Christmas 2008

What a Christmas!

We proceeded according to tradition, spending Christmas Eve at Grandma Boothe's house eating x3 and enjoying the "program" which consists of dressing up the wee ones for a mock nativity while Grandpa reads from St. Luke (IJ was an uncompliant angel) and the annual talent show. For the first time, Diana and I participated. I played the ukulele and we sang "Tonight You Belong to Me." (Click for Song) And no, said performance shall not be posted, as all copies have been destroyed.

On Christmas morning, Isaac immediately asked for presents. He stood by the cookies for a moment and finally said "Santa bite Ike's cookies in mouth" and staring at his bulging stocking. Without going into details, we were all spoiled by Santa (courtesy of B & W, PC).

Later that day, we headed to the Rammell house for brunch, more presents, and plenty of wrestling. I am proud to say I went 2-1 on surprise attacks from Ben. While at the Rammell's IJ picked up an interested new word from Ben: "stab" Now he walks around the house poking his finger in your stomach and saying STAB! We are working to change that...

Oh, and we partied with Diana's family a few weeks ago by pheasant hunting and enjoying Grandpa's smoked turkey (it tastes like candy, our nephew says).

Most of our memory preservation happened on the camcorder but here are a few pics of Isaac playing in the snow. He is wearing my coat from 1982, because we forgot his.

Our only other exciting piece of news is that we put in an offer on a house tonight, so keep your fingers crossed.

I'm Three Months Old!

I can't believe it, Grace is three months old. It seems like just yesterday we were moving and getting ready for her to come. Here are a few pictures. It was a little difficult to get Graces attention. She really likes to watch Isaac...and Isaac wouldn't stop trying to climb on her. But, I think we got a few good ones.

A Playfully Provocative Mode of Commentary

This article is far too important to just place on my sidebar and hope that you read it. I found it this morning in the NY Times (the nation's best, although unprofitable) newspaper. The article is called "In Defense of Teasing" (click the name to follow the link). As someone who has been accused of teasing once or twice, I maintain that teasing is good and offer this article as proof.

And to my dear wife, I repeat the words of Benedick to Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing: "Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably."

Date Night!

Notice anything peculiar about this picture? How about no kids? How about big cheesy smiles? It's because we are on a date! Grandma and Grandpa Rammell were kind enough to watch both monsters for a night so I could take Diana to the symphony. We were suppose to go to dinner also, but numerous traffic accidents (gotta love those Utah drivers) in both directions forced us into Burger King.

Before we moved, we went to the symphony all the time. While we went to numerous college performances in Lincoln, I can only entrust my ears to a professional violenist for Britten's Violen Concerto (deemed unplayable by numerous virtuousos). We also heard Shostakovich's 5th symphony, which I identify with for many reasons...but we won't get into that. The pairing of Britten and Shostakovich was apt, considering the two were close friends. I could really talk about these all night, but instead I'll refer interested parties here.

As you can tell, we thoroughly enjoyed the performances, and each other. Hip-Hip-Hooray for the babysitters!

Closing Shop Sale

I've tried not to use our family blog to promote my Etsy shop...but...it's closing.

With our little Grace added into the mix, my 'spare' time has disappeared. So, if you're in the market for some cute baby stuff, for yourself or to give as gifts, stop by and check out the sale.

Remember, I still LOVE to sew and create. If you need or want items after my shop is closed, send me an e-mail and I'd be glad to help out.

Spotlight

Seems like Grace has been getting all of the attention lately, so we figured it was time for an IJ spotlight. He does some pretty cute (and pretty naughty) things, here's a sampling:

• Says "Bless you, Grace" whenever she makes any kind of noise
• Loves to sit on the couch and pick the lint out of his toes
• Tells Dad "No work, pleeease" every morning (that one is a heartbreaker)
• Puts in a breakfast order within minutes of opening his eyes "Og (yogurt), Egg, Toast" or "Cerl (cereal) if milk and juice"
• Calls Dad at work several times a day on the Ipod "Mom happy, Grace pretty eyes, no work, home, hug ..."
• Insists on wearing his boots (Justin's as a kid) to church, luckily the hat stays in the car.
• He will actually consider questions and respond with No, Yes, or our favorite, Nope
• Will fill in every few letters of the ABC song (which no one will believe because he won't do it in public).
• When mom cooks, Isaac cooks. He hauls out the flour, puts it in a pot, gets a spoon and mixes in goldfish.
• Requires kisses when he gets hurt, although the last time he stubbed his toe, just as Diana bent down to kiss it, he yelled "KICK" and booted her in the nose.
• Is obsessed with his great grandpa Boothe, constantly asking about "Boof"

And although this is IJ's spotlight, the Grace report is as follows: sleeping well at night, fussy in the evening, lots of cooing, and giving out some dynamite smiles.

