Mmm...popsicles and HP6!!!

Thanks for everyone who expressed concern about Mary and me while we were sick. While I am still trying to get rid of a sore throat and cough, I am feeling better. Mary bounced back awhile ago, the little stinker.

We have a big bag of popsicles in our freezer from the virus that plagued us. Mary has discovered that popsicles are REALLY good. She also knows where they are kept. It is not uncommon for her to go running into the kitchen, directly to the fridge, and pointing up to the freezer while asking "please." And heaven forbid you try and say no to the Mary. She blows a gasket. For whatever reason, she thinks limiting her popsicle intake to one a day is absurd.

One evening, after dinner while Mary was enjoying her dessert (aka a popsicle), I started playing music to wash the dishes to. Mary decided to get her groove on while chomping away. She even started to sing along, though naturally stopped that kind of behavior once the camera was rolling. Still, we managed to capture her being cute. You'll probably hear me say something along the lins of "you know i'm recording this, right?" towards the end. That's because Brent started to sing along to encourage Mary, and brent's not too fond of his singing. He probably woudn't want me posting this, but upon further listening/viewing I've realized you can barely hear him.

Tiggy has found a new favorite place to sleep. Whenever Mary sees him she screams "TIGGY!" then points and laughs at how silly our cat is. I'll let the picture do the talking.

Moving on.

As many of you know, I absolutely adore Harry Potter. When I was preggo, I went to wait in line at Borders for the 7th book's release...by myself no less since Brent was in Vegas (man did I feel lame that night). Anyway, that's how much I love that series.

So you can imagine how pumped up I was for the release of the 6th movie: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Even better was working with some girls who were equally as excited as I. So the night tickets went on sale, Valerie bought midnight showing tix for Rachel and me.

We even geeked it out and made shirts to show our love. After much searching on the internet, we found a couple phrases/quotes relating to the series to use. I was inspired by a YouTube parody of the Snuggie Blanket. You can't see the back, which is in my opinion the best part, so let me just tell you what it says. On the front: SPOILER ALERT. On the back: SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE.

I cracked myself up over it. Though I was slightly nervous that on the off chance there would be people there that had not read the books already, some people would be mad. No worries though, I emerged from the theater unscathed.This is what I liked about the movie:
-Slughorn (they did a marvelous job casting him. In the book i didn't much care for him. In the movie I loved him.)
-Ronald Weasley (I have always loved Ron's character. Rupert Grint has succeeded, in my opinion, at taking the character and really making him come alive)
-The budding romances between Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione
-Dumbledore and the fire to escape the Inferi

This is what I didn't like about the movie:
-Random scenes being added in that are NO WHERE in the book
-A rather lack lustre first kiss between Harry and Ginny
-Not enough Dumbledore time
-Lack of explanations on some more crucial points of the plot

But all together, I really enjoyed it. Brent is "making" me go see it a second time with him soon. I think I will enjoy it more the second time as I won't be sitting on the edge of my seat wondering what they were going to do with the story.

So go see HP and the HBP! Support Harry Potter, the "Chosen One." You know you wanna...

Our New Place

So this is Brent. Stephanie is still feeling under the weather; so I am putting up a few quick pics of our new place. These pics are all of the inside of our place. We haven't taken pics from the outside and its currently 12:30 am. So those will have to wait for our next post. Hopefully Steph will be all better by then too. Anyways, here are the pics.

So here is our living room:

And here is our kitchen and dining room:

Notice that Mary's high chair is now at the dinner table. She loves sitting at the table with mommy and daddy eating her meals or doing an art project. Its actually really funny...when we're getting her food ready for her, she stands by her high chair saying up (that's her way of asking to be put in the high chair).

So thats our new place. We love it here! It is so much bigger than our old place and there is a great fenced in backyard for Mary to play in. They even have a little play house and a few other toys for Mary to play with. Again, next post we will have pics of the outside. Sorry. But here are a few pics of Mary being Mary.

She loves to try and take pictures with our old camera.

I was also trying to post a video but for some reason it wouldn't work. So Steph will have to do that next time.

