Yes, I am a Nerd and I Married a Nerd!

I have no illusions about my nerd status, I was raised by a nerd (my dad, mom symbolized some sense of normality in our house, well kind of) and I married a nerd (they really do make the best husbands) and our kids will have some sort of nerd-esque quality about them. I have come to terms with it and I have accepted it, all is well.

Anyway, to prepare us for the final installment of Harry Potter, Stephen and I decided to have a Harry Potter movie marathon. And what would make our movie marathon more exciting? Building Hogwarts out of Legos. I know, the perfect nerd combination. It was basically awesome!

We finished with the first half of the 7th movie the night before we went to see the final movie and I'm glad we did because I would have forgotten too much between movies. Needles to say Harry Potter 7 Part 2 was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! I loved it!

Now if the previous confessions have not cemented my nerdiness then this next part should. The next day we decided we needed to take pictures of all our hard work and we needed to reenact the final battle scenes with the Lego people. Furthermore I feel compelled to share these pictures with the blogosphere, enjoy.

The Inside of "Hogwarts"
The Griffondor Common Room
Dumbledor's Office
The Great Hall
The Exterior of Hogwarts
Protecting the Gates
The "Good Guys" *Note the AWESOME expressions on their faces!
The "Bad Guys"
Neville Killing Nagini (one of my favorte parts!)
The Final Face-off

Feelings of Inadequacy

Lately I've been struggling with feelings of inadequacy. I've been pretty sick the last few weeks and I haven't been able to take care of Will the way I feel like I should and it has caused no end of guilt. Last night I broke down and balled, partially due to the fact it's that time of the month for me, but mostly because I just don't feel like a good enough mother. I know that I'm not a bad mother, Will has never gone without a meal and is always clean and well kept but my house is a mess, I rarely make dinner, some days it's a struggle to shower.

Amidst all my sobbing, Stephen came home and immediately told me I was an amazing mother and that I should be proud of the things I do do. While this was nice to hear, it wasn't what helped me through and changed my perspective. Stephen also mentioned that I don't have to be the best mother but as long as I do the best I can with what I have, that's all that matters, the Lord will make up the difference.

I realized that I am doing the best that I can, I won't always be sick (well, knowing me, maybe I will) and I won't always be so overwhelmed. But as long as I do all I physically and emotionally can, Will will be fine.

Will's 9 Month Check Up

I know that Will's almost 10 months old but his 9 month Doctor's appointment was only last week. All I can say is that Will is a BEAST!! He is basically the size of an 18 month old. Here are his 9(ish) month stats:

Height: 30.75 inches, 97 %tile
Weight: 22 lbs 6 oz, 70 %tile
Head: 46.2 cms, 70 %tile

And here is what Will's been up to lately:

• Crawling, crawling, crawling! I'll post some pictures and video soon!
• Wearing 18 month clothes, and almost growing out of them!
• Playing with balls, he loves to roll them and then crawl after them.
• Yelling at the vacuum cleaner and following it around the house as I vacuum, it's pretty funny.
• Wearing size 4 diapers.
• Laughing at us when we try to get him to repeat what we say or mimick us. For example, we're trying to get Will to say "Da, Da" but all he does is laugh when we try to get him to say it.
• Playing in the pool.
• Eating grass, every time we go down to play Will pulls up some grass and eats it. Hey dogs eat it to settle their stomachs, maybe Will eats it to settle his too.
• Spitting up, still! Not so happy about that.
• Charming all the women he meets. Yes, I'm a little worried about when he grows up.
• Pulling himself up onto his knees, he would but himself onto his feet but he doesn't need to, he's tall enough that he can reach everything on his knees.
• Eating all the "treats" on the floor faster than we can stop him, thus the vacuum cleaner. I think Will gets upset because he thinks the vacuum is eating his treats.
• Eating grown up food. We've found that he doesn't spit up real food as much.
• Will eats pretty much everything these days, except milk and peanut butter. I'm waiting for a year to introduce those.
  
