3 Months!

Maxwell hit his 3 month mark on the 22nd so I didn't get to record anything due to the holiday festivities. He's starting to come out of the colic so the crying jags aren't so frequent. Glory day! He's smiling and cooing a lot and loves his swing still. He's also started sitting in his bumbo and loves the view. His sleep patterns aren't great, but they have gotten better than before. He wakes up about every 3 hours for the first 6 hours of the night and then he's up every hour after that and is awak by 6 or 7. Why do I have early rising children and children that don't sleep? We've got his appointment set up for his 4 month check up at the end of January and then he'll be able to start solids! Wow! I can't believe it's coming up so fast. I better break out the cuisinart and start my purees!

Personal History: End of Purdue Years

The last year of MBA school, I turned 1 and out sprouted my insanely curly hair that I inherited from my great grandma Munson. I guess I've always had a lot of hair, but it just came in more and more as I got older. My mom would just have to get it wet and wrap it around her finger and it would make perfect little ringlets. My dad called it "wash and wear."
One of my favorite things to do during the day was emptying out drawers. Not only would I empty them, but I would climb in and sit and look at the lovely mess that I made.
Another favorite pastime that I had was playing out on the playground. I loved swinging on the swings and my mom would swing me for so long that I would fall asleep. I also loved going down the slide and I eventually got brave enough to go down by myself. My mom would also bring the stroller out, not to push me, but for me to push around. This is me making the rounds.

Sunday Best

My boys just looked so cute this morning so I had to snag a picture. E was in a funny mood so he gave me a couple of poses.

Personal History: Baby Brittany...continued

So I went along my first 6 months crying like crazy. Then one day something changed and I suddenly stopped crying and became a dream child...except for the fact that I didn't sleep through the night until I was 18 months old.


I was really easy to take anywhere and my parents pretty much did that. We went on trips to Nauvoo and out to Idaho to go see family.

I guess I understand now why my son loves corn dogs. This is me stealing a bite from my Grandpa Call's lunch.

Personal History: Baby Brittany-The First Few Months

None of this is from my memories so I've had to call upon a few people to tell me a little bit about what life was like when I was a baby. I was born on October 8, 1982. My dad had an exam that day and the only way he could get out of it is if he brought the birth announcement from the newspaper that he actually had a child that day. Crazy! My mom had me a' naturel and I was born sometime around 10:30 in the morning.

I was any new mother's worst nightmare. I was completely colicky and could not be consoled for the first 6 months of my life. My mom tried just about any rememdy, holding method, or contraption to get me to be comfortable. I rarely slept and if I did it was in my car seat in the car or in the swing.
I guess I spit up a ton too. My poor mother! My mom also lived away from all her family and her husband was in school full time and as you can tell from the exam example, he was pretty busy. My grandma came out right after I was born for a couple weeks to help my mom out(this is me with my Grandma Call). I think my mom bawled when her mom left.
My parents lived in married student housing at the time so they were living apartment life. This is where we lived for the duration of MBA school.
My mom had to just walk to the floor with me at night so my dad could get enough sleep for school and so everyone that lived around them would too. She told me she used to look out at all the windows in the quad and see all the lights out and think that she was only one in that entire place that was up and how lucky they were to be sleeping. I'm definately sympathetic with my mom these days since I am blessed with a baby just like me.

This is me on my first Christmas. My parents made the trip back out to Idaho for my first Christmas, I was almost 3 months old. Go Boilermakers!

Personal History: The Beginning

Okay, I've really felt prompted to do this for myself and posterity purposes to put in my blog book so here's my attempt at recording my personal history. I'm not really sure how to do this exactly, but I'm going to try.

In The Beginning...My Parents:
My parents both grew up in Rigby, Idaho where they both lived on dairy farms and my dad's family also had a dry farm up by the Snake River.

I think my parents ended up having a geometry class together in high school when my mom was a sophomore and my dad was a senior, but didn't really meet until my dad came over with a friend who was dating my Aunt Debbie. My mom asked him to a girls' choice dance at the end of her sophomore year and they started dating after that. There were so many funny dance pictures to choose from, but I loved this picture. Classic! Oh and you can't forget the photo booth pictures! Don't they look like fun parents? I guess things never change with age. After my dad graduated he was called to serve a mission in Thailand and my mom waited the whole 2 years for him while she went to Ricks. My Dad came home and went to BYU and they got engaged the Christmas after he got home and were married May 30, 1980. After they got married, my mom moved down to Provo and worked as a secretary while my Dad went to school.

