Two Weeks Old

Well we've been a family of four for two weeks now, and we're still alive to tell about it! :) At Ivan's doctor's visit on Friday he weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces and was 21 inches long. So he is gaining weight and growing taller already.

So far the transition from 1 to 2 kids has been a lot easier than the transition from 0 to 1 was. I think there's a couple reasons for that. #1 When you have no kids you aren't used to having someone depend on you for every aspect of their survival, then all the sudden you have a child and BAM! 24/7 you are responsible for the welfare of this new little person and you aren't sure what to do, and your whole life is turned upside down, in a good way though. But when the second one comes along, you are already used to taking care of one, and so you just take care of the other as well. It's not such a shock to the system. #2 With your second child you have some perspective, which is really nice. For example, I know that eventually Ivan will sleep through the night, whereas with Lincoln I had no idea if the late night feedings were ever going to end or if I'd ever have another good night's sleep. Also, with Ivan I'm not so worried that everything I do with him (like bath him, or burp him, or shift his position on my arm, or change his clothes) will break him. Yes, he's still a newborn and you have to be careful, but no, he's not made of glass.

Lots of people have asked me how Lincoln likes having a little brother. The answer is kind of complicated. I think Lincoln likes Ivan as a baby. He's always trying to give him hugs and kisses and hand him toys or put the binkie in his mouth. But I think Lincoln isn't so happy about the fact that I have to spend a lot of time taking care of Ivan. Linc will act up when I'm feeding Ivan to try and get my attention. And whenever Ivan starts crying, Lincoln will run over to me and wrap his arms around my legs and say "up, up!". He wants me to pick him up instead of the baby. And it's a little challenging when they both need something at the same time. Like the other night I was feeding Ivan and it was getting to be past Lincoln's bed time and he still needed a bath and to be put to bed. It's hard trying to decide which child can wait while I take care of the other one.

Fortunately, I've had a lot of good help. For the first week my mom was here, and right now Aaron's mom is here. They have both been wonderful. They play with Lincoln, hold Ivan in the night so I can get some sleep, make meals, fold laundry, do dishes, and more. We have lots of great friends and family members as well who have brought us dinner, or offered to take Lincoln for a few hours. And of course Aaron has been amazing. He'll get up and change Ivan in the middle of the night so I can get a few more minutes of sleep before I have to feed him, and he's been really good to take Lincoln out of the house to play everyday so he can get out some of his cabin fever (it's been snowing all week, so we've been stuck inside, since Ivan is too little to be out in the cold). It's going to be a hard reality check when all the help is gone. (Well Aaron's not going anywhere :) but everyone else.)

The biggest relief so far has been the fact that Ivan nurses so well. When Lincoln was born he just wouldn't nurse, especially after my milk came in, and it was a huge emotional stressful drama, and I was convinced he was going to die because he wouldn't eat, and on and on. We ended up buying a breast pump and pumping and then feeding him with a bottle. But for some reason I felt so much pressure to breast feed and when it wasn't working out I felt like a failure. With Ivan, right out of the shoot he just started nursing, and he's been great at it since. I think it might have a little to do with the fact that I am a lot more relaxed about it this time. I realised that he won't die, and that pumping and supplementing with formula aren't the end of the world, and I think because the stress was gone, it made it easier to just relax and breast feed. So that's been really nice.

But ya, other than that not too much to report. We're just hanging out at home for awhile waiting for RSV season to go away, and getting used to our new little guy, and loving (almost) every minute of it.

"Welcome Brother Shark Bait"

It's taken me a little while to get this post together. I guess I don't have as much time on my hands at the moment as I did a few days ago :) but I'm ok with that. Anyways, our sweet little boy, Ivan Erastus Swan, came to join our family on Wednesday March 18th at 7:36pm, after 3 hours and 16 minutes of labor. I'll have to see who won the guessing game later. But I wanted to post some pictures and my journal entry of his birth story. So here it is, enjoy.

Saturday March 21 2009

Wednesday, March 18th at about 9:30am I had to call Aaron at work. No, it wasn’t the phone call saying I was in labor that he was expecting. While I was doing my hair, Lincoln had locked himself in our bedroom. Why the bedroom door of our apartment has a keyed lock on it (as opposed to one of those dinky bathroom ones with the hole you can stick a sucker stick through to unlock), I have no idea. Supposedly the bedroom lock is supposed to be able to be unlocked with our house key, but I could not for the life of me make it work. I tried everything I could think of to get the door open, including my credit card, and trying to talk Lincoln into unlocking the door. Nothing worked. I ran up to the apartment manager’s place, but they were not home. So, I gave Aaron a call. He agreed that we couldn’t just leave Lincoln locked in the bedroom for an indefinite amount of time until the landlord got home to help, so he came home. He tried all the things he could think of, and nothing worked. Eventually, after Lincoln had been locked in the room (luckily he was happy) for about an hour, Aaron decided that the only thing left to do was kick the door down. We made sure Lincoln was out of the way by using a mirror to look underneath the door. He was sitting in our office chair rocking back and forth. Then Aaron kicked the door down. Now we have a nice big hole in the door next to the door knob. But at least Lincoln was out. Then Aaron biked back to school.

