Things Are Changin' Round Here

November 13th was a big day at our house. A long, long, long awaited day. For two weeks I had been checking the mail consistently, sometimes even 2 to 3 times a day in hopes to find a very important letter stating whether or not I had gotten into nursing school at Boise State. A year ago we had discussed the possibility of me going to school there to become an RN. It is a BSN program instead of ASN which was what I had been applying for originally in California. Basically that meant I would have quite a few more pre-reqs to finish before I could apply such as Chem 102, College Algebra, English 102 amongst a host of health classes. After already going back to school since 2008, we figured hey what's a few more classes and another year? We moved to Idaho after Christmas last December and I started courses that January, through the summer, and until now. Chem 102 was by far my hardest, but also my most rewarding class and still one of my favorites, who knew?! I was working my tail off because I knew that BSU based entrance into their program on GPA. 

Finally having met my pre-reqs and being enrolled in a few co-reqs I could finally apply this last September. Packets could be turned in September 1st and you better believe I was there that day handing mine in! It had been ready and waiting in anticipation on my desk for a few weeks prior. Letters of acceptance wouldn't be sent out until mid to late November. That was going to be an excruciatingly long wait! I called the nursing advisor sometime in October and she informed me that they had DOUBLE the amount of applicants they normally have. There are only 70 slots and they normally get twice that many applicants, so for that to have doubled made me a leeeeetle bit worrisome. Okay, a lot worrisome. I had a 3.8  so it all depended on how many 4.0 students applied. I was hoping very few. 

I played devil's advocate in my mind a lot while waiting. Well if I don't get, and let's just say I didn't, then what's plan B? Then there was just a lot and I mean a lot of praying going on around here. Mostly that I got in, but if in the end I didn't I was praying that at least I would be okay with that. 

FINALLY....

On November 13th I checked the mail for the billionth time and saw a manilla envelope nestled in between a few ads and bills. I brought it inside and Matt came downstairs to see what had come in the mail. Immediately he said a manilla envelope was a good sign. (Later he said that if it the letter had come in a small white envelope he would have said to me, "why don't you let ME open that up") 

I carefully opened it up and pulled out this beauty of a letter below. As soon as I saw the "Congratulations" I was giddy!

That day was an AWESOME day. 

Since then I have gotten all my health requirements done like my physical and immunizations. I actually called the doctor's office that same day and was able to get in that afternoon. The most exciting preparation part was getting my official scrubs embroidered with the BSU logo! I just enrolled in my spring classes (all 17 credits of them) and I start Jan 17th.

Still in disbelief and awe that I got in. 

Yes, I did work really hard to get here as someone pointed out, but I fully believe this was God's doing. I put on Facebook that day that I had gotten my letter of acceptance and was overwhelmed from the response of sooooo many people who support me. The exact post I wrote that day was this... 

"After 4 years of going back to college part-time, lots of tears, lots of prayers and lots of support from family it all paid off as I opened a letter from BSU today saying I got into their nursing program!!!! Now let the real hard work begin!" 

One very, very important person I should have specified was my husband! I couldn't have been able to go back to school without Matt's constant support and of course all his math help in the beginning when I was absolutely terrified of having to take a math class! Ever since Sawyer was born Matt has willingly watched him in the evening after a full day of work so that I could head off to night school. Hands downs, he gets best husband of the year(s) award. 

After talking to a few people I know in nursing school and hearing about how crazy stressful it is I've decided to simply my life in as many ways as possible before I start. I've been preparing a whole lot of freezer meals so that dinner will be easy peasy when I get home from school. I also asked for a crockpot for Christmas for that very reason. But the main reason I am writing this very long and wordy post however, is that it will most likely be my last. This last semester of going to school full time has drastically halted the amount of posts I normally do and that was only taking 12 credits, let alone the 17 I'll have this coming semester. I already stress as it is that I don't have time to update the blog, so Matt and I both agreed it was best to just curtail it until I graduate.  The good news I've been convinced by many to still keep Facebook (yes, I was going to quit everything in order to concentrate solely on school) so there's always that and photos will continue to be posted there. 

Thank you for everyone who has followed our blog that past few years! I plan on this only be a two year hiatus from the blogging world, but who knows, I may come back and blogging will be a thing of the past and something bigger and better will have taken it's place (like mind reading)! 

