Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

Sometimes I have these strange moments when something is happening and I can hear how I would explain this in my head as if I had a voice telling me the story as it happens. It's kind of like what I would imagine Lizzie McGuire would have if that were a real person and not a TV show on the Disney Channel. (Does that even run anymore? lol) For instance, the other day I was dressing Cache and I was thinking the whole time what would be the best way to explain trying to dress a 7 month old. I believe that I settled on an octopus who has fingers and thumbs. He sure has a reach on him that is farther than his arms! As a matter of fact, his legs are longer than they seems as well. Today, he was sitting on the counter in his Bumbo and I looked over and he was kicking (like usual) but this time, I was a second to late from preventing one of our bowels to go crashing onto the tile. Needless to say, Corell Ware is not exactly babyproof..."Another one bites the dust" as it were.

Today I became an advocate for saving your pocket change! We have been saving our change in a bin that Jared made in high school ceramics class (clever, right?) and today I cashed it in at the local credit union...$86.92! I thought that was pretty cool. While we were waiting, I found the basket of Dum-Dum's they have for the kids. It occurred to me that Cache was in-fact too little for a sucker, but being that I needed something to keep him occupied while the patient teller counted the coins (in a machine) we gave it a try. It was strawberry and pink and sticky! At first he wasn't too sure about it, and had to examine it in both hands which, of course, made his hands very sticky, but after a few tries of both ends, he really got the hang of it! He only sucked on it for a little while because it started to get in his hair and on the carseat, but it was fun while it lasted! So he has now officially had his first sucker!

As far as the dogs, we have moved them outside. Our awesome neighbors, Blake and Marintha, let us borrow their dog kennel (big chain link cage) that they are not using and we have laid down straw, made a make-shift house with a few bails and blankets and covered the top with a tarp. The puppies pretty much stay in this little house, but they are getting around a lot easier and they are no longer dragging their bellies on the ground when the walk. Just standing outside the kennel you can hear they barking, growling and rough-housing with each other. It really pretty cute to watch them try to be tough when they have no teeth. :) I don't have any pictures of them right now, but I will soon because we will be listing them on KSL (the local classifieds) in the next few days. Perfect valentines present!

We have been madly trying to get this house ready to sell. The deck has been water-sealed, the holes have been patched and sanded, the walls have been touched up with paint, the light bulbs replaced, the basement is being cleaned (quite an endeavor after having dogs down there for a few weeks), doors and trip have been sanded and repainted, and many more things are underway. I called and spoke with Lisa (secretary for Jared's new boss in South Dakota) and she was able to give me some good advice about where to look for housing, the best places to shop, possible places for jobs for me, and since she has lived in the area her whole life, I am so grateful for the advice! It sounds like it won't be too bad, but it will be a change. When we moved from Washington, we left behind family. Now that we are moving from Utah, we are leaving behind a whole new family that we love just as much. I suppose we will make friends there, but as it is, we like the ones we have now. Talking to the branch president in our new area, he says that there are only 12 regularly attending members...I guess we'd really be missed if we didn't make it to church for some reason!

As it turns out, Cache found measuring tape pretty hilarious today. I was measuring a part that Jared needed to replace for the trailer's plumbing and when the tape retracted, Cache started giggling. So I did it again, and thus began the rare moment that fortunately I was able to catch on camera! Unfortunately, there seems to be some error and I cannot post it on here. It's probably too long. But I have a simple picture of him and me :)

Also, Stefanie gave Cache a squirt bottle and he found that quite funny.I think he likes the feeling it makes on his tongue, much to the detriment of his shirt and our carpet. Compared to the tape measure, this is pretty low-key, but it's still fun :)

Octomom!

