*Sigh*

This photo reminds me a lot of my life right now. Though my "line of work" (stay-at-home-mommy-hood) is very much not in an office, I feel like task after task and project after project is just starting to pile up in the inbox in my head. Along with the demands of my "everyday" job, which revolves around laundry and dishes and diapers and feedings, I have a thousand things I want to accomplish on the enormous, never-ending to-do list in my mind ! Potty-train my toddler, finally get around to hanging all the pictures in our house (not a single one hung in the year we've been here), finish decorating the boys' rooms, finally get all my paperwork filed and organized, organize my photos and make digital scrapbook albums for the boys (not a single page done), get on a regular exercise regimen, go through all the stuff in the basement and organize everything into our new storage room, get our food storage going, finally get ready for the yard sale I keep talking about having...it never ends. My fondest dream is to have it all done, to be completely caught up and have my home to a point where all that is necessary is a little everyday maintenance. With every big project done. To reach a point, someday, once, where I can truly say...I have nothing. to. do. Ha! Like that will ever happen!

And then, along with all of this, is what has also become a chore, in its own way: Blogging. I like blogging. Truly, I do! But its become another thing on my infinite to-do list! I am constantly thinking about things I want to write about and scrambling, trying to figure out when I can find time to get to the computer for more than a few minutes. Its nearly impossible these days! But even when it starts to feel bothersome, I desperately, desperately want to be good at writing about my life (commonplace as it may be). I regret so much that I didn't keep any form of journal, except for maybe a few measly entries, through some of the most eventful times of my life: when I was a teenager, when I was a college student, when I was dating Ryan and then engaged to Ryan, when I was first married. Its sad that I can never go back and read what the past me was feeling and thinking, especially during some of the most memorable or funny or challenging times. So I want to try and be at least somewhat diligent about journaling this period in my life. When I was young, I used to love opening up my mom and dad's old journals and reading through them, about when me and my brothers were born or when we were young. I want my kids to be able to do that. Even though I've failed to write much about myself growing up, I don't want to miss out writing about my kids. Because not only will they want to read about times they don't remember...I will want to read about the times I know I will probably forget. I already enjoy reading my own blogs from a year ago! So when blogging/journaling starts to stress me out, I remind myself that someday it will be wonderful and worth it and entertaining to read all about my life as a young mom, and that I won't care one bit then whether the kitchen was clean or the laundry done the day that I wrote.

I've also begun to realize that this period of time...summer...stresses me out pretty much every year. That sounds sad!...Summer should be the relaxing time, but I almost always start to feel a little overwhelmed! The moment this season arrives it seems Ryan and I are slammed with so many events and celebrations and trips coming up that we start to feel like we practically have the whole summer planned from the beginning! The past few weeks have been particularly busy for us. On top of the fact that the busy-ness of the past month has made it very hard to get around to blogging, the busy-ness has created SO many things I want and need to write about! These are all of our events from just about one month ago to now: Ryan's birthday, Father's Day, Family Reunion in Montana, Ryan's trip to Mexico, Fourth of July, my birthday, Thomas' birthday, Jacob's blessing. AAAAAH! I am starting to think about my blog like I think about my laundry...if I can just get all caught up and then do one load(/blog) a day, maybe I can always keep up with it! That shouldn't be so hard right???

And it would probably help if I learned to finish what I started...I often start blog entries and then never manage to finish and publish them. And this is not helped by the fact that I am generally long-winded! I finally decided to post a couple of entries I started writing at the end of June that in my mind weren't finished, because I hadn't written all the details or they didn't have photos with them or whatever, but I finally just decided to post anyway. I am determined to catch up eventually, but it is overwhelming...along with this last month, there are other things from even further back that I've been meaning to write about. Like Hawaii, from clear back in January!!! How pathetic am I!!?!?!?!

*Sigh*.

Jacob at 2 months

Its amazing how fast time goes after a baby is born and how quickly newborns change! As of June 25th my brand new baby turned 2 months old. He's starting to get so fun....he's cooing, smiling, and just getting cuter and more handsome. I fall in love with him more every day! I am so excited for all the phases that are to come!

Jacob had his 2-month well check on the exact day he turned 2 months, and the word the doctor kept using over and over as he examined him was "outstanding." As the doctor said how pleased he was with Jacob's development and growth, I just couldn't help feeling so incredibly grateful for my two healthy children...I've come to realize it really is a great, great blessing to have a healthy child, and I don't take it for granted.

