An Exercise in Futility

Ever tried to get three kids under the age of 18 months and a 3 1/2 year old to simultaneously cooperate for a photo shoot? Well, we did, and here are the results:

Getting three of them to sit still was fairly easy:

"Our parents must be crazy"

See? They're even (mostly) looking at the camera!

It was when we added a fourth child that things got complicated:

The adorable Baby Megan screaming into her father's lap

It was pretty much downhill from there. First, Seth tried to leave...

Then Rebekah thought it would be cool to crawl on top of him...

...and by the time we got Megan to look, Rebekah was done with the glamour shots.

The result: a collage of the 3 best shots:

Notice that Seth is throwing a fit in one and that Megan isn't looking at the camera in any of the shots. At least we all got a good laugh while we were attempting this...

Many thanks to poor Jocelyn, who still smiled through all these pictures while her sister/cousins weren't cooperating...

More Sethisms

I had to cancel my piano lesson this afternoon because my poor little baby is sick (just in time for the holidays!). But I have to admit, I kind of like it when he's sick. It's the only time he'll snuggle with me.

Of course, now that his medicine has kicked in, he's off and running again. So I'll blog while he watches Lion King. ('Watch' is used very loosely. At the moment his back is to the screen and he's throwing ducks around).

I love, love, love this age. He's getting more self-entertaining, doing new things every day, and generally just makes us laugh.

Seth and Books:
This child is addicted to books. We read to him when he goes to sleep. We read to him again when he wakes up. Then we read to him several times during the day when he walks up to us with books and says, "please?"

He loves finding the kitty in the books we're reading. If the page doesn't have a cat, we can't get a single sentence out before he's turning to the next one. He's also getting good at finding cows and ducks.

A friend in the ward passed along a book with buttons that you press to make noises. I thought Seth would love it--a book that makes obnoxious noises, two of his favorite things. Turns out he's terrified of it. As in chin quivering, wailing, run away kind of terrified. Guess we'll save that one for later...

Seth's Words
He's picking up new words almost every day. My favorite addition is 'bubbles' (buh-ba). My new screen saver is a bunch of bubbles that bounce around, so now every time he sees my screen he points and says, "Buh-ba." At which point I have to stop whatever I'm doing and turn on the screen saver until he gets distracted by something else.

Other new words: push, trees, duck, balloon.

He's also really into grabbing my phone and running around with it by his ear, babbling away. He actually managed to answer it yesterday when someone called it. Don't know who it was, but they got an earful. They didn't call back.

Seth's comprehension is getting better and better. Except when it comes to the phrase "come here." When he hears that one he'll stop what he's doing, look at me, and then run away. Stinker.

To sum it up: I have the smartest, sweetest, cutest baby on the planet.

First Sentence!

It's official.

Sentences that may or may not have counted previously:

"Cheese, mmm."

"Car, crash."

"Dad, please."

But the official winner is:

"Bear, please."

(Spoken yesterday after his nap when he wanted the bear on his shelf. You'd better believe he got it. Oh, and it was totally unprompted, too).

Neglecting my Motherly Duties

What's that you say? It's been THREE POSTS since I put up pictures of my son?

Totally unacceptable.

Unfortunately, I've only taken 4 pictures of Seth so far this month. I figure he deserves a slight break before all the picture-taking insanity of the holidays begins. So here are my 4 pictures of Seth, in chronological order:

Investigating his loot from trick-or-treating. And yes, I did let him eat it all, with the exception of the sucker and the gum. We're not going there yet.Helping me put away the Halloween lights. He was not happy to see them go. If only he knew what's going to happen at Christmas...Wearing the same pajamas I wore as a kid. Jon thinks he looks like a clown with the collar, but I think it's adorable.We are SO into tongues right now. He ALWAYS has his hanging out, and tries his best to touch ours whenever possible. So gross.

He officially passed his 16 month mark, which we celebrated by taking him in for a flu shot (seasonal--his pediatrician is STILL waiting for H1N1. Grrr....). He didn't cry at all--such a tough little man.

New skills include word recognition: he can find the kitty in every single one of his books (we're working on cows now). He can also point to his belly, toes, and leg, plus my eyes, nose and teeth. Very cute.

New vocabulary words: clock "cok", bird "beah", and please "peas." That last one melts my heart every time and gets him a lot more sweet stuff than he really should be getting. And no--still no "Mama." Half the time he doesn't even recognize the word--if I say "Where's Mommy?" he looks at me like I'm nuts. I have to say, it doesn't really bother me. It's just one of the many, many little personality traits that make him so adorable.

