From 3 to 4

33 weeks and 2 days. That is how far along I am with my pregnancy with my second son. He feels like he is super healthy, since all day long he tosses and turns and punches and kicks. I just love it! I am so excited that we are going to be welcoming a second little one to our family. Ike is thrilled, too. He knows that there is a baby in my belly and remembers that his name is going to be Peter. Peter Madsen Tenney. Peter Madsen is for my ancestor who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Denmark and then traveled with his family to Utah. I love the idea of using family names for my children. It makes their names so much more meaningful.

Ike is amazing. He is now 2 1/2 years old and is my little chatter-box and noise-maker. He knows his colors, he can count up to 12, even though he sometimes skips a number or two, he loves to sing songs like The Wheels on the Bus and the ABCs, he is almost fully potty trained, and he could look at books all day and be happy as can be. He knows the noises that firetrucks, cars, trains, plains, lions, cats, dogs, and many other things make and would do them all day if he could. He loves to "help" me with doing laundry, sweeping, wiping things up, and many other things. He loves going to church so he can sit with his Nana and Papa, go to nursery so he can play with the yellow car and the truck, and he loves to "sing" the hymns and watch Nana lead the music.

My life feels so blessed! Even though Ison and I are continually working hard at making sure we have enough, I really cannot complain. We have all of our needs every month and I know that as we continue to work together and with the Lord, we will continue to have everything that we need. I guess I am in the spirit of thanks, since Thanksgiving is coming up this month.

A Long Time of Busy

Well, it has been far too long since I have posted and instead of wishing to post, here I am posting.

Life is good and I feel so blessed. I have so many things to be thankful for: my caring and loving husband, my cute son, my husbands career in the air force, good health benefits, being able to stay at home with my little one, having enough for our needs, wonderful parents and sister, amazing in-laws who I love, a comfortable home, caring friends, a kind ward, a fun calling as a Primary teacher...the list could continue for forever!

Ike has grown so much! He is no longer a baby rolling around and scooting on his butt. He is now a full-fledged walker and is able to communicate with us! He gives us kisses and hugs, lets us know sometimes when he needs a changed diaper, will head to his room when I tell him it is time to sleep. Ike does not talk a lot, but he knows over 15 signs! Ball, cat, dog, fish, eat, cracker, milk, water, more, please, mom, sleep, diaper, all-done, shoe, foot, and some others that I cannot think of at the moment. He is just like a sponge and soaking up everything! One of his favorite places to go now is the aquarium. I leave the stroller in the car so he can walk around and as soon as we walk inside he is saying "ish!" and signing fish over and over again. He loves play group in our ward because he gets to see other kids and adults and he is learning how to play with sand and different things on the playgrounds we go to. I love my little sweetheart.

I know that this post is scattered, but I want to get back into the habit of posting on here again. I want to share the joys and frustrations of raising a cute little boy with others I care about. :)

INSANITY!

I have made some New Years goals for the first time in my life. I am determined to fulfill them all! One big one is to loose 35 pounds. That 35 pounds is baby weight and weight gained from birth control when we were first married. My start weight at the first of the year was 176 lbs. I am proud to say that after a month of working out at least 5 days a week and doing Hip Hop Abs from Beachbody, I have lost 4 lbs and now am at 172 lbs! I am so happy with that visible result! My larger size 10 pants are starting to fit a little looser and I am close to being able to wear my smaller size 10 pants! And I don't have so much flab hanging over the top of my pants since my abs are starting to get tighter.

Well, now comes a very difficult work out program...Insanity by Beachbody. Am I crazy for doing this? Probably, but I am determined to do this! I will do this workout program in full. Just over 2 months of crazy workouts. I can't wait to see what my results will be! I am hoping that I will be back into my size 8 pants by the time I am finished and I want to loose at least 10 lbs during this.

This morning I did the Fit Test...it was hard! And it was just the fit test! Here are my results:

Switch Kicks: 43
Power Jacks: 20
Power Knees: 69
Power Jumps: 14
Globe Jumps: 5
Suicide Jumps: 6
Push-up Jacks: 13
Low Plank Oblique: 17

Most of these were so hard to do! I hope that I can improve on them all by the time my 60 days are finished! Wish me luck!

