If We Were Martians...

Jason and I got a bit goofy playing Sorry! last night. Here's a few shots of what we may have looked like, had we been born on Mars. :)

Rudy Meets the Meat

On Monday, Rudy finally got to see where all that ground beef he's been eating comes from. No, I didn't take him to the butchers. Even better-I took him to the cow fields close to my parents' home. There he was mesmerized by the bellowing moos of cows and bulls alike. He saw little calves and a rooster too. It was fun to walk down the dirt roads bordering the fields and just enjoy the country atmosphere.

A young bull

Rudy was so serious and studious as he checked out the cows.

Rudy reached up and stole my glasses. He managed to get them on his face pretty well, though upside down. :)

We took a picture of this 'cause one of Rudy's nick names is Bubba, and he's getting so big. (Although I sorta hope he'll have outgrown the Bubba nick name by the time he's big enough to own a trailer company.) :)

Name Recognition

I felt ambitious this morning, so I got a bit creative with Rudy's breakfast. It'd be cool to say that Rudy read his name and knew it was him, but what really happened is I read it out to him, and he recognized the sound instead. Even so, it made for cute pictures. :)

Snowy Shots

Can you believe the weather report says it'll be in the 70's this weekend? Crazy weather is what Spring is all about, I guess. I looked out the window this morning and couldn't help but pull out the ol' winter gear and get outside with Rudy. It was so beautiful! All these shots are within 50 yards of my home. I feel like I live in a resort town-especially while we were enjoying our tasty peanut butter and banana pancakes and homemade hot cocoa in our winter gear after a grand adventure in the great outdoors. Sigh. This is the life!

Our condo is the upstairs part of this picture.

It was so cool to see the morning mist being burned away by the rising sun.

Rudy actually ventured out into the deep snow on his own today. My baby's growing up!

We took a break from our adventure to warm our bellies and tickle our taste buds.

Snow Day and Play Dough

Remember those sunny Easter shots? Behold our Winter Wonderland (in the middle of Spring).

So what do you do on such a cold, blustery day when all your winter gear is banished to the back room? Have friends over and PAR-TAY! Katie (my sister-in-law) and two of her kids, Brody and Ella, made the brave journey from Eagle Mountain in the middle of the storm to spend the afternoon with us. Ella suggested we make play dough. Thanks to my neighbor's generous donation of 3/4 cup salt, we were in business.

During the coloring process, Rudy got a hold of the blue dye. :)

He loved doing play dough with his cousins, and just fooling around with them in general. It was great to have visitors on such a yucky day. I probably would have started feeling couped up by the end of the day if it was just us, but as it was, I just felt cozy. :)

Easter

This was Rudy's first holiday that he actually keyed into the idea that something special was going on. Even Halloween and getting dressed up like an elephant didn't phase him...just another day in this zany new world. Well, I guess the zaniness of the world has begun to wear off and he now recognizes when something is out of the ordinary. This was very exciting for Jason and me, 'cause we could bask in Rudy's excitement over our small effort to make the day special.

The whole week long, we'd been teaching Rudy about the resurrection (I'm not quite ready to dwell on crucifixion pictures with our little guy yet, and besides, Easter Sunday is about resurrection anyway.) We weren't quite sure how we wanted to incorporate the whole Easter Bunny thing into such a sacred holiday. We decided not to. We just did a little Easter egg hunt and never mentioned a bunny at all. As our kid(s) get older, we'll talk about how eggs are a symbol of new life and tie them into the resurrection that way, but I don't think we'll really need a bunny to help us celebrate.

Anyway, I hid a dozen plastic eggs with a chocolate chip in each of them all around the front room, hallway, and kitchen. Hid is probably not the right word...it was more of a scattering in places I thought Rudy would see them. The next morning, Rudy ecstatically collected them all. He was so excited to find a new egg, and to get the treat inside. Each time he found an egg, he'd do the happy dance, punctuated with a gleeful yawp. It was a great way to start the day, emotionally, at least.

Nutritionally, it could have been better. :) Even after feeding Rudy an exceptionally balanced breakfast of scrambled eggs with spinach, onions and cheese, toast, and grapefruit, our little man was totally wired during church. He's usually decently behaved, so when he was the noisiest kid in sacrament meeting, one of our beloved 'grandmas' asked me afterwards, "Is Rudy sick? He's never that loud in sacrament!" All I had to do was say the word chocolate, and she gave me a knowing smile. Oh well, its only once a year.

