Denver Aquarium

A few weeks ago I got a bee in my bonnet to go down to the aquarium.  I swear, having kids makes everything so much fun.  We hopped in the car and drove down to Denver to check out all the neat stuff at the Denver aquarium.  That place isn't cheap, but we had a blast so it made up for it.

There was a super long line when we got there and of course they put the carousel in front of the aquarium.  Isabel kept begging to ride it so we pretty much had to let her ride it.  Isabel loved it.

You know those parents who put their kid on a leash?  Before I had kids I judged those people.  Seriously how could you put your kid on a leash?  After the aquarium I seriously considered buying a leash.  Isabel is completely unaware of the fact that she needs Mom and Dad to stay safe.  She ran off by herself on numerous occasions.  This girl, she has no fear.

They also had tigers at the aquarium.  Isabel loves tigers!  We spent a lot of time looking at the tigers.  This video is of her watching the tiger and exclaiming excitedly that she wanted to go in to pet the tiger!!!  Okay, now say tiger five times fast!!

I love exploring with a two year old!!

 
 

A Day in the Life...

Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of a stay at home mom is like?  Well, firstly, it's awesome.  I get nothing done that carries any weight in the real world.  Sure my bed is made and the dishes get done but that's about it.  I often complain to my hubby that there isn't enough time in the day to get things done.  I'm sure I could find time to do all the chores around the house if I wanted to neglect my children, but instead my day is filled with pretending that the tigers are going to find us and hiding under the blankets.  Dancing to "La la la la" and finding ways to make my kiddos laugh.  We read, we play, we explore and I would rather have all these sweet memories than a clean house.  :)  Excuse my singing in the video.  I was trying to get Isabel to sing because it is soo cute!  Isabel can really shake her bunz and it is hilarious.  In one of the videos I had set the camera down on the chair and was dancing off screen so that I could catch Isabel's moves without her noticing.  (She's very camera shy)  I was ROCKING it when Dave walked around the corner unnoticed and commented, "I think I've identified where all your time gets chewed up during the day".  :)  Boys just don't understand the importance of learning how to groove.

 

Am I an amazing videographer or what?

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any motion sickness or nausea you may experience due to watching the preceding videos.  :)

Tiny Town

I love stay-cations.  You know, where you take a vacation from work but you stay at home and explore the world that is close around you?  Why pay to stay in a hotel away from all the stuff that you need?  Especially with two (LITTLE) kids.  Okay, yeah I'm a bit of a home body and I'm sure it has a tendency to drive my hubby nuts because often his vacation time comes around and it gets all filled up with his honey do list.  But a few months back we tried to get out and explore what was near to us.  Dave found a cute little place about an hour away called Tiny Town.  It was filled with little houses for kids to look at and some even big enough to get in.  Isabel loved it.  The weather turned on us while we were there so it was a little cold and rainy but we still had a blast.

They had a really cute train there which we rode a couple of times.  Isabel even got to ride in the caboose all by herself!  She's such a big girl!

By the time we left Isabel was super tired.  This is her getting to sleep before we even put the car in drive.  :)

If looks could kill.  Alison was not too happy of a camper.  I could not get her to calm down and then we got stuck on the train and I'm sure the people around me were just thinking what a terrible mother I was to inflict my screaming baby on them.  Then Dave turned the camera to face me and at the time I was thinking that I was going to grab the phone from him and throw it into the stream we were about to cross over.  I never really realized just how awful my glare can be until I saw this video.  Poor Dave.  :) 

