2011 round-up

Anniversary

Though it is not a national Holiday, Ryan and I celebrated our 6th Anniversary on 11/11/11. We only had a babysitter for a couple ours so we had just enough time to go to dinner at tortilla cafe (one of our favorite places in DC) and pick up dessert from Hello Cupcake. We also did a little shopping. It was simple but nice. Our date nights have recently consisted of a movie night at home, It was nice to be able to go out together and know that the kids are in good hands. I found a babysitter on MOTH (a listserv for Capitol Hill families) who had a lot of experience and good references and credentials. I just can't believe how much sitters charge out in DC, it was definitely more expensive than our dinner and dessert combined!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving weekend we were planning on spending in DC but we received a exciting offer to head to Pennsylvania and spend the Holiday there with our family (you know who you are :). We headed to PA on thanksgiving morning with plans to reach our destination by early afternoon. Ryan and I had had a little spat and weren't quite on speaking terms during the ride (I don't even remember what we were upset over). After 45 minutes we reached Baltimore and Ryan broke the silence by offering an apology. Once we were on speaking terms again, we started talking but unfortunately became a little distracted and made a bad turn. We tried to get back on track, I was navigating with a map on Ryan's phone. I pointed out our next turn just as we we're missing it. Ryan made a last ditch effort to make the turn and we crashed into the curb separating the exit and the main road.

Thankfully no one was hurt, but unfortunately this accident was bad enough to disable our car. Once the coast was clear I jumped out of the car to asses the damage. The car didn't look bad at all but I could tell that is was bleeding out very badly. Poor Ryan sat in the car beating himself up, soon enough he came out to see the damage too. We sat stranded and trying to brainstorm a plan of action. There was a very nice man who stopped to help us, he seemed to be "car smart." After examining the car our new friend said that the transmission or a pan or something that held the transmission fluid looked broken. He ran (by ran I mean drove) to the gas station and bought us some transmission fluid. He said once the car was running the fluid wouldn't leak out, he also insisted that we would be able to make it to our destination. We knew it would be a bad idea to keep driving toward PA but we thought we'd take our chances and try to make it back home to DC. We drove about a mile or less then our car gave out on us. Now we were stranded on the freeway. We decided that the only thing to do now was find a tow truck and a way home. The tow truck/mechanic was surprisingly easy to find. The mechanic that I spoke to was not working because of the Holiday but was kind enough to come and tow our car away because he could here my kids in the background.

After I spoke with the mechanic I saw that I had a text message from my cousin Kortney. She was simply wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving. I asked her if she was in Baltimore. I knew that the chances of her being in Baltimore were pretty good because she is a flight attendant and her crash pad is there. She was there and she helped us out so much. Kortney made arrangements for us to get a car rental with a great discount. Meanwhile we we're trying to find a taxi to drive us once the mechanic arrived. The Mechanic came and the Taxi had not, we waited for about 20 minutes until the taxi driver finally arrived. I felt so bad for the mechanic waiting to drive our car away on his day off. Finally the driver came and he took us to the airport to pick up the car rental. After a long 2 hours of being stranded in Baltimore we headed back home and made it to the Thanksgiving dinner at church. We didn't really eat much of it because of our decision to eat a more vegetarian /vegan diet. But the company was nice. Later that night we went over to our friends Calmin and Daisy and had a nice pesto dinner and watched football or um slept through it.

The next morning we set out early to buy ourselves a Christmas tree before we had to return our car rental. Since we have been married, Ryan and I have put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. But we still hadn't had a traditional thanksgiving dinner so we decided to do a thanksgiving redo before we put out any Christmas decorations.

I made a 100% vegan dinner and dessert, it was so good!!! Instead of turkey we ate a mock turkey roast that I made from scratch! Dinner also included cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, rolls and green beans. For dessert I made a coconut cream pie and and a pumpkin pie.

The pies have their own story worth telling. For the coconut cream pie I used the Lion House recipe. The actual recipe has eggs and milk and since the Amish folks ran out of eggs at the farmers market so I used flax seed meal with a bit of warm almond milk. For the Heavy whipping cream I used coconut milk. Oh my gosh it was the most delicious coconut cream pie I have ever had! It seems that one pie would be enough for our family of four but I really wanted to make a pumpkin pie and my little Micah really wanted me to make a coconut cream pie. He has never had coconut cream pie but he talks about them all the time, when he's pretending to cook, when he's asking for dessert or when he's pretending to throw one at you. As far as the pumpkin pie goes, I was set on making one from scratch, I bought a pie pumpkin earlier in the week to be sure that I had one before they were all gone. The pumpkin sat beautifully on my counter all week long. As I went to make it, I grabbed the pumpkin and found that it had gone moldy. I was so sad. Ryan was so sweet and ran to the store to see if he could find me another one. No surprise the the pie pumpkins were gone as well as the canned pumpkin. I had read somewhere that canned pumpkin is often a combination of different squashes so I asked Ryan to pick me up a butternut squash if he couldn't get pumpkin. So that is what we ended up using. For the pumpkin pie I used the squash, tofu, flax seed meal mixture and sugar. This was also so delicious. just thinking about it makes me want to go bake right this very moment.

