Just a Reminder!

Just a reminder that if you are interested in getting in the drawing for my little holiday giveaway, post your comment by tomorrow evening (Saturday, Dec. 1). I will draw and probably post the winner on Sunday. If you haven't seen this post yet, scroll down to my post from Monday, the 26th. And come on, don't be shy. Join in!!!

I Finally See It!

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Pretty much since the day Tyler was born, I have been told that he is a mini-Garrett. If I had a nickel for every time I've been told that... And as the mom, I just didn't see it. I mean, I see little things, but when I looked at Tyler, I would see Tyler--not Garrett. You know what I mean?? BUT then I just took a look at this picture and holy cow, can you say twin angry faces here?! I think Tyler had just elbowed Garrett, which would explain Garrett's face and Tyler was uncomfortable and trying to move, which would explain his face. Seriously, TWINS here, folks. And I am finally seeing it after very nearly three years. And I am laughing my head off. I am finding it hilarious, really! That is probably one thing I see of Garrett the most in Tyler is the expressions. There are times (such as this, obviously) that they will pull the exact same face and it just cracks me up. And then there's little Sam up there who doesn't look much like either of them (in my opinion, at least)!

So, shortly after that picture, we were playing around and I put Sam on top of Tyler and Tyler thought that was the event of the year. He is still talking about it and asking me to put Sam on top of him. He thought it was so funny and couldn't stop laughing. Sam seemed to think it was all right too... :)
And don't be fooled by Sam's oh-so-content-and-innocent-I-love-my-brother little face here because one second after this picture was snapped, he puked ALL OVER Tyler. That's the first time Tyler's been puked on and watching his reaction was pretty funny. He didn't get mad or anything, but he though it was pretty gross, like we all do I guess. But Sam really got him. I mean, look at the position they're in, so you can just imagine...down the neck, shirt, and back, and I think even a little in the ear. Oh boy! I suppose Sam is getting back at Tyler for all the times he's gotten a 'little too close'. Another thing Tyler is still talking about!
And here are a few more random pictures. I was taking some pictures of Sam in his swing the other day because he is really starting to like it...
When along came Tyler saying "take picture me. Take picture me!". So, he jumped right in (I guess he's feeling competition in the fact that the camera is not always in HIS face all the time anymore). So, here is the one I snapped of Tyler and I just think it's funny mostly because it's SO Tyler.
And then Tyler proceeded to play peek-a-boo with Sam. He has just discovered playing this little game with him and it always makes me laugh. I'm glad he thought of it because it's a very good 'game' for him to play with Sam, since he's just dying to be able to play with him and it doesn't involve him poking, holding, or dragging Sam in any way, shape, or form. :)

The Night Cap

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When Sam was born, he wore a little hat in the hospital, just like all babies do (one that was way too big and fell off all the time, by the way). So, when we brought him home from the hospital the first night, I felt like I should put a hat on him before he went to bed. I don't know why exactly and I can't remember doing it with Tyler or anything, but we keep our house at a pretty cool temperature and of course I didn't want him to get cold. So, he went to bed with a hat on. And he slept. He slept for six glorious solid hours the first night home from the hospital. So, just like any one who loves their sleep, I did not want to jinx things and I did the exact same ritual the next night, and the next, and the next. And each night I continued to get good sleep. So, it became habit and before I knew it, Sam was two months old and still sleeping with his little night cap on every night. And this kid sleeps too, let me tell ya--so maybe this is why?!?! I am sure he is probably to the point where he'd be fine without it, which is a good thing because he's going to be grown out of it any day now, but I can't help but put it on him before bed just in case he may not sleep as good. I mean, who wants to wake up if we can avoid it, right?! So here is Sam well rested, freshly fed, after a good night of sleeping in his night cap!
He must like it too, because he wakes up about as happy as can be every morning with a smile on his face and a sparkle in his eye.

This is honestly much of the memory I'll have of little Sam as a newborn--sporting his cap with his jammies and being as happy as can be. We love him!

