Thanksgiving 2010

We spent Thanksgiving day with our good friends, he Moss family and Brett, and the Schroeder Family. The kids had a great time playing together and the adults had fun watching football and chatting. Big Thanks to Melissa for hosting. For those of you who don't know, I served my mission in France. Our mission president at the time President Wilcox always told us that we had all chosen to serve in our mission together. I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know that I am thankful for those I served with, and am amazed that eight years later Melissa and I ended up in the most random city on earth together, El Paso. So maybe it's true, because having her hear this year has been such a blessing!
Since I'm talking about blessings, let me add that every good thing I have in my life I have because I served my mission. Marrying Tom is a direct result of my decision to serve and he is the best thing that ever happen to me!
A few more things I'm thankful for...my super sassy children, our families in AZ (especially grateful that someone married my brother Buck, and turns out she's amazing), and my great friends here in El Paso (you know who your are), and all the friends all over the place!

Huck turned two today! Yesterday we celebrated his birthday with some friends and Grandma Charlotte and Uncle Chad.

Tom is a Soldier, a dentist, a carpentar, a painter, and a chef all rolled into one! He made this fantatic R2-D2 cake for Huck. It was actually his first time even baking a cake, let alone a project of this magnitude. He did an amazing job. The cake is consists of nine, 9 inch round cakes, a batch of rice krispie treats (for the legs), 10 pounds of powder sugar, 7 pounds of butter, and a whole lot of heart. Tom even made his own fondant frosting...and bought a new Kitchen Aid mixer to help...he was complaining that his wrist hurt after mixing two batches of Buttercream with the hand mixer. All in all I think the finished product took close to 10 hours, including the baking time. Take that Food Network, Challenge contestants!

Huck loved his cake! And we love Tom for making it for him!

Huck and Wilder

Now that Haylie goes to preschool I have more alone time with the Huck Monster. He is always sad when we take Haylie to her class and he can't stay with her. He forgets all about it when he gets home and gets to go play outside and find bugs. He loves to come inside and tell me about the bugs he sees. Sometimes if I'm lucky he will bring me a bug to see for myself. It will usually be writhing around as Huck holds it by a wind or a leg. Their life expectancy is not long after Huck gets ahold of them. I just keep praying he doesn't try and pick up a scorpion!

Wilder is 10 weeks and growing big. Tom and I think he looks like his Grandpa Wilson, but you can't be sure at this age. He is sweet and smiling, and cries a lot if he isn't being entertained, held, or feed. He is exhausting, but at least he sleeps through the night!

Haylie's First Day at Preschool

Haylie was becoming bored at home with me and her little brothers so this year we decided to enroll her in a preschool program. We were lucky enough to snag her a spot at a great preschool in El Paso. She gets to go to class five days a week in the mornings. So far she loves it. Her teacher, Wendy, said she jumped right in with the other kids in her class and made friends right away. I think she has already formed her own preschool gang and made herself the ring leader.
Today Huck and Wilder and I joined her at school. It is a Jewish preschool so each Friday the kids and parents and siblings are invited to observe Shabbat with the students. They light the candles and sing songs and do some dancing and have challah ( I think that's what the twisted bread is called). A good time was had by all. I could see Haylie across the gym sitting with her class, I think she looked puzzled. They don't light candles during Nursery on Sundays.

Wilder Chad Wilson

Last Thursday, a little over a week early, we had our baby boy. He was 6 pounds 10 oz. and 19.5 inches long. It was a relatively easy birth compared to Haylie and Hucks. I went to the hospital at 7:30 and had him at noon. Not too shabby...although I had been in a state of non progressive labor (is that even a real condition?) since Sunday after noon. It had not been a pleasant week up until the hospital finally said they would admit me. We are pleased as punch to have him at home, he is doing well and Huck loves him. Haylie, still not the nurturer, has very little use for him.

My youngest brother is getting married next week. Since I will not be able to attend the actual wedding because my due date is far to close we took a trip to Arizona last week. My whole family was in town, even my brother Tyler who is in the military. Obviously with several of us in the military opportunities for all of us to be in town at once are rare. We took the opportunity to get updated Pear Family pictures done with all the new additions.

