Mr & Mrs Nemelka

2011-12-13T09:42:00.003-07:00

Blender of all Blenders

I know, I know....no one give a rip about me and my blender. But I AM SO EXCITED. When did I get old enough to be excited about a blender?? But, I really am. Ever since my "health" kick, I've been interested in these to make "green" spinach smoothies. I have tried them in other blenders and trust me -- disgusting. The spinach was gritty and I couldn't even drink it. Anyway, I've been coveting this for months now, but who is going to spend $435 on a blender? Not me.

Well, Jeff was able to get us a deal thanks to a very good friend of ours. It's still a lot of money for a blender, but I can justify $275 for my Christmas AND Birthday present, right? Plus think of all the health benefits for my family?? We already made our first spinach and banana smoothie last night -- Amazing. So excited.

Sorry about no other updates. This seems to be turning into "The Amanda Blog" instead of family/kid blog. I broke yet another camera a few months ago and then put the memory card "somewhere safe" and now can't remember where on earth it is. Soooo, I have virtually no pictures of the kids from the past little while. I'm working on it, promise. I should have asked for another camera for Christmas, but I'd probably just break it. ;)

2011-09-17T21:51:00.002-06:00

An Ode to Jocie....

This is Me (obviously), Jocie (world's best Zumba instructor) and Melissa (one of my best and closest friends AND Zumba buddy) on Jocie's last day of teaching in Provo. :(

Remember a while back when I did the whole long epic post about my weight loss? Well, a large part of that I owe to this chick right here! I started Zumba back in April 2010 because I just couldn't get those last few pounds of my original goal off! I nearly thought I would die after the first class. Aside from the whole "I-feel-like-a-big-huge-uncoordinated-dork" in this class, it kicked my butt AND it also happened to be a lot of fun. So...I kept going. After starting this class with Jocie -- and continuing to eat well, I was able to lose another 25 lbs!

I won't pretend to know Jocie THAT well, but what I know, I love. She is inspiring and positive and supportive. I know she's smart (recently got her Master's Degree) and dedicated (continues to teach class even when I know she isn't feeling well and about to pass out) and faithful (only one in her family to join the LDS church as a teenager in Hawaii and then move to Utah).

So Thank you, Jocie for all the wonderful workouts and chats after class! No one can make me sweat like you can!! I wish you the best although I will miss you a ton. Salt Lake is lucky to have you.

And to those of you who want to lose weight or claim to hate exercise, "find your Jocie" -- find someone that makes it fun and keeps you motivated. I NEVER thought I would like Zumba. And after a year and a half of doing it, I'm still a big, huge, uncoordinated dork....but, I do it. And so can you!!

2011-09-10T15:48:00.003-06:00

The LASIK Post (OR...everything you did and DIDN'T want to know in detail about having your eyes laser-ed)

I had my eyes laser-ed and all I got was this stupid mug! Ha ha. No really though...they gave me this gift mug full of candy after surgery. Kind of funny. Ok, where to begin....

I had a regular eye appointment back in early July. I hated the doctor. He was cocky and obnoxious and treated me like I was a kid for wearing my contacts too long. Which yes...was true, but he scolded and reprimanded me and took away my ADULT choice to how I should care for my eyes. He would only prescribe me these uber-expensive lenses that were going to cost me $50/box. I was not happy. In the mean time, we had discussed the option of Lasik. Now, you have to understand that I am BLIND. I mean not really, but practically. Your 'average' correction is around a 3.00-4.00 I would say. Mine is an 8.50. Pretty high! As in I usually can't see an inch in front of my face. Anyway, He said I was right on the cusp of being too high that they might not be able to do Lasik because my prescription is so high and because I might not have "enough corneal tissue" for them to do the surgery. That coupled with the fact that I'm 31 and he said that once you hit 40 you pretty much need reading glasses no matter what and that if I was going to do it, now is the time to get it and have enough time to enjoy it.

I thought, What the heck...the consultation is free, why not just see if I'm a candidate? You also have to understand in the middle of all this, I was also in the works of trying to get pregnant. Which you can't be if you get lasik done. I thought, well, it might be a moot point if I wasn't even a candidate. Anyway, I make the appointment and they tell me I have to be out of my contacts for 10 days prior to the appt. 10 DAYS. I thought I would die. I never wear my glasses...except at night or in the morning before I get ready. It was a little hard for me. But, I did it.

I anxiously went to the appt. Which they tell you to plan on a 3 hour block of time. It was extensive for sure. They map your eye, corneal tissue, check for cataracts, glaucoma, they dilate your eyes, put drops in your eyes, check your prescription a bunch of times. You see about 3 different people during all of this as well. Then comes the verdict: Would I be a candidate. YES? They walk you into the "counselor" room where she tells me I'm a candidate for the Lasik which will cost me a grand total of $4700. What the....? I almost died. But, great news, I'm a teacher...which means $1000 off. Ok, sounding a little better but still a lot of money. But wait...they have a payment plan. 2 years no interest. And they can get me in for surgery NEXT WEEK and I will be amazed once I come out surgery how well I can see. ETC, ETC, ETC.

So, I bite. The only problem is...I thought I might be pregnant. I wait. And wait. And wait. For 5 days, I wait, thinking I might be pregnant and can't have the surgery. Finally, I start. Ok. Phew. They tell me if things look good at my 1 month post op, I can get pregnant. Perfect. I could still get pregnant in August and have a May baby just like I planned....right?? Wrong.

After 2 weeks wearing glasses, I couldn't wait to have surgery done. I push aside the feelings that creep in...what if they mess up? What if I go blind? What if I can't get pregnant when I want?

They take me to a room...give me a valium, check my prescription again, give me a bunch of eye drops and take me back to where the procedure will take place. They take my glasses away....FOREVER (at least until I'm 40, apparently.) :)

Two Lasers. First: they numb your eyes with drops. You lay down and they force this cone shaped thing on your eye. This is the laser that perforates the layer covering your eye. Apparently it make a bunch of air bubbles underneath. I felt quite a bit of "pressure" but no pain. -- reminds me of Brian Regan for those of you who know his routine about "pressure". Anyway, afterwards, they take you back to the "massage" chairs where you keep your eyes closed for 10 minutes. I guess for the air pocket to be created. A nurse comes around and explains to you all the drops you have to do afterwards, all the "restrictions" for the next few weeks, etc.

2nd laser: They take you to another waiting area, they numb your eyes again. You lay down on the next table. At this point I can't see a thing. They tell you to stare at a red light as you're looking up. Which was fuzzy to begin with. Then they pull back the cover over your eye made by the first laser. Then you REALLY can't see anything. And so I'm laying there, trying to focus on this red light that I can't even see. I don't feel a thing. But I DO smell this awful, burning from the laser. Yuck. That's my eyeball being burned. Essentially.

So, 30 seconds later. I'm done. I sit up. I can see but it's cloudy. Soo bizarre. I can read the clock, see people's faces. Everything is foggy...like I'm looking under water. And then I go home.

I should probably say on a side note that Jeff would not watch any of it because he doesn't do any sort of bodily procedures of any kind. Anyway, Jeff took the kids out so I could sleep. And this is what I had to sleep in. Sexy, huh?

I was supposed to wear these every time I slept for the next week. Yeah, right. I about ripped my skin off taking the surgical tape off. OUCH. They have a whole regime to follow which included antibiotic drops every 4 hours, steroid drops every two and lubricating drops every hour. It was a full time job remembering when and which drops to do. My eyes stayed pretty foggy for a few days which they said was normal since my prescription was so high. But...I'm happy to report that I now look like this...

It's how I looked before, but now I can see. All the time. Recovery took longer than I thought. Your eyes feel scratchy for a while and at first I had a hard time getting used to the fogginess. Unfortunately, my right eye is 20/20 and my left is 20/25. Which isn't bad...NOW. I'm totally used to it and it doesn't really bother me. But, for the first few weeks, it drove me crazy since I was used to 20/20 all the time with my contacts. I felt like I got headaches for a while, but now, It's all good. They may or may not have to "tweak" it in a few months. And this is the bummer part because obviously, my pregnancy timetable is thrown off now because of it. Now, the earliest I can get pregnant is October...possibly November if they have to re-d0 my left eye. Which kind of scares me anyway because it's so close, that I don't want it messed up the other direction. But all in all, I have to say that Lasik has been amazing!! I can see the clock when I wake up w/o pulling it right up to my face. I can see when I shave my legs in the shower. I don't have to worry about saline solution, glasses, etc. It made girls camp, swimming etc so much easier. I am happy I did it. Even with this wrench in my pregnancy plans, I'm still glad I did it. If I had thought it out more, I would have waited until NEXT summer to do it, but it's done...and I can see.

any questions??

2011-08-16T21:55:00.005-06:00

Summertime (Sophie)

I've meaning meaning to post about my LASIK experience (which was good) for some time now -- you don't want to miss my hot picture in my "eye shields"! That is to come. But, for now, you will have a Sophie overload.

Last week, my friend Rachelle and I went to the BYU Pond to feed the ducks with our kids. It just so happens that Rachelle is a photographer. I didn't know that she was planning on bringing her camera, but luckily for me, she did. Bonus. She got some awesome pictures of Sophie! I'm so appreciative of Rachelle and her talent. If you would like to see more of her stuff, check out her website at www.lareephotography.com

So somber.

At first, it really bothered me that Soph's hair was so disheveled, but as others have mentioned, "it's summer...she's supposed to look like she's been playing." True.

Look at her. The cheeks, the eyes. She's just the cutest. Of course I think that as her mom, but she is such a cutey pants. Soph is your typical 2 year old. She says "no" like it's akin to breathing and throws some pretty good tantrums when she wants to, but she can also be the sweetest thing ever as well. She talks a ton. Not surprising in this family -- look who her parents are. She counted to 10 today and named off a bunch of colors, which I didn't even know she could do. How neglectful am I? Unfortunately, she loves more tv than she should - Dora, CareBears, Scooby Doo, Caillou, Olivia -- just to name a few. She can be very caring and nurturing. She loves feeding her baby doll still, giving hugs and kisses if someone is hurt, snuggling. She has also taken to calling me "mama" lately and I kind of love it now. It's so sweet. We sure love our little girl.

2011-07-06T21:13:00.002-06:00

It was 4th of July and I don't have any pictures. Apparently my camera was in my swim bag. I didn't put it there. I will give you two guesses who put it there. Things 1 and 2 - Chance and Sophie. Although on second thought, I could have put it there and forgotten since afore mentioned Things 1 and 2 have depleted all my brain cells. Sometimes I really do feel like a mental person. I mean, really. If they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results, than I must be mental.

Most of the time, we write shiny, happy blog posts about our lives. Which is great. And really, life is great. Someone told me a quote lately though-- or maybe I saw it on TV or something or read it on someone else's blog, so if one of YOU is the one who told it to me, I'm not plagiarizing -- I just cant remember-- that sums up how I feel lately. Anyway, the quote was something to the affect of "when you are the parent of little kids, the days are long and the years are short." How perfect.

Lately, every day feels like a battle. It's all we can do to make it till bedtime. And I hate feeling that way. I love my children. I mean LOVE. And I'm grateful for the summers to be with them. But sometimes, it's enough to drive me to drink. And not my children so much...maybe my own inabilities to handle my children. Parenting certainly is not for the faint of heart.

Everyday I feel like I'm forever screwing up my child's life. I love newborns. Maybe because I don't feel like I can mess them up that badly. But once they hit 3 and 4 all of a sudden it's like, "oh wait -- I'm responsible for actually rearing you into some sort of nurturing, caring, moral human being" -- and I'm failing miserably, it seems.

Chance in particular has really been tough lately. Nothing seems to get though to him. It's like he has no conscience. He literally sat in the dark, in time out, in his room for almost 2 hours today completely un-phased by what he had done. So, spanking doesn't work, time out doesn't work, screaming like a crazy person doesn't work, taking toys away doesn't work -- WHAT DOES?

I suppose that's why I need to remember cute moments like this: While in the car with a friend and her kids, Chance had this conversation:

Friend: My mom's a nurse
Chance: my mom's a school teacher
Friend: my dad's a _______(can't remember)
Chance: my dad's a money-maker

I was laughing so hard!

I guess the hope of my heart -- and every parent, is that the Lord will make up for our shortcomings. I know that He loves my children enough to make up for what I'm lacking and I just pray that I can work to have the patience, love, and understanding that the Lord does with them.

2011-06-13T01:25:00.004-06:00

HOME IMPROVEMENT

4 1/2 years ago Jeff and I decided to buy a house. We opted to buy an "older" house to keep our monthly payment down even though we could have been qualified for a lot larger loan. I use "older" in quotations because that's somewhat of an understatement for our little house. It was built in 1910. It's old. We completely romanticized what it would be like to workntogether on a "fixer-upper." The thing with a fixer upper is that you need money. And time. And skills. And patience. All of which we are lacking.

As with life in general, it's easier to see what you HAVEN'T done than what you HAVE. I always have a laundry list of "to-do's" for our house, but it's easy to forget how much we have done already. In 4 years we have repaired walls/ceilings, repainted almost every room, completely ripped out/redone a kitchen, added new plumbing and electrical (moving washer/dryer downstairs), and redone our yard - front and back - added new stairs and patio in back. And now, we can successfully add new flooring on that list.

We had toyed with the idea of new floors for a while. Although it probably wasn't the "highest" on the priority list, we felt like it would make the most impact on how the house looked and how we felt being here. So, on an impulse, we went to Lowes and bought some new floors Memorial Day Weekend. The trouble is: we know NOTHING about putting in floors. Enter really amazing friends to our rescue. This could not have been done without them. These pictures are out of order...as always, but here is the process. START FROM THE BOTTOM UP.

#9 - Here is a view of the kitchen. Again, the pictures don't do it justice, but for any of you that have been to our house, it's a million times better and I'm sooo happy we did it. It makes me actually enjoy being home.

#8 - Here is the final product of the floor. It's hard to really get a good shot of the whole room since it's so small. We ended up not taking the baseboards off and just adding quarter-round trim to the bottom of it and then caulking around it. That's what took the longest for Casey was cutting all of that out. Sheesh. It looks great though! I also repainted that bench. It was super dark wood before.

#7 - And the after pictures. We had this super ugly old side table in between our couches. I hated it. And our pictures always got knocked over. Drove me nuts. I bought this "ladder" shelf thing. It helps make that space look more open, I think.

#6 - This is after all the tile was finally out of the kitchen.

#5 - Truth be told, we were extremely naive as to how much help we would need with this project. Our friend Casey (in the red hat) is seriously so nice and helpful. He and his wife live a few houses down from us and we have become great friends. Luckily, we have benefited from his knowledge since they bought and have re-done their house as well. In my mind, we would have him show us how to do the basic cuts for the floor boards and we would take it from there. Not so. He seriously spent the last 3 weekends doing the job with us. Really, there is no way to repay him (or his wife, Melissa for letting us steal him away fro so long.)

#4 - In the midst of all of this, we had tickets to see Les Miserables in SLC. Jeff realized that there was no way he could go with me and still get this project done. So...we asked one of my mother in laws, Linda if she was interested in going with me. I'm a little spoiled. I've seen the show 5 times by now, but she had only since it once, 10 years previously. We really enjoyed it. And we had some AWESOME seats. Meanwhile, Jeff was still ripping out tile and our house was in utter chaos. We had already had a babysitter lined up - although now she didn't have the luxury of a house to watch out kids in. Ha ha. Thankfully, she was able to bring the kids to her house and watch them.

#3 - This was the tile in the kitchen. People were curious why we chose to rip our tile in the kitchen since it's "easy" to clean, etc. BUT...this tile was gross...and very poorly done. Uneven and I just hated it. We also just wanted to floor to flow more nicely. This is where our AMAZINGLY KIND friend, Nate Sommers helped the most. He and Jeff spent something like 7 hours cutting out this tile. It was a nightmare. There was dust literally EVERYWHERE. In every crevice of my kitchen, bathroom and toyroom/pantry. I was cleaning for hours and days. Every utensil, every tupperware, every toy, every can. UGH. Not fun.

#2 - We don't truly have a "before" picture of our living room since the carpet is already ripped out in this one, but trust me...it was nasty. The people before us had pets...or at least one and it was gross. Sorry for all you pet people out there. I'm just not a fan. Anyway, you can tell that we had hardwood under there, but we chose not to try to sand it. Ripping up the carpet was the easy part.

#1 - The fun part about an old house is all the random things you find...like this "intake vent" in the corner. Weird.

Now, the only trouble is with this new flooring is that I want to re-do EVERYTHING now. Our bathroom, carpet, etc. Be patient...right?

SOPHIE TURNS TWO!

Our little Sophie turned 2 on May 27th. She is seriously the cutest. We just adore her. She loves babies, dolls, anything to do with babies and dolls...

