Just pictures

It's been awhile since I've posted and I wanted to share some cute pictures, but I have a cold and my head isn't really working, so that's about all that I have to say about it.

Harrison and I have been sick, so Zac went to the store last night to get some medicine and this is what he came home to.

Harrison and Grandpa Kim... Harrison was ready for bed.

Here is one of the pictures at the waterfall.

The other morning I sat Harrison on the couch and was in the other room. When I came back, Maisey had laid on his lap and they were snuggling and Harrison was petting her. It was so sweet.

I love this picture.

Harrison with cousins Berkley and Cali.

Harrison had eaten some otter pops at Grandma and Grandpa Elder's, and as if that wasn't enough fun, he got to roll around on the deck in the dirt. He was a mess!

Harrison can't crawl or walk yet, but he really wants to. His latest trick is to walk in circles while holding on to whatever he can... this is what my mom and Justin came up with.

Blah...

I am sitting at my computer at my house and couldn't feel more like trash. It has been a crazy week with our family and Friday night cannot come soon enough... Here's why:

1. My brother Jeremy went to Primary Children's on Tuesday to have his tonsils and adnoids taken out. He has been sick with a fever for a month now, and it breaks my heart to see him sick for so long. My mom is exhausted from all the caregiving and worrying about him. Anyway, the doctor said that it's tonsilitis and the best thing to do is take them out. For all of you that know him, Jeremy is a loud guy pretty much all the time. When they went in for surgery they found out why: He has a big flap of skin over his voicebox, which makes him sound like he's snoring when he breathes. They decided to take care of that while they were in there. If this all works out, I am sure his and my parents' life will be SO much different and a lot more easy and quiet! The doctors said that they expect him to be in the hospital for a day, and now we're going on 3. This morning I got a call from my mom at about 5:45 saying that his CO2 spiked way high and his oxygen was super low, so they put him in intensive care. They expect him to be in there for a day or two, and then I am guessing they will probably put him back into the post-surgical unit until he is fever-free for 24 hours and breathing well. My mom and dad are both staying at the hospital with him while he's in intensive care and John and Mal are holding the fort down with Justin.

2. Zac has had a bad week at work, which is never fun for anyone. Plus we just found out that he is traveling two weeks in a row in September. 'Nuff said.

3. I was seriously ready to take Maisey's collar off and let her go free last night. We stayed at my parents house for a few days with Jeremy's surgery and appointments we had up there. She is a great dog, but she does not like to be ignored and she lets us know. I have been so busy with being at the hospital and taking care of Bug that we really haven't played with her at all. My mom has a nice little sitting room in the entryway of her house with a pretty piano, nice white carpet, and a big ficus tree that takes up about half of the room. Twice while we were up there, Maisey got into the dirt of the plant and dug it out onto the carpet. And it's happened before. It's getting old. After we cleaned up the mess and made her sit by it and pout, I walked in to the living room and saw that she tore up Livi's (my family's dog) sleeping cushion and ate the stuffing in it. Dumb dog. She would have been toast last night if Zac hadn't stuck up for her. Ugh. $17 and a new cushion later, everything was back to normal. I am still not convinced that she's staying. I just keep telling myself that she will be a great asset to the family when there are more of us to play with her. We'll see.

4. The car accident I blogged about awhile back has been causing me major headaches, so I finally broke down and went to the chiropractor today. I guess my neck is all tweaked which is messing with the nerves back there, causing me daily headaches. And I stick my neck foreward. So I feel like crap and look weird? Good news. I guess because of it my back and hips were out of place as well. So I got thoroughly popped today, and it scared me to death! Has anyone else been to the chiropractor? The hips and back weren't so bad, but when he did my neck it popped in about 10 different spots and made this crazy noise and I thought for sure my head was going to fall off. According to the chiropractor, that doesn't happen but I don't know if I believe it... So anyway, now I feel like my back is out of line in so many different places and I want to pop it so bad, but I don't want to undo what he did. I have to go in again next week to see what the plan of attack is. Fun.

5. The good part of the week was that Harrison got tooth #3. This one is on the top. They seem to be coming in quick - the sooner the better! He also started waving this week. He is growing so fast!

Since blogs aren't as much fun without pictures, here are a few.

Jeremy and me when were were little.

Get well soon Bearsys! We love you!

Maisey. What a stinker.

Me and my friend/Chinese roommate Kim. Kind of random, but she just announced on her blog that she's preggo, and I am way excited for her. Congrats girlfriend! I am crossing my fingers it's a boy...

High School Tag...

Thanks Kim for making me bring back the memories...

