Our Side of the Tracks

Even MORE visitors!

2012-01-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

Here is some more photographic evidence of Jack's already-quite-busy social life:

My beautiful aunt Iris and my beautiful cousin Andrea! I was excited that Andrea was still in town on her Christmas break from law school and also that I was able to meet her fiance Toby earlier in the week.

My uncle Larry stopped by not long after, just missing his wife and youngest daughter. Larry brought me a 'milkshake' comprised of M&M's and miniature candy bars, proving a second time in as many months that he is an excellent source of chocolate. It's no wonder that he's been happily married for 40 years and successfully raised four daughters!

My cute friend Star came to meet Jack and brought the sweetest gifts, including an adorable little pair of Boise State socks/booties. She and her family are hardcore BSU fans - they tailgate, travel to games, etc. so it was the perfect present from her!

The day after we came home from the hospital, we were able to have Chuck's sister Melissa and some of her family over for a quick visit. Here's Mallory and George holding their newest cousin and Kevin helping out with the logistics of Melissa's newborn photo shoot with Jack. Hopefully we get to see their other kiddos (and the rest of Chuck's family!) sometime in the coming months so Jack can get acquainted with all of his aunts and uncles and cousins :).

Jack met some of his second cousins about a week later when my cousin Ryan's wife Stephanie brought their sweet four kids over for a visit. Kara and Rachel took a break from playing light sabers with Clyde and Will to snuggle with baby Jack, while Aaron and Nathan wisely hung back and just took all of the excitement and craziness in :). Thanks for coming out to see us, Hunters!

And finally, I felt bad for not taking pictures when these sweet girls came to see us in the hospital, so here are some shots from last weekend. Nicole and Paulina treated Kara and me to milkshakes for our birthdays (thanks again!!) and Jack tagged along in one of his first forays into the real world. What we learned from this outing is that the 'pie in a milkshake' idea was clearly divinely inspired, burning calories via giggling is much preferable after a c-section than burning calories via roller skating (Nicole's idea), three kids in and I'm still incredibly uncoordinated at nursing in public, that Jack is the sweetest baby ever, and that not every girls' night out ends with us wandering the aisles of Winco :).

Jack's first visitors

2012-01-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

Jack is so blessed to have so many people that love him and have been excited to meet him already. Here's a recap of his first round of visitors (to be followed by another post of even more visitors . . . at some point):

Naturally Grandma Pam was one of the first to meet baby Jack, because A) she brought Clyde and Will to meet him and B) hospital security probably couldn't have kept her away. My mom is one of those wonderful people who loves their kids but LOVES their grandkids. I'm pretty sure Sam and Quinn and I don't have to ever get her Christmas/birthday/Arbor Day gifts ever again since we took it upon ourselves to (within a period of five months) double the number of grandchildren she can be obsessed with.

Speaking of Grandma Pam, Chuck and I are so, so appreciative of her bravery in taking care of Clyde and Will that whole week - she had them from Monday afternoon until we picked them up on Friday evening on our way home from the hospital. I can't even handle my kids by myself for that length of time! And other than the day she put them in the wrong jeans (an honest mistake, the boys are only like two inches apart in height) she kept Clyde and Will clothed and fed and safe and happy and brought them to the hospital every day to see us. THANKS MAMA!!

Quinn and Eden were also able to see baby Jack for a couple of hours that morning before they had to drive back to Provo. This meant so much to me, especially since we chose Jack's middle name in honor of Quinn (Quinton, Quinn, same difference - I wanted two syllables). I am so, so grateful for my close relationship with Quinn. I think Heavenly Father knew He couldn't give me a sister so I got Quinn instead - and I mean that (mostly) in the best way possible :). Quinn has always been one of my best friends and I love that I can talk to him about absolutely anything. He is such a good person and I'm excited for Jack to be able to look up to him as he grows up. And seeing Quinn and Eden hold Jack made me even more excited for them to welcome their own sweet baby boy later this spring!

We were able to take advantage of the Internet connection at the hospital and have a video chat with Cody. Sadly the audio was pretty sketchy (we resorted to Cody writing on a piece of paper and holding it up!) but I was really glad he could see his newest nephew. Love you Coders!

My dad made a couple of visits to see us at the hospital and meet his newest grandson. It was really fun to sit and talk while we all adored the baby. And of course, Grandpa came with gifts! He brought a musical water globe and hat for baby Jack and a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me - along with a bag of Lindt Chocolate Truffles, which were soooo good. I treated myself to one every time the nurses brought Jack in to nurse at night; it's amazing how much easier it is to wake up at 3am when you know there's a sweet baby AND chocolate waiting for you! Thanks again Dad!!

BIG brothers

2012-01-25T10:45:00.001-07:00

It turns out that when you bring a third child home, you end up with TWO older siblings for said third child. And watching those older siblings relish their roles as 'big brothers' to a wee little baby adds to the overload of adorableness that already comes with welcoming a new addition!

Clyde became a big brother the first time around when he was just shy of nineteen months. He loved baby Will but obviously had no real understanding of the whole situation. This time around, he is obsessed. He LOVES baby Jack. Here he is holding Jack right after their initial meeting at the hospital.

Will has actually understood more than I thought he would - we talked a LOT about baby Jack while I was pregnant, and Will quickly accepted that we now point to an actual baby instead of my stomach when we refer to 'baby Jack'. This is their first encounter - sooo sweet!

Of course, as with most things, baby Jack is only able to hold Will's attention for so long - here Will happened to glance at his hand and got distracted by his band-aid :).

Clyde asks to hold Jack constantly. My favorite is when he cuddles up with him and closes his eyes with that darling, goofy smile :).

Will prefers to hold the baby just every now and then. He'll randomly yell "Okay, I hold it!" as if he's giving in to our desperate pleas - it's the same way he says, "Okay, I try it!" when he spies some candy or a treat - usually that hasn't even been offered yet to him :).

Clyde likes to get reeeal close to Jack . . .

Will was excited to help give some order to Jack's hair during a visit to the hospital; he then sweetly moved on to Chuck.

Clyde holding Jack? Check. Will climbing on the couch? Check.

One night Clyde proudly showed me how he put a (rather large) blanket on baby Jack. A few minutes later I came back to check on them and found Clyde fast asleep. Apparently he's taking to heart the advice to 'sleep when the baby sleeps' :).

I sure love watching these three boys interact!

Thirteen days

2012-01-16T23:41:00.005-07:00

On the eve of Jack's two week birthday, I am happy to report that we are all alive and doing well, hooray!

Jack had his first doctor's appointment today and we were delighted to learn that he has gained over a pound since birth and now tips the scales at 8lbs 2oz. This does make sense when you factor in his eating schedule: every one to two hours during the day - and (praise the heavens) only every three to three and a half hours at night. But seriously, during the day he loves him some milk. Luckily I don't have a lot else going on since Chuck is amazing and paternity leave is amazing and not having to do the dishes or prepare meals is amazing. I can definitely handle keeping one kid fed if Chuck can handle keeping the rest of us fed!

The weekend that Jack came home from the hospital we were excited to enjoy a visit from Chuck's sister Melissa, her husband Kevin, and two of their kids. Their elderly neighbor from Boise passed away and so they came up for the funeral and were able to come and meet Jack and Melissa was sweet enough to do a quick photoshoot! Here are a couple of my favorites:

He's such a mellow, contemplative fellow so far. Aside from a couple (understandably) fussy moments the day his plasti-bell and cord fell off, Jack is incredibly even-tempered - only crying when he's hungry. Bless him.

He was very awake when Melissa pulled out the camera and stayed that way for most of the shoot, funny boy :).

He finally fell asleep towards the end. Isn't he soooo precious? Thanks again Melissa!!

We're still in the process of determining resemblances and how much he looks like the other boys.

Here they all are, side-by-side: Clyde (2 days old), Will (3 days old), and Jack (3 days old). Personally, I think that Will is the link between Clyde and Jack - Will looks a bit like Clyde, and Jack looks a lot like Will, but Clyde and Jack don't look as much alike - minus the dark hair of course :).

Here's another grouping, again it's Clyde, Will, Jack and all within the first couple of weeks of their cute little baby lives. I think Clyde's head is more round as opposed to the oval shape that Will and Jack both have . . . or maybe I've been staring at baby pictures too long tonight!

And finally, here are a couple more random shots of Jack from around the house the last couple weeks:

So happily asleep in his little Star Wars onesie :)!

Not so happily awake in a regular light blue onesie :(. He does have the furrowed brow down pretty well, which I remember being true of Clyde as well.

Enjoying a post-lunch nap . . .

My sweet friend Paulina gave Jack this cute little outfit, which he's worn several times now since it's one of the few 'newborn' size items we have. We love this silly monkey!

Jack's birth story

2012-01-10T18:14:00.001-07:00

Spoiler alert: he was born via scheduled c-section, so this isn't really a 'labor' story . . . but it's still a birth story, so I figured I'd share it. Also, here's the obligatory disclaimer - feel free to skip this post if words such as 'uterus' or 'dilated' make you uncomfortable. Also click away if seeing a picture of a baby emerging from my stomach might make your stomach turn a bit :).

I had a pretty hard time sleeping Monday night, which is sad since it was my last night of 'freedom' before having a newborn. It was so weird knowing for sure that Jack was coming in a few hours; it gave me a lot of time to worry and anticipate and wonder and think. And not sleep.

Chuck and I were up and ready to go nice and early Tuesday morning. I couldn't eat before the surgery, so poor Chuck's breakfast was pretty light. We checked and doubled checked that we had everything we needed, made sure the house was ready for my mom and the little boys for three days, and then Chuck gave me a very sweet and very comforting blessing - and then we left for the hospital!

The process before the c-section was quite lengthy - something I wasn't used to. My previous two c-sections weren't quite 'emergency' but the circumstances certainly weren't as relaxed as this one. Chuck and I each changed into our OR attire and then I got the most painful IV of my life, hence my less than joyful expression above. Luckily I really liked the nurse, Kathleen, so I was able to forgive her. The nurse-anesthesiologist, Clint, came in and met us and talked me through how the spinal would work, which I appreciated since I only remember bits and pieces from the spinal with Will (with Clyde I had an epidural that they converted to a spinal).

It looked for a while like we might be bumped for an emergency delivery, but we ended up heading into the OR right on time. This is when I started to get pretty nervous, partially because Chuck wasn't allowed in quite yet and partially because I knew I was about to be cut open. Both pretty good reasons I think! Luckily I was blessed with the best OR staff in the world. Kathleen continued to be sweet and comforting, Judy (the surgical assistant) was funny and distracting, and Clint made the experience of taking a needle to the spine as pleasant as it could be :).

Seriously, though, Clint was amazing throughout the surgery. I compare the role of anesthesiologists during a c-section to doulas or labor coaches during a vaginal birth - Clint constantly reassured me from a medical standpoint that everything was fine and asked how I was and checked my comfort levels and answered my questions.

The spinal definitely its job, after a few minutes I was numb from the top of my ribcage down. Dr. Klomp and the assisting OB came in and got all set up and Chuck was able to come in as well. Everyone got introduced and acquainted and chatted about the two exciting bowl games the previous night and then it was time to have a baby!

I couldn't feel any pain during the c-section, but I could definitely feel pressure and movement - it's soooo weird to feel the tugging sensation as your body is pulled apart. I'm pretty sure my grimace is exaggerated for the camera, though.

It took a few minutes, but finally they got down to the uterus and pulled baby Jack out. The first thing they said when his head came into view was how much dark hair he had :). Apparently he kind of popped himself out - they push on the stomach to help ease the baby out and Jack took the initiative to help free himself!

I was so, so happy to hear his cute little squeak of a cry and hear everyone say how darling he was :).

He came as a much smaller model than what we're used to - Clyde was 8lbs 5oz a day before his due date and Will was 7lbs 13oz nine days early, so I guessed that Jack would fall somewhere in between the two. Instead he weighed in at 6lbs 14oz.

After getting his impressive APGAR scores (9's, although don't ask me what that actually means), he was bundled up and brought over to me, yay! Then Jack and Chuck went out to recovery. This is where things got a little rough for me. With each c-section it takes longer to put everything back together and staple me up, which gave me more time to start feeling woozy and no bueno. Luckily Clint was there with a cool washcloth for my forehead and encouraging words. I started to get really tired so I closed my eyes and let Dr. Klomp do his work.

After I was all reassembled I got to go out to recovery as well. Kathleen draped this blanket over me rather stylishly I think! This is when the itchiness started - I could NOT stop rubbing my nose and eyes. I remember feeling itchy after Will's c-section (it's a fairly common side effect from the spinal) but having it concentrated in my face was new. It continued off and on throughout the day, although to a lesser degree thanks to Nubain and Benadryl.

And then Jack was all done being checked out and I finally got to hold my sweet, sweet baby - which is an experience that words cannot describe.

I was nice enough to share him with Chuck :). We spent a few wonderful minutes with just the three of us, and then brought the boys back to meet their baby brother - which will be detailed in another post.

I'm so, so grateful that the delivery went as well as it did - I am in constant amazement at the wonders of modern medicine and medical knowledge that allows me and my narrow pelvic bones to safely have babies :). And I am thankful for doctors and hospital staff that made it such a great experience. And I'm also very appreciative of such a patient husband who spend the whole drive to St. Luke's answering my random questions about what was about to happen (my last c-section was almost four years ago!) and was such a rock all morning and calmed my anxiety and is such an incredible person to have a baby with - at every step of the process :).

And our family is so grateful and happy to have baby Jack here safe and sound! He is (thus far, knock on wood!) a perfect baby and we love, love, love him!!

Making his official blog debut . . .

2012-01-05T21:10:00.005-07:00

Jack Quinton Izatt

Jack was born Tuesday, January 3rd at about eight o'clock in the morning. He was twenty inches long and earned the title of 'wee' little man by weighing in at only 6 lbs 14 oz.

The c-section went incredibly well . . .

his older brothers are quite enamored already . . .

Mom and Dad especially love how mellow he is thus far . . .

and we're thrilled to be a family of five.

Our hospital stay has been wonderful (we head home in the morning) and we look forward to sharing more details and pictures (lots and lots of pictures!!) in the coming days. Thanks for all of the love and well-wishes!

Last minute cyber nesting

2012-01-02T22:07:00.001-07:00

So I'm having a baby tomorrow morning - hence the recent rash of blogging (scroll down to read posts about Christmas Eve, Christmas morning and Christmas day). I feel the need to ensure the blog is all caught up and ready to feature this sweet baby's debut; in that spirit, here's a final post about my pregnancy.

My mom took this picture a couple of hours ago before taking the little boys home with her for a sleepover - our last picture as a family of four! Chuck and I have to be at the hospital by 6 am and the c-section is scheduled for 7:30. This baby faked us out pretty good - no one thought we'd make it all the way to the scheduled c-section date since I've been dilated (to a 3!) and effaced (80-90%) for a couple of weeks now. But I guess he's just good and comfortable in there. I'll be 39 1/2 weeks tomorrow, though, so I don't feel bad at all about evicting the wee lad.

