Taylor, Laney, Henry & Milly

What Kind of a blogger have I become?

2011-11-27T21:39:00.011-05:00

I don't know how I let almost 2 months go by without a new post. I think I feel like I have so much to post that I don't even know where to start so I just keep putting it off. My sister and mother are threatening me, so here I am, back to posting. Here is the abridged version of the last two months in no particular and definitely not chronological order:

Does anyone else have this problem? Dang kids won't look at the camera when I tell them to. It has now turned into a game for Henry. Drives me crazy.

Went black friday shopping. 2am. I was so tired when we took this picture. I was miserable the next day. I'm too old for this kind of stuff. However, I'll probably do it again. It was kind of fun.
/>Here are some Halloween pictures. It's a little late to be posting them, I know. And I already posted them on facebook in October, but here they are again. Milly's costume was just too good not to show again. My little Jazzercizer.
Here is a great action shot. It shows you how fat she really is. Look at those cheeks.
And here is a link to Taylor's and my costume. It's a little inappropriate so I've just posted a link to the photo from a friends blog. Don't worry, it's not super bad, just maybe PG instead of G rated (and this a G rated blog). We went to a halloween party with friends and we dressed up as the Bobbits. It was Taylor's idea. Although I must admit it was kind of funny. Half the people at the party were too young to even know who the Bobbits were, but for those that did, it was a darn good costume. Here's the link (just click on it):
http://shawmoments.blogspot.com/2011/11/annual-costume-party.html

The weather here has been unseasonably warm. It only the 4th time since 1893 there hasn't been recordable amounts of snow in November in Buffalo. It's been fantastic. I can still wear flip flops. It was 60 degrees this week.

Here I am after the turkey trot. I had forgotten how much I love running in races. It was an 8k. A great distance for a Thanksgiving day race. There were 13,300 runners. Lots of people in costume, and lots of beer. Imagine my dismay when at mile 3.5 there was a beer table instead of a water table. These Buffalonians love their beer.
Lucky for these two, the weather is still so nice that we get lots of running together. I think they hate it. I have to stock the stroller with treats and toys to keep them from screaming through my runs. That, and I take my Ipod so when the toys and treats don't keep them happy, I can just turn up the music really loud and pretend they aren't there.
Still taking lots of trips to the zoo.

Milly goat has discovered the laundry shoot. Everything imaginable goes down it. If we are missing anything, I just go check the laundry in the basement. This little girl is a trouble maker. She keeps swallowing things too (things she's not supposed to). Found a sucker stick and three magnets in her dirty diapers this week. And no, it isn't possible that they just got shoved in her diaper, they definitely passed through her digestive tract. I promise, I really do try and watch her. We also found her in the toilet this week...feet first. Just hanging out in the toilet.

Little Milly Goat. Love her.

Buffalo's Insane Assylum.

2011-10-10T22:39:00.010-04:00

Taylor and I took a tour of this incredible building this past week. It's the old insane assylum here in Buffalo. It was built in 1872 by one of the greatest architects in American History, H.H. Richardson. The building has been closed for years and years and it is dilapidated and falling apart. They are currently in the midst of restoring parts of it and turning it into a reception center and boutique hotel. The tour was pretty cool. I was hoping for more scary stories and haunted tales of electric shock therapy and crazy people, but the people giving the tour only wanted us to know about it's "great past" and "mental health throughout the ages". It was a bit more boring than I had hoped but the inside was fantastical.
It kind of reminded me of the hospital in Latvia where I had my appendectomy.

We watch A LOT of youtube around here...Elmo. Milly loves it, and hates it when Henry watches with her. She's mad here that he was touching her chair, but notice she never turned away from the movie, just screamed out in anger.
I'm just posting this picture because I love the little curls that turn up around Milly's ears and neck. I can only hope she keeps some of them as her hair gets longer! Plus I think she is so darn cute in these pjs. Don't you just want to squeeze her?!
Last weekend we took the kids exploring to a little nature preserve only about 10 minutes from us. There were lots of frogs and birds and bugs.
Milly loved climbing around, and notice her little head band. Another one of my creations. I am pretty impressed with myself.
Just before I snapped this picture, the turkey had just pecked Henry's arm. It was pretty funny.
This is how much of our apple picking went. Henry pestering Milly. Having two kids is waaay too much work. Sometimes when we go out and about with out Taylor I wonder if it's even worth the hassle.

Bad Parenting 101

2011-10-10T21:40:00.006-04:00

Remember how I'm smitten by this little girl...I think the smitteness is over. I think I've loved her so much to to prepare me for these next few months. She screams A LOT. Loud high pitched unbelievable screeching and it's really aggravating, especially when I'm stuck in a car with her. Just the other day Henry had a conversation with me in the car that went just like this...

Henry: Mom, lets take her back.

Me: Take her back where?

Henry: To the baby store...and let's get a new baby that doesn't scream so much.

Me: That's a good idea.

You know how as a parent, every once in awhile you make bad choices concerning the safety and well being of your children? I've made a few bad choices lately. Let me tell you about a few of them. This picture is right before I took the kiddos on a run. They are sitting on plastic bags because it had rained on the stroller earlier that day. I thought the rain was over for the day. I was wrong. Very wrong. Most of our run went well until the last mile, it started to trickle, then rain, then downpour. It was raining so hard, I couldn't see, but I just ran as fast as I could. I took refuge under a bridge to check on the kids and try and get them as covered as possible and then a giant truck drove by...and this bridge we were under was in a big dip in the road, and A LOT of water had gathered in the road, and before I had time to think, we were completely engulfed by a wave of water- then another car went by and we were covered again and with leaves and dirt. Henry seemed concerned, Milly shrieked with joy (she loves the water), I had mascara streaming down my face and we continued on our way. We made it home alive and semi-well. Henry still keeps talking about it.

Here's Milly right after the run, sitting on the toilet waiting to get in the warm bath. She's soaked.
This next picture isn't the result of a bad parenting choice on my part, I just thought it was funny. Milly was very stuck here, and I couldn't help but take a picture.

This is where Milly ends up every time I let Henry push her around the backyard.

This is what happens to Milly when she plummets down the stairs at our friends house...it was kind of scary. There was a signifigant amount of blood, and it was one of those moments where you have to make that decision as a parent as to whether or not your child needs stitches. I decided to obstain from the decision making and let Taylor and our friends Natalie & Adrian make the decision. I figured there were enough responsible adults around that I didn't need to look closely at the wound. It's been a few days now, and it seems as though the decision against stitches seems to have been a good one. She is healing up nicely. This pic was the morning after.
And lastly, quite possibly my worst parenting decision this week came when I needed to get some marker off Henry's face. I tried a wet wipe with no avail and then remembered how well magic erasers get markers off the wall so I pulled them out. I kind of wish I had a picture to show you what I did, but Henry wouldn't let me take one. As one can imagine, magic erasers shouldn't be used on skin. It seems so obvious in retrospect, but it made so much sense at the time. Henry had a red puffy stinging face for an evening, and I felt horrible. I read the box later and it said to never use on skin, and that it would cause skin abrasions. Oops. Luckily he woke up the next morning without so much as a red mark.

*On a side note, the magic eraser completely removed the marker from Henry's face. so maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

snapshots of life.

2011-09-20T21:16:00.005-04:00

I've been taking a lot more pictures on my cell phone lately, I got a new phone and this one actually takes pictures that I can post online, and it's kind of become my go-to camera. So I've decided to post the pictures I've taken this past month, they are some of my favorites. Here they are (in no sensible order):

Milly wanted a snack, I got M&Ms, for some reason I thought they wouldn't be messy. This is after one brown one and one yellow one.

Milly's got hand foot & mouth disease. All these little blisters popped up at church on Sunday just after she touched every other toddler in sight, played with and tried to eat many of the toys in nursrey, and drank out of someone else's sippie cup. They say it's SUPER contagious. Sorry Buffalo ward. But if it makes anyone feel any better, I think I have it too. My tongue feels swollen and has little spots on it, and my throat hurts. Milly on the other hand seems completely unaffected.
I made this headband. I am getting pretty good at it. Before you know it, I'll have my own Etsy shop (Ha!).
Milly & Henry were in a mall fashion show for the Gap. They were cute. Henry went out on stage and waved to everyone. This is the best picture I could get.
Milly's hair is long enough for little pigtails! However as soon as I put these in, she pulled the elastics out, and I think she ate them- really.
Henry's first day of school. He loves it! I love it. It's wonderful. He came home today and told me there is a little girl there who's favorite color is black. I told him that was a funny color for a little girl to love, and asked him why she loves it...he told me, "her hair is black and her skin is black all over, just like my new shoes from the Gap. That's why she loves the color black." I told him that his favorite color was dark green or dark blue and he isn't blue or green all over, and that he should ask her what her favorite color is and not just assume it's black. He promised to ask tomorrow.
We went to an amusement park here a few weeks ago and saw this Minion from Despicable Me and Taylor decided he wanted to win it for Henry, so he did. It was kind of a half-win but we were able to convince the girl that we needed it and she handed it over. I think it would make a great Halloween costume...don't you think? I could cut it open and shove Henry inside. It's clearly big enough.
Here we are on one of the rides. We tried to make out as much as possible to fit in with all the other teenage couples there. The whole day was really fun, and really painful. We must be getting old because after just two roller coaster rides we had severe head aches and we were exhausted. We had to find the first aid station and buy some Advil, and we had to go on Kiddie Rides between all the big ones to give ourselves a break. Is this why our parents never rode all the rides with us...and offered to be the odd one out, or hold the cameras?
Took Milly and Henry to see the Giant Jesus in Utah while we were home. They loved it.
And lastly, Milly with a bunch of her girl cousins. In this picture she's doing what she thinks is the universal sign for-Give me something! I think she is on to something though, because it normally works. People give her what she wants, especially when the hand motions are accompanied by high pitched squeals.

Readers Digest version of our lives

2011-09-15T16:29:00.008-04:00

Yep....here were are alive and well. And here is what we've been doing the last month of our lives in abridged version:

We went to Utah, and flew with two toddlers. Hell-on-Earth. Really the kids were pretty good, one of our best airplane trips yet, and only one hysterical crying fit from Milly. However, even having well behaved toddlers on 4-5 hour flights is miserable. I just want to have my own seat again!

I've just added this picture because I like it. Milly seems all grown up, getting out of her own chair and all. I love her.
While we were in Utah we went waterskiing, actually only Taylor waterskied. I sat in the boat. I am embarassingly bad at water sports unless its tubing. I attribute that to my parents who never took me on a boat as a child. But I'm okay with that because they took us to Yellowstone a lot. This is Henry and his little friend Taylor. They have finally decided to play well together and life is getting a little easier.

Here we are with Taylor's family minus Shem and Luisa. I'm the shortest one of the bunch.

And here are most of the grandkids. Milly was sound asleep so she is missing from the pic. Milly and Henry are the youngest of them all and Taylor's parents seem to have grandkids coming out their ears, but they seem to love them all.
We went miniature golfing while we were home. We went on a Monday night in Utah County and we took Milly with us. Bad ideas. She tried to eat all the golf balls and chased them around. And the place was PACKED! Needless to say we decided against taking score. In this picture we let Henry play around on the little mini gold house. I remember as a kid wishing I could play in them and Henry quite enjoyed it.
My little sister Daysa decided to be pushed around in Milly's stroller. She almost broke it.

Since we've been home Henry decided to empty and entire large container of baby powder into a shoe in his window sill. Thank you Henry.
We went to a baseball game and had a lot of fun. However the kid sitting near us that got smashed in the face with a foul ball didn't enjoy it so much. It was kind of scary.
Milly has taken a very strong liking to this large stuffed rabbit from her friend Rachel.
And lastly, Milly has grown up. She walks, kind of talks (she still doesn't say Mom but she is glad to say Doggy, Daddy, Nannie Annie, and Natalie). Pretty sad when she says my friends name before mine. However I do love immensely. I'm kind of obsessed.

More to come soon!

A Buffalo Summer

2011-08-03T23:49:00.009-04:00

It's late, I've had a crummy day, I can't sleep, and I am long overdue on a new blog post. These past few weeks have gone by in a whirlwind. It was really hot for awhile and it made me so cranky and lethargic I accomplished almost nothing for an entire week. We've gone swimming A LOT (little Milly has some crazy tan lines to prove it), and we've spent plenty of time outside. I've also noticed that these hot humid summers are the perfect conditions for lots and lots of bugs. Ugh, It's really gross sometimes.

Henry saw his first ever backyard fireworks. They are illegal here in NY. But we found some in a grocery store in Pennsylvania a few months back and we were saving them for a special occasion. Nothing fancy, just the black snakes, a little fountain, poppers, and some sparklers. Here is Henry and a few friends with their first ever sparklers...and soon thereafter Henry's first ever sparkler burn. You would have thought his finger was going to fall off he cried for so long-like 3 hours long. I guess burns really do hurt, even if they are the size of an ant.
We went to Beaver Island with some friends from our ward this past Saturday. The water was pretty darn dirty. These little boys that Henry is with are from Gabon. They moved to Buffalo not long ago and into our ward here. They had NEVER been swimming before. It was wonderful to watch them be so excited. Their mom was equally amazed.

Henry and Milly are such water babies! Especially Milly who currently loves being completely submerged and dunked in the water. I don't think their swimming suits will ever be clean again after this little adventure in the mud. I even soaked them in oxyclean for a day and they are still dingy and brownish.
We went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant again too. It's become a wonderful summer tradition here in Western New York. I'm going to miss it when we leave. Henry looks incredibly cute in this picture, and while he really is wonderful and pretty darn adorable, he has also been giving me all sorts of trouble lately. I don't quite know what to do with the kid. Lots of yelling, very little sharing, aggression, etc. Any advice out there? I know that 3 year old little boys aren't always the most cooperative or rational, but Henry is a little more out of hand than his friends. Unfortunately, I think I know where his aggressive nature comes from, and it certainly isn't his father, but I need to find a way to curtail it. Any good books out there? Any advice? I just feel so frustrated with him sometimes.

Taylor and I have also gone on some fun dates these past few weeks, unfortunately many of which have been getting together with friends who are leaving Buffalo. Some of our favorite people have moved away this summer...we'll miss you Majeronis and Hopkins! This picture is a concert we went to with friends. We went and saw Court Yard Hounds (it's the new break off band from the Dixie Chicks...2/3 of them.) and while they weren't quite as good as the Dixie Chicks, we had a fantastic evening with friends and no children!
We even got to meet the two sisters after the show. They were nice as can be.

a t-shirt head decoration & losing henry

2011-07-14T15:11:00.005-04:00

I wish I had taken more pictures on the 4th of July. I was having a crummy day that day for a host of reasons. One of them being, I lost Henry at the park. Like really lost him. He was only missing 5 minutes, but I was almost panicked. I lose him all the time really at grocery stores, church, etc., but I always seem to find him quickly and I don't ever get too nervous. This time was different. I was alone with Milly which made it harder to go look for Henry since she kind of weighs you down. And it had been no more than 30 seconds that I had taken my eyes off of him. I was changing Milly's diaper and he was helping. I put her swimming suit back on, I looked up, and Henry was gone. At first I wasn't too concerned but then I realized he wasn't within earshot and I couldn't see him in any direction and I didn't even know where to start looking. After a few minutes of looking some police officers at the park notice I was yelling his name and they started looking too....soon thereafter I saw a man off in the distance holding Henry's hand and bringing him toward us. I asked Henry where he'd been and he said, "I was running away from you mommy. I was hiding." Dang kid. The guy noticed he was wearing a swimming suit and so walked him towards the pool at the park. It was awful and very gladly short lived. Kids are so much work. Anyway, the 4th ended well. We went to a church bbq (I love a good cheeseburger) and then we went and watched the fireworks on a driving range which gave all the kids plenty to do. I gave them the assignment to gather all the golf balls they could find. Milly Goat loved them.

Henry seems to have abandoned the idea of an afternoon nap, so he normally spends an hour and a half every afternoon locked in the guest room trying to come up with things to do. I opened the door this week to find him like this: (he really can be so darn cute sometimes).

