Friday Randoms

1- We are blessing Holland this weekend at our church.  As such, we have family in town.  A lot of family that's not usually here.  I can't begin to say how excited I am to hang out with my brothers and their familes again.  And see Ben's dad again (so soon!).  And get so many of our dear friends and local family together in one place.

There will be lots of cleaning and cooking over the next few days, but we have some of our favorite kitchen friends in town, so it will be FUN!

2- I am in love with Pinterest. 

 Like, obsessively in love with it.  It combines my love of pretty things with my need to ORGANIZE.  Especially in a digital sense.  I am really hoping it helps to inspire me to finish a few of those unfinished projects I've had bookmarked forever.

3- A few photos of life in our house this week (before I went back to work)

 Melissa created the comic book shot.  I think it was actually taken a couple of weeks ago...  but it's fun, right?

4- Is there anyone out there that still feels passionately (in a positive way) about his/her job?  I listen to a lot of people talk about their work, and it has started me wondering...  This economy leaves everyone with fewer choices, more responsibility, and less pay for the hard work we do.

At what point does all of this discontent lead to a work force that is SO annoyed with their current situations that they turn off their brains and their productivity and become a group who just shows up and collects a pay check, but doesn't actually accomplish much?

I'm not an economist, or a psychologist...  these are just things I wonder...

5- While getting my hair cut last weekend, I had the stylist try to teach me how to do my hair in the very popular look seen here:

So the question of the weekend...  Will I be able to do this to my own hair?  Or will it just turn out straight because I'm doing it with a flat iron and am not as skilled as said stylist?

And more than that...  will it even look good if I DO get it to work?

I will return with photographic evidence of the answer, as we're having family pictures taken on Sunday.  Wish me luck! (and leave me any tips you might have, if you know how to do this on your own head)

The End

I go back to work tomorrow.  Maternity leave is at an end...  far too soon.

You'd think I would have done something spectacular today to mark this transition.  I didn't.  I spent the day at home with my kids, making a short trip to Provo for lunch with Ben and our friend Korianne, of whom I see far too little.

The last 7 weeks have been filled with a little of this:

(Ben's sister had a baby 2 weeks after Holland was born.  I have a feeling this will be the first of MANY photos of the 2 of them together.)

And a lot of this:

And a even more of this:

Only in the past week or so have I gotten particularly ambitious or productive.  We are having Holland's blessing this weekend, and both of my brothers get to come up for it.  As such, we are getting a Webster family photo taken.  And for this photo, I needed something for Holland to wear in yellow.  I was struggling to find something I liked.  So I thought to myself, "you've always loved those pinafore dresses you see on Etsy.  Just make one!"  So I dragged two kids to my favorite fabric store, where I found the perfect fabrics.  And managed to buy enough for two other dresses as well, because they were too cute and I am a sucker for cute fabric...  This was the result:

(forgive the lighting.  It was a VERY dark day, and my house lights are murder on color)

 They still need the diaper covers to go under them, but I didn't plan well for the fabric for those, so I haven't finished them.  I have a white one with cute ruffles I'll use for Sunday's photos if I don't get around to it by then.

We are also making progress on finishing Holland's nursery, but I'll leave the reveal on that one until we are actually done.  It's getting close!  Just a few more elements to go!

Time Flies

Maternity leave is officially FLYING by for me.  I hate to admit how many hours a day I spend glued to my couch holding my baby.  For one thing, the girl loves to be held.  Seriously loves it.  Hates to be put down, and won't sleep anywhere else but on or next to another beating heart. 

I'm sure some of you will have some sage advice about spoiling her, so let me stop you there.  I don't really believe you can spoil a kid that's less than 6 weeks old.  not really.  And also...

I want to hold her.  She is likely (unless God has strong feelings otherwise) the last baby I will give birth to, and I want to hold her.  I go back to work in 2 weeks, so I am going to milk it.  Even if I "shouldn't".  Even if it makes us have to spend some time weaning her (I do put her down, it's just not something she's a big fan of.  She has strong opinions)

On the plus side, she sleeps pretty well, if she's next to someone...  several hours at a time sometimes (though 2.5-3 is her average still)  And I have to admit, I am surprisingly unworried about that.  I'm exhausted too, but this whole second time around thing is making me fully aware that everything passes.  There's no point getting worked up about much of anything, because I'll blink and it will be different.  That's just how babies are.

