The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

Hello, hello! As you might have surmised from the title college starts up again for Brandon today.  Holy cow, is all that I have to say about it. It seems that we always have a million big ideas for the summer and then when all is said and done summer has slipped away and our list of things to do remains barely touched. For example, Brandon planned to build a giamongus kite this summer, he has made immense progress but alas the kite is not finished…maybe for next spring eh? He also planned to do a huge chunk of research and planning for the business that he wants to start and while he has laid a lot of good ground work it appears that he will have to make the big push over the Christmas holidays and next summer after he graduates (yes, I did say that, it is his LAST YEAR at the U of U!!!! WAH HOO!!!).

As for myself I wanted to attend a lot of the summer concert series at the Brigham Young Historic Park as well as a few of the farmer’s markets downtown. We never did make it to a farmer’s market but we did go see Peter Breinholt perform.

Which brings me to our week, Tuesday evening is when we went to the Peter Breinholt concert. It was a lot of fun. We used to actually go and help sell c.d.’s at Pete’s concerts so it was nice to go and be able to just enjoy. He played, “You wear flowers” and as usual invited people to come up front and dance. After the song he said , “When I first started performing teenagers would come down and dance, what you saw dancing up here just now was their children.” It made me laugh. Gotta love the circle of life. The evening weather was nice, just a perfect summer evening temperature.

Weds. we took Aiden to get his six month pictures taken (can you believe he is already that old, I can’t.) and there was a mix up. This mix up has happened to me twice now at Target and once at Walmart. We got there, we were signing in and another person claiming to have a 1:00 appointment came in. Well, it was THEIR name in the book and not mine so guess who gets to keep the appointment? They do. Luckily the girl called another Target and we drove there for the pics. The lame part is that we will have to drive back there to pick up the photos and it wasn’t exactly convenient. OI! In the evening my sweet hubby took me to Robintino’s for our 3 year anniversary. I can’t believe that we have been married that long. It has gone by quickly and has been filled with many happy days and various bumps along the way (like an endless cycle of having to find Brandon a new job.) The truth of the matter is that we are still as in love as the day we met (if not more so). We can still be called the poster children for PDA’s and why not? I want the whole wide world to know how much in love I am with my hubby! 🙂 Dinner was yummy and thank you to grandma Carolyn and Grandpa Warren for watching their great grandchild for a few hours.  Here is a picture of us on our wedding day…

Thursday was a day of many trips to the airport for Brandon. He picked up his dad at 7:00 so that he could come and visit with Aiden. Aiden was not too sure about this “new” person for a little bit but eventually he warmed up and flashed he famous smile for him. Thank you for the Jamba Juice Dad Wilhelmsen! After we had smoothies Brandon and his dad went to pick up my mom from the airport and deposit her back home. Aiden and I stayed home and had a visit with Mr. Sandman.

Friday was less eventful. Brandon worked 10:30-6:00 at a one day temp. job and then we just lounged around here at home (by lounged I mean ran around taking care of Aiden and keeping him entertained as well as doing household chores that needed to be done).

Saturday we went to have our family pictures taken. They turned out cute and I am excited to get them back. After that we dropped Aiden off at my mom’s so that she could babysit Aiden while we went to Desert Star. It was the last showing of Indian Bones and the cast had the giggles. There was a TON of ad-libbing and I was laughing SO hard pretty much the whole time. The best part was that they were riding stick “llama’s” and the good guys had white Llama’s while the bad guys had black Llama’s. Well, one of the good guys was miming that his Llama was trying to buck him and was somewhat violent so then the bad guys arrive on scene after the good guys left and one of them was playing along with the whole “violent” bit and really rough housing with his stick Llama and the head went flying off. I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t breathe. Then as he puts the head back on the stick he says, “this is not a good time to lose one’s head.” I must also say that this characters name is Rahboul and he is dressed like an indian snake charmer/sultan. He had an excellent comedic indian accent. So anyway, he rejoins he posse and then says that his Llama is very serious and has no experience so he must be Barack O’Llama. There were plenty of silly antics including some involving a riding crop and a token Nazi with a Hitler moustache but I will end my description here. After the show we went to get Aiden and enjoyed a slice of my birthday cake with my mom. (My birthday is on Tuesday but that was the only time she had available between now and my birthday to help me celebrate.) We spent the evening at home.

Today we enjoyed church and visiting teaching, home teaching, being visit taught and being home taught. This evening we will have dinner with my dad in celebration of my birthday and Brandon has a few things up his sleeve for my real birthday on Tuesday. Well, I guess that is all for this week. Have a good first week of school to those of you who are heading back this week and as always, thanks for reading…

Well, yet another week has FLOWN by.  We have been pretty busy with Brandon looking for a job and keeping the apartment from being a disaster area.  Monday I picked up Aiden’s 5 month pictures from Walmart and they are CUTE!!!  Going with a patriotic theme was the right idea and they couldn’t have turned out better.