Jeff's grandmother's birthday is May 28th, so we did a little combined get together at her house. She just turned 92, I believe. Crazy to be 90 years apart in age and to get to celebrate together!

Sophie with a bunch of her cousins and Great-Grandma Hadley.

Sophie loves Care Bears lately, so I decided to do this little cake for her. Probably not my best, but it worked.

Sophie is such a big girl. It's hard to believe she was every a newborn at times. She talks a bunch of course. I mean, how could you not with me and Jeff as parents? It's kind of funny because she loves to push Chance's buttons sometimes. He will be trying to tell a story to us in the car and she will purposely talk over him. He gets so mad at her and tells her, "Ugh...Sophie, it's MY turn to talk." Generally, she pauses a second and then the right as he starts talking again, she pipes in in her cute little voice. It drives Chance nuts, but I just chuckle. We are all talkers around here.

Although my kids still fight, I finally feel like they are at an age where they are starting to play together. It's so cute. Sophie loves copying her big brother. Which of course means bad behavior as well as good behavior. She does throw your typical 2 year old tantrums at times, but for the most part, I don't think she's too bad. Or maybe I've just become less rigid? If that is even possible?

Needless to say, we couldn't imagine our family without her. We love her and we so blessed to have a happy, healthy two year old now!

2011-05-01T23:51:00.009-06:00

BACKWARDS

I'm all backwards with my updates here, so it's going to go newest to oldest, so sorry in advance for the confusion.

Here we are on a Sunday evening just hanging out.

Easter Morning: The kids are obsessed with candy...and I've been known to sneak some out of the candy bowl too. Even if it's not that good. Sheesh.

My mom gave Chance a Build-A-Bear Gift Card for his 4th birthday on April 20th. We went the day after. We had never been there and it was definitely a hit! Here was the finished product when we were entering all of the "birthday" info so we could print out a birth certificate.

Darth Vader. Jeff was proud!

The "Bathing" Station after it gets stuffed.

Just after stuffing.

Here it is getting stuffed. The guy helping us was so cute with Chance. You put a heart inside and they have you rub it on your muscles so it's "strong like you" and on your heart so it is smart, feet so it's fast...you get the picture. It was cute.

One of Chancey's presents was a bike helmet. Isn't he so cute!

Here was the infamous "Caillou" cake that Jeff convinced Chance he "wanted" for his birthday. It actually wasn't hard, but still time consuming getting the colors right, etc.

Grandma Jay and cousins Kelci and Ammon came to help us celebrate.

We went to Chuck-e-Cheese for his birthday. The kids loved it.

This is the "Vegas" portion of the blog post. I got a text from Jeff on April 1st that said, "I'm going to Vegas on the 9th for a convention for work." WHAT? I didn't care that he was going, but it happened to land right during my spring break from school. He was supposed to have another co-worker go with him, but he ended up not being able to go. I thought, "hmmm....maybe the kids and I could drive down to meet you since being ALONE for 5 days with the kids didn't sound appealing." Long story short, I was able to go. It worked out well for the most part. The kids were great on the drive and all. Jeff went to his convention during the day and I took the kids to the pool and arcade. Then we met up in the evening for dinner/sightseeing. The only bad part was that I only brought one stroller! What was I thinking? You would have thought I was an amateur mom. I thought Chance would be fine walking around, excited, etc...WRONGO. It was a bit of a disaster, but it got better as the trip went on.

Keeping the kids entertained at the restaurant.

The first day we were there, Chance was so excited, he woke up at 6:15 and would NOT go back to sleep. I kept saying, "Chance - NOTHING is open for 4 more hours...no pool, no arcade...NOTHING!" Didn't deter him. Jeff got out of dodge fast and headed to his convention while I wrangled kids in the hotel room by myself. It is tough business keeping these two quiet.

One of the things we did during the day was going to a "Chocolate Factory" which is about 10 miles off the strip. It was actually kind of lame, but the chocolate made up for it. Here is Sophie after eating some of it...

Vegas lights. We actually think Vegas is really lame. We wouldn't ever choose to go there except for opportunity came up during my break. The kids had fun and although traveling with kids is definitely not a vacation for parents, it's worth it. Making memories, right?

SpongeBob outside of the arcade in our hotel. Chance loved the arcade. What a lifesaver.

So...my birthday was back in February. I told Jeff what I really, really wanted was to go visit Kara, one of my best friends in Oregon without kids, etc. Because of scheduling conflicts, we weren't able to do it until March. It just so happened that it was scheduled right after Jeff had a "guys trip" planned to Lake Tahoe . Basically we saw each other for 5 hours in a 10 day period which was kind of lame, but, what can you do? Above is Kara's newest addition - Miriam. She was so snuggly and fun to be with. She was really well behaved too!

Me and Kara. Everyone should have a friend like her. I could go into details, but I will spare you all and just let you know that she is the best friend a girl could ask for! I love visiting with her.

Random pics: Chance had a lesson in his Sunbeam class at church on nature or something and they gave each kid a little "bug house" with a cricket. Oh man did he love that thing. He named it "Cricket Jr" and "Crickety" simultaneously. I swear that thing suffered from 'shaken cricket syndrome' he carried it around so much. At least for two days until it died. I thought Chance would be devastated, but when it died he just said, "Well, Mom...I guess we better just throw him in the garbage."

On Easter, his Sunday School teachers were telling me how sweet Chance was when they were talking about Jesus while he was praying prior to the Crucifixion. I guess Chance was worried that Jesus was scared and sad and that Chance kept saying, "why would his friend fall asleep?" They were just impressed with how much he already knew about the Resurrection and how much he understood. I guess we're doing something right?

The other thing that was funny though was that his teachers decided that instead of candy they would give the kids food that Jesus would have eaten. So, they had bread that had been rolled flat, honey, and grapes. Chance apparently took the bread and said to his teachers, "I bet Jesus would have liked chocolate eggs better than this." I bet you're right, Chance. I love that kid!

The weather has been crummy here and we haven't been able to go outside much. The kids have really enjoyed "shopping" in our pantry.

Aunt Shanna sent Chance a playdough set a few months ago. He loves it.

Sophie is quite adept at walking in heels. It amazes me what a "girl" she is. She is nurturing, loving, gentle (most of the time) and loves princesses lately. Also, purses, shoes, pink, combing her baby's hair, etc. And did I mention she loves dresses? Not even 2 years old and she has an opinion on what she wears. And yet, her favorite show right now is "Scooby Doo." I guess she did take some influences from her brother. :)

She sure can be trouble when she wants too though. I took her to the store yesterday, had her in the main part of the grocery cart, I turn around for 30 seconds to look at something and all of a sudden I hear her whine, "finger, finger." I turn around to see her holding a cracked, broken egg with egg goo dripping all over her legs and down underneath the cart to the floor! All 12 eggs were out of the carton and 3 of them were broken. All I could think was "please...please...let me have baby wipes in my purse!?" Which...thankfully, I did. I cleaned her up the best I could and carried on. If I weren't so panicky in the first place, I would have taken a picture. It is pretty funny in hindsight. I would take Chance to the store over her any day over her though. Toddlers are sneaky.

And finally! Or, I should say, "first" - This was way back in January when my friend Melissa and I ran our 5K. I haven't been running since. I guess it didn't take. But at least I did it!

2011-02-14T00:58:00.002-07:00

Have you ever put your foot in your mouth? I mean so bad that you just wanted to crawl in a hole and die? Because I did. Just today. I carelessly, stupidly, unintentionally but carelessly none-the-less put my foot in my mouth and through poor judgement-making hurt someone's feelings. Someone I really care about and I just feel sick about it. Sure, sure...I tried to recover and have even spoken with the person/people involved to clear the air, but I don't feel any better. You can't take it back, because it's already out there. Said and done and nothing you can say can truly fix it. UGH. Here you are just walking around thinking you're a pretty nice person until one day you you open your mouth without thinking and turn into what feels like a monster. The worst part is what if I've done this before? This can't be the first time, can it? I'm sure I've haphazardly done this before and just never found out? I can't stand the thought. As if you can't tell, it's kind of all-consuming at this moment and I just needed to vent. I hope that most of you reading this KNOW I love and appreciate you and that if I've ever offended you, it wasn't on purpose.

2011-01-24T22:51:00.005-07:00

Better late than never

Finally getting around to Christmas pictures. Let's see how much I can remember.

Clearly, this picture has nothing to do with Christmas. It's just cute because Soph started to "pose" for pictures and say "cheese" when the camera comes out...very cute.

We went to the Riverwoods one night before Christmas and they had a whole Santa workshop/carriage ride set up. Not bad for free...

The fam on the carriage ride. Not the best picture, but hey, it was bumpy.

All of the family at Jeff's mom's house for her Christmas party. She always spoils us. The kids had a great time.

Sophie is IN LOVE with this doll that Grandma Jaylene gave her!

Daddy found time to make a snowman with Chance one evening (one of the neighbor girls showed up as well.)

The kiddos on Christmas Eve in their coordinating outfits.

Christmas Eve pajamas. We've never done that before, and I'm not sure it will become a tradition necessarily, but Chance loves his new jammies.

Sophie loves, loves, loves her baby doll stroller! She pushes it around all the time.

Chance has this habit of shoving as many toys as possible down his pants so he can easily transport toys from his bedroom to the toy room. So random.

Grandma Joanne gave Chance this Apron/Chef hat set. He loves to cook with mom.

I swear I had a picture of Chancey with his favorite gift...his "Santa" gift -- a Batcave! He loves playing with it. And I tried uploading some new family photos, but it keeps giving me an error...so TBC on that one.

As for an update, the kids are good. I'm still struggling with trying to give my kids the attention they need while also getting things done on the days I'm home with them. Laundry, dishes, dinner, etc seem never-ending. I know I need to just chill and spend more time with the kids and yet the daily chores...along with tennis-watching (yes...the Australian Open is on right now) seem to suck up too much energy.

Sophie is talking a ton now. She is definitely hitting the toddler, terrible (well, almost) twos. She used to be my easy child...Ha ha. She can definitely be whiney and needy at times, but so cute as well. She's so busy and curious. She loves books and just talking in general. Much like her brother.

Chance keeps busy as well. Sadly, he knows way too much about how to run the tv...and the iPhone. He says the funniest things of course. He saw tennis on the first night and covered is eyes and threw his head back dramatically and said "Noooo....not tennis. I hate this show". He needs constant reminding that Sophie is still little and can't wrestle with him. He is a Sunbeam now at church and seriously loves going to class. I just can't believe it. Growing up too fast.

I used to not be a big proponent of New Year's Resolutions. I thought they were silly and contrived. But, I've come to realize that was because I was lazy. And I had to tell myself that so I didn't feel depressed about the fact that I had no discipline and couldn't stick to it. Well, times have changed. We all know about last year's resolution - get healthy, lose weight, look more put together, etc. Check. Did that. So I had to ask myself what I could challenge myself with this year. Running. Yeah...that's a good one. So, here I am, attempting to run though I despise it. I'm doing it, slowly but surely and have even signed myself up for a 5k but I have to ask myself why? What am I trying to prove? I don't look forward to it, don't love it and yet I feel compelled to do it. Maybe I should think things out before I challenge myself. Next time something intellectual as opposed to physical?

2010-12-12T00:39:00.003-07:00

"These are a few of my favorite......people"

I suppose it's time to catch up since Halloween. But, it's late...and I should be in bed so I will make the updates snappy.

Chance and I raked leaves together one afternoon. Although he kept calling it "braking the leaves" -- even when I corrected him....A LOT.

Jeff and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary on November 16th. We followed our annual tradition of going to the temple to do sealings together and then out to eat. I like having a tradition. We haven't missed a year yet!

We are a pretty "Modern Family" in technological sense, I suppose. We are not above bribing our child into good behavior, whatever the means, even on Thanksgiving. It worked like a charm!

My mom came to visit for Thanksgiving, as usual. She stayed a full two weeks this time. She was so incredibly helpful. She babysat quite a bit for us.

Thanksgiving dinner.

We (Chance and I) put up Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving.

My mom treated us to Olive Garden one night.

Uhhh. I don't even know where to begin with this one. The long and short of it was that Jeff was volunteered to dress up as an Avatar and film this little video for work. YES...work. Let's just say that it scared the crap out of my kids when he came home looking like that. It took Chance 15 minutes to stop crying and believe that it was Dad.

This is me and my counselors in YW. I LOVE these ladies. (Tiffany, Makenzie, me, and Melissa). They are amazing to work with and I'm glad we're such good friends too! We had to do a special program for the girls to celebrate their accomplishments. Yes, it's hokey at times, but it turned out well and it's fun having an excuse to be a goofball.

Chance on Santa's lap.

Sophie desperately trying to get off Santa's lap.

Mom and Chance at Grandpa Roger's Christmas Party. (He and Grandma Linda spoiled us all!)

Mom and Sophie at Grandpa Roger's party.

Sophie "opening" her presents.

We all chipped in to get Roger an iPod Touch. Jeff is giving him a "tutorial" in how to use the thing. I'm sure there will be phone calls in the future.

2010-11-12T20:12:00.002-07:00

How I lost 40 pounds the "right" way.

I've thought about posting something specifically on my weight loss for a while now, but it's awkward. It seems some how self-promoting or bragging or something to that extent and while I'm proud of myself, I don't want to seem cocky or overly-confident or whatever you call it. I mean hey...who knows what will happen. I wouldn't want to do a walk of shame if in a year I'm back up to where I was! But...here I am, writing about it anyway.

A lot of people know how this began...back in January where after gaining what I swear was a pound every 2 days, I got on the scale one morning and said, "enough is enough". I'm not one to get stuck on numbers because so much goes into a person's particular number....muscle mass, height, yada yada. BUT...that morning I got on the scale and weighed 164 lbs. For ME, that was a lot. And the most I had ever weighed, disregarding pregnancy. And from that day forward, something just "clicked".

Now if I'm being honest with myself - and whoever is reading this, I have to really go back to the beginning. The real beginning of my battle with weight loss. It wasn't baby weight, or an extra 10 lbs, etc. It was representative of my struggle with weight since I was 13 years old. Those of you close to me know that I had struggled with both anorexia and bulimia in my early teen years. My mother was aware enough and wise enough to get me into therapy EARLY. My mother drove me every Saturday morning 35 minutes away to a therapist specializing in eating disorders for nearly a year! It taught me a lot. A lot about vices, self-preservation, coping mechanisms and how to overcome them. Though I struggled on and off until I got married in 2002, for all intents and purposes, I felt and feel recovered. So recovered in fact that I managed to let my eating get so out of control in the opposite direction without much thought. I had lost control. Which was the exact opposite of why and how I had turned to anorexia and bulimia in the first place...to gain control over something - anything that I could in my life.

And that's where I was last January. Eating half a bag of doritos, or oreos or fries and a milkshake or you name it without even a thought. Thus the weight-gain. Something clicked and I just knew I had to gain control again. I began slowly. Because I had no clue how many calories I was even eating in a day I had to begin by just trying to keep track. And boy was I in shock. It was somewhere around 3500/day. CRAZY. And amazingly, little changes WORKED. I stuck to 2000/day at first, eventually sticking to between 1600-1800. I added in more protein, whole grain carbs, portion control, etc. My original goal was 20 pounds. I remember thinking 20 pounds was A LOT and that I would be really skinny once I lost that. I remember losing the first 15 pounds or so relatively "easy". And then I got stuck! Up until that point, I hadn't been doing any exercise. Just food tracking. And that's when I was introduced to Zumba. I owe those final 5 pounds to Zumba. I got to 20 pounds lost somewhere at the end of May. And then lo and behold, I kept going. I realized I still wasn't where my body should be. And by that point, my eating and working out had become such a habit that it wasn't hard to keep going. I felt like it was just my new lifestyle. It hadn't been just a diet. I had really, actually succeeded in gaining "control". HEALTHY control. From there on out until October, I managed to lose another 20 pounds.

Now, during all this time I honestly hadn't given a second thought to my former, anorexic and bulimic-self. Not for one second. It wasn't until I was visiting with a girl in my ward who happens to work at an eating disorder treatment center that started this conversation about treatment that I even thought about what my life used to be like. And I was dumb-founded. I had been doing this weight-loss journey for 10 months and I hadn't even for one second contemplated starving myself or throwing up to achieve my goal! VICTORY.

I've had a lot of time in the last few weeks to reflect upon this. Talking about it brought up a lot of old feelings and mind-frames that I used to have. I held on to fear like a drug and couldn't let go for a long time. I remember at times seriously thinking I was crazy and that I would never be normal. I had deep moments of despair when I truly never thought I would overcome my eating disorders and yet, I have. I suppose I will always carry a tendency towards it or a weakness and susceptibility to it if I'm not careful, but I was able to overcome it. I remember as I was speaking with this girl in my ward what an overwhelming sense I had that I want to shout to these girls, "you CAN do this. You CAN overcome it. I'm living proof".

