Parsons Family

Getaway

2011-09-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

We went on a little get-away the past few days. Aaaahhhhhhh, so much fun, and so nice to get away from the busyness of life for a little while. We went up north to the Jersey/New York border and stayed in a little condo. We spent most of our time in NY, a little place called Warwick. Enjoy the pictures.

James tried to stage a jail brake for the chickens, with no success to his disappointment.

Love this picture.

A sign leaving one of the farms we visited.

Apple pick'in

James was doing an apple dance

The Dharma Initiative's influence has even reached this little town.

Rain kept us from boating on the lake, but we had fun watching some favorite cartoons.

The Appalachian trail

This was a real vacation, no stress and a whole lot of fun and relaxation.

Part 1: What is SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder)?

2011-07-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

My 4 year old son was recently diagnosed with SPD, Sensory Processing Disorder. Most people are not familiar with this disorder. I was not a few months ago. I thought it would be therapeutic for me to write about this rough journey we have had. So for today, I will just describe the disorder. Tomorrow I will write about our journey, then I will write about what life is like for us and some of our challenges and struggles.

So what is Sensory Processing Disorder? (Sometimes it's called Sensory Integration or SI)

Basically it's a neurological disorder. The brain isn't able to process one or more of the senses normally. I've taken this exerpt from the SPD foundation's website and have condensed it a little.

Sensory Processing Disorder is a condition that exists when sensory signals don't get organized into appropriate responses. A. Jean Ayres, PhD, likened SPD to a neurological "traffic jam" that prevents certain parts of the brain from receiving the information needed to interpret sensory information correctly. A person with SPD finds it difficult to process and act upon information received through the senses, which creates challenges in performing countless everyday tasks. Motor clumsiness, behavioral problems, anxiety, depression, school failure, and other impacts may result if the disorder is not treated effectively.

One study (Ahn, Miller, Milberger, McIntosh, 2004) shows that at least 1 in 20 children’s daily lives is affected by SPD. Symptoms of Sensory Processing Disorder, like those of most disorders, occur within a broad spectrum of severity. While most of us have occasional difficulties processing sensory information, for children and adults with SPD, these difficulties arechronic, and they disrupt everyday life.

So what causes Sensory Processing Disorder?

SPD is generally inherited. Research is still ongoing about the cause of SPD, but current research shows that it is mostly genetic. Environmental factors during pregnancy and/or pregnancy and labor complications may also contribute to SPD. So no, I'm not a bad mom!! In fact, this experience has brought me closer and developed a deeper connection with William, but I will talk about that more later.

How is SPD treated?

Occupational Therapy. William will start receiving these services at school in the fall, along with his speech therapy. I have been working with him a lot at home too, which I will also talk about later.

At a glance this does not look like a severe disorder. It can be for some people. I would consider William's disorder mild, (although some days I would say it's severe!). I say it's mild because eventually with therapy he will be a full functioning member of society. For my William, it's bad enough though at times it severely affects his daily routines and ability to cope with simple tasks. William stands out among his peers as being different, but not obviously different enough to know he has a neurological disorder. Even just writing this general post about SPD has brought me to tears. I hope writing about more about this journey will be therapeutic, I know it will be hard. Well, now we are here, and tomorrow I will write more about that journey.

Please Touch Museum

2011-07-09T09:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we went to the coolest children's museum ever. Unfortunately most of my pictures didn't come out. However, if you live near the Philadelphia area, and have small kids, you need to go the Please Touch Museum. My wonderful in-laws bought us a membership, so we will be going often. Hooray!

James of course loved the carousel. William sat with Grandma, so proud of him. Normally he hates carousels so this was a big step for him.

They had a humongous water table area.

Magnetic car parts, so the kids can make it whatever kind of car they wanted.

Dress up astronaut. The funnest part for William was right next to this. They kids put together a Styrofoam rocket and get to launch it. So cool.

We had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa at the museum!

4th of July

2011-07-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

Fun times on the 4th of July! In the morning we had a bbq with our ward then at sunset we went to the pier to watch fireworks. It's been a while since I've seen such a pretty sunset.

We let the kids ride a few of the rides on the pier while we waited for fireworks.

I wasn't sure how William was going to do, since he has some vestibular sensitivities. But he loved it, and I thank Phineas & Ferb roller coaster episodes for that. Hey, where's Perry?

Thanks to Aunt Barb's suggestion, we brought headphones so William could enjoy the fireworks without the sounds hurting his ears.

Happy Independence Day!

First Day of Summer and Random Thoughts

2011-06-24T16:32:00.000-07:00

What do you do the first official day of summer? Spray it in with a good 'ol water fight.

A few random thoughts:

Last night we discovered the joy of taking our kids to the toy store to pick out a toy. This sounds ridiculous as I type it, but we've never really done that before. At least not that I can recall. We've bought toys for our kids of course but not with them in tow. It was so enjoyable to go with William through the store and watch him calculate which toy he wanted. It was fun to hold up two toys and let James pick which one. I think it's time to start William on a piggy bank and chores to start saving for new toys.
I'm schooling Earl on going to the beach. Haha! This morning we went to the beach, to play in the sand and on the playground. (It was foggy and not swimming weather.) Earl wore his running shoes. I was going to comment on it, and tell him to wear his flip flops, but I've been working on holding back my "perceptiveness" because I know sometimes it can be too much (aka nagging, correcting, etc.). After a few times on and off the beach, Earl said to me, "Why didn't you tell me to wear flip flops?" I had just assumed that he had a good reason to wear running shoes that I didn't know about. He said, "You need to teach me these things, I've never lived close to the beach before." Oh yah. So now I am teaching him all about the beach. Oh wait, "The Shore".
I accidentally stole a donut from Dunkin Donuts today. I asked for 4 donuts. 3 chocolate glazed and 1 sprinkles. Paid. Only got 3 donuts. I repeated my order to the cashier. Confused, in a thick foreign accent, she told me I got what I ordered. Repeated again. Oh, there we go, I get another donut and we leave. Hooray. Later I realized she only charged me for three donuts and if she was yelling at me to pay for the 4th one while I was walking out the door, I didn't hear her. World, I will pay for that donut the next time we go to Duncan Donuts, which probably won't be until next year. Wait, I will probably forget, so next time we go to the beach, we'll just have to go get some donuts so I can pay for that 4th donut.
The end.

One of our favorite things....

2011-06-18T17:11:00.001-07:00

One of our favorite things is the setting here in NJ. It's soooo green. It's actually called "The Garden State". Pretty much anything you plant will grow here.

Less than 10 minutes from our house is a reservoir with a 5 mile trail cut through the woods around it. We love going there. The boys will often go just to see all the different types of birds and toss rocks in the water. I will take my bike and ride around on the trail. Such a fun place to go and explore. We love it.

This morning we too a little hike and then went to the Environmental Center.

I don't know what it is about this picture of James. I love it. It's such a classic "James look".

Confessions from New Jersey

2011-06-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm back!!!! I've been thinking a lot lately about blogging and decided to get back to it.

It's been 9 months, so here are my latest confessions:

I love and hate New Jersey. Love the setting - being 20 minutes from the beach, the green, the big cities. Hate the high stress atmosphere.
I haven't been taking very many pictures. Surprising, I know!! I'm usually photo-documenting everything. But I'm back now!
No matter where you live, people always complain about the weather. I think people here are wimps.
It's an adjustment not living near a University anymore. I miss the structured environment, scheduled breaks, etc. that attending school provides.
Sometimes I have to drive really far to get places. I was spoiled in Tucson, my health food stores and yoga studio were only 5 minutes away (in NJ they are 30 minutes to 1 hour away).
After 2 years of not having a TV, we finally bought one. Still don't have cable, but we bought the new Vizio TV with internet apps, so we can watch Neflix, Hulu, listen to Pandora etc. We are liking it.

That's all for now. I thought my first post back should be simple. Here are a few random pictures for your pleasure.

Road Trip - Part 1

2010-08-27T18:52:00.001-07:00

First, let me say congratulations to my husband Earl for completing his PhD!! Here's a picture of Earl and his advisor, Franko Kueppers on the day he defended his dissertation. That was Tuesday, Wednesday we started our road trip to New Jersey (our new home).

The boys have done surprisingly well so far. We are driving 6-7 hours a day (not including stops) for 8 days. Wow, that's a lot!! We're done with day 3, and 5 to go!

We went through this tiny town in New Mexico called Hatch. We to the side of our car, and all of a sudden we saw this guy out our window, their RV man. Woah!!! (I didn't have my camera handy, so I took this image off google images.)

From Tucson, until the Texas boarder, the sides of the highways were covered with these.

Pit stop.

The first night we stayed in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Yes, that's the REAL name of the town. The next day we stopped at a dinosaur museum. Small quaint, not really worth the price of admission, but it was worth it for us to stretch our legs and have some fun. I really liked that they had all these green hands where the kids could touch and feel the exhibits.

The second night we stayed in Amarillo, Texas. I had George in my head all day. We saw this just outside of Amarillo. Possibly the world's largest cross?

