A Vomitastic Day

If you couldn't already guess from the title, this post may contain some information you might file under "TMI". So, consider yourself warned. That being said, I like to find humor in insignificant unpleasantness, and so you are the lucky one who gets to hear about it.

Last Thursday night, Lisa made a delicious dinner that contained some meatballs. We've had them several times before with no problems. It was really good, and so I actually ate quite a bit. As we were going to bed that night, Lisa felt a little bit of nausea, but we went to bed without incident.

Fast forward a few hours, and I found myself turning in bed with a bit of a stomach ache. I hoped it would go away, but it only seemed to get worse. While my stomach was trying to decide which direction to send all the food it didn't want, I did my best to convince it to send it down south. Throwing up is way up there on the dislike list, and I would take diarrhea over vomit any day. And so I sat on the toilet hoping relief would come.

(this paragraph is probably the worst, feel free to skip it)
A little bit came out, but it seemed like my stomach was going to allow me to taster dinner once again. So, I got off the toilet and readied myself in puke position. Unfortunately, I got a whiff of what I had already left in there, and so I instinctively recoiled a bit. This threw off my aim, and thus the first heave was far from a direct hit into the toilet. More heaves quickly followed, but I was able to improve my aim somewhat on those. After I had a chance to catch my breath some, I actually saw the mess I had made. There was throw up all over the floor, not to mention my legs. Lisa was such a dear, and asked if she could get me something to drink, but at that time, there was no way I was giving my stomach more ammo. Upon seeing the mess, I had to get out of there before I made it worse. I felt so bad leaving it all there, but I had to get away.

Considering I had puke on my legs, showering became priority number one on the agenda. I headed to another bathroom and started the water. As it was getting warm, the thought came to my mind, "Man, it'd be great to just sit in a warm bath for a while..." Fortunately, I had enough sense to realize that would mean sitting in vomit-water. Undesirable. So, I took a nice long warm shower, even if it meant standing.

I got out of the shower and headed back to bedroom. Lisa was being wonderful, as usual, cleaning up the mess I had made. However, I could soon smell the odor I had left. I was forced to rapidly retreat once again. I could not be near that bathroom anymore. And so, I spent the rest of the night sleeping on the recliner in James' room. He had since woken up from all the commotion, and spent the rest of the night in our bed with Lisa.

So, I spent most of the day, wasting away on the couch not doing anything. Thinking it was an isolated incident, Lisa had the leftovers for lunch. I saw her eating them, and I immediately had to roll over the way and not think about it. I suppose I should have offered some sort of caution, but I was banning all thoughts of that food from my mind.

Then came the evening, and Lisa was feeling the nausea once again. It wasn't long before she found herself in the bathroom. Fortunately, her aim was much better than mine, and so there was no mess to clean up. I had also recovered pretty well by then, and so I am grateful I could hear her without making a new mess on the couch.

And so our two beleaguered souls gingerly made our way around the house for the rest of the evening. Who would have thought James would be the only one in the family to not puke for a day? Well, we got James to bed, and made our way to bed nice and early.

By Sunday, we were both feeling pretty good again, but had pretty much sworn off those meatballs for quite some time. We usually go to Lisa's parents' house for dinner on Sundays, and so I mentioned to Lisa how we should probably warn her mom, and how it would be funny if that was what she made for dinner that evening. Well, turns out more humor was to be had, as we found out that those exact same meatballs are exactly what she had prepared. Needless to say, we filled ourselves on other parts of the meal.

Today Lisa returned the poisonous meatballs, and our house is no longer infected. After such a day, you can only help but laugh at it, and hope it doesn't happen again. So, what's the moral of this story? I'd like to think that it's something along the lines of: The family that pukes together, stays together.

Latest Happenings

It's been a long time since our last post so here it goes....

James now has 4 teeth on the top and 2 on the bottom. He is absolutely adorable and absolutely the most mischievous little angel ever. He LOVES stairs and he tries to get up them whenever possible. Any time we turn our backs, he makes a beeline for the staircase. He goes up really well, but he's still figuring out how to get down. If I happen to catch him at the base of the stairs, he'll look back at me, squeal with delight, and try to get up as fast as possible. James also LOVES his daddy. :) James and Dan will chase each other around and have a grand old time. :) James has also discovered the kitchen cupboards. He found my colander and had a great time playing with it. Here are some cute pictures. :)

I made bread! It is cinnamon bread and it's pretty good, check it out. I'm thinking of using it to make french toast.

