What a champ...

So I forgot to enhance Paul's ego 2 Sundays ago when I was asked to play the piano in Sacrament meeting. Normally when I do that I can go up and down off the stand in between songs. Except this Sunday (the Sunday before Christmas) I had to accompany the primary kids songs so essentially I was stuck on the stand the entire meeting. Well, Paul, (the champ that he is) translated the meeting into Spanish for one of our new memebers, kept Lana quiet and occupied throughout the whole meeting and kept Tanner asleep by rocking him in the car seat and keeping the paci in his mouth. It was awsome! So BIG kudos to Paul for being so talented!

My 2 year old and a cheeseball

One Judson family holiday food is a homemade cheeseball. I never would've thought that would turn out to be Lana's favorite food. When she woke up this morning, I asked her what she wanted to eat for breakfast. First she said candy, after I said no she said cheeseball! I made her a compromise and we had it for lunch.

Paul's favorite gift...

I needed a good laugh and Paul was nice enough to humor me while I snapped pics.

Christmas

Okay, so Paul thought that him and Lana would sleep in front of the Christmas tree this year on Christmas Eve. That seemed to work out fine until (according to him since I was sleeping in my comfy bed) at 4am she woke up and started arguing with him about whose pillow was whose. Paul told her he wasn't going to argue with her at 4am and put her in her own bed. Still, she woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7:30am very excited to "open toys".



This is the extent of Tanner's excitement this year.










Thankfully this year Lana did not take 3 days to open her gifts (like last year). I think we opened the last present around 1:30pm.





Definately wish I could nap like this little guy. Anytime, anywhere.

The Poo Insanity (warning...tmi ahead)

Tanner is what I refer to as a "super pooper" because every time I turn around the kid is poopy and needs a change. And sometimes while I'm changing him or have just finished changing him he needs to be changed AGAIN. I just need some reassurance that this poo insanity will end one day. I know it somewhere deep in the recesses of my memory (where I buried Lana's poo insanity days) that it will end, but until then I find myself changing way too many poopy diapers. Oh, and whoever told me that boys were easier to clean (down there) than girls, their boy must not have had as many crevices as mine. (Sorry Tanner, mommy loves you!)

Poor Lana...

1st Christmas. No tears. Things looking okay.










2nd Christmas. The picture says it all.






3rd Christmas. We tried to entice her with candy (which is her favorite food right now), not even candy worked. I honestly only torture her (i.e. make her sit on Santa's lap) because it makes good pictures.

Tanner's 2 weeks Dr. Appointment

First of all, I cannot believe 2 weeks have passed already. Time seems to fly even faster when you have two kids and are sleep deprived. We went to Tanner's 2 week appointment yesterday and I have two things to vent about:

First, the nurse told me to come in at 10:30am. We got there 10:15 thinking I needed to fill out paperwork. They give me the paper work, I'm done by 10:25. After 45 minutes of waiting in the waiting room, with a two week old and a two year old surrounded by kids coughing and hacking, I finally go up to the receptionist desk and ask if everything's okay and that we hadn't been forgotten. The nurse then tells me that my appointment was actually for 11:15am. What?!! You (the dr.'s office) think it's going to take me 45 minutes to fill out 2 pages of paperwork? And you want me to sit in a germ filled waiting room with a newborn? If we had this problem with Lana I would seriously consider changing Dr.'s offices, but luckily with Lana we've been able to get in and get out in a timely manner. Hopefully this will not happen again or else I will be on the hunt for a new pediatrician. (Okay first vent over.)

Second vent, I was thinking about getting Lana a flu shot this year until I got to the Dr.'s office and saw how much they were charging. $48.00 for a stinking flu shot. What a rip off. (Second vent over.)

Okay, now to Tanner. He weighed in at 9lbs. 7oz. and 22 1/4" long. Other than being stripped naked and made to freeze while waiting for the Dr. to come in (thankfully I thought to bring a fleece blanket even though it was 80 degrees here yesterday), he handled his first Dr.'s appt. better than I did.

