2015 in Review

I know, I know. It's so late into the new year, it's almost pointless to write last year's review. I lost all my cell phone pictures when my phone broke and I had to look through Josh's pictures to capture anything that happened this past year. I think it'll be a little Josh-sided, but we'll make do. Here goes.

So January last year was kind of intense. Josh and I were secretly pregnant and I had just started my master's degree. My sister Heather invited me and my sister Allyse to visit her in Pittsburgh so we all flew out for three weeks of snowstorms and really good pastrami sandwiches. Like, obscenely good. I could have died of a heart attack from eating so many of those things. Scarlet got to enjoy weeks on end of her cousins Abby, Karter, and Luke. They were adorable together.

Making Play Dough food. I'm worried that Scarlet looks like she's going to eat it, based on her tongue sticking out.

In February and March, we celebrated Scarlet's birthday, announced our second pregnancy, and kept ourselves busy with work and school. My sister Rebecca felt prompted to move away from Las Vegas, which was enormously difficult for her. She asked to move in with us, which was a bit laughable considering our lack of space, but we're laughable people, so we said yes. We bought a bunk bed to make the sleeping accommodations work and set it up where Scarlet's single bed used to be. Scarlet was enormously excited for Becca to come, or at least, she got very excited when she discovered the new bed in her room.

As I got more pregnant, it got less easy for me to do physical things with Scarlet, like take her on walks to the park and the library, so I relied heavily on our bubble machine. She'd run through that thing for a good hour and we used it almost every day through the spring and summer.

For April conference, Josh and I were able to attend the Sunday afternoon session in the conference center. We thoroughly enjoyed the session. It's always fun to attend in person.

 For Easter Sunday, I convinced Scarlet to wear a hat, which was no mean feat. She refused to keep it on for more than five minutes but I loved that she wore a hat to church like some old southern woman.

 My mom and sister happened to be in town for easter weekend, so they helped me hide eggs and helped Scarlet find them. She did not get the concept but it was amusing to see her with her little bucket.

 Then my sister Becca got a job working at the zoo, which offered the perk of her family members getting 50% zoo memberships. We weren't about to pass up that jewel, so I bought a membership for the year and took Scarlet half a dozen times. We definitely got our money's worth since we could ride the carousel and train limitless times. Scarlet loved the carousel so much. She'd ride it multiple times if it wasn't too busy at the zoo and we didn't have to get back in line. Here are a few pictures I have on hand, but this barely scratches the surface for how many times she rode that thing.

Riding with me.

Riding with my sister Sarah.

Riding with my sister Emily. And me.

In May, my parents-in-law moved to Kaysville. Josh drove up to help them unpack their furniture but I stayed home with Scarlet because I was seven months pregnant at the time and fairly useless at hauling heavy furniture. Josh said a bunch of his parents' new neighbors came out of their houses to introduce themselves and help move things inside. It was such a friendly gesture and they've loved living near such wonderful people.

Also in May I ran my silly 5k. It was fun to do it while pregnant because it made me feel more like a warrior but I hope I'm not pregnant the next time I do it, because it was also incredibly tough.

 Then came June. June was awesome. I was CONVINCED that James would come at least a week late, like Scarlet did. I finished my master's degree on the 25th and just barely breathed a sigh of relief when the labor pains started. Early Sunday evening I was struggling through my typical headache and the contractions came on in a way I hadn't experienced with Scarlet. Until my water broke, I didn't know I was in labor with Scarlet, but James had a whole 24 hours of labor before he actually came. I went to dinner with my in-laws and suffered through some increasing discomfort and mild pain before heading home. Josh and I put Scarlet to bed and a few hours later we also went to sleep. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep and I was right. By midnight the contractions were painful enough that I was wide awake and counting the minutes in between contractions.

