The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

Hey I was looking at our blog and realized that I better send a quick update.  Brandon had a job interview on Wednesday for a temp to hire job with a sign company that I believe is called bargain banners, they told him that they would call him back on Weds. or Thurs. and they called him back later that same day telling him that he had been hired.  (I will have Brandon write about the circumstances surrounding the interview.)  HOORAY!  He started the very next day (a.k.a Thurs.)  He is being paid $10.00 an hour and will be officially hired on in 90 days.  It is a fairly new company so there will be lots of room for advancement and growth.  They do offer benefits but we won’t be able to afford benefits for the whole family on ten dollars an hour (unless the benefits are incredible awesome but somehow I doubt that.)  He didn’t know when he would be up for his first raise, hopefully at 90 days.  So there you go.  I feel pretty good about this job.  I think that at the very least we will be able to meet our needs, Brandon will enjoy his job, and there will be job security (meaning he could work there indefinitely until he graduates or stumbles into a better job).  This will be good for my nerves.  They also told him that in the slow times he could do some designing for them as well (right now they just hire freelance designers).  I am hoping that when they move to their new building and as the business picks up that they will decide to hire a full time graphic designer and that Brandon will be right there to pick up the job.  😉  It will be good experience for his design resume regardless.  So there you go, thank you for all of the prayers in our behalf.

Hello, hello!  Let’s see…Brandon didn’t work tuesday through friday this week.  You see for the last couple of weeks at his new job (3-4) he has been keeping in close communication with his supervisor regarding not being able to make the sales quota’s that he was hoping to make, because of this his supervisor had given him the option of transfering over to credit repair where he would make a flat $10.00 an hour and not have to meet quota’s.  So last week Brandon had finally decided to transfer over to that department and this Monday he had a meeting with his supervisor and would have been “let go” but luckily had already started the process of transfering.  Nevertheless he has had the rest of the week off and is still waiting to know if he will definitely be transfering and starting on Tuesday or not.  *Sigh*  We had already been searching for a better job but if this transfer falls through he will be out of a job again.  On the upside because it is summer he is available 8-5 or 9-5 and so it should be easier to find a job.  Please keep us in your prayers and keep your fingers crossed that something will turn up.

Most of this week, aside from searching for jobs, Brandon has been working on his 20 foot Delta kite and he decided to create a para foil kite.  He created the pattern and then bought the fabric and cut it all out.  He is currently working on pinning it and soon he will start to sew it. 

I have been working on sewing projects this last week.  Until this week I haven’t sewn much of anything since Aiden was born.  My upcoming projects include christmas gifts, and 5 dresses to replace a few that I had to loan to my mom because they didn’t fit anymore.  You see the dresses I loaned to my mom were my favorite and would have been excellent for a breast feeding mother.  They tied at the shoulder.  We shall see how long sewing will hold my interest.  I tend to do alot of sewing in a short span of time and then go awhile without sewing.  I also have digital scrapbooking and keeping our blog up to date to keep me busy above and beyond catering to Aiden’s every whim.  😉

Yesterday we took Aiden to get his three month pictures taken.  We had him dressed in his blessing atire and because he was kind of tired he started to fuss after several poses.  Luckily, we still got some cute ones and will have them in two or so weeks.  After pictures we went to visit our friends briefly.  Then we had a quiet evening at home. 

This evening we had my dad over for dinner and tomorrow the ward is having a memorial day breakfast.  After the memorial day breakfast we will be meeting my family at Murray Cemetary for our usual memorial day festivities.  Placing flowers on our relatives headstones and then heading to Murray Park for lunch and visiting.  🙂  After that we will be going to my mom’s for a light dinner and some visiting. 

So there you have it, our activities for the week.  Have a wonderful memorial day! 

Hello again everyone!  Just a couple weeks ago it was snowing and now without so much as a blink of an eye the temperatures are reaching the 90’s, what is up with that?  Can’t we just have several weeks of sunny 60-70 degree weather with a few days of rain sprinkled about here and there?  90 is just too hot for me.  As for our news, it seems to me that we always have our most eventful adventures on the weekend.  I had a few things in my mind to write about yesterday and now I can’t remember.  This past week we celebrated my grandma’s birthday and saw some of the extended family.  I always enjoy getting together with my extended family. 

