Projects

I've never met a person that says they have enough time to do all the things that they want to. If that's you, keep it to yourself, because all of the rest of us will hate you. There are lots of things I would do with extra time like run more, go back to school, be a better housekeeper, cook more (and more nutritiously), play with my kids more, blog more, stay in touch with more friends and family, garden, date nights, organize... anything and everything, keep up with my school stuff, practice the piano more, learn to play my harp... you get the idea. There are so many things I wish I had more time and energy to accomplish, but the reality is I have to get the day to day stuff done and at this point our family is pretty much just in survival mode. However, this school year is a lot different for me than any previous years, I have 4-5 days each week that I am at home! Of course this has mostly translated into increased sanity and more play time with my little rascals... toss in a little piano practicing, working out, and internet time wasting and I'm back to the same amount of spare time as usual. Really it's great, but I want to start adding in some of those other things that I've always wanted to, starting with projects around the house.

I am not good at decorating or crafting. I am not very creative when it comes to making my house feel like a home, but I'm pretty good at seeking out things I love (thank you blogs, pinterest and random google searches). We have lived in our house for 3 years now and I'm starting to feel pretty sad about how little I've done to make it our own. Time for that to CHANGE! So I am making my first list of projects to make my house a home. I'm starting simple, but with winter coming on it seems like we spend way more time indoors and we also seem to have a lot more stuff hanging out all over the floor... so I'm starting there.

PROJECT 1: Over the door "hang-all" for the mud room. My inspiration (bottom left corner below):

from This website. I think I want the knobs to be white or black with a rustic banged up paint job. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go with my original color scheme that I wanted for that room, if I do the knobs will be bright pink, yellow and orange... we'll see.

Project 2: Sticking with the them and the same website, I need a small pretty coat rack for inside the front door. It is going to hang low, and I might even hang the occasional ribbon strung holiday decoration from it. The inspiration (top left):

I just love the pretty knobs! I think there will only be four on mine. Now.... where do I find them???

Project 3: Coat (hat, back pack, tie, etc) hanger for Jack's room. It will look like the front of a propeller plane. Sorry, not picture for this one, but I'll try to describe the picture in my head. I will make the front of a propeller plane out of wood and paint it to match the plane theme already in his room.The propellers will each have three little knobs to hang things from. Ok, I'm giving myself some serious credit for creativity on this one! I'm sure it's going to be so stinking cute!!

Project 4: I can always use a little more space in my kitchen drawers and cupboards so I'm going to hang my measuring cups and spoons inside a cupboard door. This will free up a drawer for my tupperwear lids... and then free up a huge shelf in my cupboard for more kitchen gadgets (my FAVORITE)!

Mine will be much simpler. I'm just going to buy 3M hooks and use a level to make them straight :) Maybe I'll post a picture.

Project 5... and 6: My inspiration for these two came from a Relief Society activity. Another girl (who happens to have an amazingly cute home) painted a super cool picture frame. She hangs it on the wall and hangs things inside of it, like ornaments. The video I'm linking shows the idea using an old window frame... I'm going with simpler! After I looked at the video, I noticed the other one on the same page and realized I wanted to do something similar... A chandelier of ornaments. I'm thinking I will make a ball shape rather than a Christmas tree shape, and since my current light fixture isn't a glammy/glitzy style I think I will go with some brown base more crafty looking ornaments. This one will be an adventure, but since I don't decorate for Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving, I've got a little time.

Now, no looking at pinterest, blogs or magazines until these are finished. Wish me luck!

Happier Halloween

I have never liked Halloween, except for the candy of course. Even as a kid I really hated dressing up because I just felt weird, and I didn't really care for knocking on all of the neighborhood doors asking for candy. There were a few exceptions I suppose. One year I was a BYU cheerleader and I loved my costume so much that it made the whole experience worth it. The same was true when I was Ty Detmer (BYU Quarterback/Heisman award winner). Essentially all of the other Halloweens I felt like my costume just wasn't good enough and I didn't really want to run around the neighborhood all night. There was another problem. My parents hated Halloween, so I almost felt guilty liking it. My dad still complains that it is a Pagan holiday and we shouldn't celebrate it. I also detest pumpkin guts, so making Jack'O'Lanterns never appealed to me. All of these things added together made me pretty unenthusiastic about this night of ghosts and goblins.

Since I have had children I have enjoyed it a bit more. I haven't dressed up for years, but I do like seeing them dressed up, however the process to get them to that point has usually been less than fun. I have been a boring mom that has no Halloween decorations and really can't get into all the Halloween traditions.

This year was different, maybe just a little, but different still, and I think I might be making progress. First of all the Young Women were in charge of the Ward Halloween Party this year which forced me to get festive a little earlier. I also saw a darling craft on facebook and decided to copy it with the kids. I got really excited for Jack's costume and putting it all together (including a little sewing)! It all turned out pretty great. I even dressed up... and liked it!

Woody, Anikan Skywalker and Witch before the Halloween Party (Cow was still napping). At the party, Jack and Gunner won the costume contest. It's true, they were pretty fantastic!

Can you tell that the holes on my stomach make a skeleton face?