I had a doctor’s appointment at 5:20pm that day, and I was really hoping it would be my last one. Aaron came home around 4:00pm from school. I was feeling kind of weird. Almost nauseous, and a little light-headed, so I was lying on the couch. I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that I was spotting a little bit. I decided to call the doctor and see if this was something to be worried about or if it could wait until my appointment in an hour. The nurse told me it was ok to wait. Right after that, at 4:20pm, I had my first contraction. It wasn’t painful, just uncomfortable. The next one didn’t come for 20 minutes, and the next one came in 17 minutes. We decided that they weren’t close enough together yet to take action and decided to go to my doctor’s appointment and see what they said. We did pack my hospital bag and Lincoln’s overnight back in the car with us when we went just in case.

While waiting at the doctor’s office, the contractions got closer and closer together, but still not anything to get really excited about. When Dr. Jacobs came in they were coming about 5 minutes apart, but they still weren’t as painful as I remember them being. He examined me and said I was dilated to a 6 and I was definitely in labor and we should head over to the hospital and get checked in.

We called my mom so she could be on her way down. We called Aunt Debby to meet us at the hospital so she could take Lincoln home with her. The whole time I was having contractions, but I was able to relax and handle them pretty well, so it wasn’t too bad being in the car. I was even able to hold Lincoln (he didn’t want Aaron to hold him for some reason) while we waited for Debby in the parking lot.

Once Lincoln and Debby drove off, Aaron and I walked into the hospital, went up the elevator and checked in. It was so much calmer than my entrance to the hospital to deliver Lincoln. Our nurse’s name was Heather, and she was so nice. I changed into my hospital gown and went over and laid down on the bed. She put the IV in and talked to me the whole time. She was very accepting and encouraging about us wanting to have the baby naturally (a lot of nurses and doctors are not). She was friendly and talkative between contractions and left us a lone to relax and do our thing when the contractions hit until they were finished.

Aaron was a wonderful coach. He would rub my feet when there wasn’t a contraction and then when I told him one was coming on, he would come up by my head and hold my hand and talk to me about relaxing and breathing. I think I did a lot better with the relaxation/breathing part this time. I didn’t feel so panicked every time a contraction came on, and I didn’t hyperventilate like I did when Lincoln was being born. Contractions stayed pretty steady at 3 minutes apart for about an hour or so. Then Dr. Jacobs came in around 7:20 pm and broke my water. He felt my tummy with his hands and estimated that he would probably be around the high 6 low 7 pound range. Smaller than Lincoln was. This sounded like good news to me.

All of the sudden things got really intense. The pain of the contractions went up about 5 notches, and the pressure of the baby beginning to come out was unbelievable. My resolve to have the baby naturally kind of caved at this point. I think because I didn’t know how much longer it was going to take and I didn’t know if I could do it with this much pain and pressure. I asked for the pain medicine that they can put in the IV. But Heather, Dr. Jacobs, and Aaron were wonderful, they told me that I was really almost there, that if they did the pain medicine now they would have to call in a respiratory team for the baby, and that they knew I could finish this. They were very encouraging, and I am grateful for that. So we went on with no pain medicine. And then I started pushing. For some reason I had it in my mind that the pushing part would be a lot easier this time. Well, I was very wrong.

Up until this point Heather and Dr. Jacobs had commented several times how calm I was and how I seemed to be handling the pain so well and they couldn’t believe I was doing so well. As soon as I started pushing, I’m sure they changed their minds. I probably would have been embarrassed actually, if I hadn’t been hurting so bad. But I felt all my calm and all my relaxation just melt away. I was whimpering and then when the contraction would hit and I felt the enormous urge to push, I would scream. Aaron said it was a lot louder than when I screamed delivering Lincoln. And afterwards my throat was pretty raw and dry. Pushing…how can I describe it this time? With Lincoln it felt like I was trying to poop out a cannon ball. This time it was so much different. You know those really thick plastic bags that hold candy and stuff? And they are so hard to rip open and once you use all the force to open them then all the candy comes bursting out and goes everywhere? I think it felt like I was one of those plastic bags and we were trying to rip me open to get the baby out. Lincoln came out in one push, and then it was over. Not this time. Dr. Jacobs would tell me when to push, Heather would walk me through it, saying not to scream but to use that energy and put it into the push, then she tell me to take a big breath, and then push and then breath…etc. She was very helpful in helping me to concentrate on what I was trying to do. Aaron, bless his heart, got to hold me hand. I’m surprised he has any of his hand left, I’m sure I squeezed so hard. And after each push he would tell me what he could see, the top of the babies head, the whole head, the shoulders, etc. That was very helpful to me because then I knew I was making progress. To me, not being able to see what was going on down there, it just felt like I would push and push and there was still so much pressure.

The funny thing about having a baby though, is that as soon as his shoulders were out, the pressure was gone, and the pain went down to a bearable level almost instantly. The rest of the babies body and the amniotic sack and all the rest of that stuff that comes out with it, just feels like a really slippery gooey thing sliding right out of you. I could see my baby, sort of, through the nurses that had taken him to weigh him. I found out then that I’d had an episiotomy, and apparently a pretty big one, since it required 6 stitches. (The one I got when I had Lincoln only required 2.) Maybe that would explain the ripping sensation.