Just one story:
Seth loves pens and is always trying to steal them out of my hands during piano lessons. One night after lessons last week he walked up to the shelf where I keep the pens and started begging. I finally gave in and passed him a pen.

He immediately dropped to the ground and started swiping the pen underneath the couch. Turns out his bouncy ball had rolled underneath and he couldn't reach it. I was floored--neither Jon nor I had ever used a pen to get anything from under the couch before. This was all Seth's idea. Still blows my mind.

In totally unrelated news, I NEED TO GO SHOPPING. It's officially been an entire year since I bought myself a new article of clothing. I want a dress. A cute, black dress that I can wear for Christmas. Anyone up for a shopping trip?

5 more days until we leave for Thanksgiving vacation. I don't think I've ever been so ready for a break in my entire life...

Hello, My Name is Megan and I Live at the Church

Sunday November 1st: 3 hours of church + one presidency meeting after

Tuesday November 3rd: 1 hour of Mutual (insanity) plus 1/2 hour cleaning up

Thursday November 5th: 1 1/2 hours of Stake YW Presidency Training, plus 1 hour driving time

Saturday November 7th: Ditched Super Saturday to go to the temple. Total time: 5 1/4 hours

Sunday November 8th: At church 15 minutes early + 3 hours church+ Linger Longer+presidency meeting +choir practice+fireside

Monday November 9th: 2 hours setting up for YW in Excellence

Tuesday November 10th: 1 hour setting up, 1 hour of YW in Excellence, 1 hour cleaning up after

Wednesday November 11th: Choir practice (which I have to ditch because of a piano lesson. Sorry Catherine!)

Friday November 13th: Regional Auxiliary Training. 2 hours + 3 hours driving time

Saturday November 14th: Ward service project/swap meet=2 hours

Sunday November 15th: 3 hours of church + presidency meeting

TOTAL for two weeks (approximate): 33 hours

Don't get me wrong--I LOVE serving with the Young Women. But this time of year makes me want to scream. Or go inactive for a couple of months.

Thank heaven for Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation...

Two Years Ago...

Two years ago we left the wonderful friends we'd made in our 14 months in Iowa and headed to Jon's new position in Maryland. We knew no one. We were paying $900 a month to live in a tiny, smokey, purple-carpeted apartment. But we had no doubt that this was where we needed to be.

Two years ago sweet Dawn took the time to invite me over and become my first friend in Maryland. I'll never forget that.

Two years ago I was teaching Primary and slowly getting to know the people in our ward. And two years ago I was assigned to be Sommer's visiting teaching companion, which soon led to an amazing friendship.

And, of course, two years ago we found out we were going to be parents. It was wonderful and terrifying to think about how this baby was going to change our lives.

I've thanked Heavenly Father many, many times in the past two years for bringing us here to Maryland. For the first time since I left home for college, I feel like I have a place to call "Home."

We love it here. I've spent my entire life on the West Coast, but I have no qualms about raising our family here on the East Coast. Except, of course, for the fact that we are so far away from much of our family--that's the one thing I wish I could change.

But we do have a family here. Our ward is absolutely incredible. I love going to church every Sunday (and Tuesday, at the moment) and seeing all the amazing people we've befriended in the past two years. They've become our family away from our family. I honestly think if they ever split our ward that I will have a meltdown. I can't imagine this ward without every single person we've grown to love since we got here.

I also can't imagine my life without Seth. It's chaotic, sleep-deprived, and demanding, but it's also amazing, hilarious, and the best thing that's ever happened to me.

It's been a good two years. Here's to many, many more!

For those who asked...

To get the stretched out blog template like ours:

Go to Layout, and select Pick New Template.

The first option in the second row has three options:
Minima Lefty
Minima Stretch
Minima Lefty Stretch

Our blog is using Minima Lefty Stretch. If you'd rather have your links/photos/etc. on the right side of the screen, choose Minima Stretch.

WARNING: Choosing a new template will get rid of any color schemes or fonts you've selected. It will keep all your posts/pictures/links, though.

Once you've saved the template, you can do whatever you want with the colors. Blogger lets you mess around with them a little bit, but you can do more if you feel like messing with the html. Here's a good website that will give you the html codes for the colors you like (you can plug them into the the Blogger "Fonts and Colors" page where it says "Edit color hex code").

Getting a header that fits correctly can be tricky, too. Ours is 1112px × 350px. The height is perfect, but (obviously) the width isn't quite long enough to fill the header wrapper. So yours can be a bit wider and still fit.

FYI: If you already have the correct dimensions on your picture, DON'T select "Shrink to Fit" on the upload page.

