The week of Jeremy

I am going to stray from my usually bragging about my children this week, so if the only reason you read the blog is to see their cute faces you may want to check back next week.  This week was all about this Guy:

I had to sneak and try to take a picture of him because he is not a fan of having his picture taken, but he looked so handsome, I just couldn't resist.

Yesterday was Jeremy's birthday.  In the grand scheme of things, it will not go down as the best birthday ever.  He had to spend the day playing catch-up for school (more on this in a moment) and we gave him much needed slippers and clothes, the kiss of death, for his gifts.  He and I did get to go out to dinner last night, but all in all it was a less than stellar day.  Of course Jeremy was very sweet about it and said that he thought it was a great birthday.  He likes to spare my feelings.

So the reason he was so behind (and still is if I am being honest) with school is that every possible minute of this last week was spent working on his capstone.  The capstone is the law school equivalent to a thesis paper and the first draft of his was due on Friday.  With the exception of Monday, he did not go to school all week, but just stayed home and wrote and wrote.  Thankfully, Friday at 5pm, he turned it in and we returned to normal(ish) life.

I know Jeremy questions his/our decision to go to law school everyday.  He worries constantly about finding a job and providing for our family, but I want to take this opportunity to publicly tell him how proud I am of him.  He has accomplished things over the last two and a half years that I did not even know he was capable of (and that is saying a lot because I think he is pretty awesome).

When we were deciding about school and wondering if it was worth it since he would be 31 when he finished, a few people said "well he is going to be 31 either way so he can either be 31 with a law degree or without one".  He is now 31 and the law degree is just a few months away and that is pretty exciting.

Half Birthday and a Little Trauma

This week somehow Carrigan turned six-months-old.  All week long I had planned to blog about this milestone event and I still intend to, however, my heart is also sad today because of several things that have transpired within the last 24 hours.  While I don't feel like it is my place to talk about some of them, I do want to mention poor little Lincoln.

Yesterday evening Becca called me in an absolute panic, said Ben was not home and Lincoln had burned himself, and asked if I would come over.  When I got there the situation was not looking good.  Lincoln had reached up on the counter and poured a bowl of boiling hot ramen down his body.  Ben got there shortly thereafter and Becca and Ben rushed Linc to the E.R.  On the way there things got even worse.  Lincoln began vomiting, was having difficulty breathing, and had become lethargic.  It was very scary and intense for a while, but ultimately they got him stabilized enough to be transported to a children's hospital, where they are now.  They are not terribly concerned about his burns, but more so about the other reactions he was having.  Initially they thought he was in shock and had some type of seizure, but have now decided it was an allergic reaction.  They are not sure if it was caused by something in the ramen, the egg whites we put on him to help his burns (a terrible idea by the way), or if he got into the trail mix Quincy was eating.  They will be at the hospital at least one more night and we all send our love, prayers, and concern their way.

Now back onto a much lighter subject, CC's half birthday.  How is this possible?  I have a very hard time believing this and yet that is what the calendar says.  Over these last six months she has been such a joy to our family and can light up the whole room with her beautiful smile and huge dimples.  I honestly don't know how we lived without her.

Here are a few of Carrigan's biggest highlights at 6 months:
-She has started sitting(ish).  She will sit for a few seconds on her own, but has no protective extensions when she starts to fall.  She starts tipping and that is it, she is a goner.
-If she sees something she wants, she will get it.  Whether is it my hair, Merrick's cars,our faces, or even on occasion one of her toys, if she sets her eye on something, she will wiggle, roll, and scoot her way over to it and immediately shove it into her mouth.  I am sure crawling is not far behind.
-She continues to love her tongue, she has always loved to stick out her tongue, but over the last few days it has been out constantly.  Happy, sad, or in between, that silly little tongue is sticking out.  I am actually wondering if it may be because she is getting a tooth, but only time will tell.
-She also loves to suck on her fingers.  Most often it is pointer and middle finger, but sometimes it is just the pointer and sometimes it is all five (or ten if she gets really crazy).
-She loves mom, dad, and Merrick.  When we come in after an absence she squeals and kicks her legs as fast and you can imagine.
-She has mixed emotions about strangers.  Sometimes she is super happy and will go to anyone and other time only mommy or daddy will do.
-She loves her jumper and will go in and just bounce away.
-She is still not a great sleeper, she still wakes up every night, but it is now usually just twice rather than 3 or 4 times.
-She has yet to try any solid foods, but we are planning to start her on avocado this week so stay tuned for more on this.

