The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

So I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures this past week.  I haven’t really taken a lot lately because we haven’t done anything much new and well being pregnant I don’t always think of it.  I did manage to take a few of Aiden playing in his very first cardboard house!  Daddy was kind enough to cut a door and window into the water softener box for Aiden.  Also earlier in the week Aiden woke up from his nap looking like this.  We thought it looked like someone had slapped him but if you look closely you will see little white marks where his fingernails didn’t leave a pressure mark on his face.  Too funny.

In other news, Brandon did not get the job that we were really hoping for.  We are back at square one and are both completely burnt out and tired of looking for jobs that in the end go to someone less qualified whom the company can pay less.  If anyone has any job opportunities that they know of we would LOVE any info. about them.  Also, please, Please, PLEASE keep us in your prayers.  We are getting very discouraged about the whole job thing.

We don’t really have any other news.  Aiden and I just keep ourselves busy going to playgroup and visiting great grandma.  I have been working on a bunch of hair clips, everything from bows to flowers, to felt shapes (like pumpkins, leaves, and gingerbread men) and I plan to start selling them online at the beginning of October.  The website is http://handmadehodgepodgebyerin.blogspot.com/ but there is not much to see on their right now (in fact, there is pretty much nothing).  Eventually I will also add homemade cards to the items being sold but I need to make a few first.  This little craft store won’t be hardly any income though and is by no means meant to be any kind of income for our family.  Just a little pocket change and really I will probably end up buying a stroller with it.  Anyway, that is all for this week.  Thanks for reading.

I will blog about these photos tomorrow, but just in case you didn’t know, if you mouse over (or put the cursor over) the pictures then you will see little captions about the pictures.

Okay so last week.  As you can see Monday was very eventful.  Aiden was practicing for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoats by wearing these pants on his head.  (No, just kidding but it does look very Egyptian like to me in some of the photos.)  His mommy is very silly and likes to encourage these kinds of things by aiding the process along (what 18 month old could put pants on his own head, I tell you little to none).

Lalones is how Aiden says, "pantalones" the spanish word for pants.

After his Joseph practice he then had his first attempt at taking photos.  These are just three of the six that he took.

Later in the evening we went over to the house of a friend of Brandon’s.  Some friends of ours were in from out of town and so a get together was held so that as many people as possible would have a chance to see them.  It was fun but the guests of honor showed up late and so we were out later then we had planned.  It was fun to see everyone though.  I always enjoy visiting with Jeff and Kelly.  I would still like to meet their little one though.  He was sleeping.  At the party Aiden took some time to brush up on his boxing skills with a little help from daddy.

Wednesday was my birthday.  We had pretty much a normal day (yea it stinks getting older, you don’t get a fun themed party, you’re lucky if people remember to call you, you get a few gifts but not the haul you got when you were young, and well you are starting to get “old” how fun can that be?) there were really no out of the ordinary frills except that we went out to eat at Red Robin for dinner.  They have yummy burgers and fries!  We also had cake, my favorite yummy chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting and cherry filling from Glauss (which is hands down the best bakery in Utah) bakery.  Sadly, as I had no party the cake is not being eaten fast enough and some may go to waste.  *sniffle, sniffle, tear*  Such a delicacy should never go to waste.  It is safe to say that the transition into my 27th year went uneventfully and quietly into the night.

On Thursday I pulled out Aiden’s little pool again so that he could play in it outside.  He doesn’t really like the pool itself as much as playing with (and drinking from) the sprinkler.  Never fails though that about the time I want to finish up and put everything away, he plops in the pool to enjoy himself.  I took a moment to flip the brim of his hat up for a photo op.  It is very Elmer Fudd-esque to me.