On Halloween night before Trik'or'treating with Jack and Daddy's Jack'o'Lantern.

After walking around the neighborhood, we visited Aunt Cassie at work, Grandma and Grandpa Bolton and Aunt Chelsey, Grandma and Grandpa Bolton, and Grandma Linda and Grandpa Thurgood.

I think it was a pretty successful night!

What's For Dinner?

You may recall that I recently (ok, maybe not so recently) set this goal of a once weekly post about a new recipe. I suppose it was just another case of starting a goal incredibly excited and motivated but petering out as soon as other stuff, often referred to as real life, got in the way. The good news I have tried lots of new recipes and it has even been on a fairly regular basis, but I don't remember most of them. Here is a link to one that I do remember that was quite yummy (and simple):

Crock-Pot Stroganoff Loved that it was in the crock pot all day, but my big discovery... don't use the stew meat or whatever it calls for, use a roast. Pull it out when it is cooked through, shred it, and drop it back in the sauce for a while. So tender!

I recently purchases a new recipe book called Hungry Girl: 300 Under 300. I ordered it online after hearing amazing things about her books and glancing at a few recipes. I was sooooo excited when it came in the mail.... but I must admit, it wasn't as incredible as I had hoped. So far we have found a few recipes that looked good, sounded good, had reasonably inexpensive and regularly used ingredients and actually turned out tasting good. I think we have tried about 10 recipes. Most have been pretty good, but the ingredients were a tricky thing. Ground beef style soy crumbles... no thank you. So we substituted a few ingredients where the calorie count would only be slightly affected. Another little issue-many, of the recipes are designed for only one serving. I guess hungry girls eat alone. Maybe the biggest problem is that Jack hasn't liked much of it at all, and he needs MORE calories anyway. I have decided to try at least 2 a week from the book, but I don't promise to report on any of it.

The Best Boys!

This boy is always making me smile. I just wanted to mention two of the absolutely adorable things he does lately. First he says thank you for EVERYTHING. When I get him out of his bed and give him a kiss he tells me thank you, when I give him a snack he tells me thank you, and pretty much any other time that I do something for him that he likes he says thank you. In fact once he told me thank you when I wiped his nose, right after he finished screaming because he actually hates that. Thank you was actually one of the very first things he said, right after mama and daddy. We tried to teach him the sign, but he learned to say it before he learned to sign it.

The other super cute thing is being proud of himself. He has a "Little People" fire truck that is filled with building blocks that can be put in the back of the truck through holes that match the block shapes. He will pick up a block and put it in the right slot and then throw his hands in the air and shout "YAY" every time. It is so stinking cute!

Not to leave out my other two amazing boys I better say something about them too. I've nicknamed this one:

DASH! Because he is always going at top speed. The great thing he's doing lately is making lots of new friends. He is always wanting to stop by different neighbors' homes to say hi and he always wants to run across the street to play with one of his best friends.

He talks like he does everything else--super fast! Kind of like his mom. He does a lot of other things a lot like mommy and sometimes it drives daddy just a little crazy. He certainly has a mind of his own, and I love that about him! I prefer the word strong willed over stubborn, and boy is he :)

This guy is are sweet nature boy (I know Dash is in the background there, but he's kind of everywhere). He seems to be a never ending encyclopedia of knowledge about anything and everything in the wilderness. I am always surprised at the intricate details he knows about random animals and plants. So awesome.

He said the funniest thing the other day. Daddy and his uncles were teasing him a bit about a girl at school that he has had a crush on for a couple years. Daddy asked him "Is she a good kisser?" His response: "I don't know, I've never seen her kiss!" So cute. Glad to know he's still sweet and innocent considering his daddy was already thinking about kissing me when he was about that age ;)

I have the BEST boys!

Balance

The last 4 years of my life have felt very uNbAlAnCeD to say the least. I have felt like every moment I have is torn between school work, housework, trying to enjoy time with my kiddos and hubby, church callings. You might be thinking yeah, yeah join the club, everybody is busy, and you are right, everybody is, but there was something else. With all the to-do's between school, work, home and church I was feeling like an epoch failure! I could spend tons of extra time on my grading and lesson planning at home and still feel like I wasn't reaching a single student but that took all my time away from being a good mommy which meant I was a grumpy mommy. So I would try to spend less time on school work and things got even worse there and I lived to dread every minute I spent with students in my classroom. That's not at all what I had expected for my career. It felt like a constant battle: make school survivable or keep my house semi livable and make sure my kids got some happy mommy time.

I had to pick. I could never choose everything! Something (or rather many things) always got dropped. I felt like I was dropping every ball thrown in my court. In addition my poor husband was having to fight the exact same battle and I could do nothing to support him because I was too worried about my own balancing act. We kept talking about the light at the end of the tunnel, but living in the darkness waiting for that light was just becoming too much to bear. I hated the person I was becoming and I felt like I was missing the time of my life I had been looking forward to most since I was a little girl!

