The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

Well, we are pretty much officially moved in (by pretty much I mean that we still have a few odds and ends to box up at the apartment (like food) and the move out inspection at the University Village (for which I still have to clean the ENTIRE apartment) and we have to unpack and continue to organize and clean here at my dad’s so that we can get the living room and south end of the kitchen crawlable for Aiden.)  Anyway, this week was a week of madness.  Packing, organizing, preparing the bedrooms for moving in here at my dad’s.  Oi.  Worrying the earlier part of the week about when we would know Brandon’s start date and just overall stress.  We did manage to do a few fun things though. 

Tuesday, I kind of took the day off from all the madness and Brandon, Aiden and I walked the 6 or so blocks to the Foothill Library.  That was fun but I was worn out by the time we reached the apartment and I had wished that we had brought some water along.  Doh!  I feel like I am getting more and more scatterbrained with each passing day.  I try super hard to remember all of the important things but sometimes my brain is lacking. 🙂 This day we had also completely run out of veggies for Aiden.  There were no more jars of it and no more frozen cubes in the freezer so, we fed him pork and beans and he LOVED it.  He hasn’t eaten them since but since I am picking up our food today from the fridge at the apartment and the blender, maybe he can eat them tomorrow. 

Wednesday we officially finished up in both rooms with our preparations.  Once they are unpacked and decorated I will take pictures and post them on the blog.  Until then you will just have to be patient.  🙂  Aiden’s room is looking pretty good with the green walls.  His leaf isn’t up yet (hopefully today) and we need some fishing line to hang the “bugs” from the ceiling.  The curtains look cute though.  We also moved the second shelf in our closet down so that we could have a shoe shelf.  My shoes fill nearly 2/3’s of the shelf but Brandon told me that he was ok with that.  Why do girls have so much more stuff then boys?  I also believe that it was Wednesday that I let Aiden taste strawberries for the first time.  I bought some fresh ones at the store, chopped them up, blended them with a little water and then mixed some with the baby oatmeal with Aiden.  Strawberry oatmeal, what a lucky baby!  😉  He liked it too.  There is not much he doesn’t like to eat. 

 Thursday evening I scrapbooked at Joan’s.  That was fun as I like getting together with the gals and talking about girl things like being a mom, our weddings, and other things that go on in our daily lives. 

Friday was our moving day and I nearly had a breakdown.  I hate moving.  I am not sure why exactly but I have no doubt that it stems from all of the moves of my childhood.  Not to mention they are simply high stress days and a complete disorganized nightmare.  With every move I always try to be so organized in my packing but when moving day comes around whatever is left ends up just being thrown willy nilly into boxes and put in a truck.  ARGH!!!  We did survive it though and thank you to EVERYONE who has helped with our various moving needs.  We literally could NOT have done it without you. 

Saturday Brandon had a test and then he watched Aiden while I went to see Nights of Rodanthe with my mom.  It was a cute movie.  But I didn’t like how it ended, it was kind of a shock.  But that is all I am going to tell you, you will have to watch it to find out what happens. 

Sunday we went to church.  It was a bit strange attending the ward that I went to as a child but it was alright.  There was a lot the same and some thing different.  For instance, there were several families that still lived in the ward that I recognized from when I was younger.  Of course all of their kids are grown and gone now but the parents are still there.  There were also just as many new faces.  Then the building structure is all the same but much of the interior has been redone and updated.  I remember dark wood and brick walls and now the building seems much lighter with whitish grayish walls.  Church went well though and it is nice to be in a family ward.  Although I must admit how strange it was that it was SO quiet in sacrament and the only baby I could hear was my own.  Sacrament in the student ward was always a hustle and bustle of kids and babies with various needs.  We went to visit grandma Carolyn after church for a bit to see if grandpa could help us with a few things and to eat grandma’s leftovers.  😉  We also attempted to get Aiden to play in the snow.  You will have to watch the video on our other blog because my camera batteries died out and I couldn’t get any pics. 

Lastly, Brandon started work today.  Hooray!  We will let you know how it goes in our next blog post.  He also has fall break this week, but unfortunately will be spending a chunk of it cleaning and unpacking.  Until next week, thanks for reading….