Christmas Tree Selection Process--2007

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Step #1: One week BEFORE Thanksgiving, load up the car and head east. Cross the twin spans, drive through Slidell and end in Pearl River, Louisiana at above location. (Louisiana apparently has its fair share of exotic dancers, but lucky for our family, it also has exotic Christmas trees!)
Step #2: Head out amongst the rows and rows of trees.
Step #3: Find a big stick. Not just any old big stick, but a big stick that is as big as you are.
Step #4: Drag this big stick with you as you walk down row after row of trees. It is said that the big stick will help you in finding the perfect Christmas tree.
Step #5: Look, study, and look some more in an attempt to find that perfect tree.
Step #6: Take a break from studying all those trees and RUN up and down the rows.
Step #7: Find the tree fit for a 3-year old and give it a good ol' thumbs up.
Step #8: Consult with the man in charge as to why you should definitely be able to take the tree above home with you. Because it's a really, really, really nice tree, Dad!
Step #9: Tell the ants to buzz off and leave you alone and quit crawling up your pant legs and biting you!

Step #10: Delight in Daddy's pick of the tree for the year (after realizing that you're not going to get to take home your own pick of the year). Step #11: Tag it!
Step #12: Leave the beautiful 9 foot Leyland Cypress tree behind until the first week of December when the retrieval process shall take place.

And always remember to:On the Saturday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 17), we picked out our Christmas tree for the second year in a row. We went last year and absolutely loved having a real tree and loved having one of THESE trees! They are beautiful. They are so full and so green and they stay so fresh all through the holidays. In fact, I think it was mid January before we took ours down last year and it hadn't shed any needles or anything. So, we went again this year and pre-marked ours to ensure that we would indeed find the perfect tree. And I think we found it. And it is always a different tree hunting experience as there is no need for hats, scarves, coats, or even jackets for that matter. I had Tyler in jeans and a long sleeved shirt and he was way over dressed. I always get after Garrett for wearing shorts everywhere he goes (outside of work), but he generally is much better off than the rest of us as we roast to death. And Sam only wore a stocking cap simply so his poor little head wouldn't get sunburned. It was let him roast with a hat on or let him get sunburned. So he had to roast for a few...
Stay tuned next week for pictures of the Tree Retrieval Process. We are going to chop it down this Saturday!

An Official Welcome to Our Newest Family Member

Well, it has been about a month since we added another member to our family, so it is about time I give her an official welcome. (and yes, it's a girl so I'm not quite so outnumbered. and I love her!) We finally got a new car (new to us, anyways). A 2005 Chrysler Pacifica. We are all really enjoying having her in our family! Tyler loves her entertainment system and always asks if he can watch a movie when we get in the car (even when we're going across the street). Garrett loves the GPS system and I love the power lift gate and leather seats. So she has pleased us all. Oh yeah, and I'm sure Sam loves something too, but he hasn't said just what. Perhaps he loves the third row stow-n-go seating?? We have already sold our Intrigue and it's already hard to remember what life was like without DVD players and GPS systems in our car...yikes!

In the Spirit of the Season--from My Home to Yours

We just returned from a little post-Thanksgiving mini vacation in Dauphin Island, Alabama. We had SUCH a great time at the beach. It was so relaxing. I'll blog more about that later, but first I wanted to get this posted. I took some projects with me to work on while I was there and it was fun to get crafting again. I worked on some Christmas cards and other things. And I made a little extra. I found these great Making Memories advent calendar kits and made one for myself and thought they were so fun that I made an extra one, plus I made some extra Christmas cards as well. I love the little advent calendar with little drawers that pull out so little (or big) people can find a treat inside each day.

So, here's the deal. I would love to share some of these with one of you. I will send one person this advent calendar and a set of 10 Christmas cards of various styles. And here's how it is going to work. If you are interested in giving these items a home for the holidays, please leave a comment and tell me one of the following:

1. In light of the recent holiday, please tell me what you are most thankful for this year.
2. In anticipation of the holiday that is just around the corner, please share with me your favorite Christmas tradition.
3. As Tyler is getting to the age that he is understanding this whole Christmas thing a lot more, I would love any ideas that you have or have used with your kids to teach them about the first Christmas and the real reason for Christmas. He is catching on to the Santa Claus and presents thing, which is fun of course, but I also want to make sure we keep talking about the real reason for the season.


