A sad blind woman

I just paid a visit to the friendly neighboorhood optomotrist for an eye exam. I finally have a suitable pair of eye glasses, a pair of perscription sunglasses and I thought it was time to try contacts once again.

Mind you, my eyes get very dry and the last time I wore contacts it only lasted 20 minutes until my eyes were so dry that I had to take them out.

Verdict: the best type of contact for my eyes (because of the drying out) unfortunately Doesn't come in my perscription. NOT EVEN CLOSE. They cut off at a +6 (still pretty high, if you know anything about optometry) and I will need a +8, possibly higher. :) Yay!

So we're going to try a step down, which goes up to a +8 (I hope I don't need anything higher). We'll see if I can bear to wear them for more than an hour.

In the meantime I will continue to wear my cokebottle eye glasses and accept the fact that I will probably never look like everyone else, but thats okay. Glasses can be cool..... can be.

Jeremiah

This post is really just to show off some great pictures that were taken at Greg's department party of Jeremiah. I don't even know who took them, but I think he's so cute.

Going Natural

Whenever anyone is pregnant EVERY SINGLE PERSON seems to ask them one question (among many) "Are you having an epidural?" And everyone seems to have an opinion on the matter. I am no different. With both my kids I had completely different experiences. Pictures are worth a thousand words:

That was Jeremiah. I had an epidural, internal monitor, oxygen, episiotomy, I passed out while pushing and therefore Jeremiah was delivered via forcepts. And after he was born, I didn't have enough energy to left my arms enough to hold him, Greg held him first. Grrr.. If I look like a zombie (a chubby zombie) that's because I was, I don't remember a lot of it.

And this is with Leah. No epidural, no episiotomy, no forcepts, no passing out, no oxygyn, but a lot more pain (this is obviously not taken during a serious contraction).

And this is me holding her for the first time (sorry about the low cut hospital gown).

All in All: The first time around I didn't have any pain but I was SOOOOOO uncomfortable. I had all the "uncommon" side-effects from the epidural (severe shakes, drop in blood pressure, LOOPYness) With Leah, I had A LOT of pain, but at least I could deal with that, I could move around, I was in control of all my faculties.

I don't have a moral argument for whether or not to go natural, both my kids were healthy AND alert right after birth, but I would do it again naturally if i had the choice.

(The inspiration for this topic is my friend/cousin who's pregnant, there is a lot of birthing talk going around the female circles of my family these days, so it's on my mind)

Pumpkin spice and everything nice

My camera is sadly abandoned down in Provo at the moment, left from a wonderful baptism celebration for Trevin, but I thought I'd share my thoughts today.

My three year old is having a rough day. I don't know what it is, but he won the priviledge of taking a nap this afternoon. :) So now I am sitting here watching my beautiful little girl eat a pumpkin cookie that we made this afternoon and drink a large cup of milk. She looks like someone put crumbs in a salt shaker and went crazy all over her body, face, hair, etc. But she's lovely.

There is something about all things Pumpkin that seems to make everything fantastic. Having a rough day? Make a pumpkin pie, Abra-Cadabra, magical day. (this only works in the fall and winter, mind you, spring and summer have different magical foods). Anyway, I love fall, and I mean LOVE fall. I feel like it's quickly slipping away from me, what with the frigid temperatures that are gracing the salt lake valley, but I will NOT let fall slip through my fingers too early. It is not yet winter, and until it is, I am going to enjoy every last minute of Fall.

Oh yes he did

More sweetness from my beautiful boy (who is turning back into my surfer boy of 2008 :))

Tonight before bed Jeremiah and I were watching a movie together, his idea (I know you're thinking "DUH!!", but he doesn't watch much anymore, and he came up and asked if we could all watch one together, me, leah, and himself. It was so cute. So, we picked the 15 minute Little People dvd, PERFECT)

I had put Leah in bed, but she was crying. I told Jeremiah "I'm going to go check on Leah."

He flung his arm across my chest to block my way and said "No! Don't go check on Weah, Weah is checking on herself."..... pure logic. can't argue with that right?


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Since potty training has begun we've run into a few minor drawbacks. 1st would have to be the need to drop everything when we're running errands or freeway driving, in order to find a bathroom. 2nd would have to be the fact that Jeremiah has learned how to play the potty card. I'll set the scene:

It's 8:30, Jeremiah is in bed, but not asleep yet. He's rolling around, playing with the blinds, building forts with his blankets, and listening to the sounds of his feet as they plumet to the bed from a vertical position (or against the wall, my personal favorite). Suddenly he realizes he could play the potty card!

"MOMMAY" (really, thats the way he pernounces it, it's like he's british).......... "MOMMAAAYY! I GOTTA GO POTTAAAYYYY!"

I drag myself out of bed (yes, I'm lame, and sometimes I'm in bed at 8:30). We walk in, with the lights still off, and go to the bathroom, yes, he pees. We walk back to his room, he runs and jumps back on his bed and I drag my feet back to mine.

3 minutes later.......

"MOMMAAAYY! I GOTTA GO POTTAAAYYYY!"

