Family Campout

Last weekend Ben had the idea of a family campout in our front room. It was big fun and a much-needed little break from feeling sick and moping around.

E was pretty nervous about the tent at first, but then we gave him his own flashlight and his bear and he was good. He even went to sleep with us sleeping right next to him (we were able to shove his pack 'n' play in there next to our queen-size air mattress.) I wish I could tell you that the air mattress was comfy, but I cannot. It's much better than sleeping on rocks when you're really camping, but I'm afraid it doesn't cut it when there's a real bed just up the stairs.

Oh well, the sore back subsided throughout the rest of the next day and we had fun. E enjoyed reading train books with Dad by flashlight and thought it was pretty cool to have breakfast in the tent.

Deep Thoughts

As I was whipping up a chocolate cake today (don't judge me...the baby wanted it, wanted it badly) I realized one of life's mysteries:

As you get older, your egg cracking skillz decline.

It's like a bell curve, really. When you're really little and ask to crack eggs you kind of crush them and your mom has to pick out all the shells. And maybe you even fight with your brother and they kind of end up all in your hair while wearing a ballet costume and you both get sent to your room to "Wait until Dad gets home" (shudder). Not that I know what that's like...

But then you get a little older and you start doing tricky things like cracking them crisply with one hand and brag to your mom (who is now hopeless at cracking eggs) that there are zero shells in whatever you're making.

So sadly, at my young age, I'm again at the bottom of the bell curve. I tried to crack 3 eggs and got bits of shell in the batter from each one. Don't you worry though, I picked them out. Do you think it's possible I just bought a bad dozen of eggs with shells that are a little challenged? I hope so.

Also, another thought/pet peeve of mine lately:

Why do so many recipes lately declare that you must serve the dish with a "crusty french bread and salad" for a really nice dish? I mean, what if I want a moist soft bread? With maybe steamed vegetables on the side? I guess it negates whatever effort I've gone to for the main dish and it is no longer nice--but thrown together, sloppy, and incomplete. If I ever state in a recipe on my blog or at ward cooking club that it must be served with a crusty french bread, you have permission to at least roll your eyes at me. Serve it with whatever the heck you want. I won't judge you. And if you've stated this before, just know that I love you still and don't hold it in any way against you. It's just those annoying cookbook writers that I'm talking about.

I Can Do Stuff

Here are the cookies I made for Joni's baby shower that I told my mom and sisters so much about...they kind of resemble onesies, don't they? I used my beloved Cookie Craft book once again. I may not be crafty or creative, but darn it, I can bake.

Recipe Blog

I made some delicious lemon scones today and I posted the recipe on my family cooking blog. Yes, I actually updated it. Gasp! I also put the recipe up for the parfaits from Joni's baby shower. No, that wasn't yogurt, but I wish it was as healthy. :) Click here to go to the cooking blog.

Snow!

We've gotten dumped on here lately. Ben really wanted Emerson to come play in the snow, so we got him all dressed up and he looked thrilled. I know he was inside though, because he hearts his boots.
We tried to find a shovel-like tool for him to copy Daddy, but all we had was this sand sifter. Plus, his mittens don't have any thumbs so I had to teach him how to hold it between his two paws. I was giggling the whole time, trust me.

Momentarily clamping his "shovel"

Then we did some serious sledding down our friends' hill.

E was terrified, but it was fun!

Winter, I Hate You

Winter, I hate you. Release us from your cold, snow, and sickness! I don't know what all this talk about global warming is, but maybe you should catch on. You've caused us to have a trip to the ER, multiple doctor visits, a car accident, and insanity from being stuck inside every day while we try to conquer disease with our sorry immune systems. Please go away. We've had enough. We want to go and play at the park and see other people without feeling guilty we've passed something on. And, I admit, it would even be nice to be able to send E back to nursery even though there are countless germs. He just needs to be reasonably healthy and not coughing his lungs up to go back. I don't ask much. Please?

Supeh Beah

The title of this post translated is "Super Bear". We were going a bit crazy inside yesterday, so luckily Super Bear paid us a visit. Plus he brought Emerson a neat-o cape too.

This is how the two of them bond; Emerson chews on Bear's nose, and Bear smiles happily while he does it. This endearing, self-comfort bonding strategy results in Mommy washing Bear often.

This is my favorite picture.
I have no words for this face.
Daddy was really good at helping bear fly around.
And then, all of a sudden, Super Beah and Super E morphed into puppies and hid under the table.

Wow, it WAS a fun day.

Tower of Terror

If you can't tell from this post and a few previous posts, the most exciting thing we do around here lately is go to the grocery store. Emerson loves to unload the groceries. When I turned around after putting things away in the fridge I found this:

I really wanted to get a picture, so I told him to not touch while I went to get the camera. I had visions of broken glass and chili sauce all over the floor.

He was a good boy though and didn't touch until Mommy was back downstairs and then he insisted on stacking the peanut butter (also termed "dip" for apples) on top of everything else.

He wouldn't be persuaded otherwise, so I rearranged a little and helped him stack it on top. And here he is clapping for himself and saying "Yay dip! Yay dip!" (I'm pretty sure he thought the chili sauce was ketchup...and who could blame him?)

And here he is inspecting the foundation of his ingenious tower.

He was extremely offended when I had to dismantle his tower to finish putting the groceries away. But don't worry, the choo-choo trains (read= trens), namely Thomas (read=Tabos) were close at hand to console him and toot his worries away.

Love This Book

Every year around Valentine's Day my mom would read us this book, Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli. When I got married, I bought a copy for myself and I got to read it to Emerson last night. I love this book. It sounds cheesy, but it makes me teary at the end every time. You should check it out!

Choo-Choo Train Track

Oh, have I mentioned that Emerson loves trains? Like, loves them so much that he refuses to eat lunch or dinner? Even with trains watching him eat? Even with Mom pretending the trains are eating too?

I love this picture because it's obvious that the piano keys are supposed to be train tracks. I thought it was quite clever.

If you look closely you can see his little lips pursed saying "choo-choo!" And if you can't see it, well then I'm sure you can imagine it.

Proof That I'm Fun

In these horrid winter months I end up feeling like a bad mom because we hardly ever go anywhere or do anything and Emerson is constantly sick. But here is proof that I did, at one time, build a fort for E and his choo-choo trains.

He also enjoyed pretending he was a dog.

See, I'm fun sometimes. You'd just never know it to look at me. :)

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.