Our new house

We moved into our new place without ever seeing it in person, and we got lucky! We are really happy with it. We have always lived in OLD houses with lots of character, high ceilings and wood floors. Well, now we live in a town house with white carpet and white cabinets and vinyl in the kitchen and I love it. It's clean and so convenient. I love the kitchen! I can prepare a whole meal without taking more than 6 steps!! It's so cool. We have a beautiful duck pond with a fountain in our backyard. Eirik loves to wake up in the morning and watch the ducks out his window. We love having a master suite bathroom for the first time. It is so nice. What an upgrade! We feel really lucky. We are just about finished putting up all of our artwork and when we are done, I will put up some pictures. I love decorating a new house. It's been a lot of fun. Thanks to my wonderful husband who said yesterday, "I will do anything if it gets me out of walking around the house after my wife with a hammer!!" He's been awesome and I LOVE having him home with me for more than a few hours a day. I LOVE vacation!!

We miss K-ville!!!!!!!

So we are officially residents of Michigan now. I feel like a fish out of water. It's weird to call a place home that you know nothing about and aren't even sure you won't get lost on the way home from the grocery store, but here we are anyway.
I just want to say that I miss all of my "family" in K-ville. I love you guys!!

A Giant Upload of the last month or so....

I have so much to blog about!
1. So Paul and I went to our 17.5 week ultrasound and found out the BIG news!!!

DUN DUN DUN... DRUMROLL...

We are having another BOY!!! It was undeniable and if my scanner were hooked up I would show you, but our little boy probably deserves a bit of privacy, even if he is still in the womb.
This pic shows my little 17 week belly- looking somehow smaller in this shot than it seems to be to me. This pregnancy has been so much different than the last. I was sick so very little in comparison and I was about 200 times more tired for the first three months than I was last time. Also, I broke out to no end with Eirik, and not at all with this one (thank you baby!) so Paul and I were pretty excited that we might have a girl coming, but we're thrilled that it's a boy for Eirik to play with. We think they will be good friends.




2. Our computer crashed leaving us with only a tiny inkling of hope that any of our photos from the past few years, not to mention our financial records etc will be recovered. I'm numb with frustration and regret over it. I had the premonition to back up my newer stuff several times in the past few months. It's my own fault for not following my instincts. I need to stop dwelling on it or it will make me sick. (So if anyone has photos of us from the last year, I would love it if you could email them to us!)

3. We are a mere 6 days from impending move 10 hours north to the land of tigers and snowstorms, that's right- Michigan. Our house is almost completely packed and the next days will be spent on goodbyes and final details like filling the MANY holes I put in our walls. It's with so many mixed feelings that we move on. I need to make an entire blog about my favorite things in this great little town. So---wait for it----it's coming. In the mean time, here are some pics that I felt I had to shoot of our house before we tore it all apart. These are a few of my favorite little corners. I will miss Eirik's sweet little room.






4. It's been a lot time since we've done an update on the advancements of our cute kid. I love to keep track of when he started doing things, so this is the section where we download about how cute we think he is, and you can skip ahead if it's "too much parental braggery." :) Lately all Eirik wants to talk about are baseball and dinosaurs. He says baseball by saying "baybol" and dinosaur is "diosaur". He gets so excited about them. He has a plastic bat and glove and a ton of balls so at any time you can be assured that he is carrying around one of these items, or looking for them. He also loves this game that Paul taught him that they started calling "Wait, Wait". In this game, Eirik stands near the bed and Paul says, "Wait, wait, ok, ready set go." Then Eirik runs to Paul and Paul chucks him onto a big pile of pillows on the bed. It's a CRAZY game and I don't like to watch. I'm afraid he will bite his tongue off or something, but if Eirik is not looking for dinosaur or baseball paraphanelia he is standing by the bed saying, "wait wait" and calling for his dad. He is also learning to jump. The other day he was standing on big Tupperware lid that was about 1" off the ground. He said, "Set Go!" Then he stepped off the lid, did this cute little balance act like he had just jumped 2 feet, then said, "Yes, diosaur, roar!!" I love how he is combining his favorite words and making little sentences. His favorite words besides the two I've mentioned are umbrella, which he says (brellla with his tongue out on the l's) butterfly, lawnmower and ladybug, but the word he can say that we are the most proud of is Aanderud. He says his name " Eyedit Andedude" It's so cute! He is getting really good at repeating back the words we teach him. Today he said, as clear as day, "Mommy is in the shower" after Paul said it to him. He's also learning to manipulate, like when he doesn't want to go to bed he will say, drink, eat, books, TV, bat, "diosaur" practically all in the same breath. Any excuse to stay out of bed. His schedule has become difficult to predict because he is right in that in-between time from having two naps to one. If we are out doing something, he can easily be fine with one nap. If he's not bored, he doesn't realize if he's tired. Being in St. Louis with his best friend Abby, he had a great time. If I ever say, we're going to go see friends, he says, "Ashley, Abbey, Ashley, Abbey, Ashley, Abbey, Ashley, Abbey" and doesn't stop until we get to their house. He loves them. He also loves his friend Avril. He says her name all the time too. I am going to be SO sad for him to leave his little friends. He plays so well with Abby. We have a darling video tape of them playing "wait, wait" with each other. I will try to get it from Ashley. The best part is that we didn't co-erce them, they did it when they didn't know we could see them. Abby has her own little baby language this is this cute little form of giberish. After hanging out with her so much, Eirik picked up her language. He will say "Abbey" and then talk in her language like he's doing an impression of her. So cute! I took Eirik to the early morning Kirksville Circus setup. It was very fun because so many of our friends came to!! Here is the one photo I have of Eirik with his two girlfriends.





