The past month

I haven't really blogged since Liam was born, and I apologize. It seems like nothing new has been going on. However, I know it's wrong. I'll start with Ty...
Two days before Liam was born, the city's financial system crashed. They lost everything from April until now. Ty was begging me not to go into labor on Monday (the day I did go into labor) because he needed to go to work at least in the morning and talk to his employees. Oops. He missed that day. Anyway, they were able to recover most everything, eventually. Lately though, he has been working a ton of overtime trying to re-enter payroll so they can get everything done they need to for the end of the year.
I am just trying to adjust to life with two kids. Liam still wakes up a couple times a night, so I don't seem to sleep much. The worst was the week everyone but me got the stomach flu. There was one night that I was up with Jordan every other hour, and on the off hour, I was up with Liam. Ugh. My big thing now is learning how to time things. Like, how much time is it going to take me to get me and two kids ready and out the door for church? Or, do I have to feed Liam before I take Jordan to preschool, or can he wait? And if he needs fed before school, how much do I need to shift my morning? It's things like that that I'm trying to get down now.
Jordan is in love with being a big sister!!! She's already taken it upon herself to teach him how to sit. Thankfully she's always holding him, or she has him propped on the middle of the couch, so he won't get hurt if he falls. The one that we did put a stop to was Jordan tyring to teach him to walk. She would pick him up by the hands and "walking" him around the room in order to teach him how to walk. I thought I was going to have a heart attack the first time I saw that happen. Jordan this past month has lost ANOTHER tooth, so the hole in her mouth has grown yet again. We went to the dentist and also discovered her remaining top tooth is also loose. But thankfully after she loses that tooth, no more should come for a while because the permanent teeth aren't close to coming yet. Oh, we also discovered that the permanent tooth she knocked out will likely be coming in in the next couple months. Jordan was excited to hear that. She got to see Santa at her preschool. At first she didn't want to sit on his lap, but I eventually got her to do it. She even sat there with Liam, and her cousin. She also decorated our Christmas tree. So all the ornaments, except the breakable ones, are at the bottom.
The giant hole in Joey's mouth


Santa


Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree...

Liam is growing like a weed. I can't believe how much bigger he is now! He has almost outgrown his 0-3 month clothes! He also seems pretty heavy now. He has really good head control too. I think he developed that out of necessity to survive Jordan. We think Liam has reflux as he constantly spits up, screams if his stomach gets empty, and can't lay on his back (he sleeps in his bouncer). Next week we'll see the dr about that and see if we can get it fixed. Other than that though, he's a great baby. He loves his big sister and loves to smile at the silly things she does. He also won't complain if you want to snuggle with him.

Love this video

I love this video. I think it was way creative and they did a good job with it. It does start part way into the song, but I still love it!

Pictures

Here are some of the cute pictures we have of Liam and Jordan. The ones at the end of the slide are of our little stud in his blessing outfit. He was so handsome!

Thanksgiving

We had a pretty laid-back Thanksgiving this year. We had it with my family (we didn't feel like traveling with a week and a half old baby). All we were asked to bring was my Spiced Peach Jello Salad and my No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake. My brother and his wife came over from Las Vegas along with two of her nieces. We all ate at my sister's house, then either played Apples to Apples or napped. It was fun just hanging out.

Can you tell Liam thought he was starving in this picture?

Just chillin...

I just love these three. It was such a peaceful moment, I had to capture it.

All Joey wants for Christmas is...

... her two front teeth.


Jordan lost her second tooth on Friday, November 20. It was her first tooth that wasn't knocked out though... so that counts for something right? We had sent her to bed like normal, and at around 9:45 (she hadn't yet fallen asleep) she comes out saying something about her teeth, but we sent her back to bed. About 2 minutes later she comes running out of her bedroom saying she lost her tooth. I looked, and sure enough. There was her tooth in her hand and her mouth was bleeding. Great?!? What did she do this time??? She's too young to lose her teeth! But no. I apparently was just wiggly and she was too scared to tell us. She eventually told us that she pulled her tooth out because she was afraid she's swallow it again. Oh, to make it worse... apparently for the last couple weeks when Ty was helping Joey brush her teeth at night, he'd tell her that if she didn't brush her teeth, they'd fall out. So we're in the bathroom cleaning up the blood and she's crying "But I brushed my teeth. Put it back!!" I promised that she wouldn't have to wait long for her new tooth (after losing her first tooth, she was worried she'd have to wait a long time before a new tooth would come in), and thankfully her new "big girl tooth" is well on it's way! Oh, and the bottom tooth next to the missing one is loose already. So it could come out anytime now.
When did she get big enough to lose teeth?

P.S. Want to know how good she is with shapes now? She looks at the hole in her mouth and says "Look, Mom. It's like a hexagon. The hole is a hexagon."

