life in general

9 months

The stats are in.  At her 9-month check-up today Anna is 28 inches long (50th percentile) and weighs 17 lbs. 10 oz. (25th percentile).  I so had to laugh when I saw the numbers come up on the scale.  Conner weighed that same amount at 4 months!  I'll have to pull out his baby book to compare what his length was.  As far as growth she's stayed somewhat consistent on the charts for height, weight she's going down, and her head measurements are climbing up a pretty steep curve!

She's still a happy girl (I half-heartedly type that as I'm listening to her scream in her crib -- very unusual, she usually goes down without a peep).  She crawls all over the place and lately I've had to stick her in her high chair with cheerios while I vacuum so she doesn't mess with the cord behind my back.  She pulls herself up on everything.  She loves her brothers (and they love her back most of the time).  She is addicted to graham crackers -- can't get enough of them.  She's trying out table foods -- mac & cheese last night and then french toast tonight was a hit.  She naps 2x a day, nurses 3x a day.  She's learning how to drink from a sippy cup.  She has 6 teeth.  She has started to jabber "da, da" (despite our "ma, ma" training sessions that have been going on for months).  She loves bananas.  She goes nuts for her baths -- just shaking in anticipation as she watches the water fill up the tub.  (She just got quiet).  She has a great laugh -- the one where it sounds like she's gasping for air.  She's our little girl and we love her to death!

such a cutie

Feeling the CA heat, a little flushed, puttering around grammer's garden.  I often have a hard time getting Payton to humor me in front of the camera, but when he does I get great stuff like this (see his photo album for a few recent additions).  He's just got this perfectly cute 3 year old face and a coy way of being that is totally endearing.

mission weekend #3

Actually, it was more like a whole week of mission related activities.  Sunday - Denver is set apart, Monday - Kent gets home, Tuesday - Denver leaves, Wednesday - Kent is released, Sunday - Kent's homecoming talk in church.  Kent looks so good, and he seems to be doing really well.  Here's a couple pics.

Waiting outside of customs -- here's Conner with the poster he made.  Everyone thought he was so cute.  Some of the limo drivers who were also standing there with signs joked with him, "hey, your sign is bigger than mine." 

This is my personal favorite photo of the trip -- the two missionaries looking all suave.

As for the rest of our visit, here are the highlights of the trip:

• Conner toasted the 2 missionaries in an "Article of Faith" death match.  Everytime Kent pulled a number he was sure that it was the one about the Bible & Book of Mormon.  About the 3rd time Conner set him straight, saying matter of factly, "it's number 8."  It was totally out of the blue and got us all rolling with laughter.
• In - N - Out hamburgers
• Picking strawberries in Grammer's garden
• Frescante's and Italian Sodas any time of day and night
• 108 degree weather, and trying to see if you could really cook an egg on the sidewalk
• Experiencing the joys of living in the country and all the little critters that come with it.  Over the course of the week Scott stepped on a frog outside by accident, we found a frog in Grammer's bathroom, a little scorpion in the bonus room, and the boys got pretty good at catching little bugs that made their way into the house.
• My Dad's surprise 50th birthday party -- it had a 24 Theme to it.
• New books for the boys:  The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, and Click Clack Moo.  When Conner gets a new book he listens very intently to you as you read the first 5 or 6 times.  He's stone faced, not reacting or laughing at the story, just focused.  What he's doing is trying to memorize the story so that he can tell it to you.  Once he memorized "The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog" he went from person to person finding a cozy spot next to them and sharing his new story.  To listen to him tell it is just hilarious -- he has so much drama and animation in his voice.  By the end of the week we were all reciting things like "Each morsel is a joy.  A celebration in a bun." and "It just tastes like a hot dog, okay?!!"
• Catching up on movies from the past 2 years with Kent
• Scott and I went out on a dinner date at a very nice restaurant.  We had late reservations and  sat out on the back patio with burning torches and christmas lights strung around the area -- a cozy, romantic atmosphere.
• Conner & Payton sang, "I Feel My Savior's Love" in sacrament meeting.  They did such a good job -- I only wish I could have seen their faces (I was at the piano).  We had them each stand on a chair pushed up to the podium and pointed the microphone a little more towards Conner.  We've been working on teaching Conner how to sing in his nice Sunday voice, which he does a good job at.  Payton, on the other hand, sings a little bit louder.  Which is great -- at 3, we're just happy he's singing the words.  As they were doing their musical number Payton decided he needed more microphone time so he stood on his tip-toes and leaned in real close.  It was pretty funny.  They sang 2 verses of the song and it went off without a hitch.  It also helped knowing that dad had a bag of M&M's in his suit coat pocket, waiting for them if they did a good job.