Ryan Micah and Sam went to play at the park and play football in true Taylor fashion. I had a certain vision for our small thanksgiving dinner, so I decided to stay behind and make everything "perfect." I made all of the food the day before thanksgiving so it was a pretty easy set up. We ate our scrumptious meal along with a bottle of Martinelli's sparkling grape juice. We shared a little with Micah and Sam and they hated it. It was pretty funny watching them scrunch their faces as they sipped.

Once dinner was over we cleaned up as fast as we could and we put out our Christmas decorations and started trimming our tree. We watched Elf and ate pie and had a wonderful time.

On Saturday we met up with friends Laura and Michael and their adorable kids. I use to be their nanny when Ryan and I were in DC for an internship back in 2007. We went to the United States Botanical Gardens to see the Train exhibit that only comes out during the Holiday season. Micah has been constantly asking to go and see the trains since last Christmas. When He was video chatting with Grandma and Grandpa a few months ago, they had asked if Micah was planning on coming to visit them for Christmas. He informed them that he could not because he was "going to go and see the trains for Christmas." Between Thanksgiving weekend and the time that we left for UT (Dec 19) we hit the train exhibit about 3 or 4 times.

Finals and other happenings

Right after the Thanksgiving break Ryan was busy getting ready for finals, which means I was busy with 2 little boys. I decided that it would be easiest to do my Christmas shopping online and get all the great deals and free shipping on Thanksgiving weekend. I didn't really buy much but I made the mistake of having Micah's present sent to UT with the other gifts I purchased (for people out in UT). This was bad because we we're planning on exchanging gifts before we left for UT. And we didn't want to have to bring back a lot of things on our way back from UT, and Micah gift was big backhoe. And now I wouldn't have anything for Micah to open for our first Christmas. Thankfully Liz (MIL) was nice enough to send it to us.

By the next Thursday our car was ready so I found a friend who was so wonderful and kind to take us to take me and the kids to pick up the car in Baltimore. After only a few days of having the car my darn fence swung and closed as I was pulling out of my driveway and knocked my side view mirror off. Ah... I was so angry! Our poor car has been through so much in the last year, our tires seem to be getting bald too. I think I am going to bus around until winter is over because I really don't want to risk another accident, which is very likely with our track record.

Ryan finals consisted of 2 final exams, a mock trial- which he won! and a 30 page paper. On top of that he was doing work on the side for an Attorney. He worked really hard and I'm sure that he did well. It will be a couple months before we find out his grades. Finals were hard on the whole family, but the boys and I stayed busy with play dates and trips to the library. One night we went up to the Washington DC temple to see the lights and the nativity with the same friends we went to the botanical gardens with. It was very fun and so cool to see all the lights.

First Christmas

Once Ryan was done we started celebrating our first Christmas. We watched Christmas movies, actually we did that all month long. And made ginger bread cookies and, went to see the national Christmas Tree and the Capitol Christmas tree, we went to family Christmas parties via video chat and of course opened presents!!!

We obviously don't have a lot of money right now so we tried not to spend too much money, but that didn't happen. There's something about vacationing over Christmas and drawing names for gift exchanges that makes it hard not to. I really wanted to make homemade gifts this year but when the idea comes to mind on November 1st it's really hard to execute that idea. At the moment I have 4 pair of unfinished pajama pants sitting on my sewing table. Next Christmas is going to be more about homemade thoughtful gifts.

One thing that we did do pretty well is emphasize to our kids that Christmas is about our Savior, although our home video would indicate otherwise. We mainly focused on the different symbols of Christmas.

Later on as Ryan and I went back and watched the video that he took of our first Christmas. In the video Micah was playing with his new backhoe and Sam and I were playing with his new nativity. As I am going through all the figures of the nativity with Sam you can hear Micah quietly saying to himself, "I don't remember what Christmas is all about..." Then Micah looks up to the heavens and shouts, "... Is there anyone out there who can tell me what Christmas is all about." The video goes on and I continue to play with Sam not noticing Micah. I felt so bad when I saw the video and realized I didn't notice Micah. I have to say though, this is probably my favorite home video, I can watch it again and again, I can't believe how cute and funny Micah is.

Second Christmas

The flight back to UT was rough, the boys both had a cold and poor Sam's little ears could not handle the pressure in the cabin. He cried for the first 2 hours of the flight and thankfully slept for the rest.

When we arrived in Salt Lake we went to baggage claim to pick up our things. Micah was so hyper that he was running all over the place. Naturally I was worried that I could lose Micah or that he could get hurt, so as I was making my way toward him, all of a sudden I couldn't see him anymore but he was screaming bloody murder. I found him on the floor with blood poring out of his mouth. Someone who had seen what happened said they Micah slipped and hit his mouth on the edge of the baggage carousel. He split his lip really bad, both he and I were completely covered in blood. The whole ordeal was AWFUL however, something good did come come of it. Because Micah's mouth was so sensitive, he couldn't suck his thumb which led to his breaking his thumb sucking habit.

