PIE!

We like pie. Thanksgiving dinner is just a prelude to the real event... Pie! This year we had 8 pies for 19 people (including Miles, Cole, and Jonathan who don't eat pie). Taking out the non-pie eaters, there was a half a pie per person. We had 1 apple, 2 chocolate, 2 pumpkin, 2 lemon cream cheese, and 1 coconut cream. Yummy!

Thanksgiving!

This year I am thankful that Thanksgiving is over! Ha ha! Just kidding. We had a lovely afternoon hanging out at Aly's house with my family, Pieter (who will soon be family), Sean (Amy's dude) and Jacob (Leslie's BFF). We had the standard dinner (which is my least favorite meal of the year)... turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, rolls, yams and sweet potatoes (I always thought that the words yams and sweet potatoes were interchangable... I learned that yams are the orange things I usually call sweet potatoes and sweet potatoes are yellow... maybe I got that backwards, I'm still learning). We all drank Martinellis until we were drunk. The proof is in the pictures...

Wordless Wednesday

Major Meltdown

Nolan had a meltdown akin to a nuclear reactor last night. All of a sudden he completely came unglued and went over to Miles (who was minding his own business while being held by Dan), got in his face and yelled "I HATE YOU" to Miles. Well, I don't know what kind of reaction he expected to get from Miles, but Miles just looked at him and didn't reply. The Big Green Envy Monster has been stalking Nolan for several weeks now and yesterday it reared it's ugly face. Dan and I asked Nolan why he felt the way he did (it's so fun to be able to be so calm because you find the whole situation ridiculous and mildly entertaining). Nolan says it's because we are always "hold Miles", "carry Miles", "sing stupid songs to Miles", and "read him lame stories". It also isn't fair that Miles had more money than him. Well, all his points are true; can't disagree there. So I asked Nolan if he'd like me to hold him all the time, carry him everywhere, sing him stupid songs, and ready him lame stories. He hostilely yelled "no". And then we started reasoning with him. Why do we hold Miles...so he doesn't cry as much (Do you like it when he cries... no). Why do we carry Miles... because he can't walk or crawl. Why do I sing stupid songs to Miles... because I get bored and it keeps my brain semi-active. Why do I read him lame stories... well, I'll be happy to ready those stories to you... go get me Tykosaurus or Jamberry. I told him Miles was bankrupt...totally out of money and not a penny to his name. Yes, at one point he had over $100, but what did we make him spend it on? Not Pokemon cards, but diapers, wipes, and pacifiers. Now his money is gone. He can't buy anything. I asked him if he thought that buying diapers, etc. was a fun way to spend money, and he of course said "no". That was the end of the discussion. Nolan didn't really want to express/analyze/constructively deal with his feelings so he dealt with them his own way... going to his room and not slamming his door, but closing it with added emphasis. Poor Nolan. Today he is over it... he came down to our room this morning and greeted his little brother and in his high pitched baby voice said "Hi Mies!"

Why am I Awake?

Today is a "B" day for Jonathan. He doesn't have to be at school early so he doesn't get up until 6:30 a.m. That means I get to get up later as well. So why, beginning at 5 a.m., am I awake? Everyone here has had a very restless night. Dan was on the computer at 3 a.m. Miles has been wiggly and grunting all night long. I keep hearing loud thuds (too big to be caused by a cat) from upstairs. No one is sleeping well. Were we all overtired last night? Are we anticipating the Thanksgiving school and work breaks? Is it because of series of storms will soon be rolling in? I don't know, but it sure annoys me to be awake early on one of my sleeping-in days. Well, being up early gives me a chance to think through the day without interruptions... boys to school, Coscto, Walmart, begin hauling out the Christmas boxes and planning how to decorate this year without having the cat destroying everything. I am anticipating being annoyed with her until January. Well, littlest native is restless again and vocalizing it...

Super Scout!

