Coming Out

According to most ward members I've happened upon in the last week or so, I'm already "out". So I guess this just makes it official. :) We're having a baby! I'm about 14 weeks now, (although the ultrasound was taken at 11 weeks). Baby #2 is supposed to arrive around July 30th. Yay for heat, humidity, and cankles. I can't wait.


Emerson has no idea what's coming.

Dip

Emerson absolutely adores "dip". He'll eat most anything if he can dip it in either ketchup, ranch dressing, yogurt, or sour cream. He was thrilled to death when I stocked up a few weeks ago and took the liberty of finding all the ketchup bottles in the grocery bags and lining them up. Then when I had the fridge open to put the other groceries away, he weaseled his way in and grabbed the bottle we already had open and added it to the lineup.

Then he would knock them all down.

And carefully stand them all back up again.

Then he proceeded to make his finger "hop! hop! hop!" from bottle to bottle.

It's the little things in life, isn't it?

Kudos to Necco

You know how I mentioned that I wrote to Necco complaining about the new flavors? THEY WROTE ME BACK. And as Ben so kindly pointed out, I didn't really wrote a formal letter--it was an e-mail form on their website, for heaven's sake, and it was kind of more of a rant...but not a mean one.
Here's what I wrote: Please bring back your original Sweetheart flavors! I purchased a bag of the new ones and was sorely disappointed. Every year I look forward to the good ol' Necco Conversation Hearts around Valentine's Day, and this year my family and I were sadly disappointed with the new fruit flavors. Most importantly, my favorite kind, the white mint ones, are gone. :( So again, I implore you, bring back the original!

But still, I totally wasn't expecting a reply. Here it is:
January 25, 2010

Dear Ms. Christensen,

Thank you for writing to Necco, I wanted to personally thank you for all of your input on our new Sweethearts. They are a great US made product and I am glad to hear you are a longtime fan. Over the years, our number one product requests have been around producing a more flavorful and softer product. Sweethearts have been America’s favorite Valentine’s Day candy for over 145 years now and we needed to ensure that Sweethearts continue to delight people of all ages.

It’s never easy to change something that hasn’t been changed for a very long time and we appreciate your support as we continue to come up with new flavors and ways to say I Love You. Here’s more information about all of our exciting changes:

Our new softer Original Flavors now include: Green Apple, Blue Raspberry, Strawberry, Lemon, Grape and Orange. The color of the hearts were changed to match the flavors so people could tell what flavor they were eating before they even tried them. The new expressions on the Sweethearts were chosen by over 10,000 Americans at mysweethearts.com back in the summer. The complete list of the top new sayings includes both contemporary expressions like Tweet® Me and Text Me and beloved classics like “Love Me” and “Sweet Pea.” The packaging was changed to make the product easier to find at shelf. And our little 1oz boxes are now slightly smaller with no window, to be more sustainable and easier to handle for tiny kid hands. The back of our 1oz boxes was also changed so that kids could write in their To/From names in pencil.

If you are looking for something to share with the little girls in your life be sure to check out our new Sweethearts Dazzled Tarts with flavors including: Pink Lemonade, Wild Berry Grape, Sour Apple, Watermelon, Extreme Tangerine and Blue Raspberry. These new Sweethearts are dazzled and have crowns and shoes on them!

So, thank you for your feedback and please stick with us. Let us know what you think of our other Sweetheart products. Also, check our www.mysweethearts.com for free recipe ideas and craft projects.

These stores still have the old flavors.

Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Family Dollar, 99 Cent Only, Freds , Odd Lots, Wakefern, Sav A Lot.

Thank you again for writing.

Sincerely,

Theresa Denis
Customer Correspondent

And don't any of you dare to run to Dollar Tree and buy them out before I can get there.

Valentine's Day Rules to Live By

I know it's a bit premature, but as I was shopping around today for Bunco prizes, I thought about how much I LOVE/hate things about Valentine's Day. I came up with the following rules:

(*Editor's Note: After some research, I have discovered that Necco and Sweethearts are now the same thing. Necco screwed up their flavors and made them fruity. Don't worry though, I wrote to the company begging them to bring back the original.)