Well, I just wanted to share the wonderful and brilliant thing that dawned on me yesterday.  As some of you know I have been making some of Aiden’s baby food from raw veggies and fruits to cut the cost of expensive jar baby food.  This has mostly gone well but takes a little bit of time and knowledge of what to buy at the store.  I got two books from the library that were full of wonderful recipes for how to cook and puree various fruits and vegetables for use as baby food.  The name of those books, just in case you were wondering are Blender Baby Food by Nicole Young & 100 Top Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel. I had only typed up for my use single fruit and veggie recipes and none of the mixed ones.  Silly me because now Aiden is on to bigger, better, and more flavorful things.  😉  Anyway, so yesterday I had to run to the store because I needed baby veggies but before leaving was asking Brandon about whether or not various veggies come in a can (like broccoli or cauliflower).  Wait let me back up a little.  I had no veggies to feed Aiden for lunch because we had run out of jar veggies and all the frozen ones were gone.  Well, I asked Brandon what we ought to do and he said that we should feed Aiden pork and beans.  (I think that beans are a legume and not a veggie but hey it works.)  So Brandon threw part of a can of pork and beans in the blender and voila, BABY FOOD!  I just heated it up for about 15 seconds and Aiden LOVED it!  This got me to thinking well, gee we got that can for about a dollar and Aiden only used about 1/4 of it so in the end each of his meals will cost 25 cents.  THAT IS 25-75 CENTS LESS THEN THOSE DANG BABY FOOD JARS!!!  That brings us to me asking Brandon about canned veggies.  So, I went to the store and was headed for the canned veggie eye when I spotted 1 lb. bags of frozen veggies (4 different kinds) on sale for 79 cents!  Well, that was certainly a better deal then the canned food (both being a better deal then jar food) and so I bought 3 bags.  I then speculated about the baby food “dinners” and looked at the possibilities of buying canned food in lieu of that.  I looked at the soups (too runny, and not sure how to thicken them) and the spaghettios.  Well 4 feedings in one jar of spaghettios for $1.00 versus 2 in a baby food jar for $1.00.  That saves me 50 cents!  Woo hoo!  Anyway, I was also thinking, “Well how do we save money on baby food fruit because raw fruit can be expensive?”  I didn’t come up with an answer to that until I talked with Brandon today.  I told him frozen fruit is like $4.00 a bag and he said that if we only get 8 feedings out of it that is still only 50 cents per feeding (still slightly cheaper then jar baby food).  Then if we look for sales on raw fruit and other things we could save money on those too.  Another bonus is that you can let your imagination go wild and mix and match flavors all you want. 

Think about it, you can throw pretty much anything into a blender to feed your little one, even a hamburger!  Then when they are getting a little older, blend the food so that it is still slightly chunky, pull some out, puree the rest, stir the chunks back in and you’ve got something similar to Gerber 3rd Foods.  Amazing isn’t it? 

Brandon and I are exhausted.  We have been working all week to get things packed here at the apartment and then worked at my dad’s Friday and yesterday.  We have twelve more days of work here at the apartment before we turn in the keys.  Twelve more days and then we can truly relax before continuing to work at my dad’s.  I hope my little body holds out that long.  Yesterday we loaded up all the the stuff I had boxed and stored in my room at my dad’s and took it to our storage unit.  There is still some stuff in my room that we didn’t take because the boxes don’t have lids and some things weren’t even in a box, we will go down to my dad’s sometime this week to finish emptying out that room and to paint two of the walls in Aiden’s room.  I also made some cute curtains for Aiden’s room.  I will take pictures when we get them hung up and the room painted and decorated.  We have quite a bit of stuff that I can’t depart with like scrapbooks and related paraphernalia that will likely just be stacked in the kitchen under the table until we get that area cleaned.  We still have work to do on the main level before Aiden will be able to crawl around down there but for now we will close my dad’s door and the bathroom door upstairs, put a gate at the top of the stairs and Aiden will be free to roam between his room and our room.  He will also have a new door to his room in 2 weeks.  The old one was split and the guts were falling out.  It could be shut from the outside by pushing the front of the door in and pulling, but I couldn’t close it from the inside.  Thanks dad!