My point is...I guess, in writing all this and bearing my soul is that we all have weaknesses. I constantly beat myself up for not being a good enough wife, mother, teacher, whatever... you (fill in the blank). We all do it at times. BUT. I have progressed. I have learned discipline. I have been able to gain some sort of semblance of control in my life. Even if only in regards to my weight. (Though I still fight tendencies not to shovel and entire chocolate cake into my mouth at times.) ha ha.

I suppose the key is balance and moderation in all things. Which is a difficult to do. But I feel, at least with regards to eating and healthy living, I have done it. And you can too! If that's what you're looking for. Because if I can go from one extreme to the other and back again to find middle-ground, anyone can do it.

2010-10-31T20:36:00.004-06:00

Halloween and Jeff's Birthday

This title is aptly suited since Halloween and Jeff's birthday go hand in hand. A curse he's dealt with all 31 years of his life! Well, maybe a curse is too strongly worded, but it does make planning difficult sometimes. Since Halloween is on a Sunday this year, we here in Utah celebrated on Saturday. Only problem is...that's Jeff's birthday. So, we ended up celebrating Jeff's birthday on Friday night instead. Here are a few of the Halloween/Birthday festivities.

Jeff's family had a Halloween party last weekend and I found this fun recipe for "eyeballs" to make. It was just donut holes with frosting on them. Chance had fun helping me.

This has been my demise this last week. Right here, these cupcakes! Ok, not the cupcakes alone, but baking...in general. I've kind of gone a little crazy this month. Chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cookies, zucchini muffins, pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin cheesecake. You name it, I've been baking it. For the most part, I've been able to limit myself to one treat here and there, and give the rest away, but I recognize it's getting harder and I vow not to bake again until Thanksgiving!

Jeff's mom is so fun. She really gets into Halloween. Here she is with Sophie at the Halloween Party.

I, on the other hand do not get into Halloween very much. The extent of my "dressing up" was borrowing a witch hat and cape from Gigi and wearing it for all of 15 minutes before suffocating in it and ripping it off...

Chance was supposed to be "Batman" for Halloween, but he declined the cape, ears and belt. Which pretty much made him a little boy wearing a batman shirt. Ha ha. Maybe he inherits my feelings towards costumes?

I had to throw this in because Soph is looking so big lately. Where has my baby gone? She is starting to say more and more words although it's still mostly unintelligible jabber. Although she says it with such purpose and intent, I'm sure she knows EXACTLY what she is saying!

Jeff and I both had Friday off of work so Jeff ended up taking Chance to an early movie while Sophie napped. Which gave me time to make this cake for Jeff. In case you don't know, he loves the Jazz. I mean...LOVES. So, he really appreciated this cake.

After eating at Tucanos, we headed up to the Gateway. Jeff got his very first "Peppermint Hot Chocolate" of the season from Starbucks. One of his favs.

And...one of his presents. Jazz shorts. Apparently, they're "official" or some crazy thing like that which basically makes them overpriced in my eyes, but what's a girl gonna do? It was his birthday. So, I gulped hard as I watched him hand over $65 for these shorts. NUTSO.

The happy couple out on the town, kid-free. Funny thing is that this was the 5th try for this shot! Jeff isn't known for his photographing skills...sorry babe, but it's true. We finally got a good one though...

Ok, on to Halloween. It was a torrential downpour for about an hour prior to Trick or Treating time, but it cleared up just enough to go out for 45 minutes. Sophie was a butterfly, though she only kept the mask part on for about 5 seconds.

Once again, Chance changed his mind and decided to be Darth Vader last minute.

Blowing out the candle!

Sophie playing on Jeff's laptop.

You can see from this angle how long her hair is. I mean seriously, what 17 month old has hair to her shoulder blades? Mine...apparently. Up until now, I hadn't even contemplated cutting it, but I'm wondering now if she should get a trim? Any thoughts on the matter?

2010-10-16T12:56:00.008-06:00

I'M BAAAACK

So, I haven't been under a rock, although after being away from blogging for 4 months, it may seem that way. This will be a complete hodge podge of randomness since there's a lot of ground to cover in 4 months. There's a lot to say and yet who can cram it all in? So, I won't try. Except to say that we are alive and well and just back to life with school, work, daycare, etc.

Soph enjoying some spaghetti. Needless to say, I don't give it to her very often.

My Grandpa was able to make a visit back in June. I love seeing him with my kids.

Ah...yes, Our trip to Oregon in June. It was an adventure. It seems like a blur since it was a while ago, but I'll try to summarize. We visited Kara and Chris for 5 days. We just love them. They are amazing friends. Chris even took some awesome family pics for us. Here we are driving the 14 hour drive. This must have been towards the end of the trip (going there) because I finally had to sit in the back the last two hours. Chance was great, but Sophie was M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E. Especially the last two hours of it. Nothing would cut it...no binky, bottle, game, toy, book - NOTHING. She finally cried herself to sleep literally 5 minutes before we got to their house. Oh well. They did better on the way home. But we were smart enough to split the trip into two days on the way home!

We went to the Oregon Coast (Newport) one of the days and went to the Aquarium. Chance loved it of course.

We went for a bike ride because that's what people in Oregon do.

At the Aquarium again - Chance and Sofia.

Sophie zonked out in the car. I just thought she looked cute, gaped mouth and all with her favorite blanket. She adores that thing! Carries it around all day.

Jeff dubbed this the "Joseph Smith" cabin. We stayed in it one night at a campground on the coast. It sure was "cozy". That would be a euphemism for small. Very small. But, the kids had a great time and it all worked out in the end!

Our Beloved Friends, Chris and Kara -- holding Sophie. Uh...should've gotten a picture with their kids.

Our little family.

Chance at the beach. Isn't exactly like the warm beaches of California, but beautiful all the same.

We picked some strawberries because again...that's what Oregon people do!
Really, the trip was fantastic! I loved visiting with Kara. She is a one of my closest friends and I don't think it would even be possible for us to run out of things to talk about...no matter how much time we spent together...

Chance was in time-out one day and his behind his rocking chair. I guess this spot was a little too comfy.

We managed to go to the pool quite a bit this summer. Sophie loved it after the initial few times of getting used to the water. She's so cute in pigtails. Too bad I don't do it more often.

I think this was the only time I was able to get Jeff to the pool, so we had to document it for future reference.

Mom and Chance

I seriously can't remember if this was the carride home from Oregon or some other random time they both fell asleep. Doesn't happen often.

Chancey had his annual check up at the dentist. Perfect teeth again. No cavities thank goodness. He was so great for them!

Getting cleaned!

A random picture of my attempts to decorate Sophie's part of the room. Since the kids share, I have to try to really separate his side with boy stuff and her side with girl stuff.

Chillin in the kitchen.

This is Jeff's dad, Grandpa Roger and let me tell you...Sophie adores him. If he is around, forget it, she only wants him to hold her.

My friend, and neighbor who is much more of a fun mom than I am decided to have the kids play in a "hot tub" the other day. She put warm water in the kiddie pool and let them hang for a while. They really had fun.

Not much else is going on. I've been back at school for 2 months now and I still love the part time. Jeff is back to school and work. I'm still busy with YW's and working out. Yes, yes, I've been able to keep the weight off so far, but I'm a little nervous with the holidays coming up. I love baking during the fall and I just hope I can still resist! I know this was all so random, hopefully this with kick-start me into blogging more regularly.

2010-06-02T22:47:00.003-06:00

Sophie's 1st Birthday

No, No...not a train cake for Sophie's birthday. Chance was lucky enough to get a 2nd birthday cake this year since Grandma Joanne (aka his "far away Grandma" that flies in an airplane to see him) came to visit a few weeks after his birthday. She made this fun train cake to celebrate with our side of the family.

Chance and his Grandma with the finished product.

Chance was having a fit one night and fell asleep on the floor in front of the door. Which is kind of odd because he NEVER does that. Even when he does cry and throw a fit, he usually gets into bed on his own and eventually goes to sleep. On a positive side note - since my last post, Chance's behavior has improved drastically. He's doing so much better about not hitting or throwing fits in general. I think it was mostly a phase and that our negative reaction - like freaking out- when he would get aggressive only escalated the issue and it got worse. Our attempts at being more calm have definitely helped...I think.

Aunt Gigi and Uncle Sid came over one night - thanks Sid for the endless times you help drag our dryer up and down the stairs. Anyway, here is Chancey with his cousins Lexie and Addie "watching a show" in his room.

A few weeks ago we went down to St. George for a friend's wedding. We managed to sneak in some swimming with the kids. Chance LOVED it. Can't wait for the weather to get warm enough here to take them.

It's kind of hard to tell, but Sophie does have 5 teeth now. You can see the bottom ones a little in this picture. So cute. I love when they get teeth.

Sophie's birthday was May 27th which means she graduated to a big girl, forward facing car seat. She looks so little in it, but she really likes it.

Sadly, Sophie had Roseola for about 4 days - including her birthday. Fever and crankiness...not fun. Chance was super sick on his 1st birthday too. Huh. Anyway, I still had to make her a cake although she wasn't really interested.

This was the extent of her interest in her cake. She wouldn't even touch it. We shoved it on her tray, snapped the picture and took her to bed. Look at her sad little face. Awww.

Sooooo....I had to make a 2nd birthday cake for Sophie this year as well to celebrate with Jeff's family on Sunday.

And she was....still NOT interested. Here she is throwing a fit during her birthday song. Granted, she was still at the trail end of her sickness and hadn't had her 2nd nap of the day, but man this girl is getting bossy! She has quite the temper when she wants to.

Chance got to open a few belated birthday presents too! He was such a good boy that day. Great day with all of his cousins.

Ahhh...the spinning toothbrush. Pure genius. Why did I wait so long to buy Chance one? Now I can't get him to stop brushing his teeth. Like 4x/day. And we finally got Sophie her own as well. So cute together. Notice the little red mark under Chancey's lip? Yeah...guess who banged his face on the kitchen table, had his tooth go straight through his skin, get taken to the doctor and had glue put on his face? Chance. Actually, all things considered he really hasn't had very many injuries. It looks like no big deal, but the dr said it was still good to bring him in since it went straight through his skin. Now let's just hope it doesn't get infected...

Not much else is going on. I've been off of work now for a week and it's always a weird feeling. Of course I love the break, but I feel like my life is ruled by nap time and it's weird being home all day. You're always busy with kids and yet never seem productive. It's an odd dichotomy. I know I'll get used to it and love it, but it just takes time to switch gears.

2010-05-19T23:46:00.003-06:00

To say that Chance has been bananas lately would be an understatement. I swear since he turned 3 he's just plain out bonkers. He has so much energy and is constantly running amuck, yelling, swinging, flailing about...oh and not to mention the hitting and pushing that has accompanied this. I've started to really wonder if something isn't wrong with him...I mean really...is this normal? I had had enough one day and just went a little bonkers myself. I was telling him that something was wrong and asking why he was so naughty and if something was in his head 'telling' him to do bad things. BIG MISTAKE. Now every time he is naughty he says, "I don't want to do it, but something is in my head telling me to."

I think his sitter thought he must have been schizophrenic when he said that to her until I explained that I'm the genius parent that planted that seed in his head. Thankfully, she is the cream of the crop as far as sitters (and people for that matter) go and takes all of Chancey's antics in stride. As opposed to me on the other hand who just freaks out.

Anyway, the consensus that I've heard from more experienced mothers of boys is that it's normal. I sure hope so. I don't want to have the naughty kid in town.

2010-04-25T23:25:00.006-06:00

Chancey Bug turns 3...and other news.

First things first. There are tons of Chancey pics, so I should probably say some things about Sophie first. She's progressing so much lately it seems. She's so busy crawling, pulling herself up on everything, standing, eating real food...and trying to feed herself already with a spoon, etc that it's hard to keep up. My baby is almost 1. I can't believe it. She already has a favorite blanket (striped fleece one), favorite toy (cardboard sox game), favorite food (yogurt) and favorite person (mom) -- although Chance seems to be a close second despite his attempts hurt her recently. I found him pulling her across the room the other day by her foot while she was sprawled out on her back. He also keeps bumping her on the head with the door. He says that he doesn't want her to get out of the room and so he'll try to lock her in so she will play with him and then he opens the door on her face. Not so pleasant.

Anyway, Sophie has become quite the mama's girl lately. She still does great with other people if she can't see me, but if I'm in the room, she definitely wants me. Not sure how I feel about this.

Dad still has the magic touch at getting her to fall asleep.

We didn't do much over Spring Break but we did manage to make it to Pirate Island Pizza once. Chance had a great time.

Except that that darn hat was too big.

Chance loves being like his dad. Look closely and you'll see a nail hanging out of Chancey's mouth. Just like his dad does when he's working on manly house projects. Not sure how safe that is but charming all the same.

Jeff teaching the Chance how to scare the ducks away.

We have started a new family tradition. Chocolate Fountain Sunday. A few years ago Jeff's mom gave us all chocolate fountains. We haven't made good use of it until recently. We have to strip Chance down to his skivvies since it's so messy. But it's worth it. He just lights up when we do this.

Ok...now for Chancey's Birthday. He woke up to his "morning" gift which was this cool reversible Batman/Superman cape.

Then he watched mom make his Batman cake. Jeff free-handed the stencil for the Batman symbol. Not too shabby.

Then we went to lunch at Tucanos since we had a "Free Meal" coupon. This is pretty much how Jeff runs his life...on the iPhone. Definitely gets buggy at times.

They sang to Chance and gave him free ice cream. He was in heaven.

Then we met up with Gigi and her kids at Jumpin Jacks. He, his cousins and Jeff wore themselves out at that place.

Then finally...we had just a small get together at our house. The weather was nice so we just did the cake/ice cream in our back yard and Chance got to open more presents of course.

One of Chancey's favorite presents was the Batman backpack that his Aunt Kelli gave to him. He's been dragging it to Linda's everyday.

Later, Grandma Jaylene and Grandpa Jack came over for more presents. One of their gifts was these goggles...which Chance keeps calling gobbles for some reason. It was definitely a busy day. We were exhausted! Finally around 9pm Chance was practically in tears and said, "mom...I'm so tired, please let me go to bed." I just love this kiddo.

Chance cracks us up. This story was hilarious. I've been watching too much Oprah lately about molesters and freaking myself out. So...I've been having the "molester" talk with Chance lately. You know..."no one should touch your privates, tell mom or dad if they do, etc". So last week at church, Jeff and I were in Sunday School while Chance was in nursery. Our good friend, Casey was in there with his son also and struck up a conversation with Chance. It went something like this:

Casey: Hey Chance, how are you?

Chance: Hi Casey.

Casey: Chance, how do you remember my name?

Chance: Casey, my mom said you can't touch my penis and if you do I should tell her.

In front of all the nursery leaders. Our poor friend about died. He texted us in SS and told us. Of course we didn't believe him at first, but he swore he was dead honest and that he was bright red and pretty much the most embarrassed he'd ever been. There's more to the story, but that's the crux of it. I had to go in and clear Casey's name afterwards. Chance has also been announcing this to the other kids at daycare. I just hope they don't go telling their parents about the weird things he's been saying. I guess it's better to be safe than sorry but it is embarrassing.

One last thing. Unless you live under a rock, you've probably heard that I made my goal...I lost the 20 POUNDS that I set out to back in January. I did it the old fashioned way too. Diet and exercise. Mostly diet. I can only attribute the last few pounds to my recent Zumba classes. I've been doing them 3x/week for the last 3 weeks and it helped me get the last 3 pounds off. 3 must be my magic number.

I do feel better I must say but the sad thing is that I still could stand to lose 10 more pounds. I'm still just barely in the "normal" range. Here's to hoping I can lose a few more. Mostly I just need to tone up arms, stomach, etc. But...I must say I am very proud of myself. It was hard work!

2010-03-31T22:27:00.003-06:00

March Madness

Seriously. Has it really been almost 2 months since I last posted? March -- and February for that matter has been kind of nuts. I'll see how much I can remember. I hope this isn't too much. First -- I turned the big 3-0 on Feb 16th. Hard to believe. One of my very best friends, Kara concocted a plan to surprise me with a special visit -- and girls day out the Saturday before my bday. As with most surprises, it got a little spoiled ahead of time and I found out...BUT...that in no way diminished the excitement of it. We had so much fun - a whole day of pampering at the spa, shopping, eating out...sans kids. It was so fun.

The remaining portion of the month and March we have just been plagued with one thing after another. Chance has had two ear infections and strep throat. Sophie also had one ear infection. Jeff sliced his finger open and had 8 stitches and now also has the flu. In the midst of Chance's round of meds, he managed to yet again open his "childproof" bottle of amoxicillin and spill the entire BRIGHT PINK medicine on the carpet. I almost killed him.

