Owen 8 months and counting...

So Owen has hit a few more milestones as of late. He got in his lower incisors, and the uppers seem to be coming in right behind. He still won't eat baby food, but any table food he can get his hands on, makes him extremely happy.

He also learned to drink from a straw. Both he and Liam learned this little trick at 8 months. It's so funny to see someone this small drinking from a straw. It makes it nice for transitioning purposes though.

But most importantly, he has started to Crawl, well more like commando crawl, where he drags himself across the floor with his elbows. He's actually pretty quick at it and we've had to start the baby proofing. The stairs are now blocked by the gate, and the doors to all the bathrooms must be closed at all times.
Like I said before, the time has seemed to fly by with this little guy. It makes me a little sad that he is getting big so fast, but at the same time I love how fun he is getting. He loves to play with Liam and Nate and wants to be doing whatever Liam is doing.

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The last month...

Sorry there has been a super lag at the Poulson blog. But here is a re-cap of last months activities.
First and foremost,
We just got back from a wonderful trip to Utah to see the family. But most importantly to see my new Nephew Graham Christopher Liddell who was born September 10, 2008 at 3:01pm and weighed 8lbs. 11oz. and 20 1/2 inches long.
It's actually a funny story.
My SIL Sara was supposed to be induced before I came out to UT, but there was no room at the inn so they postponed it until Tuesday, then there was still no room. (seriously people do you have nothing better to do during the month of December?)
Finally Wednesday the 10th she was able to go in and get labor started.
At 1:30 she was still at a five so Owen and I brought my Brother and his MIL (Dru) some sandwiches we figured it'd be hours until she delivered. (WRONG!)
She was really in pain and was waiting so patiently for her epidural. (Those LAME anesthesiologist! He was stuck in a C-section. I asked if they were hiring for 2011, cause I knew of a great one, and they're obviously under staffed!)
Anyways he got to her room around 2:30 gave her a great epidural, and at 3:01 the little tyke was born.
The funny part. She dilated so quickly after the epidural that Grahams heart rate went down and they put some oxygen on her. The next minute there were 15 nurses and alarms going off I thought something had really gone wrong so I threw Owen into his car seat and ran to the hallway to get out of the way, and was trying to calm Dru down.
We found out that it wasn't an emergency, she was ready to start pushing.
Since I don't even really get to participate in my own childrens births, (I just stare at a blue sheet.) my brother and Sara invited me to stay and take pictures of them holding the baby and taking video of the weigh-in and cord cutting. So I got to see my first actual live baby birth, and so did OWEN! I called Nate to come pick him up, but Sara was the camp of delivering a baby and he got there shortly after Graham was born. We decided that Owen made a great mid-wife as he sat in his car seat and chewed on a toothbrush. Maybe he'll be an OB??
The rest of the trip was also a blast!
We got to eat at all of our favorite places. My MIL watched the boys so we could do a Temple session. (Thanks Marie!)
Owen and I went to the BYU/UCLA shut out game 59-0. GO Cougars!!! He turned 8 months while we were there, and is cutting his first tooth. I just loved this picture of him.
Liam got to play with both sides of cousins, spend an afternoon at the Zoo, go to wheeler farm twice, where he got to feed the ducks, ride a pony and milk a cow.
And one of my favorite things, go boating with my Dad! It's been a few years since either Nate or I have been wake boarding, but it's like riding a bicycle. Once you get up, you never forget how. Thanks dad. And thanks Utah Lake for not being choppy or windy.

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And last but not least, I was able to meet up with some "Tulane Ladies" for lunch.
All in all it was a great trip and I am really missing everyone.
Nate's Mom helped me fly back with the boys, but had to go right back today and Liam cried for a whole 30 minutes; "I want my Nana, I want my Nana. I go wit her on the airplane..." when he woke up to find her gone this morning. I wanted to cry too. But one of us had to be brave.
Thanks to all for such an awesome trip. A few more like that and maybe we'll be fixed on moving back there when we're done!