*big sigh*

so you know, mary is doing better.
me however? well...i got pink eye (from where, i know not). and then, some form of the virus that caused mary's croup decided to attack me. i have been sick since friday basically. we didn't even get to properly celebrate America's birthday. luckily, kara who is extra nice brought us some of the bbq from her party. other than that, i sat around like a major bum and got my sick on.
and now? well, i can't even really talk. i tried going to work today. but not being able to talk...and having to pause to cough and/or blow my nose kind of got in the way. not to mention some of the members who did not look pleased to have me help them. most were sympathetic to my plight, which is nice. and luckily tasha suggested i find someone from the warehouse to cover for me, or i'd probably have a throat more raw than it started this morning.
anyway, brent has been hard at work unpacking while i try to sleep this bug off. the living room and kitchen are pretty much done. he took some pictures. i'll have him post them asap.
i also wanted to wish my brother ian a very happy belated birthday. i would've called...only i can't talk. that conversation probably wouldn't have worked. brent has a hard enough time hearing me and he's sitting right next to me. so ian, i'm sorry for the no call. when i get my voice back i will call so we can catch up. i hope you enjoyed your day. miss you and love you mucho.
that is all for now.
oh and one last thing. i almost forgot until i put mary down for bed. so i can only communicate in whispers. and now mary finds it HIGHlarious to make fun of me. she whispers back at me and then starts laughing hysterically. oh that girl. it's really cute. i try and laugh along as best i can. at least she's around to brighten my sickly spirits.

so so tired

This will be uber quick. No, no, for real.

For those of you who didn't know, we moved to a house in Provo. It is owned by one of my coworker's mom. It is a really great place. We just have a ton of stuff left to unpack. And it will take even longer due to unforseen circumstances.

Seems our little M&M has croup. Or at least that's what the doc diagnosed it as (but we all know how I don't trust doctors). She started coughing yesterday. Last night she kept waking up. Until around 4 when she woke up for good;coughing fit to burst, crying to the point of almost vomitting, and breathing all crazy like. I was really scared. I've never seen her in so much pain or so upset. And really was minutes away from going to the ER since she was completely inconsolable (forgive me if that's misspelled) for hours. Literally.

Instead, we called an on call nurse at the after hours pediatric office. She recommended steaming up the bathroom and sitting in there with her. It helped to the point of calming her down and allowing her to sleep. Still, she could hear Mary in the background and said an appointment to the doctor's was necessary.

Mary doesn't like the doctor. Not the stethoscope, not the tongue depressor, not the ear checker thingy (i don't know what that's called). Nothing. Oh wait. She does like the stickers at the end. She got a Dora and Diego one (which she calls "Doh" haha).

So now she's taking some prednisolone (steroid) to help with the throat problems. I have to watch out and make sure she doesn't get an infection after taking that grape nastiness. Otherwise she may have to worry about possible ear and eye infections. Oh no!

Anyway, here's a little picture I took from my phone. We stopped at Wendy's after picking up her prescription because she needs to take it with food and we figured a little indulging wouldn't hurt today.

What a little couch potato.
Expect more soon, or at least as soon as we get all our junk settled. Keep your fingers crossed that it will be this weekend.

yeesh

So this was supposed to be updated awhile ago. But between recovering from sickness (more on that later) and then dog sitting, and finally packing up all our junk to move this week, we've been busy beavers.

Here's a quick (haha who am I kidding, quick?) update on our little vacay.

The first week of June we traveled back to lovely Illinois to visit our family. The trip out there was great. We got a whole row to ourselves. Mary loved the idea of sitting by herself, though for take off and touch down I made her sit on my lap. She loved the window. She also slept on me for a solid 1-1 1/2 hours. She was really interested in the people sitting around us too. It would've gone off without a hitch if it weren't for the fact that little Mary drank her body's weight in liquids the entire time and ended up leaking massively out of her diaper. She was not pleased about getting changed on the plane. That was the only time she cried: and cry she did. Mightly.

We traveled on Gma Koz's birthday, so we forewent going to El Famous so we would have an appetite for Julie's birthday dinner. P.F.Changs. Yum yum. Mary was a little cranky, but once the noodles came out she was happy as a clam, slurping and playing with the chopsticks that Gpa Koz so lovingly supplied. She was over tired and had a hard time sleeping. I in turn had a hard time not running to the crib so she could sleep in my arms. I had to just let her cry it out. It's hard for me since she is not normally a crier. But after a solid 10 minutes or so she finally gave up and passed out. She slept til about 10 the next morning. It was glorious.

The next day was all about visiting Gma Koz at the church bookstore and getting...EL FAMOUS. Oh man. It was good. I wish I had some now. Only since I've been on a diet, my tummy couldn't handle much of it. Mary even liked it. The funniest part was actually picking up the food. The guy who helped us, who also probably was the owner or something, was so nice. He loved Mary. And kept offering us horchata and giving us a free drink for the Mar-Mar. All the workers were smiling at our cutie and she was playing shy and adorable as ever.