I made a fabric wreath too, I think I like it. I wanted to make a Christmas Stocking for James, check out the picture below. The green is the lining. The red will be the top, and the yellow plaid will be the main part of the stocking...hopefully it works well. :)

We put our Christmas tree up!!! James helped as much as he could, he loves the lights on the tree.

One crazy week

This week has been full of new adventures, some good and some that were really not so great. James started off the new adventures on Tuesday night, when his new tooth started to come in. He had a fever and did not sleep well at all that night. The fever got up to 101.9, but he seemed to be fine so I just watched him the next day. His fever dropped Wednesday morning, but by Wednesday night, well Thursday morning around 3am, it was up to 104. Thankfully it dropped to 100.9 by about 9am Thursday morning and he has been so much better since then.

Through all of this, Dan's throat had been hurting, but he hadn't said too much about it because we were both concerned about James. Thursday night Dan decided to look at his throat in the mirror to see if he could see anything. Sure enough, there were a few white dots on his throat. We had plan's to be with Dan's brother and his family on Saturday night, and to be with the rest of Dan's family that lives in Utah on Monday for FHE. I was fairly confident that it was nothing to worry about, that Dan just had a cold and the spots would go away, still I felt like he should get his throat checked out just in case. So I set up an appointment for Friday morning.

Dan was a good sport and went to the doctor, even though he was feeling much better on Friday. I went with him and we left James with his Grandma Christiansen. The doctor came in and asked some questions then looked at his throat. She swabbed it with the longest Q-tip ever made, and then left. The LAST thing that I expected was for the doctor to confirm that Dan had strep throat....but when she came back in the first thing she said was, "You've got Strep."

As soon as we got in the car, I looked at Dan and laughed. I had fully prepared myself for Dan to tease me on the way home for making him go to the doctor for nothing, because I was so sure that he didn't have strep throat. Dan's mom and his boss at work both laughed at him too. The upside of all of this is that Dan didn't have to go back to work, so we had more time together Friday afternoon. We went out to Salem Pond, and then we walked up and down Main St. in Spanish Fork to see the scarecrow's. It was a lot of fun.

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to go to a BYU football game. We took James with us. That kid can sleep through anything. I was holding him through the first half. I'd jump up and cheer loudly for the Cougars, all while James slept peacefully in my arms. Even the cannon didn't wake him up, that kid can sleep. :) It was a lot of fun to take James to the game. During the second half, I'd put him on my shoulders while we sang the fight song after touchdowns and he smiled at the people around us. Someday he will probably/hopefully show some interest in the game...but it was still fun to have him there. :)

Climbing

One of the things that I have really liked about the layout of our house is that there is a little den right next to the kitchen. It is perfect for James to play in while I am in the kitchen because there is a little step up into the kitchen which has been very effective in keeping James contained...until now. On Thursday I was in the kitchen putting mozzarella cheese into smaller bags to put into the freezer. James was playing happily by the step. I was keeping an eye on him as I worked. I turned to put everything into the freezer. I closed the door and turned to go pick up my baby only to find that he had climbed up the step and was scooting towards me happily! I was shocked, but in a good way. I had no idea that James knew how to do that. At the same time I was a little sad because I hadn't seen him climb up. He did it the next day too, only I missed it then as well. :( FINALLY I got to see him climb up as Dan and I were eating dinner Friday night. Then tonight I caught him on video as he was trying to get to his Daddy. :)

Cousin's

James loves his cousins! :) It's so fun to watch James interact with his cousins, he gets so excited when he sees his cousins, especially the younger ones. On Labor Day, Dan and I were at his parents house celebrating Cam's birthday. James had a blast playing with his cousin Ryan. Ryan is about 9 months older than James and James loves him! Ryan would look at James and James would laugh, it was so cute!