Before we left we had another big event.
Liam started Pre-school.
I've been really nervous about this transition. Up until two months ago Liam has struggled with going to nursery at church and I never even leave the building. But one day he decided it was more fun than going to my "boring" class and now he loves it.
He did great with school as well.
When the first day was over and I came to pick him up, his teacher told him what a great job he did and that she was giving him a "kiss."
She bent down to give him a chocolate kiss and he gave her a smooch on the lips! It caught her off guard, but in his defense she needed to be more clear that it was a chocolate kiss.

I can't believe I have a child who is already going to school. It made me realize that soon he'll be gone all day and will spend more time with his teachers than he will awake at home, but I'm not going to think about that since it makes me sad and we'll take it one day at a time!
















I took some fun pictures of the boys during bath time that I'd hoped to get on here before we went to UT, but that didn't happen. I still wanted to post them though.

Well I think that will get everyone caught up!

WIth a little help from my friends...

So my ever so talented friend Mandy. Who is an amazing cook and does the most creative things with food to help your kids eat almost anything@ Here is a link to her cooking blog, you'll see what I mean! Gourmet Mom

She just entered a cupcake contest and needs the help of "my friends and your friends" to win it so she can one day tell her grandchildren she was the "Cupcake Baking Champion of the Earth...."
All you need to do is; go here to vote. Click the bubble next to "Gourmet Mom-on-the-Go" on the left-hand sidebar, then scroll down and click "Vote". Voting is open until Thursday.
So PLEASE for the love of cupcakes, vote for Mandy! Then try out her recipe You won't be disappointed!
Thanks!


Photo: courtesy of Annie Ryenolds Photography

His bark is worse than his bite...

I think I can safely say that I "put up my umbrella before it started to rain."
It looks like Gustav decided to spare the city of New Orleans this time and gave them a break.
I hope all of you who evacuated get to enjoy wherever you are for the next couple of days and thank Gustav for the needed vacation!!! (that's what we did with Ivan:)
Now lets all pray for November to get here so we don't have to watch for stuff happening in the gulf for a few months.
I'd like to think that it was the fact that I was saying so many prayers for it to spare the city that Liam followed suit and blessed them too last night that made his little heart (or eye) go soft and he calmed down enough to only do a little damage.
Part of me thins I should save this as a draft and not post it until tomorrow. (I'm superstitious like that.)
But since things are looking in our favor I'll hit the publish button and cross my fingers for those levees to keep up the good work!

Just Say NO to Gustav!

There are no words that can express the knot I've had in my stomach all day and night after hearing there is another hurricane threat for New Orleans yesterday.
As I write this, the tears are flowing and my emotions are high.
It breaks my heart to think that only three short years after Katrina, this city is going to have to endure another one.
When I first arrived to New Orleans. I knew nothing about it, other than the fact that it looks like a boot on a map and is located in the South.
As I opened the door to our car (which, is sad to say went down with Katrina) the humidity hit me like a ton of bricks, the air smelled like mildew and I saw my first (and in no way my last) Cockroach.
I wanted to get back in that car, and drive the 2000 miles back UT where I felt safe, where I felt needed, and was where I wanted to be.
I won't lie to you. It took me about a year to call it HOME and begin my love affair with that city.
I won't go into all the reasons why I love this city but the biggest reasons are: this is where I feel Nate and I first started our married lives. This was the first time we were living for a long period of time with no family close by.
I learned how to cook, how to peel a crawfish (YUCK!), catch the eye of a Krew member so he'd throw me a 25 cent strand of beads, ran my first 10K, Nate's band and the concerts they played at Tipitinas, lets not forget magazine street, and most importantly it's where I gave birth to my oldest Son.
This is what really gets me. I can't stand the thought that there might not be a New Orleans. That I can't take Liam back to where he was born and tell him the story of his birth and the first few years of his life.
How he went to his first Mardi Gras parade while still in the womb, and again before he turned one.
How we spent most days taking walks on the levee looking across lake Pontchartrain and seeing the causeway stretch for miles and miles as far as your eyes could see.
Walking to Sals to get a Sno Ball with the ice cream in the middle. And eating at Lebanons for the ump-teenth time and still wanting more the next day.
Telling him about how we met some of our best friends there, (some of which who are still there.) and all the fun we had while living in the BIG EASY!
So it is with a humble heart tonight that I am saying a prayer for the city I love and the people I love!
In my heart I hope that it doesn't make a direct hit and that this time the levees will hold, that this time, no one will die, and that peoples whole lives won't be turned upside down in an instant. Everything they own swallowed by the wave of Gustav.
To our friends,
Be safe, be smart and know there is always a place in Hershey waiting for you if you need it!