Friday Aiden found out a marvelous thing, his ability to open my drawers!  In it he found my vast collection of hats and I’ll bet he was excited at the trove of treasures!  He tried several hats on but this one has got to be my favorite by far (and the only one we got a picture of).  I think I want to enlarge the top one and frame it for my wall.  Aiden has been getting into more and more things each day, opening closets, climbing furniture, throwing wipey’s all over his room when we forget to move them out of his reach, and whatever else he can get his hands on.  If he gets into the bathroom because the door is open he will pick up the plunger and plunge the toilet.  I suppose there are worse things he could do in the bathroom.  He also says about a million words and is starting to string them together.  The two sentances he has said are, “I like it.” and “Me hold it.”  Go Aiden go!  Tonight he was saying curtain, and we have taught him to say helicopter (which comes out more like, “helicopper).  He says, “reesin” ALOT too (which is raisin) because he really likes regular raisins and chocolate covered raisins.  I can’t even begin to update on the words he has learned so I won’t.  That is all for this week!  Thanks for reading…

Hello, hello!  I did not take many pictures this week nor do I remember much of what went on.  I also didn’t journal much so I don’t have a record of most of the week.  Here are the few things I did manage to catch in my journal.  Monday I took Aiden over to visit my grandma and to run around outside.  Wednesday my dad’s school was having an open house so we took Aiden down there to see all of the new remodeling.  We went upstairs to the track in the gym and let Aiden run around it three times.  He LOVED it.  Thursday was our anniversary and in the morning Brandon and I took Aiden swimming over at my grandma’s.  Friday we got ready for our trip to the Logan Anniversary in to celebrate 4 years together.  Aiden stayed overnight with my mom so that we could have the evening alone (and of course Anniversary Inn doesn’t allow children).  He and my mom rode trax down town (his first time on trax) and she took him to Discovery Gateway (his first time there as well).  She told us that he ran excitedly from exhibit to exhibit and squealed in delight on trax.  I think he enjoyed himself don’t you?  Saturday morning she took him to the park before we arrived to pick him up.

Below are just a couple of pictures from our room at Anniversary Inn and a picture of Aiden napping Saturday afternoon after we picked him up.  In the top picture you will notice that the toilet paper holder is only a foot and half above the ground.  It was hard to reach.  We ended up staying in Rich’s Drive In instead of Joanie’s Diner because of a mix up but it ended up being ok and we still got all sorts of yummy treats.  We love Anniversary Inn!  A little tip, if you go to the Christmas open house, not only does your child get a picture with santa but you get any room for any night in the next year for only $159 dollars (with a $50.00 deposit).

Anyway so that was our week.  Oh, Aiden also has learned many new words but the most memorable for this week is the word, “loco”.  It is really funny to hear a one and a half year old say loco.  This upcoming week is my 27th birthday.  Crazy huh?  Thanks for reading!

Hey, this past week was pretty fun.  I’ll just give you the brief version again this week.  As you can see on Tuesday Aiden found and tried on daddy’s robe.  Wednesday we went to Murray to play at the water play area in a park near my aunt’s house.  Aiden wasn’t too found of the sprays so later in the afternoon we put up his kiddie pool and the sprinkler at about 2-3 feet high and he played for a good 30 mins. or so.  Saturday we went to the 1st  birthday for my friends little girl.  There were a lot of people, good food, and lots of commotion.  Thanks for having us all over to celebrate Katie!

I don’t feel like blogging this week.  Here is what we did. On Tuesday we went on a picnic lunch with Mike, Lacey, Elise and “Lala”.  Tuesday Brandon also had an interview with Ogden Blue which went well.  Friday we went to Summerfest at Bountiful Park and then let Aiden play on the playground.  Saturday Brandon had another interview, this time it was with Sterling ATM.  That interview went well also.  As for the rest of the week, you all can use your imaginations to fill in the blanks.  Maybe we went to Africa or maybe we went scuba diving, perhaps some family BASE jumping.  It is up to you!  Have a good week.

So, compared to the last few weeks this week has been relatively uneventful.  My friends and I took our kids to the aquarium on Wednesday but it was kind of a whirlwind tour because Aiden was leading the way.  He is always going, going you know.  Thursday we took my dad to the airport for his trip to Canada with his friends and in the evening we went to talk to my grandpa and ask him stories about his life.  While we were there Aiden was running around outside, caught his toe and face planted on the sidewalk.  He cut his lip which bled a good amount and I am sure was a bit of a shock to him.  This was his first official bloody lip.  He seems to be getting more and more daring which leads to more and more bumbs and bruises.  Doh.  Such is the life of a toddler.  Friday evening we went to the free concert in the park and listened to, “On the Air.”  After about a half an hour Aiden started getting antsy and we decided that instead of run around chasing him we would just go home.  Yesterday morning some men form the ward came to help us clean up all of the trees that we had chopped down.  They have been hauled away now…except of course the ones that still need to be cut down.  :p  The rest of the day we just took it easy at home except for a trip to the fabric store in the evening.   That is it for the highlights…thanks for reading…