Isaac the Chef

I'm glad Isaac isn't in charge of the meals at our house. We would all be eating a nice smartie and fennel seed mix everyday.

This morning all was quiet in the house. Isaac, Grace and I were sitting on the couch. I was feeding Grace. Isaac decided he had had enough and off to play he went.

As I'm sitting on the couch feeding Grace I hear a kitchen chair being drug across the kitchen floor, a pause to move the rugs that are in the way, and the journey continues. Isaac then climbed up on the counter and retrieved the bag of treats from the top of the refrigerator. I heard smarties being opened and 'mmmm, treat' coming from the kitchen. Next, I hear Isaac chanting, 'shake, shake, shake.' Isaac likes to play with the spice jars and I'm usually fine with that. However, I didn't realize he could open them. I went in the kitchen to check on him and found him standing on the counter shaking fennel seed all over the kitchen. He would pause now and then for a fennel seed and smartie break. Yes, he was eating the fennel seed too.

And, just to demonstrate the difference between boys and girls, here is what Grace was up to this morning.

So, being a sleep deprived mom of a 19 month old who is heading into his 'terrible twos' early and a 5 week old, sometimes it's hard to keep things in perspective. This too shall pass, right... Anyhow, Isaac has helped me have one of those, yep this really is all worth it moments.

Tuesday was a trying day with Isaac. He's normally a very nice boy, but that day he was hitting, biting, screaming, pinching, dumping two pound bags of animal crackers on the floor...you get the picture. On top of that, I've had a pretty bad cold.

Justin always calls to check in on us throughout the day, and I just cried telling him all about my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. When he got home from work that night, he had a little talk with Isaac, telling him that Mom didn't feel good, we don't hit Mom and he needed to be nice to me.

So, Wednesday comes. Isaac was nice all day. No fits or violence of any kind. I got to rest and we had a wonderful day. During dinner that night Justin asked Isaac what he had done that day. He responded, 'Ikes nice Mom.' Who would have thought he would remember or understand something like that. It melted my heart.

We enjoyed a nice evening together and then came bedtime. I told Isaac it was time to put some of his toys away and get on his 'dinosaurs' (aka PJ's). Which he promptly did. After we got his dinosaurs on I said, 'lets go find your milk and binkie.' To which Isaac replied, 'and kiss Dad.'

Two way cute, this is all worth it, moments in one day. What more could a mom ask for.

Paddington

Did Grace get furry or does IJ have a new friend?  It's IJ's new friend, Paddington.  Diana and IJ left to run errands in the stroller and took Paddington along. I had to post the picture, with it being Paddington's 50 year birthday today.  You can read about the world's favorite illegal immigrant by clicking here. 

This is no ordinary Paddington, this is MY Paddington.  According to rumor, as a young child (3?) I refused to leave a local furniture store until my financially-disabled parents purchased an overpriced stuffed bear.  They caved and bought the bear.  And I still have it, that is if I can wrangle it away from Isaac.

  

As I put in my earbuds for my walk home from work, what do I find waiting for me? A family! We enjoyed the weather and walked the long way home, stopping by 'The Pie' for dinner.

Diana decided to come down because Isaac spent the day insisting "up Dad work hug." The problem was that I left without a hug goodbye, which under normal circumstances would be unthinkable. But this morning was no normal circumstance. Both kids woke up at 5:00 a.m. -- a plan they must have hatched the night before. So we played tag team: Diana fed Grace and I took Isaac. After an unsuccessful attempt at rocking him back to sleep, I retreated to the family room, hoping that an early morning presentation of Barney would lull him back to sleep. Well, when I woke up at 7, I had Grace on my chest on the recliner and both Diana and Isaac were snoring in our bed. Go figure. So I basically dressed in the dark, put Grace in the basinette by our bed, and snuck silently out of the house -- thus explaining no morning hug.

Why Isaac Needs a Toddler Bed

I guess he was ready for a bigger challenge than wiggling out of his car seat and scaling the baby gate. By the way, this is the same crib Diana slept in as a baby!




We took this video with our camera, sorry about the quality.

