Falling behind!!

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post! I realized that I am horrible at posting during big events/ holidays, the one time that my post probably matter the most right??

Christmas, was an amazing break for our family, especially Jamie. It was the first "real" vacation for him in almost two years. So needless to say it was way over due. A few days before Christmas we headed to California to spend time with my side of the family. It was the first time I have traveled with Julian, and Jamie, so I wasn't prepared for the amount of stuff we had, and this threw me all out of wack. Well to make a long story short,I not only left Julians Immunization card, which they check to verify his age since he flies for free, but I left his whole diaper bag, with his toys, snacks, diapers, and even some presents, in the car of the friend that dropped us off at the airport. Needless to say I was a wreck crying in the airport going through security. But all ended well. They let me pass with Julian (luckily he is on the small side so they believed me) and I had our friend send some of the presents to me. I had a bunch of wipes and diapers packed in suit-cases so that was good! Side note, if you ever need diaper and wipes they do sell them at the airport, at least the SLC one they did. In a package you get three diaper and a small thing of wipes, LIFE SAVER!!

It was really nice to relax with family we had Christmas Adam (the day before christmas eve, and Adam came before eve, therefore... ) this was a mini German dinner with Schnitzel since Christmas eve was a big German dinner at my omi's house and she doesn't do the Schnitzel she does the fish. This was great with my sister and her family and the cousins had a blast And then Christmas day was at home with my grandma and grandpa Fogleman, and Uncle Chris. That was great to spend time with them. Julian had a blast and is still playing with all the toys he received. Jamie was with us the first week, but had to leave for work, and Julian and I stayed a second week with my cousin who lives in NYC. It was great spending time with her, since we haven't seen each other in 4 years. We are six months apart and were really close when we were young. We had a great time and welcomed the new year in together!

Now that we are home it took me a couple weeks to get back into the swing of things. Julian had his 18 month check up and he is doing great. He is still on the lean side only in the 7% but he is gaining weight, and the doctor told us that in the next two visits or so, we can determine if that's just genetics, and he will be always be genetically lean. But his is growing tall in the 66% so above average. And the biggest hurray was that his head grew leaps and bound. Six months ago he wasn't even close to being on the charts with a head size in the .01% but now he is on the charts, on the low side, but nevertheless he made it on. We are really happy about that. That was the thing we were most afraid of.

Julian is talking up a storm. I am going to list all the words he knows, but I am sure I am going to miss a lot

1. water
2. night-night
3. dog
4. momma
5. daddy
6. couch
7. eat
8. no (still doesn't really say yes, says no for both)
9. bye
10. gentle (this is the word we use when he hits. He knows to wipe your cheek and say gentle)
11. banana
12. book
13.out
14. hot
15. cheese
16. please
17. Thank-you
18. yucky
19. stinky
20. ball
21. mine
22. cookie (blame jamie with that one)
23 brrr. (when we go outside and it's cold
24. Baby
25. Car
26. football
27. eye

That's all I can think off the top of my head, but there are more, especially since now he is starting to copy words that you say to him. His comprehension is even greater. He knows all the parts on his body and will point at them if you ask. He know about 10-12 different animal sounds, and knows what they look like. If he sees a cat he will go Meow, instead of saying cat. I can ask him to get me just about anything in the house and he will get it for me (ie diaper, cup, pillow, blanket ect..) He talks pretty much non stop, even if it isn't just gibberish. Still as active as always. We actually started sending Julian to Nursery a little over a month early. He was getting to distracting in RS. And the minute we dropped him off, he was off, and could care less about us! He is always happy when you are there to pick him up, but has no problem leaving you! Nursery has been a blessing, it is great to be able to really listen to a lesson again!

Well I think that pretty much sums up the last couple months... Until next time

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

I have mentioned before how I have struggled with motherhood. How I haven't adjusted to the roll as well as I thought I would. The last couple of months have been especially hard. Late last night I felt like I needed to go to the temple, so this morning I woke up really early and headed to the temple. As I sat pondering and reflecting, the topic of joy in motherhood and rejoicing in motherhood kept coming to mind. As I continued on with my day I tried to keep these thoughts in mind. I did pretty good, until Julian decided to wake up at 11:00 pm right in the middle of my movie and much needed down time. I struggled to get him to go to sleep but he was content throwing a fit on the ground whining crying, throwing himself on me, then throwing himself on the floor when I tried to pick him up. I started to loose it. Then Jamie came home from work, and took Julian to bed. I decided to go in my room and do some more pondering about motherhood. I found a great website called power of moms then I found a Mormon Message, which are great uplifting messages posted on YouTube, and I came across this amazing message about motherhood, I completley bawled during the entire thing. but I love the message so much. It was exactly what I needed to hear. I just wanted to share it1

4 years

I was trying to decide if I should make mention of this, since this year we just didn't have the time, energy. or money for that matter to make a big deal of it. But I decided that either way being married for 4 years is a big deal and I should make note of it.