And I should probably mention swimming, since that's what we did all day, everyday.  Swim in the morning (because it is 90 degrees at 9am), swim after lunch, and maybe swim again right before dinner.

  Anna loves the water -- I can already tell that she's going to be a little fish just like Conner.  And yes, she is sitting in a bucket.  She was so squirmy and just wanted to dive into the water, so we put her in the bucket to keep her in one place.  She didn't seem to have any problems with it.

This year we upgraded Conner to water wings (it's been Speedo life vests for the last 2 years).  He really swims so well with them.  He was all over the pool, trying to get us to race him, and picking fights with Uncle Mason.  At the beginning of the week when he wanted to jump off the diving board he stood on the edge and counted his fingers to 3 or 5 or 10 and jumped in.  No problem.  By the end of the week he wanted to do it like Uncle Mason, so he started 5 feet behind the diving board and took off in an all out sprint without ever slowing or hesitating.  Now that's my boy!

And our success story of the week is Payton.  We showed up on Saturday around 5 and right away decided to go swimming.  Payton would have nothing to do with it.  We eventually forced him into the water (he's got to get over this fear) and he was screaming and crying the whole time.  Scott worked really hard with him over the next day or two.  Payton continued to put up a fight.  But eventually he got over it and loved to go swimming.  He soon felt comfortable swimming in the water without holding onto someone, he could jump in by himself (no diving board yet), and engage in some mild water battles.  He was such a cutie.

Now all of our trips for the summer are over and done.  I need to come up with a plan to occupy our days at home, some outings . . . some kind of schedule that we can look foward to specific activities on certain days.  That way the summer won't seem like one big blur when we reach the end of August! 

I survived

And here are the pictures to prove it.  I'm in the middle on the right.  This is us going through a class 4 rapid.  I was surprised by quickly it went by.  In my mind I pictured entering the rapids and being in the thick of it for a long, long time.  But when we got there we went to work "digging in" and after a few waves crashing into our faces we were done.  Part of it might have been the fact that I kept my eyes focused on my paddling -- I rarely looked ahead to see what was coming at us (if I can't see it it won't hurt me, right?).  Eventually we got off the river for lunch and told Scott, "I could do that again."  And I think I might enjoy it more the next time, now that I have a feel for what it is all about.  Now, you're not going to hear me asking the guide to take us into the crazy rapids, and I'm not going to jump into the river to body surf, but I would be happy to go along for a ride.   

burn baby burn

I'm working on my tan.  Slowly.  With my pasty white Oregon skin I have to really ease into this.  Spent some time outside by the pool yesterday and get this, I have tan lines!  My plan includes a couple more sessions today. 

When I come to my parent's house I don't typically spend hours outside trying to achieve brownness.  I'd really like to avoid the whole skin cancer & wrinkles thing.  But my tanning crusade for this week has a purpose.  Tomorrow we are going rafting, and knowing that we will be out on a raft under the hot sun for 4 hours I do not want to burn to a crisp.

Which brings me to another point.  I need some support.  I've never been rafting before and I'm a little bit scared.  I keep waiting for the guys here to say something like, "oh it's not that bad.  The rapids are pretty calm.  All you really do is float down the river."  No reassurance whatsoever.  Which leads me to believe that it's going to be pretty crazy.  And when I say, "I just don't want to fall off the boat," I don't get much of a response -- just silent looks and little smiles.  Ahhh!!  So I'm trying to be brave and suck it up.  I just have to keep thinking, other people have done this and lived, I can too.  (I had to go through similar mental exercises the first time I went on a roller coaster -- but I should also point out that I have never stepped onto a roller coaster since.)

So if you have survival stories of river rafting, please share them with me. 

