General Howell

Because I can laugh at myself, I decided to post me as General Howell at our Primary Boot Camp yesterday. It went great! Do I look serious here or what?

Sparklers and elephants

I blame my mom. It really is her fault. Maybe if she hadn't been such a creative, do-it-yourself, make-it-from-scratch mom, I wouldn't feel the need to do everything homemade. Take this weekend, for example. It's jam-packed, including a Primary Activity tomorrow morning. We're doing a BOOT Camp for the kids. I'm even dressing like an Army General. For snacks, I've decided to make 50 of these patriotic "sparklers," which is basically pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate and covered in blue and red sprinkles. They'll be consumed in the "mess hall" after they survive boot camp. So I ask: Why can't I bring myself to simply go to the store and purchase the treat? It would save so much time and effort. And, why did I choose to make 50 of these "seek-and-find" bags for an activity last year? Because, in the end, I know how much I appreciated my mom's special touches when I was growing up, from sewing my clothes (this ended in late elementary school), to all the homemade treats, to the ultra-creative birthday parties. And so, I want to make the same effort for my kids and others. In the end, I enjoy the result. It's just self-imposed stress in the meantime!

My weekend also includes book club tonight. We're discussing Water for Elephants. It ended up being a captivating story - the last 50 pages really had me on the edge! It's about a young vet who joins a traveling circus during the Depression. It's got a love story, murder, and sleazy details of the crazy side show. Should make for a good discussion!

Lucas's blessing is Sunday, and Brian and I got asked to speak in church that day too, so I've got to finish that.

I'm off to put little ones down for naps, do some work, finish the rest of the sparklers, made dinner and then dash to book club. Have a great weekend!

Two months already!

Lucas was two months old on Friday, and celebrated by rolling over that very day! He did it several times on Friday. Strong little boy! Here's a pic of him attempting his new trick. He's also starting to smile a lot, which is always so fun. He had his 2-month appointment today. He weighs 12 pounds 3/4 ounce, quite a bit bigger than my other two at that age. But then, Isabel just hit 20 pounds 2 months ago at 20 months. She's not even on the growth charts! She makes up for it in personality :)

Lucas is doing great, sleeping about 9 hours at night with one 10-minute feeding. Can't complain about that! And we're developing a nap schedule, which for the past week has included a large afternoon nap that coincides with Isabel's nap. This is totally ideal for me, as I've started back on my work project for University of Colorado Hospital. I'm committed to 10 hours a week. If they both nap from 1 to 3:30, it's perfect work time!

On a side note, Connor is learning how difficult parenting can be. This morning, Isabel wouldn't come downstairs for breakfast. Connor went to (unsuccessfully) retrieve her. He came downstairs and said, "I don't know what to do with her! I've had it!" He's SUCH a big brother.

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 6-year anniversary. Seems like just yesterday, but then I look at pictures and realize how far we've come (and how much older we look!). We had a rocky beginning. I thought Brian stood me up on our first date, turns out his story of food poisoning was true! And then he forgot my name on our first date (after being 45 minutes late). He wasn't exactly el suavo. Fortunately, things picked up from there! So in honor of our 6 years, here is a top ten list of things I love about Brian:

10. He's fun to watch the news with. OK, that sounds weird, but anyone who knows Brian knows he has quite a sense of humor. He really does make the news (and many other things) entertaining.

9. He is a great friend, both to me and to his friends. And he understands my need for friendship.

8. I love listening to music with him. We both are passionate about music. We started our marriage with "mine, his, and ours" music - stuff he liked, stuff I liked, and stuff we both liked. Slowly those lines are becoming more blurred. (But I think Metallica and Linkin Park will always be his).

7. He's fun to play games with. We are both a little bit competitive (OK, REALLY competitive). The only game I've found that I can generally win is Scrabble. Trivial Pursuit is his domain - he has so much of that type of knowledge, and I'm continually amazed at how much of it has come from Seinfeld!

6. He has a strong faith, and isn't afraid to stand up for what he believes.

5. He's really fun to travel with. We've had some great trips. For some reason we always travel north (New England, Alaska, Seattle and Western Washington, the Black Hills). And there are countless trips to Minnesota, and to the mountains).

4. He's a hard worker and does what he can to support our family and allow me to stay home.

3. He always asks how my day was - and generally seems to be interested in the answer.

2. He supports my "me" time and my interests: scrapbooking, book club, running or walking, dinner with my girlfriends, or even just quiet time in the tub.

And the number one thing I love about Brian:

He is a fantastic father. He is completely devoted to our children. Every child should be so lucky.

We're going to an IMAX movie and dinner tonight while Brian's mom watches the kids. This morning, when we were all piled on our bed, I wished Brian a Happy Anniversary. Then Connor said, "Happy Anniversary everyone! Except not us. We're just kids. We're not married yet."

Happy Anniversary Brian - love ya!

Mini golf

So Friday night was Howell Family Mini-Golf night (or as Brian called it, "carry a club around and drop balls into holes with your hands"). We weren't sure how the kids would do, but they LOVED LOVED LOVED it. Isabel ONLY wanted to carry the club and her blue ball around and would not part with them for anything. She wouldn't try to hit the ball, but was just happy as a clam to walk all 18 holes with her gear. Connor did make some attempts at hitting the ball, but was seriously fascinated by any hole that involved the ball disappearing into one hole and coming out another one. This more or less turned the night into a gymnastics event for him, as you can see! It really became a family event when I had to nurse Lucas on the 6th hole. Fortunately, we were about the only ones playing that night.

Scary thought

Being a MN native and University of Minnesota grad, the Minneapolis bridge collapse has hit close to home. And not just because I used to live really close to it and drove over it to go to work. Or that I used to see it every day walking to class. But there is a chance we could have been on the bridge on Wednesday. I have a family reunion this weekend, and until recently we were planning to go. But b/c of Brian's promotion, we had to change our plans (we're going at Christmas instead). We were going to drive to MN on Tues. or Wed. this week, and would have driven over the bridge on our way up north - most likely on Wednesday. And, my brothers live a mile from the bridge. My one brother debated driving home on 35E or 35W on Wednesday during rush hour. He chose 35E; good choice.

Pigtails!

I think boys clothes get unfairly accused of not being as cute and fun as girls clothes. I think there are definitely some super cute boy clothes out there. However, I will fully admit there are simply a lot more options for girls: skirts, dresses, capris, tights, and more. The girls section is always at least three times the size of the boys section in stores. And then there are the hair options! It's a whole new world, so different from the every 6 or 8 weeks "short boy haircut with #3 clippers on the sides and back" with Connor. We're just getting into all the hair options with Isabel. For the first time today, she cooperated enough to let me do pigtails, something I've been waiting for! Few things are cuter than a little girl in pigtails. Had to capture the moment! BTW, having tea parties is one of her real favorites.