Christmas Hangover

I wish I had a good excuse for not blogging lately, like that I was in a full body cast because of a skiing accident or my computer blew up, but pathetically my only reason is that I've been crazy busy! Working on Christmas gifts, trying to find an evening job, being sick, weaning Claire.

We had so many Christmas parties over the last couple weeks. They were a blast but we're so exhausted! At our ward's Christmas party the YW did a skit where they lip synched and danced to the song "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" (I love that song! If you haven't heard it google it right now and listen to it!), the girls did such a fantastic job. And Levi was in a skit as one of the wise men being interviewed by Blenn Geck on Box News. It was hilarious! He had a great big, long, black beard on and a dress thing and Claire pointed to him while he was on stage and said "dada". I'm still trying to figure out how she recognized him, I barely did.

We have just been going to party after party; Levi's coworkers, my mom's side of the family and each of Levi's families had get-togethers. It's always so nice to be around so many family and friends, I really wish we could get together like that more throughout the year. We got awesome presents out of the gift exchanges, 2 cans of Almond Roca, a super cute Christmas apron, hamburger coasters, and a gingerbread candle holder. What more could you want?

We also chaperoned a dance a couple weeks ago, which was super fun! It was so weird being on the other side of a church dance. And you may be shocked to find out that I actually got Levi to slow dance with me, not just once but twice! He hates dancing. I'm not quite sure why. There must have been a traumatic experience; produce thrown at him, slipping on a pool of his own sweat, toilet paper stuck to his shoe, who knows? I love dancing! Don't get me wrong, that absolutely does not translate into me being a good dancer but I do enjoy it. I did get out and boogie to "Cotton Eye Joe" it's amazing I still remembered how! He was so sweet, he complimented a girl on her dress (it was the most hideous thing I'd ever seen) and you should have seen her face light up! And to another girl he complimented her dancing. I was starting to worry about having to fight the girls off!

Christmas itself was so fantastic. Claire was really fun this year. She got the hang of opening presents pretty quick, but she was much more interested in snacking on the cereal puffs from her stocking than playing with any of the toys. We could have saved a lot of money. ;) It was a crazy whirlwind day of our immediate families and our close friends. Did I mention we have the greatest family and friends ever!? Because they really are! Thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you that contributed to Levi's Christmas present, I haven't seen him in days. He works so hard for our family, I'm glad he has something to help him unwind at the end of the day, he deserves it. And also a gigantic thank you to the sender of a very special Christmas card, we wish we could thank you personally. You will never know how much of a blessing that was!

I've been having the worst Christmas hangover the last couple days. I guess just from all the junk food and sweets. And not to mention all the sleep that needs to be caught up on. I also get a little depressed when Christmas is over. I just love everything about it. I love making homemade gifts (this year it was gifts in a jar and 2 tutu's), shopping, baking (killer rice krispie treats, muddy buddies, sugar cookies and almond roca, YUM!), Christmas music, being surrounded by family and friends and of course the whole reason we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to me; I get my body back, Claire is done breastfeeding! So since Claire's birthday, I've been starting to wean her. Which she's not been too excited about since she loves boobie juice! I have loved every minute of breastfeeding her but I was just kind of ready to be done. At the beginning of November she was still nursing 5-6 times a day. About 2 weeks ago it was just before naps and bedtime. I last nursed her on Christmas Eve and she has been doing pretty well and thankfully I haven't had any major discomfort yet. But it's weird, now I kind of miss it since that was just about the only time she would actually cuddle with me. I think Levi's more sad about it than either Claire or myself, since that means she not really a baby anymore. The best advice I can give anybody that is trying to wean is to have daddy help with feeding. Levi would give her a bottle of whole milk before bed because if I tried she wasn't too happy and just wanted the good stuff. So a question for all you moms out there, how long did you (or are you planning on) nursing and how did weaning go for you?



Levi's favorite pic of Claire


Not the greatest family pic but the only one from Christmas time, oops.


Shh, don't tell Levi's g-ma, Claire's riding her reindeer.

We all had colds on Christmas :(

Already exhausted and Christmas day was just beginning

Claire looking under the beautiful rocking horse Uncle Hayden made her

4 Things...

I saw this on someone else's blog, so I stole it. :)


4 Shows I watch:

1. Biggest Looser

2. Glee

3. House

4. The Bachelor/Bachelorette (don't judge me) ;)



4 Things I am Passionate About:

1. Family

2. The Gospel

3. Friends

4. Crafting (if only I had more time!)



4 Phrases/Words I use a lot:

1. I love you

2. [Fill in the blank] is just too stinkin cute!

3. Shut up!? (as in "no way!" not "be quiet")

4. That's crazy!



4 Things I Have Learned From the Past:

1. To surround myself with happy/positive people.

2. It's all about your attitude.

3. Life is too short to hold grudges and be angry.

4. Don't lie, you'll get into a car accident and your parents will find out.



4 Places I Would Like To Go:

1. Visit Levi's mission - Tallahassee, Florida and parts of Alabama

2. NYC

3. Hawaii

4. Europe



4 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Visited a friend and her kids/daycare kids.

2. Finished 2 pinatas.

3. Bought a b-day present for my nephew and Claire's Christmas stocking at Target.

4. Watched the 1st half of Elf with Claire.



4 Things I Am Looking Forward To:

1. Moving back up to Washington County.

2. Having more babies (don't worry, I'm in no rush).

3. Being in a bigger house.

4. Once we have that bigger house in WA county, starting up a daycare.



4 Things I Love About Winter:

1. How beautiful everything looks with snow on it.

2. Drinking at least one hot chocolate or hot apple cider per day.

3. All the yummy foods, pumpkin pie, Christmas cookies, roasts, soups, etc

4. Not having to worry about sunblock



4 Things on My Wish List:

1. World peace.

2. For my family and friends to be healthy and safe.

3. To always be able to stay home with my children.

4. A cure for cancer.

Okay so those are kind of lofty but I honestly can't really think of anything material that I want. Have a great weekend everybody! Go Ducks!

