The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

Well, what can I say about last week.  Potty training is still a work in progress.  It is still a hit or miss when we set him on his little potty.  I think he understands what he is supposed to do on the potty but it is still a novel thing to be allowed into the bathroom where there are so many distractions.

Thanksgiving was tasty.  We ate at my aunt’s home where there was a small group of us.  It was an “in-law” year so there will be a bigger crowd next year.

The only other thing to highlight is that we put our tree up yesterday.  It turned out ok but our green strand of white lights went kaput and all we had were a white strand of white lights so the wiring sticks out like a sore thumb instead of “hiding” in the tree like usual.  It was fun to have Aiden help though and we used our Disney decor once again.  While digging through our Christmas stuff for what we would need I pulled out our box of Christmas ornaments that we had received over the years.  Brandon told me that when we have the room we will have to have a second tree of “misfit” ornaments.  I agreed because that is what I had planned all along.  🙂  Well have a good week and as always, thanks for reading…

Hey, not much to say about last week.  Thursday evening Brandon finally received the green light for subbing in Davis County School district because his background check cleared.  He has since subbed Friday, Monday, and Today.  I realized yesterday though that we won’t receive our first big paycheck until Jan. 1.  How discouraging.  Thankfully my dad has been so generous over the last few months to let us stay rent free and to buy the groceries but with Christmas and other needs (like sometimes just doing something to keep ourselves sane) we have pretty much depleted our savings and are nighing the point where we have no money left.

On the upside Brandon’s side work of t-shirt designing for an Idaho company has helped us to pay for most of our Christmas gifts as well as a lot of handiwork by me and we are to the point where I just want to find one more thing for Brandon, buy stocking stuffers, buy ingredients for baked gifts, and stamps to mail our Christmas cards.  He still has shopping to do for me but he is paying with money he has earned by donating plasma so those things are not even of my concern.  I am glad that we have managed to do everything that we have wanted for Christmas giving this year despite our monetary struggles.

I know this is the time of year to think of all that you are grateful for and I have been doing my best by putting one thing I am thankful for each day on Facebook, but it also the time of year when if you are in hard times you keep wishing for a miracle to make things better.  Brandon has been out of a job since the beginning of April and it is certainly taking it’s toll on our stress level and our patience.  If this was the first time we had struggled to find a job it might not have been as difficult but we have struggled with finding employment for Brandon and I off and on since we got married.  This was made even more difficult when I decided to be a stay at home mom two years ago.  Anyway, we are doing our very best to keep our spirits up and hope to be out of my dad’s by the middle of January, even if that means Brandon subbing during the day and taking on another part time job (yuck) in the evenings.  We thank everyone for their prayers over these past few hard months and for all the ideas that we have been given in regards to employment.

As you can see below our fun for the week included a bath full of bubbles and some time playing in the snow.  Aiden got to play a tiny bit in the snow when it first fell and then begged the rest of the weekend to go out and play in it again.  He finally got to Sunday evening.  At the very bottom you will notice my most recent felt food creation.  I’d say it turned out pretty good and I think it is my favorite so far.  This week I am working on felt popsicles and oreos.  Well, until next week, thanks for reading.

Well this past week was a slow picture week aside from the first photos of Lucas that I already posted and a few that I got when Aiden was playing with my pink sweater.  Monday I can’t even remember what we did.  I think we ran some errands for some of the last minute Christmas stuff that we needed to buy.

Tuesday was an eventful day.  I woke up in the morning and made an appointment to go and get a H1N1 shot.  After that we took Aiden to great grandma’s and headed over to our ultrasound appt.  YAY!  Everything looked healthy and good but it wasn’t until later in the week when I got a card in the mail stating that my ob ultrasound came back as normal that we knew for sure that the baby is doing marvelously.  After finding out that it was a boy we started the process of finding a name.  We kept a list and literally went through EVERY SINGLE NAME on one web site as well several names on a few other websites.  We finally figured out a name four days later on the 7th.