So we don’t have a whole lot for this week.  Monday evening Brandon and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at 9:30.  We didn’t get home until midnight or so…I didn’t realize we would be home so late until the day of.  It was ok though.  I really liked the movie and thought that all the teenage love stuff was hilarious.  I do think that they could have done a better job with Dumbledore’s funeral.  It is a MUCH bigger deal in the book.  All in all I was very pleased with how it turned out and I was by some miracle able to sleep in the next day because Aiden slept in.  Thank goodness!

Tuesday I got my birthday present from my dad.  A blue chocolate 3!  I have a memory card that will hold 8 gigs of music whichI have already started to fill and the coolest feature is that it has an fm transmitter built in so that I can listen to my “phone pod” music in my car.  I have never owned an mp3 player sp this is obviously very exciting to me.  Thanks again dad!!!!!

The other thing is that I did Disney Grooves Dance Dance ALL week (Mon-Fri).  This is my newest attempt at excercise.  Once I get the hang of it I will start mixing it up with Wii fit and Wii active but for now I am just proud that I excercised 5 days in a row.  I took Saturday off and realized that I should have taken Sunday off instead so I didn’t excercise this weekend but my plan is to work out 30 mins. a day monday thru saturday.  We will see how I do this week.  For me dancing is fun and I have always been a firm believe that excercise should be fun and that you need to figure out what sounds fun to you and do that for excercise.  I am just not a weight lifting, running/jogging, yoga, etc. kind of girl.  Kudos to those of you who are though.  Excercise should be what works for YOU!   There are my few words of wisdom for the week.  I am also continuing to not eat after 8:00 at night because our bodies don’t burn off as much food while we sleep and I am going to tone down on sweets by not eating any on Mon. and Thurs. and eating only 2-3 SERVING SIZE portions (or less) the rest of the week.  It is all about moderation right?  Lastly I want to make it very clear that all this insanity (yes that is what I call excercising and eating more healthy) is not to lose weight (although I imagine losing some will be a by product of excercising and eating better) but to be more healthy and to have more energy!!!  So there you go.

Thursday night we went to the Bountiful Parade.  You already know a little bit how that went from a previous post but let me paint a picture of the rest for you so that you can have a better idea.  The temperature was 103 degrees (at 6:00 at night?!?!?!?!?), we were on the side of the road that FACED the sun (as in we were looking right into it), kids kept standing directly in front of us, and the bees were trying to take off with our food.  We also had no bib for Aiden so he got increasingly messy as he ate fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn bread, and potato wedges with ketchup.  Here are some pictures of us making the best of it.

After we decided to leave the parade early we went over to the park for some cold refreshments and to listen to the band Endless Summer.  It is a band that a couple of my dad’s friends are in.  They play Beach Boy tunes.  It was really fun to watch them.  I will be sure to post the video of Aiden boogying to the music on our Family Adventure blog.  We also gave Aiden a snow cone which further added to messiness.

Friday we did something super fun in the morning.  We went to the rec center for their free swim.  The outside play area was a LOT of fun.  Aiden enjoyed the slides and splashing in the water.  We went inside for a little bit so that Brandon and I could go on the BIG slide and so that we could all enjoy the lazy river for a bit.  The inside was more crowded and incidentally more full of kids who weren’t aware of the little kids who they might be shooting in the back of the head with a semi forceful stream of water.  The littler kids were all outside.  See how fun it is.

Incidentally Brandon always has to stop at this climbing wall on the way out of the rec center and so today he “helped”  Aiden to do a little climbing.  Taking a turn for himself as well.