So, easy as that. List one (or all, if you wish) of those things in a comment and on Saturday, I will draw one name from the comments to mail these goodies off to. So check back Saturday for the winner. OK, you have 6 days to comment, so get at it. And PLEASE don't be shy...if you have never commented before, or are members of my family (this EVEN means you Mom, Sheila, Hillary, Marilee, Serena, Angie, Whitney, etc!...), or have never even met me and found my blog through someone else's, please feel free to join in. I'd love to hear your responses. I allow for all comments on my blog, so you have no reason to not post! :)


I'll start by answering one of the questions myself. Of course I have been reflecting upon my blessings this last week and after spending some time vacationing with my little family, I can honestly say I have never felt more grateful to be a mom. So, this year I am most thankful for my opportunity to be a mom, and to be made a mom once again with the birth of another baby. I love my boys so much it hurts sometimes and I am so grateful for them and the fact that they are healthy. I am so blessed!


And stay tuned for some major blog and photo updates from the last couple of weeks. That is on the top of my TO DO list for this week. Now, I can't wait to hear from all of you!

Only in Louisiana

Saturday, November 3, 2007

If there is anything I have learned in the last 18 months since we moved down South, it is that if you are a true New Orleanian or a true Louisianan, you live with passion. It can vary as to what you are passionate about. It could be the Saints, the Tigers, a fleur de lis, FOOD, your swamps, your gators, music, and the list goes on, but generally everybody has at least something that they support. And because of this passion, it seems that this is a place where there are more festivals than any place on earth. Since we have lived here, we have heard and seen advertisements for VooDoo Fest, Swamp Fest, PoBoy Festival, French Quarter Festival, Jazzfest, Laketown Fest, Essencefest, Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival, Crawfish Festival, Wooden Boat Festival, Jambalaya Festival, Greek Festival, and the festival of all festivals: Mardi Gras. And this is literally only naming a few. There is an entire section of the newspaper dedicated to festivals that keeps current with all of the information for ongoing fest-ivities. So...since there is never a lack of things to do in this city, we attended our second Swamp Fest at the Zoo on November 3. And lucky for us, the whole crew was in town so we all got a fun taste of Louisiana. We love swamp fest as it is a celebration of all sorts of lively Southern fare--food, music, and atmosphere! And what on earth do you do at a Swamp Fest, you ask? Here are a few pictures to give you an idea.
By all means, touring the zoo is an option. There can not possibly be a better zoo than the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. It is the BEST! Here is my family posing by one of the beautiful old oak trees that adorn the zoo.
Eat, eat, eat. I LOVE this menu as it is so New Orleans and such a great way to get a little taste of everything. The jambalaya was awesome and the crabcake with remoulade sauce was probably the favorite of our bunch.

Sleep? I guess after a week of being on the run, it caught up to this little man. He was sitting in the stroller eating jambalaya and literally fell asleep between bites. So we ate our food and listened to some Cajun music while letting him sleep it out on the grass for about an hour.

And this little guy got pretty tired too I guess. But what a trooper he was!
Listen to some good ol' Cajun music. Here was the line up for the day on this stage. I just LOVE the names of those bands. Nowhere else on earth are you going to get these "big bands"! Dance. Cut a rug. Bust a move. However you want to say it. After a nap on the grass, this kid was ready to bust it. There was a dance floor in front of the stage and it provided for some of the world's best people watching. Quite the characters out there, I tell ya! But they were having such a great time and a lot of them were great dancers. Made me wish I really knew how to dance.
Laugh.
Smile.
Listen to more music. OK, this little band was pretty much my ALL TIME FAVORITE. I could have listened to them all day. They were playing on the stage right as we walked into the zoo and I immediately fell in love. First off, the name of the band was Guyland Leday's Zydeco Family and Friends. Love it! And that's exactly what it was, an entire family (must have been a friend or two in the mix as well) who knew how to make some Cajun music. These kids had obviously learned how to sing, play the accordian and the zydeco, at a very early age. In fact, this guy above was 10, I believe they said and he is actually Guyland Leday himself. He is who the band is all about. Apparently he is like an accordian zydeco prodigy and is well known for his playing. And let me tell you, he is destined for stardom. Not only can he play, he can sing. He sounded exactly like a young Michael Jackson when he sang with the Jackson 5 (long before MJ was a wacko). He was awesome!