James also loves playing with his cousins, Kai and Jimmer. Yesterday we went to my parents house for dinner. James loved playing on the floor with Jimmer.... especially with his toys. Everything that Jimmer had, James went after. This morning, Kai and Jimmer came over to be babysat. As soon as James saw him, he started to kick and talk. He was so excited to have more little people to play with.

It's so much fun to see how excited James gets when he gets to play with his cousins. :) I love it!

I had to post this picture too because it's just so cute! Dan and James both fell asleep on the couch yesterday while Dan was feeding James a bottle. :)

Baby Pride

Today was James 6-month checkup, which means new baby stats (length, weight, etc.) and percentiles. It's a bit humorous how excited and hopeful I get for these. As most of you probably know, I am a big basketball fan, and I would love to have tall children to teach the game to. Height is a very good thing for basketball players, and so I love to see how tall James is comparatively for his age.

In his first few checkups he went from the 73 percentile to the 83 percentile to the 97 percentile at his last visit. The graphs for length tend to flatten out over time, but his was pretty much a straight, steep line. That got me excited for today to see if he could crack the 99 percentile and keep his same rate going.

Lisa emailed me the numbers from today which put him in the 92 percentile. To be perfectly honest, my first reaction was one of slight disappointment. I wanted him to continue his unrealistic growth rate. It didn't take me long to realize how silly this was. However, when Lisa told me it looked they measured him wrong, and that he should have measured longer, I had thoughts of, "Of course, that must be it! That's why he's not as tall as he should be!"

It's funny how you're always so sure you'll never be one of those parents, but you inevitably are. I do realize that James may not even like sports, that he may only grow to be 5'6, or he may even *gasp* play soccer (I kid, I kid.... mostly....). Despite all this, I always have in the back of mind this vision of James being a dominant basketball player, leading Orem High School to state titles, BYU to national championships, and his NBA team (I haven't picked that one out for him yet) to countless championships.

Only time will tell what will become of my little baby boy, but it's fun to dream about what may come. The most important thing is that he dominates at being a good person, being kind and honest. Then, no matter what his end destiny is, he will have one proud papa.

New tricks

James has been learning a lot of new things lately. He's discovered how to make some cute new sounds and how to get around better on his own. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth, and he can even pull himself forward on the carpet. He's starting to scoot all around and to get into everything. All that is fine and dandy, but there is one new trick that I would like him to unlearn...James has learned how to take off his diaper.

Yesterday he took his diaper off and rolled all around. Luckily I had just changed him. Today, James decided to take his diaper off again while he was laying outside on his blanket. This time he was poopy and wet. It could have been a major mess, but luckily I caught him shortly after he took the diaper off so the crisis was averted. :)

James' turn!

I think it's high time we let James have a turn posting on here. Ready James? Go!

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Thanks James! He sure does love to pound on the keyboard. Last time I let him do that, he shut down the computer before I had a chance to stop him. He got close a couple times there.

So, there's not too much new with us. We did make a discovery this morning. James has a tooth poking through! Lisa likes to stick her hand in there and feel it. I think that's weird. :) So, I guess that's about it. He just keeps on growing and growing and getting heavier and heavier. Who needs weights when you have a chunky baby to carry around?

(Almost) On the Move

So, we've been slackers at writing lately. I guess that's what happens when you're out having fun with lots of family you usually don't get to see. With some free time we have today, I figured I would post an update about James most recent efforts.

James has become very good at rolling around, and has begun to figure out he can get places by rolling. It's fun watching him find something he wants, and then make the appropriate rolls to get there.

Even more exciting than that, James is getting so very close to crawling. He gets on his stomach, practically lifts his whole body up, and kicks his legs. If he could just figure out how to get his legs under him, he would be gone. There will be something he wants right in front of him, and he'll do this, but he ends up actually pushing himself away a little. So, he tries again, and again he gets further away. This really frustrates him, so he keeps trying and trying. It's good to see him with such a persistent attitude. If he keeps at it, he will be crawling very soon. It's funny how, as a parent, you want him to progress at these things so quickly, even when it means making your job that much more difficult. I guess that's just the beauty of parenthood.

