My Birthday!

Well, today is my birthday and I have some time to write an update. Right now I'm looking at Levi who is smiling and cooing at me--couldn't think of a better birthday present! Calvin is taking a good nap--probably the best birthday present he could give me.

This morning Trevor made fabulous whole-wheat buttermilk pancakes with a fresh strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry topping. Needless to say it was awesome!

Calvin, Levi, and I headed to the park this morning. The weather is beautiful outside! I think we might head to the park again for dinner tonight.

This has also been an emotional day for me because my Grandma Walker is not doing well and we expect her to pass away any moment. I was initially hoping she wouldn't pass away on my birthday, but at this point, I just want the Lord's will and for her to go when it's time. I am so grateful for the knowledge that death is not the end and I will see my Grandma again. I will certainly miss her, but I'm glad for the time I got to spend with her while going to BYU. I will treasure those memories always.

Well, Calvin woke up so I need to go. I'd better publish this before I get sidetracked. I'll post lots more pictures sooner than later.

Happy Friday!

So, it's true that you are MUCH busier with two kids than one (no surprise there). At least until they start playing with each other. It seems like once I get one child happy the other needs my attention. Either that or they want attention at the same time.

I am learning a lot about myself and how I really need to work on patience. It's funny how you think you are a patient person... until you have kids. They know how to exploit all your weaknesses and have them rise to the surface. That's how you improve, though, right? I've also learned to not pray for more patience, unless you are ready for things to just get worse. :0) Prayer does work, I can attest to that! I feel I have improved, but I have so much more to learn (about many things). I was thinking the other day about Heavenly Father and his countless children. I can't even fathom the amount of patience he has. I just have TWO children and I'm struggling sometimes. I guess you have to start somewhere. I really appreciate Elder Uchtdorf's talk on patience from last General Conference. It's one I reflect on often.

Okay, now for the pictures. :0)
Calvin loves stickers. His new thing is putting them ALL on his face. He makes me smile.

I don't know how he thought this position was comfortable, but he just decided to sit like this one day.



This was the cake I made for Calvin's 2nd birthday. Yes, it is not decorated cute. Yes, I feel guilty about it. Yes, I was just too busy to try and experiment with different recipes for frosting. I'm not a fan of frosting in the first place (unless it's cream cheese frosting) so I couldn't bring myself to putting tons of butter and sugar on a cake when I wouldn't even like the taste of it. Lame, I know. I just made a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting all from scratch. It sure tasted good at least. Much better than a cake mix I would have used if I had to take time to decorate it. Maybe this summer I'll try to redeem myself and decorate a cake.


More cute pictures...


I really love these next two pics:



Look at how much Levi has grown! He's in 3-6 month clothes and has been for almost a month. He's a big boy weighing 14 pounds at his two-month check-up (he's in the 90th percentile). Calvin was always in the 25th percentile until I started feeding him solids.
Here is a picture of when Levi just came home from the hospital for comparison:
Calvin looks a lot bigger as well! He went through a growth spurt recently and is now in 3T clothes.


Babies really are sweet when they sleep! Especially when they are holding a stuffed animal.

Yesterday we went on a walk to a duck pond. Calvin found some duck poo and enjoyed squishing it between his fingers. We promptly went home to give Calvin a bath. I'm just thankful he he didn't try to eat it. Oh the joys of raising boys. :0)

Sorry I didn't take pictures of the event. I figure everyone would understand.

Also, Calvin's favorite thing to say right now is "Wacka-wacka-wacka" (he loves the muppets and I think he learned that from Fozzie Bear). It cracks me up.

Levi's Baby Blessing and Calvin's 2nd Birthday Party

Well, I have a lot of pictures, so I decided to just do a slide show in Picasa. Let me know if you have trouble viewing it.



You can also view the pictures here: Click Me.

We had a great weekend last week! My parents and sister Kathryn flew into town and Trevor's parents came into town also. We had Levi's baby blessing on Sunday, and since everyone was in town, we decided to have a little birthday party for Calvin as well! On Friday, my parents, Kathryn, and us went to San Francisco to see Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge/Park, and Lombard Street. We had a great time! I'm also glad that we came home just in time to beat the rush hour traffic! :0) Calvin didn't get a nap that day, but he was still a pretty good sport and took a short nap in the car (he usually never sleeps in the car).

On Saturday, we met up with Trevor's parents as well and went to the park to have a picnic. Calvin loved having so much time to spend at the park! That evening, I made homemade mango, avocado, and tomato salsa and had chicken tacos with fruit salad. Calvin also opened presents, and we made homemade brownies and sang Happy Birthday to him. All-in-all I would say it was a successful night! I don't think Calvin could have had a better day.

On Sunday we had Levi's baby blessing at Church and Trevor gave a beautiful blessing to Levi. Levi also was a good sport and didn't cry even though he was awake the whole time!

I'm so glad we were able to spend time with family last weekend. It was tiring, but so worth it and I had so much fun. I know Calvin really had a good time as well getting so much attention from so many people. He loves his Nanas and Papas (Grandmas and Grandpas)! He still asks for Papa and he can point out both of them in pictures without any help from me.

You can also read a pretty good description of what happened this weekend from my sister's blog as well.

Happy Cinco de Mayo (yesterday...)

Hope everyone had a great Cinco de Mayo yesterday!

Trail to Work

I started riding to work again last week. Before Levi was born, between rain and wanting to be able to get home as fast as possible in case Lindsay went into labor, there was a month or so where I didn't ride to work. Add to that my parental leave and I was off my bike for around two months! It's been really nice being able to ride again. I have a beautiful commute to work!

I decided to take some pictures of what I get to see on my ride to work. Some of the pics show vegetation and some show the trail I ride on. Enjoy!

Click here to view a slideshow of the pictures!

How to spend $29k in two days

I should preface this by saying that fortunately we have health insurance through Trevor's job, so we didn't have to pay these exorbitant amounts.

I received my hospital bill from Levi's birth. I had a natural labor/delivery with no complications and only an IV of penicillin. I'll share just a few costs:

Labor Room (11 hours):	$4,180 (That's $6.33/minute)
Delivery Fee:	$5,985
Penicillin IV:	$536
Recovery Room (2 days):	$7,908
Nursery Room for Levi (2 nights):	$5,612
Total hospital bill for me:	$19,194
Total hospital bill for Levi:	$6,032

Add to that the Midwive's fee (separate from the delivery fee), pediatrician fees, and some other fees and you'll see how we racked up $29k pretty quick.

Well I certainly don't feel guilty anymore about taking a few extra packs of graham crackers for Calvin when I left the hospital...

I looked up Calvin's hospital bill from when he was born and the cost was about a fifth as much. I don't know if they charged so much because of our health insurance, health costs have gone up dramatically in two years, or because it's California.

I admit I don't understand everything about health insurance and health care costs, but it seems that the public is very disconnected from the cost of health care because of health insurance. I had no idea it would cost me this much until after I received the bill. Not once did anyone ever mention how much things would cost. One nurse prescribed a medication for me that I didn't even ask for and it cost $135. It's also crazy that the nursery cost $2,800/night. The nurses just said you can "feed on demand" if you wish. There's no way the sleep I got those two nights was worth that much money if I was paying it myself. It also frustrates me that I was charged $6.33/minute in labor/delivery and I waited an hour before the nurse finally started my IV (which had to be going for 4 hours before I was "supposed" to deliver).

I'll stop venting now, but if I ever had to pay for even a portion of a delivery in the future, I would have a home birth.

This little guy is worth the hospital cost if I had to pay it, but I would still opt for a home birth if I could. :0)