Chuck's sister Melissa took some awesome maternity shots of me while we were in Elko in November (when I was 33 weeks along). Here are a few of my favorites:

Pretty sure this is the last time I wore heels :).

Why I could never be a model: I felt sooo self-conscious having a fancy photo shoot just focused on me! Melissa made me feel super comfortable, of course, but I still felt the need to resort to goofy facial expressions :).

I was pretty psyched that I could see my toes if I leaned over far enough . . .

Facebook comments indicated that this is 'classic Jana', which I'm opting to take as a compliment :).

Thanks again for these pictures Melissa!

And here are the last couple of sets of my Sunday outfits/weekly baby bump shots:

Weeks 34 - 36 in November and December.

Weeks 37 - 39 in December and January. I love the difference between December 18th and Christmas Day; apparently I ate all the cookies left out for Santa in the greater Treasure Valley area :).

Whew! Now that this post is ready to publish, I'm off to bed and then to have a baby in the morning. Good night!!

Christmas day

2012-01-02T20:38:00.003-07:00

The rest of Sunday (and Monday!) was spent spending time with family, opening lots and lots of presents, and playing with all of our new toys.

First we went to church, of course.

Then we came home and changed back into comfy clothes, ate lunch, and had quiet time until Grandma Pam came back over and Quinn and Eden arrived - and then it was time for presents!

Chuck had Eden and I had Quinn in our sibling gift exchange, so we were extra psyched to have them open their gifts. Eden was very excited about her Scentsy warmer (and I've lived with Quinn before, so I understand her enthusiasm!) and since Quinn's soccer cleats hadn't arrived yet we wrapped his new cell phone. I also did all the activation for the lazy bum as part of his 'gift' :). Oh, and my mom made Eden the super pretty blue beaded necklace you can see in the top left picture . . .

and I got a matching one in orange, as seen here a couple of days later.

More presents - clothes (including a way cute Star Wars onesie for the baby), Legos, toys, bubbles, and more clothes.

Clyde helpfully aided Grandma Pam as she opened the flamingo windsock he picked out especially for her, and Will was more than happy to help as she opened the photo book of the boys this past year.

Pops left this large box under the tree for a very happy Chuck. You'd have to ask him for the specifics of what kind it is - the most I can do is narrow it down to a rifle or a shotgun :).

And then it was my turn to open (in much disbelief!) the package that Chuck's parents left with my name on it - an iPad2! It's a combined gift for myself and Will (iPads are very useful tools for kids with autism), although Chuck and Clyde very much enjoy their turns with it as well :). Our favorite game app is 'Fruit Ninja'.

We slowed down on gifts for a bit so that we could video chat with Sam and Terri and Bailey and Hazel and play games.

The next night Quinn and Eden returned and my dad came over for Monday Night Football, pizza, and some more holiday fun.

And we Skyped with Sam's family again. Bailey very adorably showed us her princess dolls, waved and blew kisses and colored for us and Hazel sweetly slept in Sam's arms and Terri reassured me that I wouldn't be pregnant forever :).

We felt very blessed this holiday season as we've prepared to welcome a new baby into our home and worked to teach our boys about the birth of our Savior. We loved spending so much time with Chuck and having extended family visit. It was a very merry Christmas!

Christmas morning

2012-01-02T20:18:00.001-07:00

Christmas morning was delightful and low-key; Chuck and I actually woke up before the boys which is a rarity. We were psyched to see that Santa Claus had come:

We had church at eleven, so we decided that we would go nice and slow and spend the morning checking out our stockings and eating a yummy breakfast made by Chuck!

Waiting to record the boys' reactions - one of the videos can be found at the end of this post.

Clyde and Will were happy to polish off the cookie that Santa left behind.

Clyde received the gift that he has wanted his 'WHOLE LIFE' aka for the last eight months or so: a Star Wars build-your-own blaster, aka DC-15 Rifle. It's a large contraption that can be separated and put together into three different guns. And each gun makes different noises. We're ALL excited about this gift. Santa also brought him some new Star Wars lego minifigures, so he quickly utilized his gift from Grandma Pam - a Lego Star Wars character encyclopedia - to look up each one.

Will's big gift was a mini trampoline, and I have to say Santa is a genius. Seriously, that guy is amazing; Will loves it. He must have read the research that shows the benefits of trampolines for kids with autism. Will also got a little microphone and recorder (that he calls a clarinet) since he's really into music and instruments lately. Oh, and a Zhu Zhu pet. I know we're a little late on the bandwagon with those, but they are really fun!

Yay for happy little boys!

Clyde helped out by opening the baby's stocking (which Santa and I were hoping would entice the wee one to come early, but no such luck). I think it's awesome that Santa not only shops at Target, but also leaves the clearance sticker on. Isn't that 'little brother' onesie even cuter when you know that it was only $1.12??

Chuck and I were equally as excited about our stockings - Chuck got the Settlers expansion pack, a new water bottle, and the most recent General Conference addresses on CD and I got make-up, lotion, and new drip pans for the stove. Another example of Santa's thoughtfulness - I hate trying to scrub those dang things clean, but it seems silly to spend money to replace them just because I'm lazy. But on Santa's dime? Heck yes!

And here's the aforementioned video of the boys enjoying their gifts:

Christmas Eve

2012-01-02T19:48:00.002-07:00

Our Christmas Eve started off with Chuck reading about Jesus' birth from the scriptures while the boys used the Little People Nativity to act it out. I like how efficiently the scene is laid out - the camels are lined up neatly and the Wise Men are going through the 'reception line' to see the baby while the shepherd waits patiently with the sheep.

Then we read more nativity stories with Grandma Pam,

and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas with Daddy while sampling the cookies we were leaving out for Santa.

We also had a video chat with Uncle Cody!

We attempted a cute shot of the boys in front of the Christmas tree, but Will wasn't feeling it.

So we lured him over by setting out the plate for Santa. I like how he gets progressively closer to the cookies with each shot.

Mom and Will . . . and the cookies :).

Dad and Clyde.

And then the boys went to bed and the grown-ups followed not too long after, which adds up to a very successful Christmas Eve in my book!

More December merriment

2011-12-30T10:59:00.001-07:00

Mid-December brought all sorts of fun and visitors to our humble abode; here's the rundown:

Some Sundays after Clyde has taken my picture I turn the camera around and try to get a shot of the little boys, especially if their outfits are particularly match-y/dorky as in this case :).

Nicole had a birthday a couple of weeks ago so at the last minute we grabbed a couple other friends and hit up IHOP for some delicious hot chocolate (P.S. They give you free refills if you ask!). Luckily we burned off the calories with the ridiculous amount of giggling we did!

Another Sunday, another set of matching boys, another attempt to record their cuteness!

Christmas break brought two of our favorite people to Boise for an extended visit:

Quinn and Eden!

They've been spending their vacation house-hopping amongst parents and siblings and we were psyched to get them for a couple days, the first night coinciding with the 49ers-Steelers game (hence their super cute, coordinating jerseys). My dad came over too and we watched the game and ate lots of yummy food!

We stayed very busy during their visit, filling our time with video games like Tetris . . .

and of course Star Wars.

I recruited Queden to babysit one day while I ran a couple of errands and the next day when I had a doctor's appointment (this is me at 37 1/2 weeks).

Chuck and Quinn took turns beating me soundly in one of their favorite games, Monopoly Deal. I'm really, really bad at it.

Quinn and Eden also took some time to paint canvases for the baby's room, as did Clyde and Will. They turned out really cute, and if I ever finish that room y'all can see pictures of it!

I also appreciated Quinn and Eden being here when our dryer stopped working - Quinn provided the second set of muscles to help Chuck pick up the new dryer!

The same day that Quinn and Eden departed we welcomed another set of visitors: Grandma and Grandpa Izatt! Since we couldn't venture to Elko for a pre-Christmas trip as we have in the past, they came to us.

Grandma helped the boys make fun snowflake ornaments . . .

which were later carefully hung on the tree.

Grandma's IPad was a popular source of entertainment; here Pops is playing 'Angry Birds' with help from two little consultants.

We watched Boise State triumph in the Las Vegas Bowl, yay!

Will and Chuck worked hard on Rudolph puzzles and this is how Will opted to pose with the finished product :).

More fun with the IPad . . .

Naturally, Terri and I did a lot of shopping. I was fairly embarrassed by how many breaks I had to take to sit down, however!

One of the many perks of Grandma and Grandpa's visit was doing gingerbread houses! Top to bottom on the right side: Mine (complete with a 'J' on the front!), Grandma and Grandpa's masterpiece (Pops did the construction, Grandma did the decor), Chuck's and Will's (Will supervised), and Clyde's, which was some sort of Star Wars contraption. Thanks so much for coming to visit us, Grandma and Pops! We had a great time :).

December merriment

2011-12-18T07:11:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of December, we traded in our Thanksgiving tree for our Christmas tree, hooray!

Busting out the holiday decorations was a family affair - the boys were very happy to be reunited with their Little People Nativity Set.

They were also delighted to be in charge of hanging the ornaments.

In this set of pictures Clyde decides that when it comes to smiling for the camera, if you can't beat them, join them.

And then give them the Heimlich.

It was at this point the boys decided they were done hanging ornaments for a bit, so we plugged in the lights to discover that only half of them worked - coincidentally, the bottom half. It was quite a sight. . . that Chuck and I opted to rectify by adding (working!) lights and ornaments to the top half of the tree as well :).

For Family Home Evening a couple of nights later, the boys reconvened to set up the train. Clyde was quite hands-on (probably too much so at times) while Will opted to provide moral support.

I think it's pretty customary for train conductors to hug in greeting when they meet.

SUCH happy little conductors when the train was all set up and ready to chug!

Here's Clyde deftly navigating the train through a tunnel.

The new baby got in on the train action too, happily kicking and rolling around as the train whirled by, (as always) paying little attention to my comfort levels.

And finally, here is our oh-so-festive bookcase . . .

and our carefully hung stockings!
(post-edit: to assuage Chelsey's guilt and anyone else's - I did not make these stockings. At all. They are the amazing handiwork of Grandma Pam!!)

And now we're just waiting for two chubby fellows to grace our home with their presences!! (And yes, I know there's a pun somewhere there involving 'presents' but it's too early in the morning and I'm too pregnant to figure it out. Feel free to offer your suggestions in the comments).

Thanksgiving weekend festivities

2011-12-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Here's our finished Thanksgiving tree for this year.

The top half . . .

and the lower half.
Apologies to Sam, I just couldn't ruin the color scheme with a blue leaf. I also love that Chuck and I unknowingly each made a 'BSU football' leaf (I did place them together once I noticed).

We also attempted to spruce up the walls with some Thanksgiving-inspired decor. Both of Will's turkey pictures embrace the 'less-is-more' approach, whereas Clyde clearly prefers the 'more-is-more' train of thought.

Thanksgiving itself was really nice and (almost alarmingly) low-key. As Chuck and I sat around all morning watching my Packers and the parade and reading the newspaper, I kept feeling like we should be more stressed out . . . but we weren't! We spent the afternoon doing food prep and our esteemed guests (my dad, Cody, Quinn, and Eden) arrived just as the turkey came out of the oven.

Chuck's turkey was sooo delicious! The little boys helped me compile the fruit salad, all the while singing loudly "Rainbow salad, rainbooooow salaaaaad, rainbow salad!" Unfortunately all of those tips about kids eating food that they help prepare was a LIE because Clyde still ate only the apples and Will still ate only the grapes. Nutters.

Our after-dinner entertainment consisted of a lengthy baby name debate, the 49ers on TV, SET and Monopoly Deal games, and an old VHS from Cody and Sam's storytelling days.

Will helpfully kept a close watch on the bowl of Reese's Pieces, on occasion having to go hands-on.

Before everyone left I had Chuck take a quick picture of me with my dad and brothers, and the next day I was sooo glad I did - just mentally photoshop Sammy in :). I feel incredibly blessed to have been sent to a family with such good men to influence me and protect me and teach me (both what and what not to do!) and care about me. I sure do love you Dad, Cody, Sam and Quinn!!

My dad never comes over empty-handed - this time he brought this incredibly large teddy bear for the boys. He has been christened "Mr. Bear" and he bridges the slight gap between the boys' mattresses and he is already a quite beloved addition to their room :).

The night after Thanksgiving we convened at my mama's house for some incredibly delicious homemade soup courtesy of Eden and a rousing game of Settlers dominated by Grandma Pam.
And then Chuck sweetly played photographer once again, this time in an effort to snap a shot of my mom with her two favorite, errr, youngest children.

Ohh, Quinn.

Luckily he cooperated for this one :).

Saturday night our ward Elder's Quorum had a special 'Prom' Activity so Chuck and I booked Grandma Pam to babysit and made plans to attend. Just for fun I pulled out one of my old high school dance dresses (I think this was from Homecoming junior year) and tried it on . . .

Thanks to the giving material and lack of zipper I was able to squeeze it over the bump (it was a much more arduous task to get it off, trust me). Super hot, right? It fit like a second skin... which is appropriate since my mom pointed out that the flesh tone looked a little too much like skin. Apparently she didn't have a problem with that aspect when we bought it ten years ago, probably because it was a smokin' deal on clearance at Dillard's :).

In the end I opted for this recent Savers find instead. A cute girl in our ward provided me with a few 'action shots' of me from the dance floor - yeah, I sing while I get my groove on. It was a very fun date night, though - Chuck might be my favorite prom date so far :).

And those are some of our memories from Thanksgiving 2011!

Pre-holiday jaunt to Elko

2011-12-06T10:09:00.002-07:00

Since we knew that traveling to Elko during the holidays this year wouldn't work out (Chuck had to work the weekend after Thanksgiving and I'll be way too pregnant for a trip near Christmas) we opted to head down to visit Chuck's family the weekend before Thanksgiving instead.

You know a road trip is going to go well when your three-year-old draws this picture of you as soon as you get on the road. The proud mom in me wants to herald his artistic skills while the vain woman in me wants to tsk and shake my head and lament his lack of artistic skills :). Sadly, I think the former is more fair.

We drove through Twin so that we could make a quick stop in Hansen to visit Grandma Pam's classroom and meet her students, which Will especially loved.

We also retrieved our old camera that my mom had borrowed - Will thinks it's his camera, so he promptly went to work documenting the drive.

Speaking of the drive, we hit a slight detour about an hour from Elko. We stopped for a quick snack and bathroom break at a gas station with an attached repair shop, and while Chuck and Clyde were inside, one of the mechanics approached me and said one of our tires looked a little low and offered to put some air in it for me. I remembered the guy who did our oil change last week mentioning that tire being low as well so I figured we probably had a slow leak and agreed.