Our overachieving Boy Scout has added to his loot. There was a Court of Honor last night and Jonathan added 5 more merit badges to his collection. Going clockwise from the top, he earned Art, Woodworking, Computers, Woodcarving, and American Cultures. Jonathan has now earned 42 merit badges; you only need 21 to be an Eagle Scout. His extra merit badges qualify him for 4 Eagle Palms, which he can't have until he gets his Eagle, which he isn't even eligible for until December 16th; then he can only be awarded one palm each quarter. I asked him if he has earned enough merit badges to be "done" he says no- he still wants to be getting Eagle Palms when he's a Venture Scout... well, he can only earn badges for another 4.5 years!

How Ironic

Nolan did not know what I was blogging about today. He followed me into Miles' room to watch me clean out Miles' nose (I don't know why that is entertaining to him since I hate to do it). The Halloween costumes are stored in Miles' closest, but are currently on the floor. Nolan looked at them and complained "we don't have any dress-ups." My poor, deprived son. I told him to look through the costumes and see what he could come up with. Here it is! Let's see- it's a combination of a monster costume, Utah Jazz wig, General Grant's jacket, sash, and Leonato's knee pants.








A few minutes later, my cross-dresser came out wearing the monster costume, a fighter pilot helmet, an Indian buckskin, Leonato's cape,vest, and boots, and my pioneer trek dress. Notice... he's also pregnant!

Nolan, oh Nolan

Nolan is all boy- 100% boy. He loves dirt, football, riding his scooter, Pokemon cards, etc. He likes blue and hates pink. He climbs mountains, skis down steep slopes. He wants to go on a real backpacking trip as soon as he can carry his own load. He likes to rake leaves, play with dogs, and dig holes. Yep, he's all boy. There is also a silly side of Nolan. He loves to tease. He loves to tell jokes. And sometimes, when "silly" collides with "all boy", the silly side prevails.

Aly's kids closest to Nolan in age are both girls. When we go play with the cousins and Jonathan isn't with us, Nolan is happy to play with his girls cousins and go along with their games and ideas, is long as the play is open to Nolan's interpretation. That is when his silly side emerges. The other day, Nolan came up from Aly's basement... he'd been playing dress up with Avery and her friend. Here are the results...






Yes, "silly" definitely trumped "all boy"

It's a Slow Day

It's been a slow day around here. Miles decided to wake up when Jonathan had to get up... 5:45 a.m. and then did not want to go back to bed. Good thing he wasn't being ornery! He and I hung out together until Nolan got up... 7:30ish and we got Nolan off to school an hour later. Miles was ready for a nap then. He slept until I woke him up... 10:30 a.m. He is six weeks old today and he had a picture appointment scheduled for 11:20 a.m. I had to get him dressed and fed before leaving at 11 a.m. He made it! I am feeling cheap right now so I took him to Target for pictures. The girls there do an okay job. They are more focused on getting the baby looking at the camera instead of smiling. Needless to say the girl took some great pictures of Miles looking at the camera, but his facial expressions were odd, to say the least! I bought the picture that you see. Not bad, and it only cost me $9.50 for a big portrait package. The posted picture is a high resolution scan of a low quality thumbnail B&W print. His pictures will be back in 2 weeks.

After the portrait session, Miles and I went to Costco. I forgot how much I hate going to Costco with Miles. Miles was screaming so I was carrying him while trying to load a case of diapers, big box of oranges, etc. into the cart and then out of the cart and on to the conveyor belt, then out of the cart and into the car. Ugh... maybe this post will remind me to have a second set of hands with me next time.

We got home around 1 p.m. and Miles still had not gone back to sleep. We picked up Jonathan at 2:20 p.m. Nolan walked home today so we didn't have to go get him. Miles finally passed out at 3:30 p.m. and hopefully will stay asleep for another hour or more! Nolan is at art now. He's working on a scratchboard project of the Roman Colosseum. His big news of the day was that he caught 2 interceptions at recess and ran them both back for touchdowns. Jonathan is frantically trying to finish his homework so he can go to the BYU basketball game tonight with his scouts. I use the term "frantically" loosely because he is really having a hard time motivating himself. He needs to make a "word web" for an upcoming English composition. He has to write a mystery and has decided that it will be about a farmer who thinks his pumpkins have been stolen. After interrogating the Gingerbread Man and Peter Peter Pumpking Eater, he will remember that it is Thanksgiving and that Mrs. Farmer turned the pumpkins into pie.s I thought he came up with a cute idea. Anyway, I am downstairs blogging right now because I am sick of harassing him to do his homework. If he finishes by 6 p.m., he can go to the game; if not... too bad for him and he will probably try to punish me for him not finishing his work by acting like a teenager for the rest of the night. As for tonight, I hope to have a quiet night with Dan and Jonathan gone (Nolan may get to go too!) I'll fill the evening by boiling a couple dozen eggs, finding my kitchen table and counters, and making it to bed early (hopefully). Is anyone still reading? Truly, a slow day makes for a boring blog entry!