Jacob continues to be a big boy, just like his big brother has always been...at his checkup Jacob's weight was in the 87th percentile and his height was in the 97th percentile. I love that my boys are tall for their age! I keep imagining them both when they're in their late teens or early 20s, as these two 6 ft 3 (or something), handsome men. I keep imagining how all the girls will talk about how gorgeous Tom and Jake Laidlaw are! I definitely sound like a gloating mom, but I can't help it! I'm sure all other mothers imagine the same kind of things sometimes. =)

I adore all the sweet little sounds Jacob has begun to make...my favorite is what I call the "Goo" sound, which he does ever-so-softly, and this gurgly little "Gggggg" sound that Thomas loves too, and always tries to imitate. I also love the sweet little smiles Jacob gives us. When he was younger we used to think he was kind of smiling at us sometimes and of course he would smile in his sleep sometimes, but now they are starting to feel more and more like real smiles. I can't wait for all the cute smiling and giggling that is to come and to watch his personality really blossom over the course of his first year. Even though I've always wanted multiple children anyway, I know now one of the big reasons why people have more than 1 child...it is so fun and wonderful to watch a child grow and develop and discover in the first few years! I look at Thomas, my big 'n' tall kid, and its amazing to remember that he was once a tiny 2-month-old baby just like Jacob!

Ryan is 30!!!

This is quite late now, but on June 14th my hubby turned the big 3-0!!! It is so surreal to me that so much time has passed since Ryan was the 22-year-old guy that swept me off my feet! Though I still have 3 more years til I turn 30, I already feel very much like Ryan and I are starting that phase of life, the era of "We're in our 30s." Its a strange feeling to me!

Ryan's actual birthday fell on Sunday this year, so we went out on a date together Friday night to celebrate (Saturday all our babysitters were busy). My mom babysat Thomas and Jacob, and it was glorious to have a kid-free evening! (It was the first time we've gotten a babysitter for both kids, and the first time we've had anyone babysit Jacob. Thankfully he did great!) We went out to dinner at Red Lobster, which is a particular birthday gesture to Ryan from me...we almost always go out to seafood on his birthday each year because I am not the biggest seafood fan and its the only time I am willing to go without trying to talk him out of it! We went absolutely all out...we had a snow crab appetizer, and Ryan got a big ole platter that had lobster and several other entrees. Though the only seafood I generally like is Halibut, I tried Tilapia and I did actually like it!

One funny story from dinner were our drinks. We love to get specialty drinks, but of course only non-alcoholic. Our waitress told us that if we ordered a specialty drink without the alcohol, we could get double the size for just 75 cents more (since of course, drinks are cheaper without the alcohol). She kind of talked us into it so we decided to go ahead and do it, and MAN were those things huge! We felt like we were drinking out of a small fish bowl! Ryan had a big ole Bahama Mama and I had a Strawberry Daquiri (mmmmm). On top of that, Ryan also got an IBC root beer in the bottle. So, here we are, with these two giant, alcoholic-appearing specialty drinks and Ryan also has what looks very much like a beer bottle! We kept wondering if people were watching us, because we were pretty giddy and laughing all through dinner, and our big ole drinks probably made it look like we were just partying it up!

After dinner we went and saw "Wolverine," which we both liked pretty well. We love comic-book/super-hero movies! Going to the movies anymore is a huge treat for us...we used to go pretty much once a week before we had kids, and I don't know about Ryan, but I go through serious movie-theater withdrawals, especially because we would commonly go see movies right after they came out. Now we're lucky to find time to watch the movies we get through Netflix!

As for a birthday present, I really wanted to give Ryan something big this year, but he's seriously difficult to get gifts for...he pretty much will get for himself whatever he needs or wants! But he came up with an idea of his own...some time back he came up with the idea of going on a snorkeling trip with his Dad and brothers, because they all really love snorkeling. So Ryan got serious about the idea as his birthday approached, and they all started talking about going and trying to make it happen. They actually worked out the dates between all of them and went on a 5-day trip to Cozumel, Mexico! It was Ryan, his dad, his brothers Nate and Eric, and our brother-in-law Jon. They all had an awesome time, of course! They did lots of snorkeling where they took lots of amazing underwater photos and also toured some of the ruins, and also did lots of eating. Ryan keeps saying how amazing the food they had was, especially because they ate at a lot of places that were more local dives than tourist-y restaurants. It was particularly easy and comfortable for them to navigate in Mexico because 3 of the 5 of them speak Spanish...Ryan served his mission in El Salvador, Nate served in the Dominican Republican, and Ryan's dad served in New York City, Spanish speaking.