1. The appropriate brand of conversation hearts to purchase are the Necco brand, Necco brand only. The icky imitation "Sweethearts" brand is nasty and tastes like bottom, and the cool blue hearts they advertise on the packaging do not, in fact, exist. And the giant ones are even nastier. Plus there aren't any white mint hearts and everyone knows they're the best.

2. Gigantic cards are the coolest. They're more meaningful too. I remember this one year that Ben bought me a giant card and it was my favorite.

3. A box of chocolates is a good one if it doesn't need a map. You know what I mean. You shouldn't have to steer clear of any particular chocolate if it's from a quality candy store like See's. Whitman Sampler=vomit.

4. Sugar cookies and little white heart shaped cakes are a necessity around Valentine's Day. It's not truly the holiday without them. And they MUST be made with white cake mix. And they can't be topped with anything crunchy like conversation hearts. Simple pink or red sugar sprinkles will do.

5. The most favorite class treat handed out with cool valentines are Blow Pops. These are the only acceptable sucker to hand out ever. Not the yucky cherry suckers with white printed writing on the front.

6. This is the only time that bold shades of pink and red are acceptable together and you are considered "festive" instead of a "faux pas".

7. Candygrams are no longer a threat in adulthood. Remember how scary it was to get one of those in Jr. high or high school with mysterious handwriting? You never know who is stalking you...

8. Roses are a necessity.

9. Sending homemade valentines to grandparents is a necessity. Grandma Draper always made the coolest valentines with lots of layers and stickers and on the very last one was a little heart-shaped pocket with a $5 bill in it. I'm SO doing that when I'm old.

10. Home-cooked special meal by hubby vs. eating out? I'm still torn. Eating at Beniamino's special restaurant in our teeny-tiny apartment was heavenly, but you can't beat not having any dirty dishes around.

E's Trip to the ER

After a very long weekend, we're happy to report that Emerson is slowly getting better from whatever nasty bug he caught.

He started vomiting Friday afternoon and continued with that and diarrhea until late Sunday night. We weren't terribly concerned with the regular throwing up on Friday and Saturday because last time he had it he bounced back after a day and was fine. This time, he was totally lethargic and laid around (which is so NOT him) all day Saturday and was very difficult to rouse on Sunday. He was so out of it that he wouldn't drink anything and threw up every time he had something besides a little bit of water. After calling my parents and talking to them about how weird he was acting, we called his pediatrician and then decided not to wait around and went to the ER at Children's hospital.

We got there around 4:00 pm and didn't have to wait at all. They took him to triage and prepped him in case he needed an IV. We were taken to a room and proceeded with X-rays, blood work, and 4 attempts to get an IV in him over the next 6 hours. Finally, on the 5th try, they were able to get an IV in his head. I cannot express to you how grateful I was to see that needle go in. It was terrible to see Emerson in that state, and to have to hold him down while he was thrashing and yelling out my name, but I can tell you that I received strength beyond my own abilities--not just to be able to hold him down, but to not vomit or pass out myself with that needle going in. It was so reassuring to see that bag of fluid dripping into his little dehydrated body, and I was so grateful to the staff and the blessing that modern medicine is.

After about half an hour, they moved us to the ER Observation Unit to stay overnight so they could keep an eye on him because they weren't comfortable sending him home yet. The nurses there were great as well. Ben ventured out around 11:30 to get us something to eat, and I held Emerson while he continued to sleep. He woke up periodically and shouted my name and I calmly tried to reassure him. It was scary to see him so vacant and disoriented, but I was so glad he was finally getting rehydrated. After Ben got back, we settled in for a long night. We sort of slept for awhile, but then E woke up enough to realize there was something in his head and tried to pull it out, so I had to hold him the rest of the night until the morning when he passed the PO fluid challenge and they could remove the IV.

When he woke up and was truly more awake than he'd been in two days, he said "Daddy" and pointed to him and wanted to be held by him. :) I guess he had finally had enough comfort from Mom and was ready for an adventure. We knew he was feeling better when he was crying for yogurt and would eat a few Cheerios between long sips of Pedialyte. They removed his IV and sent us home around 11:00 a.m. E slept for about 5 hours (which concerned us a little...we were hoping he wasn't relapsing) but wasn't vomiting or having diarrhea anymore, so we figured that was a good sign. He woke up around 4:30 and started talking about cars and choo choos, so that was also a good sign he was on the mend.

