some "gourmet" cooking. Here are some of the fun things we did:
Walk with my walking group friends
Botanical Gardens- we had lunch at the cafe there and ate delicious salads
We watched Cranford- a BBC classic movie- it took me a little time to get into, I admit, but it good really good- oh and I made her watch High School Musical- she's a good sport!
I took her to Iowa Falls and showed her where I lived over the summer- we visited my old neighbors and friends- Wilma, my 80 year old neighbor was so excited to see us and hold Evan again! We walked on my river walk and had delicious lunch at a cafe there
We walked on the trail behind my apartment- beautiful, went to the Valley Junction Farmers' Market and shopped there at the cute shops
We shopped at lots of antique stores
She helped me pick out fabrics to recover some pillows to brighten my brown living room and we cutened up Evan's room
We cooked- stuffed green peppers, quiche, chili- James will expect this every night!
We drove to the Amana Colonies to Oktoberfest- there are lots of cute shops there and we had German food and shopped til we dropped...

It was a blast, if I didn't already mention that! She didn't get to bring her other daughter Sophie, which was very sad, but Ingrid was so cute and I think it was fun for Evan to be around a toddler. It's so fun to have family visit that it makes it even worse when they leave. That's the awful part of the deal. But I guess that means it really was fun otherwise we wouldn't be sad it was over. So, here are some pics: Thanks for coming Steph and hopefully I didn't kill you off by trying to do too much! (I was a little excited and wanted to pack a lot in- but she's tough--)

Note: My computer is being weird and won't let me label the pictures, so if you're wondering why I took a picture of the quiche it's because I was very proud of the crust! I've never made a crust like that before.
The picture by the river is in Iowa Falls and the picture with the haystacks is at oktoberfest.

Random late night ramblings

2008-09-15T23:04:00.000-07:00

5 months old!

The best part of my day is how much Evan smiles at me. I love it! It makes my whole day. So, I really need to go to bed because it's very late but I stayed up uploading pictures to Walgreens- they are 50 percent to print until the 20th- great deal. So I ordered a bunch for my Iowa Falls scrapbook and for more pics of baby Evan.

I'm so excited because two weeks from today my sister Steph is coming to visit. YAY! I can't wait. She's bringing her adorable little girl Ingrid who is a little over a year (right???). I wish Sophie could come too, her 3? year old but she doesn't fly free anymore. Anyway I'm way excited but also have tons to do to make my house "perfect". JK But I do want it to look nice. I've been sick forever it seems like with a cold/earache...so I'm finally starting to feel better. Because I've been sick I haven't gotten my house as completely moved in as I wanted- aka hanging up pictures, etc. So I have two weeks...

In other news, I got the EASIEST recipe for pumpkin chip cookies from a ward friend- I hope it's okay to share it:

1 spice cake mix

1 can pumpkin (15 oz)

mix together and add choc chips

Bake 350 for 10 minutes-- no eggs or anything... so easy and delish!

Actually I've been doing more cooking recently- I made a delicious chicken pot pie recipe from my sister- the pie crust actually turned out- aside from not looking pretty- but it was functional. I also made rolls- things are looking up in the cooking dept. Not that I think I'm amazing, but I get excited when things actually turn out...

I have NOT been walking at all because I've been sick. That's not like me and I'm sad about it. I am going tomorrow though -I really need to get out of the house.

Anyway, James is very busy with school and with working part time. He's already exhausted and I don't think it's helped him to have me not feeling well. I'm glad I don't have his schedule. I really need to thank him more that he works so hard and supports my staying home with Evan. I'm so grateful I get to be with Evan so much and take care of him. And I'm so glad he's such a happy baby.

I've been doing lots of reading- I can't put down the Shadow Series books by Margaret Haddix- they are so good. They are kind of like 1984, about an evil government that outlaws third children...I'm addicted and I'm sad because I'm almost done with them. what will I do when I'm finished???

Anyway, time for bed. Goodnight.

Creepy old guy on motorcycle

2008-09-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took James his lunch that he forgot. He drove me by his new work where he'll do immigration-related part-time work. We also drove by a place where we needed to do a quick errand- so I dropped James off and I waited in the parking lot with Evan. Our AC was not working well at all and it was hot and humid, so that was bad. Then some guy came over and told me this was a used car parking lot so I had to leave- so I tried to call James to tell him that I moved to a different spot. But he didn't answer. So I tried to drive around so he could find me and I got to a spot where I was trying to turn around. Some old guy on a motorcycle was behind me, so I signaled hoping he'd pass me so I could turn around. But he pulled up right next to my car. I had my windows down because of the bad AC and he stopped and I thought he was going to ask if I was lost. But he said, "I'll buy you lunch." I just said, "I'm trying to turn around." And he said, "Well you still look nice." I said, "Thanks." He drove off. Eeeeew! I don't even know why I said thanks. I should have said- get away from me freak, my husband is just around the corner. He must have not even seen the car seat in the back. Creepy old guy. Anyway, James found me a minute later. When I told James about it, he was like, "Isn't that kind of flattering that he told you you look nice?" I said, "No! It's not." I don't want to look nice to creepy old guys. So, aside from being hot and creeped out, it was just a fine lunch.

Popcorn

2008-08-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

It's 6 am and I'm feeding baby Evan and I'm coughing and coughing and James is sleeping in the other room. I'm desperate for cough syrup so I call out to James:
"Help James, can you get me some cough syrup?"
James, sleepy and completely oblivious to my endless coughing says, "What? What do you need? Some popcorn?"

Yes, popcorn is just what the dr. ordered for coughing.

Baby Evan and Me

2008-08-28T17:52:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of baby Evan and me at the Field of Dreams( we went a few weeks ago) I was so excited to go there- I've wanted to go there ever since I saw the movie. The third picture with the flowers is in Nauvoo. We had a great summer. Baby Evan is growing so fast. He's almost five months old now and now that we are in our new place he officially has his own room. I bought him a $20 crib at goodwill. Best purchase ever. He is sleeping better. I'll post pictures of his room and the new place soon. I definitely miss the old place and neighbors there (in case you missed my last few posts...) but we like it here as well. We have some beautiful places to walk not far from our apartment. We hung out at the pool earlier this week, enjoyed seeing friends again at church and went with some friends to see Shawn Johnson's welcome home party- the olympic gymnast from West Des Moines. James started school this week- where did the summer go? It wasn't too bad this week-getting used to James being back in school and with homework- until I came down with a cold. It's not fun being sick- Mostly I just don't want Evan to get it. Anyway I feel mostly moved in. It was exhausting to move so much this summer and I'm really glad to finally be in a place where we can feel a little more permanent. Is anyone else sad that the Olympics are over? I loved watching them and am going through withdrawals! Like I mentioned earlier, Shawn Johnson is from West Des Moines and it was fun to watch "Iowa's Golden Girl". Of course there's always the Democratic Convention which is so exciting to watch (not really) James was really sweet and got me some books at the library to read. I guess I'll go do that now. More on the new place later.

