When Your Gone.....

When Ken is gone things are different around our house. We don't know if we should use the washcloths to wash the dishes or wear it as a hat.

Even Peter the Penguin gets confused. good thing Baby is around to straiten him out.
Don't worry, Ken will be home tonight and everything will be back to normal- whatever normal is.

We Miss You, Daddy!

Ken went on a Business trip today and Baby wanted to send him this message.

Daddy- We miss you. We tried to tell you on the phone today, but somehow the words just don't come out right. Mommy tries to distract me- see, she let me go get the mail, and then she let me eat the mail!

I thought it would be a good idea for Mommy to take a picture of all of your kids, but then I went to sleep. Silly me. So while I was taking my nap Mommy took the older boys out front for some pictures.

Here they are- I want to be just like Darth Tater, Spud Trooper, Spider Spud, Optimash Prime and Indiana, even though Indiana is a show off!

After I woke up, Mom let me take a picture all by myself- well just me and all the other Pumpkins.

These Mini Pumpkins are just the right size for me- I like to chew on them, but Mom keeps taking them away.

Yeah- I am pretty cute, aren't I? I love you Daddy, maybe when you get home we can take pictures by the pumpkins together?

Creepy Crawly

I have decided that my baby can crawl. He has been pushing himself forward a couple of times a week for a while now, but yesterday, if he was on the floor he was constantly moving. He hasn't figured it completely out yet- as you can see from this video, but he is very very close to a perfect crawl.I must admit, I helped him a little. He would get up on his hands and knees and squeal, the translation of the squeal that I heard was "I know I am supposed to do something now, but I can not remember what" and so I got down on the floor with him on Tuesday and moved his legs for him, he LOVED it, and it only took him 3 days to figure out how to make his legs move that way without my help.

The Plan

So I told you about all my reason for getting in shape- and now I am going to tell you about the Plan I have created.

I started with the Rewards! That is always a good place to start. Here is what I came up with.
Pounds Lost Reward
5 Special Treat (can be sweets or anything else)
10 Dinner and a Movie
15 Special Treat
20 Dinner Out
25 New Pants!
30 Special Treat
35 Dinner and a Movie
40 Pedicure
For any additional loss or each month of maintaining weight after 40 pounds switch back between Special Treat and Dinner and a Movie. Every 6 months of maintaining- get a Pedicure.

Here are my Plans/Rules of Health
(This is a rough draft that may be added to over the next few weeks)

1 Exercise at least 30 minutes, 5 days per week
2 Keep a Food Diary
3 You can have it, just eat less of it than you normally would
4 Drink lots of water
5 2 glasses of Chocolate Milk per week
6 Cut down on the Fat you eat
7 Eat fruit or vegetables for a snack
8 Only weigh yourself every other week.

Is there anything you think I should add?

For so many reasons

I love the Biggest Loser- I know that if I was able to have my own personal trainer and worked out 10+ hours per day I would lose a lot of weight. I just don’t have the money for the personal trainer and I don’t really want to work out 10+ hours per day, so I am going to have to try something different. I am going to be my own biggest loser and I am starting by listing all the reasons I want to change.

1- So that I will be healthier- I don’t want to have constant questions in my mind about whether or not I am slowly killing myself. I want to know that I am doing all I can to avoid Diabetes’s and Heart Disease.
2- If I am this cute now- Imagine how cute I will be later!
3- I don’t want to look pregnant when I am not pregnant
4- I want my clothes to fit- I want even smaller clothes to fit me.
5- I want to run and not be weary and walk and not faint
6- I want to feel more attractive
7- In the future I want to have easier pregnancies
8- I want to have more energy
9- I want to have a stronger body
10- I want to be able to hold my baby for as long as he wants/need to be held- he is getting really heavy, which for him is good
11- Maybe some of my aches and pains will go away
12- I want to be inspiring to others who want to change too

That is a good start- I am going to post these on my fridge- to remind me that I don’t need that extra snack, I am going to post them on several mirror and down by the treadmill. I am going to wake up and put on my exercise clothes, to remind me to go run before I get dressed for the day. I am going to move some toys downstairs so that I cannot justify not running because of the baby, He can watch. I am also going to make a little tracking sheet for myself and come up with some motivational rewards for meeting different kinds of goals.

