Ivan is 2 months!

Yesterday our sweet little baby had another doctor's appointment. Michael and I decided a while ago that it would be best for Ivan to receive all of the vaccinations he is supposed to get. So at this appointment he got like 7 vaccinations. One was an oral suspension and the rest were actual shots. Luckily some medical someone somewhere decided to combine some of the vaccines. So instead of getting stuck 6 times, he only got stuck 3. Still, that's a lot for a tiny baby. I absolutely love our pediatrician. He never makes us wait for very long, all his nurses are really personable, and he has the most excellent bedside manner. He stays and talks with us for as long as we need, gives us examples of what to look for in certain instances, and really prepares us for times when Ivan will be sick. I definitely recommend him. It almost makes me wish we were staying in the area so he could be Ivan's doctor forever. But don't tell Michael that... Maybe we'll just take Dr. Jones with us. Oh, that's the best part about our pediatrician, he's Indiana Jones! Ha ha, maybe not, we'll never know.
Ivan was in a pretty good mood before we went to the doctor. I woke him up to give him a bath and he didn't cry once, not even when I was drying him off, and that's a miracle. He's perfectly fine with being in the bath, but he doesn't like getting undressed for it and absolutely hates getting out of the bath and getting dried off. No crying this time though. He was happy and smiley when we were in the waiting room and moving like crazy when we weighed him. The doctor checked him out and everything looks good. Good muscle tone, good vocalization, good reflexes, an all around healthy baby. Then the nurse came in with the tray of needles and the juice stuff he had to drink. Thank goodness for the person that invented the sweet juice to distract the baby for even a moment while the nurses held him down and poked him 3 times in the legs. He did scream for that! He screamed so loud that his whole face and neck turned bright red and almost purple and held that scream for a good 10 seconds without taking a breath. Poor thing! Michael and I just laughed, sorry if that makes us bad parents, but Ivan doesn't know the difference. I did hold him and comfort him, of course, I just couldn't help but think his sad face was so cute it made me laugh. He stayed upset for a minute or two, then he entered... PANIC MODE. Panic mode is when Ivan gets too upset, scared, tired, whatever his trigger for crying is that he cries for a minute then stops and abruptly falls asleep. Not sure how he does it. Maybe it's a survival mechanism that tries to confuse predators into thinking he is dead. Pretty sure they would just eat him if he was dead though, so maybe it just helps Ivan to cope with things by not facing them. He knows when he wakes up that whatever set him off won't be there anymore. Maybe I should try that!

Panic mode entered.

Ivan is 22 inches tall now, that puts him in the 25th percentile for height.
He weighs 11 lbs 4 oz, that puts him in the 50th percentile for weight.
His head is ginormous, especially compared to his tiny little neck.
It measures 15.4 inches in circumference, that puts him between the 25th and 30th percentile for head stuff. My boy is getting so big!

Our new TOY

Ok, let's start by saying a gun is not a toy. You don't play with guns. Guns are never toys. As responsible adults... yes Michael and I are responsible adults, we do not admonish small children or immature people playing with guns. But since we're mature, we got one! Michael decided he wanted to sell the PS3 he had. He only had it for a couple months but when the new Call of Duty game came out, he had to have it. He traded Call of Duty Black Ops for Modern Warfare 3. I didn't like playing MW3 and I think that helped his decision to sell it. All of it. Instead of having extra money in our budget, we decided to do the responsible thing and redistribute it... again. We bought a single shot .22 from Michael's brother Chris while we were down for Thanksgiving. It's nothing big or fancy, but we see it as an investment. And we still have enough money left over to buy another one and be twinners with matching guns. Except I think we'll get a .22 with a clip and not a single shot. We've both shot guns before on multiple occasions, and I have a lot of experience with a bolt action, thanks dad! Eventually we want to get into the whole hunting game and getting really good at shooting has to start somewhere. Plus, with a .22 we can shoot all day and only spend a couple bucks versus shooting a shotgun for a couple minutes and coming out bruised to pieces or shooting a big rifle and spending lots of money. See, our reasoning really is reason. So we took Ivan and our good friend Sydney with us to the Menan Buttes and had a little fun. I think we were only out for an hour before our toes were froze, but Ivan slept the whole time. He's pretty good at letting us have our fun. 

Since we were going to be outside for a while Ivan needed to wear his winter coat. Thanks Nana and Papa for getting this! We actually left Ivan in the car, that way he's protected from the noise (cuz a .22 is so loud?) and the cold. Don't worry, whoever wasn't shooting was watching him. I swear that's a smile on his face, it's just such a big one you can't tell!