Our drive home from the fireworks. They were both asleep within minutes of being buckled in. We wanted to leave them in the car all night.
I'm still obsessed with this little girl. She has so much little personality.
I've started trying to make head decorations for her. Like flowers and such. She is so often mistaken for a boy and if I put some sort of ornament on her head it, everyone seems to know that she is a girl. I am actually not bothered when she is mistaken for a boy, after all, I will be the first to admit how much she looks like Henry did as a baby, and her features aren't exceptionally feminine, nor is her hair length. However, it is always so awkward to tell people once they've called her a boy, they feel so bad and always apologize profusely. Sometimes I don't correct them, but they inevitably ask her name, or even worse, Henry corrects them. Anyway, here is my first creation. It was super easy and I think it's super cute. I used an old stained t-shirt for the flower and an old pair of white tights for the band. Who knew I was so talented?
Notice how dirty the tops of her feet are? That's a true sign she hasn't learned to walk yet.

mothering mishaps & another attempt at a birthday cake

2011-07-02T12:51:00.010-04:00

I have made some serious parenting mistakes these past few days. On Saturday, Taylor was gone roofing a house from 6am to 11pm and I was left alone all day with my children. Anytime I am left with the kids for an extended period of time without a second parent around, my parenting abilities start to really suffer. I get exponentially less patient hour by hour, and my judgement is impaired. It started out in the morning. The kids woke up at 6am, and Milly was cranky. I put her down for a nap at 7:45 and decided I needed to exercise. I turned on Saturday morning cartoons for Henry and jumped on the treadmill. After mile two, I thought it would probably be a good idea to check on Henry. I took of my earphones and immediately heard his yelling and screaming from the other room. I ran in the other room and found him with his thigh stuck in between two rungs of his rocking chair. He had tears streaming down his face, and said to me, "Mommy, I've been yelling for you for a VERY long time." I felt awful. I slathered his leg in lotion and pulled it out. And then jumped back on the treadmill where I checked on him every 1/2 mile. Later that day, we were at the grocery store. We were checking out and Milly started climbing out of the cart (the buckle didn't work), so I went to grab her and Henry sat up on the edge of the cart, I sternly told him to sit down to which he defiantly replied, "NO!" and pushed off the counter which of course moved the cart and he fell back, banged his head on the counter and then fell upside down onto the floor on his head. Every one in Aldi gasped in horror (myself included), and the Aldi lady scooped him off the floor (I was still trying to keep Milly from climbing out of the cart). Henry was sobbing, I was shaking (out of fear, anger, and embarrassment) and I still had to check out and bag my groceries, all while holding a sobbing three year old and a wiggly chubby one year old. It was awful. Luckily Henry was okay, although I half expected to look back and see him unconscious in his carseat the rest of the day. And as soon as the Aldi Lady handed him to me, I did what any good mother would do, I said to him, "What was the last thing I said to you before you fell?...I told you to sit down!" Then I hugged him and checked for dilated pupils, goose eggs, or blood. What an awful day. Thankfully we ended it with friends, hot dogs, and the most delicious tuna melts ever. Thanks Diana! (She's the lovely woman who made the Hawes family dolls).

That's little Henry in the back of this picture. We took a little trip out to Palmyra, NY a few weeks ago and I loved how green it was.

We've also been taking lots of bike rides lately. We have lovely beach cruisers (best wedding presents EVER!) and a bike trailer. Taylor gets a really good leg workout wherever we go seeing as how beach cruisers only have one speed and he is towing 60 pounds of kid and a trailer. This was a little trip to the river. The other side is Canada. It reminds me a lot of my mission. I lived on a River in Estonia that was on the Russian border. And we would throw rocks at Russia and yell over to the drunk Russian fishermen on our morning runs.
This is Henry with a camouflage hunting hat on. It was amazing, and came with an entire outfit. It would make one awesome Halloween costume.
And lastly, Happy 1st birthday Milly Goat!!! I made this cake, which turned out mediocre. I kind of feel embarrassed about it. It isn't bad enough to be funny, but it isn't good enough to be wonderful. Someday, I'll make something fantastic. Just you wait. When Henry saw it we asked him what it was and he said, "a rectangle and two triangles!" After a little help he guessed butterfly.
She loved it.

Bad Birthday Cake 3.0

2011-06-29T21:22:00.006-04:00

My little Milly turns one tomorrow and I must admit I am a little bit sad. When Henry turned one I was excited for him to grow up. I really didn't like him all that much as a baby. It wasn't anything personal, I just didn't like babies, and I wanted someone who would talk. Problem is, now that he talks I realize how wonderful it is when they don't talk. This may sound like I don't like Henry much, but that isn't the case at all, he and I are actually quite good friends and I love him dearly, I just want my little Milly Goat to stay little for a bit longer. I am dedicating the beginning of this post to pictures of her.

Earlier this week Taylor called me into the kiddos room and this is what we found:

Henry had taken everything he could find and he somehow managed to heave it all into Milly's crib. She wasn't the slightest bit upset. It's some sort of miracle that none of it hit her on the head as he chucked it all in there, and I can be pretty darn certain he took no precautions as to her safety and well being.

Oooh. I just want to squeeze this little girl all day long.
We babysat Henry's frenemy little Taylor for a few days this week and I left the room one morning to come back and find this little girl eating breakfast. Little Taylor told me she wanted some and he needed to share because "sharing is caring."
Since it's Milly Goat's birthday tomorrow, I should probably add a few pictures from Henry's birthday earlier in the month. He was in car, truck, and tractor heaven.We found this big trailor truck thing at a yard sale for 50 cents. He loves that he can fit all his little cars in it. I love that I got such a good deal on it. Why do I love yard sales so much??!! I just do. And it's my way of being green.
We had a little cars picnic in the backyard for Henry's big day. Milly scavanged at the food table. (On a side note, she seems to be wearing this outfit in a lot of pictures lately, don't judge me. She really does have lots of other clothes).

This year I remembered last year's cake disaster (remember the fire truck). So I made a plain old texas sheet cake. It tasted good but was still pretty ugly. I don't know why I don't just order a cake from Wegman's and I don't know why I post pictures of my cake disasters on here either. Mostly it's just so my sister can see them and laugh.

Henry also got some pretty cool tractors. Our next door neighbor's late husband collected tractors and he passed away a few months ago and she has been cleaning out his stuff and every so often brings us over boxes of really cool toys.

I really do love that little boy. He's been so darn cute lately. He's really into the book "The Lorax" and he keeps walking up to me and saying, "I am the Lorax and I speak for the trees." It's really quite adorable.

Niagara Falls

2011-06-13T14:35:00.004-04:00

These next pictures I borrowed from my sisters blog. It's from our trip to Niagara Falls. I must admit that we are getting a little tired of the falls. They just don't seem quite so exciting the 10th time you've seen them and once you realize that they are pretty much man made, they kind of loose their coolness. However, we did enjoy ourselves at the tacky shops all along Clifton Hill in Canada.

The boys played in this giant puddle for quite a long time until Henry face planted and soaked his clothes.
Henry has recently taken a strong aversion to wearing clothes that are even the tiniest bit wet. He demanded that we take them off and he wandered around in his underwear while we ate lunch.

Taylor's long legs make him all sorts of fun. I tried to do the same thing and I couldn't even reach both sides.

2011-06-08T20:27:00.004-04:00

Here are some more pics like I promised

Summer officially began here in Buffalo. Taylor's birthday and a memorial day trip out to Spaulding Lake seem to be the official start these past few years. Henry jumped in soon after this picture was taken and he hated it.

I threw Milly in with Taylor and she LOVED it. We have ourselves a water baby. At one point I found her on the beach drinking the lake water out of a bucket. This girl will put anything she can in her mouth. I recently found one of my hair elastics and one of Taylor's squishy ear plugs in separate poopy diapers. I figure I shouldn't be too worried right? If it's small enough to make it down her throat without major problems, it should make it through the digestive tract without incident too...right? I have however made a concerted effort to watch her a but more closely and swipe her mouth whenever I see her chewing.
We took a little trip to the museum for Taylor's birthday. We were pretty much the only ones there. It was fantastic. Henry loved all the attention from us.
Here they are watching some movie about space.

I love these three people:

My mom came to visit this last month too. We had a fantastic time. She took us to dinner (twice!), came and watched me speak at Stake Conference, played with out kiddos, and joined us on a hike down at the Niagara Gorge.
Taylor got me a double jogger for Mothers Day. I love it. But pushing two kids in a stroller is REALLY hard. Sometimes I just make Taylor come running with me and let him push the rugrats. I promise they really do like the stroller. They were just really tired in this picture. It was past bedtime and they didn't take naps.

How did I let a month go by???

2011-06-07T21:33:00.005-04:00

It's been a month since I've been on here. And we've done more things and taken more pictures this past month than I can count so here is the abridged version. I'll make a it last a few posts so I don't run out of things to share.

1. Some birds have made their nests in our backyard. This particular nest is at eye level. Pretty creepy really when you look real close. They should grow up to be Robins some day.

2. My mom came to visit. Henry loves her, and her Ipad.
3. Some of our very best friends left Buffalo. Oh how we will miss them.
4. This little tubby baby is growing up. I am obsessed with her. And I recognize that the bow on her head is excessively large. I am really torn as to whether or not I should continue putting things like it on her head. Any opinions out there? I have smaller ones that I feel completely comfortable with, but is this too big?And what about this one? Does she look ridiculous?

Tune back to the blog soon. I promise I have lots more to post about in the next week...birthdays, trips to the lake, a trip to ohio, fat babies, etc. It'll be worth it.

Lost at the grocery store.

2011-05-06T21:37:00.004-04:00

We had playgroup this week at the fire station. Henry liked it, but just like last year at the fire station, he was mostly just disappointed. He kept telling me that he wanted to drive the fire trucks. All the way home he kept asking why we couldn't drive them. So if anyone out there has access to a fire truck...or even a police car would be nice...Henry would really appreciate it.

We lost Henry at the grocery store today. It's not the first time we've lost him in a public place, but he was genuinely gone for a few minutes. We were in line to check out, I ran to get something we'd forgotten, and Taylor got busy unloading the cart. When I got back with the food, I asked Taylor where Henry was and that's when he realized he hadn't seen him for a few minutes. Needless to say I went searching for him, surprisingly I wasn't very concerned, I think it was because we were at Wegman's- the place just exudes good feelings. As I was scouring the aisles, and calling out his name, a worker approached me and told me he was at the service desk. When I got there, they had given him a balloon and they told us that when they asked us him what his Mommy's name was he said, "she's a girl and she's beautiful." How great is that...just search the store for a beautiful girl. Anyway, I'm sure glad they found him. Henry wasn't the least bit concerned. I don't think he even realized he was "missing" and somewhere along the way he had stopped for m&m's because he had some with him. I just love this kid.
And speaking of love....I am obsessed with Milly Goat. I know I have said it before, but she is hysterical. And she is pretty much a toddler now. No more baby here. She's got 10 teeth at 10 months, and she weighs 22 1/2 pounds, and I can barely squeeze her thighs into her 12-18 month skinny jeans. Every time I put them on her it's like stuffing a small suitcase with every article of clothing you own. (I know, weird analogy, but that's really what it's like.) I think I'd be worried about her tubbiness, but Henry was just the same and he's thinned out quite nicely. Plus I think fat babies sleep better.
I don't normally let her play in the dirt in her pajamas (or eat dirt), but we had just finished a morning run, and she really wanted out so I let her. She was so happy.
I just had to add this last picture for her cuteness. Now if only she had a little bit more hair. She has rubbed off quite a bit from the back of her head and she has the beginnings of one bad mullet. I'll have to capture some pictures and post them soon.

Bunny Rabbit Cake

2011-05-02T08:12:00.005-04:00

This cute little Milly Goat is currently getting two molars and she isn't happy about it.

Lately her face has looked more like this:

And I thought I'd post this picture of these giant bears. The mall where I work puts them up for major holidays and I think they are the creepiest thing ever! The one playing the piano has a mustache. Henry thinks they are pretty cool. I think they are worse than the people at Chuck E Cheese. They sing. Their mouths actually move.
While I didn't get any cute pictures if my children on Easter, I did get this one of my easter cake. It isn't the most amazing thing in the world (let's be honest, presentation isn't my strong suit), but I think it conveys an Easter message better than the lamb cake from Easter two years ago. And it was delicious. Underneath that top layer of frosting was an incredible layer of dark chocolate ganache.

the lamb cake.

Seneca Lake

2011-04-19T09:12:00.004-04:00

We went away for the weekend...well really only a day and a half, but it was fantastic. We stayed a house that our Church owns and rents out at Seneca Lake (one of the finger lakes) and it was wonderful. The house is huge, has lots of rooms, and the kids went to bed and we stayed up waaay to late playing games. Staying up til 2 AM just isn't quite as fun when 6:30AM rolls around and your baby is up for the day. But I must say it was totally worth it. We spent our time with these folks...they are the best company around.

We took a little trip to the Corning Glass museum which was pretty cool. We learned all about Fiber Optics, glass blowing, and windshields. They also have a glass modern art section which was my favorite. I love a good art museum. Henry found a new favorite person. This is his friend Dave. We have been hearing all about Dave since we got back.
And little Milly Goat has a new friend as well...her aunt Rachel. That's what we call her anyway. I think Henry might actually think that Rachel and her husband Ryan are actually his Aunt and Uncle.
My favorite piece of modern art. They were gargantuous. I wish I could have placed Milly in there with them to show you scale but it wasn't allowed...that pear was bigger than her.
This is the best family picture we got. Pretty sad.
The beautiful view from the front door of the house.
And lastly, another picture of Milly. I love her in this dress. I bought it back when Henry was 2 months old. When I saw it at the Gap, I knew I had to have it, so I bought it hoping that someday a little girl would come along to wear it.

Sliver in the head.

2011-04-18T08:45:00.001-04:00

Here we are. It's been awhile. I haven't really been in a blogging mood. And we haven't been taking a lot of pictures, but since my mom is threatening us to post pictures of Milly, I am finally buckling down and posting some. I love these little kiddos more than ever. Henry is becoming funnier and funnier every day. He is getting really clever too. And Milly is getting bigger and bigger every day. The girl is a chunk. And I love it. This picture of Henry is from a little fall he had awhile back. He got a big sliver in his forehead and taking it out was one of the most traumatic events of his short little life. I had to sit on him and hold his arms down while he begged me not to hurt him. It was horrible. He has since forgotten all about it and has forgiven me.

This little girl is growing up too fast. I never thought I'd say that, but I kind of wish she'd stay a baby a little longer. I thought I hated babies...but not this one. I am smitten by her.
Her great aunt rosemary made her this little hat. She loves the hat, but she wasn't too keen on the photo session.
And lastly, here she is tied up in a whole lot of balloons. She loved them.
I think I am ready to get back to blogging. I was in a sort of a slump for while, but we had a fantastic weekend away with friends and took some great pics, so I'll post more about that tomorrow. Check back soon.

miami.

2011-03-17T23:17:00.007-04:00

Here I am. I finally have the time to sit down and blog about our gloriously wonderful trip to Miami. It was heaven. Absolutely amazing. The weather was perfect, the ocean was warm, the conference went well, and I had days and days of uninterrupted time with Taylor. Here we are after a morning jog along the beach. After the first little bit, I took my shoes off and ran along the edge of the water.

The ocean at night is beautiful, intriguing, and a little bit scary.
The night before we left, I got a subconjunctival hemorrhage (a broken blood vessel in my eye). It happened at work somehow. I had a terrible headache for much of the day and then my eye just started itching and I looked in the mirror and it was full of blood. I panicked for a small moment thinking I had some sort of brain hemorrhage, so I called my brother-in-law Kent (the almost doctor) and he told me I would be fine. And I was. It just lasted for days, and the last of it is still visible. All throughout my conference people asked me what happened. And I still have no idea what caused it.
The conference was a lot of fun. Presenting my paper was a lot more enjoyable then I thought it would be and it was really enjoyable to see some friends and my professors from BYU. The communications dep. from BYU even published press release about it here. And if you (mom!) feel so inclined you can read my paper here. I must however warn anyone who reads it, it may be a little boring.

And now onto more exciting things in Miami: Alligators. We went on a tour of the Everglades and I snapped this picture of an alligator- I got within Five feet of it, but Taylor wouldn't let me touch it, I really wanted to though. We got to ride on a fan boat and we saw cranes and turtles and all sorts of wild creatures. It was pretty cool.
We stayed out late, wandered the streets, shopped, played at the beach, and loved every second of our time there.

