Christmas Cards

Can't wait to see what else has arrived in the six days we've been gone!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We're spending Christmas here in Illinois with the M. Family (Brandon's mom, stepdad, and two sisters). We're having a ball. Jonah loved the excitedment, paper, ribbons, toys, and books of Christmas!


Waving (Jonah's newest trick) with Grandpa Mike.


Jonah with Aunt Vivi.


Who is SOOO Big? (Jo with Nana Lisa)


Unwrapping gifts Christmas morning.


Jonah and Brandon playing Mario Galaxy.


Aunt Tori (12 & a great babysitter) with camo Jonah.


Brandon and Vivian rockin' it on Guitar Hero 3.

Yet another special occassion with no pictures of me.

4 Months Along

Today I am 18 weeks pregnant. My belly is progressing faster than last time. My MIL bought me new maternity clothes for Christmas today. This evening we ate dinner in Wisconsin. Christmas pictures, etc. to come shortly.

Compliments

I received two glowing compliments today that I wanted to share cause they made me feel so good (and I need that when I'm feeling so overweight and frumpy!).

"You could get along with a pissed off gorilla." - Victoria

And my SIL Michelle told me that I had a flair for storytelling. We both agreed it's nothing like my brother Adam's talent for it, but she says my whole immediate family has the touch for storytelling:)

No Ts

Jonah's official second word (after Momma) is "kitty-cat." He pronounces it "ki-ee caa."

Reading n' Stuff

Finished the satisfying Persuasion by Jane Austen last night. I'm going to begin Life of Pi tomorrow. I fall asleep reading most evenings now.
Only three more Christmas gifts to buy and I can get them all online. Yippee! Now I need to get started on wrapping and get a few things mailed.
Jonah now says "Mama" when he is asked to:) !! He's on the verge of saying "kitty cat" too. He doesn't babble "dada" or "blah, blah" anymore lately. Still no top teeth.
He's also displaying the signs of picky eating for the first time ever. He's figuring out what he likes. He likes things he can feed himself, meats, and juice. He loves carrot apple juice and the green Bolthouse Farms juice. He's not so into oatmeal lately. We like grapes. He tried edamame/soybeans last night for the first time and loved them.
He poked/pinched/pulled his belly button so hard in the tub last night that he cried. Silly baby!
Off to Illinois for Christmas on Sunday, we're excited.
Nothing else I can think of right now.
Adios.

Snack of the Day

www.marysgonecrackers.com

This is NOT salsa

Lomi Lomi salmon (not to be confused with Lomi Lomi massage, which is a story for another day)

I just read an incredibly funny blog by my friend Lauren about her first experience with sushi. She ate the wasabi plain. PLAIN! I got a good laugh at her expense.

It reminded me so much of another story that I now just have to share.

I lived in Hawaii for 3 1/2 years. My best friend there was Arianna. The first time I went to a luau was shortly after Ari had gone to hers. She said to me, "When you go, there will be stuff that looks like salsa. That is NOT salsa. It might even taste good but if you are expecting salsa and you get fish, it just isn't good."

Top 5 Christmas Things (edited)

Brandon and I were trying to list our Top 5 things of all things Christmas: movies, songs, albums, treats...

Here are a couple of my lists. (Had to replace one cd)

My Top Five All-Time Favorite Christmas Movies


A Christmas Story (the red ryder bb gun, the leg lamp, the bunny pajamas... there is SO much to love about this movie)


White Christmas (one of my favorite musicals too)


National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation


How The Grinch Stole Christmas (animated)


A Charlie Brown Christmas


My Top Five Christmas CDs


White Christmas - Bing Crosby (Hands down, both Brandon and my favorite since childhood)


Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker (The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)


Christmas with the Rat Pack


Harry Connick Jr.'s When My Heart Finds Christmas


Home Alone: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (stop laughing)

This Week

Somebody is stylish.


Brandon and I watched Charlie Brown's Christmas too many times. Here's our skinny tree; we love it, so does Jonah.

This week we trimmed our tree.


The cutest baby in the world.

This week (Thurs) Jonah learned to clap.


Me being a dork in our luxurious room at the Grand America with my roses, white chocolate swans, and berries.

