The Bracken Family Blog

"I'm so happy I get to go to preschool"

2012-02-08T16:20:00.002-05:00

Quinn had his first day of preschool on Monday. 3 other moms and myself formed a small preschool group and I am so excited.Hey Quinn, make a funny face

He loved it. The first words out of his mouth when I picked him were :I'm so happy I got to go to preschool, can I go again right now. Glad you loved it buddy!

Its weird dropping off your little guy to go to school, even if it is just preschool. It made me a little sad, but happy because I know how good this is going to be for him. We do lots of learning stuff at home and I'm glad I still get to teach him but I'm glad for all the extra input he will get from learning from different mothers and kids. It was also super nice to just hang with the bean man and focus on him for a few hours.

A new addition...

2012-02-08T16:10:00.004-05:00

Nope, not an announcement, though with our new van we could even have triplets and still have room, sweet.
Okay, so I know this is a really lame picture, but its cold outside and my house was warm and toasty, so this is a view of our new van through the window. Can I just say how much I love this van! Its a 2004 Toyota Sienna. I love not having to drive Peter all the way to work and back, and then go pick him and drive all the way back, just so I can use the car that day. (Though I do miss the extra time with the hubs.) There is so much space! And it is so much easier to get the kids in and out. Its so weird being the same size as all the other big cars out there. I love that it doesn't feel like driving a van- it handles super well and the windows are spaced perfectly so I don't have too many blind spots. It feels weird and luxurious having two cars. I keep finding myself planning out the week and all the errands i have to do on the one day I get the car, and then I realize I can spread out those errands, the kids won't go crazy being stuck in the car and stores all day and if I forget something at the store, no biggie. Freedom! The 1st time I drove the van I dropped Quinn off at preschool. Yup, that's right, a house, a van and a kid in preschool...wow, that's weird.

Art Class

2012-02-08T15:58:00.003-05:00

I have wanted to learn to draw and paint for a long time. Every time I would sign up to take a class I would have to drop it for something much more exciting, like math, ugh. When we first moved to Utah I went to Hobby Lobby, (couldn't you just spend hours in there) and I noticed a sign up sheet for art class. I recklessly wrote down my name and left. I started getting emails about the art classes and each time I would dream about going to one, but money was tight and the schedule never seemed to work out. I checked out library books and dabbled in learning some drawing techniques but I still really wanted someone to really teach me. Finally at Christmas everything seemed to fall into place, so I signed up to do oil painting. Then Peter's work schedule got changed so that he wouldn't be home in time. Luckily there was an option to do the same class on a Wednesday morning and thanks to my SIL Becky and a good friend who offered to babysit, I get to go paint for the next month. We are doing 2 paintings. I finished the 1st one today. Take a peek.

Still Here

2012-02-03T16:04:00.012-05:00

Blogging has been the last thing on my mind recently but I miss it! Its so sad to see what little I have recorded of 2011. Here is a quick run down of what happened this past year.

December-Wow! A 4 month old baby, an almost 2 year old, moving across the country, Peter finishing finals and graduating from law school. One insane month

January-Still felt crazy. Peter spent all day studying for the bar. Me and the boys started to get familiar with our new home. Quinn turned 2! We made a train cake and celebrated his birthday with his cousins. Lots of fun :-)

February- Peter turned 26 and we had our 4th wedding anniversary. Two days after our anniversary and two days before the bar Peter was in a roll over accident. He partially severed a tendon in his right hand. He still took the bar but it was one of the hardest things he had ever done

March- Job hunting!

April- More job hunting! Oh and we found out Pete passed the bar!!!

May- Still job hunting. We were getting pretty worried and frustrated by this point

June- Finally some job interviews and offers. Peter ended up getting a great job at Burton Law Firm. Its a perfect job for our family. I also started teaching at a massage school.

July- On the 4th of July we found out we were expecting another baby, surprise!!!

August- My little James turned 1 :-) A few days before his birthday we lost baby #3. It was a hard month

September- House hunting! We found a beautiful 5 bedroom, 3 bath house. We are right across the street from a park, and a 5 minute walk to another park, bike trail, walking trails, basketball and tennis courts. We can see the beautiful mountains out the front and back. And we have a yard!!! We love everything about it. I can't wait for the warmer weather so we be outside. I keep imagining all those hikes, picnics, swimming, camping and fishing. I'm so excited to explore this beautiful place. I think this is also the month that my SIL Janette won concert tickets (she wins everything, it is seriously amazing) We went to meet Michelle Branch and then Peter and I stayed to see her in concert with Parachute and Goo Goo Dolls (love them!)

October- We signed the housing contract and became homeowners. I also turned 24.

November-Nothing too exciting, just getting settled into our new home and of course Thanksgiving with the fam

December- A visit from my Mum and Lyden for Christmas. It was awesome to see them and fun to have a place for them to stay. We were able to be with Lyden as he was sealed to his parents in the Salt Lake Temple.

It was a really tough year. We had no job, and felt like we were in limbo a lot. We had to leave our life and wonderful friends in CT. Our faith was tried a lot and our stress level was high. A lot of the time I didn't think I could handle anymore. I feel so blessed that we finally have a job and a beautiful home. Things are finally back to normal and it feels so good!

Here is a picture dump from the past year. Enjoy!

James

2011-08-03T14:24:00.008-04:00

James is a fun little guy. He likes to hear weird noises as well as make them. Sheep noises are some of his favorite. He loves to stick out his tongue and see if you'll do it back. He hates to keep still and is constantly moving. He is super independent and prefers to do things on his own. He loves playing with the basketball hoop, riding and pushing his walker, pushing cars and trucks around and watching other people. He loves the water especially playing in the bath or the kiddie pool but hates to be splashed too much. He is also finally starting to sleep through the night which has been wonderful. He has the funniest crooked smile and a deep little laugh when he finds something particularly funny. He usually likes to play on his own so I sit on the floor and watch him. He'll often suddenly stop what he is doing and come crawling over to me as fast as he can. He plows his head right into me, snuggles for a few seconds and then goes back to what he is doing. He is a super good climber and loves to do so. He climbs up onto the couch, up and down the stairs, trys to climb onto beds and without a doubt will climb all over you if you are laying on the floor.

He has had lots of firsts since we have been in Utah....first time riding his walker

First picnic

First time eating solids-just look at that face

First time sitting up on his own

and first Christmas.

He also took his first steps not too long ago, his first solid steps last Friday and is now getting more adventerous and walking around more. A video to come soon!

Quinn Man

2011-04-09T22:15:00.006-04:00

So it has been a forever since we have posted some updates and our family has been through a lot of changes. But more on that later. For now here are some updates on Quinn since we moved to Utah.

Now that the bar is over Quinn gets to spend a lot more time with Peter. It has been so wonderful for the kids to have more time with their dad. Quinn has really liked making houses for his cars and big towers out of his blocks.

Getting a massage...what a life

Our cute little manGetting used to the snow. He loves it! sledding, snowballs, taking walks in it...you name it

Playing in the yard

Since we have been here Quinn has given up naps..so now he has quiet time. He still gets pretty tired though and one day I found him all tuckered out on the floor. Another time I found him like this....

Somehow he had gotten a hold of my mascara?!

Quinn is my little buddy. He loves going to craft and fabric stores with me, helping clean the house, cooking and looking after James. He has recently started telling me stories which are so fun to hear. One day he was telling me about a dream he had where a train flew to the moon... I love hearing him talk. He tells me what he did in nursery, his concerns about things, fun things he wants to do like can we go to the plane museum when James wakes up?

We are finally potty training. We had been dabbling in potty training since Quinn was 18 months and we finally did it. He still has the occasional accident, usually because he when he is in quiet time he has a hard time letting us know he needs to go and he still in diapers at night but he is usually dry about 90% of the time.

He is also now in a big kid bed. He had started climbing out of his crib and we wanted to use the crib for James so we moved Quinn into his own bed. It was a long process. He was always a really good sleeper but I think the move was hard on him and getting him to go to bed was something I dreaded every night. Then moving him into a different bed at the same time of the move made things even harder on him. But after a month or so we finally figured things out and it has been going a lot better

Its been so nice to be close to family. I think Quinn has a lot of fun with his cousins and love love loves Grandma and Grandpa Bracken. He talks about them all the time.

We love our little two year old!

Halloween

2010-11-27T22:08:00.002-05:00

For Halloween this year James was a cow (a super cute cow I might mention) and Quinn was Tigger. We went to our ward Trunk or Treat which was kinda crazy and a lot of fun. We didn't get to make our chili for the cookoff this year, which would have won hands down because it has chipotles and chocolate in it, but that day got super crazy so we had to skip it. I think Quinn liked getting the candy but he was way more excited about the decorations in the rooms. One room had a tunnel you could crawl through but he got side tracked by the pumpkin and we had to spend a few minutes persuading him to come out. He also liked the skulls that lit up.

A couple of days before Halloween an aquarium near us had free admission for those in costume so I took the boys in their costumes and I dressed up as a bumblebee. It was fun to see the exhibits. They even had a blue lobster!
James is so easy to photograph. I stick him in the chair and he coos while I take pictures
Quinn doesn't keep still
Nice still cow...
Moving Tigger

It was a blast and I can't wait for next Halloween

Updates on Quinn

2010-11-27T21:44:00.007-05:00

Quinn has been really into dress up recently.

Don't you just love how they are upside down
I was going through our winter things and Quinn was trying them out
He has also been starting to role play. Curious George is in time out for hitting a lot these days. Bear and tigger have become good friends who always talk to each other when it is nap time. And Quinn loves taking care of the baby doll; making sure she has a cean diaper, a bath, her milk and is tucked into bed. Its really fun to see him interacting this way.

His vocab has also really taken off. He has always said mama and Daddy but now he really seems to make the connection that those are names and will request who he wants. He loves to say baby, especially when James is around. Other new words include ball, hole, knee, nee naw for nose, star, are, hello, milk, duck, nina (which is what he calls his Mrs. Noah in the Noah's ark, Noah and Jesus and a few others.

I love hanging out with this kid. He might protest naps a lot but he has a great sense of humor and is super silly. If you start to chase him he will run laughing the other way. He is very helpful and always puts things in the trash and in the dishwasher. He will get diapers and wipes for James and loves to help his little brother roll over. Something mom is not thrilled about. He will give James toys when he is sad and will try to burp him.

We have been doing learning time each afternoon and it is so great to see how excited he gets about learning new things. We have been learning about smell, touch, sight and sound this past week. He likes making art to represent what we talked about, especially since he is now allowed to use markers.
And this is the face he makes when we ask him to close his eyes for prayers. What a goof :-)

Pumpkins!

2010-11-24T23:14:00.004-05:00

We love going up to the Orchards here. It is so beautiful. We went to pick our own pumpkin for Halloween this year.

Quinn was so cute trying to pick up this super heavy pumpkin.

We settled on this cute little pumpkin. Sadly we never did get a chance to carve it :-(

After we picked our pumpkin we had cider donuts and black and orange cookies which were delicious!

2010-11-24T23:08:00.003-05:00

Greatma and Greatpa came to visit us at the beginning of October. My Grandparents are such amazing and fun people. We are so glad they took the time to come see us. We did lots of fun things including going to Edgerton park, Lyman Orchards, the park, and the Trolley museum.I'm glad they got to see James soon after he was born and Quinn and Greatpa struck up a great relationship. Greatpa was a good sport and kept Quinn entertained.
It was so wonderful to see them and can't wait to see them again!

Just had to share

2010-11-24T22:54:00.002-05:00

I love this picture! It was taken a few days after James was born. Quinn crawled over and set his car carefully on top of James. It was very sweet.

The Zoo!

2010-11-24T22:24:00.005-05:00

In the middle of October we decided to go to the zoo one last time before it got too cold. It was a lot of fun!

Quinn seemed more interested in the zoo itself instead of the animals. Like these stairs. I think he went up and down about 8 times before I was finally able to convince him to move on.
This is what James thought about it all.

Quinn had fun pretending to be a peacock,
seeing how long his arms were,

pretending to be a parrie dog, popping in and out of those holes, chasing a peacock, pretending to milk a cow and watching this Toucan.

I liked these fun signs they had up for Halloween

James' Blessing

2010-11-11T13:07:00.005-05:00

We were so lucky to have members from both of our families come out to meet James and to be here for his baby blessing.

Gramma and Papi

Grandma and Grandpa Bracken

A baby blessing is a special opportunity for the baby to receive a name and to to have special blessings promised that will help them throughout their life. We blessed James on August 29th. Peter performed the blessing and Grandpa, Papi, and our friend Nate also participated.

James looked super cute in his little white suit and bow tie that Grandma bought for him

Daddy and James

Long or short?

2010-10-26T21:21:00.002-04:00

I am in desperate need of a new haircut and style. I love having long hair but don't have the time to style it as much as I would like to and it takes for ever to dry and straighten. Either way I want to go I need it to be at least 3" shorter.

I like this first one a lot. I love all of the layers and feel that it would be pretty easy to maintain.