We even saw lots of Jelly Fish washed up on shore. They were amazing. At first I had no idea what we were seeing. This one is still alive, it's all puffed up with air. But once they washed up on shore and the sun came out they died. We only saw them first thing in the morning.

We ate incredible food. The Cuban food was my favorite, Taylor liked his Mahi-Mahi, and we also had some amazing Indian Fare.
The beach was better than I had imagined it would be. The water was beautiful and the waves were great. We now understand why everyone in Buffalo goes to Florida in the winter. It gave us the energy we need to make it through until the sun comes out again in Buffalo.
We returned home to cold Detroit and we will be eternally grateful for Leisy and Kent who watched our kids for SIX days! The great part about leaving them with family was that we didn't worry about them one bit and I didn't fell all that bad when I found out that Milly was sick with a fever and woke up three times a night, or that Henry abandoned his potty training and pooped his pants more than once. Thanks Leisy and Kent. We really will do it for you some day. Here are some pictures Leisy took of them while we were gone. Milly Goat is really cute.
And here are all the kids. I think Milly felt a little outnumbered.

2011-03-06T21:24:00.005-05:00

Life around here has been pretty busy and very exciting. Mostly the excitement comes from the fact that we are going to a place that is 83 degrees and sunny in a few days and we are leaving our children behind. I am soooo excited. As much as we love these kids, we need some time together without them. I will admit, I'll probably miss them a bit. They have been so darn cute lately.
This is a picture of little Milly Goat and then Henry at the same age....They look A LOT alike. At least Milly has a little more hair than he did at this point.

They even both do the baby push up which is a precursor to crawling. If Milly follows Henry's lead she will be crawling in the next week or two.

Here is Henry yesterday out playing in the rain and the puddles. Don't be fooled into thinking that you are seeing a spring shower here. The rain wasn't even enough to melt all the snow piles around town and we woke up with a fresh 4 inch blanket of snow this morning. It's still winter.
Henry says the darndest things. Just last week we were looking at some pictures of his cousins and he got to a picture of his cousin Megan and said, "Mom! She is very beautiful, just like you." It was the cutest thing he's ever said. I need to start writing everything down so I don't forget. He is really into the word "very" right now. This week he said, "daddy hurt me very bad when he buckles my car seat."

Goodbye Snow....Here we come sandy beaches!

2011-02-21T17:56:00.004-05:00

While we were out and about today Henry shouted out to me, Mom, a giant snowman! And sure enough, this is what I saw. It was huge. Henry has been hysterical lately. He says the darndest things. Just this week he put me in time out and and started his scolding like this: "Mom...here is the problem, we don't squish people! Sit in this chair for two minutes and I will go set the timer."

Little Milly goat has also been exceptionally cute lately. Everytime I put her in bed for a nap she screams and hollers. On occasion when the screaming gets especially loud, I'll go check on her. Every time I open the door this is what I find:
No tears. No more crying. She just wants to play. And that face is so darn cute. But don't worry, nine times out of ten, I just walk out and shut the door. The other one time, she wins, and I play with her for awhile.

Remember that episode from Seinfeld where Kramer lets the Japanese tourists sleep at his apartment and he has them sleep in his chest of drawers... I went to check on Henry this week and take him to the bathroom before I went to bed and when I went into his room, this is what I found. He was sound asleep.
And lastly, for some very exciting news, Taylor and I are headed here for spring break!!!! And we are leaving our kids with my sister (Thanks Leisy & Kent- we'll do it for you someday). I am so excited I can barely stand it.

If you couldn't tell, this is Miami, and those are Palm Trees along the beach. And we aren't going just for spring break, I am actually attending a conference there- but we are going to stay a few extra days and make a vacation out of it. Anyway, turns out my committee chair for my masters thesis, submitted my paper to the Institute for Public Relations Research for their annual conference, and it was accepted- and out of all the papers submitted, it won the Top Three Paper Award! Anyway, so I get to go down and present the paper and accept the award. I am a little nervous for that part. The conference is going to have all the top Public Relations Academians from around the country, but I am excited too. What's the worst that can happen? Taylor joked that I should look into some PhD programs while we are there- I laughed and then told him I'd rather die than write a dissertation. I really hated writing that thesis. It was so hard.

Happy 4 Years!

2011-02-17T11:45:00.006-05:00

Happy 4 years to the best husband in the world. Really. He can't be beat. I would list all the wonderful things I love about him but the list would be endless so in honor of it being our 4 year anniversary, I am going to list four of my favorite things about Taylor.

#1 He is incredibly loving. He loves everything about me, and he makes me feel loved and appreciated. He thinks I am funny, he thinks I am beautiful, and he thinks I am wonderful.

#2 He is a hard worker in all that he does. He works hard at school, at work, at our relationship, and he works hard at home. I am so grateful for a husband that helps with the kids in the middle of the night, during the day, and when they are driving me crazy. You'll never hear Taylor telling me to go take care of the screaming kids...he does it.

#3 Taylor is patient and understanding. Especially with me.

#4 He is really good company. There isn't a person in this world I'd rather spend my time with. He listens to my stories, he tells me stories, and he is my very best friend.

I have posted some of my favorite pictures from our married life. After I downloaded them all I realized they were all pre-children and they were all from our first year together. As much as I love our little rugrats, I think I just kind of miss that honeymoon stage. It's a good thing we lived it up that first year.

Here were are at the Eiffel Tower. Paris really is the most incredible city. We loved it.

I am posting this picture because I LOVED our wedding cake.
This was out last hurrah before Henry came. I was 8 1/2 months pregnant here. Taylor read up on delivering a baby in a car before we left for our trip. It was a 3 1/2 hour drive from home. Capitol Reef is a beautiful place. I really miss the scenery in Utah.

We spent a week in Chicago for a work trip...and we had so much fun.
The Happiest Place on Earth. Need I say more?

Notre Dame.
Disneyland and the teacups. They made me really sick.
I love you Taylor. This has been the greatest four years of my life.

Valentine's

2011-02-16T14:26:00.002-05:00

Happy Belated Valentine's Day! I tried to get these two kids to smile and hold the sign straight for the picture...what was I thinking? This was my best shot.

These were some of the others.

We had a fabulous Valentine's Day. We are all feeling a whole lot better, Milly is sleeping through the night again, and we ate one of these from Wegmans on Monday night. They have one heck of a bakery. They also provided our Valentine's Day dinner. I didn't want to have to do any dishes and Taylor didn't get home until 8pm.
Last night around 10pm I was lying in bed getting ready to fall asleep and I heard sounds from the other room through the wall. I went into the guest room and found this guy in the back of the closet playing cars. He is darn lucky that we love him so much.
And have I mentioned that I am smitten by this little girl? Even if she does look so much like Henry that I can't tell them apart when she is just in a diaper.

Sick. Sick. Sick.

2011-02-11T08:17:00.002-05:00

We have been sick around here...REALLY sick. Thankfully the most awful part is behind us, but let me tell you, it was AWFUL. At one point last week Taylor and I determined that it was the worst week of our lives together. We were miserable and tired. Taylor had a 35 page paper to write and I worked all week. I couldn't really take any time off because I had already missed so much in January when I was in the hospital. We were miserable and little Milly and Henry were miserable too. We all had fevers, body aches, horrible coughs, congestion, etc. Milly woke up all night long all week and Henry luckily just slept a lot, coughed a lot, and watched waaay too many movies. We were all cranky and tired as can be. The doctor told us that Milly had what the rest of us had but that in a child her age, it turns into RSV. He said to get her a humidifier and give her lots of fluids, but that she would just have to cough it out with the rest of us. He didn't seem the least bit concerned, but her cough is horrible. It sounds so sad, and it sounds like she is dying too. She seems to have coughing fits at the most inopportune times as well, like at church when it's really quiet or at the library. People just stare at me and I know they are thinking...how dare you bring that child out of the house!...or you need to take that child to a doctor! Well I have taken her to a doctor and he says she'll probably be coughing until March, and the rest of us don't seem to be letting up any time soon either. Anyway, aside from all that, we are fantastic! We aren't miserable anymore and I hope to not sound like an 80 year old smoker for much longer. Our kids are happier too, and those flue shots they got didn't do one bit of good. I never really believed in them anyway. Here is the little Milly Goat in the cutest outfit ever.

I feel like we are treating Milly like some social experiment. It will be interesting to see if she is drawn to girly things like princesses and fairies when all she ever gets to play with is police cars, dump trucks, and trains. We aren't going to be buying any new toys anytime soon seeing as how we have a house full of little boy things.
We went to a Valentine party this week too. Henry helped me make his box. Now whenever he sees a heart he yells..."Hey mom! It's a Valentine!" He sure is cute, but he has been driving me crazy lately. He has started that why? stage. He literally asks the question 100 times a day. And the answer is never enough. Any answer I give him is followed by another why. When does it end?

2011-01-18T16:18:00.015-05:00

Hello dear readers....I want to start out this blog post with a request. These are our friends Rachel & Ryan:
Rachel and Ryan and looking to adopt a baby...and they need your help. The way this adoption thing works is that they post their profile here and they wait. They wait for a birth mom to read through all the profiles and hopefully choose them. But the waiting game can be long and tiresome. And if any of my readers know anyone who may be considering placing a baby for adoption, please direct them to this link. Rachel and Ryan are fantastic. Some of our very best friends here in Buffalo. Henry loves them and Milly does too. We entrust them with our children on a regular basis. They are the ones we called to watch our kids and spend the night when Taylor and I spent the night in the ER for my pancreatitis. Rachel is funny and opinionated and outgoing and compassionate. Ryan is funnier, a little more reserved, incredibly patient, and wonderful with children. Of all the people in the world that deserve a little rugrat, these two are at the top of the list. I wouldn't blog about it if I didn't feel strongly about it. So please, if you know or know of ANYONE who may be considering placing a child up for adoption, send them to Rachel & Ryan's profile! You can also access their profile from the button on the top of our page. Thank you!

This little boy is growing up, and it's hysterical. He says the funniest things. And he loves to play pretend. He is also still obsessed with Mr. Teddy and sippy cups. I found him asleep like this the other day. That's Mac truck with him too.
He carries ALL of his cars and toy story people around with him in a "silver" bag. That's what he calls it, he doesn't understand the concept of something being clear. This picture was taken at 6:45 AM. He sleeps with the bag and won't leave his room with out it. They even bathe with him and he dries them all off individually with his towel. It's really getting annoying but it's too cute to stop.
And here is Milly Goat. Wow she is cute-most of the time. Every once in awhile she looks so much like Henry that I forget she is a girl. I have to keep her in pink just to remind myself.

And lastly, I need your help in convincing Taylor that this bag isn't ugly:

And then I need some help convincing him that I need the bag. He says it's too flashy. I told him that in real life that bag looks even better. It's a little more pink than purple. I love it. I want it. And metallics are really "in" this season- at least that's what the Gap style guide says. Working at the Gap is really hard sometimes. It makes me want so many things.

I'm home!

2011-01-08T19:59:00.006-05:00

Hello Dear Friends! I am home from the hospital and happy as can be. They let me out Thursday night. My gallbladder is off in biohazard wasteland and I will hopefully be health problem free for a long time!!! It has been a rough few weeks and a Christmas/New Years to remember and hopefully to forget. All in all, I am mostly happy to be home to these wonderful people:

I am obsessed with this little girl.

And this little boy is obsessed with this sweatshirt. Its a hand me down from his cousins Logan & Spencer. We can't get him to take it off. It's really not all that cute either. He looks like a ragamuffin. But if it makes him happy, I'll let him wear it.

I also missed Taylor like crazy but I don't have a picture of him to post, and luckily unlike my kiddos, and thanks to some absolutely fantastic friends, he was able to come visit me in the hospital every day. Before I give you the abridged version of my story we must thank the Butenmillers, the Hausers, the Voelkers, the Van Rys, the Majeronis, andthe Nielsons for taking care of our children. We really are blessed to be surrounded by such fantastic people. And we had lots more offer as well. Thank you! It was so nice to have Taylor with me at the hospital during my tests, surgeries, and when I was in so much pain. It was a very long five days that could have been much longer had I been alone. You never realize how great friends are until you are far away from family and desperate for help.

On to the abridged but still somewhat long story. It started 3 1/2 weeks ago with some severe abdominal pain. When I say severe I mean 10 scale want-to-die pain. It happened after dinner one night and I almost passed out. I made an appointment with the doctor the next day. The doctor ordered me a number of tests (GI scope, echo-cardio gram, blood tests, etc) gave me some antacids, added on a tetanus shot for good measure, and sent me on my way. The next day I started itching like crazy all over my body (like 1000 mosquito bites itching) with no rash or redness, and it wouldn't go away. I made another appointment for the doctor after reading online that I probably had liver cancer or pancreatic cancer. She quelled my fears and gave me some steroids and we decided that it must be a reaction to the tetanus shot or new medicine. She promised she'd call if my blood work showed anything strange. The steroids stopped the itching (thank heavens! I thought I would die from the itching alone) and life was getting back to normal. Then I got a phone call on Christmas Eve. It was my doctor. My blood work came back with some concerning results. Something was wrong with my liver. It could be gallstones with one blocking off a bile duct and causing the itching, but she wasn't sure. I was scared to death. But nothing could be done until after Christmas, so she told me to call first thing monday morning for more blood work and to schedule an ultrasound of my abdomen. I got the ultrasound right after Christmas and it showed that my gallbladder was-much to my delight, full of stones-I was just so happy it wasn't something more serious. My doctor (who is not actually a doctor but a nurse practitioner whom I LOVE) made an appointment for me to see a surgeon after New Years. I went to work at the Gap on New Years Day feeling wonderful but within a few hours got very sick. I started vomiting profusely and was in so much pain I couldn't get off the bathroom floor. Might I say, there is very little in this world worse than being that sick in a public place. Especially when you can't get home (I was the only manager there) and I was in no condition to drive. After realizing that I was only getting sicker I managed to get my cell phone and call Taylor to come get me and I called another manager to come close the store. We made it home where I continued to vomit and the pain worsened. We called some friends over to watch the kids and headed off to the ER. A few hours later, my blood test and a cat scan showed Pancreatitis. There was a stone stuck at my pancreas. I gladly accepted some wonderful painkillers, was told by a medical resident that Pancreatitis could potentially kill me, and finally fell asleep around 4am. On Monday I had an MRI to verify the location of the stone and later that day they put me under, sent a scope down my throat, through my stomach and to my pancreas to pull out the stone. They gave my guts a day to recover and my pancreas some time to heal, and then opened me up and took my gall bladder on Wednesday. And here I am today, alive and well. Might I add, that through it all, they made me go days and days without eating. It was awful. I was starving. Turns out that the only way to help an ailing pancreas is to not put anything in your stomach for days. I went from Saturday morning to Tuesday afternoon without food! Every TV commercial about food made me want to cry. But I made it. I lost 8 pounds this week and started my weight loss New Year's resolution off with a bang! Hooray. Life is slowly getting back to normal. I feel pretty good, and my wounds seem to be healing well. I have included pictures below to let you all see what was giving me so much grief. If you get queasy easily, be forewarned!

Here is my plain old gall bladder:

Here it is cut open with the stones oozing out: ( I asked if I could keep some, the surgeon said no)
Pretty nasty I know. No wonder I was in so much pain. My gallbladder was literally bursting with stones. I'm glad its gone.

2011-01-02T20:13:00.008-05:00

Merry belated Christmas. We had a whirlwind of a Christmas. It was absolutely fantastic except for my gall bladder giving out on me. I am sitting in the hospital with acute pancreatitis caused by a gall stone being lodged in my pancreas as I type this. They wont let me eat a thing, not even ice. I think my stomach is trying to eat itself. It's angry from all the vomiting and extra bile. Anyway, so I am a little cranky, super tired, and somewhat uncomfortable. Luckily they think the stone passed by itself sometime early this morning. I get an MRI tomorrow to find out. I also got a CT Scan yesterday which was kind of exciting. However I must admit, I just want to go home. Unfortunately I will have to come back sometime soon to get rid of my gall bladder. Uggh. Anyway on to what my family really wants on this blog, pictures!

