Last night as I sat sewing, Jared and Christian were just hanging out talking to each other about various things while browsing through catalogs. When I looked up at them I had to take the picture they made….
…They have such similar personalities about a lot of things (though Christian’s stubbornness is much more prominent than Jared’s thanks to me) it cracks me up.
Christian’s Hair has been getting so sweaty lately that though (because of the curls) it doesn’t look too long I took him to get his first Haircut at a salon. He was pretty nervous about the clippers but he did I great job. I think it helped that we went to Sports Clips since I got a free coupon from Vanetta (Thank you!) so for the most part he sat mesmerized watching a baseball game on TV. He is so boy!
Ready for the Cut!
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“I see scissors in this mirror… I’m feeling slightly distressed!”
“All done!”
It is the shortest he’s ever had it… He looks so old!
There are no little kids in our apartment complex that are Christian’s age so he’s been spending a lot of time learning how to play by himself or with Jared or I. He never seems bored though which is good. He keeps himself moving and jumping around and coming up with imaginative games. I confess that I let him watch TV too much but there’s really not much else to do some days. One of his favorite shows is the “Imagination Movers” on Disney Channel, they have a lot of fun songs (though I wish they had more episodes to rotate through). One of the arguments against TV is that it causes kids to be more sedate. I guess they’ve never watched Christian watch a show with music! Here is just a little taste of the fun I get of watching Christian dance…
I am so relieved! Yesterday, I finished the last bit of Christian’s Halloween Costume for this year. I meant to have it done earlier in the month but I got sick with a cold for about the first two weeks of October and just wasn’t up to sewing. I was trying to get him to be a dragon since I had a pattern for that and it was from the same pattern I made last year and the year before so I knew it would be quick. But alas, he did not conform to my ideas. A while ago he watched The Disney Three Musketeers with Mickey, Donald and Goofy and decided he wanted to be a Musketeer. As luck would have it, I had bought a pattern at a pattern sale when I first got my sewing machine that includes a Musketeer Costume. So though it was more tedious than I had originally planned, I made Christian a Musketeer Costume out of it and also a hat from a pattern I already had for one as well.
My Handsome Musketeer
Of course, once I get started on something I can’t stop, so after a while of sewing a doublet and tubard, I decided to make the other pieces in the pattern so that he could have a prince costume when he plays prince (which is actually one of his favorite games). So here he is as a prince as well.
Prince Christian
I think my mom must have given me some kind of costume obsession where I just want things for my children to be able to dress up and play make-believe. Playing with dress-ups was one of my favorite things to do as a child growing up. We always had amazing costumes that my mom would sew for us as kids. As I grew and was in drama for a while I still continued to have a love for costumes and dressing up.
Christian has been wearing his prince costume almost non-stop through-out the day though he does take it off to eat because he doesn’t want to get it ruined. I’m really pleased that he’s enjoying it so much.
I honestly have felt really crazy when I go into stores lately and I see all of this Fall/Halloween stuff all around. It feels like I’m in a time warp and it’s all just a joke that it is October and that it’s the middle of fall when it’s finally down to 80 degrees in the day–time here. The only real indication of the fall season is that it is dark by 6 pm now.
I’m missing out on my favorite season…And it’s driving me crazy!!!!
Jared and I have been having some discussions about our ideal places to live and now that I have been here in the hot place for a while I know that the most important criteria on my list of the perfect place to live has to have
#1 Mountains that I can see the majority of the time
&
#2 Four Seasons
Yes, living in a place that never gets really cold has it’s perks like, you can pretty much depend on the weather being nice for whatever activity you have planned but call me a stick in the mud, I really do adore rainy “bad” weather.
I’ve been trying to plan a week to drive up to Utah to see my family and the Fall leaves before they disappear but everything keeps getting in the way. I’ve been put in the primary and they, seriously, have an activity planned during each weekend of this month. No kidding! I would love to beg out but as there are only about four teachers in the whole ward that show up consistently, I feel really guilty about not going. Especially since every activity that is announced the teachers are told that “It’s important that all teachers be there”. Why don’t they consult said teachers about having every weekend taken up? I really only want to find somewhere that’s has Fall weather. That’s all.