I drag myself out of bed again and explain to him that he already went potty and now it's time to sleep. At first he buys it and lays back down on his bed, then he pops his head up as he remembers..... there's a loop hole!!!

"POOP! I gotta poop!"

UGH!

So, we go poop, he's about 50/50 on substantiating his claim, if you know what I mean, then it's back to bed for a final time, when he can't think of any more cards to play.

You see, as a parent, you can't just say "hold it until the morning" when you're trying to encourage dry underwear, and going when you need to go. He's still obstinate enough that I can't just take off the knob locks from his bedroom door and just say "go by yourself if you need to go", because he'd just take that as a free invitation to roam free in the middle of the night..... grrr.... maybe another year.

Part of me thinks its hillarious.

A small part.

The Key to a Successful Marriage

Ok, so, it was my major, and in my four years of college I learned this: "communication and listening to your spouse is one of the key to a successful marriage." If you who know us well, I think you'd agree that we've mastered this one already. Case in point:

This evening as I was reading this blog (ahhh, sweet goodness), and Greg was trying to talk to me about himself (ahh, more sweet goodness). I was listening with my ears, but my eyes were otherwise entertained by the computer screen and all its beauty, so he accused me of not paying attention. He said "Don't I listen to you when you're talking about yourself?".... "no", I said. "Yes I do," he argued, "today you called me at work and said................ something something, something something something...."

Then we laughed for a few minutes solid as though he had just told the most hillarious inside joke... which of course he had.

I love this man.

Sunday Morning Checkers Match

There is rarely anything in life sweeter than a father who loves his children.

Celebrating the year

I believe God gives us events and holidays so that we can celebrate together with the people we love. I haven't been very good and birthday parties so far (I'm improving, but it's been a while since I had a "kid" birthday party), Nevertheless I think it's a great excuse to have a party with all the people you love. So, Here's ours! Janae and Leah share a birthday (we told Janae that a niece was her birthday present last year when we called from the hospital). We had a joint birthday party for them and it was a BLAST. Of course, incorporating Janae's love of all things Disney, and our attempt at giving Leah a girly party (she gets enough cars, trains and transformers at home every day), we asked everyone to dress up as a character from a Disney Princess Movie. Leah was Cinderella (of course). Janae has a picture of Mulan around her neck, you can't see it very well, but it's there, and I thought that was cute.

Greg was Peter Pan (we decided Tiger Lily counted since she was a princess, and it was a Disney movie)

Angela was one of the fairies from Sleeping Beauty, Kristina.. well, she borrowed one of the pirate accessories that Jeremiah shared with Braden.

We could always count on Hannah and Julia to represent. Janette said they were obsessing all day about which princess they were going to go as. So Cute. There's a picture of Hannah a little further down, I think.

Oh right, like here. I'm pretty sure she was cinderella, but I can't be sure. Hailey was jasmin, although it's hard to see in this picture, and Allison was the witch, I think from Sleeping beauty (way to represent my favorite color, BLACK). And Jeremiah got his pirate hat out of our costume box.

Grandma was Rapunzel... not a disney princess yet, but you know it's going to happen. I'm not sure where the funky glasses come in, but it was funny. Dad Hirschi was the magic carpet, he wore his mexican pancho. (very creative, sorry, I don't think we got a picture of it), and Bryan was Gus Gus, the mouse, with a grey hoodie with cardboard mouse ears, and a shirt a few sizes too small on top. HILLARIOUS!

And Karen and Jeffrey... well, mostly Jeffrey. Can you believe what Karen created out of a set of church clothes, a red gift ribbon and a white pillow case??? She's genious.

You can't really tell, but I was the fairy godmother, I had a cape, but took it off. And yes, Leah and I match, but what are you gonna do? I had leftover fabric, and I was cheap!

And of course, the crash that followed the sugar rush. Conked out in Grandma's arms after the party.

It was all so much fun, thanks to everyone who participated, and especially those who dressed up. It made it so much fun! Happy Birthday Beautiful Girl(s). We love you.

The obligatory post

Of course, the first day of school post. You can skip this one, if you're sick of reading about weepy moms dropping their babies off at school for the first time. However, I was not, nor am I now weepy about it, though a little lost for two hours without him.

Jeremiah began preschool this year. He's so darn cute, I must say. ANYWAY. The night before school we followed suit with Nie and had a back to school celebration, with cake and everything! Homemade cheeseburgers, spinach salad, fruit smoothies and carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Jeremiah loved it. I made a crown for him with his initial on it, and he thought it was cool, although I'm not sure we'll continue the tradition of the crown. But he was the guest of honor, and it was a special day. And the first day of school picture.

I've become one of those bloggers

I don't know what happened. One day it was all I could do not to think about something new to blog about, uploading pictures to post, etc. And then, all of a sudden, with my new determination to get off the computer and start living my life, somehow blogging doesn't seem like much of a priority. I've become a blogger who has a blog, but doesn't post to it.

I wish I could have a personal assistant to blog about my life for me, or download my thoughts and pictures strait from my mind (particularly when I forget the camera and only have my memories of what i saw). So, I am hereby recommitting myself to journal about my life and the lives of my children and my husband as we explore this big big world together. More to follow.