School

So I found out that I'm an alternate for school in fact I'm #10 on the list.  What does that mean?  It means if 10 people decide that they don't want to go to Westminster then I get to.  Sounds highly unlikely but the admission's guy, Andrew, told me they went through 20 alternates last year so I have a pretty good shot.  We'll know more come January/February because that is when other schools are letting people know if they got in.  So now all we can do is keep our fingers crossed and keep trying to bribe the admissions people. ha!

Christmas surprise

I've wanted Christmas lights on on our house since we moved in but for one reason or another it just never happened.  Well the other night I came home to this.

Rich found out our neighbor use to hang lights professionally so he came over and helped Rich put some lights up!  Best Christmas present ever!

1yr visit

Well Fin is 22 lbs 9.5 oz and 20 3/4 inches.  75% for weight and 70% for height. 80% for head circumference.  good news is new car seat bad news 5 vaccines:-/

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year we took the kids to the mall first which was great because finally started to understand the whole trick or treat thing.  then we did our neighborhood.  the kids got lots of candy and had a great time.  plus it was so cute to see them all dressed up.

Fin

So I think this picture sums up Finley's personality

Interview

Well the interview was today...so I get to the school and find where I'm suppose to be.  They have me a take a brief test over just some basic critical care stuff take my picture then I sit down and wait for everyone to arrive.  After what feels like forever they call me in and sit at this huge conference table across from four people, James the director of the program, Chris the assistant director, Kyle a faculty member and then Brianne and current student.  They each take their turn asking me questions about this and that, "tell us about a mistake, why do you want to come to Westminster."  I feel like I answered everything pretty good but then they asked about my experience and where I was at and James looks straight at me and says "so do you think you are ready for anesthesia school," in a tone that I perceived to be like "you really think you can do this? yeah right." 
So I'm not really sure how well the interview went I answered all the questions appropriately and I feel like I did as best I could but I think my lack of experience will in the end bite me in the butt.  We'll see though they won't make their final decision until December1st.  Dang intimidating interviews.

CRNA

So I have an interview for CRNA school next thursday the 27th!  Not only is this totally amazing becuase I wasn't sure I would even get an interview but the coolest part is because I got my application in early I will have interviewed before the actual application deadline of October 31st!  I really hope I get in it would be amazing... well it would be amazing once school is over, the whole school thing would totally suck but at least its only 2 years.  The best part is if Rich works at Westminster, which he plans on doing if I get in, tutition is free!  So yeah could be pretty cool.

"I did it!"

Dex pooped in the potty! I can't believe he actually did it and that we might actually be out of diapers soon. look how triumphant.

The fair

The fair was this last week. I can't believe it was here and gone so fast.  I didn't work at all this year I got to play with the kids.  They had two petting zoos that Dex loved, we went  a ton.

Tricycle

So Rich has had this tricycle since he was a kid.  Fin likes it too.

Nails

So check these nail stickers out! I think I'm totally addicted.

Shades

I made some shades for Finley's room.  It was pretty slick I found roman blinds on clearance at walmart then sewed the fabric I had picked out on top.  I love it!

Stand

So there we were getting Dex ready for his bath testing the water adding the bubbles.  I look over and what do I see? Finley has totally stood up and is just standing there holding the side of the tub.  I couldn't believe it!  I tried to get it on video but of course she wouldn't do it while I had my video ready.  I will capture it and then share.
What a big girl!

Nails

these are the coolest things I've found. They are sticker like and you just put them on your nails. very cool.

harvest

Well we wanted cucumbers!

NEW YORK!

My sister took me and my mom on a trip to New York!  It's been so fun so far not only because we are in the city that never sleeps but also because I'm with my family!  We've been able to see so many cool places we got here yesterday about noon and took a rickshaw around central park it was so fun.  My mom and sis where so excited they didn't sleep the night before so we turned in really early it was funny we were so tired we were in bed by 7pm New York time that equals 5pm Utah time.  Ha ha!

This is the view from our hotel we are only 3 blocks from Times Square.

This is the rick shaw!  The driver let me try it out to see how hard it was.  Talk about traffic.

John Lennon was shot outside a hotel here in NYC and this mosaic was infront of it.  Because there was so many visitors Yoko Ono moved to Central park.  Pretty cool.

Booth

So we got a new booth this year at the fair.  We went up to Idaho this last week to build it.  When I say we I really mean Rich look how awesome he is.  That's right Rich can weld, and not only that he is really good at it too.

So at this booth we are going to sell fried root beer, tornado potatoes, chicken fried bacon and inside out burgers.  It should do really good.  At least we keep hoping.

Dex loves being in Idaho his favorite thing to do there is to throw rocks in the water.  He could seriously spend hours doing this, and the bigger the rock the better.  I couldn't understand why he was enjoying this activity so much until we were doing it and he threw a rock in the water and said "hit the fish."  So apparently he thinks when he throws rocks in the water he is hitting fish.  What a crazy little boy

Teeth

The two bottom ones are here

Underwear

Potty training has been going very well....as long as Dex is naked from the waist down.  We tried putting on pullups but I think they felt too much like diapers.  So we took the leap and bought big boy pants, aka underwear.  He has only worn them once but he was very excited about the Pixar characters on them.  Look how cute they look on him.