I am also really drawn to this type of hairstyle. It's cute and sassy but definitely a lot shorter and I am kinda scared to cut off all that hair. Also, the shorter my hair the more wavy, frizzy and curly it is so getting it straight is more of a challenge.

Which one do you think I should go with?

2 Months

2010-10-05T15:30:00.008-04:00

Our cute smiley guy! After two months its hard to picture how things were without James. At his two month visit he weighed in at 10lbs 2 oz and 23" long. Quinn has definitely gotten used to having a little brother and is magnifying his roll as a big brother. If he hears James crying he is instantly there, trying to rock him, give him a binkie or patting him. He also loves shaking his hand while asking "How do you do?', giving James high fives and playing pat-a-cake.

Even though he looks a little mad in this picture I think James likes having Quinn around. Yesterday Quinn was holding James and James just snuggled right into Quinn and looked so content.

James loves sticking his tongue out. So dang cute!

The Labor Story: Part III

2010-10-03T14:11:00.005-04:00

We started the pitocin around 7:30pm. They started slowly turning the doses up every 30 minutes or so. After a while I noticed the the contractions were finally getting longer and steady. Around 9pm I decided that I should get up and walk around for a little. Since you have to be monitored continuously when you are on pitocin they hooked me up to a portable monitor. It was basically a big belly band with that could hold the monitors in place against my belly.

We walked out of the delivery room, turned right walked to the end of the hallway, turned around, and as we passed by our room in the middle of the hallway I was done! I did not feel good. So we decided to sit on the yoga ball. As soon as I sat down the contractions left me gasping. They had gone from being mild to full force in a matter of seconds. After about 30 minutes of laboring on the yoga ball I thought I was going to die. They told me that I was doing great, that I had gone from a 2 to a 5 in just a half hour and it was going really fast. Definitely not fast enough in my opinion.

Things were going quickly though. Soon I was at a 7 and I could not handle anymore. I couldn't remember a single reason for not wanting an epidural. All I knew was that I needed help and that the pain had to stop now. I felt satisfied that I had worked hard at this and it was time for some pain relief. So we asked for an epidural. Melanie said ok but warned me that James would probably be here before the epidural. I was comforted to know that I wouldn't have to stick it out much longer. Melanie was right and not too long after, our little Jimmy Bean was born

We love this little guy so much its hard to express. He is sweet and handsome and has a very wise old spirit. We are so glad he is a part of our family

1 Month Pictures

2010-09-16T13:28:00.004-04:00

So I have a ton of things I want to blog about but time has been a little short these past few weeks. We are slowly starting to figure out how to juggle our two wonderful little boys. Its fun and challenging. James is growing up fast. At his 1 month visit he weighed in at 8lbs 12oz and measured 21 inches. He had gained a little under 2lbs in 2 weeks. Most babies gain 30oz a day, James is gaining 60oz. For gaining so much weight and making up some ground he is still our little peanut. And I love it!

Labor Story: Part II

2010-08-17T10:04:00.009-04:00

I went to sleep fully expecting for some contractions to wake me up so when I did wake up having some nice regular and intense contractions I was really glad I had finally gone into labor. I decided I would try and sleep in between them so I could get as much rest as possible. So I was a little disappointed when I woke up the next morning and realized that I had slept through the rest of the night and nothing had happened :-( That meant we needed to head to the hospital to confirm that my water had broken.

During the pregnancy I had mused over how the drive to the hospital would be. With Quinn we were in New haven and delivering at Yale. All we needed to do was drive less than 5 minutes down one street to the hospital. With James we were delivering at St. Raphaels which is also in New Haven and on average about 15 minutes away. However, the freeway can get really busy with rush hour traffic and so I had hoped we would be heading to the hospital at a time when there wasn't a lot of traffic. What do you do if you are stuck in traffic and are in labor? Do you honk a lot? Do you drive down the shoulder? Maybe you just have the baby in the car???

Thankfully it was early on Sunday morning and I wasn't in labor so we didn't have to worry about that one. It felt kind of surreal driving to the hospital knowing we were going to have a baby but without actually being in labor.

We headed up to Labor and Delivery and they hooked me up to the monitor to check the baby's heartbeat and to measure any contractions. Nancy's shift had ended by the time we got there but Melanie was now on call. I was really glad.

The practice we went to had four midwives that you saw for your prenatal visits. I loved all of them except for one. Not that I didn't like her just this particular midwife we had only seen once and that was to confirm we were pregnant. She was nice enough but we just didn't really click. We randomly rotated through all of the midwives throughout the pregnancy but it just so happened we never saw the first midwife again except at the hospital tour where again I didn't feel a great connection. She had also delivered a friend's baby who didn't have the best experience with her. Then there were three other midwives that worked at the hospital, one of whom I had only met briefly at the hospital tour and had never seen for prenatal visits, so there was a chance that there could be a woman we had never met with previously delivering our baby. We were really pleased to hear that Melanie was there and that she would be on call for a while.

After they had monitored me and the baby for a while they checked to if my water had broken. And the test was positive. There was no turning back now. Melanie explained to us that in general when you water breaks you have 24 hours to have the baby. Now that there was a hole in the amniotic sack there was a high risk for infection. However the doctor that was currently on call was more of the opinion that you had 24 hours to go into labor. So that meant we had some decisions to make. I could go ahead and be induced then and there with Pitocin. Or we could try a more mild induction called Misoprostol. Or we could try walking, massage, sitting on the birthing ball etc to get things rolling. As I wanted to have as natural a childbirth as possible this seemed like a great option. I had been starting to have a few contractions and was hopeful my uterus would realize it was time to start working harder. We were officially omitted and started walking!

And walking and walking and walking....that hallway was not very long and it wasn't the most exciting walk. At one end there was the NICU, on the other the OR. Now normally I would be super excited about both of those places...from a medical point of view. But not today, I didn't want me or James ending up in either one of those rooms. ( I think that they should have an indoor track on the Labor and Delivery floor. )

It turned out to be a pretty fun morning. We walked, talked and laughed and then alternated the walking with resting, massage and sitting on the birthing ball watching some football. The contractions would start to pick up and be nice and strong and then they would stop again. Then they would be pick up and then die down. At some point in the morning Melanie came back to check how things were going and as we weren't having much luck asked if would like to try 'breaking my water" some more to see if that would help get things going.

No one really knows what causes a woman to go into labor but one thought is that the change in pressure from the loss of fluid when your water breaks can trigger it. As I really just had a tiny pinprick there hadn't been enough of a shift in pressure to get labor going. I was all for trying this. Sadly it didn't work. James' head was so low down that even though there was a tiny bulge of the amniotic sac in front of his head it was hard to get to. And man did it hurt! After trying to get it for a few minutes Melanie announced that she had gotten through the first layer, the Chorion but not the second, the Amnion. She said that hopefully though the procedure had released a few prostaglandins (the hormone is released when your membranes are stripped) and that even though she hadn't been able to let out any more fluid that maybe the hormone would get things going.

Around 1:00 we decided we would need to try something else. We were getting close to 5:30, the 24 hour mark, and so we thought we would step it up a notch with the Misoprostol. When we checked in I was at 2 cm and about 50% effaced. We hoped that the Miso would help me dilate a few more centimeters and become more effaced so that if we did need to induce with pitosin I would be more ready. The Miso seemed to get things going. The contractions became a little more regular and more intense. We kept walking for a while and then they put me back on the monitor to see how things were picking up. Melanie came in and said that things were looking very good.

And about 20 minutes later the contractions died down again. It was now 6:30. You can do Miso once every four hours and in general it takes about 2-4 rounds to get things going. You also can't be having too many contractions to be able to have it. By this point we were getting very tired and emotionally drained. If we kept doing the Miso it could be another 12 hours before anything happened and we didn't want to be so tired that we couldn't get through labor. That and for no other reason than it just felt right we decided it was time to try Pitocin. This was a big decision, Pitosin really scared me.

Now I have to mention the nurse that was assigned to us during the afternoon. As I want to be a nurse I have tried to make a mental log of things that I like about the nurses I have had and the things that I don't. The first nurse we had was great. Friendly, interested in us, good at what she did but kept a professional distance. The second nurse was nice but super opinionated. After hearing we were from Utah she made some very rude and snotty comments about our religion. This left me feeling uncomfortable around her. I didn't think she needed to agree with us or believe as we did but here was a person that might be helping bring our second son into the world yet obviously didn't respect us. Later on she bluntly told me that she thought way too women receive epidurals. Pain management during labor is a very personal thing, I don't think there is any right or wrong to it. Every labor and person is different and you have to make the decisions that are right for you. As a health care provider you should never express an opinion like that. I was a little offended. I was hoping to go through labor without an epidural, but what if I decided to get one? I didn't feel she would be very supportive. After we made the decision to start the pitocin she asked why we had made that decision in a tone obvious that she didn't approve. There I was feeling feeling very nervous about being induced with pitocin and she is questioning that decision.Thank goodness her shift ended a few minutes later. Compare her to Kira our third nurse of the say, who was completely supportive, was friendly and made us smile, spent time getting to know Peter as well as me (I feel husbands are often neglected during labor) and a great labor coach who stayed an hour after her shift ended to see things through to the end. I hope I am a Kira one day.

For all our Utah readers!

2010-08-17T09:19:00.004-04:00

Remember these fantastic newborn pictures of Quinn?

These pictures were taken by our friend JoDee. Her pictures are super fun, candid and creative. We absolutely love them! She took some of little James this week and we can't wait to see them.

JoDee will be in Utah booking mini photography sessions September 9th-11th. Her pictures are fabulous, don't miss out!

Labor Story: Part I

2010-08-15T10:35:00.011-04:00

Note: Gushing fluids, bodily functions, goop, pain, more gushing fluid, more pain, tender moments, football and love are discussed in this series of posts. After all it is a labor story :-)

The week before James was born had been really busy! Lots of fun activities for Quinn which we both enjoyed but when Friday came around it was time to have Mommy and Quinn time! I also had a feeling that James would be here really soon and I wanted to make sure I snuck in those last few precious one-on-one moments which I knew were going to be more rare in the up coming weeks. We had a fun relaxing day which was sorely needed. I was so big and tired it felt good just to lay on the floor and play. I had been having intense Braxton Hicks contractions for the past couple of nights and a couple false alarms and was feeling a little emotional as well as physical exhausted.

Saturday I felt pretty sick. Just nauseas and weird. I spent a lot of the afternoon sleeping. I remembered that the day before I had Quinn I had felt sick also and wondered if this was a sign James would be here soon. And maybe this is TMI, but as this is a true story I will mention that I had to go #2 a lot. something that I knew could happen before labor starts. That, the nasueas and the feeling that labor was coming made me sure it would be within the next couple of days but after feeling like I had been going into labor for a week I definitely did not think it would be that night. Especially since I still had two more weeks to go!

Around 5:30pm I was standing in the living room talking with Peter when all of a sudden I felt a little gush of fluid. I said "uh-oh!" and raced to the bathroom. Peter came running behind me. "What is it?"

"I think my water just broke" I replied but I felt stupid even as I said it. There was barely any fluid. It was probably just some lost bladder control, which made me feel even more stupid. I had been thinking I was going to labor so many times that week that I was jumping on every little thing. Yet at the same time it had felt a little different. I wasn't sure what had happened.

We discussed calling the midwives and decided that maybe we would wait a little just to be sure. We were supposed to be babysitting our friends' kids in about a half hour and I wasn't sure whether we should call and cancel. I would have hated to have called and said that we couldn't come to find out it really wasn't my water that had broken and that they had missed out on their date because I had no bladder control.

I decided to take a quick shower and as I was getting dressed noticed that there was a little more fluid. I ran, well waddled into the living room and told Peter I was pretty sure that it was my water that had broken. We called to cancel babysitting and worked on making some dinner. Bangers and Mash! I know England doesn't have a great culinary reputation but you can't beat bangers and mash, its awesome! Almost as good as fish and chips and probably just about as good for you.

After dinner I noticed, well ...nothing! We put Quinn to bed and turned on a movie. It was a great distraction but after it was over I was feeling really foolish. I wasn't in labor, I wasn't even feeling crampy like I had constantly all week. I went to the bathroom again because at 38 weeks pregnant thats pretty much all you ever do. This time however I noticed a lot more fluid. I was so relieved that I wasn't crazy and felt a lot more confident that it was my water that had broken. We called the midwife who was on call, Nancy. Yay for Nancy, she was one of the midwives I felt very comfortable with. The call was slightly discouraging though. She said that it sound a little suspicious that it really was my water that had broken as there was so little fluid but we should come in and be checked. She said we could come in that night or wait until morning. We opted to wait until the morning. We still had Quinn at home, and while Nancy had put a little doubt in my mind that my water had broken I was still sure that that was what was going on and was pretty sure I would go into labor if I just gave it a little time.