The Bib Says it All

Last night a neighbor stopped by to visit and drop off a gift for Miles. She must know our little boy very well. She gave Miles 2 outfits with matching bibs... one is tan and cream striped with a puppy on it; the other is green, light blue and white striped with a frog on it. The bib that matches that out fit is in the picture. Its wording summarizes Miles perfectly; it simply says "I'm hungry". For as often as Miles likes to eat, you'd think he'd be huge. Well today I was in the produce department at Smiths and decided to weigh Miles. Fully clothed with a wet diaper Miles, who will be 6 weeks tomorrow, weighed exactly 10 lbs. I got home and weighed his clothes and diaper. They weighed 11 oz. Subtracting the clothes from the Smiths weight, Miles weighs about 9 lbs. 5 oz, giving him a total weight gain of about 2 pounds in 6 weeks.

The Baby Monitor

Today the big boys discovered the baby monitor. Miles was (and is) asleep downstairs in my room. I've been fixing dinner upstairs so the baby monitor is on. The boys wanted to watch Miles sleep so they went downstairs to my room. They discovered the baby monitor is a great toy for transmitting crude and repulsive behavior. It makes burping so much more fun than just normal, regular burping! While preparing dinner, I was treated to a lovely symphony of belches with accompanying giggles. I think the reason the boys enjoyed burping into the baby monitor so much was because I wasn't right there to tell them to knock it off. I guess I shouldn't be surprised... after all, they are my boys.

Dirt

Yesterday morning at 7 a.m. I heard a large noisy truck coming up our street. I was wondering who was having something delivered so early. I looked out the living room window and saw a pickup truck in my driveway and a semi-truck crawling up the hill. The pickup truck belongs to our hometeacher. The semi-truck pulled up past our house, up by the vacant lot and began to dump its load. It was for us. We have a semi-truck load of fill dirt dumped on the "side" of the street, up by our property line with the vacant lot. I say "side" of the street because there is so much dirt that is extends halfway across the street. I'm sure our neighbors love us. Dan noticed recently that we have an exposed footing on our house. The footings are supposed to be buried with 30" of dirt. We had a city building inspector look at it and he said that the footing and foundation look really good, however we needed to get the footing buried before "frost lift" could potentially occur, which would cause big problems. Our hometeacher digs new construction holes and we asked him if he'd like a little job moving dirt for us and if he knew where we could get some dirt. He came through with a huge load of dirt and will be over today or tomorrow to move it. Nolan woke up yesterday and saw the massive dirt pile... his first question was "Can I go play"?

A Day in the Life of...

...Miles! It seems that Miles doesn't do much more than eat all day long. Yesterday I kept track of everything he did in a 24-hour period. Here's Miles day (notice I started with bedtime... he slept so well that night!)

Nov. 11, 2008
10 p.m. Bedtime

Nov. 12, 2008
5:30 a.m. Wake-up and EAT
5:45 a.m. Daddy Time
6:10 a.m. EAT
6:30 a.m. Take Jonathan to School
6:45 a.m. Mommy Snuggle Time
7:30 a.m. Nap
8:00 a.m. Take Nolan to School
8:10 a.m. EAT
9:00 a.m. Nap
10:45 a.m. EAT
11:15 a.m. Playtime
11:45 a.m. EAT
12:10 p.m. Nap
2:00 p.m. Woken up from nap to EAT
2:10 p.m. Errands/more Nap
3:30 p.m. EAT
4:05 p.m. Pick Jonathan up/more nap in carseat
4:35 p.m. Home/Cute time/Play
4:55 p.m. EAT
5:10 p.m. Nap
5:40 p.m. Tummy Time!
5:50 p.m. EAT
6:10 p.m. Fussy! Hold Me! I need my suckie!
6:50 p.m. EAT
7:10 p.m. Daddy-time
7:55 p.m. EAT & Sleep
8:15 p.m. More Daddy-time
9:00 p.m. Catnap
9:15 p.m. Playtime
10:00 p.m. EAT and Bedtime!