Do you have any other ideas that might help me?

Did you even notice I was gone?

I tricked a few of you- For those who asked "How do you post while on vacation?" I now answer- I prepare them before I go and schedule them to post when I want them to post- that way my fans don't have to wait to long in between posts- well maybe I should say my Fan......

So yes- We went to Idaho to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler and Brothers and Sisters and Cousins and friends. We had a blast. Here are some of the most fun moments.

We left Friday after Ken finished work and drove to Oakley, Idaho. There we enjoyed the company of the Nelsons- (according to all the Ghost shows I have watched on the Discovery Channel, this picture shows at least two Ghosts, can you find them?) Ken wants to visit the Nelsons every time we go to Idaho- because they are great people and fun to spend time with, and because thy have a full sized Air Hockey and Foosball TablesAlso- They have this amazing little lady bug scooter- the baby is still a little to small to sit on it, but he enjoyed sucking on its antenna. (I see two or more ghosts in this picture too, the Nelson's house must be haunted!)

On Saturday we made it to Boise and visited a Pumpkin Patch. Because Pumpkin Patches are full of dirt and possibly just Giant Mud Pits, we opted to use the Snugly instead of the Stroller. Baby also wore his hat that Grandma Turner made him for Christmas last year (I have a matching one, I am sure you will see plenty of pictures of our cute hats as it gets colder). This is one of my Favorite Pictures- I love my family.
Because Baby is less than a year old he got a free (small) pumpkin. Our Friend M found this one for us, it has cute little spirally trailers on it that Baby liked to suck on.

On Sunday we attended the Blessing of Babies newest and closest in age cousin (you can see him in the background). After the Blessing we all had lunch and Baby fell asleep on his Dads lap. Everyone was impressed by his ability to sleep in a room full of loud conversations. I was impressed by his ability to sleep with a Binky on his face.

On Monday we drove for 6 hours! this is what my sweet boy looked like after 5 1/2 hours- AMAZING! He actually slept for 3 or more hours- it was a very good trip.

Grandma Great

When I was in the 2nd grade I told some kids in my class that My Great Grandmother was 99 years old. She wasn't, I think she was only 96 when she passed away, at that time I was in the 10th grade. Why do I tell you this? I think I was lucky that I had a Grandma Great. I have been thinking about Her lately. I thought she was the Queen of Logan and her children, in fact all of my fathers Aunts and Uncles, I thought they were royalty too, to this day I still get a feeling of awe when I am around them, and I don't know why.

My family is not royalty, but somehow, maybe without even trying, my parents fostered in me a great respect of my elders. I have been hoping to be able to do that for my children. How do I teach them how special their Great Aunts and Uncles and Great Grandparents are? I figure the best way to do that is to make sure that they have plenty of time to get to know these wonderful people.

With that in mind, we went to visit my Grandmother, the Babies Grandma Great, last week. I realized that she lives within a mile of the Babies Pediatrician and so every time we visit the Doctor we are also going to visit Grandma Great. This is a picture that I think shows the Love already growing in this little boys heart for this wonderful Great Grandma of his.

Today is Grandma Greats Birthday. She is 91 years old. So if all works out and everyone stays in good health, when my little baby boy is in the 2nd grade he can tell his friends, "My Great Grandma is 98 years old" and he will be telling the truth.

I love you Grandma, you are another one of my Heroes. Thank You for your Example of Faith and Enduring your trials with grace and patience and love.

A day trip to Dissillusionment

Disillusion- Verb
1) To free from illusion 2) To cause to lose naïve faith and trust
Disillusionment didn’t have a definition in the dictionary; it just said that it was a noun, a Person, Place or Thing.