Finally it just couldn't go on anymore. Thankfully that was about the time Tyler got a job with IHC that would offer benefits for a part time employee. We decided that, while it was maybe financially a bad idea, I had to be more there for my family so I needed to switch to part time. It didn't happen right away, and the process that it took to get there was emotionally exhausting, but it was the best decision we could have made. Yes financially it has been challenging (ummm, that is a massive understatement by the way), but the pay off has been amazing in other ways. Most significantly, we are experiencing something we had only dreamed of... BALANCE!

Balance is an incredible thing (ready for my inner nerd to vomit science on you...) When the forces on an object are balanced the motion of that object remains unchanged, this doesn't mean there are no forces, it just means they are balanced. Take the example of a hockey puck gliding along a sheet of ice. Unless it is hit by something, it continues along its path. There are still forces acting on the puck (gravity and normal force), but it just keeps on moving along... sometimes said: an object in motion remains in motion. And that is in essence what I am beginning to feel. There are certainly still a great deal of demands on me daily, but all in all they seem to be balanced! I am now a little like that calm disc, gliding along the ice, heading in a certain direction and moving at a steady pace. Of course the occasional (or frequent) external force comes along and takes me a bit off course. The big difference, was that before something always had to come first, there was always one demand that could knock all the others out of my plans for days at time, and usually that was school/work related. Now, I feel like I can give priority to everything when it is needed.

The things that I used to put off until summer or long weekends are now a constant part of my life. I can plan healthy meals, exercise, play outside with my boys for hours at a time, hang out with my man (when he isn't too busy), keep up with grading and lesson planning, work on projects around the house, keep up with my church calling, spend time with friends, and amazingly even enjoy some me time. No, I still don't have it all together. I forget things I'm supposed to do, there are usually several unfinished tasks on my to do list at the end of the day, and I still get cranky about all sorts of things that I should probably not worry about. But, I feel balanced and that is enough.

Baby Animal Days

Last year a friend of mine introduced me to a fun event up in... almost Logan, called Baby Animal Days. I couldn't wait to take Jack again and introduce little Gunner to the baby animals as well. As the day approached it appeared that the weather was not going to cooperate, so we called ahead and they said it was a light shower. I figured it would keep the crowds down and we could handle a little rain. After an hour and forty-five minute drive in terrible conditions, the light shower had turned into a decent snow storm, but we had come all that way, so we decided to brave it. We were not prepared and poor Jack ended up pretty wet and chilled, but we just stayed long enough to see all of the baby animals and get out of there. With very few other patrons that didn't take long.

All of the animals were darling, and the bunnies were extra snuggly because of the cold. I thought I had gotten more pictures of Gunner with the animals, but I guess that was my mom. I'll have to get them from her. I had Gunner in a carrier the whole time, which kept he and I both quite warm.

Checking out the chick's beak.

Last year he kissed the duckling, this year we could barely get him to hold it.

Warming his hands on the bunny.

Gunner was very gentle, except when he almost pulled this bunny's ear off.

How we stayed warm.

Yummy BBQ Chicken

Last week's new recipe:

Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken Barbeque

It was super easy, but had more pizzaz than the standard chicken with BBQ Sauce in the Crock-Pot. We served it on toasted whole wheat hamburger buns, melted a slice of cheese on it, and topped it with a slice of tomato. Everybody loved it. Hayden even ate the chicken plain when we ran out of buns :) Oh, and I added some finely diced onion to the sauce before cooking it.

The next day we were making quesadillas and I made one with Mozzarella, the left over chicken and diced tomatoes. It was super delicious.

Make again sometime? I think so!

Fast and... almost Fantastic

I tried two new recipes this week and both deserve at least a mention.

The first was a yummy chili called Lizard Stew. The boys liked it and I would definitely consider making it again on a busy night because it can be cooked in a pot right before serving, or just left in the crockpot all day until you are ready to eat.

Lizard Stew

1 lb hamburger browned and drained

26 oz. Can Minestrone Soup

15 oz. can ranch-style chili beans

10 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies

1 lb. Velveeta (I use the lower fat made with 2% milk)

Combine all ingredients except cheese and heat until bubbly. Add cheese and heat until melted. Serve over corn chips. If done in crockpot just add cheese about 30 minutes before serving.

What I LIked: It was full of flavor and just the right amount of heat. It was so easy to make and the kids liked it. The name :) what's not too love about that. I also like that it has lots of veggies and fiber from the beans. It didn't take much to make me feel super full!

What I didn't like: It is super high in sodium and fairly high in calories and fat, but as mentioned above it does have a pretty high nutritional content as well, so in moderation it's a pretty decent meal. It has Velveeta in it... it's kind of hard for me to get behind a meal that has processed cheese product.

If I were to give it a grade, Lizard stew would get a B, and I will keep on standby for a crazy night that needs a warm meal.

The other meal was called Fast and Fantastic Black Bean Soup, and fast it was, but I wouldn't give it fantastic. I love black beans and I love soup. I thought it would be a great meal with some quesadillas. It was pretty good, but left something to be desired. Tyler thinks cilantro, and it probably would have helped if I had remembered the green onion on top.

What I liked: It was easy to make. The flavor was pretty good especially with a little sour cream and quesadillas. It was a good portion size for our little family.

