Say goodbye to the holiday sweater

A short time ago Tadj participated in an ugly Christmas sweater contest at work and won. I suppose it was exciting to win but ever since he has been wearing this ugly shirt to all of our holiday parties. It is hideous and embarrassing. Here is a picture:

When I was folding laundry this morning I came across this shirt and remembered that we have a couple more parties this weekend. Something needed to be done. So to ensure that I will no longer be humiliated by this shirt it is going to make a disappearing act. Here is my method of choice.

Goodbye ugly shirt. You will NOT be missed.

Happy Birthday Tadj!

If we didn't have a new baby and if his birthday wasn't so close to Thanksgiving I may have thrown Tadj a party to celebrate the big 3-5 but instead we kept his birthday really low-key. The 5 of us stayed home and enjoyed some yummy pizza, cake, and presents. Tadj didn't have any special requests this year besides wanting the Star Trek movie so he ended up with that, a wii game, some new work clothes, and Ollie gave Tadj the Shark steam cleaner for the floor. I used the Shark today on our hardwood floors and it didn't clean as well as I hoped and left streaks so it will be going back. Poor Ollie struck out.

Tadj also didn't have a special cake request so I made a death-by-chocolate bundt cake. I thought my baking skills were improving lately but not this time. I couldn't get all of the cake out of the pan so what should have been the bottom of the cake became the top. I also could tell Tadj didn't like it but the kids sure did.


Tadj is an awesome husband and father. He plays with the kids, helps clean the house, takes care of the baby when I need some rest, and is a great provider for our family. He never stops to take a break. As of November 25, he already had the Christmas lights on the house and spent a good portion of his birthday cleaning out the gutters. He also puts up with all of my craziness and sometimes obsessive compulsive behavior, like going to Bainbridge island just to get my kids a flu shot and constantly asking him if he has washed his hands before he picks up the baby. So I suppose that when my only complaint is that he lets the kids eat the food samples at Costco without sanitizing their hands first, I must have a good catch.

While Tadj Was Away

A few weeks ago Tadj went out of town on business for the second time since Trevor was born. Here are some of the things he missed.

First, my aunt Valerie and cousin Heidi threw a shower for Trevor. It was really great--full of my side of the family, good food, cute decorations, and great gifts. My pictures weren't the best so I have pics of the cake, Heidi and Cirdan who shared their lovely home that evening and Trevor at just over one month old.

Next, Tadj's mom came to spend the night and help out. In the morning I gave Trevor a bath in the sink. Next thing I know, Marj was giving Kendall a bath in the sink, too. You can see in the picture that she loved it.

On Wednesday night, Kendall had a stomach bug and was up all night. I was so worried about the baby because she not only threw-up near the co-sleeper, all day she had been doing this:

But Trevor stayed healthy.

And last, but not least, we started to see a lot more of Trevor's smile!

Star Wars Halloween

I was trying to avoid buying costumes this year so I borrowed Hayden's costume from a friend (thanks Nanci), Kendall was going to wear her super fancy princess dress from mimi and papa, and Trevor was going to wear Hayden's old costume. Well, my plan was working until we took Kendall to the Halloween store and she fell in love with the Padme Amidala costume (from Star Wars). Here are my two star wars fans dressed as Obi-Wan and Padme.


To continue in the Star Wars theme, Tadj carved pumpkins with pictures of Boba Fett, Yoda, and the death star.

Trevor did wear Hayden's old lion costume. We can pretend he was Chewbacca.

But I don't think Chewie had a tail.

Here I am with my sister-in-law Jessie and one cute dressed-up cow, Gracie-Mae. Out of the five costume parties, Kendall did wear her princess dress once (she wanted to be able to wear more make-up).

Here is Trevor's birth announcement. I think it turned out cute although I learned a lesson: print one announcement to review before ordering a bunch.


I would have changed the color on the left to be more green. It printed kind of yellow but on my computer screen it looked better. And I would have made the text bigger. Oh well, the picture of the baby turned out!