Meet Liam

We would like you all to meet Liam Thomas Staheli. He was born on November 16, 2009 at 3:53 pm. He weighed 8 pounds 9 ounces and was 21 1/4 inches long.

Here are some of the more memorable moments.
11.5 hours of labor seems like nothing compared to the 29.5 hours of labor I had with Jordan. We discovered that epidurals don't work that well... this one only worked for two hours. I learned that the feeling of being on Stadol is... well, you know in movies and on Tv when they show flashbacks to the 70's and someone is stoned... the bright colors flashing. Yeah, that's what it felt like. It wasn't all that weird to have a good friend as the nurse in the room when I delivered him. Ty can't stand while I get and epidural. Literally... He had to sit down and get food so he didn't pass out (good thing I love him anyway huh?). Liam looks a lot like Jordan did... especially the chubby cheeks and dark curly hair. It's kinda hard to be in labor when you have a cold and can hardly breath anyway.
Well, I know there were more, some you guys probably don't want to read about, and some I likely forgot about (it really it just a blur until after I actually had him), so I'll leave you guys with that. Oh, and some more cute pictures.


P.S. Notice that I am not in any of the pictures... well I looked as stoned as the stadol made me feel, so those pictures will never be released to the public. We'll get some pictures with me in them eventually.

Halloween

So Jordan got to dress up three days in a row for Halloween this year. She loved it! The first time was Thursday for her preschool class parade. They parade around the city center (where her preschool is) then on to city hall, so she got to see Ty during her parade. She loved it. She was a cheerleader, and was waving her pom poms the whole time! I did her hair in sponge rollers the night before so her hair was super curly, then we also sprayed glitter all over her hair. (She now thinks she always needs glitter in her hair.) The next day was my sister's ward carnival and trunk or treat and my niece really wanted Joey to come trunk or treating with her, so I put the costume back on and took Joey. She had a blast, though didn't want to do anything at the carnival. I don't know if it's because she doesn't really know many kids besides Nerissa, or what, but all she wanted to do was the sucker pull. She wouldn't get her face painted, do the doughnut eating contest, do the ball toss, be in the costume contest... nothing. Oh well. And lastly, on Halloween, we went to our ward trunk or treat. Joey went around with Bop bop until Nerissa came, then went with Rissy. I thankfully got to stay in the car and pass out candy. And, we actually had no trick or treaters come to our door while we were home. None. And we live on a street that I remember used to have a lot of trick or treaters. Last year even we had kids coming until like 10 pm. But I shouldn't complain because we ran out of candy during the trunk or treat.
So it was a relaxed Halloween for us. Probably because I'm 9 months pregnant and didn't feel like getting too festive for it. Maybe next year we'll do something cool.


Our little cheerleader.

Joey and her friend "D." I have to say that the R2D2 costume was one of the cutest ones I saw!!

Her preschool class.

Baby Shower

So I told you guys that I had a baby shower thrown for me. Well here are the pictures from it.

Silly girl

So Jordan was watching a show (for the life of me I can't remember what show) and they were playing the cup game. You know the one. Where you try to remember what cup the ball is under as they switch them around. Well this is her version of the game. She wanted me to find the penny.


She also has come up with a new pouty face.

We're still here

I just wanted to post to let ya'll know we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. We are still chuggin' along. It just seems like not much is going on for us these days. I am currently just over 36 weeks pregnant. I was taken off work a week ago, so now I spend my days home with Joey (though I was only working while she was at preschool and on Fridays, so she was home with Ty then). I would tell you guys how the pregnancy is progressing, but I'm trying (and usually failing) to live by the Thumper rule. You know "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Let's just leave it at this pregnancy has been tough, and the past couple weeks have truly stretched my patience.
My last day of work, my work threw me a surpise shower. There were things going on that made me wonder if they were up to something, but other things I was totally oblivious about. As they told me some of the things I was oblivious to, I started laughing. Like, they were hiding some important papers from me, so I'd have more work to do that last day, the shower card was passed in front of my nose a few times... things like that. They gave me some cute clothes, but the big thing they did for me, was they all went in on a nice stroller for me. They got me the Sit-n-stand stroller. I'm pretty excited about it, but haven't had Ty put it together yet cuz I know Joey will just want to play on it. The next day my friends threw me a shower. Again, I got lots of cute stuff for this little kid. He sure will be well outfitted and have tons of cute blankets (and they are all so soft).
I can't say we are ready for this kid to come, as I'm not sure what I still really need, but I can say, if he came right now, besides being over the moon about it cuz I wouldn't be pregnant anymore, we'd do all right. We have all the essentials now.
Ty was released from the Elders Quorum Presidency about a month ago. The whole presidency changed, and hopefully the new presidency doesn't have to deal with the problems that Ty and his friends did. So far, no new calling, and he is loving that. However, the executive secretary happens to be a family friend, and has spread word that Ty is free for a calling, so I'm not sure how much longer he'll be free.
Joey is loving pre-school! She constantly asks why she can't go every day. We barely walk out of the classroom when she is trying to tell me all that she did that day and show me all her work. They are working with her on how to write her name correctly in lower case letters. She's getting so excited that her "r" is getting better looking. She loves singing! She loves singing the songs for the primary program to practice. She is paranoid that she doesn't know them all. A friend of mine is in the primary and says that Jordan not only knows all her songs, but is likely to be the star of the program on Sunday. I can't wait to see her up there. It does make me sad cuz my baby isn't a baby anymore.
Well, that's pretty much what's going on with us. I'm not sure when I'll be updating again, but likely before long because Halloween is coming up, and I'm hoping to get cute pictures of Joey in her costume.

