The Truth

Okay, everyone keeps asking me how I like it out here in Virginia. The truth is I LOVE all of the friends I have made. If I didn't have them I would be miserable. With that said, I am SO HOMESICK! I feel that I have had one too many encounters with the rude people of Virginia.

I feel as though this area is not very child friendly. Just the other day Micah was running down a long, wide hallway in our building and a man started yelling at him telling him he shouldn't be running inside. I felt really angry because I told Micah he could run, besides us and the man the hall was empty. One more story for venting purposes. I had to take Sam to the department of heath to get his next round of immunizations. While we were waiting for our turn, I let Micah look out the window down at the cars. It was time for us to be seen and Micah was not interested in leaving his spot at the window. After failing to persuade him to come with me, I just scooped him up and took him to the back with me. He was obviously angry with me, he began to yell at me and hit me. I looked at him and sternly said, "Micah, I don't hit you, please don't hit me." After waiting in the patient room a little longer, the nurse finally came back with Sam's vaccines. Once the door opened Micah booked it out. She told me not to worry about Micah and to hold Sam while she administered the vaccines. I am sure this nurse has done hundreds of vaccines, but I was very distressed by her technique. There were four vaccines, after she took her time with the first one (poking Sam, cleaning the blood applying the bandage). I asked her to just get it over with and handle the blood and bandaging at the very end. As you might imagine, she did not appreciate me telling her how to do her job :-). After a little spat (very little) she took my suggestion. Sam was a wreck once it was all over, I could not console him. I was feeling very stressed out because I couldn't comfort Sam and Micah was up to who knows what!? The Nurse told me to just take a seat and try to feed Sam, and She would keep an eye on Micah for me. While I did this, I could here her outside chastising Micah,

Nurse: DID YOU DO THIS?, DID YOU DO THIS? ( I have no idea what was going on outside).
Micah: NO!
Nurse: Your Mama says she doesn't spank you, if you were my baby I'd spank you!

The Nurse came back in and told me that I need to change my parenting techniques. She continued to tell me that Micah was the one in control, not me, and I should start spanking. I felt that her judgments were harsh and unfair. The situation was more than I could handle. I don't mind so much that she was criticizing my parenting, after all I probably deserved it for trying to critique her. But she was completely out of line for yelling at Micah. I was so angry that I left nearly in tears. At This point I am planning on writing the department of health about their less than friendly employees (this is only one of several experiences there).

Thanks for letting me vent a little.


My little trouble maker and his sure to be partner in crime :-)

Guess what? It's Ryan's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Ryan. I wan the whole world to know how wonderful Ryan is, it's really hard for me to be specific, I'm not very good at being gushy. All I can say he is a great husband, Friend and father. Happy Birthday Ryan.

For Ryan's Birthday we spent the day at home enjoying each others company and trying to enjoy General Conference. Micah woke me up bright and early, so we decorated our apartment and made a yummy stuffed french toast breakfast for Ryan. Micah keeps running up to Ryan saying, "guess what daddy?... It's your Birthday!"

How I spend my days

It isn't uncommon for people to ask me or other stay at home moms what we do all day. I wondered the same thing before I stepped into this role. And some days I still ask myself that same question (usually it is with a more exasperated tone "what did I do all day!?"). Thankfully, I have photos that serve as a great reminder of how I spend my time.

The photo booth pictures are from the last time Micah and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium. Micah and I spend a lot of time reading books, going to the park, playing with trains or building with his blocks. Micah is also a really great help around the house.

This is a photo shoot during tummy time with Sam. Sam and I spend a lot of time cuddling, looking at our reflection in the mirror, and babbling to each other. Sam loves to be a part of all the action going on around him, he is practically attached to my hip. :-)

My Sunbeams

I have more to post, which I will do soon, here are some fun pictures from the last week. :)

Sam reminds me of a Sunbeam, he is so cute!

Micah is in awe of the Washing Wamingment aka Washington Monument

Mindy Gledhill - Anchor

Maybe some of you out there already know Mindy Gledhill, I just heard of her. I saw this video a few days ago and I can't get enough, she is so talented!

We love our little Sam

Here are some photos we took (Ryan and I took turns). I wanted to get some nice pictures of Sam before he grew out of his blessing clothes. I think they turned out pretty cute.

One Year older and Wiser too!