Tonight we are in Wichita, Kansas. That drive from Amarillo, through Oklahoma, to Kansas well, I think I could see the curve of the earth it was so flat.

Tribute to Tucson

2010-08-20T14:15:00.000-07:00

As we are coming to our final days in Tucson, I can't help but reflect on our time here and think of all the things we will miss (and not miss).

When we first moved to Tucson, a little over four years ago, the only warm welcome we got was the blaring, hot July sun. Our first two weeks were filled with misfortunes. The apartment we signed for, was not what we expected. Too small and too many sketchy people around. Earl's bike was stolen, it was a nice bike too! We left a folder in our Uhaul that had some vital documents and emergency cash. We got the folder back, but they stole all our cash. Our car broke down at least two times. We were pretty much broke. We didn't know who Earl would work for or if he was going to get funded. We started to wonder if we had made the wrong decision moving to Tucson, and should have gone to beautiful Orlando, Florida. But we reminded ourselves that we had thought carefully about this and prayed about it, and knew that Tucson was the right place for us.

Earl and I have reflected often on those first few weeks. We are so glad that we chose Tucson, and stayed here. Of course the past few years have been filled with other trials and challenges, I mean, who's life isn't? We've also been blessed with some amazing experiences and have learned so much here.

Let me share some of the things we've loved about Tucson:

University of Arizona. The College of Optical Sciences have been so good to him. He had an amazing, successful experience in that program. (I'm also going to miss his library privileges!! 6 month check-outs and interlibrary loan, goodbye, I will miss you.)
Earl's PhD advisor Dr. Kueppers. You know how we didn't know what Earl was going to be doing when we first got here? Well, he originally wanted to work for Dr. Kueppers, but he didn't have any openings that fall. Miraculously, a few weeks after we moved here he had an opening and chose Earl with full funding. I think that experience alone has shaped the course of the rest of our lives. Earl LOVES what he does, and he loves the people at work. How many people can honestly say that? Dr. Kueppers has also been the perfect advisor and mentor to Earl. Thank you Dr. Kueppers, we will always be grateful to you.
Both of our boys were born here. This is where we entered the wonderful-crazy at times-world of parenting, need I say more?
The people. We've met some amazing people and have made some great friends here. Those kind of people that you are a better person because you knew them.
The sun/sky/sunsets. Arizona seems to have the most beautiful sunsets. I've never been anywhere that's been better. Also, I cannot recall a day living here that I did not see the sun at some point within 24 hours. I'm sure there were some, but seriously, we've loved all the sunny days and the huge blue sky.
The winters. Those mild, mild winters will be missed. Being able to go on a walk or to the park in December without wearing a coat, so fabulous. (Of course, then we have had to survive the blaring hot summers that win Arizona the reputation of being hotter than heck. That will not be missed)
Cycling. Tucson is a very bike-friendly town. We've been able to save so much money by having only one car and Earl being able to ride his bike to school. It's going to be hard to find another city like that.

I will always have a place in my heart for Tucson. Our family has really grown here and we will always be grateful for our experiences and the people here that have helped shaped our lives.

Thank you Tucson. You will be missed.

Food Fridays - Baby-Led Weaning - Back to the Basics

2010-07-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else hate baby jar food? It doesn't seem to work for my kids. James liked it for a while, and lately he's been on a strike. I started doing some research because I was concerned James was headed onto the same track as William. That being the most selective eater in the world. I found a method I love. Baby-led weaning.

Basically, you skip all the baby jar food/puree stuff and go straight for the finger food. It's focused more on exploration than "filling them up". The goal is to introduce James to all the different flavors, smells and textures of food, allowing him to decide what he wants to eat and how much.

My initial reaction, "what about choking?!" Well, read the linked article at the top, it covers that.

Here you see James eating a mango. We've been doing it for two days now and it seems to be going good. He's tried honeydew, mango, pears, toast, and tonight it will be broccoli and squash. I also really like this method because he can eat whatever we are eating. That way he feels more a part of family meals too.

I think it's really interesting how our generation is getting back to the basics. I feel like this method is getting back to the basics, the way it's been done for thousands of years. Other ways we've been getting back to the basics, more women giving gentle, natural births. More people are buying local and organic food. I've been wondering why this is. What are your thoughts? What are other ways we've been getting back to the basics?

Food Fridays - Zucchini Muffins

2010-07-23T11:14:00.001-07:00

I've been getting into healthy cooking. I thought I'd start sharing some of the recipes and foods I make on Fridays.

This morning we made William's favorite food. Zucchini muffins. Kids love these. I've had so many moms ask me for the recipe. Even my husband, who hates zucchini bread, loves these. They don't last long in our house. They are made with whole wheat, and low sugar (compared to other muffins).

William had so much fun helping me make the muffins, and he was a good helper too!

Okay, and for the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or coat muffin pans, this makes about 24 muffins.

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat flour (I use Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour because it's so smooth and can be switched with in any recipe with regular flour.)

1 tsp each baking soda & baking powder

4 tsp cinnamon (you can add more or take away)

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup applesauce - unsweetened

3 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini (do not drain!)

Mix dry ingredients and set aside. Cream applesauce, sugar, vanilla and eggs together. Slowly mix in dry ingredients. Stir in grated zucchini.

Fill muffin tins about 2/3-3/4 full.

Bake for about 15 minutes. Enjoy!!

PS if you are using muffin liners, wait for the muffins to cool before you unwrap them, otherwise they will stick.

No one was more excited for the monsoon today than James.

2010-07-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

Today we sat outside, waiting for the monsoon to hit our house. James LOVED it. He loved how the wind blew his hair all over the place.

James was so excited he kept screaming as loud as he could. If I had a glass it would have broken. This kid can scream.

At 8.5 months, James has 2 teeth (with more on the way), is a master crawler, motivated climber, and loves to have screaming competitions with his brother. The will even match each other's pitch. (Of course it drives me crazy!)

The kid with the red shoes. William had to pick out his new shoes. Of course he picked red, his favorite color. Which I didn't mind because it's easier to keep track of him. :) Whenever we are out front he waves and yells hello to the neighbors as they drive by.

I promise all you readers who are left, I have renewed my commitment to my blog.

2010-07-21T18:58:00.003-07:00

A bit late, but here's the latest news....

2010-07-21T18:58:00.001-07:00

Fun for the 4th of July

2010-07-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

Fun trip to Utah for a Parsons reunion. We rented a fun cabin up Provo Canyon. It was heaven! Got to escape the burning inferno in Tucson.

Roasted hot dogs and smores of course!!

We also got to meet John's girlfriend Melanie. Who is now his fiancé! We are very excited for Melanie to join the family. They are a great couple.

The family photo! Most people agree, William looks like Dad and James looks like Mom.

William is finally in "Big-Boy Underwear"

2010-07-21T18:36:00.001-07:00

Potty training. Ugh. It began almost 1.5 years ago. Good intentions, methods didn't work, or something always came up. You know, we went to Germany last summer, then James was born, then it was the holidays, then we NEVER got any sleep, then this and that. Finally last Saturday night we said "That's it!" We were out of diapers and I had finally found a training method that I liked and would seem to fit William's personality. Sunday morning William woke up and we said "William, you're a big boy now. No more diapers like baby James, you get big boy underwear. Come and help us throw away your old diapers." That was the start. Sunday consisted of staying close to William and reminding him a million times to tell us when he had to use the potty. Praising him for every tiny thing that he did right, over and over again. And a HUGE "Hooray!" in the bathroom after he went potty. After about 4 accidents in the morning, it clicked. That was about it. We made sure he didn't drink anything 2-3 hours before bedtime and he's been dry the past three nights. No accidents for over 48 hours. Wahoo! We are so proud of you William, you are awesome! I'm so glad that's over!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moving to NJ

2010-07-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't heard, we're moving to New Jersey!! Earl officially accepted a job at TE Subcom, part of Tyco Electronics. He will be in product development working on the underseas fiber optic cables. Pretty cool stuff. He will be working with some amazing people, and we are SO excited for him!! We are excited to moved to New Jersey, and a little nervous. We've never lived out there, so this will be an adventure!

Memorial Day Hike

2010-06-01T08:40:00.001-07:00

Can you see the 4 ft snake in this picture? William was so excited to see a sssnake.

Every Memorial day since I've known Earl, we've gone on a hike together. This was our 7th Memorial Day hike together. The first one, we barely knew each other. Our record is three hikes to Stewart Falls in Utah, three hikes at Sabino Canyon in Tucson, and one in Erlangen, Germany.

Yesterday we went to Sabino Canyon. I rarely find the desert beautiful, but this is one of those rare beautiful spots.

Here's William running, doesn't look much like a canyon yet. Our destination was the dam, about a mile in from the visitor center. William ran the whole way there!

A rare desert beauty.

I call this our desert jungle.

The saguaro cacti are in blossom right now.

William at the top of the dam in the canyon. (It's not really much of a dam, but it's something.)

James slept on the way to the dam.

Happy boy.