Here's a better idea of how big this thing is right now. His arms go about half way through the sleeve and his legs end about halfway through the bottom of the coat. Thank goodness this thing will fit him for a while though, it's super warm and he seems to enjoy the peek-a-boo aspect of the coat. 

My super hot husband.

Our friend Sydney. This is her first time shooting a gun. And she's pretty good.

I couldn't hit anything from too far away. Neither could Michael, so that's ok right? 

I did tear up this can though! Michael put the tab inside the can and I shot it out the back! I put 3 or 4 shots all in a line on the front of the can.

After we were done there we fed the ducks. There are more than that too. And they were a little crazy. Michael had me backed up against the car and was throwing bread at my feet. All the ducks swarmed over there and I got bit! On the leg! Crazy. 

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we were able to spend Thanksgiving with Michael's family. We all went to Salt Lake City to enjoy the luxury of Christopher and Laura's very nicely sized home... Oh one day I'll have a house like that... For the record, I really really like their house, even if it is in the city. It was a bit difficult to get the time off of work to make the trip though. At the clinic I work at there is one receptionist, 3 vet techs, a groomer, and the veterinarian. On our busy days, Monday and Friday, we have to have 3 people there and the vet (4 total). The receptionist works Monday - Friday but has Wednesday off. I work Monday and Friday mornings and all day Wednesday. Another girl works Monday, Wed, Fri afternoons and all day Tuesday & Thursday. A different girl works all day Monday and Friday and mornings Wednesday. Confusing, right? Pretty much nobody works full time (so none of us get benefits) and there are only just enough of us to work exactly the amount of shifts that need to be covered. This means getting time off sucks. The clinic was closed Thursday and the vet had to get his knee scoped to see if his meniscus was torn (it was and he got the torn ligaments removed and is fine now). So all of us got Thanksgiving off, but just one day for the holiday kinda sucks. One girl has Wednesdays off as part of her schedule already, so she was covered. Since the vet had his knee scoped, Friday was going to be a light day and we only needed 2 people to work. We really only needed one person to work, and the vet of course, but somebody wasn't ok with cleaning all the kennels by themselves... So that gave another person 2 days off. Now there's just me and someone else. I agreed to work all day Friday so that gave the girl that works afternoons that day 2 days off. Now there's just me. Originally I wanted Friday off, but since I had to work 8-12 Saturday it didn't make much sense. Instead I opted to have someone cover my shift Wednesday. That worked out nicely. Michael rearranged his schedule to get off in the afternoon Tuesday so we could leave right after. Then I'm not sure if someone forgot they were working for me or if they just wanted to have an extra day off, but I got asked if I could work Wednesday... What am I supposed to say? No? Pretty sure that's not really an option. I like my job and would like to stay there as long as we're in Rexburg. So I said if I absolutely have to, then I reminded them of the arrangement we had made prior. So I ended up waiting until Tuesday at noon to see if I needed to work Wednesday. And I didn't, yay! We were the first ones to arrive at Chris and Laura's for the holiday celebration, but I can't say we were all too entertaining. The drive was long and sleeping hasn't been very rewarding lately. But it was nice to hang out a bit before everyone else got there. We did make sure to stop at In-N-Out on the way down. :] Wednesday (how dumb of a spelling is that?) Michael sold the PS3 and brought back Carl's Jr. strawberry biscuits. Love it! We hung out for a while and finally convinced Chris to get off work early, thanks Chris! It just wouldn't be the same hanging out with Laura if she couldn't enjoy the company of her husband! Then we went to Chick-fil-a, cuz it's awesome! Man, it's a good thing we don't live in Salt Lake, we'd be broke and super fat from all the restaurants we don't have here. We had the worst timing ever with going there though. Seems like everyone in town wanted Chick-fil-a at the same time and there were tons of people there. We actually had to hover around someone's table as they were leaving so we could sit there. Then as we were leaving an hour later, there was like no one there. Dumb. But the food was amazing as usual.

Ivan was more than happy to sneak us in a drink. And he slept the whole time. Don't be fooled by his eyes being open, he's good at that, fooling people that is.

Ben was more than content to just hang out on the bench for a little bit while Jane and Megan played.