These three boys LOVED christmas. Henry is still talking all about it and he keeps trying to convince us that it is still Christmas.

My little sister Daysa and little Milly Goat hit it off. Poor little Milly was sick with croup but she still managed to enjoy herself.
And Henry loved his presents.
We also took a little trip to see the Falls. It was SOOO cold. As can be seen by the frozen over binocular thingy.
Henry loves his grandpa. Just the other day we were in a parking lot and Henry was convinced that it was my dad walking across the street and he just started yelling, "Mom it's grandpa! it's grandpa! Let's go get him!" He was devastated when I told him it wasn't grandpa.
And lastly, you may have noticed the new family picture at the top of our blog. A wonderfully talented friend of mine made them for me. I LOVE them! You can read about her endeavor to make the Hawes family dolls here. It is an enjoyable read. She is one of the most talented people I know when it comes to creating things.

2010-12-09T07:14:00.005-05:00

It's cold here and there is snow on the ground which is probably here to stay through February which means winter has finally arrived, and I kind of like it. The one bad part of it all is that Jack Frost decided to bring car troubles with him. And he decided to get both of our cars at once. My honda needs a new battery which we sadly discovered once I already had the kiddos buckled in, diaper bag packed, and ready to go play. Henry was devastated when I told him that the car was broken and that we couldn't go play, however I may have been more devastated at the fact that I wouldn't be leaving the house for the day. He just kept telling me that it needed new batteries. He was surprisingly right. Anytime something doesn't work he thinks new batteries will fix it. And our other car needs a new motor for the windshield wipers. Turns out that windshield wipers are a necessity for a Buffalo winter and we now get to buy a new motor...or never drive in a snow storm.

anyway....on to our crazy busy life. Thanksgiving was a blast. We went to Ohio again this year, and visited the Starkeys. The food was delightful but the company was even better. I love cousins.

I love this little girl. Don't you just want to squeeze her? I do it every day. And unfortunately for her Henry does too.

This kid is hysterical. I love that he talks. And I love the things he says. Like the other day when he told me that the flames on our gas stove are not dangerous, they are beautiful because they make blue fire. I explained to him that things can be beautiful but it doesn't mean they aren't dangerous and that we should NEVER touch fire no matter how beautiful it may seem. I also find myself arguing with him regularly. Who argues with a two year old? He drives me crazy sometimes. This is us waiting in line in the freezing cold to win $20 American Express giftcards the day after thanksgiving. It was a success and totally worth the freezing cold for $40. We took turns waiting across the street inside Barnes & Noble with all the kids so they wouldn't be hysterical. It was waaaay better than last year when Henry got sick and puked all over the floor and the perfume counter at Dillards.

I love free stuff.

2010-11-17T21:50:00.002-05:00

My mother has been harassing me on facebook to post pictures of Milly on here. So here I am. But she is going to get some of Henry as well. This is Henry on our new couch. I have wanted a second couch or love seat since we moved here. I have been pestering Taylor about it for 2 years and this past week a friend of mine from work was moving out of her apartment last minute and had to get rid of her couch. She said I could have it if we could come get it, so we borrowed a truck from friends, and voila! A new and free couch. I am very excited. Taylor keeps telling me how glad he is that he never caved in and bought me one. I hate when he is right.

We went to Target to rummage through the clearance Halloween stuff and we found this treasure for $3. I was excited. As is evident in the picture below, Milly was not.
We went to the zoo last week with Henry's frenemies. I call them frenemies because they always seem to want to get together, but as soon as we do, they fight like crazy. It's really annoying. But seeing as how I immensely enjoy their mothers, we will continue to get together no matter how much they fight. This is at the zoo, it's the ghost of the dead elephant Buki. Kind of weird if you ask me.
Henry was trying to hide that he stole a cookie for breakfast out of the pantry. He forgot to hide the most important part.
And lastly, here is little Milly goat. I really think she looks like a boy. So do other people. Someone at the store the other day told Taylor that she really looks just like a boy. Who says that?

Candy! Candy! Candy!

2010-11-04T21:27:00.003-04:00

We had a wonderful evening trick or treating with our kiddos. Henry was absolutely and utterly astonished at all the free candy at every doorstep. And for the first time in my life I realized what a bad idea trick or treating is. What 2 year old needs a giant bag of candy?! He woke up the next morning and ran into our room saying, "Candy! Candy! Where's my candy?!"

Here he is taking stock of his new treasures. We only went to ten or so houses. But no one could resist the hamburger with the french fry sister. She eats food now.
If you look really close, you'll see two little teeth on the bottom. They've pushed through.
I couldn't get her to take her hands out of her mouth to smile. They are in there constantly. She's adorable. I am obsessed.

Happy Halloween!!!

2010-10-28T21:12:00.004-04:00

We had our annual Church Halloween Party. It was amazing as usual. The costumes are always incredible. And Milly's costume was a hit! Taylor and I made it from scratch! Pretty amazing if you ask me. I also took them to the mall to trick or treat today and strangers kept asking me if they could take pictures of her. I of course obliged. We got a ton of candy, and Taylor is currently eating it all while Henry sleeps.

We were a best friends locket.
And here is the obligatory picture of Milly for my mom.

2010-10-24T21:23:00.002-04:00

We have the happiest baby around. Wow. I love her.

We've been trying to take more pictures around here so I can have something to blog about, but this is about all we have come up with. Our lives are pretty busy lately and therefore somewhat boring. School and work are hardly worth mention on my blog and that's what we do all day. The one other thing that takes up our time is Henry and the terrible twos. Wow. It's BAD. Today at church he screamed and hollered through much of the meetings. He even refused to go to nursery the last hour. He has never refused nursery. Anyway, as soon as church ended he freaked out. He started screaming and sobbing so I picked him up and walked him out to the parking lot. I realized that my keys were in the diaper bad so I grabbed him and plopped him on the trunk so I could dig them out, and a lovely older couple in our ward parked next to us, mistakenly thought I was going to put him in the trunk. It was pretty funny actually, and it wouldn't have been too bad of an idea if there hadn't been lots of people watching I may have actually done it. Anyway, needless to say, we've had a rough few weeks.
I told Henry & Taylor to make scary faces, this is what I got. They were trying to replicate the pumpkin face.
I love this picture because I feel like it captured Milly's concern over the size of the bow I put on her head.

2010-10-12T09:12:00.005-04:00

It's been all together too long since we've blogged. I'm working 30+ hours a week and Taylor is busy with school. We also have two children, one of which is no longer the sweet semi-obedient two-year old that he used to be. These past few weeks have been crazy. Henry doesn't go to bed at night anymore without putting up a fight, and he no longer likes naptime. He is also unfortunately displaying these behaviors in public, and he is no longer threatened by timeout. He thinks timeout is funny. Anyone have any ideas??? Taylor had to lay down the law two nights ago and we had a hysterical screaming sobbing child in his room at bedtime for more than an hour. He is lucky we love him. Other than that, life is great. We love Milly. She is perfect for the time being and makes up for her brother's shortcomings. However, I am sure that she too will become a two year old at some point. It's pretty unavoidable. Until then, we are enjoying her perfectness. Here are a few pictures. She looks a lot like Henry did at this age...only smaller.

She sleeps really well. She is ticklish. She smiles a lot. She rarely fusses. She sleeps well. She hates her car seat. She doesn't take a binky! ugh. That is her one shortcoming. I sometimes wonder if I did something wrong while my children were in utero that brought upon this curse. She took it for a month or so, and now she sometimes gags when I put it in her mouth.
In the past few weeks we went apple picking, Henry still talks about it daily. Just this morning he woke up and told me he was leaving to go apple picking.
And this past weekend I was in a wedding. Congrats Ashley & Adam. It was loads of fun. Henry was a mini groomsman. I was a bridesmaid and we had a blast. And I got a new pair of really cute shoes. Here is Henry dancing the night away.
And here he is with the bride

And here we are at dinner. I forgot to take pictures of Milly. She was asleep in her carseat under the table most of the night. But she was cute as can be.

Canandaigua Lake

2010-09-19T21:35:00.005-04:00

We live around so many beautiful and cool things here in Buffalo, but I feel like we never have the chance to go visit any of them because of our crazy schedules. I work every Saturday, and whenever Taylor has a day off of school I work and if I am not at work, Taylor is in school. Anyway, Sundays are the only day we can manage to find more than an hour or so to spend together. Today we headed off for a picnic and a nice drive to Canandaigua Lake (one of the finger lakes). It was wonderful and beautiful. (All except for the last twenty minutes where Milly was screaming and Henry was whining.) We drove the back roads route all the way home and drove through the historic villages and towns. The greenery was amazing and the houses were wonderful. New York is so much older than Utah and all the old houses and towns never cease to amaze me.

Some lovely British couple took this photo for us.

And of course, a Milly picture. Have I mentioned how wonderful she is? And cute?

Wegmans, Milly, & Dang good food

2010-09-16T15:15:00.007-04:00

Wegmans just started selling their boneless skinless chicken breasts in sepearated packaging. I hate buying the big packs and touching all the raw meet to freeze them separately. I also don't like buying the already frozen chicken. Wegmans is truly amazing. I don't know if I can ever live without them. I love you Wegmans.

I am now posting pictures of Milly Goat for my sister. My family wants more pictures!! Here they are family. I really love this little girl. She might be the best baby ever. Soon after I took this picture, she slid over and banged her head. Sorry Milly.

I tried out the bouncer this week and she was a wee bit too small for it. But I think she actually enjoyed it. We have one that is for smaller babies but I couldn't find it...but once Taylor came home he got it out for me and now Milly happily bounces around.
Turns out my single jogging stroller doubles as a double stroller for trips to the zoo and the mall. Henry loves it and he has easy exit and entry to his seat. For a small moment I considered taking it jogging with him on the end but I quickly thought again. However...I could maybe tie him to it...what do you think? (Don't worry I won't really do it, he creates way to much drag)
And lastly, one more picture of Milly goat.
I lied. I have one more thing to share. I went to a little party today and the most delicious thing I have ever tasted was served. After I ate it, I realized that I could no longer eat lunch because it took way too many of my allotted calories for the day. But it was better than any lunch I could have eaten. I am including a picture and a link to the recipe. If you like chocolate chip cookies and brownies (both of which I love) your life will never be the same again. If you are on a diet, I highly recommend you don't make it. It's called a chocolate chip cookie dough brownie. You use a brownie mix and a batch of cookie dough. Don't be fooled by the picture...there are brownies involved, they are just on the other side. Here is the link: http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/2655269-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-brownies

face plants and footed pajamas

2010-09-07T22:32:00.009-04:00

We had the most fabulous labor day. The weather was cool and wonderful and the food fantastic. I love bbqs. I am going to miss hamburgers, hotdogs, & potato salad. Are you even allowed to eat potato salad in the winter? I don't think you are. Anyway, Henry probably would have enjoyed labor day more had he not fallen on his face. Here is the after shot. I am surprised he hasn't lost a tooth yet.
I think that footed pajamas are the greatest thing ever. These kids look so darn cute in them. At what age do they stop looking cute? It stops somewhere because I really don't think Taylor or myself would look all that cute in them.

I just love this little girl. I really hope she survives Henry and his antics. He drives trucks and cars all over her head, he head butts her regularly, and Taylor said that yesterday while I was at work he dragged her by her legs. Sorry little Milly. We really do try and stop him.
And lastly, this grosses me out:
It's a sweet potato we found in our pantry. I could barely touch it to take a picture. I just couldn't believe it grew so large.

Dear Summer: Please leave.

2010-09-02T19:21:00.004-04:00

It's hot in Buffalo. Way too hot. And way too humid. If summer is ever going to come back this strong again, I must have central air. I am ready for Halloween, apple picking, lots of falling leaves, crisp cool air, & pumpkin cobbler. In the spirit of hoping for Halloween, we pulled out Henry's skeleton pajamas. (I don't actually think we ever put them away...he may have even worn them in february). Nonetheless....here's to hoping that fall is coming.

Henry also got a new bed this week thanks to some friends from church. He loves it. And he is adorable in it. And it's always full of cars and trucks.
I am also excited for fall to come because I just got myself one of these:
I love running in the cool air of fall. My old pink Ipod mysteriously stopped working a month ago and I cannot run a mile without one. I have been saving up my hard earned Gap points from work to buy it and it came in the mail this week. I am in love. It has a video camera...and a pedometer! It tells you how many calories you burn when you run. It's amazing.

And lastly, here is the little Milly Goat (that's what we call her) She is wonderful. She sleeps through the night on most nights, and she rarely cries. We are keeping her.

Friends & Family Coupon to the Gap

2010-08-23T12:37:00.006-04:00

Here you go my friends! You can print off this coupon and use it at the Gap, Banana Republic, & Old Navy. Enjoy!!! If you would like a coupon with a code to use online just leave me your email address in the comments or email me and I will send you one! laney.hawes@gmail.com

Click here: Give and Get is Here!: "Enjoy 30% off from August 26-29 at Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy and we'll donate 5% of what you spend to a non-profit."

Home to Buffalo.

2010-08-22T16:45:00.005-04:00

We are home! Our trip home wasn't quite as bad as I'd imagined. We all got a little bit of sleep on the plane. We were sad to leave, and we will greatly miss all the free babysitting, the family time, the mountains, seeing old friends, and Henry is going to miss getting anything he wanted from his grandpa. But, we are also glad to be home in our own beds! We had a fantastic nights sleep last night, mostly because we were so tired but also thanks to Milly who slept through the night! She slept 9 hours! Thank you Milly!!!! Here are a few last pictures from Utah.

Here Milly is on blessing day. She was a peach. And I love her dress! I got it at the Gap for $4- it was quite the deal. I had been eyeing it for months...but I promised myself I wouldn't buy it until I found if I was in fact having a girl. The waiting paid off- it was originally $34.50!

I've posted this picture to show Leisy (my sister) that Milly does smile. It's kind of a funny looking picture but Leisy assured me that she posts funny looking pictures of her kids all the time.
Here is my dear little sister Daysa...who loves to tease Henry incessantly. We went to her first football game of the season the night we left Utah. Henry loved it.
Henry is really going to miss "the cousins" as he referred to them. He loved every moment of them. He also loved that when he was with them we let him stay up waaaaay past bedtime, we let him eat all the ice cream and treats his little heart desired, and as evidenced below, we let him run around in his underwear.

One morning I found him outside like this in my parents backyard. I think this picture was taken before 8 AM and that water was darn cold. But he was just so happy to be out there that I let him stay.
And lastly here is little Milly with some of her girl cousins. They loved her. I found them all surrounding her talking to her and begging to hold her. She got held A LOT while we were home and she was spoiled rotten. Taylor informed me today that this week she is going to learn to "cry it out". I support him in that decision.

Nootah

2010-08-16T11:20:00.009-04:00

Henry thinks Utah is pronounced Nootah. So whenever we ask him where we are that is his response. Anyway, that is where we currently reside...Utah. But only for a few more days. Taylor's last minute internship is ending and school is starting, so we return to Buffalo Saturday morning. Our flight leaves SLC at 12:47am. Gross. And we fly through Atlanta. Grosser. It may be the longest ten hours of our lives. At least I have Taylor with me to take care of Henry & Milly. Anyway- here are some of our pictures from our trip.

Henry and I took a little trip to the "world's largest dinosaur museum" I lovedthis giant shark! Henry isn't smiling because I had just told him that if he didn't sit still for the picture, the shark would eat him. I think he was actually a little bit scared. And here is a picture of Milly- she is growing up- and filling out. And she really is getting cuter and cuter. Taylor and I were worried for awhile. She looked like a boy in girl clothes and she had soooo many baby zits.

We were lucky enough to be around for Taylor's family get together in Idaho- Henry never knew he had so many cousins- he is number 23 on Taylor's side. We tried to teach him everyone's names but after awhile he resorted to calling them all "cousin." This is a view from Taylor's grandma's backyard. It's right on the river and it was great. Henry even went on his first float down the snake river. I think it is a rite of passage when you have family from Idaho. Taylor and I both grew up doing it.

I love this picture of Milly- she is making a monster face of some sort. I think she was probably thinking, "why are you always buckling me in this giant contraption?"

