iPhone?

"Hello world."

"I heard a camera click."

"Hi, Mom. Wait..is that an iPhone?"

"iPhone?"

*pant* *pant* "iPhone??"

"iPhone???"

"iPhone???!"

"iPhone."

Our Thanksgiving

So I'm a little late, but with our move from Vancouver I've been a little out of my routine. 
This year we spent a very low-key Thanksgiving with Adam's parents and little brother Nick.  Everything was delicious--and Jude liked the turkey so much that he ventured off to steal some more a little later ;) (did you see the evidence?). 
It was a very relaxing Thanksgiving. 
And we now have enough leftovers to give at least ten 75-year-olds diabetes.
I think that's pretty impressive. 
p.s. Don't you just love Adam's dad's face? That pretty much sums up what a 3,000 calorie meal does to most of us once a year. 
p.s.s. Right now as we speak, Jude's blowing raspberries onto the sliding glass door. I might just die laughing. 

New House

This is my new view. 

We moved out of our place in Vancouver and are now

living in a beautiful town in Oregon called Lake Oswego.

I'm already in love. It's one of those towns that makes

you want to get up on a Saturday morning and take a walk to a 

bagel shop for bagels and hot chocolate. 

And I could use that every Saturday morning. 

p.s. thank goodness that this move is over.

When your baby screams with fear at the scary sound

taping up a box makes, moving can become a pretty long process. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from yours truly!--

and one very tired baby.

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And enjoy this e-card from my family. It's worth at least a few laughs ;) 

Thankful

Since we're in the middle of packing and getting ready for our move, it wasn't until I sat down with a bowl of shredded wheat this morning that I realized that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. 
I love Thanksgiving.
It was tradition in my family growing up that everyone came over to our house for dinner--aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents...it was a glorious day at our little house every year. 
There was always an inordinate bounty of food that had no rhyme, theme, or reason--simply: if it was delicious, it was on the table. 
This year, I am grateful for so many things, but just to name a few: 
Adam's steady paycheck.
Adam. 
My job.
School. 
Jude. 
Adam's new job that he absolutely loves.
All the friends we've made here.
The opportunity that we have to have family so close. 
Sushi. 
Beautiful fall leaves.
iPhones. 
Free extended cable in our new place = Rachel Zoe. 
Motherhood and wifeyhood. 
Our free country. 
Our wonderful families. 
A year full of cuddling and kissing my beautiful new son. 
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I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving, full of family, friends, and lots of good food! 
Take lots of pictures! 

Baby Bottom

I just can't get enough of that lumpy tush!
Think this is 16-year-old birthday party material?
As do I, my friends. As do I.

Birthday Weekend

One of the things I have thoroughly enjoyed about being married to Adam is how birthday festivities somehow last at least three days after the original birthdate. Quite honestly, I'm converted--I don't know how I ever dedicated only one measly day to the dawn of my momentous exit from the womb. It was a glorious day for humanity--men and women alike, no doubt.
On Saturday we got together with a bunch of great friends at Macaroni Grill, and Sunday, Dad Stevens made us one of his signature Japanese dishes and treated us to cheesecake :)
Next year, let's just round it up to celebrating a full week--let the preparations begin!

It's Moments Like These

that melt my mama heart, and I can't help but think that 18 years from now he'll be too big to pick up and snuggle with--and how I'll miss him pressing his forehead against mine while he touches my chest and kisses my cheeks. 
oh, I'm such a sappy-obsessed-infatuated mama. I might go broke this Christmas. I just wanna give this boy everything. 

Adam's 25!

Dear Adam,


Yesterday was your 25th birthday. 
I made you nutella french toast for breakfast, you went out with friends for lunch, and then you came home and had presents (a beard trimmer, new tie, and Steve Jobs' biography), fish and potatoes for dinner, and finished it off with red velvet cake and my own sexy/not-so-sexy rendition of "Happy birthday, Mr. President" as you blew out your scary black candles. 
I love you, darling. It's been a wonderful year. Keep being the little kid that you are. Jude already loves it. 


xoxo

This Sunday..

