Changes

Wow. It has been so long since I updated my blog about what's been going on in our lives. Let's just say there has been A LOT.

The first and most major thing was that around the first part of March Greg was laid off from his job. I know so many other people are going through this right now. That has got to be one of the worst phone calls you can get from your husband. I can't even imagine how hard it was for Greg to call me and tell me what was going on. Yikes. As most of you know, he worked at a company that sold moulding and other wood products wholesale. With the building industry the way it is right now, no one in that line of work is doing very well. Greg had survived a few rounds of layoffs, but I guess it was just his turn this time. With this job, they had provided him a car, cell phone, and our insurance was through them. So now we were out of all of these things. We were able to borrow a car from my parents (thanks Mom & Dad!) and that was a life saver. With me working and Greg out there trying to find a new job, I don't know how we could have done it with only one car.

After a month of job hunting and over 25 interviews, and 4 job offers, Greg went to work for a company that sold products to teach people how to invest in the stock market. I know, total turn around from his last job, right? He learned a lot, but it wasn't right for him. So after a month there he went to work where he is now at a staffing company. He is doing outside sales which is what he was doing before with the moulding/wood products. Such a better fit. He really likes it, and is doing well at it. He's been there for three weeks now.

During this whole time, we were looking for a new car. I have decided that if forced into it, I HATE car shopping. We didn't know what we wanted, weren't really sure how much we wanted to spend, and couldn't agree on anything. Uggh! We had looked at getting another car . . . and looked . . . and looked. Then last week, Greg's sister, Heidi, said that her friend who worked for the LDS church motor pool just happened to have this Chevrolet Trailblazer the church was selling. I guess they sell their cars all the time. Anyway, it was in our price range (we'd decided on a price by this point) and so we thought we'd check it out. It was perfect. And it was a great deal! Even better! So we snatched that thing up. I'll have to post a picture of it later. I feel like such a soccer mom driving it though. Oh well. I like it.

So, on to some pictures.

I missed an Easter post while I was in my blogging funk. Isaac thought the Easter Bunny was soooo cool. He couldn't believe that he actually left eggs in our house! He also got a book and a movie and a pair of flip flops in his basket.

Here we all are dressed up for church. I realize that we are a little matchy-matchy. We really didn't plan it that way. Isaac is the only one that got new clothes for Easter.

And this last weekend being Memorial Day weekend, we were super busy. We had a lot of fun. On Saturday we went with my family and took my parent's four wheelers and motorcycles out to for a spin. Isaac had a blast! At one point, however, Isaac and I were on one of the four wheelers that shifts automatically. Like, you just hit the gas and it will go as fast as it can go. I slowed down to turn around to see where Greg was, and apparently Isaac didn't think we were going fast enough. He hit the throttle with his thumb, and off we went bouncing across the desert at full speed. I freaked out and yelled at him to let go of the gas. He thought it was funny and was laughing! I almost wet myself. He did let go, and we did eventually stop just before running into another group's camping spot.

On Monday, we went with my family again, but this time we took my parent's boat out. We went to Willard Bay. I finally got to use my Mother's Day present. A new wet suit. I was proud of myself that I got up on my first try.

Here's Greg. He's obviously much better than I am.

The water is still too cold for Isaac to get in, but he'll beg any of the guys in the boat to dip his feet in the water for just a second. When it gets warmer, he'll do some tubing.

Isaac's favorite thing to do lately is to go outside and play baseball. I would love to find a team for him to play on around here, but he's too young this year.

No, I did not pose him for that picture.

20 Questions

I have been putting off posting anything on here, because I knew it would have to be a huge post. We've had a lot going on around our house. But, I'm going to have to come back and do that. Instead, I'm going to respond to a tag I got on Facebook about being a Mom. Thanks Tonya! I thought it would be good to keep some record of this rather than have it be deleted by Facebook someday. So here goes:


1. How old were you when your first child was born? 26

2. What month and year was your youngest child born? October 2005

3. How did you feel when you first found out you were pregnant? It didn't seem real for the longest time. Oh, and I was really sick for the first few months.

4. Who did you tell first? Greg. Then our parents.

5. How many pounds did you gain during your first pregnancy? 50! What a fatty. Though I had a condition that made me retain tons of water. I was a balloon with opposable thumbs.

6. What did you crave while you were pregnant? Mexican food. I ate at Rubios A LOT. Is that technically Mexican food?

7. Did you find out the gender of your first child? Why or why not? Uh, YES. I couldn't stand not knowing.

8. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? I ended up with pre eclampsia and high blood pressure. It was bad enough that I was induced 4 weeks early.

9. How much did your first child weigh? 6 lbs 14 oz. Pretty big for being early!

10. Was your first child early, late, or on time? Early. See #8, above.

11. What is the most difficult challenge or health issue that any of your children have faced? We've been pretty lucky. The hardest thing we've had to deal with was reflux. Isaac was over that by 10 months old.

12. What's your favorite part of being a mom? I love watching Isaac's personality develop. He amazes me with how quickly he figures things out, and makes me laugh every day.

13. Do you think it's easier to be a mom or a dad? I don't think one is easier than the other. They both have different challenges.

14. What is the best piece of advice you could give to someone who is about to have their first child? Chill out! lol. Relax and enjoy your kid.

15. Did you always think you'd have kids? Yep.

16. What's been the biggest surprise about motherhood? The overwhelming urge I have to protect him.

17. Are there things you miss about life before kids? That's easy. More free time. But now, if I have some, I wander around aimlessly.