We had a great time visiting family. Haylie especially loves visiting her cousins, aunts and uncles and Grandmas and Grandpas. She really loves her Aunt Reilly and Uncle Travis. It's adorable. When we came back to Texas we were putting her to bed and out of the blue she told us "Uncle Travis is my best friend". Aww, so cute. I'm sure it helps that Reilly and Travis only have boys so she is a novelty when she visits their place. Reilly fixes her hair and gives her candy. What's not to like about that?

Upper left corner picture is the original Pear Family. Next to that is the current family with in laws, and kids. The lower is obviously our family. Haylie is 3 and Huck is 21 months. In this picture I'm about four weeks from my due date. Tom was loving his first experience with white linen pants. He said they were more comfortable than pajamas and wondered why he hadn't sported the look earlier. In reality I think he wore them just to see what my family would say when he showed up. I thought they looked nice despite his reasons.

It's been awhile since I had any kid pictures posted. So here they are in all of their sassy glory. I can't manage to get a good picture of Huck so this one will have to suffice. I love how Haylie is showing off her "My little Pony" and her sunglasses in her picture. She LOVES that pony. Unfortunately the dog loves it too. He loves all of her ponies and has chewed off limbs on each one. I HATE the dog. But this post isn't about that awful animal, because even thinking about him makes me angry...especially today since he just chewed up an expensive shoe. It's not like the shoe was sitting in the middle of the family room, he had to make an effort to go into the closet and drag it out....he may not be with us for much longer (anyone want a retarded miniature schnauzer?)
The kids are great and growing up so fast! In July (maybe June) they will have a little brother to harass. At my 22 week ultrasound the tech told me I was having a girl. I was super excited. I gave away all of my little boy things and started buying pink. And since we live in El Paso I had to order most of the clothes for the new girl baby because all they have here is Old Navy and Gap. Turns out that they baby was measuring small so they sent me back for another ultrasound at 30 weeks. That's when I was told I was in reality having a boy! What the crap?! I was not pleased. Not because I had my heart set on a girl, but because I had been planning on a girl and now all the sudden I was having a boy! I just wasn't prepared emotionally for the change of sex. I guess it's a good thing I found out now instead of when he came out. I promptly sent back all the cute girl things I had ordered and exchanged them for the boy version. Sadly, it's just not as exciting to shop for a boy. But, that probably makes Tom happy, I'll spend less money.

A couple of weekends back one of my cousins was married. Since we are now only a few short hours from our families in AZ I thought it would be fun to go. Tom on the other hand had different ideas. He suggested that I fly out to AZ alone and have fun with my family while he stayed home with the kids. Of course I jumped at the chance to go somewhere sans children and was more than willing to leave Tom in charge while I went gallivanting off to visit family and friends. After all Tom did have that eight week vacation last summer...okay, so basic training isn't exactly a vacation but he had way too much fun with going to Sea World, and Six Flags with his "BTFF" (Basic Training Best Friend Forever) Captain Johnstun for me to think that it wasn't kind of vacation! Anyway, I flew out to AZ and had a fantastic time visiting my family. I hung out one night with my sister in law and even had time on Saturday to spend time with one of my best friends from high school before heading out to dinner with all my sisters and a soon to be new sister. I had such a good time and was so glad Tom suggested that I go alone!

The picture on the left is all of the Pear (my brothers and sisters) kids, minus Tyler who is in the military, and Tammie who is just late (as usual). The picture on the right is of all the Pear girls, including an almost Pear on the very left, Kristin, who is marrying my brother Dallin in June. Check my out in my almost eight month pregnant glory. Notice my legs are a bit orange...they are! I had to wear nylons to hide my pregnancy induced varicose veins, snazzy.