Earlier this week I took Aiden to the allergist because I had been speaking with the pediatrician about my many allergies and asked her when I should have Aiden tested.  The pediatrician suggested between 6 & 12 months and we got in much faster then I expected (I planned to go around 9 months old.)  Anyway, he was tested for indoor and outdoor environmental allergies, peanut allergy, and walnut allergy.  The tests all came back negative, but the allergist explained that allergies do not generally show up until you have had some exposure to them.  At this point Aiden has likely been exposed to most all environmental allergies but to be sure the allergist suggested re-testing those next fall after he has been through all of the seasons again and without a doubt been exposed to all of the allergens.  She also suggested waiting to test for nut allergies until he is 2 or 3 and been exposed to those to some degree.  So there you go. 

A couple of other thoughts.  It is said that babies are born with a certain personality and temperment.  I believe to some degree this is true but I also wonder how much their temperment is formed by their experience in the womb.  I have been told time and time again how happy little Aiden is and I am so grateful that he is and that partly this is just his personality.  But I am curious if he came out happy because of how silly and giggly I was while he was in my belly.  I figure any baby who hears 9 months of laughter inside the womb is bound to come out being happy.  Just a thought though. 

My other thing, is just that even though I haven’t caught a lot of conference on t.v. I did catch the part where Thomas S. Monson said that he loved us.  I don’t know why but for some reason, the way he said it, and just the state I was in at the time, it really hit me that he meant it.  He doesn’t even know me individually, I have never met him, but he does love me as a child of God and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Which I guess if I analyze it further, if the prophet can love me and truly mean it, then of course Heavenly Father does.  How couldn’t he?  Just because I am one of many does not mean that my one-ness is not important.  Anyway, I am also very excited that Rome will have a temple.  How exciting to be a part of this marvelous work rolling forth. 

Next week I will be writing from our new living space.  I have mixed feelings about moving but I think that as a whole it will be good for all parties involved (including you dad 😉 ) and that once things are all settled and in their place it will begin to feel like home.  It is going to be a little bit like the twilight zone when I attend church next Sunday in the building that I went to when I was in primary but I am also looking forward to attending a ward that has youth in young women’s and young men’s.  Those programs are inspired by God. 

Well, I think that I said everything that I need to say.  We are just waiting to hear from the hiring manager at Loomis about the success of Brandon’s drug test (he will likely call on Monday) and give Brandon his start date.  Hopefully he will start working next week.  Thanks for reading…Oh, and I am sorry that we only post pictures of Aiden.  It is because no one takes pictures of Brandon and I, and especially me (Erin) because I am often the one behind the camera.  We’ll see what we can do in the future.

Well, yet another week has flown by and I am knee deep in the muck of moving.  We now have all the boxes we could possibly need and more (thank you so much to the kind people in the ward who gave us boxes).  I have started packing things like board games, books, videos, and various other stuff that we won’t need in our last two weeks here at the apartment, but there is still so much more to pack.  It is always so hard to know what things you need to wait until the last minute to pack and what things you can do without for a week or two.  We plan to pack most everything (even plates, bowls, and silverware because we can use paper/plastic ware) this week while I still have Brandon around.  We are hoping that things with Loomis (and his background check) will progress this week so that he can start working next Monday the 6th of October. 

So last week was a blur of things.  We did attend a little bit of the U of U homecoming week songfest on Wednesday.  The three or so songs we watched cracked me up so much.  They were by some of the frats and sororities on campus.  I felt like I was at a high school pep rally and the girls really showed up the guys in organization and preparation.  All were dripping and oozing with cheese though.  I turned to Brandon and said, “The EFY kids and LDS fraternity’s and sorority’s did a better job tying our various group themes into their cheers then these students.”  He agreed with me.  🙂  That was the extent to which we celebrated homecoming.

Friday evening we switched on the presidential debate for a little bit.  I don’t care what anybody says, republican or democrat.  I do not want either of these men to run our country.  I got such a bad feeling in my gut as I listened to them talk about various issues.  I feel like they are just trying to say whatever they can to sway us to vote for them.  Empty promises to ensure presidency.  How did we get to a point where most americans plan to vote for the, “lesser of two evils” rather then the very best of two very excellent candidates?  But enough about that.

 Saturday morning I had been asked to teach a little bit about sewing for a relief society enrichment activity.  I prepared well and was not nervous for some reason.  Well I got to the church and set up and only 4 sisters came.  I ended up shortening my lesson and hopefully the four sisters got something worthwhile out of it.  I guess that I will never know.  😉

In the afternoon we went to my dad’s to work on cleaning some more.  I feel like we didn’t get much done but there are now futon’s where his couches used to be and some of the garbage made it to the dump.  So I guess that is good.  We also went and looked at some couches that my dad had seen and decided against him buying any because it isn’t really a top priority at this time.  We head back there to clean some more on Friday and plan to get the bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room organized. 