William got too tired from running a mile up to the dam, so we had to carry him back. He did good.

This is one of my favorite places in Tucson.

What's up

2010-04-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

I finally sat down and put up a bunch of picture that are long overdue. Honestly the past few months have proven to be quite challenging for us. Just in the past two weeks we've had illnesses, sleepless nights, William broke his collarbone, our house got broken into (only a backpack and laptop was stolen - but many valuable things on the laptop are now gone - my journal, church documents, blog book projects, pics, etc.)

Although we have our set of challenges, we are trying to focus on the good things in our lives. Here are some photos of the joys in our lives right now- our boys!

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T20:19:00.001-07:00

Picnic in the Canyon - Brrrrrrrrrrrrr

2010-04-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

Friday was a nice warm day, so we decided to got take dinner up to the canyon and have a picnic. Except it got cold, and I ate in the car with James. Earl took William to run around and stretch his legs.

William is quite the character who likes to make us laugh. I love this guy.

If all of the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops oh what a rain that would be...

2010-04-04T19:41:00.001-07:00

He went from rain gear, to no rain gear and no shoes. But hey, he had fun right?

James is 5 months old now.... Yippee!

2010-04-04T19:36:00.001-07:00

Handsome.

Lovin' on Daddy.

Lovin' the rice cereal.

He ROLLED from the elephant at the bottom of the picture UP to the toy at the top of the picture. Oh my. He's mobile.

AND chewing on EVERYTHING.

We love him.

Air Show

2010-04-04T19:31:00.000-07:00

For William's birthday, Earl took him to the Air Show to see all the planes.

William liked following the yellow lines.

Superman.

Hanging out with an Air Force guy.

Got to LOVE that childlike wonder

2010-04-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

William turned 3 - Happy Birthday Little Man!

2010-04-04T19:26:00.001-07:00

Today's Daily Dose of Cuteness

2010-03-11T11:10:00.000-08:00

Eating Healthy

2010-02-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

Eating Healthy is something that has been on my mind ever since I served a mission to Los Angeles. More so since our first son William was born. Going grocery shopping can be so confusing. Should I buy cheap stuff to save us money? Should I buy Organic, 100% Organic, Made with Organic, Local, Free Range, No Hormones, No Antibiotics, No MSG? The list goes on and on. I want to eat healthy and help my family be healthy. Sometimes it gets overwhelming because of the overload of information out there. I try to help my family be healthy, but what really makes a difference?

Just before Christmas I stumbled upon a book called "Simple Food for Busy Families: The Whole Life Nutrition Approach" and ordered it book off of Amazon. I thought I ordered a cookbook. I was wrong, and pleasantly surprised. It is more of a nutritional book, with some mix/match recipes. This book simplified not only eating food, but what is at the grocery store and how to decipher it all. It was a great fast read that helped give me a start to eating healthier for our family.

Since reading that book, for about two months now, I have been applying some of the principles to my cooking and stopped shopping at the major grocery store. Now I mostly shop at the local farmer's market and Trader Joe's . We've been eating healthier food, which does cost more, but we've been eating less too. It seems that our food budget has balanced itself. We eat healthier, costs more, but buy less food. Also, Earl and I have been both slimming down. I have less stomach problems and seem to have more energy. Already we are seeing health benefits.

Now I am more interested in food, where it comes from, how it is harvested, and how it gets to the market. Here are links to two documentaries I've watch recently.

Food Inc.

The Future of Food

A book that I'm reading now The Omnivore's Dilemma

I really want to be health conscious and help my family be healthy. I know so many people know so much more about this subject. So if you have any suggestions for me, a beginner, please send them along!!

Heather's Birthday & James' Blessing

2010-02-10T12:52:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday was my birthday and we got to bless baby James at Church that day! It was a fun weekend. The Parsons' came out from Texas, and my family came down from Phoenix.

Here's our attempt at a family picture. Sooooo hard to keep William still for a picture!

William so happy to play with grandma and grandpa Parsons who were here all weekend! (I stole most of these pictures from g-ma Parsons, thanks!!)

James and Grandpa.

Saturday we went to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show (apparently the largest in the world). This guy with dreadlocks came up to me with a machete and a coconut and asked if I wanted one, how could I resist?! He hacked off the top with his machete and put a straw in the coconut. I took it home to Earl, but of course I had to take a sip and try it. People were there from all over the world for the show. We had a really good time.

William got to play lots of trains with Grandpa.

I don't know when Grandma took this picture of James, but I love it!

My boys, James is 3 months (and a week) old now !!

More attempts at a family picture.

Thanks to all our family (and the Opies) who came for James' blessing and my birthday, it was a special day for us!

Going Private

2010-02-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

I decided to go private with this blog. Send me an email, message on FB, or leave a comment with your email if you'd like to see our blog.

Happy guy!

2010-01-26T14:57:00.000-08:00

Earl's Thoughts

2010-01-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

You never know where your kids will learn lessons. We've been singing "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" every night before bed this week. And I think the message finally sunk in.

Now what's wrong with THIS picture below?
If you said "The two year old is watching two videos at once" you're right! William has mastered turning on videos all by himself. We've been passing around colds this month and William has gotten into the habit of watching more movies than usual. Needless to say his TV time has been dramatically cut back this week.

We also would have accepted "That little boy never wears a shirt!" He's in a no clothes stage. We usually can hold him at pants because once the pants are off the diaper usually follows.

Christmas!

2009-12-31T14:57:00.000-08:00

This year we went to the Zoo Lights, and well, William did NOT like sitting on Santa's lap. He was curious about Santa and walked right up to him, but then freaked out when Santa put him on his lap. I actually don't blame him. Sitting on a stranger's lap would creep me out too.

Earl and I had fun Christmas Eve putting the boys' presents together.

Christmas morning came early, at about 6 am. William loved his toys.

James just hung out in his new chair and activity gym.

This was my favorite. William loves playing with water, so we got him a play sink. He discovered it in the Kitchen all ready for him to play with. I went in the living room to get the camera, and this is what I found when I got back 20 seconds later! William had stripped down naked and climbed in to play!! We are now working on teaching him the difference between a bath tub and a sink.

Later, we went to Phoenix to have Christmas dinner with the family.

What a cutie!

William and his new tricycle.

James enjoying watching his brother play.

We had a nice Christmas. It was our first year spending Christmas morning just our family in our own home. It was a good thing we didn't travel for Christmas this year because we've all gotten sick a bazillion times in the past couple weeks. But we have enjoyed our few good days together.

We hope everyone had a good Christmas and has a safe, Happy New Year!

More pictures of the cutest boys ever....Not that I'm biased or anything

2009-12-17T15:11:00.000-08:00

I don't know why this one turned out sideways.

This next picture, we heard William playing in his room late one night. Here's what we found.

Poor James has had acid reflux. It's been no fun for us, but now that he's been on some medicine things are much better.

He's back to sleeping for longer periods.

And he just started smiling for us this week!!

One Week Old ... and our birth story

2009-11-10T17:37:00.000-08:00

James Conner joined our family last week, Tuesday November 3rd at 7:54am. He weighed 7 lbs 15 oz, and was 20 inches long. Dark hair, and his eyes are already looking brown. We are so happy he is here!! (If you want to know all the details, keep scrolling down, I have a very detailed description of our birth experience.)
We are all doing well. James is a strong, healthy baby. William is loving being a big brother, most of the time. He's doing pretty good, but he has his jealous moments.

(WARNING: this is a VERY detailed description of James' birth, so if words like cervix, birth canal, or water gushing, make you twinge, DON'T read this.)

When we found out we were pregnant earlier this year, I did a lot of reflecting on my birth experience with William. It was not a good experience, and left me a little scarred. William was born almost 4 weeks early, my labor was highly managed by the doctors, I was given pitocin without being told what it was, William had jaundice pretty badly, no one helped me with breastfeeding – which was a miserable failure. I felt like a victim of pregnancy and labor. I felt like it was a medical experience, not a joyful family experience.

I began looking at other options, and I chose to try hypnobirthing for this birth. At first I wasn't sure about going “natural”, I had so much pain with William's birth before the epidural I didn't know if I could handle labor without medication.

Hypnobirthing is essentially using breathing imagery techniques to help the body relax. If the body can relax deeply, endorphins are produced – which are 100 times more powerful than morphine. Also, pain is enhanced by tension, so relaxing should reduce/eliminate the pain. I did a lot of research over the summer and finally decided to have the baby naturally with as few interventions as possible.

Labor started for me on October 18^th. I had about 3 intense episodes of the thinning and opening phase of labor, with lots of time in between. These episodes would be between 9-18 hours long and my contractions would go from irregular to regular for a while. Then they would slow down, become irregular and stop. After each episode, I would be more dilated and effaced. On the 24^th I was positive I was in labor and we spent the night in the hospital, only to go home disappointed. On Halloween, I had another one that lapsed into the next day.

I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take! On the 2nd of November, after talking to Earl and my hypnobirthing instructor, I finally decided to just let go. (Which if you know me well, that's a hard thing for me to do!) I finally did, I finally was okay with how ever long it would take, and I was okay with whenever the baby decided to be born.