Wednesday I finally got an H1N1 vaccine and my arm muscle was sore for a few days.  We look forward to going back to church and I look forward to taking Aiden to playgroup.  We have been playing it safe the last two weeks and I have canceled playgroup as well as all of us missing church.  I just did not want to chance getting the swine flu with how dangerous it could have been to Lucas and I.  Wednesday Aiden also had his first bloody nose.  He fell off of the lower stair and hit the tile.  When we looked him over everything was ok and he wasn’t bleeding but when I went into his room the next morning there was some spots of blood on his sheet.  Poor guy.

I worked on projects a lot last week.  I got Aiden’s felt pizza done, worked on Christmas gifts, made a few more rice heat packs to sell, started on a headband for my sister.  She will likely be the first sale for my online boutique.  I also wrapped a whole bunch of the finished Christmas gifts.  It is nice to be nearly done so early in the season.

Friday morning Brandon got to sub for a couple of hours.  He really enjoyed himself and even had a few moments of being very clever when students were trying to pull one over on him.  I hope that he can sub more often because he enjoys it and really likes to teach.  (Not to mention having some money to put into savings would be nice.)

So yesterday, Aiden finally said, “I lub you mommy.”  He has been telling Brandon that he loves him a few times over the last couple of weeks but he finally told me.  Only a mother can know how wonderful it feels to here her child say those words to her for the first time.  It is one of the truly great moments in motherhood that makes everything else worth it.  I love my cute Aiden boy.

On another note, last night my mom had come over for her weekly visit and after dinner Aiden was tooting so she asked him if he was pooping.  He said “yes”, (even though he wasn’t) and so she asked if he needed to go potty.  He said, “yes” and I just intended to ignore it.  But she encouraged me to take him up and sit him on the potty because she said that when they show interest you need to act on it.  Well I took him upstairs and set him on the potty and much to my surprise he actually went pee in it!  I told him what a big boy he was and sang the song from Look Who’s Talking Too.  He said, “pee pee, toilet.” and everyone else praised him for a job well done.  Thus began my journey to having Aiden potty trained.  We are going to use the gradual and slow method of potty training with the goal of having him potty trained before Lucas is born.  Even then depending on how well it is going he may only be daytime potty trained.  So, wish me luck!  If you have any ideas or tips let me know.

Hello everybody!  I have now entered the wonderful world of having Elmo’s world stuck in my head nearly every day.  Aiden also likes Monsters Inc. and asked to watch it three days in a row (we didn’t let him, we mixed it up with The Incredibles, Lilo and Stitch, and Brother Bear).  We really wish that we had Toy Story or Cars for him to watch because we think that those would become some of his favorites to watch.    I am very excited because this week I find out if the baby is a boy or a girl!  Not to mention further reassurance that everything is going well and that the baby is developing correctly.  Check back later in the week for the announcement of the gender and possibly the name (we have a girl one all picked out, but if it’s a boy we will have to come up with one and that may take awhile.)  In the meantime enjoy the plethora of pictures below.  One Wednesday Aiden found Brandon’s shoes laying around and decided to “walk a mile” in daddy’s shoes.

Thursday Aiden and I went to visit great grandma and she let him bring home a mini strainer.  You can see that he must have needed some more metal in his diet because he decided it would make a nice little snack.

Thursday evening we went to a pumpkin walk in Centerville.  Aiden kept saying, “pumpkin, pumpkin.”  One of the pumpkins had a furry monster mask on it which startled me but Aiden came over and said, “Kiss it.”  We also enjoyed a free donut and apple juice at the pumpkin walk.

Friday evening the local rec center was having a Halloween carnival.  It was free to get in and there were a bunch of carnival games and things that cost 1-3 .50¢ tickets.  Aiden got to fish with a pole and a net, he got to “trick or treat”, we posed for a photo op, Aiden tried his hand at bowling and he even bobbed for a donut.

When Aiden bobbed for donuts Brandon held his arms down.  The girl held up the donut and Aiden looked at the donut like he was thinking, “You have got to be kidding me, don’t you realize I need my hands to eat that thing.”  It was funny.

On Halloween we went to my aunt Vicky’s for the usual festivities.  When it came time to frost cookies I gave Aiden his own bit of frosting and a plastic knife.  He did really good at frosting when he began but after awhile he decided to just eat the frosting.