Farewell to Summer...

AS we say goodbye to summer (is it really over already?) I thought I'd do a clip of our summer highlights. This includes Liam learning how to help mom cook (or eat the batter which was my favorite thing to help my mom do.) Swimming, playgroup, Hershey park... What do you do in the summertime?

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

3 going on 30

Seriously Liam just keeps the laughs coming.
Tonight I was helping him change into his P.J's and when I was pulling his shorts off, he says. "No peeking Mama."
I wanted to say, "Kid, trust me I've seen you naked more times in the last three years than you even want to know about."
Instead I just laughed. Who wouldn't???
The real question I have is where did he learn that from?

Liam Laughs

So here are the latest Liam laughs to date.
One of my really good friends out here is having a baby soon and so we threw her a shower not too long ago.
I made a diaper cake and when I was making it, Liam really wanted to help and or not help by taking off all the decorations.
I kept telling him it was for Molly's baby shower and that he couldn't touch it.
Then when I was leaving with the cake and other supplies, I told him that I was going to Molly's baby shower and then I'd be back later.
A few days ago we went on a walk and at the end he really needed to go potty. Molly's house was closer so we went there.
He walked inside and saw the Baby nursery with the diaper cake on display then walked into the bathroom.
All a sudden I hear him yell, "Yook Mama I come to Ollie's baby shower too!" (And he was pointing to the shower in the bathroom.)

Second
Nate and I were having a heated discussion in the car the other night. I was being a "little" animated and all a sudden Liam says, "MAMA. Please don't talk to Dada, it hurts my ears."
We just laughed and laughed.
Third, Liam loves to finger paint. SO I got him out the paints and we were painting while Owen napped. I walk in to find him laughing cause he decided to paint with his nose.
I love how the mind of a three year old works.

DA DA DAdaDADADA....

Can I tell you just how much I LOVE the olympics? No. I can't because there are NO words to describe it but these pictures are worth a thousand words.


Not sure how that got in here?

Sorry Frenchies. Maybe next time you'll "crush" us? Oh wait we could do that with our little pinky.

A Feva...

"I've got a feva, and the only cure is more camping..."
So I don't know if I got bit with the camping bug when we did the girls trip, but since then that is all I could think about. We even went back up for another day trip to G.P. (well mainly to get back the little red wagon, which the extremely nice lady kept hidden under her desk for a week so the families checking in to their cabins couldn't play with it. Thanks to her!)
Nate had a week of vacation and we had a bunch of plans for that week. However due to a bunch of things we stayed around home and had a fun relaxing week of family time that went by all too quickly.
I unfortunately didn't document any of these activities cause I forgot my camera when we went to Hershey park (and you've all seen us there a hundred times.) Nate and Liam spent many a morning down by the pool while Owen took the longest naps due to the extremely quiet non liam singing house. So no pictures of that either. However an important note, Liam has graduated from his swim tube to floaties.
But to make it feel like a vacation, Friday we went camping with our great friends the Banzhafs. (this time I brought the camera, but left the memory card in the computer. Duh. So these were some of the pictures Eden took. Thanks girl. Oh and BTW she is an awesome travel agent. Everyone needs a friend like her who plans and books YOUR family vacation.)

We went camping about an hour away at a state park called Pine Grove Furnace.
This was beautiful. Tons of trees, two lakes, a good little hike for Liam, and a flat place to put our tent. I highly recommend site #20.


Here is a list of things that I have forgotten about camping, or forgot to bring camping.
-Tennis shoes. It would have been nice to have my feet covered. Instead I wore flip flops.
-A jacket for me and the kids for the cold morning. It was 90 degrees when we got there.
-A spatula. We were in charge of breakfast so we decided on pancakes. But soon discovered that I'd forgotten the spatula. But no worries, I found an old CD in the car that did the trick. Yes I am that crafty.

