November 29

HI everyone!

We are STILL in Utah! We were going to head home on Sunday, but a big storm was predicted to hit the Sierras just a little before we were going to be driving over them. We decided to stay here and let the storm pass over us, which turned out to be a good decision. Sunday we checked the Truckee webcam and saw lines of traffic, lots of snow, and read about spin outs etc.
Th snow got here Monday and stayed yesterday. We were glad we decided to wait! We are heading home tomorrow. I have enjoyed the slight taste of snow and winter, but I will be happy to go home where we don't have to scrape the car.

It has been an exciting week. We had a nice Thanksgiving, which started with floor hockey at the church gym. Our brother in law Eric is very in to games and sports, so he brought his goals and sticks so we could place (yes, he has his own floor hockey goals . . .) The kids really enjoyed it and it was fun to get out. I made scalloped corn, which was a little salty but pretty good, and I made cranberries. It was really fun to have Loren here. I did miss having Brenda's sweet potatoes, but maybe we can have those at Christmas?

The one bad thing was that Jens was sick. We thought it was just a cold, but it seemed to get progressively worse throughout the day. Thursday night he was in full distress mode--his breathing was so awful! He spent the night in bed with me with a temperature and a bad cough. Also, he threw up on my bed. We finally got him to sleep and the next morning we took him
right to the doctor who diagnosed him with strep which had induced an asthma attack. He cried the WHOLE time we were at the doctor's office. He got a shot for strep and the dr. gave Mike and me prescriptions assuming that we too had strep. The rest of the day Friday was just so sad. Jens, who loves to run and play, just wanted to be held and lay down. His breathing was so
labored I was afraid the medicine wasn't working, but by evening it had kicked in. He is now feeling MUCH better, but I am sure he will be happy to get home to his own bed.

We had a pretty quiet weekend--watched the games on Saturday, church on Sunday. Monday we left the kids with Grandma and went out to Los Hermanos for lunch, and yesterday we met the Johnsons for lunch. Today we went to storytime at the library and I think I am meeting Kristin at the mall to wander this afternoon. Tomorrow, we drive, which won't be fun at all. Mike has been trying to get work done. It is so fortunate that his job is so
flexible and he has been able to work here without getting into trouble.

Hope you all have a happy week!

Love,

Alison

November 22

Hello from Utah, everyone!

We are happy to be here with Mike's family to enjoy Thanksgiving. We have had a very nice week. Wednesday we had the missionaries for dinner. We have a set of really nice sisters right now, and they gave us a nice message. Also, it gave me an excuse to make pumpkin pie. Thursday we packed for our trip and I FINALLY got Jens's new corrective shoe. It looks
like a huge white clown shoe because it is a little on the big side. I have not been very faithful about putting it on him, I must admit. I resolve to do better sometime! We had Natalie for dinner on Thursday, then at 10:30 at night, after we were all packed, we went up to the Nielsens for Krispy Kremes and to watch The Office. It was delightful, although I ate way too
many donuts.

We drove out on Friday, which you can imagine was a delightful day. It was actually so much better than we ever could have imagined. We got a good early start and Made great time. Jens was a champ, and although he complained a little in the afternoon, he was mostly very happy and cheerful. We made it to Utah in record time--left at 9, got in by 7:30 (all CA
time). Jens was so excited to be here--he was very cute and warmed up to Grandma and Grandpa Helquist quickly, unlike last time.

Saturday we enjoyed breakfast with the Johnsons before they departed for CA. Their little Mati is such a doll--smiley and cute, but she was a little afraid of Mike when we first got there! You should have seen some of the whithering looks she gave him. Then Mike went shooting with some friends (yes, I said shooting--apparently Mike is a littlehill billy at heart). They shot shotguns at clay things or something while I primed the Helquist's front room for paint. They are in the middle of redoing their front room and I volunteered to help out. Julie and I finished the painting on Monday and it looks so nice. While Julie and I were painting, Joel, Mike, Grandma and Grandpa wrastled all the kids. I thoroughly enjoyed the painting and
the break from my normal routine!

Last night we got together with friends. It is always fun to get together and Jens enjoyed seeing all the kids. Today we went to story time at the Provo Library, which is so gorgeous. We have a nice library at home, but the children's section is nothing compared to the one here!

We are hoping to see Loren today and we are looking forward to feasting tomorrow. I made real cranberries and I am making scalloped corn for tomorrow, so it should feel just like Thanksgiving ought to!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday tomorrow--I am thankful for my family and friends!

Love,

Alison

November 15

Today Jens is 15 months old. It is funny to remember what he was like a year ago. Not only does he look totally different, he can do so much more. He is getting so big and so fun! His latest funny has been the word stuck. For some reason, he loves the word and wants to use it as often as possible, so he tries to find ways to get stuck. A few nights ago the vacuum was out and Jens kept trying to slide his feet under the cord so he could be stuck. Today at the doctor's office, he kept sticking his finger into the trash can so his finger would get stuck between the flap and the can so he could be stuck. Sometimes he doesn't even need anything to be stuck. He'll just freeze mid-step while he is walking down the hall and say he is stuck. It is quite humorous.

He had his fifteen month checkup today. He is 32.5 inches tall (90%) and 27.3 lbs (80%). He had three shots including a flu shot and was pretty tough about it. He was actually much tougher than I was when I had to have blood taken last week for routine blood work. Of course, my phlebotomist made a big mess of things, which made things worse. I didn't look while she was taking blood, but as soon as she started to pull the needle out I heard her say "You're bruising already!" So I looked over and there was a HUGE lump the size of half a ping pong ball an my arm. She didn't seem to feel bad about it at all, but my arm hurt for two days and I still have a huge and disgusting bruise, although it sounds like Brenda's is worse.

