Yay For Date Night!

It's amazingly hard sometimes to make sure we're having a weekly date night so today we planned to go to dinner together...just the two of us! We usually include Jonah in our "out-to-eats" but I decided that after a relatively long week filled with a few great previews of the "terrible twos" that Jon and I needed some alone time. Jon took me to Red Lobster for their delicious Endless Shrimp (which, for those of you that don't know, happens every year around this time and we always make a point to go). Jon's parents were soooo great and took Jonah way last minute for us while we went to dinner. What fun we had!!

On another note-- GO COUGARS! Each Saturday we go to my in-laws house here in Orem and watch the BYU game in their sweet home theatre. I wish we could go to a game this season but watching it in the theatre is almost better (at least I have to convince myself of this) for several reasons: 1. I get to recline in a cozy leather chair, 2. We can rewind any play we want or even fast-forward through commercials if we start the game a little later (which makes a 4 hour game last about 2 hours), 3. I can take potty breaks in a nice clean bathroom (increasingly important as my bladder has absolutely no room anymore), and 4. We can snack on anything and everything and usually do (we've made a tradition of buying french onion dip and chips).

Anyway, this season has been awesome and I'm excited to see what comes!

About Those To Whom "Social Responsibility" Doesn't Exist

I don't really ever post this kind of thing but I was watching a bit of news the other day at the gym and something reallllllly got under my skin and I have to make it known. The news was mostly covering hurricane Ike in Texas and the news reporters were mentioning how the authorities and asked (more like pleaded with) people to evacuate if they were in the areas that would be most affected. Well, of course, there were people who just wouldn't (and maybe a few who couldn't) evacuate. I'm upset with those that WOULDN'T, against better judgement, evacuate their homes...BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS!!!! People with good, common sense had to put their own lives in danger, making multiple helicopter rescue trips, to save those stupid people who wouldn't leave. So not only did they put their own lives in danger, but the lives of those who had to go rescue them. This makes me sooooo mad. Millions of dollars goes into each one of these rescue trips and PEOPLE DIE trying to rescue the idiots who didn't leave in the first place!

This is a topic that really got me boiling in one of my law classes at BYU. There are stupid people who think they need more of a thrill and go rock climbing without ropes, or go hiking or mountain climbing without anyone with them or at lest telling someone where they're going, or those people that go back country skiing and snowboarding when there are clearly serious warnings about avalanches. So these people use millions of dollars from responsible, taxpaying citizens like you and me when they get lost, trapped, or fall hundreds of feet and need to be rescued.

So do me a favor, People! EVACUATE your dang house when you're told you should, your material possessions are not worth your life, or more importantly, the life of the person that has to come save your stupid butt!

Glad to get that off my chest. Now just to clarify--I'm not saying you can't take risks and have thrilling, exciting adventures (I, for one, enjoy these types of things!). Just do it responsibly so you don't put other people in danger when you decide to do something stupid.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Labor Day Weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the extra days off together. It's always hard to go back to the normal routine though. We went to Colorado and stayed with my parents for the weekend. Here are a few of the cool things we got to do:


1. Attend Alison's wedding (one of my bestest friends from home)

She looked amazing and happy and it was great to get to be there with her and her husband Taj.

2. See the Columbine Memorial

None of my family had gotten to see it yet so we decided to go together after Alison's wedding. We were all very moved at how nicely it was done. It is an inspiring memorial.

Grandpa with Jonah.

This is a Columbine.

3. Visit Estes Park on Labor Day

I love Estes Park. It's really nice that my parents live so close to it now so it's just a half hour drive up to the town. We walked around the shops and then visited the Stanley Hotel just for fun. For those of you who don't know, it was made famous by that creepy movie "The Shining" so now people go there just for the ghost stories. That's not why I like it--it's just really pretty.

Jon is either looking at a ghost or a really bad hairdo!

25 Weeks and Counting

I thought it time to post another picture of my blossoming belly. So here you go. We're getting closer and closer to the time when our baby girl will join our little family. I've been trying to get Jonah to recognize what's coming and the most progress we've made is him pointing to and rubbing my belly when I say, "Where's Baby?" I'm sure we're in for an adventurous transition. If any of you have any tips on how you handled it all, I'm always open to advice!

On another note, here are some sweet new shoes I got for Jonah last week. He's outgrown all his sandals and I decided I might as well get something that will last through the fall/winter. If you can't tell, they're New Balance with Oscar the Grouch and flies all over them.

Hikes, Cows, and Rockets

We decided to take advantage of this beautiful scenery right out our back door and started hiking on Saturdays. The first week, we took our Baby Bjorn, hoping Jonah would still fit in it. Jonah is in the 95th percentile for height, but is dang skinny and hasn't hit the weight limit for it yet. So we tried it out. Jon carried him since my belly protrudes enough that it doesn't fit me. It was pretty rough. Jon couldn't even lift his legs since every time he did, Jonah's legs hit his knees and created resistance. It was pretty funny looking, but Jonah didn't seem to mind it too much. We decided to get a hiking backpack for our babies and I was able to find one on eBay for a great price! It worked much better.

Liz called and invited Jonah and me down to a dairy farm in Mona that her husband Clay built for someone. The idea was to watch the cows being milked but we really just ended up looking at a few cows and driving home with about 100 flies in the car. I'm not kidding, I've never seen more flies in one place...I couldn't stand it!
As you can see, Jonah was more interested in his pretzels than the cows.
Another one of our latest hobbies (one that didn't last too long) was building Estes Rockets and launching them in a nearby field. It's pretty nerdy, I know, but it was a random nostalgic thought I had when thinking about elementary school and I had no problem whatsoever convincing Jon to do it. Here are a couple of videos (mostly of blank blue sky searching for the rockets).

