the big 10!

some of you may remember me posting this growth chart of scott back in august. well in honor of his ten month birthday (that was actually a few days ago) i am reposting those pictures with the newest one so you can all see just how HUGE he is getting.

scott at a few weeks old:

scott at a few months old:

and scott at 10 months old! (we pulled out the old boppy for the picture)

top 10 reasons we love our scotty boy:

10. he works so hard to crawl like all of his friends his age but that big belly of his is just so hard to get off the carpet.

9. he has recently learned how to scream like a girl.

8. he is learning so quickly to walk around the living room while holding onto our couches and the lap of anyone who happens to be sitting on them (even complete strangers).

7. his hair grows three times as fast on the top of his head as the sides creating many opportunities for awesome mohawks!

6. he is sleeping 12 hours a night pretty regularly now (and i'm totally jinxing myself by writing it)

5. even though he can't quite crawl he does a fabulous army crawl and he looks so cute while doing it.

4. he loves (and i mean LOVES) looking at himself in the mirror that is hanging on the backseat of the car. the mirror's purpose is to help me see him in the rearview mirror while i'm driving but every time i put him in his car seat he smiles and laughs at himself as soon as he sees his reflection. it was by far the best $15 i have ever spent!

3. his favorite thing to do these days is click his tongue. if you click your tongue at him first he'll look at you with excitement and start clicking back. its sort of our alien-style way of communicating with each other.

2. he is also fascinated with hitting the wall when we walk up the stairs. we can hardly make a trip up them without him reaching his hand out to it and bopping up and down with excitement.

1. he has had an ear infection that has lasted for over 2 months. he's currently on his third antibiotic and while he's not afraid to let us know he is in pain, he is still so fun to be with. i'm always amazed that after a long tiring day when james and i have finally put him down to sleep for the night i actually start to miss him.

spring break in nauvoo, illinois

this spring break james and i were planning on taking a big trip to orlando, florida. but eventually we remembered how poor we are and decided to make the three hour road trip to nauvoo, illinois instead!
we had a lot of fun walking ALL over the place looking at (what seemed like an endless supply of) little old pioneer houses and shops and chatting with all the cute little elderly missionary couples.
i just loved the nauvoo temple! it was one of the most beautiful buildings i've ever been in - ever.
there weren't a lot of people in nauvoo this time of year so i had to prop our camera up on a statue to get a shot of us all in front of the temple. don't you think it turned out unbelievably well?? i was impressed with my propping skills.

we also made it out to carthage jail. (we didn't want to leave out the cute little elderly missionaries that have to serve out there by themselves.) i'm glad that we went. it was a really neat experience seeing the place that Joseph Smith gave his life for the gospel.

this is a picture of james, scott and i in the room where the martyrdom took place.

we were only in nauvoo for a couple days though so we had a lot of time to hang out and spend time together at home. i thought this image was hilarious of james trying to lug around our humongous child in this tiny little baby carrier. the kid isn't even ten months old yet and he's wearing size 2T !!! (but are we surprised?)

and the moral of the story is: even poor med students can have a fun spring break. (though, i'm not going to lie... orlanda would have been REALLY fun!) maybe next year - or the year 2018.

one step forward & two steps back

little scotty boy is just getting more fun by the minute! i can hardly keep up with all his new talents!


this is a photo of him with his newest and most favorite toy. he has officially graduated from the exercauser (we know this because he would scream every time we put him in it) and moved on to the activity table. the hilarious thing about it is that he is still having attachment issues. so what will happen is he'll be on my lap then suddenly the activity table will catch his eye. in a flash he is scooting off my lap onto the floor where he starts stepping toward the activity table (he is still holding on to my hand, or leg or pants at this time). he finally gets to the point where he is reaching as far as he can with both arms so that one hand is touching the table and one hand is still holding onto me, at which point he looks at both objects (me and the table) and tries to figure out what to do. he finally lets go of me for one hundredth of a second, puts both hands on the table and once this has been accomplished he turns around and leaps back into my arms. you may wonder why i don't just move the table closer to where i am sitting. but its so much more entertaining this way.

