I work out

Or at least my kids do.
They were anticipating out new treadmill, you know, to go along with the traditional new year's resolutions.
Push ups,

 sit ups,

 jumping jacks,

 and, of course, running! 

 and laughing,

 and climbing?? 
and then running on the new treadmill!

 So I have run on it once.  The day we got it, last Saturday, I ran 2 miles.  That was right after I ate, so I couldn't do more.  Since then, I have put on running shorts and a sports bra 3x, but took off the sports bra to feed my baby before running.  Then 2 nights ago I did lunges up next to his crib because I was tired of holding/bouncing/nursing him and decided to just shower w/o running. 
I woke up with a stiff knee - like having stiff neck after sleeping on it incorrectly.  It was sore all day and I limped a tiny but that night I stretched it a lot to work out the soreness.  It hurt to do dorsiflexion with my foot, to bend a lot, or to streighten it all the way.  So I did that while nursing Tyler to sleep.  Then, in the middle of the night, it hurt when I turned over to nurse Tyler.  And in the morning, I had another reason to not want to get up to turn off the alarm.  It hurt to put weight on it, but not as much as a sprained ankle.  I could put weight on it if I had it a little bent and stepped on the ball of my foot. 
As a side note, Isaac was caughing as he woke up.  So I called and let his Joy School teachers know he wouldn't be going today.  And I called Corrie to see if she could watch both boys for me and thought I texted Tyler's babysitter to cancel her.  (She later asked where the heck I was and I felt sooo sorry that the text was still lingering in my draft box from the stress of the morning.) 
 

 Back to me. So I drove Dylan to school. He wanted us to walk him in, so I put Isaac and Tyler in the sit 'n stand stroller (because Isaac hadn't worn shoes and just had his size 2T Superman PJs on.) I didn't really think I was limping that much 'til Steven's cousin asked what was wrong w/ my foot. I explained that I had slept wrong on my knee 2 nights in a row. (Denial.) So, limping back to the car, I have 2nd thoughts about the newborn session I was supposed to shoot in an hour or so. I got home, found and took expired Ibuprofen, and tried to kneel down like I would have to do at the session. I found myself looking for something with which to brace myself. I realized that this was rediculous and I couldn't be handling a newborn with a bumb knee. I called the client and rescheduled. Then I iced my throbbing knee while reading a book to Isaac. Then we all 3 took a 2-1/2 hour nap - it was awesome.
So, the kids wiggle wiggle wiggle and work out. I will some day.

What the heck did I do to my knee?  Lunges?  Am I that old? 
Oh, and Isaac turned the treadmill up to 10mph and started crying and his leggs couldn't run that fast.  He tried stepping up on the grey part up front b/c his legs can't really reach the sides in a split second and even when he pushed the stop button, it took a while to go back down to normal speed.  Lesson learned - the hard way, poor baby.  Dylan laughed and said "that was awesome" and had to go to time out while I hugged scared little Isaac.  The end.

Dylan's spelling

elfit
maws
soc
box
octpus
eg
rak
reng
rod
rokit
Ilikespitrmand!
I seeyou.
It is fune.
Icand Bhtwen the wos
I ayn wIdidmyscudo.

answer:
elephant, mouse, sock, box, octopus, egg, rake, ring, road, rocket
I like Spiderman!
I see you.
It is funny.
(either I can between the walls, or I climb between the walls)
I can with/we/ride/did?? my scooter - he doesn't remember these last two



Here's a detail portion of a huge composite drawing he loves.  He had his parents, grandparents, aunt, and uncles help him with it.  The guy on the left is Venum, I'm not sure who the green monster is.

 Left side of the page

 right side of the page

 then he gave it to his Uncle Matt for his big birthday card! 

 He was featured in his school art show (along w/ all of the other students at the school.)

 Here it is!  We didn't buy it, but then it came home unframed a week later anyway!!

 Here's Dylan's outside time.  Yea, instead of playing, he now colors.  It's an addiction!

hi

sorry to Tyler's babysitters, and sorry to Tyler, and goodbye to late night hanging out w/ friends

I need help on how to train my baby to take a bottle and go to sleep with a babysitter. (at night)
Or I can take the hints and just stay home and nurse him.
Here's how I found him this evening after being called to come home.

He was in just his diaper because he was red hot crying.  Martin was sweating bouncing with him when my mom saved him on New Year's Eve.  I got called back early then too, and he was sleeping on my mom sorta like this. 
Herre's a photo of after we took him on a group date with us to Ceviche.  He went in asleep, then woke up before he was ready.  I took him to the car to feed him and brought him back.  Then I came back and he started crying.  He didn't stop for over an hour with me holding him out in the car, then on the way home.  It wasn't 'til I laid him down on his Uncle Andre's bed here and nursed him that way that he calmed down and finally slept.  That was the first of the big tantrums I think.  That was 12/30/11.  (And I know the socks don't match.) 

