And Counting

So I went to the doctor on Tuesday and I'm measuring exactly how I should be. Blood pressure fine, everything fine.... here's hoping for another healthy pregnancy and delivery! It seems like such a miracle to me, seriously, of all the things that could go wrong and don't. To have one perfect, healthy baby (with a good temperament too!) is miracle enough, but to have another healthy pregnancy the second time around is just an awe inspiring peek into the divine powers our bodies possess. Also, to feel all the wiggles and hiccups the second time around is just as fun and exciting as the first. I think it's because they are slightly more feminine wiggles and hiccups :)

I'm currently trying to piece a quilt together for Leila (with my new sewing machine, Hoorah!), and Cooper has taken quite a liking to the silky material, even though, as this video shows, I am trying to convince him it's Leila's:

We also went to the marathon last weekend with my parents, to their "spot" at mile 7 in Veyo. I didn't get any very good pictures, but The Spectrum did! Check out Jesse and Cooper here.

Spencer's Home, so we went Camping!

Hey all! Spencer FINALLY got home on the 26th. My buddy is now home safe, sound, and a little wierd - but I expected that part.

So, you'd expect that since every person in my family missed him terribly that we'd all be at the airport, signs and goodies in hand, a half hour early to welcome our boy home. Not so! Not only were ALL of us late, but his plane was early! No sooner had my parents burst through the automatic doors of the airport, Spencer came bounding in from the plane through the opposite set of automatic doors! OUCH! The rest of us brothers and sisters (if you could still call us that after this shameless display) were, in the mean time, racing down the Boulevard at full speed, hearing reports that his plane had landed and he was already in the airport! Jesse dropped me off at the doors, knowing my extreme excitement to see my little bro. and I ran, no, waddled quickly, into the airport so see all sorts of people hugging my brother who were nowhere nearly as related to him, or as excited to see him as I was. I waited patiently as he was finishing an embrace with some other stranger and then I hugged him as only I can, while he was nervously mumbling "Is this allowed?"

"Of course it is!" I yelped, "I'm your favorite sister!"

By this time Jesse had parked the car and was now entering the airport with my Cooper in his arms. This added momentum to my excitement, for my Cooper had not met his "unkie spunkie" before! Cooper took little interest in this kid with which his mother was so enamored. He promptly took the opportunity to run rampant through the airport with his fellow cousins (Cash is newly added to this group, only just learning to walk). As the excitement died down, pictures were snapped, and hugs were given all around, we noticed a few key family members were still missing: Alan, who we knew was out on a fire. Chris and Shawn, who were in Phoenix, but would be seeing Spencer the next day. And... ANNIE! Where could she be? Questioning eyes turned to Dave who could only shrug and say that when he called her she said she was on her way. We stood and socialized a while longer until Spencer announced that he was ready to eat the feast of Chile Verde mom had prepared and waiting at the house. We all agreed it was time to leave and made our way out to our respective cars. As I was climbing in to mine, I saw a familiar white Camry approaching. Annie! "Hey!" I called, "What took you so long?"

"I was sleeping!" Came the reply.

So Elder Syphus was welcomed at the airport in a fashion that could only be pulled off by the Syphus family as a whole...luckily, there was an understanding, as we were only welcoming one of our own.

We all left for the Grand Canyon the next morning and set up camp on the beautiful north rim next to North Timp Point. We passed the 3 days 4-wheeling, pulling down dead trees, and taking pictures of the view. Here are some of my favorites:

Labor Day, Swingset, Tractors, and Rodeo

I have been taking a slight break from blogging, simply due to procrastination. Anyway, to catch you all up: For Labor Day we went to Veyo Pool with both the Callahan and Syphus families. What a perfect place to take little kids! We reserved a picnic sight down by the creek, and those who didn't want to swim could sit in the shade and watch the little kids play in the Creek. We had Kristie Lee staying in town with us and she, with Amanda and Annie caught a bucket full of craw-dads! Cooper played in the pool with his cousins, but by far his favorite thing to do was to throw rocks into the creek and eat mud (He's a boy, go figure!). Jesse mostly played in the pool with Sam, Nikki, Candice, and Flint and enjoyed the pool's awesome array of grilled and fried foods despite my efforts to pack healthy alternatives. Ah well, maybe next year. I dipped into the pool to play with Cooper, who is surprisingly clingy when in the water. We played with Grandma and Grandpa Syphus who couldn't resist a chance to play in the pool with their many grandchildren. We spent most of our time down by the creek, sitting back in the shade and watching the kids fight over sand toys and rocks... ahhh, isn't that what Labor day is made for?

We recently acquired an old swing set from a neighbor of my parents. It didn't look like much at first because it was all rusty and in pieces, but Jesse sanded it down and painted it fire-engine red and now it's a beauty! Cooper had a ball setting it up, but he's still not quite sure how to use it. He'll sit on my lap for a while and swing, but when it comes to swinging by himself, he'd rather hop off and play in the sand. Curse that sandbox! It's constantly undermining my efforts to produce a well rounded child!

