Pumpkin Hunting

This morning we bundled Jonathen and Wesley up and went hunting for pumpkins.  Wesley was really excited to pick out his pumpkin.  We went to a pumpkin farm outside of Rupert and started looking for a pumpkin.  Wesley at first said he wanted a giant pumpkin, but as we kept looking he decided he wanted a tiny pumpkin.  We compromised and got a tiny one for Wesley, a tiny one for Jon, a small one for Mommy, and Daddy got a big pumpkin.  Wesley really enjoyed going out and looking for his pumpkin.  He thought it was great that you could walk out in a field and decide which pumpkin you wanted.  As Daddy went to pay, I convinced Wesley that I needed a picture so here is our day. 

Six months old.

Jonathen just had his six month check up.  The little guy is getting so big.  He now weighs 18 lbs 8 oz (75th percentile), has a head circumference of 17 1/2 inches (75th percentile) and is 28 1/2 inches long (off the chart, about 97th percentile).  No wonder his clothes don't fit very well.  He is getting super excited to start moving.  He is able to get up on his hands and knees and he goes backwards really well.  He is still working on going forward.  He just started his second feeding of cereal and he absolutely loves it.  He really likes eating things off of his mommy and daddy's plates also.  He loves his brother very much and will get into a growling/yelling war with Wesley.  He loves to play with any type of ball and enjoys rolling a ball back and forth with either Mommy or Wesley.  He has been constipated and when I mentioned it to the doctor he recommended a laxative for Jon.  During the examination Dr. Graham checked Jon's bum and found he had a fissure in his anus that was causing him to hold his bowel movements and therefore making them very hard.  He is now taking miralax and having huge blow outs.  Oh well, the price of healing his fissure.  The doctor says the fissure will heal by itself as long as we keep Jon's bowel movements very soft.  Hopefully we will be able to get him healed up.  He is a very happy baby and loves to laugh and play.  We love him very much and enjoy his happy spirit. 

I Got Tagged!

Crystal tagged me to answer these questions.  They may have seemed like easy questions at first, but I had to spend quite a bit of time thinking of my answers.  So here goes:

1.Who is someone who has been very influential in your life and why?


My father. I know, that is what you are supposed to say, but it is true. My dad always pushed me to try my hardest in everything I tried. He always encouraged me to not be held back by what others thought I should do. He originally suggested the idea of getting as many college credits as I could in high school and helped me to realize the dream of getting my associates degree at the same time as graduating from high school. The other person who was very influential in my life is Wes Schow. He originally introduced me to pharmacy and allowed me to learn more about the profession that would lead me to my future career.

2.What is one of your most embarassing moments?

Funny thing: I don’t remember many embarrassing moments from high school. I know, everyone of you thinks I am lying, but really. I spent a lot of years trying to be weird and stand out in a crowd. So doing something that would embarrass others was pretty much my goal. I have found now that I get most embarrassed by compliments. I have no idea how to respond to such comments and struggle finding something to say. It is not that I do not believe them, but that I am not sure how to responds to nice comments. I am really used to obnoxious comments and sarcasm, but not very good with compliments. Isn’t that strange. If you want one specific moment though, I think one of my more embarrassing moments happened in junior high school when I ran for student body council. I have no idea what possessed me to even run let alone sing the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” in front of the entire 7th grade, but there it is. That song to this day still makes me turn red and try to hide. I am not very good in front of large groups of people.

3. What is your favorite book, why?

This is a loaded question Crystal. How am I supposed to choose just one? I love my books. All of my books. I love to read and will reread my books often. I am afraid that some of my books will start to fall apart on me sooner or later from overuse. I guess my favorite story right now would have to be the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare or The Host by Stephanie Meyer. Any fantasy or sci-fi book that finds its way into my possession will be read and probably reread with extreme enthusiasm. I do, however, dislike sad stories so don’t send any of those my way.