He graduated from BYU with his bachelors (my mom was pregnant with me at the time) and got accepted to start MBA school at Purdue in the Fall. I came along at the beginning of MBA school on October 8, 1982...that's where the fun begins...

Jackson

Going to Jackson was so much fun and yet it was so weird to go back. I had forgotten a lot of it but it all immediately came back as we started driving around. I was taking picture like crazy. I lived in Jackson back in 1993-1996 so the last time I was there was 12 years ago and I was only 13 years old! I made a list of all the places I wanted to go see, but I told myself that I wouldn't look at the map so I could see if I remembered how to get around or not. I just kept telling Ryan, "This is so weird, this is so weird." Because a lot of things hadn't changed at all. Here's my old house. The yard doesn't look as nice as it did when we lived there and the color of the house has changed, but the neighborhood hadn't changed a bit. I loved our neighborhood since all the houses were on 1 acre lots. So much room to play!


We had lunch at Brooksie's Barn. Talk about true Southern comfort food. They had everything you could think of fried catfish, hush puppies, collard greens, black eyed peas, chicken and dumplings, pulled pork, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, southern green beans and potatoes, etc. It took me back to those times that we'd stop at a little cafe on the way home from skiing on the Tennessee river and have fried catfish.


Here's my elementary school and the playground. I went to 5th grade here and my brother went to 1st through 3rd grade. My mom used to substitute teach here so I'm sure she has fond memories at our elementary school too.


And here is the middle school I went to for 6th grade and half of 7th grade. Good ol' Tigrett Middle School.

On Sunday we went to my old ward and it was so good to see people there! Jackson is such a transient place that there were a lot of families that have moved away, but there were a few people that have stayed and it was so fun to catch up. I seriously felt like I had gone back in time the whole time I was in Jackson. Things that I had totally forgotten suddenly became so familiar again and I got to see places that I haven't been to in years. I even got to see my good friend Sandra! She came by our hotel and spent the afternoon with us. I loved catching up and remembering old times. I loved how she said it...we're all still similiar to our 13 year old selves, just not quite so perky. Thanks Sandra!!!

Memphis Trip

We just got back from our little "vacation" to Memphis, but I'm not sure if you could really call it a vacation...we tried though. I don't think that now is really the best time to try to take your kids on a trip in the middle of winter. Max isn't the quietest baby and he doesn't sleep well so staying in a hotel, surrounded by sleeping people...not good. Then keeping a 3 year old child cooped up in a hotel room is asking for trouble. If the weather was nicer then we could have gone out on walks or gone to the zoo or something, but it was freezing cold and rained/snowed. What made it all worth it was being able to spend time with Ry and for the opportunity to go back to Jackson.

E loved staying in his "super secret bed" (the pull out bed) and picking out his own breakfast every morning at the continteal breakfast. So much fun! In the evenings we spent time with Ry and went out to dinner together. We tried a lot of the BBQ places and they were very very good, but I think we're all BBQ'd out for a long time. One night we took E to the mall so he could meet Santa and that was hilarious! He told him whole list....hungry hungry hippos (that's it)...and talked to him a little bit and gave the cheesiest grin for their camera. If the pictures weren't $20 then I would have bought it. Our last night we drove around downtown Memphis and got to see all the lights. That was the night that E fell asleep on the car ride to dinner and didn't wake up until 6 o'clock the next morning. That NEVER happens!

So it was great to go on a trip with the hubby and kids and be able to spend time with him while he worked on the road, but it wasn't quite a relaxing trip due to the season of life that we're in right now.

Post about Jackson to come...

My Childhood Memories

I've been thinking a lot lately about my childhood and I think that I should start recording my memories on my blog as my "personal history." Every so often I think I'll do a few posts about my earliest memories and include some fun picutres and what not to include in my annual blog book. This jump on the memories all started when Ry introduced the idea that I come with him on one of his business trips to Memphis so the town I grew up in is only about 1 1/2 hours away. So I pulled out my old journals and started to relive those old days. As child I moved around a lot and I tend to remember things by the place we lived, not necessarily by age. This is the breakdown of how old I was and where we lived:
1982-1984-Age:0-18 months--West Lafayette, Indiana (my dad was getting his MBA at Purdue)
1984-1986: Age 18 months-3 years--Columbus, Ohio
1986-1990: Age 3 years- 7 years (1st grade)--Perrysburg, Ohio
1990-1993: Age 7 years (1st grade)- Age 10 (4th grade)--Hazleton, Pennsylvania
1993-1996: Age 10 (5th grade)- Age 13 (7th grade)--Jackson, Tennessee
1996-1997: Age 13 (7th grade)- Age 14 (8th grade)--Anderson, South Carolina
1997-2001: Age 14 (9th grade)- Age 18 (HS graduate)--Perrysburg, Ohio
After I graduated I went out to BYU, got married, and then we moved out to San Jose, California and now we're down here living in Dallas. Quite a bit of moving for a person. Get ready for some childhood memories and just skip over those posts if they're boring to you. So anyway...I got a chance to visit Jackson, TN this weekend and it was great! More to come...

