Mike and Breanne

Get your "awww"s ready

2012-02-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

I got this email last night from Michael after he put Jane to bed. The last few days I've been singing her a "kitty" song at night, and now she asks for us to sing it to her nightly.

(Jane is in her crib and snuggling her bunny and blankets ready for sleep)
Jane - Kitty?
Me - No more Kitty. Time for bed. Kiss goodnight?
(Jane rolls over giggling. Kiss request is denied.)
Me - Goodnight. Love you, Jane.
(Start to walk out. When I reach the doorway.)
Jane - Daddy?
Me - Yes, sweetie?
(I walk back over to the crib)
(Jane has lips puckered, we give each other goodnight kisses.)
Me- Goodnight, Jane.
Jane - Goodnight, Daddy.

AHHHHHHHH. Cutest thing ever!

Unexpected addition

2011-12-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

I posted the following on Facebook yesterday, but I realized that there are some people who aren't on Facebook that might find this interesting:

Um, this cat adopted us. Without our permission. I think she took one look at our home and was like, "Yep, this is where I'm going to live now." Last Friday she introduced herself to us and since then she has been applying for citizenship in the house. This morning I took her to the vet to see if she's microchipped, and the vet didn't find one, but we both agreed that this is definitely an indoor cat that has grown up with people and has been well looked after. I've had her listed on KSL for a few days as a "found" cat, but no one has called yet. So today we gave her a bath and gave her a temporary visa to the house.
Since when do we take in strays? I feel ridiculous, like we're going to become one of those houses on "Hoarders" with like 58 cats.
But seriously, this is the most affectionate cat EVER. I have never been snuggled so much by a cat in my life. She's not fully grown, I think she might be 6 months or so old, and she makes our cat look like she has all the personality of Ben Stein. And this cat loves Jane and totally lets Jane abuse her, pull her tail, and give her tight "hugs."
So, our first, cream colored cat is named Abba Zabba, after the white candy. This new cat is a much darker color with white feet and white on the very tip of her tail, so I think we're going to name her with a dark candy/dessert name.

So that's my news. I do think I'm insane. There's a clinic that will spay cats for $10 that I'll take her to, and then we'll have to see about vaccinations and de-worming. I wasn't really sure about keeping this cat, but she's growing on me. Aka I wuv her already.

He's at it again

2011-12-04T16:39:00.004-07:00

Some of you may remember last year's debacle in which Michael inadvertently revealed my Christmas presents to me.

Would you like to hear this year's version?

A couple of weeks ago we were sitting together while Michael showed me black Friday deals on the computer. He pointed out a Best Buy ad that had the new Harry Potter movie for $9.99.

I said, "10 bucks, wow."

Then he said, "But it's a different version than ours."

Then I got confused - ours?
Then I looked Michael in the eyes deeply and quietly and raised my eyebrows.
And then his face fell with closed eyes and pursed lips in a way that said, "Aw hell."

And then I laughed so loud and so hard for so long.

Poor guy.

Speaking of Michael and his funny ways, I am starting to really have a lot of fun taunting him about presents, because it seriously drives him crazy!!! He can't STAND not knowing what he's getting. We got Jane a few gifts during Thanksgiving and I wrapped them and put them under the tree. Michael looked down at the presents and said, "That's so mean. The presents have to stare her in the face for a whole month before she gets to open them."

This really opened my eyes to what's going on in Michael's mind. Because that's what it is to him: agonizing. Knowing there is a gift there, for YOU, and you can't have it. For me, seeing presents under the tree is just more of the magic of the season, and when I see them I see something to look forward to. To Michael, it's cruel. I wonder if Jane will inherit this trait?

Anyway, the presents that I've gotten for Michael are safely wrapped and tucked away, at my mom's house, because I don't think Michael could stand to have them here. Or, he could stand to have them here: once he had carefully pulled open one end of the wrapping and looked inside, then re-wrapped it. I'm taking no chances.

He sure is fun. =)

Introducing the newest addition to our family

2011-11-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

This is... well, we're not really sure about the name yet. But this is our new cat. She's very, very sweet and fits right into the household as though she was all that was missing. We're debating on names... I like Abba Zabba which I think every cat should be named. We also think she looks like her name could be "Tabby" (Michael says Tabatha). My sister says she needs some kind of caramel macchiato name. We're open to suggestions so feel free to leave a comment.

The main reason we got a cat is because we have mice (and not the good kind like you gave us, Dad). Every fall they come into the house and drive me crazy, this is the third year. The first two years we put down traps and caught some of them... and then after a few weeks they went away mysteriously. I began to think that with all of the traps down they thought, "You know, I'm beginning to think we're not wanted around here!" and then they left. But who knows. Anyway, this year they haven't gone away and there's this little fat mouse that's especially devious, outsmarting all of my traps. The most disturbing thing is that they'd crawl through my bedroom on a nightly basis, waking me up and making me so disgusted that I couldn't fall back asleep. Then after two mornings of me walking out and seeing a mouse race across my kitchen counter right in front of me as I screamed and screamed, we decided it was time to call in the big dogs. Or cats.

Well, we got the cat on Saturday and... I haven't seen or heard from a mouse since. Hehehehe. Hehehehehe! Kitty has a little mouse toy that she loves to toss around at night and chase and bite, and I think she's setting an example. It's a warning to all the other mice in the house. "This could be you." Hehehehe. I may be a little vindictive.

Jane LOVES the kitty, and she calls it "Meow." When I put her to bed at night we say bye bye to things in the house, and now she's added, "Bye bye, Meow." The cat is... barely tolerant of Jane. She can take about 4 seconds of Jane-time and then she's out of there (pictured below). But she does let Jane get a pet in now and then and is generally very tolerant of Jane. The cat came from a house with two energetic dogs, and I think that was a bit stressful for her, she seems to really enjoy the peace and quiet in our house, even if Jane does chase her down a hallway now and then giggling like her evil plan is about to come to fruition.

Getting a cat was a really hard decision for us, since we didn't really want the responsibility of a pet and especially since one of my sisters is highly allergic to cats. There were lots of guilt ridden phone calls to her before I even started looking. But I do have to say I kind of love having this cat around. She keeps me company at night when Michael is at work and Jane's in bed, and we see her now and then throughout the day when she comes out for a pet. She's really sweet, sweeter than any cat I've met in quite a few years, and Michael and Jane both love her. So hopefully this was the right move.

Happy Halloween

2011-11-04T20:33:00.001-06:00

We had a party on Halloween with some of our friends and lots and lots of sweet treats!

I made Jack-o-lantern apple pies

After fixing the oven, baking brownies and two apple pies, and hours cleaning the house, I realized that I had no idea what I was going to wear. Breanne the mildly-convincing gypsy was born. But doesn't Jane look sweet!? We trick-or-treated at a couple of houses and then came home to greet our party guests.

This is my 80's pop-queen friend Hannah and her Handsome Little Devil.

Our friends Mark and Kat and their son Cannon the fireman!

Below is the trick-or-treating party that left the house for about half an hour or so to scour the neighborhood for obliging homes. I think Jane brought home a total of 10 pieces of candy - what the heck! We just had to fill out a neighborhood survey for the city and I should have written in "too many Scroogey Halloween holdouts." Just kidding - it sounds like everyone still had fun!

This is my co-worker, Ann-Marie, dressed as a scarecrow! I like the raffia bows in her hair.

Aaaaaand the grand finale, my brother:

Awesome!

Little Red Riding Hood

2011-10-31T12:56:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we put Jane's Halloween costume on her and took some pictures. I made the cape, skirt, and apron, and I'm so proud! Here's a photo-fest of my favorites:

Daddy is the big bad wolf!

This picture of Michael and Jane is honestly the best one that I got of them both. Jane wanted Mommy to hold her, silly girl. You can see that we gave her a cookie and that helped to smooth things over. I know that cookies always make me feel better. =)

I played with some Instagram filters for my favorite 5 photos, what do you think?

I think this one is my favorite.

Happy Halloween!

Fall Fun

2011-10-29T09:13:00.000-06:00

Yesterday morning we went to a pumpkin patch/corn maze/petting zoo/general-Halloween-fun type place. Jane is still a bit young to get a lot of the things, so we focused on the petting zoo. They just let the kids run around with goats, rams, pigs, and geese, which was a little scary but all of the animals were very well behaved. =) Jane mostly chased animals around trying to pet them, which I thought was kind of funny. I took a little video of her running around after the geese. You can hear her towards the end shout, "Qack Qack Qack!"

Here are some photos that I took, too:

Cuteness update

2011-10-13T13:21:00.000-06:00

Jane is getting cuter and cuter.

I love her so much.

(She wanted "Lamby" to swing with her and
became very distraught if he fell out.)

Jedi Jane

2011-09-23T10:27:00.001-06:00

Jane is going to a Star Wars birthday party today, and this is the outfit she's going to wear. What? Didn't all Jedi wear colorful striped pants? Maybe we will try to find her black pants before we go. Anyway, I made this outfit, which I am really proud of =). The cape took me a few hours (and we will re-use the pattern in red for Halloween), and the shirt... basically it's sewn like a pillowcase with holes cut in for a head and arms. It took me all of five minutes. But hey - the Jedi are all about humility, right? Well... maybe not that Anakin.

Laundry Mayhem

2011-08-30T15:59:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was "frantic laundry day" as Michael and I kept the washer and dryer going from about 8 in the morning to 1am, with a 2-hour break for Jane's nap somewhere in there. Not only are we preparing for an upcoming trip, but I decided that all of the sheets on the bed, the duvet cover, and the down comforter needed to be washed, too. I'm only sad that I didn't have time to do the pillows. But, on the bright side, I don't think there's an unwashed cloth in the entire house now, aside from what I wore to bed last night. It was odd, too, how we'd keep running loads of clothes and I'd think we were done, and then I'd open up the diaper bag and see three things in there that needed to be washed, along with Jane's crib sheets, and that smelly blanket that had been laying on the floor of our room - and suddenly -BAM- there's another load to do.

