The Goodrich Family

Halloween Recap

2009-11-13T14:40:00.018-07:00

Molly was Little Red Riding Hood.Stockton was a skeleton.We started our Halloween celebrations one week early with a party at my mom and dad's.  Of course my mom goes all out planning games, making treats, giving presents, etc..

A trip to the pumpkin patch AND a pinata were also included in this party.

Molly thoroughly enjoyed herself and I thoroughly enjoyed the white-chocolate caramel-covered apples that my mom sent home with us.  Mmm-mmm good!The night before Halloween we headed to Sandy for some more fun.  Food was eaten, games were played, pictures were taken.We played pin the mouth on the jack-o-lantern.  (Molly made the jack-o-lantern, I think she did a great job!)  See those mouths lined up off to the side?  Those were all those that didn't make it on the right wall; Molly moved them over there later.  Oh yes, we had to make up a "Halloween-y" name; names like, "Megavich," "Justin the Ripper," "The Halloweener," "Witchy-Poo," and "Punkadilly Heidi."That brings us to Halloween day-wasn't it nice to have it on Saturday?  We were going to skip the pumpkin carving because we had done it in Plain City but Justin needed his roasted pumpkin seeds...so we ended up carving...well, Justin and Molly ended up carving.Then, of course, trick-or-treating!  Molly was not very good at saying "trick-or-treat" or "thank you" but she kept telling me "Mom, I never knew trick-or-treating could be so much fun!"  Here she is, anxiously waiting for the door to open so she can pick her favorite treat.  Justin and I were disappointed in her choice of candy, though, hardly any chocolate!  Mostly suckers...boo!We ended our night with a heaping bowl of our traditional Halloween meal, taco soup, and a yummy pumpkin roll sprinkled with powdered sugar (also a tradition).

Private

2009-10-30T08:03:00.003-06:00

After much contemplation I have decided to make our blog private. I've gone back and forth on this issue for a few months now...when I have time I enjoy "blog browsing" and am somewhat frustrated when a blog is private so I really didn't want to do this. But I think it's time. Two things are causing me to make this decision:
1. A very disturbing message left on Justin's phone at work a few months ago. (He's a loan/mortgage officer and some people are not very happy when he denies their loan!)
2.  Checking this website and finding 45 offenders within 2 miles of our home.  I live in a nice, family-friendly neighborhood, so I was shocked!

So if you'd like to continue reading, please leave your email!  Thanks!

Stillwater River Trip

2009-10-27T15:34:00.011-06:00

Justin packed up and left for a whole week...okay, it wasn't quite a full week, but it was long! Monday night through Saturday night. He and his brothers and his dad went south for a river trip. If he was writing this post there would be a lot more information, but he's not, so this is the shortened version of his week spent, quite literally, on the river. (Sad, I'm not even sure which river it was!)

They started early Tuesday morning, October 13th.  They canoed all day, found a sandbar at night, set up camp, slept, got up in the morning, packed up camp, canoed some more...they did this until Saturday morning when the shuttle boat picked them up and took them back to the starting point.  Justin tells me it wasn't all paddling (oh, sorry, they refer to it as "rowing"), but some hiking and relaxing around the fire as well.  Only 3-4 hours in the canoe each day.  They chose the best week to go; we were having good weather up here in Northern Utah, they were having beautiful weather down south.  They saw scenery like this:Each night they would just find a sandbar and campout.  I think this was their second night.They did some exploring...Justin called me on Friday night.  I had not talked to him since Tuesday morning, really early so I was happy!  They had cell-phone reception because they had hiked to the very top.  You can see the river in the bottom right corner.Well, that's it in a nutshell.  Matt also took some great pictures, a few that actually have people in them.  Go here to see them.

Provo Temple and Hogle Zoo

2009-10-27T13:13:00.010-06:00

This post may have given the impression that the only time we get out and do something fun is when we meet my mom somewhere.  Here is proof that our family of four does get out occasionally...