But it didn’t matter any more. My little Ivan was here! He was born at 7:36pm, approximately 10 minutes after the doctor broke my water. Turns out he was a big guy. 8 pounds 2 ounces 20 inches long. They kept asking me where I’d been hiding him, they were so sure he was going to be small. He must’ve had as rough a time (or worse) coming out, as I had of getting him out, because his poor little face was once big purple bruise. He also had a little bit of a cone head. So at first glance he looked a little scary/alienish. But to me he was an adorable baby. He had tons of brown hair, and he peeked open his little blue eyes and looked right at me while I held him. And right away he nursed. I really didn’t have to coax him or anything, I just offered and he accepted and it went really well.

I would have liked to get more pictures, but our camera battery died. But we did manage to get a few first thing. I remember, I just kept looking at him and saying, “I did it, I did it!” over and over again. We got to have him for about an hour after he was born before the nurses took him to get him washed up. My mom came during that time, and so she got to hold him before he was even clean. Then they came to take him to get clean and they had Aaron go along with them to the nursery. They got me cleaned up and into my room.

It amazes me how much the Lord knows each one of us and exactly what we need. During the last month I’d been so stressed out about how things were going to go with this delivery as far as getting to the hospital. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get a hold of Aaron, or that for some reason we wouldn’t be able to get to the hospital on time. I worried that we wouldn’t have anyone to take Lincoln (even though we had about 40 different plans of what to do with him in all sorts of situations) or that my labor would be so fast that we wouldn’t have time to do anything, and on and on. And I prayed so many times that everything would work out. And it did. It turned out better than I could have planned it. Not only was Aaron home, but he didn’t have to miss any school or work to take me to the hospital. My labor was slow enough and mild enough that we were able to get Lincoln to Aunt Debby without any trouble. Also, I remember during labor praying that I would be able to do it and that when it got to the hard part I would have the confidence and strength to make it through. The Lord answered that prayer through other people. When I got weak and unsure of myself, I had an encouraging nurse, a smart doctor, and the most wonderful and loving husband a girl could ask for, sitting right there with me helping me get through the last stages. I am so grateful for my blessings and the Lord’s love for me.

Ivan had quite a few visitors during our stay at the hospital. Uncle Kelly came about an hour after he was born and brought Aaron and I chicken sandwiches and a chocolate milkshake from The Malt Shop. It was SOOO NICE to have real food for dinner instead of the hospital food. Then an hour or so later Uncle Ryan came by. He took some pictures of the three of us. We were really grateful for that too because our camera battery had died and we didn’t have very many pictures. The next day my mom and Lincoln came to see us. Lincoln was so cute. He came in the room and looked at me holding Ivan, and said, “Baby?” and I said, yes this is baby Ivan, come see him. Lincoln toddled around to the side of my bed and got a big grin on his face and pointed at Ivan and said, “My baby!” It was adorable. I had Linc come sit on the bed by me and he showed me that Ivan had toes and fingers and eyes and ears and hair and a nose. He pointed to all of them and said each one. I wish we would have gotten that on video it was so cute. Our good friends Danny and Suzy Park and their little boy Nathan came by around 6:00pm and brought us a pizza for dinner. It hit the perfect spot. It tasted SOOO GOOD! What can I say I really don’t like hospital food, and even if I did they don’t give you enough to keep a flee alive. I mean come on, I just had a baby, I’m starving for crying out loud! Mom and Lincoln also came back in the evening, and mom brought her camera so we got a few pictures of the boys together. Later in the evening Whitney and Kirk came to visit and brought us some delicious cookies and an awesome balloon that said It’s A Boy! on it. I thought that was great, no one had ever brought me a balloon for a special occasion before (ok maybe a birthday, but that doesn’t really count). Friday morning Bryan and Emily and Penelope came to visit while we were waiting to get checked out. Emily also brought her camera, and so we got some more darling pictures of Ivan. I was glad about that too, because his bruised face was starting to heal and he was getting cuter by the minute.

It took us forever to get checked out. The doctor had told us he’d be in between 9:00-10:00am but didn’t get there until about 2:00pm. We were really anxious to get home. It always feels so much better to be at your own home. We did finally manage to get home around 3:00pm. It was fun to be together as a little family of four. It’s still so hard to believe that Aaron and I are the parents of two little boys. It’s also amazing how much we love them both. Now I guess the real fun begins.

Time to Make Your Guesses

Ok folks, since I STILL haven't had this baby yet, we are going to play the same game we played with Lincoln. We're taking guesses. We want to know:

1. What day you think Ivan will be born

2. How much you think he will weigh

3. How long you think he will be

4. Number of hours you think I'll be in labor (just to clarify, that's from first contraction to birth).

Here's a little bit of information that may or may not help you make your guestimations. My due date is March 24th. I am currently dilated to 3 centimeters. Lincoln came 10 days early, weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces, and was 20 inches long. My labor with Lincoln was 2 and 1/2 hours start to finish. So there you go...your guess is as good as ours!

Book Review: The Phantom of the Opera

by Gaston Leroux

My review rating: 3 of 5 stars
I originally got this book for Aaron for Christmas, because he likes the movie so much, but he hasn't had time to read it, so I picked it up about two days ago. It's about 300 pages and an easy read, it probably took me 10 hours or less over the course of two days to read it.

It was a little different than the movie which I liked. It took a little longer for the love story to unfold, but they probaby had to scrunch it down in the movie to make it fit in a reasonable amount of time. It had mostly the same characters as the movie, with a few extra; the main one being the Persian. I really liked the role he played in the book. I thought it added a lot to the story. Also in the book you get a lot more background about the Phantom, which I also liked. And, at the end of the book, it explains how he managed to accomplish all his tricks, which I liked, because it made them more believable. In the movie I find myself disliking and pitying the Phantom. In the book I dislike him and pity him even more, probably because I learned a lot more about him.

