Random thoughts

I think I'll just post a random collection of pictures and thoughts today.

* I wish my little Nathan could stay 3 1/2 months old forever and ever. He is so snuggly and smiley and happy and sweet! Sometimes when I think about the fact that he's going to grow into a two-year-old with all the trauma that entails I feel downright depressed.

* It never ceases to amaze me how different these two are.

Could they look more different? Also Nathan HATES being in his carseat and Cait loved it -- it was a guaranteed way to get her to sleep and it's usually the opposite for Nathan. Caitlyn hated diaper changes (and let's be honest, every diaper change is still a round of WWF), Nathan smiles and squeals as soon as he knows he's about to get a clean diaper. Nathan has slept well from day one, Caitlyn...let's just say we spent a lot of time holding her in a recliner in the middle of the night for the first few months.

* Grandma and Grandpa brought the bed I slept in in highschool when they came to visit, and they even sanded and painted it up beautifully! So Cait now has a sweet little bed instead of her crib mattress on the floor.

* Caitlyn was "helping" me do my makeup this morning and took the opportunity to do a little makeup of her own when I went to get the phone. Things could have been much worse with a rogue mascara brush. :) All I can say is wet wipes have become my best friend. They work like magic.

To Every Stay-at-home Mom

My friend Christy sent me this in an email the other day and I was laughing so hard at the mental image of some of these that I was crying! So I thought I'd post this for other stay at home moms to enjoy. :)

12 Questions every Stay at Home Mom should be allowed to ask her husband when he comes home and complains about a "hard day" at work!

1. When you walked into work this morning and pleasantly greeted your co-worker Jim, was his first reaction to scream “NO! WANT JASON!" followed by an office supply being thrown at you?

2.Has a colleague ever climbed up on your lap while you were using your computer and slammed the keyboard with both fists until the up arrow no longer worked?

3.Do you have to lock yourself in the supply closet or bathroom on a regular basis in order to make phone calls?

4. Did you finish a complete thought at any time during the day?

5. When you went out to lunch with your fellow workers, did you have to pack a diaper/juice/extra outfit for them? Did you have to wipe their faces? Smile an apology and leave an extra tip for the waiter on their behalf?

6. When a co-worker needed you for something, did she sit at her desk with her head tilted back toward the ceiling and repeatedly scream “SEAN! SEEEEANNNN! SEAAAAAAN!” until you came to find him?

7. When you needed a specific colleague, did you search all over for him, only to finally find him giggling in the cabinet under the sink? Did you also find six pairs of your church shoes under there with him?

8. Have you had to come to an associate’s aid because she fell off her desk after trying to climb on top of it using a rolling chair?

9. When you reached for the report a co-worker was handing you, did he snatch them away at the last second and scream “MINE!” while shoving
you backwards?

10. Does your colleague lift up her shirt and pick things out of her belly button every time she comes over to ask a question?

11. While you are using the restroom, do various co-workers come in the stall and ask you to settle a disagreement or open a packet of fruit snacks?

12. During a board meeting when everyone is present, do you notice a smell and then have to check all your colleagues’ pants to locate it? In fact, at ANY point in your day do you have to deal with another person's feces?

I'm sure we could all add a few of our own to this!

Caitlyn quotes

A few of my favorite recent quotes from Cait:

As daddy picks her up to put her pajamas on: "Give some spaaace!" (When she's close to accidentally smothering the baby with her hugs and kisses I say to her, "Cait, let's give the baby some space ok?")

While she's sitting on the potty and we're singing funny songs together: "Mommy, you're crazy kid."

Very loudly during sacrament meeting as she instructs Quinn on which part of the coloring book page she wants him to color next: "Good job daddy! You're good coloring!"

In a high pitched voice like she's the mom and I'm the two-year old as she climbs up to the scriptures laying open on the table: "Have family scripture study?"

Love you so much little Cait!

I love birthday cake

Growing up my mom had a tradition of making us personalized cakes on our birthdays and I've always wanted to carry on the tradition. On Cait's first bday I made a doll cake.


This year she loves Winnie the Pooh so I decided to make her a Pooh Bear cake. There were lots of pictures online to browse. I didn't want to have to buy a mold, so I found this really cool cake decorating blog with a super cute Pooh Bear cake and planned to copy it.


Super cute, right? I was all set to go but then on the day of her little friends party last weekend we realized we needed a few more things at the store and then the baby needed nursing of course and this and that came up, and suddenly I realized I had an hour and a half before we needed to get to the park. Time for the modified cake plan. So this was the much simpler, much quicker finished product, using little toy figurines instead.



Yummy! I love birthday cake!

Of Blessings and Birthdays

Two Sundays ago we blessed Nathan. Both times Quinn has blessed our babies I have felt so grateful for the power of the priesthood, and so grateful that he holds it worthily. I don't think it will ever get old to me to hear him bless our children with the greatest desires of my heart for them.
Cait fell asleep in the car on the way home from church, so we took a picture without her and by the time she woke up Nathan was asleep, so this is all we got.


It turns out you can bless babies in just Sunday clothes, so instead of spending money on a blessing outfit he'll wear once (I've never liked hoarding clothes for sentimental value) we blessed him in the only Sunday outfit we have. It has a little vest but I couldn't bring myself to put it on him because it seemed like it would be so hot to wear all that in the summer!