What I didn't Like: Again with the Velveeta, but this helped me use up some of what was left. The beans didn't really blend to smooth so there were funny little bits in it. The flavor was kind of weak.

I would probably give this one a B-, and will consider it again as a cold day lunch, and maybe add more salsa or some herbs and spices to give it a little more flavor.

Hopefully this week I will come up with a family favorite that's a healthy timesaver.

A New Family Favorite

I think it was January of 2010 that I decided I would try to make one new dinner each week. I Wish I could say I now have over 60 new dinners in my repertoire, but I failed. After a few weeks I ran into roadblocks, and, like other new years resolutions, it died out.

This has nothing to do with why I tried a new recipe tonight. Really that was just necessity. I had some left over brown rice and a somewhat picky 8 year old coming for dinner along with no hubby to keep the hungry boys occupied until it was done. I knew I could pretty easily throw together some chicken and rice with some vegetable and some cream of something soup, but that sounded pretty lack luster to me.

I like the Kraft website because you can put in ingredients that you have and it will give you recipes that match. My ingredients: chicken, brown rice, and carrots. I almost passed over this recipe because I didn't like the name. I was hoping for something healthy with a moderate calorie count, and the name just didn't shout that to me, but turns out at less than 500 Calories per serving it wasn't too bad (and by the way a serving was way more than enough for me). So, here it is:

Farmhouse Chicken Dinner (see what I mean about the name, sounds a little too hearty)

I made a few adjustments:

• I didn't have any Light Zesty Italian, only Fat Free Italian, which doesn't work to cook chicken in so I mixed half olive oil and half dressing. It worked fine, but I'm sure it would also be great as directed.
• After reading a couple of reviews I got worried that it was going to be bland, so I added a little garlic salt. I think it would be great to add some to the flour mixture, although I didn't feel the dish was bland at all.
• It didn't take 20 minutes!! I hate overcooked chicken so at about 14 minutes of simmering I stuck my meat thermometer in and discovered it was cooked through so I took it out.
• I didn't use instant rice because I already had leftover brown rice. The rice doesn't cook with the chicken, so it doesn't matter.
• I forgot the parsley... oops

What I liked:

It was very easy to make and called for ingredients that I almost always have on hand. It was delicious; the combination of flavors seemed right to me, but I'm no food critic. The carrots were yummy and flavored with the sauce and cooked to just tender (with only 14 minutes). The chicken was cooked to perfection. I don't know if I or the recipe get credit for that, but either way it was luscious (ok I know Ryan Lamb doesn't read my blog, but if he did he would be laughing right now)

What I didn't like:

Once it was all served up on the plate, it had a bit of a casserole feel to it and that's just not my favorite, nor Tyler's. The sauce didn't thicken, at least in the time that I gave it. Even runny, it made for a great gravy.

Back to how I started this long post - this meal has inspired me to get back to my one new meal each week goal, but this time I have a new idea of how to stick with it. I am going to post the recipe and my review each week. I hope you enjoy. If not, maybe at some point I'll follow it with pictures of my always darling boys :)

Also, if you have any favorite dinner recipes please share!

Your Secret Weapons Please

Yes, it has been months since my last post and now you happen upon my blog and you are greeted with a post about the least glamorous of all motherly duties... cleaning the bathroom. Well I'm sorry, but that is what is on my mind this lovely saturday morning. I woke up motivated to get my Saturday chores done, mostly because Tyler would be leaving for work at noon and I wanted to get it done before I had both boys to entertain all by myself. That tends to slow down the cleaning, so off I went. I grabbed my trusty bin of scrubbing, disinfecting, and sparkling bathroom cleaning chemicals.

It seems since early on in my life it has been hard for me to commit to any one particular set of cleaners. There must be something to clean mirrors, disinfect and clean countertops. Wipe away nasty toilet germs, bleach the heck out of the toilet bowl and finally make my tub and shower sparkle! I'm fairly comfortable with my selection of cleaners for mirrors, counters, and toilets, but the tub and shower have always left me a little befuddled. Frequently the two are made of different materials and have different needs. Clearly the shower walls need something that sprays and the tub must have something the bubbles up and disinfects. Often, when Tyler is faced with shower/tub he feels it is sufficient to spray it down with water and finish off with our standard after shower spray. I feel strongly that this is not enough. Seriously friends, we stand in their naked... and with BARE feet!!! That thing needs bleached.

Generally for the tub part I look to comet. I love the bubbles, the sparkle and the germ killing goodness. I have even found a lemon scented version and enjoy it very much... but this still leaves the shower walls and doors. I faced an even greater dilemma this week as I realized that I was out of comet and had forgotten to pick up more. So I looked in the bin... windex... not germ killing enough, clorox wipes... not scrubby bubbly enough, toilet bowl cleaner... hmmm bleach, check, bubbly check why not. Well news flash, this is some strong stuff. For my bathroom I wore gloves and was pleased with the final result. After a deep scrub to the tub I sprayed everything out and finished off with a leave on shower spray for the walls. Near the end however I discovered a hole in my gloves and realized I would have to go gloveless for the remaining bathrooms, ICK. Oh well what was I to do? There was a job that must be done and I am the woman for the job, so I set forth looking forward to a nice antibacterial hand scrubbing and moisturizing following the dirty task.