Hey, you never know ;)

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year! We are looking forward to 2012 and are super thankful for all the exciting changes in our future!!

Laundry Day

This is how we do laundry day at our house: wash and dry all loads, take down to the couch, dump in a big pile to fold while watching television. Basically, folding is saved to the very end as a relaxing activity to do in the evening hours when Soyboy is asleep and I can indulge in some rare television time. Only on this particular night, a little boy who wasn't in bed yet decided to have some fun first with all the clothes. Can you tell what he is doing?

How about now? 

He's piling everything on to our poor dog Moxie. A reverse dog-pile, if you will. 

She wasn't terribly amused, but put up with it nonetheless for Sawyer's enjoyment and laughter. 

 Since I had the camera out I set the timer to capture a photo of me with my two babies, the pajama clad one and the one with the fur. 

1st attempt: Belly baring shot and no smile. Let's try that again.....

Take two: Someone (not myself or Moxie) didn't get the memo in time. 

Take three: Mommy smiling, Sawyer beaming! Only to be ruined by Moxie trying to sneak a kiss in. 

I give up. 

:)

More Choklet Plzz

On actual Halloween night we were planning on taking Sawyer trick-or-treating around the block, but weren't quite sure how the whole thing was going to work. We wanted to both take him, but then did we leave our light off at home and look like bahumbugs who didn't want to hand out candy? Or did we leave a bowl of candy on our doorstep and hope the first kid that came along didn't dump the whole thing into his bag and call it a night? And then when we did get home and actually handed out candy, how much do you hand out? One piece? Two? A handful? Ahhh! Obviously we were newbies at both taking a child trick-or-treating as well as having a place where trick-or-treaters actually came to your door. Well, in the end our dilemma was solved when we were invited to go over to a friends house from church. 

*Sigh of relief*

It was us, the couple whose house it was and two other couples with six kids between us and ALL of them boys! We ate chili and cornbread and visited before deciding it was finally time for the kids to don their costumes and head out before it go too dark. Sawyer wasn't too interested in wearing his costume when he had got it for him earlier in the month, but he wore it just fine that night, hood on and all. I'm thinking that seeing all the other kids dressing up in costume made it okay in his mind. He carried his pumpkin bucket and tried to grasp the concept that he was supposed to walk up to the doors of houses where strangers live, say his plzz (a.k.a please) and they would put candy into his bucket. Finally around the fourth house he had it down. 

Below is his dino costume in all it's glory, tail and all. 

At one of the houses in the neighborhood as soon as the door opened Sawyer darted inside! He was long gone before I could even grab onto his dino tail and keep him from entering. Luckily, the house turned out to be someone I knew. Brittany Lewis, who I went to high school with, had answered the door. Finally after retrieving both Sawyer and his candy bucket we were back on our way again and with a full size Snickers bar that Brittany had given him. I don't know if it was the size of the candy or what, but at the dismay of Matt (who really wanted to eat it) Sawyer refused to let that thing out of his little dino hands. He would not put it in his bucket so instead of letting it melt in his hand, I finally gave him a few bites of his favorite thing ever a.k.a. "choklet" as we went to a few more houses. 

Here's a photo of all the boys before we headed out. So cute!! At the top left there is Braden who is dressed as a goat (yes, a goat. I like that kid already!), next to him is Micah the Tiger, then Jesse the Pirate, next row down there's Sawyer the dino, Ben the firefighter and Cody the frog. 

Waiting patiently for the first candy of the night! 

It was a really fun Halloween night and much more fun spending it with new friends, friends for both for Matt and I and LOTS of little friends for Sawyer. 

Halloween Eve

The day before Halloween we decided to finally carve the pumpkins that we had gotten from Sawyer's birthday train ride. Earlier we'd bought a carving kit that came with little plastic carving tools and stencils. Matt started cutting into his pumpkin first and the itsy bitsy teeny weeny carving knife that came in the kit was bent in a matter of seconds and no wonder, his pumpkin was close to 4 inches thick! We broke out the big knives and really got to work. 

Sawyer did his part in scooping out some of the slimy insides. 

And Moxie helped too. 

Nothing captions the photo below better than what my Grandpa Hansen wrote after seeing it on Facebook, "Hey you guys threw away my punkin guts!" 

