Thankful for Breastfeeding

This is not meant to offend anyone who choose not to breastfeed or couldn't. I understand that some women are unable to breastfeed and some just don't want to. I chose to breastfeed because I thought I should use my body to nourish my child because that is how my Heavenly Father designed it. Anyways, here is why I am so thankful I breastfed for Carson's first year:

1) A report was released today that when baby bottles are heated to warm formula, a chemical, BPA, is released from the plastic of the bottle into the fomula. This chemical causes all sorts of physical and mental problems. Parents who exclusively bottle feed are exposing their infants to this chemical multiple times a day....not that they are bad parents, but that is just one of the things that happens when you choose to use bottles. Also they have found that it only happens when the bottles are heated, no word yet if it is released all the time.

2) Carson has recently been "sick" or should I say he had a cough and runny nose. This boy hardly ever gets sick and when he does it clears up in 1 to 2 days. We arent' constantly running to the doctors office because he has one cold after the other. Thank goodness for those antibodies I gave him. I can't tell you how much money we have saved from not buying formula or paying extra doctor bills.

Anyways, this is why I am grateful and I hope I don't hurt anyone's feeling.

Importance of Mothers

I know I already emailed this to most of you, but I wanted to post it anyway. (Thanks for the sending it to me Alisha!) It really shows the importance of mothers and how they can sometimes feel like the work they do is unappreciated and unnoticed. I also think it shows that as mothers we need to be doing the things that will help our household run smoothly. I am reminded of Sister Beck's conference talk, "Mothers Who Know". Read it, it is a great talk on how mothers should be!


What Do You Do All Day?

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a Cartoon channel,and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill,or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls. As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled upin the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went.He looked at her bewildered and asked, 'What happened here today?' She again smiled and answered, 'You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world I do all day?''Yes,' was his incredulous reply. She answered, 'Well, today I didn't do it.'

Check out my Slide Show!

Pregnancy Pains

I am beginning to think that although this new little boy moves around less than Carson did, he sure is causing a lot more pain than I had the first time around. I have been up the past few nights because it feels like my pubic bone is splitting in two and my hips are aching. Also, I get random sharp pains throughout the day when my ligaments are stretching. I have also had several restless nights where I am up with "pregnancy insomnia". Last night I woke up at 3:00 and so I decided to clean out my kitchen and living room. I must say, even if it was the middle of the night, it was nice to be able to clean uninterrupted! All this is making me realize that I had it way good with my first pregnancy...except for the delivery. Hopefully I'll have a lot better delivery this time. We still have no name for our little guy. When I was pregnant with Carson, Jeff would talk to my belly all the time, but he hasn't done it much this time. I asked him why and he said that he doesn't really know what to call the baby. With Carson we knew right away because we already had the name picked out. I hope we pick out a name soon. Carson keeps calling my belly "Baby Jonas" but I am not sure if I really like the name. I suppose we'll eventually find a name, we do have until May.

Family Pictures and Temple Open House

Today was a busy day for our family. We had family pictures taken. Here are some of them. They aren't the best quality because I had to scan them in; I wasn't going to pay$119 to buy them on cd. That's right, they wanted $119 for a cd!


Tonight we went up to the temple open house again. The tour seemed very condensed from the VIP tour we took in December...and I thought the VIP tour was condensed from the tour I got just walking through with Jeff! We went up with Jeff's sister Kris. It was a very peaceful experience and afterwards we got to sit around and talk. It reminded me a lot of how things were a few years ago when Kris would always come up and stay with us in our little one bedroom apartment and we would be up talking way too late. Anyways, Carson was way excited to go to the temple again. When we told him we were going he said, "We going to get married?" Jeff told him, "I already married Mommy in the temple, but one day you can find a girl to marry there." It was very cute because I've been talking to Carson about how it is important to get married in the temple. Before we left I found Carson in the bathroom wetting down his hair with his brush. I asked him what he was doing and he told me that he was getting ready to go to the temple. Here is a video.