Chance still keeps us laughing pretty hard most of the time, though. The other day his Grandpa Roger and Grandma Linda stopped by to bring an Easter basket for the kids. In it was a metallic egg with candy inside. It just so happened that it was a little bag filled with cross shaped sweetarts. I put it on the dresser and forgot about it. Chance saw it the next morning and said, "What candy is this, mom" -- "is it ambulance candy?" Just cracks me up how kids think. I guess that's his only association with seeing crosses.

Chance and Sophie. They're becoming good buds. Chance is sweet with her most of the time.

A rare sight - Sophie with pigtails. Um yeah. Trying to get her to sit still is a joke. They mostly just look disheveled from the get-go, but what can you do?

More Chance and Sophie. Of course, Chance wants to be in every picture.

I was in the kitchen the other week and I hear Chance yell, "help...I'm stuck". I'm thinking, "where on earth could he be stuck?" Well...here is my answer. Don't know how he managed to fit behind the couch but he did.

Sophie's cute, curly hair after her bath. The problem is the curls die out pretty much the second her hair dries and it just is straight and scraggly and just hangs there.

Can't believe she is 10 months old! She has cut two bottom teeth already and the top two look like they will come through any day now. She's completely mobile - though it's still an army crawl and she can pull herself up in her crib. I hesitate to say it because it always seems to jinx me, but she's been sleeping pretty much perfectly for months now. I just cannot believe she's almost 1. Time for another baby?? They just get big too fast. Really though, Jeff is making me wait another year...so no worries there.

As for me and my weight update. I've officially lost 17 pounds since January. People keep asking me what I'm doing. The fact of the matter is that I'm not on any specific diet. I'm just sticking to about 1600 calories a day. I eat pretty healthy these days, obviously, but I don't deny myself anything. I'll have some treats here and there - just small. I'm almost to my weight goal although I think I'll keep going. I'm still "soft" in a lot of places and need to tone up. Maybe if I actually did some exercise?? I just haven't found the motivation, energy, time, etc. It seems much easier to control the food. BUT - I know I'll never tone up unless I do the exercise. You'd think I'd feel really skinny, but sadly, the more I lost the fatter I feel. 17 pounds is a lot and I guess in my mind I just thought I'd be thinner than I am by now? Who knows - work in progress, right?

Well, that's all I can think of for now.

2010-02-07T11:58:00.004-07:00

RANDOM SAMPLER

I've been slacking at blogging. Mostly because our "little", convenient camera broke and so it's a pain to use the big camera -- although it does take nicer pictures. Anyway -- here I am. Literally. This is my new haircut for anyone that hasn't seen me yet. It's not quite "new" since it's been almost 4 weeks, but I figured I should show it off. It forces me to "do" my hair everyday now. I've also been pretty good at keeping my New Year's Resolution - to look more "put together" everyday. I realize I don't HAVE TO wear makeup everyday, but I was just feeling like a schlub. I also am on a diet. I have gotten really overweight since I had Sophie. It's my fault. I was eating junk all the time and of course not exercising. So...I wouldn't say I'm "on a diet" - I'm just making healthier choices overall. I still allow myself treats, just in moderation. I was in the habit of snacking big time after the kids went to bed and I've cut that out. I also have a friend that is "running" with me. I'm a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad runner, but I'm hoping with some determination, I'll get better. Anyhow - I've lost 7 lbs so far, but I seem to be at a standstill. I want to lose 13 more to make the total 20. Obviously if you can do math.

Chance and Sophie are both sick today. We were going to switch off so each of us could go to church, but after Chance woke us up at 6am with a fever, I opted not to go. I just can't wait for it to be over. Anyway, Chance was watching a movie (Jurassic Park) on Jeff's Ipod and feel asleep to it -- just like his daddy does.

Back in December, we had a good snow storm and Jeff spent an afternoon making a snowman with Chance.

Sophie graduated to the big girl tub a while ago.

I usually bathe her alone because Chance gets a little too rowdy, but it's fun once in a while. Chance has been super cute with Sophie lately...giving her kisses and loves all the time.

Talk about being late...these are from Christmas. Chance and Sophie inadvertently both got a stuffed elephant for Christmas from different people.

Chance dumping out his stocking. It's nice at this age because he doesn't have the concept of cost. He just knows toys are toys. So...I bought a bunch of cheap $1 toys for him and wrapped them for his stocking. He had so much fun. I even commented the other day to him about daddy getting one of his toys and he corrected me "no mom...Santa got that for me". Oops...I stand corrected.

Our little Christmas tree for our little house. It was only $20 at Walmart and it fit great in our tiny living room. I'd love to have a lush, big, real tree, but for now, with the little kiddos, a fake one is just easier...and cheaper. It's nice now to have Chance "help" me decorate since Jeff hates to and in 8 Christmases together has NEVER helped me do the tree.

These are also from almost 2 months ago, but Sophie pretty much looks the same now. Her hair is a little longer though. Grandma Jay got this cute little dress for her. We were supposed to do real family pics in them, but it hasn't happened yet. OOPS. Sophie is just a doll. Aside from her recent ear infection and cold which kept her awake and cranky at night, she's been great. I feel vain sometimes, but I do love when people stop me to say how cute she is. Although it is a bit awkward. What are you supposed to say back? It's weird taking credit for your cute kid. I mean yes...you did "create" them, but it's not like you had any choice in the matter about what they look like. We just lucked out.

I have thought lately though about how much I want Sophie to accomplish in this life. I mean...who knows what she'll end up looking like as she grows up, but as cute as she is....I want her to be more than that. I realize she's just a baby and that's all there is to say, but I just worry about it I guess.

She is so close to crawling. She has been doing the army crawl the last few days and can get around that way...just waiting for it to turn into a real crawl.

2010-01-24T20:48:00.001-07:00

Chance

So, I have no pictures this time, but it's been a while and I needed to write some things about Chance down. He cracks me up. I know all kids are funny, but obviously, I know mine the best. The other day we were in the kitchen, Sophie in her highchair and Chance just milling about. He gave Sophie a kiss and then came next to me at the counter and said:

"I kissed Sophie"

Me: That was nice.

C: We don't kiss cats. They pee on us.

Me laughing, "Where did you hear that"

C: At Linda's house

Me: Did a cat pee on Linda?

C: No, on Maddox

Me: A cat peed on Maddox

C: No...on Maddox's dad

Me: a cat peed on Maddox's dad?

C: vigorously shaking his head yes.

The funny part about this story is that when I asked Linda about it, she said that neither her nor Maddox have ever mentioned a story about cats peeing on anyone!!! Where does he come up with this stuff? Not that it hurts my feelings. I am not a fan of pets and it just makes it easier if he feels the same way.

Also...Chance has been on this kick lately of asking me everyday if I'm a "superhero". I always say no of course, but the other day I played along and said I was "Supermom" and he was "Superboy". I kissed him good night and said, "I love you Superboy" to which he yelled as loud as possible, " Iiiii Loooove Yoooouuuu Supermom". Good thing I have those sweet wonderful moments to fall back on when he's being so super naughty I just want to cry. He was so naughty in church today. I was all by myself and had to carry him out like 3 times and I'm sure half the congregation saw me practically abuse him when I picked him up by one arm and dragged him out of the chapel. UGH. How do I learn patience??

I've already mentioned this on FB, but Sophie is fat. I mean really. She's 19 lbs at 8 months!!! Chance only weighed that at 1. It's crazy. She's great though. She starting to get up on her knees and I think she may crawl within a month or so. She also holds her own bottle finally. Sleeping through the night was tough and go over the Christmas break. More go than anything. She had gotten in the habit of waking up every night at 4 am. BUT...for the last 3-4 weeks since getting back to our schedule, she's been awesome. I don't think she's woken up once in the middle of the night. It's been great!

2009-12-18T14:16:00.004-07:00

Our Goings On

I always think of great little stories I should blog about and then promptly forget them the second I sit down to actually write them. :) So, I'll just summarize what's been going on. First, Sophie finally had her 6 month check up yesterday. She's doing great. She's a whopping 17 lbs! I guess I shouldn't say "whopping" since it's still only the 59th percentile, but she seems like a chunka munka to me. She is also 27 inches long which puts her in the 87th percentile for height. The dr said she's right on track both physically and developmentally. She had 3 shots yesterday and it did not bode well with her. She was so cranky last night and kept us up from 1-4am. I was late to work because of it. Not that much is going on here with all the Christmas stuff. Which is why I'm blogging AT work. I know, I should be on the naughty list.

Sophie also recently had her first haircut! I was apprehensive at first, but it came out better than I thought. She had a lot of scraggly hair in the back and it evened it out nicely.

Here is Sophie being silly. (She still loves to poke out that pointy little tongue of hers)

And....Sophie being serious.
Chance certainly enjoyed the huge snowstorm we had a few weeks ago. I'm so grateful for hand-me-downs. We got not 1, but 2 3T sized snow suits plus boots that fit him perfectly. It's so nice not to have to buy that kind of stuff. He loved the snow and helping me make hot chocolate afterwards. Although...he just ate the marshmallows instead of drinking the cocoa.
I can generally only convince Jeff to go to two ward functions a year. The 'Summer Block Party' and the 'Christmas Party'. I just couldn't resist Chance seeing Santa. He loved it. He asks about Santa EVERYDAY. He has been really great about the tree and not touching the presents that are already under the tree so far. He is making Christmas so much fun this year. When I asked him his Christmas list he said...in this order..."a red flashlight, a football, and Transformers". Which is funny because he's never even seen Transformers. Little does he know that Jeff has stocked him full of Star Wars toys instead. Jeff feels it is his duty to keep Chance well educated in Star Wars.

Oh...I forgot that I also managed to convince Jeff to go to the Living Nativity that we have every year in town. I mostly like it because they have these live animals for Chance to see. It was FREEZING out that night, but he loved seeing the lamb.

And...the camel.

My mom visited for two weeks back in November. It was wonderful. She watched our kids overnight while we went up to a fabulous B&B in Logan, went to the temple one night, and one other time I can't remember. All I know is that it was great. She played "kitty" as Chance referred to it for hours on end with him. I'm glad he's getting to bond with his "grandma that lives far away and flies in the airplane to see" him.

Sophie loves her activity center that our cousin Cheryl gave her. It takes quite a bit of room in our tiny little house, but it's worth the entertainment factor. I never thought I would like so much pink, but it's great!

Sophie looking cute and chubby in the tub. Soon she'll get to go in the "Big Girl" tub with Chance. Jeff's against letting them bathe together, but I think it's fine until they're a little bit older!

Jeff and Chancey asleep after church one day. I cannot wait until we have 9am church. 1pm has KILLED me with Chance's nap schedule. The only thing I have to worry about now is that it will mess up Sophie's morning nap. Oh well, you win some, you lose some, right?

I really do feel so blessed this holiday season. We have been so grateful to have extra money come in from Jeff's work that has helped pay for both necessities and some luxuries during this time. I was so scared to go part time - financially, but so far...thanks to bonuses and Jeff doing some side work, we've been able to manage it all. I love spending more time with my kids. I feel like my life is so much more balanced right now. I hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the Christmas season.

2009-11-19T08:44:00.003-07:00

One more thing...

I nearly forgot to mention something even more important than poop (see previous post). Jeff and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary on November 16th. How did that happen? How is it that day to day life seems so slow sometimes and yet when you look back, life has moved at warp speed??

I've been accused at times to love my kids more than Jeff. It's tough when you're a mom of young kids. They are physically dependent on you....for everything and therefore take up so much time! As I reflect back on when I was single it's interesting because although I always knew I wanted to be married and even tried to envision who I would marry, I don't think I gave much thought to what kind of wife I would be. On the flip side, I have had very strong ideas and goals on what kind of mom I wanted to be. While mothering is certainly important...so is marriage. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm guilty of not being the wife I should be. I love Jeff, but I know I take him for granted as well. He does the sweetest things that I know most wives would kill to have! Jeff works hard at making things special, of remembering the little things I mention, sending flowers, balloons, stopping to get my favorite drink when I've had a bad day...etc. The list could go on. I won't make this a "look how great my husband is" post, but just know that he is. Flaws and all. I'm grateful for my eternal marriage and that we have an eternity to work on it. I'm grateful for the journey of life we get to share together and that I can work on being a better wife.

2009-11-19T00:08:00.004-07:00

To Poop or Not to Poop...that is the question.

Sophie has been strictly on formula now for about 2-3 weeks. Of course she has become quite constipated in the process of switching over. You know how it goes, red-faced, grunting only to squeak out a quarter-sized nugget of poop. Enough of that visual. So...on Saturday I started adding just an ounce of prune juice to her bottles to see if it would help. And help it did. Jeff was holding Sophie Sunday evening and heard her do some business and low and behold the poop of all poops emerged. The pictures just don't do it justice. It was literally EVERYWHERE...and a lot darker than this looks. Imagine the color of prunes. Good thing she's such a doll and worth every poopy mess imaginable.

On a complete but more important side note, we had our YW in Excellence program tonight and how wonderful it was. I generally don't blog about churchy stuff as a rule. I don't know...it just seems so personal. But, I have to say that it was a such a spiritually uplifting, testimony building evening that I loved it. I'm so grateful for this calling. It has made me grow and stretch more than I can say. I think it's safe to say that once again it would appear that Heavenly Father knows me better than I know myself.

p.s...I was able to get all that poop out of her outfit. Surprising, huh?

2009-11-09T19:24:00.004-07:00

Little Helper

Chance is a great helper...sometimes. He's been enjoying the leaves - raking AND having leaf fights.

Pigtails - Part Two!! Much better this time around.

Look alike much?? Of course I can tell them apart, but I think they look so similar...also kind of sad that 2 1/2 years later I still look the same too. :)

2009-11-06T23:34:00.002-07:00

Halloween

We didn't do a whole lot for Halloween. Earlier in the day Chance and I carved pumpkins. Ok...I carved the pumpkin while Chance watched. He tried to put his hands in the pumpkin guts but was too grossed out. We invited Jeff's Grandma over for dinner too. She really enjoyed being with the kids.

Chance and his friend, Hazel trick-or-treating. Chance LOVED it.

Chance insisted on being Buzz Lightyear for Halloween. Which is pretty funny since he's only seen Toy Story once and doesn't even like it that much. I think its because he saw his friend Bauer a few weeks earlier wearing it. Thankfully by the time Halloween rolled around, Bauer no longer wanted to be Buzz and his mom let us borrow it.

The fruits of mom's labors. My ghetto, uncreative, 10 minute pumpkin. Chance was happy though.

Halloween has officially become my least favorite holiday. I'm not huge on candy to begin with for my kid and Halloween makes it worse...of course. If I hear Chance scream for a treat one more time I'm going to go bonkers. I can't wait until his candy is gone...

2009-11-06T23:10:00.002-07:00

Funky Town

I guess I've been in sort of a funk lately. I'm not sure what it is. I think it involved my lack of productivity. I used to be pretty productive in my life. I often feel like I'm in a hamster wheel running around but not getting anywhere. I get so busy that I want to just veg out and relax and then feel guilty when I do because there is so much I SHOULD BE doing. And then there's the cliche of being the "I'm never good enough mom". Jeff and I had this conversation the other day.

Me: I just feel like there's more I could be doing to be a better mom.

Jeff: Hmmm....

Me: Don't you ever just think about all the things you should do to be a better dad?

Jeff: No. I think I'm a good dad.

Me: Yeah, I know you're a great dad, but don't you ever think about things you want to improve upon?

Jeff: No. Not really.

Me: Oh. I'm constantly thinking of how I should and could be a better mom.

Now...this is not to say I think I'm a bad mom. Just that as a woman I think most of us feel this way. There's always something MORE to do. Clean this, organize that, journal this, cook that...You get the idea. How do we fix this feeling? And I KNOW I'm not the only woman who feels this way. And the thing is that people don't even notice. Jeff is perfectly content with how I am...well, mostly. And it's not as if the kids think about it. Chance and Sophie don't realize the house is a mess. Or that we only ate cereal for dinner instead of a real-cooked meal. They're happy.

Alright. Enough venting. Other than that minor glitch in my thought process lately, things really are good. Sophie continues to grow like a weed. We've started her on oatmeal. She's getting the hang of it. She hated it at first. She's sleeping through the night at least 5 night out of 7. Not too bad.

We were experimenting with her hair...so don't laugh. I know it's a little lopsided. We need to work on it. My friend Sherry has two little girls which in my eyes pretty much makes her an expert on hair. We tried. I just feel bad. I feel like it hurts her scalp or something. Cute though, huh? I still can't believe how much she has.

