Having so much FUN!

We picked up Jon's family from the airport on Friday night. Tanner jumped in next to Alex (he won the coveted spot!) and Diana was next to him. They were so excited to see him and were talking to and playing with him. He was pretty quiet and not really sure what to think for a while. But with Tanner next to him, it wasn't too long before he was laughing!
We went up to Rudy's for a late Texas BBQ dinner and everyone was just gathered around the boy. He was passed from person to person and wasn't quite sure how he felt. He was happy to see Mommy and wanted to go back to me asap. Even this morning, he still preferred Mommy or Daddy over anyone else.
Today we went to the state capital, then to El Arroyo for lunch. It was absolutely delicious, especially their queso. Sally pretty much licked the last of it from the bowl. It was that good. You just can't find good queso like that in Utah (if anyone does know somewhere with especially delicious queso, please share so that we can try it and let you know how it compares). Everyone loved their meals and Alex ate like a mad man. He especially loved Grandma sharing her yummy fruit with him.
After lunch we went up the the LBJ museum. Dave LOVED it and we spent a LOT of time there. My favorite moment while there was Dave sitting in the little room that had an old TV like the one he had growing up and news film from that time playing. He sat on the floor against the wall and was totally in the moment. It was very fun to see and really gave me a look into his childhood, which was cool.
Alex FINALLY fell asleep while we were at the LBJ museum. He woke up very suddenly (after sleeping for about an hour) with sheer happiness and excitement when we went in the elevator. He gets excited like that anytime we go in an elevator. What a weirdo.
We also had the fun time of eluding the security guy at LBJ. He came up to us on the 2nd floor ten minutes before they were to close and said that he was closing the floor and that we needed to go. Well we still wanted to see the oval office, so we decided that since there were 10 minutes left, we could run up and see it. Well apparently Mr. Security had already closed that floor as well and came up after us on the elevator and told us that he had already closed that floor and that we needed to go.
Okay Mr. Security... we KNEW that you would be closing at 5 and fully intended to leave at that time. We still had ten minutes and intended to use that time. If you want people out at ten to five, then the closing time should be stated as 4:50.

After a good time at the LBJ, we walked through the UT campus. We stopped over at the music building and my talented piano playing in laws played some lovely Steinways in some very cool little practice rooms. Alex had a FABULOUS time playing the piano with Grandma! He was trying to do all of the things she was doing and was bouncing along and dancing to a couple of the songs she played. It was very cute.

We also walked by the HUGE stadium. From the freeway, everyone thought I was talking about the soccer stadium as the main stadium and said they didn't think it was that big. Even when they realized that wasn't the football stadium and saw the bigger one, they still didn't think it was that big until we were walking by and could see all the many levels of ramps going up (you can see them on the left hand side of where the highest seats are) and just how high up the highest seats were. Ya... it's big.


Currently, there are 85,000 seats (BYU=65,000, UofU=45,0oo). They are in the process of adding 6,400 more seats. The then may fill in the end zone where the Godzilla-tron is (see picture below... it's almost as big as the field is wide!) with MORE seats to bring the final seating count up to 112,000 which would make it the largest stadium in North America. Leave it to Texas (I mean, it's only appropriate.)



Jon and I should really just fork out the dough to go to a game at least once while we're still here. I mean, how could we live in Texas and NOT go to a UT game? Well, I guess if we lived in College Station it would be a slightly different story. ; ) I think though that the chance of seeing Matthew Mcconaugh sways things quite a bit.

Oh! I almost forgot, this is my favorite part of the stadium:


It's not very big, but it says, Texas Our Texas on it and for some reason, I just love that. Maybe I'm really turning into a Texan! For some reason those words and me living here just make be feel like I own part of that or have some kind of loyalty to it. I don't even know if that makes sense...

Back to our day though...
After our stop off at the music building, we walked across campus to see the bell tower. It's really tall and very cool as well! Probably the largest bell tower I've ever seen (307 ft. tall). I think it has to do with that whole Texas mentality thing (you know... everything's bigger in Texas?).
Here's the bell tower:



I was very impressed with the beautiful architecture of The Main building where the tower is. This is the best picture I could find of it, but it is much more stunning in real life.



After all of our walking and being out all day, we had enough energy to barely make it back to the cars and then we headed home to lay around and rest after our long day. We ordered a pizza and watched the Jazz game.
It was a very fun day and another late night for Alex. When I asked him if he was ready to go to sleep he kindly shook his head and said no. I think it was the promise of teeth brushing that finally got him to want to go upstairs to bed. Again the usual comment for Alex: what a weirdo.

And now I am off to bed! Tomorrow after church we are heading down to San Antonio for a few days. I also need to find a substitute for my sunbeam class for the next 3 weeks as I'm going to be in Utah. I have a few people in mind... we'll see what they say!

Those darn Ziploc bags!

Alex just brought me over an open Ziploc bag that I didn't want him to get into, so I zipped it up. I handed it back to him and he thought I had opened it or something. I separated the top part without unzipping it and he tried to snake his little hand in there, just like he would if it were open. He kept trying with such determination because he thought it was open. It was just funny to watch.
And now I must go back to being fed cheerios. Best of all they have gone stale in the 5 hours that they have been out. Yummy!

Pizza!

Tonight I made homemade pizza! It was so yummy! I used part wheat flour and added some Benefiber, so it was good and healthy. There were some improvements that will be made next time around. I'm going to list them so that I don't forget them because we will be having pizza again in the next 2 weeks.
brush olive oil on crust
less sauce
more seasonings in sauce (Jon says to find a better sauce. He says the tomato paste is "low quality" LOL! He used to work at Domino's, so he's a pizza expert!)
more mozzarella cheese

I also made some focaccia bread which turned out fabulously as well. And it was so easy! I used the 2 lb. pizza dough recipe which makes two 12" pizzas and just took some dough out to use for the focaccia. By the way, making dough in a bread maker is FABULOUS! I just put the ingredients in, push the button and it goes to work. I LOVE that I don't have to knead dough. I hate kneading dough, so this is a great great invention for me.
We will be having homemade pizza many more times in the future. It was great!

If you're naughty and you know it, smile at Mom

We have a little bowl with decorative balls in it on our coffee table. Most of the time Alex does a pretty good job at listening and leaving it alone. But when he wants to touch those balls, he is bound and determined to do so. After telling him no and moving him away tonight, he walked over, looked at me as he reached his hand out and smiled. He knew he was being naughty, but was doing it just to get a reaction from me. Isn't that nice?

Alex also had a good time with Caleb today! They actually played together, which doesn't happen a lot with Alex. He mostly likes to just stand and watch and smile. He had fun chasing Caleb around and thought Caleb was so funny playing peek a boo with him (peek a boo is the way to this kid's heart!). It was fun to see him actually playing with another kid! I guess we'll have to start getting out more because he really liked it.

P.S.- Mom

I want to make peanut butter easter eggs with you when I'm in Utah. Do you think everyone is ready for a second dose? I sure miss those things and just didn't get around to making them this year (I know, I'm a slacker).
p.p.s can you also teach me to make or at least get me the recipe for your eclairs? I think I love those just as much as Dad does.

updated my links!

There is now a whole new slew of links for you all to check out down there where it says "Places I Love" and visit a few of them.
I am soon to follow Amanda's example (man, I must be a fan of Amanda lately. I mentioned her twice in a 24 hour period!) and post links to projects/crafty things I want to do! How fun and a great way to keep track of things while also sharing. Great idea Amanda!

