What we've been up to

Thursday, December 25, 2008

We went to Utah as a family for Thanksgiving then I decided to stay while Nate went back home to New Mexico to finish the semester. I stayed at Nate's parent's house for about 2 weeks and then at my Mom's house for a little over a week. Thank you everyone who helped us while we were in Utah. I made it home to Albuquerque and my mom made it back to Utah before a big storm hit. Then we had a quiet Christmas with our small little family. We will be headed back to Utah in a few more days for Kayli's baptism and more lame doctor appointments.

I rememberd to bring home my carmera but not my charger so I have pics of my trip to Utah but not of Christmas in New Mexico. I just bought a cheap clicker camera and have to use up all of the pics before I can develop them. (remember when you had to develop you pictures; how lame is that)

This is a pic of Nate's mom's tree that she got at festivel of trees. I wasn't feeling well enough to go so they brought a tree home to cheer me up. (that and they really liked the tree)
We enjoyed the playing with snow. Yesterday Eva was crying because there was no snow in New Mexico and Christmas is supposed to have snow.
Grandpa Woolf got Eva a gingerbread house kit. It was so easy; that is the way to go. All the fun with half the work. Eva enjoyed it a lot.

Eva and Emmie love playing in the crib together but Emmie just learned how to climb out so we are taking it down today and will be putting in a toddler bed. No more monkeys jumbing on the bed. :(

Emmie loves to dances she will come up and grab your hands and say "I know you I know you" (the song from Sleeping Beauty when she dances with the prince)

Merry Christmas!

The day Nate gave birth

Friday, December 12, 2008

You may have read in the news about the man that gave birth to a baby, and then you read that man actually was a woman, but was trying to be a man and was married to a woman. Then you probably lost interest like I did.

Let me tell you a story of how a real man gives birth. On Monday afternoon I was on may way to work and I started to have a bit of a stomach ache. I got in my car and drove for a couple of blocks and it started to really hurt. A couple of blocks more and I thought for sure I was dying. I called my work and turned around and went to the hospital. After I was comfortably naked on a gurney with some IV morphine and had a CAT scan I got the wonderful news. "You are going to give birth to a 1 mm kidney stone" I was told. So I was given a filter and some pain meds and told to strain my pee until I caught the little bundle of joy. I gave them the 'you want me to what' look, and got home at about 12:30 am. About 3 liters of water later little Diablo was born. I thought what many new parent thinks, "how can something that small cause so much pain". Anyway baby and daddy are fine now.

By the way, if anyone is in need of a gently used strainer, I've got one lying around. I can send pictures. Paypal only please.

I HATE/LOVE the Utes

Sunday, November 23, 2008

I hadn't given it much thought until this year, but I honestly have never really cared if BYU or Utah won when they play each other. This is why I don't care: My dad went to both schools so he never really cared. Growing up when BYU and Utah played my dad was content with whatever team won, so I never had the "privilege" of having a crazy wacked out sports fanatic father. Second, I did go to Utah and never did go to BYU, but I still feel betrayed by the U after I gave them 4 good years of tuition and a competitive pharmacy school application they denied me. They showed no loyalty to me, so I show none to them. (Is that the way you repay your Fall 1998 ESS Bowling Champion?)

So I really could care less when the big game rolls around each November. It's like watching two friends play each other at video games. Sometimes you want the more cocky friend to lose, or maybe your other friend just pissed you off that day so you want them to lose. In the end you don't really care. In any case congratulations to the Utes. I'm glad they're having a good season and I will continue to jump on and off the bandwagon and be happy every year.

Go Lobos!! (c'mon it's almost like Woolf in Spanish)

As seen on TV

Saturday, November 15, 2008

While being sick for almost 4 months I have seen my fair share of infomercials. I finally thought that I would try one out. I've been having a problem with my extra bedding falling on my head when I'm trying to put my laundry away in my closet. So I thought I would give the space bags a try. They worked all right. I bought the amazing cubes they turned out more like amazing raisins. The infomercial shows them in perfect squares and stacked neatly on top of each other mine shriveled up and can hardly stand up by themselves, but they do the job and my bedding is no longer falling on my head so I can't complain too much.

