This was not how I planned it!

As most parents out there know, things rarely go the way you plan them to, but I have to say I am pretty good at rolling with the punches. I do my best to plan out dinners, fun daytime activities, girls nights, dates, etc. but if things don't work out I just let it slide. But this week has really thrown me for a loop! (What does that saying even mean? where did it come from!?!?)

Miles and I developed thrush last weekend and have both been pretty miserable ever since. Thrush is a yeast infection passed back and forth between you and your baby while nursing and is fairly painful for everyone involved. The doctor gave me a prescription which cost $25.00 bucks and can take up to 3 weeks to get ride of the problem, BLAH! Good thing for us mothers we share everything because it was only by mentioning this to Nicole that I found out about Gentian Violet, an over-the-counter remedy that takes care of the problem in days. THANKS NICOLE!!!!

Before getting this information our week was hectic! We were getting little to no sleep which makes for a run-down couple. The dishes and laundry were backing up but I just couldn't find the energy to put into my house work. Dinners = Sandwiches/Mac'n'chesse and little Miles was always crying! AJ was less impressed and often ended up in front of the TV while I tried to get things together. Poor kids!

This morning it all came to a head. Miles was a mess, AJ was exhausted from being up all night with the heat and his sad baby brother and what do I decide to do? Potty train. LOL. I took AJ to the potty and told him about pooping in the potty like a big boy and getting treats. Showed him how the pull-ups worked and then he was off to play. I finally got Miles to settle down and what should I find when I go to check on Age but a nice little poop log in the middle of his floor. He was quite excited that he had taken off his pull-up and gone poop but when he saw my face he said, "uh-oh Mom! AJ poo on the floor." Not only was it on his feet and hands but he also informed me, "AJ try it, not like it. Poop make AJ sick." That's right folks, in the mouth!

So I cleaned him up, sent him to play and went back to my screaming baby. That is when Nicole arrived with the world changing news about Gentian Violet. THANKS NICOLE!
My mission for the day was to find and acquire said drug and start using it immediately! Lyndz was nothing but a life saver taking me to three places to get it and offering to take Miles so I could get some rest. It started to help immediately and things are on their way back to normal!

It was a long week. Sure I haven't washed my hair in 5 days, 3 dirty diapers accidental went through the wash, and my son ate cookies for breakfast on more than one occasion but we are all alive and well so I'm still good! Plus our little man learned to hold his head up and roll over. Here is a picture of him enjoying is tummy time with his big brother.

Did I mention Gentian Violet really lives upto it's name by staining everything it touches violet? well there ya go, kinda cute eh!?

!!!Surprise!!!

As most of you know Lyndz is basically my best friend in the whole world these days. We spend our time together running around, chatting, swimming, and enjoying (or some days just coping with) the Boys. I was so excited for her and Dust to make their first trip home over spring brake but a little bumed that I would be stuck here in Portland and miss her birthday!

I wasn't about to let their little trip get in the way of us Portland girls celebrating another year of Lyndz, so I started planning. We've heard so much about Papa Haydns desserts I decided it would be the perfect location. I e-mailed the girls and made the reservation for July 24th. I decided that at the last minute I would tell her Aaron bought something on-line and the two of us needed to go get it.

Nicole was worried that she would jump in the car in her PJ's and then be sad that she wasn't all dolled up for her big night. So earlier that friday Nicole called up Lyndz and asked if she could practice doing her make up before a trial she had that night. It worked out perfect and you'll see just how beautiful Lyndz ended up looking.

The girls did great at keeping the secret! I though Bex added an nice touch when she casually asked us what we were up to that night, lol I almost said, "we're going for desserts remember!?!" good thing Lynz piped up with an answer first!

I got us lost going down there and just about ripped Lyndseys head off when she tried to take my paper to check the directions. We ended up having to stop and ask for direcions. Since I couldn't just yell out that we were looking for Papa Haydns I actually jumped out of the drivers street and ran over to a couple to whisper where we were going, which was just two blocks away.

We got out and started looking for "the guy with the book" to no avail. I thought Lyndz would start catching on when I ran back for my wallet and camera but when she asked what I was doing I just mumbled something about getting my valuables and walk on ahead of her. I walked into the restaurant, past the hostess, and around the back wall where 8 of our closest friends yelled, "SURPRISE!"





She was shocked!!! All she could say was "You jerks! ha ha I can't believe you did this!" We had a great night together celebrating our friend, eating cake, and visiting. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYNDZ, YOUR ONE IN A MILLION!

Unwelcomed Guest!

What do you do when you find this bad boy hangin' out on your deck? he's to big to squish with a TP but if I don't kill him he could get in my house!?!!? HELP!

HOT PORTLAND!

You've all seen the pictures. She's old, worn out, and pretty wussy but I think the following post will help explain why we here at Sandstone are sing our praise....to the pool!

