Musings, updates and reflections on life inbetween changing diapers.....

2011-09-09T11:44:00.001-07:00

2009-04-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some more recent pictures of the kids.

I love love love this one of Millie! Already such a flirt. She already smiles and poses for the camera. A born Diva.

The way the sun reflects in her eyes here makes it look like she has no iris. Such a beautiful shade of blue.
I let her suck on an orange for her first taste of "real" food. She chowed down! I had to fish out a chunk that she was able to gumb off of the bigger piece.
Here is a picture of all three girl cousins. For those who don't know, after a girl drought in our family of more than 11 years, these three beauties were all born this year, one to each sister. And each one on the 29th of the month they were born in! Sonnet, 1.29.08, Millie 10.29.08 and Lilly 12.29.08
Millie in her Easter dress.
Don't you just want to bite her cheek? She is so pretty in this one!!
Milo and Millie visiting Great Grandma Allen the Saturday before Easter Sunday

I have a goofy little girl who likes to bend backwards and look at everyone that way.
Milo at the Easter egg hunt that Great Grandma Allen's retirement home sponsored. Goofy face, handsome boy.

2009-04-15T11:32:00.001-07:00

As many of you may know, we picked up and moved quite suddenly to Utah at the end of February. There were many reasons why we moved and why we didn't tell anybody our plans until 2 weeks before, but our friends know our reasons. Suffice it to say that even though moving was what we felt to be the right decision, it has been very difficult for me, and our whole family in general.

The move itself with 2 children was as stressful as expected. The day of the big pack it rained and rained all day. Of course we didn't have everything as ready as I would have liked, but we had a good ward who really helped, the Elders Quorum men who packed and packed and packed and my friends Cindy and Dodie. Cindy took Milo and Millie for a few hours so that I could concentrate on directing the whole thing, and Dodie came after the big pack to help clean and get all of the little stuff packed up while Ben drove me and the kids to the airport. Thanks girls!!! I flew out with both kids by myself and stayed with my wonderful in-laws while waiting for Ben to arrive. Ben's brother Aaron flew out South to help with the move and drive the Volvo while Ben drove the van and towed the Hyundai. Ben and Aaron drove out the next day and a huge freak snowstorm hit the south east which made the drive especially treacherous. It also added on time to the already long drive.

The Tuesday after I had arrived in Utah, my Uncle Jim passed away which made me very sad. He had been my music teacher in High School and a big musical influence in my life. He had been sick for awhile, but not deathly so, so when he passed it felt very sudden. His funeral was held the next Friday, so not soon after we had arrived, we packed up again for a trip to Colorado.

We didn't have our apartment secured when we moved, but felt that we were going to get in OK, and we did. However the living space was A LOT smaller than our old space, we can't even fit both of our couches in our living room! The garage that I was so excited about is filled with boxes of things we can't fit into our rooms. But it doesn't really matter because the garage door doesn't work, and we are still waiting for it to be fixed. That's what you get when you move into cheapy cheapo housing.

The Sunday after we moved in (but before we went to Colorado) Ben decided to put the TV mount on the wall. He got his stud finder out and found several studs to drill into and proceeded to drill right into a water pipe! It began to gush water everywhere. Ben went right away to find the shut off valve, but there wasn't one for the particular pipe he hit (of course!), so he called for me (I had been napping) and I came down to the sight of water spraying onto my piano!!!! We ran around looking for the shut off valve and then when we couldn't find one anywhere we called 911. They gave me the number to the water company, but it still took them 30 minutes to come. The biggest save came after I had prayed for help and got an idea (imagine that! ;} ) to put a hose of some kind up to the hole and direct the water out the window. Our neighbors happened to have a garden hose and were able to direct the water out, so that we were saved about 15-20 minutes of gushing pouring water inside the house. When the water company came they realized that they would have to shut off the water main, so the WHOLE apt. complex's water was shut off while we got things fixed. After the water was turned off, it was a pretty quick fix of the pipe and we were left with an enormous mess.

We were still unpacked with boxes everywhere, and had to cram everything into our tiny dining area and kitchen, while we proceeded to use a steam vac and shop vac to pull water out of the carpet. My in-laws brought those two vacuums and took my son to my sisters house for an impromptu sleep-over, and I finally sat down and cried. I called my friend Tina and she let me freak out on her until I felt a little better. We learned an invaluable lesson that day, before drilling holes into drywall, hammer a nail in, and if you hear a "ting-ting" DO NOT DRILL!