Yesterday was a pretty full day.  We got some groceries in the morning and then Brandon wanted to go to R.E.I. to buy some webbing for the gigantic Delta kite that he is going to build.  Aiden hadn’t eaten much at his 2nd feeding so I had no idea when he might want to eat again.  Nevertheless we went to R.E.I. and I took Aiden out of his car seat and walked around with him in the camping section pointing out various things to him and telling him what they were.  He seemed pretty curious.  After we paid I ended up feeding Aiden in the car and he still spaz ate.  Well, we went to the bishop’s home for food and swimming after that.  We took Aiden in the pool and he fussed a bit.  I thought he didn’t like the change from air temperature to water temperature but it turned out that he just didn’t like the sun in his eyes.  For him swimming wasn’t super exciting or super horrible.  He just was like well I could take it or leave it.  I even had Brandon dunk Aiden (which he ended up doing four times) and Aiden didn’t mind too much, he only fussed for a short moment and seemed a little surprised when he came up out of the water.  One thing to mention is that there was a little bit of miscommunication regarding the procedure for dunking a baby, you see you are supposed to blow in their face before you dunk them so that they inhale and close their mouth and eyes.  On the first dunk, Brandon neglected to do this.  Luckily by some blessing Aiden did this anyway and wasn’t sputtering too much when he came up. 

In the evening we were going to have some friends over for chicken cordon bleu but they ended up calling because they’d had a long day and wanted to reschedule.  Which is understandable, we’d had a long day too.  We still cooked the chicken cordon blue (see pics.) or should I say BRANDON cooked the cordon bleu.  I probably could have done it but Brandon is much more talented in the fine art of cooking, plus I don’t really like to handle raw meat very much, especially chicken, so he did it.  It was very tasty!  Brandon did an excellent job.  Aside from the cooking we spent a fairly quiet evening at home.

Today we had a dinner group with a couple of families in the ward and so we brought spice cake.  It was really very easy, you just mix up a yellow cake as per the directions and add cloves, sugar, cinnamon, and all spice.  The thing that made it extra delicious is that we made cream cheese frosting.  It turned out delicious as well, Brandon decided to go the extra mile and turn it into a round cake.  so there is tasty frosting goodness between the layers and on top.  The more frosting the better I always say.  🙂  Anyway, it was really nice to spend a little bit of time talking with and getting to know more people in the ward.

Well, I guess that is our excitement for this week.  Although I must mention that we have been reading Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites and I have really been enjoying it.  The author has a fun style of writing and there are some parts that just make me laugh, partly I think because it reminds me of my early teenage years.  It is also helping me to become more familiar with some of the characters from the Book of Mormon that I have read and learned about since I was tiny.  Which reminds me of another thing that is sort of pertinent to nephites.  Brandon and I were talking about survival and what not in the car the other day and the subject of bows and arrows came up.  (Needless to say if we have to hunt, kill, and prepare our own meat I will be one hungry white girl, but that is another topic all together.)  After talking about them for a bit I just felt like that would be a skill that I would actually want to learn.  Even though I won’t ever actually use it for hunting.  I just feel like it would be a way to further connect me with those who came before such as native americans, Nephites, and people who lived in biblical times. 

