Learn and Play: Wheeler Farm

Once a week, Parker joins a group of friends to learn something new. It is a "joy school" like group that me and the other moms put together. We rotate weeks to teach the alphabet and go on a field trip once a month. Parker looks forward to it every week...and so do I.

On May 5th, we went on a field trip to Wheeler farm. Parker is so enthusiastic about everything and ran from one animal to the next laughing.

My Beautiful Baby Boy

1 day old

3 days old

1 month old

2 months old

3 months old

Tommy is now 3 1/2 months. He is growing so fast. He now loves to make all sorts of happy noises, especially if I smile at him. He just started laughing this month. Baby laughter is the most beautiful sound. He has also discovered his hands and how to put them in his mouth. He loves to suck on two fingers at the same time, his index and middle finger. Hasn't figured out the thumb thing yet. He is sleeping through the night most of the time. Sometimes he will sleep around 9 hours at a time. He is so easy going and pleasant and now loves to smile at his Mama. He also thinks his big brother is pretty funny. He has adorable little dimples in his cheeks when he smiles. I've got to get pictures of them. His eyes are changing color. They are turning green with some brown specks. I'm sure he will have hazel eyes like mine. He also has a flat spot on the left side of his head. It was very pronounced last month, but it is rounding out. That is the side he loves to sleep on. All I have to do is rub in between his eyes and down his little nose to put the kid to sleep when it is his nap time. What a great little boy! I love love love my beautiful little Tommy.

Happy Memorial Day & quick update

A picture I took a few years back at Arlington Cemetery.

Thank you to the military men and women who give of themselves to serve our country.

Hello everyone! I know I've been quite absent from the blogging world. Sometimes it is nice to have a big long break. Especially if that break comes right after having a baby. So here are some things that have been happening in our lives:

• I had a baby and he is beautiful and I love him. My boys make me so happy!
• Matt and I had birthdays. We are now in our "late twenties." It kinda freaks me out. I have been feeling so old lately.
• My sister-in-law, Sarah, had a baby too! Finally, someone in my family who can relate to my stage in life. Little James is perfect and I know him and Tommy will be best friends.
• Matt blessed Tommy at church in May. It was nice to have all the family over to celebrate him.
• I went back to work to finish the school year. My students did so well at the regional science fair and have flown all over the country to compete in several national and international science fairs.
• I quit my job....and then I changed my mind. If that sounds familiar, it is. I did the same thing last year. I just love what I do and I am lucky enough that I work at a school that is so flexible and understanding. I don't think it is possible to find a job that I only have to go into work 6 times a month for only 2 hours each time and do the rest at home through email. It is so rewarding to help mentor my students with their projects.
• I watched the biggest loser finale. A-maz-ing!
• Matt has been working on the basement like a madman! It should be finished next week!

I have a plethora of pictures to post of all the fun things going on these last couple of months, so keep your eyes open.

Baby Shower

Last weekend I threw a baby shower for my sisters-in-law Rachel and Sarah. I am so excited for them. They are both expecting their first child this year. Finally Parker will have some cousins and they will be around the same age as Tommy. Around 80 people came, which means I had crazy amounts of food to prepare. I thought it was fun and hope Rachel and Sarah had fun too!

So at first, I got all ambitious and wanted to throw the most beautiful magnificent party ever...and then I came back to reality. I remembered that I have a newborn baby and a small budget. But let me tell ya, if I had never had to sleep and had unlimited amounts of money, it would have been the most marvelous baby shower ever seen by man (and woman). So I cut out the fresh flowers and cute party favors and this is what I ended up with:

The guests of honor, Sarah & Rachel

Food, glorious food

Of course, I had to dedicate an entire table to dessert.

Brownies, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, and cheesecake!

It takes a long time to bake hundreds of treats!

Guess the baby game.

Can you guess who A is (the first on the bottom row)?

If you said Katie Holmes, you were right!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Budd with Tommy

Thanks to the guests for all the wonderful gifts!

And another picture of Tommy 'cause he's so darn cute!

New arrival!!

Thomas Alexander was born on February 24th at 2:49 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and was 20 inches long. He is perfectly healthy and so am I. It is true what they say. Giving birth the second time around is much easier.

Everything goes faster the second time around. Like twice as fast. At my 36 week appointment, I was already 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced and I progressed every week. Since Parker was pretty big, late, and painful to get out, I decided to set a date to be induced 2 days before my due date which, ironically, was the same day as the science fair which I've been working on all school year.