Both of our pumpkins had guts galore! We probably could have made a few batches of roasted pumpkin seeds with it, but neither one of us wanted to pick the seeds out one by one from the goopy mess (as you can see below). 

The second thing we discovered after taking all the goop out, was that WE WERE NOT CUT OUT to cut out complicated shapes into our pumpkins even if we had a stencil. I'd seen the amazing carved pumpkins many of our family and friends had done so we thought it was going to be easy. WRONG! It takes a lot of patience and skill so we both opted for much, much simpler carvings, as in two eyes and a mouth or in Matt's case, his pumpkin got only one eye and a mouth. 

After the lighting ceremony we took a photo of our nose-less masterpieces.

Then we set up the camera to get all of us and the pumpkins in a photo together. 

First try...
Nope missed the pumpkins entirely. 

Second Try....

Yea that didn't work either. 

Third Try....
 Okay, that'll do. 

Birds Need Baths Too

I've been trying to put together a bin of activities for Sawyer. Coloring books, crayons, finger paints, etc. Most of the stuff I found at the dollar store off of Eagle and Fairview in Meridian which puts our dollar store in Kuna to shame (the things at that one are actually MORE than a dollar. How does that work??)

A lot of the ideas I got off of blogs like Counting Coconuts and Chasing Cheerios.  

Below is the sensory tub I made from rocks, rice, little plastic dinosaurs and a few other odds and ends like a thimble, a small truck, etc. I also added the black dish (which is actually the drip catcher from our pancake grill ;) and he liked to put the rocks one by one into the dish and then take them back out again.

Here's a closer look below at what was in it. The mom on Counting Coconuts uses the same tub and changes it's contents out each month to keep it interesting for her son. She always has way cute themes for them too like seasons, holidays, the ocean, bugs.... The idea is to put in a lot of things with different textures for them to sift through and play with. Then depending on the theme you do you can use the tub to teach them different subjects. If you are interested in making one go to the Counting Coconuts blog, she does a way better job at explaining it than me! All I know is that every time I've brought it out it's kept him occupied for quite a while! 

This was another thing that was super easy to make and he loves playing with. It's just one of our glass food containers and I poured some sand and shells in it. He used the measuring spoon to scoop up the sand and pour it into the small red container. 

I just watch him as he scoops and pours, scoops and pours, scoops and pours, and the only time I have to intervene is when I see the scooping going outside the perimeter of the glass container and ready to be poured onto his little table. No, no, no, that's not going to happen. He knows now that any time he plays with the 'sandbox' or the sensory tub that all the contents have to stay IN their container. 

And lastly, I saw this idea on Chasing Cheerios and was looking around our house to see what I could use when I spotted the little bird decorations we have sitting on our mantle. I took one down and told Sawyer it needed a bath. I gave him a bowl with a little bit of water in it and a small paintbrush and Q-tip. He used both and would dip them one at a time in the water and then 'clean' the bird by wiping them on it's little face and body. Lately he's been obsessed with 'poo-poo' and points to the bottom of every stuffed animal he has insisting that the little cloth tag on it's bum (that says where it was manufactured) is actually poo-poo and needs to be cut off. So now all his animals are tag less. Or clean as he would say. Anyway, he spent a significant amount of time brushing water onto the birds tail feather region for that particular reason. Then when he was done I gave him a paper towel, he dried the bird off and we placed him back on the mantle all sparkly and clean. 

Boo Boo Bear's Boo Boo

Two weeks ago Sawyer had his first visit to the doctor for getting hurt instead of for a well baby check. It all started in our closet where he was playing in a cardboard box when the box tipped over and he fell backwards smacking his head on the floor. He came out of the closet crying and walking tipsy which made him them trip and tumble headfirst right into the bottom rail of our bed, and I mean HARD. He usually has excellent balance and rarely falls so it was weird that he would be that off balance to trip. At that point his previous crying turned into screaming. Immediately a huge bump rose up on the side of his eye which looked pretty gnarly so I called the nurse's triage at our Pediatrician's office. Since Sawyer doesn't have the vocabulary yet to tell me how bad his head hurt, the nurse thought it would be a good idea to bring him to get checked out.  

