The Gladdens

How to starch a white shirt

2011-07-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

Usually I would call my mom to share such random thoughts, but she isn't answering her phone tonight and Ryan is out playing basketball. So I've decided to turn to my blog.

After 2 years of Ryan being in law school, I may have just found the biggest con of having a lawyer husband... They need a freshly ironed white shirt EVERY day!!! I've never enjoyed ironing and we rarely do it in our house. Ryan has a really annoying habit of using the dryer as an iron(and a closet). He does a load of laundry with all his shirts, then leaves them in the dryer. When he needs a clean shirt, he just turns the dryer on for a few minutes until they are all wrinkle-free. This using the dryer instead of an iron thing has rubbed off on me. It's so much easier and quicker.

So Ryan has been in Washington DC for an internship the past 9 weeks, and just came home to start another internship here. He's done all the ironing so far. Tonight I decided I'd do him a favor and have his shirt all ironed and ready to go for tomorrow. When I saw the can of starch sitting on the ironing board, I started having second thoughts..I had no clue what to do with the starch! The only time I've ever used it is when I was making a quilt. I tried calling my mom to ask, but noone answered. I wasn't sure if the starch went on the whole shirt or just the collar, or how much to use. So I lightly coated the whole shirt, all the time wondering why white shirts needed to be stiff anyway. It wasn't until I was finished that I thought to google "how to starch a white shirt". I didn't see anything too useful, but I did learn that starch helps to keep a shirt from getting wrinkled so quickly.(according to ask.com)

So back to the con of Ryan being a lawyer.. I do NOT want to be ironing white shirts the rest of my life!!! Once was more than enough! And I have a feeling that it will probably become part of my wifely duties at some point(assuming I passed tonight). I guess all I can hope for is that Ryan will become less picky about his shirts and we can start using the dryer technique for white shirts as well! : )

The end.

Basement Required

2011-05-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

Tornadoes have been occupying my thoughts constantly for the past 2 days.. There is a constant stream of pictures, videos, posts, news articles, etc being uploaded to facebook every few seconds about the Joplin tornado. I just now came across a first person video of a guy that was huddled with a group of people inside a gas station when the tornado hit. The power must have been out because it was dark, but you hear everyone talking until it hits, then the glass shattering, people screaming, and kids crying. It seriously made me sick to listen to it. I cannot imagine how horrible it would be to go through that. And can't believe how much destruction one storm can bring. I don't even recognize the city! A few people that I know lost their homes.. what in the world do you do if your house and all belongings are gone in an instant? I've always been terrified of tornadoes, but even more so since this one hit so close to home! So what I've decided is that when Ryan and I go to buy a house in a year or so, a basement is a must!!! And if I find the most perfect, cute little house with no basement, I'm gonna have to come back to this post and remind myself of my feelings. : )
While I'm on the topic of tornadoes.. I've got my own personal tornado in the form of a little girl named Lexi. She seriously destroys our house. Yesterday was especially bad. I've been on the computer alot reading about the tornado, so I've haven't been giving Lexi as much attention as she wants, and maybe that's the problem. Anyway, I had been sitting at the computer for about 5 minutes when I realized Lexi was completely silent. She is ONLY silent when she's doing something she knows she will get in trouble for. I went in to find Lexi with a jar of my canned butter. She had gotten it off the kitchen counter and took it in the family room to her play kitchen. She did a real good job buttering a piece of her play toast and other kitchen items. It wouldn't have been so bad if she wouldn't have buttered the carpet as well!! Her clothes and arms were completly covered. I didn't think there was any chance I'd get it all out. Anyway, I put her in her room for a while so I could start on the clean-up without her making it worse. While I was working on that, I heard her banging on her door and yelling "poop". I ran in there to find she had taken off her pull-up and peed on the carpet. UGH! Got all that cleaned up.. well semi-cleaned up because I don't think the carpet will ever be the same after all that butter. About an hour later Lexi drew on my new quilt with her crayon. I don't think I was the best mother ever yesterday.. Probably yelled WAY too much!

Here's a picture I took of the butter incident. I had already cleaned up Lexi and part of it before I thought to get the camera.

The end.