If there were ever a time to envious of an octopus, it would be motherhood. There are times when I wish I had 8 arms and hands just to keep my sanity! The other day I was doing the dishes and Jared was cooking dinner and Cache was sitting on the counter between us. In order to keep him from the burning stove, we scooted him towards me and then a minute later realized we had put him within reaching distance of the knife block! It was only noticed when he reached out for the steak knifes and the whole block almost came tumbling down with it. So Jared and I alternated watching him by means of reaching our non-occupied hand over to him. Needless to say, this was difficult but somewhat entertaining at the same time. Other times, I am constantly trying to keep him off the laptop (for fear that he will change it to another language or something) while I'm checking email or looking things up! He seems to have a reach longer than his arms at times! Also, Cache and I will be playing on the floor and he'll be by my knees while I am occupied with something on the computer and all of a sudden, I'll look at him and he's off somewhere else by my feet! Now, he's not crawling yet, but he's sure figured out some creative ways to scoot, roll and rotate to get to something he wants. He can pull up onto things if he tries hard enough and he does take steps (assisted of course) with his walker so it will be too soon that we are chasing a little tornado all over the house!

Cache made his first snow angel the other day! He wasn't too pleased about being laid in the snow and the outfit was one of his cousin's borrowed suits so it was a little small and he couldn't raise his arms above his shoulders, but we managed to get a picture at least :)

We also brought the puppies up again on Saturday night to play with Cache and we let him explore with them.
There were a few yips and giggles but it was fun to see Cache try to understand what these black moving things were.

 The puppies are certainly getting bigger and they are getting around more easily. Their eyes are open and starting to show their personalities little by little. One of the males likes to growl and yip when he's being disturbed. That's about the only thing that I've noticed so far.
That's all for now...

Hard Day's Night

Well, the last couple of days have been a little trying because Cache has come down with a little bug. It's sure tough when your little one is sick. It's definitely a little easier when you're the nurse with the doctor's orders and the objectivity.

Jared has the deck 99% finished! He did so well working on it mostly alone while I dealt with our sick baby. It looks great too!

We have been lucky that the weather hasn't been too bad, and the fire from the old deck burning helps to keep things warm.

The puppies are growing so fast! They have doubled in size and they are getting around a little better. I still can't tell them apart because they all look like miniature Lacey's. Some are bigger than others and there appear to be a runt or two, but they are all very cuddley and warm.

I'm not sure if it's the freedom from homework or the pressure of selling the house eventually, but it would seem that we are getting this place cleaned up! After 5 years of saying I'm going to paint our bathroom, it's finally done! It's weird how we are willing to fix things up for others, but not for ourselves. I wish we had done some of these things years ago. Oh well. Next time, we will try to do them right away. Jared has finished all that needs to be done on our side to "get the ball rolling" for the job in South Dakota. Now we just have to wait for word from them to negotiate a moving date. *sigh*

On a more positive note, I got the Kinect for Xbox! It's a lot of fun and it is really neat to control some features with just the wave of your hand. Jared kind of has this feeling that "big brother" is watching but it's still pretty awesome. :) I did have to rearrange the living room in order to get the right distance from the TV, but it's actually better in a way because it made the living room look like an actual room, not just an entryway. Ok, that's it for tonight. It's been a rough couple of days and it's time to relax!

Rock the Hawk!

Ok, so this was too cute to pass up showing people. :) Ever since I found out we were having a boy, I couldn't wait to style his hair into a mohawk ...and since he finally had his hair cut last weekend, I was able to do one without it looking like another living creature was on his head :)

I know the last one is kinda hard to see the mohawk, but it was still cute. He is pretty tired because this is the end of church and he hasn't taken a nap yet. There is something about a nicely dressed baby boy that makes a mohawk look adorable.

Update on the deck: Jared and a couple of his friends were able to put the deck railings up and they look great! They still need to do the stairs and the capstones, but it already looks awesome! I would put more pictures of it up, but I think a finished picture when it is done will be better :)

That is all...for now...

Cache is 7 months old!

I can't believe how fast the time is going by! It seems like he was just a newborn trying to figure out how to nurse and how this little body of his works. Now I find him learning new things everyday and being so observant of what's going on around him. He loves to watch people (especially his cousin Ethan) do the things they do and sometimes mimics them as best he can. It's a good thing that he got 9 month clothes for Christmas, because that's just about what fits him best now. He can still fit into 6 month clothes, but if I want to keep those ankles and wrists warm, he has to go a size up.

The other day, he ventured into the puppy pool (with a little help from daddy of course) and I snapped a few pictures. The pool was such a good idea for the puppies (as suggested by our neighbor AKA the daddy dog's owners) This way Lacey can get in and out, but the puppies are safe. They are staying in our basement for now. Luckily, two of the puppies are spoken for, and other rumors are flying about 2 more.

