Won't try that again!

I haven't posted most of December because I really haven't had many spare moments. Last year I was put on bed rest for a week then told to relax for the rest of my pregnancy. Fortunately, I had most everything done and I hadn't decided to tackle any big projects. Two years ago I had all my wrapping and shopping done the first week of December. This year I tried something completely different. I decided to behave like a crazy person. I must have assumed that I had some super powers in reserve or something...cause I bit off a bit more than I could chew.

We got new family pictures since we have none with Sawyer in them. He is almost a year old. We got them so we could give them to our parents for Christmas and we could send them in our annual Christmas letter. Landon did not want to smile in the pictures, although he has fond memories of throwing rocks in the river and our photographer, Pam, taking lots of pictures. I did write and send over 50 Christmas letters. Let me know if you want to be included or don't want to be included for next years edition.

We had a lot of family here for the holidays. My dad came in for a weekend and my brother Matt's family came for 2 weeks. We celebrated my brother Jake's birthday, my niece Mattie's birthday, and my sister-in-law Sara's birthday this month. Landon is just counting down to how many more birthdays before his. We had a great time with our family.

On the weekend of the 14th, I sang in a choir that performed "The Messiah." We get to do it every two years and it is very enjoyable to participate in singing such challenging music. It is also a lot of time commitment. I did however decline an opportunity to play the trumpet in another concert. Just too much to do.

(pictures coming soon)

Dancing Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Curious about our Halloween?

Each morning Landon wakes up and wants 4 things:

1. Daddy

2. Apple Juice

3. Cinnamon Toast Eggo Waffle

4. George (Curious George cartoon begins at 8 am)

He curls up with his blanket and watches the shenanigans of the little monkey. The show is his favorite and he even owns pajamas with George on them. So in consideration of what we should be for Halloween, we decided he would likely wear a costume if he could be George. Brian has the exact build of "The Man in the Yellow Hat" who is George's caretaker. On the show there is a lady scientist that comes and helps out from time to time. I borrowed a lab coat from Brian so I could be the scientist and I went to work to create the rest of the costumes. Baby Sawyer was another George.

Corinne decided to be a baby. I tried to convince her that being a baby was completely un-original and was one of those costumes you decide to do if you lack creativity and another costume. She insisted on it. I found out from a neighbor of mine who has 5 daughters that sometime between 4th and 6th grade, all of her girls had to dress up like a baby. Corinne's best friend was a baby also..... Corinne was a cute baby, and I am glad to know it is a phase and not a lack of creativity.

On Halloween night Brian took the kiddos around the neighborhood. The weather was SOOO nice. We could've stayed out forever. Brian carried Sawyer because he was so content in his little monkey suit. Brian probably got the most stares of anyone because litle kids were in awe that the Man in the Yellow Hat was actually in the neighborhood. Brian was a sport for dressing up in the yellow costume. No other parents were dressed up....party poopers. Brian would usually be one of those poopers but he said he really enjoyed dressing up with his family and especially his little boy monkeys. He made the evening for lots of little kids on the street. We got a ton of candy and we went and visited grandmas to close out the night. We met up with some cousins at Grandma Anderson's house. Its time to start thinking about what we will be next year.

Movin' and a Shakin'

Some of the items that were recently okay for Landon to play with are now off limits. Sawyer is mobile. He can crawl and once he reaches a destination, he can pull himself up to stand. We've had to explain to Landon that money, marbles, crayons, and some magnets are just too small for Sawyer to get ahold of since they would end up in his mouth. Sawyer doesn't like to venture out onto the hardwood floor yet, but I am sure he'll be there soon.

Three Band-aids

The surgery was sucessful. I had 2 extra electrical passages in my heart. The doctors sedated me with Versedt which is supposed to do the job with 2 doses, but they had to give me 10. It is supposed to cause amnesia, but I remember waking up and talking to the doctors twice, and another time I woke up and thought it was weird that the doctors could speed up and slow down my heart rate at will. It felt very funny. I took Sawyer with me in the morning and nursed him right before they took me in for the actual procedure. I was happy to find out that I could nurse Sawyer again 6 hours after my last dosage of medication. Sawyer was the most happy about that. I was a little dizzy before I left the hospital, and then I got nauseous. When I got my balance I was released to go home and I threw up in the lobby. After that I felt fine. The only evidence of heart surgery I came home with was 3 band-aids. No stiches, no heavy meds. One bandaid on each side of the groin, and one on my neck.
I wasn't able to lift anything heavier than 10 pounds so my mother-in-law and sister-in-law came over to help me take care of the kids. I am better now and am looking forward to Sawyer sleeping through the night. Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes!

