Tired

Tired seems like an understatement these last few days. Marshall is in Minneapolis for an internship expedition with the school and had a few intern interviews over there. Nothing came of his interviews in Salt Lake which makes me a little bummed. He really wants to be with an advertising agency and it seems like you have to get paid next to nothing for a while just to get your foot in the door. One company seems somewhat promising in Minneapolis but it looks like we would still be in "no money mode" for the summer. Graduation is only 2 weeks away so I'm hoping he gets something soon. Anyways- back to the tired thing. Marsh really helps out a lot when he is at home so I feel a little drained having the boys with no break for the last few days. Rowan has no sort of set sleeping schedule - some nights he goes to bed at 10 or 11 - lately it's been 12 or 1. Chandler is in bed every night between 9 and 9:30 so it's hard when Rowan doesn't go down until 1 am and then is up every 3 hours. It seems like Chandler was sleeping 8-9 hours at this point so it's hard that Rowan's longest stretch ever is 6 hours. I go back to work tomorrow and have to work Saturday and Sunday night, so if I'm not sleep deprived enough now, I will be after this weekend. I'm crossing my fingers that the boys go down for a nap at the same time so I can get some sleep too! To top it all off, we are still going crazy being cooped up for the most part. It snowed a couple times this week and was really windy and cold yesterday. Chandler cries to go outside but it's way too cold. Our idea of an outing lately is to go to Target to get diapers...
I pulled Chandler's bumbo seat out to see if Rowan could support his head enough to sit in it. He's always wanting to sit up when I hold him and his head is pretty strong now so I thought we'd try it. As you can tell from the picture up at the top, he hated it. Guess I will give it some more time.
Chandler on the other hand, loves it even though he is way to big in it. I found a picture of Chandler in the bumbo when he was about 3 1/2 months old. I think he's just a LITTLE too big for it now....



Here's just a cute video of Rowan cooing and smiling at his toys on his bouncer.

Judging

A picture of a picture -that's why I have the lovely glare on the right side.

As many of you already know, I have a history with pageants. I did Jr. Miss in high school, won Miss Idaho Falls in 2002, competed in the Miss Idaho pageant, and then also did Miss Rexburg and was a runner up there. After I did Miss Idaho Falls, lo and behold I wound up in the Wall Street Journal.     I spent my year as Miss Idaho Falls promoting  my platform "Understanding and Empowering Individuals with Disabilities"   It was a huge growing experience for me and really a lot of fun.  It is a scholarship pageant so scholarship money I won paid for my whole Junior year of college.

A year ago my mom told me about a judging seminar to get on the preferred judges list for Idaho. We went to the seminar which was very informative. I know there are quite a few people on the list so I wasn't necessarily expecting to get to judge a lot. I got a call at the first of the month from the lady who was the judge's chairman for the Miss Pocatello/Miss Eastern Idaho pageant. She said she had someone recommend me to judge. I was flattered as I don't think she realized even though I was VERY familiar with pageant scene, I was a novice judge. There were 5 of us judging, 3 women & 2 men. They have a celebrity judge now as the fifth judge who is someone who is well known in the area but isn't necessarily qualified to judge a pageant. Liza Raley from KLCE was the celebrity judge. She was hilarious and really fun to be around. The other judges were great as well. Although there were only 7 girls, I was really impressed when we began the interviews. Most of the girls were really smart and witty. Marshall was a great trooper to come with me and bring Rowan. I didn't think I could go a 8-9 hour stretch without feeding him so they came along. Marshall had pulled an all nighter the night before trying to get their AAF campaign done so by the time we got home Saturday night, he hadn't slept in 2 days. Poor guy. I think he is recovering though.  They took us out for dinner before the pageant started and Miss Idaho was there as she attends all the local pageants and performs her talent.  It was fun to talk to her about her experience at Miss America.  

At the end of the night one judge was making the comment on how fun she thought judging was and that it can get addicting. I totally agreed. I loved being on the other side where I got to help choose the winner instead of being the one who was judged.  Here are a couple more pictures of my pageant days....

A billboard advertising the pageant the year I gave up my title

With my mom and dad after Miss Idaho Falls

I was just a "little" surprised when I won, alas the tear streaked face

Being interviewed by the news 

Happy Easter!

Chandler and Rowan in their Easter duds!

Here are some pics of what the Easter Bunny brought Chandler. He comes on Saturday at our house :) He got a Melissa & Doug basic skills puzzle, a Curious George coloring book & stickers, and of course candy.

Stuck

I was making lunch today and Chandler was standing on a stool next to me trying to help. Then he started getting into the cupboard that has the chocolate syrup, carmel, etc. Well, he started yelling help and when I looked over I realized he had his finger stuck in the hot fudge bottle. He kept saying, "Help! Stuck!" Pretty funny. I think my son loves sugar almost as much as I do. And yes, he is still in his pajamas at 1 pm - we don't believe in getting dressed at our house. :)

Oh, Fun!

Chan & Rowan showing some brotherly love :)

"Oh, fun!" This is the phrase often used by Chandler when we are doing or going to do something he is really excited about. Yesterday, Sara & I made plans to take the boys down to Blast Off to let them burn off some energy. I told Chandler before his nap that if he went down like a good boy he could play with Carson. He giggled and said, "Oh fun!" So he went down fairly easy, which was nice. We went down that afternoon and it was nice to visit with Sara while the boys ran wild & Rowan slept the whole time. After 2 hours of playing we went over to Wendy's where the boys devoured their meals and both managed to spill most of their chocolate milk. Needless to say, Chandler went to bed early last night and slept great!

Sara helping Carson & Chan in the ball pit.