New stroller

So I bought a new stroller off of ksl.  Only $50 for this baby, I can't believe I got it for so cheap.  It is a life saver its so much easier to go places with the kids and Dex loves the freedom if getting out whenever he wants.

Hair cut

Well we finally cut Dex's hair.  He looks so much older I can't believe what a difference it is. He still is do handsome.  It's funny we just found a bunch of old pics if Rich and it is amazing how much Dex looks like him.
My parents were out here last weekend.  It was fun we went to the zoo for the first time.  Dex loved seeing the animals, it was cold so not many animals were out so we'll definitely have to go again.

Fin

She is just cute!  We went to the Dr. and she is 17 lbs!  She is in the 75% for height and 85% for weight.  Go chunky monkey!

Baby fat

Good news is I've lost 30 lbs.  Bad news is I now weigh what I weighed when I was 9 months pregnant with Dex!  Hey at least its an improvement!

Dex

This boy is just cute.  He got an easter basket with pez and all he did was eat candy for hours!

New Grass

 So I got this great idea that we should work on the yard this week.  We've been wanting to do some changed and I thought Monday would be a great day to start.  I also thought that we would be finished on Monday as well... silly girl.  We've worked almost exclusively on the garden for the last three days in a row!  It has been so much work but here are the before and afters.

 These are going to be some awesome box gardens and they are super nice because they are 20 inches high so I won't kill my back this year as I try to garden!

As you notice before this was just a nasty garden area just covered in weeds.  We moved all the soil from here and put it in the new box gardens.  I feel like one sore muscle today but it was totally worth it because it is going to look so nice once it grows in.  The best part about it is Rich seeded the last spot last night and it started to rain!  Perfect timing.
On another note Finley had her 4 month appointment!  She is 25 inches and 14 pounds and doing just great.  The Dr. said she is unusually alert and engaging with people = social butterfly.  We started her on solids and she is pig!  Yesterday she ate half of a small sweet potato and last night she ate two big carrots.  And she'll sit in her chair and just yell at you until you feed her more.  Then she breastfeed about 3o mins later!  Good thing about all this food is she usually sleeps until 6 am.  So I get a full nights sleep!  LOVE IT.
Dex is being super cute with her and loves to go up and give her big hugs now.  He really likes babies now.  Yesterday as we were moving dirt he picked up a little clod and called it "baby dirt"  he is so stinkin cute. 

Bows!

So I found out my neighbor is into making bows for her daughter and she invited me over to make some with her.  I have to say I was not that great at it but they turned out good and they are so easy and fun.  She does all sorts of stuff she even made little ladybugs for Fin.  Look how cute they look!

Dex and I made some easter decorations to put on our door.  He loved gluing the eyes on the chicks and then he picked where they would be on the door.  He is such an artist.

April Fools!

Today was pretty fun I was determined to pull on prank on Rich.  The first thing I did was put kool-aid in the shower head.  I know not very creative but it was pay back for valentines day when he did it to me.  So he gets out of the shower and is laughing at me and my non-creativity when he goes to put on his pants on and can't get his leg through one of the legs.  I stapled his pant leg.  He laughed and I finally got the kudos I deserved.  Mission accomplished.
Today was also a great day because I found out I got a new job!  I had interviewed at Jordan Valley 2 weeks ago for this position and had not heard anything back so on a whim I called today and they offered me the position!  It's going to be so great not only is it 20 minutes closer to my house but I'll also be getting a 25% raise!  I'm stoked.  I gave my 2 weeks today, I can't wait to start!

website

So we're gonna get serious about potty training Dex and I found the most amazing website.  http://www.freepottycharts.com/Free_Potty_Charts/Welcome.html  It gives you free potty charts!  I hope this works.  Dex is so close some days he loves the potty other days he hates it.  He is so cute he grunts when pees then jumps off the potty and yells nice.  Hopefully he'll do it more often

Park

So biannually our neighborhood has a big trash day where you can lay out things that are too big for you garbage can and they come by with dump trucks to get rid of everything.  Well this is the perfect time to ride around the neighborhood and pick up things that other people have thrown out.  This year we scored, we got 5 outdoor chairs for our patio, a big wicker chair for our living room which isn't very nice to look at but sure is comfy, and best of all a bike. 
We are loving this bike and can't believe someone would just throw it away.  Its a mongoose which is just your wal-mart brand but we pumped up the tires and they hold air and then took it over to our friends house who is really into bikes and he tightened the spokes and it works perfectly now.  It's great because last year Rich's brother gave us a kid trailer for a bike, which at the time we had no idea what we would do with it.  Well now we can use it!
Its great we'll put Dex in the trailer and Fin in the car seat on the stroller.  Rich will bike with Dex and I Rollerblade and push Fin in the stroller while holding on to Blue.  We must look like quite the crew!  It's really fun we usually don't go far just to the park that is close to our house but it's been nice to get out and do something different.  Dex loves the trailer and Finley usually just falls asleep in the stroller.