4. What is something you swore you would never do before you became a mom and now *gasp* you do?

Convince my son to keep eating even after he says he is done. I always thought it was just my mother being mean. I now watch my son eat two bites and tell me he is finished. Then I have to find a way to get him to eat a little bit more so he will have the energy to play as he wants.

5. What is YOUR guilty pleasure (I had to tell mine, now you all have to share)?

1-Popcorn – I love home popped popcorn with butter and salt. I would eat it for lunch if I thought it was evenly slightly healthy

2-Reading – No seriously. I love to read. I can disappear inside a book and stay up to all hours of the night reading.

6. I find smells bring back memories - What is one of your nostalgic smells?

Fresh cut grass. It always reminds me of warm summer days outside. Matt has just mown the grass and we are playing on the swing set in our backyard.

Sugar Factory – always reminds of early mornings at Minico High School. Running early morning practices, first day of school sitting next to the kid wearing way to much cologne, and good friends: even though it stinks.

7. We all have miracles in our lives, whether big or small - what are your miracle(s)?

Wesley and Jonathen. The minds of those two little boys continue to amaze me. Every day one or both of them teach me something new about children, about Heavenly Father, or about patience. Wesley amazes me with his memory. He constantly surprises me with things he remembers. Jonathen continues to grow so quickly and learn so much.

8. Since we have building on the brain, what does your dream house look like, and where would it be?

This is funny. My dream house is pale stucco and stone on the outside with two floors above ground and a red tile roof. It will have arched windows and doorways and there will be many windows allowing the sun and nature to come into our home. My dream home has a curved staircase in the foyer and an interior courtyard. The master suite is on the upper floor with the other bedrooms and looks out over the interior courtyard. The living room and kitchen has exposed beams in cherry finish and the cupboards in the kitchen match the beams. The colors in the home are Tuscan in style and are very warm and welcoming. The front living room is pale in color and centers around the piano. The kitchen is open to large family gatherings and allows for a larger family with plenty of cupboard space and an island to gather around while food is being prepared. The family room is large and allows the family to gather together to watch movies and enjoy each other’s company. The house will have a basement that will have a large storage area and a recreation room to allow my children to bring their friends into our home and play games without feeling they are in the way. There will be a library/study to allow my books a home. The house will be very open with large areas. There will be 4-5 bedrooms to allow my family to grow and live comfortably with each other.

There you go Crys. 

Fun with the boys!

It is wonderful playing with my two boys and watching them play with each other.  Jonathen thinks Wesley is the most amazing thing around.  He loves to grab his shoulders and pull him close to slobber all over his head.  Wesley, in turn, thinks this activity is pretty dang funny.  Last week Wesley really wanted to play with bubbles so we pulled out the automatic bubble machine and stripped Jon down.  We played in the kitchen since it was pretty chilly outside.  This, of course, makes a huge mess all over my kitchen floor.  I guess it needed cleaned anyway.  Wesley started out with his clothes on, but after biffing it a couple times because the floor was too slick for socks or shoes we stripped him down also.  The two of them had a great time popping bubbles.  Afterwards, since they were both completely covered in soap I put them both in the bathtub.  This was the first time they have shared the bathtub with each other.  It went pretty well.  Wesley thought it was funny that Jon was in the bath with him and Jon didn't care one way or the other.  Jonathen is still getting used to the big boy bath since he has only been bathing in there for a little over a week.  They are so much fun.  Here are the boys playing together.

And their bath afterwards.

And Jon's first bath in the big bathtub.

4 month Check-up

Jonathen had his 4 month checkup today.  Wesley did not want to go into the doctors office until we explained that he did not have to get checked today.  He spent the entire visit telling us that it was not his turn.  Jonathen did not have any problem with the doctor.  He was happy to get weighed and measured and did not even cry when Dr. Graham examined him.  The only time he cried was when he got his second shot.  He only cried until we got him his pacifier.  Dr. Graham was really impressed with Jonathen.  He said he is a really mellow baby and has advanced motor skills.  He does not normally check if they can sit up until the 6 month checkup, but he did this time.  I am guessing that his nurse told him that I had Jon sitting up on the table.  So he sat Jon up to see if he could sit by himself and was impressed that he was staying up even if he was a little wobbly.  He said he is not suprised if some 6 month olds do not do even that well.  Jon weighed in at 16 lbs 7 oz (80th percentile) and 26 1/2 inches tall (95th percentile) with a head circuference of 17 inches(75th percentile).  Dr. Graham was just about to tell us that Jon should not get teeth for another 4 months when he opened Jon's mouth and saw that he already had two of them.  Oh well, Jon just got ahead of the curve on that one.  Jon had to get two shots today, but he seems to be doing okay.   

