Due to the wild success of Hannah 2.0, the Woodbury Corporation has launched a new project through their award-winning production department. The project, code named Progeny, is due to roll-out August 6, 2010.
Yup…it’s true. We got to hear the heartbeat on Friday, and everything looks great so far as we’re about 2½ months in. (Yes, I know that some of you are yelling, “I KNEW IT!” at your screen.) My ‘morning’ sickness lasts most of the day, but comes and goes as I keep a constant stock of peanuts and water at my desk. Jon and I both have a feeling it’s going to be a boy, so any suggestions on some masculine monikers are always welcome. Summer ought to be interesting for 2010! Beached whale at the pool!
I’m not sure where it’s come from…maybe the Mickey’s Christmas Carol video that she watched over the holiday…but lately, Hannah has been seeing ghosts.
I’m not sure how to feel about it.
I know that spirits are out there, that we have watchful eyes keeping track of our to-do’s and we’ve all heard the stories of children being closer to that world and so, more able to see through the boundaries that separate them than the adults. Still…I spook myself out if I start to consider that those spirits could have any sort of effect on the physical. We’ve blessed our house years ago, and there is no history of abuse or murder in the place, so the Hollywood answers don’t apply to our home.
We used to tell people when Hannah was an infant and crying that they just had to move to a different part of the room where she could see a different spirit, and it would make her smile and she’d be fine. They didn’t believe us, but without changing the bounce, the hold, or her coverings, moving to a different part of the room usually stopped her tears and she’d focus on nothing a foot or two below the ceiling and smile. It was uncanny. We would ask infant Hannah if she saw Grandma Dorothy and she would just smile more. Those kinds of spirits, I like.
However, the last couple of weeks have found us talking about different ghosts in our house with Hannah. Last week, we were sitting on the couch and she was traipsing around the living room as she loves to do, and at one point ended up by the top of the stairs. A moment later she ran back and jumped on the couch into my arms and said that there was a ghost. She looked back at to the head of the stairs and said she didn’t like him. I asked if it was a boy ghost and she said yes. I told her that she could just tell him to go away and that because she was friends with Jesus, he would make the ghost go away if she told him to. She threw her arm at the empty stair and said, “Go way ghost!” She felt a little bit better after that, but didn’t go to the top of the stairs again for a while.
Last night, as we were winding down the day and were getting ready for bed, I asked Hannah to run into her room and get me a diaper so that we could change her pants and put on pajamas. She walked to her room, but shortly thereafter came bolting out of the door with her diaper in hand squeeking about another ghost. I bundled her up onto my lap and asked if the ghost had made her nervous. Yes. Was it a boy ghost or a girl ghost? A girl. Is it a nice ghost? Yes. Well…then you don’t need to be afraid of her, do you? She thought twice about that, but it had still made her nervous, so we let it go. I didn’t take her straight to bed to leave her in her crib like the meanest mommy in the world…we curled up on the couch for a while and snuggled till she was asleep and uncaring of spirits. But, the question stays with me. Is Hannah really seeing ghosts, or is she letting her tv influenced imagination run away with her?
Any other moms out there ever dealt with the question of ghosts? Any suggestions?
Hannah, having done presents the week before for her birthday, knew how to rip the paper and get excited about the presents. She loved the books we gave her and wanted to read them all right there under the tree. She loved that she got her own box of cereal, and the cute little toy cell phone that daddy put in her stocking. With all of the sewing that I’d done for our gifts this year, Hannah developed quite an obsession with my machines. Unfortunately, there were several seams that had to be redone because my dials and levers were somehow off from time to time…Thanks, baby. No matter how many times I would scold her for touching my machines, or how many time-outs she got for continuing to play with my buttons when I was standing over her telling her no, she just kept coming back to mommy’s sewing machines and messing them up. Solution?…a cute little pink sewing machine all her own! She hugged the box upon opening it, and still runs for it any time we mention sewing. So cute! Jon promises that she’ll get her own camera next year to balance things out.
After some time together at home reading, getting dressed and gathering up our gifts, we headed up to the Woodburys and had a great few hours with the family. Lots of food, lots of fun, and we are much too spoiled! We’re both LOVING the Ace of Cakes book Kirsten gave me. The parents gave us a MUCH needed vacuum cleaner, which has already sucked up insane amounts of dirt from our carpet. We now have new U of U sweatshirts, and Jon (with all the boys in the family) got Max Hall Hates Me t-shirts. Our gifts to the others were also well received…the girls looked adorable in all their skirts, the boys liked their backpacks, Kirsten liked her bag, and I picture Dave playing with his Wii Lightsaber as we speak. Ahh. All good.