This week we finally celebrated our anniversary.It was 24 hours of luxury. We began by dropping Jonah off with his Gampa. Then we went to a play at the Pioneer Theatre Company. We both love plays and we we lived in Utah while we were dating and the first two years we were married we went a lot. We saw The Foreigner, it was pretty silly, fun though.
Then we checked into Salt Lake's finest hotel, The Grand American (Brandon says he still likes The Four Seasons in Dallas better). Our room was on the 22nd floor with a nice view. There were a dozen red roses waiting for me in the room, Christmas music playing on the tv along with sparkling water, two white chocolate swans, raspberries, blackberries and chocolate. Great room.
Brandon had me choose where we would go for dinner. We went out for Nepali and Indian food at the Himalayan Kitchen. It was only a block and a half away so we decided to brave the cold and walk, which was fun.
After dinner we spent a little time checking out the hotel spa before our massage appointment. Our therapists had us spend a little time enjoying their designer chocolates while smelling the different fragrances we would choose for our custom-made massage oil. We have never done a couple's massage before. In fact, Brandon has never had a professional massage before at all. He was not disappointed. Both of us have had sore backs lately and we REALLY enjoyed this much-needed pampering.
We slept in (8:30 is sleeping in for me) and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at the Grand's Garden Cafe. Then I swam laps in the indoor pool while Brandon enjoyed the spa's saunas. We picked Jonah up at 1:30 and came home. It was a wonderful 24 hours!

RC Sumo Guy

I've never had such trouble posting a video. Ugh!!
Anyway, the cuteness is all worthwhile. Here is a minute of Jonah playing with his current favorite toy.

Congrats Captain!

This is one of my best friends, Ryan, he is Brandon's closest non-related friend. (Ryan and I are actually distantly related by marraige). Ryan has worked in the airline industry for about seven years (I'm guessing here). He has wanted to be a pilot for longer than that. A couple years ago while living in the Houston area (he still lives there) he decided to splurge on his dreams and go into debt to go to flight school in Florida. It has been a rigorous road. He has terrible hours and not the best pay and he works another full-time job. He has been flying as a first officer for Continental for awhile now. He flies domestic, Mexico, and the Carribean. Recently he was promoted into the Captain training. It has been really hard work and only 50% of those put into the program pass. Last night after chatting with Ryan on the phone for about 20 minutes, he went in for his big Captain's test and PASSED! Way to go!! Though he's been calling Brandon "Doctor" for about 6 years and we've been calling him "Captain" for about as long, they have both finally earned their titles. We're all grown-up now.

Full Weekend

Brandon spent all day Friday and Saturday at a course learning more about how to do dental implants. He loved it and excited to start doing them on patients.
It snowed most of the day on Fri. and Sat. which made B's commute home Friday evening twice as long as it normally would have been and kept Brad, Stephanie & kids from coming up to hang out with Jonah and I on Saturday and enjoying the Christmas festivities up here. It also made it look like Winter has truly arrived in Utah. It's lovely.
Saturday I indulged in my second Happy Meal of the week. I've also been eating a lot of bacon, but not as much as I want to eat. Maybe it's not because it's my second pregnancy that I'm already looking so round.
Saturday Jonah and I got to ride the train in Heber, which was free for locals who picked up tickets in advance and who were accompanied by a child under the age of 12. Jonah liked the train ride more than I expected and LOVED having so many kids around. He didn't give a hoot about Santa.
After the train ride we went to Swiss Christmas at the town hall in Midway. It was small and crowded and the kids we saw perform were neither especially darling or very talented. I'm sorry to be so critical, but I was unimpressed. However, we did pick up a bar of locally made soap (I love homemade soap) and locally made jam (including the local service berry), which was delicious. Jonah was too tired to make it to the creche and gingerbread house exhibits going on nearby.
Today we enjoyed the company of the whole immediate J. family. Linda made her fantastic homemade chili and we all ate at our house. The dogs (Cody & Oakley) loved playing in the snow together. Then we took family pictures, or I should say picture, the first one turned out well, so we just left it at that. It was a Christmas miracle. Then we drove up Daniel's Canyon and cut down our own Christmas trees. We chose a very skinny, but full fir. It is about 6 ft. tall. Jonah enjoyed riding around in Grammy Linda's coat watching the three trees being sawed down.



