Tired?

This morning I woke up and went to start down the stairs when I found this.....

At first I thought he was just laying on the stairs hanging out but then I realized he was completely out of it. I couldn't pass up some pics because it was far too funny but then we woke him up so he wouldn't fall down the stairs. I love that kids can fall asleep anywhere.

UPDATE

So I have been a HUGE slacker when it comes to blogging. I think just about every post says something about how I am going to be better and it never seems to happen. I have probably lost TONS of readers because of it. Actually I doubt that many people read my blog but for those of you who do, here is very shortened version of what has been going on.

In January, Steve moved the lab into office space. This was HUGE for us. At first I had mixed feeling about it but now over all I LOVE it. Steve has managed to completely replace me from working with him. This was no small task since he relied on me for so many different aspects of the job and we tried a few people in my place and it was a nightmare. So now lucky for me I just get to be a mom and I absolutely LOVE it!

In February, Jett turned 2. We didn't do anything big we just had family over for cake and ice cream. Most of my pictures didn't turn out very well though because a certain nephew, who shall remain nameless, kept flailing his arm into the middle of the picture. But here are a couple that are ok.

In March, I finally got some movitvation and started exercising! Since then I have even signed up for the Hobble Creek half marathon and I am planning to run the Top of Utah Marathon. YIKES! I am kind of excited and nervous about it but mostly excited as I have already seen myself accomplish things I didn't know if I could.

Also in March we had a family reunion in St. George. It was a TON of fun. The weather was beautiful and the company was great! The purpose of the reunion was to see a statue of Steve's great great Grandfather dedicated in the middle of the city. It was really neat to hear about all of the amazing things this man did.

In April I started taking a photography class. Not because I want to become a professional photographer or anything but because I wanted to be able to take better pics of my family. I absolutely loved the class and learned so much. That class was priceless and now I just keep practicing hoping that I am getting better. So thanks Jen for sharing your knowledge with me.

Also in April, Raleigh turned 5! I can't believe I have a 5 year old. Where did the time go?! His birthday was like the never ending birthday since we had like 3 parties. I think I would have loved this as a kid. A short story about his birthday is that on that morning I told him I had a special "machine" for him. He got so excited and kept asking where it was. I replied that I would tell him after he ate breakfast. He was so excited that Steve started saying that I needed to quit building it up because he was going to be mad and disappointed when he found out what the "machine" was. I just ignored Steve and kept telling him to be excited about the "machine." When breakfast was finally over we walked into the family room and Steve, my sister and I stood in a line and told Raleigh to get down on his hands and knees, close his eyes and then start to crawl through our legs. As he did we proceeded to spank his bum and laugh saying he had just gone through the "spanking machine" I didn't know how he would react but he completely LOVED it. He even asked to do it again and again. It was hilarious. That night when we were with family he even wanted to make a longer "machine" and do it again. We were laughing so hard because what kid actually likes that spanking machine. Anyway, we had fun!

Well that is an update of lives over the last few months in a nutshell. Who knows when I will post again but for those of you still reading, check back soon you never know I may amaze you and update again soon.

Ok I am in need of some help. I really want to lose the extra weight I have from the baby and from being lazy for the past few years but I am not sure where to start and how to keep myself motivated. I have tried to start an exercise routine many times but my motivation fades really quickly. I have been thinking lately about what motivates me to do things and have noticed that competition has been a lead factor in getting me to do many things and made me work a little bit harder on things I otherwise would not have done. So I was thinking maybe I could find a weight or exercise competition or start one with someone else. If anyone knows of something like this, would like to start one with me or just has any tips for me on this subject I would love to hear them.

Holidays

The last few weeks have been crazy for us with all the holiday parties and family events going on. So I will try to give an update of everything. My brother was able to come into town the beginning of December and we went to the bounce house with him. I didn't know how much bouncing I would actually do since I had just had a baby a little less than 2 weeks before but I was feeling good and went ahead and joined the kids and my other siblings in racing the obstacle course and climbing the everest wall along with just about everything else. It was a blast and I highly recommend this activity to anyone looking for a fun activity for their kids or themselves.

Me & Jett on one of the slides

Marianne and I

Steve, Raleigh and Mike playing arcade games

Jett thinking he is really playing an arcade game. (Look at the excitement in those eyes)

We also went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was really cold but fun to see the beautiful lights and temple with my family.

Raleigh had his preschool Christmas song program. He had been singing the songs to me for weeks but when it came time to sing them for the program he got really shy and would hardly sing.

