I'll go ahead and say I enjoy reading teenage fantasy books. This originally started about 5 years ago when Ben introduced me to Harry Potter. The second movie was about to come out, and he wanted to see it. I honestly thought Harry Potter was a kids movie, and that I wouldn't really enjoy it. Well, before we went to see The Chamber of Secrets, we rented The Sorcerer's Stone. My heart was changed! I loved being brought back into childhood. I loved how the movie made you believe you could light a fire with the flick of a wand, or food would just show up right in front of your face. The story line was good, and I instantly cared about Harry.

After the first two movies were released, I decided to go back and read the books. The fifth book was about to come out as I began that journey, and it was just as wonderful to read the books. I was the big fan then... I wanted to get there opening night for the movie, and wait in line for two hours, then see it again the next day... and buy the DVD when it came out, and watch all of them when I stayed home sick. Then, it was my turn to do some convincing. We had multiple friends that had never seen any of the HP movies... so I coordinated multiple HP marathons! I have to say, those friends did find themselves enjoying HP too. I was in line two hours early for The Half Blood Prince a few months ago, and I intend to do so for the remaining films.

The next series that I got into was The Twilight Saga. Now other than being total fantasies... these two series have nothing in common. Harry is about the constant battle of defeating You Know You, and Twilight is a love story. A very powerful love story! I'm finding it hard to be as crazy about Twilight as I was about HP... here's why.

After I read the series once, I read it again and again! Those books draw us (women particularly) in. A totally selfless, gorgeous man that would fight for you, and would die if you weren't with him...WOW! I fell into the mania, and I was in line for Twilight opening night! However, I was a tad disappointed when they portrayed perfect Edward as not being totally perfect like he should be. Overall, if you like the books, you are forced to enjoy the movie even if the acting was disappointing and it looked totally cheesy. That is why for New Moon the 12:00a.m. showings grossed $26 million in over 3500 sold out shows nation wide. If there are fans of Stephanie's amazingly desirable books... then those fans will support it no matter what!

I am really excited to see New Moon! But as the hype of it coming out has been crazy, I began thinking about a weird feeling of sadness that has overcome me about the series. To start... I am a little embarrassed that I like it. I mean come on, I am a married woman with children! So I didn't want to be with the "silly" girls waiting in line freaking out about how Taylor Lautner's and Robert Pattinson's bare chests are going to make them go crazy. I didn't want to be jam packed in the theater, listening to the giggles, and ooohs and ahhhs every time he did something romantic. I just didn't want to associate myself as one of the millions of girls who is crazy about these 'men'. That is honestly what it is about. Like I said earlier, it is a love story. That is why it is so desirable for women. I love romance movies! I know I will love New Moon even if the acting is sub par again, and if there are cheesy effects. I'm a romantic.

The worst part for me is the little girls that will get their hopes up that if maybe someday... they could just meet Robert or Taylor, they (the boys) will for sure fall in love with them! It brings back many memories of teenie bopper days when I swore that if I could only meet Justin Timberlake, he would marry me. I kid you not, I was 100% serious about marrying that guy! I entered sweepstakes, called radio ads, and did everything I possibly could (at 13) to meet him. Well, it never happened! I read an article about Robert, he was saying when he was signing autographs at the premiere, some girl begged him saying, "What do I have to do to get your attention?!" He said, (jokingly) "Take off your clothes." AND SHE DID IT! She got kicked out of the premiere, and I guarantee you it still didn't get his attention. He probably has no idea what she looks like. 13 year old girls screaming "Robert is my life!"

I know that if I had a 13 year old girl, I don't think I would let her read the books. The problem is, when you put something like that into a movie... all her hopes of Edward turned into Robert. And she will forever be disappointed when no man will ever meet that standard for her. She is too young to even fathom that her future won't/can't consist of Robert Pattinson. I know they are feeling it, because I started to question my husband. I began to set a standard that was ridiculous and I needed to take a giant step out of the fantasy and back into reality where my husband meets expectations for an amazing husband and then some. And it isn't just Robert or Taylor, but any movie that portrays a love story. This stuff is bad for women!