Jonah and me with Santa aboard the Heber "Creeper".



Brandon, Brandon M. (our brother-in-law), Linda, and Jonah.



Brandon with our tree, just before cutting it down.

10 Years

Every year on our anniversary, Brandon and I sit and reminisce about our years together. We always recap our years of wedded bliss and remember where we were on each anniversary.
Thanksgiving is not the best time for a wedding anniversary and we aren't ever really sure how to celebrate anyway, but we always have a nice dinner and this fun recap.

Our first 10 months of marriage we were living in Salt Lake City near Trolley Square. I was working full-time and going to school part-time. Brandon was working part-time and going to school part-time. In late September we left for Nepal for three months. We spent our anniversary there. ON our anniversary we were on a kayaking trip. The next day we returned to Kathmandu and went out for a fancy dinner of water buffalo steaks with some of our kayaking buddies.

Our second year of marriage was spent living half with Brandon's dad in southern Salt Lake City and half in an apartment in the Sugar House area of SLC. We got our ferret that year and were always entertained by her antics, especially with the cat.

Our third, fourth, and fifth years of marriage were spent living in Laie, Hawaii. Those years are so hard to tell apart because there are no seasons to differentiate the memories by.

Our next four years of marriage were spent living in Oklahoma. My favorite anniversary memory from those years is the year of the blizzard. Brandon and I were driving to Illinois for Thanksgiving on our anniversary. We got into a blizzard on the way that slowed traffic to a snail's pace. We decided to get off in Normal, IL. The first four motels we stopped at were full. We drove further into town and found a beautiful hotel called Le Chateau or something that we thought we would not be able to afford. Not only were there rooms available, but the price was right and we spend a romantic evening eating pizza and watching tv.

Next year maybe I'll tell you all the story of our young romance and our wedding.


2005

I promise you'll laugh

A great bit about American holidays from Jim Gaffigan's Beyond The Pale comedy show. Please find five minutes to enjoy this.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, it is officially winter weather here, no snow yet, but it is cold.
Wednesday evening we headed up to Brandon's dad's "cabin" to begin the Thanksgiving festivities. We hit a deer! It was horrible. We are all fine. We stunned the deer, Brandon had to drag it off the road, but the next day it wasn't there so it must have recovered (we hope). I was in shock and very upset. Brandon's door wouldn't open and the headlight was broken, etc. but nothing major and we fixed the door. Things got better from there.




Brandon had an obsession with the video camera on Thursday and filmed absolutely everything.



The Thanksgiving meal was delightful. Alan & Brandon fried the turkey and make sweet potatoes in the dutch oven. Linda made the brussel sprouts and the pumpkin pie strussel. I made the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberries n' cream salad. The stuffing was THE best ever created. Thank you to Jen for the recipe.
We played a little Beyond Balderdash, which was amusing. In the afternoon Brandon and Alan had strung lights on the giant pine tree in the field behind the house. It is the envy of the neighborhood (we tell ourselves). We had an official lighting ceremony and then watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, the J. family favorite Christmas movie.



On Friday Linda had to leave early to work (boo hoo). Brandon, Jonah, and I met up with my (ex)Uncle Ed and my cousins Helene, Elisa, and Marta and Helene's boyfriend Robert, for a little Park City shopping and sightseeing, which it was way too cold for. Helene lives in Portland and I hadn't seen her or Ed in forever so it was really nice.
Friday night we watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and Disturbia. My hands were sweaty in Disturbia and I kept yelling at the tv, both signs of a great thriller.

Saturday Jonah woke up way too early. Alan headed off for a guy's day out with his friend, which fell thru when he was pulled over for speeding. The cop was going to let him off with a warning but when he ran his licence he found that he would be arresting Alan instead. Yes, arresting, with handcuffing as standard procedure. Apparently Alan had received a speeding ticket in Sandy a couple months ago which Sandy city has no record of being paid, which suspended his licence, which he didn't know because he hasn't updated his licence with his new(ish) address. And also because he had an outstanding fishing-without-a-licence ticket pending from 1989. No joke. Brandon had to bail his dad out. Alan took it all in stride and I am proud of how calmly he handled the whole fiasco. I wish I could see the mug shots!
Saturday evening Alan made reservations for us at Snake Creek Grill here in Heber. It is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Utah and we were not disappointed. Of our three meals the crab penne pasta was the favorite. It was nice to get a babysitter and eat out. Alan said it was an anniversary present for B and I since our 10 year wedding anniversary is tomorrow.