2010-07-23T21:00:00.001-04:00

Daysa arrived Wednesday night to relieve me of single parenthood. I don't think I could have taken one more hour of it. I have a whole new admiration for single parents. Granted it may be somewhat easier when you don't have a two year old who demands A LOT of attention and a three week old that has to be fed every two hours, but I nearly lost it. Poor Henry has definitely seen the very worst of me this week. Anyway...it's over. Daysa arrived with this mat that Taylor's mom sent for Henry. This is him at 11pm the night Daysa arrived. We probably should have waited until the morning to show him. He slept with it in his crib.

Daysa even took Henry to the zoo for the afternoon. I met them there after feeding Milly and doing some laundry.

I saw this man riding the carousel with his granddaughter and it made me chuckle. The man looked like an old Drew Carey and he was just so darn big on that horse. I had to take the picture.
And lastly is a very gross picture. When Milly was born the nurses decided to give us the section of her umbilical cord that had the knot in it. They told us that they weren't really supposed to but if we hid it in our bag we could take it home. I kind of felt bad saying no, it is after all a piece of me and Milly, so we agreed, and Taylor took it home and stuck it in the fridge. The nurse mentioned that we could plant it in our garden or something- I guess people do that with placentas and such. Anyway, that was more than three weeks ago. Last night I was cleaning out the fridge and I found it. Gross. I had forgotten all about it. I surely wasn't going to go dig a hole in our landlady's garden and bury it, so I took a picture of it to share here on the blog and I chucked it in the garbage. Good bye umbilical cord.

2010-07-18T20:48:00.007-04:00

This baby is starting to have more and more cute moments. She is also very well and even tempered...I think she gets that from her father.

We drove to Palmyra on Friday evening for the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I love going. It isn't really the pageant that I love, it's the whole experience and being outside with lots of people and seeing friends and eating good food. I love a good church party. We took this lovely family photo, and then realized that you couldn't see Milly in it. She was in the stroller and we weren't about to wake her up for a photo. We got home at 1:00am and then I had to wake up at 4:30 to take Taylor to the airport. ew. He left for Utah where we will soon be joining him. It has only been two days without him and I am already sick and tired of being a single parent. It's a lot of work. On Saturday night I went to the grocery with Milly and Henry, and I may never go back again without Taylor. I sure hope this two kid thing gets easier or I may have to give one of them away.

On Friday we went to the country's second largest Italian Festival. It's just up the street from where we live. There was this giant replica of the Trevi Fountain. It was actually kind of cool and had it not been for the run down mechanic shop in the background, it may have made me feel like we were in Rome. Nonetheless, Henry couldn't have been happier to throw money into it.

And lastly, I saw this the other day and I had to take a picture. Every time Henry hears a police/ambulance/fire truck siren he immediately stops whatever it is he is doing and runs to the front window to catch a glimpse of the vehicle zooming by. It's actually really cute, and it happens a few times a day, this day, he had been on the toilet when he heard the siren coming. The hard part is when he doesn't get to the window in time to see it go by, tears normally ensue and we have to assure him that there will be another one soon. I must admit it is really sad to see his little eyes fill with tears as he cries, "I missed it! I missed it!"

2010-07-14T21:04:00.007-04:00

I have been trying to take some good pictures of Milly to post, but she is always sleeping or making funny faces. She still has that squishy/funny newborn look, and it isn't always cute. And I don't want to post any ugly pictures, so these will have to suffice.

This is pretty much all little Milly does all day (I just love how she pulls her little legs up underneath herself like a little bug). She also poops a lot. Wow. We have already gone through a lot of oxyclean to try and keep the stains out of her clothes and blankets. Henry wasn't nearly as bad.

Henry and I played outside yesterday because it was so darn hot, Milly didn't much like the heat wave either, and just sprawled out on her blanket. Henry only tried to spray her with the hose twice.

We got this little pool from cousin Hailey & Jack when Henry was brand new, and Henry loves it! It's perfect for the little smidgen of grass in our back yard.

Every night Henry asks to go to bed with his cars and trucks. And almost every night we find them all lined up. It's adorable. He is obsessed.

Family of Four

2010-07-07T20:57:00.008-04:00

Here is baby Milly on our way home from the hospital. She was an easy delivery, although she came a little faster than I would have hoped. My sister Leisy warned me not to wait too long to go to the hospital with contractions in case you get there too late for an epidural. Let's just say I barely made it and she was born only 30 or so minutes after I got that epidural but those thirty minutes were a glorious thirty minutes. Some may wonder if it's even worth it at that point, and I say IT IS! I had forgotten how badly it hurts to have a baby-how is it that I could possibly forget that pain? I hope to never get all the way to a nine again without an epidural. I really wanted to die for a little bit. It's amazing the kinds of things you think about when you are in that much pain, and, how cranky you can be (sorry Taylor). Anyway, when we left the house my contractions were a wonderful 7 minutes apart, and I wasn't even sure I was in real labor, but by the time we made it to our friends house to drop off Henry, they were a little over two minutes apart and I was going to die. By the time we got to the hospital (at 3:15), the time between the contractions felt like nothing and Taylor rushed me to labor and delivery with tears streaming down my face in a wheelchair. At this point, the tears weren't because of the pain, but mostly because I hate having babies and I knew I had to have one soon. Once I got situated the dang nurses wouldn't let me have an epidural until I filled out all the paper work and gave a blood sample. Taylor filled out the paperwork and answered all the questions, while I felt really bad feelings toward the nurses for not calling the anesthesiologist yet. He soon arrived, and by 5 o'clock it was all over, and we had a little girl.

This is kind of a funny picture of the little squirt, but I love it. She is just so darn little. I had forgotten how much newborn babies remind me of E.T.
Here is a crying picture. She actually rarely cries. And she sleeps at night like a champ. She is a way better baby than Henry was, or maybe we are just a little less freaked out to have a new baby in the house. Regardless, this time around is much better.
Henry seems to be adjusting well to Milly, however, he doesn't seem to be adjusting well to us. He is driving us bonkers. He whines a lot and yells. And he has been throwing fits like we have never seen before. However, on a positive note, he hasn't reverted back to diapers. People warned us that the potty training would go out the window with a new sibling, but it hasn't! Hooray for Henry! Actually, hooray for Taylor for potty training him last month.
It's true what they say, your older child seems HUGE when a new one comes along. Henry is now a giant.
I just had to include a picture of the most beautiful flowers I have ever received. My friend Joanna brought them to me in the hospital and I am now a lover of hydrangeas. Who knew they were so beautiful?
And lastly, here we are at the fireworks on Sunday evening: a family of four. Henry loved the fireworks, and Milly slept through them.

2010-07-02T14:23:00.002-04:00

After much deliberation, Milly stuck. We are quite happy with the name and even happier with the way Henry says it. It sounds like Meelee. He is handling the newest addition to our family fairly well. We're home from the hospital and doing well.

Milly is the first granddaughter on Laney's side and the twelfth granddaughter on Taylor's side. The doctors were impressed with her intelligence, beauty, and charm already. We, of course, weren't surprised by this. She naturally takes after her parents.

a new baby

2010-06-30T10:43:00.006-04:00

Henry and I went for a walk earlier this week and we happened upon this large bear. It was at a yard sale, and the woman running the sale thought Henry should have it. She gave it to him for free. I really had no desire to bring a life size bear home, but how in the world could I tell that to this lady...or to Henry for that matter? Needless to say we brought the bear home.
We also went strawberry picking last week. It was really really hot. And we forgot to bring drinks for the kiddos. After being there for 45 minutes Henry just kept begging and crying for a drink and to be held. As you can see by the looks on their faces here, they were really not happy to be there anymore. It was kind of sad and kind of funny. The picture of Henry and his little friend Taylor in the wagon, cracks me up. They were not happy to be having their picture taken.

We still don't have a name chosen for the baby in utero. It could come at any moment. Really. As I sit here typing, I am having to take breaks for some very painful contractions. I don't know if it's going to come today. I kind of hope not....

Here I am. I started that post earlier this afternoon, and now it's 9 in the evening. I am sitting here in the hospital with a new baby- actually she is not with me, she is in the nursery. We haven't seen her since 5:30 (it's 9) they have to do some blood work and tests and such because she was born with a knot in her cord. They say it probably happened quite a while ago when she was small enough to swim circles in my belly. I think their concern is that she may have missed out on some nutrients or something. Anyway- she is completely healthy and had an apgar score of 9. Here are some pictures: (she doesn't have a name yet. It's narrowed down to Milly or Scout) We'll see what we feel when we get to spend some time with her. We will post again soon with more details and stories! I want to go to sleep.

Here is the knot in the cord. The doctors and nurses thought it was pretty cool. I guess it isn't all that common.

We have no idea what to name our child...

2010-06-13T22:39:00.004-04:00

This child is coming very soon, and it may have no name.

We are having a baby in 3 1/2 weeks and we have no idea what to name it. We have some names discussed but neither Taylor nor myself feel really strongly about any of them, and we have hesitations about all of them. I really don't know what we are going to do. We already took a long stroll and many drives through my favorite cemetery looking for names, we've searched books and lists, we gone through our family history. I just don't think I can do it. Every time I think I like a name, I find a reason not to like it. This baby may go nameless.

This week I took a very serendipitous trip to the library. I was actually on my way to get my blood drawn and the place was closed so I took a little stroll into the library next door where to my delight, they were having a book sale. This book sale wasn't just any book sale, it was a "Fit as many books as you can into a plastic bag for $1" book sale. I scoured through my bag and found a little over $2, and I went to town. The only adult books they had were those strange romance novels with creepy covers, but there were plenty of children's books to choose from. I could have stayed all day. I came home with all of these (I was very happy):

a bad birthday cake

2010-06-07T11:06:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was the big 2 for our little guy. We didn't do too much to celebrate, but he did get a cake and a few presents. I am including a picture of Henry's firetruck cake in this post because my sister asked me to. I think it was worse than the lamb cake Taylor made at Easter. I am pretty sure our family was not made to create three-dimensional cakes. Really, when it comes down to it, I don't think "creating" things is one of my talents. Whether it be crafts, cakes, or anything made from scratch- I am pretty darn awful at it. I was told by a friend that the cake was the most "unappetizing looking cake" she had ever seen. I kind of had to agree. But she ate her words later when she tasted it. That was its one redeeming quality- it was delicious. Anyway, I have posted a picture of the cake at the bottom of the post. I decided not to post it as the first picture for fear of deterring my blog readers from reading further. Anyway, other than the cake disaster, Henry had a great birthday. He got some beach toys, a soccer ball, and he ate some yummy cake. Here he is with Taylor getting ready to open his presents.

And here he is with his friends. He talks about them nonstop.
Taylor also found him this little train set at a yard sale on Saturday. It's not even one complete set, its pieces of a few different sets put together, but Henry has no idea. He loves it. And it occupies his time, therefore we LOVE it.

And lastly, the cake. In my defense, we had to walk it to the park from our house and it had been in the freezer so it had started to sweat (yes, a cake can sweat, it was perspiring), and then it started to melt. It looked a bit nicer before we got there. The candy pieces were still in place.

2010-06-02T08:58:00.008-04:00

It's been altogether too long since I last blogged, but this is what has been going on in our lives the last few weeks:

This little contraption saved our marriage and Taylor's birthday. It was altogether way too hot last week. And I was ready to move into a hotel until we got an air conditioning unit for our bedroom. On Taylor's birthday I nearly woke up in tears. I was so hot I couldn't even be nice. I kind of feel bad for being so lethargic on Taylor's birthday and cranky, but all in all it was a wonderful day spent at the beach and out to dinner without Henry. During dinner we got a phone call from someone from church who was selling their air conditioner, and we drove straight to an ATM and then to their house to buy it. I can't even describe the joy it brings me. Our house was 87 degrees!!!! With this wonderful device, I need a blanket to stay warm at night.

We have also spent a lot of time at the beach these past few weeks, any beach we can find. I actually think Henry thinks the word beach means anywhere you go in your swimming suit. Today we went to a friend's house to play in the sprinkler, and he called it the beach. He is a water baby! And luckily I don't think he inherited my sensitive skin, because he hasn't been sunburned once yet- however I must admit I am pretty religious about applying sunscreen. I have convinced Henry that the sun monsters will get him if he doesn't let me put it all over him.

I am posting this picture reluctantly, because I feel like I look like a large house, but Taylor assures me I don't. I don't really know why I trust him, seeing as how if he admitted that I looked large, I'd probably never speak to him again. But alas, I am posting a pregnant picture- with great hesitation. I just hate only posting pictures of Henry on the blog. After all, the blog is about Taylor and me as well.

Henry now plays pretend very often, and its adorable, but also very annoying. Lately he has insisted that his "friends" eat with him. He won't eat until his animals eat too. And they MUST wear bibs.

If you look closely in this picture you can see the little guys most recent battle wounds. He took a dive off some stairs on memorial day and landed smack dab on his face. He was bleeding out of his mouth and nose, and head! I hate when he gets hurt. ugh. It was sad.

We got the world's greatest deal at a yard sale last week as well....we got this wonderful car for $5! I was beyond excited, and so was Henry when he realized we were taking it home. It was going to be for his birthday...but once he had seen it, we could hardly take it away.

And lastly, we had visitors- and my sister took this adorable picture of Henry. I really wish I had a nice camera like she does. I can't even figure out how to make my pictures not blurry. We didn't take any pics while they were all here, but my highlight of the weekend was getting a babysitter for all the kids and going out to dinner with just adults! And it was great to see my mom. Plus, she bought me a new wonderful sweater.

Fire trucks

2010-05-19T16:24:00.003-04:00

We went to the fire station this past week for playgroup. Henry couldn't have been happier, especially since they let the kids climb around on them and in them. Henry kept trying to buckle himself in and drive away. He kept saying, "ready, ready, drive, drive." He was very sad when he realized that we weren't actually going to take a ride.

When I put Henry in the driver's seat, the fire chief said to make sure Henry didn't push the buttons. I told him I'd watch Henry, but heaven knows he touched all sorts of buttons. I just giggled and hoped he didn't do any real damage. Those fire trucks cost $550,000 a pop. I asked.
And Henry's most adorable new habit...walking around with his hands in his pockets. He was doing it the other day with his hands in his jean pockets and he fell over, it was really quite amusing. When you don't have any hands to break your fall, it makes for quite the landing- he just kind of rolled around.

exploding potatoes and poop

2010-05-12T09:44:00.005-04:00

It's been awhile. We have been busy. With 30 hours a week at work, and teaching seminary 4 days a week, plus trying to keep a 2 yr old happy, I haven't exactly made the time to sit down and blog. When Henry naps, I furiously clean the house and get things done, and when evening time comes if I am not at work until 10pm, I am in bed! Anyway, here is what we have been up to lately:

We went to the sesame street exhibit at the science museum here. Henry loved it

He especially loved the exhibit about digestion where it ends with a piece of giant poop and a farting noise. Gross. The whole time we were there he just kept asking to go back to the poop. I was kind of bothered by the whole thing. Henry thought it was hysterical.
He is also obsessed with cars, trucks, tractors, and emergency response vehicles (ambulances/fire trucks/police cars). This kid is 100% boy. He spends hours a day with these toys, and it makes me very happy.
Henry also has an unhealthy obsession with his sippy cups. He walks around with them in his mouth all day long, and only he decides when they come out. As can be seen, he even prays with them in.
Taylor ran his first half-marathon last week, here is the munchkin with his medal. Taylor says he ran it because he didn't want me to have one-up on him, I told him he had better start preparing for a full marathon as well. And that I will always have one-up on him since I have birthed a child.
We also learned that if you forget to poke holes in your potatoes before you bake them, they will explode and make your oven very very messy.

2010-04-21T13:46:00.005-04:00

My mom wants me to post pictures of Henry. Too bad the only ones I have of him are of him in tears, but here they are. This was on our way home from the park yesterday. All he wanted was to go back to the slide. I explained to him that I had already devoted my entire day to him with a trip to the zoo and a few hours at the park and that he needed a nap so I could get some things done for the day, but he didn't seem to care. He cried and hollered all the way home.

I was able to convince him to make one nice face before his nap. Here it is. He was really tired, and really dirty.
I found him stuck this morning. It was kind of cute to hear him yelling, "stuck! help!" from the other room. He was very angry when he realized I was going to take a picture before I helped him out.

so much to post...