Kiddo stats

2011-02-07T17:44:00.000-08:00

Lexi and Carter both had doctor appointments today which was quite an ordeal so I'm SO glad Ryan is able to come with me. I definitely couldn't manage by myself. They both had to get shots today and I've decided Lexi is at the worst age for shots because she's old enough to know what is going on, but too young to understand why. It's just too much for my little heart to take. Carter seems to have some sort of heart murmur so we have to take him to a cardiologist next week to get checked out. The doctor said she hears a clicking noise. Hopefully it won't be anything to worry about! Anyway, here are their stats and a few pictures..

Lexi-18 months
Height- 33 inches - 90th percentile
Weight- 22 lbs 4 oz - 25th percentile

Carter - 1 month
Height- 24 inches - 97th percentile
Weight - 12 lbs 6 oz - 97th percentile

2 Weeks!

2011-01-20T08:58:00.000-08:00

Time is flying by! I know 2 weeks isn't really that long, but it's just that it feels like it was yesterday that we brought Carter home from the hospital. Why can't they stay little for longer?
He is the sweetest little boy! We thought Lexi was a really good baby, but I think Carter is better. He hardly ever cries except when he's hungry or during a diaper change. After I feed him, I can lay him down in the crib or bouncer, and he won't make a peep until 3 hours later when it's time to eat again, whether he's asleep or not. He is starting to be awake for a little longer each day- it's nice to see his eyes! I think they are a dark blue, but I've heard all babies have blue eyes at first. He is sleeping pretty well at night. Sometimes he still wakes up every 3 hours, but has started giving me 5-6 hour stretches.
Lexi has finally decided to start giving Carter some attention. She loves to hold him, give him kisses, and put his pacifier in and out. Today she even shared her dolly with him. I think she will be a great big sister if she can just learn to be careful with him. The other day we came home from the doctor and I had Carter in his car seat on the couch. She was upset about something and came over and tried to knock him off onto the floor. And after she holds him for a few seconds she tries to just push him off her. Hopefully she will learn soon!

All About Carter

2011-01-12T17:53:00.000-08:00

Carter was born Wednesday, January 5th at 9:25pm. I was scheduled to be induced on the 6th at 39 weeks to try and prevent such a big baby and the damage that comes with it, but after an extremely rough cervix check at the doctors office, I went into labor early. Even though he was more than a week early, he still weighed in at 8 lbs 11 oz and 22 in. long. Here are some pictures for those who have been asking to see more..

My little angel?

2010-10-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

My little sweetie pie sure is having a lot of un-angelic moments lately!! Today especially I'm not too happy with her. For the past month I've been trying to get my mom a copy of our family picture we just had taken. After like the 4th trip to JC Penny today I finally picked it up and got home with it. In the 20 seconds or less that I ran to the bathroom and back, Lexi managed to pull the envelope off the kitchen table, take the picture out of the envelope, smear her greasy french fry fingers all over it and put 2 bends down the middle of our faces.:( What a stinker!! The only thing that kept me from getting too mad is that she had the biggest smile on her face and seemed so proud of herself that she got a hold of it! I don't know what I'm going to do when she ruins more than just a 15 dollar picture. I'm sure it's going to happen over and over. Oh boy...

Last night I let Lexi go play in her room for a minute before I was going to put her to bed. I walked in about a minute later to find her here..

I guess she just really wanted to brush her teeth again. I had just done it 5 minutes earlier! I don't know how she thought she was going to get down from there!! I grabbed my camera to take a few pictures, then put her in bed. I heard a bunch of noise in her room so went in to find out what was going on and found her sitting on top of the changing table again in the dark! I'm not sure what to do about it. Do I try and teach her how to get down from it or move the changing table into the closet for a while?? I'm afraid she could really get hurt if she fell off it.

Anyway, here we have Lexi raiding my candy dish..

And here she is in one of her new favorite places to play..

And here she is just being cute : )

Lexi's bigger girl bed

2010-09-30T06:09:00.001-07:00

A few days ago I went to go get Lexi out of her crib in the morning when I heard she was up and was quite surprised to find her standing at the door! She has been climbing on everything lately so I figured it wouldn't be too much longer before she learned how to climb out of the crib. We were planning on getting a toddler bed in the next couple months with the baby coming so we went ahead and bought it. Last night was our first time trying it out. I really had no idea how Lexi would do with it..I thought i'd have to put her back in bed a billion times and that it'd end with her in the crib. But she did pretty well. We put her in there and she immediately got up and started playing with her toys. She didn't seem to mind at all that she was in there by herself with the door shut and lights off. I just left her in there to play for about 10 minutes before I'd go in again and put her back in bed. After an hour she finally got so tired that she stayed in bed and fell asleep! I'm hoping it will get a little easier each night.

