Our Smiling Babe!

Sean finally got Mira to flash her gums for the camera, the results? Priceless!

Mira, mira in the mirror

I changed the photo becuase I felt bad having such an unflattering pic of my kid posted for the whole world to see. But let it be on record that once upon a time, my kid fell asleep on the floor while calling for his mom aka "sweetheart"

Rogue Toddler

Warning: This is a picture of a kid who has not napped for NINE. CONSECUTIVE. DAYS. His. mother. is. going. absolutely. crazy. She wonders, "Is it wrong to want to lock your child in his room?" Story to be continued...

To Boise and Back

We've had some nice family time these past few weeks, as I'm sure many of you have as well. The weekend before Thanksgiving we went to Boise and see my whole family (minus the sister in China). We arrived Friday at 2 am and went to my parents house at 7 am to see my dad off before he got a biopsy on some lumps in his neck. Sean gave him a blessing and it was a really nice, spiritual time. Most of my family hadn't met Mira yet and they were all smitten with her just like we are. My sister Maggie who flew out from Minnesota especially bonded with her- they actually look a lot like eachother as babies. I'm sad I didn't get a picture of them together or a picture of everyone while we were there. But, good news, the biopsy results came back negative- no cancer! Grandpa Walter & Mirabelle

Auntie Maggie

Then on Nov. 30th, we blessed Mira Robyn at church in her gown that Grandma Robyn made for her. Sean's whole family was here and got to participate in the blessing, including his younger brother who was recently ordained. It was a very special time to all be together and the blessing was very touching. Beautiful Blessing BabyThe Family at the Blessing

Our Thanksgiving was filled with family, fun and more fotos! We all packed up to Alton Baker Park and April was up for the challenge again. It was a gorgeous setting and the kids cooperated too (although Calvin is doing a monster pose here while tearing leaves apart). Such good memories- we love our families.

Trust Me...Boring is Good

Monday December 1st was an exciting day. I remember thinking as a teenager that my life was boring and I wanted it to be more exciting. Well now I know from experience that there is "good" exciting and "bad" exciting. This is how the day went, mind you almost all of the excitement was completed by noon.

• 2 am- 3 am: Held baby in bathroom with shower running to help her stuffy nose. I tried to find a comfortable way to lean back on the toilet- it wasn't comfy so I imagined why aren't there beds or lounge chairs in bathrooms? Not good exciting.
  

• 5 am: Two-year old wakes up husband and wants to play. Sean spent the next hour and a half thinking of different reasons to convince Calvin to lay down for at least another 5 minutes. They finally got up at 6:30 to make a fire. Not good exciting.
  

• 7:30 am: I woke up to hear Calvin screaming, "Dada!" over and over and I thought that I had somehow slept in and Sean had already left for work...not so...Calvin had been trying to "tickle" Sean's eye and inadvertently poked him really hard in the eye. I found Sean laying down holding his eye closed because he couldn't see. It was red and hurt for two days. He spent the whole day wearing sunglasses and in pain. Not good exciting.
  

• 8:30 am: I am late for going to open the indoor playgym. I waited until the last minute to wake up the baby because of our exciting 2 am bathroom excursion. I have everything ready except I cannot find my dang tooth! Mind you I have a front tooth on a retainer aka "flipper" and I have looked in all of the usual places...the bathroom counter, the kitchen, the nightstand (if this is grossing you out, I apologize, maybe one day you'll have dentures and it will seem more funny)...everywhere! So I call Sean asking if he knows where it is and after he asks me to check all of the usual places, he tells me to check under a basket of laundry in our room so I willingly but confusedly comply. Digging, digging, digging...found it! How in the world did he know it was there? Then he tells me that in the middle of the night he felt something under his pillow (don't ask, I don't remember putting it there), and he thought it was Diego's rescue falcon and he chucked it across the room. He thought it was all a dream until I called him. Can you imagine if the tooth fairy found that tooth? Not good exciting.
  

• 8:40-11 am: Played at the indoor playground, brought brownies and sang Happy Birthday to our friend Jake and had a great time. Good exciting!
  

• 12 noon: Scrambled around making lunch and getting ready for naptime. Since Calvin was bonkers tired from getting up so early and not napping the day before, he was running around wreaking havoc. He decided to fish Sean's keys out of his pocket and does something that I knew would happen sometime in his childhood but I didn't think it would be so soon and I hope it never happens again- he finds an outlet that was temporarily uncovered and puts. the. key. in. Next thing I know I hear screaming, we grab the kid and I kick the keys out with my foot. He was holding his finger like he got a good zing but was otherwise ok. scary scary scary. NOT good exciting.