Like I said, now that I have gone through this craziness, I feel better about watching a romance movie, and knowing it is fake. I can separate myself from the fiction, and get back to reality. I hope the mania calms down, but there are still two movies to go, and I know it will be crazy. I just need to keep these thoughts in mind, and hope mom's tell their daughters it is fake, and for the mom's to remember it is too!

Sorry for the long post!

Yesterday started off just like every other day. We got up, ate breakfast, bathroom time for Noah, got dressed, and Noah and I got to go to church for my weekly bible study. As the day went on, everything changed!

We haven't had Noah in the church nursery for months because he would get sick almost every time we had him in there. Yesterday was his second week in there, and I was really worried he was going to react like he did the first week. (The first week, after only being in there a short time, he began to cry and cried on and off the entire time!) So I told his teacher that I would check in on him more often just in case he did it again. He was fine for the first hour, but when I peeked in at that point, he was crying. The teacher saw me at the window and told me not to worry about getting him, so I went to class. When I picked him up, he was playing just fine. She told me that right when I saw him was the only time he cried and it was for a short time. I was so thankful he adjusted that quickly to it again. He obviously needs more time away from mommy! :)

Noah and I enjoyed lunch at the church afterward, came home, and I put him down for a nap. I ran to the store and was back about an hour into his nap. He usually sleeps for 3 hours, so I was preparing it to be a while before he was up again.

All of a sudden, Ben heard him saying "Ouch, ouch!" He started coughing a couple days ago, so I thought his cough was bothering him. I went in with some medicine with antihistamine to hopefully help him sleep. He pointed to his back saying "Ouch mommy! Back hurts" He had a tight fitting shirt on, so I thought maybe that was hurting him when it twisted as he slept. So I took the shirt off and told him to lay down. About 15 minutes after that, he started crying which turned into wailing.

I went to check on him, and he was still pointing to his back and complaining that it hurt. He was pointing right to his kidney area, so it really worried me. I stood him up and he was toppling over because of pain. He began touching his stomach, and just couldn't get in a comfortable position. Noah has never had stomach or gas problems, so to see him in that amount of pain was so difficult for me to even think of diagnosing. I called the doctor and since we couldn't get him comfortable and he was sore on his back, she told me to bring him in right away.

On the way to the doctor, Noah seemed to calm down in the car. I thought maybe it was just a stomach ache, but once we got to the doctor, he showed signs of sensitivity still. By the time the doctor came in, he was feeling fine. She checked his urine anyway, to make sure nothing serious was wrong. (Everything came back negative thankfully!) She did say that Strep symptoms are usually cough, sore throat, and stomach pains. So even though she didn't test him for it, she saw a pustule on the back of his throat, and thought this was the issue.

It's so frustrating that he ended up sick right after we introduced him to the nursery again, but I am prepared to deal with it because I am really excited about being apart of the bible study, and I know it is really important for Noah to interact with other kids.

After two hours at the doctor, Walgreens had an hour and a half wait time for prescriptions... so after that huge wait, we get home for dinner at about 7. We get Noah fed, and into the tub because he was playing with dirty toys at the doctor, and I also thought it might make him feel better. Well, I had a lot to do, so while he was in the tub, I was taking care of things here and there. Backing up a tad, before I put him in the tub, I told him to go poopie on the toilet because he hadn't gone yet that afternoon. He said he didn't need to go, so I put him in the bath, only to hear him say "Mommy, I poopied!" Sure enough, we had some floaters in the bath. That was a first!

Is it crazy that I made it two and a half years before any crazy situations happened to me? Is it normal to dump on you all in one day? Aww, the beauty of children. So precious and so challenging at the same time.

We just got back from a wonderful trip to Oregon. I updated our Flickr page with some photos.

It was full of family time which was the point of the trip, so it was perfect! Noah enjoyed seeing everyone, and it is exciting to see that he is old enough now to remember his family out in Oregon.

Now that we're back though, I have loads of laundry, grocery shopping to do, and house cleaning... I guess we're back to the real world. Always kind of sad.

Here is an adorable video of Noah playing with Grandma's train.