The next two weeks are a blur but some of the highlights of Christmas in UT are,

- Making gingerbread cookies. Ryan challenged me to decorate my cookie by turning it and decorating from a different angle. I made a snow man taking a jog.

- The neighborhood lights at the Night before Christmas neighborhood.

- Live nativity in West Jordan.

- Playing games with family, vacation is not complete with out this!

- Going to a Jazz game.

- Christmas Eve party with my family. It was extra fun this year because my brother girlfriend Katherine and her kids joined us. Also my aunt Marla brought her new boyfriend. It is so great to be able to welcome people to the family.

- New years eve fondue party with the Taylor's

- Stopping in on the new years eve party with my parents and their friends.

The trip home was much more pleasant. We did have a lay over in Minnesota which we thought might be rough but the airport we were at was amazing, it was more like a mall and there was a big touch screen that had a matching game that Micah and Sam played for a little while. We got home and settled right in. We loved being back with family but it was nice to be home. DC is where our life is right now and we simply love it here too.

Halloween 2011

I can't stop saying how much I love living on Capitol Hill. It is beautiful here. Fall has been amazing, the streets are so narrow and filled with colorful trees, it's like walking into a painting, I also just love life right now. I am in such a better place than I was this time last year. I should clarify that what I mean by last year is the last school year. Ryan's first year in law school. I felt so unhappy being so far away from family in a new city with my husband gone to school most the day and me being home adjusting to having 2 kids, and recovering from my 2nd c-section. It was NO walk in the park.
Honestly this year isn't much different than last year, we are in a new neighborhood, new ward, we are making friends all over again, Ryan is still really busy with school, although it is more flexible than it was last year. Things are just better, I can't explain it. perhaps postpartum is the reason last year was hard and this year isn't. It doesn't matter, all I know is I am very happy right now and I am not looking back!We had our first Halloween on Capitol Hill and it was so much fun, I love this Holiday anyway. I love dressing up and I love making costumes. Usually I just piece costumes together like my Mary Poppins costumes this year. I just found random things at goodwill and a lot of things that I already had at home, and I don't mean to boast but I thought I looked awesome. In fact I was unofficially awarded the best costume of the year by a random mom trick or treating with her kids. I had so many people stopping me and chatting to me about how much they love Mary Poppins. I also had tons of moms make their kids stop to talk to me, "look guys it's Mary Poppins!", I had a lot of fun conversations with my fans. One man even stopped to tell me that his neighbor was refinishing his Chimney. Oh and I can't forget all of the people who were serenading me with all of their favorite Mary Poppins songs. 2 people thought I was Eliza Doolittle (from My fair Lady), which I thought was a great compliment too. I had so much fun on Halloween. I really believe Halloween was made for me!Okay so notoriously I suppose that halloween is for the kids, and my kids loved Halloween too. This year I sewed costumes for Micah and Sam. Sam was a Tortoise and Micah was a Hare. they looked adorable. I had a really good time making their costumes, but I doubt I'll be doing that every year. When I asked Micah what his favorite part of Halloween was I he quickly replied "the peacock!" I thought for sure he would answer trick or treating, but no, he loved a little girl who was dressed as a peacock. He has been pretty obsessed with peacocks since then. As I mentioned already I was Marry Poppins and Ryan was Bert, the chimney sweep version. Although he would have preferred to be the musical version with his instruments attached all over his body. I felt really bad for Ryan because when he wasn't standing next to me nobody knew who he was. My favorite part of the night (besides all the positive feedback I got from my costume) was when Ryan said that next year he wants to be someone who isn't dependent on my costume. Ryan has always been a good sport about dressing up for Halloween but I think he's really starting to get into it! And Micah has already decided what he is going to be next year, a knight!






This is Halloween 2011, which I completely failed to post about

You can find other Halloween posts here, here, and here.

A Child's Prayer

Tonight at dinner Micah offered the blessing on the food. He actually forgot to mention the food in the first prayer but we didn't bring that up, especially considering how long it was. We just thanked Micah for saying a reverent prayer. He quickly realized that he forgot to say "thank you for the food" so he asked Ryan and me to fold our arms again.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thankful for this day
thankful for these burgers,- veggie of course
thankful for the three girls that came over with the books,
thankful for I and Sam could go to bed,
thankful for I could play with the site digger at the park today,
thankful for Cody and Haley could come to my house to visit, -not sure why he thinks that
thankful for the guy to come over to our house to get rid of the mice,
thankful for us to go to Utah,
thankful for thing finders

This was when Ryan and I broke down laughing, so that was the end of the prayer. By the way if you don't know, thing finders are people that spend their time finding all kinds of treasures. We have been reading Pippi Longstockings, which is where he learned about thing finders.

Well there's only one thing left to say here,

Amen.

Writer's block

Do you ever feel like writing but you don't know what to say? Or maybe it's that you have so much to say but you don't know where to begin. I feel like the latter a lot.