A few hours later, on November 3, at 2 am, I got up to go to the bathroom. While walking to the bathroom I felt something trickle down my leg. “Oh great,” I thought, “now I'm losing control of my bladder”. Sitting on the toilet I woke up a little more and thought, just maybe, maybe, my membranes were leaking fluid. Hope swept through me and I leaned down to smell my leg to see if it was odorless or if it smelled like urine. (Oh, the things you do when you're pregnant!) It was odorless, yay! I kept going to the bathroom every five minutes after that so my bladder would be empty and I would be able to confirm that my membranes were leaking. About 20 minute later I had a gush of fluid on my way to the toilet. I was so excited and woke up Earl to tell him the good news. At this point my contractions were starting and we began getting our hospital bag together. I woke up my sister who was staying with us to tell her we'd be leaving for the hospital within the next few hours. At 4 am my contractions were getting close together and the intensity was increasing quickly. I wanted to stay home as long as possible, but Earl suggested that we head to the hospital because we didn't know how quickly the labor would go. I was scared that the contractions would get irregular and putter out again, but I had a feeling I needed to listen to Earl and go to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital about 4:30 am, and I was glad I had listened to Earl because my contractions were about 1-2 minutes apart by that time. I was focusing on breathing and relaxing through each of the contractions.

I was 6 centimeters dilated. Not bad. And my contractions were VERY regular and intense at this point. While being monitored at triage, Earl helped me by doing some hypnobirthing scripts, which entails some imagery and breathing techniques to help relax the body and mind. It was working. I was able to relax both between and during the contractions so I wasn't experiencing any pain. What I felt during a contraction was an intense tightness, which was by no means comfortable or enjoyable – I did not like it, but I wouldn't classify it as painful.

The labor nurse arrived quickly and we were off to our room. They monitored the baby and my contractions, again, and gave me a round of antibiotics because I was GBS positive. I really didn't want a hep-lock, but in my little time for research I could find no way of getting the antibiotics a different way effectively. After they were finished, I got in the shower – the doctor didn't want me in the tub because my membranes had ruptured – but I knew if I needed to I would get in the tub anyway. For that time, the shower was doing it. I don't know how long I was in there, but the hot water running down my back really helped me relax deeper as the contractions became more intense.

All of a sudden I had to go to the bathroom, so I jumped out of the shower to go on the toilet. Sitting on the toilet felt amazing. So I stayed there for a few minutes. I think that opened up my pelvis a lot because then transition hit me. Wow, this was the incredibly hard part. It felt like the contractions accelerated exponentially. I couldn't keep up with my imagery and relaxation. These contractions jerked me out of my little bubble and I was in shock. I couldn't handle it. This is when I started considering getting medication and wondering if I could do it. I couldn't talk. Poor Earl would ask me questions and I couldn't answer. He just held me and used touch to help me relax in between the contractions. During these contractions I wanted to push, but instinctively I knew it wasn't time – even though I wanted it to be. Resisting the urges to push made it all the more miserable, so I began giving into my body and letting my abdomen tighten with each contraction, almost a push, but not quite. That was the only thing that gave me relief. After about 20 minutes, the urges to push got stronger along with everything else. I finally got the words out “I want to push”, so Earl called the nurses. The nurse came in to check me, but I pleadingly said “No”, and she respected that and left me alone. Earl and the nurse urged me to get off the toilet so that the baby wouldn't be born there. I really didn't want to get off the toilet, but I got off between the next contraction and went to the bed. The doctor was on her way, and I started giving in more and more to the urge to push.

When the doctor arrived, she briefly check me and told me I could push at any time. I started to half way push during the contractions because I didn't think it was quite time to push the baby out. But pushing was exhilarating. Labor just became more manageable. I had forgotten about “breathing the baby down” as we were taught in our hypnobirthing class. I could feel the baby moving down the birth canal, and when I felt the head near the end, I remembered my breathing for this part. I combined my breathing with some real pushing and after a few of those I felt the baby about to crown. I knew the next time the head would come out, which it did, half way. This part burned like crazy, because the baby's head was half way out, and I did my best to relax until the next contraction. I knew I didn't want to push the baby too quickly because I didn't want to tear. Relaxing between that last contraction was the hardest part, but I knew it would end and the baby would be out. On the next contraction the baby was born. He cried a little but was soothed once he was placed on me. His head was practically a perfect sphere, he was alert, and ready to eat. He recognized Earl's voice and turned his head to see his daddy. James found his way to the food source and latched on pretty good for the first time. I was still in my own little world, because I hardly heard anything the doctor and nurses said. I did hear them tell me they wanted to give me some pitocin to help my uterus contract and help the bleeding stop. I told them no, I wanted to breastfeed instead. They let me be, and breastfeeding did the trick. I did tear a little, now I'm going to sound like a baby, but the repair was painful, so were the contractions from breastfeeding.

I was so excited that the baby was born. I couldn't believe I did it. I had a baby naturally. It was such a healing and empowering experience for me. We felt like it was a family experience, not something that the doctors managed. I felt in control (except for during transition, the hardest part, when I wanted to give up, but didn't).

Earl was such a great bith partner. I could not have done it without him. He did such a great job helping me relax I could almost sleep in between contractions.

Now, as for the question, would I do it again? Ask me next year, I don't know. But, I do know that I'm happy with my two boys now.

Halloween

2009-10-31T17:44:00.000-07:00

We're not doing too much for Halloween this year. I'm on the internet trying to distract myself from contractions, which means, no baby yet, but maybe soon!

Here's our cute Cowboy that's going to had out candy tonight.

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-30T16:31:00.001-07:00

...And We Are Back

2009-10-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've been a horrible blogger the past two months, or no blogger for that matter. Here's what's been happening....
First, we got back safe from Germany. We had a nice trip home, William was an excellent traveler.
We found a HOUSE to rent, and LOVE it. We love the space, the backyard, the location, not having to share walls with neighbors. It's wonderful.
Earl jumped back into school and his research. He's starting to work on his dissertation. Yay!!
I'm getting big, I feel huge, and am getting to that uncomfortable/exhausted stage of pregnancy. Which is good, because that means we are near the end. Wahoo!! We're expecting the baby to come probably the last week of October. (The baby dropped a couple weeks ago, I'm a centemeter dialated, 50% effaced, so my body is starting to get ready.) We are excited for the new addition to the family.
William is growing up! I've been bad at taking pictures, which is pretty abnormal for me. I got this cute one with a cowboy hat the other day. William is such a character. I don't know if he understands that the big thing in my tummy is a baby, and soon it will be out, but we are working on it. :)

What we've learned in Germany

2009-08-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

Well, we are going leaving tomorrow for Frankfurt, staying in Frankfurt for a day, then flying back to Tucson. I can't believe 3 months have passed already! We've obviously loved our time living here in Germany. We'll miss it, but we are excited to go home. Here's a few things that we've learned while living here.

LIVING SIMPLY: We can do without a lot of stuff. We are happier and less stressed while living simply. We are more creative when we have fewer "things". We learned to be more resourceful with what we have. For example, community dryer broke, we made clothes lines from cutting up a bag into strips and tying them together.
William doesn't need a million toys. He's appreciated the few toys that he has.
RELAXATION: is vital. Holidays should be spent relaxing, not getting ahead or catching up. It's okay not to "accomplish" or check things of the to do list. Just relax, let loose and not worry about anything. But, we can do a lot in a day if we have to.
We can budget fun things and make them happen.
We love the outdoors.
Not having a car and using public transportation has made us more patient and flexible with our time. We're more precise with our time. (We tell time to the minute, instead of rounding.)
Traveling by high speed train is the best way to travel. It's awesome. (No security, cheaper, kids can run around the train, almost just as fast as flying, and way less stressful.)
William's going to be a track star. He has had enough room indoors and played outdoors to learn that he loves to run.
William's not allowed to sleep in our bed. He kicks.
Earl's happier when he has his own project.
"Jet lag" with children, is like teaching them to sleep through the night again from square one.

Good bye Germany! We'll miss you, and hope to come back one day!

Let me show you Munich and the Alps

2009-08-02T05:31:00.000-07:00

Monday morning we took a train to the historic city of Munich. Here are a few pictures. First, William pushing the stroller, and unknowingly pushes it into the fountain getting himself all wet. Sometimes I just wish he could push himself. :)

We walked down the "old town" district of Munich. We took a side street to see this church, The Church of our Lady. (This was like the Empire State Building of churches we've seen in Germany.) When William finally looked up to see our destination, he stopped and said, "Uh-Oh, UH-OH, UH-OH, UH-OH, UH-OH", and kept repeating it for a long time. We laughed so hard, a man from a shop came out and was watching us and laughing at William saying "Uh-Oh" about this daunting church. The rest of the time we've called it the "Uh-Oh" Church.

A tour guide in Munich said, "When in Germany, drink like the Germans". So here's a picture of William, drinking like a German, apple juice in a beer glass. (I think every drink we saw in Munich was served in a beer glass, regardless of what it was.)