Jon has teeth.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Jon has teeth, as in two of them.  He now has both of his front bottom teeth.  He got the first tooth on July 13th and the second one on July 18th.  He is growing up so fast.  Wesley got his two front at about the same age.
Speaking of Wesley, I thought I would jot down some of the things Wesley says.  I will call them Wesleyisms.

Wesleyism #1 - in response to asking him what his name is.
"I not a tiger I'm Wesley Meyers."
Wesleyism #2 -
Dad -"Wesley are you addicted to chocolate milk?"
Wesley - "I not a dick, Dad."
Wesleyism #3
Poppa - "Are you OCD-man?"
Wesley - "I not a demon."
Wesleyism #4 - any time he feels like it
"I not Wesley Meyers I'm a tiger, ROOOOAAAARRRR!"
Wesleyism #5 - in response to Jon crying
"Its okay, baby, its okay."
Sometimes he is so funny.  He loves his brother very much and has apparently decided that he would like a little sister now.  He was watching Lion King and at the end they have the baby lion.  Wesley said that it was a baby like Jon and Kyle said "Except that it is a girl."  So Wesley said he would like a baby sister.  He is going to have to wait a little while, I am not getting pregnant again so quickly.

Matt's Family came to visit.

It was great to have Matt and Amelia come back to Idaho for a visit.  We really enjoyed having them here.  While they were here we did a number of fun things as a family.  There was the 4th of July.  All of the guys went golfing while all of the women took the kids and went to the parade.  The kids all seemed to enjoy the parade.  After the parade we went back to Mom and Dad's house and got dinner ready.  We were having a turkey fry with potatoe salad.  It ended up being a really good dinner.  While waiting for the turkey to fry a wiffle ball and bat were found and a game was started.  Most of the family played for a little while.  Wesley really wanted to bat so Jennifer helped as best she could considering Wes bats left-handed.  He got to run around the bases with Jennifer.  He preferred to bat though.  Dinner went really well and the turkey was absolutely great.  It is probably a good thing that we do not do that very often.  After dinner we all went down to try out Jennifer's new game, Just Dance.  Matt's family had never played before.  The kids really enjoyed it.  It was as much fun watching Stephen, Jack, Hallie and Wesley play as it is to play myself.  It was great watching them try to do the moves to songs that were popular when their parents were kids. 

On Monday we headed to Lava Hot Springs for camping and swimming.  We sat around the campfire had dutch oven one night and hotdogs the next and, of course, roasted marshmallows.  Jack really liked to roast the marshmallows, but preferred to have somebody else eat them.  The second night we were there we

needed to chop some firewood.  We had some fairly large logs that needed to be a little smaller.  Don got out his ax and Amelia went to work.  She did pretty well on the first log, but if the ax ever got stuck she had to have someone else pull it out since she was not wearing any shoes. 

It was pretty funny to watch her.  Swimming was great even though almost all of us ended up with sunburns.  It is nice to see that my boys did not inherit my tendency to burn.  Both Wesley and Jonathen ended up with nice little tans while Kyle and I both got sunburnt.  On Wednesday, we headed to Pocatello to get some family pictures done.  They turned out pretty well for a group so large with so many young children.  It is nice to have current pictures of everyone.  Overall it was a great visit and we were sad to see them leave.   

