very hungry caterpillar

In our hospital's pediatric clinic there are rooms outfitted with the cutest things. This last time (the last time was January) I was able to take some pictures on my phone of the room we were in; I was finally sneaky enough!!

Here is the cute little Montster all stripped down to his unmentionables, waiting to be poked and prodded. The staff was surprised with how many smiles they got out of him; I guess not many kids like them for some reason.

If it wasn't the doctors making him happy, then I'd imagine it was this room:

(by the door)

(walking into the room)

cute little lollipop. 

one summery piece of watermelon

Doesn't it make you want to eat something? or if you're good, just read the book again? eh. Go eat something. Calories are on me!

ARG

Anchorage Rockclimbing Gym. ARG. 

Few things are more humbling than being shown up by 7 year old spiders...
and big old hot spots on my hands!

But oh was it fun!! Hopefully I can go again soon. Real soon. ARG!

bottled sunshine

I'm no pharmacist, but I have definitely felt the 'fun' in this little pill. Meet vitamin D3, gel form:

The winters have finally hit hard. This is my 3rd winter in Alaska (2nd, full one), and it finally hit. The lack of sunshine, even with my furlough to the sunny islands, coupled with my body working overtime for my fun little squeaker, made for some unbelievably tired mornings and days.

Friends of mine up here have bounced around me proclaiming their love for this vitamin, but I didn't think the lack of sun was affecting me as much as it was.

When it hit, I rethought that previous notion.

My research led me to think that
- liquid vit. D (or gel) is most easily absorbed
- D2 is an artificial vitamin made to be given to plants, not people! Might as well take a mint
- D3 is most effective
- 2,000 IUs is what friends take up here per day
- won't affect Mont if I'm taking too much... and more than likely, I'm not taking too much
- taking Calcium with it helps absorption.

So I found Vit D3's partner in crime:

CALCIUM. 60% of the my DV. Looks like a horse pill! It's about an inch long! Holy strong bones, right? I hope so! My boy is weighing more every day, it seems. I better try to keep up.

Along with these two pills, I've begun to take a new Multi-Vitamin since I ran out of prenatals a while ago. That multi-vitamin has 10% dv of calcium, and 250% dv of d3, or 1000 IUs. So I'm now taking 2000 IUs of d3, and 70% dv of Calcium, plus lots of other good stuff.

This is my 3rd day in a row, and though my eyes could still use some more sleep, my body feels renewed and energized. And now I'm up at 12:04 am and I'm going to force myself to fall asleep so I'm not feeling like my old self again tomorrow. ha!

ps - I'm going to give my old camera a whirl again. I've not been as diligent at taking 'fun photos' like I used to... so back in the purse it's going!

4 years

This year's anniversary was the happiest of all because we had this little squeaker.
Here, he is so tired, it's just after 6 and he's been up since 2:30 (pm).
When he gets tired, he doesn't cry and scream... he laughs!

and he laughs hard:

street skating

The Reeder Olympics:

The warm(er) weather through the night brought rain. 

The rain made the snow melt.

The cold air made the snowy rain freeze. 

The ice made for some slick walkin. 

The slipping and sliding made us think of ice skating. 

Thinking of ice skating made us think of Mark's ice skates. 

Mark's ice skates have gone unused for a few years, 

so we put them to use 

on our DRIVEWAY!

Mark in his "getup." 

He had this old fashioned pilot's helmet made in Turkey

from Pop's Leather. He looked ... awesome. 

Took the bucket out to sit on 

so he wouldn't hurt the blades.

A thrilling wave from my very own Olympian: 

Here he is doing his Triple Sow Cow: 

 

But then was sick with disgust when he found out he only won Bronze.

So he took to the streets for more practice. 

George Washington

'Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone,
and let your hand give in proportion to your purse.'

Happy President's Day

lovely lover's day!