This is a picture of the new city hall. We waited for 11am, when in the tower puppets would come alive and retell a story about a famous wedding. Here's the building.

A close up of the tower. The bride and groom sitting at the table.

Our favorite part was when the knights jousted in their honor.

In Munich they have these signs everywhere. "In case you're being chased by a bunch of swordsmen, run this way."

After we saw Munich, we rented a car and drove down to the Bavarian side of the Alps, Schwangau. I got to drive on the autobahn!! It was so much fun. Our car didn't have a lot of guts, which saved us on gas, but wasn't as fun driving. I only got up to 170 kph (which is only about 105 mph, and I only went that fast briefly.)

When we got to Schwangau, we checked in the hotel and then went to check out the lake, about a 5 minute walk away. Gorgeous. A clear mountain lake.

We found a boat house and rented a boat.

Here's a distant picture of the Neuschwanstein Castle, which we got a great view of from the lake.

Do we look like we're having fun? We were having a blast!

A closer picture of the Neuschwanstein Castle. In case this looks familiar, this is the one Disney modeled his castle after. We would take a tour of the castle the next day.

Our first day in the alps was beautiful and practically cloudless. The next morning is was cold and rainy. Perfect time for a tour of a castle. We got to take a carriage ride up to the castle. William loved the horses and would later chase after them begging for a ride. :)

On the castle tour, we were not allowed to take pictures of the inside. Here's a picture from inside of the view. That's the lake we were on the previous day, and the little village we were staying in. I was kind of sad, a lot of the clouds were blocking the mountains, and I never did get a great picture of the majestic mountains.

The front of the castle.

William, just not tall enought yet.

But he was a happy boy exploring the castle and outdoors. We saw this smile a lot our first few days of vacation.

All of us, walking back to our hotel, with of course, the castle in the background.

Later that afternoon we saw this castle, which was a lot closer to our hotel, and older, not as famous as the other. This is where King Ludwig II grew up, and would later build his fairytale castle across the way. (It really has a sad tradject history, but I won't go into that.)

A view of the lake, as we walked back from that castle.

The weather cleared up a little, and we spent the evening walking around the lake, taking in our surroundings.

Earl, trying to teach William how to skip rocks on the lake.

He got pretty good at throwing them in! :)

The next day we returned our rental car to Munich, and traveled to Vienna by train. Here's a picture of the beautiful scenery. All along the way, rolling hills of farmland, with the backdrop of the alps looming up.

Sadly, by the time we checked into our hotel in Vienna, William got really sick. We rested in the evening and by morning he was worse, so we decided to come home. So we didn't get to see Vienna, we'll have to go back one day. I'm glad we came home, because William kept getting worse, then I got sick. But we had a great time in the alps and Munich! :)

Frankonian Switzerland

2009-07-16T01:32:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon we went for a drive with our neighbor, John and his daughter. We drove about 30 minutes to Frankonian-Switzerland. This is the most popular vacation destination in Germany. We saw why! It was gorgeous, so green, waterfalls, fresh water streams. Everyone took a drink from this waterfall we saw, it tasted better than bottled water!

William and I took our shoes off and played in the water until our feet turned red from being so cold.

Next we drove to a cute village with a gorgeous basilica. (I'm not sure the difference between a basilica and a cathedral.)

And of course a castle.

Before coming to Germany, when I thought of castles, I thought of England. Well, Germany has it's share. We see one almost everywhere we go. This castle was particularly interesting because people still live in it. They allow tourist to see part of the castle. The chapel, dungeon (*shudder* it was horrible) and a couple of rooms was all we saw.
This is the amazing view from the castle. No one could have approached the castle without them being aware.

A cute picture of William with a cannon just his size.

This was my favorite room. A "Lady's" Room. The furniture is from the 1400's and we were able to touch it and view it up close. It was amazing! Isn't it beautiful?

This is Earl peeking out of one of the watch towers. You can see the basilica in the background.

All of us at the castle entrance. We rarely seem to get a family picture, let alone a good one. :)

Frankfurt

2009-07-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to Frankfurt. We got to go to the beautiful Frankfurt Temple on Friday. It's in sleepy little town of Friedrichsdorf, just north of Frankfurt. A stake from France was having their temple week, so we got to hear a lot of French. I love seeing how world-wide the church is and the dedication of the members.

We had planned two days for the temple, just in case traveling there tired me out too much, I could rest and go to the temple the next day. Traveling turned out to be just fine and we decided to try and get an early train back home Saturday morning.

Turns out we couldn't take another train, we'd have to buy new tickets. Oops. So we had about 6 hours to kill at the Frankfurt train station. Nap time for William was coming soon, we didn't bring the stroller. What do you do with a cranky toddler, who's still getting his second molars, missing nap time, and who wants to RUN everywhere?

Earl had a great idea. We took the underground train to the Natural History Museum. It was brilliant! William ran around the museum happy as could be for FOUR HOURS!! Earl and I even had a blast. They had tons of stuffed animals, dinosaur bones, etc.

I like how the penguin is almost as big as William. :)
Oh, and of course William ran around the whole time yelling "Rarrr, Rarrr!" at the dinosaurs.

Finally William ran out of gas. We went back to the train station and got lunch at McDonalds. (Back home I detest McDonalds, but over here it's different and we don't have as many options.) William just curled up on the chair and fell asleep for an hour! Relief!

We got home safe, and had a great time in Frankfurt.

Oh, if you haven't read my facebook page, my status talks about the crazy man I met in McDonalds. :)

Next I'll post our Sunday adventure to Frankonian Switzerland.

Bamberg - Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T08:32:00.001-07:00

This morning we took a small trip to Bamberg. Many of the cities in Germany were devastated by the wars. Bamberg is one of VERY few cities to suffer little destruction. In other cities it took them the past 40-50 years to reconstruct their churches and buildings. What we saw in Bamberg was original, and quite amazing. This building on the left is the Imperial Cathedral, started in 1007 AD and completed in 1112 AD. It has 4 stunning spires and I couldn't help being reminded of a familiar structure in Salt Lake City. You can see tiny little Earl and William in the bottom right corner to get an idea of it's size. I borrowed the next picture from Wikipedia to give you an idea of the stunning interior. I love the archways. An Emperor & Empress are buried here along with a pope.
A picture of mom and baby.

Next is a distant picture of the monastery.

I love all the statue/fountains. Here's one of Neptune. He's a little camouflaged by the trees.

Another favorite is the markets in old town squares. Aren't the buildings just so cool? I love the old feel. The buildings just have so much character and history in them.

Today is the 4th of July. We hope everyone back home enjoys the fireworks and bbqs! We are grateful for the freedoms we have back home. We've loved our stay so far in Germany, but we will be happy to come back home to America in August. Enjoy the pictures! :)

Rain and a Carousel Ride

2009-06-28T13:08:00.001-07:00

Okay, so it rained every day this week. Finally we decided to just go get wet. William loved splashing in all the puddles! Of course. Luckily it was a warm rain, so he was allowed to get soaked to the bones. :)
In Germany they don't have "Garage Sales". They have little festivals where people come and sell their second-hand things. We decided to go check out one. They had a bunch of carnival type rides/games. William jumped on the Carousel, it had a bunch of different cars instead of horses. Once it started to turn, he freaked out! Every kid loves a carousel ride, right? Well, not my kid. Check out his face. Even with Dad there he was screaming his head off. So currently on the list of "Things every kid loves", my son hates swings and carousel rides. I'm sure he'll grow out of it, right?

(I was having fun in photoshop with this picture. It was already a bad picture so I decided to make it a little more artistic. )

Rhine River Boat Ride

2009-06-23T00:44:00.000-07:00

Being in Germany has been so fun. The only drawback is we're still living on a student budget. It's a little more expensive to travel than we expected, so we can only take a couple trips while we're here. We finally decided to take a 1/2 day river cruise down the Rhine River. Some of Earl's ancestors (back around the late 1600's) traveled down the Rhine to get to Amsterdam, then England, then on to America. It was neat to see some of the same things that they saw during their time! We saw about 28 different castles, yah, 28 on a 4 hour boat ride! The weather was overcast and cold, but at least we didn't get rain until after we were done.

On the first day we traveled from our apartment to Rudesheim, a 4.5 hr train ride. Rudesheim is a tiny town located on the Rhine River, famous for it's vineyards. In the picture below you can see the whole mountain/hillsides are covered in vineyards. We stayed for a day and walked around to get a taste of the town. (Poor William is getting his 2nd set of molars, so this is one of the few smiles we got on the trip.)

All the towns in Germany have a church, which is easy to locate because you can always see the steeples. In Germany you were not allowed to build anything higher than the church steeple. (I'm not sure if that's still true today.)

William loved running around the narrow cobble-stone streets. He particularly loved WINDOW SHOPPING. He would stick his head against the glass and stare at everything inside for a LONG time. Which worked for us, because then we didn't have to buy anything. :)

The next day we hopped on a river cruise boat. A little chiller than we expected, but still loads of fun. [I can't believe I just said "loads of fun" - I've read the first five Harry Potter books since we've been here. :) ]

A few pictures of our favorite castles on the Rhine River.