B-day gift

So, my birthday was over a month ago, but I'm just getting around to posting about the gift my wonderful hubby got me. Let's rewind first. About a year and a half ago, I discovered that it is possible to become allergic to white gold. That's what my wedding ring is made of. If I wear my ring for more than about 4 hours, my finger blisters and swells and hurts and itches... all at the same time. It takes about a week for the blisters to completely heal. So I haven't been able to wear my wedding ring ever since. Now to my b-day present. It actually came about a week early, but Ty was so excited about it, he couldn't wait to give it to me. He got me a new ring.

It is made of Tungsten Carbide, it won't scratch, the diamonds are inset so they won't hurt the baby, I love that it is a more grey color... basically it's perfect. He says that some day he'll get me a new ring that has a bigger diamond, but I love my ring now! Isn't he such a sweety?

Cookie Mojo

So I've totally lost my cookie mojo. From the time I was little, I loved making cookies. Ok, well I really liked making the batter, and eating the cookies, but hated actually cooking them (I grew up in a large family and always made at least a double, sometimes a triple batch of cookies... so it took FOREVER to cook them all). Anyway, I've totally lost my cookie mojo. I can't make a good cookie anymore. I dunno what happened. The last few batches have come out gross and hardly been eaten before we've decided they were hazardous to our health and just dumped them. I actually have a batch sitting on my counter that is a few days old now that even Joey won't eat. I'm so sad. I hope I find my mojo soon. If anyone has some good recipes, I'm willing to try new ones to help find it.

Silly Daddy

Jordan thinks Ty is silly. One day she said "Dad, you are too silly. We need to find mom a new dad and get her married again." The next day she found that new dad. Her stuffed Scooby Doo. However, later she was playing dress up. When I asked her what she was doing, she told me she was going to marry Scooby Doo. She ran around dancing with him most of the day. It was actually quite entertaining. So I don't know if I'm really supposed to marry Scooby Doo, or if he moved on to her instead.

Preschool

So the reason for the backround is that on September 1, Joey started preschool. She absolutely loves it! She's asking me why she can't go every day. She still only knows the name of one kid (from church), and can't remember her teachers name (I really think she can, but forgets when she gets nervous), but always talks about school. Due to my work schedule, I've only been able to pick her up once from school, but thankfully Ty can usually walk over and get her, then my little brother comes and gets her from him. Once I make it to my parents to get Joey, I ask her what she did at school that day. The most memorable answer yet was "We went to the bathroom." For several hours, that was all she'd tell me about school that day. Another day her answer was "We dug a hole in the dirt and buried two cockroaches." Ah, the things that kids find important.
Anyway, here are the two pictures I got of her on her first day of preschool. She wouldn't just smile for me, so I apologize now for them.

Disneyland

So I told you guys a while ago that we went to Disneyland and that when we got the camera cord I'd post the pictures. Well, now I'm getting to posting the pictures. We were in LA for Ty's work (he had some training down there) and decided to get year passes to Disneyland. We nearly got them back in March when we went, but figured we wouldn't be back in the near future. We were kicking ourselves for that, but oh well. Now we have to go back at least one more time to make the passes worth it. So if anyone goes down and wants some company, give us a call. Here are the pictures.
(Disclaimer-It was 95+ that day and super humid, so in half the pictures we're all sweaty, and in the other half, we had been playing in the water. So don't judge the pictures please.)
The first ride we went on was the Toy Story ride. She loves it!!

Joey took this picture of Ty and I.

Joey and Ty playing in one of the little watering holes for the kids. There are 3 different water stations, and they were all full of kids trying to cool down and have fun.

A different water station where the water shoots from the ground up.

Joey was soaked to the bone from the water, but loved it.

Joey and I on the caterpillar ride.

Joey right before going into the Bug's Life movie. We won't do that again as she hates the movie.