I don't like to brag . . . oh wait I do .

Thursday, November 6, 2008

For that last few day Emmie has been potty training herself. She will go pee in the potty at least 5 times a day and has only had a few accidents on the floor. If it was up to me I wouldn't even try until she was 3 but she wanted to pee like her mommy and big sister and started taking her own diaper off and climbing onto the potty all by herself. I don't know if it will last because she is only 18 months old but I'm enjoying it while it is happening.

I have had a hard time getting Eva to do a real smile when I take her picture; she has been doing a fake cheese smile that is not as cute as her real smile. But we found a good trick to make her have a good smile. We have her sing her favorite barbie princess songs and with out fail we get a beautiful smile every time

Their first big haul!!

Friday, October 31, 2008

This year was the first year that we went trick or treating with the girls where they had the energy to go to more than five houses. They had tons of fun! Eva was very polite at every house and said thank you at each house and Emmie just loved to see all the Halloween decorations. And mom and dad are excited to make sure all those Snickers and Reeses aren't poisoned.

dressing up is fun to do to do to do

I know Eva doesn't look much diffrent on Halloween then any other day but we thought you might like to see what we looked like for Halloween this year. Nate had a wonderful costume of Nate so we did not get a picture.
























This is the first time I put makeup on Eva. She loved it and said that her Eyes looked magical!

Moose hair

Sunday, October 26, 2008

For about the last 6 months every time I try to put Eva hair up she cries and cries. She loves her hair down like a princess. Today when we were getting ready for church I was able to talk her into doing pig tails. When I got her hair done she said thanks mommy, I love moose hair. I can't deny that her hair does look a little like a moose.

Halloween Fun

Friday, October 24, 2008

We've been getting into the Halloween spirit at our house lately. Here is Gretta and her impressive pumpkin carving. Not bad for a girl who has convulsions eh? Nothing will make a husband nervous like watching his wife have convulsions while holding an exacto knife. In case you didn't know, Gretta hasn't quite recovered yet and can have some pretty bad days. But Halloween makes her happy.

When Gretta started carving the pumpkin, Emmie watched with a horrified look on her face and said "Ouuuch, ouuuuch!" then she started to cry and it took us a few minutes to realize it was because she thought we were hurting her pumpkey.

Happy Halloween!

Our Pet for a day

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Yesterday I thought it would be fun to have our snack outside on our front porch the weather was so nice it was about 75 degrees, and the girls love to go out side, but I forgot to shut the door all the way. A few hours after we came inside I heard a rustling sound by a grocery bag on the floor and I blew it off, but Eva wanted to investigate. she picked up the empty bag and started screaming and ran to get a shoe to squish the little intruder. Then I saw a cute little lizard run under our sofa. I explained to Eva that lizards are nice and we don't squish them like mean spiders. We tried to catch the lizard in bowls and cups. That little sucker was so freaking fast it even ran up our curtains at one point. (I did not know that they could do that and I was very hard not to scream but I did not want to scare the kids) I finally came up with a good plain to get the lizard. I put a Christmas stocking down (which I just bought for Emmie) on the floor and used a stick to get him to run into it then I finally took him outside.
When I was little my brothers and sister would go lizard hunting I remember it being very easy and it seemed like it didn't take us long to catch them but now I'm old and slow. It took a little over two hours to catch him safely. Eva asked if she could catch him again today because she had so much fun, but I hope Mr lizard has learned his lesson and wont sneak in again.

Pumpkey pumpkey

Monday, October 20, 2008

I finally learned how to be a good blogger nerd and make a fancy blog. I used to make fun of all the fancy blogs thinking they took hours to put up until I realized "hey I think I'm one of the only ones without a fancy blog, it must not be as hard as it looks", and it wasn't. I'm so surprised I was able to do it all by myself without Nate' s help.