Baby Toes

James has recently discovered his toes and they absolutely fascinate him. :) He lays on his back and plays with them, when he's sitting on my lap, he leans over to play with them, when I'm trying to change his diaper he tries to play with them. :) I never knew that toes could be so interesting. It's fun to watch him discover everything in his world, his toes, his hands, and his ability to roll and move around. He's a lot of fun! :)

Life

It's been a while since we've posted...so "Let me 'splain...No there is too much, let me sum up..."

Colorado Trip

We got to go to Colorado Springs to visit one of my very best friends, Fawn, and her family. We went to the Garden of the Gods, took a train ride to the top of Pikes Peak, explored the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, and we went to Dairy Queen. :) Fawn's husband, Dan, is in the military so we got to stay on an Air Force base in Colorado Springs. It was awesome, there were planes on display and a museum and the room was awesome. However, since we were staying on the base, we had to get a pass in order to get on and off the base. This made for a rather interesting experience on Saturday night. Our pass expired at 5pm on Saturday, we didn't leave until Sunday after church. Fawn and her husband had gone to Denver for the day on Saturday so if we wanted to stay out past 5 we would have to be with them in order to get back on the base. So Dan and I decided to go and do the things that we wanted to do that morning and then we'd wait to see where we were at and whether or not we'd just stay off the base until Fawn and her husband got back or if we'd try to be back before 5pm. We went to the museum on base and looked at the planes. Then we took a tour of the Olympic Training Center, that was cool. James showed us some bobsled skills we didn't know he had.

We also met a girl, Whitney, who was going to be wrestling in the finals to make the World Team. After the tour we took a bunch of pictures and then went to watch Whitney's wrestling match. She won! We did a few more things after that. By the time we finished up it was around 4:30. We hadn't eaten yet so we called Fawn to see what time they thought they'd be back so we'd know how long it would be until we could get back on base. They wouldn't be back until 9:30 or 10pm. Just then a huge rainstorm hit and quickly turned to hail, Dan and I decided that we didn't want to be stuck out in the city for 5 more hours, but it was almost 4:40 and we were a ways from the base. Dan drove back as quickly as he could and we just barely made it back in time. I think the marble size hail that was falling helped us to get through the gate at the base more quickly, the guard was moving people through as fast as he could. We made it with 5 minutes to spare. :)

Talk Time

One thing about moving into a new ward is the ... opportunity ... to give a talk. Two days after we got back from our Colorado Trip, Dan and I were asked to give talks in Church. So last Sunday we did just that. I made sure to let Dan know that he would get to speak for at least 30 of the 35 minutes that we had to fill. He was thrilled to have so much time. :) We spoke about America being a promised land, about the inspiration of the founding fathers, and about our responsibility as citizens of this great and blessed land. It was a lot of fun to go through all of the research for the talks. It's cool to read about everything that happened, Columbus' journey, the pilgrims, the Revolutionary War. Elder L Tom Perry wrote: “You must read the Declaration of Independence to feel its inspiration. You merely need to study history to recognize that a group of fledgling colonies defeating the world's most powerful nation stemmed from a force greater than man.” God truly did guide the formation of this nation that made it possible for the gospel to be restored. Dan did a great job and although he said he was nervous, it didn't show. I, on the other hand, stood on one foot the entire time because I was so nervous. :) Luckily we both made it through. My parents watched James for us during our talks. It was weird not to have him with us during Sacrament Meeting, but it was probably for the best. Although he may have provided a lot of amusement for the congregation. :)

Rolling!!!

James likes to roll all over everything now. He used to cry every time that I put him on his stomach, but now I can't keep him on his back. :) He rolls onto his stomach most of the time. This has caused a problem with his crib. We'll lay him down on his back in the middle of his crib, only to have him start screaming a little while later because he's rolled over and rotated himself perpendicular to his starting position, and gotten his foot or arm stuck, or his head stuck in a corner. Kind of like this:

Moments That Matter Most

We don't have too much to report from the last few weeks. Life's adventures continue on. However, it's always important to slow down, and focus on the things that matter most.

SUMMERFEST!!!!!