I added up the time... It appears that Miles is asleep for around 15 hours a day and spends about a half of awake-time eating (4+hours). I'll have to tell him when he is older that his first part-time job was eating. I do have to say in his "Piggy Defense" that not all of his eating time was "active eating"- he'd doze off and leisurely suck as well.

Selfishness

Our ward is doing a Christmas Stocking Service Project for the local homeless shelters and "nearby" Indian Reservations. The humanitarian leader asked each family to fill a stocking with essential items, and it would be nice/fun if the filled stocking corresponded with the gender and ages of people living in your home. We took 4 stockings and I started raiding the cabinets for on-hand items that could go in the stockings. I filled an "Infant GIRL, ages 3-6 months" 99% of the way from stuff on hand... socks, pajamas (they were girl Pajamas, that why it's an infant girl stocking), pacifiers, nail clippers, formula, nasal aspirator, a photo album, changing pad, toy links, and baby oil. There was a small "empty" spot in the stocking that bugged me so I bought some diaper rash cream to fill the hole. I filled a "Ladies" stocking 100% with stuff I had on hand... glycerin soap, facial soap, eyelash curler, eye-care make-up kit, make-up brushes, moisturizer (those were all Mary-Kay minis), hairbrush, tissues, hat/scarf/gloves, note cards, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and bath foam. We filled 2 "Boy" stockings as well. From home, I put in mechanical pencils, collapsible cup, toothpaste, dental floss, tissues, and chapstick. For the rest of the stuff we went to the store, and that's where the title of my post "Selfishness" comes in...

Jonathan was into the giving mode. He was bummed that we couldn't buy a coat to stuff in the stocking (I told him to wait for the Angel Tree). He happily picked out the rest of the stuff... boxer shorts with ants on them, socks, a bouncy ball, a Tech Deck skateboard toy, a notebook, toothbrush, and deodorant. Nolan was supposed to choose the same stuff for the stocking for the boys his age (minus the deodorant). First he was mad that we had socks at home that we could use for that stocking. Then he was mad that he wasn't getting new underwear. He kept asking/whining/demanding to know why he he wasn't getting anything. He grudgingly threw stuff into the cart, mad that it wasn't for him. Is tarted getting really annoyed, but then remembered that Jonathan was the same way a few years ago, and that he grew up and now understands the purpose and spirit of giving. I'll give Nolan a few years to understand.

Too Cute for Words...

Blogging Thoughts

Blogging is fun. I like having snipets and memories recorded somewhere since my brain is incapable of remembering everything. However, I know that my blogs are not a totally accurate representation of my life. My blog is censored... I don't write everything I'd like to because I don't want to offend people who may read my blog. Jonathan went through my blog a few weeks ago and wasn't happy about certain things I'd written about him. He asked me to remove a few thing but I refused because hey, it's my blog. But since then, I make sure that my posts won't offend my readers, however jaded that makes my life appear.

The other day on the local news they did a story about blog safety. Evidently the new fun "cyber-crime" is to steal pictures and stories from blogs and pass them off as your own. They told about some mohawked kid whose picture was stolen and altered to make him look like a Nazi-Skinhead. I thought it was kid of funny because the lovely sheltered Utah family was sure people would recognize their kid and come after them with threats and violence. and I promise, the 3 boys and Dan really are mine and all our stories are true! Anyway, the news story gave tips on how to protect yourseld from "blogger theives". Evidently, I don't protect myself satisfactorally. I should have my blog password protected. I should never post pictures of my boys (then who would want to read my blog?). I should never use their real names. I am okay in 2 areas though... No home address is posted, nor do I have pictures of the inside of my house showing potential burglars what they could steal. Maybe I should take and post picture of the inside of my house... that way the potential burglars would know that we don't have anything worth stealing and they could commit their crime somewhere else.