Trip to Utah

Over Father's Day we decided to get out of town for the weekend.  Mostly to keep me from being the on call person for our fill in pharmacist for the third time out of three times.  We booked a couple nights in Wolf Creek down by Ogden and took off Friday night.  On Saturday we headed into Salt Lake City to go to Hogle Zoo.  Wesley loves animals so much that we thought he would really enjoy the zoo.  Jennifer came with us and squeezed into our backseat with Jonathen and Wesley.  Wesley really loved the zoo and got to see lots of animals.  Some of his favorites were the monkeys and the tigers.  Throughout the zoo we would ask him what animal we were looking at and Wesley would tell us that it is not a monkey.  Here is Wesley at the monkey cages.  These monkeys were super loud.

At the end of our time at the zoo we went into the gift shop to get a few souvenirs.  Wesley found a hat that he absolutely loved, a black hat with a tiger head and front paws sticking out of it.  Kyle thought it was kind of silly, but Wesley adored it so we got it for him.  Besides, a hat that looks stupid on an adult looks great on a 2 year old.  Wesley really liked the zoo.  Jonathen, of course, could not have cared less.  All he wanted was to be out of his carrier.

 

After the zoo we took Jennifer to the Rodizio Grill in SLC.  It is a Brazilian themed grill where the bring the meat around on spits and you take what you want.  There is also a buffet with different salads and entrees that are commonly eaten in Brazil.  At the end of the meal we got two creme's to share, one strawberry and the other passionfruit.  Passionfruit is a slightly tart fruit and so the creme was also slightly tart.  I forgot to warn Jennifer about that before she took a very large spoonful and put it in her mouth.  Needless to say, that was the only bite of the passionfruit creme that Jennifer took.  That night we went back to Wolf Creek and went swimming.  Wesley and Jonathen both really enjoyed the pool.  Wesley discovered that if you get a noodle full of water and then blow on one end you can spray others with a fairly large amount of water.  We went home the next day in time for Jennifer to leave with Mom and Dad to go to Moscow.  Overall, it was a fun weekend.

Doctor time!

Wesley and Jonathen both had a doctors appointment today.  Jonathen was going in for his 2 month well baby check up and for immunizations.  Wesley had his 2 year well baby check up.  Jonathen is, of course, growing extremely well.  He is 13 lbs 13 oz (90th percentile) and 25 1/2" (off the chart) with a head circumference of 16" (50th percentile).  Margarita, Dr. Graham's nurse, measured Jon and had to ask if my husband was tall.  When Jon's height was off the charts she couldn't believe it since I am average height for a female.  So in other words my child is proportianate, but extremely tall.  He is amazing to watch.  He has started smiling and laughing at things.  We were able to catch this beautiful smile when he was laughing at Mommy.  I am apparently hysterical.  He holds his head up really well and will follow you with his eyes.  He is a great baby.  He does not get upset very easy and prefers not to take a pacifier.  He will, in fact, throw a fit if you try to have him use the pacifier when he feels he doesn't need it.

Wesley on the other hand is weighing in at a whole 27 lbs (25th percentile) and 36 inches (75th percentile) with a head circuference of 19" (50th percentile).  He has lost some weight since his last doctors appointment, but he also lost a larger coat so maybe he is just the same as he was then.  Wesley does not like the doctor's office.  He got upset the second we put him up on the table for Margarita to measure him.  He kept telling Dr. Graham, "No, I don't like that."  Dr. Graham was very impressed with Wesley and felt he will be really bored in kindergarten.  Wesley was showing off a little bit and the nurses were encouraging him.  They got him to tell the what color things were and to count for them.  Then Dr. Graham saw that Wes was potty trained.  Dr. Graham said that Wesley showing interest at 18 months is the earliest he has ever seen a boy show interest.  He has seen a girl potty train at 13 months though.  Wesley has taken to wearing hats lately and loves to get his picture taken.  If everything continues as it is going Jonathen will most definently be taller than Wesley.  I love my little boys and it is great to watch them grow.

We love you Mommy oh yes we do.