Next, we ran out to West Jordan and joined the Lindsay family for further festivities! More food and more presents. Jon will happily use his gift certificate to Lowe’s, Hannah plays with her Princess matching game all the time (HOW does she know them all?…we honestly have never once watched a princess movie in our house, but she can name every single one!) and reads more and more books thanks to Dave and Maile (we also can’t wait to use our next expansion set to Settlers), and my absolute favorite present confirms my total geek status…A FANTASTIC collection of Gutermann thread that I’ve been lusting after from JoAnn’s for months! Eh he he he he! LOVE it. Every time I look at all those colors, it just makes me happy.
We were able to drag ourselves home that night and tumbled into an exhausted sleep. We’d worked ourselves senseless through the week leading up to the holiday, and it was time to get a snooze. One partial day of quiet led to another family party on Saturday night…the extended side to Cham’s family. It was short and sweet, which was nice…but it was still just one more day that we had to go out into the cold.
Sunday found us fulfilling our callings for the final week at the late shift in our building and then picking up the work leading to a extensive wedding the next week as well as working on prep for a trade show we’d agreed to do. There was an album to be finished an ribbon balls to be made (BLESS Melissa for all her time, effort and babysitting goodness!…it couldn’t have happened without her!). The wedding went wonderfully well despite the bad weather and stress of unfinished buisiness, meaning that, yes, another week of nights with no sleep found us MORE than ready for a great New Year’s Eve with some amazing friends. Ahh. Bless the Christensens, Jensens, Morris’s, and Smiths for making it such an awesome night…even WITH all our kids! Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2010!
We did sleep in a bit on the 1st, but jumped right into the work once we did wake up to get ready for a show on the 2nd. After all the work, I think we presented ourselves well at the Grand America Bridal show on the 2nd. Jon’s photos were as striking as ever, our furniture looked great in the space, and my new floral album was a big hit and was worth those 2 a.m. nights to get it done and printed in time for the last minute show. Our only regret is that I didn’t read the paperwork closely enough to realize that the show started at 11 and not 10…meaning that we could have slept in for an extra hour. Sorry Jon. At least we were prepped and totally ready a bit in advance of when the doors opened. Jon was even so sweet to walk a few blocks down and bring me back a sausage Mcmuffin to fuel us for the show. We’ve already had a bit of response from the brides we met at the Grand, and we’re looking forward to another busy wedding season coming up. We have MORE amazing friends to thank for the end of that show too. Though Jon and I were able to load everything in well enough alone at 8 a.m. that morning, it was so great of Andrea and John and Erin and Chester to show up at the 6:00 closing with some muscle, support, and a Cafe Rio dinner. AHHH. Amazing!
Through everything, we know that we are so blessed! It was so sweet to share Christmas with Hannah when she really hadn’t known much about Santa yet this year. To make the presents more understandable, we explained that she’d enjoyed HER birthday…well, this time, Jesus was sharing HIS birthday with everyone, and that’s why we all got presents. She was good with that, and I appreciated the sentiment myself! Our families are so thoughtful and generous! It’s always great to spend time with them, but to see how much time they spent creating and bringing their thoughtful gifts together for us was so overwhelming and humbling. The work that we were able to accomplish and the friends that were such a blessing to us at just the right moments as well as those friends we were able to just spend some free time with…how have we ever deserved so much love and support?!
Thank you all! We love you! Here’s to a spectacular new year and great new things to come!
Another year gone by and another novel-sized story that could be told about our adventures! I’ll condense things to a Reader’s Digest version here, and spare you some time. However, if you wanted to read it all, you could always visit our blogs for the updates … http://weddingsbywoodbury.wordpress.com and/or www.jonwoodbury.net.
* Lori was able to cut back her hours at the law firm to part time and has reveled in the extra hours with Hannah as well as the ability to work on the wedding business with Jon.
* Jon was able to revamp all of our websites (www.weddingsbywoodbury.com and www.jonwoodbury.com)beautifully and finally dove into the world of blogging! He has also earned literally hundreds of fans on his business page of Facebook.
* Our photography and flowers went cross-country in states as far as New York and Virginia! Lori filmed a segment for the Bride Access television show giving advice on wedding flowers from a professional, and Jon photographed a wedding that will be featured in the 2010 edition of the Utah Valley Bride Magazine! (Also look for quotes from Jon as a photography resource in other articles in the same magazine.) We also made an interesting discovery regarding the home-states of our brides … only 3 out of 30 were actually from Utah this year.
* During our travels, Jon was able to check off more than half a dozen to-do’s on his ‘Someday List,’ including visiting a new state, eating a Hershey bar in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a visit to Amish country, and eating a Philly cheese steak sandwich in Philadelphia (we all preferred Pat’s to Gino’s).