So instead I will love her the way she is now and try to remember this cute face as a tiny one.

And also try not to murder her VERY talkative brother in the next two weeks.

Just kidding.

Mostly.

Do you think they look alike?  This is Nolan at the same age...

Photo Shoots

 We had an amazing photo shoot last week with one of the fantastic photographers we work for.  

I can't tell you how excited I am by how these turned out.  

Our hope was to capture our family as we are now...  in our element...  in our home.  

I was really nervous that there wouldn't be enough light in our townhouse...  but Jess did a fantastic job!

Take a look at the slideshow she put together for us!

Meet Holland Taylor Hess

Holland's entrance into this world was...  a little bit dramatic.  

Not only was she almost 3 weeks early, but the surgery that brought her into this world created some rather interesting side effects for her mother.  

I'm not going to go into the whole long story here, except to say that in the process of my surgery, I had a really weird, and rather unsettling (for those around me.  I have no memory of it) reaction to some of the medication that was used in my epidural.

As a result,  She was a little bit late in getting to meet her brother and the rest of the family...  

But meet him she did

And he loved her.

He is by far her biggest fan, as you can see. 

We are all pretty big fans too...  Just take a look at that face:

More soon, when we're getting a little more sleep around here...

Planting

After being on real bed rest (I'm not supposed to be up for more than 5 minutes at a time...  which I don't always stick to, but I try) for 8 days now, I am kind of sick of thinking about how I'm stuck here.

In all of his crazy busy life this week, Ben was determined that we have a good Monday night family night, so he bought a "project" for us.  Since it appears that we will be sticking around this house for a while yet, we decided we're going to try again at planting some edibles in our garden.  It's still snowing on and off, so we started our garden in our own little indoor greenhouse.

We have cilantro, basil, yellow string beans, sugar snap peas, lettuce, & spinach seeds to start.

We'll start the corn when it gets a little bit warmer.

Nolan was SO excited to PLANT THINGS!

 

They added water to the  special pods to help them expand

 

This is Nolan getting SO excited to add the seeds

 

He liked dropping them on top...  but he wasn't a fan of getting the dirt on his hands, so we compromised and Ben did all of the burying.  Nolan just dropped in the seeds.

 

Then they put on the lid...  and we wait.

They had a great time with their project, even if they couldn't both smile for the camera at the same time.

And my blood pressure went back down after a while. . .  I just couldn't sit this one out.

Pressure

This pregnancy just keeps getting better and better.

Today is day 2 of serious bed rest for me.

Thursday afternoon of last week I got a migraine.  So what, you say?  Yeah, so did I.  I get them occasionally.  Less often when I'm pregnant (one every 2 weeks instead of 1-2 a week) but I still get them.  I can usually take a pretty low dose of Excedrin or Fioricet and they go away.  Usually, it only takes one of those solutions.  But that night, neither one worked.  I didn't sleep much and the headache kept raging...  Of course, I panicked a little, having heard a thing or two about pre-eclampsia, and called the dr.  I went in to have them check my blood pressure and it was high.  Way too high.  So they sent me to the hospital to be monitored.  They gave me a shot to relieve the headache, and it went down...  but I was sent home to be on bed rest and monitor my numbers.  Only the way the nurse described bed rest just sounded like "take it easy.  Don't do anything strenuous.  stay off of your feet as much as you can".  So I went to my baby shower, and tried to take it easy over the weekend at my parent's house.

And then, Sunday night, I checked my blood pressure.  It had stayed in the high end of normal all weekend until that time, when it went up pretty high again...  and I felt gross.  So I laid down.  We drove home, and I checked it again when we got here...  and it was even higher.  I had no idea what to do...  so I went to bed.  Decided to call the doctor in the morning.

And 2 days later...  here I sit.  I am officially on bed rest until the end of my pregnancy.  When will that be?  Who knows.  It definitely won't be later than April 14th...  but if my blood pressure goes up again and won't come back down...  it could be earlier than that.