I am Thankful for (in no particular order)...

-a warm house on these chilly days.
-being "mama" to the most adorable, sweet, adventurous, loving little girl.
-my husband, whom I would be absolutely lost without and who puts up with my craziness.
-my parents, they really coudn't get any better.
-a healthy family. -that we're able to put food on the table.
-my brothers, brother-in-laws, and sister-in-law, I'm so proud of them.
-my adorable nephews and nieces, I love them to pieces.
-our ward. They have been so good to us and we've made such great friends there.
-modern technology. I could not survive without an oven, washer/dryer, running water, electricity, computers, internet, etc.
-for a big, wonderful extended family on mine as well as Levi's side.
-that I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
-our cars and that we don't have to take public transportation or walk.
-ice cream, chocolate, cheesecake, cupcakes, brownies, cookies. They keep me going on bad days.
-in-laws that absolutely adore Claire.
-friends that I know I can count on no matter what.
-chapstick and gum. I may be addicted.
-hot chocolate and apple cider. Mmmm!
-fuzzy socks and slippers for my always cold feet.
-doctors and pharmacists.
-Claire's naptime aka my break time.
-kisses. Any variety, Claire's, Levi's, chocolate.
-hot showers.
-this beautiful state that I live in and love.
-reading a good book.
-Netflix.
-that we live in such a fantastic country.
-makeup and you all should be grateful that I wear it too. ;)
-TV.
-a dog that likes to snuggle.
-the weekends.
-Facebook and Blogger.
-Christmas music, you can't be in a bad mood while listening to it.
-quesadillas and pizza.
-that we are able to record totally cute things like Claire saying "huppy" instead of "puppy".



Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Claire's B-day Party

So what you are about to read is way overboard and totally more for Levi and myself making it through the first year than for our sweet baby who would never had known nor remembered if we had toned it down a little but we're just not those kind of people. And sorry for this being so late, life has been a little crazy.

Claire's birthday party was a butterfly theme (big thank you to Auntie for loaning us all the wonderful decorations!). We provided some super yummy food with the help of some fabulous friends and family. It was at my grandparents clubhouse as our house could never have held enough people comfortably (oh wait I forgot about her blessing.)

Thank you to all of her wonderful family and friends for all the love and support that you have shown her over the last year. She is so blessed to have so many people that truly love her.

She wore her tutu for the whole party except for the cake part of course. We put her on a tablecloth, in her diaper with her cake and she thought it was so great. She was grinning from ear to ear. She wasn't too interested in eating the cake but sticking her foot in it was quite fun!

She loves having tons of new toys and I love having new clothes for her! I washed all of the new clothes over the past week and, my oh my, does she look absolutely adorable in them! Thanks for all the presents, you guys are the best!


Claire's meltdown after seeing her toy kitty (it meows and walks)


The Birthday Girl


Her shocked face when we were singing to her


This is so tasty, I think I'll stick my foot in it


Can we do this every year mom & dad?

Claire had her 1 year appointment last week and the doctor said she's just perfect! She is 31.5 inches tall (98%) and 21 lbs 10 oz (50%). $25, 4 shots and a finger prick later, we were out of there!

Dear Claire

I love you so much baby! You are the light of our lives. It is really hard to remember what life was like before you were here, it must have been boring. You definitely keep us on our toes. We constantly underestimate what you are capable of doing; maybe because I still think of you as my sweet, little, not-so-mobile baby but things have changed and FAST (not the sweet part though)! Last week you somehow got out of the bathtub, unplugged the lamp, and just today you figured out how to use your Grandma and Grandpa Heintz's water cooler and I caught with your mouth under the nozzle and trying to turn it on.

You love anything and everything that you're not supposed to have. You have a real knack for finding pens, keys, and paper. When I find you with something you're not supposed to have you'll usually get a big smile on your face, throw the item down and start crawling away at hyperspeed, it's hilarious. You are so strong-willed that if you've been trying really hard to get something and I take it away, you throw a gigantic fit. You try to be independent but you don't quite have the abilities to do so yet, so you get a little flustered when you can't do something.

You've been giving kisses for the last couple weeks and they have got to be the sweetest little kisses in the entire universe. Your Daddy and me can't get enough off them, thankfully you give them out willingly. They're usually open-mouthed and a little slobbery but I love them even more than Daddy's kisses (shh, don't tell him!). You've also been giving loves (aka hugs) quite a bit. I love it so much when you get upset and come to me for some loves and kisses and then go back to whatever you were doing, that melts my heart. One of my favorite things that you do is tilt you're head to the side till it's laying on your high chair tray (or wherever you happen to be) and you get this super cute little smile on your face.

You took your first steps over 2 months ago but it's taken you till just this week to be mostly walking. You are so much faster at crawling that I think you didn't care to try very much with the walking. You do this super cute crawl when you have a dress on. We call it the bear crawl; your arms and legs are straight so your bum is in the air so that way you're not getting all caught up in your dress like you would if you were crawling normal.

You are so smart! We'll show you how to do something like flip the light on and you pick up on it right away. You babble constantly; we're really going to be in for it when you start talking! You say "dada" quite a bit, "mama" every once in a while and "uh-oh" when you drop something (sometimes intentionally). You also say "peeka, peeka, peeka". At first I thought maybe that was the beginning to "peek-a-boo" but the more I hear it (coupled with the fact that it's always in three's) I think it's actually "tickle, tickle, tickle". Only time will tell. You've also gotten very good a giving high-fives although instead of just slapping our hands once you keep slapping them till we pull our hands away.

You love our dog Roxcy. You tackle her and pull on her ears or tail or grab a handful of skin. She adores you too and would never think about biting you. Sometimes you'll just start laughing hysterically and we'll look and you'll be laughing at puppy. She gets concerned when you cry and sometimes freaked out when you get a little too excited and start screaming or making loud noises.