August

2010-09-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

Lexi turned 1 on August 8th. She has grown up so much and is learning new things all the time. I feel like she is my little friend now instead of a baby. She follows me everywhere and is interested in anything I am doing. She learned to give hugs and kisses this month and we LOVE it! Kendi wants me to make sure I give her credit for teaching Lexi how to give kisses and she even taught her to make the "Mmmah" sound. She has a few bunnies that she's just started being interested in. One of her bunnies sits on a bookshelf right next to her crib, and every time I get her out in the morning or after a nap, the bunny is with her in the crib. It's really cute but I'm worried she might get too attached to it, so sometimes I put it away for a while. Here are some pics and videos of her giving the bunnies hugs and kisses..
This is one I've had up on a shelf since she was born but never thought to let her play with it before. Now every time we go in her room she points up at it and wants me to get it down.

And here are some pics from her birthday..
Lexi has always loved to play by the fireplace, but now she actually gets inside. I try really hard to keep her out since she gets dirty and black everytime, but she's fast!
Stealing my gum.. I can't keep it hidden in the diaper bag well enough- she always finds it and I always find half-eaten pieces!

We made our first tent!

Lexi got a puzzle for her birthday and I was really surprised when she figured out how to put all the pieces in. She claps for herself and says Yay after she gets each piece in.

Me and Lexi were at Babies R Us yeterday and Lexi had pulled all the cards out of my wallet like usual. When we were checking out, she held out a card for the lady. When the lady was about to take it, Lexi pulled it back really fast, shook her head no and laughed. I think Ryan taught this to her. She started doing it about a week ago when she was feeding me cheerios, and now does it all the time. It's really cute and I wish I could get it on video, but she gets too distracted by the camera and won't perform like I want her to!

There's a Mr. in my tummy!

2010-08-24T06:54:00.000-07:00

I just had my second ultrasound yesterday and found out we are having a boy! Even though I've had the feeling it was a boy, I went to the appointment really hoping for another girl. I thought with these 2 being only 17 months apart, it would be nice for them to be the same sex so they could hopefully be good friends. And the thought of not being able to buy cute dresses and make more bows was really depressing! But I couldn't help smiling when the ultrasound lady announced it was a boy and when I first saw his cute little face! I am SO excited to have another baby-way more excited this time than I was with Lexi since I know how wonderful it is and it's not so new and wierd. I will be 20 weeks in a couple days and can't believe how fast it's flying by. I don't really feel pregnant yet and even forget sometimes. I went shopping yesterday and got the baby's bedding(which I picked out before I was even pregnant in anticipation of another baby :) and a few outfits. I'm a little overwhelmed at the thought of everything that needs to be bought all over again!! Anyway, here are a few pics from my ultrasound yesterday..

Colorado

2010-07-31T13:01:00.000-07:00

Lexi and I flew to Colorado to go to our Chapman family reunion for a week. It was great to see family that I hadn't seen in 4 years, and see how much everyone had grown up! We stayed in some condos in Steamboat Springs, CO. It was beautiful there and nice weather for the most part. Here we have Grandma Chapman letting Lexi try out some whipping cream..

Human battleship.. I guess Grandpa didn't want Lexi to feel left out during the games, so there they are just waiting to get hit.

Rollercoaster ride..

How many skittles can you hold in your mouth contest..

Alpine slide. I'm getting to be a chicken in my old age and probably went about as slow as you can possibly go!

Hike #1 up to some waterfall. I forget the name..

Same hike, but the next day with all the fam.

We took a break after our 1/2 mile hike down by the creek. Dad and Chanda got into a water war throwing in the biggest boulders they could lift to splash each other. I'm not sure who started it or who won but I'm pretty sure Dad was the most wet at the end. : )

Splish Splash

2010-07-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

What is it that kids like so much about being outside? I swear Lexi could be out there all day long and not get bored. I don't ever want to take her out right now because it's too hot, but we ventured out today. Grandma made a nice puddle for Lexi to play in on the driveway, but she was much more interested in the hose! She sprayed her face more than anything else, but just kept on going.

Yuck!

2010-06-19T10:33:00.001-07:00

Lexi came across a bar of soap and wasn't nearly as disgusted by it as I would have thought. The only thing that bothered her was that it kept slipping out of her hands once her slobber wet it down and she had a hard time getting it back in her mouth!