Yesterday we had a busy day as well.  A few weeks ago I made plans with our dinner group this month to do a brunch for the 28th.  Unbeknownst to me until yesterday it was fast sunday.  Doh!  We had our brunch anyway.  Before the brunch though I was visit taught, after the brunch we had an appointment with the bishop, then church and after church we got home taught.  Phew! 

Well, I don’t really have much else to say.  Aiden has been a trooper with all of these changes going on around him and has enjoyed all of the hustle and bustle at my dad’s house.  This week he ate some spaghetti noodles with parmesan cheese and a few bites of meat.  Today he climbed up into the bottom shelf of one of our shelving units, unfortunately when I grabbed the camera the batteries were dead so I didn’t get a picture.  🙁  Oh well, I will be quicker next time and will make sure the batteries are charged.  Tomorrow Aiden has an appointment with an allergist (thanks to me having a billion allergies and wanting to be forewarned about him).  I hope it goes well.  Ta ta for now.  Thanks for reading…

Hey everyone!  Happy first day of Autumn!  I really enjoyed the rain this morning.  I took Aiden out and stuck his toes in a puddle and let the rain drip drop on his head.  It was fun. 

So last week was pretty busy.  Monday I took Aiden to the pediatrician because of a rash he had and his eye being goobered shut when he woke up in the morning.  While there I found out that he had a bit of pink eye and we got a prescription for eye drops.  When I left the appointment I realized that I had left the keys on the back seat and locked them in the car.  I ended up sitting on the grass with Aiden and waited for about 90 mins. before the locksmith guy showed up.  We have verizon roadside assistance so the lock out was free but geez!  It was a LONG wait.  Luckily I had taken the diaper bag in so I had a blanket for Aiden and was able to rock him to sleep. 

Wednesday I fed Aiden tiny bite sized pieces of hot dog, bread, puffs, & peaches for dinner because he wasn’t eating his pureed baby food very well.  He enjoyed picking up the little pieces of food and didn’t drop very many on the floor or in his lap.  After dinner I went to Pioneer Theatre to see My Fair Lady with my aunt Vicky.  As always the costumes and set were AMAZING! 

Friday we took Aiden to Target to get his picture taken.  We had him in a porceline tub with rubber duckies all around, a towel, baby powder, and then we blew bubbles while the photographer took the pictures.  They turned out REALLY cute!

Saturday we went to the University Village Block Party where we gathered some good pamphlets and ate burgers.  In the afternoon we went to my dad’s and I started to clean my sisters old room.  After we cleaned we went to visit my grandma and she gave Aiden a cream puff to munch on.  We also stuck our feet in her pool and visited with her and grandpa.  We spent the rest of the evening at home.

 Sunday I finished emptying my sisters old room and vacuumed.  All that I have left to do is wipe down all of the walls and then we will move her boxes of books somewhere else and take my vanity to the DI.  Hallelujah Aiden has somewhere to sleep!  When we got home I organized papers in our file drawer.  Well, I guess that is all for last week.  Thanks for reading…

This week has been a roller coaster of ups and downs.  Each evening for some reason I have gotten a little case of the blues and I don’t even know why.  Perhaps it is just because of the stress Brandon and I have been under. 

Unfortunately, I do not remember even remotely what went on early in the week and I don’t have anything written down in my day planner or on the calender to help jog my memory.  Oh well.  I do know that we watched Look Who’s Talking Too, King Corn, and Three Men and a Little Lady at some point during the week and I picked up some groceries. 

Thursday evening the three of us went out to eat with my dad to talk about us moving in with him.  (For those of you who did not receive our e-mail we have decided to move in with my dad for the remainder of Brandon’s schooling and part of next summer, so a total of perhaps 9-10 months.  We are doing this in the best interest of our family because we have had bad luck with the poor job economy and it is very stressful each time we go through a period of joblessness, especially now that our savings is gone.)  Anyway, my dad wanted some logistics and to find out what we are thinking as far as who will sleep where, what needs to be done, church, groceries, laundry, etc.  I think we figured most things out and will have to talk about other things as they come up.

We also visited grandma on Thursday and she enjoyed spending time with Aiden while Brandon attended and impromptu tour of UPS. 