Four years ago on November 23rd Jamie James and I got married, Love ya babe!

First Hair Cut and Halloween!

What did that say? Did that say first Hair cut? I couldn't have cut my baby's amazing locks that I love so much could I have? Unfortunately yes. For months Jamie has bugged me about cutting Julian's hair, and I was not going to do it. But the other day Julian and I were at the laundry mat, and this girl saw Julian in his very "boy" clothes and said, Oh SHE is sweet! That was the last straw I couldn't let people continue to call Julian a girl, so Monday morning we headed to a barber (Jamie wanted to do it, but I wasn't letting him near my child's head) lol. I thought the process would go slow and I could take it in slowly, but once that women started cutting she didn't stop, and that was probably best because it took Julian all of a few minutes to decide he was done with the whole process. Luckily Jamie was there and helped hold Julian still while I tried to distract him. I would be lying if I didn't say that I really had to hold back tears as I saw the hair on the ground! He still looks very cute, but he looks so much older and grown up, but at least I wont have to wash his hair several times a day because he constantly has food in it!!

Halloween was very low key this year. I decided not to go all out on a costume for Julian, when we went to the library reading we do every week, they got to wear costumes and I had him wear the monkey suit we wore last year. But for our ward trunk or treat I had just bought a three dollar shirt that was a skeleton with candy in the stomach and it glowed in the dark!

Like I mentioned we went to our ward trunk or treat, where people park their cars in the parking lot of the church and decorate their car trunks and pass out candy. I wasn't sure if Julian would get the concept of going to each car and getting a piece of candy, but boy was I wrong! That boy totally new what to do and would run up to each car and grab one piece of candy out of the bowl and would put it in his bag, which I was holding for him, and then he would run to the next one! I don't have many pictures because he was having so much fun running around I couldn't get any pictures of him, well at least many that weren't the back of his head! Halloween night Julian had a slight cough, and Jamie was working so I decided we would just stay in. I only had like four kids come and get candy, that was disappointing! Overall though Julian had a great time with the events we did participate in!

Music

It's so interesting the power music has on the mind!Did you know that with Alzheimer's ( and many brain injuries/health problems)music is the last memory to leave. I think I have told this story before, but I will never forget the day, when I was working at the adult day care for those with Alzheimer's. There was a very sweet man names Jack. When you would talk to him he would not say more than two words, and if you asked him a simple question about his life ( how old are you, whens your birthday) he would sit there staring trying to remember, and then would just look you in the eye and say "I don't know" Later in the day I would get on the piano and play some classic songs very popular in the 20's, 30's and 40's. I remember sitting at the piano and beginning to play "Alice Blue Gown". Jack immediately sat up and to my astonishment he sang every word of that song, and every song after it with out missing a beat!

I always find it fascinating how I can hear a certain song, or band, and I am immediately thrown back to a time in my life.

Example: Natasha B. bring me to driving in the car with one of my first roommates when I first heard her song, my roommate blasting the song while we stopped at Sonics just for a cup of their amazing Ice!! Anything "Tegan and sara" or Gold Digger brings me to late nights with Megan T. talking about our "BOY" issues. She pretty much introduced me to the indie music. Imogen Heap instantly reminds me of Louise, and how much I miss her and her accent! Any kind of musical drags me to High School, senior year were I felt on top of the world as my first lead in the school musical! Brazilian music reminds me of my first date with Jamie who played a popular Brazilian love song, and translated it for me.

The fact that music does this can be a blessing and a curse. Sometimes those memories make you miss the way things were, or at least the people and the connection you have. Or it brings a smile to your face as you remember a funny joke or instance related to the music.

Either way, music touches the soul And I just cant loose that loving feeling I have for music!