After church and a mini nap, we headed out to Mom and Dad's for a scrumptious Easter dinner, a cousins egg hunt, and fun family time. Rudy had a blast checking out Ella's new kitten she brought to show us all, and just hanging out with his cousins. He did really well finding his eggs during the hunt and especially loved eating the deviled eggs Mom always makes for Easter.

We ended the day back at our house, all jammied up, reviewing the resurrection. We used the cut outs available in "Behold Your Little Ones" to tell Rudy how Jesus died and was put in the tomb, but was resurrected 3 days later, and lives today. Rudy loved putting Jesus in the tomb, counting to 3 and then popping him out with yelps of glee. It was like peek-a-boo for him, I think. Not super reverent, but as I watched him do it over and over, I thought "Yeah, this is important to think about again and again."

I love Easter because it gives me a reminder to review the beauty of what Jesus did for each of us, and the beauty of God's plan for our eternal happiness. Really, it's worth yelping with glee about. In fact, sometimes I've felt that yelp spring out of my heart as I have contemplated the completeness of Jesus's love for me. I just keep it from getting past my lips, because most of the time, I'm in a place where reverence is important when that yelp of joy hits me. :)

Here's a few shot of our day:

Rudy reveling in his eggs, chocolate goatee and all.

The Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Jason helping Rudy to remember to put his eggs in his bucket.

A game Rudy and Jason made up: "Egg Shower"
Rudy just loved the sensation of empty plastic eggs showering down on him. He asked to repeat the game over and over. Funny kid. :)

The First Spring Hike

After that absolutely amazingly beautiful first day of spring, things took a turn towards winter again. I reluctantly pulled Rudy's hat, coat, and mittens out from the back of the closet where I had stored them. I refused to pull out his boots, even though snow was on the ground a majority of the mornings last week.
Following all that chilliness, you can imagine my delight when it was sunny and in the 60's today while I was up in Midway visiting my family. Of course, a hike was in order. Mutti called all around the ward until she found someone with a backpack carrier so we could take Rudy with us and then we were off.
It was B.E.A.Uitful! The sky, the sunshine, the butterflies, the mountains, the air-all of it, just awesome! We hiked for a little over 2 hours, which really surprised me. I hadn't thought Rudy would last that long, but he was entertained watching Sam, my parents lab/golden retriever mix puppy, bound and leap through all the shrubbery along the trail. Here's a few shots of the hike:

This is just after leaving the car. I know Rudy looks really grumpy, but he was mostly just squinting into the sun, I think. Or maybe he was still getting over having sunscreen smeared through his hair.

There's my happy baby!

Mutti and Sam. It took some doing to get Sam to sit still long enough to have his picture taken. That dog LOVES the trails. He's actually pretty good about sticking with us and coming when he's called, considering that he's still under 6 months old.

Look at that view! It was better in person, but that's almost always how it is.

Rudy squirmed and wiggled in the backpack for most of the hike, trying to get a better view of Sam. Here, he's finally settled down.

His eyes are getting heavy...

At last, he succumbed to sleep.

This evening, as I was snuggling Rudy to sleep, I found my new favorite smell in the world. The smell of sunscreen, baby sweat, and the great outdoors all wrapped up in one. Maybe that doesn't sound that great to you, but trust me, it's heaven. :)