And thus began the LONGEST forty-five minutes of my life. Upon further inspection, the nice man decided that the tire was actually in need of replacing and we would need to put our spare on to make it to Elko. In no time he had the van in the air - and Chuck and Clyde were still inside the dang gas station! So then Chuck comes back out, but in the meantime the mechanic decides to go help with something else for a while so we're just chilling there on a random bench trying to keep Will from running around. I would have sought refuge inside the gas station, but A) it was tiny and B) my children wouldn't stop running around crazily in there and C) it was the kind of small town establishment where they charge so much that even they are too embarrassed to even post the prices. Chuck splurged on a package of M&M's for us to share but refused to tell me how much it cost.

Finally the guy came back, and tried to sell us all new tires. We knew this was an upcoming need for the van but we definitely had no intention of buying them from this nice gentleman - although I loved when he kept talking about their warranty and how they replace flats for free and such. Because that's definitely worth driving down from Nampa for :). In the end we promised him that we would get some in Elko and that we wouldn't drive back to Idaho on the existing tires (I did appreciate his genuine concern for us).

The saving grace of this little adventure was how much Clyde got into it. He loved milling through the stacks of tires behind the shop with the guy looking for certain sizes and such. I'm pretty sure by the end he was offered an apprenticeship there, which we sadly had to decline. Goofy kid!

At long last we made it to our destination and promptly settled in to eat dinner at Melissa and Kevin's and play with cousins, yay! Clyde was in heaven playing with a nerf gun and bow and arrow :). Then it was time to head over to the middle school to see Mallory's Christmas play.

Mallory played Santa's elderly mother, recounting the story of a very memorable Christmas to her grandchildren. She did a great job; it's so fun to see her developing such an awesome talent. It would have been slightly more enjoyable for Chuck and myself had we not had to wrestle a wee child with autism the whole time. Bless Will's heart, he is blissfully unaware of how to control the volume of his voice and treated the crowd to a running commentary: "Oooh, so dark! Christmas tree!! No, Daddy! Shhh! Mommy? Grandma!! Where Clyde? Star!! Look, Santa! Ohh nooo, where sleigh??" (That last line, delivered with a great deal of concern, caused our whole side of the audience to break out in laughter.) He also wanted to run around, which thus required one of us to hold him the whole time. And the play was in a separate building from the school, so there was no lobby or foyer or place to take him.

So after about an hour and twenty minutes, we cited exhaustion and sneaked out early. This meant we missed Mallory's big solo at the end, but luckily Melissa recorded it and Mallory treated us to a special performance the next day. We're so proud of you Mal!!

The next morning we talked Grandpa into taking the whole lot of us bowling :).

This is one of the least flattering pictures of me I've seen lately so ignore the "Mom lecture" face I've got going on and instead focus on the hilarity of my midsection next to the bowling ball. Makes me laugh every time I see it!

A few of the bowlers . . .

Will LOVES bowling.

This picture kills me. I just love my boys.

Staying entertained while waiting for the next turn. Clyde was quite intrigued by baby Eli; I can't wait to see him with our baby :).

Not to brag, but I definitely made bowling while pregnant look gooood - especially with my final score of 133. I'd like to dedicate that score to my dad, who took us bowling for FHE a lot while we were growing up and insisted that we all learn to bowl with correct stance and approach and such. Sadly it apparently didn't stick with Sam as much...

After bowling Pops treated us all to lunch, so to show our appreciation we all pitched in to rake up Grandma and Grandpa's yard when we got back.

It was an 'all hands on deck' effort since they have an awesome-sized backyard with lots o' trees. (I promise that I even put down the camera and helped!)

And we finished just in time - we hustled inside right as the snow started falling! That night we all hung out together and ate an amazing prime rib dinner and watched the snow come down. Luckily the snow wasn't too much of a problem for Steve and Amanda (and baby Anna!), who arrived safely that night from Utah to complete the family reunion.

The next morning it was time for family pictures, so we took over the gym at Grandma's elementary school :). As always it was a daunting task to get all nineteen of us assembled and smiling, but I think we did it! Afterwards Melissa and I did a little maternity photo shoot, which was fun.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and enjoying everyone's company. Will found solace in his beloved computer games. It's tricky because he thrives on the excitement of being around other kids but he has a hard time controlling that excitement. It doesn't help that developmentally he's on par with a two-year-old but physically he's almost as big as his five-year-old brother . . . which leads to either me hovering to ensure that no one gets hurt (not always possible) or us finding a quiet area for Will to play alone and decompress. Yay pbskids.org!

Other fun activities were painting fingernails the night before the photo shoot so that the 'girls' could have matching red polish, doing puzzles with Courtney, Clyde and George playing 'ninjas' all weekend, a big turkey dinner on Saturday night, playing Settlers with Steve, and being introduced to a new game by Steve and Amanda: 7 Wonders. At first it seemed super complicated, but we played it twice and I kind of got the hang of it. Not as much as Chuck the Wonder Kid who managed to win both times, but whatev.

Sunday morning we enjoyed church and then were treated to yummy brownies and ice cream to celebrate Chuck's birthday a day early! Then it was sadly time to pack up and get on the road :(.

First, however, we raided Dave and Terri's food storage supply; we're now happily stocked up on brownie mix, peanut butter, canned peaches, corn muffin mix, and honey. And Pops even helped load it up for us - man, we're spoiled :). Of course the major spoiling occurred when Dave not only helped Chuck with the tire-shopping task for the van but also insisted on buying them for us - such a blessing. Thank you again so, so much Pops - best Christmas present ever!

And it wouldn't be a trip home from Elko without cows on the road and two completely exhausted boys - they played hard!!

Oh, and here's a hilarious video of the little boys singing while we waited at Les Schwab for Pops and Chuck to pick up the van. Will randomly made up a new song, entitled 'Tingle, Tingle, Paya' which we proceeded to sing the rest of the day - warning, it's really, really catchy:

Happy December! (cue panic attack . . .)

2011-12-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

Well, it turns out I'm steadily approaching the end of this pregnancy; I'm almost 35 weeks along. Which means that I could have a baby THIS MONTH. Which, in the spirit of pregnancy hormones, brings about a multitude of emotions: excitement, anxiety, disbelief, curiosity, more anxiety, sadness, happiness, ambition, etc.

But before we break down all of that craziness, let's look back at how the baby and I got to this point, fashion/bump-wise:

Remember my 'different outfit every Sunday' goal? I updated about it back in April, and here are the weeks since then. It's been really fun; I especially like when there's a holiday or special occasion to steal a color scheme from. These pictures coincide with when I found out I was pregnant in May.

Here are pregnancy weeks 7-9 in May and June.

Weeks 10-12, all in June - the white outfit was on our wedding anniversary, and the blue and grey outfit was for Father's Day :).

Weeks 13-15 in July - hence my patriotic look in the first picture. (This is one of my favorite collages because it illustrates the importance of the camera angle. Chuck works every other Sunday, so those weeks I entrust Clyde to take my picture . . . obviously from below, making me look taller and bigger. Awesome.)

Weeks 16, 17, and 19 in July and August. (Sadly, no picture for week 18). The first picture was on Pioneer Day so I wore this cool handmade dress I found at D.I. That was also the day that the truck left the little boys and I stranded halfway to church and I thought we might have to walk the rest of the way (and no, we would not have sung).
Luckily we were rescued by Sister Wayman.

Here are weeks 19-21 in August - sorry for the overlap, that's when I decided to document the bump more closely with a sideways shot each week.

Weeks 22-24 in September . . . don't ask me what happened or what I ate during week 23. The shorter answer would clearly be in response to what didn't I eat.

Weeks 25-27 in September and October. Week 25 was when we were in Utah and I completely forgot to do a sideways shot after church, so this picture from the day before will have to suffice. Week 26 was General Conference, hence the super cool Star Wars shirt and lack of makeup.

Weeks 28-30 in October. I was so excited to bust out my tights and boots on that rainy Sunday morning in the first picture and to dress the boys in sweaters.
Ahh, it's the simple things in life :).

And finally, weeks 31-33 in November. I call the second outfit my homage to autumn. And the most recent shot of week 34 is at the top of this post.

So, onto the panic attack-inducing matters:

* I'm going to have a baby, thus changing the adult to child ratio in our home. 2:2 is great. 2:3 sounds much more daunting. 1:3 while Chuck's at work sounds impossible. I've just recently gotten brave enough to go to the grocery store with Clyde AND Will (and even then, I avoid it at all costs). How does one parent manage three children at one time? Yiiiikes.

* The c-section, scheduled for January 3rd. Both of my other c-sections have gone really well, for which I am obviously very grateful, but I'm still not super psyched about the whole prospect of surgery. There's also the slightly nerve-racking possibility of going into labor before that. As you may or may not remember from Will's birth story that I shared on his first birthday, I'm not super good at telling the difference between Braxton Hicks contractions and real contractions...

* Nursing. I loved nursing Clyde and Will (both until they were just over a year) and I'm excited to breastfeed again, but I'm not super psyched about the learning curve at the beginning. Or the leaking. Or the odds of finding a nursing bra that's both comfortable and supportive and not forty dollars (any leads on this one?).

* Being away from Clyde and Will while I'm in the hospital. They will be in the excellent hands of Grandma Pam, but it still makes me sad/nervous not to be with them for those three days.

* The possibility of health issues for the baby. I know that I shouldn't borrow trouble, but since when do expectant moms respond to rationality? Especially when both of our darling little boys have genetic conditions that are thankfully not at all life-threatening but definitely affect our day-to-day lives.
(I found out the hard way that this concern should not be shared with one's medical student older brother, who will 'helpfully' email you pictures and details about much more rare/serious genetic disorders to remind you to be grateful and not complain. Thanks Sam - you are officially disinvited from my future pity parties . . . which may have been his intention all along.)

* Postpartum hormones. I've never suffered from hardcore postpartum depression, but I'm definitely slightly off-kilter after I have a baby - you know, sad things seem devastating, difficult things seem completely overwhelming, etc. And as we've established, January is a fairly gloomy month anyways. I figure we'll just stock up on hot chocolate and go from there!

In that hot chocolate-y spirit of optimism, here are the reasons why I haven't actually had a panic attack yet:

* I get to have another baby! I am well aware that not everyone with this desire is able to have it fulfilled, so it seems absolutely ridiculous for me to complain or be anything less than thrilled. I consider it a very sacred privilege to be a mother - although in my less-than-perfect state I'm still working on having my everyday actions match that belief. Luckily Clyde and Will are very forgiving!

* My super awesome ob/gyn, Dr. Klomp. He's the reason that I'm not more nervous for the c-section - he does excellent work and I know that he genuinely cares about me. Plus I think it's awesome that he delivered me almost 27 years ago (also via c-section!). Love him.

* The hospital stay. . . mostly the food. St. Luke's Downtown has the best food. I'm excited to have my old standbys (French toast every morning, spinach wraps, Oreo milkshakes) and try some new things. How can you not love the ability to pick up the phone, order from an extensive menu, and be served your food (in bed!) shortly thereafter?

* Chuck. Thanks to his stockpile of sick days and his 12-hour workdays, his FMLA time off works out to be the entire month of January. PRAISE the HEAVENS. I am so happy to know that he will be around to help Clyde and Will adjust, to do school with Clyde and get Will on and off the bus on preschool days, handle church while the baby and I stay home and avoid all y'all's colds and germs, and just generally keep me from going crazy - that will obviously occur in February instead :).

So, ultimately yay for December and the last few weeks of pregnancy! And perhaps to bid farewell to November I will get motivated and blog about our trip to Elko a couple of weeks ago and our Thanksgiving holiday . . . hmm, maybe tomorrow . . . .

All about Will

2011-11-18T22:38:00.002-07:00

At long last, here is an update on Will: the sweetest, smartest, silliest three-year-old around.

He continues to spend lots of time in his occupational therapy swing. This kid has loads of energy to burn, and the swing helps immensely with that. He also runs or marches around the house (usually in a specific pattern) multiple times each day :).

We try to encourage as much physical activity as possible to offset his new, much more sedentary hobby - computer games. He figured out how to operate the mouse (using both hands) and LOVES to play on the various kiddo websites: PBS, Nick Jr, and Disney Jr. We call it his crack addiction; no one looks forward to prying the mouse from his little hands when his allotted time is up for the day :).

A hilarious benefit of his new fondness for 'gaming' is the new phrases he's been adopting and a new penchant for returning things to their proper place - a lot of the games involve clicking items around to where they belong. One day as he went to put an errant pillow back on the couch, he narrated his action by saying "Click on the pillow!" Oh dear. He's also been encouraging me to 'try again' when he doesn't care for what I say: "Will, it's time for a bath." "No, Mommy, try again!"

Will still loves going to the developmental preschool two mornings a week; here we are waiting for the bus on a recent, chilly morning.

Chuck and I attended our first 'parent-teacher' conference at the end of September and it was so great to hear all of the wonderful things that Will's teacher had to say about him. Checking out the different areas of the classroom and looking at their daily schedule has also helped me ask more specific questions when Will gets home from school since he isn't able to really volunteer information about what he did there.

Will had lots of fun playing 'spectator' at Clyde's soccer games this fall - as long as Daddy, Uncle Cody, or Grandma Pam was in attendance to keep him entertained/unbuckle him from the stroller.

Will is super into helping in the kitchen lately, and he insists on wearing an apron. His favorite aspects of the experience are, not surprisingly, helping to crack the eggs and then licking the beaters afterwards.

Last week we had an appointment with the developmental pediatrician - here's Will playing in the waiting area. We hadn't met with this particular doctor before; it was his colleague who diagnosed the autism and he has since moved. Dr. Leavell walked us through the genetic testing results (the bottom line is that everything came back within normal ranges so no real concerns/answers there) and discussed Will's progression in various areas. Will has come leaps and bounds in his language development - both expressive and receptive - which is really encouraging.

Speaking of doctors, Will came with me to my most recent prenatal checkup earlier this week. I was a little nervous about how he would do, especially his rough morning and refusal to let me out of his sight were what precipitated his tagging along, but he was amazing! Especially since Dr. Klomp was just coming back from a delivery and thus had a slight backlog there at the office. Will happily read books in the waiting room for 45 minutes and then continued to hone his photography skills once we were in the exam room.

The sweetest thing was his concern for me - first when Maria took my blood pressure and then when Dr. Klomp was measuring the baby's heartbeat. Both times Will watched me intently and asked, "Okay, Mommy? Okay?" What a doll!

And now, just for fun, here's a video of Will singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" a couple of weeks ago. He was sooo wound up! My favorite is when he pauses and asks, "Hmm, what comes next?"

We really, really love this goofy, darling kid - which is what gets us through the not-as-darling meltdowns :).

All about Chuck/Jana/new baby

2011-11-11T18:54:00.002-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that neither Chuck nor I are exciting enough or photographed enough to warrant our own individual blog update, so here's a combination post :).