a couple of days ago scott decided that he was too mature and grown up to be fed by his mom or dad. after trying over and over to force feed him i finally relented and handed the container of smashed fruit over to his open and ready little hands. he was in 7th heaven!scott is demonstrating his good eating skills here by showing the empty container. but the video below will reveal what really happened.

the strangest thing happened...

to flash or not to flash... this is my question.
i always heard that iowans were extremely nice people. its pretty much the state motto. and since i've lived here i have only become a witness of the reality of this motto. but i had no idea - until this very strange thing happened - just how nice they are.
here's what happened...
it was three o'clock on a thursday (this past thursday to be exact). i was just heading home from the park where scott and i had met and played with my friend christia and her two little boys. des moines temperatures that day reached above 70 degrees a temperature that des moines hasn't seen on that day of the year since 1921. my spirits were high, my adrenaline was flowing. with scott in the back seat and me at the wheel i rolled down our windows, turned up the volume on my rockin 80's cd and breathed in the beautiful warmth that blew around my face and through my hair.
i had been driving for about five minutes in this spring time bliss when a car that was coming toward me in the other lane (still about 100 yards away) started steadily flashing his lights. i watched in amazement - is he flashing his lights at me? i briefly looked around and saw that there were no cars between the flasher and me. he continued to flash his lights at a steady pace. as he got closer and closer to me the flashing gradually got faster and faster. as he passed me the flashing was so quick and so urgent that i thought for sure the roof of my car had flown off to the side of the road without me knowing it. i slightly began to panic. i looked at my dashboard searching for any sign of emergency lights or alarms. nothing.
i paid special attention to the steering wheel to see if it was pulling to either side. is my tire flat? no it feels normal.
i looked around me at the all four doors. all shut tight.
i turned down the volume - despite the fact that it was one of my favorite songs - Time after Time - i took my foot off the gas and contemplated pulling over to take a better look at my car and try to figure out why in the world this random car was flashing its lights so vigorously at me just moments before.
as these thoughts were permeating my mind my eyes caught hold of another image - one more daunting and fear inducing than almost any other image to a girl driving freely with the sun beating upon her shoulders and the music turned up loud.
the image was a police car - strategically hidden behind some overgrown weeds. i instantly looked down at my speedometer. i just knew i was speeding.
relief overwhelmed me as i saw the needle on my speedometer exactly over the 45 mph mark. i wasn't speeding at all! i passed the police car with a deep sigh.
it only took me a nano-second to realize that had i not slowed down just moments before in contemplation to pull over to the side of the road to check my car, i assuredly would have been speeding and even more assuredly would be passing my licence and registration over to the merciless police officer at that very moment.
i was awe stricken as i realized finally that the motive behind the flashings had been a warning about the hidden cop just a quarter mile ahead of me on the road.
i couldn't believe it! this random, faceless human being had actually taken the initiative to warn a speeding car that there was a police car around the bend!
can you GET nicer than that?
i thought about all the times that i have witnessed speeding cars on the road. my first thought is always, "i hope they get pulled over!" (which makes me a total hypocrite because i speed far more than i'd like to admit!)
and there have even been moments when i've seen a speeder get pulled over and i've silently done a "whoo hoo!" and smiled as big as i could as i passed the police officer unscathed.
and here was a friendly iowan thinking - not of himself - but of me, the law breaker, enjoying the beautiful weather. he wanted to save me - a perfect stranger - from receiving a ticket!
now i ask you (those of you who have actually gotten to this point of my eternally long posting) was this ethical? should i do the same for the next guy? or would i be enabling someone to break the law?
or did the flasher flash me because he thought it unethical for the police car to be hiding behind weeds? maybe he doesn't always flash, but maybe just when he feels like the cops are trying to trick us.
so should i flash in the future? but what about gang signs or the possibility of distracting the drivers i'm flashing at? and would they have any idea what i was implying? or like me, would they be so caught up in checking their surroundings that they wouldn't notice the cop at all and would be more susceptible to getting pulled over?
i'm stumped! which, once again, leaves me asking the question...
to flash or not to flash???

then & now

today is scotty boys nine month birthday! i am so happy that i got to play with him all day rather than give birth to him all day like i did nine months ago. as miraculous as that day was i MUCH prefer this side of things!


