Mama Mia

Greg decided he wanted to make pasta. If there is a food that can be made from scratch, he wants to try it. Luckily his mom had a pasta maker we could borrow (take it from us, don't try pasta without it!). It was fun to see all the beautiful noodles come out and the boys loved helping.

In the end we had a lot of pasta. It was yummy, but not sure it was worth an entire afternoon of work.

Let's not forget little James. Here is a typical afternoon for him:

This is his big-eye look.

Then some smiles.

And then a nap.

William drew me this picture to ask me to play on the XBox with him. On top is the TV, then below is the game controller, me, the tv remote, and him.

Photo shoot

Catch-up

I suppose it's time for a bit of an update! There were 3 little reasons (named William, Isaac, and James) I had no energy to keep up on the blogging, but now life is returning to normal. We are so glad James is finally here. Here is his story (I'll leave out the gory stuff for you sensitive types):
I had contractions starting at around 34 weeks so I was exhausted and ready to have this little boy make his debut. When I was 38 1/2 weeks I woke up in the middle of the night with a contraction that was so intense I could hear my heart pounding in my head. That was at 2:45 am. I waited to see if it was a fluke, but then had another one at 3:00. The dog sat at my feet growling as I breathed through it, which I thought was really funny. I woke up Greg and told him it looked like his prediction was coming true and this baby was coming in the middle of the night. Despite the fact that his wife was in labor, he was not that excited about getting out of bed, but before he could even finish asking me "Are you sure this is the real thing?" I had another contraction and he said, "Let's go. I've seen that look before!"
My sister and her husband were kind enough to rush to the house to stay with Will and Isaac and we were out of the house by 3:30. In the middle of a contraction at a stop light my water broke (the first time that's ever happened to me spontaneously), and at 3:40 we pulled up to the emergency room doors.
To get into the labor and delivery ward you have to stand outside the doors and call the nurses inside for them to open the doors. They have a video feed to the doors. When we got there I went off to the side to lean on a counter for another contraction and Greg called the nurses. They had quite the funny exchange.
Greg: "Can you open the doors? My wife's having a baby."
Nurse: "What's your wife's name?"
Greg: "Talia Poulsen."
Nurse: Long pause. "We don't have anyone here by that name."
Greg: "No, she's right here, she's in labor."
Nurse: "What was the name again?"
Greg: "Talia Poulsen."
Nurse: "Sorry, do you know what room she's in?"
Greg: "Talia, come stand next to me. This is my wife. She is having a baby! Can we come in!?"
Even in the middle of contractions the humor of the situation was not lost on me. We finally were allowed in and subjected to a bunch more questions before taken to a room. Then they changed their minds and took us to a different room. After standing around in there for a while by ourselves a nurse came in and finally got things going. She did an initial check and then said "Oh, um, you're an 8. I think I'll go call your midwife." Greg turned on our music (some nice relaxing John Cruz) and did some massage and pressure points while I worked on visualization until the midwife got there. She checked me and asked "how do you feel about pushing?" A few contractions later and our James was born at 5:50 am. From the time I woke up until he was born was only 3 hours.
It was a great birth! The nurses were not very on the ball, but we don't use them very much anyway. Greg was great and the midwife was great and James was great. The hypnobirthing techniques I used were great too. James had a lot of bruising on his arm and sides where the midwife had to really pull on him. Sometimes with big babies they have to break the baby's collarbone to get them out, but we were able to get all 10 pounds 9 ounces of him here unbroken.
James is a wonderful baby. He's very calm and happy and loves looking at his brothers. His brothers really love him too.

Camping Trip

Every year the boys in my extended family go "Male Bonding." A few years ago the girls decided we didn't want to miss out on the fun so we started coming too (but we are only allowed every other year :). Amazingly, despite the fact that I was pregnant and had a cold, none of us slept at all, Ike threw up on me, Greg got shot in the eye with a paintball gun, and Will nearly chopped off his finger, we all had a really good time!
Will loved playing with his cousins, especially Mia and Jacob. This is probably the only picture of him we got because he was always on the move! The two things he was most looking forward to were roasting marshmallows and peeing on a tree, and I'm happy to say he was able to accomplish both.

