Airport Fun

Caleb and I took a quick trip home to New Mexico at the beginning of August.  I went so that i could attend my 20 year high school reunion, Caleb came along because my mother would have killed me if I had come to visit and not brought him with me.  We flew in and out of the El Paso airport and with plenty of time to kill before the flight I found a corner that was open and had a little fence so Caleb could get down on the floor but not get into the flow of traffic.  I have noticed that he pretty much charms everyone around him so it was only a matter of time before he had a host of admiring fans.  One of the toys Grandma Larsen had given him while we were home was a little stuffed soccer ball, which he was happily flipping out of his hands and scooting after.  Well on one of these flips the ball bounced into the the contraption intended to measure the size of carryon bags.  This is open on both sides so Caleb calmly followed the ball right on in.  He then decided this was the perfect place for him to play.  The co-pilot who was waiting, along with the rest of us, for the plane to arrive asked him he could take a picture.  Which reminded me that I should probably get a picture of the cutest carryon to ever fly Southwest Airlines.

20 Years? Really?! Are you sure?

I can't believe it has been 20 years since I graduated from high school.  I certainly don't feel like have a significantly better handle on life.  There are days that I am sure someone is going to realize that I have just been faking everyone out and that I am not really an adult.  There are also days that I wish I could voluntarily turn in my grown up card and go back to building blanket forts and reading books all summer long.  It was a fun weekend, flew in late on Thursday night,  my niece Megan and her husband were kind enough to pick me up from the airport.  Everything went smoothly except for the fact that while I did not change planes in Vegas evidently the car seat did.  It decided it needed a trip to Phoenix,  but Southwest is prepared for things like that and had a loaner car seat we used to get Caleb safely to my parents house.  Half the fun of the trip was getting to see family.  Megan hosted a dinner at her house and the next morning everyone who could met up at IHOP for breakfast.  Caleb really enjoyed his blueberry pancake and I think he actually ate most of it.

 Later that afternoon some of us from our graduating class met at a local park for lunch and a little family time.  As usual Caleb was busy charming anyone who would hold still long enough to get smiled at.  Greg Groves father of 2 beautiful girls was having fun playing with a little boy, and Caleb loved the attention.  Greg's girls also had fun playing fetch with Caleb, he would drop things and they would retrieve them. He had them well trained.

 I didn't pull my camera out as often as I probably should have but I was having so much fun chatting with people that I would forget until I got home that I hadn't really taken many pictures. Oh well.

 Liz made a beautiful cake for the dinner on Saturday night, the best part is that it tasted good as well.

Great group of friends that it was fun to get to see again.  Sometimes I wish I lived closer to home, until I go home during August and realize I like the cooler temperatures in Northern Utah.  It was a fun weekend and I am so glad that I was able to go home.  Glad that Christi was able to come to visit as well.  It is really true of good friends, you can spend years apart and pick up like it was yesterday.

1 Whole Year!

I try to keep my blog updated but it seems like there is always something more fun to do, like play with my adorable baby boy.  On that note let the cuteness begin.  We decided to incorporate our summer Bbq with Caleb's first birthday.  We invited friends and family over to enjoy hamburgers, hotdogs, watermelon, and birthday cake.  Caleb had a great time watching all the kids running around he thought they were great entertainment.  After having some dinner, which in Caleb's case meant munching on pieces of hotdog and sniping chips off everyone else's plates we brought out the cake with the #1 candle light.  Daddy helped blow it out.

 

We then stripped Caleb to his diaper and let him have at it.  To start with he just picked at the frosting because it broke off in nice little bite sized pieces.

Finally he got to the soft stuff and the demolition commenced.

It is never pretty when a muppet gets eaten.

Okay mom, I think I have had enough

What can I say he is cute and knows it.

Even made an attempt to use a fork

Thank you to my friend April Olsen for making such a wonderful cute cake.  I had kids fighting over who got the Big Bird or Cookie Monster Face.  There was a consensus that Sesame Street trying to turn Cookie Monster into a veggie monster is just plain silly.

I do have to say that I can not believe this little man has only been a part of the family for a year.  It feels like he has always been here.  There is nothing in the world quite like his baby giggles, I still maintain the world would be a much better place if everyone could listen to a baby laugh at least once a day.  He is so much fun and is growing and changing so fast I almost can't believe it.