First it's my Best friends birthday! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful, sexy, happy, supportive, funny, best friend. Ryan is the perfect partner for any lady out there, but sorry girls, he's taken! :) Ryan is such a great person, he is so cautious of everyone around him, he is always trying to think of ways he can help. He is a great Dad and an AWESOME husband! I think it goes with out saying but I'll say it anyway and I'll keep on saying it, I love Ryan so much!

Number two I had one goal this summer and that was to make a blanket for each of my boys. I started one for Micah back in January, but I only worked on it once or twice and never finished it. It was close, but I made my goal. What do you think? I got the tutorial here, these blankets were so easy to make, I'm really happy with the way they turned out!



There is more to say but I don't want to write it all in one super long post. I will do it all in moderation.

We're alive!!!

We are all settled into our new place and we LOVE it. Things have been crazy since we've been here though. A few days after the earthquake we had a hurricane in the area. We weren't too effected by it, it was actually more of a tropical storm. We had tons of rain and wind. There were tree branches everywhere after the storm. Later in the week the boys and I went to a beautiful nature center with a playgroup, as we were walking around identifying different trees, we found a HUGE tree that was uprooted from the storm. The biggest disaster that transpired during the storm (as far as affecting me and the fam) was when our drinking water supply that was stored in the fridge came crashing down out of the fridge when the shelf couldn't take the weight of the water anymore. It was a really scary, horrible, sound and mess. We lost all of our pitchers that day :(. On the upside, Ryan and I we're suppose to speak in sacrament meeting at church, but our talks we're postponed for a later date. I was really relieved about this because I was not very prepared to speak. Not only that it was my power birthday, 28 on the 28th!

My birthday was really nice, Ryan surprised me a couple nights before my b-day by arranging for some babysitters to come over. He then took me out to the portrait Gallery (AMAZING), dinner at a great Thai place and a movie, we went and saw "The Help"- great movie. It was so much fun. On the morning of my b-day Ryan and the boys made me breakfast and made me a cute little card. It was a perfect birthday, even with the hurricane!

Flash back to our summer

We had such a great summer spending time with friends and family. Here are some fun photos to sum up our amazing summer that I never wrote about:

Southern UT trip with the Taylors

Play dates with my cousins and friends

Saunders Temple Sealing

Moab with the Pappas'

feeding ducks and seeing animals at Wheeler Farm with cousins

Splash park at Liberty Park with cousins and Grandma

Fun new haircut for me!!!

Boating with the Taylors

Ancient life museum at Thanksgiving Pointe

Saying goodbye to my family before we head back to D.C.

Children's museum, Micah started checking out with his groceries, that little girl was so patient and sweet to play along with him.

Sam and Cody at the Children's museum

Earthquake!

We're okay but our vase isn't.

After a couple weeks of being back, we decided it was time to finally head out to the National mall and visit some museums. just as we were getting our things together the whole house started rumbling followed by a lot of swaying. SCARY! I was so shocked mine and Ryan's first instinct was to grab the boys and huddle together, we stood at the bottom of our stair way. Maybe not the safest place to be but we were so taken off guard we couldn't think straight. Thankfully the Micah and Sam weren't too startled by the quake.

It's crazy to me that the biggest earthquake I have ever been in was in Washington, DC (5.8). I have been in small tremors in UT but they were so insignificant. I have always been afraid of earthquakes. I'd be surprised if there was a Utah'n that wasn't. We grow up being told that we live on a fault line and we should be prepared for a big earthquake at any given moment. And if that's not enough to scare your pants off, the schools have random earthquake drills and tell you the safest place to be is under your desk. I never felt very safe under there but I figured someone must know what they are talking about. I remember as a little girl being so afraid that once I scoured the whole house for any necessities in the event of an earthquake and I put them all under the kitchen table. When everything was securely under the table, I crawled under there and sat and waited. It was a long night of waiting. :)

We moved!

Well I can't believe how fast the summer flew by. I think I only posted once the whole time I was back in UT with my family. Now that I am back in DC I need to get serious about posting on my blog so that Grandmas and Grandpas don't get mad because they don't know what's going on with their Grand kids.

Moving back to Washington was not an easy feat. We arrived back in this great city late on a Thursday Aug 12, the following morning we met up with our Realtor and got the keys to our new place, and then a few hours later we signed our lease. The last few weeks we we're so focused on finding a place to live and signing our lease but we completely looked over the other [just as important] details. The rest of the day was spent working out the logistics for our big move for the following day. It took several attempts and several hours to secure a truck, a babysitter and people to help us move but we did it. Just in time too, my cell phone was moments from dying and I left my charger in UT. We also made a stop to our storage unit to grab some essentials that would help us get through the night (air mattresses, pack and play, and blankets). I had a very detailed list of our inventory so finding our stuff was a breeze, Seriously!

The following morning we got up bright and early and went to go pick up a friend who was going to help us unload our storage unit. After we picked him up we needed to go pick up the moving truck, after about an hour of getting lost trying to find the moving truck place we called to get directions. Then we find out that the truck that we supposedly reserved was never available to be rented out in the first place. So here we are with one of our helpers, no truck and 2 boys that were suppose to be with the babysitter. Oh shoot the babysitter! Yeah, I couldn't call her because my phone was dead and though Ryan's phone was very usable he didn't have any numbers that I needed. So now our plans were falling through but we decided to head to the storage unit anyway. I made several more calls for moving trucks and the whole city and surrounding areas were all rented out.