P.S. Mine went higher!


I'm not including my launch, just the recovery of it because that's really the amazing part!


Here are a couple of random pictures for your enjoyment. Jonah has a habit of crossing his legs when he's lying down. He does it when I'm changing his diaper, or whenever...it's pretty cute.


Mamou (Jon's mom) bought Jonah a stroller since he loves to push them around. She couldn't find a blue one.

The Polls Are Closed!!

If this is any clue, I'll be buying these very soon!!!

The majority of you are correct! You picked girl!

P.S. It's a girl!

Eva Angelynn Green

This morning I woke up to a lovely surprise when I got up extra early to go pee (yet again) and found a text message from my dear brother Jeffrey saying that Audra had been in labor all night. I assumed she had arrived and sure enough, she was born early this morning at 4:17 or so.

Jeff and Audra came over yesterday to visit for a moment and at that point she'd been having some irregular contractions throughout the day. They ended up taking 4 different walks yesterday to try to get things going.

Eva was born 8 days early, weighing in at 7lbs 7oz and measuring 20 in long. I'm a proud aunt! She is so beautiful and has a wonderful head of hair and the exact same hairdo as her daddy! I told them that I'd have to steal her in a few days to get her first real photo shoot. I can't wait! But for now, these pics will do just fine.

Audra was amazing and did the whole labor and birth naturally. She's my hero. Someday I want to be just like her (maybe in December...maybe).













Jonah really didn't know what to think of the baby. Laura put his hand down on the blanket and he immediately withdrew it. He kind of had this look of disgust the whole time. He'll LOVE playing with her soon enough!

Congratulations, Jeff and Audra! We love you guys!

A Call For Advice!!!

OK, everyone. Here's the scoop. I've been reading up on natural birth (OK, men, if you don't want to hear about this stuff, this is your queue to skip past this post) and the differences between OBs and midwives and now I'm asking for your advice/experiences. I've heard some horror stories from both sides and now I'm honestly contemplating switching doctors half way through my pregnancy. The doctor I see is great so far, but the downside is that he's in a practice with 4 other doctors. The rule in the practice is that you have to see each doctor at least once before you deliver because any one of them could be delivering your baby.

With Jonah, I saw one doctor through the whole pregnancy and he was wonderful, but of course he didn't deliver me because they called some "on-call" doctor instead. I decided to try a different doctor on the count that I wouldn't be here through the whole pregnancy because we were thinking about moving...and now we're not. So I wasn't very thorough in my investigation of providers and really wasn't thinking long-term on this one.

So now I ask you for your advice! I haven't made any decisions yet and I'd like some feedback.
Please leave me your comments if you know of a great midwife or doctor and who NOT to go to. Thanks everyone! I want this to be a good experience and not a scary one.

The 18 Week Baby Bump

Here we are at 18 weeks. I decided that I no longer just looked fat and one could actually tell I might be pregnant instead. So here you go. I'm starting to feel baby moving quite a bit, which is really fun! For those of you that haven't yet voted, look at the poll on our sidebar and tell us what you think we're having!! Up until a few weeks ago I was totally convinced it was a boy and was even calling it a "he". I'll find out for sure in about 2 weeks or so and then I'll let you all know!

P.S. I redecorated our blog too (yes those are actually our shoes in the header photo, one pair each, juxtaposed over a photo I took in Stewart Falls some years ago...its kind of weird but I like it!).

Happy Forthejuly!

We had a great Independence Day this year and tried to make sure we participated in several activities but also tried to make it a calm and laid back day. It was a success! We began the day by going down to the Provo Freedom Festival for a bit and walked through the many booths filled with junk and cheesy pencil-drawn pictures of Ronald Reagan crying. Jon said he'd buy that picture in a second if he'd only had the cash.

We then went back to the apartment and we all hunkered down for a long nap. After that, we took Baby Jonah to the pool for a bit and Uncle Jeff was kind enough to take pictures for us! We ate some deliciously greasy KFC for dinner and then went to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the really cheap seats (the median on University by Cafe Rio)!

All sarcasm aside, I love this country and I'm so grateful to be free to worship how, where, and what I may. The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were truly inspired documents. I'm also very grateful to all those who have sacrificed for our country and our freedom. God Bless the USA!

Jonah loves the water. He's our little water doggy!

The water was actually really cold. I think the heater was either not working or they'd just refilled the pool (probably because some kid pooped in it...who knows). But Jonah didn't mind the cold one bit!

Uncle Jeff warming Jonah up.

Jonah saw a helicopter flying over.

Our annual 4th of July family picture.

Jonah loves it when I open the fridge and he immediately rushes over to pull out some yogurt or any condiment he can wriggle from the door. Well, the other day when I opened the fridge I noticed something that didn't quite belong. Can you see what it is????

OK. Let me help you!!

That's right. This Thomas train, which Jonah calls Coo Coo, has been one of his favorite toys lately. It has a little whistle that came with it and when you blow the whistle, Thomas starts rolling. He loves it! (Thanks, Josh and Lindsey!!) Anyway, I guess he found this little niche for it during one of the moments the fridge was open. I think he traded it for his sippy cup or something.