• His favorite foods are; black beans, green beans, bananas, the noodles from chicken noodle soup, and Kix (he LOVES those!).
• Dancing away. He loves to listen to music and and dance, I'll have to post a video of that too!
• When we ask him to give kisses he turns his head and touches his cheek with yours, it's pretty cute!
• He will sometimes give five and clap, if he's in the mood.
• He's turned into a wiggly squiggly little dude and doesn't much like to cuddle, except when he's sleepy.
• Still being an incredibly easy baby, sleeping all through the night and taking 2+, 2 hour naps a day (depending on when he wakes up).
• Sitting front facing in a big boy seat. His head was poking out of his baby seat and I figured that wasn't good so we switched him. The reason he's front facing is that our car can't fit the seat rear facing. Needless to say, Will loves having more room and seeing mom and dad while driving.
  
• Does the "Down Dog" yoga move. He'll stay that way for quite a while.
• Will LOVES the credits to movies and TV shows. He doesn't watch a lot of TV but when he does, he will only semi pay attention the entire show, until the end and the credits roll around, for those he sits in rapt attention.
• He loves books, he doesn't always have the patience to sit through the entire book but he really likes to eat the pages :).

Will Dancing to the Opening of Psych

Grass, Grass and More Grass!
Crawling and Spit Up, Two Daily Occurrences at Our House.
Will and Daddy Watching the Credits
Bathtime Fun
Hey Mom, Look at What I Can Do!
Will Also Really Likes Tape Measures

4th of July, Idahoan Adventures!

This past 4^th of July weekend, Stephen, Will, and I took a little trip up to Meridian, Idaho to visit Stephen’s brother, David, and his family. We had so much fun! Will loved all the attention he got and all the beautiful girl cousins he got to play with. Stephen and I enjoyed a little break from Provo and some fun with David and Julie and our nieces and nephew. I have so many pictures of the weekend, I think I’m going to let them speak for themselves.

Will was an amazing boy the entire trip up and back (6 hours one way). He did a lot of this...

P.S. I gave Will a celery stalk to play with and Stephen call it Will's "wand". I love my husband!

and even some of this...

When we got to David's house, Will was happy to get out and do lots and lots of this...

The next day, Stephen learned some keen dance moves while playing Just Dance 2 with our nieces.

P.S. I have some great blackmail footage of Stephen's actual dance routine but the file's too big to fit, oh well :(

David's family is looking after a neighbor's cat while they are away and those neighbors happen to have a pool, so we did lots of swimming. It was fun to watch Will in the water, he loves it SO SO much and is completely at ease in it.

While we were in Idaho we didn't have to feed Will, we had a group of volunteers, all of who were WAY more exciting then Stephen and I.

Some pictures of Will and his cute cousins!

Will and Amber

Will and Sabrina

For the 4th of July we went to a friend of David and Julie's that lives on a farm in the middle of no where. There was 120+ people there but there was yummy food and lots of fun things to do. Will had a grand time playing in the grass and looking at chickens.

Will LOVES all types of strings, cords, ropes, etc. He will crawl across a room just to get a cord or string and when he gets it, he promptly puts it in his mouth.

Will had a grand time with Uncle David eating new and interesting foods. Will ate it all, my little vacuum! Will is very interested in grown up food and will look at you pleadingly if you eat anything infront of him.

Yum!!

One happy Baby!

There was this cool Stage Coach stop one the Oregon Trail, on the property and we went to check it out!

That evening we went back to David's house to light some fireworks! There is something magical about lighting your own fireworks. Maybe because all fireworks, even sparklers, are illegal in California and lighting fireworks for me as a child meant we were somewhere in the mid west, usually Missouri, pulled over to the side of the road with my brothers dancing around and screaming excitedly. Every hand lit firework is like a time warp back to those warm summer evenings with my pyromaniac brothers.

We started Will early, he LOVED every firework, he didn't even mind the noise!

Happy, Happy, Baby!

Hanging with Aunt Julie!

Sparkler Fun!

I married a Pyro!

When Will gets excited, he rocks back and forth, the faster he rocks, the happier or excited he is. He was going CRAZY over the fireworks!

We has such a great time in Idaho! Next time we visit we hope to see some other friends in the area. Thanks, David and Julie for letting us stay, we had a grand time!

30 Reasons Why I Love My Husband….

30 Reasons Why I Love My Husband….

(Thanks, Megan for the idea!)