...we took a walk after church around our little neighborhood and discovered a row of trees with beautiful red and pink leaves. Jude was in awe--and so were we. 

After our walk we came home, had lunch, and all three of us took a good Sunday nap. I love having Sundays to spend at home together as a family.

Information Overload

Being a new nurse is hard. 
In school, you learned a little bit of everything--every disease, every drug, every surgery, every patient situation--very quickly.
You're on constant information overload. With a test a week, you cram a bagillion facts into your head one week only to take a test and move onto the next week's load. 
It's hard. 
And starting out on the floor, you can feel a little like a fish out of water. A patient says something like, "My belly aches and I have a headache", and you could swear you learned something about bellies and headaches and electrolytes and bleeding and drug side effects and how they might just somehow relate. 
It's frustrating not to be able to recall information.
It's like when you learned Spanish in high school and because you didn't use it all summer, you come back the first day of school and can't remember anything, but you don't find this out until you try to say a sentence you've said a million times and worked for hours and hours to learn and totally fail trying. And then, you sit stewing over and over again about how to say that freaking word in Spanish. 
It's confidence shattering. It's exhausting. It's stressful. And I feel stupid a lot. 
Experience is everything in this business and I've only just started to get my green toes wet in it. 
But, all-in-all, its incredible. I care for people who are ill and suffering. I work to alleviate their pain and worry and I send them home with knowledge of how to care for themselves. 
I'm paid to provide charity--something that changes me every shift. 
It's worth it. 
I came across these two images and they made me smile :)

Have a great weekend, everyone!
I have a hot date tonight with Adam de-cluttering our apartment before we move. It's so liberating just to throw stuff away!

Blue Steel

Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than 
being really, really, ridiculously good looking?

I'm sorry that good-looking people like us made 
you throw up and feel bad about yourself.

Worn

I have to admit, I've been feeling a little bit worn down. From 12-hour clinical shifts at the hospital for school, to getting called into work, to my normal load of online homework, I've been feeling a little overwhelmed with taking care of Jude, keeping our apartment clean, figuring out when and where we're going to move, etc. And of course, all the while, I'm not taking care of myself. I've been eating like a 12-year old boy at a sleepover, sleeping like a 38-week pregnant lady, working-out like Gilbert Grape's mom, spiritually nourishing myself like an illiterate 7-year old, and spending as much time with my husband as Lindsey Lohan spent in jail. You've all been there in some way or another, and you know it's exhausting on so many levels. 
I honestly feel like I need a week off, with $500 for some retail therapy, gym workouts every day to burn off the stress, and my iPhone to read scriptures to me all day. 
When did we all-of-a-sudden become adults?--and how do you make it stop? 
Sure, being an adult has it's perks--as Jerry Seinfeld once said, "If I want a cookie, I can have a cookie. Heck, I can have 12 cookies." But recently, I have found myself envying little Jude and his eat-sleep-play agenda. 
So, I've made resolution to start this week off right. I once learned that when you wake up in the morning with tasks at hand you always do the most challenging and difficult one first; that way, you can move on feeling accomplished that your largest feat has been met for the day. For me, that would be reading my scriptures and getting a workout. 
So watch out, Moroni 7 and P90X Plyometrics--we have a date tomorrow that cannot be broken. 
Message of the day: I've learned as a nurse that in order for my patients to be considered "well", they have to have achieved optimal levels of health physically, mentally, and spiritually. I think most often we think that if we're physically fit we'll be happy, or if as long as we're spiritually taking care of ourselves that all will be well within us. We're both spiritual and physical beings, and we need to tend to all of our needs. When we can do that, we'll be well--and we need to do that before we can adequately take care of others. 
So, hop on the tread mill, eat well, find spiritual upliftment daily, spend time with friends and loved ones, read books that promote thought and positive emotions, and strive to continually seek for opportunities for education. 
I must also admit though, Jude's super-loud laugh has definitely been helping to keep me together. You'll have to excuse my loud, annoying voice: sometimes moms will be as dramatic, loud, and expressive as possible in order to evoke a response from their little ones. I will do anything. 