Prize-Winning Pumpkins
Well, in the hopes of remedying my withdrawal, Jared and I took Christian to a “pumpkin patch”. It wasn’t like the ones I’m used to where you pick your pumpkin off the vine but it was more of a set-up with the pumpkins displayed decoratively on hay-bails. Cute but not quite what I was hoping for.
They had a “hay ride” and the weirdest thing about that was the majority of the farm that we were taken past was a palm-tree area. Not very fall-like if you ask me. There were some fun things for kids such as a maze built out of hay bails and the kids could feed animals and decorate a small-sized pumpkin. They also had some cute painted boards decorating the place.
Christian was thrilled to see how tall he was…I don’t think it was very accurate the way that he was standing…
Christian the Scarecrow!
Christian being cheesy after feeding animals
We did get some cute photos of Christian despite all my whining and it was fun. I just miss fall!
Afterwards we stopped by the “In and Out”. It was really good, and not badly priced! I hope that I don’t go too crazy missing my favorite season.
Pretending to be animals
I guess we’ll find out next year where we will be living for the next few years and I’ll have to see if I become a “sun-bird” since I can’t see missing my favorite season every year.
…was yesterday. It was set for 7:30 so I arrived 10 minutes early hoping to be able to fill out all of the paper work quickly and get in and be done. I had to bring Christian because Jared had to be in the office by 7:30 and to be honest, I don’t have any friends near by (Sherrada is in Mesa) and have no idea where I could have left him especially for an appointment that early in the morning. Overall he was pretty good. Well the receptionist came in at around 7:40 and gave me a lot of papers to fill out about my medical history. After I gave the papers back to her she glanced through them and then exclaimed “Oh, so you have had previous medical care with this pregnancy!” Why yes, I have. I guess when I explained on the phone that I had moved and needed to get a new doctor she zoned out or something because she was expecting me to say 7 weeks rather than 27 weeks.
The appointment went well though I sensed some apprehension when I explained the situation with my back and that because of my full fusion I can’t have an epidural and if I need to have the baby by cesarean I would have to be put under general. He looked at Christian at that point and said “I’m assuming you did alright with having him naturally?” I hope that served as proof that I have some idea of what I’m getting into.
Honestly, I don’t think there is anything wrong with an epidural, however, in my situation it’s impossible so I need to do the best I can without it. It would be nice to have more options but I don’t. Other women have gone for hundreds of years without anything for pain when giving birth. After I had Christian I read an story in a magazine about a woman with a spinal fusion who discovered and tried hypno-birthing. Shortly after that, I was talking to my sister Julie and we talked about hypno-birthing. She was incredible and decided to look into it for her own daughter’s birth and found the hypnobabies home study program. She is going to go this route again and this time I’m going to it try for myself.
The CD’s are corny, but they do help you relax which is the goal anyway. I sleep so much better when I practice with the CD’s so that is a definite plus. In the manual they talk about how fear of pain can cause pain. I think that’s interesting and it reminds me of that scripture in 2 Timonthy 1:7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” They say that birth doesn’t have to be painful if you can rid yourself of fear. I guess I’ll have to see how well this works but since it is my option I’m going to try and take it.
But I digress….After meeting in the office, I was taken into the exam room and given yet another ultrasound. Yes! I love watching ultrasounds! They are so interesting. I really wonder sometimes why I didn’t just go into medicine. My favorite classes besides music in school were Human Biology and Anatomy and Physiology. I could have become a radiologist or something like that but I think I had a pretty limited view of medicine back then.