Speaking in Church

In light of recent feedback in regards to this talk I've chosen to clarify a few points here as to not mislead people to what my beliefs are.  It is never my intention to imply that I live my faith more perfectly than any other person living theirs.  I do not believe that other faiths don't have parts of the truth.  I believe that many church's hold many real truths.  But I also believe that many plain and simple truths about Christ's gospel were lost to the earth due to corruption, mistranslation etc.  If you've studied the history of the Bible then you know that many books that were originally included in sacred writings were thrown out/destroyed. When I refer to the LDS church as the only true and living church it is perhaps language that the world is not used to.  What I mean in layman terms is that I believe the LDS church to be the only church that holds all of the restored truths of Christ's gospel and that there is a prophet who is living today that leads and guides the church under the direction of God.  I also think that it is important to shed light on the fact that people throughout history and all over the world today sacrifice for the greater good.  It is not my intention to imply that members of the LDS church are the only people who make sacrifices.  Indeed there are atrocities perpetrated every day all over the world against people who choose to remain faithful in their belief that the Savior lives.  And with them, I'm sure, the Savior is well pleased.  Part of the reason I share my testimony is because I feel as though I have an infinite treasure and I want so badly to make all those around me as rich as I feel that I am.  I find great joy and peace in the teachings of the LDS church and feel as though people can always use more joy and peace in their lives.  Most of all I just have this intense love for those around me and I feel compelled to share what makes me happy with those that I love.     


I was asked to give a talk in church about a year ago.  Since then I've had the prompting to put it on my blog come to my mind on several occasions.  I'm finally doing it now.  My composition professor would not be pleased with my citations as there aren't any.  But any quotes can be found from talks that are accessible via lds.org.  Also, I know I used a very long quotation but I didn't think I could have written more perfect words for what I was trying to share.  Enjoy.

        I’ve been asked to speak on the topic of Sacrifice.  As I ponder sacrifice and what it means, inevitably the atonement comes to the forefront of my thoughts.  Throughout all of history there can nowhere be found a greater sacrifice than that of the Only Begotten Son.  In the words of Elder Oaks, “The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ has been called the most transcendent of all events from creation’s dawn to the endless ages of eternity.”  Simply put, from the beginning of time to the end of time there will never come another event that will even compare to the incredible power of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  To know of the atonement and the sacrifice that Christ so willingly made is one thing, but to fully understand all that the atonement entailed is another.  Elder Holland eloquently describes the plight of our Savior saying, “…[the Savior] ventured into the Garden of Gethsemane alone.  Falling on His face in prayer, sorrowful unto death, His sweat came as great drops of blood as He pled with the Father to let this crushing, brutal cup pass from Him.”  Not only did Christ feel the literal weight of the sins of the world crushing down on his spirit he also felt the unimaginable physical pain of bleeding from every pore.  Elder Holland goes on to explain the loneliness that our loving Savior endured in order for the atonement to be complete, “Now I speak very carefully, even reverently, of what may have been the most difficult moment in all of this solitary journey to Atonement. I speak of those final moments for which Jesus must have been prepared intellectually and physically but which He may not have fully anticipated emotionally and spiritually—that concluding descent into the paralyzing despair of divine withdrawal when He cries in ultimate loneliness, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' The loss of mortal support He had anticipated, but apparently He had not comprehended this. Had He not said to His disciples, 'Behold, the hour … is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me' and 'The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him'? With all the conviction of my soul I testify that He did please His Father perfectly and that a perfect Father did not forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in all of Christ’s mortal ministry the Father may never have been closer to His Son than in these agonizing final moments of suffering. Nevertheless, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone. But Jesus held on. He pressed on. The goodness in Him allowed faith to triumph even in a state of complete anguish. The trust He lived by told Him in spite of His feelings that divine compassion is never absent, that God is always faithful, that He never flees nor fails us. When the uttermost farthing had then been paid, when Christ’s determination to be faithful was as obvious as it was utterly invincible, finally and mercifully, it was 'finished.'". 

     Having a better understanding of what Christ went through during the process of the atonement gives me a more complete appreciation for its power.  Knowing that a perfect Son of God descended below the most unimaginable depths in order to pay for my sins gives me a profound drive to make myself better.  To give something back.  Though Christ doesn’t require anything of us in order to be eligible to take part in the power of the atonement as a follower of Christ I’m driven to sacrifice my agency to His will in similitude of His incredible gift to me.  I have nothing to give but my agency and as Latter Day Saints we have the duty to show the world through our actions that we are followers of Christ.  Elder Oaks quoted President Hinckley regarding this subject saying, “Prior to the rededication of one of our temples, a Christian minister asked President Gordon B. Hinckley why it did not contain any representation of the cross, the most common symbol of the Christian faith.  President Hinckley replied that the symbols of our Christian faith are 'the lives of our people'.  Truly, our lives of service and sacrifice are the most appropriate expressions of our commitment to serve the Master and our fellow men.”  I love the idea of this.  I love that instead of using a simple symbol to express our dedication to being followers of Christ we put that desire into action and really show the world what drives us every day. 