Joey eating her "huge" bite of cotton candy.

Hope ya'll enjoy our pictures. We sure had a lot of fun that day even though we were only there a half day.

Spanish

Joey has decided lately that she knows a lot of spanish. Here are how two conversations (at totally different times) went between her and I yesterday.

Joey: "I know how to say fish in Spanish."
Me: "Oh yeah, how?"
Joey: "Yeah, it's 'Goldfish.' That's how they say fish in Spanish."

Later last night-

Joey: "I know how to say blanket in Spanish."
Me: "Ok, tell me how to say blanket in Spanish."
Joey: "'Blankie'. Cuz they all say they have a blankie, not a blanket."

And the thing is, you can't argue with this kid. First off, she'd defend herself until you just quit. But secondly, and mostly, you can't argue cuz you are too busy laughing.

Mommy's Magic

Joey loves to make up songs. She also loves to take songs she knows and change the words to make her own songs. Ty started singing the song "Oh, Oh, it's magic" (not really sure if those are the lyrics), and Joey took the song and put her words in. Here is how her song turned out.
Oh Oh, mommy's magic, because she's nice, and funny, and gorgeous, and silly, and beautiful, and sometimes not nice.

Not a toddler anymore

I think tonight Joey is going to bed feeling like a big girl. Wanna know why? Cuz she's sleeping tonight in her brand new big girl bed! We finally bought a mattress for her bed (which we bought two weeks ago) and put together her bed. She's in love with it and helped us put it together (which was super easy!!!!!!!!!! Another reason to love Ikea furniture).

The closet... again

So, we finally did finish her closet. Well, except for a few last parts to paint white on the outside trim, and the closet doors, but other than that it's done. The shelves turned out great. Thanks Ty for all the hard work and putting up with me. If you don't look too close, you don't notice all the little things that should have been done different. But it looks good and works great! I didn't get before pictures, so imagine it without the shelves and this ugly off white color that is 20+ years old, so it's dirty. Oh, and the closet had huge holes all through it from wire shelving that we had to patch as well. But here is the finished shelving.
Please ignore the mess... I promise, when I first finished it, her closet was way clean and organized... then we had her friends over, and this is how it ended.


Notice the shelf across the bottom? That's probably what was most difficult to figure out how to put in, but I'm in love with it! I love that her shoes go on top of it and her toys have easy access underneath it. And I can still move everything and vacuum.
Her closet doors I will probably work on throughout the week as I don't work a lot this week. We are painting them with chalkboard paint so Joey and her friends can color all over them. I'm way excited about how it will look all done!

Great Grandparents Staheli

So on our trip home from Utah (I promise, this is the last of my Utah pictures), we decided to detour and stop in Enterprise and visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Staheli. Grandma was surprised to see us as the message never reached her that we were coming, but Grandpa knew. It was a nice break in the trip, and so good to see them! Ty and I were trying to figure out the last time we had been to Enterprise and seen them there, and we think it was around Easter just after Joey was born... so 3.5 years ago. Too long. Anyway, Grandma made us yummy chicken salad sandwiches for dinner and called over some cousins. Here are our pictures with the cousins and with Grandma and Grandpa.

I just love how cute and little this miniature horse is!!!

Some day...

So a week ago we were going to go to the beach, but plans changed. We ended up going to Disneyland instead. I do have pictures, but I don't know where the cord is to download them. So, someday when the cord is found, I'll post some pictures of us at Disneyland. Want to know the highlight of the trip? At California Adventures, in the kiddie section, they have 3 different water stations where the kids and get soaked. Joey loved it!

The closet

So I have spent the weekend painting Joey's closet. It took like 4 hours and almost an entire gallon of paint, I still have some trim to finish, and I have to paint the doors to her closet. But the inside of the closet is done (finally). Riki, I'm sorry, I didn't take pictures of what it looked like before the painting, but since Ty is putting custom shelves in her closet this week, I'll get pictures of before and after so you guys can see. It has to be done this week because currently everything that was in her closet is all over her bed and strewn about her room. Can you say major disaster? It looks like several tornadoes touched down in her bedroom. So, until her closet is done, she's sleeping on the hide-a-bed in the living room.

Great Grandma

So while in Utah (yes, I'm still posting pictures from that trip), Ty and I decided to go to the Manti Temple and do a session. It's only the second time we've been there since we got married, but the first time for a session. It was fun to be able to go. I totally forgot how beautiful that part of Utah is. It sometimes does make me miss Snow College, but then I get over it. Anyway, after our session at the temple, we decided to drive a little more and go visit Grandma Christensen. It was good to go visit her. Nana and Bop-bop drove Joey over later and met up with us at Grandma Christensen.






As you can tell from all the pictures I ever post, I'm always the one holding the camera.