Doesn't Raleigh look so happy to be here

As Christmas drew closer it was pretty much all Raleigh talked about. He was so excited and he finally really understood about Santa this year and it was so fun for me to see and experience his excitement. Sometimes I think I enjoy Christmas and get just as excited about it as the kids do. On Christmas Eve morning Raleigh came to me and informed me that we had to make cookies for Santa and that night we needed to sprinkle the reindeer food out in the yard so they would know where to find us. It was so cute. That night we went to Steve's parents house and had a wonderful Christmas Eve filled with a fabulous dinner, spectacular Christmas message given by his Dad, and fun gift exchange. On the way home that night it was fun to tell Raleigh and Jett they needed to quickly go to sleep because Santa would be at our house soon and if they were not asleep he would not leave them any presents. They definitely went to sleep pretty quick. Christmas morning came early at our house as we heard both of the boys awake at 6:20am. I loved watching Raleigh quietly come out of his room and look over the upstairs railing to see if Santa had come yet and then go back and forth between his room, our room and the railing trying to decide what to do. After a few minutes he came into our room and asked us if it was Christmas yet. We said yes and that he should go make sure Santa had left us some presents and check to see if he had eaten the cookies we left for him. He quickly ran down the stairs and you could hear him gasp as he notices the presents under the tree. I can't say enough just how much I enjoyed every second of this.

Cookies and Milk for Santa

Waiting to open presents

"Cool swords"

After making the kids wait patiently for about a half hour to open presents we finally all made it down around the tree. Jett was excited but still didn't really understand what was going on he just saw some things he thought were cool. Raleigh on the other hand couldn't wait to tear into all of "his" gifts. He would specifically look for the gifts with his name on them and if it was someone else name he would set it aside. The boys thoroughly enjoyed Christmas morning.

The Loot

Jack's not sure what is going on

When the presents all seemed to be opened I told Steve to go check the closet upstairs to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Little did he know what would be waiting up there for him. I surprised him with a blu ray dvd player. He had talked about wanting to get one and I acted like I was never listening, all with the intent to surprise him. It worked like a charm. He had no idea. It was awesome to see the look on his face.




My favorite gift from Steve was a homemade coupon book. Inside it had coupons for back massages, doing the laudry, cleaning the kitchen, dinner coupons, finding a babysitter for a night out etc. It was a great gift and I fully intend to use all the coupons. The rest of the day was spent at my parents house where we played games and opened more gifts. Steve and I both agreed that this was one of our best Christmases.

Other events or should I say incidents of the week include Raleigh smashing his finger in the door and later in the week falling off a stool at my parents house and cutting his eye.

The bruised finger is now more black then purple

For New Year's Eve we went to my parents house again to have a long, fun night of games and lots of junk food. I am not one to stay up late very often and I can usually fall asleep at the drop of a hat after 10pm but amazingly I was able to stay up until 3am. I also started my New Year's solution to get in shape. I had my awesome brother-in-law Doug, who just became a personal trainer in Idaho fit me with my own workout plan. so I fully intend to get myself in shape, lose all this baby weight and make myself look GOOD again. Wish me luck on this. Anyway, I wanted to wish you all a happy new year and I hope that 2009 is at least as good as 2008 if not better.