Things we did today:

Woke up exhausted! ...(1 o'clock bedtime + 5 wake ups between then and 7:30 just doesn't cut it anymore..)
Gave Mont a bath ...(Buckwheat's turn tomorrow... dang it. Mont is so much more fun to bathe!)
Nap for Mont ...(lucky feller!)
Spiraled my hair ...(hello Jose Eber curling wand!)
Dressed for church ...(I love that part of Sundays!)
Mark gave a talk in Sacrament ...(very wonderful... made me cry!)
Cried some more in Relief Society ...(happy-lovey days make me weepy, I guess)
Mont finally napped at 5 o'clock ... (lucky feller!)
Mark cooked me dinner ...(yummy teriyaki steak and noodles)
I did dishes "the old fashioned way"with soap, water, and a washcloth ...(dishwasher died - I'm actually, very thrilled about that. Every time we used it you had to shout over the noise! New "silent" one comes tomorrow.)
Mark and I watched [and laughed at] clips of the Lawrence Welk Show ...(simply marvelous! Arthur Duncan is the happiest of happy feet.)
Mark and I watched Office episodes to catch up ...(and cringed when Michael had to let down the "Scott's Tots" - we both were jittery.)
I had some Rainbow Chip cake...mmm

It was an A+ Valentine's Day.

first food

Per Mark's request... Oreos was going to be the first "food" Mont tasted. I tried to get my cute little baby out of this, but Mark assured me he wasn't going to "consume" it, just "taste" it. So I surrendered.

Good thing, because Mont sure loved it!! What a mess-pot!

some funny fluff

Last night while taking videos of Mont for Mark and our parents,

Buckwheat must have been feeling stardom right around the corner

b/c he wanted to have the main part!

They are now the two best "Buckwheat Videos."
Ever!

tasty

He loves those toes almost as much as I do. 

big little laugh

Mont has a new, bigger (yet, still just as deliciously cute) laugh as of two days ago. I was determined to get it on camera, and this morning I succeeded!

He has this "old man face" (what I call it) where he smacks his tongue against his gums, but as I was recording this and doing MY old man face AT him to get him to do his - wow, did you follow that? - I noticed he probably thinks it sounds like KISSING noises! SO... as a mother in love with her baby boy, I now think he is trying to make kissing noises at me. I love, love, LOVE it! 

Already trying to tell me he loves me... no? ha!

shuffled

Do you ever feel so excited over something and then realize that it's really not that exciting?

That just happened as I looked at the before/after pictures of my book case. When I found my very yellow Van Gogh book and World Art book this week, I knew I wanted them on my book case somewhere. It took about half a day of going back and forth between shuffling and reshuffling, shifting and reshifting shelves.

I didn't want an entire column full of dark of bright books, so I had to get it 'just so.'

Here is my before....

I liked it, but I was still frustrated with Mark's huge white binders (that I never see him use!), so I covered one of their shelves with a piece of artwork (bottom right, up one), and I didn't like my two shelves of cook books (top left corner, and also one down).

So here is my after (including the two new books (up and center))...

See? No big deal, but I am still SO excited about it.

The photo albums that I am working so hard to get done, will go on the bottom left shelf. WOOHOO for another project complete!

On a side note, here is one of my favorite shelves. I love elephants... and I love The Jungle Book... combine the two and........ woohoo!

*Mark's white binders are now in a snug little place in the crawl space, easily accessible. I think he was just happy I found a nice place for them that I was happy with.

little things

There's a little surprise in this little bag for someone pretty little. 

My mom made me six burp rags for Mont by hand, and they are so dang absorbent I had to share the wealth. And today... I finally put myself to action for a girl in my ward. Except, I made hers miniature so she can pack all three of them in her diaper bag, and use them as she needs, one at a time, and still absorb a lot. 

Don't judge! I love them. Tomorrow I will make 3 bigger ones. For each 1/3 yard cut, I can make three 6x10, and three 8x10. I think those were the right measurements: 

See the tip of my pin cushion? wanna see more? okay: 

Those little bowls are from Hawai'i, just wrap up some cotton fluff with fabric (oh-so-tightly) and glue it on down! (hint: you can use any bowl you want.. glass, porcelain, wood, or plastic). 

peak into memories

I've been going through old pictures for a few days now, cataloging and organizing. I remembered some CDs Mark thankfully saved of all our pictures from dating. I found this one tonight:

I clipped it from a video he was taking of me. I had three marvelous things right at this moment:

- Mark

- a horse

- long hair

aaannnd... that's my BYU identification I was about to lose.