• 6:30 pm: Brought dinner to our friends who just had a baby and got to meet cute Isabella! Good exciting!

• 9 pm: Picked up my sister at the train station who just flew in from China! This was the best part of my day. Good exciting!

Here's to many more "boring" days.

(notice Sean with his reddened eye on the right)

Sling-sweetness

This is how Mira fell asleep last night...truly sleeping like a baby

Phamily Photos

Its that time of year again...family picture time! This whole process is new to me, hopefully I can fine tune it down to an art over the years, but this year we were lucky to slick our hair down and run to the backyard for some snapshots. Lucky for us, my friend April was there to shoot the camera and squeak the duck toy to make sure the kids looked in the right direction (at one point I caught myself looking at the toy and not the camera... must-stay-focused). We're happy with the results and are going to use them in our Christmas cards this year. Here are a few teaser pics that we love. Check out April's photography blog if you're interested in her photo shooting your family this year. She also does PhotoShop to enhance the pictures creatively- it made up for what we lacked and made the cute photos look even cuter!

Toddler's Got Talent

In case you were wondering what Calvin does in his spare time, he makes up moves like this, aka: The Monkey Dance!

Kids, kids, kids

I did a brief photo session with Mira the other day and here are the cute results! Gotta keep up with the pics for the out of town family you know.Sweet Mira-belle She's almost 2 months! Me & my bebe, proof that other people besides my kids exist

In the meantime, I wanted to document what is going on in Calvin's world...

Proof that we make Calvin clean up his messes- dried refried beans even

Calvin the rocker (during General Conference even- where did he learn to rock out with the guitar like this???)

Tagged!

My friend Sandi tagged me- its my first tag! Apparently I can't avoid blogging for long, I enjoy it too much.

RANDOM

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people and let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.
6. Don't forget to come back and tell me you completed this tag!

Random Me
1. I absolutely love the feeling of fresh sheets.

2. My two least favorite chores are doing the dishes and mopping the floor.

3. My all-time favorite ice cream is cookies & cream.

4. I always mute the TV on commercials.

5. I've developed this obsessive habit over the past year of shaking out my shoes before putting them on in fears that a spider might have crawled in overnight.

6. I am a rehabilitated night-owl.


I tag:
1. Janelle
2. April
3. Meghann
4. Teresa
5. Stephanie
6. Shannon

You're it!

How I Know I Love My Kids

Today started out as one of those days. You know...those days. The day where your kid wakes up an hour earlier than normal and has one of those icky runny noses so you can't see any friends. I've now dubbed them "nursery noses" because the ickiness tends to show up about about two days after church.

I was trying to get stuff done but kept having these fine moments where both kids wanted to be held and so what did I finally do? Something slightly crazy I'll admit, but I'd rather hold my kids in the moment than let them scream. Since I already had the baby in one sling, and Calvin was dying to be held continously, I tried putting on another sling. Two slings?! If you don't believe me, look at the picture. It only lasted about 5 minutes: long enough to realize how rare this was, to think of telling the kids one day- "see what I did for you?" and take a picture to document it. I think Calvin was slightly amused at the whole contraption, Mira, on the other hand, was not.

My next crazy, but endearing moment happened in the rocking chair. I was rocking Calvin back to sleep after he fell asleep on our walk and Mira woke up hungry. I grabbed her, mind you I already had pee and snot on my shirt from the toddler because he had an accident (we've regressed a little in the potty training...new baby and all), cradled and nursed her in one arm while Calvin crookedly and uncomfortably laid his head in my other arm. I almost felt like I had twins. I looked down at my kids and genuinely thought-

these are the days I will cherish in my life.

Then two minutes later the baby spit up on my shirt. And I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You

This is my daily therapy session: going out for a nice walk/jog in the new stroller. The kids look comfy too!

Just a Few More

Here are some current pictures of the offspring. Seriously, when you have kids, there is nothing else a camera is used for!
Mira was relaxing in one of my many baby carriers. She is definitely one of us because she loves being held.
Calvin actually looks a lot like me when I was little, especially with this smile
Our cute little Mira-belle
Aren't they the cutest siblings?