After such a long weekend, the three of us slept very deeply last night, and we're glad that Emerson is very slowly but surely getting back to normal. As much as I tried not to, I got very worried about what would happen if we didn't have our little Emerson anymore. We've thanked Heavenly Father every single night since he's been born that we have him and it's never grown mundane or routine--we mean it with all our hearts, but this ultimately small experience has made us cherish our little boy even more and realize once again how blessed we are. And luckily, at this point, we won't have to picture life without our little E.

Hot? Hat?

There's this small boy who lives at my house who has been rather difficult to get outside. He's been nervous about the snow unless he has his handy-dandy (or footy-wooty?) boots on, and he flat out refused to come outside yesterday to go to the store and was pointing outside saying "HOT! HOT!" I replied "No honey, it's not hot outside, it's COLD!"

I'm a genius.

I realized he was saying "Hat! Hat!" (Oh!...that's why he was patting his head.)

Don't worry, since then I haven't tried to drag him outside without his cool hat firmly atop his head. It just frames those little cheeks so nicely. And he's been perfectly compliant (when it comes to going bye-bye) ever since Mom picked up on what he was so politely requesting. It must stink sometimes to be a little kid and have everyone misunderstand you. I'll have to remember that in the future.

Oh Willy...

Oh Wooly Willy, why did I think you were a good idea to give to my 21-month old when I was scrounging for entertainment?

Did I really think he would get the concept of the magnet moving the little metal filings?
No. I didn't. But I thought he'd just trust the magic of the wand moving it just cuz.

Did I really think he'd be able to get the small red wand out of the tight, stiff plastic casing by himself? No. I didn't. But I thought I'd only have to do it once. Boy was I wrong. Now whenever I see him coming with it and hear grunting I know exactly what he wants me to do.

Oh Willy, why isn't your wand 2-sided? Why doesn't it have a stronger magnet?

Why isn't the back magnetic too? It would make it so that little son doesn't get so frustrated when trying to defy gravity by carefully (read: accidentally) placing your whiskers while holding the board perpendicular to the floor.

Why do those chubby hands make me laugh so?

And why can they always figure out how to wedge things in, but can't get them out by themselves?

Sigh...oh Willy.

Christmas MegaPost

Most Christmas posts are really long, and I apologize that mine falls into that same category, but I promise I won't name all our gifts and I'll try to be concise yet thorough when I can. This will, after all, be printed off in a blog book someday for our posterity to read.

This year we went home to Utah for 20 whole days! We did a ton of things and our trip went way too fast. Emerson did great on the plane both ways...probably the best he's EVER done, and he's always been a good boy. It helps that he's obsessed with any type of "CARS!" and loved watching them out the windows of the airport and the plane when we boarded.


We did the typical back-and-forth between families thing which is good and bad. We try really hard to be fair, and there are always fun things going on both places, so we end up being a little tired by the end. But here are the things we did.

One of our favorite things to do when we go to Utah is eating at our favorite restaurants. We hit Cafe Rio twice and saw the Nydeggers there, took my parents to dinner for their birthday at Robintino's, got cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, ate at Tio's (yummy Mexican food), Winger's, The Pie, and probably lots of other yummy places that I'm not remembering right now.

We saw lots of movies: Invictus, Sherlock Holmes, The Blindside, and The Princess and the Frog. We would recommend all of them, although I think Blindside was our very favorite.

We also saw a number of sporting events. Uncle Scott and Aunt Ashley bought Emerson this adorable hoodie when they were here for Thanksgiving in honor of the BYU-Utah game, and Emerson had an occasion to wear it to the Utah basketball game.

He's really into the game. Any of you wives or mothers seen that look before? I guess they start young. Don't worry, I didn't try to ask him anything while he was in this state.

He loved being at the game and would stand up literally every five seconds in his little seat and clap and then sit back down.

He had fun sitting on Pa-pa's lap too.