One happy side effect was being able to get our room cleaner than usual. Michael and I organized our bedside tables, and he even tackled the "corner of death" aka the corner of our room where Michael strips off his socks before bed and throws them (it's 5 feet away from the hampers... why, WHY?) until they accumulate into a large pile of socks and discarded clothes and dust and probably small animals. And I just let it sit there because I think, maybe he will pick them up at some point? Anyway, we cleaned out the corner of death and got the floor all clean (and visible) and we had nice clean sheets on the bed and all was wonderful.

Until it was time for bed and I walked over to give Michael a kiss and I saw two socks, discarded, on the floor in the corner! And I turned slowly to Michael and said, "What are theses socks... on the flooooooorrrrchhhhhhhugggghhhh" The sentence really devolved into these over-dramatic gurgling gargling sounds. Michael just looked at me for a minute and then said, "Are you the gate keeper?"

Alright. You gotta give props for a well-placed Ghostbusters reference. Nice one, Michael. You're off the hook... this time.

June family trip to Heber

2011-08-28T22:56:00.000-06:00

My family had a vacation back in June and I should probably mention it now that it's the end of August. We all got together at a cabin in Heber and it was a lot of fun. I didn't take a lot of pictures, except for one day when my sister had all sorts of water games planned. Here's a recap:

First, Jane in all her cuteness. Oh, the ruffles!

Some kind of relay. Look at them go!

I think they were filling buckets with cups that had holes in the bottom.


And they had to hold the cups over their heads!

The classic over-under water balloon handoff.

Pop the water balloons with anything but your hands and feet.

The phrase "Kissing Cousins" comes to mind.

Jane even got a little pool time in.

While the kids tossed water balloons... farther and farther.

Where'd she get that water balloon?

Oh and we had a can-knocking-over game.

And a ring toss.

And a ball toss.

Basically just lots and lots of fun. I didn't take any other pictures on the trip, except for this one: Jane and her cousin Ian hanging out in the kids' corner, eating lunch. Cute little companions.

Jane Update

2011-08-12T10:25:00.002-06:00

Jane turned 18 months old last month, and it seems like awhile since I've said much about her. So here's a blog post all about what's going on with her lately and what she's learning and doing.

Jane loves to share our cereal.
Or pretty much anything we are eating.

In early July her language skills exploded and she learned a bunch of new words and about a million animal sounds all in one week. We found a video on Youtube where they do a little animal sounds song, and she went crazy for it and started doing all the sounds with the song. Now she knows the song better than I do. A couple of days ago I was trying to sing it for her while changing her diaper, and I kept forgetting what came next. Jane would fill me in. It was scary. I'd sing, "The cow goes moo, moo moo moo, and the... uh..." and Jane would say, "qack qack!!" which is literally what comes next in the song. Brilliant.

Jane massacres a nectarine

Speaking of videos, Jane could care less about TV, but she goes nuts for youtube music videos. Favorites include The Wiggles, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Sesame Street, and Ok Go. You know who Ok Go is, right? A rock band? Let's just say Jane's tastes are eclectic. They have a video with a ton of dogs running around that Jane is absolutely mesmerized by. She yells "woof woof!" at the dogs intermittently. The first time we watched it she giggled and giggled and giggled through the whole thing. I now have a playlist on youtube called "songs my baby likes" and it pretty much rocks.

In July Jane also had swim lessons, which were pretty much parents holding their kids in different positions in the water and singing songs. But Jane loved it. And I found out that the little curls at the base of her neck are still curly even when sopping wet! Like, just-came-out-of-the-water wet, and she's got ringlets.

Jane loves to sit in this chair and peruse her library
When I took this picture she was saying, "Moo!"

Jane also continues to love books and reading. She loves to grab a book and come plop down in my lap and insist that I read to her that second. She especially loves books with animals so she can tell me what sounds they make. Jane has also started to get the knack of puzzles and loves to move objects from one container to another (one favorite container is my lap). She also loves going outside and can now literally help me water the plants with her tiny watering can, which is adorable. She still plays hide-and-go-seek, except now she runs out from behind objects at full speed and throws herself against my legs when I find her.

Last week, Jane started calling me mommy... consistently. Because she was calling me "Daddy" pretty often before that. But at some point she realized that I should be called "Momma" all the time, and now she comes up and says it in a whimpery voices while wrapping her arms around my legs, or when I walk into a room, or when she's saying bye to me. So, yeah, I am pretty much putty in her hands right now. Also, yesterday she started saying, "Oh no!" in a really concerned, sad voice whenever she drops something on the floor.

In Daddy news, Michael had a birthday last month. He is passionate about movies right now, so I spent the months before his birthday stockpiling several movies for him, and on his birthday I hid them all around the house and made him do a scavenger hunt to find them.

I don't think I've seen him so excited on a birthday before. That was pretty fun.

We've also been busy with lots of company recently, which has been fun for Jane to meet so many new people. Her game plan is to pretend she's shy for the first 15 minutes, and then run around screaming like a crazy wild baby and fling herself into her ball pit like it's home base. It's hilarious after you get over the initial shock.

Jane's friend Cannon - two months older than her.

Sharing her farm animal puzzle.

Ok that's all the details I can think of right now. I have a bunch of cute videos of her doing baby stuff, but I think I'll put them on her "Days with Jane" blog in a few days for grandparents who are interested (you know who you are).

How I found 86 unheard voice messages

2011-07-14T12:00:00.001-06:00

For months now people have been telling me, "I left you a message," and I often think huh, it wasn't on our machine. It happened often enough that we realized there must be a real technical problem but we didn't know why or how to fix it or even how to tell people. Our house phone used to take messages but it hasn't shown us a message in several months and so we've just been trying to call people back if we missed their call.

Michael told me one day, "It's Comcast's fault, they're not giving us our messages." That was confusing to me, because our house phone had the voice message system, not the Comcast service. And as I thought about that some more, I wondered, "Or does it?"

So I called Comcast's technical support line, which just confused me with their automated system. I got discouraged and hung up and several hours later thought, "Well, how do most people get their messages? They call their own number."

So I called our house number, and Comcast started this whole, "Welcome to your Voice Mail Box. To set up your Voice Mail Box, please press one." On and on, I went through setting up a password and listening to all of their disclaimers and blah blah blah, and finally I heard, "You have now set up your Voice Mail Box. [long pause] You have eighty six unheard voice messages."

It was like even the automated lady couldn't believe it. I got a sick feeling in my stomach when I heard that. 86? 86!

Then I learned two incredibly lame things about Comcast's Voice Mail system:
1. They don't tell you the date and time that the message was left.
2. You have to listen to the entire message before you can delete it or do anything. There is no button you can press while listening to skip it or delete it.

For having 86 messages, these two incredibly lame things were going to make it all very painful.

The second message was from my Dad, and started with, "I would say this is Grandpa Ross calling, but not yet." That was the second moment that made my stomach drop to the floor. Not yet Grandpa? As in before Jane was born?? Just so you know, everyone, Jane is turning 18 months old this month. Yeah.

Then I spent the next 40 minutes listening to messages, and writing down who each one was from and what they were for.

I heard two messages that my mom left last October when she had a stroke. Her voice was slurred and she sounded fatigued. That was gut drop moment number 3, remembering that and hearing how ill she was. I heard Michael's brother and his family call on my birthday, in April, and sing me Happy Birthday. I missed that. That was moment number 4.

It was AWFUL. Like here's a soundtrack of important moments from the last year that you MISSED and never acknowledged! But the most awful part was when I got to message number 82. There were some weird beeps, and then I heard a computer voice say something about, "xml application" and "200 input errors." Then the phone started beeping the way it does when it's off the hook. The call was disconnected. So I called the voice message system back, and it said, "You have 88 unheard voice messages."

WHAT?

And you CAN'T SKIP or DELETE EARLY. You have to listen to every single one, all the way.

I started back with number one, number two from my dad, got all the way to mom's stroke in October (about number 20) and then hung up and called Michael and complained about the whole damn situation.

Then he says, "Oh, you can just log in and see everything online and delete them that way."

Facepalm.

So I did. It took me about two minutes to delete everything and listen to the last six messages. (This is an hour after I had started the whole process). Sigh. But I noticed something: the first time I listened to all the messages, I felt so awful about missing everything and wanted to apologize to everyone. The second time, I wanted to kill you all for ever calling me. =) But! Luckily it's all over now, and we have hopefully fixed the problem and we should be getting your messages now. I am sorry, though, if you called us in the last - eighteen months! - and didn't hear back. Really sorry.

Here are some interesting numbers for you (since my sister says we are weird and OCD in our family about counting things):
52 of the messages were for me
9 were for Michael
23 were for the household/both of us
2 were hang-up calls
10 were from my mom
1 was a wrong number
36 were from family members
8 were from friends
20 were from church members
21 were business related
3 were work-related
We got 3 messages for Christmas
and 1 on my birthday

p.s. It's not that we haven't gotten any messages in the last 18 months. Our house phone took messages a lot during Jane's first 12-14 months or so. I think the house phone got unplugged a few months ago and that screwed up the setting that had message answering turned on, so the majority of the messages we didn't receive have been more recent. But it does seem to have missed messages intermittently for as long as we've had the phone. Grr.

Portland Day 5: Quick, before we have to leave

2011-06-10T11:30:00.000-06:00

Our last day in Portland we went back downtown to do as much as we could before it was time to go. Portland has a lot of restaurants that provide sustainably grown, local, organic foods, so I had a list of a few restaurants I was hoping to visit. At lunchtime we ate at Chef Naoko, the tiniest, most delicious Japanese restaurant, and then we headed to the Portland Art Museum for an hour or so. When we came out of the museum we walked around in some beautiful areas downtown and took some pictures:

This is Jane flirting with a scary hoodlum near us who
was smiling and making googly-eyes at her.