We are having the missionaries over tonight. I made pumpkin pie. Yum.

We are leaving for Utah on Friday. I am excited for the trip, although I am really hoping that Jens does better with sleeping than he did last time we traveled. Loren, we would love to see you a whole bunch while we are in town!

My big project of the week has been my little table that I wrote about last week. I stripped it (using nail polish remover--I am ever the cheap resourceful type), painted the legs, and refinished the top.

I have to say that I thought of Mom quite a bit. Remember how she used to make us pet Jessie's bed and comment on how smooth the wood was? I am pretty proud of how smooth the table is, although Jens has already dented it several times with the vacuum tube. It looks really cute.

I think that is all from here. Have a happy week and I'll see some of you very soon!

November 8

Hi Everyone!

We had a really nice week. Last week we had a little friend named Harrison over so his mom could go be a classroom volunteer. They had a good time following each other around. It is funny how a toy suddenly becomes so much more interesting when someone else wants to play with it! Natalie and I also made caramel/white chocolate apples. They were so good!

Also momentous this week, Jens got to try ice cream. It was very popular and he really liked it.

Mike took Friday off and we went to Ikea, one of our favorite outings. We got very important stuff (curtain rod, silverware caddy) and some things for Jessie and Abbie. We ate a delicious and cheap lunch and enjoyed walking around and looking at things.

Saturday was the daddy-daughter date for our achievement day girls. We did a Hawaiian luau theme and everyone had a great time. It was fun for me to see the girls with their dads--they were obviously so thrilled to have time to spend together. A couple of the girls without dads brought an older brother and a Sunday School teacher. It was so nice to see those men making such an effort to help the girls have a good time, and they did.

Monday Jens was sick all day. It was very sad and messy. I won't say any more.

Yesterday was a fun day because Jens was feeling much better. He woke up and called "bottle! bottle!" because he was so hungry after not having anything stay put on Monday. I voted and one of the poll workers told me I should be a poll worker, too. I am thinking about it. It might be kind of fun. We went to the zoo, which was great because all of the animals were out for once. All of the bears, both tigers, and the monkeys were being really crazy.

Also exciting yesterday was that I spent a good bit of time scraping stickers, scotch tape, and various goo off of a well known little art table. I think Jens will be ready to start coloring soon, so I decided to bring the table in and clean it up. I thought of Jessie, Loren, and myself as I: 1. carried it into the house by myself--I remember that table weighing a ton! We had to work together to move it anywhere! 2. scraped off the 101 Dalmatian stickers 3. Admired how the cubbyholes are labeled in brown crayon "Alison" and "Loren". I actually remember doing that myself because after I wrote it the first time, we decided to switch cubbyholes, so I had to scribble out our names and re-write them. Anyway, after much scrubbing and goo gone and nail polish remover, the desk is now just old and battered looking instead of being old, battered, and really dirty. Jens was pretty excited about it. He likes to pat it and try to climb onto it.

Lastly, last night was the first non-screaming nebulizer treatment we have ever had. Since Jens was sick on Monday, we did the 15 minute treatment, which is normally quite painful and horrible for us all. Not so last night! We put in Baby Einstein, which Jens NEVER gets to watch because he doesn't watch tv, and he was so transfixed that he tolerated the treatment without a peep! He didn't even try to move his head too much because then he couldn't see the tv. It was great.

AND today I woke up and saw that a few of the things I voted for actually won, although several big things like governor and house rep did not win :(

Okay, that's it. Have a happy week everyone!

November 1

Hi Everyone!

Happy Birthday, Kristin!

I hope everyone enjoyed a more successful Halloween than we did! We were supposed to do family pictures yesterday at the mall, then we were going to costume Jens and walk around. Unfortunately, on Monday Jens did a face plant onto a flower pot and got a huge cut on his forehead. It looks terrible, and I am really worried that it is going to leave a scar, but everyone says it looks pretty shallow and not to worry about it. Anyway, we nixed the idea of family pictures, but since we had a picture coupon we decided to go in and do a casual picture of Mike and Jens. Well, I left to pick Mike up at 4:30 for our 5:30 appointment. At 5:30, after a half hour of very loud and ear piercing squealing from Jens, we were sitting in traffic about a mile away from Mike's work. We canceled our appointment and went home, where we had not ONE single trick or treater! We put Jens in his costume and enjoyed watching him walk around in it, although he continued to whine. Big face owie: Lion attack! Something about the tail is just so cute!

We did have some other fun Halloween festivities, though. On Friday we went to Apple Hill with the Nielsens. Even Mike got to go because he had Friday off! We went to a pumpkin patch, where the pumpkins were very picked over, then stopped and bought pumpkins at another ranch. On Friday night we carved pumpkins, which was very fun. They turned out really cute, and Natalie made pumpkin pie, which is always good.

Saturday, after two football games where the right team won, was our ward Halloween activity, which was very fun and successful. There were two wards and tons of people. They had booths, a chili cook off, trunk or treat, and line dancing. Jens got to run around in his costume and even got some candy, none of which he was allowed to eat. It was fun to play with, though! The line dancing was fun, and although Mike refused to join in, Jens and I enjoyed it. We went home and watched "American Dreamz" which is a movie that makes fun of American Idol and the president. I was expecting it to be really horrible and it wasn't as bad as I expected, so I enjoyed it.