Favorite New Thing

This is a window just to the right of our front door. After being here a few days I knew I wanted it covered at night. I started looking around in the housing to see what other people had to block the view. Driving through one day I noticed some stained glass looking stuff. So I got on Amazon (my favorite place to shop) and searched for "stained glass window cling." Voilà! Up popped up this amongst a few choices. I was so excited to get it and now I love looking in that direction all the time.


I'd love to have stained glass windows in my home. One day I will make personally design and make my own windows. But since it's likely that it is going to be a very long time before we get to a permanent (more than three year) home, I'll make due with this great invention in the meantime.

Splash Pad Fun

Friday night we went to an outdoor mall that has a big splash pad and just let Guy play away for over an hour and a half. After Guy warmed up to it, he loved it. It was a great Friday evening activity and an extra perk is that the mall even hands out complimentary towels for the splash pad when the kids are done.

Saturday morning we went to a Metro Park with two other neighborhood families. We all took picnics and played for a few hours. This park even had water police (really just a guy on a lawn chair with a whistle and his lunch). I should have taken a photo of the whole water contraption because it was really fun - they had knobs to turn and chains to pull to control the water flow in different places. It was a lot of fun.

Coop's Hair

After a counselor in our bishopric of our Midvale ward came up and gently asked if Cooper's mohawk was on purpose*, while Rob was gone, I decided to fix the situation.

The trim revealed some funny growth patterns of different colors. Coop also has 2 white hairs already.

* In all fairness, mohawks on little boys seem to be quite the trend right now. The day the counselor asked I walked past a 6 year old boy at church who had brightly dyed red hair in a spiked mohawk down the middle of his head.

Magic Touch

I keep trying to get photos of Cooper with a messy face and smiling, but when I pull out the camera, he usually just stares, like this.

Guy walks in and elicits this, no problem. Now if I could only get him to look at me. . .

He's Sitting!

It's for less than a minute at a time, but it's progress, and I'll take it. He's actually really starting to move around, too. The army crawl is his favorite but he's even trying to get up on all fours. The incentive is usually Guy's toys though I'm sure if I put food on the floor he'd take off.

These

are the batteries that the movers removed from things in our house before they packed. Truthfully, most of them came from toys. That would be why last year my big request for Christmas was no battery operated toys (for Guy).

Guy has most of his toys back (though I was pretty slow to unpack the majority of them), but I have only reinstalled batteries in things like clocks, remotes, and flashlights. Oh, the ball popper - that toy has it's batteries back, but that's only because shortly after we got it Rob cut the music/speaker wire -- best move ever.

And We're Back

We've been in our new place for three weeks tomorrow. All of the downstairs boxes are unpacked, with the exception of the garage (does that ever count?), and yesterday I finally did a makeshift reassembly of our hamper (just one of the things our movers didn't move very well). So there's progress. Yesterday I even got two sets of shelves to help me organize our five cupboards they call a kitchen in our floor plan (okay, it's not quite THAT bad, but it's close).

It's great to be back together as a family, and in our own place again.

Lots of stuff going on. Last week I felt pretty back to normal busy while still surrounded by boxes. I was able to help watch two different ladies' children for doctors appointments on Tuesday and Thursday and Wednesday I was able to participate in a missionary discussion with the elders in our ward. It was great.

In the list of most remarkable things of note:

- Rob and Guy's Saturday tradition as of late is to try out donut shops. As a result, Rob discovered the best donuts I've ever had (Bill's) - crispy on the outside and super soft inside. Now, if only he'd stop (kind of). He's down to his high school weight and his smallest pair of jeans is loose on him. I need COT much more than he did, if only I could have gone in his place. He's lifting 3xs a week during lunch, trying to fit in running when he can, and tracking it with the help of his birthday present, a new Garmin Forerunner 305. We all love having him home every night of the week for the first time since he started school in August of 2008.

- Coop has a love affair with food. This six month old could beat any adult anorexic in an all day eating contest, hands down. Yesterday he started the day off with 10 oz. of milk (measured because I was wondering if he's getting enough from nursing), then he ate four large containers of baby food, 2 2x6 inch baby crackers, four large handfuls of baby puffs, one regular sized rice cake, and I can't remember what else, but there was more, I'm positive. Now if only the kid would stop all his drooling and just grow some teeth already. He cries almost every time I wipe his face and take him out of his chair. It seems he's certain that he thinks he is going to starve to death. And the only thing more interesting than food to this little boy is the beloved big brother.

- Guy is occasionally sleeping through the whole night again. With all the changes, he's had it the roughest, I think. And in the upheaval, night terrors began. His first was the worst and it was a full-fledged kicking-and-screaming-it's-unbelievably-scary-what-my-child-is-capable-of tantrum in the middle of the night. It was especially disturbing because I didn't know what it was. My mom was a huge help that night (I woke her up not knowing what else to do), and then she was talking about it with someone the next day and that's when we figured out what it was. He's had a lot of night episodes since then, but nothing nearly as bad, thankfully. Guy is really doing great here. He loves all his new friends - including but not limited to the five boys ages 6 and under in our circle. He's speaking really well - saying tomato and banana as clear as can be (sometimes I hear him practicing to himself, it's darling), and his interaction with all the neighborhood friends is really good, too. We're thrilled to be where we are, but learning the not-so-fun part of the military life fast, as the 2 boys that Guy plays with most will be off to a new assignment in mid-October, probably.

- I get to order PhotoShop tomorrow. That is, IF a paycheck comes through for the FIRST time since Rob made the job change. "Clerical Errors" have been a massive pain in my side for the last month and a half. Last Saturday I did my first paid photography gig. So the short version is that a neighbor/friend asked me to do her family after seeing some of my photos of Guy and Cooper. I said yes on the spot, but didn't think anything of money. Afterwards she offered. In the same sentence I said yes and told her Rob will be thrilled. I want to get better at the whole marketing side of it. I NEED to if I'm going to succeed.