Crazy Coincidences

I just figured out that three of my good friends are due the exact same week as me. Congratulations to Autumn, Alisha, and Janette! It will be SO fun to have girlfriends to compare bellies and symptoms to for the next 6+ months:)

TV

Most days I don't miss having tv, but then somedays I wonder, "What is going on with Pam and Jim?!!!"

16 Months Apart

According to a sonogram I had on Tuesday, today I am 12 weeks pregnant. And I thought I was only eight!

New Tricks

Tuesday Jonah began doing this. I know these pictures are not the best of him, but they're what I've got. He is very proud of himself. On the same day he also finally figured out crawling on his knees, he doesn't do it much, but he can now. And have I mentioned he gives great kisses? Yup, very nice, open mouth kisses. A lot of times he grabs ahold of your hair or ears or cheeks so he can plant them properly. They are very sweet and sometimes quite funny.

Lonely

I have been blessed with a lot of friends.
Sometimes there is just nothing better than having a friend closeby to do nothing with. I don't have that here.
I don't have a friend who might drop by just cause she's in the neighborhood. I really miss that.
I don't have a friend to go to the gym with (I don't even have a gym).
I don't have a friend to go shopping with or to lunch with on Saturdays (I also have nowhere closeby to shop).
I don't have a girlfriend to go to dinner and/or a girlie movie with unless I drive 45 minutes away (I only have two movies to choose from in Heber anyway).
I don't have someone's house to run to and chat at when I need a break from the baby.
I don't have someone to hang out with when Brandon only wants to hang out with his computer game.

I also need to buy a bra and I'm going to have to drive 45 minutes away to get one.
Also, there is no Yankee Candle Store or Illuminations stores in Utah. Ugh!

Thank goodness for the internet, at least I am close to all of you at any given moment, at least in spirit.
"I love my computer, my friends live there."

Jonah Update

Well, lots has been happening I just haven't been blogging it. Sorry.
Jonah turned nine months old on Halloween. He has been army crawling for two months but this week has been getting up on his knees A LOT more, hasn't started crawling that way, but he's seriously thinking about it. He likes to kneel and get up higher on things like his toy box and Dad's toolbox. He can also go from crawling to sitting now instead of only the other way around.



He actually knelt and reached up to the second shelf of movies yesterday and pulled most of them down too. Pulling out/down movies and reading the covers is probably his favorite past time. It may be tied with playing with his steering wheel toy and is followed closely by chasing cats and being read to.


Jonah's car toy, his current favorite.

Yesterday Jonah did something he's never done before. He pulled himself to a standing position. He did it in the bathtub of all places (really wanted my trial size shampoo that was up on the edge). That means no more sleeping with the crib rails down.
I have weaned Jonah off of his midday breastfeeding and he now takes formula twice during the day. I have decided to still nurse him first thing in the morning and before bed. At his nine month check up the doctor said he hasn't gained any weight since his last appointment so we needed to add some more food and especially fats and proteins to his diet. We have also taken him off the dairy products he had started (cheeses, cottage cheese, and yo-baby yogurt) to wait til he's a year old for those. There has been a lot of research done on allergies lately and we want to be safe. Jo also refrains from egg whites, wheat, citrus fruits, strawberries, shellfish, peanuts, and tree nuts. I am going to see if we can get some wheat-free bread and pasta from a health food store next time we're in Salt Lake.
Jonah is not a picky eater in any way and he loves feeding himself finger foods. I have started introducing some salted and canned foods to his diet. Every morning he has hot cereal and has tried it with a little coconut milk on it to add some fat recently (yum!).
What else? This morning was the first time in over a week that Jo has slept past 6am. Hallelujah!! We've tried less naps, more naps, staying up later, everything! Maybe something is finally working.
Jonah loves stroller rides and going new places. He still loves strangers, especially under the age of five. He does have a little separation anxiety and tends to get mad when I leave the room, but he quickly gets over it.
I still think top teeth are working their way here. He has fussy, drooly days and then he has days he's fine. He is still overall an easy, pleasant, nearly perfect baby. I find myself alternately telling him he's big and that he's "just tiny". I can't quite decide.
Helmet news: Jonah is still wearing his helmet 23 hours a day. He usually takes it off for dinner and bath time. He did take a three day hiatus so that a sore on his head could heal. We see the cranio doctor this week for the first time since his helmet has been put on. He'll tell us how much longer he has to wear it, hopefully just another month. And we also see the technician for another adjustment since his head grows so fast. We switched technicians after the first guy couldn't seem to get things quite right and I kept having to drive all the way to SLC every week cause Jo would get a tight spot or a sore. His tilting has gone away and his head is looking rounder.