Also something to note, Cooper's uncle Flint has just finished his last 2 weeks of leave before his deployment with the Marines to Iraq. We will be praying every day for him to return safely!

While he was here, he helped Kevin and Jesse rip out some stumps in the Callahan's backyard. They rented a tractor for a few hours and had the kind of fun that only grown men can have with a tractor.

So this weekend was the annual St. George Rodeo, and we decided to venture out and see how Cooper would like it. Turns out he loved it! The parade, the horses, the sheep, everything! He was so good the entire time (almost 4 hours), and when he got tired he just fell asleep in Jesse's lap.What a good boy! He also learned how to put his hand over his heart for the flag and national anthem... I can't tell you what a proud little mom I was! And for all of you Pregnancy Junkies out there ( I know who you are!), here's a picture of my growing belly at 26 weeks:

Mom's b-day

I love this time of year when it starts to cool off and all of the school supplies are dirt cheap (I can't resist the 50 cent packages of crayons and markers!). We've finished out our summer quietly enough, with Jesse just working and my belly getting bigger every day (I think we've settled on the name Leila). Cooper has been increasing his vocabulary and dexterity at a rapid pace. He now runs everywhere he goes, and says "kake you" when he is given things (so polite!). He has even learned to fold his arms and bow his head for prayer time... but we have to make the prayers short or else he starts giggling and poking our eyes.
I hold to the belief that he will be a musical prodigy as well as an all-American athlete... but we'll see.... I think he just likes performing in general.

We recently celebrated my mom's 50th birthday, and me, Annie, and Dad planned a surprise party for her. Just a simple family party, but it was fun. Shawn came into town from Phoenix and brought Kaylee and Crew, I think it was great for my mom to see all her grandkids there. I love how easy it is to make her happy. Here she is holding Crew (Chris and Shawn's).

Happy 50th Mom!

Alaska

I've been home from Alaska for about a week now, but I know it was just going to be a monster to blog... so I kept procrastinating... anyway.. enough of that, here's Alaska:

The scenery was spectacular! It was like all he mountains we had ever seen but 10x bigger! It was rainy the first few days we were there. But we didn't mind, since, you know, we live in a desert and never get rain. We flew into Anchorage, drove 3 hours down to Ninilchik and that's where we stayed in this cabin:

So much for roughing it eh?

Some Halibut we caught:

Here's my 50 lb. king salmon (though, I did get tired so Ben and Jesse had to help me reel it in):

The first thing I reeled in was a sting-ray (we threw him back):

And here's Jesse hiking inside a glacier:

Here's all my family on the trip (from L to R: Ben, Kevin, Jesse, Dave, Chris, and Sam):

And all the shop guys that came (from L to R: Mike, Mike T., Kevin, Jesse, Chris O'connor, Eric Miller, Sam, and Eric)

Me and Jesse on the Halibut boat (ain't we cute?)

The Prettiest little Girl/Fetus/ultrasound you'll ever see!

Hey everyone! The word is in! Our newest addition that will be here in 21 short weeks is a little girl! As you can see, she has my beautiful profile:And here she is sucking her thumb... we're not sure where she picked that up, we specifically told her not to hang around with that kind of riff-raff:

Here also, are her respective hand and foot. Sadly, this young one does not share the same lucky draw as her brother Cooper, for his name was picked long before he was conceived. She shall remain our dear little Joaquina until a suitable name presents itself.

I'm convinced that since our little Cooper is almost a precise clone of his father, this little girl will be a dutiful copy of her mother... namely, me. I guess time only will tell.

Here now, is a picture of Cooper losing his baby curls to whiles of a scissor wielding lady:

And here he is enjoying his Spaghetti, which seems to be his favorite for the season. And enjoy it he does.

Summer! Tonsils!

So, the other day I went to the pool at Annie's house and Cooper was very tired, but he liked the water and stayed in it until he was completely exhausted, so when I got him out of the pool I lay him down to take off his swim diaper and put his dry clothes on, and this is what resulted:

He was asleep before I could do anything! I just had to let the poor kid sleep in his soggy pants he was so tired! For Memorial day we took a trip out to Sand Hollow reservoir to play on the red sandy beaches. Cooper kept eating the Red Sand. Consequently the next day he had a red sandy diaper...

But he wasn't the only one with a souvenir. Jesse and Amanda came home with "swimmer's itch" which is a parasite that comes from... well.. never mind where it comes from, but which enters the skin and is immediately killed by your immune system, but still causes red splotches all over your skin which are horribly itchy and painful. The only real solution is calamine and benadryl, but since Jesse had a tonsillectomy looming in a few days he could take no benadryl! Poor guy! I had to console him with an oatmeal bath and calamine lotion.