FYI...

So besides being pretty busy with a toddler and a newborn, I have decided to take on two college courses (!) at the local community college. I'm taking an online Family Nutrition class- it is already very interesting, and a night-time Sociology class. They both have quite a bit of reading involved and I'm guessing I'll have little to no time to post on my blog. So we'll all be pleasantly surprised if I even throw some pictures up sometime between now and December, right? Right!

Pint-Sized Scholars

I've been pondering about life's recent events, as new mommies sometimes do, and I came to a few conclusions about what my children's births have taught me...

Calvin's birth taught me that I'm not invincible like I thought I was. His birth was a lesson in humility. The labor was longer and harder than I thought it would be, and then, much to everyone's surprise, my uterus decided to invert and bleed like crazy causing a real emergency where I lost a lot of blood, had to be put under general anesthesia and had a long recovery. It made me very grateful for modern medicine, without which I would not have survived. Mira's birth taught me that I'm stronger than I think I am. Everything went so fast, but it was truly so incredibly hard. My mind or body didn't have time to catch up with what was going on. Before I knew it, there was a baby in my arms. But I realized, if I can go through 45 minutes (the actual labor was longer) of the most intense, incredible pain I could ever imagine, then I can do anything. This is a new realization for me and it is very inspiring. This sweet, precious newborn gives me strength in ways I didn't know I had before.

A Day in the Life...

A random assortment of pictures- just our recent family life. Sean and I had our 6th anniversary yesterday and in the midst of it all I found him napping with another girl! Lucky for him it was our daughter so he is off the hook. We love our cute kids! We are a very happy family. So glad that we could be sealed together in the Temple way back when. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

Our Sweet Baby

I just couldn't resist adding more pictures of our adorable little girl. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

She Is Here

First there were three... A trip to the new hospital...A speedy and safe labor & delivery later...
Born Tuesday September 2, 2008 9:27 pm, 7 lb 11 oz, 19 1/2 in...
And then there were four!...

Welcome Mira Robyn! (click on name to see link)

One Last Hurrah

All summer we've been talking about squeezing in an overnight trip to Portland before the baby comes...well it finally happened this weekend. This was a final pre-baby and early anniversary (our 6th year is on September 14th) treat to ourselves. I planned the weekend and my guys were good sports to go along. Here is how we celebrated:

Sean got off work early on Friday and we drove up with Calvin and made our first stop at the Portland temple. Sean and Calvin ran around on the grounds while I had some peaceful time inside. It was really nice because I know it will be while before I get the chance to go back.
My sweet sister Nedda watched Calvin while Sean and I got a real date! We went to an Ethiopian restaurant called Dalo's near her house and got STUFFED on their spongy bread and sauce fillings. It was soooooooo good. I'm a sucker for good ethnic food.
After dinner we walked 3 blocks to a place called Pix Patisserie and I got the most amazing creme' brulee ever- I even woke up dreaming about it- it was Amazing! I mmmmed and ahhhed my way through every bite. Then we went and stayed at a hotel that we got at a discounted rate through our good friends. So nice! Sean and Calvin even went swimming in the pool the next morning.

In all of the years I've lived in Oregon I've never been to the Portland Rose garden, so it was high time to finally mark it off of the checklist (Crater Lake is next now). I wasn't disappointed. So many amazing, beautiful flowers. The weather was great, lots of people were meandering and we even saw people taking wedding photos. I had fun taking lots of close up shots of the roses. Maybe roses will be the next theme for my collage frame I have in my living room.This is one of my favorite shots On our way back out of town, we had to stop at this little gem we discovered a few years ago in Lake Oswego. We love their burgers and shakes and the no-nonsense atmosphere of the place. They only take cash so we had to run to an ATM, but I got a yummy bleu-cheese burger and a blackberry milkshake. They have like 15 kinds of burgers and it just is yummy. Not totally cheap though, lunch for the 3 of us was over $25.
I've heard a lot about Anthropologie from my friends but have never ventured there myself, so I made a point of us visiting the store in Lake Oswego. I didn't buy much but had a lot of fun looking around. My favorite was the bins of drawer pulls they had- so unique and fun. It made me want to go out and buy a bunch of dressers to refinish...but for now I just admired, greatly admired.

And that was our weekend excursion! We had a fabulous time. It was a well deserved break and now I feel much more ready to have this bambina come...