oh BABY!

I got my newborn fix again today and visited my new niece. Rebecca and Jake seem to be doing quite well and surviving the sleepless nights. And it's a good thing Rebecca's so sweet or I would have smacked her for wearing her size 4 jeans a WEEK after giving birth. And she had the nerve to complain she still had a muffin top.... !!!!

Here are some photos from my last two visits.

Little milk mustache

I love this face!

The one and only shot of her with her eyes open!

I loved watching Jake oogle over his daughter. It was so sweet I had to capture a shot. Good thing he thought I was just taking a picture of his little girl!

Becca trying to wake her up for a feeding. She passed the biliruben test today with a 10 thanks to a lot of work from her Mom and Dad. Phew!

LOVE these toes! So little....

I could have sat here all day.... I was in heaven.

Congratulations, Becca and Jake. You guys sure know how to make a cute baby. I may have to take her away for a few days. :)

No Rednecks Here No Mo'

Just wanted to drop in and let ya'll know that the Christmas tree is officially down. My big sister didn't want to be associated with a redneck so she pretty much took everything down herself, bless her heart.  Kidding, kidding.  About her being embarrassed by me. Not about how she did it all. That part is totally true.

We also got some overhead garage storage installed today and Kyle is currently putting up our enormous amount of food storage as we speak. At last. You would think with a 3 car garage we'd fit ONE car in there. Well, now with this, we'll be able to fit two. Shocker. PS  If you don't have food storage, you should get some. Shelf Reliance food is yummy. A few months ago, Cade discovered his new favorite cereal was Special K with the strawberries. Well, now I have my own dehydrated strawberries that we can put in any healthy cereal I want and he loves it. Yay.

Last night I got to hold my new niece for the first time and fell in LOVE. She is so sweet. So perfect!!!  I can't wait to go over and hold her again. There is something so magical and heavenly about a fresh new baby from heaven.

Earlier this week I returned home from smelling that Sweet Virginia Breeze.... It was a wonderful time going back to Virginia. Very relaxing. (I went alone!) I had to of course get my antique store fix. Conveniently my dear friend Jessica lives like a mile away from a HUGE strip of Antique stores. Kyle gave me a hard time about one of the pieces I brought back (a little quilt in a picket fence frame) because have I hung any pictures up in our new house? Nope. So why am I bringing in more stuff to sit on the office floor and not hang up? Because I NEEDED it. Besides, I'll let it sit in the living room. Not the office. :)

Virginia was great and I was reminded how blessed I am to have such great friends who have stood the test of time. When I am feeling good, I'm going to get my camera out of my suitcase that I have yet to unzip and unpack (going on like day 4 of being home now...oops) and post pictures of the memories. They were good ones.

The kids are doing well. Cade just had his 100th day of school today. In preparation for the big day, he was given an assignment to do 100 of something as an amazing feat, and then draw a picture of it.  I tried to get him to run up and down the stairs 100 times but he didn't take the bait.  He decided to count 100 pieces of cereal. He chose the Marshmallow Mateys (you know-- the off brand of Lucky Charms?) . He managed to get about 97 marshmallows and 3 pieces of cereal.  Needless to say he was very proud to have picked out the good stuff. He made sure to put all the marshmallows in a plastic bag to eat for a snack.  Of course Savannah was TICKED when Daddy poured her cereal yesterday morning to find no marshmallows. Cade thought it was pretty funny.

Well, time for me to hit the hay. Really, pictures are coming. I swear. In the mean time, have a good night. :)

Among other things: the Inversion, a Birthday, and missing Mayberry....

Some January happenings in our little world....

* Poor Cade has been so used to changing schools I am afraid I have permanently scarred him. The other day I got him out of class a few minutes early so he could stand in line with me to sign up for an after-school club. He was confused about leaving with me early and I said, "remember that new class we were talking about at dinner last night?"  Then he said, "Oh yeah!  Let me tell everyone goodbye and that I'll miss them."  At first I thought it was cute he wanted to tell his classmates goodbye for the day, and then I realized he thought he was saying good bye for good; that his new "class" after school, would be a new school altogether.  Bless his heart.

* While we love our new home and neighborhood, we do miss Mayberry and all the little friends Cade had over there. We had an unexpected surprise visit from our Mayberry neighbors the other night (they brought DINNER! the ultimate gift.) and Cade was on cloud nine.

* My Christmas tree is still up. It really needs to come down. I am dangerously approaching the redneck time frame of post- Christmas enjoyment of holiday decor.

* We got our first utility bills since we moved in here. Kyle asked me to not tell him how much the bills are anymore and just pay them quietly. We have a gadget sitting in our kitchen window that tells us how much we are paying in energy per minute. I now call it Kyle's stress-o-meter.

* I'm SO ready for blue skies. I can't take the gray fog Utah is sitting under right now. I hate the inversion. Hate is a strong word, but I do. In the past whenever I thought of Utah,  blue skies and snow-capped mountains would come to mind.  Now I can hardly see the mountains.....I'm really starting to feel for the Seattle-ites.