Friday we took it easy all day.  We did run some errands to Target 1 & 2 to pick up our photos, to the library, to staples, and to the U of U to return a textbook that Brandon didn’t need.  We didn’t get a full refund for it because the full refund date was Sept. 5th or something and we would have returned it sooner but Brandon found out from his teacher on the 11th that he wouldn’t need it.  BAH!  We lost $6.00ish because of that.  But at least it wasn’t worse. 

Saturday was fun.  We went to the bishop’s for lunch and then dropped Aiden off with my mom to be baby sat so that we could go and see, “Scary Poppins, Super-nanny-gone-ballistic-expialidocious.”  It was funny and very clever.  The American Olio was good as well.  (Usually this show has a Back To School Olio but I am guessing that they went American due to it being an election year.) 

Well, my trouble this week has been with digital photos.  I found out on Weds. or Thurs. that if I want to download my photos from snapfish it will cost me 25 cents for the first one and 5 cents for each one after for every seperate download that I do.  YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!  Oi.  All those hours uploading photos was a waste of time!  Next, yesterday I was starting to transfer my pics. onto Brandon’s computer and I did something wrong and lost like 10 of my photos (total photo loss after recovering the missing data and trying to fix corrupt files).  It was really a bummer because I cherish my photos so deeply.  *sigh*  I am going to be much more careful in the future. 

As for Aiden, he is doing well.  He is getting around more quickly now and starting to get into things.  He likes pulling our phone books onto the floor off of the bottom shelf of our plastic stacker.  He has also started to venture onto the kitchen floor and like to crawl under the tables and chairs.  Another thing he likes to do is climb up into the bottom shelf of our white shelves.  Yesterday while I was folding laundry I had him in my lap and he used the laundry basket to pull himself into a standing postion!  He is so smart.  This morning when I got him out of bed his little eye was goobered shut, after I helped him get his eyelashes unstuck I noticed that his eye is a little puffy and slightly red.  If it still looks that way tomorrow or worse, then I will call the pediatrician. 

As for my Brandon, he has 2 interviews on Tuesday.  One with Loomis (the company he worked for when we were dating, and his boss would be someone that he worked with before), the 2nd with backcountry.com.  He also has an interview next week with UPS.  We feel pretty good about Loomis and Back Country though.  He is also doing a good job keeping up with his homework and Thumbprints designs. 

Well that is all for this week, thanks for reading…

Hello again!  I know that a full week hasn’t passed yet but Sunday is my usual day to write the family news (sometimes I don’t get to it until Monday but hey) and so today is the day I am to write.  I did a LOT of laundry this week, washing the dirty clothes from our trip, the clothes in the laundry basket, and any new clothes that were purchased in between (because I read somewhere to wash all baby clothes before the baby wears them).  Then of course we had all the dishes washed and I decided that I NEEDED chocolate chip cookies and hey, since we have cream cheese frosting in the fridge why not cook up some homemade cinnamon rolls as well.  As a result we have more dirty dishes.  I long for the day when I have a full sized dishwasher that my pots, pans, and baking sheets will fit in. 

The other fun thing this week is that Aiden is starting to really get into things and also get around.  Today I had to put up the gate over by the washing machine, bathroom, and our bedroom because he had crawled clear over there to get the milk jugs by the garbage.  He has also been crawling around under the kitchen table and chairs and all over the kitchen floor.  He has also learned to pull his buckets of toys/books off the bottom shelf of our book shelf and dump the toys on the floor.  (What he really wants is to play with the bucket and is not trying to make a mess.)  Aiden will put anything and everything in his mouth.  Last night he found a leaf on the floor and by the time we realized it he was gagging on it and had a fistful of it in his little hand.  I just patted him on the back and then gave him some water to dislodge it and wash it down.  Silly babies! 

On the night that we made cookies and cinnamon rolls I gave Aiden a little taste of the cookie (note the chocolate on his lips in the picture below).  He was thoroughly thrilled with the deliciousness of the treat.  The next night we want to our stake neighborhood party and they had cotton candy.  I decided to give Aiden a bit and he liked it but I think that he was not quite sure what was happening because by the time it was in his mouth it had dissolved and yet there was still a yummy flavor.  The most exciting thing with Aiden lately is that when he is in the mood he will give us kisses.  We just kiss him all over his cute little face then we say, “Kisses,” put his mouth up to our cheek and he will stick his toungue out and make a little noise.  It makes me smile SO much. 