Family Puke Day

****ANNOUNCEMENT: April 3 will hence forth be known as "Family Puke Day".****

Only one member of our family actually did any puking, but we all got in on the fun at some point or another. First came Jason:
He was working diligently on his school assignments at UVU library when he decided it was about time for a break. He turned the corner into the restroom and suddenly found himself doing the "I'm slipping but I don't want to fall" dance on a puke covered floor. You all know the dance-arms flailing, body contorting, feet going a million miles a minute, searching for traction. There are two possible endings, both quite dramatic-one: you finally find traction and stand frozen, trying to catch up to what just happened, and two: you totally wipe out and lie frozen, trying to catch up to what just happened. Luckily for Jason, he ended with the former, and gingerly navigated himself through the rest of the puke explosion to the rest of his day. All that suffered contact with the vile stuff were the soles of his shoes.
Rudy and I were not so fortunate, though at least the puke we were dealing with was family puke, which makes it less disturbing, but still just as disgusting. We too, were in a public restroom. I was beginning a diaper changing battle (Rudy has been VERY opposed to complying with diaper changes lately). In an effort to make things easier for all involved (but mostly for me), I offered my planner as a peace offering. Rudy accepted and began investigating. Seconds later, he was gagging on a paperclip. Seconds after that, Rudy, myself, the changing table, and the floor were covered in cheerio scented vomit. Eeeew. The paperclip never did come up, obstinate little thing. I'm still waiting for that to surface on the other end. (Sorry-maybe that's too much information.)
Anyway, I pulled my sweater off (thank goodness for layers) and got Rudy's icky clothes off him. Then I commenced the tedious task of wiping up the puke with wet wipes and toilet paper. I suppose I could have simply told someone that the restroom needed some janitorial attention, but I still needed to change Rudy's rank bum, and I was in stressed out minimal thinking mode by then anyway. I finally got the bathroom somewhat clean again, and undid Rudy's diaper. Just as he did a deft full body twist, I realized the wet wipes were still in the sink where I had rinsed the puke off of them. I carried poor Rudy, pink bum dangling, over to the sink and attempted to clean him up with him standing in the sink. Not the most effective of strategies. By the time Rudy was clean, the bathroom needed another spot job, and I was sooo done being a mom for the day. When we got out of the bathroom, I just let Rudy waddle off (within sight) to give myself some space from him and hopefully regain my composure before getting on with our day. Then some lady came to Rudy and asked: "Where's your mommy?" An innocent and caring question, I know, but in my state all I heard was, "You poor abandoned child, you must have the most irresponsible, unloving mother in the world. I bet she's high on crack." I snatched Rudy out of her clutches, gave her my most icy fake smile, and stormed off. Poor lady. Poor Rudy. Poor self-pitying me. I'm happy to say, that within 15 minutes, I had come to my senses and realized that the whole thing was actually quite funny, and it became even more funny when Jason shared his puke in the bathroom experience. To commemorate the day, and remember that humor is always a better reaction than anger/frustration, I have dedicated all future April 3rds to Family Puke Day. Not quite sure how we'll celebrate yet...but I'm sure we'll come up with something great in the year we have to think on it. Any suggestions would, of course, be welcome. :)

*UPDATE* Rudy successfully passed the paper clip on Sunday morning! I've never been so excited about a dirty diaper! Jason and I paraded Rudy around on my shoulders and sang a ridiculous little impromptu song about Rudy's great triumph over the paperclip, much to the confusion and perhaps even slight irritation of my family (they had not yet heard the paperclip story, and we were interrupting General Conference with our ruckus). Ah, the joys of parenthood.

P.S. I decided that the Puke in "Family Puke Day" should stand for Pouting Ultimately Kills Enthusiasm and have the holiday be all about having a positive attitude-like we could decorate with smiley faces, tell jokes, etc. I haven't run that past Jason yet, though...what do you think, my love?

"When One Door Closes..."

Once upon a time there was a young family struggling to make ends meet. They had diligently created a very conservative family budget, but still found no money to save. Then one day, the husband came home with controversial news: a higher paid position was available at his work. What's the controversy, you ask? It would mean the husband would likely have to work every Sunday, and only be able to attend church every other Sunday. The husband and wife (who love each other very much but sort of forgot about that for a moment) had a heated debate about the best response to the newly open position. After remembering that they really love each other very much, and kneeling in prayer together, they decided that the husband should apply for the position. He applied with great faith that he would be blessed with success, but the position was offered to a different person. The husband was very disappointed and confused by the turn of events. The wife was sad, but oddly peaceful (because most of the time, the wife is anything but peaceful in stressful situations).

That weekend, the husband's parents (who are also the family's landlords) announced that they would not be asking for any more rent until the husband graduated from school. They said they had felt prompted to do this on Sunday, during their ward's third hour combined class. What a blessing! Now the family could save the same amount of money they would have been able to had they been given the job with the better pay. It was a miracle made possible by loving parents in tune with God's plan for their children.

But wait-there's more! Right after this conversation with the husband's parents, he went to his sister's house for help with the family's taxes. The sister's husband had offered to use his great tax expertise and amazing tax refund tools to maximize the family's refund. Maximize would be an understatement! With the help of the brother-in-law, the husband returned with news that the family would be receiving enough money back from the government that they would almost be able to pay for the husbands last 3 semesters of school straight from the refund!!
The husband, wife, and son did a happy dance in the husband's parents' basement and then settled down to bask in the beauty of a wise, loving, all powerful Heavenly Father. A Father who knew his children well enough to allow them to grow closer as a couple as a result of a heated debate followed by humble repentance and forgiveness, and who chose to provide these same children with just what they needed in a different way than the children thought they should/could get it.

The End
Thanks Mom and Dad, and thanks Jill and Mike for being a part of Heavenly Father's splendiferous blessing of our family!