* Hannah, not surprisingly, proved herself to be a stellar traveler and was fantastic through all our flights and road trips. She charmed every flight attendant at whom she smiled, and we somehow ended up with an extra seat on every flight.
* Lori survived the dreaded HINI and several visits to the dentist for an overall healthier head.
* Jon, after being diagnosed with diabetes last year, has helped us all eat healthier and with the help of his medication, continues to keep his levels near normal.
* We’ve all accepted new callings at church … Jon as the financial clerk, Lori as the primary chorister, and Hannah as the designated Sacrament Meeting Interrupter as well as a full-blown nursery goer. Jon and Lori endure, and Hannah has a blast.
* Improvements to the horne continue with new windows this year and actual insulation in our attic.
YAY!
* Hannah turned two this month and is (in our opinion) the cutest, funniest, and best baby in the world.
At this fantastic holiday time, we are so grateful for our amazing and supportive family and friends, and wish you all the joy of the season and the love of our Savior.
Use the 1st letter of your name as the first letter of each answer to the following 12 questions. They have to be real places, names, things, and you can’t use your own name for the boy/girl name question.
WHAT IS YOUR NAME: Lorena
BOY NAME : Liam
GIRL NAME: Lorelei
OCCUPATION: Legal Secretary
COLOR: Lapis Lazuli
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Lounge pants
BEVERAGE: Lassi (mango please.)
FOOD: Lamb Saag
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: Lotion
A PLACE: London
REASON FOR BEING LATE: Lack of gas (true story today!)
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: Love it!
Hmm. Harder than it seemed at first glance, but bless random internet searches for inspiration and definitions on this lunch hour of weirdness!
Eek! My adorable little cuddle bug…I can’t believe you’re so big now. In this age of digital files and electronic gadgets, I watch video of you and flip through photos when I am away from you, and I think of you as that child, that little toddler captured on my screen. Then I get home. As I climb the stairs, I hear you yelling, “Mommy! I here! Mommy! I here!” I get big hugs or else I get that sly look that says, “I love you, but I’m playing with you and you have to earn or steal a welcome home kiss from me.” I can’t wait. I steal. We both laugh. I watch you run around, compulsively moving objects from one spot to another, ‘helping’ me sew or cook or clean, and all the while talking to me in complete sentences, in full comprehension, and I wonder where my baby has gone!
I think all mothers miss their babies, and I do miss that chubby little bundle of smiles, but I also can’t believe how much I love my child! When we sit in your rocking chair at night and read book after book before snapping off the light to rock in the dark, I am at such peace. When you run back and forth behind me on the couch and then suddenly wrap your arms around me in a huge hug just because you can’t hold it in anymore, I melt. When you sneak up behind your daddy, grab his shoulders, and twist around so that you’re nose to nose and yell, “TOO DA!” I just laugh. When you end up in a time-out on your little chair and sit sobbing patiently until your time is expired, I am in love. When you kneel down and fold your arms and say the prayer yourself, repeating such simple words with such a sweet voice, I find a tear in my eye.
Oh my goodness! I can’t believe how much I love my child. Happy Birthday, my Hannah! I cherish you so much and so look forward to your next year, and the year after that, and on and on, building more memories on top of the amazing happiness I am already so grateful for. You are my light and my life, and your daddy and I love you so much!
I’ve been spending a lot of time at my dentist this month. I broke a tooth, effectively turning me into a hick-yokel any time someone watched me talk. Jon only laughed at me a little bit. I went in a couple of weeks ago for that and now have a temporary tooth, front and center, until the permanent tooth can be completed. This last week I had two cavities filled, and my jaw still hurts from the shot on one side. My dentist is awesome, and all the assistants there are adorable. It’s actually called, “A Kids Place Dentistry” so I feel right at home with the Nemo stickers on the ceiling and Zethura playing in the waiting room. Dr. Dentist must have just gone a little too deep with the syringe on this one though, so a little Ibuprofen does wonders for the bruise on my jaw. I go back this Friday for my permanent front tooth and then only have one other appointment for the last cavity on the top and then my whole mouth should be sparkling and done for the year. We’ll see if I get around to any implants next year.
Hannah turns TWO this week! ACK! How in the world did that slip me by?! Sheesh. She really is getting so big and I get sad when I think that she’s not my baby anymore! Throwing out my back a few weeks ago just lifting her in and out of bed and in and our of her highchair adds to the realization that she isn’t my tiny little girl….and that was adding injury to insult. We sent out an invite to the family and a couple of her friends for a party to be held on her big day. We phrased it as the roll-out of Hannah 2.0. Lots of geek references with Jon on that one, and compliments from his brother Scot (as a techno-guy himself) on releasing the upgrade on time! He he he. It should be a pretty casual and fun night. I’m going to start cooking tomorrow, and there will be lots of good food for any guests that arrive. I think I might try my hand at a Mickey Mouse cake too…or at least maybe a Toodles cake. (Same shape, less facial expression.) Hannah will love that!
