Goodbye Snow Hall

If you haven't driven past BYU in the past 6 months you might not know... Heritage Halls is coming down. They are replacing it new 5-story apartment complexes and merging it all with the old DT complex which has already been replaced by this new style apartment. I was over there last night in Harris Hall signing contracts with my renters for next year and I was dismayed to see that Snow Hall was already gone! (The first photo is of Snow back in the day, the second I took of Wells Hall last night). I had hoped to have one last look. But since all of Heritage is very similar, being in Harris was still like stepping back in to the past.

It was a strange feeling to be back on my old Freshman stomping grounds on the eve of it ceasing to exist. It brought back a lot of memories and emotions. I could feel again all the excitement and newness and discovery as well as the weight of stress and uncertainty and nervousness. Meeting up with those freshman girls last night there was a part of me that felt like I was still one of them - I could step in to their apartment and start that life again as if I'd never left. It was hard to believe I had a husband and three kids, an income and a mortgage, wrinkles and gray hairs. But really I knew I couldn't possibly go back to being that silly or staying up that late or feeling so foolishly passionate about everything and everyone. The truth is I now have a contentment and security I never experienced in those Freshman days of wondering if I'd ever have a husband and kids. I now have a different perspective on life that makes me... well, not all grown up by any means... just a different creature than I was before.

I stood for a moment in the dark and cold last night and thought how sad it is that my growing-up years were being taken down. But I also didn't relish the sadness of the nostalgia. It is perfectly wonderful for life to move on and leave the old behind. As the winter destroys the fruits of last summer so a new crop can grow and nourish us, so should old buildings and old memories come down so that new life and new creatures can flourish. And with that I went ahead and said 'goodbye' to an old friend.

Halloween Manners... or Not

Now that Summer is going to bed at 6pm and taking (usually) 2-3 hour naps in the afternoon, I might finally start to chip away at my blogging. (Or I might clean my house, but blogging is way more enjoyable).

We attempted pumpkin carving for the first time this year. The kids did not find it amusing to stick their hands in pumpkin guts. But they did enjoy drawing faces on the pumpkins for Anthony to carve.

No family costume theme for Halloween this year. I just didn't have it in me. And it worked out for the best. Austin intended to be a spider, Ruthie intended to be Ariel and I intended to take the kids trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. But we ended up at my parent's house that evening and we decided to stay. So instead, Austin wore his brand new super-cool Batman pajamas (we bought earlier that day) and Ruthie wore a costume my mom had in her basement from long-long ago.


Alright, you tell me... which one is Ruthie and which one is little Heidi? Ruthie is almost 3 here and I think I was 4.

Antho opted to stay with baby Summer...

While my mom, Heather and I took the kids out trick-or-treating. My kids were such crack-ups that night! We all got quite a kick out of it.

Mr. Austin is a funny kid and doesn't like all candies. He particularly dislikes m&m's and most other chocolates in preference for chewy things like starbursts. At the fourth house of the night, Austin plucked the proffered m&m bag from his candy tote, handed it back to the lady who'd dropped it in and kindly said, "No thanks. I don't like m&m's."

She sweetly held out the bowl and allowed him to pick any chocolate confection he desired. He pawed through the bowl then looked up and said, "I don't like any of that. What else do you have?"

I tried to shoo him off the porch, but to prevent an unhappy customer the lady held up a finger and said, "Wait right here. You're mom's going to hate me for this," then disappeared into her kitchen. She returned with a bag of red liquid, hooked to a syringe tube, labeled "Bag o' Blood."

Austin wasn't quite sure if this was really any better, but decided to take a chance and took the bag. Yet before we could make it off the porch, Ruthie stepped closer to the door and called up to the lady, "But why is my mom going to hate you?!" All of us adults got a good laugh out of the whole situation and finally sauntered off to the next house.

Between houses, I took a moment to explain to Austin that it wasn't polite to put the candy back. He should accept it graciously no matter what it was and if he didn't like it he could always give it to me.

Next house. The homeowner here held out a bowl of full-sized candy bars to choose from (every kid's dream!). Austin picked a bag of skittles for himself, then took a bag of peanut m&m's (my favorite) and gave them to me. I laughed, embarrassed, and put the bag back, eliciting Austin's confusion, "but mom, you said to give the candy to you!"