Poor baby boy.

I love my baby bear

In the past, I have gotten sick over Christmas break.  Even if I wasn't really sick, I was stressed out and on the verge of being sick. 
This year, I prepared myself and said no in advance and gave up things and stayed home in the evenings and pretty much changed.  I'm usually the one who wants to do everything, go everywhere, and volunteer at every opportunity.  I'm more of a homebody now. I sorta don't like that I have changed.  But I'm not sick and had a wonderful Christmas. 

I'm stressed now though. 
Partly because of that low after the high of Christmas.
Partly because I am not as close to my siblings as when we were growing up crowded in this same house.  And they were here, but we all had our own families and didn't get to stay up late getting silly and talking.  Why do we have to grow up? 

Also, I took tons of pictures, but there's just not enough time to go through them.  And my family is asking for them.  I did informal sessoins, but feel the need to go through each picture before sharing them.  It's dificult doing things for friends and family because they assume that I can just email a whole folder of photos right over that night.  Even if I didn't edit anything, I have a family of my own.  I have a to do list of my own.  I have a waiting list of paying clients who are ready to book.  And I have a cute baby who gets overlooked.  I want to be creative with pictures of my own baby, but I make my own priorities the last ones. 

Anyway,
Partly because I want to highlight my hair, paint my nails, and take naps - but I can't seem to make those priorities.  I know we all make time for true priorities.
Partly because Tyler decided that he doesn't need an early bed time.  And that he wants to cuddle for hours before he sleeps soundly enough to be put down - so I fall asleep nursing him and wake up cold and on the couch in the middle of the night.  So my office hours are not when I think they should be. 
So I'm stressed. 

What are your regrets from the holidays? 
I now wish I had actually printed something as a momento for Tyler's baby blessing on Christmas.  It's already Valentine's season.  Most people have put their Christmas boxes back up in the attic but part of me wants to print cards that could be ornaments to remember Tyler's 1st Christmas and the time he met most of my family. 

I wish that my neck would just heal all of the way so that my arm wouldn't tingle when I type at 2am.

On lighter notes,
I took a 4 month old, 6 month old, 3 yr old, 4 yr old, and 6 yr old to [what I call] Orange Blossom Groves for messy drippy ice cream before picking up my 5 yr old. 
I had intended on taking a picture of our field trip but there was no way that was going to happen since I was holding two babies and eating my own cone once we went outside to the picnic tables.  I love warm winter days.  LOVE! 
I had a real family night last night and the kids were so excited when I got home from the gym and asked if it was time for family night yet - they had rememered from that morning - we even had Bluebell for the treat and I was able to scoop the solid mass with one hand thanks to the Cutco ice cream scoop from my mom because I was holding Tyler and this is the worst run on sentence but that's ok because we even had Dylan play the piano for the music part of the evening and he knew the scripture he wanted to do and we used Isaac's Sunbeam hand out puzzle for his lesson plus I had cooked honey lime enchelada caserole for dinner with brown rice that day.

What were you doing New Year's Eve?

Dear Tyler, you're 4 months old

Dear Tyler Baby,
I love you.  You're still sweet.  You're such a baby - a real baby now.  You're the right amount of cuddliness, sleepiness, smiles, ticklishness, and pure deliciousness.  You have tight skin that I love to kiss.  You haven't discovered stranger danger yet, so you let anybody hold you.  You did just start to look back and up to see who is holding you, so you're memorizing faces or something now. 

You're finally getting some chunk on your thighs. 

 You like to suck on your fists, usually your left one.  You can gnaw on your thumb or a pacifier, but don't suck on either.  For your thumb, you still have a tight fist shoved tightly into your mouth, so your thumb doesn't really fit in your mouth.

So now you pull things into your mouth.  It's cold so I put blankets on you and find them up around and on your face.  You still can not control your hands enough to go fishing and catch something, but if you feel something, you pull it in.  Your little mouth wants what your eyes see so you have a big mouth snaping turtle reflex.  It's the wettest softest sweetest silliest big mouth bass kiss - so fun. 

 I wanted to take a picture of you in your new penguin hat from Ivy (by my friend Rachael), but you snapping-turtle-grabbed and nuzzled in and didn't care about me or my goofiness above you. 

 When I took the distraction away, you weren't happy. 

You only like tummy time when it's on MY tummy I think - when we first wake up. 