So for the next week we ate frozen dinners on our bed upstairs because I couldn't really use our kitchen or dining room.

After we got back from the Colorado trip the carpet was dry enough to move everything back, so we were able to get some living space. But Ben had to start working right away, so we still have boxes to unpack and pictures to hang etc.

I have much more to write and new pictures to post, but I can't find the cable to download the pictures onto the computer. So that will have to wait. Sooner or later I will find it and we will be back in business.

2009-01-08T14:14:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Utah

Dinner with the siblings

Service project with my family

Millie's Blessing

Aaron's wedding

2008-12-11T07:11:00.000-08:00

Here are some new pictures of all of us. While my friend Tina was visiting we had our family pictures taken. I think this one of Milo looks like a headshot. Some say he has "Edward" hair, and others say he looks like that guy from the Alltell commercials!

Here is Miss Millie in her Christmas dress.

You can see her blue eyes really well in this shot.

And here is the family picture.

We had another pose that was not as Christmasy,

but Ben was doing something funny

and he ended up looking like Christian Slater.

He was leaning forward with one eyebrow up...

Ba-rother!

Oh and the stockings that I put on Millie were supposed to fit her,

But as you can see.......

Here is a close up of Millie at One month old

I had to take a picture of her in her cowboy boots.

How cute! Thanks Auntie Blythey for the shoes!!

2008-12-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

OK, so if you haven't guessed by now, I have had my baby.

I know, I know, it's been about a month and a half and no post or pictures.... but I seriously underestimated how intense it would be. Milo by himself was a full time job, and now I have a baby to protect from his overwhelming love!

So anyway, here's the scoop on the birth.

I opted to be induced a week early for a couple of reasons. First, because I was worried that the later I went, the more likely it would be that I would have to have a C-section and I did NOT want that. Second, because I had been in pain for so long ( I couldn't walk or stand for even short periods of time without getting charlie-horses in my groin so bad that I would fall over), I just wanted to get it over with.

Because I was induced I decided to have an epidural. I thought it was interesting. With Milo, I was determined to have the birth completely natural and it was painful, exhausting and totally worth all of the effort. I felt like I had really accomplished something miraculous. But afterward I was so spent and I didn't really have a chance to recover. I couldn't really get rest in the hospital, my Mom had to leave the day after I came home and Ben had to go back to work immediately, and Milo was super Colicky right off the bat.

With the epidural I was able to sleep the night before, I couldn't even feel my contractions and I only pushed 3 times before Millie was born. The only things that I didn't like about the epidural were the fact that it didn't even feel like I had given birth (all of the sudden I had a baby!), my right leg went spastic when the medicine was wearing off and I accidently kicked my nurse in the shoulder, and I think it was the medicine that made me throw up so many times. I still didn't get any sleep in the hospital. By the way... I HATE Forsyth Hospital!!!! Someone always sticking or checking or giving medicine just after you drift off. And the fire alarm kept going off..... at least this time my room didn't smell like pee.

So, I guess I'm not sold on either way, natural or medicated. It just depends on how I feel when the day comes I guess.

Anyway, I will post some pictures of her from the day she was born and then later I will update with new pictures... you know how much they change in a month!

2008-10-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

So sad.......Milo killed our fish Spot yesterday.

We were both napping and he got up earlier than I did. He can be quite sneaky when he wants to be, and this time he wanted to play with the fish I think. So he pulled up his red chair (which is a retro-style higher chair with a footstool built in) and pulled it up to the counter where the fish tank was. Of course, I had left a small bottle of bubble solution out nearby (my counters have been a little cluttered as of late) and Milo poured it into the fish tank. I think he wanted to give the fish a bubble bath!!

When I woke up and came out into the living room, I saw him pouring bubble solution onto the floor. There was only a little bit, so I assumed that there hadn't been much in there in the first place. If I had known what Milo had done, I would have tried to rescue poor Spot.

Later Ben noticed the fish floating upside down, and we couldn't figure out why he had died. That is, until we poured the contents of the fish tank into the toilet and it got super sudsy!! It only took me a moment to figure out what had happened. I felt really bad that I had unknowingly let my son torture our fish to death. We will be getting a new fish, but will wait until after Christmas. I don't want to worry about getting someone to fish-sit while we visit family for the holidays.