We were both getting pretty excited. Our little Jimmy bean would be here soon! We started putting some last minute things into the hospital bag, packed a bag for Quinn, put the last of the dishes in the dishwasher and tried to get things as ready as possible. I found our cell phones so we could charge them and I noticed we had missed a call from Jodee, the friend we were supposed to be babysitting for that night, offering to take Quinn for the night in case I did go into labor. We decided this was a good idea and took Quinn downstairs to their apartment. (Note to self: Always live in an apartment building with awesome friends with awesome kids that you trade babysitting with. Its fantastic!) I felt sad as I gave Quinn a hug goodbye. I was so unsure of how our family dynamic was going to change. I felt worried that I wouldn't be able to give Quinn the time and attention he needed. Even though its hard to stay home sometimes I wouldn't trade it for anything and I loved him and me just hanging out doing our thing. I was going to miss that, even if I was excited for another little son. I also didn't want this to be the last time I held him. It sounds so pessimistic but even with modern medicine things can go wrong in labor. It is one of the hardest things your body can do and even though the possibility is small women still lose their lives giving birth. I let myself be sad until Peter got back from taking him downstairs and they told my self to snap out of it. Everything was going to be fine. We were ready for another baby, we could do this! We went to bed feeling calm and excited, me still a little sad but happy at the same time and convinced that in a few hours I would be in labor.

5 Days Old

2010-08-13T19:21:00.001-04:00

James Benjamin Bracken

2010-08-09T11:56:00.001-04:00

August 8, 2010

5lbs 15oz

19"

Ten signs your baby is done baking

2010-08-06T19:22:00.005-04:00

You are no longer sure of the color of your toe nail polish

You need a crane to turn you over in bed

You are eating twice as much as your husband

Your baby's feet can reach past your bottom ribs

You are constantly 10 degrees hotter than everyone else

Even your husbands shirts are getting tight

Your bathroom trips exceed the number of hours in the day

You have scrubbed and reorganized everything in your home, including under the bed

You can no long bend over so you resort to picking things up with your toes

You can use your belly as a table

Like a thermometer in a turkey, your belly button has popped out

Running

2010-08-02T11:58:00.003-04:00

Running, I miss you. We haven't been friends in a while. Swollen feet and belly have kept me away.

I miss the endorphin rush, you made me happy :-) I miss being in shape, that made me happy too!

I miss the feeling of pushing through the hard parts, of trying to stay ahead (or trying not to be lapped as the case may be).

I miss the pounding heart, the red face, the sweat
I miss the sense of accomplishment and triumph.

Give me a few more weeks and I'll be back out there, pounding up those hills, muscles burning, trying to catch my breath, feeling the world fly by and pushing myself once more. I can't wait!

Quinn and Daddy

2010-08-02T11:50:00.001-04:00

19 Months

Glimpse

2010-08-01T21:52:00.003-04:00

Too small? Nope not at all. This little guy is estimated to be in the 51 percentile at 6lbs 7oz.

But yay for a reason to do another ultrasound. Peter wasn't able to come to this one so I asked the technician if she could get try and get a couple of good pictures I could take home to show Peter. She took these awesome 3-D pictures. I thought maybe it would ruin things to get an idea of what he looks like before he was born but it didn't. The first picture she did was so amazing. It brought tears to my eyes. As soon as I saw it my heart went all soft and mushy. But for some reason she wasn't happy with it and took these instead which I still think turned out fantastic.
So cute and smushy!

3 more weeks little guy!

37 Weeks

2010-08-01T21:41:00.005-04:00

I love reaching this point in pregnancy.

Mainly because I know that if the baby is born now that he is full term and will be okay. I also love the anticipation and excitement of expecting a new born.

Yes, its hard waiting and wondering when he will get here. Getting stuck in bed and having to have Peter push me out. Making Peter rub my feet and ankles because they are swollen. (I think this is a hard time on my poor hubby too!) Wondering if each set of Braxton Hicks will turn into the real thing.

But I love knowing that a new little person will be joining our family soon. Its so fun to put the finishing touches on things. To fold all the sweet tiny clothes. To strap in the car seat and marvel that soon it will be holding a special little boy.

Camping and Palmyra

2010-07-28T22:24:00.009-04:00

(I have to warn you, this is a super long post. I wanted to share some of the thoughts and scriptures that came to mind as we visited some of the sites from the Book of Mormon and from the restoration of the Gospel)

Last weekend we took a mini family vacation to upstate New York. We had so much fun!

We left Friday morning and drove up to Newfield which is in the Finger Lakes region. Its so beautiful up there. We stayed at Pinecreek Camp grounds and camped out for the night. Quinn was still recovering from being sick and so we didn't do everything we wanted to like swimming but we had fun trying to get our campfire started (it took us two little books of matches), a blast cooking hot dogs over a campfire (I had never done this before) and spending time together. Quinn thought that putting up the tent was pretty great and had fun running in and out. We were lucky enough to borrow a six man tent from a family in our ward which was big enough to fit a queen blow up mattress and a pack n' play with plenty of room to spare.

This was luxury camping compared to what I am used to: A two man tent, no mattress or pad, rain soaking through the tent and waking up in a couple of inches of water. Am I crazy to still love camping? We even had a fan this time which was a necessity what with being 9 months pregnant and with all the humidity.

After the Moose went to bed we set out by the campfire cooking a yummy pot roast hobo dinner and reading. It was really relaxing.

The next morning we woke up pretty early and let Quinn play on the old McDonald's play equipment that was at the campsite. Then we had some breakfast. While we were eating we noticed some dark clouds rolling in fast so we decided to pack up before the rain hit us. Well, it moved right on past us while we were still taking down the tent and there was no rain but we decided we would keep packing up and head up to Palmyra.
Quinn did an awesome job being in the car so much. He loved playing with the Ipod and changing the music. He loved plugging it in even more!

On the way up to Palmyra we stopped at Denny's to get some more breakfast which was yummy, then we headed over to the Sacred Grove.

This was a really neat experience. The grove is full of a quiet peaceful spirit. Even though we don't know exactly where Heavenly Father and the Saviour appeared to Joseph Smith, it was really neat to be in the same area and to reflect upon what happened there almost 200 years ago.

The following is taken from the account Joseph Smith gave of his experience in the Sacred Grove.

^aI was born in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and five, on the twenty-third day of December, in the town of Sharon, Windsor county, State of Vermont . . . My father, ^bJosephSmith, Sen., left the State of Vermont, and moved to Palmyra, Ontario (now Wayne) county, in the State of New York, when I was in my tenth year, or thereabouts. In about four years after my father’s arrival in Palmyra, he moved with his family into Manchester in the same county of Ontario—

4 His family consisting of eleven souls, namely, my father, Joseph Smith; my ^amother, Lucy Smith (whose name, previous to her marriage, was Mack, daughter of Solomon Mack); my brothers,^bAlvin (who died November 19th, 1823, in the 26th year of his age), ^cHyrum, myself, ^dSamuel Harrison, William, Don Carlos; and my sisters, Sophronia, Catherine, and Lucy.

5 Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in that region of country. Indeed, the whole district of country seemed affected by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties, which created no small stir and division amongst the people, some crying, “^aLo, here!” and others, “Lo, there!” Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some for the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist.

6 For, notwithstanding the great ^alove which the converts to these different faiths expressed at the time of their conversion, and the great zeal manifested by the respective clergy, who were active in getting up and promoting this extraordinary scene of religious feeling, in order to have everybody converted, as they were pleased to call it, let them join what sect they pleased; yet when the converts began to file off, some to one party and some to another, it was seen that the seemingly good feelings of both the priests and the converts were more ^bpretendedthan real; for a scene of great confusion and bad feeling ensued—priest contending against priest, and convert against convert; so that all their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words and a contest about opinions.

7 I was at this time in my fifteenth year. My father’s family was proselyted to the Presbyterian faith, and four of them joined that church, namely, my mother, Lucy; my brothers Hyrum and Samuel Harrison; and my sister Sophronia.

8 During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties, though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit. In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them; but so great were the confusion and ^astrifeamong the different denominations, that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was ^bright and who was wrong.

9 My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their errors, or, at least, to make the people think they were in error. On the other hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.

10 In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be ^aright, which is it, and how shall I know it?

11 While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of ^aJames, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack ^bwisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

12 Never did any passage of ^ascripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed ^bwisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects ^cunderstood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

13 At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in ^adarkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would ^bgive liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

14 So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the ^awoods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a ^bbeautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to^cpray ^dvocally.

15 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was ^aseized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick ^bdarkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

16 But, exerting all my powers to ^acall upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into ^bdespair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of ^clight exactly over my head, above the brightness of the ^dsun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself ^adelivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I ^bsaw two ^cPersonages, whose brightness and ^dglory defy all description, ^estanding above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My ^fBeloved^gSon. Hear Him!

18 My object in going to ^ainquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.

19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all ^awrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those ^bprofessors were all ^ccorrupt; that: “they^ddraw near to me with their lips, but their ^ehearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the ^fcommandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the ^gpowerthereof.”

20 He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself ^alying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace, ^bmother inquired what the matter was. I replied, “Never mind, all is well—I am well enough off.” I then said to my mother, “I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.” It seems as though the^cadversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the ^dopposition and persecution that arose against me, almost in my infancy?

After we had walked through the Sacred Grove we headed over to our hotel in Syracuse. Our room had a kitchen, living room and seperate bedroom. It was really nice! They even had free laundry, a pool, and board games After we got settled in we went down to the pool and swam for a little which was so much fun. Then we came back and Quinn had a nap. I drove through town to try and find some food to make for dinner that night. I finally settled on making frozen Chicken Cordon Bleu and veggies. This was the best chicken cordon bleu I have ever had. I was pretty impressed as they were frozen and only cost a dollar each.

Our plan was to head back to Palmyra for the Hill Cumorah Pageant but Quinn had definitely had enough for the day so we ended up just chilling at the hotel; playing games and watching tv. We fell asleep before 10...I know, kinda lame but what else can ya do when there is a super comfy king bed just begging to be slept in.

The next morning we woke up and had the best breakfast. Instead of just having cold cereal and maybe waffles like most hotels have they had a full breakfast buffet. Quiche, waffles, cereal, sausage, fruit, juice, danishes, bagels and more. It was a beautiful crisp morning so we ate outside by the pool.

After breakfast we headed back up to Palmyra and walked up the Hill Cumorah.

Its kinda hard to see this picture but this is Quinn and I at the top of the hill next to the monument with the angel Moroni on the top.
The view from the top was pretty neat. You could see really far. I found myself thinking not about when Joseph came to retrieve the plates from the hill but about what I had been reading about recently in the Book of Mormon.

The following is the 6th Chapter of Moroni

1 And now I finish my record concerning the ^adestruction of my people, the Nephites. And it came to pass that we did march forth before the Lamanites.

2 And I, Mormon, wrote an epistle unto the king of the Lamanites, and desired of him that he would grant unto us that we might gather together our people unto the ^aland of ^bCumorah, by a hill which was called Cumorah, and there we could give them battle.

3 And it came to pass that the king of the Lamanites did grant unto me the thing which I desired.

4 And it came to pass that we did march forth to the land of Cumorah, and we did pitch our tents round about the hill Cumorah; and it was in a land of ^amany waters, rivers, and fountains; and here we had hope to gain advantage over the Lamanites.

5 And *when ^athree hundred and eighty and four years had passed away, we had gathered in all the remainder of our people unto the land of Cumorah.

6 And it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our people in one to the land of Cumorah, behold I, Mormon, began to be old; and knowing it to be the last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were ^asacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would^bdestroy them) therefore I made ^cthis record out of the plates of Nephi, and ^dhid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were ^ethese few plates which I gave unto my son ^fMoroni.

7 And it came to pass that my people, with their wives and their children, did now behold the ^aarmies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful ^bfear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them.

8 And it came to pass that they came to battle against us, and every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers.

9 And it came to pass that they did fall upon my people with the sword, and with the bow, and with the arrow, and with the ax, and with all manner of weapons of war.

10 And it came to pass that my men were hewn down, yea, even my ^aten thousand who were with me, and I fell wounded in the midst; and they passed by me that they did not put an end to my life.

11 And when they had gone through and hewn down ^aall my people save it were twenty and four of us, (among whom was my son Moroni) and we having survived the dead of our people, did behold on the morrow, when the Lamanites had returned unto their camps, from the top of the hill Cumorah, the ten thousand of my people who were hewn down, being led in the front by me.

12 And we also beheld the ten thousand of my people who were led by my son Moroni.

13 And behold, the ten thousand of Gidgiddonah had fallen, and he also in the midst.

14 And Lamah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Gilgal had fallen with his ten thousand; and Limhah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Jeneum had fallen with his ten thousand; and Cumenihah, and Moronihah, and Antionum, and Shiblom, and Shem, and Josh, had fallen with their ten thousand each.

15 And it came to pass that there were ten more who did fall by the sword, with their ten thousand each; yea, even ^aall my people, save it were those twenty and four who were with me, and also a^bfew who had escaped into the south countries, and a few who had deserted over unto the Lamanites, had fallen; and their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother earth.

16 And my soul was rent with ^aanguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried:

17 ^aO ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!

18 Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I ^amourn your loss.

19 O ye ^afair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have ^bfallen!

20 But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return.

21 And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become ^aincorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, to be judged according to your works; and if it so be that ye are righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you.

22 O that ye had repented before this great ^adestruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, ^bknoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his ^cjusticeand ^dmercy.

