Fascinations

I used to think that there were a few things that Joshua was just terribly, terribly fascinated with. But I think I am wrong. Joshua is not fascinated with "things", Joshua is just fascinated. Period.

Fascinated with life.

Here is a list of a few current fascinations (which grows daily):

1. Fans. Joshua loves fans. We don't have any ceiling fans at our house, but over the past week, he has been in a few different houses with ceiling fans in almost every room. When he spots one, it is very clear that he wants you to turn it on. The second it turns on, he gets very excited and points and exclaims "ooo! oooo! ooo!!" If we leave the fan on and he walks out of the room, you can guarantee that within 30 seconds he will come back, just to make sure the fan is still on.

2. From Day 1 Joshua has loved lights. The first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning is point up to the light on his ceiling and grunt. I wish I could blog this sound. It's not like a deep guttural grunt, but just a monotone, straight-faced "uhh". And his pointing is not with one finger, but it is his whole hand reaching up in the air. My dad calls it his "HARK" arm.
Incidentally, I have a rather funny story about this fascination that happened just a few days ago. We have an IKEA moon night light that is supposed to be mounted on his wall, but has just been sitting atop his dresser, because his parents have yet to mount it. We had to rearrange Joshua's room the other day to make his 'basketball court' and the night light got placed on top of the filing cabinet, which happens to be right next to the crib. After he had gone to sleep that night, I went in to check on him and found that he was snuggling with the moon! He had taken it off the filing cabinet and was lying on his back with both arms hugging the moon, fast asleep!

3. Running water. I don't think it is just the running water itself that fascinates him, but putting his hands IN the running water. It can just be dripping even, it doesn't really matter. Joshua would sit in the bathtub for hours if I let him. Not playing with toys, but taking his dads washrag and dipping it in the water and lifting it out, letting the water drip from the rag onto his hand. Over and over and over and over...

Oh, and just FYI, if you want to check the temperature of the bathtub water as it fills the tub and put YOUR hands under the running water, you better watch out...Joshua doesn't like ANYONE elses hands in his running water!

4. For the last few weeks, every time Joshua hears music, he starts conducting it. You can imagine I am very proud and I think he is a musical genius, but I might be a little biased...
It doesn't matter if he's in the middle of eating or playing with a toy, the music starts and he is riveted in the moment. His arm goes up and he is entranced. We've noticed that his movements change with the type of music he is conducting too. Today we had Coldplay's Viva La Vida playing and he was just rocking out like I've never seen him before! But when the MoTab is singing, it's a much gentler conducting.
I know you probably accuse me of teaching him this, but honestly, he started it all on his own. I think I should make YouTube video of it, it's actually pretty impressive.

5. One of the newest fascinations is his new car he got for Christmas. There is a little button on it, that when pushed, makes the car move by itself. It will go a couple of feet, stop, make some other noises, then move a couple of more feet. It doesn't matter how many times in a row we push the button, EVERY single time it moves by itself, Joshua's eyes widen as big as they can, he looks at us, points to the car and says "OOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" It's like he is saying "Mom, Dad! Look at what that car just did! Can you believe it?!" At first we thought he was afraid of it, but after it happened so many times, we just realized it was another one of his fascinations. It's like he forgets that the car did the same thing 5 seconds ago and it is a completely new and exciting experience to him.

Why can't we be like that? Every time the snow falls, why don't we sit outside and notice how quiet the world is? Why do I take for granted kissing my husband? Or rocking my son? I know I could be a lot more fascinated with life. Good thing New Years is coming. I think that will be one of my resolutions.

Christmas Card workshop

I don't know if very many of you know that I am a consultant for the company Close to My Heart, an AWESOME scrapbook company that I adore. I don't do a lot with it, but I am going to do a Christmas Card workshop on Thurs. Dec 4th. You can come make this set of 4 cards for $5 (just the price of the supplies). You can do as many sets as you'd like! I just have to know in the next week or so, so that I make sure I have enough supplies for everyone. If anyone is interested, bring a friend and let me know!

My little tiger

Who needs candy when Dad will play in the leaves with you??




See my tail?


Okay Mom, no more pictures.

There is good in the world after all

We are trying to do a fantasy basketball league. It has been kind of crazy trying to set up a draft time that we all could do. Finally, tonight, we got it taken care of, so Justin wanted to send out an email to the league to apologize for the craziness. Here is a snippet of the first email. See if you can find something amiss.