2008-09-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

Luau Time!!

This last weekend the Winston Salem 1st and 2nd wards held a combined Luau. Although the food wasn't traditional (Hawaiian Haystacks instead of Roast Pig and all the other sides commonly found at the state-side Luaus I've attended over the years), we did have a big program of traditional dances from various Islands. I decided to participate in a dance with other R.S. sisters and ended up having a lot of fun.

After everything was over, people kept coming up to me and saying things like, "I'm glad that baby didn't come out on stage!" and "I didn't think somebody in your condition would be able to move that way!" So I guess just being pregnant makes doing something like this so much more impressive. The really nice part was that most people didn't notice the mistakes I made, guess they were hypnotized by my giant belly!

2008-09-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

I went in for a new ultrasound this morning. It was at a different Dr.'s office than I usually go to because of my Gestational Diabetes. I have to go to specialists and all sorts of extra appointments now. The one positive of going to this different O.B. is that they had 3D capabilities so we could see what little one looks like!

I also had a nutritionist appointment on Monday and found out that I have to start insulin shots. Dammit!!!! I was doing really well just following a diet, but last week my numbers went up and stayed there no matter what I did. So there ya go! Now I have to go get non-stress tests TWICE a week in addition to my regular appointments. Bleh. And there's an increased risk of the baby getting big, and too big for a natural birth. I'm not too thrilled with that news either. I don't want a C-section if at all possible. But what happens happens, as long as baby is healthy I'll be happy.

The pictures I'm posting are from the ultrasound this morning. It is late in the pregnancy, so the pictures are a little distorted because there is not much room in there anymore. The 3D ones you can see that her little cheek and nose are pressed up against the placenta. I still think you can really see how she looks. I think she will look a lot like her big brother. Big cheeks, little pointy chin and curvy lips! Soooooo Beautiful!!!!

2008-09-14T18:17:00.001-07:00

Heyah everybody!!! I haven't written (again!) in a while, so I decided to do a recap of our summer. Around the 4th of July Ben's sister Amy came for a visit.

We spent some time in Winston Salem and then headed out to the coast for the holiday. Milo wasn't too sure about the ocean at first, but by the end of our stay he loved it!

On our way back to town we stopped by Roanoke Island and visited a few of the historic places. When we were there we had an opportunity to visit a replica 1700's Merchant Ship. It was very cool. For those of you who aren't familiar with Roanoke, it is the island that the first English Colony, Jamestown, was established. This is often referred to as the "Lost Colony", because after leaving the colonists and returning years later, there was no trace of the colonists. No bodies or indications of a violent demise, just a cryptic half written word in a tree trunk..... cool mystery, there are still only theories of what happened but no definitive answers.

In August I left my boys and flew out to Utah for my sister Blythe and her husband Jared's endowment and sealing. I was so excited for them, and their family. It was a lot of work with the endowment Friday night, the sealing on Saturday morning and the reception that evening. But it was well worth it. Despite the stresses of putting such a major event on, Blythe did a very good job. Everything turned out lovely. I was able to help escort her through the temple and sealing, and help put on a sweet reception. But by the end of the weekend, I was really missing my boys, so I was ready to come home and just be a Mom and Wife.

The Magalogo family, beautiful!

At Blythe's reception. Hawt girls for sure!!

** On a side note, as Blythe, Jared and I were leaving the temple on Saturday, we nearly ran into (literally) Donny Osmond and his wife **

Later that month we decided to have an adventure and head up to Pennsylvania for a wedding reception. Our friends John and Lu were sealed in the D.C. Temple and I sang at their subsequent ring ceremony. We encountered bad front tires that almost blew, "crashing" at the pool house of John's parents, a super cool reception, John's Dad's dancing, The town of Hershey (which by the way is torture to visit if you are diabetic, 'cause everything smells of chocolate!!!), Gettysburg, AND a bug in my salad at McDonalds...... enjoy the various pics.

On Labor Day we decided to stick close to home. We went to a local park and rode the paddle boats and swam at the cool pool. Milo loved the sprayers, and spent most of his time there.