Everyday when Daddy gets home you'll either hear him unlocking the door or puppy barking and wherever you are in the house and whatever kind of mood you're in, you will go to where you can see the door. You have the biggest smile on your face even before he opens it and most of the time you'll let out a squeal/shriek when you finally see him. I love seeing you get so excited to see your Daddy. He is such an amazing Daddy and he loves you so so so much. Even after you go to bed you're usually the only thing we talk about. Daddy always begs me to wake you up because he misses you but we both know you probably wouldn't be very happy if we did. He actually wrote you a hand-written letter so I'll try to make sure it doesn't get lost.

What an amazing first year it's been! We have shared too many tears, smiles, and giggles to count. I have very mixed feelings about you growing up. I want you to stay 1 forever but I know that we have a lot of fun things to come. I thank Heavenly Father everyday that you were sent to us, we are so lucky to be your parents. You are such a fun, energetic, intelligent, sweet, and absolutely beautiful little girl. I can't wait to see what this next year brings. I love you so much Claire Bear!

Love Always,
Your Mama

Claire's Birth Story

I was just thinking the other day that I had not yet typed out our birth story, my husband (you can read his here) had, but our views are very, very different. I figured her first birthday would be a good day to posty this. I still can't believe it's been a year! I will try to be as least graphic as possible because I know some people get squeamish about these things but labor and delivery are messy, so here goes.

When I had very first gotten pregnant I remember being really nervous and almost in dread of two things. The first was that my water would break in a public place and the second was the big D Day. I remember telling a coworker that I wanted as many drugs as they could pump into me because I didn’t want to feel any pain. Then about halfway through my pregnancy I had to switch doctors because my regular gyno who I had seen up to that point no longer was delivering babies, so she gave me a couple referrals. There were a couple doctors and a group of midwives. I was thinking what most people think about midwives which are that they are only for home births or water births and I did not want to do either of those. So I talked to some friends and found out that certified nurse midwives have just as much schooling and in a lot of cases more experience, than OB’s. So I did a little research online and I watched “The Business of Being Born” (which I highly recommend to any and all pregnant women) and so I set my first appointment with the midwives. I say midwives because there was a team of about 4 or 5 of them and every appointment you got to meet a new one that way you were comfortable with whomever you delivered with. I loved them; they were so supportive, knowledgeable and patient with my endless lists of questions. As my pregnancy went on I leaned more and more toward going the natural route. Everybody said I couldn’t do it or would laugh or snicker when I said I didn’t want any drugs. I could hear their thoughts “This naïve little girl has no idea what it feels like! She’ll be begging for meds in no time!”But I was determined. I read the Hypnobabies book; I did not do the program however. This book is great; it starts off with a history of labor and delivery and how women that didn’t know it was supposed to hurt just popped their baby’s right out. It also gives a great pep talk about how God made our bodies to do this; again I would recommend this to woman regardless of whether or not you are planning on going all natural. I decided to not get an epidural because I did not want to labor lying down, nor did I want a catheter. I would have gone crazy having to just lay there. I am also not a fan of needles and so the thought of one going into my back terrified me way more than dealing with the pain of not having one. Ok on to the good stuff.

My original due date was November 1, 2009. For some reason when I started seeing the midwives my due date got switched to the 4th and I never did find out why. I was still working and every day I came in that week my coworkers would make jokes about how they’re losing money on me because they had taken bets on which day I would go into labor. On November 5th I went to work just like normal and felt completely fine. At about 10:30 AM I started to feel a little weird but I just kept on working. Levi and me had plans to go out to the Glockenspiel in Mt Angel for dinner and he called about 11:30 AM to say that we should go to lunch (I had been working 8 hrs but this week I decided to take it a little easier and get off at 1) instead since it was cheaper. I told him we probably wouldn’t be doing either so not to worry about it. I had gone to the bathroom a couple times that morning and thought that maybe my water had broken and then by 12:30 I decided I should head home but not before stopping and depositing my check of course. ;) I called Levi and let him know that I was leaving work and that he should to since he’s a half hour away. He stopped on the way home to help a lady from work move her couch (really Levi, really!?) and got home around 1:30. I was trying really hard to time my contractions but I couldn’t figure it out or maybe they were just all over the place. We decided that now would be a good time to pack and then Levi called into the midwives to see whether they thought we should go in or not. They said it would be a good idea since I thought my water had broken and it was probably not so we would most likely just be going right home.

We left for the Salem Hospital at about 3 pm just dreading it since we thought they would send us home. By 3:30 I was laying on a bed in a maternity triage room. The nurse hooked me up to the monitors and a little later swabbed to see if my water had broken. We had to listen to this lady complain about how she was really mad that she was going into early labor while they were supposed to be hunting. And the guy kept farting, seriously! We hadn’t seen the nurse in a very long time and my contractions were getting pretty intense. I started crying because I was so frustrated about listening to the dumb lady and her tooty husband, being on a horribly uncomfortable bed and not having anyone check on us in a long time. Finally the nurse comes back, says my water didn’t break, and that the babies heart rate looks great. She decided to check my cervix before throwing us out and to everyone’s surprise I was already 5-6 cm dilated. I was sooooo ecstatic that I wasn’t going to be leaving without a sweet baby girl in my arms! At about 5 pm we were transferred to a birthing room.

I was so happy, I couldn’t stop smiling. I was just a couple hours away from meeting my baby! Levi had left all of our stuff in the car so he had to run down to grab the camera and something to eat while he had a chance. They opened up an IV site just in case there were any emergencies but I was not hooked up to anything. They allowed me to drink some broth and eat jello, I didn’t care anything was fine, I was so hungry but yet I would not have been able to eat anything substantial. I right away got in the Jacuzzi tub and immediately felt so much better. It wasn’t until that moment that I understood why women give birth in water, it felt so good. I felt so light and the contractions weren’t as uncomfortable. I remember Levi making some comment about floaties in the water; that guy can make me laugh even during labor! So at 7:45 pm Lenny (the only midwife I hadn’t met, go figure!) walks in to check on me and says I’m 8 cm and 0 station and to just keep doing whatever I was doing because it was working great. She said all the nurses just couldn’t believe how fast I was coming along for a first-time pregnancy and how happy I was. I bounced on an exercise ball for a while and then decided to get back in the tub as my contractions were getting more painful. Every hour or so they would have to hook me up to the monitors just to make sure both of our heart rates were good. I’m going to have to have a talk with the mister before our next baby because he would watch the monitor (it shows the waves of contractions) and say things like “Oh geez, this is a super bad one!”or “Oh that one must have hurt bad!”