Thank you to everyone who made me feel so much love on my Birthday, I had a very *wonderful day. Thank you especially to Ryan. He got me everything I wanted and didn't even spend a dime! How great is that!? I asked Ryan if we could have a few friends over (a few of the people we have met since we have been out here, but already great friends) for dinner and games. One of my friends offered to make my birthday cake. She made the most amazing German Chocolate Cake, it was so tasty. I also asked Ryan if I could have this head board and base board that someone in our building threw out. We found it on the loading dock (to be taken with the trash). He was a champ and got that for me too. I can't wait to paint it so that it will match our bedroom. And last of all I asked for Family pictures. We still haven't done them but he has promised them to me, I am so excited to have them done. They will be a self portrait, so we are getting great pictures and saving a bundle!



You know the movie That Thing You Do? Well there is a part in the movie when the Wonders are trying to come up with their band name and one of the band member wants them to be called the One-ders. I just spelled wonderful with an O-N-E, oops. :)

Bath TIme

Last Friday while giving Micah a Bath I decided to throw Sam in too. I was skeptical about how it might go but both boys needed a bath and I might as well get it done in one shot right? Much to my surprise, Sam was loving bath time. every time Micah would splash Sam would burst out a good gutty ha ha laugh, It was the best!

100th post!

Yeah we are all settled in to our new apartment and adjusting to living in Virginia. rewind. You read this correctly the first time. we are all settled into our new apartment. perhaps you are wondering what happened to the cute little house we were planning on moving into. You know the cute little house with a sun porch, a library and a park that were closer than a hop skip and a jump away. Well I am sad to report that little house just wasn't ready for us.
The following will solely be an explanation of our experience, I promise I am NOT complaining. We arrived in Washington D.C. on 8/15. We woke up bright and early the next day to go to church. After our meeting we were able to round up a lot of help for our moving day (which was suppose to be Wednesday that week). After church we met the Realtor and had a tour of the house. We loved it and told him that we wanted the house. The following day we were planning on signing the lease and working out all the other details so we would be ready to move in. We also received a call that the moving truck would be arriving 1 day early meaning Tuesday, the very next day Tuesday! We had a very hard time reaching our Realtor and his colleague (who had our paper work) all day. We had called multiple times through out the day and Ryan and I were both starting to become very anxious, frustrated and very irritable. When we finally reached Stan (Realtor, I have changed his name for his protection, lol) we informed his that our things would be arriving a day early, He told us that wouldn't be a problem and he would have someone call us so we can get everything squared away. Several more hours later it was dinner time and we still hadn't heard anything. Just as we we're packing up to go out and find something to eat the phone rang, it was Stan! Ryan seemed very unhappy as he sat and listened on the phone and I knew right then that we weren't going to be moving into that cute little house. Apparently the Landlord wants to do work on the foundation of the house before anyone moves in. This project was estimated to take 5 days. We didn't want 5 days to turn into 2 weeks or a month, etc. so we decided not to wait to move in. We made a few calls and got a few suggestions of places we could go check out. unfortunately all of the apartments we were calling were done showing rooms for the day, or no one had rooms for immediate move in. After a couple hours we received a call from someone we had met at church the day before. He and his wife had a few appointments lined up that night for apartments they were going to go see, and invited us to come with them. We went and met them immediately. To my surprise we were looking at apartments in a High Rise! One of them was still occupied and the other was available Immediately. The apartments were much farther than we wanted to live but we heard that they offered a free shuttle to the metro, they also have a pool and a fitness center. The family that had invited us to tag along with them also invited us to come look at their apartments and they gave us dinner ( I can't believe how wonderful and helpful and kind people have been out here). Finally at 9:00, we got some dinner (4 hours after we had intended to eat) and tried to make a decision about where we were going to live. Ryan and I felt so much pressure to pick a place, it was too hard to choose that night, so after sleeping on it we decided to go with the high rise. We are very pleased with our decision so far. My BIGGEST complaint (now I am complaining a little) is that because we were moving in immediately, the landlord didn't have the apartment cleaned up for us. I can handle most if the dirty work but the carpets are so filthy. We have done some cleaning to make ourselves feel a tiny bit better, but we still don't feel comfortable enough to walk on it bare foot; except Micah who only wants to go around bare foot). Our main goal at this point is to finish unpacking all of our rooms, so we can get the carpets cleaned. That it our move in story, I could probably go on and blame the Realtor, or the Landlord, or the moving company, but why? The fact of the matter is it didn't work out. And most importantly, we are very happy in our new place.

This photo is not for the faint of heart


These dirt little feet are a daily occurrence, this is after a few hours of playing on our dirty carpet. I feel like I am constantly washing Micah's feet

The First day of school

Ryan has officially finished his first week of school. We are all really proud of him for braving this new adventure, and so grateful that he is sharing it with us. Good Luck Ryan we love you!