4th Grade Politics

Nolan's 4th grade class held a mock Presidential Election today. There are 19 kids in his class. Nolan is a passionate Obama supporter, which cracks me up because Dan and I try to keep our public conversations apolitical. Anyway, Obama managed to get 2 votes, or 11% of the popular vote, in Miss Slaugh's class. Nolan had a lovely way of campaigning for his presidential candidate...

Election Day!

Go! Go! Go! Get to the polls if you didn't vote early! Dan and I voted last week. His new work schedule made it so that the only time Dan would be able to vote today would be in the final hour of voting, which in Utah is notorious for extraordinarily long lines. I wasn't too thrilled with the prospects of standing in a long voting line with Miles (as I waited about 40 minutes to vote in the Presidential Primary) so Dan and I tried out the early voting. We voted at the American Fork Library and had to wait 90 minutes to do so. It was worth it though (not that most of my votes really count in such a RED State) and today I am so glad that I will not have to deal with the parking and lines at our local polling place. Anyway, don't be lazy... don't procrastinate, get out early today and earn your "purple thumb". The Iraqi people were so excited to get to vote and get their "purple thumbs"... don't take your right to vote for granted!

Yum... Pie!

On Sunday my birthday was celebrated at the weekly Belnap dinner. What this entails is me dictating the menu and Bona preparing it. I always feel awkward "telling" Bona what to prepare. First, she is cooking for a small herd of people; second, food costs money; and third everyone is so picky! Anyway, I really didn't care what was for dinner as long as Bona's amazing Cheesy Potatoes were involved. She makes the best cheesy potatoes and I have her recipe but cannot duplicate her potatoes (she only uses the recipe as a guideline). I let Bona determine the rest of the menu. We ended up having homemade wheat rolls, Lynn's pistachio/pineapple/whipped cream/cottage cheese salad/creation, broccoli, and carrots. For dessert I asked for Bona's "Pop Balls". They are lightly sweetened maple flavored popcorn balls, but she told me Lynn wanted to make his "famous" apple pie. I said fine. Well, Bona made me her "Pop Balls" anyway and Lynn was busy making pie when we got to Parley and Bona's on Sunday. Lynn made 2 apple pies amd was rolling out the crust for a third pie... to my surprise he made me a raspberry pie! My love of raspberries is well known in the Belnap family (I am to raspberries as they are to ketchup!). The pie was hot from the oven and so good! The leftover pie was sent home with me. Guess what I had for breakfast today- the last of the pie (a la mode), and it was so good!

Miles

I just can't get enough of him!

Slow Saturday

Yesterday was a slow, calm day around here. Jonathan went to a merit badge PowWow at UVU where he worked on the Woodworking, Art, and American Cultures merit badges. He made a pretty cool Tic-Tac-Toe board. Dan took Jonathan to the PowWow and then met up with Kevin Stoker (who drove a carload of scout to BYU for the PowWow there) and they spent "PowWow Time" biking to/up Hobble Creek Canyon. Nolan stayed at home with me an "kicked it into gear" beacuse he wanted to go to Lagoon and ride "Wicked". Nolan did 3 piano piano practices, several jobs, and all his regular daily work so that he could be "eligible" to go to Lagoon. Dan and Jonathan got home from the PowWow and the 3 big boys went to Lagoon. I got to have a "Miles Day". It was Miles' sleepy day so he napped and ate and napped and ate for most of the day. I worked on the Christmas Card (nearly done), did 7 loads of laundry and held and admired Miles. Miles finally woke up for the day around 8:30 p.m. and played with me for until 11 p.m. (when he went to bed and slept for 6 hours, ate, and went back to bed). After a fabulously fun day of relatively short lines, the big boys made it home around 11:30 p.m. It was a nice day!

Also... Nolan decided that one day of costumes (Halloween) was not sufficient so he made his own mask yesterday. We love to eat the tortillas from Costco that you cook at home. We had them for breakfast yesterday. Nolan got creative with his tortilla and made himself a mask.