The light at the end of the sewing machine

Well, I'm almost finished with Dean's Riley Blake Wheels quilt. All I have left is the binding. It's taken pretty much all of my April crafting time. I wrote more about it here. Dean has loved the material from the beginning, so I hope he'll love the completed quilt just as much.

The balance bike

Dean has gotten so good at riding his balance bike. He can glide down our driveway and even turn the corner with his feet up, balancing. It is one of the best purchases we've made in the way of toys. (It's called Boot Scoot Bike.) WAY better than any training wheels or tricycle I've seen. He loves riding (though he hates his helmet. But no helmet, no ride.), and before we put high locks on our doors, he'd head out for a bike ride without me knowing! I was rinsing a diaper one day, and when I was done I saw the front door was open. He was on his bike, two doors down, knocking on their door. I was very happy when Matt put the high locks on the door this week since he figured out how to get the child handles off.

The frames per second are slightly off, though, so it makes his legs look like they're flying. =)

Clap yo' hands and forward motion

Walt's been clapping tons lately when he's pleased with a situation. Usually it's if I walk in a room where he's sitting or put him in his booster for meals. He loves feeding himself finger foods. I think he honestly eats more solid food than Dean does.


Here he is actually crawling forward as opposed to his backward/sidewards scoot. It's not a long stretch, but it's something.

Funny faces

Walt's been repeatedly making this funny face the last two days. He'll scrunch up his face all tight. One gives you a good shot of his new top teeth.




This one's not a funny face, but it shows how strong his upper body is. He's doing a push up position with one leg stacked on top of the other! Half the time he looks like he's break dancing. He's really good at getting back up into a sitting position from tummy or back.

I yuv you mom (and other fun things at 2 1/2)

I am loving 2 1/2. It's got it's kinks, but the rewards right now are so wonderful.

On the harder side, we've been having some issues with bed. He won't consistently take a nap. I generally have him have an hour or so of quiet time, but he doesn't always fall asleep. (I'm learning to be ok with this.) He starts fading around 4 and is so ready for bed by 6:30/7 on the days he doesn't take a nap. Those nights the bed time routine is much harder (he insists he isn't tired but cries and flails about at every little thing and tends to be a more physically aggressive), but he falls asleep very quickly. When he does nap, it's usually for about 2 hours. The only problem with it is he won't fall asleep at night until about 9 pm! We try and still get him in his room about 7:45-8. He's in great spirits, but he ends up coming out of his room to go to the bathroom, ask me to come visit or snuggle, or other misc. excuses to get out of his bed multiple times until about 9. I think it will be nice when he can really read to himself until he's tired enough to sleep. (He's having some daddy bonding time. Surprised that it's at the computer? I'm not.)

He's really into emotions and has recently gotten on a love kick. He often tells me "I yuv you mom." and gives me huge hugs and covers me in kisses. I love it. LOVE IT. I got the book "How do I love you" from the library this week and he has really enjoyed reading it. He'll point out people in books and say if they are angry or yelling, happy, sad, hurt, etc. He's quite accurate. He likes to snuggle in the morning in his room when I tell him it's too early to really get up (anything before 6:30 is too early!).

He speaks in full sentences. He can verbalize almost anything. Some examples of frequent phrases include: "Where dat come from?" (It was soooo funny when he asked that about a large painting at church. He points to it and asks, "Where dat picture come from mom?"), "What dat for?", "What izzat?", "Where's [grandma and grandpa] is?", "Dat just right for Dean.", "Dat cute for Dean.", (In a panicked voice) "Where's mommy is at?", "Dean was very, very sad in nursery. You no yike nursery." (He can say THat and Like when I say it and he repeats, but he takes the quick/easy way out most of the time with those.) "Where's that guy going?" "Dean gastracting (distracting) Walter" and "You no gunjoy (enjoy) your helmet."

He's really, really good with the mouse. He can navigate the computer amazingly for a 2 1/2 year old. He figured out how to get to the purchased trial games on PBS.org all on his own and was sad and confused when his 15 day trial ended. He is only allowed to watch 3 shows on PBS (Curious George, Sid the Science Kid, and Super Why) in the morning when I'm getting ready and/or putting Walt to bed. In the afternoon when I'm cooking dinner he generally ends up watching a DVD from the library or playing on PBS.org.

He LOVES being outside and has recently decided he can go out there (in the front!!!) whenever he feels like it. He's an escape artist. He knows how to get all the child handles off doors, open garage doors, unlock all locks, etc. We are going to put in high latches on the door this week hopefully. That and get a playset for the back yard to entice him back there instead of the front. We've even had two neighbors comment to us on it. I don't want anyone calling DES son me (but I especially don't want anything bad to happen to him!).