Every year, on the second weekend in June, O-Town hosts the Orem City Summerfest!!! :) I LOVE the Summerfest, my siblings and I have been going ever since we discovered that it existed. There is a carnival with rides, games, city booths, vendors, entertainment, and artists. On Saturday there is a baby contest, pancake breakfast, 5k race, parade, and FIREWORKS!!! It is so much fun. This year we took James. I thought about entering him in the baby contest, but Dan didn't want to make all of the other babies jealous. We watched a Polynesian dance show at the stage in the park. I think I want to put my kids in Polynesian dance classes, I want to take a few myself too. :) He did pretty well during the parade, of course it helped that his aunt Elise and Uncle Mike plugged his ears during the cannon fire and other load noises. :) We went to my parents house that night and watched the fireworks. James seemed to be pretty intrigued by them. He sat on Dan's lap and stared at them. It was a great night! :) There are a lot of other festival's all over Utah throughout the summer. We may try to make it to a few of them.

Pleasant Grove	Strawberry Days	June 16 - 18th
Spanish Fork	Fiesta Days	July 21 - 23rd
Lehi	Round-Up	June 21st - 25th
Provo	Freedom Festival	July 2nd - 4th
American Fork	Steel Days	July 5th - 9th
Lindon	Lindon Days	August 6th - 13th
Midway	Swiss Days	September 2nd -3rd
Payson	Onion Days	Sept 1-5

I love Family :)

Between Dan and I, we have quite a bit of Family that live within ten minutes of our home, and even more extended family within a two hour drive. There are a lot of bonuses to having so much family so close. For example, for Memorial Day, my parents and siblings went up to my Grandparents house for our annual Memorial Day Celebration. We visited 2 cemeteries and learned a little more about my grandma's family. Then we went back to my Grandma's house for a fantastic dutch oven lunch prepared by my Grandpa and my uncle Lynn. :) It was a great day, but it wasn't over yet, we still made it home in time to go to Dan's parents house for a Memorial Day Celebration there. We had a great time there as well, despite an unfortunate game of Ticket To Ride. :)

A couple weeks ago we got to go see our niece, Sophie, perform in a dance recital based on The Wizard of Oz. She was absolutely adorable. Her hair was curled and she was so much fun to watch. Camille wanted to hold James. She's so cute, it was fun to watch her take care of him.

Today, my brothers brought our nephew Kai over and my brother, Daniel, turned on our sprinkler system and programmed our timer. :) While Daniel was checking and adjusting our sprinklers, Kai came outside and got all excited and wanted to run through the sprinklers. Daniel told him to take his shirt off first, so he did and he handed it to me. He ran onto the grass for a minute, but didn't get wet. Then he ran over to Daniel. as Daniel was adjusting one of the sprinklers, it sprayed Kai across his legs. Kai screamed and ran behind Daniel to 'hide' from the water. Later, while we were downstairs, Isaiah tossed Kai into our new Monster Sak and then he jumped in. Kai's legs bounced up and he laughed so Isaiah did it a couple more times. The last time, Isaiah jumped in and sent Kai flying out of the Monster Sak head first. I was standing right there so I grabbed his arms and Isaiah grabbed his leg and pulled him back in just before his head hit the ground.

Life is great. :)

James' Jokes

I think that my son has his own games that he likes to play, or maybe pranks would be a better word. At his 2 month visit, his pediatrician told me that babies at that age are capable of holding their poop in so they may go 2 days without pooping. So, when James didn't poop at all on Friday or Saturday, I figured that must be what was going on. I was hoping that if he had a blowout, he would do so at home and not at church. Well, James had 2 blowouts this morning. First he pooped through his pajama's, and then he pooped through his onsie that I put on under his Sunday outfit. I was rather excited because he hadn't gotten any poop on his church clothes and I figured that meant he'd pooped out all that he'd held in the past 2 days.

During the sacrament portion of the meeting, James pooped again. Luckily he didn't get anything on his clothes. Again, I thought all was clear. Then...half an hour later Dan was holding him and he leaned over and said "I think he pooped again, can you smell it?" (At which time he stuck James' butt in my face.) Sure enough, he smelled poopy. I took him to the mother's room and laid him on my nursing cover to change him. I lifted up his butt to reposition him and I saw poop on my nursing cover. Yep, he'd done it again...this time he pooped through his church pants too. So he went through the remainder of the meeting wearing a bright yellow onsie with a scary looking green monkey on the front.