In other news, it's 84 degrees upstairs. We are cracking the windows and I have the fan running on high next to me. I love Texas!

And as promised, hair and tree pictures!

This is my crazy boy and his crazy hair. He's saying cheese for the camera. ---->
Isn't he great?

and the one below shows you just how long his hair really is!

See the 4 little sheep legs to the side there? That's Alex's Easter sheep. It just so happens that our favorite animal sound he makes (and his first one he ever did) is BAAA. Well, to Alex, that is not a sheep. It's a BAAA! Alex was having a great time yesterday running behind the couch, dropping his sheep friend over the back which caused much laughter while he ran over to the front of the couch to retrieve the sheep and take it back over to the back of the couch to drop it over again. It must be pretty fun because he did the same thing with his Utes monkey today for a good amount of time.
He was doing a similar thing I think on Friday. He would put the wipes case over the arm of the loveseat, would then run over to get it (while laughing) and then once he got there he would take it and drop it over the edge of the arm onto the floor. He did this for ten minutes at least!
I got a little of the sheep one on video the other night, but not to the full extent, so I'll try again another day. It doesn't look like it will be stopping anytime soon.

And finally, our little trees! You can't see the one to the right very well, but it's right there. I think you can see the stake and maybe a leaf or two. I couldn't be happier about the spots I chose for them and it makes me happy to look out the window and see them out there. Hopefully the future owners of this house will love them and appreciate them as they grow and provide shade. Wow... that sounded cheesy....



Oh! I almost forgot! We ate the last of our easter
eggs today. I gave Alex a whole one and when
he got the yolk into his mouth he decided he didn't like it. So out came a nice pile of soft, crumbly yolk. YUM! I then mixed the other two into egg salad, which Alex LOVES. Here's the proof:

In Honor of HS^6!

I *think* all of us were included in this song, at least to some degree! I'll get working on Alex and you all need to vow to teach your kids the same. Then we can them them all together for a performance!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcXJqZgLFII

Thinking about composting...

I know... can I get any weirder? Ever since Amanda's post about it months ago, I've been thinking about it and checking it out.
And since I just planted two young little trees which need nutrients, and I also discovered in digging the holes that our soil is quite crappy, I figured that it could only help things out.
I found a great little chart of all the stuff I could put in and was pretty encouraged by that.
The only question I have now is will I still need to pay for a garbage collection service? And if our recycling is included in that, do I now have to load up my recyling and take it somewhere (or drop it off piece by piece into neighbor's on our streets bins? Could I do the same with whatever garbage can't go in the compost?)
So I'll do some more researching and if we decide to go for it I will let you know!

Pics of our planted trees and some shots of how long Alex's hair is to be coming soon!

Why is it...

that throwing stuff away is endless fun for a certain little boy? I've been eating a lot of easter candy as of late (more specifically, nestle carmel eggs- the easter version of carmel treasures, which are my FAVORITE!), and have thus created a steady supply of wrappers. Alex LOVES taking all of my candy wrappers to the trash. I give them one by one so as to prolong the entertainment for as long as possible.
Alex also really enjoys taking his diapers to the trash (he is wearing disposable diapers at night), which I love as well.
We're still working with him on cleaning up spills and toys, but he at least is happy to clean up the shoes that he finds around the house. Although, last Sunday, Jon found his church shoes in the pantry instead of in the shoe basket.
On the shoe note, Alex also will find my shoes or Jon's shoes for us sine it means that we get to go outside. Alex's shoes of choice for me and my black Madden heels... not always the most practical choice, but he does know that they are mama's shoes.

The long and short of it

Alex's hair is REALLY long. But for some reason, I like it! I love the little curls around his ears. Yesterday I actually found a pretty tight little curl in the back and I was SO excited! I think he looks very cute with his long hair. Plus, I'm kind of afraid of doing the first cut. Maybe when we go to Utah this month and my dad comments on how long his hair is every day we can do it. ; )

We're hoping (well, I'M hoping) that we can get our trees in today between/after conference. We'll see...

calling for a YUMMY wheat bread recipe!

So I have my lovely bread machine. But my bread hasn't quite reached that level of deliciousness that I've been shooting for. I need to find a tried and true recipe, so if you have one, send it my way!

Out to make their $5

After reading Mel's post about her fun trip to the blow up play land (like ready set play for my wardie friends here), I was reminded of my last trip there and vowing not to go back until Alex could FULLY enjoy their equipment, which probably wouldn't be until he's AT LEAST 2. We will then have a small window of one years time to use the $5 fee before he turns three and is bumped up to $8.50. At least if I have a baby who can't crawl or walk in that time period, I'll only have to pay for one kid. However, if that baby decides to army crawl at 6 months... five bucks.

So here I was a new mom who needed social interaction. Being able to get out once in a while was SO NICE! All of the moms in the summer fun group had older kids that needed fun things to do, so sitting around at someone's house (or chick-fil-et) for 2 or 3 hours wasn't an option. ;) So I went thinking that no business in their right mind would charge admission for a baby who was not going to go anywhere near anything except their couches. And if they did it certainly would be less than what they charged older kids. NOPE. I was wrong. I got to pay $5 to talk to my friends, hold Alex, nurse Alex on their comfortable seating, entertain Alex with the toys in his diaper bag, and, as a bonus- enjoy their free coffee (which I didn't since I don't drink it), air conditioning, and a lot of noise. I could take a Coke to the library for story time with friends or go to Chick-fil-et (and eat NOTHING... just sit there with friends) and have just as great of a time for a whole lot less than $5.

My favorite thing had to be the reason that was given to me at the place.
When I got there and they told me it was $5, I choked out an "excuse me?" and asked them why they were charging for a baby to sit on my lap. I talked to the main lady there who told me that if they didn't charge admission, there would be nothing to stop moms with babies from coming in just to hang out because they had soft couches and free coffee. Talk about a great laugh! Why would I want to get a group of ladies with babies to all meet up at the local blow up toy place so we could all hang out. Wouldn't inviting women with babies to my home make a whole lot more sense?

Anyway...
Am I wrong for thinking that it's strange to charge for a baby to sit in his mom's lap while she tags along with a playgroup full of older children? Is there something wrong with ME for thinking I shouldn't be charged? Do I just expect too much?

Funny thought... I'm thinking that they decided to include a toddler area (haha... a foam playmat, blocks, and a little mesh blockade/fence around it) just so that they would have an excuse to charge for kids once they started crawling.
Here's a pic of the toddler area:



So of course, I have now started wondering just what places charge for kids under 2.

Austin Children's Museum
Admissions
Adults: $5.50
Children 2 yrs. old & older: $5.50
12-23 months: $3.50 | under 12 months FREE

WOW! I can take my crawling baby to the CHILDREN'S MUSEUM for FREE. And they probably have a foam mat, blocks, and MORE. Although, probably not free coffee. Bummer.

Zoo... Sea World... Disneyland... Aquarium...water parks. All under 2 are free (and all a lot more entertaining for kids under 2 than a foam lined floor and foam blocks).

Clark Planetarium in SLC has exhibits and don't charge an entrance fee for anyone, just for shows (from what I could see).

Granted, at all (minus Clark) of these places you do have to pay an adult admission, which I guess is a trade off for charging babies (?).

I also have to add that everywhere we go out to eat (besides fast food), Alex doesn't even get a kids meal and instead will eat some of mine and some of Jon's food. He's also free at Cici's (pizza buffet) and I swear, last time we were there, he ate/wasted probably as much pizza as I ate (and twice as much of their alfredo sauce). Gattiland (more pizza buffet/arcade) even has a day where if you pay for a kid's meal mom's get to eat free.