I actually signed onto work that morning because I had two huge current projects that I just really felt I needed to finish before I could go on maternity leave. I knew this was my last chance so I spent the morning editing items like an idiot in between deeply, deeply annoying contractions. I stopped when I got a migraine and took drugs and sent Josh for a Dr. Pepper at the store. Then I paced around the apartment with Josh for a few hours. Josh was so kind. He stayed home from work of course, and kept Scarlet from jumping into my arms, which is all she seemed to want to do for some reason. Poor Becca didn't know what to do. She didn't realize that labor took so long, so all morning while she got dressed and ready for her job, she kept looking nervously at me as I paced and breathed and Josh held me during the particularly bad ones.

By 2:00 in the afternoon I couldn't take it anymore and told Josh that the contractions were close enough together (90 seconds) that I needed to go the hospital. I couldn't breathe through the contractions any longer and I thought I was going to die in my rocking chair, so he called his mom to come pick up Scarlet and then we drove to the hospital. Riding in a car and going over any bump in the road during a contraction will forever be burned on my brain as the single worse experience of my life. Seriously. The worst. I tried to love Josh while he drove but I think I might have murdered him if I could have reached him across the car.

James came that night around 6:30. His labor was three times as difficult as Scarlet's. I was really struggling through a migraine and his contractions were unbelievably strong and I hadn't slept since Saturday night and here it was Monday night. I was completely done and the pain was excruciating. Scarlet was kind to me. James totally hated me. The booger.

It didn't help that he was ten pounds. That kid was awful to deliver. It gives me serious pause about having another one. The after-labor contractions that night and the next two days were pretty awful too. Apparently those only come after you've had multiple babies. Because that seems fair.

Josh gave him his first bath while I stayed in the room. I was too sore that night to bathe him and Josh really wanted him cleaned up as soon as possible. Frankly, I did not care one way or the other. As long as I didn't have to stand.

Scarlet meeting her baby brother for the first time.

Anyway, here is a picture of James the week after he was born, just barely squeezing into his newborn outfit the night we left the hospital. He literally only fit into it the one time. Then he hulked out and never looked back.

I spent my maternity leave like this: 

Undressed and holding a newborn. That is seriously all I did. Scarlet was fascinated with James and hasn't lost her fascination. She can't bear to be away from him for very long and I quickly learned that if James is somewhere, Scarlet is sure to be nearby.

In July we went down to Las Vegas to visit my family and show off the new Bohman baby. I also convinced Josh that we could go to Tuacahn to see Beauty and the Beast and leave our children with my family. I grew up going to Tuacahn and in fact had seen that exact play ten years earlier, but Josh had never gone. We had amazing seats and the weather was marvelous. It was very hard (like, physically painful) to leave James for so long, mostly because I desperately needed to nurse him by the time we returned, but the play was amazing and we had so much fun. It was a sort of babymoon (does that count when you go after the baby is born?) for us and we enjoyed the short separation from the kids to just talk with each other.

When we got back, we found Scarlet had climbed into James's pack-n-play to sleep. She does NOT fit in it, but hey, if her baby brother can do it, it must be worth trying. We thought that was hilarious.

Let's see. That takes us to August. In August we blessed James in the same outfit Josh was blessed in. I think it looks like some sort of lederhosen but I liked the history behind it. Scarlet was dressed in my baby dress, so the tradition appealed to me.

At the end of the month, we spent a week in Glacier National Park with Josh's parents and siblings. We loved the hikes and it was beautiful, but Scarlet refused to walk and insisted on being carried, so she had a few meltdowns when we refused. I got a little sore carrying James in his carrier on my chest, but I also had a hard time letting him go to another family member. Hormones. It was a beautiful visit, but hard since we were still adjusting to our new family.

Me and Scarlet on a hike.

Josh got to fish, which was something he'd really been looking forward to.

The scenery was pretty unrivaled though.

The pacifier helped with the tantrums.

The pacifier didn't always help, though.

 In September we went to Las Vegas again for Super Family Fun Day (or SFFD, which we pronounce as though it were a vowel-less word). Scarlet got to make a cardboard car with the other children for our drive-in movie night. It was a lot of fun that weekend but exhausting, as traveling and long days always are.

Josh and I also celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary by staying at the Waldorf-Astoria in Park City and eating at a fancy restaurant. We took James because I was nursing, but we left Scarlet to spend the night with her grandparents. She loved it and we loved picking her up in the morning.

