Isn't This Fun

I hear babies in my head all the time. Even when I'm feeding Holden so I know he's not crying, I hear baby noises coming from somewhere else in the house. I have concluded that I either have supernatural hearing and can detect other babies on our street (oh wait there are none) or I'm auditorially insane.

This is Holden's new favorite item - his tummy time mat. He gets to hold himself up high and have lots of colors to look at. He's a very pensive baby. He just sits and studies things so intently that you'd think he's conducting algorithms in his head. Of course he might just be thinking about his next poop. Or about nothing at all. We really have no way of knowing.
Holden and I have been hanging out all day listening to the soundtrack of "enchanted"- best CD ever. We dance to it together and I sing and he chirps. It's the best.

Super Secret Spy Stuff

I'm sorry, I just had to post this.

So Jonathan and I are driving home from the gym Saturday morning (in related news, there will be a wake this weekend for the passing of my biceps - 1981-2008) and we're behind a large, black SUV kind of vehicle (could have been an Explorer). I notice in the bottom right corner this symbol of the Freemasons.

This image popped into my mind. I always knew the outfit reminded me of something.

Friends are Fabulous

My fantastic friend Sarah Jo gave me this wrap for Holden and I love it. First of all, it's red. Hello, my favorite color. Second of all, Holden likes it - which is important since he's the one in it. And Third, I look like a hot mama wearing it around town.

This is us at the Gateway where we had one of our first dates with Holden. We tried to keep him in the house quite a bit at first, but he's finally at an age (and weight - what a chunk) where we can take him out a little bit more.


And these (below) are some of my fabulous friends that I lived with in a house across the street from the Capitol Building in Salt Lake after college. I can't believe we have kids now.



We all got together after the holidays. It was mayhem with all the kids but fun. It's Leah, Rachel, Meghan, me and Mindy. Meghan was an honorary roommate.

Just an interesting side-note, all of our children look like their fathers...what is up with that? Holden is a little version of Wes to be sure. In fact, I call him Wessie on accident all the time. I've heard some crazy theories about that - like how with your first born your body genetically "selects" features from the male so that the male (ie husband) is more inclined to stick around, because there is no doubt he's the father. I'm not sure how much I buy into that. Any thoughts?

You make my bathtime lots of fun

Holden absolutely loves water. He loves hearing it, he loves playing in it...he's just a natural water baby. When the water is running in the sink or the bathtub, he gets very quiet and still, his ears perked in anticipation of something fun.
Every few days we take baths together and he stretches back in the tub and moves his head around in it, kicks his legs and arches his neck back so that his ears can dip under water. It's so cute. And weird, I didn't know anybody liked their ears under water. I can't stand it. Anyway, he's the cutest thing ever.

"5 Years, my brain hurts a lot"

It's a David Bowie lyric, I swear. But it's applicable to this date in time. Five years ago today was my big car accident. Today's a birthday of sorts for me. It's been five years since I almost died, since I died financially (!), and since I annhilated my sister Kiera's car.
I've told several of you I show you some pictures for some time now. I thought today would be an appropriate time. Now you all can see where my complex comes from regarding picture taking and the right side of my face. (I'm serious - take a look at my reflection in a mirror some time and you'll see how drastically different the two sides of my face are.)

Here on the left is what remained of the car I was driving. It was a Geo Prizm, and it rocked - so I bought another one (which I still drive today). It was basically a head-on collision with a Suburban and yes, I was wearing my seat belt. That, and the air bag, are what saved me.
It just begs the Radiohead lyric "In a fast German car/ I'm amazed that I survived/ an airbag saved my life."



Here are a couple hospital pics. I love the detail of the top picture - you can see my pre-op ear just hanging off my head, but you can't see all the crazy trauma until the bottom picture, where my face is spilling off the side of the neck brace. My right hand also got pretty torn up, which had me worried for a couple weeks. But it's fully functional now, although I can never bowl beyond 5 frams without starting to feel the aches and pains.

These pictures are post-operation. As you can see in the bottome picture, they cut open my scalp so as to fold my face down and reconstruct my face. It made for an awesome haircut for months to come. They also made a sizeable incision under my right eye in order to access and rebuild my orbital.
My eye was swollen shut for a few weeks and I spent a lot of time in that position, right in front of the TV. I don't remember much from those days in bed doing nothing but watching "Real World" reruns. Probably because there was nothing to remember.
In these pictures I'm sporting a "Delta Center Post-Game Clean-Up Crew" smock, which still hangs in my closet. I believe there are only one or two of you reading this that will remember its origins (a post-monster truck rally cleaning gig at the Delta Center to benefit the cheerleading squad. There was only one thing that could get me to clean up after a bunch of rednecks at 1 AM - cheerleaders.).

This whole accident ordeal was an experience I'll always be grateful for. It's got to be one of the single most seminal events of my life and I think about it every day. But most of all I have to thank the doctors for giving me the Brad Pitt cheekbone I'd always wanted. It's the reason I was able to swindle the hottest gal I've ever seen into marrying me.

If ever, oh ever, a Wiz there was....

I can't believe it's been so long since we've posted anything. My excuse is that I don't have any pictures of Holden on my computer and all I want to talk about is him. Wes' only excuse is that he's having too much fun with the new Wii he got for Christmas, which is taking place of all his previous hobbies. Christmas was a lot of fun this year. I got all the clothes I could have wished for to help welcome me back into the world of non-pregnancy. And Wes got a Wii, guitar hero and a new stereo for his car. And Holden got nothing. Well, nothing from us. He got a brand new quilt from his Grandma Lois that is the theme of his room - Wizard of Oz. And he got a new picture of Wizard of Oz from his uncle Stefan. And he got a bunch of presents from his Grammy Pammy. His room looks so great with all the Wizard of Oz stuff. I'll take a picture and show you, I promise. Soon. As soon as Wes finished building the shelves in there.

But for now here's the only picture I have. It's Holden's favorite position. I sit at the table and work on my laptop and he hangs out like this on my lap. He's such a good boy. Now if only we could get him to sleep longer than 3 hours at a time at night! When will that happen?