He likes to spontaneously "ex-a-size". "Dean doing those ex-a-sizes." His exercises often include sit-ups, jogging (stroller and elmo included), stretching, riding his bike, and stair steps. He's also made up his own exercises on the bathroom vanity where he lifts his legs off of his stool while holding the sink and then puts himself back down.

I love my little boy.

Lesson on Prayer

I gave the lesson in relief society today and felt like it went quite well. I really love the new gospel principles manual because it's so direct and just straight up doctrine. Love it. For being so basic, I really have received new insights in every lesson I've taught.

This morning Dean was having some serious panic attacks about having to go to nursery. Since Matt is no longer a nursery worker he's really struggled. Last week he cried all but 20 min. of nursery. When he was really panicking this morning I suggested we have a little prayer to help calm him down. We prayed and he was much calmer after that. He was still "a little sad" to have to go to nursery, but he only cried about a min. or two today instead of the entire class period.

(GP = Gospel Principle; BD =Bible Dictionary; if it's just a name, it's from the same talk I've already referenced in my lesson)

Here's my outline for the lesson:

What is Prayer?
“Prayer is a sincere, heartfelt talk with our Heavenly Father.” GP p.34

“Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.” Bible Dictionary

Why do we Pray? Commandment, repent, draw closer to God, stay on the straight and narrow, help, thanks, act of love, strength, for friends and enemies, missionary experiences, etc.

If our kids only called us when they needed money or assistance, I bet we’d start to get a little annoyed. Especially if when we did help them out they didn’t recognize nor express appreciation for our assistance. Find more things to be grateful for and ask for less.

“The most meaningful and spiritual prayers I have experienced contained many expressions of thanks and few, if any, requests. Let me recommend that periodically you and I offer a prayer in which we only give thanks and express gratitude. Ask for nothing; simply let our souls rejoice and strive to communicate appreciation with all the energy of our hearts.” Bednar “Pray Always,” Ensign, Nov 2008, 41–44

When should we pray? “We can pray whenever we feel the need to communicate with our Heavenly Father, whether silently or vocally.” GP

• Pray morning and night “In a similar way, meaningful morning prayer is an important element in the spiritual creation of each day—and precedes the temporal creation or the actual execution of the day. Just as the temporal creation was linked to and a continuation of the spiritual creation, so meaningful morning and evening prayers are linked to and are a continuation of each other.” David A. Bednar, “Pray Always,” Ensign, Nov 2008, 41–44
  
• Pray always. During the course of the day, we keep a prayer in our heart for continued assistance and guidance—even as Alma suggested: “Let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord” (Alma 37:36). Bednar
  

How should we pray?
We give our prayer to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus and we’re answered through the Spirit of the Lord.

• Why do we pray in Jesus’ name?
  

1. Our privilege to approach God the Father in pray is made possible by the atonement of Jesus Christ.
   
2. We are sinners and to approach God we invoke the authority of Jesus and ask for those things in accordance with his will.
   
3. The words aren’t a magical incantation. What matters most is the purpose and feeling behind the prayer.
   
4. Jesus is the way (to God), the truth, and the light.
   
5. “We pray in Christ’s name when our mind is the mind of Christ, and our wishes the wishes of Christ - when his words abide in us (John 15: 7). We then ask for things it is possible for God to grant. Many prayers remain unanswered because they are not in Christ’s name at all; they in no way represent his mind, but spring out of the selfishness of man’s heart.” BD
   
6. “She [his mother] knew the Savior, and she loved Him. I had learned from her that we do not close in the name of a stranger when we approach our Father in prayer. I knew from what I had seen of her life that her heart was drawn to the Savior from years of determined and consistent effort to serve Him and to please Him. I knew the scripture was true which warns, “For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?” (Mosiah 5:13).” Henry B. Eyring, “That He May Write upon Our Hearts,” Liahona, Aug 2009, 2–7
7. “Another lesson I have learned: after praying, I must do my part to help answer the prayer. President Spencer W. Kimball taught: “When we pray for health we must live the laws of health and do all in our power to keep our bodies well and vigorous. We pray for protection and then take reasonable precaution to avoid danger. There must be works with faith” (Faith Precedes the Miracle, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1972, p. 205).” Barton
   

How are prayers answered?
“Our sincere prayers are always answered. Sometimes the answer may be no, because what we have asked for would not be best for us. Sometimes the answer is yes, and we have a warm, comfortable feeling about what we should do (see D&C 9:8–9). Sometimes the answer is “wait a while.” Our prayers are always answered at a time and in a way that the Lord knows will help us the most.” GP