1. Who did you date from your school? I don't think I ever went out with the same person twice.
2. What kind of car did you drive? The old brown chevy, then I upgraded to my little neon
3. It’s Friday night...where are you? Kathy's house, out with friends or working
4. Were you a party animal? Not at all
5. Were you considered a flirt? Probably not
6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Choir and choir pianist... it's really all I knew how to do
7. Were you a nerd? I didn't think so, but I am pretty sure everyone else did
8. Were you on any varsity teams? Nope
9. Did you get suspended/expelled? Ha... no
10. Can you still sing the fight song? I do every time I drive by the school... I think Zac has it memorized now too.
11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mrs. Sommerkorn made math fun... Mr. Anderson's AP Music Theory was so fun
12. Where did you sit during lunch? It depends on which year in school it was... Sophomore year I was the new kid so I ate by myself in front of my locker, Junior year in the lunchroom with my buds, Senior year either Wendy's or at home.
13. What was your school's full name? Clearfield High School
14. School mascot? Falcons
15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? Oh goodness... Sophomore year was a setup and I don't remember his name, Junior year was Ben Mortensen and Senior year was Matt Whale
16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Absolutely not
17. What do you remember most about graduation? The graduation party with friends and being so sick the next day about really being done with high school.
18. Where did you go senior skip day? We didn't have one
19. Were you in any clubs? National Honors Society... I mostly worked through high school
20. Have you gained some weight since then? A little
21. Who was your prom date? Scott Olsen Junior year, didn't go senior year.
22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Probably not
23. Who do you tag? Victoria, Mallory, Marci, Kathy and Jenny Weller. I want to hear all about it!

Shamless advertising

Okay, so I just realized today that somewhere in my blog background change, I lost my little blog counter. I am always curious to see if anybody ever really reads this or not, so I decided I would put another one back up. I found the one I liked and I thought it was looking pretty cute, when I realized that underneath the counter it said JONES ACT LAWYERS. What the??? So I clicked on it and it is totally a website for some Law firm called The Ogletree Abbott Lawfirm. Apparently they are a law firm that represent injured workers in the shipment business who are protected under something called the Jones Act. I have one question about all of this: Who are they trying to advertise to here? I am pretty sure that if I worked in the shipping business and needed a lawyer I would probably not look on a free blog counter website for one. Do you think these guys are really getting any business off of this? Are there really enough people in the shipping business to be advertising something so specific in such broad arena? Although I don't quite get it, I will just pretend that their website isn't on my blog page and I will just admire my cute new counter.

A cinnamon toast miracle!

Hey everyone. I just want to thank you all for your advice and encouragement about the baby food situation. Sometimes being a mom feels so complicated! You wouldn't think that learning to eat would be that difficult, but the funny thing about kids is that the simplest sounding things can be the most frustrating! And just as you think you have your child figured out and things are running smooth, something changes. Harrison has always been a handful in the sleep department. Again... who would have thought sleeping would be hard? For the longest time he would cry every time I put him down to sleep and then wake up every 45 minutes or so. Then all of a sudden he started sleeping from the minute we put him down at night until 7:30 the next morning. I was so excited and finally felt like I had it down and that we were both on the same page. Things were going smooth and being a mom felt so much easier, and then he decided he didn't want to eat the food his doctor said he should be eating. I think my stress level about it is so over the top because I am afraid of making a huge mistake that will effect him the rest of his life. I have heard of kids who don't eat well from the beginning, stay picky eaters as toddlers and become malnourished, and I am so afraid that my mistakes with him when he's a baby will turn into a big problem. So all of these feelings combined made me a basket case about the whole situation and in the end, I was the one making the eating times bad because I was so uptight about it. After reading all of your advice, I decided to back off and try to not freak out about it. After a couple of bad days, Zac's effort to save my sanity with some Coldplay concert tickets (thanks babe!), and a few no-pressure feedings Harrison is finally eating! I decided to skip the baby food and go for the solids that he likes, the first I discovered being cinnamon toast. So now every morning we eat breakfast together. If I start out feeding him cinnamon toast and sips of milk he will always be open to eating his oatmeal and anything else I try to give him. He even tried apple sauce after I took a few bites, which he would never eat before. He still didn't like it, but at least he tried it. I guess kids definitely do learn by example, and it makes sense. How can we expect them to do things that we aren't willing to do? He definitely pays more attention than I give him credit for, and if I wasn't going to eat his baby food, there's no way on earth he was going to.

A little moral support from the moms...

So Harrison is almost 8 months old and is the most stubborn person I have ever known. We have been trying to get him to eat baby food since he was about 4 months old. We worked on the cereal for about 2 months before he would eat it willingly. At our 6 month doctor appointment, the docotor asks "So what fruits and vegetables is he eating?" and my repsponse was "well... none so far, but not because we haven't been working on it," and then he told me to keep trying and that he should be eating them already. So ever since then, minus a few exceptions, we have offered him cereal and fruit for breakfast, cereal and veggies for lunch, and a fruit and veggie for dinner. As soon as he sees anything but cereal, he purses his lips and won't budge. I have been saying to myself "Okay, if I just keep trying, eventually he will take it." It has gotten to the point where he doesn't even really like his cereal anymore. Eating food is being associated with bad feelings for him, and I seriously dread every meal now. I have tried mixing the food with the cereal, feeding him the food on my finger, letting him try to feed himself, trying to feed him the solid version of the food and yet none of it is working. Today I decided that I was going to wait until he was seriously overly hungry and try to feed him carrots. It soon turned into a force-feeding session that left both of us completely drained and crying. Have any of you had problems with this? Do any of you have some good adivce? How long is too long to keep offering food with no success?

Trip to Albuquerque

We spent a weekend in Albuquerque to visit Jake and Victoria, who are living there for the Summer. It was such a fun time! We went on the world's longest tram ride up to Sandia Peak, ate dinner at the restaurant at the top, visited Old Town, and did a lot of relaxing! Harrison had his first plane ride there and back, and he did so well! It is so funny when you realize that babies aren't as hot of a commodity other places as they are in Utah, so Harrison made a lot of new friends out and about. Thanks for the fun vacation, guys!