We had originally decided that it would just be Levi and me when the baby was born but Levi texted everyone earlier in the evening. My mom (the others had to wait in the lobby) arrived at some point and I was glad she was there; I needed all the encouragement I could get. Although I did have to ask her to spit out her cinnamon gum because it was making me super nauseous. At 9:10 pm Lenny came back in to check on me and I was 9 cm and still smiling. My water hadn’t broken yet so we decided that she should go ahead and pop it. Wow, that was a weird feeling! I will never mistake my water breaking again. By 9:35 pm I was full dilated and at 9:40 I started pushing. This is where my smile faded and I was just ready to get this baby out of me. They kept saying that they could see a head covered in lots of dark hair and that it would go back in a little bit in between pushing. I remember that that irritated me. It was hard at first to get the whole pushing thing down but I finally got into the rhythm. I remember thinking right when the next contraction was starting that I needed just a couple more minutes and maybe if I didn’t tell everyone that I was starting a contraction that I could just skip pushing this time. But then I would remember that they all knew when my contractions were since I was hooked up to the monitors. I kept expecting to feel “the ring of fire” but I never did. I did feel a lot of pressure and pain with the contractions though.

Claire Elizabeth Fergus was born at 10:27 pm. They threw this little purple, gooey, slimy creature on my chest and I immediately fell in love. I had never laid eyes on someone so beautiful. She had a full head of dark hair and the most beautiful skin. She weighed in at 8 lbs 8.5 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She received a 9 on the apgar scale and couldn’t have been any healthier. As soon as she popped out, my smile was back and I couldn’t stop smiling even if I had tried. I don’t even remember delivering the placenta. I had torn pretty badly and it took about 30-45 minutes to get all sewn up. I kept expecting it to hurt but I didn’t feel anything down there (endorphins are awesome painkillers!); I guess I was a little too preoccupied. The next day and a half in the hospital was a blur of visitors, good food, and checkups. I can honestly say that next to my wedding day this was the best day of my life.

I guess I wasn’t prepared for the aftermath of a baby. Everyone said you would bleed but I had no idea how much it would be. That part of the whole experience shocked me the most and how sore I was down there for weeks, I had no idea it would be that bad. I would go through 5 more natural births if it meant not having to deal with the aftermath.

I was so glad that I chose to not have painkillers. It was so nice to be able to just get up and walk to the bathroom afterwards, feel coherent and awake and be able to just soak all of these wonderful feelings in. I can understand why women do homebirths but I am just too paranoid of something going wrong. I know that the odds are pretty low if you are low risk but I am a huge worry wart and I’m sure I would just not be able to relax at home. I’m sure a majority of women that have babies in the hospital do have either epidurals or pain killers so it was kind of weird, the nurses treated me like a bit of a novelty. I only felt pressured once but after making my wishes known (hello, did you not see my birth plan!?) nobody questioned me again. I don’t want to have my babies any other way!

Halloween Happenings

We had soooo much fun with Claire this Halloween!

We started out our Halloween festivities last week with some good old pumpkin carving. Neither of us had done it in several years. Claire really just wanted to eat all the seeds. We found seeds all over the house for a day or 2, they must have been stuck to her. She would pull the guts out and then put them back in, it was so darn cute. Maybe next year she'll get it. And yes, Levi's pumpkin is throwing up!



Last week we went to Bauman Farms and had a blast. There was however an "incident", a gaggle of geese (there were only 3 I just love that phrase:) ganged up on a poor little goat! They actually took him to the ground! Claire was standing right in front of the goat pen when this happened so needless to say she was way freaked out and lucky us, we caught the whole thing on video. Blogger for some reason won't let me upload videos so you'll have to check out either mine or Levi's facebook video, it's pretty funny and a little sad. But before that she was having fun petting/feeding the animals and walking around (still holding onto our hand). After the goat attack we put her on the swings and she loved that! She was smiling and dancing, in her puffy winter coat, it was so precious. That's also on our Facebook pages. She loved riding on Daddy's shoulders when we were walking around. She holds on to his ears (or sometimes sticks her fingers in his ears) like handles and after a while his ears hurt too bad so she has to come down. We all had a fantastic time!




Friday night we had a babysitter (the very first non-family member) come and watch Claire while we went to a Halloween party. We had so much fun and weren't nearly freaked out as we thought we would be leaving Claire. And did I mention the food was awesome!

Then Saturday was Levi's aunt's massively awesome Halloween party. Claire went as a kitty and we were her vets. She was really good about keeping her costume on and not fidgeting with it. Auntie asked us to come up with a game to play and so we decided to do Halloween charades and it ended up being super fun, we'll definitely have to play again next year!



Sunday we dressed Claire up in her costume for a couple pictures and for passing out candy. We decided not to take her out trick-or-treating because she wouldn't be able to eat the candy and we definitely don't need to eat any. But next year for sure!



And now comes the part I hate, taking it all down. Maybe I could pay someone....

An Ultimate Poop Story of Our Very Own!