                Another way we can give our agency to the Lord is through faithful observance of gospel principles and missionary work.   I am reminded of a story I heard that takes place in the preexistence.  There were two friends and when the time came for them to receive their calls to Earth one found out that she would be going to a Latter Day Saint family where she would grow up in the gospel and the other found out that she would be born to a non-member family.  Tearfully the one going to the non-member family turned to her friend and pleaded, “Find me”.  For me I find it incredibly difficult to share the gospel.  Sometimes I find myself holding back because I’m afraid that someone doesn’t want to hear about the gospel or because I don’t want them to think I’m weird, or because I think it will not make a difference.  But if I think about what I’ve been taught about the Plan of Salvation I know that in the pre-existence there was a choice to follow Satan’s plan or Christ’s plan.  I know that 1/3 of the host of Heaven followed Satan and lost the opportunity to have a body here on Earth.  I also know that the other 2/3 chose to follow Christ’s plan.  That 2/3’s  are the people who are here now on Earth.  They have already chosen to follow Christ and those that are not members of the church have simply not had the opportunity to again choose to follow Him in his most perfect gospel and in the only true and living church.  So, being that I believe what I’ve been taught about the plan of salvation I know not just in my heart spiritually but logically that I have a duty to spread the gospel.  As members of this church we are so blessed to have been chosen to be sent to a place where we have received the gospel.  We have been entrusted with the greatest privilege of spreading the gospel.  It is our duty to ensure that we find our friends from the pre existence that have so sweetly asked for us to find them.  And through our dedication to spreading the gospel we make sacrifices along the way and in turn show our Savior that we understand the sacrifice that He made for us.

                As we work to spread the gospel I think it’s important to recognize that Latter Day Saints are definitely not the only ones who sacrifice through the process.  Those who are being taught and who come to the realization that the gospel is true and act on the teachings of missionaries sacrifice a great deal.  Elder Oaks explains one such example, “Many years ago this conference heard of a young man who found the restored gospel while he was studying in the United States.  As this man was about to return to his native land, President Gordon B. Hinckley asked him what would happen to him when he returned home as a Christian. “My family will be disappointed,” the young man answered. “They may cast me out and regard me as dead. As for my future and my career, all opportunity may be foreclosed against me.”  “Are you willing to pay so great a price for the gospel?” President Hinckley asked.  Tearfully the young man answered, “It’s true, isn’t it?” When that was affirmed, he replied, “Then what else matters?” That is the spirit of sacrifice among many of our new members.”  I can testify that the gospel is true and like that young man who was converted to being a faithful follower of Christ I am reminded that because I have a testimony it is my duty to show the world that whatever temporal tribulations come my way I will remain faithful to Christ because in this journey what else truly matters?  Isn’t that why we are all here?  To learn and to be tested and to grow and in the end show that we can and will choose to be followers of Christ.

                I can testify that the power of sacrifice is real.  In my own life I’ve found that through sacrifice and service I find happiness.  In Matthew 16:24-25 it reads, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”  Brothers and Sisters this is so true.  As we sacrifice to spread the gospel, and to raise families, and to serve others we’ll find ourselves.  We’ll progress towards eternal life.  As we learn to forego the passions of mortality in order to serve the Master we progress towards immortality and the greatest blessing of being perfected through Christ.  I can’t tell you how grateful I am to my Savior for giving me the opportunity to become perfected through Him.  I find that my faith in the atonement and its healing powers are often the only glimmer of hope that can pull me out of despair when I find myself subjected to the weakness of mortality and sin.  That I can again become clean is such an incredible blessing. 