Picture for Grandmas Who Need Pictures

Fall

I woke up yesterday to snow on the mountains, making my walk to work rather brisk. Although the leaves have yet to change, fall is upon us. So in the spirit of fall (and to buy us time on this blog until we get some sleep) I am embedding my favorite song about fall -- Waters of March. As you all know, the song was written by Antonio Carlos Jobim, a Brazilian. And for those lacking 4th grade geography skills, March in South America is fall.

We saw this performance on Legends of Jazz. In Colorado, it played Saturday nights on PBS. We insist that you watch it religiously. A far more sultry version of this song by Jane Monheit can be found here. The lyrics are here.

I'm Home!

Diana and Grace came home yesterday afternoon. Below is a picture of our little one in her "coming home from the hospital dress."




We have had a lot of questions since coming home and thought it would be easiest to broadcast the answers.

1. Does Grace glow in real life like she does in her pictures? Yes.

2. Was she the cutest baby born that day at St. Mark's? She is the cutest baby EVER born at St. Mark's. Oh, sorry, your child was born at St. Mark's? Well deal with it.

3. Why did they both come home after one day? The food is better at home, Diana got a to-go box of drugs, and Grace found the other babies tedious and aloof.

4. How is Isaac responding to her? Isaac loves to hold and kiss her. He even helped change her diaper by handing wipes to me ... but then he threw the box at her head, so we'll wait and see.

5. Where can I send lavish gifts to her or her father? Our home address is fine.

6. When will Diana get a job to support the family so that Justin can hug his daughter all day? IMMEDIATELY.

Grace Merrill

Meet Grace Merrill Rammell!

Stats:

Born 9/17/2008 at 10:04 a.m.
19 1/2 inches long. 7 lbs 4 oz
Cuter than your kids



We had quite the day yesterday! Diana started having contractions at 1:30 a.m. and after some walking and a bath, the contractions evened out. We left for the hospital at 4:30. My mom drove down from Ogden to take Isaac to her house to play, play, play (word on the street is that he was having so much fun he didn't even ask about where his parents were).

This time we used midwives instead of a Doctor. We had a wonderful experience with them. The birth was way more relaxed. They literally just sat at the edge of Diana's bed. Di started pushing at 9:50 and we had a Grace by 10:04. The midwives actually let me "catch" her and it was AWESOME!! I took hold of her and brought her right out and onto Di's chest (too much information?). And then, of course, I got to cut the cord, weigh her, and put on her diaper. When I was done, I re-negotiated the midwife bill because I did all the work (kidding).

After the birth, Grace and I went to the nursery for shots, a bath, a bow, and a lube job. By lube job I mean that Grace had a lot of fluid and air in her tummy so they put a little tube down her and brought it out. Then they put water down her, and brought it back up, rinse, repeat, rinse repeat. She did really well and was much happier with a clean gut.

Isaac came to the hospital last night around six to meet his little sister. He was enthralled with her; I quote: "Grace, hi!, Grace, hi!, hug, Grace, eyes, soft, Grace, sister (pronounced sis-ya), mom, Grace, bed, kiss, Grace, Grace, Grace." On the car ride home last night, he kept trying to talk me into returning to the hospital "go back, Grace, hug, hi."

Diana looks and feels great. We are considering leaving the hospital today for the comforts of home. Coming home early is possible because we have mommies at our beck and call, Diana feels good, and without a doubt the food will be better. I told Diana that the birth seemed way too easy (an assertion she took issue with). I also told her that we ought to have a dozen more kids considering how well she handles giving birth (another assertion she took issue with).

The only bummer of the day was that our camera mysteriously quit working when we got the hospital. Before we left, we loaded fresh batteries and it worked fine. Of course, we got to the hospital and nothing. So we relied on a gift shop disposable and my iphone. The iphone was fun because right after the birth, I snapped a picture and emailed it to three-quarters of the known world in less than a minute.

Stay tuned for more Rammell family adventures.

Catch Up

We really have a lot to blog about. However, we've still been in unpacking mode and couldn't find a USB cable to get pics off our camera. So, to spare you all a really long blog post, we'll catch up over the next couple days.

A very dear friend sent Isaac a baby doll. We're hoping Isaac having his own baby will make the adjustment to having Grace a little easier. One day Isaac really needed me to help him get a diaper and some wipes. He ran to the living room with them, put his baby on the tupperware lid (I think it reminded him of a changing table) and proceeded to throw the wipes on top of the baby. What does that say about my diaper changing skills, hmmm?