Dex is getting so big I can't believe how big he is what he is able to do.  He is such a daredevil he loves to climb on things and jumps off anything and loves it.

He is so funny if you notice in this video he calls blue "come" in the video.  He knows Blue's name he knows what a dog is but he just prefers to call him "come."  What a booger.

Look how big he is getting.  I can't believe he can do this on his own!

Cuteness

 We went to Chucky Cheese the other day.  Dex had a lot of fun he played the spider squishing game and bowling was his favorite.  It was really cute.  He's started to just squeal when he is having a really good time.  We got the cutest picture from one of the games you can play there.

I love this picture a ton.

Here is one of Fin just being cute.

Clone

Not that Rich made a clone of himself but .... pretty close.

Time out

So Rich and I have been having trouble deciding when is the right time to discipline Dex.  We've felt that he has been to young to really understand discipline because he doesn't really understand what is considered normal conduct.  Well that all changed the other day.  I had Finley lying on the floor and I was folding clothes while Dex was playing.  For some reason he got the idea that he should walk up and kick her.  He didn't kick her hard but just enough to be an intentional kick.  So I said "no Dex we don't kick."  Well then the little booger looked me straight in the eye and kicked her again.  GAME TIME!  First of all I can't believe how angry that made me not only because he was kicking Fin but more so the fact that he openly defied me and challenged me to see what would happen.  So I grabbed him and put him in time out.  I think he was a little confused by it but also a little mad. 
Later we were playing on our bed and he started to do something ( I can't remember what it was now) and I told him "no."  So he proceeded to hit me!  Where did this come from?  So it was back to time out. 
Let the battle of the wills begin.  The funny thing is I think it's going to be harder on me than it is on him.  The good thing is he is very forgiving right now so we are still buddies.

Nutin much

Not much is happening around the Rasmussen household just same old stuff.  Finley had her 2 month appointment a few weeks ago and she is 22inches and weighs 11.45lbs.  What a fatty!  She is in the 75% for height and weight.  She is awesome and such an amazing baby.  The last couple nights she has been going to bed at 8pm.  She is so funny you'll just be holding her or something and she'll just start crying and not calm down until you go and tuck her into bed.  Dex was not even this easy.  She is still gettin up about every 3 hours but there has been some nights when she'll sleep until 3am.  We are seriously lucky!
Dex is awesome he is really trying to talk more.  He is saying more words and really just trying to talk all the time. He is so much fun.  He still doesn't like having a little sister sometimes but he is really good to her and even gets amuzed with her at times.

Trains!

So today at Thanksgiving Point they had a model train show.  We went because Dex is totally obsessed with trains.  He absolutely loved it we walked in there and I thought he head was going to fly off his body because he was looking around at all the different trains so fast.  It was so cute.  They had all sorts of trains from lego trains to Thomas the tank engine to big ones that even blew smoke as they sped by on their tracks.  Dex was in heaven
One thing we discovered about model train culture is there are a lot of societal outliers that love trains.  We actually sat next to one when we were resting on some chairs.  The first five minutes was filled will starring from her at Rich through coke bottle glasses.  She finally started to talk to Rich and it was all about trains and when the next show was gonna happen.  The whole time just staring...hard  It was really weird and awkward  but will be a memory we cherish. ha!
Here is a cute video of Dex if you turn up the volume you can here him make the train noise as it speeds by.

Work

Well the fantasy has ended, maternity leave is over and I'm back to work.  It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to stay up all night.  That is the part that kills me.  Otherwise I really like my job... most nights.
Poor Rich is home with the kids all alone which is a daunting task with a 2 year old that still gets up 2-3 times a night and newborn who does the same.  Needless to say the Rasmussens are very sleep deprived but loving our new family.  Life is very good but very busy.
Dex is starting to really like Finley he'll go up and hold her hand or touch her head.  Its really cute.  Finley seems to really like him too she always looking his way and turns her head towards him when he talks.  It's really cute I hope they are friends as they grow up.  Although I'm sure there will be some sort of beating at least once.

Update

Well it's been crazy with two kids.  I don't know how people do it alone.  I think if Rich and I weren't home together one of us would be going crazy right now.  Dex is a great big brother.  He hasn't really been that jealous and he's always trying to snuggle Fin, its really cute but scary because his snuggles usually are quite hard.  Fin is still a great baby she loves to sleep at night and is up during the day.  She is very alert and so sweet it's fun having a girl.  I'm excited to see what her personality is going to be like.  Dex is very into routine and structure she seems pretty laid back although last night she started freaking out about 9pm because she wanted to be snuggled in her chair in her room so she could go to bed.  Yeah I'm sleeping in the rocking chair we have in her room, partly because I fall asleep before she does so I don't get up to put her in bed and partly because I love the all night snuggles.  She's great though usually only get up twice a night.  That is better than Dex some nights, weird.  Other than that things are going really good just getting into the rhythm of 2 babinos. 
Christmas was good we didn't do Santa this year because we didn't think Dex would get it so it was pretty ordinary day except for the great food we cooked which was fun.  Rich and I cooked for the first time.  Usually its Rich and Ry but I got in there this year. Fun fun fun.