Four to Six Months

Four Months

 Ike enjoyed to sit up. All the time. The bumbo chair came in handy a lot so I didn't have to hold him upright myself all the time. A friend of mine lent me a couple of her Baby Einstein DVDs and he loved them! They sure reminded me of toys from when I was growing up...

During this time we also discovered that Ike had a love of the television. He was glued to it! When I would go have lunch at Ison's work, there was a TV there and guess what Ike was straining to look at the whole time...the TV. Especially the end credits and the Phineas and Ferb theme song from Disney. If he was cranky and we played that theme song, he would stop crying and stare at the TV.

Ike no longer was eating every 3 hours, but was going for 5-6 hour stretches at least once a night. I was thrilled to be able to start sleeping for longer stretches!

Five Months

Five months old brought better balance and less use of the bumbo and other cushioning for Ike to sit. He still was falling over regularly, but he was getting strong enough to just roll over and deal with it. As you can see, he was still glued to the TV...luckily he is not near as interested now as he used to be.

For Halloween I found a cute orange shirt for Ike that said, "This is my costume..." I thought it was adorable...and it helped that it was 99 cents at Other Mothers. My cat costume I have had for years, so it was nothing really special. Unfortunately Ison could not go to the ward party because he was sick, but he was going to be Superman bursting out of street clothes.

 We started feeding Ike solids this month! After a couple of soupy, not so sure he likes it spoonfuls, the food was thickened up and he ate a lot of it! And he hasn't stopped since! First it was just rice cereal, but we have since given him several other cereals and lots of fruits and vegetables. I was pumping breastmilk for him to have with his cereal, but I got tired of that really fast since he has cereal 2-3 times a day, so now we mix formula in instead. I don't even think he noticed a difference. He is also feeding himself puffs and sometimes cut up bananas.

 This boy is such a joy! He makes me so happy and blessed. Heavenly Father has blessed us so much! I still am amazed that this little boy is ours.

By this month Ike started to sleep through the night! No more night time feedings! Hooray! It sure was strange to suddenly sleep through the night...but I am not complaining in the least.

These smiles are a very often occurrence now every day and it is so much fun to try to make him smile and laugh...he is ticklish just like his daddy!

Six Months

For Thanksgiving my sister came down from Utah and enjoy cute little Ike. And, as you can see, she contributed to trying to make Ike smile for a picture...he just looked at us like we were crazy.

I stopped using the carseat that we first used with Ike because it was just getting too heavy! We were able to get a different carseat that stays in the car all the time now and I like it much more. Here is Ike ready to go somewhere with us in his cute little jacket with his elephant blanket in hand.

Ison really loves Ike. He enjoys being able to chill out with him and play with him...he also enjoys watching TV with him and Duke, our dog. This shot of the three of them was just to cute not to take a picture of. I love my boys so much!

A whole new world of playing has happened for Ike. So many toys to play with! And always looking for mommy if I happen to walk by. He has become a pro at going in circles, but that's it. Nothing forward...he is just taking his time.

Ike loves his Grandpa. He loves Grandma, too, but it sure is cute to watch Ike and Grandpa. We had lunch with him one day and he was so thrilled to see that we were having lunch with Grandpa! And Grandpa was very pleased to see Ike recognized him. I will have to get a shot of Ike with Grandma at a lunch here soon. Grandma...I did give you lunch with grandson coupons...you can start redeeming them anytime...same for Grandpa...*hint*

This boy has the most beautiful smile with that adorable dimple! I was pretty excited when we realized he had one after he was born...I had always wanted a dimple, but I am fine with my son having one.

Ison's Birthday

 Today is Ison's birthday! He actually took the day off from work so he could relax a little on this special day. Actually, he originally planned to clean out the garage from his most recent project and organize our storage closet, but the weather is freezing! In the past 4 days we have had 3 winter storms bringing snow, cold, and wind. Today has been the coldest so far and we have even had a phone call asking us to drip our faucets so they do not freeze. One bit of good news with this wintry weather is that Ison's class has been canceled tonight! What a great birthday present.

