A Few Words From Ross...

Ross and his girlfriend Ally getting to know each other. :) He had some obsession with her head too!

News!

Ross took his first steps last night!  I think Steve was the proudest I've ever seen him.  We were just chatting and playing on the floor with Ross when he was standing up holding on to Steve for a little balance, then let go and took two whole steps reaching for his toy on the couch!!  How awesome that we were both there to see it!  He's not so interested in doing it continually, but he'll take a few steps for us here and there and will just stand by himself for a few minutes at a time.  I've learned with Ross that he has to decide it's useful before he'll even think about adopting a new skill.  He makes me laugh.  His personality is expanding by the minute and we're just trying to keep up with him!  

His latest - unpleasant - phase is doing a high pitched piercing scream every time he's frustrated with you, something he's playing with that isn't working, or if he's ready for a nap.  I won't lie - it's not my favorite, and it's pretty tricky figuring out how to teach him that screaming is not appropriate and won't get you what you want in a way that he'll understand.  My mom just gave me the idea of using a misting squirt bottle to spray in his face each time he screams...I think we may just have to try it.  Here's to the trial and errors of parenting!

Ross's latest advancements, however, include officially waving at you and saying "hi" or my favorite British phrase "hiya".  He also says "Dada" "Mama" "Jesus" and "quack quack".  The "mwaw" sound may be my favorite though when he opens his mouth and gives you a big slobbery kiss.  When he crawls he is always on super speed mode, and if anything is in his way he swats it away or throws it directly behind him.  He loves playing with the plug to the drain so I have to be quick getting him bathed before the water is all gone.  He's quite taken with Rascal Flatts (which may or may not have anything to do with his mama listening to it).  He thinks it's hilarious to be pushed over when he's sitting on the bed.  He loves looking at any sort of animal - especially a cat that always hangs around our apartments (that may or may not have anything to do with our neighbors the Listers ;) ) and the robins that hang out in the trees outside our apartment. On a side note - I've never noticed how many birds are around and how many different sounds they make until I moved to Oregon.  They are everywhere! 
Ross LOVES playing peekaboo, and will play it with anyone and everyone if they give him the chance.  He can be quite captivated by turning the pages of the hymnbook at church - for a good 10-15 minutes.  He makes the "vrrrooom" sound when he's rolling his cars around - which is a huge improvement from just throwing them on the ground like he was doing a month ago.  He thinks Steve's belly is so interesting - especially his belly button.  He also is quite taken with my Jillian Michaels workout.  He'll watch the TV and bounce along to the music while I'm sweating and panting to death.  He is pretty good at throwing a ball - still working on the direction it goes, and he still LOVES knocking down towers.  We have a truck that he can stand and push around, but once he hits into a wall or piece of furniture, in then becomes our job to turn him back around so he can keep going.  We just love him so much.  Like I've said before - he's getting TOO BIG TOO FAST!!  He makes us so happy!  Hooray for Ross taking his first steps!

Maren and Ally's Visit

So my best friend Maren came to visit with her cute little Ally (who is betrothed to Ross).  It was one of the funnest weeks of my life!  
I should probably give a little intro as to how I met Maren.  Steve and I had been married about 6 months and were still getting a little situated in our high turnover ward that consisted of newly wed nearly dead members.  We showed up to the Christmas party and found ourselves seated next to a young couple like ourselves - Maren and Jordan Dille.  I found out that Steve had actually been a clerk to the bishopric with Jordan for the past couple months (which Maren and I still scold our spouses for - not having us get together a long time before we did since they knew each other so long).  We started talking and I found myself laughing so hard my stomach hurt!  What I remember from the conversation was that Jordan had this intense fear of sharks to the extent that if he were in waist deep water at a beach and someone mentioned the word shark - he would be back on the sand within about 2.5 seconds leaving everyone else to fend for themselves.  He watches shark week religiously in order to "study the enemy" as well.  Maren had the greatest laugh that kept making me laugh harder too. We left that night with me insisting to Steve that we have them over for dinner. 
It was actually months before we actually had them over due to busy school, work, and summers.  At the end of the summer I was called to be the Young Women's President of the ward with Suzy Day as my 1st Counselor and Maren was my 2nd Counselor.  That calling was one of the most challenging, stretching, and wonderful callings I ever had.  (I of course bawled my eyes out when the bishop asked me to fulfill the calling...well actually I laughed the entire time and then the minute I got home I bawled my eyes out.  I'm sure he thought I was a complete circus act in his office!)  Anyway - the time I had with that little presidency was so wonderful.  I loved getting to know Maren so much, and we found that we both got along really well with each other's husbands too.  In fact Steve and Jordan were quite chummy themselves!  We did a lot of things together, but what sealed the deal was our trip to New York.  We had such a great time traveling together, it's just been understood since then that we'll keep doing it throughout our lives!  Maren has always been such a great example to me of trying to look for the good in people, and it is so easy to feel spiritually boosted when talking about the Gospel with her.  We both can be especially vocal, excited, opinionated, and random.  I just love having her around!  Anyway - there you go.  Now on to the visit!
To start out with we had a random two days of roasting summer when she came.  I had told her to back a jacket and long pants because it's still rainy and chilly here.  The day she came we all were cooking here in our sauna of an apartment since I had our crock pot going all day for dinner on top of the warm weather.  We got her settled in, had dinner, and talked forever that night...just so you know - there was lots of talking throughout the whole week.  
The next morning we exercised with good ol' Jillian Michaels and then about passed out from how sweaty we got in the sauna apartment and trying to keep up with Jillian.  We took it easy so Ally could recoop from her flight and talked a whole bunch...there's nothing like talking to a best friend!  We got some Pizza Schmizza for dinner (another of Oregon's fine dining restaurants ;) ) and relaxed that night.  The next day brought on the adventures...