If you easily gag/throw up please do not read this posting. I warned you! Now first off if you have not heard the Burk's (friends in our ward) ultimate poop story you need to ask Jason, it's the most hilarious thing ever! Thankfully ours is no where near that bad! It all started Wednesday morning. I had put Claire down for her nap right about 10. She's been really fighting the morning nap this last week so she was pretty upset. I went and whipped up a cheesecake, tossed it in the oven, and took a shower. After about 45 minutes she was still crying pretty hard so I decided it was probably time to go grab her. I opened the door and the worst smell I have ever laid my nose on hit me like a ton of bricks. And then I saw it. Picture a gory horror movie but exchange the blood for poop and that's what it looked like. Claire had reached through the slats of her crib, pulled her garbage can closer and then grabbed her fresh poopy diaper, unwrapped it out of a little plastic bag, opened it up and went to town. There was poo in her hair, on her face & hands, all over her clothes, her crib, sheet, blankie, stuffed puppy, dirty clothes basket and little chunks had fallen all over the floor. She had even ripped her socks off so the poo had squished between her toes. YUCK YUCK YUCK!!!!!!!!! What's worse is that she loves grapes and for those of you that don't have kids yet, I'll just warn you now-the skins stay together. And even worse than that, she was so stinkin proud of herself. She was smiling from ear to ear and laughing! After I grabbed my jaw off the floor and decided that burning the house down probably wasn't the best idea, my brain started racing a million miles a minute trying to figure out how to clean this up and not have Claire cause any secondary damage. So I grabbed her and undressed her and keeping her as far away as I could, I carried her to the bath. While dressing her I called Levi and asked him to come home and help me and he said "Ummm yeah actually I'm super busy at work but good luck!" Thanks a lot hun! ;) After dressing her I put her down in the living room with some toys, closed her bedroom door and went to work. I used yellow dishwashing gloves (and yes I threw those things in the garbage the second I was done!) and disinfecting wipes. It was so nasty! It took me a good half hour (and who knows how many wipes) but I got it all and thankfully all the stains came out of her clothes. I opened the window and sprayed air freshener but I could still smell it all night! Levi said he couldn't smell it so apparently I just had poo particles stuck in my nose. Ick! Sorry you all had to hear about that, but hey, aren't you glad I didn't take a picture!?

In other, less-disgusting news... I surprised Levi with a little trip on the Mt Hood Railroad for his b-day. He loved it! We boarded the train at 10, stopped for lunch in a little cute town called Parkdale and then got back to Hood River just after 2. It was a beautiful day. Claire was pretty good but got a little crabby toward the end. Luckily I got her to sleep a little after lunch. Levi took some amazing pics. On our way home we stopped at the Vista House, it's just past Troutdale. It had the most amazing view I have ever seen of the gorge. You have to stop next time you're driving by!

Pea Popper

Claire has been doing all sorts of funny stuff lately. The other day I turn around to find she had poked all of her peas and made the guts pop out. Another favorite activity is tackling the puppy. She laughs hysterically the whole time and our poor pup looks miserable. It's pretty much the funniest thing ever though! She also loves to sit on the pergo with her legs stretched out in front of her and spin in a circle. Sometimes she just keeps going and going. She'll almost always wave when she hears "bye bye" and clap when she hears "yay". She stills "mmmmm"s the whole time she's eating, it drives Levi nuts but for me it's right up there with her sweet little giggles. She's says "yeah" all the time. Most kids learn "no" first so we're liking that she's so agreeable. She took her first steps over 3 weeks ago but so far hasn't really taken off walking. Once she figures out that walking is faster then crawling I'm sure she'll be all over it.

A week and a half ago we went up to Eastern Washington. We visited a guy that Levi served on his mission with and his wife. They are two of the nicest people I've ever met. They live out in the boonies on a gigantic farm. Levi got to drive around on a swather all afternoon while Claire and I went and picked apples and tomatoes, fed carrots to the horses and just enjoyed being outside in this beautiful place. Claire loved it, I think she was meant to be a country baby. Levi loved it too and everyday since has been begging to move there. I have a hard enough time being away from our families and friends, I don't know what I would do with myself being over 5 hours away.

That weekend was our first hotel stay with Claire. We ended up getting upgraded to a suite because our reservation got messed up and I am so glad we did. We would have been majorly squished in a regular room. We put Claire's pack n' play in the bathroom (yes it was that gigantic) a little white trash I know but it worked out so great. If she sees us she thinks that it's time to play, plus the bathroom fan drowned out Levi's freight-train-like snoring and my talking in my sleep so she could actually sleep. They had a pool, HALLELUJAH! I love swimming, Levi not so much. So I'm always begging to go swimming because I hate swimming by myself but he'll never go. This was Claire's first real swimming experience because the tub or kiddie pool, even if very full, doesn't count. She loved swimming, HALLELUJAH x 10! I can make her go with me when she gets a little older. She was smiling and giggling the whole time except for when she got a faceful of water.

Last weekend was another blur. Friday night we went up north for my Dad's birthday, we had a great time with my fam. Then we went and stayed the night at Dan & Lacey's. Saturday I was helping Lacey with a bridal shower, Claire was at my parents house (just in the AM while we were getting ready for it, it's impossible to get anything done with that girl around!) and Levi was at the non-scandalous bachelor party (just because I know what you all are thinking ;). I love seeing that group of friends, we don't get to spend too much time with them since we're so far away but we always have such a great time. We had planned on going home that night since I had to teach on Sunday but he didn't end up getting back till like 10 so we just spent the night again and headed home early Sunday.

I tried to blog earlier in the week but I have too many of my favorite shows that are back on now. Monday-House, Tuesday-Biggest Loser and Glee, Wednesday-America's Next Top Model and The Middle. And sadly we no longer have our DVR so I actually have to watch them when they're on or later on the computer.

Blogger is having technical difficulties with adding photos so I was only able to upload 2. :(

Shingles aren't just on the roof anymore...

Levi has been sleeping for just about the last 24 hours straight so I thought now (while he's not hogging the computer) would be a good time to update the blog. He went to the Urgent Care yesterday morning (conveniently missing church, maybe he made it up) and his fears were confirmed, he has shingles again! He first got them 7 or 8 years ago when he was on his mission. It's weird because it's one of those things that you usually don't get till you're in your oldy moldy years. It started out as an itchy rash a couple days agao and then yesterday they became painful and it started to spread. The shingles rash spreads in a straight line so it started in the middle of his back and now it is wrapped around his side to the middle of his stomach. So he's on an anti-viral and some heavy pain-killers and both of which make him very drowsy and a little incoherent even when he is awake. So once you have them you are more likely to get them again and they are contagious but only if someone comes in direct contact with the rash. When he got them the first time (he was on his mission at the time) he was bed-ridden for a month so let's pray that it doesn't take quite that long to recover this time!