since scott is getting so old and mature i decided to give him his first haircut. i thought this photo did a good job of showing how cute he is with his new do. i almost posted some past photos of his mullet but i didn't want to be mean to the poor kid. (besides, i think his mullet would reflect our poor parenting styles above anything else.) as you can see he is happy to be free of that gross neck hair.

there has been one big damper to scott's nine month birthday however...

we took him to urgent care last night because he was so very sick. the doctors found that he has an ear infection. luckily he's on medication now but he still had a few of these sad moments today.

on a happier note- i never got a chance to post pics from the big winter gala we had last weekend with james' school. i have to say, i was impressed with how nice and FUN the whole event actually was. it felt more like prom to me than my own prom (okay, so maybe that's because i didn't go to my senior prom...) but still, it was a lot of fun!

here we are having the traditional group photo with some of our closest friends.

(L-R) jason & emily crofts, james & me, kelly & andy mueting, luke & ashley webb, shalise & devin kearns, doug & rachael cook, and tyler & jamie hansen

and here's a fun little picture of james and i all decked out for the event. and it has to be said that james and i danced together for the first time this night (aside from the many country dancing moments that go on in our kitchen... more regularly than either one of us cares to admit).
and for the record i MUCH preferred going to this prom with my cute and amazing husband than my senior prom with some random seventeen year old wearing way too much cologne. i loved that we could go pick up our son together when it was all done and then go home together and say goodnight to each other as we fell asleep next to each other in the same bed. this could partially be attributed to the fact that i had a serious phobia of doorstep scenes when i was in high school, but nevertheless, if i had to sit at home alone on that senior prom night so many years ago in order to deserve this night with james... it was completely worth it.

remembering dad

last week my brother mike flew me out to utah to hang out with my mom and the rest of my family. february 12th was the one year anniversary of my dad passing away so it was nice to be able to spend so much time with all the people i love (except so sadly james - who couldn't come because of school). despite missing james so much, scott and i had so much fun hanging out with grandy.

i even got a chance to hang out with my other family - the palmers! scott and i got to visit grandma palmer at her work and see her office and all the people she works with!

then amanda came and we all went to walmart to shop for food. scott and allie loved sharing a shopping cart.

busy phil even made time to see us. i thought this was a really cute picture of him with scott and allie.

then scott and allie got in the bath! they were so stinking cute, especially when they faught over the bath soap dispensers.

here's a cute pic of scott playing with his grandma palmer. we all had so much fun together just hanging out talking, eating and watching the Biggest Loser!

back up in draper, mom and i did lots of fun stuff together. we didn't get as many pictures because a lot of our time together was just relaxing and talking. but one fun thing we did was go through the draper temple openhouse. i loved this picture of scott and grandy on the shuttle ride up to the temple.

on thursday mom and us girls went to the jordan river temple and out to lunch. it was so fun to hang out with the girls. unfortunately i got sick after this and then scott got sick too! but to tell you the truth it was kind of nice being with my mom who took such good care of us while we were ill. :)

and last but not least - here is a picture of me with my mom and dad on my graduation day. i have been so blessed to have such amazing parents. I can't believe that it has already been a year since my dad had his graduation day. but i'm thankful that i'm finally starting to get to the point where i can think about him and the eternities and feel less pain and sorrow and more amazement, gratitude and excitement to see him again some day.

slippin' and a slidin'

okay, i have to apologize for starting this post off with a picture of my backside (and yes, that is a white SHIRT under my pink shirt) but i just had to show off the talents of our little boy. as you can see in this home video, scott will sit at the top of the slide and when i reach my hands toward him he reaches back and scoots his bum along until he slides down the slide... all by himself!! he's done it many times and he LOVES it! just watch -


it was so warm today (about 40 degress! woo hoo!) and we played outside as much as possible. scott is now big enough to sit in his stroller without his carseat and i'm about to shed a couple tears at how fast he is growing up. just look at him with his little boat shoes... aren't they the cutest? (until he kicked one of them off on our walk with our friend ann jones and we had to retrace all of our steps to find it!)

and this is a typical image of scott on a not-so-warm day. he loves to play with his basket of toys. i thought he looked angelic in this picture.

and of course i had to add another picture of scott playing with his dad. they are seriously so cute together.