Surprise from Joe

Last night while I was at a baby shower Joe was putting together a surprise for me-and the boys helped.




While watching this I was biting my nails nervously-even though i'd seen the finished product and knew it didn't end in disaster. I was torn between being very worried, and a little proud. I guess thats how it always goes when you let your kids try something new.

Here is the crib all set up with the completely amazing crib bedding I made. Its so crazy to have this all set up. It means a baby will be sleeping in it soon.

Trip to Utah

Sorry, i don't have any pictures. Pathetic right? 4 weeks in Utah and I don't have a single picture. I didn't pack my camera for fear that I'd have my luggage checked and have it stolen. Turns out I did have my luggage inspected on the return flight, so I do NOT regret this decision.
I'll have to keep this post fairly brief since nobody will read a long post with no pics, and I can't blame you.
Quick overview:
Joe has an externship in Des Moines for school for 5 weeks so I decided to spend the first 4 weeks in Utah so I could get some help with the boys. This is another decision I do NOT regret. I cannot tell you how good it was to have so much help. I don't think I could have made it through these 4 weeks otherwise. He still has to finish out this last week, but i can handle one week alone.
the highlights:
-The boys playing with their cousins in Salt Lake. At one point, all of the twins (there are 6 of them) were running around in super hero costumes screaming and hero-ing. it was so much fun to watch them all play together.
-The boys playing with their cousins in Price. One of the nights all of the cousins went to the dirt hills to ride a mini motorcycle. Obviously my boys were too little for this, but it was so fun to see the boys running around with their cousins in the same dirt hills that Joe spent his childhood running around in.
-The Gluten Free Expo. I came home with 4 loaded bags of free stuff. Super awesome.
-My mom putting my kids to bed for me for 2 weeks. Oh. My. Goodness. Can you imagine not having to put your kids to bed for 2 weeks? Seriously-it was SO NICE!
-Relaxing in Price. Peggy (Joe's mom), and Sarah (Joe's sister) probably got sick of my non-contributing laziness, but it was so helpful not to have to worry about meals, and housekeeping etc. Plus Sarah's little girl Molly kept the boys attention most of the time and i just got to sit and relax, and grow my new baby.
-Visiting friends. I got to see a lot of my Utah friends while i was in salt lake-plus some Iowa friends that recently moved to Utah. The boys loved seeing "jackson and akenna" (jackson and makenna), and i loved seeing their mom Kassie.
-i loved seeing my family. over the 4 weeks i was able to visit with all of my siblings and in-laws. plus i got to spend a whole week with my mom, which is rare since she works full time.
-gluten free restaurants. mmmmm.
The Low-lights:
-missing Joe. a lot.
-a very dear friend of mine passed away on oct 24th. But i felt blessed to be in Utah when it happened so that i could get together with our mutual friends and share pictures and memories about her.
-missing Joe more
-Noah discovering that I don't punish him as harshly around grandma. He was such a punk sometimes. He needed/I needed Joe there to back me up. And Ethan felt like he NEEDED to play with the ipad all the time. ugh.
-missing Joe when i had nightmares. yes i have nightmares and yes i usually wake Joe up to help calm myself down.
-the flight back to Utah was terrible, but it's over so i don't have to think about it anymore.

Conslusion: for those of you dental wives who'll have to go through this 5 week externship without their husbands, i would most definitely recommend getting to some extra help if you can swing it. 4 weeks is a long time to be away from Joe, but it was totally worth it. the time went by pretty quickly, and my kids still have all of their limbs attatched. Neither of those things would have happened if i'd stayed in Iowa.

The boys have been....taxing lately. That's the nicest way I can put it. They're 3. And there are 2 of them. And Joe has been working late a lot. And my belly is finally big enough that bending down is quite uncomfortable. Sorry, no belly pic today. Anyway, the culmination of all of it has made for a tough week. This had been my saving grace.See that sad little face? Ethan fell on something-maybe a Tupperware bin? I was in the other room when it happened. But now every time I look at those sad eyes I can't stand to be mad at him. After all, he's been through so much. Not really, but the poor kid looks pathetic.

Noah, on the other hand, is perfectly capable. Here he is smiling for the camera, and completely oblivious to Ethan's poor eye. Both the boys have been so DEFIANT lately. Unfortunately for Noah he has no ailment to gain my sympathies. My friend Angela offered to bop him over the head so that I'd like him more. Sadly, this plan may have worked. That's when you know you need some time away.
This picture makes me laugh. Joe is trying to put Neosporin on sad little Ethan, and Noah is smiling his biggest for the camera.

This is what I've been doing to get away. In preparation for the new baby, I've been sewing some crib bedding for her. I realized very quickly that new crib bedding is outrageously expensive, and I happened to have a lot of fabric stored up over the years. So far I've made a crib bumper out of some pink curtains and I patched together this crib quilt. The only fabrics i had to buy were the owl fabric, and stripes. As of when I started making this I've spent about $5. I'll still need to buy some batting and yarn to tie the quilt, but then I'll be done.

I'm quite proud of the bedding on a budget. I'm not very proud of my mothering skills lately, but hopefully it'll get better soon. And if not, I'm flying to Utah in Oct for the whole month and then my family can take my kids off of my hands for a while.

I Just Can't Wait to be King

This is mostly for Grandmas. it gets better the closer you get to the end.

Its a GIRL!