I wasn't super fond of the way the author chose to narrate the book. He did it from his own point of view as if he had been researching the mysterious "Opera Ghost" and was publishing his findings. I felt like a third person omnitiant narrator would have been a lot better. I also didn't really like the charactors of Raoul and Christine that much. They seemed really flat to me. And of course, when reading a book you don't get to hear all the beautiful music the way you do in the movie, which I felt left the book a little lacking.

So, I think it's safe to say that this is the ONLY instance I can think of where I actually like the movie better than the book. However, I did enjoy reading the book, I thought it added a lot to the story, and I would recommend it. Good, clean fun!

Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars

I finally picked this book back up and reread it. (I as assigned to read it once for a class and never finished.) It's around 200 pages, and a very easy read. Only took me about 6 hours.

I thought the book was ok. It's set in the 1950's or so, against a back drop of the civil rights movement. It's about a white girl, Lily, whose mother died when she was 4. Her father isn't very nice to her, so she runs away with her nanny, a black woman who has recently gotten in trouble with the law while registering to vote, to a town she knew her mother had been to. The end up staying with 3 black sisters who keep bees. While staying there, Lily learns about her past, and about herself. This part of the book I liked. I think the emotional stages she goes through while finding herself are very realistic to what all of us go through at some point or another. So it's easy to relate to Lily in that way. I also liked the civil rights backdrop and thought it added a lot of interesting insight to the story and what it was like to be in the South at that time.

In the book, the black sisters have their own little church, in which they worship the Black Madonna (aka Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a black person). I've had a lot of people ask me if I think the book is sacrilegious because of this. My answer is no, I do not think that. Yes, the religion and its practices are very different from what I believe, but I don't think reading about this religion is any different than reading about any other religion that believes something different than what I do. I didn't think anything they portrayed was offensive or anything like that, just different. I did think that the author spent a lot of time on the religious part, which isn't a bad thing, but it was kind of boring for me. Which is why I only gave the book two stars. But all in all it was a good read. It has some foul language, and some potty language, but other than that pretty clean.

View all my reviews.

The Publicity Dilemma

I got this article off the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint's Newsroom website. I've never heard of the show Big Love before, but I liked what this article had to say about handling negative publicity about the Church in general. Anyways, read it and see for yourself what you think.


SALT LAKE CITY 9 March 2009 Like other large faith groups, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sometimes finds itself on the receiving end of attention from Hollywood or Broadway, television series or books, and the news media. Sometimes depictions of the Church and its people are quite accurate. Sometimes the images are false or play to stereotypes. Occasionally, they are in appallingly bad taste.
As Catholics, Jews and Muslims have known for centuries, such attention is inevitable once an institution or faith group reaches a size or prominence sufficient to attract notice. Yet Latter-day Saints – sometimes known as Mormons - still wonder whether and how they should respond when news or entertainment media insensitively trivialize or misrepresent sacred beliefs or practices.
Church members are about to face that question again. Before the first season of the HBO series Big Love aired more than two years ago, the show’s creators and HBO executives assured the Church that the series wouldn’t be about Mormons. However, Internet references to Big Love indicate that more and more Mormon themes are now being woven into the show and that the characters are often unsympathetic figures who come across as narrow and self-righteous. And according to TV Guide, it now seems the show’s writers are to depict what they understand to be sacred temple ceremonies.
Certainly Church members are offended when their most sacred practices are misrepresented or presented without context or understanding. Last week some Church members began e-mail chains calling for cancellations of subscriptions to AOL, which, like HBO, is owned by Time Warner. Certainly such a boycott by hundreds of thousands of computer-savvy Latter-day Saints could have an economic impact on the company. Individual Latter-day Saints have the right to take such actions if they choose.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an institution does not call for boycotts. Such a step would simply generate the kind of controversy that the media loves and in the end would increase audiences for the series. As Elder M. Russell Ballard and Elder Robert D. Hales of the Council of the Twelve Apostles have both said recently, when expressing themselves in the public arena, Latter-day Saints should conduct themselves with dignity and thoughtfulness.
Not only is this the model that Jesus Christ taught and demonstrated in his own life, but it also reflects the reality of the strength and maturity of Church members today. As someone recently said, “This isn’t 1830, and there aren’t just six of us anymore.” In other words, with a global membership of thirteen and a half million there is no need to feel defensive when the Church is moving forward so rapidly. The Church’s strength is in its faithful members in 170-plus countries, and there is no evidence that extreme misrepresentations in the media that appeal only to a narrow audience have any long-term negative effect on the Church.
Examples:
During the Mitt Romney election campaign for the presidency of the United States, commentator Lawrence O’Donnell hurled abuse at the Church in a television moment that became known among many Church members as “the O’Donnell rant.” Today, his statements are remembered only as a testament to intolerance and ignorance. They had no effect on the Church that can be measured.
When the comedy writers for South Park produced a gross portrayal of Church history, individual Church members no doubt felt uncomfortable. But once again it inflicted no perceptible or lasting damage to a church that is growing by at least a quarter of a million new members every year.
When an independent film company produced a grossly distorted version of the Mountain Meadows Massacre two years ago, the Church ignored it. Perhaps partly as a result of that refusal to engender the controversy that the producers hoped for, the movie flopped at the box office and lost millions.
In recent months, some gay activists have barraged the media with accusations about “hateful” attitudes of Latter-day Saints in supporting Proposition 8 in California, which maintained the traditional definition of marriage. They even organized a protest march around the Salt Lake Temple. Again, the Church has refused to be goaded into a Mormons versus gays battle and has simply stated its position in tones that are reasonable and respectful. Meanwhile, missionary work and Church members in California remain as robust and vibrant as ever, and support for the Church has come from many unexpected quarters — including some former critics and other churches.
Now comes another series of Big Love, and despite earlier assurances from HBO it once again blurs the distinctions between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the show’s fictional non-Mormon characters and their practices. Such things say much more about the insensitivities of writers, producers and TV executives than they say about Latter-day Saints.
If the Church allowed critics and opponents to choose the ground on which its battles are fought, it would risk being distracted from the focus and mission it has pursued successfully for nearly 180 years. Instead, the Church itself will determine its own course as it continues to preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