New tricks.

2010-06-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

Per moms request, here is a video of Lexi waving. We have been trying to get her to do it for a long time, but she just barely started waving back to us last night.

Lexi has learned a couple other new tricks..some good some not so good. I gave her some lunch yesterday and left the room for a little bit. When I came back this is what I found... An empty tray!! I was so proud of her for eating all that I had given her and that it didn't take too long to eat it. But then I looked down at the floor.. I didn't think kids were supposed to learn this trick for quite a while! What a little stinker. She's also learned how to entertain herself with peekaboo. She'll hold anything in front of her face and walk around thinking it's so funny. Her favorite thing to use is her clothes.

Scary!!

2010-06-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Lexi had her first real bloody accident last Sunday. There was a time when Lexi was first born that Ryan cut a little hole in her finger with the clippers and we had a hard time getting it to stop bleeding, but this was much worse. Lexi was being too loud and wiggly during relief society on Sunday so we went out to walk down the halls. There were some nursery toys in the hallway that I couldn't get Lexi away from. I kept pulling on her hand to get her to walk with me but she would just sit her little bum down on the floor like she does when she doesn't want us to move her. So i picked her up and took her WAY down the hallway so she'd hopefully forget about the toys. When i set her down, she turned right around and started walking a little too fast towards them. I'm not sure if she lost her balance or tripped, but she fell flat on her face. I went and picked her up and it took her a few seconds to finally breathe and cry, but she stopped after a minute. Then I noticed large amounts of blood coming out her mouth. I took her paci out and it was covered with blood as well as my hand. I started freaking out.. I just stood there in the hallway for a minute trying to figure out what might be bleeding and what to do.. I'm definitely NOT good with blood!! Anyway, we hurried to the bathroom and there was a lady who saw the blood and came into the bathroom with me and got her face all cleaned off. It took a while to figure out what was bleeding to get it to stop.. I'm still not exactly sure what happened but it looks like she must have hit her tooth because it was red and bruised looking on her gum around the front tooth and then it also looks like she ripped a little bit of that flap thing that connects your top lip to your gum. Not fun! I had to feed her soft foods for a little bit, but she seems to be doing fine now. We are hoping her tooth doesn't die and turn an ugly color! I definitely can do without anymore accidents for a while. I wish there was some way to protect kids from getting hurt. It makes me SO sad!!! Oh, and FYI.. hydrogen peroxide works AMAZING on blood stains! I had never heard of that until now, but it was so quick and easy.

Lexi's story of the purple block

2010-06-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

Lexi has started jabbering nonstop. Most of the time I enjoy it and think it's cute. Especially when I talk to her and she looks at me very intently like she knows exactly what I'm saying and then starts "talking" back to me. Other times however, like yesterday when I was trying to watch a movie, it was quite annoying. She was so loud I couldn't hear the movie. After rewinding and pausing several times, I finally figured I'd have to finish it during her nap so I shut off my movie and video taped her instead..

2010-05-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day Poem

2010-05-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

Ryan wrote me a poem yesterday during church. When he told me about it I was expecting something really stupid, but I thought he did a pretty good job. Here it is..

I dated brunettes, but I married a "blond"
Thought I was dating the right kind of girls, but I was wrong.
Shyness and sweetness and wit were what I needed,
someone a bit more innocent and with faith deeply seeded.
Almost four years in, I've never second-guessed,
Of all those I dated, I ended with the best.
I dated brunettes, but I married a "blond",
a beautiful girl, a strong woman, and a great mom!

(fyi.. i was blond when we were dating due to a ton of highlights)

She walks!

2010-04-29T06:01:00.000-07:00

I guess maybe I should call it stepping at this point. Lexi can only take 2-3 steps before she either falls down or leans into what she's going for. She took her first step a couple weeks ago at 8 1/2 months! We knew she'd be an early walker because she has often been ahead with the milestones and she is super strong. Yesterday at the mall we rode in an elevator with a lady who commented that you can tell Lexi is strong by the way she pulled on the stroller to sit up straight in her seat. When we got out Ryan said, "if only she knew Lexi could do a pull up!" Anyway, here are a couple videos of Lexi. She didn't cooperate like we wanted her to, but oh well. You can kinda see her taking a few steps.

I can't believe my baby is starting to walk!! She's just growing up way too fast. I can barely remember her as the chubby newborn.