One bad thing about having your birthday in May it is really close to Mother's Day.  My birthday was wonderful.  My mom, dad, and sisters(Jennifer and Elisa) gave me my present a few days early, but they had to get it done on a day I had off.  I came home Saturday evening after work and found that my flower bed had been weeded and planted.  They came over and spent the day getting my flower bed in working order.  It was wonderful since I was never going to find the time to do it.  Thank you so much guys.  On my birthday we went out to eat and Stevo's and then came back to my house to have cake.  We decided to do an ice cream cake from DQ.  The night before, we went to DQ to get the cake.  Wesley and I went in to pick one out.  There were four cakes and three of them said Happy Birthday on them.  The fourth, however, had a very realistic motorcycle.  Guess which one Wesley chose.  The motorcycle, of course.  The people in line ahead of us kept asking Wes how old he was turning.  I chose not to inform them that it was my birthday not his.  Wesley refused to admit that it was my birthday.  He kept saying it was Gramma's birthday and once insisted that it was Daddy's birthday.  Oh well, I guess I just don't get older anymore.  Kyle got me a new Wii game called Just Dance.  It is super fun and I got Kyle to dance to I Wanna Be by the Spice Girls.  While he was dancing to said song Wesley asked for the video camera.  You've got to love the vicious humor that has been passed on.  We even got Mom, Dad, and Jennifer to play with us on Mother's Day.  Mother's Day for me started early.  Jonathen woke up at 6ish to eat and before he was finished Wes started waking up.  Once Jonathen was done I went and got Wes and started our day.  Kyle slept in a little bit since he nevers gets to sleep in.  My present had not come in yet so I got it on Monday instead of Sunday.  Kyle got me a new pair of shoes since I can never have too many shoes.  Overall, it has been a good couple of weeks.

Last Weekend

Last weekend was extremely busy.  We blessed Jonathen on Sunday and also had a family birthday party for Wesley while everyone was here.  It was amazing to have so many show up and share this special day with us.  I have to tell you I was super busy on Saturday trying to get everything cleaned up and baked for the next day.  I decided I wanted to make a 3D duck cake for Wesley's birthday.  I started early Saturday morning cooking the cake.  I had a special cake pan that was supposed to make the cake three dimensional.  Supposed to is the important part of that last sentence.  Needless to say, the cake did not turn out 3D and I ended up cutting off the back and laying that cake down since I only had a one sided duck.  I then sent Kyle to the store to get me more cake mix since I was going to need more than one mix to fill the cake pan.  I finished making the frosting and the mints to go with the cake.  While making the mix for the mints I burned out my handheld mixer and had to borrow my moms. Thank goodness they are so close.  In the meantime, Kyle and my dad ran to Walmart to pick up the swingset that we bought Wesley for his birthday.  Elisa and Don were in town already so Don, my Dad, and Kyle started putting the swingset together around 1-1:30.  While they did that I took care of Wesley and Jonathen and tried cleaning the house since Kyle's parents were to be there around 3.  The second cake came out a little better than the first and when my mom and Elisa came over they helped me clean the kitchen and frost the cake.  The day would have been so much more stressful if they had not been there to help me out.  I really appreciated all that they did.  The next day, Kyle and his parents took Wes to church a little early to make sure we would have enough seats and Jonathen and I were to follow as soon as I was ready.  I got to church with Jon during the opening song.  The blessing went well.  Uncle Mike, Uncle Don, Uncle Scott, Uncle Danny, Uncle Jason, my Dad (Poppa), Kyle's Dad (Grandpa), and Bishop Crane were in the circle while Kyle blessed Jonathen.  I was so happy to see everyone that showed up.  After church we all went to my parents house to have lunch and cake.  Lunch went well even though there were over 30 people present.  Wesley opened presents and had birthday cake when he finally woke up.  (Wesley had been running a fever and had gone to sleep on the way home from church.)  Overall it was a great weekend.  Thanks to everyone who made it possible and came to support us.  We love you all.