The first email:
"We have a draft! Sorry for the inconvenience/h*%$le with setting up the draft. I (obviously) didn't know what I was doing, but we now have a draft date for Sunday."

Did you see it? "*%$"? In case you are wondering what those symbols mean, read the follow up email Justin sent:
"You may have noticed a typo of sorts in the last email. No, it read "h-a-s-s-l-e" when I sent it. But, count your blessings that ESPN has a built in editing function so you don't have to read potentially inappropriate words in my emails to you, particularly ones that have another word for donkeys sandwiched between h and le. Rest !!^ured that even if I wanted to offend you with my foul mouth, ESPN wouldn't let me."

At a time when we are worried about a moral decline in our society, we can be at peace (not rest "ass"ured!), knowing that ESPN will filter our potty mouths!!

St. George Marathon

Everyone give props to Justin!! He ran St. George this morning and came in with a record time of 3:08:27! And it was POURING rain the entire time...I think he's pretty amazing myself. He qualified for Boston, so maybe we'll take a trip out there next spring! GO JUSTIN!! (I'll post a picture once I get them on my computer)

Let's go for a walk!

It was a nice day on Friday, so Emily and I decided to go for a long walk up to BYU and get a Jamba Juice for lunch. Penny and Josh both love walks and we had a great time. Just a typical walk, you know...Penny hanging out on a blanket...Joshua army crawling around in the grass...drinking Jamba Juices...Joshua eating dirt...

Mommy moments and an amazing husband!

So I had one of those moments the other day. One of those moments where I have a small glimpse of what it means to be a mom. Justin and Joshua are both sick with a yucky cold. Both of them had sore throats when they woke up two days ago. There were a few hours in the afternoon where Joshua was just sad. Really sad. He was crying and couldn't go to sleep because every time he swallowed, it would hurt. I snuggled him and rocked him and pretty much cried as much as he did. As I cried and rocked him, I just wanted to take all the pain away! I am sure all mom's have felt that way before, but it was one of those defining moments for me. Realizing how much I really do love my little guy.

I only lasted 30 minutes or so before I called Justin (who was up at school). I was crying so hard I couldn't even say anything. I just heard him say, "do you need me to come home?" followed by *sniff, sniff* and then "ok, sweetie, I am coming home right now. I will see you in a few minutes." He came in record time and saved the day! What a hero.

Also a hero because he won 2nd place in his age division in our half marathon we ran a couple of weeks ago. WOW! St. George, watch out for Justin Fred White! (The other amazing person in the picture is Chris Radigan--also finished 2nd in his age group)


Emily and I also finished in record time. (Any time would have been record since it was my first, but we won't worry about that...)

A little disappointed

So I just finished Breaking Dawn. It's a good thing too, because I need to get my life back! I am a little sad to say that I was disappointed with the book. It was GOOD, don't get me wrong, but I didn't feel like I was lost in its pages like I was with the others. (Obviously, since I am just finishing it today...) I was honestly not the least bit scared about the conflict--I pretty much was emotionless. And I am not sure I like the fact that she left it open for more. Not saying I hated it, just saying it wasn't as great as I was hoping.

Family Pictures

Memory Lane!

Okay, okay, so I am giving in to the little memory blogger-thingy. Why not? We all love strolls down memory lane!!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, if we’ve actually met in person or not, anything you remember about me!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don’t want to play on your blog, or if you don’t have a blog, I’ll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Birthday Party

Joshua had his birthday party a week ago. My parents were in town so we did it a couple days early. I made a chocolate cake (makes for better pictures, right?) and Joshua LOVED it! When he started eating, he kept looking around at everyone, his expression saying, "are you going to take this away from me? Is it really okay that I am stuffing my face with this yummy goodness?!"

He got some fun presents and we had a fun time visiting. We were especially glad that Mags was able to come in between Michigan and her adventures abroad in Brazil. We miss having her around!

The best part of the cake eating was that Joshua really wanted to share with his dad. I can't get the video to load, so you'll just have to imagine how funny it was through these pictures.

Joshua's Year Pictures

Our dear Janie took these pictures and made this layout. We took some family pictures also. I also have pictures from Joshua's birthday party that I will post later. He really liked his chocolate cake. Stay tuned!!