I'll sure miss Iowa Falls

2008-08-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

We're moving on Friday and I'm WAY sad. But I am sooooooooooo glad we came up here- the best decision ever. I am not looking forward to the actual move but I'd do it all again, even for such a short time. We've had a great time recently:

We went camping at Beeds Lake north of I.F. -gorgeous lake, we took Baby Evan out on a paddle boat!
We went tubing on the Iowa River- thanks to the Bernards for babysitting
Speaking of the Bernards (ward friends and James' boss) we babysat for them- way fun- we caught frogs and cruised around their huge property in the ranger (like a golf cart)
We got home from the Bernards and a huge frog was sitting in our driveway, so I caught it and took it over to them
Playing in the baby pool with Karin and her 1 year old daughter Selena (mormon neighbor)
Karin made us DELICIOUS Peruvian food for dinner and we talked and watched the olympics
spent more time visiting Wilma (80 year old neighbor)
Road trip to Nauvoo for the Nauvoo pageant, went to the Field of Dreams- I've wanted to go there for a long time! Drove through Cedar Rapids and saw the tragic flood devastation, went to an awesome Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque- way fun museum-drove through Amish areas and went into cute Amish stores

Okay, okay, okay, what do I have to complain about? It has been an AWESOME summer. We've made the best memories and some great friends. I really never expected to get to know the neighbors with us being here such a short time. I was just excited about living in such a beautiful place and having my walks, etc. But now the neighbors are one of the biggest things I'll miss. I can run down to Wilmas anytime to borrow flour or have Evan visit or just chat. I've learned so much from her- she is so positive about life even though she lost her husband to cancer and only has one son who lives far away. She said she could go live near her son but he has a family and is happy and she doesn't expect him to make her happy- she just lives her own life. We've had some great religious discussions- she's asked about polygamy and hard subjects but it's all been really friendly- and a good experience for me.

Karin next door has had major challenges. She had cancer while she was pregnant with her daughter and her intestines were full of poisons that were hurting the baby so they were forced to take the baby by c-section at 27 weeks. After 4 months in the hospital her daughter was released from the hospital. She went through chemotherapy and now mother and daughter are doing very well. But I've thought I had a bad labor- I can't imagine how hard that must have been. It's a miracle her daughter survived.

You learn from everyone you meet and I'm so glad I got to make new friends if even for a short time. And I live close enough that maybe I can stop by and visit every once in a while. So anyway, I'll post pictures later but right now I just want to sum up AGAIN some of the things I'll miss. And say how GRATEFUL I am for the great experiences I've had. When James first got this job I thought it would be such a HARD summer- I thought I'd never see him with him commuting so much- and with him going to Mexico right off I really worried it would be a long summer. He first mentioned moving up here and I IMMEDIATELY turned it down- I thought it would be pointless to move for such a short time- but then he drove me up to see his work and I was in love right away. And you know the rest of the story. So here's the list:

My Walks- River Road over to Weaver's Cove or over the swinging bridge to Foster Park or the LONG WALKS either to the Bernards or the big loop down Siloam Road (let's just say I had several different routes)
stopping at parks on my walks to read by the river-I did so much reading up here
bike rides
My cute apartment- I love the front door back door house feel, the no coin laundry (I'll miss that SO MUCH), the GARAGE- never having to haul the stroller up the stairs, just throw it in the garage- I'll miss that!
Tennis at Assembly Park and walking across the swinging bridge to get there
lifting the stroller all by myself over the posts to cross the swinging bridge without James-they have these posts to keep wide things like vehicles from going over the bridge- and it keeps the stroller out too- so I got tough lifting it!
the town shutting down at 9 pm except Walmart- 11 pm wahoo-
getting pulled over a block from my house- this is a little secret James doesn't know about- I didn't get a ticket!
cute little shops and trying out new places to eat- hated the Pizza Ranch buffet but loved their take-out, loved Porters on Main and the Princess Cafe...
the Library- walking there to read to Evan- checking out movies, and yes, racking up late fines even for such a short time here
beautiful drives with James
such a scenic place- river, trees and cornfields- the best combination
scrapbooking by my big window or doing embroidery
Just feeling like we were away from big cities and fast paced life
THE fact that I got to live out in the country in Iowa- my dream- even if it sounds crazy to some people- but I never thought I'd get to live in rural Iowa

Now for the things I won't miss, so I'll feel better:

House issues- the bottom plugs on each outlet don't work
no blinds in the second bedroom
hate the living room carpet-shows every little thing
no garbage disposal or dishwasher- can't WAIT to have a dishwasher
I love the back door but I hate how we never come in the front door- we never use it and neither do neighbors, so everyone enters in the laundry room-I wish they'd enter in the front but it's just not practical to go all the way around the house when we all park in back

Most the house issues we could complain about and fix but we just didnt' think it was worth it- we have a really nice landlord. But anyway, just had to be negative so I'd realize it's okay to move. Now for what I'm looking forward to in Des Moines:

We have a great apartment in Des Moines
half the ward will be living there it seems- okay, this could be good could be bad-jk- we just feel sorry for our neighbors!
friends close by, especially since James'll be so busy- really good for winter to have friends near
Beautiful walking trail, park-ish place behind our apartment-fun trail to get to it
all the awesome walking trails in Des Moines
playgroup again
dishwasher, bigger apartment even than here
feeling more permanent and able to really unpack and get settled

I'm sure there's lots more to look forward to. So pictures later but it's really late and I'm tired. James' family will be in town Tuesday so we'll be busy with them and moving, so a busy week ahead. Long enough post?????

Check out our jamesandcassie blog for a WAY CUTE video of Evan laughing!

2008-07-31T20:21:00.001-07:00

Borrow sugar from a neighbor-who knows what you'll learn about them

2008-07-31T20:02:00.000-07:00

So the neighbors right next to us in our fourplex are a Peruvian lady, her husband and 1 year old baby. I have been intimidated to get to know her because I wasn't sure how well she spoke English-terrible excuse I know. I sometimes would see them on the porch and she wouldn't seem friendly- but she's probably just shy... anyway, we've spoken only a few times, saying hi when we're both on the porch, and sometimes James has spoken Spanish to her. And we've seen her go to church every Sunday- her husband doesn't go but she does, and we've seen her on the porch reading the Bible. Well, on Sunday I ran out of sugar and I needed it desperately for my dessert- I had to have dessert of course. So she was on the porch reading the Bible and James encouraged me to borrow sugar. For some reason I was so scared to- scared she wouldn't understand me. But hello, she lives in America so obviously she must know some English. Well, she does and she was very nice and gave me the sugar. Finally, yesterday I got more sugar and made cookies, (yes, another dessert) and I knocked on her door to give her some sugar back and some cookies. Well, she was friendly and invited me in. James came home from work about then and came in with too. Okay, to make this very long story short- James was talking to her in Spanish- but we now know she does speak English- but James likes to talk Spanish with her- so he asked her why she came to Iowa, and she said she had an uncle in Hampton. Then James said that our church has a branch in Hampton and she said, "What church?" He told her and she said, "That's my church." She's a mormon! This all happened in Spanish, so James turned to me and told me this and I tried not to look shocked, but I was.
Here we move to this hokey town in Iowa and end up next door neighbors to a mormon- there are no mormons in Iowa Falls- we go 40 minutes to church- there's one less active mormon somewhere in Iowa Falls but that's it. Isn't that crazy? And she goes to the Spanish branch so no one in our ward knew we lived next to her. It's such a small world. So now I feel terrible that I didn't get to know her sooner. I shouldn't have let the language issue and judgment that she wasn't friendly stop me... I'm shy so I probably look unfriendly sometimes- it's so easy to decide we don't have anything in common with someone, but come to find out, we almost always have something in common since it is such a small world. So let this be a lesson, get to know your neighbors- borrow sugar or whatever it takes to get in the door and find out their story!