It was then that discovered the harshness of the toilet bowl cleaner. I would say strong base to say the least. My hands feel awful, and now I'm a little worried to put naked baby bums back in the tub. I rinsed much more carefully (like 5 or 6 times) this time around and was still satisfied with the final result but decided that I will definitely need to make a trip to the store before my next bathroom cleaning adventure. Alas, all bathrooms again sparkle and shine... at least for now. Not to mention, I managed to get them all done before 10:30 :) good day. But, my question for all of you faithful readers (hmmm I better post this to facebook so I at least get 2 or 3 of you...) What do you have in your arsenal for that oh so gruesome job? I feel ready to commit so that I don't have to face down the daunting cleaner aisle at Target ever again feeling vulnerable and unprepared. Help me please!

Treasure Family to Island Park

Friday July 16th- Tuesday July 20

The Treasure Family went on a big trip to Island Park Idaho. We had so much fun staying in a great big cabin all together. Almost everyone got to come and we really missed the family members that couldn't make it. The kids had a great time playing together in the cabin, on the boat, out in the woods, canoeing down the river and having a great big slumber party. We did so many fun things so I'll try to list them by day.

Friday

Packed up the car an got on our way. We left later than planned (I mentioned this was a Treasure family trip right? would you expect it to get started on time?). In our car we had 4 little boys- Hayden, Isaac, Jack and Gunner. Gunner had a hard time. He did great for the first 3 hours, but after that he mostly cried. I felt so bad for him and it made me rather cranky. After a VERY long drive with many stops we finally arrived at the cabin. It was a great cabin with plenty of space for everyone. After dinner it was already way past bedtime so that's where we all headed.

Saturday

Grandpa Treasure rented a boat and we all had a great time riding around on it. I spent most of the day on the boat thanks to Jeannette who was willing to keep Hayden and Gunner so we could go again. The second time on the boat a bunch of us went swimming, it was SUPER cold, but so much fun. Jack loved the boat and all of the grandkids had a great time taking turns driving the boat. Michael was pretty good at it. I really loved being on the boat. Tyler hooked Dad's iPhone up to the sound system and I just relaxed listening to some great music with the wind in my hair and water splashing up. It was GREAT! Here's a BUNCH of pictures.

Sunday

We went to church. The congregation was huge. There was a separate building for chapel overflow and it was full. After church we all just played and hung out. The next pictures are from Sunday and just around the cabin on all the days we were there.

Monday

Tyler and Grandpa took some of the older grandkids shooting. It was Hayden's first time shooting a real gun and he liked it. Tyler got to shoot our gun for the first time.

After shooting we took the canoe to the river. The kids had a good time there rowing the canoe and then catching minnows (or trying to catch minnows) on the river bank.

Gunner's Blessing Day

Sunday July 4

Talk about a weekend filled with spiritual experiences for our family! After Hayden's baptism on Saturday we were lucky to gather as a family again and witness Gunner's baby blessing. He was blessed by his dad (Dad was a busy guy that weekend) and it was wonderful. His name is now officially on the records of the church as Gunner Max Bolton! Family and friends were there to support. We met at our home for a lunch after church and enjoyed spending time with all that could come. Gunner cooperated very well, except that about 3 minutes before sacrament meeting started he pooped A LOT. I changed him.... and he pooped again. Thankfully I managed to keep his adorable white suit all clean.

After this great weekend I felt especially grateful to have a husband that is worthy and faithful priesthood holder. I am so happy that he honors his priesthood and blesses his family with it. Tyler is a wonderful father and husband. I love him so much and I hope that our boys will follow his example and grow to be strong men that love their families and honor their priesthood!

Gunner in his adorable little suit (Thank you Grandma Treasure!)

Outside our Church after the blessing (I'm not sure what I'm looking at)

Hayden's Baptism

Saturday July 3

I can't believe he is 8 and baptized! He is growing up so fast. The day was amazing. He was baptized by his dad and confirmed by his Grandpa Stevenson. Many family members helped make the day very special. Talks were given by his Grandpa Bolton and his Grandma Stevenson. Aunt Jeannette Played the piano, uncle Austin lead the music, and Aunt Candice said a prayer. He was so excited about being baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost. Jack was very excited for Hayden to be "baptized in the pond" even though we explained it wasn't a pond, it was a font (is that how you spell that kind of font?). After the baptism we had a BBQ at the Stevenson home and everyone had a lot of fun, especially those that went swimming. Hayden loves swimming and only got out of the water long enough to eat. Jack also loved swimming and got in twice after we got him out to get dressed. Once fully dressed in dry clothes... oh well.

I will add pictures to this post as soon as I get them from Tyler's parents. I was dumb and forgot to make sure my camera was charged.

Another Bolton Boy

This is a bit late, but better late than never right? I wanted to write a few things before I forgot the whole thing (which of course has to happen or I would never have more kids...)