The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same

A little over a year ago Caleb joined our family, still can't believe it has been that long. I was fortunate enough to have my mother and father come and visit for a week to provide some support as we adjusted to having a new member of the family.  During those first few weeks the 4am "I am hungry" wake up call was the hardest for me.  I could get up and feed him but my brain would not function well enough for me to have any ability to then get him back to sleep.  Fortunately my mother is a light sleeper who also gets up early and she would hear me crying out of exhaustion because my sweet boy wouldn't sleep and I was in no condition to process what my options were.  She would get up take him from me and shoo me back to bed.  Every time this happened I would wake up a few hours later walk out to the family room and find my mom and Caleb asleep on the couch.  Well a few weeks ago my parents came to visit for a weekend and of course mom wanted to take care of Caleb as much as possible.  The circumstances are evading me now but I came home at one point to find mom and Caleb asleep on the couch.  I think it is their thing.  As I am writing this it is making me wish I lived closer to my parents so that Caleb could see his Grandma and Grandpa Larsen more often. Oh well.  Here they are Grandma and Caleb couch sleeping.

A Cute Baby to Brighten your Easter Morning

First order of business.  Caleb is officially 8 months old. He is also the best entertainment in the world.  He is currently playing in his excersaucer next to the desk while I type, providing vociferous commentary on what I write.  In case you were wondering if he is still adorable below is photographic evidence.  (Thank you to our next door neighbor Susan for letting us use her photo studio to take some pictures).

 I found a lady through facebook who makes these cute "Easter buckets" and I figured that I might as well get ahead of the curve and get one now.  Evidently I made a good choice because Caleb loved playing with it while we took pictures.

 Not only did he wear the hat he didn't care when we turned it around backwards and put it back on when it fell off.

 This is Caleb's Easter outfit.  Thank you to Children's Place for having the cute little hat and polo shirt. Silly me thought that because there were Easter dresses all over creation that I would be able to find something cute for my little boy.  Not so.  Evidently little boys aren't expected to need to dress up.  I finally found cute little shirt, vest, tie combos on jcp.com but of course I had waited too long and they wouldn't get here in time.

 So after a few rushed lunch hour shopping trips, a plea for suggestions on facebook, and little frustration I managed to put together this cute ensemble.  Of course it never hurts to have a cute baby to dress, that smile makes anything look good.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter, Passover, First Day of Spring, or whatever you choose to celebrate.

Catching up on Christmas

For the first time in 3 years we were able to go home to my parents house for Christmas.  It was fun to get to see family and spend some time with my parents.  Mom and Dad had a great time giggling with Caleb.  We of course loved watching him get fussed over and spoiled.

My parents have a cabin on 10 acres of land in the Lincoln National Forest and that is where we have always gotten our Christmas trees from.  Needless to say our trees have never looked like those at the tree lot.  When I was little mom decided that she wanted to be able to have Blue Spruce Christmas trees like she had when she was growing up.  Well Blue Spruce don't grow native in Southern New Mexico, so she got saplings from the Forest Service and we planted them all over the mountain.  This of course means that for the next few summers we spent lots of time hauling buckets and hoses all over the mountain.  After about 10 years mom was finally able to harvest her first blue spruce Christmas Tree.  Mom has always been a fanatic about Christmas. Multiple Christmas trees, nativities on every flat surface, and lights and garland galore.  This year mom's Christmas tree was a long needle pine, with flocking and white lights on it.  She had placed cardinal ornaments all over it.  It turned out really pretty and artistic.

Think before you Tweet.

This isn’t going to be your typical update on my adorable little boy, so if that is what you are looking for feel free to skip this post.

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Most days I just revel in the fun of being a mom to an adorable baby, eating up his smiles, giggles, and snuggles.  Every once in a while, though, a situation arises that makes me realize what a huge responsibility my husband and I have taken on by bringing this little boy into the world.  It will be our responsibility to teach Caleb literally everything he needs to know to interact successfully with the world, from tying his shoes, to proper hygiene, to polite table manners.  Fortunately for him and us he will learn a little bit at time and we will learn how to teach him a little bit at a time.

I would be lying if I said this world doesn’t scare me sometimes and there are issues and situations my little guy will face that weren’t a big a problem when I was a kid. 