We've already made friends with Wilma, an older widow downstairs. She's really nice. She loves baby Evan and she's come up and visited and we've visited her. Tonight we had her over for dinner and it was lots of fun. She grew up on a farm right around here and she's a Lutheran who worked for a time selling bibles. So she talked to us a lot about religion. She showed us her family bible. It is so cool. It has pictures of all the U.S. Presidents, with stories of them and the bible. And it has facts about the bible, family history pages, etc. The coolest Bible I've ever seen! She knows we're mormons and (she also didn't know that Karin upstairs was a mormon!) she asked us some hard questions- we were showing her pictures of our wedding and she started asking about the Temple, and how she's heard some people can't get married there. James did a good job answering- missionaries have practice- and she was very nice and all but it was a good reminder of how we need to be prepared to answer these types of questions. She told us about her church and it was a great conversation. She said she loves to hear about lots of churches and she's very open to how different they are, but she has a hard time with people who think their church is the only right one. Well, that's kind of what we believe in our church- that it is the true church- of course we didn't say that to her- but according to her that's offensive-she thinks all churches have good points- which they do- I'm just saying it was interesting to talk to her and a good experience.
We are having some great experiences out here- getting to know interesting and very nice people. I love it.

Random note- we watched an excellent movie- Clue, the movie- it's really fun-so rent it (it's from the 80's I think).

More Iowa pics

2008-07-27T16:35:00.000-07:00

We see views like this going to James' work, to church and pretty much anywhere just outside town-and I never get bored with it- I love it!

Our little fam on the "Scenic Empress" boatride

The swinging bridge
It sways when you go across it and I was so afraid to take Evan across at first but now after crossing it tons I'm convinced it is safe!

The falls/dam

Our "summer home" in Iowa Falls

2008-07-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

the view of the Iowa river as you come down the hill from our house

The Swinging Bridge-on the other side is a fun park where we play tennis

My favorite walk down River road

Our bedroom-it may look small to you but it's huge to us compared to our old apartment!

"Evan's office" (it would be Evan's room but he's still in our room so it's his office)

The back of the fourplex-we live in the top right-there are my plants that have survived several transplants!

The front of our four-plex-we live in the top left

The laundry room-this is what you walk into if you come in from the back porch
I love my laundry room-I can do laundry without needing quarters-love it!

I love the little hallway between the bedrooms and bath
-this place has a more house-like feel to it- I think it's partly because we have a front and back door and garage

Iowa falls is called the scenic city and it definitely is. Here are some things we've done since we've been here:
-beautiful 90 minute boat ride on the Iowa River on the "Scenic Empress"
-river road which is a block down the hill from our house- it's a scenic drive and I love walking it
-so many scenic walks- I've done a few really long walks and I have my "usual" river walk which is down river road to Weaver's Cove- boat dock and picnic area- where I stop and read and sometimes feed Evan- I sometimes keep going from there and go up the rolling hills where I get to beautiful corn fields...
-I love the grocery story Fareway-it has a country feel to it- you have to go up to the meat area and ask the butchers for your meat- you can't just buy it packaged- they package it right in front of you- it feels like Europe and I love how unique it is
-we found a beautiful hidden bridge kind of near the public pool that would be easy to miss- and we walked across it and eventually ended up on a street where there were 99 stairs going down to the dam- these are little places that you could easily miss but we were so excited to find them. So I carried Evan down the stairs, surrounded by gorgeous green trees, and James took the stroller and we got to a cool view of the dam- then James asked some fishers how to get to the other side of the dam and they told us about a park- so we drove to a park that had more cool stairs down to the other side of the dam
-lots of beautiful parks- Foster Park- right off the river with benches where I go read sometimes -Assembly Park- the tennis park across from the swinging bridge
-Fitz Riverbend Park- this is the beautiful view right down from our place-more benches where I stop and read
-Caulkin Nature Area- this has some gorgeous forest trails to walk in
-The Round barn
-The Book Cellar- this is a cute tiny tiny bookstore where you can go get delicious italian sodas-we met there for lunch one day
-cute little tea shop-and antique stores
-Porter's on Main- James was taken here when he was first hired for his job- great steaks and meats
-There is a Walmart and McDonalds, so we are "civilized" -McDonald's is open 24 hours Friday and Saturday- but sadly no redbox!
Walmart closes at 11 pm and is NOT a superwalmart-what will we do???
-the cute little movie theatre- we went and saw Batman- and took Baby Evan- he slept through all of it- and it was loud!
-I've gone on some gorgeous bike rides!
-The public pool- I was surprised that such a small town had such a fun pool- it has an ocean entry and shallow play area for kids and 2 waterslides- it's where we took Evan swimming for the first time-he didn't love it but he didn't cry very much and almost looked happy!
-we went to the next town Ackley for the Sauerkraut Festival
-we went to Hampton, not too far away, for the County Fair and saw a derby with figure 8 racing -Church in Story City-40 min. drive through country -I love the drive because we're always in a rush to get in the car-so it gives us time in the car to get calm and ready for church

-we got a tour of the Bernards' huge awesome property (James' boss/friends)-they have so much land to explore

Future plans:
drive east to Waterloo where some Amish settlements are, maybe stop at the Waterloo Farmers' Market, then head further east to the Field of Dreams!
-Nauvoo Pageant!-I spent a semester in Nauvoo but never got to see the pageant- I can't wait!

Anyone want to come visit??? Please do! It's a blast and we're always discovering more things to do! Our new favorite hobby is discovering trails, parks, etc...I love it-I'm so glad we've gotten to come live here, even if for a short time-it's been so fun! I've seen James more and he comes home for lunch lots too! I'll be sad to leave but Des Moines has lots of fun stuff too- we'll be back there mid August.

Help, I'm so far behind! (Iowa Falls and Utah trip)

2008-07-21T11:50:00.000-07:00

My parents with Evan

James' mom with Evan
below-Carter (nephew) loved Evan

Evan with Grant (my nephew)

Sophie (niece) reading to Evan

Katelyn and Carter (niece and nephew)loved Evan and gave him tons of attention (he loved them too- just doesn't look like it here!)