Cousin Joselyn here for a visit from Oklahoma. He ADORES her. She wanted him to wear his hat she found in his room.


Practicing walking with his dad.






I call this the "superbaby" pose. He does it whenever I walk towards him when he's crawling and at random other times. I don't know if you can tell here, but only his torso is touching the ground.

Twilight Fans

I'm ready for a new book to read. I'm in the mood for something easy, quick, fun. I sent an email to about 30 people yesterday with a list of five books I have at home that I've been wanting to read, asking which one they recommend. I knew I would also get some other recommendations for future reading, which I welcome. I've already heard back from about 20 people. I don't know if I've ever gotten such a great, quick response to an email.
I have decided to start reading the DaVinci Code today. I will probably read The Life of Pi next. I received at least a half a dozen recommendations for Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. That book has been the talk of Utah since I moved here in July. It's a craze. I promise I'll get around to it eventually.
But, since Twilight is a book about vampires and werewolves, I must ask all you fans if you have seen Underworld (starring Kate Beckensale)? It is a great movie about vampires and werewolves.


Now, most of you know that I am not into R rated movies, I have probably seen less than a dozen of them in my lifetime. This movie is rated R. I'm sure you can find an edited version out there if you are not into R movies either. However, although it did deserve the rating (I've only ever seen one rated R movie that did not), I didn't regret watching it (much how I felt with The Matrix, Gladiator, etc.). The rating is for violence, but it wasn't gross-out stuff, very well-made. I do not, however, recommend its sequel Underworld Evolution, which had less character development, a weak plot, and embarrassing sex/nudity. I did regret seeing that.
The Internet Movie Database gives the following summary of the movie's plot: "Selene, a beautiful vampire warrior, is entrenched in a war between the vampire and werewolf races. Although she is aligned with the vampires, she falls in love with Michael, a werewolf who longs for the war to end."
Just had to recommend that to all my Twilight-loving friends.

Dinner in a Pumpkin

A couple people requested this recipe. It is easy and delicious and an excellent seasonal favorite for fall (though I make it year-round).

Bake a pumpkin (or any type of hard squash). I did my small pumpkin at 350 for 50 minutes with 2 T. milk and 1 T. butter inside of it.

Boil 2 cups rice in 4 cups water. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, cook on low for 15 minutes.

In a large skillet cook approx. 1 lb. breakfast sausage (almost any sausage will do) along with a small chopped onion, 2 stalks of chopped celery. Stir into rice when finished. Salt to taste.

Serve rice mixture in or over pumpkin/squash. See? I told you it was easy.

Halloween 2007

For Jonah's first Halloween he dressed up as a monkey, since we like to call him a little monkey and he's always loved his monkey doll.
His festivities included visiting Dad at the office, eating sweet potatoes for dinner, "trick-or-treating" at one neighbor's house and going to bed while the ward trucker treat was going on and before we got any trick-or-treaters.


Monkey on the loose!


Papa monkey


Momma monkey


I made dinner in a pumpkin for Halloween night. Yummy!
We watched half of Ghostbusters and half of the original House on Haunted Hill before I got too tired to go on. It was a great night!


Our porch, our jack-o-lanterns, and our laughing witch with the light-up eyes.
We didn't get many trick-or-treaters (dang that ward trunker treat), but we sure enjoyed the ones we did get! Anyone want some leftover candy and playdough?