This is definitely not how I expected my pregnancy to end.  I spent so many days at the end of my first one on long walks and nesting that to sit here in bed feels really foreign to me...  even if I am working while I sit here.  It is all I can do not to be up and around and getting ready for this little girl to join us...  but in the end, this is what will get her here safely...  so it's what we're doing.

Kids.

They're never predictable, are they?

Forget Belly Shots

I will now post pictures of my super fat feet once a week so that you can feel sorry for me and my inability to bend my toes. :)

And my inability to reach my toes to repaint them, apparently.

Catching up

What's that?  I didn't post ONCE in February?  

Oops.

I wish I could say I had a back log of posts all saved up to publish...  but alas.  Between day jobs, night jobs (Ben is teaching a class for BYU's EMPA program this semester along with our OOF work), purging our house in order to get it ready to sell, and pregnancy, and all of the joyful symptoms that come with it in my world...  Let's just say there hasn't been a lot of documenting going on around here.  

I know.  Excuses excuses.

So here are a few things to redeem myself.

First, the Oscars.  I was THRILLED with the winners, for the most part.  I loved The King's Speech.  LOVED it.  I would have been just as happy with Inception winning, but that wasn't going to happen.  I'm just glad The Social Network didn't take home the big prizes.  It deserved the ones it won, and I feel like most everyone got their due...  I WILL come back and do a movie review post...  perhaps next week.  I have a LOOONNGG list to update on, but I'll do it.

Second.  I am 32 weeks pregnant tomorrow. (I didn't do my hair for this photo...  sorry 'bout that)  32 looonnnggg weeks.  I am still throwing up on average 4 times a day.  Completely exhausted ALL of the time.  If there's anything harder than your first pregnancy...  it's subsequent pregnancies when you have other small beings to take care of on top of the one you're growing.  I must admit...  I hate it.  Every second of it.  I'm SO ready to be done.  I'm scared to death to have a baby again.  Scared to death for the constant neediness and the lack of sleep.

That said, I'm also REALLY excited to meet this little girl.  If everyone could do a lot of praying that she'll be a mellow little angel baby, to make up for the past 9 months, I would really appreciate it.  It would certainly make it easier to look back on the past little while with less stress and more fondness.

Third.  Nolan is currently 3 going on 13.  Bless his heart, he has a real talent for sass.  I can't believe how amazing he's become at communicating what he wants and needs.  I'm curious to know who decided that two is the hardest age...  I'm finding 3 to be much more challenging, as far as behavior.  On the other hand, he is becoming incredibly social and enjoys running off to play with his cousins or his friends.  I love his new found independence.  I love that he can help me a little around the house, even if it often becomes a fight to make him follow through.  I love that he is starting to wrap his brain around things like spelling and addition and imagination.  He has many "pretend friends" that come to hang out with us on a regular basis.  Some of them are characters from his favorite games and shows.  Some are real people that he wishes were at his house to play.  It's hilarious to watch the stories he comes up with.  He's getting to be a real character.  

I redid his interview from last Spring, just to see how much he's changed. I've actually done this several times over the last 6 months, but this one has turned out the best, so check it out!

Sundancing 2011

Sundance has been a bit compressed this year...  piling a bunch of films into one weekend, and then leaving the final one for just a couple of days later.  We did this for a reason...  Dallas and Helen were supposed to come up from AZ for the festival, but alas, a very sick little girl made it impossible for this year.

This photo kind of sums up the experience, except that, frankly, I was smiling because Melissa was making me laugh, not because I was completely content. . . I mean, I was was content...  just tired.  This was right before movie #4 of the day for me, and to say my pregnant self was a little tired...  that would be an understatement.  Which is sort of dumb, because I basically sat on my rear end the whole day.

Ben was happily killing pigs on his phone... and I'm not sure WHAT was so important to Nick, but clearly it required a great deal of focus.

Anyway, here are our 4 films (I also went to see The King's Speech in the middle of the first day because we had a break) and how I felt about each...