Next, he was off to his room to wrap his baby in his blanket and rock him ni-night. I just love watching Isaac grow and learn new things. All of this was done without any prompting from me. I think he'll be a great big brother.

Speaking of big brothers and Grace...I was supposed to have a doctors appointment today and we were going to schedule an induction for later this week. For some unknown reason, the water was shut of to my doctors office. I had to reschedule until Wednesday. Hopefully we'll have some news for you all then.

Moving Report

We made it into Utah on Friday night and are settled into an apartment in Sandy, just a mile from my new office. Hopefully, within six months we will find a house and move again!

This is our fourth move in five years of marriage. We are now moving professionals. Of course, that didn't stop us from hiring real professionals to do the work this time.

When we woke up on Saturday morning at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Alaina (Isaac's cousin) came over for a visit. Isaac was fascinated by her. He sat right next to her and held her hand for the better part of 20 minutes (he NEVER sits that long). Hopefully he will react the same way when our little arrives.

P.S.

If any of you have OB/GYNs, Midwives or Pediatricians in the Salt Lake area to recommend, I'm all ears.

Announcing...

Nope...no baby yet, but if life keeps going the way the last couple weeks have, she's not going to last until her due date.

We' re moving! Justin accepted a job with an awesome firm in SLC. We are hoping to move out there by Labor Day.

For those who are keeping track at home, Grace is due in 4 weeks. YIKES. Let's hope we don't have to have her in the moving van on the way. Justin seems to get me into all kinds of adventures, but this one is cutting things a little to close, don't you think?

We are a little nervous about moving to Utah, with all of those Mormons ;) And we are sad to leave Grand Junction. We loved living here. But, on to bigger and better things.

Steamboat Springs

Last weekend we went to yet another natural resources law conference. This time, it was in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. While I spent my days enthralled by lectures, Di and IJ played in the pool, checked out the botanical garden and enjoyed main street.

I let the pregnant one in our family decide on the food. On Friday, Di picked the restaurant and we headed down to main street for dinner, but Di couldn't remember the name of the place. She kept saying, "it is something brewery, something something brewery." To which IJ responded "BREWERY!" It is now his favorite word, to his grandmother's delight.

We had the joy of having friends (names withheld to protect the innocent) from Nebraska come to visit last week. The boys backpacked into the Wemanuche wilderness to the Animas river to flyfish for three days. The girls co-miserated about being pregnant in the summer, having kids so close together, ate out, flirted with boys at the farmer's market, and refereed the kids.

On Sunday, we headed to the Grand Mesa National Forest for a picnic. As you can see, IJ would NOT stay away from the creek.

We had a great time and can't wait to see them again!

Haying Season at the McDowells

Greetings from Wyoming. Isaac and I have been here for a little over a week and he has found tons to keep him busy and our adventures are not lacking anymore.

Haying season in Wyoming means irrigating. Wayne, my brother, leaves every morning to change the irrigation water while the rest of us eat breakfast. Isaac is pretty attached to his Uncle Wayne. One morning Isaac decided he was done eating breakfast and was going 'by' with Uncle Wayne. He ran to the mud room and put on Wayne's hat and boots. He was ready to go. After a couple minutes of me saying lets wait for Uncle Wayne to come back, he decided Grandma needed to wear the hat and boots to go find Uncle Wayne. Isaac has also found his way to the tractors and 'vrummm vrummms' AKA four wheelers.



Next adventure, the kiddie pool at Grandmas. It usually went something like Isaac and the trucks in the pool, splash around, trucks and Isaac out of the pool, trucks and Isaac back in the pool. He's also discovered how to work the hose. He turns it on high and puts it between his legs trying to drink out of it. What a curious little guy I have.

And, a few other random pictures of reading with Grandpa, trying to pick up and squish ants on the sidewalk and taking over grandma's vacuum.

Meanwhile, Justin is in Grand Junction missing Isaac and going out of his mind studying. We get to see him in less than twenty-four hours though. We miss you Daddy!

Lack of Adventure

The last couple weeks, maybe months, have been a little unRammell like. We are usually full of adventures to share with you. But, I guess studying for two bar exams is kind of important. So, our adventures have to wait for a couple more weeks.

Here's a little picture roundup to give you all your Rammell fix until our next adventure comes along.



