Let's Go Fly a Kite

It was a little breezy today so I decide it would be a good time for Corbin to fly his first kite. We went out to the playground behind our condo and I proceeded to run around like an idiot for the next long while, struggling to get the kite up. I was completely unsuccessful and Corbin was getting impatient. Finally, after asking if he could hold it a billion times he goes, "Mommy, you are NOT sharing with me!" Luckily Caleb came out and got the kite up and flying within about .2 seconds, so Corbin got a chance to hold the string and watch his kite fly up high in the air.

Pizza Mia

We took a trip to the health food store to pick up some Corbin cheese and made homemade pizzas. Corbin loved the olives, enjoyed the cheese, ate the crust and hated the sauce. It was fun just watching him make it himself, as this is the first time he has ever had "pizza." It's like Pinocchio, "he's a real boy!"

Camping!

We decided to go camping last night with some of our friends. It was so much fun, even though we had to take off pretty early today to get home and get things done around the house and with work.

Roasting hot dogs with Dad:


Roasting marshmallows with Mom:


Makelle had so much fun on her first camp out!


What is it with boys and sticks? His buddy Chance came along and they took turns poking at the dogs until they were told to stop, then they started poking eachother.


Making boats to race down the stream:


Riding in a real boat (canoe):


He was oh so helpful with his own paddle... "I do it myself!" I am shocked we didn't ever have to fish his oar out of the water.


Thanks to Harm and Derek for organizing everything, we loved it!

Comfy? Cozy

It doesn't matter what position I lay her down in, or how many blankets I prop up under her. This is how we find Makelle every morning:

Not only is it creating a flat spot on the side of her head, but it can't be good for her muscle development. We even got her the nice memory foam infant pillow to help prevent flat spots, but as you can see, she wiggles off of it every night.

I put her on her stomach on Tuesday during the day to help her and she managed to roll over onto her back to assume her favorite position. Seriously?! Corbin couldn't do that until he was almost 5 months old. She hasn't been able to roll again since then (naturally, since I had the camera ready this time) but she did come pretty close.


You will notice that the camera keeps leaning to the side, it is kind of annoying to watch. I didn't realize that I was doing that at the time though... it's like when you play video games and you need to turn and it looks like you might not make it, you start to lean your body the direction you are going in hopes of willing the little character on screen to bend with you. I guess I thought that if I leaned with the camera she would suddenly absorb some of my leaning and flop the rest of the way over. Didn't work, go figure!

Gardening

This weekend we planted a garden at Caleb's brother's house. They were nice enough to lend us a section of their yard, which we cultivated into a cute little garden.

I am pretty sure that Caleb thinks it isn't even worth all the work it took, and would rather just go buy fresh vegetables at the store, but I am pretty excited. To his credit I have to admit that we did wake up with some sore muscles this morning (ones that I didn't even know I had)!

Before:



During:



After:

Ogden Marathon

Yesterday Caleb ran in the Ogden Marathon relay. He was on one of two teams from his accounting firm and he ran the final leg, which was a 5K. Although they haven't posted his final time yet, he did really well and pushed himself coming across the finish line. And most importantly his team beat the other Tanner team, so they now have bragging rights around the office.


Our sister-in-law also ran yesterday, she completed the half marathon, so Corbin's cousin was there and the two of them had a lot of fun cheering on all of the runners. (At least they did at first, there was about an hour and half in between Tori's race and when Caleb finished and they got a little restless, but overall they did really well.)



And of course Makelle was her perfect little baby self and just slept the whole time. It always feels good to get outside and enjoy these nice summer days!

Our Anniversary

Thursday was our 4th year anniversary, and Caleb has been so busy with work lately that we just felt like we needed some time away to relax and de-stress. So my mom took Corbin and Makelle for us and we went and stayed in Salt Lake for the night.

We went to dinner at the Melting Pot (a fondue restaurant) which was a really fun experience, neither one of us had ever fondued before. Also, I now want to own a fondue set one day and be able to make large pots of melted chocolate at home to dip random sweets into :)


That night we stayed at the Anniversary Inn, which was nice. Again, neither one of us had ever stayed at a bed and breakfast before, and I can't tell you how great it was to get woken up to a knock at the door announcing our hot breakfast was ready, rather than to a screaming child!