So I am going to believe that Disillusionment is a place- the state of being disillusioned. If Disillusionment were actually a State in our Country, would it be a Red State or a Blue State? I have definitely found myself in the State of Disillusionment- it is odd because when I woke up I was in the State of Utah. Oh well.

It is all because of Tivo and the Presidential Debate.

When I was in High School I took a test that supposedly could tell you where you stood politically. I was an Independent with Republican Tendencies. Basically, I choose whom I think would do the best job, and if I have to choose between to evils, or really two candidates who I equally dislike, I would choose the republican evil. So I Tivoed last nights debate because I figured it was time to make my decision on which candidate I liked. I was leaning toward McCain but after watching the debate…I am not so sure I have Republican Tendencies anymore.

I don’t know who I am going to vote for. I am just confused, I am disillusioned, I have been freed from the Illusion that people tell the truth. I didn’t even realize that I had Naïve Faith and Trust in our political leaders to lose, but I have lost it.

It all happened when they were talking about health care. Both Candidates quickly described their plans and then attacked their opponents’ plans- nothing new. But in their attacks they both gave numbers to back up their side. This is when my trip to the State of Disillusionment began. I wondered how one candidate could say that personally purchased health care cost $12,000 and the other said it cost $5,800. I am used to differing information, what I am not used to is that information being given with a smile, and received with a smile by their opponent, neither said, no you are wrong and I can prove it. I want it proved to me. I want one of them to show me why their “numbers” are truthful and why their plan will work and how smart, non-political people have approved of and support their plan.

I guess I want too much. Is there something I am missing? It has never been this hard for me before, but in the past there was always one person that I just didn’t like, and now I have two people that I don’t really like. I guess I will have to add this to the list of things I need to pray about- hmm, I think that will work.

Who do you want for President?

Be an Example

Good and Bad Examples are everywhere, all around us. I want to be a good one. How? I don’t know, I guess you just have to be good. Being good doesn’t mean that you have a perfect life or that only good things happen to you, but I think it means you seek out the good in any situation you find yourself in.

My Sister A is a Good Example of being a Good Example. She is not perfect and she has had more than her fair share of trials and pain and in the past few years she has had more than several peoples fair share of such things. But she also has a Truckload of Faith! And that is why she is my Good Example.

We all make plans for our lives, and the twists and turns that have happened in A’s life over the past few years could never have been planned, most of them would have been thought impossible. But as we all know, and sometimes try hard to forget, we don’t get to choose the path our lives will take. We get to choose some things, but others, whether they are joys or trials, are given to us. It is what we do when we are given those joys or trials that makes us who we are.

A- will soon be Single again. This is most definitely not what she had planned. But I look at her, I see what she does (she keeps going, she keeps moving forward) I hear what she says and read what she writes (she has 2 + blogs) and I know deep down inside that she is going to be able make it through this trial in her life, one that we can expect will have effects that last for a long time, I can almost see her rising up like a Phoenix, still her, but refined even more then she is now. I want you to read what she wrote- because it touched my heart and I am very sure that it will touch yours if you let it.

Click here to read my sisters words.
http://peaceablewalk.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-fathers-house.html

Big Sister A, I love you. You are a Good Example to me of a Woman of Faith, A Woman of Prayer, A Woman of Humility and a True Follower of Christ. I love you. You are one of my Heroes.

Have You Ever.....

Every little moment counts, that is what I hear, that I should never wish for the future to come, but that I should enjoy every little moment. Here are a few of my favorite little moments from the past few days.

Have you ever........

Had an Elephant on your head

Discovered something new- Like trash?

Wanted to hold the Camera

Been wrapped up so tightly that you felt like a "Tacito"

Have you ever been Super Cute?

The baby makes it easy and fun to savor every moment with him. I worked today, and the entire time I was thinking about how lucky I am that I get to spend almost every day with this sweet boy. I am pretty blessed. I hope he feels the same way, when he thinks about me.

