The East Coast Invasion!

Guess where we are going for Christmas this year? Pennsylvania! Yay! We are so excited to be able to spend Christmas with Andrew's family and also to see some friends that we haven't seen for years because of our never ending hiatus in the West. In addition to spending time with the Whitlock's our plans include going to NYC, Washington D.C., and of course, Buena Vista, Virginia! We are really looking forward to it!

Ravenna as a lion

This weekend our stake had a trunk-or-treat and Halloween carnival. Even though Ravenna is too young to eat candy (but I am not! he he he) we thought it would be fun to take her anyway. She was super excited when people would put candy in her bucket and would wave her arms and say "ooooo, oooo" which I am sure means, "more, more." I was pretty disappointed, though, because most people took one look at her and then proceeded to dig around their bowls trying to find "baby appropriate" candy...ummm hello? There is no such thing as "baby appropriate" candy. The only way that she is going to get it is through me, so load me up with the CHOCOLATE! I didn't actually say that, but I appreciated what chocolate I got anyway. I am looking forward to when she is older and I can more fruitfully reap from her Halloween rewards.

After trunk-or-treating and rubbing off all her makeup from chewing on a bag of pretzels

All ready to go get some candy!

Ravenna Photo of the Week!

Andrew was wearing Ravenna in the wrap and to keep her extra warm he zipped up his coat around her. I love it!

Ravenna's "Crib"

Because I can never find an ideal time to do a video tour of the whole apartment I decided to do it room by room. Here is Ravenna's room.

"You, too, can be a gooder writer" or blogger!

I saw this in the September Reader's Digest and I found it very clever and entertaining, and so fellow bloggers, I share with you, "You, too, can be a gooder writer":

Avoid cliches like the plague--they're old hat.

Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

Do not use a foreign word when there is an adequate English quid pro quo.

Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.

Be more or less specific.

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Tips courtesy of plainlanguage.gov

Ravenna Photo of the Week

Eating the Ducky
Bath Time!

Tagged- Crazy Eights

8 Favorite Restaurants?
1. PF Changs
2. Magelby's Fresh (In Provo)
3. The Smoke House (Also in Provo)
4. Macaroni Grill
5. Jack in the Box (seriously? Yes, seriously)
6. Costco Food court (not really a restaurant, but I love it anyway)
7. The Cancun (I believe it is in Sandy or Murray, Utah)
8. Ruby Tuesdays

8 Things I did yesterday?:
1. Woke up butt early
2. Drove 3+ hours to Billings, MT
3. Went to the temple
4. Went to Costco and begged the tire people to PLEASE fit us in, which they were nice enough to stay late and do
5. Went to Red Robin...not as good as I remember it being a few years ago (sigh)
6. Went to JC Penny and bought some shoes which really hurt my feet today, but it isn't like I can return them without driving 3 hours
7. Drove 3+ hours back to Gillette and enjoyed a stimulating conversation with Andrew
8. Fell exhausted into bed at 11:30 PM

8 things I look forward to:
1. The Summer
2. Moving away from Gillette, Wyoming
3. Seeing my Provo friends in December!
4. Buying a home
5. Visiting my friends and family in the East
6. Going on dates with Andrew (soon, I hope!)
7. Pay Day
8. Ravenna waking up at night so that I can cuddle her

8 things on my wish list?:
1. I wish that I could wake up with my hair perfectly styled
2. I wish that I didn't have to live in an overpriced apartment
3. I wish for peace and happiness for everyone on this earth and will do my best to make sure that I do not hinder that wish for anyone else
4. I wish that dinner would make itself a couple times a week
5. I wish that my family would love and respect me, always and that I would love and respect them always, as well.
6. I wish that Andrew could get his wish and live in Germany
7. I wish that I could be one of those cooks that knew exactly what a dish needed just by smell
8. I wish I had more energy!

I now tag anyone who wants to be tagged; just send me a message so I can check it out!

Tagged & Photo of the Week

This is a photo tag from my cousin, Dejah (I have also never been tagged before!). You go to your pictures, and post the fourth picture in the fourth file. This is Ravenna when she was two months old. Pretty funny if you ask me, and even though this isn't very recent, I think it will work for the photo of the week.

Oh, and I tag TopHat, Jordyn, Natalie R., and Lindsay

Squeal it out?

If you have seen any of Ravenna's videos from the past few months you will notice that she loves to squeal. She doesn't really babble, just squeals. It is her happy noise and she does it very often to entertain herself. For example: If I run to another room to get the phone, I will hear her in the other room squealing happily, and return to find her playing with her feet or happily knawing on a toy (yes, she can knaw and squeal at the same time).

The other night Ravenna woke up in the middle of the night wanting to nurse, so I did the usual and brought her into our bed to nurse and snuggle, but instead of falling asleep as she usually does, she wanted to announce her happiness at having a full tummy by squealing. Although this is normally funny and endearing, in the middle of the night and when her Daddy is sick, it is less so. I tried to soothe her back to sleep, but she was having none of that, so I put her back in her bed happily squealing away and munching on her bear. I stayed awake to see if she would cry (so I could soothe her if needed) but for half an hour she squealed and giggled, blew bubbles and then fell asleep. Needless to say, I am certain that I fell asleep with a smile on my face. Take THAT, "cry it out!"

On a side note, I was reading Parenting Magazine the other day and found this interesting quote from Lawrence Balter Ph.D, a professor of child psychology at NYU: "Too much stress on an infant's nervous system-such as crying continuously-isn't healthy for her development." He goes on to say that it is NEVER a good idea for babies younger than 6 months to "cry it out." I think it is also interesting what the article says for after 6 months of age: "Even then, an older baby probably isn't capable of manipulating you to get your attention." Holy Hannah! I think this guy is on to something!

Our Vaccination Schedule

I am so grateful for modern medicine, especially vaccines. My grandfather almost died of Polio as a child and has suffered from its effects his entire life. Thanks to vaccines, Polio no longer exists in the U.S. and there are positive reports that in our lifetime it will probably no longer exist in the world. With that said, Andrew and I decided to delay vaccinating Ravenna and only selectively vaccinating at that. We feel good about our decision and it was based on a lot of research and thought. Today, Ravenna got her first vaccination.

I thought that I would share our delayed/selective vaccination schedule for the first two years which we decided on thanks to the research and advice found in Dr. Robert Sears' The Vaccine Book. I have also included the names of the commonly used brands of the vaccines that contain the least amount of aluminum:

5 months: DTaP (Daptacel)
6 months: Pc (Prevnar), HIB (ActHib)
7 months: DTaP
8 months: Pc, HIB
9 months: DTaP
10 months: Pc, HIB
15 months: Pc, HIB

Why this schedule? Because I am exclusively breastfeeding for at least 18 months and Ravenna is not going to daycare, many of the vaccines are unnecessary. I might even accept the argument that ALL vaccines are unnecessary in this situation, but I don't know what the future holds. Before Ravenna goes to school she will probably get the MMR, but we aren't 100% decided on that; let's see what happens with the research on the vaccine in between now and then. If we go to Africa or India, Ravenna will get the Polio vaccine beforehand.

As far as the actual vaccination went, I was a bit miffed by the nurse trying to convince me that the DTaP vaccine doesn't contain ANY aluminum. Uh, hello, it says it on the packaging? Oh, and she also gave me a hard time saying that it was going to be harder on the baby to get the shots every month instead of the combo every other month. Ummm, but it's not hard to get 4 at once? In any case, the nurse who actually gave the vaccination was very nice and we got a free board book: Goodnight Moon. Ravenna handled it pretty well, too.