A Typical Day/Night

During this past conference I was really touched when President Monson talked about enjoying the time of life that we're in and how quickly things change. It really hit me when he talked about how all the little fingerprints that I clean up everyday will someday be gone. So every time I see little fingerprints I tend to cherish them as I wipe them away. Anyway...I want to remember what the "typical" stuff that we do since a lot of times I post about all the fun and interesting things. So here is a typical day in our lives...
5:30- Max is up and gets in bed with me and we sleep a little longer
6:00- E is up and wants a show or breakfast (Ry gets up with him unless he's out of town)
7:00- I'm up and get the baby fed, changed, and put him in his bouncy seat so I can get some things done
-get E breakfast if he hasn't already had it
-put in a load of laundry, unload the dishwasher, clean up something
-check the list of things to do
8:30- Max takes a nap in his swing
-E plays in his toy room, we read books, he watches a show, or he's getting into trouble
-I'm playing with E or getting something done

This is where the day gets unpredictable. The baby takes short naps sometimes and other times his naps are long. You can never tell what it's going to be like. So I try to get some E time in or something done around the house while he's napping. The day is filled with feeding, burping, changing, naps, playing, laughing, time outs, phone calls, reading, tummy time, favorite shows, baths, cleaning, eating, etc. My days are full and my nights are too sometimes, but we're starting to fall into some small form of routine.

E still hasn't been jealous yet and he is very sweet with his brother. He even told me the other day that he wants to go back to the hospital and bring home all the babies. That kind of surprises me, but he really loves his baby brother and I guess he wants more. Yes, my child is wearing shorts in December. He picked this outfit out himself and put it all on by himself. It's part of his summer wardrobe that he's totally grown out of. Whatever floats his boat.

Anyway...Max's sleeping schedule goes a little something like this...
7 or 7:30- down for bed
9:00- I pump and go to bed
11:00 or 12:00- Max is up and Ry feeds him the bottle I pumped (or I'm up if Ry's out of town)
2:00- my turn for feeding and I'll be up the rest of the night
3 or 3:30- he's up again
4:30 or 5:00- he up again
5:30- he's in bed with me and I'm tired
So we get a great 4-5 hour stretch at the beginning of the night and then I'm basically up for the rest of the night with him. What's the deal? It would be perfect if he could do another 4-5 stretch after the 2:00 feeding and that would be awesome! All in time I guess. I can't complain, I usually get to sleep til 1 or 2 so that is soooo nice!

So this is what life is like for us right now with a 3 year old and a 2 month old. Things change so quickly so it's fun to go back and see where we were and how far we've come. So this post is basically just for me, but for other moms out there going through the same thing it might make you feel like there is someone out there experiencing the same sleepless nights and busy days. So for all of you out there...enjoy it!

All Smiles

I have tried and tried to get a picture of Max smiling and I finally got one while we were cleaning up Thanksgiving dinner. Kaitlyn was able to capture the moment for me. I swear he has the bluest eyes I have ever seen! Isn't he so cute?!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving turned out wonderful this year! We had just about homemade everything and it was all delicious! I figured out that this was my first Thanksgiving with my immediate family since I've been in high school! Crazy! All the years I was at BYU I'd spend it with my extended family up in Idaho. When we lived in Cali, my brother-in-law came to visit and we'd have dinner with friends from our ward. And then the past 2 years we've been in Texas we've spent it with Ry's family. So this was a special time for me to be with my parents (too bad Randall was up in Idaho, bummer). Anyway...Kaitlyn and her family came down and celebrated with us and it was tons of fun. The kids had a great time playing together and they enjoyed eating at the "kiddie table." My stuffing and pies turned out great and all the other dishes were so good, we seriously could not stop! The weather was gorgous so Ry took the kids outside after dinner to work off some energy. I think they were playing follow the leader for some of the time and it was so hilarious to watch a bunch of kids jumping in a line or spinning down the sidewalk.