After this we stopped at Portland's beautiful public library so that I could print off our boarding passes for the next day. They have lovely, huge arched windows and the trees outside were just starting to get gorgeous green leaves.

(This is not my photo)

We got back in the car and drove up to the Pittock Mansion which sits right above Portland. Jane fell asleep on the way, so Michael stayed in the car with her while I ran inside the mansion to get in on the very last tour before they closed for the day.

When I got back to the car Jane was just waking up, so we all walked around the grounds for a little while so Michael could see the beautiful views of the city.

(Again, not my photo)

After that we went to the delicious Farm Cafe where I had the best rhubarb crumble I've ever had. Yummm. Jane ate cheerios and watched Tangled on our ipod, how very unprogressive of her. =)

The next day we flew home. We tried to plan our morning trip to the airport so that it was during Jane's nap and she could sleep in the car, but she didn't fall asleep until just before we had to park. We tried leaving her in the car seat while we made our way to the gate so that she could sleep a little longer, which I never thought would work, but she somehow stayed asleep EVEN WHEN A JET FLEW RIGHT OVERHEAD. Michael and I just looked at each other in shock. Of course, when we set the carseat on the ground so we could check our bags, then she wakes up. So she slept for a total of, hmm, 10 minutes or so?

Luckily, I was the third person on the plane so I was able to choose our seats right behind the bulkhead. JACKPOT! Check it out:

Walking room! Jane unloaded the diaper bag and threw all her little toys on the floor and was able to move around (corralled by Michael's leg that you see in the photo), and she generally had a great time. Amazing for practically no sleep. Success! It was a nice finishing touch to our trip.

We didn't do as much as we thought we would, but we still had a great time as a little family just doing things together. What fun!

Portland Day 4: Washington Park

2011-06-10T10:36:00.001-06:00

Washington Park is a huge park adjacent to downtown Portland (uphill) that has miles and miles of hiking trails, a Children's Museum, the Oregon Zoo, the Portland Japanese Garden, a Forestry Discovery Museum, an International Rose Test Garden, an arboretum, an amphitheater, a railway, a children's park, and I'm sure some other stuff I don't know about. We probably could have spent several days discovering this park, but we only had a few hours in between Jane's naps to see a few things.

We started at the Children's Museum. There's a similar place here in Salt Lake, but Jane has never been before, and she absolutely LOVED it. For the first time we weren't herding her around, telling her she couldn't touch things, or go places. She could go anywhere! And play with anything! We could have spent the whole day there. This is her with a little Jane-sized shopping cart:

After playing at the children's museum we took a bus to another part of the park where they have a lot of gardens. We decided to go to the Japanese gardens, which was high enough to have a view of downtown Portland and Mt. Hood behind it. (That's where we took the photo I put on the blog of me with Mt. Hood behind.)

The Japanese gardens were much bigger than the Chinese garden we had seen the day before and I don't think we saw even half of it.

Washington Park was the hardest day for us, mostly because there was just so much to do and not enough time. Poor Jane slept for only a few minutes in the car on the way back to the hotel. So once we got back we decided to take Jane to the pool for the first time ever!

Her swimsuit has ruffles!

Jane pretty much clung to Mommy the entire time, but she relaxed after awhile and thought Daddy was really funny when he went under the water and blew bubbles! We went over to the hot tub and let Jane dangle her feet in the warm water, and she LOVED that. Plus, the little curls on the back of her neck scrunched right up and everyone there thought she was adorable! We already knew that, but the curls help. =)

Portland Day 3: Exploring

2011-05-25T11:21:00.000-06:00

Day 3 we decided to take advantage of Portland's excellent light rail system. I wish we had something as extensive and convenient here in Utah. There was a stop just a minute from our hotel and we just rode it right downtown. Jane thought the train was pretty cool, but she was not crazy about when it stopped and started if she was not safely in her parent's lap.

Our first stop was Powell's Bookstore, the "largest independent new and used bookstore in the world," or what my co-worker referred to as "Mecca for bibliophiles." It is quite dazzling to walk through, taking up several floors and I think almost a whole block of downtown Portland.

Jane picked up a pop-up book about monsters eating silly things, and didn't put it down again. Well, we did wrestle it out of her hands to pay for it, which she was not happy about.

After this we stopped at bakery to pick up some yummy baked goods for lunch, and afterward went back to our hotel for Jane's afternoon nap. When she woke up, we were back on the train, headed downtown to the Lan Su Chinese Gardens. Portland has tons of parks and gardens, and we had quite a few on our list that we wanted to try to visit.

We probably horsed around a little more than people should do in such a beautiful place.

We had dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant and then took the train home to put Jane to bed. It didn't seem like we did much, but we were pooped!

Portland Day 2: The Coast

2011-05-23T16:34:00.001-06:00

We really wanted to drive out to see the Oregon coast and some of the cities along the coastline. Day 2 was supposed to be the rainiest day while we were there, so we decided that since we would spend more time in the car than out of it, that we'd use that day to go to the coast. I think it worked pretty well.

Our first stop was Cannon Beach, which was stunning and really, really windy. And really cold. The rain stopped right as we got there, so we were able to walk around for a few minutes before it came back. But basically, we came, we saw, we ran back to the car. After taking some beautiful photos!

Jane, for one, thought the chilling wind and rain was absolutely AWESOME, hilarious, the best thing ever. She was super happy in all of our photos and even though she clung to us, still thought everything was great fun. What a great person to have around!

She and I also talked beforehand and agreed that we should wear matching shirts that day. Just kidding, it was a coincidence.

Chilly! Windy!

But happy!

After leaving Cannon Beach we headed north for Astoria. All along the way we kept seeing markers for the Lewis and Clark trail and there was even a Lewis and Clark national park, but we didn't have time to see it. Astoria is the oldest settlement on the West Coast, founded in 1811, so this year they are celebrating their 200th anniversary! Astoria's other claim to fame is that it's where the Goonies was filmed... but we didn't go see that house, either.

One notable moment we did have in Astoria was when we drove up the steepest street I've ever driven up! As I drove towards it I was like "Are you sure that's a street?? It looks more like a wall!" Michael said yes and so I just sped up that thing but it was honestly terrifying. I almost had a heart attack. Fun!

We also went to the George Flavel House Museum, a beautiful Queen Anne Victorian home that was owned by an influential captain. They had a children's room full of Victorian toys, where I think Jane had the most fun she'd had all day. I know, it seems impossible after her awesome freezing-windy beach experience, but somehow it just got better! She cried when we finally had to take her away because we were all starving.

After getting some grub, we drove up to the Astoria Column, designed after Trajan's Column (right, Art History friends?) depicting historical scenes from the area. It's also the highest point in Astoria and had some gorgeous views of the surrounding rivers and green countryside.

That's Washington behind me.

If you are crazy, you can run up to the top of the column, which Michael couldn't pass up. I honestly thing he ran. Maybe the first 2/3. But if you do make it to the top without having a heart attack, you are rewarded with some of the most beautiful views around.

Astoria

After this we made the trip back to Portland. It would be nice to spend more time in this area some day and see all that it has to offer, but for us it was a great day trip!

Portland Day 1

2011-05-23T15:36:00.001-06:00

I was really nervous to fly with Jane. It was only a two hour flight, but I spent hours researching "how to take a baby on a plane" on the web. I think it might be easier with a smaller baby who can't walk yet and will just sit in one place, but Jane seems to be in full toddler mode, walking and moving every moment. I wasn't sure how she'd react to being stuffed into such a small space for two hours.

She also does NOT sleep in random places like some other toddlers you may see out there. Jane will only fall asleep in her crib if the room is totally dark and silent, or in the car seat when the car is on the freeway. Not in our arms or in the stroller... not on a plane, not on a train. Not in a tree or by the sea. She will not sleep just anywhere, she will not sleep at all, I swear! So I knew I would need to keep her entertained for the whole flight.

Turns out everything went fine. I made special toys that she had never seen before so she found those interesting, and was pretty happy to sit on Mom or Dad's lap most of the time. She did slip down the floor occasionally to see what was in the diaper bag, but there's wasn't much room for maneuvering:

The most useful thing we brought was probably the ipod, which I had loaded up beforehand with baby einstein movies and her favorite: Tangled. Jane LOVES Tangled and will sit quietly forever and watch it and giggle at that crazy horse. I think Jane only cried for about five minutes on the whole flight, which isn't bad for two hours.

I was also very impressed by the stunning view of Mount Hood as we passed it by. Luckily we were sitting on the left side of the plane!

Our flight was in the morning, so we got to our hotel around midday and got settled in while Jane took a short nap. We also went to a grocery store and got stocked up on some food for the week. After an early dinner we headed out to Multnomah falls, which is a short drive out of Portland, an even shorter hike, and a lovely view.

This was what I watched as we went back down the trail.
Lots of stripes!

The biggest thing we noticed about Portland right away was how green everything is. Beautiful! Because of the spray from the falls, this area was even greener if that's possible. Lush and mossy.

That was all we had time for our first day. Jane did great even after the flight and seemed totally excited to be in a new place and seeing new things. I think she's a traveler at heart!

Playing catch-up Part 2: the Tulip Festival

2011-05-11T10:53:00.000-06:00

Michael and I took Jane to the local Tulip Festival a few weeks ago.

On our way there we saw big, dark rain clouds in the sky and I kept saying, "We'll get there before it rains," and "I'm sure it will be over quickly," and "We can make it, we can make it."

By the time we got there the rain was in full swing but we decided to go in anyway. The plus side to that was that we practically had the whole place to ourselves.

After awhile the sun came out even though it was still a little bit rainy.

Jane just went with it.

After the first 20 minutes or so, the rain left and the sky cleared up - you couldn't see a cloud! It was like it never happened.

Beautiful!

All in all a good day!

Playing catch-up Part 1: the Zoo

2011-05-11T10:27:00.002-06:00

I realized that before I can post about the last couple of weeks, I have a few things to catch up on.