I took Claire to her first state fair today with her uncle Hayden. We had a blast but wished Levi could have been there with us. I thought she would love looking at the animals because she just lights up when she sees dogs but she could have cared less about the goats, pigs, cows, baby chicks, bunnies, roosters, horses and llamas. She even got to touch the llama but didn't even react. Luckily Levi didn't miss too much. She did like walking around and looking at all the booths, she had a smile on almost the whole time, except for the animals. Silly girl!

2 weeks ago I spent my first night away from Claire. We had our YW superactivity so 3 other leaders and myself took the girls to the beach. We had a blast! Those girls crack me up, I think I was laughing the whole time. We played on the beach, shopped at the Outlets, played games and just got to know one another better. Claire stayed home with her Daddy because I figured at 9 months it was time for a little break. As nice as it was to sleep in till 8:30, I missed her pretty bad but she was in great hands. She did great with Levi and I'm glad that he was able to spend some Daddy/Daughter time with her. I had pumped over the last month or 2, enough for a little over 24 hours and boy did I misjudge how much she eats. She only ate about half of what I had pumped, about 17 ounces. Then of course I had to pump while I was away from her so our freezer has quite a bit stocked up now.

The week before last Claire took her first steps! Levi and me were sitting facing each other and trying to get her to walk without us holding on to her and she did it, it was only 2 steps but it still counts!But the weird thing is that as much as we've been encouraging her to do more she hasn't. She must just realize that she's much faster at crawling and not even bother. She has this cute little car thing that she can walk with and she loves walking will holding on to that so hopefully it won't be too much longer that the knees of her clothes are filthy! Claire had another less important first 2 weeks ago; pooping on the bathroom counter! She had had a major poopy diaper in the AM and while I was changing her she peed. I was holding on to her standing on the counter while we were waiting for Levi to get in the shower so he could give her a quick wash down and a little sludge dribbled down her leg. I almost died! For being so cute, babies sure can be super disgusting!

Update on my little brother in the Marines: He's doing great! He says it's hard and crazy there but he's going back to church. We couldn't be happier since it's been probably 6-7 years since he's gone to church. He said in his most recent letter to my mom that that is all he has to look forward to all week. I never would have guessed that it would have taken going into the marines for Eric to start going back to church. I'm so glad that he'll be back in time for Claire's first b-day party!

Update on my brother and SIL: They aren't moving, I'm so happy! The work down there ended up being very sporadic and they didn't want to go through all the hassle of moving just to have it all not work out.

I've been watching another baby for a little over 2 months now. I watch her every weekday afternoon so not quite 20 hrs a week. We'll call her K. She just turned 6 months so it's a small taste of what twins are like. It was a little rough at the beginning but now it's gotten to be so much better. I think she's finally feeling comfortable with Claire and me and she started eating better which is great. She started out not taking a bottle but she has gotten to the point now that she'll take a little and then I'll mix the rest into rice cereal and applesauce and she usually gobbles it right up. I think it will be even more great once K is mobile and then her and Claire will be able to play and entertain each other. I love the days when I can get them both down for a nap and then take a little bitty recharging break. I would love to watch one or two more kids that are 2 or older so please if you know of anyone, give them my name and number!

Me canning for the first time. Mmmm pears!
Claire & me at the State Fair
She started screaming, I wasn't feeding her fast enough!

Hanging out w/ Uncle Hayden

I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so

We picked up our exchange Miki on July 24th and she was with us till August 6th. We had so much fun with her. She was a super sweet girl and her English was very good for only studying it 3 years. I studied Spanish 5 years and mine wasn't even comparable to Miki's English. The one downside to having Miki come stay with us was that we had to have Claire in our room and move our spare bed in from the garage and clear out Claire's dresser. So it was a lot of work but such a wonderful experience. M-F she was in school from 9-5 and everyday I tried to fix a nice breakfast and dinner so she could experience as much American food as possible in such a short time. Every evening after dinner we had something going on; we went to both Salem malls, mini golf, Walmart, Dollar Tree, Silver Falls, Mollala Rodeo. And then we would come home and have dessert and play board games or watch TV. It was an exhausting 2 weeks! We also took her "camping" (we stayed in a guest house of our friend's aunt and uncle's) and she experienced her very 1st (and 2nd) smore, she loved them. We thought it was really funny that she didn't put any topping on her pancakes or french toast, no wonder Japanese people are so skinny. It was also super interesting to learn about her culture. Here are some of the things we learned; only the driver and front-seat passenger have to wear seatbelts, they go to school for 6 hours Monday-Friday and a half day on Saturday, they only get 6 weeks for summer break and even then have a couple hours of home work a day, they don't say anything when people sneeze, they dress very modestly-no tanktops, leggings under short shorts, etc, and they seem to be extremely environmentally conscious, they bike/walk or take the buss/train most of the time. Oh and her Mom goes to the store every single day, oh my gosh, Can you imgaine!? I hate the store and try to go a max of twice a week! But she bikes there so I'm guessing it would be super hard to buy very much food. At 20 you are considered an adult and that is when you can smoke, drink, drive a car, and they have this big party just for the 20 year olds in January at an amusement park, I'm jealous. We already miss her so much and wish that we could have kept her! She has a great sense of humor so she fit in quite nicely with us.

Claire had her 9 month appointment last Friday. She is 29.25 inches tall (95th percentile) and weighed 19 lbs 3 oz (58th percentile). I remember at her first couple appointments I was so worried I was going to have an oompa loompa baby since she was 90th percentiles for both but thankfully she has thinned out so much. The Doctor said she looks great and is doing very well developmentally, yay! Claire also learned how to wave bye-bye and clap and they're pretty much the cutest things I've ever seen. She especially loves doing them for complete strangers like at the Sayonara party the last night Miki was with us. We took Claire (she's wearing a Jimbay-probably didn't spell that right but it's the baby equivalent of a kimono) and the whole 2 hours she was waving at the crowd and clapping. She was totally showing off. We were dying laughing, it was so stinkin cute! I so wish we would have had our video camera!