Looking out across the fields I could just picture all of these people waiting by the Hill Cumorah, knowing that they were facing death. Feeling fear as the could see the Lamanites coming to battle.

After the Hill Cumorah we went and looked around the visitors center they had there. We were able to watch some of a movie about Joseph Smith but had to leave because Quinn was getting tired.

We hurried over to the Old Smith farm house which is located right next to the Sacred Grove. It was neat to see this historic building and to think about the family that lived here.

Eleven people lived in this tiny house! Their whole living area was about the size of our kitchen.

The following is taken from the Joseph Smith History

27 I continued to pursue my common vocations in life until the twenty-first of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, all the time suffering severe persecution at the hands of all classes of men, both religious and irreligious, because I continued to ^aaffirm that I had seen a vision.

28 During the space of time which intervened between the time I had the vision and the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three—having been forbidden to join any of the religious sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and persecuted by those who ought to have been my ^afriends and to have treated me kindly, and if they supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me—I was left to all kinds of ^btemptations; and, mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish^cerrors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the sight of God. In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature. But I was guilty of ^dlevity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was ^ecalled of God as I had been. But this will not seem very strange to any one who recollects my youth, and is acquainted with my native ^fcheery temperament.

29 In consequence of these things, I often felt condemned for my weakness and imperfections; when, on the evening of the above-mentioned twenty-first of September, after I had retired to my bed for the night, I betook myself to ^aprayer and supplication to Almighty God for forgiveness of all my sins and follies, and also for a manifestation to me, that I might know of my state and standing before him; for I had full ^bconfidence in obtaining a divine manifestation, as I previously had one.

30 While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a ^alight appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a ^bpersonageappeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor.

31 He had on a loose robe of most exquisite ^awhiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked, and his arms also, a little above the wrist; so, also, were his feet naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so that I could see into his bosom.

32 Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was ^aglorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like ^blightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him, I was ^cafraid; but the ^dfear soon left me.

33 He called me by ^aname, and said unto me that he was a ^bmessenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for ^cgoodand evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.

34 He said there was a ^abook deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the ^bfulnessof the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;

35 Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a ^abreastplate, constituted what is called the ^bUrim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted “^cseers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.

This is the outside of the house.

While we were waiting to go see the house Peter realized that one of the volunteers there was the wife of his previous boss at the copyright office. It was neat to meet her and when she found out who we were pointed Carl out to us and so we got to see him too! Completely random but we are so glad we had the opportunity to bump into them. They are in Ireland right now. I'm jealous.

There was so much more we wanted to see and do but there just wasn't time. It was so nice to go on vacation and to spend time together. I especially liked having Peter around for 3 days straight. Quinn was a trooper even though he had to be in the car so much.

What a sense of humor this kid has! I love it!

Graham Cracker Bananas

2010-07-26T13:31:00.002-04:00

I love finding new ways for Quinn to be involved in what I am doing. Especially in the kitchen. We made bananas covered in graham crackers for his snack today. We put the graham crackers in baggies and stomped on them to mush it up. Then I helped Quinn slice the banana and put in the baggies. We shook them up really well and voila! I didn't try them but Quinn kept saying 'more more' so I guess they were tasty and I think he was proud to have helped make his snack!

Whole Wheat Bread

2010-07-22T14:43:00.004-04:00

I have to share this bread recipe! Its awesome! My amazing friend Jill gave me this recipe and it is absolutely perfect for sandwich bread. She was also kind enough to do a bread making demonstration and I learnt so much from her and wanted to share some of her tips so that you can make yummy home made bread too!

I make about 70% of our bread now. We buy a few loaves here and there because lets face it, some things just taste better on store bought bread like grilled cheese in our sandwich maker or to use it instead of hot dog buns etc. But the rest of the time we have yummy homemade whole wheat bread which is delicious and so so so much better for you. It stores really well too if you slice it and then put it in the freezer. When we want some we just defrost it on 60% power for about 30 seconds. Peter isn't a huge fan of this but it works for Quinn and I and its nice to have a little stash in the freezer just in case.

Something that I thought was interesting about this recipe is that you add the flour in several stages. Maybe this is why this bread slices so well and isn't crumbly? Also, instead of dusting the counter with flour to shape your dough you use oil. This was the first time I had seen a recipe that required this but have seen a few more since. But I think that using oil instead of flour makes a big difference!

It is a pretty sticky dough. I have an electric mixer which works fine and it would obviously work well in a kitchen aid too. Again, using oil instead of flour to shape the dough is super helpful here as the dough is so sticky but you don't want to dry it out by using more flour. I realized a big problem I had when making bread was that I was using way too much flour. Make sure you don't use more flour than this recipe calls for, even if it does look too wet. Trust me, it will turn out perfect.

A great tip Jill had was to measure your oil first and then your honey into the oil so that it doesn't stick.

I usually half this recipe, I only have two bread pans. I think that my bread pans are pretty big though because the bread does come out a little shallow. I am planning on playing around with the amounts a little to fill up my bread pans a little more.

Oh, and did I mention it only takes about an hour from start to finish? With only 10 minutes of actual mixing, kneading etc its quicker to make then to go to the store and buy some!

100% Whole Wheat Bread

(4 Loaves)

Add: 5 to 5 ½ cups hot tap water

2/3 cup oil

2/3 cup honey (or 1/3 molasses + 1/3 honey) or ½ cup granulated sugar

1 very full Tablespoon salt

Run machine for 30 seconds on speed 1.

Add: 5 cups of flour

Run machine until batter is smooth. Use speed 1.

Add: 3 T. Saf instant yeast and 2 more cups flour

Run machine on speed 1 and continue adding 1 cup of flour at a time until the sides of the bowl are free from batter. The total flour used in the batter should be 12 to 13 cups.

Add: 1 to 1 ½ cups additional flour [there should be no more than a total of 13 to14 cups of flour used in this recipe]. Place the lid on the bowl. Turn machine on to Speed 3. Knead the batter with the machine for 4 to 6 minutes. Usually, 5½ minutes is just right. Stop the machine. Oil your hands and shape the loaves (do not use flour). Rise in the oven at 150 degrees until loaves are at top of pan. This takes about 15-20 minutes. Turn oven to 350E and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Baking time will depend on size of loaves as well as the oven features.

Quilt #2

2010-07-22T14:38:00.002-04:00

I made a quilt for Quinn when I found out we were having a boy. Well, I started making it at that point....and 18 months later it was finished! I started out with nothing but the material and kitchen scissors. I painstakingly cut out each square which took forever. Then I attached each square to cut out card stock and then sewed each piece together. There is a lot of love in that quilt, let me tell ya.

I started making a quilt for James today. I already have over 20 squares sewn together. Thank goodness for generous mothers and the acquisition of a rotary cutter and a sewing machine!

34 Weeks!

2010-07-10T21:58:00.004-04:00

And I am getting so ready to have this baby!

I had my 34 week appointment yesterday. I asked my midwife if she could tell how little James was laying. She said that she thought at first he was breach (oh no!) but that he was actually head down. Whew! He is also measuring a little small. 31-32 weeks instead of 34 and was measuring small the week before too so we are doing an ultrasound in a week to make sure he is on track.

The same thing happened with Quinn around this time and he was totally fine so I am not worried. And, as long as he is healthy, I am glad for the excuse to have another ultrasound and that he isn't going to be a big little man, because honestly, that makes my job a little easier.

6 more weeks!

Progress

2010-07-06T10:35:00.003-04:00

I decided to work on finishing those pillows this past week. I am really pleased with how they turned out and it feels great to have started working through my stack of projects.

Project for this week: Window seats!

Haircut

2010-07-06T10:26:00.003-04:00

Our little man's hair grows so fast! But giving him a haircut can be a daunting task as we try to combat all those wiggles and the head turns to see what is going on.

The past two haircuts however Quinn has been so so good. And super cute too!

I'm 1!

2010-07-06T10:08:00.001-04:00

Out of the Mouth of Quinn

2010-06-23T22:16:00.004-04:00

Quinn has been doing really great at learning signs and new words recently. His favorite words include:

Trash

Door

Chair

Dog

Mama

Daddy

Bar (for drinks)

Juice

Ken Dee (for his friend Kennedy)

and Fish

He amazes me at how fast he is starting to pick up language skills. I was able to teach him a couple of signs during dinner tonight where as before it would take a few days and before that he wouldn't sign back at all. He doesn't know a ton of signs but will do the signs for hungry, more, hat, light, thirsty, milk and fish.

If you ask Quinn how old he is he will now hold up 1 finger and then clap really excitedly.

He has been walking around saying fish and doing the fish sign a lot the past couple of days. We saw a fish at the library today and he was pretty excited about it. When we got home I decided to make some cardboard fish and attach paper clips to them so he could 'fish' them with a little magnetic fishing rod he has. I printed out the fish onto card and showed him the pictures. He looked at it and said "Fish!" Then ran into the room and sat down on the floor where we eat snacks and folded his arms to pray. Apparently he thought the fish in the picture were for dinner!

England Goodies

2010-06-22T20:05:00.004-04:00

Today was a busy busy day. Lots of baking and playing with the little munchkin. The best part of the day was opening the door to see two packages from my amazing grandparents on the doorstep filled with goodies for our little family. Lots of treats that remind me of home.

We also inherited a little yellow duck. This duck has been in my grandparents 'extension' ever since I can remember and it was always such a treat to be able to eat a little chocolate out of the duck. (it is hollow and it twists apart). The ones I remember the most were wrapped as basketballs and soccer balls. Now the duck gets to be in our living room for Quinn and James to have their treats out of. Such a fun tradition!

Excuse me while I go relax on the couch and savor every bit of my Wispa candy bar. Divine!

Sad story and project help

2010-06-04T14:25:00.006-04:00

My last diaper bag ripped, so I started using the free one the hospital gave us. It works great and though I don't think it would be good for new born items because the inside is flimsey, its great to lug around toddler stuff. Apart from sippy cups. They just don't want to fit anywhere. Last week I was in a hurry so I threw the sippy cup into the middle compartment instead of trying to force it into the side pocket. And water went everywhere! Only I didn't realize how bad it was. I thought its just dribbled a little as sippy cups tend to do but the contents had indeed found their way over books, diapers and....my hubbys camera :-(

Its working again but the lens is blurry so we will have to see if we can take it apart and fix it. In the mean time I feel awful for breaking a camera and can't share any fun pictures of the projects I have been working on.

Ahh projects...I have about a hundred and three projects lurking around my house, all unfinished. A lot of them I wanted done about a month or two after we moved in...and we have been here a year. I figure one of the best ways to get things done is to make yourself responsible to other people. You guys are my people :-)

Here is a list of a few of the things I am working on:

Curtain ties: Right now I am using scraps of fabric to hold back our curtains. UGLY. I have the fabric and just need to whip up some nice looking ties. I also want to add a simple valance.

Pilows: I have the fabric, the design, and a bunch finished without snaps. The thing holding me back is that I have some pillows I want to cover in a box, which is under another box, and about 10 more boxes in Quinns room and I need to know the size of them. Why is moving boxes so hard? Not sure but I just need to get in there and do it.

Comforter: I am making a comforter for the twin bed in Quinn's room so there is some color and everything is matchy matchy. I was on a role with this until I realized that I messed up and cut a couple of pieces too short. I finally cut out some more..and I cut it too short again! Aparently I can not measure. Mistakes like this make it so hard to get a project finished.

Window boxes: We started building these fabulous window boxes before Christmas. We have one almost finished. It turned out being a lot higher than we planned but it gives us tons of extra storage. With this one we need to add a few supports in the inside and attach the lid. Then put molding around the front. The second one has the upholstery and lining done but some of the wood is unstained. As I am pregnant I can't whip out a brush and finish this up and the best way to get it done is to help set it up and let Peter take care of it.

So those are the projects at the top of my list. I'll keep you guys updated!

Updates

2010-05-18T22:06:00.003-04:00

Peter started his externship on Monday. He has to drive quite a ways three times a week but it is going to be a great experience for him. He is working for Shisheido/Zotos. There is a lot of IP work involved which is great, as well as some general law.

I have been doing the same stuff...sewing, cleaning, cooking, playing with the little guy, being pregnant, being tired, practicing the piano, reading, and spending time with the hubster.

Quinn has been growing lots of teeth, working on getting over his ear infection, learning counting and letters, learning new words, making us all smile and being his cute little self.

Where does this go?

2010-05-18T21:54:00.003-04:00

I asked Quinn to take his temperature today.Apparently the belly button is where the thermometer goes.

Poor little guy has been very miserable and sick. He had a temperature for 4 days two weeks ago. We took him to the Doctor and it was an ear infection. We started him on antibiotics and he perked right up though we still noticed him tugging on his ear for a while after. Then Saturday he broke out in a funky rash. It looked like big mosquito bites, red and swollen and a good size. It was over his face, arms, legs and belly. Then Sunday morning he was getting little red dots too. I called his doctor wondering if it was a reaction the amoxacillin and she said to stop giving it to him. He was already on day 9 and had already had his dose for the morning. By the afternoon the rash was already fading but we decided not give him anymore medicine. We had a doctor's appointment to check on things today and by the time we got there he had a fever and was shaking. He was so sad :-( He still had the infection in one ear so now he is on a different antibiotic. We aren't sure if the amoxacillin caused the rash since the it started to fade before we got a chance to stop giving it to him and the doctor said the rash sounded more viral than an allergic reaction. He is such a trooper! So sweet even when he isn't feeling great. Hope you get better soon buddy!