Countdown= 1 Week

I scheduled my procedure (surgery) for my heart for October 13th. I actually went to the doctor at the end of August, but I knew we had some things going on that I didn't want to miss like the BYU game, Primary Program, and I needed to buy some time to teach Sawyer how to eat.

Well, we went to Utah and had a marvelous time. Aunt Mary threw a "Pirate Party" for us while we were there. (Actually the party was for her friends...we were just fortunate enough to come on the right weekend.) We also got to go to the zoo one day with our niece and her children.

Then we went to the BYU game. We received updates from my mom and Corinne's dad on the score of the BSU game that happened simultaneously. Both BYU and BSU won. We visited with friends and family. The kiddos traveled well and we think we may make BYU an annual trip, much to the dismay of Brian.....(he's really elated that I actually suggested it).

Our Primary Program went really well and I am SO happy it is done. I am the chorister and I wasn't there for the practice a week before the program. For a little Primary, they sang so well. I know a replacement for me is trying to be found because Sawyer makes the calling a little difficult. I will miss the Primary kids if I get released, but church will be a lot easier if I do. Anyway, I love the Primary Program even though it is a little stressful on the chorister.

Now teaching Sawyer to eat has been the biggest adventure of all. I know you should never compare your child's progress to other kids...BUT!....Beth's baby, Daniel, is the same age as Sawyer and he eats 2 size 2 baby foods and a bowl of rice cereal in one sitting! He has no problems drinking from a bottle. He'll take juice, or formula...no problem. I am sure he even has steak on Friday nights...okay maybe not yet since he has no teeth. Sawyer on the other hand now takes 2 sittings to finish a size 1 baby food, and will eat 5-10 bites of rice cereal. This is a major accomplishment. He fought me for 3 hours last Friday to take a bottle of breast milk, and I rejoiced when he got too tired to fight anymore and commenced sucking about an ounce of milk from the bottle. I am up for more battles every day until he will take it without fighting for hours and actually stay awake. Another victory this week is that he slept 3 times through the night. We will keep working on him.

Other than our sweet (and stubborn) baby, I don't have many concerns about the surgery next week. I hope they will tell me that I only have to stop nursing for 2 days or a short time like that. I hope Sawyer will let Brian get some sleep since I shouldn't really lift him for a few days. We will let you know how it goes.

Before I forget....Alaska!

This blog might have to come in two segments because we have almost 700 pictures from our trip. Most are from Brian. He was able to borrow a really nice camera and he took it on excursions to the National Parks while we were in Alaska. My younger brother and his family are stationed in Anchorage with the Air Force. They just had their 3rd baby, Maylee, about a month before we arrived. We got a great deal on air fare and since we were able to obtain free lodging as well, our whole family went for our summer vacation.

As I said, Brian took off and went to go see the National Parks. He has a goal to visit them all and Alaska holds 8 of them. Since I have little ones I didn't think it would be fun to sit on a bus...or fly in a plane for hours and trying to take care of the kids. I was content to stay with my sister-in-law, Tommi, and her kids back at the house. Brian took my brother, Matt, and went to Wrangell and Denali National Parks.

My Mom flew up because Matt and Tommi decided to bless Maylee the Sunday we were there. Tommi was so excited because as we were out for a walk, the mail truck came with a delivery for them. Tommi had ordered some instruments for the kids and had been waiting for a while to get them. She opened the box right outside and we started a band! We had a clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, and violin. They already had a violin/guitar for the kids. We started rockin' right there and had so much fun!

We went to a place called the Arctic something on the Air force base. It is a really cool place with an indoor playground, mini-golf, gym equipment, and a Rock climbing wall. Corinne was so awesome on that wall! she just kept trying and trying until she reached the top. Everyone at the bottom had great suggestions for her on how to reach the top, but we didn't realize how difficult it was till we strapped up. WOW! I almost made it, but not quite.

Someother things we did while the boys were away were play cards, make friendship bracelets, and snuggled with the babies. I was painting my nails and Landon and Tayson were the most intrigued by it. Since their dads were gone I decided to paint one of their big toes. They loved it.

My dad also came up to visit and be there for the blessing. It was still cold there, but Anchorage has this indoor water park. Our little camera didn't take very good pictures indoors, and I can't seem to get the pictures from the disk that Tommi sent, so no pictures of the park. No one wants to see us in our suits anyway! The park was really cool though. They had a roller coaster slide that shot you up on your raft. Corinne took turns taking someone up with her all day. They had a kids area with a pirate ship, and a wave pool. We had a great time.