Diggin for gold?

As I was going through pictures to post on the blog, I asked Lana if she wanted me to put up this pic and she said "yep". I just wanted to keep the record straight so when she gets older and asks why I put it on, I can say "because you said so!".

Merry Christmas!

Posing for pictures

Giving kisses








Lana's favorite saying..."Tanner, soft. Cute!!!"

The best big sister

Lana has been an excellent big sister. She loves baby Tanner and especially loves to feel how soft his hair is. Saturday night, Tanner was sitting in his bouncy seat and Lana came up and crouched next to him. She was talking to him about what she saw on the tv and then when he started to fuss, she shushed him and patted him softly on the head. When that didn't work she tried the paci. I wish I'd had the video camera it was such a sweet moment between the two of them. Now, just to clarify, the transition has not been perfect, and Lana has had her moments, but they seem to be minor. How blessed we are to have 2 great kids.

Check out these dimples!

A few pics to tide you over

One big family.









Two cute kids.










Tanner Kainoa Judson
November 28, 2007
8lbs. 4oz. (holy cow!)
21 inches long

Due Date Plus 3

Still pregnant. Being induced tomorrow morning at 5:30am. Cannot sit and think about it much or will go crazy in anticipation.

Decorating the tree

Lana was a very helpful tree decorator this year. Luckily we bought new plastic Christmas ornaments and other non-breakable things to put on the tree. What this picture doesn't show is the one place where she shoved about 6 balls into the tree. She's been great about keeping the ornaments on the tree, however, she keeps moving them around (I guess trying to find perfection?). Luckily for me she can only reach 1/3 of the tree. We have given her the job of "official tree light turner-on-er and turner-off-er" since she is the only one small enough to fit between the window and the tree to step on the push button which turns the lights on and off. The benefits are terrible, but she seems to love her job.

Due Date

Still pregnant.

Lana's suggestion for baby's name

As Paul was getting Lana ready for bed last night, I overheard him asking her if she was excited for her new baby brother. She said "yeah". Paul asked her what we should name the baby when he got here and she said "Sucker!". Oh the things that come out of the mouth of babes.

Weird encounter in Walmart parking lot

So I went to Walmart this morning and as I was loading the groceries into the car some random old guy walks up behind me. I think he's going to offer to finish putting the groceries in my car or something. Uh, no. He says, "Would you like me to get you some collard greens for your Thanksgiving Dinner?" WHAT?! He either A.) Had some extra collard greens in his car he needed to give away, B.) Thought I needed to eat some vegetables because I'm fat, or C.) Was just plain crazy. I'm going to vote for 'C'.

I should not be held responsible for stupid things I do while pregnant.

The latest "stupid" thing I've done while pregnant...Yesterday was laundry day, so I changed the sheets on the bed. It was the last load I put into the dryer right before we went to bed. As I pulled the sheets out of the washing machine a nice surprise fell out onto the floor. Yes folks, I washed the alarm clock. We've had the same alarm clock (travel kind) for 3 years, I've changed the sheets on our bed hundreds of times and yet somehow yesterday I failed to account for the clock before washing (go figure!?). The good news is we have a very resilient alarm clock because after drying out over night, and changing the battery, it still works!

Old MacDonald had a...

Light? How about a ball? On the way to the Dr.'s office Lana and I were singing Old MacDonald and all the usual verses (cow, pig, duck). After we finished those, she saw a ball out the window and started singing "with a ball, ball here and a ball ball there...here a ball, there a ball, everywhere a ball, ball". It was seriously a hoot. While we were waiting in the exam room she was pointing out different things in the room and naming them. She got to the light and broke out into the full Old MacDonald song and inserted light. "With a light, light here and a light light there...here a light, there a light, everywhere a light light". I am sure that everyone out in the hall were having some good chuckles because she was really belting it out and the rooms are not very sound proof at all.