As most of our friends and family know, we are having another baby. This time around it should be a girl (it's never 100% for sure with girls), and she is due at the 1st of November. In preparation for her arrival we bought a big boy bed for Milo. I wanted something that had some storage underneath for his clothes and shelves for his stuffed animals. We are in a two Bedroom apartment so we have little storage space for all of the awesome clothes and stuff this little girl is going to have.

So that's a most basic re-cap of our summer. There is a lot coming up for the Burrells this fall and winter. I'm working on our Halloween costumes now, so that no matter what happens, my boys will still have an awesome Halloween. The baby should come around the end of Oct. or beginning of Nov. and my Mother will hopefully come out for a visit near the middle or end of November. Around Thanksgiving time is my birthday, and I'm looking forward to going to the Twilight premiere for a birthday present!! In December Ben's brother, Aaron is getting hitched! So we might be heading back out West, AGAIN! This time we will have a newborn and a two year old to contend with......so much to look forward to!!!

2008-06-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't thought to update my blog for awhile, but here we go. We traveled out of town to CO for a big Squires Family Reunion. That's my Mom's side of the family, she has 4 sisters, they have 25 children between them, and I don't know how many grandkids.....

Fast-forward to last weekend and Milo's 2nd Birthday...... Thursday night we went to the circus, Friday I had his hair cut for the first time, and Saturday we had a Luau Pool Party! Sunday was Fathers Day, so Mom was busy busy busy taking care of everybody.

2008-03-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

Easter doesn't feel as Eastery so far away from family, but we did get to have two egg hunts for Milo to have fun at! He learned a new word this week "Candy", well he only says "Can", but we know what he means.

2008-03-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday: Toilet training, pee on the floor, poop in the pants, clogged toilets and the discovery of lipstick!

2008-03-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

I've taught Milo how to get in and out of his crib safely with a step-stool chair, so that I don't have to worry about him falling and breaking something. It has been going really well, and he even gets into bed when it's time for a nap or bedtime all by himself!

The only problem? He has just started getting out after we close the door. At nap time, I usually check in and put him back. But at night I haven't been as diligent, and when we checked in on him the other night, this is what we found. *Note that he is laying on top of one of his stuffed animals!*

2008-03-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's been a little while since last I posted. Well, O.K., almost 2 whole years! So I got a little caught up doing Myspace and Facebook and playgroups and girls night out and being a wife and being a mother, so SUE me!

I originally started a blog to help me start writing on a regular basis, but if I don't want to do something, I won't do it. Plus it's really hard to type with a toddler hanging off one of your elbows.....

Speaking of Toddlers..... my baby boy will turn 2 this June and he didn't wait to act like a two year old. Oh no, he's been throwing tantrums, drawing on walls, getting into anything and everything that could kill him while all the while saying No, No, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! to his dear Mama when she gently tries to redirect his attention, since he was about 16 mos. old. It's been super fun!

Well, my elbow's about to go out so I'll have to post more later........

2006-08-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

I just put baby down for a nap and really should be cleaning right now.......

But you know how that goes.