Brian spent the day, while we were at the water park, at another National Park. This one he had to take a chartered plane to a remote location. It was Lake Clark National park where they are notorious for their wildlife...especially the bears. Brian got up close, but not too personal with the bears (Brian said about 20 feet away). He said it was so worth it. The pictures he got were great! He flew in a plane that landed on a beach . Very cool!

We sang at church on Sunday, and Maylee received a beautiful blessing. Matt cooked some "real Alaska salmon" and steaks for us. I can't wait for him to bring back some real halibut!

On Monday we all took off on a drive to Kenai Fjords National Park. While in Seward we boarded a boat that took us on a day cruise through the park fjords. I am sure all of the other people on the boat thought they booked their cruise on the wrong day since we had a group of 11 consisting of 5 adults and 6 children. All except Corinne were 3 or younger. Nuts right? The park is home to a lot of wildlife including the humpback whales. There were a ton of different species of birds, like puffins, gulls, canaries, penguin-looking birds. I wasn't really paying a lot of attention to the birds. The whales were awesome though. Landon found them fascinating. They would blow bubbles and come up out of the water. It is amazing how large they are. We also saw this beautiful glacier called Colgate glacier. Corinne became a junior park ranger by completing a workbook and taking a solemn pledge to enjoy the outdoors and visit another national park.

Tuesday we left for home completely exhausted from the week. Brian said we should schedule a slow down day at the end of vacation. I know him too well and said that if we had an extra day he would fill it up full with more to see and do. He told me he gave me time to "relax" on this vacation since he didn't shuffle me around from place to place and just left me at home with the kids. HA! I told him that although Alaska was wonderful, it did not constitute a relaxing vacation, especially when you have the kids. I told him that I would be taking a ladies cruise in the future...no kids...just relax with other girls who need a break too. Any takers?

Really? Now????

Brian was called into the bishopric. He is the new 2nd counselor for our ward and I am the newest "widow" on Sundays, Wednesdays, and whenever anyone calls. I know, I know, everyone has said that they weren't surprised, but we were! We had been looking to find a bigger place and Brian is one of the youngest men in our ward. I have 3 kids, 2 that are young, one that is nursing, and the other is attached to Brian. I supposed that it might happen some day, but now? Landon did well today on his first Sunday without Dad. I had some difficulty making it through the rest of Primary leading the music with Sawyer. We'll have to figure it out. All I know is that I am so proud of me because I got all three kids ready and to church on time with 5 minutes to spare!

Family Reunion

Brian's family had a reunion over the fourth of July weekend. We took our trailer and Grandma and went to Willow Flats camp ground just south of Preston. We had a good time with cousins. Landon just followed everyone around and copied whatever they were doing. A couple of times he would grab one of his uncles and have them take him to see the river. He loves the outdoors and his uncles. Our great-niece, Emma, got very dirty while crawling around the camp. She was forced to take a bath and she let everyone know how she felt about it!


So we have realized that when you have two small children...it's not that you don't have energy to take lots of pictures of them....you just don't have an extra hand to pick up the camera and take a picture with it. Consequently, we don't have a picture of our trailer while it was set up, but we have a picture of Brian's nice truck with the trailer folded down behind it. Landon loves the trailer and he loves getting stories read to him at night. He moves across the bed while he sleeps so we had to place bags in between the beds to give Grandma her own space. Landon was really excited because some of the extended family brought their dog, Sunny, who was a big Great Dane. She was only 9 months old but still much taller than Landon is.


At Willow Flats there is a trailhead that takes you on a hike to these springs. The water comes gushing out of the mountain and creates this beautiful river and waterfalls. Along the hike there are meadows with wildflowers and butterflies everywhere. There are some split log bridges to cross over the river a few times. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous! The picture of the water coming out of the mountain doesn't do it justice, but it really is amazing the amount of water there was!

This is one of our favorite pictures from the trip...and possibly one of our favorite pictures ever of Landon and his daddy. After our hike, Landon was tuckered out and while Daddy gave him a ride on his shoulders, he rested his head and fell asleep. It was a great reunion and we had so much fun.

Introductions

I had never been up to my Grandpa Rohloff's farm in Washington. It is way up north, close to the Canadian border. Since Sawyer is still attached to me for food, I took him with us to go with my mom, to gather some keepsakes from Grandpa. He and Grandma are trying to sell the farm as is has gotten to be too much to take care of, and both of their health is declining. I am trying to convince them to move to Boise so they can be close to family. Then we could introduce them to the rest of their great-grandkids. Sawyer liked it there very much and was a super traveler. I wish I had a picture with my Grandma in it too, but she got them on her camera I think.