Vampire

Let's just say this was a vaguely interesting concept that could have been brilliant, but instead fell flat on its face.  It was about a guy who had a compulsive need to drink human blood, but went about it in a different way...  It was directed by a Japanese man who didn't speak English, but the film was in English.  And let's just say that the disconnect he must have had with the actors was quite apparent.  

If, by some miracle, it gets picked up...  skip it.

The Guard

I can probably count on one hand the number of Sundance films I've ever seen that I laughed out loud through...  at least because they were genuinely funny.  This movie was HILARIOUS.  The language was pretty awful, but I know it's been picked up, so if language doesn't bug you, see it.  You will laugh your head off.  & Brendan Gleeson is AMAZING.

Like Crazy

This movie has received RAVE reviews from critics.  RAVE reviews.  And none of the 4 of us that saw it have any clue why. And it's not that we don't generally like independent film.  Not at all.  But this movie was DULL!  The characters had no arc.  There was very little dialogue, and what there was felt improved (in a bad way).  It was a little too "slice of life" for any of us...  So, WHAT are we missing that every critic that saw it loved?  Is it because the director is someone they like and therefore they SHOULD like his work?  No idea.  But I didn't like it.  At all.  And when it's up for an Oscar next year, I will still maintain that position.

The Ledge

So, when I was wtching this movie, I got swept along a little.  The actors are good ENOUGH that you try to care.  (Patrick Wilson in particular) You try to follow along and expect it to hit some sort of great climax.  It really just doesn't.   It should, though.  The idea of it is a good one.  It's just suffering, in a big ugly way, from writer/director syndrome...  sad.  I like this review of it a lot.  

And I'm not willing to tell you that much about it...  so read his instead.

Christmas in UT

This year was the year for gathering at the Webster abode for Christmas.  I can't tell you HOW grateful I was not to be making a huge drive.  The storms were frequent, and luckily Jeremy & Emily had the flexibility to adjust their schedule so that they didn't get stuck.

We missed Nathan & Jenny & their kids a ton, but we tried to make the most of the group that was there...  And I have to say, for me at least, this was the least chaotic holiday we've had in a while.   We did a little nativity, and we only captured it on video (which I have yet to upload), but I stole a few of Emily's photos to share.

Sienna as baby Jesus...  Right?  How freaking cute is SHE?

 

And equally adorable... Logan as Joseph...  holding his trusty measuring tape.  

(He WAS a carpenter after all)

We forced the kids to pose in a group cousin photo... because that's what we do...

and one for grandpa's computer monitors...

Nolan got the Legos he asked for, as well as a pillow pet, from Santa...  

and we tried desperately to avoid Si Si ingesting one...

After a wonderful Christmas, we went home and braved the elements a few times to see one of our favorite Brits.  Loraine was in town again and we were so giddy to get to see her for the second time in one year.  We even got to celebrate her birthday (I won't say which one) along with New Years Eve at our house, which was such fun!

 

Nolan loves his aunty LoLo, even if this is a super awkward "Cheese" face he's making...  in his defense it was VERY late (after midnight) on New Years)

Snooowww!

Let's just say that this winter has already proven to be epic in terms of snow fall.

I am desperately hoping that mother nature is just getting it all out of her system early, but I'm starting to doubt the truth in that.

Confession. . .  I hate the snow.  It's beautiful up on the mountains, but I really don't enjoy driving in it, and I really don't enjoy playing in it.  But Nolan is getting to the point where he's actually interested in getting out in the white stuff. . .  so what's a mother to do?

Clearly, the answer is to beg Tamera, who owns proper winter clothing, to take him out in the snow when she's with him. 

 

This was the first major snow fall that stuck around, at the beginning of December.  I hadn't gotten him a hat that fit him yet, so he wore Ben's. . .  

 

And I think he enjoys it more than he did a couple of years ago, don't you?

Christmas Thuggery

We had a very busy and very entertaining holiday with my family.  I have yet to properly upload the photos and video from the week, but I stole a photo from Emily that I will share.

The day we got up to my parent's house, Nolan and Jeremy just happened to be sporting the same shirt.  & of course, we had to document it, with a little thug pose.

Man, we miss these guys. 

Happy New Year, everybody!