Joseph Stephen - Two Months Old

Dear Joseph,

Happy two month birthday! It is difficult to believe that you are already two months old. You have changed so much during the past month! You are becoming much more active each day and are awake for longer periods of time. While awake, you are very aware of your surroundings. In addition, you will excitedly move your arms and kick your legs. This routine has allowed you to transition to sleeping for longer periods of time. You will typically sleep for about six hours straight at night!

One of your favorite activities is to sit in the swing and watch all of the action taking place. Our house is very busy, and you will turn your head to follow us when we are speaking to you and seem to recognize familiar voices. You do not enjoy laying on the floor as much as sitting in your swing. That might be because you can't see everything as easily. Most likely though is due to the fact that laying on the floor can be hazardous to your health with three older brothers. As a result, we do not lay you on the floor very often! At this point in your life, your favorite place to be is in Mommy's arms, and I am enjoying all of the cuddling while it lasts!

In the last month, you have started to really fill out. You are beginning to look more and more like your brothers with each pound you gain! Those chubby cheeks and chunky thighs are absolutely adorable, and you have grown to weigh 13 pounds, 12 ounces and 22 inches tall. This rapid growth is probably because you have increased to eating five to eight ounces of formula at each feeding. At two months of age, you are fitting comfortably into three month clothes.

Although you reveal a number of facial expressions to us, the most common is a very serious look. Your eyes are so quizzical, and it seems as if you are analyzing everything you see. At seven weeks of age you smiled for the first time! We all try to make you smile, and it is so exciting when you actually do. I am sure that we will be seeing more of your beautiful smile and fewer serious looks each day!

You continue to be such a happy baby. You have started cooing and making other baby noises. When one of us talks to you, it seems as if you are trying to respond through your adorable cooing. Occasionally, you will experience a bellyache in the evening that will make you cry. When this happens, you have perfected the art of sticking out your bottom lip while crying. It is truly pitiful! However, you should be happy to know that you never cry long. When you make a sound (even if it is a cooing sound) William immediately says "Baby crying!" and rushes to your side.

We love you Joseph and can't imagine our family without you in it!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

You look like you are ready for a fight in this picture!

 

Smile!

A Visitor

Last week when Toby's mom was gathering eggs from the chickens, she found this golden eagle sitting inside the building!

Apparently, our visitor had found a nice place where it could feast on an unlimited supply of legs, breasts, and drumsticks! You can read about golden eagles at this interesting website. According to the site, "The golden eagle is one of the largest, fastest, nimblest raptors in North America." You can see from the photo that I took that the raptor's beak and talons could prove to be very dangerous.

Our visitor camped out in the building for a day or two and did not seem to be bothered by us peeking in. Then, he disappeared, and we thought he had moved on. We were wrong though, as we continue to see him around our place almost daily. He will sit on the rimrocks above the house, on telephone poles, and on wheel lines. 

Based on what I have read, an adult golden eagle is typically 33-36 inches tall. We believe that our visitor is a young eagle because he is only about 20-24 inches tall. Another interesting fact is that golden eagles live for an average of 30 years!

If you are ever in our area, keep your eyes open for this amazing raptor!

William and His Squirt Bottle

William found a squirt bottle this morning and has been very busy. Joseph was laying peacefully in the bassinet sleeping when William walked to up to him and said "Hands up Bebe." When Joseph did not put his hands up, William proceeded to squirt him and wake him up! After being scolded by his mother, he has moved on to washing windows.

Peter's Famous Raspberry Freezer Jam

With record-breaking temperatures over 100 degrees this week, we have been spending most afternoons trying to stay cool in the house. I mentioned to the boys that we should make freezer jam, and Peter was all over it. Ever since my mom introduced Peter to freezer jam, he has been in love! It is difficult to keep a supply of freezer jam in the house with Peter, and the rest of us love it too. We acquired some wonderful raspberries from a local grower, and yesterday Peter and William made freezer jam by themselves. I know - it is a scary thought - but making freezer jam is extremely easy and I supervised. If you have never made freezer jam, you really should whip some up while the berries are in season. You won't be disappointed!