I guess my whole point of this post is that I just don't understand how they can charge $5 for a baby! To me, there just seems to be something really wrong with that, especially if you're letting other babies in free with an older sibling. There are probably just as many older kids in there without a younger sibling that it would probably all work out. Haha... I should have waited outside the door for someone with a single child to come in and offered to pay them a buck off of their admission so that my baby could be their temporary younger sibling and get in free. Or signaled out one of my friends with older kids and said that I was bringing their younger sibling later and that he was needing to get in free with them. Or they could just not charge for infants.

At the very least, I feel that lowering the price for kids under 2, and especially only charging a dollar or two for kids under 1 if they feel like they have to charge for them, is very reasonable. I love the pricing scale that Austin Children's Museum has. Totally based on how much a child will actually be participating in, which makes total sense to me.


I guess everyone has to make their five bucks somewhere though, right?

*ps* I'm not bitter enough that people should know me as the cheap-o that doesn't like to pay for her baby to do things, so don't invite her to anything! I just have a problem with having to pay $5 for services (besides air conditioning, comfortable couches, and free coffee) that my child won't even be using.

uuuup ppeee

Translation: up please. Does that count as a sentence?! I guess it would be more just stringing two words together, but even so, it was a first for Alex and it just happened! And it wasn't just a one time thing because he said it again. We'll see if it continues and becomes a regular thing.
OH! Another exciting accomplishment... 2 weeks ago when we were eating at Village Inn, Alex finally figured out how to drink out of a straw!!! That's a big deal!
So there you have it, two exciting new developments on the Alex front!

We have a winner of the name contest!

So when Aubrey (my niece) was learning how to talk, my sister decided that Aubrey was going to learn her name before anyone else's. She was so set on it that it became a contest of sorts.
I'm pretty sure that "Ninee" was first over Brent or Carrie, sadly. It was a total jip because Cindy's name is much easier to say.
Well Cind, I'm sorry... apparently someone has an easier name than you! Make room in the winner's circle!

More Popcorn!

As mentioned in my previous post, we gave Alex popcorn the other night. Usually he is in bed when we make it, so he had not yet experienced the deliciousness that is popcorn.
Anyone who knows my family knows we're all about popcorn. Every year for Christmas, my dad would give each kid a big box of microwave popcorn from Sam's. So we had 4 boxes of the stuff and we'd usually have to buy another box to get us through the year. We LOVE popcorn.
So, given the heredity factor, I'm not at all surprised that Alex loves popcorn as much as his mommy does.
On Monday night when I mentioned making popcorn Alex got VERY excited. So he helped me make it in our whirly pop (we love that thing!) and then we put it in our very cool popcorn bowl.
Here are some pictures of Alex enjoying the goods!

Movie Day!

We got some pretty good movies this month.

This is one of my favorites. It shows what a funny little boy Alex is.



This movie was taken after the first. It's long, but full of laughs. So if you like laughing babies (even though some laughs are totally fake), you should like this one.



Here's Alex doing his laps.




Tomorrow I'll post the videos from egg dying and The Hunt!

google reader rocks

Everyone should use it!
I am encouraging this because it has allowed me to delete my side links to other people's blogs almost entirely. And I feel strangely happy that when people get to me, the blog stalking comes to an abrupt halt.

Now, I know that many people find great joy in blog stalking, but I have to admit to being a little weirded out that anyone could access my page just because someone they know (or someone they know that they know that they know) has a link to me in their side page.
Now, I don't mind friends passing my blog site on to other friends or linking things in my blog to people that they know. I just don't love that a link to my blog directly on their page makes it easy for any random person to access.

I know the links on the page is the way that many people check everyone's blogs, but I say that doing so is a pain in the butt. Who wants to click on ten+ links every day or week just to see who has updated their blog?
With Google reader, you don't have to click on every link! Just subscribe to each person's blog and anytime there is an update, it just shows up in google reader. I log in to google reader every day so that I can stay on top of everyone's posts.
And If you decide you want to access the actual blog you can just click on it from google reader.

So there you have it... a way that you can delete the link you have to my blog sitting over there in your side bar and still have an easy way to get to my blog.

Another cool thing- you can add any sites with an RSS feed to google reader and it will keep you up to date on them. You can also discover new blogs to subscribe to based on the blogs that you are currently subscribed to. I was able to find a whole slew of new crafty blogs! Yay!

Thanks for listening to Carrie's little internet safety/paranoia for the week. Don't use last names, specific locations, and don't make it easy for random general public that you don't know to have access to your personal site. And thank you for understanding my need for privacy!

Some recent pics and a few more Easter pics

I found some pictures hiding in a different folder on my memory card and they are cute, so of course I have to share them.

First, my two favorites.


look at that smile! Such a cute little boy (sorry for the overexposed flash-ness!)

And the best Easter picture:


Isn't he cute huntin' for eggies?












and here is the collage. Excuse the crappy text. My photoshop is having text issues! I also think you SHOULD be able to click on it to make it bigger. I hope.

One small request to all of my readers

In an attempt to keep our last name private (so that the whole blog doesn't have to be private/password protected) I am requesting that anyone who has us in their side links to not include our last name. Sorry if that messes anyone up! I'm just trying my best to keep any internet weirdos at bay. Thank you much!

A Nursery Triumph!

Apparently Alex just needed SOMEONE to love when he went to nursery. Jon walked him in there today and he, of course, started to cry. One of the nursery leaders (a nice friendly older guy who has been so great with getting the problem kids like mine to be okay) said hi to him and held out his arms for Alex and Alex walked over to him and just wrapped his arms around him! Aww! That man felt so loved that ornery Alex actually wanted him and I was so grateful that Alex decided to be okay with him!
So the report from nursery today is that Alex didn't cry at all and was having a great time. YAY!
Apparently all of our excited talking about nursery before we went to church did some good!
I hope that general conference doesn't throw things off too much and that we can continue seeing improvements in the going to nursery department!

Added to the scary list: BLENDER

this is our old blender. We sold it on craigs list recently because it has 2, yes TWO whole whopping speeds on it. Would you like your drink blended on high, or low? Tough choice. Funny thing, there wasn't even that much of a difference in the two. But we were young and newly married and wanted something cute. Oh how we've learned (and should have known! I'm a designer! ) that form truly does follow function. So yes, it functioned, but not up to par. The form had to be sacrificed to get the proper functionality.

ANYWAY...

I mixed up some crepes tonight, which required the blender. I flipped it on and Alex freaked out. He was so scared! Poor guy!
He has always been afraid of the blender, but I haven't used it in so long that I forgot. And apparently Alex also forgot that he was getting to be okay with it at one point. It took a few months of laughing and dancing around whenever I turned it on for him to think it was maybe not quite as scary. I guess we're back to square one.
On a similar note, I hope that he's still not afraid of this guy:



He was also pretty scary, but not nearly to the degree that the blender was. Okay, maybe I lie. I used this a few months ago to chop some stuff up and, big surprise, Alex freaked out. I'm sure I would have a similar outcome if I were to whip it out tomorrow.

Aren't appliances wonderful?!

Apparently, THIS is some pretty scary stuff

Yes. You are indeed seeing a spring doorstop. Scary you ask? For Alex, YES!