2010-04-12T20:04:00.008-04:00

This past weekend was the Law School Prom, which is officially called the Barister's Ball. It was mostly a bunch of drunk law school students dressed like they were going to prom. I felt incredibly out of place being nearly 7 months pregnant and wearing a knee length long sleeved wrap dress. I kind of felt like everyone was staring at me thinking, what is that pregnant lady doing here? Nonetheless, we had a great time. We ordered sprite and cranberry juice at the bar, and left about half-way through. The event started at 9pm! By 11, I was nearly asleep at our table and we still had a babysitter to take home. Kids sure put a cramp in your style whether they are in utero or at home with a babysitter, but I guess they are worth it. Henry sure is. I really hope the new one is too. I am feeling a little hesitant about having baby number two. I really don't like newborn babies, and Henry is becoming more and more likable every day, especially now that he talks.

Zoo weather is here to stay, and we went today. The little guy fell into an empty fountain and got a little road rash on his face. But he is still really cute.
The kid loves loves loves puddles and water. I can't help but let him play in them. The zoo was full of them last week after our rainstorms. He fell in this puddle soon after this picture was taken, and he loved every bit of it.
And lastly, FOOD! I made the most wonderful dinner tonight. Really. It's the best thing I have eaten in weeks. My friend Natalie gave me her mom's cookbook for my birthday- and that's where I got the salad dressing recipe. I think I could drink it. I pretty much made up the salad part- it's just an asian salad. Fried wontons, mandarin oranges, cashews, mozzarella cheese, cucumbers, and some chicken. You could add all sorts of veggies if you wanted. Here is the salad dressing recipe with some little changes that I made. I always make a few changes.

1 c. canola oil (I used 3/4 c vegetable oil)

3 T sesame oil (I only did 2)

1/2 c rice wine vinegar (I used plain old rice vinegar, I think they are the same thing, the Internet said they were interchangeable)

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c soy sauce

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp ground pepper (I just did a bunch of shakes)

2 T toasted sesame seeds (I didn't use these b/c I didn't have them)

I also added a few tablespoons of the mandarin orange juice to the dressing because I love sweet things.

One more delicious dinner we had recently was turkey teriyaki sliders. My sister gave me the recipe, and I have to post a link to it, because it really was delicious. I will definitely be making it often this spring and summer. I was a little hesitant at first, but it is for sure a new favorite. We added a little piece of turkey bacon to the top and they were delightful and since we didn't have "Mr Yoshida's" sauce, I just added a tablespoon of brown sugar to regular teriyaki marinade. Here is my sister's recipe. It is absolutely worth a try.

2010-04-05T20:30:00.007-04:00

It's official. Winter is over. I know I really shouldn't say that so confidently, heaven knows snow in April, May, & June in Buffalo isn't that out of the ordinary, but one can only hope that winter is really gone for good. We hit 80 degrees this past weekend. We spent many an hour outside, and Henry and I even went for a run to my favorite cemetery. It really is an amazing place. Just look at this Buffalo! Henry thought it was a sheep.

I also think a couch is a great idea for a monument at a tombstone, you know so your loved ones have somewhere to sit when they come visit.
Our Easter weekend was also delightful. We ate good food, we went on a bike ride, had a picnic, and Henry enjoyed an ice cream cone with no shirt on. My goodness this kid can be messy. He has also found a new love: popcorn. I don't know if he loves the popcorn more or watching it pop in our air popper.

Do you like Henry's easter basket? It's all I could come up with, and it seemed a little more festive then a plastic bag.

And lastly, the very best part of Easter weekend was the lamb cake Taylor made me. I told him that I wanted a lamb cake, only problem is, we don't have a lamb cake mold so Taylor looked for some ideas online and came up with a plan. When he walked out with the finished cake, the first words came from Henry who said, "Monster! Scary." I nearly died laughing. I quite liked the lamb cake and it was very delicious. Thanks Taylor.

2010-03-24T20:05:00.005-04:00

This kid is in love with the shirt. He asks for the Tractor Shirt every day.

Today I went to one of the fancy schmancy private catholic schools here in Buffalo to talk to their "Religions of North America" class about Mormonism. They told me that I could bring Henry and that they would love it if I did, so I thought why not- nothing that awful could happen. Anyway, so I get there and of course they are all in love with Henry. He had a little stuffed whale and he kept taking it to all the girls desks and telling them about it. He was also rummaging round through papers, under the desks, etc. About 25 minutes into my spiel, I realize Henry is off in a corner. When he goes off into corners there are only a few things he can be doing, all of which are bad, and one of which is poop. Soon after, he runs to me and asks for me to hold him so I pick him up and realize he has explosive diarrhea which I can see on his back (luckily no one else can). I set him down a few moments later only to realize there is now liquid poop on my white sleeve! Luckily it was on my forearm and I could easily conceal it, and miraculously the poop smell wasn't yet radiating from him, but it was somewhat awful. Soon thereafter Henry redeemed himself when I started talking about prayer and he promptly folded his arms and closed his eyes for the class. It was adorable. And by the time 45 minutes was up, I was pretty sure no one noticed a thing. It truly was some sort of miracle that he didn't stink to high heaven. All in all it was a great experience. I really like teenagers.

We went to Toledo for the weekend for my birthday(and Leisy's too) and to go to the Gap Maternity there. We don't have one here, and I really needed some shorts and a few shirts. I was quite successful in my venture. We even got to go shopping without the Pikachu. Shopping and dinner were amazingly wonderful without little kids running rampant. We had a great weekend and Henry loved his cousins Zeb and Ike. It was totally worth the trip. We let Henry eat way too much junk and our last night there he threw up. It was a clear reminder to me that letting him eat all that garbage is never worth it, even if we are on vacation. I kind of felt bad like it was my fault. Luckily, he felt wonderful soon thereafter and slept for 3 hours on our way home!

2010-03-17T20:04:00.004-04:00

How can daylight savings mess someone up so badly? Time changed by one hour, and I feel like I have lost days worth of sleep. I have been so tired I can't even see straight. I think it may have to do with the fact that I started out the weekend doing an inventory shift at the Gap and not getting to bed until three am on Friday. That combined with seminary, a sinus infection that sadly turned into an ear infection, and being with child, I should have known I stood no chance at beating daylight savings.

Henry spends most of his free time with these:

How can a little boy love cars, trucks, busses, and anything with a siren so much?

He thinks we can't see him.

2010-03-10T20:05:00.006-05:00

I feel much better. Not 100% yet, but almost. I am however going to invest in the Neti pot or something similar. Has anyone ever tried it out? I hear glorious things about it but I am a little nervous to pour strange things into one nostril only to let them pour out the other. I think it may be worth it. Anyway, on to good news...This beauty came in the mail this past week. It's hard to see what it is from so far away, but every time I got close to snap a picture, it had a giant glare. Anyway-it's my thesis! Bound and beautiful. (I put it on the top of the book shelf for all to see):

Did I mention how hard it was to write a thesis? And have I mentioned how happy I am that it is all over?

We went to Toronto today for a little adventure and this is what we saw when we first pulled up in China town. I loved it. Right after I snapped this pic, the guy opened up the doors and the truck was FULL of pigs. They were walking them into a restaurant.

This was the front of the restaurant. My favorite was the bright orange squid type thing. China town was wonderful. I loved it. It was just like Hong Kong! The shopping, nasty smells, funny foods, etc.

I found this sign above a public toilet: (Why would they need a sign for this?)

Here is the one good pic of the three of us. Some nice man took it, but it was on portrait so it zoomed up on our faces instead of showing the whole place. So I put a pic of the city without us in it so you could experience Toronto too.

And lastly, here is a picture for my mom. She wants more pictures of Henry. Here is one of the little guy in one of those toys you pay $.75 to ride. He still doesn't know that they actually move if you add money.

I'm sick

2010-03-05T22:02:00.003-05:00

I really want to blog...really, I do. But I can't. I am too sick. I started a post, and my pictures wouldn't post like they should and I nearly started crying so I stopped. Henry got me sick, and it turned into a sinus infection. Sinus infections make me want to die, I nearly did die at work tonight. What I really want are some good drugs to make the pain go away (like Excedrin), but Excedrin is on the "bad for pregnant women" list. I called and asked Leisy about it (her husband is in med school, so they know everything) and she told me just to take it. I think I will, but I am saving it for tomorrow during my nine hour shift at the Gap. I start to cry just thinking about how miserable I will be. Extra strength tylenol is a joke. If any of you have a little extra time in your prayers today, you can pray that I will feel better soon. Sinus infections should be against the law.

2010-03-02T19:36:00.005-05:00

This little guy is really sick, and it's really sad. He wasn't sick when I took this picture in his new pajamas though (thus the smile). Aren't those PJs fantastic? Don't you just want to squeeze him? I do.

Henry has never really been sick before and I just hate it. He has a fever, cough, and sore throat. Last night we had to hold him down while we forced medicine down his throat. I wish he understood that it makes him feel better. Taylor also snuggled up with him this morning at 2:30 and they watched Cars together. It was kind of cute. And I was glad that Taylor told me I could go back to bed. He got a new haircut Sunday night, this is him making his happy face.
On Saturday night we went downtown to the "World's Biggest Ice Maze" it was wet and cold, and pretty fun. Guinness Book of World Records even certified it as the world's biggest.
This ice chair was in the center of the maze...it was COLD!

Sledding

2010-02-25T16:31:00.002-05:00

I kind of hate sledding. I haven't been in years, but it was the activity for playgroup this week and we decided to give it a try. It was Henry's first time, we only had one crash with minor amounts of blood. He cried for a bit and asked to go again. This is Henry's happy face in the picture below, I ask him to make it whenever he gets cranky. I love it. Overall we had a pretty good time, except for the fact that I kind of forgot to feed Henry breakfast and he was a little cranky. Thank heavens I found a green M&M in the bottom of my purse and that his little friend Taylor had animal cookies.

This is right before the crash. We all landed on top of Henry.
Nothing cuter than a tubby little kid in snowpants and a shopka (fur hat).

2010-02-23T14:29:00.004-05:00

Last week came and went in a blur...I never got to post about our Anniversary. We had a wonderful evening without our Pikachu. As much as we love him, we also love leaving him at home with a babysitter and enjoying a quiet night out together. We went to a wonderful fancy little restaurant called Left Bank in downtown Buffalo. The food was a little fancy for my taste (strange cheeses on my salad, etc) but Taylor was in heaven, he loved his dinner and he loved my leftovers the next day. The atmosphere was wonderful too, and quiet. I really don't like loud restaurants. Anyway- I wish we could have spent more of the day together, Taylor didn't even get home from school til seven, but Henry and I went to the children's museum in Rochester with friends. It was fantastic. Happy Anniversary to Taylor! He truly is my very favorite person in the world. Last night I had a dream that he turned into a bad husband and we fought all the time, it was awful. I woke up around 4AM rolled over and saw him sleeping next to me and realized that it wasn't real and he was still the most wonderful husband in the world. I love you Taylor. Life sure is better with a wonderful companion. And to top it all off, he has wonderful taste...just look at these shoes he got me:

I have been complaining lately that I needed some cute & comfortable shoes to wear to work and he picked these out all by himself. I love them.

Here are some pics from our trip to the Museum- we will definitely be going back.

And lastly, we don't know if we are having a girl or boy, and we won't know until we see its parts the day it comes. I love surprises, but what I love even more, is the anticipation of a surprise. And I won't be posting pregnant belly pictures because I think thats gross- even without skin showing. Sorry. If you really want to see me pregnant, come see me in Buffalo, and if you are lucky, sometime around week 26 or so, I may consider being in pictures where I am not the focal point, but there is nothing enjoyable to me about growing larger by the week, nor do I have any desire to draw attention to my ever rapidly expanding belly.

20 weeks down...20 to go

2010-02-19T09:52:00.001-05:00

Teaching Seminary

2010-02-08T13:22:00.003-05:00

As many of you know, I teach seminary (a class about the scriptures) for the teenagers at church. They come to my house at 6AM and we sit around the dining room table and drink hot chocolate (sometimes muffins if they are lucky) and we discuss the gospel of Jesus Christ. A few classes ago one of my students said to me, "Laney, your calling sucks. I think it might even be worse than being the bishop." I giggled and asked her why she thought that and she explained how awful it must be to have to prepare a lesson everyday, wake up super early, wait to see if anyone shows up to teach it to, and then deal with cranky teenagers if they do come. I laughed a little more and I told her that yes, sometimes it really does feel that bad, and yes, sometimes they are really cranky, but mostly it feels good. The only time I really really hate it is right when my alarm goes off at 5:53 and I feel like dying. Yes, I do set it for 5:53. Just enough time to brush my teeth, throw on a dress/skirt (and yes, they insist that I wear a dress/skirt. Even though every so often I rebel and wear sweats), brush my teeth, and unlock the front door.

Anyway, I explained to my student that if it weren't for how much I love these kids and the Book of Mormon, I wouldn't do it. But I do love them, so I do it. And it's hard. But it's worth it. They never really say thank you (teenagers aren't really good at that sort of thing) but a few weeks ago one of them texted me and asked if she could take pictures of me and do a project for one of her classes- she said she had to choose someone she admired. That was all the thanks I needed. I really love my class, and the Book of Mormon.

2010-02-03T22:24:00.003-05:00

We have some very exciting news in the Hawes household: Henry watches TV! And Movies!!!! And he even watches them for extended periods of time...like 30 minutes. It is glorious. I have been getting all sorts of stuff done this week. He has also grown up in the past month, and he had his 18 month check up. I don't really remember any of his stats other than that his head is big but his weight and height are 50th percentile. He now repeats almost anything we tell him to. He loves all cars, trains, trucks, & especially tractors. He also loves Elmo, Nemo, & Lightning McQueen. It's like he turned into a real boy overnight.

He has also learned how to close his eyes when he prays...it's adorable.
He also still makes incredible messes when I am not watching him closely.

Ipod + toilet = bad

2010-01-21T20:53:00.010-05:00

You may wonder what a toilet and Ipod touch have to do with each other in, and the answer is that they should NEVER have anything to do with each other, but unfortunately this week in the Hawes household, they were brought together for 3 LONG hours! I came home from work earlier in the week and found Taylor's Ipod touch in the toilet...we can only assume that it was Henry that had put it there sometime before he went to bed. The kid is very lucky we found it when he was already asleep. Waking him up to get mad at him would have only made our evening more miserable. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the Ipod cannot be salvaged. We tried the rice thing, but I think 3 hours was just way too long. When I pulled it out of the toilet, it was dripping water. Taylor is very sad, and Henry has no idea what he did. It's really quite frustrating, and kind of funny all at the same time.

On to happier things, we had a superb week which started out with a wonderful holiday. We went to the City science museum for the day, which we have now decided to make an annual Martin Luther King Day tradition (it's free on Civil Right's Day) The museum is really quite sad compared to others we have been to, but we got free tooth brushes, and Henry didn't seem to mind the shabbiness one bit, his favorite find of the day was this giant piece of petrified wood. I promise he really liked it, he only looks upset because I had just informed him that it was time to get down.

Taylor's favorite was the blocks. I had a hard time pulling him away.

For the love of vegetables

2010-01-13T11:45:00.005-05:00

We all know we should eat more vegetables, and we all know how good they are for us. Vegetables prevent cancer, keep us healthy, they keep us regular, they are magic for your body. Why is it that they are so easy to hate? Last January Taylor and I made a New Year's Resolution to learn to like a vegetable that we we didn't like. Taylor chose sweet potatoes and I chose raw tomatoes (I love them cooked and in sauces, soups, etc) We learned to prepare them in new ways, and we had a pretty darn successful year. Taylor now asks for sweet potatoes on a regular basis, and just the other day at Subway, I asked for a (yes, only one) tomato slice on my Turkey sandwich. We have a new year ahead of us, and we have chosen our vegetables for the year. Taylor has chosen mushrooms (they aren't really vegetables, but Taylor already loves most veggies) and I have been oscillating between brussels sprouts or another year of tomatoes. I have a long way to go with fresh tomatoes. This past week we gave brussels sprouts a try, and turns out, I already love them! I had never had them before. I assumed since they were called sprouts that when you cut them open they were full of those nasty sprouts that people sometimes put on sandwiches...but I was wrong! Who knew that they are actually cute little cabbages? Taylor tells me that everyone knew...just not me. Anyway, it looks like this year might be year number two for fresh tomatoes. Good luck to me!