Unfortunately her six-month pictures don't do her justice, but part way through she decided, like last time, she wanted to eat the sticker.  This time the damage was irreparable and that was the end of that.  She still is pretty stinkin' cute.

Halloween 2013

This week was finally Halloween.  I say finally because it was much anticipated around our house.  Merrick pretty much has had a mental countdown clock all month long and this week the clock finally reached zero.  Luckily for Merrick there were plenty of Halloween activities this year and in the end he got to dress-up four different times.

Our first Halloween activity was the trunk or treat that I talked about last week.  Merrick went as Finn McMissile and Carrigan went as a fairy princess.  While Merrick was just warming up, this was actually the only time Carrigan dressed up.  Turns out I did not plan a costume for Carrigan that was particularly warm or comfy so we only inflicted it upon her once (but she did look unbelievably cute!).

Merrick's second and third dress-ups took places at preschool.  Each of our preschool classes had a party this week and since Merrick attends both classes, he got to have two parties.

The final Halloween "event" was trick or treating.  We geared up for our big night out with dinner.  Merrick made a special request for pumpkin pizza.  Unfortunately time got away from me and while we did have pumpkin pizza (mine dairy free of course), I was forced to choose between time spent in execution or time spent trick or treating.  Needless to say, it was not my best work.

Despite the sub-par pumpkin pizza, the night was a success.  We dressed  Merrick up, bundled CC up, and headed out.  Merrick was really good about saying "Happy Halloween" and "thank you", but did have to be reminded to say "trick or treat" and not to actually enter people's houses.  Eventually Carrigan got tired, but Merrick was not quite ready to call it a night so I dropped Merrick and Jeremy off at the end of our street so they could trick or treat their way home and headed home with CC.

By the end of the night everyone was happy, tired, and ready for bed.

Sarah's 30th and So Much More

This has been a busy week around our house.  The craziness began with my thirtieth birthday on Monday.  This was an interesting birthday for me.  Since it was my thirtieth I planned to celebrate it a bit more than usual, but we have entered a stage with Merrick where birthdays are really important to him and he thinks everyone needs to have a birthday party, so I doubly could not ignore it this year.  As I mentioned last week, Jeremy and I went out to celebrate my birthday the Saturday before.  He bought us tickets to see Frank Caliendo at a comedy club downtown.  It was really fun and nice to be able to get out on a rare date night.  On my actual birthday I went out to lunch with my mom, Becca, and Rachel, Jeremy came home early from school with flowers and made us dinner, and we had everyone over for cake.

Things did not slow down on Tuesday.  After school we had our ward primary pumpkin patch.  They have this every year at our former bishop's house.  The kids pick out a pumpkin, make a few crafts, eat way too much junk, and play on the giant swing set in the yard.  Each year I have to pry Merrick away when it is time to go and this year was not any different.

Wednesday was the low point of the week.  After almost a month of visiting from India, we had to say goodbye to my mom.  As we drove away after crying our goodbyes, Jeremy said "So it does not get any easier, huh?"  Let me just say that no, it does not get any easier.

Thursday was a quiet day around here.  With nowhere to run off to and with Jeremy's class being canceled, we decided to decorate our pumpkins.  We did not carve this year but used push ins that my mom gave me when she moved.  I decided I like this approach way better than carving.  It does not make the mess that carving does and Merrick was able to be way more involved than he would have been had knives been involved.  And, as you can see, they turned out adorable (I am also including a picture of our "Merrick" pumpkin that we grew in our yard.  We had a "Carrigan"  pumpkin too but it was dinner for some creature one night...maybe these deer that were in our yard)

Friday was our ward Trunk or Treat.  Merrick went as Finn McMissile from Cars 2 and Carrigan went as a fairy princess.  We picked Merrick's costume up after Halloween last year and Carrigan's fairy wings and tutu came from the dollar store, yet despite the shoe string budget they both looked adorable.  I was just getting ready to put in the pictures, but then I decided to make you wait until next week to see them...I am mean like that.