In April Jane and I went to the zoo with my sister and her kids. It was a very nice day - a little cold, but sunny. I had never been to the zoo here in Utah and obviously Jane's only animal experiences so far have mostly been watching her mom get too close to a llama.

So get ready for lots of pictures.

Jane was a doll

3/4 of my sister's cute kids

Jane looking at an elephant

Said elephant

Jane absolutely adores her aunt Jacque and
insisted on being held by her for most of the day.
Mommy had no problem with that (heheh).

Jane didn't want to ride by herself but she was
more than happy to sit on mommy's lap

Cute cousin Ella

Cute cousin Alex

When I saw the ostrich I knew we had to ride it.

I didn't even have to push the stroller up
this big hill! Nephews are the best!

One of these things is not like the other...

And help going DOWN the hill...

Jacque said, "Hey, Bre, you should go get
reeeeeeeal close to that llama!"
Ha ha.

Awesome tigers

Jane thought they were cool, too.

Hey, we just rode one of you!

Giraffe

Jane watching said giraffe

No idea what these things were called,
but Jane sure liked them.

Enough to lick the glass.

Jane, quit it!

Jane we have to move on, now. Jane?

Sup?

"Take a picture, it'll last.... oh."
He seemed to say.

What can I say, I like the aviary.

Jane was happy as a clam with Aunt Jacque.

Self portrait.

Beautiful Ella.

We went for a little train ride.
Jane was getting pretty tired by that point.

But her cousins were still going strong!

I think I have forgotten most of the anecdotal events of the day, which you may or may not take to be a good thing. But all in all it was pretty fun. =)

Last clue

2011-05-04T23:29:00.000-06:00

We're stateside - although i would rather be at some of the exotic locales you've mentioned. :)
You can see the downtown buildings behind me in this photo and the notable skyline behind it. Where could we be? We're coming home in a day or so, and I'll do a proper blog post then.

Another Clue

2011-05-02T18:31:00.000-06:00

Hmmm where could we be?

Guess where we are!

2011-05-01T20:24:00.000-06:00

I'll give you a hint. I took this picture from the window of the plane on our way here:

Is it possible that my baby could outshine even Kate Middleton?

2011-04-30T23:06:00.000-06:00

The answer is yes.

Behold Jane, in all her Easter dress glory. She did have a little tumble and got an owie on her chin earlier that morning, but it was probably a good thing because if there were no imperfections her beauty and cuteness would have probably broken the camera lens.

So many of the photos turned out amazing (how can a mother choose?) so I put most of them in an online web album. But here's a preview:

Random Jane stuff

2011-04-17T11:18:00.000-06:00

I have a long, boring (but cute) video of me playing hide and go seek with Jane. My house is messy but when they start playing cute games with you, you don't have time to pick up the morning's clothes before you grab the camera, right?

Also, I just wanted to let you know that this is my version of crack:

Soooooo good. And sweet. And cute.

Also, this has nothing to do with Jane, but check out the deer that I watch daily from the kitchen as I'm doing dishes.

Totally Awesome Birthday

2011-04-09T10:27:00.000-06:00

I had a great birthday this year. Michael took care of Jane in the morning so I could sleep in, and when I woke up I listened to him do the dishes and run around after Jane - beautiful sounds! Then he made me an amazing breakfast with eggs and bacon and biscuits. He'd even gone to the store before any of us woke up so he could buy Tron: Legacy since it had just come out that day!

I had to work from 12-9 which was a bummer, but one of my co-workers made a yummy crumbly chocolate cake for me, and everyone was so nice. On my lunch break from 4-5 my brother took me to this Italian restaurant in Provo that I really like, where they have what I think is possibly the best cake ever!

When I got home from work Michael had picked up fish tacos for dinner and we watched Tron together. I didn't get to see Jane since she had already gone to bed, which made me sad because I hardly got to see her on my birthday. I wanted to take a picture of the two of us together, but her nap in the morning was longer than usual and we didn't have a chance. I had Michael take a picture of me with some of the flowers he got me - did I forget to mention that he got me flowers, too? He really did a great job of making me feel special and doing so many nice things for me. The only bad part about my birthday was that it had to end!

Since I didn't get a picture of Jane and me on my birthday, I'll have to settle for showing you these from a few days before:

So, so tired

2011-03-30T14:24:00.000-06:00

We are all pretty tired around here. Jane has had ear infections for the past two months and just last week was on her 4th round of antibiotics. So yesterday she had tubes put in her ears at the hospital. Did you know they make little hospital gowns for babies? She ran around the room with her little diapered tushie sticking out the back. It was so cute but at the same time so sad that she needed one.

When her turn came she ran off into the hallway with the nurses, giggling. Michael and I just watched her go feeling like, "Fine, Jane. We'll just wait here."

For the procedure they put the babies under with a little bit of gas, and apparently when the babies come out of it they feel funny and it scares them and they start crying. When the little boy on the other side of the curtain in our room came back, he basically cried until they left. So I kept hearing babies crying out in the hallway and thought they were bringing Jane back to me, but no! When they finally did, she was quiet (and dumbfounded), wrapped in a blanket and carried by a nurse who said, "Well, she's our first non-screamer of the day!" with a cheerful smile. Jane was just looking around like, "What? Who said that?"

After giving Jane a bottle we took her home, where she (and Dad) fell asleep in the picture you see above. And after I took the picture I promptly laid down on the couch and slept, too. This hospital visit and the past two months of sickness have been on top of some very trying months for Michael and me, and we are all pretty wiped out.

But at least Jane can start feeling better now. Already I can tell her ears aren't hurting her and she's been quite cheerful today. We played hide and go seek, and one of Jane's favorite places to hide is behind the gliding chair in her room. I love it because when I walk in the room it is usually still gliding back and forth, giving away her position. I'll ask, "Wheeeere's Jane?" and then she giggles and runs behind her crib and sits down, usually leaving her legs hanging out in wide open view. If I go behind her glider then she runs out of the room and into the bathroom where she slowly shuts the door. When I ask, "Where's Jane?" I can hear her giggling behind the door. When I finally do catch her she screams and giggles and then runs off to a new spot. Words aren't cute enough for this girl!

Also, over the past few weeks Jane has been picking up words like crazy. Here are the words I can think of that she has said so far:

Daddy - (she will roam around the house, looking for him, calling, "Daaaaadaaaaaa")
Mama - rarely used =(
Woof Woof - pronounced oof oof
Response to "What does the lion say?" - RRRrrrRRAAAAAARRrrrrrrr!!!
Quack Quack - pronounced ack! ack!
Shoe - pronounced "Shhhuhh" but once or twice she's said the whole "Shoo"
More! - accompanied by the correct hand sign, woo!
All done - done on Monday for the first time, THREE separate times, with the hand signal! Pronounced "aahh dunn!"
Again - this one I heard for the first time today after I asked her, "Oh, you want to do it again?"

It really seems like just within the last week she has been picking up lots of words and repeating things back to me that I never expected her to. More, All Done, and Again were complete surprises. I think she is just eager to grow up even though I told her to cut it out on her birthday!

Now if I could just get her to say my name! =)

What do you feed your one-year-old?

2011-03-14T17:42:00.000-06:00

Many of my friends have kids that are close to Jane's age right now (around 1 year), and my questions is: what do you feed them?

We have been trying lots of new things with Jane, and I have been getting books from the library about what you can feed babies and toddlers, but I'm really craving more ideas - especially practical ones. The books I got are nice, but some of the listings have over 15 ingredients! Or they include weird things like barley (sorry if you are a big barley eater. I have never even seen it at the store even though it's probably there somewhere). Jane is able to pick up small pieces of food and swallow them okay, but I feel like I'm repeating the same things over and over and I want to branch out (cheerios and bananas anyone?).

I'd love any ideas for quick easy finger foods that Jane could pick up off her tray and eat. I'd also love any ideas for foods you can give your kids that you also incorporate into a larger family meal - i.e. what everyone else is eating. I've been wanting to give Jane the foods that I make for dinner, but I'm always afraid that something I've prepared wouldn't be right for her - like what if I've put in too much salt? I have no idea.

So what do you guys do? What's your favorite finger food to give your toddler? What do you give them from your family meal (or what do you hold back on giving them from the family meal)?

In which I milk a cow and get violated by a llama

2011-02-16T19:24:00.001-07:00

Today I took Jane to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving point for the first time. It was really, really windy, but Jane didn't seem to mind it too much. I bought a little handful of feed and when the goats ate it out of my hand Jane GIGGLED and giggled as though it was the funniest thing in the world.

They also had a little pony ride, and I put Jane on a little Shetland, and at first she clung to me but then when it started to move Jane looked around like, "Heeeeeyyy! I got this!" And then she just held on to my one finger as we went around. The guy running the pony ride was nice enough to take a picture, and nice enough to not care that Jane had turned her head all the way around to look behind us, and just handed me back the camera because he was DONE. It was magical.

After that I took a few kernels of feed over to the llama pen, and an obliging lama came over and ate out of my hand while Jane giggled away. When it had eaten everything, the lama suddenly looked me straight in the face, and slowly started moving forward, slowly, slowly, coming close and closer to my face, and somewhere in my head I'm wondering if I should back up, but the main part of my brain is thinking, "What on earth is it doing?" and it's mesmerized me, I'm just watching it come closer and closer, and then suddenly there was this monstrous PHHHH!! It blew a blast of air right in my face that was so forceful that it actually forced my lips open and its nasty lama breath went into my mouth! BAHH! And I laughed like some idiot and then this wave of hideous embarrassed mortification hits me and I start to look around to see who's nearby, but then I stop because I don't really even want to know if anyone saw it, and Jane's just eyeing the llama like, "The hell did you do to my mom?" Aaaand that was when we went back inside and I washed my hands and then I scrubbed my face and my mouth out.