Quinn's family all came down for it and we had a great day. It was a little far for my family to come, but they all got to be there for Caitlyn's blessing in Utah where it was a little far for Quinn's family to come, so we've been able to have both families for at least one blessing. :)

Last week was Caitlyn's 2nd birthday (holy toledo!). My beautiful friend Joy Gardner told me once that her family has a tradition of putting a gift at the foot of the bed of the birthday boy/girl so that right when they wake up they see that their family remembered their birthday and wanted to make it special. Quinn and I want to take every opportunity to make our kids feel loved and cared about, so we decided to adopt that tradition. I didn't think the foot of the bed thing would work well for Cait at this age, so instead I put the gift by our bed since she always walks into our room with a big grin on her face when she wakes up each morning. Sure enough, in she came with a big smile first thing in the morning on her birthday, and I grabbed the present (an Elmo and Abby book) next to our bed and we made a big fuss about her being the birthday girl. It was fun!



We got her a little cinderella princess dress because I'm trying to remember to do more girly things with her, like give her jewelry and dress-up clothes -- stuff I couldn't care less about but think I should at least give her the opportunity to care about if she wants to.



We took her to Souplantation for dinner (no waiting for her order, she gets to run around the healthy buffet picking out what she wants to eat -- what's not to like?) and afterward gave her one more present, a Mr. Potato head set.



On the way home from dinner Quinn said, "Well, Happy Birthday Cait! Have you had a fun birthday?" And Caitlyn replied, "No! I don't birthday anymore!" which I thought was quite a humorously classic thing for a 2-year-old to say on her birthday. :)

Here's Caitlyn on her first birthday:


Isn't it amazing what happens in one year for a baby? She actually has some hair now! She can also walk (mostly run -- well actually, mostly jump since she LOVES jumping around), talk, sing, tease (and then say with a big smile, "just tease!"), count, say her alphabet sounds, give the biggest hugs and kisses ever, be a little mama to her baby brother, and the list goes on and on!

So here's to two great years and two sweet babies, and many more to come! (Meaning years, not babies.)

Growing

Nathan is growing -- how did he already get to be 6 weeks old? Caitlyn is growing -- how the heck did it get to be Caitlyn's 2nd birthday next week? After Nathan was born there were a few moments where I found myself thinking I'll be glad when they're a little older so maybe life won't be so crazy. But then I remembered, these days will be gone so fast and then I will wish I could hold my tiny little babies again. So now I just feel incredibly happy and thankful to have two sweet babies that I love more than I knew it was possible to love. We'll all just settle in for a great ride with all it's highs and lows.


1 1/2 weeks old


3 weeks old


5 weeks old -- notice that the white onesie fits a little better with each picture :)

Pot and Pot/Gam Sitthichai

Raise your hand if you're pretty sure you have the greatest parents in the world. My hand is WAY up! My parents came a few days before Nathan was born and stayed until last Saturday. This was Caitlyn 's first time being around my parents since she's started talking, and she affectionately named them both "Pot", short for "Grandpa" I think. She sometimes adds a "T" to the end of words for whatever reason. If we asked her if she could say "Grandma" she'd say "Gam", but she usually preferred to just keep things simple and call them both "Pot". It was so funny to hear her say, "Pot, sit!" or "Pot, wun!" (run) or say, "Pot, aw you?" (where are you?), etc.


Some of the things my super duper ultra awesome parents did to make life wonderful for the first couple of weeks after Nathan was born include, but are not limited to:
Playing with Caitlyn when she woke up every morning so I could sleep in.
Cooking big hot breakfasts every morning -- great for a nursing mom and for Quinn who is used to having cold cereal for breakfast.
Making adorable curtains for Caitlyn's room.



Playing constantly with Caitlyn, taking her on walks or to the pool so that I was totally free to nurse Nathan, take naps, etc.
Cooking awesome dinners every night -- Thai food almost every night for two weeks, anyone?
Noticing that Caitlyn has grown out of most of her clothes and then buying her a bunch of cute new summer outfits and pajamas.
Helping us move all our furniture and boxes around when we had to get our carpets professionally vacuumed because we discovered a ton of paint dust that was causing some allergic reactions.
Cooking delicious chili, stew, and musuman curry and freezing it so I have ready-to-go meals on days when cooking just isn't gonna happen.

They also threw a mini baby shower for me the day after they arrived and gave us a supply of newborn diapers, cute little boy outfits (which Caitlyn enjoyed pulling out one by one and saying, "Ooooh cuuuuute!"), and an adorable baby quilt my mom made.



We had so much fun while they were here, playing some of our favorite board games and card games, going to the beach, going on family walks, etc. We kept inviting them to move to San Diego and rent the condo next door to us, but for some reason going from no house payment to a monthly rent payment didn't appeal to them.

My parents are a huge example to me of unselfish service. I think sometimes I tend to do only what's convenient for me to do and then feel good about having "served" someone without having put myself out too much. But my parents are always willing to do WHATEVER is needed by the person they're serving, even if it's a pain. I keep telling Caitlyn she's so lucky they're my parents, because we'll try to follow their example with our own kids and she's going to get the benefit of that! Thanks mom and dad! Love ya!