Preggie Pictures

2010-05-18T21:47:00.003-04:00

So blogger is being frustrating and I can't reverse the order of these pictures. Anywho, here are a few pregnancy pictures.Me and my sweetheart at 26 weeks. (ignore my living room. we had the massage table set up as I was trying to use my belly to take some pictures to show pregnancy massage. My belly is still a little too small. We'll have to try again in a few weeks)
25 weeks.
I think this one was taken around 14 weeks.

3rd trimester...

2010-05-18T21:18:00.003-04:00

...here we come!Definitely getting bigger. I feel bigger this time than I did with Quinn and it feels like little peanut is higher up. I have been wanting to compare photos from my pregnancy with Quinn but I can't find those pictures on my computer :-( Maybe the hubs knows where they are....I'll have to bug him about that sometime.

I'm feeling good. Tired, for sure, starting to feel awkward and I have started waddling. But everything is going wonderfully and I am grateful.

I can't believe I am already in the 3rd trimester, I feel like we completely skipped the second trimester. My midwife gave me a third trimester packet which listed all the things to pack in a hospital bag. Pack a hospital bag? This still feels a little surreal, I know we have a baby in the future but it feels like a year away not three months.

I have been repeatedly telling people that I am skipping labor this time. This sounded like a great plan! But truthfully I am terrified of labor this time around. I was trying to figure out why. Granted, I have experienced labor now and know better what to expect. You would think that this would make me feel better prepared this time. The more I thought about it the more I realized that with Quinn was so excited about the privilage of being pregnant, it didn't matter what I went through because I got to be pregnant, got to give birth, got to become a mother. I think I had forgotten how much I value being a mother and all the joys and pain that make being a mother so meaningful. So now I am feeling a lot better. Giving birth to Quinn was one of the best days of my life, and I know giving birth to James will be one of the best days too.

Blue Mountain Massage

2010-05-01T21:47:00.004-04:00

Check out my new blog: BlueMountainMassage.Blogspot.com

I will be posting great specials, useful massage tips, fun massage facts and important information about different types of massage.

Remember, Mother's Day is May 9th. A massage is the perfect gift for any mother!

Don't miss out on our great Mother's Day Package, available for purchase through May 9th.

15 Minute Reflexology Session
20 Minute Sugar Scrub
15 Minute Head, Neck and Shoulder Massage

50 Minutes $40

Also, from now until May 9th Hot Stone Massages are 20% off.

Ramblings

2010-04-17T19:03:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm still in the hospital. The pain I had been experiencing started to come back as the pain killer wore off and so I decided I would hang out here for one more day.

Plus there was steak for dinner. But that was just a silver lining. I am missing my boys and am anxious to be home.

I got up to shower today and really looked in the mirror. Not the prettiest picture I have seen in a while. My skin is all freckled from the sun last week, I have dark rings under my eyes, my face has decided to break out again. I was slightly depressed about it, my skin has never been a strong point. And then my hair, well we won't go there. But it did not add much to the picture. I took a gloriously warm shower, worked out some kinks, climbed back into bed and was trying to amuse myself by browsing the Internet when I stumbled across a blog that has been mentioned to me a couple of times but I have never looked at. I accidentally closed the window and can't remember how I found it and can't remember the name (sorry) but it was about a burn victim. She had posted a few pictures of herself. And I felt suddenly so ashamed for worrying about freckly, pimply skin. Its amazing how one thing can seem so important to you and the next, not so much. It just needed to be put in perspective. Skin is just not worthy of worrying about that much, there are so many other important things that need my thoughts and attention.

I think sometimes I am incredibly stubborn in learning important lessons. I have been trying so hard to look at the positive side of being sick and have truly been humbled and felt like I have learnt a lot from this experience. I have learnt more about how my body works, I got to listen to doctors evaluating people in the ER (kinda like a fun mini field trip for me), I got to think about what kind of nurse/doctor I want to be...what things the medical staff did that was helpful, how they handled different situations, how grateful I was for them helping me through the rough patches and how I could be helpful to someone in that way when the opportunity comes. I have felt an increase in my patience as it is taking a while for me to get better. I haven't had to cook or clean, I have been able to sleep as much as I want, the baby is doing so great, this illness hasn't affected him at all, which is huge because infections like these can cause miscarriages. The list goes on.

But I think no matter how hard I try to keep life in perspective, experiences like these always help me to reevaluate what is most important. And I need that. For example, I didn't get some sewing projects done this week and I didn't clean my house. I didn't take a pile of stuff to goodwill, I didn't clean out my car, or finish organizing my closet, or do laundry. Those things need to be taken care of. But even though those things didn't happen life is still happening and is still good. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't stress so much about those things....

Sorry to bore you with the ramblings of a only somewhat coherent pregnant lady, but those are my thoughts for the day :-)

My kidney and I have been fighting

2010-04-16T22:33:00.004-04:00

Hmmm so this week has not been the best week. Here's what happened:

Monday around 4pm I started having mild pain in my right side between my lowest rib and my hip. At first I thought it was the little peanut just scooting on over and making me uncomfortable but later on that night it started getting really bad. I now wasn't sure if he was just stuck over there or if something else was going on so we called one of our midwives. She said that it sounded like a gallbladder problem, to lay off fats and dairy and to call in the morning if it wasn't feeling better. I popped a few Tylenol, received a blessing and was able to get some sleep.

The next morning I still was feeling pretty sore so I called back and an ultrasound was scheduled. Peter had to go to school so I took Quinn down to play at his friend little B's house. I went to the ultrasound appointment in the afternoon and by this point was in a LOT of pain. I was in tears by the time they called me in for the ultrasound. The ultrasound tech was soooo nice! He took a look at everything and ruled out the possibility of any gallbladder problems but did notice some fluid build up and swelling in my right kidney. He also noticed that when he rolled me onto my left side that the fluid drained a little better. The doctor came in and agreed with his findings it was proposed that the baby was probably lying against one of my ureters, causing the fluid not to drain as it should and therefore backing up into my kidney. They said that they would send the results to my midwife and so I set up a follow up appointment for the next day. (The bright side to this was that I got to see James in the ultrasound again. He was even cuter than last time).

Going home was scary. I was still in a ton of pain and was praying so hard that I would be able to make it home safely. I also started shaking. I got home, grabbed some more Tylenol and climbed into bed. Then the chills started. These were pretty intense but after about 20 minutes they calmed down and I started a cycle of chills/fever and sweats. The Tylenol seemed to keep things under control and I drank a bunch of orange juice hoping to make the little guy move on over. I started to feel him moving on the opposite side but the pain was still there but still hoped that it would eventually go away.

Peter took me to my Dr's appointment the next day. They determined that since the pain had spread into my low back and that there was a little bit of blood in my urine that I either had an infection or a kidney stone and were leaning towards the fact it was a stone. They gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and said to call if the pain got worse. We went promptly to the pharmacist to fill the prescription but were told that they were unable to fill the prescription as I was not allowed to take it when I was pregnant. We asked them to talk with the midwife and to call us when they had a prescription I could take.

Around 4:30 I started getting chills again. But these were bad! I couldn't stop shaking and my whole body was seizing up to the point I couldn't swallow. Down went some more Tylenol and I asked for another blessing. The chills lasted for almost an hour but finally passed. I was getting scared so we called the midwife again and she told us we needed to go to the emergency room. Most likely I needed some IV hydration and to get started on antibiotics.

We made it to the emergency room around 7:30 and got checked in. After a few tests it looked like I definitely had a kidney infection and that it had spread slightly to my left kidney too(Apparently pregnant women are at a larger risk for these types of infections and it is quite common) but they couldn't rule out a kidney stone or appendicitis as the ultrasound had been indefinite on these points. The best way to check those diagnosis are through a cat scan but as I was pregnant they wanted to avoid any radiation as best they could. So they decided to admit me. The next 24 hours were filled with chills and fever but finally the chills started to get less intense and frequent and the fever followed suit. And thanks to some nice painkillers the pain has been kept in control. They had me on a clear fluid diet which means I hadn't eaten anything solid in three days but I was moved back onto solid foods today which was heavenly!

I am starting to feel a lot better though still not great, but it looks like I will be able to go home sometime tomorrow! Yay!

Thank you! To everyone that has helped us, especially with watching Quinn. What a huge blessing and weight off of our minds to know he was in good hands.

Even though I have been sick I feel so grateful. I have a wonderful loving husband who has dropped everything to take care of me, even though I know he has a ton on his plate right now. A loving son whose hugs have been the best medicine. Loving and caring friends and family, great medical care and the comfort of my Heavenly Father to help me get through this.

Easter 2010

2010-04-13T12:56:00.005-04:00

Holidays are a lot more fun when you have kids old enough to enjoy them! We started off the morning with a visit from the Easter Bunny. Instead of an Easter basket Quinn got an Easter bucket so that he can take it to the beach this year. He also got a spinning top that lights up which he loves! A spade, a shape sorter toy, a few spring clothes, a magnet fishing set, (which sadly was way more interesting in the packet than out as the magnets are really weak, that's what a dollar will get ya) and pinwheels as Quinn has been learning a lot about wind and blowing.

For Easter this year our friends Carlee and her husband Adam put together a fun little Easter egg hunt. We looked for eggs and had a potluck brunch. It was delicious! We made Strussel butterscotch apple muffins. I have to admit I was quite proud of these muffins. I ended up combining two apple muffin recipes and adding a few tweaks myself. I don't usually mess with recipes that much and it was fun to experiment. These turned out heavenly. I'll post the recipe sometime.Quinn did quite well looking for eggs. We helped him find one which made it into his bucket quite well. But after that, he was way more interested in banging together the last two he found and running around with them.

We finished off the day by watching General Conference and making pork with lemon caper sauce (which was heavenly) with English roast trimmings such as mashed rutabaga, roasted parsnips, and rolls.

Peanut's Ultrasound Pictures

2010-04-13T12:46:00.004-04:00

Its so fun to look at the ultrasound pictures and picture what your little one is going to look like.

I think this little boy is going to look even more like Peter than Quinn does. It looks like Peanut has a slightly longer forehead and slightly thinner face, whereas in Quinn's ultrasound it looked a little rounder. It also appears that this one has Peter's nose too. Either way, ultrasounds do not capture the cuteness of a new little baby and cannot come close to depicting what that little baby is going to look like. I can not wait to count all those fingers and toes in person, to see what color the hair and eyes are, how those cute little ears stick out and to gaze at soft eyelashes against baby soft skin.

But for now these pictures are on our fridge so that we can see this little one everyday. I love it!

15 Month Stats

2010-04-05T21:51:00.002-04:00

Weight: 23lbs (50%)

Height: 32" (90%)

Head Circumference: 18"

General Conference

2010-04-05T21:43:00.003-04:00

I love listening to General Conference. It always seems to go by so fast these days. I remember being in my teens and it seemed to drag, and now before I can blink it is over. I love hearing the uplifting messages, pondering points that I could improve upon, and enjoying the strong spirit that enters our home as we listen to the voice of the Lord through his servents the Prophet, the Apostles and other auxillary leaders in the church.

I think my favorite talk was given by Sister Beck. It was one of those talks that seemed like it was written just for me. She spoke a lot on responsibilty and prioritizing, things that I have been struggling with recently. I felt strengthened and renewed after listening to her talk.

Did any of you see the corny LDS commericals they have after some of the sessions? There was one with two little boys that were at the hospital to see their new born sister and one of the boys gave a little toy car to his sister? I was bawling! Crazy pregnancy hormones!

We had a great Easter weekened spending time together, eatin gyummy food and candy and watchign conference. Pictures to come soon!

My suspicions were

2010-04-02T21:22:00.005-04:00

Wrong this time!

I thought there was a good possibility this little one was a girl but it is in fact a boy! And we are so excited!

I love little boys, they are so much fun. And I am glad that Quinn will have a little brother that he can run around with too.

I dutifully ate a little chocolate before the ultrasound and as such our little guy was nice and squirmy for the ultrasound and spectacularly immodest so we could get a clear view of, um, everything.

The ultrasound went really well. Everything looks fantastic and I am right on track with my due date etc. They said that Peanut weighs 10.5 ounces and looked beautiful. The ultrasound also revealed a sweet little leg and foot wedged into some recess of my belly. I am glad to know what that was because every morning when I wake up I am so uncomfortable! This little one gets into weird positions and I have to waddle around for a little until all the kinks get worked out in there. The worst is always in my low left stomach and now I know it was his foot!

I am feeling great, still a little emotional, but have some more energy and have been daydreaming of all the sewing and projects that I want to make for Peanut. I started decorating Quinn's room when I was pregnant with him and am pretty excited to finish it up and add a few extra's so little brother has a place in there too. (Why do these projects always seem to take forever?)