I'm so used to Thanksgiving being really cold and staying indoors, but the entire neighborhood was bustling with people taking walks and playing football. I think it ended up being about 68-70 degrees most the day. We were tempted to heat up the pool to go swimming, but I wasn't about to put on a bathing suit. No thanks. We took the kids to the park instead and my mom was able to take a few snapshots of us. I swear the whole time I've known Kaitlyn, we've never gotten a picture together. We swore when we were pregnant that we'd get a preggo picture together, but neither of us were up for pictures at that point in pregnancy so here's us after babies.
So Thanksgiving was fun and delicious this year. Can't get any better than that!

Thanksgiving Prep

So what are you in charge of this year for Thanksgiving? I'm interested to see what kind of great trimmings all of you guys are up to and maybe get a few good ideas for next. This year will be a very fun Thanksgiving. We are going down to my parents and my best friend and her family will be joining us. Yeah! I'm in charge of the stuffing and 2 pies (Dutch apple and chocolate) and I'm wanting to everything from scratch so I'll be doing a lot of baking tomorrow. The crusts are prepped and in the fridge, but all the pies will be made to tomorrow and the stuffing will be prepped up to the baking stage as well. I will try to remember to snap a few pictures of the final product and post them on our recipe blog. I'm also trying to wrangle Christmas decorations all at the same time. I've got just about everything up except all of my ornaments and some of the final touches that I have to figure out. Plus all the clean up, blah! It's coming together though and I have a little 3 year who is SUPER excited about all of this. So fun!

Check Ups

Today was Max's 2 month check up and E's 3 year check up so we made the trek to our new pediatrician for some fun. Here are the stats:
Max:
Weight: 12 lbs 4 oz (50%)
Height: 23 inches (50%)

Ethan:
Weight: 33 lbs (50-75%)
Height: 38 inches (50%)

So basically my kids are average all around. Not too big, not too small, just right. I took a look at E's baby book to compare his size to Max's and it looks like E was about 1/2 lb heavier and 1/2 inch taller than Max at this month, not too crazy. And E has grown 4 inches and gained 4 lbs this year! Wow! I can't believe it! Everyone is healthy and doing great. The doctor said that Max will probably grow out of his fussiness/anti-sleep habits by the time he's around 4 months so only a little while longer. I can do it!

Random note: I had an interesting experience when I took E with me to the library the other day. I think boys are just programmed to like certain things or something. Anyway...I was letting him pick out a couple DVDs to check out and these were the ones that caught his attention: He-man, Batman, Pokemon, and Power Rangers. Are you serious? Now this is just my personal opinion so don't get offended, but I really don't think a 3 year old should be watching any of those so he had to put them all back. Why in the world are little boys attracted to things like that? That is seriously all he wanted to get. I guess I'm slowly learning the world of little boys is very different then what I expected.

Twilight Movie

I know everyone has been posting about going to see the movie and all that, but how can you not? The movie was great! I have to admit when I saw the previews, Edward wasn't exactly how I pictured him but once I saw the movie...he was AWESOME! The chemistry between Bella and Edward was perfect and I'm really hoping they do all the books as movies! I have to admit, I want to go see it again so if anyone wants to go...

Fortune

Even though the Chinese Lunar Calednar for predicting the sex of our child was completely wrong, they did get something right about children in my fortune cookie today:

Do not give up; the beginning is always the hardest

Getting Into The Holiday Spirit

I know it's not Thanksgiving yet, but G'ma and G'pa (as the kids like to call them) will be headed out of town for a couple of weeks so the Christmas decorating had to come a little early this year for them. We gladly joined in on the festivities and E had way too much fun putting up ornaments with G'pa.
Check out the height. I hope Ry is ready to do that with him on our tree this year.
Max was pretty jealous, as you can tell, so Daddy tried to give him a little comfort and let him know that he could probably help next year. Afterwards we watched my FAVORITE holiday movie, Elf. I love the part where he gets hit by the car. Classic! Anyway...the Christmas music is downloaded to my Ipod and I am ready for the holidays!

My Traveling Cowboy Golfer in Dinosaur Pajamas

E is getting quite the imagination these days and this is what he came up with the other night after Ry got home from a business trip...
The other day he spent half an hour playing around with soup cans that he got out of the pantry. Soup cans...pure entertainment!

Post of Randomness

My life seems like a bunch of randomness these days so I decided to post about it.

Max Randomness
-Have my baby clothes shrunk in the wash?! No, Max is now over 12 lbs! I put him in some PJs that E wore at 3 1/2 months and Max isn't even 2 months yet! I can't believe how big he looks these days!