Today, when I was putting Eirik down for a nap he insisted on taking his kid size broom and his plastic bat to bed with him. I had the hardest time not cracking up while I was singing him to sleep because he kept rolling onto his broom handle and it kept waking him up. It was so funny! He has 3 of his 4 1 year old molars. It's been hard on his diet. He has reverted to only soft foods for the past few weeks. He went a few weeks refusing food and only demanding milk and juice. He would SCREAM if I took away his drink and tried to get him to eat. It was really frustrating, but last week, he decided to eat again, with a vengeance. So I have decided that he knows what he needs and I shouldn't force it. Eirik has started to bring us our shoes. Even if we are already wearing shoes, he insists that we wear the ones he has brought to us. He says, "shoes, shoes!!" and gets so excited.
Sorry, I know, I could go on and on. I'll probably come back and add more later. We love this sweet child!

5. We got to go on an awesome trip to St. Louis over the 4th of July. We got to see the great little house that J. and A. bought there. We are so excited for them to move into such a great area. While we were there we packed in TONS of adventure. We got to hang out with Emily and Jo, who we love. After we went to the zoo we went to a great little burger place called.....(I can't remember). The next day we watched the giant 4th of July St. Louis parade, ate at Panda Express and bought the kids some toys at this awesome toy store. Then we went to the science center, and the mall, (Anthropologie, Z Gallery, Urban Outfitters)and then a Cardinals game, and walked to the arch and watched the fireworks show from right below the arch. Talk about a PACKED day! It was awesome and the kids were great. (Except I think Abby had had about enough at a few points. Check out the pic of her at the parade. She looks a little thrashed.)











5. Paul, Eirik and I went to Jefferson City so that he could take the USMLE. We had a really fun time, just Eirik and I playing all day in a city we had never been to. We went to this awesome nature conservatory/ museum with a cool nature walk and great exhibits. (This photo shows this nature scene magnet wall so you can move around all the animals.. Cool!) We also went shopping, (Eirik loved Petco) and to the train station to watch the trains. Talk about a treat! Eirik loved it! Then we went to the capital building and Eirik loved how his voice created this amazing echo all through the giant round rotunda. We stayed and enjoyed the hundreds of great exhibits about Missouri as long as his little/HUGE voice allowed us to stay. I got to see a portrait of Governor Boggs. He was unimpressive, even in a painting.
Thanks for taking the boards so we got a vacation dad! :)

My Humps- Alanis

The Zickgraffs showed us this a couple of months ago and I think it's so awesome. If you haven't seen the original video by Fergy, you should check it out first.

Abby's Hippo Cake

Ashley asked me to help her make a fondant cake for Abby's birthday. I was so excited, but I have only made one, and that was with a lot of help from an amazing teacher, Karen P. So I decided to practice and I made a bunch of flowers on a circle platter and frosted them in purple, orange and pink fondant. It turned out SO cute, and of course, I lost the photos somehow when downloading them to my comp. So, I have requested any my family has, but we will see if they ever make it here onto this post. Sufficeth to say, it was SO CUTE and I was so proud of it so I felt very confident to help Ashley with her pink hippo with a tu-tu. I thought, "Yeah, no problem." And then we started. It turned out to be a bit more challenging than I expected. First off, we didn't have the right sized pans to make the pieces of cake that we wanted, so we really had to sculpt. So it was hilarious from the start. When we had almost finished, we called our husbands in to take a look at our work and, well, let's just say, they had a "little" constructive criticism for us, meaning we were enticed to do MAJOR reconstructive hippo surgery on the poor guys face. And anyone who knows anything about fondant knows reconstructive surgery is likely to backfire. We cut and sliced and felt like surgeons and stretched the "skin" over the lips once the nose was enhanced, and let's just say that fondant isn't the most forgiving and he ended up looking a little bit more like a stuffed bubblegum pig on a spit than a cute little hippo. Maybe the ears are too big, nose still too small, eyes too big, mouth too black... I don't know, but well, it was a rolling fun time to make it and it tasted great and all of our friends were super supportive and said that it "looks just like a hippo", but we know deep down, that the next time we want to make a hippo cake, we are going to both think again.