We spent the night at this indoor water resort called Key Lime Cove. Thanks to Gpas Koz for giving us the free night's stay and all day access to the water park. Also big thanks to Julie and Jessica for picking out Mary's swimsuit. Isn't it cute?We had a little mishap at the beginning of our adventure in the water. Seems Mary isn't too keen on massive amounts of water being dumped on her head without warning. Both Mary and I were standing in the play area, splashing and turning the little wheels and such that were placed throughout the place. I hear this bell ringing, and see kids running up to the general area that we are standing at. I kept looking around thinking What is going on? Is something about to drop on us? But I couldn't see anything. Then, wouldn't you know it, the giant pineapple at the top of the play area, completely full of water, tipped over spilling allthe contents on the unsuspecting (well, ok I guess Mary and me were the only unsuspecting) victims. Mary was not amused.(note, this was not actually taken after the giant pineapple fail of '09. But it accurately depicts Mary's mood.)
As a result, Mary was scared of the water. I'm talkin skirred. She did not want to go in. She would scream and lift her legs up if i tried to set her down. Coaxing her back into the water was a process. Eventually though, she was happy as a clam again. Observe:

I went down the slide with her a couple times, though I will not be sharing any of those pics/vids. My bum was hurt as I underestimated how quickly we'd go down and how shallow the water was. Didn't do that again. So instead, enjoy a vid of Mary goin to town on the little jets of water. (just don't mind all of my jibber-jabbering throughout the recording)



Mary even got some time out on the lake and took a turn as captain of the boat. The minute the driver's seat was unoccupied, that sly little thing crawled into the spot and started moving the steering wheel and trying to start it up by going for the boat. She's too smart sometimes. Luckily Gpa Koz took pity on her and let her honk the horn...a lot...while he drove around. I'm sure we were attracting bizarre looks from the other beach goers.

Then...everything went to crap. First, Brent got sick. The whole thing is entirely Tyler's fault; he got sick right before he and Jessica left back to Utah...the day before we arrived in IL. He passed it to Julie who passed it to Brent, who passed it to me, and then to poor little Mary. Of course, when Brent gets sick, it's like 100x worse. It's not just a cold, it's a Man's Cold. Really, if he had a bell, he'd have used it.

We were sick basically the entire time with my parents. It really sucked. Mary slept for about a whole day straight. She was a bit freaked out by poor Gpa Lub, but really only because she was under the weather. By the last day she was feelign better...and nicer. Unfortunately, she didn't even get to show them how much she loves her nanas, because she had no appetite. Funny how, when they took her shopping, she was happy as can be. Go figure, Mary is a bit girly huh? She loves to shop.

However, we were lucky enough to go see Star Trek with my dad. It was really good. I'm not a trekkie by any means, but I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, because I always drink too much during a movie, I had to cut out to the restroom halfway through to empty my bladder. Gma Lub watched Mary while we were gone. This is basically all Mary did the whole time we were at my parents' house:

(do you see Blankie int he pic? Yes we had to take him with us, or else!)

Regardless of the sickness, we had a good time. The flight back was almost non existant, as we were the very last two to be cleared to board. We didn't get to sit by each other, and Mary slept on my the entire time. The sweat spot on my shirt was ginormous. At least we made it though, that's what counts. And if it weren't for Keri and her generosity, we would've had to park in the economy lot or something. Instead, we were in the employee lot and had a nice shuttle to take us there. With two large suitcases, two smaller ones, carry ons and a car seat, we were not well equiped to lug those things far.

All in all, a good trip. We already miss our family. Now we get to look forward to moving. Ugh. Does anyone want to volunteer to pack and clean for me? 4 years of living in the same place=lots of accumulated junk. *cries* I'm not looking forward to all of this. Next post will come after we've settled into our new place. I'm excited for that, being unpacked and settled in. I wish I could fast forward to that point...

Passing of the torch

Many of you may not know this, besides my immediate family who knows me all too well, but I still have my baby blanket...or rather a replica my mom made a few years ago once my original was basically falling apart. I know, it's slightly odd. And trust me, Brent is sometimes annoyed by it. "Blankie is literally coming between us Steph." Yes he does say that when I use it as, essentially, a body pillow. But it's easier than a traditional body pillow because it moves with me while I sleep. Right? Ok, so moving on.