Tuesday our 2nd niece was born after her mother had gone through 26+ hours of labor resulting in a c-section.  But I am glad she arrived safely and she is in our prayers while they and the doctors try to figure out the best path to go to resolve the troubles with her heart.  Welcome to the mommy club Sherrada!  We miss you and wish we could kiss little Lydia!  We also went and had lunch with my cousin, his wife, and their little girl Elise. 

Wednesday Brandon, Aiden, & I went and helped my sister pack her stuff into a moving truck.  Aiden has been taking shorter and shorter naps.  This is stressing me out because I am worried that he is so excited to be learning and so worried to be missing out on something that he isn’t getting enough sleep.  He should be getting approx. 14 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period.  Most days he gets 11 1/2 or so.  Not to mention this sudden jump from two 2 1/2 hour naps plus one hour long nap to three 30 min. naps has left me wondering how I will get anything done around the house and feeling bad that I don’t play with him constantly when he is awake.  On top of that he is eating strangely by being more and more distracted.  Maybe he is getting what he needs more quickly and being done but it is hard to know when you are a breast feeding mom.  Anyway, these things led me to be slightly ornery on Wednesday but we got a lot packed and I helped by taking things apart and putting them in their boxes. 

Thursday is wiped from my mind.  So sorry!

Friday we went to lunch at Applebee’s with my grandma, dad, sis., and her hubby Matt and then said our final goodbyes to my sis and Matt.  I hated to see them go but have known for years that Erica simply was not a Utah girl and would be moving on to adventures in other parts of the country and world.  That evening I went to eat and swim with my friend who was planning to return to Vegas today after having visited for the summer.  We had a good time, the water was pretty chilly but we got Aiden used to it and we all swam for a bit, I pulled Aiden out once his little teeth started to chatter.  He was cozy in his frog towel.  Below is a picture of him modeling his towel the day or so before we swam.  As we left I told Katie to let me know when her little one arrived and said goodbye.

Saturday I helped make baby blankets with the Relief Society for the new and expectant moms in the ward.  I only stayed about 45 mins. but was able to cut 2 or 3 and sew one and 1/4.  Later one, I was taking a nap/rest with Aiden sleeping in my arms (one of the ways I have been able to get around his short napping problem, but slightly inconvenient) and I heard Brandon answer my cell phone and say 6 lbs. 3 oz. & 18 in. long.  Ok I will let her know.  In my slightly groggy state I made a mental list of everyone who I knew was pregnant, the closest due dates and who would have my cell #.  I was baffled because the girl due the soonest doesn’t have my cell number and Katie wasn’t due for 5 weeks.  Well, I laid Aiden in his crib and yes, it was Katie who had called.  Her water had broken and she had delivered by c-section.  The docs. at this hospital thought that she was probably only 3 weeks early instead of the 5 she thought. 

Well, upon hearing this good news which brightened my day I started making plans to get up to the hospital as quickly as possible to see her little girl.  I had been feeling down because I won’t see my niece until December and this somehow made me feel a little bit better about that.  I am so excited for Katie and so proud of her for making the decision to becoming a mommy all those 9+ months ago.  Babies are such a joy.  So we drove to the hospital and Katie told us the story of her day.  I also took the opportunity to hold baby Ellie who is 1/3 the amount of Aiden’s current weight and feels as light as a feather.  It was nice to be able to visit my friend in the hospital.

Today we went to church.  It is always nice to go to church even though it is hard to concentrate much these days with little Aiden squirming around and needing various things.  We dressed him up in a little outfit that we got from Brandon’s aunt and he was looking very handsome and dashing today.  I love to see him smiling at people at church and it is nice to know that he is feeling the spirit, if only just a tiny bit.  Now if you are squeamish you may want to stop reading now, so this afternoon I had Brandon change a messy diaper and inside the mess was a bit of something with words on it.  Well, the other day while Brandon was watching him, Aiden was crumpling and sucking on paper and I noticed that there was some in his mouth.  I quickly did the hook swipe that you learn in infant CPR for getting things out of a babies mouth and retrieved some paper.  Tsk tsk.  At this point I took the paper away and gave the baby something else to play with.  I thought nothing else about it until today when Brandon held up the open poopy diaper for me to see the bits of paper that had passed through Aiden’s digestive track.  At least we know he is getting enough fiber.  🙂  Well, until next week thanks for reading…

Hello, hello!  I think that I will just jump right in and tell you about our week.  Monday evening we got a free redbox, Meet The Browns.  I actually really liked it.  It had a good story line with a bit of silliness mixed in and a happy ended.  Just the recipe that I always enjoy.  🙂  Brandon enjoyed it as well.

Tuesday has slipped my mind.  So sorry!  Wednesday was Aiden’s 6 month check up.  (I know, you can hardly believe he is that old already because it seems like just yesterday when he was born.)  For details on weight and height you can go to Aiden’s website.  The doctor said that he looked like he was doing well, he got his third set of shots, and we talked about getting him in to the allergist between now and when he turns one (yea, yea it is my fault that we have to be so careful, but better to be safe then sorry).  She also pretty much gave us the go ahead to feed him anything that I am not allergic to, including pureed meats, dairy products (but NO MILK until he is one), and wheat products.  This same day we also got the news that our friend Adam (who incidentally is the one who set Brandon and I up) and his wife were at the U of U hospital with their brand new baby girl.  We ended up going to see them and meeting their little one, Kathryn Emma Weiss.  (On a side note, it is VERY good that they didn’t name her Emma Kathryn because our first girl will be Emma and that is just too many Emma’s :p)  Anyway, we hadn’t been in contact with them for about 10 months and it was really nice to visit with them and get caught up on the news in each others lives. 