“When there seems to be no clear-cut “yes” or “no” answer to a question asked in prayer, it may be that either choice is acceptable. Or perhaps neither choice is the best one. We might consider changing the question to ask an all-knowing, loving Heavenly Father what his will is. Again, the answer might come in a variety of ways—a new thought or opportunity we had not considered, a change in the situation to make one course clearly preferable, or intervention by someone with needed information, practical skill, or spiritual perspective.” Grant E. Barton, “Discerning Answers to Our Prayers,” Ensign, Feb 1996, 48

“Immediate divine intervention to solve every problem would invalidate the test that earth life was designed to be. Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote: “It is not, never has been, and never will be the design and purpose of the Lord—however much we seek him in prayer—to answer all our problems and concerns without struggle and effort on our part. This mortality is a probationary estate. … We are being tested to see how we will respond in various situations; how we will decide issues; what course we will pursue while we are here walking, not by sight, but by faith” (Ensign, Jan. 1976, p. 11).” Barton

GOOD NIGHT WALTER!

Walt usually goes to bed earlier than Dean. I try and have him say goodnight to dad and Dean before I take him to bed. Tonight after we said good night to dad and walked into the living room where Dean was, he yelled out "GOOD NIGHT WALTER!" and said he wanted to give him a hug.

They were so incredibly cute I had to grab the camera. I'm using the last one as my new header.

I love these moments.

Walter at 8(ish) months

Well, Walt's personality is really starting to shine. He has been babbling tons recently. It's mostly "mamamamama" and "dadadada" or "mom". Matt, my mom, and my dad all have commented that they think that his "mom" was used deliberately and specifically for me. It's always a little hard to tell, but maybe I'll claim that his first word was mom.

This kid loves food. He gets so excited at the prospect of food, and even squeals in hopeful anticipation when he sees me making Dean's Isagenix milk. Seriously. He is always disappointed when I don't give it to him. Sometimes Dean shares with him though. hehe. (Dean's very ready to give Walter anything I've told him he can't have. Electric cords, paper, granola bars. You name it.) The food pictures below were from conference. Dean was having a picnic in the living room and Walt was not about to be left out. He was very determined to get Dean's food, and he got it! He ate more of Dean's quesadilla roll up than Dean did! Surprisingly, he hasn't gained any weight since 6 months. He's still at 22 lbs. He's lengthening out though.

He gets around the room and covers some decent ground, but it's almost all scooting backwards, scooting in circles, or rolling for transportation. He's been doing these little push ups and stink bug poses a lot too. He often gets stuck under our coffee table or the stroller.

He has HORRIBLE seasonal allergies. He is horribly congested, his eyes gunk up and water like crazy. His nose is constantly running. It is just so sad to watch since I can't do anything to help him.

He has the two teeth on bottom and in the last two weeks he's had 4 pop through on top.

My birthday present to myself was to make him start sleeping through the night. He had been waking up at 11 and 3 or 4 or 5. Sometimes all of those. I have spent at least part of the night on our couch the last 3 nights. We're now down to him waking up once around 3-5 AM depending on when he goes to bed. I would really love to cut that out, even if it means he wakes up at 6:30. Dean's generally up around then anyway and that would mean I could move Walt into Dean's room. But one step at a time I guess.

He deliberately waves goodbye to daddy in the morning. Tonight when Dean was rubbing lotion all over his hands, I noticed Walter was copying Dean's hand rubbing motions. It was very cute. He really loves Dean (even if Dean periodically does a running kick to his face, or hits his head with his toy hammer, or steals his toys, or decorates him with my embroidery floss).

Spirit of Elijah

We just got home from a date night to the temple. I think it's the first time I've been to the temple since having Walt. So, it was the first time in about 9 months!

While my parents were here they showed me how to use the new.familysearch.org. It is sooooo much easier and cooler than the old program, and it's pretty awesome that you can get names temple ready and printed out from home. So, I updated some family info. from the PAF my in-laws gave me 2 years ago and I got about 8 names that we could take to the temple.

So, we did baptisms tonight for those family names and it was very refreshing. Neither of us has done baptisms since we were in high school (I guess I probably did some my freshman year of college. Yes. I must have. But I received my endowments when I was 19, so it would have only been that first year for baptisms.) A member of the Temple Presidency gave a little talk before hand (we slid in right before a single's branch) and that was nice.

We set a goal to go once a month now that Walt's big enough to leave, and I really want to do family names every time if at all possible. It's exciting. One of the names we had tonight was Walter Carrington, the great, great, great grandpa that shares our Walter's name.