Gunner Max Bolton was born on Tuesday May 18th at 2:30pm. He was 6lbs 9oz and 19" long. I'm sure most of my readers don't really want the details of my labor, but I am really writing this more for me, so if the story will bug you... skip it :)

I was induced. I REALLY didn't want to be, but there was something I was even more opposed to and that was having an experience similar to the one when Jack was born, without my doctor there and destroyed by people that all thought they knew what was best for me, but refused to call the people that actually did know what was best for me (aka my cardiologists).... but this isn't Jack's birth story, it's Gunner's (sorry about that absurd run on sentence). Since my doctor was going out of town in 2 days and I was already dilated to a 3 and almost completely effaced I decided that I better just get induced and at least have my doctor their for the delivery. After all the many horror stories I have heard from others that were induced (and a few positive stories) I am happy to report that it went much better than I had expected. We arrived at the hospital around 7am and just hung out until my doctor came around 9 to break my water... that was a bit unpleasant. Nothing happened after that. Gunner was in no hurry to leave his warm, wet abode. I had wanted to avoid pitocin but around 11am it was clear that if I wanted to have a baby that day we better start helping him along, so they started me on the lowest dose. That did the trick. My contractions came on strong and steady. They were less than a minute apart... and uncomfortable to say the least.

I had wanted to go sans-epidural because of some unpleasant side effects I had when I had Jack, but a ways into transition I decided that pain really didn't need to be part of having a baby and I was tired of it. I should mention that at this point the contractions were only about 20-30 seconds apart, thanks to the pitocin. My doctor assured me that we could do a weaker dose this time so that I might be able to feel my legs again before the end of the week, so I went for it... and now regret it, because I had no idea how close I was, and my right leg did end up numb for way longer than I wanted. Epidural was administered (sometime a little before 2pm) and I started to feel a little better, except on my left side. For some strange reason the drug only worked on my right side. The pain from contractions continued on the left, but even the decrease down to just one side made it quite a bit more bearable. As long as I focused on my breathing I managed the pain just fine. We talked about having the anesthesiologist come back in and increase the dose, but before the nurse sent for him she decided to check me. Instead of getting the anesthesiologist she sent for my OB (about 2pm)because, HOORAY, it was time to push. As I waited for my OB I worked on the breathing techniques that I had sort of "studied" in a hypnobirthing book that are supposed to help to ease the baby down. Apparently it worked because when my OB got there we got all ready, I pushed twice and Gunner arrived.

I guess they count labor time from when the water was broken to when the baby comes, so by that clock my labor was about 5 hours. I don't feel I was really in labor until my contractions started, so I really only about 3.5 hours. WAY better than the 12+ hours with Jack.

Gunner arrived with high APGAR scores, screaming with a great set of lungs and with a full head of dark hair (totally unexpected). When Jack was born the nurses just took him right away because they were a little concerned about his breathing and then when they decided to take him to the NICU for a little bit I almost didn't get to hold him before he left :( it was terrible. This time my doctor handed him straight to me and I held him as they did the initial clean up. It was so wonderful! He was perfect and healthy and It was so much better for me to get to hold him right away. The other difference was this time once he was cleaned up they gave him back to me and everyone left! That was exactly what I needed. The people there were wonderful; Davis Hospital was a happy place for me to have a baby!

$xxx.xx and 3 hours later...

This is the story of a very late and very expensive dinner. I'm a little ashamed to tell it, but what can I say? Being nearly ready to pop makes me a bit impulsive in my behaviors.

This afternoon was like any regular afternoon. I got home from work around 4:30 after a short visit to the OB (on a completely unrelated note, I'm dilated to 2 already, doesn't really mean anything, but nice to know I'm getting a little closer to being done). I had been thinking about cheeseburgers for dinner pretty much all day, and I had some ground beef in the fridge along with tomatoes, lettuce, buns and even avocados! YUM!

There is a problem with this craving, I have been wanting burgers for several days now, but since we have a deck Tyler feels that we shouldn't have burgers until we can grill them on our very own grill... another problem, the grill that we "have to have" is rather expensive. This is not an example of greediness, I promise. It's just that we have a natural gas line that is almost sticking right out of the back of our house, and with that option it just doesn't make sense to spend money on a grill if we won't be able to hook it up to that and in the long run have significant savings on fuel for the grill.

Back to the story... I got home wanting a home grilled cheeseburger and impulsivity took over. I got out of the car, walked up to Tyler and said, honey lets go get your grill, I want burgers TONIGHT! Tyler wasn't going to argue with that, so off we went to Home Depot where we quickly found the correct grill (happily on a bit of a sale right now) found an attendant and had them bring one out for us. This is where we made the big mistake of the night. The salesman offered to have one built for us to take home. A fully constructed one won't fit in the back of the 4-runner so we figured, it can't be that hard, lets just get it in the box and take it home. WRONG! We should have quickly driven over to my dad's shop, borrowed the truck and come back to pick up the fully assembled grill. I should mention that by now it is about 5:30, still not a very late dinner.

