Primary Quarterly Activity

We just finished our Primary Quarterly Activity and I was really pleased with how it turned out. Everyone came in pajamas, we had breakfast, and then we had stations for Prayer, Journals, and Scriptures (P.J.S., get it?). All of the projects had a family emphasis since this year's Primary theme is My Eternal Family.

I worked on the scripture station. I gave all of the kids small laminated Family Proclamations to keep in their scriptures. I also had a scripture-a-day tear off calendar for them to use for personal or family scripture study. The scriptures follow the themes in the Primary 2009 Sharing Time Outline. I am really excited about how it turned out and plan to use one with Bill for our family scripture study. It was a ton of work, though, so it's kept me pretty busy the last month or so.

Bill stayed home with Sandy while I went to the activity. It was very helpful! It would have been a challenge to juggle the baby.

Only two adults came dressed in pajamas.


I liked having the kids divided up. I had about 8 kids each time.

Sleepwalking and Getting Baby Hungry

Last night, I put Sandy to bed and Bill and I watched TV. We caught up on one of our favorite shows, Numb3rs.

She woke up about 11:30 and I fed her and put her back in her bed. I sat with her until she was sound asleep and then crawled back into my own bed around midnight.

I woke up at 5:30 and Sandy was in our bed, between Bill and I , sleep eating (her favorite way to sleep!). I have absolutely no recollection of bringing her to bed or even her crying. Bill doesn't either. Very odd.

Sandy's ended up in our bed almost every night for the last month. She always starts out in her crib, but the sleep deprivation of the last 7 months is catching up with me, and I've been bringing her back to bed around 2 or 3 in the morning when she wakes up the second (or third) time to eat. Bill and I do not sleep as well with her there, though, so I had recommitted to do whatever it takes to keep her in her crib. I didn't plan on sleepwalking, though.

The other odd thing is that I have started to feel baby hungry this week. Up until now I've known we wanted more kids and we've planned to start trying again when Sandy is 1, but I couldn't actually imagine being pregnant, etc. again. This week I saw a friend that is due any day and thought her belly was so cute and actually missed being pregnant. I also keep seeing brand new babies and people with two kids under 2 and looking forward to the day Sandy has a younger brother or sister.

Day at the Zoo

Today Sandy and I went to the zoo with some friends! We had a great time! My mom gave us a family zoo membership for Christmas and I am very excited to use it all year.


The giraffes were inside where it was warm.







Here we are at another indoor exhibit. Sandy and Elise were impressed with the birds flying overhead.





Sandy wasn't ready to go home. She gave me the dirtiest look when I put her in her stroller. It faded when I took out the camera, it was a much dirtier look.

Weighing In

At Sandy's 6-month appointment last month, she was in the 32nd percentile for weight (15 pounds 4 ounces). It seemed a little low to me, but she'd had the stomach flu just days before her appointment.

Today I stopped by the clinic and weighed her again. Today she was 16 pounds 7.5 ounces (38th percentile). I'm glad to see that she's grown.

I think she is going through a growth spurt since she slept most of the day yesterday.

This week Sandy has started on finger foods. She's been eating puffed cereal and small banana chunks. She loves the banana chunks! It makes such a mess, but it is really fun to watch her figure out how to pick things up and get them into her mouth.

Church and Babies

Who decided babies should stay with their parents during church until they are 18 months old and can finally go to nursery? I propose a pre-nursery that starts at 6-months old or an 18-month maternity leave from callings.

Now, Bill and I actually have some of the best callings possible for dealing with a baby that still has 11 whole months to go before she can be shipped off to nursery. Bill is ward clerk and therefore mostly free to take the baby during priesthood and sunday school. Of course, Sandy always seems to need to eat during those 2 hours so I usually have her for one hour and he has her for the other. Bill even has a calling that lets him sit with us during Sacrament meeting so there are two of us to contain a wriggling and almost mobile baby. I am a counselor in the Primary Presidency, which must be the most superfluous calling in the church. I teach a 20 minute sharing time once a month and conduct three months out of the year. There are plenty of primary teachers/leaders and even older primary kids willing and even eager to hold a baby for a few minutes while I get my calling done. Then Bill stays after church to do his clerk duties while I take the baby home.

It seems like it should work very smoothly. But today was an example of why it really is not smooth at all.

First, it was a Villa Sunday. Every third month our ward helps with the church services at a nearby nursing home (the Villa). This means that the Elders Quorum spends 2 1/2 hours at the Villa, arriving back at our ward halfway through sacrament meeting (if they come back at all).

So while Bill was pushing old people in wheelchairs I packed Sandy up to Primary with me. I fed her right before we left. But church is at 9:00 which also happens to be her preferred nap time. And of course she can't sleep in a room full of kids. So I spread a blanket in one corner of the room and surrounded her with toys. She did a good job of playing by herself for about 20 minutes. Then she spent the next hour fussing because she was so tired.