Lastly I just want to mention that today in relief society I realized just how important prayer is in my life.  We are taught to always have a prayer in our hearts and while I am not sure if I ALWAYS do, prayer is a pretty common occurence in my life.  I pray for the help to find lost items, for our little garden to be strong and produce a good harvest, for strength in my trials, for peace, for help that Aiden might sleep longer, for help that I might fall asleep quickly, for the spirit to be here in my home, and many other things.  The other night little Aiden woke up crying only after an hour of sleep.  I didn’t know if he was hurting or scared.  I just assumed scared because he had awoken pretty suddenly and was crying immediately.  I tried to comfort him in his crib and it became apparent that he needed to be held.  So I picked him up and he was still struggling to calm down.  At that point I said a prayer, I prayed that Aiden would feel safe, secure and loved, that the spirit would be in his room, and that he would be able to fall back to sleep quickly.  This calmed him and he did indeed fall back to sleep quickly.  I guess what I mean to say is that today I realized that even though I feel like I very seldomly get answers to my prayers, just the simple act of saying prayers regularly and turning to prayer whenever I am struggling, Aiden or Brandon are in need, for answers, for guidance, or for anything else that I might be prompted to pray about does at the very least give me peace.  It does help me to know that I am not alone and that Heavenly Father does know my needs and hear my prayers.  So even when I don’t appear to get an answer or don’t get the answer I want, I still know that there is that direct line of communication with him, and that he is watching over us.  I still trust that somehow someway everything will work out and get answered in it’s own due time, even if in certain moments it doesn’t seem like it will.  I don’t know, I hope that I explained myself well enough to get my point accross.  Prayer brings me peace and comfort just through the simple act of doing.  So there you go.  Have a good week everyone!

Before I even start I must admit that I will probably get a little choked up writing about my very first Mother’s Day.  I mean who wouldn’t?  It is a momentous occasion for a new mom.  So, a few weeks ago Brandon bought me my Mother’s Day gift early because it is a useful and practical item which has already come in handy on several occasions.  He bought me a front and back carrier so that when there are times that Aiden just won’t let me put him down (or if I just don’t want to because I want to stay as close to his cuteness as often as possible because I know inevitably there will come a day when he does not want to be held or cuddled all day by mom and dad) then I can put him in it and still get some of the household work done.  Because I received this early I figured that I would either get nothing on Mother’s Day or else something very small, but was looking forward to our free night stay at the Anniversary Inn.  (We love and adore Anniversary Inn.  As such we HIGHLY recommend that any couple save up enough money to spend the night in one of the themed rooms because it is SO MUCH FUN!)  View video of the room at http://wilhelmsenfamilyadventures.blogspot.com/.

Anyway, imagine my delight when on Saturday evening Brandon mentions that he has a quick errand to run for me and my mom and that he couldn’t see how it would be plausible for me to wait to receive the gift resulting from this errand until the morning.  I tried to encourage him to please wait to give it to me (even though I had an inkling of what it might be and knew that it could be difficult to hide from me).  As he left I told him that I would just really like something cheap or free that I could have on the actual day of Mother’s Day, even if it was just a card.  So he left and when he came back he had a bouquet of flowers for me from him (see photo) and a tiny bouquet from Aiden (see photo).   It was very cute he even wrote a little note for me from Aiden, thanking me for being so loving, caring, and for making him the happiest baby ever.  

Yesterday morning when I woke up and we were rushing around the house to get ready for church Brandon gave me a card that was especially for a first time mom.  In it he thanked me for “filling” up his life and for sacrificing as our son’s “milky way”.  With the card he gave me a hostess cherry pie and a Milky Way candy bar.  🙂  After we were ready we walked to church.  I always love sacrament on Mother’s Day because either the primary does the program or they sing a couple of songs.  When the little primary kids sang, “Mother Dear I love you so…” I got choked up.  Being a mom is so great. 

Between church and 3:30 was a bit stressful because we were trying to eat, dip strawberries in chocolate, pack Aiden’s stuff for a sleepover at my mom’s, pack our stuff for our stay at Anniversary Inn and several other things.  But we managed and got out the door fairly close to on time. 

