Our Little Eater

Scott has figured out a new trick that is pretty funny except for the fact that we're going to have to put locks on all of our food cupbards now. Our kid may not have the highest I.Q. but when it comes to eating he is highly advanced!

coloring easter eggs!

Happy Easter!i know that coloring Easter eggs has nothing to do with the TRUE meaning of Easter. but since it is not appropriate to take pictures at church i'm going to make this post about our more pagan traditions.

i was a little nervous as this was my first time coloring easter eggs without my mom. the whole time we were dying eggs i was telling james about how it has always been one of our favorite traditions to do together. i love the smell of the hard boiled eggs and the vinegar (as gross as james thought that was). i love the sound of the color tablets as they sizzle in the vinegar. (i got just as impatient about how long they were taking to dissolve as i did when i was seven years old.) i love the vibrant spring colors that the eggs turn when dipped in the little cups (my favorite color always has been and always will be the sea green color.)

the first step is to boil the eggs. (and i must say that i boiled them to perfection.. they were SO easy to peel!)

next, you must dip the hard boiled eggs in the colored vinegar water. i foolishly bought the cheapest food coloring set i could find so there were no cups included in the box! this threw me because my mom and i ALWAYS use the special food coloring cups. but i improvised.

then, it is very necessary to check the eggs periodically to make sure they are the color you want them to be. james and scott did a great job of checking the vibrancy of the eggs.
when they are the color you want them to be, you have to dry them in the special cardboard punch-out holes provided by the food coloring kit. (i have learned over my 27 years of easter egg coloring that you have to be careful not to let the eggs touch or your pink eggs have some green on them and your yellow eggs will have some orange on them... disasterous!)

and Voila! you have beautifully colored easter eggs! (though i was a bit distraught that our cheap-o coloring set didn't even come with stickers... but maybe next year we can splurge and get the $1.29 set.)

and to recap, the easter eggs BEFORE we colored them:!)

and the easter eggs AFTER we colored them:

scott BEFORE we colored the easter eggs:

and scott AFTER we colored the easter eggs:

oh, and does anyone have any suggestions for getting easter egg dye off of a counter?

this has nothing to do with the easter eggs but i wanted to attach this video for anyone interested. scott has been army crawling for a while now but i realized that his grandmas and our other family and friends not in iowa haven't seen him in action. and for any of you who know scott, you know that it is a BIG accomplishment for him to get that long and heavy body of his to move around.

happy birthday and april fools!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy JaMeS!!!
p.s. april fools

it's been a while since i've been this excited for a day to be over! (i actually started writing this last night on james' birthday but i was so tired that i'm finishing it a day late) it was james' 26th birthday and i apparently wasn't feeling enough stress in my life so i decided to throw him a surprise party. the party itself was great! good friends, good food, good times. but the day leading up to the party was absolutely nerve racking!

i had asked some people to come over just after 6pm so that they'd be here when james got home from school. he usually gets home on wednesdays at 6:20pm but as he was leaving this morning he nonchalantly mentioned that he may try to catch a ride home early with someone so he can spend more time with me tonight.

AHHHH!!!!

he had no idea that this revelation had put me into panic mode. i stayed calm on the outside but after he left the house i was on the phone with my friends begging them to tell their husbands not to bring him home early!!!

it was such a relieving and sad moment this afternoon when sad little james texted me saying that he couldn't find anyone to bring him home. i almost spilled the beans right then, but i stayed strong. and i'm glad i did because he was so shocked! it was a lot of fun.

here is cute james with a few of our friends - as you can tell, scott was a bit... overwhelmed.

and since i did the top 10 reasons we love scott for his 10 month birthday, i decided i'm going to go all out and do the top 26 reasons i love james on his 26th birthday (though there are millions more reasons why i love him):

26- he almost always changes scott's diapers when he's home from school (even when i insist that i can do it)

25- he gets really sad when he doesn't get to get scott out of his crib in the mornings on the weekends.

24- i've never known him to set a goal and not make it.

23- he's really really good looking.

22- he is the most patient person i know (and i'm not just saying that to be nice)

21- he's a true leader. I'm constantly amazed with the way he can see a problem, find a solution and find someone to solve it so that he can be home spending time with scott and me.

20- he's a great athlete

19- he's not obsessed with being an athlete

18- he was so willing to try learning to ski (both water and snow) and he picked it up so easily and gets more excited about going now than i do!

17- he's really smart. i'm convinced that he knows more words than Webster.

16- he's a man that can cook! he makes the most delicious hot fudge!

15- he gets so excited about planning our future.

14- and yet he thoroughly enjoys the moment.

13- he loves spending time with scott and i can tell he misses him when he is gone.

12- he's really funny and its so cute when he laughs at his own jokes.

11- he never leaves for school without coming back up to where i'm sleeping in bed and kissing me on the forehead and saying goodbye.

10- i've never heard him raise his voice in a angry way... not once.

9- this is a little embarrassing to say but - he has a really nice body.

8- he always likes to hold my hand.

7- he has the most beautiful blue eyes and he passed them onto our blue eyed little scotty.

6- i really feel like he is happy and content to just hang out with me and talk.

5- anytime i start singing in the car he decides to turn on the radio. and he always does such an excellent job of convincing me that the two weren't connected.

4- he loves doing laundry. kind of weird.

3- he loves his family (the family besides scott and me) and tries to stay connected with them as much as he can.

2- he feels sincere sorrow for other people when he thinks they feel lonely or hurt in someway.

1- i asked him in jest once if i was his "everything" (i think we were listening to a song that talked about it). he said, "natalie, you're my only thing" and he's never made me feel any different.

i love you james,

happy birthday!

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???