Before we got to the next house I tried to explain to Austin again that he should only take 1 candy and to take the one he wanted, but if there wasn't anything he liked to take something anyway and say thank you and that he could give it to me later.

Next house. The man here dropped a candy in to Austin's bag. While he was offering one to Ruthie, Austin dug the offending candy out of his bag, slapped it in my palm and said, "You can have this one too mom." And so it went, house after house, Austin passing the candy off to me before the door even closed. I gave up trying to explain Halloween manners to him, content that he was at least saying thank you, and ended up reliving my own childhood as I filled my jacket pockets with candy.

Dressed In White

Eva Summer Johnson

Blessed by her father

Dec 4th, 2011

Also in the circle: grandpa Jim Duffin, great-grandpa Walt Farmer, uncle Tarl Lambson, bishop James Cox

Blessing:

• Health as you mature
• Strong love of the gospel
• A love of the scriptures and desire to search them
• A desire to come close to your Heavenly Father
• A desire to do the right things
• To have compassion and empathy for those around you
• An ability to gain friends and help those around you
• To be an example to those around you
• Blessed with peace

Your family came to support you on your big day. We can't get enough of your smiles. We all love you very much.

Anthony's sleep-inducing armpits

or "Why Anthony is My Hero"

Simply put, I have the best husband in the world. Two weeks after Summer came home from the hospital, Anthony went on night duty. Every night I get to go to bed around 10 or 11 and sleep solidly until about 6am. Anthony is in charge of Summer, including the 2am feeding and diapering. He lays down with her for about an hour each night on the couch to help her fall asleep and often curls up with her again at 2am to get her back to sleep. We've joked that Summer has learned to associate Anthony's armpits with instant sleep.

He has been on night duty for 3 straight months now! (except for maybe a half dozen nights). This great act of husbandly service and love has saved my sanity. I do not do well when I am sleep deprived (I get grouchy and depressed), so he has made the sacrifice for our whole family. I am so so so grateful for him (and so are the kids because they get a happy mommy all day).

Now at the ripe ol' age of 3 months, Summer's royal treatment comes to an end. We've started the cry-it-out and learn-to-sleep-on-your-own sleep training. 3 days in and she's getting better already (only 20 minutes or so of crying tonight). Anthony is excited to have less baby sleep duty, but I think it's a double edged sword. For the past 3 months he's also been able to take long naps whenever he wants because he knows as long as he lays down with Summer I won't complain (in fact I'm delighted to have her sleep a long time too). But I think that's been a well deserved perk for being on night duty. Thank you Anthony! I love you.

Marriage By The Numbers

• 7 years
• 3 children
• 8000+ diapers
• 4 cars (2 have passed on)
• 3 houses
• 3 trips to Disneyland (1 as newlyweds)
• 320 Star Trek episodes
• 2555 days of gratitude for a great marriage.

And that's the gospel truth. We're pretty lucky to have a lot of common interests and very little conflict. Raising 3 kids together is a lot of fun. Challenging, but in a great self-and-relationship-maturing kind of way. I love my family.

We spent an over-nighter this year in Park City. My parents kept the older 2 and the babes was with us. For that reason it was pretty low-key: movies and sleep-deprived napping.

The day before our anniversary I spent a night in Park City with the kids and my parents. We had fun exploring the hotel, the park and the pool. It was actually a great refresher for me to get some quality vacation time with my adorable kiddos.

Eva Summer

Summer's full name is Eva Summer Johnson. We had a tough time naming this baby. We had an ever growing list of 20+ names that just kept growing even after she was born. We almost named her Jadie Eva Johnson. Adorable, except that it started to sound like JD Johnson, which sounded like a boy's name to me. We considered names like Haley, Holly, Joanie, Jill, Hannah, Susie, Allison, June, Brooke, Mallory, Melanie and Melody. The one name that I just couldn't let go of was Summer. It took Anthony a while to warm up to the name, but since I was so wishy-washy about everything else he finally said, "Let's name her Summer." Once I had his blessing on the name, I knew that was the only name I wanted!