Tonight was such a funny night. I had my easter candy sprawled out on the floor and instead of going around it, Alex had to walk on top of it. So I playfully swatted his bum and said, "hey! what are you doin' walkin' on my stuff?!" which sent Alex into giggles as he ran away. It shouldn't be a surprise that if anyone wanted to see the game in action, I could do the same thing tomorrow (to get a video of it) and have the same result I had tonight since Alex likes to do the same funny stuff over and over.
Anyway, I put the candy all in a bag and, after taking a lap into the living room and through the kitchen, Alex was back to step on the stuff again. He really just wanted the swatting and the "hey! What are you doin' walkin' on my stuff" followed by a short chase. Anyone with a toddler knows that this went on for at least 15 minutes.

I then chased him a little further for more giggles and he happened to run into a spring doorstopper. Of course, it made the weird springy noise that they do. Alex stopped dead in his tracks with a bit of a worried look on his face. He didn't quite know what to think. He was actually afraid of them when he was just starting to crawl and would find and hit them. That fear stopped for a while, so I figured that he was over it. Apparently not because when I made the sound again for him to show him what it was, he started crying! So I got to do one of my favorite things of being a mom. I held out my arms and he ran over to me and gave me a big hug and just held me. Aww!

We then went back to the fun and games and when we got to the chasing part we could only get barely into the living room before Alex would burst into tears again. The poor kid knew what was coming and was afraid to even get close to the doorstopper! So there were more loves and one last round of giggles before heading to bed.

We're hoping that he can get over his fear of doorstoppers by the time he's 12. We'll be working with him on it every day.

What do I love most after every holiday?

Buying candy at 75% at Target!!! YUM!
Today I bought 4 bags of Cadbury eggs (I didn't buy them before easter in anticipation of getting 4 bags for the price of one AFTER easter), 4 things of Snickers eggs, 2 things of Butterfinger eggs, 3 bags of Nestle Carmel filled eggs, and a little bag of spring m&m's that just so happened were in my wedding colors.
I brought them all home with glee.
Then Jon came home and talked some sense into me. So while we were out for dinner, we returned 2 of the Cadbury eggs, both Butterfinger egg packages, 1 of the carmel filled eggs, and the m&m's (they were cute, but I just don't like plain m&m's). I just couldn't let any of the Snickers go though. Too delicious to part with.
Thank goodness for a husband that can talk some sense into me, but I really do miss having all of that candy. That would have lasted me for at least 3 weeks!

Mmm... Popcorn!

Tonight we popped some popcorn and started a movie before putting Alex to bed so that he could try out the popcorn. It was so cute to have him sitting next to me and reaching his little hand over into the popcorn bowl. He was very much a fan of the popcorn. I'm not at all surprised since popcorn happens to be one of my favorite things.
I remember as a kid, we'd be laying in bed going to sleep and we'd hear the popcorn popper start up. The popping would soon begin and we would get excited... we knew what was coming. My dad would bring us each a little cup of popcorn and we would eat it in our beds happily. It always made us so happy to have that little treat.
I figure that is probably where the obsession started and I plan on doing the same thing to my kids that my parents did to me. I still love to sit down and watch a movie and share a bowl of popcorn with my family when I am home. It may sound weird, but it just makes me happy. Who wouldn't want to share the same things they loved as a child with their own children?

What song are you diggin' currently?

Please post your current favorite in the comments!

Right now I am loving Broken by Lifehouse

Pictures from The Egg Hunt!

Lucky Alex got to have 2 egg hunts on Sunday. We streamed them to each set of grandparents so they could see him in action.
After the first hunt, Alex quickly figured out that there was good stuff to be had inside those little eggies and set to work on opening them and eating all of the M&Ms out of them. What made me laugh was that there were M&Ms on the floor and he would pick one up, put it inside the egg, and then eat it. Kids are great!
He got good and messy and then we sent him out again for the second hunt. He didn't want to hunt for very long though. He knew what was in those eggs and how to open them. He sat on the ground and started in on the M&Ms he knew were in store for him. Didn't work out so well when they spilled all over the grass, so we went inside and he got to enjoy another whole egg full of M&Ms.
He didn't eat a lot of dinner afterwards. :)

His Easter basket/bucket on Easter morning.


The grass is pretty hard to walk in (dang st. augustine. I hate it!), so Alex usually spends a lot of time on the ground when he's out there. The egg hunt was no exception.


reach for it!


his hair in this made me laugh! I guess it's time for a haircut...








this one's for my dad ;)




trying not to fall over!






YUMMY!


look at those teeth...

Happy Easter!

As our first major child centered holiday with a child on our own (without the grandparents/usual family festivities), I would rate us at about a 6 out of 10. We have some work to do and thank goodness we have MANY years to perfect it. I suppose it's also good that this year's memory won't be the brightest for Alex.
We did have fun though.
Last night I remembered that we probably should have dyed eggs during the day. OOPS! So I boiled the eggs after Alex went to bed and we dyed them this morning. Alex came downstairs this morning to a lamb, barrel of monkeys, and an Elmo coloring book in his easter basket. He LOVES the barrel of monkeys and played with those for a good part of the morning.
Then we dyed the easter eggs. Alex loved dropping a white egg in the dye and watching it come out a different color. He didn't have a lot of interest in stirring the eggs around in the dye. He just wanted to keep putting new white eggs in. His hands were pretty colorful by the end!
For his easter outfit, he wore his little seersucker blazer and matching hat and khaki dress shorts (yes, he has dress shorts! They're so adorable!). His blazer fits him great in the arm length, but it still too wide on him. I think I'm going to pin the sides in a little so that it looks like it actually fits him. Everyone at church thought he was quite the handsome little man.
After church while Alex took a nap, Jon and I got our bbq ribs cooking. This is the first time I have ever made ribs and they actually turned pretty well! I think we may be sticking with bbq ribs as a tradition of our first Easter in Texas (last year we were in Utah). I like the idea of being able to take a little bit of Texas with us wherever we go as tradition.

The most exciting part of the day, or course, was the egg "hunt". I say "hunt" because there wasn't a lot of hiding, and thus, hunting, going on. The eggs were strewn around on the grass and put in creative places that were still in plain site. It was kind of like beginner's training for next year. All I had to say to Alex was, "go get the eggies and put them in your basket!" and he knew exactly what to do. I opened our back door and he immediately went to an egg and put it in his basket. Okay, it was technically an easter bucket. Same thing. Anyway, he had the best time picking up all of the eggs and an even greater time opening them up and eating all of the candy.
He didn't eat a lot of dinner. ;)

Overall it was a great day. There was, obviously, room for improvement and we really missed being around family, but we still had a lot of fun doing things on our own and making new traditions for our family. Thank goodness we can still build a lot more, but I think that today was a great start.

Let the Front Bushes Mass Exodous Begin!

Anyone want to come dig some holes? Because we're kind of sick of it. You should probably know that our "dirt" is actually considered to be clay. Still want to dig holes?

You probably noticed a few posts ago my landscaping dilemmas with the columns, out of control bushes, and overall ugliness resulting from the odd placement of bushes (seriously, there is no rhyme or reason to it) in the front of our house. I came to the conclusion that everything in the front had to be moved so I could start from scratch. I know, I'm completely crazy. BUT it should help tremendously with the look of our house which should in turn help it sell better next year.

We decided to get started today by moving the large out of control bushes that we have the most of into our backyard along the back fence. Digging those things out was such a pain! There were roots going everywhere. I'm really hoping that they don't die in their new home. That would be just our luck. We only got 2 of them transplanted, but have holes dug for the rest of them to go in, so we just have to dig the rest out of the front during the week. I'm planning on getting at least 2 done, but hopefully we can get all 3 of them.