Once at the doctor's office though he was all smiles and was playing with the kids in the waiting room like nothing ever happened so I started to feel like maybe I was being an overly paranoid parent. By that time too the swelling had gone down (really Doctor, I'm telling you it was swollen up like a golf ball, I swear!) Although the swelling was nonexistent, the side of his eye was starting to turn a nice shade of blue. After examining him the pediatrician said he most likely got a concussion from falling out of the box, which made him lose his balance and fall into the bed. Either way, with all that head sloshing she said it was smart to bring him in. So for anyone else wondering what validates bringing your kid into the doc after they've hit their head pretty hard this is what she told me:

*Any time they throw up afterwards

*If they are under age 2 

*If they slur their speech or start acting goofier than normal

*If a bump rises up that is 2 inches or more

or

*in our case if it looks bad and they can't tell you with words just how bad it hurts

The photos were taken a few days later and don't do the initial injury justice, but this is what he looked like for about a week. You can imagine all the comments we got about it when we went out, "What happened to his eye?!" asked the cashier, the stranger at the store, random kids playing at the park, etc.  It's probably because I've been researching child abuse lately for school, but I felt like when we explained that he tripped and fell into our bed rail that it sounded a lot like excuse a child abuser would give! "Oh yea, he just fell. Clumsy kid."

Needless to say, I'm glad it's looking a lot better and he has no permanent marks from it!

Other than documenting his first injury I wanted to update a few of his other milestones lately so I don't forget later on down the road:

*He is still in love with tractors and trains.

*Is in the 50th percentile for weight like before, but now in the 80th percentile for height. 

*He loves jumping on trampolines and being bounced.

*Has been nipped by Moxie a few times now and has learned that's what happens when he pulls her tail or body slams her.

*Loves to help me cook by measuring ingredients out and dumping them in the bowl.

*Is starting to sing in the car, usually it's a melodious tune of "oh no, oh oh no, oooooooh noooooo, oh no no."

*Has not wanted to go to the nursery at church for a few weeks in a row now, which is very unfortunate for Matt and I as we then have to take turns corralling him in the overflow room. 

*Likes to go for walks around the block sans the stroller.  

*Is still doing really well sleeping in his big boy bed and has a set his own very specific bed time ritual that goes exactly like this:

We change him into pajamas, brush his teeth, and then he picks out one of his "Llama Llama" books for us to read, climbs into bed (sometimes that part takes longer than others), wants the bedsheet and comforter pulled up to his chin and his favorite blue blanky in his little hand. After the story we say prayers in which he folds his hands and mumbles while either Matt or I pray, then he insists on having some tooth medicine on his upper teeth (we usually pretend to put some on unless he really truly is teething), lights are turned out and then last but not least he points to his little iPod to be turned on which then plays the same classical music we've had playing in his room since he was a little baby, then his little mini fan needs to be turned on and running, and finally when he bids us adieu by waving goodbye we close the door and the bedtime ritual is complete. Ahhhh, relax time. Well for one of us, the other one then hits the computer and finishes up homework.

I like to think my relax time is done during the middle of the day when I take a much needed nap with Soyboy on our bed. Once I'm in a nursing program those lovely naps will be a luxury of the past so I'm enjoying them now while I can. 

Soyboy keeps us busy, but I think it's safe to say our lives would be pretty boring without him! 

We love him oodles. 

730 days old!

It's obviously  been a while since I've blogged because Sawyer's birthday was the first of the month.  I was talking to some of the women last night at our new bible study lamenting about the fact I've been so bad at blogging, but when I said it had been three weeks since I'd last written anything they all laughed! They said it had been months or even years since they had updated their blog! So on that note,  I guess I'm not as far behind as I could be. 

To recap....Soyboy's actual birthday landed on a Saturday which ended up being perfect. We bought tickets to ride the Pumpkin Liner in Horseshoe Bend and all the way there kept telling Sawyer he was going to ride on a REAL train. 

We got on board and sat down in the open air car. He was pretty excited to be sitting on a train, and got super excited when he heard the whistle blow right before leaving the station. 

That look of excitement soon turned to this worried expression below when the train started to move! 

He eventually relaxed and started to enjoy himself. Then he decided that standing would be a lot more fun than sitting so he went and stood in the aisle. Just stood there. Didn't move, didn't crack a smile, didn't hold on to anything, just stood as still as possible while trying to keep his balance as the train bounced along the tracks. I guess he was just taking it all in! It was pretty funny. 