Cooking club

I had a great time at cooking club this week. These women made some amazing food! I probably shouldn't mention any specifically because it was all so good, I would have to mention it all. Oh well, I can't resist. Brenda made this drink that was to die for. Thanks Brenda, I will never be the same again.

At the Park

A funny thing happened at the park today. As we pulled up we noticed huge black rainclouds rolling in from the north. I knew we wouldn't have much time, but we got out anyway. There is a small fenced in area at Jaycee Park for the daycare kids to play. No one else is allowed in this area. Of course we had to park right in front of it so when we got out Eirik walked to the fence and stood there watching the kids. I felt bad that he was the little outsider when I could tell he wanted to go play so badly. After a minute or two a couple of the little kids came over to Eirik and held his hands through the fence and talked to him. Then about 8 more kids all came over and stood by Eirik. He looked up at me with this, "What in the world is going on mom?" expression. I was sort of thinking the same thing myself. All of these kids were staring and cooing at Eirik. A few minutes later the teachers opened the gates and the kids all came out. The teachers were trying to get the kids to line up, but all of these kids surrounded Eirik and patted his hair, his shoulders, his back, talked to him, kissed his head. I think there were like 11 kids that came over and touched him. It was sweet and pretty strange too. Eirik looked at me like, "let's get out of here mom" so we went over to the swings were we met Erin and Benjamin for like two minutes before giant raindrops started to fall. By the time we had grabbed the kids and the bags and RAN to the car, we were both DRENCHED. It was such a downpour.
So overall the park experience today was completely different than I expected, and overall, quite strange.

The House Hunting Saga

Just like so many of our K-ville friends, we are counting down the days until we pick up our moving van and drive out of town. Everything was moving along at a normal, anticipation of a big event, pace, until yesterday when we found out that the apartment that we have been counting on renting is not going to be available like we expected. We turned in our (2) 26 page notarized applications, a $70 application fee, copies of our drivers licenses, birth certificates, SS cards, our taxes from last year, a self employment affidavit and copies of our loan papers and our budget created by the school, and these people are still waiting to tell us if we are approved after a month!! We finally emailed them and asked them if we needed to send some blood samples or genetics screenings or anything. I mean, "COME ON!!". Anyway, after all of this trouble and waiting to find out for over a month, we finally got the distinct impression from an email from them that we were not going to get approved, so we have begun a frantic search to find a great place to live in the next 2 weeks. We are moving to a town that is completely depressed by Ford layoffs and everyone is trying to sell their house, but everyone wants to get so out of town that they don't want to rent. At least, if they do, it's a last resort. So, we are calling people who are selling and asking them if they would be willing to rent to us. What a pain! It would be so much better to just drive up there. Maybe I still will. That's 24 hours in the car, plus the time driving around town looking and that just doesn't sound like any fun with a baby that hates to be tied to a carseat.
Anyway, the point is, the first place just wasn't meant to be and we are sure that something great is going to land in our lap. We're just hoping we've said enough prayers and been good enough. Please oh please.

Spring Fairy Frolicks

The delinquent blogger finally shows her face...

Well, after a long three week vacation I have a slew of wonderful things to share.
But first, I must say Ashley was a pro at spotting fairies in the woods and Tasheena and I had a blast getting "caught in the act". I will have a slide show of the rest of the fairy sightings for your viewing pleasure and laughs shortly. I have been surprised at how few people have said, "you guys are so weird" which I appreciate, but I would not be a bit surprised at that type of response, and to those of you who think there is something strange about us, I say, "Please just love us and our weird selves anyway."

And with that said, on to the matter of the vacation. Paul was in the deepest of med school trenches studying night and day for the boards exams. I felt like I was about to be tied over the spit and roasted. Paul later told me that my escaping to Utah to be with the family was like me swimming to shore while he took the raft over the rapids right when he needed me. So, I showed me weakness and caved in and for that I do feel terrible and I hope he will forgive me. On the other hand, the trip was great for Eirik and my spirits were lifted so that I have so much more to give, so hopefully it all evens out. To Paul's credit the raft did very well over the rapids and he made it through the boards without any scrapes or bruises. He's amazing.
It doesn't seem right now to tell how much fun we had in Utah, but here goes anyway. WE LOVE YOU PAUL.