With PhotoShop I'll be catching up a lot more with pictures soon enough. But in the meantime, enjoy this little gem. I love that when my little boys are holding hands it looks like it could be a multicultural/unity/togetherness ad.

keeping busy

Here's what we've been up to the last couple of days - in photos.
Draper Days Bike Parade

 Guy's face after free watermelon and rootbeer + some $5 pizza

All the photos I took of Cooper were fuzzy. But he, being the easy going baby that he is, hung out in his car seat the whole time - spending the time taking it all in, or sleeping.

Visiting with my Grandmother at her home for the morning.

 Playing with water after nap time.

Cooper? ... sleeping. :)

photo update

no photoshop right now - in another month or so I'll add that to this computer (and rob's got the other computer at COT).

 guy "helping" me clean the fridge before we moved

 at the zoo with cousins that were around for a few weeks

 and Bubbe

 just a few shots while rob's hair was still "long"

 at the provo 4th of july parade

 hanging out with the great grandparents

My Half

I've got 115 blog entries to read in my blog reader right now. I'm really not subscribed to too many blogs, but it's been weeks since I've had a chance to sit and read. Then there are all of the private blogs . . .

The night Rob left I had some stomach pains. An hour after losing my stomach I finally fell asleep (at 1:30 am). Not a great way to start out.

I'm constantly sleep deprived. Last night was particularly bad. Cooper woke up just as I was going to sleep, so I fed him, simultaneously nodding off throughout the process. Then he woke up at 5:30 this morning. He wasn't happy about something (still never figured that out), but he cried for 30 minutes before finally calming down enough to eat. He hasn't cried like that since he was a month or two old. Which reminds me, today he is 5 months old. Last Sunday I put him in a 6-9 month dress shirt for church. I couldn't even button the top two buttons because it is already too small. I'd already put a onesie on underneath, so it stayed on, just unbuttoned. It was the first (and last time) he wore that shirt. I'm hoping he doesn't grow too fast in the next few weeks - I only packed 6-9 month clothes for this last month we're in Utah.

Guy's doing better at sleeping through noise. The 3 of us sharing a room right now is working better than I expected. We could spread out more, but I know Guy likes being in there with me and until I let Cooper cry it out, I want him as close as possible.

One of my saving graces this month with be the Bakker family. Their mom was my visiting teacher while we lived her before and we've kept in touch. Her 4 kids love the boys, and are wonderful with them. Her oldest, Dani has been a huge help with Guy (watched him the first time we went to the base), and takes both boys for times like my orthodontist visit (since I lost my retainers in the move). Today she and her sister took the boys to the Dinosaur Museum for 3 hours. It was my first break during normal waking hours where I didn't have to get something done that I can remember in a LONG time. She has plans to take Guy to the farm at Thanksgiving Point next week. If her sister is around, Cooper will go, too. They wear the boys out, who then come home to eat then nap, and I feel rested for the first time in again, a long time.

Sunday evening we went over to their house for snow cones and we all loved it. They pass Cooper around, Guy entertains and is entertained, and I mostly just sit and chat.

It's such a HUGE blessing to have people that care close to me right now. I felt like I was a mess for the first week. I kept finding out that things were lost - almost every time I needed something I couldn't find it. Yesterday I finally found everything that fell into that category - checkbook, a lost check written to me for $500, some gift cards, Guy's socks, etc. A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders in that regard, and I'm grateful to once again gain my bearings. Now I'm just hoping to get back on the bike, get in shape, and go shopping before leaving for Ohio.

Now for some photo updates if Guy doesn't wake up before I can finish . . .

Incredibly Busy

Right now I feel like life is flying by faster than I can keep up, but the important things (necessities - and some fun for Guy) are at least getting done.

What I've heard from Rob's end:
He went to church on Sunday - on a bus. With 18 or so other men dressed in ABUs (the camo). 10 other men also went in other vehicles. He stayed for just sacrament meeting then returned to the base to get some stuff done, but next week he'll be able to stay for the whole block.

He ran his fastest 1.5 miles ever yesterday. It was "12 something" (he's too busy and tired to even remember). I know the fatigue is wearing on him because he didn't pull through so well on pushups for the first practice PT Test. That morning, he did his worst set of pushups in a long time, unfortunately. It'll be fine, though. I'm sure he'll get back to those okay. Regardless of how he does at COT, he has to redo the test in Ohio shortly after we get there and that is when it will really count.

For the first time ever, they are doing room inspections at COT. He had a list of things to do to prepare his room for that, including fold all of his socks a certain way - not to mention the specifics of how each garment is to be folded. He's only allowed one 8x10 framed photo in his room. Because of the specific instructions about that, he doesn't even want to worry about. They all get to hang photos on a bulletin board in their flight instruction room (where they receive most if not all of their daily instruction), so I'll send some photos off to him soon.

Since he got there last Tuesday I've gotten to speak with him every day, but each of our conversations (including over the weekend when he should have more down time) haven't lasted longer than 15 minutes.

They had a test on Saturday (still don't know what that covered), but he and his roommate were the only ones in the flight (that's what they call his study group) to get 100%. His roommate is a dentist, and his wife is too. They are both doing COT together. Unfortunately, though, they are both on 72 hour leave right now--his father is dying. Even though he was gone, his half of the room had to be ready for inspection anyway, so Rob and others in their flight did all that work for him.

When we talk I should start writing down points to remember. He wants to add a blog update himself, but I'm not sure that's going to happen anytime soon.

I know this is very non-cohesive - sorry about that. I get it all in bits and pieces myself.