Jesse has needed his tonsils out for a long time coming. Every winter he is sick almost the whole season, and whenever he gets a sinus infection it lasts weeks on end with terrific headaches. So after a visit to our trusty otorhinolaryngologist, he confirmed what I had supposed: Jesse needed his sinus passages widened and his septum straightened. We decided since the baby is due mid-December, now would be a good time to get it over with. So when the baby comes, Daddy won't be sick like he normally is all winter! Hooray! (and maybe no more snoring!) Here's Jesse on his way in to the hospital for his surgery, pointing to his throat in token of his soon to be removed tonsils, and at his nose in token of his soon to be straightened septum and widened sinus passages:

So, here he is being prepped for surgery, and then here's an after shot when he came out... see if you can tell which is which:

I know, tough huh. So recovery has been, to say the least, an adventure. To try and side step the nausea he is prone to getting from lortab, we opted for percacet. Little did we know that it gives Jesse not only the jitters, but hallucinations. By the 4th day he'd had it, and refused to take anymore. So now I just have him on plain ol' Tylenol. He says the pain is worse, but at least there's no people above him in a glass house trying to shoot red blobs at him.

Boy oh boy, or, girl oh girl

Yipes, I don't update very often, eh? Sorry guys, mommy's sick with the new baby. I thought my 2nd pregnancy would be way easier... what a myth that turned out to be! But, to bring ooh's and aaah's from all, here's a pic of the new bundle. Sorry it's kinda hard to see, he's only been in there for 11 weeks!So, that means, an average pregnancy being 40 weeks long, I've only got 29 more weeks to go! The due date should be around Dec. 11.

But, so as not to spoil the new baby too soon, we should shine some attention on Cooper, who turned 1 year old on the 7th. Happy Birthday Hupper! Here's some pics from the party.

He's a lively and talkative 1 yr. old. We love him to pieces and he's an angel for his mom. His favorite things to do are to snuggle his "ow" (his name for his cow blanket, since he can't pronounce cow yet), answer the phone with a sweet little "ahwoh?", follow his cousins around (even though he usually gets injured in the process), and play at both his gamma's houses. What a lucky boy to have so many people who love him living so close! I tell ya, this boy is never short on attention!

He doesn't realize there's a baby in mama's tummy yet, but I'm sure as the protrusion grows, he'll figure it out.

A long suffered trial has passed....

I know all of you have been anxiously awaiting my return as author of the Callahan family blog. I really have to say I have missed my little posts as well. Ah, but so much for the sentiment! On to the reason of this misfortune! It seems that in our blundering hurry to buy a home (as naive first-time-home-buyers often do) we didn't ask, didn't wonder, and didn't find many problems that came with our new home until we moved in, and learned of them, sadly, by experience. (Don't get me wrong, we love love love our house, and it is way better than renting forever... but my goodness!) Our misfortunes have not been the center of our lives, thank goodness, and certainly haven't slowed the progression of our small family. After all, we are expecting another little addition sometime at the end of this year, or the beginning of next. Wahoo! Anyway, back to the house.

We moved in on February 2, 2007. A year to the day from when we moved in to our sweet, little apartment, we moved out, leaving with it the memories of our first pregnancy, the long hours of labor, and the bringing home of our first baby. As much as I've dreamed of owning a home, I certainly didn't know that I'd miss that apartment so much. It was so weird to clean out all our stuff and look at the empty shell of the place and picture all the little things that happened there: me up with Cooper with croup, or playing on the floor as he was learning to crawl, our first Christmas (we didn't count the technical first one in 2005 because we were living with Grandma Dooley), having Candice and Flint over till all hours of the night, eating cookie dough and playing Nintendo. I suppose I feel nostalgic because moving out of there meant leaving behind a chapter in our lives. We have now morphed from a little fledgling family to a full blown family operation with another kid on the way, a backyard, and a sandbox to boot! Not that this next chapter in our lives is bad, we are certainly looking forward to many things, but it is different, and with change comes a longing for things past (as I am so prone to do!).

So we moved in, blah, blah, blah. Jesse refinished our cabinets in 2 days, spending long hours and lots of masking tape. You might not be able to tell from the pictures, but it was tons of work! He re-covered the island in the kitchen with cherry wood, so that when he painted it, the grain of the oak wouldn't show through. He sprayed the rest of the cabinets and made new doors and crown molding. As you can see, I helped! :) So he painted the island black and used his sander to wear through it to give it that antique look. Then stained the rest of the cabinets a deep, pretty, brown.

So here's the before and after. Pretty impressive eh? I had to wait a few weeks for my cabinet doors, but I didn't mind, it's worth it! I don't have an after picture with the doors on it, and I'm not going to take one to post right now because my kitchen is very messy... so maybe later ya'll can see the finished product.

Anyway, we're here, we love it, and oh yeah... we finally have the internet!