In the evening we took Aiden trick or treating at great grandma’s neighborhood.  Grandma Juju joined us and we had a lot of fun.  When we got to the first door we knocked and when the person opened the door Aiden turned around to book it.  He was noticeably upset or frightened and sort of fussing, until of course I pointed out that they were trying to give him candy.  He still seemed a little unsure of what was going on as he grabbed the candy from the bucket but then he caught on really quickly.  The other funny things is that no matter how many times we told him to “only take one” he managed to grab two every single time.  The little sneak…  🙂 and of course he got away with it because he is so little.

After trick or treating we went to Iceburg for a buy one get one free shake and then to Chipotle where they were having a promotion that if you dress up as a burrito you get a free burrito.  Well, as you may know all Chipotle burrito’s are wrapped in aluminum foil at the end of the building process so Brandon decided to dress up as a wrapped up burrito.  He got a few laughs from the employees and they took a photo of him.

On Sunday evening we had fondue for dinner.  The cheese dip was a big success with Aiden but not so big as the various chocolate dipped items that we gave him for dessert.  As you can see from the mess Aiden decided that they were delicious!

Lastly, my felt food for the week.  Peas and carrots!

Have a great week everyone!

Hello all, I am not feeling well and so you will have to forgive my lack of much news from last week.  On Saturday we made cookies and let Aiden help.  He really enjoyed being able to put the ingredients in the bowl and stirring.  He also liked tasting, after we had all of the flour in the bowl Aiden stuck his finger in it and tasted it.  He also tasted the sugar before we put in in the bowl.  I think he justed wanted to make sure that we were using quality ingredients.

We also made sure that he tasted the end result before bed.  As you can see from the mess on his face the cookies were a big hit!

We look forward to Halloween this Saturday and I hope that my cold (or whatever gunk I have) is gone by then.  We haven’t had any opportunities to wear our costumes yet and I am kind of bummed about that because Aiden’s is so cute and was slightly costly.  I guess baby #2 will have to wear it in a couple years so that we can get some more use out of it.  Lastly, you will see my felt pigs in a blanket which was my felt food of the week.  This week I am working on carrots and peas.  Brandon asked me if any amount of money would make it worth it to me to make and sell these and I told him no.  They are cute and will be well loved and used but they are tricky and slightly time consuming, thus they are one of those projects where once is enough to make them.  Have a Happy Halloween everyone.  We will do our best to get and post pictures of our Halloween festivities.  Thanks for reading.

Well, last week was pretty uneventful.  Brandon worked a temp. job on Tuesday and Wednesday so Aiden and I had to entertain ourselves.  Luckily we had playgroup on Tuesday so that helped a lot to pass the time.  Wednesday we just kept ourselves busy and we also went on a little walk to a near by mom and pop store for some treats.  Here is Aiden trying on daddy’s shoes on Monday.

Thursday and Friday must have been pretty uneventful too because I do not even remember what we did.  I do know that we got some more Christmas shopping done this week and I got all of the Christmas pajama’s sewn.  The days leading up to Christmas get kind of busy with Christmas gift projects but then once Christmas is over I have to start Aiden’s birthday movie and make preparations for the arrival of our second little one in April.  This involves a few sewing projects as well.

Saturday was a busy day.  In the morning I went to super saturday.  I made some cards and a started a tutu.  Hopefully this little one is a girl otherwise I will put the tutu in storage with all of the other girl stuff I have until I do have a girl.  Anyway, after super saturday I came home and had to make a chocolate cream pie for the ward party in the evening.  They were having a chili and pie cook off.  In the evening we went to the party.  Aiden had a hay day running around and going places that I didn’t want him to go.  Brandon had been asked to judge and I didn’t know where they were so I had no back up.  After what felt like an hour later I finally asked where the judges were sitting and went over to talk to Brandon.  In the end my pie won 2nd place!  I was pretty excited because the edge of the crust had burnt a little and I didn’t think I would get anything.  So hey it must have been pretty tasty!

Sunday evening I took Aiden over to visit my grandma and grandpa.  Here he is with my aunt Mary learning to take the lid off of his sippy cup.  Which incidentally is something I could have waited a little bit longer for him to learn.  There was a slight mishap today.  I will write about it next week.  