Molly is always asking to drive by the temple...any temple...I think she must think they are castles.  So one Monday night we took her to the Provo Temple and walked around the grounds.  The mountains behind the temple are gorgeous and we were also able to watch the sun set on the valley...it was very pretty.We also went on an outing to the Zoo.  We had planned to take Molly for her birthday back in September but Justin was sick...we finally made it a couple of weeks ago.  I think it was the best time to go!  It was a little bit chilly but the weather didn't seem to bother the animals-most of the animals were out and active, something you don't usually see in the heat of the summer.  Molly's favorite were the bears.Justin and I liked the baby giraffe.And who doesn't love the baby elephant, she was so cute!Stockton was a trooper at the Zoo.  We bundled him up in the stroller when we got there and he instantly fell asleep.  He woke up only when we made it back to the car and got him out of the stroller!  Yup, he slept through his first trip to the zoo.  Sweet baby...  

School Days

2009-10-20T14:08:00.007-06:00

A couple weeks after Stockton was born, Molly looked at Justin and said, "Daddy, I want some friends."  This made me feel so sad; of course, I wasn't spending as much time with her because I was trying to keep up with taking care of a newborn, keeping a clean house, making dinner, and all those other things we have on our "to do" list everyday.  She was feeling a little neglected.  We had just moved into a new ward and I didn't know anyone and since the birth of Stockton, our church attendance was not where it normally is, so I wasn't meeting anyone either.  I felt sad that Molly wanted friends and had none.

Well, now she has friends!  I am happy and she is happy!  A neighbor had pity on us and invited Molly and me to be part of their "school."  They meet twice a week for two hours and learn about letters, shapes, colors, numbers, the weather, and a variety of other topics.  They have snack time and music time and usually make a craft.  We moms trade off having it at our house and it's so fun!  I'm so happy that Molly is involved in this and is practicing her social skills!

Here's Molly on her first day.I had it at my house a couple of weeks ago.  We learned about doctor's visits one day and water animals the next.  Here's the whole gang at snack time...Emma, Jade, Matthew, and Molly

Emma and Molly working on their fish craft.I look forward to hosting them again.

This website has so many fun ideas-I've used many for school and a few just at home with Molly. (Thanks for the tip, Karla!)

Farm Country, Gardner's Village, and Punkinaze

2009-10-20T12:36:00.013-06:00

We've been trying to be outside as much as we can before the winter season sets in and we can't go anywhere.  (Is anyone else worried about this swine flu going around?  I know I can't be a complete hermit all winter, but I'm thinking of trying.)  The last month has been full of fun activities; here's a short (or maybe it'll end up being long) recap...

Farm Country
The highlight was the pigs and the "billy goat gruff."  All the girls rode the ponies-of course Molly chose the biggest!  She was pretty nervous and wanted to get off when it started, but she made it and even went a second time!  She was much more comfortable taking a ride on this guy...This is the billy goat gruff...
Just proof that Stockton was there too...
Gardner's Village
Our fall is not complete if we don't make it out to see the witches.  Molly wasn't a fan last year, but had fun this year. She told me when we got there that she would choose her favorite witch and I could take a picture of her at the end.  "Will Cast Spells for Chocolate"-a girl after my own heart.  Stockton slept most of the day, but I was able to snap a picture while he was awake.  Cute kids. 
Punkinaze
This was fun!  Molly got to dig for candy in a bin full of corn, run around the maze with her cousins (we parents had a hard time keeping up!) and then slide over and over-first with Grandpa's help and then by herself.Charlie's Angels?That's Molly on her belly.  She found that going down backwards was much more exhilarating that going the "normal" way! Stockton, as always, was an angel.  If we didn't have pictures of him at all these activities, you'd think he was never there!  

Cousins

2009-10-17T11:30:00.007-06:00

Molly and Stockton have two new cousins...

Samuel Gene was born September 4th.Cameron Matthew was born September 18th.(Can I just say, I love that their names rhyme: "Sam" and "Cam")

I imagine in a few years these three boys will be creating some trouble.By the way, the above picture was taken during the following photo shoot:All 8 Goodrich grandkids, oldest to youngest.  Not bad.