Caleb took the day off on Friday so we were able to sleep in that morning and then spend the day playing in Salt Lake. We went to the golf course and hit some balls on the driving range, practiced our chipping and putting then went and saw a matinee at the movie theater before going to pick up the kids and return to reality.



Corbin did great, he didn't seem to miss us at all. Grandma kept him very entertained with lots of fun activities and spoiled him like all Grandmas do.

Makelle we discovered still doesn't take a bottle very well. Caleb had been getting her ready for her night away from me by giving her bottles last week, but she only drinks when she is really good and hungry and then if anything distracts her, she immediately stops sucking and refuses to eat anymore. So if it is quiet and you can sit there uninterrupted for half an hour, you can get her drink almost her whole bottle. If anything happens though she stops, even if she has only had an ounce or so and won't try again for a couple of hours. Despite starving herself however, I guess she was a good little baby and hardly even cried, so I guess it didn't bother her too much.

Not so Pretty Penny

Corbin and I haven't been feeling well the past few days, so we decided to stay home from church today. (No it is not the swine flu, in case you were wondering :) And it turns out you do get blessings for attending church, such as, if you aren't home then your 2 and 1/2 year old doesn't have an opportunity to swallow a penny. Lesson learned.

The day started out great. Caleb took Corbin to the store yesterday and let him pick out a card (or a book as Corbin calls it, since he of course picked out the biggest, thickest one there) and some chocolates for me. It is a pop up card and Corbin absolute loves opening it and yelling "ta-da!" or "popcorn!" (Don't ask, we aren't quite sure where that came from.) Then Caleb let Corbin be a 'helper' and make me breakfast in bed. He is such a sweet little boy and really does enjoy it when he gets to help out and loves to do nice things for me.


So then later, I am sitting out on the couch nursing Makelle when I hear Corbin gagging like crazy and whimpering. So I set her down and rush back into our room to find Corbin sitting on our bed with the spare change jar, choking with blood dripping out of his mouth. Scary! After a few minutes of spewing blood and coughing, I throw him in the car and we speed over to the instacare.

We walk through the doors and without even giving a medical history the nurse says, "oh, I know him, he is the cute little little boy with asthma, that threw up after we gave him albuterol last time!" Never good when emergency medical workers instantly recognize your child.

The nurses make sure his stats are stable and he is breathing okay and then they do an x-ray to find the penny and make sure it isn't stuck in his throat. They never could find out where all the blood was coming from, either he bit his tongue while choking or the penny cut this throat on the way down, we don't know which.


(This isn't his actual x-ray, just a similar one I found online. I guess my child isn't the only one doing dumb things, because there were actually quite a few to choose from.)

Eventually the bleeding stopped though and he started swallowing normal again, so they sent us home to wait for it to pass. He has to go back in tonight for another x-ray to make sure it is moving through his system, but otherwise he should be fine.

Oh this child. He already has a longer medical record than Caleb, Makelle and I combined. At least his familiarity with the medical world has eliminated all fears that most children have and he is a good little patient and always very helpful and friendly towards the medical staff.

Sometimes it is hard being a mom (like when your child does stupid things and lands himself in the doctor's office) but then it makes it all worth it when he runs up to you with a giant card and says, "Mommy, it's your special day! I love you!" and then starts to sing Happy Birthday (since he thinks that is what you do on someone's special day... of course). I know everyone says that, but it is so true. Kids are the best, you can't help but love them, even when you are mad at them!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Today is Caleb's 27th birthday. We celebrated by making some of his favorite foods, BLTs and apple pie. Note: Do not put a wax candle into a warm apple pie, it will melt all over inside of your food :(


Corbin was of course a big help when it came time to open Caleb's presents. He got some books on tape to listen to during his commute to work, a copy of Atlas Shrugged (one of those books everyone should read at some point in their lives) and his dream gift... a new LCD TV.