Monticello

When I moved to VA during the summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school, the kids in my ward started calling my house "Monticello". I never realized how much of a resemblance there really was til we went to Monticello last month (on Justin's birthday!) Look for yourself:





I was just thinking about this because my parents might be moving from "Monticello" soon. It has been a good home.

My Blogging Hiatus

My post title has two stories behind it-the first being that I haven't posted in a while. I got this message from my dear friend the other day:

"Anna, I was going to be all nice and patient, but you know what? I've had it with you. If you don't update your blog sometime soon, I just don't even know if we can still be friends... sad :("

And since I really would like to still be friends with LaChelle, I figured I had better post. Here are my excuses:
1. We spent all of June in Virginia. We were so busy having so much fun, and then so busy moving when we got back that blogging hasn't been first on the list of things to do.
2. I have also started teaching again.
3. I am training for a half marathon.
4. Okay, okay, want to know the real reason? I left my camera in Virginia. What does that have to do with blogging you say? I couldn't post pictures of Joshua. I am afraid to post without a picture of Joshua because I am afraid people will actually read what I write.

The second part is the word HIATUS. I found that word playing boggle online against my dad today. I thought it was a really good one. That's how my family has together time when we are far away--playing online word games.

Save me Joshua!

Justin, Joshua and I went down to North Carolina with my parents this past week. (We are visiting VA for a while, hence the lack of posts.) Katie and her family live in North Carolina. Here is a picture of all of us except Jacob because he was at work.


Okay, so I could tell you many stories about the weekend....how Spencer threw my dads shoes in the river, or how Travis and Spencer did seat-drops on Joshua...but I think this one is my favorite. So Travis, who is almost 2, often wakes up earlier than everyone else. He usually wakes up when he hears his dad leave for work (at 6:30 or 7 a.m.) but my sister doesn't let him out until she's ready to get up. The last morning we were there, I woke up to hear Travis screaming from his bedroom. I woke up because his screaming woke Joshua up, and Joshua was sleeping in our room with us. So Joshua started crying. Travis often knocks on his door and calls for his parents to let him out of his room, and I heard him and just smiled to myself.

Then as he went through one of his rounds of calling out to his parents, this is what I heard..."MOMMY!!" "DADDY!!" "BABY!!" He called Joshua "baby" the whole time we were there and I am just assuming that he heard Joshua crying and thought maybe Joshua would save him. Sorry Trav!

As sweet as they come

Justin is in Germany and I miss him. I will see him again in 5 1/2 days! I am excited. Because I have been thinking about him a lot, and we just celebrated our anniversary, this one's for him.

Some people think you need all the stars and lights the first time you go out with someone--even the first time you SEE someone you will be with forever. Mags calls it, "the wham factor". I just don't buy that. Justin and I didn't fall for each other right off. We knew each other 7 months before we even went out. After going out a few times, it wasn't long before the "wham factor" set in, but it definitely was no love at first sight. That gave us a relationship that wasn't just based on the physical to begin with (even though I definitely think he gets more handsome everyday). We talked from the beginning--about everything. I fell in love with talking to Justin.



And that's what I love. I love Justin because we can talk. He LOVES to talk. Isn't it usually the wife that wants to talk through everything and the husband that just wants to go to sleep? Well, not at the White house. In fact, if anyone has the just-wanting-to-go-to-bed problem, it would be me. I have never doubted that no matter what my husband is doing, if I want to talk, I take priority. I always come first, no matter what. I know that's the way it's supposed to be in a marriage, but I don't think that always happens. But it happens in my marriage.

Sometimes one of us has a bad day. Something happens, like getting rejected from a school or ruining dinner or something like that. Whenever that happens, Justin is always the first to say, "let's celebrate!" Celebrate you ask? Yep! There's no point in sitting around whining, is there? So we go get something to eat or rent a movie or whatever else we can dream up and it really makes having a bad day not so bad at all.

Justin is a fantastic father. He loves Joshua so much. And Joshua loves him! Everyone always asks me--"yeah, but Joshua loves YOU more, right?" And I just wouldn't bet on that. Who changes more of the poopy diapers? Yep, Justin. (Except when he's in Germany...). He is right by my side when it comes to taking care of Joshua. And he is really good at making up Joshua songs. Somedays I think that he should be a jingle-writer. Next time you come over, you should ask to hear Joshua's favorite--"Running in a stroller".



I suppose I could go on and on all day about Justin. But he just got online and frankly, I want to talk to him! So just know that he is as sweet as they come. I love you Justin Fred!