One that has been rattling around my brain for the past week or so is bullying, and not the “Your ugly and your mother dresses you funny” kind of bullying.  Trust me I don’t have on a pair of rose-colored glasses when it comes to bullying and maintain that it never happened to me.  I am sure I was mean to other children when I was young, and I can remember being called names and crying at home from time to time.  There is a difference between then and now, when I was young I could run home, stay inside at recess, or hang around the teacher on the playground and thereby get away from the mean kids.  It isn’t that easy in this increasingly digital age for children and adults to get away from the words of those who seek to tear them down.

I had a reaction to an acquaintances Facebook post this last week that surprised me.  This person had made a comment about a recent Esquire interview and photo spread done by Megan Fox.  In the article Megan Fox made the following comment concerning fame and bullying,

"I don't think people understand. They all think we should shut up and stop complaining because you live in a big house or you drive a Bentley. So your life must be so great. What people don't realize is that fame, whatever your worst experience in high school, when you were being bullied by those ten kids in high school, fame is that, but on a global scale, where you're being bullied by millions of people constantly." 

It wasn’t the quote that got to me it was the extremely derogatory comments by this individual and their friends, concerning the type of person Ms. Fox must be.  This seemed to me to essentially underscore the validity of her words. Now I don’t know much about Megan Fox, and I am not trying to defend her, her words or her actions.  But the situation gave me pause. When I made the following comment on this Facebook thread, I was essentially told she is in the public eye therefore she is fair game.

"Regardless of what you may think of her as a person or actress. Regardless of how silly her statements about the perils of being a sex symbol seem when paired with the photos in the article. Your comments just validated her point on bullying. How would you feel if your sister or daughter were the target of such comments by someone who didn't know her personally? Just because it is the Internet and they are a celebrity doesn't excuse the comments. No matter how vapid or hypocritical the target may come across."

In this increasingly interconnected yet disconnected world this attitude of “Those who are in the public eye, can’t complain about what others say about them” really bothered and scared me.  We try to convince ourselves that what we say on Facebook, Twitter, etc. doesn’t matter. Yet when some kids back east post on Facebook that if they can get 1 million likes their parents will let them get a puppy and they accomplish that in less than a week, that undercuts the assumption that the things we say don’t and can’t get back to those we say them about. 

I am not writing this to say be nice to the poor picked on celebrities, I am writing this to say that you should never post, text, or tweet something you wouldn’t be willing to say to that person face to face.  So if it is okay to take personal shots at those who are famous where do we draw the line, if someone is only famous within your community, or within your school, or your church, is it still all right to be mean, after all they are a public figure shouldn’t they expect that.

“Hate people on an individual basis only - you must actually get to know someone at least slightly before you can properly hate him or her.”

― Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queens' Book Of Love

The endpoint of this whole thought process is how am I going to teach my son to be nice when meanness, snarkiness, and bullying are used for entertainment in media.  Read any best and worst dressed article and the comments are truly cutting, written to be funny but definitely not intended to build up the subject of those comments.  Numerous movies use bullying to forward the plot, either to show how far the main character has come or to prove that those who are mean usually get their just desserts.  I hate those parts of movies and frequently fast forward through those sections.  It is an older movie but in Never Been Kissed they show a flashback in which the character Drew Barrymore plays is being humiliated in high school.  I know it is fiction, but it hurts me so I fast forward through it.  But for people who are being bullied, made fun of, or humiliated they don’t have that privilege of fast forwarding through that period of their lives, and in this digital age it can be everywhere.

Just think about your words are they intended to build up or tear down, because tearing someone down will never build you up.

Before you speak (post, text, tweet), Think!

T – is it True?

H – is it Helpful?

I – is it Inspiring?

N – is it Necessary?

K – is it Kind?

I am not saying that I am perfect in this regard, I am just trying each day to be a little better and maybe bring a little light and insight to my part of the world.

4 Months

They might be a little fuzzy but I think I have one of the best photo subjects ever.  I can't believe Caleb has only been a part of our lives for 4 months.  He is such a joy to have around.  My favorite days of the week are Saturday and Sunday because I get to spend the entire day with my handsome little boy.  It is hard for me to get pictures of him smiling because he gets confused by the camera, so it was exciting that I got a couple this time.  Caleb's smiles warm my heart especially when I am waking him up in the morning it makes it not quite so hard to take him to the babysitter.  He forgives me so quickly when I have made him wait just a little too long for a bottle.  I tell everyone that Caleb is a champion smiler and sleeper.  He loves to smile at everyone, especially if they will take a little time to talk to him. He sleeps through the night, which is such a blessing.  I really believe I won the baby lottery, he definitely has his cranky moments but on the whole it a smiling bundle of happy baby.