We've got Isaac learning to walk in heels. Justin selling all his 'trad' climbing gear to support a less dangerous sport, fly fishing and to buy a new ukulele. Isaac teaching Justin how to drink from his sippy cup. Justin calls this a new form of torture -- baby boarding. Isaac wandering around the house saying, "Dad fishy Dad fishy" in Justin's new fishing pack. And finally, Isaac and Justin planning an after-bar-exams fishing trip.

Until the bar exams are over, IJ and I are heading home. We are going to spend the next week at weddings and such in Wyoming. The week after that we will be at the Rammell's waiting for Dad to fly-in from Cheyenne. But, don't feel too bad for Justin, he has a four day conference in Aspen starting Wednesday. It sounds more like a big party than work.

Cherries!

We live on the west side of GJ near the fruit orchards. We LOVE the fresh summer fruit. On Saturday morning, we went to an orchard to pick our own "pie cherries." According to Diana, (who is always right) pie cherries keep their flavor and hold up better than sweet cherries in a pie. Even though they are a little sour, we ate more than a few in the orchard. Isaac had a blast picking, eating, smashing, and throwing them. We paid for an extra pound to cover his fun. The best part? They were only a $1.00 a pound and they pit them for you!

Swimmy Swimmy

For the past two weeks Isaac has been taking swimming lessons. It's a Mom and Tot class, so I got to swim with him. We went four days a week, half an hour each day.



I kind of wondered if the lessons would do any good with Isaac being so young. After the first few days I was still wondering, because he just wanted to hang around my neck. So I decided to have his teacher, Miss Estella, take him. He LOVED it.

He can now lay on a kick board and kick, hold onto a noodle and float around the pool, jump from the edge and pull himself back out of the water, blow bubbles and float on his back. That's alot for a 16 mo old.

Now I have to hide his swimming suit. Whenver he sees it, he puts it and his shoes into the 'swimming bag' and begs to go sim (as he says it). I guess swimming is one way to keep us cool in this 100 degree weather we're enjoying!

Bagley Cartoons

Here are a couple of Pat Bagley cartoons addressing the two big issues of the day: gas prices and the housing crisis (he draws for the Salt Lake Tribune).








There are more Bagley cartoons at: http://extras.sltrib.com/bagley/

The Bar, Again

Last December, Diana predicted a boring year ... no babies or bar exams. Then came our surprise (Grace, due on Sept. 20), and then the firm asked or rather told me to take another bar exam in July (Utah), and then another, also in July (Wyoming).

Fortunately , just like last year, Isaac has agreed to be my tutor.





2007: 2008:

Fossils

We spent this morning hunting fossils. And when I say we, I mean we. Isaac thought it was fun to turn over rocks, pick them up, and then jabber about them (how quickly they learn).

As you can see we came away with some pretty good fossilized leaves and possibly part of a fish.

Home

Yes, we have been home ... again.

There were all kinds of things going on in Wyoming and Utah last week. Di's parents meet us in Vernal Sunday night and took her and IJ to Wyoming. Diana spent the week at scrap camp with her mom. IJ spent the week being chased by Grandpa and Uncle Wayne. As you can see from the pictures, IJ wasn't able to get out of doing chores around the ranch, he had to go irrigate. I spent the week eating red meat, listening to the jazz music that drives Diana nuts and fishing.

I drove up on Friday night. We spent Saturday at a wedding in Logan. On Saturday night we made the tail end of Corbin's reception and we drove home Sunday. We would have loved to spend more time vising friends in Utah -- next time!

While at G & G Rammell's house, Diana polished up her guitar skills with Brian. IJ played our piano, which after 4 years is still sitting in Grandma's living room.

Tagged

So, I've been tagged a ton of times and have just kind of been ignoring them...ooops ;) I figure it's about time to just get it over with.