Dr.'s Appointment

Last week at my appointment my doc ordered an ultrasound to see how big the baby was measuring. According to the U/S tech the chunker is weighing in at 7lbs 13oz. Let's all hope that off by about a pound because I really don't want to be pushing out a 8 or 9 pounder. Lana was very excited to see the baby (atleast I told her that's what was on the monitor and she acted like she was excited). She has also been a great sport at all of my Dr. Appointments, all the nurses there love her and she's always getting a sucker or sticker from one of them.

Well, today at the appt. I had made no progress whatsoever to be on the road to delivery and my doc. must've seen my face and taken pity on me because she gave me an eviction date of Wednesday November 28th. (yay!) First I must say I am actually relieved at the idea of being induced. I don't really want to be in the hospital next week for Thanksgiving (just not the same eating hospital turkey vs. Honey Baked Ham for Thanksgiving dinner). It's also a relief knowing that we can for sure plan on having someone here to take care of Lana. However, I am not looking forward to the next 13 days of back pain and all around uncomfortable-ness. I know I'm crazy for actually wanting to go passed my due date (Nov. 24th) but you know what? That's what pregnancy does to a person, it makes them crazy...just ask Paul.

Funny thing happened yesterday...

While we (here read: Paul) were putting together our new dining room table, Lana was calling "Daddy!... Daddy!... Daddy!... Daddy!". Well, Paul being occupied with the table didn't answer her and she started saying "Paul!... Paul!... Paul!". We both looked at her and questioned whether we had heard correctly. Sure enough, moments later she said it again. What made it really funny was that she says it the same way I say it when Paul isn't paying attention to me. I'm scared to hear what else she might pick up in the future.

Mommy's night off

I got to enjoy my monthly mommy's night off last night. Let me just say I really enjoy having adult conversation without a two year old in the background saying "mommy!" all the time. Anyway, we went to Pan Asia and I had the very yummy Thai Cashew Chicken. A friend from church even threw me a mini baby shower (which consisted of her bringing a balloon, cake and presents but just from herself). It was super sweet especially since I had told everyone I didn't need a baby shower (with 7 other people having babies in our ward...). Well, I had a good time and tried not to think that it will be a couple more months before I can go again.

One last note...can I just say this Daylight Savings Time change has totally kicked my bum this year? Ugh...

Trick or Treat!

We're just getting ready to go trick or treating. Hard to be scared of something so cute!











Riding a broom was like second nature to her, we didn't even have to show her what to do with it.







Now she's just showing off, riding a broom and eating TWO suckers at a time. Suckers by the way were the choice of candy for the evening.





This was me trying to teach Lana that when you say "Trick or Treat" you get candy. Seriously too cute for words!

Our weekend in Florida

We snuck down to Destin, Florida this weekend with some friends of ours. And I must say that regardless of being 8 months pregnant (yes, please see side view picture of me below), the 6 hour drive was totally worth it. The weather was beautiful, the water warm and we found the perfect beach that didn't have any dead fish on it and was close to a bathroom. I sat and read all day, Lana played in the sand all day and Paul played the first of the day and then broke (or thought he broke we'll find out today at the doctors) his pinky toe and sat around the rest of the day as well.

Paul's B Day

So this week I turned 30. It wasn't too eventfull, We had hot dogs and cupcakes. I asked for dinosaur sprinkles, but just like always, we couldn't locate any. It is funny how as each year passes, the importance of my birthday diminshes, but the importance of my loved ones birthdays grows. I wouldn't have it any other way.
This next week I will go in and get my first physical in almost 10 years, that will be interesting. We did decide to go to the beach this weekend, and I'm sure there will be another post about that visit.
It seems like work consumes most of my time. All the free time I get, I love to spend with the family. Sometimes I wonder if moving my family to the South was a wise idea, but then I look at the housing economy of the country and I am glad that I live in a growing market. This year we will probably triple last years sales, and next year is looking even better.
Well that is my two cents.