I am in desperate need of taking some belly pictures and will have to post one soon as soon as I remember to ask my hubby to get the camera out of the one box I can't reach in the whole apartment.

Life has been pretty stressful the past week as we had to make some final decisions about classes, jobs, externships and research papers in order for Peter to complete his IP concentration and stay on track to graduate in December.

We are going to have a busy summer of Peter taking classes, working at a law firm and completing an IP externship at a corporate office somewhere for the first half of the summer. The second half will consist of him working at the law firm, working at the Law School's Civil Clinic, finishing up externship hours and starting on a proposal for an independent research paper. Then in the Fall he will finish up his last five classes and complete his research paper and continue to get experience working at the law firm. And some where in there we have to fit in bar review. But the end is in sight and I am looking forward to all the next few months have to offer, especially with the arrival of a new little son.

We Still Don't KNow

2010-03-24T15:37:00.002-04:00

So I woke up this morning super excited. I counted down the hours, we left on time, get to the hospital and are informed that our appointment was a half hour ealier!

I could of sworn it was 1:30 but alas it was 1pm. I have been kicking myself for not double checking. I have so many appointments swishing around in my head some of them are bound to get confused. I have a calander on my fridge for this very reason so I can look at it every day and remind myself what is happening. But I was so confident I knew when this appointment was I didn't even thinking of looking again.

Oh well, we have another appointment on Monday which really isn't too far away.

Dissapointment hurts, especially wqhen you come off of an emotional high, but thats ok, I am just going to have to work on my patience and make it till next Monday. And either way we will find out in about 5 months time, one way or another.... I just hope its sooner than later.

Cute things, fun faces and the tale of the backpack

2010-03-21T11:23:00.008-04:00

So the battery in our camera died and apparently the ease of taking out the battery and plugging it into the charger was too much for me. But I finally did it! Yay me, and so I have been trying to take some more pictures of the happenings around here. Which means your get to be bombarded with pictures of Quinn. But he is cute and fun so its all good.

We tried to go bowling on Saturday but had some troubles finding the Bowling Alley and ended up at East Rock park. We walked by the river, played on a turtle, swung on the swings and explored a little-Quinn found a rock and an acorn he was pretty focused on. Turtle Climbing

Papa helping Quinn walk on the turtle. Such a cute picture of them

Checking out the park

I love his studious face! Here he is thinking about the acorn

Lovin' the swings. I had such a hard time getting a picture with him looking up, he thought leaning over the seat and staring at the ground was more fun. He's right, remember doing that as a kid? And you would see the ground rush by and feel a little dizzy? :-)

Another favorite picture

The Tale of the Backpack.

So Quinn is really into imitating us right now. He loves to help clean, he wants to be the one who uses the keys to unlock things, he handed Peter a belt the other morning wanting when he saw Peter putting on another belt and wanted to help. He then wanted to wear the belt just like Daddy.

The other morning Quinn walks into our closet and sees an empty backpack sitting on top of the washer. He started pointing and grunting at the backpack and so I gave it to him. He immediately put it on and headed for the front door. I opened the door and he headed out down the hall.

(Sorry the picture is so blurry, this kid moves fast)

He made his way over to the elevator

He tried really hard to push the elevator button

And looked pretty disgruntled he couldn't reach it.

I'm guessing he wanted to head off to school just like Daddy does every morning.

Cute Faces

(Sorry that light is so bright)

Kissing himself in the mirror

Recent Favorites and New Things:

Quinn loves giving wide open mouth kisses, and it has to be right on the mouth too.

He gives high fives

Loves climbing on the couch

Is able to slide down the slide by himself (He usually climbs up the steps, holds onto the bar, swings himself forwarded onto the slide and lets go) Sometimes he goes down feet first but on his tummy.

Loves picking things up and putting them away

really enjoys playing with keys and putting them in a little hole in the bottom of the front door

Loves baths and playing with his letters- They stick to the bath and he usually always gets them facing the right way

Loves making Indian sounds

Loves being chased and tickled

Loves pulling his caterpillar, helicopter and other things behind him

Would rather see how something works than play with it- For example, he has a basketball hoop that has buttons you press to make the balls drop but he pushes the balls down and then loves playing with the latches on the inside.

Loves plugging wires into the speaker.

Blows on his food

Clasps his hands together for prayers

Knocks on doors when he wants to go in.

Says mmmm when he likes food

Loves it when Daddy comes home from school

Loves the laundry room

Tries to open the fridge when he is hungry

Grabs our hands and pulls us to where he wants to go

Follows and understands basic directions pretty well

Likes to sit and read books to himself, even upside down

Has a molar with more coming through- he now has a total of 9 teeth

Picks Daddy's nose during prayers

Likes to play with eyelashes

Loves animals, especially dogs and birds

Boy we love this kid!

MN March 2010

2010-03-21T10:50:00.006-04:00

Even though our trip to MN was not under the best of circumstances it was really wonderful to be with family.

Quinn did really well on the flights. We lucked out...on the first flight they changed our seat so we were behind the bulkhead. This was a super small plane but it had more room behind the bulkhead than I have seen on any other plane, more than an extra 6 inches over any other bulkhead space. That was so nice! Then after our layover they changed our seats from behind the bulkhead and I was feeling pretty bummed. But, as it turned out, we were second from last and no one sat behind us, so we moved back a row and had three seats all to ourselves. Yes!Quinn's favorite plane activities included:

Opening and closing the window shutter

Twisting the air on and off

Switching on and off the reading light

Moving the arm up and down

Playing with the people in front, behind and to the side

Squirming

Squishing the baby

Sitting on the arm rest

Looking out of the window

Eating snacks

Mum's favorite plane activity: Sleeping!I love hanging out with this kid! Papi and Granma. I love this face Papi is making, classic.

It was never ending fajita night at a Mexican restaurant we went to. (I can not for the life of me remember the name...I think it was Don Pablo's?) It was pretty darn good.

Very casual, good food, and never ending Fajitas, you can't go wrong with that.

Quinn ate three tortillas with beans, rice and cheese! Apparently he LOVES Mexican food, just like his Daddy :-)

Quinn also loved playing with Paige and would say Doh for Dog. We had fun taking her on a walk and playing in the park. (My parents live in this great neighbourhood with beautiful trails and parks, I love it) we hung out with Uncle David and worked on a few college plans and on him getting his permit. We also went to Library and checked out a few books, went to Jo Ann, spent time with each other, visited the cemetery and comforted each other.

Our trip home went well. On our way out we got to go through Atlanta, one of my favorite airports because there is a train to take you to each terminal and they have a Chick-Fil-A. usually I have to trek all over the airport to get some but this time it was right in front of our gate. Super nice!

On the way back we went through Detroit. This was nice because the flight was shorter and the airport was really fun. They had a cool fountain that was like a mini Bellagio. My favorite part was when they made the water look like jumping fish. Quinn's favorite part was splashing in the water. The airport also had a tunnel from one terminal to another that had green lighted paneling which made you feel like you were under water and a sky rail system which was pretty cool.

After our layover Quinn slept all of our last flight. I am glad that he loves airports and exploring and have tons of fun doing this with him but I really enjoyed this! I mean there is only so much you can do to entertain a 1 year old in a 2ft by 2ft space.

We are looking forward to our next trip to MN in June to say goodbye to Uncle D before he heads of to Hawaii.

Lohr

2010-03-21T10:44:00.002-04:00

At the begining of spring break we got the sad news that my step brother Lohr had passed away. I was anxious to get to MN as quickly as possible to be with my family during this time and to offer comfort and support. We were blessed to see a huge drop in plane tickets over the course of the day and I know this is because of many prayers offered so that I could be with my family.
Peter was not able to go because of school but Quinn and I left on Thursday and were able to spend a week in MN.

Lohr's funeral was beautiful. I know he had a hard time believing he was loved but so many people came to say goodbye to him, friends and family members, and I hope he knows how much he will be missed.

Playing Ball

2010-03-21T10:20:00.003-04:00

We have been enjoying some beautiful weather. Winter seems to have lasted forever this year and we have been suffering from cabin fever. So sunny and 45 is beautiful weather!
We took Quinn to the park so he could enjoy the sun and get all of his wiggles.

This little boy does NOT stop moving. He loves being outside, climbing on things and exploring.

When we got to the park it was packed! So we decided to head over to the ball field and teach Quinn how to play catch. At first he was more interested in running around with the balls but soon got the hang of handing the ball back and forth and even tossing it a little.

Zoo Day!

2010-03-21T09:56:00.006-04:00

Our local library is awesome and offers discounted or free passes to some great places to take kids. We were able to snag the pass to Beardsley Zoo over Peter's spring break and so we took the little man to see all the animals. Its not a huge zoo but there is lots to see and perfect for exposing Quinn to lots of different animals.
.
This was Quinn's 3rd visit to the zoo. The first time was when he was just a few months old. The second was when he was 10 months old and he seemed pretty interested. But this time he loved it! He was excited about all the animals and would point and talk about them. He would also watch them so intently. It was great to see him enjoying everything.

While we were there we saw a group of peacocks with , not 1, but 5 with their tail feathers all spread. They were beautiful! Some of the peacocks feathers were so tall that they acted as sails and when the wind blew they would be blown around a little. They were fun to watch.

I love this picture! My boys :-)

It was a fun trip and I am looking forward to going again this summer before the little peanut gets here.

Boy or Girl?

2010-03-05T10:34:00.002-05:00

We are having the anatomy ultrasound in a little over two weeks and while we are there we will probably ask to find out the sex of the baby. A tiny part of me doesn't want to know but the majority of me does so that side will probably win. I'm not sure I can wait another 22 weeks to find out what we are having and I really don't know how to get ready for a baby not knowing if it is a boy or a girl. I think after we have had one of each it would be a lot easier to prepare since we would have everything we need.

For the first part of my pregnancy I thought this little one was a girl, now I am leaning more in the other direction.

I feel like I am carrying a little higher this time, I have been very emotional, and have had bad acne. All opposites of when I was carrying Quinn. I also haven't been as sick but have been just as if not more tired. That makes me think it is a girl. But there is just a part of me that thinks that this one feels like a boy again.

What do you think we are having?

3rd Anniversary

2010-02-19T10:02:00.004-05:00

Wednesday was our 3 year anniversary!

Peter and I met in May of 2006. I had just graduated from massage therapy school and was working and taking classes at BYU.

Peter had gotten off of his mission in February and this was his first semester back at BYU.
I was good friends with Peter's new roomates and we became good friends just hanging out and having fun.

We had our first date at the end of June. Peter took me to a round-about in the middle of Provo. It was a really neat spot, surrounded by shrubs, with a clearing in the middle and electrical outlets so we plugged in Peter's computer and watched a movie.
We started seriously dating at the end of July, were engaged in October and married in February.
Peter proposed to me on the round-about where we had our first date. I was setting up some blankets we could sit on to watch the movie and had my back to Peter. He took my hand and I turned around and saw him crouched down (it was dark) so I crouched down too. Then he starts saying sweet things, and I interupt him by echoing the same sentiments. Poor guy, I had no idea he was proposing. All of a sudden I realized what was going on and shut up. It was an awesome proposal and I of course said yes.

Peter always teases me that I didn't even look at the ring. That was because I was too busy hugging him. Much more important in my opinion than a ring. (I do absolutely love my ring though, its perfect!)

For our anniversary Peter surprised me by taking me to our favorite Italian restaurant, Carraba's. I had no idea they had them out here in the East, and was so surprised to look up on the hill and see the restaurant just sitting there. They have the best sirloin marsala, I love it! This was a restaurant we went to a couple of times in Provo, and really reminds us of the early days of our marriage and all of our college fun. It has a casual, romantic atmosphere and is a great place to eat good food and just be together. For dessert we came home and had some chocolate covered strawberries. So yummy!

I'm so glad that I have been able to be married to him for these past three years and am excited for many more years to come.

Mothers

2010-02-18T22:36:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to share this wonderful talk given by Joseph F. Smith on the importance of mothers. I absolutely love this talk and hope that you enjoy reading it too.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=5855f48fa2d20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=198bf4b13819d110VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD

Its a....

2010-02-04T15:27:00.005-05:00

Baby!

He/she is really in there. I was so excited to finally see this little one. The baby was pretty still but was moving those arms and hands around a little and you can see that hand up by the mouth in the pictures.

January 23rd, 2010 at 10 weeks

Recent pictures of Quinn

2010-01-29T11:09:00.003-05:00

Selfishness

2010-01-29T10:41:00.003-05:00

I have been on a selfish kick recently. I want to go back to school.

I really miss being in school. I really want to be a surgeon. It is awesome, amazing, fascinating, life saving, a constant learning curve, thought provoking and I really like using a bone saw.

Apart from the time that a cadaver kept giving me electric shocks, but that's another story.

But in the meantime I was going to become a nurse and then when my kids were older go back to med school and climb that ladder.