Julie (sis)pulled the kids in the bike trailer
my friend Jessica with her son Nathan Jr and Evan)

My sisters Melanie and Steph- walk to Bountiful Temple

Grant and Evan in bike trailer- they loved the bike ride with my sister Julie

Evan and Ethan (My friend Cindy's baby- 20 days apart!)

My dad with baby Evan

What do you do when you have so much to blog about you don't know where to start??? I guess I'll just do my best. We moved around June 15th up to beautiful Iowa Falls and I got to spend a week and a half in our new place in Iowa Falls before running off to Utah. It was a great week and a half. The move itself was an absolute pain. We had no help moving in to our place in Iowa Falls so the two of us moved every lick of furniture in ourself- I felt tough (and dead!). We had a blast that first week and a half getting to know Iowa Falls. It's a sleepy town but we love it. I discovered the most beautiful river walk by my house. One day I took a 3 hour walk - over 5 miles because I just kept wanting to see "what was around the bend" because the scenery was so beautiful. I stopped at a house that had a sign saying "Honey for sale" and met a nice older couple who had beehives and delicious honey. The woman was so kind and let me feed Evan on her couch. James and I found a park to play tennis at- but the best thing about it is that we get to walk across a cool swinging bridge to get to the park. We love the Iowa River just down the hill from our place. We went to church at the Story City Branch- the smallest building I've been to in the U.S.- tiny Relief Society but very nice people.

Then James all the sudden had another trip to Mexico the day before I went to Utah- so I took him to the airport in Des Moines and then did stuff in Des Moines that day and flew to Utah the next morning. I went shopping and took Evan and me out to dinner at Red Robin (yum!) and then went to a party with friends in the ward and stayed the night at friends. Then Evan and I flew to Utah. Evan did pretty well on the flight- I was hoping I wouldn't have to feed him on the plane but I did. It was okay though.

So then I went to Utah for almost three weeks. It was so fun to see family and especially to have family get to meet baby Evan! I loved seeing my family interact with him and see his little cousins love him. The trip was exhausting because I changed locations 11 times! So about every two days or so I moved and stayed with someone else. That was hard with a baby! But I enjoyed staying with each sister and parents and in-laws. (Although I think next time I might do things differently and stay less places!) Anyway, here's a quick summary of some stuff we did:

-I started out the first day going to a kind-of-reunion at Golden Corral seeing returned missionary cousins and other extended family

-then I stayed with my sister Melanie and we went swimming and did lots of sewing, went to a cute Winder Dairy store, her kids loved Evan and he kept smiling at them!

- went to my mom's and saw Glenn Beck speak at BYU

-my sister Julies- went on an awesome bike ride- she pulled both Grant and Evan in a bike trailer- she did all the hard work but it was fun! More sewing, cooking

- James flew in for the 4th of July weekend and we spent time with his family- had a blast playing tennis on the Wii, Provo Parade, James hiked Timp with his brothers- we blessed Baby and Evan and James' brother's son Tanner in his parents ward- a double baby blessing!

-Minert family Javelin Jubilee- this is where my family gets together once a year and throws the javelin- weird sounding I know, but fun!

-Family reunion in Brigham City- we got to stay in a hotel and eat yummy food at Maddoxx and celebrate my grandparents' 60 th anniversary

-James was supposed to fly back to Utah but the flight was overbooked so they offered him a free hotel room and 400 dollar flight credit to leave the next day- so we spent a night in Salt Lake at a hotel - that was a blast- swimming, eating (with airport food money)

-a night at my friend Cindy's- we scrapbooked til 3 am and took cute pictures of Evan and Ethan- they are only 3 weeks apart! Way cute pictures! She was so sweet to buy cute matching outfits for them- swimming too

-my sister Steph's- we went shopping to a cute clothes store and a darling store with vinyl letters and things- went to a Farmers' market, watched movies, took a strenuous walk to the Bountiful temple! (hard hills!), had a pizza party with $5 Little Caesars pizza ( I miss that in Iowa)

-IKEA trip with sisters- fun lunch and I bought beautiful lavender dishes that somehow made it home okay!

- back to moms to sew- my mom made me a nursing cape that I love! It saved me on the way home on the plane- we went to Springville and shopped and had ice cream, did lots of clothes shopping, watched State Fair and other movies, lots of other fun stuff and talking

-my friend Jessica came and visited and met Evan! And I got to see how big and cute Nathan Jr. is!

I'm sure I've forgotten tons. Sorry, but thanks for all the fun everyone and for letting me stay with you! This probably doesn't make sense to anyone else, but it's at least my attempt to try to remember everything I did.

Whew- maybe pictures will be more interesting than my attempt to sum things up!

Moving!

2008-06-11T06:28:00.000-07:00

This will probably come as a surprise to most of you- but we are moving this weekend to Iowa Falls- almost an hour and a half northeast of Des Moines. James has been working up there and because of expensive gas prices and the fact that we hardly see each other, we've decided this is the best decision for us. We found someone who will rent to us for 2 months and then we'll be back in Des Moines, moving into our new apartment there as planned. Yah, the moving will be a pain but it'll be worth it. I'll be in Utah for part of the time, but it;ll be nice for James to not have to do all that driving just to come to an empty apartment.
In other news, James and I and Evan ran a 5 k on Saturday! I went VERY slow but my goal was just to do it and to not stop or walk at all and I accomplished that goal. It was neat for me because at the end of the race (which started and ended at the botanical center) I looked and saw the Hospital across the river. Cheezy as it may sound, to me it was special to look across and remember how just over 2 months ago I was in the hospital thinking I'd never be able to get up and walk around without pain again. And here I was finishing a 3 mile run. It was a good feeling and humbling to realize how amazing our bodies can be when they heal. I'm so grateful I have healed so well from my c-section and that I'm not riding carts through Walmart like I was at first!
We're excited to move to Iowa Falls. It's a really small town with about 3 stores but it's out in the beautiful Iowa countryside. It has a beautiful river (hopefully not flooding like crazy) and lots of beautiful places for Evan and me to walk. It'll be kind of like a country vacation- that is, if I can get everything moved out in time!

Don't worry-it's just a tornado siren

2008-06-05T20:57:00.001-07:00

Probably I should find out where to go in case of a tornado so that when the tornado siren goes off I know where to go. Always a good idea. And especially when the husband isn't home (again) But no worries, the siren only went off for a few minutes and then it stopped. Crazy! James called and I was like, "Um, the siren's going off, am I supposed to be going to a shelter or something???" He was like, "Go down to the hall basement." Genius. He said, "Go knock on our neighbors door downstairs. She's been through this she'll know what to do." I was like, "yah, great time to be bonding with the neighbors that I hardly know." I was watching the news and the warning went away.