LDS.org - Friend Article - Hidden Pictures, Scripture Reading

LDS.org - Friend Article - Hidden Pictures, Scripture Reading

The beginning of the end of an era: 29 years

I can hardly believe it's already been a year since my last birthday post! And yet it has. For my birthday this year we ate at Cotton Patch Cafe (we had a coupon). The food was decent, but I wouldn't go back. We did get a free dessert on account that it was my b-day. That was nice. Matt made me his standard better-than-sex-cake. I think this is the 7th year now. He's pretty pro by now. I was happy I had gone running this morning because boy did I consume too many calories! (look at those guns in this pic! I am ripped. My hunk of boys make for some good weights! ;0)

I know I recently did an update on who and where I am in life, but it's already changed since then!

Remember that post partum phase I went through? Hallelujah I am totally through it! I'd say things started looking up at Christmas when we got to spend time with family. Matt and I have gone on some dates. I bought a double jogger and go nearly every week day (averaging 4-6 miles) with my new found friend Kirstin. We have been good for each other.

Also, in the last few years I've morphed into an eco-mostly-organic-good-for-the-body-and-soul kind of girl. It's hard for me to believe that just a few years ago we ate margarine spread and sticks. How could we think it tasted better than butter?? Oh, and I tried buying disposable diapers tonight (for their night diapers) and it just about killed me. The boys are both in cloth tonight because I just couldn't spend money on them. We'll see if I feel that same way tomorrow!

I've been having a lot more fun with my boys. Not that I didn't have fun with them before, but I think I've been able to relax about some things a little better. I still have moments of frustration when Dean rips books and bites my computer desk, piano keys, couch, etc., but overall I have been a lot less angry and more patient.

I've had lots of fun crafting. Mostly sewing. If you don't click over to my craft blog ever, my most recent crafts were bunny baskets and tie shirts for Easter. I'm still sewing (trying to finish up a quilt for Dean), but I really, really want to start doing some simple wood working. Projects that I am itching to start include a small child's picnic table, a simple spa bench for my bathroom, and a super easy bench for our entry. If I can get the hang of those, I would also like to build some book cases and bunk beds (all from the same AWESOME site where she gives people free plans for knock off name brand stuff). Seriously.

So, this shirt was my birthday present from Matt. I wanted to buy it on woot shirt for $10, but it was sold out by 9am when I checked it. I waffled on buying it for $15 for a couple weeks and told Matt I was going to get it. He told me he already had planned on buying it for my birthday. It says "Race for a cure for something. Like children or Africa maybe." We also have tickets purchased for Wicked and they're good enough tickets that I consider them both Christmas and birthday present. =)

Walter was babbling all day long today (video included), and that was quite fun. It was a good day.

La Santa Semana (Or Semana Santa if you want me to have correct grammar) : Loaded with Pictures!

My parents were here the week leading up to Easter. We had a great time with them here. They got here late one night, so when Dean made his way to my room in the morning, he had a little surprise waiting for him in the living room. I heard him talking to my parents, and as I came out he was climbing into bed with them to "snuggle a little bit". It's been 8 months since he's seen them, so I was glad he took right to them again. They brought a fun little bunny that sang, tapped it's foot, and wiggled it's ears. They boys loved it.

We didn't do tons in the way of activities while they were here. Mainly we just did normal things like watching Dean ride his bike, go to parks, and the like, but that's really what my parents were here to do. Just spend time with us.



They left for a few days to go to Houston to visit friends. While they were gone, Dean kept asking, "Where grandma and grandpa is?" We were happy to have them come back in time for Conference and Easter.

Dean was excited to show grandma his "beautiful eggs" that we dyed. And we had a quick egg hunt during a song in the afternoon session of Conference. He didn't get tons of candy from the Easter bunny this year. It was just the right amount to consume all at once, feel like he got a lot of sugar, but not have the gorge last for days and days.

We had 2 Easter dinners. On Saturday we had the ham, crash hot potatoes (red and sweet...YUM!), roasted asparagus, and salad. On Sunday we had Israeli Couscous with grilled vegetables and Mediterranean Chicken Satays. I'd hoped to make pitas and hummus and a few other Mediterranean dishes, but with 2 little ones, conference, and company I decided to keep it simple. It was nice.

It was sad to have them go. We just wish we lived closer than a 14 hour drive! We'll see them again in July for our family reunion. I'm grateful they're such dedicated parents/grandparents. They really try to see every child and grandchild at least once a year. With 7 kids and 20 grandkids spread across the country (from AZ to NY!) that's a real feat! We love you guys!

The little mama

Last Friday I strapped Walt to me in the ergo, and Dean, Walter, and I went into the fabric store and the library. In that one outing 4 people commented on how gigantic Walter was in comparison to me. I have a feeling it won't take long for my boys to surpass me in height. I measured Dean today and while he's not yet 2 1/2 the "he'll end up about double his height at age 2 1/2" puts him at 6 ft. Sounds reasonable. Matt's 6'2". Doesn't this picture just make me look so short? (Ok, I guess it's not the picture. I AM short.)