-non flushing toilets. YUCK YUCK YUCK. So I love camping but not the outhouses. I cringe even writing this. But lucky for us they are in the middle of upgrading to new flushing toilets and showers.
-Firewood. We brought one pack and that wasn't near enough. Good thing we had three 3 year olds to help look for sticks. And Nate and Mike "found" some logs at a guys house back in town. (Thanks guy. Hope you found the note and $10)
-Newspaper to get the fire started. Lucky for us there were dry leaves that night. A little smokey but they did the job.
-Nate's guitar. But the neighbors may have been more annoyed by this than the three boys screaming and running around like crazies or the two babies taking turns crying when wanting to be pushed in their strollers to fall asleep.
-It ALWAYS rains when you camp. No matter what the weather forecast. Our new tent did great and we stayed dry, but Mike on the other hand was running around at 3 a.m. trying to put up his rain fly during the down pour.
-Liam's swim suit. But lucky for him he is so skinny that he was able to wear his brothers 6-12 month trunks. They were a little John Stockton-ish, but hey it was better than swimming in his lightening McQueens.


The boys loved it. (well I know for sure that Liam did, he could tell me. Owen I'm not so sure but he didn't complain so I'll take that as a yes.) I didn't get ANY sleep due to the fact that the rain sounded likequarters on a metal floor and the airmattress had lost it's air after the "Terrible Three" were done with it and I wasn't going to go to the effort of putting more in so I slept in the middle V while Owen and Liam slept basically on top of me. Next time I'll go to the effort.

Liam learned a lot this trip but most important was using his "plumbing" how God intended it to be used. (anywhere anytime. No seat or paper needed.)
Liam has never peed standing up and although there have been other attempts made, he has always gone sitting down. (don't blame him. I hadn't enlightened him on the standing up option. I think all boys/men have lousy aim and should always sit down.)
I didn't want him sitting on the gross seats in the outhouse. So I told him to pee on the tree. That was all he needed to get over the standing up fear. I didn't even have to ask him again he'd just find his tree and go.
But when we went swimming at the lake the following day and I couldn't find him. To my horror, he was peeing on the side of the pavilion with people walking by.
Not his fault AGAIN. We should have explained when and where peeing outside is acceptable and made sure to do so when we returned home to our house. I didn't want to find him going on the dishwasher or something.
The trip I think was a success and I can't wait for another trip to the great outdoors.

A little MOMS and ME(s) action

My friends Chrissy and Annie decided that they wanted to do an ALL girls camping trip. Originally we'd planned on camping overnight with all our kids. NO husbands. (since none of our husbands have schedules that would allow all of them to be able to come at the same time.)
That idea what nixed. Most the husbands felt uneasy about there not being a "man" there to protect us from all the crazys out there, the others laughed at the thought of us setting up the tents, making a fire, cooking dinner, taking down camp and watching our 13 kids all by ourselves.
So instead we decided to do a "day" trip. We went to a local state park where we all got lost (Except me. That's one bonus about being last. They all call you and tell you how to get there.) But most people would have had the same problem. It has a weird layout.
Once we all got there, we unloaded the kids, put them in their bathing suits and took a dip in the murky 80 degree lake water. The kids loved it.
One lady in particular (I'll let you guess which.) was afraid of the unnaturally warm and murky water, mostly because of what could be living and swimming in that murky water? But never mind the fact that she is from the OC and swims in the ocean with sharks???
Once we'd gotten the kids good and dirty we drove to the campsite, started a fire, (Thanks to Cheryl and Heather), put our tin foil dinners in the pit, ate all the side dishes while the main courses cooked, yelled at the kids: "DO NOT TOUCH THE FIRE! IT'S HOT AND IT WILL BURN YOU!!!!" Then yelled at them again when they each took a turn at. "who's kid can get hit by the wagon towing a trailer that has passed 15 times going 30?" All I can say is that I'd put my money on Tamara if I needed someone to jump in front of a moving car to save my life any day!
Once our dinners had cooked, we got out the 'Smores.