In October, we had my sister and her children come up for their traditional Cornbelly's corn maze visit. I wish I had pictures of that but my darn broken phone lost them all.

James outgrew the bassinet feature on his pack-n-play when he could roll onto his back, so we had to lower it to keep him safe. I know he's going to outgrow it entirely in a blink of an eye and have to join Scarlet on the bunk bed. They stay little for so short a time.

He got kicked out of his parents' bedroom at the same time as we lowered the flooring of the pack-n-play. He sleeps through the night now that he can't hear me toss and turn. It's marvelous to get a night's sleep again.

We also enjoyed our ward trunk or treat. Scarlet was Anna and James was Olaf. She went trick or treating for the first time and seemed to be amazed that total strangers gave her candy for no reason at all. It was a magical night for her.

Then it was November. We decided to be super adult and take family photos.

Well, okay, maybe not entirely adult. We hired my photographer sister to take pictures and she couldn't resist a little photoshop. I think it's hilarious.

Josh grew a beard for Movember and he liked it so much that he didn't shave until last week. He swears it kept his face warmer this winter and that he'd like to grow it again. I'm not so keen but I can appreciate how nice it looked while it lasted. This is his scraggly masterpiece just before shaving.

I love the red hue.

We also went down to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. It was my mom's year to host (she hosts all of her family every other year and the in-laws host the other year) so the house was packed with people. We did manage to squeeze in a picture of everyone before eating, which was a small miracle.

 Josh, Becca, Scarlet, James, and I all got sick coming back to Utah, so we needed a week to recover from Thanksgiving. That seems to happen a lot when we travel, which helped us determine it would be unwise to go down for Christmas. Instead, we stayed in Utah and saw the lights at Temple Square and went to Zoo Lights. We decorated our apartment as usual and filled up our stockings.

That's our silhouette. Fancy, right?

That's better. Hooray for lighting!

Becca captured this artistic little number. I love the Spirit at Temple Square!

Scarlet was pretty psyched to be at the zoo at night.

I bought my stocking years ago and Josh used his old childhood stocking (I didn't have a childhood stocking), so this year I bought a matching stocking for Scarlet and James, and I picked one up for Josh too so we could be uniform. Or close to it, since this year they had white trim instead of the dark green they had when I bought mine a couple years ago. I don't know why it bothers me that my stocking it not the same. I should just see it as a sign that I'm special.

We opened one present each on Christmas eve and the rest on Christmas morning. This was Scarlet's first year of understanding what it means to open presents, so she enjoyed finding out what new toys she now owned. She also enjoyed selecting presents under the tree to give to each family member. Christmas is ten thousand times more enjoyable with young children.

Church Christmas outfits. I'd be in it, but someone needs to take the picture.

Ward Christmas breakfast. Scarlet was a lot less afraid of Santa this year.

Choosing which present to pass out next.

This one was for Daddy to open.

One of Josh's nerd gifts for his stocking was a lump of gallium, which is a metal with an extremely low melting point. It melts in your hand like an m&m, though I wouldn't recommend eating it.

Scarlet got really excited about her plastic horses that came in her stocking.

The kids were sick at Christmastime with coughs and runny noses and fussiness, so we tried to stay home for the last week of the year. Becca worked at her job and packed up her stuff and my parents came up on New Year's Eve to help her carry her things to Idaho. They left the next morning and suddenly our apartment was emptier than it had been since February. It was a bit of a heartbreak to lose Becca but I appreciated having more space for the children. Josh and I moved James into Scarlet's bedroom and suddenly all the rooms had more space in them to hold our things. The apartment felt large again like it hasn't since we first moved from a one-bedroom apartment to this one. I still miss Becca but I love the room.

This year is full of potential for adventure. As usual I have a million new year's goals and I'm failing miserably already with most of them, but that's the beauty of goals. You try and you try and the effort turns you into something better than you were the year before, despite the lack of total accomplishment. I'm looking forward to what this wonderful year has in store for my little family. It's been an incredible journey so far.

Happy New Year!