This is a cool format from Tiffany's blog.
20 years ago...I was in between kindergarten and first grade. The only thing I'm remembering about first grade right now was celebrating my half birthday at school. I have a summer birthday. So in Mrs. Ehlers class we would celebrate half birthdays to make sure everyone had a turn.
10 years ago...I was going into my junior year of high school and getting my drivers license. I hated high school dances at this point because both my older brothers were in high school too. Any boy who tried to dance with me got the stink eye from them. It was nice to have someone to watch out for me, but protective big brothers didn't help the dance scene.
5 years ago...I was a newly wed of five months. Justin and I were both working and going to school full-time. We spent most of this summer traveling. San Fransisco, Mesa Verde, Great Basin and Yosemite were just a few places we explored.
1 year ago...We had just moved to Grand Junction. We had a crazy spring. We had a baby, graduated law school, I quit working and we moved to a new city all within two months, YIKES! I can't believe it's been a year.
1 month ago...I was excited for summer to arrive. We had weather in the mid 80's. It was nice to get out and shake off the winter blues.
1 week ago...I had my last cub scout den meeting. I'm the den assistant for our ward. We combine wolves and bears which gives us twelve boys. I love the energy the scouts have and love planing activities for them, but I'm really excited to have the summer off.
1 day ago...I had a day at home to hang out with Isaac. There are days when I just crave getting out of the house, but yesterday wasn't one of them. We stayed in and played all day. We made chicken pot pie for diner. 'We' means Isaac and I. He loves to pull all the pots and pans out of the cupboard while I cook. He had an extra thrill yesterday because I spilled a bag of frozen peas and he got some food to cook with too.
1 hour ago...I was excited to see Justin finally come home for the night (8:30 p.m) He had a bar association meeting. Isaac and I are really lucky, Justin NEVER works late or on weekends. We love having Dad home to play with at night.
Tomorrow...I'm going to the doctor for my 24 week check up. I'm a little nervous to see what my weight gain has been. I'm definitely showing!

I won't tag anyone specifically. But, feel free to use this format, it's kind of fun.

Moab

We spent last weekend camping on the shore of the Colorado river outside of Moab (about an hour and a half away). We were with a group of about 10 families. It was a little too hot for Diana and her baby bump in the afternoon ... so while I ran the river, they snuck into Moab for ice cream. We really enjoyed all of the screaming kids and the folk music around the campfire. It was a beautiful weekend in canyon country and fun to meet such a great group of people.

Zions National Park

We spent last weekend (Thurs. - Sunday) with the Sorensons and the Polls in Zions National Park -- the mamas in both families are Justin's cousins. Between the three families, there were 7 kids. That's right, 7 kids, for 4 days, three nights.

We stayed in the group campsites within the park. The kids ran, played in the dirt, and ran some more. We did all of those things that make camping great --we hiked in the park, had a campfire, and made smores.

Here were the highlights of the trip for us:

- watching Brad hike mile after mile on crutches (he sprained his ankle the morning they left)
- watching a rattlesnake and squirrel fight to the death on the Riverwalk trail (guess who won)
- eating ice cream on the lawn in front on the Zion lodge
- guys only hike up to Observation Point
- watching the kids chase wild turkeys
- IJ giggling at 3 a.m.
- Derrick (3 yr. old) pointing to a squirrel and saying "bad kitty"

A Year Already?

It has been a year since we graduated and moved to Colorado. How the time flies! We thought it would be fun to list what we miss and what we don't miss from our time in lawschool.

Missin':

Our friends, Starr Street, walking to school, classes, frisbee golf, jazz in June, small towns, summer/winter vacations, Omaha used book stores, the Joslyn, Ivana Cone, UNL Dairy Store, Valentino's pizza buffet on Wed. night, Sunday BBQ's, bass fishing, eating lunch together in the rose garden, Chamberlains, Helgesons, Wiedrichs(pronounced Why-dricks), Stotts, April Conaway, croquet with our Turkish neighbors, game days when everyone in town wears red, guest speakers, farmer's markets, Des Moines river walk, A Dong, walking to work and school together (in Des Moines), beating Eric in Settlers of Catan, Ethan screaming "RAR" through the family housing vents, and university libraries.

Not missin':

Poverty, black squirrels, working (Diana), traveling 11 hours home, student loans, Prof. Kirst, Sean Conaway, job hunting, humidity, final exams, and running into Ted Kooser around town.

Did we miss anything?

We're having a...

...Zebra, with lots of stripes! Just kidding, that's what we were going to tell everyone and just keep the sex of the baby to ourselves. It's only been a couple hours since the ultrasound and I can't keep it secret any longer
It's a GIRL!! We've got ourselves a little Grace Merrill Rammell. Or as our doc says, 'We've managed to cook ourselves up a girl.' I'm so excited. I'm sure Justin will have something else to say about this later tonight, but I just had to share. A shopping I will go for some cute little pink things, FUN!

P.S. Turn up your sound and listen to our song :)

Random

Here are a few pics (and a movie) of IJ taken over this last week. Between work trips and househunting we have been light on adventure. We did try to have a BBQ out at a lake last night, but it didn't exactly work out ... dinner burned and Isaac would not stay away from the fire.