Justin's blog

I just wanted to make you all aware of my husband's new blog. You can find a link to the right here...it says, "Justin and Joshua". I guess Joshua will be a contributor to the blog also. They're my favorites so you should check it out.

May Day??

Could anyone tell me why someone mixed up March and May? March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, right? Well, not this year. Someone confused their months. Could someone tell me why I got a headache on Tuesday because it was over 80 degrees and I was driving around all afternoon in my car that has no air conditioning and now I don't want to go out because it is below freezing? Could someone please tell me why it is May day, day of flowers and spring, when my elementary school self used to doorbell ditch my friends with candy, and now the flowers don't want to show themselves because it is SNOWING? Why why why?

90 years

My Grandma Snyder turned 90 years old a couple of weeks ago.  You know how some people tend to get mean and ornery as they get older?  My grandma is the opposite.  She's one of the sweetest people I know.  We're having a big 90th birthday celebration in a couple of weeks and I am sooo excited!  All 6 of her kids will be there and a lot of their children, and a lot of THEIR children...it will be a lot of people.  I think she told me that Joshua was her 70th great-grandchild, and there have been a few more since he was born.  

My Aunt Christine has been putting together her history (along with my grandpa's).  It is almost done and I am so excited to read it.  I got to read a few pages when I was at her house the other day and it made me so happy!  I tried to upload a picture taken of the 2 of them in 1937 by a Model A, but it isn't working quite yet.

Here's a picture of Joshua with his great-grandma.  And a little present the dog gave Joshua while we were there!

Welcome Nathaniel!!

Okay, so I know this seems a little redundant, but Justin and I BOTH had sisters who were pregnant.  And now they both AREN'T!  We have already welcomed Penny, but now we need to welcome Nathaniel into the family!  I am a couple days late, because I was waiting to see if I could get a picture of him to post.  He was born at 12:29 a.m. (eastern time) on April 15th.  He also weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz. and I am assuming he is very cute, but I really don't know yet!  :)

Penelope Jane Sparks

Our niece, Penny, was born at 3:11 a.m. this morning.  She is so beautiful!  Joshua loves her already.  She was 7 lbs. 4 oz. and has dark hair, just like Joshua did!  Now if our Evans nephew would just hurry up...  

Oh, and I put up the first picture mostly so people could see my new haircut.  I tried to upload a picture the other day, but it wouldn't let me.  It's a lot shorter than I was anticipating, but I have really liked it!

Happy Easter (late!)

Justin was out of town for Easter, or he would have been in the picture too.  I wore my new dress that is all springy...and I got Joshua a cute little shirt, because he needs new Easter clothes too!  (and lets face it, I have a soft spot in my bank account for little boy clothes)  I know Easter was a week and a half ago, but really--did anyone really feel like it was Easter in March?  It came way too fast for me.  So it's April now, and feels more like Easter to me.  (okay, so that's just my excuse for not being on top of my blogging...)

Idaho!!

Last weekend we took a family trip to Idaho.  It was so fun.  Isn't it funny how when you go on vacation it wears you out even more?  And it takes you a while to recoup?  Joshua didn't get very regular sleep for the 2 1/2 days we were gone.  He is slowly getting back on schedule.  He did have his first snowmobile experience in Lava Hot Springs, though!  The Meenderinks (pronounced "men-drinks") have a house up in the mountain.  The only way to get there is riding on snowmobiles or on a sno-cat (a very old, loud, awesome machine) about 2 miles in from the road.  We rode on the sno-cat, since you actually can sit inside of it (since we had Joshua).  But Gary wanted to make sure Joshua got his turn on the snowmobile, so they rode around the yard together.

We actually planned the trip because the Morris family (a family I taught) were sealed in the Idaho Falls temple.  It was such a sweet experience to be with them in the temple.  I couldn't hold back the tears when they brought the three little ones in. 

Remembering

So the title of my post is probably making you think that I am going to have some long winded flashback to my childhood.  Sorry to disappoint you.  I actually was just thinking about how Joshua is losing his hair.  Well, at least it is getting lighter.  I think it's lighter and there is less of it.  It makes me sad sometimes when I think about it.  

I remember when he was born.  At one point during the pushing process, the nurse left the room to call the doctor in.  Joshua's head was crowning and Justin said to me, "I am not sure what I am looking at...but I think he has a lot of hair!"  Sure enough, he did.  I miss his full head of almost black hair!  And I miss his tiny little self.  Back before holding him made my back and shoulders hurt.  But even though I miss the newborn Joshua, he is so much more fun now!   I wouldn't trade his smiles and giggles for anything!