Our boat ride ended in Koblenz where we stayed until the following day and took the train home. I haven't been too many places in the world, but I would say that this stretch of the Rhine River is the most beautiful place I've ever been.

The city in which we sort of live...

2009-06-14T12:51:00.000-07:00

This is Erlangen. We live in a tiny village adjacent to Erlangen called Uttenreuth, but Earl works in Erlangen. Most people, even in Erlangen, haven't heard of Uttenreuth, so we just say we're from Erlangen. It's about a 10 minute bus ride to the city center. This is the castle in the city center, more like a palace. William's fascinated with all the flowers. :) It's a lovely springtime here.

Here's a view of Uttenreuth out of our apartment window.

We like going to the town center - sorry don't have a picture - because they have cute shops, fresh farmer's market square, old churches, and then large patches of green forest for William to run through like this one.

A few things that are different here....

2009-06-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

The food - Some things are better here in Germany (yogurt, cheese, bread, animal crackers). Some things are not (cream cheese, bagels, water - they carbonate it).
Transportation - EVERYTHING (well 95%) is either a Mercedes or BMW - even the buses and tractors. EVERYONE rides the trains/buses - old, young, poor, rich. Many people ride bikes - kids are riding a bike by 3 years old.
Language - Obviously. But many people here know some English.
Age of towns/building - the town we're staying in is about 1000 years old. I haven't seen anything in America that old.
Climate - Green, green, green. No one has AC, don't need it.
Cash - everything bought is bought with cash. If you use a card, you're holding up the line. (Opposite in America.)
HOLIDAYS - everything is closed. It's not a day to catch up, go to a theme park, or go shopping - even grocery stores are closed. People actually relax. People BBQ, go to the woods, and of course drink beer. We are determined to holiday like the Germans from now on, of course without the beer - since we don't drink.

I wonder if Picasso's Mr. Patato Head looked like this...

2009-06-14T11:56:00.001-07:00

William is becoming very creative.

Earl's Thoughts

2009-06-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

As we started our journey overseas we had to go through the ritual of airport security at the Tucson airport. We had 6 carry-on bags, a stroller, a carseat, and a little boy. We were glad to see that the security check point had a "Family Line" for travelers with children. Supposedly we would get extra help by going through that line.

Yeah. That really didn't happen. Somehow we got all the bags and stuff, took our shoes off and on, showed boarding passes thanks to massive coordination between Heather and me.

There's been some debate about the effectiveness of airport security. Some people call it "security theater" because it's just a show to help everyone relax.

There's one thing about airport security that's VERY effective: The terrorists will never travel with small children.

Congratulations to Earl

2009-06-08T00:29:00.000-07:00

Earl just made a great achievement in his field. One of his papers was accepted to, ECOC, "the largest conference on optical communication in Europe" which will be held in Vienna, Austria this year. In September he will get to go to Vienna to make a presentation on his paper. (Sadly I won't get to go with him because I will be too pregnant to fly.) This is a hard conference to get a paper accepted. We are so proud of you Earl!

Adventures in Deutschland

2009-06-04T12:44:00.001-07:00

Well, we made it to Germany! What a trip that was! Packing, moving, flying across the ocean, taking two trains, and a small car, all to arrive at our little flat in Uttenreuth, Germany. Many things went wrong, at least they seemed wrong at first, but turned out to be blessings. For example, the airline losing all 6 of our bags. I wanted to be outraged. I was in a strange country, exhausted, sleep deprived, along with a sleep-deprived toddler. But something inside me told me to be calm and everything would work out. It did. We managed. Stayed at a hotel for a night. When taking the two trains the following day, we realized was a hassle, and almost impossible it would have been to transport all of our bags to our flat. Our bags arrived on our doorstep the next day, we were then grateful that the airline lost our bags!

We are all loving Germany so far. It is so green here! The picture above was taken in the forest about 1.5 miles from our flat. William has been enjoying being outdoors so much. Below is a picture of a children's park about a block from our flat. I love it, the overgrown grass and bushes, the mounds of dirt. A perfect place to help cultivate children's imaginations.

This past weekend we took a trip to Nuremberg. A lot of history in that town. I'll spare you the details, but we found it to be a very enchanting city. Below is a church built in the 1200's.

Beautiful buildings, fountains, and statues.

This is the castle in Nuremberg. We are standing in the inner courtyard. Many of the Emporers of the Holy Roman Empire lived here between 1050 and 1570.

Another picture of the castle, and my baby bump. :)

More to come later!

PS I forgot to take everyone's blog addresses, so if you have one, please leave it for me in the comments, I'd like to know how everyone else is doing!

Coming Soon...

2009-05-12T05:41:00.000-07:00

1. Yesterday we found out (early) that we are having another boy!
2. I won't be posting for just a short time, give me at least a week. Tomorrow we head off to Germany, but posts of our adventures will be coming soon!

Four Wonderful Years

2009-04-26T19:47:00.001-07:00

Today is our 4-year anniversary! I just want to say, that I'm so glad I married Earl. Best decision of my life. Never a moment's regret. I love him so much more today than on the day we were married. I suppose that's the way it should be. I am looking forward to many more, even more wonderful, years!

10 words in a sentence

2009-04-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

William has been a slow talker. Two things are against him.
1. He's a boy.
2. He's the first child.

Lately I've been starting to understand him a little better. The most words he's said are "I do it". He rarely says sentences, mostly single or two words. Honestly it's been a little frustrating. I want to communicate with my child and understand his needs and how I can help him. I feel like I am doing everything I can do to encourage that communication. Well today, this is what he said.

"My turtle, his eyes are on top of his head."

10 words in a sentence.

I just stared at him for a moment, stunned, and smiled and said, "Yes, his eyes are on top of his head."

Yay! Hopefully this is the start of great verbiage to come.

William's going to have a little brother or sister....

2009-04-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

Today I had a sonogram, well, because I'm pregnant! Baby is due November 6th, but since William was almost 4 weeks early there's a good chance Baby will come mid-late October. I will post the sonogram picture later after Earl scans it in at school.

CRAZY SHORTS!!!!

2009-03-11T16:55:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, so here are a couple funny things that have happened in the past few weeks....

Two nights ago, Earl was entertaining William. He decided to animate William's shorts. He started calling them Crrrraaazzzy shorts! Then they would fly all over the place and chase Willliam around tickling him now and then. Then the shorts tried to be a hat. So the rest of the night William wore his shorts on his head. Sadly, I did not get a picture. Although I'm sure we'll hear more from Crazy Shorts soon.

Last week, I asked William, "William, can you say lion?" He looked me straight in the eye and said, "Yes." The End.

A little CA sunshine will do anyone good...

2009-02-15T20:59:00.000-08:00

We just got back from LA. Fun, fun, fun! The best part was going to Disneyland for my birthday!! (This year you get into Disneyland for free on your birthday.) It rained half the day, but we managed. We were blessed with short lines and a few gorgeous rainbows.

At the gate, if it's your birthday, they give you a birthday pin to wear. I got more "Happy Birthday"s in one day than probably the rest of my life put together. It was pretty awesome. I loved it because the atmosphere was so happy. Everyone was having a great time despite the bad weather.

My favorite ride was Monsters Inc. over at California Adventure. Earl's was Pirates of the Caribbean, and Williams was probably the Casey Jr. train ride.

We tried to join the CDA, but curiously they wouldn't let us.

William and I visited the Aquarium of the Pacific. Two things he loved. This bird, in the picture above. He kept poking the bird over and over, and the bird kept biting him over and over. He loved it.

The second thing he loved was the pools with the sting rays and sharks that anyone can pet. He got right in there! What a boy!

We stayed at the LA Temple patron apartments. This was our view. So beautiful! I love the LA Temple. Brings back so many good memories.

Of course we went to the beach! William loved the sand.

And chasing the birds!!

Randomness

2009-01-29T19:41:00.001-08:00

I took this picture when we were driving home from Texas over Christmas break. I cannot for the life of me think of what these tires would be used for...? They are HUGE? What do you think?

This is how William drinks now.

The other day we got some rain. Yay!! We were lucky to see a full double rainbow! We only caught part of it with the camera though. It was beautiful. One of those moments where you feel beauty and a deep sense of gratitude for the world we live and the beauty around us - even though we live in the desert.

Easy as 1-2-3

2009-01-19T20:22:00.000-08:00

We FINALLY bought a dining set off of craigslist. I wasn't a fan of the fabric on the chairs so I decided to reupholster them. The processactually ended up being SO easy here's what I did if anyone cares to see. (William was my helper.) :)

Before picture:

1. Find fabric that you like, and cut into squares an inch longer than the size of cushion. I sprayed our fabric with Scotch Guard to protect it from spills and stains.
2. Find a little boy to remove cushion from chair. Ours had little screws in them. (The chair, not the boy.)