Once we got them out and planted along our fence, we realized just how huge these bushes are! I was amazed at how much they have grown! I think my pruning last year definitely did some good. When all of them are in place, they should cover a good portion of the back fence. Even with having the 2 there, it makes such a difference in aesthetics. Our backyard doesn't look so bare!

Once the 5 main bushes are out, then we have the flowering things with the weird leaves (the ones that we had to tie up last week) that are on either end of the planting area that will come out. One will probably be moved to the side of the house and the other to the back corner that the other bushes didn't reach to.

Then there are the 3 odd bushes that are grouped together up front, but I don't know where they should go. They may end up with some smaller ones of the same kind that we planted around the big ugly box between ours and our neighbors house. That thing could definitely use some more coverage. They could also go along the back side of our house, around the air conditioner, or maybe just moved between the columns. I'm not really sure yet on those because they are kind of weird and don't have a lot of growth at the bottom, so they look really bare. I'll probably have to trim the bottoms of them as well so they can get fuller.

For the columns, we will probably be planting Japanese Sky Pencils, which are like tall skinny boxwoods. I just read that they are excellent for being shaped into topiary, so I'm excited about that! Here is a picture of what they look like. I think they will look fabulous.

So now all I have to decide is what to put between the columns and then what to put in the beds up front. I got some flower seeds to plant (poppies and something else), but I'm thinking I want peonies. Maybe I just love them because they have such a soft look to them. Oh and they're pink! Who wouldn't love that? I'm already having visions of freshly cut peonies sitting in a vase on my kitchen counter. Ahh...

So the peonies would be planted in a long row in front of the sky pencils. I would then do either some ground cover or some more grassy type low bushes.

I think I'm going to do some photoshopping so I can get an idea of what it would look like.

Again, if you have any good ideas for me, please share!

Thanks for listening to me ramble about my landscaping. I love sharing all of my fun plans and projects with everyone!

I'm not so good at the staple gun...

But I did get my barstools covered! Well, one currently. I had to stop because Alex needed to take a nap in the room next door and stapling also involves hammering for me.
I don't know if the wood on the stools was just hard or if I just suck, but pretty much none of the staples went in all of the way. And then, when I hammered them, a lot of them just bent over sideways instead of going in straight. So it looks really umm... nice... underneath, but I figured no one will see that anyway.
I am very excited I have a staple gun though. It was a lot of fun!

here is the finished barstool:



and a close up of the fabric that so many are dieing to see. Isn't it nice?! I love it! (by the way it is brown, green, and cream. The sunlight washed it out a little in the picture)




I also picked up a bread machine I bought off of craig's list today. It's a little big larger than I was anticipating... LOL, but I'm excited to get some good use out of it. It's only been used a few times, so it's pretty much new. I hate making dough of any kind because it's such a pain to knead it and then let it rise and then knead it again. This should greatly simplify that process so I can make more dough stuff and not just bread. I can even make jam in this thing! I have plans of making cinnamon rolls this week. YUM!
Now... to figure out where to store the monster. I'm thinking my next house is definitely going to have some kind of appliance hider. It's going to have to be HUGE though because I have a big ol' breadmaker now in addition to my crockpot (I would love to just keep this out on the counter and slide it out any time I wanted to use it), blender, and toaster. Hmm... maybe the waffle iron, george foreman, and griddle too. I just like to keep things within easy reach!

I'll let you all know how my bread making goes!

A day at the park!

Today was probably the best day of Alex's life. We spent 2 whole hours at the park! We went down crazy steep slides together (really... you should see this thing!), fell in the bark, climbed the stairs over and over, ran around the tennis court, and went down more slides.

It was a really fun day and I wish I would have brought my camera. Alex was just so happy to be outside. And I didn't have to hear him whining at the door(s) all day to go out. We'll probably be spending more time outside together. It makes him happy and it's good for us to get out.

Now, if only I had a fun park toy in my back yard. I guess it's time to look for outside toys (little slides, houses, playscape things etc.) so that I can hang out with him in the back yard in the hammock on the laptop. ;) I don't go out in the grass. I think it's yucky and I'm afraid of bugs and the random red ant hill that seems to pop up. I actually am really freaked out about Alex falling on one and getting majorly bitten, so I hate having him be outside if I'm not right there with him or have looked the yard over for ants. What a pain. Here's to living in the south eh?

I hope all of my Utah friends get more warm days coming their way so they can enjoy the outside with their kids too!

Why do I not have a staple gun???

An appropriate post for my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Dad! I miss having you and your tools around.

So today I set about making the covers for my barstools. I only got 12" of fabric thinking that would be wide enough to cover the tops. Well, it covered down the sides, but didn't go under the bottom at all. So I had to sew a little strip of fabric on each side so that it would be wide enough to cover. I have that done and I have my batting cut out, so now all I need is a staple gun.
I'll probably pick one up tomorrow as I'll be needing one anyway when I do the valances in my living room.
Sadly enough, I think my dad has 2 hand held staplers (haha... I'm remembering my mom and I using them to put the tulle and ivy up on our deck columns for my wedding) and an electric one, so he has enough to spare. But alas... I live 1500 miles away.

no, I will not eat my lunch

Alex has been shaking his head no for a while, but most of the time it would accompany crying when we would pick him and and move him away from the door to go outside or take him to get his diaper changed.
Well today, he used the head shake and said no no no in his little Alex way when I tried to get him to eat more of his lunch.
I guess this is the beginning of the end. I'll just keep hoping that the no no no's don't get too out of control!

be still my heart!

I went to the fabric store today. I LOVE the fabric store!
I could spend forever in there. I didn't even look at the home decor fabrics because I had a friend with me.
My little mind was spinning with ideas and I wished that I could live there. They have nice sewing machines, crafty books and all of the supplies, and endless amounts of fabric. When I die, I want heaven to be a fabric store.

While there, I was thinking about my mother in law taking her little boy to the fabric store for hours at a time. At least it seemed like hours to the little boy. Jon throws a fit if I ever suggest that I need to stop by the fabric store. I think his mom scarred him for life. I keep telling myself that I'm ingraining a love for craftiness and beautiful fabrics in Alex. Or at the very least I'm giving him a good sensory experience by letting him feel all the different kinds of fabrics. And yes, he actually does love doing that. I can park my cart next to the shelves and he runs his little baby hands along the fabric with glee. Hmm... doesn't sound like his mommy at all...

The good news is, I found a fabric that I LOVE! I actually bought some to cover the tops of my barstools with. I want to go back and get some more to make a sling and also to cover an office chair with for my crafty desk (many thank yous to Nicole for the inspiration!). Is it possible to be in love with one fabric enough that you want it everywhere? I'm starting to think so. In fact... I was just thinking what great throw pillows it would make on my couch! Maybe even both of my couches. Oh! And a tablecloth! Yes, I am in love.

Things I did today

So since I didn't get to painting the barstools and shelf last week, I did that today while Alex was down for his nap.
Funny thing about these barstools... My dad and I picked them up at the Magna/West Valley DI about 4 years ago for about a dollar or 2 each! They were for my new apartment. I still laugh because they don't exactly match, but they fit our needs. I couldn't bring myself to go and buy new barstools for $30 each when I had perfectly good ones sitting right here. The next step to to cover the top with some batting (thin cushioning) and some fabric and they'll be as cute as ever!



and here is my bathroom nearly decorated. I just have to do some window treatments!