                Finally I’ll leave you with one last quote from Elder Oaks regarding sacrifice, “Latter-day Saints look on their sacrifices of time and means as a part of their schooling and qualifying for eternity. This is a truth revealed in the Lectures on Faith, which teach that “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation. … It [is] through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life.”

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

         

Fun at the Fair!

Everything is more fun with kids.  Seriously.

I am a sucker for my kids.  The fair recently came to town and we took our girls.  3 or 4 times.  Isabel LOVED it.  Alison, not so much.

We had a blast eating all kinds of super unhealthy, super expensive food and checking out all the tractors...

Isabel loved looking at all the animals.  One lady was nice enough to let Isabel in with her calfs.  I'm constantly amazed by how daring my little lady is.  Isabel isn't afraid of anything.  Spiders, frogs, bugs, cows...

Isabel even got to ride the rides with Daddy and Grandpa Bonk.  Poor Alison got stuck with Mom and Grandma.

We sure had a blast and are really looking forward to next year.  One word of advice though, bring your cell phone.  We lost my Mom and spent 45 minutes looking for her.  I don't know how people got around 20 years ago!  Thanks T-Mobile!!

Holy Moly, that guy has no braces! And 4th of July Fun....

After four long years Dave has finally gotten his braces off!  He's pretty excited to make an appearance at the corn festival and eat all kinds of corn on the cob.  Look at those pearly whites!

I was pretty excited for the 4th this year because I couldn't wait to see Isabel with the fireworks.  It was worth the wait.  She was adorable and not afraid, at all!  We had lot's of fun and she only burned her hand slightly on one of her sparklers.  Mother of the year award goes to....well not me.  

This post is obviously late like all my other posts but I just wanted to take a minute and express my gratitude for the meaning behind the Fourth of July.  I'm so very grateful that I have been blessed to live in this country.  I'm incredibly grateful that I have the freedom to choose how I raise my children and how I live my life.  I read things about the terrible violence and hunger that abounds elsewhere in the world and it makes me realize just how blessed I am.

I don't have to worry about my child dying from malaria because I don't have access to a simple mosquito net.  Or contracting a waterborne illness because I can't provide clean water.  As I watch my children bathe in a tub full of clean water or refuse to eat delicious healthy food I'm forever grateful that they will never know the hardships that so many face.  I will strive to make sure that they are always aware of just how blessed we are to live in this beautiful country.

Happy Birthday, America!

Elimination Communication?

I've had quite a few people ask about this strange thing that I'm doing with Alison.  It's called Elimination Communication or EC.  You can learn a little more about it here.  Elimination Communication is the process by which a baby, apparently from birth, recognizes the urge to go potty and communicates that urge.  I had heard about this practice when I was pregnant with Isabel but thought that it was just a bunch of hippy mumbo jumbo so I elected to go with cloth diapers instead.

When Alison was born she used to cry for hours apparently for no good reason.  Then one day my Mom mentioned a guy that she works with at Intel whose wife practices EC and said that his babies were fully potty trained before age 1.  I was intrigued and thought I'd give it a try.  I was willing to do anything to make the crying stop.  It was pretty obvious to me when Alison needed to poop so the next time she gave the signal I took her to the potty and she went.  She was about 6 weeks when we started.  I began keeping her diaper off so that I could learn how often and when she went pee and start to train a potty cue.  I learned that she pee's immediately after waking, and in pretty regular intervals throughout her awake time.  She doesn't have a regular schedule for pooping but she will let you know if she has to go by kicking her legs frantically or crying, or if she's eating she will stop and give me a great big smile.  Magically as soon as the pottying in the toilet starting the crying ended.  It's understandable really, would you want to poop in a diaper?