I also read this uplifting message by one of our church's great apostles, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, giving words of encouragement to young mothers. It definitely gave me hope and peace :).
Have a great week, everyone! 

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

hmmmm...I love doing these...:P
Awkward: 
-Changing Jude's poopy diaper and noticing mid-wipe that I got some baby pudding on my fingers. Should I let this stuff ride it out until I'm done, or stop midway and de-poop? 
-That moment when someone you've met all of once walks into the room with obvious deformities all over their head and you wonder if your relationship is on a high enough level to ask them what happened to their face. And then because you waited too long to say "hi", all-the-while giving them a perplexingly dumb look, they finally utter, "I fell, okay?"
-Trying to keep a straight face for the millionth time when asking a patient if they've pooped or not. And going the extra mile and asking them to describe it. Uh huh, I see. Ok, and when was your last bowel movement? And if you could, please describe it to me. 
-Walking out of the grocery store and noticing that while loading them into the car, a tall, plaid-wearing, skeezy-looking guy has just changed his trajectory a couple of subtle degrees towards us, all the while giving us a creepy, I'm-about-to-do-something-crazy look. We didn't know if we should confront him, or just pick up the pace and speed away. 
-Having squeaky nursing shoes and wondering if every time they make an especially suspicious squawk if I need to clarify where the source came from. Just keep looking forward...

Awesome:
-Adam started his new job this week! Yes, I never explained this: Adam got a new job in a little place called Lake Oswego, Oregon. It's about 30 minutes south of us and is a beautiful little town right next to the Portland LDS temple. So we're moving. Sometime. I don't know when. Thinking about it just stresses me out. So moving on...
-Jude still thinks I'm hilarious.
-Jude has made it through all the different kinds of canned vegetables and loves all of them! 
-Jude laughs harder and harder every day.
-Adam told me I could buy new pairs of jeans to replace my old ones. Ok, I made that up. But do you think I pressured him into letting me do it anyway? Mission accomplished. 
-Now that Jude knows his way around the house, once he realizes I'm not in the room anymore, he makes it his mission to come and find me. And when he finally does, he squeezes his eyes shut, gets a long, pencil thin grin, and squeals real loud in celebration of our triumphant reunion.
-JUDE AND I ARE GOING TO NYC EARLY NEXT MONTH TO VISIT MY FAMILY!!! It was kind of a last minute decision, but Southwest was having a sale and Jude is still free to fly, so I hopped on it. Christmas time in NYC? That's my favorite--the Nutcracker, Radio City, Rockefeller Center, FAO Schwartz, Macy's and Tiffany's window displays, Serendipity...I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. Breath, breath, breath....
-It's the best time of the year, right?! I'm loving life right now--the leaves are beautiful, the air is crisp, Jude is just brilliant--and he has lots of cute hats--pumpkin everything is in full season, and Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. Life is good right now--and even though I'm busy doing clinical hours to finish up my BSN and working shifts here and there, I'm having a great time with my little family. 
I hope you're all enjoying this beautiful time of year wherever you are! 

Halloween 2011!

Halloween this year was so fun--I'm sensing that holidays are going to be so much more animated and festive now that we have a kid!
We continued on with our annoy tradition of last minute costumes and decided to have a Dr. Seuss theme--Adam was the Cat in the Hat, I was Cindy Lou-Who, and Jude was Horton from Horton Hears a Who!
We took him out Trunk-or-Treating (it's exactly how it sounds) and Trick-or-Treating, ate way too much candy, felt awkward taking candy from people who knew we were the ones who were going to be eating it, and had a blast reliving some of our childhood. The poor little guy was so tired the entire time, but we had far too much fun showing him around to each of the houses. Check out my little elephant man...

He eventually did end up getting through that M&M bag packaging. All of a sudden I realized he was WAY too excited about sucking on that thing.
I hope you all had a great Halloween! Sorry I'm so late posting pics--I've been quite the busy woman lately, so all of my spare time has been going to spending time with my one and only-s :).