 You also don't like your car seat.  You have done better lately - possibly because I didn't have to go in the car line and I could take my time to go places to get your comfortable. 

 You got to meet your Grandpa Gille! 

He came in town for your blessing. 

He even sang in the choir for your blessing and sacrament service. 

You go to bed in your bed, but always end up here.

I think the Christmas vacation got everybody off schedules

- as if I do schedules, I know. 

But you go to bed so late and want to nurse to sleep. 

You sleep best when you're snuggled by my side. 

 You're happy for me, but you do get sad and fussy at bed time now. 
You're not loud, but it's sad. 
You wake up happy and kicky.  You kick like your heels are on springs.  You alternate kicking your heels out then retract them back into place.  You scoot back off of blankets that way too.  You're not interrested in rolling over yet or in sitting up.  I like that you're still a relexed baby. 

 Ivy, on the other hand, has been sitting up and crawling and stealing toys! 

We celebrated bringing in the new year byyou going to Grandma's house. 

More on that later. 

I love having a new year's baby:) 

 This will be a fun year of firsts for you.  You're almost half way through your first year though, that's crazy.  Stay my baby please! 

Oh, tonight (10 days after you turned 4 months old) I fed you a couple of spoonfuls of rice cereal while you cried.  You wanted to nurse I think but I'm pretty sure I was out of milk and you should have been sleeping.  I'm in no rush to feed you, but I figured why not. 

I love you my little baby boy,

Love, Mommy

Tyler's Baby Blessing

On Christmas day,

our little Tyler Martin Feger

was given his name and blessing in our church. 

His Uncle Martin, also named after our Grandpa, gave him the blessing. 
Standing in the circle with him and Steven, were his uncles David, Matt, and Jonathan and his Grandpa Beckman.

Our Dear Heavenly Father, by the power and the authority of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood which we hold, we gather together to give this child a name and a blessing. And the name by which he shall be known in the records of the church is Tyler Martin Feger. Tyler, we leave a blessing with you that you may be healthy and strong that you may be filled with love for your family and your father and for your mother who love you and desire your well-being. And Tyler we bless you that you may be receptive to the spirit- that you may have an understanding of the will of the Lord and a desire to do His will continually and we bless you with the ability to do the will of the Lord. And we bless you that you will grow to be faithful and to serve a full-time mission where you will bless the live3s of many people. We bless you that you will find, when the time is right, a beautiful daughter of God who you will be married with in the temple and we bless you to follow the counsel of the Lord and live a healthy and blessed life. And we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

It's not every day (or any day) that I get a picture of me with my baby boy.  Thanks Eugene!

Lots of family came in town to hear the sweet blessing.  The 5 Gille kids and families plus Julie's family made it.  Tyler didn't cry at all, he slept through the pictures by Eugene Olson, then he smiled lots in his blessing. 

Look at Gracie's high kick!

"Hooray, Tyler's blessing was a success and now we get to hang in the mother's lounge!" 

(It's all a little too much excitement for little Tyler.) 

Oh, so his outfit is from Colombia. 

Maria, Tyler's Abuelita, brought it back for Dylan on one of her trips back home.  I thought it looked a little girly at the time because the sweater reminded me of a cardigan.  But I took a picture of Dylan in it anyway at Christmas time.  When we couldn't find the blessing outfit that Dylan and Isaac used, this one was a clear choice.  I lost the matching socks that went with it.  Even though it was over 80 degrees that day, a sweater outfit seemed more appropriate than the silky shorts one the older boys wore.  I like it. 

Afterwards, everybody went to our house for lunch and cousins presents. 

Then, after naps, we went to the beach house and played on the sand snowman we built. 

It was a perfect Christmas.

hello, hi

Isaac took this picture.
I like it b/c it shows how random I am. 
I don't even remember how the day was, but clearly it was my one day/week that it was just me and my 2 younger boys.  
I was in the middle of editing a photo for a Christmas card.
I am in my running clothes so either I just ran or was planning on it.
I have dangly earrings, so I must have had normal clothes on for something that morning.
I'm editing one-handed, not that efficient, but I do what I can when I get a chance.
There's an unopened grocery bag, so I'm guessing we stopped by Publix on our way home from dropping of Dylan. 
I have fat rolls on my back.  I should walk the walk instead of just dressing the part! 
Some days I'm too busy to write a list, but then I half- do many many little things. 

 I took the camera and got yet another distraction. 
His smile is almost bigger than his whole head! 

 Here are my little jungle men and their cave drawings. 

Note Isaac's right foot, and Dylan's awesome sunshine he drew.

I'm going through my December folder.  These were from 12/9/11.