Ross has always got a new face for the camera.

Ally (Ross's fiance) is so darling I almost couldn't stand it!

The happy couple.  The entire time they were here I kept realizing how big Ross is - he's no longer my baby - he's a toddler!  Oh my heart just broke!  He's getting too big too fast.

Ross really enjoyed patting Ally on the head.  He was always really curious about her - and cautious at first.  He'd keep glancing at me like he was checking to see how close I'd let him get....once he was comfortable he would then try to pat Ally nice and hard...which led to the end of the supervised date.

I just want to eat her up!!

Ally would always smile at me which melted my heart every time!  (I love that you can see Ross's fingers touching her again.  The little guy just couldn't keep his hands off her!

One of Ally's great tricks - the half back bend!  Ally has an intense little body.  She loves to just go go go, roll here and there, kick her little legs, and twist around to see everything. 

Again with the head...it's like he has an obsession!  Ally's face is saying "isn't this getting old to you?" ;)

So after the 2 sweltering hot days, the Oregon weather started returning and we headed out to Woodburn to see the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival.  It was a little chillier, and Ally was in need of a long sleeved shirt.  Ross of course came to the rescue with his spare outfit.  Ally's already wearing her future husband's shirts.  This relationship might be going a little too fast. ;)

The tulip fields were breathtaking!

Ooooooh.

Aaaaaaahh.

These were my favorite...maybe because they reminded me of the stargazer lillies that were in my wedding bouquet.  It just has happy memories all around it. :)

A cute Ross with some tulips.

So we thought it would be an adorable picture if we could have Ally sit in Ross's lap...Ross wasn't really in the mood to be adorable...or cooperative with us pushy mommies.

Really not okay...

Alright - I guess we won't get the picture - at least Ally would have been okay posing. 

Different setting - maybe this would be okay.

Ross still has some rebellion in him...I'm finding this more and more.  When I tell this to my parents they laugh at how much this reminds them of me...oh please no!

I just think this picture is hilarious with Ross's eyes half closed and Ally's what-are-you-trying-to-do-here face.

Love that laughy smile!

Enjoying the babies!

Gorgeous Maren and Ally - totally adorable!

The plum colored tulips were amazing - I've never seen them that color before.  And the yellow is just so happy.  Love it!

Our dutch couple - SO cute.  I'm sure they'll die seeing these pictures when they're older - but they're so cute now!

Naked babies in the bath - utterly and completely embarrassing...and cute!

The next day we went to Portland to do some exploring and had a terrific day.  It was supposed to be slightly rainy, but didn't rain the entire time we were there.  The sun even popped out a few times.  It was fun to see the weirdness of Portland (the way they try to keep it) and see some of the famous shops.

Powell's Books is an old, very large bookstore that we bookworms had to go in and explore.  There was no air conditioning so it got a bit muggy, but it was fun browsing for a little while.  Ross got a Curious George book to take home as a souvenir - only $3!

We then went to Cacao - a drinking gourmet chocolate shop.  We sampled a cup of drinking chocolate ourselves.  It was like drinking a bar of chocolate....any chocolate craving in the world could be satisfied with one of these babies!

So Maren's husband Jordan has this obsession with Poseidon (among many other things including a fear of sharks and avoiding pork - ask Maren if you want to know any more).  We passed this bar and grill that we will have to go back to when Jordan comes along - just for the name. 

We then stopped at VooDoo Donuts which crazily had no line for once!  I was much more impressed with my choices this time - a blueberry cake donut and a lemon chiffon crueller.  I will definitely be returning...just making sure not to take the passing of the strip club route - bleh.  You can't really avoid the homeless people - because they're everywhere.