After that we took a trip to Provo and visited Michael's Wampler grandparents. They are awesome. Chris and Laura came too. Before we got to their house though, we stopped off at Michael's aunt's house. It's only about 5 minutes away from our original destination anyway. It was good to visit them and let everyone meet Ivan. Plus Ivan got to meet a dog up close and personal for the first time. I can tell he loves animals already! Well, maybe he's just too flaccid to be able to react too much to anything we put in his face.... We'll see. Then we enjoyed the Golden Corral with Chris, Laura, Jane, Megan, Ben, Ivan, me, Michael, and Michael's grandparents. I'm pretty darn excited that Ivan gets to know his great grandparents so well at such a young age and having them there is so fun!

Here's the Wampler Great-Grandparents, and Chris and Jane in the background :]

After this we were planning on going to Cabela's, cuz there isn't one here. We enjoy seeing all the taxidermy and just drooling over all the things we would like to have someday. Like a good tent, good boots, and guns. Someday. We had forgotten one thing. We were an hour away from Chris and Laura's and the rest of Michael's family was arriving that day. Brenda is living in Salt Lake, with Laura, and is currently doing a clinical/ internship type thing. She's all smart and stuff and is practically a physical therapist already. It was the evening already, hence eating dinner, and Brenda wanted to spend time with us. So Chris and Michael went to Cabela's and Laura and I went home with the kids. By the time we got back Brenda had left, which is understandable, why wait around for us when you could be doing other fun things. It was good though, I got to spend some quality time with Jane and Megan. They are so funny! I would share a story, but it's really not appropriate, that's how funny it is! We stayed up late talking and having fun, then we went to our hotel. We stayed at a Marriott downtown for 20 bucks! It was nice to watch some tv. I have to say since we don't have cable at home, anytime I get closed to a tv with cable I'm sucked in. And Michael enjoyed the hot tub Thursday morning. On Turkey day, we ate, watched the Curious George movies, had lots of desserts, played games, and had loads of fun! The babies were good for us most of the time. Ivan wanted to be held while we were eating lunch, so he slept in my lap while we ate. After dessert, Jane and Megan wanted to play a game. Jane (who is almost 4) told Megan (who is 2) that she couldn't play because she had a silly face. Megan had eaten a slice of chocolate pudding pie and left some on her face for later. Jane told Megan to lick it off her face and showed her how. Megan couldn't quite get it, so Jane tried to lick it of off Megan's face for her! It's much funnier if I tell you in person. I'm always interested in what kind of personality Ben will have since Jane and Megan are just so colorful. Gotta love 'em.

The cause of Michael's wrist pain?

I love playing games! Especially the Bean Game, my favorite. 

My favorite people, I am such a lucky girl.

Since I had to work on Friday, we needed to leave that night and head back home. Before we could do that, we needed to go black Friday shopping. Toys-R-Us opened at 9. We got there at about 8:40, waited in line half a mile from the door, and were in the store by 9:20. Not too shabby. Then we realized the baby stuff didn't go on half off sale til 5 am. Lame. So we left, all we wanted from there was a jumparoo for Ivan. We immediately went to WalMart. Conveniently enough we got there right at 10, which is when most of the things went on sale. They put the movies at the front of the store, and we really like movies. I just so happen to be small enough to slip through people and weasel my way in to small places. I was able to get to the front and get some pretty sweet movies. We got 8 movies for 25 bucks brand new. We picked up a present for Jane, a safe, and 26 piece tupperware set. We left there at about 11:30. Not bad! We knew exactly what we wanted and spent the majority of our time at the store waiting in the check out line. We are definitely grateful that people were fairly nice and that we didn't have to bring Ivan with us. And that was it. I went back to work Friday and got to decorate the lobby for Christmas and we set up our tree on Sunday. Yesterday was my brother's birthday, shout out to him and his awesome beard.

Ivan's preferred sleeping spot.

Yep, his pants are on his head. This way you don't lose them or get them dirty. Everyone's doing it. 

Aw, our cute little family.

In other news, we recently discovered that Ivan is destined to work on computers... the I.T. man. He is also cousin IT to Jane, Megan, Ben, Paul Jr, Ryan, and Emma. (cuz his name is Ivan Tyler)