Crib Bedding

I did it! I finally, FINALLY, finished Lincoln's dust ruffle for his crib. It turned out pretty well I think. Here is a shot of the whole bed, so far, with his matching pillow case and fitted sheet. I still have to make the blanket that will take the place of the fish one he has in there now.

Here is the up-close-and-personal view of the dust ruffle.

On an angle.

Also, for FHE tonight we decided to start getting Ivan's room ready. We moved the computer desk out of the study (which will be Ivan's room) and into our bedroom, took the night stand out of our room and put it in Ivan's room. Then we took the changing table out of Lincoln's room and put it in Ivan's room, since Lincoln doesn't hold still enough to be changed on the changing table any more we figured Ivan would get more use out of it. Then there was a gaping hole in Lincoln's room where the changing table used to be, so we decided to rearrange Lincoln's room. This is a picture of how Lincoln's room turned out. His dresser is on the wall next to the crib, you just can't see it in this picture. The thing you can see, with all the books on top, is a book case, it's where the dresser used to be. Lincoln's room is the only one with a picture because it's the only one that's finished. Well, our room is I guess, but it was a mess :) and Ivan's room still has a lot of work before it will be ready for the little guy. But we made a start, and that's the important thing. Now the only dilemma I have is I'm not sure what to do with the rocking chair. I really want Lincoln's room to have a chair in it, because we read stories in there all the time, but I also really want a chair in Ivan's room because I get the feeling I'll be spending a lot of time in there during the late night hours and I'll want somewhere to sit. I keep telling Aaron I need to get a Papasan chair for one of the rooms (probably Lincoln's) but he doesn't believe me yet that it's a need and not a want. Guess I'll have to keep trying, eh? :)

"Family his-tor-y, I am doing it, my family his-tor-y"

I've mentioned before that Aaron is taking a Family History class at school this semester. We've both been really into it. I've been working on the Lemmon family line, mostly because most of the Lemmons I know are dead, and I don't know any of the living ones who are doing any family history, so I don't know if any has been done. Anyways, for an assignment Aaron had to spend 3 hours at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. I decided that I wanted to go with him. That's why we came to Hooper this weekend, because my mom and Kerry were kind enough to baby-sit Lincoln so that Aaron and I could go to Salt Lake together without the munchkin. Thanks Mom and Kerry!

We learned lots of cool stuff at the FHL. I know this sounds nerdy, but family history is so awesome. I would recommend it to anyone. It's especially awesome when you can find out stories about your ancestors, and they start to become real to you. That's what we did today. We found out some cool things about my great-great-great grandfather Washington Lemmon. That's his picture, by the way.

Cool thing #1, you probably noticed that his first name is Washington. Not a usual name. Well, he's named Washington because his father, James Lemmon, was a messenger boy for George Washington during the Revolutionary War, so he named his first son Washington, after George. Cool!

Washington Lemmon was the first one on the Lemmon side to join the church. Here is a story written by someone else that tells about his life. (Please ignore all the grammatical errors in the following story, I did my very best to leave it as it was originally, and it tried my patients.)

THE HISTORY OF WASHINGTON LEMMON
by Florence Lemmon Burningham

Among the pioneers who came to Utah and settled in Salt Lake Valley, there were few who lived so long and participated so actively in the work of building up the state as Washington Lemmon.
For almost a century he watched the United States grow from a small sparsely settled country, bounded on the East by the Atlantic Ocean and on the West by the Mississippi River, to become a large powerful nation that extended form the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the West and from Canada to Mexico.

He was born at Shelbyville, Shelby County, Kentucky, October 6, 1806 and lived there until 1812 when his father took his family and moved to Indiana. His mother died in Indiana. His father, having a family of small children to take care of, soon found himself another wife. He married Amy Rawlins, 2 April 1818 at Poali, Orange County, Indiana and later moved to Harrison County, Indiana.

Washington Lemmon married Tamer Stephens August 31, 1826, Harrison County, Indiana. They were both 19 years old. They were very poor. They had only half of a bake skillet to cook with. Their first two children were born at Croydon, Harrison County, Indiana.