"That might be a penis"

I betcha no one reads my blog anymore! I don't blame anyone, it's been a lifetime since I posted anything. Not that we haven't been having loads of fun, because we have. Here's a just a few of the fun things that have happened since my last post.
1. found out we are unexpectedly expecting...again.
2. Tom started moonlighting at the Sierra Blanca prison. He says it's not as glamorous as one would think.
3. at 10 weeks I started hemorrhaging profusely (sorry, I know it might tmi).
4. Spent some time in the ER were I was diagnosed with what is called a subchorionic hematoma. Good news is the baby is fine, but my uterus not so much.
5.I am put on modified bed rest until I'm out of the danger zone.
6. My Mom came to visit.
7. We sent the kids the stay with family in AZ. (modified bed rest says I'm not suppose to lift anything more than 10 pounds, push a vacuum, sweep, or really do anything useful.
8. Tom and I joined the kids in AZ for Christmas.
9. Came back to TX and took the kids to the ER.
10. Haylie had pneumonia and so did Huck.
11. Huck spent four days in the Pediatric unit of the hospital for his pneumonia.
12. We celebrated New Years Eve by getting Huck home from the hospital and going to bed by 10 p.m.
13.at week 19 we found out that the hematoma has cleared up so I can have a normal pregnancy from here on out.
14. The doctor told us we are having a girl....five minutes later it might be a boy. Her words exactly "that might be a penis. But if it is I've never seen a penis that looked like that before. I guess we'll just have to wait and see." Now, I'm really worried.

So, lots of fun times for us in El Paso. So far this has been the longest pregnancy of all time. Now that it's Feb we are all doing well. The baby is due July 1st and I'm hoping for a healthy normal sexed child. I am getting another ultrasound next week so I'm really hoping the tech can tell us for sure one way or another. I'll keep you posted.

El Paso Zoo

We have been all about trying everything El Paso has to offer so this week we made our way to the El Paso Zoo. The sign outside boasts they have 20 endangered species at the zoo! The place was so small that I'm not sure there was many more than 20 animals in total. Maybe I missed something? Either way we had a great time. In my opinion there is a lot to be said for a small Zoo. You get to see it all and you don't have to spend the whole day there dragging the kids all over the place.Last year we went to the Bronx Zoo in NY and it was so huge and crowded that it was hard to see anything and we ended up leaving early...only to find that while we had been inside we got a parking ticket for parking too close to the fire hydrant. I can't tell you how much we spent last year on parking tickets but it was a lot! No more of that here, that's the beauty of having your own garage!

White Sand National Monument

Yesterday we drove the the White Sands National Monument. By far one of the funnest/coolest places I've ever been, and I've been to some fairly cool places in my time i.e. The Eiffel Tour, London Bridge (and a few others).

The sand basin was formed by gypsum desposites millions of years ago, or something to that affect. All the sand is piled high so what you do is buy a sled and slide down the drifts of sand like you would in the snow. Haylie loved it, and I thought it was super fun too! Everything was so white I felt like it was snow. It didn't help that it was FREEZING. I mean freezing, it snowed on the way back and the wind was whipping all around. We should have dressed warmer, but we didn't think it was going to be that cold. In fact, last night when Tom took Wedge out it was snowing at our place! This is El Paso, I didn't think we were going to get snow. This morning when I walked out side there was snow all over the Franklin Mountains! Yikes.

We had a blast, and it was one of the first days Tom has had off in awhile. What a fun family adventure!

The Things Tom built

Because I have expensive tastes and we currently don't have the pocket book to match Tom has become a carpenter.

Haylie has graduated to a twin bed. She kept falling off of her toddler bed mattress. I looked and looked for a modern kids bed that was affordable and it wasn't out there. All of the beds I liked had a price tag of 900-2,000, for a kids bed! Come on, it's just wood and a non-toxic finish! So I had Tom make a replica of one of the beds I loved. He did a pretty fantastic job. I should have posted a picture of the actual frame, because it's impressive. It's hasn't been stained and sealed yet because I've had a hard time finding a non-toxic stain here in El Paso and I have to special order one. I'll post the pictures of the finished product once it's all done.

The other thing Tom built was our media console. Once again I fell in love with one I found at Room and Board in NYC. Couldn't afford it, and since it's just wood, Tom decided he could make it. It houses all of our cables, DVD stuff, XBox360, Wii, Playstation3, and even has enough room for Haylie and Huck to go inside one of the cabinets and have small party. The picture doesn't show how big it really is...Nine feet! It's huge! It took Tom and another Dentist in the ward to move it into the house.

