A year with no blogging

Our last comment read "Congratulations, you have made it a year without posting," so I'm recomitting myself to blogging again. I think it is a fun way to keep in touch with people, although I have always said I would rather just talk with people. But now that several of my friends have moved and one is busy with triplets, I have more of a motivation. My problem is that I do things all the way or not at all. Thus, I am a terrible journal keeper and I get overwhelmed with housework and chores because I want to have time to do a really great job, but with 2 kids no one has that much time. I am also not great at returning long distance phone calls because I feel like I need a big chunk of time to talk. All of these "perfectionist" habits get me in trouble, so I am going to at least try and keep up with blogging and not have a perfectionist attitude about it. Thanks to all who have "encouraged" us to start blogging again. Besides, I have a lot of time to sit because I am nursing again, so I might as well do something productive :)

Well, since it's been a year since our last blog, I thought I would do some very brief catching up over the last year without my perfectionist attitude getting in the way.

September 2008- We went to Williamsburg with some friends and stayed in my parent's timeshare. We went to Jamestown where the first settlement in America was founded and just had a good time playing games until late hours and enjoying one another's company. Andrew's sister Leilani, came to town at the end of the month, and we enjoyed playing tour guide and visiting with her, since she lives in Hawaii so we don't see much of her.


October 2008- Nathan turned 1! My sweet baby turned 1 and my whole family came out to celebrate, except for Hannah who was on a mission. We also had a Halloween inspired party with games and an amazing pumpkin cake made by my pastry chef friend, Emily. Nate's favorite part was sticking his hands in the cake and eating to his heart's content. He also loved all of the balloons he got to play with and the kids making him laugh as they put on silly hats. Nathan hit a milestone a week prior to his birthday. He started walking!

November 2008- We had a fun Thanksgiving dinner with some friends and welcomed the new fall weather. Nathan started running and being a lot more active!

December 2008- I wrote and produced a Christmas program for my church, complete with a dance from the nutracker with some little girls from primary, a dancing Snowman from a former bishopric member, latin dancing from the bishop and his wife and another latin couple in our ward, and a nativity from our primary. We also went to Maine for Christmas to spend the holidays with my family and told our family that we were expecting our 2nd child!

January 2009-We were sad about the cold weather and spent our time being entertained by Nathan who had become quite an active little guy!

February 2009- I began teaching a few dance classes at our local community center. I taught music theater, jazz, creative movement, and a polynesian dance to the adult "Goddess Dance" class. We performed in recitals in May and I performed with the adults even with my huge pregnant belly. The picture posted is of my jazz class who were zebras and danced with apples. I'm standing behind them to hide my pregnant belly!

March 2009- We went to see Andrew in an orchestra concert at the visitor's center. He plays the trumpet and joined the Mormon Orchestra of Washington DC this year. Nathan and I sat in the front and anytime Andrew would play, Nate would stand up, point, and say "Daddy!" I thought it would be more interesting for Nate if he sat up front, which it was, but it was also probably a little distracting! Ooops!

Nate and I went to a place called "Airmania" that has a lot of inflatable bouncing contraptions. We met some other moms and kids there and while most of the moms sat back and relaxed, I had to jump on everything with Nathan because he wanted to play with all of the big kids and I had to protect him. I thought I might go into labor early due to all of that jumping! I decided I would wait until he got a little bit older to take him again.

Andrew spoiled us by buying tickets to see the Circus at the Verizon center. Nathan loves animals so we thought it would be perfect! He was pretty good during most of it, but he got bored with the annoying clowns. So did we! He loved the elephants, the little pigs, and most of all the dogs. Shoot, we should have just taken him to Buddy Attick Park to see dogs!

April 2009- We celebrated the changing of seasons with a trip downtown to see the beautiful Cherry Blossoms that only bloom for a few weeks the whole year. We finally got to see them in full bloom! The last few years they were wilted due to rain and bad timing on our part. We celebrated Easter with my mom's cousin's family who live in Laurel. They are always so nice to host us for Easter. The Easter bunny also visited Nathan and he loved his Easter basket and finding all of the hidden eggs in the house. The Easter bunny had to put them away so he would eat something else.

Nate also enjoyed joining the Primary kids at church for their Easter hunt during a primary activity I helped to plan. The primary kids put on a skit in the round of the Easter story. We had a faith room where they had to smell unmarked scents and touch objects they couldn't see. They also had to follow the "iron rod" which was a thick piece of rope to the young women room to meet their parents and to listen to our 2nd counselor speak about the importance of families. We were trying to vaguely replicate the temple with 3 different rooms, the last room representing the celestial kingdom.

We had some visitors this month. At the beginning of the month, my sister Doree came and we went to Brookside Gardens to see the beautiful tulips. Towards the end of the month my parents came out and we saw the blossoming Azaleas at the Arboretum. I love Springtime! My parents also babysat while we finally got out to celebrate Valentine's day at Olive Garden- we were throwing up on the real day!

May 2009- I celebrated my second Mother's day as a mom and was completely spoiled! I received cards from my own mother, my sister on her mission, and my mother in law. Andrew made me breakfast in bed, bought me an orchid lei, and made me a steak dinner! Nathan got me a card and brought me a balloon as I was eating breakfast in bed- it was adorable and such a sacrifice because he LOVES balloons! Andrew also spoke in church and gave me a very nice tribute about being a good mom to Nathan. It was very flattering because sometimes I wonder if I'm any good at this mom thing!