We then went to my mom’s to spend a little bit of Mother’s Day with her and we all just chatted and ate pizza.  Then Brandon and I went to Anniversary Inn.  I told him that I never wanted to be away from my kids on Mother’s Day ever again because I had started to miss Aiden before we had even parted from him.  Nevertheless it was a nice relaxing getaway with a bit of silliness mixed in…

 As you can see we stayed in the Treasure Island suite.  Not only did we spend a plethora of time enjoying the huge tub but we also watched, “Memoirs of a Geisha.”  It was a good movie and an interesting glimpse into a culture very different from our own.  So I can say that all in all it was a very good Mother’s Day.  On a side note, in each room of the Anniversary Inn there is a book that you can write in about your stay at the Inn.  A memoir of sorts for the room I suppose, well, as I was looking through or rooms memoir I noticed an entry signed, “Emrazian.”  I called Brandon over and asked him how likely it was to be a relative of our good friend Dan.  Very likely was his response, he then added, “in fact I do believe that was the day Dan’s brother Aaron got married because I remember putting that date on the pumpkin.”  How crazy is that?  “It’s a small world after all, it’s a small world after all….”  🙂 

So there you have the brief synopsis of my very first and momentous Mother’s Day.  I hope that all of yours were good as well.

Today was a fun and long day.  This morning after Aiden waking up at 5:40 (I had him wait until 6:00 to be fed), we all got up at 8:40 to go over to the student apartment yard sale at which Brandon used some of his money to buy some ski’s (complete with boots and poles) for $10.00.  I used $3.00 to get a seven pack of paper punches.  Sweet! 

After the yard sale I left my two men and went over to the church for the stake relief society enrichment activity at which I went to a class about home decorating and a class about meal planning.  At both classes I got a few new ideas that I hadn’t thought of before which is kind of the point of those classes anyway.

Upon arriving home I fed Aiden and took a nap.  Then I fed him again while Brandon inflated the little pool that we got from mom and dad Wilhelmsen.  After feeding I had Brandon go out and fill the pool up while I put Aiden’s swim diaper on and slathered him in sunscreen.  Below are the resulting photographs of his adventure. To see video please go to our blogger blog at http://wilhelmsenfamilyadventures.blogspot.com/

After swimming I dried Aiden off and put him back into his clothes so that we could go to the student apartments Year End Bash.  There we mostly just wheeled Aiden around while we waited for the food to be ready.  While wheeling him around we took advantage of the photo op below.  🙂  We also watered our little garden while we waited for food.  The peas are growing pretty well although I continue to be slightly concerned about the yellowing and browning of the lower leaves.  We also have a lot of little onion seedlings poking up out of the dirt which is very exciting.  I continue to pray that the little cucumber, cherry tomato and at least one of three jalepeno plants will live.  (We lost our two roma tomato plants and most likely two of three jalepeno’s.)  It is hard to know if the plants are being watered too much or not enough.  It is also hard to know if they are getting too much sun or being bothered by bugs.   Anyway…

Some other things worth mentioning are that we got our economic stimulus check from the IRS.  We put 1/3 of it into savings (which we had completely wiped out during Brandon’s jobless days), paid tithing on it, and then put a little aside for each of us to spend.  So far Aiden has spent the most buying himself a Johnny Jump Up, door stopper, and a high chair, he also plans to replace the broken boom box in his room and perhaps buy a few baby food freezer trays for when I start to make baby food for him.  :þ Also, we think that little Aiden may be getting close to cutting a tooth.  His sleep during the day this week has been a bit random and last night when we were trying to feed him a bottle he was very upset.  He calmed down when we pulled the bottle out and rubbed his gums.  So another thing that I did today was buy some teething tablets to help ease the discomfort.  I plan to use them mostly at night unless he gets really upset during the day. 

The last thing I want to mention is that earlier this week Aiden and I did a small bit of exploring on our walk.  You see there is a little alleyway near the maintenance building and I had always wondered what it led to.  So, we walked down it and near the end where there was a gate in the fence we heard some rushing water.  So we went through the fence and down a little hill to a bridge where there was a torrent of water running underneath it.  We then went up the hill on the other side and found ourselves in sunnyside park.  It was a pretty cool discovery.  So there you have the highlights of our week.  T.T.F.N.