It's hard to see but they are holding hands in this picture...must be BFF! I'm sure Chan will appreciate this when he's older ;)

Today we went in for Rowan's 2 month well baby visit. He's doing really well - weighed in at 13 lbs 1 oz & was 24 1/2 inches long. Crazy to think he's grown 4 inches and gained 4 lbs in just two months. He's 80% for weight and 96% for height. Looking back on Chandler's 2 month visit, they are almost exactly the same size. Chan was 13 lbs 3 oz & 24 1/4 inches. Rowan's bellybutton is STILL goopy but there is no sign of infection and it is just taking it's own sweet time drying up. He also had 4 shots, one of which was given orally. I didn't realize they had a vaccine that could be given that way which I thought was cool. He screamed after the injections but calmed down fairly fast and has been sleeping ever since.
Chandler has had a little bump on his hip by his bum and it has gotten bigger over the past few weeks. It has also spread a little and he had 3 tiny other ones. Chandler has discovered it and everytime I change his diaper he reaches down and tries to scratch at it. Then he looks at me and says, "What happen?" Marsh and I just have to laugh it off and say, "I don't know what happened bud." Pretty funny, but honestly, how do you answer that question? It almost looks like a wart, but I figured I'd have the dr. look at it today when we took Rowan in. He said it's a form of viral warts which is really common in little kids. It's just weird where he has it at. I guess it's supposed to go away on it's own and if it hasn't in a year, we will see a dermatologist. A year seems like a long time to me, but whatever...

Rowan at exactly 2 months

All bundled up....in March?

This last week we've been a little stir crazy as it still really isn't spring here and we got a 3-4 inches of snow the other day. I had a particularly bad dayyesterday with the kids and it's hard because Marshall hasn't been around too much. He's working on an ad campaign for AOL that they will pitch for AAF in Portland the end of next month. Since he's the president of AAF he has to see that things get done. Well everyone has been slacking off big time in his class this semester and Marshall has gotten the grunt of the work. I know he loves working on it, but not by himself. There have been countless times in the last few weeks that he has gotten up at 5, 4 & even 3 am to work on this campaign. The last couple Saturdays he's had to go work on it as well. I can't wait for April to come when he doesn't have to do homework and be gone so much. Anyways, I had a good cry yesterday and decided to keep myself busy today since it was Saturday and Marsh would be up to the school most of the day. I got up and ran a couple miles this morning and lifted weights. I've been doing really well exercising the last couple weeks to try to get off the last 14 lbs of the baby weight, I just wish the eating weren't so hard. I went to a Relief Society Enrichment activity which was nice, and then came home and tried to get Chandler down for a nap. That wasn't going to happen so we decided to bundle up and go outside. I wanted to take Rowan with us but he was pretty mad about his little snowsuit so he sat in his bouncer right by the window so I could keep an eye on him. Chan & I rode the snowmobile around the yard and threw snow at each other. Today has gone much more smoothly and I've actually gotten some cleaning & laundry done. Phew! Now off to get the motivation to make some dinner....

Rowan in his snowsuit

All the snow we still have....

Chandler ready to go outside. We buzzed his hair a couple weeks ago and with his fair skin and how blonde he looks when his hair is short I thought he almost looks bald. Poor boy.

Rowan hanging out inside

Book Tag

I was tagged by my sister Jer...

Here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (at least 123 pages).

2. Turn to page 123
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the 5th sentence on your blog
5. Tag 5 people

So being that all of my books are in storage, I went over to one of my mom's bookshelves and thumbed through a few books. One of the children's books caught my eye which was: Doctor Dolittle's Puddleby Adventures by Hugh Lofting. I figured with a title like that, there had to be some good stuff in it


Here's line 5 of page 123: Then all of the wives who had wanted to be New Women rose up and shouted: "We do! We do!"

Ok - so an interesting line right? I was intruiged as there was an illustration of ugly cave women with monkey lips on this page. The page after that went on to talk about a green-breasted martin and these so called women were called "Goo-goos...."

VERY VERY WEIRD. And this is supposed to be written for kids? I noticed my mom picked this up at a garage sale for 25 cents. The first copyright was also in 1925. I wonder what was going on in Hugh Lofting's mind since I am not at all familiar with Doctor Dolittle. Great Friday night reading......

I tag Sara, Brook, Natalie, Ashley, Erin & anyone else who can find something good in a book on page 123!

Who can resist a naked baby?

Especially one with a double chin and little "man boobs!" lol. I knew Rowan was getting chunky as I've noticed he's got some major little rolls on his upper thighs, but this picture really confirmed it for me. I know he's 12+ lbs but will know for sure when we take him in for his 2 month well baby visit next week! Good to know he's thriving and to that stupid question people ask mom's of chunky babies - yes, I must be making cream.

Family Pics

Here are family pictures we had done at Gugelman's while everyone was home. They shot us all individually so they can compile a big family picture which is nice because it guarantees that  everyone will look good.

My Mom & Dad

My oldest brother Jason

Brother Geoff

My brother Clint's family (Aurelia, Nadia, Clint & Bianca)

Us Again

My nephew Kaden

My niece Maeli

Mom & Dad with all 6 kids

Marshall & Chandler

Rowan & me

Very rough draft of what our "compiled" family picture will look like

The whole group shot together

My sister Jeralee's family (Moura, Joe, Jeralee, Charlise)

Clint & Bianca

The whole group again

Jer's family again

My sister Avry & her husband Justin

Clint & Bia

My niece Charlise

Avry & Justin

What a day, and there were a lot more proofs that I didn't post. The pictures turned out great and I know my mom is really happy that she pushed to have them done. Now to come up with the $$ to order them!