Old halloween pictures

I hope it is not too embarrassing for some for me to show these pictures, but here are some old pictures I came across :)
Oh my sweet sweet husband! he is the little cave man. Then his Brother Andrew the Mime ( I think) and Aaron..Crazy Man?? Was that it?

Me as a cat!Last Halloween MD went as a sweet little baby bear cub

Who do my kids look like???

Well since my camera is broken I cant show what my kids looked like for halloween (They were petty cute though) and am waiting for the pictures that were taken by my kind family members. But I found some pics and thought i would do a little comparison
MD and I



Hyrum and I

How about their daddy?



The First Is Michael, Then MD, Last is Hyrum
Michael
MD
I personally think they look more like me :)

My life is SO much eaier when:

• I feed Md AS SOON as he wakes up
• I make a big pot of rice on monday and use it in all of MDs meals for the rest of the week-same thing with sweet potatoes
  
• I make a huge salad for myself and have it available for the rest of the week
• My kids take long naps
• When I realize that all MDs whinig is due to him being thirsty
• When I make menus-then i don't have to try to come up with something on the spot
• When cousins come over and entertain my kids
• When I realize my son doesn't HATE me- he just doesn't agree with my style of parenting
• When i stay busy- i am so much happier that way
  

YAY for good news!

Michael starts the trip home in two weeks!! It will take at least 2 weeks for him to get home- Maybe longer and he will have a week in Fort Bragg where they "debrief" him (Get him ready to be home) I am SO EXCITED!

And I have been meaning to do this for awhile- Michael's Birthday was on the 30th of August. I kind of forgot to blog about it then when I was thinking about evacuating and other stuff- But I don't want to not do it so here it is-2 months late :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!!! (ooey gooey ahead)
because every once in awhile you DO get on to check my blog- Here are some of my very favorite things about you :)

• You are so sweet to me- You always put my needs above your own and treat me like I am the most amazing important thing in your life. I love how you are just as grateful to be my husband as I am to be your wife.
• You are so GOOD! That was the first thing that stood out to me when I started talking to you way back when- You stood out. I had never met you but I knew from the first time I talked to you stood a head above the crowd- I wanted to marry someone like you-if it couldn't be you.
  
• You honor me as a woman. I love the quote "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother" by David O. McKay. You truly set a wonderful example to our children about honoring woman hood.
• You are a hard worker. before we got married I loved how strongly you felt about supporting our family and having me stay home. I also love how you do your best in every job- regardless of the job.
  
• You are an advocate for motherhood- You honor and protect that calling sometimes more then I do. You acknowledge that it is hard work and you never make me feel like a slacker on my rough days
• You love your children. I have never met someone so in love with their own kids. Everything they do is the best and no one can compete. I also love that you recognize that you view them with rose colored glasses on :)
  
• I love your love for the country. I am so proud to be your wife at home. I am so in awe of your courage and your strength. I cannot begin to explain what this year away from you as done to build my love and respect for you. I love that you protect the freedom of those who cannot protect themselves.
• You have a strong testimony. Even in a battle worn country you have maintained your love of the Lord and your faith in His gospel.
  
• And I love how you see me differently then anyone else- You see my flaws and ignore them, you see my weaknesses and help me build them up- You truly think I am the most beautiful woman in the world- And you MEAN it! You see the woman I want to be, and treat me like I am already that woman. I love you with all of my heart.

Another picture that didnt turn out that great but that I LOVE

Michael's vocabulary is really starting to pick up the pace! I am loving listening to him speak or hearing how he pronounces some words. When I sing "oleoleoleaaayyyee!" he looks at me and starts to say " oweoweowewewewe" It is SO cute! And today we were working on Animal noises

Me: What does a dog say? Ruff ruff"
MD: Ruh Ruh!

Me: What does a goat say? Baaaa?
MD "aaaaaaahh"

What does a cat say? Meow?
MD: Ow me!!

OK I realize that my kids jabbering is SO much cuter to me then anyone else but still when I heard him say meow I just started laughing. I LOVE listening to him speak-He has the cutest voice in the world :)

I am trying to be more aggressive and productive in my healthy lifestyle (Which is not so healthy these days) by using my blog as a way to constantly remind me of what I REALLY want (even though eating little debbie snacks ranks right up there with what i really want..in the moment) So in case you are confused as to why all my goals are up on the side for all to see-that is why.

Also Hyrum rolled over from his back to his stomach- I am relieved and excited! My little chunk has shown absolutly no interest in moving forward in anything physical- He has only rolled over twice before-from his stomach to his back and he doesn't really act like he wants to learn to scoot. I mean why scoot when there is a much faster and convenient mode of transportation named mommy?