* Savannah turned 3!  She spent the last several weeks in serious deliberation of what she wanted to do to celebrate. Her party of choice went from Pirate Island, to Kangaroo Zoo, to roller skating, then finally bowling. We met my sisters and the cousins at BYU, a classic choice for bowling fun. Savannah got distracted during the second game and Cade and Kyle happily took turns bowling on her behalf. It was a lot of fun.

* Savvy was so spoiled for her birthday from extended family, it took me until Saturday to realize I hadn't given her the presents from Kyle and I.  That actually proved beneficial because she and Cade spent all day Saturday playing with her new roller skates. Cade "taught" her how to skate on the carpet.  And if any of you have ever skated in those roller skates for preschoolers, it's really just walking.  It was adorable though because Savannah thought she was amazing! She could go backwards and, get this-- even JUMP. Cade was a pretty proud coach.

* I think Savvy's completely potty trained. She's been asking to wear big girl underwear the last several weeks (months maybe?), and I finally gave in. She has done quite well. No accidents. Could it be?! I highly recommend the "wait until they want it--and then make them wait just a little more" method. It has been quite painless.

* Kyle has really enjoyed making use out of our extra space in this home. He's hosted 2 (or 3?) football parties, and has made use of our guest room a handful of times already. I finally resurrected the chocolate fountain that has been in storage for months which was a lot of fun. The completely bizarre thing? I have not been uptight or clean-freakish each time we've hosted something. I am learning to let things go. This is a first for me. (I realize this can be camouflaging laziness into thinking I'm just not sweating the small stuff. So for now, let's just say I'm letting the unimportant things go).

*Yesterday I received a calling to serve as Secretary in the Primary. While sitting in sharing time yesterday, I was pretty shocked at how reverent Cade was, especially when a girl got up and read her 10 minute talk (a 4 page story out of the Friend magazine. No joke). At the end of class he came up to me and growled, "Mom, I'm ANGRY! That scripture was SO LONG!"  I laughed and agreed. I'll be sure to remind the parents it's just a 2 minute talk.

* Pictures of Christmas, New Years, Savvy's birthday, and the newly tiled bathroom..... I promise. Stay tuned.

Another Rite of Passage

Back in 11th grade I remember my English teacher Mrs. Wallace talking about trials by fire, rites of passage and other examples of symbolism found in literature. She taught that often times when a character is going through a rite of passage, the author will mention a liquid of some sort or water as part of the experience so that it is almost like a literal baptism.

As parents, there's an abundance of experiences and moments we triumph over, laugh or cry over, learn from, and some times just simply endure. Some experiences bring you to a different level -- The Parental Rites of Passage. It could be the first time you change a poopy explosion which occurred conveniently on a very nice white fabric couch at a neighbor's house, or the first time you are up all night with a sick child, or the first time a child pukes on your face. Each rite brings you to a a different level of appreciation-- for your own parents, and for your children.

After sending Cade to kindergarten this past fall, I found myself sailing pretty calmly through life as a parent and no other significant Rites of Passage. My children play, sleep, eat, talk, and Savvy is quasi-potty-trained. Anything we experience with her, we've already gone through before with Cade. Nothing major going on here.

Until last week.

We spent all day in Salt Lake picking out tile for a bathroom we are renovating. It was a long day-- especially for the kids. We left the house at about 9am and finally left Salt Lake around 5. The ride home took significantly longer than planned due to poor road conditions (by the way-- what is up with the unplowed roads in Utah? Don't they budget for this stuff? ). At about 6:20 Cade started whimpering. He had to go potty. Traffic was moving slow, we were getting closer to home, but it was still going to be at least another 20 minutes, which was too long for him to wait. We didn't know how long it would take to get off at an exit to go to a gas station. Then I had an idea. He's a boy. There was an empty Gatorade bottle at my feet. I thought, why not? Better than pulling over to the side of the road and Cade freezing his tushie off. Literally. Kyle was pretty shocked I initiated the idea.

It didn't seem complicated. Boys have an easier time aiming than little girls do. How hard would it be, especially if I was holding the bottle, for Cade to relieve himself in that little Gatorade bottle?

Well, very hard, it turns out.

Not two milliseconds after Cade pulled down his pants did I find my eyes, nose, and MOUTH (mind you, my mouth was open) dripping with....

echhhh....pee.

Disgusting does not even begin to describe it.

I wanted to throw up. Kyle was laughing. Cade chided me by saying, "Mom, you need to pay more attention."

Well, Mrs. Wallace, I think this one definitely qualifies as a Rite of Passage, wouldn't you agree?

out of the mouths of babes

Just some stuff my kids have been saying that I don't want to forget....

A prayer given by Savannah:
"...And please bless my hair that it won't be ragga."  (as in ragamuffin)

From a prayer given by Cade

"...Bless Savannah that she won't be mean."

Cade to Savannah:
"Savannah, I know what you need to do the next time Tyler is mean to you!  Hold out your hand and say 'Stop! I have the power of God!'  And then God will shock him."

Savannah to the video camera when asked what her name is:
"Savannah Lee Woodbury dot com."

Cade, after being put to bed about 30 minutes prior,
"Mom, I have an emergency."
Me: "What's up?"
"I need to talk to you about something very important.  Melody told me she's not allergic to dogs OR puppies. Only cats and kitties. So that means we can get a DOG!!!"

Dang. She blew my one and only excuse that he was buying to not get one....