1. He understands my senseless miming.
2. He has really sexy earlobes.
3. He does the dishes because I hate doing them.
4. He also does the laundry for similar reasons.
5. He keeps me warm in the winter with his crazy radiating body heat.
6. He loves our baby boy more than himself.
7. He loves me more than himself.
8. He loves God and trusts the lord to show him the right path.
9. He works so hard for our family at a job he is really not fond of.
10. Before we got married, he went online and found the most lucrative jobs in the US and found something on that list that he thought he could do and decided he wanted to go to school for that.
11. He makes me take my vitamins.
12. He let me decide how many kids we are going to have and when.
13. He watches chick flicks with me and doesn’t even roll his eyes.
14. He plays Barbie’s with me. Yes, I still play with Barbies, don’t judge.
15. He makes stupid jokes to make me laugh when I’m sad.
16. He lets me dress him.
17. He plays action figures with Will, even though Will has no idea what’s going on.
18. He loves to show me new movies and when I demand to know the endings of said movies, he doesn’t get angry.
19. He likes to help me scrapbook.
20. He supports me finishing my degree.
21. He supports my craziness.
22. He doesn’t think I’m crazy.
23. He won’t let me go to bed angry.
24. He knows that sometimes I just have to cry and he holds me accordingly.
25. He is worthy to have the priesthood and receive revelation for our family from the Lord.
26. He is good to his mother.
27. He wants to be the best father he can be.
28. He wants to be the best husband he can.
29. He is willing to admit when he is wrong.
30. He loves me for who I am, no matter how insane I seem sometimes.

Happy 3^rd Anniversary, Stephen , I love you so so much!

Happy Daddy’s Day!

I know, I know, I’m extraordinarily late with this post but I’ve been a little busy as of late. We had a great father’s day weekend at our house. On Saturday, we went to Goodwood Barbeque to celebrate the amazing father that Stephen is. On Sunday morning I made Kneader’s French toast, for those of you who don’t know what kneaders is, I’m sorry because it’s AMAZING (it’s a bakery in Utah that makes amazing all you can eat French toast and you can buy the bread that they make it with and make it at home)! After French toast Stephen opened his presents from Will and I, he got some things he’s been wanting for a while; the extended versions of the entire Lord of the Rings movies, the new and old Tron movies, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, and a wireless mouse and keyboard. Will just had to get him the “World’s Greatest Dad” tie and trophy;). That night Will and I made Stephen one of his very favorite foods, Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches. It was something of a triumph for me because I’ve never made them and I had to caramelize onions to make them and every other time I’ve done that I have failed abysmally, but this time I succeeded, yay! They were very yummy, if I do say so myself.

I’m glad we have days like Father’s Day because we get to honor people that make such an impact in our lives. I have so many memories of my father and the lessons he taught me. My father is a man of many talents. He is a walking encyclopedia, you can ask him anything and he will most likely have an answer for you. He taught me to love reading and the knowledge that can be attained through books. He gave me an appreciating for the journey, not just the destination. He taught me to start a fire, read a compass, read a map, set up a tent and to purify water. He wanted to make sure his girls were just as tough as his boys and for that I will be forever grateful. He loves his family more than himself and would do anything for them. He has a fierce testimony of the gospel and of Jesus Christ and has lead me by example. He and I have had our battles but through those he taught me to quickly resolve arguments and not hold grudges. I was not the best child, I was a stubborn, creative, active and curious child and instead of stamping out those traits, my daddy ought to cultivate them. It sure couldn’t have been easy, I’m forever grateful that he, and my mom, had enough patience to raise me the way they did. They taught me the importance of weighing the consequences when I made a decision and made sure they followed through on those consequences. Thank you, Daddy, for being the best father a girl could ask for!

I’m also grateful for the opportunity to celebrate Stephen and the amazing father he is. I will never forget his face when He first saw Will. His was a face of pure joy and happiness. Stephen is one of the most involved fathers I have ever seen. Will’s physical therapist even remarked on that, he said that Stephen is among the 1% of father’s that actually come to appointments with their wives. He lets me sleep In on Saturdays and Sundays, he takes care of Will so I can continue to go to school, he does the dishes and the laundry, and cleans the house. He treats me like I am the most precious thing in the world. He has a firm testimony of the gospel and treasures his ability to use the priesthood in our home. I love him SO much and am forever grateful Heavenly Father brought him into my life. (If you didn’t quite understand the terms “priesthood” or are wondering what the “gospel” is go to lds.org and it’ll answer all your questions.)

Happy Father’ Day to all the great fathers out there!

All Stephen's Father's Day Gifts!

Stephen and Will on Father's Day Morning.

AMAZING Breakfast!

My Handsome Boys, ready for Church.