that one time Kenna got her wisdom teeth out

I feel like the second you start talking about wisdom teeth being removed, everyone has a story. There are just so many good wisdom teeth stories out there. You know, there was that one boy my Freshman year who got his out and his roommates parked him in the Helaman Halls lobby to entertain anybody who happened to be walking by with his rendition of the soldier boy dance. Then, my very good friend Erin who's mom loves to tell about driving Erin home after the procedure. Apparently, Erin had her eyes closed when she started to panic, yelling, "I'm blind, I'm blind!!" Once her mom reminded her that she just had her eyes closed, she opened them and was just fine. My own wisdom teeth removal was quite the emotional day. Apparently I cried. A lot. Pretty much all day... and I kept asking to see my once boyfriend but was then on a mission. Apparently I was a little inconsolable. See... wisdom teeth are good for something. They provide so many good stories for generations to come.

Last week, my own little sister got her wisdom teeth out and I was lucky enough to get to be her nurse for a couple of days. That meant Ryder man and I got to take her to her appointment, hang out in the waiting room for her to come out, and then drive her back to our house amidst her post-anesthesia craziness. For a little bit, it was even like I had 2 children to take care of. Trying to get Ryder man into his carseat while also getting a sobbing Kenna into the car took a little bit of juggling. Then I had to figure out how to drop off Kenna's prescription and get both of them down the stairs to our basement apartment without anybody falling. I tried to take Ryder man by himself and then come back for Kenna, but Ryder threw a fit that Kenna wasn't coming with us, so I ended up having to hold both of their hands down the stairs to get everyone inside.

At least the car ride home was full of laughs. Post anesthesia patients really are the best. After she stopped crying, she had a couple of hilarious comments about various topics that kept me laughing. On one corner she saw a man with no legs in a wheelchair. She started laughing hysterically and yelling, "he has no legs... that guy has no legs... what is he going to do?" Then when I told her that he was handicapped and in a wheelchair she got really sad and kept saying she was sorry. A few blocks from that conversation, she got really excited about all of the tractors in the construction zone we were driving through. She kept pointing them out to Ryder and making the accompanying sound effects. "Ryder... did you see that? Look, there's a tractor. A tractor! Woot Woot!". I was dying. And Ryder thought it was hilarious. Then, she gave me her philosophical opinion about life. "Alyse. You just need to do what you want to do. Don't let anybody tell you what to do. You just got to be like, You don't know me. I do what I want."

So thank you wisdom teeth. For the most part, you're a pain in the butt. But you do provide some good stories and for that I thank you.

Pregnancy this time around

This picture is from when I was 11 weeks along, but as of Thursday I will officially be 14 weeks and in the second trimester! Party. Turns out that the second pregnancy is a little different than the first time around. First of all, chasing around a 1 1/2 year old is brought to a whole new level when you don't feel like dragging yourself off the couch. Pregnancy updates thus far:

• The nausea is just starting to go away... it started around 6 weeks and was my constant companion for the first couple of weeks. Then, it seemed to just be the worse at night. Good and bad because that meant I had Chad home to help take care of Ryder man but also that I didn't feel like doing a single thing anytime that Chad was home. You can't always win.
• My pants are all snug but I haven't had to bust out the bella band or a rubber band yet. I guess that's one of the good things about it taking me a while to lose the weight from baby #1... I have pants in varying sizes to accomodate my new growing waistline.
• Depending on the shirt that I'm wearing, you may or may not be able to tell if I'm actually pregnant. Most of the time I just look chubby. Awesome.
• Been totally craving salty things and sour gummy candies. Mostly sour gummy worms. I just want to eat them all the time.
• Time seems to be passing so much faster. All of a sudden I can't believe we're already at the second trimester. With pregnancy #1 I think we just had so much time to think about it and wait, while this time the thought of having a baby AND Ryder just blows my mind a little and I think all the time we have left, the better.
• Having no impressions on whether the baby is a boy or a girl. Chad talks big that it is going to be a boy but I think it is just to cover up the fear that it might be a girl and then he might have to learn how to watch Princess movies and play tea party some day.

That's it so far. I'm also really bad at documenting this time around. I think that picture is the only one I've taken so far. I totally get why it may appear that second children don't have nearly as much of their life documented.

Hee Haw Farms

For family night this past week we ventured over to Hee Haw Farms for some Halloween festivities. We got to do it all... pony ride, saying hello to the farm animals, tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick our very own pumpkin, riding on the little tractor train. Ryder was in heaven. He's all about tractors all the time, so he loved that. But the farm animals were also a favorite, particularly the pigs and cows. When we were over at the cow pen, Ryder had his face up close and a cow walked over to us. It kind of freaked him out so he jumped into Chad's arms and then the cowed mooo'd very loudly. Ryder thought that was kind of the best thing ever. Hee Haw Farms for the win!

Conference Weekend

Conference weekend comes twice a year. April and October. It's a fun weekend, especially so this year that I had at least one of the days off for conference. I work every Saturday, so Ryder man and Chad got to spend that day together, but Sunday was the day we all got to be together. So we made pancakes for breakfast and tried to watch as much of actual conference as we could with the little cheeseball running around as a distraction. Hope everyone else had a good conference weekend too!

Meeting Baby Wesley

Our very good friends Mark and Laci Brandley had the most beautiful little boy last week named Wesley. We were so happy to go and visit the little one-day-old in the hospital. Well, at least I was. Ryder looked at the baby for about 3 seconds and then wanted to play trains with uncle Mark while also running to look out the window at the construction next door. We'll have to work on the whole "new baby" concept...

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Hello Fall. It's nice to see you again. Wanted to try this recipe from Annie's Eats since it involved all things fall... pumpkin with cream cheese filling and an oatmeal streusel topping. Yum. Ryder definitely approves. It's all he's wanted to eat since yesterday afternoon. So there you go.


Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Annie's Eats

For the filling: 
8 oz. cream cheese (reduced fat is fine), at room temperature
2 tbsp. honey

For the muffins: 
3 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
½ tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
1½ cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
½ cup vegetable or canola oil
¾ cup unsweetened applesauce

For the topping:* 
4 tbsp. white whole wheat flour
7 tbsp. old fashioned rolled oats
3 tbsp. turbinado (coarse) sugar
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
3 tbsp. cold butter, cut into pieces

Directions

• To make the filling, combine the cream cheese and honey in a bowl.  Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.  Transfer to a pastry bag.  Pipe into 24 equal dollops onto a parchment-covered baking sheet.  Freeze until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight.
• To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree, oil and applesauce. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.
• To make the topping, combine the flour, oats, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.
• To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons).  Place a dollop of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. (It may be hard to resist immediate consumption, but the cream cheese filling gets very hot!)
• *Topping is completely optional, and they are good both ways.  I think some chopped pecans or walnuts would also be very good mixed in with the topping.

Baby Bennett #2 !!

That's right. This little guy is going to be a big brother! We even have a picture of the new little peanut... growing on schedule and a strong heartbeat! The new little one is due on May 1st, 2014 and we could not be more excited!