We had our second anniversary a couple of weeks ago and I bought my husband a new bike. He had left an old rusty one locked up (we didn't have the key to the lock anymore) at our old cruddy apartment in Englewood. I told him that it wasn't worth the effort to get the lock off. It was an old rusted out piece of junk with a bent pedal that squeaked everytime he pushed. It was also way too small for him, he's 6'5", and his back hurt him whenever he rode. He was sad and told me that it had been a good bike to him these many years, but I felt that it was a good way for us to de-junk and move on. Well, a year later I suprise him with a new one, nothing special - just a Schwinn that I got at Target, not as expensive as my old one, just your basic mountain bike. He finally took it out for a spin this last weekend and came in beaming! He said that he loved it, and kept saying how nice it was, which made me very happy. But then he said something that made me pause, he said "I'm not used to having such nice things." You see when we got married he had an awful car; rusted out, smoking oil, thrashed interior, etc. etc. And when I got some money from an accident settlement we bought a used Volvo. Now he has a new bike and we are going to be moving into a nicer apartment. He grew up poor (I did too), and his parents have apparently never had a nice car, or things like that. But the thing is that we didn't spend a ton of money on these things, and believe me we are still living poor, and we have used cars, don't buy a lot of things all the time and try to live within our means. I guess the idea that has been going through my mind is that sometimes I think that we don't allow ourselves to have nicer things if we grew up without money. I think that this kind of feeling that " I don't deserve better" or " This is all I can get" can really limit people. We could have spent the same amount of money on a junky car believing that that was all we could get, instead of looking at other options and finding the deal that we did.
It makes me think of the relationships that I have had in the past. I used to think that I only attracted certain types of men because that was all I deserved. I dated men very similar to my father, carless and or reckless with money, arrogant, demeaning to me and manipulative. I would let these men, one in particular, take over my life and wreak havoc. Then one day while bemoaning my fate I realised that perhaps the reason that I seemed to only attract these jerks and not the good guys was because I thought that was all I could get, or all that I deserved, because I wasn't perfect. I decided to change my attitude about what I deserved, and started trying to convince myself that I deserved a nice man because I was a nice woman. And wouldn't you know it, within a month really decent guys began to ask me out. I don't know what changed, was it how I carried myself, or did my whole aura change? I had some nice boyfriends and was even engaged to someone for a while, and though it didn't work out(painfully so), he never treated me badly.
A few years later I met my husband who is one of the most decent, talented and hard working men I have ever known. And though I constantly fight the urge to self-loath, I remind myself that even though I grew up poor(bad example of a father), and am not rich now ( my imperfections ) I can still find a good deal If I am willing to look in new places and open my self to new possibilities.

2006-08-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

I want to be someone who says interesting, funny or insightfull things on my blog, but I'm not sure that's gonna happen. By the time I get Mr. Man to sleep or sit in his bouncy seat long enough to accomplish anything - all of my clever and whitty life observations have been long vacated from this noggin of mine. Right now he is in his snugli and I am writing as quickly and quietly as I can. It's harder than I thought, to type with a baby hanging in a contraption on your front ( as though I was pregnant but could access the baby alot easier ).

2006-08-15T09:28:00.000-07:00

I went to Utah for our baby's blessing this last week and the traveling was disasterous........every thing that could go wrong, did - well nearly everything, we didn't crash. I had decided to try to fly stand by on JetBlue, but got stranded in the JFK airport overnight. Normaly this would have been bad but do-able, but with an infant it was horrible. My husband got us a room at a nearby hotel, but when I got there the room was dirty. So I called down to the front office, a man answered and told me he was sending housekeeping. Half an hour later with a screaming baby and no housekeeping, I called again. This time a woman answered and told me that she would just get me another room (figures that a woman would get the job done and a man would try to send someone else....), but when we went to the other room it was dirty as well. Well at about 1:30 am I finally got into a clean room, and was able to calm the baby down. Then every hour I got a call from orbitz for my husband's flight to "update" him. I didn't sleep more than 45 min. incriments that night and then had to be up at 7am. The next day I flew to L.A. trying to get on a flight from there to SLC...JetBlue only flies into SLC from two places, JFK and Long Beach. But by the time I got to L.A. the Long Beach flight was full, so my husband (who had left our home after I had, and gotten there before I did) bought me a ticket to SLC. It took me two days to fly there, and I was exauhsted. Of course the whole time we were out there we wanted to see people and friends and family.....so no time for real rest yet. The blessing was great, ton's of people came, 36 just from my family and my mom's twin's fam. but not all of my siblings or aunties kids came...I come from a pretty big family. I stayed a day longer than my husband and my in-laws, bless them, decided just to buy me a ticket home instead of me trying to do stand-by again. So I flew all day that tuesday and got to the airport looking forward to getting home, even though I still had a two hour drive to get home, and the airline had lost a piece of my luggage. I lost it, I just started to cry. I called my hubby and blubbered to him while I was waiting in line to talk to baggage claim customer service (20 min.). There were 3 people ahead of me in line and they heard me, and were kind enough to let me go first. I finally got home around 11pm that night, and the only thing that made everything feel better was that I missed all of the airport mess because of the british terror alerts by one day. Can you believe it? And this is the abbreviated version!!!!

2006-07-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

ok....

this is it, my first blog.

My Husband wanted me to do one now that I'm home with our baby, but I'm fairly certain that I won't write often. Our son is colicky and very time-consuming, so most of the day is spent trying to keep him from crying. Who said motherhood would be easy? No one!