I was giving Noah "room time" the other day, and what I found afterward was a mess!

We try to do room time every day, and he usually does really well. Sometimes toys just don't cut it though, so he will find other things to get into.

I was checking my email, when I noticed I hadn't heard a peep from Noah for at least 15 minutes. Finally, a few minutes later I hear Noah say something. I called up to him, "Noah, what did you say?" He responded, "Lotion." I was up the stairs in a second, but of course, I was too late... he had it everywhere. I think he thought it was similar to his shampoo/body soap, because his main target was his hair. Clumps and clumps of lotion all over his hair, face, legs, and arms.

I didn't know where to begin! First I called Ben out to just sit and stare with me. I tried to rub the excess into his arms, legs and face... but what to do with the crazy hair. I tried to use wipes, but it was too thick with lotion. He ended up in the tub, and after 3 washes of his hair, it was still greasy.

Lesson learned! Make sure to check the diaper bag after a night over at grandma's. Put the soap, lotion and toothpaste away before leaving him alone!

Ben and I are expecting our second child!

As most of you know, we had a miscarriage about 6 months ago. This time around has brought feelings of anxiety and fear. We met with our OB at around 6 weeks. She did an ultrasound, and there was nothing yet... I was still just too early along. She said that everything looked good though. We had to wait three weeks for our next ultrasound, which we had this past Monday.

She immediately found a heartbeat!



I have been sick the last three weeks, so I had a very strong feeling that everything was just fine. Seeing the heartbeat and our little baby blob there was so reassuring though, and I feel so much better now!

The heart rate was 162. They measured me at 8 weeks 4 days. My due date is April 24. The sickness is getting a bit better because I know what and how often I need to eat to minimize that.

Other than that, we start our pregnancy journey again. Next doctor visit is 4 weeks!

Thinking of things to write has become more of a challenge over the last 6 months. We have been up to things... but I just don't take the time to write it down. Well, I will write another 'update' post, and then I will work on posting things as they happen next time.

Hmm... how far back to go?

I'll start with moving into a place of our own. As you know, Ben got a full time job that provides a steady income and health benefits, which has been absolutely amazing! We can finally budget again, and are working towards being debt free... again! Our townhome is wonderful. We bought the minimum amount of stuff that was needed to move us in, but there is still a lot of stuff we need! As we get debt paid off, and save some extra money, we'll fill it in. For now, it is just fine. We spend so much more time as a family, and that is something we haven't been able to do in a long time!

I have been working towards potty training Noah. That has been a nightmare. It is probably just me... I just don't have patience for this kind of thing. You work and work and work, and they still mess up their underwear/pull-up/diaper. It has been the most challenging part of parenthood so far. Anyway, we are far from trained... and I am at a loss for more ideas.

The summer went way too fast! It was pretty fun though. We went to a Rockies game on the 4th of July. That was a blast! We went to the Zoo for the first time with Noah. He loved it. We spent time with extended family at a couple family reunions. We watched Noah grow up even more... he loves the park and the big kid jungle gym. We are going to Glenwood Springs this coming weekend for some pool time. We are going to another Rockies game... oh and it is football season again... the start of fall.

That's where we are. Our daily routine is pretty set now. Our exciting news for the fall is our trip to Oregon in October. I am definitely not ready for winter or cold weather, but alas, it will come and I will get through it. :)

I enjoyed a fabulous trip to Blue Mesa for a family reunion this weekend. It was filled with lots of food, trips to the lake, splashing around in the swimming pool, and of course, my favorite... playing card games with grandma!

It was also amazing to take Noah and experience the joy of watching him having a blast! He loved the swimming pool. He was throwing around the beach balls, and jumping off the edge of the pool into mommy and daddy's arms. He ran around outside with such delight. The boy was dirty the entire time, and it was awesome! He got to experience riding in the boat... which included seeing some ducks, learning what everything was, waving at people in the other boats, and fishing!








We had some quality family time. We enjoyed laughing and catching up with everyone. Playing with all the kids, and getting to experience another generation. For as long as I can remember, I was the youngest generation... and we had 14 kids there this time! It is so amazing to see how family will always continue to grow.