I didn't get to plant my flowers today, but I should be able to do that this week sometime. We're also going to try to get some trees ordered to plant in our backyard (hmm... maybe we can wait to plant them until the Marsh family gets here so they can help dig the holes...) and finish our back patio extension. Oh ya and re-landscape our ugly front bush area.

Here's a picture of our house... let me know if you have any great ideas on bushes/flowers. Mostly, I would love suggestions on what to do to emphasize the columns. I was thinking topiary type trees or hibiscus trees (hehe since we won't have to deal with them getting huge and looking weird before we move. They grow up to 6-8' high and they are 6-8' at their widest part.) Please note though, the bushes in front are much taller and bushier now (especially the tall bush in front of the column closest to the door. It is out of control! You can hardly see the column it's so wide.) and our door/shutters are also a brighter red. Okay... I went out and took a real time picture. So that is the nighttime picture after this first one.

We just tied up the bush today so it's a little more put together, but I still think it's ugly and need something more streamlined.

The kid loves turning pages

This was taken on Valentine's Day. I was reading Mr. Messy to Alex and he actually just liked the pages flipping. Right before (and what inspired us to get out the camera), he was turning his head with the pages. It would be like watching cars go by, but he was watching each page go by. I don't know if any of that makes sense! I was sad that he stopped doing it for this movie, but the finger thing is pretty hilarious. I'm cracking up pretty much the whole time.

make that one more tooth brushing song...

So we just turned on Barney and guess what they are talking about? Brushing your teeth! What a funny coincidence.
So now I know another tooth brushing song, thank you Barney.

How many songs do you know about brushing your teeth?

I know of at least 2. And I know my mom could sing along with me!

first one from my 2nd grade program....
When you wake up in the morning and it's quarter to one and you want to have a little fun... You brush your teeth ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch...

Amazingly... I found the lyrics for this song online! See them here. And here I was thinking my teachers made them up!

And I don't remember where this was from. Again, my mom probably knows. I remember singing this all the time in my mind around the house and, without fail, every time I would eat. Maybe some of you remember this song as well. I want to say it was from those books like Gratitude, Honesty, etc... I think Janice Kapp Perry? dunno.
Here it is though:
Brush your teeth each morning, brush them every night; brush them in the morning keeps them clean and bright.

I have to admit I've been singing that last one a lot lately after my trip to the dentist. I know... weird to have to many posts about my mouth. But I've been doing a lot of brushing lately. I really do have to brush my teeth 3 times a day. I have never done that in my life! (even though the song told me to).
And I get to use this *divine* (gag) mouthwash twice a day. I know many of you have heard that it's prescription mouthwash. I just get such a kick that I have to be on prescription mouthwash! There's just something so amusing about that. It definitely keeps my mouth fresh for a long time... even when I'm eating. Not so fun when you want to enjoy the taste of your food. Oh and it burns my tongue at night, but not in the morning. Weird. Oh ya, and if I don't brush well enough before using it, it will stain my teeth where any plaque/tarter are. Now there's an incentive to brush well!
I am also going through tons of floss seeing as I now floss twice a day.

ahh... isn't curing gingivitis such a dream? Luckily I only have to continue this regime for 3 weeks, but by that time, the brushing 3 times a day will be a habit and I may as well keep it up right? Really though, my mouth feels great besides the burning, no taste, and the constant miny-ness, so why not continue?

SOOO since I'm having such a good time, I think I am going to challenge all of my blog readers to start brushing their teeth 3 times a day and flossing at least once a day. Try it. I dare you!

SLACKER!

I just realized I haven't posted since MONDAY!!! I usually try to post every day, so I don't know what happened this week!
I guess there just hasn't been much happening.
OH! I am mad at Target though!
Jon read in our Community Impact newspaper thing that Target will not be opening until March of '09! That's a whole freaking year away!!! Stupid Target. I was looking forward to having easy access to my favorite ice cream (Archer Farms Praline Pecan... SOO GOOD!) and being able to go cruise the clearance aisles several times a week.

Despite the Target news, I got probably the best news of the year in the Impact. Ready? What could possibly be so exciting? CARL'S JR.!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!
For the record, there are NO Carl's Jr.'s within 100 miles of me (the closest is 101 miles away in Van Ormy and the next closest one is in Dallas... 3 hrs. away!). This is very bad news to someone who loves Carl's Jr.
So the new Carl's is being built over in Cedar Park right over by our friend's Kenn and Amy's house. So with their new hospital, Super Target, and now Carl's Jr. (and them of course!) it has me wishing even more that we lived over there. Sad that we didn't even look in that area when we looked at houses. If we were staying in the area for longer than next year, I would be selling my house as soon as our Target is done and moving my butt over there. I mean come on...Carl's Jr.! Who could resist that?! Well... apparently not Paris Hilton...



and just because I thought this one was funny (it's actually not Paris, but a still from a movie making fun of the infamous Paris washing the car and eating Carl's Jr. commercial)

Having a clean house is the best!

After slacking for a few weeks and not keeping up on daily stuff, I threw myself back into my routine today. The bed got made for the first time in weeks!
My bathroom is sparkling and clutter in my kitchen is (mostly) cleaned up. I always feel so good when I keep my house clean from day to day, so yay for me for getting out of my slacking slump.


And because a post just about cleaning my house is boring, here is Alex doing a happy dance for me (I promised the naked bum dance!) This is one of my all time favorite videos of Alex, so I hope you like it too.






And this is just another cute one from the other night. He wanted to play chase apparently. I crawl around and chase him and hit my hands on the floor, so that's what he's doing in the beginning and we chase around the island and scream (I know... great thing to teach a toddler), so this is Alex running around the island screaming and then over to the family room, which is where I go when he's chasing me. What a funny little boy.

It would have been nice to know 4 weeks ago...

We put a disposable diaper on Alex today because he's had a little rash and I went to put his church pants on and remembered that 4 weeks ago when he was also in a disposable, his pants fell right off in the middle of Jon's primary class.
So I was all set to go sew them up and was sitting at my machine devising the best way to take them in when I noticed a little clear button on the inside band near the front. What could this mean?! ADJUSTABLE WAIST!!!
Alex's church pants now fit and I didn't have to take them in. That would have been nice to know 4 weeks ago when he was walking around without pants on.

In case I haven't mentioned it, I LOVE craigs list!

We had a craig's list garage sale today. This morning we took pictures and posted all the extra stuff we have laying around. We've already sold our blender and the 2 crappy bikes I picked up at goodwill, leaving us with a grand total of $30!
Hopefully we can get our bigger ticket items (light fixtures, rug, and entertainment center) sold soon!

I'm also working on getting a few design projects done today. I have some valances I need to make (we'll be picking up 2x4's and brackets today) and then I am going to paint our barstools and a shelf for our bathroom black (will also be getting black paint). After the shelf is dry, we can hang it and our other wall hangings in the bathroom and then I will post a picture of how cute it is.
When I finally get the valances sewn, I will post a picture of those as well.
Oh ya, I also got some little ball things in a metal basket put out on our coffee table. I know I'm just asking Alex to get into them, but they are all Alex safe. Plus, they make my house smell really good!

Jon has been wanting to go launch rockets with Alex like he used to do with his dad. So we're going to go get some today for Jon to build this week. Hopefully the weather will be better next Saturday so we can have another fun day outside WITH rockets!


Update: we sold one of our light fixtures and probably the leather rug that Jon hates! YAY! Craig's list rocks!

I cried at my dentist's appointment

Ya you heard me right. I cried. I'm not talking uncontrollable sobbing, just tears rolling down my face and not being able to talk very well. ;)

First of all, Alex was being a bum last night and both Jon and I missed out on several hours of sleep. And my appointment was at 8 this morning. So I was pretty tired.