Ike and Uncle Nick.

Greg got to do what he does- smoke that meat!

Sadie loved playing in the reservoir.

It's DINNERTIME!

It was so nice to be out in the beautiful mountains and with great family members. We really had a good time!

Spring!

Are you ready? Time to get that garden tilled, compost hauled, and get a jump-start on those weeds! Here's what's blooming around town:

Crocus, Miniature Iris, Forsythia, Hyacinth, Armeria, Candy tuft, Primroses, Daffodils (just starting), and Tulips (only seen 1 so far).

Delectable sea insects

Greg recently went to Boston for work and brought home 2 lobsters. LIVE lobsters. They spent the night on a bed of seaweed in the fridge and the next day Greg boiled them alive. Don't they look appetizing? Not really! I am not a seafood eater. I'm actually highly "allergic". The idea of eating giant insects that live on the bottom of the ocean is about enough to make me... well, you get the idea.
Despite my overt stick-in-the mud attitude toward the whole adventure, Greg was very excited to cook and eat the little aliens. His dad shared the excitement and came to enjoy the feast as well.

Look at all the equipment needed for this meal for 2. I even had to run to the store to buy nutcrackers at the last minute.

Mmmmm, guts.

This is possibly the goofiest picture of Greg's dad in existence. Had to share it with the world.

The aftermath.

I did have a taste of the lobster, and I must say, it lived up to all my expectations. And yes, it was covered in butter. Still grossest thing I have ever tasted. But Greg had fun and was able to add lobster to his cooking repertoire, and he carefully collected and immediately disposed of every scrap of lobster in the kitchen, so I really can't complain too much.

Cute faces

It's almost March, so I suppose I've been a little remiss about blogging. The most adorable things that have been going on lately:

We borrowed Papa's truck to move a couch and the boys LOVED it. All day they wanted to ride in the truck, and when they weren't in the truck, they wanted to look at the truck.

Year in Review

I have never done a Christmas letter for our family before, but 2010 was so amazing for us that I wanted to document it all. If you follow our blog, this will all be old news, but hey, this is for posterity! Plus, then I can throw away last year's calendar. (If you manage to make it all the way to the end, you get a big prize!)

January- We started the year living in our rented house in Ogden. Greg was in school at Weber State. William turned 3 and he had a Cars birthday cake.

February- I did the flowers for a beautiful wedding. It was a lot of fun.

March- Isaac turned 1. We went to Wyoming to visit the Hollins. Isaac and Ayli, who share their birthday, had a little joint party.

April- Things started to get crazy. Greg and I knew we would like to move south after he graduated. We wanted to buy a house, but didn't think it would be possible for another year. We met with the a mortgage councilor at our credit union on the 1st just to see if there was any way we could get a house. Surprisingly, it looked feasible for us, but thing we going to be so busy coming up, and we felt we had to wait until after Greg's graduation to decide what we wanted to do. But the next week, almost on a whim, we decided to meet with a realtor and see if there was any possibility of finding a house. On the 10th we met with Clay and he claimed he could find us the perfect house by the end of the month. We were skeptical, but played along.

To add to the craziness, Tanza came into town on the 10th for a week to plan her wedding. There were lots of trips to Salt Lake over the next week looking for a wedding dress and planning her bridal shower, which I was throwing.

On the 16th, Greg presented his final project to the faculty at school and then we drove down to look at our first batch of houses. They were nice, but not right for us. Then next day was Tanza's shower, which we had to coordinate with our cousin's baby shower which was the same day.