A Mouse in the House

2009-10-02T12:46:00.009-06:00

September 19
A few weeks ago we went to Eric and Heidi's to watch the BYU football game and eat pizza.  When we got home about 5 hours later our front door was wide open!  How in the world did that happen? We sort of laughed it off (after making sure nothing was taken or no one was still in the house) and then went about doing our normal nightly activities-getting the kids in bed, eating ice cream, cleaning up, etc.  A couple hours later, Molly was in bed, I was feeding Stockton on the LazyBoy, and Justin was vacuuming.  Well, out of the corner of my eye I saw something run behind one of the end tables in the corner.  I told Justin to hurry and check but he just rolled his eyes and told me I was seeing things.  Fast forward half an hour: Stockton's in bed, I'm upstairs getting ready for bed, Justin's downstairs watching TV and I hear him yell "Oh my gosh, there's a mouse in our house!"  Eww!  Luckily, it was not yet midnight (on a Saturday) so Justin had time to run to the store and buy some mouse traps.  He quickly set up three in various places downstairs.  I stayed upstairs the whole time, I really didn't want to run into the creature!  It was getting late and knowing I was going to be up once in the night I went to bed while Justin waited around to see if the mouse would take the bait.  It eventually did and I slept a little better.  Thanks to Justin who kept the mouse in the garage so that Molly and I could see it in the morning.  So thoughtful of him.

Molly thought it was great that a mouse was in our house (we told her about it when she woke up) and made up a story for the occasion.  I've forgotten most of the details but it involved a mouse running up her pants and hiding there...silly girl.

**Wonder why the door was wide open?  I promise we didn't leave our house with it like that.  Molly had been playing early that afternoon, going in and out.  I think she must have not shut the door tight and in the rush to leave, I forgot to lock it and the wind blew it open.  Good thing we live in a nice neighborhood!!

Doctor's Visits

2009-09-29T15:40:00.011-06:00

Both of my kids had to go into the doctor this month for check-ups.  Molly was first, and the one I was most nervous about.  I talked to her about what to expect for a few weeks before we went so we both felt prepared.  She was great!  Last year, she screamed the whole time the doctor was in the same room, and this year she was so grown-up!  She got her blood pressure taken, stood on the scale, and passed the vision exam with flying colors (if you allow me to brag a little, all the nurses said that most 3-year-olds don't even understand the concept of the test but Molly never even skipped a beat)!  When the doctor asked her if she wanted to sit on the chair by me or up on the bed for the exam she opted for the bed (I was surprised) and climbed up all by herself.  Then my normally very shy little girl proceeded to tell him all about her birthday.  And if that wasn't enough, when it came time for the flu "mist" she laid down and let them squirt it up her nose with no complaints.  W-O-W!  Molly was 27 pounds and 35 inches, 16th percentile across the board!We were at the doctor's office again 5 days later for Stockton's appointent-why they wouldn't let me do them together I still don't know.  It was supposed to be his 2-month appointment but we had to re-schedule a few weeks before because the doc was sick, so it was really his five-days-before-three-months appointment.  I was anxious to finally see how big our baby boy was, he seems to be growing so fast and putting on the pounds.  He was 12 pounds on the dot, which is not huge but almost double his birth weight which is great!  The poor little guy got three shots and one oral vaccination which pretty much knocked him out for the rest of the day.

Birthday girl

2009-09-29T13:29:00.019-06:00

Molly turned three on the 15th.  Here is a recap of her birthday celebrations...

We invited both sets of grandparents to our house the Sunday before her birthday for dinner and cake and ice cream.  The rest of our families had made the trip down the month before for the blessing so we didn't think they needed to come all the way down again.  It turned out to be so fun!  Molly loved having all her grandparents there and being the center of attention, which she definitely was.  We started with a delicious dinner, mostly made by Justin, and then it was on to presents.  The first gift she opened was this Princess pop-up book, which was an immediate hit!In fact, after she opened it, she really didn't seem interested in any other presents.  She started to open the next gift but the pull of the book was too strong and she went back to it. I even said that I was going to open all her presents without her and she said, "That's okay Mom, you can open my presents if you want."