Spring!

2010-04-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

Me and Lexi left Ryan for 2 weeks to go visit my family in Missouri for their spring break. I have to admit I wasn't very excited for the trip for 2 reasons. First, I had never been apart from Ryan for more than 24 hours and didn't know how I'd do without him. : ) Second, Lexi had never been on an airplane before and I didn't know how she would do! But we both survived. Lexi actually did really great on the plane and slept through half of it. Our family went to Little Sahara in OK for a couple days until a snowstorm came and forced us to leave. We had a great time while we were there and enjoyed the sunshine while it lasted. Lexi really hates her carseat and had to be entertained on the 6 hour drive there. We all got sick of listening to baby mozart over and over and over.. Trevor tried over and over to get his jeep up this hill. My mom, dad, and me, along with about 8 other random guys sat at the top of the hill on our fourwheelers rooting for him but he never did make it up. This is also the hill where my mom rolled her fourwheeler! Luckily she wasn't hurt and even got right back on to ride and rolled it a second time before we were finished. : ) Poor mom. First day of spring! Me and my mom went out in the snow to get groceries only about 2 miles away. On the way home mom was just cruising along and I asked her if the roads weren't slippery. She said no and about 5 seconds later we about landed in the ditch! VERY scary. Church was cancelled the next day too and that hardly ever happens.
Last week me and Ryan went to go play golf with Adam and Mary but they wouldn't let us on the course with Lexi so we had to go to the driving range instead. The guy did give us a free token since he felt bad about telling us no. Lexi did good sitting in her stroller eating puffs and watching Ryan. Easter weekend we went to Greensboro to see Ryan's family. Lexi had lots of fun with Grandma Gladden. Here's a video of them but you have to try hard to ignore Ryan's brother on the phone ordering Mexican.

We went over to Adam and Mary's house for a barbecue inbetween sessions of conference on Sunday. We played a super fun lawn game afterwards.(don't remember the name of it) Then we had an easter basket hunt!! Adam made personalized baskets for all of us. Ours even came with a bunny hat for Lexi. : )

TIP: NEVER say to Jeran "picture time" in a high pitched voice..he will yell at you!

MAMAMAMA

2010-02-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

All day Sunday Lexi went around the house saying MA MA and has been saying it ever since. Even though she doesn't know what she is saying, I just love it!! And I'm sure Ryan loves the fact that I try to rub it in that these are her first words. : ) I tried to get it on camera, but didn't have very good luck. This is the best I got..

And then just a few more random videos for my mom!

Try, Try Again!

2010-02-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

Lexi has learned a new, dangerous trick.. how to pull herself up! This is all she does all day long now. She'll pull herself up and just stand there until she falls or I go pull her away. When she falls she gets up and tries again. The first couple days of doing it she was falling all the time.. very wobbly and just couldn't hold on for very long. She got a few bumps and scratches on her head. :( But now she can stand for minutes at a time and not do anything but stand up and look around or eat what she's holding on to. I can't leave the room for more than a few seconds now since she can move so fast and gets into trouble in a jiffy. I definitely was not expecting this so soon! These videos are some of her first attempts..

So today is Lexi's 6 month birthday! We took her to the doctor for her check up and she weighed 15 1/2 lbs(50th percentile) and 27 inches long(90th percentile). The doctor was impressed with her skills and said she's very advanced for her age. Here are a few random pictures from this past week.. Playing Call of Duty with dad.. She climbed up onto her changing table and got stuck. She wasn't very happy! Lexi was really fussy after her shots today so I sat her down to watch TV and she was out 2 minutes later. On a side note.. Lexi makes a really great horse noise.

Wow, I think I'm done with blogging for a while. I now understand why some people don't update very often. This takes WAY too much time!!

Almost 6 months..

2010-02-02T11:06:00.001-08:00

Lexi learned the army crawl over Christmas break. Just this past week she figured out the real deal. We are in trouble now. She can get wherever she wants and is already pulling herself up to stand and opening drawers. She is SO much fun though!

2009-10-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

2009-10-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

2009-10-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

Our Apartment

2008-08-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

After living here in North Carolina for over a year, we finally decided to put a little effort into decorating our apartment. I was really excited to be able to display some wedding pictures!

We are still working on these shelves. I need a candle holder or something..

We were pretty happy with how it all turned out. My next project is to get a plant of some sort..