Monday, October 19, 2009

Almost 11 months...

Really, the time is FLYING by! In honor of Henry's 5th tooth (another tooth beside the top middle one...Yeah, he only has one top middle one, weird!) I thought I'd put up some cute picts...He is such a fun little guy! He's getting vocal and cruising around everywhere. He LOVES his siblings! He ADORES his Daddy (in fact, we think he just figured out how to say "Daddy"--the first of our kids to say "Daddy" before "Mommy"). He cries whenever Dad or Mom leave the room. He loves exploring and is really eager to show off when he can do. He's more quiet than his siblings (not difficult to be!) and has a knack for finding trouble (today he pulled a speaker over on himself, tried to get into the toilet, and managed to get two solid fistfulls of cat fur...). He has the most infectious smile...We love our little Henry-boy!

Privacy, Please!

You know how everyone is going private with their blogs?

Yeah, we're not doing that. I figure that blogstalkers need blogs to stalk, right?
Anyhow, this is about more important privacy.
Our room.
For those of you who've been out of the loop or haven't visited our house, we sleep in the family room. There are only 2 bedrooms on each floor of our house and we weren't comfortable with having our little kids a whole floor away. Since Sheridan was in a crib and Jack stayed in his room when we moved in, it wasn't an issue that we didn't have a bedroom door. But, come on, after 2 years it got a little old.
So, we built one.
There was a cold air return agains the old wall, so we had to build out a 2 foot section into the entrance to the room. Studwork above the doorway, Sheetrock, door insertion, mud and tape, texturizing, and priming followed. I still need to put up the trim around the door, and air return above the door, and put finishing paint on, but hey! We got a door up before my brother moved in, which is a win for EVERYONE!

And then we fixed the paneling. You can see it in the back of some of the above picts, but here's a clearer shot.
I have hated the paneling in our room since we moved in. It's dark and a little creepy.
What, creepy, you think?
Let us take a closer look at that innocent paneling...

You thought they were faux knotholes, but they're hunting vignettes! Apparently, they were a big selling point for the previous owners...but then, if you've followed this blog since we moved in, you know that they had all manner of animal-centric decor going on (heck, not just decor...they were VERY into animals and hunt'n).
Oh, so here's what it looked like with the skim coat of joint compound (and on anther tangent, I LOVE JOINT COMPOUND!!! Give me that and some painters' caulk, and I am a happy little homie). And the final? MUCH better! It just looks like a normal old wall!

Do you believe in Magic?

So, speaking of Family Home Evening (see previous post)...

It's national Chemistry Week (what?!? You didn't KNOW that?!?).
All week at BYU they are having a FREE chemistry magic show.
Free.
I believe it's at 7 pm every night in the Benson Building (room 111 and 112--funny thing, I had chem 101 in room 111 my freshman year, which was about a billion years ago). You may want to check the website.
We went tonight for FHE (on the way, when Jack announced "There's BYU!" Sheridan belted out "Rah! Rah! Rah, rah, rah! Goooooo Cougars!" Tyler and I were so proud!). Lots of burning stuff, explosions, color changes, etc. It was VERY cool. Jack was enthralled, rapt attention the whole hour. Sheridan really liked it...for about 1/2 hour. After that point she started yelling very loudly that she had to go potty. (sigh). Henry was pretty happy the whole time...but a little antsy at the end.
We adults REALLY enjoyed it!
So for a cheap date or free family fun, if you're around BYU check it out!
(sorry no picts...but really, you have to see it to appreciate it!)
Goooooo Chemistry!

All the Brothahs in the House...

For those of you that don't know, my big brother, Daniel, has moved out to Happy Valley where I (along with my loverly family) reside. He started his new job here this summer.
His lovely wife and 3 lovely little boys (3 years and younger) have been packing up their home and lives back west in readiness for moving out here next month. Their oldest boy is a freshman at BYU-I (formerly known as Ricks Junior College and still known as Ricks to anyone who hasn't attended there...) Eeek! I don't know how they've all done it!Sooo, he's participating in our crazy life, including the Family Home Evenings that we have every Monday night. A few months ago we started including "talent" as part of our FHE...and he had talent a few weeks ago. Can you guess what his talent was? (Sorry these photos are so blurry--he was in motion, boy was he ever!)

I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants.
And then, to top it all off, we frosted pumpkin cupcakes.
The end.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

So it's been a while...

Yeah, yeah, I know. If I could actually locate my camera cord, I'd be downloading pictures, too, but I can't so I won't. And I figured not having the pictures was only a good enough excuse for one month, so bask in the glory or my photoless posts...

Done basking?
Good.
Busy month, that September. I dragged the whole family back up to Oregon to visit my mom before chemo started mid-month. It is one of the best visits we've had in YEEAARRS. Mom was taken off some meds before her surgery and it turns out that it was the drugs, not the M.S. that had caused some of Mom's personality to fade. She's back! It was so unbelievable to have that kind of visit with my Mom...the best visit at least since Tyler and I got hitched 7 years ago...
Jack started back to Pre-K and life is busy again with driving him around and trying to do all the other stuff I'm supposed to (those of you with older kids are probably laughing at me maniacally, thinking, "oh, you think that's crazy? just you wait until your the soccer-Mom to 4..."). We all caught whatever cold is going around here and have been coughing (basically) since we got home. Sigh.
Oh, and chemo was going ok but now mom has some PAINFUL nerve side-effects. Fabulous.
Also not-fabulous is my sister-in-laws first invitro attempt (she has premature ovarian failure...anyone dealing with infertility can find a friend in her and perhaps help for your own journey...see our sidelink to Wild Thing, I Think I Love You). She got pregnant...and then the hcg levels dropped and it looks like a blighted ovum. I had one of those, once, and without the path she's endured to get there. I'm still struggling to deal with this tragedy so I can only imagine their feelings (and how much it hurts).
In good news, Henry is 10 months old now! Crazy, how quickly time has flown with him. He's now crawling for REAL (for about the past month or so), and sitting up, and pulling to stand, and cruising, and teething! He got the first tooth around 9 months, the second 2 or 3 weeks later, and just Sunday cut his first top tooth (and is working on cutting 3 more on top). He's been a little grumpy and isn't sleeping great (again). He is having SO MUCH FUN, though, with Jack and Sheridan. They get him giggling like nothing else. When Sheridan isn't trying to sit on him, at least...
Jack and Sheridan just keep getting bigger. He turns 5 in less than a month (!) and is counting down the days (literally). He has learned to read over the past 4 months and now we find him reading Bernstein Bears books by himself. It's really cool! He's also been my helper during naptimes--he gardens, cooks, and crafts with the best of them. Sheridan is busy being "mommy" to her yellowish bear--she cooks for her, pushes her around in the stroller, and loses her then breaks down into hysterics when she can't find her. Such is the life of a mother, I guess!