Well, Aiden has been sucking and gnawing on his hands for a few weeks now. He has been drooling a bit as well. More recently (like the last 3-4 days) he has learned how to stick only his little tiny thumb in his mouth and chew on it. It is pretty cute but I keep telling him to enjoy it while it lasts because if he has his mommies skin and eczema dry spots start to become a problem then I will have to keep his hands out of his mouth and possibly even in little mittens…

Hello again from our Botanical Blog address.  I still haven’t decided which blog will be our “official” blog.  Brandon and I kind of like the idea of an amorphous botanical blog and both blogger and word press have their various strengths and weaknesses.  Blogger is a bit more user friendly, whereas the newest wordpress version has new add media buttons that I am excited to play with.  Also, so far we have gotten a gazillion times more spam on wordpress then blogger.  It also appeared that changing blogger themes would be easier but Brandon and I have been playing with wordpress themes tonight, it seems all we needed to do is access the site with an ftp program and upload the themes.  Good thing Brandon knows what he is doing because I was stumped. 

Well, our news is that today we blessed Aiden.  Brandon gave a beautiful blessing and grandpa Brian especially loved the part where Brandon blessed that Aiden would read good books.  He admitted to peeking at Aiden during the blessing and that Aiden grinned really big at him (he’s a librarian) at that moment of the blessing.  The brunch we held afterwards went really well, everyone commented on how much they enjoyed the food and while everything passed in a blur for me it seems that they were all enjoying themselves.  We didn’t get any video of the event but we did take a lot of pictures.  It was a wonderful and special day for my little boy and everything went smoothly and as good as could be expected but I am relieved that it is over.  I had not been sleeping very well this week due to my anxiety about blessing and brunch preparations as well as if I would survive a trip to the U of U on the shuttle to watch my friends graduation.  Now, I plan to have a relaxing week an unwind from all the excitement.  I also finally took a successful, long rejuvenating nap.  Which was made even better because Brandon napped at my side while little Aiden was in the bassinet in his room.  Hooray for sleep!  We will get some pictures up soon.  Thank you again to everyone who helped to make Aiden’s special day a success.  We love you all. 

Here are a few of the things that I have learned so far as a mother.

1. (and this is by far the MOST important) You have to do what works best for you, your new baby, and your hubby. Don’t let anyone make you feel bad for the decisions that you make, because it is a tough transition and in those first few weeks you have to just do what you can to get through them and survive. Also, if some of the ideas that you had about raising your little one change, don’t beat yourself up over it.

2. Even though it was as loud as a rock concert inside the womb with all of that blood rushing around and two heartbeats to listen to, it doesn’t mean that you won’t keep your little one up at night. I highly suggest having your baby stay in your room with you as long as you can so that he/she can hear the rhythmic sounds of your breathing while he/she sleeps (and so that you aren’t constantly worried if he/she is still breathing , but if after several weeks they aren’t gradually sleeping longer at night it could be that you are keeping them up. (Every time Aiden woke up I would talk to Brandon about it and sometimes cry a little, no doubt making it hard for Aiden to go into deep sleep, I was also (and still do) turning over in bed like I still had a huge old belly to heft around. No doubt quite noisy.

3. Cloth diapers are a money saving idea. They have to be changed more frequently then disposable and they are giamongus on a 2 1/2 month old baby. I still plan to utilize them when he is a little bigger.

4. In the realm of feeding there are several choices, formula, breastfeeding, and breastmilk in a bottle. If you don’t have someone to feed the breastmilk in a bottle while you pump then you will feel like a moo cow, but just because you can’t breastfeed anymore does not mean that your baby has to go without breast milk. Buy a good breastpump so that your baby can drink breastmilk while you are out on a date with your hubby. (I reccomend a Medela brand pump, but compare pumps maybe there is a better and less expensive option.)

5. MAKE TIME FOR YOUR HUBBY! He misses alone time with you just as much (if not more) as you miss alone time with him. Go on regular dates and leave baby with grandma (or another reliable babysitter).

6. Carriers make life easier. There are many different styles and prices and some can even be homemade. Find one that works best for you. I originally made a mai tai style carrier. It can hold up to like 100 lbs. (as if I would ever carry that much weight with my back problem) but it is somewhat inconvenient to put on so I plan to get a different one to use until Aiden is a little bigger. But, if you have a little one who always wants to be held and can’t ever get stuff done then a carrier is a perfect solution.