And, as you can see, IJ and I have some moves!

Mica Mine

We are having great weather out here, and hope you are too! We had to take advantage of the warm sun. Justin took the afternoon off of work and we hiked up Bang's Canyon to an old Mica mine. It was a short trail (2.5 miles) that followed a creek. Mica is used for all kinds of things, like toothpaste. It is like clear flexible plastic flakes growing out of the rock that shine like mirrors. The whole trail glittered! After such an exhausting hike we headed to Famous Dave's where IJ managed to eat more than his parents combined.

So Mischievous so soon?

This morning I was doing some ironing and Isaac was playing in our bedroom. Playing in Mom and Dads room usually means tearing all of my shoes off the shelves and wearing Daddy's belt around the house. It happened to be a little too quiet so I thought I'd go check on him. This is what I found.



I know, he's just playing with my makeup. What's the big deal? Well, after all my eye shadow ended up in a million pieces on the floor one day, I decided it probably wasn't the best toy for him. So, he knows he's not supposed to play with Mom's makeup. Sometimes he'll get it out of the cupboard, realize what he's done, and come give it to me. Not this time. He took it and hid behind the bed to play with it. Who knew this would start so early in life? I'm never mischievous, of course, so I'm claiming he learned this from his Dad.

What happens when we hit? That's right ... we go to the time out chair for two minutes.




Funny how much he used to love this chair before he was mobile. At least he has the empanada maker to keep him company!

We used to feel really guilty for putting him in there, but hey, it works. He no longer pushes books off shelves or bites (well, we are still working on biting, but he definitely bites less).

Jane Austin

We have been watching the complete Jane Austin on PBS these past Sunday nights and have really enjoyed it. Susan (Justin's mom) sent this link to me. I took the quiz and I think the result describes me pretty well. Take the quiz and post your result in our comments (unless of course you put it on your blog).

You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility!

You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

The Pear

As I was unpacking my backpack from hiking over the weekend, I pulled out various granola bars and an overly ripe pear. Isaac seized the pear and then spent the better part of an hour wandering around the house gnawing on it and mumbling to himself. We are still finding little pieces of that pear around the house--he made quite a mess!

Rammell Roundup

Ok, we have fallen behind in our blogging. So here you have the Rammell Roundup:

Two weekends ago we went to St. George to visit Grandma Rammell. Isaac was sick the entire time and let us know by his constant screaming. Apart from that, the weather was good and Grandma was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, our memory card self-destructed so we have no pictures.

This past Easter weekend, Diana's mom and brother (Wayne) came for a visit. We hiked up Mt. Garfield (the boys) and did some beading (the girls). Isaac was very happy to have friends visit. He and Wayne followed each other around the house giggling. Here are some pictures of Mr. Garfield and yet more pictures of our Easter activities.

IJ's Birthday in Ouray, Hooray!

Today is Isaac's first birthday. We can harldy believe the year has come and gone so quickly and how much our lives have changed. Who knew this little guy would have so much personality? If the next one has the same energy level, we're going to invest in leashes and clone Diana.

Grandma and Grandpa Rammell came with Uncle Brian for the birthday celebration. We took them down to Ouray (billed as America's Switzerland), an old mining town that is now a tourist trap. We had a great time tromping through the snow to box canyon falls, eating great food, and enjoying the mountain scenery. As you can see, Ouray has an ice climbing park. And here I sit, an hour and a half away, with a garage full of climbing gear. The climbing season is just about over, the ice has maybe another month. I dying to climb up there but can't find a partner, any takers?

When we got home we had a kickin' birthday party. Di made a monster cake, which Isaac quickly obliterated. He was blue from head to foot. After his bath, the tub looked like a family of smurfs had drowned.

Short on Words, Deep in Meaning

Last month, the LA Times ran a story about 6 word memoirs. That's right, tell your story with just six words. You can read the article here. My favorite responses were: "Ex-wife and contractor now have house" (Drew Peck) and "Brought it to a boil, often." (Mario Batali)

So last week, our ever-creative Grandma Rammell mailed us a few of her own six word memoirs, and challenged us to come up with a few as well. Here are some of hers:

• The dam didn't break until 1976. (The Teton Dam flooded the family farm)
• Mr. Rammell doesn't live here anymore.
  