So, she's 5 months now and she mostly goes in the potty.  She never has poopy diapers and only a few pee diapers during the day when I'm not paying enough attention to her.  She's transformed into a pretty easy going happy girl.  We are so relieved that we were able to figure out what was going on with her.  Yes, it's a lot of extra work to be really tuned in to her and she can't sit on the potty by herself so sometimes it's time consuming but it's pretty worth it I think.  Plus, we can skip over the whole spray solids out of the cloth diaper thing this time around which is a pretty big bonus if you ask me. :)

Please feel free to ask any questions, and feel free to call me a crazy hippy if you like.  Although I didn't vote for Barack the second time around so I'm pretty sure that has banned me from hippy status.

Isabel, the Photographer

Can I just say that motherhood really is like a mirror reflecting your every move back at you?  Isabel is constantly throwing out comments that are directly linked back to me.  Some of the many are:

"That's dish-gushting!"

"I got an i-deeya"

"She's pretty cute huh" When referring to Alison

and my personal favorite, "You're the cutest girl in the whole world!!"

Recently Isabel has been obsessed with my camera.  I gave in and let her take a picture of me with it.  Soon after she snapped the picture she looked at the view finder and said, "That's cute".  I do this.  Seriously, I snap the picture then pull the camera back to look at the shot and say, "That's cute".  Luckily Dave was there and he caught the whole thing on camera.  So cute.  Here are the shots that she thought were so cute.  She's pretty amazing with a camera. ;)

Happy Birthday Isabel!

Okay, so Isabel turned 2, four months ago.  But at least the blog post is getting done late right?

We decided to go to Chucky Cheese with Isabel's BFF, Braxton.  She had a blast playing with all the neat things for kids. 


Isabel has been such a blessing for our family.  She's such a sweet girl.  At two she speaks in full and complete sentences, can count to 13 on her own, knows most of her letters, and has been potty trained for six months.  She is definitely a Daddy's girl.  She's got Daddy wrapped around her little finger. Tightly.  We try so hard not to spoil her but it's so difficult when she asks for something and stares up at you with her giant blue eyes and exclaims, pleeeease?  She's so kind to all her friends and loving to her family too.

We love you big girl!

Alison's Birth Story, Long Overdue

This post is a few months over due but I've had mastitis three times in the last two months and now we're all sick again, so I kind of have an excuse.  I was hoping that Alison would come a little early because I was huge this time around and though for sure she would come sometime soon after 37 weeks.  Ladies a word of advice: DO NOT count on having your baby at 37 weeks because the next 3-4 weeks suck if you've figured that you're done.  At my 40 week and 2 day appointment my doctor asked if I wanted to be induced.  I declined because really, she'll come when she's ready and she was still looking great.  Also, I didn't want to put undue stress on her due to Pitocin contractions and I certainly didn't want to risk an unnecessary C-section etc...  And I'm a little bit of a hippy so there's that.  To be honest I did want to be induced, desperately.  But my conscience got the better of me. :)  My doctor and I both agreed that if at 41 weeks I hadn't gone into labor on my own we would schedule an induction.  I asked to have my membranes stripped in an effort to help me along (I'd had this done twice previously to no avail)  But I was dilated to 2.5 cm this week so things were looking up. I know early dilation is absolutely no indicator of labor starting but for the desperate pregnant lady I was taking any good news I could get.  I was starting to get to the point where I literally thought I would be pregnant forever.

The day went on and no heavy contractions started from the membrane stripping so I was a little discouraged but tried to remain positive while hauling around an extra 40+ pounds.  Dave got home from work and we joked about all the home remedies we could try to get things going but I didn't want to have bathroom issues from castor oil or heartburn from spicy food and I'd already tried the elliptical a few times and that was just silly so we got to bed and chit chatted about what it would be like to have a newborn again.  Around 11 o'clock I started having painful contractions but this was about the time my painful Braxton Hicks started out for the night for the previous month so I didn't think much of it.  But within 10 minutes or so the contractions were to painful for me to lie down.  Dave got on his contraction app and started timing them.  They were about a minute apart and a little less than a minute long.  I immediately started putting last minute things into my hospital bag between contractions and within the hour the contractions were so intense I had to stop everything and hold onto our dresser for support.  Dave called the hospital to see if we should come in and they agreed that we probably should.  I didn't want to jump the gun because we got sent home twice last time around.  But I'd had a few contractions that were right on top of each other and I didn't know how much longer I could handle it.  We woke Lynda to let her know we were heading to the hospital and we hurried out to the car.