My sis-in-law, Lori bought this adorable little dress for Sophie. It finally fits and I've been so excited to have her wear it. She looked so cute. I love how her face can change so much depending on her expression in these two pics.

You wouldn't know it from this picture, but Chance has been having some anger issues lately. I'm really not sure what's going on. He growls all the time which irritates me to no end. He growls at anything really...if he's mad at it. Like when he tripped on a chair at Grandma's and turned around and growled at it. He's also been having some accidents lately. He went 6 weeks without a single accident and then all of a sudden this last week he's had about 4. I'm not sure what to make of it. Anyway. We made pizzas for lunch one day and Chance LOVED it. it was so fun. He seems to eat better if he is involved in the cooking process.

2009-10-18T22:48:00.004-06:00

Sophie Update

We finally managed to get Sophie into the doctor on Friday for her 4 month check up -- 3 weeks late. At any rate, things look good. The Dr. said that Sophie has excellent head control and looks really strong. She's already trying to scoot forward a bit when she's on her tummy. I'm working really hard to give her more tummy time and keep her off head. The Dr. said it's not a worry yet, but she does have a bit of a 'flat' spot on her head. Really, I'm not that worried because Chancey had the same issue, same head shape, etc and his head filled in no problem once he started sitting up more. But...you just never know. I mean heaven forbid she needed a helmet. I would just die. No offense to anyone whose kid had/has a helmet, but I don't want to deal with that. As far as stats go...she's 14 lbs 3 oz (45th percentile) and 25 inches (75th percentile).

I also entered Sophie (and Chance) into the Gap Casting call. This top picture is one that I used. It was cropped so that it was a close-up on those chubby little cheeks. I'm sure she won't win w/ thousands of cute kids, but it's worth a shot!

On another note, I swear I'm getting sick again! I cannot handle this. I was feeling great since mid week and then all of a sudden I wake up this morning with sore throat. UGH!!! Anyone else dealing with this??

2009-10-11T20:34:00.003-06:00

Long Time Coming...
I can't believe it's been over a month since I last blogged. I feel like we've had a lot going on, but mostly it's just been us being sick for 3 weeks. Literally. It's been awful, but I think we're finally coming out of it. We (Chance and I) still have a lingering cough and runny nose that won't go away, but the worst of it seems over. This made the 4th week in a row we haven't brought Chance to nursery though. It's just a breeding ground for sickness. Anyway, here are some current pictures of all of us!

We made out way to the Pumpkin Patch on Saturday to let Chance pick out his very own pumpkin. He LOVES his pumpkin. He carried it around all day today and even told me it was "cold" and needed to get under the blanket. Then he said, "my pumpkin loves me, mom" and leaned over to kiss it. It was really sweet. Kids of course say the cutest things.

Sophie is getting so chubby! We haven't had heard 4 month check up yet - even though it's been weeks - since we've been so sick, but I think she's probably pushing 15 lbs. She decided to have a major poopy blowout right before we got on the wagon ride. Of course, I forgot an extra change of clothes, so she donned a sweater, diaper and blanket for the whole afternoon. Thankfully it wasn't that cold. I've also realized how old I look. Not sure if it's the way the sun is hitting my face or what, but I just feel so old in this picture. Lines on my forehead and crow's feet on my eyes. I think turning 30 in February will be harder than I thought. :(

Sadly, this is our ONLY family picture so far. What's wrong with us? I don't know why we don't have any others, but we don't. We need to work on that. I don't think a lollipop hanging out of Jeff's mouth does our family justice.

Hopefully this isn't totally innappropriate, but I couldn't help it. Look at his little bum. Chance has been doing awesome pooping and peeing on the potty and insists on wiping himself. He came out of the bathroom with this the other day. Jeff and I were cracking up. He keeps saying now that he "doesn't want paper stuck in his bum bum any more".

This is pretty much how Sophie spends her waking hours. Fingers in her mouth, drooling all over the place. She's really getting personality. She's still a great, easy going baby. She's been sleeping through the night - most of the time. She also giggles like crazy (especially at Jeff), rolls over and "plays" with toys.

My smiley baby!

Jeff hates her hair like this and insists she looks like a 70 year old man with a comb-over, but I think it's cute. I still need to work on doing bows or SOMETHING in her hair. I'm just not good at that sort of thing. I can barely do my own.

Back in September, Jeff's work threw a party at Lagoon (a local amusement park). We were able to get some extra tickets and invited Gigi and her kids to come along. Here is Chance on a ride with his cousin, Brooklie.

Chance had THE BEST time that night. It was so nice to be able to do something fun that we would never pay for otherwise. Thanks Nuskin.

I almost forgot. Jeff came home the other day from work and announced that he was "going to run a 9K". OKAAAAY. Jeff's NOT runner and nor has he done anything remotely athletic in quite some time. This all came about because he was building a website for his uncle who pretty much initiated the organ donor program in the country. His uncle wants to promote awareness and have a fundraiser here in Utah. They are sponsoring a 9K on October 24th in SLC to coincide with the idea that one person can save 9 lives when signing up for organ donation.

That being said, Jeff's been doing an awesome job running the past week getting all geared up for the race in a few weeks. I'm really proud of him and hope it works out well! If anyone else is interested, let me know. I will find the site and post it for you.

2009-09-07T00:17:00.002-06:00

Oh Andy...

Just like I'm a not-so-closet Sinbad fan, I have in resent years become a tennis fan. Like kind of obsessive...especially this summer. It used to just be the U.S. Open ever Labor Day weekend because nothing else was on. Actually, this maybe too much information, but it just so happened that we were "trying" to get pregnant with Sophie at this exact time last year. This is when the idea of naming our maybe future baby that wasn't even conceived yet "Andy" somewhat after Andy Roddick.
Anyway... since having Sophie this summer, I was up around 5 am a lot right after she was born. Conveniently, ESPN2 was airing coverage Live from Wimbledon at exactly 5 am thanks to the time difference. And that's when the heartbreak began. Andy lost to Federer IN THE FINAL. A close 5 set match. I really was heartbroken...as if I knew the guy personally or something. It was crazy. I couldn't stop thinking about it for days...how hard it must be to work that much and get so close and yet not win.
So, of course I was rooting for him to win the U.S Open this week. And of course, he broke my heart again by losing last night in the 3rd round! Another close match. Everyone really felt like this was his year. UGH.
Anyway...I KNOW no one cares, but I just had to vent. At least the major tennis tournaments will be over soon so I can continue on with my life.

2009-09-06T12:31:00.002-06:00

I came home from work and Chance was jumping on the cushionless couches. When I walked in he was still jumping and said "Hi Daddy!" I thought it was pretty funny, but was very curious where Amanda was and I looked in our bedroom. She was knocked out (she claims for a few minutes), If it was just for a few minutes, it shows the destructive power of my boy.

I took a photo of Amanda sleeping but she deleted the photo.

2009-08-20T13:20:00.005-06:00

Warning: Lots of pictures
I haven't updated in a while so there are a lot of pictures. Things are going pretty well. First things first. We FINALLY got a yard after 2 1/2 years. It looks great (pictures are on facebook) and we couldn't be more thrilled. It's been about a week, so just 4-7 more days and Chance can finally have a place to play. We still need to either fix our cement stairs, or build a deck over it, but we'll get to it.
We've had a great summer being at home and it certainly has gone by fast. Sophie is almost 3 months old. She's quite the little porker too. Well, she's only 60th% for weight, but that's about 40% more than Chance ever was, so she seems big to me. She's talking up a storm, sleeping well and continues to be super cute all the time. She's a great baby.
Chance definitely keeps me busy. He's such a boy. He's into EVERYTHING but I know it's normal. He's doing great on the potty most of the time. We're proud of him especially since he's pretty young as it is to be PT'd.
I started work on Monday and so far I'm loving the part time schedule. It will be hard to adjust to the new and decreased paychecks, I'm sure, but I feel a greater balance in my life already. I have two days to get stuff done around the house and then can still work. Linda of course is wonderful with both kids, so I have no worries there. Except if Chance ever has an accident there I'll feel horrible! Otherwise, here are some random pics of the kids.

Tadaaaa! Could Chance look any cuter in Jeff's t-shirt?

Look at those cheeks! Not the most flattering picture, but Jeff couldn't resist get this "Barf Vader" shirt for Sophie. Very fitting. She spits up a lot.

Umm...you can figure this one out for yourself. Don't look too closely or you'll see the fruits of his labors. :)

Love his face. I bought all this potty paraphenalia for him...special potty, special potty seat, stool to use, etc. He just likes to climb on the real potty himself and hold himself up. No special equiptment needed.

Sophie just smiling away.

I'm trying to be better about giving her tummy time so she can practice lifting her head.

I just love this little girl. Look at those eyes. They melt me.

Whenver Sohpie is laying on the ground, Chane insists on laying next to her. He's been a great brother so far.

2009-07-28T16:59:00.005-06:00

I'm a believer...

So, I know by now everyone is completely sick of hearing about my adventures in potty training. Overall, I think it's gone well. Chance isn't perfect at it yet, but he makes in the toilet more often than not. I'm still too scared to leave the house though. I know he'll get it. I also know that he'll still have accidents even when he does "have it". I know I did as a kid. In the mean time my sweet little baby girl has been completely neglected during this process. Good thing she's only two months old and won't remember.

Here are some of Sophie wearing her brain squeezer for the first time. As a general rule, I'm not a huge fan of these, but they can be cute sometimes. We'll see what I end up doing. She just has so much cute hair that I feel like I need to do something with it. I also love this little cherry onesie she has.

Her little face just melts my heart. She's already a daddy's girl. She loves Jeff!

So, as some incentive/reward for Chance's PT efforts, Jeff bought him this sword that Chance refers to as his "sword light saber". Not to be confused with his green foam noodle light saber or his glowing red light saber which really is some flashlight thing Jeff found at Home Depot. He's going to be a Star Wars nerd for sure. Anyway, the first night he got it he was so excited that he fell asleep with it and then woke up at 4:30 am screaming from his room for it, (it had fallen) and then proceeded to play by himself in the dark with it for an hour before he fell asleep again.

Ahh...I'd love to tell you that Chance put these shoes on by himself and that's why they're on the wrong feet, but I'd by lying. The truth is that Daddy "helped" Chance do it. Oops. Someone wasn't paying attention very well.

2009-07-27T10:39:00.001-06:00

Things to do while potty training

Paint your toenails....in the bathroom.
Let your child play in the sink....in the bathroom.
Call friends and family....in the bathroom.
Read a book....in the bathroom.
Tweeze your eyebrows....in the bathroom.

After a VERY frustrating day yesterday, I had us just chill in the bathroom for a bit this morning. Chance watched intently as I painted my toes. Finally, he said, "I potty, mom" and wouldn't you know it...he peed in the toilet!!! Let's hope it continues. He peed in potty twice on Saturday and then no luck yesterday, so we'll see! Keep your fingers crossed. I totally have cabin fever.

2009-07-25T00:30:00.004-06:00

Potty Training

I'm exhausted. I should most definitely be in bed. Tomorrow starts Day Two of the 3 Day Potty Training Method. It's kind of wretched, but I figure 3 horrible days is better than having this long drawn out process for months. I want Chance trained before I go back to work. I'm sick of hearing myself say all day, 100 times a day, "Chance...remember to tell mommy when you need to pee or poo". And then every other minute you're not saying that you say, "Let's check your underwear, are they dry? They are! Good job Chance, you kept your underwear dry". More annoying than cleaning up the accidents is I have to literally be his shadow 24/7. I can't leave his side in case he does start to pee and needs to be rushed to the b-room. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but holy cow...I'm tired!

So far, he's had about 6 pee accidents but came really close to making it. He ran into the bathroom, pulled his underwear off and then peed all over the floor. Bless his heart, he tried. At least he's getting the idea...we'll see how tomorrow goes!

P.S...I have some SUPER cute pics of Sophie that I need to post and will...once the potty training is over. Also, I put this on Facebook, but for those that don't see that...I am in hot pursuit of any unused formula you guys may have. I know a lot of people get samples, but don't use them before they go bad and I will need to start putting Sophie on formula when I start work again, so send any my way if you have it!

2009-07-18T16:26:00.002-06:00

Sophie

What a better way to procrastinate writing a talk for tomorrow than to catch up on some blogging? We had my family in town the last few weeks since we blessed Sophie last Sunday. It was a lot of fun having my mom, brother, and sister-in-law around the house. It was so nice too because my grandpa and some aunts and uncles were here as well. My family isn't great at getting together too often, so it was nice to catch up.

Here is Sophie in a cute little terry-cloth outfit that Grandma Jaylene bought for her. She's so cute...and has still managed to keep her hair so far!

Big smiles on camera!

Just looking cute.

Here we are the morning of Sophie's blessing. It was definitely a packed house. Things were really hectic and Jeff was trying to do some last minute greetings to families that hadn't seen Sophie yet. We didn't get to feed her before the blessing. Sooo...of course she cried during the whole blessing which stressed Jeff out a bit, but overall, it was great! My mom was able to find my dress that I had been blessed in. It was nice having her wearing what I did 29 years ago! Doesn't she look adorable?

Here's grandpa holding his great-granddaughter. He was so happy to be with her and attend the blessing. You could just tell what joy he felt being around his family.

2009-07-18T16:16:00.002-06:00

Chance

Here we all are on a walk. My Aunt and Uncle bought a gorgeous home that is right against the Provo River Trail.We all took a walk together. Chance had fun taking turns holding hands with different family members. My cousin Sadie and my brother Matt. I think Matt had a lot of fun with Chance. I know Chance loved having him and Shanna around!

Chance wearing his Darth Vader hat. He's hilarious.

We all got together at Two Jacks' one night. Chance still loves his cheese sticks.

This one was from the 4th of July. We went up to Jeff's dad's house with Gigi and had dinner and watched some fireworks. Needless to say this picture pretty much describes how Chance felt about seeing fireworks for the first time. He loved them.

Jeff introduced Chance to Superman for the first time. Here he is being Superman around the house.

While these pictures have all been very cute of Chance, he's been somewhat of a royal pain the last two weeks. I'm not sure if it's because we've had company and he's not on a schedule, but bedtime has been a struggle. He screamed bloody murder last night for an hour and a half. We finally went in and snuggled, sang and read him to sleep. Yikes.

2009-06-28T16:48:00.003-06:00

"Cheese Me, Mom"

Yes...this is an exact quote from Chance. He's learned the whole saying 'cheese' bit when I take pictures. I grabbed the camera to document that we do indeed spend time outside and the second he saw the camera, he paused, posed and said, "Cheese me, Mom". I thought it was pretty cute. Here he is playing with his friend Hazel in the water tub. I'm too scared to venture out to the pool alone, but he has just as much fun playing in the front yard.

The other thing Chance says that just melts my heart is "nuggle me". Translation -- "snuggle me". He drops the /s/ at the beginning of /s/ blend words so snuggle becomes nuggle and scary become cary, etc...you get the idea. I just think it's so cute when he asks me to 'nuggle' him. When do they grow out of wanting to be kissed and hugged? I know it will happen one day. SAD.

He LOVES to just play with the hose, watering the sidewalk, filling cups and then dumping water on himself.

And here is Sophie in a simply adorable skirt. I just couldn't resist taking a picture. Despite what this picture shows, she has started to smile a lot lately. It's so sweet. She's still doing great most of the time. She slept until 5am this morning which sounds great except she wouldn't go back to sleep afterwards until Jeff snuggled her.
She's absolutely horrible at burping which I think causes some tummy trouble. We pretty much have to keep her vertical for 30 minutes after she eats or else she spits up a ton. She's a great baby though...if that's my only complaint, I can handle it!

I can't believe June has flown by and that Sophie is already a month old. That means I only have about 6 weeks before work starts again. I just can't think about it...at least it will only be part time this year.

2009-06-22T13:27:00.002-06:00

Update

I figured I would actually write a bit more of an update than last week. I had just enough time to post the pictures before Chance woke up from his nap and Sophie needed to be fed. They're both asleep right now and while I should either be napping or cleaning, I'd rather be blogging.

Sophie is a dream baby. I don't know how or why I am lucky enough to have easy babies that sleep so well and are easily pleased. I'm sure it will come around in the end, say when they're teenagers, but for now I just feel really blessed. Sophie still sleep A TON. I mean really...a ton. As long as she is fed, she's happy and content just like Chance was. Last night she even went 6 hours between feedings. Granted, I still only slept for 4 because I just had to clean the kitchen and of course pump before I went to bed, but I was shocked when I was able to sleep straight til 4:30 w/o the 1:30 feeding.

Now, as for pumping. It's going. I seriously hate it, but I'm able to keep up with her demands so far. Although I do swear she has radar because the second I'm hooked up to the thing is when she does finally decide to wake up. This is a big part to why I'm not getting enough sleep. If it was just her waking up and eating, I could feed her and be back asleep in 30 minutes, but of course I then still have to pump...UGH.