I threw a baby "sprinkle" for my friend Courtney. We had a fun girls night with a nacho bar, smoothies, facials, sherades, and a viewing of "Baby Mama" - that movie cracks me up! Court and I have babies about 6 weeks apart! Nathan loves Courtney's son Spencer whom he calls "budtee" so it is fun for us to have friends that live close and are the same age. We were very sad when they moved to Laurel a few months ago because it is not the same as having them as our neighbors :( The picture is 4 of us girls that were pregnant at the sprinkle, in the order of when we were due.

We celebrated the warm weather by going to the Greenbelt pool and packing a lunch with watermelon- hooray for summer! I then was brave and took Nathan by myself with my huge pregnant belly to Maine. I broke down in tears when I got there because I was having contractions in the airport due to the stress of managing a toddler by myself. My family made everything better and we had a good time going to the beach and enjoying each others' company.

When I got home, some of my friends threw me a shower. It was a shower that involved husbands and families as well, so it was fun for Andrew to get to open up gifts too! My friend Christina is talented at so many things, and drew an awesome picture of a pregnant lady about to get an epidural. We had to pin the needle on the epidural spot! We also played "don't break the water" and had to jump with a water balloon between our legs from one end of the lawn to the other. It was pretty funny! Lastly, we were challenged to drink Root Beer out of a sippy cup as fast as possible. Those sippys are super hard to get anything out of! Andrew came in 2nd- so proud! Emily made some amazing raspberry and lime ice cream and we had a yummy bbq. It was fun to be outside enjoying the weather and the company and super fun to open up adorable baby girl clothes. I'm sorry, little girl clothes are just a lot cuter than little boy clothes.

June 2009- Baby Kaitlyn was born! She came quick and a lot lighter then her older brother. I had a migraine on the night of June 22nd and was induced on June 23rd. My mom had migraines before she had her babies so I think Kaitlyn was ready to come. I kind of think she would have come that same day or the next day if I wasn't induced. The doctors didn't want to risk her being too big like her brother. Anyways, I was induced at 10:00, already dilated to 6 cm, and after 6 or so major contractions, 3 pushes, and lots of screaming due to no epidural, she was out by a little past 11:00 weighing in at 8 pounds, 7 ounces. Nate has definitely had to get used to her, but I think he has decided that he likes being an older brother. He kisses her on the forehead, brings her blankets and toys, and tries to put her pacifier in her mouth. The other day when he couldn't find one, he thought his finger might do the trick! He also made her laugh out loud by "tickling" her tummy- he was kind of wrestling her, but luckily she thought it was funny. I am so blessed to have 2 of the sweetest kids in the world!

July 2009- We had both sets of grandparents come to visit in July. Our house was always full of a lot of love for us and our babies. We celebrated the 4th of July with my parents and even went to see the fireworks at Buddy Attick park. I think I was still a little too sore to be sitting on the ground, but it was nice to get out. Andrew conducted the orchestra for the stake musical "Savior of the World" and it was fun to go and see the show that he worked so hard on. The music was the best part, but I'm just biased. While Andrews parents were here, his dad, who is a professional photographer, took pictures for us on Kaitlyn's blessing day. Andrew's mom made Kaitlyn's dress and blanket, too. We can't believe we have 2 kids! We are so grateful to all of the visitors who came this month to bring us food, gifts, and good cheer:) We are so loved!

August 2009- We took a day trip to Ocean City in 97 degree weather! We were crazy but were craving a vacation after being cooped up in the house from recovery time and we were craving the beach! After we lugged a ton of stuff onto the beach including our double stroller, camping chair, Ikea tent, backpack, diaper bag, ice cooler, and our beach noodles, Nathan immediately sat on the camping chair with his sandy legs, threw his arms in the air and said "All gawn" meaning he was all done with the beach. I quickly got him dressed in his suit and we went right in the water. We had a great time getting cooled off until a huge wave came and Nathan and I got drenched from head to toe. Nate hates washing his hair in the bath, so you can imagine how traumatizing this was for him. I held onto his slippery, sunscreen covered body as tight as possible and endured the wave crashing over us. Luckily, I didn't let go of Nate, but he sure was screaming. We then went back up to our "camp" to get his life jacket. In the meantime, Kaitlyn was crying super hard and turning red. She looked like she was being cooked! We took the lava lava and put it in the ice chest and then wrapped her in it. She calmed down and we had to keep rotating lava lavas in and out of the ice chest just to keep her cool. I told Andrew if we didn't rent one of those huge beach umbrellas, we were going home because I could not nurse the baby and hold an ordinary rain umbrella to keep the sun off of Kaitlyn. He obliged, and once we had that umbrella up, we were all happier. Nate could play in the sand and not get burned from the heat and he loved the water once he got his life jacket on. He felt safe. He kept talking about the birds and the airplanes. We wondered if the day trip was worth it, but at least we can say it was adventurous!

We celebrated my 28th birthday by going to the Montgomery County fair. Nate loved all of the animals, especially the "horsheys." We got to see the birth of a baby calf- quite incredible! That poor mother, she didn't get any preparation for birth and you could tell by her wide eyes. The farmers had to wrap chains around the calf's legs to pull her out. We had birthday ice cream, instead of cake, and headed home for a quiet evening.

We went to Maine to see my family and had one of the best visits with my family I think I've ever had! I am going to do a separate post for this trip because it was so fun!