I won't go into details but it looks like it is going to be harder for me to go back to school than I was originally thinking. I wish people would stop changing curriculums, adding interviews, not offering night programs, ya know, that sort of thing. I worked hard when I was in college, got straight A's in all my nursing classes, did well on the TEAS test and got accepted into UVU's nursing program. But I gave that up so Peter could go to law school. And that was the best decision. Because his education is more important, he has to provide for our family. And I got to have a baby. Enough said

But it still kinda bums me out. I really want to do my bachelors in nursing, no other major interests me as much.

So we are exploring a couple of options and I am looking into different nursing programs in the west. I might even change my major. Because you see with nursing, I can't do one or two classes at time or do it online. Its clinicals and a set course load that you have to stick with on their time schedule. So maybe I'll do something like exercise science, that's what I was going to do originally, and that way I still get to keep learning, and then when the time is right I can become a nurse or just skip it and go straight to med school.

However, today I removed mucous from a nose, wiped away tears, soothed a baby, rubbed a back, gave a sponge bath, spoon fed breakfast and lunch to an unwilling child and took a rectal temperature...maybe I don't need to be a nurse, just a mother.

Highs and woes of a pregnant lady

2010-01-29T10:27:00.003-05:00

I love being pregnant! I have looked forward to this part of life for a really long time. I have always wanted to be a mother and really do it enjoy it. Its so neat that I am able to provide a nice home for this little one while it grows and gets ready to join us.

This pregnancy has been slightly different from the last one. Thankfully I am not as sick this time around, it more comes in spurts and on a daily basis than a continual, I have to stay in bed otherwise I will puke kind of sick. This is a huge blessing. I don't know how I would be able to take care of Quinn if I was that sick again.

I am experiencing a few different things this time around that I didn't with Quinn. I have that metallic coppery taste in my mouth. Actually before we found out I was pregnant I started having nose bleeds and thought the taste was just because of that. My left eye has also been drooping which I thought was just due to new contacts but that's pregnancy related too. I also noticed that I was showing around 4 weeks. No one else but Peter and I would have noticed but the bloated belly look started to clue us in to the fact that I could be pregnant. Either that or I had suddenly gained a bunch of weight.

My belly and back have been aching too. This didn't started until around 20 weeks with Quinn. With this one it started around 7...

With Quinn I knew what I could eat and not be sick. I loved baked potatoes with cheese, cheese and green onions together and breads! I couldn't stand raw chicken and actually have never really gotten over that.

It reminded me of working on the cadavers removing fat.

I won't go into details.

This time I can eat something one day and the next it makes me sick. I am a lot more aware of how my food smells and if it doesn't smell right I can't eat it.

This is definitely a healthier baby in that I want fruits and veggies and with Quinn I wanted fried food and carbs...maybe my eating never swung back to how it was and so now my body is just telling me what I need. Or maybe its because its a summer baby and wants light summery sorts of foods.

But I wouldn't miss out on any of this. I'm glad for the pregnancy symptoms because with this baby my attention is divided and sometimes I forget I am pregnant. Well maybe not forget....but its not at the front of my mind as it was with Quinn.
We had an ultrasound on Tuesday though and that was amazing. It is so neat to see the baby and it makes it that much more real. We have another ultrasound in two weeks so we get to see him/her again. Yay!

The ultrasound showed that the baby wasn't quite as far along as the original due date predicted so the new date is August 20th. Kinda weird...I already did the 11th and 12th weeks and today I just started my 11th week again.

I will have to post the ultrasound pictures soon, they are really sweet.

Quinn's 1st Birthday

2010-01-29T09:20:00.005-05:00

Happy birthday Quinn! I know its cliche but we really can't believe how much he has grown and matured over the past year. He brings so much joy into our lives and we love every minute of it. At the one year mark Quinn weighs 19lbs (25%) and is 31" (90th) tall. So pretty much a bean pole. There is too much about him to sum it all up but here are some things worth mentioning.

He loves food, especially fruits and mama's homemade buttermilk rolls. He is starting to read more and often pulls books off the shelf and will read to himself. His favorite books include the "On the farm" book from Gramma, Peedie, and a book about all the different noises dogs can make. (He thinks its hillarious). Quinn has such a fun personality. He'll do things just because he knows it will make us laugh. He has a cute mischevious smile and will often raise his eyebrows slightly if he thinks something is midly interesting but doesn't really want to let us know. He is walking and loves to be chased and to play hide and seek. He also enjoys pulling his blanket out of his crib and walking around the house with it.

His birthday was pretty low key. We just had pizza and cake with the three (four if you count the little one in-utero) of us. I had grand plans for his cake but it turned out terrible and was hesitant to post about it because, well it was just so bad! But now some time has passed it seems more funny than painful and his cake for his 2nd B-day will be fabulous!

I found this great idea for a cake:
I wasn't so thrilled about what she had actually on the cake and besides, that was more than I was willing to tackle, but I loved the idea of the leaning cake with the boy climbing up to reach the one on top. It seemed to fit Quinn so well. So I decided I would do that and just keep the decorations on the rest of the cake simple.

I thought of this about 3 months before his birthday so I defintely had time to prepare. I wasn't too worried about making the cake lean but I was worried about the little boy. I am definitely no artist. So I asked my talented friend Rachel to come over and tutor me on this. We played with mixing colors and with making the body shape. Here was my first mistake. I decided to experiment by using marshmallow fondant. This fondant tastes a lot better than regular fondant and would be fabulous for actually covering a cake. But it is very soft and pliable and not good for making cute little baby boys that are supposed to be climbing up a cake. I ended up having to rush to work and so we stuck what we had worked on in the fridge, me planning on working on it again when the fondant had time to harden a little.

Fast forward 3 months and I haven't touched it. Everytime I looked in the fridge I saw it and felt guilty about putting it off but I had other things going on.

And then we got pregnant.

So we get back from Utah, we are both exhausted and somewhat sick and the last thing I want to do is make a cake. So I make a quick backup plan. I'll use store bought cake and icing (mistake #2) and I'll just work on one of the little boys we had in the fridge (mistake #3).

So the fondant had been in the fridge way way too long! Duh, three months liz! So the little boys were rock solid. But I proceed to make the arms and legs. These looked amazing by the way, I was impressed with myself. But then I tried to stick them onto "the rock". And they got smushed. And so I made another set determined to stick them on with some stiff icing, but things never turn out quite as good the second time. Then I made the hair. Not bad but then it cracked and I ended up piping on the hair which I think would have turned out if I knew what I was doing. But the face, oh my... it looked like a sick muppet. Then the nose dropped off. And the arms dropped off too. And then I left it on the table, and Quinn's arms have grown and he gets a hold of it and breaks the torso in two...so I stick it back together and just pretended the little boy had a cool jagged design on his shirt.

So my sweet hubby bakes the cakes and they taste amazing. Instead of using fondant I use regular icing to cover them...ok not great but still looking good. Then I decide to put blue food coloring in the icing and try out my new piping tips.

So in my head I know this icing isn't going to work. But I was being stubborn, and didn't have much energy or patience to make my own icing. So the blue color was not pretty, and the icing of course was way too soft.

I can just see those of you who know how to decorate your cakes shaking your heads and laughing at me. Its ok, I laugh at me too. So I have swalled my pride and posted some pictures of the disaster. But look at the last picture. My little guy was so happy that he got to eat cake. And he didn't know it was ugly. And that was the whole point, I just wanted to put some effort into the cake to show him how much I love him and to make it special for him. But he got pizza and cake all in one day and thats quite a lot of love, especially when his diapers were a little yucky (ok, well maybe a lot yucky) because of it.

I start cake decorating classes on Tuesday. I definitely need them. Wish me luck!

Freaky looking muppet dude.
Can you see how it is oozing?! um, ya gross.

And my amazing 1 year old! Happy birthday buddy!

Today I made my baby do chores

2010-01-29T09:01:00.004-05:00

I was feeling tired today and felt it was about time Quinn started to pull his weight around here. So I had him empty the dishwasher, do the laundry and vacuum.

So not really, but I have been trying to include Quinn in more of what I do around the house. Ya know, when I actually do decide to try to do something around here. I am always so tempted to wait until he is asleep to do things. I am one of those people that likes tackling really big jobs all at once. For example when I clean the kitchen I don't like to just wipe down the counters and do the dishes etc. I also like to scrub the stove, including under the rings, clean all the doors, wipe down the tile on the back splash, sweep, mop, clean out the fridge...you get the picture. And that really isn't practical. I have been trying to find a balance between daily maintaining all the little things and then occasionally tackling something bigger. Plus, he is down to one nap a day and so I don't have a whole lot of time when he is actually sleeping. AND its good to start teaching him how to help out.

Anyways, it has been fun to see how Quinn really watches what I do and how he has been picking up on things. I spilt something on the floor the other day, so I grabbed a rag to wipe it up and there was Quinn right next to me wiping the floor with another towel.

And chores are so much more fun when you are doing them with your little guy. Its fun to teach him how to unload the dishwasher and to coax him into actually putting things into the cupboards instead of pulling them out. Today we had a big bag of laundry and I didn't feel like carrying it so I pulled it along the hallway and Quinn chased after it giggling. When we got back from the putting the laundry in I spilt some of our laundry soap on the floor. Thankfully it was the powdered kind but that stuff is tricky to get up. I tried regularly vacuuming it but that didn't work so well so I pulled out the hose and started stabbing at the carpet. That didn't work so well so I went to get a different attachment. When I got back Quinn was sitting there stabbing at the floor with the hose just like I had been doing. Wow! Didn't know he had been watching me do that. So I stuck on the other attachment and we took turns cleaning up the mess. He's pretty darn good.

Maybe I'll spill something again later just so we can do it again....

2009

2010-01-09T14:27:00.005-05:00

I know I am a little late but I did want to write about some of the highlights of 2009! It was an action packed year as we welcomed our first baby on January 2nd, barely missing New Years. Peter went back to school and was, as usual, busy studying. I decided to abscond to MN with Quinn for a few weeks to visit the fam and got back just in time for us to move up to Hamden. We got settled in our new place and Peter started a new semester. My brother came to stay with us and we all took a trip to England. David stayed until mid August and then headed back for school and we prepared to start yet another semester. We celebrated all the fall holidays and then headed to Utah for the Christmas holidays.

One of things that stood out to me was what a creative year it was and wanted to share some of the things that we made.

We successfully planted some tomato and basil seeds. (Well really how hard is it to plant seeds?) But the best part is that we didn't kill the plants after they started growing. We are looking forward to trying some new veggies and herbs this year.

I finally finished some pillows I had been making that I started the first year we were married. I also altered these curtains I had previously made to fit the windows in this apartment and Peter and I made the window bench. We are planning on making a second one so it runs the length of our window and putting some molding on them to make them more elegant.

I made this quilt for Quinn. I am really happy with how it turned out and with how my sewing skills grew.

I also have been making a quiet book for the moose in attempt to entertain him during church. I have so many ideas for this and am eager to keep at it and make a truely entertaining quiet book.

We have been cooking up a storm trying lots of new recipes as well as old favorites. We have enjoyed lots of homemade bread, granola bars, yummy desserts and a variety of delicious dinners.

And two of the best things we made this year:

Quinn David Bracken

Born Jan 2nd, 2009

Pudling #2

Due August 11th, 2010

Law Student Stress Buster Fair

2009-12-07T11:02:00.003-05:00

Quinnipiac is doing a stress buster fair today from 4-6pm in the Faculty Commons and LC 317. Come relieve your stress by playings games, doing yoga, eating pizza and the best part? 10 minute massages. I will be there helping out with the massages so make sure to swing by and fit some relaxation in to your busy finals schedule. Oh, did I mention its free?

First Steps

2009-12-06T20:10:00.002-05:00

Quinn took his first steps on December 1st and has been getting better all week. I guess he wanted to wake up and show us what he could do tonight as he woke up around 8 full of beans walked around for a little and then when back to bed. We are so proud of our little moose.

Food, Books and Quinn

2009-12-05T19:30:00.006-05:00

Food~

Quinn and I made homemade granola bars this week. They were so yummy! Even more so because I put chocolate in them. I mean you can't just have raisin granola bars. And the fruit mix I bought to put in them was disgusting! Every variety of fruit tasted the same as another kind. Thats just not right! Never buy the cheep dried fruit. I look forwarded to making them again...probably a healthier version this time.

Books~

Did you know the best way to read a book is to sit on it? Its the only way.

We have been reading lots of fun books recently. I was so excited to find this particular book at the library. I had completly forgotten about it until I stumbled on it this week. Elizabeth was a princess and was going to marry Prince Ronald. Unfortunatly a dragon comes, burns up the castle and carries off Prince Ronald. Elizabeth finds a brown paper bag to wear since all her clothes were burned up and sets off to rescue Ronald. She cleverly tricks the dragon and defeats him. But sadly Prince Ronald is a snob and tells her to come back and rescue him when she is dressed properly and is cleaned up. Elizabeth replies "RONALD! Your hair is nice. You look like a prince. But you are a BUM!" And they didn't get married after all. Love this book! I remember reading it all the time when I was little. Maybe because the Princess was named Elizabeth. Maybe because it has awesome pictures and the Princess is smart. But probably because I liked her sass.

And of course, I have to add a few pictures of Quinn.