Anyway, yesterday I went with my mom for a girls day while Brandon daddy sat Aiden.  We had lunch got a manicure and then went to Walmart for a little shopping.  I got some very cute shoes and pajama’s.  My mom got a couple of dresses and some high heels.  In the evening we watched Three Men and a Baby that we had checked out at the library.  It had been SO very long since I had seen it and it made me laugh.  Our next couple that we plan to check out are Three Men and a Little Lady, Look Who’s Talking, Look Who’s Talking Too, and Look Who’s Talking Now.  Go 80’s films!  Woot!

Well, that is all for today.  I will write some more next week.  Thanks for reading…

Well, last week was a whirlwind.  It was full of fun and whipped by quickly.  Monday was just a regular day at home with the exception of eating lunch at Red Robin so that I could have my free birthday burger.  It was tasty.  At home I feel like I am constantly trying to keep up with housework and in this tiny place even the smallest mess makes me feel like the whole house is a mess.  Brandon also started school on Monday.  I am not sure how he feels about it just yet but he seems to be getting into the swing of things. 

Tuesday was a lot of fun.  When Brandon got home from school we drove out to Ogden to IFly Utah and enjoyed a simulated sky dive.  You can see videos of our flight at http://wilhelmsenfamilyadventures.blogspot.com/  After our trip to Ogden we came home and I fed Aiden.  While feeding I noticed he was feeling warmer then usual and took his temp.  102.0 on the binky thermometer and 101.0 on the regular under arm thermometer.  I started to worry and was telling Brandon that we needed to cancel our dinner plans.  He said that we should go anyway and we will watch Aiden very closely.  I know that Tylenol and Ibuprofin help to reduce fever but it hadn’t been 8 hours since the previous dose and so I waited.  Anyway, while we were eating dinner I took Aiden’s temp. again on the binky thermometer.  103.3 Aghhhh!  I told Brandon that we needed to go to the ER and gave Aiden his next dose even though the 8 hours wouldn’t be done for 15-30 mins.  Well we went to Alta View hospital and by the time we got there Aiden’s temp. was 100.5 on a scan thermometer and under arm thermometer.  They took us back to a room where after waiting a bit we found out that they do not take molina medicaid.  Well we decided to refuse treatment and left.  Well, amongst all this I find out that my friends were throwing me a surprise party and we were supposed to be at Murray Park at 7:00.  So after refusing treatment we went to the park and planned to watch Aiden closely again.  After about an hour at the park Brandon took Aiden’s temp again and it had gone back up to 102.5 on our binky thermometer.  So we decided to head straight to Primary Children’s Hospital and have him looked at.  Thankfully a girl in our ward ended up being our nurse and the ER doctor was wonderful.  She said that he had a blister in his mouth and that it was the coxsackies virus.  Which is the same virus that causes hand, foot, and mouth disease.  As you know you can’t medicate a virus and so she told us what to do to keep AIden comfortable while the virus ran it’s course.  I am just glad it wasn’t something worse.

Wednesday we stayed in so that Aiden wasn’t exposed to anything else.  We also packed for our trip to Reno and I did my best to get the house cleaned up before our trip.  I also started to feel under the weather with a cold or something. 

Thursday after more attempts to clean up we went to my dad’s for a ride to the airport.  Then we embarked on our flight to Reno which was Aiden’s first plane ride.  It went well, he ate and then slept.  He also did this on our flight to Boise on the way back.  From Boise to SLC though he was wiggly and slightly fussy.  He would not go to sleep for anything.  It wasn’t as bad as I had imagined though and so I was lucky.

While we were in Reno we ate at Red Robin and the buffet at the Atlantis casino.  We attended a rib cook off and Aiden got spoiled because aunt Megan bought him a bunch of clothes.  We also swam in Megan’s pool and played Wii fit and Wii olympics.  The rest of the time we relaxed and let Aiden enchant and delight various family members.  We also visited Brandon’s great grandma (Aiden’s great-great grandma) and that was good for her to see Aiden.  Thanks for letting us visit Megan!

We returned home on Labor Day so as you might guess we spent our labor day traveling home and then my dad took us out to dinner.  Thanks dad!

Well, now it is just business as usual.  Thanks for reading…

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…