She eventually got back to the business of gift-opening and was excited to get some other fun things.After playing with her presents for a little while, it was time for cake and ice cream.  Molly had been asking for a Princess cake (of course) and since I am most definitely NOT a cake decorator, my mother-in-law made this one for me.  She did a great job with it and Molly loved it.  We couldn't even get her to come to the table for dinner; she just stood on her chair and gazed at her cake.Molly was a little nervous when I took the knife to the cake-she told me that she wanted it "whole."  It was too pretty!Her actual birthday fell on a Tuesday so I didn't have anything super fun planned.  We had planned on going to the zoo the day before but Justin got sick so we ended up just staying home.  We had a hard time deciding exactly what we were going to get Molly so we waited a bit too long to order her gift (it was only online).  It hadn't made it to our house yet although we had a few little doo-dads for her to open when she woke up.  (I think I felt worse than her-she didn't know and she had already gotten plenty of things.)The majority of the day was spent at home, me trying to keep the kids away from Justin who had come down with a highly contagious virus.  We did manage to make it to storytime at the library and we had cupcakes after a dinner of German Pancakes, per Molly's request.  Justin and Molly had fun making a HUGE mess with their cupcakes, but I'll give Justin some credit-he cleaned up the table after Molly went to bed (it got much worse than this).A couple days later, Molly got a package in the mail, some movies from Grandma.And the next day, the gift we were waiting for finally came.  Molly was excited to open it and find some princess dress-ups.She played with them a little that night and the next morning she was up, bright and early, standing by my bed, completely naked, and asking to play with her dress-ups.  Sometimes she has a hard time deciding which princess to be.  The most obvious solution?  Why not be all of them at the same time!

Labor Day '09

2009-09-25T10:10:00.009-06:00

August was such a busy month; it seemed like we were always going somewhere or doing something.   So it felt great to unwind in Bear Lake.   We live so much further away now so we don't get there as often as we'd like; the last visit was in January!  A normal trip usually involvrs a lot of junk food, laying around on the couch, playing pool, golfing, and whatever else we feel like doing! 

We always enjoy a 4-wheeler ride.  My favorite is to ride to the top where you can look out and see the whole lake.  We also get a great view of the back of the mountain from up there.

It got windy enough that we got the kite out Sunday afternoon.  My dad and Justin got it all put together and tried to fly it a few times with little success (maybe not windy enough?) and the next time I looked over the kite was in the air-and Molly was flying it!She just went over and picked up the end of it and it was in the air (the wind picked up then, I guess).

Justin and Bryce hooked up the Wii so we had some fun playing that.  Come to think of it, I mostly watched while everyone else played.  We were all surprised with Erin-she was the ultimate boxing champion; really, she was way better than the boys!

It was such a great trip-the kids did great on the drive.  Although I was a little disappointed that Molly took no naps in the car-all six hours!

This was Stockton's first trip to the cabin.  I think he liked it!

Three!

2009-09-25T09:49:00.006-06:00

That's right, folks, we now have a 3-year-old. Where did the time go? Here are some of the things that our 3-year-old enjoys day-to-day...

Helping in the kitchen
Molly enjoys pouring and stirring when it's time to make dinner, or those occasional times we make cookies. It usually ends up being more work for me because she inevitably makes a mess on the floor that I have to clean up, but we have fun together. One day when we were making pizza sauce, I went to get something out of the pantry and when I got back-oops!-Molly had poured the whole jar of oregano in the bowl. We had to throw that one out and start again!Stories
Oh my, she loves it when anyone will tell her a story. This started out with the Princess stories (Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, etc.) and has now branched out to The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks, The Three Billy Goats Gruff (her all-time favorite), and Little Red Riding Hood. She is constantly begging Justin or me to tell her a story, "please, please, please." This website has kept me sane, although a warning for all parents-the stories don't necessarily end "nice." Molly will occasionally tells us stories; sometimes she gets her stories mixed up!

I'm trying to talk her into being Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween-Justin thinks it's lame, I think it would be easy!

Dressing herself
Thankfully, this fetish has passed a little-meaning, she will usually stay in one "outfit" each day, rather than changing her clothes 5 times a day, and she usually lets me pick. But it hasn't always been like this-I was always excited to see what she would put together each day. For example, one Sunday after church we told Molly to go upstairs and get changed out of her dress. After a few minutes we heard her walking down the stairs and she was so excited about something. "Mom, I found a new dress!" she kept saying. This is what she had chosen:I burst out laughing right then and there, Justin did too. I'm not sure you can tell what this really is; it's actually just a cotton skirt and she's put an arm and her head where her legs should have been. So I fixed the skirt and she went back upstairs to find a shirt. She looked like this the rest of the afternoon:When the day was over, that shirt was washed and packed away-it's a little too short!

Dressing up
Not only dressing herself, but dressing up as well. She finally got some actual dress-ups for her birthday, but before she had to make do with what was available.(My nursing cover is used everyday in dressing up-it's her "cape.")