I never went into labor like everyone predicted I would. I think my body just gets ready soon and does nothing about it until late. February 24th came and I was waiting for a phone call to tell me to come to the hospital. I was 6th on the list and the nurse said it would be around 10:00. I slept in to about 7:30 or 8:00, but couldn't sleep any longer, so I got ready. I couldn't handle just sitting around the house, so I decided to visit the school to see how the set up was going and to get a look at my students' final displays. Everyone at work thought I was crazy for coming in, but I was glad to help out a little right before I was going to abandon them for several weeks. I finally got the phone call and went to the hospital at 10:45. After I checked in, the nurse gave me pitocin (to strengthen the contractions) at 11:30. My doctor was going to break my water, but I decided I wanted the epidural before the contractions started hurting. Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist was busy, so I had to wait to 1:00 to get the epidural and the doctor broke my water around 1:30. That really got the contractions going and I quickly progressed to a 10 by 2:30ish and started pushing. I only had to push through 3 contractions and then another extra push to get him out. The pushed lasted around 15 minutes I would say (I had to push for over 3 hours to have Parker).

Everyone was surprised at how big he was. He was 3 oz heavier than Parker and a .5 in shorter. This surprised me because he was a week earlier. My doctor says I'm just programmed to have big babies. My mom had big babies too. In fact, I (the first) was 2 weeks late and weight 9 lbs. 6 oz. and was born through C section. The rest were all induced and I think that is what I'm going to be doing.

Little Tommy is so sweet. He doesn't cry much and he sleeps pretty well for only being a week old. He has huge feet and some dark hair, but not nearly as much hair as Parker. It will be interesting to see what color his hair will be in the end since Parker's hair color has changed so much.

Parker loves Tommy. He is always giving him kisses and trying to share toys. He calls him Thomas. I think he thinks he was named after Thomas the train. It has been hard for him to adjust to sharing his mommy. He now carries a blanket around and wants me to hold him while he is wrapped in it. He also wants to wear disposable diapers (I'm not using cloth on Tommy yet since he is so small and needs to be changed over 10 times a day) and Parker also doesn't want to wear pants, I guess because Tommy doesn't have pants on a lot. I think he is adjusting and that I am adjusting because at first Parker would cry if he wanted my attention, and say mama, and try to climb on top of me when I was feeding Tommy. Now Parker knows to wait until I'm done and I will give him my full attention. It has been more difficult than I thought it would be for Parker.

I feel so blessed to have these two precious boys. I love being a mom!

Best. Christmas. Ever.

Wow. Christmas is so much more fun with children. This was the first year Parker understood what was going on and it brought me back to my childhood a little. In fact, I was so excited for Christmas this year that I could sleep Christmas eve. I woke up around 1 am and didn't get back to sleep until around 4. Well, part of that was excitement, the other part was anxiety. I woke up having braxton-hicks contractions every 5 minutes. How terrible would it be to go to the hospital on Christmas eve? It would ruin Christmas. I ate a little something and took a nice warm bath and finally they slowed down after about an hour.

I was a little stressed because my family was all coming over for a big Christmas Breakfast, then we were meeting up with Matt's family to go sledding, and then a big Christmas dinner party that evening with them at my house (not to mention I hosted another Christmas dinner at my house just days earlier). It was a big, busy and wonderful day.

Parker loved all his presents. He is such a spoiled boy, being the only grandchild on both sides of the family.

The breakfast was delicious. I made this french toast, but added homemade orange syrup (recipe from Amanda). There were no leftovers.

Then we took Parker sledding for the first time up Big Cottonwood Canyon. He LOVED it. He also discovered the joy of snowballs. He would pick up a handfull of snow and yell "SNOWBALL!" as he threw the chunk at us. Then Matt decided to go down a bigger hill and snow flew all over poor Parker's little face. Matt tried to take him down that hill again, and Parker just looked back at me with his arm extended and said "mama" as if asking me to save his life. Poor kid is always tortured by his daddy.

Here are some fun Christmassy things we did this year:

• Made an advent calendar and counted down 'till Christmas
• Went to a live nativity with Grandparents
• Went to temple square
• Made an ornament to represent our year
• Did a service project for those less fortunate
• Had french toast for breakfast on Christmas morning
• Went sledding
• Sat in Santa's lap
• Made gingerbread houses
• Listened to lots of Christmas music and drank lots of hot cocoa

Top 50 moments of 2010

This year wasn't as "adventurous" as 2009, but there sure were a lot of changes and things to keep us busy.