The cast of characters - A large bowl of washed raspberries, sugar, and instant pectin.
(The recipe with specific measurements is on the pectin container.)



Step 1 - Mash the berries with a potato masher.

Step 2 - Mix sugar and pectin together.

Step 3 - Add sugar/pectin mixture to mashed raspberries.

Step 4 - Stir until all ingredients are combined.

Step 5 - Use a ladle to fill plastic freezer jars with the prepared jam.

Step 6 - Keep a jar for yourself and drink it! Not required, but recommended by Peter.

Step 7 - Wipe down jars, let sit for 30 minutes, then freeze or refrigerate.



Step 8 - Enjoy!

Crocheting

When I was on bed rest with Joseph, I quickly became very bored. As a result, I was anxious to find ways to pass the time, and one can only watch so much television! So, I decided to start crocheting again. I learned how to crochet from Grandma Barbara when I was young and always enjoyed the end product. In the past, I have made stocking hats, scarves, and other projects. When I was teaching sixth grade, I also taught my entire class how to crochet. As a class, we created hot pads for Christmas gifts and scarves for the Special Olympics.

Since babies were on my mind, I found some fun crocheting patterns for baby hats and headbands online. In addition, I found a pattern for a cute baby blanket which is crocheted on one side and cotton fabric on the other side. While on bed rest, I created the crocheted side for two baby blankets, and in the past few days I layered the cotton fabric on top, added a satin binding, and tied the two layers together. Today, I shipped the two blankets to their new homes! I think they turned out nicely! The crocheted side is very soft because I used soft baby yarn. The blankets are versatile because they are not only warm but the crocheted side creates a nice cushion to lay a baby on. 

I also crocheted a headband and attached a crocheted flower.
I tried it on Joseph to make sure it was the correct size before sending it.
Isn't he cute!

4th of July Festivities

Our 4th of July celebration was a two-day event this year and began with a fun barbecue and swimming party for the kids at Michael and Amy McGourty's home on the 3rd. The McGourty's had a slip-and-slide, baby pool, and blow-up swim park set up for the kids. Even though it got a little cold when the wind started blowing, the kids had a blast. There were a lot of kids to play with and many adults to visit with.

Matthew, William, and Ian (Molly's son) at the McGourty's

On July 4th, we continued our celebration by attending a barbecue and swimming party at Todd and Jan Dinsmore's home. It was such a beautiful day that the kids did not want to get out of the pool. We were finally able to convince them to get out of the pool after many hours of swimming when the fireworks were about to begin. We had an amazing view of the Ontario fireworks, Payette fireworks, and many other small shows that were taking place in the valley from Todd and Jan's home. We had such an enjoyable 4th of July and are grateful that we were able to spend the holiday with many wonderful friends and family members!

Matthew had such a wonderful day swimming and doing front flips off the diving board.

Even though Peter was not able to swim very well at the beginning of the day, he improved
significantly and was even doing cartwheels and front flips off the diving board by the end of the day.

William had a lot of "lifeguards" during the day. He really enjoyed swimming and eating bean dip!

Joseph lounged in the shade all day and was cuddled by many people, including Mema.
Chevy (Dane Dinsmore's black lab) appointed himself as Joseph's protector.
He kept watch over Joseph by laying in front of him and checking on him throughout the day. It was so cute!

Enjoying the fireworks!
Matthew, William, Peter, Kyle and Carly Meyer

Happy 4th of July!

May your 4th of July be filled with family, friends, fun, and of course fireworks!



Peter's First Concert: Meat Loaf

Back in January (I believe) my family and I became aware of the fact that Meat Loaf was scheduled to come to Eagle, Idaho on July 2, 2012. Meat Loaf is no ordinary performer in my family. We have been raised to listen to and love Meat Loaf from an early age. My grandma Barbara has always been a fan of Meat Loaf, and thus raised her family on his music. As a result, most of the members of my family can sing, word for word, many of Meat Loaf's songs. This is quite a feat if you know anything about Meat Loaf because his songs are not short! The family favorite is "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights." It is the first song to be selected when singing karaoke and is a must at a family wedding. It is actually quite entertaining because the entire family will gather on the dance floor, steal the microphone from the DJ, and sing the entire song. As you can tell, we have quite a long history with Meat Loaf which all began with my 80 year old grandmother. When my family heard that Meat Loaf was actually going to perform in a nearby town, emails were sent, phone calls were made, and tickets were purchased. At the time, I was pregnant with Joseph and did not know if I would be interested in attending the concert with a newborn at home; however, I did not want to miss out on the opportunity given the off chance that I felt like going, and I bought a ticket.