• Will trade: double bed for motorcycle.
• Moving Sale: cemetery plot, no view.
• Fifty years with Merrill: what's next?
• Bobbie's got her groove back now.
• He didn't think it was loaded.
  
• Go! The light is still yellow.

And here is what we came up with last night:

• Finally having babies: I'm so tired.
• Baby want food, food, food, food.
  
• Pregnant woman demands cake, tangelos, Applebee's.
• I chase a baby... all day.
• Family far, but Diana close -- perfect.
• Lovely Diana, rambunctious Isaac, life's good.
• Just graduated, but wanna go back.
• Birthday in June, buy me books.
• Let's camp this summer, call us!
• Not rich, not poor, just happy
• Long walks, camping trips, hot cocoa
  

So now, dear readers, come up with some six word memoirs of your own! Post them as a comment!

UPDATE: We have had over 100 hits on our blog since I posted this. And, thanks to Google Analytics, I know what cities they are coming from. So, I want some six line memoirs here or I am going to start naming names.

Man Song

This is from You Tube. It is sad, but true...

Baby #2

Meet our cute little kidney bean! It is 10.1 mm's long (I think that puts it in the 132 percentile, just kidding) and due on Sept. 20th. Potential names: Grace for a girl, Jesus for a boy.

We had a heart to heart with Isaac last night about having a sibling. He said that he is excited for a baby and that he will be soft with it. His main concern was whether another person in the house would affect the quality or quantity of his sharp cheddar cheese.

Since the ultrasound, Diana has moved through the next emotional stage of her condition (two-monsters-in-diapers-and-no-sleep-itis), from denial to bargaining. Maybe by our next visit to the doctor, acceptance will settle in.

UPDATE: Did you know that if you have a baby during 2008, that on your 2008 tax return you can claim that child as a dependent and receive $300.00 from Uncle George W. as part of the rebate program? Check it out. For those of you who are not pregnant, there is still time! :)

Fix-it Weekend II

We have had a few "fix-it" weekends, mostly related to the Jag. A few weeks ago IJ did the brakes and now we are recovering the seats. It is too much work to go alone so I enlisted Di's sewing skills and IJ's disassembly skills. When I brought the seat in to take it apart, Isaac just started grabbing tools, jabbering, and going to work. We could not keep him away from it. He would "work" on one spot for a while and then grab another tool and go to another part of the seat. I wonder if Craftsman makes baby tools...

Climber

What do you do when the baby can climb the baby gate? He started using the middle bar for his feet -- so we turned the gate around and thought that would solve the problem. Little did we know he would start using the heater and the banister...

Date Night

Last night was Spring Fling for the bar association. Diana went on the war path for a dress. As you can see she was beautiful, by far the prettiest girl in the room. We found a babysitter and headed out to the country club for prime rib and a really fun 70's band. Those old attorneys really knew how to get down (the dancing came after cocktails).

Coming this September

Surprise! (to us and you) We are having another baby!

Just last week Diana commented that this year would be boring, no graduations or moving or babies or new jobs...

Our new little boy (let's just assume he is a boy considering I have all brothers and so does Di and all of IJ's cousins are boys) will be 18 months younger than IJ. Needless to say, Di is feeling pretty overwhelmed at the prospect of having two kids in diapers. And lets face it, I also require a lot of attention.

And congratulations to the Chamberlains on their surprise!

First Haircut

IJ has been in desperate need of a haircut for weeks! Believe it or not, in 10 months he has not had a haircut! At first his long hair was cute, then it was really cute, then it got past his eyebrowns, and finally we were combing it over a-la Donald Trump. So this morning we finally broke out the clippers.

5 Years

Yesterday, Diana and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. When we got married, we verbally agreed to a 5 year term (no kidding, we have always joked that after 5 years we would call it quits). I am pleased to announce, that after a night of intense negotiations (and alot of flirting on my part), we have agreed to extend our marraige another 5 years. Diana was hesitant to accept the extension at first, but the fact that we have a baby, and that I am actually bringing in a paycheck, ultimately won her over. I did have to promise not to go back to school, to do the dishes more often, and never to chase her around the house with stickers ever again.

As an aside, one of my neighbors where I grew up asked me if it was a mistake to marry Diana. She must be the only person on the face of the earth who would possibly ask me that question instead of Diana. At the time, I was too shocked at the chutzpah of the question to put together a coherent response. But I have to say, that it was no mistake (on my part) to marry this beautiful girl. The last five years have been wonderful and I look forward to countless more.