Then I noticed the cow that all the little kids were crowded around, taking turns milking it. Jane and I watched them milk the cow and we stood up by the its head and every time the cow lifted its head, munching and munching with its tongue coming out, Jane would LAUGH and laugh. After awhile the kids left and then some of the timid adults started coming forward to take a turn milking the cow, including ME.

If you look closely in this picture you can see that I am TOTALLY missing the bucket and the milk is just squirting out onto the floor. I guess I was too distracted by the warm squeeeeeeshiness. I hope I just grossed you out.

Here's some more pictures for the road:

Jane's First Birthday!

2011-01-26T21:01:00.003-07:00

Today Jane is one year old! It's hard to believe but it's true.

This is her a year ago on the day she was born:

And here she is today!

Jane had a great day. She had a small party this afternoon with just Mom and Dad and her two Grandmas.

Jane had opened a couple of gifts in the morning, two books from her mom and dad. Grandma Bobbi brought her more balls for her ball pit, and as soon as she saw the bag she knew exactly what they were and got really excited!

I think she seriously has more fun in the ball pit now that it has more balls! So we know now that:

More ball pit balls = More fun!

She got a third, special birthday book from her mom and dad, and an Elmo doll that came just yesterday. When I opened up the box she gasped when she saw his red fur, it was so cute! She thought he was pretty cool, but then she was ready for more!

She really loved this little dog/backpack/leash that my mom got for her, she CLUNG to it and wouldn't let it go. Grandma Bobbi also got her a cute warm fuzzy outfit with hearts and a bunny.

Grandma Carrie got Jane a cute tote bag with socks, a bug puppet with lots of legs (Jane LOVES puppets), an awesome book with flaps and tabs and all sorts of animals, and a warm fuzzy jammie.

Pretty good for her first birthday!
So it was a simple party - grandmas, gifts, cupcake. I had really been looking forward to giving Jane a cupcake because she hasn't really had sugar yet, and I thought it would be a special first birthday treat and that we could maybe take some pictures of her covered in frosting.

Unfortunately, life has a way of not always being what we expected. After Jane opened her presents she started getting pretty fussy and holding onto her right ear. We realized that she had an ear infection, and how sad that it got bad right in the middle of her birthday party! Poor girl! We put her in her highchair and sang her happy birthday and set the cupcake in front of her. She had a tiny taste of frosting and she liked it but then I saw her flinch and I think her ear was just hurting too bad.

After that we did a video call with Michael's brother Rodger in Texas. (Jane liked seeing herself on the computer screen).

After awhile I noticed that Jane had calmed down quite a bit, so I took her into the kitchen to see if she wanted to give the cupcake a second try. I sat at the table with her and I took a small bite of the cupcake. Yummm. Jane watched me with fascination. So I picked up a piece and she opened her mouth and I popped it in and Yummmm. She closed her eyes, she enjoyed it so much! We ate that whole cupcake together right there, alone in the kitchen. No one was there to take a picture and she didn't really get frosting all over, but she did enjoy it and I was able to give her the one treat that I had wanted to. I took a picture of the aftermath:

Aside from her poor ear hurting, I think she had a pretty good day!

Jane,
Happy Birthday, we love you so much!
- Mom and Dad

Alice S. Olson playing the piano

2011-01-05T10:49:00.001-07:00

On Christmas Eve my mother tried to play us a recording of her grandmother, Alice S. Olson, playing the piano in 1977 at 91 years old. She couldn't get it to work that day, so I've been working with it and now I'm able to put the recording here on my blog for my family members to listen to. The easiest way to do this was to make it into a video, and so I just put up a photo of piano keys there as a place holder image while the music plays.

So this is my great-grandmother playing two hymns in 1977. She was a very talented piano player and used to improvise the accompaniment to silent movies. At the beginning you can hear Florence, Mom's cousin, introducing Alice. Florence has told us that there was no piano music in front of Alice while she played, so this is all from memory, and pretty amazing at 91 years old.

I will also put up a recording a little later of her voice, but for now it's just her playing the piano.

Mayhem

2010-12-31T14:19:00.000-07:00

We got Jane *a few* things for Christmas. But there's only one thing that Michael really, really wanted to give Jane.

And that was hundreds of tiny plastic balls. Yes, Michael wanted to give Jane a little ball pit for Christmas. So we ordered the plastic balls online.

"But where will we put the balls?" Michael asked me.

"Oh, in the porta crib or something," I said.

But on Christmas when we took the balls out of the box, I realized that she was going to go down for a nap in the porta crib pretty soon and I didn't want to have to dig out hundreds of balls from it. So I suggested, "Maybe in the cardboard box?"

So we did it, and we put Jane in there, but we soon learned that it wasn't a good idea, as you can see in this video:

Nooo structural support. Hmmm. What to do, what to do?

And that's when I remembered that friends had once (6 years ago) given us an inflatable kiddie pool as a kind of joke. Hah! So we blew it up and put the balls in there and presto:

Instant ball pit! And there were added bonuses to this ball pit. The sides are so low that Jane can actually crawl in and out, which Michael told me but I didn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes!

The next night I was sitting working on something and suddenly I realized Jane was playing in the ball pit behind me. I had to get a video! The video below is about 4:30 long because it's so darn cute. You could skip to about 2:45 to get the idea if you like. The last minute you can see her going in and out of the pool a few times. Crazy girl!

Christmas Day

2010-12-30T15:28:00.001-07:00

Santa came to our house!

The stockings just gave up and laid
right down on the floor.

This has been pretty much the best Christmas I've had in years. Not that the past Christmases have been bad, but there was a whole new joy in watching my daughter open her first gifts and see her smile shyly at the toys as if to say, "Is this for me?" and start playing with them. I'm sorry that the next few pictures all look like the same thing, but I had to include them because you can see Jane sort of figure out how to open up the paper. (Also, the scarf around my neck was a gift from Michael. Isn't it pretty?)

I was surprised that Jane could actually handle opening everything we had for her, we just went very slowly. We let her figure out how to pull off the paper (and kept her from putting it in her mouth). Then she'd play with the toy for awhile and when she got a little bored we just brought out a new gift. We were actually done opening everything in about a half hour.

This is the only toy that didn't work out.
It scares Jane to death.
We'll try it again in a few months.

Michael even got some fun things, too!

When Jane was done opening everything, she just laid back against me on the couch and started playing quietly with her toys. Moments like this make me almost giddy, like when she's watching a show and lays her head against me, or other times when she takes my hand in hers and I think, "My baby is holding my hand." I get a thrill like a teenage girl having her hand held by a cute boy that she likes. Except it's my daughter and it blows me away that I've created something that is now holding my hand and smiling at me. It was extra special to have a moment like that on Christmas morning.

This book was Jane's gift from Santa! She loves it.

Christmas morning was just our small family, but later in the day we had Michael's Mom and Dad over for Christmas: Part Deux!

Jane got this pretty red dress from Grandma, who bought
it before she was even born! That's thinking ahead!

We opened a few more gifts and then we had a dinner that I made, Norman Rockwell style. Okay, it's not a turkey, but if you look closely you can see that chicken is stuffed with a juicy orange and surrounded by a rendition of my Dad's famous dressing. Yum! We also had a cranberry salad (red and green is the way to go on Christmas), a yummy corn dish from Michael's Mom, sweet potatoes, and an apple pie that I didn't get a picture of.

After dinner Jane played with toys some more and then Grandma helped me give her a bath and put her to bed. I think Jane had a very merry Christmas, and we did, too!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

Every year on Christmas Eve my family gets together at my Mom's house to open their gifts from grandma and uncle Adam, and also my siblings and I exchange simple family gifts. This year there were about 24 people there, I think.

That's a lot of people!

Here are just 16 people - looks crowded, doesn't it?

Well, 16 people and one dog.

Uncle Doug didn't even have to pay
Ella to give him hugs this year!

Uncle Adam had his hands full with Alex.

Literally.

Nikki got caught showing Jane some looove.

Jane liked to play with the paper! After the first hour or so of
shyness, just threw herself right into the chaos with her cousins.

Both Jane and I got some pretty things to wear from Grandma.

Jane also got one very LARGE package from Grandma.
What is it?
(Watch your head, Michael!)

The tension mounts.

Oooh a fun scooter thingy!
Thanks to Daddy for spending what felt like an hour putting it together!

My sister pointed out on her blog how grateful we were to have uncle Doug and my Mom with us this Christmas. Doug has struggled with cancer for years and underwent major surgery this year, and in October my mom suffered a serious stroke. They are both doing very well now, but it just made this season a little more meaningful.

In light of my mom's stroke, we put together a special calendar for her, decorated with photos of her children as children, and her grandchildren, and added a few memories from each of us. I felt like it was important to take a chance while still have her here to express appreciation for a few of the things she's done for us and remember good things that she's brought to our lives.

Merry Christmas!

Best Christmas in Years

2010-12-27T22:12:00.000-07:00

I absolutely loved Christmas. One of the best parts about this year was being able to write this on a package:

A photo-laden Christmas post is coming, but I just had to share this first.

Trapped

2010-12-20T12:20:00.006-07:00

A few days ago Michael was talking to me in the front room, and my mommy-meter wiggled and I said, "Where's Jane?"

Michael went to find her and brought her back with two glue traps (meant for mice) stuck to each arm.

I wish wish WISH I had thought to take a picture, because the look on her face was so hilarious, like "Um, what's going on?"

But instead my first thought was to release her from the mouse traps as soon as possible, while teasing her that we caught something much bigger in those traps!

Family sing-along, with lots of pictures!

2010-12-16T18:30:00.003-07:00

Each year my family gets together for a Christmas sing-along where we all sing carols, the kids perform, and everybody brings a dessert. This year was Jane's first time, and she had so much fun even though she was pretty tired. I still managed to take a bunch of photos, even though I was taking care of Jane a lot. I didn't get any pictures of the Smith kids performing, I'm sorry! I'd be holding Jane and as soon as I got her taken care of their songs were over. Maybe I can train Jane to be the family photographer someday.

