3 years (and 1 day)

Yesterday was our 3 year anniversary. Three years ago after 14 lovely days of engagement, and about 24 hours of planning Brian and I got married. (Who needs a year to plan a wedding? All it takes is a quick trip to the mall for a dress and a phone call and you're all set! No? Just us?) Last year's post is more detailed if you missed it. And now for pictures of course!


Me at my parent's house before hand.


Our favorite picture of the two of us.


Brian waiting.


Us with the bishop. He was nice enough to take the afternoon off work to marry us (he got a whole like 28 hour notice) AND to take the time before hand to make sure he was pronouncing "van de Boogaard" correctly. Also, aren't those roses beautiful? They're from Sam's club.


I had to throw this in to show off Kari's lovely wristbands. The reason we were in town in the first place was for Country Jam so we all had the wristbands (one for the concerts, one for the campsite.) I managed to slide mine off and Brian pushed his up under his shirt sleeves. Kari though, she just picked out her dress to match. Oh fine, I'm kidding. That dress was SUPPOSED to be her bridesmaids dress for Kirsta's wedding (3 weeks earlier) but didn't actually get to Kari until like 2 days before my wedding. (Because this store SUCKS. Worst customer service EVER.)

Anyway, it was all perfect for us. It's been a wonderful three years.

Illness and other stuff

Sunday night was easily the worst night since Kalena was born. As an infant she woke up often, but she was always easily consoled. Sunday night she woke up SCREAMING about an hour after we'd put her to bed. And then? She spent the next 6 hours alternating between wandering around looking exhausted and crying inconsolably. She refused to go to sleep and would WAIL any time we attempted to put her to bed. At 2 am she finally gave up and slept for a whopping 3 and a half hours. As I wandered around the house in the morning with Kalena trying to let Brian sleep as long as possible before I had to leave for work, I wondered what in the world could be wrong with her. I wished that she could talk so she could PLEASE tell me what the problem was.

At about 30 seconds after 8 I called the pediatrician and set up an appointment. Brian took her in and called me afterward and said, "the doctor says she's healthy as a horse." And my heart just dropped because that meant we would just have to deal with this for who knows how long and I was pretty sure that we'd both go crazy sooner rather than later. He was JOKING because apparently he just wanted to give me a heart attack. Turns out she has strep throat and managed to spread that infection to both her eyes. (I did not even know that was possible, but apparently hands in the mouth with strep + hands rubbing the eyes = strep infection in the eyes.) Now she is on antibiotics and has eye drops for her eyes and those combined with liberal application of Motrin and Tylenol has made her a much happier camper. (And got her 12 hours of sleep last night.)

Of course I feel bad that she is sick, but it was SUCH a relief to know that this was FIXABLE and not just a phase we'd have to put up with. I feel especially bad because by Monday morning I'm guessing she'd had the infection for 4 days or so. We started noticing her eyes looked funny Friday afternoon and thought maybe she had pink eye. So we stayed around the house and didn't take her to church (you can all thank us later for not exposing your kids) and figured if things got worse we'd take her in on Monday. And we all know how that ended. BUT, I remember the only time I had strep throat it was the same sort of deal. It started on a Friday as we were leaving town for vacation (I don't remember where) so by the time I got to a doctor it had gone untreated for like 4 days and I thought I was going to DIE. My throat hurt SO much*. The nurse went through the spiel about antibiotics, the "you'll probably feel better in a day or two but finish the medication because otherwise you won't kill the infection" but I did NOT feel better until like the last day. So I'm probably coddling her a little, but hey, isn't that what you're supposed to do when your kids are sick?

Anyway, I'm glad it happened this week instead of next week when my family is all coming to visit. Which YAY, and also how did we talk them into that? Also, on that note, any tips on Kalena's sleeping arrangement while everyone is visiting? Our options are in our bed (my worry there is how do we get her to GO to sleep in there instead of just crawling out?) or a pack-n-play in our closet (she's not such a big fan of the pack-n-play...) So yeah, words of wisdom would be appreciated here.

*I found out what REAL throat pain was like when I had my tonsils out at 22. Man that sucked.

It's always something when it comes to kids and sleep

Most of you probably know that Brian and I are pretty laid back. Or very laid back. In fact, we may have been called, "the most laid back people I've ever met" by more than one person. This has, I think, made things a little easier for us as first time parents because we tend not to worry too much.

When Kalena was first born we didn't really try to put her on a schedule. I watched for patterns in her day, but mostly we just fed her when she seemed hungry and put her down for naps when she seemed tired. It was a good thing we never tried for a schedule because there never was one*. Some days she napped well, some days she didn't nap at all (she was always happy either way, sometimes she just wasn't tired.)

Anyway, she got into somewhat of a routine after she started sleeping through the night. We could typically count on a good morning nap but the afternoon nap was always a little hit and miss. Now she is trying to move to just one nap a day. This would be fine, BUT she's still taking her long nap relatively early, so she starts getting fussy 2 or 3 hours before bedtime. At that point it's too late to put her down for a nap-- all a nap does is delay bedtime by 2 or 3 hours and since a later bedtime never means a later wake up we're not so big on that. But our only other option is to deal with her being fussy and tired for 2 or 3 hours until it's late enough that we can put her to bed and she'll be down for the night.

I know it's just a phase and if all we can do is wait we will. But if anyone has any super-awesome nap-schedule-fixing tips they'd be much appreciated. Also, if anyone wants to come over around 4 or 5 and entertain Kalena so Brian can cook dinner without her whining up at him and hanging off his pants I'm sure he'd appreciate that too.

*When people would watch her for us they always asked about a schedule and Brian would always say there wasn't one. Then the next time they saw me they'd ask if that was true or if Brian just didn't know. Do dads in general not know about kids schedules, or do people just not trust Brian? I always thought it was a little funny that they'd ask me at all considering Brian was the one at home with her all the time while I worked.

We really ought to put those child locks on the cabinets

One of Kalena's hobbies is to empty the shelves in our TV cabinet. She always does a thorough job.

Let's see what's in here...


Oh, here's something!


This has to go.

Alright, I think that does it.



Now if only we could get her to put all that stuff back IN.

Uh Oh.

We just got this game:

I may never be productive again.

Things I learned from primary

Teaching Sunday school to 5 year olds and now being the primary secretary have taught me some things. Here are some of the more interesting lessons I've learned from these kids.

1.) You don't need to know the words to a song to sing louder. You might think you need to, but you don't. Also, the louder you sing, the less melody matters. Yelling garbled syllables is the epitome of "good singing" in the minds of primary children.

2.) Contrary to what you may have been told, answers to questions during the lesson do not need to relate. At all. Not even in some vague tangential way.

3.) The phrase "hands to yourself" apparently means something very different to the 12 and under crowd than to me. Also true for "stay in your chair" and "be quiet and listen."

4.) As it turns out, drawing names from a mug is only "fair" when it's your turn.

5.) Last, and maybe most importantly, as much as I love kids I never want to teach elementary school.

So, what lessons have you learned?