One valuable lesson I learned while there is to never eat food at a Mexican joint named after a dog. (Chihuahua's) I am having to start all over for my no-puking streak. That was a rough night!

Memory Tag!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember, good or bad but be nice please!:)

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.Have fun!

MOOOOOOO!

Brian was out of town on a campout with the scouts and I was wondering what to do with myself and the boys on a Friday night. My mother-in-law called and invited me to go with her to Meridian Dairy Days Parade. In the 19 years I have lived in Idaho, I have never attended the parade, and I felt that Landon was probably just the right age that he would enjoy a good parade so I packed up he kids and we went.

It was so much fun. Landon thought it was great, mostly because people were throwing candy at him, and there were cows walking in the middle of the street. There were some kids in a group next to us and Landon was isolated from them a bit so when the parade people would drop candy they would give a handful to the group, and an equal sized handful to Landon. He made out like a bandit. Since it was the Dairy Parade, we also got a bunch of string cheese, chocolate milk, and frozen yogurt. I brought home 2 new shirts that were given to the crowd. Landon threw a football back and forth with someone from the high school team. Sawyer jumped a lot when the sirens went off on the fire trucks. Landon even placed his hand over his heart when the American flag marched by. I think it may become a new tradition. We were glad Grandma Jensen made the suggestion to go.

Back in the Band!

I played trumpet in high school and college and I was actually pretty good at it for a while. When my sister, Beth, came to me and told me about a musical production she was in I could tell the people must be desperate for trumpet players. It had been over 6 years since I had even picked up my dear trumpet, and about 11 years since I had played regularly. I agreed to play and It was so wonderful. We did a production called "Joseph Smith, the Prophet." I actually could play the high notes and was complimented by a few people on my skills. The message of the production was powerful, and I cried each time we perfomed. It was also a pleasure to meet and associate with some new people. Brian was supportive, yet terrified to be responsible to watch both Landon and Sawyer. I will probably have to wait to attempt to play in anything else for a while, but I was so happy to play my trumpet again.

Just in case you didn't catch that I am a band geek, the Drum and Bugle Corps came into town also. I went to their show and cheered loudly for Santa Clara Vanguard, Phantom Regiment, and the Blue Devils. Phantom Regiment should've won the night, but they got 2nd place. Corinne went with me and although she enjoyed it, she says she doesn't have any burning desire to be in marching band.

Double digits

Corinne is the big 1-0! Which makes me the big o-l-d! We had a swimming party for her friends and even though the water was a steamy 67 degrees, her little friends jumped on in. We also watched some of the movie Enchanted where all girls were required to chime in when the songs were sung. It was very cute hearing 10 girls singing in the next room.

Our family also got together that night for a celebration. We love Corinne and we all can't believe how fast she is growing up.

My niece Katy really enjoyed the chocolate cake. She turned 1 at the end of June.

Don't feed me that!

It is amazing how past experiences can scar you for life and make you behave a certain way. Corinne was a terrible nurser, mostly due to her being so sick with jaundice and the hospital staff giving her a bottle. I fought with her and gave up after 4 weeks of miseryand zero weight gain, and everything turned out okay. After all, she really liked the bottle. She never liked cereal and would never take anything except for a bottle.

With Landon I was determined to get the nursing process down and after three months of soreness, 2 bouts of mastitis, and 2 rounds of thrush, we finally got it. I tried to introduce a bottle after 4 months and he would have nothing of it, but he did enjoy cereal.

I tried to find a happy medium with Sawyer, but alas...my fear of him not being able to nurse well, had me introducing a bottle at 2 months, but then not again until after 4 months. He does not like the bottle, and will not take one. He also is not fond of cereal. I gave it to him for a first try, and he just kept it hanging out of his mouth on his tongue. Now when I try to feed him cereal he just yells at me as if to say, " I already told you I hate it!!!!!"

So, Sawyer is a good nurser, but I am the only source of acceptible food for him. It greatly limits my ability to leave him with anyone for longer than a couple of hours. I keep trying and hopefully he'll start liking some other foods soon. Plus, it would be really nice to get him full enough that he will sleep through the night.

85 and Still Alive!

