Showered with Love (and Pink)

My two sweet friends Kelly and Leslie got together and planned a girly girl baby shower for me and yesterday I saw the fruits of their labor. Leslie used to be my across-the-street neighbor (in our old neighborhood). She now lives in Alabama while her husband is deployed for a year. She and her baby Jack have been staying with us this week while she took care of some stuff here. Kelly is my new neighbor and in our ward. They are both so sweet and generous and apparently amazing at putting social events together.The shower started out a little stressful because Adam was at work so I had to get a babysitter to watch the boys while I went to Kelly's house for the shower. She forgot. I could see all the cars driving up to Kelly's house and I was sitting at home with my sleeping boys waiting for the babysitter. Once she was called and reminded she came over and I was on my way...sweating up a storm from the 10 minutes of stress the lateness caused me.

Once I was there, I was so relaxed. They had a soft throne of sorts that I sat in, which was so comfortable, but ridiculously embarrassing to try to get out of in my condition.This is me and my little buddy Ali, who I would love to clone for my little girl to look like.

There was so much good food and even better conversation. It was fun to sit around and talk with other moms, which is something I don't get to do as often as I'd like.

We played a game with ultrasound pictures. We had to name the body part on each one and considering I can't tell what's what in my own babies' ultrasounds when the technician is pointing them out, I knew I wouldn't fare too well. I was right. It was hard. I still don't know how Rachel and Jen got 100%.Everyone was so generous and little female got some serious pink gear. It was like everyone reached into my brain, saw what style I love, and gifted accordingly. She'll be looking pretty swank the first year of her life.Kelly, Amy, Denise, Chrysta, Leslie, Stephanie, Nicole, Jen, me, Emilie, Sarah, Rachel, Shari, Megan.

My friend April was nice enough to take a lot of the pictures before she had to leave and so now she's not in any of them. She's a great photographer as well as an amazing friend.

Gramps

My Grandpa Parry passed away today. 15 days after the car accident that left him in a coma, he's gone. I know he's with people that he's been missing for a long time and that he will be more comfortable, but I feel a loss. He was a big man with a big personality. He gave me my patriarchal blessing, he sealed Adam and me together, and was a big presence in my life even though I didn't see him very often. So many memories. The world will be a different place without him.

Gangster Grandpa

Grandpa with 4 week-old Brody (who is yawning, not crying)

Best Friends

Brody and Bridger have always had a complicated relationship. They love each other yet can't stop fighting with each other. They don't often play together for longer than a few minutes before they are coming to me crying or complaining. We often hear the words, "You're not my friend anymore!" to which we have to remind them that we don't say that in our house. Brody has brought home a few phrases from school that aren't really my favorite and now Bridger knows them too and they use them against each other.

This all changed when Bridger turned 3. It was like a magical day where they looked at each other and saw, for the first time, a playmate in each other. A few days after Bridger's birthday, we were all sitting together and Brody said, out of nowhere, "Bridger is my best friend." Now they love to play together and make each other laugh. Bridger will now go to Brody to help him with his jacket instead of me and Brody won't let Bridger leave his classroom in the morning without getting a hug and kiss. Granted, all of this camaraderie comes with having them gang up against me to stick up for each other or to get the other out of trouble, but I love to watch them together. I hope their friendship lasts a long time.

The Old Year (by Adam)

Happy New Year! Christmas has been over for a while now so I guess I should go ahead and get the blog up about it. There is a lot to write about and I’m sure it was more fun for us to live through than for you to read, but I’ll write it anyway.

This year we decided to throw a little white elephant party with a few of our friends – only the twist was that each of the presents had to be comically useless. It was so much fun my cheeks (face cheeks) hurt. The gifts included some giant pants, expired cheese puffs, shirts with scary faces, and random family pictures among other things. I’m sure that both Aaron and Jess (Winn) will appreciate this photo.




We had a pretty full house for Christmas this time around, with my parents and my brother Kimball in town. We had tons of good food and played some good games, but I think the most fun was had by Brody and Bridger wrestling with their Grandpa. I have no idea how that man has so much energy, but the boys sure loved having him around and beating him up all day. I got a good wrestling match in with my bro as well, and though I’d like so say that I came out conquerer he actually did beat me in the end. My only excuse was that if we could wrestle at the same age I would beat him hands down. My 24 year old body against his would have pinned him in five minutes and left him crying. Unfortunately, with my 29 year old body the opposite was true. Yes, I really am that old.

On Christmas Eve after dinner we did a very small version of the Nativity in which Jess and I were Joseph and Mary (she’s even accurately pregnant) and the boys were shepherds. It was kind of a mess. Maybe its one of those things that needs to be done when the kids are a little bit older and have a longer attention span. Or maybe when we have a real donkey, instead of just Kimball.


Christmas morning was great (except that it began at 5:30). The boys were so excited to see all the gifts under the tree and know that Santa had paid them a visit, despite their many naughty moments this year. Over all I guess he thought they were “nice enough”. Whatever they were throughout the year, on Christmas morning they made great little present-passer-outers. In fact they were so enthusiastic about it that we could hardly keep up. They loved it and we did too and had so much fun watching the unwrapping process. We all got and gave great gifts this year, but my favorite of all is the new trampoline!! Woot. My parents helped us buy it for the boys, but really I think I am more excited about it than they are. We had to wait for the rain to clear up, but once it did and the sun came out it felt like spring and we put the springs on the trampoline. So far there are no broken bones to report. Also, for Christmas all of my brothers and sisters and I pitched in to get my parents a GPS for their car. Hopefully the number of times I call them and hear them arguing about which way to go in the car will be reduced.