Our most recent fun adventure was a road trip to Twin Falls last Saturday. I originally had big plans for a 'babymoon' weekend (preferably somewhere exotic like the Caribbean or Utah) but then I remembered both that we have high-maintenance existing children and also that we are not independently wealthy, so we opted for the day trip to Twin instead.

We were able to attend the Twin Falls temple, which was lovely. We've really missed the Boise temple the last few months.

We also did some shopping, ate lunch at Cafe Rio in an effort to be cool and trendy, had fun randomly making up new rules for the slugbug game (yellow = double hit, silver is some sort of karate chop, etc) and just generally enjoyed hanging out together without changing diapers or small people interrupting us.

Meanwhile, Clyde and Will spent the day with Grandma Pam and Uncle Cody in this lego heaven as evidenced in this cell phone picture my mom sent me halfway through the day - and I think this was before another bucket was dumped out.

Chuck and I have also been staying busy with baby room projects, because cleaning old rooms is not nearly as interesting as decorating and putting together new ones!

Chuck was brave and let the little boys help him put together a bookcase.

All that time watching Handy Manny has paid off for this screwdriver-wielding expert!

The baby's room is going to be blue and orange because, well, why not? Here's the finished bookcase (still adorned with the helpful A/B/C stickers which have since been removed) and the coolest lamp in the world, courtesy of a late night shopping trip to Walmart.

I have not delegated every project to Chuck, just the ones that involve tools and/or heavy lifting. Will and I went outside one afternoon last week where I took it upon myself to repaint the boys' old green nightstand.

Will is obsessed with taking pictures lately. One of his favorite pbskids.org games is one where you go around 'clicking' to take pictures and so he now hilariously repeats their catchphrase of "Ooh, that's a keeper!" after every shot.

Here's the nightstand after its second coat (done inside because it was waaaay colder the next day).

Another favorite recent activity for Chuck and myself is complaining about our various aches and pains - ankle for him, back and heartburn for me. My dear husband sprained his ankle on his looong hike back in August and finally went in to the doctor about it at the beginning of October (for the record, I strongly encouraged him to go in sooner, but I think he was a little gun shy after the appendectomy). So he's spent the last month getting x-rays, an MRI, a cortisone shot, and weird ice and electrolyte treatments in physical therapy.

In the meantime, I've spent the last month incubating a little wild child who really, really, really likes to move. It reminds me of the Chuck Norris joke about how he invented the c-section when he decided he was ready to be born and roundhouse-kicked his mom from the inside. I think this baby is trying to do the same thing . . .

Sadly, we still have seven-ish weeks until this baby will make his debut, and just for fun yesterday I got my first "Really? You still have that long?" comment from a random stranger who asked when I was due. Trust me lady, I can and will get much bigger - I have the photographic evidence from two previous pregnancies to prove it :).

Aaaand that's what Chuck and I have been up to lately. Happy Veteran's Day!!

Halloween Wrap-Up

2011-11-03T14:28:00.001-06:00

Time for a recap of our Halloween festivities. Sadly, the Izatts did not hit all of the semi-required October activities - there was no pumpkin patch visit this year, and our construction paper decor was pretty lacking. . .

BUT we did find a little bit of Halloween cheer, starting with making sugar cookies with the two cutest little bakers in town. Will wandered away after cookie cutter-ing a couple of pumpkins, but Clyde was in it for the long haul - he loved rolling out the dough and turned out to be very adept (if slightly too generous) at sprinkling the flour onto the counter. The boys were equally committed when it came to eating the cookies, however :).

Another day we stripped the boys down for some pumpkin painting (which I still maintain is less messy and hassle than carving, although Maren disagrees). Chuck favored us with the Star Wars battle scene, I went for simple and just painted 'Go BSU' and Clyde and Will both opted for multi-color masterpieces (Clyde middle left, Will lower left).

And of course we dressed up for our ward's trunk-or-treat:
I was an oven baking a bun, Clyde was Commander Cody from Star Wars: the Clone Wars, Will was Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars: the Clone Wars, and Chuck was my Pastry Chef :).

Here's another shot of my apron. I stole the idea from an actual costume set you can buy - although it's a big box for the oven, and the dad's apron says 'Bun Maker'. I opted to just wear an apron for the oven and after Chuck and I created a list of possibilities for his label (some more risque than others) we decided on the fairly family-friendly 'Pastry Chef'.

And I was completely delighted when I won an award! I love the Primary Presidency, aka Awards Committee :).

And I have to include a picture of the Daniels family since they also won an award! Duke was a referee, Nicole was Coach Pete, Brinley was a little BSU cheerleader, and Beckam was the cutest, chunkiest little football player around.

This was my baby bump shot for Sunday the 30th. I bought those awesome tights at Target last year on clearance and I love them, despite their limited window of wearability each year. If only we were ISU fans . . .

Monday night we took the boys out for a quick round of trick-or-treating. It was actually their maiden voyage into the activity; they've never done the whole door-to-door around the neighborhood thing.

Luckily they caught on quickly. Will gleefully shouted at one point, "Let's play trick-or-treat!!" (And eagle-eyed Star Wars fans will note that the boys changed costumes, Clyde is now a clone trooper and Will is a youngling, aka Jedi in training).

Chuck and Will loved the decor at this house; Clyde was terrified. We had to coax him to the doorstep, and after getting his candy, he took off across the lawn yelling "Run! Everybody run for it!" That's kind of like saying 'Thank you', right? Chuck and I chatted with the guy for a minute, and it turns out it took him like two years to make the werewolf. Clyde can attend to its realism!

After about ten houses, we called it a night and came home to pass out candy. Yes, we're lightweights.

Will making sure there aren't any lingering treats in his pumpkin. . . .

Clyde examining his sorted candy, trying to pick which one to eat that night. Decisions, decisions!

Uncle Cody and Grandpa came over that night for a visit, which was very fun.

I decided they were the best trick-or-treaters of the night since my dad came bearing gifts instead of asking for candy. Thanks Dad!!

We celebrated the transition to November by putting up our third annual Izatt Family Thanksgiving Tree on Tuesday:
We're looking forward to focusing on all of the things we're grateful for this month and seeing our bare little tree be overtaken with pretty leaves to join the solitary 'Blue's Clues' leaf that Will put up :). Happy November!

All about Clyde

2011-10-30T18:30:00.001-06:00

Time for random updates on the family - starting with Clyde Monster!

Home school kindergarten is going pretty well so far, and he's found a very willing classmate - Will! Unfortunately, education budget cuts affect home school as well - these two students have to share a chair :(.

A few weeks ago he had to go 'on site' for a reading evaluation and I used it as an excuse for a quick educational field trip to Krispy Kreme.

Student/teacher picture :). Home schooling has reminded me why I could never be an actual teacher, and why I really, really hope this is our only year doing this - I rebel against most things authoritative and structured. Luckily, we've been able to adapt the program for our situation. As long as Clyde gets the hours and lessons in, it doesn't matter if we do six language arts sessions in one day and then skip it the rest of the week and our 'school day' varies from morning to afternoon to evening depending on the day. Thankfully Clyde doesn't seem to be fazed by the flexibility.

Clyde did soccer this fall - his goldenrod-uniformed team was called "Sting"; sadly they lacked any real zing and lost every game :).

Don't let that last action shot fool you - this is mostly how Clyde could be found out on the field, mid-cartwheel. Or jumping around evading battle droids. Or running merrily along (behind the pack) often with his tongue hanging out.

As I referenced earlier this month, we recently embarked on some follow-up care for Clyde's Hirschsprung's disease.
This was the poor lad at the initial visit with the pediatric gastroenterologist. Doesn't he look chipper?

Sidenote: we really, really liked Dr. Ellison. Clyde's pediatric surgeon Dr. Curnow is an amazing doctor, but it was time to meet with someone whose entire focus is this area/functionality of the body. Dr. Ellison was very thorough and easy to talk to during the appointment (even answering a few of our questions about Will) and I loved the office staff . . . possibly because they gushed over Clyde when he read aloud the various signs posted in the waiting area. I love people who are as impressed with my children as I am :).

A few days later it was time for the outpatient procedure at St. Luke's. We decided that Chuck would take him in while I stayed home to get Will on the bus for preschool and then join them.
Clyde and Daddy headed out the door a little before seven a.m.

All set with his cool hospital bracelet.

Posing in his cute little gown for a cell phone picture to be sent to his anxious mother at home. It was really hard for me not to be there for this part, but it made much more sense to send the strong, rational parent instead of the emotional, shock-prone parent :). The wisdom of the decision was reinforced later when Chuck had to forcibly hold the breathing mask to Clyde's face for the anesthesia to take effect. I would have cried along with Clyde and been no help whatsoever.

Here's one more 'before' shot - Chuck wisely packed Star Wars legos to help calm nerves.

I arrived just after they took Clyde back, so Chuck and I settled into the waiting room. The actual procedure only took about twenty minutes, and about twenty minutes after that we were taken to see Clyde in recovery.

This is how he first greeted us. Turns out early morning + not being allowed to eat breakfast + totally unfamiliar setting = waking up grumpy. Shocking, right?

Luckily a grape popsicle and Dora the Explorer went a long way to making everything okay! He did insist to everyone (including the anesthesiologist and Dr. Ellison) that he had not actually fallen asleep but instead had just rested. We decided not to point out that had he been awake for any of that, he would definitely be insisting on a better post-op reward than a popsicle. . . .

He was almost back to normal by the time we had been debriefed and gotten the okay to take off - the wheelchair ride may have helped with that.

He did stay pretty attached to Chuck throughout the rest of the day, though :).

It took about a week, but there has now been definite progress and we're very encouraged. It wasn't an instant fix by any means, but we look forward to having a potty trained Clyde sooner rather than later!

That weekend Clyde and Will got to have a sleepover with Grandma Pam and Uncle Cody (which is the highlight of their little lives) so that Chuck and I could attend Stake Conference on Saturday evening and Sunday morning in peace.

Here are the little boys after church a couple of weeks ago. The primary program was last week and we were psyched when Clyde marched on up with all the other wee children and clearly said his part ("Heavenly Father speaks to us through His prophets"). He also knew all the words to the songs (thank you primary music CD!), although he yawned at least twice during every song, the tired little goof :).

We sure do love our Clyde!!

(Even with the newfound five-year-old attitude, grrrr. . . any reassurance that this phase of argumentativeness will be gone soon??)

Happy birthday Eden!!

2011-10-25T05:38:00.001-06:00

Today happens to be my gorgeous sister-in-law Eden's 21st birthday, and since I can't be there to buy her first round (of the non-alcoholic drink of her choice), a birthday blog celebrating her awesomeness will have to do.

See what I mean? Gorgeous. This is Eden being adorably contemplative during a quiet moment on her wedding day.
* I wish I could take credit for this picture, but alas, it was Sam who captured it.

When Quinn and Eden began dating, he used one word in particular to describe her to me, and I can't think of a better description: enchanting. To know Eden is to love Eden - there's no other choice.

Especially when she willingly plays 'Just Dance' and rocks super sweet moves like this one the first time she meets you :).

Seriously, though, Eden is one of those charming individuals who is well-liked by all she comes into contact with - her genuine goodness makes her a friend to all. I knew this about her, but it was at her bridal shower in May that I was able to observe this firsthand:

SO many people came to celebrate with Eden and shower her with love and generosity. The sisters in her ward are an incredibly supportive - something I witnessed again at the 'cupcake decorating' party the day before the wedding :).

Eden comes from a family of really strong women, and I've really enjoyed getting to know her mom and sisters better (Aubrey and I actually grew up in school together, so it was fun to get reacquainted!). This is us getting ice cream after a successful wedding dress shopping venture back in April :).

Eden isn't just a pretty, friendly face - she also is incredibly talented in a variety of areas.
Remember her awesome skills at the shooting range?

She's also incredibly artistic . . . and ambitious :). After excelling in a flower arranging class at BYU-I she opted to do all of the flowers for the wedding, and I happily got to see her in action as she created her amazing bouquet. We also watched 'Tangled' (one of Quinn and Eden's favorite movies) as she worked and I was struck by how much Rapunzel reminds me of Eden - joyous, beautiful voice, caring. They both are handed circumstances in life that could leave them angry or bitter, but instead choose to allow love and light to help them heal and continue on.
(Oooh, turns out that early morning Jana is deep!)

We witnessed more of her artistic talent one night as she played with Will; unfortunately I don't have photographic evidence of the super cool flowers she drew with chalk but suffice it to say my driveway has never been so pretty!

Eden also has a natural connection with kids - Will is pretty sure the earth revolves around her and she is sooo patient with him. Clyde is also very smitten; they both approved from the start of Unky Quinn's good fortune.

Bailey is also a fan of Aunt Eden. Eden has lots of nieces and nephews already (she's been an aunt for more than half her life!) so it's no surprise that she took so naturally to the three wee ones in our family.

Which makes it that much more exciting that these two crazy kids . . .

are going to have a 'wee one' of their own! Quinn and Eden are expecting a baby at the end of April, and I'm so, so excited for them. I can't imagine a child being more loved and joyously welcomed.

As I've referenced, geographic distance (and possibly Quinn's embarrassment of me) dictated that Eden and I didn't meet in person until a few weeks into their relationship, so we opted to e-mail back and forth in the meantime. I'm so glad we did; I loved getting to know Eden a little bit and I was struck by her maturity, her spirituality, and her fun-loving nature.

And of course my favorite thing about her is how perfectly she complements my goofy little brother :).

So happy birthday my dear Eden!! I feel like this post barely touched on your awesomeness (she also rock climbs! And sings! And is fun and crazy and up for anything!). I can't wait to see you next month so we can compare baby bumps (yours will be darling, mine will be out of control). I love love love you!

Izatt family circus reunion: Friday and Saturday

2011-10-13T10:14:00.003-06:00

The end of September found us buckling up in the ol' (er, new) minivan for its maiden road trip. Destination: Salt Lake City, for a weekend of fun with Chuck's family! The trip down went very well, mostly because Chuck drove the whole way and I curled up in the very back for a nap :).

We stopped in Ogden to have lunch at Fat Boy's and see Big Will. He and Clyde played legos, Will ran around like he owned the place, and Chuck checked out the 'UFO Hall of Fame', upon which he someday hopes to be featured.

Then we drove to Amanda and Steve's place in Kaysville and met up with Grandma and Pops for a quick visit, which baby Anna mostly slept through :).

Then we hopped back on the road and ended up at the hotel in SLC. We got settled in, went swimming with Grandma and Pops, made a grocery store run with Grandma for the essentials (peanut butter, honey, bread), and then crashed - unfortunately before seeing Melissa and Lee and their families, who rolled in later that night.
The next morning we got up early and headed back up to Ogden for some rock climbing. Amanda and Steve are both avid climbers (and Melissa and Kevin and their kids are into it too), so it was a natural choice for a morning activity. I was pretty impressed with the climbing gym; the staff was really friendly and verrry patient, especially with my little boys. They do have a location in Boise, and it looks like they have some neat specials running during the month of October - here's that website link.