We went to a pumpkin patch on Friday. The girls loved it. They had a hay bail maze and a pit full of dried corn that they played in forever. Emmie also learned how to say pumpkin, or pumpkey (close enough right?). She walks around the house with her baby pumpkin all day and she even took a bath with it this morning.

Nate's Six Quirks

Thursday, October 16, 2008

1. I'm just a big kid. I could probably sit and play Nintendo for 18 hours a day if nobody bothered me or told me I need to eat or go to school. I almost bought an Optimus Prime Transformer toy yesterday because I thought it looked as cool today as it did when I was 7 years old.

2. Like Gretta and my sis Heather I am a nail biter. My parents tried to get me to stop. They once paid me to grow them out thinking that would break me of the habit, but I just collected my money and bit them back down.

3. I am not an impulse buyer. If I want something and I can afford it I won't buy it. I'll read at least 4 reviews of it online first. Then I'll compare it to similar things and read 4 reviews of those things. Then I'll run price comparisons on every item. Then I'll monitor the prices on EBay. Then Gretta finally says "Just buy it already and quit spending all your time researching the stupid thing." I hate to get ripped off.

4. I hate dressing up. Between work, church, and school I have to wear slacks and a collared shirt 6-7 days per week. My solution: put some casual clothes in the trunk and change ASAP.

5. I spoil my kids. I'm just a sucker to see them smile. I'll go buy a Happy Meal at McDonald's for lunch and ask for the girl toy to give to my girls. I wonder if the McDonald's employees ever wonder why this 28 year old man wants a girl Happy Meal.

6. I love to watch movies. I think I inherited it from my Granpa Woolf who had a HUGE movie library. One year my New Year's resolution was to watch a movie every single day. I didn't seriously think I'd go an entire year, but I did make it to mid-February before I missed a day. We love the Netflix and Redbox and our occasional free HBO weekends. There's nothing better than cuddling up with Gretta and watching a movie. But even when Gretta goes out of town I'll hit the theater by myself.

very quirky

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Six Quirks About Me:

(1) I bite my nails. I know that's not very quirky but I also bite my kids nails. It started when I cut Eva finger really bad two times in a row when she was just a few weeks old. Now I only bite them off so my babies don't get hurt.

(2) I like to pop zits I know some people think it gross but I think its very interesting. My brothers still ask me to pop zits on their backs and behind there ears because their wives get grossed out by it.

(3) I'm very touchy. Not in the Bo ho you hurt my feeling way but In the constantly touching people way. When Nate sits down on the couch I sit as close as I can get. When we're walking together I always link arms or hold his hand. When I see a pregnant lady that I know I always rub her belly, and I cuddle with my girls at least4 times a day.

(4) I Never leave the house without putting a flower or a bow in my girls hair. I can look like crap no makeup (that's why they invented sunglasses) I won't even brush my hair but my girls have to look nice.

(5) I watch HGTV way to much

(6) I can not spell very well at all. I think I can Spell at a 3 or 4 grade level if I'm lucky. You probably all ready know this if you have ever read one of my blog posts.

I'll try to get Nate to put his quirks on next

Gretta & Nate Plus 8

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Thanks to Jen for our first tag. It was kinda fun, like a wedding shower game to see how our answers compare. (N) for Nate (G) for Gretta . . .

