Our Wounded Soldier

James' version of crawling. Notice the "wounded" right arm and they way he incorporates the roll to get where he needs to go.

Sign of Life

I planted a garden back in Oct of 2010. We have a very small plantar, so I did what I could with it. Half is flowers, the other half consists of beets, cabbage and broccoli. The broccoli plant has grown pretty well, but I haven't seen any heads of broccoli... until today. I saw the first sign of a floret. I got very excited. I can't wait until more of the vegetables have grown and we can enjoy the "fruits of our labor".

MVP!!!!

I wanted to give a little shout out to my husband, the MVP! You may remember that Haws played in a BYU Alumni game last month. Well he got an email from the guy who coordinated the game... Haws was named the MVP of the game! I am so proud of my sexy, hockey playing husband :)

Here is the email:

Dear teammate-

I’m sorry it took me so long to get this follow-up email for the alumni game out to you. 

We ended up going through most of the waiting list to assemble a team of 18 skaters and 2 goaltenders.   Chris Hexburg, Hal Evans, Dan Baker, and Garth Evans traveled from out of state to be there.  Rich Ternieden, the senior member of this year’s team, traveled all the way from Toronto to participate.  We hope to be able to provide more notice next year to allow more of you from out of state to make arrangements to come.  Two additional alumni, Jeremy Weiss and Brett Fuller, both current coaches, participated by playing with the current team. 

Most importantly, no one was injured in the game, although I confess I saw an awful lot of ibuprofen, aleve, and lortab being consumed in the alumni locker room between periods. 

The most valuable player award of the game had to go to Chris “Hoss” Hexburg, who was absolutely shelled in the first period, but still blocked the first 20 shots he faced.  The alumni scorers took a while to warm up.  We were down 2-0 after the first, and 5-0 after the second.  A daring comeback was attempted in a high-scoring third period where the alumni finally found the net, but ended up losing 8-11.  Mac Granley was credited with two goals, with Jason Poulsen, Darin Dorian, Mark Ostebo, Tamio Stehrenberger, Ryan Schmidt, and Jim Dahle each contributing one.  Darin Dorian also contributed two assists.  If you count Jeremy Weiss’s two goals, the alumni scored more than the current players!

The daily universe write-up on the game can be found here:

http://universe.byu.edu/node/13730

Over $3000 was raised and contributed to the team’s general fund.  If you would still like to make a donation for this year, it can be mailed to this address:

BYU Hockey

433 W 870 S

Orem, UT  84058

Checks can be made out to BYU Hockey and you will be mailed a receipt.  If you want a receipt for your donation and have not yet received one, please email stanleygweiss@gmail.com.

I’ve attached several pictures my wife took at the game.  Alumni are wearing BYU White and the current team is wearing BYU Blue.

The list of alumni continues to grow but if you have contact information for anyone associated with BYU Hockey, or need to update your own, please forward it on to me.

Jim Dahle

BYU Alumni Hockey Coordinator

A week of firsts

This past week or so we had:

• First attempt at the army crawl
• First taste of yogurt
• First cold. Just congestion and a snotty nose, but still not fun
• First time being left in the gyms childcare while mommy worked out. This was awesome! He did so good. The staff calls him Mr Rolly Poley ( of course his cold was over before I took him ) This was a major highlight for me. Between feedings and naps it will be hard to make it for classes, but we will try. I am just happy to get in there and change things up. I think it is also good to expose him to some new people.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Porcupine Turkey Meatballs and Spaghetti Squash

I love using Spaghetti Squash in place of regular pasta, but I still wanting to add a grain that wasn't bread. Then I remembered loving porcupine meatballs my mom had made way back when. So I looked online, got a few ideas of how to make them and made these. They were yummy and perfect on the squash.

Ingredients

• 1 pound extra lean ground turkey Breast
• 2 cups cooked regular brown  
• 1 egg
• 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 Jar of Tomato Basil Spaghetti Sauce

• 
  

  Directions

  1. Thoroughly mix the turkey, rice, egg, oregano, garlic powder and black pepper in a large bowl. Shape the mixture firmly into 25 meatballs.
  2. Heat the sauce in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the meatballs and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through.
• 
  

 And wallah! They were super easy to make.

 Gotta add some Parmesan of course!

He likes to move it move it!

James has gotten more mobile lately. This is for you Dana :) Here is his "army crawl"

But he still prefers rolling to get around. This is just a small example of his abiliity... but watch until the end for what he is really good at!

GOOD MORNING!

This morning James woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 630am. I was hoping with the time change he would sleep in... but somehow he didn't. Maybe it was due to the fact he has been a little sick and congested and not sleeping as well as usual. Needless to say, while I pumped, Haws gave him a bottle (I pump in the mornings because I get two bottles full and can freeze them for later). While I was in the kitchen cleaning up,  Haws brought James to me to hold. During the pass James realized there was something he wanted to give me. He is so thoughtful, always wanting to give back and share...