A new addition to the family

Wow I can't believe my baby is already almost 4 weeks old. Oh how time flies! For those of you who don't know the story and for journaling purposes I will tell how it all began. Saturday morning November 29th I was going about doing my normal things and I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom literally like every 30 minutes. It was the most frustrating thing, I felt like I lived in the bathroom. This went on all day and I thought it was kind of strange. By the end of the day I was beginning to wonder if my water had broke, though I was not having any contractions. Well I chatted with my mom about it and came to the conclusion that indeed it had broken. Well I am stubborn and decided to wait it out for contractions to start rather than just going in to the hospital. I didn't know if it would be that night or a day or two. That night around 11:30 I felt a couple of contractions but nothing was consistant so I just went to bed. The contractions stopped and then I woke up with a few more around 2:30am but again nothing consistant but I had a feeling it was all beginning. I went back to sleep for about an hour and then I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. My contractions became very consistant around 4am so I decided to just start getting things ready to go to the hospital so that whenever the time came we could just go. About 5:45am I called my mom to come be with my kids and by 6:20 we were out the door to the hospital. We got to the hospital and I knew I was in labor but of course the nurses have to check it all out just to make sure, because they couldn't tell by the way I would grit my teeth every time I had a contraction (note the sarcasm). They knew right away that my water had broke and the nurse said she was going to go get a room ready, call the doctor and then they would check me in. Well in the mean time I am really wanting to get my epidural so I tell Steve to go let them know I am ready for it at any time. They told him that I had to wait until they had checked me in. In my mind I am thinking "ok that shouldn't take too long, maybe 10 minutes." Well apparently it takes a LOT longer, it was about 40 minutes later before they could move me to the delivery room and then another 20-30 minutes before I was checked in and then another 10 minutes before I could get my epidural. Mean while I feel like I am going to die! By the time I had my epidural it was 10-15 minutes later that they told me I could start pushing. All I can say is that it is a good thing they got me medicated when they did because I definitely didn't want to have that baby without. Oh the torture the women of the past had to go through! Anyway, we welcomed Jack Bryant Gardner into the world on November 30th at 9:01am. (almost 2 weeks early) He weighed in at 7lbs 12 oz and was 19 in long. He has had my heart since that day. He might only eat, sleep and poop but he is the cutest eater, sleeper and pooper I have seen in a long time. I love every second I get to spend with him. Even though I know when he smiles that it is just gas I like to pretend that he is really smiling because he knows me and loves me. Steve, Raleigh and Jett love Jack so much. Raleigh is constantly wanting to hold him and help take care of him and Jett just wants to give him kisses all the time. I wondered what it would be like having a 3rd kid and how the boys would react but so far so good. Hopefully things will continue to be this easy.

I thought this was a cute picture of our sweet little Jack.

Raleigh loves to lay by Jack and snuggle up close to him.

New Background

I finally changed my background. Steve has been bugging me for months now to do it, even though the only time he ever looks at my blog is when I am on it. Anyway, this is a post to make him happy. Merry Christmas Babe!

What a Crazy Day!

What a day. I got up this morning thinking it was just going to be a typical Sunday, get ready, go to church, spend the day with family. Boy did things go differently. Well, it all started out normal but here is what happened. We were just about to leave for church and I was brushing my teeth when I noticed something felt weird with my mouth. I looked in the mirror and saw that one side of my mouth would not move. I thought about it for a few minutes and realized that when I was doing my makeup that I also had trouble closing one of my eyes. I called to Steve to tell him that I thought something was wrong. As we talked about it for a couple of minutes we started noticing other things from the past few days that were not normal for me such as an ongoing headache on the same side of my head as the other symptoms and also my tongue felt kind of numb. We called my doctor and he told us we should probably head to the ER. Well at church I am the primary secretary and I had all the papers to hand out for primary and I had also told the Primary pianist that I would play for her today but that was all out the window now. Church had already started so Steve drove over to the church and gave all the papers and the news to the Primary president that I would not be at church. We called my parents who met us at the ER to take care of the kids. It was the weirdest feeling in my face on the way to the ER to have one eye squinting from the brightness of the sun and the other eye as wide open as can be. It was also really weird and kind of scary to laugh or smile and only have one side of your face move. Anyway, we get to the ER and the doctor comes in and after a minute tells us that he thinks it is Bells Palsy. I had never heard of it. Essentially what it is, is a temporary poralysis of a nerve in my face. They don't know what causes it and there really is no cure you just have to wait for it to go away. He said that it could last anywhere from a few days to a few months and at night I need to put drops in my eye and tape it shut so it doesn't dry out. Yikes! I hope this lasts only a few days at most. Anyway, to make a long story short, he gave me a couple of prescriptions that might help and they sent me home. Needless to say it was quite the eventful morning. Besides that life at our house is normal and we are just waiting for baby #3 to arrive. Only a week and a half to go. My next post will probably be about his arrival and we still haven't officially chosen a name so anyone with last minute suggestions should get them in quick.

The best weekend

I have the best husband in the whole world. Apparently I must have been looking a little overwhelmed with everything I have to do before this baby comes and he knew I have been really uncomfortable so what did he do....last weekend he surprised me with a mini vacation. It was so sweet! Without me knowing anything he asked my sister to watch the kids for the weekend and he took me out to dinner and then we drove up to Midway and stayed at the Zermatt resort. It was so nice and relaxing. Then the next day we set up a couples massage and had another relaxing day. It was seriously the best surprise. I am so blessed to have a husband who cares so much and wants to make me happy. I love you honey!

Baby Names

We are 6 weeks away from baby BOY #3 arriving and we are having trouble coming up with a name we can agree on. So I thought I would open it up to the blogging world for suggestions. Please list any ideas you have because we really don't want to be one of those families that brings their baby home without a name and we don't just want to choose something spur of the moment. So really any names you would like to suggest would be very appreciated.