Marriage

A friend of mine sent me this today and I wanted to share it with you.
Ken's Parents and two of his Brothers and their Families live in California. I know that they care very deeply about Proposition 8 which is a on the Ballot in November and would change the California State Constitution. The change is very simple, but very important. I believe the it would say something like this-
Only Marriage between a Man and a Woman is Recognized in the State of California
One Sentence, one very profound and important sentence.
If I lived in California, I would vote Yes. When the question comes to the state I live in, I will support Marriage.




If you agree with this message- feel free to pass it on,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmZaHbGgXH8

A Week in the Life of Two Wheelers

On our way to St. George we stopped in for a Visit with Great Grandpa Dowdle.

And Met Grandpa's Dog
We stopped in Cedar City and got Baby his first Finger Food
It proved to be very fun and very messy
Very, Very Messy
On Monday Baby went to Visit Great Grandma Turner

And then he got a taste of Restaurant Food! MMMM Bread and Bananas

On Tuesday Baby discovered that his Best Friend had come to play
Also on Tuesday- I chopped off my Hair

The Race of My Life

I had a fun weekend. My Sister L ran the St. George Marathon on Saturday and Baby and I were part of her support team. There were 9 of us on the support team, and 8 of us didn’t make it to the Finish Line in time to see her cross, but we did see her somewhere between mile 24 and 25. When we saw her, SHE WAS SMILING! WOW!

In July of ‘07 when I ran the Freedom Festival 5k I discovered that I really enjoyed the cheers of the people waiting to see the Parade. As we ran past people would yell out “Go Runner!” and so I did, I kept going. It was fun to cheer for the Marathoners on Saturday; a good Majority of them smiled and acknowledged my cheer for them and more than I expected said “Thank You” as they trotted past. The baby got quite a few smiles from the Female Marathoners, his sweet dimples cheer pretty loudly.

So, to be completely honest, I haven’t run in almost 2 months. I have slacked off and my weight reminds me of that slacking. Worse then that, my food choices have not been the best either and my stomach is starting to frequently remind me that I make bad choices some times. L ran a Marathon, and I am pretty sure that my sister J is going to run one sometime in the next two years (I am pretty sure I heard her say she wanted to). I don’t know if I ever will, I am quite whimpish-26.2 miles is really far, but I do need to run a race. I need to run the race of my life, I need to get in shape so that I can live, so that my body will work better, I complain much to much to Ken that my stomach or some other part of my body hurts, I am 99.9% sure that if I get into shape, lose some weight and eat healthier I will cut the complaining down by at least 50% (even if it is because I am to tired to complain). On a side note- I am re-watching the first session of General Conference and Elder L. Tom Perry is talking about the Word of Wisdom right now! I need to follow it more closely, I vow today that I am going to take better care of my body and I am going to not only Run the Race of my Life, but I am going to Win It! (he he he, considering I am the only one in the race… how hard can winning be.)

I know that this is what I need to do and I know that I will receive help, as I need it. For example- last week I got a Runner’s World Magazine in the mail, I don’t subscribe to it, but somehow it came to me, with my name on it and everything. What does this Magazine contain? Oh, just how to get started again when you haven’t run for a while, how to stay motivated and get past the doldrums, and my favorite- Chocolate Milk helps you recover after a Race!!!!
Wish me Luck! Oh, I just remembered- I Can Do This!

Pictures from this weekend will come soon.

Hair

I have been doing some thinking, and I have decided that I am a Short Haired Person. It makes sense that there would be different breeds of people, Long Haired and Short Haired, some people even may be Wired Haired (I think that might be a breed) or hairless, anyway, I am a Short Haired. And so I hope soon to be groomed appropriately. I am thinking of this hair cut

(this picture courtesy of http://www.hairstylestalk.com/images/short-hairstyles.jpg)

What do you think?

So Big!