One of the traditions in Ben's family is drawing names and making homemade gifts. I decided to get my craft on and whipped out some cards for my mother-in-law. It only took me several hours.

You didn't know I could be crafty, did you?

Giving and receiving our homemade gifts

I forgot to get a picture of Ben giving his to his sister Jenny, but he made her some awesome crocodile pajama pants with a matching corn bag. He doesn't want me to tell anyone he can sew, but he can. BEN CAN SEW.

Another huge highlight of our trip was going to Logan to see our BFFs the Humpherys. Their cute little girl Sadie is 3 months older than E and is quite the charmer. We ate at Firehouse with them and hung out until it was time for the Aggie game. We used to go with them before we had kids...and it was quite different then.

Not sure why Emerson always has a blank look on his face, but take note in the rest of the pictures and you'll see what I mean.

Such cute little munchkins

We were happy to be back in the good old Spectrum. E was thrilled too, as I'm sure you can tell by the expression on his face, especially since he was only there in-utero.

I know I've mentioned before that E likes his "shows" and Grandma and Grandpa J were nice enough to get him some among lots of other generous things (like his train shirt and conductor pants, books, firetruck, vehicle puzzle, and others I'm sure I've forgotten!) and he really wanted to watch his new show when we were all watching something else. Grandpa had the good idea to set up his show on his laptop and set his little chair in there so everyone could be happy. Hence this picture:

Every time he wanted to watch that particular show, he'd find Grandpa's laptop and rub his belly to ask "please". I dare you to say no to that. Seriously, show me someone who can say no to that when they've seen it in person and he starts saying "pease? pease? oh pease?"

We were able to meet up with the Humpherys in Salt Lake another time and went to Discovery Gateway together. Discovery Gateway= Children's Museum. It's a reciprocal museum with COSI so you can get in for free if you have a pass to COSI, but to be honest, it feels a little grimy and small compared to COSI. And the water smells like mildew. *Shudder* But it's hard to complain too much when it's free.

Sadie and E had a good time.

We also made it to Temple Square to see the lights.

Along with our pet horse, chewing on his bit.

I'm not sure how many hours E spent playing with this little train, but I think it was in the hundreds. He'd have to kiss it goodnight every night and would ask for it as soon as he woke up. He even had a hard time sitting down to eat because it NEEDED to be played with. Any advice from moms of other little boys with train obsessions? It's cute, but seriously everything he says is laced with "choo choo".

We went sledding at the Christensen cabin and E hated it. He wouldn't even sit in the sled on the flat part. But he got some cute new boots out of the deal. Daddy found them at Burlington Coat Factory. They're really funny and stubby.

Uncle Brad got really good at giving E horsey rides and even put up with E's little claws on his neck.

Grandpa bought E a little Ute jersey for the Bowl game. Even Ben had to admit it was adorable.

And the last, but not least fun thing we did was ride Trax with E. We took a short ride to Temple Square earlier in the trip and it ended in tears because E couldn't part with the choo-choo. So we surprised him and rode it just for the heck of it our last day and I think he said "choo-choo" about a thousand times. I'm glad he's so easy to please right now. The $4 was worth it.

Some other random tidbits: We did our regular Johnson Family Christmas Eve with a movie and Chinese food. We spent Christmas morning with the Christensens and E got to see his only cousins in the whole wide world and they gave him an awesome train set. We spent Christmas night with the Johnsons and partook of a delicious buffet of all the best food. We were so thrilled to see each and every one of our siblings during the break, even if they didn't get back until January 2nd at 7:30 a.m. after driving straight through the night from Disneyland where they finished their internship. (You know who you are, Natalie.)

We played lots of games with both families. We did sealings and took family pictures with Ben's family. E got lots of nice gifts from both sets of grandparents. Ben got to attend the BYU bowl game with his dad and brothers. I got to go to lunch with my high school friend McCall. Grandma and Grandpa J as well as various aunts and uncles generously babysat while I was able to go out a few times without carting E along. I hope I'm not forgetting anything...I'm sure I am, and I'm sad I didn't take more pictures of the "normal" stuff, but I always forget, don't I?