When we got to the hospital they took us right into a delivery room and skipped over the triage room.  I was thankful for that.  Once there they "checked" me and said I was dilated to a 4 yippee we were having a baby.  They asked if I knew what I wanted to do for pain management and I quickly exclaimed that I would like an epidural asap.  The nurse had to run labs and get an entire bag of IV fluids in before they could order the epidural and the last time around they were really fast at getting all that done.  This time it seemed like FOREVER!!!!  And it was forever seriously like two hours after we got there before they even got the order in.  For me sitting on a bed while in labor is a special kind of torture.  The contractions are so much worse sitting/laying down than they are walking or standing.  But they made me sit in the bed while answering the hundreds of questions about medical history, lifestyle etc.  I was so annoyed.  If that is one thing that a hospital can do before or after labor I really think they should.  No woman wants to answer questions about mental health or recreational drug use while she's having intense contractions every other minute.  If my husband was on board with a home birth I'd seriously consider it.   Anyway, finally the anesthesiologist got there to give me my epidural and it took forever.  Apparently I have very stiff joints which makes inserting the needle very difficult.  Also, I have scoliosis and so I have to curve my spine in a weird way to make it straight.  A fact that the nurse overlooked and forcefully sat me up straight after the doctor had me bent correctly.  I was a little irritated at her.  (Obviously)  After the doc finally got the epidural in he realized that it was blocked off and so had to maneuver the needle a bit and pull it out some to get it to start flowing.  Then it was only working on one side and not all that well either.  He said to give it some time to see if it would work and if not to call him back to REINSERT IT!!!  At this point I thought we'd have some time so I sent Dave to the car to get my bag while I tried to get the epidural flowing.   But as soon as I rolled over my water broke and the pain and pressure became very intense.  I told this to the nurse who immediately called the doctor to come in.  Dave got back right before Dr. Kozak arrived and I told him that my water had broken and that I would really like him to get the music going because last time it was really awkward with everyone staring at me in silence and we ended up putting on Michael Jackson.  Yes, Isabel was born to "beat it".  Dave desperately tried to get the music going but my phone decided to shut down and the speaker was out of batteries so we were left with the music on his phone.  Country.  I hate country.  But anything was better than nothing.  Dr. Kozak arrived and it was time to push.  I was terrified because the epidural was not working but the pressure was so intense I couldn't not push.  Alison's head was visible during the first or second pushing contraction but then Dr. Kozak said, "You're not supposed to go back in" followed by my sweet husband cracking a joke and saying, "It's cold out there!!"  I was not all that amused and I was frantic that I'd just done all that work to have her go back in!  Plus the ring of fire really does feel like you are on fire.  I don't know why women choose to go naturally on purpose!  The second or third pushing contraction she finally came out and the pain was over.  Man, that was the worst pain I can imagine.  And, I have it all on film to prove it.

Alison was born at 3:07 a.m. just over 4 hours after the first contraction and about 15 minutes after the epidural. :)  Dr. Kozak held up the placenta which I hadn't seen with Isabel and to be honest I was a little mortified with out huge it was.  She explained that she liked to guess how much the baby weighed by how much the placenta weighed.  She was an interesting lady. :)  She guessed 7lbs 12oz.  I laughed her off because I don't have big babies like that, Isabel was only 7.  But Alison weighed in at 8lbs. 4oz!  Big girl.  I don't remember her APGAR scores but I'm sure they were amazing. ;)  We did skin to skin for a while and she nursed well right off the bat which was great.  We got to our regular room around 6 a.m. and Dave took off around 6:30 a.m. to be home when Isabel woke up.

That's our birth story.  Pretty crazy how different it was this time around.  We feel so blessed to have Alison here and happy and healthy.  We sure love her and Isabel is such an amazing big sister.  My favorite Isabel quote is when she gives Alison a kiss and exclaims, "I lub her!"

Life is just so sweet.