The same night my co-workers had a party that we went to, and there are a few photos from that at the bottom. Videos are also at the bottom.

Cousin Cameron held Jane several times, and Jane loved it!

And I forgot to tell Cameron that her hair rocked!

Matti did some amazing playing and gave Erika a break on the piano.

Merri on violin (beautiful!)

Will on violin (amazing!)

Jack on the piano (when did he learn how to do that?!)

Everyone wanted to help Jane feel better, but sometimes
the sight of Mommy not holding you is pretty upsetting.

But at least she looked cute as a button!

Jane thinks Matti is pretty fun!

Jacque, did I mention that your tree looked beautiful?!

Uncle Adam even made an appearance, and he brought Emily!

The next several photos show Uncle Doug playing with Jane.
He would laugh and she would giggle like crazy!
It was pretty hilarious!

Jane liked bumping heads with Merri.

That girl gets around!

We actually had a second party the same night. Yes, we are fun gluttons! My co-workers were having a Christmas party just a few blocks away, so we stopped in for "a few minutes" (which became an hour) to say hi and to chow down on the yummy food! Jane was the only kid at the party (Grace doesn't count), and she was generally passed around and adored, which is her favorite activity!

Jane is being held by Danette, next to her daughter Grace in the blue shirt.

Kelly is kneeling behind the table in the blue shirt,
and Ann-Marie is next to her in the brown shirt.

This was just after Jane bumped foreheads with Adrienne.
You can see she is eyeing the forehead again thinking,
"Maybe just one more time..."

Butt ruffles!

And what's an incredibly long holiday post without videos?!

This first one is Doug cracking Jane up. This went on for several minutes and was completely hilarious. I only caught the end of it. =(

The next one is Cameron dancing around with Jane. Cam really knows her waltz!

The whole night, Jane would bump foreheads with people. Practically every time I looked at her she was bumping foreheads with somebody. It's like her way of giving a kiss. She did it to everybody! At my co-workers' party she found a cute boy, Todd, and did it like 10 times to him. What a flirt!

I managed to catch a video of her doing it to Merri.

Michael can't catch a break

2010-12-16T10:14:00.002-07:00

Poor Michael. The holidays are a difficult time for him, mainly because the anticipation of unopened gifts is pretty much agonizing for him. Not knowing what I've gotten him drives him crazy, this grown man that I'm married to. This is the same man that made us open all of our gifts on Christmas Eve last year, because he couldn't wait for Christmas morning. And it's not just wanting to know what I've gotten him, he's also dying to see me open my gifts, too. Personally, I think it's adorable, and incredibly fun to mess with him and taunt him.

Unfortunately, it's not as easy for him to tease me. Last week when Michael was ordering a few things on Amazon, he started taunting me, "A couple of these things might be for youuuuu." I think this elicited a shrug and a smile from me.

Compare that with later that day when I brought home a couple of gifts from the store and wrapped them before he woke up. When he saw them later, he was instantly asking me a million questions. "What did you get me! Can I open it? This one looks like a movie. Is it a movie? I can tell it's a movie. What movie is it? Is it one of the ones on my Amazon list? Let's look at my list together and you can tell me if it's one of those." Then he took me through EACH movie on his list, all of which I said "no" to. (Heh heh heh)

Then we have the following conversation:

Michael: "It isn't The Big Bang Theory, Season 2, is it?"

Me: "No." [Long pause] "Is that what you got me?"

Michael: "... CRAP!"

Me, after I stopped laughing: "Did you get it for the same deal we saw on Black Friday?"

Michael: "No, it was about $15 more. But Alice in Wonderland was $10 off, so it balances out a little."

Me: "Michael? Is that the other thing you got me?"

Michael: "CRAPPPP!!!!!"

Poor Michael can't catch a break.

Somehow every year I accidentally figure out what he's getting me. Ok, 2009 he did slip a couple of surprises past me, but pretty much every other year I've always figured it out. Probably because he tries to taunt me and then accidentally lets a clue slip by and I figure it out. But this year he really didn't give me much to work with! I mean, I can't do much when he's literally telling me what he got me.

There's always next year.

They're baaaaack

2010-12-16T09:47:00.001-07:00

The herd is back in their favorite winter haunt.

This one has a favorite spot as you can see, where he can keep an eye on our house and watch our comings and goings.

I watch the herd from my kitchen window as I'm doing dishes, and the other day two of the deer were literally butting heads for almost an hour. I finally got out the camera and of course they did it for about 30 seconds more, but I caught a little bit of it. You can hear Jane chatting with me in the background and banging on her food tray. The video isn't the greatest, but the brownish blurs are supposed to be the deer.

Jane's first Thanksgiving!

2010-11-28T20:50:00.001-07:00

Jane definitely had fun at her first Thanksgiving! We went to Michael's aunt Marlene's house in Riverton, only a half hour drive from our home. It was the first time that Jane met a lot of her relatives on Daddy's side. But it looks like she's been accepted as one of the gang!

Jane is ready for grub!

Jane and Grandma Carrie

There were a lot of pies!

Jane knows how to get around

Michael, Jane and her Great-Grandma Bonnie!

Jane and her great-aunt Sherren. You can't see but Jane is giggling!

Marlene giving Jane some love

What a fun day!

Sleep talking

2010-11-19T13:59:00.000-07:00

Today I changed Jane's diaper in her room and stayed in there for a few minutes to fold some clothes and put them away. Jane was sitting in her crib playing with all of the clothes I intended to fold and making monster sounds, and I was chatting with her as I worked. Michael was asleep in the other room but the door was slightly ajar, and suddenly I heard this:

Michael: Breannnnne.

Me: Yes?

Michael: I need you to come get this baby.

Me: ... The baby is in here with me.

*rustling of the bed covers*

Michael: Are you sure?

Me: Yep, she's in my arms.

Michael (doubtfully): Okay...

As you can probably tell, Michael's graveyard shift at work has been taking a bit of a toll on him lately. He's told me before he wakes up in a panic thinking that the baby is in the covers and looking desperately for her in them. Poor Michael!

No place like home

2010-11-05T16:24:00.001-06:00

...which is exactly where Jane spent Halloween! She didn't go Trick-or-Treating, seeing as how neither Michael nor I wanted to go knock on someone's door, hold up the baby and say, "Now give me candy."
Instead Jane helped me hand out candy (aka grabbed at it while I tried to juggle her, the bowl, and give children fistfuls of candy).

But what's Halloween without a costume?

So... cute! Must... try... to resist... pinching cheeks.
By the way - I honestly didn't like to play dress-up with dolls when I was little. I thought it was a pain to try to stuff little cloth or plastic arms into tiny outfits (I was a pragmatic child at times). But, I absolutely LOVE dressing Janie up, as you can probably tell.

Would you like to see several more photos? Okay!

Toto!

I took more, of course. Because I can't take one picture of anything (I must take a million!). You can see the album here.

If you're wondering, I purchased the dress and the shoes (separately) on Etsy. I was really impressed with the dress... the white peasant shirt was actually sewn in and it all had one zipper going down the back - so easy to put on her. Plus, the seller also sent me matching blue gingham pantaloons (okay, it was a diaper cover, but that just sounds less cute), blue socks, the headband, and Toto.

Sneak Peek

2010-10-30T13:35:00.002-06:00

More pictures to come =)

Guess who

2010-10-13T10:47:00.000-06:00

Guess who Jane is going to be for Halloween!

Labor Day

2010-10-06T11:02:00.000-06:00

I haven't had a chance until now to post about our first backyard party in this house. Last year my sister suggested we have a Labor Day party here, but it was a little too soon after we had just moved in. So this year early September was the goal to have things ready for a party. But now she says that I am booked for Labor Day every year! I didn't see that coming!

It was cool to see some of the nice features of my backyard actually get used. Our swing set was nicely broken in:

Jack is a monkey!

And our backyard stream got lots of attention:

We put some tables outside and had an awesome dinner (potluck ftw!):

Jane's cousins, being the amazing explorers that they are, found all sorts of edible things in my yard that I didn't know were there. I have trees with some fruit that everyone disagrees on: some people say it's plums, kumquats, or some kind of nectarine. All I know is that it tastes like an orange otter-pop. We also found lots of grapes, and the biggest surprise of all: onions!

And our backyard fire pit got used for the first time!

Of course, Jane had lots of fun, too!

She especially loved riding on Uncle Adam's shoulders!

All in all, it was pretty fun!

Family Fun

2010-09-25T16:26:00.000-06:00

In August Michael's brother and sister in law, Chris and Camille, came to visit family in Utah. They brought their two kids, Ian & Abby, and it was the first time we'd ever met Abby and the first time they had ever met Jane!

We all had breakfast in American Fork canyon, joined by Michael's aunt, Shara and her daughter Melise.

Shara cooking up some yummy breakfast.

Chris and Abby

Grandpa lugging Jane!

We went to Cascade Springs after breakfast. Pretty!

Melise was awesome and loved holding Jane!

Ian and Abby on Chris and Michael's shoulders.

Jane had a hard time keeping up with everyone!

The day after we went to Salt Lake and had fun seeing the town. I don't have very many pictures of that day, but I liked this one of Jane and Melise.

Jane's New Shirt

2010-09-15T13:54:00.000-06:00

I saw this a few years ago and picked it up, crossing my fingers that I'd have a girl to put it on. Lucky Jane!

Nerdy Shirts: Item 3

2010-08-28T16:43:00.005-06:00

This one is really for the gamers out there, specifically World of Warcraft. My brother and I used to play a lot, so this shirt really cracks me up. When you start a new character in the game, you start with some basic statistics: strength, intelligence, wisdom, etc. Looks like Jane's charisma rating is higher than normal, though! Of course!

Nerdy Shirts: Item 2

2010-08-11T16:30:00.001-06:00

Our second installment in the nerdy shirts series: the star trek shirt. (Remember Item 1?)