If any of you would like a delicious recipe for brussels sprouts, try this out: Cut them in half, toss them in olive oil, salt, & pepper, and bake them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until ready to eat.

Luckily Henry loves vegetables just as much as his father does. He doesn't need any New Year's Resolutions. We are very lucky parents that we got a kid that loves broccoli and asparagus. I attribute it to Taylor always feeding him veggies over fruit when he was just starting out. I've read that introducing them to veggies first doesn't really make much of a difference, but I let Taylor give it a try, and voila...we have a veggie lover. I don't think it can be entirely attributed to the exposure to veggies early on, but it may be a part of it. I was also reading a study about picky eaters the other day that stated the following, "Parents excessively concerned with food—whether positively or negatively—are more likely to have picky eaters. And those who harshly punish non-plate-cleaning children, or, at the other extreme, cater to the child by fixing them exactly what they request, exacerbate the situation." The article was very interesting, and I learned that moderation in all things is always the answer, even with vegetables! Go eat your vegetables!!!

2010-01-09T15:26:00.003-05:00

These past few weeks have gone by in a blur. I am happy to have the holidays over, and to finally get sometime with Taylor again. It seems as though whenever one of us is home the other is at work, I don't think Henry thinks we live together anymore. He only sees one of us at a time. If I am home, Taylor goes off to work, if I work, Taylor stays with the rugrat. We both had an afternoon off this week and we headed to Ikea (it's in Canada, so we took a little road trip). It was so wonderful to spend time together.

Henry really hates sun in his eyes. It's hysterical. He shrieks and yells until its gone.

We left him in this little girl's room at Ikea for quite sometime...he was in love.

Did I mention that it has snowed a lot lately? All Henry wants to do is play outside. It's really cold...I really don't like it, but he just stands at the door all day and says, "go, go, go!" This weather really makes it hard to get out and do things, but we get sooooo bored inside all day. I think I may go crazy if I don't get out a little more. Thank heavens for the Gap, without it, Henry and I may not have made it this long together. Did I mention that Henry talks now? It's real cute. His current favorite word is happy.

2010-01-04T09:03:00.003-05:00

Last week I had to go into the store Hot Topic. Before I finish this story, I would like all of you to know that #1 I didn't sell my soul as I walked in...it was a very quick trip and #2 I had to go in to get pennies. We were out of pennies at the Gap, and Hot Topic is right across the way. Hot Topic is not a store I frequent. Anyway, on to my story. As I made my way to the cash register, and two things happened: Number one, someone stopped me in my pink Gap scarf and sweater, and asked if I worked there...do I really look like someone who works at Hot Topic? My hair isn't black or spiked, I have no strange piercings, and no tatoos. I giggled. Then I looked up on the wall and realized they were selling drinkable blood...in a blood bag (you know the kind they use to take your blood when you donate). Who buys drinkable blood? Gross. I was a little freaked out. They had more than one blood type as well. ew. The woman at the counter told me it tasted the fruit punch. Fruit Punch flavored blood? Awful.

Anyway, I've included some pictures from our week. This first one is a mystery to me, how in the world does this kid get such a rat's nest of hair every morning when he wakes up? My hair doesn't do it, Taylor's doesn't either. His hair is like a brillo pad every morning .

Here is little Henry after a run. I discovered that three pair of gloves will actually keep his fingers warm for the duration of a run. i haven't yet discovered anything to keep his nose warm yet. Its like a little icicle when we get home.

So much to say

2009-12-29T20:51:00.004-05:00

I am back from my blogging hiatus. I think this is the longest I have ever gone without blogging, but I am turning a new leaf to become a better blogger. My trip to Utah was absolutely miserable for 90% of my waking hours, and 10% wonderful. I can honestly say it was the most stressful three days of my life (I ran into more administrative problems than ever imaginable) and I wish I had found time to visit family and friends. It was sad to go home and not get to see anyone or do fun things. However, it was totally 100% worth every miserable bit! My thesis is finished! 100% finished. It is one of the greatest feelings I have ever felt in all my life. I feel anxiety free and happy. I feel accomplished and relieved. Writing my thesis was the most difficult task I have ever endeavored, it was way harder than running a marathon, super harder than having a baby, much harder than an appendectomy in a soviet hospital, and much more difficult than learning Russian. Anyway...it was hard. But it's over. And I am happy, and grateful. I am also glad that I did it. I think life is about doing hard things. And I think I am mostly glad because it's one more diploma that I get to put on my wall and I get to teach my kids that education is important. I also think I may start signing my name with an MA behind it, I have earned it.

These are the only two pics I took in Utah. It's Hanky Panky with Aunt Metta and Aunt Daysa. Thank heavens for my family and Taylor's family for taking care of the bugaboo while I was on campus all day. He loved every second of it, and I really don't think he missed me or Taylor one bit.

I only had one minor mishap with Henry while in Utah...he nearly died. In all seriousness he scared me quite badly. He fell down a few stairs onto his head one evening, and when I reached him, I snatched him off the floor really quickly, and he was starting to wail. (A little background info...when Henry really gets upset and cries, he holds his breath for a loooong time...like sometimes he turns blue, and once he collapsed) Anyway, I soon realized that Henry was holding his breath and he couldn't catch it. He turned a blueish hue and then he passed out cold in my arms. At this point I realized blood was coming out of his mouth too...it was horrible! I started to shake him but he was completely unconscious, I was sure that he was dead or at least in a coma, but a few seconds later he came to, and I realized he had bit his tongue, and he was fine. It was awful, but thank heavens he was okay. I don't think I will ever get used to him passing out from crying. Taylor tells me his brother did it as a kid, and supposedly its kind of normal. But I hate it. Anyone else ever experience it?
Did I mention that Henry is all grown up?

Christmas just came and went this past week. Leisy and Kent and the kiddos came to visit too. It was fast and I was at work for way too much of it (did I mention that I worked 40 hours last week!!! ew), but such is life. We enjoyed it, and Henry loved the company.
Here is Leisy, doing what she did most of the day...taking pictures with her new snazzy camera.
And here we are Christmas morning before the opening of the presents. I love opening presents Christmas morning. The more presents, the better. This year, Taylor gave me all sorts of treasures so I could have more presents to open, like a new lightbulb for the fridge, a giant jar of pickles (Henry & I looooove pickles), crystal light, and more. Thanks Taylor!
Here are all the kiddos...they sure were noisy.
And here we are about to eat our traditional christmas eve dinner: takeout from everyone's favorite restaurant. It was delicious. Notice how cute Henry is in the picture below.
Merry belated Christmas and happy New Year! Don't worry, you'll hear from us again soon, we got a new super cool camera for Christmas (thanks mom & dad!) and I am thesis free. Life is wonderful. We are happy.

Remember how we were sick???

2009-12-06T20:33:00.005-05:00

Remember how I blogged about that awful stomach virus that left us all puking our guts out for a few days after thanksgiving? Well turns out, it is quite possibly the most contagious virus to ever be placed on the Earth. We had guests over for dinner last week...all four of them were puking their guts out within 48 hours (we kind of felt bad, but deep down inside, I think the missionaries were excited for a day off and a day to sleep in) and then every single one of my seminary students that came last week also spent a day or two at the toilet. This is a picture of us driving them to school after class, Lizzie is on the left with the garbage can, she actually puked in the car a few times. Henry didn't seem to mind, and that's Hunter on the right with the window rolled down trying to get some fresh air (she started puking later that day at school) I must admit, the whole situation was hilarious. Don't worry, the girls thought it was too.

Our adventures didn't stop there, Henry also got in a fight with the asphalt this week and lost. You can see his poor little face here. It has scabbed up quite nicely. You can also all see Taylor's new specs in this pic. I quite like them. And he isn't complaining about not being able to see the board at school anymore. When he took his vision test at the Dr's office, they said to him, "you probably wouldn't have passed the vision test at the DMV." He declined to tell the Dr. that he kind of cheated at the DMV by stepping closer when the lady wasn't looking.

Anyway...and now onto very exciting and very wonderful news...I set a date for my thesis defense and purchased my airplane ticket. I am going to Utah one week from today!!! I can't believe how close I am. I cried when I set the time and day. I would share all of my feelings of joy and elation, but I don't want to jump the gun, I still have to defend and hope all goes well. I most definitely need your prayers. My defense is Monday December 14th at 8am. You can pray all week for me and at 8am mountain standard time a week from tomorrow. I thank you all in advance.

2009-11-30T14:05:00.003-05:00

We had a wonderful thanksgiving, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera for much of the week, It is nearing the end of its life, and it rarely works like it is supposed to. All you blog readers are probably lucky it wasn't working well because otherwise you'd be getting pictures of our most adventurous thanksgiving event...Henry puking all over the floor at Dillards. We unfortunately got some nasty stomach virus and we all took our turn puking our guts out. Luckily it didn't hit till Friday, so we enjoyed thanksgiving dinner and fully digested it. We spent thanksgiving with our Ohio family- the Starkeys, and it was wonderful. We ate lots of food and shot guns. They told us it was a family tradition, so we gladly joined in. Turns out, I like to shoot guns. I even got to shoot an AK-47.
We also took a little trip to the imagination museum in Toledo. They had this circus exhibit, and my sister had raved about it, so we hooked ourselves up and flipped around. It was really funny. When Taylor got on, I think all the little kids thought he would go through the ceiling because he was so tall. I must say, he did get really close a few times. Henry thought the whole thing was a little strange. He seemed to be a little freaked out that we were flipping around in the air.

aQ

The little guy couldn't seem to get this piano working no matter what he did.

All I want for Christmas...

2009-11-19T08:56:00.004-05:00

I saw these for sale in the Neiman Marcus catalog. I want one. It's a cupcake car. You can actually drive them around. Only $25,000.00. I want the pink one.

I walked in the kitchen the other day and found the fridge wide open with various condiments spread all over the floor. I then found this:

Henry had somehow gotten into the vegetable drawer, found his favorite food, and decided to eat it like an apple. Once he got through the skin he was in heaven. This kid LOVES avacados. When we walk past them at the grocery store he immeadiately starts screaming and yelping for one. Too bad they are so darn expensive. We try and ration him to 2 avacodos per week.

Henry woke up the other night with a very bad diaper rash, so I let him sit on the couch with me for a little while and watch the CMAs. Everytime someone performed he'd clap and clap. He watched them for 30 minutes straight without ever leaving the couch! I can't even get him to watch 5 minutes of sesame street.

2009-11-11T20:26:00.003-05:00

It has been really warm and really busy around here- and we are happy as can be. On Saturday it was so nice we hooked up the new bike trailer and went for an extra long bike ride. It was wonderful. We just rode around the city. Henry loved the ride and just sat in the back and said, "weeee" for much of the ride. The weather has been soooo warm here. At first I was a little bugged, I really like cold weather, but I then realized how much money it is saving us by not having to turn on the heater yet, so I've decided to be happy about the warm weather until Thanksgiving.

Taylor decided to teach Henry about the laundry shoot this week, and he loves it! He wanders around the house gathering clothing and he begs to open the shoot. He has no idea where the clothes go, just that they disappear. Problem is, we don't use the laundry shoot because it goes to the same place as our landlord's shoot and I am just not into mixing dirty underwear. When we let him use it, Taylor always runs down to the basement to prevent intermixing.

We found a very old and freezer burned fudgesicle in the freezer this week. It wasn't really edible anymore so we fed it to Henry. He loved it.

Henry tried to bite his tongue off.

2009-11-03T09:07:00.004-05:00

It's Tuesday and I am finally getting around to posting our Halloween picture...life is a little busy around here. We got our picture taken with Mayor Byron Brown. He seems to pop up at all our neighborhood events, I think it is because we live in a very politically active and signifigant neighborhood. This was at our neighborhood Halloween Party. Mayor Brown loved Henry the astronaut.

After the Parkside Party we had dinner with friends and then headed over to a fire station in the neighborhood that hosts a haunted house. We took turns watching the kiddos and being chased by chainsaws. We had a wonderful Halloween and Henry loved the trick-or-treating.

On Sunday Henry had a little mishap. We had the missionaries over for dinner and we were paying very little attention to the little guy who fell and bit his tongue...which bled profusely. It was awful, and I was really glad Taylor was there because I couldn't bare to look at it. He bit almost all the way through his tongue. And here is a picture I took this morning, it isn't nearly as bad as it was on Sunday, but you get the idea. It was so sad. Luckily soon after the incident I had to go to work so Taylor got to deal with the bleeding for the rest of the night. But don't worry...he is fine now. I don't think it hurts anymore, and luckily tongue wounds heal like magic, or so the internet says.

And lastly, our favorite find of the weekend was this lovely sign we saw taped in a car window at the store. You know, bumper stickers and strange political messages attatched to a persons car, always say a lot about a person...they mostly scream, "I am weird and crazy!" But the rest of us sure get a kick out of it. If this person were to park his/her car in our neighborhood, they would surely get their tires slashed. We decided that they must live in the suburbs...or in rural WNY. Thats where all the Republicans live. While we don't always agree with all the political ideals of the city dwellers here in Buffalo, we love where we live, and chatting politics and religion with our neighbors is always very interesting and it has given us a new perspective.

Baby Astronaut

2009-10-28T21:09:00.007-04:00

Tonight was the church Halloween party, and aside from the fact that it started at Henry's bedtime, it was a lot of fun. Henry was the world's cutest astronaut. And Taylor and I had every intention of dressing up but we never got to making our costumes. Today was a busy day. I worked, and Taylor had school, and Henry was with a friend for the afternoon which = no costumes. I wasn't very sad.

This is Henry with his little friend Taylor who quite possibly had the cutest costume ever

Henry spent a good part of the evening trying to lift this giant pumpkin. But what is more intriguing than Henry trying to lift the pumpkin is the size of its stem! I promise it really was that big, it isn't just a strange angle. Must be some genetic mutation.

The highlight of the night was the live music: aka Taylor, some guy in the ward who likes to play his electric guitar, and the back-up singers Rachel & Tiffany. I must admit I was very hesitant about the whole idea, and slightly embarassed, but they redeemed themselves with their rendidtion of the monster mash. Everyone loved it, and they sounded pretty darn good. I wish I would have video taped some of it.

Here we are the Happy Halloween Hawes Family:

And probably the best part of the evening was having someone in the back seat with Henry to keep him company on the way there and home. He was in love with these two girls, Marcella and Clarissa. We need to hire some gnomes or elves or something to sit in the backseat and keep the monster baby happy.

And lastly the very best costume award at the Halloween party goes to Richard & Erica. It was one of the greatest comstumes I have seen in all my life. They were Peewee Herman and his genie in a box Jambi. When the box was closed it was covered in jewels. It was just like the show. And to top it off, Erica is 9 months pregnant and that genie face is on her belly.

2009-10-28T11:55:00.001-04:00

Henry is obsessed with books. He is crazy about them, and it drives me crazy! All he ever wants is for us to read him stories all day long. I know I should be happy about this, but he wont really read them on his own, he wants to be on my lap while I read to him. Any ideas how to get this kid to watch just 30 minutes of Sesame Street? I know, I know... babies aren't supposed to watch TV, but I just need an extra 30 minutes a day- you know, to shower and blow dry my hair and simple things that cannot be done with a screaming banshee pulling open the shower curtain and soaking himself.

Isn't he adorable. He thinks my IPOD is a phone (and yes he chews on phones. He still eats everything he can get his little hands on). He puts my Ipod up to his ear and walks around the house saying, hi, hi, hi.

Since fall is here and we had a big bag of yummy western new york apples, I attempted a homemade apple pie- crust and all! I did it, and the crust was surprisingly easy. Taylor told me he was super impressed and that the crust was perfect. Speaking of fall, it decided to come back to Buffalo. It was 65 degrees yesterday, I even got a little sunburn on my run. It was wonderful.

And lastly, here is a little video of Henry. It's kind of boring, and It's mostly for my mom who wants to see more of the little rugrat, but at the end I also included a close up of Mr. Teddy's nasty ears for Leisy. I think Henry may get some sort of disease from him.