Blocks
She got a bag of blocks for Christmas and liked them okay but lately they've been out everyday. She builds towers, houses, trains, lighthouses, bridges, and "compadies" (which translated means "companies," a word she learned from her new favorite movie, Monsters, Inc.). She's very thoughtful when building towers and always builds a small one for Stockton.Princesses
The princess frenzy still continues and we don't really see an end in sight. Her favorite store is the Disney Store in the mall, even though we don't buy anything there. We are looking forward to attending this event in November, which is all about princesses.Singing
Couldn't resist this video, it's too cute!  She often makes up her own songs which are pretty funny!

She still loves her brother, the novelty of being a big sister has not yet worn off. But he doesn't try to steal her toys yet so it might change. No exaggerating, she has never done anything mean to him, just always very loving and kind. But that doesn't mean she doesn't do silly things, like put bowls on his head and pretend he's wearing a hat.I laugh at this for two reasons-1.  Molly picked her own clothes and 2. The look on Stockton's face!

She sure keeps me on my feet!  But what would we ever do without her?

Smiley Baby

2009-09-19T08:30:00.009-06:00

Stockton started smiling in response to his daddy on his one month birthday, July 25th.  It was so cute but we had the hardest time catching it on camera!  The little stinker would clam up as soon as the camera came out.  But oh how we tried, and tried, and tried...you get the idea.  We have a lot of pictures will silly grins like thisor like this.These are definitely cute, but not what I was going for.  Finally the day came that I timed it just right! And then came this.Love the double chin!

We are definitely enjoying our time with this boy.  He is so easy-going and fun.  He hardly ever cries and just goes with the flow.  I think I spend more energy taking care of his older sister than I do taking care of him!  He loves when anyone will pay a little bit of attention to him-his whole face lights up. He also loves to talk; Justin and I don't remember Molly jabbering this much at this young of an age.  He is very ticklish on his legs and under his armpits and we can occasionally get him to laugh pretty hard.  We love having him as part of our family and look forward to watching him grow!

Weekend at "home"

2009-09-17T16:27:00.001-06:00

August 15-17

I've never lived more than 1 1/2 hours away from my parents house, so I was surprised when 2 full months had passed without visiting. That has to be the longest I've ever gone. When the four of us finally made it, we packed it full of fun!

On our way up we stopped at Lagoon. Who doesn't secretly love Lagoon, with it's huge crowds, long lines, and all the interesting outfit choices you see? Well, I do, even when I'm not riding any rides. This year we went for Molly-we were excited because we thought she was big enough to go on some rides besides just the boats and the train. There were also quite a few new rides in the kid section which we wanted her to try. She liked the whales.She liked Puff.She liked the cars.And she liked the merry-go-round.Those boats that she loved last year?  Not so much this time.  She was so tired so we took off early-of course she didn't fall asleep in the car and then she was too excited to be having a sleep-over at grandma's that she didn't fall asleep until sometime around 11 pm! Go figure.

The next day was Sunday so off to church we went.I love lazy Sunday afternoons, especially in the summer.  We had a barbecue, a family home evening lesson, and then played games.  Mom and Dad had these new bikes so they set up an obstacle course in the driveway and we had races.  Here is the look on Justin's face as I lap him!  And here is a cute baby.We packed in all we could on Monday. For Justin that included 18 holes of golf and some fishing. He was pretty excited to reel this one in!For me and the kids it included hanging out with my friend Karla and her daughter Jane and playing dress-up with Chloe.Ben had planned a "surprise" birthday party for his dad so we enjoyed cupcakes and ice cream and then headed to the Raptor's game. We got there late and left early but we made sure Molly got to meet the Dinosaur (can't remember his name, maybe "Raptor").  This is funny...and now I am done!

Summer Activities

2009-09-10T11:37:00.007-06:00

It took me three or four weeks before I felt brave enough to venture out but once I did we were able to do a few fun things.

The Gateway
Lunch with my mom and sister, shopping, and then cooling off in the fountain.Family Night in Big Cottonwood Canyon
Roasting hot dogs and smores.  Playing in the river-Molly slipped and fell in the water and ended up wearing her pajamas the rest of the night. Tracy Aviary and Liberty Park
Very crowded!  Very hot!  But the rides were fun and the snow cones were delish!Swimming
Finally-I'd been wanting to go swimming all summer!  Molly jumped off the side a few times but once she tried the slide, we couldn't get her off!

Picture Time!

