Busy, Busy, Busy

The end of April/beginning of May seems to be a very busy time, whether you're a student or not. Working for the University certainly means you've got a lot to do. We had a lot of graduation picnics and parties and graduation itself. They were fun, but just left time for little else. But hey, I've got lots of picture to make up for lost time, including the Easter pictures I've left out for the last month or so.

For Easter, we try not to over-do things like with Christmas or Birthdays, because we try to remember what Easter is really all about. Jared got a lot of chocolate and a Jason MRAZ cd and I got Sherlock Holmes on DVD.

Jordyn got a musical sea horse that lights up and plays music when you push it's tummy, kind of like a glow worm. Uriah loves Elmo, so we got him a small stuffed Elmo and a little sounds story book.

Uriah loves to have his picture taken, and he certainly didn't mind having it taken on Easter morning.

On May 5th we had a graduation picnic and ate lots of good food. Lana and Ben came to stay for the week and they came to the picnic with us. Uncle Ben decided that it would be fun to tie a bunch of balloons to Uriah to see if he would float away. He didn't float away, but we had a hard time finding him in all the balloons that were tied to him. He also got his face painted. He had a clown fish painted on his cheek but as soon as the artist finished drawing it Uriah wiped his hand over it and smeared it. Oh well.

Uriah sure likes to wear himself out, and lately he has been falling asleep in such cute ways. In this picture, he fell asleep and he wasn't even all the way on his bed!

In this one, he fell asleep reading his new ABC book.

Whenever I get out the camera, Uriah just has to ham it up. He likes to make sure he is in the pictures and that he gives me a funny face. Here are some pictures of my little guy being hammy.

Jordyn is growing so much. She is the cutest little bug ever, and we always get people telling us how cute she is. Grandma McCurdy made a blanket for Jordyn that has different textured ribbons and strings on it for Jordyn to feel, and she loves it! They seem to be very popular with little babies.

She can roll from her back to her tummy to her back again, over and over and over, and sometimes, if we aren't watching, she will roll right off the blanket she is on and all around the living room. She loves to be on her tummy, and she wiggles her legs so much that she gets her knees up under herself, and we have no doubt that she will be crawling soon.

Jordyn loves her mommy and daddy so much, and she always smiles when she sees us. I am always amazed at how bright eyed she is in the morning when she wakes up. Whenever I go get her out of her crib, she has a big smile for me. There is no way I can be sad whenever she is around.

Whenever anyone is holding Jordyn, all she wants to do is jump up and down and shake and wiggle her legs. Everyone asked us if we had a jumper for her and we tell them we didn't, that she just wiggles like that because she wants to. Well, the other day I went and bought an exer-saucer for her to play in, and she loves to be in it. She can turn in circles and grab all the toys on it and make some noise.

Uriah really likes it too. He tried to bounce it while she is in it, but she doesn't like that very much.

We had a pretty good Mother's Day. We went to my sister's ward so that we could see my nieces and nephew sing a few primary songs about mom. Then we had a party at my mom's house and we played games and ate some snacks. It was a lot of fun. The weather was nice, so we were outside most of the time. Uncle TJ decided to share his hat with Jordyn, and she looked quite cute in it.

Jared has started one of his summer classes today. It is an online class and this is the first time he has taken one of those, so I think he will do okay. The weather has finally started to warm up and actually act like summer is coming. At the beginning of May we had a whole bunch of snow, and it has been in the 30s up until this last weekend. It was in the 70s on Saturday and Sunday and it was just beautiful. I hope we have a lot more days like that so we can be outside more. I am so thankful for the Earth for all it provides.

I have been waiting to get some pictures from my camera before I posted again, but I have been lazy about it and decided it was time to put up another post, pictures or no pictures. The last month has been pretty good. We had a nice Easter. We each had our own little bunny basket with goodies (pictures to come...eventually) in it and we watched general conference. It was spectacular. Then after that we had a get together at my mom's house for my sister's birthday and we had lots of food and played lots of games. I really enjoy family get togethers, we don't get to do them very often.
My little ones sure are growing strong. Jordyn rolled over for the first time at the family party on Easter. We made her do it about 5 times in a row because everyone wanted to see her do it, and now when we lay her on the floor she isn't on her back for two seconds before she rolls right over. She also started reaching for things and grabbing them and pulling them to her. I think that's so cute. She weighs about 14 pounds now and the doctor said she was perfectly proportioned, right in the 75th percentile for her whole body. She is so cute and she makes me so happy. I don't know what I would do without her.
Uriah will be two in June, I can't believe it! He is so smart. He can open the doors now, which is kind of a bummer because on Saturday mornings we could sleep in for a long time while he played in his room because he couldn't get out, and now he can pretty much get into any room he wants to. He got a Thomas train and a small track for Easter and he loves it. He walks around going "choo choo!" and on our Netflix we get some Thomas and Friends movies for instant watch and he loves to watch those too. On the 17th we went to the Toys R Us in Idaho Falls because they were having a Thomas and Friends party. Uriah got to color a Thomas picture and put on a conductor's hat and play with some trains. We got him an expansion for his track and another engine. His favorite movie is Pixar's CARS. He likes to pick a movie and watch it over and over again for a while. He likes Home on the Range, Finding Nemo, Cars, and Kung Foo Panda. We also borrowed some Elmo's World movies from my sister and he absolutely LOVES Elmo. Uriah calls him "Momo". Even more than movies, Uriah loves to be outside. I think he could play outside all day long if we let him. The only way he can get some outside time is if we take him to my mom's or sister's. They have back yards that are fenced in or protected. His love to be outside makes me more and more impatient for us to get our own house. Everything has its own time.
Another semester is almost over for Jared. We found out that there is a Physical Therapy Assistant Program and we are going to try to get Jared in there. He has always wanted to go into Physical Therapy but he never had good enough grades to apply. We are really hoping he can get into the Assistant program. I know it would make him happy to finally have some direction with his schooling.
A spring semester over for Jared means an early summer for me, and when I say early I mean that when summer starts college hours change to 7:30-4:00, so even though I get off work an hour earlier than normal, I have to be to work at 7:30 in the morning, and I already have a hard time getting to work at 8...oh well...
In other news, my sister had her baby on Monday! He is so cute. His name is Roman Gabriel Waggoner and he was 8 lbs 10 oz. Big boy! And he has a full head of dark dark hair. Very adorable. It makes me want another baby, but I've already got one! We are definitely going to wait longer than 4 months before we try having another baby! (^_^)