Upon arriving, I realized that I forgot the middle 2 numbers of Jon's social. I tried to call him at least 15 times and got no answer. Apparently he was enjoying his sleep.

They let me go back without it and say to keep trying him, which I do with the same result.

So the cleaning starts and I mention that I have sensitive gums. They don't bleed when I am brushing (I even brush with vigor along my gums... or so I thought), but they do bleed when flossing. So the hygienist gets to work. She starts out with one of those sharp metal curvy hook tools. I think she was measuring my gums because she would poke (SO painful! It felt like a needle being poked into my gums!) and then type things (numbers?) into the computer.
The painful pokes (combined with the bright light in my eyes) set me off and I was tearing up. Good thing you don't have to talk when your mouth is open and someone is inflicting pain.

But then the secretary came in and asked if I had gotten a hold of Jon yet. So I try again several times and still no answer. As you can imagine, in the state that I was in, the frustration of Jon not answering didn't help. When she came back to ask me if I'd gotten it, I had a hard time talking to her.
Then the hygienist starts to work again. She used some kind of grinder thing? I don't know what it was, but it was not nice. She then used something to clean between my teeth that took effort to get in and out. That was really not nice. The poking still takes the cake on the being the most painful.

While doing everything, she's commenting about how much I'm bleeding and how bad of shape my gums are in and that I need to be brushing a lot better along my gum line, etc. Uhh... NOT helping.
The best thing she said was we'll get you a prescription for mouthwash that you'll use before you brush which will help heal your gums so they don't bleed and then you'll come back in 3 weeks to make sure your gums are better.
But then she had to launch into the negatives again... the mouthwash can stain your teeth if you don't brush really well and on and on.
So tears again.
Then the secretary comes back again for the social. Ugh.
I try Jon again and he answers! Yay! Whole new wave of emotions though with him FINALLY answering. So I'm talking to him and trying not to cry ... that was fun.

Finally the dentist comes in and she was SO nice. She felt bad about me crying. She couldn't believe it! LOL! I brushed it off as just being over emotional (on top of the pain). She also explained that the gingivitis could be coming from leftover pregnancy gingivitis (or maybe she was just saying that to make me feel better...). Anyway, I felt much better talking to her and she said it's not a problem and it will get better. But I now have to use prescription mouthwash and brush 3 times a day!

But the good news is that my teeth were excellent. No cavities and no plaque. So yay for that! And go me for having no cavities even without seeing a dentist for 3 years!

I'm hoping the poking will be much less painful when I go back next month.

Anyway, it's now quarter to 5 and my teeth are still pretty sore, which has never happened to me before. It hurt to chew stuff! I'm going to go and take some Tylenol so that hopefully I can enjoy dinner!
Speaking of which, we are having cream cheese enchiladas tonight, which is one of my favorite things to make. I also love that it's enough to make 2-4 meals for us (it makes 10 enchiladas).

Here's the recipe for it (not found in any cookbook... it's a modified recipe)

2-3 cups cubed chicken, cooked
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1 small can green chilies
1 small onion, grated (or chopped into small pieces is fine)
2-3 cups grated cheese
10-13 flour tortillas (the orig. rec. calls for 10, but I added in cream cheese and ench. sauce and a bit more chicken, so it goes a bit further. Or you could have 10 really full enchiladas!)
4-8 oz. cream cheese, softened (I usually go for the whole 8 oz)
1 can of enchilada sauce (the larger can... I think 16 oz.)

mix chicken with the soup, sour cream, green chilies, onion, 1 to 1 1/2 c. cheese, the softened cream cheese, and not quite half of the can of enchilada sauce together.
Spoon the mixture into the center of tortillas and roll up. Place filled tortillas in 9x13 pan (I usually put about 6 in the 9x13 and then 4 in an 8x8).
Mix the other can of soup with the rest of the enchilada sauce and pour over the enchiladas. Top with the rest of the cheese.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Basketball Jon... I've got a Basketball Jon...I've got a Basketball Jon, Jon ____ ooo ooo ooo...

I know everyone in MY family will get that. Really anyone in Utah that got one of those Utah Jazz playoffs cds from the first year they were in the finals or something would get that. Man, that was a LONG time ago. My little brother was OBSESSED with those songs. I'm pretty sure he used to walk around singing the song from my title almost constantly. Except it was Stockton instead of Jon _____. BIG difference between that John and my Jon!

So obviously, tonight was a ward basketball game! I think it was the last one of the season. We got to take the nice 30 minute drive down to the stake center (now, now, no need to be jealous that we live so faraway) and were even there on time! Jon did great and made a basket at the end. He had some good blocks and had a lot of fun. Way to go honey! Alex had more fun running (well, walking as fast as his legs could go) back and forth on the stage. We played boo with the hanging curtains which he thought was hilarious and he tried numerous times to turn around and go off the edge of the stage. Apparently he thinks it's just as high as the bed and he can get down no problem. Afraid not little man! So we had a few tantrums and then decided to just stick to the back, so I didn't get to watch much of the game. Sorry honey!

Other news of the day: I did laundry.

And now I am off to practice sewing a french seam on a curve more. I attempted to make a sling a few nights ago and it didn't go well.
Oh! Here is a picture of my new sewing desk! It's a computer desk, but it actually works out PERFECTLY as a sewing/craft desk. It's also a good way for me to moderate how much fabric I have! I can't go get more fabric until I use the stuff that I have and work on some of the projects I have in mind. I know one person (ahem. jon.) that will be very excited about my fabric moderation.
Now I just need to hook the DVD player up to the TV so that Alex can watch Baby Signing Times (he's obsessed!) and play with toys while I work on projects!




AND tomorrow I am going to the dentist. I haven't gone in oh... 3 years. I know... I'm a horrible person. I'll let you know how it all goes tomorrow. Hopefully not too bad!

And I'm Feeling Good

I couldn't help myself... more Michael Buble for the title. I was also supposed to write this yesterday, but we watched a movie and I forgot! So pretend like this was posted yesterday.

Alex is doing much better. He had a a slight fever off and on most of the day/evening, but nothing to really worry about. And he was still acting fine, so we figure that whatever was going on with him is taken care of. I think I'm going to miss him just wanting to be held though. And him laying his head on my shoulder and wrapping his arms around my neck randomly when I was carrying him. He rarely does that. I'm hoping that one day he'll be more cuddly. Either that or hopefully my next one will be more cuddly.

So I'm mostly glad that Alex is back to himself. I think I'm most thankful that I don't have to sit and put him to sleep in the chair for 30-40 minutes and repeat that when he wakes up multiple times at night. I think I would trade a cuddly baby for a full nights sleep.

Thank you Michael Buble... we now have a fever : (

Last night before putting Alex to bed I noticed that he felt maybe a little warm, but he was acting fine, so we just put him to bed.

Well he woke up crying at about 12:30 and I went in and got him and he was a lot warm. We took his temperature (THAT was almost as fun as when he got stitches) and it was 101.6.
We drugged him up with Motrin and tried to put him back to bed. He was not having that. He wanted to sit in the chair and sleep on Mama. LOTS of fun for tired Mama.

After several attempts to put him in his crib, even after he had fallen asleep, he came into bed with us. He laid there, but didn't really go to sleep. For 2 hours. So this mama didn't really go to sleep either.