Clyde initially liked the idea of rock climbing more than the actual activity, but then he (mostly) got over his apprehension.

Sooo high!

Coming down may have been his favorite part :). Thanks to Aunt Amanda for her awesome belaying skills!

Cute little boy.

I figured Will would be all over this, but I guess he prefers his climbing to be more furniture and kitchen counter oriented. Luckily he found other ways to stay occupied!

Here's my super cute husband climbing. Again, mad props to Amanda who is super buff and can nonchalantly belay her big brother!

Mallory, Courtney, George and Lily climbing.

Mallory and I decided to try to the 'slackline' - I made it about a step before I bailed :).

More shots of the fam at the climbing gym. We were bummed that we missed Lee and Aleesha and their kids, they rolled in after Chuck and I left for lunch and afternoon naps.

And since we were just down the road, we went back to Fat Boy's for lunch.

Will and Pops got some good bonding in :).

After naps for my three boys (somehow I managed not to get one since Clyde and Will's naps did not overlap, boo!), it was time to join the whole fam for a big dinner. We took over three big tables at the restaurant and ate to our hearts' content.

Will was crazily rambunctious/grumpy until Aunt Melissa whipped out some sort of magical device with alphabet games on it and he chilled on her lap for the next hour (Lily was sweet enough to share her mom!). I love that two three-year-olds are this adept at technology.

After dinner we met back up at the hotel and walked down to the arena for the circus. Here are Lee, Aleesha, Bri, and Eli posing by one of the circus trailers.

We got there early so that we could mill around the floor with all the performers, which was super cool. The Blue kids got in on the act and took advantage of the awesome photo ops.

My kids were more content to stand back and watch, although they did participate in the 'dance instruction' that the peppy dancers gave . . . of course, I had to do it with them. It's cool; I have no pride.

And then it was CIRCUS time! We had really good seats (thanks Mom and Pops!!) and the visual aspect was pretty amazing. I really liked the physical comedy of the clowns - and I was super relieved to see that clowns have gotten decidedly less creepy since I was young. The boys were, naturally, mesmerized by the tigers and elephants and their tricks. I was likewise impressed but also slightly nervous about the undoubtedly rigorous training that led to such tricks . . . what can I say, I'm pretty 'bleeding heart' :).

Will got pretty wiggly starting at intermission; I think the fact that not even a circus can hold his attention for an hour is pretty telling - how the flip am I supposed to keep him quiet at church?? :) The grand finale was pretty sweet; I was constantly impressed at the choreography - how they could have SO many performers on the floor at once without any issues or collisions! And then it was over and time to head back to the hotel to tuck in very worn out boys . . . and their mom and dad!

Thanks again to Chuck's generous parents for treating us to such a fun adventure!!

Izatt fam reunion: Sunday

2011-10-13T09:13:00.001-06:00

Sunday's main event was an excellent way to conclude our Izatt family reunion:
Anna's baby blessing! Pictured here with her lovely parents, Amanda and Steve, and a goat.

We checked out of the hotel early that morning and then drove to Kays for church. Steve gave Anna a beautiful blessing and we were really grateful that we could be there. Afterwards we went back to Amanda and Steve's for a delicious brunch. Seriously, so good - turns out Steve can make amazing crepes, yum!

It was nice to have a chance to sit around and chat, particularly with some extended family - Aunt Sue and cousin Nickie were there, as were cousins Mike and Alli (and her fiance Tomas!!).

There was also lots of 'pass the baby around'. I've said it before; I'll say it again: who needs daughters when you can have darling little nieces to love and adore and not have to pay for their weddings??

Baby Anna with Uncle Chuck. . .

and snuggling with Pops!!

The little kiddos had a blast running around and playing together.

I handed Courtney our old camera and she got these awesome shots of Will; I think she inherited the photography gene from Melissa :).

Then Court and I proceeded to take pictures of each other!

And then we needed one of us together, of course.

It was so fun to see baby Eli again - and it turns out he's not really a baby anymore! This trip fell a few days before his first birthday and he looks like such a boy now instead of a baby. He was in heaven munching on apples found in the grass despite everyone's efforts to trade him out for ones handpicked from the tree :).

Clyde and George have a lot of fun together as the oldest of the boy cousins - I see a lot of trouble in their collective future . . .

Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head for home - not before some family pictures though.

In the process of gathering all of Chuck's family and figuring out which camera/lens to use; I love how Terri is smiling for the one though - she's ready!

Almost everyone is gathered - and looking to the right...

And here's the whole gang! L to R: Melissa, Lily, Kevin, George, Courtney, Mallory, Terri, Dave, Steve, Anna, Amanda, Chuck, Clyde, Jana, Will, Lee, Bri, Aleesha and Eli. Whew!
(P.S. As evidence that I have too much time on my hands, check out this awesome thing I noticed - as soon as our baby comes, there will be an awesome correlation between the birth order in Chuck's family and how many kids they have. Melissa is the oldest sibling and has four kids, Chuck is the second oldest and will have three kids, Lee is the third oldest and has two kids, and Amanda is the youngest and has one. I know, I need a hobby.)

And once again, thanks to Pops and Grandma for making this fun weekend possible. We love you - see you in November!!

Jana's brain ticker

2011-10-03T17:17:00.002-06:00

If my awesome thoughts were funneled into some sort of CNN ticker, this is what it would look like right about now:

* In the last four days, I may have become addicted to Dove Promises with caramel. And to the enabling messages found on the inside of the wrappers; my favorite so far is "You're allowed to do nothing." Granted, that sentiment is probably intended for a Type A personality who has legitimately earned a break but I will gladly apply it into my own life, where I frequently do nothing. Now I have permission! (P.S. Thanks for the chocolates, Tasha - one of my favorite visiting teaching messages ever!!)

* We went to Utah a week ago to meet up with Chuck's whole family for a family reunion/belated birthday celebration/outing to the circus/baby blessing. It was a super fun time but as usual I took a ridiculous amount of [awesome] pictures and thinking about sorting through the couple hundred pictures makes me want to hide out with a Dove chocolate and 'allow' myself to do nothing . . . but I have every intention of getting the trip good and blogged soon, I promise!

* We did not go to Utah this past weekend ("someone" had to "work" and "someone else" has "resolved" never to "travel" "alone" with the "little boys" because they're "crazy"), making it the first General Conference weekend we've missed hanging out with Smiths since April 2009. We also missed Chuck's cousin Jesse's wedding on Saturday, which bums me out because all sorts of awesome faraway cousins were there AND they had s'mores. Sigh.

* I am just over 26 weeks pregnant, which means I'm two thirds of the way through. Unfortunately, this means I still have one third, aka three months, to go and I am already SO uncomfortable at times. This baby appears to be already in competition with his brothers for 'most rambunctious, energetic son'. I want to be clear that I'm not asking for sympathy; I would actually like to request that everyone feel sorry for Chuck as he has to endure all of my melodramatic whining (for three more months!!).

* I think I've underestimated the importance of conditioner to my hair. I may have gone without it for a week because I was too lazy/forgetful to trudge out to the garage and grab a new bottle. Then one day I remembered and my hair now seems so luxuriously soft and nice-looking.

* Clyde's going in for an outpatient procedure at the hospital tomorrow. In the interest of him being able to look people in the eye when he's older, I'm opting not to disclose the exact nature of the procedure, but it relates to his Hirschsprung's disease and we have high, high hopes for its effectiveness. I'm slightly apprehensive about the general anesthesia (Clyde's last experience with it was his surgery as an infant) and how he'll feel afterwards. Luckily, our family has never really needed an excuse to veg out with ice cream and movies all day.

* I think I may have some inaccurate notions about food. Scratch that, I know I have some inaccurate notions about food. Some where along the way, I've created a food math/justification system in my head. For instance, water cancels out junk food. Like, it's okay to eat lots and lots of M&M's in one sitting if you wash it down with like twenty ounces of water. Because water cleanses and purifies and . . . you know, cancels out the M&M's. Also, eating a healthy food item creates a deficit in one's body that can then be filled with a not-as-healthy item; this is obviously pretty similar to the previous notion. Basically, if I eat two plums and a few sticks of celery, I'm totally home free on my afternoon bowl of ice cream. Basically it's a wonder I'm not four hundred pounds.

* I should clarify that my children have (mostly) much healthier approaches to food. A lot of this comes because I eat the ice cream when they're in quiet time so I don't have to share ...

* The new television season has started! I really don't watch that many shows, but the shows I do watch, I watch very passionately. (Don't spend too much time on that sentence; it may not make that much sense and I'm too lazy to reconstruct it). Right now my favorites are Dancing with the Stars (love Rob, Chynna, and J.R.), Castle (on tonight, yay!), Modern Family, and Parks and Recreation.

* Will is doing wonderfully, although his new favorite phrases are "No way!!" and "My [phone/computer mouse/book/insert any object that someone else has possession of here]!!" I'm choosing to optimistically believe that he's just getting the defiance and possessiveness out of his system before the baby comes and it will be smooooth sailing when the wee babe actually makes his debut. That could happen, right?

* Chuck and Will each have their own, slightly off, version of the 'Clean Up' song and I can't decide which is more endearing: Chuck's "Clean up, clean up, everybody likes to clean up, clean up, everybody likes to clean up . . . " or Will's "Cleam up, cleam up, everybody where, cleam up, cleam up . . . " Sadly I haven't been able to stealthily record Chuck's version, but here's Will's:

* I think that's all I got for now. . . kudos if you made it all the way through this long, rambling post - I figure in the very least I'm still addressing Chuck, my mom, my mother-in-law, and Courtney :). Happy Monday evening!

Farewell summer!

2011-09-22T23:09:00.002-06:00

As I begin this post, there's two hours and nine minutes left of summer 2011, wahoo! I figure that's plenty of time to write about some of our adventures over the last few months that have yet to be featured on the blog:

Starting with cousin time in June! Sam and Terri's visit for Quinn's wedding meant that all of the [current] Braden side grandkids were together - granted, not a rare happening but we still attempted to get a cute picture of the trio.

Naturally, we deemed this one to be the best.

These pictures are also from June, but represent two oft-repeated activities at our house: one) post-quiet time Otter Pops in the front yard and two) Will attempting to carry all of his 'favorite of the day' toys at one time. This particular day it was a dinosaur, his penguin, and Unky Quinn's old Clifford dog. I think it's a pretty decent glimpse into the future of how I'll look juggling three kids . . .

We celebrated the beginning of July with some Daniels (and Nicole's mom!), some s'mores, and some glowsticks.

We celebrated the Fourth of July with the ward pancake breakfast, matching shirts, and jello.

Ohhh, and some fireworks with the Daniels. This was the evening Duke learned that it's every man for himself when a police officer drives by . . .

You have to love when you can date pictures/events by Chuck's facial hair - this water fun in the backyard was clearly post-Scout Camp but pre-appendectomy. Oh, 'stache, you are missed . . . (by Chuck and seemingly every other male who ever laid eyes upon you).

Towards the end of July, we had to take Will in to St. Luke's for a blood draw (his developmental pediatrician wanted to do some genetic testing) and I was once again astounded by this child's ability to roll with the punches. Chuck kept him entertained in the waiting room beforehand and was in charge of holding him still for the phlebotomist. Will did not care for the actual blood draw ("Oh no! Arm! Stuck! Help! Oh no!" followed by sad, sad tears) but he bounced back so quickly afterwards. Clyde is his mother's child and milks every injury/incident for all its worth but luckily Will is much more like Chuck :).

Also at the end of July, Duke and Nicole blessed their sweet new baby Beckam and we went to their house after church that day for a late luncheon. Nicole and I asked Chuck to take a quick picture of us, not realizing that the dreadful combination of the lighting, the heat, and our silliness would result in such . . . awesome . . . shots :).

Emily was in town at the beginning of August, hooray! I was in desperate need of some of her infectious laughter and fun. We made an afternoon of it, having lunch with Aubrey (sadly no picture), shoe shopping (I got my blue and orange sneakers!), and then visiting Allen and his awesome new condo. I love Emily and Allen so so so much; we always have the most hilarious/ridiculous/straightforward conversations ever and I cherish them - both the conversations and the people :).

The Elder's Quorum had a 'date night' in early August and it was soo much fun. The food was delicious and impressively all-encompassing considering it was a 'no-assignments' potluck. The games were hilarious; I got out on the first round every time I played 'Vroom, vroom, errrch' due to inability to stop laughing :). The pictures are from a jumping/footsie game, the name of which escapes me but it was super fun to watch!

Grandma Pam had a birthday in mid-August! As part of her present, she got to watch the little boys that afternoon while I went to a baby shower :).

The Saturn was in a sorry state after our trip to Utah, so Chuck and I put the little boys to work washing it one August evening. They both took the task very seriously :).

Clyde and I got ambitious one Sunday afternoon in mid August and built a 'contraption' - aka a marble run made of recyclable materials, which kept he and Will pretty busy for the next week or so until I reclaimed my dining room table.

Boise State football kicked off at the beginning of this month, yaaay! We had our traditional 'Macho Nachos' party and donned our favorite blue and orange attire. And don't you love how Will is already squishing his younger brother?

My dad gave this awesome blow-up pool to Clyde for his birthday, so we tested it out (with Brinley's help!) on Labor Day. It was definitely a hit.

An evening at the park - something I wish we'd done more of this summer, but I'm lazy and pregnant and it's hot outside. Hopefully we make it over there more this fall.

Will needed to decorate a little paper to share with his preschool class so we had an arts and crafts evening at the table. I was stunned at how intent Will was on applying the glue himself; I'm so proud of my sensory issue kid for not being phased (well, not too phased) by getting glue on his hands.

We went over to the church orchard with our ward last week to help finish up the peach picking, and Will was super into it; he loved finding the peaches up in the branches and then carrying them to the bin. Cute little helper!

And finally, here are some random shots from a walk the little boys and I took last week. I sure love these boys, even when it's getting hotter by the second and we've covered about a tenth of a mile in fifteen minutes because we're heading up some sort of 'Leave No Rock Unthrown' initiative.

But I digress. And now it's forty-two minutes until fall and I can welcome the new season guilt-free - happy autumn everyone!!

Vehicular update

2011-09-14T14:26:00.001-06:00

In anticipation of our upcoming bundle of joy and his accompanying big, bulky car seat, we began minivan-shopping in late July. Now, before you send us your condolences, we are totally fine with owning, driving, and therefore being seen in a minivan. We already own a station wagon, so clearly we're not that hung up on driving "cool" "cars". And really, I wouldn't put it past me to single-handedly change the image of the minivan for the better. I'm pretty sure I am that awesome.