Pondering

I would like to say that my life is overwhelmingly busy and that every day is full of exciting activities that completely consume all of my time. However, most of my days are spent on facebook or pinterest or watching movies. When I'm not doing those things I'm thinking to myself how can this baby be so fussy?! Nuts, right? Recently I have become aware of just how thoughtless and selfish I can be. Not that I haven't always been that way, but I haven't been able to see it til now. I know that November is the month of gratitude and what not, but what I'm feeling right now surpasses any kind of thankfulness. I have been given so much I can't even name everything. I know that the most important things in my life aren't things, they are my family. I love my family, my parents and my siblings, my grandparents and my cousins, aunts and uncles, but I love the family that I created so much more than I ever imagined. I chose to be chosen by the most special man in the world. He knows and understands me like no one else ever will. He helps me when I need it, and even more when I think I don't. He makes me laugh, constantly. Seriously, that's the best ab workout ever. He and I were able to bring the most precious baby into this world and to call him our own. And we get to keep him! Sure he poops a lot, and it smells really bad, but I'd rather be changing his diaper than have to face this world without him. It's now that I can appreciate my parents and Michael's parents more than ever. And I even look at other moms who have more than one kid and sit in awe of how they do it. Ivan is my most favorite person. He is so sweet and beautiful and has so much potential. I am so in love with him. Every day I get to wake up and see his beautiful face and spend time with him. He is smiling so much right now and he started making all this cute little baby noises. His cries are starting to sound different so I can tell what means he's hurt and what means he's hungry. I know that not everyone out there believes in the same things that I do, but I know that what matters most to me is the opportunity to be on this earth, to be human, to love and be loved, to learn, and to return to where I came from. I know that God does not discriminate from one person to the next, but I do know that things are made easier with the knowledge of what is in store for us. I have struggled, obviously, with pregnancy and having children. I've always know that is what I want, of course it's what I want, I'm a woman right? And I do believe that there are certain nurturing characteristics that women are prone to have. But I never thought it would be so hard. I can remember being a teenager and looking at pregnant women with their cute bellies and thinking that there could be nothing more fulfilling, how can anyone complain about that? Now that I've gone through it, I'm back to that same mindset. During that experience was a whole different story. Sure the timing of Ivan's birth could have been a little different, like maybe after I finished school. But if I had the chance to change it I wouldn't, but mostly because I'm too afraid that would change him. Maybe you can't tell a lot about who a person is going to become when he is just a baby, maybe you can. And maybe it's all up to me and my husband to make all the difference. I don't ever want to hold Ivan back from a test or a trial just to make it easier for him. I want him to learn and to grow and to be filled with a greater love and knowledge than anything just here on earth. I want him to know he has a father in Heaven that is constantly watching over him. I want Ivan to want to make the difference in someone else's life. I'm sure this all sounds like a bunch of ramblings, but I felt the need to write it. I want to be able to look back at this when times get hard and I get discouraged and remember the hopefulness and incredible love that I felt for this tiny little person before he knew it was possible to be loved so much. I am so grateful to be a mom and to have to work at it. It's a hard job, but I was made for this.

Raspberry Cheesecake... CUPCAKES!!!

To give credit where credit is due, this recipe is from Annie's Eats and I found it on Pinterest. That has been my favorite thing lately. I thought I would give a really good recipe to start with, and have pictures with it so that one day I can make a blog book of just my recipes and hand it down. Wouldn't that be cool? So here comes the bombardment of cooking!

Yield
32 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the crust:
1½ cups graham cracker crumbs (I like crust, so I used 2 cups here)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted (6 tbsp here)
3 tbsp. sugar (and 4 tbsp here)

For the topping:
6 oz. fresh raspberries
2 tbsp. sugar

For the filling:
2 lbs. cream cheese, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature

It is very important that the eggs and cream cheese are at room temperature. The eggs being at room temperature make the filling fluffy and light rather than too dense. The cream cheese is 100 time easier to mix at room temperature. That being said, put the cream cheese in your mixer bowl first so it can get to room temperature in there rather than in the wrapper. This makes it easier to get out of the package, and it seems to warm up a bit faster. It takes about 2 to 3 hours for the cheese to warm up, unless you cheat. The eggs take about 30 minutes and there is no cheating with them. 

Preheat the oven to 325. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a small bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups graham crackers, 3 tbsp sugar, and 4 tbsp melted unsalted butter. Stir with fork until all dry ingredients are moist. Press 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake paper. I used a bottle to press the mixture firmly, any small sized cup would work as well. Bake for 5 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack.

To make the raspberry puree, combine 6 ounces of fresh raspberries with 2 tablespoons of sugar in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth, about a minute, then press through a mess sieve to remove the seeds. Using a bigger mess sieve (wire strainer) goes by a lot faster.

I just used a spoon to press the raspberry against the side of the sieve. Make sure you empty it often so it's easier for the juice to get through without the seeds in the way.