Then I fed her and she fell asleep in my arms. So then I needed assistance getting all of my stuff into the chapel for Sacrament meeting because of course I bring more stuff with me to church than would be necessary for a 2-week hike up Mt. Everest.

So Sandy slept through the first third of Sacrament meeting, waking up ready for a diaper change and playtime. I'll save my opinions about Sacrament meeting being last for another blog entry.

I was the only Primary person left in the chapel (delayed by the previously described amount of stuff) when I was cornered by our ward missionary who wanted someone to go with her to teach a new member discussion to one of the boys in Primary that was recently baptized.

So Sandy and I went home for an hour, I fed her and played with her, and then I went out again - in the snow - to the new member discussion. Since Bill was at the church counting tithing, I packed Sandy (now ready for another nap) with me.

So we went to the new member discussion. The kid had forgotten about the appointment and was at a cousin's house. We visited with the mom for an hour while we waited for his dad to pick him up. (If we'd known it would take so long we wouldn't have waited.) About the time the kid showed up, I heard some rumblings from Sandy's bottom. Just as I was about to ask if I could change Sandy's diaper, I felt something very warm and very wet on my leg. Yes, she had a blowout on my leg. So I changed her diaper and wiped off my skirt with a diaper wipe. Luckily I carry plastic bags in my diaper bag so I could stuff everything back in my diaper bag. Then I tried to help the ward missionary wrap up the discussion as quickly as possible so we could go home. It wasn't hard since she didn't seem to have a lesson prepared, so she kept saying things like, "Now we'll talk about the Plan of Salvation. Sister Buhler, could you talk about that?" The third time she did that, I thanked them for letting us come and stood up to leave. The ward missionary quickly arranged a follow-up appointment, and lucky for me she said the Bishop suggested she take different people with her each time. So I gave her the name and number of the kid's primary teacher.

A Scottish Evening

We went with Bill's parents, Doug and Jaydene, to a Scottish dinner commemorating the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns. The dinner was a lot of fun. We tried some new foods, including Haggis. Other than the Haggis, which was just bland and dry, the food was quite good.




Bill served his mission in Scotland, and ran into some people he knew at the dinner. He wore his kilt. He wanted to wear his kilt for our wedding pictures and reception, but I was against it. He looks pretty cute in it, maybe I should have relented.




Sandy came with us. She was pretty good, but it did take all four of us to keep her happy and entertained. Here she is sitting on Bill's shoulders and pulling out the rest of his hair.

Sad Day, Pretty Dresses

Today we went to a funeral for Bill's cousin. It was very sad (he was only 18). The funeral was beautiful and the speakers did a great job.

Sandy came, too, giving her a chance to wear her new dresses I bought at The Children's Place outlet in Park City on Monday.

I say dresses because between the funeral and the luncheon she had a blow out, giving her a chance to wear the other dress (also from The Children's Place on Monday). Here is a picture of Grandma Buhler holding Sandy in her second dress of the day.

Catching Up

I've neglected my blog for the last month or so due to Christmas, some church projects I'll post more about later, and other interruptions. I've been trying to catch up and I'm getting close. However there are a few pictures I missed as I was catching up.

On January 6 we had a lot of snow and I snowblowed the driveway. The sun was out and Sandy loved watching Sage run through the snowblower spray.


There are always those moments when I do something as a mother that shocks even me. When we came in from snowblowing, I grabbed a candy stick. Sandy saw it and wanted it so I shared.

She loved it and sucked it down to almost nothing. I bit off the skinny end and handed it back to her. She had a blast!



Here is Sandy in a cute red dress my mom got for her. We took these pictures Sunday, January 11. For a while we were taking pictures every Sunday, but we haven't kept it up very well since Bill got called to be ward clerk and had to start staying late to do tithing.


Her best smile of the photo shoot was when Sage came up to her. Too bad she wasn't looking at the camera.

Look Who's Talking

Sandy has started talking a lot more. It's mostly just babbling, but there is one word she says very clearly and repeats often.



I keep responding to her when she says it hoping she's trying to say Mom. So far, I'm not sure she is. What do you think?

The Stuff We Leave Behind

We seem to leave stuff everywhere we go. We try to get it all, but it seems like we always end up leaving something. Does anyone have any suggestions? I seem to be getting worse.

We left a blanket at the New Year's Eve party and went back to pick it up. Sandy got a chance to play with Michelle again while we were there.

Play Date

We had a play date today. It's always nice to get out of the house! Here are the kids playing on the toys at the indoor food court (at Gateway).


We went back to my house and Elise found her favorite spot in the house: the dog bed. Here is Sage sharing her bed.

Sandy's New Dress

Sandy is now in 6 to 9 month clothes, which is very exciting because it means we get to start wearing a whole new wardrobe! Here is the dress she wore to church today, complete with leg warmers, and maryjanes.

Happy New Year!

We rang in the New Year with some friends.

Here is a short video of Sandy playing with the other kids at the party. At one point she and Michelle (just 1 month apart) each had one end of a rattle and were shaking it together. I tried to get it on video, but missed it.




Happy New Year!