Sometimes I wonder if the sounds are coming from him or the puppies :)

Also, after almost 5 years of living in this house in Utah, we used the firepit we had been intending to use! We have so much scrap wood left over from building the deck (still in progress) that we decided to have a little campfire! The outfit he is wearing is still a little big for him ;) In most of the pictures he was just staring at the fire...

Only half of the stones were laid at this point...

I was also fortunate to have my camera ready when Cache decided to practice his crawling stance! And a few other pictures of him enjoying his sit-to-stand. He thinks he can pull himself up alone already, which he has, but inevitably he ends up falling over. So, I had to be quick handed for those pictures :)

He has, on a couple of occasions, managed to scoot backward because he can't get his arms and legs in sync. But he's getting stronger everyday! I think it might be time to baby proof a few things... :)

Just when we thought it was time to relax after the holidays...

The holidays are over, and the deck is almost done, so we thought that the time for late nights was finally at a rest and we would be able to get some sleep last night. Family had driven home that morning and the day before, Cache was having a good day, and all was looking good. Until, that is, our dog, Lacey, decided that this would be a great time to have her puppies!

Lacey has been sleeping inside the last week because we have known for about that long that she would be having puppies very soon. She had spent a lot of time just laying around on her side and having a difficult time breathing. If you held your hand to her belly or watched it long enough, you could feel/see the evidence of little creatures moving inside of her.

So midnight rolls around and she begins pacing the bedroom, moving from side to foot of the bed. In an effort to calm her, I reached down and tried to pet her. This is when I noticed that she was contracting every few seconds and she was wet. The first puppy showed up about 12:30 am and one followed quickly after that. Then we waited about 30 minutes and another one showed up and then another 15 minutes later. After these first four I figured there was probably one more in there (my original guess was 5) but this one didn't decide to show up until about an hour later.

After 5 puppies were born, and Lacey was frantically licking and cleaning them I thought we were done. It was about 3 am by this time and, needless to say, we were all tired. So I lay in my bed for what feels like a second...and Cache starts making noise on the monitor. *sigh* Up I went to make sure he was OK. Thankfully, he just needed his teddy bear and his covers back on. When I come back, Lacey is getting restless again and I can see that she is working on another puppy. Poor Jared is trying to get sleep this whole time because he was due back at work this morning. It's going to be a long day for us all. Puppy #6 shows up about 4:40 am and I think we are home free for sure! Lacey gets the puppies all settled and they all start to go to sleep and I have lain my head down for at least an hour....when Jared's alarm goes off and I look down to see that Lacey has a 7th puppy! This poor dog just kept producing! I just remember it being hard enough with one!!

Thankfully, we get a little reprieve, but of course, Cache woke up hungry about 6 am, so I had to go feed him. With all the ruckus going on beside our bed, it was difficult to get any shut-eye. Cache slept in until about 8:40 am and now I'm up with the puppies and Lacey trying to figure out what exactly to think/do. :) Lacey has been a good mom so far. It's amazing how natural things come to animals and how much instinct is involved.

Two of the puppies are claimed by Steve and Jean, so we have 5 more to figure out homes for! Here are the pictures I have for right now.

I finally got all 7 on camera!

New Beginnings

Today is the start of a new year and the beginning of many adventures, I'm sure. The deck is making progress, as the stairs were put on today! The guys worked very hard to get this deck put together in a matter of about 4 days. I would have to say that it's not a project that I would be able to wrap my head around very easily, so I'm quite pleased that someone can!

Jordon, Liana and Ethan left this afternoon back to Rexburg, Id. I can't say how happy I am that they were able to come down for the holidays! As well as Jean and Steve for being able to come and enjoy Cache's first Christmas!
Today, I found out just how difficult cutting a 6 month old's hair can be. I was actually doing the holding/distracting while Grammy Jean attempted to cut. He did pretty well, except when he realized I was trying to hold him still. He did end up with a good little haircut and he looks so handsome!

His haircut had become necessary seeing as how his hair was starting to stand on end like a "Who" from Dr. Sues' Grinch Who Stole Christmas. :) He didn't seem to mind so much, but toward the end, it got a little more difficult. Here's hoping that next time is a little easier!