3. Pull fabric tight and staple with a heavy duty stapler and 1/2" staples.

4. Ask the little boy to nicely screw the cushion back onto the chair.

5. Wa-lah! Finished product. Good as new!
6. Build a fort with the new dining room set. :)

New hobbies

2009-01-06T11:52:00.001-08:00

My mother-in-law is pretty talented. She shared some of her talents with me over Christmas break. I learned how to crochet, I made the hat William is wearing. She also gave me her old sewing machine and gave me some sewing lessons. My sewing project was Christmas bags. Here's one, filled with other Christmas bags that I finished yesterday. I'm excited to have some new, and practical, hobbies. I've been wanting to sew for a while, and now I can! Thanks Mom Parsons!

Oh, and here's a picture of William and me that I took today. (I got a haircut right before Christmas.)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

We had a nice Christmas vacation. We drove to Texas, and William was such a trooper! It was 15-16 hours each way, and he did great. It took him a few days to adjust to a new place, but then he really enjoyed himself. We had a lot of fun and we were sad for it to end. Here's some pics....

William and Auntie Cassie on our mile hike to the park!

Painting the house (with water)! William had a blast, and it kept him busy for a while.

Christmas morning!!

Boys on Christmas eve.

Sparring. Earl beating up his little sister. Oh wait, I mean Earl's little sister beating him up, she's the one with a black belt! Earl wanted me to see what Tae Kwon Do is like. Look likes fun!

Painting Elephants

2008-12-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

We got a year membership to the zoo, so we've been going often. Today zoo keepers were helping the elephant make a painting for the vet as a Christmas present! It was so neat to watch! They would bribe the elephant with food, of course, and the elephant would hold the brush with her trunk and make strokes on canvas. I was too engrossed to take a picture. But I did get a cool picture of the giraffes with my phone. They are one of our favorites to see. A great thing about the zoo is it's close and we only spend about an hour there. It's also a good teaching tool for William. William has been learning more animal names, and a new one today was otter.

Lot's of Pictures, a little Snow, keep scrolling down

2008-11-30T19:54:00.001-08:00

Last night we went to a Holiday event. They had Snow Machines on the tops of the building, so there were snow flurries everywhere. There were Christmas lights, carolers and hot chocolate! We had a great time. William did NOT like the snow, as evidence in the picture below.

But he did love the Giant iPhone Santa!

Keep scrolling down, more pics.

A Pretty Picture of Tucson

2008-11-30T19:53:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite views of Tucson. William and I pass this on our bike rides.

At the Zoo with William's Aunts

2008-11-30T19:51:00.002-08:00

Our little Engineer

2008-11-30T19:51:00.001-08:00

Walking in Mom's shoes

2008-11-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

William learned how to use the headphones

2008-11-30T19:49:00.000-08:00

Do you think this is why he liked the iPhone Santa? :)

Here we are on Thanksgiving....

2008-11-30T19:31:00.000-08:00

Masters

2008-11-25T05:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Earl passed the Oral exams (a grueling 3 hours of verbal examination) to get his Masters and become a PhD Candidate!! Good job Earl, we are so proud of you!!!

Bubble Eater

2008-11-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

William has discovered that he likes the taste of bubbles, so it's hard to keep him from eating them when he's taking a bath. What can you do?

Another cute thing, he recognizes pictures of Jesus. He'll point and say "Zesus".

2008-11-02T20:51:00.000-08:00

This morning Earl and I were getting William dressed for church. When I put his tie on, William just starting bawling! He did not want to wear a tie! So I bribed him with some cookies, I told him if he wore his tie to church and didn't take it off he could have some cookies. I rarely bribe, but it worked! He was a happy boy!

Just to reminisce, here are some old pictures of William before church. They grow so fast!

William 6 months old

William 6 weeks old

Halloween Carnival

2008-10-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

We had our ward carnival tonight. Yes, we had a cheesy family medieval theme, but we had fun!!

The bike and boo boos

2008-10-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of William and I just about to go on a ride. He loves his seat. He cries when I take him out of his seat, and in the apt, he'll bring put his helmet on and pull me to the door to go on another ride.

William is cautious by nature. Lately he's been getting more brave. A few days ago he moved his train to the door, stood up on it and tried to unlock the door (oh no!, good thing we have a dead bolt up high). Poor kiddo, he fell off and split his lip open. All this happened while I was catching up on some sleep. Earl yelled for my help, I fell out of the bed and down the stairs because he also yelled the words "bleeding a lot!" William was okay, it took a few minutes for the bleeding to stop. He got a nice fat lip. I'm not sure if you can see it in this shot. Later on he fell asleep on the couch. Crying really wares kids out!

This week we also got a year membership to the zoo. They had a pumpkin patch dedicated to the "Great Pumpkin". William wanted to play with the pumpkins, and I thought I'd get some nice fall photos of him by the pumpkins. Turns out he doesn't like walking on hay. It really weirded him out, and so I only got a shot of him running back to the pavement. He's still cute when he's running away!

Utah Trip

2008-10-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, William and I took a quick trip up to Utah for a wedding. William was such a good sport while traveling and while I dragged him everywhere to see family and friends (since we were only there for a few days, we only got a sampling of a few friends and family). Here's a great picture Uncle John took while we were at the Salt Lake City Temple.

We stopped by good old BYU. It was really funny to see what a different culture it is there. For example the overly-friendly cashiers, people holding the doors open for you because you have a kid even though you are still 50 feet away from the door, and my favorite, William tripped (which most of the time I just let him pick himself up because he is very capable) so I was waiting for him to pick himself up but some guy came swooping in and picked William up, brushed him off, and then hurried off to class. Here's William at BYU.

Here's another picture at the SLC temple with Uncle John, who was so nice to watch William while I was at Robin's sealing.

Here we are at Robin's reception. Robin and I were roommates our first two years at BYU, and really good friends too. She married a wonderful guy, who is just perfect for her. My favorite was their first dance. They started out dancing to "The Way You Look Tonight" then broke out to "Paralyzed" and did this really funny choriographed dance (Robin's a modern dance teacher.) It was the best first dance I've ever seen!

We also saw many friends and family. Here's another old roommate and one of my best friends during college, Jolene Jenkins. She has a dog, a mastiff, named Gimley. William and him were buddies by the end of the night.

Here's William sharing his fruit snacks with Gimley.

It was so good to be back in Utah. I miss the pretty scenery. Tucson is so ugly. No, not really, it can be a different kind of "pretty". I don't think we'll ever move to Utah, but we'll definitely come back for a visit soon!

Dots

2008-09-30T11:57:00.001-07:00

Today we had fun with dot stickers!

He Passed!

2008-09-29T09:34:00.000-07:00

Earl passed his comprehensive exams that he took this past week! Which means, in a few weeks he will receive his Masters Degree and be an official Doctoral Candidate (Optical Sciences - aka fiber optic communications - not an eye doctor). Congratulations Earl! We love you!

Giraffe Tongue and Wild Animals

2008-09-26T13:22:00.001-07:00

William and I went to the zoo today with Allison Opie and her twin girls. We had a blast! We got to feed the giraffes, but William hated the feel of their tongues! It felt a lot like sandpaper. After feeling their tongues take the food from his hand he was out of there!

William, Allison and the twins. Oh, and the rinos are in the back. :)

Of course, the elephants! Almost all the animals were active, out eating or doing something. We must have come on a good day. The lion was out roaring, and the tiger and polar bear went for a swim! Out of all the zoos I've been to, I've never seen the big animals be so active. Who would have thought? The tiny little Tucson Zoo was really great!

Nursery

2008-09-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

William went to nursery today for the first time alone. We've been going with him the past couple weeks to help him transition into Nursery. Not that he really needed our help. Today I went and picked him up after church. This is how it went:

Me: "Hi William! Did you have fun in Nursery today?"

William: Nothing. He didn't even look at me for half a second. He knew I was there, but just kept walking around exploring the room and toys. Honestly I was just a tinny bit disappointed, I wanted him to miss me and run up and give me a hug! But I know it's better this way and I'm really glad that he loves nursery.

Dancing Boy

2008-09-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

This white boy has got some rhythm! This is by far one of the cutest things he has done!

D-backs

2008-09-02T21:29:00.001-07:00

Friday night the sisters went to the D-backs game. Honestly, I thought it was going to be boring, but
1. It's always fun when you win,
2. Amy taught Melissa and me all about baseball, so it's a lot more fun when you know what's going on! and
3. The crazy, obsessed fans are good entertainment too!

More Texas

2008-08-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Guess what's happening in this picture? Yes, we're all addicted to Wii. Even William tried playing! The nice thing about going to Texas is that it's very relaxing. We play Wii, read books, play games, and go out.

I think William's favorite outing was the Fort Worth Zoo. He got to feed the birds and see a lot of cool animals, like the elephants (my favorite!).

We also go to see the Asher cousins, which was a lot of fun! We went to the mall and I've got to say, this bird sign really cracked me up! My favorite "control measure" is the "exploding aerial flares". Too bad we didn't get to see that one!