In 1828 Washington’s father moved to Adams County, Illinois and perhaps he to his son or sent him word that this new country was a land of opportunity because in 1830 Washington took his family and moved to Adams County, Illinois. He acquired a farm near Quincy and worked hard to develop it into one of the best farms in that neighborhood. He lived there for twenty years and ten of his children were born there.

Washington Lemmon first heard the message of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from David Evans, the late bishop of Lehi, Utah County, Utah. His wife, Tamer, was baptized by Jacob Meyers, October 1840 and Washington was baptized by David Evans, March 1841. He became a personal friend of the prophet Joseph Smith and other leaders of the Church.
He was in the Church in the early days of its existence at Nauvoo, Illinois and in Missouri. He took part in those troublesome times, building up and developing the Church, strengthening its membership and aiding in the erection of buildings for its work. He was a carpenter and he helped build the Nauvoo temple.

In 1844, when the prophet Joseph Smith was killed, Washington was in Indiana preaching the gospel and campaigning for Joseph Smith to be the next president of the United States.
In 1850 he moved his family to Council Bluff, Iowa, where the headquarters of the Church was at that time, it being known as Winter Quarters. He spent two years there getting ready to make the trip across the plains.

Washington Lemmon and his family came to Utah in the Captain Jolly Company, which was one of the 21 companies of Mormon emigrants that crossed the plains in 1852. Each company having about 50 wagons. The Jolly Company had about 340 souls. They left the Missouri River June 11, 1852 and arrived in Salt Lake Valley September 10, 1852. They crossed the plains in covered wagons. The boys, Leander and Alfred, drove the cattle and when they arrived in Utah they said, “Their feet were so tough a prickly pear could not stick in them.” When they desired butter they would put the cream in the churn and the jarring of the wagon would churn the cream to butter.

Washington’s oldest son, James William Lemmon, came to Utah with the Mormon Batallion. His second son, John, came with the gold rush and went to California. After the family had been in Utah several years a man came to their place and wanted a place to sleep and something to eat. The family lived on the county road and they had that kind of request quite often. This night while they were eating the man said, “I am your son.” Tamer, his mother, went over to him and turned up his sleeve and there was a scar on his arm and his mother said, “Yes, you are my son John.” This was a pleasant surprise for the family.

The family settled on Dry Creek southeast of Sandy. In the Winter of 1853, Henry Bowden went out by Sandy looking for some of his cattle. A terrible snow storm came up and he lost his way. Washington Lemmon found him nearly froze and wandering around in the snow. He took him to his place and Henry always said, “If it had not been for Washington Lemmon he would have froze to death.” They became very good friends and both of them lived in Millcreek Ward.
The career which Washington made for himself marked him as one of the most qualified pioneers who came to Utah. He saw Utah grow from a wilderness to one of the most flourishing and prosperous places in the West. He aided in bringing agricultural resources up to the present standards.

The family moved to Millcreek (it is now 4338 Highland Drive) in the spring of 1853. Washington built his own hoe including all the doors and the windows and many pieces of furniture. It was a large farm which was used mostly for raising grain, alfalfa and a large fruit orchard. Many of the trees he budded and developed until he had most all kinds of fruit suitable to the Utah climate. He also had good gardens and all kinds of small fruit. He raised bees and sold honey. At different times he had herds of sheep, cattle and horses. He had flocks of chickens, geese, and turkeys, which all farmers had for their own use.

Washington was about six feet tall and weighed about two hundred pounds. He had brown hair, a high forehead, and blue eyes. He was tall and straight, a very good looking man. He never drank intoxicating drinks or used tobacco. He rode horse back after he was ninety years old.
He was a prominent worker in the Church of his choice and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of all the members who knew him. He was known as a man of integrity and up-righteousness. He was counselor to Bishop Miller of Millcreek Ward 1859-1882 when Bishop Rueben Miller died. He was ordained a High Priest the 26 March 1856 by David Pettegrew, Cottonwood organization of High Priests, Bishop Reuben Miller President. He was ordained a Patriarch 30 March 1884. He received his Patriarchal Blessing from Hyrum Smith (brother of the prophet) and was told he was of the tribe of Levi.

He died October 2, 1902 at the age of 96 years. The funeral service was held in the Mill Creek Ward house, Sunday October 5, 1902. The speakers were Apostle Hyrum M. Smith, Bishop J. C. Hamilton of Millcreek and U. G. Miller of Murray. The remains were interred in the Millcreek Cemetery. He was survived by nine children, forty-two grand children, sixty-six great grand children, and a number of great-great grand children, making five generations.

Sources of Information:
1. Biographical Record of Salt Lake Valley and Vicinity
2. Special Correspondence to Newspaper
3. Lemmon Family by Francis Marion Lemmon
4. Life of Washington by Mabel Lemmon

I thought that was pretty cool. Anyways, we had a great time at the Family History Library. I was amazed how fast 3 hours went by. I could literally spend years in there and still find new information. Impressive. I can't wait to go back!

Rodeo

We had big plans to spend the weekend in Hooper. Lincoln and I packed up everything we would need, and when Aaron got home from school we loaded it all in the car and headed out. This picture is of Lincoln "helping", I guess you could say he was supervising. Haha! On the way to Hooper we got a flat tire. :( Aaron pulled off the freeway into a gas station. I feel bad for him, he's probably never had as much car trouble in his whole pre-married life combined as he has since he's been married to me. What can I say, I'm a car trouble magnet. But he got the spare on pretty quickly and we were off again in no time.