I'm headed out to work on my tan.

mission weekend 2 1/2

I just wanted to pop in real quick to say hi.  It has been a great weekend.  We surprised my mom & Denver by coming up 2 days early so we could see Denver get set apart as a missionary.  It was such a wonderful experience to be there with him, hear the counsel given to him from a member of the stake presidency, and then feel the spirit as he was set apart.  I was so happy that we were a part of it and that Scott had the opportunity to stand in. 

We are now just a few hours away from Kent's arrival and I am soooo excited to see him again.  It's going to be a late night of talking, laughing, and sharing stories.  Makes me feel just fuzzy all over!  We've got a few games planned -- all at the expense of the new & old missionary!  It should be tons of fun. 

mission accomplished

Last night I had the chance to host Bunco at my house.  The excitement & noise seemed to be up a few notches from normal -- maybe I was just more aware of it because it was my house.  The whole time I had to wonder what Scott was thinking and how in the world did the boys and Anna ever fall asleep with all that ruckus?  Well, they did!  I was able to put together some fantastic prizes for our winners -- at least in my opinion.  The theme was "Shannon's Favorite Things" so that gave me an excuse to shop at some of my favorite stores -- Bath & Body Works, Pottery Barn, Old Navy, Container Store, & mysimpleexpressions.com.  For our half-time snack I pulled out the chocolate fountain for dipping strawberries, bananas, & golden oreos.  Yummy!  Scott was a hero and even snapped some pictures of everyone playing.

And my great success story of the day is that I managed to find a swimsuit for Hawaii!  I've been browsing online forever with not much success and was worried that I might never find what I was looking for.  Something cute and colorful -- I made myself promise not to get a black suit.  So I packed up the kids this morning & headed to the mall where Scott (the hero again) was able to meet us & take the kids off my hands while I tried things on.  In the end I came home with two cute new swimsuits!  Now I need to go put a big checkmark on my Hawaii checklist!

mission weekend #2

Two down, one to go.

This last weekend Anna and I flew to my parent's home to be there for Denver's farewell.  He spoke in sacrament meeting, but he doesn't leave for Brazil for another week.  You might recall that he is the one who fell victim to one of my dad's pranks -- the fake missionary letter.  During my visit it was great to spend some time with my brother Sam, his wife Heidi, and my new niece Carlee.  They live clear across the country so this was a rare opportunity for everyone to get together.  Everyone except for Kent -- he's finishing up the last couple days of his mission in Portugal!

We spent Saturday mostly hanging out, hit some golf balls out in the back, watched Sam, Mason & Pepsi swimming (the little girls also took a dip in the pool), and enjoyed a nice dinner out.

We also had quite a bit of excitement with Pepsi that afternoon.  She got into some rat poison while the guys were cleaning out the garage.  So we spent about an hour trying to save her life by giving her hotdogs soaked in activated charcoal, followed by pouring hydrogen peroxide down her throat so she could puke it all up (my uncle, who deals a lot with animals, told us what we needed to do).  It was pretty gross, but it did the trick.  As far as I know she's still running around like a crazy dog and catching gophers today.

On Sunday Carlee (she's just 7 wks old) and Anna had matching dresses to wear to church (they were so cute).  Denver & my dad spoke in Sacrament meeting and both did such a good job.  I don't think I've ever heard Denver speak in church so that was fun.  And Mason blessed the sacrament -- he's just barely 16.  A very fun day for my family.

 

And before I knew it I was back in the car for the 2 1/2 hour drive to the airport.  Anna was good through all of the traveling and late night flights, so that made things nice.

My dad celebrated his 50th birthday recently and for a couple months I have been working on a top-secret project with my brothers.  We compiled an album titled "50 things we love about you" along with pictures of us with our dad throughout the years.  And we were finally able to give it to him! It was a fun project to do and see the varied responses that came from each of my brothers.  My dad was very touched by it -- I think we got the reaction we were looking for. Just thought I'd share the entries that I contributed.

beds and toddlers

Lately we have been receiving the royal treatment in that Conner insists on making our bed every morning.  At first I was hesitant because I like things to be just so, but after I let Conner help me a few times he has got it down.  Now, you might think that he is just as anxious to make his own bed in the morning -- no way.  His top bunk is messy -- blankets and sheets and pillows scattered in random piles across his bed.  He likes it that way.  He comes up with a new sleep configuration practically every night.  And typically I don't say anything about it.  It's up high, I can't see the mess, it's not hurting me. 