Texas - Part 1

2008-08-22T17:34:00.001-07:00

One of the things that Texas has, but Tucson has very little, is GRASS!! If your kid goes and plays on the rocks instead of the grass, you know you're from Tucson! William eventually got used to it and really loved playing at the parks and on the lawns.

The Dinosaur Park!

Got to love rides from Grandpa!

We also enjoyed hanging out and visiting with Auntie Tami and Grandma!

More to come...

Adventures Today

2008-08-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

Today has been an adventurous day for us. First it started out rough. This is how your face will look if you eat pine cones for breakfast. (Seriously, I didn't give it to him. I don't know how it got there!)

Next, "Mom can I shave?"

"But teddy needs to shave!"

After we dropped Earl off at school, we went to go run around the mall. William enjoyed an exotic safari ride with a lion.

Only in Tucson do they have snakes in a kid's play area!

Then we went to story time at the bookstore and afterwards William pushed the stroller around the mall. Between that and a few tantrums (which are new as of yesterday) William wore himself out.

I Love Monsoons

2008-08-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

For those of you who'd like to see a monsoon, I took this short video last night. We had a nice cloudless sunset, then within a half hour this. Pretty cool, I love it! (For those who've experienced monsoons or hurricanes, this will probably be boring.) :)

Night at the Museum

2008-07-28T20:26:00.001-07:00

During the Summer, the Children's Museum in Tucson has $1 Monday nights, so we went tonight with our friends the Bradshaws. Ethan and William had a blast! The museum was so interactive and appropriate for all age levels for children. So if you're visiting Tucson, and have kids, we recommend the museum. Here's a few pictures....

Powering the train by turning the wheel.

Got to ride the police motorcycle! Maybe he'll take after his Uncle Cliff and be a Police Officer.

Driving the Fire Truck.

Earl and I LOVED the dinosaurs, but the T-Rex scared William. Hmmm, I wonder why? Maybe they'll be friends next time. :)

Here's our angel on the way to the museum. This was so cute, I had to include it. This really captures his personality, and what I get to see every day! How lucky am I!

Thanks!

2008-07-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say thanks to the Parsons for all the cute clothes for William! William has been such a busy bee the past week. He's starting to say more words and romance girls. At least, for a 16 month old. We were at the temple last Saturday, and he was picking flowers off the bushes and giving them to some little girl. :) I wish I had my camera for that one!

Latest Happenings...

2008-07-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

Swimming has been our relief this summer, along with the monsoons. William is learning how to keep his balance in the swimming pool, kick and paddle. This picture is from our Primary activity water day. He loved the little kiddie pool.

William is also becoming a master climber. He practices on everything. Mom and Dad are jungle-gyms and getting to be pros at horsey rides and piggy-back rides.

A couple of weeks ago Aunt Cassie came to visit. William cried when she left! We had a great time.
We're just trying to survive the summer heat! There isn't much to do in Tucson, indoors. I'm open to ideas. We go to story time at the library, a baby gym class for William, then it seems all we have left to do is walk around the mall. Of course there's our apartment, but that gets old after being there so long. Any suggestions... I'm getting cabin fever pretty quickly now a days!

El Tour de Tucson

2008-06-22T21:30:00.001-07:00

So below are some pictures and a few new posts of William and what we've been up to. Earl is doing great with his research. Almost has another paper out. I've been riding my bike a lot. It's been a lot of fun, except I have to go at 5am. Yes, AM. It's so blasted hot here right now. It was 90-something degrees when we left at 7:30am for church (ward counsel). Yes, AM. But back to my bike. I've decided to ride the 109 mile El Tour de Tucson in November. Yeah! If anyone near by wants to go for rides, just let me know! Yesterday I did a 20 mile ride! I'm very proud of myself. I didn't think I'd get this far, and I did! Now I know I'm really going to do it! Okay, it's past my bedtime, enough blogging for one night.

Banana Boy

2008-06-22T21:17:00.001-07:00

Here's our banana-banana boy. He has one practically everyday! I heard bananas make you happy, maybe that's why he's such a happy boy!

He loves books, and will read them on his own. He'll even tell you the story. Man I wish I understood that baby babble a little better because I think it would be an even better story than the one in the book!

William is also such a boy. He like playing in corners, underthings, in things. He also laughs when I get hurt, which isn't often. But listen to this, I love the show Malcom in the Middle, and I'll watch episodes now and then. He only laughs at the parts when they boys are beating each other up or getting hurt. Yah, does that tell you anything about his personality? Or are all kids like that?

Father's Day

2008-06-22T21:12:00.001-07:00

The Saturday before Father's Day we went up to Mesa and got to see my side of the family. William's cousins were visiting from Texas. Here they are, William had such a good time with them!

William really likes playing in the water. Even in a big scary dog's water bowl! Yuck!

Sleepy time

2008-06-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

William does the most amazing thing. When it's about his bedtime, we ask him "William, is it naptime/bedtime?" And he'll smile, walk over to the stairs, climb up, and be put to bed without any fuss. Aren't we the luckiest parents in the world? Here's a video. He was a little more reserved because the camera was out, but you'll get the picture. (PS I don't talk in that high-pitched voice all the time.)

New Calling

2008-06-20T14:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while because I just got a new calling at church. I'm the new Primary President! I know, I was surprised too! I'm really excited, but I've been really busy. I promise pictures and more posts will be coming this weekend....

New Faces

2008-06-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

Check out these new faces:
The first one is a conniving/angry baby. I don't know where that came from. He'll do this face, then smile, do the face, then smile. Same with the second pout face. William's never been a pouter, but then he smiling again right after he makes that face too. I don't know if he's just practicing faces he's seen, or if he's just a confused child! :)
Today after lunch we were at Sprouts getting some produce. I gave William a bag of tomatoes to hold so he'd have something to do. Well, that something to do was to take a huge bite out of the tomato. Only he didn't succeed because there was a bag in the way. I guess I was wrong in thinking that a full stomach would keep him from trying plastic bags....

Snakes and Lizards

2008-05-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went on our traditional Memorial Day hike. We went up Sabino Canyon again with our new friends the Richards. I don't think I've seen so many lizards in my life! They were all over the place. Then, for dinner we walked to our friend's house, about a 15 minute walk, and we saw this 3 foot King Snake just slithering across the path. I got this close to it, I didn't even have to zoom in to take the picture. I was very tempted to catch it, but I didn't want to scare Earl or William. All the reptiles were probably out because of the beautiful weather. It was a gorgeous day in the low 80's. (Not to rub it in for those of you who have been having bad weather.) But don't worry, it's getting up to our normal 100 degree weather by this weekend. Yuck. Is there anywhere in the US where the temperature stays between 60-90 degrees year-round? I'd like to move there! :)

A New Perspective

2008-05-22T16:37:00.001-07:00

Have you taken a new perspective on life lately? Try this position, it really shakes things up! :)

Prince Caspian

2008-05-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

I usually don't make plugs for movies on our blog, but we just got back from seeing Prince Caspian. I have to say it's one of the best movies we've seen in a while. If you were disappointed with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (which I really liked, but I know a lot of people didn't) I'm sure that this movie will NOT disappoint. (All of the "kid" actors are fabulous!) This movie was action-packed, humorous, and a ton of fun. They must have had a bigger budget for special effects because they were much better. The movie was a little over 2 hours long, but it didn't feel like it at all. I really, really, really liked it.

Mr. Cool

2008-05-15T14:09:00.001-07:00

William's new fascination is sunglasses. Especially pulling them off of mom's or dad's face.
He also has this new thing when we go out. When he sees a new adult, he stares at them until they acknowledge him, then he smiles and runs away if he can. It's quite hilarious.

William also is trying out his size. Here he's trying to fit into a cart for his animal train. I know this is a blurry picture, actually it's not blurry, it's just got crusty graham cracker crumbs on the lens of the camera. I wonder who did that...? (I think it was Earl.)

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T07:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms out there, especially Grandma Parsons and Grandma Asher. We love you!!

Yesterday we went up to Mesa to celebrate Mother's Day and my brother Andrew's birthday. William made friends with the dogs. This puppy in the picture, his name is Burns. I think William was his favorite person, because William was just his size. :)

We also had a nice relaxing time in the pool. William is getting used to the water. Now we just need to teach him how to swim! He love to splash the water, just like when he takes a bath.

This little video is of William watching some kids run up the stairs and run down the slide. He watched them and laughed at them for about ten minutes. They were very entertaining to him!

Tongues and food

2008-05-04T21:50:00.001-07:00

Normally William is a big ham for the camera, but yesterday he caught me by surprise! What's that, he's sticking his tongue out for the camera!!! Hmmmm, I wonder where he got that from? I'll give you a clue.

Yep, his dad. Even still, aren't they both so cute? I'm a lucky woman.

William will eat all day long. I don't know where the food goes (except of course his diapers). He's not exactly a "big" boy, but that's probably because he prefers fruits and vegetables to everything else. But he'll just eat....

And eat....

And eat.

But at least he likes to brush his teeth!!