Eirik LOVED the airplane. He got so excited about every plane he saw and had so much fun taking off and landing. What a fun travel buddy.
We got to Springville during Art City Days, a great week-long town party. We got to see a parade, a carnival, a craft fair, ride in a hot air balloon, see the art exhibit at the museum and lots of other fun events.








We also got to go to the zoo and camping with Amy, Adam and their kids, and Grandma and Grandpa.







Being with family was AWESOME and made me love and admire them even more. They were so fabulous with Eirik and it was so fun to have Aunts and Uncles to play with him and give him so many experiences. My parents are a delight and such an inspiration. My sisters and brothers and brother in law are just plain cool. They are fun to be with and doing great things. I love them all so much. Big props to my brothers for growing up to be such cool guys. Super big props to Daniel who got ordained to be an Elder while I was there. It was probably the highlight of my trip. He was beaming like he was lit from the inside. It was awesome. Love you man! I can't wait to hear where he gets to go on his mission!

Many of you don't know that I am a kung fu fairy when no one is looking.

My beautiful friend Ashley and I went to Truman to take some pics of the kids. Eirik and Abby love each other. We tried to get them hugging, but there was more malling and ear pulling happening than hugging... We think that will come with age. Paul says that their little relationship makes sense politically. I agree. :)

Mommy, Am I in trouble for this??

This morning Eirik decided it was the absolute end of the world when I wouldn't let him play with the eggs while I was making breakfast. He threw an enormous tantrum, and then of course, every subsequent thing we tried to do turned into an unbearable tragedy for him, until I left him crying in the kitchen while I went to my bedroom to grab some jeans and everything was suddenly eerily quiet in the kitchen. My clever 14 month old saw me put the egg carton in the trash can and since nothing gets by him, he had to explore this intriguing option.

Luckily, he had unrolled about a whole roll of toilet paper just a few minutes before breakfast, so we had plenty of paper to clean up the egg shell mess with. :) What a sweetheart!

AWESOME WEEKEND!

There comes a time in life when a vacation is just essential. When a change of scenery makes the difference between going completely insane and dying slowly of a painful sickening internal death, and on the other hand, being filled with a great resounding joy and a new vitality that will carry you through. This is how this weekend was for me. I was at the end of my limit. You could probably tell from my last few increasingly miserable posts.. but I have good news. I have been refreshed and renewed and now I can carry on. Paul planned a trip that lasted a total of less than 2 days, but it made all the difference.

We left early Sunday morning, which I probably shouldn't say, but it was fabulous to shirk our Sunday duties for a week and let the wind blow through our hair as we recklessly drove further and further away from our responsibilities. To augment the Sabbath breaking we went to a full on white trash, beer soaked, live metal music, tattoo covered Rib Festival downtown St. Louis.

We got ourselves a big plate of fatty beef brisket, sweet corn on the cob, beans, potato salad and a fresh squeezed lemon aid and then sat down to watch the music. We had to move a couple of times to find ourselves a safe hearing distance from the amazingly loud speakers, but when we finally did sit down on the top of the steps of a great building with doors flanked with giant statues of horses (which Eirik loved!) I looked at Paul and and darling exploring son and said, "I am SO Happy!" and I was! I was so glad to be in Urban America again, where people are doing things and there are events and shows and things to see. Just being in a crowd did so much for my chi. I was happy!

When we had had enough of the really really crappy music, we went to the free St. Louis Zoo. We had a blast. We loved showing Eirik the animals. He was all eyes. He couldn't get enough. We loved the hippos and the anteaters. It was all awesome though. The best part was when we sat down for a break and ate some chocolate pudding. When we got up to go, someone had put a serving tray over the hole in the top of the trash can, I moved it and was attacked by an angry starling who had been stuck in the trash can! I screamed and Paul jumped and then we laughed and laughed. It was a good joke!


The next morning we woke up to go to the Gypsy Caravan, a huge flea market/ antique show that was across the street from our Hotel. Paul however, didn't wake up happy. We had eaten all the same things, but Paul woke up with violent food poisoning. Eirik and I left him in the hotel to throw up 30 times while we shopped and had fun. :) Poor Poor Paul!!!! His one vacation!!! We ended up coming home at noon, but to break up the trip home, we stopped at the lake in Columbia and took a dip. It was a clean beach and warm and so much fun! Eirik had lots of fun swimming in the lake for the first time this year. We can't wait to go back!

So even though it was short, we had an awesome, much needed time and all I can say is "Thank goodness for vacations!!"

Black and White clean sleep

I purged my room of almost all color to make it the most restful place I could imagine. It's been just what I've needed. There's something about crisp white sheets that just does it for me.