Now we got the picture right - except for my bulging neck!

We finished the day checking out the coolest toy store - Finnegan's.  Their toys were all so different than what I see everywhere else - and they were quality made!  On top of that - their prices were decent.  I'm totally going back there.  I got Steve a little birthday present, and Ally got a cute giraffe.   We headed back to pick up poor Steve from all his studying.  He was such a trooper the whole week. 

On Thursday I had to have Maren experience the thrift shopping here because it is quite the cultural thing to do.  We went to my favorite Thrift city - where everything was half off.  I came out with some nice Banana Republic capris for $1.15, and a couple cute shirts for Ross that were $.50 each...LOVE it!  Maren scored a bunch of outfits for Ally, a book, and a great car/walking toy all for $13.  Whenever I go to a retail store after that I feel so cheated.  We then treated ourselves to the traditional Cheesecake factory where we both enjoyed the Chicken Bellagio (you really can't go wrong there) and Avocado Eggrolls.  Yum!  The babies were starting to get sick of being in car seats everywhere so we stopped at the temple for Maren to see and Ally to eat.  It was a shame I didn't take any pictures!

I was so impressed with the waitress at the Cheesecake Factory - she brought Ross out a plate of bread and bananas in the shape of a butterfly.  He even got a hot towel to clean up with afterwards - needless to say she got a good tip. 

 Friday we headed out to Tillamook (yes my 5th trip - still fun!) and were entranced by the cheese assembly lines, enjoyed some more cheese tasting and indulged in some ice cream.  We then headed out to the Cape Meares lighthouse.  It was just drizzling a little when we got there so we unloaded the strollers to go take a look at the view.  By the time we had unloaded the babies and were ready to go it was a complete down pour.  We decided since we were already out of the car we might as well take a look.  Of course I forgot my camera - so we didn't get a picture till we were back to the car.  The quarter mile to the lighthouse is all downhill and wonderful.  On our way back up, Maren and I were both pretty much horizontal with the ground pushing strollers back up the path in the rain...I guess we needed to work off that ice cream somehow!

Ross and his future mother-in-law.  I just realized I didn't get a pic with my future daughter-in-law.  Boo!

Delish!

Ross very much enjoyed it as well.

So Maren couldn't get over Ross's chubby little hands.  They are pretty adorable. :)

Getting drenched at the lighthouse!

 We ended Maren and Ally's visit with a trip to Maggie's Buns where we got some delicious marionberry muffins and a cinnamon roll for Steve.  It was perfect Oregon weather with no actual rain.  We walked through Pacific University's Campus and just enjoyed the freshness of Oregon's spring.  It all really went way too fast.  I am now feeling deflated with the thought that I'm going back to the solo mom and Ross routine after all the fun we've had. I get to go back to Utah in 2 weeks for my brother's wedding so  that's a fun thought to carry us through.  Steve will be done with his finals in about five days as well with a few days to spare before his internship - so we'll have to have some fun and celebrate his birthday officially then!  
I just have to say that Maren is one of the best people I know.  She has always had such a content and happy spirit about her.  I am SO thankful to know her.  We had a total blast!

Saying good-bye - the parting of the happy couple.

So glad they could visit!

 

Something I missed...

I was going through my phone and forwarding pictures to my email so I could have more room to take pictures of - who else but - Ross to be able to send to some picture greedy grandparents, ;) and I realized that I forgot to write about our little excursion to a super fun ropes course.  Our friend Jen works at a place called Tree to Tree which is a pretty posh ropes course if I've ever seen one.  She was so nice to invite Steve to go with her husband on the course for free.  Ross and I tagged along since it was a beautiful day and watched Steve master the course.  There were different levels of courses and each level obviously got progressively harder.  The hardest one is the black course where (you are connected to a line the whole time) there are obstacles such as - you have to free jump from one platform to another...not for the faint of heart.  It also had some intense monkey bars, and swinging logs.  You have to be able to pass off the other levels first before you can attempt the black one.  Needless to say - Steve passed them all off, but was totally exhausted by the time he got to the black level - so he opted out.  I'm not sure if I would have even made it through the other levels.  It looked pretty energy consuming!  Ross LOVED looking at everyone climbing around the trees because he 1) LOVES trees 2) adores being outside 3) is obsessed with following Steve around - side note - Ross now gets devastated whenever Steve leaves for school in the morning.  He's stuck with boring, mean old mom all day when his daddy is the fun one all the time.  :)  I actually love that he misses his dad.  Anyway - needless to say we had a fun day being outside. :)

Doing something different than school!  Wahoo!

Steve and Jed starting the climb

Their zip lines looked super fun.  Steve loved doing those ones. :)

Easter and Feeding the Angry Birds...