Oh a much more depressing note Eric (my younger brother) left for the Marines on Sunday. He is going to bootcamp in San Diego, CA for 3 months and then he'll be home for 2 weeks and then he goes to infantry training for 1 month at a TBD location. After that he begins schooling for the diesel mechanic program. It was really hard saying goodbye. On the one hand we'll get to see him every once in a while and he can talk and email but on the other it is for 4 years! That's such a long time! Claire will be almost 5 by the time he's done. I think it will be good for him though. He is extremely intelligent but he is just not much for regular school so this will provide an excellent alternative and he'll be able to have a great career once he's done. I just hope this experience doesn't harden him. I'm so proud of him for serving our country!

Eric with all of his neices and nephews

Claire's 1st 4-wheeler ride-she loved it!
Last night together at the Sayonara party
Her smile takes over her whole adorable face, I can't get enough of it!

Happy Birthday to Me & Our Country!

Wow this is definitely the longest I’ve gone without updating the blog. I feel like I have to choose between playing on the computer, cleaning, or vegging in front of the TV and sadly for all of you I usually choose the TV. Levi and me love 24 so we started watching the series from the beginning. Each episode is about 45 minutes, there are 24 episodes in a season and 8 seasons, which is roughly 8,640 minutes of awesomeness. We are trying to watch them less often but they are so amazing and always leave you on a cliff hanger, it makes it really hard to stop.

Claire is still our busy little bee. She’s getting around soooo fast now! She loves just going. Her favorite destinations are the bathroom, her garbage of icky diapers and the dog’s food and water. She has had so many falls, bumps, bruises, and scratches already, I’m getting worried that CPS will be called on us! She loves all things girlie-shoes, necklaces, earrings, hair. I think that the hair pulling is the worst but I’ve also had a couple close calls with my earrings almost getting ripped out. I should just stop wearing them but I absolutely love earrings so I guess I’ll just take my chances. She is talking up a storm. She says “mama” and “dada”, we’re still not quite sure yet if she knows what they mean. Sometimes she’ll be looking at them when she says them and other times she’ll just be on an endless loop for no particular reason.

Claire’s eating habits have drastically improved. She loves all fruits so far but she’s not super excited about veggies or meat but I can usually get her to eat a pretty decent amount. Her favorites are probably, avocados (she’ll eat a half!), banana yogurt, bananas, baby puff cereal, bell peppers (soft cooked of course) and yams. It is really fun feeding her now because she will actually open her mouth for the spoon and with any finger type foods she’ll feed herself, which she loves.
I am now in Young Womens (translation from Mormon speak: I now get to work with the girls 12-17)! I am so excited! We’ve already had some super fun activities and we have an awesome group of girls. I look forward to a lot more fun to come.

It was my birthday the Sunday before last. I turned 24, gosh I’m old. It’s funny how birthdays aren’t quite as exciting now as they were when I was a kid. I looked forward to them all year and then for months I would plan a great big sleepover and they were always such a blast. But I had a good time this year. The Friday before we went to the Spirit Mountain buffet with Levi’s grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousins and oh my goodness, I am salivating just thinking about it. They have any kind of food you can even imagine. Levi’s Grandma said that it’s the biggest in Oregon. There’s seafood, Mexican, sushi, Chinese, soups, salads, a great big yummy dessert bar and everything in between. Saturday we went to Katie’s (my sister-in-law Jaycine’s sister) wedding and had a blast. She was a beautiful bride and it was just such a wonderful day! And then Sunday my parents came down and spent the day with us. Levi made an awesome breakfast of Gingerbread waffles, they were killer! And then my Dad helped Levi finish our deck. That was the best birthday present, I’m so glad it’s finished! Levi and Claire gave me a patio swing to go on the new deck, he is so thoughtful.

We just had the world’s busiest weekend. Friday night we stayed the night at Dan & Lacey’s and then got up super early for the Hillsboro parade. Claire loved it. She was so interested in it and was watching all the floats and people passing by us. She got pretty sleepy and fell asleep sitting up in my lap. I laid her down in her stroller and she stayed asleep for probably 45 minutes. I couldn’t believe it, there were marching bands, screaming, trucks honking their horns. My mom and nephews were in the parade with my mom’s friend who works for Aloha Garbage and that was really fun seeing them. Afterwards we had a barbeque at Dan’s parent’s house and had a great time there as well.

Sunday was the annual Long Family Reunion and the name pretty well says it all. We got there at about 9 and left at nearly 6. But we had a great time! We got there early to help decorate and then Levi was in charge of the horseshoe tournament. He was so cute with it; he made certificates and painted horseshoes gold for the winners. And of course he made an excel program for the tournament and it would calculate the winner; I don’t think I’ve ever talked about the Bingo game he made for excel. It’s pretty sweet but that’ll have to be another time, I’m too tired. There was such good food, I seriously could not stop eating. Last year I was pregnant so I could eat a little more, this year I was nursing so I could eat a little more, crap what am I going to do next year!?!? I guess my choices are keep nursing an almost 2 year old or get pregnant, lol just kidding! I love Levi’s gigantic extended family, they are so fantastic. It’s like the Mormon version of the family on My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Claire was in a pretty good mood most of the day but she was having a hard time taking her naps. I think she’s too worried she might miss something. We were so exhausted by the end of the day that we didn’t hang around for fireworks and we just sat around lazily the rest of the night at home. We figured Claire wouldn’t care much about fireworks this year anyway.

Enjoy some pics!

Rocking, Rolling. Crawling, Standing!?