July 28th 2009 Portland OR.
By 7:30AM it was already 75 degrees out. This is usually the time for opening windows and letting the breeze cool things off a bit but not today. Thing were already hot and on the rise! We had to run to Wal-Mart for groceries and little swimmer, with out the swimmers we couldn't go in the pool and that simply wasn't an option. Man was it cookin', by 12:00 we hit 90 degrees.

Naps were not as successful as we would have hoped, it was simply to hot to keep the boys in their rooms for more than an hour or so. By 3:45 we were, once again, sing our praise to the beautiful pool! with the temperature hitting 100 degrees the cold water was just the thing we needed.

We stayed at the pool until 5:45 when Aaron got home and joined us for a quick dip. Most of the Air conditioners at their school weren't working today, which means he spent moat of his time day dreaming of the pool and all her cool goodness. After dinner it was off to bed for Age and off to baseball for Dad. I couldn't believe that he was still going to play when it was 104 degrees but there was no stopping him.


At 11:00 we where still in the high 80's low 90's when AJ came out of his room to declare his annoyance with the heat. He said he needed MORE WATER and "AJ all sweaty Mom, no like it!" since this was already his second time getting up we devised a plan.

Step one - get the cool air moving faster!

Step two - move the mattress from our room to the living room

Step three - get the boys settled

Step four - Tuck in for the night

These are a few of my favorite things….

AJ still loves Miles, we have had our moments but over all things are going better than I could have dreamed. The first few weeks after bringing Miles home AJ really fought his bed time. He would scream and cry and even come out of his room which resulted with a few nights back in the crib. It lasted a few weeks and now things are back to normal. He loves snuggling with miles and tries to help out sometimes but overall he just ignores him since Miles is mostly just sleeping!

I wanted to share a few of my favorite things about my little buddy AJ, or Smage as we call him, so that I can remember them when looking back:

1. He never stops talking – some people think that AJ is a lot like Aaron because he comes of kind of shy and quiet but as soon as he’s comfortable you’ll see that this is not the case. AJ LOVES to talk! He will tell you everything he see’s out the window when driving in the car, where he wants to go and what he wants to do when he gets there. He recently started telling stories, which take forever, and he will tell you the same one 3 or 4 times in a row. I also have to be very carful what I say because AJ is like a little parrot. Sometimes I feel like I have a permanent echo when Age is around, it’s funny how many things I say in my everyday life that I think is no big deal until I hear it come out of my 2 year old mouth. Such as: Oh my gosh or what and idiot! (Two common phrases I use while driving! Opps!)

2. His memory is unfailing - AJ will go to a friend’s house ONCE and every time we see them or he hear about them later he will tell you about his favorite toy at their house. He remembers words to all the songs we sing at night and the theme songs to his favorite movies. He knows where he left his toy and where he saw me hide the gum yesterday and he NEVER forgets a promise once we have made it.

3. His favorite Movie is Toy Story – It was Cars for about 6 months, then Shrek for another 2 and now Toy Story. He could watch Toy Story 1 & 2 all day everyday. I will hear him quoting these movies all the time, I think his favorite line is when Woody says to Buzz, “YOU ARE A TOY!!!” It is hilarious how he tries to sound just like Woody when he doses it too!

4.AJ-isums – these are words or phrases that AJ uses all the time that totally crack me up.

a.The first is Chur AKA Sure, not only dose it sound so cute when he says it but it’s the times he uses it too. “Mom AJ have candy please?” “That’s your last one AJ do you want to eat it?” “Uh……Chur Mom, AJ eat it”

b.My next favorite thing he says is TA DA! I am not sure where he picked this one up but every time he finds something, learns a new skill, or finishes a task you ask him to do he ends it with a big TA DA! It’s cute but can get a little only at dinner time, “Take another bite please AJ” “TA DA!!!”

c.To Boring. This is how AJ tells you he is done an activity. When he get’s tired of the park, a movie, shopping, a doctor’s appointment, riding in the car, etc. he simply notifies me that it is “to boring mommy!”

At the age of Two AJ was able to sing the alphabet, recognize every letter and tell you its sound. He could count to 20, name all his body parts, and new most of the colors. He could sing along to about 15 different songs and would make up his own songs while playing in his room.

As I sit up at nights feeding Miles I can’t believe that it has been more that two years since AJ was born. He is such a big boy already and we are so proud of the little man he is growing up to be.

I ad to add these pictures in quick. Today we were at the pioneer days and AJ fell f the picnic table and his head pin balled between the bench and the stroller, poor little guy!

Back to Square one

Having baby Miles in our home has been such a blessing. Aaron and I love spending time with our boys, doing our best to soak up every minute with them as they quickly grow up. However it is not all snuggle time and tickle fights there are plenty of chores that still need done, dinners to make, diapers to change, bills to pay, and appointments to attend. I now can more fully relate to the line in I Love You Forever by Robert Munsch,

“Sometimes his mother felt like she was in a zoo!”

When Aaron get’s home each day we have a quick smooch and exchange the typical “how was you day?” and then it’s go, go, go! Lately it feel’s like we are partners in a tag team match against our boys rather than a married couple enjoying family time. We pass the kids back in forth taking turns with diapers, play time, bath time, feeding, ect. And last week I was DONE!