There have definitely been changes since Caleb joined the family.  It takes longer to get out the door, and I eat cold meals sometimes because dinner is ready just about the time he is hungry.  The biggest change though has been how soft my heart has become where children are concerned.  I tear up at news stories about babies who have been hurt or neglected, I get choked up telling Brad about a heart warming story I saw on facebook.

I don't know who this little boy is going to grow up to be, but I feel blessed that Heavenly Father has entrusted him to my care.  I can only hope I do a good job (cue the tears).

Putting up Christmas lights.

Because of my significantly less demanding work schedule this holiday season I was actually around to help Brad put up the Christmas lights, so we turned it into a family affair.  I don't know how much help we actually were but Caleb and I were there for the whole process.  Caleb wore his bear suit for the first time, don't know if he liked it but he sure looked cute.  You can tell by the t shirt Brad is wearing that the weather Thanksgiving weekend was really nice.  We probably didn't need to worry about Caleb being too cold but we will attribute it to new mom syndrome.  Brad did most of the scampering up and down the ladder I mostly untangled lights, handed him light clips, entertained Caleb, and took pictures.  Needless to say I think I got the better end of the deal, but at the end of the day the lights were up and no one fell off the roof or the ladder.

Caleb's new trick

Bet you can't guess what my little boy is learning to do.  Needless to say the binkie isn't nearly as interesting as it used to be.  My little boy has discovered his thumb, sigh.  Other than that isn't he the cutest thing ever with his little crinkled ear.  He has been talking to us all day long.  Brad just informed me that he sucked his thumb as a child so I am blaming this development on him.

Like Father Like Son

Brad is happy to report that at only 16 weeks old Caleb is already a complete football fan.  I try telling Brad that Caleb just likes to watch the moving colors on the TV but he is adamant that Caleb makes comments at the right times and loses interests during the commercials.  Who am I to argue with a proud father.  Regardless of what the exact situation is I get a kick out of watching my boys watch football.

Now, in case you were wondering who we cheer for at our house, check out the football jersey my mom found in the basement and sent to us.  Brad commented that my mom is a very smart and discerning lady.

Food for thought

I don't know who people voted for in the recent presidential election, and don't care.  I do know that there are quite a few people that were disappointed by the outcome, for a variety of reasons.  I also know that I am many of my friends are getting worried about raising our children in a world that feels like it is going farther and farther away from  the values we believe in.  Because of this I am reposting what a friend of mine wrote on her blog the morning after the elections.  I am looking at this more from a whole life and world perspective and less of an election won or lost perspective, but it was a nice reminder when it is so easy to get caught up in the ups and downs of life.

This is for all of my wonderful friends who are having a rough day today after last night's kick in the gut. After climbing out of my funk, re-evaluating and re-committing all morning I had a thought. I would like to share it with you all and I hope you will take it to heart.
On Saturdays KBYU used to replay BYU football games from time to time. The great thing about this is that they would ...only replay games where BYU won. This was a fantastic thing because you never had to get upset, never had to yell at the refs, never any heartbreaking final scores. You KNEW who was going to win in the end. It didn’t matter if BYU was down by 2 touchdowns with 3 minutes left in the 4th quarter. There was ALWAYS a comeback. Our team ALWAYS won. You could relax and enjoy the game. Such is life. We are in the 4th quarter. Just got a big kick in the gut. We may feel as if we are behind by a couple of touchdowns. But you know what? The results of this game are already in. It was played in the beginning of time. We KNOW who is going to win. It has been written thousands of years ago by the One who started the game in the first place. God and His righteous followers WILL win at the last day. Those who stand for truth and righteousness will win. The game is not over yet and some people may even switch teams. But the outcome will remain the same. We know the final score so there is no need to yell at the refs, or eat a bottle of TUMS, or curse the opposing side. Regardless of what happens, we know the final score. The righteous will win. “Be still, and know that I am God”. – Psalms 46:10
I say, bring on this 4th quarter. My family is ready. It is easy to fight when you know you’ve already won. PRESS FORWARD SAINTS

 

I am grateful to live in a country where I can vote for my local and national leaders, and while I may complain about policy I don't agree with I will always respect the office they have been elected to and the fact that the people of this nation elected them.  If there is something in the world you don't like or would like to change I like the words of Ghandi "You must be the change you want to see in the world."  If you want to see kindness, be kind.  If you want to see love, be loving.  If you want to see respect for differences, respect those differences.  The list goes on and on.  There just a few words to think about.