It's funny, I was at Walmart like an hour ago and I thought, "hey this is nice. there aren't a million people here like usual. " There was hardly a line. Probably cuz they are smarter than me. Anyway, it's so exciting living in the midwest- there is tons of rain and lightning and thunder right now. I just went out onto the porch for like 2 seconds to move my plants- which the weather is destroying- and I got drenched. See, I was at Walmart buying stakes for my tomato because it blew over last night and I don't want it to die. So I got it staked just in time for the sirens...whew, don't want that tomato dying in the tornado... Now I'm just rambling. Probably because James won't be home until midnight. Yes, he's driving home from some place where he had an appointment 1 1/2 hours away. Great night to be driving James. Here are some pictures of my beautiful porch with my plants. I got the porch furniture on craigslist. But since the pictures were taken one of my hanging plants has died. Sadly. It was already pretty much dead but last night the wind finished it off. So tonight I've moved all my plants against the house so the crazy wind and rain doesn't kill the rest of them. The two black pots on the left are my squash and tomato. I'm so excited about them- aside from the wind they are doing really well. I can't wait til they produce fruit!
I also can't wait til James comes home. Holy cow that was REALLY LOUD thunder. Ahhhh! I know, I know, I'm such a baby....

What a good little shopper.....sometimes

2008-06-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

Baby Evan was SO CUTE tonite at Walmart. He had just been fed so for the first half of the store he just smiled and smiled at me! There's nothing cuter than driving a cart through the store and having a Happy little guy smiling back at you. I look like a total dork because I get so excited at his smiles and I talk to him and smile back- people probably think, 'what is she doin???' Oh well... anyway, then baby Evan got more serious for a few minutes and then he closed his eyes and went to sleep. There was no crying or grumpiness- he just quietly drifted off to sleep. It was so sweet!

Okay okay, I admit it's not usually that great- he does have a bad reputation at a little quilt shop. I went there 2 days in a row to look at fabric and both days Evan got a little fussy. Well, the second day the lady remembered us! She said, "He must not like quilting, He was unhappy yesterday and today." Darn- his perfect record ruined! But it sure is fun when he's cute at the store.

First Babysitting Adventure

2008-06-03T09:45:00.001-07:00

Last Friday night we left Evan for the first time- with Sister Gale, our ward member and family friend. I knew he'd be fine with her, since she's a mom and grandma (not like a 12 year old babysitting for the first time!)but still it was the first time leaving him so it was hard! So, things were crazy and the date almost didn't happen. James and I planned on going to see Indiana Jones with some friends. Well, I was running behind schedule and so was James- James was coming from work an hour away and he got off late because he had so much to do. So he was going to try to meet me at the theatre. In the meantime, I went to Sis. Gales and when I got there I realized I'd left the bottle of milk in the fridge at home. I knew I'd do that! So I left Evan with her and had to go home and get it. So, we realized we were too late to make it to the movie so we had to call our friends and they refunded our tickets that they'd picked up, so we didn't go to the movie with them. We were sad, but we did get to go to a later showing. James met me at home and we got the milk and went back to Sis. Gales. Evan was crying but we got him calm and left him and went to the later movie. Neither of us had had dinner so we stuffed down Wendy's JBC's fast and barely made it! What an adventure! But it was fun and at least we did get to go to the movie! And Evan was pretty good for Sis. Gale. She's so good with him! She said he could come back anytime. He drank almost his whole bottle- he's a pig! But anyway, things worked out and we got our date!

A great dinner and homecoming

2008-06-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

It's 7:30 pm and James comes in the door after a long day of work and what does he find? A beautiful wife, calm baby, spotless house and the aroma of a delicious meal filling the apartment? Ha- ya right. This is the lovely site that greeted James last night. What the pictures don't show is that I was covered in flour frantically trying to roll out the rolls I was baking. And I took the pictures after I'd done a lot of the clean-up! We ate dinner after 8:00. I know my husband has to be wondering why I can't get a meal cooked by even 7:30 when I'm home all day. I guess all I can say is I did my best- some days things just don't go like we want. I'm still learning how to make rolls and when I try, the house gets destroyed! I don't have enough counter space to roll them out- I can't wait for a bigger kitchen! And when we finally sat down to dinner, was it the peaceful, quiet dinner I hoped for? Nope, it was time for Evan to eat too and he didn't want to wait. And were the rolls "just like mom?" No- they wouldn't rise, they didn't have enough flour and didn't cook right. I was on the phone a million times with my mom... Oh the joys of homemaking- it's not as easy as it looks!

Baby Evan's New Toy

2008-05-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

I bought Evan this little seat- it has toys that hang above and it vibrates. One of the toys is a cow that plays "Old McDonald" when you pull it. I had a hard time putting this together and James was gone in Mexico so I took it back to HyVee where I got it (my favorite grocery store) and they put it together for me! I love that store! Anyway, sometimes I hear the rattle toy, like Evan is playing with it-but when I watch him it never happens so I don't know if he means to hit it or not- but he does seem to watch the toys a lot! It's so cute- I can't wait til he starts playing with toys- but I don't want him to grow up too fast!

I love thunderstorms???

2008-05-23T01:50:00.000-07:00

I have been dying for a good thunderstorm. But now I think it's kind of funny/ironic that the first good thunderstorm of the summer decides to come tonight- my first night with James away. It's almost 4 am and I woke up to really loud thunder and I have to admit it scared me! I have almost every light in the house on and the chain on the door but it's kind of spooky. That's what I get for wishing for a good storm-be careful what you wish for... okay now I'm just scaring myself more. It is kind of cute at least that baby Evan just fell asleep on my lap after feeding. James hurry home!
Any advice/words of inspiration on how to survive without a hubby?

And you thought Iowa didn't have beaches

2008-05-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from a beautiful walk James and I took last week when we actually got to spend some time together. I love all the beautiful places to walk here in Iowa. This is a gorgeous 3 mile trail around a beautiful lake. It is so green out here right now I love it!

Husband???

2008-05-21T22:56:00.001-07:00

It's 1 am and James is still at work. He is supposedly leaving soon but he has at least an hour drive home. Then at 4:30 am he needs to go to the airport to fly to Mexico for two days. The Mexico trip just came up today- he called me around 3 or so to tell me they wanted him to go. At that time I had no idea he'd be at work til this late and leaving so early. He's going to be completely exhausted. So I just got back from the grocery store where I was picking up some travel stuff for him- I've been packing for him since he really won't have time. And I just ironed his clothes- this must be real love- ironing your husband's shirts at 1 in the morning preparing him for a trip when you have seen him a total of a few hours the entire week.

I love my baby boy!