I used a combination of Picasa and Microsoft Paint to make ours. Classy, I know.

TO CHANGE YOUR FONTS:

Go to this website and do exactly what they say. I used their font named "Little Pot." If you need help changing colors or font sizes on your blog, let me know and I can help out.

That's all there is to it! Good luck!

Trick or Treating

After the disaster that was the Trunk or Treat, I cordially invited myself, Jon & Seth over to the Atkinson's for dinner & trick-or-treating on Halloween. Krystal keeps trying to make me feel better by saying it was a mutually decided activity, but it totally wasn't. I at least brought the dinner so I didn't feel completely rude...

Somehow we managed to all eat dinner, despite a constant stream of interruptions by trick-or-treaters. After we ate, it was off for Seth & Victoria's first trick-or-treating. Don't worry-we only took them to a few houses. Not like they're really going to eat the candy (okay, Seth will. Krystal's probably a better parent than I am and will just eat Victoria's candy herself).

The first door we went to let the kids pick out their own pieces of candy. Seth snagged a cherry Tootsie Roll and refused to let it go. He still had it in his hand when we got home.

The precious tootsie roll

Victoria prefers the animal crackers she snagged


Investigating his loot


The cutest trick-or-treaters on the block


Victoria makes sure Seth didn't get anything worth stealing


Seth helps Victoria put her hat back on (it was actually Krystal's hat, so it kept falling over her face. She'd knock it off and Seth would put it right back on. It was great).


The completed costume. I forgot the hairspray during trunk-or-treat and the shoes during trick-or-treat. So here's the entire costume, taken after we got home that night.

Thanks again, Shawn & Krystal, for letting us crash your Halloween. We had a great time. In fact, I think I'm going to invite myself over next year, too...

I Want to Believe

The moment you've all been waiting for is here. You want to see our costumes? Well here they are:What's that? You don't know who we're supposed to be? Tsk, tsk. That's sad. But if it makes you feel any better, only about 6 people in our ward knew who we were last night. ("FBI Agents? That's pretty cool.")

I'll give you a few more hints.

How about our pumpkin? That's a pretty big clue.

Still not getting it? How about this photo of the back of Seth's costume:Come ON, people! Okay, okay. Final hint:

Aren't we awesome? We look just like them! And the haircut was totally necessary. I know Scully's hair is long in the new movie, but it just isn't the same. (I was trying so hard not to smile. So instead I look like I'm smirking).

Yes, we are big X-Files fans. And honestly, who grew up in the nineties and WASN'T an X-Files fan? That's why I was so perplexed when no one knew who we were last night. For heaven's sake, our badges said "Fox Mulder" and "Dana Scully" AND had their actual pictures on them.

Granted, it did help when Jon walked around playing the X-Files theme song (he had it downloaded onto his phone). I think that was the best part of our costumes.

I knew hardly any of the youth would know who we were. But the adults? Especially the ones our age? COME ON PEOPLE! The 90's weren't that long ago!

I do have to say this: the people who did recognize us were awesome. Sis. Paul walked right up to me and said, "It's a good thing you're married. Otherwise I think my husband would marry you right now." Turns out they're huge X-Files fans. Made my night.

In case you're wondering, Seth is an alien. Do you know how hard it is to come up with an alien costume? I forgot his green hairspray at the Trunk or Treat, so no one understood what he was supposed to be. And his hair isn't completely green because the can of hairspray went crazy and wouldn't stop spraying. And yes, I did make his shirt myself. (As in the writing, not the sewing. Sewing is not one of my talents).

Going for the Mulder and Scully look: bored, yet concerned

PS--If you knew who we were from the first picture, you're our new best friend. And if you knew who we were just by reading the title of this post, you get a treat. As in I will mail you a treat because you are AWESOME.

The Horror, the Horror!

(Extra kudos if you can place the quote used as the title!)

My friends, I have a sad story to share with you. It all began on Halloween Eve, otherwise known as Ward Trunk or Treat night.

Everything went swimmingly that morning. Seth was an angel and let me carve our pumpkin and make our delicious shrimp bisque (which I knew would win the prize for "Best Soup"). We even had time to go visit Krystal & Victoria. A lovely, perfect morning.

Things continued well as the afternoon progressed. The bisque was staying toasty warm in the crock-pot, the pumpkin seeds were ready for roasting, and the supplies for our costumes (which we had been planning for months) were all in order.

Just before 4pm, Jon came home from work, which meant I was free to go out and get the final touch for my costume: a haircut. (Yes, I am dedicated enough to cut my hair in order to complete a costume. We're serious about Halloween at this house).