He has been wanting one for years, our HOA recently upgraded our 'free' cable to a package that includes HD channels and our old TV has been on the fritz (it doesn't always turn on, sometimes you have to try a few times before it works). So we went to Costco and found a very large TV (we could watch Corbin, life size on this thing) for a ridiculously good price (they were selling off the old display model) and now he is forever happy watching his new flat screen.

Soccer

I have joined a soccer team with Caleb. Caleb has played since he was about 3. Half of our team has played since they were 3. I have not.

Back in August some of our friends got together and decided to sign up for an indoor soccer team. Half of the people had played before and wanted to teach their spouses so they joined a co-ed beginners league. I was pregnant at the time, so I couldn't play with them, but promised to join them once Makelle was born.

So now she is born and a couple weeks ago I hit the 6 week recovery mark and got the go ahead to start exercising again. At this same time our team switched to play on Monday nights because in Utah it is cheaper, since most people are at home with their families that night, and they have a hard time filling the teams.

However, there still weren't enough teams to sign up so there is no beginners league, it is just everybody combined. So we now play against good people, which the rest of the team does okay against. But while they were learning how to play and getting good for the past 9 months, I was sitting around gaining massive amounts of excess weight :)

So I now play with all good people, and am ridiculously out of shape and have never played soccer in my life. It is pretty pathetic looking, but dang am I getting a good work out running all over the place trying to figure out where I am suppose to be!

And surprisingly enough, Caleb and I haven't even gotten a divorce yet! It is actually a lot of fun playing together although, you can tell the poor boy gets frustrated when he gives me a perfect pass and no one is guarding me (it doesn't take the other team long to realize I am not a threat) and I still miss the goal. But he puts aside his competitive edge and is really patient with me and is trying to help teach me.

2 Month Check Up

Makelle had her 2 month check up today. Primarily for journaling purposes, but also for all you curious minds out there... she weighed 12 lbs. 11 oz. (90th percentile), was 24 inches long (95th percentile) and had a head circumference of 39 cm (55th percentile).

So I guess her head is a little smaller compared to her body, but that's okay, we love her anyway! Corbin actually had very similar measurements when he was that age as well, and everything eventually evened out, so I guess we just have big babies with average sized heads :)

At church yesterday one of the high priests (an elderly Japanese man) commented, "you blessed her today? she is ready to walk! so big!" Side note: Makelle was one of six babies blessed (and there will likely be that many next month as well, we live in a 'newly wed and nearly dead' ward) and she was by far the largest of the babies.

Everything else checked out okay and she is doing great!

Makelle's Special Day

Yesterday at church Caleb was able to bless our precious little girl. She was promised all sorts of wonderful blessings. I am so glad we have the gospel in our lives to afford us opportunities, such as this, to feel the spirit and see the Lord's hand in our lives. Blessing a baby reminds me how the Lord truly does know every one of us individually and has given us certain talents and abilities to help us throughout our lives, even beginning in our infancy. I never thought that I would be one of those girls that adores babies, but I tell you there is just something about them that brings peace and joy to a room. Makelle truly is a miraculous gift from the Lord and such a blessing in our lives already. We just love her so much!



Twenty-four years ago, my dad was able to give me a similar blessing and my mom kept the dress that I wore that day and gave it to me when I moved out and got married. Well I managed to not lose it for the past 4 years and now that I have my own little girl I thought that it would be fun to have her wear the same dress. However, I am slightly (or maybe highly) opposed to lace and frills, so I modified the dress slightly by cutting off all the lace and replacing it with ribbon and then adding some layers of fabric to add some length and make it look a little more modern. I was pleasantly surprised when it actually worked out and looked somewhat like I had imagined when I started the project! And of course Makelle looked gorgeous and so precious on her special day.



Both of our families were able to join us for church yesterday and share in our joy. Thank you to our parents and siblings who took the time to spend the day with us, it was so great to have everyone there with us.

Picture Overload!

Our neighbor helped me out and took some pretty cute pictures of Corbin and Makelle for me. Enjoy!