2008-05-21T14:07:00.000-07:00

This is kind of a tough adjustment week for me since James started his summer job and has been gone a lot- and will be out of town this weekend. So I've been especially grateful for my baby Evan today-I love him so much and I'm so glad I get so much time to play with him. It's really lonely to have a busy husband- but this has been a good time for me to bond with baby Evan. Today we had lots of fun- we played on the swings at playgroup and I took him on a walk where I held him in my arms (we didn't have the stroller). I gave him a bath and he really had fun except when I took him out and he was cold! I read him a really cute Elmo book- with sounds too- and he's just so precious- I love every smile and I love holding him. I do get frustrated sometimes when he cries and I don't know why- but he's usually pretty easy to calm down. Anyway, I can't explain it but being a mommy is so special. I mean, I've got to be so lucky- my full-time job is taking care of the cutest little boy-and it's really pretty easy-I just keep him fed and change his diaper- and I get to play with him and love him. Okay, I know it's really not that easy- and the really hard part of the job is keeping the house clean, making dinner, paying bills, etc. But the point is, I'm just filled with so much love for my baby boy. I feel like it grows stronger everyday, as does our bond together. I don't mean to oversimplify the job, because it really is tough and there's no sleep sometimes and scrubbing out endless stains and doing so much laundry- but I just love the little moments when he smiles or I just sit and hold him-I know these are the moments I should treasure. It's hard to make it sound like I did a lot during the day sometimes, but it's because I may have spent half an hour just holding baby Evan and reading to him or playing with him- it's hard to make this sound like a lot, but it means a lot to me. I know my life won't be this way for too long- I'll never again have just one tiny little baby- with the next baby I'll have two kids and I'm sure my house won't be as quiet- so I really want to be grateful for each day with him and enjoy it- because I know he'll grow up way too fast. I love my little boy!

Homemaking is HARD WORK!

2008-05-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day, but wow, it was busy and I am beat! Let me back up. The whole "I can't wait for James' break" idea- yah that lasted about a minute. I thought he'd have a few days to relax and play but he ended up getting a job really fast. That's really good news but I still felt a little jipped on the whole break thing. Oh well, it's much better that he has a job clerking and he really likes it. Anyway, today was supposedly the first day of our "normal" life- you know, where rather than James studying all day and night, he actually has a job and comes home and is actually home... Well, while he was gone... I overworked myself. It started with one goal- to organize the bedroom- then that led to doing laundry. Then I went on our daily walk- I love our walks- it ended up being a very long walk-one that included errands like picking up milk and dropping off James' ties at the dry cleaners. Then we came home and did more laundry and I fed him as well. Then I got the mail and got a check that I wanted to deposit, so I put Evan in the stroller and we ran off to the bank to get there before 5. Evan's such a good sport- he just goes with me everywhere. We came home and I wanted to get dinner in and finish the laundry and fit in feeding Evan again- and fold laundry and ahhh- in the end the organization of the bedroom- the original goal- was history. It really was a good day- I feel like I did lots of things that needed to be done-and I did have dinner in the oven when James came home- but man, it just reminded me that my job is hard work! I am completely exhausted- and I still have some laundry to fold- but running a household- you can just run from project to project and never stop. It's actually good I have to stop and feed Evan because it forces me to sit down because otherwise sometimes I just go and go and go... And what's also frustrating is that I'm so tired but when James comes home he can't see how hard I've been working- I mean, he can tell I've done some laundry and stuff but it doesn't sound like much when I try to explain it. But anyway, I put in my hours today and I deserve a raise!

A Special Moment

2008-05-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

Iwas trying to put Evan in his carseat today and I was frustrated because I couldn't get the straps to buckle. I was concentrating really hard on trying to buckle it, when I looked up for a second and what did I find- Evan was giving me the HUGEST smile ever! It was the cutest thing. Here I was all focused and he just was smiling away. And he was looking right at me. I can't explain it but it just melted my heart into pieces. I wish I had a picture. I'm still so sad because the pictures don't capture his smiles. Here are a few pictures but they just don't do it justice. You just have to be here. I seriously spend tons of time each day with the camera, saying, "Smile, smile," trying to get the perfect picture. And he won't do it until I don't have the camera! Anyway, it was one of those moments I'll remember forever. I have a little baby Evan calendar where I write down things we do together and today I'll make sure and record this moment- these are the moments you can't create or buy or find anywhere else- they just happen right in the middle of your regular day- and I love them!

Oh, and the picture of him on his tummy is supposed to show how strong his neck is- he can lift his head up!

Countdown to James' last final!

2008-05-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

I can't wait til James is done-just one more final on Thursday- wahoo! I can't wait til Thursday at noon. I have big plans for his summer break:
-plant our "porch garden" (I want to try to grow a tomato and squash in pots on our porch- we'll see if they grow!)
-dejunk our closets
-stain headboard
-reorganize our filing system
-dejunk our whole house to get ready to move
-go on lots of walks
-go garage sale-ing (spelling?) for apartment furniture and good deals

And James thinks he'll have a break after finals :) :)

I love being a mommy!

2008-05-12T19:56:00.000-07:00

Today baby Evan has been ESPECIALLY cute, I have to say. He's been so happy- granted, he had his grumpy moments, but there was a lot of time where he was just calm and smiling and being so much fun. I can't figure out how to do videos yet, so as soon as James is done with finals- Thursday- wahoo!- we'll definitely post some videos because they are so cute. But at the same time, we just can't seem to capture on camera how happy he is. He'll be smiling so big and then we grab the camera, and it's like he knows he's on camera and he stops. It's so maddening! But anyway, I just wanted to say there is nothing as special as having him smile at me. I can't even explain it. I feel like today was very special- like we bonded more- as we just had quiet moments where he would look at me and smile. It makes me love being a mommy so much. There's nothing as special as this. I'm so grateful that I'm able to be home with him- it doesn't make things easy in terms of finances and even some lonely times, but it is so worth it. I'm grateful to have a husband who supports me being home with him. So, since it was Mother's Day yesterday, I'll put a list of things I love about being a mommy:
-baby Evan's smiles
-reading to and singing to baby Evan
-taking baby Evan on walks
-rocking him to sleep
-feeding him-even though this can be painful and hard it is still a bonding time where I feel like he really needs me and I am the only one who can feed him (aside from bottles, but it is special to know I am the provider of his food)
-taking him places with me- he's my little pal- and I love other people commenting on how cute he is!
-when he makes cute little happy coo-ing sounds
-putting him in cute little outfits

So, I'm really tired right now and I hope this makes sense, but basically, I'm so glad to be a mom. I just love it. I promise more pictures soon but I've got to get some sleep now before he wakes up again!