Yes that's right Claire has been doing all sorts of crazy stunts these last couple of weeks. She can do a couple crawls in a row (lucky for us she hasn't really taken off yet) and then we were shocked Friday morning when she was standing up in her crib crying for us. Friday night was so hard to get her to go to sleep because she just wanted to keep practicing her new found skill. She'll pull herself up and then just get the biggest smiles on her face like "Look what I just did!" We're really trying to get our house baby-proofed because even without full-blown crawling she manages to roll, army crawl, scoot and lunge wherever she needs to go. She also can go very easily from crawling position to sitting and back again. It is just amazing watching her try so hard to make her body do what she wants it to. We knew from when she was in my belly that she would be a feisty one and she is definitely proving us right!

Claire is still not super interested in food but she is doing a little better. We give her either oatmeal or rice cereal and a fruit puree in the morning and then a veggie and meat puree for dinner.

I also had to give Claire her first hair trim the other day. She had these super long scraggly bangs and then a super long hair over one of her ears. So I dampened her hair, strapped her into her highchair and did my best. Her bangs are a little boxy now but at least they're better then they were. Next time I will have to try to taper it a little more. It is so hard to cut a moving target!

So to catch up; we had a blast Memorial day weekend. Levi had a 4 day weekend so Friday we just bummed around the house and I was able to run some errands without Claire which was nice because I was able to get so much more done but the whole time I felt like I was missing something. Saturday was a super busy but fun day! First we headed out to Vernonia for Levi's extended family get together. The weather was a little cruddy so we didn't do much but it was really nice to see everyone. Then Claire & me went to my parents house for a good friend's (my sister-in-law's sister but we call ourselves sister-in-law-laws) bridal shower. The weather was really nice from then on, thank goodness. After that Levi's Dad brought Levi back for Zenna's (our neice) 2nd birthday party. I really can't believe she's 2, where has the time gone!? My Mom made matching party dresses for Claire and Zenna, they are too adorable! I made her a pinata and it was so fun watching the kids go to town on it. Zenna especially loved hitting it with the tennis racket since the bat was a little too heavy for her. A couple times the pinata swung back and hit her and knocked her over, we couldn't help giggling. The burger picture is the burger that Colin ate; 2 patties, egg, cheese with a side of heart attack. Then after that we visited Levi's family because Janet had just had surgery. We are so glad that it went well and that she's feeling better now. Levi and Hayden were being really mean and trying to make Janet laugh, which hurt really bad. We ended up not getting home till midnight, it was the world's longest day.

That Sunday I wasn't feeling good so Levi took Claire to church all by himself, I was so proud. I guess all she wanted to do was blow raspberries on the pew in front of them. Then Monday some friends from church invited us over for a BBQ. It was so nice to be home a couple days and get to relax, that doesn't happen very often!

Then this last Saturday we went up to our friend's Dan & Lacey and Levi helped them with installing some sod. They seemed to have a blast while they were working. And Dan & Lacey made some amazing food for us! I volunteer Levi's services anytime for good food! ;) Just kidding honey.

Then yesterday my parents, Jay and the kids came down. They are such a hoot. Rayden is Mr. Competitive when it comes to anything, Kolten is a little clown and Zenna is a wonderful mother to her little baby doll that she takes everywhere with her. She was giving her a bath and tossing her up in the air just like her Daddy does. I don't think I've talked about it yet on here but my brother and SIL are moving to Colorado. Colin is actually already down there, he left last week. He was offered a really great job that he just couldn't pass up. Jay has to have baby #4 here so her and the kids won't be leaving till the beginning of August. We are so sad! Jay is Claire's only aunt and the kids are her only cousins and it'll probably be a while before Eric or Levi's brothers have any. They are hoping they will only be gone a couple years, I sure hope so too! I'm seriously considering kidnapping them and not letting them go!

Well I better go get something productive done while Claire is napping.

Mother's Day & a Blue Otter Pop

Well our little Claire-bear hit the 6 month mark last week. It is hard to believe how quickly time has gone by and how much our little bundle of joy has grown. I took her to her 6 month appt last Thursday. She was 27 inches long (89th percentile), 16 lbs 15 oz (69th percentile) and head circumference 43 cm (64th percentile). She has thinned out so much! I guess we can cancel her Weight Watchers membership ;). She had 3 shots and one oral vaccine. The doctor said all looked well and that she is just as healthy as can be.

I had an excellent first Mother's Day! Levi bought 2 beautiful black frames and filled them with pics that were black and white with just a splash of color on a couple; they turned out so good! Now I just need to decide where to hang them. We spent the late morning-early afternoon with Levi's fam. We went to Wortman Park (horrible name huh!?) in McMinnville for a picnic and it was beautiful. Janet loved her present from us which Claire then proceeded to suck on. The food was amazing; Subway sandwiches, grilled shrimp, oriental salad, 7-layer salad, potato salad, fruit salad and spice cake w/ bavarian cream frosting, yumm-o! I took Claire down a slide for the first time, she didn't really know what to think of that. We got to talk to Logan which was super nice; he's doing great! Then we spent the evening with my family. I love how sweet and gentle my nephews and niece are with Claire, it is the most adorable thing ever! More good food; seriously I wish our families were horrible cooks, it would make it so much easier to eat less! I played baseball with Rayden for a little while, he is so good and only 7. He's already a 3 sport athlete, wrestling, baseball and football. Hopefully he sticks with it and gets a bunch of scholarships. I got plants and flowers from both of our families which I am super excited to plant!

We've been continuing to try to feed Claire pureed foods but she is still not that interested. We've tried yams, chicken, bananas, applesauce, pears and rice cereal. We went and visited Ashley and her kids and daycare kids today and we ate Otter Pops. I let Claire try a little of my blue pop and oh my goodness she just started sucking on it like crazy! She sucked so much that the top of popsicle lost it's blue coloring. And then when I tried to snag a bite she screamed/cried! I'm still amazed that she was wearing a white onesie and didn't even get a speck of blue on it.

Oh and I have to apologize to everyone. We've been having asian people commenting on our profile in another language and it's a couple a week. I've just gotten sick of it so I'm now moderating the comments, which I hate but better than having some weirdo comments that I can't understand and have to delete constantly (not to mention my friend said they link to porn). So please, please, please still comment, it makes my day!