Wen we finally made it to the storage unit, I ran into my friends who were going to help us babysit/move. Thankfully their plans that morning had shifted around last minute and they arrived to meet us just after we got there. I had been worried the whole time that they were sitting their waiting and I had no way to reach them. We still didn't have a truck but I felt so relieved to have our helpers with us. The storage facility had a moving truck that they loaned to the renters moving things into the storage unit so Ryan tied to persuade them to let us use it since it was clearly not being used. They would not make any exceptions, however, they referred us to a local company couple doors down called Cadyco who rented our an assortment of things including moving trucks. Success! they had a truck and then we were back on track.

Our new place is so little so we had to get rid of and loan a lot of furniture. The piece that was the hardest to get rid of was our kitchen hutch that we use as an entertainment center. But you gotta do what you gotta do, and we had to get rid of stuff so we could fit into our new place. So once the truck was filled, we made stops delivering all of our furniture to goodwill or to different friend's homes. Then Ryan took the truck to our new house to meet a new group of guys who would be helping unload the truck. Meanwhile I took our friend home who was most likely exhausted from our morning adventures. For the next hour I tried to figure out how to get home. Unfortunately our GPS broke so we have been getting lost a lot lately, needless to say, I don't foresee many outings in the near future unless I get it fixed or get a new one. Like I said, it took me an hour to get home, I had to keep zig zagging through the streets until I found a street I recognized.

Unloading the truck went very well, the only problem we ran into was getting mine and Ryan's bed up the stairs. The stair case is much to small to accommodate my bed. Thankfully there is a door in the boys room that has been bolted shut so we pulled out the tools and pried the door open. The guys carried the bed up a ladder and got it through the door and into my bedroom. The Plexiglas was unfortunately broken in the process but that's an easy fix.

Once we got all the boxes moved into the house, we made our way to Cadyco to return the truck. we grabbed a quick dinner and stopped to buy a phone charger for me and a wall mount for the TV. After a long day we were finally home, the only thing left to do was turn the key and walk into our new house. Sounds so easy when you put it that way. Not so! Ryan accidentally left the house key hooked to the truck key. Remember that door we broke earlier that day? That was the best thing to happen that day, we were able to get back into the house!

When we made it home we set up the kids room first, with beds and blankets and once they were asleep we got started on the kitchen. The unpacking process has been going very well. Because this house is so tiny, we have had to get creative with storing things but it's all working out very well. So far the boys bedroom is my favorite room, it is so colorful and fun. Once we get the whole house put in order I'll share pictures, but for now I can share a glimpse into the kids fun room.

I chose to share the shelf picture first because we are really proud of it. We got the idea on all things thrifty, don't you love them!?

Sam turns 1

Wow where did the last year and my little bitty baby boy go? It has been so wonderful to have Sam in our family. He has so much happy contagious energy. Sam and Micah are starting to become good little buddies, I love watching them play together.

Sam's Birthday was very Simple but perfect. We invited immediate family over and had a slide show of Sam's first year playing in the background. I made a vegan chocolate cake, Sam loved it! The highlight of the night was when Sam got the whole family to clap in unison for several minutes. Sam got lots of wonderful gifts that he and Micah have been loving!

As of today Sam is 14 months here is what he is up to

Walking trying to run

Loves jumping

Loves everyone

Loves, Loves, Loves to eat- Sam can eat a large breakfast and minutes later mooch off whoever else is eating (usually Grandma).

Loves to play in the toilet

Loves unwinding toilet paper rolls

Sam can say,

Mama

Dada

More

Shoes

I did it!

Update part 2

5/13/11

Schools out!!! Ryan finished up with finals on April 30. Finals were really hard on all of us and we are all so glad to have a break from school. We flew into Utah on Sunday (mothers day). It is so nice to be back in UT and we are loving being close to family. We didn't get to celebrate mothers day on Sunday, so today has been my make-up day.

Present

First to answer a question I keep getting. Are you still eating Vegan? I am still eating a mostly vegan diet. I am mainly just being very careful about where my dairy comes comes from. Like I said we are back in Utah. It is so nice to be around family. I missed everyone so much this last year. Ryan's parents are the kind, generous, lucky sometime, unlucky other times bunch that are providing us a nice cozy place to stay for the summer. Ryan has been working with the Utah County Public Defenders office. He is really loving his internship. This makes me very happy because

a) He had his doubts about coming to UT for the summer

b) Law very intense and if we are going to invest everything we have into it, I really want him to LOVE what he's doing for a living

c) I get to be so close to family (I can't get enough of this one)

So far we have celebrated a lot of Birthdays, vacationed in St. George, spent a lot of time catching up with friends, enjoying a lot of Free time with Ryan, and just loving life.

Sam's Birthday Post is on it's way!