 

 

3 Months old

It is hard to believe that just over 3 months ago Caleb wasn't a member of our family.  He is getting bigger everyday, and talking up a storm.  Well I am sure only a mom or a grandma would refer to his cooing and gurgling as talking, but it is fun to hear all the same.  He is such an alert little boy, he loves to sit up so that he can see what is going on.  He frequently spends his evenings in his bouncy chair on the kitchen counter watching mom cook dinner.  He was incredibly patient this last week when mom and dad were both sick with a nasty flu bug.  Needless to say I am completely in love with my little boy and don't know how I got through 37 years of life without him.

2 months already??

I can't believe it was just two months ago that we brought this little guy home from the hospital.  I am still amazed that the nurses let us leave with him. He was 7lbs 9oz and 21 inches long when we brought him home.  Now he is practically rotund weighing in at 10lbs 10oz, but he carries his weight well on his 24 inch long frame.  He hasn't really lost any of his hair so now that he is filling out he is really looking like a little boy, sometimes with a very adorable part in his hair.  

Everyone kept telling me to just enjoy holding my baby and I didn't really believe them until we got home and I had the chance to just sit and hold my little guy.  Suddenly it all made sense, how incredibly  wonderful it is to have the miracle of a baby in your life.  Brad remarked to me one evening as he was holding Caleb, "I didn't think I would enjoy this as much as I do."  I just smiled because I had known that he would.  People ask me all the time what is your favorite part about being a mom.  The best part is watching my husband be a dad.  

It has been 2 months since we brought Caleb home, I go back to work on Monday, I really can not believe it has gone by that quickly.  They say time flies when you are having fun, well if this is any indicator, we are having a blast.

 July 29, 2012. 1 day old, coming home from the hospital

September 28, 2012. 2 months old, getting ready for first Logan High Football game.

Caleb's Arrival

Caleb was due on July 26th,  but I didn't really start having contractions until 2:30am on July 27th, by about 8am I decided it was time to go to the hospital, so we got packed up and ready to go only to have  the contractions slow back down to about 15 minutes apart.  So we spent the day doing laundry, working on projects, watching tv, and having contractions.  By about 5pm things had started to progress so we headed to the hospital.  It was definitely a good idea because I had 2 contractions in the 15 minutes it took to get to the hospital.  My friend Erica called while we were on our way to the hospital,  it was fun hear her reaction when I told her that I would have to get off the phone soon because we were on our way to the hospital.  The following pictures are our documentation of the events of the day.

 Arriving at the hospital still on the phone talking to Erica.  I need to add that the dress I am sporting was purchased way back when I was a student at BYU.  I have kept it all these years in anticipation of being pregnant some day.  The oversized baggy look went out of style years ago but it works great as a maternity dress.  See sometimes you do use those things you hang on to.

I had the sweetest labor and delivery nurses ever.  They were amazingly patient and very kind.  The funniest part about being in the hospital was that every shift of nurses who were assigned to us had one who was pregnant on it.  Let me just say this, nurses who are nice enough to let you sleep when you have been awake for over 24 hours are worth their weight in gold.  

 The nurses kept telling me that I was being entirely too calm about the whole thing.  Needless to say about 3 hours later when the contractions got really intense I did everything I could to prove them wrong in that assessment.

To pass the time we brought the DVD collection of MASH with us.  It actually did a great job of distracting me, funny enough but without a serious plot line that I had to pay attention to.

 Here is our boy getting cleaned up and weighed, needless to say he didn't like that experience too much.  But once they got a diaper on him, calmed right down.  During this whole process Brad was assessing if he looked like a Caleb or Brandon, (those were our boy name choices).  After about 15 minutes he looked over at me and said "He's a Caleb".  It was also at this point that I asked the nurse for the camera because I had to try and capture the look on Brad's face as he held his son for the first time.

 Here we are welcoming our boy to the family, needless to say we decided pretty quickly that we were going to keep him.  In fact I am still pretty amazed that the nurses let us take him home from the hospital.