We arrive home with the grill and Tyler gets to work on putting it together. Not a difficult task... but far more time consuming than we had anticipated. There was another minor detail that needed to be worked out: until we get the hook up run from our gas line we still need a propane tank, and don't have one. Thanks to Candice and Ryan for helping us out on that one! Finally at about 7:15 the grill is assembled, and we set off to get some propane in the tank (or exchange the tank as it turned out). This took a little longer than expected, but we were still excited to grill our first burgers on the grill that night. We got home around 7:45 with the full tank and Tyler quickly set to work cooking the burgers while I prepped all of the toppings. Finally at just a few minutes after 8:00 we sat down for our delicious burgers. Jack had gotten pretty cranky by this point but was adorable as he took great big bites of his "cheese booger."

Remembering Christina

Christina Lynn (Treasure) Hamilton, my oldest sister, passed away on Friday. She was 36 years old.

I don't really want to talk about that so much right now, instead I want to talk about how incredibly powerful and touching President Monson's talk at the end of the Sunday morning session of conference was. I know that many others in the church have recently experienced the loss of a loved one, but I felt that the talk was directed to me and my family. I have never wondered if I would see my family after death, I always knew the answer to Job's question: if a man dies will he live again? However, I have never had a close family member die and had my personal testimony of this principle tested. His message was truly a tender mercy of the Lord for me at a time that I have been unsure how to feel.

I was not very close to my sister Christina, especially in recent years. She made choices as a teenager that lead her down a road of destruction in her early adulthood. I was angry at her for many years because of some of the outcomes of her choices, but more recently I have just felt sad for her. When I was a young child I spent most of my time with my Christina. She was like a second mother to me. She loved to take me places and take care of me. My siblings all say she spoiled me, but I just remember that I always loved spending time with her. I remember her buying me treats, taking me shopping, teaching me how to make my bed and do the dishes. But the memory of my sister that sadly sticks in my head is the time I caught her smoking outside my dad's work with several of his coworkers. From then on I have few really positive memories of my sister. I love my sister. I miss her, I have missed her since long before she died. At this point I am less sad for my own loss than I am for how her life ended up. I'm sad that she spent most of her life unhappy. I'm sad that she never had the joy of the gospel in her life as a young mother as I do now. I ache knowing that her choices lead her to loneliness.

President Monson's talk helped me feel less of this. Christina is now in the Spirit world, her standing there I don't know, but I know she will be resurrected. I know that in her youth she was taught correct principles that my parents have been promised she will return to. While I am still sad, I feel comforted. Christina is ok; I will see her again.

All of the messages from conference were timely and uplifting. I feel renewed in my efforts to strengthen my family and live a Christ centered life.

The Name Game

The date is quickly approaching and it shows, big time. As any woman who has ever been pregnant knows there is a standard set of questions that you get asked whenever someone notices the abnormally protruding belly (thankfully very difficult to confuse with just being fat).
Question 1: When are you due?
Question 2: Do you know what it is?
Question 3: Have you picked a name for him (or her depending on response to question 2)?

I have absolutely NO problem with any of these questions. I am of course thrilled to be expecting the baby, thrilled that it's coming in only 7 weeks, and thrilled that it's a boy... but not so thrilled about needing to choose a name. When I was young I had a long list of names picked out, I believe written on the inside cover of some journal somewhere, but I have changed A LOT since my teenage years. The names I liked then are not the names I like now. Another issue with the names from being a teen is that for some reason I picked out mostly girl names, I can't remember a single boy name that I remember liking. This is silly since even in high school I felt pretty strongly that I was very likely to be raising a little army of boys.

Naming Jack was really a piece of cake. I adore my father. He was my hero growing up and still is. He makes people happy when he's around. He makes people laugh and not take life to seriously, but at the same time puts high priority on those things that really matter most. It was a no brainer that my first son would be named after him. I also love the name Jack. It is so simple and pure. It sounds very strong to me, and so I love it. Edwin was also easy. As Tyler's middle name and as a great honor to several men that have served their families, their country and their Heavenly Father faithfully it fit nicely with Jack and so it was: Jack Edwin Bolton. I love how it looks and how it sounds. I believe it suits my very strong willed but soft hearted little boy very nicely.

Now we have baby boy 2... If you ask we probably tell you an option we have discussed, however we agreed early in this pregnancy not to discuss names with others because I am very susceptible to the influence of other's opinions. We have a specific criteria when coming up with names. There are 3 things we are looking for:
It should sound pleasant and have a nice ring to it.
It should be easy to say and spell.
It should have meaning to us.

I hear lots of names that I like the sound of, but I have always loved that my name had meaning for my parents. It is a family name of a pioneer ancestor, it is the name of a righteous woman in the Bible, and for my dad I was named after Abigail Adams, a woman with great strength, courage and wisdom. It may seem trivial to have a name with meaning, but I have often felt the pressure of living up to my namesakes and desired to be a better woman. It's been a huge part of making me who I am now.

That said we have thought of several names, some of which totally fit our criteria... others that are just missing something. We have very much broken our rule about not discussing the name and I regret that a lot. So here it is, (finally my point) an explanation of the name you have heard for our new little boy. It is of course not for sure yet, but I will no longer apologize for the name, I like it very much, and it has great meaning to me!