The next week was full of Greg's finals and culminated with his long-awaited graduation on Friday, the 23rd. I was so proud of him and all his hard work. It was over 10 years since he first started college. He had worked full time through most of those years to support me and one, and then two kids, never taking his eye off the goal of getting his degree. He had put off many other dreams and hobbies and sacrificed every spare moment to homework and time on campus. He graduated with his bachelor's degree and a great job offer. He deserved it!

I think it was the next day, although I failed to document it, that we went house-hunting again and found the house we loved. I actually knew it was the place as soon as I saw a picture of it our realtor had emailed to us earlier in the week. Seeing the place in person only confirmed what I already knew. With that, we scheduled the inspection which was completed on April 30th. What a change 30 days can bring!

May- The month was filled with paperwork and endless phone calls. William heard me say our future address on the phone so many times he had it memorized before we ever moved in. After back-and-forth negotiations and rescheduling the closing date 3 times, we closed on the house on Friday, May 21st. Greg had to work that weekend, so we couldn't move right away. We loaded the U-Haul on the next Thursday evening and unloaded it at our new house on Friday.

June- The next weekend Tanza and her fiancé Mike arrived from Hawaii. We spend most of Saturday the 5th at the temple as she took out her endowments. On the 10th my cousin Andrea and her 2 boys came into town to stay with us for the wedding. The next day, Friday, we spent setting up for the reception, in my parent's backyard. I picked up the flowers from the wholesaler and got Tanza's bouquet made. Then there was the big family dinner that night, where Greg displayed his delicious barbeque skills.

The big wedding was on the 12th and it was wonderful! The weather had been lousy all week, and the forecast gave us no hope for improvement, but as soon as the lovebirds came out of the temple, the rain stopped. We all dashed to the house to get ready for the reception and the rain started up again, but about 1 hour before start time, away it went. The sun even came out! Greg and I chased the kids around trying to get them into their suits (poor William wanted nothing to do with it as he didn't feel well) and I set up the centerpieces and put the flowers on the cake. The whole thing came off without a hitch. The decorations were awesome (if I do say so myself), the food delicious and plentiful, the Hawaiian dancing was beautiful and everyone had fun dancing the rest of the night away with the DJ.

On the 24th we hauled about a dozen bags full of about a hundred diapers and bottles of sunscreen to the airport and jumped on a plane headed for Hawaii. We went to Molokai for Mike and Tanza's reception there, and then to Honolulu for a week at Turtle Bay Resort. Such a wonderful time... but that's a whole separate story. While there we also celebrated Greg's birthday and our anniversary.

July- We returned from Hawaii on the morning of the 4th after a red-eye flight. The kids slept on the plane, which was great, but then they were up all the next day. When were mom and dad supposed to sleep? I was in such a haze it took me about a week to realize I was still waiting for 4th of July festivities.

The rest of the month we were finally able to unpack and get settled in the house (remember, we moved?).

August- A visit to the county fair, dinners, play dates, temple visits, and other normal activities.

September- More of the same. My first girl's night out in years!

October- William and I started in a neighborhood preschool. We were able to see cousin Charlie sealed and blessed on the 9th and 10th. We had a Halloween party with Greg's parents and the Hollins. Will really got into the Trick-or-Treating and out-lasted all the other kids. He was a black spider and Isaac was a Dalmatian puppy. I sang in church with a small group on the 31st.

November- The month was pretty low-key. Thanksgiving as in Salem Hills with my Mom's side of the family. Very nice time.

December- Full of holiday celebrations. It was really fun to decorate our new own house for the season. The boys had fun attending a myriad of Christmas parties. On Christmas Eve I went shopping with my mom and Greg's mom at the Gateway Mall, as we have done every year for 6 years. Greg, William, Isaac, my dad, Greg's dad, my brother and his new girlfriend (!) joined us afterward for lunch at Tucano's, where we have eaten every Christmas Eve for the last 3 years.

That evening the boys got to open their pajamas and we watched Disney's A Christmas Carol. Christmas we stayed home and had lots of visitors and a big dinner for Greg's family. It was fun to host and have everyone here.