We did a bit o' internet shopping and reading and then test-driving. Chuck focused on things like how the engine looked/sounded, how it drove, and the mileage and I focused on how much room I would have to crawl back and buckle wee children in the third row and how cute I looked sitting in it. We each brought a lot to the process.

We quickly found that the Chevrolet Uplander was the minivan for us; then it became a matter of finding the right Uplander. We looked at four pretty seriously: two were rejected for engine issues, one didn't have rear a/c (nooo thanks) and also it was gold (ditto) and the fourth seemed to be an excellent fit.

Just to make sure, we took the boys with us to test drive that one. Don't worry, we waited until after we had handed over the check before letting them climb over the seats :).

Here's a shot of the new ride!! . . . although this makes it look like it's as long as a limousine. I promise it's not.

The same day we brought home the Chevy, the Saturn got jealous and became very attention-seeking. As in the water pump went out. Now, that would have run us somewhere around $500-600 at the shop to get fixed but instead my awesome husband got ambitious and went all DIY on its, um, engine:

$70 for the part and a few hours later and the Saturn is running b-e-a-utifully. Thanks honey, you're my hero! (But stop asking if you now get to go out and spend $500 on something else you want. It doesn't work that way).

Unfortunately the truck's issues went beyond Chuck's fixing ability and its overall worth, so we had to part ways.
We bought this '88 Ford Ranger back in April of 2005 for $750. It was an excellent truck for the last six years, all things considered. It started having some serious problems earlier this year and finally gave up the ghost about a month ago, so we sold it to the junkyard for a sweet $300.

The little boys and I will miss piling in together (Beverly Hillbillies-style) and cruising around town, but I'm pretty sure we'll get over it. The truck and its habit of dying mid-right turn did provide good gospel teaching moments, though, as Clyde was ready each time to offer a prayer that it would start again and get us where we were going.

So the other day when Chuck and Clyde were adorning the new ride with a Boise State Broncos sticker on the rear side windows, I mentioned something to Chuck about other bumper stickers. He promptly vetoed the idea; I think he thought I was envisioning something like this:

Which, for the record, I was not. I actually am really not a bumper sticker person either. Buuut I did spend some time pondering and googling which ones I would commit to . . . because, you know, why not?

This one would obviously make the cut in an effort to make the minivan more legit.

And then this would cancel out any street cred provided by the previous one. . .

This one just made me laugh, and continues to each time I see it. I don't even know why; it just does.

I laughed at this one because, I kid you not, it was on the bumper of the station wagon my mom drove during my teenage years.

I'm cheesy and slightly idealistic, so I'd definitely stick one of these on there.

This is as far as I'd go, politically. Honestly, most political bumper stickers (on either side) are just really mean-spirited which isn't really how I roll.

There are a ton of autism-related bumper stickers out there; I thought this one was cute.

As is this one.

This one is sweet. And true. Although I'd probably grab my sharpie and add "But seriously, my hands really are full." And then when I'm wrestling Will as I carry him to the car whenever we leave church/the store/my mom's house/basically anywhere, people could nod knowingly :).

Then my hypothetically bumper sticker-loving self felt guilty about only focusing on one son's medical/health issues so I turned my attention to Clyde.

Unfortunately, there is a serious lack of Hirschsprung's-related paraphernalia out there; this sad/hard-to-read bumper sticker was the only one I could find. Then I realized Clyde would probably not love a reference to his intestinal disease plastered on the back of the family minivan, so I tried to find something a little more his style.

Success. I'm actually a little worried for Chuck to see this one; he might backpedal and make an exception for it. . .

Little schoolboys

2011-09-10T18:32:00.000-06:00

(As I read the deluge of 'first day of school' blog posts the last few weeks, I was pretty psyched about two things: one, that my last 'first day of school' was two years ago and I never, never have to go back and two, that I actually had cute school lads to post about this year. Naturally, that didn't help this post get written in any kind of timely manner, but what are you gonna do?)

Clyde started kindergarten a couple of weeks ago! His birthday fell right on the deadline, meaning that Chuck and I could choose whether to start him this year or wait another year, which I really didn't want to do since the poor kid is soooo academically ready. Unfortunately, he's not physically ready for the all-day kindergarten that Nampa switched to last year, so we opted for an online/homeschool program.

One benefit of home schooling is that students are able to pack (fake) heat. Ahhh, home schooling and children with toy guns - two things I swore I'd never be party to :).

So far it's going really well. We work for a couple of hours each day, usually at the kitchen table. He's a pretty independent worker which means I can multitask . . . unfortunately this also means I no longer have any excuse to avoid the dishes :(.

The next week it was time for Will's first day of preschool!
We may have had a semi-late evening the night before, which meant that Will only woke up about twenty minutes before the bus came to pick him up, hence the slightly 'out of it' look he's sporting.

Luckily Clyde was there to help him smile :).

And seeing the bus roll up got a genuine smile out of the wee one!

And after one more big brotherly hug from Clyde . . .

it was time to get on the bus! I was relieved to see that he has the same bus driver and attendant as he did last spring; it made sending him off much easier.

And this is the happy face that came home to us a few hours later! Obviously a great first day :).

And speaking of first days of school, my mom had hers this past Tuesday. She's teaching a sixth grade class in a small town near Twin Falls. We were able to stop for a visit on our drive home from picking up our minivan the week before, and it was fun to see her school and visualize where she'll be spending so much of her time this coming year. Send her good thoughts - her class is comprised of 8 girls and 20 boys, yikes :) (Good thing I get my affection for boys from her; she'll handle them all just fine!).

We went to Utah! (a month ago . . .)

2011-09-07T21:26:00.003-06:00

So while Chuck was off traipsing about in the mountains last month, the little boys and I opted to get out of town and head south. My mom had also been pondering a visit to Utah, so she hopped in the car with us and away we went. It was a really nice trip, simultaneously very relaxing and extremely exhausting (let's just say I have more empathy for homeless people who have to sleep in their cars because I did it two different nights on the trip . . . but we'll get back to that).

Cute little road tripper #1 . . .

and cute little road tripper #2.

We started in Provo to visit Quinn and Eden for a couple of days. Sam and Terri and Bailey came down from Salt Lake and we headed to Provo Canyon for a picnic dinner.
Will was delighted to be reunited with Aunt Eden and worked hard to ensure she was always within an arm's reach, lest they be separated again.

Clyde took advantage of the situation and monopolized Unky Quinn's attention for some one-on-one soccer instruction.

Sam and Quinn entertained us all with their frisbee-playing, and Bailey entertained us all with her absolute adorableness! Minus the time where Sam freaked me out into thinking Clyde had taken a tumble down the little rock wall and I called him a slightly (well, very) bad word, it was a really fun evening (and honestly, it was actually pretty fun to call him the bad word considering he basically gave me a heart attack).

Then we headed to Quinn and Eden's apartment, where we found these excellent guest room accommodations! We timed our trip well since this was their last few days in their two bedroom apartment before they swapped for a one-bedroom for the school year :).

The Braden Casa stay also came with an excellent homemade dinner the next night. It seriously warmed my heart to see my baby brother in the kitchen making dinner with his wife. He's so grown up!

We may have fit in a couple games of Settlers, neither of which I won. Grandma Pam won the first go-round and . . .

Quinn and Eden, aka Queden, claimed victory the second game.

The first morning we were there, Quinn and Eden made us delicious waffles for breakfast. The second morning Will and I provided a healthy meal of Lucky Charms, orange juice, and donuts as a peace offering for waking everyone up in the middle of the night.

Will has had trouble sleeping on occasion and about once a month wakes up crying and completely inconsolable. It isn't a night terror, thank the heavens, just a really vocally sad baby who wants me, then doesn't want me, then wants a movie, but does NOT want a movie, etc. It had happened the night before we drove to Utah, so I was extra distraught that the previously rare occurrence was repeating itself just two nights later. I ended up sticking him in the car and we listened to Primary music and I hooked myself up with a hot chocolate (love 24 hour McDonald's drive-thru!). Will fell asleep in the car and woke up quite angry when I attempted to take him into the apartment, so he and I slept in the car the rest of the night - which luckily was only about three more hours. (Also, no worries, we were in a well-lit parking lot of an apartment building about thirty feet from Quinn and Eden's front door and the car was locked and my drooling self could not have looked that tantalizing to passers-by with less than honorable intentions).

Luckily Quinn and Eden were incredibly sweet and forgave us readily, as did Grandma Pam and Clyde!

After breakfast and a quick tour of Quinn and Eden's new apartment, we went to visit Sam and Terri for the afternoon.
The only picture I took was this one of Will enjoying Bailey's princesses, but rest assured we all had a very fun time. We played Settlers, of course, and once again I did not win, of course, but good job to Sam!

Then the little boys and I headed to visit the Littlewoods!
The kids were shy for about three minutes and then settled in to play like normal - and had SO much fun jumping in the sprinkler on the trampoline.

We only stayed one night but it was so nice to see them and catch up. A big thanks to McKay for watching all the kids that evening so Lynndi and I could make a child-free Target run :).

Unfortunately, that night Will was up again, this time around 2:30am. And his crying woke up Clyde, who was grumpy, and Lynndi, who was (as always) incredibly sweet and understanding. Still after a half-hour of crying with no end in sight, I opted to toss (well, you know, buckle) both kids in the car. We stuck the Primary CD in and drove and drove and the boys fiiiinally fell asleep. This time I didn't even attempt to move back inside, I just parked in their driveway, reclined my seat, and got comfortable.

Following this adventure, google and I spend some serious time together and I discovered that children with autism don't release melatonin (aka the sleep hormone) appropriately. I had heard of giving children with sleep issues very small doses of melatonin before bed but I hadn't looked into it until now. So I got the go-ahead from our pediatrician and did some more reading and then picked some up that day and we've used it regularly since. Will still has sleep issues (some nights he's up until the wee, wee hours of the morning) but we haven't had any more inconsolable crying episodes, praise the heavens.

So our morning with Littlewoods was extra low-key since we were all pretty tired and I was learning all about melatonin, but it was so great for the kids to see each other and for Lynndi and I to talk in person instead of on the phone!!

Our trip ended in Kays, where I got to meet this darling baby:

Sweet Anna Sierra, our newest niece on Chuck's side! Amanda and Steve did good work :).

And in case you, like me, can't get enough of her cuteness, here's one of her fancy newborn pictures that Melissa took.

While I cuddled with Anna, Uncle Steve and Clyde did some male bonding, starting with throwing darts and ending with weight lifting :).

That night we stayed with the lovely and always hospitable Smiths. Gloria made enchiladas for dinner, which despite being comprised of two food items that I've admittedly struggled with during my pregnancy (chicken and tortillas), were delicious and I keep forgetting to clarify that to her :). Of course, I'm of the opinion that Gloria could cook a meal made entirely of my least favorite foods and I would still ask for seconds. She's that good.

No Heidi and Courtney (don't even get me started on how sad I was that I couldn't see either one of them this trip!!) equaled a serious lack of picture-taking, but I did get this one of Clyde and Big Will before we piled into the car. Clyde seriously loves Big Will; it's adorable. Will had to mow the lawn while we were there, so Clyde dutifully accompanied him outside to provide protection from the always present battle droids :).

And then it was time to head back to Idaho!
We made a pit stop on the way home so Grandma Pam could pick some things up at her new school in Hansen, Idaho which provided the boys a nice break to get out and wrestle.

I opted for a hug instead of a tackle.

And then we were home and reunited with Chuck, who made us this awesome sign! He and Clyde had agreed that whoever got home first would be in charge of a 'welcome home' sign, and Chuck beat us by about eighteen hours :). It was an excellent end to an excellent trip!!

Clyde Monster is FIVE

2011-09-04T17:38:00.000-06:00

My dear, darling Clyde turned five this past week, and as is my yearly tradition, I was completely perplexed as to how I could possibly have a child so old and grown up and darling.

We celebrated a few days early so that Grandma Pam and Unky Cody and the Daniels could come party with us.

The lovely cake! Baked by Jana, frosted by Nicole, decorated with legos by Chuck.

Clyde's very excited face at seeing his new legos. Of course, he quickly pointed out that during construction, Chuck had inadvertently mixed up the guns on the little troopers. I would share the exact reprimand, but I can rarely follow Clyde when he's rattling on about ARF troopers and pistols and rifles and clone troopers and helmets and so on :).

Will may have gotten caught up in the moment and helped his older brother blow out the candles . . .

Then it was time for some presents. Because I'm a mom and I'm boring, Clyde got new clothes, most notably a Boise State sweatshirt and a Clone Wars t-shirt. Grandma Pam and Cody got Clyde a Clone Wars ball and a badminton set, which Clyde has already played with extensively :).

Grandma Izatt hooked Clyde up with some new Clifford books and stuffed animals.

Chuck took the cake by insisting on obtaining a marble run for Clyde. And yes, Will attended the shindig half dressed. My mother-in-law's comment a couple posts back about the 'painting clothes' worn by the little boys (aka no clothes) made me laugh because, honestly, those are their summer wardrobes - especially Will. He strips himself down to a diaper daily and as long as we're not going anywhere, we go with it - I'm all about choosing my battles!

Clyde playing with the finished product. Despite my objections to the purchase (I cringe at toys with lots of small parts that I will either be asked to assemble or will find myself tripping over/stepping on frequently), I have to admit that it has provided several hours of entertainment for the little boys this week.

Clyde's actual birthday was pretty chill; he and Chuck ran errands in the morning (including a stop to the library for new Clone Wars DVD's) and he picked Taco Bell for dinner. Here he is getting a special birthday hug from Will . . . in front of our new minivan, hooray! (More on that awesome acquisition later).

Clyde is absolutely my favorite oldest child. He's caring and sensitive and sweet and brilliant and sometimes maddening and loves snuggles and Star Wars and sandwiches and he is the best, most protective older brother to Will that we could ever ask for. As we put the boys to bed after the party, Clyde very solemnly informed us that someone needed to stay awake in the living room all night to protect his new legos and toys from thieves, ghosts and/or battle droids. I agreed to do the job and he equipped me with some 'detonators' (aka a bouncy ball and his new Clone Wars ball) and then reassured us that he was armed with his beloved DC-15 blaster and would protect Will. And being the hormonal pregnant individual that I am, I totally had to blink back tears. He is forever telling Will that he loves him and that he's the best brother ever and when they're not testing out crazy wrestling moves on each other, they're often hugging for no reason. The first thing Will does when wakes up is ask where Clyde is ('Where Cly??'). Their sweet relationship is one of the main reasons I'm so excited to have another little boy join our family.

And that was Clyde's birthday!

Chuck's summer outdoors, part two

2011-08-27T12:38:00.001-06:00

Chuck and I had the opportunity at the end of July to help out as leaders for a Young Men/Young Women Super Activity camping trip. Chuck was recruited as a Scout leader since the mid-week activity fell on his days off and I . . . well, I invited myself :). It was relatively soon after Chuck's appendectomy so I figured I should tag along and helpfully remind him not to do too much. And since I've been in Primary/Cub Scouts since we moved into our ward three years ago, I was excited to hang out with the youth a bit and you know, learn their names :).