It sure is nice to have a handy husband.

I'm not going to bother trying to give an update. I will simply give list a few of the most important events...in no particular order.
1. We moved to El Paso, Texas,
2. Huck turned 1
3. We bought a dog. The mini schnauzer is named Wedge Antilles, after the Rebel Alliance Starfighter pilot in Star Wars.
4. We bought our first house

Here are some pictures, also in no particular order!

Welcome to El Paso

We've been in El Paso for a little over a week now. The first week was spent living at a Embassy Suites Hotel while we searched for a place to live. We think we've found a place and are currently waiting to see if everything goes through. In the meantime we have moved to a more permanent-temporary home at the Value Place. We have a studio with two double beds, a fridge, microwave and a two burner electric stove top. Just like home! Actually if there was a bedroom and a hallway it would be about the size of our Jersey place....which we miss like crazy in case anyone was wondering.

We are luckier than most military families as it just so happens I have a friend from MHS (carry on Jackrabbits) whose husband is stationed in El Paso is well. They have been great, even having us over for a real meal on Sunday (all we've had for over a week is fast food...disgusting). Slowley but surely things are getting better!

In the last two months since I've posted Tom has completed his Officer Basic Training in San Antonio. It went better then expected. He ended up being assigned the best room mate ever, Kevin. He was also LDS, and I personally think they had way too much fun. The went to Magic Mountain a few times, Sea World, and ended up Golfing 90 holes in the last two weeks!

In the meantime, I was living back in AZ with my family. It ended up being better then expected. I hired my 15 year old sister to babysit for me while I went to Pilates sessions. I went to K Pilates studio in Mesa and it was one of the best studios I've ever practiced at. I don't feel so bad about all of Toms fun since I was going to Pilates sessions everyday that I could. That took the sting out of living back at home! We did have lots of fun getting to know grandparents and cousins. Haylie ended up having a really sweet bond with her cousin Travis. She would wake up and ask about "Travy".

Being back out west has taken a bit of getting use to, I forgot how hot it gets in AZ. El Paso is about 10 degrees cooler so when we got here it felt like heaven. El Paso seems to be a great place and we are excited to get settled, sooner rather then later hopefully. We really miss the City and hope to possibly go back there to live one of these days. Although, my only request of going back East is I want to live in Manhattan. Sometimes I still feel robbed that I had to live in Jersey for part of our time there.

Tom misses everyone from school, especially Mike, Audrey, Anne and Dr. Meeker! He starts work on Thursday, and I'm sure he's excited to find out what it's like to be a dentist for the US Army.

I'm a Pop Star/ Couch for Sale!

Tom and I have the exact same problem in the opposite way.
We both have a difficult time finding sunglasses that fit our heads. His head is too big for most and my head is too small for all. I've been trying to find a pair that looked nice and fit me properly that I could use now that the spring/summer is upon us. I looked everywhere for a pair that was just right. I tried on expensive Dior, and Channel, and Oakley's, even Rayban. Nothing fit. Then one day with out warning I found a pair that actually fit me. Check me out in my new Shades. I know, I look amazing. If you want to look like a rock star like me you can. You too can buy your own Disney's Hannah Montana "Pop Star" sunglasses at Duane Read. I'm slightly embarassed that I'm wearing childrens sunglasses but they fit so I can't complain. At least I'm a bonafide "Pop Star", I mean if my glasses say it, it must be true. Tom even made the clerk at Duane Read cut the Hannah Montana plastic protector off them so I could wear them while we walked home. How thoughtful. She looked like she felt sorry me, and adult wearing sunglasses with the words "popstar" emblazed on them.

The other day we came home and the house smelled of Gas. I thought nothing of it, someplace always smells like gas out here, and went to my Pilates session. When I came home Tom was still obsessing about the smell. He was now convinced that he could smell death seaping from beneath the couch. He had already looked all over for the smell to no avail. The only thing he hadn't done was cut the couch open, but right after Huck went down he turned the couch upside down. Using his keen sense of smell (apparantly this is a Wilson trait and both of his sisters have amazing sniffers as well) he located the area where the smell was coming from. Utilizing a utility knife he sliced open the belly of the couch and out fell a dead/rotting mouse! Umm, gross. I already hated the couch for being ugly and uncomfortable but now I have a new reason to not take it with me when we move.

