A Fun House of Mirrors

I never really liked funhouse mirrors. Whether they are at fairs or at children's museums, they've always kind of freaked me out. I really don't like looking at myself all distorted. But sometimes I really do think I look at myself in a distorted way. I tend to get hung up on my weaknesses instead of my strengths, and so my view of myself gets a little distorted. I see myself as a weak individual instead of a strong one. I'd like to slap my hand and kick my hiney at the thought of this because those thoughts only come from one source; Satan. And why the heck would I want to give him the time of day? I might have weaknesses yes, but my weaknesses do not make up who I am. They are only part of who I am, and that part of me is still "Under Construction" if you will. And that's okay. Through the knowledge of my Savior I can erase these distortions and really come to see myself for who I am, and who Christ and my Heavenly Father see. I am so grateful for my Savior and for the Atonement and His Death and Resurrection. Without either one, we would have no hope to iron out our faults and follies and return to live with them someday.

Since I hate looking at myself all distorted, I decided to post these of the boys that Shane took. Colson thought these pictures were hilarious. They are pretty funny.

Of course what's a picture without picking your nose?

Time Warp into the Future

Baby born with 2 heads and 4 arms!!!

And last of all the way I see them... perfectly precious to me!

I love my boys more than anything!

*It's true we are fully aware that Kellen will probably surpass his brother in size all too quickly....

And the Last Little Piggy Went WEEEEEEEE!

Our Spring is here. Well, honestly it's been here for a while. We find ourselves at the park a lot. It's just so nice to be outside in the sun and playing. For Family Night this week we decided to load the kiddos up and head to the park. There were tons of families there. They must have had the same idea as us. Shane was super excited to use his new I-Pad camera, hence why I'm in the pictures this time and he's not. It will be super nice for blogging now, because the pictures automatically get sent to my desktop Apple computer at home, so there's no having to save them to my computer anymore! THANK YOU STEVE JOBS!

I think Colson was shocked when I followed him down the slide. I haven't been down one in a while and not gonna lie it was a little claustrophobic.

He loves the monkey bars!

Colson really is a little dare devil. I really was right next to him, but he refused my help saying he could do it by himself, and ya know what? He did. This kid is growing up too fast.

We are so grateful to live in such a nice warm place where we can enjoy being outside! We really do love living here!

Yep, That's a Smile!

Kellen is now a little over 3 months old. We love our chubby little Buddha. He is such a happy baby. When he sees or hears Shane, Colson or me his eyes light up and he gets the biggest smile on his cute little face. He's slept through the night once which was amazing!!!! But usually he'll wake up once and then again at 6 in the morning. I'm starting to find myself assuring myself that "Ok the first 4 months really are the most exhausting and yes the exhaustion does come to an end" So maybe we will have more than just 2 kids. Maybe.... Kellen has started to make the early movements that go into rolling over. We do tummy time, but this kid is so lazy. He won't lift his head up, he just turns it to the side so he can breath and then just lays there. Which it's a little weird because Colson was born holding his head up, seriously no joke. Maybe Kellen just has a fat head or something. But I sure do love his fat little head!

Fun With Pots and Pans

So I realize that raiding your mother's pots and pans is totally normal. I personally remember getting into not only my mother's pots and pans but her Tupperware as well. COlson does that too. He'll cook something up and come and have me eat or sip some delicious air he slaved away so hard making. So I set my OCD aside for the morning and let Colson have free reign of the kitchen. (Kellen even stayed asleep the entire time, which I was very impressed since there was tons of banging going on) Every time Colson came around the corner he was sporting some kind of new fashion.

That's right forget the tin foil hats, this metal one will scramble any Alien trying to read my mind!

The most stylish shoes straight from Fashion week in Milan!

Pans Pans everywhere!

Bun Warmer or Tuffet?

Blessing From a Father

This past Sunday Shane blessed our sweet little Kellen. Such wonderful words were spoken. Sitting there listening I was reminded once again how special it is to be married to a husband who is worthy to exercise the Priesthood Power. There's no doubt in my mind those words were delivered straight from our Heavenly Father to bless my little one.