This was Liam's first time to encounter the art of roasting mallows, and turning that golden mallow into a a chocolaty gram delight.
He was super excited about the fact that he was finally allowed to get near the fire and, like his dad, burn something.
To be honest, I haven't had a 'Smore in over 15 years because as a child, they always made me throw up. Too much sugar I'm guessing? But I wanted to see if this was going to still be the case. And guess what? I was only mildly sick. Welcome back 'Smores welcome back!
We even set up a tent for the kids to play in. So there! I think we could all be boy scouts.


I think it was a total success except for the fact that my legs look like I have the chicken pox from all the mosquito bites, and the little red wagon is MIA. (I take that back, the ranger found it and needs its owner to pick it up. That'll happen.)
Thanks ladies! Lets do again. Maybe next time JUST the girls?

Where does the time go???

Can it already have been 6 months? I can't believe that our baby Owen is 6 months already. He is such a sweet baby. I'm glad I had him second, cause Liam demanded a lot more than Owen does. For the most part, he is content as long as he is either being held, or you are within close eye contact. People are always commenting on the fact that he is such a pleasant baby. To this I say Yes he is, most of the time.
He still doesn't sleep through the night. But occasionally he gives me a preview of what 7 hours sleep feels like, and it gives me hope.
Here is a slide of a day I took some pictures of him and Nate playing. there is also a video clip of him when he learned he had a tongue and could use it to make noise. (I'd lost my voice so that is why it sounds so weird.)
We always laugh because lately he has been sticking his tongue out for most pictures, sometimes I wonder if Nate is secretly having Owen watch old KISS music videos and calling him Gene jr.?
But every time Nate comes home from working in the NICU I count my blessings that he's healthy, happy, and a part of our family.
I truly feel like I am the "luckiest."

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7-11-08

So what did we do on 7-11 this year? Well...
A friend informed me if you dressed up like a cow, and went to Chick-fil-a you received a free combo meal. WHAT FREE food you say? I'm there. I don't care what I have to do to get it either. (I reminded myself of the Jerry Seinfield Halloween stand up act follow this link if you haven't heard it yet. I laugh every time. We even have the book.
So I dressed up the kids and drove the 25 miles to the closest chick-fil-a (yes I know, I spent more in gas than the free food.)

On my way there, Nate called to see what I was up to. Here is our conversation.
Nate: Hey babe, whatcha doing?

Me: I'm driving to Mechanicsburg dressed like a cow to get a free combo meal at Chick-fil-a.

Nate: How old are you?

Me: (pause hmmm how old am I?) 28, but I'll do this when I'm 50 if it means free food. What are you doing?

Nate: I just got done helping deliver a preemie and am supposed to have another admit here real soon.

Me: You know you could be doing something a lot more exciting like dressing up like a cow, none of this saving babies stuff... Don't you wish you could come with us instead?

Nate: No. Hey, I gotta go, I'm being paged. (click)

Me: (as I'm hanging up the phone.) That's the story of my life.

I even dressed Owen up and we took his meal to Dada afterward.
I'd also planned on going to 7/11 to get my free slurpee, but that didn't happen. Next year. Next year.
That evening we went to listen to a local "Jazz" band for my dear friend Annie's birthday. I use "Jazz" becuase this band had obviously never been to New Orleans to hear what real Jazz sounds like.
That being said, it was still fun and the company was awesome. All in all, 7/11 was a great day!

Patriotic WACAMOA

So our fearless WACAMOA president (Ruth) graduated last month and moved on to greener pastures. We will miss her and the rest of our fellow WACAMOAer's. I know I've blogged about WACAMOA before, but for a refresh, Ruth started a brunch group with some of the anesthesia wives but instead of calling it brunch group,(cause that's a lame name), she came up with the title W.A.C.A.M.O.A. = Women Absolutely Crazy About their Men Of Anesthesia. So for the last couple of years, the anesthesia residents wives are known to be found every other Thursday at someones house, a park or even Chocolate World. We enjoy good food, (we all bring something to share), talking, letting the kids run free, talking, oh and did I mention talking? It's a great group of ladies and such a fun tradition.
This being said, I didn't want my monthly dose of talking to other adults vanish so me and a friend decided to take over the "President and Vice President" roles and keep the tradition going.
This week Molly hosted and since the fourth of July out here was wet, wet, wet. And since it's an election year she chose to do a Patriotic WACAMOA theme. We had it at one of my favorite parks.
The food and company were awesome. Molly makes a mean flag cake! Here are the pics.