Magna Cum Laude

I was just notified from BYU-Idaho that I graduated Magna Cum Laude! My final GPA was 3.959: this means I made it all the way through college with all A's and a few A-'s. If you don't know what Magna Cum Laude is, it is a Latin phrase that means "with great honor".

Carson Busts A Move

Today I was cleaning up my bedroom and put some music on to keep us entertained. Carson started dancing around like crazy! I was laughing so hard. However, when I got the camera out he decided that he wasn't going to perform. Here are some small clips of what I could catch him doing. In the first clip he dances just like Jeff, it makes me smile. In the second clip you start to see more of the "wild" dancing, but then he saw his helicopter on the floor and all interest in dancing was lost. When he really gets dancing it is hilarious, I wish I could have recorded some of that.Oh well--Enjoy!

Winter Blah....

So its been awhile since I posted anything. We don't really have much going on right now. Carson and I spend our days playing at home and add in an occasional trip to Idaho Falls and some play dates, but other than that we have settled into a routine. Last Sunday I was released from the Relief Society Presidency so now I am without a calling and I don't plan on getting another one (in this ward) since we are going to be moving soon. Jeff has been working on a cabin in Ashton while we are waiting to transfer. We are hoping to be able to purchase a home when we move because we are steadily out growing apartment living. Plus it would be nice to have a yard for Carson to run around in and for Jeff to landscape (I am going to have such a beautiful yard!).

In the past week since we found out that we are having another boy we have already added a lot of baby clothes and accessories to our collection. I even got the car seat and all of Carson's old clothes from storage. Jeff wondered why I had to pull the car seat out but I guess it is just the fact that I feel like our little boy should already be here. We would have had another baby by now if I hadn't miscarried and I am just having a hard time waiting until May...it seems so far away. So much is going to change by then and I hope that settling into a new home and community will help the time pass quickly. I am hoping to be able to find a great OB/GYN that is pro-VBAC.

While it is definately nice to have time to relax and enjoy our last bit of time in Rexburg, I am feeling the Winter Blah...I am ready to get out and do something without it being cold or icy! But I should be thankful for the time that I have left here. We have been very blessed with wonderful and supportive family and friends, whom we are going to miss!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF...IT'S ANOTHER BOY!!

Well, Carson got his wish for a little brother! Ever since we told him we were having a baby he has said to me, "Mommy, the baby has a penis." Well, that is very true indeed! I think it will be good for Carson to have someone to rough house with.

Our new little guy is measuring right at 20 weeks, just a few days ahead of schedule. The ultrasound tech said that he looked healthy and everything was developing fine. We are very excited that everything checked out okay. The only problem is we have no idea what to name him. I guess I'll be looking through name books or geneology to find something. We have two possibilites for names: Jonas and Mathew, but I am just not sure if either of them is right. I also like the name Mason, but Jeff thinks it sounds too much like Carson. Now I guess I'll be going through all of Carson's old clothes and sorting our what we can still use. The good news is that we'll only have to buy a few things this time around.

Also, an update on Carson. Yesterday he dislocated his elbow at church and we took him to the Emergency Room. The doctor snapped it back into place and in a few minutes he was back to his normal self. I am so thankful that no long term damage was done. Today he has been reliving the trauma. He brought his "baby" (a bear) up to me and said, "Mommy, my baby's arm go 'pop,pop'. He need to go to doctor." He did this several times this morning and then ended up cuddling his bear and saying, "It okay, doctor fix it." I felt so bad because I was the one who picked him up and hurt his elbow. I took some comfort when the ER doc told me that it happens all the time and he had even done it to his grandson on accident.
Today is Jeff's birthday. Tonight we are going to go to Red Lobster for dinner. 

New Years

For New Years we had the Snedakers over and played games. We played a new game, Whoonu, which was pretty fun. We also played In a Pickle, which is a game where you get to argue. I think I must have liked it because I had dreams all that night that I was playing the game. Anyways, Carson was very excited that Chandler came over. They started out the night like this....calm and watching Cars.

And they ended the night running around and screaming.

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Overall it was a great time and I think I gorged myself on snacks