7. Making your own baby food will allow your little one to have a wider variety of foods to eat then the choices that you have at the grocery store. (Hey, I know that Aiden won’t be eating solid food for 3 1/2 more months but I am so excited for the wide array of flavors that will hit his little taste buds.) Plus most of them can be frozen for 3 months! Sweet!

8. Bathing a baby is a lot of fun.

9. Changing a baby is a new adventure each time…You never know what will come out of either end while you do it. 🙂

10. Babies grow too fast. I must admit that I shed a few tears when Aiden grew out of his first set of clothes. You have to cherish every single moment.

11. You can never take too many pictures of your child.

12. Document what you can because you will want it when your child is grown and chances are they will be grateful and delighted to hear about their childhood.

13. Babies are so full of the spirit and have a testimony already. Aiden smiles at pictures of Jesus and I can tell that he knows his brother Jesus Christ and loves him. What a precious gift for me as a mom.

Lastly, you will never know such a great love as the love you can feel for your spouse and your children. It will never cease to amaze you as it continually grows and your heart is able to grow with it. You will look at this little bundle in your arms and wonder at how you can love someone so much when you barely even know him/her and then you will look up at your spouse and your love for them will grow because they are a part of creating that little miracle in your arms. It is a wonderful and blessed thing to be a part of a family. There are no words to describe the majesty and divinity of a family. Just know that families are as close to heaven as you can get to on earth.

Well, I will stop rambling on now. I just figured that since I always have a million questions it would be neat if I tried to put forth information so that other people with a million questions might be able to find an answer that they are seeking.

Aiden had his first set of shots today. It made him upset but he calmed down once we got in the car and were driving to pick up Brandon from school. We still have to get the pnuemococcal vaccine and that will probably happen next week, but then he gets to have a break until his 4 month old check up. He is sleeping right now. I keep telling him that when he is older (like 1 year or more) then we can go get ice cream after he gets a shot. For now, all he gets are mom and dads kisses, hugs, and cuddles.

Update on the sleeping, last week Aiden had 6 nights that he slept for 7 hours. This week he only slept 4 hours last night and Monday night. I attribute this change to Brandon having started work this week. Brandon is still here in time to do the usual bed time routine but I think Aiden got used to hearing his voice all day, getting his cuddles, and smelling him (a pleasant daddy smell, not a MAN, you need a shower smell). Hopefully things will return back to last weeks pattern in a timely fashion, because I was finally feeling good (and well rested) and the day’s were moving like clock work. He is as cute as ever though.

     Hello everyone!  We have wonderful news to share.  This past Wednesday Brandon accepted a job doing credit counseling for Progrexion.  He will start training on Monday and will start his regular school shift a week after that (April 14th).  He will make $8.00 an hour or commission, whichever is more.  The average wage is $13-$15 an hour, with the top paid associates making $20.00 an hour.  We will be eligible for health benefits in 90 days and it is through select health which is an IHC insurance.  They won’t pay too much of the premium but hey, at least it is insurance.  

     Along those lines I am applying for a resident life position here at the apartment complex.  It is the position of Mom’s Club Coordinator.  If I get the position we will get a rent deduction and I will be responsible to plan and execute two activities a month that will give mom’s some fun activity ideas and other information to enrich their child rearing.

     Lastly, on March 19th Brandon and I went to a japenese restaurant called Mikado in order to celebrate my friend Melinda’s birthday.  Now those of you that know me are keenly aware that I don’t generally try new foods and am allergic to a lot of things.  (Not to mention being a little bit particular about the things that I do eat.)  Well, we decided that we would pick one thing on the menu and share it.  We decided on a dish called Gyoza that came with a seasoned sesame seed sauce.  Well, when it arrived it look pretty appetizing and so I took one and started eating it.  It was good.  Gyoza is basically like a chinese dumpling or a pot sticker.  It had a pasta outer layer and a pork mixture inside.  It had been deep fried and seared.  Yummy.  The sauce was a little to spicy for my liking though. 

     So there you go.  The most recent happenings in our lives.  We wish you all well.