MD is SO MUCH HAPPIER now that I have realized that the reason he was such a grump was his allergies. The new medicine he is on has created a new person (Or at least reverted him back to the cheerful boy I know and love) He has started doing something that I think is hilarious - He has been bringing me things from our food storage anytime he is hungry- usually a packet of ramen noodles. Lately I have been getting frustrated at him because I have tried to make it clear that the food storage is off limits. So now when he brings me the packet he shows it to me excitedly then pulls it to his chest and with a frustrated look he tells me "no no no!" I guess I throw around that word much to frequently. Today didnt help my cause either when I started laughing. He looked excited and started chunking the ramen noodles and chasing after it.

Making our way back to Utah

The boys once again did SO well on the trip from Oregon to Utah- I think Our stopping every couple of hours for bathroom breaks and to stretch out legs helped fight MD's frustration. Special Thanks go out to Andrew who took MD and let him play with old medal things in Parking lots as a distraction :)
MD would combat the boredom by taking his shoes offentertaining Hyrum....
Giving Hyrum his bottle....
And flirting with the camera :)

When we got back to utah we settled into a Fun routine- In the mornings MD would wake up and have breakfast with me, and then have Second Breakfast with His Grandma Huish ( Lets just imagine an 18 month old scarfing down bananas, eggs, cerial, bread, and then more cerial with Grandma-pretty picture isnt it? Thereis a reason MD is as big as he is :) Then he would play outside with Grandma or Grandpa (Or with his cousins when they showed up)He was in bed by 10 for his first nap,and then wake up ready for lunch! (Which he never seemed to excited for- sometimes i think he is like a camel who drinks, or in MD's case eats, a ton and then lives off it for awhile) and then back outside-or when Grandma was feeling tired of the outside he would go play with dishes in the kitchen sink! The he would wander around begging for awhile to go play outside again and then by 4 he was down for his second nap. Then dinner



more fun and games (and i guess snacks that he pulled out of my diaper bag-just help yourself Michael! :) and then bed!
This is me enjoying my vacation in Utah :) It was a magical time for MD at Grandma and Grandpa Huish's house- So magical that he is still angry at me for bringing him back to Texas (there is alot of hitting, scratching and screaming involved) Just wait until Grandpa plays with you in his garden Michael! then you will be in heaven....
Hyrum really enjoyed the time in Utah too :)

Continuing the Trip

Another Fun activity We did while in Oregon was go to The Cheescake fatory! Can you say Wow! It was delicious- At least the cheescake was. ( I highly recomend the Strawberry Cheesecake)We decdied to have a girls night out! Luckily the guys were fine with keeping ALL the kids and so Callie, Marie and I took off.

The Guys had a little fun before we left while Dad Huish was sleepDont worry- that is root beer :)

When we got there I looked at the menu and for some reason decided to branch out and try something I never had so i picked Calamari- Can I say NASTY!!!!! That is the last time I ever branch out-From now on I stick to what I KNOW taste good! The big problem with The calamari is they fried the tiny squids whole-I thought I would just get the tentacle or something- but being able to picture the squid in my head and then seeing the black of the body pushed me over the edgeThe Squid in all its glory-No offence but I think it looks disgusting even when they try to disguise the nastiness by breading it and frying it.
I am glad there are a bunch of brave eaters out there- Ya'll can eat all the squid and I can stick to my hamburgers and pasta.

Getting back into the swing of things

I feel like I am on the downward slope of having a second baby (Course I say this and inevitably it will just get harder) I think I have just gotten used to the idea of stretching myself between two babies.To be fair I have to realize that the Lord sent me a remarkably easy 2nd baby, but even still it was a bit hairy the first couple of months. I just realized after I got back into Texas what pattern my life had settled into- I get up at 7:30 and make MD breakfast (This boy eats like a cow) His breakfast varies between 2 eggs, some bread, his multivitamin, some kind of fruit and a small bowl of cereal or on the off days I substitute oatmeal for the eggs. Then I get Hyrum up and feed him a small bottle (Small being 6 ounces) and then get on to talk to Michael. After we are done I get MD a snack and feed Hyrum some rice cereal then MD goes down for his first (sometimes only)nap around 11. I then start my projects for the day. The last couple of days have consisted of me trying to get a handle on my messy house that I destroyed while packing for the hurricane and left sitting there waiting for me to clean when I came home. it has taken 2 days to clean the living room , kitchen and bedrooms-I still have the bathroom to tackle and the organizing that I need to get done, but I will get to that tomorrow. I always forget how good I feel when I am busy and productive. Anyway I have some new projects that I am excited to work on. I have begun watching HGTV with my dad when I go visit and I have alot of Ideas! Also some blogs I check out have some great home improvement projects. They will be going up on the side on my blog to help me to remember to complete them when I get too distracted with the computer.

I am really enjoying this time-Hyrum is a happy boy and MD is starting to grow up into a boy who understands me! Today he threw some trash in the trash can when asked, brought me his shoes when asked and comforted his brother when Hyrum started Crying. He is such a sweet boy. His vocabulary consists of : Mama, dada, wa wa, bye, diaper and poopy (yes he learned that from me exclaiming when I change his diapers "MICHAEL you are POOOOOPYYY!" and so of course he picked up on that word. He also mimics words like crazy. I am loving watching him learn! Anyway I better go since I am just rambling.