And in case you were wondering we finally recieved our orders. We will be stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. We are excited for a new adventure, but as our stay in NY comes to a close we are having a difficult time and remembering all the great things that have come our way out here. I love NYC, it was our first home together. We are trying to embrace the change and look forward to the great things in Texas, like Rodeo's, cowboy hats, and boots. I've already decided that Haylie is going to run barrels and Huck is going to be a little cowboy and rope those little baby goats. It's going to be adorable. I'm also going to start speaking with a southern Texas accent, just for fun. Oh, and I'm going back blond, Texas blonde...the bigger and blonder the better. It's going to be amazing. I'm also going to start saying "y'all" and put a big banner outside our door that reads "God Bless Texas"and inside our home instead of a "Remember who you are" sign I'm going to put up "God hates a coward" instead. Tom told me he was going to become a "hunter". He asked if I would display his kills in our home. I said no. He said okay, it cost thousands of dollars to stuff animals and he doesn't really like to kill animals (except for birds he says) anyway. He's too much of an animal lover. As you can see we have big, Texas size plans.

Feel free to come visit us if you are out our way. I'm sure we'll have plenty of room for ya all.

NYU Class of 2009

Wednesday was New York University's Commencement. Although Tom's official Graduation from NYU Dental isn't until the 26th of this month he attended the ceremony along with thousands of other NYU graduates. Hilary Clinton spoke and Tom said that her speech was great despite the fact that she is a Democrat and he's a Republican. He said she was very relevant. I wasn't able to attend..well I could have attended, but seriously, taking a two year old and a seven month old to sit and listen to speakers for two hours straight seemed a bit much to ask. I wish I could have been there to show my support for Tom. I am incredibly proud of what he has accomplished. The last four years have been a lot of hard work! When Tom first arrived in New York, a naive young man from Arizona (not that naive, but naive by NYC standards) he was living the single life. In the last four years a lot has happened for Tom. At the end of his first year we were married. At the end of his second year we had Haylie, and in his forth year he became a Dad for the second time to Huckleberry. If you ask me that's pretty damn impressive (hope the curse didn't offend anyone, but I don't think "darn" had the oomph I was looking for). He has handled all of it with grace and maturity. I don't usually do sentimental posts, but since we are coming to the end of this period of our lives, I feel justified by what I'm going to say. I am immensely proud of Tom and all that he has done. He is respected by the professors and the students alike. He has done well in all of his classes and tests while at the same time becoming a husband and a Dad twice. I'm glad to say he didn't do any of those things half way (well, maybe he did only half way study for his boards...but if you know your stuff, you know your stuff). Congrats Tom! Haylie and Huck say thanks for all your hard work. And a special thanks from me for your hard work in becoming a dentist so you can buy me all the stuff I want. We need a dentists budget for that :)

Traitor

When Tom moved to NYC four years ago he swore he would forever love the Diamondbacks and forever hate the Yankees. Maybe he could like the Mets he said, but the Yankees, Never.

Never say never. Tom is a bonafide Yankees fan. Check out how he made them all dress up in Yankees apparel for the game! And Huck wasn't even attending the game, he was just going to watch at home while Tom took Haylie.

Haylie loved going to the baseball game and asks to go all the time now. Here first words this morning (after asking to watch Harold and the Purple Crayon) were "baseball game"? She even ran to collect her glove from the toy box. She's had the glove before she was even born because we knew she'd have baseball in her blood, like her Dad.
Here's Tom and Haylie right before they left for the game to go pick up Willis and Mike, Haylie's new friends. (Tom's friends, but Haylie likes them too)
Haylie and Huck showing the love for Derek. I remember the first time I saw Jeter in person. It was on my honeymoon at the Baseball World Classic. He looked right at me. Wow. Hands off Jeter, I'm a married gal!


P.S. Guess who started standing up on furniture and crawling? Huck that's who. He's just become more difficult to manage.