I suggested when my brother bought this that he go with a more Lt. Uhura kind of color (since Jane is a girl and all), but his opinion is that you can't really beat the Captain's shirt. Go big or go home, right?

Nothing against you, William Shatner, but I am totally thinking of Chris Pine whenever I see this shirt.

... and sometimes even when I don't see this shirt. Woo!

Thanks!

2010-08-11T16:29:00.001-06:00

Thanks to everyone who helped us out with our survey! We got all of the responses that we needed just in time. As a thank-you, here's a little "library humor" (you might have to click on it to read the text).

Help!

2010-08-08T19:21:00.006-06:00

Michael needs to do a survey for his sociology class. Would you mind answering these questions for him? He needs 30 people to fill it out, so grab your kids and spouse or anyone who happens to be standing near you. I know this doesn't seem like a "guy" kind of quiz, but if you are a guy we'd still appreciate your responding anyway.

(I just checked and if you're viewing this in a reader, the poll below is invisible. You'll have to visit my blog to answer the survey. Also, if you can't read the questions due to width problems, I've added them in the comments below).

View Survey

Family Vacation 2010

2010-08-01T13:45:00.023-06:00

This year my family went on vacation to Island Park, Idaho. It's a beautiful area and right next to Yellowstone National Park. We had lots of fun hanging with all of my sisters and their families, my brother, my Dad and his wife Kathy, my Aunt Lynne and her boyfriend Don. There were 29 of us total, and we all stayed in the same cabin! We had lots of activities planned.

On Tuesday we went to Yellowstone and saw lots of animals:

We also saw some geysers and hot springs. We didn't stay long in the park, but it was a beautiful drive anyway.

The next day we rented a boat and rode around one of the reservoirs in the area. It was slow and safe enough to take Jane on, though she wasn't crazy about the wind at first.

Even some of the kids, like my niece Ella, got to steer! Fun!

Later that day Michael and I went to the Mesa waterfalls. It was pretty gorgeous.

On Thursday a bunch of us went horseback riding. This involved a LOT of horses.

It was a beautiful area to ride around in. There was a lake, and green meadows, pine trees, wildflowers... gorgeous!

Later that night we had a campfire and smores.

The "grandkids" (a.k.a. my nieces and nephews) had fun decorating bags with the number of what order they were born, starting with my oldest sister's oldest child. Jane falls in at number 14! (#16 is already on the way!) We didn't make a bag for Jane, but her number looked so cute on a onesie!

Friday we were back in Yellowstone! This big guy greeted us just off of the road a few minutes after we had entered the park!

Michael, Jane and I headed straight for Old Faithful, and we saw it go off... over the trees, as we were entering the parking lot. Bummer! It goes off every 92 minutes, so we decided to stick around, take it easy, give Jane time out of her car seat, have something to eat, and wait for the next one. We sat in the lodge in front of some big windows that looked right onto Old Faithful and watched the steam while we waited.

Finally when it was about time we went outside and then...

Wait for it...

Woo!

Here's Michael and Old Faithful:

After that we went to see Grand Prismatic Spring, which has some amazing colors and is the biggest natural hot spring in the world.

This is what it looks like from above (this is not my photo):

We also saw the Excelsior spring which is a deep aquamarine blue, but believe me, you wouldn't want to jump in! Just the steam was HOT.

After that we decided to drive the southern loop of Yellowstone, we passed the lake, and went through some plains with big herds of buffalo (okay, they are bison, but somehow it just doesn't sound as cool). The herds were right next to the roadway, so we just snapped these photos as we drove by (notice the babies!):

We also stopped by Artists Point, which has a stunning view of Yellowstone's Grand Canyon and this massive waterfall. Even from as far as we were, you could hear the pounding of the water:

That night after dinner, we played a trivia game with the whole family, and then had karaoke! It was way fun even though it was hard after a long day!

Now we need a good rest after all that fun!

Father's Day

2010-06-20T11:53:00.003-06:00

Happy first Father's Day, Michael!

Strawberry Days

2010-06-17T21:58:00.004-06:00

Our city's yearly summer fair is called "Strawberry Days" - they set up some carnival rides and lots of booths where you can win prizes or buy local crafts, plus they have day activities and competitions. Little did we know that Strawberry Days is set up about 2 blocks from our house! So this afternoon I asked Michael if we could walk over - presumably for funnel cake. Funnel cake is pretty much the only motivation I need to do anything.

Even though we went late in the day, we still needed to protect Jane from the sun, so she wore this cute hat and some sunblock. But the temperature couldn't be beat - it was in the high 60's... ahh. Perfect for walking around (with funnel cake).

We also got some more use out of our awesome sling. No hands and so comfy!

I saw lots of things that in future years I know I'll love to waste money on for Jane: little crowns with ribbons hanging off and booths where you can make spin-art paintings. Plus it will give me an excuse to do that stuff, too! Aren't kids awesome? I think we only walked around for 45 minutes, but it was still a bit too much for Jane, poor baby! Too much fun!

Look out below

2010-05-24T12:46:00.010-06:00

Last night it rained a lot, and then I guess the temperature dropped below freezing, and all that rain froze. Then this morning when I woke up it was snowing quite a bit:

The big tree in my front yard just got all of these big new lush leaves, and I guess it couldn't handle the weight of the leaves, snow, and all of that ice, because I heard a crash and then saw this in my driveway:

Then about an hour later, I heard a big crack and looked out the window to see this puppy falling:

It fell right on top of Jane's room. I don't think there's any damage, and I'm glad everything is okay, but for Pete's sake - I had JUST gotten her to fall asleep for a nap. Oh well.

I looked out the window and I can see big hunks of ice frozen to the branches. I bet with the ice and the snow it just got way too heavy. Plus with the big one, it looks like a smaller branch broke and then took out a larger one with it on the way down.

And we were just talking about getting a tree trimmer last week. =/

Spring surprises

2010-05-15T11:35:00.000-06:00

Spring is the only season that I haven't really experienced yet in this house, so it's been kind of fun seeing what pops up outside. Especially all the flowers - I wasn't really expecting them.

The trees over our stream budded with white flowers:

The bushes by the driveway had some pretty yellow and pink flowers:

Of course the tree in the front yard has really started looking beautiful and not so scraggly:

And our other tree in the front yard had pink blossoms:

But this was the biggest surprise of all:

So pretty!

It beats me what all the names are of these trees and plants. And I have to admit that I don't really care. It's just fun to see them flowering after the winter made everything seem so dead.

But this is the prettiest thing around here:

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T15:19:00.006-06:00

Today I dressed Jane up in a special dress that I bought a couple years ago.

I saw it online and couldn't help ordering it.

Even though I wasn't pregnant at the time.

But I hoped to have a daughter someday.

Jane is just what I was hoping for!

Happy Mother's Day!

12 weeks old today

2010-04-20T10:06:00.004-06:00

It's amazing how far Jane has come, and how different she is already than when we first met her. Her little body can stretch out and hold itself up, instead of crumpling into a little snuggly ball all of the time. She'll smile whenever people smile right at her (and charm the pants off of them). She's cooing a bit - not really conversationally yet, but I'm sure we'll get to do some girl talk soon. It's harder now to see the baby that came out of my tummy than to see the beginnings of a little kid. I think she's pretty independent, and that she really has a sense of humor. She can also seem like a 90's teenager to me - remember how they used to say "Hel-LO!" and "DUH." She totally makes those faces. (Maybe they still say DUH, but not like we did in the 90's. We had attitude). She also LOVES her Daddy, and is totally going to be a Daddy's girl (not to mention how he will be wrapped around her little finger, too).

Her daily schedule has been changing, too. Around 4 - 6 weeks I started noticing that Jane would fall asleep late at night (around 1:00 - 2:30am) for a good 5 or 6 hour chunk. A couple of weeks ago she started falling asleep around 11:30pm (SO much better than 2:00am), and she'll sleep until 6:30 or 7:30 in the morning - glorious! I didn't do anything to get her to do that, she just fell into that routine on her own. In the morning, she's happy and she takes long naps. In the afternoon, she starts to get fussy and doesn't nap or takes quick cat naps and she eats pretty often. It gets pretty hard for me from 8pm-11pm, but it's easier now knowing that sweet relief is coming by 11:30.

I started working again when she was 6 weeks old, 20 hours a week, mostly in the evenings. Michael watches her while I'm gone. He is still working graveyard shifts himself, so we don't see a lot of each other but we both get good time with Jane.

Jane is so awesome that we've both decided we want a million more kids. Maybe we'll get lucky next time and have twins! ;)

ps - okay, just kidding. We do want lots more kids, but that's not to say it isn't hard. Especially when Michael goes to work all night and needs to sleep all day. I'm not sure if I've ever felt more tired than I do at 10:30 pm when my whole body aches so bad I don't know how I'm going to pick her up again (and there might be some occasional crying thrown in there). But fatigue has never been so worthwhile.

Family Resemblance

2010-04-14T10:09:00.015-06:00

SO MANY people love to tell me that Jane looks just like her Daddy!

To you I say: hmph.

My sister asked if I had any baby pictures of myself, and I only have a couple on my computer (there are more in my mom's photo albums... hopefully. I was the last of 6 kids, I'm lucky there are even 2 baby photos of me). Luckily I have thousands of photos of Jane (probably), so I decided to compare.

Here's the first photo of me on my blessing day:

And a couple of Jane that I think are similar:

Here's the second one of me, I think I must have been a few months old:

(Check out my rockin' hair!)

And a couple of Jane:

Am I crazy, or is it UNCANNY?!

To be fair, I tried to find a baby photo of Michael, and I only have one where Michael looks closer to a year old. And in my opinion, it doesn't look much like Jane to me:

So I leave it to you Meservys to find any other baby photos of Michael and REPRESENT! But I did go through and try to find some photos of Jane that were similar to Michael's baby photo.

