My #1

It has been nearly 9 years since Marc and I first met at BYU. It's interesting to reflect on first meetings of people who are close to me now because of course I had no idea these people would become so influential. Marc and I first met when we both happened to be in my neighbors' apartment at the same time on the first weekend of school. I had an instant connection with his roommate as we discovered through the "where are you from" then "do you know. . ." questions that I had attended my senior homecoming dance with his cousin. On a side note that was perhaps the worst date of my life!!! Anyway, I became friends with Marc and his roomy but not best friends or hang out friends. If we saw each other at the Cougar Eat we'd eat lunch together or something but other than that we didn't see much of each other except when we attended church on Sundays because we were in the same ward. I have snapshot memories of him for most of the fall and part of the winter semesters--he bleached his hair for Halloween, (it looked awful until it grew out to tips because of his dark complexion) we sat and chatted over Jamba Juice in the Wilk sometime after Thanksgiving, he visited my apartment for the first time right before Christmas break, I visited his dorm for the first time sometime in January. The roller coaster began around Valentine's Day when he couldn't decide if we were dating or not acknowledging each other at all and that ride lasted until April--almost an eternity. In April we were for sure dating, but very casually, and then that was it. The year was over I was going home for the summer and he was off to Brazil for two years. But since April 1999 he's been my #1.

Like I said, it is funny to reflect on these things because how could we have known then that we'd be where we are now--5 years married, 2 adorable boys, living in Colorado Springs starting our first job. I am so proud of my hubby--last week he passed his state board exam and finished his 480 summer clinical hours. He's official now and we couldn't be more excited.

Anderson is 11 months!

At 11 months here are Anderson's stats:

• approx. 25 pounds

• approx. 30 inches

• crawls & cruises fast

• has 2 bottom teeth and 3 tops--almost 4

• feeds himself every meal except yogurt and oatmeal and has an insatiable appetite
  
  
• is 2 or 3 feedings away from being completely weened (I'm doing a feeding every other day or so to ease off for my sake!!)

• drinks milk, water, and juice from a sippy (Carter is always sure he knows which sippy is his--we don't share sippys or blankets in our house)
  
  


• says mama, dada, & baba but doesn't associate these with anything yet
  


• makes the monkey sound and fish sound (smacking lips) but again without association


• continues to be a terrible errand runner and traveler

• threatens to be a bit more demanding than his older brother he already cries hysterically if he doesn't get what he wants. Is that suppose to happen yet!?!?

I am so infatuated with him and he continues to be the most kissable little boy with his perfectly chubby cheeks and pouty bottom lip. We're excited to celebrate his birthday next month.

Catch 22

Does anyone else feel this way? You look in the mirror in the morning, then take a closer look and think, Is this really my face? I just turned 27--I know, it's really not that old--but deep inside I'm starting to panic because my face is already changing. At a glance you wouldn't notice, but of course I do because it's my face we're talking about. I have a few broken capillaries and another blemish that is like a small simple bump with a gray mark way beneath the surface. I'm not sure what it is but every time I look in the mirror I think, What the heck is that thing? and it bugs me. Let's not even mention those fine lines that are creeping in on my forehead and between my eyebrows--frown lines that many of my mom's sisters have. I'd like to be able to say that at 27 I haven't even given a thought to cosmetic procedures, but I have and I'm not opposed to them and yes I've thought about botox already. YIKES! I just don't want my body to get old which is totally a catch 22 in my book because I don't want to be young either. My "being too young" age insecurity stems from years back when I was 19 and these two guys I hung around began calling me "fetus" because they thought I was just a spring chicken compared to their 21 years. (Don't miss the sarcasm in my writing there please!) I don't like being thought of as young because that connotes inexperienced and immature, two things I don't want to be! Where does that leave me? I don't want to be young or old, but is middle aged any better? Probably not because mid life crisis is a well used phrase in our language.

Mixed With Love

Today is my mom's birthday. Yesterday we planned a family dinner for her and I was in charge of the cake. There is one cake my mom used to make when I was younger that was so moist and rich and delicious it did not require frosting and that is the cake I decided to make--a chocolate zucchini cake--YUM. Carter wanted to help. He unwrapped the chocolate squares and put them in the bowl for me to melt. He cracked the eggs with a knife and helped me put them in a bowl. (This is a new task Grandma Phillips taught him when we were in Idaho) After I measured each of the ingredients he dumped them in the bowls and he held my wrist as I mixed it all with our hand held mixer. It was the sweetest moment when, after turning off the mixer, his small hand still grasping my wrist, he looked at me and said, "Mom, I wuv you." (I love you). It's the second time he has said that to me out of the blue this week and it melts my heart each time because it is always so unexpected. After all the electric mixing was done we had to fold in the zucchini which both concerned and disgusted him because with a furrowed brow and a scrunched nose he told me not to put the grass in the cake. I guess grated zucchini does look a bit like grass. He was such a great cake maker and he was so excited to give his gift, mixed with love, to grandma for her birthday. When it came time to sing happy birthday and blow out the candles he got so excited he couldn't even keep his tongue in his mouth (Look closely at the picture.) and he helped with blowing out the candles. Carter is learning very quickly to love birthdays (burpbays as he calls them)--his and everyone elses too.