After about half an hour the train stopped at a clearing where a bunch of pumpkins had been brought in. We all were able to pick out one to take home and Sawyer took the choosing of his birthday pumpkin very seriously.

This one's too heavy.  

This one's too bumpy.

Yep, this one is just right. 

On the way home he just sat on my lap and cuddled-something I really enjoyed since his busy two year old body doesn't normally like to chillax on mom's lap like he used to. 

Earlier in the week when Ben and Chantal were in town, Jett and Sawyer had a birthday party together celebrating the big #2! They both enjoyed their chocolate cake immensely and actually ate it with forks, a drastic difference from the way cake was eaten at their first birthdays!

  Since he had already had a party, we spent his actual birthday evening at home after the train ride. We started a tradition last year of making him a HUGE cupcake for his birthday and plan to continue doing that each and every so this year was no exception.  The only problem was, it didn't exactly turn out the way it did the year before, meaning it pretty much completely fell apart.

   

But hey, doesn't matter what it looks like as long as it tastes good, right?! And that it did. Sawyer definitely approved. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Soybean!!

Yesterday

After my 9-12 study sesh yesterday morning, I spent the greater part of the afternoon trying to get Sawyer to take a nap. He had been refusing to sleep in his crib all week and had been climbing onto our bed when it was nap time or bed time so I laid down with him on our bed.  I had too much to do so a nap for me was out of the question, but I closed my eyes so he would think I was sleeping and do the same. Let me just say, it is extremely difficult to fake like you're sleeping and not crack a smile when you  suddenly feel slobbery little lips plant a kiss on your own lips, little fingers poking your closed eyelids, and then a nose pressed up against yours and when you sneakily take a peek you see two big blue eyes staring back at you and a goofy, smiling face a few centimeters from your own. This went on from 12:30 until 3 pm! He would NOT sleep. I left him a few times and while I will give him the credit that he did not ever try to get out of our bed, he just did everything else he could think while on it. He stood up to look out the window, laid down and hung his head off the side of the bed, switched and hung his legs of the side and swung them, made a cave out of our blankets and hid inside it. Finally at 3 I gave up and we watched Toy Story downstairs until Matt got off of work. 

Afterwards we went and ran some errand and sure enough Soyboy decided that then at 5 o'clock it was a nice time for a nap.

 What a stinkbug.

 Matt stayed in the car with him while I ran into a few different stores looking for toddler bedding. We decided with his refusal to sleep in his crib all week that it was a good time to make the switch and convert it to a toddler bed. I had no idea though how hard it was going to be to find toddler bedding, but maybe my requirement were too high. I wanted something cute with tractors or trucks and that was less then $40. That combined with how hard toddler size bedding is to find in the first place made it pretty impossible. Finally I settled for a Cars themed bed set at Walmart. I also got some tractor wrapping paper  and other birthday essentials like a #2 birthday candle. 

 Who needs presents when he can make a toy of a tube of wrapping paper? While Matt worked on turning Sawyer's crib into a toddler bed, I put Sawyer outside on his picnic bench and cut his hair. It was getting way too long and he was getting rats nests in it when he'd wake up in the morning. He doesn't like me combing his hair anyway so he was due for a short cut! He actually held still this time and I was able to cut it with my scissors instead of having to use the clippers. 

Upstairs he got to see his big boy bed for the first time complete with his new bedspread and very own pillow! He is pretty good at masking his excitement about things (as if he's telling himself to hold his smile in at all costs) but we could tell he was happy about having his very own bed. 

After a bath he went to bed at about 8:30 and climbed right in.  Below he is waving goodbye to Matt and I. That was our cue to leave and turn out the lights.

We had set up the baby monitor again just to make sure he stayed in the bed and didn't wander around his room, but he didn't even try to get out at all. He tossed and turned for a while and ended up going to sleep with his head at the other end of the bed, but all in all the big boy bed was a success! He even slept in all the way until eight this morning. Bonus! 

Tomorrow he will turn 2 years old. I feel like the only other milestone we have is potty training and then all that is baby about our boy will be gone and he will have turned into a KID.  

Gulp.