2009-09-08T21:21:00.007-06:00

Molly Kay
2 years 11 monthsStockton Ray
6 weeks*****

Hair

2009-09-05T11:58:00.009-06:00

The first thing most people say when they meet Stockton is something like, "Wow, look at his hair!"  Yes, he was blessed with a full head of hair, not only lots of hair but really crazy, uncontrollable hair.  It started standing straight up when he was a few weeks old and it doesn't seem to want to lay flat.  I've tried some BedHead to tame it a little but it just doesn't want to be controlled!  Here are a few of the best hair days...  It occasionally looks like he stuck his finger in a light socket.

We, of course, think it's adorable and we no longer attempt to control it.  Although I do have to say that the last week or so it hasn't been as bad-the sides are starting to lay down at least.  Justin asked me last night if I was going to cut it.  I was shocked that he'd even consider cutting it-not now anyway.  Eventually he'll need a hair cut but for now I'm loving his mohawk!

While we're on the subject of hair...Taken right before a hair cut.  She's now sporting a cute and somewhat uneven (I'll get the hang of it!) bob.

Stockton's Blessing

2009-09-05T11:37:00.008-06:00

August 2ndWe blessed Stockton the first Sunday in August.  It was a great day for a celebration!  Stockton looked so cute in his blessing outfit, made extra special since it was also what his daddy was blessed in (and both of his Goodrich uncles).  It looks pretty good for being 30+ years old!

Justin gave a beautiful blessing and since Grandma April knows shorthand I have the whole thing written down, almost word-for-word.  Stockton was an angel the whole day, the only mishap was him spitting up all over as a result of being bounced just a little bit too high-all those uncles and grandpa's get a little exuberant up there in the circle!

It seemed to be a day for counting our blessings...

-our kids-our family (just a few of those who came to support us below)

Growing so fast

2009-09-01T15:05:00.009-06:00

Remember these cute jammies that we brought Stockton home in?  They were newborn size and didn't come close to fitting his almost-six-pound body!
June 27:Well the day finally came that they actually fit him pretty decently. Doesn't he look cute?
July 28:And then came the day that they were too small for him.   He couldn't even straighten his legs all the way.  How did that happen?
August 19:Slow down, baby!

Pioneer Day

2009-09-01T14:53:00.007-06:00

What's a summer without a parade? Since we hadn't attended one yet we decided that this was the day. So we got up early and headed to Center Street where the festivities were set to begin. Well, I can't say much for the parade (pretty lame) but Molly enjoyed collecting the candy. Yum! The other big highlight of the parade were the "princesses"-all those pageant girls. I swear I've never seen so many floats with Miss So-and-So's and Little Miss So-and-So's. Molly stood in awe on the side of the road, waving to each and every float that passed with one of these princesses. Oh my, how did my daughter become so girly?

Mornings...

2009-09-01T12:48:00.005-06:00

Occasionally Justin and I wake up in the morning and discover that our bed has been taken over!  I guess in our sleepiness we allow these two little kiddos to snuggle up with us.  It gets a little bit crowded in our small queen-sized bed...maybe someday we'll upgrade to a king.  Good thing we like them so much!

Want a closer look?

Stockton, on his belly, of course..And Molly, looking so sweet and innocent (do not be deceived...)  Okay, so I don't usually let this happen unless it is after 7:00 a.m. or I would get absolutely no sleep!

A few of Stockton's likes

2009-08-28T11:53:00.005-06:00

1.  Tummy time!  This one took us about 5 weeks to figure out, and I credit Justin for discovering it.  Molly was never a tummy baby, so I didn't even think about it with Stockton.  He's not much of a snuggler and doesn't really want to be rocked or held while he falls asleep.  So when he starts to get tired, lay him anywhere on his belly, pop a bink in his mouth and asleep he goes.  I know they say never let a baby sleep on his belly, but honestly it's the only way he'll sleep during the day.  I check on him a lot!  He sleeps well swaddled up on his back at night so this is only a daytime thing.  I think he looks so cute when he sticks his little bum in the air!

2.  That ugly hospital binky! 
Nope, he won't take those much cuter binkies that I picked out for him before he was born.  Oh well, at least he'll take a binky, right?  Justin says we'll get rid of it much earlier than we got rid of Molly's...we'll see!