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch
30 Rock (N) LOST (G)
The Office (N) 30 Rock (G)
Heroes (N) The Office (G)
Futurama (N) Pushing Daisies (G)
Flight of the Conchords (N) Desperate Housewives (G)
Colbert Report (N) Designed to Sell (G)
LOST (N) Heroes (G)
Family Guy (N) Chuck (G)

8 Favorite Resaurants
Beninhana (N) The Garden (G)
Outback (N) Outback (G)
Dion's (N) Flying Star (G)
Chilis (N) Chilis (G)
Tucanos (N) Benihana (G)
Mandarin (N) Olive Garden (G)
Cafe Rio (N) Cafe Rio (G)
Brick Oven (N) Dions (G)

8 Things I did yesterday
Woke up too early (N) Got girls dressed (G)
Went to school (N) Fed the girls (G)
Went to Costco for lunch (N) Found a babysitter (G)
Went back to School (N) Went to chiropractor (G)
Went to work (N) Watched Barbie movies on YouTube (G)
Watched TV w/ Gretta (N) Took a nap! (that don't happen often) (G)
Ate dinner (N) Made dinner (G)
Put Eva to bed (N) Went to an enrichment meeting (G)

8 Things I'm looking forward to
Fall Break (N) Finding a doctor to fix my problem (G)
Thanksgiving Break (N) Fall Break (G)
Christmas Break (N) Thanksgiving Break (G)
Spring Break (N) Christmas (G)
Summer Break (N) Spring Break (G)
Graduation (N) Nate being done with school (G)
Getting licensed (N) Having more babies (G)
Moving back to Utah (N) Being close to family (G)

8 Things on my wish list
Plasma TV (N) Flat TV (G)
An exotic cruise (N) A potty trained Emmie (G)
FJ Cruiser (N) Kids to stop fighting (G)
iMac (N) Nate to be done with school (G)
Blu-ray (N) To have more time with Nate (G)
New acoustic guitar (N) A maid (G)
Golf clubs (N) A finished backyard (G)
Dog (N) A common naptime for me and the girls (G)

8 people I tag
Heather Bennett
Ana
Rachel
Sarah
Kim
Deanna
Jeff & Audrey
Morris & Ashley

Balloon Fiesta Fun

Thursday, October 9, 2008

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Every year for about a week and a half we have balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque. In the past I was too lazy to wake up early and track the balloons down, but today I felt ambitious so I packed up the girls in the minivan and started chasing the balloons. It was a lot of fun and the girls loved it. Emmie kept yelling 'boon boon'. I was almost hit a few times by the balloonist trucks and trailers that were looking up in the sky trying to keep track of the balloon so they could help them land. and I heard a few ambulances and fire trucks I'm sure they were going to accidents of people who where looking at all of the balloons instead of the road. We were lucky enough to find 3 balloons landing. The girls were too scared to get out and take a pic by the balloons but they loved looking at them from the car.
The white balloon had a very hard landing and the basket was dragged for a few yards and almost tipped over before some big guys came running and helped stop it.

even my accesories match halloween

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I really just wanted to stop looking at the post that Nate put on. It brought back too many bad memories. Seriously that was the oddest move I have or will ever see. But on a happier note I thought I would post some cute pics of my kids, and of the cutest chore chart I have ever seen that Nate's mom just sent me in the mail (thanks Nanna:)

The most bizarre movie of all time.

Friday, October 3, 2008

We watch a lot of movies. We've seen our fair share of good movies, bad movies, and strange movies. We are proud to say we have found the most bizarre movie ever created. Thank you 1977 for giving us Eraserhead. If you like mutant babies, people's heads falling off, and dream sequences that make you wonder if someone slipped you some LSD, then this is the movie for you. Add it to your Netflix que, or watch it online. With any luck you'll have a trippy dream that would make even the longest haired hippie jealous.

cinderellie cinderellie

Friday, September 26, 2008

Because my recovery from my medical mystery took so long, (almost 6 weeks with many relapses and I still wonder if I'm really better) I have relied on Eva's help a lot more the usual. She has handled it beautifully. I think she loves it; she will even put on her Cinderella dress and sweep and mop around the house. It is so cute. I'm surprised at how much she can do. I guess the key to child labor is to get them when they still think cleaning is cool.

What kind of drugged out state was I born in?