Saturday we got to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house.  Aiden was surprisingly well behaved and only made shrieking outbursts once or twice. 😉  It is a really beautiful temple and I really like the way the outside looks.  After the open house we went to eat at Sweet Tomatoes (I had wanted to eat there all week) and as you can see Aiden enjoyed his food and because we had no bib AGAIN (You’d think I would have remember from Thursday) he made another mess.  (Incidentally how do you get red Jello out of clothes?)  That was our week.  Oh and Brandon has been filming with his friends a couple of times because he wants to submit a video to win Lasik surgery.  It is due this week so hopefully all of his hard work will pay off.  Some of the other videos are pretty dull and Brandon made sure to come up with something clever and humorous so hopefully that gives him the edge he needs.  Have a great week everybody!  Thanks for reading…

So last Saturday the 11th my sister and her husband flew in from out of town.  We had a lot of fun with them this week.  First we had a family night/open house so that they could see all of the extended family and to celebrate my dad, sister, and twin aunts birthdays.  As you can see Aiden enjoyed mingling with his cousins and riding in the tire swing.

Monday evening we went to dinner with my mom and her friend Randy at Olive Garden.  Yum!  I love their breadsticks.

Tuesday afternoon my dad, Brandon, Aiden, and I went up to our temporary home in Park City.  It was the Silver Ridge hotel and man was it AWESOME!  We ate yummy homemade pizza and went swimming.  We also watched Harry Potter #5 so that we would be caught up to speed when we go see the new movie.  As you can see Aiden really enjoyed having a new space to explore and get into things.  My sister and her hubby joined us later that evening.

Wednesday we went over to the Park City resort and rode the Alpine Slide, Alpine Coaster, and zip line.  We also took some time to climb the climbing wall and to do flips on the legacy launcher.  In the evening we went to the Farmers Market and then my mom came up to eat chicken rolls with us.

Thursday we went to the outlet mall and browsed the stores.  I had a mission to find black church pants and shoes.  I learned from one of the store associates that black dress pants are a seasonal item and will be in stores, “Near the holidays.”  Oi.  We ended our Park City adventure with lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s.

On Friday the 17th I gave Aiden his first real bowl of cereal complete with spoon, bowl, milk, and apple jacks.  As you can see he is excited.  Check our other blog for video of first bowl of cereal.

Saturday we relaxed at home most of the day and then drove out to Lindon for dinner with Brandon’s extended family.  Unfortunately we had to leave at seven to join up with Erica to help celebrate her birthday and they were running so far behind that we didn’t get to eat with them.  Then we encountered an accident on the freeway, and after we got some take out before heading up the canyon to join my sister she called to say that they were going to Amy’s.  We opted to just go home…In Lindon Aiden got to meet a few family members that he had never met and see his grandma and grandpa Wilhelmsen, and uncle Torren.  The trip felt very pointless.

Today we went to church and then my dad took us all out to lunch as a last thing to do before Erica and Matt left for Florida.  I think we will likely take it easy the rest of today and then tomorrow we have to start getting caught up on things like dishes, laundry, and other chores.  Boo.  Until next week, thanks for reading…

This will be another week with mostly pictures and a little bit of writing…On Monday we went to free day the the Utah Museum of Natural History.  They still have the frog exhibit and they also had a bug exhibit and a Native American exhibit.  It was really neat to see some of the old worn Native American stuff.

On Wednesday some men from the elders quorum came over to help cut down trees and I quickly realized that Aiden and I were just going to be in the way so we went over to my grandma’s.  Aiden enjoyed running around in the yard and eating a creamie.  I enjoyed chatting with my grandparents.

Friday was family fun day at This is the Place Heritage Park and we had a lot of fun.  We rode the train, Aiden got to pet the animals and we also let him draw with chalk pastels.  I think his favorite was the free popsicle that he got to eat.  🙂

Petting a lamb.

Friday afternoon Brandon’s sister mentioned online that she was making cow costumes for cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-a.  Basically if you dressed from head to toe as a cow you got a free meal.  After I hemmed and hawed a little bit we decided to don cow costumes ourselves (Aiden included) and braved the Chick-fil-a at Fashion Place Mall.  I was not too excited to be going to the mall location but we did it and eventually other “cows” joined us.

Saturday my sister arrived!  Hooray!  We are glad that she made it here safely and look forward to spending time with her through out the week.  Welcome to Utah/home sis and Matty!

That is all for our week.  Until next week…thanks for reading!