Lindsay Update part 1

I am doing very well. The boys and I have had a bad case of cabin fever. We spent everyday last week doing stuff outside, even on the rainy days. I have a lot of projects that I want to get done but instead I have been spending my free time at the end of every day either exercising, vegging on the couch with a favorite show or reading. So basically I turn into a lazy bum at the end of the day (with the exception of working out).

Recently I posted this facebook status and I have had a lot of questions about it.
So I have been a vegetarian off and on for as long as I can remember. It has mainly been in my adult years that I have been off and on. I have always had an aversion to meat so it just makes sense to be vegetarian. What I have decided is that it is so important for me to know where my food comes from (watch Food Inc.). For example, I recently heard about past actions of Chiquita Banana. From what I understand they have a reputation of abusing their employees and not only that, they have a lot of blood on their hands from violence against those who would improve employment conditions. With what I learned, I just didn't feel like I could buy Chiquita's blood bananas anymore.

After learning about the bananas, I started wondering what other things are going on with my food beyond the supermarket. As I did further research I was reminded about the conditions that animals are kept in, I'm not going to go into that. But I will say that what I have learned caused me to cut myself off completely from anything that came from an animal.

Next came my spiritual journey. It is very hard to explain to people, particularly people in the Mormon culture why I have taken on this new diet. I know that God loves all of his creations and I want to honor all that God has created. I just didn't feel like I was doing that when I was buying mass produced milk, cheese, eggs, etc.

At this point in my quest I have decided that I am comfortable eating foods that come from animals if I know where it came from. The best way to accomplish this is buying local and supporting farmers markets. I guess that's what it comes down to, eating what you feel comfortable with.

Ryan Who? update

Ryan Who? is right! This guy has been so studious and busy and gone a lot. The boys and I miss him a lot when he's gone but we try to stay optimistic. I want Ryan to do well so I try not to complain, but who am I kidding, sometimes I do complain. Ryan's busy schedule has had us both on edge and for the first time in our history we had a fight. Yes after 5+ years of marriage we have not had a fight, but I guess with the stress levels rising and finals and moving something had to give. I really wish it hadn't though, I need him and he needs me, especially when things start to get hard. Everything has smoothed over now and I hope that our next fight is NEVER!

More about Ryan. Ryan has an internship in UT for the summer at the Utah County Public Defenders association. He also has a job lined up for Fall semester at Public Defender Services for the District of Columbia. His hard work is paying off as far as finding jobs goes. And I am sure that it will pay off in finals too.

Something else that is note worthy. Ryan, aka Mr. frugal, never spends a penny on himself. He went and splurged a little on new clothes, this was not birthday money or Christmas money or tax refund money. He really needed it, and we all know that we all feel great when we are wearing a new piece of clothes that we picked for ourselves (can you tell I get a lot of hand me downs :). I think it is so great that Ryan did this for himself, because I want him to look and feel confident while he's studying so hard.

Micah Update

Well Micah is such a big boy, he is finally potty trained and has been since about December. If Micah could choose he would never go to bed and stay up all the time playing trains or reading books. It is so nice that he has indoor things that he loves because we have had a lot of cold rainy days. And the poor thing was basically sick all of February and March. Speaking of being sick, he peaked a fever of 104 and I panicked. So I gave him Tylenol and took him to the emergency room. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Poor Micah was sweating bullets and shivering and crying. By the time we got to the ER his fever had gone down. In the end he just had a nasty bug that we had to wait out.

After Micah got over being sick, Sam got sick. Sam was up a lot in the night while he was sick and he kept waking up Micah. Our solution to the problem was to make a bed for Micah in our bedroom. He slept in there my room for about 2 weeks before we moved him back to his room. ever since then we have woken up in the morning with a little three old between us, or we find that same three year old camped out next to our bed with his blankets, pillows, and blue dog.

We have come up with a reward system for Micah to earn cotton balls which we collect in a jar. When the Jar is full he earns a reward. The cotton balls are reward enough for him though. He gets so excited when he can drop a new cotton ball into his jar. This has also made him learn how to help around the house. To be completely honest he doesn't make much of a dent in the house work, we usually clean his room, make his bed, get him dressed, brush his teeth, and unload the dishwasher. Even still I am so grateful that he is learning how rewarding work can be.

Micah loves being a big brother, he loves to make Sam laugh and he loves to help me take care of his baby brother. If he's in a good mood, Micah will play really well with Sam. Of course he's not perfect, when he's not being Brother of the year he is usually sitting on Sam. And if he is really focused on his playing he will snap if Sam starts to crawl over his train tracks.

Micah is starting to become so independent, he wants to do everything for himself. This has taught me to be much more patient and supportive of him.