The biggest holiday of the year is in two weeks! ACK! LESS than two weeks! Yikes! I still have quite a bit of sewing to do, and we still haven’t decided on what to get a couple of the people on our list. I feel very accomplished though in that our tree is up and decorated, the beautiful white ceramic nativity is on the mantle (out of reach of little hands that like to throw things), and I do have several presents already wrapped and under the tree. It’s just a matter of time now while I finish the rest of my assignments. It also helps that the play is finally over! YAY!
The fantastic Sister Edwards in my ward caught me in the hall at church one week and asked if Jon and I wouldn’t mind taking a small part in a very small production she was putting together for her assignment on the Activities Committee for the ward Christmas Party. Small part?…sure. I got the script with my character’s name highlighted on the front page and got just a little bit nervous when I saw the number of lines. But, most of it was from off-stage, and I could probably do that. She called the next week and switched our parts with another couple and my lines doubled and all of them were on stage. Ugh. We only had practices once a week, we had costuming issues and illness as well as throwing my back out, as previously stated, so the practices were difficult for me. Jon was good to run lines at night, and I think we held our own. I liked getting to know the other cast members too, but aside from that, I’m just fine to never act again. Jon just laughs at me though when I say that it was my first and last performance. He loves the adreneline and excitement of performing. Me…not so much. We ran rehersals through three times on Saturday, we even wore body microphones and had a huge sound-system set up, thanks to Sister Edwards connections as the drama teacher at her school. She had three students there running the sound board and sound effects that night. We got a lot of laughs, and lots of compliments post-performance, so I’m happy about that, but really, I’m glad to have my days back without worrying about my lines so that I can finish up the REST of my Christmas lists in peace!
Yes. Rookie mistake. I know. I’m sorry. My bad. Silly me. I ALWAYS wrap shavings up in a plastic store bag and throw them the trash, so I have no idea why this time was different. I thought my awesome little disposal would take care of it all. Not so much.
After a week of no access to my sink/disposal, draining the backup with a cup every time I had to run my dishwasher, and picking up $12 worth of pvc plumbing accessories, Jon and I were able to replace the old rusting pipe and blocked u-bend under the sink. Yes…I used a hack-saw. Yes, I used an auger. We measured, and I cut while Jon glued the pieces into place, and only an hour or so later, my sink is draining! My disposal is disposing! My U-bend is…clear. Ahhh. Hannah was also an awesome helper. Even though she kept trying to touch the rusty pieces, at least she only gave the bottles of cleaning supplies names and sat them all next to her in a row calling them her friends. (She needs more play-dates.) The funniest moment though was when we had dry-fit all our connections and tested the water to make sure nothing backed up. All’s well, time to glue and make it permanent. Water turned off, Jon pulled off the U-bend, and carefully lifted it up to the sink to dump out the water still sitting in the bend. Yes. He dumped it right down the drain that was missing the very piece he held in his hand. He he he. At least this water was clean and there wasn’t that much of it. The things that man does to make me giggle.
Jon and Hannah and I all got dressed up on Thursday and pulled together a yummy pasta salad to add to the huge meal at the Woodbury house at 2. All of Mom’s side of the family were invited, and most of them showed up! I’d say we had nearly 60 people in the house at once, and the announcement at the beginning of the meal included instructions about the tables down the hall, in the basement, and around the corner downstairs in a couple of the bedrooms! He he he. Room for everyone…just not in the SAME rooom. Awesome food, great conversations with the cousins, and a little nap after the meal with Hannah on the couch. Ahh. Does it get any better?
Yes!
Once the family started to filter out, Jon and I packed up and headed out to my family to spend some time with them too. SO many jokes and laughs. Hannah walked in the door and I didn’t see her again for an hour because she was playing with her cousins. New games were introduced, and the classic tournament of Scrabble again commenced. The official Scrabble trophy was passed to Dave, after a short amount of gloating, and then the food was split out and everyone took treats home. We have been LOVING the Lindsay rolls from Annette. Mm.
The only down-side to the day was that we didn’t end up with any turkey. Hmm. Someday when we host the shindig ourselves, we’ll keep the leftovers and love the bird for days. Ahh.
What a fantastic holiday! I love that there’s an entire day dedicated to family, gratitude and food! I am certainly grateful for all of it!