1. Helping my students dominate the Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair
2. Fixing up our condo...just to sell it (Why did we wait so long to finish it?)
3. Selling our condo after living there for 3 years...a great 3 years!
4. Moving in with my parents for 3 months while our house was being built (Where, I might add, there was no room for us)
5. Feeling like my life is in chaos while we live at my parent's house (My clothes were in boxes the entire time)
6. Discovering Parker's talent for singing
7. Learning about the stress and fun involved in have a house built
8. Parker finally getting to go to nursery & LOVING it (& his parents loving it even more than he does)
9. Parker learning how to hit a baseball
10. My sister-in-law Rachel marrying Spencer
11. Going to Youth Conference with the Bluffdale 1st ward as "Goodly Parents"
12. Winning free Bosch kitchen appliances ($7000 value) from the Home Expo
13. Learning that "Sprinkler World" is completely incompetent in designing a sprinkler system AFTER we installed the whole system and then having to redesign it ourselves so it would work. I'm a little bitter.
14. Painting all the doors, trim, and accent wall in our new house
15. Matt graduating with a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Phoenix (and having the student loans to prove it)
16. Quitting my job
17. My brother Casey marrying Sheralee
18. Parker learning his ABCs
19. Finally moving into my brand new house
20. Matt and I running the Ragnar Relay
21. Hydroseeding our yard and watering it a bit too much. Who knew that grass could grow mold?
22. Expecting baby boy #2!!!
23. Unpacking all of our books and office furniture and finding out the next week that I was pregnant and needing to pack it all up again and move it to the basement and needing to move all the baby stuff upstairs into that same room
24. Decorating my new house - work in progress
25. Getting a fancy shmancy smart phone - at least fancy for me.
26. Taking a lot of naps - that first trimester is a killer
27. The principal convincing me to keep my job (under my conditions)
28. Starting to potty train Parker and then getting lazy about it
29. Experiencing the scariest thing in my life when Parker had a seizure
30. Riding in an ambulance for the first time ever
31. Paying a ridiculously large hospital bill for sitting in an emergency room for 20 minutes and a dose of Tylenol
32. Continuing our tradition of sharing a Cafe Rio Pork Salad
33. Taking a 4 day break from life to read the "Hunger Games" series
34. Participating in the first ever "Great Lakes Relay" from the Great Salt Lake to Utah Lake. Our team took 2nd place (out of two teams)!
35. Being called to the Young Women Presidency again
36. Fun vacation visiting Sarah & Eric in Cedar City to see their new house
37. Parker turning 2 and discovering that it isn't terrible at all
38. Matt attending Grad School for his MBA
39. Practicing making the best chocolate chips ever (and gaining a few pounds in the process)
40. Matt becoming superman and starting to finish the basement along with going to school and juggling a busy career (it should be done before the baby comes)
41. Parker discovering Buzz Lightyear
42. Watching "Arrested Development"
43. Taking Parker Trick or Treating for the first time
44. Learning how to make homemade rolls
45. Parker learning how to dunk a basketball
46. Hosting 2 Christmas parties at my house within 2 days of each other -- it almost put me into labor.
47. Matt winning the ugly sweater contest
48. Having Christmas in my new house and making new Christmas traditions
49. Going sledding on Christmas day. Parker LOVED it when snow wasn't flying in his face (thanks daddy)
50. Going home early and going to sleep well before midnight on New Years Eve. I'm getting old...or boring...or both.

Overall, this year was one of change and gratitude. Matt and I are both so grateful for everything we have been blessed with. Here are some things to look forward to in 2011:

Having a baby boy
The basement being finished
Reading more books
Completing P90X and being in the best shape of my life
Matt running a marathon
Getting my PR for a 5K
Lots and Lots of rock climbing
Finishing our yard
Vacationing with our families
Starting a garden
Parker learning how to read
Saving lots of money
Having tons and tons of fun!

Keeping the Romance Alive

I don't know about you, but sometimes (and by that I mean always) it is hard to think of things to do with Matt without spending a gazillion dollars. That's why I'm so excited that I discovered a new blog called "The Dating Divas." Seriously. They've given me tons of fun date ideas. I personally know two of the "divas" and they are awesome. Plus, this week they have a giveaway every single day. I would encourage you to check it out.