Thursday we watched College Road Trip.  It was good.  I like Disney movies.

Friday evening we drove out to Provo to attend the reception of a friend of mine from my U of U single student ward.  While we were there we got a chance to chat with another friend of ours Cameron and his wife.  We met their little boy and they met Aiden.  It was good to see them as well.

Saturday I drove out to Bountiful to visit my grandma so that she could spend a little bit of time with Aiden.  While we were there grandma let him play with her bucket full of rubber duckies.  There was one plush duck that quacks when you squeeze it and Aiden thought it was really cool so we put it on the ground and squeezed it.  He smiled and scooted/crawled over to it.  It was the closest to crawling he has done so far and I was just amazed.  He is getting more and more mobile every day.  I then went grocery shopping with my dad.  Thanks again dad!

Sunday we went to church.  It was nice to be back after being on trips and a baby blessing the last three weeks.  In the evening we had dinner with my dad, mom, sis, and her hubby Matt because they are moving to Florida on friday.  🙁  All of Aiden’s cousins will live out of state.  I am so used to seeing my cousins whenever I want that it makes my heart ache a little bit to think that Aiden won’t have that wonderful opportunity. 

We hope that everyone is doing well, Brandon did have one interview this last week and applied to be a UTA transit officer (he won’t hear from UTA for 7-10 days for an interview).  He plans to keep looking this week.  Love you all!  Thank for reading…

Hey everyone, can you believe that summer is nearly over?  It definitely went by fast.  Another thing that I am amazed about is that next friday my first born little boy will be 6 months old.  Time has sure passed quickly since he was born.  Why is it that time moves more and more quickly as you get older so that one day you wake up and it seems that you are in a race against time?  Couldn’t it just slow down a little bit.

Anyway, this week was pretty good.  We came back from Wendover on Monday and sort of took it easy.  We didn’t do a whole lot this week, it seems like we did a lot of dishes and laundry but that is just because there are always dishes and laundry to do.

A couple of things to update on are that Brandon is out of a job again.  He was working through Kelly Services and they weren’t keeping up their end of the contract with Kelly Services so the temp. agency pulled everyone of that job.  He did have an interview Thursday that seemed to go well and he also contacted a few other people about a job.  I am going to send him out tomorrow to search a little bit tomorrow and hopefully he can e-mail a few people.  He is also going to do some follow up as well.  His last day was the 25th of July.  We would really appreciate any prayers that you could say in our behalf and especially that Brandon might get the job that he interviewed for.

I was also having a lot on my mind because for some reason I hadn’t had my monthly visitor yet and I thought that I might be pregnant.  I took a pregnancy test on Monday, negative this worried me because I still hadn’t started of course and was afraid of another ectopic pregnancy, I eventually called my doctor and they had me get another test on Thurs. morning, negative again.  Later that afternoon my visitor arrived and all is well.  For those of you who are curious my doctor said that because I didn’t have damage or a loss of my ovary or fallopian tube my risk of another ectopic is about the same as a woman who has never had and ectopic.  He did say though that they will be a little bit more careful with me because I have had the one.  The doc also wasn’t concerned of me having an ectopic this time around because the pregnancy tests were negative.  Anyway, that is enough of that.

Saturday was a good day, I went to the temple with two of my very best friends Katie and Richelle, in the morning (I should have gotten a picture darn it) and we did a session.  It was nice to go to the temple because I haven’t gone for a couple of months.  I went home after the session so that Brandon could have the car to do a couple of errands.  In the evening Aiden and I went to my friend Richelle’s to celebrate my friend Charissa’s birthday.  It was good to see her and my other friend Melinda because I don’t see them very often.  As you can see in the pic. Aiden was enjoying the exersaucer during the party and he even got to taste watermelon.  (On a side note, we got Aiden an exersaucer of his own on friday from someone in the village who was selling theirs at about 1/2 the cost.)

Today my cousin’s son got blessed.  It was a good blessing and the open house afterwards was leisurely and relaxing.  I ate and snacked until my tummy was happy.  The brownies and cookies were especially tasty.  The other thing to mention is that we decided to let Aiden pet the little dog named Dolly, because although we plan not to have any dogs we most certainly don’t want him to be afraid of them.  Well, he enjoyed petting the dog but we neglected to wash his little hands off afterwards and this afternoon he woke up with red eyes and as he kept rubbing he got little red splotches on his head.  I concluded that he is probably allergic to dogs and gave him a bath to get the dander/allergens off.  That pretty well cleared him up.  Poor guy!

Well, that is all from us this week.  Aiden has his 6th month check up this week and I am having a nail party this Saturday, Brandon also intends to work on his kite since we will have the community center, other then that it should be pretty laid back.  Thanks for reading…