A quick story about Micah. We have a book called "Judy and the Volcano," when we were reading it one day I had pointed out to him that his aunt Gabrielle's name was written on the inside of the cover. I told him that this was her book, and when we were finished with it we will have to give it back to her (I plan to keep it until she has kids mwahaha). Anyways, about a week later I was talking to him about how we are going to be moving to UT for the summer and we will get to see all of our family and be much closer to them. Do you think he cared? Nope, he was actually very concerned. All he could say was "Will Gabby want Judy and the Volcano back." He was sincerely worried about not getting to keep this book. :)

Sam Update

Sam is the cutest little baby ever. He is always so happy and smiley. He loves People, he is always batting his eyes at strangers and making friends with all kids of people. He loves blankets, he loves to rub his face into them, hide himself under them, loves when I play parachute with them (let a blanket fall on him and cover him up and then lift it again). Throwing things, this includes throwing toys into the toy box, throwing a ball and playing toss and catch, and of course throwing food from his high chair. Oh yeah and food, Sam loves to eat, he will eat anything, even if it's not food.

Sam is so adventurous. He's my climber and he's only 10 months! He has toilet bowl radar, If we leave a bathroom door open, Sam kicks into sneaky, speedy mode and goes strait to the glorious pool of water in the porcelain thrown. It is so nasty, he just likes to splash his little hands in there. At least that's all he puts in there. When we were younger my little brother use to like to stick his head in the toilet bowl and kick his head back and let his hair flop backward. If I remember right he did this to imitate Simba (Lion King).

Recently at a play group I got caught up talking to a friend and while I was chatting Micah ran up to very excitedly and said, "look Mom, Sam climbed the stairs all by himself!" I looked over toward the stair and there was Sam nearing the top of a stair case. To be honest the stair case was only four steps, but still, if he fell it would hurt. Sam was very pleased with himself and thankfully in the time that it took me to run to him he stayed put.

One more little thing about my Sammy. He took his first step today! We were sitting at church and he was walking along a row of chairs, as he was approaching me, he decided to let go and take his final step with out any assistance. I'm so proud of him. I wish he could stay a little baby forever, but I really feel so much Joy as I watch him learn and grow.

Falling back into place

For the longest time I was filling like I didn't have any structure or order in my life. For the first time since... maybe Sam was born, I am starting to feel like things are "normal." It was very hard adjusting to 2 kiddos, then adjusting to living with family, then moving cross country, then our housing falling through, you get the picture. Life was chaos, and I just wanted to go home. I was talking to my freind Adrienne recently who has also moved from Utah to Virginia and she put my feelings into words PERFECTLY. She had said that before her visit back to UT she was "romanticizing Utah". This resonated with me. I love Utah, I miss my family so much, but it wasn't until I went back and realized that everyone lives have gone on, Virginia was home now and I need to move on with the future too. Ever since I have embraced this notion, I have fallen in love with my situation. My marriage has grown stronger, who knew that such a great marriage could be even GREATER. I have really come to appreciate my role as a mother, I have come to know so many wonderful people out here that are both in my situation or have been and I love them all. The community of love out here is incredible! So basically life is good.

There is a lot to catch up on each of us so you can expect to read about each of us in a little more detail very soon. hopefully today if I can squeeze in more computer time. For now here is an old video but a milestone for Sam that I thought my family would like :)

Good or Bad I'll take 'em

Micah has been such a trouble maker lately. I've have learned that though silence can be wonderful and peaceful it is in fact the tell tale sign that something is going on and it isn't good. One of the naughty little things Micah enjoys doing is driving his cars and trains into his food. He is not allowed to have toys while he is eating but just like a lot of trouble makers out there, Micah is sneaky. He always finds a way to hide his car in his milk cup or crash a train into his noodles.

As of late Micah has been going behind my back and opening up boxes of crackers and cereal and dumping the whole thing out and then proceeding to drive his cars in the mess. recently we had a few kids over here to play. They asked for a snack so I sat them down at the table with crackers and cheese, I left for a moment and when I came back all the crackers had been dumped out onto the table, I walked into the kitchen and all the kids were just watching Micah make this "big huge mess." But that is not all I saw, oh no that is not all.... Micah had the honey in his hand and he was squeezing honey on top of all the crackers. I want to know where all the tattle tales in the world were at the time!?

And just today, I was in the kitchen and all of a sudden Micah runs in and shuts the sliding doors that close off the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. I asked Micah what was going on and he started pushing me back into the kitchen and said "stop mommy, go back." Needless to say I was not surprised to find a big pile of crackers all over the floor. I don't know what the fascination is with making these messes but it has got to stop. One more thing, Micah really likes to say "Look Mommy, I'm making a big huge mess." I hate this phrase more than anything right now.

Sam is a little angel right now, he idolizes his big brother. He is currently crawling and getting into EVERYTHING. And he has definitely spoken his first word, ball "ba, ba, ba." I like to play a game with him where I ask where's Daddy? where's Micah? where's Mommy? It's so fun to see him look at each of us on cue. He's such a sweetheart.

Cake anyone?

I think one of my New years resolutions should have been to post more in my blog. As far as resolutions go I have to admit that I have failed in regards to not wasting food. For example, this colorful birthday cake didn't really get eaten at all. Micah had a tiny bit and Ryan and I didn't have any at all, first of all we aren't big cake fans, and second, I have given up desserts for the month of January. (I am planning on giving up something for a whole month all year long, this isn't a resolution just a personal thing I am doing). So why stay up until the wee hours of the night to make a fancy cake that no one is going to eat? I think Micah's face says it all! He LOVES cake and has been saying that all he wants for his Birthday is cake. We planned a rainbow themed party but ended up having to cancel it because both of the boys caught a cold.