3.  Being outside! 
(Probably every kids loves this.)
 Need to calm Stockton down?  Take him outside.  Yup, works everytime.

That can't be comfortable

2009-08-28T11:48:00.006-06:00

I always feel so bad when I go to get Stockton out of the car and he's sleeping like this:
(This isn't even that bad.)

You all know what I'm talking about.  How in the world do babies sleep like this?

Mirror Lake, Deer Creek, and a binky burning

2009-08-28T11:36:00.006-06:00

July 18 & 20

One Saturday night we headed to Mirror Lake in the Uintah’s for some fishing and fun with Eric, Heidi, Brett, and crew.  The weather was great, the mosquitos were pesky, and the scenery was gorgeous.  Molly was noticeably absent, away at Grandma’s Camp for the weekend, and Stockton was a sleepy-head the whole time.  The fish weren’t biting but we didn’t mind; it was nice to get outside, finally.  I was starting to feel like a hermit-the first month of summer was spent unpacking and organizing our house, not to mention having a baby, and the second month had been consumed with taking care of the baby and mostly staying home.We had such a good time we decided to find another lake the following Monday, Justin’s day off.  Our original plan was to go back to Mirror Lake, since we had paid for a 3-day pass, but with a baby that has to nurse every 2 hours it didn’t exactly work out.  So we made it as far as Deer Creek, up Provo  Canyon.  Justin was dying to try out his new fishing boat and we thought that Molly deserved some summer fun (sadly, Molly hadn't been out much either).  It was pretty hot outside, so while Stockton slept in his carseat and Daddy got the boat hooked up, Molly and I waded in the water-it felt so good!Justin made a special seat for Molly on the side of his boat so she was able to go out with him for a little while.After some fishing, Justin decided that it was hot enough outside to warrant a little swim.  The only problem: I didn’t pack any swimsuits.  No worries!  Justin and Molly just swam in their clothes.  Molly thought it was great and giggled the whole time. After about a half hour of swimming in the lake, we started a fire.  We had planned on roasting hot dogs but someone (me!) forgot the hot dog buns-hey, I did pretty good remembering a change of clothes for Molly-how was I supposed to know she was going to swim in the lake with her clothes on?  So instead of roasting hot dogs, we roasted binkies instead!Yup, I finally did something that I needed to do months and months ago.  Molly had been warned so she was okay with it-in fact, she threw the binkies in the fire and held the roasting stick!How is she holding up?  Well, it takes much longer to get her to sleep at night, but we've tried to start the bedtime process earlier (harder in the summertime). The first few nights she would climb in bed and say, “Mom/Dad, why did we burn my binkies?”  But no crying.  She has been sucking on her fingers a lot more lately, and not just when she's trying to fall asleep-it's like all day! And it drives me nuts! But I am relieved that the binky-attachment is over.  Way to go, Molly!  Justin and I can’t believe how grown up she is!  Oh yeah, she also played with worms...love it!

Big Sister

2009-08-26T15:10:00.007-06:00

One of the sweetest experiences I've had was when Molly came to the hospital and met Stockton for the first time. The two of them instantly bonded; it was like they remembered each other. She was so sweet to him-kissing him and rubbing his head. And now that he is home, and has been for two months, she is still really sweet to him. I hear horror stories of older siblings who are not very nice to their baby brother or sister and luckily we've never encountered that. She's never tried to feed him anything or tried to pick him up or hit or kicked-nothing! My favorite thing to listen to right now is Molly's baby talk-it is hilarious when she really gets going! She refers to her brother as either "Buddy" or "Stockton Bockton."

Molly likes to either sit on a chair or lay on a pillow right next to Stockton. While doing this, she'll either read him a book, sing him a song, or tell him a story. He really enjoys it, unless he's really fussy. He'll stare right at her and listen to what she's saying-he loves to listen to her voice. I love to watch her be a big sister. This was not one of those times that he loved the sound of her voice, but I think it's so cute...

A couple of things that she's said to me:

"Mom, I love Stockton. He's my best friend." (I get this a lot.)
"Mom, I like Stockton better than you."
And if we're going somewhere she always asks if Stockton is coming, like she's afraid we'll leave him.

She really is great; I feel lucky that I don't have to worry about her with him. She loves to kiss him and occasionally she'll ask to hold him, but mostly she's just really, really nice to him! Stockton couldn't have asked for a better big sister!