A couple of weeks ago Steve and I were able to take a trip without the kids and visit Steve's sister Sarah in Baltimore. This was our first trip by ourselves and it was so much fun. We decided since Baltimore is so close to so many fun places that we would rent a car and go a few other places too. So the first day there we traveled to Washington DC. It was crazy to see all the secruity surrounding the Capitol. It is not every day that you see security guards with machine guns. Steve went to ask one of them a question and as Steve approached the secturity guy totally backed away like Steve was going to attack him or something. We decided to take a tour of the Capitol building. It was fun and interesting but nothing like it used to be. They must have really changed things after 9/11. Although one funny story is that while we were waiting for our tour they told us absolutely no food or drink on the tour. If we had any we were suppose to throw it away before we got inside or they would do it for us. Well I don't go anywhere without snacks and especially with being pregnant I had a bit of food with me. I was not about to throw it all away but I didn't know what to do with it. So we decided to take it out of our back pack and stash it in the bushes until we got back. It was hilarious to watch Steve try to discretely hide our food. I wanted to take a picture but thought it might draw attention to him. More later. . .

HELP!

Ok I need some advice. First off I need some advice on discpline. Raleigh is driving me crazy with his disobedient, defiant attitude. He talks back to me constantly, thinks he never has to do anything I ask him to and when I try to discipline him he kicks, hits, and screams bloody murder. I came to my wits end today when I was trying to get him in the car today to take him to preschool and we were running late. He wouldn't get in the car so I told him he had 3 seconds to get in or he was going to sit in his room ALL day. At this point he gets mad and screams at the top of his lungs which causes the neighbors to come running to see what happened. Talk about embarrassing. So I take him in the house and was going to put him in his room but being pregnant I don't want to carry a 40 pound child who is kicking and scratching up the stairs. Plus I really didn't want him to miss preschool because I don't want to pay for something that he doesn't go to. So I ended up throwing him into the car and taking him to preschool. Probably the wrong decision but I needed some peace and quiet. Raleigh is not always this way, some days his is a sweet little boy who is really helpful but the other days I about loose my mind. Any advice on what I can do to change his behavior would be much appreciated.

Also I need some advice on Jett. He is 16 months old and refuses to eat any table food other than cheese, bread and fruit. I have quit buying the baby foods that he loves and won't give him anything but what we are eating but then he just refuses to eat. Yesterday all he had to eat was oatmeal in the morning and water the rest of the day because he was to stubborn to eat anything else. I mean if you are lucky enough to get other foods in his mouth then he will just spit and spit and spit until ever last drop of that food is out of his mouth and then he will not open his mouth for anything else. When Jett got up this morning he was so lethargic he could hardly pull himself to stand in his crib and he was dry heaving because he was so hungry. But now that I have given him some food he is his normal self again. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get Jett to eat normal foods?

I'm Back

I know, I know I have not updated my blog in forever now but it's better late than never. It has taken me a while to post because about the time I posted last I started feeling really sick with pregnancy and after I had done all the things I had to do I didn't feel like blogging, I just wanted to take a nap. I am feeling a lot better now and have a for a couple of weeks but I was just out of the habit of blogging but hope to get back on track now. Since my last post I took my 2 boys (Steve was sick and stayed home) and went with my family to Arches national Park. I love that place. I didn't do a lot of hiking with being pregnant and feeling kind of sick but the boys loved it. Even Jett loved climbing on the rocks. He couldn't get enough of it. It was so cute. Raleigh loved being around his cousins and just having the freedom to run and play all day. We missed Steve while we were gone but over all we had a good time.

I got a new calling at church a couple of weeks ago. They must think I don't have enough to do or something. I already have the calling of activity days with the 8 & 9 year old girls and I am a permanant sub in the nursey until they find someone to help Steve (this has been since the end of March). I am not complaining or anything because I enjoy my callings but I never expected the next one. So I got called in to talk with a member of the bishopric. They ask me to be an assistant ward organist. Well that would be great if I knew how to play the organ. It is so different from the piano. So I tell them I don't know how to play the organ and he tells me, that's ok the current organist can teach you. Well I accepted the calling even though I was scared to death. This isn't exactly one of those callings that you can hide in. You can either play the organ or everyone in the ward is going to know just how bad you suck at it. Well today was my first official day to play the organ for sacrament meeting. I was nervous but I felt like the Lord definitely helped me out and made up for my short comings. I guess this is just a testimony that when you are called to do something the Lord will give you the strength and capability to do so. I also have to give a huge thanks to my awesome husband who gave so much support to me and so willingly sat with the kids by himself during sacrament meeting. He is the best and I love him so much. Anyway, I just wanted to voice my thoughts on this day a first of many Sunday's to come of playing the organ.