Pepe Le Peu

We seriously thought Pepe Le Peu was in our back yard last night. As we were putting Lana to bed we started to smell skunk. We were really hoping that the skunk didn't crawl into the empty lot next to us and die. Thankfully this morning on Paul's way to work, he saw the culprit lying on the side of the highway. I don't know whether to be comforted by the fact that just because you smell skunk doesn't mean that it's right next to you because it could be pretty far away.

The Pumpkin Patch

Our Saturday at the pumpkin patch...







-Lana, what are those big orange things?
-Apples!
-No, those are pumpkins.
-No...Apples!





On the hayride...
-Lana, what sound does a tractor make?
-Mooooo!
-Mooooo?
-The tractors on the vroom, vroom movie (Cars) say Moooo.




Playin' in the corn box.








Swingin' on the potato swing.








Cutest patch of pumpkins I've ever seen.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Okay, so it's not the Great Pumpkin, but it was perfect for Lana!

Yay potty!

Lana voluntarily sat on the potty today! For some time now I've been asking her if she wants to go sit on the potty to go poop around the time she normally goes. Everyday she's said "No", so I really haven't pushed the issue (especially since I'd rather change diapers than clean up accidents). So anyway, when she woke up from her nap I asked her if she needed to go poop, she says "yeah". Then I ask her if she wants to go poop on the potty, she says "yeah". So we go sit on the potty, sing one verse of Old MacDonald, and she says she's done. Of course she didn't do anything, but it's a small positive step in the right direction. It's funny the things I get excited about now that I'm a parent.

I just thought of something funny I saw on TV the other day. I don't know if anyone has seen the show John and Kate plus eight on the Discovery Health channel...anyway, they have a set of twins and sextuplets and the sextuplets are potty training. In the episode I saw Kate (the mom) took pictures of the kids sitting on the potty and then a picture of their actual poop with the kid standing next to it. Seriously grossed me out, but it was so funny. The length some moms go to documenting the growing up process. I promise I will not be posting (or even taking for that matter) those kinds of pictures. (Insert here, older Lana and future children sighing major relief.)

Small things I'm grateful for today...

Having been able to eat Mexican food last night and not get heartburn.

Paul taking care of Lana (bathing and feeding included) while I went and pigged out on mexican food.

Good friends and new friends who pigged out on mexican food with me.

Cool weather (yay 60 degrees!).

A Night at the Fair

So we braved the State Fair Friday night and had a very enjoyable time. We found an awesome parking spot (close and free!) This is Lana trying to devour a corndog bigger than her head.

We couldn't leave the fair without trying to win Lana something, unfortunately it turned out to be this nasty ratty cheap teddybear. We took a picture for memories sake, it promptly went to the trash when we got home. We looked into winning a Dora doll, but turned out you had to spend $40 for just a chance at winning it.

Lana had a great time riding the merry-go-round. Everytime we passed Daddy and Uncle Dave she would wave bye-bye.

Lana was definately hesitant at the small petting zoo they offered. And I seriously can't blame her since as we walked in the little baby goats were trying to nibble her shirt. We bought some carrots and daddy helped feed the animals.

I think the camel was the most interesting part of the petting zoo. (Thankfully there was no spitting on the camel's part.)

Lana and daddy riding the Bee ride. It's hard to see them, but they are riding in the bee that's in the middle of the picture. That's what we get for taking pictures with the camera phone, but you know, that's one less thing for me to carry and or get stolen.

6 weeks and counting

Six weeks and counting before we meet our new arrival! I'm still unsure if Lana is aware she is going to be a big sister, but she does atleast know that there's a baby in mommy's tummy and likes to poke and prod him to try and get him to move.

People have been asking me "are you ready?" Seriously, can you ever be ready for a new baby? I am glad that we know a little more of what to expect this time around, but as we did with Lana, we'll just take it one day at a time. I think the hardest part is watching my 2 year old learn new things everyday. (Like putting on her own shoes and socks by herself!) I must accept the fact that she is no longer my baby, but my little "big" girl. I just hope that the teenage years don't come too quickly.