Heave, Ho

I have only had the dry heaves twice in my life- once in the 11th grade, right before the first dance I was ever allowed to go to, and this last weekend. It hit me right out of nowhere. I had had a good day, gotten my apartment 99% clean and done some shopping, then at about 6 I started feeling crampy, and by 8 I was barfing every 45 minutes. I couldn't keep anything down, and I stopped trying after 10. Not even water would stay down. I lost my cookies every 45 minutes from 8 pm Saturday until 3:30 am Sunday, and before that time I had run out of cookies to lose. At that time I got a blessing from my husband and brother-in-law, and I only barfed twice after that. I couldn't be more thankful for the priesthood and the blessings that come from it. I know for sure that I wouldn't have gotten better that quick if I hadn't gotten a blessing. I was able to start holding food down around Sunday afternoon, and my husband got me some sprite and I was able to keep that and water down. Today I still don't feel quite like myself, but I am better than I was over the weekend. I just hope and pray that my two children don't get it, 'cuz that could mean serious trouble for them. Anyway, it's not the best weekend to report, but it was just another one of the constant reminders that my Heavenly Father loves me and is watching over me, and for that I love Him so much.

Bibbit

Isn't it wonderful when you think the day is going to be nothing out of the ordinary, and then something happens that puts a smile on your face and makes the day worth it? Jared called me at work and told me that Uriah had something to say to me. So he put Uriah on the phone and in the background I could hear Jared say, "What does the froggy say?" and Uriah said, "Bibbit!". It made me so happy, and it gave me a fun story to tell my family and friends. Uriah knows so many animal sounds and other sounds. I love to watch him learn and play and grow each and every day. I especially love to watch him dance. When you tell him to "shake his bum" he puts his hands on his knees and then bends them and bounces his bum up and down. It is the cutest thing! I love watching Jordyn grow too. She gets chunkier and heavier every day. She holds her head up great and she is very close to reaching and grabbing things. I look forward to all the new milestones each of my children will be making in the future. I hope I remember to write them all down.

Things Keep Piling

Around the beginning of February Uriah started to limp, like maybe he had stepped on something and hurt his foot. We thought nothing of it, little ones bang their knees all the time, and we decided to wait and let it get better on its own. Well, a month later and the limp is worse. Uriah was walking like one leg was shorter than the other, and he couldn't even run without tripping over himself. He looked so clumsy, it broke my heart. I thought sure that there must have been something wrong with him. So I set up an appointment with the pediatrician, who checked things out and took some x-rays. When we got home from the doctor's the limp looked even worse than it did before. I wondered if, when they twisted his legs for the x-rays, they had aggravated whatever was causing his limp even more. When the doctor called to tell me that the x-rays showed that everything was okay, I expressed my concern that the limp had gone on for so long and now it looked worse, so the doctor decided we needed to do a bone scan. We took Uriah up to the hospital where they gave him an IV and injected him with radioactive calcium, which would light up his bones in a scan. We played around on the pediatrics floor at the hospital for about 3 hours, did the scan and then went home. Uriah was such a good boy, he didn't even move an inch during the scan. That night the doctor called to tell us that the scan showed no injuries and that we should take Uriah to a physical therapist. I decided to wait a week to see if Uriah got better, because we were already racking up the bills just by doing x-rays and scans. Wouldn't you know it, 4 days go by and Uriah is walking and running just like any normal kid.
I felt ridiculous for having gone through all that. I guess I am a mother. Did I over-worry? Did I do the wrong thing? Part of me says yes, but part of me knows that if there had been something wrong and I didn't do anything about it, I never would have forgiven myself. It's better to be safe than sorry, and even though Uriah's bills just added to the ones I still have from having Jordyn and having my gallbladder out, I am happy to know that my son's legs are complete and whole.

In other news, Jordyn has been sleeping all night for about 3 weeks now. It sure has helped Jared and I get the sleep we need at night, and we even took down the bassinet and moved Jordyn to the crib in her own room. I am still a little paranoid and I always check on her before I go to bed, if I have to get up in the middle of the night for something, and before I go to work, but she has always been okay and is such a good baby. She is a very happy baby and always smiles and talks to me. Uriah loves to give her hugs and kisses all the time, and sometimes tries to hold her and pick her up. If we lay her on the floor he will sit down next to her and play with her. He likes to rub her head a lot. She has short, fuzzy soft hair and I think he likes to touch it. I thought I could never be happier than I was when I had Uriah, but seeing Uriah play with Jordyn, even though she really can't play back, makes me happier than I've ever been. Having more than one baby is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.