Blokus

So I have a new favorite game.  It's called Blokus.  I have already worn Justin out playing it and we have only had it for a couple of weeks.  (And I don't even make him play everyday!)  If you have never played, I highly recommend it.  It's for little kids and big kids, like myself.  As you can see, Joshua really loves it too!

Sleepy boy

Joshua has been sleeping a lot today already.  It is only 1:30 and I think he's on his third nap.  Granted, the naps haven't been the longest...but that's how he rolls.  Anyway, he had woken up from a nap, so I put him on the floor in the bathroom while I was taking a shower.  He played with some toys and was being quite happy.  I got dressed and put in a load of laundry and was going to run to the store with him before he needed to sleep again.  Pretty soon I am not hearing anything from the bathroom and I peek in and find this.  He must have still been tired!  So now I am posting this while I wait for him to wake...

Sitting up!

Joshua has been able to sit up on his own now for a couple of weeks. It is a rather exciting thing. Sometimes he falls down, but he usually doesn't even care. He was being especially cute this morning and laughing at any little thing that I did. So I took the opportunity to take some pictures! (Oh, and I had to show off his haircut that my cousin Erin gave him last week!)


Also, here's a little picture to show what happens when Dad gets baby ready for church...

"And thus we see..." gone wrong

Dinner at the White house (not too be confused with the White House) is always interesting. There are certain conversations my mother-in-law would probably kill me if I repeated...but I think she'd be alright with last night's. Justin and I were lying in bed at 11:30 still laughing at it. In fact, the title of my post comes from Justin, not me. :)

So we were joking about Bonnie (Justin's mom) being pregnant (she's NOT) and she says "it would be a medical miracle, that's for sure". Phil (18) then says, "you know, if you have enough faith, even if you're reeeally old, you can still get pregnant. Just look in the Bible! " We then began to glean lessons or "principles" we could learn from stories in the scriptures. Here are some of the highlights:

"And thus we see..."

-Abraham and Sarah: ...that even if you are really old and past menopause, but have enough faith, you can still get pregnant.
-Tamar: ...if your father-in-law won't let you carry on his seed with any of his sons, it's okay to pretend you're a harlot and sleep with him.
-Esther: ...it's okay to sleep with the king as long as you can be the queen and save a lot of people.
-Nephi (my favorite of the evening): ...if you need a book really bad, and you try to ask for it and barter for it and still can't get it, it's okay to kill someone to get it."

Okay okay, so maybe these are taken a little out of context. We forget the whole "and the Lord said..." phrase. But still, it gives you a little taste of our exciting dinner conversations. And hopefully a smile.

On a more spiritual note, I thought I would leave one of my favorite quotes of President Hinckley's in honor of him today. This was the theme from EFY 5 or 6 years ago when I was a counselor.
"Like the polar star in the heavens, there stands the Redeemer of the world, certain and sure as the anchor of our immortal lives. He is the rock of our salvation, our comfort, our strength, the very focus of our faith. In sunshine and in shadow, we look to Him, and he is there to assure and smile upon us."
President Hinckley believed that. You could see it by his actions. He was always so hopeful. I want to be "a little better" today for him.

Holidays

Yep, more family pictures. This is my side of the family. It was the first time we have all been together in 5 years for Christmas. So mom decided family picture time! The young boys didn't put up too much of a fight (until their parents put them down) but they definitely didn't smile. It was Joshua's nap time, as you can see! That's why he looks so dazed below...



Of course, part of the holidays includes GOALS! I love a new year, because it makes me feel like I can do anything. By December, when I feel like I am not doing anything I mean to be doing, I can just say, "January is coming, I can start over". I know it's all a mental thing, but still...it is good for me! 2 things I am working on:
1. Exercise: I was doing really good with the whole running thing, and then...the snow came. Well, snow and cold. It's really hard for me to get motivated to go out. So my goal is simply to exercise 5 days a week. I have some new videos I can do at home, and there's also a mommies aerobic class at our stake center, so...I think I should make it!
2. Books: I want to finish at least 20 books this year. Personal reading type books. I have finished one already--"Riptide" by Catherine Coulter. If you are in the mood for a quick suspense thriller, it's a fun one!