Getting this off my chest

What if I move to Price? I've been obsessing over this idea for over a month now. Joe and I NEVER considered moving back to Utah once we'd left. We were surprised by how much we love Iowa. I mean, come on-who dreams living it up by moving to Nowheresville middle America? But once we got here we realized that it was home. I fell in love with the idea of experiencing new places and almost immediately decided never to go back to Utah. I'd lived there my entire life and really never realized how much of the world is outside of it. The mountains in Utah are beautiful, but I also think the plains and the rolling hills of cornfields in the Midwest are breathtaking. So why stop here? Why not experience even more? Utah already has almost as many Dentists as they do LDS churches. I was going to move to Tahoe or Northern CA, or Texas, or Georgia, or wherever adventure called. That was the plan. It still might be the plan. But my plan isn't quite as solid as it used to be.
While we were visiting Utah a couple weeks ago Joe was made aware of a job possibility in Price. I won't get into all the details, but we'll just say it was enough to shake up our plan a bit. And now this idea has been blistering in my mind, and I have to get it out. Neither Joe or I are that keen on the idea of living in Price for the rest of our lives, but we'd be completely stupid not to give it some serious consideration. Unfortunately I'm terrible at making decisions. I obsess over all the options and basically think myself in circles (if that makes sense). Joe isn't much help either. The man can't stop talking about dentistry or sports, but when i ask his thoughts on this dilemma he says, "i think the same as you". Thanks Joe that's super insightful.
What if I'm wrong about Price just like I was wrong about Iowa? What if this Independence and adventure that I've loved so much over the last 3 yrs is what is best for me now, but not really what will make us happy in this next stage of life? The stage of having kids in school and in Tee Ball and so forth? When I was growing up I wished I had cousins my age, and that is something my boys have in spades, but what good is it if we only see them a couple of times a year? I know my kids could be happy in Price, and I know Joe could adjust fairly easily moving back, and our families would be ecstatic. but is making everyone else happy enough to keep me happy? I can't make these kinds of decisions. Some days I get a little excited thinking about trips to Lake Powell with our family, and some days I just cry thinking that I might be giving up my dreams of the life I wanted. Maybe I'm just being dramatic or prideful or wishy-washy. I can't tell. All I know is that the plan is shaken, or it might not be fool proof.

Trip to Utah

Joe finished his last day of his 3rd yr of Dental School on July 1st. On Saturday July 2nd Joe and I sat and cuddled on the couch and I thought about how my parents were about to head up to our family cabin. I hadn't been there for about 2 yrs and I was feeling pretty homesick. That's when i realized that I was homesick for the first time in the 3 yrs we've lived in Iowa, and it just so happened that Joe had about 2 weeks off of school. Why not? So at about noon on Saturday we decided to drive to UT and we left 3 hours later. Its was crazy and sporadic, but this was our last chance to go before Joe graduates next summer. We arrived after a L O N G drive and met up with my parents, brother, nephew, and aunt and uncle at the cabin. Most of my family still didn't know we were in UT. This is our family cabin. She's old, small, and falling to pieces, but I have so many memories here. There is just something peaceful and exciting at the same time about being up here. We had a great time for the day and a half we spent there.

We left so that we could take the boys to see fireworks for the 4th of July. Sorry, no pics, but the boys loved it! Next we headed to Price and spent a few days with Grandma and Grandpa Whitehead and a few of the cousins. My boys fell in love with their cousin Kitani and they still ask where "Pitani" is. We then drove up to Logan for the weekend where the rest of the Whitehead clan was. It never ceases to amaze me how Joe's family goes above and beyond to make us at home when we visit. It was so fun to talk, eat, play games, and we even took the opportunity to get some family pics taken in our reunion shirts (even though the reunion wasn't til the end of the month). We loved spending time with everyone, but i wish we could have had a little more time together. On Monday we were back in Salt Lake for a Petersen FHE with my siblings, 3 aunts, one uncle, one cousin, and grandparents. Here is a pic of The Six Pack. Mason & Jaden are the oldest twins wearing black. Austin & Carter are the middle set in white, and then mine in the grey. Between the oldest and youngest there is only one year that separates them. The FHE was a hit. My parents set up a giant water slide that the kids (and kids at heart) all enjoyed. There was also a kiddie pool that was eventually filled with warm water and ALL the cousins got in together! We had volleyball for the adults and lots of food and great company.

The whole trip was so great for us. It was the first time that my kids were really old enough to run off and play with all their cousins-and there were a LOT of cousins between the Whiteheads and Petersens. I was really able to sit back, put my feet up, and watch my boys have the time of their lives getting reacquainted with family. I loved it. I really wish that we'd have had more time to spend with them all. Looking back at these pictures makes it almost ok that we missed BOTH family reunions. Joe's side had a Harry Potter themed reunion-complete with costumes! I mean, come on! that's right up my alley and we missed it. My side of the family had a Petersen Family Reunion at the cabin with tons of my extended family. there was a zip line, 50 ft slip and slide, softball game, skeet shooting competition, line dancing, zumba class, horseshoes, charades with my dad which i haven't done since i was about 12, tons of food, cousins i haven't seen in years-the list goes on and on. sigh. at least i got to see them all beforehand. and it really was great seeing everyone. We only have one year left in Iowa and we can move back west. We've really loved our time here, but i'm getting really ready to be close enough that we never have to miss any reunions again. One year goes by in a blink. Most days I'm really afraid to leave here, but today I'm ready.