Haylie and Huck Updates

One of Haylie's favorite things to do is climb up onto the window sill and hangout. She'll watch the people walking by and say "Hi" to everyone. Occasionally, she gets a hold of game control and trys to play video games. So far all she has managed to do is turn on the game consoles. It's only a matter of time until she figures out how to start a game, I'm sure. She is talking up a storm. Her favorite phrase is "that mine". The other night I was sitting on the floor with Huck. My hair was pulled back in a pony tail with a hair band that Haylie likes to use as a necklace. She noticed that I was using it and pointing to it remarked "that mine". I told her that it was mine and I was using it. She wasn't content with that answer and a few minutes later I felt her come up behind me. She leaned over my shoulder and whispered into my ear "that mine", and proceeded to pull it out of my hair. It was all very stelth like. Let's not forget that she figured out how to climb out of her crib last night. Fueled by rage and I'm sure indignation, she made her first attempt to escape the confines of her crib. She succeeded, and I caught her as she came over the edge. I don't know what we are going to do. I for sure don't want her in a bed yet, but don't want her to get hurt crawling out of the bed in the middle of the night. We'll see what happens.

Huck is four months. He enjoys chewing on his fists, rolling all over the ground, grabbing toys, droolling, and laughing. He also loves when Haylie comes to play with him. He doesn't even care that she kicks him in the head. She does such a soft kick, he thinks it's funny and laughs. He is starting to scoot everywhere. I have to keep dragging him back onto the rug, but he just won't stay in one place. He just wants to be where the action is.

Nana and Grandpa Wilson sent Haylie some Dora PJ's for Christmas. Of course she LOVED them! I put them on her to wear for bed and she was so excited to have them on. There was just one thing....because they are a 3T they were a bit big, but only in length (I think she must have Tom's broad shoulders :)!) She kept stepping on the bottom of the PJ's so I decided I would just hem them to her current size. When I say "hemmed" I really mean "cut". I haven't sewn since High School when I sewed my senior prom dress, betcha didn't know I could sew, huh? Anyhow, we had the two leg pieces left from where I had "hemmed"
the legs and I gave them to Haylie. I figured she would like to play with them. I started on dinner. Next thing I knew, I turned around and there was Haylie using the Dora scraps as a head band. It was the cutest thing. Of course she couldn't stop at just one Dora head band she had to have them both on. She was so pleased, she even had Huck try one on!

Letter to Tony

Dear Tony,

Seeing your face on the computer screen at the FBI was a shock. Not just because I believed you to be dead, or because I didn't want to believe that you were capable of the things the claimed you are responsible for doing. But because you hurt Jack.

Tony, haven't we all given enough? Yes, we've lost Michelle (we all loved her), and Curtis too. Edgar's death took us all by suprise. We can't forget Milo's sacrifice either. Jack has been exiled as now under indictment for torture. All of these things break my heart, but none of them can compare to what I felt when they told me you were a terrorist.

I wanted to hope that you weren't what they claimed. But I'll admit my faith in you was wavering. All I could hope was that you were undercover, but with CTU disbanded the chance of that being the case was slim. It was hard enough when you passed away, but to think that you could turn like that...well, I just wished you'd have stayed dead so I didn't have my heart broken twice.

I'll admit I worried about you for the last couple of days. Never giving up hope completely. I can tell you that when Jack dialed "Deep Sky" last night and we heard Bill's voice I was overcome with emotion. Seeing Chloe was in on it completed the joy I felt. And I was so happy for Jack. He has lost so much, I couldn't stand to see him hurt by the one's he loves (you Tony, I'm talking about you). After he spoke to Bill I was able to understand why you hurt him with your comments about Terri's death. You had to get him close enough to tell him, and knowing him so well you knew what he would do.

Tony, I'm so pleased that you still have good in you. So pleased that you are back from beyond the grave. So glad to hear your voice say "yeah" again in the way only Tony Almieda can do. I should have known that you would never go that far astray for good. Your Tony Freaking Almeida and you're back from the dead to kick some A with Jack!

Don't let us down, and don't let Jack down. We are counting on you to once again give everything to protect us from evil that surrounds us on all sides.

Jenny