Here we are rolling into the campground near Stanley. The drive up was pretty fun, minus the guilt we felt about the Otto boys having NO leg room in the backseat of the station wagon. It's all good, it only took them a few minutes to be able to walk again :). We listened to one of the 'Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites' audio books on the way up, which was pretty good once you acclimated to the ridiculous cheesiness.

Our excellent accommodations, complete with . . .

a little welcome mat area that Chuck created!

The YW leaders had some team building activities for the kids to participate in, which was awesome. This was an activity where (without speaking or stepping off the log) they have to put themselves in birthdate order. We laughed soooo hard watching them and their various strategies. I'd done this activity quite a bit in Peer Mediation training back in high school, so it was extra hilarious to them get sooo close and then have to start over when someone fell :).

One of the best aspects of the two days was definitely the food. Chuck, Bishop Fleshman, and Brother Van Vleet had been in charge of the grocery shopping and they took care of it one afternoon while they were a) hungry and b) without a list or plan or menu. The result was an abundance of really good food. It was fun to see all of the kids help out with food prep and dishes, (mostly) without complaint.

I really love this picture. Chuck and I captioned it "Well, I guess dinner's ready . . . " on the poster we made for the bulletin board at church, but that's actually quite misleading since this occurred while they were washing the dutch oven. But that's a minor detail :).

One afternoon we walked/hiked/balance beamed on trees a couple of miles to Stanley Lake and enjoyed the views along the way; Paulina and I were pretty excited when we found the wild strawberries.

The water was FREEZING. What cracked me up is that all of the Young Women jumped right in and swam and swam, while the boys took much, much longer to get in (and even then, they usually got right back out). My original plan was just to stick my toes in a bit, but I eventually gave in to peer pressure and went all the way in. I'm pretty sure campgrounds in a five mile radius heard my shrieks.

Group shot of almost everyone before we left the lake. In total we had ten young women, nine young men, three adult male leaders and five adult female leaders: 27 campers in all!

Quick hilarious story: at the lake, someone saw this on a nearby tree and was like, "What the? Is that a camera right there?" And we were all super confused/alarmed as to the idea of video surveillance at a campsite. And then someone walked up closer to it and realized it was a roll of toilet paper. And then we all laughed really hard.

There was a really nice balance of planned activities and downtime on the trip. Plenty of time was spent relaxing around the campfires and getting to know each other. This is where one of the young men thoughtfully (and accurately) observed, "Sister Izatt, when you're talking to all of us, you call us 'team'. And when you're just talking to one of us, you call us 'friend.'"

We also spent quite a bit of time hanging out at the latrines a couple miles away from our campsite. A couple of times a day we'd organize carpools in one of the two minivans to herd the kids (okay, mostly girls) for a bathroom trip. It became a big joke because the selected listening for these trips was a Brian Regan CD that most of the kids already seemed to have memorized. It was my first exposure to the comedian, and I have to admit that he's pretty hilarious - here one of my favorite bits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpBIZgvjWmA If you don't have time for the whole thing, start it at about 4:27 and then die laughing. "Umm, ohh, you know Kevin?" Hahahaha.

We also had movie nights. Well, everyone else did. This tired, pregnant lady went to sleep :). But the set-up was awesome with a projector and a hanging white tarp. The first night's selection was an old Western/favorite of the Bishop's called "Support Your Local Sheriff" and the next night was one about the life of Joseph Smith.

Seeing as how it was a church activity, we also made time for the spiritual stuff. Each morning we all gathered up for 'family' scripture study. Bishop invited all the kids to ask questions or offer comments/insights and it was so neat to hear what they had to say. The morning we broke camp and left, we all went around and had the opportunity to share a favorite scripture and its meaning to us - such an awesome experience.

The Bishop was very set on playing Capture the Flag, so he and Chuck created all of the flour sacks one afternoon.

And that night was the battle! Chuck got out of it on account of his appendix but my pregnancy did not afford me the same escape (although I did only play the first round).

And then it was time to head home: tired, sunburned, DIRTY, but verrrry glad we were able to go!

(And as always, mucho gracias to Grandma Pam for taking excellent care of the little boys while we were gone!!)

(Oh, and happy birthday today to my dear brother Sam! I love you buddy!)

Chuck's summer outdoors, parts one and three

2011-08-26T08:37:00.000-06:00

Chuck's calling at church is the Boy Scout Committee Chairman, and over the summer he had the opportunity to take the Scouts on some adventures.

First was Scout Camp for the 12 and 13 year olds back in June. With help from the other leaders (and input from the boys) Chuck planned the menu, activities, and logistics for the four-day adventure.

This left me at home with the little boys, which I didn't mind at all . . . until I realized that he apparently spent the time being chauffeured around the lake in a canoe manpowered by the Scouts :).

The boys had a great time and a few of them got closer to earning their Wilderness Survival merit badges by building shelters and sleeping in them one night.

By the time Thursday rolled around, Clyde and Will were pretty psyched for Chuck's return, so they enthusiastically painted a sign for him.

All taped up on the garage!

And Chuck sweetly created a mini-Scout Camp for the boys the next night. It was delightful; they slept out in the tent and I slept inside. I love backyard camping!!

Part two was actually a Young Men/Young Women camping activity that Chuck and I both were able to go on, which means I have lots of pictures and lots to say, necessitating a separate post.

Part three was a high adventure hike the second week of August.
Over the course of four days, these two leaders and two boys covered thirty-something miles in the Bighorn Crags.

The group visited twelve alpine lakes in their wanderings,

and I'm pretty sure that between Chuck and Brother Kirkendall, at least half of their pictures were postcard-worthy and Chuck made sure to explain each one to me in detail when we were reunited. There sure is a special, if somewhat cheesy, relationship between boys and nature :).

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming . . .

2011-08-22T07:43:00.001-06:00

The little boys were able to take swimming lessons again this summer and they both loved it.

Clyde spent most of his time underwater (usually with permission from his teacher). Little nut; he's already waaay more comfortable in the water than I am.

This was Will's last year of 'parent-tot' lessons and he loved having either Mommy or Daddy in the water with him. Really, he just loved being in the water period.

He was actually much more cautious about jumping into the water this year than I thought he'd be. I was pretty nervous too, though, about catching 37 pounds of crazy kid without letting him take me under :).

Clyde's class routinely moved over to the deeper end so that the kids could practice scooping/kicking one at a time with the teacher. The rest of the class got to freeze on the side of the pool, poor Clyde!

Here's Clyde going down the slide with his teacher the last day of class, aka his favorite aspect of swimming lessons!

Will was a big fan, too!

I'm pretty sure the boys miss being able to play in the pool every day. Personally, I miss the awesome naps they would take afterwards :). Can't wait for next year!

It's . . . a . . .

2011-08-18T08:36:00.009-06:00

BOY!

We obviously should have had a buy-in for the poll, because I'm pretty sure the three 'boy' votes were Quinn, Jayna, and myself :).

Here I am getting ready to head in for the ultrasound. And since I know some of you are now completely distracted by my awesome shoes, here's a closer look:

Aren't they beautiful? I'm kind of obsessed with them. I found them during an impromptu shopping trip to Shoe Carnival a couple of weeks ago after lunch with Emily and Aubrey. The final price (thanks to $5 off clearance and buy one get one 50% off - Emily and I combined our purchases) was eight bucks. Have I mentioned I love them??

Anyways, back to the ultrasound. It was so fun! Our technician, Amy, was really sweet and friendly and explained everything we were looking at. The baby measured perfectly with the due date and looked wonderfully healthy, and it is definitely a little boy in there! I'm not going to lie; I was pretty dang relieved. I know boys. I have everything to dress boys. I love boys.

Sweet little profile picture.

Afterwards we went to retrieve the little boys from the care of Grandma Pam and Unky Cody, who was very intrigued by the ultrasound pictures. Then we came home, where I promptly left all the boys so I could go enjoy myself at a super fun lunch that Nicole and Paulina put together to celebrate the ultrasound! Of course, Nicole was almost as disbelieving as Lynndi; they both were SO sure I was having a girl :).

And here are two people who will be parents of THREE in a few months . . . yiiiikes. Funny how seeing the baby on the ultrasound really makes it hit home, ya know? All of a sudden yesterday I wanted to move the crib and start setting up the nursery - luckily that bout of nesting/ambition passed quickly, although I do have a pretty awesome plan for the room. Aaaand Chuck and I settled on a name, which for the time being we are not disclosing publicly. But we are really, really excited to have another sweet boy to love and teach and be entertained by and attempt to protect from his own clumsiness :).

A 'great' Grandma Izatt and Great Grandma Thomas visit!

2011-08-15T23:20:00.000-06:00

* Chuck made an astute observation recently that I've gotten ridiculously far behind on blogging, which I acknowledge and vow to remedy - sooo here's to another attempt at catching up! And while I'm acknowledging things, I may have (definitely) left a word out in the poll options to the right - the second choice should say 'I hope she looks GOOD in blue.' I haven't decided yet if I'm more embarrassed about the typo itself (dang pregnancy brain) OR the fact that it was my twerpy little brother Quinn that pointed it out to me . . .

Father's Day weekend (yep, back in June!) we were excited to have Chuck's mom and grandma come for a couple of days to visit. We missed Grandma Thomas last summer when she ventured out west, so we were really glad we got to see her this year. It was a quick trip but we fit a lot in!

We made good use of the beautiful weather and spent a lot of time in the backyard. Terri brought a fun frog ball for the boys, and Will engaged Grandma Thomas in a pretty serious game of catch. He laughed and laughed and laughed every time the ball was thrown and caught; it was soo cute!

We introduced Mom and Grandma to Settlers of Catan and it was a big hit, despite Chuck winning. Grandma put on an act about being confused about all of the rules and possible strategies, but turned out to be a pretty ruthless player and came in second :).

Pops had sent along a really neat floor puzzle which provided a lot of entertainment.

One of the sweetest things was having Clyde read 'Red Sled' to Grandma Thomas - the book's author! How many kids have that opportunity?? Even cooler, 'Red Sled' is dedicated to the four great-grandchildren who were in existence when the book went to the publisher in late 2007 - Mallory, Courtney, George, and Clyde.

Clyde got some more reading in with Grandma Izatt, who (naturally) brought some new books for the boys to enjoy. She also helped them compile 'Buckets of Fun' to combat summer boredom. The buckets have crayons, notebooks, games, bug kits, etc, etc, plus slips of paper with activity ideas. The boys have loved their buckets and they've been my saving grace many a day this summer :).

Thanks again for making the trip up to see us; we had a great time and we love you both lots!!

Rock the (baby gender) vote

2011-08-14T19:46:00.004-06:00

Sooo remember how I'm pregnant? Well I am, and in a crazy turn of events I am already nineteen weeks! The second trimester is just trucking along, which is unfair since it is the best trimester and should therefore linger rather than whiz by. Anyhow, I'm seriously showing which I'm totally down with because I hate the awkward "chubby or pregnant??" phase; I want it to be clear that I'm both :).

The big news is that my ultrasound is scheduled for Wednesday morning and we will absolutely be finding out this baby's gender (yes, I also support opening Christmas presents early). If the baby opts to mess with my head and cross its little fetus legs, I will poke/prod/do jumping jacks until it adjusts itself. Let's all hope it doesn't come to that. Now, here's where you come in - I figured we'd do this right and create a little poll! So please take the time to vote on the sidebar.

For those of you who prefer to do some research before you cast your ballot, here's some possibly relevant information (although I personally do not subscribe to any old wives' tales):

* So far, we have two sons.

* My first trimester of this pregnancy was completely different than either of my previous first trimesters. With the boys, I threw up. A lot. This time, I felt miserable and nauseous and wanted to throw up but I only did like twice.

* I feel like the baby is pretty low right now. And maybe a little on the sides :).

* Heart rate so far: 174 and 156.

* Chinese Lunar Calendar says girl.

* Food cravings/aversions: I mostly dislike chicken. I'm actually okay eating it, but thinking about it in advance is dreadful. Tortillas sound awful, which is sad since I used to live on cheese quesedillas. Definitely haven't had one of those in three months. I ate french fries dipped in ranch three times a week for a while, and I usually eat french fries about three times a year. I love hamburgers/cheeseburgers/steak. I love grapes, not super crazy about apples. I preferred sherbet for a while, now I'm back to ice cream.

* I am the third child in my family and the first girl after two boys. Chuck is the second child and first boy . . . which clearly has no relevance, I just figured I'd share.

* Right now there are nine grandchildren on the Izatt side, five girls and four boys. There are three grandchildren on the Braden side, one girl and two boys.

* I have absolutely no special mother's intuition. If I had to guess, I'd say girl . . . which pretty seriously terrifies me.

I think that's it. So vote in the poll, feel free to comment and share the reasoning behind your guess and we'll all find out on Wednesday, hooray!

Some 'official' pictures from Quinn and Eden's wedding

2011-08-05T15:38:00.002-06:00

Quinn and Eden! All of these pictures are courtesy of Mandie Anderson, and a few more can be seen at: http://capturedmomentsbymandie.blogspot.com/2011/06/eden-quinn-boise-wedding-photographer.html

Here's the big group shot with everyone who came to greet them as they came out of the temple.

I love how these shots slowly shrink - here is everyone at the temple who is somehow related to Quinn or Eden.

Here are the immediate families - moms, siblings and spouses, and nieces and nephews.

And just Quinner's side, minus Cody who couldn't be there :(.

Quinn and Eden opted to comprise their wedding party of all of their siblings and siblings-in-law. Here are the brothers who were able to be there - Chuck, Sam, Quinn of course, Nathan A., Adam A. and Adam F. Not pictured are Josh, Brandon, Nathan M., and Cody.

And here are the sisters! Terri, Jana, Eden!, Aubrey, Kamela, and Summer. Not pictured are Marcie, Melanie, and Brenna.

Quinn and Eden with some of their many nieces and nephews. Again, some were not able to be there, but I'm not even going to try to name everyone! :)

The cute couple with their amazing moms.

I love this one!!

* Scroll down for the (un)official pictures of the wedding day, complete with my rambling recounting of all the fun we had!

Quinn and Eden got hitched!

2011-08-05T15:15:00.001-06:00

Once upon a time on June 15th in a land far, far away called Boise, Quinn and Eden got married and it was a beautiful, wonderful day wherein lots and lots of pictures were taken and caused Jana anxiety whenever she pondered blogging about it. But then she cowgirl'd up and got it done.