Chance is a typical mischievous two year old. The other week I found him coloring on the floor, wall, couch and then he decided to pull out every article of clothing he owns from his drawers and toss them on the floor. Last week was much better and w/o incident. He seriously LOVES his sister and the transition has been easier than I expected. The fact that is was so rainy the past few weeks has helped me feel less guilty that we're stuck in the house all day. I'm going to work on getting out more with him now that the weather is supposed to be nicer this week. I'm just grateful that he still naps!

I'm getting geared up for my family to come visit in a few weeks for her blessing. We'll have a great time and I'm excited to have a built-in baby sitter for a week -- Thanks mom!

I do want to say how grateful I am for Jeff since it was just Father's Day. He is truly a wonderful dad. Sometimes I get so caught up in the little details of how I think things "should be" done that I take for granted how great Jeff really is. So what if he uses a dish cloth instead of a burp cloth or dresses the kids in mismatching clothes, or lets Chance eat brownies for breakfast (true story)? The fact is he is always willing to help and loves to be with his kids. I know I need to work on relaxing about the little insignificant details. Happy Father's Day and I love you!

2009-06-19T14:27:00.002-06:00

The last two weeks

We've been doing really well the last few weeks. For the most part, I feel like I'm getting in a routine. Chance has done really great with Sophie. He always tells me she is 'pretty' or 'cute' and asks if she is happy. He tries to tickle her feet and wants to hold and snuggle her quite a bit. He seems to be over his jealousy for the most part. I feel bad that we're stuck inside a lot. Doesn't help the weather was really rainy for the last few weeks. We might as well have been in Oregon!

2009-06-19T14:16:00.003-06:00

Sophie's first photo shoot

I can't get the formatting to work on this. I don't know why. Anyway, here are some pictures that my sister in law was nice enough to take. Sophie was a bit cranky and tired by the time we got around to taking them, but overall, she did great and I thought they turned out really cute! I love how much you can see her hair with the white background. Thanks Kristi.

2009-06-05T17:47:00.003-06:00

Sophie's First Week
Well, things have gone pretty well this week so far. Chance has actually transitioned much better than I expected. He hasn't tried to hurt her and anything. He's actually been really sweet and says that she is "my baby" all the time.

As far as the nursing goes. I had to give up on it by Sunday night. I was just miserable. I had already done all the things suggested by you lovely experienced nursers and it hadn't been working. So...in the meantime I am pumping and bottle feeding it to her. It's SUCH a pain and very time consuming, but I figure that as long as I can keep it up I might as well let her get as much breast milk as she can. I know 0nce I go back to work in two months I'll have to use formula.

Other than the whole nursing challenge, Sophie is a dream baby so far. She sleeps pretty much 22 out of 24 hours a day which is more than I can say for myself. I'm averaging 3 hours a night and it's been really tough, but what can you do? She rarely cries -- except a little in her car seat and has been great fun to snuggle and love on.

I had my first poopy blowout today. Then my mom had to change all my clothes and get me a new blanket to use. (She also had to change me into this cute new dress too.)I sleep all the time...here I am sleeping on Daddy.

Here I am awake in the morning!

My brother loves to "help" me by giving me kisses, getting my blanket and putting my binky in my mouth.

The one time my mom put a bow in my hair...she should do it more often because I sure look cute with it in my crazy hair.

2009-05-30T12:03:00.002-06:00

First Day Home

Things have gone really well so far at home. I remember when I first brought Chance home I completely had a meltdown feeling overwhelmed. He didn't sleep AT ALL and nursing just wasn't working. I was up all night with him just blubbering. Well, nursing still isn't great...forgive me for those reading thing and don't want all the gory details of breastfeeding. My nipples are cracking and it KILLS to nurse. I seriously can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I had 2 nurses look at the "latching on" and they both said it looked great. So, I don't know. It's depressing and I hate it, but I'm trying to forge ahead despite the excrutiating pain because I know it's best for her. Anyway, I won't go into any more details, but any advice from successful breastfeeding moms would be appreciated! I have to take her in on Monday because she has lot a bit more weight than the pediatrician would like, so hopefully they will tell me she is ok.

Other than that though, Sophie has been easy...ha, ha. I'm sure I've got it coming to me. She slept from 11:30-2:30 when I had to wake her up to eat. She didn't eat much because she was so sleepy, so I fed her again at 4:30 and she went back to sleep until 7:00. I'm still exhausted, but I can't complain. She's a pretty sleepy baby. I remember Chance being quite a bit more awake, but I'll take it. Although she does take a binky, she's not ADDICTED to it the way Chance was. She will actually fall asleep w/o it and stay asleep. Chance HAD TO have it in 24/7.

Sophie, Daddy, Chance enjoying a show together.

A rare moment awake!

Chance has been pretty good so far. He has only held her this one time, but giggled the whole time. He's been softly rubbing her hair and trying to help with the binky, but other than that, he's still just a two year old interested in his own thing. Nursing is a little tricky w/ him around because he just wants to climb all over me, but I'm sure we'll figure it all out.

2009-05-28T14:51:00.002-06:00

Sophie Nemelka
May 27th, 2009
3:56pm
7 lbs 12 oz
19 inches

Well everyone, here she is! Can you believe all that dark hair? I mean it literally is BLACK. So black that the nurse bathing her yesterday asked Jeff if his wife was hispanic. Actually, I think the consensus is that she looks amazingly like Chance, but with the dark hair. I think she'll end up losing is and it will come in a tad bit lighter, but time will tell.

Things went great all things considered. I had some issues with the epidural this time that I didn't last time. Not enough at first, then too much, etc., but in the end it was fine. I only had to push for about 10 minutes through two contractions, so I can't complain.

Thankfully, my sister in law and mother in law have taken over Chance duties. He came to visit last night and other than saying 'baby' once in a while and giving her one quick kiss on the head, he was relatively uninterested. He found the movable bed with a bar to hang off of much more exciting than a little baby that doesn't move I suppose. We will see him again tonight, so we'll see how round 2 goes. I'm sure it will be a whole new adventure tomorrow when we're home.

I will post more pictures soon and keep everyone informed. Otherwise, we're doing great!!

2009-05-26T21:50:00.004-06:00

Rough Day

Here is a picture of me and "Bug" when he was two months old. Hard to believe that was two years ago! I just think he's so cute. And hard to believe that within 24 hours I will have a newborn again. We're both really excited to meet her, see what she looks like and how her personality compares with Chance's at that age.

I've been pretty emotional on and off today though. Jeff doesn't really understand it. I'm not sure I do either except to say that it's hard for me to envision life with more than one child. I wouldn't say that Chance is overly clingy or needy. He's used to being with other adults and children all day, but I think he senses something is going on, but he's not quite sure what yet. He's been pretty needy this past weekend and wanting to be held more, calling himself a baby. I know this is somewhat normal behavior, but it just makes me sad. And I know every older sibling goes through it and comes out fine w/o being permanently traumatized, but it's just hard for me. I want to have enough love, enough patience, enough energy, etc for both of them. Chance has been an angel when it comes to other transitions - off the nursing, bottle, binky, into the toddler bed, etc. So...I should just hope for the best and assume it will continue, but who knows.

I'm also nervous for the recovery process. It went pretty quickly last time, but most of you know I HATED nursing. It was an awful experience for me, but I stuck with it because it was the healthy, cheaper thing to do. I just hope it goes smoother this time and that I can stay as dedicated. Keep your fingers crossed.

2009-05-22T09:33:00.004-06:00

Sinbad

I am a Sinbad fan. Most of you who know me know this about me. It all began on a hot summer day back in 1995 (maybe 1996). A good friend of mine worked for Blockbuster as his summer job and could rent as many free movies as he wanted. Our group of friends would obviously take advantage of this often and so our selection of movies began to dwindle quickly. One day my friend rents a movie called "Houseguest" with none other than Sinbad as the leading actor. I protested beyond belief. Who on earth would want to watch some PG rated movie with Sinbad? Little did I know the impact that movie would have on my life! I LOVED it. I mean LOOOOOVVVVEEED IT. My other friends hated it, but that day I became a Sinbad fan. Since then I've seen his comedy specials from HBO and loved them as well.

#1 - He's a clean comedian which is rare. And...#2 - He really IS funny. I know there are a lot of doubters out there, but I say, "give this man a try" -- you won't be disappointed.

Ok...so that being said, I've obviously wanted to see him in a live comedy show for a while. When I was in Vegas for the first time in 1998 with my college roommate, he happened to be playing at one of the hotels. Would anyone go with me? NO. Then, last year we found out he was coming to Wendover and we wanted to go but couldn't get a babysitter. So, finally, Jeff got a tip from our friend (thanks, Josh) that Sinbad was playing in SLC. Jeff took matters into his own hands and bought the tickets despite my concerns that they would be unusable due to a certain impending arrival of our baby. So...we went last night and what a blast we had. We were honestly laughing so hard we were crying for the entire 1 1/2....along with EVERYONE else there.

The best part was that it was at a little comedy club and so we got to sit about 20 feet away from him the whole time. It was small, but packed. As you can tell, he was nice enough to mingle and meet with everyone afterwards. What a great last date before Sophie comes!! Thanks to Jeff for getting the tickets!

2009-05-14T20:34:00.003-06:00

Updates

Well, this picture pretty much sums up my life lately. Enormous and uncomfortable.

Actually, other than my really fat, tree-trunk like ankles, I can't complain. I have pretty easy pregnancies all things considered. I went to the dr on Wednesday and he said I'm measuring at 40 cm -- 2 weeks big, but it was the same with Chance, so no surprise there. I'm dilated to 2 cm and about 70% effaced. Again, I was at that state with Chance weeks before he was born, so I doubt I will go early. He's already got the induction faxed to the hospital and set for the 27th so I'm pretty much banking on that date.

All things considering with Jeff, it's probably best to have the date set so we can schedule someone to help with Chance, drive to the hospital, etc.

I guess that just leaves an update on Jeff. We went to the neurologist yesterday. Initially the dr walks in and immediately says, "Well, we want to send you up to the U for testing because we just can't figure you out". NOT comforting. Anyway, turns out that to be at a "therapeutic" level on his seizure medication, he should be between 10-20. He was at a 4. No wonder he had a seizure, right? He's also having side effects from one of his other medications too. After a discussion with the PA and the Dr, they decided to try another medication for a month to see if we can bring his levels up and then reduce the migraine medicine that are causing side effects.

And it's official...Jeff can't drive for 3 months. It's a bad situation all around. I feel awful for Jeff...I can't imagine not being able to drive and I also feel bad for myself because, well, it's just stinky being the only driver. Anyway, best case scenario is that the medication works right off the bat but who knows. Last time it took two months to regulate the meds. The Dr said the good news is that his levels have probably been low for a while now and if he's only had one seizure, he'll do great once the meds are regulated. I just don't know if I could mentally handle another seizure. Here's to hoping!!

As far as Chance goes...he's definitely a crazy two year old. He just has ENDLESS amounts of energy. He's a sweetheart though. I know it's super early since he just turned 2, but he's really interested in potty training, so we've kind of started. He's gone pee twice and a little nugget of a poo once. I hope to get him all done by the time school starts in August! Wish me luck.

Well, that's it for now. Probably won't blog again until Sophie is born. Thanks for everyone's concern and well wishes.

2009-05-08T19:22:00.003-06:00

Seizures and Such

As some of you know from my Facebook post today, Jeff had a seizure around 4 am this morning. He's had some pretty severe migraines throughout the years, but hasn't actually had a seizure in 2 1/2 years. He doesn't have your typical convulsion, physical seizures...they are in the part of his brain that affect his memory, sense of reality, etc. So, it went a little something like this...

I hear a door slam shut and sit up in bed. Jeff comes walking out of the kitchen and sits next to me.

Amanda: where did you go?
Jeff: I don't know
Amanda: are you ok
Jeff: I don't know (wait a minute)
Amanda: Jeff, where did you go?
Jeff: Downstairs
Amanda: why?
Jeff: Because "The Force" told me to - (to which I immediately realize he is indeed having a seizure.)

I go to get his "special" medication which sedates him so that it can end the seizure. I come out of the bathroom only to have Jeff sit up and pretend to stab me with a light saber

Jeff: there...I killed you...your dead
Amanda: do you know who you are?
Jeff: Yoda

I go to the kitchen to get him some water, walk back in the bedroom and he sits up again and pretends to stab me again

Jeff: There...I killed you twice, now you're dead

So, I walk out of the room to the living room to wait it out and see if he will come out of the seizure so I can get him to talk the medicine.

I could go on with more details, but eventually he kind of came out of it and took the pills and then proceeded to have a major migraine which he likens to his head being on fire. He finally knocked out around 6 am and stayed that way for the next 11 hours.

Now, I realize in hindsight this is amusing...especially those of you who know what a Star Wars enthusiast Jeff is, but at 4 am being 3 weeks away from your due date with your 2 year old in the next room and your 200 pound husband lunging forward pretending to stab you, it's pretty scary. Needless to stay I'm kind of a wreck about the thing. This also means that Jeff most likely will not be able to drive for at least 3 months. I recognize that this is just one of those things we just have to deal with and I'm trying to keep perspective on it, but seriously...NOW?? I mean I'm weeks away from labor and about to have a newborn and it's hard not to wonder how on earth this is going to work.

There's little we can do except wait to see the neurologist and do the whole trial and error thing with different medication and dosages, etc. I'm mostly just venting because otherwise I'll go crazy. So, does anyone want to spend the night with me??

2009-05-03T10:02:00.006-06:00

Chancey's 2nd Birthday!!

Chancey turned the big 0-2 on Monday, April 20th! He just seems so big to me right now and I'm sure once Sophie arrives, he'll seem even more grown up. Jeff and I decided to take some time off on Chance's birthday and just be together. We opened some presents first and then headed up to SLC to the Children's Museum. Chance had a great day and was plenty spoiled by all the grandparents. Here is the "ball cake" as Chance called it. It actually was super easy to make. I just baked it in a glass Pyrex bowl to make it look more 3-D. It came out great and Chance really enjoyed it. I suppose I could have decorated it more with Utah Jazz stuff, but let's be honest...the fact that I made a cake was a miracle in and of itself.

We got Chance this Big Wheels bike. He LOVES it. I think we overestimated how tall Chance is. His legs don't reach the pedals and so he just sits on it and scoots with his feet, but he still loves it. He has to go on his bike everyday after work (when the weather is good) and ride up and down the sidewalk.

Here are some books that Grandma Joanne sent him. He really loves his new Thomas books!

Jeff bought Chance a little indoor basketball hoop. I'm not sure who likes it better - Jeff or Chance. They both 'dunk' all the time. Afterwards, Chance always says, "I made it" or "I missed".

Grandma and Grandpa came over in the evening and Chance a few more presents.

He really likes his "choo choo" blanket and the new train he got.

I just threw this picture in because Chance is just too cute. We spent much of yesterday morning cleaning up Chance's throw up. It's crazy to me how kids can be fine one second and puking all over the joint the next. I think we did 3 loads of laundry just because of throw up. Anyway, Jeff was nice enough to stay home all day with Chance while I headed up to SLC for a luncheon with some old friends and a bridal shower.

Chance seems to be better for now and I'm finally getting over my cold that's been hanging on for the last two weeks. Sophie is doing great so far. She's head down and everything seems to be in tip-top shape. I can't believe it's only 3 1/2 weeks away. I'm sad in one respect that Chance will be my one and only baby for only a short while longer. I hope he is a good big brother.

2009-04-30T19:18:00.003-06:00

Time Lapsed a full day working at Nu Skin. 8 hours in 34 seconds.

2009-04-14T21:12:00.004-06:00

Life Lately

I know you all are ready for some pictures finally...because you all just sit around waiting for MY blog entries, right?? Just kidding. But seriously, it's been a while and with the start of Spring Break tomorrow, I have no excuse to procrastinate any longer. So here is a long one...

We spent last night with some good friends of ours, The Watt's since they will be moving to Tennesee soon :( We decided to go to Jump On It since Chance loved it so much last time. Jeff was such a trooper and wore himself out climbing around with Chance. This is Chance and his "friend" Gavin that he met there. Gavin was a sweet boy who just wanted to follow Jeff and Chance around.

Chance being so brave!

Gavin helped teach Chance how to climb up the slide all by himself. It seriously took FOREVER, but I love when Chance feels so accomplished. He was really proud of himself.

We spent Easter with both Jeff's family and mine. Also, since Chancey's Birthday is on the 20th, we celebrated along with other cousins who have April Birthdays. Chance loved opening his presents!

Here's my preggo belly for those of you that don't get to see it enough! And Braden helping Chance open his presents.