Happy memory!

hop skip and jump

Mont had such a fun time with Mark's family this weekend. It was so nice to have company up here! We were lazy most of the entire 4 days they were here, but we did have time for some adventures as well:

Stacey liked how I get Mont ready: in the closet. I keep his carseat on top of the hope chest Mark built, so I don't have to have it out anymore, and he's still so tiny I can just put him in the carseat while it's still in the closet! I guess it is kind of strange... oh well. He doesn't mind!

Molly is taking water samples from various locations for a science project she is doing for the fair, so it worked out perfectly that she was coming to Alaska for the weekend. We drove around and found a few different 'samples.' This is a creek in Eagle River. The actual river, even though I can see it from our back porch, is about a mile's walk through woods and deep snow. So we skipped that idea!

The next day was church. He has been getting so noisy!! I love his noises, but what happened to the reverent Mont everyone admired? haha! Now we both get looks (even though they're smiles), so I get nervous and have to walk him outside until he's done "talking" a.k.a. squealing. He's so funny.

Monday was our most adventurous day yet.

We drove around the coast to find access to the salt water, but we had no such luck. Everything was barred or gated off. So we found a little restaurant next to ship creek near the RR station and port. It had a little access to the scary ice. So Mamie was the brave one and got as close as she dared and smashed off some ice with a screwdriver for Molly's sample collection. Love those hot pants!

Mamie was doing a 'science project' of her own and wanted to find walrus teeth for her beau. I had the idea for her to call around local taxidermy shops and see if there were any sort of teeth (walrus or not) that she could buy off them. Many said no... until she called this place:

They were nervous to say the least. It was pretty funny though. There was a kid in a window above this door that kept waving at us and then he came back to the window to show me his T-Rex toy and smash it against the window like it was going to bite us - cutie patootie.

Nervous smiles!!

When they walked in with the guy, Stacey and I looked at each other and thought, "umm... Where'd the go? You better go in!" It looked so crazy. Not a happy or a smell-good place. Not that I expected it to be..

The guy was really nice though. And pretty willing to get a picture taken for Mamie's "science board."

They said, "it smelled really bad in there!" ... I wonder why? HA.

Here are some wolverines... SCARY!

Here's the loot: a bear claw, a bear tooth, and two deer teeth. Can you guess which is which?

The bear tooth is the top one, and the two on the right belong to deer. The one on the far right was SOOO white and smooth; just like an ivory piano key. Though.. the bear tooth and deer molar were pretty gross. Very cavity-riddled. I believe the claw belongs to a black bear; short and very curved helps the black bears climb trees. Brown bears (grizzlies) have longer, straighter claws for digging up roots and stuff.

Then it was off to a much happier place: Borders bookstore. I'm rarely in that part of the city, so when we passed it, I thought to go in and look for some bargain art books. I found two!! picture coming soon.

After a quick spree in the store, I nursed Mont before we left for home. Afterwards, he had the WORST diaper he's ever had. Not stinky (thank goodness..), just a lot. A lot, a lot. Here he is while doing the deed. Stacey gets pictures of nearly every moment - quite the thorough documenter:

little stinker.

Later that night, after another yummy dinner, and while Mont was in bed, Molly, Stacey and I went to Fred Meyer for gas, gifts, and groceries.

While there I thought to browse the baby clothes since I was there with Mont earlier this week and couldn't browse too long with him being fussy. Everything was on sale!!! Look at all this I scored (again, thanks for the pictures, Stacey!):

Lots of 6 and 12 months, one 9 month shirt. I saved $46.00 on all of this... I mean, you have to spend to save, right?? One of the outfits for 12 mo. was on the rack by accident, so it was only 4¢! It was one of my favorites too. On the front it has three little sea critter pictures with their names: 'eel' for the eel, 'fish' for the fish, and 'inkie' for the octopus. I love that.