Fun Picture Tag

Rules: just go to your picture file, open the 6th folder, and the 6th picture! Tell a story and then post it and tag 5 friends.

Thanks for tagging me Lydia! I am actually excited to see what picture pulls up

Dum da da Duuuummmm
Well this is a picture of My mother in Law when she was down helping me when I was about to have Hyrum-She was a big hit with all the kids down here! This isn't the picture but I do think I will share a story about an experience I saw during this time.

Michael has SO much fun when Grandma Huish comes down-He literally becomes Grandma Huish's puppy dog and loves to follow her around-However this story does not include Grandma (Sorry grandma) But it does include Grandpa who also came to visit! We had visitors (kinda) that day-Meg came with some of her kids who never fail to make themselves at home immediately. Gavins first words to me usually are "Wawee I want Tweets" and the twins start playing-MD is in Heaven! He loves playing with his cousins-However he is never quite prepared when Amazon Jane decides she wants something he has. This time Grandpa Huish had grabbed a nutrigrain bar for MD and was pulling pieces off for him. Immediately both twins head over. Atticus sort of hangs to the back waiting as patiently as he possibly could (I do believe he bellowed a couple of times to remind Grandpa Huish that he was ready for another piece) However Jane elbowed her way to the front-directly in FRONT of MD. Well MD was not going to have that so he started trying to grab her arms which she conveniently let turn to rubber so as soon as he grabbed them and then when he tried to pull her back she would easily pull her hand down out of his grip. Her facial expression never changed-MD was like a bug that she just kept ignoring, All the while she was getting the treats because MD was so busy fighting her for his spot that he never noticed when Grandpa had a piece for him. Finally in Frustration he reared up and slapped her across the back of her head. I didn't know what to do at that point so I said "MICHAEL!!" He looked at me with lip trembling and then he burst into tears. At that point we (The mothers) decided Jane (Who had never even flinched from MD's attack) could stand back and MD could have his place back because it was HIS grandpa and actually it was also HIS treat. Thank you Jane We are hoping someday you will teach MD to stand up for himself.

I tag
Callie, Melissa, Marie, Becca and Rachel

Hyrums update

this morning Hyrum had his return check up-on top of the check up he received shots! poor little trooper-he was so happy up until they stuck him then he got this shocked look on his face and then he started WAILING!

From this visit we learned that he is 17 1/2 pounds (he is 4 months old)
is almost 26 inches long
and belongs in the 95 th percentile for both height and weight.

about his kidneys we have talked about scheduling an ultrasound and having them put a catheter in and shoot some fluid in to see if there is something wrong with "the plumbing"
The doctor thinks that he has kidney reflux that is causing his Urinary Track Infection and he says we have two options-One this might just be a condition where it will right itself when he is around 8 years old and he would just have to be on some medicine until then, or it might require surgery to correct the problem. however there really might not be anything wrong with his kidneys-thats what we're hoping!

Our trip to the zoo!

One thing that I have wanted to do for awhile is take MD to the zoo! I would see posts and pictures of families having these outings and I was so envyious. That is just one hard thing about not having Michael here is doing these fun family outings. Well in Oregon I got my chance! Marie wanted to take Keaton and I decided to tag along and MD and I went on a "Date" (Date is a generic term that I assign to anything that we do that is just a one on one thing between the two of us-We often go on dates to the grocery store:)
I was SO excited-way more excited the MD was-though he did get into the spirit more at the end

Starting the fun! Like I said I think I was more excited then he was :)


MD was not too excited about the animals tht he could touch-He wouldn't get near the gate until the animal moved AWAY from the gate-It kinda took the fun out of the petting zoo.I kind of look crazy but MD actually looked like he was kind of having fun!
OK At this Polar bear exibit I couldnt get a good view because there were some very ver excited adults who crowded to the front so the children couldnt see to watch a polar bear do the backstroke-The funny thing is that there was sign saying that is what he was doing but they didn't read it and kept exclaiming "It's like hes performing for us!!!"
It was pretty cool even though I was kinda bummed that those adults didn't make room for the kids to see.


Thanks Marie and Keaton for letting us tag along with you!!!


At the end of the day...Look how tired he looks!
2 seconds into the return trip-He was exhausted!

More From the Trip

So the day after I made it to Utah we went up to Oregon to attend my nephew and nieces baby blessing. It was such a nice trip! One of the highlights for me was seeing how well Jakob played with MD. It was definitely a different experience from the last time we visited when Jakob asked me to "put him away" (Talking about MD) Poor MD he wants to play with the older kids but he just doesn't know how and he doesn't understand why the older kids get mad when he would take their toys :)
I think Jakob had fun getting everyone to dress up-I am under the impression that he chose everyone's outfits

He even convinced sweet Aunt Marie to play :)