So he shared his breakfast with me!!! Yes... that is spit up all over my face, down my shirt and on my shirt. It was a big one. The crazy thing about this is the fact that this is the first time this has happened! In over 8 months of spitting up, he has never gotten me straight in the face. When it happened, it was like a slow motion shot. Me trying to move my face while holding him at the same time. He pointed that mouth right at me (probably wanting to give me a kiss :) The kid has good aim.

The funny thing is while I am holding him begging Haws to grab a rag, he comes back with no rag, just a camera to document the event. Thanks Haws.

This is a memory for the books.

8 Months

Our Sweet baby James is 8 months old and I can't get over how much fun he is! I love his little personality. He loves to tease (Davis trait), laugh, sing, scream with delight, babble, roll, pull and grab anything he can get his hands on and he definitely lets you know when he is not happy about something.

As you can see in the following pictures, trying to set up the 8 month sign was a little difficult. He loves the sound of paper and just has to touch it. So I have a feeling these are how the pictures will be looking from here on out.

A few things about the last month:

• His changing table is his new play ground. The second he is on there he rolls around and gets up on his hands and knees or just keeps rolling back and forth. He loves lifting his legs way up high and then slamming them down to make a load noise. Changing diapers has become a challenge and a race! Luckily a few select toys can distract him long enough to get a diaper on and off.
• He is a rolling champ. He can maneuver himself around a room as well as a baby who crawls. 
• Is eating all sort of baby foods. He finally will  eat his greens, but I usually combine them with some of his favorites like sweet potatoes or an apple/blueberry blend.
• He had his first baby food with meat (turkey and chicken) and liked it.
• The only finger foods he has actually put in his mouth and swallowed are his organic puffs, peas and egg yolk.
• Has been up on his hands and knees and moved one knee forward. I have only seen this once and it is his closest attempt at crawling.
• He loves spending time with his cousins and friends. It takes him sometime to warm up to new settings, but once he adapts, he loves it.
• Still spitting up... but I think it is getting A LITTLE better... crossing my fingers.
• Is having longer waketimes. His schedule looks like this on most days:

6:30am wakes but not out of crib until 700am

bottle(BM) and then solids

930am-1130am nap

nurse and solids

nap 200pm-400pm

nurse and solids

bottle(BM)/nurse 700

bed 730

There are some evenings if his naps are not as good where he needs a cat nap.

Here is a picture of him rolling to pull things out from under the coffee table.

I just noticed that in half the pictures I take, the laundry basket is present. The life of a mother, always doing laundry!!!

He is very spiritual... always wanting to read the scriptures :)

New Ride

Once again, "Kori and Lori" aka "Koko and Lolo" have twin rides! We turned in our Journeys for these babies. The 2011 Grand Cherokees. I have never driven anything but a Dodge, so having a Jeep is a whole new experience for me. I know they are in the same family of cars, but it does feel different. I am now part of the Jeep club and so far I am liking it. Want one of your own??? Work with the best at Glenn E Thomas Dodge Chrysler Jeep!

CONVERSATIONS

Cousin Tanner is teaching James all about being a big boy... even drawing out a diagram!

James takes it all in. He loves his cousin Tanner.

Race on the Base

Last Saturday I did my first Triathlon. It was a reverse, sprint tri and I thought it would be perfect for a beginner like me. I signed up in Dec with the intention of that giving me motivation to train. But with working and a baby, I found training to be a challenge. Running was really the easiest thing I could do with James, but I have always said I would never want to do a marathon because I hate running, so I didn't do much of that either. I took spin classes when I could (530am!) but that didn't prepare me for how hard bike was. The running part was cake compared to the 12 mile bike ride that was into the wind 2/3 of the time. That wind kicked my butt! After the bike ride, there was a quick swim. I was pretty beat and cold from the wind that the thought of diving into a pool was not pleasant. But I did it and it actually felt good until I had to get out. I was so cold it took me a few hours to warm up. 

I was so glad I did this, even though I wasn't really prepared, I think I did decent. The worst thing is, I forgot to put my anklet on (it tracks your time) at the beginning of the race, so I have to go off my friend's time to see how I did. Oh well. I wasn't really doing it to see how fast I was. I will definitely be doing another one. The rush after the race outweighed the hurt :) Next time I will take a picture.

Mealtime Messes

Since the Ellen HiLo chair never came (the company went out of business). We had to buy a highchair for James. I had heard from friends that IKEA had some great ones for super cheap. We bought this for less than $20!!! It is great! James likes hanging out in it while I do dishes. He loves his puffs. Probably plays with them more than he actually eats.

Sometimes, when I am feeling CRAZY, I let James play with his baby food. It is quite the mess, but I know it is good to let him touch and feel the food as part of the whole eating experience. I just use a lot of stain remover on these days. Rainy days are perfect for these sort of things. 

After all the fun, we revisited taking a bath in the kitchen sink. Good times.