Quinn likes climbing in things.

And under things.

And pretty much on and through and under everything. He loves being on the move. Last Sunday he pushed a little chair all the way around the church building. He loves pushing his toy boxes, and pots and pans, and the vacuum and bits of paper. Anything he can get his hands on.

He is our pride and joy.

Christmas is here...sort of

2009-12-05T13:58:00.007-05:00

The master tree fluffer. And yes that is a bowl of cranberry sauce you see, and yes I was just eating it straight out of the bowl with nothing else. I love love love it!

And Quinn loves loves loves tinsel

But not as much as the lights!

Its officially the Christmas season and as much as I am aprehensive about it snowing as I am not looking forwarded to being stuck inside all the time I do love the snow and it never feels like Christmas without it. We all had tons of fun stringing up the lights and listening to Christmas music.

Halloween

2009-12-04T20:46:00.003-05:00

This year for Halloween our little man dressed up as this....

And made a super cute pumpkin. I dressed up as a princess and Peter was a Jenga piece (A.k.a a box with Jenga written on it which he held up) It was a great costume! The night before Halloween, we went to our ward chili cook off and then went to Olive Garden and miniature golfing to celebrate my birthday. It was a blast! Halloween morning I ran a 5K which my friend Elizabeth and her husband put together. Lets just say I am extremely out of shape but it was a lot of fun!

Blue Mountain Massage

2009-11-09T08:26:00.002-05:00

One of the things I have missed since we moved to CT is being able to use my skills as a massage therapist on a regular basis. I didn't feel good about going out and getting a massage job but decided that I would like to set up my own business. It has been a slow process and a bit of a low priority but recently I have been trying to make it more important so I can finally get my business up and running. One of things I thought was most important was making a website as it is a useful informational and marketing tool. Its finally finished! And Blue Mountain Massage is offically open for business. Check it out!

BlueMountainMassage.Net

The holidays are a great time to get massages; to relax from all the stress that comes from all the festivities and gift certificates always make great gifts. Plus the holidays make me feel generous so there will be lots of specials and discounts.
Check out JoDeeYostPhotography.Blogspot.com for a special she is running right now. The first person to book a massage with me wins a free mini session. Its too great a deal to pass up!
So come get a massage and pass the word along!

New Posts

2009-09-21T18:53:00.001-04:00

I finally got caught up on all that has been going on with us the past few months. I posted quite a few new posts so make sure you scroll all the way down to get the full story :-)

What we have been up to

2009-09-21T18:18:00.005-04:00

Look how cute I am!

8 Months!

Me and my handsome guy at 8 months

Quinn is a great helper. He loves helping with the laundry

Our little guy is crawling all over the place. We have fun crawling through this box and all over the apartment.

Bath time is by far the most exciting time of day. Quinn is fascinated by the tub and can't wait to get in. Sadly, I haven't a picture of this, but he always tries to lift one leg and climb in. So cute!

We made cookies and cream ice cream. It was delicious!

I walked into Quinn's room one day and there he was just standing in his crib. I didn't know he could do that! I grabbed the camera and look at the grin he is giving me!

My boys are so goofy!

And a sweet video of Quinn playing peak a boo!

One last picture and goodbyes

2009-09-21T17:46:00.003-04:00

One last picture I forgot to post was this one. Bexhill is close to Hastings where the Battle of 1066 happened. We tried to get close the field but you have to pay but we did get to see this abbey right in front of the field.

We traveled all over the south of England, spent time with family, ate fish and chips, saw a lot of sights but eventually it was time to go home. I miss my family so much and it was great to see everyone. I hope we get to go again soon!

Castle #2

2009-09-21T17:23:00.002-04:00

So my brother really was on this vacation with us but we didn't get many pictures with him. This one was taken in front of Bodium castle. The castle was beautiful, complete with moat and all.

I had to post this picture of my dad. Its just one of the images that come to mind when I think about him: Relaxing with a cup of tea/coffee

My Dad and Quinn on the grounds of Bodium castle

Our little moose was such a trooper on our trip but he did get tuckered out. He was crawling around on our bed and just fell asleep.

We found a deli named after our little cutie. Well, I am assuming it was named before he was born but ya know.

Quinn and Granddad, July 2009

Water Fun

2009-09-21T15:30:00.003-04:00

Back in Bexhill we got to spend a lot of time with my Dad. We also got lots of chances to play in the water. Quinn got to go swimming for the first time. We went to this great pool that was shallow at one end and had a wave machine, plus spouts of water that were lots of fun. Quinn was a little apprehensive at first but ended up having a great time. He loves the water!

This was my Dad's first time to meet his grandson. They had a lot of fun together and Quinn even got a bath from his Granddad.

We went to visit a family friend at Sovereign Harbour and ended up taking a boat tour around the harbour. There were a ton of jelly fish in the water. If you make the picture above bigger you can see them better.

We were lucky enough to stay at a hotel about a two minute walk from the beach. We got to make sand castles and play in the water. We even got to get ice cream. Two of my top favourite activities.

The bright glare you see is just my white skin, but if you ignore that you can see Quinn playing in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time :-)

We had some down time at the hotel one evening and decided to play bananagrams. In honor of us loving Harry Potter AND being in England we decided to play using only words related to Harry Potter. We just had to show of how well we did...even if we did have to share a few tiles in the process.

Arundle Castle

2009-09-21T15:15:00.005-04:00

Sunday we had a big family dinner and Monday we had a relaxing day with an evening of shopping in Winchester which is a beautiful town. The next day we headed back to Bexhill but on the way stopped by Arundle Castle. We looked around a little and then had some delicious Chinese food.

Don't worry, its not a TARDIS.

Stone Henge

2009-09-21T15:00:00.003-04:00

Saturday morning my Uncle Jerry drove Peter, David and I to Stonehenge. Even though I lived England for the first half of my life this is a site I had never been to before. It was really neat to see.

We learnt lots of interesting new things such as there were actually three stages to Stonehenge. The first one was just a trench, the second one was made out of wood and the third was stone. The bumps you can see on top of some of the stones fit into notches on the horizontal stones would stay in place.

That night we got to see to my cousin Felicia perform twice. She was fantastic. First we saw her in Stage Coach where she did some drama and singing, and then in a choir performance. It was a great evening.

The New Forrest

2009-09-21T12:58:00.003-04:00

Thursday we went to the London temple. It was a spectacular day! Then on Friday we went to the New Forrest to have a picnic and play some cricket. The New Forrest is a huge expanse of land that consists of woodlands and villages. The neatest thing about it is that there is a lot of free roaming wild life especially cows and horses.

These horses were at our picnic spot when we pulled up and hung out for a while. They also snuck up right behind us when we were on a walk. So friendly!

For those of you who don't know cricket is played between two wickets. The goal for the batter is to protect the wickets and to score runs in between the wickets. The fielders job is to knock over the wickets and to stop the batter from scoring runs.

My Grandpa pitching....In cricket you pitch with a straight arm

My grandma even joined in and got a hit and a run

Also in cricket you hold onto the bat when you run

Going to the New Forrest for a picnic is a fun family tradition and I am so glad we got to go this year. hopefully next time my cousins will be able to come with us.

The day we had tea with the Queen

2009-09-21T12:45:00.007-04:00

Wednesday we took the train down to London. Grandma Jen, Papi and Quinn

And sadly enough we didn't have tea with the Queen. We didn't even get close to Buckingham Palace. Our day went by so fast and we didn't get to see everything we wanted to do but I guess that just means we have to go back sometime soon :-) However we did get to see

A Bobby

Big Ben....By the way, Big Ben is the name of the bell. The tower is Saint Mary's tower

Parliament

And the statue of Richard the Lion Heart in front of Parliament

Other things we saw but didn't get pictures of include the London eye (though we didn't go on it), the river Thames, Westminster Abbey and the O2. So much fun!

England I

2009-09-21T11:07:00.019-04:00

Our first few days in England were tons of fun and filled with celebrations. My Grandma (Dad's mom) turned 90! And so there was a big party to celebrate. Family from everywhere including England, Texas, Luxembourg, New Jersey and Connecticut gathered together to celebrate. My Grandma always jokes that she has a 'jet setting' family and my cousin Amanda came up with the great idea to make a map showing where all of Granny's family were now living.The second celebration was for my Granddad and Grandma Ings. It was their 50th wedding anniversary! My Auntie Sue and Uncle Jerry hosted an amazing party at their home. They are pro's at hosting the best get togethers. One fun aspect was that G+G didn't know that Peter, Quinn and I were coming. Nor that they were having a party. My dad dropped us off at A. Sue's and as he was leaving my grandparents were driving up. The roads are really narrow out in the country so they couldn't help but see each other. So they were pretty suspicious but still a bit of a surprise all the same. After a while we decided we should probably inform them that they would be having a party so they were given an invitation. My granddad was hurriedly looking for his "goggles" so he could see while my Grandma read the invitation. She suddenly looked up and said" but that's today!" And was pretty speechless. Her facial expression was priceless. I regret not taking a picture. At this point my Granddad still didn't know what was going on! Well he was finally informed and soon friends and family were arriving to celebrate 50 years of marriage. Quite an accomplishment!
Tuesday we decided to go down to Portsmouth Harbour to see some of the ships. We toured the HMS Victory which was the ship on which Lord Nelson died. We also got to see the HMS warrior which was the first Iron clad ship built in England and the Mary Rose. They are still in the process of trying to preserve the Mary Rose and so we were able to view it through a viewing gallery as they sprayed it with a wax solution. Half of the ship which was exposed had rotted away but the other half was burried in the ocean floor so it was preserved. because of this you can see a cross section of the ship.

Moments like these...

2009-08-17T19:45:00.003-04:00

I finished singing to Quinn, gave him one more hug and kiss and put him in his crib....
And he started laughing, as hard and as sweet as I have ever heard him laugh. He just took out his binky and gave me the biggest smile. And we just stood there laughing at each other for a couple of minutes.
I hope I never forget such a wonderful moment

Making our blog private

2009-08-05T20:49:00.001-04:00

We had a fabulous time in England and I have tons of pictures and fun stories to post. Just a quick post though to let you all know that we are making our blog private. So let me know your email and I'll add you to the list :-)

Anticipation and other toys

2009-06-22T15:16:00.005-04:00

5 months old love anticipation. They think it is the funniest thing ever. Favorite games now include tickle time and shark.

When we were moving into our apartment I overheard a neighbor telling the people who were helping us move that our baby was spoilt. Yikes! I never want to spoil my children and as I looked around our apartment I can see how she thought that. we have a playmat, an exersaucer, a swing and a bouncer, the crib, and plenty of clothes, shoes and toys. Then I realized how blessed are to have all of this. We bought the crib and the exersaucer but everything else has been given to us. And I don't think Quinn is spoiled. We spend so much time with him interacting,. We want to have a relationship with our son and we want to teach him about all that is in the world. When I do need a moment to get things done I am glad that he has toys to entertain him so he can keep learning and having fun. His exersaucer is great because he can play and sit up at the same time. His bouncer is fun for him because even though he doesn't really bounce he likes to walk around a little in it and gives him freedom. Having a few toys gives him the ability to make choices, his swing has helped him to learn about motion, his bath seat lets him enjoy the water and his stroller and car seat have enabled us to take him places such as the zoo, library, parks and airports. I don't think you need a lot to raise a child, simplicity is the best way but I am grateful for the generosity of others that has given our son new and fun experiences I am most grateful though for the generosity that has given me the opportunity to be a stay at home mum and to devote most of my time to our little moose. There is nothing else I would rather be doing.

Scooting and Sitting

2009-06-22T15:10:00.003-04:00

Yup, thats right, our little moose is seeing the world from a whole new perspective. Sitting up and seeing his parents at the same time!

Haircuts and teeth

2009-06-22T15:03:00.004-04:00

So you might remember me posting about 4 months ago that Quinn had a tooth. Well, turns out this tooth was on a spring and popped in and out of Quinn's poor little mouth for a while. Some days there was an obvious white point and the next it was gone. Well last Monday I got bitten but a nice sharp new tooth and this one was here to stay. I think the tooth must have been lonely though cuz the next day another one popped up right next to it. So our little man now officially has his two bottom middle teeth.

I was also shocked to find that at 5 months he needed a haircut. He sitll doesn't have a ton but what he did have was growing into a mullet and really long bangs so a haircut was needed. You can't really tell from the pictures but we took of about 2 inches in the front.

Before

After

Peedie

2009-06-22T14:58:00.004-04:00

Reason #435 I love our new apartment: We live around the corner from the library. We have some great books for Quinn but its always nice to get a new book. Just so I don't have to read the same one for the 567th time. One book we found that we especially liked is called Peedie. It is about a gosling named Peedie who forgets things. But he always remembers his red baseball cap, until one day he looses it. Such a cute book. Its simple, interesting and the illustrations are great!

Fun things to do in CT

2009-06-22T14:48:00.005-04:00

We had a fabulous time picking strawberries last week with our friend Kylie and her cutie Kennedy.

These strawberries were fresh, delicious and sweet. And of course, strawberries mean homemade cheesecake. MMmmmm