It is now just after 2:30 pm and the count is up to 4 blowouts and 3 just poopy diapers. James is on his 3rd outfit of the day, not counting his pajama's. We'll see how long this one lasts. :)

Rolling Over!

So James first rolled over when he was about 2 weeks old, not because he knew what he was doing, but because he'd get so mad when we put him on his belly that he would kick and squirm until he ended up on his back. I am proud to say that he can now roll over without being mad! :) Tonight he rolled over a few times in a row before he got sick of it. Next step: Walking. ;)

PS: If you can't get the video to work, just look at our facebook pages and you can view it there.

Recent happenings

It's been a while since we've posted anything, but that's because we've been very busy lately. We got to move into our new house! Moving is always a chore, but luckily we didn't have that much stuff so it really wasn't that bad. There were hiccups, as I'm sure there always are when moving. For example, I packed up our entire kitchen, minus the food, and took it over to the new house during the week. So...when it came time to dinner, all the food was at one house and everything I needed to cook it was at our new house...opps. :) Also, we bought an older home with narrow hallways and stairs. We have a large couch that we wanted to have in our basement along with our entertainment center. Dan was bound and determined that they would get down those stairs. I was a little less hopeful. They tried and tried to find angles that would work, but to no avail, neither one would fit down the stairs. So, no couch in the family room for now. We are blessed to have so many family members close by. We had lots of help moving in, and Dan's Dad even mowed our lawn! The grass was so long that he had to empty out the lawn mower bag after each pass up and down the yard. It was very kind of him to do that. My Dad let us use his trailer and my brother skillfully drove it. Both of our families helped with the loading and unloading of the trailer so it went really fast. We've gotten everything almost put away now, we just have a few more boxes in a storage unit that we'll get later. Here are some pictures of our new home.

This is the dining room:



This is the living room:



This is the study/den:



This is the kitchen:



These next 4 are from the baby's room, where he is currently sleeping:









And here are a few more pictures of James, just because he's so darn cute. :)







This was James first nap in his new room:



We love our new home and we are very grateful that we are able to have the opportunity to raise our family here. :)

And the Winner Is.....

Back a little while ago we displayed our Easter Egg talent and requested you vote on your favorites. Thank you to all who voted! Here are the final results, along with the egg's creator.




Later, I had some fun with one of my eggs. I think it should be a late submission for the contest.


Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.....

Tulip Festival

Saturday Morning Lisa and I woke up to snow covering everything outside. It looked like a scene from the middle of winter. When we left to go run some errands, I remarked to Lisa how it felt like a late Fall day. We had talked about going to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. We weren't sure if we wanted to after seeing the snow everywhere.

After running our errands, it looked like the weather was going to get better, so we decided to go ahead and head up. The weather was nice and sunny as we drove up, so we were thinking we had made a good decision. Well, right as we got off the freeway, it began to snow. It was fairly heavy too. "Great....", we're thinking. Well, we continued onward, and there was no snow by the time we got to the gardens.

We had a great time there. We think the snow scared a lot of people off, so it wasn't too crowded at all. We just walked around, and I took about 10 million pictures. Here is a small sampling:











The other 9,999,995 photos (ok, so maybe there's only 100 or so) can be found on facebook. We had a really good time there, and it made for a good Saturday trip. Two thumbs up for a good fun weekend with family.

A Time to Vote

Tonight for Family Home Evening we dyed Easter Eggs. This last weekend was pretty crazy so we did it tonight. We need your help in deciding who did the best job. Please vote for your top 3 eggs in the sidebar. The winners and creators will be announced in a couple of weeks.

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#10

Dan the Handyman :)

I learned something this weekend, never stick potato peels into a disposal in a sink. I managed to clog our sink up pretty good...luckily my handsome husband came to the rescue!!! :) Below are pictures of his heroic handyman efforts:

The problem:



Cleaning out the peels:




Tasting the peels:



Reassembling the pipes under the sink:



Ewww: