Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Who is this kid and what have you done with my baby!?

WARNING: THIS IS A REALLY LONG POST! IT'S WAY OVERDUE THOUGH SO THAT'S WHY THERE IS SO MUCH! I'M SORRY!
This is my most recent picture of our kiddo. Notice that everything is pulled out of cupboards or the cupboards are just open. Yup. That's his favorite past time! He also likes croutons-he opens the box when I'm not looking and takes the bag out and grabs some. He must be my child!

This is at the Wellness Center-I went there for a Breastfeeding Awareness Activity and while I was in getting some info he had walked out to the play area and was playing! Haha! It was so cute! He just went all by himself and about 15 minutes later he came back and found me and sat with me for about a minute and then got down and went back out again. Todd had walked over from the school and found him playing and got this picture of him. Such a cute, brave little kid!


I wouldn't really put this on the blog but Todd wants me to and he made sure to take a picture of me with the bread so I should put it on here! But anyways! This is some totally awesome bread I made for Sunday dinner. It was really easy and it looks way cool! I know some of you won't believe it but I am slowly but surely turning into a cook-ask my husband! :)



Out at the last football game! It was pretty fun and Huxley like walking around in a snow suit!


Huxley loves his dad! His favorite time of day is when he comes home from work. Aren't my boys cute?



Food time is the best right now! He just loves to get all messy and dirty! I love it too! ;)




















I love these pictures! I wish we had a picture of the clock but these were taken at 6:30 pm. He was out! I officially felt like the worst mom ever-my kid falls asleep in his high chair in the middle of a bite!















This picture totally reminds me of a model picture-all he needs is longer hair and a fan! Haha I'm kidding! I just think it's funny!


He is so fun to watch eat! He loves crossing his legs over each other and then curling them up on one side. SO CUTE! He loves his daddy too (that's who he's smiling at).

HUGE
carrots that came in the box one week. He loved chewing on them! Notice the huge cucumber on the floor? I made way good pickles out of it! YUM!

Huxley LOVES it when we get our produce box during the week. He'll sit right down by it until I open it and then he goes right ahead and opens it and proceeds to take everything out and has to inspect every single piece that's in there-yes we have lots of bite marks on different fruit throughout the week! :)

This is a polar bear Todd went out to see one night. They do exist I guess! I still haven't seen one!

Such a cutie isn't he? This is his mischief face-it's pretty funny when he does it.

I know, I know, about time right? I've been thinking about posting for awhile and then I started to wonder why I haven't been posting. I mean I have the internet at home now-what else do I need. Then I remembered.....it's not that I don't want to post or something, it's that I don't have time to do it! So what are we spending all our time on up here in the Arctic?
  • Well we do have an incredibly high energy infant who thinks he's a toddler. He's into everything and I mean everything! He started walking October 25th-the real no-hand on furniture thing. So he was about 10 1/2 months. Crazy I know. And it's been a rat race trying to keep up with him ever since! A lot of people comment on how he's walking early and they feel bad for me-yeah it's harder but at the same time so much easier. He's so much happier now that he can move around, he's gained a lot of self-confidence too, which helps him be brave and venture out on his own so I'm not always needing to be by him. He's also SUCH a great napper now that he wears himself out! He's sleeping about 13 1/2 hours each night (and not just a lucky night here and there, it's every night!-hey it took us 10 1/2 months to get there but we made it!) and then takes an 1 1/2 hour morning nap and 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Yeah I think people should feel bad for me now that he's walking! :) Just kidding! We've been very blessed to have such a healthy, alert, baby boy. He's not my baby anymore! I can't believe he's grown up! At the same time I can though. My mom always comments on how he wasn't a baby very long. Since Todd is such a great husband and father and we have been so blessed that I've been able to stay at home from Day 1 with Huxley, I feel like I haven't missed anything and the time he was a baby was very, very enjoyable but I think he was in the phase just long enough! I quite enjoy my little interactive, jokester we have on our hands now-a-days! He currently is growing a mouthful of teeth-it scares me. I've gotten so used to just the two little teeth on the bottom! About two weeks ago all four teeth decided to come in on top, however, the top right middle tooth has decided to go back under for the time being so he just has the 3 top teeth-I think he just wanted to be a live jack-o-lantern since we aren't able to have those in Barrow without spending a fortune! How lucky are we?! We don't even have to throw him away after a week or so! We get to keep our little pumpkin we've worked so hard on! :) His favorite words right now are 'Dada' and 'Mom' and 'Yeah'. He nods his head for yes most of the time but if we keep asking the same question he'll say 'yeah' in a tone that just says, 'hello, can you not see my head nodding?' He's super funny! He likes to laugh, especially at himself. He'll walk up and down the hall putting whatever he can over his head-clothes, a book, a blanket and then walk and if he falls or walks into the wall (since he can't see) he'll chuckle and get up and keep going but if he makes it all the way to the end of the hall without doing either he'll squeal and really laugh! Oh it's funny! He loves the older kiddos up here. He wants to be just like them and part of everything they're doing. It's fun to watch but I get the weirdest feeling watching and I just want to go help him do everything and help him not fall. Wow this has already turned into a long post. Anyways. As you can see this kid is a great big, wonderful handful! He has his days, and nights-especially those teething times, ugh-but I know it's worth it and I'm glad to have the Eternal perspective so that I can know without a doubt that it's all worth it.
  • As for Todd and I. Well we're both full-time students (Todd's in his Master's program and I'm doing a Medical Coding program) Trying to make the best of life up here with what we have. It's been a good experience for us-looking back at where we started almost three years ago we've come leaps and bounds on so many things. We try and wonder what life would have been like if we had followed our original plan of sticking around Cache Valley until we were both done with school-it would have been very different, but I don't think it would even compare to the life we have now. It's funny how Heavenly Father works isn't it? We think we know so much about what He wants for us and try and plan around what we think He wants and somehow one little thing will change in your plan and you'll end up in a completely different place but with so much more faith and so many other blessings. Not that your plan was bad but Heavenly Father's is just that much better. Amazing isn't it? I think so.
  • Speaking of plans. Around this time of year lots of people start asking what we're planning on doing-if we plan on sticking around in Barrow, or finding another teaching job. As of right now, we plan on sticking around!! We are still enjoying it up here and we still feel like we're in 'the right place at the right time' so why move somewhere else? We do plan on having......
ANOTHER BABY!!!!
  • Our newest little one will be arriving sometime in early April. Many people look at us like we're crazy when we say we don't know the exact due date. Well I am still nursing Huxley and when you nurse-the rest of your body doesn't work the way it's supposed to. Well now that I've said that you're probably thinking that this little one was an accident. Well we're married-I don't think there are 'accidents' once you get married-come on people you know what you're doing. So anyways! I won't go into any detail since it doesn't matter. But we went to the Temple this past summer and were trying to decide what to do about family planning and we just felt like we should just keep going as we are and a few months later....we're having a baby! :) Huxley is really excited! He is going to be such a good big brother! We have a little girl in our Branch her name is Saryn (Jenna I hope you're ok with me posting about her) and Huxley loves to be by her! He gives her kisses and tries to eat her feet and tries to climb in and sit with her while she's in her car seat. He likes her a lot! I'm kind of excited though because maybe they'll grow up and get married! YEAH!! But he will be such a good big brother and I almost can't wait for the baby to come just for that reason-but for other reasons (like no sleeping, LOTS of diapers, and two kiddos needing my full attention) I can wait as long as the baby needs!
  • So that's another reason why I haven't posted. This pregnancy started out the same-pretty sick all of the time. With Huxley that ended at 10 weeks, well I think I'm about 17 weeks now and I'm still sportin the sick feeling. Bummer. So when I have a chance I usually am trying to catch up on housework-it's amazing how that piles up or lying down on the couch trying to feel better. Speaking of lying down, I did ok with Huxley not getting a nap during the day. I would just go to sleep really early during those first few weeks. With this pregnancy, I'm just barely starting to be able to make it through the day without a little 10-20 minute nap. I still sometimes find myself sleeping while Huxley is looking at books. Bad mom I know. I try hard though to stay awake! I promise! I also go to bed oh say around 8:30 pm when Todd is preparing his Seminary lesson for the next morning...on the couch. That thing is deadly I think. If I sit on it I'm pretty much a goner. Todd's been great about it all though. He tries to help me as best as he can. But, I don't attribute my extra tiredness all to the pregnancy-I have Huxley I'm trying to keep up with and school work and just being a wife and keeping a house takes a lot out of you. But if you've ever been pregnant then you know it does wipe you out. Also, if you've ever nursed a baby you know that it pretty much sucks the life right out of you. If you've ever done both at the same time.....you probably know exactly how tired I am! :)
Well as you can see. I do have good excuses for not posting. I am sorry that I haven't posted about a lot of fun things that have happened but just know that we are doing well and 'no news is good news'.

Well I think that's all folks! Enjoy the videos! :)
P.S. Sorry about the quality. I had posted them all-and if you live in Barrow you know how long it takes to upload things-and then noticed how bad they were. Just deal with it I guess! :) Oh and they are really long-I put them on here mostly for our mothers to watch! :) So I won't be offended if you don't watch them!