The office was set up pretty nicely, they had a love seat and an additional monitor for those sitting on the loveseat so Christian was able to just watch which he thought was pretty cool. The baby now weighs about 2lbs and thankfully is now head-down, though of course that can change, I’m praying it doesn’t. She was crossing her ankles during the ultrasound and her hands were playing with her feet. Her weight moved her date on the ultrasound up to January 3rd, though I’m planning on her coming late. This doctor said that if you first child is that late usually your next ones will be late as well. He gave me a couple of pictures of he face but in my opinion side views in ultrasound are cute but the face pictures are more like skeletons.
Here is a shot of her face…
…a little scary huh? I’m much more excited to see her in living color with skin!
I can’t believe how fast Christian is changing and becoming more and more of a boy. I’ve been really sad that he doesn’t want to cuddle as much as he used to. He is so excited to be a big brother he’d rather kiss and hug my belly than me because he wants his baby sister to have loves. I’m glad he’s excited but I think he’s going to be a little disappointed when he finds out how little a new baby cares about anything but their own needs at first—there are so many things he wants to teach the baby.
I’ve really enjoyed having a little independent boy around the house who loves to help and can entertain himself. He is all boy. As is evident by how he plays.
Since I always mean to do little blogs about funny things Christian does and I forget, this blog will just be pretty recent Christian stories.
The picture above was taken the day after Christian decided to make his own pb&j sandwich and dropped the jelly jar on his big toe. It was really swollen and black and he literally crawled everywhere or made me carry him. That was an experience with my big belly.
This picture was taken a Sunday morning about two weeks ago when Christian was much more interested in hiding in his toy closet and playing with his stuffed animals than getting ready for church. It has really been easier now that he dresses himself—except when he decides that he’d rather not get dressed!
These next three photos are from the other night while we watched Mulan as a family. Here he is on “his horse” with “his sword” tucked into his shorts as he watches the battle scene. It’s really funny to watch though it’s pretty much an everyday occurrence.
This is a trick that Christian figured out ages ago but I decided to record it for posterity. Who needs a toy gun when you have a PEZ dispenser and a whole box of crayons?
Here are some recent stories that I just think are hilarious vignettes of his personality:
Sharp Eyes
A couple of weeks ago I was beading an infant bracelet for the baby and I spilled some beads on the floor. Christian came in and said “the baby could choke on these” then he proceeded to pick them. I thanked him and complemented him on his sharp eyes. Then he looked at me and said “I do have sharp eyes. You don’t. Your eyes pop out every night!! (I wear contacts).
Road Side Art
A week before our move, Jared and I were taking a left turn at the corner with a light after leaving the neighborhood that we have our shed at. There was a three car pile-up and we recognized someone from our previous ward by his car and Jared’s cousin Heidi and her husband were sitting by the side of the road. We stopped our car to see that they were okay. We found out that Jared’s cousin just came out of their apartment where they had seen some of the accident happen from the window. This woman who was coming to pick up the woman who caused the accident by running a red light parked illegally behind us blocked us in. I asked Heidi if I could use her bathroom and asked Christian if he needed to go. He said “no”. When I came back we all watched the tow trucks as they loaded the cars on them. Christian ran behind a sign at the side of the road and I asked Jared to follow him. Christian came back very excited. “I peed on the sign. Come see mommy!!!” I followed him behind the sign and looked at the mountain-top-horizon-looking flourish of liquid staining the sign. Then I turned around I watched five cars go by in less than thirty seconds. At least he had privacy from our side of the sign if not both!
It was so nice to have Jared watch Conference with us this Saturday. I think this is the second Conference since we got married that Jared has been off of work to enjoy it with me. I was also overjoyed to find out that we can watch conference on this random infomercial channel that I’ve never spent any time thinking about. Though all of the talks were wonderful and interesting, of all the talks on Saturday morning, I’d have to say Elder Bednar’s was my favorite. It was totally how I feel about families and the influence parents have on their children. Christian was really good this session because I had given him and Jared bingo sheets that my friend Sherrada had given me. It was awesome to watch him listen and get excited over words that were spoken on his card.