Baby Trevor

We are so excited he is finally here!

Trevor Tadj

Born September 29, 2009 at 6:40pm

8 lbs, 20 inches

The labor and delivery was uneventful which is exactly what I needed after what seemed like an unusually long pregnancy that included extreme tiredness, nausea and other annoyances like shingles, pregnancy induced carpal tunnel (I had no idea such a thing existed), and finally the flu. I was also a little anxious about having a different doctor and delivering at a different hospital.

Some boring details I want to remember so I am writing them here. I was induced at 7:30am on September 29 and by 11:30am I was in active labor with contractions that were between 2 and 4 minutes apart. At 3pm I finally met the anesthesiologist. I don't think I will ever forget the 4 contractions that occurred while getting the epidural. At 5:15 I was dilated to a 6 and I thought I was in for another long labor but when I felt a lot of pressure at 6pm I was surprised to find out I was dilated to a 10. I had to "labor down" (not push) while we waited for my doctor to arrive. Once she arrived, Trevor entered the world in 20 minutes. My doctor was great along with my hospital experience. I don't have any complaints but Tadj missed the "free for all" food pantry at our old hospital.


Kendall is so in love with Trevor and wants to hold him constantly.



Hayden is just thrilled to have a little brother. Trevor looks so much like Hayden but Trevor's head is a lot smaller than Hayden's was at birth. I'll post pics comparing the two one of these days.

The happy dad.


For the first week and a half Trevor's days and nights were really mixed up. He was active at night in utero so I was expecting that might happen. But I think we finally have it sorted out so I am feeling more like myself after getting some sleep. We are just so thrilled to have him in our family.

Kendall the Preschooler

Kendall has been looking forward to the day when preschool would finally begin. And so it has.
Playing on the toys before school starts.

Please go away, mom.

The Nursery

Pictures of the nursery were requested so here we go....We moved Kendall into the room that was formerly my office sometime in July. I liked the walls in the nursery even though they were Pepto Bismol pink, but it just won't work for a baby boy.

So we painted a neutral color and used vinyl stickers for the border. I am still figuring out what kind of art work to put up on the walls so they are a little plain.

A couple of years ago we were at Babies R Us and sat in this super comfy rocker/glider chair. We decided at that point that if we ever had another baby that we would purchase this chair. We found it and here it is.

Finally, there was another request for a picture of me. With hesitation here it is.

So Wicked!

For my birthday my mom took me to see Wicked at the Paramount. It was awesome! I was a little worried that the baby would come early and I wouldn't get to see the show or worse, my water would break during the show. But no early baby arrival and I survived the walking and sitting for a couple hours.

The day I saved Ollie's life

As you can see from the many posts today that I am a little behind. But I just have to post about a traumatic Ollie incident.

Knowing that Ollie chews on EVERYTHING I left a collapsible camping chair in the backyard that was broken. I just considered it a free chew toy. On a Wednesday morning during the summer I let him outside to play and noticed that he had drug the chair to the upper terrace of our yard. I thought to myself that I should get the chair out to the garbage, but I didn't. A little while later I heard this high pitch squealing coming from the backyard. I thought it was a cat and when I went to investigate I saw Ollie struggling to get away from the chair. My initial thought was that he had impaled himself with the leg just under his collar. When I got closer I could see that the leg had actually gotten twisted up in his collar. It was so tight I couldn't even find the clasp to undo the collar. The only thing I could think of was to cut the collar off of his neck. I frantically yelled to the kids to bring me scissors. Kendall very carefully brought me her pair of kids scissors. That did not work! I yelled for my kitchen scissors which Hayden brought to me and didn't work either. Hayden then brought me my best Cutco knife. That didn't work. I then remembered that I had put a utility knife on top of our second refrigerator the day before. I ran to get it, meanwhile Ollie is struggling to breathe and terrified. I straddled the dog and began sawing his collar with the utility knife. About half way through I was exhausted (remember that I am pregnant) and thought to myself, "I don't know if I can do this." But I continued and when it came apart I could see that I had another layer to saw through. For some reason the second layer seemed easier. Maybe because I stopped caring if I knicked his skin with the knife, I just wanted to get the collar off. Finally, it broke free and our happy dog was back. But Ollie smelled awful and the only thing I can relate it to is the smell of death. I wondered if maybe he was emitting a hormone that caused the smell. It lasted a couple days.