My mom's friend had free tickets to the rodeo at Weber County Fair Grounds, and she invited my mom, Kerry, Tanner, Tanner's friend Raysh, and Aaron and Lincoln and I to go with her and her family. Niether Lincoln nor Aaron had ever been to a rodeo before. We had seats on the front row, it was awesome. It was also indoors, so it wasn't cold out, which we were really grateful for.

Lincoln loved all the animals and all the action. Every time a horse would ride by us he would say "horse! horse! hehehe! (that's his horse noise)" It was so funny. It was also really nice to have Kerry sitting next to us to explain all about the different events. I think we would have been a little lost with out him.

This video gives you a better idea of how close we were. My favorite events were the bare back and the saddle bronc riding, barrel riding, the muttin' bustin', and the chicken chase. I didn't really care too much for the cattle roping in all of it's various differentiations, I thought it was kind of boring.

For bare back and saddle bronc riding, the cowboy has to stay on a bucking horse for 8 seconds without falling off. For barrel racing, the cowgirl rides a horse as fast as she can around three barrels. Fastest time wins. In muttin' bustin', little kids (like not all that much older than Lincoln kids, up to probably like 10 yr old kids) sit on the back of a sheep and see how long they can stay on. The sheep don't buck or anything, but it's pretty funny to watch. I told Aaron we should sign Lincoln up in a few years, he didn't seem too keen on idea. :) And as for the chicken chase, well...you can see for yourself:

I don't know whose idea it was to stick a hundred kids under the age of 12 in an arena and have them chase 6 chickens around, but what a hoot! We laughed hysterically the entire time. No, we didn't send Lincoln out there, although I thought Aaron should have taken him down, but maybe when he's a little older.

Here's Tanner's friend Raysh, with his chicken. Yup, the prize for catching the chicken, was in fact that chicken itself. I thought that was really funny. Lincoln liked the chicken. Raysh gave him on of the feathers and Lincoln held on to it all night. Needless to say, my mom was very happy that is was Raysh and not Tanner who caught the chicken.

Anyways, a good time was had by all. Thanks Carrols for the fun evening!

Tryin' Out The Trike

Today the weather was beautiful! It was even warm enough to wear just T-shirts. Lincoln and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take the trike he got from G & G Swan for Christmas for a real test drive. He's been riding it in the living room since we got back from Christmas Break, but he gets frustrated because he can only ride it from our couch until he runs into the cabinet under the kitchen sink, and then he can't figure out how to turn it around. I thought it would be great to take it outside today and see what he could really do on it where there was a little more space. We have a church about a half block south of us across the street and I thought the parking lot would be the perfect place. So, I got Linc on his trike (I let him ride it on the sidewalk while I walked next to him, I figured it saved me from having to carry him, or the trike, or both) and away we went.

Wow. It took us FOR-E-VER to get there. I had no idea how slow a toddler on a trike could go. Especially since he doesn't quite grasp the concept of sitting on the seat yet, he just walks with the bar in between his legs. It's kind of funny actually. Anyways, it wasn't a big deal that it took so long. We really weren't in any kind of a hurry, and it was so nice out, and Lincoln was having a blast just riding straight on the sidewalk and stopping to look at the cars driving by, and the cracks in the sidewalk, and a stray pebble, and...you name it, and he stopped to look at it. But it was actually pretty nice not hurrying him along, but just letting him do his thing.

He was enjoying himself so much that he cried, and threw a little tantrum when I made him get off and hold my hand to cross the busy street. But he got over it as soon as we got to the other side, so all was well.

Like I said, I thought the church parking lot would be a good place for him to ride. This particular church parking lot, however, has entrances on three different streets, and as we were coming up on it, I noticed that the locals were using the parking lot as a short cut so as to miss the school zone and the crossing guard, that was on one of the streets. People were seriously cruising through the parking lot at 30 MPH. Which, ok, doesn't sound that fast, but they'd come whipping around the side of the church with no way of knowing if there was a little kid riding his tricycle just out of site. I decided that it wasn't going to be my little kid on his trike that they couldn't see. We kept to the sidewalks.

Lincoln had a great time anyways, and probably didn't even know that we'd changed plans. I taught him how to put his feet up on the front part of the trike so I could push him fast. He thought that was great, but we had to cut that one short, because he couldn't get the hang of steering while I was pushing him, and we went into the grass a few times. He also saw a bee, for the first time in real life (he has a book that has a picture of one, so that's how he knows what it is) and he got really excited about that. I had to try really hard to convince him that he didn't want to touch it. Everything was saw after that was a "bee!" whether is was a fly, or a pebble, or just an off-colored spot in the sidewalk.

After about an hour we headed for home. A few of the neighbors and their kids were sitting outside in the lawn enjoying the sunshine. Since I don't know anyone in our complex very well, I decided that we would sit out there too, and Lincoln could play some more and I would try and get to know people a little bit better. Lincoln opted to mostly watch the other kids play, instead of playing with them, which I thought was kind of odd, but I figure he'll grow out of that eventually. It was fun, and we had a nice time.