Also, for Christmas morning I did something probably not very nice, but enjoyable none the less. I put pens in my Dad’s and Kimball’s stockings. Kimball was the first to unwrap his and, as expected, clicked the end of the pen to test it out. Bzzzzz. It was a shocker pen, and the shock on his face at having just been electrocuted was classic and priceless. I laughed quite a lot. When my dad opened his I assured him that his was not a shocking pen. I guess I deserve an Oscar because the old man fell for it and I was delighted to have another source of wild laughter. Ahhh. Good times. I highly recommend giving shocker pens for stocking or white elephant gifts. You’ll never forget it. Also, expect retaliation. Later that day or the next Kimball try to shock me with the pen while I was stirring something on the stove. The result of my reaction was messy and pretty hilarious, especially since it didn’t even shock me, I just jerked at the realization of what was about to happen and ended up tossing goop all over myself. Kimball nearly wet himself with glee; but wouldn’t you?


We also did the obligatory and traditional visit to the Lights of the South, only this year wasn’t as cool because it was COLD! Hello! “Harry, your hands are freezing!” Its always fun to see all the lights but when your nose and ears feel like they’re going to be stolen by elves and used as human popsicles it takes some of the fun out of it. (Not to mention adding the fear of cannibal elves into the mix) Luckily they did have a bon fire where we were able to restore our inedibility. As a side note, the animal on my head was borrowed from my sister Faith after I acquired the fear of elves.

On the Monday after Christmas I convinced Jessica to go to see Avatar in 3D with me. It was pretty rad. On the surface it is just a good movie, not something you’d quote all the time or anything, but the special effects were simply amazing. It was awesome to see the world they created come alive and look so realistic. As an added bonus you get to see a 10 foot blue alien woman pick up a human man and caress him lovingly… it’s weird.

Other than that it was pretty much like any other Christmas – lots of good food, lots of family drama, lots of games, and lots of listening to children whine and cry.

Oh, and I guess I should add in that Bridger is now a whopping 3 years old. We had a little birthday for him on Tuesday. He chose to go to Chuck E. Cheese where he and Brody burned through about 100 tokens in an hour and then chose pizza for his birthday dinner. Luckily he didn’t seem to mind the fact that his birthday falls so close to Christmas. I can’t believe he is 3 already. It seems like just 2.8 years ago that I watched him come out black and not breathing. He sure is a cute little very opinionated psycho devil. He makes us laugh all the time and we love him tons. (But really, he is psycho. Please. Help. Help me.)

Baby Dos and Don'ts

Please check out this link:

http://www.newbornbabyzone.com/baby-care/the-dos-and-donts-newborn-baby-care-pics/

It will make you laugh.

Thanksgiving 2009

I'm not really sure what's going on here. He looks like a serial roll killer.
This year we have a lot to be thankful for. Adam has a great new job, we moved into our beautiful dream home, our boys are funny and delicious, and we have a female offspring on the way...what more could we ask for? We are also so thrilled that we're now approaching Christmas and it's easier to focus on the Savior, His birth, His sacrifice, and what it all means to us. We recognize our many blessings and are so thankful for them.

Disney World Part 2

We had a few extra days on our military discounted tickets from the summer that expire before Christmas so we decided to make a quick trip down to Florida to use them up. I use the term quick loosely because 8 hours in a car with a 4 year-old and a 2 year-old doesn't go by very quickly. Especially when the 2 year-old decided to potty-train himself the week before so he had to go every time the car went under 45 mph.

We got to the hotel Sunday night and went straight to bed. We were so tired and were all asleep but about 8:30. The next morning we went to Animal Kingdom and spent most of the day there. The boys loved seeing all the animals on the safari and playing in the dinosaur section. We also saw the Finding Nemo Musical, which was way better than I thought it would be. One thing that we did this time that we didn't do in May was take the train to the petting zoo. We probably should have left that undone. It was a sad sad petting zoo. I was disappointed that Disney doesn't take better care of the animals there. It was just as sad as all the pumpkin patch petting zoos we've been to where the animals have matted hair and are stuck behind a little gate with no room to walk around. Bridger knows what I'm talking about:
One of the boys' favorite parts was riding the tram and bus when we need to get to another park or ride.

Monday afternoon we made our way to Epcot to ride the few rides that the boys would like. They love the Nemo ride and seeing all of the marine life in the aquariums after the ride. We went to a few of the different countries and just walked around.
Tuesday we went to the Magic Kingdom- my favorite place. Since I am large with child, I could ride on any adult rides anyway so we just did whatever the kids wanted to do. We waited for 40 minutes for a 3 minute Dumbo ride and we went on the carousel, which I normally would never do, since I can do that at every fair that comes to town. We also loved Mickey's PhilharMagic, Peter Pan, the race cars, and Pirates of the Caribbean all over again. I wish we lived closer so we could go more often. It really is a magical happy place.
Trying our hand at removing the sword in the stone. Bridger was ticked that he couldn't get it out.

Check out those neck muscles!

This is Bridger at nap time. He is such a good napper. When he was tired, he would ask for his sunglasses and for my jacket to hang over him and would lie down and go to sleep. It also gave me a chance to sit down and rest while he napped.
On a side note, we had a rather unpleasant experience with Bridger. Dad, you probably don't want to finish this paragraph. Just a warning. He has been doing really well with potty-training but was afraid to go number 2 so while we were at Disney World, he just held it all in and by Tuesday it had been 4 days since he had gone. We had to cut Tuesday a little short and run to the pharmacy to get some "things" to take back to the hotel to take care of it. It was really sad but made him feel so much better. He is now a champion at going to the bathroom and isn't afraid to tell you so.