To make the cheesecake, beat the cream cheese (the stuff you let get to room temperature) on medium high speed in an electric mixer until fluffy. If you want to cheat, at least pull the cream cheese out of the fridge when you get all the ingredients out, then put the flat beater on the mixer and mix on stir making sure to stop every minute or so to scrape the sides and the beater. After about 5 minutes, change beaters to the wisk beater. Mix on medium high speed until fluffy. 

This is fluffy. It looks a little chunky, but it's definitely much smoother than a block of cream cheese.

Blend in 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth.

This is smooth. It should feel like frosting and come off the beater easily.

Mix in a pinch of salt and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. I never know how much a pinch is, so I used a dash from my salt shaker. Beat the eggs in one at a time, mixing well after each one. You'll know if it's mixed well if you no longer see any yellow in the bowl. 

To assemble, first replace each cupcake liner in the cupcake pans, spoon 3 tablespoons of the cheesecake batter over the crust in each cupcake liner. I spooned the 3 tbs for the first one and used a measuring cup to pour the same amount into each of the remaining cupcake liners. Don't over do it and put more than that amount in each cupcake. If you do, the filling will double in size in the oven and cause a sunken look to your cupcakes. It all tastes the same, but its kind of disappointing when you're expecting something beautiful to happen. Stirring just the cheesecake filling inside the cupcake liner before adding the puree helps prevent this as well. Dot 1/2 teaspoon of raspberry puree in a few dots over the cheesecake filling. Use the first couple cupcakes to decide just how much puree you want to use. Use a toothpick or wooden skewer to swirl the raspberry, creating the marble look. The more raspberry you add, the less marble you will get. 

Aren't they beautiful? The more small dots of raspberry you put, the easier it is to marble. 

Bake, still at 325, until the filling is set, so about 22 minutes. Don't  worry, they're gonna be puffed up, but they'll go back to normal. Transfer to cooling rack and let cool to room temperature. Then move to the fridge and let chill for at least 4 hours before serving. 

We had these at Ivan's blessing party and they were amazing! I think next time I'll actually use all the raspberry puree on the cupcakes and care a little less about the marbling. I hope all my hints help. I found them all very useful and it made my job so much easier. 

Ivan is a month!

Let's just start by saying I have one cute baby. He is smiling a lot now, sometimes when I smile at him and sometimes because he has to spit up. He's rolled over a few more times since he was 2 weeks, I think bringing the count to 10 or something. Yesterday he weighed 9 pounds 9 ounces, meaning he's gaining an ounce a day. What a fatty! We had fun on Halloween passing out candy, he held the bag for me. Ivan is getting a little better at sleeping at night. He's only up 2 or 3 times. In other news, I went back to work last Wednesday and it has been crazy! October is our spay and neuter month where we give everyone that lives in the county $20 off any spay or neuter. This can really add up when you have 4 or 5 cats. For city residents, the animal shelter received a grant from the state or something that allows them to give $50 gift certificates for any spay or neuter. On a typical day at the clinic we can have anywhere between 0 and 4 surgeries to include spays and neuters. During October, they've had between 8 and 10 and it's intense. I especially feel bad because I was on maternity leave from the first til the 26. And that's mainly why I went back to work so quickly. My first day back we had 10 surgeries and we didn't get done til late. Then they decided it would be just great to have me come in and work Thursday too, even though my schedule is Monday Wednesday Friday and every other Saturday. So I worked Thursday, and Friday, and was supposed to have Saturday off but due to a miscommunication, I ended up working it. Well, that's fine with me, that just means I have the Saturday off that Michael's family will be in town. I have to say though, going back to work is easier in some ways, like now I can reach all the way across the work table without a huge belly in the way, but much much harder in others. I didn't know I'd still be in some pain this long after delivery. I also didn't know I'd get this tired that much faster. And I have to leave my sweet baby with a baby sitter on Wednesdays. The rest of the time, Michael watches him, but I work all day Wednesdays and just half days the other times. Michael works evenings those days and we have a 3 hour overlap. The girl that watches him is super nice, we're actually pretty good friends. I trust her, and I know she does a good job, especially because Ivan has a thing for brunettes. He smiles at any woman with dark hair. I don't know if it's the contrast or if he just likes that it's different that what he sees all the time. So watch out ladies. I took a bunch of pictures of him today, and I'm pretty impressed. I know it's not hard to take beautiful pictures when the subject you're photographing is beautiful, but I did add props :]

He looks so deep in thought!

I just barely missed a smile.

Try my fist to your face style! For those Kung Pow lovers out there. 

His favorite position to sleep in.