Every day when I get Mary up in the morning, after changing her soggy diaper, we go over to our bedroom to wake up Daddy. "Let's go get Daddy." Mary promptly yells out "Daddy!" and runs to the closed door and knocks as loud as her little fists are capable of. I open the door, she runs in and rushes to his bed side. Once he picks her up and she bounces her way across the bed, she usually settles her bum on my pillow, bouncing in place as she laughs and watches something like Sponge Bob that Brent has turned on (I hate Sponge Bob, just so you know). Lately she has discoverd Blankie (yes it is capitalized because he, which Brent hates that I anthropomorphize it into maleness, is a proper noun to me) and has been pulling it over her lap. Well one day, I foolishly tried to pull Blankie off her. "That's Mommy's Mary." She didn't even flinch as she pulled it back and said "No mine!" And of course Brent is in the background scolding me. "What Mary wants, Mary gets" or "It's time to let go" and "I think she needs it more than you." My argument was that she already has a blanket, lovingly made by my mom. So now the idea is that if I sleep with it enough to get it to the same battered stage as my Blankie, Mary will take that back and give me my little yellow blanket back. Fingers crossed people because I doubt it will work. Mary really does have the mentality that what Mary wants, Mary gets.

Now, I've tried my very best to convince not only others, but myself too, that Mary is indeed a little lady. I have overlooked her casual burps and adult sized toots for some time. I mean, she does indeed love to put shoes on, though it really doesn't matter if it is feminine or masculine in nature. And she does love headbands as well. But really, she's just a terror. I swear I need baby Adderall (if such thing existed) for our nonstop Hurricane Mary...or would she be a tropical storm? Either way, she has a penchant for cars, even making the vroom noise as she scoots or bear crawls along with them. Her favorite characters on Yo Gabba Gabba are Muno and Brobee, not Tutti and Foofa like most girls (if that show is still airing when she's old enough to yell "My name is Mary! I like to dance!" she will for sure be sporting Muno or Brobee on her jumper outfit thing). She also loves to be a rough and tumble thing, jumping on us, body slamming Tiggy, head butting me (that really hurts, especially when I'm wearing my glasses). When Uncle Tyler comes over, she basically throws herself at him and tries to flip herself over so that he stands her on her head. It's kind of ridiculous. Plus, and maybe this isn't necessarily a boyish attribute, she really hates clothes. One day, upon coming home after work, she ran inside and just stripped off her top in about .05 seconds flat. I was amazed. She went for the pants next, but her little sandals made that task much too difficult. Thank goodness, we don't want a beautiful baby girl who takes off her clothes all willy-nilly. Brent would have a heart attack.

Still, even though she may be a boy wrapped up in a girly shell, she's basically the cutest daughter a parent could ask for. And I am in no way bias. :)

Seriously, is that not one of the cutest pictures ever? Note her pants are off and laying on the ground behind her...

And last, but not least, American Idol. UGH! I will admit to being a total Adam Lambert fan. Yes I am aware of his "unambiguously ambiguous sexuality" (thanks EW mag for that), and that he might possibly enjoy being a queen for a day...or two...but he was just so much more interesting to me than Kris Allen. We sat and watched the finale, anxious for the results. I was so sure Adam was going to win. Brent got impatient about half way through the stalling methods AI employs, and checked online...that cheater! I about screamed when I found out Kris won. NO!!! The only redeeming factor of that show was Mary gettin her groove on to the Black Eyed Peas' Boom Boom Pow song. Watch and see how Mary gets down (she totally knows how to drop it like its hot...which is probably a bad thing. Where is she learning these things?!)

Sorry this took forever! Brent already got on my case about being more punctual with posts. I'm working on it. Promise!

Brent's Back

Hello all. It has been quite a while since our last post so I figured I would do another one since Stephanie has a bad headache. So this will be a quick one with a few pictures. Once Steph is feeling better she will post some more. There will be some really funny pics but I will let Steph explain that when she posts. In other news, as most of you know, we will be moving in a little less than a month. We are moving into the main floor of a house with a huge back yard for Mary to play in. It's also a little bigger than our current place. We are so excited! We will be posting lots of picture of the new place next month when we move.

So here a few pics of Mary wearing Mommy's shoes.

And here is a video of her dancing in those same shoes. And at the very beginning of the video mary is saying "cheese" and holding an imaginary camera up to her face. She has taken to doing that pretty much everytime we pull out the real camera.

Well thats it for now. (I told you it would be short) More to come later.