Finally that brings us to Saturday and the conclusion of my birthday extravaganza.  I told Jeremy that I wanted some new clothes for my birthday and he was super sweet and watched the kids Saturday afternoon so that I could go shopping.  Then, he stepped up with dad duty again that night so that I could go out to dinner and have a girls night with some of my friends.  It was very strange, in a good way, to have a day where I could focus on myself and I am really grateful to Jeremy for making it possible.

Well, that was our week in a nutshell.  It was a whirlwind week to say the least.  Now we head into the holiday season and we all know how busy that time of year is.  I don't see things slowing down anytime soon.

Fall Lite

It has officially been Fall for a few weeks now, but so far the weather has been kind this year.  September was unusually rainy, but October has been unusually dry (and warm).  The last week or so it has been particularly dry and sunny so we decided to take advantage and head to the pumpkin patch, in shorts none the less.

We were a little more restricted in time this year than in years past (Jeremy had to study in the morning and had made plans for my birthday that evening, but more on that next week) so we stayed closer to home and went to Lee Farms just down the road.  None of us had ever been there, but they were doing a Groupon for the corn maze and I had read they had lots of other activities so we decided to give it a shot.

Since we were tight on time, and already had paid in advance, we decided to do the corn maze first.  Initially Merrick was really into it, choosing which way we would go at each fork, but over time his excitement waned and eventually we realized he thought the corn maze was not the activity, but an obstacle to get through in order to get to the activity.  Eventually we did make it out of the maze and Merrick asked if "we could go do the fun part now". 

So on to the fun part we went.  Merrick went on some different slides and on a tractor pull ride and we all enjoyed some fresh apple cider and pumpkin and apple cider doughnuts.  By the time the "fun part" was done, we were all tired and ready to go home.

I was mentioning to Jeremy how we never went to pumpkin patches in Arizona, but it is almost a right of passage into Fall here and it was the perfect day with such un-Fall like weather. 

Look Mom No Training Wheels

Last week we decided to take advantage of a warm, sunny day and headed to the park with the Brown boys and my mom (she is still in town watching Ben and Becca's boys while they are in Italy).  Merrick brought his scooter and Quincy and Colvin brought their bikes.  Colvin was super excited because he recently learned to ride without training wheels and he really wanted to teach Merrick too.

When they presented the idea to me I was hesitant.  Jeremy and I had already talked about it and we had decided that Jeremy would teach him next summer, but the boys were insistent.  Since Jeremy was there I figured they could give it a shot.  I assumed it would not go well and they would quickly move on to something else.

Turns out I was wrong.  On the very first attempt Merrick rode on his own!  Over the next hour or so they practiced over and over again.  Merrick was such a natural and picked it up so quickly.

When Merrick was little I remember writing all the time about how I felt like I was holding him back from things he could do because I was not ready for him to try.  I thought we were past that, but I guess not.  One thing I do know for sure is that riding is hard work.

5-Months Big

This week Carrigan turned five months old.  She is growing so fast I can hardly believe it.  I know I have said it many times before, but I wish I could freeze time and keep her tiny forever.  Alas she has different ideas and proves it by getting bigger and stronger everyday.  Here are a few of the things she has been working on this month:

*Rolling has become second nature.  She effortlessly rolls her little body all around.

*I am increasingly convinced that she could sit on her own if she wanted to.  She is super strong and has good balance, but is way more interested in standing than sitting.

*She loves to stand.

*She knows how to reach for the things she wants and get them directly into her mouth.  Case in point, the picture below when she decided our little photo session was over and it was time for her to remove and eat her sticker.

*She is working on pre-crawling skills by beginning to lift her belly when on her stomach and using her feet to inch herself forward.

*She shows clear preferences for certain people, including her brother.  One of my favorite things that has happened recently it that Merrick has discovered that he can make her laugh and he loves to try.  She clearly loves him and he eats it up.

*She loves to scream and yell (both when when she is happy and mad).

*She loves her tongue.  It is rare to get a smile without it.  Again, see below.

*She is very droolly  (although not as droolly as Merrick was).  Combine that with the fact that she has decided she likes to spit and it makes for a very wet baby most of the time.

This is nothing new, but she is such a joy and blessing to our family.  We could not imagine life without her.