This morning, unfortunately, Ison had to take our TV into Best Buy to hand over to the Geek Squad...the screen keeps turning off when we are watching something, although the sound remains. We are TV-less for about 5 weeks now! Whatever shall we do!?!? Well, we can hang out in the office and watch movies and Netflix on the computer...we do have a couch in there.

When Ison got home, he was able to spend some nice time with Ike. They watched American Chopper together on the computer while I made a tasty birthday treat: home-made oreos! They were so good. I am so happy that they turned out good and Ison said they taste better than store-bought oreos. I am quite glad they did.

 

Our little guy is now 6 1/2 months now. Where has the time gone? Two days ago I noticed a little blood on Ike's sheet and when I felt in his mouth, there was a tooth! His very first tooth! I am so excited. He has become so fun and interactive. He also now eats solids at least a couple of times a day and, as of yet, has not rejected anything I introduce him to. I really hope this means he will not be a picky eater.

  

I normally am the one who puts Ike down for a nap, but Ison did it this afternoon. Ike likes story time and tries very hard to grab whatever book we are holding and shove it into his mouth. We are very careful when the pages are paper, but he can grab the board books as much as he wants to. The more he likes books the better!

 

These oreos were so delicious! Very rich, though. The recipe made about 25 cookies and Ison and I only had 4 each, but we are sure to have more later. I found the recipe on Pintrest from this blog: http://www.sweetpotatochronicles.com/wordpress/

Here is the recipe:

Homemade Oreos 
Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies
For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa (Fry’s Cocoa Powder will work in Canada)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg
For the filling:
1/4 cup room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. (I started off with loonie sized chunks of dough which was too big. It’s more like the size of a quarter. Remember, you’re aiming for 50 to 60 of these individual wafers!) With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. (I don’t think it’s entirely necessary to use a pastry bag. You could just spoon some icing on and squeeze between two wafers.) Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

We Have a Roller!

Ike now can roll back to belly and belly to back! He somehow has snuck in the belly to back...I have missed it when he has done it every time, which is not very many times yet. It might be because I have been furiously working on getting my CEUs done for my sign language interpreting license. I kept putting off getting them done, but now I REALLY need to get them done. Luckily there are on-line workshops that I can stream onto my computer, so I don't need to go to an actual workshop! Fantastic! And this is definitely helping me out with a lot of review for ASL structure and being able to understand various people's signing.

Back to my roller...I love it! And Ike loves it, too! He really enjoys his new-found strength. He is also becoming a pro at pushing up onto his forearms and...his hands! It truly is amazing how fast he has been growing and how quickly his muscles are developing. He also enjoys to sit up and stand. Even though he falls over most of the time when I prep him in a sitting position, he loves to try to do it on his own. Before I know it, he is going to be sitting staring and laughing at me instead of doing it from his back or belly! And I know crawling isn't that far behind, either.

He has been playing with his voice recently. He will lay there and make the same sound over and over again, and then make it go up, down, stop, and then make bubbles while he does all the above. What a fun, playful little man I have!

Ike really loves to play with me. I sing him songs and make him move along with the songs. One fun song that he responds to well is The Wheels on the Bus, especially when the people on the bus go up and down. I'm not sure if it is because I am making is body and arms go up and down or that my voice goes high for up and low for down, but he gets a huge grin on his face and giggles every time. I just love trying different things to make him laugh.

His vision sure is improved recently. He watches me from a distance, watches the dog play fetch, the cat roam around meowing, the fish in the aquarium swim around, the TV...I'll have to keep an eye on that last one...he already likes the TV too much...

I have been taking pictures and videos, but have not uploaded them to the computer yet...hopefully once I get my CEUs completed and faxed in to get credit for them I can feel I have time to do that.

Enjoy conference this weekend!

First 3 Months in Pictures