Last night as we were putting the boys to bed we found Payton's bottom bunk in similar disarray -- all the blankets & pillows in one big pile.  He typically likes his blankets tucked in and pulled up straight across his chest but last night he said, "I'm going to sleep in the bush."  Yep, the bush.  He was so cute about it that we didn't rock the boat and just let him do his own thing.

by the numbers

summary of thursday, june 8th

• 36 baby shower invites made, stuffed, and addressed
• 27 clothing items ironed I know, I let it pile up for too long.  It's usually the thing on the bottom of my to-do list -- If I have time I'll get around to it.  And it doesn't help that all of Scott's work clothes have to be ironed, so the flow never stops.  He always tells me not to worry too much about it -- if he ever really needs something he'll take care of it himself.  But I usually reach the point of frustration before his wardrobe runs out. 
• 6 layouts uploaded to Two Peas.  Some old, some new.
• 10 minutes of finger painting fun, until . . .   We have having a great time.  Payton was having a great time.  He was practically sticking his whole hand into the paint and just going for it -- he loved the squishy feeling on his hand.  Then you look at Conner who first started painting with a popsicle stick, then finally resorted to carefully dipping in just one index finger.  This boy does not like to have messy hands.  But a messy Doritos face is just fine by him.  So we were having so much fun until . . . Conner decided his hands were too messy, he needed them clean now, so he shook his hands in the air sending specks of paint flying everywhere -- the floor, the windows, and (gasp) my newly hung curtains!!  Oooo I was burning up inside, but managed to keep cool and calmly told the boys painting time was over, tossed all the newspapers in the garbage, washed their hands, and quickly took my curtains to the laundry room.  Good news, the paint came out.
• 86 pictures snapped.  We were getting really good light through the dining windows so I took my camera out and snapped away.  Granted, I did not get 86 good pictures.  Maybe 15-20 will be users.  But I've learned that you've just got to take a ton of pictures if you hope to get that one good shot.  Thank goodness for digital!  Here's a couple more:

holy curtains!

Last night Scott helped me put up my new curtain hanging system in the dining room (which has been sitting on my bedroom floor since April).  I stood back and had to say, "holy curtains!"  There's just a lot more fabric up there than what I'm used to.  Here's the before and after:

 

I actually went to bed last night not quite sure if I even liked it.  But this morning I felt better about it.  I used a cable system from pottery barn.  Basically the curtains just attach to little clips that slide along the wire.  I like to leave my windows open and airy, but with this new set-up I have the option of pulling them closed if we want more privacy.  There are a couple other things I'm going to add to the dining room as well, but all in good time.  I'm even toying around with the idea of painting my table and chairs (just the legs & back) -- I'm thinking black.  Right now they are navy blue.  We shall see.

I guess I haven't mentioned already here but Anna is crawling all over the place.  I've had a little bit of hard time transitioning back into the mindset of baby-proofing the house.  Especially keeping little papers & things off the carpet -- we've already been through one gagging/puking spell due to my negligence.  Anna is also eating real bananas and loving it.  She naps twice a day -- very well.  And we put her to bed at 7:30 and she's out for the night.  She's a good little girl and has a smile that just absolutely makes you melt!

Conner has just completed memorizing all 13 Articles of Faith.  He is pretty proud of it and likes to share his talent with anyone he sees.  Including the staff at Safeway.

Payton gets more and more silly everyday.  He's just at that cute 3-year old stage where you just want to eat him up (at least that's what Scott always says).  But he makes sure to balance his cuteness with an almost equal part of naughtiness.  Among other things, today it was using all my stamps to decorate his Whac-A-Mole game. 

I guess that teaches me to buy the children's book character stamps.  If Fox in Socks is printed somewhere, then it obviously belongs to Payton.

Yesterday I had the strange experience of going to church with no calling responsibilities to worry about.  I've been warned that my freedom will not last for long.  I'm very interested to find out where they'll put me next.

best saturday ever

Well typepad just deleted everything I typed so here's the shortened version:

Went to Container Store with Sheila -- a total high

Spent 6 hours scrappin' with my friends.  I finished two whole mini albums -- very excited about that.  Here's a sampling of one of them -- proofs from the photo shoot of Anna, my mom, & I back in March.  Had so much fun using these Basic Grey papers & Heidi Swapp flowers.