Transplants: August Fun

On August 3, Ben and I celebrated out 8 Year Anniversary. It is crazy thinking we have been married so long and seeing how much we have changed and how much we have been through together; school, sickness, internships, getting jobs, losing jobs, health struggles, new apartments, 2 kids and so much more! A family in our ward brought us a fabulous meal, we decided it was probably better than anywhere we would have gone. Ben had to go to an evening dentist appointment that night, and with a dental emergency arriving right before him, ended up being there for a couple hours. I popped in Pride and Prejudice (the 6 hour version) and hunkered down with some delicious chocolate. (Ben watched the end with me a couple days later- such a good man.)

Ben got 2 weeks off for paternity leave and it was fantastic. He was able to go out and play with Elizabeth while I stayed home and got rest with James. They had so much fun that Elizabeth was very sad to see him go back to work. They just spent lots of time together running errands, going to the store, going to the park and to story time at the library. They played outside a lot, we even had some family fun playing in our backyard pool. (Pictures from 8/11)

Elizabeth got an ice cream tent from a friend and loved to serve Ben icecream. She woke up one morning and planned a party so we helped her put up streamers and had an indoor picnic (the streamers stayed up for a week).

Playing the violin like Emma

One day they decided to go to the zoo. They saw a lot of fun animals and an elephant show but decided that it was too hot.

They even went to a Rockies game with our friends the Forsyth's.

Elizabeth loved having Ben at home and had a hard time letting him go back to work. They got so close those two weeks and he surpassed me as the favorite! (ha)

After Ben went back to work I had to figure out life with two kids. Everyone said that 'when you have one they take all your time and then you have another and the first still takes all of your time' but that was not how it happened and that made me feel more guilty then I already did. I felt like I was constantly saying wait or not now to Elizabeth as I fed, burped, changed or put James to sleep. I felt like a horrible Mom for a while and wasn't sure how I was going to do it. But after a while, and as he got older and more awake time, we were able to get on a better schedule and I was able to give her the time I wanted to.

We played with play dough one day and then a couple days later I had to make a pie and so we played with pie dough; no, I did not tell the people eating the pie that we did that- ha.

A family in our ward gave us some outdoor play equipment (slide, car and scooter) and Elizabeth loves to go out and play. I love to see the joy it brings her. She likes to pretend she is traveling to Arizona.

Elizabeth was a good helper and started doing jobs. She likes to empty and sort the silverware when unloading the dishwasher. And she loves to wash the dishes in the sink; this usually turns into playing in lots of bubbles!

Bedtimes are hard with two, especially with Ben gone for Bishopric Mtgs almost every night, and I would collapse and cry every night but, again, as James has gotten older and I have gotten a better routine, things have gotten easier. Once James started taking baths, Elizabeth would help me. She was a great helper and especially loved to use the comb brush (from the hospital) to scrub his hair. Now that he is older and I bathe them at the same time and she still loves helping and playing with him.

She is a little OCD like her Mom. She put all the princesses lined up perfectly.

One thing that is a life saver with my new 'life with two' is the down time that I periodically get; Relief Society Activities, Book Club and occasional Girls Nights. One night some girls and I went and did Karaoke. I had never done karaoke before and I was honestly scared and nervous but we decided to go into it knowing we would be bad and just being goofy to 'cover up' the lack of karaoke talent.

After the excitement of the baby being born wore off, Elizabeth started asking when her cousins were coming back; and she really missed Uncle Ben and his suckers. Then one day a package came with special surprises for Elizabeth from Uncle Ben- suckers! She loved them and was so excited it was like Christmas. She also got more 'cheetos' (cheese balls) from Michael Angelo and Jasen Tate. Ben shook his head and said she would never get through them but, with some parental help, she has made quite the dent.

After having James I was aching to get out and do stuff but I wasn't up to a lot; I had low iron which made me super tired and, because of medication changes, I was overdosed and had a lot of dizziness. I almost passed out at Costco and long walks were tough for me but by mid august I was eager to get out and about.

We decided to go on a hike up to Brainerd Lake but had a couple setbacks. After a long drive with a screaming baby (with one stop to nurse) we finally got up to Brainerd Lake; parked, fed James, changed diapers, got the kids in their carriers and began our hike. We got to the trail head, looked at the map and found that we had parked at the wrong parking lot and our 1 mile hike was now a 6 mile hike. So we changed our plans and decided to go to a different lake about 1/2 a mile away. The hike was going okay, we were telling Elizabeth the story of Robin Hood, but then James began to wail. We tried to continue walking but he wouldn't calm down. We then stopped for a picnic and I tried to calm him down. Eventually, after trying and trying, Ben decided to run back and get the car to come get us (we were picnicking near the road). I stayed at the picnic area with a crazy toddler and a cranky newborn until Ben came to get us. It was an exhausting experience but it was good that we tried.