I called up Lyndz and arranged for her to watch the boys (something she is always offering to do! What a great aunt and amazing sister-in-law, thanks a million) on Friday night so I could surprise Aaron with a date night. We have basically no money but this was not about fancy food or extravagant outings, this was a night to hang out and reconnect.

We spent the evening in downtown Portland walking the streets and taking in all the sights. We haven’t really explored down there since moving here and what better way to catch up than a nice relaxing walk.

Later we grabbed a bite to eat and then wandered through Barns and Noble, one of our favorite thing to do before becoming parents. We both still love books and reading we just never have the time to wander aimlessly around the book stores anymore, I wonder why!?! Lol. We were only gone from 5:00 to 9:00 but it was just what we needed. I couldn’t ask for a better husband, Aaron has always been my biggest supporter and the best friend I have ever had. I love him more now than I ever have before, (if that is even possible!?!) Thanks for a great night Poy, Love you!

We spent the evening in downtown Portland walking the streets and taking in all the sights. We haven’t really explored down there since moving here and what better way to catch up than a nice relaxing walk.


Later we grabbed a bite to eat and then wandered through Barns and Noble, one of our favorite thing to do before becoming parents. We both still love books and reading we just never have the time to wander aimlessly around the book stores anymore, I wonder why!?! Lol. We were only gone from 5:00 to 9:00 but it was just what we needed. I couldn’t ask for a better husband, Aaron has always been my biggest supporter and the best friend I have ever had. I love him more now than I ever have before, (if that is even possible!?!) Thanks for a great night Poy, Love you!

Miles and Miles of fun

Miles has been a great little addition to our family, well maybe little isn’t the right word! Just 4 days after bringing Miles home from the hospital he was already 4oz above his birth weight, 7lb 3 oz, and eating 3.5oz at each feeding! At his 3 week appointment he was 9lbs 10oz and one week later he weighed in at 10lbs 7oz!!!! He is now 5 ½ weeks old and eating 4-5oz every 4 hours, such a little chunk! He is also about 23 inches long and wearing 3-6 months clothing which AJ didn’t fit until he was at least 4 months old.

At 4 ½ weeks he rolled over for the first time and has done it a dozen times or so since then. Although none of his rolls were intentional I am still counting them! He also has a cute little trait we refer to as “The quiver.” The quiver is the shaking of the bottom lip, like when you are cold and your teeth chatter. It can happen at any time, while happy, sad, burping, or just hanging out and it always makes me smile.

He loves sleeping on his tummy, even though you are not suppose to let them, we are always laying right beside him when he dose. Miles is as much a cuddle bug as AJ was, if there is any way he can be in your arms he wants to be. I think sometimes he cries just so I will pick him up and snuggle and that’s defiantly okay with me!

Everyday I fall more and more in love with the newest little man in my life, he's perfect in everyway and I feel so blessed to be his Mom! I also wanted to point out this beautiful blnaket my Great antie Verna sent me. She make's these blankets for all then new babies in the family and said that it was one of her very favorites. I wanted to post a few pictures of the blanket Miles got from his Great Great auntie Verna, Thanks so much we love it!

Frezzer Jam

After all that work picking berries we took a day off and then set to making our jam. I know that jam can be very time consuming and difficult to make but I just recently found out about a fantastic little thing called, Frezzer Jam.

EASY PEASY! We got together over at Nicoles and made those berries into jam in 30 minutes flat. We had to wait 24 hours before we could test it but I got the Aaron Poytress seal of approval so I'd say it was a success.

Now that we have had some time to recover and forget the struggles of the day we are thinking of going back to get more berrys to frezz, but until then our jam and frozen blueberries will have to keep us going.

Squishing the berries. It was too cold on my fingers to smash then up like that!

Sometimes being a Mom means multi-tasking, Here's Lyndz with a demonstration:

Here's Nicole working away in the kitchen, smart girl to cover her white shirt, I stained my white pants!

Last but not Least.

Aaron's and Dust are back in school and Lyndz is still in Canada leaving me all along with nothing to do. Until the Tolmans arrived!!! Dad, Cindy and Alaina arrived late Tuesday night and stay 6 whole days. They too were coming to check out Portland and meet our newest little addition.

We had so much fun shopping, swimming, and hangin' out, I almost forgot how much AJ LOVES spending time with his Aunt Alaina. I took the kids to the zoo one morning so Dad and Cindy to go to the Temple. The kids had so much fun seeing all the animals and eating Elephant ears during the bird show. I thought it would be fun to invite the Bralliers since Alaina and Cam are the same age, and they really hit it off. We had Cam and her family over to swim and the girls exchanged addresses and e-mails so they could be pen pals.

Again I neglected my camera but here are a few shots I got of the family. We loved having you guys here with us and are so greatful for all you do to help our family. Can't wait to see you again, all our love!