I can't say I wasn't (very) jealous that Ryan got to go on this awesome (kid-free) vacation, (I'm not a saint!) but I'm really glad he got to do something momentous for his 30-th birthday...I'm big on celebrating and recognizing birthdays, and especially milestone ones. But now me and all my sisters-in-law that were also left at home are thinking we definitely deserve an all-girls, kid-free vacation!

Sweet Newborn Jacob

On Friday, May 8th I took Jacob to get newborn photos taken while my mom babysat Thomas. Jacob was one day shy of 2 weeks old at the time. I've been waiting impatiently to get the CD with all the photos back, and I finally got it a few days ago! The pictures turned out gorgeous...I am so excited to have these beautiful images of my little newborn Jacob to treasure forever! Sorry for the long procession of photos following...I tried to narrow it down, but there are so many I love, and then on top of that its really hard to decide whether I like the color or B&W version best!












I really thought I wouldn't like the photos with me in them, but I was pleasantly surprised! I'm sure she must have photo-shopped my face like crazy (for which I'm grateful!)...I know my skin doesn't look that good in real life, and I look 5 years younger!


With Thomas, I never got any pictures taken of him when he was a newborn, and I have always and forever regretted it. I think the reason I didn't was because I felt nervous and guilty taking a brand-new little baby out in public and exposing him to everything so soon just to get pictures taken. I actually felt a lot the same this time around too...I wasn't feeling ready to brave the mall and take Jacob to Kiddie Kandids or JCPenney or somewhere like that. But a friend from my ward referred me to an awesome photographer who worked out of her home, Skye Johansen. She lives relatively close to me and has a cool studio in her basement, and she only does maternity, newborn and child photography. I get super stressed about getting professional photos taken, but Skye was so awesome and completely put me at ease. I also really lucked out that I was even able to get a session with her...I had put off planning the pictures and when when I finally realized I better get around to setting something up or it would be too late, I emailed Skye to see if she had any openings or if she could squeeze me in soon somehow. She emailed back and told me someone had just cancelled a session for a couple days later, so I totally lucked out! I had been so worried that the stress of figuring out and setting up pictures would keep me from getting them done at all, and that I would, again, be sad and regretful about it. I'm so glad it worked out and that wasn't the case!

It was so nice to just go to someone's home where it was nice and quiet for these photos. Skye took lots of time with us, over two hours! I could stop and feed Jacob when I needed to, and she was so great and obviously experienced at working with a little tiny newborn...because its the majority of what she does! She was fabulous. If you are interested check out the link to her blog on my "Favorite Sites" list.

P.S. When Ryan and I went to Hawaii with his family in January (which I never finished my blog post for, I feel so bad...I still plan to, it just got really, really long before I was even halfway through, and I have about 500 photos to decide from!) we had professional family pictures taken of Ryan and Thomas and I. I felt a little silly getting family photos taken when I was pregnant and we were going to have a new member of our family in only a few months, but I decided to anyway because we hadn't had any family photos taken for the last two years, and I thought it would be an incredibly cool opportunity to have photos taken in Hawaii! I was also excited to get some maternity shots of me and some photos of Thomas right at 2 1/2. Plus, I won't be getting new family photos of all four of us until the fall, when Jacob is older. (*Sigh* my poor husband. He thinks I'm photo-obsessed. And admittedly, I pretty much am. But aren't most moms?) So, we got to see all the photo proofs quite some time ago and I LOVE them, but I'm such a dork and have never gotten around to paying for the CD so the photographer can send it to me. I'm doing it this week. But she did post one of the photos of Thomas on her blog as a little preview for us, and I positively LOVE it. So I thought I would just throw it in the mix and add it to this post. I have such beautiful boys!



Even though I will be getting around to it ridiculously late, I can't wait to post the rest of our Hawaii family photos when I get the CD!