I'm assuming these guys are all brothers... And here is one with the grandpa too.
This little boy was SO cute. I can't even tell you...and he was so talented too!
Enjoy each other's company. Basically, we all just had a great time at an only-in-Louisiana event. The food, the music, the atmosphere, the weather, and the company made for a great day!
And no trip to the zoo is complete without a ride on the carousel!

Gone Catchin'

November 2, 2007

Their slogan says "we don't go fishin', we go catchin'." And from the looks of things, it rings true. All the boys took off for a charterted fishing trip on Friday, November 2. They drove about an hour south of NOLA and took off from a town called Lafitte and spent the day catching, from what I've been told. They caught their limit of black drum and then caught some speckled trout, redfish, flounder, and sheeps head (all fish I didn't even know existed until we moved here). And they brought home more fish than I could have ever dreamed up something to do with. We cooked some up that night, gave some away, and sent a cooler back to Idaho with my dad. And we've eaten it a few times since then as well. And it has been some good eats!! And from what everyone has said, it sounds like they had a great time.

And we're lucky to even have these pictures to prove it because our camera (our old one we have just for things like this) got left behind and after a few calls to the guides, we had given it up as lost. And then a few days later, we got a call telling us they had found it. Pretty awesome, and pretty cool that it wasn't ruined and that the pictures weren't ruined too since it had sat outside for a few nights. I think we all cared more about the potential loss of the pictures than the camera itself. Lucky for us, it's no longer a worry!

Today in History

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He laughed. He chuckled. He snickered. He busted up. He giggled. Yes, that's right, my delightful little boy who is merely 2 months and 2 days old laughed for the first time today. I had just finished changing his diaper and he was happily looking around on my bed, smiling and what not. I tickled him. That's all it took. He erupted in a giggle. I thought, 'there is no way he could be laughing. He is too little.' (I am quite sure Tyler was nearly 4 months old before he was giggling like this). I tickled him again. He laughed harder. The sweet sound filled the room and of course I, too, was giggling and trying to keep him going. And he just kept on laughing. Apparently, he is as ticklish as I am and as ticklish as his big brother is. So today he laughed and today marks a momentous day in the life of a baby (and his mom!).

Blessed

Sunday November 4, 2007

Blessed to have this incredibly sweet little boy in our lives. Blessed to be a forever family. Blessed with a daddy who holds the priesthood. Blessed with support from amazing family members. Blessed to have many of those family members travel many miles to be here on this day. Blessed to have Sam meet two grandpas, one grandma, two uncles, and one aunt for the first time. Blessed with a beautiful white tuxedo from Grandma Andersen (my mom) that she made just for Sam's special day (complete with tails and all--sooo cute!). Blessed to spend this special time with family and celebrate this new little life.

(this was the point at which my camera pooped out on me, and we only had a few shots of the day. But at least we had some! I had anticipated having all sorts of pictures from this day, but pickin's were slim, but at least we got a few!)

This seems an appropriate day for this post, as today we are feeling all sorts of blessed for different reasons. The results of Sam's x-rays came back normal and he won't require surgery. We will keep our eye on things, but for now, we should have no reason to worry about it. What a relief. What a blessing. I can now think about something else, possibly accomplish something, move on, relax, etc. As hard as I tried not to stress about the unknown, it pretty much consumed me for nearly five days. But after one long awaited phone call from the doctor, I can now start living life again. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers. I can honestly say we felt the power of them this last week. And I am more grateful than ever for fasting, prayer, and the power of the Priesthood. We are so BLESSED!