Private Blogs?

So normally I post about what has been happening in our family but today I decided to write about my thoughts instead. I have notice lately that a lot of people have turned their blogs "private". I really don't understand why. People say it is for safety reasons and maybe it is true and I am the naive one but I just don't understand it. There are so many other ways to keep "blog predators" away. For example don't use your last name on your blog or personal dates, such as birthdays, anniveraries etc. Also you don't need to put any specifics about where you live. Keeping that information off your blog should keep you from having the "need" to go private. So you all don't think that I am just going on about nothing I will try to express why I feel the way I do about having a private blog. When I first entered the blogging world I didn't have a blog but a few of my friends did. I would occassionally check their blogs and from there I would find other old friends and aquaintances. I thought it was the coolest thing to be able to see what was happening in their lives. This is when I decided to start my own blog. I thought that if I liked being able to know about other peoples fun lives they might want to know about mine. Finding many of you would not and could not have happened if everyone's blogs were private. The other thing that I hate about private blogs is once someone decides to go private you have no way of contacting them to ask them to view their blog unless you miraculously have their email. So I guess my question to all my fellow bloggers is I am really just that naive to think that by keeping personal information out of my blog that my family will be kept "safe" or am I right in thinking that having a private blog is a status symbol or paranoia by a lot of people? I will get off my soap box now but I really just wanted to get this off my chest. I am sorry if I have offended anyone who has a private blog that was not my intention.

I am a blog slacker

I am a huge slacker sometimes when it comes to updating my blog. Things have been busy, we were suppose to go to California to visit my brother this week but instead I had the lucky opportunity to be sick. Yay for me. (note the heavy sarcasm) I am finally feeling a bit better I think so I am crossing my fingers. Anyway I will try to post about the latest happenings very soon. Sorry I am not better at posting but I find it so much more fun to see what is happening in everyone elses exciting lives. Check back soon for a real update.

A Letter To Myself

If I could send myself a letter from the person I am now to myself when I was younger this is what I would say. (Elena, thanks for another great idea for my blog).

1. Don’t cut bangs in Jr high, you will look like a complete dork.

2. Warren W. had a crush on you but it is better to just stay friends.

3. Slapping people on the butt for wearing guess jeans and saying “Guess Butt” was a really stupid game. Plus you just looked dumb doing it.

4. Be nicer to Becca J. because she is a really cool girl.

5. Learn how to study and do better in school so you don’t have to feel so dumb all the time.

6. Write about more than just boys in your journal. Your posterity will want to know more about you then just your latest crush.

7. Don’t take your flat stomach for granted because after kids you won’t have it any more.

8. Your last semester at Ricks go out more instead of being depressed over a dumb boy.

9. The “Mexican Drug Dealer” or so he was labeled, is a player. (He is not mexican or a drug dealer, as far as I know, but the look of his car made him appear that way to some) Have fun while you date him because you learn a lot and become a stronger person because of him but beware that he is not what he appears to be.

10. Don’t worry about Steve’s indecision about your dating/non dating relationship, just hang in there. It all works out in the end and it is TOTALLY worth it.

11. The night before your wedding don’t let Dad climb a ladder in the cultural hall but if he decides to anyway know that even though it is a hard time he will survive and eventually be back to normal with the help of many doctors.

12. Don’t make such a big deal out of dating. Just go have a good time. On that note your life doesn’t need to revolve around boys.

13. Be nicer to the guys you go out with that you don’t think are your type.

14. Spend more time with Muffy. She is awesome and you will both miss getting to spend time with each other after you are married.

15. Finish college and don’t skip class just because you don’t feel like going.

16. Not making the basketball team in 7th grade is not the end of the world. You make it in 8th and 9th grade.

17. In 6th grade when Mrs. Gerry tells you that you sparkle when you sing, yes, it is embarrassing but if you make it into a joke before she gets the chance to make it worse by turing it into a role play for the class, the end result might be better. Good Luck!

18. Don’t play the bounce game on the trampoline with Tyson and Jaron. When it breaks Muffy will never let you live it down and will give you a hard time for the rest of your life.

19. Work harder and do more to accomplish your goals.

I am sure there is a lot more I could write but I can’t think of anything at the moment. Remember you have a great family and awesome friends. Never forget how much they have influenced your life and do a better job at keeping in touch with them.

Deb