The name Eva comes primarily from the name Austin and Ruthie gave the baby after we found out she was a girl. They chose the name Aviva (or as Ruthie says it "a-eeva"), which is a character on Wild Kratts, their favorite kid show. I loved the idea of my kids helping to pick the name, but I didn't like Aviva per se, and I also wanted a family name. Anthony's great-grandma's name is Eva and it seemed a perfect fit. We even have one of Eva's paintings hanging prominently in our living room. However, to avoid having our child burdened with the name "Summer's Eve" we opted for Eva Summer and to call her by her middle name.

Much thanks to Debbie for taking all these fabulous pictures for us the week Summer was born. I love how they turned out.

The first 5 pictures are an attempt to match some similar pictures I have of Austin and Ruthie as newborns. Now the question is, which one of the 5 should I hang next to these (Austin top, Ruthie bottom)?

Where Does the Time Go?

Has Summer been in our lives for 2 whole months already? Boy time flies! She's already seeming so big and strong compared to those first few days. And I am still enjoying the ecstasy of not being pregnant. I rejoice in being able to lay on my back, take hot baths, clean up the house, go for walks - and especially in having the energy and motivation to really play with my kids again. Of course I have back aches from holding Summer in awkward positions, my house is still a terrible mess, I don't have as much kid-focus as I'd like and sleep is still my #1 priority. But even two months later I am still so high on not being pregnant that those things seem inconsequential. If only I could always remember how grateful I am to have this amazing, healthy body!

Speaking of gratitude, I was at Costco last week with Austin. I was pushing him in the shopping cart and he wanted my attention so he was grabbing my face and pulling at my hair and talking loudly while I tried to find the right bread rack. An 80-year-old man walked past us and I figured he was feeling sorry for me having to deal with a squirmy 5-year-old. Instead he looked me in the eyes and sincerely said, "Oh, how I miss those days." Man! If only I could live my life backwards! If I could first be 80 and miss the "good old days" and then go back to parenting these young children, how much more would I value each day!? I've been trying to think about that all this week and it has given me more patience and JOY with those squirmy bodies and undone chores.

Enough musing. What I really wanted to blog about is what we've been up to these past two months.

Anthony...

...turned 33 on Wednesday. We went to Wingers for dinner. Later he instructed me how to download a Kindle e-book for him. Is it just me or do instant downloads take something out of the gift giving process?

Heidi...

...turned 33 last month. Anthony brought me into the modern era by buying me a smartphone. I hesitated to open the box, wondering out loud if I would use it enough to justify the expense. An hour later I was totally hooked and can not imagine my life without this little beauty.

...printed our 3rd blog book (plus got digital copies of the books). It's so easy with my new favorite program www.blog2print.com. 3 out of 5 blogging years complete.

Austin...

...has been doing crafts like a mad man. He is so self-entertained with his crafts that I invested in a "craft center" where we keep the basics: lots of plain paper, markers, scissors, glue, and masking tape (plus a few other things). With these basic supplies he can create remarkable things! He's made backpacks, costumes, hand-shaped birds, telescopes, sailboats, story books and more.

...got a little too eager with the crafting last week and loped off a chunk of skin from his pinkie. Thankfully it was a Saturday so Anthony was home to handle the blood and the trip to the Urgent Care for 3 stitches.

Ruthie...

...is potty-trained...sort of. I was intending to wait till she turned 3, but she had other plans. When we brought Summer home I couldn't help making comments about how big Ruthie was to be in diapers and how we would have to potty train her soon. After about a week of that, Ruthie told me wanted to wear underwear. I was feeling just barely healed enough to help with emergency toilet runs and I figured I wasn't going anywhere with a newborn for several weeks anyway. So we trained. Like with Austin, it took her about a week to recognize her body's signals. Currently she's about 50% on making it to the potty. I've just decided I lack the energy to focus on that other 50%, so we're reverting to pull-ups for the next month or two. But I'm happy I don't have to change poopy diapers anymore.

Summer...

...has started smiling and "talking". We love it! The kids love it when she says things that sound like words. "Mom, she said hey!", "She said good!", "She said hi!" Grandma reports that she's even had a few hour-long conversations with the babes.

...loves her swing. They say babies have different cries for different needs. I think one of Summer's cries is a "swing cry." Just goes to show how different each kid is. Austin hated the swing and always wanted to be held. Ruthie kind of liked the swing, but was calmed more by noises. Summer seems to relax from over-stimulation in her calming swing.