How lucky are we to have such wonderful family?! Both sides of our family were able to come down and share this day with us. This is my mom and dad, sister with her husband and three kids and my Aunt Colleen and Pete. We love you guys!

One Potato,Two Potato, Three Potato, Four!

Yes, yes it's true our little family has now grown from three to four!!! We had our 2nd little boy on December 10th at 10:45 am. He was due December 26th. Kellen Clint Polatis

Kellen is named after my mom. Months ago as we were going through lists of names I randomly took my mom's 1st initial -K- and added it to her middle name Ellen... and there you go Kellen! It turned out that it was a real name! His middle name is Clint. We decided to give him this name in honor of Shane's oldest brother who past away.

For those of you who are interested in his birthday story.....

Kellen wanted to come see us in November, but lucky for us we held his birthday off for about a month. Around midnight (morning) of the 10th I started to have minor contractions. Within the next couple of hours they got stronger. Soon tears started coming with every contraction so Shane decided that we needed to call our "night duty" to come watch Colson. Shane's friend Scott came over and boy was he excited. Both him and Shane were so excited as I sat there in pain on the couch. They kept saying isn't this exciting Heidi?! I just scowled at them informing them it was a little more exciting for them at the moment because they weren't in any pain.

On the way to the hospital my contractions got a little lighter, so I was frustrated that it might be a false alarm. I kept telling Shane that I refused to go into the hospital until I had another really bad contraction. Well, once on the freeway and then again as we pulled into the parking lot of the hospital I was reminded that YES I WAS in labor and YES it was very painful.

After we checked in and got settled they moved me from observation into the Labor and Delivery room. It was a pretty swiftly moving labor. My contractions got pretty bad, I got my epidural as soon as they anesthesiologist got to the hospital, they broke my water and within the next hour or so we were ready to have a baby. I went from a 5 to a 10 within 45 minutes so that was nice not having to wait around for that.

After the doctor came in it was about 3 to 4 pushes and sweet little Kellen was here. This delivery was soooooo much easier than my first and my first wasn't too bad at all. We feel very lucky and blessed that everything went as well as it did. My nurses were wonderful and Shane was fantastic!

We're all at home now and aside from random moments when my irrational monster rears it's ugly head and makes me weepy and a little nuts (Got to love the post-prego hormones right?!)things are going great!

All snuggled in his car seat!

6 lbs 7 ounces
19 inches

Nap time with dad

5 Days old already back up to his birth weight!

And of course happy big brother! Colson loves Kellen. He's still only held him once, but loves to rub his head and point to all of his baby sized features and name them.

The funniest thing is that he laughs hysterically when Kellen toots or poops. He thinks it's the funniest thing ever! I tell you he's all boy!

Last but not least Colson trying to make snow angels in our living room. He saw someone on TV making one and he decided that he wanted to try too!

A Little Trip Down Memory Lane

This past November my mom came out and spent 2 wonderful weeks with us since I was put on bed rest. One of those Sunday afternoons we found ourselves chatting and reminiscing about past times in Indian Springs Nevada. It's about 45 minutes outside of Vegas and where my mom grew up during her adolescent years. We decided it would be fun to load up in the car and make a quick trip since the last time we'd both been there was when I was in 5th grade for my Grandfather's funeral.


This might be weird, but this is one of my favorite memories of visiting Indian Springs when I was younger. The Oasis Bar! It's still there in all its glory! Shane was very entertained by this little show and tell trip! And last but not least the tiniest little LDS church I've ever seen. This was actually the first time I ever remember seeing this church building. This is where my parents were married. My mom was a recent convert to the LDS faith and so my mom and dad had to wait a year to get sealed in the temple soooooo they got married here first and sealed a year later in the Salt Lake temple!
The sad thing about the trip is, my grandparent's house that I remember so fondly is no longer there. One pecan tree is left but other than that nothing.... I guess that's what happens often when we try to go back and grasp at something that once was but is no more. I will always cherish my memories of green shag carpet and glass grape sculptures in the entryway. My grandpa bouncing me on his knee and grandma's big hugs and swats on my backside with her love paddle. No matter what happens, I will always have those memories. And when I'm in need of a big Grandma hug and good paddle, I can just take a trip to Arizona! Lucky me.