I tried putting him in his crib after about an hour and a half of the no sleep in mommy and daddy's bed and had a repeat of the I just want to sit in the chair and sleep on mama and I'll scream if you try to put me in my crib experience. I even went back to bed determined to let him cry it out. After 30 minutes (at least) of screaming with no sign of giving up, he came back to our bed (it's now almost 4) and I handed the reins to Jon in exhaustion/frustration.

After about 1/2 an hour of Jon trying to get him to lay down and go to sleep in our bed, he took him into his room and put him in his crib. He cried for a minute, but then stopped and went to sleep.

Luckily he slept until 9:00 ish, but of course, he only took an hour and a half nap and then didn't want to take one later in the day (even though it was obvious that he was tired).

This afternoon his temp was 100.1 and tonight before bed it was 100.6. I noticed when I was holding him to put him to sleep tonight that he seemed to be breathing a little quickly. He's just getting over a cold, but he doesn't seem at all congested and doesn't have a cough at all. So I'm going to keep an eye on him and probably call my pedi tomorrow to see if I should be worried about pneumonia or other respiratory infection since his only symptoms of such so far is the fever and slightly quickened breathing.

So lots of fun going on in this house! Luckily I got Alex into a deep enough sleep that he was okay when I laid him down in his crib tonight so I have some time to myself. I hope he sleeps well so that he's not overly tired again tomorrow.


In other good news, I picked up a computer desk that I am going to use as a sewing table on craigs list for a whopping $15! I'm so excited!

Shopping is always good... right?

I felt like getting out today and Alex and I needed to share some french fries (one of our new favorite things to do), so we went out to pick up some various items and browse Ross.

First stop: Office Max. We needed ink and I needed some printable magnetic sheets. You will be seeing the need for those in the coming weeks. I let Alex down to walk around and he had a blast. He loved walking from one end of the store to the other and would "run" away if I got too close to him. Good thing he's not too fast yet! He was quite upset when I picked him up to go up front and pay for our things. Surprised? Not at all.

Next: Ross. I went looking for a larger pair of jeans for him to wear on the random cold days we've been having. I found NADA. So I'll have to just put him in his sweat/track pants on those days and be happy with that. I did however find a blanket with silk on one side and minky on the other just like his green blanket. It's different because it's blue and has a large decal (?) on one corner, but to him it feels just the same so it's just as good. So we now have a replacement blankie for when his needs to be washed. Best of all, it was only 5 bucks!
We also got some new books. I think Jon is probably getting a little sick of reading "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" every night. We got a set of Curious George books, a set of 3 little golden books (2 of them were stories that I remembered liking when I was little), and a book called Mommy's Little Boy.

On the book note, I am working on putting together a book wish list for Alex on Amazon. We love books and can't get enough of them around here, so I'm throwing books out there as an ALWAYS loved gift for Alex.


Oh ya, and I also got some cute little newborn baby shoes/booties because they were so darn cute. Hopefully we have another one sometime because I already have stuff for it! Yikes! I must be crazy!

After our trip to Ross we drove over to The Golden Arches (aka McD's) and got some french fries. These kept Alex quiet the whole ride home. Hooray for french fries! Mmm... I might need some more french fries again tomorrow. We DO have to go to wal mart anyway...


And just because I can, I'm going to show off the invitation I made for our ward's relief society birthday dinner later this month. I admit that I can digital scrapbook and have it look good. It would be great if I actually enjoyed it enough to actually do something with it (ahem... like scrapbooking...) besides photo cards/announcements/invitations etc. But like all major projects, it's just too overwhelming and time consuming. I find that I don't do well at baby stepping big projects (except maybe sewing). I would much rather start a project and be able to finish is rather quickly.

Here's the invite!



I'm editing to add that I like the colors of this so much that I think I'm going to make a new title page for my blog with the same kind of design!


Oh! I almost forgot! My replacement sewing machine came today! So now I can get back to work on my quilt at night/nap time while Alex sleeps next door (because it's quiet). I also am going to try making some slings. I've been dieing for a new one and have a couple of friends who I am planning on making one for as well. I'll let you know how it goes!

Ice Cream Baby!

As mentioned yesterday, we picked up some ice cream at Target. We had some last night and when I put it away Alex cried like I had just broken his heart. I guess he hadn't had his fill.
So in anticipation of the same event tonight, we got out the video camera. Plus he was being really funny with his bouncing up and down (what he does when he gets excited for food) and mommy was having fun teasing him. We're such nice parents.




here is a video that we took on Friday night that demonstrates the bouncing in excitement for food. (the beginning is a demonstration of him crawling around chasing me like I chase him. He decided to do that all on his own randomly)




And some spinning silliness. The boy just wanted to spin and spin and spin.





And I'm sick of uploading videos, but have a lot more to share (hooray for video shrinkage!), so I'm sure you'll be getting to see a lot of videos in the coming days.

Here are a few picture collages of our day downtown yesterday!

Fun night, fun day!

Last night we went to dinner at Red Robin. Alex loved the big bird they had in there. And here's a surprise, he loved the "fry sauce" (their Campfire Sauce) and dipping everything in it. He wouldn't eat the turkey until we pulled out the dip and then he was all about it. And you know that after eating a few bites of food with dip, he resorted to just sticking his fingers in it and licking them off!
Mama is proud that her little boy is a dip lover, and more importantly, fry sauce lover!

When we left, we got a balloon on the way out and Alex was SO excited about it! He had the biggest grin on his face!

We then went over to Target to pick up some of my favorite ice cream (Archer Farms Praline Pecan). As we were getting out of the car, Alex grabbed the balloon that was tied onto the door handle and the string broke and Alex let go of the balloon. So after a fun 5 minutes of playing with the balloon we had a fun time watching it float high into the sky. Darn. I thought I was guaranteed a peaceful, happy drive home after Target.

After going home, Alex was being so silly. He was being pretty silly in the restaurant and in Target too, so I should have been expecting it. He was spinning endlessly, laughing and giggling, running around, and getting down on his hands and knees to chase me like I chase him (complete with just hitting his hands on the floor like I do). We got shot some fun videos, so I'll have to post those tomorrow.

On the video note, Jon put a video compressor on the laptop, so now I can post some of the longer videos since they are now compressed and under the upload limit! yay! I promised my board girls long ago I would post the naked bum dancing video, so I am going to find it and compress it so that I can finally do that!

So today we went to the Home and Garden show. It was pretty much all pools. Hmm... could we possibly live in Texas? We did find a really fun thing that I wanted to get for Alex. It's a sand/water box with a sun shade and a cover that comes over the sand side for storage. I know he would have a lot of fun with that this summer. That boy LOVES being outside. We didn't get it, but I'm thinking that maybe I can build one. Dad, you're coming to visit this summer, right???
We also got a little vacation package to San Antonio and will probably go there again for our anniversary/4th of July.
Oh ya! And we got CZ bands to go on either side of my wedding ring! We actually had to buy 2 sets to get the 2 bands, so I'll soon (they only had one in my size and will be shipping the other soon) be the proud owner of 2 CZ engagement rings and 2 bands. So if you know of anyone that would like a pretty cute CZ ring (good to propose with I think!), I have a couple.

To end our day, we walked over to Town Lake and walked around and played on the grass down there. Alex LOVED it. I loved that they had mostly normal grass! And it was so green and pretty! It was a beautiful day! Pictures of our fun there later!

And now I am off to bed. Jon is playing a Star Wars game and I don't know when he will be joining me, but I have a headache, so I really need to head out. Staring at a computer screen is not a very good headache treatment.

I'll post pictures/videos tomorrow!