-His belly button started bleeding the other day and it freaked me out when there was blood all over his onesie in the morning. The doctor had me come in and there was a part of his umbilical cord deep inside his belly button that never came off so that was causing the bleeding. They just used some silver nitrate and it's all better now

-He's been waking up ever hour at night for the past 2 nights! I'm running on fumes.

-He's loving his hands these days and will look at them and suck on them when he's awake. He even rubs his eyes when he's tired, it's so cute!

-The swing is his favorite place to sleep

E Randomness
-He's a reading machine these days. I remember just a year ago when I would try to read to him and I just felt like I was chasing him with a book in my hand and trying to get him to look at the pictures. Just yesterday he piled up all the library books and we read every single one in one sitting (that's 10 books!). I never thought I'd see the day!

-Ry read E's birthday card to him the other day and had E fill in the blank and this is what happened...
Ry: "E you are getting soooooo _______ "
E: "Funny"
Everyone laughs
Ry: No, you're getting sooooooo ________"
E: Perfect!

-He is so good with Max. He is super gentle and very nice to him and is very enthralled with his brother. He always asks to smell him. I have no idea why. So he always sniffs his head and runs off to play. Whatever. We did have our first "issue" today though. He pinched his brother while I was putting laundry in the wash.

My Randomness:
-My mind is gone. I went to pick up Max's Prevacid on Tuesday night after Ry got home so I took his car since it was parked out front. Well, the next morning I found that my purse was missing. No cellphone, no wallet, no checkbook, nothing. I realized that I had left my purse in his car. Well, Ry's car was at the airport since he had to go out of town to Memphis. I ended up having to drive to the airport and track down his car in order to get my purse. Thank goodness we have a complete set of spare keys or else I would have been in big trouble!

-I haven't slept well in weeks. I'm so tired.

-I'm enjoying small spurts of reading these days. I try to read a little bit while I nursing, thanks to a tip from my friend. It's helping to get my mind back. I just finished The Host and I thought it was kind of weird.

-I still have a few freezer meals left in my freezer. Making freezer meals was seriously the best thing I did to prepare for Max to come. That's one portion of my sanity that I still have. Go freezer meals!

CHUY'S (chew-ies)

Imagine my 3 year cupping his hands around his mouth and giving a really low voiced "CHUY'S." That is the word around our house these days. As some of you know, my husband is a project manager for building restaurants. He just finished up a Chuy's here in the area so we were able to enjoy the perks of the big pre-opening festivities. Before a restaurant opens they give tickets to certain people in the business for their friends and family to come in and let the staff practice on them. I've been to some openings before when Ry was building On the Borders here in the area, but the Chuy's opening by far has been the most fun! On Saturday we went with my parents for their practice session. They basically give you the food that you're supposed to order so the kitchen can work through all their equipment and be sure things are made properly. You're also given questions that you need to ask your server so they are familiar with the menu and the restaurant. It's all totally free and they give you tons of food so it's really fun to try things that you normally wouldn't order.

Well, if you haven't ever been to Chuy's and you're from Texas then you really need to go! The food is fabulous and the restaurant is so fun! It's seriously some of the best Mexican food that I've ever had and their salsa is so addicting! They have 3 or 4 Chuy's in Austin, 4 in Houston, and 2 in the Dallas area so go find one if you're around those areas. The restaurant is totally like nothing I've ever been to. It's somewhat similar to Buca Di Beppo's with the eclectic decor, but it has its own flair. There is a hub cap room where the ceiling is covered in hub caps, an Elvis room with lot of Elvis paraphernalia, an art room with all sorts of art, and so on. So fun!

Last night we went to their VIP opening night with RY's family which was tons of fun! I wish I would have brought my camera! Bummer! It was so much fun to see all the things that my hubby has been working so hard on and to know all the background on what happened during certain phases of the process and to meet the people that Ry has been working with these past months. It's so fun to have him build in the area so I can experience this since there are other times when his projects are out of state so I don't ever see the finished product. Anyway...we got to have all sorts of yummy food and got to experience the Chuy's atmosphere. I had Max with me and he slept most of the time so I was able to sip some virgin Pina Coladas and eat chips and salsa until it came out my ears. It totally took me back to our trip to Cancun. Anyway...Ry's got a few more Chuy's to do with them next year so hopefully the Chuy's fun will continue and there will be more VIP nights to go to.

Right now Ry is also working on a Benihana's in Memphis so I'm totally wishing that project was here. That opening would be so fun too! Oh well. I guess if you live in Memphis he could probably get you tickets to that opening so enjoy it for me. I'm sure I'll be frequenting this restaurant since it's so addicting and I'll be sure to bring my camera next time.