If you've made it this far, give me a call and I will cook you dinner. Wow.

It was such a wonderful year for us, full of fun times, great memories, and most importantly, new and old friends and dear family!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We certainly did. This year Thanksgiving was with my family and we all met up at a church in Woodland Hills. Greg had fun playing what looked like Kamakazie dodge ball in the gym and the boys actually let me out of their sight and had fun playing with their cousins. The food was awesome (anyone know who made the stuffing? Wow.)

I'm not great about getting pictures. The only ones I managed were of the pies I made. I was quite proud of them, though.

How about that blizzard? Or, as my brother put it, Blizzard Watch 2010. Didn't amount to much, but I like how the snow stuck on my back door. I am getting some help with taking pictures. William wants to take pictures of everything! He's not too bad, really. Guess I better start doing my hair.

Sadie

We got our cat, Lucy, from the great people at Second Chance for Homeless Pets about 4 years ago. This past weekend we went back and got a dog. She's an Australian Shepherd/ Spaniel mix, 1 1/2 years old, and we named her Sadie. She's a very happy dog and the boys love playing with her, but she also settles down and cuddles or sleeps at our feet. Even Lucy seems to be acclimating to Sadie very quickly. She's a fun addition to our family.
If you are thinking of adding a furry friend to your family, adoption is a wonderful way to go. The people at Second Chance rescue animals that are on the euthanasia list at kill shelters and take time to match them with a family. Check them out at www.utahpetadoptions.org.

Fall?

Can you believe how warm it's been? Great weather for planting bulbs and putting up Christmas lights! I know, I said I wasn't planting any bulbs this year, but they were on sale at Lowe's and they had two of my favorite kinds of daffodils- Tahiti and Ice Follies. I was surprised they had those kinds, I thought they only ever had the big bags of King Alfred.

William and I are doing a little neighborhood preschool. Each mom takes a turn hosting and this week it was at our house. The kids made these cute little corns out of Captain Crunch and pretzels (Will's is the second from the left, Isaacs is third. All he wanted to do was sit with the big kids and eat the pretzels).Thanks to everyone who helped us eat our tomatoes this fall. We still have a small assortment on our counter I'm slowly eating away at. Right before it frosted I picked everything that was out there, even the little green ones. Seeing them on the counter reminded me of my friend Jenny's post (http://jenandserge.blogspot.com/2010/10/eat-rainbow.html) about eating a rainbow. Jenny, remember those leaf art projects we saw at the Logan Arts Festival forever ago where the guy framed leaves in a rainbow of colors?

Busy and happy

This past weekend we were able to celebrate a baby sealing and blessing in Greg's family. Greg made all the meat for the lunch after on Sunday (FYI, 16 lbs of pork feeds 18 adults and 15 kids). We had a little luau-type meal, so he made kalua pork and smoked BBQ pork, which he had to start Friday to have it done for Sunday. It was yummy! He also grilled pineapple that was so AMAZING. I think everyone there could have eaten their weight in grilled pinapple. He is going to be one of those crazy guys that grills all winter.

Lotsa meatKalua pork pork in the making, wrapping it in ti leavesA few of the 50 secret ingredients in Greg's BBQ rub

Conference cookies (pumpkins and temples)I don't know how we survived as long as we did without a sandbox.

(His shirt says "Dirt likes me")I had to take this picture because Greg was so happy his boys were watching football with him. Aren't they the picture of a cozy fall evening?I just had to document the bounteous goodness that came out of our garden the other day. I froze the basil, made peach jam with the peaches, and made tomato sauce with the tomatoes. If you ever want to waste a good part of your day, make home-made tomato sauce. Those tomatoes were boiled, peeled, chopped, sauteed, simmered, processed, and out came the most bland, watery tomato sauce I've ever had. Bleh. Next time I'll just wait for Hunt's to go on sale.William has off and on been my vacuumer, and now he really into it. He likes to do the whole house...

...and then some. How lucky am I?