Lastly, here is week two of my felt food.  As you can see I have made two very tasty looking donuts and some very realistic meatballs for the bow tie pasta that I made last week.  So far the felt food is turning out better then I thought it would.  Well, until next week…Thanks for reading!

So, our week…Tuesday evening we took Aiden out to Layton Surf and Swim.  We practically had the entire football field sized pool to ourselves.  Aiden had a lot of fun though and his favorite thing was running up and down the ramp and into the pool.  Brandon was sure that Aiden was going to turf it but thankfully he did not.

The next eventful thing that we did was going to Angela’s 1st birthday on Friday.  The party was a lot of fun, there was even a party favor bag and party hat for all of the kids.  Aiden mostly just checked everything out and ran around.

Saturday I noticed that a friend of mine was going to Oktoberfest and that it was the last weekend.  So, I asked my dad if we could go so that Brandon could have some peace and quiet to finish up some t-shirt design work that he was behind on.  As you can see Aiden is no longer against snow and actually enjoyed playing in it a little bit up at Snowbird.

Lastly, here is the finished product for week one of my felt food endeavor.  It turned out much better then I thought it would.  This week project, 6 meatballs and 2 donuts!  Have a good week!

As far back as I can remember I have been involved in many family traditions.  When my parents separated and subsequently divorced during my childhood, which in turn led to moving multiple times while growing up, I felt that I had no roots to cling to and I would not have, if it had not been for the traditions that I enjoyed with my father’s extended family.  These traditions, which were everything from family camp, Easter egg hunts, and Halloween parties, to Valentine’s cookie decorating, Christmas Eve dinner, and putting flowers on graves for memorial day, gave me a sense of stability that I could not find elsewhere and also gave me something to look forward to and to count on through out the year.  I have a firm testimony of the importance of family traditions and know of the unity that it brings to families.

Because of my strong conviction of the importance of tradition and the arrival of our first child in 2008 Brandon and I are looking forward to starting our annual traditions for each of the holidays during the year we plan to start these tradition with Halloween this year and to keep them up indefinitely.  I have even written up a list of what we hope to do each month in the way of traditions.  This list is a combination of things I used to do growing up, things Brandon has done, and some things that will be new for our family all together.

Ok, so this past week has been fairly busy.  Tuesday was playgroup, Wednesday I got visit taught, Thursday I had a WIC appointment and went to Vicky’s for scrapbooking (I was going to make cards but ended up just sitting and doing nothing), Friday I went to help my grandma make some applesauce, and all weekend we have had conference on.

Yesterday we did go and here my mom sing between sessions of conference.  It was a lot of fun.  I even tried a hula hoop contest.  I didn’t do as well as I usually do.  I blame it on the elastic from my maternity pants being right where the hula hoop needed to be.

Well, I guess that is all for this week.  Check out my online store handmadehodgepodgebyerin.blogspot.com I start taking orders on Monday!  Have a good week!  Thanks for reading…

Well, this week was a busy week.  Wednesday Aiden had his second dentist appointment ever.  He would not open his mouth for the dentist but that is not really any different then when we try to brush his teeth here at home.

Thursday I had my second obgyn appointment.  The doc said that everything seems to be going well and we got to hear the heartbeat.  Thank goodness!  I always worry too much.

Also twice this week Aiden got into the bathroom because the door was left ajar and he decided to do this…

with the toilet paper.  Oh goody!

Saturday we went to the Salt Lake City downtown farmers market.  It was crowded but really neat.  We got some fresh and tasty raspberries, corn on the cob, and I finally bought Aiden a pair of SQUEAKY SHOES!!!  I have wanted a pair of these for my kids since I worked at Legacy Preparatory Academy.  One of the mom helpers used to bring her daughter with her and her shoes would squeak, squeak, squeak down the hall.  I will have to try and remember to get a picture or some video this week and post it.

Tonight we had fajita’s and corn on the cob.  I decided to let Aiden help me prepare the corn.  He did a pretty good job and I finished up what he couldn’t do.  I have also been working on finishing things up for my little online boutique.  You can preview my inventory online here… handmadehodgepodgebyerin.blogspot.com/

We hope that everyone has a good week.  Thanks for reading…