Happy B-day to Me, I Turned 23

Today was my 23rd birthday. It doesn't feel much different to be 23, but we sure had a fun day today anyway. Aaron got up with Lincoln and let me sleep in this morning. He also let me take a shower first without complaining that I took most all the hot water. (We only get enough hot water at a time to have 1 and 1/2 showers, so whoever showers second gets iced. We usually only have to deal with this on Sunday though because we are hurrying to get ready for church so we can't wait for the water heater to heat another tank.) He also got Lincoln ready for church. What a guy! Lincoln was good at church for the most part, and he stayed happily in nursery, can't ask for a better birthday present from him than that. After church Aaron put Lincoln down for a nap, and let me take a nap, while he made me this awesome birthday sign you see above. It says Happy Birthday and all of the letters have a fun memory of our family and a picture to go with the appropriate letter. If you click on the picture it will get bigger and you'll be able to see the sign better. So cute.

Since being in the car for a long time makes me feel yucky and hurts my back these days, and since we celebrated with my family yesterday, we opted not to go to Hooper. Instead, Aaron's Aunt Debby and Uncle Richard invited us over to their house for dinner. Aaron's brothers Kelly and Ryan came too. It was a regular party. Aunt Debby made delicious everything, that included roast beef, salmon (for Ryan who is a vegetarian), salad, biscuits, and potatoes. All of it was very good. For dessert we had my favorite, German Chocolate Microwavable Bunt Cake. You make the cake in the microwave, it only takes 15 minutes, it comes out warm and gooey and delicious. I wouldn't want anything else on my birthday. The picture above is of me blowing out my candle. It's the only picture I have of the party, which just goes to show why you should never leave your husband in charge of taking the pictures. ;) After cake and ice cream we opened presents! Uncle Richard and Aunt Debby got me a really cute picture frame. They know how crazy I am about pictures. Aaron's mom and dad got me a hair straightener which I really really wanted because only half of my old one gets hot. Kelly got me a Paul Cardall CD, which is acoustic guitar and piano. It's awesome, and very soothing. I can't wait to listen to the whole thing. Aaron got me some winter boots, which I've been wearing since Christmas time. Nothing like an early birthday present. :) Thank you everyone for the great presents, cards, and birthday wishes. You made me feel special.

After going home and getting Lincoln in bed, Aaron and I had big plans. It never ceases to amaze me what you can do with a couple bottles of paint, a creative genius husband, and a little bit of imagination.

When Lincoln was a tummy in Arizona we painted my tummy to look like a basketball. It looked really good, almost realistic. In fact some people couldn't tell the difference at first when we showed them the pictures. (If you want to see a picture of the basketball belly, watch the slide show on the sidebar titled "Family History" it's in there somewhere.) We decided then, that we'd have to paint my belly every pregnancy just to be fair.

Since day one we've been calling this baby Shark Bait, so it only seemed natural that we should try to paint Finding Nemo on my tummy. The first step was finding a good model to look of off. We watched lots of different scenes in the movie until we found one where Nemo was in a position that we liked. Then we had to figure out all the colors we were going to need. Don't worry, we used non-toxic finger paint, so it won't hurt either me or the baby.

First Aaron painted my tummy all blue. We joked that I could join Blue Man Group. Then he added some white in with the blue to make the water seem more realistic. The paint was really cold at first, and I jumped every time he touched my tummy with it. We had to wait a little while for the blue to dry. It took too long, so we got out the blow dryer and that sped up the process and warmed me up all at the same time.

Next it was time to do Nemo. Aaron started with the orange. After going to the dinosaur museum yesterday, I thought the orange outline looked like a little fish fossil. Then came the white. We took a picture after every step because I couldn't see what it looked like. It's kind of funny not to be able to see your own tummy. Once Aaron put in the black lines, I thought it look a lot better, like an actual fish.

It was really hard to get this picture of Aaron painting my tummy. I probably took 10 different shots, but I was having a rough time getting Aaron's face, and my tummy both in the shot. I ended up with lots of pictures of Aaron's elbow, or with Aaron's head cut off.

In the beginning we were going to try to have Aaron paint it like Nemo was in a fish bowl, but we decided that would be pretty difficult to make look right, because you can see through a fish bowl. So we opted just to do an ocean scene. I think it was a good idea that we did. Aaron used the lid of an ice cream bucket as his pallet, and to paint he used a combination of paint brushes and his fingers. It just helps to show his child within, it doesn't take much to convince him to finger paint! :)

After the Nemo fish was painted, it was time for the plants and surrounding background. Aaron did seaweed in green, but only on the sides at first. He also painted some red plants that are supposed to be those spongy looking ones. I think they turned out great and add some good color.

We thought about calling it finished after that, but Nemo looked to centered and posed. We knew it needed something else. We thought about adding more fish, but we didn't want to detract from the Nemo fish, and since this is supposed to be an artistic representation of Ivan, and there is only one Ivan inside my tummy, we thought it best to only have the one fish. Aaron added some more seaweed instead, and it was just the touch this painting needed. I think it turned out really well. We were excited. I have no idea what we'll do to outdo ourselves when the next pregnancy rolls around, but we still have a long time before we have to worry about that.

Here are a few more pictures of the finished product.

Don't you think you can almost image a little piece of ocean right in the middle of my body? Sometimes it definitely feels like a fish is swimming around in there.

This is my fish face. I realize that it's not an attractive picture, but I wasn't really going for attractive anyways. Haha! I love it.

And one more. We had a lot of fun doing this. I know we're weird, but it's ok. Maybe we'll inspire others to get creative as well. I mean, if you have to have the belly, you might as well have fun with it right?