May is my favorite month

2008-05-08T20:30:00.001-07:00

Don't you just love the month of May? Here are a few reasons I love it:
My birthday
Tulips and beautiful flowers
It's not way hot yet but it's warm and perfect for walks, etc.
School gets out for James

Today James took his second 4 hour final. When it was done he was able to take a break since his mind was exhausted. So we took a fun little hike down by one of our favorite trails. It was gorgeous. Usually we stay on the nice, paved walking trail but this time we decided to verge off onto the dirt trails. I loved it! It's so exciting to see everything turning green. This was kind of unplanned, so I was hiking in my sandals and James was carrying Evan (we really need a baby backpack), but sometimes spontaneous moments like this are the best memories. I'm so glad we got to go. What is it about being outside that just rejuvenates???
Tonite I just booked my plane ticket back to Utah next month. I'm so excited to take baby Evan to see family. Everyone better spoil him like crazy!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-05-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

My new hanging plant

I had a great birthday. I woke up in the morning to a house decorated with streamers and balloons! James said he wanted me to feel like it was my birthday all day even though he'd have to study through most of it. But we got to spend the morning together- he took me out to IHOP- I had delicious crepes. Then I spent the afternoon with baby Evan-we had lots of fun-we went to a garden shop. Then we took a walk down to HyVee (my favorite grocery store) and went to their garden shop. Then we went inside and bought stuff for my birthday dinner and cake. I ended up buying so much that I barely fit it in the stroller to walk home- I had to get very creative. So then I had a little cooking fest- I made manicotti for the first time. It was so fun to make- I made the hugest mess in the kitchen and just had a blast- I haven't tried to cook anything new for a long time. Stuffing the noodles was the hardest part- some of them tore a little but in the end, I have to brag- I make a mean manicotti! I also made my birthday cake and I wanted to make a cool frosting- but that didn't turn out quite as well- I can't frost cakes- they just look like a drippy mess. And it only got worse when I wrote happy b-day with red frosting on top- so I told Evan he'd be wise not to ask me to make his birthday cakes! JK- I'll get some practice hopefully before he's old enough to be scarred by my cakes. Anyway, I went to enrichment night somewhere during the night- and to Walmart ( I know, hypocrite that I am! but we all know how hard it is to stay away from there) to buy my hanging plant- I'm really excited about it- the pictures are kind of dark- but it's a purple aztec verbena. I love sitting in the living room and looking out and there it is. We'll see if I can keep it alive. So, to end the night I watched "Enchanted" but I couldn't stay awake. So, it was a busy day! So busy that I forgot to watch American Idol. Oh well, I'll catch it tonite. Anyway, my favorite part of my birthday was taking Evan with me to the garden shops and walking to the store with him. It's so fun to have him around, especially when James is so busy- I love my new little friend!
Birthday dinner

I'm better now

2008-05-05T19:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I freaked out a little on the last post-or a lot-but now that I've vented I'm okay. And I appreciate everyone's nice comments. Apparently, I'm very emotional recently. But I'm also very moody- one minute I'm sad and the next minute I'm just dying of excitement that I have such a cute baby- I mean look at these pictures- doesn't it just kill you he's so cute??? I just die when he looks at me all happy and smiling- I absolutely love it. It makes being a mom so worth it and so neat. Right now he's sleeping in his swing and he looks like a precious little bundle. I really am so lucky to have little Evan. He was being really cuddly earlier- just letting me hold and love him and it melted my heart.
So, I should be cleaning the house right now-it's an absolute disaster-but I'm really tired and I just feel like sitting here and doing absolutely nothing-I'm exhausted. It was a very busy day- let's see- I went walking-and further than I have in a while so that was really good but I'm way tired- and then I came home and went to my old work (the bank) to do some stuff and to show off baby Evan- everyone there made me promise to bring him in- and I went to the dr- which we all know about from that happy little post I wrote- I was really stressed out about how to go all these places right at the right time when Evan was well-fed and happy. Somehow it worked out and he slept through all of it. Whew! What a day! But now I just want to relax- I'm very wicked and didn't make dinner- I'm supposed to be this amazing wife and mother now who makes these amazing meals and keeps the house perfect- maybe another day. Tonite it was frozen pizza :)
Want to hear something funny? Sometimes I still think I'm pregnant- like when I was pregnant I used to freak out about standing in front of the microwave while it was going- I was worried it would hurt the baby- so I always made sure to stand to the side of it. Well, today I was microwaving something and for a second I was like, "Oh no, I'm standing in front of it." So I started to move away and then I realized I didn't have anything in my belly. And sometimes I look down and see my very ugly stomach now (with the awful stretch marks) and it makes me sad that there's nothing in there- and I miss feeling him kick. Yah, I'm weird. Anyway, I think I'll just lie here and enjoy some down time while Evan's sleeping.

Sad Dr. Appointment

2008-05-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

I have to give another warning that this post isn't too uplifting either. I just got back from my postpartum doctor's appointment. Aside from the fact that seeing the dr. again brought back so many feelings from that terrible birthday- he told me very sad news-that I have a 15 percent chance of being able to have a vaginal birth in the future. 15 percent- he said people who have c-sections because the baby is in distress or is breach have pretty much as good a chance as anyone to deliver vaginally next time. But because my c-section was because I pushed and pushed and he just wouldn't come- I have a much lower chance- he even said because I'm tall that usually helps to deliver big babies and I pushed really well but he still wouldn't budge. Apparently, some people just can't push their babies out- and I'm one of them. So basically, I feel like a complete failure as a woman- like my body isn't made to have babies which just breaks my heart because I've always wanted to have lots of babies. He said something about my pelvis not being quite as round-so the baby just got wedged in and couldn't move- There was this lady I worked with at the bank who said she always had really quick labors and the dr. told her that her body was just made for giving birth and she could just push those babies out so fast. Well, I obviously am not one of those people- I was there- I pushed for 2 hours and 45 minutes and I pushed hard- I didn't even have the epidural so I could FEEL most of it- half the time I would push by squatting and holding onto a bar and other times I would just sit there and push- and I had my chin to my chest and I feel like I gave it everything I had- and I used to run track and cross- country and I know what it's like to push yourself to the ultimate max physically- but maybe I didn't push as well as I could have- maybe I was bad at it and that's why they gave up on me and did a c-section. All I know is that by the end I remember I had no energy to push- I honestly felt like I had nothing left- so I must have been trying my hardest- I can't help feeling like a complete failure-like there's something wrong with me. At least before today I thought I could go for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesaerean)- and don't get me wrong- I'll get a second opinion- I'm not totally resigned to giving all c-sections- but he did make it sound pretty hopeless. I guess I'm at least grateful I can have children but still- this whole experience has made me really sad. And of course the dr. had to say that the second baby is usually bigger than the first- just what someone who had a 9 pounder wants to hear. If you can't tell, I'm very upset. I'm mad about the whole thing- the labor that was such a mess and now the prospects of future births- and it just seems like going to the doctor today just brought back all those feelings of everything I went through- and it probably just sounds like I'm dramatizing everything- and maybe I am but I'm angry- I'm even surprised about how upset I am. I will for sure get a second opinion and find someone that tries hard to do VBACS- and even I want to look into midwifes that come to hospitals and stuff- because how nice would it be to have the person who delivers your baby actually be with you the WHOLE TIME- through the whole pushing and everything- not just for five minutes at the end of your pushing. I mean, this dr. showed up 2 hours and 44 minutes into my pushing and said he knew I was pushing really hard but the baby hadn't progressed for like the last hour of my pushing- well how would he know- he wasn't even there? Don't get me started... so definitely lots to think about.