Give 'em here Mama...

So my favorite Liam tale as of late are from church the last two weeks. Week before last, we got there late (when I say late, I mean 5 minutes early, but you have to be there 15 min. before the meeting starts if you want a bench towards the back, 10 for the middle, and you guessed it, 5 for the front.)
We were on the second row and Owen was getting all fussy cause he needed to eat. They were just getting ready to start the sacrament and so I decided to try and nurse Owen right there. I had my nursing cover and figured it was better that, than getting up and walking all the way back and across to the doors to get to the mother's lounge.
Owen did not want to cooperate (he no longer likes it when I nurse him with the cover on, he wants to be able to see what's going on around him.)
I got myself back together and placed the cover on the bench next to me. A few minutes later Owen is fussing again and all of a sudden I look over and Liam has put on the cover, pulled up half his shirt and has his arms out to me and say's "here mama, hand em to me."
Nate and I both bust up laughing and are trying to control ourselves since it's completely quiet with people who are trying to take the sacrament in peace and meditation.
Then this week I decided to bear my testimony since it hadn't been done in over a year. I walked up to the stand just as 3 other people did and I was last, so I sat down in one of the chairs to wait my turn. (we were once again on the second row, but this time front and center.)
Liam wanted to come up there with me but Nate told him no. Liam stands up and slowly starts inching his way up towards me. He has his arms folded. Thinking maybe no one will notice the kid with the bright white hair that almost glows gliding up to the stand??
He gets almost to the stairs when it's my turn, Nate stands up to grab him and he starts to scream, "MAMA MAAMAAA MAAAAMAAAAAAAA..." A friend takes Owen so Nate can take Liam outside to calm down.
See why I don't do this very often???

Happy 4th of July

We just wanted to wish everyone a happy 4th of July!
Corinne sent the boys these outfits. Thanks!!!
Hopefully the weather clears up and stops raining so we can see the fireworks.

Daddy Time

Owen was cuddling with his dad the other night and I loved how sweet they looked. He stayed like this for an hour, just playing with Nate's hands and cooing.

Ahoy!!!

Liam Loves to dress up as a pirate. He had me get out his pirate Halloween costume and then wanted Owen dressed up too! Don't they look fierce?

The Big Apple

So Nate's Mom Marie and Sister Amy were in New York for work a few weekends ago, Nate surprisingly had the weekend off so we decided to drive up there to see them and see some of New York. (Nate and I have only been there once before and it was only for an afternoon. We saw A LOT that day but so much that it's all a blur.)
We loaded the kids in the car and took some advice from a friend, to drive to Newark and then take the NJ transit in.
This would have worked perfectly if Google maps hadn't been off by 10 blocks. It had the station listed on the wrong street completely. But after driving up and down the wrong street 15 times, I finally saw some signs pointing us in the right direction. (The trip home went flawless and I too would suggest this route to anyone driving to NY.)
It was so fun to see family and to have four extra hands to help with the kids. I think Amy carried Owen most of the time. We had a stroller for him but she didn't want to waste anytime pushing him in the stroller, if that meant she'd get less time to hold him. I'm guessing she carried him for miles, and I know her arms must have been tired, but every time I offered to put him in the stroller she just kept walking. She definitely wins the best aunt award, and of course, Owen LOVED it!
We still want to go again cause there is still so much we didn't get to see. We are hoping more family members come to NY so we drive up and can see it all!
Thanks Nana and Amy for the great weekend. My boys were so spoiled, I'm not sure if they'll ever recover. Liam is still wearing his pirate hat and hook most days. I blame you for his new vocabulary of Arrgghh, Pirate captain Liam, and matey!