Chance patiently waiting with his cousins to open Grandma Jay's Easter presents.

Good thing Chance has Grandma's and Aunt's to spoil him with candy because I'm not so nice in that department.

Picking up eggs...and finding candy.

Proof that Chance has moved into his toddler bed and that it has been successful! Well, mostly. We had a rough day on Saturday getting him to nap in the bed, but I can't really blame him. He had fallen asleep on the couch and I tried to move him to the bed and then he just freaked out. BUT...Sunday nap went great...as you can tell. So far, he's been staying in bed at night and done pretty good in the mornings just getting up and calling our name or playing for a bit by himself. We still block him in with the gate though...

A few weeks ago we took Chance to a little kid play they had down on Center Street. It was called, 'Go, Dog, Go' after the Dr. Seuss book and is geared specifically for toddlers. He LOVED it. He actually sat and watched it for 40 minutes straight.

I recently introduced Chance to pudding for the first time. To say he loves it would be an understatement.

Had to get EVERY last lick he could!

Chance has just been growing like a weed. He talks so much and says the cutest things. It funny that since I work with special ed preschoolers who struggle with communication, I find myself thinking Chance is some sort of genius just for doing things he should be anyway. Like the fact that he says 4 word sentences now. Totally developmentally normal, but when you work with kiddos that can't even talk, you start to think you have the most brilliant kid on the planet!

One of the cutest things Chance says is the word "maggot". Sounds gross...until you learn that he's actually referring to Maddox...a little boy he goes to daycare with. He just can't say Maddox and instead, everyday waves goodbye and says, "Bye Maggot" over and over again.

Here are a few pics I threw in of Jeff being manly. As you all know we're slowly redoing our house. We've started to tackle the bathroom a bit and here's the proof.

Jeff and...well, let's be honest...MOSTLY Sid installing our new shower wall surround. We could NOT have done it without his help. Sid has been so great to help out when we need him. LOVE having a plumber in the family.

This one Jeff totally did on his own...install an exhaust fan in the bathroom. He had to saw into the ceiling. I have to just close my eyes and trust him when he does this. He pretty much just learns as he goes and I appreciate when he tries. It always turns out great, but stresses me out in the meantime.

Other than that, just trying to prepare for when Sophie comes. She's doing great so far and I'm just hanging in there.

2009-04-10T21:06:00.002-06:00

Bedtime Update

For all those interested...Chance did great through the night. He stayed in bed the whole night. I heard him whimper some around 5:45 am, but he went back to sleep on his own. I think he heard Jeff leave though at 6:45 (for the gym...yes, I did say that Jeff is going to the gym these days) and then he woke up and stood at the gate crying. But I went in and showed him his toys and that he could play with them while "mommy takes a shower" and he was fine.

Tonight was the same. He's so good. How did I luck out with such a good boy. We'll see how the morning goes. I'm stressed about nap time though. I don't think we'll have as much success then. I just wonder how long before he realizes the freedom he has and decides to take full advantage...

2009-04-09T22:34:00.002-06:00

It finally happened...

My baby is in a big-boy bed. He did so good tonight. He honestly just laid there as if he were in his crib. He did the usual routine, kick around, chit-chat to himself, etc. But then...he just went to sleep. He didn't cry, get out of bed, turn on the light, etc. We will have to see how the morning goes though. It might be rough since he's used to just playing in his crib for 30-45 minutes before we get him out. Hmmm, I will let you know. I would have taken a picture, but I didn't want the flash to wake him up and spoil the progress. Let's hope it isn't just a fluke for the first night. Keep your fingers crossed...

2009-03-07T22:13:00.002-07:00

Roger's Wedding
Jeff's dad finally got remarried after 9 years of bachelorhood. We love his new wife, Linda and wish them the best.

I know this picture looks horrible, but I just thought it was too funny. Chance has become a horrible eater...maybe just toddlerhood? He pretends he's going to eat a banana although I know he has no intention of doing so. I gave him the banana anyone, hoping that he might take a bite and just try it. I leave the room and come back and this is what he did. I know it looks like a phallic symbol, but it just cracks me up the things kids do.

Roger and Linda at their reception.

My sister-in-law, Kristi and Me at Linda's wedding shower the other week.

2009-03-07T22:02:00.002-07:00

Lake Tahoe

Our friends, Jason and Caroline have a house up in Lake Tahoe that they were kind enough to invite a bunch of us to. I had never been and it was just beautiful. A long drive, but it was fun to hang out with everyone. I have to apologize for Chance's naughty ways. He's going through a bit of a 'hitting' phase and unfortunately our friends' kids were the recipients of it. It took a lot of energy shadowing Chance around, putting him in timeout, making him say sorry and give hugs, but hopefully the phase will end shortly. I felt bad because it rained the whole time we were there so Jeff didn't get to snowboard, but I'm glad we went regardless. Chancey did great on the car trips. This is him "reading" one of his favorite books on the way back.

Chance and Ashton watching the infamous "Caillou" together. One of the rare occasions during the trip that Chance wasn't bullying the other kids. :(

Ashton, Chance and Emmy taking in the view from the Gondola ride.

Check out Jeff and Chance's moon boots. Pretty sweet, huh?

Jeff and Chance on the gondola.

Chance playing in the snow with the kiddos. Jeff taught Chance how to have a snowball fight.

2009-03-07T21:49:00.002-07:00

Long Lost Blogging

I normally hate when people don't blog forever and then do 3-4 posts in one sitting. (Sorry to those of you that do that). I've just been so busy that I haven't updated in a month so I'm trying to catch up. Jeff and I had a wonderful Valentine's/Birthday Weekend a while back. Since my birthday is the 16th, we usually don't do anything big on the 14th. We decided just to spend time as a family and went up to SLC to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. Chance had a blast and loved exploring everything. On our way home we stopped and got Chinese food (a Valentine's tradition) and then just hung out at home that night.

Then for my birthday Jeff went all out and surprised me with reservations to La Caille -- a super fancy, schmancy restaurant also in SLC. We had a lot of fun going out and feeling posh, but I doubt we'll EVER go again. Thanks to a recent bonus Jeff got though I didn't have to stress TOO much about the astronomical cost of our meal. It was so thoughtful and I loved spending time with Jeff without Chance around.
Jeff and I at La Caille. Doesn't Jeff clean up well? He looked so snazzy.

Jeff and Chance in the real life-flight helicopter at the museum.

Chance playing at the water-works portion of the museum. Probably his favorite part.

Earlier in the day on Valentine's. I guess I shouldn't be surprised Chance dumped out all the ranch when I wasn't looking. Shame on me.

2009-02-07T09:45:00.002-07:00

For some reason it won't let me write on top of the first picture again...Hmmm. Maybe I need some blogger lessons. Anyway, this is pretty much what's been going on the last few weeks. Chance LOVES to color now. And not just in his coloring book - on the table, on the walls, on bills, etc. You get the idea. It's typical, I know but frustrating. All I can say is thank goodness for the invention of the magic eraser!

Chance's first Oreo! He loved it...and dipping it in milk too.

At the car wash....this is actually waiting in line. It took forever last week. I was surprised how much Chance liked the car wash. He was so fascinated by it. I thought he might get a little scared, but not him...he just kept looking around and being curious.

He couldn't resist using his ketchup as Indian war-paint this day. He kept dipping his finger in it and drawing lines on his face. Cute, but very messy.

Our little Jazz Fan. Ok...well, I guess it's really too early to tell if he's a true fan or not since he's forced to wear what we put on him, but he does enjoy watching games at times and bouncing/throwing balls with dad. Jeff is so proud.

As for our little girl...things seem to be going well. She moves a lot and it's hard to believe on the one hand that I'm already 24 weeks along and yet I still have 16 weeks to go. It seems so far away. But, we have a lot to get in order first, so I guess it's good we have time. I keep thinking we've decided on the name Sophie and then Jeff goes and takes it back and says he isn't sure. I know this name has become really popular the last few years, but I have loved it since I was 12 years old and I'm not sure I can give it up...There are other names I like but they have all been vetoed by Jeff, so I think...Sophie it is!

2009-01-23T13:19:00.002-07:00

For those of you I didn't text or call this morning, we found out this morning that Chance is going to have a....................little sister!!!! We're very excited first and foremost that as far as they can tell everything looks perfect with her growth and development with brain, heart, kidneys, legs, etc. I'm also excited that we will now have one of each - a boy and a girl. I feel a bit nervous because I've heard how boys are so much easier to raise than girls, but I know that if I never had a girl I would have felt a sense of missing out on something in the future. I know that moms and daughters generally have a closer relationship when they're older!

Anyway, any hand-me-downs you don't want would be appreciated as we have NO girl stuff!

2009-01-18T21:02:00.002-07:00

Cast your vote!

Friday is the official day I have my ultrasound and find out what we're having! I can't believe I'm already 21 weeks along. This pregnancy is going by way faster than Chance's. So, cast your vote and let me know if you think I'm having a boy or girl...I will post this weekend on what in fact we are having!

2009-01-12T22:43:00.003-07:00

I don't know why this is being jacked up, but it won't let me edit text ABOVE the picture. Anyway, here is a picture of Chance and his friend Kaitlyn dancing on our bench. I should say though that it is a love-hate relationship between these two. One minute they're hugging, sharing toys and laughing and the next minute one of them is beating up on the other.

Gone, Daddy, Gone...

We've sure missed Jeff this past week. He was gone from Thursday to Sunday in Anaheim for work and leaves again this Wednesday until Sunday for Orlando. It definitely gives me a new appreciation for when he is around. I guess I forget how much he helps me out. Don't worry, I've kept myself pretty busy with taking care of Chance, work and of course YW stuff. I don't even have enough time to be lonely because I'm so busy. I guess that's a good thing.

So, last time I blogged about how sweet it was that Chance would snuggle with me and how much I LOVED it. That is still true...as long as his favorite 'Cars' pillow isn't involved. If I try to lay my head next to his on the pillow, he pushes me away and says, "mine". I can lay on a different pillow next to him, but not his "Cars" pillow.

Jeff came home at noon on Sunday and of course wanted to see Chance right away. We snuck in on him napping and found him like this. How on earth to kids sleep this way?? He didn't even make a peep and slept for another 2 1/2 hours after this was taken.

On the rare occasion I let Chance out in the snow, he just eats it up. Not literally, but he loves it so much and says, over and over again, "snow", "snow".

He's also been heard saying, "show" (for Cars, of course), "bob-bob" (for Spongebob), "snat" (for snack), "snapt" (for snap - when we snap his pj's), "choo choo" (obvious), "go" (referring to his cars), "i got you" (if we're playing tag), "boap" (boat) and "boop" (book). And yes, I do notice the problem with substituting final /k/ sounds. I hope this doesn't continue too much longer or else I'll have to get worried! Anyway...those are the most recent although he says a bunch of other things too, but I think it's so cute. I just love it.

2009-01-02T12:53:00.002-07:00

Christmas Break

It's been a good break this year. I can't believe it's almost over and I have to go back to work...YUCK! Once we got over Chance's eardrum bursting, we've had lots of fun just hanging around at home and visiting family. I love my new camera as is evident with all these fun pics!

I guess laundry baskets are only fun if there is no laundry in them to be folded?

Chance thinks he's such a big boy. He wants to be just like his daddy. We had to buy a new drill this week because Jeff's been doing such manly work around the house that the drill burned out. :(

This is pretty much how we've spent the last week. Chance has become quite the snuggler as of late. I LOVE it. It could have something to do with the fact that he recently became obsessed with the movie Cars and wants to watch it EVERYDAY. Kids are so funny. I think we've seriously watched it 10+ times in the last week.

Grandma Jay made this cute blanket for Chance (actually, she did a special one for all the grandkids) that has bugs on it since we all call him "Chancey Bug". He loves it now.

Snuggling with dad this time.

2009-01-02T12:47:00.002-07:00

New Year's Eve at Gigi's

New Year's Eve also happens to be Gigi's birthday, so we try to make it to her house if we can every year. Happy Birthday Gigi!!

Gigi made us all go out of the house at midnight to light sparklers. We were all bums and didn't want to because it was soo cold, but it was worth it. Chance had a great time. I cannot believe he stayed up until 12:30 that night!!

Chance didn't quite get the hang of blowing on the horn, but he tried.

Gigi also bought a disco-ball. We turned out all the lights and turned on some music. All the kids had fun rockin' out at the dance party! Chance pretty much just spun around in circles until he was dizzy and fell over. My kind of dancer!

2008-12-25T12:23:00.002-07:00

Christmas at the Nemelka's

What a Christmas it has been so far. First off, Tuesday night was TERRIBLE to say the least. Chance went down at 8:30 after having several nights up until 10:00 or later. He went right to sleep and stayed that way until 11:30 (right as we were getting ready to sleep). Then, our nightmare began. He was literally up ALL NIGHT crying and whining and would not sleep at all. I gave him ibuprofen around 1:00 and he slept from about 2:30-4:30. That was it! We finally put him in his crib at 7:00, shut the door and let him cry on an off until 8:30 because we needed some sleep. Anyway...that morning at 9:00 I finally decided to take his temperature and of course he had a fever. Needless to say we took him to the doctor. Turns out he had an ear infection that came on too fast and his eardrum burst!!! Broke our hearts. No wonder he couldn't sleep. The doctor said that although it's not ideal to have the eardrum burst, it's not likely to cause permanent hearing loss, but I guess we'll see.

So all of yesterday was spent doping him up on ibuprofen and snuggling. He wouldn't eat or sleep and only drank a little bit. Finally, he started feeling better around dinner-time and we had a great time with Grandpa Roger here. I made a turkey, complete with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn. It was pretty yummy if I do say so myself!

Chance slept last night for 13 hours straight and did not make one peep -- he must have been so worn out from the night before. Anyway, he felt great waking up and our fun began opening presents. I have to say that Chance was in hog-heaven!! He got trains, trucks, Caillou paraphernalia and clothes. He's spent the entire morning playing happily with all of them.

I also might add that Jeff surprised me with a new (smaller) camera that I've been wanting forever! I LOVE our big Canon and I really do see the advantages of it, but it's such a pain putting the lens on that I never use it. Hopefully I will be a better picture taker now!

One of my other favorite gifts is a very nicely published, bound Autobiography of my Grandpa (the one who made Chance the rocking horse). I love reading his stories from childhood and seeing the old pictures. Life really was so different then. My Grandpa has always been someone I really look up to and admire. He's a hard worker who loves the gospel and his family! Thanks for saving all those memories!

Here are just a couple of pictures (I need a bigger memory card for the camera) from this morning. Hopefully more will come soon!

Chance definitely gets to idea of unwrapping presents now!

Here is a "crayola" keyboard with big keys that Jeff got him. You really can hook it up to the computer and it works! Chance has been dragging it around all morning.

Here is a truck that Linda bought for him. She's so good to him :)

As for the grown-ups...things are going well. Jeff got his 37" flat screen tv that has been successfully mounted on the wall. I feel a bit like I live in a sports bar the way he's got it hung up, but we'll let him have it his way...at least for a bit!

My pregnancy is going well so far although at my appointment yesterday they said I have some bacteria in my urine so now I have to be on antibiotics so it doesn't turn into a kidney infection and potentially cause pre-term labor! YIKES. I never had any of this with Chance. One more reason I'm inclined to think this baby is a girl. My ultrasound appt in on January 23rd, so I will let you all know then if it is a boy or girl.

2008-12-15T22:32:00.002-07:00

How long has it been since I blogged? My mom is begging for new updates, but unfortunately I have no pictures of Chance. Things are hectic and crazy...but isn't everyone feeling that way right now? I'm sure most of you heard of our fortunate windfall at Jeff's Christmas party. Out of 1500 employees, Jeff was called up to win a prize. Granted it was Disney on Ice Tickets, but I was happy...in 4 years this was the first time his name had been called, so I had nothing to complain about. But then Jeff runs up on stage like he's straight out of The Price Is Right and they offer him a chance to dance in front of everyone for $500 cash! Of course he took the offer and was a dancin' fool. Thanks NuSkin!!!

Other than that, Chance is just growing like a weed and learning so many new words. He loves, loves, loves Caillou, trains, busses, meowing like a cat and reading books. I don't know where he got this from, but Instead of saying "Santa" he says, "ho, ho" (I think Jeff taught him 'ho, ho, ho' and it stuck).

I also love it because all the time now he asks, "you kay"? I had the stomach flu last week and as I'm laying on the couch feeling like I'm about to DIE...he comes up right in my face and asks me about 4 times in a row, "you kay, you kay, etc"? Sooo Cute!

Of course he is a pro at saying "NO" as well...all the time and honestly...it's not so cute, but I love when he says, "YES" in his little voice. He's only my baby for 5 more months. It's going to be so weird!

Hopefully I'll have some pictures to go with after Christmas. Happy Holidays!