I hate Sunday nites

2008-05-04T18:12:00.000-07:00

Warning: this is a very depressing post-Sundays are so long-especially today because we had stake conference and it ended at 12 so the day is just dragging on forever. It's also especially hard today because I know that right now my family is having a birthday party for my mom- and so they are all gathered at my sister's house in Utah. And my mom and I have birthdays 3 days apart so if I was there it would be a double party like we've had in years past. I know I should try to keep busy and not dwell on it but it's hard to not think about how much fun everyone is having- and I wish I was there so I could show off cute little Evan- which no one but my mom has met in person. I hate to sound so depressing but it's hard to be away from family. I am going to try to scrapbook or something and not think about it. I just watched "Where the Heart is"-about this pregnant girl whose boyfriend deserted her at a Walmart and she lived in the Walmart for like 6 weeks and had her baby there and her mom deserted her and she had no one but she was able to raise her baby and eventually get married and make a good life- so I obviously have it much better than that-but sometimes it just seems so much easier to see the hard things about life rather than everything we have-I really have so much but all I can think about is that my family can't see Evan and they are far away and James is so busy studying for finals-
I wonder how many blog posts I'll write that start with "I hate..." See, that right there shows how negative I am. I should be more grateful and not such a complainer- but right now the goal is just to get through this long Sunday nite.

What a week!

2008-05-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hi. This week is ending much better than it started. I came down with a cold this week that really knocked me down. I was already exhausted but I wasn't prepared to be sick and take care of Evan. It's been hard to feed Evan because he was taking so long to eat- like an hour, and then he'd be hungry again an hour later. That takes its toll! But now it's getting better- thankfully I'm feeling a lot better now- just have a lagging cough- and Evan is doing better too. I started using a pacifier because it seems like he really needs to suck on things- so that has helped him- and he's been sleeping longer between feedings. So, I'm much more optimistic now. Yesterday we got to go to Pella- 45 min. away- to the tulip festival. I'm so glad we got to go because it really cheered me up- I got to spend time with James- who has been very busy studying- and it was just so fun to get out since I was getting cabin fever. Things are looking up! 2 weeks til James is done with finals- I can't wait!

Meet Baby Evan

2008-04-27T21:57:00.001-07:00

Will you bail me out?

Ducks rule!

Full name: Evan James Larsen
Favorite Hobbies: Eating, eating and...did I mention eating?, oh and sleeping
Favorite type of music: Radio static
Nicknames: Monster (as a term of endearment), duck, baby boy, Charlie Brown, Snuggles...
Favorite Store: Walmart (JK see previous blog post)
Favorite Beverage: Milk
Favorite DVD: The Happiest Baby on the Block (he does love the swaddling and the five S's so he must have paid some attention)
When he's not eating or sleeping he loves to: swing, go on walks, play on his tummy, cuddle up with mommy and make his parents smile :)

I hate Walmart

2008-04-26T14:56:00.001-07:00

I'm never going to Walmart again. I've been trying to print baby announcements- so I sent them to Walmart online-then yesterday I went to pick them up and the pictures came out way too dark. So I told them and they were at least nice enough to reprint them- but their machine was being slow and having issues, so I waited for almost an hour for them to reprint. I did some other shopping but still had to wait forever and James was home with Evan and Evan was crying and hungry.... the only good thing was that they accidentally reprinted them twice so I got double the pictures for no extra cost. But when I got home I realized I messed up and printed the pictures the wrong way- I didn't realize I could print them vertically rather than horizontally- it still worked the way I did it but I liked it better the other way. So I decided I'd reprint just a few the other way for my family so they'd look the best. So I sent my order in online but this time I sent them to the other Walmart because I didn't trust this Walmart to print them right. So today I went to that Walmart to pick these pictures up and they were bad too! Evan's face had all these red dots all over it and the picture was dark. I was so frustrated. So I asked if they could look it up and see what went wrong but they had already deleted my order from their system so they couldn't even reprint them. So I at least got my money back. But not without waiting in the customer service line forever while the guy tried to figure out the bar code, etc. So in the end I'm just sending out the announcements from yesterday- they look okay but not as good as I hoped. I've wasted over 2 hours at Walmart today and yesterday over this stupid project and I never want to see another Walmart again. This probably didn't make any sense to anyone else, but it sure felt good to vent about it! We came home ( Evan and I) and he was crying because he was hungry and I felt like crying because I was mad- we were quite the pair. But now most of them are in the mail, so if you get one, please don't analyze it too closely and know that if pictures could talk, this one would have quite the story to tell. :)

Lots of Writing

2008-04-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

Wow- I just wrote 13 pages in my journal (handwritten) about my labor/birth story. I've been meaning to write this all week but it's been hard for me to sit down and actually write it. It was a little bit hard to write down- I found myself feeling anxious and queasy just thinking about it. I mean I have to say it was pretty traumatic- for having never had any broken bones or hospital stays in my life- all the sudden I had a 5 day hospital stay and a major surgery. And not having an epidural and pushing for 2 1/2 hours/ having a c-section was very unexpected. Pretty big change. But I'm really glad I wrote it down. There's something about writing things down that makes me feel like I can move on and know that this crazy adventure is recorded in history!
Anyway, I just have to say how grateful I am to be healthy. The first time I tried to get out of bed and walk in the hospital it was so painful and I could hardly move. I honestly thought, "I am never going to be the same person again." And now, less than a month later I am able to take my baby on long walks and I can sit up in bed and cough without screaming! I'm mostly back to myself (except I may never wear my old jeans again- sad). So I really am grateful for that. And that I have a healthy baby.

I hate to brag... but he's cute!

2008-04-24T10:16:00.001-07:00

Isn't he cute???? I know, I know, I'm a proud mom but it's pretty fun to have a cute little baby. It seems like everyday he changes so much. I love his facial expressions- sometimes he looks really serious and focused, and other times it seems like he's smiling and really happy. It's so fun!

My New Blog

2008-04-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hi. Welcome to my new blog. I decided to start my own blog so I could talk endlessly about life as a new mom. I've been at this for about 31/2 weeks, so I am definitely an expert. JK I am learning a lot each day as I take care of Evan. He's a really good baby. He sleeps a lot but he's starting to stay awake a little more during the day. It's really fun to watch him grow. Of course, becoming a mom means a lot of changes all at once- I pretty much worked full-time up until the day before I went into labor, and now I'm full-time at home. I'm all the sudden in charge of another human being-making sure he's fed and clothed and happy. Then there's all the hormonal changes that happen after having a baby. And it can be lonely being home alone with a baby. Don't get me wrong- I'm really excited to be able to be home with Evan- I'm grateful my husband supports me staying home- but any life change takes time to get used to. So I'm looking forward to using the blog to talk about Evan and to connect with other moms about the challenges/joys of motherhood.