But I mean, come on:

That's my face!

(p.s. - my real and honest opinion? Sometimes I think she looks like a mixture of Michael and me, but most of the time I think she has her own look. Michael and I both agree that she looks nothing like what we were expecting. She just looks like Jane to me.)

But now it's time for your opinion. Tell me what you think!

Photos

2010-04-11T13:18:00.001-06:00

Jane is only two and a half months old, and we already have a ton of photos of her. I wanted to post a few of my favorites from the past couple of months:

Three weeks old:

Five weeks old:

Seven weeks old:

8 weeks old:

This is my favorite one:

My Dad asked for a photo a day (ideally), and I created a separate blog for those photos: dayswithjane.blogspot.com. It's amazing to see how she's changing over the days and weeks!

Nerdy shirts: Item 1

2010-04-09T12:48:00.008-06:00

For my birthday, my brother got me some awesome onesies for Jane. I know they are nerdy, but I love them! This is the first:

If you don't get the reference right away, this should help:

And if you still don't get the reference, then we might not be able to be friends anymore. =(

The onesies are a little big on her, but they should fit pretty well in a few months! Thanks Adam!

Birthday!

2010-04-05T21:26:00.003-06:00

Today I turned 26! Janie's gift to me was falling asleep at 11:30 last night, waking up at 6:30 to eat for half and hour, and then falling asleep again until 10:30am. Good baby! Michael had some roses for me, and he watched Janie while I got to go to the store (by myself!) and get a couple of new shirts. Then he made me dinner! What an awesome birthday. Plus I had about a million phone calls from family wishing me a happy birthday, that was nice, too! Also, we finished paying all of our hospital bills from Jane's birth today. Now the repo men won't come and take her away! All in all, a great day.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T21:14:00.000-06:00

My sister Lauren invited us over for Easter dinner! We had a big ham, delicious roasted veggies, Lauren's amazing deviled eggs, fruit salad (with pineapple - which is so amazing right now), veggies with dip, rolls... I wonder if I'm forgetting anything? Anyway, it was delicious!

Jane got lots of love and attention, which she seems to soak up happily.

And as it happened to be the day before my birthday, Lauren made a YUMMY dessert that was like a build-your-own-trifle. Mine had a little bit of everything!

I declare this Easter - a success!

Cooincidence?

2010-03-26T10:20:00.005-06:00

Right after she was born, Jane would make the "Zoolander" face a lot, which really cracked me up. She's not doing it as much anymore, but yesterday I caught a decent one on camera.

Isn't she really really ridiculously good-looking?

In case anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about, there's some explanation here.

Jane's namesake

2010-03-17T09:36:00.000-06:00

There has been a little bit of speculation as to where the inspiration for Jane's name came from.

I think you might be surprised!

It's not this Jane:

Not this Jane:

Neither of these literary Janes:

Not even this Jane:

Are you ready?

Here it is!

Failure is not an option!

Ok, just kidding!
But I'll give 10 gold stars to whoever can name all of the Janes here.

Jane's Blessing

2010-03-14T15:40:00.008-06:00

Jane was blessed today. She looked so pretty in her dress. After she got blessed, she was passed around two entire LONG pews of family members, all the way to the closing prayer. So cute!

Just a note to my friends who may be blessing babies in the future: check and see when daylight savings is "springing forward" - and avoid a blessing that Sunday if your church is at 9am! We were all so tired, but everyone made it! After the blessing we came back to our house to have some treats and visit a little.

Jane got passed around some more at home!

And here are some pictures of her in her pretty dress:

Pretty girl!

Jane and me

2010-03-07T01:25:00.002-07:00

Michael took some pictures of Jane and me today. Here are my favorites:

Milestones

2010-02-23T23:58:00.006-07:00

Jane is 4 weeks old today! Things have slowly been changing these past few weeks. Some of her shirts are a little tighter on her than they were 3 weeks ago, but she still fits into them. As of yesterday she has been giving us big smiles when we smile at her, which is thrilling. Jane didn't really cry very much the first week or two, and slowly she has started to cry a little more (which I know is normal). I think she has two cries: one is an "ahem, could you help me?" cry which usually is very short. The second cry I call her "Business" cry, because when she does it, she means business, and I usually worry that she is going to pass out (omg, is she ever going to inhale?).

Jane's eyes are very well coordinated now, and we rarely see her cross-eyed anymore. She has learned how to bring her little fist to her mouth to help calm her down, and she can hold her head up by herself for a couple minutes at a time! Her favorite thing to look at is someone's face, and she turns her head towards us if Michael or I talk in the room. Just this week her thighs started looking chunky, which we love, we call them chunky monkey thighs.

I have been so happy for these past four weeks, I love being a mom, and I think Michael was missing Jane all his life, he has taken to being a Dad like a duck to water - I think he was always meant to do it. He is such a good Dad, too, more patient than I ever realized - he can hold that girl while she screams bloody murder and coo and smile at her all the same. We have loved this last month - I wonder how long this high can last? =)

Poop Apocalypse

2010-02-22T15:30:00.004-07:00

Today Jane had her first crazy blowout. And I've seen them before, but never where you had to clean poop out of their armpits.
I'll spare you pictures of the baby, but just look at what happened to her onesie:

I'm not even showing you the inside.
Can you imagine how hard it was to get that thing off of her, over her head? She went straight into the bath.

I'm not really annoyed, it would be harder if she didn't pull cuteness like this right after:

She fell dead asleep in that position. Oh, Jane. All's forgiven!

I am so in trouble

2010-02-19T15:25:00.001-07:00

Look how cute. All she has to do is flash this face, and she can have whatever she wants.

Nesting: Nursery Edition

2010-02-14T17:45:00.014-07:00

A few days ago our crib came (generously provided by my Aunt Lynne!), which felt like the last piece of the puzzle for the nursery:

Right now there is a painting by Aunt Lynne hanging over it which looks nice, but I'll have to find a safety anchor for it (or if I can't we might have to move the painting before Janie starts sleeping in the crib). At the moment she's sleeping in a bassinet in our room so we've got some time to figure it out. But I do think it looks fun with the yellow walls around it.

The room is still a work in progress, but it's finished enough that I feel okay about posting pictures. The bookshelf beside the crib is still something I want to figure out; it would be nice if it was organized and a little more accessible.

The crib matches our changing table pretty well:

I got the extra-long version changing table, which is nice because we can lay diapers and wipes right on the same surface and they're easily accessible. I usually don't have so much stored on the shelf above (only soft things), but I put a bunch of diapers up there for this photo. Did you notice the little bear holding a card with Jane's name on the shelf? One of the nurses made that for her hospital bassinet, she did such a cute job.

Also, did you notice this guy?

Poor Jane. Her mom has quite a thing for frogs. In fact, you can probably find a frog in every room of my house. The girl has quite a few froggie items. Grandma found this little frog trash bin at the store and couldn't help getting it, and I think it's adorable, especially when you open the lid and it goes RIBBIT RIBBIT. So cute!

I also like that the changing table doubles as a dresser; we don't have to go far to get her outfits out:

She's still wearing her newborn-sized outfits, and all of her older clothes are hanging in the closet:

I'll have to do a post about some of her outfits soon, she's gotten some cute ones from family, friends, and co-workers (including that frilly purple thing that makes my estrogen spike every time I see it - that's why it's hanging out in front of the clothes).

We found these prints for free online and printed a few out and put them in inexpensive frames we found at Ikea:

I've also got a rocking chair in the room that I've borrowed from my mom. Over the window are some paper cranes and flowers that were decorations at my baby shower:

There's not a great spot on the walls for this Alberto Cerriteno print that I got a few years ago (with a baby in mind), but I think it looks okay here:

So here's a spin around the room:

It's nice that the room feels somewhat finished. It sat empty for so many months after we moved in, and over the last couple of months we've added things piece by piece and it's all coming together now. Music to a nesting mother's ears!

Opening Ceremonies

2010-02-12T19:05:00.005-07:00

The Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics are starting in a few minutes, and I am SO BUMMED that I'm not having a big party at my house right now with everyone I know. Michael and I don't entertain, ever, but we make an exception every two years to throw a big bash for the games. I started planning for tonight before I even got pregnant last May, but with my due date just a week ago we decided to cancel the festivities. But I hope everyone is still watching tonight (and keep us in mind for 2012)!

Here's a picture from Opening Ceremonies 2008:

I guess in the meantime I'll settle for this:

How to tell if your baby is hungry

2010-02-10T19:10:00.002-07:00

Two Weeks Old

2010-02-09T12:03:00.005-07:00

We made it to two weeks! We saw the doctor this morning, and Jane now weighs 7 lbs 12 oz! So apparently she's doing really well and is very healthy. The doctor even told me that I could let her sleep longer than 4 hours (if she goes that long - I don't have to wake her up) because her weight and feeding are good. Yay! Sign me up for that. At night, preferably.

Last night she fell asleep with her hand in her mouth:

And then Michael decided he was too good for the bassinet and decided to fall asleep with the baby right in bed. Luckily someone came along and saved her from death by snuggle.

And here's a couple of other pictures from this last week that I like:

Due Date

2010-02-04T13:37:00.002-07:00

Today is my due date!

Janie and I decided to celebrate by partyin' in the USA.

*Note: the baby is a Miley Cyrus fan. Not me. I am obviously too cool. I only bought that song on iTunes for the baby. Yup.

Way to come 9 days early, baby!

Hair cut

2010-02-03T14:33:00.003-07:00

Do I look like I had a baby a week ago?

I was expecting to still look a little pregnant afterward, but I guess all that throwing up has some advantages...
What would you rather put up with? Morning sickness for 9 months or looking 6 months pregnant right after?
I would go with the 6 month pregnant thing, too.

I got a hair cut today, which was a nice break. We tried to take some pictures with the baby but she thought it would be funny to make a stinker face in all of them. This is the best one we got:

Still pretty cute, though!