Fast forward to July 2, 2012 (the day of the concert). Joseph has been born, but I am basically a wimp and do not want to leave him (I know, I know, he would have been fine). So, I let my family know this morning that my ticket is available if they know someone who is interested in attending the concert. In the meantime, two more tickets become available as well. As I am discussing the concert with Toby this afternoon, Matthew and Peter ask why they can't go. I am ashamed to admit that the thought had never crossed my mind that they would want to attend the concert, but it sounds like an excellent idea. I decide to call my Aunt Bev to see if any of the tickets are still available and whether she and Uncle Dick will consider taking Matthew and Peter to the concert. Dick and Bev are more than happy to take the boys, but by the time we think of the idea this afternoon there is only one ticket remaining. Matthew and Peter both want to attend the concert, so we flip a coin and Peter wins! Within a few hours of thinking of the idea, we drop Peter off with Dick and Bev and he is off to his first concert with 11 other family members.

Ron, Lori, Jacob, Jonah, Karen, Jordan, Vickie, Greg, Peter, Bev, Dick, and Darrell
Photo by Vickie

As I was dropping Peter off, it brought back fond memories of some of the concerts I have attended. My grandma Barbara has always been a fan of excellent music. As a result, when my cousins and I were young my grandma would buy an extra ticket when she was purchasing tickets to a concert and one of us would get to be grandma's "date" for the concert. I had the opportunity to see Rod Stewart in concert with grandma, and it is a concert I will never forget. After Peter was off to the concert, I thought about how lucky we are to have been exposed to such a diverse collection of artists by my grandma. We listened to many artists at a young age such as Elton John, Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, The Eagles, and Meat Loaf just to name a few.

The entire night, I was anxious to talk to Peter about the concert and hear what he thought of Meat Loaf. I also periodically checked Facebook to get updates from various family members about the concert and look at pictures from the evening (such as the two I have in this post taken by Vickie). From what I could see, it looked like everyone had an amazing time. As you can see from the picture below, they also had spectacular seats!

Photo by Vickie

The best part of the evening for me was the ride home after picking Peter up from Dick and Bev. Below are a few of my favorite quotes from the trip:

Me: So, tell me about the concert.

Peter: Wow, for an old guy, Meat Loaf can really sing!

Me: What was your favorite part of the concert?

Peter: That is a tough one.

Me: Why?

Peter: Because it was all so good!

Me: Are you glad you went?

Peter: Yes! I never win the coin tosses, but I am so glad that I won this time!

Despite the fact that I would have had a wonderful time at the concert tonight with my family, I am so glad that Peter went instead. The memories that he made tonight will stay with him forever, and hopefully he will look back someday and be as grateful as I am that grandma Barbara has such great taste in music!

Potty Training

William will be two years old next month (I know, I can't believe it!) and he has recently become interested in potty training. When I say interested, I actually mean obsessed! William wants to be like his older brothers so badly that if either Matthew or Peter use the bathroom William wants to try using the bathroom also. Having successfully potty trained two boys before, I have learned that boys are easiest to potty train during the summer months because there is nothing more exciting for a boy than peeing outside! I don't think that boys/men ever outgrow the desire to pee outside - at least not in my house! To make things easier and more exciting, we encourage William to try to pee outside frequently. He has not mastered the art yet, but it is not from a lack of trying. He will stand outside and strain with all of his might to try to pee like his older brothers when actually if he would just relax he would probably have better luck. We are, however, making progress and William is having more success all of the time.

Last week, while William was outside trying to relieve himself, Pacco came over to investigate. Obviously, when a horse is nearby going potty is no longer the priority. As you can see, William became very interested in petting the horse and forgot about his original mission.

I am sure that it won't be long before we have another "big boy" who is potty trained in our house!