I'm sticking all the 'official' pictures in a separate post, so all these pictures were taken by the talented Sam, the slightly unphotogenic Jana, or the elusive Chuck.
(P.S. In an effort not to overwhelm you with the 400 gazillion pictures we took between the three of us, I just went for the highlights and then stuck most of them in collages. If you click on the picture, it should bring it up bigger so you can see all of the fun in a bit more detail!)

For me, the day started with an intensive effort to get me 'bridesmaid hot' (I just made up this term). This required a team - Nicole did my hair and Heidi did my make-up, and I will forever be indebted to both of them because they are AMAZING.

Then we all congregated at the temple where Quinn and Eden were sealed. Here they are making their debut as husband and wife!

Here is what I call the 'California Contingency' - people Quinn got to know on his mission. Brother and Sister White and Sister Novak and her SUPER cute daughter Meredith (lower right) all made the l-o-n-g drive from Lancaster to share in this special day with Quinn and along the way the Novaks picked up Cameron Sheets (upper right) who was Quinn's companion in Lancaster for like eight months. I loved being able to meet the Whites and Novaks (in person, we're already facebook friends) and get to know them better.

We were so glad that Smiths could make the trip up from Utah to be there with us and so I could tease Reed and live to tell the tale :). And as a bonus, they were able to catch up with other friends from their time living in Boise - here's Gloria chatting with Sister Porter, who is a really dear friend to Eden.

Keeping my little boys entertained outside the temple was a group effort - Dana and Will read books, Cameron challenged Clyde to run all the way down the sidewalk and back, Will found rocks to throw, Clyde tackled Will when he tried to run away, and the groom himself took time to toss Clyde into the air. And much thanks to Heidi for wrangling the boys while Chuck and I attended the actual sealing!!

More of the fun outside the temple - catching up with extended family on my mom's side and trying to stay in the shade :). Please join me in adoring Bailey's little tutu skirt (upper left) - isn't she sooo darling?

After pictures, it was time for the luncheon. The McFarlands were gracious enough to let Quinn and Eden use their backyard for the day so we held the luncheon (and later the reception) there. It was fun for Chuck and myself since our reception was in that same backyard seven years ago!

It was all hands-on deck to get the luncheon ready; Sam and Heidi were entrusted with what my mom deemed the most important task - carefully placing pansies (individually by hand) in the special bowls of water for the centerpieces. Good work, guys!

The luncheon was fun, relaxing, and most importantly, delicious. Clyde either couldn't believe how many varieties of trifle were available to try or engaged someone in a game of hide-and-seek; I'm not sure which :). My aunt Iris and my mom gave Eden an incredibly beautiful quilt that they created for the occasion; it was then displayed for the rest of the day.

Cameron and Clyde had become best friends the night before (they bonded while playing Star Wars video game) so naturally, they sat together at the luncheon. After a while, though, the duo got a little lonely and decided to crash the newlywed table to make a double date, haha.

After the luncheon, the groom's family got to take a break while the bride's family stepped in to get ready for the reception. Clyde went home with Grandma Pam, Will went home for a nap under the "careful" "supervision" of Chuck and Cameron (they multi-tasked by also playing Chuck's shoot-em-up video game at the same time) and Sister Novak and Meredith kept me company while I shopped for Quinn and Eden's wedding present!

Then it was time to head to the reception, which was really lovely. One of the highlights was a special musical performance by Eden's younger sister Summer and two of her friends; I think there were two violins and a cello.

Some pictures of my handsome dad at the reception . . .

and some pictures of his handsome dad at the reception! Everyone loves Grandpa Braden :).

Here are Eden and Quinn greeting our great-aunt and uncle on my mom's side, Kay and Alan Heslop. We were amazed and excited that they made the trip up from their home in Utah, since the wedding fell on their 50th wedding anniversary! They had a big celebration the weekend before with their kids and grandkids so they opted to come and share in Quinn and Eden's happy day. Isn't that so fun?

My mom and her two brothers, Larry and David.

A few more snapshots from the reception.

It was such a great day; Quinn and Eden are one of the sweetest, cutest, goofiest couples I've ever had the pleasure of spending time with and I'm so excited that they found each other and made this incredible commitment. Congratulations kiddos!!

So, we went shooting a while ago . . .

2011-08-02T21:13:00.000-06:00

with these cute newlyweds, Quinn and Eden. You might be surprised (well, probably not) that they are married since said marriage has yet to properly documented here on the blog. No fear, it will be. Possibly soon.

Thanks to Grandma Pam for staying home with the wee boys so that this adventure could be a double date!

We had lots and lots of fun and discovered that Eden is a hardcore markswoman/gun handler, which is not super surprising since her dad was an avid hunter.

Exhibit A:
Eden with Chuck's special gun he got for Christmas a couple of years ago from his dad. I don't know what it's called, but I'm pretty sure they shoot Iraqi insurgents with it. Why they allow normal people to own them, I don't know, but that's neither here nor there.

Now, contrast how natural Eden looks with this gun with how I look with this gun. This collage is also called "Why Jana has not been recruited as a military sniper."
Yeah. Stay tuned, there's a video of me shooting it at the end of this post. Definitely worth the price of admission.

So, back to Eden. Here she is with one of Chuck's shotguns:

and shooting a handgun . . . more specifically, a Colt .45 (and yes, I had to ask Chuck what it's called. I should clearly spend more time browsing his gun magazines. Or not.)

Quinn didn't look quite as formidable as his wife did with a gun, but he came close:
He really hit his stride with the shotgun; the kid was hitting the clay discs like nobody's business.
Good job Quinner!

He also helped out by throwing some discs for Eden.

Chuck spent most of his time offering instructions, advice, and ensuring our safety. Thanks sweetheart!

And he took some time to shoot a few rounds too, of course, and show all us amateurs how it's done :).

And here's just some more evidence of how ridiculous the combination of Jana and guns is. I can't help it, I'm a pacifist.

This picture just makes me laugh.

And now for the awesome videos. Keep in mind that I had no idea I was being filmed; I thought my sweet husband was just taking pictures of me. . .

Video #1:

No comment.

Video #2:

More proof that my newest sister-in-law is not to be messed with.

Video #3:

No comment, just uproarious laughter at myself :).

Video #4:

I love how Quinn scratches his head after the casing (?) hits him, hahaha!

Anyways, it was super fun to hang out with Quinn and Eden! You guys should come visit again soon so Chuck has another excuse to bust out his arsenal :).

Good news: Chuck's still alive

2011-07-20T08:02:00.001-06:00

Bad news: We racked up a bit of a hospital bill last week when Chuck had emergency surgery!
Now that I've got your attention, let's figure out what in the world happened to my husband. . .

Did an injury occur when we went shooting last Monday . . .

with these awesome people? (Sidenote: a future post will be dedicated solely to this shooting venture because it was awesome, and yes, Eden did destroy that pop can that Quinn is holding. She's hardcore).

Nope, not a shooting injury (thank goodness!). Hmm, did something happen later that day when Chuck joined Quinn and Eden for a whitewater rafting trip on the Payette River??

(Okay, this is not actually a picture of them, BUT it is very similar because I stole it from Sean's facebook page. Sean is the fellow at the back of the raft, aka the river guide. He's one of Quinn's best friends and has been a rafting guide on the Payette for the last several summers and his wedding present to Quinn and Eden was taking them out rafting. Chuck got to tag along, lucky!)

Nope, it (again, thankfully) wasn't related to the rafting trip. So what happened? Well, I'll tell you. Chuck's own body turned against him:

Yep, appendicitis!

And although the 'doctors' say that appendicitis is a random infection of the appendix without any apparent cause, we know differently - on Tuesday morning I, ahem, strongly encouraged Chuck to shave the mustache he'd been sporting for about a week, which he did. That night, the stomach pains started. We have since come to the conclusion that Chuck is a modern-day Samson and draws his strength from his hair. (But hey, who needs a healthy husband when you can have a clean-shaven one??)

So, as I said, Tuesday night Chuck started having severe stomach pain - he was up pretty much all night and miserable. He called in sick to work on Wednesday and moped around the house. I finally convinced him to go to an urgent care clinic that evening, and they convinced him to go to the emergency room . . . where appendicitis was diagnosed at about ten pm and it was decided they would do the surgery immediately!

That was a fun call to get. I freaked out for about thirty seconds, then snapped myself out of it :). I summoned my mom over from Boise to stay with the boys, and my dear friend Nicole to stay with the boys in the meantime until my mom arrived, and I then I headed to the hospital.

I made another call, and these awesome guys beat me to the hospital to give Chuck a Priesthood blessing. We are very appreciative of their willingness and worthiness to do this at ten-thirty on a Wednesday night.

And then it was go time! They loaded up Chuck's IV with some happy concoction to knock him out and then wheeled him off to the OR.

I found the empty waiting room and distracted myself for an hour by texting Sam and Heidi and Lee (Chuck's younger brother who had an appendectomy just a few months ago!), talking on the phone to Quinner, and taking random pictures of myself. Hey, we all cope different ways, right?

Then the lovely nurse came out at about midnight and told me that the surgery was over and everything had gone wonderfully. A few minutes after that, the surgeon came out and confirmed all of that. He did apologize that they had forgotten to pause the screen (the surgery was done laparoscopically) to take pictures of the inflamed appendix, but I assured him that was just fine :).

And about an hour later, Chuck and I were reunited in his hospital room, where he enjoyed a late-night (early-morning?) snack of orange jello.

The next morning Chuck got a visit from the surgeon with post-op instructions. We both really liked Dr. Ballantyne, which is always nice. This is also when he estimated that Chuck's appendicitis was 'acute' and would have probably burst in the next twenty-four hours. Soooo when your wife tells you to suck it up and go to the doctor, you should go because she's probably SAVING YOUR LIFE.

Then Chuck got to go for a romantic stroll around the hallway with his grandmotherly nurse (unfortunately not pictured) to prove he was ready to go home.

And as much as I enjoyed the sight of him in a hospital gown, I had been nice enough to bring him regular clothes to wear home :).

I was bummed to say good-bye to my special bed, aka window seat :). And yay for wi-fi at the hospital so we could gratefully receive all of the facebook well wishes!

As always, a special thanks to my mom for all of her help. She ended up taking the boys to her house Thursday and Friday so that Chuck could recover more easily. I got to have 'visitation' with them on Friday when my mom and I took them swimming, which was super fun :). Chuck really missed the boys, obviously, but those first couple days post-op were pretty miserable for him, so it was really nice to know that Clyde and Will were happy and taken care of and just focus on Chuck.

I retrieved them on Saturday, and they immediately (and gently!) joined Chuck on the couch for some Star Wars video game playing . . . sigh :).

Chuck's doing much better now, about a week post-op. He still moves real slow and the incisions are a bit painful, but he's hanging in there. Thanks for all of the love and support we've received!!

Happy birthday Pops!

2011-07-17T23:12:00.003-06:00

Today is my wonderful father-in-law's birthday and since we're not with him to celebrate as we have been the last two years, I figured the least we could do is throw a little party on the blog and share a few of the many things I love about Dave.

Pops is, without a doubt, a family man. His family is his pride and joy and he never hesitates to share that love and affection with all of us. I still remember how friendly and welcoming he was the first time Chuck took me to Elko to meet the family - he immediately insisted that I call him Dave . . . unlike Chuck's mom, who let me call her 'Sister Izatt' for a couple months while she warmed up to me :). To be fair, we caught them off guard since Chuck never specified he was bringing down a 'girlfriend' (we'd only been dating a month) and Terri loves and adores me now . . . hopefully still, haha!

Pops is also an incredibly hard worker - a trait that he (thankfully) passed onto Chuck. Pops works long hours and frequently picks up extra shifts (meaning days off can be few and far between) so that he can support (and spoil!) his family. He's also the first one to volunteer to help with projects - remember when he used vacation time last fall to come up and help Chuck extend our patio? And last February when he and Chuck got the Saturn back into working order? He also helped a great deal when we bought our house; he and Chuck (with additional help from brothers and brothers-in-law) painted every room.

As evidenced in this picture from Chuck's baptism, Pops is clearly responsible for Chuck's ability to grow facial hair like nobody's business :).

Dave is hands-down one of the smartest, most knowledgeable people I know. He does the crossword in the paper (even Sunday!) in pen . . . the entire thing. The one time I can remember him losing in Scrabble was when Chuck and I played as a team . . . and we cheated (it's all good, we confessed like three hours later). When we play Trivia Pursuit, he can not only tell you the correct answer, but also expand on it with additional information.

Pops has also been a vital resource for both Chuck and myself in our current church callings (I'm in Cub Scouts and Chuck's in Boy Scouts). Chuck's parents have both been heavily involved in Scouting and they are always happy to answer questions or give us ideas - or buy me an extra Scout shirt!!

As I mentioned, Dave (above with Clyde and below with Will) loves his family but finds particular joy in his grandchildren - he currently has eight, with two more due in the coming months (one in the coming weeks, actually!). He's famous (or infamous . . . ) for passing out Smarties during church, helping the kids 'plant' donuts, making pop bottle rockets, reading books, finding batteries for battery-operated toys (usually to the parents' chagrin), and lots and lots of hugs and love.

I am so, so grateful to have Dave as my father-in-law. We are admittedly very different (which is why we deliberately don't discuss politics!) but I love and respect him so much and I'm sure I don't tell him that enough. I love you Pops, happy birthday!!

(P.S. Happy birthday to the other two Izatt extended family members born July 17th - Lee and Bri! We love you!!)

We've been married for SEVEN years, yikes!

2011-07-16T16:04:00.002-06:00

Well, technically seven years, one month, and four days (this post is a little late, shockingly).

Our anniversary was pretty low-key this year, thanks to morning sickness, work, and Quinn and Eden's wedding three days later. We honestly didn't even go on an official 'anniversary date' - sad, right?

Thus there is no official anniversary picture of the two of us, but here we are a week later! The seven year mark kind of freaked me out a little because in the Marriage Prep class I took at BYU back in the day, we had an assignment to write a paper about successful marriages and we had to interview couples that had been married for at least seven years. So now I feel like this is some benchmark and Chuck and I should have everything figured out by now . . . and there's a chance we don't :). I will repeat what I shared on facebook about Chuck's mottos for marriage - "Happy wife, happy life" and "There's no way out, so we better work it out." Those have served us well!

We did find an excellent way to commemorate the occasion - buying a new camera, hooray! Although technically it's our gift for Mother's Day, Father's Day, our anniversary, Fourth of July, Pioneer Day, and possibly a couple other holidays :).

Our anniversary fell on a Sunday so I opted to wear all white. Can you tell I'm running out of creativity with my 'different outfit for church every week' goal?

That evening I cowgirl'd up and actually made dinner for possibly the second or third time since finding out I was pregnant, and we had a really nice evening after Chuck got home from work. Aaaand I made him an awesome video of pictures of us from the last seven years! Fair warning that it's verrrry cheesy, but it also has some hilariously goober-y pictures of us mixed in too so if you have three minutes to spare, enjoy!