None of us were ready for the trip to be over. Thank you for everything, family! We miss you already. Can't wait to see you soon.

Daddy Train

We love it when Daddy comes home early from school. He does way fun things like build trains out of laundry baskets and ties and pulls a small boy and his bear around.

I kind of like Beah's smiling face and smooshed askew nose back there.

It made me giggle that E had to keep turning around to check if Beah was still ok way back in the caboose.

Happy Firetruck

You know how I mentioned Emerson has just decided to learn words like crazy? He learned "happy!" the other day. It makes me laugh every time he says it. It always sounds like it has an exclamation point too. Then I asked him to do his firetruck siren because he does that every time he sees/hears an emergency vehicle.

Christmas in Columbus

That Santa is a clever guy. He knew we'd be making a trip out to Utah over Christmas and that it's hard to cart everything back in a reasonable amount of suitcases, so he so graciously came early to our house. And he brought some good stuff.

E looking a little nervous/intrigued by the presents, and Ben looking a little mischievous

?

Little E's stocking

They have the same cute tired eyes in this picture. Can you see how they're both a little puffy?

Santa brought E a choo choo! Best present ever. I don't even know how many hours he's already spent driving it around and around.

Mommy made Daddy a cornhole set (with a little help from a friend). Now we finally feel like true Ohioans.

Here is E contentedly playing after church with most of his presents. I think Christmas has been a success so far. :) I also know of some grandparents that may have a few things waiting for this little guy. Can't wait to see you!

Christmas-y Week

I don't know why it cracks me up that Emerson was invited to a friend Christmas party, but it does. Every time I look at this picture with these tiny people peering over the table at their dumb little plates of food I can barely stifle a giggle.


Emerson's best pal Tucker had a Christmas party and invited us over to play. They made the cutest little Christmas cards and had a great time playing in the same area. I would say "together" but I don't think there was much contact between any of them except when they wanted to play with the same toy. Britni (Tucker's mom) made some great food and the moms had a good time chatting. Thanks for having us over!

Making Christmas cards

My child was not compliant and refused to sit sweetly in front of the tree. He started bawling and flinging himself around right before the picture was taken. See how the other kids look kind of embarrassed for him? That's why.

On Friday our ward had their Christmas party and the theme was "A Night in Bethlehem". Ben and I both hate dressing up in costumes, but we were able to scrounge something together for this event because we wanted to be good sports. Emerson was laughing and laughing as we got dressed and even cooperated when we dressed him up in his pack n' play sheet and dish towel because he could see it was obviously the cool thing to do. He got lots of comments at the party and kept his hat on for well over an hour.

The party was very well done. Each family was given a small bag of gold coins and you had to go to each vendor to get a family's portion of food. There were dried fruits, olives, cheese cubes, baklava, hummus, pitas, and nuts. Then there was a short Nativity scene and we sang some Christmas songs to go along with it.

On Saturday night Ben and I headed to The Nutcracker at the Ohio Theatre. It was lots of fun and very well done. Ben didn't even hate it one bit. It was really fun to sit through an event like that and not have to worry about entertaining Emerson. It's so nice to know he's in good hands at our babysitting group. :)

Hat!

Emerson has had an explosion of words lately. He's been picking them up so fast and will surprise us by saying something that we had no clue he could say. He's like a little sponge and absorbs everything we talk about. (Yikes...we'd better be careful.) One morning Ben rescued him from his bed and we were pointing to the firetrucks on Daddy's jammies (yes you read that right--on DADDY'S jammies) and then E pointed to the fireman hats and said "hat!" and patted the top of his head.

The rest of the day he was obsessed with hats and got very creative at breakfast. He had a little bit of bagel with cream cheese left over and put it on top of his sippy cup and then proudly told me "hat!" What an imagination. It makes me smile. Speaking of creative meals, he also has lately enjoyed stacking the crusts from his sandwiches on top of each other and pulling them across his tray while saying "choo choo!" I'm glad I can get a little glimpse into his imagination.

Phew!

Don't you worry, we went back to the zoo with some friends and got a picture with lights in the background! I'm so relieved.

I just love this boy in his little hat with those rosy cheeks

He had a good time chasing the ducks the second time around.