Gunner: This is a name I have heard a few times but not frequently. I like that it is unique without being... weird (well I don't think it's weird). You should hear how cute Jack sounds when he says it, that is what sold Tyler on it :) The name's meaning is Warrior. My mother's first reaction to the name was that it sounded so militant... yep, that was actually sort of the idea. I like this for a few reasons, first it honors my sweet husbands faithful service to his country, second, have you noticed the number of boys that are being born lately?? I can't help but wonder if I am helping to raise an army. I am helping to raise an army of righteous young men to serve their Heavenly Father. Gunner will be a warrior of truth and righteousness.

Max: The middle name has been a bit tricky. We have thought about many and this is quite possibly not the one we will end up settling on, however it is a name I love. It is simple and short and who doesn't love a name with an X!? Tyler actually always wished he was named Max as a child, but that is definitely not our meaning for this one. I actually don't know the meaning or origin of Max, for me the meaning comes from the idea of having something that represents me in a name. How does Max represent me in any way? You may ask (that is if you are still reading this ridiculously long post). Well here comes the physics nerd in me... Max Planck is a famous physicist--a Nobel prize winning physicist. He is the founder of quantum theory and because of that may be an even more important physicist than, dare I say it, Einstein. I wrote a report about him once in college and was amazed at the beauty of is physics and theories (ok have I nerded everyone out of reading now?) and I like the name Max. Even more impressive to me was that he saw the simplicity and pureness of the natural laws of physics as evidence of an all powerful and all knowing God, which for some reason was uncommon among scientists of his time. At that point I thought, hey I should name a child Max... and now 5 years later I'm quite seriously considering it.

So there you have it, the possible name for baby boy 2: Gunner Max Bolton. Again, I like how it looks, the flow is a little off and that bugs me, it's easy to spell, and it has meaning to Tyler and me.

Thank you for reading the post if you survived the whole thing, even the especially physicsy nerdy parts. Now we will all just have to wait and see if this little one seems like a Gunner Max when he arrives.

My First Adventure in iMovie

With some changes coming to one of the programs at our school I joined a committe to help the changes run smoothly. My responsibility was to inform the students of the changes. I helped create a skit/movie to show to the students.
Yes, I know the students are reading MOST of their lines, but they got the script minutes before filming. What I'm most proud of is the editing I did last night (and into the morning). Watching it today (after some sleep) I realize that it is far from being a great editing job, but it was my first time and I wanted to share my success.




By the way, as far as legality goes, I am allowed to post pictures/videos of students as long as I don't include their names... so I didn't.

Huge

Just thought I would mention, I'm feeling rather large. I finally had to give up the elastic band across the fly trick to keep wearing regular pants and officially am in maternity clothes. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Baby and I are both incredibly healthy and I only have 13 weeks to go! It is super exciting except that I don't feel at all prepared. Jack has been pretty difficult lately and I don't know how I will do it with two! My mom is always asking "what if you get another one like Jack?" My response is I can already tell this one is different. Baby kicks, but not violently. I'm pretty sure this will be a much calmer child... but we will see.

We were pretty sure baby was a boy, but the ultrasound was quite early and we've started second guessing the Doctor's prediction. Today we had another ultrasound and baby was extremely uncooperative. While I feel pretty sure it is a boy the thought that we might get totally fooled and end up with a girl and only blue clothes makes me worry. Pregnancy in general just makes me worry a lot.

While difficult, Jack is being incredibly adorable and funny lately as well. He is speaking much more clearly and in sentences. It is so fun to be able to communicate with him.

So that's life right now, to be honest I am blogging to avoid grading papers.

New Hair Cuts

I have never been one of those girls that likes long hair on boys. I never understood the appeal. I tend to prefer clean cut (but yes I still like Tyler's beard, he looks super handsome). Tyler is all for convenience, so between that and my love of short hair that stays off the neck and ears the Marine Corps hair cut just never went away for him. I must say that makes me happy. I think he always looks pretty sharp, as long as the beard is well trimmed. When we bought our house we found a "military barber" that lived on our corner and that's where Tyler has been getting his haircut since (yes it's easy enough a cut I could do it, but I HATE HAIR ANYWHERE!!! so I figure for $6 I don't have to sweep and wipe with damp paper towels and still find little pieces days later YUCK!) We also get Jack's hair cut there.

Hayden on the other hand... well I'm not sure who normally cuts his hair, to be honest, in my opinion it is always too long and a little puffy looking. We finally convinced him that dad should cut it so he could look like his friends at school (short with spikes in the front still pretty standard style) The issue was convincing mom and grandma... A couple weeks ago they were going to get his haircut and he said, no my dad's going to do it, so when we picked him up they told us and we rejoiced!! It was time for a little more grown up hair cut for him. Well instead of Tyler doing it (again, I HATE hair) all 3 boys went to the military barber and got matching cuts. I LOVE THEM!!! Hayden's grandma and mom feel it's a little short, but like I said, I never understood the appeal of long hair on boys, so we are happy at our house. Thankfully Hayden's grandpa Mike loved it and it looks pretty much like all the other boys his age, so he's happy with it too, he also loves to rub the back with how short it is. I think you will all agree I have three VERY handsome boys at my house. Soon there will be one more, and he will likely get the same matching hair style :)