We went to Sandy, Utah for my grandpa's 85th birthday over Memorial Day weekend. As we all loaded into the car, Sawyer was having a screaming fit for the third time in a 24 hour period so we stopped by the Doc-in-the-box on the corner and found out that he had his first ear infection. We filled a prescription before we hit the road and for the most part...he did a great job. I remember having bad ear infections when I was small and they were highly unpleasant! We set up our new-to-us camping trailer in my grandparent's driveway and camped out there for the weekend. The kids loved it and it gave us a quiet place to nap while the chaos of the Anderson family was all around.

For the months prior to the party I worked tirelessly on two projects to present to my grandpa for his birthday. I think someone should stop me before I endeavor to do something like this again! It took a lot of effort to gather everyone's pictures and messages for the Grandpa book, but then, after grandpa opened it, I guess the effort was worth it. He really liked the book. Then I drew pictures and compiled some stories to make coloring books for all the posterity. That also turned out nice and grandpa and the kids all thought it was pretty special. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful grandfather. He means the world to me and I am glad we were able to attend this event. It was wonderful to see most of my very large family there and to share with one another. I love you Family!!!!

Have you missed me?

I realize it has been over a month since I last posted. Life is so busy with the kids and summer and life! Landon is such a busy two year old. We have nicknamed him "Tornado Landon" since he can have our house a wreck in 2 minutes flat with all his toys and puzzles! Landon has a whole lot of personality that keeps us laughing. Sawyer continues to grow so quickly and I can't believe he is 5 months old. He got over his colicky stage and went right into ear infections. His first lasted about a month and went through 3 rounds of antibiotics. I think he might be getting his second...but I hope not :(. He is a sweet baby when he is feeling well. I hope he learns to sleep through the night soon. Corinne finished up fourth grade and got all A's on her report card. She spends an awful lot of summer at her dad's due to the custody schedule, so we love to have her back whenever she gets to visit. She turned 10 and I feel so old now. I spent a fair amount of time in May preparing for my grandpa's 85th birthday. I put together a book with pictures from all his posterity and letters from a lot of them. It was a huge project, but I think it meant a lot to him. I also put together a coloring/activity book, that had stories about Grandpa, for all the grandchildren. I gathered stories and drew pictures. Beth also contributed with some activity pages. I got to do something really fun. I was a part of a musical production put on by the Church Educational System about Joseph Smith. I got to play my trumpet and I really enjoyed it. We had 3 different performances and they all stressed Brian out since he was in charge of watching Sawyer. It had been over 6 years since I had even picked up my trumpet to play, but I found out that i've still got it! Well, I still have most of it...some of it is gone... but I had enough to pull off some difficult pieces. We took a road trip to Washington to visit my mom's parents and to claim some items that Mom would like to have from her dad. it was a good visit and Sawyer was a good traveler. We just returned yesterday from the Jensen family reunion where we went camping with Brian's family. We had a great time but we are so tired. I am really sore with my back, partly from carrying Sawyer, and I took a bad fall a few weeks ago. Camping out probably didn't help, but the chiropractor is becoming my friend. I also will be going to see the cardiologist about my heart condition which my family doc identified as PSVT. I will probbaly have a procedure done before the end of this year to correct it, so if you hear about a heart surgery...it is not really a big deal. I will just be grateful to have it fixed and normal. That has been my last couple of months in a nutshell. I will elaborate with pictures and everything when I get spare moments. I get few of those nowadays. I check on all my fellow bloggers a lot so keep posting and I will try to do better. I have to get caught up on my blogs before we take our trip to Alaska at the end of this month. Love ya'll!

How does your garden grow?

Brian built garden boxes for his mom and our family. Landon watched the whole thing and even watched Grandma Jensen plant some things for the garden. When we went out to plant our seeds for a Family Home Evening activity, we found that Landon had already started our garden. We found several screws planted in the dirt and just had to laugh.

After we cleaned the screws out of the garden box we started planting. We first planted a tomato plant. Then we planted a couple rows of carrots and peas. We got some strawberries and potatoes too. Corinne was a big help and we are looking forward to a small crop this year.

Next we need to overcome some obstacles if we ever are to get anything from our garden. The first obstacle is me. I am NOT good with plants. If I stay away, the garden will have a 95% better chance of producing. The next obstacle has been the weather. We hope it can make up it's mind soon and decide to stay warm enough to grow our plants. Buddy is a good dog but he can be an obstacle to our potatoes. They are planted in the corner where he likes to dig and lay in the dirt. Our last and unexpected obstacle is my nephew, Jonas. He came over and managed to get himself so dirty playing in the garden. We may have to replant the carrots and peas because nothing is happening yet.