Growing up too fast

A few days ago Wesley suprised me so much that I just had to share.  Wesley loves to read.  He will spend hours making anyone who is willing read to him.  We have more than enough children's books to last forever and yet will still keep buying them.  He loves them so much that it is hard to tell him no.  Well, anyway, the other day Wes, Jon and I had been home all day together and I was feeding Jonathen.  Wesley did not have anyone available to read to him since my hands were full.  So he was looking through his books without me.  Out of the blue I hear Wesley reading the story.  What was so great was he wasn't just making up a story to go with the pictures he was actually saying the story.  The book was Panda Bear Panda Bear by Eric Carle.  It is kind of a animal rights version of Brown Bear Brown Bear except the animals are green sea turtles, macaroni penguins, and whooping cranes and the animals aren't just looking at each other they are soaring, splashing, and stalking.  Wes was saying all the words on each page before turning the page and doing it again.  I was so suprised I didn't even think to get it all on camera.  It took me several minutes to remember that my cell phone takes videos and by then he had switched books and the video I got wasn't as impressive as the first book.  Oh well.  He is growing up so quickly.  I know he wasn't actually reading more like repeating a memorized story, but it was so amazing.

Jonathen is here!

I am a little slow updating, but I am finally getting to it.  Jonathen Redd Meyers was born on March 16th, 2010 at 1:48 pm.  The doctor induced me since he would be leaving town and wanted to deliver before he left.  I went in at 7:30 that morning and they induced me at around 8 am.  Everything went well and Jonathen was born weighing 8 lbs 10 oz and measuring 20 1/2 inches in length.  We spent the night in the hospital and got to come home by lunch time the next day.  Wesley was super excited to meet his little brother and glad to have him come home.  He wasn't too happy with me being in the hospital and refused to give me loves when he came to see me.  On the way home the next day though he wouldn't let his daddy talk and would only talk to Mommy so I think he forgave me.  Since we have come home we have had a few more problems though.  Jonathen had to go back in for a bilirubin check and it was fairly high.  We have gone in 6 times to check his bilirubin.  It is getting very frustrating.  His doctor is not worried about the bilirubin, but the hospital protocol is to make us keep coming back.  The doctor says not to worry about it.  Jonathen had his one week appointment on Tuesday and is doing well.  He is still at his birthweight of 8lbs10oz.  He is not having any other issues besides the bilirubin.  He is a pretty happy little baby who likes to look around.  Wesley adores his little brother and asks where Jonathen is when he first gets out of bed in the morning.  Wes loves to hold Jonathen's hand and will give him night-night kisses before going to sleep.  Wes has not had any setbacks in the potty training department and is, in fact, wearing big boy underwear 24 hours a day.  No more diapers for Wesley.  YEAH! 

It is super busy here.  Kyle just started track practice.  He is doing the distance runners and the long jump and triple jump.  Kyle is comfortable with the distance, but is doing research on the jumps since he never did them and is needing to teach a group of 7th and 8th graders how to do them.  I am off work right now.  I will be going back in mid April after Jonathen's blessing and Wesley's birthday.  It will be hard to go back, but I am sure the boys will be perfectly fine.

Update--One Month to Go

Well Heather usually does this, but has been pretty busy lately.  We got our new laptop up and going so I figured I would write something.  Potty training has been going pretty well with Wesley.  He averages about 1 accident per day.  So we figure that's pretty good.  He is beginning to speak a lot more and can even count to 10 at times. He is becoming excited to get a new brother.  Heather is only a month away basically.  This pregnancy seems to have gone very differently than the first in how often she has heartburn.  Plus Jonathen seems to be pretty active moving around and kicking her rib out at any given opportunity.  Heather is continuing to work until March 6 and then Jonathen will probably come during Spring Break, I can hope.  Basketball is going pretty well.  We are 4-4 but two of those losses were by 1 point each.  We have 4 games left and then the playoffs.  I told the boys that if they won the championship that I would shave my head, so we'll see what happens.  After Spring Break, I will begin coaching distances for the West track team.  So we will be busy for the next little bit, but it seems to be like that all the time.