Pumpkinville

2009-10-24T22:26:00.002-04:00

I am back from my blogging hiatus. It was a long week. However I did accomplish quite a bit including submitting my revised thesis (I am so close to being done I can barely stand it!), I spent way too many hours at the Gap this week, and we got new tires on our car (we also have to fix the alignment this week) uggh. I hate car problems. Anyway, so we had an insane week, and I am not getting enough sleep (which is what happens when you teach seminary at 6am and you are up late writing a thesis and/or working) and as a result of no sleep I have TWO awful, horrible, no good, very bad canker sores. One of the canker sores is under my tongue on the part where your tongue connects to the bottom of your mouth. It makes me want to die.

Enough of the complaints...they make me sound unhappy, and we are actually quite happy here in the Hawes household. Being busy often means being happy for me.

Today was the most wonderful of days. Taylor and I had the whole overcast day to spend together. I love dreary gray days. I was not scheduled to work and Taylor got his studying done so we spent a Saturday together...all day. We were discussing it, and we can't remember the last Saturday we had to sleep in and relax. We decided to take a little road trip to Pumpkinville. It is an hour or so from Buffalo, and the drive was beautiful.

Henry slept most of the way home, and we were happy as can be. He has really taken a liking to sleeping with a piece of mr. teddy in his mouth. It really is gross. I am going to post a picture of the nasty, wet, black ears sometime soon. I sure love this kid.

On our way home we also decided to stop for lunch. We had yet to taste one of Buffalo's most famous restaurants, Big Teds. The locals all love it and highly recommend it, and we had never been. We both quite enjoyed it, and we'll probably go back sometime soon. Taylor got the hot dog, I stuck with a hamburger, and Henry ate our pickles.

dead giraffes

2009-10-15T22:19:00.002-04:00

Our neighbor and zoo resident Akili the giraffe died today. The zoo people don't know why she died. I personally think that H1N1 has hit the zoo. This recent death of another one of our neighbors only brings me to ask the same question I asked last week...where do dead giraffes go? In my last post about dead elephants, someone in New Zealand (whom I have never met, nor do I know) happened upon my blog and told me that when the elephant died at their zoo, they chose an undisclosed location in the Zoo and buried it there. I can only hope they decide to bury the giraffe on the premises, if they want, I will even volunteer my back yard. But really, I am even more committed to learning the fate of VERY large and difficult to dispose of animal carcasses. The newspaper article about it all, says that part of her will be incinerated and part will be donated. My questions are: What parts? Who cuts her up? And what kind of tool do you use to cut up a giraffe? I will talk to the Zoo keepers soon. I am just dying to know. Until then, you will all just have to wait.

Henry Shmenry

2009-10-13T19:32:00.003-04:00

The best part of this new stroller we got is that even if Henry isn't buckled in, he can't get out! Unfortunately he doesn't always love being trapped. His friend Taylor on the other hand didn't seem to mind it until Henry panicked.

I bought the little monkey some sunglasses at the babyGap this week. They were 87 cents. He loves them, and now he leaves ours alone.

Henry loves Mr. Teddy as most of our avid blog readers know, and as of late, everytime we walk in his room during naptime, he has part of Mr. Teddy in his mouth. His favorite place to chew is the ears. The problem is, he chews on the bear, and gets him all wet, then drags him around the house, and now his ears are practically black. Then when bedtime comes again, he chews on the dirty ears. It's gross.

Henry got a package in the mail today...more footed pajamas!!! (handmade by Grandma Hawes) He also got a new story book. He loves them both.

The Halloween Aisle

2009-10-07T21:00:00.003-04:00

On Monday we went on a little trip to Target to wander through the Halloween aisle. I love the Halloween aisle. At target there is a whole Halloween section. I loved it! We decided to try and scare Henry while we were there, and at first he was somewhat unphased. He just kind of pushed things away.... Then, I put on a very scary mask, and he was horrified! As you can see from the picture below, it was actually really sad, and a little bit funny. I wish we had gotten a better picture so you could see the mask too, but it was just too sad, we couldn't bring ourselves to do it again. I felt bad, and I was slightly worried that some other shoppers would call us in to DCFS for child abuse. Don't worry, soon after we took him to Old Navy to play with the mannequin dog...he was in love.

He tried to drag this dog all over the store. It was really cute.

Dead elephants.

2009-10-01T11:21:00.005-04:00

As most of our blog readers know from our last post, our neighbor Buki the Elephant died this week. Its sad, we may go to the Zoo today to express our condolences, however what I really want to know is...how exactly do you dispose of an elephant carcass? I have been watching the Zoo daily for a large dump truck leaving the parking lot...or some sort of truck, but even then, once you take the animal away, what do you do with it? I imagine they cremate it? Or maybe they preserve it to study it? But there is no way they have body coolers or cremation ovens big enough for an elephant. So do they chop it up? I know that sounds awful, but really, I am dying to know. If they chop it up, who has that job? Ugh. Don't worry, I will find out what happens to dead elephants, and once I know, I will share it with all of you.

Anyway, on to our life. Henry has been quite a little trouble maker lately, and he has taken a extreme love to my scarves. Isn't he cute? I think that too, until I walk into any room he has been in, and I find this:
Does anyone want to take him off my hands for a few days? I really do love him, and I really do believe that God made babies take long daily naps so their mothers wouldn't give them away to gypsies. Henry is taking one of those naps right now, and I love him for it. I have cleaned up the kitchen but unfortunately, his room is still in disarray.

Onto a more exciting note, we found one of these at a yardsale this week:

It was only used once, and we got a screamin deal! Henry loves it already. It also doubles as a jogging stroller. It's fantastic.

Actually...

2009-09-29T15:30:00.001-04:00

This is why the Zoo was closed.

Its was a blustery day in Buffalo

2009-09-28T22:14:00.003-04:00

Firstly, I have to say that BabyGap makes some of the cutest pajamas ever. Really, is there anything cuter than a chubby little kid in tight pajamas? I must admit however, that the BabyGap pajamas are outrageously expensive- they are $22 a pair. I know its absurd, but the secret is to never buy them full price because they almost always go on sale. However I made one exception this week when I bought this pair:

The Halloween pjs always sell out before they get marked down, so I caved in and bought them. But don't worry- I got my discount. I still think $11 is a little steep though. I normally never pay more than five. But really, isn't he adorable? They glow in the dark.

Now on to our blustery day in Buffalo. We had crazy rain and winds, but Taylor had the day off for Yom Kippur. We wanted to go to the Zoo but apparently the aminals are all Jewish because the Zoo was also closed for the day, and it was super cold, so we opted for the Aquarium in Niagara Falls. Here we are at the shark shanty:

The aquarium had some neat fish including this one below(it was my favorite), but overall it was a pretty shabby little aquarium. I have never actually been to an aquarium before so I don't have much to compare it to, but I am pretty sure most aquariums are a little better than this one. It was dark, dank, and really kind of creepy. Thank heavens we had free tickets (thanks uncle bob & aunt chele)! I don't know that I would have paid more than a dollar to get in.

If you enlarge this picture, it really looks like my head is floating.

And lastly, Henry got another new pair of pajamas today in the mail. Thanks Nanny Annie! We don't have a costco here and we therefore cannot buy the super cheap and super warm carter pajamas that do wonders here in freezing cold Buffalo. Henry is sleeping warm tonight.

The worst part about being sick...

2009-09-23T20:29:00.006-04:00

I think the very worst part about being sick in your sinuses is your inability to taste. Its awful, plain awful. Taylor took me to dinner on Monday night for my half birthday- we went to Olive Garden (thanks for the giftcard ashley!). I could hardly taste a thing. We were going to go out to ice cream afterwards but I decided not to waste all those calories on something I couldn't enjoy.

However, all in all, it was a great night out and a nice break away from our little screecher. After dinner we went to TJmaxx the home goods version and wandered around looking for good deals, the only thing that could have been better would be a trip to Big Lots. I love big lots and all the great deals there. Henry also enjoyed the night with friends. He came home happy and tired, as pictured below. He has been sucking on his fingers lately- I think its because he is teething. Did I mention that he is currently in the middle of getting eight teeth? Poor kid.

So I really wish Henry was a snuggly baby. What drives me the most crazy is that he will snuggle with pillows and my old nasty teddy bear. Here he is snuggling with both. He actually mostly just attacks pillows- but I wouldn't mind if he attacked me on occasion. Its kind of cute, and it is kind of like snuggling.

I'm sick. very sick.

2009-09-20T20:03:00.017-04:00

I consider myself a healthy person, I don't normally get sick, and if I do, it never stays around long...until that is, I had a baby. A few days after Henry was born I got the first sinus infection of my life, it was awful! And it lasted more than a week! Ever since then, when I get sick it lasts forever and almost always goes to my sinuses. ew. I was semi-sick all August, and then it went away for a week or so, and now voila, I am sick again, but its worse. I have a fever, body aches, and cheese grater throat (you know when it feels like you rubbed a cheese grater on your throat & every time you swallow you want to cry). I am sleeping horribly, I feel rotten, and I think I have exceeded the allowable limit for excedrin and advil in a given week. I finally went to the doctor on Friday, they didn't tell me much, nor did they check me for strep. But they did write me a perscription and they told me to fill it if I was still sick when I woke up this morning. I was most definitely still sick this morning, and I have started the Amoxicillin, but that doesn't help with the pain. I told Taylor to go get me some magical drug at walgreens today. It is interesting how much you desperately want all the promises on the labels of the medicine to be true, especially the night time ones. I ended up choosing some awful blue liquid that promises instant relief on my sore throat...we'll see if it works when I wake up in the middle of the night. I just can't wait that twenty minutes for the pain to go away when I take regular pain killers. Has anyone ever tried this stuff?

Other than being sick, things are going well around here. We had a delicious dinner tonight, a new recipe. It was sweet potato sausage stew. Taylor gave it an 8.5 on the dinner scale. I ate it, but I couldn't really taste it, so I will have to give it a score the next time we make it, but it seemed really good. I am posting a picture and the recipe. It looks kind of funny, but Taylor really loved it and it was super easy. We of course topped it with sour cream.

1/2-1 Box of chicken stock (we only did a half, and it needed more liquid!) 1 can of diced tomatoes... 1 can kidney beans... 2 garlic cloves crushed...1 1/2 tsp cumin.... 2 tsp paprika.... 1 1/2 tsp salt.... 3/4 tsp pepper....... we added carrots, but it didn't call for them..... 1/2 lb- 1lb Cooked chopped sausage (we did garlic & herb chicken sausage), you could do chicken instead we did both ......1 large or two small sweet potatoes chopped in small cubes..... 1/4 - 1/2 cup of apple juice concentrate or 1 -2 cups apple juice (depending how sweet you like it)

Let it simmer until the sweet potatoes are soft or put it in a crock pot for a few hours. mmm.

I also went to craft night this week at church and made this neat little necklace, it was super cheap, $1.50 for the chain and the charms. The charms are actually washers and we just pounded letters on them. And now I get to wear a necklace on my neck that expresses my love for taylor. Pretty cheesy, I know, but I really like the necklace. And lastly, here is the screamer after his bath this evening. Don't mind the bit of nudity.

more family pictures

2009-09-16T15:58:00.006-04:00

I wish I could get myself to post more often, I keep recommitting myself to do it, but I never seem to get the thirty minutes to sit down and type. I have been working a lot lately, Taylor always seems to be gone, and Henry is a handful. Anyway, back to work...I love it. Who knew I could enjoy the Gap this much? Being a manager makes work so much more enjoyable. It goes by faster, I have more responsibility, and I get to actually make decisions. I really feel blessed that it has worked out so well and that they are so flexible with my schedule. I am mostly grateful for a husband who supports me in it as well. (He kind of has to since it pays the rent, but he does it so happily) He cooks, cleans, and takes care of Henry on top of his classes and studying when I am at work, And he doesn't complain one bit- even when I have to drop Henry off on campus when our schedules are tight and they have to make the hour treck home on the bus and subway together. I am a lucky girl.

When we were in Utah we took many family pictures, these are a few that we took with Taylor's family. I think of all the pictures we took in Utah with all the different photographers, we may actually find some that are worth printing and hanging on the wall.
I thought I would include one of Taylors entire immediate family. I think it turned out really well for how many young children the photographer had to deal with. If you look really close you can see us on the top left.

And one of Henry. We aren't normally fans of the baby and parents' hands, but Henry turned out quite cute in this one. I just kind of wish our hands weren't in the picture, I think its kind of cheesy.

Don't be fooled by this incredibly cute picture of Henry, he has hit that stage where he is throwing absurd fits whenever and wherever he wants something. His shrieking may just be the end of me. I think the fits would be more manageable without the loud shreaks. Even in public, I am not embarassed by his behavior (he is 15 months old and this is hardly learned behavior) I am just terribly annoyed with the the noise! We are slowly working on a discipline plan to teach Henry that is is completely unacceptable. Hopefully he gets it someday, until then, I may need earplugs. We try and do outside things to help dissipate the noise he makes. Today we went to the Zoo. Henry loves the Zoo. We met friends from church there today and we took a picture of all the kids. Henry is in the blue stroller.

The other day I couldn't find Henry, I heard rustling in the back of my closet where I keep boxes/bags/etc. This is what I found. He was so happy back there I let him play for quite some time. The mess is totally worth the time it gives me to do other things.

mmmm.

2009-09-09T09:07:00.004-04:00

These are some of the final pics from our trip home for Metta's wedding. This first one is of the sisters. I sometimes wonder what life would have been like with a brother. I think he would have thought that we were completely crazy- I am pretty sure our husbands sometimes think that, and even my dad.

This is Tanner, aka the great photographer. He took our family picture on the top of this page, and he did it for free! Henry loves him. So do we.

Our trip home also consisted of Henry popping out 4 large molars. Because he has never even so much as whined about his other 9 teeth coming through, we didn't ever think that maybe a little baby tylenol would help the little guy feel better. Oops. Good thing Leisy was there to drug him and help him feel better. Zeb and Henry did not do well on car rides together.

We also took family pictures with Taylor's fam. Henry did alright until about picture 71 which was a grandkids only picture- there are 25ish of them-I don't remember how many exactly. Poor kids. Maybe next time we should do the grandkids only pictures first. It was funny.

Every mom does kind of mean things to their children, like chasing them with vacuums or placing them next to large scary animals...we do lots of mean things to Henry. Like this picture below. I have been eying this dress at the BabyGap for quite sometime. I figure I will probably have a little girl someday, and if I don't, chances are one of my sisters will. Anyway, I thought this little dress was just really cute. And then it got marked down to $2.97- who can pass that up? I bought a couple. And then I tried them on Henry just to see if they fit. He is really cute. And speaking of mean things that aren't really that mean, Henry wouldn't eat his veggie burger earlier this week so I chopped it up in little pieces and mixed it with his peach yogurt. He had no idea, and he loved it.

And lastly, is my wonderful creation of the week. My sister posted this recipe on her blog awhile back, and I made it. It was delicious!!! If you like chocolate cake, this is the cake for you. I know I didn't make it very pretty, but my cake tray made it difficult. Here is the recipe if you want to try it http://kentandleisy.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-first-real-layered-cake.html I highly recommend it. I added a layer of ganache between the two cake layers and all over the outside before I put the buttercream frosting on. The ganache was just 1 cup of cream and a little less than a whole bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. You get the cream to just boling and then pour it over the chips and voila....ganache. I let it sit overnight before I did the frosting.

The trip home

2009-09-02T21:33:00.006-04:00

Our trip to Utah was superb. Metta's wedding was a blast. It was a giant family reunion. When you live so far away from family, it is that much better when everyone gets together. We took a kajillion pictures, and had many adeventures, many of which I plan to post this week.

Everytime I go home I expect my little sisters to be the way they were when I was living at home in high school, and I am always shocked at how grown up they are. I am also always amazed at how beautiful they are...and I am slightly jealous. Here they are, Daysa is officially a cheerleader. Don't worry though, she is one of the talented ones, she doesn't just stand there and do spirit fingers, she is a tumbler...she flips and stuff.

And here is Metta. She looked wonderful on her wedding day.

I chopped my hair off. I am quite happy with it, however I think I wish I would have gone just a tad bit shorter.

Isn't he adorable? Thanks to Tanner for taking some killer pictures.