Mont misses his Aunts and Grandma Stacey! I'm SO glad they could come out for a fun weekend.

table reclaimed

Here is a play-by-play of the buffet table that I just 'reclaimed' from Mont's cute little behind.

All cleaned off and polished up:

Halfway through... loved it this way, but still didn't have everything I wanted:

love these vases and barnwood frame!!

Then.. after some finishes... and some everyday "stuff" like my bag, and the print boxes from China that have not had a place to rest since coming home with Mark, the table is ... complete:

When Mark showed me the panoramic pictures of China's Great Wall, I was more impressed with the boxes than with the photos (that you can see where they pieced the pictures together to make them panoramic!). Mark just can't see the charm I see in them, probably because he was immune to old world charm after seeing it up close and personal. At least that's the flattering excuse I came up with. Can't you see the charm?

even though it's old and broken? Just say yes. Thank you.    

ha!

our holiday visit

The first night we were in Washington, my parents had a warm welcome waiting for us.. hugs for me, and fingers and knuckles to chomp on for Mont. Mont couldn't get to them fast enough! Still no teeth..

We spent loads of time on the floor, letting Mont kick and laugh, and being smothered by yours truly. This is from the same night as a few posts ago:

The next three pictures of Mont are in a sequence, taken only split seconds from the next. He is still full of funny faces, and yes! That's my mom's beautiful golden hair behind him. ha!

Tessa got snap happy one afternoon when Mont and I were just sitting around. This is the only one I have on my computer from this day. It's tricky taking only your camera with no computer... I didn't like being without it! Oh well... I obviously got used to it as you can tell by my lag in posts!

(sorry about the quality of these pictures.. I'm pulling a lot of these off of Costco Photo..)

Some of my favorite decorations for Christmas at my parents' home were silver bells on the saddles:

The week of Christmas we jet-set off to Hawaii for our Happy Party:

Here's the dreadful farmer's tan I mentioned previously. I still have it..

I miss the sun!

1/2 the day we were on the beach, then at noon we moved up by the pool so we could stop worrying about the sun on Mont. It was surprisingly nice!! We've never done that before, but we loved it! We could still see the beach, and Mont loved falling asleep to this loud waterfall:

One night my mom and I ventured out to take pictures of everything around.. it was a lot of fun to see my mom do her thang with photography. I think she loved pulling out some hat tricks; though my camera was like a foreign language to her compared to the one she used, I think she still had fun:

Doesn't this look Egyptian or something? I love it!

The morning after this, we woke up to HUGE waves on our side of the island (the WSW side, which normally doesn't get huge waves):

The waves were so huge out on the reef, that the waves in the lagoons (which were built to keep waves OUT) were normal size (compare to California) and came up and sank all these chairs into the sand:

The waves out there were 20-30 ft! While on the North Shore, they were around 40 feet. I can't even imagine! See that hotel in the background? That's the Ihilani, the hotel the girls in Blue Crush work at! The first year we came we stayed there and I was SO excited about that. Corin and I used to watch that movie sooo many times!

Then it was back to Washington... where we were all sooo tired... The sun wore us out! In a perfectly perfect sort of way:

Even though it was still cooler than Hawaii, it was perfectly warm enough for lots of walking. I'm glad this picture is blurry. ha!! My mom let me wear her cute garden shoes clogs.

Now for some "Mont Time":

While we were there, my dad rolled him around so often, he picked it up himself! So here he is on the infamous rolling-towel (to protect the bed from bites and slobber, no doubt). He had such a fun time with my parents and sister that it took him a few days to unwind from having all fun he did. Poor little guy.

My dad became his best bud while Mark wasn't able to be with us.

It was a great trip and we were sad to see it end.. I had to return to my real world of housework and other grown up things.. It was nice to be a kid again. As Tessa might say, "It was great visiting with the Parentals."