2008-12-04T09:58:00.002-07:00

I have been playing around with a program called After Effects. The Photo Shop of video. I made it a goal to make a ipod commercial. Here is 9 seconds of that goal.

2008-11-14T10:28:00.002-07:00

Mommy Advice

I just have to share this info with everyone. It's about this little "miracle in a tube" ointment called "Calmoseptine". Chance has never had been pretty lucky in the diaper rash department. He generally has no issues there and if it looks even the slightest bit red, I put Vasoline or Balmex on quickly to take care of it. However, a week or so ago he had a few days of pretty runny poop that caused him to get this horrible, red, blistery looking diaper rash. NOTHING worked to clear it up. However, I talked to my friend Sherry who introduced me to this cream that her pediatrician recommended. She let me borrow it and the rash was honestly 90% cleared up in 24 hours. You can get it at the pharmacy counter but you DON'T need a prescription. It only costs about $6.50 and it amazing! If any of you have diaper rash needs...this is the ointment for you. I know Walmart and Rite-Aid have it for sure. Don't go to Smith's though...then you'd have to special order it. Just had to share the info with everyone!

2008-11-08T01:13:00.006-07:00

1,000 wins! I love it. Although, on the KJZZ channel when they asked Sloan what games stick out, he said some games do and they were games they lost. I'm sure he was thinking of the game the Refs took away from us to glorify #23.

He has been with the Jazz forever longer then any coach in any sport!

When he started as the coach My Uncle Dave Nemelka was tired of me playing with toys and started taking me to Jazz games and letting me know in my Uncles loving way that I was too old for He-Man.

His plan worked and I am still obsessed with the Jazz! I would love to watch them bring home a championship. I hate parades, but I would be at that one in SLC. I would even take a few days off of work to make sure Chance and me didn't miss out on any celebrations. I really hope this is our year before Larry Miller passes away. He isn't doing so hot health wise. He has kept the Jazz here and in his own stadium people boo him. That makes me mad. "I know that guy"!

2008-11-01T22:36:00.002-06:00

Down and Out

Oh man...these past few weeks have honestly kicked my booty. Pregnancy has really gotten to me. It's like I'm Night of the Living Dead. I'm a zombie. I can't force myself to stay awake by the evening. It hasn't helped either that because I'm pregnant and tired and run down that I've gotten this horrible, good for nothing cold that WILL NOT leave me. We're buds now, I guess. I do pretty well in the mornings but by 3:30 I'm toast. I just get so nauseated and tired. It's hard too because I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water in every aspect of my life. It's hard not to feel like I'm failing as a mom, wife, YW leader, teacher, etc. It's pretty depressing. The hormones don't help either.

Jeff was also non-existent as a husband/dad for a good 2-3 weeks because of work. He was literally gone until midnight or LATER when he was in town and then he was out of town for 4 days. UGH. I wouldn't never want to be a single mom -- so hard.

On top of all of this our dishwasher broke. Man do I miss my rental days. Homeownership is hard work! Another unplanned expensive purchase, but that's life, right? Thankfully, we have a totally awesome plumber-for-a-brother-in-law who comes to our rescue when needed! Thanks so much to Sid and Gigi for all their charity work on our little family!!! Here are some pictures of Chance for your enjoyment! It's sad to think he's only my baby for 7 more months! Oh...I had my first dr appointment and so far so good. Got to see the heartbeat on the ultrasound. Lookin' Good!

I had to make sugar cookies and frosting for a YW activity...Chance got to enjoy the fruits of my labor. He loved it of course.

So, one night I just didn't have the energy or mental resources to think of anything for dinner and Jeff was out of town. So, we ate popcorn for dinner. Hopefully no one thinks less of my parenting skills.

This is quite the dichotomy of a picture. Boy in pink pajamas with truck. Let me explain. I had parent teacher conferences one of the nights Jeff was out of town and I had to stay at work until 8pm. Jeff's mom was nice enough to watch him the whole day and took him to Jeff's sister's house for a b-day party. Of course I didn't think to pack pj's so Holli was nice enough to lend him her little girl's so I could just put him in bed when he got home. It was nice since he had fallen asleep on the car ride home. This was the next morning. Good thing Jeff wasn't there to witness it.

Chance now eats with a spoon all by himself all the time and usually does a pretty good job. I guess this time the yogurt got the best of him. He sure knows how to pose for the camera though.

2008-10-21T22:07:00.002-06:00

Binky-Free!

This little, green, unassuming piece of plastic has been my child's life-line since the day he was born. I, like all pre-mom moms shouted claims of "my child will never use a binky" -- yeah right is all I can say. Since day one, Chance LOVED to suck his binky. And honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. It helped him so much as a newborn. He was an angel baby once the binky was in tow.

So of course I swore that by age 1 he'd be off and then I said...well, "the pediatrician said she recommends by 15 months" - I pushed it back to then with the rule that he could only have it while he's sleeping. So, it's been 4 months or so of that and then, I thought, "well, 18 months for sure and I'll take him off...after the wedding trip (we needed it for the plane). So, Chance turned 18 months yesterday and I'm proud to say he is officially off the binky. And truthfully, it wasn't bad at all. I had nightmares about taking him off, but he did great. I tried taking it off at nap time first - he cried for an hour an a half. Then we waited two more days and just tried it at night. He was so tired that he only cried for 10 minutes and then was knocked out for the whole night! And it's been 4 nights w/o a problem! Naps are a little bit harder for him, but overall he's doing great. Yay Chance!!

2008-10-15T19:48:00.002-06:00

Wedding Pics
(see post below FIRST)

Matt and Shanna had the right idea...cut the cake FIRST so you can actually serve it at the reception. We cut ours towards the end and wasted sooo much!

In usual Chance style, he warmed up to the family quickly. He would run right up to Matt and let him hold him. He was a party animal at the reception. Chance danced the night away and put on a show for all the guests.

Shanna looked beautiful! I loved her dress.

A cute-patootie picture of Chance that Matt's groomsman caught on camera. My handsome little bug!

2008-10-15T19:39:00.002-06:00

Matt and Shanna
October 11, 2008

We recently got back from Hermitage, PA where Matt and Shanna got married. It was a great trip for us...too short of course, but really great nonetheless. It was great to see a bunch of our extended family that I hadn't seen in years as well as to share in the joy of Matt's Wedding! Shanna is a sweetheart and will be a wonderful sister-in-law.

Mom and Chance in the hotel. Chance did great on the plane ride...despite my concerns. He did well with sleeping in the hotel room once we finally were done in the evenings. The problem was a lot of late nights though. He didn't go to bed before 11 or 12 any night we were there. And we had to rig the room all ghetto style with a sheet draped over an upright lamp to keep him "blocked off" from the rest of the room. Overall though, he was a good traveler.

Matt and his groomsmen as Shanna walked down the aisle.

Chance might be a good traveler, but he was NOT a good ring bearer -- he walked 1/3 of the way and then got distracted and wouldn't walk. So...mom had to assist him down the aisle. He was so cute in his little suit though...Thanks Jess!

2008-10-07T21:16:00.000-06:00

Truth Be Told

So...the BIG announcement is this...YES, I'm pregnant! I've managed to tell quite a few people already, but for those who don't know, I thought you might want to. I'm still really early -- 6 1/2 weeks and I know it's kind of taboo to tell people until your in the "safe" zone, but aside from the fact that I'm a blabbermouth and simply CANNOT keep a secret of this magnitude to myself, I do have a philosophy about telling people early. First of all, with my first pregnancy, we didn't tell anyone and all that happened was I ended up having to call our families from the ER around midnight to inform them I had to have emergency surgery to remove the ectopic pregnancy. That sure was fun...NOT. I came to the conclusion that if something were to happen to this pregnancy, people would find out anyway...anyone close to me at least would know because I'd be out sick from work, needing help, depressed, etc. Secondly, when you're exhausted beyond belief and feel like ralphing every 5 minutes, it's kind of nice to have people know that there is some legitimacy to your vacant behavior.

So, there it is. My philosophy in a nutshell. And the reason for officially announcing it. If posting it on a blog can coun't as being "official". I'll know more at my first appt on the 27th, but after 3 different blood draws, they have pretty much ruled out an ectopic pregnancy again. Yay. I know that nothing is for sure and I hope and pray things are ok, but I know that if it isn't, I will be fine.

In the meantime, I am pretty much freaking out because holy cow I'm having another kid! Chance and the baby will be 2 years, 1 month apart and as much as this was planned and I want them close together, it seems so fast. It will be great, I know, but being a parent is never easy and I'm scared at the prospect of doing it all over again. I just love Chancey so much and I hope I'm not jinxing our perfect little family.

With that being said, I'm ending this little ramble of mine. I will let you all know how it goes in a few weeks!

2008-10-04T08:32:00.002-06:00

My Latest Obsession

When Chance was born over a year ago and I was up at 6 am, deliriously tired and without a schedule yet, I was obsessed with watching this show...

Then, last Christmas break when I had two weeks off from school, I began watching this show and had a month long obsession.

Then...over the summer Jeff and I got into this show.

And now...my latest obsession. Prison Break. It's got the intensity of 24 with a much more attractive leading actor. I'm totally hooked on it. Jeff is so sick of it he could die...although he does get hooked as well when he walks into the room and will actually sit down and watch with me. Only one more season to go and then I'm caught up! So...this may be the reason for my lack of blogging entries lately.

2008-09-18T22:24:00.001-06:00

Free Rice

This website it totally legit and should be utilized. It's easy and you don't have to sign up. Just go to www.freerice.com and start answering questions. You earn 20 grains of rice per correct answer that is donated through the UN to countries in need. Can't hurt to play a bit if you're just fooling around on the internet anyway, right?

2008-09-16T23:58:00.006-06:00

I walked on the Moon! -Brian Regan

When it comes to Presidential Candidates. I read on Facebook and hear it at work:
"... sick of the political views of the uninformed." or "they are only voting for Obama because he is popular, I asked them if they know about this, and this. They don't know!"

My favorite part is no one explains what "this is"... They just want to look cool and belittle people.

After going to presidential candidates websites, watching them on CNN | FoxNews | youtube.

Where would you suggest for someone to go get informed? or where else can you go? I encourage instead of belittling and trying to look cool. Freaking share your wealth of source if you have some. Drop the knowledge instead of your coolness.

I'm not being a smarty pants. You never know how people will take you when they read things.

I like to look at awesome presidents like Abe. If he was around everyone would have been shouting he was a flip flopper (maybe they did). How many times do we hear that, with the current candidates? Here is an example with Abe.

Letter he wrote to Horace Greeley, an editor of the New York Tribune
"If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also so that" -August, 1862

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it." -April 6, 1859 Letter to Henry Pierce

Abraham Lincoln flip flopped? Depending on the historian they have different reasons why he did that. After all that happened I believe he had pure righteous motives.

Like all politicians, what the crap? There are several awesome quotes about Abe wanting freedom for the Blacks. But, he has some flip flop quotes too. When it comes down to it, we chose the right man but he did tell the North what they wanted to hear. Obviously, the South hated everything about him.

When people say to others they are "getting annoyed with ignorant people", I want to know what makes them more informed? Each candidate is just telling us what we want to hear and they will do what they want in the end anyway. And we are just hoping they have pure motives like Abe.

2008-09-12T17:12:00.002-06:00

Where I've been

So I've pretty much been monopolizing my time with sports lately. I first was completely caught up in all the Olympics hooplah...

and then I was caught up in the U.S. Open Tennis hooplah. I have this addiction to watching the U.S. Open every Labor Day weekend even though I don't follow tennis one bit the rest of the year. I finally feel like I understand most of the rules and enjoy the intensity of it.

And this is just a cute one of our little bug before bedtime watching what else...Caillou!

2008-09-12T17:00:00.002-06:00

At the Zoo

Ok...so I realize that nothing about these two pictures distinguishes us from being at the zoo versus anywhere else, but I thought they were the best we had! Chance loved seeing the animals and it was a good outing for us.

I believe this one was him staring at the gorilla.

Jeff and me being cute.

Hazel and Chance chillin' in the big chair (on Labor Day).

Our friends Josh and Ashley (and Kaitlyn) came over last Sunday for dinner. We had them take a bath together and they sure had fun. I know this isn't a great one of Kaitlyn, but it's the only one that didn't have Chancey's wiener in it! :)

Kaitlyn about to pat Chancey's head.

2008-09-05T11:11:00.004-06:00

Some big wig at Nu Skin left the company. In his big office he left these curtains. "One man trash is another's treasure". i took advantage of this. Since, everyone can see what I'm doing with the horrible layout of my cubical. I now have curtains into my fortress of money making.

I wonder how long this will actually last, before they "the man" ask me to take it down?

Thats what the man sees now!! "Hellooo, MAN."

2008-08-31T22:46:00.005-06:00

You Lazy Blogger You

Ok...I'm being really lazy here. I actually just stole some pictures off of Gigi's blog that had Chance in them because I'm too stinking lazy to grab my camera and get some pictures of our own. So...forgive me. First, I'd like to give a big thanks to everyone's support of Jeff's "kitchen" blog entry. The picture doesn't do it justice. I just love having a normal functioning kitchen again. How did we do it for so long? Other than that, life is rolling along as usual. I'm back at work which definitely has its tough moments, but Chance is once again loving his days at Linda's. I was worried that he might have gotten attached to me over the summer and had a hard time adjusting, but it hasn't phased him one bit and I'm grateful for it. Chance seems to be taking off with saying more words lately too. He's been heard saying "kick", "buh-bye", "dad" (finally...every adult for the past few months has been "mom"), "up", "baby", etc...you get the idea. I just love it.

We recently took Chance to the zoo which he enjoyed a lot. And...if I ever motivate myself to upload the pictures, you'll see them. Otherwise, I'm just busy squeezing in work, family and my church calling. It sure does take a lot of time, but I can attest to the blessings that have already come from it after only 1 month.

Chance in the tub with his cousin, Lexie. Gigi gave Chance a much needed haircut and tub time was in order afterwards to remove the hair. Thanks Gigi...Chance was such a pill during the haircut and you were a trooper!

The fam hanging out at Gigi's house. We finally got to meet Jeff's dad, Roger's girlfriend that night over Chinese Take-out.

2008-08-22T00:05:00.016-06:00

Before Us (This is the type of house you buy when your PO')

This is a photo of the previous owners Style of kitchen

Few days Later after buying this house we noticed it had a moth infestation in this very location!!!

SO I went to the extreme after couple hundred dollars in Bug Men.

I ripped out the cabinets and started spraying all sorts of bug stuff. WAR WAS DECLARED!!! Months later and after a winter of not seeing those horrible annoying during a Jazz playoff game bugs!

WE DECLARED VICTORY! And watch the last Jazz playoffs in peace. Except Chance has turned into the bug.

We went to Lowe's and after much debate and toil, we are now living like normal people with a real kitchen.

to see this VR Movie you will need quicktime & just place your mouse inside the movie and go crazy!

Amanda Showing off her lovely Kitchen

2008-08-12T00:03:00.002-06:00

Once Chance learned how to climb chairs he also learned how to dive off of them. We were able to catch video of this. But this was the last time he has done this that I know of. He must of learned belly flopping onto the ground really isn't that fun.

2008-08-01T11:04:00.002-06:00

Amanda has us listening to the dumbest music in the car now. The idea of a car trip sounds like the worst idea ever so this kids rock CD sounds like a really good idea!!!

2008-07-31T09:04:00.003-06:00

Has anyone else seen this show? This is one of our current favorite shows - courtesy of Blockbuster Online, of course. It is reminiscent of The Office with documentary-style filming and politically incorrect humor. Hilarious. We HIGHLY recommend it!

2008-07-23T16:17:00.007-06:00

Carl Alois and Helene Elizabeth Lucas Nemelka

On nemelkafamily one of my far distant cousin Tony does an amazing job of keeping all of us together in a big database. I thought I would take the opportunity to follow my Nemelka name line as far back as I could on Tony's cool Flash program. I found Chancy's and my great Grandpa names and birthdays.

Vaclav Nemelka 1659

Antonin Nemelka 1707

Josef Nemelka 1738

Johann Georg Nemelka 1772

Martin Nemelka 1805

Adolf Nemelka 1839

(Adolf died a Catholic)

Carl Alois Nemelka 1877
(I believe Carl became the 1st member of the LDS faith in my line they "of Czech and German descent respectively, emigrated from Germany to Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. in 1909")

Nephi Alma Nemelka 1911

Roger Nephi Nemelka 1943
Jeffrey Roger Nemelka 1979

Chance William Nemelka 2007

Kind of funny to think if you go that far and it's a ways but not to Adam. Vaclav after looking at all his posterity wouldn't care to remember our names. That’s a lot of freaking people. For self-Esteem sakes I hope he is into posterity.