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

So I was in class this week learning about medication errors and bad side effects from inappropriately prescribed drugs. My teacher starts talking about this drug study that was done in Utah. My initial thoughts were "oh, it's probably about how there's a lot of Mormon's in Utah and we don't drink or smoke". Unfortunately it was all about how much methadone is used in Utah. If you don't know much about methadone, check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methadone In a nutshell you need methadone if you have very severe pain (think cancer) or are addicted to heroin. Here are your fun facts about methadone use in Utah:

• From 1997-2004 methadone prescriptions increased 727%
• Accidental methadone-related deaths increased 1770% in the same time period
• Methadone-related ER visits increased 612% over that time period

After all was said and done, several my classmates looked at me and and later asked me "What's up with your state?"

Way to go Beehive State! Even New Mexico feels bad for you.

Now I have 31 nieces and nephews

Sunday, September 14, 2008

If you're in my family and you are wondering why all I send for your birthdays are E cards . Well let me tell you why. With just immediate family members Moms Dads Brother and Sister-in-laws and their kids I now have 61 people in my family
4 parents; mine and Nate's
11 siblings
13 brothers and sisters in law
31 nieces and nephews!

I wouldn't expect Jacob to buy presents for everyone in the house of Israel so don't expect me to either
But I still love you all

We have very exciting news

Emmie's hair is now long enough to fit into a real pony tail:)

Stinkin' Cute

Friday, September 12, 2008

Lately it seems Eva has been doing something everyday to crack us up. Here are just a couple of the more memorable ones:
Grandpa Woolf got Eva a fancy dress up dress from Target. After she was finally done playing with it, she took it off, gently folded it up, and put it in a laundry basket. Then she asked for a blanket saying "I need a blanket because my dress wants to go to bed." She then proceeded to tuck her dress in and give it a kiss goodnight.

Today Eva got some presents in the mail from her Nana. One of her presents were some pretty silver and gold bracelets. As we were walking by Eva's room we could hear her giggle and say "Oh, you are so handsome!" We poked our heads in to see exactly what was so dang handsome. She had put her bracelet on one of her bed posts and it had become the crown of her make believe prince. We're going to work extra hard to make sure anybody handsome in her room besides her daddy is make believe.

I got better ...

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Well Gretta has made a not so speedy recovery after her little incident with her antibiotic. How do you fix such a bizarre reaction you ask? Well let me tell you how you don't fix it; with the 10 (yes 10) drugs that were prescribed for her above. Apparently the ER doctor and her primary care doctor didn't really know what was going on, because these drugs did nothing. The only consolation is that maybe since we got them at Smith's maybe some of that money will come back to us in the form of Nate's paycheck. But to make a long story short, after a visit to the ER, 3 visits to the primary care doctor, one visit to the neurologist, 10 prescriptions, an EEG, and an MRI; Gretta is feeling much better. We couldn't have survived this ordeal without the help of the Relief Society that cooked us meals, cleaned our house, did our laundry, and watched our kids. And we definitely couldn't have done it without the help of Nate's parents who came down for a whole week to relieve the Relief Society, take care of Gretta, and spoil our family. Thanks everybody for your prayers and help.

Gretta's Adventure

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Gretta got some medication for a UTI last week and needless to say things did not go well. After she took her dose on Tuesday night her tongue started to swell up. It got so big it filled up her whole mouth and stuck out another 3 inches. Luckily she could still breathe. After a couple of Benadryl we were off to the ER. The doctor diagnosed her with a dystonic reaction, which basically means her antibiotic was causing her muscle spasms in her tongue that made it swell up really big. They gave her some steroids and the tongue went back to normal but they said it would probably keep swelling up and down for the next 3 days until all of the antibiotic is out of her system. Unfortunately she also is getting muscle spasms in her back that are so strong that they look like seizures. The doctors say that should stop in about 3 days as well. We were really fortunate to get lots of help from the Relief Society this week, and we got some medications that are helping with the tongue and tremors. The video of her tongue swelling is kind of funny, her pseudo-seizures are not so funny so no video.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Our little Sweetheart