Simple Pleasures

When Carter started playing with the water fountain this year at the Woolstenhulme family reunion I had to immediately snap some pictures because I was having a major flashback! The reunion is always held at the same pavilion by the lake and two years ago, Carter loved playing in the water at the exact same fountain. It's picture comparisons like this that are priceless--I love how Carter's chubby, clumsy fingers have turned into independent and capable hands.

Wide Open Spaces

The Family Reunions--

It's that time of year again--family reunion time. Every year Marc's extended family holds family reunions up in the Bear Lake Valley in the south east corner of Idaho. His mom's side of the family has their reunion on the last Saturday of July, his dad's side on the first Saturday of August. It works out perfectly since both of his parents grew up in the same small town and their parents--all still alive and in good humor--are still living there now. Last year we didn't make the trip because I was 7 1/2 months preggo, so this year, even though Marc is in the middle of his internship and studying for his boards, we took the 8 hour (10 hours with kids) drive through the wide open spaces of Wyoming into the wide open spaces of south eastern Idaho. Both reunions were held at Bear Lake with the highlights being a fried chicken lunch complete with homemade root beer and lots of cookies to which Carter helped himself to lots, a "guess how many candies are in the jar" game, (this year between the two reunions, we won 4 jars of candy which makes up for not ever winning in the previous 5 years. Carter was lucky enough to win the exact jar he had been eyeing!), and kayaking in the lake. Yes, the reunions were practically identical this year, though we usually have the first one at the lake and the second one at the cabins--Marc's family and his aunt and uncles family have cabins practically next to each other near Emigration Canyon. Yes, these were family reunions, but unfortunately we didn't get to see much of Carter's cousins. I guess with growing families and busy schedules, it is getting more difficult to get everyone together at the same time. We did enjoy the few minutes we had to see them, though.

A Visit to Grandma & Grandpa's

We spent the week that was flanked by the reunions at Grandma and Grandpa's house doing what there is to do in a small farming town of 2500. (Picture it, looking out the window and seeing your cousin driving a big old tractor down the highway that runs through town--that's one thing that happened this week. We're definitely not in Kansas anymore, Toto!) Every time I'm in Montpelier, I think of the movie Cars and every time I see Cars I think of Montpelier. The town is small and though many of the businesses on Main Street seem to be flourishing, there are also a lot of boarded up brick buildings and I, like Sally, try to imagine it when it was in its prime, though I'm not sure any of the businesses ever had neon signs. Pretty much what is to be done is done outside. Carter spent time with Dad and Grandpa four wheeling, shooting BB guns (I just found that out this morning when we were looking at our pictures from last week!), riding a peddle boat around a reservoir, riding around the back yard on a riding lawn mower and trying to feed the horse in G & G's back yard, only to find out after many days of trying--the silly horse didn't eat carrots or sugar cubes, only grass. What horse won't eat a carrot? On Tuesday we made a quick trip to Rexburg to see Aunt Allison who is going to BYU-I up there. I'd never been to Rexburg so I wanted to see it before she graduates next year and I'd never have a good excuse to go there again. While there, G & G Baer were driving through on their way to a family reunion in Washington so we all had a pizza picnic in the park before heading back down to Montpelier. Carter also got to play around in Marc's uncles tractor collection--he has like 30 or something--while he cleaned out his barns and see some cool caves. Carter came down with croup midway through the week which thwarted a few of the other plans we had made. He moped around and wheezed and coughed while we tried to make him comfortable. Grandpa finally called the local doc to see if we could make a visit. He kindly just called in a prescription which saved us a lot of money. I guess small town kindness is definitely a perk. The highlight of my week was learning a new knit stitch which will help me along with one of my projects I have on a back burner--knitting Christmas stockings like the ones I grew up having. It might sound lame, but I'm super excited about that! We headed back last night and got in super late. Unfortunately Anderson came down with croup during the trip but it seems to be a more mild case so we're spending th

e day trying to recoup and get ready for a few more long weeks of internship before Marc gets his first paycheck. (yea!) Despite bad sunburns and the croup we really had a great vacation--we feel like we've been gone for months in just one week.