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!