After the incident, I called Tadj and cried through the details. I wasn't sure if I should take him to the vet. Tadj didn't think so since he seemed to be fine. But his comment to me was, "See, you do like the dog after all." My reply, "No, I was just thinking of how much money we have invested in him and that I don't want to start over." Actually, Ollie is starting to grow on me even though this past week he has chewed the swings off of the kids playset and ate the steering wheel off of a plastic toy car we had in the backyard.

One more Ollie thing:

Ollie was also neutered this summer and we tried to explain to the kids what was going to happen. But ended up just saying that his boys were going to get cut off. After we picked up Ollie from the vet, Hayden lifted up Ollie's tail and exclaimed to everyone in the office, "Yep, his boys are gone!" I was so embarrassed but I can laugh about it now.

First Grade

Hayden started school last Thursday and he loves it. Every school day since he wakes up and is nearly jumping off the walls in anticipation of going to school. The transition to first grade was much harder for me. I don't remember crying when Hayden started half-day Kindergarten. But I cried after I dropped him off for first grade. Kendall and I still miss him during the day but I am glad to know he is enjoying school.

The fruits of my labor, literally

With my grandma's latest move, I was lucky to inherit a pressure canner. I haven't ever canned before and really wanted to learn so when my friend asked if I wanted to can apricots I was really excited and eager to learn something new. So this summer I canned 15 quarts of apricots (26 lbs), 19 quarts of peaches (40 lbs), 35 quarts of pears, 8 quarts of pear sauce, and 6 half pints of pear baby food (80 lbs), 17 quarts of green beans, 7 pints of blueberry pie filling (15 cups of blueberries), and 18 half pints of triple berry jam (strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry). I also learned how to can pickles and have 1 quart from an enrichment activity. If my family likes home canned pickles I'll do that next year. I also plan to can tomatoes next year. I also learned that canning with friends is a lot more fun than doing it by yourself.

Tadj asked me, "How come every time you get a hobby it causes me work?" It's true and he is still working on building me shelves in the garage for all of the canned food. But I should add that I don't really like canned pears. Those are all for him.

Summer Highlights

School starting means that summer has come to an end and also reminds me of all the fun things we did that I haven't blogged about. Here is a quick summer summary.

We started our summer with a trip to Bozeman, Montana for Tadj's annual family get-together. We enjoyed hiking to Paradise Falls on a foggy day

Hot springs

The Museum of the Rockies

Lewis and Clark Caverns

Panning for gold (not successfully)



And my personal first and favorite: a day trip to Yellowstone

Another highlight for me was attending the New Kids on the Block Concert with a friend. We couldn't attend the last time they were here because of a previous commitment (the all important Twilight movie) but decided we would not let this opportunity pass us by. I just hope the baby has good hearing. We were just a few rows back from the stage and it was so loud. I know the baby could hear the opening act (Jesse McCartney) and he didn't like it. Neither did I. But the New Kids were fantastic.

For the first time ever, I took the kids to the local amusement park. Hayden was invited by a friend and tickets were a good price. The kids loved it and wanted to go back the next day. Maybe next year.


The last summer vacation was our annual trip to Alta Lake for golfing and water fun. Ever since Hayden found out that I started water skiing when I was 6 years old, Hayden has wanted to do the same thing. My dad packed the kid skis but we didn't bring a rope to tie the tips together (something that helped me get up at such a young age). Hayden tried and tried and tried. After every fall he was all smiles, loving every minute of it. I have no doubt that he will be successful next summer.

This was the first summer I was home with the kids without any work responsibilities and I enjoyed every minute of it.