Lately the baby has not been holding my hands as I hold his bottle. Most of the time he would contort his hand so that he could grab onto my shirt and some times his arms would move so rapidly and erratically that he would hit himself or me. I didn't like this pattern and on Wednesday I had an impression that I followed. It has been working quite well.

Basically, Babies hands have to be on the bottle at all times, if he lets go, the bottle drops. He picked up on this quite quickly and by Wednesday night I was barely holding up the bottle. On Thursday I decided to give him a smaller bottle that might be a little easier for him to hold. Because it is a 4 oz bottle and he eats between 6 and 8 ozs I had to switch the nipple onto another bottle half way through the feeding, but it worked. I will try to get him to hold up the bigger bottle soon, for now I am just proud of my baby boy and his bottle holding abilities. Here are some pictures of what he can do,

He can now admire his food

He can eat and play with his feet at the same time!

He rolled over and discovered that the milk was gone

And for Dessert- His Bib!

You can do this

Last weekend I went to camp! It was a Relief Society Retreat; we went to the Heber Valley Camp, 50 women, 2 Babies (and 2 Priesthood Holders just in case we got ourselves into trouble and needed some help.) There was wonderful food, Great Entertainment (we had a musical presentation about the 10 Virgins, I was unwise, I cried), and a Challenge course that included a 30-foot high ropes course. There was also lots of fun in the Cabin on Friday night, we played games, talked and laughed until around 2 in the morning. I didn’t bring the camera, but there was someone taking pictures of us while we did the Ropes Course and as soon as I find them I will post a picture as proof that I was 30 feet in the air, walking on a very small rope.

Now that I told you about that I have to tell you about a feeling I had while at the retreat. I spent a lot of time with our Relief Society President, I had been her Enrichment Counselor when we started planning this retreat and I also got to ride up with her to Heber. She is an amazing woman, she has been our president for almost 3 years and in that time she has had her 4th child and is now pregnant with her 5th (she made that announcement to me at Albertson’s and to the sisters in the ward as we talked way too loudly in the cabin at 1 AM). I was surprised by an impression I had while I spent time with her, the feeling was basically, “You can do this”, at first I said “What, I can be Relief Society President? I think not” But then the impression kept coming at different times. As I was at the challenge course the feeling of “You can do this” helped me volunteer to be the next to climb the 30 foot pole an then walk across the small rope (I was harnessed in so there was no chance of me falling to my death- it was still scary enough to make my legs shake quite violently). I returned home and had the same quiet peace several more times. A few weeks ago I went to the Distribution Center and purchased the new nursery manual “Behold Your Little Ones” and the Missionary Manual “Preach My Gospel”, and on Monday I added these two books to my morning Scriptures study, I switch off every day. I was reading the Introduction to the Nursery Manual on Monday and the thought popped into my head, “You can do this.” And I said, “Yes, I could teach Nursery” (I don’t know why I always think about callings) and then on Tuesday I had a similar experience while reading the intro to Preach My Gospel.

So why am I telling you this? I think that it is because I like the feeling so much. It makes me happy to think that out there somewhere Heavenly Father is watching me, and he loves me enough to let me know, that He knows I can do it. Whatever it is, whatever challenge I am facing today, I can do it. I can do it!

It makes me wonder about the baby- does he have that little voice telling him the same thing, when he sees a toy just out of reach does the spirit whisper to him “You can do this” and with that reassurance he can reach just a little farther. Is it because of that little thought that he keeps getting up on his hands and knees? The look on his face when he does this is quite precious, he knows that something is supposed to happen but he doesn’t quite know what to do (he usually goes backwards), but does the he hear “You can do this” and so he tries his best. When he wakes up alone in his room and cries out for Mommy, but Mommy is asleep, or trying her best to give him a chance to learn how to go back to sleep on his own, is that little voice there to say “It’s OK baby, you can do this”. I hope so.

I am going to try my best to remember that I can do it, whatever it is, I am sure I won’t hear “You can do this” forever, but I hope that I can ingrain it so deeply into my mind that that at least the feeling is always with me.