After the morning session we hopped in the car and headed to Mesa to visit my friend Sherrada’s family at her parent’s home. They had a beautiful spread there with snack things like veggies, fruits, cheeses, meats, crackers, meatballs,…etc. Then we all watched conference together. I thought it was really neat that Christian could see that other families watch conference too. I remember being young and having all of the neighborhood kids knock on the door and want to play during conference. I seriously thought we were the only family in the ward who watched conference…they never even reminded us or asked us about watching conference in primary. Though it’s good for kids to recognize that their family has different values than some other families I think it’s good for kids to see that they have similarities with others.
After the afternoon session we had a little Birthday Party for Damien Sherrada’s sister Kalei’s little boy. It was very cute because they let him pray for the pizza and in his prayer he said a lot of things of thanks that Christian could come to his party. I thought it so sweet.
Here’s Damien blowing out his candles. My favorite part of this video is that he gives his little sister Jordan a love after he finishes!
Here’s Damien showing his (soon-to-be) age. 
Christian enjoying his cupcake
Lydia acting distressed after getting all sticky
Jordan stripped down to eat blue frosting
Damien eating his cupcake (he swirls the frosting off with his finger first and then eats the cake last)
After the Party the Men got ready to go to the Priesthood session and us Girls and the kids got ready to go to Ladies Night Out at Deseret Book. Christian was a little concerned that he had to go with the girls but then I told him that when he’s older he can go with dad to Priesthood sessions.
Here’s a picture of the boys at Ladies Night Out
I was surprised that we were still within the first 100 women when we got there because there were sooo many women there. It was crazy! We ended up over by the children’s books and read books to our kids. It was a little frustrating because a lot of moms just would leave their children over by the children’s books and go talk with their friends or wander around the store. All these kids were surrounding me and leaning on me trying to look at the book I was reading. Christian must have felt a little possessive of me because he decided to sit in my lap and he never sits in my lap lately. I felt a little bit like Mary Poppins or something like that. I really don’t mind kids I know crowding me but I really do like my space when it comes to other people’s children that are allowed to roam free.
Right before the end I got in line with Sherrada and we picked up our door prize for being in the first 100 women. I never went in Salt Lake to Ladies Night Out but it was really fun to go with the girls. I’m glad they invited me!
My door prize
For the Sunday sessions we stayed home. My body started aching horribly in my joints and I knew I was coming down with a bug. It was nice to just relax at home as a family and listen to conference. I was so proud of myself for not falling asleep once during either session but I did take a nap in-between so maybe that’s why I didn’t fall asleep. I am so thankful to have a living prophet and apostles that guide our church with wisdom and a testimony of Jesus Christ. Elder Holland’s talk was particularly striking to me, it was so powerful.
I loved conference weekend!
(No, they were not on the Menu)
Monday the missionaries came over for dinner (it was my great idea to choose a Monday to get someone else to do the Family Home Evening Lesson). Afterwards, as I suspected they would, they gave us a lesson that even included visuals. They gave the lesson based around a quote from “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” which is the same exact spot that I am assigned to speak on the Sunday after Conference. It’s “Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities…”
Then they put a nail in a little board and told us that it represented Christ and then they had six other nails and asked Christian to name some things that keep our family strong. Jared prompted him on various things and he came up with things like Prayer, FHE, Games, Forgiveness, Family Dinner, and Love. Then the missionary asked Christian to try to get the nails to balance on top of the nail in the board without touching the board. Christian tried and then Jared tried…after a while one of the missionaries showed us how to do it….
I was pretty impressed and so was Christian!
Then they talked about continuing to do all the things that keep our family strong are important and that if we keep Christ in the center of our home we will be happiest. I really agree with that. It’s the days that I lose my focus on what’s really important that I am more easily frustrated and quick to find fault and lose my temper. I’m so grateful for my family immediate and extended. I really do love them all. I’m so glad I can be with them forever if we all stick together and follow the Saviors teachings.