Eva came in to talk to Nate when he was on the computer one day
this is how it went
Eva: Daddy
Nate: Yes
Eva: NO Daddy you say Yes sweetheart

camping

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

We went camping for the first time last week it was a lot of fun. I thought that 3 changes of clothes for one little girl for one night would be enough but I was very wrong.
We didn't get a new dog we just has a stray flowing us the whole time

My emergany trip to Utah

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Two weeks ago I decided on Sunday to fly out on Monday to help my mom with a very intense surgery. The plane ride was very interesting; complete with Eva screaming we're all going to die! we're going to crash mommy!, Emmie crying so hard she threw up all over the seat in front of us. Then when I let her out of her car seat she pulled the hair of some poor lady who was unlucky enough to be seated in front us, and when we got off the plane some mean old lady yelled at me because she couldn't get around my two kids our stroller, two large carry on bags, and our annoying car seat that I was clumsily trying to push by myself. When I realized I would have to do it all again in just a few days it brought me to tears luckily the way home went very smooth and was uneventful.
My Moms surgery went very well but her recovery will be very long and painful. It was hard to watch her suffer so much. I hope she will feel better soon. We had a lot of fun with visits from my many siblings coming to check on my mom. At one time we had 5 adults 12 kids and 2 dogs running around. I don't think my mom got enough sleep but she did enjoy the company a lot.
Just one day after my mom was released from the hospital, the mountain behind there house caught on fire and we were only one block away from being evacuated. This picture was taken from very close to their house.
Sorry Kim, I know this grossed you out when you saw this, but I thought this was very funny. When I was making food for one of the large crowds coming to see my mom, Emmie got into the mayo then she was very sick the rest of the week maybe there was a connection.

Survivorman

Sunday, August 3, 2008

As I mentioned earlier, Gretta and the girls are out of town and will be gone for about 10 days. That begs the question, can Nate survive for a week alone in Albuquerque New Mexico.

Day 1: Well the first thing I need to do is get my bearings and find some food. That is going to be key to surviving the next week. Luckily I have my handy debit card and a list of take out phone numbers. I've also got my Wii and my new Legend of Zelda game to help me through the week.

Day 2: It was a rough night last night. I played Zelda til about 12:30 before I decided I'd better go to bed. Instead of hitting 'SNOOZE' I hit off on my alarm clock and I was consequently 30 minutes late for work. Normally my girls make sure I don't get into that deep of a sleep.

Day 3: This is great. I was able to find a whole roasted chicken and a 12-pack of Mountain Dew at the grocery store. That should give me the energy I need to survivie for the next few days. I forgot to feed the fish today, so I hope he doesn't die.

Day 4: I'm down to my last clean pair of underwear. I had better find some way to get some more or I'm going to be pretty stinky when I go to work tomorrow. Maybe I'll try my luck with the underwear cleaning machine that Gretta uses to make my undies clean.

Day 5: By an amazing stroke of luck I was able to find a clean basket of laundry that Gretta had left for me. So it looks like I won't be the stinkiest pharmacy student at the hospital today. I forgot to feed the fish again, I'm going to call him survivorfish if he makes it through the week. I also found the bow and arrow on Zelda so I will be making some nice progress on my game.

Day 6: Well my chicken is gone, the milk has gone bad, and I'm down to my last few cans of Mountain Dew. I'm going to have to ration until I can make it back to the store. Hopefully there I can find a bag of Doritos to sustain me through the night. If I'm really lucky maybe I'll find a Taco Bell because I've been thinking outside of the bun lately anyway.

Day 7: I went to church by myself today. It was hard. I didn't have anyone to share their snacks with me. Nobody cried for me to take them out of sacrament meeting. Nobody had anything for me to help them color. Nobody had any toys for me to play with. The only thought that cheered me up was one of my primary kids telling me that Iron Man is at the dollar theater. I think I'm going to watch Iron Man tomorrow.

I miss you Gretta. Survivorfish misses you too. Love you and see you soon.