As far as other resolution go, I have been doing really great on my photo journal. So I got this idea from my SIL Katie, she did a photo for every day of the year a couple years ago and I loved the idea. We have gotten lots of fun photos so far and it has been really fun for me and Ryan to take a night once a week to go through a weeks worth of pictures and choose the one photo that will represent each day. January has been a blast!!!

Happy New Years 2011

Don't I look so happy!? I don't recommend bringing in the new year with a broken nose. Last night I was giving Micah a bath, when bath time was over, Micah and I were cleaning up the bath toys. I was hunched over the tub and Micah was standing bellow me. He got really excited and jumped straight up right into my face. I can't say for sure that my nose is broken, but I hurt it last night and it is still killing me tonight. From what I know about broken noses (which isn't a lot), there isn't much you can do to fix it. So I am going to wait out the pain and hope that it heals itself.

Happy New Years, I am very excited to start this new year! I have goals, resolutions and expectations for this coming year. I know myself well enough to know that I won't succeed at all the things I want to do this year, but if I don't at least try I am depriving myself of the opportunity to become a better person.

What I plan to do this year
Exercise
Read more
Eat more Fruits and Veggies
Waste less food
Quilt
Sew an outfit for each of my boys
Be less critical
Go to bed at a reasonable hour
Enjoy any free time Ryan and I find together ;-)
Photo journal for each day of the year that will include my family and our adventures.

Bring it on 2011!!!

2010 The year of tears

I have recently started referring to 2010, as "the year of tears" (just to myself). I'm pretty sure I have shed enough tears to fill a reservoir. Mind you, not all my tears have been sad tears. An extreme of any emotion will usually cause me to cry. This year has been very influential and meaningful, with so many blessing and trials coming one after another it's hard not to get weepy.

A highlight of the things that have impacted me this year

Micah
Micah is just so darn funny that sometimes I laugh so hard I cry, seriously! Let's be honest though, Micah is in his TERRIBLE TWO'S, and there have been moments that have been down right terrible with this head strong boy!

Sam joining the Family
I am so grateful to have my little Sam. He is the cuddliest, happiest baby. It's hard not to have tears of Joy when a new baby joins the family. With that said, Sam is a very hard baby. Sam has no interest in sleeping, and for the longest time he was only happy when he was being held. it has been a common occurrence for me to brake down in tears in from feeling uncontrollably tired from the lack of sleep from caring for a new baby. It never lasts for long though, all Samuel has to do is look at me with gummy smile and big brown eyes and I melt.

Moving Cross Country
This is a big one. Moving away has been so HARD! I have missed my family so much. I definitely have a greater appreciation for them and for all the love and help we received so abundantly. We still enjoy these blessings from them, but it has so hard to be away from the physicality of it all.

My Grandma Passing away
For the last couple years I, along with several other members of my family, took part in a wonderful opportunity to take dinner to my grandparents a couple times a month (It added up to them receiving meals almost every single night a week). We did this to help my Grandpa who was constantly caring for my grandmother, she suffered from Alzheimer's and Parkinson disease. It was really hard to see her suffering, so when she was coming close to the end, I was feeling a sense of relief for her. Her passing however was so hard. I love her so much and it was so painful to say my last goodbyes to her. She was bed ridden when we moved and I was firm on coming home when the inevitable happened. It was about a week and a half after arriving in Virginia that I got the sad news that she had passed. My grandmothers condition brought tears to my eyes several times as I saw her and my grandpa endure these tough times. Her passing however was heartbreaking. And when my plans to fly home for her funeral services fell through, I was devastated. I really wanted to surround myself with my family because we were all going through the same thing, I didn't like grieving alone. Thankfully for technology, I was able to view the service via Skype. It didn't exactly make up for being there but it helped. This experience was a good reminder to me that through Jesus Christ, Families can be together forever. This is a beautiful, wonderful promise.

5 Year Wedding Anniversary!
I didn't exactly cry because of anything that has to do with my Anniversary. The fact of the Matter is November 11, 2010 was a hard day. The funny thing is, the day started off so well. My spirits were high because of the occasion at hand. I woke to a beautiful sunny day, I had a fabulous time with my kids at the park and we had a wonderful afternoon at home together. I had even thought to myself earlier that day that there isn't anything in the world that could spoil my day. Then out of nowhere Micah started becoming very weepy and whiny, patiently I tried for several hours to figure out what was wrong. Eventually both boys were crying, it was more than I could handle; I started to cry too. Something was clearly wrong and I couldn't figure out what. My poor boys just wanted to be held. I did the best I could but it was so hard to console them, so from 3:00 pm to 7 or 8:00pm my boys just cried and cried until they fell asleep. We have had a few of these episodes this year and I am not sure what triggers them. They have definitely taught me to be more patient.

I wouldn't have been able to get through the last year with out the support of family and friends. I have been especially grateful for my husband and my Faith in God.