And from this point on, our story takes a turn for the worse. Let me introduce our villain:(not this exact store, but you get the point)

What you can easily deduce from my choice of hair salons is that I really know nothing about getting my hair done. Oh, and I'm cheap. But I figured I was safe--after all, I had a picture of exactly what I wanted:

A cute bob (a little shorter than this one)

Seems simple, right? I showed her the picture, explained what I wanted, and even left the magazine open on her little vanity so she could look at it for reference.

To make a very, very long process short, this is what I came home looking like:Layers on one side, no layers on the other. Uneven. Too long. Basically just totally disgusting. And yes, I had that look on my face, too.

A few background details at this point:

#1--I had accidentally left my phone in Jon's car the night before, so I couldn't call him and ask him to come home a little earlier than normal so I wouldn't have to stress about not getting my hair done on time.

#2--Jon had volunteered to help set up for the activity, which meant he needed to be there early. He told me this about 10 minutes before I left to get my hair cut.

By the time I got home, it was 6pm. Time the activity started? 6pm. I rushed upstairs to do some serious editing on my hair. And no, I've never taken a hair-cutting class in my life. By the time I got it looking decent, it was 6:30pm.

Jon had called me several times asking me what was taking so long. I told him I was finally ready and rushed downstairs to leave. It was at this point that I realized that when Jon left early, he took 1) himself, and 2) Seth. Nothing else. Which meant that I was frantically gathering up costume odds and ends, our pumpkin, matches, candles, candy, bowl, and the crock-pot full of soup. I threw it all in the car and got to the church by 6:40. Trunk or Treating started at 7pm.

Grumpy Jon (he hadn't eaten) and grumpy Seth (who refused to be put down so his dad could eat) met me in the parking lot. We started unloading the car, at which point we realized the soup had spilled ALL over the backseat. This just added to Jon's good mood. We were bickering as we walked into the church.

Jon: "Why didn't you just put it on the floor?"
Meg: "It wouldn't fit!"
Jon: "Then why didn't you put it in a box or something?"
Meg: "I didn't have time! Why didn't YOU just bring it?"
Jon: "I didn't think it would take you so long to get here!"
Meg: "Well, neither did I! This wasn't my plan, either!"

I love my husband. But he's not very nice when he's hungry. I took Seth, he took the soup and went to eat. I tried to eat, too, but Seth wasn't helping. At one point he even dove into my soup bowl and covered himself with bisque. I think it was at this point I realized I'd left the crucial part of Seth's costume at home. No one knew what he was.

About 5 minutes after I walked in they asked all the adults to go get their cars ready for trunk or treating. Jon took care of that, but I was still stuck with whiny Seth who was only content when he was throwing my credit cards all over the table and floor (and into my soup).

At some point Marley took pity on me and started feeding Seth some pie so I could eat. He's lucky to have such a nice honorary aunt!

By the time I got done eating everything was done and they were cleaning up around me. I didn't get to try anyone else's soup (which wasn't too upsetting because mine was really good. Seriously). I didn't get any of Heidi or Krystal's pie. And I didn't get to see hardly anyone's costumes because I was so busy rushing around. I'd been looking forward to this night all month and it ended up being a disaster.

But there was some hope at the end of the long, dark night. First, there was my sweet husband who cleaned out the soup-filled backseat for me ("I got almost THREE CUPS of soup out of that puddle"). Then there were the people (like Marley) who sat through my sob story and empathized with me. Finally, there were Shawn & Krystal, who came to say hi and let me invite myself over to go trick or treating with them & Victoria the next night.

That made me feel better. We weren't planning on taking Seth trick-or-treating, but it's a good excuse to get ourselves dressed up in our costumes again--this time without all the drama. Because, amidst all the insanity last night, we didn't take a single picture. And our costumes are so awesome that we NEED photographic evidence.

And so ended our terrible night. Actually, I think it officially ended with me cleaning up the hairy mess I made in the bathroom. But tonight should be better. And you'll all have to wait until then to find out what we dressed up as (those who know: DON'T TELL!).

Lesson learned: never, ever, ever be cheap about getting your hair cut.

Oh, and another disappointment: they didn't award the prizes for soup, pie, and costumes! So I'll award them myself:

Best Soup: Me. Yes, I am that vain (recipe here)
Best Pie: Guess we'll never know, since I didn't get any... :(
Best Child Costume: Victoria. And that thing is HOMEMADE!! (Go Krystal!)
Best Adult Costume: (I really want to be totally vain and say "Us", but I'll restrain myself). It's a toss up between Shawn's Balloon Boy and Heidi's creepy ghost lady.

Congratulations, everyone!