18. How many children do you have? Just one.

19. Do you plan to have any more children? Yeah, probably.

20. Who's the mom that you admire most? My own mom. She is the most giving and unselfish person I know.

Popadoodle

What is a popadoodle you ask? It’s anything you want it to be.

Isaac made up the word a couple of months ago and it’s stuck. Here’s a few examples of how he uses it:

As a cuss word. Example: "What the popadoodle are you doing?"

A name for his stuffed animal. Example: "This is Popadoodle Dog."

Apparently you can eat it. Example: "I want a popadoodle sandwich for lunch."

We just now asked him what it what a popadoodle was, and he says it’s a car that’s driving.

So, if you ever find yourself in search of just the right word, use popadoodle. Just remember to thank Isaac next time you see him.

Hardware Ranch

Last weekend we made the drive up to Hardware Ranch in Hyrum. It's about two hours from our house, and part the drive is through a winding canyon road. I thought Isaac was going to get carsick because he got that glassy look in his eyes and was asking why the road kept going back and forth. But we finally made it and went up to the museum to buy our tickets for the sleigh ride out to see the elk. It's a small museum, but they had all kinds of native Utah animal skins and skulls. Perfect for a 3 year old boy. There was this stuffed mountain lion that he wasn't too sure of though. He thought it was a real at first, but then he was okay with it.

The Clydesdale horses that pulled the sleigh were HUGE. The driver told us that together they weighed more than 4200 lbs. Wow. I'm pretty sure that's more than my car weighs. It's no wonder these big animals can pull a sled with about 15 people on it.

So we hopped on the sled and they took us out to the elk. There was probably about 200 or 300 elk out there. It was really neat to see them so close up. Isaac was concerned that he was going to get pooped on. I have no idea where he got that. But I assured him that if we stayed in the sled that we would be safe from the elk poo.

Go Utes!

Last Friday we went to the parade for the University of Utah football team in Salt Lake. As you may or may not know, the Utes won the Sugar Bowl a few weeks back and so the city decided to have a parade for them. It wasn't a very long parade, but it was fun to go cheer on our team.

The players walked along the parade route signing autographs and giving high fives. Isaac thought he was soooo cool and talked about how he gave fives to the Go Utes Football Players for days. I have a cute video of him but I took it sideways with my camera and I can't figure out how to post it the right way. If anyone knows, help me out!

Christmas

Yeah, I know I'm really late posting this but I'm late for everything else, so no one should really be all that surprised.

We had a great Christmas! On Christmas Eve we had dinner with Greg's family at his Grandma's house. Grandma Carr always makes such good food, so I was looking forward to going to her house. After dinner we all dressed up in our assigned roles and acted out the Christmas story of Jesus' birth. Isaac was Joseph, Greg was the donkey, and I was a shepherd. It's kind of a fun way to teach the grandkids why we celebrate Christmas. Greg's dad read the story from the Bible while the rest of us acted it out. We acted beautifully. I was really surprised when the nominees for the Golden Globes came out recently and we weren't named. I'm sure it was a mistake. Oh well, we'll just have to try harder next year. Here we are in our manger scene.

After Greg's family, we headed on over to my parents' house. My family has a tradition of breaking a pinata on Christmas Eve. I don't even remember where it started, but we have been doing it for years. Greg was in charge of getting the pinata. Could he have picked out an uglier one? Prolly not. Isaac loved whacking away at it.

I did pretty well myself.

But it was my mom who ultimately killed it. Here's my crazy family with various pieces of the dead pinata on our heads.

We headed on home to set out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. Christmas morning I woke Isaac up at 6:30. I know, I know. WHY would I wake my kid up? Well we had a busy day ahead of us with family, and I wanted to make sure we had enough time to do our own little family thing. Santa did pretty good for Isaac.

The only thing he asked for was a Hot Wheels race track. He got it! He was so excited. Santa also brought him clothes, a robot, a case to store his Hot Wheels cars in, a guitar, a motorcycle, and a few other little gifts. Greg and I both got new shoes and clothes. Greg got some tools, a case for an autographed basketball he has, and he and Isaac got boxing gloves. They are always pretending to box, so Santa decided they should have the proper equipment.

After we opened gifts at our house we went to my parent's house, then to Greg's parent's and then to my Grandparents. (See, I told you we had a busy day.) Our families were so generous and spoiled us all. It's fun to see so many of our family all in one day.

We got home later that evening, and it had started to snow. Two hours later we had almost a foot! It has been snowing almost every day since. It's getting a little old.

Update

I know, I know. It's been a long time since I've updated my blog. But between me getting the flu last week (still not feeling 100%), Isaac getting sick again, and me being so busy at work that the last thing I want to do when I get home is to get on the computer, I keep putting off writing anything new. But, as I wait for another load of laundry to finish up I'll post some things we've been up to.

We have 3 fireplaces in our house. 2 are gas, but the third is a good old fashioned wood burning fireplace. Since Greg has a job in the moulding industry, scraps of wood are never in short supply. So about once or twice a week we have been building fires in our fireplace and making smores, roasting marshmallows, etc. We've been having a blast.

Also, it finally looks like Christmas here. I wouldn't mind if the warmer temperatures had stuck around for a little longer, but I will admit I do like the look of snow. Greg and Isaac went and played in the snow and took the sled down the front yard earlier in the week.

They later built a jump for the sled, but the memory card in my camera couldn't hold anything else on it. So I didn't get any good pictures of it.

Greg found a gingerbread house kit at Costco. We had a really good time decorating it. And while it's not the prettiest house on the block, it sure is the most colorful. It looks like a candy store exploded on it.