So life goes on...I think by the time Easter got here...I was a bit go-all-out-for-the-holiday burned out.  That and I thought I had brought our Easter stuff here with us, so when I actually opened up the tub Easter morning to help the Easter Bunny set up...I was only met with Halloween and Christmas...needless to say we used a few buckets and did bagged candy with no festive plastic eggs...good thing my boys don't really care too much.  I did happen to get Ross an Easter basket from the dollar store though so we were good there, and my mom and mother both sent nice Easter presents.  Thanks again!  For Easter we did church, Easter baskets, egg salad sandwiches (tradition) and naps followed by Skyping.  I kept thinking it was Ross's first Easter - but it's not!!  Boo - he's getting way too big too fast.  Definitely not fair...I didn't get why people kept having kids after the trauma of the first one...it's starting to make more sense now.  

And a happy Easter to you too!

He can hardly wait for his Easter basket

Quite upset when mommy went to help the Easter bunny without him.

Hunting for Easter baskets...where could his be?

Maybe under this blanket in the middle of the room?

Score!  He got another Book of Mormon video from Grandpa and Grandma White, a story book from Grandpa and Grandma Staheli, snacks, travel utensils...all exciting stuff!  Woot woot!

Steve looked high and low for his bucket of Easter goodness...finally we had to play the hot and cold game...

Bingo!  He got the basket and I got a bum shot, and what a nice bum that is! ;)

Mine was pretty hard to find too...since the Easter bunny hid it.  Gotta love peeps on a stick!

Steve is holding his breath until the semester ends the beginning of May and he starts his internship right after.  He has informed me that he feels like he's finally starting to learn and do some more of the fun stuff that makes him want to be a PT.  That's encouraging right? :)  
I am pleased to announce I have started to exercise more consistently with my dear friend from The Biggest Loser Jillian Michaels.  She is one crazy lady, and I am dripping in sweat every time I meet up with her.  Ross likes to watch me jump around and even joins in bouncing while I do the jumping jacks.  He also likes to push me harder by crawling on me when I'm doing the crunches - he's a good little coach encouraging me with that charming little smile of his.  He also likes to help me do laundry - he's amazing at pulling things out of the laundry basket for me...whether or not they have been folded.  Ross is kind of my little go-to guy.  Even cleaning the bathroom - he gives me pointers - throwing stuff into the tub, making sure I roll back up the toilet paper after he unrolls is all the way, double checking to make sure the baby locks work on the cupboards, and flushing the toilet a few times to make sure it runs right.  Yes - Ross is quite the assistant.  :)
I've finally found he enjoys drinking from straws - I got him a toddler strawed sippy cup that he likes.  He's had a runny/stuffy nose the last few days so I've held back on the milk in the bottle, and just given him the sippy cup.  Hopefully we can nix the bottle all together.  He loves green smoothies (wahoo!) mostly because he sees Steve and I drinking them all the time.  He adores anything with melted cheese too - not so good.  
I found this little truck sweeper walking toy at Thrift City the other day for $1.50!  It was pretty dirty - so Ross and I gave it a deep cleaning bath, and he loves pushing it around.  It actually gets him to practice walking which he refuses to do with us - he doesn't like holding onto our fingers and walking.  It has to be his own doing I've found when it comes to doing anything.  He knows his mind - that's for sure.  He will fight you to the death if you try to use the blue nose sucker bulb on him...he's going to be a good wrestler, because even with me sitting on him and pinning his arms down - he manages to avoid the bulb.  Crazy kid.  
Anyway - I know this is a random post going all over the place, but that's just how it goes sometimes.
So we went to feed the ducks (how's that for a transition?) with our neighbor Jen one day because Ross and I were driving each other crazy and had to get out...and get rid of old bread.  We showed up to the wilderness preserve and found three cute ducks hanging out.  As we started to feed them - some bullying geese decided to crash the party and run everyone else out of town...we were even surrounded at one point until we made a break for it.  Talk about your angry birds!  It was quite noisy to say the least with all their honking and squawking and chasing.  We went a little ways further and found a little duck all by itself and tried to feed it, but there were some other bully fish that would get to the bread first.  It's a crazy crazy world we live in I think.  
Anyway - there you have it.  Peace out. ;)

The Angry Birds coming...we weren't pigs though - so I don't get it.

They were so noisy - Ross didn't quite get why they were so loud.

He was also unhappy with me for giving away perfectly good bread to the Angry birds...so he became one himself in order to get fed.

The fish stealing the bread.

Now we have a happy little bird.

Ross really relishes on crunchy foods...as you can see here.

You can see his top tooth coming in - the other one is on its way.

These last two pictures were taking within half of a second within each other...

That's how much he likes his crunchy food.